The Charismatic power of the andronym “John” in the Middle Ages

Authors:

Pages: 177-194

Abstract:

The present paper discusses the problems of medieval authority and ideology through the prism of the relation “power – name” while dealing with the medieval elite’s anthroponym system and one of its popular andronymic constituents in particular – the name “John”. The purpose of the paper is to reveal the political and the socio-cultural connotations and charisma behind the andronym under question. A diachronic research, based on an interdisciplinary approach, is carried out in order to study the distribution of the name “John” among the hierarchs and monarchs of the medieval Christian world. The results of the research show relatively high frequency of the anthroponym among the representatives of both political and church elites in Byzantium and the Orthodox commonwealth as well as among the Roman popes. The paper stresses on the special use and popularity of the andronym among the rulers of the Second Bulgarian Tsardom. The name “John” acquired a specific political and ideological power within the late medieval Bulgaria, and transformed into a kind of anthroponymic symbol that charged the mystic aura of the tsars and demonstrated their dynastic legitimism, ergo their sovereignty. Two main reasons can explain this phenomenon: 1) The cult of St. John of Rila, the saint patron of medieval Bulgaria; 2) The charisma of Tsar John Asen II and its very successful reign (1218 – 1241) which marked the culmination phase of the Second Bulgarian Tsardom. This ideological model, laid upon the name tradition, was later inherited by the voivodes of the medieval principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia who borrowed the power code of the andronym “John” thus absorbing the political ideology of the Bulgarian tsars and historically legitimizing their own authority.

Keywords:

anthroponym system, “power–name”, St. John of Rila, andronym “John”, Wallachia, Moldavia.

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