Prince Rostislav of Moravia, who had succeeded…

Prince Rostislav of Moravia, who had succeeded Mojmír in 846, has consolidated the country and defended it successfully.

His relations with the East Frankish empire (since 843 under Louis the German) are determined by political considerations and by the advance of Christianity into the Slavic areas.

The bishoprics of Regensburg, Passau, and Salzburg compete in trying to convert the central European Slavs but achieved only limited success.

The archbishop of Salzburg had consecrated a church at Nitra about 828, and in 845 Regensburg had baptized fourteen chieftains from Bohemia.

Mojmír's Moravia apparently had had more frequent contacts with Passau than with Salzburg. (Archaeological discoveries in the twentieth century indicated that missionaries made noticeable progress before 860; stone churches were built as places of Christian worship at Mikulcice and elsewhere.)

As Moravian expansion is opposed by both the Frankish Kingdom and Bulgaria, Rostislav seeks an alliance with Constantinople.

Dissatisfied with the Latin-speaking Frankish clergy, who are spreading the influence of Eastern Francia, he asks Emperor Michael for Slavic-speaking preachers.