Outline: I.—Extent of Christianity under Gregory the Great.
II.—Character of missionary work from the sixth to the tenth
century. III.—Conversion of the British Isles.
IV.—Conversion of the Franks. V.—Conversion of the Germans.
VI.—Conversion of Scandinavia. VII.—Planting of the Church
among the Slavs. VIII.—Efforts to convert the Mohammedans.
IX.—Sources.
From the outset the Christian Church was imbued with a most intense and
burning general missionary zeal. The command came in very distinct terms
from the Master himself.[229:1] But there was no recognised principle of
propagandism and no special organisations to carry on the work. Each
Christian felt the individual obligation to win his fellows to the new
faith. Separate churches no doubt naturally felt the necessity of some
corporate action to convert the heathen in the neighbourhood. Prayers,
indeed, for the conversion of the heathen were early made an integral
part of the liturgies of the Church, East and West.[229:2] The actual
diffusion of Christianity, however, proceeded in a special sense from
the evangelical labours of the individual bishops[229:3] and the
clergy. In fact missionary work was regarded as one of their specific
duties handed down from the Apostles. With the development of the
organisation of the Church and the appearance of patriarchs arose the
thought that it was the duty of these powerful centres to carry on
missionary activity in foreign fields. Monasticism was early utilised
for this important work. It must never be forgotten that the aggressive
evangelising efforts of the early Church were mainly those of the West,
and here is seen another powerful factor in the rise of the mediæval
Church.
The conception early developed in the Church that the spread of God's
Kingdom on earth was a warfare. That idea was founded on the words of
Jesus,[230:1] on the assertions of the Apostles, and on the sacrifices
of the early martyrs. Monasticism made this conviction peculiarly
personal. The organised Church asserted it on every occasion. The
conversion of the barbarians was viewed, in a broad sense, as an
invasion and a conquest. It was a campaign with all western Europe as
its field. In time it covered six centuries or more. The generals, the
able strategists, were the competent and zealous Roman pontiffs, and the
subordinate officers were emperors, kings, princes, bishops, and abbots.
The army was that great host of devoted monks, of consecrated priests,
and earnest Christian laymen. The weapons in the hands of these
conquerors were Christian love and sympathy. They were driven on by an
irresistible zeal for saving souls. They were clothed in the power of
poverty, austerity, suffering, obedience, and self-denial. The conflict
was one which, in its outcome, was to shape the destiny of the world.
The man above all others who was carried away by this dream of duty for
the Church militant in winning those outside the true Church to
membership, was the monk-Pope, Gregory the Great. Pagan Rome had failed
to make a complete and permanent conquest of the barbarians. Christian
Rome, inspired by this master spirit, was to succeed in conquering both
the bodies and the souls of the barbarians, and to use them for her own
glory.
When Gregory the Great died in 604, Christendom practically covered the
Roman Empire and at certain points extended beyond it. Those who bore
the name Christian included Jews, Romans, Greeks, Celts, and Germans.
The Christian world was already divided into two great branches—the
Eastern, or Greek Church, and the Western, or Roman Church,—which were
becoming more and more pronounced in their differences.
The Christian missionary work, from the sixth to the twelfth century,
must be viewed broadly as a process of civilisation, since the
missionaries carried with them intellectual light, as well as spiritual
truth, and paved the way for law and justice. They opened up channels
through which the higher ideals and better institutions of the south
might work northward to revolutionise agriculture, trade, social life,
and general economic conditions. "The experience of all ages," said
Neander, "teaches us that Christianity has only made a firm and living
progress, where from the first it has brought with it the seeds of all
human culture, although they have only been developed by
degrees."[231:1]
Mediæval conversion to Christianity was, as a rule, tribal, or national,
rather than individual, or personal, and consequently it took some time
before satisfactory fruitage was noticeable in the lives of the people.
But it was a great victory to substitute the Christian for the pagan
ideal. The agencies employed to carry out this process of conversion
were: (1) missionaries, mostly Latin, Celtic, English, German, Greek,
and Slavic monks; (2) the sword in the hands of a stern ruler; (3) the
marriage of Christian women to pagan kings and princes; and (4) the
recognised superiority of Christianity, Christian institutions, and
Christian nations. It must be borne in mind, likewise, that some of the
German tribes settled in the very heart of Christendom where Christian
influences could operate directly and immediately.
The earliest successful conversion of the Teutons was to Arianism. That
work was begun at least as early as the time of Constantine, because a
Gothic bishop sat in the Council of Nicæa (325). Bishop Ulfilas (d.
381), the "Apostle to the Goths," called by Constantine the Great "the
Moses of the Goths,"[232:1] translated the Bible into Gothic[232:2] and
won his countrymen to Arianism. St. Chrysostom in 404 established in
Constantinople a school for the training of Gothic missionaries.[232:3]
The Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, and Vandals all embraced that
faith. But the fervent and more aggressive missionary zeal of Rome
gradually replaced Arianism in western Europe with orthodox
Christianity—the Burgundians in 517, the Suevi in 550, the Visigoths
in 587, the Lombards, the last stronghold of Arianism in the West, in
the eighth century.
The unparalleled missionary activity of the Roman Church was due of
course primarily to religious enthusiasm, but other causes must also be
taken into account. As a matter of self-preservation to protect herself
from the inveterate paganism of the ancient world, on the one hand, and
from the torrent of barbaric invaders, on the other, the conflict was
thrust upon Rome and she must conquer or perish. Again the development
of the hierarchy along the lines of the Petrine theory made it
imperative that Rome should win and rule the West. The wise policy of
winning kings first and nations afterwards was simply adopted from Roman
imperial practice but it was eminently successful. It likewise enabled
the Pope of Rome to control all missionary enterprise from his
ecclesiastical capital, and to employ it for the further extension of
the papal prerogative.
The results of the spread of Christianity over the Græco-Roman world
have already been considered. That conquest decidedly modified the
Apostolic Church in organisation, in ceremony, and in doctrine, and laid
the foundations for the Roman and Greek Churches. The Romanised,
monasticised Christian Church over which Gregory the Great ruled reveals
the product of all these early influences. The conversion of the Teutons
to Roman Christianity marks another new epoch not only in the history of
the Church, but also in the history of the world. Just as from the
Apostolic Church emerged the Roman Church with its pronounced
differences, so from the Roman Church evolved the Teutonic-Roman Church,
which in turn was strikingly unlike its prototype in several
particulars. The Germanised Roman Church declared its absolute
independence of the Eastern Emperor and launched out on a new world
career. The product of all these elements was the mediæval Church which
stood for primitive Christianity modified first by a growth covering
five centuries through a stratum of Roman civilisation, and secondly for
seven centuries through a superimposed stratum of Germanic civilisation.
When the pagan Franks began their conquest of Gaul (486), they
encountered a civilisation that was nominally Christian. Their king,
Clovis, married Clotilda, a Christian princess, the daughter of the
Burgundian king[234:1] (493). She no doubt laboured with her lord and
master to induce him to embrace her faith. He permitted his child to be
baptised in accordance with the Christian rite and tolerated Christian
priests and monks as a matter of policy, but that was all. At length in
a battle with the stubborn Alemanni, Clovis, hard-pressed, prayed to the
Christian God and promised to turn Christian himself in exchange for
victory. His foes fled and left him conqueror. True to his vow, Clovis,
after receiving instruction from Bishop Remigius of Rheims, was baptised
on Christmas day 496 and with him 3000 warriors. This important event,
"the first step toward the world-historical union of Teutonic
civilisation with the Roman Church,"[234:2] paved the way for Charles
the Great, and made possible a Christian France. This event was a
significant victory for the Nicene Creed and for the Pope of Rome.
Orthodoxy and Roman dominion now advanced side by side with Frankish
conquests until both became absolutely independent of the imperial
power in the East.[235:1]
The Romans abandoned the island of Britain in 409 for ever. About 450
the pagan kinsmen of the Franks, namely the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and
Frisians, crossed to Britain and there found the Christian Church
already planted.[235:2] They drove it back to Wales, Ireland, and
Scotland, or crushed it out altogether. The Christian Celts, who were
thus treated, made no effort at first to convert their heathen
conquerors.[235:3] That was left to missionaries from Rome under the
leadership of the monk Augustine. Bede, the venerable Church historian,
tells the pious tale of how Gregory the Great, before being made Pope,
saw in the slave market of Rome some boys "of a white body and fair
countenance" and forthwith became so deeply interested in them and their
land that he begged the Pope to send him as missionary to
Britain.[235:4] The Romans, it is said, refused to allow him to go, and
soon honoured him with the tiara of St. Peter. As Pope, however, he
carried out his intention by sending Augustine, a Benedictine abbot,
with forty monks and Gallic interpreters and with letters and a library
of sacred literature, to England in 596 to begin the work.[235:5]
Now it happened that Ethelbert, the King of Kent, had married Bertha, a
Christian princess from Paris, who had been permitted to take a Gallic
bishop with her to England. Thus the way had been already opened for the
favourable reception of the monks under the guidance of Augustine, which
led in 597 to the conversion of Ethelbert at Canterbury, and with him
nominally the whole kingdom of Kent. At the first Christmas festival
Ethelbert and 10,000 of his subjects were baptised. Thus Roman
Christianity became at once the established state Church and "everywhere
the bishop's throne was set up side by side with the king's."[236:1]
Augustine, as a reward for his successful services, was soon made the
first archbishop of England[236:2] and proceeded to organise the Church
by sending to Rome for more helpers, by appointing bishops and priests
to particular fields of labour, by purifying pagan temples and
dedicating them to Christian services, and by repairing and building
Christian churches and monasteries. As a result of the sincere,
practical measures adopted by Augustine, thousands were soon won to the
new faith and Christianity was permanently replanted in the British
Islands. The work, so well begun, was continued until Sussex, the last
kingdom of the heptarchy, in 604, embraced the popular religion. Pope
Gregory the Great took a keen interest in this grand triumph and made it
contribute to the glory of the Roman Church.[236:3]
The monks sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great soon came to see
that the Celtic Church differed from theirs in many respects. Augustine
himself, having concluded an alliance between Ethelbert and the Roman
See, held several conferences with the Christian Celts in order to
accomplish the most difficult task of their subjugation to Roman
authority. These differences were largely ritualistic and disciplinary.
The Celtic Christians celebrated Easter according to the calculation of
Sulpicius Severus, while the Romans had another mode of computing the
proper day.[237:1] The Celts appealed to St. John, the Romans to St.
Peter.[237:2] The Celtic Church might be called a monastic Church, since
the abbot ruled over the bishop.[237:3] The Celts shaved the front of
the head from ear to ear as a tonsure, while the Romans shaved the top
of the head leaving a "crown of thorns."[237:4] The Celts permitted
their priests to marry, the Romans forbade it. The Celts used a
different mode of baptism from that of the Romans, namely, single
instead of trine immersion. The calendar for all movable festivals was
not the same. The Celts held their own councils and enacted their own
laws, independent of Rome. The Celts used a Latin Bible unlike the
Vulgate, and kept Saturday as a day of rest, with special religious
services on Sunday.[237:5] Notwithstanding these variances, which do
not seem to be at all on the fundamentals, there were many doctrinal and
constitutional resemblances. Both churches were orthodox; both used a
Latin ritual[238:1]; both had developed an episcopal organisation; both
believed in monasticism; and both were actively engaged in missionary
work. Nevertheless the British Christians looked with much disfavour
upon the Augustine mission to convert their pagan conquerors and
oppressors.
King Ethelbert in 602 arranged a conference of British and Roman bishops
on the Severn in Essex.[238:2] At that gathering Augustine with
unreasonable rigour and haughtiness demanded conformity; the Britains
refused to surrender their independence. To settle the matter Augustine
proposed that an appeal be made to a miracle. Accordingly a blind
Anglo-Saxon was brought in. The Celtic clergy prayed over him in vain.
Whereupon Augustine knelt and prayed, and immediately the blind man was
restored to sight,[238:3] but the Celts refused to accept that act as
final without the consent of a larger representation in the synod. The
next year, therefore, a second council was held at which the persistent
Augustine once more demanded conformity to Roman practices and the
recognition of papal supremacy, and also requested missionary
co-operation, but the Britains, displeased with Augustine's narrow
dogmatism and apprehensive of the loss of their freedom, refused to
submit. "As you will not have peace with brethren," said the stern Roman
monk, "you shall have war from foes; and as you will not preach unto
the English the way of life, you shall suffer at their hands the
vengeance of death."[239:1] When, ten years later, a wholesale Saxon
massacre of British Christians occurred, in which possibly a thousand
priests and monks were slaughtered and many churches and monasteries
destroyed, further conferences were at an end for fifty years.
It was not until 664 that the famous Council of Whitby was called by
King Oswy of Northumbria in which Bishop Colman and Bishop Cedd,
renowned Celtic divines, defended the British Church; while Bishop
Agilbert, and Wilfred, the greatest English ecclesiastic of his time,
championed Rome. In the discussion about the correct day for Easter, it
was asserted by Wilfred that St. Peter held "the keys to the kingdom of
Heaven." The king then asked Colman and the monks with him whether that
was true, and they were forced to confess that it was. Consequently,
feeling that it was safer to be on the side of Peter, the "doorkeeper,"
the king decided in favour of the Church of Rome.[239:2] This was a very
significant victory for the See of St. Peter, because papal supremacy
was now recognised in the British Isles, and likewise for the future of
England, because it opened up a channel through which Roman Christian
civilisation flowed into the British Isles to influence to a greater or
less degree every institution in that country and, later, through the
great empire which England was to build up to carry those cultural
influences around the world. The work of cementing the Latin and Celtic
churches in England into one was completed by Theodorus, the Archbishop
of Canterbury (d. 690), and the Venerable Bede (d. 735). Ecclesiastical
unity hastened political unity in England[240:1] and developed a common
civic life among the divided peoples of the British Isles.[240:2]
Christianity had early spread from Britain to Ireland. The labours of
St. Patrick[240:3] (d. 493) and the work of St. Bridget, the "Mary of
Ireland" (d. 525), have become classics. The Anglo-Saxon invasion drove
many Christians to Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries, so that by
the seventh century Ireland had become the "Island of Saints" and the
whole island was Christianised. Many famous monasteries were planted,
and an intense missionary zeal had sent to Scotland, North
Britain,[240:4] France, Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy many
representatives of the Celtic Church.
In 629, Pope Honorius exhorted the Irish Church to conform to the Roman
Easter day. A Celtic deputation was then sent to Rome and, upon
returning home, reported in favour of the Latin system, which was
adopted first in southern Ireland in 632, then in northern Ireland in
640, and by 704 was generally observed. The Norman Conquest, in 1066,
made the union of Ireland with Rome as well as with England more
complete; but it was left to Henry II., who conquered Ireland in 1171,
to give finality to the dependence of Ireland on Rome religiously and on
England politically.
Christianity was planted in Scotland during the Roman period.[241:1] An
Irish colony, converted by St. Patrick, settled there in the fifth
century. The labours of St. Ninian (sixth cent.), the work of St.
Kentigern (d. 603), and the activity of St. Columba (d. 597) completed
the conversion of the country. St. Columba was a famous Irish
missionary, who went to Scotland in 563, there converted the king of the
Picts and founded many churches. He made his headquarters on the small
island of Iona on which was planted a monastery famous as a school for
missionaries, as the centre of educational activity, and as the Rome of
the Celtic Church.[241:2] For centuries the Celtic Church maintained its
independence in Scotland, but gradually gave way to the better organised
and more aggressive Roman Church, though the Culdees were not absorbed
until 1332.[241:3]
The enthusiasm of the Celtic and English Christians soon attained such
proportions that it overflowed and swept back upon the continent like a
mighty tidal wave. The great pioneer in that movement was Columbanus. He
was born in Leinster about 543 and received his monastic education at
Bangor. At the age of forty he conceived the idea of preaching the
Gospel to the pagan German tribes. With twelve young companions he
crossed over to France where they remained several years, teaching the
faith. Then they went to Burgundy where King Gontran persuaded them to
build a monastery. For twenty years Columbanus laboured in the wild
Vosges Mountains, planted the three famous monasteries of Anegray,
Luxeuil, and Fontaines. Luxeuil virtually became the "monastic capital
of France."[242:1] He gave his monks a stringent rule, borrowed from the
rigid discipline of the Celtic monasteries, and he clung to the peculiar
rites and usages of his mother Church. His influence was strongly felt
and an army of disciples gathered around him. From his mountain home he
sent forth reformatory waves that covered all Europe, and posed as sort
of a spiritual dictator of the whole Church.
Another result of his influence was to incite the enmity of the Gallican
clergy and the Burgundian court. In 602, he was arraigned before a
Frankish synod, but he ably defended his life and his beliefs. This
affront led him to appeal to Pope Gregory the Great in several
interesting letters. At last, in 610, he was banished from the
Burgundian kingdom never to return. He went to Tours, Nantes, Metz, up
the Rhine valley, and into Switzerland where he remained three years
engaged in active missionary work until forced to leave by Burgundian
influence. Crossing the Alps into Lombardy he received an honourable
welcome from King Agilulf and was given a site for the celebrated
monastery of Bobbio where, in 615, he passed away in peace. To him must
be given the credit of opening up Europe to England and Ireland as an
excellent field for foreign missions.[243:1]
Gallus,[243:2] an Irish companion of Columbanus, called the "Apostle of
Switzerland," laboured among the Alemanni and Swabians. His monastery of
St. Gall became one of the great centres of learning in the Middle Ages.
He died in 645. Three other Irish monks of note worked in Germany.
Fridolin founded a monastery on the Rhine near Basle. Trudbert went into
the Black Forest and became a martyr to the cause. Kylian, the "Apostle
of Franconia," went to Würzburg where he met with considerable success
but lost his life.
The English were early drawn into this ardent missionary impulse. More
missionaries were sent to Europe in the seventh and eighth centuries
from England than go to-day to foreign fields.[243:3] Willibrord,[243:4]
a native of Northumberland, educated in Ireland, embarked in 690 with
seven assistants for Frisia at the mouth of the Rhine. The native prince
was Radbod, an uncompromising pagan. Acting on the advice of Pepin of
France he went to Rome and was invested with the bishopric of Utrecht.
He then evangelised parts of Frankish Frisia, after which he visited
Denmark. After a zealous career of half a century he died in 740. Other
Englishmen followed in his wake. Adelbert laboured in the north of
Holland, Werenfrid near Elste, and Wiro among the natives of Guldres.
The Ewald brothers were slain by the savage Saxons.[244:1] Wulfram, the
Bishop of Sens, made excellent headway among Radbod's Frisians.[244:2]
Indeed the zeal of these northern missionaries might have planted the
Celtic Church firmly on the continent, had they not been so sadly
deficient in capacity for organisation and had the Pope of Rome not been
so zealously watchful.
Roman colonies on the Rhine in the third and fourth centuries first
carried Christianity into Germany. In the Council of Arles (314) there
were present a bishop and a deacon from Cologne, and a bishop from
Treves. By the fifth century Christianity had been spread by
Severinus,[244:3] an Italian monk, into Bavaria along the Danube.
It was really left to St. Boniface,[244:4] the "Apostle of Germany," to
organise and unify the work already done, and to subject the Christian
Church in Germany planted by his predecessors, to Rome. He was a most
remarkable character and played an important part in the
Christianisation of the Teutonic peoples. Born in 680 in Devonshire,
England, of noble Saxon family, he early entered the monastery at
Exeter, where he received an excellent education for that day. He soon
evinced a longing for the life of a monk. His father gave his consent
reluctantly, and he assumed monastic vows in a monastery near
Winchester. He became a famous preacher and expounder of Scripture, and
at the age of thirty was ordained priest. He now felt called upon to
carry the Gospel to the land of his ancestors. Consequently in 716, with
two or three fellow-monks as companions, he crossed from London to
Frisia to begin his missionary labours as the successor of Willibrord,
whose successes had been largely reversed. Radbod, the baptised Frisian
king, had backslid when he learned that his pagan forefathers were among
the damned. He declared that he preferred "to be there with his
ancestors rather than in heaven with a handful of beggars."[245:1] Hence
he had devastated the Christian churches and monasteries, and was now at
war with Charles Martel. King Radbod met Boniface, but refused to permit
him to preach, so Boniface returned to England without having
accomplished anything.
Notwithstanding the failure of this first enterprise, Boniface left
England again in 718 and for ever; and now went through France to Rome
to obtain papal sanction for his future missionary work. Pope Gregory
II. formally commissioned him as missionary to the German tribes (719).
Armed with that letter and many precious relics, he started north the
following spring to his field of labour. First, he went to Thuringia and
Bavaria, regions already partly Christianised, but at this time
considerably disorganised, and demanded their submission to Rome; then,
learning of King Radbod's death (719), he hastened to Frisia, where he
laboured for three years with Willibrord, who had meantime returned to
continue his labours. In 722 he passed through Thuringia and entered
Hesse where, within a short time, he converted two local chiefs together
with many thousands of their followers. A foothold was thus secured by
Rome in the pagan world of Germany and never again lost.
These successes led the Pope to recall Boniface to Rome to receive
directions concerning conditions in Germany. After exacting from him a
confession of faith in the Trinity, and binding him by an oath ever to
respect papal authority,[246:1] the Supreme Pontiff created him
missionary bishop in 723. Boniface then returned to Germany with a code
of laws for the Church, and with letters of introduction to Charles
Martel and to other influential persons who might aid him. He was aware
that little could be done without the assistance of that powerful ruler
and wrote: "Without the protection of the Prince of the Franks, I could
neither rule the people of the Church, nor defend the priests or clerks,
the monks or handmaidens of God; nor have I the power to restrain pagan
rites and idolatry in Germany without his mandate and the awe of his
name."[246:2] Hence he attached himself for awhile to the court of the
Frankish ruler before he began the work so near his heart. Hesse and
Thuringia, Christianised nominally by Celtic missionaries and
consequently under no episcopal authority, refused to recognise papal
jurisdiction. To awe them into submission, Boniface cut down their
gigantic sacred oak at Geismar and from it, subsequently, built a chapel
to St. Peter. The people were convinced and received the new faith.
With the aid of Charles Martel, the assistance of the pope, and the
help of English missionaries who joined him, Boniface completed his
conquest of that region, filled it with churches and monasteries, and
extended papal rule over it. Schools were established, learning and a
higher civilisation began to flow in from England and Rome, and the dark
days of paganism were gone.
As a reward for his labours, Pope Gregory III., who received the papal
crown in 731, raised Boniface in 732 to the dignity of missionary
archbishop. This new authority enabled him to coerce refractory bishops
who thwarted his efforts. Five years later, Boniface made his third and
last visit to Rome, not now as an obscure missionary but with a great
retinue of monks and converts. Once more returning to Germany with
authority, he organised the Church in Bavaria (739) and thus curtailed
ecclesiastical lawlessness by creating four bishoprics: Salzburg,
Friesingen, Passau, and Regensburg. In the year 742, continuing the work
of organisation begun so well in Bavaria, he succeeded in creating in
central Germany the bishoprics of Würzburg, Buraburg, Erfurt, and
Eichstädt. To organise the Church and regulate ecclesiastical affairs,
he held numerous synods. At the same time, he laboured hard to enforce
celibacy, to restore Church property alienated by rulers, and to
suppress heresy. In 743, he was made archbishop of Mainz, with
jurisdiction over a region from Cologne to Strassburg and from Coire to
Worms, and now sought to complete the work of consolidating the German
Church. By this time, he had become not only the head of the Church in
Germany, but was recognised as a powerful factor in political matters.
It is even reported that he crowned Pepin at Soissons (752).[248:1] The
great monastery of Fulda was founded (744) and it was destined to become
the head of the Benedictine institutions in Germany. Having appointed
Lull as his successor at Mainz, he resigned in 754, returned a third
time to Frisia as a missionary, and there was slain in 755 as a martyr
to the Christian cause. Boniface did more than any other one individual
to carry Christianity to the German peoples and to tie the Church of
Germany firmly to the papal throne. He was a civiliser and law-giver as
well as a Roman missionary.[248:2] After the Apostle Paul he was
probably the most eminent in missionary endeavour.
His work was continued by his disciple Willibald (b. 700), a relative, a
pilgrim to Rome and the Holy Land, and a Benedictine monk, who was made
bishop of Eichstädt (741). He called his brother, sister, and others
from England as missionaries into Germany. He founded Benedictine
monasteries, and it is thought by some that he wrote a biography of his
great leader (d. 781). Gregory, an abbot of Utrecht, a Merovingian
prince converted by Boniface, worked with his master and took charge of
the Frisian mission after his death (755). Sturm, the first abbot of
Fulda (710-779),[248:3] a Bavarian nobleman educated by Boniface, had
his teacher's bones buried at Fulda and served for years as a missionary
among the Saxons (d. 779). Charles the Great gave him support and
encouragement.
Another means used to convert the Germans was the sword. This was
especially true of the Saxons, a sturdy, defiant, warlike people, who
lived in Hanover, Oldenburg, and Westphalia.[249:1] They were the last
to accept Christianity, because they hated the Franks and far-off Rome.
Fruitless efforts to convert them had been made by the Ewald brothers,
Suidbert, and others. The work was left, however, for Charles the Great,
who consumed thirty-three years in subjecting them to Christian rule
(772-805).[249:2] This was done only after five thousand inhabitants had
been massacred at Verdun, ten thousand families had been exiled in 804,
and bloody laws were enacted against relapse into paganism. This new
type of missionary work, which was a radical departure from the
apostolic method, can be excused, perhaps, only when we take into
consideration the moral standards of the age and the motives of Charles
the Great. The best men of the time, however, like Alcuin vehemently
opposed this method. After Charles had subjected the Saxons, he
established among them eight bishoprics, Osnabrück, Münster, Minden,
Paderborn, Verdun, Bremen, Hildesheim, and Halberstädt.
The Prussians, located to the north-eastward of the Saxons along the
Baltic, stubbornly resisted efforts to Christianise them. Adelbert,
Bishop of Prague (997), and his successor, Bruno, were both massacred by
them. At length, a Cistercian monk, who was appointed the first bishop
of Prussia in the twelfth century, made some headway among them, but was
soon compelled to withdraw. Then followed the crusade of the Teutonic
Order (1230-1280) in which the methods of Charles the Great were
employed and with the same results.
Christianity was first introduced into Denmark in the sixth and seventh
centuries through raids on Ireland, commerce with Holland, and the story
of the "white Christ." Willibrord was the first missionary.[250:1] When
he was expelled from Friesland in 700 he went to Denmark, where he was
received with favour by King Yngrin, organised a church, and bought
thirty boys to be educated as missionaries. St. Sebaldus,[250:2] the son
of a Danish king, was a product of this early missionary effort. Charles
the Great ruled part of Denmark, carried on extensive trade with the
people, located churches in Holstein and at Hamburg, and planned to
convert all the Danes.[250:3] Louis the Pious, appealed to by King
Harold Klak[250:4] to settle a family feud, sent Archbishop Ebo of
Rheims and Bishop Halitgar of Cambray to Denmark in 822. Ebo made
several journeys, later preached extensively, won many converts,
baptised them, and built a church at Welnau. When, in 826, King Harold
Klak fled to the Emperor for aid, he, together with his whole family and
train, was converted and baptised at Ingelheim. Upon returning, the King
took with him Ansgar, a Frank born at Amiens (800), who had been early
trained as a missionary teacher and preacher, and who was to win the
title of "Apostle of the North." He laboured in Denmark with some
success, but in 829 was expelled, when Harold Klak was once more driven
out, and went to Sweden until he was elected bishop of Hamburg in 831
with all Scandinavia as his see. In 846, Bremen was united to Hamburg
and Ansgar was made archbishop. He soon succeeded in planting
Christianity and with it monasticism in Denmark. His successor,
Archbishop Rimbert (865-888), continued the spread of Christianity
undisturbed; and his successors Adalgar (888-909), Unni (909-936), and
Adaldag (936-988), had a comparatively clear field. The last of these
saw the consecration of four native bishops, an increase in the
possessions of the Church, and an organised struggle against heathenism.
When the Danes made a conquest of England, the results were seen in the
conversion of King Swen, a zealous worker for the Church, and his son
Canute (1019-1035), who completed his father's work with the aid of
English missionaries. So strong was the Church in Denmark by the twelfth
century that a separate archbishop was appointed. The supremacy of the
Roman Church was recognised.
The conversion of the Northmen has an interesting history.[251:1] The
political situation in the tenth century opened the way for the
introduction of Christianity. Hakon the Good, educated in England as a
Christian, conquered and united all Norway, converted his followers,
called over priests from England, and sought to force Christianity upon
all his people, but in this failed. The sons of Eric, also Christianised
in England, wrested the throne from Hakon the Good in 961, and likewise
tried to uproot paganism, but they, too, were unsuccessful. Olaf, of
romantic career, was called in 995 to rule. He, likewise, waged a
crusade in behalf of Christianity and with such success that when he
died in 1000, it had been permanently established. Olaf the Saint
(1014-1030), however, completed the Christianisation of Norway and put
it under the protection of the Archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg.[252:1]
As early as the eighth century, Culdee anchorites were accustomed to
retire to Iceland from Scotland. In the ninth century Norwegians began
to flee thither from the tyranny of their kings. Most of these emigrants
were pagans, but one Norwegian convert in Saxony persuaded Bishop
Frederick to go with him to Iceland where the bishop remained four
years, but made little impression. Thougbrand journeyed thither in the
tenth century, but likewise largely failed in his efforts. After the
conversion of Norway, however, the intimate relations with Iceland soon
produced different results. Christianity spread so rapidly that in 1000
the Christian religion was made the state religion. The first church
built on the island was from timber sent by Olaf the Saint.[252:2]
Greenland was discovered and colonised by the bold Icelander, Eric the
Red, in 986, and Eric's son was sent over by Olaf to plant the Christian
Church there in 1000. The Church flourished there for four hundred years
until disrupted by the Esquimos. About the year 1000 Vinland was
discovered and thus the Gospel was known on the coast of New England
five centuries before Columbus appeared.[253:1]
Like the Danes, the Swedes learned of Christianity through wars and
conquests, and commercial relations. Björn, the Swedish King, asked
Louis the Pious to send him Christian missionaries. Accordingly in 829
Ansgar, expelled from Denmark, went to Sweden where he laboured two
years with some success. Five years later he sent Gautbert and Nithard
to Sweden with a number of priests, but the pagan uprising killed all
the priests and soon swept away all traces of Christianity. In 848
Ansgar made a pompous visit to Sweden again with costly presents and
letters, and reopened the field for missionary work. By the eleventh
century, the King of Sweden and his sons were baptised, and the work was
pushed with renewed vigour, although it was not until the middle of the
twelfth century that the conversion of Sweden was completed.
In the time of Charles the Great, the Slavs were located along the
eastern side of his Empire; the Wends along the Baltic Sea between the
Elba and the Vistula; the Poles along the Vistula; the Russians behind
the Poles; the Czechs in Bohemia; and the Bulgarians back of the Danube
and Balkan Mountains. Charles the Great had attempted to force the Wends
to accept Christianity, but with no success. Otto the Great conquered
them and likewise sought to convert them. He located bishoprics at
Havelburg, Oldenburg, Meissen, Merseburg, and Zeitz, and an
archbishopric at Magdeburg in 968 with Adalbert as the first archbishop.
Reaction began in the time of Otto II., under the leadership of
Mistiwoi, an apostate Christian, in which churches and monasteries were
burned, and priests and monks killed (983).[254:1] Later, Gottschalk,
his grandson, an educated Christian monk, angered at the murder of his
father (1032), led an anti-Christian crusade, but was defeated and then
repented and ever after laboured hard to establish Christianity. The old
bishoprics were restored and new ones created at Razzeburg and
Mecklenburg; five monasteries were built; missionary work was
encouraged; the liturgy was translated into Slavic; and the Church in
that region became wealthy and powerful. But the heathen party, in a
general uprising, killed Gottschalk and his old teacher (1066),
destroyed the churches and monasteries, and once more slew the priests
and monks. The final Christianisation of the Wends, therefore, did not
take place until the middle of the twelfth century.
Charles the Great subjugated the Moravians, directed the Bishop of
Passau to establish a mission among them, secured the conversion of
their chief, Moymir, and founded the bishoprics of Olmütz and Nitra.
Louis the German deposed Moymir on suspicion of treason and elevated
Radislaw to power, but he soon turned against his benefactor and
defeated him, formed an independent Slavic kingdom on the eastern
boundary of Germany, and sent for Greek missionaries, two of whom,
Cyrillus and Methodius, brothers and educated monks, were sent by the
Greek Emperor Michael III. in 863.[254:2] Cyrillus understood the Slavic
tongue and invented an alphabet and translated the liturgy into Slavic.
He preached and celebrated service in the language of the people, and
had a most able assistant in Methodius. They were very successful in
their labours and built up a national Slavic Church. The German priests
who had been labouring there for some time were driven out, and with
them disappeared the Latin liturgy. Seeing their great success, Pope
Nicholas I., in 868, invited them to Rome and won them to a friendly
arrangement. There Cyrillus died in 869 but Methodius was returned as
the Roman Archbishop of Pannonia. The Pope agreed both to the use of
Slavic in the mass and to the independence of the Slavic Church under
papal control. Ten years later Methodius made a second visit to Rome and
a second agreement was entered into, satisfactory to both Rome and
Moravia. He died before the ninth century ended, and before the close of
the tenth century the Latin Church had replaced the Slavic. The expelled
Slavic priests fled to Bulgaria to build up a new Church.
Neither Charles the Great, nor his son Louis, was able to conquer the
Bohemians. When Bohemia became a dependency of Moravia, however, the way
was opened for the introduction of Christianity. The Bohemian Duke
Borziway and his family were converted, but reaction followed under
Boleslav the Cruel. Otto I. in 950 completely defeated Boleslav,
recalled the priests, and rebuilt the churches. The bishopric of Prague
was established in 973, and under Archbishop Severus (1083) general laws
were enforced concerning Christian marriage, observance of the Sabbath,
and morality. The Latin language and the Roman ritual prevailed in the
Bohemian Church.[255:1]
The first missionaries to Poland were Slavic, perhaps Cyrillus and
Methodius. With the break-up of the Moravian kingdom, many nobles and
priests fled to Poland and were kindly received. In 965 a Bohemian
princess married Duke Mieczyslav and took priests with her. The Duke was
converted and baptised and paganism was destroyed by force. The Church
was then organised on the Latin-German model, and German priests were
introduced. The first Polish bishopric was established at Posen subject
to the Archbishop of Magdeburg. But it was to take many additional years
before Roman Christianity was firmly established.
The Bulgarians, Slavic in institutions, but not in origin, captured
Adrianople in 813 and carried away many Christian prisoners, among whom
was the bishop himself, who began the conversion of their captors. In
861 a Bulgarian princess, returning from captivity in Constantinople as
a Christian missionary to her own people, converted her brother, the
Duke Bogoris. This work was supplemented by Methodius, who was sent
there in 862 to help on the good work, and by other Greek missionaries
who followed him. In 865 the baptised Duke of Bulgaria wrote to Pope
Nicholas I. for Roman missionaries and asked one hundred and six
questions about Christian doctrines, morals, and ritual. The Pope sent
two bishops and elaborate answers to the questions,[256:1] but the Greek
faith finally predominated.
The Magyars, who entered Europe in the ninth century and in 884 settled
near the mouth of the Danube, finally located in present Hungary. They
first learned of Christianity at the Byzantine court. In Hungary,
however, they came in touch with the Roman missionaries. Otto the Great
compelled them to receive missionaries from the Bishop of Passau. When
Prince Geyza married a Christian princess, their conversion was rapid
and complete. Adalbert of Prague visited the country and made a great
impression. King Stephanus (997) made Christianity the legal religion,
enforced the German ecclesiastical system, formed ten bishoprics,
located an archbishopric at Grau on the Danube, built churches, schools,
and monasteries, and received a golden crown from Pope Sylvester II. in
1000 as "His Apostolic Majesty."[257:1]
The Russians claimed St. Andrew for their apostle but probably actually
learned of Christianity from Constantinople in the ninth century.
Photius, in 867, told the Pope that the Russians were already
Christians. A church was built at Kieff on the Dnieper, the Russian
capital, and in 955 the grand-duchess, Olga, journeyed to Constantinople
and was baptised. Grand-Duke Vladimir, the grandson of Olga, established
Christianity at one sweep when he married Anne, the daughter of Emperor
Basil and was baptised at his wedding in 988. Churches, schools, and
monasteries spread rapidly all over the country, but the Greek Church
instead of the Roman was firmly planted there, and in 1325, Moscow
became the Russian Rome.[257:2]
While the Roman Church was winning new subjects all over northern and
central Europe; she was losing nearly as much in territory and numbers
in Africa and Spain. This loss was due to the rise of a rival religion
in Arabia which bid fair to outstrip Christianity in the race for world
conquest.
Mohammedanism, shortly after its birth (622), began to threaten
Christianity. After having driven the Christian Church from northern
Africa, the followers of Islam overthrew the Visigothic power in Spain
(711) and then swarmed across the Pyrenees to overrun most of France.
The very existence of Christendom was at stake, and the future of Europe
hung in the scales and might have been very different, had not Charles
Martel with his stalwart Christian knights in the bloody battle of Tours
(732) checked the advance of the crescent and forced its adherents to
hastily retrace their steps. The califate founded at Cordova (756)
continued as a standing menace for more than six centuries. Meanwhile
Moslem corsairs scoured the Mediterranean, seized Sicily, and from that
vantage point sought to make a conquest of Italy venturing at times to
the very gates of Rome.
The contest between the faithful of these two religions, continued for
centuries and attained its climax in the crusades. The followers of each
faith sought to either conquer or exterminate the other. This form of
missionary work was like that employed by Charles the Great against the
Saxons and Otto the Great against the Slavs. The repeated assaults of
Frankish rulers, Spanish princes, and Norman warriors in Italy were
finally successful and Islam was thrust back into Africa, but only to
enter Europe by way of Constantinople.
In sharp contrast to these harsh methods, there are not a few instances
of devout Christians labouring in love among the followers of the
Prophet to save their souls. Conversions to Christianity were not
infrequent in Spain, Italy, Egypt, and the East.[259:1] The Franciscans
and Dominicans both laboured heroically among the followers of the
Prophet to teach them the higher and better faith.[259:2]
Notwithstanding the fact that Christianity spread so rapidly throughout
the Roman Empire, yet it must be remembered that more than twelve
centuries were to circle away before the cross was carried to all
European peoples and planted among them. The problem was as difficult as
that encountered to-day in Africa, Asia, and the islands of the seas. By
the twelfth century all Europe, except Lapland and Lithuania had been
won to Christianity. If the number of Christians approximated 30,000,000
at the death of Constantine, the number at the time of Pope Innocent
III. in 1200 may have been 200,000,000 who came within the direct or
indirect jurisdiction of the Christian Church. The sweeping control of
the Roman Church gathered under her broad ægis possibly 100,200,000.
Through these missionary activities, therefore, the successor of St.
Peter had extended his actual sway until it included all of western and
central Europe with a population as large as that of the Empire of Cæsar
at the birth of Christ.
This unprecedented increase in dominion and subjects carried with it a
corresponding change in the power, duties, wealth, and opportunity of
the Papacy. The Pope of Rome became the greatest force in the West and
one of the greatest in the world. The hierarchy was necessarily
extended and elaborated. The number of officers, both locally and in the
ecclesiastical court at Rome, was greatly increased. The rapid addition
of so many sturdy recruits to the Roman Church, carried on for
centuries, gave the Western Church a pronounced ascendency over the
Eastern Church. Papal prerogatives, which were little more than
assertions in the early period, became realities. As a result of these
heroic and persistent missionary efforts, the mediæval Church, at the
end of the missionary period, had attained its highest power.
A stream is coloured and influenced in its purity by the soil and rock
through which it flows. An institution is modified by the peoples
through whom it passes. It is not a matter of surprise to the historical
student, in consequence, to see the Christian Church reflecting the
civilisation through which it grew. Christianity may easily be reduced
to the fundamental Gospel principles taught by Jesus, but in that pure,
simple form it was not spread over the world and perpetuated.
Originating on Jewish soil, it never outgrew the Jewish tinge. During
the post-apostolic period it was powerfully modified by the classical
philosophy of Rome, Greece, and Alexandria. In post-Constantinian times
the multitudes of heathen converted to Christianity introduced heathen
modifications and compromises. The spread of the Church to Teutonic
soil, there to encounter a sturdy barbarism in most intimate relations,
produced modifying influences which can easily be seen in the history of
the Church. The Germanic contribution was to prove to be one of the most
important and influential forces in the whole history of the Church,
because it created, in a large sense, modern civilisation and the
modern Church.
This period of zealous missionary endeavour among the Celtic and
Teutonic tribes was a great pioneer movement. Far too little attention
has been paid to it by historians and, consequently, comparatively small
credit has been granted to it as a force in the evolution of our
institutions to-day. It is impossible to conceive what would have been
the history of Europe and the civilisation she has planted around the
earth had not Christianity entered at this epoch to lay the foundations.
Every institution would have developed differently and the world would
certainly not be what it is to-day.
-
A.—PRIMARY:
-
I. ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND SCOTLAND. See Gross, Sources and
Lit. of Eng. Hist.
-
1.—Gildas (d. 570), Works. Transl. by J. A. Giles. Bohn
Lib.
-
2.—Bede (d. 735), Ecclesiastical History of England.
Various eds.
-
3.—Neimius (d. 9th cent.). History of the Britons (to 642).
Bohn.
-
4.—Ethelwerd (d. 988), Chronicle (to 959). Ib.
-
5.—Asser (d. 909), Life of Alfred (to 893). Ib.
-
6.—Geoffrey (d. 1154), British History (to 688). Ib.
-
7.—Henry of Huntingdon (d. 1155), History of England. Ib.
-
8.—Florence of Worcester (d. 1118), Chronicle. Ib.
-
9.—Earle, J., Two of the Saxon Chronicles. Lond., 1865.
-
10.—Plummer, C., Two of the Saxon Chronicles. Lond., 1889.
-
11.—Giles, J. A., Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ. Lond., 1843-8.
19 vols. Works of thirteen Fathers. Parts in Eng.
-
12.—The Pipe Rolls. Lond., 1884-1900. 24 vols.
-
13.—English Historical Society Publications. Lond., 1838-50.
27 vols.
-
14.—Mason, A. J., The Mission of St. Augustine to England
according to the Original Documents. Camb., 1897.
-
15.—Haddan, A. W., and Stubbs, W., Councils and
Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and
Ireland. Lond., 1869-71. 3 vols. Some transl. and fine
Eng. notes.
-
16.—Johnson, J., A Collection of the Laws and Canons of the
Church of England (to 1519). Oxf., 1850.
-
17.—Foxe, J., Acts and Monuments. Lond., 1563. Best ed. by
Pratt and Stoughton. Lond., 1877. 8 vols.
-
18.—Gee, H., and Hardy, W. J., Documents Illustrative of
English Church History. Lond., 1896.
-
19.—Colby, C. W., Selections from the Sources of English
History. Lond. and N. Y., 1899.
-
20.—Lee, G. C., Leading Documents of English History. Lond.,
1900.
-
21.—Stevens, H. M., and Adams, G. B. Select Documents of
English Constitutional History, N. Y., 1901.
-
22.—Univ. of Pa., Translations and Reprints, ii., No. 7.
- II.—FRANCE:
-
1.—Masson, G., The Early Chroniclers of France. Lond.,
1879.
-
2.—Gregory of Tours, Ecclesiastical of the Franks. Univ. of
Pa. Tr. announced.
-
III.—GERMANY:
-
1.—Boniface, Works. A few letters translated in preface of
Giles, Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.
-
Bibliographical note:—Much valuable material for England has
not yet been translated into English. For France, Spain,
Germany, Scandinavia and the Slavic lands practically all
the material is in Latin. Some of the chief sources are:
Pertz, Monumenta; Mansi, Sacrorum; Migne,
Patrologiæ; Niebuhr, Corpus Byzantinæ; Jaffé,
Monumenta and Regesta; Potthast, Regesta; Bolland,
Acta; Pelzel and Dabrowsky, Rerum Bohemic.; Hübner,
Inscriptiones Britanniæ Christianæ.
-
B.—SECONDARY:
-
I.—SPECIAL:
-
1.—Aikman, J. L., Cyclopædia of Christian Missions. Lond.,
1861.
-
2.—Allen, J. R., Monumental History of the Early British
Church. Lond., 1889.
-
3.—Bliss, E. M., Encyclopædia of Missions. N. Y., 1891. 2
vols.
-
4.—Briggs, F. W., Missions: Apostolic and Modern. Lond.,
1864.
-
5.—Burkitt, F. C., Early Christianity outside of the Roman
Empire. Camb., 1899.
-
6.—Charles, Mrs. R., Early Christian Missions in Ireland,
Scotland and England. Lond., 1893.
-
7.—Choules, J. O., and Smith, T., Origin and History of
Missions. Bost., 1842. 2 vols.
-
8.—Hole, C., Early Missions to and within the British
Isles. Lond., 1888. Home Missions in the Early Mediæval
Period. Lond., 1889.
-
9.—Kingsmill, J., Missions and Missionaries. Lond., 1853.
-
10.—Maclear, G. F., Apostles of Mediæval Europe. Lond.,
1869. History of Christian Missions during the Middle
Ages. Camb., 1863.
-
Conversion of the Celts. Lond., 1879.
-
Conversion of the Slavs. Lond., 1879.
-
Conversion of the English. Lond., 1879.
-
Conversion of the Northmen. Lond., 1879.
-
11.—Merivale, C., Conversion of the West. N. Y., 1879. 5
vols. The Conversion of the Roman Empire. Boyle Lect.
Lond., 1864. The Conversion of the Northern Nations.
Boyle Lect. Lond., 1865.
-
12.—Newell, E. J., St. Patrick. Lond., 1878.
-
13.—Smith, F., The Origin and History of Missions. Bost.,
1842.
-
14.—Smith, G., Short History of Christian Missions. N. Y.,
1884.
-
15.—Smith, R. T., The Church in Roman Gaul. Lond., 1878.
-
16.—Smith, T., Mediæval Missions. Edinb., 1880.
-
17.—Snow, T. B., St. Gregory the Great. Lond., 1892.
-
18.—Summers, W. H., Rise and Spread of Christianity in
Europe. N. Y., 1894.
-
19.—Taylor, A. T., How Christianity Conquered the Roman
Empire.
-
20.—Walrond, T. F., Christian Missions before the
Reformation. Lond., 1873.
-
21.—Wyse, J., Missionary Centres of the Middle Ages. Lond.,
1872.
-
II.—GENERAL:
-
Adeney, ch. 8. Alzog, ii., ch. 1. Anderson, J., Scot. in
Early Chr. Times. Butler, ch. 46-49. Cheetham, ch. 14. Coxe,
Lect. 2, sec. 28-30; Lect. 4, sec. 1-3. Crooks, ch. 31.
Darras, i., 54, 269, 329, 333-336, 399; ii., 254. Döllinger,
ii., ch. 2; iii., ch. 1. Foulkes, ch. 5-10. Fisher, 45 f.,
145 f., 163. Gieseler, 2d pd., sec. 107, 108, 122-126, 134;
3d pd., sec. 16, 37-40, 44. Gilmartin, i., ch. 24-26. Godkin,
Hist. of Hung. Godwin, Hist. of Fr. Greene, Hist. of M.
A. Guericke, sec. 65-68. Hardwick, ch. 1, 5, 9, 13. Hase,
sec. 148-156. Hore, ch. 6, 8. Hurst, i., 556-599, 619. Kurtz,
i., 397-401, 440-482; ii., 1-13. Mahan, bk. 4, ch. 12. Masson,
Early Chroniclers of Fr. Milman, i., bk. 3, ch. 2; ii., bk.
4, ch. 3-5. Moeller, i., 535-541. Neander, iii., 1-84,
271-346. Pressensé, bk. i., ch. 1. Robertson, bk. 2, ch. 13.
Schaff, pd. 3, ch. 1, pd. 4, ch. 3.
FOOTNOTES:
