Christianisation of the Germanic peoples

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9th-century depiction of Christ as a heroic warrior (Stuttgart Psalter, fol. 23, illustration of Psalm 91:13)

The Germanic peoples underwent gradual Christianization in the course of late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. By CE 700, England and Francia were officially Christian, and by 1100 Germanic paganism had also ceased to have political influence in Scandinavia.

History

Germanic peoples began entering the Roman Empire in large numbers at the same time that Christianity was spreading there.[1] The connection of Christianity to the Roman Empire was both a factor in encouraging conversion as well as, at times, a motive for persecuting Christians.[2] Until the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes who had migrated there (with the exceptions of the Saxons, Franks, and Lombards, see below) had converted to Christianity.[3] Many of them, notably the Goths and Vandals, adopted Arianism instead of the Trinitarian (a.k.a. Nicene or orthodox) beliefs that were dogmatically defined by the church in the Nicene Creed.[3] The gradual rise of Germanic Christianity was, at times, voluntary, particularly among groups associated with the Roman Empire. From the 6th century, Germanic tribes were converted (or re-converted from Arianism) by missionaries of the Catholic Church.[4][5]

Many Goths converted to Christianity as individuals outside the Roman Empire. Most members of other tribes converted to Christianity when their respective tribes settled within the Empire, and most Franks and Anglo-Saxons converted a few generations later. During the centuries following the fall of Rome, as the East–West Schism between the dioceses loyal to the Pope of Rome in the West and those loyal to the other Patriarchs in the East grew, most of the Germanic peoples (excepting the Crimean Goths and a few other eastern groups) would gradually become strongly allied with the Catholic Church in the West, particularly as a result of the reign of Charlemagne.

East Germanic peoples

Main article: Gothic Christianity

Most of the East Germanic peoples, such as the Goths, Gepids, and Vandals, along with the Langobards and the Suevi in Spain converted to

Reccared in 587.[10]

Franks and Alamanni

Further information: Francia § Church, and Hiberno-Scottish mission
Figure carved on the Frankish grave stele called the Niederdollendorf stone (seventh century), known as the earliest material witness of Christian presence in the German Rhineland; the figure is presumably a depiction of Christ as a heroic warrior wielding a lance, with a halo or crown of rays emanating from his head.

There is little evidence for any Roman missionary activity in Germania prior to the conversion of the

Thuringians, Alemanni, Bavarians, Frisians, and Saxons.[15]

Continental Saxons

The Saxons rejected Christianization, likely in part because doing so would have involved giving up their independence and becoming part of the Frankish realm.[16] They were eventually forcibly converted by Charlemagne as a result of their conquest in the Saxon Wars in 776/777: Charlemagne thereby combined religious conversion with political loyalty to his empire.[17] Continued resistance to conversion seems to have played a role in Saxon rebellions between 782 and 785, then again from 792 to 804, and during the Stellinga rebellion in (844).[18]

England

Main article: Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England

The

suspected burial place at Sutton Hoo
shows definite influences of both Christian and pagan burial rites.

The last pagan Anglo-Saxon king, the Jutish king Arwald of the Isle of Wight, was killed in battle in 686 fighting against the imposition of Christianity in his kingdom.

During the prolonged period of Viking incursions and settlement of Anglo-Saxon England pagan ideas and religious rites made something of a comeback, mainly in the

Kingdom of Northumbria, whose last king to rule it as an independent state was Eric Bloodaxe
, a Viking, probably pagan and ruler until 954 AD.

Scandinavia

Main article: Christianization of Scandinavia

Attempts to Christianize Scandinavia were first systematically undertaken by Frankish Emperor

Allthing in 1000.[20] The last Germanic people to convert were the Swedes, although the Geats had converted earlier. The pagan Temple at Uppsala seems to have continued to exist into the early 1100s.[21]

Characteristics

The baptism of Clovis highlights two important characteristics of the

Christ.[24][25] In the Battle of Tolbiac he prayed to Christ for victory. Clovis was victorious, and afterward he had himself instructed in the Christian faith by Saint Remigius.[26]

That a pagan like Clovis could ask Christ for help shows the adaptability of

Thor's Hammers with engraved crosses, worn as amulets, that archaeologists have found in Scandinavia.[27] Another exemplary event happened during Ansgar's second stay in Birka, when a pagan priest demanded from the locals that they not participate in the cult of the foreign Christian God. If they did not have enough gods yet, they should elevate one of their deceased kings, Erik, to be a god.[28]

The baptism of Clovis I also highlights the

political ruler, but also held the highest religious office for his people.[29] He was seen as of divine descent, was the leader of the religious cult
and was responsible for the fertility of the land and military victory. Accordingly, the conversion of their leader had a strong impact on his people. If he considered it appropriate to adopt the Christian belief, this also was a good idea for them.

Conversion of the Germanic tribes in general took place "top to bottom" (Fletcher 1999:236), in the sense that missionaries aimed at converting the Germanic nobility first, who would then impose their new faith on the general population. This is attributable to the sacral position of the

king in Germanic paganism: The king is charged with interacting with the divine on behalf of his people, so that the general population saw nothing wrong with their kings choosing alternate modes of worship (Padberg 1998:29; though Fletcher 1999:238 would rather attribute the motivation for conversion to the workings of loyalty-for-reward ethics that underpinned the relationship between a king and his retinue). Consequently, Christianity had to be made palatable to these Migration Age warlords as a heroic religion of conquerors, a rather straightforward task, considering the military splendour of the Roman Empire
.

Thus early Germanic Christianity was presented as an alternative to native

Dream of the Rood, where Jesus is cast in the heroic model of a Germanic warrior, who faces his death unflinchingly and even eagerly. The Cross, speaking as if it were a member of Christ's band of retainers, accepts its fate as it watches its Creator die, and then explains that Christ's death was not a defeat but a victory. This is in direct correspondence to the Germanic pagan ideals of fealty
to one's lord.

List of missionaries

Christian missionaries to Germanic peoples:

to the Goths

to the Lombards

to the Alamanni

to the Anglo-Saxons (see

Anglo-Saxon Christianity
)

to the Frankish Empire (see Hiberno-Scottish, Anglo-Saxon mission)

to the Bavarians

  • Saint Corbinian
    (8th century)

to Scandinavia

See also

Citations

  1. ^ Cusack 1998, p. 35.
  2. ^ Düwel 2010a, p. 356.
  3. ^ a b Padberg 1998, 26
  4. ISBN 978-0-88844-151-5
    . Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  5. ISBN 978-0-06-065338-5
    . Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  6. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, p. 350.
  7. ^ a b Düwel 2010a, p. 802.
  8. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, pp. 350–353.
  9. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, pp. 353–356.
  10. ^ Cusack 1998, pp. 50–51.
  11. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, pp. 359–360.
  12. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, pp. 360–362.
  13. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, pp. 362–364.
  14. ^ a b Stenton 1971, pp. 104–128.
  15. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, pp. 364–371.
  16. ^ Padberg 2010, p. 588.
  17. ^ Padberg 2010, pp. 588–589.
  18. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, p. 372.
  19. ^ a b Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, pp. 389–391.
  20. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, pp. 397–399.
  21. ^ Schäferdiek & Gschwantler 2010, pp. 401–404.
  22. ^ Padberg 1998, 47
  23. ^ a b Padberg 1998, 48
  24. ^ "The mild saviour arose as a battle-god, a chivalrous leader of the heavenly host, who found greatest pleasure in combat and the noise of battle; his humble apostles were imagined as proud Paladins" (Der milde Heiland erhob sich zum Schlachtengott, zu einem ritterlichen Führer himmlischer Heerscharen, der das grösste Gefallen fand an Kampf und Waffenlärm; seine demütigen Apostel wurden als stolze Paladine gedacht Alwin Schultz, cited after Otto Zarek, Die geschichte Ungarns (1938), p. 98)
  25. ^ Padberg 1998, 87
  26. ^ Padberg 1998, 52
  27. ^ depicted in Padberg 1998: 128
  28. ^ Padberg 1998: 121
  29. ^ Padberg 1998, 29; Padberg notes, that this is probably disputed research, but can be affirmed for the northern Germanic area

References

  • Cusack, Carole M. (1998). Conversion among the Germanic Peoples. Cassell.
  • Düwel, Klaus (2010a) [1973]. "Arianische Kirchen". Germanische Altertumskunde Online. pp. 801–807.
  • Fletcher, Richard (1997), The conversion of Europe: From paganism to Christianity 371-1386 AD. London: HarperCollins.
  • Fletcher, Richard (1999), The barbarian conversion: From paganism to Christianity, University of California Press.
  • MacMullen, Ramsay (1986), Christianizing the Roman Empire, AD 100 – 400. Yale University Press.
  • Padberg, Lutz E. V. (2010) [2007]. "Zwangsbekehrung". Germanische Altertumskunde Online. pp. 1171–1177.
  • Padberg, Lutz E. von (1998), Die Christianisierung Europas im Mittelalter, Reclam Verlag.
  • Russell, James C. (1994), The Germanization of early medieval Christianity: A sociohistorical approach to religious transformation, Oxford University Press (1994),
    ISBN 0-19-510466-8
    .
  • Schäferdiek, Knut; Gschwantler, Otto (2010) [1975]. "Bekehrung und Bekehrungsgeschichte". Germanische Altertumskunde Online. pp. 350–409.
  • Stenton, Frank (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (3 ed.). Oxford University Press.
  • Sullivan, Richard. E. (1953), "The Carolingian missionary and the pagan", Speculum vol. 28, pp. 705–740.
  • Vesteinsson, Orri (2000). The Christianization of Iceland: Priests, power, and social change 1000-1300, Oxford:Oxford University Press.
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