SECOND DIVISION.(Continued.)SECOND SECTION.HISTORY OF THE GERMANO-ROMANIC CHURCH, FROM THE 10THTO THE 13THCENTURY.A.D.911-1294.I. The Spread of Christianity.§ 93. Missionary Enterprises.During this period the Christianizing of Europe was well nigh finished. Only Lapland and Lithuania were reserved for the following period. The method used in conversion was still the same. Besides missionaries, warriors also extended the faith. Monasteries and castles were the centres of the newly founded Christianity. Political considerations and Christian princesses converted pagan princes; their subjects followed either under violent pressure or with quiet resignation, carrying with them, however, under the cover of a Christian profession, much of their old heathen superstition. It was the policy of the German emperors to make every effort to unite the converted races under the German metropolitans, and to establish this union. Thus the metropolitanate of Hamburg-Bremen was founded for the Scandinavians and those of the Baltic provinces, that of Magdeburg for the Poles and the Northern Slavs, that of Mainz for the Bohemians, that of Passau and Salzburg for the Hungarians. But it was Rome’s desire to emancipate them from the German clergy and the German state, and to set them up as independent metropolitanates of a great family of Christian nationalities recognising the pope as their spiritual father (§ 82, 9). The Western church did now indeed make a beginning of missionary enterprise, which extended in its range beyond Europe to the Mongols of Asia and the Saracens of Africa, but throughout this period it remained without any, or at least without any important, result.
During this period the Christianizing of Europe was well nigh finished. Only Lapland and Lithuania were reserved for the following period. The method used in conversion was still the same. Besides missionaries, warriors also extended the faith. Monasteries and castles were the centres of the newly founded Christianity. Political considerations and Christian princesses converted pagan princes; their subjects followed either under violent pressure or with quiet resignation, carrying with them, however, under the cover of a Christian profession, much of their old heathen superstition. It was the policy of the German emperors to make every effort to unite the converted races under the German metropolitans, and to establish this union. Thus the metropolitanate of Hamburg-Bremen was founded for the Scandinavians and those of the Baltic provinces, that of Magdeburg for the Poles and the Northern Slavs, that of Mainz for the Bohemians, that of Passau and Salzburg for the Hungarians. But it was Rome’s desire to emancipate them from the German clergy and the German state, and to set them up as independent metropolitanates of a great family of Christian nationalities recognising the pope as their spiritual father (§ 82, 9). The Western church did now indeed make a beginning of missionary enterprise, which extended in its range beyond Europe to the Mongols of Asia and the Saracens of Africa, but throughout this period it remained without any, or at least without any important, result.
§ 93.1.The Scandinavian Mission Field.—The work of Ansgar and Rimbert (§ 80) had extended only to the frontier provinces of Jutland and to the trading ports of Sweden, and even the churches founded there had in the meantime become almost extinct. A renewal of the mission could not be thought of, owing to the robber raids ofNormansorVikings, who during the ninth and tenth centuries had devastated all the coasts. But it was just those Viking raids that in another way opened a door again for the entrance of missionaries into those lands. Many of the home-going Vikings, who had been resident for a while abroad, had there been converted to the Christian faith, and carried back the knowledge of it to their homes. In France the Norwegians under Rollo founded Normandy inA.D.912. In the tenth century the entire northern half of England fell into the hands of the Danes, and finally, inA.D.1013, the Danish King Sweyn conquered the whole country. Both in France and in England the incomers adopted the profession of Christianity, and this, owing to the close connection maintained with their earlier homes, led to the conversion of Norway and Denmark.§ 93.2. InDenmark, Gorm the Old, the founder of the regular Danish monarchy, makes his appearance toward the end of the ninth century as the bitter foe of Christianity. He destroyed all Christian institutions, drove away all the priests, and ravaged the neighbouring German coasts. Then, inA.D.934, the German king Henry I. undertook a war against Denmark, and obliged Gorm to pay tribute and to grant toleration to the Christian faith. Archbishop Unni of Bremen then immediately began again the mission work. With a great part of his clergy he entered Danish territory, restored the churches of Jutland, and died in Sweden inA.D.936. Gorm’s son, Harald Blaatand, being defeated in battle by Otto I. inA.D.965, submitted to baptism. But his son Sweyn Gabelbart, although he too had been baptized, headed the reactionary heathen party. Harald fell in battle against him inA.D.986, and Sweyn now began his career as a bitter persecutor of the Christians. Eric of Sweden, however, formerly a heathen and an enemy of Christianity, drove him out inA.D.980, and at the entreaty of a German embassage tolerated the Christian religion. After Eric’s death inA.D.998, Sweyn returned. In exile his opinions had changed, and now he as actively befriended the Christians as before he had persecuted them. InA.D.1013 he conquered all England, and died there inA.D.1014. His son Canute the Great, who died inA.D.1036, united both kingdoms under his sceptre, and made every effort to find in the profession of a common Christian faith a bond of union between the two countries over which he ruled. In place of the German mission issuing from Bremen, he set on foot an English mission that had great success. InA.D.1026 by means of a pilgrimage to Rome, prompted also by far-reaching political views, he joined the Danish church in the closest bonds with the ecclesiastical centre of Western Christendom. Denmark from this time onwards ranks as a thoroughly Christianized land.§ 93.3. InSweden, too, Archbishop Unni of Bremen resumed mission work and died there inA.D.936. From this time the German mission was prosecuted uninterruptedly. It was, however, only in the beginning of the eleventh century, when English missionaries came to Sweden from Norway with Sigurd at their head, that real progress was made. By them the king Olaf Skötkonung, who died inA.D.1024, was baptized. Olaf and his successor used every effort to further the interests of the mission, which had made considerable progress in Gothland, while in Swealand, with its national pagan sanctuary of Upsala, heathenism still continued dominant. King Inge, when he refused inA.D.1080 to renounce Christianity, was pursued with stones by a crowd of people at Upsala. His son-in-law Blot-Sweyn led the pagan reaction, and sorely persecuted those who professed the Christian faith. After reigning for three years, he was slain, and Inge restored Christianity in all parts.It was, however, only under St. Eric, who died inA.D.1160, that the Christian faith became dominant in Upper Sweden.263§ 93.4.The Norwegianshad, at a very early period, by means of the adventurous raids of their seafaring youth, by means of Christian prisoners, and also by means of intercourse with the Norse colonies in England and Normandy, gained some knowledge of Christianity. The first Christian king of Norway was Haco the Good (A.D.934-961), who had received a Christian education at the English court. Only after he had won the fervent love of his people by his able government, did he venture to ask for the legal establishment of the Christian religion. The people, however, compelled him to take part in heathen sacrifices; and when he made the sign of the cross over the sacrificial cup before he drank of it, they were appeased only by his associating the action with Thor’s hammer. Haco could never forgive himself this weakness and died broken-hearted, regarding himself as unworthy even of Christian burial. Olaf Trygvesen (A.D.995-1000), at first the ideal of a Norse Viking, then of a Norse king, was baptized during his last visit to England, and used all the powerful influences at his command, the charm and fascination of his personality, flattery, favour, craft, intimidation and cruelty, to secure the forcible introduction of Christianity. No foreigner was ever allowed to quit Norway without being persuaded or compelled by him to receive baptism. Those who refused, whether natives or foreigners, suffered severe imprisonment and in many cases were put to death. He fell in battle with the Danes. Olaf Haraldson the Fat, subsequently known as St. Olaf (A.D.1014-1030), followed in Trygvesen’s steps. Without his predecessor’s fascinating manners and magnanimity, but prosecuting his ecclesiastical and political ends with greater recklessness, severity, and cruelty, he soon forfeited the love of his subjects. The alienated chiefs conspired with the Danish Canute; the whole country rose against him; he himself fell in battle, and Norway became a Danish province. The crushing yoke of the Danes, however, caused a sudden rebound of public feeling in regard to Olaf. The king, who was before universally hated, was now looked on as the martyr of national liberty and independence. Innumerable miracles were wrought by his bones, and even so early asA.D.1031 the country unanimously proclaimed him a national saint. The enthusiasm over the veneration of the new saint increased from day to day, and with it the enthusiasm for the emancipation of their native country. Borne along by the mighty agitation, Olaf’s son, Magnus the Good, drove out the Danes inA.D.1035. Olaf’s canonization, though originating in purely political schemes, had put the final stamp of Christianity upon the land.The German national privileges, however, were insisted upon in Norway over against the canon law down to the 13th century.264§ 93.5.In the North-Western Group of Islands, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, Shetlands, and Faröe Isles, the sparse Celtic population professing Christianity was, during the ninth century, expelled by the pagan Norse Vikings, and among these Christianity was first introduced by the two Norwegian Olafs. The first missionary attempt inIcelandwas made inA.D.981 by the Icelander Thorwald, who having been baptized in Saxony by a Bishop (?) Frederick, persuaded this ecclesiastic to accompany him to Iceland, that they might there work together for the conversion of his heathen fellow countrymen. During a five years’ ministry several individuals were won, but by a decision of the National Council the missionaries were forced to leave the island inA.D.958. Olaf Trygvesen did not readily allow an Icelander visiting Norway to return without having been baptized, and twice he sent formal expeditions for the conversion of Iceland. The first, sent out inA.D.996, with Stefnin, a native of Iceland, at its head, had little success. The second,A.D.997-999, was led by Olaf’s court chaplain Dankbrand, a Saxon. This man, at once warrior and priest, who when his sermons failed shrank not from buckling on the sword, converted many of the most powerful chiefs. InA.D.1000 the Icelandic State was saved at the last hour from a civil war between pagans and Christians which threatened its very existence, by the adoption of a compromise, according to which all Icelanders were baptized and only Christian worship was publicly recognised, but idol worship in the homes, exposure of children, and eating of horses’ flesh was tolerated. But inA.D.1016, as the result of an embassage of the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldson, even these last vestiges of paganism were wiped out.—Greenland, too, which had been discovered by a distinguished Icelander, Eric the Red, and had then been colonized inA.D.985, owed its Christianity to Olaf Trygvesen, who inA.D.1000 sent the son of the discoverer, Leif the Fortunate, with an expedition for its conversion. The inhabitants accepted baptism without resistance. The church continued to flourish there uninterruptedly for 400 years, and the coast districts became rich through agriculture and trade. But when inA.D.1408 the newly elected bishop Andrew wished to take possession of his see, he found the country surrounded by enormous masses of ice, and could not effect a landing.This catastrophe, and the subsequent incursions of the Eskimos, seem to have led to the overthrow of the colony.—Continuation, § 167, 9.—Leif discovered on his expeditions a rich fertile land in the West, which on account of the vines growing wild there he calledVineland, and this region was subsequently colonized from Iceland. In the twelfth century, in order to confirm the colonists in the faith, a Greenland bishop Eric undertook a journey to that country. It lay on the east coast of North America, and is probably to be identified with the present Massachusetts and Rhode Island.§ 93.6.The Slavo-Magyar Mission-field.—Even in the previous period a beginning had been made of the Christianizing ofBohemia(§ 79, 3). After Wratislaw’s death his heathen widow Drahomira administered the government in the name of her younger son Boleslaw. Ludmilla, with the help of the clergy and the Germans, wished to promote St. Wenzeslaw, the elder son, educated by her, but she was strangled by order of Drahomira inA.D.927. Wenzeslaw, too, fell by the hand of his brother. Boleslaw now thought completely to root out Christianity, but was obliged, in consequence of the victory of Otho [Otto] I. inA.D.950, to agree to the restoration of the church. His son Boleslas [Boleslaw] II.,A.D.967-999, contributed to its establishment by founding the bishopric of Prague.The pope seized the opportunity on the occasion of this founding of the bishopric to introduce the Roman ritual (A.D.973).265§ 93.7. From Bohemia the Christian faith was carried to thePoles. InA.D.966 the Duke Micislas was persuaded by his wife Dubrawka, a Bohemian princess, daughter of Boleslaw I., to receive baptism. His subjects were induced to follow his example, and the bishopric of Posen was founded. The church obtained a firm footing under his son, the powerful Boleslaw Chrobry,A.D.992-1025, who with the consent of Otto III. freed the Polish church from the metropolitanate of Magdeburg, and gave it an archiepiscopal see of its own at Gnesen (A.D.1000). He also separated the Poles from German imperial federation and had himself crowned king shortly before his death inA.D.1025. A state of anarchy, which lasted for a year and threatened the overthrow of Christianity in the land, was put an end to by his grandson Casimir inA.D.1039. Casimir’s grandson Boleslaw II. gave to the Poles a national saint by the murder inA.D.1079 of Bishop Stanislas [Stanislaus] of Cracow, which led to his excommunication and exile.§ 93.8. Christianity was introduced intoHungaryfrom Constantinople. A Hungarian prince Gylas received baptism there aboutA.D.950, and returned home with a monk Hierotheus, consecrated bishop of the Hungarians. Connection with the Eastern church, however, was soon broken off, and an alliance formed with the Western church. After Henry I. inA.D.933 defeated the Hungarians at Keuschberg, and still more decidedly after Otto I. inA.D.955 had completely humbled them by the terrible slaughter at Lechfelde, German influence won the upper hand. The missionary labours of Bishop Piligrim of Passau, as well as the introduction of Christian foreigners, especially Germans, soon gave to Christianity a preponderance throughout the country over paganism. The mission was directly favoured by the Duke Geysa,A.D.972-997, and his vigorous wife Sarolta, a daughter of the above-named Gylas. The Christianizing of Hungary was completed by Geysa’s son St. Stephen,A.D.997-1038, who upon his marriage with Gisela, the sister of the Emperor Henry II., was baptized, a pagan reaction was put down, a constitution and laws were given to the country, an archbishopric was founded at Gran with ten suffragan bishops, the crown was put upon his head inA.D.1000 by Pope Sylvester II., and Hungary was enrolled as an important member of the federation of European Christian States. Under his successors indeed paganism once more rose in a formidable revolt, but was finally stamped out. St. Ladislaw [Ladislaus],A.D.1077-1095, rooted out its last vestiges.§ 93.9. Among the numerousWendish Racesin Northern and North-Eastern Germany the chief tribes were the Obotrites in what is now Holstein and Mecklenburg, the Lutitians or Wilzians, between the Elbe and the Oder, the Pomeranians, from the Oder to the Vistula, and the Sorbi, farther south in Saxony and Lusatia. Henry I.,A.D.919-936, and his son Otto I.,A.D.936-973, in several campaigns subjected them to the German yoke, and the latter founded among them inA.D.968 the archbishopric of Magdeburg besides several bishoprics. The passion for national freedom, as well as the proud contempt, illtreatment, and oppression of the German margraves, rendered Christianity peculiarly hateful to the Wends, and it was only after their freedom and nationality had been completely destroyed and the Slavic population had been outnumbered by German or Germanized colonists, that the Church obtained a firm footing in their land. A revolt of theObotritesunder Mistewoi inA.D.983, who with the German yoke abjured also the Christian faith, led to the destruction of all Christian institutions. His grandson Gottschalk, educated as a Christian in a German monastery, but roused to fury by the murder of his father Udo, escaped from the monastery inA.D.1032, renounced Christianity, and set on foot a terrible persecution of Christians and Germans. But he soon bitterly repented this outburst of senseless rage. Taken prisoner by the Germans, he escaped and took refuge in Denmark, but subsequently he returned and founded inA.D.1045 a great Wendish empire which extended from the North Sea to the Oder. He now enthusiastically applied all his energy to the establishment of the church in his land upon a national basis, for which purpose Adalbert of Bremen sent him missionaries. He was himself frequently their interpreter and expositor. He was eminently successful, but the national party hated him as the friend of the Saxons and the church. He fell by the sword of the assassin inA.D.1066, and thereupon began a terrible persecution of the Christians. His son Henry having been set aside, the powerful Ranian chief Cruco from the island of Rügen, a fanatical enemy of Christianity, was chosen ruler. At the instigation of Henry he was murdered in his own house inA.D.1115. Henry died inA.D.1127. A Danish prince Canute bought the Wendish crown from Lothair duke of Saxony, but was murdered inA.D.1131. This brought the Wendish empire to an end. The Obotrite chief Niklot, who died inA.D.1161, held his ground only in the territory of the Obotrites. His son Pribizlaw, the ancestor of the present ruling family of Mecklenburg, by adopting Christianity inA.D.1164, saved to himself a part of the inheritance of his fathers as a vassal under the Saxon princes. All the rest of the land was divided by Henry the Lion among his German warriors, and the depopulated districts were peopled with German colonists.—InA.D.1157 Albert the Bear, the founder of the Margravate of Brandenburg, overthrew the dominion of theLutitiansafter protracted struggles and endless revolts. He, too, drafted numerous German colonists into the devastated regions.—The Christianizing of theSorbiwas an easier task. After their first defeat by Henry I. inA.D.922 and 927, they were never again able to regain their old freedom. Alongside of the mission of the sword among the Wends there was always carried on, more or less vigorously, the mission of the Cross. Among the Sorbi bishop Benno of Meissen, who died inA.D.1107, wrought with special vigour, and among the Obotrites the greatest zeal was displayed by St. Vicelinus. He died bishop of Oldenburg inA.D.1154.§ 93.10.Pomeraniasubmitted inA.D.1121 to the duke of Poland, Boleslaw III., and he compelled them solemnly to promise that they would adopt the Christian faith. The work of conversion, however, appeared to be so unpromising that Boleslaw found none among all his clergy willing to undertake the task. At last inA.D.1122, a Spanish monk Bernard offered himself. But the Pomeranians drove him away as a beggar who looked only to his own gain, for they thought, if the Christians’ God be really the Lord of heaven and earth He would have sent them a servant in keeping with His glorious majesty. Boleslaw was then convinced that only a man who had strong faith and a martyr’s spirit, united with an imposing figure, rank, and wealth, was fit for the work, and these qualifications he found in bishop Otto of Bamberg. Otto accepted the call, and during two missionary journeys inA.D.1124-1128 founded the Pomeranian church. Following Bernard’s advice, he went through Pomerania on both occasions with all the pomp of episcopal dignity, with a great retinue and abundant stores of provisions, money, ecclesiastical ornaments, and presents of all kinds. He had unparalleled success, yet he was repeatedly well nigh obtaining the crown of martyrdom which he longed for. The whole Middle Ages furnishes scarcely an equally noble, pure, and successful example of missionary enterprise. None of all the missionaries of that age presents so harmonious a picture of firmness without obstinacy, earnestness without harshness, gentleness without weakness, enthusiasm without fanaticism. And never have the German and Slavic nationalities so nobly, successfully, and faithfully practised mutual forbearance as did the Pomeranians and their apostle.—The last stronghold of Wendish paganism was the island ofRügen. It fell when inA.D.1168 the Danish king Waldemar I. with the Christian Pomeranian and Obotrite chiefs conquered the island and destroyed its heathen sanctuaries.§ 93.11.Mission Work among the Finns and Lithuanians.—St. Eric of Sweden inA.D.1157 introduced Christianity into Finland by conquest and compulsion. Bishop Henry of Upsala, the apostle of the Finns, who accompanied him, suffered a martyr’s death in the following year. The Finns detested Christianity as heartily as they did the rule of the conquering Swedes, who introduced it, and it was only after the third campaign which Thorkel Canutson undertook inA.D.1293 against Finland, that the Swedish rule and the Christian faith were established, and under a vigorous yet moderate and wise government the Finns were reconciled to both.—Laplandcame under the rule of Sweden inA.D.1279, and thereafter Christianity gradually found entrance. InA.D.1335 bishop Hemming of Upsala consecrated the first church at Tornea.§ 93.12.Esthonia, Livonia, and Courlandwere inhabited by peoples belonging to the Finnic stem. Yet even in early times people from the south and east belonging to the Lithuanian stem had settled in Livonia and Courland, Letts and Lettgalls in Livonia, and Semgalls and Wends in Courland. The first attempts to introduce Christianity into these regions were made by Swedes and Danes, and even under the Danish king Sweyn III., Eric’s son, aboutA.D.1048 a church was erected in Courland by Christian merchants, and in Esthonia the Danes not long after built the fortress of Lindanissa. The elevation of the bishopric of Lund into a metropolitanate inA.D.1098 was projected with a regard to these lands. InA.D.1171 Pope Alexander III. sent a monk, Fulco, to Lund to convert the heathen and to be bishop of Finland and Esthonia, but he seems never to have entered on his duties or his dignity. Abiding results were first won by German preaching and the German sword. In the middle of the 12th century merchants of Bremen and Lübeck carried on traffic with towns on the banks of the Dwina. A pious priest from the monastery of Segeberg in Holstein, called Meinhart, undertook in their company under the auspices of the archbishop of Bremen, Hartwig II., a missionary journey to those regions inA.D.1184. He built a church at Üxküll on the Dwina, was recognised as bishop of the place inA.D.1186, but died inA.D.1196. His assistant Dietrich carried on the work of the mission in the district from Freiden down to Esthonia. Meinhart’s successor in the bishopric was the Cistercian abbot, Berthold of Loccum in Hanover. Having been driven away soon after his arrival, he returned with an army of German crusaders, and was killed in battle inA.D.1198. His successor was a canon of Bremen, Albert of Buxhöwden. He transferred the bishop’s seat to Riga, which was built by him inA.D.1201, founded inA.D.1202, for the protection of the mission, the Order of the Brethren of the Sword (§98, 13), amid constant battles with Russians, Esthonians, Courlanders and Lithuanians erected new bishoprics in Esthonia (Dorpat), Oesel, and Semgallen, and effected the Christianization of nearly all these lands. He died inA.D.1229. AfterA.D.1219 the Danes, whom Albert had called in to his aid, vied with him in the conquest and conversion of the Esthonians. Waldemar II. founded Revel inA.D.1219, made it an episcopal see, and did all in his power to restrict the advances of the Germans. In this he did not succeed. The Danes, indeed, were obliged to quit Esthonia inA.D.1257. After Albert’s death, however, the difficulties of the situation became so great that Volquin, the Master of the Order of the Sword, could see no hope of success save in the union of his order with that of the Teutonic Knights, shortly before established in Prussia. The union, retarded by Danish intrigues, was not effected untilA.D.1237, when a fearful slaughter of Germans by the Lithuanians had endangered not only the existence of the Order of the Sword but even the church of Livonia. Then, too, for the first time was Courland finally subdued and converted. It had, indeed, nominally adopted Christianity inA.D.1230, but had soon after relapsed into paganism. Finally inA.D.1255 Riga was raised to the rank of a metropolitanate, and Suerbeer, formerly archbishop of Armagh in Ireland, was appointed by Innocent IV. archbishop of Prussia, Livonia, and Esthonia, with his residence at Riga.§ 93.13. The Old Prussians and Lithuanians also belonged to the Lettish stem. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, first brought the message of salvation to thePrussiansbetween the Vistula and Memel, but on the very first entrance into Sameland [Samland] inA.D.997 he won the martyr’s crown. This, too, was the fate twelve years later of the zealous Saxon monk Bruno and eighteen companions on the Lithuanian coast. Two hundred years passed before another missionary was seen in Prussia. The first was the Abbot Gothfried from the Polish monastery of Lukina; but in his case also an end was soon put to his hopefully begun work, as well as to that of his companion Philip, both suffering martyrdom inA.D.1207. More successful and enduring was the mission work three years later of the Cistercian monk Christian from the Pomeranian monastery of Oliva, inA.D.1209, the real apostle of the Prussians. He was raised to the rank of bishop inA.D.1215, and died inA.D.1245. On the model of the Livonian Order of the Brethren of the Sword he founded inA.D.1225 the Order of the Knights of Dobrin (Milites Christi). In the very first year of their existence, however, they were reduced to the number of five men. In union with Conrad, Duke of Moravia, whose land had suffered fearfully from the inroads of the pagan Prussians, Christian then called in the aid of the Teutonic Knights, whose order had won great renown in Germany. A branch of this order had settled inA.D.1228 in Culm, and so laid the foundation of the establishment of the order in Prussia. With the appearance of this order began a sixty years’ bloody conflict directed to the overthrow of Prussian paganism, which can be said to have been effected only inA.D.1283, when the greater part of the Prussians had been slain after innumerable conflicts with the order and with crusaders from Germany, Poland, Bohemia, etc. Among the crowds of preachers of the gospel, mostly Dominicans, besides Bishop Christian and the noble papal legate William, bishop of Modena, the Polish Dominican Hyacinth, who died inA.D.1257, a vigorous preacher of faith and repentance, deserves special mention. So early asA.D.1243, William of Modena had sketched an ecclesiastical organization for the country, which divided Prussia into four dioceses, which were placed inA.D.1255 under the metropolitanate of Riga.§ 93.14. The introduction of Christianity intoLithuaniawas longest delayed. After Ringold had founded inA.D.1230 a Grand Duchy of Lithuania, his son Mindowe endeavoured to enlarge his dominions by conquest. The army of the Prussian-Livonian Order, however, so humbled him that he sued for peace and was compelled to receive baptism inA.D.1252. But no sooner had he in some measure regained strength than he threw off the hypocritical mask, and inA.D.1260 appeared as the foe of his Christian neighbours. His son Wolstinik, who had remained true to the Christian faith, dying inA.D.1266, reigned too short a time to secure an influence over his people. With him every trace of Christianity disappeared from Lithuania. Christians were again tolerated in his territories by the Grand Duke Gedimin (A.D.1315-1340). Romish Dominicans and Russian priests vied with one another under his successor Olgerd in endeavours to convert the inhabitants. Olgerd himself was baptized according to the Greek rite, but apostatised. His son Jagello, born of a Christian mother, and married to the young Polish queen Hedwig, whose hand and crown seemed not too dearly purchased by submitting to baptism and undertaking to introduce Christianity among his people, made at last an end to heathenism in Lithuania inA.D.1386. His subjects, each of whom received a woollen coat as a christening gift, flocked in crowds to receive baptism. The bishop’s residence was fixed at Wilna.§ 93.15.The Mongolian Mission Field.—From the time of Genghis Khan, who died inA.D.1227, the princes of theMongols, in consistency with their principles as deists with little trace of religion, showed themselves equally tolerant and favourable to Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. The Nestorians were very numerous in this empire, but also very much deteriorated. InA.D.1240-1241 the Mongols, pressing westward with irresistible force, threatened to overflow and devastate all Europe. Russia and Poland, Silesia, Moravia, and Hungary had been already dreadfully wasted by them, when suddenly and unexpectedly the savage hordes withdrew. Innocent IV. sent an embassage of Dominicans under Nicolas Ascelinus to the Commander Batschu in Persia, and an embassage of Franciscans under John of Piano-Carpini to the Grand Khan Oktaï, Genghis Khan’s successor, to his capital Karakorum, with a view to their conversion and to dissuade them from repeating their inroads. Both missions were unsuccessful. Certain adventurers pretending to be bearers of a message from Mongolia, told Louis IX. of France fabulous stories of the readiness of the Grand Khan Gajuk and his princes to receive Christianity, and their intention to conquer the Holy Land for the Christians. He accordingly sent out two missions to the Mongols. The first, inA.D.1249 was utterly unsuccessful, for the Mongols regarded the presents given as a regular tribute and as a symbol of voluntary submission. The second mission inA.D.1253, to the Grand Khan Mangu, although under a brave and accomplished leader, William of Ruysbroek, yielded no fruit; for Mangu, instead of allowing free entrance into the land for the preaching of the gospel, at the close of a disputation with Mohammedans and Buddhists sent the missionaries back to Louis with the threatening demand to tender his submission. After Mangu’s death inA.D.1257, the Mongolian empire was divided into Eastern and Western, corresponding to China and Persia. The former was governed by Kublai Khan, the latter by Hulagu Khan.—Kublai Khan, the Emperor ofChina, a genuine type of the religious mongrelism of the Mongolians, showed himself very favourable to Christians, but also patronised the Mohammedans, and inA.D.1260 gave a hierarchical constitution and consolidated form to Buddhism by the establishment of the first Dalai Lama. The travels of two Venetians of the family of Polo led to the founding of a Latin Christian mission in China. They returned from their Mongolian travels inA.D.1269. Gregory X. inA.D.1272 sent two Dominicans to Mongolia along with the two brothers, and the son of one of them, Marco Polo, then seventeen years old. The latter won the unreserved confidence of the Grand Khan, and was entrusted by him with an honourable post in the government.On his return inA.D.1295 he published an account of his travels, which made an enormous sensation, and afforded for the first time to Western Europe a proper conception of the condition of Eastern Asia.266A regular Christian missionary enterprise, however, was first undertaken by the Franciscan Joh. de Monte-Corvino,A.D.1291-1328, one of the noblest, most intelligent, and most faithful of the missionaries of the Middle Ages. After he had succeeded in overcoming the intrigues of the numerous Nestorians, he won the high esteem of the Grand Khan. In the royal city of Cembalu or Pekin he built two churches, baptized about 6,000 Mongols, and translated the Psalter and the New Testament into Mongolian. He wrought absolutely alone tillA.D.1303. Afterwards, however, other brethren of his order came repeatedly to his aid. Clement V. appointed him archbishop of Cembalu inA.D.1307. Every year saw new churches established. But internal disturbances, under Kublai’s successor, weakened the power of the Mongolian dynasty, so that inA.D.1370 it was overthrown by the national Ming dynasty. By the new rulers the Christian missionaries were driven out along with the Mongols, and thus all that they had done was utterly destroyed.—The ruler ofPersia, Hulagu Khan, son of a Christian mother and married to a Christian wife, put an end inA.D.1258 to the khalifate of Bagdad, but was so pressed by the sultan of Egypt, that he entered on a long series of negotiations with the popes and the kings of France and England, who gave him the most encouraging promises of joining their forces with his against the Saracens. His successors, of whom several even formally embraced Christianity, continued these negotiations, but obtained nothing more than empty promises and protestations of friendship. The time of the crusades was over, and the popes, even the most powerful of them, were not able to reawaken the crusading spirit. The Persian khans, vacillating between Christianity and Islam, became more and more powerless, until at last, inA.D.1387, Tamerlane (Timur) undertook to found on the ruins of the old government a new universal Mongolian empire under the standard of the Crescent. But with his death inA.D.1405 the dominion of the Mongols in Persia was overthrown, and fell into the hands of the Turkomans. Henceforth amid all changes of dynasties Islam continued the dominant religion.§ 93.16.The Mission Field of Islam.—The crusader princes and soldiers wished only to wrest the Holy Land from the infidels, but, with the exception perhaps of Louis IX., had no idea of bringing to them the blessings of the gospel. And most of the crusaders, by their licentiousness, covetousness, cruelty, faithlessness, and dissensions among themselves, did much to cause the Saracens to scorn the Christian faith as represented by their lives and example. It was not until the 13th century that the two newly founded mendicant orders of Franciscans and Dominicans began an energetic but fruitless mission among the Moslems of Africa, Sicily, and Spain. St. Francis himself started this work inA.D.1219, when during the siege of Damietta by the crusaders he entered the camp of the Sultan Camel and bade him kindle a fire and cause that he himself with one of the Moslem priests should be cast into it. When the imam present shrank away at these words, Francis offered to go alone into the fire if the sultan would promise to accept Christianity along with his people should he pass out of the fire uninjured. The sultan refused to promise and sent the saint away unhurt with presents, which, however, he returned. Afterwards several Franciscan missions were sent to the Moslems, but resulted only in giving a crowd of martyrs to the order. The Dominicans, too, at a very early period took part in the mission to the Mohammedans, but were also unsuccessful. The Dominican general Raimund de Pennaforti [Pennaforte], who died inA.D.1273, devoted himself with special zeal to this task. For the training of the brethren of his order in the oriental languages he founded institutions at Tunis and Murcia. The most important of all these missionary enterprises was that of the talented Raimund Lullus of Majorca, who after his own conversion from a worldly life and after careful study of the language, made three voyages to North Africa and sought in disputations with the Saracen scholars to convince them of the truth of Christianity. But hisArs Magna(§103, 7), which with great ingenuity and enormous labour he had wrought out mainly for this purpose, had no effect. Imprisonment and ill-treatment were on all occasions his only reward. He died inA.D.1315 in consequence of the ill-usage which he had been subjected.
§ 93.1.The Scandinavian Mission Field.—The work of Ansgar and Rimbert (§ 80) had extended only to the frontier provinces of Jutland and to the trading ports of Sweden, and even the churches founded there had in the meantime become almost extinct. A renewal of the mission could not be thought of, owing to the robber raids ofNormansorVikings, who during the ninth and tenth centuries had devastated all the coasts. But it was just those Viking raids that in another way opened a door again for the entrance of missionaries into those lands. Many of the home-going Vikings, who had been resident for a while abroad, had there been converted to the Christian faith, and carried back the knowledge of it to their homes. In France the Norwegians under Rollo founded Normandy inA.D.912. In the tenth century the entire northern half of England fell into the hands of the Danes, and finally, inA.D.1013, the Danish King Sweyn conquered the whole country. Both in France and in England the incomers adopted the profession of Christianity, and this, owing to the close connection maintained with their earlier homes, led to the conversion of Norway and Denmark.
§ 93.2. InDenmark, Gorm the Old, the founder of the regular Danish monarchy, makes his appearance toward the end of the ninth century as the bitter foe of Christianity. He destroyed all Christian institutions, drove away all the priests, and ravaged the neighbouring German coasts. Then, inA.D.934, the German king Henry I. undertook a war against Denmark, and obliged Gorm to pay tribute and to grant toleration to the Christian faith. Archbishop Unni of Bremen then immediately began again the mission work. With a great part of his clergy he entered Danish territory, restored the churches of Jutland, and died in Sweden inA.D.936. Gorm’s son, Harald Blaatand, being defeated in battle by Otto I. inA.D.965, submitted to baptism. But his son Sweyn Gabelbart, although he too had been baptized, headed the reactionary heathen party. Harald fell in battle against him inA.D.986, and Sweyn now began his career as a bitter persecutor of the Christians. Eric of Sweden, however, formerly a heathen and an enemy of Christianity, drove him out inA.D.980, and at the entreaty of a German embassage tolerated the Christian religion. After Eric’s death inA.D.998, Sweyn returned. In exile his opinions had changed, and now he as actively befriended the Christians as before he had persecuted them. InA.D.1013 he conquered all England, and died there inA.D.1014. His son Canute the Great, who died inA.D.1036, united both kingdoms under his sceptre, and made every effort to find in the profession of a common Christian faith a bond of union between the two countries over which he ruled. In place of the German mission issuing from Bremen, he set on foot an English mission that had great success. InA.D.1026 by means of a pilgrimage to Rome, prompted also by far-reaching political views, he joined the Danish church in the closest bonds with the ecclesiastical centre of Western Christendom. Denmark from this time onwards ranks as a thoroughly Christianized land.
§ 93.3. InSweden, too, Archbishop Unni of Bremen resumed mission work and died there inA.D.936. From this time the German mission was prosecuted uninterruptedly. It was, however, only in the beginning of the eleventh century, when English missionaries came to Sweden from Norway with Sigurd at their head, that real progress was made. By them the king Olaf Skötkonung, who died inA.D.1024, was baptized. Olaf and his successor used every effort to further the interests of the mission, which had made considerable progress in Gothland, while in Swealand, with its national pagan sanctuary of Upsala, heathenism still continued dominant. King Inge, when he refused inA.D.1080 to renounce Christianity, was pursued with stones by a crowd of people at Upsala. His son-in-law Blot-Sweyn led the pagan reaction, and sorely persecuted those who professed the Christian faith. After reigning for three years, he was slain, and Inge restored Christianity in all parts.It was, however, only under St. Eric, who died inA.D.1160, that the Christian faith became dominant in Upper Sweden.263
§ 93.4.The Norwegianshad, at a very early period, by means of the adventurous raids of their seafaring youth, by means of Christian prisoners, and also by means of intercourse with the Norse colonies in England and Normandy, gained some knowledge of Christianity. The first Christian king of Norway was Haco the Good (A.D.934-961), who had received a Christian education at the English court. Only after he had won the fervent love of his people by his able government, did he venture to ask for the legal establishment of the Christian religion. The people, however, compelled him to take part in heathen sacrifices; and when he made the sign of the cross over the sacrificial cup before he drank of it, they were appeased only by his associating the action with Thor’s hammer. Haco could never forgive himself this weakness and died broken-hearted, regarding himself as unworthy even of Christian burial. Olaf Trygvesen (A.D.995-1000), at first the ideal of a Norse Viking, then of a Norse king, was baptized during his last visit to England, and used all the powerful influences at his command, the charm and fascination of his personality, flattery, favour, craft, intimidation and cruelty, to secure the forcible introduction of Christianity. No foreigner was ever allowed to quit Norway without being persuaded or compelled by him to receive baptism. Those who refused, whether natives or foreigners, suffered severe imprisonment and in many cases were put to death. He fell in battle with the Danes. Olaf Haraldson the Fat, subsequently known as St. Olaf (A.D.1014-1030), followed in Trygvesen’s steps. Without his predecessor’s fascinating manners and magnanimity, but prosecuting his ecclesiastical and political ends with greater recklessness, severity, and cruelty, he soon forfeited the love of his subjects. The alienated chiefs conspired with the Danish Canute; the whole country rose against him; he himself fell in battle, and Norway became a Danish province. The crushing yoke of the Danes, however, caused a sudden rebound of public feeling in regard to Olaf. The king, who was before universally hated, was now looked on as the martyr of national liberty and independence. Innumerable miracles were wrought by his bones, and even so early asA.D.1031 the country unanimously proclaimed him a national saint. The enthusiasm over the veneration of the new saint increased from day to day, and with it the enthusiasm for the emancipation of their native country. Borne along by the mighty agitation, Olaf’s son, Magnus the Good, drove out the Danes inA.D.1035. Olaf’s canonization, though originating in purely political schemes, had put the final stamp of Christianity upon the land.The German national privileges, however, were insisted upon in Norway over against the canon law down to the 13th century.264
§ 93.5.In the North-Western Group of Islands, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, Shetlands, and Faröe Isles, the sparse Celtic population professing Christianity was, during the ninth century, expelled by the pagan Norse Vikings, and among these Christianity was first introduced by the two Norwegian Olafs. The first missionary attempt inIcelandwas made inA.D.981 by the Icelander Thorwald, who having been baptized in Saxony by a Bishop (?) Frederick, persuaded this ecclesiastic to accompany him to Iceland, that they might there work together for the conversion of his heathen fellow countrymen. During a five years’ ministry several individuals were won, but by a decision of the National Council the missionaries were forced to leave the island inA.D.958. Olaf Trygvesen did not readily allow an Icelander visiting Norway to return without having been baptized, and twice he sent formal expeditions for the conversion of Iceland. The first, sent out inA.D.996, with Stefnin, a native of Iceland, at its head, had little success. The second,A.D.997-999, was led by Olaf’s court chaplain Dankbrand, a Saxon. This man, at once warrior and priest, who when his sermons failed shrank not from buckling on the sword, converted many of the most powerful chiefs. InA.D.1000 the Icelandic State was saved at the last hour from a civil war between pagans and Christians which threatened its very existence, by the adoption of a compromise, according to which all Icelanders were baptized and only Christian worship was publicly recognised, but idol worship in the homes, exposure of children, and eating of horses’ flesh was tolerated. But inA.D.1016, as the result of an embassage of the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldson, even these last vestiges of paganism were wiped out.—Greenland, too, which had been discovered by a distinguished Icelander, Eric the Red, and had then been colonized inA.D.985, owed its Christianity to Olaf Trygvesen, who inA.D.1000 sent the son of the discoverer, Leif the Fortunate, with an expedition for its conversion. The inhabitants accepted baptism without resistance. The church continued to flourish there uninterruptedly for 400 years, and the coast districts became rich through agriculture and trade. But when inA.D.1408 the newly elected bishop Andrew wished to take possession of his see, he found the country surrounded by enormous masses of ice, and could not effect a landing.This catastrophe, and the subsequent incursions of the Eskimos, seem to have led to the overthrow of the colony.—Continuation, § 167, 9.—Leif discovered on his expeditions a rich fertile land in the West, which on account of the vines growing wild there he calledVineland, and this region was subsequently colonized from Iceland. In the twelfth century, in order to confirm the colonists in the faith, a Greenland bishop Eric undertook a journey to that country. It lay on the east coast of North America, and is probably to be identified with the present Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
§ 93.6.The Slavo-Magyar Mission-field.—Even in the previous period a beginning had been made of the Christianizing ofBohemia(§ 79, 3). After Wratislaw’s death his heathen widow Drahomira administered the government in the name of her younger son Boleslaw. Ludmilla, with the help of the clergy and the Germans, wished to promote St. Wenzeslaw, the elder son, educated by her, but she was strangled by order of Drahomira inA.D.927. Wenzeslaw, too, fell by the hand of his brother. Boleslaw now thought completely to root out Christianity, but was obliged, in consequence of the victory of Otho [Otto] I. inA.D.950, to agree to the restoration of the church. His son Boleslas [Boleslaw] II.,A.D.967-999, contributed to its establishment by founding the bishopric of Prague.The pope seized the opportunity on the occasion of this founding of the bishopric to introduce the Roman ritual (A.D.973).265
§ 93.7. From Bohemia the Christian faith was carried to thePoles. InA.D.966 the Duke Micislas was persuaded by his wife Dubrawka, a Bohemian princess, daughter of Boleslaw I., to receive baptism. His subjects were induced to follow his example, and the bishopric of Posen was founded. The church obtained a firm footing under his son, the powerful Boleslaw Chrobry,A.D.992-1025, who with the consent of Otto III. freed the Polish church from the metropolitanate of Magdeburg, and gave it an archiepiscopal see of its own at Gnesen (A.D.1000). He also separated the Poles from German imperial federation and had himself crowned king shortly before his death inA.D.1025. A state of anarchy, which lasted for a year and threatened the overthrow of Christianity in the land, was put an end to by his grandson Casimir inA.D.1039. Casimir’s grandson Boleslaw II. gave to the Poles a national saint by the murder inA.D.1079 of Bishop Stanislas [Stanislaus] of Cracow, which led to his excommunication and exile.
§ 93.8. Christianity was introduced intoHungaryfrom Constantinople. A Hungarian prince Gylas received baptism there aboutA.D.950, and returned home with a monk Hierotheus, consecrated bishop of the Hungarians. Connection with the Eastern church, however, was soon broken off, and an alliance formed with the Western church. After Henry I. inA.D.933 defeated the Hungarians at Keuschberg, and still more decidedly after Otto I. inA.D.955 had completely humbled them by the terrible slaughter at Lechfelde, German influence won the upper hand. The missionary labours of Bishop Piligrim of Passau, as well as the introduction of Christian foreigners, especially Germans, soon gave to Christianity a preponderance throughout the country over paganism. The mission was directly favoured by the Duke Geysa,A.D.972-997, and his vigorous wife Sarolta, a daughter of the above-named Gylas. The Christianizing of Hungary was completed by Geysa’s son St. Stephen,A.D.997-1038, who upon his marriage with Gisela, the sister of the Emperor Henry II., was baptized, a pagan reaction was put down, a constitution and laws were given to the country, an archbishopric was founded at Gran with ten suffragan bishops, the crown was put upon his head inA.D.1000 by Pope Sylvester II., and Hungary was enrolled as an important member of the federation of European Christian States. Under his successors indeed paganism once more rose in a formidable revolt, but was finally stamped out. St. Ladislaw [Ladislaus],A.D.1077-1095, rooted out its last vestiges.
§ 93.9. Among the numerousWendish Racesin Northern and North-Eastern Germany the chief tribes were the Obotrites in what is now Holstein and Mecklenburg, the Lutitians or Wilzians, between the Elbe and the Oder, the Pomeranians, from the Oder to the Vistula, and the Sorbi, farther south in Saxony and Lusatia. Henry I.,A.D.919-936, and his son Otto I.,A.D.936-973, in several campaigns subjected them to the German yoke, and the latter founded among them inA.D.968 the archbishopric of Magdeburg besides several bishoprics. The passion for national freedom, as well as the proud contempt, illtreatment, and oppression of the German margraves, rendered Christianity peculiarly hateful to the Wends, and it was only after their freedom and nationality had been completely destroyed and the Slavic population had been outnumbered by German or Germanized colonists, that the Church obtained a firm footing in their land. A revolt of theObotritesunder Mistewoi inA.D.983, who with the German yoke abjured also the Christian faith, led to the destruction of all Christian institutions. His grandson Gottschalk, educated as a Christian in a German monastery, but roused to fury by the murder of his father Udo, escaped from the monastery inA.D.1032, renounced Christianity, and set on foot a terrible persecution of Christians and Germans. But he soon bitterly repented this outburst of senseless rage. Taken prisoner by the Germans, he escaped and took refuge in Denmark, but subsequently he returned and founded inA.D.1045 a great Wendish empire which extended from the North Sea to the Oder. He now enthusiastically applied all his energy to the establishment of the church in his land upon a national basis, for which purpose Adalbert of Bremen sent him missionaries. He was himself frequently their interpreter and expositor. He was eminently successful, but the national party hated him as the friend of the Saxons and the church. He fell by the sword of the assassin inA.D.1066, and thereupon began a terrible persecution of the Christians. His son Henry having been set aside, the powerful Ranian chief Cruco from the island of Rügen, a fanatical enemy of Christianity, was chosen ruler. At the instigation of Henry he was murdered in his own house inA.D.1115. Henry died inA.D.1127. A Danish prince Canute bought the Wendish crown from Lothair duke of Saxony, but was murdered inA.D.1131. This brought the Wendish empire to an end. The Obotrite chief Niklot, who died inA.D.1161, held his ground only in the territory of the Obotrites. His son Pribizlaw, the ancestor of the present ruling family of Mecklenburg, by adopting Christianity inA.D.1164, saved to himself a part of the inheritance of his fathers as a vassal under the Saxon princes. All the rest of the land was divided by Henry the Lion among his German warriors, and the depopulated districts were peopled with German colonists.—InA.D.1157 Albert the Bear, the founder of the Margravate of Brandenburg, overthrew the dominion of theLutitiansafter protracted struggles and endless revolts. He, too, drafted numerous German colonists into the devastated regions.—The Christianizing of theSorbiwas an easier task. After their first defeat by Henry I. inA.D.922 and 927, they were never again able to regain their old freedom. Alongside of the mission of the sword among the Wends there was always carried on, more or less vigorously, the mission of the Cross. Among the Sorbi bishop Benno of Meissen, who died inA.D.1107, wrought with special vigour, and among the Obotrites the greatest zeal was displayed by St. Vicelinus. He died bishop of Oldenburg inA.D.1154.
§ 93.10.Pomeraniasubmitted inA.D.1121 to the duke of Poland, Boleslaw III., and he compelled them solemnly to promise that they would adopt the Christian faith. The work of conversion, however, appeared to be so unpromising that Boleslaw found none among all his clergy willing to undertake the task. At last inA.D.1122, a Spanish monk Bernard offered himself. But the Pomeranians drove him away as a beggar who looked only to his own gain, for they thought, if the Christians’ God be really the Lord of heaven and earth He would have sent them a servant in keeping with His glorious majesty. Boleslaw was then convinced that only a man who had strong faith and a martyr’s spirit, united with an imposing figure, rank, and wealth, was fit for the work, and these qualifications he found in bishop Otto of Bamberg. Otto accepted the call, and during two missionary journeys inA.D.1124-1128 founded the Pomeranian church. Following Bernard’s advice, he went through Pomerania on both occasions with all the pomp of episcopal dignity, with a great retinue and abundant stores of provisions, money, ecclesiastical ornaments, and presents of all kinds. He had unparalleled success, yet he was repeatedly well nigh obtaining the crown of martyrdom which he longed for. The whole Middle Ages furnishes scarcely an equally noble, pure, and successful example of missionary enterprise. None of all the missionaries of that age presents so harmonious a picture of firmness without obstinacy, earnestness without harshness, gentleness without weakness, enthusiasm without fanaticism. And never have the German and Slavic nationalities so nobly, successfully, and faithfully practised mutual forbearance as did the Pomeranians and their apostle.—The last stronghold of Wendish paganism was the island ofRügen. It fell when inA.D.1168 the Danish king Waldemar I. with the Christian Pomeranian and Obotrite chiefs conquered the island and destroyed its heathen sanctuaries.
§ 93.11.Mission Work among the Finns and Lithuanians.—St. Eric of Sweden inA.D.1157 introduced Christianity into Finland by conquest and compulsion. Bishop Henry of Upsala, the apostle of the Finns, who accompanied him, suffered a martyr’s death in the following year. The Finns detested Christianity as heartily as they did the rule of the conquering Swedes, who introduced it, and it was only after the third campaign which Thorkel Canutson undertook inA.D.1293 against Finland, that the Swedish rule and the Christian faith were established, and under a vigorous yet moderate and wise government the Finns were reconciled to both.—Laplandcame under the rule of Sweden inA.D.1279, and thereafter Christianity gradually found entrance. InA.D.1335 bishop Hemming of Upsala consecrated the first church at Tornea.
§ 93.12.Esthonia, Livonia, and Courlandwere inhabited by peoples belonging to the Finnic stem. Yet even in early times people from the south and east belonging to the Lithuanian stem had settled in Livonia and Courland, Letts and Lettgalls in Livonia, and Semgalls and Wends in Courland. The first attempts to introduce Christianity into these regions were made by Swedes and Danes, and even under the Danish king Sweyn III., Eric’s son, aboutA.D.1048 a church was erected in Courland by Christian merchants, and in Esthonia the Danes not long after built the fortress of Lindanissa. The elevation of the bishopric of Lund into a metropolitanate inA.D.1098 was projected with a regard to these lands. InA.D.1171 Pope Alexander III. sent a monk, Fulco, to Lund to convert the heathen and to be bishop of Finland and Esthonia, but he seems never to have entered on his duties or his dignity. Abiding results were first won by German preaching and the German sword. In the middle of the 12th century merchants of Bremen and Lübeck carried on traffic with towns on the banks of the Dwina. A pious priest from the monastery of Segeberg in Holstein, called Meinhart, undertook in their company under the auspices of the archbishop of Bremen, Hartwig II., a missionary journey to those regions inA.D.1184. He built a church at Üxküll on the Dwina, was recognised as bishop of the place inA.D.1186, but died inA.D.1196. His assistant Dietrich carried on the work of the mission in the district from Freiden down to Esthonia. Meinhart’s successor in the bishopric was the Cistercian abbot, Berthold of Loccum in Hanover. Having been driven away soon after his arrival, he returned with an army of German crusaders, and was killed in battle inA.D.1198. His successor was a canon of Bremen, Albert of Buxhöwden. He transferred the bishop’s seat to Riga, which was built by him inA.D.1201, founded inA.D.1202, for the protection of the mission, the Order of the Brethren of the Sword (§98, 13), amid constant battles with Russians, Esthonians, Courlanders and Lithuanians erected new bishoprics in Esthonia (Dorpat), Oesel, and Semgallen, and effected the Christianization of nearly all these lands. He died inA.D.1229. AfterA.D.1219 the Danes, whom Albert had called in to his aid, vied with him in the conquest and conversion of the Esthonians. Waldemar II. founded Revel inA.D.1219, made it an episcopal see, and did all in his power to restrict the advances of the Germans. In this he did not succeed. The Danes, indeed, were obliged to quit Esthonia inA.D.1257. After Albert’s death, however, the difficulties of the situation became so great that Volquin, the Master of the Order of the Sword, could see no hope of success save in the union of his order with that of the Teutonic Knights, shortly before established in Prussia. The union, retarded by Danish intrigues, was not effected untilA.D.1237, when a fearful slaughter of Germans by the Lithuanians had endangered not only the existence of the Order of the Sword but even the church of Livonia. Then, too, for the first time was Courland finally subdued and converted. It had, indeed, nominally adopted Christianity inA.D.1230, but had soon after relapsed into paganism. Finally inA.D.1255 Riga was raised to the rank of a metropolitanate, and Suerbeer, formerly archbishop of Armagh in Ireland, was appointed by Innocent IV. archbishop of Prussia, Livonia, and Esthonia, with his residence at Riga.
§ 93.13. The Old Prussians and Lithuanians also belonged to the Lettish stem. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, first brought the message of salvation to thePrussiansbetween the Vistula and Memel, but on the very first entrance into Sameland [Samland] inA.D.997 he won the martyr’s crown. This, too, was the fate twelve years later of the zealous Saxon monk Bruno and eighteen companions on the Lithuanian coast. Two hundred years passed before another missionary was seen in Prussia. The first was the Abbot Gothfried from the Polish monastery of Lukina; but in his case also an end was soon put to his hopefully begun work, as well as to that of his companion Philip, both suffering martyrdom inA.D.1207. More successful and enduring was the mission work three years later of the Cistercian monk Christian from the Pomeranian monastery of Oliva, inA.D.1209, the real apostle of the Prussians. He was raised to the rank of bishop inA.D.1215, and died inA.D.1245. On the model of the Livonian Order of the Brethren of the Sword he founded inA.D.1225 the Order of the Knights of Dobrin (Milites Christi). In the very first year of their existence, however, they were reduced to the number of five men. In union with Conrad, Duke of Moravia, whose land had suffered fearfully from the inroads of the pagan Prussians, Christian then called in the aid of the Teutonic Knights, whose order had won great renown in Germany. A branch of this order had settled inA.D.1228 in Culm, and so laid the foundation of the establishment of the order in Prussia. With the appearance of this order began a sixty years’ bloody conflict directed to the overthrow of Prussian paganism, which can be said to have been effected only inA.D.1283, when the greater part of the Prussians had been slain after innumerable conflicts with the order and with crusaders from Germany, Poland, Bohemia, etc. Among the crowds of preachers of the gospel, mostly Dominicans, besides Bishop Christian and the noble papal legate William, bishop of Modena, the Polish Dominican Hyacinth, who died inA.D.1257, a vigorous preacher of faith and repentance, deserves special mention. So early asA.D.1243, William of Modena had sketched an ecclesiastical organization for the country, which divided Prussia into four dioceses, which were placed inA.D.1255 under the metropolitanate of Riga.
§ 93.14. The introduction of Christianity intoLithuaniawas longest delayed. After Ringold had founded inA.D.1230 a Grand Duchy of Lithuania, his son Mindowe endeavoured to enlarge his dominions by conquest. The army of the Prussian-Livonian Order, however, so humbled him that he sued for peace and was compelled to receive baptism inA.D.1252. But no sooner had he in some measure regained strength than he threw off the hypocritical mask, and inA.D.1260 appeared as the foe of his Christian neighbours. His son Wolstinik, who had remained true to the Christian faith, dying inA.D.1266, reigned too short a time to secure an influence over his people. With him every trace of Christianity disappeared from Lithuania. Christians were again tolerated in his territories by the Grand Duke Gedimin (A.D.1315-1340). Romish Dominicans and Russian priests vied with one another under his successor Olgerd in endeavours to convert the inhabitants. Olgerd himself was baptized according to the Greek rite, but apostatised. His son Jagello, born of a Christian mother, and married to the young Polish queen Hedwig, whose hand and crown seemed not too dearly purchased by submitting to baptism and undertaking to introduce Christianity among his people, made at last an end to heathenism in Lithuania inA.D.1386. His subjects, each of whom received a woollen coat as a christening gift, flocked in crowds to receive baptism. The bishop’s residence was fixed at Wilna.
§ 93.15.The Mongolian Mission Field.—From the time of Genghis Khan, who died inA.D.1227, the princes of theMongols, in consistency with their principles as deists with little trace of religion, showed themselves equally tolerant and favourable to Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. The Nestorians were very numerous in this empire, but also very much deteriorated. InA.D.1240-1241 the Mongols, pressing westward with irresistible force, threatened to overflow and devastate all Europe. Russia and Poland, Silesia, Moravia, and Hungary had been already dreadfully wasted by them, when suddenly and unexpectedly the savage hordes withdrew. Innocent IV. sent an embassage of Dominicans under Nicolas Ascelinus to the Commander Batschu in Persia, and an embassage of Franciscans under John of Piano-Carpini to the Grand Khan Oktaï, Genghis Khan’s successor, to his capital Karakorum, with a view to their conversion and to dissuade them from repeating their inroads. Both missions were unsuccessful. Certain adventurers pretending to be bearers of a message from Mongolia, told Louis IX. of France fabulous stories of the readiness of the Grand Khan Gajuk and his princes to receive Christianity, and their intention to conquer the Holy Land for the Christians. He accordingly sent out two missions to the Mongols. The first, inA.D.1249 was utterly unsuccessful, for the Mongols regarded the presents given as a regular tribute and as a symbol of voluntary submission. The second mission inA.D.1253, to the Grand Khan Mangu, although under a brave and accomplished leader, William of Ruysbroek, yielded no fruit; for Mangu, instead of allowing free entrance into the land for the preaching of the gospel, at the close of a disputation with Mohammedans and Buddhists sent the missionaries back to Louis with the threatening demand to tender his submission. After Mangu’s death inA.D.1257, the Mongolian empire was divided into Eastern and Western, corresponding to China and Persia. The former was governed by Kublai Khan, the latter by Hulagu Khan.—Kublai Khan, the Emperor ofChina, a genuine type of the religious mongrelism of the Mongolians, showed himself very favourable to Christians, but also patronised the Mohammedans, and inA.D.1260 gave a hierarchical constitution and consolidated form to Buddhism by the establishment of the first Dalai Lama. The travels of two Venetians of the family of Polo led to the founding of a Latin Christian mission in China. They returned from their Mongolian travels inA.D.1269. Gregory X. inA.D.1272 sent two Dominicans to Mongolia along with the two brothers, and the son of one of them, Marco Polo, then seventeen years old. The latter won the unreserved confidence of the Grand Khan, and was entrusted by him with an honourable post in the government.On his return inA.D.1295 he published an account of his travels, which made an enormous sensation, and afforded for the first time to Western Europe a proper conception of the condition of Eastern Asia.266A regular Christian missionary enterprise, however, was first undertaken by the Franciscan Joh. de Monte-Corvino,A.D.1291-1328, one of the noblest, most intelligent, and most faithful of the missionaries of the Middle Ages. After he had succeeded in overcoming the intrigues of the numerous Nestorians, he won the high esteem of the Grand Khan. In the royal city of Cembalu or Pekin he built two churches, baptized about 6,000 Mongols, and translated the Psalter and the New Testament into Mongolian. He wrought absolutely alone tillA.D.1303. Afterwards, however, other brethren of his order came repeatedly to his aid. Clement V. appointed him archbishop of Cembalu inA.D.1307. Every year saw new churches established. But internal disturbances, under Kublai’s successor, weakened the power of the Mongolian dynasty, so that inA.D.1370 it was overthrown by the national Ming dynasty. By the new rulers the Christian missionaries were driven out along with the Mongols, and thus all that they had done was utterly destroyed.—The ruler ofPersia, Hulagu Khan, son of a Christian mother and married to a Christian wife, put an end inA.D.1258 to the khalifate of Bagdad, but was so pressed by the sultan of Egypt, that he entered on a long series of negotiations with the popes and the kings of France and England, who gave him the most encouraging promises of joining their forces with his against the Saracens. His successors, of whom several even formally embraced Christianity, continued these negotiations, but obtained nothing more than empty promises and protestations of friendship. The time of the crusades was over, and the popes, even the most powerful of them, were not able to reawaken the crusading spirit. The Persian khans, vacillating between Christianity and Islam, became more and more powerless, until at last, inA.D.1387, Tamerlane (Timur) undertook to found on the ruins of the old government a new universal Mongolian empire under the standard of the Crescent. But with his death inA.D.1405 the dominion of the Mongols in Persia was overthrown, and fell into the hands of the Turkomans. Henceforth amid all changes of dynasties Islam continued the dominant religion.
§ 93.16.The Mission Field of Islam.—The crusader princes and soldiers wished only to wrest the Holy Land from the infidels, but, with the exception perhaps of Louis IX., had no idea of bringing to them the blessings of the gospel. And most of the crusaders, by their licentiousness, covetousness, cruelty, faithlessness, and dissensions among themselves, did much to cause the Saracens to scorn the Christian faith as represented by their lives and example. It was not until the 13th century that the two newly founded mendicant orders of Franciscans and Dominicans began an energetic but fruitless mission among the Moslems of Africa, Sicily, and Spain. St. Francis himself started this work inA.D.1219, when during the siege of Damietta by the crusaders he entered the camp of the Sultan Camel and bade him kindle a fire and cause that he himself with one of the Moslem priests should be cast into it. When the imam present shrank away at these words, Francis offered to go alone into the fire if the sultan would promise to accept Christianity along with his people should he pass out of the fire uninjured. The sultan refused to promise and sent the saint away unhurt with presents, which, however, he returned. Afterwards several Franciscan missions were sent to the Moslems, but resulted only in giving a crowd of martyrs to the order. The Dominicans, too, at a very early period took part in the mission to the Mohammedans, but were also unsuccessful. The Dominican general Raimund de Pennaforti [Pennaforte], who died inA.D.1273, devoted himself with special zeal to this task. For the training of the brethren of his order in the oriental languages he founded institutions at Tunis and Murcia. The most important of all these missionary enterprises was that of the talented Raimund Lullus of Majorca, who after his own conversion from a worldly life and after careful study of the language, made three voyages to North Africa and sought in disputations with the Saracen scholars to convince them of the truth of Christianity. But hisArs Magna(§103, 7), which with great ingenuity and enormous labour he had wrought out mainly for this purpose, had no effect. Imprisonment and ill-treatment were on all occasions his only reward. He died inA.D.1315 in consequence of the ill-usage which he had been subjected.