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.