READING HALLTHE DOORS OF WISDOM |
BOOK V.FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE TO THE DEPOSITION OF POPE GREGORY VI,A.D. 814-1046.
CHAPTER IV.
SPAIN—ENGLAND—MISSIONS OF THE NINTH CENTURY.
The Christians of Spain after the Mahometan conquest,
who were known by the name of Mustaraba, or Mozarabes, enjoyed the free exercise of their religion,
although on condition of paying a heavy monthly poll-tax. They generally lived
on friendly terms with their Mussulman masters; many of them held office under
the caliphs, and monks and clergy who understood both the Arabic and the Latin
languages were employed in diplomatic correspondence.
But, notwithstanding these relations, the difference
of religion was a continual source of trouble. The Mahometan mobs often abused
Christians in the streets; they shouted out blasphemies against the Christian
name, while all retaliation was forbidden by law under very severe penalties.
If a marriage took place between persons professing the two religions, the
general law against apostasy from Islam made it death for the Mahometan party
to embrace Christianity; and the questions which in such marriages naturally
arose as to the religion of the issue produced very serious difficulties.
Moreover, the hostility of the Mussulmans towards the Christians who dwelt
among them was excited by the persevering efforts of those who in other parts
of the peninsula carried on a war of independence; while these efforts served
also to raise among the Christians under the Mahometan rule a desire to do
something for the more public assertion of their faith.
The Christians were divided into two parties. The one
of these was bent on preserving peace with their rulers, as far as possible,
and enjoying the toleration which was allowed them. The other party regarded
this acquiescence as unworthy; they thought that their brethren had been
corrupted by intercourse with the Moslems into a blamable laxity of opinions. They declared that the offices of Mahometan courts could
not be held without compliances unbecoming a Christian; that those who occupied
such offices were obliged to refrain from openly signing themselves with the
cross, and from other outward manifestations of their faith; that they were
obliged to speak of the Saviour in such terms as might not be offensive to the
unbelievers. They complained that the Christian youth preferred the cultivation
of “Chaldean” to that of ecclesiastical literature; that they were more
familiar with Arabic than with Latin.
About the middle of the ninth century a persecution of
the Christians broke out at Cordova under the reign of Abderrahman II. The
first sufferer was a monk named Perfectus, who,
having fallen in with some Mahometans in the neighbourhood
of the city, was questioned by them as to the opinion which Christians
entertained of the prophet. He attempted to evade the question, on the ground
that he was unwilling to offend them; but, as they continued to urge him, and
assured him that no offence would be taken, he said that Mahomet was regarded
by Christians as one of the false prophets foretold in Scripture; and he
remarked on some parts of his history as being scandalous, and as proving the
falsehood of his pretensions. The Arabs, in consideration of the promise which
they had given, restrained their anger for the time; but when Perfectus next appeared in public, he was seized, was
dragged before a judge, on a charge of blasphemy against the prophet, and was
executed. The next victim was a merchant, who had given no provocation; but the
third, a young monk named Isaac, courted his fate. He went before the judge of
the city, professing an inclination to embrace the religion of the Koran, and
begging for some instruction in its doctrines; and when these were explained to
him he denounced their falsehood with great vehemence. The execution of Isaac
was followed by an outburst of fanatical zeal. Clergymen, monks, nuns, and
laity rushed to the Mahometan tribunals, reviling the prophet as an impostor, an
adulterer, a sorcerer, and declaring that his followers were in the way to
perdition. And, besides those who voluntarily thrust themselves on death, many
children of mixed marriages were delated by their Mahometan relations as
apostates, although they had probably been brought up from the first in the
religion of the Christian parent.
By this wild zeal of the weaker party the Moslems were
naturally exasperated. Public outrages against Christians increased; any one
who showed himself in the street was insulted, pelted with filth, or stoned:
the Mahometans shrank from touching the very garments
of Christians, as if it were pollution. The sound of church-bells excited them
to a tempest of cursing and blasphemies; and at funerals of Christians the
populace followed the corpse with outcries, begging that God would have no
mercy on the deceased.
Abderrahman now enacted new laws, of increased
severity. The bodies of those who were executed were to be burnt, lest their
brethren should convert them into relics. Yet the caliph, wishing, if possible,
to quell the excitement by peaceable means, requested the cooperation of the
primate Recanfrid, archbishop of Toledo, who issued
an order that no Christian should present himself before a Mahometan judge
unless he were cited to do so. This order was received with indignation and
defiance by the more zealous party, headed by Saul, bishop of Cordova; and Recanfrid, in pursuance of his policy, proceeded to
imprison some refractory ecclesiastics—among them a monk and priest of Toledo
named Eulogius, who had been very conspicuous in his
opposition. From prison Eulogius wrote letters,
intended to animate the resolution of his friends; with the fervour of a
Tertullian he exhorts all who have any worldly ties to cast them aside and
boldly to confess the faith, in the assurance of rejoining their martyred
brethren in bliss. A council was held under the archbishops of Toledo and
Seville, and determined that no one ought voluntarily to provoke death by his
religion. By those who agreed with the spirit of this council the evils which
had happened were charged on Eulogius and his
associates. They ascribed the conduct of the sufferers to pride, and questioned
their right to the name of martyrs—citing against them texts of Scripture, with
the canons and practice of the early church. Some went so far as to declare
that there was no opportunity of martyrdom at the hands of the Arabs, since
these were not idolaters, but worshipped the one true God and acknowledged his
laws.
Eulogius and
Peter Alvar were the leading spirits of their party. They both (and more
especially Alvar, who was an ecclesiastic of Cordova) write in an exalted
strain of enthusiasm. Eulogius sets aside the
distinction which had been drawn between heathens and Mahometans by saying that the Mahometans deny the Son of God and
persecute the faithful. Alvar argues from the prophecies that Mahomet is the
forerunner of Antichrist. The sufferings of the Christians, he says, had not
been drawn down on them by the violence of zealots—for the first victims had
done nothing to provoke their fate—but by the sins of the whole community. He
will allow no compliance with circumstances, no forbearance to force the
Christian profession on the notice of the infidels. He maintains that our
Lord’s charge to His disciples, “when persecuted in one city to flee into
another”, is inapplicable in the present case, since the object of that charge
was that the disciples should spread the Gospel more widely—not that they
should hide it. He would have Christians to press the truth on the Moslems for
the purpose of making them “debtors to the faith”—not (as it would seem) out of
love for them, but in order to render their unbelief inexcusable.
Abderrahman was succeeded in 852 by his son Mohammed,
who carried the proceedings against the Christians further. On the first day of
his reign the new king dismissed all who held any offices about the court or in
the public service. He ordered that all churches which had been lately built
should be destroyed, and prohibited all display in the ritual or in the
furniture of the older churches which were allowed to stand. The persecution
continued for many years. Eulogius himself, who had
been elected to the see of Toledo, was arrested in 859 in consequence of having
aided a young female convert, named Leocritia, to
escape from her parents, who were bigoted Mahometans;
and, after having firmly resisted the importunities of some Arabs who, out of
respect for his sanctity and learning, endeavoured to persuade him to save his
life by slight concessions, he was put to death. Four days later, Leocritia also suffered.
During this long persecution many of the more lukewarm
Christians openly apostatized to the religion of Islam. The heats on both sides
at length died away, and the old relations of the parties were restored. A
German abbot, who went on an embassy to Cordova in 954, represents the
Christians as living peaceably with their masters, and as thankful for the
toleration which they enjoyed; nay, if the information which he received may be
trusted, it would appear that they had carried their compliance so far as to
submit to the rite of circumcision.
ENGLAND—THE DANES.
England, like France, was harassed and desolated by
the ravages of the Northmen. Their first appearance on the coasts was in the
year 767; the first descent which was severely felt was in 832; and from that
time their invasions were incessant. Devon and Wales felt their fury as well as
the eastern coasts; when the attention of the English was concentrated on one
point, a fresh band of enemies appeared in an opposite quarter; and they
penetrated into the very heart of the country. And here, as in France, the
wealth and the defenselessness of the monasteries
pointed these out as the chief objects of attack. The chronicles of the time
abound in frightful details of their wasting with fire and sword the
sanctuaries of Croyland, Medeshamstede (Peterborough), Bardney, and Ely; of Repton and Coldingham;
of Lindisfarne, from which a little band of monks carried off the relics of St.
Cuthbert over the mountains of Northumbria, in continual fear of the ravagers by whom they were surrounded on every side. At
length, in 878, after the victory gained by Alfred over Guthrun at Ethandune, a large territory in the east of
England, north of the Thames, was ceded to the Danes, on condition of their
professing Christianity, and living under equal laws with the native
inhabitants; but the peace thus obtained was only for a time.
Of the lustre of Alfred’s reign it is needless to
speak to readers who may be presumed to know in any degree the history of their
country. Alfred succeeded his father in 871, at the age of twenty-two, and held
the throne for thirty years. His character may have been idealized in some
respects, that it might fullfil the conception of a
perfect sovereign; and institutions have been ascribed to him which are in
truth derived from other sources. Yet historical reality exhibits to us this
“darling of the English”—“Alfred the Truthteller”—as the deliverer, the
lawgiver, and the wise ruler of his country, as a hero, and as a saint. It sets
before us his efforts to revive the public spirit which had become all but
extinct during the long calamities of the Danish invasions; his zealous and
successful labours to repair in mature years the defects of his early
education; his exertions for the restoration of learning among the clergy,
which had fallen into melancholy decay, and for the general instruction of the
people; his encouragement of learned men, whether natives,—as his biographer
Asser, Plegmund, Werfrith,
and Neot,—or foreigners whom he invited to impart to the English a culture
which was not to be found at home—as Grimbald of Reims, and John of Old Saxony;
his care to enrich the vernacular literature by executing or encouraging
versions or paraphrases of religious and instructive works—portions of
Scripture, writings of Boethius, Gregory the Great, Orosius,
and Bede. It shows us that these labours were carried on under the continual
tortures of disease, and amidst the necessities of providing for the national defense; it dwells on his habits of devotion, and on the
comprehensive interest in the affairs of Christendom which induced him even to
send a mission to the shrine of St. Thomas in India. Small as his kingdom was,
he raised it to a high place among the nations; and among great sovereigns no
character shines brighter or purer than his. Alfred died in 900 or 901.
MORAVIA
The conversion of Bulgaria, which has been related in
the history of the dissensions between the Greek and Latin churches, led to
that of the Slavonic inhabitants of Greece and of the Mainotes.
The Croats were evangelized by missionaries from Rome; while the victories of
Basil, about the year 870, were followed by the labours of Greek missionaries
in Servia.
Christianity had been introduced into Moravia by the
arms of Charlemagne, who, in 801, according to his usual system, compelled the
king to receive baptism. Since that time, attempts had been made to extend the
knowledge of the Gospel among the Moravians under the auspices of the
archbishops of Salzburg and the bishops of Passau, who employed a regionary bishop
for the purposed. But these attempts had little effect; the princes of the
country had relapsed into heathenism, the Christians were few, and their
religion was very rude. A new and more effectual movement arose out of an
embassy which Radislav, king of Moravia, sent into Bulgaria, for the purpose of
obtaining aid against Louis of Germany. His nephew Swatopluk or Zwentibold, who was employed on this mission, became a
convert to the new faith of the Bulgarians; and on his return he was joined by
the queen, who was herself a Christian, in urging it on her husband’s
attention. An application for Christian teachers was made to the emperor
Michael; and two missionaries, Constantine and his brother Methodius—perhaps
the same Methodius whose skill as an artist had produced so great an effect at
the Bulgarian court—were sent from Constantinople into Moravia.
Constantine—better known under the name of Cyril,
which he is said to have assumed towards the end of his life, in obedience to a
vision—was a priest and monk, and is designated as a philosopher. He was a
native of Thessalonica, and, from the mixture of the Greek and Slave
populations in his own country, had probably been acquainted from his early
years with a dialect of the Slavonic. He had preached among the Khazars of the
Ukraine and the Crimea, who in 843 had applied for instructors from
Constantinople, on the ground that they were distracted between the rival
pretensions of Judaism, Mahometanism, and
Christianity—a mixture of religions which was found in the same regions by a
Mussulman traveller seventy years later. The success of his labours among the Khazars
is described as complete, and the impression of them was strengthened by his
refusal of all recompense except the release of such Christians as were
captives in the country; but some of his biographers appear to regard as more
important his discovery of a body supposed to be that of St. Clement of Rome,
who was said to have been banished by Trajan to the Chersonese, and to have
been there martyred. The fame of the mission to the Khazars had reached the
Moravian king, who especially requested that Cyril might be sent to him; and in
863 the brothers proceeded into Moravia, taking with them the relics of St.
Clement. Their preaching was marked by a striking difference from the ordinary
practice of the time—that, whereas the Greek and Latin missionaries usually
introduced their own tongues as the ecclesiastical language among barbarian
nations, Cyril and Methodius mastered the language of the country, and not only
used it in their addresses to the people, but translated the liturgy and
portions of the Scriptures into it—Cyril, after the example of Ulfilas, having
either invented a Slavonic alphabet, or improved that which before existed. By
this innovation the success of the mission was greatly forwarded. Radislav
received baptism, his subjects were rapidly converted, churches were built for
Christian worship, and the reverence in which the missionaries were held
appears from the fact that in Moravia the clergy were styled by a name which signifies princes.
After a time a report of these proceedings reached
pope Nicolas, who thereupon summoned Cyril and Methodius to appear before him.
The Moravians were now more closely connected with the west than with the east;
in the difference between the churches of Rome and Constantinople,
Cyril, who had formerly been an opponent of Photius, was not inclined to
side with the patriarch, whose deprivation probably took place about the time
when the papal letter was written; and a refusal of compliance would have thrown
the pope on the side of the Germans, from whom Radislav was in imminent danger.
The brethren, therefore, resolved to continue their work under such conditions
as were possible, rather than to abandon it, and obeyed the summons to Rome,
where they arrived shortly after the death of Nicolas. The body of St. Clement,
which is said to have wrought many miracles, produced a great sensation among
the Romans, and the orthodoxy of the missionaries was proved to the
satisfaction of Adrian II, who gratified Radislav’s desire for the independence
of the Moravian church by consecrating Methodius as archbishop of the
Moravians. Cyril is said to have been also consecrated to the episcopate, but
died at Rome, where he was buried in the church of St. Clement.
Radislav, after a struggle of many years against Louis
of Germany, was at length betrayed by his nephew Swatopluk into the hands of
his enemy, by whom he was dethroned and blinded in 870. Swatopluk succeeded to
the crown, and greatly extended the bounds of the Moravian kingdom, which now
included a large portion of modern Austria and Hungary. Over all this territory
Methodius exercised authority, after some differences with Swatopluk, whom it
is said that he once found it necessary to excommunicate; and, as his sphere
extended, many Christians who had received the Gospel from the Latin church
placed themselves under him. This excited the jealousy of the Germans, who
appear to have obtained in 873 a mandate from John VIII, forbidding him to
employ a barbarous tongue in the service of the church. Methodius, however,
persisted, and, in consequence of a renewed complaint, to which it was now
added that he taught some erroneous doctrines, he was cited to Rome in 879. The
pope in his letter forbade the use of the Slavonic in the liturgy, although he
allowed that until further order it might be used in preaching, forasmuch as
the Psalmist charges all people to praise the Lord, and that St. Paul says,
“Let every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”.
Methodius repaired to Rome, where he succeeded in
justifying his orthodoxy before a synod—perhaps not without some concession as
to the points of difference between his native church and that of the west. And
his arguments in favour of the Slavonic tongue were so successful that, on
returning to Moravia, he bore a letter from John to Swatopluk, in which the
pope approves of the alphabet invented by Cyril, and sanctions the use of the
Slavonic liturgy, on the ground that the Scriptural command, “Praise the Lord,
all ye nations”, shows that the praises of God are not to be confined to three
languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Latin), but that He who formed these languages
formed all others also, for His own glory. It is, however, ordered that, as a
mark of greater honour, the Gospel shall be read in Latin before being read in
the vernacular, and also that the king or any nobleman may, if he think fit,
have the service of his private chapel in Latin.
In the same letter it was stated that Methodius was
confirmed in his archbishopric, with exclusive jurisdiction over the Moravian
church. The pope adds that he has consecrated as bishop an ecclesiastic named Wiching, who had been recommended to him by Swatopluk, and
begs the king to send another presbyter who may be raised to the same degree,
in order that the primate, having two bishops under him, may be able to perform
his functions without external help. By this arrangement it was intended that
the Moravian church should be rendered entirely independent of Germany.
From Moravia the Gospel was introduced among the neighbouring
and kindred people of Bohemia. Fourteen Bohemian chiefs had appeared before
Louis of Germany at Ratisbon in 845, and had been baptized by their own desire.
But of this conversion, which was most likely a mere political artifice, no
effects are recorded; and Bohemia was heathen many years later, when the duke, Borziwoi, visited the Moravian court. Swatopluk received
him with honour, but at dinner assigned him and his followers a place on the
floor, as being heathens. Methodius, who sat at the king’s table, addressed Borziwoi, expressing regret that so powerful a prince
should be obliged to feed like a swineherd. The duke asked what he might expect
to gain by becoming a Christian; and, on being told that the change would exalt
him above all kings and princes, he was baptized with his thirty companions.
His wife, Ludmilla, embraced the Gospel on worthier motives, and earned the
title of martyr and saint.
Methodius continued to be much annoyed by the Germans,
who saw in the sanction of the Slavonic tongue an insuperable barrier against
their influence in Moravia. It would seem also that Swatopluk became unfavourable
to him, and that Wiching, who was a German by birth,
and a man of intriguing character, instead of cooperating with the archbishop,
and rendering him the obedience which had been enjoined in the pope’s letter to
the king, set up claims to independence of all but the papal authority. The
last certain notice of Methodius is a letter of the year 881, in which John
VIII encourages him, and assures him that he had given no such privileges as
were pretended to Wiching (whose name, however, is
not mentioned). The death of Methodius has been said to have taken place at
Rome, and has been variously dated, from 881 to 910; but it seems more probable
that he died in Moravia about the year 885.
Wiching, after
the death of Methodius, persecuted the clergy who maintained the Slavonic
liturgy, and, with the aid of Swatopluk’s soldiery, compelled them in 886 to
seek a refuge in Bulgaria, where it is presumed that they must have adhered to
the Greek communion. On the death of Swatopluk, in 894, the kingdom was
distracted by a war between his sons, while Arnulf of Germany pressed on it
from without. Wiching had in 892 gone over to Arnulf,
who appointed him his chancellor, and bestowed on him the bishopric of Passau;
but from this dignity he was deposed on his patron’s death. In 900, the German
jealousy was provoked afresh by the measures which pope John IX took for
providing Moravia with a localized hierarchy instead of its former missionary
establishment. Hatto, archbishop of Mentz, and Theotmar of Salzburg, with their suffragans, loudly remonstrated against the change; but
the strife was ended by the fall of the Moravian kingdom in 908.
The conquests of Charlemagne had brought the Franks
into close neighbourhood with the northern nations, which were now so
formidable to the more civilized inhabitants of other countries. Charlemagne,
it is said, refrained from placing his territory beyond the Elbe under any of
the bishoprics which he erected, because he intended to establish in those
parts an archiepiscopal see which should serve as a centre for the
evangelization of the north. He built a church at Hamburg, and committed it to
a priest who was exempt from episcopal jurisdiction; but the prosecution of the
scheme was broken off by the emperor’s death. The attention of his son,
however, was soon drawn by other circumstances towards Nordalbingia.
Policy, as well as religion, recommended the conversion of the Northmen; for,
so long as the Saxons were only separated by the Elbe from those who adhered to
the religion of their forefathers, there was a continual temptation for them to
renounce the Christianity which had been forced on them, and with it the
subjection of which it was the token.
Disputes as to the throne of Denmark between Harold
and Godfrid led both parties to seek the countenance of Louis the Pious. The
emperor was struck with the importance of using this circumstance as an opening
for the introduction of Christianity among the Danes; and Ebbo, archbishop of
Reims, was willing to withdraw for a time from the enjoyment of his dignity,
that he might extend the faith among these barbarians. With the consent of
Louis, the archbishop went to Rome, where he obtained a commission from Paschal,
authorizing himself and Halitgar, afterwards bishop
of Cambray, to preach the Gospel to the northern nations, and directing them to
refer all difficult questions to the apostolic see. The mission was resolved on
by the diet of Attigny (the same diet which witnessed the penance 392 of Louis)
in 822; and in that year Ebbo and his companions set out in company with some
ambassadors of Harold, Welanao (now Münschdorf, near Itzehoe) being
assigned by the emperor for their head-quarters. Little is known of their
proceedings, but it appears that they preached with much success, and that Ebbo
represented the spiritual and the temporal benefits of Christianity to Harold
so effectually as to induce him to appear in 826 at Ingelheim, with his queen
and a large train of attendants, and to express a desire for baptism, which
they received in the church of St. Alban at Mainz (Mayence).
Louis was sponsor for Harold, Judith for the queen, Lothair for their son, and
the members of their train found sponsors of suitable rank among the Franks.
The emperor now resolved to send a fresh mission to the Danes; but the
barbarism of the Northmen, their strong hostility to Christianity, and the
savage character of their paganism, with its sacrifices of human victims,
deterred all from venturing on the hazards of such an expedition, until Wala of
Corbie named Anskar, one of his monks, as a person suited for the work.
Anskar, “the apostle of the north”, was born about the
year 801, and at an early age entered the monastery of Corbie, where he studied
under Adelhard and Paschasius Radbert. He became himself a teacher in the
monastery, and, after having for a time held a like office in the German
Corbey, resumed his position in the parent society. From childhood he had been
remarkable for a devout and enthusiastic character. He saw visions, and it is
said by his biographer that all the important events of his life were foreshown
to him either in this manner or by an inward illumination, so that he was even
accustomed to wait for such direction as to the course which he should take.
The death of his mother, when he was five years old, affected him deeply, and
he was weaned from the love of childish sports by a vision in which she
appeared in company with some bright female forms. He felt himself entangled in
mire, and unable to reach them, when the chief of the band, whom he knew to be
the blessed Virgin, asked him whether he wished to rejoin his mother, and told
him that, if so, he must forsake such vanities as are offensive to the
saints. His worldly affections were afterwards further subdued by the tidings
of Charlemagne’s death, which deeply impressed on him the instability of all
earthly greatness. In another vision, he fancied that his spirit was led out of
the body by two venerable persons, whom he recognized as St. Peter and St.
John. They first plunged him into purgatory, where he remained for three days
in misery which seemed to last a thousand years. He was then conducted into a
region where the Divine glory, displayed in the east, streamed forth on
multitudes of adoring saints in transcendent brightness, which was yet not
dazzling but delightful to the eye; and from the source of inaccessible
majesty, in which he could discern no shape, he heard a voice of blended power
and sweetness—“Go, and thou shalt return to Me with the crown of martyrdom”. At
a later time, the Saviour appeared to him, exhorted him to a full confession of
his sins, and assured him that they were forgiven. The assurance was afterwards
repeated to him, and in answer to his inquiry, “Lord, what wouldest thou have me to do?” he was told, “Go, and preach to the Gentiles the word of
God”.
When the northern mission was proposed to Anskar, he
at once declared his readiness to undertake it. He adhered to his resolution,
although many endeavoured to dissuade him, while Wala disclaimed the intention
of enforcing the task on him by his monastic obligation to obedience; and his behaviour
while preparing himself for the work by retirement and devotion had such an
effect on Autbert, a monk of noble birth and steward of the monastery, that he
offered himself as a companion.
The missionaries could not prevail on any servant to
attend them. On joining Harold they were treated with neglect by him and his
companions, who, as Anskar’s biographer says, did not yet know how the
ministers of God ought to be honoured. But when they had sailed down the Rhine
as far as Cologne, the bishop of that city, Hadebold,
out of compassion, bestowed on them a vessel with two cabins, and as Harold
found it convenient to take possession of one of these, he was brought into
closer intercourse with the missionaries, who soon succeeded in inspiring him
with a new interest in their undertaking. They fixed the centre of their
operations at Hadeby, on the opposite bank of the
Schley to Sleswick, and laboured among both the
Christians and the heathens of the Danish border. Anskar established a school
for boys—the pupils being partly given to him, and partly bought for the
purpose of training them up in the Christian faith. But Harold had offended
many of his adherents by doing homage to Louis and by his change of religion;
they were further alienated when, in his zeal for the advancement of his new
faith, he destroyed temples and even resorted to persecution; and the opposite
party took advantage of the feeling. Harold was expelled, and retired to a
county in Frisia which the emperor had bestowed on him; and Anskar was obliged
to leave Hadeby. Autbert had already been compelled
by severe illness to relinquish the mission, and died at Corbie in 829.
A new opening soon presented itself to Anskar. It
would appear that some knowledge of the Gospel had already reached
Sweden—partly, it is said, by means of intercourse which the inhabitants of
that remote country had carried on with the Byzantine empire. In 829 the court
of Louis was visited by ambassadors from Sweden, who, in addition to their
secular business, stated that their countrymen were favourably disposed towards
Christianity, and requested the emperor to supply them with teachers. Louis
bethought himself of Anskar, who agreed to undertake the work—regarding it as a
fullfillment of his visions. His place with Harold was supplied by another; and
Wala assigned him a monk named Witmar as a companion.
The vessel in which the missionaries embarked was attacked by pirates, who
plundered them of almost everything, including the presents designed by Louis
for the Swedish king. But they were determined to persevere, and, after many
hardships, made their way to the northern capital, Birka or Sigtuna,
on the lake Mälar. The king, Biorn, received them
graciously, and, with the consent of the national assembly, gave them
permission to preach freely. Their ministrations were welcomed with delight by
a number of Christian captives, who had long been deprived of the offices of
religion; and among their converts was Herigar,
governor of the district, who built a church on his estate. After having laboured
for a year and a half, Anskar and his companion returned with a letter from
Biorn to Louis, who was greatly pleased with their success, and resolved to
place the northern mission on a new footing, agreeably to his father’s
intentions. An archiepiscopal see was to be established at Hamburg, and Anskar
was consecrated for it at Ingelheim by Drogo of Metz, with the assistance of
Ebbo and many other bishops. He then repaired to Rome, where Gregory IV
bestowed on him the pall, with a bull authorizing him to labour for the
conversion of the northern nations, in conjunction with Ebbo, whose commission
from Paschal was still in force. Louis conferred on him the monastery of Turholt (Thouroult, between
Bruges and Ypres), to serve at once as a source of maintenance and as a
resting-place more secure than the northern archbishopric.
Ebbo, although diverted from missionary work by his
other (and in part far less creditable) occupations, had continued to take an
interest in the conversion of the north, and appears at this time to have made
a second expedition to the scene of his old labours. But as neither he nor
Anskar could give undivided attention to the Swedish mission, it was now agreed
that this should be committed to a relation of Ebbo named Gauzbert,
who was consecrated to the episcopate and assumed the name of Simon. To him
Ebbo transferred the settlement at Welanao, with the
intention that it should serve the same purposes for which Turholt had been given to Anskar.
Anskar entered with his usual zeal on the new sphere
which had been assigned to him. He built at Hamburg a church, a monastery, and
a college. According to the system which he had followed at Hadeby,
he bought a number of boys with a view to educating them as Christians; some of
them were sent to Turholt, while others remained with
him. But after a time Hamburg was attacked by a great force of Northmen, under
Eric, king of Jutland. The archbishop exerted himself in encouraging the
inhabitants to hold out until relief should arrive; but the assailants were too
strong to be long resisted; the city was sacked and burnt, and Anskar was
obliged to flee. He had lost his church, his monastery, and his library, among
the treasures of which was a magnificent bible, the gift of the emperor; some
relics bestowed on the church by Ebbo were all that he was able to rescue. Yet,
reduced as he was to necessity, he repeated Job’s words of resignation—“The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”. Leutbert bishop of Bremen, who had before looked on the new
archbishopric with jealousy, refused to entertain him, and he was indebted for
a refuge to the charity of a widow named Ikia, of Bamsloh,
where he gradually collected some of his scattered followers. About the same
time Gauzbert was expelled from Sweden by a popular
rising, in which his nephew Notbert was killed.
To add to Anskar’s distress, his monastery of Turholt, being within that portion the empire which fell to
Charles the Bald on the death of Louis, was bestowed by the new sovereign on a
layman. His monks, finding no means of subsistence, were obliged to leave him:
but he found a patron in Louis of Germany, who founded a monastic establishment
for him at Ramsloh, and resolved to bestow on him the
bishopric of Bremen, which fell vacant by the death of Leutbert.
Anskar was himself unwilling to take any active part in the matter, lest he
should be exposed to charges of rapacity, and some canonical objections arose;
but these were overcome with the consent of the bishops who were interested.
The union of the dioceses was sanctioned by the council of Mayence (the same at which Gottschalk was condemned) in 848; and, sixteen years after
it had virtually taken effect, it was confirmed by Nicolas I, who renewed the
gift of the pall to Anskar, and appointed him legate for the evangelization of
the Swedes, the Danes, the Slavons, and other nations
of the north.
In the meantime Anskar had been actively employed.
Repeated political missions from Louis of Germany had made him known to the
Danish king Horic or Eric, who had long been one of
the most formidable chiefs of the northern devastators, and had led the force
which burnt and plundered Hamburg. Anskar gained a powerful influence over the
king, who, although it does not appear that he was himself baptized, granted
the missionaries leave to preach throughout his dominions, and to build a
church at Sleswick. The work of conversion went on
rapidly. Danish traders who had received baptism at Hamburg or Dorstadt now openly professed Christianity, and Christian
merchants from other countries ventured more freely into Denmark, so that Eric
found the wealth of his kingdom increased by the consequences of the toleration
which he had granted. Many of the converts, however, put off their baptism
until they felt the approach of death; while it is said that some heathens,
after their life had been despaired of, and after they had invoked their own
gods in vain, on entreating the aid of Christ were restored to perfect health.
After the withdrawal of Gauzbert,
Sweden remained for seven years without any Christian teacher, until Anskar
sent into the country a priest and hermit named Ardgar,
who preached with great effect—his efforts, it is said, being powerfully
seconded by judgments which befell all who had been concerned in the expulsion
of Gauzbert. Herigar had
throughout remained faithful, notwithstanding all that he had to endure from
his unbelieving countrymen; and on his deathbed he was comforted by the
ministrations of Ardgar. But Ardgar longed to return to his hermitage, and after a time relinquished his mission. Gauzbert, now bishop of Osnaburg, whom Anskar requested to
resume his labours in Sweden, declined, on the ground that another preacher
would be more likely to make a favourable impression on the people than one
whom they had already ejected from their country. Anskar himself, therefore,
resolved to undertake the work—being encouraged by a vision in which his old
superior Adelhard appeared to him. He was accompanied by envoys from Eric to
king Olof, of Sweden, and bore a letter of warm recommendation from the Danish
king. But on landing in Sweden he found the state of things very unpromising. A
short time before this a Swede had arisen in the national assembly, declaring
that he was charged with a communication from the gods, who had bidden him tell
his countrymen that, if they wished to enjoy a continuance of prosperity, they
must revive with increased zeal the ancient worship, and must exclude all other
religions. “If”, the celestial message graciously concluded, “you are not
content with us, and wish to have more gods, we all agree to admit your late
king Eric into our number”. A great effect had followed on this: a temple had
been built to Eric, and was crowded with worshippers; and such was the
excitement of the people that Anskar’s friends advised him to desist from his
enterprise, as it could not but be fruitless and might probably cost him his
life. He was, however, resolved to persevere. He invited the king to dine with
him, and, having propitiated him by gifts, requested permission to preach. Olof
replied that, as some former preachers of Christianity had been forcibly driven
out of the country, he could not give the required licence without consulting
the gods, and obtaining the sanction of the popular assembly; “for”, says
Anskar's biographer, “in that nation public affairs are determined less by the
king’s power than by the general consent of the people”. A lot was cast in an
open field, and was favourable to the admission of the Christian teachers. The
assembly was swayed by the speech of an aged member, who said that the power of
the Christians’ God had often been experienced, especially in dangers at sea;
that many of his countrymen had formerly been baptized at Dorstadt;
why then, he asked, should they refuse, now that it was brought to their own
doors, that which they had before sought from a distance? The assembly of
another district also decided for the admission of Christianity; and the
feeling in favour of the new religion was strengthened by miracles performed on
an expedition which Olof undertook to Courland. Converts flocked in, churches
were built, and Anskar found himself at liberty to return to Denmark, leaving
Gumbert, a nephew of Gauzbert, at the head of the
Swedish mission.
During the archbishop’s absence, Eric had fallen in a
bloody battle with a pagan faction, which had used his encouragement of
Christianity as a pretext for attacking him. The most powerful of Anskar’s
other friends had shared the fate of their king; the greater part of Denmark
was now in the hands of the enemy; and Eric II, who had succeeded to a part of
his father’s territory, was under the influence of Hovi, earl of Jutland, who
persuaded him that all the late misfortunes were due to the abandonment of the
old national religion. The church at Sleswick was
shut up, its priest was expelled, and the Christians were cruelly persecuted.
Anskar could only betake himself to prayer for a change from this unhappy state
of things, when he unexpectedly received a letter from the young king,
professing as warm an interest in the Gospel as that which his father had felt,
and inviting the missionaries to resume their labours. Hovi had fallen into
disgrace, and was banished. The progress of Christianity was now more rapid
than ever. The church at Sleswick was for the first
time allowed to have a bell; another church was founded at Ripe, the second
city of Denmark, on the coast opposite to Britain, and Rimbert, a native of the
neighbourhood of Turholt, who had grown up under
Anskar’s tuition, was appointed its pastor.
Anskar’s labours were continued until the sixty-fourth
year of his age, and the thirty-fourth of his episcopate. Although the progress
of the Swedish mission was retarded by the death or the withdrawal of some who
were employed in it, he was able to provide for its continuance, chiefly by
means of clergy of Danish birth, whom he had trained up in the seminary at Ramsloh. Amidst his trials and disappointments he
frequently consoled himself by remembering the assurance which Ebbo, when
bishop of Hildesheim, had expressed to him, that God would not fail in his own
time to crown the work with success. The biographer Rimbert dwells with delight
on his master’s strict adherence to the monastic customs, which he maintained
to the last; on his mortifications, which he carried to an extreme in youth,
until he became aware that such excesses were a temptation to vain glory, and
how, when no longer able to bear them, he endeavoured to supply the defect by
alms and prayers; on his frequent and fervent devotion; on his charitable labours,
his building of hospitals, redemption of captives, and other works of mercy.
Among the results of his exertions, it deserves to be remembered that in 856 he
persuaded the leading men of Nordalbingia to give up
the trade which they had carried on in slaves. In addition to works of a
devotional kind, he wrote a Life of Willehad, the first bishop of Bremen, and a
journal of his own missions, which is known to have been sent to Rome in the
thirteenth century, and, although often sought for in vain, may possibly still
exist there. He is said to have performed some miraculous cures, but to have
shunned the publication of them, except among his most intimate friends; and
when they were once spoken of in his hearing, he exclaimed, “If I were worthy
in the sight of my Lord, I would ask Him to grant me one miracle—that He would
make me a good man!”
In his last illness Anskar was greatly distressed by
the apprehension that his sins had frustrated the promise which had been made
to him of the martyr’s crown. Rimbert endeavoured to comfort him by saying that
violent death is not the only kind of martyrdom; by reminding him of his long
and severe labours for the Gospel, and of the patience with which he had
endured much sickness—especially the protracted sufferings of his deathbed. At
length, as he was at mass, the archbishop, although fully awake, had a vision
in which he was reproved for having doubted, and was assured that all that had
been promised should be fulfilled. His death took place on the festival of the
Purification, in the year 865.
When asked to name a successor, Anskar declined to do
so on the ground that he was unwilling, by preferring one before others, to add
to the offence which he might probably have given to many during his lifetime.
But on being questioned as to his opinion of Rimbert, he answered—“I am assured
that he is more worthy to be an archbishop than I am to be a sub-deacon”. To
Rimbert, therefore, the see of Hamburg was committed on Anskar’s death; and for
nearly a quarter of a century he carried on the work in the spirit of his
master, for the knowledge of whose life we are chiefly indebted to his
reverential and affectionate biography. Rimbert died in 888.
CHAPTER V.FROM THE DEPOSITION OF CHARLES THE FAT TO THE DEATH OF POPE SYLVESTER II.A.D. 887-1003.
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