Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/662

* MISSIONS. 590 MISSIONS. (2) Among the Xokthkk.v Nations. Another period of three huiiilretl years (800-1100) was iicifs^ary for the winning of the northernmost Germanic Iritus. In 8"2 political necessity made Harald, King of Denmark, a suitor at the Court of the Carolingians. On his return he took with him Ansgar, a monk of Corvei, eventually the apostle of the Xorth. Uis chief deeds were the establislunent of the See of Hamburg-Bremen (832), the )iartial evangelization of Sweden (850), the building of churches, schools, mon- asteries, and hosjiitals tliroughout his own vast dioeese. He died in 8(i.">, and is l)uried at Bremen. The devastations of tlic pagan Northmen and the onslauglit of the Hungarians withheld from the northern missions the political influence of Chris- tian Gemiany: after the battle of Jlerseburg (9:i.3) the conversion of Denmark went on, not without interruption, from the See of Saint Ans- gar. The Danish conqiests in England helped this process; in 1017 both kingdoms were ruled by Canute the Great ; in 1020 he was a pilgrim to Rome, whence he wrote to his peoide a noble Christian letter. In lOSfl another Canute was en- rolled among the Christian saints. In 1104 Lund was made a metropolitan see. Sweden was slowly won over to the faith of Jesus Clirist. chiefly in the couri^e of the eleventh century, and with many a reaction to pagan life and Ix-lief. In 1102 Upsala became the (Tliristian metropolis of Sweden. I-ong ere this Norway possessed a metropolitan see at Trondhjcm (103.5). The land was thoroughly Clirist ian before Denmark and Sweden, although it received the visits of mis- sionaries after both of these kingdoms. Haakon the Good (e.034-900) was an earnest Christian king, but another did not arise imtil Olaf Trygg-ason (nnij-lOOO). Olaf Haraldson (1016- 28) sent German and English priests throtigh the Kingdom; his overstern and cruel policy created a reaction, but the still hanler yorarily inhabited by Irish monks before the year 800; their books, altar-plates, and staves were found In- th(^ first Noi wegian settlers. After 081 Christianity penetrated the masses of the colonists. an< by 1010 they had ac- cepted the Gos])el. X'nder its impulse this gifted little people became a living source of learning and piety. The scattered islands of the north- ern seas were held during the ninth century in the grip of the pagan Vikings, but in the course of the tenth centnrA- were made (Tliristian. Before the epoch of the Danish invasions of Ireland, monks of the Irish nation had visited these islands, chiefly out of ascetic fervor and the desire to lead hermit lives. They were the first to bring Christianity to the dwellers nf the Ork- neys, the TIebrides, and the Shetland and Faroe islands. In the twelfth century Greenland was evangelized, and the See of Gardor established on the coast; the land w:i< inhabited by (!Tiris- tians until the fifteenth century. (3) CoxvtjjsioN OF E.vsti:rn KfKopE. Slats Asn Magyars. As the Slavs had been, since the sixth century, a serinus menaie to both the East and the West, so the efforts to Christianize them went out from East and West. The Irishman Saint Cohnnbnn. of l,uxeiil and Bobbio, had once ho])erl to begin the work: it was certainly set on foot from the German See of Salzburg in Bavaria, and a beginning made (707) with the Avars, who at this time disappear from history. In the course of the ninth century the principal Slavic principality was that centred along the river Morava. hence called Moravia. Both Ger- mans and Bzantines sought to reserve this sphere of influence and action for themselves. In 802 the Byzantine Emjieror, Michael 111., was able to .send two missionaries to the ^Moravians. They were brothers, known to history as Saint Cyril (originally Constantine) and Saint ilethodius. They introduced among the Slavs an alpliabet, translated the Scriptures, and wrote for them a Slavic liturgy. To these two men the Slavic world owes its first permanent elevation from idolatry, ignorance, and serious moral corruption. Jlora- via's chief sec, Olmiitz, dates from 1003. Bohemia was fully opened to Christian in- fluences only about 871, when its King. Borzivoi, gave his daughter in marriage to Svatopluk of Moravia, and together with his Queen, l.udmilla, was baptized. Of his grandsons, Boleslas cruelly jiersccutcd the Christian faith, while Wenceslas remained faithfil ; the latter fell by the hand of his brother (038). and is honored as ; a martyr. In the long reign of the second Boles- las (0(17-090) Christianity triumphed. The See .' of Prague was created in 073. The second hisho]). Saint Adalbert, went to preach the Gospel , among the heathen Prussians, and was put to death by them. Poland received the missionaries of Christian- ity through the marriage (90.5) of its Duke Mic- ci.^las with the Christian daughter of Boleslas II. of Bohemia, who soon won over her husband to the faith. The See of Posen was established in 008. From 092 to 1025, Boleslas Chrobrj-. son of Jliecislas, completed the conversion of bis countiy, by the founding of the Archiepiscopal See of Gnesen (1000), to which were made sul)- ject Posen. Kolberg. Breslau, and Cracow. The Wends were a Slavic race, established in Holstein, Mecklenburg, between the Elbe and the Oder, the Oder and the Vistula, and elsewhere in Saxony and Lusatia. They were made Chris- tians bv the creation of the border marches in the time of Henry I. and Olho I. (010-073) and the foundation of the sees of Havelberg. Oldenburg, I'lrandenburg. Magdeburg, and others (040 008). The Wend Prince. Gottschalk, was after 1045 a zealous protector of Christianity, but was treacherously slain in 1000 by a heathen Wend. In the twelfth centuiy the Wends fell under German sway, and many (Jerman Christian C(do- nists took tlicir lands and houses. The Wends of Pomerania owe (heir conversion to the Pnlish Duke Boleslas 111. (1122). and to his agent. Bishop Otho of Bamberg (1124-28). Kamin. Stettin, .Tulin. were made Christian cities, and Saxon colonists entered the territory: but only in 1108 were the last remnants of heathenism abolisbcd on the islanil of Biigen. The Scandinavian Rurik founded the Russian State in Sfi2 : soon Christian missionaries from Constant ino|de found their way thither. The widowed Princess Olga was baptized at Con- stantinople in 9.5o, and thenceforward labored zealously for the conversion of her people. Her grandson. Vladimir the .pos1olic (died 1015), completed (he work. The Metropolitan See of Kiev was established by him and made the centre of the religious and eduentional life of Russia. The primacy was transferred to Moscow in 1328, which in turn was subject to the jurisdiction of