Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe, and Rus’ c. 900–1200 (review)

Nora Berend and her colleagues have provided a thorough and well-written survey of the Christian conversion of Northern and Central Europe from 900 to 1100. This was a collaborative effort, with each scholar reading the others’ papers and working as a team, all supported by the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Bergen, the Trevelyan Fund, and other groups.

Each chapter follows the same format: (1) Before Christianity: Religion and Power, (2) Contacts, (3) Christianization, (4) Royal Power, (5) The Effects of Christianization, and (6) Conclusion. While the stories of conversion and the development of royal power vary slightly, it is clear that Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Bohemia and Moravia, Poland, Hungary, and Rus’ can be easily compared. First and foremost, no state has good records concerning its pagan past or its conversion experience; secondly, there were strong pagan reactions, and lastly, we do not know much even about the early Church or the early Christian monarchs.

Berend’s overview of the studies and other conversion experiences suggests that power relations rather than Christianization led to the development of the national states. The decisive moment for Christianity was always the ruler’s conversion, but the Church had to be adaptive to survive and flourish; there was an ideology of religious unity, but in practice, there was diversity. Rulers did not consult churchmen in defending and expanding their realms, but they enjoyed having an established Church.

Robert Bartlett’s overview of the wider conversion process describes paganism and pagan practices—dieties, role of women, temples, cult centers, burial practices—until paganism slipped away into the realm of superstition and myth.

The new information on archaeological work and local controversies is highly welcome. While the authors note that Methodius was archbishop of Pannonia, they ignore the argument by Imre Boba that Greater Moravia stretched into that region. Charles Bowlus’s Franks, Moravians and Magyars: The Struggle for the Middle Danube, 788–907 (Philadelphia, 1995) should have been listed in sources consulted, even if the authors did not find his arguments persuasive. The conversion of Pannonia did not result in a royal dynasty being established, but neither did Pomerania, and the appendix on the fate of those Baltic tribes was a worthwhile addition. Similarly but more understandably, the minor Slavic peoples between Bohemia and Pomerania were passed over.

Christianization eliminated some ancient practices: plural marriages, female infanticide, eating horsemeat, cremation, public divination, and human sacrifice. Political power became more concentrated. Pagans fought back, certainly for a variety of reasons, almost none of which are mentioned in the sources. Boundaries between one people and another were vague, as was that between Latin Christendom and Orthodoxy, until the eleventh century; until then, readers might be properly skeptical of the maps, wonderfully drawn though they are.

Royal marriages with Christian brides are of significant importance, but so are the shadowy personalities of churchmen about whom we often know little more than their names; and kings remained ready to use the sword against rivals—the exception being Rus’, where Boris and Gleb became powerful symbols of legitimacy and a warning against interdynastic strife. Christianity brought literacy with it, and with literacy, writers who concocted stories of this heroic era from a handful of documents, faded memories, and traditional accounts that may well have been embellished.

This is one of those “must have” books.