Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Christendom, c. 600
- Part I Foundations: Peoples, Places, and Traditions
- 1 Late Roman Christianities
- 2 The emergence of Byzantine Orthodoxy, 600–1095
- 3 Beyond empire I: Eastern Christianities from the Persian to the Turkish conquest, 604–1071
- 4 Beyond empire II: Christianities of the Celtic peoples
- 5 Germanic Christianities
- 6 Slav Christianities, 800–1100
- Part II Christianity in Confrontation
- Part III Christianity in the Social and Political Order
- Part IV Christianity as Lived Experience
- Part V Christianity: Books and Ideas
- Conclusion: Christendom, c. 1100
- Bibliographies
- Index
- References
5 - Germanic Christianities
from Part I - Foundations: Peoples, Places, and Traditions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Christendom, c. 600
- Part I Foundations: Peoples, Places, and Traditions
- 1 Late Roman Christianities
- 2 The emergence of Byzantine Orthodoxy, 600–1095
- 3 Beyond empire I: Eastern Christianities from the Persian to the Turkish conquest, 604–1071
- 4 Beyond empire II: Christianities of the Celtic peoples
- 5 Germanic Christianities
- 6 Slav Christianities, 800–1100
- Part II Christianity in Confrontation
- Part III Christianity in the Social and Political Order
- Part IV Christianity as Lived Experience
- Part V Christianity: Books and Ideas
- Conclusion: Christendom, c. 1100
- Bibliographies
- Index
- References
Summary
A rich combination of ingredients – biblical, Roman, and Irish – contributed to the character of Christian life in the Germanic world of the early Middle Ages, blending with the legacy of the pre-Christian Germanic past. To apply a linguistic category to religion and religious practice and talk of a typical Christianity practiced by speakers of Germanic languages would be misleading, especially across such a vast area and such an eventful half-millennium. “Germanic Christianities,” interpreted geographically not ethnically, will be taken here to relate to the churches and Christian communities that developed in the Germanic-speaking world, first in the context of the barbarian successor-states within the old Roman Empire, and then, thanks to political and economic forces, as well as missionary activity, in new lands well beyond the old frontier.
There was nevertheless an ethnic dimension to the earliest Germanic conversions. The first converts, the Goths, subscribed to the teachings that came to be condemned as the Arian heresy, and, after their conversion in the fourth century, Arianism became identified with Germanic Christianity. While it lingered in Italy among the Lombards through the seventh century, in Spain by 589 CE the last major Arian ruler, the Visigoth Reccared, had accepted Catholicism. It has been suggested that upon entering the Roman world the Germanic peoples chose, and subsequently remained committed to, this increasingly unorthodox form of Christianity as a means of asserting their social identity and cultural independence. The circumstance that the Roman emperors who presided over the initial Gothic conversion were Arians had led the first converts in a direction that the mainstream church soon abandoned.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Christianity , pp. 107 - 129Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
. Gesta. In Hamburgische Kirchengeschichte. Ed. . Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum germanicarum. Hanover and Leipzig: Hahn, 1917; Trans. and rev. ed. , History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
A Piece of Horse Liver: Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Society. Trans. and . Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 1998.
. Alcuin of York. Trans. . York: William Sessions, 1974.
. Aldhelm, The Prose Works. Trans. and . Ipswich: D. S. Brewer, 1979.
. Aldhelmi opera omnia. Ed. . Monumenta Germaniae Historica Auctores antiquissimi 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919.Google Scholar
. Ælfric’s Prefaces. Ed. . Durham Medieval Texts 9. Durham: Department of English Studies, 1994.
Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany. Ed. and trans. . London: Sheed and Ward, 1954.
Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Ed. and trans. . London: Everyman, 1982.
Anglo-Saxon Wills. Ed. and trans. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930.
. Alfred the Great. Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. Trans. and . Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983; Asser’s Life of King Alfred. Ed. . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959.Google Scholar
. Bedae opera didascalia. Ed. . 3 vols. Corpus christianorum series latina 123. Turnhout: Brepols, 1975–80.Google Scholar
. Bede: The Reckoning of Time. Trans. . Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999.
The Anglo-Saxon Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
, ed. A Handbook on Old High German Literature. Rev. ed. and . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
“Mythologizing Landscape: Place and Space of Cult and Myth.” In Kontinuitäten und Brüche in der Religionsgeschichte: Festchrift für Anders Hultgård. Ed. . Berlin: de Gruyter, 2001.Google Scholar
, and . London 800–1216: The Shaping of a City. London: Seeker and Warburg, 1975.
“Introduction: The Carolingian Renaissance.” In Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation. Ed. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
“Observations on English Government from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century.” In Essays in Anglo-Saxon History. London: Hambledon Press, 1986.Google Scholar
The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970.
, ed. The Dating of Beowulf. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981.
, ed. Old Icelandic Literature and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
, ed. Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval Society. 2 vols. Odense: Odense University Press, 1994.
“Murder and Martyrs in Anglo-Saxon England.” In Sacrificing the Self: Perspectives on Martyrdom and Religion. Ed. . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Baptism and Change in the Early Middle Ages, c. 200-c. 1150. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Conversion among the Germanic Peoples. London and New York: Cassell, 1998.
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1994.
and , eds. Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
“Kingship, Genealogies and Regnal Lists.” In Early Medieval Kingship. Ed. and . Leeds: University of Leeds, 1977. Reprinted in , Histories and Pseudo-Histories of the Insular Middle Ages. Aldershot: Variorum, 1990.Google Scholar
Early English Christian Poetry. Trans. . New York: Galaxy, 1963.
“German Vernacular Literature.” In Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation. Ed. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
“Christian and Pagan References in Eleventh-Century Norse Poetry: The Case of Arnórr Jarlaskáld.” Saga-Book of the Viking Society
21 (1982–83).Google Scholar
. Charlemagne’s Courtier: The Complete Einhard. Trans. . Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press, 1998.
. Einhardi vita Karoli magni. Ed. . Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum germanicarum. Hanover: Hahn, 1911.Google Scholar
English Historical Documents, c. 500–1042. Trans. . 2nd ed. London: Eyre Methuen, 1979.
English Historical Documents, 1042–1189. Trans. and . 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 1996.
Epistolae karolini aevi, 2. Ed. . Monumenta Germaniae Historica Epistolae 4. Berlin: Weidmann, 1895.Google Scholar
The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity 371–1386 AD. London: HarperCollins, 1997.
The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
Veiled Women, I: The Disappearance of Nuns from Anglo-Saxon England. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.
“Observations on ‘Syncretism’ in Early Icelandic Christianity.” In Aurvandilstá. Ed. et al. Odense: Odense University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
“Germanic Legend in Old English Literature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature. Ed. and . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
“King Cnut in the Verse of his Skalds.” In The Reign of Cnut: King of England, Denmark and Norway. Ed. . London: Leicester University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
. Fredegarti et aliorum chronica. Ed. . Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum merovingicarum 2. Hanover: Hahn, 1888.Google Scholar
, ed. St. Augustine and the Conversion of England. Stroud: Sutton, 1999.
Language and History in the Early Germanic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
“Saga as Historical Novel.” In Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature: New Approaches to Textual Analysis and Literary Criticism. Ed. , , and . Odense: Odense University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
“Myth and Art: A Passport to Political Authority in Scandinavia during the Migration Period.” In The Making of Kingdoms: Papers from the 47th Sachsensymposium, York, September 1996. Ed. and . Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 10. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, 1999.Google Scholar
Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul, AD 481–751. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
The Convert Kings: Power and Religious Affiliation in Early Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997.
, ed. Christianity and Paganism, 350–750: The Conversion of Western Europe. Rev. ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.
, et al., eds. Pagans and Christians: The Interplay between Christian Latin and Traditional Germanic Cultures in Early Medieval Europe. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1995.
. De institutione clericorum libri tres. Ed. . Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1996.
I´slendingabók. Landnámabók. Ed.
2 vols. in I. Reykjavík: Íslensk fornrit, 1968. Ed. and English trans. . The Book of the Icelanders (Íslendingabók). London: Humphrey Milford/Oxford University Press, 1930.Google Scholar
“Teutons or Trojans? The Carolingians and the Teutonic Past.” In The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages. Ed. and . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
“Scandinavians and ‘Cultural Paganism’ in Late Anglo-Saxon England.” In The Christian Tradition in Anglo-Saxon England: Approaches to Current Scholarship and Teaching. Ed. . Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004.Google Scholar
“Late and Peaceful: Iceland’s Conversion through Arbitration in 1000.” Speculum
74 (1999).Google Scholar
Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
“The Vikings in England, c. 790–1016.” In The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Ed. . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
“An Early List of London Properties.” Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society ns 8 (1940).Google Scholar
Rule and Conflict in an Early Medieval Society. Oxford: Blackwell, 1979.
Christianizing Kinship: Ritual Sponsorship in Anglo-Saxon England. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.
The End of Ancient Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
“From Rome to the Barbarian Kingdoms.” In The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. Ed. . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. London: B. T. Batsford, 1991.
, ed. The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
“Anglo-Saxon Idolators and Ecclesiasts from Theodore to Alcuin: A Source Study.” Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History
5 (1992).Google Scholar
Medieval Handbooks of Penance. Trans. and . New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
The Saxon Saviour: The Transformation of the Gospel in the Ninth-Century Heliand. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
“Kingship and Empire.” In The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought. Ed. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Reprinted in Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation. Ed. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
“Royal Saints and Early Medieval Kingship.” Studies in Church History 20 (1983). Reprinted in her Politics and Ritual in Early Modern Europe. London: Hambledon Press, 1986.Google Scholar
“The Wary Widow.” In Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages. Ed. and . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Pagan Words and Christian Meanings. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991.
Chronicles of the Vikings: Records, Memorials and Myths. London: British Museum Press, 1995.
Runes. London: British Museum Publications, 1987.
“From Orality to Literacy in Medieval Iceland.” In Old Icelandic Literature and Society. Ed. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989.
The Germanization of Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
, et al., eds. The Christianization of Scandinavia. Alingsås: Viktoria Bokförlag, 1987.
. History of the Danes. 2 vols. Trans. and ed. . Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1979.
Religion and Literature in Western England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
“Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies.” In British Academy Papers on Anglo-Saxon England. Ed. . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
“Old Saints, New Cults: Roman Relics in Carolingian Francia.” In Early Medieval Rome and the Christian West: Essays in Honour of Donald A. Bullough. Ed. . Leiden: Brill, 2000.Google Scholar
“Religion and Lay Society.” The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 2: c. 700–900. Ed. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
. Snorri Sturluson: Edda. Trans. and ed. . London: J. M. Dent, 1987.
“Membra disjecta: The Division of the Body and the Diffusion of the Cult.” In Oswald: Northumbrian King to European Saint. Ed. and . Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1995.Google Scholar
The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I. Ed. and trans. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925.
The Old English Version of the Heptateuch. Ed. ; rev. ed. . Early English Text Society os 160. London: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1922/1969.
, and , eds. Rituals of Power from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
. Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi chronicon. Ed. . Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum germanicarum ns 9. Berlin: Weidmann, 1935; Ottoman Germany: The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg. Trans. . Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
The Visigoths in the Time of Ulfila. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966.
, and , eds. Rewriting Old English in the Twelfth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
The Matter of the North: The Rise of Literary Fiction in Thirteenth-Century Iceland. Odense: Odense University Press, 2002.
“The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical Problem.” American Historical Review
91 (1986).Google Scholar
The Christianization of Iceland: Priests, Power, and Social Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRef
The Frankish Church. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.
“Reconfiguring Sacred Space: From Pagan Shrines to Christian Churches.” In Die spätantike Stadt und ihre Christianisierung. Ed. and . Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2003.Google Scholar
. Die Sachsengeschichte des Widukind von Korvei. Ed. and . 5th ed. Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum germanicarum. Hanover: Hahn, 1935.Google Scholar
The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation of Europe. Harlow: Longman, 2001.
, “Pagan Religions and Superstitions East of the Rhine from the Fifth to the Ninth Century.” In After Empire: Towards an Ethnology of Europe’s Barbarians. Ed. . Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1995.Google Scholar
“Anglo-Saxon Society and its Literature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature. Ed. and . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
“Bede, ‘Beowulf’ and the Conversion of the Anglo-Saxon Aristocracy.” In Bede and Anglo-Saxon England. Ed. . British Archeological Reports
46 (1978).Google Scholar
“The Adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon Royal Courts to Christianity.” In The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300–1300. Ed. . York: York Medieval Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses. London: Continuum, 2003.
- 3
- Cited by