Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T20:09:34.627Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Germanic Christianities

from Part I - Foundations: Peoples, Places, and Traditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2010

By
Lesley Abrams
Edited by
Thomas F. X. Noble  and
Julia M. H. Smith
Thomas F. X. Noble
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Julia M. H. Smith
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Get access

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 - 129
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

,Adam of Bremen. Gesta. In Hamburgische Kirchengeschichte. Ed. Schmeidler, B.. Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum germanicarum. Hanover and Leipzig: Hahn, 1917; Trans. Tschan, F. J. and rev. ed. Reuter, T., History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Aðalsteinsson, J. N. A Piece of Horse Liver: Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Society. Trans. Gunnell, T. and Turville-Petre, J.. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 1998.
Alcuin, . Alcuin of York. Trans. Allott, S.. York: William Sessions, 1974.
Aldhelm, . Aldhelm, The Prose Works. Trans. Lapidge, M. and Herren, M.. Ipswich: D. S. Brewer, 1979.
Aldhelm, . Aldhelmi opera omnia. Ed. Ehwald, R.. Monumenta Germaniae Historica Auctores antiquissimi 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919.Google Scholar
Ælfric, . Ælfric’s Prefaces. Ed. Wilcox, J.. Durham Medieval Texts 9. Durham: Department of English Studies, 1994.
Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany. Ed. and trans. Talbot, C. H.. London: Sheed and Ward, 1954.
Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Ed. and trans. Bradley, S. A. J.. London: Everyman, 1982.
Anglo-Saxon Wills. Ed. and trans. Whitelock, D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930.
Asser, . Alfred the Great. Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources. Trans. Keynes, S. and Lapidge, M.. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983; Asser’s Life of King Alfred. Ed. Stevenson, W. H.. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959.Google Scholar
Bede, . Bedae opera didascalia. Ed. Jones, C. W.. 3 vols. Corpus christianorum series latina 123. Turnhout: Brepols, 1975–80.Google Scholar
Bede, . Bede: The Reckoning of Time. Trans. Wallis, F.. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999.
Behr, C. “The Origins of Kingship in Early Medieval Kent.” Early Medieval Europe 9 (2000).Google Scholar
Blair, J. The Anglo-Saxon Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Bostock, J. K., ed. A Handbook on Old High German Literature. Rev. ed. King, K. C. and McLintock, D. R.. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
Brink, S. “Mythologizing Landscape: Place and Space of Cult and Myth.” In Kontinuitäten und Brüche in der Religionsgeschichte: Festchrift für Anders Hultgård. Ed. Stausberg, M.. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2001.Google Scholar
Brooke, C. N. L., and Keir, G.. London 800–1216: The Shaping of a City. London: Seeker and Warburg, 1975.
Brown, G. “Introduction: The Carolingian Renaissance.” In Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation. Ed. McKitterick, R.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. “Observations on English Government from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century.” In Essays in Anglo-Saxon History. London: Hambledon Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Chaney, W. A. The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970.
Chase, C., ed. The Dating of Beowulf. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981.
Clunies Ross, M., ed. Old Icelandic Literature and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Clunies Ross, M., ed. Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval Society. 2 vols. Odense: Odense University Press, 1994.
Cormack, M. “Murder and Martyrs in Anglo-Saxon England.” In Sacrificing the Self: Perspectives on Martyrdom and Religion. Ed. Cormack, M.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Cramer, P. Baptism and Change in the Early Middle Ages, c. 200-c. 1150. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Cusack, C. M. Conversion among the Germanic Peoples. London and New York: Cassell, 1998.
Davidson, H. R. E. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1994.
de Jong, M. and Theuws, F., eds. Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
Dumville, D. N. “Kingship, Genealogies and Regnal Lists.” In Early Medieval Kingship. Ed. Sawyer, P. H. and Wood, I. N.. Leeds: University of Leeds, 1977. Reprinted in Dumville, D. N., Histories and Pseudo-Histories of the Insular Middle Ages. Aldershot: Variorum, 1990.Google Scholar
Early English Christian Poetry. Trans. Kennedy, C. M.. New York: Galaxy, 1963.
Edwards, C. “German Vernacular Literature.” In Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation. Ed. McKitterick, R.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Edwards, D. “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
Einhard, . Charlemagne’s Courtier: The Complete Einhard. Trans. Dutton, P.. Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press, 1998.
Einhard, . Einhardi vita Karoli magni. Ed. Waitz, G.. Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum germanicarum. Hanover: Hahn, 1911.Google Scholar
English Historical Documents, c. 500–1042. Trans. Whitelock, D.. 2nd ed. London: Eyre Methuen, 1979.
English Historical Documents, 1042–1189. Trans. Douglas, D. C. and Greenway, G. W.. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 1996.
Epistolae karolini aevi, 2. Ed. Dümmler, E.. Monumenta Germaniae Historica Epistolae 4. Berlin: Weidmann, 1895.Google Scholar
Faulkes, A. “Descent from the Gods.” Mediaeval Scandinavia II (1978–79).Google Scholar
Fletcher, R. The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity 371–1386 AD. London: HarperCollins, 1997.
Flint, V. I. J. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
Foot, S. Veiled Women, I: The Disappearance of Nuns from Anglo-Saxon England. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.
Foote, P. “Observations on ‘Syncretism’ in Early Icelandic Christianity.” In Aurvandilstá. Ed. Barnes, M. et al. Odense: Odense University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Frank, R. “Germanic Legend in Old English Literature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature. Ed. Godden, M. and Lapidge, M.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Frank, R. “King Cnut in the Verse of his Skalds.” In The Reign of Cnut: King of England, Denmark and Norway. Ed. Rumble, A. R.. London: Leicester University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Fredegar, . Fredegarti et aliorum chronica. Ed. Krusch, B.. Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum merovingicarum 2. Hanover: Hahn, 1888.Google Scholar
Gameson, R., ed. St. Augustine and the Conversion of England. Stroud: Sutton, 1999.
Green, D. H. Language and History in the Early Germanic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Harris, J. “Saga as Historical Novel.” In Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature: New Approaches to Textual Analysis and Literary Criticism. Ed. Lindow, J., Lonroth, L., and Weber, G. W.. Odense: Odense University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Hedeager, L. “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. Dickinson, T. M. and Griffiths, D.. Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 10. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, 1999.Google Scholar
Hen, Y. Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul, AD 481–751. Leiden: Brill, 1995.
Higham, N. J. The Convert Kings: Power and Religious Affiliation in Early Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Hillgarth, J. N., ed. Christianity and Paganism, 350–750: The Conversion of Western Europe. Rev. ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.
Hofstra, T., et al., eds. Pagans and Christians: The Interplay between Christian Latin and Traditional Germanic Cultures in Early Medieval Europe. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1995.
Hrabanus Maurus, . De institutione clericorum libri tres. Ed. Zimpel, D.. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1996.
I´slendingabók. Landnámabók. Ed. Benediktsson, J. 2 vols. in I. Reykjavík: Íslensk fornrit, 1968. Ed. and English trans. Hermannsson, H.. The Book of the Icelanders (Íslendingabók). London: Humphrey Milford/Oxford University Press, 1930.Google Scholar
Innes, M. “Teutons or Trojans? The Carolingians and the Teutonic Past.” In The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages. Ed. Hen, Y. and Innes, M.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Jesch, J. “Scandinavians and ‘Cultural Paganism’ in Late Anglo-Saxon England.” In The Christian Tradition in Anglo-Saxon England: Approaches to Current Scholarship and Teaching. Ed. Cavill, P.. Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004.Google Scholar
Jochens, J. “Late and Peaceful: Iceland’s Conversion through Arbitration in 1000.” Speculum 74 (1999).Google Scholar
Jolly, K. L. Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Keynes, S. “The Vikings in England, c. 790–1016.” In The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Ed. Sawyer, P.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Kissan, B. W. “An Early List of London Properties.” Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society ns 8 (1940).Google Scholar
Leyser, K. J. Rule and Conflict in an Early Medieval Society. Oxford: Blackwell, 1979.
Lönnroth, L. “The Noble Heathen: A Theme in the Sagas.” Scandinavian Studies 41 (1969).Google Scholar
Lynch, J. H. Christianizing Kinship: Ritual Sponsorship in Anglo-Saxon England. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Markus, R. A. The End of Ancient Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Markus, R. A. “From Rome to the Barbarian Kingdoms.” In The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. Ed. McManners, J.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Mayr-Harting, H. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd ed. London: B. T. Batsford, 1991.
McKitterick, R., ed. The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Meaney, A. L. “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. McNeill, J. T. and Gamer, H. M.. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
Murphy, G. R. The Saxon Saviour: The Transformation of the Gospel in the Ninth-Century Heliand. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Nelson, J. L. “Kingship and Empire.” In The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought. Ed. Burns, J. H.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Reprinted in Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation. Ed. McKitterick, R.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Nelson, J. L. “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
Nelson, J. L. “The Wary Widow.” In Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages. Ed. Davies, W. and Fouracre, P.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
North, R. Pagan Words and Christian Meanings. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991.
Page, R. I. Chronicles of the Vikings: Records, Memorials and Myths. London: British Museum Press, 1995.
Page, R. I. Runes. London: British Museum Publications, 1987.
Poole, R. “The ‘Conversion Verses’ of Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld.” Maal og mine 1 (2002).Google Scholar
Quinn, J. “From Orality to Literacy in Medieval Iceland.” In Old Icelandic Literature and Society. Ed. Clunies Ross, M.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Reynolds, S. Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Ridyard, S. J. The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Rollason, D. Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989.
Russell, J. C. The Germanization of Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Sawyer, P. H., et al., eds. The Christianization of Scandinavia. Alingsås: Viktoria Bokförlag, 1987.
,Saxo Grammaticus. History of the Danes. 2 vols. Trans. Fisher, P. and ed. Davidson, H. E.. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1979.
Sims-Williams, P. Religion and Literature in Western England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Sisam, K. “Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies.” In British Academy Papers on Anglo-Saxon England. Ed. Stanley, E. G.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Smith, J. M. H. “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. Smith, J. M. H.. Leiden: Brill, 2000.Google Scholar
Smith, J. M. H. “Religion and Lay Society.” The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 2: c. 700–900. Ed. McKitterick, R.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Snorri Sturluson, . Snorri Sturluson: Edda. Trans. and ed. Faulkes, A.. London: J. M. Dent, 1987.
Thacker, A. “Membra disjecta: The Division of the Body and the Diffusion of the Cult.” In Oswald: Northumbrian King to European Saint. Ed. Stancliffe, C. and Cambridge, E.. Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1995.Google Scholar
The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I. Ed. and trans. Robertson, A. J.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925.
The Old English Version of the Heptateuch. Ed. Crawford, S. J.; rev. ed. Ker, N. R.. Early English Text Society os 160. London: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1922/1969.
Theuws, F., and Nelson, J. L., eds. Rituals of Power from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
,Thietmar of Merseburg. Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi chronicon. Ed. Holtzmann, R.. Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum germanicarum ns 9. Berlin: Weidmann, 1935; Ottoman Germany: The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg. Trans. Warner, D. A.. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Thompson, E. A. The Visigoths in the Time of Ulfila. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966.
Treharne, E. M., and Swan, M., eds. Rewriting Old English in the Twelfth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Tulinius, T. The Matter of the North: The Rise of Literary Fiction in Thirteenth-Century Iceland. Odense: Odense University Press, 2002.
Van Engen, J. “The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical Problem.” American Historical Review 91 (1986).Google Scholar
Vésteinsson, O. The Christianization of Iceland: Priests, Power, and Social Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRef
Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. The Frankish Church. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.
Ward-Perkins, B. “Reconfiguring Sacred Space: From Pagan Shrines to Christian Churches.” In Die spätantike Stadt und ihre Christianisierung. Ed. Brands, G. and Severin, H.-G.. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2003.Google Scholar
Widukind, . Die Sachsengeschichte des Widukind von Korvei. Ed. Lohmann, H.-E. and Hirsch, P.. 5th ed. Monumenta Germaniae Historica scriptores rerum germanicarum. Hanover: Hahn, 1935.Google Scholar
Wood, I. The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation of Europe. Harlow: Longman, 2001.
Wood, , “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. Ausenda, G.. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1995.Google Scholar
Wormald, P. “Anglo-Saxon Society and its Literature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature. Ed. Godden, M. and Lapidge, M.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Wormald, P. “Bede, ‘Beowulf’ and the Conversion of the Anglo-Saxon Aristocracy.” In Bede and Anglo-Saxon England. Ed. Farrell, R. T.. British Archeological Reports 46 (1978).Google Scholar
Yorke, B. “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. Carver, M.. York: York Medieval Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Yorke, B. Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses. London: Continuum, 2003.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×