Christianization of Sweden

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Christian rune stone

The Christianization of Sweden began in the early Middle Ages in the 9th century and continued into the 13th century. It was part of the Christianization of Scandinavia , which had its peak in the 10th and 11th centuries.

The following illustration does not take the province of Skåne into account, as it was part of Denmark at the time, where the Christianization process began earlier and was sometimes different. Skåne also developed into the ecclesiastical center of Denmark through the establishment of the Archdiocese of Lund. It should also be taken into account that the north of Scandinavia - the homeland of the Sami - was not yet part of Sweden at that time. The Christianization of the indigenous population began in the Middle Ages, has been intensified since 1520, took on sometimes violent features in the 17th century and officially came to an end with the ban on the old Germanic religion in the 18th century. (→ see also religion of the Sami )

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The most important written sources for the first attempts at proselytizing are Rimbert's description of the life of his predecessor, Archbishop Ansgar of Bremen , in Vita Ansgarii and Adam von Bremen's Chronicle of the Archdiocese of Hamburg, Gesta Hamburgensis ecclesiae pontificum , completed around 1075.

Furthermore, there are hardly any written sources for the 11th century, apart from more or less reliable reports of the deaths of missionaries, but around 2000 rune stones testify to the spread of Christianity, at least among the upper classes. For the 12th century, too, the sources are rather poor. Access to written sources only improved with the strengthening of royal power in the middle of the 13th century, which went hand in hand with the establishment of a church organization. The first written state laws from the middle of the 13th century contain sections on the practice of religion. Explicit prohibitions of sacrifice and other prohibitions, for example in Upplandslagen and Gutalagen, regarding pagan rites and sites indicate that the population's transition to Christianity was not yet complete.

First missionary attempts (9th century)

Church source Husaby : King Olof Skötkonung is said to have been baptized here

The first contact with Christian doctrine took place on the Viking trains . In the east, Svear and Guten (from Gotland ) made the acquaintance of the Greek Orthodox Church , which they encountered both in Byzantium and in the Slavic mission area. On the trains to the west and south, the Vikings sometimes encountered Anglo-Saxons and the Frankish Empire that had already been Christianized . The close relations between England on the one hand and Denmark and Norway on the other led to an Anglo-Saxon mission in Scandinavia, of which later legends of saints (from the 15th century), such as that of St. Sigfrid , who is said to have baptized Olof Skötkonung , and St. Eskil who gave the city of Eskilstuna its name, report. At the same time, a second mission center for the north, namely the Archdiocese of Hamburg , was formed as part of the Franconian expansion efforts . Both competed with each other. While Denmark was formally incorporated into the German church organization as early as the 10th century, it was not until the beginning of the 12th century that Hamburg finally gained the upper hand over Anglo-Saxon influence.

The first known attempt to found a church in Sweden was - as described by Rimbert - in the year 829 from Hamburg by Ansgar . Ansgar traveled to Birka , the Swedish trading center of the time, and was warmly received by the king. He was allowed to preach, and in time the bailiff Hergeir was baptized. Shortly afterwards, Hergeir had a church built on private property. When Ansgar left Birka a year and a half later, there was a small church in Birka. Not only Christian slaves, but also non-Swedish Christian traders who are temporarily staying in Birka were part of the community. Ansgar sent an auxiliary bishop to Birka, but he was expelled. At the beginning of the 850s, Ansgar came to Birka a second time to reorganize the church. But even this second attempt only lasted a few years.

There are no sources for the period thereafter. Adam von Bremen's chronicle of the Archdiocese of Hamburg from the 1070s tells of a trip by Archbishop Unni from Hamburg to Birka, which is said to have taken place in 935. There was nothing left of the former congregation and Archbishop Unni had to found a new congregation. What happened after that is also shrouded in darkness.

Christianization of Sweden (11th century)

Archbishop Ansgar

The description of the events around 1000 and afterwards by Adam von Bremen are somewhat more reliable. Adam named Erik Segersäll , who was baptized in Denmark, as the first Christian king . But after his return to Uppsala , he fell back from the right faith. His son Olof Eriksson (Skötkonung) was the first king to actively support Christianity . According to legend, he was baptized in Husaby around the year 1000 by St. Sigfrid, an English missionary bishop. Coin finds from Sigtuna that are dated to the 990s show Olof Eriksson as a Christian king. The first episcopal see was established not far from Husaby in Skara , and another episcopal see was established in Sigtuna, probably under Stenkil's (1060-1066) government. But when Adam von Bremen finished his work, both bishopric seats were vacant. Apparently Cluniacians also came to Sweden from the English Church. The news about it is sparse and uncertain. St. David is said to have been the abbot of an English Cluniac monastery and was sent by St. Siegfried on a mission to England. In a letter dated October 4, 1080 to the Swedish king, Pope Gregory VII is happy that the “Gallicana ecclesia” now spreads no other teachings in the Swedish Empire than those from the treasure of the Holy Roman Church.

Resistance to the new religion is likely to have been strongest in Svealand . How and when the resistance of paganism was broken is unknown. There is a legend about the pagan king Blotsven (sacrifice Sven), who was overthrown by his brother-in-law, the Christian King Inge , but the existence of Blotsven is not historically secured (but that of King Inge). A directory of bishoprics in Sweden from 1120 names a number of places that can be identified as Skara , Sigtuna , Linköping , Eskilstuna , Strängnäs and Västerås . But in this context one cannot yet speak of dioceses , rather of missionary bishops and their mission area. Sigtuna in particular had great difficulty asserting itself.

The expressions for the word "soul" on the Christian rune stones ("God help his soul") vary and show the influence of English or German missionaries. Erik Brate showed that the expressions "sāl", "saul" and "sōl" go back to Anglo-Saxon, the expressions "sial", "siol", often also "sil", "sel" go back to Low German. The word "kirikia" also goes back to Anglo-Saxon. In this way it could be shown that a closed English mission took place in Österrekarne härad in Södermanland before 1050. The resistance to it is shown by two rune stones on the edge of the area in Vesterrekarne Härad where the commemorative inscription on the one ostentatiously a Thorshammer bears and Thor mask, and is placed on the other of Thorshammer where on Christian stones the cross usually are. The intensive work of English missionaries in Sweden also led to tensions with the Archdiocese of Hamburg. In the 11th century there was a violent pagan reaction, as a result of which the bishops previously appointed there fled to Egino .

The Anglo-Danish monk Aelnoth reports in his Knuts legend from the beginning of the 12th century about the weak anchoring of the Christian faith. “As long as everything goes according to plan and happily, Svear and Gods seem to honor the Christian faith in name, but as soon as the storms of misfortune come upon them in the form of bad harvests, drought, storms and thunderstorms, enemy attacks or fire, pursue the faith, which they seem to honor by name, and not only with words but also with deeds, taking revenge on those who are faithful to Christ and seeking to drive them completely out of the land. " The conflict between pagan and Christianity is primarily about cultic issues. Accidents and catastrophes were attributed to the fact that the sacrifices to the old gods were neglected. This also explains the strong resistance in Svealand, where the cultic center, namely the temple of Uppsala, was. The biggest setbacks occurred (partly verifiable, partly very likely) as a result of the imperial sacrifice held every 9 or 10 years on the spring equinox. Years when Holy Week and Sacrifice Week coincided must have evoked particularly aggressive movements. In such a meeting, the missionary bishop Eskil of Södermanland in Strängnäs was probably slain "tempore passionis Christi" on a Good Friday by the troops returning from Uppsala. The king, who at that time had hardly any political power, the kingdom was a loose union of states, drew his legitimacy from his sacred role as head of the victims in the central sanctuary.

Therefore, it is particularly noticeable that there are no signs of syncretism on the rune stones . The rune stones seem to have been a conscious and clear sign of clear religious affiliation in times of conflict. This is also expressed in the reaction: While it was previously not customary for runestones to depict symbols of faith such as the Thor's hammer, with the increase in Christianization, the pagans saw the confessional inclusion of Thor's hammer and Thor's mask on rune stones and jewelry chains in the 11th century on.

The mission was directed from the beginning to the upper class, kings, chiefs and the heads of the clans and the Christianization took place accordingly from top to bottom. This is evident from the rune stones with Christian symbols from the 11th century, which could only be erected by important or wealthy members of society. The reason for this may also be that the Church in Sweden tended to break away from the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen early on, which would have a parallel to the corresponding efforts in Denmark and Norway. The prerequisite for the church to have its own archbishopric was the conversion of the ruler and the nobility, and then also of a predominant part of the people. In addition, there had to be at least a rudimentary institutionalization of religious life through a diocesan and parish organization, the existence of monastic life and the national independence and fixability of the territory.

With the transition to Christianity, the first Christian kings lost their function as high priests and a competitive situation arose in which Gamla Uppsala as the religious center of the old faith represented a power factor that could no longer be ruled by the Christian kings. The arguments gave rise to the story of the fight against the above-mentioned, perhaps mythical Blotsven. But also the relocation of the diocese of Sigtuna to Uppsala and the later establishment of the Swedish archbishopric in the center of the pagan cult around 1164 should be seen as measures to gain control over this power factor.

At the same time, the kings transferred their position as religious and cultic heads of society to the new church. Certain statutes in the state laws from the 13th century can still be interpreted as remnants of this transitional period. So z. B. in the older Västgötalagen bishops elected by the people and installed by the king, and in Östgötalagen the king should initiate the building of churches.

Building a Church Organization (12th Century)

It is difficult to say when the missionary work ended, but the establishment of a church organization reached its climax with the establishment of the Archdiocese of Uppsala . The Swedish states initially belonged to the mission area of ​​the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen, which ruled the entire Church of Scandinavia towards the end of the 11th century. Detachment was only possible after the mission was completed. As early as 1080, the cleric Osmund tried to help Pope Leo IX. in vain for an episcopal ordination for Sweden. He finally received it from the Polish archbishop (more likely from Poland, the Varangian landscape around Kiev) and then acted as archbishop himself in Sweden.

A detachment was made possible by the schism in the context of the investiture dispute . In 1103/04 Denmark, which supported the Pope against an antipope appointed by the Roman Empire, became independent of Hamburg through the establishment of the Archdiocese of Lund. The Archbishop of Lund was now responsible for all of Scandinavia and some islands in the North Sea. A similar situation 60 years later, in which Denmark was now on the side of an antipope, led to the establishment of an archbishopric for Sweden in Uppsala in 1164.

At this time the dioceses had clearer borders and a more stable position under the jurisdiction of the bishop. Sigtuna and Eskilstuna had disappeared as dioceses, Växjö was added and Åbo (now Finland) in the 13th century . The organization of the church at the local level took a little longer. It was not until the 13th century that the division of the dioceses into parishes (swedish socks ) was completed to such an extent that the tithing functioned in most of the empire. Until the middle of the 13th century, the rule was that the priest received a third for the tithe, the rest was divided into thirds again for the bishops, church maintenance and the poor. There was also the main tithe as a voluntary donation.

Stabilization of the Church (13th / 14th centuries)

Växjö Cathedral

Subsequently, the church fought to break away from the state. This included, above all, the free election of bishops and the appointment of priests by the church, immunity from the secular legal system and exemption from taxes and other duties, as well as the introduction of celibacy . On all these points the church came into conflict with the norms of medieval Swedish society. The 13th and 14th centuries were marked by the attempt to enforce the principles of canon law against the Germanic legal system of society.

The traditional election of the priest in the parish was replaced by a right of nomination, in which the bishop had to approve the election. The church achieved even greater independence with the investiture of the bishops. In 1220 the archbishop of Uppsala was elected by the clergy and the people. The church's demand for a bishop's election by the cathedral chapter failed because there were no cathedral chapters in Sweden. The visit of the papal legate Wilhelm von Sabina in 1247/48 led to a settlement in the interests of the church in negotiations with the imperial administrator Birger Jarl , and in the following decades cathedral chapters were set up in all bishopric cities. At the church meeting of Skänninge in 1248 was u. a. also established celibacy for priests.

Another important point that was taken up at the Skänninge church meeting was ownership. Under Swedish customary law, property could not be freely used. Property could only be inherited within the sex and not freely sold (sold or given away). This led to problems with donations, but also with the question of the estate of priests, who often came from the wealthy class. This was countered by the church's position that the individual could freely dispose of his property. A uniform solution for this conflict could not be found.

Due to the extensive land ownership of the church and especially the monasteries and thus the increasing number of people in the service of the church and its administration, the demand for immunity became more and more important. This applied on the one hand to the demand for legal immunity with separate church courts for members and employees of the church, on the other hand for tax immunity, i.e. the exemption from taxes and other contributions in kind. The contrasts between ecclesiastical and secular interests meant that when the first imperial law was drafted under Magnus Eriksson ( Magnus Erikssons landslag ) in the middle of the 14th century, no section on the church was included. Instead, the corresponding section in the old state law from Uppland applied beyond the Reformation period . The Church's tax exemption was granted through royal privileges, but in Sweden royal privileges were only in effect during the king's reign and had to be renewed afterwards. After King Magnus Ladulås refused to renew the church tax privileges at the end of the 13th century, his successor Birger Magnusson prepared general tax privileges for the church. In practice, this meant that the coronation year 1302 formed a limit afterwards. Previously acquired property was tax-exempt, but property acquired afterwards was not.

See also

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  • Sten Carlsson & Jerker Rosén: Svensk historia, vol. 1: Tiden före 1718 . 4th edition. Esselte Studium, Stockholm 1983, ISBN 91-24-29227-3 (EA Stockholm 1961)
  • Jakob Christensson (Ed.): Signums svenska kulturhistoria, Vol. 1: Medeltiden . Signum, Lund 2004, ISBN 91-87896-66-4
  • Bertil Nilsson (Ed.): Kristandet i Sverige. Gamla källor och nya perspective (Project Sveriges kristnande; vol. 5). Lunne Böker, Uppsala 1996, ISBN 91-88504-04-2 .
  • Arndt Ruprecht: The outgoing Viking Age in the light of the runic inscriptions (Palaestra; Vol. 224). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1958 (also dissertation, University of Göttingen 1958).

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Diplomatarium suecanum letter number 170 = DS number 24.
  2. ↑ Pope Gregory VII. Writes in a letter to kings Inge and Halsten around 1081 that he learned of the final conversion from Bishop R (odulvard) (Diplomatarium Suecanum letter number 169 = DS number 25.)
  3. ↑ Erik Brate: Själ . In: "Uppsalastudier", en festskrift tillägnad S. Bugge på hans 60-åra födelsedag. Uppsala 1892. pp. 6-14.
  4. ↑ Elof Hellquist: Kyrka . In: Svensk etymologisk ordbok . 1st edition. CWK Gleerups förlag, Berlingska boktryckerie, Lund 1922, p. 381-382 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  5. ↑ Runeinnskrifter from Södermanland (Sö) 86 and Sö 111.
  6. ↑ Ruprecht p. 101 ff.
  7. ↑ a b Ruprecht p. 107.
  8. ↑ Ruprecht p. 104.