Christianization

St. Francis Xavier converting the Paravas seeking protection ofPortuguese explorers from Arab fleets offshore: a 19th-centuryrepresentation of the “docile heathen”.

Christianization (or Christianisation) is theconversion of individuals to Christianity or the con-version of entire groups at once. It may also refer tothe forced imposition of a Christian society. Variousstrategies and techniques were employed in Christian-ization campaigns from Late Antiquity and throughoutthe Middle Ages: evangelization by monks or priests,organic growth within an already partly Christianizedsociety, or by campaigns against paganism such as theconversion of pagan temples into Christian churchesor the condemnation of pagan gods and practices.[1] Anotable strategy for Christianization was interpretatiochristiana – the practice of converting native paganpractices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagansites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses, due to theChristian efforts at proselytism (evangelism) based onthe Great Commission.

1 Interpretatio Christiana

Main article: Interpretatio Christiana

Reformatting native religious and cultural activities andbeliefs into a Christianized form was officially sanc-tioned; preserved in the Venerable Bede's Historia eccle-siastica gentis Anglorum is a letter from Pope Gregory Ito Mellitus, arguing that conversions were easier if peoplewere allowed to retain the outward forms of their tradi-tions, while claiming that the traditions were in honor ofthe Christian God, “to the end that, whilst some gratifi-cations are outwardly permitted them, they may the moreeasily consent to the inward consolations of the grace ofGod”. In essence, it was intended that the traditions andpractices still existed, but that the reasoning behind themwas altered. The existence of syncretism in Christian tra-dition has long been recognized by scholars, and in recenttimes many of the instances of syncretism have also beenacknowledged by the Roman Catholic church. Since 16thcentury and to modern days significant scholarship wasdevoted to deconstruction of interpretatio christiana, i.e.,tracing the roots of some Christian practices and tradi-tions to paganism. Early works of this type have tended tobe downplayed and even dismissed as a form of Protestantapologetics aimed at “purification” of Christianity.

2 Early Christianity (pre-Nicaean)

Main articles: Early Christianity and Acts of the Apos-tlesThe Council of Jerusalem ( around 50 AD ), accord-ing to Acts 15, determined that circumcision was not re-quired of Gentile converts, only avoidance of “pollutionof idols, fornication, things strangled, and blood” (KJV,Acts 15:20), establishing nascent Christianity as an alter-native to Judaism for prospective Proselytes. The TwelveApostles and the Apostolic Fathers initiated the processof transforming the originally Jewish sect into a religionof gentiles.The Armenian and Ethiopian churches are the only in-stances of imposition of Christianity by sovereign rulerspredating the council of Nicaea. The initial conversion ofthe Roman Empire occurred mostly in urban areas of Eu-rope, where the first conversions were sometimes amongmembers of the Jewish population. Later conversionshappened among the Grecian-Roman-Celtic populations

1

2 3 LATE ANTIQUITY (4TH-6TH CENTURIES)

James the Just, whose judgment was adopted in the ApostolicDecree of Acts 15:19-29, c. 50 AD: "...we should write to them[Gentiles] to abstain only from things polluted by idols and fromfornication and from whatever has been strangled and fromblood...” (NRSV)

over centuries, often initially among its urban population,with rural conversions taking place some time later. Theterm “pagan” is fromLatin, it means “villager, rustic, civil-ian” and is derived from this historical transition. Theroot of that word is present in today’s word “paisan” or“paisano”.

3 Late antiquity (4th-6th cen-turies)

Main article: Decline of Greco-Roman polytheismFurther information: Constantine I and ChristianityThe Christianization of the Roman Empire is typi-cally divided into two phases, before and after the year312 which marked the momentous quasi-conversion ofConstantine. By this date Christianity had already con-verted a significant but unknown proportion of at leastthe urban population of the Empire, including a num-ber of the elite classes. Constantine ended the intermit-tent persecution of Christianity with the Edict of Mi-lan, which granted tolerance to all religions, specificallymentioning Christianity. Under Constantine’s successors,Christianization of Roman society proceeded by fits andstarts, as John Curran recently documented in detail.[2]

Constantine’s conversion, by Rubens.

Statue depicting the baptism of Clovis by Saint Remigius.

Constantine’s sons, for example, banned pagan State re-ligious sacrifices in 341, but did not close the temples.Although all State temples in all cities were ordered shutin 356, there is evidence that traditional sacrifices con-tinued. Under Julian, the temples were reopened andState religious sacrifices performed once more. WhenGratian declined the position and title of Pontifex Max-imus, his act effectively brought an end to the state reli-gion due to the position’s authority and ties within the Im-perial administration. Again however, this process ended

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State official practices but not private religious devotion.As Christianity spread, many of the ancient pagan tem-ples were defiled, sacked, destroyed, or converted intoChristian sites by such figures as Martin of Tours, and inthe East often by militant monks. However, many tem-ples remained open until Theodosius I's edict of Thessa-lonica in 381 banned haruspices and other pagan religiouspractices. From 389-393 he issued a series of decreeswhich put an end ancient religious toleration by banningpagan religious rites and by confiscating their propertyand endowments. Further laws were passed against re-maining pagan practices over the course of the follow-ing years. The effectiveness of these laws empire-wideis debatable. Christianization of central Balkans is docu-mented at the end of the 4th century, where Nicetas theBishop of Remesiana brought the gospel to “those moun-tain wolves”, the Bessi.[3] Reportedly his mission was suc-cessful, and the worship of Dionysus and other Thraciangods was eventually replaced by Christianity.

Representation of Saint Clement fighting the Graoully dragon inthe Roman amphitheater of Metz. Authors tend to present suchlegend as a symbol of Christianity’s victory over paganism, rep-resented by a harmful dragon.

A turning point came after the Battle of the Frigidus of395, ending the last serious attempt to restore generaltoleration. After the defeat of Eugenius, the conserva-tive pagan families of Rome gave up their resistance toChristianity and began to re-invent themselves to main-tain their social leadership. By this time the Christianhierarchy had adopted classical education and culture asthe marks of the civilized person, thus bringing the twosocial groups into alliance. Under the regency of Stilicho(395-408), some paganism was still tolerated, but later inthe 5th century, legislation against pagan possessions, andother pagan practices, became increasingly strict. Thereappear to have been later attempts at a pagan revival, in456 in circles surrounding the general Marcellinus andunder Anthemius (r. 467-472), but these came to noth-ing. Marcian in 451 put the death penalty on the prac-tice on pagan rites, and Leo I in 472 reinforced this bypenalizing anyone who was aware that pagan rites wereperformed on his property.

The early Christianization of the various Germanic peo-ples was achieved by various means, and was partly fa-cilitated by the prestige of the Christian Roman Em-pire amongst European pagans. The early rise of Ger-manic Christianity was, thus, mainly due to voluntaryconversion on a small scale. In the 4th century someEastern Germanic tribes, notably the Goths, an EastGermanic tribe, adopted Arianism. From the 6th cen-tury, Germanic tribes were converted (and re-converted)by catholic missionaries, firstly among the Franks, afterClovis I's conversion to Catholicism in 496. Christianityat this time then constituted of a mix of Arian Christian-ity, catholic Christianity, and Christianized Germanic pa-ganism. The Lombards adopted Catholicism as they en-tered Italy, also during the 6th century. Conversion ofthe West and East Germanic tribes sometimes took place“top to bottom”, in the sense that missionaries sometimesaimed at converting Germanic nobility first, after whichtime their societies would began a gradual process ofChristianization that would generally take amatter of cen-turies, with some traces of earlier beliefs remaining. TheFranks were converted in the 5th century, after Clovis I'sconversion to catholic Christianity. In 498 (497 or 499are also possible) he let himself be baptized in Rheims.[4]With this act, the Frankish Kingdom became Christian,although it would take until the 7th century for the pop-ulation to abandon some of their pagan customs.[5] Thiswas typical of the Christianization of Europe. Christianand pagan practices would effectively exist in parallel.

4 Christianization of Europe (7th-15th centuries)

4.1 British Isles

See also: Anglo-Saxon Christianity and Hiberno-Scottishmission

The native Britons were already partly Christianized bythe time of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain; it isnot clear how thorough this process had been. Romano-British Christians, led by Saint Patrick had converted Ire-land and some in Scotland, but ecclesiastics of the timesuch as the British Gildas and later Anglo-Saxon Bedecriticized them for generally refusing to work at all forthe conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, in fact many wereabsorbed into the religion and culture of the new settlers.The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons was begun at aboutthe same time at the far north and south of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in two unconnected initiatives. Irishmissionaries led by Saint Columba based in Iona (from563) and elsewhere converted many Picts and the court ofAnglo-Saxon Northumbria, and the Gregorian mission,who landed in 596, did the same to the Kingdom of Kent.They had been sent by Pope Gregory I and were led by

4 4 CHRISTIANIZATION OF EUROPE (7TH-15TH CENTURIES)

Augustine of Canterbury with a mission team from Italy.In both cases, and in other kingdoms, the conversion wasgenerally “top down”, with the royal family and nobilityadopting the new religion first.The Viking invasions of Britain destroyed many monas-teries and newViking settlers restored paganism—thoughof a different variety to the Saxon or classical religions—to areas such as Northumbria andDublin for a time beforetheir own conversion.

4.2 Frankish Empire

Main article: Germanic ChristianityThe Germanic peoples underwent gradual Christianiza-

9th century depiction of Christ as a heroic warrior (StuttgartPsalter, fol. 23)

tion in the course of the Early Middle Ages, resulting ina unique form of Christianity known as Germanic Chris-tianity that was frequently some blend of Arian Chris-tianity and Germanic paganism. The Eastern and West-ern tribes were the first to convert through various means.However, it would not be until the 12th century that theNorth Germanic Tribes had Christianized.In the polytheistic Germanic tradition it was possible toworship Jesus next to the native gods like Woden andThor. Before a battle, a pagan military leader might prayto Jesus for victory, instead of Odin, if he expected morehelp from the Christian God. According to legend, Clo-vis had done that before a battle against one of the kingsof the Alemanni, and had thus attributed his victory toJesus.[6] The Christianization of the Franks laid the foun-dation for the further Christianization of the Germanicpeoples.The next impulse came from the edge of Europe. Al-though Ireland had never been part of the Roman Empire,Christianity had come there and developed, largely inde-pendently, into Celtic Christianity. The Irish monks haddeveloped a concept of peregrinatio.[7] This essentiallymeant that a monk would leave the monastery and hisChristian country to proselytize among the heathens, asself-chosen punishment for his sins. From 590 onwardsIrish missionaries were active in Gaul, Scotland, Wales

and England. During the Saxon Wars, Charlemagne,King of the Franks, Christianized the Saxons by way ofwarfare and law upon conquest.[8][9]

The Sachsenhain memorial in Verden, Germany

4.3 Great Moravia

Main article: Christianization of Moravia

What modern historians designate as Great Moravia wasa Slavic state that existed in Central Europe from around830 to the early 10th century. The territory of GreatMoravia was originally evangelized by missionaries com-ing from the Frankish Empire or Byzantine enclaves inItaly and Dalmatia since the early 8th century and spo-radically earlier.[10][11] The first Christian church of theWestern and Eastern Slavs known to the written sourceswas built in 828 by Pribina, the ruler and Prince ofthe Principality of Nitra, although probably still a pa-gan himself, in his possession called Nitrava (today Nitra,Slovakia).[12][13] The firstMoravian ruler known by name,Mojmír I, was baptized in 831 by Reginhar, Bishop ofPassau.[14] Despite the formal endorsement by the elites,the Great Moravian Christianity was described as con-taining many pagan elements as late as in 852.[15]

The Church organization in Great Moravia was super-vised by the Bavarian clergy until the arrival of theByzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius in863, upon Prince Rastislav's request.[16] Cyril developedthe first Slavic alphabet and translated the Gospel intothe Old Church Slavonic language.[16] Foundation of thefirst Slavic bishopric (870), archbishopric (880), andmonastery was the politically relevant outcome of theByzantine mission. In 880, Pope John VIII issued thebull Industriae Tuae, by which he set up an independentecclesiastical province in Great Moravia with ArchbishopMethodius as its head. He also named the German clericWiching the Bishop of Nitra, and Old Church Slavonicwas recognized as the fourth liturgical language, alongwith Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

4.7 Hungary 5

4.4 Bulgaria

Main article: Christianization of BulgariaAfter its establishment under Khan Asparukh in

Baptism of the Preslav Court by Nikolai Pavlovich (date of com-pletion unknown)

681, Bulgaria retained the traditional Bulgar religionTengriism and the pagan beliefs of the local Slavic pop-ulation. In the mid 9th century Boris I decided to estab-lish Christianity as a state religion in Bulgaria. In 864 hewas baptized in the capital Pliska by Byzantine priestsand after prolonged negotiations with both Rome andConstantinople he managed to create an autocephalousBulgarian Orthodox Church and used the newly createdCyrillic script to make the Bulgarian language the lan-guage of the Church.Christianity was challenged during the rule of his first-born son Vladimir-Rasate (889-893) who decided to re-turn to the old Bulgarian religion. Boris I who had previ-ously retired to a monastery led a rebellion against his sonand defeated him. At the counsel of Preslav in 893 histhird son Simeon I, born after the Christianization wasinstalled on the throne and the capital was moved fromPliska to Preslav as a symbol of the abolition of the old re-ligion. Simeon I led series of wars against the Byzantinesto gain official recognition of his Imperial title and thefull independence of the Bulgarian Church. As a resultof his victories in 927 the Byzantines finally recognizedthe Bulgarian Patriarchate.

4.5 Balkans

By the 870s the Serbs were baptized and had establishedthe Eparchy of Ras, on the order of Emperor Basil I.

4.6 Poland

Main article: Christianization of PolandSee also: Pagan reaction in Poland

Introduction of Christianity in Poland, by Jan Matejko, 1888–89, National Museum, Warsaw

The “Baptism of Poland” (Polish: Chrzest Polski) in 966refers to the baptism of Mieszko I, the first ruler of aunited Polish state. His baptism was followed by thebuilding of churches and the establishment of an eccle-siastical hierarchy. Mieszko saw baptism as a way ofstrengthening his hold on power, with the active supporthe could expect from the bishops, as well as a unify-ing force for the Polish people. Mieszko’s action provedhighly successful; by the 13th century, Roman Catholi-cism had become the dominant religion in Poland.

4.7 Hungary

Image of the King Saint Stephen I of Hungary, from the medievalcodex Chronicon Pictum from the 14th century.

6 4 CHRISTIANIZATION OF EUROPE (7TH-15TH CENTURIES)

In the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Hungary (which waslarger than modern day Hungary) was Christianized ini-tially by Greek monks sent from Constantinople to con-vert the pagan Hungarians. In 950 the tribal chief GyulaII of Transylvania visited Constantinople and was bap-tized. Gyula also had his officers and family baptizedunder the orthodox (Roman Catholic) confession. Theconversion of the Hungarian people was not completeduntil the reign of Gyula’s grandson, King Stephen I ofHungary. Stephen was the son of Grand Prince Géza ofHungary and Sarolt, the daughter of Gyula II. His author-ity as leader of the Hungarian tribal federation was recog-nized with a crown from Pope Sylvester II. King Stephenconverted the nomadic barbarian tribes of the Hungariansand induced them to sedentary culture. The conversionof Hungary is said to have been completed by the time ofStephen’s death in 1038.Soon the Hungarian Kingdom counted with two archbish-ops and 8 bishops, a defined state structure with provincegovernors that answered to the King. In the other hand,Saint Stephen opened the frontiers of his Kingdom in1016 to the pilgrims that traveled by land to the HolyLand, and soon this route became extremely popular, be-ing used later in the Crusades. Saint Stephen was thefirst monarch that was elevated to the sanctity for hisChristian characteristics and not because suffered a mar-tyr death.[17]

4.8 Kievan Rus’

Main article: Christianization of Kievan Rus’

Between the 8th and the 13th century the area of whatnow is European Russia, Belarus and Ukraine was set-tled by the Kievan Rus’. An attempt to Christianizethem had already been made in the 9th century, with theChristianization of the Rus’ Khaganate. The efforts werefinally successful in the 10th century, when about 980Vladimir the Great was baptized at Chersonesos.

4.9 Scandinavia

Main article: Christianization of Scandinavia

The Christianization of Scandinavia started in the 8thcentury with the arrival of missionaries in Denmark andit was at least nominally complete by the 12th century,although the Samis remained unconverted until the 18thcentury. In fact, although the Scandinavians becamenominally Christian, it would take considerably longerfor actual Christian beliefs to establish themselves amongthe people.[18] The old indigenous traditions that hadprovided security and structure since time immemorialwere challenged by ideas that were unfamiliar, such asoriginal sin, the Immaculate Conception, the Trinity and

According to Heimskringla, During the Christianization of Nor-way, King Olaf Trygvasson had male völvas (shamans) tied upand left on a skerry at ebb (woodcut by Halfdan Egedius (1877–1899).

so forth.[18] Archaeological excavations of burial sites onthe island of Lovön near modern-day Stockholm haveshown that the actual Christianization of the people wasvery slow and took at least 150–200 years,[19] and this wasa very central location in the Swedish kingdom. 13th cen-tury runic inscriptions from the bustling merchant townof Bergen in Norway show little Christian influence, andone of them appeals to a Valkyrie.[20] At this time, enoughknowledge of Norse mythology remained to be preservedin sources such as the Eddas in Iceland.

4.10 Baltic

Danish Bishop Absalon destroys the idol of Slavic god Svantevitat Arkona in a painting by Laurits Tuxen

Main article: Northern Crusades

The Northern Crusades[21] (or “Baltic Crusades”)[22]were crusades undertaken by the Catholic kings of Den-mark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonicmilitary orders, and their allies against the pagan peo-ples of Northern Europe around the southern and east-ern shores of the Baltic Sea. Swedish and Germancampaigns against Russian Eastern Orthodox Christiansare also sometimes considered part of the NorthernCrusades.[21][23] Some of these wars were called crusades

5.1 Colonies in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Pacific 7

during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of theSwedish ones, were first dubbed crusades by 19th centuryromantic nationalist historians. Lithuania and Samogitiawere ultimately Christianized from 1386 until 1417 bythe initiative of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila andhis cousin Vytautas.

4.11 Reconquista

Main article: ReconquistaBetween 711–718 the Iberian peninsula had been con-

Forces ofMuhammed IX, Nasrid Sultan ofGranada, at the Battleof La Higueruela, 1431

quered byMuslims in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania.Between 722 (see: Battle of Covadonga) and 1492 (see:the Conquest of Granada) the Christian Kingdoms thatlater would become Spain and Portugal reconquered itfrom the Moorish states of Al-Ándalus. The notoriousSpanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition were notinstalled until 1478 and 1536 when the Reconquista wasalready (mostly) completed.

5 Colonial era (16th−19th cen-turies)

Further information: Civilizing missionSee also: Christianization of Goa

Evangelization of Mexico

5.1 Colonies in the Americas, Africa, Asiaand Pacific

The expansion of the Catholic Portuguese Empire andSpanish Empire with a significant role played by Catholicmissionaries led to the Christianization of the indigenouspopulations of the Americas such as the Aztecs and Incas.Large number of churches were built.[24][25]

Later waves of colonial expansion such as the Scramblefor Africa or the struggle for India, by the Netherlands,Britain, France, Germany and Russia led to Christian-ization of other native populations across the globe suchas the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Filipinos, In-dians and Africans led to the expansion of Christianityeclipsing that of the Roman period and making it a trulyglobal religion.[26]

5.2 United States

Main article: History of immigration to the United States

The colonies which later became the United Stateswere largely colonized by England, and therefore theircolonists were predominantly Protestant. Even colonistswith non-English backgrounds—Scots, Scotch Irish, Ger-mans, Dutch, French, and Swedes—were mostly fromProtestant countries in Northern Europe. Thus Protes-tantism as a religious force shaped the mind of pre-independence colonial America.By the 1790 Census, the total immigration over the ap-proximately 130-year span of colonial existence of theU.S. colonies was summarized as: 3.9 million total,comprising 2.56 million British, 0.76 million African,and 0.58 million “other” who probably included alarge proportion of people with poorly recorded Englishancestry.[27] It wasn't until the nineteenth century that Ro-man Catholics became a numerically significant segmentof American life, mainly due to large-scale immigrationfrom Ireland (driven by the Great Famine from 1845

8 8 MYTHS AND IMAGERY

onward[28]) and countries in Southern Europe (partly dueto farming improvements which created surplus labor),and absorption of territories originally colonized or influ-enced by Catholic countries such as Spain.

6 20th century

6.1 America

Main article: Christianity in America

In 1908 Pope Pius X declared that the United States wasno longer a missionary territory for Roman Catholicism.By this time the Roman Catholic church was well estab-lished enough to stake a place for itself in the Americanreligious landscape. It was about 15 million strong by theopen of the century. Thus, the church adopted a mis-sion to Christianalize other cultures. On November 16,1908, a missionary conference was held in Chicago tomark the transition from becoming a church that receivedmissionary help to a church that sends it. Attendees in-cluded Boston’s Archbishop William H. O'Connell andChicago’s Archbishop James Edward Quigley, who calledattention to the “new era” into which the church in Amer-ica now entered.

7 Sacred sites

Main article: Christianized sitesMany Christian churches were built upon sites alreadyconsecrated as pagan temples or mithraea, the church ofSanta Maria sopra Minerva (literally Saint Mary aboveMinerva) in Rome being simply the most obvious ex-ample, though a period of about 350 years of abandon-ment intervened between temple and church in this case.Sulpicius Severus, in his Vita of Martin of Tours, a ded-icated destroyer of temples and sacred trees, remarks“wherever he destroyed heathen temples, there he usedimmediately to build either churches or monasteries”,[29]and when Benedict took possession of the site at MonteCassino, he began by smashing the sculpture of Apolloand the altar that crowned the height.The British Isles and other areas of northern Europe thatwere formerly druidic are still densely punctuated by holywells and holy springs that are now attributed to somesaint, often a highly local saint unknown elsewhere; inearlier times many of these were seen as guarded by su-pernatural forces such as the melusina, and many suchpre-Christian holy wells appear to survive as baptistries.Not all pre-Christian holy places were respected enoughfor them to survive, however, as most ancient Europeansacred groves, such as the pillar Irminsul, were destroyedby Christianizing forces.During the Reconquista and the Crusades, the cross

Physical Christianization: the choir of San Salvatore, Spoleto,occupies the cella of a Roman temple.

served the symbolic function of possession that a flagwould occupy today. At the siege of Lisbon in 1147,when a mixed group of Christians took the city, “Whatgreat joy and what a great abundance there was of pioustears when, to the praise and honor of God and of themost Holy Virgin Mary the saving cross was placed atopthe highest tower to be seen by all as a symbol of the city’ssubjection.”[30]

8 Myths and imagery

Main article: Christianized myths and imageryThe historicity of several saints has often been treatedsceptically by most academics, either because there is apaucity of historical evidence for them, or due to strikingresemblances that they have to pre-Christian deities. In1969 the Roman Catholic Church officially decanonizedsome Christian Saints, demoted others, and pronouncedthe historicity of others to be dubious. Though highlypopular in the Middle Ages, many of these such saintshave since been largely forgotten, and their names maynow seem quite unfamiliar. The most prominent amongstthese is Saint Eustace, who was extremely popular in ear-lier times, but whom Laura Hibberd sees as a chimeracomposed from details of several other Saints. Many ofthese figures of dubious historicity appear to be based onfigures from pre-Christian myth and legend, Saint Sarah,for example, also known as Sarah-la-Kali, is thought byRonald Lee to be a Christianization of Kali, a Hindu de-

9

Ivory diptych of a priestess of Ceres, defaced and damaged byChristians

ity.

9 Symbolism

Although the cross is currently the most common symbolof Christianity, and has been for many centuries, it onlycame to prominence during the 4th century.The predecessor of the cross as the main Christian sym-bol was the labarum, a symbol formed by overlaying thefirst two letters of the Greek word for Christ in the Greekalphabet. Constantine I is widely considered to have in-troduced the symbol into Christianity, but the symbol it-self predates this.Although Christian tradition argues that Constantine

The Baptism of Kievans, a fresco by Viktor Vasnetsov

chose the labarum because he had a vision that led himto convert to Christianity, Constantine’s conversion is dis-puted by some historians, who see Constantine’s motivefor choosing the labarum as political, with him deliber-ately making his banner one which could be interpretedas supporting either of the two major religions of the Ro-man Empire at the time.Prior to the labarum, the main Christian symbol, andthe earliest, was a fish-like symbol now known as Ichthys(the Greek word for fish); the Greek word ιχθυς is anacronym for the phrase transliterated as “Iesou ChristosTheou Yios Sotiras”, that is, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, theSavior”. There are several other connections with Chris-tian tradition relating to this choice of symbol: that it wasa reference to the feeding of the multitude; that it referredto some of the apostles having previously been fisher-men; or that the word Christ was pronounced by Jews ina similar way to the Hebrew word for fish (though Nunais the normal Aramaic word for fish, making this seemunlikely).

10 See also

• Forcible conversion to Christianity

• Christian debate on persecution and toleration

• Conquistador

• Crusades

10 11 NOTES

• European colonization of the Americas

• Goa Inquisition

• Inculturation

• Missions

• Missionaries in India

• Taiping Rebellion

• Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England

• Christianization of England

• Christianization of Ireland

• Christianization of the Celtic peoples

• Christianization of Roman (Southern) France

• Christianization of Bavaria

• Christianization of the Netherlands

• Christianization of the Swiss

• Christianization of Lithuania

• Christianization of the Faroe Islands

• Christianization of the Basque people

• Christianization of Iceland

• Christianization of Scandinavia

• Christianization of Finland

• Christianization of Kievan Rus’

• Christianization of the Rus’ Khaganate

• Christianization of Poland

• Christianization of Bulgaria

• Christianization of Armenia

• Christianization of Goa

• Christianization of Tonga

In other religions

• Islamization

• Judaization

11 Notes

[1] Sanmark, Alexandra (2003), “Power and Conversion: AComparative Study of Christianization in Scandinavia”(PDF), Occasional Papers in Archaeology 34

[2] Curran 2000.

[3] Gottfried Schramm: A New Approach to Albanian His-tory 1994

[4] Padberg, Lutz v. (1998), p.45-48, p.53

[5] Grave goods, which of course are not a Christian prac-tice, have been found until that time; see: Padberg, Lutzv. (1998), p.59

[6] Padberg, Lutz v. (1998), p.48

[7] Padberg, Lutz v. (1998), p.67

[8] Examples include the Massacre of Verden in 782, dur-ing which Charlemagne reportedly had 4,500 captive Sax-ons massacred upon rebelling against conversion, and theCapitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, a law imposed on con-quered Saxons in 785 which prescribes death to those thatrefuse to convert to Christianity.

[9] For the Massacre of Verden, see Barbero, Alessandro(2004). Charlemagne: Father of a Continent, page 46.University of California Press. For the Capitulatio de part-ibus Saxoniae, see Riché, Pierre (1993). The Carolin-gians. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1342-3.

[10] Poulik, Josef (1978). “The Origins of Christianityin Slavonic Countries North of the Middle DanubeBasin”. World Archaeology 10 (2): 158–171.doi:10.1080/00438243.1978.9979728.

[11] Stanislav, Ján (1934). Životy slovanských apoštolov Cyrilaa Metoda. Panonsko-moravské legendy. Bratislava, Praha:Vydané spoločne nakladateľstvom Slovenskej ligy a L.Mazáča. Retrieved 2009-10-09.

[12] Bartoňková Dagmar et al., eds. (1969). “Libellus de con-versione Bagoariorum et Carantanorum (i.e. Conversio)".Magnae Moraviae fontes historici III. Praha: Statni peda-gogicke nakl.

[13] Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum: “Adalramusarchepiscopus ultra Danubium in sua proprietate loco vo-cato Nitrava consecravit ecclesiam.” (“Archbishop Adal-ram consecrated a church for him over the Danube on hispossession called Nitra.”)

[14] Sommer, Petr; Trestik, Dusan; Zemlicka, Josef (2007),“Bohemia and Moravia”, in Berend, Nora, Christianiza-tion and the rise of Christianmonarchy : Scandinavia, Cen-tral Europe and Rus’ c. 900-1200, Cambridge, UK ; NewYork: Cambridge University Press, pp. 214–262

[15] Barford, P. M. (2001). The early Slavs : culture and soci-ety in early medieval Eastern Europe. Ithaca, NY: CornellUniversity Press.

11

[16] Philip Schaff. History of the Christian Church, VolumeIV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073. CCEL. pp.161–162. ISBN 978-1-61025-043-6. Retrieved 15 June2013.

[17] Sisa, Stephen. (1995). The Spirit of Hungary : APanorama of Hungarian History and Culture. Vista CourtBooks. Millington, NJ: United States

[18] Schön 2004, 170

[19] Schön 2004, 172

[20] Schön 2004, 173

[21] Christiansen, Erik (1997). The Northern Crusades. Lon-don: Penguin Books. p. 287. ISBN 0-14-026653-4.

[22] Hunyadi, Zsolt; József Laszlovszky (2001). The Crusadesand the Military Orders: Expanding the Frontiers of Me-dieval Latin Christianity. Budapest: Central EuropeanUniversity Press. p. 606. ISBN 963-9241-42-3.

[23] An Historical Overview of the Crusade to Livonia byWilliam Urban

[24] Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of the Expansion ofChristianity Volume 3 Three Centuries Of Advance A.D.1500-A.D. 1800 (1939)

[25] Guy Stresser-Pean, The Sun God and the Savior: TheChristianization of the Nahua and Totonac in the SierraNorte De Puebla, Mexico (2009)

[26] Stuart B. Schwartz, All Can Be Saved: Religious Toleranceand Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World (2009)

[27] Data From Ann Arbor, Michigan: Inter-university Con-sortium for Political and Social Research (ICPS).

[28] Jay P. Dolan, The Irish Americans: A History (2010) pp67-83

[29] Vita, ch xiii

[30] De expugnatione Lyxbonensi

12 References

• Balmer, Randall (2001). Religion in Twentieth Cen-tury America. ISBN 0-19-511295-4.

• Curran, John 2000. Pagan City and Christian Cap-ital. (Oxford) ISBN 0-19-815278-7. Reviewed byFred S. Kleiner in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 20

• Fletcher, Richard, The Conversion of Europe. FromPaganism to Christianity 371-1386 AD. London1997.

• Gaustad, Edwin Scott; Noll, Mark (2003). A Docu-mentary History of Religion in America Since 1877.ISBN 0-80-282230-4.

• Kaplan, Steven 1984 Monastic Holy Man and theChristianization of Early Solomonic Ethiopia (in se-ries Studien zur Kulturkunde) ISBN 3-515-03934-1

• Kerenyi, Karl, Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Inde-structible Life 1976.

• MacMullen, Ramsay, Christianizing the Roman Em-pire, AD 100 – 400 Yale University Press (paper-back, 1986 ISBN 0-300-03642-6 )

• Padberg, Lutz v., (1998): Die Christianisierung Eu-ropas im Mittelalter, Stuttgart, Reclam (German)

• Trombley, Frank R., 1995. Hellenic Religion andChristianization c. 370-529 (in series Religions in theGraeco-RomanWorld) (Brill) ISBN 90-04-09691-4

• Vesteinsson, Orri, 2000. The Christianization ofIceland: Priests, Power, and Social Change 1000-1300 (Oxford:Oxford University Press) ISBN 0-19-820799-9

• Senaka Weeraratna, Repression of Buddhismin Sri Lanka by the Portuguese (1505 -1658)(http://vgweb.org/unethicalconversion/port_rep.htm)2005]

13 External links• Jorge Quiroga and Monica R. Lovelle, “Ciudadesatlánticas en transición: La “ciudad” tardo-antigua yalto-medieval en el noroeste de la Península Ibérica(s.V-XI)" from Archeologia Medievale vol xxvii(1999), pp 257–268 Christianizing Late AntiqueRoman sites from the 6th century onwards.

• Unilineal Descent Groups and Deep Christianiza-tion: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

12 14 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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