The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300In Europe, the cross went north and east as the centuries unrolled: from the Dingle Peninsula to Estonia, and from the Alps to Lapland, ranging in time from Roman Britain and Gaul in the third and fourth centuries to the conversion of peoples in the Baltic area a thousand years later. These episodes of conversion form the basic narrative here. History encourages the belief that the adoption of Christianity was somehow irresistible, but specialists show the underside of the process by turning the spotlight from the missionaries, who recorded their triumphs, to the converted, exploring their local situations and motives. What were the reactions of the northern peoples to the Christian message? Why would they wish to adopt it for the sake of its alliances? In what way did they adapt the Christian ethos and infrastructure to suit their own community? How did conversion affect the status of farmers, of smiths, of princes and of women? Was society wholly changed, or only in marginal matters of devotion and superstition? These are the issues discussed here by thirty-eight experts from across northern Europe; some answers come from astute re-readings of the texts alone, but most are owed to a combination of history, art history and archaeology working together. MARTIN CARVER is Professor of Archaeology, University of York. |
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Contents
Northern Europeans Negotiate their Future | 3 |
The Politics of Conversion in North Central Europe | 15 |
How do you pray to God? Fragmentation and Variety | 29 |
Processes of Conversion in Northwest Roman Gaul | 61 |
Roman Britain a Failed Promise | 79 |
Where are the Christians? Late Roman Cemeteries in Britain | 93 |
Votive Deposits and Christian Practice in Late Roman Britain | 109 |
Christian Origins in Wales and Western Britain | 119 |
Design and Meaning in Early Medieval Inscriptions in Britain | 327 |
The Alfred Jewel now in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford | 342 |
The Mysteries of Christ in AngloSaxon | 351 |
The Life of St Willibrord | 371 |
Desire Conversion and Reform | 397 |
From a Late Roman Cemetery to the Basilica Sanctorum Cassii | 415 |
From Late Antiquity to Merovingian Times | 429 |
Carolingian Times between Rhine and Elbe | 443 |
Archaeology and Early Church | 127 |
Romanitas and Realpolitik in Cogitosus Description of the Church | 153 |
Early Medieval Cornwall | 171 |
Early Medieval Parish Formation in Dumfries and Galloway | 195 |
AngloSaxon Pagan and Early Christian Attitudes to the Dead | 229 |
The Adaptation of the AngloSaxon Royal Courts to Christianity | 243 |
The Control of Burial Practice in middle AngloSaxon England | 259 |
Three Ages of Conversion at Kirkdale North Yorkshire | 289 |
minster by the Scandinavian lord Orm Gamalson in the eleventh | 292 |
Streanaeshalch Strensall and Whitby | 311 |
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Common terms and phrases
AEthelthryth Alcuin Anglian Anglo-Saxon England Archaeological associated barrow Bede Bede's bishop body British brooches burial buried Cambridge Carver causeways cemeteries centre chapel Christ Christian Christianisation Cogitosus context conversion Cornwall cremation cross cult culture deposition Early Christian early church early medieval East ecclesiastical eleventh evidence example excavated Figure Fiskerton Gaul grave-goods graves Gregory History hoards images inhumation inscribed inscription interpretation Ireland Irish Iveragh Jämtland Kildare King Kirkdale landscape late Roman later Lincolnshire London martyrs Middle Ages Minster missionaries monastery monastic monuments Morris mound narrative Newark Bay ninth century northern Northumbrian Orkney Oxford pagan parish period place-names political Poundbury relics religion religious rite ritual Roman Britain royal runestones saints Saxon Scandinavia Scandinavian sculpture settlement seventh century shrine Skellig Michael Society stone Strensall Studies suggested symbolic tenth Thomas tradition University Press Victricius Viking Age Vita votive depositions Whitby York
References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300 |
| Editor | Martin Carver |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Boydell Press, 2005 |
| ISBN | 1843831252, 9781843831259 |
| Length | 588 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Europe / Medieval Religion / Christianity / History |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |