in 892 took up her abode in Iceland and reared a lofty cross in front of her house. But the Icelanders
were great travellers, and one of them, Thorvald Kodranson, who in Saxony had embraced
Christianity, brought bishop Frederic home to Iceland. Frederic stayed there for four years, and his
preaching found easy access among the people. The mission of Thangbrand in the latter part of the
tenth century failed, but when Norway, or at least the Norwegian coast, became Christian, the
intimate relation between Iceland and Norway soon brought the germs which Frederic had planted,
into rapid growth, and in the year 1000 the Icelandic Althing declared Christianity to be the
established religion of the country. The first church was built shortly after from timber sent by Olaf
the Saint from Norway to the treeless island.
IV. THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE SLAVS.
§ 32. General Survey.
A. Regenvolscius: Systema Hist. chronol. Ecclesiarum Slavonic. Traj. ad Rhen., 1652.
A. Wengerscius: Hist. ecclesiast. Ecclesiarum Slavonic. Amst., 1689.
Kohlius: Introductio in Hist. Slavorum imprimis sacram. Altona, 1704.
J. Ch. Jordan: Origines Slavicae. Vindob., 1745.
S. de Bohusz: Recherches hist. sur l’origine des Sarmates, des Esclavons, et des Slaves, et sur les
époques de la conversion de ces peuples. St. Petersburg and London, 1812.
P. J. Schafarik: Slavische Alterthümer. Leipzig, 1844, 2 vols.
Horvat: Urgeschichte der Slaven. Pest, 1844.
W. A. Maciejowsky: Essai Hist. sur l’église ehrét. primitive de deux rites chez les Slaves. Translated
from Polish into French by L. F. Sauvet, Paris, 1846.
At what time the Slavs first made their appearance in Europe is not known. Latin and Greek
writers of the second half of the sixth century, such as Procopius, Jornandes, Agathias, the emperor
Mauritius and others, knew only those Slavs who lived along the frontiers of the Roman empire.
In the era of Charlemagne the Slavs occupied the whole of Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the
Balkan; the Obotrites and Wends between the Elbe and the Vistula; the Poles around the Vistula,
and behind them the Russians; the Czechs in Bohemia. Further to the South the compact mass of
Slavs was split by the invasion of various Finnish or Turanian tribes; the Huns in the fifth century,
the Avars in the sixth, the Bulgarians in the seventh, the Magyars in the ninth. The Avars penetrated
to the Adriatic, but were thrown back in 640 by the Bulgarians; they then settled in Panonia, were
subdued and converted by Charlemagne, 791–796, and disappeared altogether from history in the
ninth century. The Bulgarians adopted the Slavic language and became Slavs, not only in language,
but also in customs and habits. Only the Magyars, who settled around the Theiss and the Danube,
and are the ruling race in Hungary, vindicated themselves as a distinct nationality.
The great mass of Slavs had no common political organization, but formed a number of
kingdoms, which flourished, some for a shorter, and others for a longer period, such as Moravia,
Bulgaria, Bohemia, Poland, and Russia. In a religious respect also great differences existed among
them. They were agriculturists, and their gods were representatives of natural forces; but while
Radigost and Sviatovit, worshipped by the Obotrites and Wends, were cruel gods, in whose temples,
especially at Arcona in the island of Rügen, human beings were sacrificed, Svarog worshipped by
the Poles, and Dazhbog, worshipped by the Bohemians, were mild gods, who demanded love and