CENTURY X.

“The deplorable state of Christianity in this century, arising partly from that astonishing ignorance that gave a loose rein both to superstition and immorality, and partly from an unhappy concurrence of causes of another kind, is unanimously lamented by the various writers who have transmitted to us the history of these miserable times” (p. 213).  Yet “the gospel” spread.  The Normans embraced “a religion of which they were totally ignorant” (p. 214), A.D. 912, because Charles the Simple of France offered Count Rollo a large territory on condition that he would marry his daughter and embrace Christianity:  Rollo gladly accepted the territory and its encumbrances.  Poland came next into the fold of the Church, for the Duke of Poland, Micislaus, was persuaded by his wife to profess Christianity, A.D. 965, and Pope John III. promptly sent a bishop and a train of priests to convert the duke’s subjects.  “But the exhortations and endeavours of these devout missionaries, who were unacquainted with the language of the people they came to instruct [how effective must have been their arguments!] would have been entirely without effect, had they not been accompanied with the edicts and penal laws, the promises and threats of Micislaus, which dejected the courage and conquered the obstinacy of the reluctant Poles” (p. 214).  “The Christian religion was established in Russia by means every way similar to those that had occasioned its propagation in Poland” (p. 215); the Greek wife of the Russian duke persuaded him to adopt her creed, and he was baptized A.D. 987.  Mosheim assumes that the Russian people followed their princes of their own accord, since “we have, at least, no account of any compulsion or violence being employed in their conversion” (p. 215); if the Russians adopted Christianity without compulsion or violence, all we can say is, that their conversion is unique.  The Danes were converted in A.D. 949, Otto the Great having defeated them, and having made it an imperative condition of peace, that they should profess Christianity.  The Norwegians accepted the religion of Jesus on the same terms.  Thus the greater part of Europe became Christian, and we even hear a cry raised by Pope Sylvester II. for the deliverance of Palestine from the Mahommedans—­for a holy war.  Christianity having now become so strong, learning had become proportionately weak; it had been sinking lower and lower during each succeeding epoch, and in this tenth century it reached its deepest stage of degradation.  “The deplorable ignorance of this barbarous age, in which the drooping arts were entirely neglected, and the sciences seemed to be upon the point of expiring for want of encouragement, is unanimously confessed and lamented by all the writers who have transmitted to us any accounts of this period of time” (p. 218).  In vain a more enlightened emperor in the East strove to revive learning and encourage study:  “many of the most celebrated