[Sidenote: Conversion of Denmark]
About A.D. 822, a mission was sent from France to Denmark under Ebbo,
Archbishop of Rheims, which resulted in the conversion of Harold, King
of Jutland, who was baptized at Mayence, A.D. 826. At the request of
Harold, a fresh mission to Denmark was organized and headed by Anskar,
a monk of Corbey, near Amiens, who is often known as the "Apostle of
the North." [Sidenote: and Sweden.] From Denmark Anskar made his way to
Sweden, A.D. 831, where he was favourably received by the king, and a
year or two later was consecrated Archbishop of Hamburg, with
jurisdiction over the whole northern mission. [Sidenote: Slow advance
and vicissitudes of the Church.] At first the progress of the Church,
both in Denmark and Sweden, was very slow and fluctuating, and the
ravages of the northern pirates, or Vikings, caused great loss and
suffering; but after some years, Anskar was enabled to disarm the
opposition of Eric the heathen King of Denmark, and to make a
favourable impression upon the Swedish nobles. After his death in A.D.
865, the Church in Denmark went through many vicissitudes owing to
irruptions of the Northmen and other invaders, as well as to native
opposition. {134} Svend, who reigned over Denmark A.D. 991-A.D. 1014,
though brought up a Christian, persecuted the Church until his
re-conversion during a victorious sojourn in England. [Sidenote:
English missionaries in Denmark] Svend's son and successor, Canute the
Great (A.D. 1014-A.D. 1033), was very zealous in his endeavours to undo
the evil effects of his father's violence, and sent missionaries from
England, by whom the bulk of the Danish nation were converted to
Christianity.
[Sidenote: and Sweden.]
In Sweden, too, the Church made but slow progress after the death of
Anskar, until, in the beginning of the eleventh century, the King Olaf
Skötkonung, having been himself baptized about A.D. 1008, invited to
Sweden certain English clergymen, who laboured there with great
success. The first bishopric in Sweden was placed at Skara in West
Gothland, and filled by Turgot, an Englishman.
[Sidenote: Conversion of Norway, by English missionaries.]
The knowledge of the Gospel was first brought, in the tenth century,
into Norway from England by Hacon, who is said to have been educated at
the court of Athelstan, and who endeavoured, with the aid of English
priests, to bring about the conversion of his subjects. Hacon was,
however, induced, by the bitter opposition of his countrymen, to yield
a weak compliance to their idolatrous practices, and the Church
languished and almost died out until the reign of Olaf Trygovasön (A.D.
993-A.D. 1000), who had been baptized in the Scilly Isles during a
piratical expedition. The labours of the English missionaries were
finally successful in the reign of Olaf the Holy (A.D. 1017-A.D. 1033),
who was earnest in his efforts to further the work of the Church. It
may be remarked that Norwegian Bishops were usually consecrated either
in England or France, {135} though all the Scandinavian Churches were
still professedly dependent on the Archbishopric of Hamburg.
[Sidenote: Conversion of Iceland,]
In Iceland some traces of early Christianity, probably the result of
the labours of Irish missionaries, were still remaining when it was
colonized by Norwegian settlers in the ninth century; and towards the
end of the tenth century successive attempts were made by a Saxon
Bishop and by missionaries from Norway, to revive and deepen these
impressions. The opposition of the heathen colonists was, however, of
so determined a character, that it was only by the gradual conversion
of the mother country, and the labours of new bands of missionaries,
chiefly English and Irish, that Paganism was by degrees overcome.
[Sidenote: Greenland,]
From Iceland the Church made its way to Greenland, another Norwegian
colony, which was converted mainly by the instrumentality of an
Icelandic missionary, in the first half of the eleventh century; but
this ancient Church died out in the fifteenth century. About the same
time Christianity spread through the Norwegians to the Orkney,
Shetland, and Faroe Islands.
[Sidenote: and Lapland.]
The Church was first planted amongst the Lapps by Swedish missionaries
in the thirteenth century, but it was not until the sixteenth and two
following centuries that Christianity became the religion of the
country.