The Conversion of Europe

The Conversion of Europe
Richard Fletcher

The story of how Europe was converted to Christianity from 300AD until the barbarian Lithuanians finally capitulated at the astonishingly late date of 1386. It is an epic tale from one of the most gifted historians of today.This remarkable book examines the conversion of Europe to the Christian faith in the period following the collapse of the Roman Empire to approximately 1300 when the hegemony of the Holy Roman Empire was firmly established.One of the book’s great strengths is the degree to which it shows how little was inevitable about this process, how surrounded by uncertainties. What was the origin of the missionary impulse? Who were the activists who engaged in this work – the toilsome, often unrewarding, sometimes dangerous work of evangelisation, and how did they set about putting over this faith? How did a structure of ecclesiastical government come into being? Above all, at what point can one say that an individual or a society has become Christian? Fletcher’s range, lucidity and mastery of his sources brings the answers to these and many other questions as far within our grasp as they probably ever can be.Like Alan Bullock and Simon Schama, Fletcher is a historian with the true gift of a storyteller and a wide general readership ahead of him.Fletcher’s previous book, The Quest for El Cid won both the Wolfson History Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for History. This book is even better – the most impressive achievement so far of this strikingly gifted historian.

THE CONVERSION

OF EUROPE

From Paganism to Christianity

371–1386 AD

RICHARD FLETCHER

DEDICATION (#ulink_3146942a-993f-556f-ad8e-30fb57d012b1)

To my Father

and

in memory of my Mother

who nurtured my love of History

and by encouraging regular church-going

made me permanently interested

in how those buildings got there and what they were for.

In memory also of

Nico Colchester

my cousin and beloved friend,

a man of rare quality and manifold talents

whose life was tragically cut short

in 1996 at the age of only forty-nine

with whom I often discussed this book

in remote places far from libraries

in Devon and the Cévennes.

EPIGRAPH (#ulink_653147b2-b091-50fd-8e48-addeff83015d)

History, I think, is probably a bit like a pebbly beach, a complicated mass, secretively three-dimensional. It’s very hard to chart what lies up against what, and why, and how deep. What does tend to get charted is what looks manageable, most recognisable (and usually linear) like the wriggly row of flotsam and jetsam, and stubborn tar deposits.

RICHARD WENTWORTH

Enormous simplifications were possibly necessary to carry a deeper truth than lay on the surface of a mass of unsorted detail. That was, after all, what happened when history was written; many, if not most, of the true facts discarded.

ANTHONY POWELL

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure.

JANE AUSTEN

CONTENTS

COVER (#u23fd926e-723d-5f88-86d8-192798a4ef94)

TITLE PAGE (#u6331762b-cf23-564c-a8da-5fe890933f7b)

DEDICATION (#u7b13aacd-84ca-5399-b60e-da187e2b4aa9)

EPIGRAPH (#udcd081af-e99b-5c57-975b-df473e13a95f)

LIST OF MAPS (#u2aa4cc15-7768-5ced-a98b-4f75420a9a38)

PREFACE (#ub163be32-6194-5510-9870-37b8b0319a7d)

1 Who is it For? (#u2c1f6cb2-f62a-5f8d-9379-78e156181117)

2 The Challenge of the Countryside (#u1fcd7ab2-315c-5bc2-a9c2-3b830dd4ac3d)

3 Beyond the Imperial Frontiers (#u8ac3de65-90a0-553a-93d7-9fb7477c217d)

4 The New Constantines (#u5aa7d80e-b29e-5773-8589-4248cc602c02)

5 An Abundance of Distinguished Patrimonies (#u16515d1c-d5fb-5456-92b8-e3b7ab6a1065)

6 The Chalice and the Horn (#litres_trial_promo)

7 Campaigning Sceptres: the Frankish Drive to the East (#litres_trial_promo)

8 Rising by Steps: Christian Consolidation (#litres_trial_promo)

9 Rival Monotheisms (#litres_trial_promo)

10 A Certain Greek Named Methodius (#litres_trial_promo)

11 Scandinavians Abroad and at Home (#litres_trial_promo)

12 The Eastern Marches from Wenceslas to Nyklot (#litres_trial_promo)