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The conversion to Christianity of the Scandinavian people required more time, since it took additional efforts to establish a network of churches. The earliest signs of Christianization were in the 830s with Ansgar's construction of churches in Birka and Hedeby. [1] The conversion of Scandinavian kings occurred over the period 960–1020. [1]
The Catholic Church in the Nordic countries was the only Christian church in that region before the Reformation in the 16th century. Since then, Scandinavia has been a mostly non-Catholic region and the position of Nordic Catholics for many centuries after the Reformation was very difficult due to legislation outlawing Catholicism.
Christian laws also mentioned outdoor cult sites which were known as horgs. [6] Bans on eating horsemeat after the official conversion to Christianity imply that it was an important element of pagan cults. [3] Norsemen buried their dead in the ground or cremated them, but they always placed burial gifts in the graves. [6]
Denmark in the 10th century. The official conversion occurred during the reign of King Harald Bluetooth, who mounted the throne around 958. [17] According to the contemporaneous Widukind of Corvey, a priest named Poppo convinced him to accept that "there is only one true God" and the pagan deities were "in truth demons" by carrying a large piece of glowing hot iron in his hand without damaging ...
The conversion of Norway to Christianity began well before 1000 AD. The raids on Ireland, Britain and the Frankish kingdoms had brought the Vikings in touch with Christianity. [ 6 ] Haakon the Good of Norway who had grown up in England tried to introduce Christianity in the tenth century, but had met resistance from pagan leaders and soon ...
Members included Herigar, evidently the first documented Christian Swede. However, findings from a Christian graveyard at Varnhem, dated to the 9th century, indicate that Christianity may have arrived before Ansgar. [5] [6] In addition, it is not unlikely that Christian slaves and other foreigners inhabited Sweden before that time.
The connection of Christianity to the Roman Empire was both a factor in encouraging conversion as well as, at times, a motive for persecuting Christians. [2] Until the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes who had migrated there (with the exceptions of the Saxons, Franks, and Lombards, see below) had converted to Christianity. [3]
In the Kingdoms of Denmark-Norway, the Sami religion was banned on pain of death as witchcraft. During the 17th-century, the persecution of the followers of Sami religion were more intensely persecuted than before by Christian missionaries, and several Sami were persecuted for sorcery because they practiced the Sami religion. [2]