as clergy, and left them a priest to administer the sacraments, whom these people, to the number of seven thousand, received with the greatest joy and devotion.

In the next town he remained six weeks, and baptised so great a multitude, that his alb was often wet with perspiration even to the waist. At another town he was less fortunate. The pagans fell with fury on him and his attendants. St. Otto was with difficulty saved, after having received many blows and fallen in the mud. At Stetten, the people declared at first that they were satisfied with their old religion, and refused to become Christians; but they afterwards gave hopes that if the duke would remit certain taxes, they might be induced to adopt Christianity. While the negotiation was going on, the bishop and priests, arrayed in their vestments, and bearing a cross, preached twice a-week in the marketplace, that is, on market-days. The novelty attracted many hearers, and several were converted. On the return of their messengers with a favourable answer from the duke, the inhabitants resolved to receive the Gospel. Otto exhorted them to destroy their idols; but as they feared to do so, he himself led the way with his clergy, and struck the idols down, when the people, seeing that their gods could not avenge themselves, completed the work of destruction. Thus he went throughout Pomerania, converting multitudes of the people, and at length returned to Bamberg, after a year's absence. In a

few years he again visited Pomerania, many of the people having relapsed into paganism; but as he approached Stettin, the clergy who accompanied him, dreading the barbarity of the people, remonstrated with him, and endeavoured to dissuade him from his

journey. He said to them, I would fain exhort you

to martyrdom, but I shall not constrain any one. If you will not aid me, at least do not hinder me; but leave to me the same liberty which I do to you." Thus saying, he shut himself up in his chamber, and remained in prayer till the evening. But in the night he placed on his shoulders a bag containing his vestments and the vessels of the altar, and privately left the place, taking the road to Stettin, and chanting the nocturnal service as he went. Early in the morning, the clergy found him, after an anxious search, as he was entering a boat; and casting themselves at his feet, with many tears, promised that they would follow him even to death. St. Otto succeeded in recovering the people from their apostacy, and after many labours and dangers returned at last to Bamberg.

In 1168, the natives of the isle of Rugen, in the Baltic, were converted to Christianity; the capital of that island having been surrendered to Waldemar, king of Demark, on condition that the idol Suantovit, and all his treasure, should be delivered to the king, and that the people should embrace the Christian religion. Suantovit, whom these barbarians regarded as their principal deity, was originally the martyr St. Vitus. The monks of Corby, in Saxony, had formerly introduced Christianity into this island, and they had dwelt so much on the merits and miracles of this saint (whose relics were preserved at Corby), that the people, after their departure, fell into most dreadful idolatry, forgot the true God, and placed the martyr St. Vitus, whom they called Suantovit, in his stead, and made an idol of the saint with four heads, to which the people offered human sacrifices; and the idol-priest had greater wealth and authority than the king. Such are the dangers which arise from the excessive

honours paid to saints and images. The idol was dragged into the Danish camp, where it was split to pieces, and the wood was employed in the campkitchens. The idol-temple was burnt, churches were built, and the people converted and baptised by the bishops of Roschild and Mecklenberg, who accompanied the king of Denmark.

The Sclavonians who inhabited the borders of the Baltic sea were, in a great measure, converted by the pious and judicious zeal of Vicelinus, bishop of Oldenberg. He devoted thirty years of his life to the glorious work of an evangelist among the northern nations, and few names in these ages deserve more

reverence.

About the same time, the Armenians, who had been for a long time involved in the Eutychian heresy, condemned by the fourth oecumenical synod, were reunited for a time to the communion of the patriarch of Constantinople. In the following century they also received for a short time the dominion of the bishop of Rome.

The conversion of the Maronites, a small nation of Mount Lebanon, in Syria, took place about 1182. They had been involved in the Monothelite heresy since the seventh century; but now, finding themselves surrounded by the various principalities established by the Latins in the time of the crusades, they embraced the faith, discipline, and obedience of the pope. About this time, the Gospel was introduced into Livonia, a country on the Baltic, by Meinard, canon of Sigeburg, who made several voyages there with the merchants, and gained many converts. Finding his work prosperous, he applied to the archbishop of Bremen for additional authority, and was ordained bishop, when he fixed his see at Riga, and converted great numbers of the heathen. Berno, bishop of Suerin, who died in 1195, had also

M

baptised many of the Sclavonians, abolished their idols, and cut down their groves.

In 1210, some Cistertian monks preached the Gospel in Prussia; and some years afterwards, the pagans of that country having most dreadfully persecuted the Christian converts, they were subdued by Crusaders, and by the powerful order of Teutonic knights, and gradually converted to Christianity. In this century also, the Mohammedans were deprived of their dominion in the greater part of Spain, and Christianity was re-established in that country. They had already been despoiled of Sicily by the Normans. In 1230, the king and people of Courland, on the Baltic sea, made a treaty with the Roman legate in Germany, by which they undertook to receive the Gospel. The Franciscan and Dominican friars, in the latter part of this century, preached in Tartary with considerable success. They were sent by Nicholas IV. with letters to the emperor of Tartary, and to the Nestorians; and they succeeded in erecting several Christian churches in China, which was then under the dominion of the Tartars. One of these pious missionaries, named John à Monte Corvino, translated the Psalms and the New Testament into the Tartar language. In 1307, 1311, and 1338, Clement V. and Benedict XII. sent several bishops into Tartary and China; but after that period, their missions seem to have fallen into decay. The last country in Europe which received the Christian religion was Lithuania. Jagello, duke of Lithuania, was still a pagan, when on the death of Louis, king of Poland, he was named amongst the candidates for the vacant throne; but his infidelity was an invincible obstacle to the attainment of his wishes. It is to be hoped that his conversion was sincere, as he persuaded all his subjects to embrace Christianity, at the same time that he himself did, in 1386.

The conquests of the Portuguese in Africa and India led to the spread of Christianity in those countries. The sovereigns of that nation felt themselves bound to use all their influence for the propagation of the Gospel in their dominions; and the first result was the conversion of the king and people of Congo in Africa, in 1491. The subsequent settlement of the Portuguese in India was distinguished by similar blessings. The conquest of South America and of the West Indies, by the Spaniards, was also made the means of disseminating the Christian faith through those wide regions, though we cannot but deplore the cruelties which were practised in the subjugation of the unfortunate inhabitants of those countries.

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH.

A.D. 1054-1517.

THE belief of the eastern and western branches of the universal Church remained the same in all articles of faith, during the period now before us, as it had been before the division. The Nicene creed was universally received as the rule of faith. The six holy œcumenical synods were still regarded with the greatest veneration; but the decrees of the Nicene synod in favour of images, which pretended to be the seventh œcumenical synod, were only approved by the eastern and by a portion of the western Churches. The principal point of doctrinal difference between the East and West, was the procession of the Holy Spirit; for the former asserted, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only, while the latter believed that He also