Ecclesiastical Organisation

Question 1

Topics for ecclesiastical organisation (6)

Answer 1

• Sources
• The foundation of churches
• Tithes
• Role of kings
• Hamburg-Bremen
• Why did it work in Iceland faster than everywhere else?

Question 2

The 11th century as a whole

Answer 2

11th century was a time of change throughout the european church, seperating church and state to give the church more power and autonomy and creating more tithes

Question 3

Sources and issues for ecclesastical organisation

Answer 3

• Vita Anksarii (but a bit early)
• Islendingabok (for Gizur and bishops)
• Adam of Bremen
• Archaeology (but a lot of the early churches would have been in wood so many won’t have survived)

– Overall, we can only create a vague picture of ecclesiastical organisation in scandinavia as so few sources survive and we don’t actually know much on early church organisation

Question 4

When does archaeology indicate the earliest churches in Scandi built?

Answer 4

Largely 980-1000

Question 5

English influence

Answer 5

• Use of words like ‘munk’ and ‘kyrka’ (Brink’s argument)

- Norway and Sweden have the same clerical structure

Question 6

Timeline of Icelandic ecclesiastical organisation

Answer 6

1056- Skaholt becomes first Icelandic bishopric, and Gizur later makes it a permenant seat
1060- Regular dioceses established by this point
1096/7- Introduction of tithes

Question 7

How did Christianity have to adapt in Iceland?

Answer 7

• Gragas shows laws and customs had to be adapted to suit icelandic landscape i.e. ‘Baptism by layman in case of need’

Question 8

What is not very clear for the early period

Answer 8

the organisation below the bishops– could have initially been private churches?
This would have still equated to encouraging christianity but Abrams highlights that this was not the model the church wanted

• Could have been a period of non-territorialized extended parishes?

Question 9

How was Iceland different?

Answer 9

• No king and was already very well organised
• Better sources– skewed picture?
• Tithed property not produce
• Adapted laws

Question 10

Information on tithes everywhere bar Iceland

Answer 10

• Adam of Bremen explicitly says they were not enforced in the 1070s
• Earliest reference date in Denmark is 1135, and Norway 1130 but overall the introduction of the tithe is quite obscure
• Tithes required clear parish boundaries in order to be levied, which took a while

Question 11

Development of ecclesastical organisation in Sweden

Answer 11

• We have very little information on early ecclesastical organisation in sweden
• It seems 5 dioceses existed in 1164 when Uppsala was made an archbishopric
• Seems it did not have fixed dioceses for ages– why?

Question 12

Development of ecclesastical organisation in Denmark

Answer 12

• First nation to conform to ecclesiastical patterns seen elsewhere
• Adam claimed there were 550 churches in Fyn, Skåne and Sjaeland by his time– probably balony
• Cnut founded the first regular dioceses, but this wasnt completed until 1060
• Lund made archdiocese in 1104

Question 13

Development of ecclesastical organisation in Norway

Answer 13

• Norwegian church organisation seems to have been influenced from England
• Nidaros made a see in 1065, then Stavanger in 1125
• Trondheim was the first episcopal see in Norway under Olaf III in 1152/3– this was extremely important as the Norwegian church henceforth became more autonomous and had authority over Norway and all the islands

Question 14

How did the Initial bishops work?

Answer 14

they’d been missionary bishops without a fixed see

Question 15

What does Adam say about the difficulties surrounding church organisation?

Answer 15

• Adamn highlights that on “account of newness” bishops did not yet have proper parishes
• He also says that some bishops did not fulfill their duties, such as not going to Scandinavia after being assigned to bishoprics there.

Question 16

What does Helle argue in terms of bishops?

Answer 16

Helle argues that bishops were probably chosen by the king in the early period, perhaps as members of the kings hird

Question 17

Relationship between the monarchy and early church power bases

Answer 17

The early church in Scandinavia was strongly depended on the monarchy, but unlike elsewhere in western Europe the monarch’s power was less secure and he did not have a lot of land or money to give to the church– so this is very different to Anglo-Saxon England for example (think charters)
- But they were likely still the economic base for the early church and the church’s economic base was too slender to become independent.

Question 18

Which Norwegian king seems to have come to terms with H.B. ?

Answer 18

Otto III

Question 19

What does Christensen argue about the Danes and H.B.?

Answer 19

Christensen argues that the Danes never felt comfortable being under the authority of H.B. culturally or politically

Question 20

Scholars to reference for Ecclesiastical organisation (5)

Answer 20

Christensen
Helle
Abrams
Sawyer
Brink

Question 21

What about ecclessiastical organisation on the north atlantic colonies?

Answer 21

• Church organisation was sorted by around the 11th century

- Adam says that H.B. got a bishop consecrated for the Orkneys when there had previously been an English bishop there.

Question 22

H.B.’s loss of Scandinavia….?

Answer 22

• In 1053 Pope Leo IX explicitly defined their province as including Scandinavia
• Yet by 1104 H.B. eventually lost its battle to be the archdiocese of Scandinavia
• It was removed from their authority in 1104 when Lund as made an archbishopric with Scandinavia as its see, under the promulgation of king Erik the Evergood of Denmark and the support of the pope

Question 23

How did H.B. originally attempt to organise Scandinavia in the missionary period?

Answer 23

divided it into missionary areas

Question 24

What does Adam say about Jutland dioceses and what does this say about H.B.’s actual authority in Scandinavia?

Answer 24

Adam claimed that Jutland dioceses were created by 948 but sawyer describes this as “missionary zeal” with H.B. just attempting to secure their missionary status. Skåra was not a see byt a suffragan diocese with the aim of maintaining H.B.’s dignity

Question 25

Summary of scholars and arguements to remember and cite on ecclesiastical organisation (4)

Answer 25

• Sawyer: Describes Adam’s claim of the Jutland dioceses as “missionary zeal”
• Helle: Argued that bishops were likely chosen by kings in the early period
• Abrams: Highlights that private churches were not the form of organised religion the church wanted
• Brink : Argues that borrowing of OE words shows English influence
• Christensen: Argues Denmark never felt comfortable under H.B.

Question 26

How were churches likely used in the early period?

Answer 26

• Probably not communal, aristocrats and kings likely built private churches and, if they were anything like the A.S. versions, they were likely very small
• So the economics of church building were not centred around providing for the many, but cementing the patronage of the few. Not concerned with the infrastructure for public worship

Question 27

How does the power of the aristocrats translate into this period?

Answer 27

• There is strong evidence of the importance of the chieftain or local ruler within pagan worship, and it seems this importance continued, but now manifested itself in an economic rather than a spiritual sense.

Question 28

Perhaps a fundamental flaw/ slowing down of ecclesiastical infrastructure

Answer 28

• The spread and consolidation of the church relied on unstable kingship
• • hence why Iceland did it quicker