Western Christendom

The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph & Diversity, AD 200-1000 (Paperback) 
by Peter R.L. Brown 

Prestige and links with the past counted greatly for such rulers. There were still many pasts from which they could choose. P343

There is a certain symmetry to this excellent book.  Its introduction is worth reading in its own right as a mighty survey of recent historical work that has debunked a great deal of what we thought we knew about the end of the Western Roman Empire and its late chapters describe how the myths we have have relied on were produced in the interests of an emerging European elite.  Perhaps a fulcrum to all this is the Carolingian myth that they were restoring the original Christian Roman Empire of Constantine after a long “Dark Ages” caused by barbarian invasions. In the light of this book, we can only smile at the power of political ideology to make us believe so strongly in the reality of things that never were.

More pragmatically, the book implies that what made the Roman Empire effective was its system of taxation and its exploitation of the labour of its peasant farmers. After centuries in which rulers lost the power to accumulate capital through taxation, Western Christianity in its “Roman” form offered a rediscovery of taxation and peasant exploitation through the medium of tithes. Pagans clearly recognised the connection between  conversion (often forceful) and the emergence of strong kings, and the example is given of Iceland choosing to adopt Christianity as a way to avoid the violent imposition of a Christian ruler as witnessed in Denmark and Trondheim and hence to protect its uniquely democratic legal system.  This incident from the final chapter reiterates findings reviewed in the introduction that the so called “fall of the Roman Empire” brought about a considerable improvement in the lives of many local communities, albeit alongside a collapse of the types of economic activity which would mainly benefit the elites.

The book makes the interesting point that northern pagans presented Christianity with quite different challenges to those of the ancient Greco-Roman world.  Its final chapter describes the role of Christian scribes in setting down all that we know of the Tain,  Beowulf, the Icelandic sagas and the oral culture generally of the northern peoples, with the surprising evidence that they preserved pagan myths because their Christian rulers at the time still depended on them for legitimacy. Popular religion typically wove together Christian and pagan features, especially because Christianity failed to address the importance of season and weather in the lives of European peasants away from the Mediterranean.

The conversion of pagans has often been less essential than converting different Christians to a contested orthodoxy.  There has always been a contest between the religious requirements of the ruling elite and the religious concerns and priorities of ordinary people.  The major theme of this book is its demonstration that there has never been a single, recognizably orthodox Christianity.  It is a faith that has been adapted repeatedly and creatively to serve the needs of diverse communities, fragmenting into many competing and often incompatible belief systems. And of course, related to this has been the writing and rewriting of histories to justify each change of direction in the swirling mists of social change.