History of Christianity in Norway
Trade, plundering raids, and travel brought the Norsemen into close contacts with Christian communities, but their conversion only started after powerful chieftains decided to receive baptism during their stay in England or Normandy.
Haakon the Good was the first king to make efforts to convert the whole country, but the rebellious pagan chieftains forced him to apostatize.
[1] Snorri Sturluson incorporated several myths of Odin, Thor, Týr, and other pagan gods in his Prose Edda.
[6] Bans on eating horsemeat after the official conversion to Christianity imply that it was an important element of pagan cults.
[8] Reliquary, cross pendants and other objects of Christian provenance easily reached Norway through trade, plundering raids or travel from around 800.
[9] Contemporaneous authors wrote of pagan Vikings who wore the sign of cross to mingle freely with the local crowd during their raids.
[8] The similar storylines of the four kings' biographies imply that their authors followed a common pattern, but most modern historians accept them as reliable sources.
[13] The introduction of a professional cast of Christian priests abolished the religious leadership of the kings' heathen rivals.
[11][16] Haakon was baptised and Benedictine monks accompanied him back to his homeland around 934 to spread Christian ideas in his kingdom.
[18][19] The pagan chieftains of Møre and Trøndelag rebelled against Haakon, destroyed the churches that he had built and murdered the Christian missionaries.
[11] The region of Oslo was directly subjected to the rule of Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark, who had already converted to Christianity.
[14] Olaf Tryggvason was a Viking warlord who had made plundering raids against the coasts of the Baltic Sea and England before being baptized in the early 990s.
[23] Adam of Bremen claimed that Olaf had also urged the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen to send German missionaries to Norway.
[22] Olaf convoked a thing (or general assembly) to Moster where the official conversion of Norway to Christianity was decided in 1022.
[25] Court poets rarely referred to pagan myths in their poems written after Olaf's reign, which is a clear sign of the spread of Christian ideas.
[36][37] The fylki (or counties), which were important elements of secular administration, became also the basic units of ecclesiastic organization, most probably already during the reign of Olaf Haraldsson.
[39] The earliest churches were built by the monarchs or noblemen and the builders' successors insisted on the appointment of the local priests.
[41] Anglo-Norman, German and Danish architecture influenced the design of the oldest churches, but a locally inspired style developed in Trondheim in the 11th century.
[36] The document is most probably connected to the establishment of the Archbishopric of Lund in Denmark in 1104 by Pope Paschal II, which abolished the jurisdiction of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen in Scandinavia.
[45] He was the first king to strive for the establishment of an independent Norwegian archbishopric, but only the growing influence of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in Denmark convinced the pope to support the idea.
[46] In March 1152, Cardinal Nicholas Breakspear was appointed papal legate to Norway and Sweden and was tasked with the establishment of new archbishoprics.
[48] Breakspear also introduced the collection of the Peter's pence (an ecclesiastic tax payable to the Holy See) and organized the first cathedral chapters.
[43] The establishment of the archbishopric at Nidaros strengthened the authority of the Holy See, especially because prelates who had been staunch supporters of the ideas of Gregorian Reform were made archbishops.
[52] Both the Law of Succession, which was issued before the ceremony, and the king's coronation oath emphasized that the monarchs should rule justly and seek advice from the prelates.
[53] Pope Gregory IX forbade the Norwegian priests to marry in 1237, but most of them continued to live with women and father children.
[57] Sverre crowned himself king in 1194[58] and refused to accept Pope Innocent III's judgement in favor of the exiled archbishop.
