Authors

Discussion

Continuing the work begun by Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, Helmold of Bosau expands upon the history of the Slavs. His Chronicle examines the people, events and cultures of medieval Europe, and in doing so it highlights the intense and unstable nature of the politics which shaped and was shaped by interactions with the Slavs. Reviewing the Slavs, Helmold could not neglect the point of religion, and this paper will consider the ways Helmold portrayed faith, power and fidelity.  

Helmold’s chronicle portrays a world in which politics and religion were inextricably linked, and yet they were not equal. Where Christian religion is written of as a shining virtue, one of wisdom and peace, politics did not have to follow suit, and even Christians could be criticised for their avarice or duplicity. As such, it is worth asking – if Helmold could acknowledge that there were immoral Christians, could there also be the possibility of honourable pagans? With a Christian viewpoint, and a hierarchical understanding of the world and indeed the universe, Helmold’s ‘Chronicle of the Slavs’ explores faith and conversion in terms of familiar paradigms, but it can be argued that it also paves the way for more probing questions of whether faith can truly be explored in binary ways – in the form of ‘have’ or ‘have not’, of ‘faithful’ or ‘faithless’.