Ansgar, Rimbert and the Forged Foundations of Hamburg-Bremen (Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West)

Ansgar and Rimbert, ninth-century bishops and missionaries to Denmark and Sweden, are fixtures of medieval ecclesiastical history. Rare is the survey that does not pause to mention their work among the pagan peoples of the North and their foundation of an archdiocese centered at Hamburg and Bremen. But Ansgar and Rimbert were also clever forgers who wove a complex tapestry of myths and half-truths about themselves and their mission. They worked with the tacit approval-if not the outright cooperation-of kings and popes to craft a fictional account of Ansgar's life and work. The true story, very different from that found in our history books, has never been told: Ansgar did not found any archdiocese at all. Rather, the idea of Hamburg-Bremen only took root in the tenth century, and royal sponsorship of the mission to Denmark and Sweden ended with the death of Louis the Pious. This book couples detailed philological and diplomatic analysis with broader historical contextualization to overturn the consensus view on the basic reliability of the foundation documents and Rimbert's Vita Anskarii. By revising our understanding of Carolingian northeastern expansion after Charlemagne, it provides new insight into the political and ecclesiastical history of early medieval Europe. Ansgar and Rimbert, ninth-century bishops, missionaries, and fixtures of early medieval history, were clever forgers who wove a complex tapestry of myths about themselves and the diocese that came to be centered at Hamburg and Bremen. This book is the first to overturn the scholarly consensus on the basic reliability of the early sources for their northern missions. In so doing it revises our understanding of Carolingian expansion after Charlemagne, and provides valuable new insight into the political and ecclesiastical history of early medieval Europe Ansgar's Predecessors -- The Conquest Of Saxony And Ebo's Mission To The Danes -- The Northern Mission In Transition, 830-834 -- Ansgar's Failure In The North, 834-848 -- Ansgar, Bremen And The Pallium, 848-864 -- Rimbert And The Vita Anskarii -- Appendix: Peripheral Questions For The Early History Of The Northern Mission. Eric Knibbs. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [235]-249) And Index. Ansgar and Rimbert, ninth-century bishops and missionaries to Denmark and Sweden, are fixtures of medieval ecclesiastical history. By revising our understanding of Carolingian northeastern expansion after Charlemagne, this title provides fresh insight into the political and ecclesiastical history of early medieval Europe.