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§ 73. Literature and General Survey.


Literature: I. For Northeastern Germany. – H. Hahn: Gesch. d. kathol. Mission, 5 vols., Col., 1857–1865.—G. F. Maclear: Hist. of Christ. Missions during the M. A., London, 1863.—C. A. H. Kalkar: Gesch. d. röm.-kathol. Mission, German trans., Erlang., 1867.—Th. Smith: Med. Missions, Edinburg, 1880.—P. Tschackert: Einführung d. Christenthums in Preussen, in Herzog, IX. 25 sqq.—Lives of Otto of Bamberg by Ebo and Herbord (contemporaries) in Jaffé; Bibl. Rerum Germanic., Berlin, 1869, vol. V. trans. in Geschichtschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit, Leipzig, 1869.—Otto’s Letters in Migne, vol. 173.—Mod. Lives by F. X. Sulzbeck, Regensb., 1865, and J. A. Zimmermann, Freib. im Br., 1875.—For copious Lit. see Potthast: Bibl. Hist., II. 1504 sq.—For Vicelinus, see Chronica Slavorum Helmodi (a friend of Vicelinus), ed. by Pertz, Hann., 1868. Trans. by Wattenbach in Geschichtschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit, Leipzig, 1888.—Winter: Die Praemonstratenser d. 12ten Jahrhunderts und ihre Bedeutung für das nordöstl. Deutschland. Ein Beitrag zur Gesch. der Christianisirung und Germanisirung des Wendenlandes, Leipzig, 1865. Also Die Cisterzienser des nordöstl. Deutschlands, 3 vols., Gotha, 1868.—E. O. Schulze: D. Kolonisierung und Germanisirung der Gebiete zw. Saale und Elbe, Leipzig, 1896.—Edmund Krausch: Kirchengesch. der Wendenlande, Paderb., 1902.—Hauck. III. 69–150, 623–655.—Ranke: Weltgesch., VIII. 455–480.—The arts. Albert of Riga, Otto von Bamberg, Vicelinus, and Wenden in Wetzer-Welte and Herzog. See Lit. under Teutonic Knights, p. 296.

II. For The Mohammedans. – Works on Francis d’assisi, see § 69.—For Raymundus Lullus: Beati Raymundi Lulli doctoris illuminati et martyrisopera, ed. by John Salzinger, Mainz, 1721–1742, 10 vols. (VII., X. wanting). His Ars magna (opera quae ad artem universalem pertinent), Strassburg, 1598. Last ed., 1651. Recent ed. of his Poems Obras rimadas, Palma, 1859. For the ed., of Raymund’s works publ. at Palma but not completed see Wetzer-Welte, Raim. Lullus, X. 747–749.—Lives by Perroquet, Vendome, 1667; Löw, Halle, 1830.—*A. Helfferich: R. Lull und die Anfänge der Catalonischen Literatur, Berlin, 1858; W. Brambach, Karlsr., 1893; André, Paris, 1900.—*S. M. Zwemer: Raymund Lull, First Missionary to the Moslems, New York, 1902.—Lea: Hist. of the Inquis., III. 563–590.—Reusch: Der Index, etc., I. 26–33.—Zöckler, in Herzog, XI. 706–716.

III. For The Mongols. – D’Ohson: Hist. des Mongols, Paris, 1824.—H. H. Howorth: Hist. of the Mongols, 3 vols., London, 1876–1880.—Abbé Huc: Le Christianisme en Chine, en Tartare et en Thibet, Paris, 1857.—Külb: Gesch. der Missionsreisen nach der Mongolei während des 13ten und 14ten Jahrhunderts, 3 vols., Regensb., 1860.—Col. Henry Yule: Travels and Life of Marco Polo, London, 1871; Rev. ed. by H. Cordier, New York, 1903.—R. K. Douglas (Prof. of Chinese in King’s Col., London): Life of Jenghiz Khan.—Gibbon, chaps. XLVII., LXIV.; Ranke, VIII. 417–455; and arts. Rubruquis, Mongolen, etc., in Herzog, Wetzer-Welte.


The missionary operations of this period display little of the zeal of the great missionary age of Augustine, Columba, and Boniface, and less of achievement. The explanation is to be found in the ambitions which controlled the mediaeval church and in the dangers by which Europe was threatened from without. In the conquest of sacred localities, the Crusades offered a substitute for the conversion of non-Christian peoples. The effort of the papacy to gain supreme control over all mundane affairs in Western Christendom, also filled the eye of the Church. These two movements almost drained her religious energies to the full. On the other hand the Mongols, or Tartars, breaking forth from Central Asia with the fierceness of evening wolves, filled all Europe with dread, and one of the chief concerns of the thirteenth century was to check their advance into the central part of the continent. The heretical sects in Southern France threatened the unity of the Church and also demanded a share of attention which might otherwise have been given to efforts for the conversion of the heathen.

Two new agencies come into view, the commercial trader and the colonist, corresponding in this century to the ships and trains of modern commerce and the labors of the geographical explorer in Africa and other countries. Along the shores of the Baltic, at times, and in Asia the tradesman and the explorer went in advance of the missionary or along the same routes. And in the effort to subdue the barbarous tribes of Northeastern Germany to the rules of Christendom, the sword and colonization played as large a part as spiritual measures.

The missionary history of the age has three chapters, among the pagan peoples of Northeastern Germany and along the Baltic as far as Riga, among the Mohammedans of Northern Africa, and among the Mongols in Central and Eastern Asia. The chief missionaries whose names have survived are Otto of Bamberg and Vicelinus who labored in Northeastern Europe, Rubruquis, and John of Monte Corvino who travelled through Asia, Francis d’Assisi and Raymundus Lullus who preached in Africa.

The treatment which the Jews received at the hand of the Church also properly belongs here.


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