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RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA 8avonarola Saxony
Although the task thus systematically undertaken was impeded by ever-recurring revolts against foreign rule (778, 782, 783, 784), each new victory of the Franks became the occasion for wholesale baptisms. The most dangerous insurrection was that of 782, which threatened the very existence of the Saxon Church and was suppressed only through the victories won by Charlemagne at Detmold and on the Hase in 783. When, two years later, Widukind and Abbio were baptized, the pacification and Christianization of the land were regarded as assured. Charlemagne sent word to Rome that the Saxons were converted and sought by promulgating the Capitulatio de partibus Saxonice (probably in 787) to secure the position he had won. The punishment of death, decreed by the old Saxon laws against violators of the heathen sanctuaries, but a penalty unknown to Frankish law, was now adopted for the protection of the new faith, and this penalty was decreed not only for the murderers of ecclesiastics, but also for all who conspired against Christians, damaged churches, observed the heathen custom of burning the bodies of the dead, contemptuously broke the commandment of the Church concerning baptism, or avoided baptism. Each church received rich allotments from the lands of its parishioners, tithes from private and royal property, and also the right of Asylum (q.v.). Besides this, it was decreed that the death penalty might be remitted in case of voluntary confession of guilt, that children ehould be baptized before reaching the age of one year, that the Sabbath should be observed and mass attended, and that Christians should be buried in consecrated ground.
Nevertheless, a new revolt in 792 was followed by a relapse into heathenism, the destruction of churches, and the murder of many of the clergy. Alcuin, writing to Megenfrid in 795 (Epist., lxix.), laid the blame, at least in part, on the execution of tithes and extreme legal penalties, even while doubting whether the Saxons had really been elected into faith (Epist. lxvii.), but finally Charlemagne succeeded in pacifying the land, largely by deport ing thousands of Saxon families to various parts of Franconia and Swabia (795, 797-799, 804). At the same time the severity of the law was modified, and at the imperial diet of Aachen (Oct. 28, 797) the death penalty was abolished and replaced by the wergild of sixty soldi, usual among the Franks. By 802 the land was considered to be entirely Christianized. As early as 787 the missionary dis trict of Willehad (q.v.) at the mouth of the Weser had been created a diocese, of which Willehad him self had been consecrated bishop; the dioceses of Verden and Minden seem to have been organized about the same time; the bishopric of Munster was formed between 802 and 805; toward the close of Charlemagne's reign the bishopric of Paderborn was erected, the first bishop being Hathumar, a Saxon educated at W1rzburg; and the remaining dioceses, Osnabriick, Hildesheim, Halberstadt, and Hamburg, were formed in the reign of Louis the Pious. (A. HAUCK.)BIBLIOGRAPHY: Original sources are: Repeats hiatortae wed. falim, ed. H. A. Erhard, 2 vois., Monster, 1847-51; Ge-
schichtsquellen des Bisthums Mfnster vols. i. and iv., ib. 1851 sqq. Kaiserurkundea der Provinz Westfalen, E,1. R.WOmans and F. Philippi, 2 vols., ib. 1867-81; Brew isches Urkundenbuch, e d. D. R. Ehmek and W. von Bippen, Bremen, 1873 sqq., F. A. Ogg, Source Book of Meths. roar History, pp. 114-123, New York, 1908. Consult: C. Stuve, Gssehickte des Hochatifte osnabrfick, Jens, 1853; B. Simeon, Jahrbtichw des frtinkischen Reiche unter Lud wip, 2 vols., Leipsie, 1874-76; G. Dehio, GeschicUe des Embistums Hamburg-Bremen, v ol. i., Berlin, 1876; W. von Giesebrecht, GescAichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, i. 110 aqq., Brunswick, 1881; S. Abel and B. Simeon, Jahr btlcher des frankischen Reichs unter Karl dem Grosse, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1883-88; C. Ritter, Karl der Grosse and du Sachsen, 2 parts, Dessau, 1894-95; G. Hiiffer, Korueyer Studien, Monster, 1898; Robinson, European H istoM, i. 129 sqq., 150 aqq.; Rettberg, KD, v ol. ii.; Hauck, KD, ii. 360 sqq.; the literature under CHARLEMAGNE.
SAXONY: A kingdom of Germany, bounded on the north and east by Prussia, on the south by Bohemia, and on the west by the Thuringian states, with two small exclaves, Ziegelheim and Liebschwitz; area 5,856 square miles; population (1900) 4,202,216. Of this there were 3,954,132 Lutherans; 16,080 Reformed; 197,005 Roman Catholics; 2,028 German Catholics; 1,260 Greek Catholics; 12,416 Jews, and 19,295 others, including members of the fourteen Irvingite and fourteen New Apostolic churches, as well as of the twelve Methodist and four Baptist congregations. In 1905, of a population of 4,508,601, there were 4,250,659 Lutherans, Reformed, and Unionists; 218,275 Roman Catholics; 266 Russian Orthodox; 1,331 Greek Catholics; 22,858 other Christians; and 14,697 Jews. In recent years there has been a notable increase of accessions from the Roman Catholic Church to the Lutheran, the number advancing from 508 in 1899 to 1,266 in 1903, while conversions from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism increased from 41 to 52 respectively. The Roman Catholic Church increase is due almost entirely to the immigration of laborers from Bohemia, Poland, Italy, and other Roman Catholic countries. Roman Catholic districts are found only in Saxon Upper Lusatia, about the nunnery of Marienstern east of Kamenz, and in the vicinity of the nunnery of Marienthal near Ostritz. On the increase is the influence of various sects not only in the vicinity of Zwickau (see ZWICKAU PROPHETS), a hotbed of sects since the Reformation, but over all the kingdom. Particularly aggressive in recent years has been the New Apostolic Church (Geyerites and Krebsites). Included in the statistics of theMethodist Episcopals are the Albrechtsleute (see EVANGELICAL AssocIATION), whose chief attraction is their close fellowship.
The established Church of Saxony is Lutheran. So long as the royal house is Roman Catholic the four ministers of worship, justice, interior, and finance must be of the State Church. Since 1874 its control has been vested in the national consistory, composed of a judicial president and an equal number of theological and judicial councilors, with the first court preacher as vice-president, and with a number of extra members. Between this consistory and the individual congregations stands the "inspection," consisting of the superintendent (ephorus) of the diocese and the chief civic official of the district. Upper Lusatia, which has no superintendent, is controlled (subject to the national consistory) by the prefecture of Bautzen. Since 1868 the laity have been permitted to represent individual con-