\ 33. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AMONG THE WENDS. 127
tical purposes, and, in the reign of Otto II., a fearful rising took place among the Wends under the leadership of Prince Mistiwoi. He had become a Christian himself; but, indignant at the suppression which was practiced in the name of the Chris tian religion, he returned to heathenism, assembled the tribes at Ret lire, one of the chief centres of Wendish heathendom, and began, in 983, a war which spread devastation all over Northern Germany. The churches and monasteries were burnt, and the Christian priests were expelled. Afterwards Mistiwoi was seized with remorse, and tried to cure the evil he had done in an outburst of passion. But then his subjects abandoned him; he left the country, and spent the last days of his life in a Chris tian monastery at Bardewick. His grandson, Gottschalk, whose Slavic name is unknown, was educated in the Christian faith in the monastery of St. Michael, near Liineburg; but when he heard that his father, Uto, had been murdered, 1032, the old heathen instincts of revenge at once awakened within him. He left the monastery, abandoned Christianity, and raised a storm of persecution against the Christians, which swept over all Bran denburg, Mecklenburg, and Holstein. Defeated and taken prisoner by Bernard of Lower Saxony, he returned to Chris tianity; lived afterwards at the court of Canute the Great in Denmark and England ; married a Danish princess, and was made ruler of the Obotrites. A great warrior, he conquered Holstein and Pommerania, and formed a powerful Wendish empire; and on this solid political foundation, he attempted, with considerable success, to build up the Christian church. The old bishoprics were re-established, and new ones were founded at Razzeburg and Mecklenburg ; monasteries were built at Lenzcn, Oldenburg, Razzeburg, Liibeck, and Mecklenburg; missionaries were provided by Adalbert, archbishop of Ham burg-Bremen ; the liturgy was translated into the native tongue, and revenues were raised for the support of the clergy, the churches, and the service.
But, as might have been expected, the deeper Christianity
128 FOURTH PEEIOD. A.D. 590-1049.
penetrated into the mass of the people, the fiercer became the resistance of the heathen. Gottschalk was murdered at Lentz, June 7, 1066, together with his old teacher, Abbot Uppo, and a general rising now took place. The churches and schools were destroyed ; the priests and monks were stoned or killed as sacri fices on the heathen altars ; and Christianity was literally swept out of the country. It took several decades before a new begin ning could be made, and the final Christianization of the Wends was not achieved until the middle of the twelfth century.
§ 34. Cyrillus and Methodius, the Apostles of the Slavs. Chris tianization of Moravia, Bohemia and Poland.
F. M. PELZEL et J. DOBROWSKY : Rerrum Bohemic. Scriptores. Prague. FRIESE : Kirchengeschichte d. Konigreichs Polen. Breslau, 1786. FRANZ. PALACKY : Geschichte von Bohmen. Prague, 3d ed., 1864 sqq., 5 vols. (down to 1520).
WATTENBACH: Geschichte d. christl. Kirche in Bohmen und Mahren. Wien, 1849.
A. FRITJD : Die Kirchengesch. Bohmens. Prague, 1863 sqq.
Biographies of CYRILLUS and METHODIUS, by J. DOBROWSKY (Prague, 1823, and 1826); J. A. GINZEL (Geschichte der Slawenapostel und der Slawischen Liturgie. Leitmeritz, 1857); PHILARET (in the Rus sian, German translation, Mitau, 1847) ; J. E. BILEY (Prague, 1863) ; DUMMLER and F. MILKOSISCH (Wien, 1870).
The Moravian Slavs were subjugated by Charlemagne, and the bishop of Passau was charged with the establishment of a Christian mission among them. Moymir, their chief, was con verted and bishoprics were founded at Olmutz and Nitra. But Lewis the German suspected Moymir of striving after indepen dence and supplanted him by Rastislaw or Radislaw. Rastislaw, however, accomplished what Moymir had only been sus pected of. He formed an independent Moravian kingdom and defeated Lewis the German, and with the political he also broke the ecclesiastical connections with Germany, requesting the Byzan tine emperor, Michael III., to send him some Greek missionaries.
CYRILLUS and METHODIUS became the apostles of the Slavs.
Cyrillus, whose original name was Constantinus, was born at