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48
LECTURE II.
THE CONVERSION OF SWEDEN (830 A.D. 1130 A.D.).
i . INTRODUCTION. DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.
It is the function of the historical lecturer, as distin
guished from the professed historian, to create a personal
interest in his subject in the minds first of his hearers and
then of his readers. The historian must record everything
that a student may reasonably expect to find in his book,
whether the latter consults it on a particular point, or reads
it straight on for full information. The lecturer may be
satisfied if he leaves a clear mental picture traced in broad
outline which the student can fill
up for himself. There
should be enough detail and local colour to heighten the
effect, but not enough to weary the memory. The great
object is to make a strong impression on the mental retina.
In discharging this function I shall ask you to consider
the first great period of Swedish Church history the
mission period of three hundred years under three suc
cessive aspects. First, it is a mission from Northern Ger
many, finding a centre in Hamburg, or rather Bremen, in
which the work is done by emissaries from Corbey, Frisia,
Germany and Denmark. In this period far the most
striking figure is Anskar, the founder of the Church in
Sweden. For, after his death, little by comparison is
done for about a hundred years. This period, which
is the longest of the three, extends to a hundred and
fifty years, from 830 A.D. 980 A.D. We have a good
life of Anskar by his successor, Rimbert; but, besides
this, almost our only authority is Adam of Bremen, the
North-German Tacitus, who give us both accurate annals
of the archbishops of Hamburg and a valuable Scandi
navian geography. Adam had as his friend and informant
one of the most remarkable men of his time, Sven
Estridsson, King of Denmark, son of a Jarl Ulf and
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