ly power
strong enough to shield the oppressed and to hold back the arm of the
tyrant. Feudalism served, no doubt, some useful purposes. It was a method
of riveting together, with iron nails, the conquerors and conquered, until
they could come into a union of a better kind.

It was about the year 1000 that the people of the North were converted to
Christianity. This process of conversion was a long time going on, and
there were several relapses into paganism; so that no precise time can be
fixed for the conversion of a single nation, much less for that of the
different branches of the Scandinavian stock separately situated in Sweden
and Denmark, Iceland and Greenland, and colonized in England and Normandy.
A mission was established in Denmark, A.D. 822, and the king was baptized;
but the overthrow of this Christian king restricted the labors of the
missionary. An attempt was made in Sweden in 829, and the missionary,
Anschar, remained there a year and a half; but the mission there
established was soon overthrown. Uniting wisdom with his ardor, Anschar
established at Hamburg schools where he educated Danish and Swedish boys
to preach Christianity in their own language to their countrymen. But the
Normans laid waste this city, and the Christian schools and churches were
destroyed. About 850 a new attempt was made in Sweden, and there the
subject was laid by the king before his council or parliament, consisting
of two assemblies, and they decided to allow Christianity to be preached
and practised, apparently on the ground that this new god, Christ, might
help them in their dangers at sea, when the other gods could not. And
thus, according to the independent character of this people, Christianity
was neither allowed to be imposed upon them by their king against their
will, nor excluded from the use of those who chose to adopt it. It took
its chance with the old systems, and many of the Danes and Normans
believed in worshipping both Odin and Christ at the same time. King Harold
in Denmark, during the last half of the tenth century, favored the spread
of Christianity, and was himself baptized with his wife and son, believing
at first that the Christian God was more powerful than the heathen gods,
but finally coming to the conclusion that these last were only evil
spirits. On the other hand, some of the Danes believed that Christ was a
god, and to be worshipped; but that he was a less powerful god than Odin
or Thor. The son of