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STATISTICS WITH
COMMON SENSE
David Kault

Greenwood Press
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kault, David.
Statistics with common sense / David Kault.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-313-32209-0 (alk. paper)
1. Statistics. I. Title.
QA276.12.K38 2003
519.5—dc21 2002075322
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2003 by David Kault
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002075322
ISBN: 0-313-32209-0
First published in 2003
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the

Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
 Contents

Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Glossaries xi
Statistical Computer Program xiii
1 Statistics: The Science of Dealing with Variability and Uncertainty 1
2 Descriptive Statistics 9
3 Basic Probability and Fisher's Exact Test 33
4 Discrete Random Variables and Some Statistical Tests Based on Them 63
5 Continuous Random Variables and Some Statistical Tests
Based on Them 97
6 General Issues in Hypothesis Testing 141
7 Causality: Interventions and Observational Studies 167
8 Categorical Measurements on Two or More Groups 175
9 Statistics on More Than Two Groups 197
10 Miscellaneous Topics 227
Appendix: Table of the Standard Normal Distribution 239
Answers 241
Annotated Bibliography 253
Index 255
This page intentionally left blank
 Preface

Statistics is primarily a way of making decisions in the face of variability and

uncertainty. Often some new treatment is first tried on a few individuals and
there seems to be some improvement. We want to decide whether we should
believe the improvement is "for real" or just the result of chance variation.
The treatment may be some actual medical treatment, or it may be the applica-
tion of a new fertilizer to a crop or an assessment of the effect of particular
social circumstances on social outcomes. In many professional areas people
want to answer the same basic question: "Does this make a real difference?"
In the modern world this question is answered by statistics.
Statistics is therefore part of the training course for people in a wide range
of professions. Sadly, though, statistics remains a bit of a mystery to most
students and even to some of their statistics teachers. Formulas and rules are
learned that lead to an answer to the question, "Does this make a genuine
difference?" in various situations. However, when people actually come to
apply statistics in real life they are generally uneasy. They may be uneasy not
only because they have forgotten which formula to apply in which situation or
which button to press on the computer, but also because the formula or the
computer is using criteria that they never properly understood to make impor-
tant decisions that sometimes don't accord with common sense. People in this
situation are right to be uneasy. Statistics applied correctly but without full
understanding can lead to the most inappropriate, even bizarre decisions. Com-
mon sense without any assistance from statistical analysis will often lead to
more sensible decisions. Nevertheless, statistics has conquered the world of
modern decision making. Few people notice that many statisticians don't be-
lieve in statistics as it is currently practiced. Statistics can of course be used
wisely, but this depends on the user properly understanding the meaning of
Vlll Preface

the answers from the formula or the computer and understanding how to com-
bine these answers with common sense.
This book is primarily aimed at people who learned statistics at some stage,
never properly understood it, and now need to use it wisely in everyday pro-
fessional life. However, the book should be equally suitable as an introductory
text for students learning statistics for the first time. There is a large number of
introductory statistics texts. This text stands out in three ways:

• It emphasizes understanding, not formulas.

• It emphasizes the incorporation of common sense into decision making.
• It gives the full mathematical derivation of some statistical tests to enhance under-
standing.

The last point requires an immediate qualification to prevent the large num-
ber of people with mathematics phobia from shutting the book for good at this
point. No mathematical background beyond grade 10 is assumed, and the
mathematics often consists of simply explaining one logical idea. Because
formulas that can't be fully understood by someone with grade 10 mathemat-
ics are omitted, there is less mathematics than in most statistics texts.
The aim is to show the limited connection between wise decision making
and statistics as it is conventionally practiced, and to show how this situation
can be rectified by combining statistics with common sense.
 Acknowledgments

I thank my former statistics teacher, John Hunter, for his teaching, his inspira-
tion, and his suggestions for this book. I also thank my son Sam for his proof-
reading. I am grateful for the support given to me by James Cook University
of North Queensland in writing this book and the accompanying statistical
computer program.
This page intentionally left blank
 Glossaries

MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS
< less than
^ less than or equal to
> greater than
^ greater than or equal to
7^ does not equal
~ approximately equals
~ is
U or (meaning one or the other or both)
H and
| given
n\ n factorial, meaning nx(n-\)x(n-2)x...x3x2x 1; for example,
4!=4x3x2xl=24
"Ck Number of ways that from n objects k objects can be chosen (from n
Choose k)

for example,

(see Chapter 3).

Xll Glossaries

COMMON ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS USED IN THE

TEXT TO IMPROVE READABILITY
The expressions here on the left-hand side are not normally intended to be
used in an absolutely precise way. However, in certain contexts in this book they
are used in place of precise quantitative expressions to improve readability. The
precise meanings that I attach to these expressions are given on the right.

"hardly ever" with probability ^ 0.05

"nearly always" with probability ^ 0.95
"quite often" or "commonly" with probability > 0.05
 Statistical Computer Program

Many people frequently come across questionable decisions made on the ba-
sis of statistical evidence. This book will help them to make their own in-
formed judgment about evidence based on statistical analyses. Only some
people will need to undertake statistical analyses themselves. On the other
hand, it is just a small step from understanding statistical evidence to being
able to undertake statistical analyses in many situations. It is a small step be-
cause in most cases the actual calculations are performed by a computer. The
only additional skill to be learned in order for readers to perform statistical
analyses for themselves is to learn which button on the computer to press.
Doing helps learning, so this book includes questions, some of which are in-
tended to be answered with the assistance of a statistical computer program.
There are many statistical computer programs or "packages" available. Al-
most all would be capable of the calculations covered in this book. However,
none are ideal. Many are unnecessarily complex for use in straightforward
situations. The complexity, profusion of options, and graphical output may
serve to confuse and distract users interested only in straightforward situa-
tions. Many contain errors in that they use easy-to-program, approximate
methods when exact methods are more appropriate. Some contain other er-
rors. Few programs are available free of charge, even though most of the intel-
lectual effort underpining such programs is ultimately a product of publicly
funded universities in which academics have worked for the public good.
In response to these issues, I have written a statistical program to accom-
pany this book. I have called the program "pds" for Public Domain Statistics.
It is designed to run on the Windows operating system (version 95 or later),
and occupies about 1 Mb. It is available for distribution free of charge with the
proviso that it is not to be used against the interests of humanity and the envi-
XIV Statistical Computer Program

ronment. It is available on the World Wide Web at <http://www.jcu.edu.au/

school/mathphys/mathstats/staff/DAKault.html>. It can also be obtained by
personal request from the author at the Department of Mathematics & Statis-
tics, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia (please send the
cost of postage and floppy disc). Source code can be made available to pro-
grammers who guarantee that extensions to this work remain within the pub-
lic domain.
This book contains references to pds and brief instructions on its use, but
the book can be used in conjunction with any other statistical computer pro-
gram. Indeed, lack of access to a computer would be only a minimal handicap
in using this book to gain an understanding of statistics.
 CHAPTER 1

Statistics: The Science of Dealing

with Variability and Uncertainty

Statistics can be defined as the science of dealing with variability and uncer-
tainty. Almost all measurements made by scientists and people in many other
fields are uncertain in some way. In particular, most measurement devices
have limited accuracy, so there is uncertainty about the exact value. Some-
times what is being measured varies from individual to individual and from
time to time, making it impossible to measure the true average exactly. For
example, it is impossible to know exactly the true average blood pressure of
the average healthy person.
Often we have to make a decision against a background of variability. We
might be interested in a new blood pressure treatment. Should we believe that
the new treatment works better than the standard treatment? The figures we
collect after trying out the new treatment and comparing it with the standard
treatment may slightly favor the new treatment. However, there is so much
variability in blood pressure from person to person and from day to day that it
will often be difficult to know whether it would be more reasonable to put
slight changes in the average down to the effects of variability rather than to
believe that the new treatment was superior to existing treatments.

THE QUEST FOR "OBJECTIVE" METHODS

OF DEALING WITH UNCERTAINTY
By the early years of the twentieth century, the achievements of science had
captured the public's imagination. There was a widespread desire to apply
some scientific method to many areas of knowledge, to measure things, and to
be "scientific" in how the measurements were interpreted. It no longer seemed
good enough to simply look at a crop of wheat and note that on the side of the
2 Statistics with Common Sense

field treated with Bloggs's fertilizer the wheat grew better than on the side
treated with Jones's fertilizer and conclude that Bloggs makes better fertilizer
than Jones. Maybe on Bloggs's side of the field the soil was better to start with.
More measurements were needed and these measurements had to be analyzed
"scientifically." There was a need for a scientific approach to making decisions
that took account of the variable nature of many types of measurements.
One important ingredient in the scientific approach seemed to be objectiv-
ity: Scientists were seen as using calculated reason based on hard facts. Mak-
ing decisions based on guesswork and intuition did not seem to be part of the
scientific method. There was therefore pressure to invent an objective method
of drawing conclusions from uncertain or variable information. A method was
wanted that did not depend on intuition. As a result, a method of objective
decision making on the basis of variable data was developed early in the twen-
tieth century and is widely used today. This method is properly called frequentist
statistics. Other mathematically based methods of making decisions in the
face of uncertainty were also developed and come under the heading statistics,
but since these other methods are not objective and are often more difficult,
they are not as well known. Frequentist statistics is so popular and so widely
used that most people don't even realize that it is just one of a number of
different varieties of statistics. For most people, frequentist statistics is "statis-
tics." This book, too, will usually just use the word "statistics" in place of the
mouthful "frequentist statistics."

"OBJECTIVITY": A MISTAKEN GOAL

Unfortunately, the pressure for an objective method of dealing with data
was misguided. Most statisticians believe that the best ways of drawing con-
clusions in the presence of uncertainty involve methods that are not entirely
objective. To give the appearance of objectivity, frequentist statistics starts
with the premise that all decision making should flow from an analysis of the
measurements that have been made. This approach has the added virtue that a
computer program can be used to entirely automate the process of decision
making. But this is often a ridiculous approach. We almost always know more
about the topic than just the measurements, and surely it is silly to entirely
ignore this knowledge in the decision-making process. Statistics, as currently
used by most nonstatisticians, is the product of a mistaken quest for objectiv-
ity and simplicity.

STATISTICAL IMPERIALISM
Nevertheless, statistics has become the approach that the modern world takes
to analyzing figures. Anybody who has to deal with making decisions on the
basis of figures who simply looks at the figures rather than "get stats done on
them," whether they be a researcher or an administrator, would be regarded as
 Dealing with Variability and Uncertainty 3

inadequate in their job and unable to cope with the intelligent, modern ap-
proach. Statistics has conquered the world of decision making. There is an
almost religious belief that the modern world knows how to approach all prob-
lems and that "stats" is part of this approach. Nobody seems to notice that
statisticians don't share this unthinking faith in statistics. Statisticians see some
value in frequentist statistics, but many believe that it is not reasonable to try
to deal with measurements involving uncertainty or variability in an entirely
objective way. To base all analyses on figures alone means to abandon com-
mon sense, and often common sense can bring more wisdom to a subject than
a blind analysis of figures. As a result of ignoring common sense, a consider-
able part of the world's scientific output is wasted effort. Analysis of experi-
ments without the benefit of common sense can lead to misleading and
sometimes dangerous conclusions. The use of common sense shows that many
experiments should not have been performed in the first place.

A FIRST EXAMPLE OF THE CLASH BETWEEN

STATISTICS AND COMMON SENSE
Let us look at an example where no great issues are at stake. We will con-
sider two small groups of piano students. Say that in the first group the stu-
dents got a half-hour lesson per week and in the second group the students got
an hour lesson per week. Now assume that the results of the students in their
piano exams showed that there was a lot of individual variation in ability but
that the students who got the extra tuition time averaged out about 2 percent
above the students who didn't. A normal person who had not had the "benefit"
of a statistics "education" would conclude that the extra tuition time helped,
but perhaps only a little. They might also think that perhaps the benefit may
have been a bit underestimated due to a fault in the experiment; perhaps the
experiment should have involved more students. By using common sense, the
untrained person would come to appropriate conclusions.
On the other hand, someone who had been through a course in statistics as
it is commonly taught would type the exam marks for both groups into a com-
puter. A figure would come out of the computer. On the basis of this figure
such a person would be likely to conclude that "there is no evidence of any
benefit from the half hour extra tuition," or even worse, "statistical tests have
proven that extra tuition is of no benefit." What the computer actually would
have told them would be that "looking at the figures alone, the small differ-
ence of 2 percent between the groups could reasonably be attributed to indi-
vidual variability causing the average of the second group to be a little higher
just by chance." However, it is silly to look at the figures alone. We know that
very few students will pass an exam with no tuition. Some tuition enables
many students to pass. It seems reasonable to believe that additional tuition
may enable many students to do even better. In other words, common sense
tells us that, on average, extra tuition will almost certainly help students. Com-
4 Statistics with Common Sense

mon sense here would lead to far better decision making than blind applica-
tion of frequentist statistics.

THE LOGIC USED IN STATISTICS

Frequentist statistics can be valuable in decision making, provided it is not
applied blindly. To apply statistics wisely requires an understanding of the
rather convoluted logic that underlies frequentist statistics. It is the purpose of
this book to show how statistics can be combined with common sense. The
logic and philosophy of frequentist statistics are therefore fully explained in
the next few paragraphs so that statistics can be used with common sense to
make sensible decisions. Just a few minutes of concentration may be required
for understanding. However, since the ideas can be awkward to follow, the
explanation is repeated in the context of various examples throughout the book.
Let us look again at the example of the piano students receiving half an
hour versus an hour of tuition per week. Although common sense tells us that
the extra half hour of tuition will nearly certainly be of some help, the actual
amount of benefit of 2 percent in exam marks in our figures turned out to be
quite small. It is still just possible that students get all the tuition that they can
absorb in one half-hour lesson each week, with the extra lesson being useless.
If the extra tuition was in fact entirely useless, we could still account for the
extra 2 percent marks in the extra tuition group by arguing that it was due to
individual variability and that it was just coincidence that this variability turned
out to favor the extra tuition group. In other words, it is just possible that the
extra tuition was useless, but by sheer random chance there happened to be
rather better students in the extra tuition group who got better marks, not be-
cause of the extra half hour, but because they were better students. It is there-
fore just possible that we are looking at a chance result that makes it appear
that the extra tuition helps when in fact it does not.
Let us look at how a computer could help us here. Ideally, we would want to
ask the computer, "What is the chance that the difference in the two groups of
student pianists is not due to the benefit of the extra tuition but is instead due
to individual variability just happening to favor the students in the group that
got the extra tuition?" More generally, we often want to ask, "Is it reasonable
to blame chance for the difference?" Any reasonable answer to such questions
needs to take into account both the figures we obtain in our experiment and
our common sense judgments. In the case of piano tuition, common sense
tells us that it is exceedingly likely that the extra tuition will be of benefit.
However, the computer can't take account of our common sense judgments
since we are only telling it about the figures. Therefore, the computer can't
answer the question, "Is it reasonable to blame chance for the difference?"
Instead, it answers a related secondary question: "If the differences between
two groups were entirely due to natural variability alone, how often would it
turn out that the two groups end up at least as different as these two groups
 Dealing with Variability and Uncertainty 5

are?" Expressed another way, we want to ask, "Are the differences real or are
they just due to coincidence?" Instead of answering that question we get a
reply to the question, "If we were to put the differences down to sheer coinci-
dence, what sort of coincidence would we be dealing with?"
The situation here can be compared with the situation of a biologist study-
ing mammals on an island. The biologist may already know that there are cats
on the island, but she may be interested in whether there are different mam-
mals as well. Say the biologist came across some yellow fur. The biologist
will want to ask, "This animal has yellow fur. Does this mean that there are
different mammals here and not just cats?" In the analogy with the questions
asked and the answers given by statistics, the biologist would receive an an-
swer to the secondary question, "Do cats often have yellow fur?"

Question we want answered Question actually answered

This has yellow fur, so is it a different Do cats often have yellow fur?
mammal or is it just a cat?
There is a sizeable difference between Does chance alone often lead to differ-
the two groups, so is there a real ences between two groups at least as
difference or is it just due to chance? large as the differences we see here?

Let us say that in the case of the exam results of the student pianists we got
the reply from the computer, "Chance alone could often lead to a difference of
2 percent or more between the average of the two groups." From this, if we
were just looking at the figures and ignoring any background knowledge or
common sense, we could say, "The figures themselves give no convincing
evidence of any benefit from the half hour extra tuition." However, it is tradi-
tional in frequentist statistics to leave out the important qualifiers "the figures
themselves" and "convincing" from this sentence and instead state, "There is
no evidence of any benefit from the half hour extra tuition." Even worse, this
misleading form of words is sometimes further distorted to become "statisti-
cal tests have proven that extra tuition is of no benefit." However, as discussed,
even if chance could easily account for the difference in the marks, it does not
accord with common sense to say that we have proven that we should blame
chance for the difference in the marks of the two groups of students.
Now let's say we got the opposite message from the computer: "Chance
alone would hardly ever lead to such a big difference between the two groups." It
is then traditional in frequentist statistics to make the decision that there is a real
difference in the progress of the two groups of student pianists. What is meant by
"hardly ever"? The actual result given by the computer is a probability. Tradition-
ally, "hardly ever" is taken to mean less often than one in twenty times. The
synonyms "/? value less than 0.05," "statistically significant at the 0.05 level,"
"significant at the 0.05 level," or "statistically significant" are often used. If
this happened in the case of the student pianists, we would be happy to agree
with the conclusions reached by someone following the tradition of frequentist
6 Statistics with Common Sense

statistics. In other words, both common sense and frequentist statistics would
tell us that we should believe that the extra tuition is of some benefit.
We have seen in the case of the student pianists an example where stats
could tell us we shouldn't believe something makes a difference when com-
mon sense tells us that it does. There are cases where "stats" tells us that we
should believe that something makes a difference, but common sense tells us
that it doesn't. In such cases we make the judgment that chance, even a rather
tiny chance, is a more reasonable explanation for the differences than the ex-
planation that there is a real underlying difference. For example, let's say a
friend claimed to be a clairvoyant. You tested her powers by seeing if she
could guess some number between 1 and 100 that you had written on a piece
of paper. If she happened to get the correct number and you were an unthink-
ing frequentist statistician, you would now believe that your friend is a clair-
voyant. Why? Because chance alone would hardly ever allow her to get the
correct number. Here, the chance involved would be 1 chance in 100, or/? = 0.01.
Since this is less than a one-in-twenty chance, it is the sort of chance that hardly
ever occurs, and so following the strict traditions of frequentist statistics we would
say that there is statistically significant evidence that your friend is a clairvoyant.
However, most people are at least a bit skeptical about clairvoyants, or at least
won't readily believe that their friends are clairvoyants, and so most people
would not be convinced by one correct guess out of 100 numbers. For these
people, following the traditions of frequentist statistics would lead to a con-
clusion that they felt was not supported by the evidence. Some skeptics might
want to see your friend correctly choose a nine-digit number—chance alone
would allow a correct guess only once in a billion times—before they might
start to believe that genuine powers of clairvoyance is a better explanation
than chance. For such skeptics in this situation, the p value that is just tiny
enough to make them change their minds would be one in a billion or/? =
'A ooo ooo ooo- Here it would be inappropriate for skeptics to use the traditional
value p - 0.05 as the benchmark for the sort of chance that is unreasonably
small. Instead, such skeptics should use/? = 0.000000001 as the benchmark.
Restating, when we see a difference between two groups we might want to
ask, "Could the difference just be due to coincidence?" Statistics does not
answer this question, but instead answers the related question, "If we were to
put the differences down to coincidence, what sort of coincidence would we
be talking about?" The answer to this second question is the p value. If the p
value is unreasonably small, smaller than some arbitrary benchmark (the co-
incidence is highly unlikely), it is more reasonable to believe the difference is
"for real." There is a tradition of using a fixed value of 0.05 as the benchmark
for what is unreasonably small. However, if this tradition is blindly accepted
and the benchmark is not adopted to suit circumstances and common sense,
"stats" can lead to unreasonable, even bizarre, decisions.
This section on the logic used in statistics requires some thought. The logic
is a bit twisted and difficult. However, the ideas just explained are the main
ideas underlying introductory statistics. If you understand these ideas, you
 Dealing with Variability and Uncertainty 1

have understood most of a first course in statistics. Because of its importance,

the explanation will be repeated in various contexts throughout this book.

THE ROLE OF MATHEMATICS

In this book the understanding of statistics is enhanced by giving the com-
plete mathematical basis for a few statistical tests. However, mathematical
knowledge beyond the tenth-grade level is not assumed. Many statistical tests
are derived using quite complex mathematics and involve a complex series of
calculations. Other texts go to some length to detail all the mathematical ma-
nipulations that are required for these statistical tests. The attitude taken here
is that if it is not possible to understand the mathematical derivation of the test,
and if the details of the calculation don't help you to understand how the test
works, then there is absolutely no point in learning the steps used in the calcu-
lations. Computers are now available to do these calculations. (A computer
program called pds [public domain statistics] was written to accompany this
book and is available free of charge for nonprofit purposes from <http://
www.jcu.edu.au/school/mathphys/mathstats/staff/DAKault.html>.) The impor-
tant issue is to understand the philosophy and assumptions behind the test.
Therefore, if the details of the calculations are not enlightening in some way
they are entirely omitted. As a result, there is less emphasis on calculation and
formulas in this text than in most other introductory statistics books.
On the other hand, there are a few statistical tests for which the full deriva-
tion can be understood by anyone who can understand tenth-grade mathemat-
ics. These tests are explained in detail to enhance understanding of the nature
of statistics.

THE REMAINDER OF THE BOOK

Before we return to the harder parts of statistics—using statistics to make
decisions about whether we should believe that there are underlying differ-
ences between groups—we will briefly cover the easiest parts of statistics.
Recall the definition of statistics: the science of dealing with variability and
uncertainty. The first part of dealing with variability and uncertainty is to de-
scribe it. The part of statistics that deals simply with description is covered
next. People who have any knowledge of statistics could just skim this chap-
ter. The book then gives a simple introduction to the mathematics of chance:
probability theory. This is necessary in order to understand some of the statis-
tical tests that are described in full and in order to give you a feeling for situa-
tions that can reasonably be blamed on chance. The study of using statistics to
make decisions occupies the remainder of the book.
In some places, interesting details and derivations are given that are not
essential for people who just want the main ideas. Material such as this, which
is redundant to the reader who does not want to cope with additional complex-
ity, can be skipped without losing the main ideas of the book. Parts of the text
8 Statistics with Common Sense

containing such information are headed "Optional" and set between rules. In
some places, these optional sections contain additional examples.
Answers to the questions at the ends of the chapters are given at the end of
the book, beginning on page 241.

SUMMARY
• Statistics is a way of making a decision about whether differences are "for real" or
just a result of chance.
• The form of statistics in common use attempts to be entirely objective and so just
looks at the figures available and entirely ignores any common sense knowledge of
the area.
• As a result, statistics cannot directly answer the question, "Is there a real differ-
ence?" Instead, it answers an indirectly related question: "If we were to blame
coincidence for the difference, what sort of coincidence would we be talking about?"
The answer to this question is called the/? value. If the/? value is smaller than some
benchmark, the coincidence is regarded as unreasonably long and we conclude that
there is a real difference.
• Traditionally, the benchmark p value is taken to be 0.05.
• Blind adherence to this traditional benchmark can lead to unreasonable decisions
that defy common sense.

Put simply, the/? value tells us how easy it is for chance alone to explain differ-
ences. It does not tell us how likely it is for chance to be the true explanation.

QUESTIONS
1. Think of another situation, like the music students and the extra tuition example,
where you would believe that the benefits were "for real" regardless of results
from a statistical analysis telling you that the favorable results could be easily
explained by chance.
2. The roulette wheel in a casino can stop in thirty-eight different positions. The
casino is known to operate the roulette wheel fairly. You notice that the roulette
wheel hasn't stopped on "36" even once in the last 500 goes, so you place a bet on
"36." What is the chance that you will lose your money?
3. Imagine your neighbor claimed to be a clairvoyant and asked you to verify her
powers by getting you to write down a number between 1 and n (where n stands
for a number like 10, 20, 100, or 500) that she then correctly guessed. How big
would n have to be in order to convince you (assuming you can rule out cheating
or magic tricks)?
4. Consider the same scenario as in question 3, but this time you are going to get the
self-declared clairvoyant to perform the number guessing twice in a row and you
will believe in her powers only if she is correct both times. Again, how big would
n have to be in order to convince you (assuming you can rule out cheating or
magic tricks)?
 CHAPTER 2

Descriptive Statistics

NUMBER AND TYPE OF MEASUREMENTS

Generally, our first step in dealing with a situation in which uncertainty or
variability plays a role is to make some measurements. The first question is
how many measurements should we make. We could measure all the individu-
als in which we were interested, an appreciable proportion of them, or a neg-
ligible proportion of them.
Ideally, we would accurately measure all the individuals. This is called a
census. Statistics would then just consist of describing the results in a digest-
ible manner. Most times a census is not possible. Often the number of indi-
viduals we would need to measure is so large that it would not be possible to
conduct a census with limited time and resources. For example, if we wanted
to make a statement about the height of women that would always be correct
we would have to measure all the women that have ever existed or that could
ever exist in the future. Obviously, this is not possible.
When it is not feasible to measure all the individuals in which we are inter-
ested, we measure a selection of them. Usually the selection is a small or
infinitesimal fraction of the number of individuals in which we are interested.
In the case of women's heights, we would measure a small selection of women.
The statistical term used here is that we take a "sample" from the population.
The word "population" is used to describe the collection of all the objects we
could measure, even when we are considering nonliving objects (e.g., the popu-
lation of all possible midday temperatures). There are pitfalls in taking a sample.
If we wanted to know about people's weights and we set up a weight-measuring
facility outside the door of the Weight-Watchers Association, our sample of
weights would obviously not fairly represent the weights in the population.
For a sample to be fair, each member of the population has to have an equal
10 Statistics with Common Sense

chance of being chosen. A sample chosen this way is said to be a representa-

tive sample. A weight-measuring facility outside the door of the Weight-Watchers
Association would not be representative because overweight people would
have a greater than average chance of being chosen. There are many more
subtle ways of obtaining a sample that is not representative of the population.
Both the theory and the practicalities of obtaining representative samples are
large areas of study in their own right. However, in most of what follows we
will simply assume that we have obtained a representative sample. Much of
statistics consists of calculations about how accurate information about a popu-
lation is going to be when this information comes from a representative sample.
Occasionally the sample may consist of an appreciable proportion of the
population, as in an opinion poll for the election of a mayor in a small town.
Such an opinion poll might sample a quarter of the people who can vote. As
well as simply representing the opinions in the whole population, this sample
would also give us certain knowledge about an appreciable proportion of the
population. As discussed in Chapter 10, some modifications to statistical cal-
culations are then required. However, in most of what follows we will assume
that our sample is a negligible fraction of the population and that it gives us
ideas about the population in a probabilistic way.
For simplicity, instead of listing all the measurements in our sample we
often want to describe them more briefly or express them in some summary
form. The description or summary form can be in terms of summary numbers
such as averages, or it can be in the form of diagrams. The type of summary
that is used will depend partly on the type of measurements or data.

TYPES OF DATA
Measurements (the words "data" or "information" can be used interchange-
ably here) can be of three basic types: continuous, discrete, and categorical.
Ordinal is a further type which is here described as a subtype of categorical
data.

Continuous Data
In the case of continuous data the thing that is being measured can vary
continuously. An example is the measurement of height. In practice, height
measurements are often rounded to the nearest centimeter or millimeter, but it
is possible for somebody to be, for example, anywhere between 172.3 cm and
172.4 cm in height. If we could use an infinite number of decimal places in
measuring height, there would be an infinite number of heights distributed
continuously between 172.3 and 172.4. Other examples of continuous mea-
surement are weight, temperature, and ozone concentration. In the case of
each of these measurements, the size of the step between one measurement
and the next biggest measurement can be arbitrarily small, so there need be no
 Descriptive Statistics 11

cutoff in size between one measurement and the next. Since the size of the
different measurements are not necessarily cut off from each other by any
fixed amount, we regard the measurements as continuous data.

Discrete Data
In the case of discrete data, the measurement has to fall on separated (or
discrete) values. Discrete measurements almost always arise from counting.
An example is the number of accidents the clients of an insurance company
have in one year. For any client the measurement can be 0 or 1 or 2 or 3 and so
on. These numbers are discrete in that they are separated by whole units from
each other. It would make no sense to have the number 1.3 as the number of
accidents a client had. A second example of a discrete measurement is the
number of children in a family, since children also come in whole numbers:
Having 1 child or 2 children in a family makes sense, but no family contains
1.3 children.

Categorical and Ordinal Data

Data can also be categorical. This means that our measurement consists of
simply classifying the object into one of several categories. An example is
classifying people by their religion. Here our measurement is simply the clas-
sification of each individual as Christian, Buddhist, Moslem, and so on. A
second example of a categorical measurement is to record the species of plants
in a field. When there is only two categories possible, categorical data is some-
times called dichotomous data. Examples of pairs of dichotomous categories
are yes-no, better-worse, and alive-dead.
There is another variant of categorical measurement. Categorical measure-
ments are referred to as ordinal if the categories can be sensibly ordered. The
different religions can't be ordered (except perhaps to some religious bigot it
would not make sense to put Hinduism above or below Buddhism), so reli-
gion is not ordinal data. However, cancer patients can be ordered into those
with stage I cancer, who have good survival prospects, and those with stage II,
III, or IV, who have progressively poorer prospects. However, someone with
stage II is not twice as badly off as a person with stage I or half as badly off as
someone with stage IV. The numbers I, II, III, and IV make sense as an order-
ing, but not as numerical measure. This is the key feature of ordinal data. A
second example of an ordinal measurement would be the classification of people
into nonsmokers, light smokers, and heavy smokers. Smoking increases the
risk of many diseases. Nonsmokers have less risk of these diseases than light
smokers, and light smokers have less risk than heavy smokers, but it generally
is not true that the risk for light smokers is halfway between the risk for non-
smokers and the risk for heavy smokers. The ordering nonsmoker, light smoker,
heavy smoker is therefore useful, but it would not be useful to think of this
12 Statistics with Common Sense

ordering in the same way as we think of the numbers 1, 2, and 3, with 2 being
exactly halfway between 1 and 3. A third example could be the classification
of the age of animals as juvenile, immature, adult, or senescent.
Most writers regard ordinal data as a separate type from categorical data, so
the common classification of data types are continuous, discrete, ordinal, and
categorical. How data are classified also depends on our viewpoint. If we look
at plants in a field one by one and decide which species each one belongs to,
we are dealing with categorical data. If we look at the total number of plants
of a particular species in the field, we can regard that number as one item of
discrete data.
As well as classifying data as continuous, discrete, ordinal, or categorical,
data can also be classified according to how many measurements are made on
each individual. Where one measurement is made on each individual, the data
are called univariate. If two measurements are made on each individual, the
data are bivariate. Where more measurements are made on each individual,
the data are multivariate. If we were just interested in height and measured the
height of a number of people, we would have univariate data. If we were
interested in describing the connection between height and weight and mea-
sured these two quantities on each of a number of individuals, we would have
bivariate data. If we were interested in the connection between students' exam
results and their home situation we might measure not only each student's
exam results but also his or her parents' income, parents' educational achieve-
ments, number of siblings, number of hours of TV watched each night, and so
on. This would be multivariate data.

SUMMARIZING CATEGORICAL AND ORDINAL DATA

WITH NUMBERS AND DIAGRAMS
To summarize categorical and ordinal data with numbers we simply give a
table listing the totals in each category. Such data can also be summarized
with diagrams. Two sorts of diagrams are used: bar graphs and pie charts.
These are just the names for the diagrams that many people will have seen in
newspapers and elsewhere. As an example, say we picked out 100 adults at
random and classified each person according to whether they were in the cat-
egory "single," "married," "widowed," or "separated" or divorced." If the num-
bers in the various categories were 15, 45, 10, and 30, respectively, the
table-form summary would be as follows:

single married widowed separated/

divorced
15 45 10 30

The diagrammatic summary would be given by the following bar graph or

pie chart. In the bar graph, the height of the bars gives the number in each
 Another Random Document on
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regulated and utilised. Therefore, next to the evolution of that
magnificent organisation of the Papacy, as a creative factor in the
rise of the mediæval Church, must be placed organised, western
monasticism.

Sources

A.—PRIMARY:
I.—JEWISH:

1.—Old Testament.
2.—Josephus, Antiquities, i., bk. 15, ch. 10, sec. 4-5;
bk. 18, ch. 1, sec. 5; ii., bk. 2, ch. 8, sec. 2-11.
3.—Philo, Contemplative Life. Bohn, Eccl. Lib., 1855,
iv., 1-21.
II.—Greek:

1.—New Testament.
2.—New Testament Apocrypha.
3.—Eusebius, Church Hist., ii., ch. 17. Nic. and Post-
Nic. Fathers, i. Several other eds.
4.—Socrates, Church Hist., i., 13; iv., 23 ff. Ib., ii. Other
eds.
5.—Sozomen, Church Hist., i., 12-14; iii., 14; vi., 28-34.
Ib., ii.
6.—Theodoret, Church Hist., ch. 33. Ib., iii. Bohn Lib.
7.—Evagrius, Life of St. Anthony. Bohn Lib., 1851.
8.—Palladius, Historia Lausiaca. Ed. by Butler, Texts
and Studies. Camb., 1898.
9.—Concerning the Ascetic Life. Not in Eng.
III.—LATIN:
 1.—Sulpicius Severus, Dialogues, i.-iii. Nic. and Post-
Nic. Fathers, 2d ser., xi., pt. 11.
2.—Athanasius, Life of Anthony. Ib., iv., 195-221.
3.—Ambrose, Concerning Virgins. Ib., x., 360. Letters,
No. 63. Ib., 457.
4.—Augustine, The Work of Monks. Fathers of the Holy
Catholic Church, xxii., 470-516.
5.—Cassian, Institutes. Nic. and Post-Nic. Fathers, 2d
ser., xi. Cœnobia, Ib. Conferences, Ib.
6.—Jerome, Life of St. Paul the First Hermit. Ib., vi.,
299-318; Letters, No. 22, 130. Ib.
7.—Gregory the Great, Letters. Ib., xii.; Life and
Miracles of St. Benedict. Ed. by Luck, Lond.,
1880.
8.—Rufinus, History of Monks. Not in Eng.
9.—Cassiodorus, Dissertation on Monasticism. Not in
Eng. Letters. Ed. by Hodgkin, Oxf., 1886.
IV.—COLLECTIONS:

1.—Apostolic Canons. See Ch. IX. of this work.

2.—Apostolic Constitutions. Ib.
3.—Henderson, Select Histor. Docs. of the M. A., 274-
314.
4.—Univ. of Neb., Europ. Hist. Studies, ii., No. 6.
5.—Univ. of Pa., Translations and Reprints, ii., No. 7.
B.—SECONDARY:
I.—SPECIAL:

1.—Allies, T. W., The Monastic Life from the Fathers of

the Desert to Charlemagne. Lond., 1896.
2.—Browne, E. G. K., Monastic Legends. Lond.
3.—Butler, A., Lives of the Saints. Lond., 1833, 2 vols.
Balt., 1844, 4 vols.
4.—Day, S. P., Monastic Institutions. Lond., 1865.
5.—Dill, S., Roman Society in the Last Century of the
Western Empire. N. Y., 1904.
6.—Fosbroke, T. D., British Monachism. 3d ed. Lond.,
1843.
7.—Fox, S., Monks and Monasticism (Eng.). Lond.,
1848.
8.—Hardy, H. S., Eastern Monachism. Lond., 1864.
9.—Harnack, A., Monasticism: Its Ideals and Its
History. 1886. Tr. by Gillett, N. Y. Lond., 1895.
10.—Hill, O. T., English Monasticism. Lond., 1867.
11.—Jameson, Mrs. A., Legends of the Monastic
Orders. Lond., 1850. Rev. ed. Bost., 1896.
12.—Kingsley, C., The Hermits: Their Lives and Works.
Lond., 1885.
13.—Lea, H. C., History of Sacerdotal Celibacy. Phil.,
1884. 3d ed. N. Y., 1907. 2 vols.
14.—Lechner, D. P., Life and Times of St. Benedict.
Lond.
15.—Littledale, R. F., Monachism. Encyc. Brit.
16.—Montalembert, Count de, Monks of the West. New
ed. Lond., 1896. 7 vols.
17.—Northcote, J. S., Celebrated Sanctuaries of the
Madonna. Lond., 1868.
 18.—Ruffner, H., Fathers of the Desert. N. Y., 1850. 2
vols.
19.—Smith, I. G., Christian Monasticism (4th-9th cent.).
Lond., 1892.
20.—Wishart, A. D., Short History of Monks and
Monasticism. Lond., 1900.
II.—GENERAL:

Adams, Civ. of M. A. Adeney, ch. 13. Alzog, ii., 114-

121. Butler, Ch. Hist., ch. 34-35. Brown, Stoics and
Saints, ch. 5-6. Cheetham, ch. 12, sec. 3-4. Church,
Begin. of M. A., 48, 58. Clarke, Events and Epochs,
ch. 3-4. Coxe, Lect. 3, sec. 3. Cunningham, West.
Civ., ii., 37-40. Darras, i., 636; ii., 34, 35, 121, 387;
iii., 43. Döllinger, ii., ch. 5, sec. 9; iii., ch. 4, sec. 6.
Draper, Intel. Develop. of Europe. Fisher, 111, 113,
114, 115, 116, 175, 234. Fitzgerald, i., 215-227.
Foulkes, 88, 93, 150-151, 221, 243, 349. Gibbon,
ch. 37. Gieseler, ii., ch. 4, sec. 95-97. Gilmartin, i.,
ch. 9, 22, 45. Hase, sec. 132-136. Hurst, i., ch. 30-
31. Jennings, i., ch. 6. Kurtz, i., 248-258, 503-509.
Lecky, Hist. of Europ. Morals, ii., ch. 4. Mahan, bk.
4, ch. 12. Maitland, Dark Ages. Milman, i., bk. 1, ch.
2; bk. 3, ch. 1; ii., bk. 3, ch. 6. Milner, i., cent. 4, ch.
5. Moeller, i., 355-377. Mosheim, bk. ii., cent. iv.,
ch. 3, § 13. Neander, ii., 262. Newman, i., 451.
Putnam, Books and their Makers, i. Robertson, bk.
2, ch. 6, sec. 4. Schaff, iii., 147. Zenos, 104, 154,
171.
FOOTNOTES:
[198:1] Jerome, Ep., 15.
[199:1] The Hindoo monks exhausted their minds in devising
means of self-torture.
[199:2] Lea, Sac. Celib., 24; Laws of Manu, bk. 6., st. 1-22. See
Hardy, Eastern Monasticism, Lond., 1850.
[199:3] The disciples of Pythagoras were called cenobites.
Montalembert, i., 215.
[200:1] Lea, Sac. Celib., 24.
[200:2] Numb. vi., 1-21.
[200:3] Pliny, Nat. Hist., v., 15; Porphyry, De Abstinentia, iv., 11;
Edersheim, ch. 3; Döllinger, Gentile and Jew, ii., 330. See p. 44,
45.
[200:4] Isa. xxii., 2; Dan. ix., 3; Zech. xiii., 4; 2 Kings i., 8; iv., 10,
39, 42. Cf. Heb. xi., 37, 38; Expositor, 1893, i., 339.
[200:5] Schaff, ii., 390.
[200:6] Lea, Sac. Celib., 24.
[200:7] Eusebius, ii., 17; Philo, Contemp. Life, bk. 1; Jewish
Quart. Rev., viii., 155; Baptist Rev., Jan., 1882, p. 36 ff.; see
Jewish Encyc.; Döllinger, ii., 335.
[200:8] Matt. xix., 21; Luke xviii., 22; Mark x., 21.
[200:9] Tertullian held that all the Apostles except Peter were
unmarried.
[201:1] Mark x., 29, 30.
[201:2] Paul, especially 1 Cor. vii.; Lea, Sac. Celib., 25.
[201:3] Texts quoted as favourable to monasticism: Acts ii., 44;
iv., 32; xv., 28, 29; 1 Cor. vii., 8; iv., 3; Matt. xix., 12, 21; xxii., 30;
Rev. xiv., 4; Luke xx., 35; Mark x., 29, 30.
[201:4] Harnack, Monasticism, 10.
[201:5] Montalembert, i., bk. 1.
[202:1] Montalembert, i., 188.
[202:2] Lightfoot, The Colossian Heresy.
[202:3] Marcionites, Valentinians, Abstinents, Apotoctici,
Encratites, etc.
[203:1] Cyprian, Ep., 62.
[203:2] Euseb. Eccl. Hist., vi., 42.
[204:1] Harnack, Monasticism, 65.
[204:2] 1 Tim. v., 3-14. Cf. Acts ix., 39, 41.
[204:3] Justin Martyr observed that Christians were commencing
to abstain from flesh, wine, and sexual intercourse. He, with
Ignatius and others, lauds celibacy as the holiest state.
[205:1] Celibacy was habitually practised by some; others
devoted their lives to the poor. Many converts like Cyprian sold
their possessions for the needy. Still others like Origen mutilated
themselves.
[205:2] Irenæus, Against Heresy, i., 24; Epiphanius, Heresy, 23.
[206:1] Rufinus, Concerning Ascetic Life, 30; Socrates, iv., 23;
Sozomen, i., 14. See Montalembert, i., 227.
[206:2] Augustine, Confessions, viii., 15.
[206:3] Harnack, Monasticism, 27.
[206:4] Ibid., 47.
[207:1] Sozomen, vi., 33; Tillemont, Mem., viii., 292.
[207:2] Severus, Dialogues, i., 8.
[207:3] Evagrius, Ch. Hist., i., 13, 21; ii., 9; vi., 22; Theodosius,
Philoth., 12, 26; Nilus, Letters, ii., 114, 115; Gregory of Tours,
viii., 16.
[207:4] Augustine, City of God, i., xiv., ch. 51.
[207:5] Tillemont, Mem., viii., 633.
[209:1] The rule of St. Oriesis is little more than a mystical praise
of asceticism.
[209:2] Socrates, iv., 23; Sozomen, i., 14.
[209:3] Gwatkin, Arianism.
[209:4] Sozomen, iii., 14.
[209:5] Hergenröther, 452.
[210:1] Theod., Hist. Rel., 30; Augustine, De Mor. Eccl., i., 31.
[210:2] Sozomen, iii., 14; vi., 32.
[210:3] A follower of Hilarion. Made bishop of Cyprus in 367.
[210:4] Sozomen, vi., 32.
[210:5] Ibid., vi., 32.
[210:6] Eusebius, viii., 13; Socrates, iv., 36; Sozomen, vi., 38.
[210:7] Sozomen, vi., 32.
[210:8] Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., ch. 26.
[210:9] Smith, Rise of Christ. Monast., 48.
[211:1] Augustine, De Mor. Eccl., p. 33. He had been in Gaul in
337 and 338.
[211:2] Ambrose, Letters, 63, 66.
[211:3] Augustine, Confessions, viii., 15.
[211:4] Montalembert, i., 291-300.
[211:5] Jerome, Letter 127.
[211:6] Jerome, Letter 23.
[211:7] Montalembert, i., 291; Jerome, Letter 26.
[211:8] Jerome, Letter 96.
[212:1] Sulpic, Severus, Life of St. Martin.
[212:2] See Ozanam, Hist. of Civ. in the 5th Cent.
[212:3] Mosheim, bk. ii., cent. 5, part 2, ch. 3, § 12, tells of a
German fanatic who built a pillar near Treves and attempted to
imitate the career of Simeon Stylites, but the neighbouring
bishops pulled it down.
[213:1] Cassian, Inst., ii., 2; St. Benedict, Rule, ch. 1; Jerome,
Ep., 95.
[213:2] Gregory I., Dialogues, bk. ii. See Montalembert, i., bk. 4.
[214:1] Henderson, 274, Rule of our most Holy Father Benedict,
Lond., 1886; Ogg, Source Book, § 11.
[215:1] Doyle, The Teaching of St. Benedict, Lond., 1887.
[216:1] Lea, Sac. Cel., 116. See Cath. Encyc.
[216:2] Stephen, Essays in Eccl. Biog., 240.
[216:3] It was boasted that no less than twenty Emperors and
forty-seven kings cast aside their crowns to become Benedictine
monks, while ten Emperors and fifty queens entered convents,
but it is impossible to discover them.
[217:1] Milman, iii., 88.
[217:2] Schaff, iii., 173.
[218:1] The vast amount of legislation on this point is very
indicative.
[218:2] Gregory, Letter v., 1; i, 42.
[218:3] This right was prohibited in the 11th and 12th centuries,
but Innocent III. granted the permission in certain cases.
[219:1] Cod. Theodos., xii., 1, 63.
[219:2] See the works of Sulpicius Severus for attacks on the
monks in Gaul and Spain.
[220:1] Against Jovinian (392).
[220:2] The attack is found in two works, Against Helvidius (383)
and his Apology.
[220:3] Gilly, Vigilantius and His Times, Lond., 1844. See Jerome's
writings.
[220:4] Against Vigilantius (406).
[220:5] Epiphanius, Heresies, 75.
[221:1] Harnack, Monasticism, 65.
 CHAPTER XII
SPREAD OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH OVER EUROPE

Outline: I.—Extent of Christianity under Gregory the Great.

II.—Character of missionary work from the sixth to the
tenth century. III.—Conversion of the British Isles. IV.—
Conversion of the Franks. V.—Conversion of the Germans.
VI.—Conversion of Scandinavia. VII.—Planting of the
Church among the Slavs. VIII.—Efforts to convert the
Mohammedans. IX.—Sources.
From the outset the Christian Church was imbued with a most
intense and burning general missionary zeal. The command came in
very distinct terms from the Master himself.[229:1] But there was no
recognised principle of propagandism and no special organisations to
carry on the work. Each Christian felt the individual obligation to win
his fellows to the new faith. Separate churches no doubt naturally
felt the necessity of some corporate action to convert the heathen in
the neighbourhood. Prayers, indeed, for the conversion of the
heathen were early made an integral part of the liturgies of the
Church, East and West.[229:2] The actual diffusion of Christianity,
however, proceeded in a special sense from the evangelical labours
of the individual bishops[229:3] and the clergy. In fact missionary
work was regarded as one of their specific duties handed down from
the Apostles. With the development of the organisation of the
Church and the appearance of patriarchs arose the thought that it
was the duty of these powerful centres to carry on missionary
activity in foreign fields. Monasticism was early utilised for this
important work. It must never be forgotten that the aggressive
evangelising efforts of the early Church were mainly those of the
West, and here is seen another powerful factor in the rise of the
mediæval Church.
The conception early developed in the Church that the spread of
God's Kingdom on earth was a warfare. That idea was founded on
the words of Jesus,[230:1] on the assertions of the Apostles, and on
the sacrifices of the early martyrs. Monasticism made this conviction
peculiarly personal. The organised Church asserted it on every
occasion. The conversion of the barbarians was viewed, in a broad
sense, as an invasion and a conquest. It was a campaign with all
western Europe as its field. In time it covered six centuries or more.
The generals, the able strategists, were the competent and zealous
Roman pontiffs, and the subordinate officers were emperors, kings,
princes, bishops, and abbots. The army was that great host of
devoted monks, of consecrated priests, and earnest Christian
laymen. The weapons in the hands of these conquerors were
Christian love and sympathy. They were driven on by an irresistible
zeal for saving souls. They were clothed in the power of poverty,
austerity, suffering, obedience, and self-denial. The conflict was one
which, in its outcome, was to shape the destiny of the world.
The man above all others who was carried away by this dream of
duty for the Church militant in winning those outside the true Church
to membership, was the monk-Pope, Gregory the Great. Pagan
Rome had failed to make a complete and permanent conquest of the
barbarians. Christian Rome, inspired by this master spirit, was to
succeed in conquering both the bodies and the souls of the
barbarians, and to use them for her own glory.
When Gregory the Great died in 604, Christendom practically
covered the Roman Empire and at certain points extended beyond it.
Those who bore the name Christian included Jews, Romans, Greeks,
Celts, and Germans. The Christian world was already divided into
two great branches—the Eastern, or Greek Church, and the Western,
or Roman Church,—which were becoming more and more
pronounced in their differences.
The Christian missionary work, from the sixth to the twelfth century,
must be viewed broadly as a process of civilisation, since the
missionaries carried with them intellectual light, as well as spiritual
truth, and paved the way for law and justice. They opened up
channels through which the higher ideals and better institutions of
the south might work northward to revolutionise agriculture, trade,
social life, and general economic conditions. "The experience of all
ages," said Neander, "teaches us that Christianity has only made a
firm and living progress, where from the first it has brought with it
the seeds of all human culture, although they have only been
developed by degrees."[231:1]
Mediæval conversion to Christianity was, as a rule, tribal, or national,
rather than individual, or personal, and consequently it took some
time before satisfactory fruitage was noticeable in the lives of the
people. But it was a great victory to substitute the Christian for the
pagan ideal. The agencies employed to carry out this process of
conversion were: (1) missionaries, mostly Latin, Celtic, English,
German, Greek, and Slavic monks; (2) the sword in the hands of a
stern ruler; (3) the marriage of Christian women to pagan kings and
princes; and (4) the recognised superiority of Christianity, Christian
institutions, and Christian nations. It must be borne in mind,
likewise, that some of the German tribes settled in the very heart of
Christendom where Christian influences could operate directly and
immediately.
The earliest successful conversion of the Teutons was to Arianism.
That work was begun at least as early as the time of Constantine,
because a Gothic bishop sat in the Council of Nicæa (325). Bishop
Ulfilas (d. 381), the "Apostle to the Goths," called by Constantine the
Great "the Moses of the Goths,"[232:1] translated the Bible into
Gothic[232:2] and won his countrymen to Arianism. St. Chrysostom in
404 established in Constantinople a school for the training of Gothic
missionaries.[232:3] The Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, and
Vandals all embraced that faith. But the fervent and more aggressive
missionary zeal of Rome gradually replaced Arianism in western
Europe with orthodox Christianity—the Burgundians in 517, the Suevi
in 550, the Visigoths in 587, the Lombards, the last stronghold of
Arianism in the West, in the eighth century.
The unparalleled missionary activity of the Roman Church was due
of course primarily to religious enthusiasm, but other causes must
also be taken into account. As a matter of self-preservation to
protect herself from the inveterate paganism of the ancient world,
on the one hand, and from the torrent of barbaric invaders, on the
other, the conflict was thrust upon Rome and she must conquer or
perish. Again the development of the hierarchy along the lines of the
Petrine theory made it imperative that Rome should win and rule the
West. The wise policy of winning kings first and nations afterwards
was simply adopted from Roman imperial practice but it was
eminently successful. It likewise enabled the Pope of Rome to
control all missionary enterprise from his ecclesiastical capital, and to
employ it for the further extension of the papal prerogative.
The results of the spread of Christianity over the Græco-Roman
world have already been considered. That conquest decidedly
modified the Apostolic Church in organisation, in ceremony, and in
doctrine, and laid the foundations for the Roman and Greek
Churches. The Romanised, monasticised Christian Church over which
Gregory the Great ruled reveals the product of all these early
influences. The conversion of the Teutons to Roman Christianity
marks another new epoch not only in the history of the Church, but
also in the history of the world. Just as from the Apostolic Church
emerged the Roman Church with its pronounced differences, so from
the Roman Church evolved the Teutonic-Roman Church, which in
turn was strikingly unlike its prototype in several particulars. The
Germanised Roman Church declared its absolute independence of
the Eastern Emperor and launched out on a new world career. The
product of all these elements was the mediæval Church which stood
for primitive Christianity modified first by a growth covering five
centuries through a stratum of Roman civilisation, and secondly for
seven centuries through a superimposed stratum of Germanic
civilisation.
When the pagan Franks began their conquest of Gaul (486), they
encountered a civilisation that was nominally Christian. Their king,
Clovis, married Clotilda, a Christian princess, the daughter of the
Burgundian king[234:1] (493). She no doubt laboured with her lord
and master to induce him to embrace her faith. He permitted his
child to be baptised in accordance with the Christian rite and
tolerated Christian priests and monks as a matter of policy, but that
was all. At length in a battle with the stubborn Alemanni, Clovis,
hard-pressed, prayed to the Christian God and promised to turn
Christian himself in exchange for victory. His foes fled and left him
conqueror. True to his vow, Clovis, after receiving instruction from
Bishop Remigius of Rheims, was baptised on Christmas day 496 and
with him 3000 warriors. This important event, "the first step toward
the world-historical union of Teutonic civilisation with the Roman
Church,"[234:2] paved the way for Charles the Great, and made
possible a Christian France. This event was a significant victory for
the Nicene Creed and for the Pope of Rome. Orthodoxy and Roman
dominion now advanced side by side with Frankish conquests until
both became absolutely independent of the imperial power in the
East.[235:1]
The Romans abandoned the island of Britain in 409 for ever. About
450 the pagan kinsmen of the Franks, namely the Angles, Saxons,
Jutes, and Frisians, crossed to Britain and there found the Christian
Church already planted.[235:2] They drove it back to Wales, Ireland,
and Scotland, or crushed it out altogether. The Christian Celts, who
were thus treated, made no effort at first to convert their heathen
conquerors.[235:3] That was left to missionaries from Rome under
the leadership of the monk Augustine. Bede, the venerable Church
historian, tells the pious tale of how Gregory the Great, before being
made Pope, saw in the slave market of Rome some boys "of a white
body and fair countenance" and forthwith became so deeply
interested in them and their land that he begged the Pope to send
him as missionary to Britain.[235:4] The Romans, it is said, refused to
allow him to go, and soon honoured him with the tiara of St. Peter.
As Pope, however, he carried out his intention by sending Augustine,
a Benedictine abbot, with forty monks and Gallic interpreters and
with letters and a library of sacred literature, to England in 596 to
begin the work.[235:5]
Now it happened that Ethelbert, the King of Kent, had married
Bertha, a Christian princess from Paris, who had been permitted to
take a Gallic bishop with her to England. Thus the way had been
already opened for the favourable reception of the monks under the
guidance of Augustine, which led in 597 to the conversion of
Ethelbert at Canterbury, and with him nominally the whole kingdom
of Kent. At the first Christmas festival Ethelbert and 10,000 of his
subjects were baptised. Thus Roman Christianity became at once the
established state Church and "everywhere the bishop's throne was
set up side by side with the king's."[236:1] Augustine, as a reward for
his successful services, was soon made the first archbishop of
England[236:2] and proceeded to organise the Church by sending to
Rome for more helpers, by appointing bishops and priests to
particular fields of labour, by purifying pagan temples and dedicating
them to Christian services, and by repairing and building Christian
churches and monasteries. As a result of the sincere, practical
measures adopted by Augustine, thousands were soon won to the
new faith and Christianity was permanently replanted in the British
Islands. The work, so well begun, was continued until Sussex, the
last kingdom of the heptarchy, in 604, embraced the popular
religion. Pope Gregory the Great took a keen interest in this grand
triumph and made it contribute to the glory of the Roman Church.
[236:3]

The monks sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great soon came to
see that the Celtic Church differed from theirs in many respects.
Augustine himself, having concluded an alliance between Ethelbert
and the Roman See, held several conferences with the Christian
Celts in order to accomplish the most difficult task of their
subjugation to Roman authority. These differences were largely
ritualistic and disciplinary. The Celtic Christians celebrated Easter
according to the calculation of Sulpicius Severus, while the Romans
had another mode of computing the proper day.[237:1] The Celts
appealed to St. John, the Romans to St. Peter.[237:2] The Celtic
Church might be called a monastic Church, since the abbot ruled
over the bishop.[237:3] The Celts shaved the front of the head from
ear to ear as a tonsure, while the Romans shaved the top of the
head leaving a "crown of thorns."[237:4] The Celts permitted their
priests to marry, the Romans forbade it. The Celts used a different
mode of baptism from that of the Romans, namely, single instead of
trine immersion. The calendar for all movable festivals was not the
same. The Celts held their own councils and enacted their own laws,
independent of Rome. The Celts used a Latin Bible unlike the
Vulgate, and kept Saturday as a day of rest, with special religious
services on Sunday.[237:5] Notwithstanding these variances, which
do not seem to be at all on the fundamentals, there were many
doctrinal and constitutional resemblances. Both churches were
orthodox; both used a Latin ritual[238:1]; both had developed an
episcopal organisation; both believed in monasticism; and both were
actively engaged in missionary work. Nevertheless the British
Christians looked with much disfavour upon the Augustine mission to
convert their pagan conquerors and oppressors.
King Ethelbert in 602 arranged a conference of British and Roman
bishops on the Severn in Essex.[238:2] At that gathering Augustine
with unreasonable rigour and haughtiness demanded conformity;
the Britains refused to surrender their independence. To settle the
matter Augustine proposed that an appeal be made to a miracle.
Accordingly a blind Anglo-Saxon was brought in. The Celtic clergy
prayed over him in vain. Whereupon Augustine knelt and prayed,
and immediately the blind man was restored to sight,[238:3] but the
Celts refused to accept that act as final without the consent of a
larger representation in the synod. The next year, therefore, a
second council was held at which the persistent Augustine once
more demanded conformity to Roman practices and the recognition
of papal supremacy, and also requested missionary co-operation, but
the Britains, displeased with Augustine's narrow dogmatism and
apprehensive of the loss of their freedom, refused to submit. "As you
will not have peace with brethren," said the stern Roman monk, "you
shall have war from foes; and as you will not preach unto the
English the way of life, you shall suffer at their hands the vengeance
of death."[239:1] When, ten years later, a wholesale Saxon massacre
of British Christians occurred, in which possibly a thousand priests
and monks were slaughtered and many churches and monasteries
destroyed, further conferences were at an end for fifty years.
It was not until 664 that the famous Council of Whitby was called by
King Oswy of Northumbria in which Bishop Colman and Bishop Cedd,
renowned Celtic divines, defended the British Church; while Bishop
Agilbert, and Wilfred, the greatest English ecclesiastic of his time,
championed Rome. In the discussion about the correct day for
Easter, it was asserted by Wilfred that St. Peter held "the keys to the
kingdom of Heaven." The king then asked Colman and the monks
with him whether that was true, and they were forced to confess
that it was. Consequently, feeling that it was safer to be on the side
of Peter, the "doorkeeper," the king decided in favour of the Church
of Rome.[239:2] This was a very significant victory for the See of St.
Peter, because papal supremacy was now recognised in the British
Isles, and likewise for the future of England, because it opened up a
channel through which Roman Christian civilisation flowed into the
British Isles to influence to a greater or less degree every institution
in that country and, later, through the great empire which England
was to build up to carry those cultural influences around the world.
The work of cementing the Latin and Celtic churches in England into
one was completed by Theodorus, the Archbishop of Canterbury (d.
690), and the Venerable Bede (d. 735). Ecclesiastical unity hastened
political unity in England[240:1] and developed a common civic life
among the divided peoples of the British Isles.[240:2]
Christianity had early spread from Britain to Ireland. The labours of
St. Patrick[240:3] (d. 493) and the work of St. Bridget, the "Mary of
Ireland" (d. 525), have become classics. The Anglo-Saxon invasion
drove many Christians to Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries, so
that by the seventh century Ireland had become the "Island of
Saints" and the whole island was Christianised. Many famous
monasteries were planted, and an intense missionary zeal had sent
to Scotland, North Britain,[240:4] France, Germany, Switzerland, and
northern Italy many representatives of the Celtic Church.
In 629, Pope Honorius exhorted the Irish Church to conform to the
Roman Easter day. A Celtic deputation was then sent to Rome and,
upon returning home, reported in favour of the Latin system, which
was adopted first in southern Ireland in 632, then in northern
Ireland in 640, and by 704 was generally observed. The Norman
Conquest, in 1066, made the union of Ireland with Rome as well as
with England more complete; but it was left to Henry II., who
conquered Ireland in 1171, to give finality to the dependence of
Ireland on Rome religiously and on England politically.
Christianity was planted in Scotland during the Roman period.[241:1]
An Irish colony, converted by St. Patrick, settled there in the fifth
century. The labours of St. Ninian (sixth cent.), the work of St.
Kentigern (d. 603), and the activity of St. Columba (d. 597)
completed the conversion of the country. St. Columba was a famous
Irish missionary, who went to Scotland in 563, there converted the
king of the Picts and founded many churches. He made his
headquarters on the small island of Iona on which was planted a
monastery famous as a school for missionaries, as the centre of
educational activity, and as the Rome of the Celtic Church.[241:2] For
centuries the Celtic Church maintained its independence in Scotland,
but gradually gave way to the better organised and more aggressive
Roman Church, though the Culdees were not absorbed until 1332.
[241:3]

The enthusiasm of the Celtic and English Christians soon attained

such proportions that it overflowed and swept back upon the
continent like a mighty tidal wave. The great pioneer in that
movement was Columbanus. He was born in Leinster about 543 and
received his monastic education at Bangor. At the age of forty he
conceived the idea of preaching the Gospel to the pagan German
tribes. With twelve young companions he crossed over to France
where they remained several years, teaching the faith. Then they
went to Burgundy where King Gontran persuaded them to build a
monastery. For twenty years Columbanus laboured in the wild
Vosges Mountains, planted the three famous monasteries of
Anegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines. Luxeuil virtually became the
"monastic capital of France."[242:1] He gave his monks a stringent
rule, borrowed from the rigid discipline of the Celtic monasteries,
and he clung to the peculiar rites and usages of his mother Church.
His influence was strongly felt and an army of disciples gathered
around him. From his mountain home he sent forth reformatory
waves that covered all Europe, and posed as sort of a spiritual
dictator of the whole Church.
Another result of his influence was to incite the enmity of the
Gallican clergy and the Burgundian court. In 602, he was arraigned
before a Frankish synod, but he ably defended his life and his
beliefs. This affront led him to appeal to Pope Gregory the Great in
several interesting letters. At last, in 610, he was banished from the
Burgundian kingdom never to return. He went to Tours, Nantes,
Metz, up the Rhine valley, and into Switzerland where he remained
three years engaged in active missionary work until forced to leave
by Burgundian influence. Crossing the Alps into Lombardy he
received an honourable welcome from King Agilulf and was given a
site for the celebrated monastery of Bobbio where, in 615, he
passed away in peace. To him must be given the credit of opening
up Europe to England and Ireland as an excellent field for foreign
missions.[243:1]
Gallus,[243:2] an Irish companion of Columbanus, called the "Apostle
of Switzerland," laboured among the Alemanni and Swabians. His
monastery of St. Gall became one of the great centres of learning in
the Middle Ages. He died in 645. Three other Irish monks of note
worked in Germany. Fridolin founded a monastery on the Rhine near
Basle. Trudbert went into the Black Forest and became a martyr to
the cause. Kylian, the "Apostle of Franconia," went to Würzburg
where he met with considerable success but lost his life.
The English were early drawn into this ardent missionary impulse.
More missionaries were sent to Europe in the seventh and eighth
centuries from England than go to-day to foreign fields.[243:3]
Willibrord,[243:4] a native of Northumberland, educated in Ireland,
embarked in 690 with seven assistants for Frisia at the mouth of the
Rhine. The native prince was Radbod, an uncompromising pagan.
Acting on the advice of Pepin of France he went to Rome and was
invested with the bishopric of Utrecht. He then evangelised parts of
Frankish Frisia, after which he visited Denmark. After a zealous
career of half a century he died in 740. Other Englishmen followed in
his wake. Adelbert laboured in the north of Holland, Werenfrid near
Elste, and Wiro among the natives of Guldres. The Ewald brothers
were slain by the savage Saxons.[244:1] Wulfram, the Bishop of Sens,
made excellent headway among Radbod's Frisians.[244:2] Indeed the
zeal of these northern missionaries might have planted the Celtic
Church firmly on the continent, had they not been so sadly deficient
in capacity for organisation and had the Pope of Rome not been so
zealously watchful.
Roman colonies on the Rhine in the third and fourth centuries first
carried Christianity into Germany. In the Council of Arles (314) there
were present a bishop and a deacon from Cologne, and a bishop
from Treves. By the fifth century Christianity had been spread by
Severinus,[244:3] an Italian monk, into Bavaria along the Danube.
It was really left to St. Boniface,[244:4] the "Apostle of Germany," to
organise and unify the work already done, and to subject the
Christian Church in Germany planted by his predecessors, to Rome.
He was a most remarkable character and played an important part in
the Christianisation of the Teutonic peoples. Born in 680 in
Devonshire, England, of noble Saxon family, he early entered the
monastery at Exeter, where he received an excellent education for
that day. He soon evinced a longing for the life of a monk. His father
gave his consent reluctantly, and he assumed monastic vows in a
monastery near Winchester. He became a famous preacher and
expounder of Scripture, and at the age of thirty was ordained priest.
He now felt called upon to carry the Gospel to the land of his
ancestors. Consequently in 716, with two or three fellow-monks as
companions, he crossed from London to Frisia to begin his
missionary labours as the successor of Willibrord, whose successes
had been largely reversed. Radbod, the baptised Frisian king, had
backslid when he learned that his pagan forefathers were among the
damned. He declared that he preferred "to be there with his
ancestors rather than in heaven with a handful of beggars."[245:1]
Hence he had devastated the Christian churches and monasteries,
and was now at war with Charles Martel. King Radbod met Boniface,
but refused to permit him to preach, so Boniface returned to
England without having accomplished anything.
Notwithstanding the failure of this first enterprise, Boniface left
England again in 718 and for ever; and now went through France to
Rome to obtain papal sanction for his future missionary work. Pope
Gregory II. formally commissioned him as missionary to the German
tribes (719). Armed with that letter and many precious relics, he
started north the following spring to his field of labour. First, he went
to Thuringia and Bavaria, regions already partly Christianised, but at
this time considerably disorganised, and demanded their submission
to Rome; then, learning of King Radbod's death (719), he hastened
to Frisia, where he laboured for three years with Willibrord, who had
meantime returned to continue his labours. In 722 he passed
through Thuringia and entered Hesse where, within a short time, he
converted two local chiefs together with many thousands of their
followers. A foothold was thus secured by Rome in the pagan world
of Germany and never again lost.
These successes led the Pope to recall Boniface to Rome to receive
directions concerning conditions in Germany. After exacting from him
a confession of faith in the Trinity, and binding him by an oath ever
to respect papal authority,[246:1] the Supreme Pontiff created him
missionary bishop in 723. Boniface then returned to Germany with a
code of laws for the Church, and with letters of introduction to
Charles Martel and to other influential persons who might aid him.
He was aware that little could be done without the assistance of that
powerful ruler and wrote: "Without the protection of the Prince of
the Franks, I could neither rule the people of the Church, nor defend
the priests or clerks, the monks or handmaidens of God; nor have I
the power to restrain pagan rites and idolatry in Germany without
his mandate and the awe of his name."[246:2] Hence he attached
himself for awhile to the court of the Frankish ruler before he began
the work so near his heart. Hesse and Thuringia, Christianised
nominally by Celtic missionaries and consequently under no
episcopal authority, refused to recognise papal jurisdiction. To awe
them into submission, Boniface cut down their gigantic sacred oak at
Geismar and from it, subsequently, built a chapel to St. Peter. The
people were convinced and received the new faith. With the aid of
Charles Martel, the assistance of the pope, and the help of English
missionaries who joined him, Boniface completed his conquest of
that region, filled it with churches and monasteries, and extended
papal rule over it. Schools were established, learning and a higher
civilisation began to flow in from England and Rome, and the dark
days of paganism were gone.
As a reward for his labours, Pope Gregory III., who received the
papal crown in 731, raised Boniface in 732 to the dignity of
missionary archbishop. This new authority enabled him to coerce
refractory bishops who thwarted his efforts. Five years later, Boniface
made his third and last visit to Rome, not now as an obscure
missionary but with a great retinue of monks and converts. Once
more returning to Germany with authority, he organised the Church
in Bavaria (739) and thus curtailed ecclesiastical lawlessness by
creating four bishoprics: Salzburg, Friesingen, Passau, and
Regensburg. In the year 742, continuing the work of organisation
begun so well in Bavaria, he succeeded in creating in central
Germany the bishoprics of Würzburg, Buraburg, Erfurt, and
Eichstädt. To organise the Church and regulate ecclesiastical affairs,
he held numerous synods. At the same time, he laboured hard to
enforce celibacy, to restore Church property alienated by rulers, and
to suppress heresy. In 743, he was made archbishop of Mainz, with
jurisdiction over a region from Cologne to Strassburg and from Coire
to Worms, and now sought to complete the work of consolidating
the German Church. By this time, he had become not only the head
of the Church in Germany, but was recognised as a powerful factor
in political matters. It is even reported that he crowned Pepin at
Soissons (752).[248:1] The great monastery of Fulda was founded
(744) and it was destined to become the head of the Benedictine
institutions in Germany. Having appointed Lull as his successor at
Mainz, he resigned in 754, returned a third time to Frisia as a
missionary, and there was slain in 755 as a martyr to the Christian
cause. Boniface did more than any other one individual to carry
Christianity to the German peoples and to tie the Church of Germany
firmly to the papal throne. He was a civiliser and law-giver as well as
a Roman missionary.[248:2] After the Apostle Paul he was probably
the most eminent in missionary endeavour.
His work was continued by his disciple Willibald (b. 700), a relative,
a pilgrim to Rome and the Holy Land, and a Benedictine monk, who
was made bishop of Eichstädt (741). He called his brother, sister,
and others from England as missionaries into Germany. He founded
Benedictine monasteries, and it is thought by some that he wrote a
biography of his great leader (d. 781). Gregory, an abbot of Utrecht,
a Merovingian prince converted by Boniface, worked with his master
and took charge of the Frisian mission after his death (755). Sturm,
the first abbot of Fulda (710-779),[248:3] a Bavarian nobleman
educated by Boniface, had his teacher's bones buried at Fulda and
served for years as a missionary among the Saxons (d. 779). Charles
the Great gave him support and encouragement.
Another means used to convert the Germans was the sword. This
was especially true of the Saxons, a sturdy, defiant, warlike people,
who lived in Hanover, Oldenburg, and Westphalia.[249:1] They were
the last to accept Christianity, because they hated the Franks and
far-off Rome. Fruitless efforts to convert them had been made by
the Ewald brothers, Suidbert, and others. The work was left,
however, for Charles the Great, who consumed thirty-three years in
subjecting them to Christian rule (772-805).[249:2] This was done
only after five thousand inhabitants had been massacred at Verdun,
ten thousand families had been exiled in 804, and bloody laws were
enacted against relapse into paganism. This new type of missionary
work, which was a radical departure from the apostolic method, can
be excused, perhaps, only when we take into consideration the
moral standards of the age and the motives of Charles the Great.
The best men of the time, however, like Alcuin vehemently opposed
this method. After Charles had subjected the Saxons, he established
among them eight bishoprics, Osnabrück, Münster, Minden,
Paderborn, Verdun, Bremen, Hildesheim, and Halberstädt.
The Prussians, located to the north-eastward of the Saxons along
the Baltic, stubbornly resisted efforts to Christianise them. Adelbert,
Bishop of Prague (997), and his successor, Bruno, were both
massacred by them. At length, a Cistercian monk, who was
appointed the first bishop of Prussia in the twelfth century, made
some headway among them, but was soon compelled to withdraw.
Then followed the crusade of the Teutonic Order (1230-1280) in
which the methods of Charles the Great were employed and with the
same results.
Christianity was first introduced into Denmark in the sixth and
seventh centuries through raids on Ireland, commerce with Holland,
and the story of the "white Christ." Willibrord was the first
missionary.[250:1] When he was expelled from Friesland in 700 he
went to Denmark, where he was received with favour by King
Yngrin, organised a church, and bought thirty boys to be educated
as missionaries. St. Sebaldus,[250:2] the son of a Danish king, was a
product of this early missionary effort. Charles the Great ruled part
of Denmark, carried on extensive trade with the people, located
churches in Holstein and at Hamburg, and planned to convert all the
Danes.[250:3] Louis the Pious, appealed to by King Harold Klak[250:4]
to settle a family feud, sent Archbishop Ebo of Rheims and Bishop
Halitgar of Cambray to Denmark in 822. Ebo made several journeys,
later preached extensively, won many converts, baptised them, and
built a church at Welnau. When, in 826, King Harold Klak fled to the
Emperor for aid, he, together with his whole family and train, was
converted and baptised at Ingelheim. Upon returning, the King took
with him Ansgar, a Frank born at Amiens (800), who had been early
trained as a missionary teacher and preacher, and who was to win
the title of "Apostle of the North." He laboured in Denmark with
some success, but in 829 was expelled, when Harold Klak was once
more driven out, and went to Sweden until he was elected bishop of
Hamburg in 831 with all Scandinavia as his see. In 846, Bremen was
united to Hamburg and Ansgar was made archbishop. He soon
succeeded in planting Christianity and with it monasticism in
Denmark. His successor, Archbishop Rimbert (865-888), continued
the spread of Christianity undisturbed; and his successors Adalgar
(888-909), Unni (909-936), and Adaldag (936-988), had a
comparatively clear field. The last of these saw the consecration of
four native bishops, an increase in the possessions of the Church,
and an organised struggle against heathenism. When the Danes
made a conquest of England, the results were seen in the conversion
of King Swen, a zealous worker for the Church, and his son Canute
(1019-1035), who completed his father's work with the aid of
English missionaries. So strong was the Church in Denmark by the
twelfth century that a separate archbishop was appointed. The
supremacy of the Roman Church was recognised.
The conversion of the Northmen has an interesting history.[251:1]
The political situation in the tenth century opened the way for the
introduction of Christianity. Hakon the Good, educated in England as
a Christian, conquered and united all Norway, converted his
followers, called over priests from England, and sought to force
Christianity upon all his people, but in this failed. The sons of Eric,
also Christianised in England, wrested the throne from Hakon the
Good in 961, and likewise tried to uproot paganism, but they, too,
were unsuccessful. Olaf, of romantic career, was called in 995 to
rule. He, likewise, waged a crusade in behalf of Christianity and with
such success that when he died in 1000, it had been permanently
established. Olaf the Saint (1014-1030), however, completed the
Christianisation of Norway and put it under the protection of the
Archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg.[252:1]
As early as the eighth century, Culdee anchorites were accustomed
to retire to Iceland from Scotland. In the ninth century Norwegians
began to flee thither from the tyranny of their kings. Most of these
emigrants were pagans, but one Norwegian convert in Saxony
persuaded Bishop Frederick to go with him to Iceland where the
bishop remained four years, but made little impression. Thougbrand
journeyed thither in the tenth century, but likewise largely failed in
his efforts. After the conversion of Norway, however, the intimate
relations with Iceland soon produced different results. Christianity
spread so rapidly that in 1000 the Christian religion was made the
state religion. The first church built on the island was from timber
sent by Olaf the Saint.[252:2]
Greenland was discovered and colonised by the bold Icelander, Eric
the Red, in 986, and Eric's son was sent over by Olaf to plant the
Christian Church there in 1000. The Church flourished there for four
hundred years until disrupted by the Esquimos. About the year 1000
Vinland was discovered and thus the Gospel was known on the coast
of New England five centuries before Columbus appeared.[253:1]
Like the Danes, the Swedes learned of Christianity through wars and
conquests, and commercial relations. Björn, the Swedish King, asked
Louis the Pious to send him Christian missionaries. Accordingly in
829 Ansgar, expelled from Denmark, went to Sweden where he
laboured two years with some success. Five years later he sent
Gautbert and Nithard to Sweden with a number of priests, but the
pagan uprising killed all the priests and soon swept away all traces
of Christianity. In 848 Ansgar made a pompous visit to Sweden again
with costly presents and letters, and reopened the field for
missionary work. By the eleventh century, the King of Sweden and
his sons were baptised, and the work was pushed with renewed
vigour, although it was not until the middle of the twelfth century
that the conversion of Sweden was completed.
In the time of Charles the Great, the Slavs were located along the
eastern side of his Empire; the Wends along the Baltic Sea between
the Elba and the Vistula; the Poles along the Vistula; the Russians
behind the Poles; the Czechs in Bohemia; and the Bulgarians back of
the Danube and Balkan Mountains. Charles the Great had attempted
to force the Wends to accept Christianity, but with no success. Otto
the Great conquered them and likewise sought to convert them. He
located bishoprics at Havelburg, Oldenburg, Meissen, Merseburg,
and Zeitz, and an archbishopric at Magdeburg in 968 with Adalbert
as the first archbishop. Reaction began in the time of Otto II., under
the leadership of Mistiwoi, an apostate Christian, in which churches
and monasteries were burned, and priests and monks killed (983).
[254:1] Later, Gottschalk, his grandson, an educated Christian monk,
angered at the murder of his father (1032), led an anti-Christian
crusade, but was defeated and then repented and ever after
laboured hard to establish Christianity. The old bishoprics were
restored and new ones created at Razzeburg and Mecklenburg; five
monasteries were built; missionary work was encouraged; the liturgy
was translated into Slavic; and the Church in that region became
wealthy and powerful. But the heathen party, in a general uprising,
killed Gottschalk and his old teacher (1066), destroyed the churches
and monasteries, and once more slew the priests and monks. The
final Christianisation of the Wends, therefore, did not take place until
the middle of the twelfth century.
Charles the Great subjugated the Moravians, directed the Bishop of
Passau to establish a mission among them, secured the conversion
of their chief, Moymir, and founded the bishoprics of Olmütz and
Nitra. Louis the German deposed Moymir on suspicion of treason
and elevated Radislaw to power, but he soon turned against his
benefactor and defeated him, formed an independent Slavic
kingdom on the eastern boundary of Germany, and sent for Greek
missionaries, two of whom, Cyrillus and Methodius, brothers and
educated monks, were sent by the Greek Emperor Michael III. in
863.[254:2] Cyrillus understood the Slavic tongue and invented an
alphabet and translated the liturgy into Slavic. He preached and
celebrated service in the language of the people, and had a most
able assistant in Methodius. They were very successful in their
labours and built up a national Slavic Church. The German priests
who had been labouring there for some time were driven out, and
with them disappeared the Latin liturgy. Seeing their great success,
Pope Nicholas I., in 868, invited them to Rome and won them to a
friendly arrangement. There Cyrillus died in 869 but Methodius was
returned as the Roman Archbishop of Pannonia. The Pope agreed
both to the use of Slavic in the mass and to the independence of the
Slavic Church under papal control. Ten years later Methodius made a
second visit to Rome and a second agreement was entered into,
satisfactory to both Rome and Moravia. He died before the ninth
century ended, and before the close of the tenth century the Latin
Church had replaced the Slavic. The expelled Slavic priests fled to
Bulgaria to build up a new Church.
Neither Charles the Great, nor his son Louis, was able to conquer
the Bohemians. When Bohemia became a dependency of Moravia,
however, the way was opened for the introduction of Christianity.
The Bohemian Duke Borziway and his family were converted, but
reaction followed under Boleslav the Cruel. Otto I. in 950 completely
defeated Boleslav, recalled the priests, and rebuilt the churches. The
bishopric of Prague was established in 973, and under Archbishop
Severus (1083) general laws were enforced concerning Christian
marriage, observance of the Sabbath, and morality. The Latin
language and the Roman ritual prevailed in the Bohemian Church.
[255:1]

The first missionaries to Poland were Slavic, perhaps Cyrillus and

Methodius. With the break-up of the Moravian kingdom, many
nobles and priests fled to Poland and were kindly received. In 965 a
Bohemian princess married Duke Mieczyslav and took priests with
her. The Duke was converted and baptised and paganism was
destroyed by force. The Church was then organised on the Latin-
German model, and German priests were introduced. The first Polish
bishopric was established at Posen subject to the Archbishop of
Magdeburg. But it was to take many additional years before Roman
Christianity was firmly established.
The Bulgarians, Slavic in institutions, but not in origin, captured
Adrianople in 813 and carried away many Christian prisoners, among
whom was the bishop himself, who began the conversion of their
captors. In 861 a Bulgarian princess, returning from captivity in
Constantinople as a Christian missionary to her own people,
converted her brother, the Duke Bogoris. This work was
supplemented by Methodius, who was sent there in 862 to help on
the good work, and by other Greek missionaries who followed him.
In 865 the baptised Duke of Bulgaria wrote to Pope Nicholas I. for
Roman missionaries and asked one hundred and six questions about
Christian doctrines, morals, and ritual. The Pope sent two bishops
and elaborate answers to the questions,[256:1] but the Greek faith
finally predominated.
The Magyars, who entered Europe in the ninth century and in 884
settled near the mouth of the Danube, finally located in present
Hungary. They first learned of Christianity at the Byzantine court. In
Hungary, however, they came in touch with the Roman missionaries.
Otto the Great compelled them to receive missionaries from the
Bishop of Passau. When Prince Geyza married a Christian princess,
their conversion was rapid and complete. Adalbert of Prague visited
the country and made a great impression. King Stephanus (997)
made Christianity the legal religion, enforced the German
ecclesiastical system, formed ten bishoprics, located an archbishopric
at Grau on the Danube, built churches, schools, and monasteries,
and received a golden crown from Pope Sylvester II. in 1000 as "His
Apostolic Majesty."[257:1]
The Russians claimed St. Andrew for their apostle but probably
actually learned of Christianity from Constantinople in the ninth
century. Photius, in 867, told the Pope that the Russians were
already Christians. A church was built at Kieff on the Dnieper, the
Russian capital, and in 955 the grand-duchess, Olga, journeyed to
Constantinople and was baptised. Grand-Duke Vladimir, the
grandson of Olga, established Christianity at one sweep when he
married Anne, the daughter of Emperor Basil and was baptised at his
wedding in 988. Churches, schools, and monasteries spread rapidly
all over the country, but the Greek Church instead of the Roman was
firmly planted there, and in 1325, Moscow became the Russian
Rome.[257:2]
While the Roman Church was winning new subjects all over northern
and central Europe; she was losing nearly as much in territory and
numbers in Africa and Spain. This loss was due to the rise of a rival
religion in Arabia which bid fair to outstrip Christianity in the race for
world conquest.
Mohammedanism, shortly after its birth (622), began to threaten
Christianity. After having driven the Christian Church from northern
Africa, the followers of Islam overthrew the Visigothic power in Spain
(711) and then swarmed across the Pyrenees to overrun most of
France. The very existence of Christendom was at stake, and the
future of Europe hung in the scales and might have been very
different, had not Charles Martel with his stalwart Christian knights
in the bloody battle of Tours (732) checked the advance of the
crescent and forced its adherents to hastily retrace their steps. The
califate founded at Cordova (756) continued as a standing menace
for more than six centuries. Meanwhile Moslem corsairs scoured the
Mediterranean, seized Sicily, and from that vantage point sought to
make a conquest of Italy venturing at times to the very gates of
Rome.
The contest between the faithful of these two religions, continued
for centuries and attained its climax in the crusades. The followers of
each faith sought to either conquer or exterminate the other. This
form of missionary work was like that employed by Charles the Great
against the Saxons and Otto the Great against the Slavs. The
repeated assaults of Frankish rulers, Spanish princes, and Norman
warriors in Italy were finally successful and Islam was thrust back
into Africa, but only to enter Europe by way of Constantinople.
In sharp contrast to these harsh methods, there are not a few
instances of devout Christians labouring in love among the followers
of the Prophet to save their souls. Conversions to Christianity were
not infrequent in Spain, Italy, Egypt, and the East.[259:1] The
Franciscans and Dominicans both laboured heroically among the
followers of the Prophet to teach them the higher and better faith.
[259:2]

Notwithstanding the fact that Christianity spread so rapidly

throughout the Roman Empire, yet it must be remembered that
more than twelve centuries were to circle away before the cross was
carried to all European peoples and planted among them. The
problem was as difficult as that encountered to-day in Africa, Asia,
and the islands of the seas. By the twelfth century all Europe, except
Lapland and Lithuania had been won to Christianity. If the number of
Christians approximated 30,000,000 at the death of Constantine, the
number at the time of Pope Innocent III. in 1200 may have been
200,000,000 who came within the direct or indirect jurisdiction of
the Christian Church. The sweeping control of the Roman Church
gathered under her broad ægis possibly 100,200,000. Through these
missionary activities, therefore, the successor of St. Peter had
extended his actual sway until it included all of western and central
Europe with a population as large as that of the Empire of Cæsar at
the birth of Christ.
This unprecedented increase in dominion and subjects carried with it
a corresponding change in the power, duties, wealth, and
opportunity of the Papacy. The Pope of Rome became the greatest
force in the West and one of the greatest in the world. The hierarchy
was necessarily extended and elaborated. The number of officers,
both locally and in the ecclesiastical court at Rome, was greatly
increased. The rapid addition of so many sturdy recruits to the
Roman Church, carried on for centuries, gave the Western Church a
pronounced ascendency over the Eastern Church. Papal
prerogatives, which were little more than assertions in the early
period, became realities. As a result of these heroic and persistent
missionary efforts, the mediæval Church, at the end of the
missionary period, had attained its highest power.
A stream is coloured and influenced in its purity by the soil and rock
through which it flows. An institution is modified by the peoples
through whom it passes. It is not a matter of surprise to the
historical student, in consequence, to see the Christian Church
reflecting the civilisation through which it grew. Christianity may
easily be reduced to the fundamental Gospel principles taught by
Jesus, but in that pure, simple form it was not spread over the world
and perpetuated. Originating on Jewish soil, it never outgrew the
Jewish tinge. During the post-apostolic period it was powerfully
modified by the classical philosophy of Rome, Greece, and
Alexandria. In post-Constantinian times the multitudes of heathen
converted to Christianity introduced heathen modifications and
compromises. The spread of the Church to Teutonic soil, there to
encounter a sturdy barbarism in most intimate relations, produced
modifying influences which can easily be seen in the history of the
Church. The Germanic contribution was to prove to be one of the
most important and influential forces in the whole history of the
Church, because it created, in a large sense, modern civilisation and
the modern Church.
This period of zealous missionary endeavour among the Celtic and
Teutonic tribes was a great pioneer movement. Far too little
attention has been paid to it by historians and, consequently,
comparatively small credit has been granted to it as a force in the
evolution of our institutions to-day. It is impossible to conceive what
would have been the history of Europe and the civilisation she has
planted around the earth had not Christianity entered at this epoch
to lay the foundations. Every institution would have developed
differently and the world would certainly not be what it is to-day.

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