The 10th Century
Explore the 10th century - an age of monastic renewal and missionary triumph. While the papacy suffered its darkest hour, Cluny launched a great reform, Otto revived the Empire, and the Vikings, Magyars, and Slavs embraced the Christian faith.
Reform andConversion
The 10th century began with the papacy at its lowest point, controlled by Roman aristocratic families in what historians call the Saeculum Obscurum. Yet even as Rome struggled, renewal emerged from unexpected places. In 910, Duke William of Aquitaine founded Cluny, a monastery answerable only to the pope, which would transform European Christianity.
In 962, Pope John XII crowned Otto I as Holy Roman Emperor, reviving the imperial tradition and binding Germany to Italy and the papacy for centuries. Otto's dynasty brought stability, patronised learning, and supported missionary work among the Slavic peoples on the Empire's eastern frontier.
The century's great achievement was the conversion of Europe's remaining pagan peoples. In 988, Vladimir of Kiev accepted baptism, bringing Christianity to the Rus'. Poland and Hungary followed, with St Stephen crowned as Hungary's first Christian king. Even the Vikings settled and converted in Normandy, England, and Scandinavia.
At a Glance
“I have tested them all. There is no joy among them, only sorrow and darkness.”
Vladimir of Kiev
On why he rejected other faiths for Christianity
The Faith Spreads
By 1000, Christianity had reached from Iceland to Kiev, from Scandinavia to Hungary. The century that began in darkness ended with a Christian Europe larger than ever before.