be forgiven; thou shalt not
despise the weak, thou shalt _love_ him! And this unexpected murmur was
heard each day, like a counsel and a threat, in the words of the morning
prayer, in the sound of the bells, in the music of pious chants.

The conversion was at first superficial, and limited to outward
practices; the warrior bent the knee, but his heart remained the same.
The spirit of the new religion could not as yet penetrate his soul; he
remained doubtful between old manners and new beliefs, and after fits of
repentance and relapses into savagery, the converted chieftain finally
left this world better prepared for Walhalla than for Paradise. Those
who witnessed his death realised it themselves. When Theodoric the Great
died in his palace at Ravenna, piously and surrounded by priests, Woden
was seen, actually seen, bearing away the prince's soul to Walhalla.

The new converts of Great Britain understood the religion of Christ much
as they had understood that of Thor. Only a short distance divided man
from godhood in heathen times; the god had his passions and his
adventures, he was intrepid, and fought even better than his people. For
a long time, as will happen with neophytes, the new Christians continued
to seek around them the human god who had disappeared in immensity, they
addressed themselves to him as they had formerly done to the deified
heroes, who, having shared their troubles, must needs sympathise with
their sorrows. For a long time, contradictory faiths were held side by
side. Christ was believed in, but Woden was still feared, and secretly
appeased by sacrifices. Kings are obliged to publish edicts, forbidding
their subjects to believe in the ancient divinities, whom they now term
"demons"; but that does not prevent the monks who compile the
"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" from tracing back the descent of their princes
to Woden: if it is not deifying, it is at least ennobling them.[70]

Be your obedience qualified by reason, St. Paul had said. That of the
Anglo-Saxons was not so qualified. On the contrary, they believed out of
obedience, militarily. Following the prince's lead, all his subjects are
converted; the prince goes back to heathendom; all his people become
heathens again. From year to year, however, the new religion
progresses, while the old is waning; this phenomenon is brought about,
in the south, by the influence of Augustine and the monks from Rome; and
in the north, owing mainly to Celtic monks