The Russians were visited by missionaries from Greece, from Rome,
and from Germany, so that for a time they wavered between the different
forms of the Christian religion which were offered to them; but at
length they decided for the Greek Church. When their great prince (who,
at his baptism, took the name of Basil) had been converted (A.D. 988) he
ordered that the idol of the chief god who had been worshipped by the
Russians should be dragged at a horse's tail through the streets of the
capital, Kieff, and should be thrown into the river Dnieper. Many of the
people burst into tears at the sight; but when they were told that the
prince wished them to be baptized, they said that a change of religion
must be good if their prince recommended it; and they were baptized in
great numbers. "Some," we are told, "stood in the water up to their
necks, others up to their breasts, holding their young children in their
arms; and the priests read the prayers from the bank of the river,
naming at once whole companies by the same name."

(6.) I might give an account of the spreading of the Gospel in Poland,
Hungary, and other countries; but let us keep ourselves to the north of
Europe. Although Anskar had given up his whole life to missionary work
among the nations near the Baltic Sea, there was still much to be done,
and sometimes conversion was carried on in ways which to us seem very
strange. As an instance of this, I may give some account of a Norwegian
king named Olave, the son of Tryggve.

Olave was at first a heathen, and had long been a famous sea-rover, when
he was converted and baptized in one of the Scilly islands (A.D. 994).
He took up his new religion with a great desire to spread it among his
people, and he went about from one part of Norway to another, everywhere
destroying temples and idols, and requiring the people to be baptized
whether they were willing or not. At one place he found eighty heathens,
who were supposed to be wizards. He first tried to convert them in the
morning when they were sober, and again in the evening when they were
enjoying themselves over their horns of ale; and as he could not
persuade them, whether they were sober or drunk, he burnt their temple
over their heads. All the eighty perished except one, who made his
escape; and this man afterwards fell into the king's hands, and was
thrown into the sea.

At another time, Olave fell in with a young man named Endrid, who agreed
to become a Christi