ABSTRACT
In all Nordic countries in the early Christian period (c. 950–c. 1150), churches were built by people who were responsible for giving their family and friends access to the numinous. At the same time, control of access to places where this religion could be practiced, i.e., in churches, became a tool for power in this period of social unrest. In Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, it was the Christian warlords of the Late Viking Age who, with their bishops, carried out Christianization and at the same time were very aware of the potential of the new religion in the struggle for supreme power. In Norway, the early kings established their overall church organization as a necessary tool for their royal power, and it is here argued that the same was true for Sweden and Denmark. Developments in Iceland were slightly different, as the country did not have a king, but there, too, control over churches was the most important basis for power. The introduction of the Gregorian Church reform in Scandinavia in the 1100s led to a new dogged fight among the top elite for supreme kingship, a battle in which whoever allied with the bishops necessarily had to win. It is further argued that the introduction and implementation of the tenth, as well as the establishment of the geographically bound parish, should be regarded as an indicator of the pope’s increasing influence in the power struggles within the secular elite. By approximately 1250, the Church in Scandinavia had managed to establish itself as an—under the circumstances—independent institution.
