HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

THE CONVERSION OF RUS' 293Christianity among the pagans and traveling across the East Slavic landtwenty years after the baptism of Rus', seemed unaware that Christianitywas actually just beginning to take hold there. Apparently Bruno didbelieve it essential to win the ruling class over fully to the Christian faith.That the baptism of Rus' was noted in Ottonian Europe we know fromthe chronicler and bishop of Merseburg, Thietmar (975-1018), a relativeand schoolmate in Magdeburg of Bruno of Querfurt. Thietmar presented avery negative opinion of Volodimer's morality. Thietmar's text was writtenbetween 1015 and 1017; he corrected and supplemented that text in the fallof 1018. According to him, only after Volodimer married the Byzantineprincess did he yield to his wife's persuasion and adopt the Christian faith(christianitatis sanctae fidem eius ortatu suscepit, quam iustis operibus nonornavit, bk. 7, chap. 72). Thietmar also maintained that the Polish princeMieszko was won over to Christianity by his wife, the Czech princessDobrava (bk. 4, chaps. 55-56). Did Thietmar stereotype these rulers? Inany case, the passage about Volodimer's conversion stems from Thietmar'swish "to touch upon the wrongful deeds of the king of Rus' Volodimer"(Amplius progrediar disputando regisque Ruscorum Wlodemiri accioneminiquam perstringendo, bk. 7, chap. 72). These wrongful deeds were marriagewith a Greek princess who was promised to the German king (Hie aGrecia ducens uxorem Helenam nomine, tercio Ottoni desponsatam, sed eifraudulenta calliditate subtractam, bk. 7, chap. 72), and the seizure ofBishop Reinborn, who died in prison. The bishop had come to Rus' with aPolish princess who had married Volodimer's son Svjatopolk; about 1013Volodimer came to suspect all three of conspiring against him and so hadthem imprisoned. 15Thietmar's indignation at Volodimer's marriage with filia sancti imperilis comprehensible in view of the writer's descent from the family of theGrafen (Earls) von Walbeck, which was closely related to other powerfulSaxon families. His father Siegfried (d. 991) was a trusted person in thecourt of Otto II and Theophano. Already Thietmar's maternal grandfather,Henry, Graf von Stade, was an important person in the court of Otto I andwas indeed related to him. Otto I's three-year effort to procure a porphyrogeniteprincess for his son Otto II was not forgotten. Partial success cameonly after the new emperor, John Tzimisces, decided to give in marriage hisniece, Theophano, to Otto II, although the bride was not a porphyrogenite."Compellere intrare. Die Wendenpolitik Bruns von Querfurt im Lichte hochmittelalterlichenMissions- und Volkerrechts," Zeitschrift fur Ostforschung 4 (1955): 161 -93.15Thielmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon, ed. R. Holtzmann, trans. W. Trillmich(Berlin, 1957; rpt. 1962) pp. 170-75, 432-37.