Editing Saxons (section)

===Religion===

====Germanic religion====
{{see also|Continental Germanic mythology}}
Saxon religious practices were closely related to their political practices. The annual councils of the entire tribe began with invocations of the gods. The procedure by which dukes were elected in wartime, by drawing lots, is presumed to have had religious significance, i.e. in giving trust to divine providence{{snd}}it seems{{snd}}to guide the random decision-making.{{Sfn|Goldberg|1995|p=474}} There were also sacred rituals and objects, such as the pillars called [[Irminsul]]; these were believed to connect heaven and earth, as with other examples of trees or ladders to heaven in numerous religions. [[Charlemagne]] had one such pillar chopped down in 772 close to the [[Eresburg]] stronghold.

Early Saxon religious practices in Britain can be gleaned from place names and the [[Germanic calendar]] in use at that time. The Germanic [[gods]] [[Woden]], [[Frigg]], [[Týr|Tiw]] and [[Thunor]], who are attested to in every Germanic tradition, were worshipped in Wessex, Sussex and Essex. They are the only ones directly attested to, though the names of the third and fourth months (March and April) of the [[Month#Old English calendar|Old English calendar]] bear the names {{Lang|ang|Hrēþmōnaþ}} and {{Lang|ang|Ēosturmōnaþ}}, meaning 'month of [[Hretha]]' and 'month of [[Ēostre]]'. It is presumed that these are the names of two goddesses who were worshipped around that season.{{Sfn|Stenton|1971|p=97–98}} The Saxons offered cakes to their gods in February ({{Lang|ang|Solmōnaþ}}). There was a religious festival associated with the harvest, {{Lang|ang|Halegmōnaþ}} ('holy month' or 'month of offerings', September).{{Sfn|Stenton|1971}}{{Page needed|date=June 2024}} The Saxon calendar began on 25 December, and the months of December and January were called [[Yule]] (or {{Lang|ang|Giuli}}). They contained a {{Lang|ang|Modra niht}} or 'night of the mothers', another religious festival of unknown content.

The Saxon freemen and servile class remained faithful to their original beliefs long after their nominal conversion to Christianity. Nursing a hatred of the upper class, which, with Frankish assistance, had marginalised them from political power, the lower classes (the {{Lang|la|plebeium vulgus}} or {{Lang|la|cives}}) were a problem for Christian authorities as late as 836. The {{Lang|la|Translatio S. Liborii}} remarks on their obstinacy in pagan {{Lang|la|ritus et superstitio}} ('usage and superstition').{{Sfn|Goldberg|1995|p=480}}

====Christianity====
[[File:Pictures of English History Plate V - Saint Augustine and the Saxons.jpg|thumb|right|1868 illustration of [[Augustine of Canterbury|Augustine]] addressing the Saxons]]
The conversion of the Saxons in England from their original [[Germanic paganism|Germanic religion]] to [[Christianity]] occurred in the early to late seventh century under the influence of the already converted [[Jutes]] of [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]]. In the 630s, [[Birinus]] became the "apostle to the West Saxons" and converted [[Wessex]], whose first Christian king was [[Cynegils]]. The West Saxons begin to emerge from obscurity only with their conversion to Christianity and keeping written records. The [[Gewisse]], a West Saxon people, were especially resistant to Christianity; Birinus exercised more efforts against them and ultimately succeeded in conversion.{{Sfn|Stenton|1971|p=97–98}} In Wessex, [[Bishop of Winchester|a bishopric]] was founded at [[Dorchester, Oxfordshire|Dorchester]]. The South Saxons were first evangelised extensively under [[England|Anglian]] influence; [[Aethelwalh of Sussex]] was converted by [[Wulfhere of Mercia|Wulfhere]], [[King of Mercia]] and allowed [[Wilfrid]], [[Archbishop of York|Bishop of York]], to evangelise his people beginning in 681. The chief South Saxon bishopric was [[Bishop of Selsey|that of Selsey]]. The [[Kingdom of Essex|East Saxons]] were more pagan than the southern or western Saxons; their territory had a superabundance of pagan sites.{{Sfn|Stenton|1971|p=102}} Their king, [[Saebert of Essex|Saeberht]], was converted early and a diocese was established at [[Diocese of London|London]]. Its first bishop, [[Mellitus]], was expelled by Saeberht's heirs. The conversion of the East Saxons was completed under [[Cedd]] in the 650s and 660s.

The continental Saxons were evangelised largely by English missionaries in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. Around 695, two early English missionaries, [[Hewald the White]] and [[Hewald the Black]], were martyred by the {{Lang|la|vicani}}, that is, villagers.{{Sfn|Goldberg|1995|p=474}} Throughout the century that followed, villagers and other peasants proved to be the greatest opponents of [[Christianisation]], while missionaries often received the support of the ''{{Lang|osx|edhilingui}}'' and other noblemen. [[Saint Lebuin]], an Englishman who between 745 and 770 preached to the Saxons, mainly in the eastern Netherlands, built a church and made many friends among the nobility. Some of them rallied to save him from an angry mob at the annual council at Marklo (near river Weser, Bremen). Social tensions arose between the Christianity-sympathetic noblemen and the pagan lower castes, who were staunchly faithful to their traditional religion.{{Sfn|Goldberg|1995}}{{Page needed|date=June 2024}}

Under Charlemagne, the [[Saxon Wars]] had as their chief object the conversion and integration of the Saxons into the Frankish empire. Though much of the highest caste converted readily, forced baptisms and forced tithing made enemies of the lower orders. Even some contemporaries found the methods employed to win over the Saxons wanting, as this excerpt from a letter of [[Alcuin of York]] to his friend Meginfrid, written in 796, shows:
<blockquote>
If the light yoke and sweet burden of Christ were to be preached to the most obstinate people of the Saxons with as much determination as the payment of tithes has been exacted, or as the force of the legal decree has been applied for fault of the most trifling sort imaginable, perhaps they would not be averse to their baptismal vows.{{Sfn|Goldberg|1995|p=478}}
</blockquote>

Charlemagne's successor, [[Louis the Pious]], reportedly treated the Saxons more as Alcuin would have wished, and as a consequence they were faithful subjects.<ref>{{harvnb|Hummer|2005|p=141}}, based on [[Astronomus]].</ref> The lower classes, however, revolted against Frankish overlordship in favour of their old paganism as late as the 840s, when the {{Lang|osx|[[Stellinga]]}} rose up against the Saxon leadership, who were allied with the Frankish emperor [[Lothair I]]. After the suppression of the ''{{Lang|osx|Stellinga}}'', in 851 [[Louis the German]] brought [[relics]] from [[Rome]] to Saxony to foster a devotion to the [[Roman Catholic Church]].{{Sfn|Hummer|2005|p=143}} The [[Poeta Saxo]], in his verse {{Lang|la|Annales}} of Charlemagne's reign (written between 888 and 891), laid an emphasis on his conquest of Saxony. He celebrated the Frankish monarch as on par with the Roman emperors and as the bringer of Christian salvation to people. References are made to periodic outbreaks of pagan worship, especially of Freya, among the Saxon peasantry as late as the 12th century.

=====Christian literature=====
In the ninth century, the Saxon nobility became vigorous supporters of [[monasticism]] and formed a bulwark of Christianity against the existing [[Slavic paganism]] to the east and the [[Nordic paganism]] of the [[Vikings]] to the north. Much Christian literature was produced in the vernacular [[Old Saxon]], the notable ones being a result of the literary output and wide influence of Saxon monasteries such as [[Abbey of Fulda|Fulda]], [[Abbey of Corvey|Corvey]] and [[Verden an der Aller|Verden]]; and the theological controversy between the [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustinian]], [[Gottschalk (theologian)|Gottschalk]] and [[Rabanus Maurus]].{{Sfn|Goldberg|1995|p=477}}

From an early date, Charlemagne and [[Louis the Pious]] supported Christian [[vernacular literature|vernacular]] works in order to evangelise the Saxons more efficiently. The ''[[Heliand]]'', a verse epic of the life of Christ in a Germanic setting, and ''Genesis'', another epic retelling of the events of [[Book of Genesis|the first book of the Bible]], were commissioned in the early ninth century by Louis to disseminate scriptural knowledge to the masses. A council of [[Tours]] in 813 and then a synod of [[Mainz]] in 848 both declared that [[Homily|homilies]] ought to be preached in the vernacular. The earliest preserved text in the Saxon language is a [[Old Saxon Baptismal Vow|baptismal vow]] from the late eighth or early ninth century; the vernacular was used extensively in an effort to Christianise the lowest castes of Saxon society.{{Sfn|Hummer|2005|p=138–139}}