Editing Lombards (section)

====Christianisation====
The Lombards first adopted Christianity while still in Pannonia, but their conversion and Christianisation was largely nominal and far from complete. During the reign of [[Wacho]], they were Orthodox Catholics allied with the [[Byzantine Empire]], but [[Alboin]] converted to [[Arianism]] as an ally of the [[Ostrogoths]] and invaded Italy. All these Christian conversions primarily affected the aristocracy, while the common people remained pagan.<ref name="Jarnut 2002 51">{{harvnb|Jarnut|2002|p=51}}</ref>

In Italy, the Lombards were intensively Christianised, and the pressure to convert to Orthodox Catholicism was great. With the [[Baiuvarii|Bavarian]] queen [[Theodelinda]], an Orthodox Catholic, the monarchy was brought under heavy Catholic influence. After initial support for the anti-Rome party in the [[Schism of the Three Chapters]], Theodelinda remained a close contact and supporter of [[Pope Gregory I]].<ref name="Jarnut 2002 51"/> In 603, [[Adaloald]], the heir to the throne, received Orthodox Catholic baptism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Waitz |first=Georg |title=Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI–IX |date=1964 |publisher=Hahn |location=Hannover |pages=12–219}}</ref> However, the lack of spiritual involvement of most of the Lombards in religious disputes remained constant, so much so that the opposition between Orthodox Catholics, on the one hand, and pagans, Arians and schismatics, on the other, soon took on political significance. The supporters of Roman orthodoxy, led by the [[Bavarian dynasty]], were politically the proponents of greater integration with the Romans, accompanied by a strategy of preserving the status quo with the Byzantines. Arians, pagans and schismatics, rooted above all in the northeastern regions of the kingdom ([[Austria (Lombard)|Austria]]), were instead interpreters of the preservation of the warlike and aggressive spirit of the people. Thus, to the "pro-Catholic" phase of [[Agilulf]], Theodolinda and Adaloald followed, from 626 ([[Arioald]]'s accession to the throne) to 690 (definitive defeat of the rebel [[Alahis]]), a long phase of the revival of Arianism, embodied by militarily aggressive kings like [[Rothari]] and [[Grimoald, King of the Lombards|Grimoald]]. However, tolerance towards Orthodox Catholics was never questioned by the various kings, also safeguarded by the influential contribution of the respective queens (largely chosen, for reasons of dynastic legitimacy, among the Orthodox Catholic princesses of the Bavarian dynasty).<ref>{{harvnb|Jarnut|2002|pp=61–62}}</ref>

In the seventh century, the nominally Christian aristocracy of Benevento was still practising pagan rituals such as sacrifices in "sacred" woods.<ref>{{harvnb|Rovagnati|2003|p=101}}</ref> By the end of the reign of [[Cunipert|Cunincpert]], however, the Lombards were more or less completely Catholicised. Under [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|Liutprand]] Orthodox Catholicism became tangible as the king sought to justify his title ''rex totius Italiae'' by uniting the south of the peninsula with the north, thereby bringing together his Italo-Roman and Germanic subjects into one Catholic State.<ref>{{harvnb|Rovagnati|2003|p=64}}</ref>