Editing Saint Olaf (section)

=== Conversion of Norway ===
Olaf Haraldsson and [[Olaf Tryggvason]] (Olaf Haraldsson's [[Godparent|godfather]]) are both traditionally regarded as the driving forces behind Norway's final conversion to Christianity.<ref>Karen Larsen, ''A History of Norway'' (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1948) pp. 95–101.</ref> But large stone crosses and other Christian symbols suggest that at least Norway's coastal areas were deeply influenced by Christianity long before Olaf's time; with one exception, all of Norway's rulers since [[Haakon I of Norway|Håkon the Good]] (c. 920–961) were Christians, as was Olaf's main opponent, [[Cnut the Great]]. What seems clear is that Olaf made efforts to establish a church organization on a broader scale than before, among other things by importing bishops from [[England]], [[Normandy]] and [[Germany]], and that he tried to enforce Christianity in the inland areas, which had the least communication with the rest of Europe, and which economically were more strongly based on agriculture, so that the inclination to hold on to the former fertility cult was stronger than in the more diversified and expansive western parts of Norway.

Many believe Olaf introduced Christian law into Norway in 1024, based upon the [[Kuli stone]], but this stone is hard to interpret.<ref name="autogenerated2" /> The codification of Christianity as the legal religion of Norway was attributed to Olaf, and his legal arrangements for the Church of Norway came to stand so high in the Norwegian people's and clergy's eyes that when [[Pope Gregory VII]] made clerical celibacy binding on the priests of Western Europe in 1074–75, However, Olaf's legal code for the church made no mention of clerical celibacy. Only after Norway was made a metropolitan province with its own archbishop in 1153 — making the Norwegian church more independent of its king and more directly responsible to the Pope — did [[Canon law (Catholic Church)|canon law]] gain a greater prominence in the life and jurisdiction of the Norwegian church.