There are (at least) two pieces of interest to those interested in Slavic religion in the Pomeranian Diplomatic Codex (edited by Hasselbach & Kosegarten). The first is a description of the activities of Berno of Amelungsborn, the first Bishop of Schwerin, (aka the Apostle of the Obotrites) who took part with Pribislav (the subdued Obodrite leader) in Bishop Absalon’s 1168 campaign against the Rani on Arkona. The second is a brief entry in Absalon’s own will document describing a donation of Rani idols to a certain lady.
Diploma Frederici imperatoris
(regarding 1170, written about 1200)
“Notum esse volumus…, qualiter quidam pauper spiritu monachus nomine Berno… gentem paganorum transalbinam, sub principe tenebrarum in tenebris infidelitatis et idolatrie inclusam, primus predicator nostris temporibus aggressus est, … ipsos baptisans, ydola comminuens, ecclesias fundans … postremo quia gens Ruynarum, ydolatrie spurcitia deo et hominibus inuisa, verba predicationis flecti noluit, idem… fructum … inuenit nam ad hoc principes et omnem populum animavit, ut ydolatriam zelo christiani nominis armis ad fidem cogeret, et ita cum tyronibus Christi, quasi ipse signifer effectus, maximo ydolo eorum Szuentevit destructo, in die beati Viti martiris inuitos ad baptismus coegit.”
“… We wish it to be known… , how a certain monk, weak in the faith, by the name of the Berno … became the first person in our time to set out to convert, the Transalbinian pagan peoples who [until now] have lived under the prince of darkness in the darkness of unbelief and idolatry enclosed… [how he] baptized them, crushed [their] idols and founded churches … At last, as the nation of the Rugians would not be swayed [practicing] idolatrous corruption, hateful to God and man would not be swayed by the words of the same preaching … [fruit?] … and so [for this task] he finds the princes and all the people aroused since idolatry compels all those zealous Christians to their faith and arms, and so with the recruits of Christ, as if he [Berno] were the standard bearer, their greatest idol Szuentevit destroyed, he forces them in the day of Saint Vitus the martyr, to baptism.”
Testamentum Absolonis archiepiscopi
(circa 1200)
“To the Lady Margaret, [I leave] two Rani [Rugian] cup idols.”
So who was this lady Margaret and where are these idolatrous cups now?
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