Dimensions
129 x 198 x 38mm
From Paganism to Christianity 371 - 1386 AD
One of Christianity's first powerful converts, the Emperor Constantine, was baptised into the Christian church on his deathbed by Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, in 337 AD. But the religious character of his empire and the states which set themselves up as its successors was not thereby settled forever. It was not until 1386, over a millennium later, that the continent's last pagan ruler, Grand Duke Jogaila of the Lithuanians, was baptised and Europe became, at least nominally, a completely Christian continent. The epic story of the conversion of Europe over that millennium - the first, greatest and still most successful of all European integrations - is the subject of this book. Richard Fletcher's account of the growth of Christendom, its effect both on the character of European society and culture and on the civilisation of the world, is the most impressive achievement so far of this strikingly gifted historian.