1066: John Scotus, sacrificed to Radegast
2 comments November 10th, 2020 Headsman
On this date in 1066, John Scotus was sacrificed to the Slavic god Radegast.
That’s Scotus not as in the Supreme Court of the United States, but as in Scotland: our man Johannes (English Wikipedia entry | German) was an Hibernian prelate, possibly previously the Bishop of Orkney and/or the Bishop of Glasgow, who came to Saxony in 1053 as the first Bishop of Mecklenburg.
The land was governed by the Slavic Obotrites (Abodrites), commonly known in western chronicles as the Wends. Predominantly pagan, they were at the time of John’s invitation ruled by a Christian king, Gottschalk. This man’s father had converted to Christianity, and Gottschalk himself during his life had apostatized and then re-converted — illustrating the fraught balance between the confessions. A century hence, these northern unbelievers would face the blades of Christendom’s crusaders.
Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky is the enduring silver screen remnant of the Northern Crusades of the 12th-13th centuries, but the very first of these campaigns was an 1147 crusade against the Wends.
As one might infer, then, Gottschalk’s aspiration to bring his kingdom over to his faith* did not go to plan, even though (according to the near-contemporary chronicle by Adam of Bremen) he “baptized many thousands of pagans.” Many more thousands than that remained un-moved by his sermons in alien Latin; overall, pagans held perhaps a 2:1 or greater preponderance over Christians among these people.
Wound-up Wends rebelled in 1066, deposing and murdering Gottschalk while his heirs fled into exile. John Scotus was not so nimble as the latter, and his political protection having disappeared, “the aged Bishop John was taken with other Christians in Magnopolis [Mecklenburg Castle] and held for a triumph. And because he confessed Christ he was beaten with rods and then was led in mockery through one city of the Slavs after another. Since he could not be turned from the profession of Christ his hands and feet were lopped off and his body was thrown into the road. His head, however, the barbarians cut off, fixed on a spear, and offered to their god Redigast in token of their victory. These things were done in the chief city of the Slavs, Rethra, on the fourth Ides** of November.” (Cf. Adam of Bremen)
The Obotrites were definitively back in the pagan camp for the foreseeable. There was no successor Bishop of Mecklenburg for nearly a century.
* Religion was also a wedge for Gottschalk’s political perspective, of mastering pagan nobility within his realm, and allying to neighboring Christian princes abroad.
** The Ides of November was the 13th; by Latin locution, using Romans’ inclusive numbering, the “second Ides” was the “second” [first] day before that, i.e., the 12th — and the “fourth Ides” the 10th.
On this day..
- 1657: Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi, Queen Christina betrayer - 2019
- 1945: The Rüsselsheim Massacre perpetrators - 2018
- 1735: Elizabeth Armstrong, oyster knifer - 2017
- 1882: Samuel and Milton Hodge - 2016
- 1944: Thirteen from the Ehrenfeld Group and the Edelweiss Pirates - 2015
- 1939: Nelson Charles - 2014
- 1571: Anneken Hendriks, cursed Mennonist - 2013
- 2009: John Muhammad, D.C. sniper - 2012
- 1834: The bushrangers John Jenkins and Thomas Tattersdale - 2011
- 1865: Henry Wirz, for detainee abuse - 2010
- 1780: Corregidor Antonio de Arriaga, by his slave - 2009
- 1954: Hossein Fatemi, before the blowback - 2008
- 1995: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine - 2007
Entry Filed under: 11th Century,Beheaded,Borderline "Executions",Disemboweled,Disfavored Minorities,Execution,Germany,God,Gruesome Methods,History,Martyrs,Public Executions,Religious Figures,Torture
Tags: 1060s, 1066, christianity, human sacrifice, john scotus, november 10, paganism, radegast
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