Stelle Deinde cum dies placiti advenisset,...; (Vita Anskarii (865 - 876), 27 (p. 58)) [328]

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ID 328
Text Vita Anskarii (865 - 876) Rimbert
Quotation Deinde cum dies placiti advenisset, quod in praedicto vico Byrca habitum est, sicut ipsorum est consuetudo, praeconis voce rex, quae esset eorum legatio, intimari fecit populo. (...) Quibus ita perstrepentibus, consurgens unus, qui erat senior natu, in medio plebis, dixit: "Audite me, rex et populi. (...) Attendite, populi, consilium vestrum et nolite abicere utilitatem vestram. (...) Hoc ergo ita perorante, omnis multitudo populi unanimis effecta, elegit, ut secum et sacerdotes essent, et quae competebant mysteriis Christi apud eos sine contradictione fierent. (...) Rex itaque surgens a placito, statim cum misso domni episcopi suum direxit nuncium, mandans populi unanimitatem ad suam voluntatem conversam; sibique hoc per omnia placere, necdum tamen se plenam licentiam ei concedere posse, donec in alio placito, quod erat in altera parte regni sui futurum, id ipsum populis ibi positis nuntiaret.
Translation Then when the day of the assembly had arrived, which was held in the aforementioned port of Birka, the king had these things - that is, Ansgar's mission - proclaimed to the people by his herald, as is their custom. (...) As this sent them into a clamour, one of them, an elder, got up and said, in the midst of the people: "Hear me, king and people! (...) Hear, peoples, your own council and do not throw away that which is useful to you. (...) When he had spoken thus, the entire people had become of one mind, and agreed that priests should reside among them, and that what appartained to the Christian mysteries should be permitted among them without contradiction. (...) And so the king rising from the assembly, immediately sent a messenger with the envoy of the lord bishop, telling him that the people had unanimously ceded to his will; and that he was very pleased by this, but that he could not yet grant him full permission, until what was to happen had been announced in another assembly, in another part of the kingdom, to the people there. (Trans. Laura Gazzoli)
Summary The Swedes decide in an assembly at Birka to allow the Christian mission to be active. The Swedish king reports this to Ansgar but says he cannot grant him full permission until another assembly.
Quotation source 27 (p. 58)
Temporal Coverage 852 - 852
Associated use case(s)
Comment The location of the second assembly is not known, but is generally believed to be the one at Old Uppsala.