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died instantly, tied to a tree. So, although the sources diverge as to the form of punishment, both conflrm the very fact of execution.

The tempie had at its disposal a treasury, to which one tenth of the spoils was paid. This custom was used by Ebo (III, 1) to motivate the endowments to Christian churches: “The offerings of great value and variety, which used to be delivered to the priests and temples of idols, were now transferred to Chrisfs churches.” It also gave Ebo an occasion to ascribe the pagan reaction to the plots of the priests, who “found themseives instantly de-prived of the pleasures of the former magnitude, and Looked for an occasion to bring the people back to pagan cult just for their own benefit.” Certainly, the Christianization of the town meant at Least social degradation to the priests, but there were some morę important reasons for which the people stuck to paganism.

We do not know any dates of pagan celebrations in Szczecin. It is obvious that there were some “solemn days,” when the inhabitants, or rather only the nobles, “on fixed days and hours gathered” in the temples in order to drink, play and hołd a council. Also horse-divination had its own “definite time and place.”

Apart from the ritual of oracie, which is described in detail, and an overall characteristics of ritual feasts, the information about the cult is quite scarce. Sacrifices are mentioned only in generał, although they are sufficient-ly confirmed by Ebo (III, l). The record about bringing oblations to a pagan altar situated in St Adalbert’s church - as the whole containing passage - seems rather unreliable. The method of liquidating Otto (cutting into pieces) suggested by the pagan priest, though expressed in The Life from Prufening by a Biblical quotation, reminds of the martyrdom of bishop John in Radogość, so perhaps also the Szczecinians madę human sacrifices.

The name of the god worshiped in Szczecin has not been recorded. Triglav is only a nickname disguising the real name surrounded with a taboo. In Gieysztoris opinion (1982, p. 121-127), the black colour of the god’s horse and his rule over the realms of heaven, earth and under-world point to Veles. The sacrosanct oak, the tree of the Thunderer, indicates the cult of Perun.

The features typical to many most important sanctuaries, including a tempie with a magnificent statuę of a god, a treasury, priests and an oracie using a horse, are nearly complete in the case of Szczecin. Only sacrifices are recorded vaguely, but sufficiently. The picture is supplemented with the Capital function of the town, which was also an important trade centre, and the counselling assemblies connected with the rituals: meetings of the nobles in the cult halls and of common people in the yard in front of the tempie near the mould, which symbolised the power of the authorities (Słupecki, 1993c).

The rank of Triglav’s sanctuary is evident from the fact that its authority was recognized in Wolin. There are some suppositions that the influence of

Szczecin embraced also some shrines of lower status in other settlements. According to Ebo (III, 18), Otto’s companion Udalric by the saint’s order wanted to destroy “a tempie very far” from the main site of the events, but had to abandon the enterprise when he was hurled with Stones by the idofs worshipers (Dziewulski, 1960, p. 24). Only after the arrival of Otto himself did the missionaries manage to demolish the tempie.

Undoubtedly, the most important town in Szczecin’s sphere of influence was Wolin. Although in the 12thc. this town acknowledged Szczecin’s primacy in political, military and religious matters, it had its own sanctuary. It is difficult to decide whether the privileged position of Szczecin was acquired recently or stemmed from an older tradition reflected in the name of “the mother of Pomeranian towns.” The former possibility is morę convincing in view of the fact that Szczecin appeared in written sources quite late, actually at the beginning of the 12thc., while Wolin had been known sińce the lOthc. and moreover surrounded with the legends about the Vikings from Jom-Wolin (Labuda, 1960-1975, vol. 2, p. 184-190), fantastic tales in which it is called Vineta, and the famę of a thriving port and town (SSS, vol. 6, p. 472, 561). According to Ibrahim ibn Jacob (MPHsn, vol. 1, 1946, p. 50), Wolin was an important port and a “mighty town” with twelve gates. Adam of Bremen (II, 22/19/) called it Vineta and described it as the biggest town of Europę. The Germans who lived there were forbidden to practice Christian cult in public, because - as Adam wrote in the mid 1 lth c. - all inhabitants “still remain pagans.” Adam’s relation shows Vineta in its prime. Less than a century later Helmold (I, 2) wrote about its decline. Although he exaggerates classifying the town as a ruin, the significance of Wolin undoubtedly decreased, which was probably initiated by the defeat in 1043 (Labuda, 1988, p. 73-74).

In the early 12thc. Szczecin had the indisputable primacy, but Wolin still retained some of its former splendour. The first mission after Boleslaus the Wrymouth had enforced the conversion of Pomerania to Christianity was undertaken in Wolin. Bishop Bernard, a Spanish ascetic of high ideals, arrived there two years before the first expedition of bishop Otto (Koczy, 1934a, p. 130), and tried to preach the Gospel barefooted, as the Apostles used to do. According to Ebo (II, 1), the Woliniains treated him as a mad person, commenting that they cannot believe that he is a herald of the supreme God, who is glorious and wealthy, while he is contemptible and so poor that he has no shoes. Driven to despair, the missionary “inflamed with the desire of martyrdom, took an axe and began to cut a great column devoted to Julius Caesar, after whom the town was named Julin. The pagans (...) impassioned with anger, attacked him and then left him cruelly beaten and half-alive.” The obstinate bishop tried to continue his miksion, but the priests separated him from the people by force and put him on a ship together with his chaplain and interpreter, forbidding him to reappear in the country. Their lenience towards Bernard, who in their understanding

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