The political theology of the Polabian-Slavic temple-confederation, c. 1018 CE. The completion of the Thietmar Rethra trilogy (Chronicon VI.23 — the city; VI.24 — the ritual; VI.25 — the politics).
Thietmar of Merseburg, in the chapter that follows his description of the temple of Riedegost and the sacred horse, here turns from the cult to its political form: how the Liutici federation governed itself, how its temple-confederation held primacy over a many-templed land, and how this pagan polity refused the very institution Thietmar's own bishopric depended on — a single ruler. The Liutici, in his account, are oligarchically self-governed by unanimous council, with the temple at Rethra as the shared centre that gives the dispersed villages their unity. They are described by Thietmar with the simultaneous fascination and hostility characteristic of the medieval Christian observer: they are formidable, organized, ritualized — and they are without a king, without a baptism, without a Christ.
The chapter ends with Thietmar's editorial address to his reader, urging the reader to flee the cult of the Liutici, to listen to scripture, to hold the Athanasian creed. The hostility is direct because the political stakes were direct: in 1003 CE, Emperor Henry II had accepted the Liutici as allies against Boleslaw the Brave of Poland, and Thietmar — a Saxon bishop — wrote this passage in part as protest at his own emperor's pact with pagans.
There are as many temples in those parts as there are regions, and the individual idol-images of demons are worshipped by the unbelievers. Among these, the city already mentioned holds the principal monarchy. To this city those hastening to war give salute; they honour it with the offerings they owe upon their prosperous return; and what placable victim ought to be offered to the gods by the ministers — this is diligently inquired by lots, and by the horse, as I have said before. Their unutterable fury is mitigated by the blood of men and of cattle.
Over all of these, who are commonly called Liutici, no single lord especially presides. Settling their necessary affairs in their own assembly by unanimous counsel, they all agree in the carrying-out of decisions. If anyone, however, of those of the same province contradicts in the assembly, he is beaten with rods. And if outside the assembly he openly resists, he either loses everything to fire and to continual plundering, or, in their presence, pays out, in proportion to his standing, the amount of money he owes. Faithless themselves and changeable, they nonetheless exact unchangingness and great faith from others.
They confirm peace by shaving off the topknot of hair, and with grass given, and with right hands clasped. To break this peace, they are easily corrupted with money.
These warriors, once our slaves and now, through our own iniquities, free, set out in such company to assist the king. Reader, flee their cult; rather listen to the commands of the divine scriptures, and learn — and hold by memory — the faith that Athanasius the bishop professed; and you will prove truly that the things I have set down above amount to nothing.
Colophon
Translated from the medieval Latin by the New Tianmu Anglican Church (AI-assisted, with Miko oversight), 2026-05-04. Source: Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicon, Book VI, chapter 25 (Pertz/Lappenberg numbering = MGH 18 in some modern numberings). The staged OCR text is Tulku/Tools/slavic/thietmar_lappenberg.txt (Lappenberg lineage via archive.org). The Holtzmann MGH SS rer. Germ. n.s. 9 (1935) is the standard modern critical edition; substantive readings of this passage are not in dispute. David Warner's 2001 English translation in the Manchester Medieval Sources series is the standard English; it was not consulted here.
Translator's note on the trilogy: This file completes the Thietmar Rethra trilogy. The first two chapters were translated together as Slavic/The Temple at Riedegost and the Sacred Horse — Thietmar of Merseburg.md, covering VI.23 (the three-cornered city, the wooden temple supported on horns of beasts, the helmeted gods led by Zuarasici) and VI.24 (the divination by lots and by the sacred horse over crossed spears, the white-tusked boar omen). This file translates VI.25 — the political theology of the Liutici federation. Read together, the three chapters are one of the few medieval Latin descriptions of an organized pagan polity from inside its own organizational logic.
Translator's note on the historical context: Thietmar wrote this passage in the immediate aftermath of Emperor Henry II's 1003 alliance with the Liutici against Boleslaw the Brave of Poland — an alliance Thietmar, as a Saxon bishop, considered scandalous. The closing admonition to the reader is part of his protest at his own emperor's pact with pagans. The phrase "once our slaves and now, through our own iniquities, free" refers to the Slavic uprising of 983 CE, in which the Liutici threw off the Saxon Holy Roman Empire's authority. From Thietmar's view, that uprising was a divine punishment on Saxon sin — and the imperial alliance with the post-uprising pagan Liutici only doubled the sin.
Translator's note on the peace-rite: The peace-making ritual described — shaving off the topknot, exchanging grass, clasping right hands — is attested only here. It is one of the few specific Slavic-political-ritual customs preserved in medieval Latin, and it is significant for comparative Indo-European religious anthropology. The topknot among Slavs is attested elsewhere as a marker of free-warrior status; cutting it off here is presumably a gesture of mutual vulnerability.
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Source Text
Latin source text from Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicon, Book VI, chapter 25 (Pertz/Lappenberg numbering). OCR from archive.org/details/thietmarimersebu54thie, dehyphenated and with editorial footnote-interleaving / page-break artifacts removed. Verify against the Holtzmann MGH critical edition (1935) before scholarly citation.
Quot regiones sunt in his partibus, tot templa habentur et simulacra demonum singula ab infidelibus coluntur, inter quae civitas supramemorata principalem tenet monarchiam. Hanc ad bellum properantes salutant, illam prospere redeuntes muneribus debitis honorant et, quae placabilis hostia diis offerri a ministris debeat, per sortes ac per equum, sicut prefatus sum, diligenter inquiritur. Hominum ac sanguine pecudum ineffabilis horum furor mitigatur. Hiis autem omnibus, qui communiter Liutici vocantur, dominus specialiter non presidet ullus. Unanimi consilio ad placitum suimet necessaria discucientes in rebus efficiendis omnes concordant. Si quis vero ex comprovincialibus in placito hiis contradicit, fustibus verberatur et, si forinsecus palam resistit, aut omnia incendio et continua depredatione perdit aut in eorum presentia pro qualitate sua pecuniae persolvit quantitatem debitae. Infideles ipsi et mutabiles, ipsi inmutabilitatem ac magnam exigunt ab aliis fidem. Pacem abraso crine supremo et cum gramine datisque affirmant dextris. Ad hanc autem perturbandam et facile pecunia corrumpuntur. Hii milites, quondam servi nostrisque iniquitatibus tunc liberi, tali comitatu ad regem auxiliandum proficiscuntur. Eorum cum cultu consorcia, lector, fugias, divinarum mandatis scripturarum auscultando adimple: et fidem, quam Athanasius profitebatur episcopus, discens memoriterque retinens, haec, quae supra memoravi, nil esse probabis veraciter.
Source colophon: Thietmari Merseburgensis Episcopi Chronicon, Liber VI, c. 25 (Pertz/Lappenberg numbering). Lappenberg edition reprint, OCR via Google Books / archive.org. Thietmar wrote this passage between 1014 and 1018 CE; he was responding directly to the 1003 imperial-Liutici alliance and the 983 Slavic uprising that had thrown off Saxon overlordship. The standard modern critical edition is Robert Holtzmann, MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum nova series 9 (Berlin: Weidmann, 1935).
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