Died 888

Rimbert

Worth knowing

A disciple of Anskar, the missionary to Denmark and Sweden, and his successor as archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen from 865.
His Life of Anskar records the Swedes at Birka putting the question of Christianity to their public assembly, including the pagan speeches against it.

In Scholar’s Dream, Rimbert has one book

The Life of AnskarRimbert, Vita Anskarii — the Life of Anskar, Apostle of the NorthHistoryFaith

Rimbert’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Rimbert that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“In regard to the worship of this God it is well known to many of us that He can afford much help to those who place their hope in Him. For many of us have proved this to be the case on several occasions when in peril by sea and in other crises.”
An elder at the Birka assembly (c. 852), in Rimbert, Life of Anskar, trans. Charles H. Robinson (SPCK, 1921), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move We Proved It at Sea

ExperienceArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe speech that carried the vote at Birka, and it makes no claim about truth at all. Several men in this room have already called on this God in a storm and got home. That is the argument, and it worked.

Learned byThe Life of Anskar (Lv 1)

“Why, then, do we reject that which we know to be both needful and serviceable?… inasmuch as we cannot be sure that our gods will be favourably disposed, it is good for us to have the help of this God who is always, and under all circumstances, able and willing to succour those who cry to Him.”
An elder at the Birka assembly (c. 852), in Rimbert, Life of Anskar, trans. Robinson (1921), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Why Reject What Serves?

RationalityArgument · power 74 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe second half of the same speech, and the sting is in the middle of it: we cannot be sure our own gods are well disposed. A pagan at a pagan assembly saying the quiet thing about pagan religion.

Learned byThe Life of Anskar (Lv 37)

Words Rimbert’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“They pointed out that the whole world lived under Christian laws and that they could not by themselves withstand the whole world.”
The Polish envoys at Pyritz (1124), in Ebo/Herbord, Life of Otto, trans. Robinson (1920), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Against the Whole World

HistoryArgument · power 74 · 95% accurate

In the gameThe argument from everyone else, made by envoys who had not come to debate. It is honest about the numbers, and it proves nothing about whether the thing is true.

Learned byThe Life of Anskar (Lv 41)

“point out to them that the whole world was given over to the worship of idols until, illuminated by the knowledge of the Omnipotent God, its creator and ruler, it was vivified through the grace of Christ and reconciled to God.”
Daniel of Winchester, Letter to Boniface (c. 723), trans. Kylie (1911), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Whole World Was Given Over

HistoryArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameThis answers the charge that the faith is foreign. Every nation worshipped idols, the Saxons’ ancestors included, until it was taught otherwise. Every nation shares one condition and one remedy.

Learned byThe Life of Anskar (Lv 45)

Strong against

×3The Common Law of the Peoplean argument · why?

It answers the one way that concedes nothing — everyone’s fathers were idolaters, and ours were too.

Who else was alive

Rimbert against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window