Be Baptized or Die

When Charlemagne conquered the heathen Saxons, he also insisted they be Christianized.  After their Christianization the Franks adapted an old Saxon law that formerly applied to the previous heathen faith.

When, two years later, Widukind and Abbio were baptized, the pacification and Christianization of the land were regarded as assured. Charlemagne sent word to Rome that the Saxons were converted and sought by promulgating the Capitulatio de partibus Saxonice ["Ordinances concerning Saxony"]probably in 787) to secure the position he had won. The punishment of death, decreed by the old Saxon laws against violators of the heathen sanctuaries, but a penalty unknown to Frankish law, was now adopted for the protection of the new faith, and this penalty was decreed not only for the murderers of ecclesiastics, but also for all who conspired against Christians, damaged churches, observed the heathen custom of burning the bodies of the dead, contemptuously broke the commandment of the Church concerning baptism, or avoided baptism. Each church received rich allotments from the lands of its parishioners, tithes from private and royal property, and also the right of Asylum (q.v.). Besides this, it was decreed that the death penalty might be remitted in case of voluntary confession of guilt, that children should be baptized before reaching the age of one year, that the Sabbath should be observed and mass attended, and that Christians should be buried in consecrated ground.

Basically the future first Holy Roman Emperor set up a convert or die ordinance.  These laws existed in the United States in some way shape or form until the early 19th century.  Basically, as an "anabaptist" (re-baptizer) I cringe at these types of laws that force men to submit their children for baptism.  One, is it really re-baptizing if they were never baptized in the first place?  Two, parents should be allowed to raise their children in whatever faith they choose.  Forced or coerced conversion is the norm in Christian History.  Hopefully we will be reminded that though some history is dark, we choose the brighter path.

I would be dishonest if I did not point out that these forced conversions were intended by Charlemagne to make the Saxons less likely to rebel against their Frankish conquerors.  As the Saxons grew more pacified in the penalty was changed from death to a fine.

Nevertheless, a new revolt in 792 was followed by a relapse into heathenism, the destruction of churches, and the murder of many of the clergy. Alcuin, writing to Megenfrid in 795 (Epist., box.), laid the blame, at least in part, on the execution of tithes and extreme legal penalties, even while doubting whether the Saxons had really been elected into faith (Epist. Ixvii.), but finally Charlemagne succeeded in pacifying the land, largely by deporting thousands of Saxon families to various parts of Franconia and Swabia (795, 797-799, 804). At the same time the severity of the law was modified, and at the imperial diet of Aachen (Oct. 28, 797) the death penalty was abolished and replaced by the wergild of sixty soldi, usual among the Franks. By 802 the land was considered to be entirely Christianized. As early as 787 the missionary district of Willehad (q.v.) at the mouth of the Weser had been created a diocese, of which Willehad himself had been consecrated bishop; the dioceses of Verden and Minden seem to have been organized about the same time; the bishopric of Munster was formed between 802 and 805; toward the close of Charlemagne's reign the bishopric of Paderborn was erected, the first bishop being Hathumar, a Saxon educated at Wurzburg; and the remaining dioceses, Osnabruck, Hildesheim, Halberstadt, and Hamburg, were formed in the reign of Louis the Pious.[The New Schaff-herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Thought: Reusch-son of God]