
Unthinkable ~700 years ago; 1000, quite thinkable, AFAICS.
The Christian church hadn't yet conquered all of Europe at the turn of the first millennium; and if the Nordic kings at that time hadn't found it politically expedient to hitch their wagons to the horse of Christianity (or any religion), the situation you seem to thinking of -- which prevailed in, say, the fourteenth century -- might have been different, too.
Christian R. Conrad
Microsoft is a true reflection of Bill Gates' personality - the sleaziest, most unethical, ugliest little rat's ass the world has seen unto this time. -- [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=42971|Andrew Grygus]