On Beliefnet, the author of the new, best-selling novel, discusses Christianity, Prince Vlad, and the Dracula legend. I don’t know enough about the latter two to comment, but here it is for those who are interested:

Your book gets deep into the history of the Christian origins of the Dracula legend. Even his name comes from the Order of the Dragon, which was supposed to protect Christians from the invading Ottomans.

Yes, that’s right.

It’s pretty clear in your book that the historical Dracula considered himself a pious Christian. Can you tell me anything more about Vlad Dracula’s actual beliefs? How much of this part of your book is based on history?

It’s very hard to know what the actual beliefs of a medieval figure were, unless that person was a cleric or a religious writer who would be likely to record those beliefs. There are stories about Dracula that were written down by his contemporaries, or diplomats who went to his court, or scribes.

One thing that several different sources report about him is that he did have some doubts about where he was going to end up after he died. He seems to have been aware that his deeds of torture and murder of his own people, at least–and who knows how he felt about torturing and murdering Ottomans, he may have felt very differently about that–caused him some doubt about whether or not he could actually enter heaven, as it was viewed in the traditions of the time. He gave a great deal of money to several monasteries to rebuild them or to enrich them, including the monastery where he’s buried, as you saw in the book.

It’s hard to tell from the record whether he was genuinely pious, or just a shrewd leader who was worried about what was going to happen to his soul.