BONIFACE OF CREDITON AND HIS COMPANIONS RIGHT REV. G. F. BROWNE, D.D. DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BONIFACE OF CREDITON AND HIS COMPANIONS Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/bonifaceofcredit01brow St. Boniface, Fulda, Ft onlispiece. BONIFACE OF CREDITON AND HIS COMPANIONS BASED ON LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF BRISTOL IN 1906 BY THE RIGHT REV. G. F. BROWNE D.D. (Camu. and Oxf.), D.C.L. Durham), F.S.A. BISHOP OF BRISTOL FORMERLY DISNEY PROFESSOR OF ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE WITH SEVENTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C. 43 Queen Victoria Street, E.O. Brighton : 129 North Street. 1910 PUBLISHED UNDER T1IE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE PREFACE This little book had its origin in a course of lectures on Boniface delivered in the Cathedral Church of Bristol in 1906. In the autumn of 1909 the writer carried out an old proposal to visit the scenes of Boniface's work and residence, and to follow up so far as might be the traces of the English men and women who joined him in Germany when his pioneer work had been attended with a large measure of success. This Preface is written at the time when King Edward is lying dead; and the writer is not without hope that an active realization by Germans of the debt owed to England by Germany, and by Englishmen of the labour and lives given to Germany by their predecessors eleven and a half centuries ago, may do something to further the efforts of the late king in the direction of a more peaceful understand¬ ing between the two empires, sprung as they are from a common stock, and tied from their early beginnings in Christian bonds. A diocesan bishop in these busy days really cannot find spaces of time adequate for the marshalling of complicated material. Things have to be done from hand to mouth as it were. The writer can only hope that any who may glance at this little book may be VI PREFACE less acutely conscious of its defects than he himself is. On one point he wishes to repeat a caution given in his little book on Alenin of York. The varied spellings of names are not misprints or blunders, though any reader may well think that they are when Grypho, Gripho, and Gripo, appear for one and the same man, and Cynihard appears in almost as many spellings as there are letters in the name. The writer desires to thank earnestly, for help given, the Librarian at Fulda; the Director of the University of Wurzburg; Dr. G. F. Warner, Mr. C. H. Read, and Mr. O. M. Dalton, all of the British Museum ; and Professor H. J. White of King’s College, London. The} 7 are none of them responsible for any errors that may have found their way into the text. Thanks are due also to the editor of the Treasury for the use of the blocks of illustrations of articles by the writer, which appeared in that magazine in Feb¬ ruary and March of this year. The numbering of the Bonifatian Epistles is that adopted by Wattenbach and Dummler, Mon. Gem. Hist., Ejoistolarwiy tom. iii, Berlin, 1892. G. F. BRISTOL. May 9, 1910. CONTENTS CHAPTER I The main dates of Boniface's life.—Willibald’s Life of Boniface.—Othlon’s Life of Boniface. — Collection of letters, &e.—Early life.—Boniface in Frisia.—His re¬ turn to England.—His final departure.—Earlier English missionaries.—Alfred the Great and Frisia.—Early Eng lish ardour for missionary work.—The state of religious life at home ......... CHAPTER II The earliest letter of Boniface.—Imitation of Aldhelm.— Turgid style soon abandoned.—Commendatory letter of Daniel of Winchester.—Journey to Rome.—Interview with Gregory II.—Commendatory letter of Gregory II. —Visits Lombardy, Thuringia, and Frisia.—Works with Willibrord.—Returns to Thuringia and Hessia.—Reports his success to the Pope.—Sent for by Gregory II.—Their interview.—Examination of nominate bishops and arch¬ bishops.—Consecration as Bishop.—Surnamed Boniface CHAPTER III Oath to the Bishop of Rome.—Commendatory letters from the Pope.—Charles Martel.—The Thuringians.—Further letters from the Pope. CHAPTER IV Geographical meaning of “ Germany ”.—Austrasia and Neustria.—Mayors of the Palace.—The Pope’s letter to Charles Martel.—Boniface and the secular power.—The Great Oak in Hessia.—Fritzlar and Geismar.—The Life ofWigbert ......... PAGE I 21 38 61 Vlll CONTENTS CHAPTER y PAGE Willibald’s narrative.—Evil priests.—Foundation of Ohr- druf.—Men and women workers from England.—Letters to and from England.—The gift of the Pall.—Third visit to Rome.—Great success there.—Relics.—Lombardy.— Bavarian bishoprics . . . . . .75 CHAPTER VI Letter of Gregory III to all ecclesiastics.—To Boniface.— To bishops of Bavaria and Alemannia.—Identification of bishops named.—Early history of Bavaria.—Ignorant priests.—Queer bishops.94 CHAPTER VII Eichstatt.—Willibald.—St. Richard,—Wunnibald.—Wal- purgis.— Relics at Canterbury.—Eiclistiitt of to-day.— The holy oil ........ 110 CHAPTER VIII Foundation of three bishoprics.—Care not to multiply bishopries too rapidly.—Witta of Biiraburg.—Burchardt of Wurzburg.—The Pope’s letters to the three new bishops.—Wurzburg of to-day.—Life of St. Burchardt.— Life of St. Kilian.—The Kiliansbucli.—St. Burchardt’s Gospel-book ......... 122 CHAPTER IX Foundation of Fulda.—Life of Sturmi.—Boniface’s appli¬ cation to the Pope for confirmation of Fulda.—The Pope’s assent—Fulda of to-day.—The Codex Fuldensis and other MSS.—The Life of Leoba.—Care bestowed on relics by Rabanus . ....... 142 CHAPTER X Carloman asks Boniface to hold a Council of Aus- trasian Franks.—The Pope’s advice sought.—The Pope’s advice.—Unsatisfactory character of Frank ecclesiastics.—Carloman’s announcement of the decrees of the Council.—Pepin’s Council at Soissons.—The case of Aldebert and Clement.174 CONTENTS IX CHAPTER XI p age Letter of Zacharias to the Gallic Franks.—Proposed re¬ storation of metropolitical order.—The Pope's approval. —His perturbation.—Asserted inexpensiveness of the Pall.—Boniface’s position in Bavaria.—Width of his commission.—The Pope’s letters to the bishops of the whole area and to the laymen ... ... 197 CHAPTER XII Pagan practices.—Arguments of Daniel of Winchester and King Oswy.— Abrenunliatio diaboli. —The Teutonic gods.— Pagan practices in Rome.—Improper sanction of mar¬ riage.—Plain speaking to the Pope.—The Pope’s replies 207 CHAPTER XIII Letters from and to England.—Ecgburga to Boniface.— Eangyth to Boniface.—Boniface to Bugga.—Boniface to Daniel of Winchester_His requests for copies of Bede’s writings.—Request for a copy of St. Peter’s Epistles in letters of gold.—Aethelbert II of Kent to Boniface.— An early letter of Aelffled to Adolana .... 222 CHAPTER XIV Boniface’s letter to Aethelbald of Mercia.—Joint letter to the same king.—Evil practices.—Boniface’s letter to Cuthbert of Canterbury.—Council of Clovesho.—No appeal from an English archbishop .... 241 CHAPTER XV A metropolitical see for Boniface.—Cologne and Mainz.— Letters from the Pope on the subject..— Mainz in his¬ tory.—Pepin becomes king.—Last letters of Boniface to Pepin.—Letter to the new Pope. Stephen III.—Dispute with the Bishop of Cologne ...... 267 CHAPTER XVI Boniface leaves for Frisia.—Great and successful work there.—The martyrdom.—The claims of Utrecht, Mainz, X CONTEXTS PAGE and Fulda, for the saint’s body.—Statement in the Life of Lul.—The character of Boniface.—Modern memorials of the great English missionary.272 CHAPTER XYII Feeling in England on Boniface’s martyrdom.— Letters from Cutlibert of Canterbury, Cinelieard, and Milret.— Lul’s task in his archbishopric.—His letters to and from England.—His death.284 CHAPTER XVII1 The practice of gifts.—Gradual growth of arrangements for mutual prayer.—The Lindisfarne Liber Vitae . . 809 CHAPTER XIX Ancient Confraternity Books on the Continent.—Salzburg. —St. Gall.—Reiehenau.—Pfkfers ..... 885 APPENDIX A. Comparison of Willibald’s and Othlon’s Lives of Boni¬ face .. 364 B. Appeal to England against Roman advice . 867 C. Boniface’s letter to Pope Zacharias on his own rela¬ tions with the Apostolic see, and the Pope’s answer . 360 I). Boniface’s abstention from politics .... 362 E. Bale's estimate of the saint.366 Index ..36S LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE St. Boniface in bronze ... Frontispiece Fig. 1. Specimens of the treasures of Fritzlar To face page 67 2. St. Willibald in bronze.110 3. The reredo.s of St. Walpurga . .119 4. St. Willibald in marble . 120 5. The cover of St. Kilian’s book .... 134 6. A page of St. Kilian’s book .... 134 7. The front cover of St. Burchardt’s book 136 8. The rear cover of St. Burchardt’s book 136 9. A page of St. Burchardt’s book . . .137 10. The skull and pastoral staff of St. Boniface 152 11. The sword of martyrdom.162 12. The cover of Codex Fuldensis ..... 158 18. A page of Codex Fuldensis .... 155 14. The book of the martyrdom, two pages 160 15. The Irish Gospels, two pages ..... 162 16. The Irish Gospels, another page . 164 17. The Abrenuntiatio diaboli ...... 212 .. \ •. . BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS CHAPTER I The main dates of Boniface’s life.—Willibald’s Life of Boni¬ face.—Othlon's Life of Boniface.—Collection of letters, &c.— Early life.—Boniface in Frisia.—His return to England.—His final departure.—Earlier English missionaries.—Alfred the Great and Frisia.—Earlier English ardour for missionary work. — The state of religious life at home. The main dates of the life of Boniface may be stated as follows :— He was born at Crediton in 679 or 680, and was ordained priest at the age of thirty. In 716 he went out to join the Northumbrian Willibrord in his missionary work in Friesland. After a short return to England he finally left our shores in 718. He went direct to Rome, and in 719 received a commission from Pope Gregory II to preach the gospel east of the Rhine. Before executing that commission he worked with Willibrord in his archdiocese of Utrecht for three years. He then worked among the Hessians, with so much success that he was summoned to Rome and was consecrated bishop on November 30, 722 or 723. He returned to work in Hessia and Thuringia, the latter corresponding roughly to the modern Saxony. In 732 he received the pallium and became an archbishop without a see. In 738 he again visited Rome, and on his way back he spent some time in Bavaria and founded the sees of Salzburg, Passau, Regensburg, and Freising. In 741, on the death of Charles Martel, whose sons and successors Carloman and Pepin greatly favoured him, he estab- B *) BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS lislied four bishoprics for Iiessia and Thuringia, namely, Wurzburg, Eichstatt, Biiraburg, and Erfurt. From 742 to 744 he held at the request of Carloman and Pepin mixed councils of clerical and lay persons to regulate the affairs of the Church. During the same period he founded monasteries at Utrecht, Fritz- lar, Fulda, Amoneburg, and Ohrdruf, sending to England for monks and nuns to take charge of them. In 744 he proposed to occupy the see of Cologne, and to make it the head of a metropolitical province. It chanced, however, that the see of Mainz came vacant, and the ecclesiastics and lay folk so pressed him that he became archbishop there, with Cologne, Spires, Worms, Tongres, and Utrecht, as suffragan sees. In 747 Carloman retired to the abbey of Monte Cassino. Pepin became sole governor of Austrasia and Neustria, and in 752 was crowned king at Soissons. In 754 Boniface resigned his arch¬ bishopric and consecrated Lul of Malmesbury as his successor in the see. He then pushed up into the north parts of Frisia, and at Dokkum on the river Bordau he was martyred with his whole party of more than fifty persons on the eve of Whitsunday, 755, at the age of seventy-five. That list enables us to see the chronological position of Boniface in relation to other prominent English persons. He was ordained priest in the year of the death of Aldhelm, Abbat of Malmesbury and first Bishop of Sherborne. He received the pallium about the time of the death of Bede and the birth of Alcuin. When he died in 755, Alcuin was a youthful assistant to the Archbishop of York in his capacity as Head Master of the School of York, an office which Alcuin himself eventually held. The English Boniface was Willibald’s life of boniface 3 in close relations with Pepin when he became King of the Franks, but not nearly so close as the relations in which Alcuin was with Pepin’s son Karl when he became the Emperor Charlemagne. We possess a very interesting Life of Boniface, written by one who was evidently very well informed. The name of the biographer was Willibald. This was the name of a nephew or other near relation of Boniface, who was a very famous traveller, and after visiting in great detail the scriptural places in the Holy Land returned to Europe to help Boniface in his missionary labours, and was by him consecrated first Bishop of Eichstatt. The biographer Willibald used to be quite naturally supposed to be the same person as the Bishop of Eichstatt; but in more critical times, abundant reasons for rejecting the identity have been discovered, and the sound view certainly is that Boniface’s biographer was not the bishop his relative, but a trusted presbyter of the same name. Willibald’s Life of Boniface must be regarded as quite trustworthy. Jle addresses it to Lul, a Malmesbury student, who succeeded Boniface as Archbishop of Mainz in 755, and to Megingaud, Bishop of Wurzburg, and he states that it was written at their command. He describes how careful he had been to learn, from those who had seen and known the work of Boniface, everything that he had to write of the beginning, middle, and end of his life. Details of his life were known to many in Tuscany, Gaul, Germany, and Britain; he had obtained them from all quarters. Lul and Megingaud had them¬ selves told him much. From internal evidence, M illibald’s Life of Boniface was written during the reign of Pepin le bref, the father of Charlemagne. 4 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS A writer three centuries later put on record the tradition that Willibald wrote the history on wax tablets and submitted it in that form to Lul and Megingaud, and when it had passed their scrutiny, it was written on parchment. The whole description reminds us of Bede’s account of the inquiries which he made to ensure accuracy, and of the submission to King Ceolfrid of the original draft of his Eccle¬ siastical History, before the book was written out in its complete present form. Considering the very high regard in which Bede’s life and labours were held by Boniface, we must regard it as very probable that Willibald did all that lay in his power to proceed on the lines so well laid down by that great father of true history. It is a valuable testimony to the truth and adequacy of Willibald’s Life of Boniface, that the monk Othlon, who was engaged to write a Life of the Saint some three hundred years later, took Willibald’s Life bodily and added almost nothing to it beyond invaluable detail and documents more invaluable still. He was a monk of Regensburg, or Ratisbon, and he compiled the biography for the monks of Fulda, Boniface’s own special foundation. He has, it is true, something to tell which is very interesting to us of the Church of England. We know from statements in the letters of the time of Boniface and Lul that Boniface sent to England for religious men and women to come out and help him to deal with the pagans. Othlon made it his business to state, from the records at his disposal, the names of the principal persons who responded to the call of Boniface. In this way we know the names of six of the men and six of the women, with something of OTHLONS LIFE OF BONIFACE O their relationships; and we know the several places to which Boniface sent the men and the women to work. Othlon’s preamble to his biography is interesting in its connexion with his special purpose, and is instructive in general respects. “ I have endeavoured to obey your request, my brethren of Fulda, so far as the poorness of my skill has permitted. You have asked me to set forth in clearer language the Life of our holy father Boniface, which the holy Willebald wrote in old times in a style distinguished and elegant, but in some places so obscure to a feeble intelligence that it is difficult to say what the meaning is.” In the Appendix will be found a typical example of Othlon’s idea of the way to make Willibald intelligible to a feeble intellect, and also a palmary example of the additions which he fortunately introduced. Abbat Egbert of Fulda, Otlilon proceeded to remind those who had set this task, had made collections illustrative of the work of the founder of the monas¬ tery. He was abbat from 1038 to 1058 and was now dead; he appears as Eppo in the lists. Egbert had applied to Pope Leo IX for permission to get such information as was contained in the papal archives, and had sent a copyist to Rome to trans¬ cribe the materials which existed there. By this and other means, a considerable amount of information which Willibald had not possessed, or at least had not used, was at the disposal of any one who desired to write on the subject in Othlon’s time. We may regard him as writing at the end of the eleventh century, not far off the year 1100. In two special respects Othlon found that the Life which he was to simplify was deficient. That it 6 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS should be so on one of these points was only natural. Many remarkable letters or details from letters were not mentioned by Willibald. Considering’ the diffi¬ culty of transmitting news, and the impossibility of Willibald’s doing wliat in these days is almost a matter of course, that is, sending out a request that any one who has any letters of some person lately deceased will lend them to the biographer, it is only likely that after Willibald’s time many letters written by Boniface, and many pieces of information which he had sent by letter, would find their way to Fulda. The other point has real value; it is illuminating. “ I have found,” Othlon says, “ that very many remarkable accounts of miracles, which I have read in other books, are not contained in the Life by Willibald. It may be,” he continues, “ that the writer passed over the wonderful works of Boniface in ignorance.” It is more likely that we have here a useful warning about the growth of miraculous stories. So far as the letters were concerned, Othlon re¬ marked very justly that the letters which in his time were in the library of Fulda, letters from Boniface and letters to Boniface, were the great foundation on which the knowledge of his marvellous successes was built. “ There is to be seen with what respect he was received in the beginning by the Roman Pontiff, and how the Pontiff sent him to preach to all the peoples of Germany, and with what great labour he brought that same Germany to the faith of Christ, and how he rescued Germany not only from pagans and heretics but also from false Christians and depraved priests, as it were from the ravening of wolves.” Taking the whole position into review, Othlon determined to learn all that he could from these and all other sources, and EARLY YEARS OF BONIFACE 7 to insert eacli piece of information in a fitting place in the Life by Willibald. See Appendix A. The parents of Boniface were people of good posi¬ tion, probably connected with the royal family of W essex. He was sent in early boyhood to a monastery at Exeter 1 , to be brought up underWolfard the Abbat. It is clear that he was one of the English colony in Devonshire, not one of the native Britons of Dam- nonia. We must bear in mind that the Damnonian Britons were still under their own British king, and still maintained their own British ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies. Aldhelm’s famous letter to their king, Geraint, was not written till after Boniface had left Crediton his birthplace, and Exeter his first school. At Exeter he showed from the first a great desire for the religious life. After a time he sought a monastery in which he could obtain more advanced teaching-, and he found what he wanted at Nutscelle, or Nuiscelle, near Winchester, a monastery of which no trace was left after the ravages of the Danes. Some writers place it at Nutsall, some at Nursling, and some at Netley. He bore still, and for long after this, his proper name of Winfrid, or Winfried. At this West Saxon monastery he lived for many years. At the age of thirty he was ordained priest. His reputation for learning and business stood so high that, on the recommendation of the Abbats of Wessex, he was appointed by King Ina to proceed as their representative to Kent, and there lay certain matters before Archbishop Brihtwald. The occasion was cer¬ tainly a serious one. A sudden difficulty had arisen in Wessex, and hasty action appears to have been 1 Adescancastra (castrum ad Iscam). S BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS taken by some of the more rash of the ecclesiastics. By advice of the king, Ina, a synodal council was held by the chiefs of the churches. More prudent counsels prevailed. It was determined that an ex¬ planation must be sent to the archbishop, in order that he might not ascribe to them the fault of having acted without consulting him. Winbert, Winfrid's own abbat, and Wintra, Abbat of Tisbury 1 in Wilts, and Beorwald, the Abbat of Glastonbury 2 , are specially named by Willibald as among the many who selected Winfrid for this delicate mission. He quite fulfilled their expectations, returning in a short time and delivering to the king, in the presence of the chief ecclesiastics, a reply from the archbishop which they found satisfactory. It had evidently been a matter of much anxiety, for the story ends with a statement that Winfrid brought to all a great rejoicing. What the occasion of the difficulty was we do not know. It was manifest that a large career was opening for Winfrid in England. But in one sense that career was not large enough for his desires. He had determined that he must seek in other lands an oppor¬ tunity for devoting himself to the conversion of pagans to the true faith. All of the kingdoms of the Hept¬ archy were by this time professedly Christian, though it is true that the conversion of the South Saxons, our Sussex, was not effected till after his birth. Briht- wald, the archbishop, had thirteen bishops present at one of his councils, in the year probably of Winfrid’s visit to him. Things were too well advanced at home to satisfy his larger aims. He resolved to go to the nearest pagans, the inhabitants of the territory called 1 Disselburg. 2 C41estingaburg. BONIFACE IN FRISIA 9 Frisia—roughly speaking', Holland. lie took with him two or three of the brethren, for the sake of bodily and spiritual help, set out amid the tears of his monastic friends, and came safe to a place where there was a market of things for sale, called London L It is curious to note how the idea of a concourse of people come to buy and sell clung to London in the earliest times. Willibald describes it as a “ forum rerum venalium ” ; Bede as “ multorum emporium populorum terra marique venientium ”; 2 Tacitus, six hundred years before, as “ copia negotiatorum et com- meatuum maxime celebre ”. 3 From London Winfrid sailed for Frisia, and ar¬ rived safely at Dorstat, a town on the river Lek, represented now by Duuerstede in the modern name of the fortress there, Wijk by Duuerstede. This is the point at which that branch of the mouth of the Rhine which alone flows to the sea under the name Rhine, separates from the Lek and passes by Utrecht to the North Sea. It may be well to say for the benefit of those who examine the map of modern Holland, that the river Lek was originally a canal dug by the Romans to connect the Rhine and the Maas, Dorstat and Rotterdam, and their fortress commanded the entrance. In Boniface's time it was still only a canal. In the year 839 a great inundation occurred, the effect of which was so much to enlarge the canal, by the fierce rush of pent-up water, that since that time it has been the bed of the main stream. Up to 839 the full Rhine flowed through Utrecht. The political position was unfavourable to Win- 1 Lundemvick. 2 Hist. Eccl. ii. 3. 3 Annul, xiv. 33. 10 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS fricFs hopes of missionary success. A g'reat rising of the pagan Frisians, under their king Rathbod, had taken place, and there was war between them and Charles Martel, the duke of the Christian Franks. Such churches of Christ as had been planted in Frisia through the influence of the Franks were devastated. Winfrid sought an interview with the Frisian king, and retired to Trecht, now Utrecht, where he awaited the arrival of Rathbod. Bede calls Utrecht Wiltaburg, the town of the Wilts, a people whom Alcuin mentions. After an unavailing at¬ tempt to obtain from him permission to carry on his missionary work, he left Frisia and returned to his monastery in Wessex till a way should be opened. While he was waiting there, the Abbat Win- bercht died, and Winfrid was unanimously begged to undertake the office of abbat. He declined to abandon his missionary purpose, and as soon as opportunity offered he sailed once more for the continent of Europe. This enthusiasm for missionary work was no new thing among the Anglo-Saxons, and Frisia was no new field for their missionary enterprise. The work had begun, and in Frisia, forty years before, within eighty years of the first preaching of Christ to the English themselves. Wilfrith of Ripon and York and Hexham, when on his way to Rome in 678 to make his appeal against the Northumbrian govern¬ ment, had been driven out of his course in the Channel, and came at last to shore on the coast of Frisia. The present Holland, it may be said in passing, is all that now remains of Frisia, the rest having been washed away by the sea and by floods from the land. He obtained the favour of the Frisian king, Adelgisus, and exercised for the benefit EGBERT 11 of the nobles and common people the great missionary zeal which afterwards showed itself in the conversion of pagan Sussex. Wilfrith had soon passed on southwards on his way to Rome, but his work was not to be left long without a successor. A noble Northumbrian, Egbert, five years younger than "Wilfrith, sent out that suc¬ cessor in 690. It must be remembered that we are speaking of men who came very early in the Christian history of the Anglo-Saxon race. Thus Wilfrith was born in 634-, only eight years after the first conversion of Northumbria, and Egbert was born only thirteen years after that conversion, so that it is certain that their parents had been pagans in the earlier part of their life. Egbert had left Nor¬ thumbria for Ireland at a time of disturbance, in 659, when he was twenty years of age, with Ceadda 1 and others, for purposes of study and devotion; in my little book on Aldlielm of Malmesbury we saw much of the fashion of going to Ireland for those purposes. In the course of time, Egbert caught from the Irish the missionary zeal which sent them to wander over all parts of the Continent. It is sufficient to mention in this connexion two great Irishmen of earlier date, Columban and Gall, who went together in 585 from Ireland to Switzerland by way of the Rhine, Columban pushing on thirty years later to Bobbio. The year in which they left Ireland for this purpose was twelve years before that in which Augustine first landed in Thanet to bring the knowledge of Christ to our English ancestors. 1 Chad. The Anglo-Saxon hard Cewas evidently pronounced so sharp that it sounded like the Ch in “ church.” Indeed, the word “ church ” is itself a double example of this. BONIFACE AND HTS COMPANIONS 1 2 J (V Egbert, then, determined to leave his Irish home and go to the pagan lands of Northern Europe. In the year 687, just a hundred years after the far- reaching expedition of Columban and Gall, he pro¬ posed to sail round Britain, starting probably from the mouth of the Moy in the north of Connaught, to preach to the pagans in Germany. These pagans are described as Frisians, Danes, Old Saxons, and others, from whom, so Bede says, the Angles and Saxons are known to have derived their origin. 1 If he could not accomplish this, he would go to Home, to see and adore the thresholds of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs of Christ. It is needless to enlarge upon that, as one of the many convincing evidences that the claim of Rome upon the regard of our ancestors of those early times was not the later Petrine claim at all. It was the claim given by the repose in that city of the remains of the two joint chiefs of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, or as Eusebius, and the early Irish, and old Slavonic ritual books, have it, Paul and Peter. Retained in Ireland by the warnings of visions, and physically by storms which convinced him that the visions had shown to him the will of God, he sent out in the year 690 one of his Northumbrian students, Willibrord, who had been with him twelve years, and with him a company of eleven others. They landed in Frisia. By this time Rathbod had become king of the Frisians, in place of Wilfrith’s friend Adelgisus, and Pepin of Herstal, Charles Martel’s father, the duke of the Franks, had con¬ quered him. By Pepin’s aid Willibrord was enabled 1 Hist. Heel. v. 9. OTHER MISSIONARIES 13 to make good his footing in Frisia, and Pepin gave to him Utrecht, which became under him an episcopal and archiepiscopal see. Here he worked for nearly fifty years, dying at a very advanced age about the year 738, twenty years after Boniface came to Frisia for the second time. Of Egbert, who set in motion all this great mis¬ sionary work, we may say in passing that he was obedient to the vision which warned him not himself to seek the mission field ; but, it would seem, not till he had done his best to disobey, and his ships had been wrecked. The vision bade him labour for the good of the Church of the adoption nearer home. The message conveyed by his vision was quaint and graphic. “ Let him go at once to Columba’s Monastery of Hy, because their ploughs do not go straight and he will bring them into the right way/’ He went accord¬ ingly to Iona, and succeeded in bringing them into line with the wider Catholicity. Two other Englishmen, the two liewalds, the white Hewald and the black Hewald, had gone out from Ireland to labour among the Old Saxons, pagan cousins of the Anglo-Saxons. These fierce pagans, who gave endless trouble to the Frankish dukes and later to King Pepin and Charlemagne, occupied a vast territory, including the mouth of the Elbe to the north and AVestphalia and Hanover to the south. Of this people, so interesting to us from their near kinship to our own ancestors, Bede tells us that they had no king, only a number of chieftains ; and when it became necessary to go to war they drew lots to decide which of the chieftains should lead the people. Him they obeyed as long as the war lasted, and when peace came he returned to his former equality with 14 BONTFACE AND HhS CO MF ANIONS the other chieftains. The steward of one of these chieftains received the two English missionaries into his house for some days, till such time as he could send them on to his lord. The natives, however, looked with great suspicion upon the strangers and their religious rites, which Bede describes as follows : “ They spent their time in hymns and psalms and prayers; and they daily offered to God the sacrifice of the saving victim, for they had with them sacred vessels and a tabula 1 consecrated in place of an altar.” The natives were determined not to allow the Hewalds to reach their chief, fearing that if they got speech with him they would convert him to the new faith, and thus by degrees the whole province would be com¬ pelled to change its religion. So they took Hewald the White and killed him at once with the sword, but Hewald the Black they subjected to long torture, tearing him at length limb from limb. We can scarcely help noticing here the curious fact that in all the detailed history of the conversion of the English in this island of ours, there is not recorded one single martyrdom. Roman missionaries, it is true, fled away, and did not stay to be in danger of losing their lives. If they had stayed, our record 1 In my Theodore and Wilfrith, S.P.C.K. 1897, a description will be found, with an illustration, of the little portable altar found on the breast of St. Cuthbert when his tomb was opened early in last century. It is of embossed silver fitted on to a piece of old oak 6 inches square, the oak itself having originally been used as a portable altar. A similar little altar-slab was found some 800 or 900 years ago on the breast of Bishop Acca of Hexham, with the inscription almae trinitati, hagiae sophiae, sandae mariae. The inscription on Cuthbert’s altar-slab is probably Greek. The great basilica at York, which Archbishop Albert built after the fire of 741, was dedicated to fostering wisdom, almae sophiae. SUIDBERT 15 might not have been so clean. But the fact remains that our ancestors did not martyr those who endea¬ voured to convert them, and their cousins on the continent of Europe did. The fact and its possible explanations will bear consideration for which here there is no place. Yet another English missionary must be mentioned, besides a figure which flits unsuccessful across the page, one Wictbert, who also came from Ireland, tried the missionary life in Frisia for two years, found no fruit among his barbarous hearers, and returned from failure abroad to show forth a high example at home. This other whom we must name is Suidbert, one of the twelve Englishmen whom Egbert sent out from Ireland. When Willibrord was absent from the mission field on a visit to Rome, Suidbert was chosen by his companions and sent to England to be conse¬ crated bishop. Theodore of Canterbury being dead, and the archbishopric being not as yet filled up, Suidbert followed Wilfrith into his retreat in Mercia, and was by him consecrated on June 21, 693. We may wonder how Wilfrith, so great a stickler for Catholic practice, effected this consecration without irregularity, what bishops he found as coadjutors, what valid appointment Suidbert could show, to what see and district he consecrated him, and by what right he consecrated any one to the foreign field. His own resort to Paris for consecration to an English see bears in the same direction. Suidbert returned to the Continent and went to work among the Bructeri, to the north of the Rhine and the Lippe. After a time the Old Saxons drove out the Bructeri, and Pepin of llerstal, at the instigation of his wife Blythryda, gave Suidbert the island in 16 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS the Rhine called by Bede In litore, “ near the shore.’'’ There he built a monastery, and died in 713, a year or two before Boniface went out. The island called In litore is the well-known Kaiserswerth, some six miles from Dusseldorf. As is suggested above, we do not know what lies behind this resort of the missionary party to England for episcopal consecration, when the head of the party so soon after sought and received consecration at Rome. Bede’s phrase is that during the absence of Willibrord in Rome, the brethren that were in Frisia chose Suidbert from among themselves and sent him to Britain to be consecrated bishop. Of Willibrord he says that Pepin with the consent of all sent Willibrord to Rome, where Sergius was still Pope, desiring that he might be consecrated arch¬ bishop of the Frisian nation. It would seem that for episcopal consecration to missionary work any regular bishop or bishops would suffice; but when it came to the consecration and authorization of an archbishop in the parts of north Europe, the Pope was regarded as the only ecclesiastical authority adequate for the occasion. At Willibrord’s consecration, Pope Sergius gave to him the name of Clemens, as a later Pope gave to Winfrid the name of Boniface. There had only been one Bishop of Rome called Clement, and he dated from the first century, and there was not another till near the Norman Conquest. Of Bonifaces, on the other hand, there had already been five in the list of Popes when the Pope gave that name to Winfrid. It may be mentioned here, for it illustrates a fact in the history of Boniface to which reference will even¬ tually be made, that a main purpose of Willibrord’s THE FRISIANS 17 first visit to Rome is thus stated by Bede , 1 —“ he hoped to receive some relics of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs of Christ, in order that when he destroyed idols and erected churches he might have ready the relics of saints which he could place in them; for then he could dedicate the churches in honour of those whose relics were deposited in them.” We have seen that Egbert had desired to convert the people of the lands from which the Angles and Saxons came to Britain. This sense of cousinship was strong, and it was kept alive among the Anglo- Saxons. King Alfred, in his great gift to his people of his own version of the reports of travels by Ohthere and Wulfstan, called special attention to the interest which the English ought to feel in the countries that were the cradle of their race. This part of his great geographical work he wrote him¬ self, and this is what he says,—“ West of the Old Saxons is Friesland; from thence north-west is the country called Anglen and Zealand.” “ The Angles dwelt in these lands before they came into this country.” Procopius, in his history of the Gothic war, written about the year 553, says that Britain was peopled by three nations, the Britons, Angles, and Frisians. 2 3 The Frisians themselves, as repre¬ sented by the early Dutch, claimed our Saxon Ilen- gist as one of themselves.'* Thus we must under- 1 H. E. v. ir. 2 The authority of Procopius is very great. He accompanied Belisarius in his many wars in the capacity of secretary. 3 A Dutch Chronicle in verse of about the year 1270, based upon an earlier work of 1245, speaks of him as having been driven into exile from Frisia :— Een hiet Engistus, een Vriese, een Sas, Die uten lande verdreven was. C 1 8 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS stand that the sense of kinship directed the mission¬ ary ardour of the Anglo-Saxons to Frisia and the neighbouring districts. As regards the ardour itself, we must bear in mind that our early Christian ancestors had an advantage which we do not possess. They could contrast Chris¬ tianity with paganism in their own lands, in their own families, even in themselves. The more pic¬ turesque sides of paganism have come down to us in story and in legend ; they saw it in its full un¬ cleanness and degradation. Another consideration is worth mentioning. The modern missionary desires to win the heathen into the loving fold of Christ. The early Anglo-Saxon desired to save his distant kinsmen from damnation ; sure, certain, eternal. “ Without doubt”—the words are not unfamiliar—“they shall perish everlast¬ ingly.” Rathbod of Frisia was told this very plainly. In the language of the pseudo-Athanasius, he was assured that the souls of his ancestors were neces¬ sarily among the damned. He replied that he would rather be with them there than with a handful of beggars in heaven. We must also, in estimating the forces which drove our early ancestors with such earnestness to the mission field, remember that in the most marked of the earlier cases they had caught the Celtic fire. We trace the inspiration of passionate fervour to their residence in Ireland. They went there in the first instance for study, Ireland being the only land where devotion to deep study was a characteristic of the native race. Flow the love of study passed from Ireland to England we saw in our examination into the life and labours of our own St. Aldhelm some ANGLO-SAXON RESTLESSNESS 19 seven years ago. 1 But, being there for study, they were caught by the force of the other racial char¬ acteristic of that strange island, a characteristic so closely akin to the moving force in their own Anglo- Saxon nature. They caught that restless passion for pushing into distant and strange lands, which made the itinerant Irish missionaries, so many of them claiming to be bishops, almost all of them disregarding ecclesiastical order and the rights of dioceses, made them a nuisance which more than one Council of European Churches sought by stringent rules to abate. Add to this the fact that religious men in England found life in the world beset by many temptations, and found religious fervour impeded by many obstacles and subjected to many shocks. They retired to the cloister, and there for a time found the hoped-for relief from the obvious difficulties of a secular life in times such as theirs. But cloister prayer, and cloister meditation, and cloister study, could not long satisfy the racial force that pulsed in the veiy nature of the vigorous Anglo-Saxons. They must be up and doing; and as their impulse had already, in the step which they had taken, been religious, it must be religious work that they must go forth to do. The inherent love of adventure, the inherent craving for difficulties to overcome, the inherent sense that a life of comparative ease is a life comparatively unworthy of a man ; given all this—which I trust we have in us still—given all this, guided in the direction it shall take by the primary impnlse of religion, the only kind of work that could satisfy their aspirations was Life and Times of St. Alclhehn, S.P.C.K., 1903. 20 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS missionary work, and that in dangerous places. For this they eagerly discarded the cloister stage to which they had first risen, and sprang into a higher range of thought and labour. And there was a dark side, too. The vices of the world had gained entrance by back ways into the seclusion of the cloister. Each man who came in, and each woman too, for there were more convents of nuns than of monks, and in many cases one monastery had within its enclosures two separate parts, the nuns’ quarters and the monks’ quarters, each man and each woman brought into cloister life all the natural pas¬ sions ; and it is not in seclusion, but in the busy work of life, that those passions are best kept in a subordinate place. In Bede’s time the monasteries had sunk very low in the moral scale, so that he advocated a large measure of the treatment which exactly 800 years after, to the very year, their suc¬ cessors received at the hands of a Tudor Parliament of Lords and Commons of the unreformed religion. We are enabled by some of the letters addressed to Boniface, to realize how far from peaceful the life in an English monastery could be in his time, and how far from spiritual. We can imagine how a high-souled man would recoil from the discovery that a cloister wall did not shut out vice, and with what keenness of joy he would find himself fighting, in the free air, the battle of the Lord against the open abominations of heathen races, powerful and dangerous. CHAPTER II The earliest letter of Boniface.—Imitation of Aldhelm.— Turgid style soon abandoned.—Commendatory letter of Daniel of Winchester.—Journey to Rome.—Interview with Gregory II. — Commendatory letter of Gregory II.—Visits Lombardy, Thuringia, and Frisia.—Works with Willibrord.—Returns to Thuringia and Hessia.—Reports his success to the Pope.—Sent for by Gregory II.—Their interview.—Examination of nominate bishops and archbishops.—Consecration as Bishop.—Surnamed Boniface. The earliest letter of Winfrid which we possess was written in 716 or 717. As it is the earliest of a very long series, it may be given in full. He was about thirty-six or thirty-seven years of age when he wrote it, and we may regard it as the direct reflection of his literary education, before he had developed a style of his own under pressure of business and cir¬ cumstance. His letters afford evidence of the influence of Aldhelm in thought and in phrase, and it is very tempting—and not improbably true—to suggest that either at Malmesbury or at Sherborne he did come under the personal teaching’ of that most learned saint, named by William of Malmesbury as one of the two most learned of the English, the other being- Bede. Next to these tw’o, William named Alenin of York as the third most learned Englishman before the Norman times. The quotations from Aldhelm’s letter to Acircius (King Aldfrith of Northumbria) on grammar, and from his Praise of Virgins, are given in notes, and the subject of Winfrid’s literary in¬ debtedness to Aldhelm in his early years will not be carried further. He completely emancipated himself 22 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS from the stilted style of his instructor. At a later period we shall find his relative Leoba even more directly using Aldhelm’s phrases. 1 “ To my dearest companion and most loved friend, whom not any perishable gift of temporal gold nor any honeyed urbanity of wit by the blandishments of flattering words has bound to me, but the renowned affinity of spiritual intimacy, the bond of charity that cannot fade away, has of late joined us together; to Nithard, Wynfreth suppliant in Christ Jesus wishes the health of perpetual safety. 1 2 “ In most humble words of my mediocrity I pray the illustrious ability of your youthful manhood, dearest brother, that it never weary you to call to mind the words of the most wise Solomon (Ecclus. vii. 36), ‘In all thy matters remember thy last end, and thou shalt never do amiss/ and elsewhere (St. John xii. 35), ‘Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth; ’ for all things present will soon pass away, and the things that are to abide will quickly be with us. And all the precious things of this world, whether under the species of gold and silver, or in the variety of sparkling gems, or in the acquired diversity of ornamental dress, in a most apt similitude pass away like a shadow, as smoke they fade away, as froth they disappear, 3 according to the true saying of the psalmi- 1 Ep. 9; 716-717. a “ Spiritalis necessitudinis... inmarcescibilis catena caritatis liuper copulavit... perpetuae sospitatis salutem.” In Aldhelm’s Letter to Acircius we find “mihi spiritalis clientelae catenis connexo . . . immarcescibilem sempiternae sospitatis salutem.” 3 “ Simillima collatione ut umbra praetereunt, ut fumus FIRST LETTER EXTANT 23 grafist, 1 ‘ The days of mail are but as grass, for he flourisheth as a flower of the field,’ or again, e My days are gone like a shadow, and I am withered like grass/ ” He urges Nithard to study the Scriptures. “ Strive to follow with intentness of mind the study of the Holy letters, and to acquire thence the comeliness of glorious and true beauty, that is, divine wisdom. It is more sjdendid than gold, more fair than silver, more burning than the carbuncle, more clear than crystal, more precious than the topaz, and we have it on the authority of the gifted preacher 2 that every precious thing is not worthy of it. For what, my dearest brother, is more fittingly sought by the young, or what is at length more soberly possessed by the old, than knowledge of the Holy Scriptures? Guiding the ship of our soul without any wreck of dangerous storm, this knowledge will bring it to the shore of most delightful paradise 3 and to the perpetual joys of the angels on high.” After more in the same style, the letter ends with twenty-eight lines of eight syllables, each pair of lines more or less rhyming, with difficult accents, beginning and ending thus :— fatiscunt, ut spuma marcescunfc.” In Aldlielm’s Letter we find “ simillima collatione ut somnium evanescit, ut fumus fatescit, ut spuma marcessit.” 1 This coining of words from the Greek is a marked note of Aldhelm's style. In his next sentence Wynfrith uses Greek words in Latin letters, “apo ton grammaton agiis frustratis,” and “cata psalmistam ” ; all savouring of Aldhelm. 2 Proverbs viii. 11. 3 “Scientia sanctarum scripturarum deducit ad amoenissimi litus paradisi.” Aldlielm’s Letter has “ de amoenissimo scrip¬ turarum paradiso". 24 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS Yale, frater, florentibus Iuventutis cum viribus Ut floreas cum Domino In sempiterno solio. Inque throno aethereo Christum laudes praeconio. It is almost unnecessary to say that nine con¬ secutive lines of the poem begin with the letters of the word Nithardus. The concluding words of the letter itself, which are simple and natural, appear to show that Wyn- frith was in England, on his one short return from the mission field, and that Nithard, whose name does not appear again, was himself living in the parts to which Wynfrith hoped soon to return :— “ If the Lord Omnipotent will that I reach again, as I purpose, those parts of yours, I vow that I will be to you in all these matters a faithful friend, and in the study of the divine Scriptures, so far as my ability enables me, your most devoted helper.” The simple straightforwardness of this ending of so turgid a letter may remind us of the description which Willibald gives of the successful results of Winfrid’s dilig’ent studies under Abbat Winberclit,—“he shone in very great knowledge of the Scriptures, in eloquence of grammatical art, in the modulation of richly- flowing metres, as also in the simple exposition of history, in the tripartite exposition of spiritual mean¬ ing, and in skill in dictating/'’ This first letter of his illustrates the second, third and fourth of these— LETTER COMMENDATORY 25 the fourth, best of all. Othlon, in place of all this, simply says that he acquired the desired knowledge of grammatical art, of metrical subtlety, and of spiritual meaning. Winfrid must of course have letters commendatory from his own bishop. In this year, 718, Daniel was Bishop of Winchester, the great see of Wessex having been divided into the two sees of Winchester and Sherborne in 705, on the death of Haedde. Daniel was appointed to the former, Aldhelm to the latter of these two sees, Sherborne being very much the larger in area, but Winchester the more important, on account of the intimate relations between the kings and the bishops. There might have been some question as to whether the Bishop of Sherborne should commend Winfrid, when we remember where his infancy and boyhood were spent, how very important the ecclesiastical foundations at Malmesbury and Glastonbury and Wimborne were, and how completely, so far as we are informed, Boniface drew his English helpers, men and women, from those foundations. But Aldhelm was dead some nine years and we do not know that his successor was a man of much mark. As monk and as presbyter Winfrid was of DanieEs diocese. And Daniel himself was a man of mark by character and by learning. Bede testifies to his learning and to his ability by coupling his name with that of Aldhelm on terms of equality. In speaking of the subdivision of the Wessex see, he says of the two bishops, Aldhelm and Daniel, “both of them sufficiently instructed, alike in ecclesiastical affairs and in knowledge of the Scriptures.” To Daniel, who survived Bede by many years (died 746), Bede handsomely acknowledges his indebtedness for in- 26 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS formation given, in the preface to his Church History of the English race. Daniel's letter of commendation has been preserved, and may now be given. It will be seen that Daniel carefully abstains from making any reference at all to Winfrid's purposes or wishes. When Anselm was on his way to Rome, at one of the many times when the ecclesiastical world was divided between two sole and infallible popes, sometimes even three, he was a very great man in the realms that recognized Urban; through Clement's districts he had to pass as far as might be unmarked and unknown. Wynfrith's diffi¬ culties would have been of the same kind if his pur¬ poses had been set forth. All would on each occasion depend upon which of the two kings, which of the several dukes, nay, which of the bishops and abbats, he had at the time reached. Inasmuch as rulers temporal and spiritual had a much more inquiring eye for persons travelling through their districts than they have now, Daniel must have known full well that Winfrid would time after time have to state his purpose. We must suppose that he could trust him to make diplomatic statements. It is not necessary to point out how completely the wayfarer had to trust to free hospitality on his slow way through those distant parts to which Winfrid’s steps were directed, where there was no very beaten track. On the direct road to Rome accommodation more approaching to the inns of later times was gradually provided. 1 “ To the most pious and clement kings, to all dukes, to the most reverend and most loved bishops, to the 1 Ep. 11 ; a.d. 718. LETTER COMMENDATORY 27 religious abbats also, to the presbyters and spiritual sons sealed in the name of Christ, Daniel, servant of the servants of God. “Whereas the mandates of God are by all the faithful to be observed with sincerest devotion, it is demonstrated by the attestation of holy Scripture how great is the gift of hospitality, and how accept¬ able to God it is to show to wayfarers the office of humanity. By reason of the mercy of hospitality, the blessed Abraham was held worthy to receive the presence of angels and to enjoy their venerable discourse. Lot also, by the ministration of a like piety, was snatched out of the flames of Sodom ; the grace of hospitality saved him from death by fire, because it was obedience to the commands of heaven. Thus also will it tend to the welfare of your dilection, that you receive the bearer of these, the religious presbyter and servant of the Omnipotent God, and show to him that charity which God loves and teaches. In receiving the servants of God you receive Him whose majesty they serve, who promises thus—‘ lie that receiveth you receiveth Me.’ Doing this, then, with devotion of heart, you carry out the commands of God, and trusting in the oracle of the divine promise you shall have with Him eternal reward. “ May grace from on high keep safe your eminence.” We may now follow Winfrid on his course from London when he left his native land in 718 never to return. It may be remarked here that in the great basilica of St. Boniface, a very disappointing building, founded by King Ludwig of Bavaria in 1835, the saint is represented in one of the frescoes 28 BONIFACE AND HTS COMPANIONS as setting sail from Southampton. 1 Willibald says with express clearness that he again embarked at London. He carried with him the commendatory letter from the Wessex bishop, Daniel, which we have just seen. His plan was to do the whole thing thoroughly, by going first to Rome to see the Pope. He landed at the usual port for those who meditated a journey to Rome by way of the Alps and Lombardy, namely Quentavic, at the mouth of the river Canche, corresponding to the modern Staples. He and his party arrived safely at “ the thresholds of the Blessed Peter the Apostle ”, “ and with great joy entered the Church of Saint Peter, chief of the Apostles.'” Thus Willibald puts it. The change of phrase from the usual Anglo-Saxon phrase “ the thresholds of the blessed Apostles”, that is, Peter and Paul, is an interesting note of the growth of the Petrine claim. Willibald was writing a quarter of a century later than Bede, but Boniface had begun the change of phrase long before that. In a letter and reply which passed between Boniface and his correspondent Eadburga, two of the large number of Bonifatian letters which have so close a personal interest for English people, the English lady spoke of visiting the thresholds of St. Peter and St. Paul, Boniface in his reply spoke of Rome as the threshold of St. Peter. It is very easy in these days to say that Boniface and his party landed on the shores of Prance and reached Rome safely. Willibald had more to say about it than that. Boniface landed at Quentavic. 1 Richard, Willibald, aud Wunnibald, sailed from near Southampton. The attention of Bavaria being fixed locally on Willibald and Wunnibald, we may understand how the mistake was made. JOURNEY TO ROME 29 There he formed a camp and waited till companions by degrees joined him. It was like the gradual formation of a caravan in the East. When at length all the multitude had collected together, they set out. Day by day the cold of winter came upon them more severely. Many churches of the saints they visited, to offer prayer to the throne on high for their safe passage over the summits of the Alps. They prayed also that the Lombards on the other side of the Alps might be moved by feelings of humanity towards them. They prayed also that they might evade the malicious ferocity of the pride of the soldiery. And when they reached Rome, they offered up unmeasured thanks to Christ for their safety. Clearly it was a very serious matter indeed in those days. In going to Rome to obtain the sanction of the Pope for his missionary work, and not the sanction only but a commission to carry it on, there can be no doubt that W inf rid took a right step. Some great ecclesiastical sanction he must have. He could not be a free-lance; there were too many ecclesiastical free-lances, especially from Ireland. The secular government of the territories where he proposed to work, nominally a Frankish government, was in a very unsettled state, as we shall have to see, and the ecclesiastical supporters of that secular govern¬ ment were far from being what they ought to be. Winfrid desired to have behind him a spiritual authority which no one dared call in question in the lands of the Franks, in order that he might be unhampered in his work among- the neighbouring heathen. The Pope at that time was the second Gregory. 30 BONIFACE AX1) HIS COMPANIONS We have a pleasant account of the first interview of Winfrid with Pope Gregory. Not many days after his arrival in Rome he saw the Pope. He described to him in full order the events of his journey and the occasion of his arrival in Rome, and with what anxious desire he had laboured long. The Pope suddenly interrupted his narrative, looking at him with a glad countenance and smiling eyes, and asked if he had brought with him commendatory letters from his own bishop. Winfrid opened his cloak and brought out and gave to the Pope a sealed document and an open or general letter. The Pope took them at once and nodded to him to go away. The Pope read the letter and went through the commendatory document, and afterwards had daily conferences with him till the time came for him to leave Rome again. When that time came, the Pope gave to him a letter to the following effect 1 :— Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to Boniface the religious priest. The Pope has learned that from a youth Boniface has studied the Holy Scriptures and has striven to increase the talent specially committed to him, namely the desire to make known, to the nations that do not believe, the mystery of the faith. He rejoices in the fact, and desires to aid the undertaking. Therefore, in the name of the Indivisible Trinity and by the unshaken authority of the blessed Peter, chief of the Apostles, whose office of teaching he exercises by dispensation, the place of whose holy see he ad¬ ministers, he gives him power to hasten to any peoples that are held in the error of unbelief, to set Ep. 12 ; May 15, 719. THE POPE S LETTER 31 before them the ministry of the kingdom of God by introducing with the persuasiveness of truth the name of Christ our Lord God, to put into their untutored minds in an intelligent manner the preach¬ ing of the Old and the New Testaments by the spirit of power and love and soberness. Lastly, he is to be intent upon maintaining the discipline of the Sacrament for initiating those who are to believe, according to the formula of the holy apostolic see, which has been set forth for his instruction. The letter is dated on the Ides of May in the third year of the reign of the most pious lord Augustus Leo, crowned of God great emperor. Willibrord had in the same manner sought the authority of the Pope for his work. The lands in which he as well as Winfrid desired to work had formed part of a province of old Rome, and so were naturally the care of the Bishop of Rome. Pope Sergius had received Willibrord when Pepin of Herstal had given him the city and fortress of Trajectum or Ultrajectum, now Utrecht; and in 696 Willibrord had again visited Rome, received the pall from the same Sergius, and been made Archbishop with the fullest authority to rule his new see. Boniface left Rome, still a presbyter, armed with Pope Gregory's letter. After a restful and enjoyable visit to the excellent King of the Lombards, Liutprand, no doubt at Pavia, he crossed the Alps, probably by way of Tyrol, passed through the eastern parts of Bavaria, and reached Thuringia. We may take modern Saxony as roughly representing Thuringia. Here he found a double difficulty. There were the pagans to deal with, and there were bishops and priests. The bishops and priests appear to have been the more difficult of the 32 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS two, and throughout Boniface’s time this was so. There were two kinds of bishops and priests who came in his way, and both were difficult. The Frankish bishops and priests were many of them men of bad lives, with nothing spiritual about them ; and the wandering bishops and priests of the Irish school were queer in their practices and their ways. Neither kind cared much for spiritual authority, or for the pope, as Boniface in one of his letters very frankly states. With the lay people of Thuringia he took special pains, calling together the senators and the chief men, delivering to them spiritual addresses, and instructing them in the right way of truth. He then passed on into Frankish territory, but hearing of the death of Rathbod he hastened to Frisia by the water¬ way, joined Archbishop Willibrord at Utrecht, and for three years worked with him. By this time Willibrord was feeling old. Bede has a very touching little entry about him, written near the end of Bede’s own life. “ Willibrord him¬ self,” he says, 1 “ surnamed Clement, is still living, venerable .in old ag’e, having been thirty-six years a bishop, sighing for the rewards of the heavenly life, after the manifold conflicts of his heavenly warfare.” Willibrord begged Winfrid to become his episcopal coadjutor, to succeed to the archbishopric on his death. Winfrid steadfastly refused, pleading among’ other reasons for refusal that he was not yet of the canonical age of fifty. We do not know of any canon imposing that as the lower limit of age for the con¬ secration of a bishop, and it has been suggested that Winfrid referred to the age at which Levites retired 1 If. E. v. 11. AMONG THE HESSIANS 33 from active work (Num. viii. 24). However that may have been, he persisted in his refusal, and to rid him¬ self of Willibrord’s insistence took a long 1 journey to the south-east, halting at last on the river Ohm, in the district now called Hesse Cassel. Here he found two Hessian chiefs, Detdic and Dierolf, who worshipped idols and yet called themselves some kind of Christian. We in England may remember that we bad a similar example in our own land. Bede tells us that in his time King Aldwulf of East Anglia used to relate an experience of his own youth. He had seen when a boy the temple of his great-uncle Redwald, the first Christian King of East Anglia, and in it Redwald had a large altar for Christ and a small altar for demons, which remained till Aldwulfs days. Winfrid’s teaching met with great success among the Hessians, and he established a monastery at Amanaburg, Amana being the ancient or the Latin name of the river Ohm. The place is now called Amoneburg. He then proceeded to the northern districts of the Hessians, near the frontier of the Saxons, that is towards the modern Hanover, and met with like success, many thousands consenting to be baptized. This multitudinous conversion reminds us of similar accounts in the early days of the preaching of Chris¬ tianity to the Northumbrian cousins of these German peoples. Winfrid thought it right to report his successes to the Pope, and he sent a trusty messenger, Binna, to Rome, bearing letters of narrative and inquiry. There is every reason to believe that Binna was an English¬ man. We find one of the same name filling a large secular position in Mercia towards the end of the century. This later Binna was specially connected D 34 BONll-’ACE AND HIS COMPANIONS with us of the diocese of Bristol, inasmuch as he signs, as Bynna dux, a document restoring lands at Aust to the Bishop of Worcester, which had been held without right by Bynna, comes reyis, probably himself. King Offa was present and confirmed the deed with the sign of the Cross. 1 The Pope, the same Gregory II who had received Winfrid some five years before, sent Binna back to Winfrid very promptly, with letters inviting him to come to Rome. Though shorter than the journey from Quentavic, it was a serious journey in those days, a journey of danger and labour. Willibald tells us that the great English missionary went on his way to Rome accom¬ panied by a crowd of retainers and surrounded by a band of brethren. They crossed over the heights of the Alps of the Franks and the Burgundians and of Italy, the mention of the Burgundians indicating that they crossed the Alps by one of the western passes. The mention of the Bavarians, on the occasion of his previous journey from Rome, indicated one of the eastern passes, the Bavarians of those times not reaching so far west as Bavaria does now. They halted when they came in sight of the walls of Rome and offered condign thanks to the Throne on high ; then they went to the Church of St. Peter and fortified themselves by prayer; and then they were quiet for a time to rest their weary limbs. The Pope soon heard of the arrival of Winfrid. He was well received, and was conducted to an hostel. As soon as a convenient day was found, the Pope and he met at the basilica of St. Peter and saluted one another in a few pacific words. The apostolic pontiff 1 Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 484-5. EXAMINATION OF BONIFACE 35 then questioned Winfrid on the Creed and on the handing down of the faith of the Church. The man of God humbly made reply as follows :—“ My Lord Apostolic, I have not the skill, a mere stranger, to answer by word in intimate discourse. I beg that thou wilt give me time and leisure to write a state¬ ment of my faith, that the unspoken letters may set it forth in orderly manner.” This was at once granted, but with an order that the thing must be done quickly. Without loss of time Winfrid wrote out an account of his belief in regard to the Holy Trinity, and it was delivered to the Pope. He had to wait some days for a second invitation, and this time he was summoned to the Lateran, the real seat of the Bishops of Rome, the Mother Church of the ancient city. His face humbly bent towards the ground, he knelt at the feet of the apostolic pontiff and begged his blessing. The Pope raised him up, gave back to him the paper on which his confession of faith was written, bade him sit by his side, and instructed him always himself to keep firm this faith, and to teach it to others to the utmost of his powers. I do not know if it has been noticed by those who have written on the so-called Creed of Athanasius that Willibald describes Win- frid’s statement as Integra et incorrupta, “ whole and uncorrupted,” the words in the so-called Athanasian formulary, in the prefatory part which the document itself declares to be not part of the Catholic Faith, being Integra inviolataque, “whole and undefiled.” We may, I think, not unfairly imagine that what Winfrid did was to write out from memory—or possibly from a manuscript, for we are not told what supervision of his examination there was—verses 3 to 27 of the Athanasian Creed, already well known in the Gallican 36 BONIFACE AND TITS COMPANIONS Churches. The Pope asked him a great many more questions about the holiness of religion and the verity of the faith, and indeed they spent nearly the whole day in discussing these matters. It is very pleasant to read of this care for the soundness and fullness of the faith on the part of Gregory II. He was the strong Pope who withstood the Emperor Leo when the Emperor forbade the use of images; rescued Rome from the Lombards when King Liutprand was actually at the gates; and eventually worked so successfully in the direction of freeing Italy from the tyranny of Constantinople, that the complete separa¬ tion came to pass in the next half-century. The close examination of a priest before his con¬ secration as bishop, now fortunately for some bishops obsolete, was a serious reality at some times in the middle ages. There is an echo of it in our Form for the Consecration of Bishops, wherein the archbishop is bidden to say “ I will examine you in certain articles More than one person elected to the Archbishopric of Canterbury has been rejected in Rome for ignorance, and another has had to be elected in his place. This was by agreement between the King and the Pope, as a canonical way of voiding an unsuitable elec¬ tion. Thus in 1228, on Stephen Langton's death, a Canterbury monk, one Walter de Hempsham, was elected by the monks. Against him the king and the prelates appealed to Rome. Pope Gregory IX had him examined. The cardinals asked him about the Descent into Hell, and reported male respond'd, his answer was bad. They asked him about the Real Presence, male respondd again. On the whole they reported that he had not only not done well, he had done pessime, very badly ; and he was rejected. CONSECRATION OF BONIFACE 37 The method was not only canonical, it was also simoniacal in its application. The result in this case was brought about by the promise of a tenth of all movable property in England and Ireland to the Pope for the war against the Emperor. A few years later another Canterbury election was cancelled by a like quaint process. No obstacle to the consecration of Winfrid was interposed on this or on any other ground. The Pope intimated to him that he proposed to advance him to the episcopate, and fixed as the day for the ceremony St. Andrew’s Day, November 30. The young priest did not withstand the prelate’s purpose, and on the day appointed he received the dignity of the epis¬ copate, and the additional name of Boniface. So say both of the Lives. The statement about the con¬ firming of the additional name of Boniface is not at all inconsistent with his having used that name before. The Pope’s act made it his lawful name. Bishops in these modern days frequently regularize the use of a name other than the baptismal name, by using it in the act of Confirmation. Suggestions that the name Bonifacius was a pedantic play upon the Wyu in the name of the young priest, whence came the Anglo-Saxon wynsum, our “win¬ some”, and that Wyn fried and the modern Welsh Gwynfryd are the same word, may be left to those who delight in such things. CHAPTER III Oath to the Bishop of Rome.—Commendatory letters from the Pope.—Charles Martel.—The Thuringians.— Further letters from the Pope. On this visit to Rome, Boniface took the oath to the Bishop of Rome, his consecrator, on which much has been written. It is generally said to have been the oath reg’ularlv taken to the Bishop of Rome, as Bishop and Patriarch of Rome, by the bishops specially under his patriarchal jurisdiction, namely the suburbi- carian bishops. That phrase has been the subject of almost endless discussion. It is certainly taken from the phraseology of the civil government of the Western Empire. An apt example is to be found in a decree of the Emperor Julian—“not only throughout all Italy but also in the suburbicarian regions ”—where “Italy” means the province or vicariate so called, corresponding to northern Italy, and “ the suburbi¬ carian regions ” mean the Roman vicariate, which included the territories from Campania and Umbria to Apulia, Calabria, &c., and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. The Nicene Council arranged that the ancient custom—which apparently must mean the civil custom—should continue, and the Patriarch of Alexandria should govern the churches throughout Egypt, the Metropolitan of Rome govern¬ ing the suburbicarian churches. Whatever else may be in doubt in the meaning of the phrase, it is at least certain that it did not include Britain. The oath was taken on November 30, in the year 722 or 723. Into the discussions as to which of THE OATH TO THE POPE 39 these years is indicated by the date given it is not necessary to enter; the weight of opinion seems to be with 722. 1 The oath is as follows 2 :— “ In the name of the Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, in the reign 3 of the Lord Leo, crowned of God great Emperor, in the sixth year of his reign, and the sixth year after his Consulship, and in the fourth year of the reign of his son Constantine, great Emperor, Indiction vi. “ I Boniface, by the grace of God bishop, do promise to thee, blessed Peter, chief of the apostles, and to thy vicar, blessed Pope Gregory and his successors, by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the indivisible Trinity, and by this thy most sacred body, that I show the holy catholic faith in all fidelity and purity, and persist by God’s help in the unity of the same faith, in which the whole safety of Christians is acknowledged to be, that in no way will I, on the instigation of any one, give consent to anything contrary to the unity of the common and universal Church, but, as I have said, I will show forth in all things my fidelity, purity, and aid, to thee and to the profit of thy Church, to whom has been given by the Lord God the power of binding and loosing, and to thy foresaid vicar and his successors. And if I shall become aware that prelates walk contrary to the ancient institutes of the holy Fathers, with them I will have no communion or fellowship; nay more, if I shall have strength to forbid them, I will forbid them, and if I have not, I will immedi- 1 Ep. 16; Nov. 30, 722. 2 Diimmler, Ep. 16, p. 265. 3 The joint Emperors were Leo III and Constantine IV. The words piissimo auguslo in connexion with the name of Leo appear to have been erased in the MS. 40 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS ately make a faithful report thereupon to my lord the apostolic . 1 But if, which be far from me, I shall attempt to do anything contrary to this my profession, in any way, whether intentionally or accidentally 2 , may I find myself accused in the eternal judgment, may I incur the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira who presumed to lie to you about their property. This transcript of my oath, I Boniface, humble bishop, have written with m 3 ' own hand, and placing it over the most sacred body of the holy Peter as is prescribed, God being my witness and judge, I have taken the oath, which also I promise to keep.” This oath has some slight variations from the form of the oath taken to the Bishop of Rome by the suburbicarian bishops, as set forth in the Liber Diurnus. The only variation of importance is in the words: “ if I shall become aware that prelates walk contrary to the ancient institutes of the holy Fathers”; where the suburbicarian bishop swore thus—“ if I shall become aware that anything is being done contrary to the public weal or our most pious prince.” The reason for the variation is obvious, and the change made goes deep and far. The suburbicarian bishops must not infrequently have wondered who their “ most pious prince ” actually was. The day after Boniface had laid the document containing this transcript of his oath on the tomb of St. Peter, the Pope gave to him the following letter 3 :— 1 Wurdtwein states that this was at first the title of all bishops, but afterwards of the Pope alone. He refers to Greg. Mag. epp., v. 37. 2 Ingenio vel oecasione. 3 Ep. 17 ; Dec. 1, 722. THE POPES LETTER 41 “ Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all most reverent and most holy brethren his fellow-bishops, religious presbyters or deacons, glorious dukes, magnificent chiefs, counts also, and all God¬ fearing Christians. “ We are very anxious on account of a report which we have received and believe. There are some races in the parts of German} 7 and on the east side of the Rhine, who under the suasion of the old enemy live in error, in the shadow of death. We have learned that some, under cover of the Christian religion, worship idols. Others, not as yet having knowledge of God, nor washed in the water of holy baptism, do not recognize their Maker. For the illumination of both, we have thought it right to send the bearer of this letter, Boniface, our most revei’end brother bishop, to preach the word of the right faith in those parts, so that by preaching the word of salvation he may provide for them eternal life, and if anywhere he should find those who have left the path of true faith, or by suasion of the devil are in error, he may correct them, and by his teaching may bring them back to the harbour of safety, and inform them from the doctrine of this apostolic see, and may establish them so that they continue in the same catholic faith. “For the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for reverence of His Apostles, we exhort you in all ways to support him in his efforts, and to receive him in the name of Jesus Christ, as it is written : ‘ he who receiveth you, receiveth Me/ Further, we exhort you to provide things necessary for his journey, give him companions, food, drink, everything he requires, that by the favour of God he may succeed in the work of piety and the business of salvation entrusted 42 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS to him, and you may be found worthy to receive a return for your labour, and from the conversion of those who err a reward may be granted you in heaven. May any who favour or further the work of this servant of God, sent from this Apostolic and Catholic Church of God for the enlightening of the Gentiles, be held worthy, by the prayers of the chiefs 1 of the Apostles, of the fellowship of the sacred martyrs of Jesus Christ. But if any—we desire it not—should attempt to hinder his work, or to oppose the ministry entrusted to him or his successors entering upon the same labour, may he be smitten by the divine sentence of anathema, may he lie under perpetual damnation.” A second letter, addressed to all clerics and people, Boniface received from Gregory on the same day. It is merely a common form from the Liber Diurnvs, the “synodal which a bishop receives”, and has no local or personal reference beyond the insertion of the name, Bonifatius. It is the letter in which the Popes forbad the reception of Africans to holy orders, on the ground that some of them were Manicheans and many of them had been re-baptized. It also contains the well-known order about the application of the rents of church property and the offerings of the faithful: the bishop is to divide the whole into four portions, one for himself, one for the ministering clergy, one for the poor and the stranger, and one for the fabrics of the churches. In the same month, December 722 or 723, Gregory wrote three other letters of commendation, one to the Thuringian Christians, 2 one to Karl Martel, and one 1 Apostolorum principibus. 2 Ep. 19 ; Dec. 722. LETTER TO THE THURINGIANS 43 to the Altsaxons. Two of them are short, and all of them should be given here as documents of primary importance at the beginning of Boniface's episcopal career:— “ To the magnificent men, our sons Asulf, Godolaf, Willar, Gundhar, Alvold, and all Thuringians loved of God, faithful Christians, Gregory the Pope. Being informed of the constancy of your magni¬ ficent faith in Christ, that when the pagans would have compelled you to the worship of idols, you replied in full faith that you would rather die than in any way violate the faith in Christ once received, full of great exultation we gave due thanks to our God and Redeemer, the Giver of all good things. Whose grace accompanying you, we desire that you should proceed to better and higher things, and for the confirmation of your faith should adhere with religious mind to the holy apostolic see, and, as the work of sacred religion shall demand, should seek solace from the said holy see, the spiritual mother of all faithful people, as the sons and coheirs of a kingdom ought to seek from their royal parent, and from the ministry of our present most dear brother Boniface. Him we have sent to you, ordained bishop for the purpose of preaching, instructed in the apostolical institutions, for building up your faith. In all things we will and exhort that you obediently consent to him for the completing of your salvation in the Lord." It will have been noticed how the Popes in their letters asserted, iterated, and re-iterated, the headship of the see of Rome. It will be remembered that until Boniface’s time this was, in the case of many of the converted heathen, a new and large idea. The Popes represented it as a fundamental doctrine of the 44 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS Christian faith, and as such it was received by the new believers. So far as the history of the middle ages is concerned, that is the most important creative feature of the Pope’s letters “ To the glorious lord our son Karl the duke, Gregory the Pope. 1 “ Being well assured that you, most loved in Christ, bear among many fitnesses a mind well-disposed towards religion, we make known to your dignity, loved of God, that we have felt it necessary to send our present brother Boniface to preach to the people of the German race, and to various persons dwelling to the east of the Rhine, held in the error of heathenism, or up to this time fettered in the darkness of ignor¬ ance. He is a man approved in faith and morals, consecrated bishop by us, instructed in the institutions of the apostolic see, over which by God’s favour we preside in care of the Church at large. For the sake of those to whom he is to minister we commend him in all ways to your glorious benevolence, that you assist him in all his needs, and most firmly defend him against all adversaries, over whom in the Lord you prevail. When God sent out His Apostles, a light to lighten the Gentiles, He said, ‘ Whosoever receiveth you, receiveth Me/ Instructed by us in the institutions of the Apostles, the said prelate goes forth in the function of preaching.” With regard to the next letter, 2 the question has been much discussed whether it is to be attributed to Gregory II or Gregory III. In either case it seems a little early in Boniface’s episcopal career for such a letter to the Altsaxons. But the documentary Ep. 20 ; Dec. 722. 2 Ep. 21. GREGORY II AND III 45 evidence is in favour of it; and in Boniface’s letter to England (ep. 46) asking prayers for the conversion of this very pagan race, he informs his English friends that he has had the consent and blessing of two Popes for his work among them. As this was written in or about 737, the two Popes must have been Gregory II and Gregory III. The numeration of the Gregorys is rather confusing at this point. The Pope whom we have so far called Gregory II was known in his own time as Gregory Junior, no doubt out of special consideration for Gregorius Magnus, our own Pope Gregory. When he was succeeded by yet another Gregory, the new Pope was quaintly described as Gregorius Junior Secundus, a roundabout way of saying Gregory the Third. Later on, Willibald excels himself by getting seven words into Gregory’s title: Greoorius a Secundo luniore cam primo Tertius (ch. x). Though the attribution of the letter in question to Gregory II appears to be incorrect, the letter will come in better connexion here than later on. “ Gregory the Pope to the whole people of the province of the Altsaxons.” The letter itself is a cento of texts of Scripture appropriate to an exhortation against idolatry. At least twenty passages of Scripture are directly quoted or evidently referred to; the Psalms three times (it might well have been more), Isaiah once, St. Luke three times, the Epistle to the Romans twice, to the Corinthians once, to the Colossians seven times, to Timothy once. It may be permitted to suppose that the popes must have felt the difficulty of having always to quote St. Paul and never St. Peter. Diimmler is most careful to give in the margin the BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS 46 actual reference to each text quoted or referred to in the letters of the Bonifatian period. I cannot find one quotation from the Epistles of St. Peter in the letters of the Popes. Diimmler carefully notes, in the margin of the two hundred large pages of letters of the Boni¬ fatian period, the places of Scripture from which quotations are found in the text. In no case, unless the inquiring eye has failed, does any Pope quote from St. Peter’s Epistles. Boniface, who made a special appeal that a copy of St. Peter’s Epistles might be sent to him, only quotes from them three times in all his many letters. The passages which he quotes are (Ep. 73) 1 Pet. iv. 3, ‘ The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles,’ &c .; (Ep. 78) 1 Pet. v. 8, 9, ‘ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil,’ &c.; (Ep. 106) 1 Pet. iv. 8, ‘ Above all things have fervent charity,’ &c. The Pope’s letter concludes thus :— “ Dearest ones, the faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, Boniface, my brother and fellow bishop, I have sent to you for this purpose, that he may learn your circumstances, and console your hearts with the word of exhortation in Christ Jesus our Lord ; that being freed from the fraud of the devil, you may be found worthy to be placed among the sons of adoption, and, freed from eternal damna¬ tion, may have eternal life.” The Thuringians were a remarkable people, and the origin of their name is curious. They appeared in history as Diiringer or Thiiringer in the beginning of the fifth century. They took their name from the second part of the name of the Hermunduren, of whom they were a branch. Domitius Ahenobarbus had THE THURINGIAN RACE 47 settled the Hermunduren, a Suevian race, shortly before the birth of Christ, in the territory between the Main and the Danube. They were firm allies of Rome, and they prospered and enlarged their terri¬ tory, expelling the Chatti from the salt springs in the neighbourhood of their boundary to the north, the river Werra. In a.d. 152 they are mentioned, with the Marcomanni and others, as threatening the northern boundaries of the Roman empire, and then in the absence of history they are lost. They emerge as Diiringer about a.d. 500, when they had the Saxons on the north, the Alemanni on the south, and the Franks on the west. They then spread north to the lower Elbe and south to the Danube. Under an ambitious duke they fell foul of the Franks, and from that time they cease to be shadowy and begin to have a personal history, and not a fortunate one. Her- manfried, Berthar, and Badrich, three brothers, were the dukes of the Thuringians. The first named made away with his brothers, became sole duke, and married Amalaberg, daughter of Theoderich I of Austrasia, son of Clovis the first Christian king of the Franks. He did not carry out his promises to that king, but he had become so strong that Theoderich did not deal with him alone, but called in the aid of his brother, Chlotar I of Neustria, and in a.d. 530 or 531 he was killed under the walls of Zulpich. The north-east part of his enlarged territory went to the Saxons, the south went to Austrasia. This south part from the Main to the Danube became completely Frankish and lost its old name, which was used only for the territory between the Werra and the Saale. Over this limited territory Dagobert I of Austrasia appointed a duke, Radolf, in 630, who ten years later rebelled against 48 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS Sigebert III of Austrasia, and Thuringia lost its in¬ dependence in 640. Under Pepin the ducal dignity was set aside, and the country was administered by counts of the Helmengau, Altgau, Eichsfeld, West- gau, O'stgau, Lancwiza, and Arnstadt. Gregory III in addressing the great men of Thuringia names six districts, but the names are quite different from these. The German historians of modern time, in speaking of Boniface’s work in Thuringia, say that in 725 he founded the Johanniskirche on the Alte Berg by Georgenthal, the monastery of Ohrdruf, and the Marienkirche in Erfurt. The monastery of Ohrdruf, ten or eleven miles from Gotha, was certainly founded by him, but not so early as 725. In Erfurt he placed a bishop much later than 725. We have no record of his connexion with the Church of St. John at Alten- berg near Georgenthal, which is eight miles from Gotha. Altenberg claims to be, and may well be, the oldest village in Thuringia, and it claims that the Johanniskirche was founded by Boniface. The church has ceased to exist; but a century ago, the people, proud of its antiquity, erected on its site a stone monument thirty feet high in the shape of a church candlestick, to indicate the fact that from very early times the light of the Gospel shone forth from the Alte Berg; the monument is known far and wide as the Candelabrum, or Candelaber. The name of Thuringia survives now only in the Thiiringer Wald. Even here the ruin of former greatness is evident on the modern map. The long line of Wald country running south-east from Eise¬ nach is marked in its northern part as Thiiringer Wald, in its southern part as Franken-Wald. On December 4, 724, Gregory II informed Boni- LETTER OF GREGORY II 49 face that lie had written 1 to Charles Martel, the Thuringians, and the people of Germany: — “ Moved by the evangelic precept, Pray ye the lord of the harvest that he send forth labourers into his harvest, we have bid you Go preach the Gospel of the Kingdom in the parts of the west 2 for the illumination of the people of Germany seated in the shadow of death, that you may make gain of them as is written of the servant to whom the talents were given. You have told us that by the ministry of preach¬ ing the unbelieving people are being converted. We give thanks to the Lord of power, from whom come all good things, who willeth every man to come to the truth, and pray that lie will aid thee to bring out of darkness unto light that people by the in¬ spiration of His power. Be able to say with the apostle, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Persist, that thou mayest receive the crown of thy labour, for God promises salvation in the end 3 to them that persevere. Let not threats terrify thee, nor terrors cast thee down ; holding firm your trust in God, speak out the word of truth. “ With regard to that bishop 4 who up to this time has slothfully neglected to preach to the people of whom we speak, and now claims it as his right, as of his diocese, we have written a fatherly letter to our most excellent son the patrician Charles, asking him to restrain the bishop, and we believe that he will 1 Ep. 24. 2 West from Rome, but to the eastward of the parts with which we are concerned. 3 In fine, not in finem. * The circumstances suit the case of G-erold of Mainz, who held that bishopric from about 720 to about 741. E 50 BONIFACIO AND HIS COMPANIONS order the difficulty to be avoided. But do not } r ou cease to preach the things that make for salvation, in season and out of season. “ To the Thuringians and the people of Germany we have not failed to write of practical and spiritual things, among other advice bidding them construct dwellings for the bishop and build churches.” It has been said, in connexion with a remark of Willibald’s, 1 that the Thuringians were converted to Christianity long before, in the time of the sons of Clovis, and that this is stated by Gregory of Tours in the third book of his history of the Franks, which was written about the year 575. But all that he there says is that Lothaire carried off, from the con¬ quest of Thuringia by himself and his brother Thierry, a daughter of the Thuringian king, whom he married, and that she became a Christian. She was the well- known St. Rhadegund. There is not anything in Gregory’s letter to suggest that the Thuringians in general had ever been Christians, or that Christianity had been planted there two hundred years before. 2 Gregory desires that the Christian religion should be placed on a firmer footing among them, and sends his dearest Boniface to be their bishop. To the whole people of the Thuringians, that is, to a nation of pagans, Pope Gregory wrote, on the same day as to Boniface, a very interesting and curious letter. 3 He tells them, with an air of complete authority, that he is sending his brother the most holy bishop Boniface to them, with instructions to 1 And see Ep. 19 ; a. d. 722. 2 Rhadegund was born in 519, and was carried off by Lothaire at the age of 10. 3 Ep. 25 ; Dec. 724. Gregory’s letter to the thuringians 51 baptize them, to teach them the faith of Christ, to bring them out of error into the way of salvation, that they may have eternal life. They are bidden, therefore, to obey him in all things, to honour him as their father, and to incline their hearts to his teaching. It was not for gain of money but for gain of souls that he was sent. They must love the Lord, and receive baptism in His name; for the Lord our God hath prepared for them that love Him that which eye of man hath not seen nor heart of man conceived. They must leave off from evil works and do well ; they must not worship idols, or offer sacrifices of flesh, for such God does not accept. They must observe and do in all things what Boniface teaches, and then they will be safe, they and those that come after them, for ever. They must build a house in which their bishop should live, and churches in which they must pray, that God may pardon their sins and grant them eternal life. It is a remarkable letter to be addressed by the Pope to a distant nation of pagans, of whom there was no reason to suppose that they knew anything at all about the person who addressed them, or about his office and authority. The character of Pope Gregory II was a fine one, wherever we have the opportunity of testing it in the story of Boniface. The next letter 1 from Gregory II to Boniface con¬ tains detailed answers to twelve questions of a practical character which Boniface had sent, much as Augustine of Canterbury consulted Gregory the Great and re¬ ceived his answers. We need only notice the answer Ep. 26 ; Nov. 22, 726. E 2 52 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS to tlie concluding question, a delightfully human answer:— “ The religious presbyter Denual 1 has brought desirable news. He tells us that you are well, and that God furthers the ministry for which you are sent. He has brought also your letter, from which we learn that the Lord’s field, which lay uncultivated, bristling' with the thorns of unbelief, has been brought under your plough, sown with the seed of the Word, and is now bringing forth a fruitful harvest of belief. “ In this same letter you have asked what this holy apostolic Church of Rome holds and teaches under several heads. You know well that the blessed Apostle Peter stands as the beginning both of apostle- ship and of episcopacy. When you consult us about the state of the Church, we teach with the doc¬ trine of apostolic vigour, not of ourselves as of ourselves, but by His favour who openeth the dumb mouth and maketh the tongues of infants eloquent. “ At the end of your letter you tell us that there are certain presbyters or bishops enmeshed in many vices, whose life is a stain upon the priestly office, and ask if it is lawful for you to eat and speak with them, if they be not heretical. We reply that you admonish and convince them by apostolic authority and bring them to the purity of ecclesiastical discipline; if any of them are obedient, they will save their souls and you will have earned your reward. Do not refuse to 1 This no doubt represents the ordinary pronunciation of the name Denewald. Denewald was one of Boniface’s most trusted helpers. PRACTICAL ADVICE 53 have conversation with them, and a common table. It frequently happens that those whom disciplinary methods make slow to observe the rule of truth, the civilities of the table and kindly admonition bring into the just way. You should observe this same principle in the case of important laymen who give you help.” While Boniface thus sought and obtained the advice of the Pope on many points of importance and of detail, we have a remarkable example of his appeal to English knowledge against Roman advice. It will be found set out in Appendix B, page 357. CHAPTER IV Geographical meaning of “Germany”. — Austrasia and Neustria.—Mayors of the Palace.—The Pope’s letter to Charles Martel.—Boniface and the secular power.—The great Oak in Hessia.—Fritzlar and Geismar.—The Life of Wigbert. When we speak of Boniface as the Apostle of Ger¬ many, we use a misleading expression. The word Germany, used in that sense, is specially misleading, because at the same time we find Boniface supported by the armed forces of the Franks. This tends to pro¬ duce the idea that there were then, as there are now, two countries, the one called France and the other called by the general name of Germany. Instead of this, there was in fact one great kingdom or group of kingdoms, the kingdom of the Franks, who were originally a collection of Teutonic tribes. This king¬ dom, or these kingdoms, included roughly the terri¬ tories we know as Northern France and Western Germany. Lorch, on the Danube, was about the easternmost point reached by the territory of the Franks; beyond that to the east came Pannonia and the kingdom of the Avars. The modern Bohemia, for example, lies outside the territory of the Franks. This vast area was in the main divided into two parts, the eastern, called from its eastward position, Austrasia, practically the same word as our Austria though meaning a very different territory, and the western, called curiously enough “ not-eastern ”, that is Neustria. There was a like arrangement of names at that time in North Italy. The line of division AUSTRASIA AND NEUSTRIA DO between the Frank kingdom of Neustria and the Frank kingdom of Austrasia did not follow any natural or modern line. The simplest way of indi¬ cating its direction is by taking the two main lines by which English people travel to Switzerland. Those who go to Amiens, and take the line thence by Laon and Reims and Chalon, travel just to the east of the boundary, that is, are in Austrasia. Those who pass from Amiens by Paris and Lyon travel to the west of the boundary, and are in Neustria. This description, which is confined to our present purpose, disregards the boundaries of the Burgundian Franks and says nothing of the Frank kingdom of Aquitaine. It is very common knowledge that Clovis, the sole King of the Franks before the splitting up of his dominion into four separate parts for the sake of his sons, became a Christian after the battle of Tolbiac in 497. This was exactly a hundred years before our Kentish king, Ethelbert, who had married the Christian great-granddaughter of Clovis, took a like step. Clovis g’ave a kingdom to each of his four sons, and the position of their respective territories may be gathered from the seats of government, naming them from the west eastward, Orleans, Paris, Soissons, Metz. When Winfrid landed in Neustria in 717, there were only three males of the once large house of Clovis known to be alive, two of them being- kings respectively of the Neustrian and Austrasian Franks. Four years before the death of Boniface, the line of Clovis became practically extinct, in the twelfth generation. It is also very common knowledge that for many of these twelve generations the kings of the several Frank kingdoms were not allowed to do anything real 56 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS as kings. The power was entirely in the hands of their chief officer, the Mayor, or Major, or greater personage, of their palace. The English people of those times knew too much of the tyranny of the mayors of the Neustrian kings, in whose territory they landed when they crossed the Channel. The territory of Austrasia did not reach to the North Sea, the Old Saxons and the Frisians lying between the northern boundary of Austrasia and the sea. Thus all English people who crossed the Channel, by any of the ordinary routes, on the way to Rome and else¬ where, had to land in Neustria, and in one form or another they were pillaged on landing. We hear of this in the Life of Wilfrith of Ripon and York, when Ebroin, the Neustrian mayor of the palace, had very evil designs upon him, and pillaged the wrong man by mistake. 1 Soon after Wilfrith’s time, the rival armies of the Neustrian and the Austrasian Franks met in battle, under their respective mayors, and the Austrasian mayor and army completely defeated the Neustrian mayor and army. Thereupon all Neustria and Austrasia were united under one mayor, the Mayor of Austrasia, though for a time the two secluded kings, who were first cousins, were allowed to continue their nominal sovereignty. It was the battle of Testry, just within the Neustrian border, in the year 687, that effected this great poli¬ tical change. The seat of government of Neustria was transferred to Austrasia, and the whole of the two kingdoms was governed from Cologne as the official residence of the mayor, sometimes from 1 By a fortunate mistake of one letter, as Wilfrith’s biographer tells us, Ebroin pillaged one Winfrid, a Mercian bishop, not the same as our Winfrid or Boniface. GROWTH OF THE MAYORS POWER 57 Herstal his family residence. These splittings up of the Franks into Neustrian and Austrasian, and southwards into Aquitainian and Burgundian, and their amalgamations, have to be kept carefully in mind by all who study the after-history of the several parts of the great empire founded by Charlemagne, the great-grandson of the Mayor of Austrasia who won the battle of Testry. The great Mayor of the Palace who won that victory was Pepin, of Herstal on the Meuse. He came of a noble family, famous for great ecclesiastics among its members, ecclesiastics who after the fashion of those early times were often married men with families. Such men, in many cases, had entered religion, or taken holy orders, in middle life, having married and had children born to them in earlier life. A similar explanation accounts for abbesses writing about their sons and daughters. It was this Pepin who received Willibrord and gave him Utrecht, and received Suid- bert and gave him Kaiserswerth. It was the disturb¬ ances which followed upon his death, until such time as Charles Martel, his son, had showed his strength, that drove Winfrid back to England, as we have seen, on his first attempt at missionary work. 1 The rapid decay of the kingly power, and the cor¬ responding rise of the power of the mayor, now called duke, may he seen by comparing two facts. When Wilfrith of York and ltipon passed through Austrasia on his way to Home, some years before the battle of Testry, he was received by the Austrasian 1 All the very many persons among us who can trace their descent to Scottish kings, or to Plantagenets, have this Pepin as an ancestor, through his less than lawful son Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne. 58 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS king Dagobert, and the king pressed him to give up England and settle in Austrasia, offering him the bishopric of Strassburg. The other fact is this— all through the life of Boniface the mere existence of such a person as the King of the Franks is never even referred to; everything depends upon Charles Martel and his son the other Pepin, the Short. Thus Willibald tells us that the Pope put Boniface under the protection of the reign, or the kingdom, of the glorious Duke Charles. His letter is addressed thus— “ Gregory the Pope to the glorious lord, his son, Duke Charles”, and no mention is made in it of the Austrasian king. His successor Gregory III, nine of whose letters have been preserved, addressed two letters to Charles Martel, in each of which he describes him as subregulus, sub-king, but addresses him as all-powerful, with no reference to a king. In a letter to Boniface he speaks of Charles as Prince of the Franks, and it is by that title that Willibald speaks of him when he carries on his biography with an account of the return of Boniface, as bishop, from Rome. The Pope defines in his letter to Charles Martel the area over which the powers he had given to Boniface were to range. He was to preach to the people of the race or nation of Germany, and to the various heathen races settled on the east side of the Rhine. A list of these races or tribes is given in one of the letters 1 of Pope Gregory III, referred to above. It is of sufficient interest to be inserted here. “ Gregory the Pope to the great men and the whole people of the provinces of Germany, the Thuringians 1 Ep. 43 ; a.p. 737. GREGORY III TO THE GERMANS 59 and Hessians, the Borthars and Nistresians, the Wed- rechs and Lognais, the Suduods and Graffelts, and all who are settled in the eastern quarter.” Another reading has Thesis in place of Ilessis and Unedredis for Wedrechs. It is not difficult to see how this may have been due to careless writing or careless copying. The districts are most of them identifiable; especially the Graffelts, inasmuch as Fulda was in the district of Grabfeld. The other districts are supposed to be Boroctra (of the Bructeri), Nifthars on the river Diemel, Wetterau, and Lahngau. The Suduods cause a good deal of discussion. After the usual preface declaratory of Boniface’s soundness in the faith and fidelity to the see of Rome, but with the significant addition of the statement that he presented himself with a view to prayer at the thresholds of the blessed apostles 1 , the Pope ex¬ horts them “ to accept worthily from him the word of exhortation, and to receive in the ministry of the Church the bishops and priests whom he shall ordain on the authority given him from the holy see. And when he prohibits any whom he finds wandering from the path of the right faith or from canonical doctrine, let him in no way be hindered by you ; what he shall lay upon them let them carry out from fear of God, for he who refuses obedience earns for himself damnation. And do you, dearest ones, wdio have been baptized in the name of Christ, put on Christ; abstain and prohibit your own selves from every rite of the pagans, and not your own selves only, dearest ones, but those also who are subject to you. Diviners and soothsayers, the sacrifices of the dead, auguries of groves or springs, filacteries, enchanters and sorcerers, 1 Apostolorum. 60 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS and sacrilegious observances which were practised in your district, contemn and cast away, the whole in¬ tent of your mind being turned to God.” The rest of the letter consists of a string of seven passages from the Gospels and one from the Epistle to the Romans. Roughly speaking, the territory which the Popes called Germany included not only that which the Franks called the Austrasian or Eastern Kingdom of the Franks, but also the contiguous countries of the pagan barbarians; and thus it came curiously near to the modern idea of Germany. Tacitus had given one of his clear definitions of Germany in the first words of his book, so invaluable for all Teutonic peoples, the Be Germania as it is called for short. Its full title sets forth its special value, “ Of the site, peoples, and manners, of Germany.” All Germany, he says, is separated from the Gauls and Rhoetians (roughly Switzerland) by the river Rhine, and from the Pan- nonians by the river Danube ; from the Sarmatians and Dacians, by mountains and by mutual fear. The Germany of the Popes of Boniface’s time was larger than the Austrasia of the Franks. Austrasia may be put as the territory between the Rhine and the Danube, not extending further north than the southern boundary of the modern Hanover. This was in the main the settled part of the Germany over which Boniface’s influence was felt; the contiguous terri¬ tories to the east were his mission field. To the north he worked at the beginning and at the end of his career in Frisia. We have no definite information that he worked among the Old Saxons. It is said in the Life of St. Ledger that Charles Martel gave a cold reception to Winfrid at the time when he came Charles martel’s letter 61 from England and sought permission to exercise his missionary function in Frisia. There is no- hint of that in Willibald's account, nor in Othlon’s. If there was foundation for the statement, a change came now. Charles Martel, on receipt of the Papal letters which Boniface handed to him, at once acted vigor¬ ously. He addressed a letter 1 to all and sundry, charging them to do all they could for the missionary bishop, whom he had taken under his protection. The letter was a careful and prudent one, and it deserves to be given in full:— “ To the holy lords and apostolic Fathers in Christ the bishops; to the dukes, counts, deputies 2 , stewards, agents, officers, messengers, and friends; the illus¬ trious Charles, mayor of the palace 3 , your well-wisher. “ Know that the apostolic Father in Christ, Boniface the bishop, has come to us, and has begged that we should take him under our protection 4 and defence. Know that we have with glad mind done this. We have given to him the strength of our hand. Where¬ soever he goes he must be preserved quiet and safe in our love, protection, and defence; on this condition, that he does justice, and receives justice likewise. And if any difficulty arise which cannot be decided 1 Ep. 22 ; a.d. 723-4. 2 Vicarii. To render it “Vicars” would seem misleading. 3 Major domus. 4 Munde burgium, or mamburgium. A low-Latin word ot Teutonic origin, from mund, or munt, in the sense of protection. The Anglo-Saxon form was mundbora. Mambourg (or main bourg) was the title of a regent in the Low Countries ; thus Maximilian the Emperor was Mambourg for his little son Philip, the father of Emperor Charles V, and Charles’s aunt Marguerite of Austria, who was regent for Charles as a child, speaks of his position as Mambournie in French, “je vous ay durant vostre mambournie servi bien et lealeinent,” Marguerite of Austria, by Christopher Haie, 1907, p. 232. 62 BONIFACIO AND HIS COMPANIONS by the law, lie must be left quiet and safe to our judgment, both he and his, so that no one shall do anything contrarious or harmful to him. And that the surer credence may be given to this, I have con¬ firmed it at the foot with my own hand and we have sealed it with our ring.” In connexion with this letter of the secular power a general remark must be made. Boniface made no scruple of expressing the opinion, that however neces¬ sary it was to have proper ecclesiastical authority behind him, the authority namely of the Pope, the possibility of doing- his work, whether that of con¬ version of the heathen or that of reforming the abuses which were rife among the Christian priests and bishops of the Frankish Church, depended upon the authority of the Mayor of the Palace, not upon that of the Pope. In a letter 1 to his friend Daniel, Bishop of Wessex, to which we shall have later to give some attention, he writes thus—“Without the patronage of the Prince of the Franks, I could neither rule the people, nor defend 2 the priests or deacons, the monks or nuns; nor without his mandate, and the awe which he inspires, could I put a stop to the rites of the pagans and the sacrileges of idol-worship.” Armed with Charles Martel’s letters, Boniface re¬ turned to his work among the Hessians, who in one of the letters which have been preserved are described correctly by the ancient name of Catti, or Chatti. Here he at once exercised episcopal functions. Many of the Hessians had already accepted the Christian 1 Ep. 63 ; A.D. 742-746. 2 Another reading omits defendere, and thus makes Boniface say that he could not rule people, priests, deacons, monks, or nuns, without the help of Charles. THE SACRED OAK 63 faith; they were now confirmed by the grace of the sevenfold Spirit, and received the laying on of hand. Willibald properly uses the singular, hand, not the plural, hands, in speaking of the rite of confirmation. Some of the Hessians refused to accept completely the evidences of the faith undefiled. Some sacrificed secretly to trees and springs of water; others sacrificed openly. Some practised, unseen, soothsayings and divinations, magic arts and incantations; others, with¬ out attempt at concealment. Some occupied them¬ selves in auspices and auguries, and cultivated divers rites of sacrifices. Some, who were of healthier mind, threw off all gentile profanation, and did none of these things. It was by the advice of these last that Boniface now took a very bold and important step. There was at Geismar, in lower Hessia, a mighty tree, called the Thunderer’s Oak in the ancient language of the people of the country. We might have supposed that this meant the Oak of Thunor. But the best information which has come to us makes it dedicated to Wotan, our Woden. It is clear that with these peoples Woden was the chief god, and Thunor and Saxnot the second and third gods of their trinity. This noble object of pagan worship, sacred throughout the land, he determined to fell. lie made no secret of his purpose. When he came to the spot, with his Christian attendants, he found a large number of pagans assembled. Not intimidated, he began to ply his axe, the pagans most diligently cursing him within themselves, and vowing him to perdition as an enemy of the gods. He had got but little way made towards the heart of the tree, when a great rush of mighty wind struck the immense mass of trunk and branches, 64 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS and brought the whole to the ground. The trunk was split into four pieces. The astonished pagans recognized the hand of a higher power ; they ceased to curse; they turned to blessing, and became believers in the Lord. We have curious and interesting' evidences of the effect produced by the destruction of objects of super¬ stitious adoration in ages much nearer to our own time. The most curious and interesting’ of these evi¬ dences are to be found in the history of the beg’innings of the Reformation in the Engadine, written by a contemporary historian. At Campfer there was a celebrated image of St. Roche, with a shrine of the highest sanctity. One winter's night three men passed with sleighs; they seized the huge image, fastened it to the tail of the sleigh, and dragged it with scoffs and jeers to Cresta. Some prudent people got it put back for one day, but an accident which happened to one of its most devoted worshippers that day turned him against it; the image was expelled, and the Roman Mass went with it. At Celerina the assistant priest was a man of the new views, and he used to go at night and drive wedges into the cracks in their famous images. When his nefarious devices produced their contemplated effects, and the images fell to ruin, the Reformation came in at once. At Pontresina they were persuaded to test the powers of their images. They carried them in procession from the church to the high bridge, and threw them over the parapet into the swift glacier stream. They never saw them again; and the reformed service re¬ placed the Mass. In all such cases we see in the more modern times that the destruction of the objects of superstition is, at least with the more thoughtful, FRITZLAR AND GKISMAR 65 the effect of a change of feeling', not the cause of such change. We may perhaps risk the opinion that in the early times of the Christian missionaries a good many people were not unready to be convinced, and secretly hailed an open opportunity of adopting the new views. Probably Boniface's advisers among the Hessians had an instinct that what in modern phrase is called the psychical moment had arrived. It would not have done to attack the Thunderer's Oak pre¬ maturely. The great oak, as we have seen, split into four pieces. Boniface’s men set to work upon these pieces, and split them further, so that they were able to build a little oratory of wood on the plateau where the tree had stood, and this was dedicated by Boniface to the honour of St. Peter. When the saint some little time later built a church on the spot, he attached to it a monastery dedicated to the twin princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul. The oak was in the place called Geismare, variously spelled, probably the name of a small district. The church and monastery were in Fridislar, now Fritzlar. Fritzlar is reached to-day by a short light railway from Wabern, forty minutes from Cassel. Fritzlar is now a considerable town, enclosed for the most part by ancient walls with a wealth of round towers at intervals. An old drawing of the place shows twenty towers in the year 1640, conically capped like the Irish round towers and the two round towers in Scotland, Abernetliy and Brechin. When the system of watch-towers on the neighbouring and the more distant hills is seen as a whole, dating no doubt from the time of the Celtic inhabitants of the district, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that F 66 BONIFACE AND IIIS COMPANIONS here we have the origin of the round towers of Celtic Ireland. Besides ancient walls and round towers, Fritzlar is a place of beautiful houses, brick set in framework of wood of the most varied and complicated designs, Holzbau , in the local phrase. Houses of this most interesting type abound in the whole of a large district here. They are no doubt the glorified descendants of original framework huts made good with mud and clay. Whether Boniface and his Crediton com¬ panions took with them to Fritzlar the local style of “ cob ” walls, is a question worth considering. The bishopric founded by Boniface for these parts was called Biiraburg, or Bierburg, and some of the biographies of the saint make curious assertions as to the position of Bierburg in modem times. As a matter of fact, the burg on the Biiraberg is only a half- hour’s walk from Fritzlar. On that berg Boniface set the seat of the bishop ; but it very soon ceased to hold the honour. The Fritzlar story is that the first bishop and his people fled to the safety of Fritzlar to escape from an inroad of pagans, and when the danger was over the Fritzlar people kept the bishop and called him Bishop of Fritzlar. This, in turn, did not last long, for Charlemagne transferred the bishopric to Paderborn, a place very well worth visiting for its own sake. To this day, they say, Wildungen, near Fritzlar, still belongs to Paderborn. There was only one bishop of Fritzlar, Megingoz, or Megingot, a man well known in another capacity. To rule the primitive monastery and serve its church, Boniface appointed his countryman, Wigbert. The abbey church of Fritzlar is a very interesting Romanesque building. Theearlier church was destroyed Fig. 1 . In the Treasury. Fritzlar. FRITZLAR 67 by the Saxons in 1078, only a small piece of it being- now traceable, and the present building- dates from 1171. The passage to the confessio has been walled up, and a rough way into the crypt of 850 has been cut right through an ancient pier, the original arch of entrance being visible on the west wall of the crypt. Here the relics of St. Wigbert lay till they were removed to Hersfeld, where they perished in the destruction of that beautiful monastery. An arm in a silver shrine in the treasury is the only relic left of this great Englishman from Dorset, the first Abbat of Fritzlar, the close friend of Boniface, the trainer of Sturmi of Fulda. His day is still kept with great rejoicings on August 13, when a service is held in the crypt. The arm and hand, in their silver case, will be seen near the extreme left in fig. 1. The treasury is full of remarkable things. They are recently described by a Marburg professor in three large volumes. 1 Fig. 1 shows the outlines of a group of them. The greatest treasure is the noble jewelled cross, given to the church by the Emperor Henry the Saint, the husband of St. Cunigonde, in or about 10.‘2(). Many of the more important objects are of the twelfth century. There is a handsome Gospel- book of that date in silver gilt and enamel, with the Evangelists in the corners and the Apostles by threes. The only early parchment is a beautiful folio page of Latin grammar, of Boniface’s time and of English style; it begins with “ argutus malorum facinorum et futurum arguturus et derivativum ex hoc verbum argutor argutaris In the choir, on the north side, is a reliquary with the names Liborius (Bishop of Pader- born) Wihtbertus Gotthardus. 1 Elwert, Marburg, price 40 marks. v 2 68 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS The road from Fritzlar to Cfeismar is short and pretty. You pass along’ one of five avenues of trees parallel to one another and to the old wall of the city, with some of its round towers still standing’. Then the road winds between English hedges and orchards to an open plain, rich in clover and oats and potatoes, with hills in the distance topped with round towers. Then down a steep hill into a pretty village with remarkably fine Holzbau houses. This is Geismar. The church stands on a slight eminence, a spur from a higher hill, and is contained within a strong ancient wall, with solid round towers at the angles, each face of the wall being about seventy yards long-. The houses hug the wall on the side towards the road ; on the other sides the wall is being picked to pieces, or has already disappeared. There is nothing com¬ manding or striking in the site, though no doubt a great oak, standing where the church now stands, would be visible from considerable distances. There does not appear to be any tradition in the place as to the position—or, indeed, as to the fact—of the famous tree of Pagan worship. This favours the claim of Fritzlar that the oak stood on the elevated spot where now is the sanctuary of the Abbey Church. Standing on that spot, it would indeed be seen far and wide. The Life of St. Wigbert was written by Servatus Lupus, the Abbat of Ferrieres; the date of the Life is therefore about 836. Pie wrote it at the instance of Abbat Bun and his brethren ; this no doubt means Bruno Abbat of Fritzlar and the community of that monastery. Bruno was the abbat who with Raban laid the foundations of the new church in honour of St. Wigbert on July 10, 831, It was dedicated by ST. WIGBERT 69 Raban, who had in the interval become Archbishop of Mainz, on October 28, 850. Dorset has the credit of having produced Wigbert. He had from early youth shown great promise of religious zeal and study. Lupus informs us that Boniface knew of his fame, and secured his assistance not long after he got to work in Germany. There are several indications that Wigbert was of considerable age, and it has been supposed by some that he was the same as the Abbat of Nutschel who was Boniface’s instructor; that idea, however, must be abandoned. Soon after his elevation to the archbishopric of Mainz, Boniface appointed Wigbert to the abbey of Fritzlar. Lupus describes Wigbert as a priest, sacerdos, “ of the second order.” This description has been understood to be due to the fact that sacerdos meant either bishop or priest, the latter being the sacerdos of the second order; the idea that a second order of bishop is meant, that is a c/iorepiscopus, appears to be less well founded. At Fritzlar he became intimate with Megingoz, who afterwards became Bishop of Wurzburg, and between them they raised to a high pitch the standard of the monastery, which had before been “ lax and fluid ”. Finding him so successful a disciplinarian, Boniface gave him a second monastery to rule, Ortdorff (Ohrdruf in Gotha, on the Ohre), and here again he brought about a great and satisfactory change. Ill health coming upon him, he obtained leave from Boniface to return to Fulda, and there he died. The letter which Boniface wrote to Fulda on the occasion of his death will be found below. Lupus tells us in particular a marked habit of Wigbert, and an interesting action. His habit was, when he was on his way to hear the confession of 70 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS a sick monk, to decline to enter into conversation with any one, or to salute any one whom he met on his way. The one action which Lupus says he cannot pass over without mention is certainly very interest¬ ing, and it has a direct bearing on a question much discussed in distant parts of the world and at the Lambeth Conference, the question of the necessity of using only the fermented juice of the grape in the Holy Eucharist. TVigbert was one day engaged in celebrating, and he found that by some accident there was no wine. He hastened from the church in search of wine, and seeing a bunch of grapes hanging on a vine, he plucked it and squeezed the juice into the chalice with his hands. Finding that a grape-stone had got into the chalice, he quickly— and as he thought unseen—planted it at the entrance to the church, and then forthwith completed the consecration. An inquisitive brother, who had closely noticed what was done, asked him afterwards why he did this. Seeing- that he was caught, he replied, “ If the Lord cares for what I do, in the course of nine years you will know.” And so it was. Shoots sprang up from the seed. The}' were trained on props. Within the time stated they formed a charm¬ ing porch to the church. The saint’s relics were not allowed to rest. The wild Saxons attacked Fritzlar. The relics were taken to Buribureb (Buraburg) for greater safety. Then they found themselves at Geismar. Then they got back to Fritzlar. Then a divine messenger came to Album (said by the editors to mean Witta, white, alius), Bishop of Buraburg, and bade him remove the bones to Hersfeld (Herolfes felt). The bishop informed Lul, the Archbishop of Mainz, of this QUEDLINBURG 71 injunction; Lul informed the great Karl; Karl gave assent. By Lul’s instructions, Albuin and three of the monks, Ernust, Baturich, and Wolff, conveyed the relics to Hersfeld secretly and by night, lest the people of Fritzlar should raise a tumult. This was probably in the year 780. The precious treasure was received with great joy at Hersfeld, and was magnificently housed in the most important place in the church. Again with the assent of Karl, Lul provided a shrine decorated with gold and silver and other suitable metals, as had come to be the custom throughout Gaul and Germany. This was all completed on the Ides of August, whence August 13 is St. Wigbert's day. The remains of St. Wigbert, as was said above, were dispersed when the beautiful Abbey of Hersfeld was destroyed. It is interesting for English people to claim one of the most remarkable—if not, architecturally, the most remarkable—of Christian buildings in Germany as dedicated to St. Wigbert, and that through a direct English influence. The building referred to is the Wipertigruft, the Wipert-crypt, at Quedlinburg. It is the earliest example of massive rectangular piers alternating with comparatively slender cylindrical columns with simple capitals and Attic bases. These are so early that they support not arches but an architrave of solid slabs of stone, from which the barrel vault springs. The crypt is only some twenty- two feet long, sixteen 1 wide, and seven to eight high. German architects agree that it does not show any trace of Romanesque work in its construction ; the Romanesque basilicas with a similar arrangement of 1 The central portion is only about 10 ft. wide. 72 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS pier and column succeeded this piece of work, did not precede it. The pillars and architrave are covered with stucco. The history of this crypt does not con¬ cern us, but it must be referred to in order to bring in the later English connexion. Henry the Fowler (afterwards the Emperor Henry I) had a property outside the village of the Qnitlinga, long before he built the “ Burg ” there. This Pfalz of his had a chapel attached to it, which was built about 900, and was dedicated first to St. James and afterwards to St. Wigbert. Matilda, widow of Henry the Fowler, received the Pfalz and chapel as her legacy on her husband’s death in 936. Her son the Emperor Otto confirmed the gift. Over the chapel she built in 961 a conventual church, which she eventually handed over to the abbesses of the Burg founded by herself and her husband. The whole is now a farm building, to which the Wiperti-Sirasse leads. Besides the Life of St. Wigbert by Servatus Lupus, an account of St. Wigbert’s miracles was written by an anonymous monk under the Emperor Otto I, the son of Matilda, This led to a great growth of reverence for the saint throughout Saxony. When Otto married the English Edith, the daughter of Edward the Elder and granddaughter of Alfred the Great, there was twofold reason for a dedication to the English Wigbert. Before we leave Wigbert and Fritzlar, it may be well to give the letter from Boniface to Tatwin, the new abbat, and the monks of Fritzlar, on the death of the first abbat. It has some interesting domestic details. There is much uncertainty as to the year of Wigbert’s death. There is another letter written LETTER OF BONIFACE TO FR1TZLAR 73 to a number of brethren and sisters, including two of those to whom the letter under consideration is addressed, presumably later, in which Boniface speaks of himself as being in Rome with Pope Gregory and uncertain when he can return to them. This must have been written in 737 or 738, 1 and the date of Wigbert’s death given in the Annals would appear to be too early by some years. “ To my dearest sons Tatwin and Wigbert priests, to Bernhard and Iliedde, Hunfrith and Stirme, Boni¬ face the servant of the servants of God perennial health in the Lord. “ With fatherly love I beseech your dilection that because our father Wigbert is dead you study to keep with the greater care the rule of monastic life. Let W igbert the priest and Megingot the deacon teach you the rule, and keep the canonical hours and the church’s course, and admonish the rest, and be 'master’ of the children and preach the word of God to the brethren. Let Iliedde be provost and admonish our slaves; and let Hunfrith help him when necessary. Let Stymie be in the kitchen, and Bernhard be the workman and build our little dwell¬ ings when needed. About everything necessary ask Tatwin the abbat, and whatever he advises, do. And let each study according to his power both to keep his own life in chastity, and in your common life to help other, and in brotherly love to abide until our return by God’s will. And then let us all to¬ gether praise God and in all things give thanks to Him. Fare ye well in Christ.” This is the picture of a very small society, in which each individual person is an important element. 1 Ep. 40 ; 735-737. 74 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS Small as it was, it bred men who came to till im¬ portant positions. Megingot the deacon was after¬ wards bishop of Wurzburg in succession to Burchardt, and Stymie, who was a pupil of Abbat Wigbert, became abbat of Fulda. In the cases of Wigbert the priest and Stymie the cook it will be observed how usual it was for early workers to have the same name, and how unsafe it is to build identity upon identity of name. Between Stymie the cook of Fritzlar and Sturmi the abbat of Fulda there could not be at the time any confusion, though the fact of a Styrmi becoming abbat of Fulda might cause some confusion in the Annals. But at Fritzlar we cannot but suppose that between Wigbert the abbat and Wigbert the priest there must at times have been confusion. CHAPTER V Willibald’s narrative.—Evil priests.—Foundation of Ohr- druf.—Men and women workers from England.—Letters to and from England.—The gift of the Pall.—Third visit to Rome.— Great success there.—Relics.—Lombardy.—Bavarian bishoprics. We may now look to the biographer Willibald to give us the order of Boniface's proceedings after felling the oak at Fritzlar, among the Hessians. On his way to Thuringia Boniface is said to have thrown down idols in various places, in the region of Eichsfeld, and near Hildesheim, and near Bielem. There could be no doubt among the Thuringians as to what his business was with them. lie at once called together the seniors and the principal men, and addressed them in terms which showed that the Pope had omitted to use a powerful argument in his letter, probably through ignorance of the facts. Though it had never been general, Christianity had not long before existed in Thuringia on a not incon¬ siderable scale. He entreated them to return to the Christian faith, which they had once accepted and in the blindness of ignorance had deserted. There had been great tyranny exercised over them sometime before by two of their rulers, Theobald and Bederi (or Heden), and in despair a large number of them had put themselves under the Saxons, the people occupying the territory to the north, roughly speaking the region of Hanover. False brethren had brought in heretical depravity ; four of them, prominent in Boniface’s time, are named, and their names are 76 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS suspiciously English, Torchtwine, Berchthere, Ean- bercht, and Hunred, described by Willibald as fornicators and adulterers, which often means only that there were married priests. They stirred up a great strife against the man of God, but he prevailed, and they were worthily punished. With great de¬ privations and but few helpers, the reaping of the harvest went on ; till at length success brought its reward and the number of the preachers was mul¬ tiplied. Churches were built, and Boniface founded a monastery at Ohrdruf, near Erfurt, where the brethren laboured with their own hands to procure food and clothing. Willibald does not name the dedication of this monastery, but two chapters further on he remarks of another monastery, “ this also he dedicated to the honour of St. Michael the Archangel.” It is typical of the growth of miraculous stories that Othlon, who gives the dedication of Ordorf to St. Michael, states the reason of that dedication as follows :— “ Why that monasteiy was dedicated in honour of the holy Michael must be briefly told. The holy Boniface, preaching and baptizing, crossed into Thuringia, and having fixed his tents near the river Oraha, spent the night there. The whole night through a great light from heaven shone round the place where the bishop was. In that light the holy Archangel Michael came ; he appeared to the bishop, spoke to him, and strengthened him in the Lord. When morning came, praising and blessing God, the bishop celebrated there the solemnities of the Mass. Then he bade prepare breakfast on the same spot; but his attendant told him there was nothing to eat. He replied, ‘ Cannot He who fed the mul- HELPERS FROM ENGLAND 77 titude of the people with manna in the desert for forty years provide for one da\’s refection for me His unworthy servant?’ lie bade them set a table. A bird flying' by dropped upon the table a fish large enough for one day’s food. The holy prelate gave thanks to God. and bade them cook the fish at once. It was cooked and eaten, and he bade them throw the remains into the river.” The report of the successes in Thuringia spread far and wide through most part of Europe. From Britain there came to him, when the good news reached that land, a multitude of readers and writers, and men learned and skilled in various arts. By far the greatest part of these put themselves regularly under Boniface, and laboured to bring the people over to the true faith ; others travelled about in the towns and country parts of Hessia and Thuringia, preaching the word of God. So far Willibald. Othlon bad collected the names of some of the helpers who came from Britain, and he tells us that Boniface had sent to ask them to come. The chief men were Burekardt and Lul, Willibald and his brother Wunnibald, Witt a and Gregorius. The religious women whose names he records were Chuni- hild (the maternal aunt of Lul) and her daughter Berathgid.Chunitrud and Tecla, Leoba and Waltpurgis the sister of Willibald and Wunnibald. The first two of these ladies were very erudite in liberal know¬ ledge, and were established as the heads of monastic institutions 1 in Thuringia; Chunitrud was dispatched to Bavaria, to sow there the seed of the divine word ; Tecla settled near the river Main, at fvitzingen, and 1 Magistrae. 78 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS at Ocksenfurt, near Wurzburg ; Leoba was set to preside over a large number of nuns at Bischofsheim, and there for a year or two Walburgis worked with her. So far Othlon. We have a good deal to say about most of them, and we have one or two letters connected with their coming out which it will be well to give here. We have a letter of Boniface addressed to Leoba and Tecla and Cynehild and all the sisters, loved in Christ, dwelling with them. This letter is dated by Diimmler between 742 and 746. The date usually given for the arrival of the large party of English workers is 748. It seems clear from the address of the letter and from its contents, that Boniface was writing to them in their religious house in England, and not in any abode in Germany. It is probable that this letter first put into their minds the idea of going out to the mission field, where he so earnestly desired to leave behind him spiritual sons and daughters. 1 “ To my dearest sisters, to be venerated and loved, Leobgytha, Tecla, and Cynehild, and all the lovable sisters dwelling with you, greeting of eternal dear¬ ness.” He begs for their prayers lest he—the last and worst of all the legates sent by the catholic and apostolic Roman Church to preach the Gospel—should have no fruit of his labour, and should pass away not leaving behind him spiritual sons and daughters in his stead. Nay, worse than that, some of whom he had felt sure as sheep having’ in the end a place on the right hand of Christ, had turned out to be stinking butting goats, who must be placed on the left hand. There 1 Ep. 67 ; 742-6. LETTER TO LEOBA T9 is nothing else in the letter which has any bearing on the circumstances of their position or of his work. Another letter of Boniface to Leoba, here as in the other cases under her full name of Leobgytha, is evidently written to her after her arrival/ and when she was acting as a teacher of doctrine; though the Germans do not seem to take that view:— “ To Leobgytha, the venerated handmaid of Christ, perennially to be kept in sincerest dearness, Boniface, servant of the servants of God, health desirable in Christ. “ Be it known to the dilection of your sanctity, that our brother and fellow-presbyter Torhthat has told us that you have acceded to his request, and have agreed, if my consent gives licence, to commit the labour of teaching to a certain young woman, for a time. Know without doubt, that our will gives consent and approval to the course which your dilection thinks fitting in this matter for the increase of result. Fare thee well in Christ.” We may suppose that this letter was written late in Boniface’s life, when Leoba was feeling less young than she had been; or at some time when she was feeling the work too much for her health. We find an interesting link between Leoba and this priest Torhthat in the Life of Leoba, 2 in a similar connexion. “When she saw that the time of her falling asleep was drawing near, she sent for the venerable presbyter Torahtbraht, an Englishman, and he stayed by her the whole time, serving her with reverence and affection.” We have hy fortunate chance the letter in which 1 Ep. 9(>. 2 See p. 171. 80 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS Leoba first introduced herself to the notice of her relative Boniface. The address of the letter makes it most probable that it was written after he became archbishop. 1 It was the first step in a friendship which proved to be of the closest and most lasting' character; and we may fairly regard it as the real beginning of the flow of English sympathy and Eng¬ lish help to the greatest of English missionaries. “ I ask of your clemency that you would deign to remember the former friendship which you made long ago with my father, by name Dynne, in the west country, 2 now dead for seven years, and would not refuse your prayers to God for his soul. I commend also to you the recollection of my mother, whose name is Aebbe; she, as you know well, is bound in consanguinity to you. She still lives, greatly bur¬ dened, and long grievously oppressed by ill health. I am the only daughter of my parents j and I would that I might, though quite unworthy, take you in place of a brother ; for in no man of my family do I place such confidence of hope as in thee. I send a little gift to you, not that it is worth your looking at, but that you may retain some memory of my littleness, and not forget me by reason of distance; nay, that some bond of love may be formed for the rest of time. My brother, whom I must love, earnestly see to it that the shield of your prayers defend me against the poisoned darts of the hidden 1 “Bonifatio, summe dignitatis infula predito.” Diimmler says that the argument to this effect has convinced him. 2 If she wrote from Wimborne, occiduis regionihus must probably refer to an early acquaintance at Exeter, if not at Crediton. But if the mention of Eadburga in the letter has reference to Lul’s correspondent Eadburga, Abbess of Thanet, occiduis regionihus may refer to Boniface’s residence at Nutschal. LETTER TO WIMBORNE 81 1’oe. I beg, too, that you will correct the rusticity of this letter, and will send me some words of your affability by way of pattern. “ These verses under-written I have tried to compose in accordance with the rules of poetic tradition, not audaciously, but in the desire to exercise the rudiments of a slender and feeble intellect, and needing thy assistance. This art I learned under the tuition of Eadburga, who never ceases to investigate the divine law. “ Arbiter omnipotens, solus qui cuncta creavit, In regno patris semper qui lumino fulget. Qua iugiter flagrans sic regnat gloria Christi, Inlesum servet semper te iure perenni.” It is sad to have to say that althoug-h Leoba declares she has not done this audaciously, it is an audacious piece of copying, from the treatise on the construction of Latin verse by Aldhelm of Malmes¬ bury. Both in her prose letter, and in her verse, she copies wholesale. Lul, Denehard, and Burchardt, after their arrival in Germany, wrote a letter to Abbess Cuniburga, 1 which is on various accounts of interest. Its inter¬ est perhaps especially lies in the fact that it gives a reason for their having accepted the call to foreign service. 2 “ To the most loved lady and most religious abbess of Christ, Cuniburga, of royal race, Denehard, Lul, 1 No doubt of Wimborne, a sister of King Ine, usually called Cuenburg. The Cuneburga who is named on the Bewcastle Cross in 670 , a daughter of Penda and Abbess of Caistor, was too early to be the lady addressed by Lul and his companions. 2 Ep. 49 ; between 732 and 742. G 82 BONIFACE AMD HIS COMPANIONS and Burgkard, thy sons and slaves, wish the everlast¬ ing’ health of safety. “We desire the clemency of your kindliness to know that we embrace thee with love in the chamber of the heart beyond all other persons of the female sex. 1 By reason of the death of father and mother and other near relations, we have come to the German races. We have been received under the rule of monastic life by the venerated Archbishop Boniface, and are partakers in his labours so far as our poor abilities allow. Now, therefore, from the inmost recesses of our hearts we pray thee deign to hold us in communion with thy sacred congregation. Refuse not to bring our vessel, tossed on the stormy waves of the world, to a harbour of safety by the protection of thy prayers ; even as we, sinners as we are, pray every moment for the divine estate of your highness, This, if we had been present, we should have hoped to obtain by loving petition, with bent knees and salt showers of tears ; and now though absent we beg it of you with earnest prayer. This also we desire your sagacity to know, that if it happens to any one of us to visit again the realms of Britain, we seek no man's rule and aid before we have submitted ourselves to your benevolence. For in thee we place the firmest hope of our mind. “We pray further with regard to two youths, named Beiloc and Man, whom I Lul and our father have set free and sent to Rome and commended to our uncle, that if they are free of will, and if it be their wish, and if they are in your holding, you will for the 1 This is quoted from Aldhelm of Malmesbury, the founder of the school and style of these three monks. LETTER TO GLASTONBURY 83 gain of your soul send them to us by the bearer of this letter. If any one should unjustly attempt to stay them, we pray that you will deign to defend them. “ Three little thing's by way of small gifts accom¬ pany this letter, frankincense, pepper, and cinnamon ; minute portions, but sent with all affection of mind. Weigh not the smallness of the gift, but we pray thee have regard to the love of spiritual dearness. And, we further pray, pardon the rusticity of this little epistle, and deny not to send to us some words of thy sweetness ; we wait breathlessly for the plea¬ sure of hearing them.” Here is a letter to the community of Glastonbury, evidently from one who had very recently gone forth from the community to work with Boniface 1 :— “ To the lords holy and to be desired in Christ the fathers and brethren set in the monastery of Glestinga- burg, Wiehtberht the presbyter, your assured servant and suppliant of the servants of God, wishes health in the Lord. “ Blessed be God, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, who has also by Ilis will guided our journey into these districts, that is, to the confines of the pagan Hessians and Saxons, prosperously beyond sea and through perils of this world, by no merit of ours but by your licence and prayers, and of His mercy. You know, brethren, that no expanse of country divides us whom the love of Christ binds together. Always therefore your brotherliness and regard and my prayers to God for you abide in me. I wish more¬ over that you should know, dearest ones, that our 1 Er. 101. G 2 84 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS Archbishop Boniface, when he heard of our arrival, deigned himself to come a long way to meet us and received us very kindly. Believe now, most loved ones, that our labour is not in vain in the Lord to us, and is of profit to you. For the Almighty God by His mercy and your merits accomplishes our work to a good sufficiency, though it be very perilous and laborious in almost every respect, in hunger and in thirst, in cold and in pagan incursions. I beg you, therefore, pray diligently for us that there may be given us power of speech and persistence in work and fruit of our labours. Fare ye well in the Lord. Salute the brethren all round, first Ingeld the abbat and our society. And inform my mother Tetta and her society of our prosperous journey. I entreat you all in common, with strenuous prayers, to give me your earnest prayers in return for mine. And may the divine clemency protect your blessedness, ] traying for me.” Glestingaburg is of course Glastonbury, and the name of Abbat Ingeld gives the extreme limits of date of the letter. Tetta was the Abbess of Wimborne; here as elsewhere the Anglo-Saxon writers in Latin put the English names of persons into the Anglo- Saxon oblique case when the construction of the Latin requires it. It is very tempting to suppose that this Wiehtbert is the same as the first Abbat of Fritzlar, of whom something is said in connexion with the mention of that place. Mabillon in the Acta Sanctorum naturally takes him to be the same, but. Diimmler dissents. There is no decided evidence in favour of the conjecture, beyond the similarity or identity of name. But the whole tone is that of an important person, come with a party, however small, LETTER FROM THREE MONASTERIES 85 to do an important work, a man of some considerable age and position, considering his message to Tetta, a royal lady. The pagan incursions, also, exactly suit the district upon which Wigbert entered when at Boniface’s recpiest he came out to help him. The Wiehtbert who wrote this letter was a man who yearned for sympathy. We have a scrap of a letter of his to an unnamed “most dear brother and fellow-presbyter ” 1 :— “ With strenuous prayers of inmost love I entreat that you will deign to remember me in your holy prayers; for I am smitten with the hammer of worldly trial, vain things disturbing me.” He was also a man held in high regard by others, as witness this most interesting letter to him before he left England for Germany 2 :— “ To our most dear brethren the Abbats Coengils and Ingeld, and separately to our relative Wiehtbert the priest, the whole congregation of three monasteries, that of the most reverend Father Aldhun, and those of the Abbesses Cneuburg the handmaid of Christ and Coenburg, health in the Lord, perennial and indissoluble. “ Gladly and thankfully have we received the gifts of your salutation, and with God’s help we desire to recompense them worthily. That com¬ munion which you have written that you have in your prayers with regard to us, we agree to have with regard to you, unceasingly, with goodwill and pure faith, at the hours which you have mentioned. The names of our deceased sisters I Cneuburg pray thee, O Wiehtberht, faithful priest, to have in 1 Ep. 102. 2 Ep. 55. 86 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS memory, and to send round to all friends. The first was Quoengyth, my own sister, and Edlu, who was mother of Eta, the kinswoman of Aldhun, formerly your abbat. The depositio of both was on one day, the 13th of September. May the Lord omnipotent deign to keep safe your beatitude, praying for us, dearest brothers and lords. Emmanuel through the age. Salute all the servants of Christ about you with our most true words, dearest brothers.” This touching letter of Cneuburga was written, we suppose, by the sister of King Ine of that name. If so, she was probably Abbess of Wimborne, which her sister Cuthburga had founded. The Eta of this letter can scarcely be Tetta, who was a sister of Ine and also Abbess of Wimborne; under her St. Leoba and St. Agatha were educated. King Ine had a brother Ingild, but he died in 718. There was another Ingeld, who is believed to have been Abbat of Glastonbury. Coengils is third among the names of Abbats of Glastonbury after Ine's restoration of the ruined monastery. Aldhun is said to have been Abbat of Wimborne, but without solid ground. There was an abbat of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, of that name from 748 to 760, but he is too late. Wiehtbert may have been addressed separately as a relative; but more probably as the one of the three who was a priest and was thus concerned with arranging the special prayers at the celebrations of masses. The Abbey of Wimborne, as is said above, was founded by Ine’s sister Cuthburga. She married Ealdfrith, king of Northumbria 685-705. She became a nun at Barking, the double monastery which Bishop Erkenwald’s sister ruled so successfully, THE GIFT OF THE PALL 87 and she founded a similar institution in her native kingdom. Her sister Cuenburh, or Cneuburh, became Abbess of Wimborne. As the Saxon fashion was to give to ladies long names of form and short and easy names for common use, as in the case of Etbelburga of Kent, the wife of King Edwin of Northumbria, whose pet name was Tate, Tetta may have been Cneuburh, a less easy word. While Boniface was winning thousands to the spiritual life, Gregory II was dying in Rome. He was succeeded by a third Gregory, and Boniface sent messengers to lay before the new Pope the evidences of the close relations of the mission with Gregory II, to promise humble submission to the apostolic see, and to beg for the friendship and communion of the holy pontiff and of the whole apostolic see. The Pope at once gave a pacific reply ; granted his friendship and communion and that of the apostolic see to Boniface and those under him ; and sent to him, with gifts and relics, the archiepiseopal pallium. We have the letter of Pope Gregory which accom¬ panied the gift of the pall. The date is uncertain, and hence some have maintained that it was written by Gregory II and therefore the pall was given by him. But Willibald, in his Life of Boniface, says distinctly that the pall was given by Gregory III, and that definite statement forces us to decide the dispute as to the date and authorship of the letter in favour of Gregory III and the year 732 or thereabouts. Gregory II died 11th February, 731, Gregory III was elected 16th February and consecrated 18th March ; he held the papacy ten years, eight months, and twenty-four days. This letter opens thus 1 :— 1 Ep. 28 ; 731-2. 88 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS “ To our most reverend and most holy brother Boniface our fellow-bishop, sent by this apostolic church of God for the illumination of the people of Germany or wheresover gentiles abide in the shadow of death, fixed in error, Gregory the servant of the servants of God. “ Great thankfulness possessed us when we read in the letter of your most holy brotherliness that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ you had turned very many from heathenism and error to the knowledge of the true faith. Since by divine institution we are taught in parables, that to whom five talents were entrusted five more were given as gain, so the gain of a like commerce we applaud with the whole Church. Hence we rightly send to thee the gift of the sacred pall, which you are to receive and wear by the authority of the blessed Peter the Apostle, and we direct that you be counted one among the archbishops, by the guidance of God. How you are to use it we inform you by apostolic mandate,—only when you perform the solemnities of masses, and when it falls to you to consecrate a bishop. “You have informed us that the crowds of those who are converted, and the distances, are so great that you cannot go to all, to teach them that which tends to salvation. We therefore instruct you that in accordance with the decrees of the sacred canons, where the multitude of the faithful has grown large, it behoves you, relying on the force of the apostolic see, to ordain bishops, but only after pious considera¬ tion, that the dignity of bishop be not lowered. “With regard to the presbyter who, as you tell us, came to us last year and was absolved of his nefarious doings, he neither confessed here nor was CHURCHES BUILT 89 absolved. If you find him devoted to error, correct him according 1 to the canons by the force of this apostolic see, and any others of like kind. He came to us and said, * I am a presbyter/ and asked commendatory letters to our son Charles. We gave him nothing else. “ Those who, you tell us, have been baptized by pagans, if it is really so, baptize in the name of the Trinity.” The Pope then proceeds to deal with a number of questions which Boniface had addressed to him. One of these drew a curious distinction. Some, Boniface reported, ate wild horse, and many ate the domestic horse; what was he to do ? To eat either, the Pope replied, was unclean and execrable. We have heard a good deal in this year of grace 1910 of the importation from England of decrepit samples of the caballus domesticvs for the eating of the same German race. Boniface was now an archbishop. He had been a bishop without a defined diocese; he was now an archbishop without a defined province, ranging over large regions beyond the bounds of other arch¬ bishoprics. He began to take larger steps. He built a church at Fritzlar, which lie dedicated to the honour of St. Peter and St. Paul, that most usual dedication, setting- forth in so many countries the equality of importance which the earliest ages assigned to the two princes of the Apostles, and another at Hamanaburg, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel. This was on a hill, as is usually the case with churches of this dedication. He founded also two small monasteries, attached to these churches, and placed a considerable number of 90 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS monks in thorn. He then passed down into Bavaria, in the time of Duke Hucpert, and had there his wonted success. He came across a schismatic called Eremuulf, and in accordance with the canons condemned, him and drove him away, converting the people from the idolatry of his perverse sect. This visit to Bavaria was to bear large fruit in three years' time. Meanwhile he went north again to control his own diocese. The meaning of that phrase of Y\ illibald's is seen later, when we find that there was already a bishop in Bavaria. It was uow time for him to go for a third time to Rome. Among other reasons, Willibald tells ns that Boniface felt himself to be advanced in years, and desired to commend himself to the prayers of the saints. The year was 738, and he was probably not yet sixty years of age. He was received very kindly by the Pope, Gregory III. Boniface's success in Rome is described as remarkable. Xot the Romans only, but strangers in Rome, flocked to hear him. A great multitude of Franks, and Bavarians, and Saxons from Britain, and visitors from other provinces, diligently followed his teaching. Where he taught, we do not know. How perpetually we have to notice with regret that the chroniclers of past ages did not set down that which to them was matter of common knowledge, the obvious as we should say ; it is just the matter of common know¬ ledge. the obvious to the then world, that would enable us to really understand things as they were. Boniface spent a considerable part of a year in Rome, visiting the relics of the saints and praying at their shrines. He then paid a parting visit to the Pope, and set out on his return journey with many RELIC’S 91 gifts and a collection of relics. The output of relics from Rome would appear to have been practically inexhaustible. Some quaint estimates have been made of the superabundance of bones which im¬ portant saints must have possessed, the number of nails on the Cross, and the immense masses of timber the Cross would appear to have contained. The demand for relics in the case of one in the position of Boniface was very great, for each new altar set up in the course of his conversions and organizations required for its full hallowing the insertion of some relic or relics of a saint. We have this set out at full length in the order for consecrating a church in our earliest English Pontifical, which dates from exactly the date of which we are speaking, the Pontifical of Ecgbert the Archbishop of York. The main structure was called the altar. In the middle of the top a hole was left, in which incense, and the consecrated element of bread, and the relics of saints, were placed. Over them was laid and fixed the table (tabula) on which the elements were for the future to be consecrated. It is well to bear in mind, in the employment of ecclesiastical nomenclature, that the “ Table ” was regarded as the most hallowed part of the “ Altar Boniface went by way of Pavia, the capital of the Lombard kingdom of North Italy. It must be remembered that we are dealing with a time when as yet the Pope was not a great temporal prince, though the time when that great error of judgement on the part of the spiritual Papacy took effect was not far distant. He rested his weary limbs under the hospitality of the Lombard King Liutprand. This king, so famous in history, was very closely 92 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS concerned with the provinces in which Boniface's work lay. He had in his early youth been driven from Lombardy, and had found shelter among 1 the Bavarians. Three years before Boniface’s visit, he had adopted Pepin, the son of Charles Martel. And in the year following 1 Boniface’s visit he joined forces with Charles Martel, and enabled him to secure his final victory over the Saracens. From Pavia Boniface passed to Bavaria, by invita¬ tion of the Bavarian Duke Odilo. Here he spent a long- time in restoring 1 to soundness and health the debased form of Christianity which existed in the land. There were men who claimed falsely to be of episcopal order. Others had appointed them¬ selves to the office of priesthood. Others practised all manner of like deceptions, and led the people away from the truth. Boniface dealt promptly with all such, and then took an important step, the results of which in the Middle Ages were g'reat. With the consent of the Duke Odilo, he divided the province of Bavaria into four bishoprics, and ordained four bishops to preside over them. John became Bishop of Salzburg; Erembercht, Bishop of Freisingen, now Freysing; Goibald or Gaibald, Bishop of Ratisbon, at that time called Regina, whence its modern German name of Regensburg; 1 and Vivilo, 2 Bishop of Passau, then called Patavia. Othlon tells us that Vivilo was already a bishop, having been consecrated by the apostolic prelate (praesul, the Pope pre- 1 The little river Regen runs into the Danube nearly opposite to Regensburg. It is not improbable that the Romans found the name indigenous, and thence called the place Regina and Reginum. 2 We shall have more to say of this bishop. PASSAU 93 sumably). We find his name among’ those of the bishops of Bavaria and Alemannia to whom Pope Gregory addressed letters commendatory of Boniface. The name Patavia carries us back into the time of the Romans. They, with their sound military instinct, seized upon this most remarkable of natural fortresses, commanding alike the Inn and the Ill and the Danube, and having garrisoned it with picked Batavian troops from our modern Holland, they called it Batilva Castra. CHAPTER VI Letter of Gregory III to all ecclesiastics.-—To Boniface.— To bishops of Bavaria and Alemannia.—Identification of bishops named.—Early history of Bavaria.—Ignorant priests.—Queer bishops. Gregory III gave to Boniface a letter of com¬ mendation to ecclesiastics in the widest possible terms 1 :— “ Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all our most loved bishops, most venerable pres¬ byters, religious abbats, of all provinces. f ‘ The Lord going before and confirming the word of truth by this present most holy man Boniface, our brother and fellow bishop, sent by our predecessor of holy memory the prelate Gregory to preach the word of God in those parts, after long’ time, God favour¬ ing his earnest desire, he came for the sake of prayer to the sacred thresholds of the blessed chiefs of the Apostles, Peter and Paul. When his prayer was accomplished, we sent him out to his accepted task, the angel of the Lord going before. To him may the love, and reverence, and religion of you all deign to give assistance, for. you know what our Lord Jesus Christ saitli, ‘He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.’ And if by chance any of your ministers 1 Ep. 42 ; a.d. 737. LETTERS OF GREGORY III 95 shall wish to join this most holy man in the ministry of exhortation of the holy catholic faith, in no way prevent him, dearest ones. Out of your own flock give him helpers who by the grace of God may adequately minister the word of preaching, that they may make gain of souls to our Omnipotent God, that your community may have a portion in the good work, and that they may merit to hear the voice of the Lord saying, ‘ Ye who have left all and followed me shall receive an hundredfold and shall have eternal life/ ” After some time spent in active work in Bavaria, Boniface received the following letter 1 :— “ To the most reverend and most holy brother Boniface our fellow bishop, Gregory the servant of the servants of God. “ The teacher of all the gentiles, the illustrious apostle the blessed Paul, says, ‘ To them that love God all things work together for good/ In the letters of your brotherliness you have told us of the heathen people of Germany whom our God of His pity has freed from the power of the pagans and to the number of a hundred thousand souls has gathered into the bosom of holy mother church by means of your efforts and the help of Karl prince of the Franks. \ ou have told us also of what you have done in the province of the Bavarians. Raising our hands to heaven, we give thanks to our Lord God, who has opened a door of mercy and pity in those western parts for the knowledge of the way of salvation, has opened the door of mercy and sent Ilis angel to prepare your way before you. To Him be glory for ever and ever. 1 Ep. 45; 29 Oct. 739. 96 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS “ You have informed us that you have reached the people of Bavaria and have found them living- out of ecclesiastical order, having no bishops in the province except one, by name Yivilo, whom we some time ago 1 ordained; and that with the assent of Otilo, duke of those same Bavarians, and of the chief men of the province, you have ordained three other bishops and have divided the province into four parts, that is, into four dioceses, that each bishop may have his own diocese. You have done well and adequately, my brother, for you have in our place fulfilled the apostolic precept and done as we told you. Cease not, father most reverend, to teach to them the holy catholic tradition of the Roman See, that the ignorant may be illumined and may hold the way of salvation, by which they may pass to their eternal rewards. “With regard to the presbyters whom you have found there, if it is not known who ordained them or whether those who ordained them were bishops or not, if those presbyters are men of good life and catholic, trained in the ministry of Christ and in the holy law, let them receive the blessing of the priesthood from their own bishoj) and be consecrated and thus let them perform the sacred ministry. “ Those who have been baptized with various im¬ perfections of gentile tongues, if they were baptized in the name of the Trinity, let them lie confirmed by the laying on of the hand and the sacred chrism. “ Now Yivilo was ordained by us. If he in some ways goes beyond canonical rule, teach and correct 1 Vivilo is dated “ about 723 ” in the list of bishops of Passau. He is the first on the list. If the dates are correct, he was consecrated by Gregory II, not Gregory III. INSTRUCTIONS OF GREGORY III 97 him according to the tradition of the Roman Church which you have received from us. “With regard to the Council which you are to hold in our stead near the banks of the Danube, we instruct your brotherliness that you are there by apostolical authority. So far as the Lord gives you strength, cease not to preach the word of salvation, that the Christian religion may in the name of God grow and multiply. “ You are not free, brother, to remain in one place of the labour you have undertaken. Confirm the hearts of the brethren and all the faithful in the western parts where God has opened a way of salva¬ tion ; desist not from preaching. Where you find a suitable place, ordain in our stead according to cano¬ nical rule bishops, and teach them to hold canonical tradition. By this you will prepare for yourself a reward of great price, for you will make for our Omnipotent God a perfect people. Be not reluctant, most loved brother, to undertake rough and diverse journeys, that the Christian faith may be spread far and wide by your efforts.” The date of the following letter from the Pope to certain bishops in Alemannia and Bavaria is uncertain. The letter appears to come in best at the point which we have now reached 3 :— “ To our most loved bishops seated in the province of the Bavarians and in Alemannia, Wigg Liudo Rydolt Phypkylus Adda, Gregory, Pope. “ Catholic authority of the holy Fathers enjoins that twice in a year synodals should be celebrated, for the well-being of Christian folk and for exhorta- 1 Ep. 44. H 98 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS tion of the adoption of sons, 1 and that the examina¬ tion of canonical causes should go forward, that the necessities of each may be aided by pious instruction. Wherefore, in accordance with the teaching of the apostle, I admonish you, my dearest ones, by the mercy of God, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, that your ministry may be perfected in the sight of God. “ It is fitting that you should know to receive our brother and fellow bishop Boniface, present as our vicegerent, with honour worthy and due for Christ’s name. From him, as appointed by us, receive and keep worthily the ecclesiastical ministry with the catholic faith, according to the custom and rule of the holy catholic and apostolic church, over which by the guidance of the mercy of God we are seen to preside. Deny, prohibit, cast away pagan rites, and the doctrine either of Brittons 2 who come to you or of false heretical priests, or adulterers, wherever they come from. Teach thoroughly the people of God committed unto you with pious admonitions, and altogether keep clear of the sacrifices of the dead. And as you shall be instructed by our said fellow bishop, so keep the catholic and apostolic doctrine, and make haste to please the Lord God and our Saviour. And in whatever place he shall com¬ mand you to meet for holding councils, whether by the Danube, or at the city Augusta, or wherever he shall appoint, there for the name of Christ be 1 Rom. viii. 15, “Ye have received the spirit of the adoption of sons.” 2 “Britto” had become a term of reproach as meaning the Celtic inhabitants of these islands of ours, whose ways were often very queer. SIX BISHOPS ADDRESSED 99 found ready as you may learn from his mandate for your meeting’, that in the day of Christ’s coining ye may be found worthy to stand at His tribunal with the fruit of good work and to say ‘ Behold, we and the children whom Thou hast given us, of them we have not lost one ’; and that you may be worthy to hear the voice of the Lord saying, ‘ Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ Fare ye well.” It is not easy to account for the choice of bishops to whom this letter should be addressed, or for their names or sees. Wig is said by Dummler to be the same as Wicterp, Bishop of Augusta or of Ratisbon. Augusta is not infrequently puzzling as the name of a see. Before the Romans came into the part of Europe with which we are dealing, the Celtic Vindelici occupied the district which was afterwards Bavaria. They had important towns, Bregenz, Kempten, Straubing, and a town on the Inn after¬ wards Passau. When the Romans overthrew the Vindelici, they founded two colonies, one, Augusta Yindelicorum, now Augsburg, the other, Batava Castra, at the junction of the Inn and the Danube, where the town of the Vindelici was situated, called later Patavia, now Passau. This colony derived its name from the fact that the Romans settled there a body of picked Batavian troops, from Holland as we should say. Augsburg claims that it had a bishop, Nar¬ cissus, as early as 304. Half a century later, thg Alemanni seized it and bishops ceased to be. In 534-6 the Franco-Galli seized the territory and in the time of Justinian I restored the bishopric, as appears from the address of the Synod of Aquileia h 2 100 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS to the Emperor Maurice. 1 Zosimus was the bishop of Augusta next before the Synod. After a long gap, filled in the twelfth century by seven dummy names, we come to Wicterp (Wigbert) about 736 to 740. The bishops were called episcopi Augustani. But there was another Augusta sufficiently near to cause confusion, Augusta Rauracorum, represented now by Basel, or Basle. It also had bishops from early times, the first mentioned being Justinianus, who signed the decrees of Sardica in 344 and of the Synod of Colonia in 346. The bishop of 650, Rag- nacharius, signed as Augustanae et Basiliae. Thus there were two Episcopi Augustani. More than that, down to 1648 both Augsburg and Basel were in the archbishopric of Mainz. There can, however, be no doubt that the Pope on this occasion was not concerned with Basel, and it is practically certain that he could not omit the Bishop of Augsburg from his address. Further, the fact that he names Wig first may be taken as an indication that Wig held the premier see. We are driven to look for him in the lists of bishops of Augsburg, and Wicterp, known to be also Wigbert, who was bishop at the time, is the only name like Wig. But why should the see of Wig be stated by Dummler as Augusta or Ratisbona ? Ratisbona was the old Celtic name of the town settled at the junction of the Regen with the Danube, called by the Romans, probably from the name of the river, Regina Castra, and by the Germans, certainly for the same reason, Regensburg. Turning to the Bishops 1 “In tribus ecclesiis nostri concilii, Beconensi, Tiburnensi, et Augustana, Galliarum episcopi constituerant sacerdotes.” The sees named are Pettau, Lurn, and Augsburg. IDENTIFICATION OF BISHOPS 101 of Regensburg, we find the list headed by four or five great names, described not as bishops but as having preached in the city of Regensburg, St. Rupert about 536, St. Emmeram about 549, then a long gap. At last we come to the bishops. About 730-9 we hnd Wikpert “qui et Augustanus episcopus. Episcopatum hunc restituit S. Bonifacius circa 739 ”. This explains Diimmler’s alternative. It was not Wikpert but Goibald or Gaibald that Boniface ap¬ pointed to the bishopric of Regensburg in 739. He comes next to Wikpert in the list of Regensburg bishops, and before Wikpert Ratharius appears, as the first actual bishop, about 7.20. This throws doubt upon the accepted statement that Boniface restored the line of bishops in Gaibald. With regard to Liudo, there is in the list of Bishops of Speyer or Spires a bishop of that name in 739, and as far as can be ascertained nowhere else. At first sight it would appear that Speyer is too far off, but that is not so. Speyer, Augsburg, Eichstiitt, Wurzburg, were all in the same archbishopric (Mainz) before 1648, and Speyer is now in the archbishopric of Bamberg, with Wurzburg and Eichstatt as its only companions. Rydoltus is not found in any list of bishops. But Rudolf became Bishop of Constanz in 736, and Constanz was in the archbishopric of Mainz at the date mentioned above. About Phyphylus there is no difficulty. It was a Greek Pope’s way of pronouncing Vivilo, the name of the bishop whom Boniface appointed to Passau, the first bishop there. There remains Adda. In the lists of Argenti- nensian bishops, so called from Argentoratum, the 102 BONIl'ACE AND HIS COMPANIONS old name of Strassburg, we find in 739 Eddo, with the variants Ileddo, Hetti. This is the only known name of a bishop of the time which corresponds to Adda, and it is no doubt the same man. Strassburg, too, was in the archbishopric of Mainz at the date named above. These identifications being accepted, it becomes easy to see the magnitude of the area within which the Pope directed the bishops to act in common— Augsburg (or Regensburg), Speyer. Constanz, Passau, Strassburg. The omission of bishoprics so completely Bavarian as Freising still is and Salzburg was, is due to the fact that Boniface had not as yet deve¬ loped the episcopacy of Bavaria. John of Salzburg’s bishopric dates from 739, but the dates of Corbinian of Freising present considerable difficulty. The history of Bavaria, Baiern, is another example of the acquisitive energy of the old Frankish race. At the time of Folk-wandering’, Germanic people from their home in the land of the Boii, Boiohaemum, Bohmen, Bohemia, had taken the name of Baiuvarii. Baiwaren 1 had taken possession of parts of Noricum and Rhaetia, with the exception of the part west of the Lech, which the Alemanni held. That is, the Baiwaren dwelt from the Fichtelgebirge to the High Alps, from the Lech to Carinthia and the Steiermark, Styria. They, as usual at that period, were under dukes, who were also called kings. The first of these of whom we can really get hold is Garibald I, of the race of the Agilolfings. In concert with the Lombard King Autliari, he endeavoured to free himself from the overlordship which the Franks had established. He 1 In die Boiiifatian letters we have Baiuarii, Baiubarii, Baioaria. BAVARIAN HISTORY 103 was defeated, and died in 590. The Franks invaded the land, and set Tassilo I upon the throne, and Tassilo got rid of Garibald’s son Grimoald. Under his successors, another Garibald and two Theodos, Christianity spread in Baiern, by means of the monks Eustachius and Agilus from the Burgundian monas¬ tery of Luxeuil, St. Emmeram, and St. Rupert of Worms. Theodo II and his sons were baptized. His grandson Heribert fought unsuccessfully against Charles Martel, and not only lost the whole north part of his kingdom, but became more dependent still upon the Franks for the part that remained. His son Odilo endeavoured to take advantage of the strife among the sons of Charles to free himself; but unluckily for him he took the wrong side, supporting his brother-in-law Gripho, and he was taken prisoner at the Lechfeld. As his ransom he had to give up all the land north of the Danube, and the Franks enrolled it in their kingdom as the Nordgau. It was under him, and with his consent, that Boniface founded the bishoprics of Passau, Freising, and Salz¬ burg. The disasters of the ducal line did not end with him. Odilo’s son was six years old at the time of his father’s death, and was under the guardianship of his mother, the Frankish princess Chiltrudis. But he married Liutgard, the daughter of the Lombard King Desiderius, and she induced him to free himself from the Frank overlordship. He sent no troops to the Frank Heerbann, did not attend the Maifeld, issued all decrees in his own name. He allied himself with his brother-in-law, the Lombard King Adalgis, with the Court of Eastern Rome, with the Avars; but all did not avail against the great Karl. In 789 he had (o attend at Worms, receive his duchy as a Frank fief, 104 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS and send hostages. He did not, however, cease from his attempts ; he was tried in the royal court at Ingelheim, and condemned to death ; but he was sent instead to the cloister. In 794 Baiern was formally made a Frank province. The scene changes to 1180, when the duke, Henry the Lion, the founder of Munich, for devoting himself too exclusively to the interests of his other duchy (Saxony), was outlawed by the Reichstag, and the Pfalzgrave Otto IV of Wittelsbach, of an ancient Baierisch race, was elected Duke of Baiern. His descendants are now Kings of Bavaria. When we come to speak of Boniface’s dealings with the Frankish bishops and clergy in the western parts, we shall see to what a low state many of them had fallen. As we are now concerned with Bavaria, two cases of that character must be mentioned here. In dealing with ignorant priests, Boniface got in one case into serious difficulty. A priest in Bavaria was so ignorant of Latin that he used an impossible form of words at the vital part of the Sacrament of Baptism. The case may remind us of the origin of our phrase hocus pocus from the blurred Latin of the ignorant English priests at the critical point of the other great Sacrament, when they ought to have said but did not say, Hoc est Corpus. Boniface ordered the baptisms to be repeated, with the proper form of words. The two rnen in charge of the ecclesi¬ astical district wrote to the Pope on the subject, and the Pope took their side. This is his letter, dated July 1, 746 (the twenty-sixth year of the then Emperor Constantine) 1 :— “ To the most reverend and holy brother Boniface, 1 Ep. 68. IGNORANT PRIESTS 105 our fellow bishop, Zacharias the servant of the servants of God. “ Virgilius and Sedonius, 1 religious persons dwelling in the province of the Baierians, have intimated to us by their letters that your reverend brotherliness has given them injunctions to re-baptize Christians. Hearing this we were greatly disturbed, and fell into wonderment if the thing- is as is said. They have reported that a certain priest in the province, being completely ignorant of Latin, said the words of Baptism in broken Latin, ‘ Baptizo te in nomine patria et filia et spiritus sancti.’ 2 And on this ground your reverend brotherliness has thought there should be re-baptism. But, most holy brother, if he who baptized did not introduce error or heresy, but from mere ignorance of the Roman speech said the words in broken Latin, we cannot ag-ree that there should be re-baptism. For, as your holy brotherliness is well aware, any one baptized by heretics in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost ought by no means to be re-baptizeu, but should be cleansed by simple imposition of hand. Thus, most holy brother, if the thing is as it has been related to us, do not give them further injunctions of this character, but let your sanctity study to conserve what the holy fathers teach and enjoin. “ May God keep thee safe, most reverend brother.” 3 “ Your reverend brotherliness has written that you have found a certain priest, a Scot, Sampson by 1 In a second letter, Sydo7iius. 3 Instead of patris etfilii. Migne (Epp. Zachariae, vii. col. 929) prints et spiritu sancta, which on the face of it is more consistent with the priest’s complete ignorance of Latin. But Diimmlcr does not give this as an alternative reading. 3 Ep. 80. 106 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS name, erring from the way of truth, saying and affirming that without any mystic invocation or any laver of regeneration a man can be made a Catholic Christian by the imposition of a bishop’s hand. He who says this is void of the Holy Spirit, alien from the grace of Christ, and to be rejected from the com¬ panionship of priests. For who, if he be not baptized according to the Lord’s command, in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and then consecrated by the imposition of the hand, can be a catholic? This most wicked man who preaches such things condemn, and drive him out from the holy Church of God.” Boniface would appear to have had something more to say against Virgilius and Sedonius, for on the first of May three years later Zacharias wrote a long letter in which, among much else that is interesting, their names appear in an unfavourable connexion. This is what the Pope says of the two ecclesiastics 1 :— “ Your fraternal sanctity has intimated to us that the man Virgilius—I know not if he is called priest— is maligning you, because to his confusion you proved him to be in error from the catholic doctrine, seeking to sow enmity between you and Ottilo the duke of the Bavarians ; saying that he was allowed by me to have the diocese of one, now dead, of the four bishops whom your brotherliness ordained there. This is in no sense true. And with regard to the perverse 1 Ep. 80 ; 1 May, 748. The letter of Boniface to which this is an answer must have been written some considerable time earlier, for, if the date 748 is correct, Ottilo had been some time dead. Possibly the offence of Virgilius did not become known to Boniface till after Ottilo’s death. SID0NIUS AND VIRGIL 107 and iniquitous doctrine which he has uttered against God and his own soul, if it is made clear that he maintains that beneath this earth there is another world, with other men and a sun and a moon, call a council, drive him out of the Church, depose him from the honour of priesthood. We are writing to the duke, and are sending to Virgil letters of evocation, summoning him to come to Rome and be carefully examined, and if he is found to hold erro¬ neous views, to be condemned canonically. “ We have learned what your holiness has written about the priests Sydonius and Virgil. To them, as was fitting, we have written letters of rebuke; we give more credence to thy brotherliness than to them. If it please God, and we live, we shall sum¬ mon them by apostolic letters to the apostolic see.” The learned German, Ernest Dummler, the most recent editor of the Bonifatian letters, remarks that he does not find any difficulty in the two references to Virgil in these two paragraphs, because in each place the Pope says he will call him to Rome. But it seems impossible that Zacharias could in the second paragraph distinctly call Virgil a priest, 1 and in the first paragraph distinctly say that he does not know whether he is called priest, if he is writing in the two paragraphs of one and the same man called Virgil. His manner of introducing his name in the first paragraph is suspicious, Virgil'ms Hie—nescimus si (licatur presbyter . In the second paragraph, imme¬ diately following the first, he writes quite naturally, Pro Sydonio autem supra dicto et Virgilio preslyteris. To anyone who has puzzled over the diverse appear¬ ance of Virgil on the stage, it is a great relief to feel 1 In each case, presbyter is the word used, not saendos. 108 BONIFACli AND HIS COMPANIONS a fair amount of certainty that there were at least two prominent ecclesiastics of that name in Bavaria at the time which we have under consideration. We have a Virgilius in charge of an ecclesiastical dis¬ trict in Bavaria, to whom Boniface gives orders about rebaptizing; we have Virgilius, of whom the Pope does not know whether he is a priest, holding views at that time most strange, still in Bavaria; we have Virgilius an evidently well-known priest, still in Bavaria, who has got into some serious eccle¬ siastical scrape, and we have Virgilius, Bishop of Salzburg, then in Bavaria, who curiously enough did succeed one of Boniface’s Bavarian bishops who was dead, namely John of Salzburg, in 745. In the Verbriiderungsbuch at St. Peter’s in Salzburg, the names of the bishops and abbats of Salzburg de¬ funct, from Hrodpertus(St. Rupert), the first named, to John, the seventh named, are all written in the original hand. The next name, written in a later but still contemporary hand, is Virgilius. Gams 1 introduces yet another question by dating the succes¬ sion of Virgilius as 745, adding that he was con¬ secrated 767. He was succeeded in 785 by Arno, the dearest friend of Alenin of York. But that is not all. We have a religious man Sidonius, in Bavaria, to whom also Boniface gave orders about re-baptizing ; we have a Sidonius, still in Bavaria, who in 748 has got into some ecclesi¬ astical scrape, and we have Sidonius, Bishop of Passau, succeeding to that see in 749, when Beatus, who in 745 had succeeded the first bishop, Vivilo, died. Were there seven persons, or two ? As a calculated 1 Series Episcoporum , Ratiabona, 1878. BISHOPS OF SALZBURG 109 guess, the first-named Virgilius was the same as the Bishop of Salzburg, the first-named Sidonius the same as the Bishop of Passau. The others were merely persons with the same names as the bishops. It may be added here that while John Bishop of Salzburg is described as one of the bishops appointed by Boniface to new sees in Bavaria, there is in the contemporary Verbriiderungsbuch a list of eight earlier bishops. Gams solves this difficulty in the most probable manner; John was the first diocesan Bishop of Salzburg. The others, we are to suppose, as for instance St. Rupert and St. Yitalis, were re¬ gionary bishops whose head-quarters were in St. Peter’s, Salzburg. CHAPTER VII Eichstatt.— Willibald.—St. Richard. —Wunnibald. —Wal- puigis. — Relics at Canterbury. — Eiehstiitt of to-day.—The holy oil. Of the thousands of English tourists who pass each year through Eichstatt junction on the way to Munich, how few take the pretty little light railway from the junction to Eichstatt-Stadt. All who do so are liberally repaid. The approach to the town is un¬ usual and attractive. They find hid among the hills a delightful little old-world cathedral town, entirely dominated by the English Willibald the Bishop and his sister the English Walpurgis the abbess; she had for many years presided over the great abbey of Heidenheim in succession to her other brother, Wunnibald. The cathedral church is dedicated to St. Willibald, the convent church to St. Walpurgis. A beautiful bronze statue of Willibald, in the full pontificals which are still preserved in his church, commands the town in a great square (fig. 2). The names of the English saints are household words in Eichstatt. The only three men whose Christian name this present writer asked gave their name as Willibald; the only lady as Walpurgis. Fortunately, we know a good deal of these three important English people, much of it at first hand. There is in the Royal Library at Munich a parchment in small quarto, of date about the year 800, beauti- Fig. 2. Sr Willibald. p. 110 WILLIBALD, WUNNIBALD, AND WALPURGA 111 fully and most carefully written, containing the Lives of St. Boniface (by the presbyter Willibald), St. Wynni- bald, and St. Willibald, in that order. Of the 102 folios, forty-four are occupied by Boniface, twenty- eight by Wynnibald, thirty-two by Willibald. The MS. came from the Cathedral Church of St. Corbinian in Freising. The Lives of Willibald and Wunnibald 1 are printed with useful notes by Pertz, Scriptores, i. 86-117. Taking first the Life of Willibald, we find our¬ selves in presence of one of the two, or three, most remarkable travellers of the century of greatest travel in early times. How far the extreme interest which was created in Northumbria by the travels of the Frank Arculfus had made itself felt in the South of England, we cannot say; but that WillibahTs travels were either begun or finally extended by Arculf’s example is at least highly probable. Arculf was blown by storms to Iona, on his return from the Holy Land, about the year 680. There he dictated to Adamnan a careful account of his travels, and copied onto parchment the ground-plans he had made on the spot, on wax tablets, of the round church and the other churches on the holy area at Jerusalem. This account Adamnan presented to Aldwulf, the great King of Northumbria, in 701. Bede popu¬ larized it in his treatise On the Holy Places, and in Bede’s popularized form it went far and wide. Willi¬ bald’s journeyings began some twenty years after 1 The fact that this name occurs both as Wunnibald and Wynnibald in contemporary or practically contemporary times shows that the u was modified. The ordinary runic v was like an inverted v, and a short vertical stroke at the bottom was the mark of modification. This appears on the Beweastle Cross and in other Northumbrian runic inscriptions. 11.2 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS Aldwulf received Adamnan and heard the marvellous tale. Willibald, Wunnibald, and Walpurga, were the children of one Richard, supposed to be a son of Hlothere, the ninth King of Kent (673-85). Their mother was Winna, or Wuna, a sister—possibly not quite so close a relation—of Boniface. At Crediton they show you “St. Winnifrith’s well”,which suggests that in Boniface’s own generation, as in Willibald’s and WynnibakTs, the children of the family had names given them with one or two syllables in common. Hilda’s family, with its Hildilith, Hilde- gyth, and Hild, probably itself shortened from a three-syllable name, is a good case in point. Winna was a relative of Ina, the King of Wessex. Thus the family, including Boniface himself, was really one of high position, and in their case the usual preface to a Life of the times, “ So-and-so sprang from a noble family of the Angles, but his manner of life was more noble still,” was no doubt true. This connexion with the royal family of Kent may throw special light upon Boniface’s dealings with Ethelbert II, the thirteenth King of Kent, the supposed Richard’s first cousin once removed. The Lives of Willibald and Wunnibald were written by a self-deprecating religious lady of Anglo-Saxon birth who had gone out to Germany for divine work. She speaks of herself as a poor little creature, a little ignorant child plucking a few flowers here and there from numerous branches rich in foliage and in fruit. She describes herself as a blood relation, though dis¬ tant, of the distinguished subjects of her narrative, “ from the extreme points of the branches of the family tree.” In the Carlsruhe MS. of the eleventh LIFE OF WILLIBALD 113 century, there is written in the margin, in a feigned hand some four centuries later, at the point where she speaks of herself in the terms cited above, Boswida monialis : possibly, but very improbably, some oral tradition of her name had survived. She wrote at the dictation of Willibald himself, or from notes of his conversation, after the death of Wunnibald. A marked evidence of this is found in the fact that she often calls Wunnibald saint, Willibald never. Once she forgets -that she is putting Willibald’s narrative into the third person, and gives his actual words, “ The shepherds gave us sour milk to drink.” This kindness was done by the shepherds when the travellers were spending the night between the two springs called Jor and Dan, which flowed down a hill and at its foot united to form the Jordan. Gregory of Tours 1 had already told of the Jor and the Dan, and had placed their union at Caesarea Philippi. The youthful Willibald persuaded his father Richard and his brother Wunnibald, with one other, Tidbert, to leave England with him for a visit to Rome. They took ship at Hamble-mouth, about six miles below Southampton, and sailing up the Seine found them¬ selves after long journeyings at Lucca. Here Richard died, and was buried in the church of St. Frigidian. This saint was an Irishman, who was Bishop of Lucca 560-78, and founded the Cathedral Church of St. Martin there. San Frediano represents the church of Richard’s sepulture. His epitaph named him Bex Bic/iardus, and added Bex fait Anglorum. The three survivors spent some months in Rome, and in the spring of the next year Willibald and Tidbert set off for Syria. They met with extreme hardships, and 1 “Miracula in gloria martyrum,” i. 10. I 114 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS were often in very serious danger. The description of Constantinople is in some respects the most interesting part of the narrative. Sometimes they deserved to suffer more than they did suffer. The smuggling story is probably the best known of their adventures. Balsam was at that time about the most precious product of hot climates that they could procure. At Jerusalem Willibald obtained some, in a short piece of hollow cane. This cane, full of balsam, he fixed in a gourd, and he plugged the upper end of the cane with petroleum 1 , so arranging it that the end of the cane looked like the orifice of the gourd. AYhen they approached Tyre, after being missed by a large lion that ate people who went to gather olives, the customs people stopped them, and examined their poor little possessions. They pounced on the gourd, but when they smelled the petroleum they gave it back without question. The travellers eventually got back somewhere about the year 729. Willibald and Tidbert went to Monte Cassino, and there for ten years Willibald lived with the brethren, acting in turn as sacrist, dean (in charge of ten monks), and porter, an interesting order of official promotion. About the year 740, Willibald came again to Rome, with Abbat Petronax, and recounted his adventures to Pope Gregory III. His uncle Boniface begged him of the Pope for the German mission. He went by way of Lucca, Brescia, and Garda, came to Eichstatt, and there in 741 Boniface settled him as bishop. The Life tells us that he was aged forty-one when he was consecrated, and the place of consecra¬ tion was Sulzeprucge. He died in 786, at the age of eighty-six. The prucge is written over an erasure, 1 “ de petre oleo.” Tlie jiuu’s Latin is very curious. LIFE OF WUNNIBALD 115 but in the original hand : other MSS. have Sulzpurg and Sallpurg. Salzburg would from these facts be a natural guess; but the place was S ulzenbriicken, in Gotha. The nun, who uses strange words, ends by calling Willibald a “blessed barilion”. Her smatter¬ ings of Greek suggest -napi'iXiov , “another sun.” The Life of Wunnibald naturally gives us less of journeyings than that of his brother, and more of his work in Germany. He was nineteen years old when he left home with his father and brother. When the brothers parted in Rome, Wunnibald returned to England, and the account of why he returned and what he did is worth giving in full. “ The mind of this active hero formed the wish to return to the land of his birth, for this reason chiefly, that he might exhort any one of his relatives to the sacred warfare of the divine service, and take him out with him to the mission lield. He went at once to his own hereditary place, where he was received with great joy. By conversation and instruction he ex¬ horted his brothers and sisters and others of his relations to walk in the right way, not to allow their feet to wander from the solid path of truth, but to aim at ascending from the thresholds of this world to the narrow gate of paradise, by the strait and rough way of the Christian warrior. Thus warning and urging he visited the vills and houses of his relatives, and carried the minds of many from the cares of secular business to the study of divine affairs. And then for a second time, leave having been ob¬ tained, with the advice of his friends and the assistance of the younger members, he set out for Rome, one of his brothers going with him.” Who this brother was, we do not know. i 2 116 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS At Rome he appears to have fallen in with his uncle Boniface, who invited him to come and work with him. He consulted the brother who was with him, and other relations and friends, and with their leave 1 he set out with a small party of colleagues. They passed up into Thuringia, and there Boniface ordained him priest, and gave him charge of seven churches—possibly a group of seven, Irish-fashion. While in charge of these seven churches, he was visited by Willibald, whom he had not seen for many years. Wunnibald soon obtained the friendship of Duke Otilo; after three years he went to Mainz, and worked in those parts; then he moved on to Eichstatt, and with Willibald sought a fitting place in that region. Such a place they found at Heidanheim (Heidenheim), and there Wunnibald bought some land and got other land given. It was all rough wood, but they cut down the trees, cleared away the nettles and thistles, and built some huts. Of what character these were we gather from one of Walpurga’s miracles here; she stopped a fire in the village, which was raging among the dwellings built of reeds and straw. Wunnibald had never had good health, and he soon became crippled, so that he moved about with difficulty. He managed to get as far as Fulda, and there he lay ill, almost dying, for three weeks. Feeling better he moved to another place, not named, and there he lay ill for a week. Thence he went to visit Megingoz at Wurzburg, and spent three days with him. Then he returned to Heidenheim. Crippled and ill as he was, he formed an earnest desire to go to St. Benedict (Monte Cassino), and die there. The 1 This twofold mention of a formal family permission ( licentia ) is interesting. WUNNIBALD AND WALPURGA 117 abbat and the whole community begged him to come to them. He invited his brother and other wise friends to come and advise him. Their advice was that he should remain quietly at Heidenheim, and not deprive his flock of his presence among them. This advice he took. Become too feeble to go out to church, he placed an altar at one side of his room, and there daily, when he was physically able, he celebrated Mass. When his end was close at hand, he called Willibald from Eichstatt, and the 3 r spent his last day together. Then he called the brethren into his room, made a touching address to them, and died sitting in front of his bed. He had for many years had his coffin ready, and in it he was placed. Some time after, his remains were raised, for the purpose of being placed in the only part of his church which he had built to its full height, namely, the eastern portions, or apse. The body was found to be quite sound and fresh, so that his brother the bishop, and his sister Walpurga who had succeeded him in the government of the monastery, kissed it, as did all who could press through the crowd and reach the body. The Life of St. Walburga , as written by the presbyter Wolfhard and dedicated to the then Bishop of Eichstatt, Erkenbald (884-916), is contained in Vol. Ill of the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum, her day being February 25. In the prefatory remarks the learned editors quote a very interesting document from Gretser’s Catalogue of Bishops of Eichstatt, under the head of William of Reichcnau who was bishop from 1464 to 1496. It was this same Gretser that wrote on the Oil of St. Walpurga. This is the document:— 118 RONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS “ In t lie year 1492, on August 20, T, Bernard Adelmann, of Adelmansfeld, Canon of Eichstatt, was sent by the most reverend Father in Christ and Lord William of Reichenau to the Illustrious Henry VI, 1 King of England and France, and Duke of Ireland, with the histories and the relies of Saints Wilibald, Wunibald, Walpurgis, Richard. These the said king received from me with the greatest reverence and devotion in the City of Canterbury on the 22nd of September of the same year. The king promised that a Mass should be celebrated daily in honour of these saints, and on the day on which he received the relics a solemn office should each week be sung. Among all the relics, that which the king chiefly admired and venerated was the Oil of St. Walpurgis.” Wolfhard tells us that Bishop Otkar (Ottcar, sixth Bishop of Eichstatt, 817-81) sent to Ileidenheim 1 wo archpresbyters, Vulto and Adalungus, also Ommo and Liubila a nun of Mowenheim, to find the body of Walpurgis and bring it to Eichstatt. This was successfully accomplished on the 21st of September. Liubila’s share in the transaction was so highly resented by those who were deprived of the presence of the saint’s relics that at length she was driven to beg of Erkenbald, the next bishop but one (Gott- schalk only held the see 881-4), that some portion of the relics might be given to her, to be replaced in their former home. The bishop assented to this, and in the year 893 the mausoleum of the saint was opened, in the church in which Otkar had placed her remains. A portion of the remains was divided off with the greatest reverence, and Liubila carried 1 The date is evidently that of Henry YII ; the action is more like Henry VI. Fig. 3. Reredos, St. Walpurga. p. ] 19 eichstatt of to-day 119 away that portion with the greatest joy. But alas ! the people of Eichstatt got the idea t hat the whole of the remains had been carried away, and they in turn were plunged into the deepest grief. In order that the actual facts might be clearly known, Wolf- hard was bidden to write the true history. It was on this occasion that the curious exudation of moisture from the saint’s bones was noticed. From that time to this the Oil of Saint Walpurga has been famous. It has for us a special interest, inasmuch as it was chosen by Cardinal Newman as an example of a miracle that is credible. When Walpurgis first went on to Germany, Boniface sent her to work under Leoba at Tauber- Bischofsheim. From that, monastery she passed on in the course of time to take charge of Heidenheim, where she worked until her death in about 780. The great portal of the cathedral church of St. Willibald of Eichstatt, a very fine piece of work, contains statues of the saint's father and mother, Richard and Una. He wears a king’s crown, and the sacristan introduces him to visitors as the Lion- heart King of England ; the leopards are there to identify him. He appears similarly as King Richard, with his queen-wife, on the remarkable reredos of the altar of St, Walpurga at the nuns’ church (see fig. 3). A wise visitor does not try to upset rooted beliefs. The other statues of this tier in the portal are St. Wunnibald and St. Walpurga, The cathedral church itself used to consist of the portion now called Willibald’s Chor, being the western part of the existing church, an annexe to the nave of the Roman¬ esque church, rebuilt in Romanesque style on the foundation of the original church. In it are his 120 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS splendid, altar and sarcophagus, the original high altar, at the hack of which, facing' eastwards, the saint sits in marble (fig. 4). The complete set of the vestments which he wore in life are shown to persons who ask for them ; they are immensely interesting, but almost too wonderfully preserved to satisfy even an optimist. They are reproduced with marvellous fidelity on the marble statue and on the bronze in the square, including the nine virtues. The bones of the saint were preserved in a stone shrine, em¬ bedded in the wall of his Chor. The exact spot was lost sight of, but it was accidentally found. They now repose in the great sarcophagus. On the way from Willibald’s church to Walpurga’s church you pass the house in which was born in 1470 Willibald Pirkheimer, described in a tablet on the wall as Patricier and Rathsherr of Nuremberg under Maximilian I and Karl Y; imperial coun¬ sellor; general of the Nuremberg troops in the Swiss war ; patron of classicalism. A tablet in the Haupt- markt of Nuremberg records the residence there of this celebrated humanist. How few critics know why Pirkheimer was called Willibald ! To complete the English atmosphere of the house, the copier of the tablet having lost his pencil in the gutter, a lady sitting at an open window in the house presented him with an iridescent pencil; he begged to know her name—Frau Stesl; her Christian name ?—Wal- purga. The Walpurgis church has a charming window high up on the north side of the sanctuary for the prioress—no longer, they tell you with regret, abbess —of the fifty sisters; and the enclosed singing gallery of the nuns, at the west end of the church, Fig. 4. St. Willibald. p. 120 THE HOLY OIL 121 is a beautiful piece of lacelike woodwork. The lady- chapel, as we should call it, has the remarkable reredos of the alpnrgis-altar shown in fig. 3. The altar itself, and the place where the bones of the saint rest, are below the floor on which the spectator stands. The statues are thus labelled : “ Set. Rieardus Pater Gloriosus; Set. Willibaldus ; Sancta Walburga; Set, Wunnibaldus; Set. Wuna Mater Benedieta.” From the bones of the saint oil is said to flow in con¬ siderable quantities from October to February. The apple-blossom nun at the wicket sells you seductive little glass flagons of it, from an inch high upwards, at prices varying with the size, and you get with the phial a collection of prayers to be used when applying the od for curative purposes, a Gebet ror clem Gebrauch flex hi. JVzlburgis- Oeles, a Gehet zur hi. Walburga, and a Gehet nach clem Gebrauch. des hi. Oeles. Heiden- heim, where 11 unnibald and Walpurga ruled, was the principal monastery of Willibald's see of Eichstatt, The actual place of 11' illibald's residence at Eichstatt was naturally on the promontory dominating the town, still called !\ illibaldsburg. It was, in fact, the home of the bishops down to 1730. How few English people are aware that an English lady gives to the night of the great gathering of German witches the name made so familiar to us by Goethe. Our -Lady Walpurga was canonized at Rome on the first of May, the day of the g'reat spring festival of heathendom, and she was accordingly honoured as the protectress against magic arts ; thus her name has ousted the name of the witches from the Walpurgis-Nacht dance. CHAPTER VIII Foundation of three bishoprics.—Care not to multiply bishoprics too rapidly.—Witta of Biiraburg.—Burchardt of Wurzburg.—The Pope’s letters to the three new bishops.— Wurzburg of to-day.—Life of St. Burchardt_Life of St. Kilian. —The Kiliansbuch.—St. Burchardt’s Gospel-book. We have seen that in the letter by which Pope Gregory III informed Boniface that he created him archbishop and sent him the pallium, 1 the Pope had advised that inasmuch as the converted pagans were now far too numerous and spread over far too large an area for him to minister effectively to them, he should ordain bishops, in accordance with the decrees of the sacred canons that where the multitude of the faithful increases, bishops shall be ordained. But he adds that Boniface must only do this after much pious considera¬ tion, lest the episcopal dignity become lightly esteemed. Some nine or ten years later, in the early part of 74.2, Boniface wrote his first letter to Pope Zacharias, Gregory III having died on November 29, 741. In this letter, 2 among many matters of the highest importance, he informed the Pope that he had founded three bishoprics and ordained three bishops:— “We have to inform your paternity that by the grace of God the peoples of Germany are decidedly touched, and we have ordained three bishops and have decreed the division of the province into three dioceses. We beg that the three towns or cities 3 in which they have been appointed and ordained may be confirmed and stablished by the writings 1 Ep. 28. 2 Ep. 50; a.d. 742. See Appendix B. 3 “ Oppida sive urbes.” Whether the distinction of towns and walled towns is intended we have no means of knowing. FOUNDATION OF BISHOPRICS 123 of your authority. One seat of a bishopric wo have decreed to be in the fortress 1 called Wirzaburg, an¬ other in the town 2 named Biiraburg, the third in the place 3 called Erphesfurt, which was formerly a city 4 of rustic pagans. We earnestly beg you to con¬ firm these three places by charter by the authority of your apostolate, that, if the Lord will, there be three episcopal sees in Germany founded and stablished by apostolic mandate through the authority and precept of Saint Peter, and that present and future genera¬ tions presume not to break up the dioceses or violate the precept of the holy See.” On April 1, 743, Zacharias replied. 5 He took the same point with regard to lowering the dignity of the episcopate which his predecessor had taken :— “ We learn from your letter that you have ordained three bishops for three several places, who are to preside over the people whom the Lord our God hath deigned to gather to Himself by the instrumentality of your holiness. And you have requested that by the authority of our see episcopal sees be confirmed there. But your holy brotherliness should maturely consider, and examine with subtle care, the question whether this is expedient, and whether the places themselves or the numbers of the people are such that they are worthy to have bishops. For you remember, dearest one, that in the sacred canons we are bidden to take care that we by no means ordain bishops to villages or small towns 6 , lest the name of bishop be lightly esteemed. But we, moved by your words most sincere and dear to us, are willing 1 Castellum. 2 Oppidum. 3 Locus. * “Urbs paganorum rusticorum.” 5 Ep. 51 ; Apr. 1,748. e “Villulae aut modicae civitates.’’ 124 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS to grant without delay that which you have asked. We decree by apostolic authority that there be there episcopal sees, to be held in succession by bishops, who shall preside over the people and shall preach the word to them: namely, in the fortress called Wirzaburg, and in the town which is called Biiraburg, and in the place called Erpfesfurt, so that hereafter it shall not be lawful for any one in any way to violate that which has by us been sanctioned.” The remark about not making bishops too freely, or for places of small importance, lest the dignity of the episcopate be lowered, has reference to a principle represented by a decree given by Gratian (80 can. 3), “ Episcopi non in castellis aut modieis civitatibus debent constitui, ne vilescat nomen episcopi,” bishops are not to be appointed in eastella or in small towns, lest the dignity of the episcopate be lowered. It was awkward that both Boniface and the Pope had to use the word castellum to describe Wurzburg ; but it is so well known that castellum in the case of the earliest Wurzburg meant a fortress that we can safely take it to have a meaning different from that of castellum in GratiaiPs decree, where it probably meant a village, as the Romans of to-day speak of the villages in the neighbourhood as Castelli Romani. This suggestion receives confirmation from the fact that the Pope uses the phrase “ in villulas vel in modicas civitates ” where Gratian'’s form is “ in castellis aut modieis civitatibus So far as Biiraburg is concerned, it is difficult to imagine that it was ever more than a modica civitas, if it was ever so large as that. But it is not safe to presume that we can estimate past probabilities by present appearances; and when we read that 100,000 pagans had been converted in these parts by Boniface, we must either THREE BISHOPRICS 125 frankly disbelieve it or frankly allow that Buraburg may well have been more than a modica civitas. Of Erfurt (not spelled by the Pope exactly as Boniface spells it) we have no difficulty in believing 1 that it was a place of sufficient importance to meet the terms of the decree. Boniface’s statement is clear; it was a great enclosed place of residence of pagan folk engaged in the cultivation of the land, no doubt for many miles round. It was a place easily defensible, the river Gera flowing round it in a semicircle, with the Petersberg at the centre. The name would appear to be formed as so many of our Anglo-Saxon names of places are in England. Boniface’s rendering of the name would make it mean the ford of Erph. Of Wurzburg there is more to say. It seems clear that Erfurt was to serve Thuringia, Buraburg Hessia, and Wurzburg that part of Fran¬ conia as it came to be called. Of Buraburg mention was made in connexion with Fritzlar. Its first bishop was Witta, one of the large party of English men and women who went out to work with Boniface when his success had become assured. Inasmuch as all those whose English home has been recorded came from Crediton or from Malmesbury or from Dorset, we may assign to one or other of those localities the early training of Witta. lie appears again at certain points in the Church history of the time, usually under the supposed equivalent of his name, Albuinus. We shall see interesting mention of him when we look into the details of the life of Lul. The “ fortress called Wirzaburg” was of course the modern Wurzburg. Here Boniface set as bishop a student-monk from the great school of Malmesbury, Burchardt, the companion at Malmesbury of Boni- 126 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS face’s successor at Mainz, Lul. We have the letters of recognition which Pope Zacharias wrote in 743 to Burchardt and Witta in identical terms. A letter of like character no doubt went to the new bishop of Erfurt also, for Zacharias tells Boniface that he has written to the three bishops ; but it has not come down to us. The disappearance of the letter means in this case that we do not know the name of this first bishop of Erfurt. A suggestion as to his name will be found on page 181. The letter to Witta of Biiraburg is addressed Wittane sanctae aecclesiae Barbaraiie \ “ Barbarane ” must mean Biiraburg. In neither of the addresses does the Pope designate the bishop by his title of bishop. Possibly or probably the Pope did not think right to address him as bishop before he had read the letter con¬ firming him as such. The following is the letter 1 :— “ To Burchard, most dear to us, of the holy church of Wirtziburg, Zacharias the Pope. “ The Lord confirming the word, for spreading wide the law of Christianity and showing the way of orthodox faith, for teaching as this holy Roman Church over which by God’s appointment we preside.' Our most holy and reverend brother and fellow bishop Boniface has made known to us that he has decreed and ordained three episcopal sees in the parts of Germany where your dilection presides, and has divided the province into three parishes 3 . On learning this, with great exultation we raised our palms to the stars, giving thanks to the illuminator and giver of all good things, the Lord God and our Saviour 1 Ep. 53 ; Apr. 1,743. 2 The sentence is so constructed in the original. In the second sentence the reading of the letter to Witta has been preferred, sanctissimus/rater instead of sanctissime. s Parrocliiac, “ parishes’’ ; meaning of course dioceses. LETTER TO BURCHARDT l:27 Jesus Christ who maketh both one. The said most holy man has begged of us by his letters that your sees be confirmed by apostolical authority. Where¬ fore we with ardent mind and divine aid, by the authority of the blessed Peter the chief of the Apostles, to whom was given by our God and Saviour Jesus Christ the power of binding and loosing the sins of men in heaven and on earth, do confirm and make stable your episcopal sees, interdicting by the authority of the Chief of the Apostles himself all of present or future generations from daring anything contrary to your said ordination which by the favour of God has been by our precept made in you ; inter¬ dicting also this, that in accordance with the tradition of the holy canons, no one dare to translate from another bishopric or to ordain as bishop after your summons from this world, other than he who shall represent in those parts our apostolic see. And let no one presume to invade the diocese of another, or to take away churches. For if, which we do not believe, there shall be any one who shall attempt temerariously to act against this our precept, let him know himself bound by the eternal judgment of God with the chain of anathema. May those who keep the apostolic precepts, and follow the rule of right and orthodox faith, attain to the grace of benediction. For the rest, we pray the divine clemency to confirm and strengthen that which the Lord hath wrought in you. And may the splendour 1 (? love) of God, grace, and true peace, be with your spirit, most holy ones and by us most loved. With all your effort labour for the faith of Christ and strive to perfect His ministry, that with the illustrious 1 In each of the two letters this is written Claritas. Later copies naturally replace it by charitas. BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS 1*28 Apostle [Paul] ye may be worthy to say: ‘ I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me in that day.’ “We salute you and wish you strong in the Lord. Farewell.” An Englishman naturally goes to Wurzburg, in search of some record of his countryman Burcliardt. The record is writ large. The portion of the city which is enclosed within fortifications on the left bank of the Main is the “ Burkardus-quarter ”. The great fortress which was the beginning of Wurzburg is there still, on the Marienberg, the residence for cen¬ turies of the bishops, who became in time dukes of Franconia and prince-bishops. The palace which the later bishops built on the right bank of the Main, now the royal residence, is, as the guide-books say, one of the grandest and most effective of the eigh¬ teenth-century edifices of the kind. There is a fine statue of Burcliardt on the bridge over the Main, the last statue but one on the left side as you cross from the right bank. The principal hostelry is emblazoned with this proud quatrain :— Burkardus Hof bin ich genannt Glaub’ Iloflnung Lieb’ hier Wohnung i'aucl Dies dreifacli Gut mit Kraft zu waliren 1st Frankenstolz seit tausend Jahren. There are still the Burkardus-Thor and the Burkardus- Miihle. Tradition says that the stream used to hug the hill, and the navigable channel was there, the main channel of the river as it now is being stony shallows. This would bring all ships of any size immediately under the fortress, where the Roman¬ esque church of St. Burcliardt still stands. A deep, WURZBURG OF TO-DAY 129 low, dark channel of swift water now lies between the west end of the church and the steeply rising hill, and tradition points to this as the ancient passage for ships and boats, the original west end of the church being built over it, in the guise of a bridge abutting on the face of the fortress-hill. The Romanesque church faced eastwards onto the Burkardus-Strasse, with two very pretty towers. At a later period the church was continued across the street and carried far on the other side. The present transepts occupy the width of the old street, which was of necessity diverted, and the present choir is raised so high on steps that the new street passes under it. The Romanesque towers are incorporated in the present nave, each containing an altar. The whole arrange¬ ment suggests that the earliest church had its altar at the west end. The earliest Life of St. Burchardt was written about a hundred years after his time. It is useless for historical purposes. Beyond the story of the discovery of the relics of Kilian and his fellow martyrs, the author neither knew nor eared to learn anything definite about him. A very different writer compiled a careful account of the saint at the request of Peregrinus, Abbat of the monastery of St. Burchardt at Wurzburg, 1130-56. This writer was a man of humble mind, an excellent quality for the biographer of a saint; he calls himself in his prologue, E., a sinner , not tvortliy of a name} lie had a considerable amount of information at his disposal. Burchardt is said to have had two brothers, Gotwin and Adelmar, and to have been a blood relation of Boniface. He was trained at the school 1 From another source we learn that “E. - ’ meant Egilward. K 130 BONIFACE AND HiS COMPANIONS of St. Aldhelm of Malmesbury. He was sent, E. tells us, to Rome by Boniface and Pepin, to treat with Pope Zacliarias of the change of dynasty in Gaul, the deposition of the roi faineant Childeric III, and the coronation of Pepin, On another occasion he was chosen by Boniface as his messenger to Rome, to inform the Pope of the important result of the Council of 747, at which the Frankish bishops acknowledged subordination to the see of Rome. Carloman gave him considerable possessions, among them Hohenberg’ (now Homburg) on the Main, and Karlburg-, opposite Karlstadt on the Main. His favourite religious lady, Immina, described as the daughter of Hetan, the son of the Duke Gozbert of Kilian’s time, occupied Karlburg and died there; Burchardt himself, having secured Megingoz of Fritzlar as his successor in the bishopric, went down the river by boat to Hohenberg. He had intended to retire to another of the possessions which Carloman had given, Michelstadt in the Odenwald, but he was taken ill at Hohenberg, and there he died in a hermit’s cave still to be seen about two miles from Wertheim, on the railway from that place to Lolir. Megingoz had the body of the saint conveyed to Wurzburg, and there placed near the remains of Ivilian, Colonat, and Totnan. His relics were dis¬ persed in the Swedish War. E. makes Burchardt live till 791, and brings the Emperor Charlemagne and Archbishop Lul into his story; but, in fact, he died in 754, the year before Boniface’s death. Gams 1 accepts the statement that Burchardt resigned the see of Wurzburg, and dates the accession of Megin¬ goz as 753. Though Burchardt was the first authentic bishop 1 Series Episcopomm.- LIFE OF KILIAN 131 consecrated and designated as of Wurzburg, lie was not the first Christian teacher there, nor was he the first bishop associated with the place. A Scot, by name Kilian, had laboured in those parts some seventy years before the advent of Burchardt; with so much success that the Pope is said to have sent for him and consecrated him “ regionary bishop ” of Eastern Franconia—Teutonic Francia as the Life of St. Kilian describes the territory. This Life was written about 836 by Servatus Lupus, Abbat of Ferrieres, about 150 years after Kilian’s death, and the story sounds like an echo of the early history of Boniface himself. 1 Kilian returned to Franconia a bishop, with Colonat as his presbyter and Totnan as his deacon, and Wurzburg in the Middle Ages honoured him as its first bishop. As the Apostle of the Franks lie is honoured in Franconia on July 8, the day of his martyrdom in or about the year 689. The Life of Kilian gives an interesting hint of the hesitation—or more than hesitation—that was felt on the Continent as to the ministrations of Irish wanderers. The usual cause of this was the doubt as to the position of the episcopal order in Ireland. The Life, on the other hand, refers it to the fact that the Pelagian heresy had its origin with a Scot, Morgan, whose name was graeeized into Pelagius. Kilian, we are told, felt that before he began to preach at the place where he had ended his long journey from Hibernia, he must purge himself from suspicion of this heresy, and Rome was the only place where he J In the next generation after Kilian, Corbinian, whose Life was written by his successor Aribo, was consecrated by Gregory II as regionary bishop of Bavaria; lie settled at Freising, which afterwards became one of Boniface’s Bavarian bishoprics. K 2 132 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS could be absolved. To Pope Jolin lie therefore went. On bis arrival at Rome lie found that John was dead, and Conon, the new Pope, examined and approved him. The names of Ivilian’s companions are variously spelled. The forms Colonat and Totnan are the forms used in the Wurzburg Missal and in the Wurzburg Breviary. An early Life tells us that the band of missionaries in its original dimensions consisted of twelve persons, Kilian and eleven others, described as bis colleagues and disciples, the three priests Colonat, Gallus, and Arnuvale, the deacon Totnan, and seven others not named. The principal Life mentions in¬ cidentally that when Kilian returned to Wurzburg from Rome he left Columbanus in Italy, G alius having been left ill of fever in Germany when Kilian set out for Rome. This may suggest that Arnuvale and Columbanus are the same person. Admiration of Kilian has gone so far as to believe that the Columban and Gallus here named as companions of Kilian were the famous founder of Bobbio, who died in 615, and the famous founder of St. Gall, who died in 640. John and Conon were Popes in the years 685-687. The number twelve was naturally a favourite number for a body of Christians, or twelve with a leader. Columba at tbe foundation of Ily is a palmary example. A provost and twelve monks formed a klosier. A metropolitan and twelve bishops was the constitution originally laid down for the provinces of London and York. A college of priests consisted of twelve capitulars andaPrelate. Distinguished teachers, as Finan and Aidan, had twelve scholars. Ecgbert, the Northumbrian trainer of missionaries in Ireland, sent out a band of twelve. A pilgrims'’ caravan con¬ sisted of twelve pilgrims. At Wilfrid’s consecration in Paris there were twelve bishops. LIFE OF KILIAN 133 There is a curious error in the Life, due evidently to a copyist who was ignorant of German. It can scarcely have been due to Servatus Lupus himself. The missionary band ended its journey from Hibernia at a town called by the natives “ Wirziburg ”, “ which can be rendered in the Latin tongue the Castle of Men /'’—virorum castellum. As the name was from early times taken to mean “ the town of vegetables ”, virorum is a misreading of some derivation of viridis, the town of green things; indeed the Bamberg MS. of the eleventh century reads viridiariorum . When Kilian came back to the place called in the Life Ilerbipolis, a Latino-Greek version of Wurz¬ burg, he found that the Duke whom he had known had passed away, and Gozbert was now Duke. Gozbert’s brother died, leaving a desirable widow, and, in accordance with gentile custom, Gozbert married her. Geilana was her name. Gozbert was a devoted worshipper of Diana, the Teutonic deity thus latinized : but after much hesitation he accepted Christ, under the guidance of Kilian. The saint then told him that his marriage was incestuous, and urged him to put away Geilana. He replied that he had not time to think how to do this, as he was called away by a military expedition. Geilana heard of it, and raged furiously. She bribed men, who came upon the three Christian teachers engaged in worship in their chapel at night, slew them, buried them with their vestments and books that they might be supposed to have left the place, and built a stable over their grave. When the Duke came back he asked Geilana where they were, and she told him they had gone away, she did not know where. In course of time Gozbert was slain by his soldiers. 134 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS his son was expelled, his relatives destroyed or dis¬ persed, and the whole thing’ was forgotten. Bnt a certain Burgunda, a religious woman, whose cell was very near that of Kilian and his companions, had heard the noise made by the murderers, had found a bloody cloth, and had held her tongue till she was dying, when she told secretly what she knew. Ger¬ trude, a daughter of King Pepin, had founded a monastery at the place then called Karleburg, and she and her presbyter Atalonga got hold of the story, searched for the place, obtained the necessary evidence, laid it before Boniface, then Archbishop of Mainz, and begged him to seat one of his new bishoprics at Wurzburg in honour of Kilian. This he did, about the year 745. The saint and his companions had been buried on the level ground on the right bank of the Main, near the centre of the present city, where now stands the Neumunster. When the grave was opened there was found in it a book of the Gospels. This interesting relic was duly honoured. It was put later into a bind¬ ing with ivory of the tenth century, enamels, and precious stones, the ivory representing the three saints kneeling, the executioner with his sword having cut off their heads apparently at one stroke. In the air above, the saints are ascending to heaven in a boat. The whole is a very graceful composition. Fig. 5 shows the cover of the book. The altar and tomb of the martyrs are in the west crypt of the Neumiin- ster. An examination of four pages of the book shows a connexion of origin w r ith early texts, such as Amiatinus, and Ingoldstadt, and Canterbury as repre¬ sented in libraries at Cambridge and Oxford; see fig. 6. This costly reliquary, to call it still by the name which it once deserved, was kept in the Cathedral "> , , ' ■ . JC?' *" tTSHni*l.\SCWO e x im n INIJ'SO- t'UltVvp.XCM t'S UVOiell S*-T UfSpilm/ ivu'usOilk'f rus in quo CONplACWI ^ > O frtATtrnsjvsfTuLif •i’ n C U o VN A t'se ITT U < T > !u *»• fTt-K.rTIN^V.S'ORK>vl' t'Sie&us t T vl Noctiro, £ 1H’mpl-HvM URasJJi,? i w| " lUiqua'iiiniscsTiis ' tn-XNqrlioxiNiiirR-\ MNnti- Svai pl\S rqUA'TX^U VC A ww rfR-'Ol KIScSTIoImn , 0 «VI' , jsjis ueNli tf.vn yi pP.At’O'lCANSOlUXNQC mL k Hn RCC.N I i>TeTc>ICFNS tj uoNi a m i o^p U’Tuisr ‘Tempos* t‘T-\i>prvOp( N tiu.iun RetjNU'nvVp |i a€ Nin'm ? n ' eTCRcdrref < eti.\Nc;fUo pMercHieN.ssec«y m A R(? tj-x 1 1 1 e a {JliXlTSTmcNervifTANOKf.' prwB.em«u# mrrwN cetpAciAi»uos U) ' rVI ' ptCloptSC-MOR.esVioniiNi.T'- erpnoTiNUsKtrltcm ^ RertBUJC j5t'Qt)UTtSUl9i»n 6 uY.T'iu Pi IT ISIN^n.'S'-.i; SyNACJo q .-,vn o o ee bat e °y U Fig. 6. St. Kii.ian’s Book. kilian’s book 135 Church of Wurzburg. It there served for taking the oath of homage to the prince-bishops. This, no doubt, and not, as might naturally have been supposed, its use as a Gospel book, accounts for the featrrres of the saints being nearly worn away by centuries of kissing. The enamels are understood to have replaced trans¬ parent rock-crystals, under which relics were placed originally. This original arrangement would naturally enhance the binding character of the oath taken. The artist, having in mind Tertullian’s words, “ the blood of the martyr is the seed of the Church,” makes a vine grow out of the blood of the three martyrs, on whose branches grapes hang. It is the emblem of the Church of Franconia, which grew out of their grave. We might almost suppose some connexion with the folk-saying of Franconia, “ Was ist Franken ?— Reben, Messgelaut, Main, und Bamberg; das ist Franken.” But in early times Bamberg would not have.held that position. The ivory plaque is said to be of the tenth century, but might be of a later date. It has served as an ornament to Kilian’s book since the early years of the eleventh century. The pillars and baldachin appear to have been fashioned on the Greek ivory cover of St. Burcliardt’s Gospel book, described below. They are exquisite pieces of work. The beautifully wrought silver borders were added in the fifteenth century under Rudolf von Scherenberg. The handwriting is at least as early as the seventh century, which was the age of Kilian. The book shows signs of many wanderings, as would be its natural fate with a Hibernian Scot as its owner. It may be added that in 1688 a leathern bag was found in a stone coffin in the Cathedral Church, with the inscription, saccnlns et sudarium S. Kiliani. It 136 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS contained a chalice, a reliquary, a vessel for the holy oil, and some small boxes made of bone, lead, and wood. It has been remarked above that the ivory pillars and canopy on the cover of the Kiliansbuch appear to be fashioned on the Greek ivory cover of St. Bur- cliardt’s Gospel book. Fig. 7 shows that cover, sadly broken but evidently justifying the remark so far as the subject of the ivory is concerned, while the four Greek letters representing “ Mother of God ” suffici¬ ently indicate the Greek character of the original from which the plaque is copied. This is further emphasized by a fact which the shadow of the raised work obscures. Besides the four Greek letters seen between the two fig'ures, the name of the male saint is incised on the field at his right shoulder in four lines of two Greek letters each, Nikolaos. There are some puzzling features in this plaque, which lead towards the conclusion that it is German work, not Greek work, and not earlier than the time of Henry the Saint and Kunigonde, if indeed it can be taken to be as early as their joint time. The Greek letters are cut with firmness and accuracy, the group¬ ing resembles that of Greek emperors and empresses on ivory and enamel, the benediction given by the infant Christ is eastern. But the features of Mary and Nikolas, and the details of the nimbus in each case, are completely alien from any known Greek work. The vestures are decidedly well cut. The silver plaque (fig. 8) on the rear cover is a fine piece of work, resembling a good deal of German work of 1200 or a little later. The main design, a lozenge enclosing a circle, with circles in the corners, is effective. The inscriptions, + haiestas dni, s. hathevs, &c., where n stands for m, are not mere Fig. 7. Burchardt’s Book. P. 130 Fig. S. Burghardt’s Book. p. 13G niun nAunbisqu i gu tneopuen amt LuCCNT1BerpI.eNlll*S cu UiAuOicNTiesquiA uiueuei eiuisueessei abca. m on CR.eoi o c ru m postbAecAuieon tJuoBusexeisAcv) BOlANU BUS O&ICNSUSes qppci ,\ecumi &us 17sfU)l,l,AU> enUicirNteg NUNii \ae atrfloetaus Necili.iscaeoioeauW •NOutssmseRCCua) BCN-nB:iT,bSuT«3ecP AppARuriciexpnoRKX U HIN CReOU l.nATlHU\.u'' eiOuRniACCOR^iS' qui Atoisqu kmocrajT eumpesu rrcxis seTNO'srcrieoioai.vi j 0TOixncjs/ euNrres i -ki o juNQtnocTN i ucrvgti' P r AcoicATeeuwc^lK? OOJNICRCMUPAf ' qoicaeoioeRiT ei BA|ni^A.i<.)^ punuT SaTxui scn.ii/ qu lOeUtVNOTst CRC Oiocnufcc*NoeopNAE.tliK Sxjnaau lemeoflqtn ' CUOOlOCRINl^ACC .Setr<-ICNHJR .«/,’• •''NNOin INC\e"' • ooMlACICieNl tmqui s LoqacNrRRNOoiS' ScupeNTeSToUcN-i > ClSin30RlipCftU<»qurt> BiBcaiNiNoNeos Noc&rij v Su peaA.eciix>8«G)Wt« INpONCNTtCl BCNe • bMiCBUNT' CION 8 q U 1 OCtvip OST qu AoPiocuT-asepieis 7 AOSU«3rpXUSe8Tl’NC!ClM> eiseoixAOcAiniscTi i tli aot c on pnopec 11 pR\eoiCAuenum' u Biq^ONOCoopcRWe ClSCHrt50NeCO>3pm®’Kj5 : » gequeTsmBusstcNis exp nv\s cmiv SICVNDVM MXRCVKV INeP^OlOGVS Fig. 9. Burohardt’s Book. burchardt’s book 137 blunders, this representation of m being not altogether unknown. Some of the earliest Gospels of the Lin- disfarne and Irish types have curious forms of m ; for instance, a vertical line with three short horizontal lines, and three vertical lines with a horizontal line running through them, an H in fact with a third ver¬ tical line in the middle. It may be remarked that the order of the evangelists St. Luke and St. Mark differs from the order on the cover of the Kiliansbuch. Much might be written on that, a subject in which Bede himself was interested. While the main design and the arabesque fillings and borders are decidedly good, the cutting out of the interstices from the plate of silver on which it was incised is badly done, as will be seen at a glance. Here again the benediction is of the eastern type. The text (fig\ 9) appears at first sight to have been carelessly written, with erasures, insertions, and cor¬ rections. But it is in fact of the very highest interest. It was originally copied correctly, in a rough but good hand, from some early text of marked type. A later hand altered the readings to bring the text into accordance with one of a more generally accepted character. The page shown in fig. 9 has several very inter¬ esting examples of this process of alteration. It begins with the third word of verse 10 of the last chapter of St. Mark, nuntiavit, “ she told them.” Taking the alterations in order, we have in line 12 the seventh letter, a, nearly erased with pumice, altering the original effigiae into correct Latin, effigie. The original reading is that of the Lindisfarne Gospels. The first letter of this line, e, is not an alteration, it is in the original hand, written over a letter erased by the first hand, and written when the whole was written, 138 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS not later. What the erased letter was is not quite certain; it ought to have been an a, aeffigiae being the reading of one early test; aecclesia for ecclesia is of common occurrence. Lines 20 and 21 are of remark¬ able interest. The English text is “ He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart ”. The original reading had “their unbelief and hardness of heart” in the dative, incredulitati illorum et cluritiae cordis ; this reading is that of the Corpus Christi text which generally agrees with Amiatinus, and also that of the Harleian text of the sixth or seventh century with which this Wurzburg text appears specially to agree. The alterer of the text had to put the dative into the accusative. To do this, he added three little horizontal lines to the i of incredulitati , thus making it into a very poor E, quite unlike the usual E, and above it he placed a mark of the omission 1 of an in, and so manufactured incredulitatem. Going next to duritiae he put the omission mark over the a, manu¬ facturing duritiam, and instead of pumicing out the now superfluous e, he put a dot above it and below, to signify that it was to be treated as non-existent. Those who are curious in such matters will see that in the mark of omission over the manufactured E there is a round dot, half hid at the middle of the horizontal stroke. In line 9 of the second column to would appear to have been omitted from aegrotos, “ the sick.” But it is not so. The original aegros was the reading 1 It should be specially noted that the mark of omission used by the first hand is quite different from that used by the alterer. The two occur in the same line. The older of the two is well shown in lines 12 and 18 of column 2. It must be added that the mark of omission used in the single leaf agrees with that of the alterer, not with that of the original hand. It shows, how¬ ever, the same tendency to lie more than is usually the case over the place where the omitted letter would have been. burchardt’s book 139 of the text copied by the first hand. It is the reading of the Book of Kells, of the Oxford Gospels of St. Augustine, and of other early texts. The alterer’s favourite text had aegrotos. In line 12 of the second column, the original text has rfns, dominus, without Jesus ; the alterer’s text had Jesus after quidem, “ the Lord Jesus/’ the usual reading, and he wrote the ihs above the line. In line 19 of this column we have a curious reading in the original hand, sermoue for sermonem , altered into correct Latin by the alterer, who placed his own mark of omission over the space where the m should come, that being his habit. On the face of it, one would say that the first hand had his atten¬ tion occupied with ablatives at this point, and he unconsciously wrote an ablative here. But, curiously enough, we find sermone in the Harleian MS. already mentioned, and also in the famous St. Germain MS. Finally, with Kells, Lindisfarne, and others, again including the Harleian MS., our first hand did not end with Amen, and the alterer did not insert it ; probably he was working from a text which itself had it not. We may venture to take a rather bold step here. The physically immense codex known as Amiatinus is the pandect (the whole Bible) taken from Wear- mouth by Abbat Ceolfrid as a present to the Pope in the year 716. Bede saw him off, and wrote an account of the parting scene. The Amiatinus was only one of three great pandects belonging to the twin monasteries, and when it was taken away there remained one at Wearmouth and one at Jarrow. These have totally disappeared. But some time ago one great leaf of an old codex w r as found in North¬ umbria, and everything points to its being a leaf of one of the huge pandects. Now when the page 140 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS shown in fig-. 9 is set side by side with this vast page of old parchment, the sameness of hand and of detail is so very evident that the observer is forced to suppose that the Wurzburg book is copied from the pandect of which this is one page, and copied by a hand trained under Bede in the scriptorium of the monastery. 1 Lul and Burchardt, two students trained in the school of Malmesbury, went out together to join Boniface. Lul had some very close connexion with Bede and his monastery. 2 Burchardt, by Lul’s influence, obtained this Northumbrian treasure, kept it always by him, took it with him to the cave in which he ended his life, it went back to Wurzburg with his body, and it has ever since been treasured there. The writing, as noted above, is rough. If this be so, then we have not only one leaf of the great pandect, we have a complete and careful copy of the four Gospels of the pandect, with all their distinctive readings, written by one who learned to write from the pandect itself and reproduced its every letter. The connexion of other manuscripts of the Bonifatian period with Wearmouth and Jarrow is suggested in Chapter IX. In order to see these beautiful and most interesting books the visitor should present himself at the Old Library in Wurzburg, to the south of the Horn, at nine o’clock in the morning. He will be received with a ready welcome, and will never regret his visit. There are two quaint examples of stealing the praises of Kilian and crediting them to other saints, 1 Unfortunately the page of the pandect contains a portion of the Third Book of Kings (in our nomenclature 1 Kings xi. 29 to xii. 18), so that it cannot be tested by Burchardt’s book, which is not a pandect. 2 See page 303, and the examples given in Chapter XIII of requests for manuscripts from Wearmouth, &c. ROBBERY OF KILIAN 141 robbing- Peter to pay Paul as did Horatio Pallavieini of Babrabam. The Breviary of the monastery of Lambach had these lines :— Longe ab insulis pars bona maris Ad fontem rediit teque requirit, Iesu, viventium fontem aquarum. Maris fons est Deus, pars Kilianus, Quern procul patriis sitit ab oris, Cervi more suum tendit ad haustum Scotorum insulae felix alumnus. The Breviary of the monastery of St. Florian, specially honouring Kilian’s presbyter Colonat, another form of whose name is Coloman, boldly reads Colomannus in place of Kilianus. The Breviary of the Cathedral Church of Eichstatt is more than bold, it is audacious. For Kilianus it reads Willi- baldus , and for Scotorum it reads Anglornm. An Englishman rejoices in the honour done to Willibald, but regrets the theft. CHAPTER IX Foundation of Fulda.—Life of Sturmi.—Boniface’s applica¬ tion to the Pope for confirmation of Fulda.—The Pope’s assent.—Fulda of to-day.—The Codex Fuldensis and other MSS.—The Life of Leoba.—Care bestowed on relics by Rabanus. Some considerable time after Boniface had by means of Wigbert’s skilled labours brought the monastery of Fritzlar into an exemplary state of discipline, he desired to extend his monastic machinery, and determined to operate towards the south-east, in the direction of his Bavarian work. This brings us to the foundation of the greatest and most famous of his ecclesiastical institutions, the renowned Abbey of Fulda. As we pass in imagination from Fritzlar to Fulda, we naturally follow the course which Boniface’s pioneers took under the guidance of a man who was to make a deep mark upon the history of Christianity in those parts. This was Sturmi. The Life of Sturmi, the first abbat of Fulda, is a work of the utmost value and interest. It tells in contemporary language, and with full local detail, the story of the foundation of the most important of Boniface’s ecclesiastical establishments. Sturmi was one of the boys who had been entrusted to Boniface’s care by Bavarian families, when he was leaving that district after setting its ecclesiastical affairs in order. He put the boy Sturmi under the charge of the Anglo-Saxon Wigbert, the first abbat of Fritzlar. There the boy learned his letters and LIFE OF STURMI 143 Holy Scripture, and in due course was ordained deacon and priest. He was set to work at the evangelization of the pagans. After some three years of this work as priest, he confided to Boniface that his mind was bent upon a cloistered life. This gave Boniface an opportunity. He approved of SturmFs desire, and made practical use of it. He determined to make Sturmi the means of founding a great monastery further to the south-east than Fritzlar, to serve as a centre of energy for the districts towards Bavaria. With this in view, Boniface bade Sturmi proceed to investigate the recesses of the great beech-forest called from the prevailing trees Buchonia. This beech-forest occupied a large part of Central Germany, and there was more than one trade route through it. Sturmi’’s business was to find a place where there was good water and a large expanse of fairly level ground, fit for being brought under cultivation when the trees had been removed. A picturesque French writer 1 on the life of Boniface, who has also written on the legends of the early Merovingians, reminds us that the forest of Buchonia was celebrated in Germanic legends, and also in the legends of the Franks; it was the scene of the assassination of Sigebert, the King of Cologne, on the instigation of his son. The two rivers, Edder and Fulda, meet at a point not very far above Cassel, through which city they run as the Fidda, to become eventually the Weser. The valleys of these two rivers are divided, by the range of hills called the Rhdn-Gebirge. Fritzlar was connected with the valley of the Edder, and Boniface aimed at finding a site in the valley of the 1 Professor G. Kurth, of Liege. 144 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS Fulda, on the other side of the lthon-Gebirge. Sturmi, with two companions, no doubt went down the Edder to the spot where it joined the Fulda, and then turned up the course of the latter river and pushed his way, in a boat, through the dense forest of beech, of which the Rhbn-Gebirge formed the west boundary. After three days’ journey through the forest, they came upon a place which seemed exactly suited to their purpose. The two companions remained there while Sturmi went back to Boniface to report their success. The saint, however, thought it was too near to the Saxons, so dangerous to Christian enterprise, and he bade them carry their exploration further. They obeyed, and pushed on up stream for another three days, when they reached the spot where a little stream, the Liider, 1 joined the Fulda. Not having found anything suitable, they returned to the place which they had previously selected. Boniface summoned Sturmi to Frit/dar and received him with special kindness; dispensed him from fasting and gave him a dinner; and then told him he was quite sure that there would be found a place prepared by God in the forest, and he must go and find it. Sturmi returned to his companions, who had remained in the place of their first selection. That selection, it may be remarked, was in itself a very good one, for on that very site was founded as early as 769 the great and famous abbey of Hersfeld. From this place Sturmi went on alone; no longer, therefore, in a boat, but riding an ass. On his way he crossed one of the trade tracks through the forest, leading from Thuringia to Mainz, 1 There is still a village called Liidermund, a few leagues short of the present Fulda. FOUNDATION OF FULDA 145 and at the point where this track crossed the river Fulda he found some Slavs bathing in the stream. They were rude and menacing, but they did him no real harm; the worst that he had to suffer was their bad smell. On the fourth day of his journey he crossed another beaten track, a foot-way, known as Ortesweg, at the place where a little stream, the Giesel, joins the Fulda, only a few kilometres from the place he was seeking’. Here he met with a man leading a horse, who knew the district well. The part of the forest in which they met was the Eichlohe, or the oak-wood. The stranger guided him through this to the point at which the Fulda breaks its way through a rocky gorge, and it was no use going further. Sturmi returned with the man, and the next day they parted. Something made Sturmi go up the Fulda once more; and then, pi-obably because he was not occupied in talking to a companion, he saw that he had twice passed without noticing it the ideal spot. The site of Fulda was found. Sturmi went with great joy to tell Boniface of his success. He found the saint at Seleheim. The saint sent him and his companions back to the place, and himself went to Carloman to beg for a grant of the territory, a fairly level space some four miles in diameter, with the river running through the middle of it. Carloman made the grant, and sent com¬ missioners to request neighbouring proprietors to add yet further territory, which they did. Armed with the grant, Sturmi and seven other monks entered upon the work of clearing the forest on the 12th of January, 744. Two months later Boniface came with an army of workers, and began i. 146 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS to build a church of stone, which he dedicated to the Saviour. He himself retired to a hill which commands the valley, where he spent a week in retreat; and to this little hermitage, on the hill called from him Biscliofsberg, he used to come every year to recover from the fatigues of his life. He sent Sturmi to study the monastic rule at Rome and at Monte Cassino, and after two years Sturmi came back prepared to raise the tone of the monks to the highest pitch of the regular life. This he effected, and before his death the community consisted of no less than four hundred monks. Of these something will be 6aid later on (Chapter XIX). It will have been noticed that the river-systems had much influence in determining both routes and sites of monasteries. The importance of the river- systems of these particular parts is emphasized by a striking monumental fountain in Cassel, known as the Lowen monument. Four female figures surround the fountain, symbolizing the four principal rivers which form the Weser. Cassel itself is on the Fulda; the Werra joins the Fulda at Miinden, and from that point the river is called Weser. The four rivers symbolized are the Edder, the figure holding a vase; the Werra, the figure holding a net and taking a good fish out of it; the Fulda, the figure holding an ancient oar; and the Lalin, a vase. It was not till very late in his life that Boniface applied to the Pope for a formal confirmation of his monastery of Fulda. We have the terms of his application, 1 and the terms of the Pope’s reply, both dated in 751. “ To the most reverend father, most loved lord, 1 Ep. 86 ; a.d. 761. FOUNDATION OF FULDA 147 master to be venerated with fear and honour, endowed with the privilege of apostolic honour, exalted by the insignia of the pontificate of the apostolic see, to Zacharias, Boniface the humble, your servant though unworthy and last of all, yet Germanic legate most devoted, the welfare desirable of love that cannot decay. “With suppliant prayers I beseech the sanctity of your fatherly piety, that you will with ready mind kindly receive this presbyter of mine, the bearer of my letter, whose name is Lul. For he has some secrets of mine which he should deliver only to your piety, some things to say to you by word of mouth, some things to show to you noted by letter, some needs of mine to ask about; and then to bring back to me the answer and counsel of your fatherliness from the authority of holy Peter, prince of the Apostles, for the solace of my old age ; so that when all which I send has been heard and considered, if anything which 1 have done be pleasing to you I may improve upon it, but if, as is to be feared, there be anything which is displeasing, by the precept of your holy apostolate I may deserve indulgence or perform the penance due. “For the predecessor of your predecessor, Gregory of memory to be venerated, when he ordained me unworthy and sent me to preach the word of faith to the German nations, bound me by an oath that I should become an aider and helper to canonical and just bishops and priests, in word, in deed, in feeling ; this I have endeavoured by divine grace to ful111; but false priests, hypocrites, seducers of the people, I should either bring by correction to the way of salvation or should decline and abstain from their i, 2 148 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS communion; this in part I observed, in part I have been unable to keep and fulfil. In the spirit I have fulfilled my oath, for my soul has not come into their fellowship and counsel. In the body I have not been able entirely to keep myself clear of them when I have come to the Frank prince under pressure of ecclesiastical business; 1 I have found there such as I have been unwilling’ to find. Still, I have not communicated with them in the holy Communion of the Body of Christ. “ The apostolic pontiff aforesaid further charged me that I should report to the pontiff of the apostolic see the life and manners of the peoples whom I had visited. This I trust in God that I have done. “ With regard to the information which in accor¬ dance with the promises of the Franks I gave to your holiness some time ago about the archbishops and their seeking the pallium from the Roman Church, I beg the indulgence of the apostolic see. For they have delayed to fulfil their promises, and the matter is still put off and being discussed, and it is not known what they are prepared to perform thereupon. But according to my will my promise would have been fulfilled. “ Further, there is a woodland spot in a desert of the vastest solitude in the midst of the nations to whom we have preached. Here we have built a monastery and appointed monks to live under the Rule of the holy father Benedict, men of strict abstinence, without wine or stronger drink or flesh, without servants, content with their own labour of their own hands. This spot I have with lawful labour acquired by means of men religious and God- 1 See more on this point in another of Boniface’s letters, p. 178. FOUNDATION OF FULDA 149 fearing, especially Carlman, formerly prince of the Franks, and have dedicated it in honour of the Holy Saviour. 1 In this place I propose, with the consent of your piety, to restore my body wearied with old age by resting for a short time or for a few days, and after death to lie. For four peoples to whom by the grace of God we have sjioken the word of Christ are severally known to dwell around this place, to whom so long as I live and have my faculties I can with your intercession be useful. For I desire by the help of your prayers, with the grace of God accompanying, to persevere in the friendship of the Roman Church and in your service among the Germanic races to whom I have been sent, and to obey your precept, as it is written 2 : ‘ Hear the judgement of your father, children beloved, and do thereafter, that ye may be safe’; and elsewhere— ‘He that honoureth his father liveth a longer life '; and again—‘ Honour thy father, that a blessing may come upon tbee from the Lord ; for the blessing of the father establisheth the houses of sons/ ” The remainder of this letter is lost; and it has long been lost, for in the Carlsruhe MS. of Boniface's letters the page following these last words is left blank, as though the copyist hoped to find somewhere 1 All churches were dedicated to the Saviour. Partly to distinguish one church from another, and chiefly to indicate the affection of benefactors for various saints, the names of saints were associated with the name of the Saviour and the churches were called by their names. St. Peter and St. Paul was the favourite dedication in the earliest Anglo-Saxon times, as in later Anglo-Saxon times was All Saints. To the Saviour the mother church of Rome was dedicated, the Lateran, as was the mother church of England (as contrasted with Britain) at Canterbury. 2 Ecclus. iii. 1, 6, 8, 9. L 3 150 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS the concluding parts. If after Diimmler’s exhaustive inquiries it is allowable to make a suggestion, it seems not at all unlikely that the remainder of the letter consisted of the list of questions to be given to the Pope which in the opening paragraph Boniface tells the Pope he had given to Lul, the bearer of the letter. If that suggestion is correct, the Pope’s detailed answers in his next letter show us what the questions were. In this connexion it must be noted that the Pope answers Boniface’s letter para¬ graph by paragraph, and passes immediately from his reply about Fulda to answer the written questions which Lul had brought. The answer about Fulda was as follows 1 :— “You have asked that the venerable monastery should by privilege of the apostolic see be con¬ firmed to you, which you have founded and built in a most vast solitude, in the midst of the peoples to whom you preach, and have dedicated in honour of our Saviour God. This, in agreement with your wishes, we have arranged. For it is a congruous thing that a preacher of the divine ministry 2 , and an excellent minister, should attain to his desires and carry on the good work begun even unto the end, as it is written in the Lord’s precept: f He that continueth to the end, the same shall be saved,’ and c Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.’ ” Fortunately we possess a fragment of the Pope’s docu¬ ment of confirmation ; indeed, there are two copies of the fragment, with some slight discrepancies. 1 Ep. 87 ; Nov. 4, 751. 2 Ministerii, possibly for mystern. FULDA OF TO-DAY 151 Each copy gives the important parts of the document. If the name Bochonia or Boconia or Bothonia still exists, it has escaped the notice of a recent inquirer; the probabilities are evidently in favour of the c as against the l in the various readings 1 :— “Whereas thou hast asked of us that a monastery of the Saviour, constructed by thee, situated in the place called Bochonia, near the bank of the river Eulda, 2 should receive the honour of a privilege from the apostolic see, so that, being under the jurisdiction of our holy Church, whose servant by God's guidance we are, it be subject to the jurisdictions of no other church; therefore we, favouring thy pious desires, carry into effect what thou hast asked. By our authority we prohibit every bishop of what church soever other than the apostolic see from having any authority in the said monastery. No one shall presume to celebrate masses there except on the invitation of the Abbat. It shall remain undisturbed, under apostolic privilege. Whosoever, prelate of a church or what dignity soever, shall violate this decree, let him be anathema.''’ Fulda is now the seat of a bishopric and the Abbey Church is the Cathedral Church. The old church was properly orientated, lying at the east side of the monastic enclosure, the body of the church extending westwards within the enclosure. At the east side of the monastery was a large open space. When the church became a Cathedral Church, a large nave was built out into this open space, with the great west door, as one would naturally call it, at the extreme 1 Ep. 89; Nov. 4, 751. 2 The other copy has Vultaha, which looks more like the primitive name. 152 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS east. The old east end of the Abbey Church, with its confessio and the altar and tomb of St. Boniface, was preserved and left as it was, an external wall being' built so near to the altar and tomb that only as it were a small Jesus Chapel is now left behind the higdi altar of the new church, which is at the west end, not the east end, of the present Cathedral Church. The visitor to the shrine loses sig’ht of this when he comes into the presence of the tomb. He faces east to examine it, and he faces west to examine the really fine design and colouring of the three modern windows in the containing wall to the west. These windows are in the form of a large Romanesque arch in the centre and a smaller similar arch on each side of the central arch. The central window has a remarkable representation of the shrine with the saint's body being carried on its last journey from Mainz to Fulda, preceded by Archbishop Lul in fullest canonicals, a rich crimson chasuble and low crimson mitre with jewelled circle and cross. On the window to the right hand is shown St. Leoba dying, an aged archbishop reading from a richly bound book, a monk with a rich censer, and two nuns completing the scene. In the account of the Life of St. Leoba,at pag'e 170, the reason of this scene being depicted will be apparent. On the other side is the death of Sturmi, the saint holding a golden cross and being attended by six monks. The relics are in the treasury, set in magnificent receptacles of silver richly gilt. Fig. 10 shows near the bottom the top of the skull of the saint, and the pastoral staff of ivory, about 5 ft. 10 inches long. Up the middle of fig. 11 is the blade of the fatal sword, fitted a hundred years ago with an ivory handle and a guard, with the inscription “ Mucro quo occisus Fig. 10. The Skull and Staff. p. 152 Fig. 11. The Sword. 152 Fig. 12. Wooden Cover, Codex Fuldensis. THE FULDA MSS. 153 est a Frisiis anno dcclv Bonifacius Archiepiscopus et Martyr Patronus 1 Fuldensis. Ornatus 1791.” In a corresponding receptacle there are relics of Leoba and other saints. There is also a reliquary of Leoba showing her full face with large eye-holes and a tidy nose-hole, presumably of wax, with a beautiful open crown of gold and at top a cross of brilliant diamonds. Among many other treasures is a life-size silver statue of Boniface, which is carried, along with these relics, in the great annual pageant procession. The Bonifatian manuscripts are in the Landes- bibliothek, at a little distance on the north (apparent south) side of the Abbey Church. As we shall see when we come to the martyrdom of the saint, they were brought from the site of his death. One of them claims to have been in his hands when he received his death-stroke, the sword cutting deep into the 140 leaves of parchment. A writer of about the year 800, a presbyter of St. Martin's, Utrecht, which was closely connected with Boniface, tells us that he inquired on the spot, and found a very decrepit old woman who said on oath that she saw Boniface killed, and that when he was about to receive on his head the death- stroke he interposed the book he was reading. Stains on the parchment are said to be human blood. The most interesting of these manuscripts is the Codex Fuldensis, an early authority for the text of the Latin New Testament. Fig. 12 shows the thick wooden binding with plaques of silver and a silver clasp. These are all of them real Anglo-Saxon work. 1 The patron of the town or city of Fulda is St. Sulpicius, an archaic figure of whom is seen in descending to the tomb of Boniface from the apparent south. 154 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS The plaques are filled with very pretty Anglo-Saxon interlacing work ; the clasp is two dragons’ heads back to back. The MS. has a large number of marginal notes on the Epistle of St. James, all written in an early Anglo-Saxon hand, Anglian, runes being used instead of the usual marks of reference from text to notes. Ernst Ranke published his book on the Codex Fuldensis in 1868 (British Museum 3021 c. 6). He takes the view that the book is of the sixth century, of the date of Victor, Bishop of Capua. He finds in it the three contemporary hands of Victor, his scribe, and the corrector, all having worked at the codex at its origin ; the corrector was probably Victor himself. Some two centuries later he believes it fell into Anglo- Saxon hands, about the middle of the eighth century, when the Anglo-Saxon glosses on St. James were introduced. Later again, in the ninth century, he thinks that yet another Anglo-Saxon hand worked at it. From curious samenesses in small errors Ranke associates the text closely with Amiatinus, believing that at least they had a common origin. The earlier part of the book is the Harmony of the Four Evangelists. Its opening sentence is “ In nomine Patris et filii et spiritus sancti. Incipit prae- fatio Victoris Episcopi Capuae.” The later part con¬ tains Epistles, the Epistle of St. James being headed in the unmistakable rough capitals, “ Seq epist sci Iacobi ad dispersos.” It is clear that if Boniface copied his quotations of scripture direct from a manuscript, he used another manuscript than this. For example, in 1 Pet. iv. 8, where the codex has the ordinary Vulgate reading, “Ante omnia autem mutuam in vobismetipsis cari- S«5Z^ * s .**-♦ 1VU*»W +>■'.'! r N-iA'IIOlWI'jjjf •f*~n*tSriri .'■•"■'*■!■, • Vr :’l'* ? ' i •_ - L-rrr rii.y :v->' Ovr ii'e.-vry* "V U \ . „i v i,...'' 1 r .;■-P«. r S..P., Xr ; i I Imi 1 llun,\I.H|(U^i'|U'\ii| H.\l-l'UIS • Scl I Wj.'R.WRCS •" «.v»ei<>ij.ed( Suxctietn - oaiHlsKomoud,o\\a\o C'lCNftuu'i' 'I \Raus.vare-- \ftl,o(|iifM6unH'i i .Vf>aus | rAovuomur] iust ri ?-\oV}>iViowopt~n.\Jtfi* puop Nh V ^ tHnwcaMNaniHi\ii!\lM(.-SUSCI pi i cimsii uivHU'HKiiti' <.|uor>po i esi ii yt, —*5 ii'\sut?si I4AK-— (_»sio 1 tixu i ompcioRcsuep. ,,; r riotM on\<^iTO|a-si ah , M ,„!'pp- KKnl.’.'UJLcNleS OOSiwI i^'rc T i' , .p7 . X'vrfavmfc'#'-! 1 OR fl I COO HI p Vp.A ImIUR U1ROCO H S I O O R Ml 1 KHlt, Sti.ve oHSlOti’ Rxaii.vcn fmsccixriil 1 i.|v,.,p.'arH,;u,.v f luinMMiun.vns ’£ pispecaLo q't r vetli vmcmsc ", I t^Vi- V e I s uiitnoBlnuscs i M u ‘ xL,s l'' ut ' ,iU ■ M U, Y' i roi ppRSpeWRM iMI.e .. cepe*j.vnXJ.mow.ixiis , O LpCRC'.'rJSl'IUl - . plOM • vuonoRoBliuiostispA.c »USSCi*pACl OROpCIUS •y < 1 nlcBCATOSIHPM' I oR UOORil v c v m i r mi i o o' |'err \ coo "t 1 RotlqioStHoesse • : ;I'R J Fig 13. Page of Codex Fuldensis. THE CODEX FULDENSIS 155 tatem continuam habentes,” Boniface writes, “ Ante omnia mutuam in invicem caritatem habete.” In 1 Cor. vi. 19, tlie codex has with one exception the ordinary Vulgate reading, “An nescitis quoniam membra vestra templum est [v. sunt] spiritus sancti,” but Boniface writes, “ An nescitis quia corpora vestra templa sunt spiritus sancti.” In other cases, the codex has, “ Quae praeparavit Deus his qui diligunt ilium,” Boniface writes, “Quod praeparavit Deus diligentibus se ” ; the codex “ non sublime sapere ”, Boniface “ non superbe sapere ” ; and so on. The text used by Boniface, other than the codex, Ranke was prepared to prove to have been independent of Jerome’s recension. One very curious case he discovered in the Bonifatian epistle last quoted. Boniface quotes a Petrine saying, “ Sobrii estote et vigilate et excitamini.” This is not in Amiatinus, nor in the collection of old texts, nor in the Sixtine-Clementine edition, nor in the original text of the codex; but it is in the margin of the codex in the second Anglo-Saxon hand. The guess may be hazarded that the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon hand copied it into the margin from Boniface’s own letter, a copy of which had by that time reached Fulda. In fig. 13 one of the pages of St. James is shown. The runes will be seen on this page, used as references to the marginal notes. Some details in connexion with these runes will be found on pages 157, 158. The text contains verses 18 to 26 of the first chapter of St. James, beginning with the closing words of verse 18, “ initium aliquod creaturae eius,” “ a kind of first-fruits of his creatures,” and ending with the first half of verse 26, “ si quis autem putat se religiosum esse,” “ if any man among you seem to be religious ” 156 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS A.V., “ thinketh himself to be ” R.V. The page was selected for being photographed on account of the large number of runic letters used in it. It has, how¬ ever, one marked reading, “in legeperfecta,” to har¬ monize with in speculo, in place of “in legem perfec- tam”. A glance at the MS. shows that this is not a case of the usual omission of a final m; the final m is clearly given elsewhere on this page, and the MS. is almost entirely free from contractions. In lege p erfeda Hbertatis is no doubt the real Vulgate reading. In legem perfedam would seem more natural, “looketh into the perfect law/'’ and it is the exact translation of the Greek; but while that reading does occur, it has not reliable authority in ancient texts. Bede in his com¬ mentary on St. James reads in lege perfedae liberlatis , and bases his comment on that reading; it is liberty, he says, that is in itself perfect, the law not making anything perfect. Bede’s reading has a certain amount of authority, and it was the reading 1 of the Sixtine Vulgate. Boniface did not quote from St. James till after the year 742. In the next year or two he quoted three times from his Epistle. This fairly points to the Codex Fuldensis having 1 been taken to Germany in its English binding, by one of the English party who went out to help him. The binding makes it probable, the runic notation makes it practically certain, that the precious manuscript came from Northumbria. If it is the fact that Lul studied at Jarrow under Bede, it may be that Fulda possesses a treasure which Bede and Lul handled and studied together, and it is quite conceivable that in the notes, that is, in those by the first hand, we have the writing of Bede himself. Taking the note in the middle of THE CODEX FULDENSIS 157 the top of the page in fig. 13 as an example of the first hand, the writing is at least of the same school as the current script of the note attributed to Bede in the Durham MS. of Cassiodorus (Palaeographical Society, vol. ii, pi, 164). On the two hands in the note on our text much might be said. The note itself is as follows :— “ per generationem creaturae eius id est predicate euangelium omni creature id est omni creato in baptismo | nos sumus initium aliquod per passionem et resurrectionem Christi id est primi nouissimi ..." It has been said above that the fact of runic letters being used by the annotator may be taken as certain proof of his connexion with Northumbria. Of all the runic inscriptions in this island, only one word is found outside the Anglian parts, a name of ten letters ending- in Uieard on a stone at Dover. The tradition that Lul studied under Bede points to his connexion with the district in which runes were freely used for incision on stones, as on the memorials of the earliest Anglian nuns of Hilda’s time in the cemetery at Hartlepool, on the Bewcastle Cross, &c. But we have more direct evidence of Lid’s acquaintance with runes, and we cannot say the same of any other per¬ son connected with Boniface. At the end of Lul’s letter to an abbess, 1 No. 98 of the collection of Boni- fatian Epistles, he writes out at full length the names of all of the runic letters, in the order of the English a b c, not in the order of the runic futhork. 2 Indeed he adds names of unknown runes to make complete 1 The editors accept this letter as Lul’s. It was certainly written by a man carefully trained in Aldhelm’s marked style. 1 So called because the first six letters are fu th o r k. 158 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS correspondence with the English a b c, ending his list with ian, zar, evidently for y, z. Of the ten marks of reference on the page shown in fig*. 13, all can be taken as runic letters. The reference mark at the lowest line is ilc, a known rune, having sometimes the force of x. The semicircle should be two straight lines at an angle, like a V, the original runes being used for cutting on wooden tallies, and therefore avoiding curves. We may understand that the second and third reference marks are Lul’s ian and zcir, not runes of the futhorh. The y errs against the rule stated above, and the z errs against the rule that the whole runic “ alphabet ” does not contain one horizontal line, the wooden tallies being made of Baltic timber, which splinters at the ends of incisions along’ the grain. The fourth rune is Ic, not the usual Anglian form. The last but one, which looks like the last turned upside down, is one of the forms in which k appears on the earliest runic inscrip¬ tions in Northumbria. The five remaining marks are common Anglian runes. The one next above the angulated B is wen , corresponding to qxi (w); Lul gives it a highly instructive name, significative of its origin, qnirun. The same epistle (ep. 98) has another curious con¬ nexion with Bede, or rather with a legend about Bede. LuBs letter ends with a number of triplets of initial letters, with their interpretation. The legend seems to suggest that Bede was specially skilled in the interpretation of the single letters in the Roman inscriptions which in his time abounded in North¬ umbria, and that he had a habit of exercising his ingenuity in that way, quite possibly a habit of training the ingenuity of his students by setting them LUL AND BEDE 159 problems of this character. The interesting- point is that the triplets recorded in the Bede legend appear in Lul’s letter; and while Lul has more triplets than the legend, they all bear in the same direction as the legend. Bede, the story goes, was in Rome, and was found by a Roman studying certain triplets of letters on an iron gate, PPP. S S S. R R R. F F F. The Roman said to him, “What are you looking at, English bull ? ” Bede’s reply was, “ I am looking at what you should be ashamed of,” and he read off four Latin sentences, the words of which commenced with the twelve letters on the gate. The Romans were so much struck by Bede’s readiness and ability that they saluted him as Venerable, a title which the Senate afterwards confirmed. The visit to Rome was the unhistorical part of the legend. The triplets in Lul’s letter are R R R. PPP. FFF. M M M. U U U. AAA. The extensions which Lul gives are “ rex (with a variant regnnm) romanorum ruit pater patriae profectus est ferro frigore fame monitum monumentum mortuus est uictor uitalis ueniet aurum a nobis aufert ”. Curiously enough there is in a manuscript of the eighth century at Wurzburg, containing homilies of Jerome on the Old Testament, an entry very similar to this, as follows:— Venit Victor Vincens mundum Rumpit Regnum Romanorum Fert Famem Frangit Romam Aufert Aurum Argentumque. Is it too bold to suggest that this manuscript in Burchardt’s own city has a tale to teLl of yet another link between the two Malmesbury students, Lul and Burehardt ? They were possibly brothers, see ep. 49. 160 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS Two or three venturesome suggestions have been made in connexion with the above description of the Codex Fuldensis. Yet one more may be hazarded. There are some points in the general style of the writing, and in the form of typical letters, which may suggest that this codex was so early an acquisition at Wearmouth and Jarrow that it played a part, as exemplar, in the formation of the local style of writing in the scriptorium of the twin monasteries. There is nothing in the date of the manuscript (sixth century) or in the place of its origin (Capua) to conflict with the idea that it may have been one of the books acquired by Benedict Biscop, the founder of the twin monasteries, on one of his visits to the continent of Europe in search of ecclesiastical treasures. At the age of twenty five he went to Rome to visit the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. He was again in Rome at the time when Theodore was selected to fill the office of Archbishop of Canterbury in 668. He came to England with Theodore and for two years taught at Canterbury as Abbat of St. Augustine’s. Then for a third time he went to Rome, to purchase books of sacred literature. Coming back loaded with treasures, he passed up to North¬ umbria, where he built the twin monasteries and endowed them with his manuscripts. The next book to be inspected is that whose first pages are shown in fig. 14, the book of the martyr¬ dom, with the sword-cut passing through the right- arm of the ornamental cross at the top of the first page. The formation of the initial letter on the second page with three fishes naturally suggests a Lombardic origin, and this feature persists through¬ out the 140 pages of the MS., all of the letters of The Book of Martyrdom. THE BOOK OF MARTYRDOM 161 the alphabet being found in capitals formed of fishes. This very easy and very shapely style of capital letters lasted long-. In a remarkably fine Gradual once in use at St. Augustine’s Abbey at Bristol, the capital letters d and q are formed each of two fishes, a tail of one forming the top of a d in one case and the bottom of a q in the other. That the Lombardic attribution is correct may be gathered from a very interesting entry at the end of the book, “ In honore Domini nostri Iesu Christi Ego Ragyndrudis ordinavi librum istum quicumque legerit coniuro per deum vivum ut pro me orare dignemini,” “ In honour of our Lord Jesus Christ I Ragyndrudis have arranged this book. All you who shall read it I conjure by the living God that ye deign to pray for me.” Now Ratchis, King of the Lombards, who retired into a cloister, had a daughter called Radrudis ; it is certain that Ragyndrudis was in those days of clipping syllables shortened for use in some way, and Radrudis is the obvious way of shortening it. A strong argument in this direction is found in the fact that one of the preceding Lombard kings in the same century was named Raginbert, and portions of names ran in families. She followed her father’s example, and, with her mother, went into cloister at St. Petro- nilla de Plombiariola early in 750, a place not far from Monte Cassino. Just about that time Sturmi was in Italy studying the regular life at Monte Cassino, a monastery closely connected with Boniface in more than one intimate way, as may be seen at page 146. It is completely reasonable to suppose that Radrudis sent this book to Boniface, who had himself been hospitably entertained at the Lombard Court in the time of King Liutprand. 162 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS The book contains a number of treatises, some fifteen in all. Only two need be named here, the sixth on the list, “ Fides edita S. Ambrosii de Spiritu Sancto,” “ St. Ambrose on the Holy Ghost,” and the eleA r enth, a S. Ambrosii de bono mortis,” “ St. Ambrose on the good of death.” Either of these may well have been the subject of Boniface's study at the time when the murdering heathen burst upon him, the one in preparation for the Confirmation on the next day, the other because he knew that in one way or another death must come upon him soon. There remain the interesting little Irish Gospels,two pages of which are shown in fig. 15, and another page in fig. 16. Of the Irish character of the original from which it was copied, there can evidently be no doubt, but the writing is of a poor and rather reckless type. The initial words In principio are copied from one of the g’reat manuscripts of the Lindisfarne and the Kells types, and the Imayo Io/iannis is of the regular Hibernian type, with Irish-Byzantine features. The copyist has, in one curious respect, misunderstood his original. The Apostle is meant to be shown in a frame, held by some one out of sight behind, the feet of the “ some one” showing below the frame, as the hands sometimes show at the sides, and the head at the top. The copyist has treated the feet as the property of St. John, large as they are. In g’olden letters is written at the end of the codex, “ Hoc euangelium Sanctus Bonifatius Martyr Domini Gloriosus ut nobis seniorum relatione compertum est propriis conscripsit manibus. Quod etiam venerabilis Abbas huoggi obnixis precibus a rege piissimo Arnulfo impetravit et- sanctae fuldensi ecclesiae honorabiliter restituit,” “ This Gospel the holy Boniface, glorious The Irish Gospels THE IRISH GOSPELS 163 martyr of the Lord, wrote with his own hands as is known by tradition of those who came before us. The venerable Abbat Huogg-i obtained it by earnest prayers from the most pious King Arnulf and honourably restored it to the holy Church of Fulda.” Huoggi resigned the abbacy in 891. Arnulf was elected king- in 887. This entry gives us, no doubt, a firm tradition of the monastery; but it is in itself not at all probable, and there is in the codex a statement which directly con¬ tradicts it. On the last page of St. John there is an entry as follows: “ finit amen Deo gratias uidrung scribsit.” Schannat makes it Vidrug , but there are certainly two letters between the r and the g. In any ease there is all reasonable probability in attributing- the work of writing these Gospels to the priest Win- trung, the first named of the three priests who ac¬ companied Boniface at the last and were martyred with him, the chor-episcopus Eoban being the only one of the band who had precedence of him. The book was no doubt the private property of the writer —there being no Hibernian king there to declare it the property of the owner of the original, on the ground that as the calf belongs to the cow the copy belongs to the book—and it may well have been with him when he was killed. No other person bearing this name Wintrung or Wintrug or Wintruge is recorded among Anglo- Saxons. The existence of a priest at Fulda, fond of writing and with tastes in a decidedly Hibernian direction, may serve to account for the very curious form which the Short Annals of Fulda take. The Short Annals, omitting for our present purpose the mention of the great eclipse of May 1, 664, and the 164 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS commencement of the reigns of the Emperors of the East from 669 to 704, are as follows: “ Anno In- carnationis Domini 651 Aidan episcopus obiit, 658 Finan moritur, 664 Colmani obiit, 671 Egfrid reg- nare cepit, 704 Osraed regnavit, 720 Redhbat rex Fresonum, 735 Beda presbyter obiit, 742 Karolus rex Francornm, 754 passio beati Bonifatii martyris.” This points to a close connexion on the part of the annalist with the kingdom of Northumbria and with the Scotic origin and history of the church of that kingdom. Probably the word Colmani was followed by some such word as discessus, and a later copyist has taken that to mean departure from life, not departure from Northumbria, and has ungrammatically and contrary to fact replaced it by the usual obiit. The omission of the reign of Aldfrith 685-705 may have been due to his being an Oswiung born out of wed¬ lock, or it may have been due to his prosecution of Wilfrith. Tn examining the exceptional readings of the two pag’es of St. John’s and St. Mark’s Gospels, shown in figs. 15 and 16, we have the immense advantage of working with the help of the present Bishop of Salisbury’s great edition of the Latin Gospels, in which he was assisted by the Reverend H. J. White, now the Professor of Exegesis at King’s College, Strand. The first page only presents one point for notice, and it is a rather remarkable one. The concluding words of the sublime preface, “ the darkness compre¬ hended it not,” are “ tenebrae earn non comprehende- runt Of eighteen different texts, nine have the last words spelt thus, nine have it spelt comjjraehendenmt , and among these is the Rush worth (Mac Regol) book. 164 Fig. 16. The Irish Gospels. THE IRISH GOSPELS 165 Our friend Wintrung evidently copied a text of the Mac Regol type, but made a mistake which many since have made; he read an e as a c, and as if to emphasize his mistake he finished one line with comjora and began the next with chenderunt. The line written below this is to be read as follows:—ioh[annes] gratia D[e]i [inter]p[re]tat[us]. The last page of St. Mark's Gospel, fig. 16, pre¬ sents a large number of interesting points. It begins in the middle of verse 7 of the last chapter of St. Mark, “ [dicite discipulis eius] et Petro quiaprece- dit uos,” &c. It may be better to give the four con¬ cluding lines in a form more legible than that which the priest Wintrung, jubilant at the completion of a second stage of his journey, thought fit to present to other eyes than his own, if indeed he did not con¬ template keeping the book entirely to himself and having it buried with him when he should die a peace¬ ful death in his cell. They represent the following words : “[et bene habebunt. etdominusquidem] post- quam locutus est eis adsumtus est in celum et sedit a dextris Dei. illi profecti predicaverunt ubique domino quo-operente et sermonem confirmante 1 sequentibus signis.” In verse 7, Galiliam is found in the Book of Armagh. Verse 8, il/e is in the “St. Augustine’s” Gospels at Oxford. Verse 9, “ surgens autem Tesns": the best texts have not Iesus here, but many texts have it,including Armagh. VerselO, “at ilia aadiens” : Lichfield (St. Chad) and Kells have at, the best texts not: //adieus is a mere blunder. Verse 11, ibi erat should be uiueret : the Book of Armagh has uiueral , and the copyist seeing the erat had to give some 1 It is certainly not confirmante ; the •< follows the a with no letter between. It appears to be confirmatus, M 166 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS meaning to the preceding letters which would make sense. Verse 12, his, the regular reading is eh, Lichfield (St. Chad) has his. Verse 14, autem (the usual sign for this word) is in the Book of Armagh and other tests, not in the received test. Verse 16, babtisatus is in St. Chad, Mac Regol, and Lindisf’arne; condempnahilnr is in Mac Regol and others. Verse 18, liberint for biberint; Mae Regol has this blunder. Verse 19, sedit, many have sedet , but not the best. Verse 20, quo-opereute for co- operante. The e for a is a blunder; the quo for co is curiously enough found only in a Spanish test much later than this. Any one who desires to know more about the antiquities of Fulda should consult the Fuldensium Antiquitatum libri III, of Christophorus Browerus, British Museum Library 487 h. 18. We must now leave the Fulda manuscripts and proceed with the history of the abbey. There is good reason for Leoba’s relics being at Fulda, and for her death being portrayed on a window in Boniface’s crypt. A Life of Leoba 1 , Abbess of Biscliofsheim, was written by Rudolf of Fulda. Fortunately we are able to date this Life, and the date gives it great importance. Rudolf tells us that he obtained much of his in¬ formation from the presbyter Mago, “ who died five 1 The name is spelled Leoba throughout in the earliest known manuscript, Munich 18897, tenth century, and Lieba throughout in the next earliest manuscript, Munich 11321, eleventh century. In the most recent edition of the Letters of Boniface and Lul it is Lioba in the editor’s notes and Leobgytha in the headings of the letters. In a later book of Rudolf’s we find it written Leuba, THE LIFE OF LEOBA 167 years ago.” The Annals of Fulda give 831 as the date of the death of Mago, so that Rudolf was writing the Life in the year 836. It was this Rudolf who continued the Annals of Fulda from the year 838. Inasmuch as Rudolf is silent about the translation of Leoba’s remains to the church on the Petersberg 1 in the year 837 or 838, we may take 836 as the date of the Life. Mago had been a great friend of some of the disciples of Leoba, and he was naturally able to give important information. Rudolf dedicated the Life to a religious virgin of Christ by name Hadamot. The names of Mago’s chief friends were Agatha, Tecla, Nana, and Leoba or some modified form of that name. We shall see at the end of the Life what abundant reason there was that it should be written by the chief literary member of the com¬ munity of Fulda, and at the request, or by the order, of its famous abbat, Rabanus. At Winbrunn (Wimborne) in Britain, a place, our author tells us, whose name of vini fons, fountain of wine, came from the special excellence of its water, there were two monasteries, one for men, the other for women. No woman entered the one, no man except the officiating priest the other. The women were there for life; the mother of the community gave her business orders to outside people through a wicket. Tetta, the sister of King Ina of the West Saxons, ruled both monasteries with great discretion. That, as we know, was a characteristic of the early women of the Anglo-Saxons; in one important case after another they ruled with great success a double monastery, a work to which it is not recorded that men were put. So severe a ruler was Tetta that 1 See p. 172. M 2 168 BONIFACE AND II1S COMPANIONS she did not allow even bishops to enter the women's monastery. Leoba, or Leobgytha *, or Truthgeba, was a favourite pupil of hers, and she used to tell stories of Tetta’s rule. Two of these Rudolf tells. There was a very stern sister, who was frequently appointed to the offices of provost and dean 2 . The young people hated her, and when she died and her grave was left with its usual mound of earth, they danced upon it till at last in place of a mound there was a cavity half a foot deep. Tetta summoned the culprits, made each of them promise to pray for the soul of the deceased lady, imposed a three days’ fast to be spent in psalms and vigils and holy prayers. At the end of the three days the whole congregation entered the basilica singing litanies, and Tetta the abbess prostrated herself before the altar praying with tears for the soul of the deceased sister. Exactly at the moment when she finished her prayers, the earth rose in the grave and reached the level of the ground. On another occasion, the sister who had charge of the keys locked the doors of the church at night before going to bed. The keys were very numerous, on account of the many chests in the treasury; they were of silver and brass and iron, and they were all fastened together in one bunch. She lost them all, and when the time came to get ready for the early service the church could not be opened. Tetta had the nuns called, and held the service in another oratory. When they left the oratory, they found a small dead fox with the bunch of keys in its mouth. The whole five hundred sisters thereupon entered the basilica and 1 “ Leobgitli ” in the Annals of Fulda, a.d. 780. 2 Praeposita, decana. THE LIFE OF LEOBA 169 gave thanks to God. Whether the young nuns who danced on the grave of their tyrant had anything to do with this attempt to get off the midnight service, and “ laid the blame on the cat ”, we are not told. The daughter of two noble Angles, Dynno and his wife Aebba, the latter a relative of Boniface, was named Truthgeba or Thrudgeba, with the additional name of Leoba or Leobgytha. Her parents gave her to Tetta to be trained, and when Boniface wrote to Tetta asking that helpers might be sent, Leoba was one of the number, specially asked for by Boniface as Rudolf tells. Boniface appointed her mistress of a large number of religious women collected at Bischofsheim. This is not the best known place of that name. It is in the valley of the Tauber, and is on that account called Tauber-Bischofsheim, on the rail¬ way from Landa to Wertheim, some thirty miles from Wurzburg. There she laboured long, teaching her nuns. One of the stories of wonderful works wrought by her begins thus : “ On another occasion, when accoi’diug to her wont she had seated herself to deliver to her disciples a reading on the divine word.” Some account of the correspondence of Leoba with Boniface is given in Chapter V. From the Life we learn some interesting facts about the relations that existed between them. When Boniface gave up his archbishopric and was going away to Frisia, he gave directions that he should be buried at Fulda. Then he sent for Leoba and bade her not desert the land of her pilgrimage. He commended her to Lul the bishop and to the seniors of the monastery, desiring them to take charge of her with honour and reverence, and declaring it to be his will that after her death 170 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS her bones should be laid in the same sepulchre with his, that together they might rise at the judgement day. She worked long after the death of her relative and nearest friend. The kings treated her with the utmost veneration, both Pepin and his sons Karl and Karlmann, especially Karl. Hiltegard also, Karl’s queen, loved her as her own soul, and would have had her stay always with her, but Leoba hated the tumult of the palace like poison. The princes loved her; the chiefs supported her; bishops em¬ braced her with exultation; she was so very learned in divine scriptures, and so wise in council, that they often conferred with her and discussed church affairs. She made a great mark by her visitation of the monasteries of nuns in her district. One effect of Boniface’s commendation was remark¬ able. What Abbess Tetta would have said, one ought to know a good deal of idiomatic Wessex speech of a vituperative character to say. After the death of Boniface, Leoba was wont to come to the monastery of Fulda for periods of prayer. Never before or since had this been allowed to any woman; all women were forbidden entrance. To her alone it was allowed, because of Boniface’s commendation and because she was to be buried there. Still, a strict order was observed at these visits. Her disciples and her attendant women were left in a neighbouring cell, and Leoba with one attendant older than the rest entered the monastery, only in the daytime. When her prayers were ended, she went through Collation 1 with the brethren, and at night returned to the cell 1 The reading of Scripture or other religious writing before or during a meal. leoba’s death 171 where she had left her disciples. When she reached an advanced age, she settled the affairs of all the monasteries under her charge, and by LuPs advice went to live at Scoransheim (now Schornsheim), a few miles from Mainz, with a company of religious women. When Karl was at Aachen, Hiltegard invited Leoba to come and see her again. Unwillingly Leoba went. She was received with the greatest affection, but when she heard the causes of her invitation—nothing more definite is said in the Life—she begged leave to return. Pressed to stay a few days at least she refused, but embracing the queen even more affec¬ tionately than ever, she kissed her mouth, her forehead, her eyes, and remaining in her arms exclaimed: “ Fare thee well to all eternity, lady and sister, most loved. Fare thee well, thou precious portion of my soul. May Christ our Creator and Redeemer grant that in the day of judgement we may see without confusion of face. But in this world we shall never see each other again/'’ She returned to Schornsheim, and feeling her end to be close at hand she received the viaticum at the hands of a venerable English presbyter, Torahtbrat (Torthat and Tortahat in one of Boniface’s letters to Leoba), and on the 28th day of September she died. The death-annals of Fulda give the date as Sep¬ tember 23, and the year as 780. There are other differences as to the date. The monks of Fulda, some of whom had probably taken part as younger men in the like journey with the corpse of Boniface, carried her body with a great following of noble persons to Fulda. The elders remembered how that Boniface had ordered that her bones should lie with 172 BONIFACE AND IIIS COMPANIONS liis; but they dared not open liis tomb, so they buried her on the north side of the altar which he had dedi¬ cated to the Saviour and the twelve Apostles. Some considerable number of years later, Eigil the abbat, by permission of Haistulf the archbishop of Mainz (813-26), when a more august church was being prepared for consecration, placed the body of Leoba in the south porch near the memorial of the holy martyr Ignatius. Some small relics of Leoba are now placed in the great shrine of silver richly gilt which is the companion shrine to that in which the sword of Boniface’s martyrdom is preserved. A later book written by this same Rudolf is full of the deepest interest for all who are concerned in the affairs of Fulda. It is entitled The miracles of the Saints whose relics have been translated to the churches of Fulda. For the present purpose we must, un¬ willing^^, confine ourselves to one entry. In one of the years 836-8, evidently after Rudolf’s Life of Leoba was written and issued, the Abbat Rabanus obtained the consecration by Reginbald the chor-episcopus of a new church which he had built. This church stood in a very prominent position on his favourite hill, the Petersberg, about a mile and a half to the east of the Abbey Church. We have in Fulda a Rhabanus street still. In this church he placed a large number of relics. On the 28th of September he added many more, and on the 29th be brought to his new church the bones of Leoba (here spelled Leuba) and placed them in a crypt behind the altar of St. Mary and the Holy Virgins in a stone chest; the chest had a wooden shell, which he ornamented with plates of metal, silver and gold. On the 29th he gathered together by the hands of the said chor- RABANUS AND RELICS 173 episcopus, in the church of the holy Boniface, at the place where first his holy body rested, the relics of twenty-one bishops, &c. He had built up a lofty stone pediment behind the altar, upon which he placed, set on four columns, a wooden roof adorned with gold and silver. Under this baldachin he placed all these relies, in a stone chest ornamented with gold and silver and precious stones, with metal plates carrying in relief the figures of the several saints. Round the chest he wrote four elegiac verses, and round the pediment eight, four on one side and four on the other, with eight verses in other metre on the remaining sides. This was in the Abbey Church. Rudolf adds a remarkable fact. Rabanus, he tells us, during the twenty years of his rule as abbat, constructed no less than thirty oratories for relics, and had them dedicated by the bishops in whose flioceses the relics had been when lie acquired them. When Rudolf finished his account of the collection of saints’ relics at and near Fulda, Rabanus had resigned the abbacy and had retired for philosophic meditation to his dearly-loved Petersberg. The call to the archbishopric of Mainz had not as yet reached him. He held that archbishopric from 847 to 856. CHAPTER X Carloman asks Boniface to hold a Council of Australian Franks.—The Pope’s advice sought.—The Pope’s advice.-—Un¬ satisfactory character of Frank ecclesiastics. — Carloman’s announcement of the decrees of the Council.—Pepin’s Council at Soissons.—The ease of Aldebert and Clement. There was much more in the letter of Boniface to Zacharias (Ep. 50) and in the answer of Zaeharias to Boniface (Ep. 51) than we have as yet seen. 1 Boniface 2 informs the Pope that Carloman, Duke of the Franks, having invited him to visit him, has asked him to call together a synod in that part of the kingdom of the Franks which is under his govern¬ ment (Austrasia). And he has promised that he will do something to correct and amend ecclesiastical dis¬ cipline, which for not less than sixty or seventy years has been trampled on and dissipated. “ If he really has this purpose, I ought to know your opinion and to have your authority, that is, the authority of the holy see. For the Franks, as we learn from old men, have for more than eighty years not held a synod, or had an archbishop, nor have they kept the eccle¬ siastical laws of the Church. At the present time the episcopal sees in the several cities 3 are for the most part handed over to greedy laics or adulterous clerics, to whoremongers and publicans, to enjoy as secular property. If I am by your advice to move in this matter, I should wish to have at hand the judgement Chapter VIII. 2 Ep. 50; a.d. 742. 3 Civitates. THE FRANKISH CLERGY 175 and precept of the apostolic see, with the ecclesiastical canons. “ If I shall find among them those whom they call deacons, who from boyhood have passed a life of fornication, adultery, and every kind of impurity, and with such a character have come to the diaconate; and as deacons have four or five or more concubines in their bed at night, and are neither ashamed nor afraid to read the Gospel and call themselves deacons; and then in such incests come to the priesthood, and continue in the same sins and add sin to sin while exercising the office of priest, and say that they can intercede for the people and offer the sacred oblations ; and lastly, worst of all, with such reputation, ascend¬ ing through the various degrees are ordained and called bishops; I should have the written judgement of your authority, what you decide about such persons, that by the apostolic response the sinners may be made manifest and convicted. There are certain bishops among them, who, though they say they are not forni¬ cators or adulterers, yet are drunkards or neglectful or given to hunting, who go armed to war and shed blood, whether of Christians or of pagans. And since I am known to be the servant and legate of the apostolic see, my voice here and yours there should be one and the same, if we should agree to send them to the judgement of the apostolic see.” In connexion with Boniface's remarks on the cessa¬ tion of ecclesiastical discipline, and elsewhere on the absence of connexion with Rome, it may be mentioned that in Spain we find that fifty years before the death of Boniface the king Witiza forbade appeals to Rome and authorized the marriage of the clergy. In France, to use the general name which had a smaller 176 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS area of application then than now, there had always been a prevailing tendency to manage at home all home affairs, secular or ecclesiastical. There is scarcely any trace of intercourse between the see of Rome and the Frankish kingdoms or churches between the time of the conversion of England and the time of Boniface. There was a great Frankish assembly of principal secular personages and of bishops to the number of seventy-nine, held in 614 under Lothaire II, the father of Dagobert, and we have the laws which they enacted, by no means discreditable. And as late as 670, when an Anglo-Saxon lady, Bathildis, who had been captured in war, became the queen of Clovis II and regent of Neustria and Burgundy, there was a certain amount of ecclesiastical order. The savage cruelty which Ebroin, of whom we hear so much that is bad, perpetrated upon Ledger, bishop of Autun, the queen's principal minister in things ecclesiastical and secular, marked the termination of ecclesiastical order. St. Ledger was beheaded in 678, after having lost by successive tortures, spreading over some years, his eyes, his lips, and his tongue. It is probably to this period that Boniface dates the cessation of eccle¬ siastical order in the Frank kingdoms, when he says that there has been no synod or council for seventy years. Pope Zacbarias replied 1 that Boniface should act as Carloman desired, should sit with him in the Council, and should not allow persons such as he had described to exercise the office of priest. On receiving the order of priesthood, the man must cease to live with even one wife, much less may he have many wives. The Pope’s language clearly allows the deacon to have one 1 Ep. 51 ; 1 Apr. 743. THE FRANKISH CLERGY 177 wife. 1 With regard to other kinds of offences against the canons, Boniface should have at hand the canons and institutes of the Fathers, and decide as he is instructed hy them. We have a good deal of information in Boniface's letters about the exceedingly unsatisfactory state of the Frankish clergy. One such letter we may go through, on account of its intrinsic interest and because of the person to whom it is written. It is the only letter we possess of the many which Boniface no doubt wrote to his former bishop in England, Daniel of Winchester. Boniface's letter to Daniel asks his prayers and his consolation and advice in a great practical difficulty. There are, he says, 2 in the land of the Franks a great many false and hypocritical priests, who are adversaries of God and lead astray the people by many scandals and various errors. Some abstain from foods, which God has created to be used; some- live on honey and milk, rejecting- bread and other kinds of food ; some, and this most of all is harmful to the people, affirm that homicides and adulterers, persevering in their crimes, can be made priests of God. Now when he goes to the palace of the Franks, to seek the help of his patron the duke, he finds it not possible to keep clear of personal contact with such men, though he does avoid communicating with them in the sacred mysteries of the body and blood of the Lord. Counsel and consent with them he shuns. His labours and strifes are with such, and 1 “Apostolus elicit, ‘ Unius uxoris virum.’ Hoc ante sus- ceptuin sacordotiuni uti licitum est; nam a die susccpti sacerdotii etiam ab ipso proprio coniugio prohibendi sunt.” Ep. G3 ; 742-6. 178 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS with pagans, and with the mixed multitude of the people. Nay, when any, priest or deacon, cleric or monk, depart from faith and truth, they join the pagans in contumacious abuse of the sons of the Church. An obstacle, this, much to be dreaded, in the way of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. On personal contact with such priests, he eagerly desires to hear and to follow the salutary advice of Daniel. Without the patronage of the Prince of the Franks, he can neither rule the people of the Church, nor defend the priests and the clerics, the monks and the handmaids of God. Without the prince's mandate, and the fear which he inspires, he is not strong enough to prohibit the very rites of the pagans and the sacri¬ leges of idols in Germany. When he visits the prince, to obtain his help in these respects, he finds priests of this type, and he cannot keep clear of them. He fears to incur grievous blame, for he remembers that at his consecration he swore on the body of the holy Peter that all communion with such he would decline, if he found himself unable to convert them to better things. 1 But at the same time he fears more for the teaching which he is bound to give to the people, if he does not go to the Prince of the Franks. Will the bishop tell his sorrowing and doubting son what he ought to do ? His own feeling is that he is in fact in very great measure separate from them, if he abstains from counsel and consent and ministry with them, where they are uncanonical. 1 He swore that if he knew of priests or bishops who walked contrary to the ancient institutions of the holy Fathers, he would with them have no communion or contact; if he could prevent them he would; if he could not, he would immediately report them to the apostolic lord. CARLOMAN S COUNCIL 179 The Council was held April 27, 742. nearly a year before the Pope’s reply (April 1, 743) to Boniface’s letter of the early part of 742. Taking it that all these dates are certain, the German editors have naturally considered the obvious question, why did the Pope so long delay his answer ? They have found in the annals of Metz a statement which throws some light on a difficulty mentioned in Boniface’s letter to which we have not as yet referred. Boniface had proposed to appoint a successor to himself, but he had been obliged to abandon the idea for the present. Some one concerned had assassinated an uncle of the Duke of the Franks—who the “uncle” was is not clear—and Boniface doubted whether it would be pos¬ sible to carry out his purpose. The “ some one ” is described as f rater illius, “ his brother ”; whose, is not clear. Thus the Pope was called upon to make some remark, so very early in his pontificate, on a serious political question affecting the action of Car- loman or his brother. Now the annals of Metz state that Zacharias had already taken the part of Odilo 1 of Bavaria against the Frank dukes ; and if that was so, we can understand his desire not to burn his fingers. But there was another reason. As we shall see, Boniface, in his letter to the Pope, brought very serious charges against the conduct allowed to Chris¬ tians in Rome, and against the reported action of the Pope in his treatment of notorious offenders. Boni¬ face’s charges were definite, and it would take very con¬ siderable time for the Pope to have them looked into so fully that he could make a reply. With regard to the political reason alleged, it should be stated that Zacharias speaks of the Frank prince to Boniface as ' See page 103. 180 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS “ our son ”, “ that most excellent man ”, and informs Boniface that he has written to “ our son Carloman ”, begging him to hasten to do as he has promised to Boniface, and to give him support. This is far from being the only case in which annals of Boniface's time differ by a year, or more. The natural explanation is that the Council itself, and therefore Carloman’s important publication, came after the reply to Boniface had been received. It is quite possible that the Pope had notified his assent to the holding of the Council in some informal manner, which delayed his full reply to Boniface’s full letter, so that Carloman called the Council with due notice and held it on April 21 of 742 or 743. It is more likely that the letters are dated by the moderns on cor¬ rect principles, but incorrectly, than that Carloman’s very precise date by the Christian era is wrong. The date is given in the valuable preface of Carloman to the decrees. 1 “ In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I, Karl- mann, duke and prince of the Franks, in the seven hundred and forty-second year from the Incarnation of Christ, on the 11th of the Kalends of May, with the advice of the servants of God and my chief men, have assembled the bishops who are in my kingdom 2 with the presbyters, and a Council and Synod, for the fear of Christ, that is, Boniface the archbishop, and Burghard and Regenfrid and Winta and Wilbald and Dada and Edda with their presbyters, to give me counsel how the law of God and ecclesiastical religion may be recovered, which in the days of former princes has fallen into decay, and how the Christian people Ep. 56 ; 21 Apr. 712. 2 Eegno. carloman’s decrees 181 can reach the salvation of their soul and perish not under the deceitfulness of false priests or bishops 1 .” The list of bishops named affords the only sugges¬ tion we have as to the name of the first Bishop of Erfurt appointed by Boniface. With one exception we know the sees of all the bishops named. The exception is Dada. The others are, in the above order, W iirzburg, Cologne, Biiraburg, Eichstatt, Strassburg. It is fair to suppose that Dada was Bishop of Erfurt. No list of bishops of Erfurt was found by Gams when he published his Series Episcoporum. Carlomaids document proceeds to give the acts and decrees advised by the Council. We may take it that one and all express the opinion of Boniface himself, and they are actually directed against definite evils of the time. They are not numbered in the original, but for convenience of reference they may be numbered here:— “ 1. By the advice of the bishops and of my chief men 2 , we ordained bishops for cities and have set over them Archbishop Boniface, who is the legate 3 of St. Peter. “ 2. We have determined to gather a Council each year, that in our presence the decrees of the canons and the ecclesiastical laws may be renewed, and the Christian religion amended. “ 3. Moneys fraudulently taken from churches we restore to the churches. False presbyters and adul¬ terous or fornicating deacons and clerics we have cut 1 Per falsos sacerdotes. 2 Per consilium episcoporum et optimatum meorum. It might be taken as “ by the advice of my bishops and chief men King Alfred used the phrase “my archbishop”. s Missus. N 182 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS off from the possessions of churches, have degraded, and compelled to penance. “4. All ministers of God everywhere we have com¬ pletely prohibited from carrying arms, or fighting, or going into the army or against the enemy, except only such as are specially appointed for the purpose of exercising the divine ministry, that is, performing the solemnities of masses and bearing the protection of the Saints. For this purpose, the prince should have with him one bishop, or two, with priest chaplains, and each prefect one presbyter, to hear men’s con¬ fessions of sins and indicate the penance. Hunting also, and wanderings in the woods with dogs, we have forbidden to all ministers of God, and we have forbidden them to have hawks or falcons 1 2 . “5. We have decreed, according to the canons of holy men, that each presbyter in a diocese be subject to him in whose diocese he dwells. And always in Lent he shall make a return to the bishop showing the manner and order of his ministry, whether as regards baptism, or the catholic faith, or prayers, or the order of the Mass. And whenever in accordance with canonical law the bishop makes a circuit of his diocese, to confirm the people, the presbyter shall alwaj^s be ready to receive the bishop, with a list of those who are to be confirmed °. And in the Supper of the Lord he must always seek new crism from the bishop. “6. We have determined that in accordance with canonical caution we would not admit to ecclesiastical 1 Wa leones. 2 Cum rollectioiie ct adiutorio populi qui ibi c cm finnan debet. CARLOMAN S DECREES 183 ministry before synodal approval unknown bishops or priests, whencesoever they come. “ 7. We have decreed that according to the canons each bishop in his own diocese shall take anxious care, with the help of the count 1 , who is the protector of the Church, that the people of God do not perform pagan rites, but entirely put away and spurn all heathen impurities. Sacrifices of the dead, sooth¬ saying, divining, phylacteries, auguries, incantations, immolations which foolish men carry on with pagan rites near the churches under the name of holy martyrs or confessors, provoking to anger God and His saints, those sacrilegious fires which they call niedfyor, indeed all pagan observances whatever they may be, they [apparently the bishop and the count] must diligently prohibit. “ 8. Again, we have determined that after this synod held on the 11th of the Kalends of May, any of the servants of God or handmaids of Christ who shall have fallen into the sin of fornication, shall do penance in prison on bread and water. And if it be an ordained priest, he shall be kept in prison two years and flogged till the blood comes. But if a clerk or a monk has fallen into this sin, he shall be flogged thrice, sent to prison, and shall there do penance for a space of one year. Veiled nuns shall be kept in like penance and shall have all the hair of their head eut off. “ 9. We have declared also that presbyters and deacons shall not wear mantles like laymen, but cassocks as the servants of God : none shall permit a woman to dwell in bis house. Monks and nuns 1 Adiuvante graphione (the Graf). N 2 184 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS shall study to order and govern their lives according to the Rule of the holy Benedict/'’ “ Now in this synodal assembly held on the Kalends of March 1 at the place called Liftinas 2 , all the vener¬ able bishops, counts, and prefects have confirmed the decrees of the previous synod and have promised to observe them. “ The whole of the clergy of ecclesiastical order, bishops, priests, and deacons, with the clerks, taking the canons of the ancient Fathers, promised that they would restore ecclesiastical law by their manner of life, teaching, and ministry. Abbats and monks received the Rule of the holy Father Benedict, with a view to restoring the due form of the regular life. “ Fornicators and adulterous clerks, who have held and defiled holy places or monasteries, our precept is that they be removed thence and brought to penance. And if after this they fall into the sin of fornication or adultery, they must undergo the sentence of the former synod. And so for monks and nuns. “We have determined with the counsel of the servants of God and Christian people, on account of impending wars and persecutions of other peoples in our neighbourhood, that under registered loan we retain by God’s indulgence, for some short time, some portion of the Church’s property in aid of the army, on this condition, that for each casata there be paid to the church or monastery one shilling, that is, twelve pence, and if he to whom it is on loan dies, the church is reinvested with its own property, and again, by the prince’s order the property can be lent 1 a.d. 743. 2 The identification of this place has been much discussed. It is probably Estinnes in Ilainault. FURTHER FRANKISH COUNCILS 185 anew. And it is by all means to be observed that churches or monasteries whose property is on loan must not suffer penury and poverty; if proverty com¬ pel, the possession must be given back entire. 1 “ Similarly our precept is that, in accordance with the decrees of the canons, adulterous and incestuous marriages be prohibited and amended by the judge¬ ment of the bishops; and that Christian slaves be not traded to pagans. “We have decreed also, as my father had before decreed, that whosoever performs pagan observances in any respect be mulcted in fifteen shillings.” The example of the pious Carloman was followed by his brother Pepin, who held a Council at Soissons in 744, at which the practical reforms planned by Boniface and endorsed at Carloman’s two Councils were adopted. Finally, in 745, Pepin and Carloman held a joint Council of the two realms, under the ecclesiastical presidency of Boniface. Ecclesiastical discipline was set on right lines, and the change which took place between 745 and the accession of Charlemagne was very great. The Belgian historian of Boniface, Professor Kurth of Liege, an enthusiastic ltoman, declares that the religious regeneration which resulted from Boniface’s action throughout the realms of the two dukes is worthy of comparison with the religious regeneration of the universal Church which resulted from the Council of Trent. It is an admis¬ sion of a great truth, which the modern Roman 1 This clause no doubt refers to the long-standing differences between Charles Martel and the Gallican Church. He had l'reely seized tlie property and plate of the Church for the defence of the land and people against the Saracens, and there were great difficulties in the way of getting it back, so much of it as had not been made away with. 186 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS controversialist keeps in tlie background for English purposes; the terrible state into which the Church of Rome had fallen at the end of the Middle Ages may well be compared with the state of things revealed to us by Boniface. As the one more than justified the Englishman’s reformation, so the other more than justified the English Reformation. In the letter from the Pope which accompanied the three palls for Neustrian metropolitans, 1 Zacharias referred to a case reported to him by Boniface in the letter which, as we have noticed, has so unfortunately been lost. It was the case of two persons not there named, false Christians rather than false prophets. Though not there named, their names are well known. Further than that, we know from the later proceedings which of the two to credit with one and the other set of enormities. It may fairly be said that Boniface had more trouble with the Christian clergy west of the Rhine than with all the pagans on the east. These men were Aldebert and Clement. Aldebert was the worse of the two. He claimed to have the priesthood, and he was not continent in regard to his life of evil luxury. He seduced the people by preaching follies. He gave his own soul into the power of the devil, and he drowned the souls of the people in falsities, to draw them away from the Church of God and the law of Christ. He set up crosses and shrines in the fields, and drew the people away from the churches to worship there. He counted himself worthy to be called saint; he consecrated churches in his own name ; he declared that he knew the names of the angels, but the names which Boniface had reported to the Pope the Pope declared to be not ALDEBERT AND CLEMENT 187 the names of angels but the names of demons; how the Pope knew that we do not know. Clement was given up to luxurious living; he had a concubine, and had two sons by her. And yet he claimed the priesthood, and declared that he had done right in the matter of these children, on the authority of the Old Testament, for he had taken the widow of a deceased brother. He maintained that when Christ came back from the lower regions He left no one there, but brought them all away. All these things the Pope declared to be detestable and infamous; he strongly approved of Boniface’s action in condemning them, committing them to custody, and describing them as ministers and precursors of Antichrist. The first canon of the Council of Soissons, in 744, con¬ demned Aldebert and his heresy; the second canon ordered the little crosses of Clement to be burned. On the 25th of October, 745, the charges against Aldebert and Clement came before a Roman synod, at which the Pope, seven bishops, the Archpresbyter of St. Susanna, and sixteen presbyters, were present, besides a number of those of lower grade. The culprits had evidently not made submission, and in accordance with the injunction of Zacharias, the complaint had been brought to Rome. We do not find that two or three priests had come, as the Pope had required; no one is mentioned as representing Boniface beyond the useful Denehard, whose name occurs in several of the letters. So much for the account as given in Labbe, but he has mixed up two affairs of different dates. The document given by Diimmler does not say anything about an injunction by Zacharias. It is a business record of what actually took place, 188 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS evidently an extract from the official record. There were present, first of all, as President, the most holy and blessed Lord Zacharias the Pope, in the Palace Lateran, in the Basilica called Theodore’s 1 ; sitting with him the most holy Bishops Epiphanius Silva Candida 2 , Benedict Nomentum, Venantius Penestre, Gregory of Porto, Nicetas Gabii, Theodore of Ostia, Gratiosus Velletri, and the venerable pres¬ byter the archpresbyter John, and sixteen named presbyters. Labbe’s notice of the injunction of Zacharias, and the consequential remark that the terms of the injunction were not complied with, have reference to a letter of Zacharias at a later stage, after the invocation of the intervention of the French dukes had failed of effect. The contents of that letter (Ep. 77) will be given in the proper place. The account opens without any preface 3 :—- The sacrosanct Gospels were placed in the midst. The deacons and all the rest of the clergy stood by. Gregory, the regionary notary and nomenclator, made the following announcement: “ Denehard [Denearclus all through] the religious presbyter, the legate of Boniface the most holy archbishop of the province of Germany, sent to your holy apostolate, 1 Later the oratory of St. Venantius. The principal basilicas of Rome, to which palaces were attached, were called patri¬ archates. Hence patriarchium came to mean the palace attached. The Latin here is in patriarchio Lateranensc. 2 It is in accordance with the common use of to-day to insert “of”, hut it has no representation in the Latin; the person present was Epiphanius Silva Candida, as we say John Sarum. The names being in the ablative absolute, we have Niceta Gabiis, and so on. In two cases the “ of” is expressed in the Latin, Gregorio Portuense, Theodora Ostiensc. A curious difference occurs in the case of Gratiosus, Gratioso Villitrias. 3 Ep. 59 ; Oct. 25, 745. ALDEBERT AND CLEMENT 189 is at the curtain, and begs that he may enter. What is your pleasure?” It is replied, “Let him enter.” When he had entered, Zacharias, the most holy and most blessed Pope of God's holy catholic and apostolic city of Rome, said, “ A few days ago you brought to us letters from our most reverend and most holy brother Boniface the archbishop, in which he related to us such things as seemed to him opportune. For what further purpose have you applied for admission to our private deliberations ? ” Denehard the religious presbyter said : “ My lord, when in accordance with the precept of the holy apostolate, my lord Boniface, the bishop, the servant { famulus) of your piety, had summoned a synod in the province of the Franks, and had found there false bishops *, heretic and schismatic, Aldebert and Clement, he deprived them of their episcopal office, in concert with the Frank princes, and gave them into custody. They have not made submission, as ordered by the synod of the Franks, but on the contrary continue to seduce the people. Wherefore this epistle of my said lord which I bold in my hand I offer to your holy apostolate that ye may cause it to be read in the presence of this sacrosanct Council.” The order was given: “ Receive the letter, and let it be read in our presence.” Theophanius, the regionary notary and treasurer, received the letter, and read it. The letter is set out at length, but we need not follow it in its long course. Aldebert, it states, here called Eldebert, was a Gaul, and Clement a Scot, that is, an Irishman. Boniface begged that they might be put in prison till they learned not to 1 Sacerdotcs. Zacliarias calls them (Ep. 77) cxeiriscopi, fifteen months after this. 190 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS blaspheme or tear the vesture of Christ, and thus the people of the Franks and Gauls might be taught not to follow the fables and vain prodigies of heretics, and the signs of the precursor of Antichrist. As regarded Aldebert, the people accused Boniface of having taken away from them a most holy apostle, their patron and orator, who did wonders 1 and showed signs. But under sheep’s clothing he was a ravening wolf. In his early years his hypocrisy began. He declared that an angel of the Lord in the form of a man had brought to him from the ends of the earth relics of a marvellous undefined sanctity ; and in their power he could obtain from God whatsoever he asked. By these claims he led captive sill}- women, laden with sins, and a multitude of rustics, who said that he was a man of apostolical sanctity and did many signs and prodigies. He rose to such a pitch of pride that he made himself equal to the apostles. Then he got together some ignorant bishops, who consecrated him contrary to the canons. He disdained to consecrate a church to the honour of any apostle or martyr, and asked what good it was for men to visit the thresholds of the sacred apostles. Later, he dedicated, or rather defiled, oratories in his own honour. He set up little crosses and little oratories, in the fields, and at springs, and wherever it seemed good to him, and bade men there make their public prayers, so that multitudes of the people scorned other bishops and deserted the old churches, gathering themselves together at the places which Aldebert indicated, saying, “ The merits of the holy Aldebert will aid us.” He gave the parings of his Virtutcs. ALDEBERT AND CLEMENT 191 nails, and the clippings of his hair, to he honoured and carried about along with relics of the holy Peter, prince of the apostles. Finally, he did the most wicked and blasphemous thing of all. When the people came and prostrated themselves before his feet, and desired to confess their sins, he said to them : “ I know all your sins, for your hidden things are open to me. You have no need to confess. Your past sins are forgiven. Safe and absolved, return to your homes in peace.” In short, everything which the holy Gospel says that hypocrites do, in dress, and carriage, and manners, he copied. The other heretic, who is called Clement, contends airainst the Catholic Church, denies and refutes the r? ' t canons of the churches of Christ, refuses the tractates and opinions of Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory. Despising the laws of synods, he declares that he can be a bishop of the Christian law, though he has had two sons born to him in adultery, while called a bishop. He introduces a Judaism, and declares that a Christian can marry his brother’s widow. He asserts that when Christ rose again from the lower parts of the earth, He brought with him all the spirits that were in prison, believing and unbelieving, wor¬ shippers of God and worshippers of idols. And he affirms many horrible things of the predestination of God, contrary to the Catholic faith. Therefore Boniface begs that the Pope will in the case of this heretic also desire Carloman to keep him from mis¬ chief in prison. When this had been read, the most holy and blessed Pope said : “ Ye have heard, dearest brothers, what has been read from this letter of those sacrilegious men who, to their own condemnation, i9a BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS have preached themselves as apostles to the people.” The most holy bishops and venerable priests made answer : “ We have heard for certain that they are in all respects not apostles, but ministers of Satan and forerunners of Antichrist. For who of the apostles, or who of the saints, ever gave to the people of their hair and nails as holy things, as that sacrilegious and pernicious Aldebert has essayed to do. This wicked¬ ness is to be cut out by your holy apostolate, as also that of the transgressor Clement, who despises the sacred canons, and rejects the exposition of the holy Fathers Ambrose and Augustine, and the sayings of other saints.” Zacharias, the most holy and blessed Pope, said : “ It is too late to-day, but at our next meeting we will have read to us the life and prayer which Aldebert has himself issued, and other of his doings, and then by the help of God we can consider what is to be done.” At the next session, still, like the last, dated on October 25, the same ceremony of waiting behind the curtain and being called to come in was enacted and recorded. Then the Pope asked Denehard to tender some further writings which he had. The same Theophanius received and read them. The first was an autobiography of Aldebert, which commenced thus : “ In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The beginning of the Life 1 of the holy and blessed servant of God, illustrious and all beautiful, born of the election of God, the holy Aldebert the Bishop. He was born of simple parents, and crowned of the grace of God.” There had been a miraculous gift 1 The Latin of Aldebert is quite as bad as that of the priest whose baptisms Boniface declared invalid (p. 104) : “ Incipit vitam sanctum ct beatum Dei famulum.” ALDEBERT 193 of grace by an angel before he came forth from the womb. We have no record of the rest of the autobiography. When it had been read to the very end, Zacharias, the most blessed and most holy Pope, said: What do you say to these blasphemies, most holy brothers ? Epiphanius, the most holy Bishop of the holy Church of Silva Candida, said : “ Of a certainty, apostolic lord, the heart of your apostleship was moved by divine inspiration to urge the said Boniface, our most holy brother, to hold a council in those parts, so that these schisms and blasphemies have not been concealed from your holy apostleship.’'’ Another of Aldebert’s documents was read, namely, a letter of our Lord Jesus Christ, which descended from heaven, and was found in Jerusalem by the Archangel Michael near the gate of Ephraim. By the hands of a sacerdos named Icore it was copied, and he sent the letter itself to the city Geremia to another sacerdos, Talasius. The Latin of the letter, it may be remarked, is as bad as its contents. Talasius sent it to the city Arabia, to another sacerdos, Leoban. Leoban sent it to the city Vetfania, where it was received by another sacerdos, Macrius. Macrius sent it to the Mount of the holy Archangel Michael. Thence by the hand of an angel of God it reached the city of Rome, and the place of sepulture of the holy Peter, where are placed the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And twelve papati 1 in the city of Rome appointed three days vigil of fasting and prayer, night and day, . . . and the rest up to the end. We may fairly compare with this—except so far as the insanities of all these sacerdotes, and cities, and 1 Men of papal dignity. 194 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS archangels and angels are concerned—the letter which a Pope soon after this sent to the Franks from St. Peter, the Virgin Mary, and himself. 1 At a third session, after the initial ceremony, Denehard was asked had he any more writings of Aldebert ? Yes, he had a prayer which Aklebert had composed. The prayer was read. It began thus : “ O Lord God omnipotent, Father of Christ, the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ and Alpha and Omega, who sittest above the seventh throne, and above Cherubin and Seraphin, great piety and abundant sweetness is with Thee. O Father of holy angels, who hast made heaven and earth, and all things therein, Thee I invoke, Thee I call, Thee I summon to me most miserable, for Thou hast deigned to say, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, I have given unto you.” In the course of the reading, they came to this passage: “1 pray you, I conjure you, I supplicate you, angel Uriel, angel Raguel, angel Tubuel, angel Michael, angel Adinus, angel Tubuas, angel Sabaoc, angel Simiel.” Zacharias asked the synod what their judgement was. They declared that these writings should be burned, and the authors anathematized. They declared that the only one of these eight names which was the name of an angel was Michael, the rest must be names of demons. The holy apostleship of the Pope had taught them, and divine authority had handed it down, that only three names of angels are known, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael. The Pope replied that the advice to burn the documents was excellent; but it would be better to 1 See Alenin of York, S.P.C.K., page 199. ALDEBERT AND CLEMENT 195 keep them in his holy records for the perpetual confusion of the writer. He then anathematized Aldebert and Clement, cut them off entirely from the sacred ministry, and desired the Frankish princes to keep them in solitary confinement. It is rather remarkable that these Roman bishops and priests should be so positive that only three names of angels were known. Uriel is known as the fourth archangel, and the three angels who made up, with the archangels, the complete number seven, were Chamuel, Jophiel, and Zadkiel. It is true, however, that these angels of the Jews have not been recognized by the Christian Churches of East or West. Aldebert and Clement were by no means disposed of. We have a letter from Zacharias to Boniface a year and a half later, in which he tells him that Pepin, the most excellent Mayor of the Palace of the Frank race, has consulted him on several points, on which the Pope sends writings, though he is aware that Boniface knows the view of the holy see. A Council is to be called to have these writings read. “ When the Council for this purpose is assembled, Boniface is to bring before it those sacrilegious and contumacious ex-bishops Aldebert, Godalsacius, 1 and Clement, that their case may be thoroughly sifted. “ If it is found that when convicted of wandering from (he right way they are ready to return to the way of righteousness, dispose of them in concert with the prince of the province, in accordance with the sanctions of the sacred canons, in such way as may seem good and pleasing in your eyes. But if they persist in their pride, contumaciously proclaiming that they are not guilty, send them to us, with two or three of the 1 This is t)ie only mention of this culprit. 196 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS most approved and prudent of your priests, that their case may receive profound investigation at the apostolic see, and the final judgement which they prove to deserve may be given.” This is a useful example of the rapid growth of the practice of summoning accused persons to Rome for trial, as the final court of ecclesi¬ astical appeal. We hear no more in the Bonifatian documents of these persons. CHAPTER XI Letter of Zacharias to the Gallic Franks.—Proposed restora¬ tion of inetropolitical order.—The Pope’s approval.—His per¬ turbation.—Asserted inexpensiveness of the Pall.—Boniface’s position in Bavaria.—Width of his commission.—The Pope’s letter to the bishops of the whole area and to the laymen. It is evident that a real and great clearing out of unsatisfactory ministers of religion was effected at the Council of Soissons. This is perhaps best shown in the opening paragraph of the letter which Zacharias addressed to all who had been present or had helped to carry out the cleansing work of those who were present 1 :—• “ Zacharias the Pope to all bishops, priests, deacons, abbats, and to all dukes and counts, and to all w r ho fear God throughout the Galliae and the province of the Franks. “ Our most reverend and most holy brother Boniface the Bishop has told us that when the synod was gathered together in your province according to our monition, by the action of our sons Pepin and Carlo- man your princes, the aforesaid Boniface conducting it in our stead, the Lord inclined your hearts, with your princes, to his teaching, so that you obeyed all his monitions and expelled from among you both false and schismatic and homicidal and fornicating bishops 1 Ep. 61 ; Oct. 81, 745. o 198 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS and priests L For this we give thanks to our Omni¬ potent God.” Curiously enough the Pope proceeds to develop the subject of the homicidal priest, and his intention seems to us better than his logic, as also better than the ill compliment he pays to the success in arms of the dukes and counts :— “ The reason why all the pagan races prevailed against you in war is that there was difference between the lay folk and the priests to whom fighting was forbidden. For what victory is given if in one hour priests perform the Lord’s mysteries and present the Lord Christ’s Body for the redemption of their own souls, and afterwards, with their own sacrilegious hands, kill either Christians to whom they ought to minister the Lord’s Body or pagans to whom they ought to preach Christ ? ” Boniface had informed Zacharias in his first letter that among the needs of the Frank Church under Carloman was the restoration of metropolitieal order ; that Church had not had an archbishop for a great many years last past. In the report of the acts and decrees of Carloman’s two Austrasian Councils nothing is said about arch¬ bishops. But the subject was dealt with at the joint Council of Austrasia and Neustria held by Pepin and Carloman some little time after, and it was agreed to appoint three metropolitans, Rouen, Reims, and Sens. The fact, and the names of the persons selected, 1 One word, sacerdotes. To translate either only bishops or only priests seems impossible, here and in so many places. Presbyteros is the word used by Boniface for priests who have not been advanced to the episcopate. Sacerdotes frequently has to be taken as applied to all who have received ordination to the priesthood. THREE METROPOLITANS 199 Boniface reported to the Pope, but we do not possess the letter in which lie sent the information of the accomplished fact. Zacharias had replied on June 22 , 7 44 1 :— “ You have shown us how God has touched the hearts of our most excellent sons Pepin and Carloman, so that by divine inspiration they strive to be your allies and aid us in your preaching. “ As regards the metropolitan bishops whom you [‘ thou/ not ‘ ye ’] have appointed for each metropolis in the provinces, Grimo, whom we already know, Abel, and Hartbercht 2 ; these on your testimony we confirm, and we send palls for their most firm establishment, for the greater glory of God, that they may go for¬ ward to better things. What the custom of the pall is, and how they who have licence to use it are to expound their faith, we have informed them, telling them the use of the pall,—to preach to those who are in their charge the way of salvation; that in their churches the ecclesiastical discipline may be kept unmutilated and remain unshaken; that the priest¬ hood that is in them may not be polluted, as formerly it was, but be clean and accepted of God so far as human conditions allow ; that none may be found to deviate from the canons, and that a clean sacrifice be by them immolated ; so that God in their gifts is pleased, and the people of God, their minds purged of all squalor, may be strong to show forth the sincere duty of the Christian religion.” Four months and a half later, November 5, 744, there came a letter showing much perturbation on the part of the Pope. 3 It would seem that the three 1 Ep. 57. 2 Respectively Rouen. Reims, and Sens. 3 Ep. 58 ; Nov. 5, 744. 200 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS metropolitans had considered the position they would be in it‘ they accepted the pall. It must, they knew, mean something much more than, and quite different from, the curious statement of its use given above by Zacharias. If that was all, every priest should have it or every bishop and priest could do without it. “We have received by the bearer of this present letter the letter of your most holy brotherliness, and on reading its contents we are plunged into wonder and amazement, so very different is it from what you wrote to us only last August. In that former letter you told us that a Council had been held by the aid of God and with the consent and assistance of Carlo- man ; and how you had suspended from the sacred office certain false priests who were unworthy of the divine ministry ; and you disclosed to us that you had appointed three archbishops to be metropolitans, Grimo in the city of Rouen, Abel in the city of Reims, and Hartbert in the city of Sens. We learned this also from Carloman and Pepin. You advised that we should send three palls to the three named metro¬ politans, and this we granted for the unification and reformation of the churches. But now we receive your latest letter, and are, as we have said, astonished that whereas you in concert with the above-named princes of the Gallican provinces asked for three palls, you now ask for a pall for Grimo alone. We desire that your brotherliness will indicate to us why you have asked at first for three and afterwards for only one, so that we may have full knowledge and not remain in doubt/' The natural explanation is that when Abel and Hartbert discovered what they would be undertaking- if they accepted the pallium, they declined it, in ac- THE COST OF THE PALL 201 cordance with the independence which for many cen¬ turies marked the Gallican Church. " We have found, too, that in your letter, which has been too disturbing to our mind, you have written of us as though we were corrupters of the Canons and aimed at rescinding the traditions of the Fathers, by falling with our clerks into the heresy of simony, which be far from us; namely, by compelling those to whom we give palls to make presents to us, de¬ manding money of them. Dearest brother, we exhort your sanctity that you never again write to us any¬ thing of this kind, for we take it as offensive and injurious that we should be credited with action which we detest. Far be it from us and our clerks that we should sell at a price the gift which we have received by the grace of the Holy Spirit. As regards the three palls for which, as we have said, you asked, no one has sought any gain from them. The charters of confirmation, too, which according to custom are issued from our office, we have granted at our own cost, taking nothing from them. Far be it that your sanctity urge the charge of simony against us, for we anathematize all who dare to sell at a price the gift of the Holy Spirit. “ You mentioned to us also in your letter that you had found in Bavaria a false priest who affirmed that he had been ordained bishop by us. Your brotherliness acted well in suspending him from the priesthood, for a man who is false in one is false in all. By the authority of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, we enjoin upon you never by any means to allow any one whom you find deviating from the sacred canons to degrade the sacred ministry. “You have asked if you are to have the right of .202 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS preaching over the province of Bavaria which was conceded to you by our predecessor. We increase rather than diminish that concession. And not in Bavaria only, but in the whole of the province of the Galliae we enjoin you that in our place you preach with spiritual zeal the reformation of all that is contrary to the Christian religion or the canonical institutions/’ It is very unfortunate that we have lost the letter of Boniface in which he—as it would appear—so frankly spoke to the Pope on the subject of the pecuniary demands of Rome. The Pope had not at that time become a wealthy temporal sovereign, with money enough for his own needs and those of his officials, and we should not have been surprised to hear that the necessary documents cost money, as letters patent do. It may be remarked, with regard to the inexpensiveness of the pall, that if what the Pope said was in accordance with the facts, a great change came in the course of time. The chaplain of one of our Archbishops of Canterbury who was a member of a mendicant order, tells of the shock caused to the archiepiscopal mendicant when the bill was presented to him at Rome. The bill was horribilis in aspect a et auclitu terribilis, horrible to look at, and when read out terrible. It is unnecessary to add that extortions of the Court of Rome had much to do with creating and developing the English desire to make an end once for all. Boniface excuses himself to the Pope in a letter 1 the fullness and fulsomeness of the address of which con¬ trasts curiously with the meagreness of the address of his first letter to this Pope :— 1 Ep. 86; a.d. 751. THE PALLS .203 “ To the most reverend father, most loved lord, master with fear and honour to be venerated, en¬ dowed with the privilege of apostolic honour, exalted with the fillet of the pontificate of the apostolic see, Zacharias, Boniface the humble, your servant though unworthy and last of all, and yet Germanic legate most devoted, all health of unfailing love in Christ that can be wished for. “ I beg the indulgence of the apostolic see for having some time ago made known to your holiness the matter of the archbishops of the Franks and the request for palls from the Roman Church, trusting in their promises. What they promised they have de¬ layed and not fulfilled. They are still discussing the matter, and it is not known what they will do. But so far as my will went, the promises would have been fulfilled.” Zacharias made one more answer, and the matter rested where it was 1 :— “ You have written about the Frank bishops and the palls, that the promises have not been carried out. If they still fulfil them, they will have praise ; but if they do not, they shall themselves see 2 . But we, the divine grace enabling us, what we have freely received freely give. Your benign will in the matter we recognize.” The width of the commission to Boniface, that is of the area over which Boniface had developed the supremacy of the Pope, may be gathered from the list of bishops to whom on May 1, 748, he sent a letter commending to them Boniface. 3 He desires them to receive in his stead, for the strengthening 1 Ep. 87; Nov. 4, 751. 2 Ipsi vidcbwit. A rather inadequate threat. 3 Ep. 82. 204 BONIFACE AND HIS COMPANIONS oi' their love and as a fellow labourer with them for the Gospel of Christ,