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S u n a n d C r o s s
by Jakob Streit
(Edinburgh: Floris Books)
Chapter 17: Boniface and the destruction of the Celtic Church in Germany
"A century after Columbanus, Boniface (675-754), An Anglo-Saxon, developed his activities on the Continent, but under a different banner. He, too, worked steadfastly and untiringly. He has been called the 'Apostle of the Germans' by historians not entirely free from bias. Detailed knowledge of his work reveals that he was less a 'converter of the heathen' than a commissioner with the task of bringing into the Roman Church those regions on the mainland which had been Christianized by the Irish and the Scots. Boniface was to have the task and fate of doing on the Contient what Wilfrid had done in England. The story of his life is also an account of excessive repression and destruction of the Celtic movement and the achievement of total Romanization in northern Europe, above all in Germany.
His Anglo-Saxon name was originally Wynfrith. He was born about 675 at Crediton in Wessex and was educated, it is thought, in the monastery at Exeter.
It is known that he was subsequently for some time at the Nursling Monastery between Southampton and Winchester. There, in 710 he was ordained as priest. When he was forty he went to Frisia (Holland), where the Celt Willibrord and his companions had been missionaries. Willibrord was now Bishop of Utrecht. Political warfare, however, between Duke Radbod and Charles Martel was contrary to Wynfrith's plans for a mission to the heathen. The hopelessness of his situation led to his return to his homeland and to monastic life. In the autumn of 718 Wynfrith left England for Rome. (Buchner 1963 4b:47). He put himself completely at the disposal of Pope Gregory II as a 'helper of the Church' to work for the Roman Church in Germany and Frisia. He was entrusted with this duty by the Pope and given the name Bonifatius (the saint whose day it was). He travelled through Bavaria to Thuringia.
From Willibald's Life of St Boniface (the author was one of his pupils) there is this passage (Talbot 1954, 40):
… so in Thuringia the saint followed out the instructions given to him by the Holy See. He spoke to the elders of the Churches and the princes of the people with words of spiritual exhortation, recalling them to the true way of knowledge and the light of understanding which for the greater part they had lost through the perversity of their teachers.The Irish and the Celts were the 'bad teachers'. Significantly these were seldom described by the name of their country of origin in the letters of the Pope and Boniface, but rather by the dismissive titles of 'false teachers', 'seducers', 'heretics', and so on. In Thuringia the companions of the Irishman Kilian (died c. 689) had previously carried out missionary work from a centre at Würzburg.
The journey brought Boniface to Frisia once more. He stayed in a number of Celtic monasteries on his way, and this enabled him to acquire a clear idea of the Christianity which was widespread there. He got to know the priests and bishops. It is not known if he had any companions on this first journey. When he arrived in Frisia he called himself by his old name of Wynfrith and avoided using the name of Boniface given him in Rome. He was silent, too, about the papal commission. He was probably silent about this with Willibrord in Utrecht. Willibrord had established an understanding with Rome after a journey there, but in his personal attitude and belief remained completely in the Celtic tradition (Ebrard 1873, 398). In the course of three years he won Willibrord's trust. But when there was consideration of the question of Willibrord's succession and a higher position was proposed for Wynfrith he confessed that as the Pope's representative he could not accept a higher priestly office without Rome's permission. At this Willibrord dismissed him immediately. Ebrard concludes from his research that as well as practical study of missionary work Boniface practised a method of investigation when he was with Willibrord so that as an expert on this region he might the better fulfil his Roman mission later on.
On continuing his travels Boniface had his first success in Germany at the monastery of Amöneburg (Hesse). This monastery was led by twin monks according to Celtic custom. Boniface appeared there purporting to represent Willibrord, who was said to be willing now to support Rome. The brothers at first did not trust him but he succeeded in convincing them, and he gave them baptism according to the Roman rites (Wissig 1932, 25). With the help of some Benedictines from England he succeeded in carrying out in a very short time a large number of rebaptisms in lower Hesse. These were reported to Rome as 'conversions of thousands of heathen' (Ebrard 1873, 399).
17.2 The missionary bishop
In the same year Boniface responded to a request made in a letter from the Pope and undertook a second journey to Rome. There on November 30, 722, as the successful convertor of the heathen and servant of the Church, he was ordained missionary bishop. Willibald reports (talbot 1954, 45):
[The Pope] put into his hands the book in which the most sacred laws and canons of the Church and the decrees of episcopal synods have been inscribed or compiled, commanding him that henceforth this norm of Church conduct and belief should be kept inviolate and that the people under his jurisdiction should be taught on these lines.In his oath of office taken by the apostolic grave of Peter, Boniface swore (Talbot 1954, 70f):
Should it come to my notice that some bishops deviate from the teachings of the Fathers I will have no part or lot with them, but as far as in me lies I will correct them, or, if that is impossible, I will report the matter to the Holy See. And if (which G-d forbid) I should be led astray into any course of action contrary to this my oath, may I be found guilty at the last judgement and suffer the punishment…The next day (December 1, 722) letters of fraternity to Germania were written to ecclesiastical and secular notables. Boniface was to conduct missionary work; in addition, though, 'when he finds those who have been led astray from the path of true faith … he may reprove them … But if (which G-d forbid) any man should attempt to hinder his efforts … may he be cursed by the judgement of G-d and condemned to eternal damnation.' (Talbot 1954, 71f).
In a letter to Charles Martel, Boniface was introduced and recommended as the 'bishop appointed to the German people'. The secular arm was often called on by his mission, and Boniface visited the court of Charles Martel in person to discuss the papal commission with him.
Despite his various letters of recommendation, Boniface had much to contend with in Thuringia on his second visit there when he tried to work in the spirit of the Pope's letter.
[He wanted] in his preaching to show them the path of salvation, and he wanted to correct the errors of those whom he found to have digressed in any way from the path of true belief or to have been led into error by the devil's cunning. He wanted to bring them back into the harbour of salvation by his teaching, and instruct them in the Roman doctrine… (Wissig 1932, 41).On the Büraburg at Fritzlar there had been a large Catholic settlement with a Brigit chapel. Here Boniface had an ancient centre for worship of the gods destroyed. To his mind ancient worship of the gods was the work of the devil, whereas the Irish were tolerant towards old cults and customs. In a letter to Bishop Daniel of Winchester he complains of the 'false priests and hypocrites' in Thuringia, and that he had to fight them, because they had a hold over the people. He said that there were many who were sinfully married and such people as practised godlessness and lived on milk and honey (Talbot 1954, 116f).
Boniface had once more to turn to the power of Charles Martel, the ruler of the country, for help. Pope Gregory sent a suitable missive to Charles Martel, and the appeal was successful. More and more Celtic clergy were driven away or replaced by Roman clergy. The manifold foundation of monasteries so often attributed to Boniface was for the most part a reorganization of Celtic monasteries. The widespread missionary work of the Celts was seldom mentioned by its original name in the letters by either Boniface or the Pope. Quite understandably from their interpretation of history it seemed never to have existed. And consequently the historical concept has formed that the Celtic Church, which fell under Rome's influence and was transformed, never actually existed. [Many of those today so laudably remembering our Celtic heritage all too often fail to notice the extent to which the leaders of the Celtic Church passed over in silence their own many and very considerable debts to the original British Church, partly, no doubt, because of the traumatic events of 535-542. Cf Adrian Gilbert, Alan Wilson & Baram Blackett, The Holy Kingdom (Corgi Books, 1999.]
17.3 The Archbishop
In February 731 Gregory II died. Boniface immediately established contact with his successor, Gregory III, and in 732 he granted him the pallium to indicate his status of archbishop, and at the same time gave him the right to consecrate or dethrone bishops. Among the written commissions Boniface received from Gregroy there is this passage (Talbot 1954, 85f):
Those whom you say were baptized by Pagans [this means the Celts] and the case is proved should be baptized again in the name of the Trinity…Boniface then travelled through Bavaria with a young companion, Sturmin. Here there were a number of Celtic bishops and a population which adhered to this form of Christianity. Boniface made plans with the help of Duke Odilo to 'reform Bavaria according to Canon Law' (Rau 1968, 5). A certain Gregory of Utrecht had also joined him as a companion, whom Boniface viewed as his successor.
You ask for advice on the lawfulness of making offering for the dead. The teaching of the Church is this - that every man should make offerings for those who died as true Christians [that is, Roman Catholics] and that the priest should make a commemoration of them… But he is not allowed to do so for those who die in a state of sin, even if they were Christians.
17.4 Legate for Germania
Boniface made his third visit to Rome in 737. Gregory III appointed him legate of Germania, and a letter to the bishops of Bavaria introduced Boniface as 'Deputy of the Pope'. He requested them: 'And you should firmly maintain the Church service and the Catholic faith in the manner according to your rules of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church… You should reject and obstruct the intrusion of the Britons and false, heretical priests' (Buchner 1963, 4b:129).
A second missive of Gregory III in 738 went 'to the magnates and people in Thuringia'. It gave instructions that only bishops consecated by Boniface were to be tolerated '… and should he by chance find any who have strayed from the true belief or oppose what the dogmas ordain, he is not to be restricted in his actions in any way by you' (IBuchner 1963, 4b:47).
Boniface asserted that in Bavaria 'this people live outside the rule of the Church and have only one [legitimate] bishop' (Schieffer 1954, 183). Consequently a third missive was sent by Gregory to thse, for the most part Celtic, bishops in Bavaria and Alemannia. This letter contained no greeting but began with this instruction (Ebrard 1873, 415):
The Catholic authority orders a synod to be held twice a year, so that canonical security can be investigated. You should therefore organize a synod in Augsburg which should receive Boniface with full honours as the Pope's Deputy and support the command of the Church as the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of G-d, and reject the heathen rites and doctrines from Britain or from false priests and heretics, ninety-nine in number.Over his activity in Bavaria, the Vita of Willibald gives additional information: In Bavaria '… he armed himself with such a holy zeal that he drove out a schismatic who was sunk in heretical delusions, a man by the name of Eremwulf, after first condemning him according to canonical rule … He renewed the shrine of the true faith… and drove the destroyers of the Church and corrupters of the people out'. (Buchner 1963, 4b:501). With the agreement of Duke Odilo and the magnates of the country, the new order was established. Boniface had authority to appoint and dismiss bishops, which he used whenever the Celtic bishops did not acknowledge him. Schieffer (1954, 103) makes the relevant comment: 'This was a furious clash between the two historical forces… a standardized institution with general laws and claims to be a universal Church, and a living, justly organized but unregulated ecclesiasticism.'
17.5 Pope Zacharias and Boniface
In 741 two supporters of Boniface died: Charles Martel and Pope Gregory III. On the secular side the successors were Pepin the Short and Carloman, the two sons of Charles Martel. Zacharias ascended the See of Peter, a man who understood Boniface's activities completely and who continued to support them. He replied as follows to a letter from Boniface (Talbot 1954, 103f):
… many who call themselves priests hardly know what the priesthood is … As I have said previously, we commend you to suspend them from the performance of priestly duties and the handling of the sacred mysteries. If you find that they have acted contrary to the laws of the Church in any other matters, consult the canons and decrees of the Fathers and make your decision accordingly.Duke Odilo does not appear to have been quite convinced by the policy and activity of Boniface. In 744 he appointed the Irishman Virgilius (Fergil). This man spent the years from 741 to 743 at Peppin's court. Peppin had highly esteemed this outstanding Irish scholar (Cerbelaud & Cerbealud 1961, 210f). He sent him to Odilo with a recommendation, and Odilo shortly afterwards let him take over the Bishopric of Salzburg with a Roman consecration.
Boniface vigorously attacked Virgilius and called upon Pope Zacharias to help him in driving him out. Zacharias answered (Buchner 1963, 4b:267):
… this Virgilius … was found guilty by you of deviating from Catholic doctrine … If it is established that in his opinion there is yet another world and other human beings under the earth [the Irish already had some advanced astronomical understanding], and [there is] another sun and moon, you are to hold a Church assembly and drive him out of the Church after you have stripped him of his priestly status.He was then to be brought to Rome and condemned, if he was found to be heretical.
In the meantime Virgilius had established himself so strongly in the affections of the people and in the opinion of Duke Odilo that this did not happen. In addition, he had strong supporters in the Celtic bishops of Bavaria and Austria. Virgilius survived Boniface by three decades and remained until his death in 784 a brillian embodiment of the free, Irish school of thought.
17.6 Concilium Germanicum
Carloman was one of the two sons of Charles Martel who at first gave the stronger support to the Romanization plans of Boniface. (Later he chose the Benedictine monastery on Monte Cassino as a refuge and died there.) He had scarcely come to power when Boniface requested him to summon an all-German Council the Concilium Germanicum. This met on April 21, 742 at an unknown place. Only adherents of one school of thought were invited. The Bavarian bishops were not there, and others refused to attend as a protest (Schieffer 1954, 208f). Carloman announced: 'In accordance with the advice of the clergy and of my magnates we have appointed bishops in the individual cities and over them have placed Boniface, the emissary of St Peter, as archbishop.'
The additional demand was made by Boniface that in future only bishops consecrated by him should be recognized. The Celtic priests were to be removed from their positions. Celibacy was to be compulsory and Roman vestments were to be the only permitted dress of priests. A special book of laws with punishment clauses was issued (Buchner 1963, 4b:381):
We have decided that in accordance with the warning given in the statutes of the Church we shall allow no priest or bishop coming from abroad, no matter from whence he comes, into the service of the Church without the approval of the synod.
In this way a comprehensive device was created for excluding the active exponents of Irish Christianity. A few individual cases are known of the application of these sanctions. One is found in the correspondence of Boniface, as the case was taken as far as a Lateran Council. It concerned Clement of Rouen, 'a Scot' (Buchner 1963, 4b:401):
Clement attacks the Catholic Church, he denies and rejects the dogmas of the Church of Christ, he condemns the writings and teachings of the Holy Fathers Jerome, Augustine and Gregory … therefore I also request concerning this heretic that you entrust Duke Carloman with the duty of taking him into custody, so that he can no longer spread this see of Satan.A fellow-sufferer with Clement of Rouen was Aldebert of Verdun. They both lacked ordination according to Roman rites and were both married. They were both accustomed to assemble the people in the open country by a cross they set up, this being an Irish custom. They were also charged with having built churches without having dedicated them to a saint. In addition they held people back from making a pilgrimage to Rome. In a Council of Soissons they were both dismissed from their office in the presence of twenty-three bishops. In addition Aldebert was anathematized and the crucifixes in the countryside destroyed. An anonymous writer of Mainz reported that 'Aldebert was locked up by Wynfrith [Boniface] in a dark dungeon in the monastery at Fulda, tortured there for a long time, and murdered by the cowherds when he attempted to escape.' (Ebrard 1873, 432ff).
The wave of persecution released by the Concilium Germanicum went further. The usual style in which Church history is written, refers to this as follows (Schieffer 1954, 152): 'A fierce conflict developed with the uncanonical elements in the native clergy. But Boniface, after a brief struggle, won. He was able to fight them with the authority of the bishop and drove them out of their churches.'
For Boniface this 'brief struggle' lasted at the outset for twenty years and continued until his death in 754. And the ecclesiastical historian Schieffer (1954, 146) maintains accordingly: 'The actual "conversion of the heathen" is only a temporary and territorially limited phase in Boniface's life …' Apart from the felling of Odin's Oak, nothing is known. He sums up: 'Scholarly attempts to throw light on his "missionary methods" have remained without any tangible results.' Ebrard (1873, 537) adds that in Boniface's correspondence for over twenty-four years the words 'conversion of the heathen' never occur.
In 747 Carloman visited the monastery of St Gallen. At his command it was obliged immediately to introduce the Benedictine Rule and dress. The monks are said to have continued for some decades to wear the white Irish habit underneath the brown cowl. The beautiful manuscripts of this monastery show a great deal of Irish spirituality survived in St Gallen.
17.7 The Last Years
Already advanced in years, Boniface spent his last years consolidating his work of Romanization. He replaced the Celtic Bishop Milo at Rheims as well as Bishop Gewilib at Mainz (Ebrard 1873, 436). He took over the metropolitan see of Mainz in person. Together with his pupil Sturmin he founded the Benedictine monastery at Fulda. In Cologne and Speyer he established the Roman Episcopates. Measures of this sort led again and again to disputes and struggles.
Pepin, until now the major-domo for the Merovingian King Childerich III, had turned more and more to the growing power of Rome. Pope Zacharias rewarded him by helping him to depose King Childerich and placed him in a monastery. Thereupon after the Great Council at Soissons in 751 Peopin was immediately anointed as the new king by the Roman-Frankish bishops. Zacharias died a year later. His successor, Stephen III, visited Pepin personally in 754, and at St Denis near Paris he crowned Pepin again. In return for this Pepin advanced on Italy. He fought against the Lombard king and confirmed the Pope's possession of the Papal States with a deed of gift. At that Pepin was given the title of 'Roman Patrician'. In this way the ever-growing close relationship of the Roman Church with the secular state-power reached a new height. This meant, too, that the suppression of the last refuges of Celtic Christianity in the vast realm of the Carolingians was only a matter of time.
In a letter written by Boniface in his old age as a bishop there is a passage which gives sudden insight into the inner tragedy of the great fanatic: 'From external struggle, from inner fear … I need counsel and consolation in the anxieties and anguish of my weary spirit.'
Approaching eighty years of age he made his way to the court of Pepin, the king crowned by Rome, in order to discuss with him the state of ecclesiastical affairs in Utrecht and Frisia. Pepin had at Boniface's request appointed his pupil and designated successor Lullus as prædicator et pastor Germaniæ and Metropolitan of Mainz. Boniface then undertook a campaign against the heathen Saxon.
Boniface spent the winter of 753-754 in Utrecht. He appointed Eoban as the new bishop. In the course of his journey he was set upon by a number of Saxons who killed him and his companions. His body was brought to Fulda, where his veneration as 'Apostle of Germany' was thereafter cultivated. This continues to the present day, contrary to historical reality."
The above copyright © extract from the English translation of Jakob Streit's original German text may encourage readers to study the complete work. The author grew up in Spier, Switzerland, a district to which Irish monks brought Christianity over a thousand years ago. He studied natural history and history of art. He is a teacher both in child and adult education. For some years he had produced open-air dramatic performances.
Also available from Floris Books: Eleanor Merry's The Flaming Door (a contribution to the renewal of Celtic mythology), Fiona Macleod's Iona (some traditional stories collected by William Sharp), and Alexander Carmichael's The Sun Dances (a collection of prayers and blessings from the Gælic).
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