94 FOURTH PERIOD. A.D. 590-1049.
From this time his work assumed a more systematic character in the closest contact with Rome as the centre of Christendom. Fortified with letters of commendation, he attached himself for a short time to the court of Charles Martel, who pushed his schemes of conquest towards the Hessians. Aided by this secular help and the Pope's spiritual authority, he made rapid progress. By a master stroke of missionary policy he laid the axe to the root of Teutonic heathenism ; with his own hand, in the presence of a vast assembly, he cut down the sacred and inviolable oak of the Thunder-God at Geismar (not far from Fritzlar), and built with the planks an oratory or church of St. Peter. His biog rapher, Willibald, adds that a sudden storm from heaven came to his aid and split the oak in four pieces of equal length. This practical sermon was the death and burial of German mythology. He received from time to time supplies of books, monks and nuns from England. The whole church of England took a deep
Magno imperatore, anno 7 post consulatum ejus, sed et Constant ini Magni imperatoris ejus filii anno 4, indictione 6. Promitto ego Bonifacius, Dei gratia episcopus, tibi, beate Petre, apostolorum princeps, vicarioque tuo beato Gregorio papce, et successoribus ejus, per Patrem et Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum, Trinitatem inseparabilem, et hoc sacratissimum corpus tuum, me omnem fidem et puritatem sanctce fidei catholicce exhibere, et in unitate ejusdem fidei, Deo operante, persistere in quo omnis Christianorum salus esse sine dubio comprobatur, nullo modo me contra unitatem communis et universalis Ecclesice, suadente quopiam, consentire, sed, ut dixi, fidem et puritatem meam atque concursum, tibi et utilitatibus tuce Ecclesice, cui a Domino Deo potestas ligandi solvendique data est, et prcedicto vicario tuo atque successoribus ejus, per omnia exhi bere. Sed et si cognovero antistites contra instituta antiqua sanctorum Patrum conversari, cum eis nullam habere communionem aut conjunctionem ; sed magis, si valuero prohibere, prohibeam ; si minus, hoc fideliter statim Domino meo apostolico renuntiabo. Quod si, quod absit, contra hujus professionis mece seriem aliquid facere quolibet modo, seu ingenio, vel occasione, tentavero, reus inveniar in cRterno judicio, ultionem Ananias et Saphirce incurram, qui vorbis etiam de rebus propriis fraudem facere prcesumpsit : hoc autem indiculum sacramenti ego Bonifacius exiguus episco pus manu propria scripsi, atque ponens supra sacratissimum corpus sancti Petri, ita ut prcescriptum, Deo teste et judice, fed sacramentum, quod et conservare promitto" With all his devotion to the Roman See, Boniface was manly and independent enough to complain in a letter to Pope Zacharias of the scandalous heathen •practices in Rome which were reported by travellers and filled the German Christians with prejudice and disobedience to Rome. See the letter in Migne, 1. c. p. 746 sqq.
£25. BONIFACE, THE APOSTLE OF GERMANY. 95
interest in his work, as we learn from his correspondence. He founded monastic colonies near Erfurt, Fritzlar, Ohrdruf, Bischofsheim, and Homburg. The victory of Charles Martel over the Saraeens at Tours (732) cheeked the westward progress of Islam and insured the triumph of Christianity in central Europe.
Boniface was raised to the dignity of archbishop (without a see) and papal legate by the new Pope Gregory III. (732), and thus enabled to coerce the refractory bishops.
In 738 he made his third and last pilgrimage to Koine with a great retinue of monks and converts, and received authority to call a synod of bishops in Bavaria and Allemannia. On his return he founded, in concert with Duke Odilo, four Bavarian bishop rics at Salzburg, Freising, Passau, and Katisbon or Regensburg (739). To these he added in central Germany the sees of Wiirzburg, Buraburg (near Frit/lar), Erfurt, Eichstudt (742). He held several synods in Mainz and elsewhere for the organization
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of the churches and the exercise of discipline. The number of his baptized converts till 739 is said to have amounted to many thousands.
In 743 he was installed Archbishop of Mainz or Mayence (Moguntum) in the place of bishop Gervillius (Gewielieb) who was deposed for indulging in sporting propensities and for homi cide in battle. His diocese extended from Cologne to Strasburg and even to Coire. He wrould have preferred Cologne, but the clergy there feared his disciplinary severity. He aided the sons of Charles Martel in reducing the Gallic clergy to obedience, exterminating the Keltic clement, and consolidating the union with Rome.
In 744, in a council at Soissons, where twenty-three bishops were present, his most energetic opponents were condemned. In the same year, in the very heart of Germany, he laid the foundation of Fulda, the greatest of his monasteries, which be came the Monte Casino of Germany.
In 753 he named Lull or Lnllus his successor at Mainz. Laying aside his dignities, he became once more an humble