were his liegemen and appointees.* They recognized the

king's virtually unlimited authority, which they patterned

on the absolute power of the Roman Emperors and the

• prerogatives of David and Solomon. In fine, the Mero-

: I vingian Church was a national church, subject to the king.

1 1 Until the seventh century it was quite independent of the

^:. Bishop of Rome.*

It is common knowledge — especially vivid with readers

> In those of its lands which were granted immunity from public burdens, the
Church gradually acquired a jurisdiction by reason of its right to exact penalties
which elsewhere fell to the king.

* The synod of 54Q declared (ineffectually) for the election of bishopSp to be fol-
lowed by royal confirmation.

•Hauck, Kirchenges. Deutschlands, Bd. I. Buch. ii. Kap. ii.; MdUer, Kirchtrnge-
sckichU^ Bd. II. p. 52 sqq. (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1893).



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CHAP. DC CONVERSION OF THE NORTH 195

of the famous Hisioria Francarum of Gr^;ory of Tours —
that, ethically viewed, the conduct of the Merovingian house
was cruel, treacherous, and abominable; and likewise the
conduct of their vassals. Prankish kings and nobles appear 1
as men no longer boimd by the ethics of the heathenism j
which they had forsworn, and as yet untouched by the 1
moral precepts of the Christian code. Not Christianity,^
however, but contact with decadent civilization, and rapid {
increase of power and wealth, had loosened their heathen J
standards. Merovingian history leaves a unique impression
of a line of rulers and dependents among whom mercy and
truth and chastity were imknown. The element of sixth-
century Christianity which the Franks made their own were
its rites, its magic, and its miracles, and its e3^>ectation of ^
the aid of a God and His saints duly solicited. Here the
customs of heathenism were a prq>aratlon, or themselves
passed into Prankish Christianity. Nevertheless, the general
character of Christian observances — ^baptism, the mass,
prayer, the sign of the cross, the rites at marriage, sickness,
and death — could not fail to impress a certain tone and
demeanour upon the people, and impart some sense of human
sinfulness. The general conviction that patent and out-
rageous crime would bring divine vengeance gained point
and power from the terrific doctrine of the Day of Wrath, i
and the system of penances imposed by the clergy proved |
an excellent discq>line with these rou^ Christians. Many
bishops and priests were little better than the nobles, yet
the Church preserved Christian belief and did something to
improve morality. Everywhere the monk was the most
striking object-lesson, with his austerities, his terror-stricken
sense of sinfulness, and conviction of the peril of the world.
No martial, grasping bishop, no dissolute and treacherous :
priest denied that the monk's was the ideal Christian life;
and the laity stood in awe, or e3^>ectation, of the wonder-
working power of his asceticism. Indeed monastidsm was '|^
becoming popular, and the Merovingian period witnessed
the foundation of numberless cloisters.

In the fifth and through part of the sixth century the
Gallic monastery of LSins, on an island in the Mediterranean, ,
near Fr6jus, was a chief source of ascetic and Christian



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196 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

'^influence for Gaul. Its monks took their precq>ts from
Syria and Egypt, and some of the zeal of St. Martin of
Tours had fallen on their shoulders. As the energy of this
commimity declined, Columban's monastery at Luzeuil
succeeded to the work. The example of Columbanus, his
' precq>ts and severe monastic discipline, proved a source of
. ascetic and missionary zeal. With him or following in his
• steps came other Irishmen ; and heathen German lands soon
looked upon the walls of many an Irish monastery. But
Columbanus failed, and all the Irish failed, in obedience,
order, and effective organization. His own monastic regular
with all its rigour, contained no provisions for the govern-
ment of the monasteries. Without due ordering, bands of
/ monks dwelling in heathen commimities would waver in their
practices and even show a lack of doctrinal stability. Sooner
or later they were certain to become confused in habit and
contaminated with the manners of the surroimding people.
These Irish monasteries omitted to educate a native priest-
hood to perpetuate their Christian teaching. The best of
them, St. Gall (founded by Colimibanus's disdple Gallus),
. might be a citadel of culture, and convert the people about
it, through the talents and character of its founder and his
successors. But other monasteries, farther to the east, were

I tainted with heathen practices. In fine, it was not for the
Irish to convert the great heathen German land, or effect a
lasting reform of .existing churches there or in Gaul.
^ The labours of Anglo-Saxons were fraught with more
^ 'enduring results. Through their abilities and zeal, their
faculty of organization and capacity of submitting to
authority, through their consequent harmony with Rome
and the support given them by the Frankish monarchy,
these Anglo-Saxons converted many German tribes, estab-
lished permanent churches among them, reorganized the
heterogeneous Christianity which they found in certain
German lands, and were a moving factor in the reform of the
Frankish Church. The most striking features of their work
on the Continent were diocesan organization, the training of
a native clergy, the establishment of monasteries under the
Benedictine constitution, union with Rome, obedience to
her conmiands, strenuous conformity to her law, and in-



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CHAP. K CONVERSION OF THE NORTH 197

sistence on like confonnity in others. Thdr presentation ^
of Christianity was orthodox, rq^ular, and authoritative.

Some of these features 2^pear in the work of the Saxoni
Willibrord among the Frisians, but are more largely illus-'
trated in the career of St. Boniface- Winfried. Willibrord
moved imder the authority of Rome ; the varying fortunes
of his labours were connected with the enterprises of Pippin
of Heristal, the father of Charles Martel. They advanced
with the power of that Frankish potentate. But after his
death, during the strife between Neustria and Austrasia, the
heathen Frisian king Radbod drove back Christianity as
he enlarged his dominion at the esipense of the divided
Franks. Later, Charles Martel conquered him, and the,
Frankish power reached (718) to the Zuyder Zee. Under
its protection Willibrord at last foimded the bishopric of *.
Utrecht (734). He succeeded in educating a native clergy;/
and his labours had lasting result among the Frisians who
were subject to the Franks, but not among the free Frisians
and the Danes.

Evidently there was no sharp geographical boimdary i
between Christianity and heathendom. Throughout broad '
territories, Christian and heathen practices mingled. This
was true of the Frisian land. It was true in greater range
and complexity of the still wider fields of Boniface's career. \
This able man surrendered his high station in his native t
Wessex in order to serve Christ more perfectly as a mission- ;
ary monk among the heathen. He went first to Frisia
and worked with \^llibrord, yet refused to be his bishop-
coadjutor and successor, because planning to carry Chris-
tianity into Germany.

His life strikingly exemplifies Anglo-Saxon faculties
working imder the directing power of Rome among heathen
and partly Christian peoples. On his first visit to Rome he •
became imbued with the principles, and learned the ritual, *
of the Roman Church. He returned to enter into relations ^
with Charles Martel, and to labour in Hesse and Thuringia, .
and again with Willibrord in Frisia. Not long afterwards,
at his own solicitation, Gregory H. called him back to
Rome (722), where he fed his passion for punctilious con-
f ormity by binding himself formally to obey the Pope,



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198 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

follow the practices of the Roman Church, and have no

fellowship with bishops whose ways conflicted with them.

^Gregory made him bishop over Thuringia and Hesse, and

sent him back there to reform Christian and heathen com-

mimities. Thus Gregory created a bish(q> within the bounds

/of the Prankish kingdom — an unprecedented act. Never-

f theless, Charles, to whom Boniface came with a letter from

Gregory, received him favourably and furnished him with

a safe conduct, only exacting a recognition of his own

authority.

Boniface set forth upon his mission. In Hesse he cut
down the ancient heathen oak, and made a chapel of its
timber; he preached and he organized — the land was not
altogether heathen. Then he proceeded to Thuringia.
That also was a partly Christian land ; many Irish-Scottish
preachers were labouring or dwelling there. Boniface set
his face against their irregularities as firmly as against
heathenism. Again he dominated and reorganized, yet
continued unfailing in energetic preaching to the heathen.
Gregory watched closely and zealously co-operated.

On the death of the second Gregory in 731, the third
Gregory succeeded to the papacy and continued his pre-
decessor's support of the Anglo-Saxon apostle, making him
archbishop with authority to ordain bishops. Many Anglo-
Saxons, both men and holy women, came to aid their
countryman, and brought their education and their noble
views of life to form centres of Christian culture in the
German lands. Cloisters for nuns, cloisters for monks were
'bounded. The year 744 witnessed the foundation of Fulda
by Sturm imder the direction of Boniface, and destined to
be the very apple of his eye and the monastic model for
Germany. It was placed imder the authority of Rome, with
the consent of Pippin, who then ruled. The reorganization
rather than the conversion of Bavaria was Boniface's next
achievement. The land long before had been partially
Romanized, and now was nominally Christian. Here again
Boniface acted as representative of the Pope, and not of
Charles, although Bavaria was part of the Prankish empire.

The year 738 brought Boniface to Rome for the third
time. He was now yearning to leave the fields already



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CHAP. DC CONVERSION OF THE NORTH 199

tilled, and go as missionary to the heathen Saxons. But •"
Gregory sent him back to complete the reorganization of
the Bavarian Church, and to this large field of action he
added also Alemannia with its diocesan centre at Speyer.^
Here he came in conflict with Prankish bishops, firm in their
secular irregularities. Yet again he prevailed, reorganized
the churches, and placed them imder the authority of Rome.-
Evidently the two Gr^;ories had in large measure turned 1
the energies of Boniface from the mission-field to the labours J
of reform.

On the death of Charles in 741 (and in the same year
died Gregory, to be succeeded by the lukewarm Zacharias)
his sons Carloman and Pippin succeeded to his power. The
following year Carloman in German-speaking Austrasia calledl
a coimdl of his church (Concilium Germanicum pritnum)
imder the primacy of Boniface. Its decrees confirmed the
reforms for which the latter had struggled :

"We Carloman, Duke and Prince of the Franks, in the year 742
of the Incarnation, on the 21st of April, upon the advice of the
servants of God, the bishops and priests of our realm, have
assembled them to take counsel how God's law and the Church's
discipline (fallen to ruin under former princes) may be restored,
and the Christian folk led to salvation, instead of perishing
deceived by false priests. We have set up bishops in the cities, '
and have set over them as archbishop Bonifatius, the legate of ^
St. Peter."

The coimdl decreed that yearly synods should be held,
that the possessions taken from die Church should be re-
stored, and the false priests deprived of thdr emoluments-
and forced to do penance. The clergy were forbidden to
bear arms, go to war, or hunt. Every priest should give
yearly accoimt of his stewardship to his bishop. Bishops,
supported by the count in the diocese, should suppress
heathen practices. Punishments were set for the fleshly'
sins of monks and nuns and clergy, and for the priestly,
offences of wearing secular garb or harbouring women. The
Benedictine rule was appointed for monasteries. It was
easier to make these decrees than carry them out against ^ "
the opposition of such martial bishops as those of Mainz



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200 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

and Trtves, whose support was necessary to Carloman's
government; and military conditions rendered the restora-
tion of Church lands impracticable. Yet the word was

:>* spoken, and something was done.

^^ The next year in Neustria Pippin instituted like reforms.
He was aidad by Boniface, although the latter held no
ecclesiastical office there. In 747 Carloman abdicated and

^retired to a monastery ; ^ and Pippin became sole ruler, and
at last formally king, anointed by Boniface under the
direction of the Pope in 752. After this, Boniface, with-
drawing from the direction of the Church, turned once more
to satisfy his heart's desire by going on a mission among

i the heathen Frisians, where he crowned a great life with a

> mart3n''s death.

Thus authoritatively, supported by Rome and the
Frankish monarchy, Christianity was presented to the
Germans. It carried suggestions of a better order and
some knowledge of Latin letters. The extension of Roman
Catholic Christianity was the aim of Boniface first and last
and always. But a Latin education was needed by the
clergy to enable them to understand and set forth this some-
what elaborated and learned scheme of salvation. Boniface
and his coadjutors had no aversion to the literary means by
which a serviceable Latin knowledge was to I>e obtained,
and their missionaiy and reorganizing labours necessarily
v/ worked some diffusion of Latinity.

^ Caiioman went at first to Rome, and built a monastery, in which he Uved for a
while. But here hb coniemptum repti terreni brought him more renown than his monk 's
soul could endure. So, with a single companion, he fled, and came unmarked and in
abject guise to Monte Cassino. He announced himself as a murderer seeking to do
penance, and was received on probation. At the end of a year he took the vows of
a monk. It happened that he was put to help in the kitchen, where he worked humbly
but none too dexterously, and was chidden and struck by the cook for hb clumsiness.
At which he said ^th placid countenance, "May the Lord forgive thee, brother, and
Carloman." This occurring for the third time, hb follower fell on the cook and beat
him. When the uproar had subsided, and an investigation was called before the
brethren, the follower said, in explanation, that he could not hold back, seeing
the vilest of the vile strike the noblest of all. The brethren seemed contemptuous,
till the follower proclaimed that thb monk was Carloman, once King of the Franks,
who had relinqubhed hb kingdom for the bve of Christ. At thb the terrified monks
rose from their seats and flung themselves at Carloman's feet, imploring pardon, and
pleading their ignorance. But Carloman, rolling on the ground before them (in
terram provoHuius) denied it all with tears, and said he was not Carloman, but a
common murderer. Nevertheless, thenceforth, recognized by all, he was treated
with great reverence {Rtgino^ Ckronicon, Migne, Pai. Lot. 132, ool. 45).



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CHAP. IX CONVERSION OF THE NORTH 201

The Prankish secular power, which had supported
Boniface, advanced to violent action when Charlemagne's j
sword bloodily constrained the Saxons to accept his rule*
and Christianity, the two inseverable objects which he
tirelessly pursued. Nor could this ruler stay his mighty
hand from the government of the Church within his realm.
With his power to appoint bishops, he might, if he chose,
control its councils. But apparently he chose to rule theV^
Church directly; and his, and his predecessors' and
successors' Capitularies (rather than Condliar decrees)
contain the chief ecclesiastical legislation for the Prankish
realm.

In its temporalities and secular action the Church was <
the greatest and richest of all subjects; it possessed the
rights of lay vassals and was affected with Uke duties.^ But
in ritual, doctrine, language and affiliation, the Prankish <^
Church made part of the Roman Catholic Church. It used
the Roman liturgy and the Latin tongue. The ordering of
the clergy was Roman, and the r^;ulation of the monasteries
was Romanized by the adoption of the Benedictine regula.
Within the Church Rome had triumphed. Prelates were ^
vassals of the king who had now become Emperor ; and the
great coiporate Church was subject to him. Nevertheless,
this great coiporate institution was Roman rather than^
Gallic or Prankish or German. It was Teuton only in those .
elements which represented ecclesiastical abuses, for example, ;
the remaining irr^ularities of various kinds, the lay and '•
martial habits of prelates, and even their appointment by
the monarch. These were the elements which the Church in
its logical Roman evolution was to elimioate. Charlemagne
himself, as well as his lesser successors, strove just as zealously
to bring the people into obedience to the Church as into
obedience to the lay rulers. While the Carolingian rule wasl
strong, its power was exerted on behalf of ecclesiastical/

> For example, immunity (from governmental taxation and visitation) might
attach to the lands of bishops and abbots, as it might to the lands of a lay potentate.
On the other hand, the lands of bishops and abbots owed the Government such tem- (
poral aid in war and peace as would have attached to them in the hands of laymen.
Such dignitaries had high secular rank. The king did not interfere with the appoint-
ment and control of the lower clergy by their lords, the bishops and abbots, any more
than he did with the domestic or administrative appointments of great lay function-
aries within their households or jurisdictions.



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202 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

'^ authority and discipline ; and when the royal administration
weakened after Charlemagne's death, the Church was not
slow to revolt against its temporal subjection to the royal

/power.

But the Chiu-ch, in spite of Latin and Rpman affinities,
strove also to come near the German peoples and speak to
ithem in their own tongues. This is borne witness to by
.'the many translations from Latin into Prankish, Saxon,
'or Alemannish dialects, made by the clergy. Christianity
deeply affected the German language. Many of its words
received German form, and the new thoughts forced old
terms to take on novel and more spiritual meanings. To be
sure, these German dialects were there before Christianity
came, and the capacities of the Germans acquired in heathen
times are attested by the sufficiency of their language to
express Christian thought. Likewise the German character
was there, and proved its range and quality by the very
transformation of which it showed itself capable under
Christianity. And just as Christianity was given eiq>ression
in the German language, which retained many of its former
qualities, so many fundamental traits of German character
remained in the converted people. Yet so earnestly did the
Germans turn to Christianity, and such draughts of its spirit
did they draw into their nature, that the early Germanic
re-expression of it is sincere, heartfelt, and moving, and
illiunined with understanding of the Faith.

These qualities may be observed in the series of Christian
documents in the German tongues commencing in the first
'years of Charlemagne's reign. They consist of baptismal

; confessions of belief, the first of which (dr. 769) was com-
posed for heathen Saxons just converted by the sword, and
of catechisms presenting the elements of Christian precept
and dogma. The earliest of the latter (cir. 789), coming
from the monastery at Weissenburg in Alsace, contains
the Lord's Prayer, with the eiq>lanations, an enumeration of
the deadly sins according to the fifth chapter of the Epistle
to the Galatians, the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian.
Further, one finds among these documents a translation of
the De fide Catholica of Isidore of Seville, and of the Bene-
dictine regula; also Charlemagne's ExhorUUio ad plebent



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CHAP. DC CONVERSION OF THE NORTH 203

ChrisHanam, which was an admonition to the people to learn
the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. There are likewise general
confessions of sins. Less dependent on a Latin original is (
the so-called Musfnlli, a spirited description in alliterative
verse of the last tunes and die Day of Judgment.

German qualities, however, express themselves more fully
in two Gospel versions, the first the famous Saxon Hdiand
(dr. 835), (which follows Tatian's "Harmony"); the second
the somewhat later Evangdienbuch of Otfrid the Frank. .
They were both composed in alliterative verse, though Otfrid
also made use of rhyme.^ The martial, Teutonic ring of the ^
former is well known. Christ is the king, the disciples are
his thanes whose duty is to stand by their lord to the death ;
he rewards them witi the promised riches of heaven, excel-
ling the earthly goods bestowed by other kings. Li the
"betrayal'* they close around their Lord, saying: "Were
it thy will, mi^ty Lord of ours, that we should set upon
them with the spear, gladly would we strike and die for our
Lord." Out broke the wrath of the "ready swordsman"
{snd suerdihegany Simon Peter; he could not speak for
anguish to think that his lord should be bound. Angrily
strode the bold Imight before his lord, drew his weapon, the
sword by his side, and smote the nearest foe with might of
hands. Before his fury and the spurting blood the people
fled fearing the sword's bite.

The Hdiand has also gentler qualities, as when it caUs
the infant Christ the fridubam (peace-child), and pictures.
Mary watching over her "little man." But German love of
wife and child and home speak more dearly in Otfrid's book. -
Although a learned monk, his pride of Frankish race rings
in his oft-quoted reasons for writing iheoiisce, i.e. in German :
why shall not the Franks sing God's praise in Frankish
tongue? Forcible and logical it is, although not bound by

> There are numerous editions of the HeUand: by Sievers (1878), by RUckert
(1876). Very complete is Heyne's third edition (Paderbom, 1883). Portions of it
are given, with modem German interlinear translation, in Piper's Die Sltesle LUeraiur
(Deutsche Nat. Lit.)» pp. 164-186. Otfrid's book b elaborately edited by Piper (and
edition with notes and glossary, Freiburg i. B., i88a). See also Piper's Die SUesle
Literahif, where portions of the work are given with modem German interlinear trans-
lation. Compare Ebert, Literaiw des Miitelalterst in. 100- 1x7.

'The Hdiand uses the epic phrases of popular poetry; they reappear three
centuries later in ihs NibeltrngenUed.



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204 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

grammar's rules. Yes, why should the Franks be incapable?
they are brave as Romans or Greeks; they are as good in
field and wood; wide power is theirs, and ready are they
with the sword. They are rich, and possess a good land,
with honour. They can guard their own; what people is
their equal in battle? Diligent are they also in the Word
of God. Otfrid is quite moving in his sympathetic sense of
the sorrow of the Last Judgment, when the mother from
child shall be parted, the father from son, the lord from his
faithful thane, friend from friend — all human kind. Deep
is the mystic love and yearning with which he realizes
Heaven as one's own land : there is life without death, light
without darkness, the angels and eternal bliss. We have
left it — that must we bewail always, banished to a strange
^land, poor misled orphans. The antithesis between the
fremidemo lant (Jremdes land) of earth, and the heinuU, the
eigan latU of heaven, which is home, real home, is the key-
note strongly felt and moviogly expressed.



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BOOK II
THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES



205



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CHAPTER X

CAROUNGIAN PERIOD : THE FDIST STAGE IN THE
APPROPRIATION OF THE PATRISTIC AND ANTIQUE

With the conversion of Teuton peoples and their intro-"
duction to the Latin culture accompanying the new religion,