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BONIFACE, SAINT (680-754)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 206 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BONIFACE, See also:SAINT (680-754) , the apostle of See also:Germany, whose real name was Wynfrith, was See also:born of a See also:good Saxon See also:family at See also:Crediton or Kirton in See also:Devonshire. While still See also:young he became a See also:monk, and studied See also:grammar and See also:theology first at See also:Exeter, then at Nutcell near See also:Winchester, under the See also:abbot Winberht. He soon distinguished himself both as See also:scholar and preacher, and had every inducement to remain in his monastery, but in 716 he followed the example of other Saxon monks and set out as missionary to Frisia. He was soon obliged to return, however, probably owing to the hostility of Radbod, See also:king of the See also:Frisians, then at See also:war with See also:Charles Martel. At the end of 717 he went to See also:Rome, where in 719 See also:Pope See also:Gregory II. commissioned him to evangelize Germany and to counteract the See also:influence of the Irish monks.there. See also:Crossing the See also:Alps, Boniface visited See also:Bavaria and Thuringia, but upon See also:hearing of the See also:death of Radbod he hurried again to Frisia, where, under the direction of his countryman See also:Willibrord (d. 738), the first See also:bishop of See also:Utrecht, he preached successfully for three years. About 722 he visited See also:Hesse and Thuringia, won over some chieftains, and converted and baptized See also:great See also:numbers of the See also:heathen. Having sent See also:special word to Gregory of his success, he was summoned to Rome and consecrated bishop on the 3oth of See also:November 722, after taking an See also:oath of obedience to the pope. Then his See also:mission was enlarged. He re-turned with letters of recommendation to Charles Martel, charged not only to convert the heathen but to suppress See also:heresy as well. Charles's See also:protection, as he himself confessed, made possible his great career.

Armed with it he passed safely into heathen Germany and began a systematic crusade, baptizing, overturning idols, See also:

founding churches and monasteries, and calling from See also:England a See also:band of missionary helpers, monks and nuns, some of whom have become famous: St See also:Lull, his successor in the see at See also:Mainz; St Burchard, bishop of Wiirzburg; St Gregory, abbot at Utrecht; Willibald, his biographer; St Lioba, St Walburge, St See also:Thecla. In 732 Boniface was created See also:archbishop. In 738 for the third See also:time he went to Rome. On his return he organized the See also:church in Bavaria into the four bishoprics of See also:Regensburg, See also:Freising, See also:Salzburg and See also:Passau. Then his See also:power was extended still further. In 741 Pope See also:Zacharias made him See also:legate, and charged him with the See also:reformation of the whole Frankish church. With the support of See also:Carloman and See also:Pippin, who had just succeeded Charles Martel as mayors of the See also:palace, Boniface set to See also:work. As he had done in Bavaria, he organized the See also:east Frankish church into four bishoprics, See also:Erfurt, Wiirzburg, Buraburg and Eichstadt, and set over them his own monks. In 742 he presided at what is generally counted as the first See also:German See also:council. At the same See also:period he founded the See also:abbey of See also:Fulda, as a centre for German monastic culture, placing it under the Bavarian See also:Sturm, whose See also:biography gives us so many picturesque glimpses of the time, and making its See also:rule stricter than the See also:Benedictine. Then came a theological and disciplinary controversy with See also:Virgil, the Irish bishop of Salzburg, who held, among other heresies, that there were other worlds than ours. Virgil must have been a most remarkable See also:man; in spite of his leanings toward See also:science he held his own against' Boniface, and was canonized after his death.

Boniface was more successful in See also:

France. There a certain See also:Adalbert or Aldebert, a Frankish bishop of See also:Neustria, had caused great disturbance. He had been performing miracles, and claimed to have received his See also:relics, not from Rome like those of Boniface, but directly from the angels. Planting crosses in the open See also:fields he See also:drew the See also:people to See also:desert the churches, and had won a great following throughout all Neustria. Opinions are divided as to whether he was a Culdee, a representative of a See also:national Frankish See also:movement, or simply the See also:charlatan that Boniface paints him. At the instance of Pippin, Boniface secured Adalbert's condemnation at the See also:synod of See also:Soissons in 744; but he, and See also:Clement, a Scottish missionary and a heretic on See also:predestination, continued to find followers in spite of legate, council and pope, for three or four years more. Between 746 and 748 Boniface was made bishop of Mainz, and became See also:metropolitan over the See also:Rhine bishoprics and Utrecht, as well as over those he had established in Germany—thus founding the pre-See also:eminence of the see of Mainz. In 747 a synod of the Frankish bishops sent to Rome a formal statement of their submission to the papal authority. The significance of this See also:act can only be realized when one recalls the tendencies toward the formation of national churches, which had been so powerful under the See also:Merovingians. Boniface does not seem to have taken See also:part in the See also:anointing of Pippin as king of the See also:Franks in 752. In 754 he resigned his archbishopric in favour of Lull, and took up again his earliest See also:plan of a mission to Frisia; but on the 5th of See also:June 754 he and his companions were massacred by the heathen near Dockum. His remains were afterwards taken to Fulda.

St Boniface has well been called the proconsul of the papacy. His organizing See also:

genius, even more than his missionary zeal, See also:left its See also:mark upon the German church throughout all the See also:middle ages. The missionary movement which until his See also:day had been almost See also:independent of See also:control, largely carried on by schismatic Irish monks, was brought under the direction of Rome. But in so See also:welding together the scattered centres and binding them to the papacy, Boniface seems to have been actuated by See also:simple zeal for unity of the faith, and not by a conscious See also:political See also:motive. Though pre-eminently a man of See also:action, Boniface has left several See also:literary remains. We have above all his Letters (Epistolae), difficult to date, but extremely important from the standpoint of See also:history, See also:dogma, or literature; see See also:Dummler's edition in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, 1892. Besides these there are a grammar (De octo partibus orationibus, ed. See also:Mai, in Classici Auctores, t. vii.), some sermons of contested authenticity, some poems (Aenigmata, ed. Dummler, Poetae See also:latini aevi Carolini, i. 1881), a See also:penitential, and some Dicta Bonifacii (ed. Nurnberger in Theologische Quartalschrift, See also:Tubingen, vol. 70, 1888), the authenticity of which it is hard to prove or to refute.

See also:

Migne in his Patrologia See also:Latina (vol. 89) has reproduced the edition of Boniface's See also:works by See also:Giles (See also:London, 1844). There are very many monographs on Boniface and on different phases of his See also:life (see See also:Potthast, Bibliotheca medii aevi, and Ulysse See also:Chevalier's Bibliographic, 2nd ed. for indications), but none that is completely satisfactory. Among See also:recent studies are those of B. Kuhlmann, Der heilige Bonifatius, Apostel der Deutschen (See also:Paderborn, 1895), and of G. Kurth, Saint Boniface (2nd ed., 1902). W. Levison has edited the Vitae sancti Bonifatii (See also:Hanover, 1905). (J. T.

End of Article: BONIFACE, SAINT (680-754)

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