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MedievalEurope

BY THE

REV. G. F. MACLEAR, B.D.
Head Master of Kings College School, London.

PREFACE.
These Lives are naturally based, to a considerable
extent, on my History of Christian Missions in the
Middle Ages, which I have at times been advised
to publish in a somewhat more popular form, but
the numerous notes and references there given have
been omitted, while the Lives themselves have been
re-cast, and in some cases entirely re-written.
The Mediaeval Period is apt to be altogether over
looked in modern accounts of Christian Missions,
and yet it was fertile in noble and heroic men,
who laid the foundations of many of the Churches
of Modern Europe, and into whose labours we have
entered. If we remember to make due allowance for the
Age in which they lived, we shall, I think, conclude
that the roll of missionary heroes, since the days of
the Apostles, can point to few more glorious names
than of some of those whose Memoirs are recorded
in the following pages.
G. F. M.
Bude, Cornwall, Aug. 13, 1869.
s.L. vu. h

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
DESTRUCTION OF THE IDOL SWANTEVIT . . . . Frontispiece.
ST. FRANCIS AND KING LAOGHAIRE . ... To face 35
THANGBRAND GIVES HIS SHIELD TO OLAF ... l8o

CONTENTS.

I'AGK
INTRODUCTION  , . I
CHAPTER I.
THE MISSION FIELD OF THE MIDDLE AGES .... . IO
CHAPTER II.
ST. PATRICK . ...  29
CHAPTER III.
ST. COLUMBA  . . 41
CHAPTER IV.
ST. COLUMBANUS   57
CHAPTER V.
ST. ELIGIUS .  77
CHAPTER VI.
ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY  87
CHAPTER VII.
ST. WILLIBRORD  • • 99
CHAPTER VIII.
ST. BONIFACE.. ...... . ..... UO
CHAPTER IX.
GREGORY OF UTRECHT, STURMI OF FULDA, LEBUIN, LIUDGER 129
CHAPTER X.
ST. ANSKAR ....  • I5I

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI. PAGE
OLAF TRYGGVESON AND OLAF THE SAINT ... 1 72
CHAPTER XII.
ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS  .... 201
CHAPTER XIII.
BISHOP OTHO, THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA . . ... 217
CHAPTER XIV.
ST. VICELIN, BISHOP OF OLDENBURG ... . 240
CHAPTER XV.
MEINHARD, BISHOP OF YXHULL .... .... 251
CHAPTER XVI.
THE MARTYR ADALBERT OF PRUSSIA .... . 258
CHAPTER XVII.
RAYMUND LULL  . . . 269
CHAPTER XVIII.
RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS  .... 289
1. Characteristics of the Mediaeval Missionary Period. 2. Im
mense Influence of Individuals. 3. Contrast between the
Mediaeval and Apostolic Missions.
CHAPTER XIX.
RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS  .... 300
1. Prominence of the Monastic Orders. 2. Influence of Epis
copal Superintendence and Diocesan Synods.
CHAPTER XX.
RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS  3 12
1. Indiscriminate Baptisms. 2. Method of Missionary Instruc
tion. 3. The Policy of Mediaeval Missionaries in relation
to Heathenism. 4. Illegitimate Methods of propagating
the Faith.

APOSTLES

MEDIAEVAL EUROPE.

INTRODUCTION.
At the commencement of an account of some of the
apostles of Mediaeval Europe, it may be well to
notice briefly some of the chief characteristics of the
mediaeval period itself, and especially of the mission
field then presented to the Church, and the work she
was called upon to accomplish.
During the first four hundred years of her existence,
the Christian Church had not, except in the extreme
East, extended her conquests far beyond the limits
of the Roman empire.
Her territorial field may be said to have mainly
included the countries immediately bordering upon
the Mediterranean Sea, Numidia and Egypt, Pales^
tine and Asia . Minor, Greece, Italy, and Southern
Gaul, the very centre of the .old world and its heathen
culture. . , .

INTRODUCTION:

Within this area the kingdom of heaven had been
establishing itself gradually and silently. The word,
indeed, had been running very swiftly, but it was
the word of him, whose early life had been spent
in an obscure village of Palestine, and who had
died the death of the malefactor and the slave. The
mustard seed and the hidden leaven, had, even as
he had predicted, been true figures of its progress,
overlooked by the world, yet penetrating the world
with its secret and subduing force.
There is a mystery, as has been often observed,
about the planting of the early Church in various
places. Who knows for certain how that congrega
tion originated which was already at Damascus when
the disciple of Gamaliel went thither breathing forth
threatening and slaughter against those of the way?
Who can throw any clear light on -the planting of
the first Church of Rome, to which St. Paul addresses
so many salutations ? Who, again, so laboured in
establishing the early Church of France, that in the
second and third centuries a Pothinus and an Irenaeus
could enter into their labours ? Who, lastly, can
give any certain account of the origin of the early
British Church ?
Thus for a long period the work of the Church
was almost imperceptible in the great Roman world.
Its going forth was not proclaimed on the housetop
or in the market-place. The new faith made its way
from below rather than from above. Not many wise,
not many mighty, not many noble, were amongst
those first called to join its ranks. In the literal sense

INTRODUCTION.

of the word, it worked its way at first " underground,
under camp and palace, under senate and forum, as
unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, and, behold, ,
it lived I"1
But at length the leaven began to pervade the whole
mass of society. In spite of contempt and outrage,
the glad tidings found eager listeners. Philosophers
might scoff at the first believers. Politicians might
suspect them. The populace might pursue them with
ferocious yells. A Nero might persecute them to
avert general detestation from himself; a Hadrian
and a Trajan, as deeming them guilty of insubordi
nation or treason ; a Marcus Aurelius and a Decius,
from horror at the public calamities of the empire ;
a Diocletian, as recognising in the new and myste
rious society a formidable rival to be put down and
crushed. But there were at all times those to whom
the new faith spake as never man spake. There
were always the children by whom its wisdom was
justified. The story of Justin Martyr, who, after trying every
other system in vain, was advised by the aged stranger
on the sea-shore to inquire into the "new philo
sophy," was, no doubt, the story of jnany. Self-con
victed of his impotency to regenerate himself, man
cried out with Seneca, "O that one would stretch
out his hand ! " and sighed for relief from the end
less strife of discordant systems. The religions of
heathenism had taken deep root neither in the intel
lect, the conscience, nor the affections of mankind,
1 Stanley's "Lectures on Ecclesiastical History," Introd. p. xxxviii, '
B 2

INTRODUCTION.

Art and literature, philosophy and politics, had done
their utmost, and yet man had not attained ¦ that
which he felt he needed. His soul still thirsted; it
had reached no fountain of living water.
To these deep-felt wants the Gospel responded, and
thus exerted a direct, a divine influence. It calmed .
the clashing creeds of heathendom by proclaiming the
unity of the Godhead. It attracted the hearts of men
by its revelation of his true character as a Father.
It proclaimed the glad tidings of his infinite love
as displayed in the incarnation of his Eternal Son.
It assuaged the sense of guilt by pointing to the
sacrifice of the Cross. It strengthened the power of
hope by bringing to light life and immortality, and
the glory of the world to come.
And while it thus proved its adaptation to the
wants of men, it manifested its divine power some
times in miracles and signs, the echoes of the Apos
tolic ages, often in the constancy of its martyrs under
persecution, oftener still in the upright walk, the holi
ness, the charity of its teachers. What they effected
directly was effected as powerfully, though indirectly,
by Christian captives, Christian colonists, Christian
soldiers. Apologists, before long, like Irenaeus and
Justin, Cyprian and Athenagoras, Origen and Ter-
tullian, justified the claims of the new faith to be the
true philosophy. The Fathers of the East moulded
its creeds. The Empire of the West bequeathed to
it its organization and its laws. With Constantine it
was publicly recognised as the religion of the State ;
and at length the symbol of the most degrading

INTRODUCTION. 5
punishment the Roman could inflict on the malefactor
and the slave became the symbol of an empire's
creed, and was blazoned on the conqueror's banner.
But when the Iron Kingdom had run its qourse, a
very different work was proposed to the energies of
the Christian teachers. As the Roman empire sank
beneath her feet, its last embers trampled out by
Alaric, the Church found herself confronted with one
of the most stupendous tasks that could have been
presented to her to accomplish.
Scarcely recovering herself from the shock of the
barbarian invasions, she was called to train and civilize
races fresh from their native wilds, filled with all the
ardour and impetuosity of youth, and ignorant of the
first principles of order and settled life.
For centuries had they been gathering from afar,
and now they were precipitated over the face of
Europe. Celt and Teuton, Sclave and Hun, followed
each other in quick succession, with strange language
and strange customs, to fill the abyss of servitude
and corruption in which the Roman empire had disap
peared, and to infuse a new life-blood into its effete
civilization. And what was the condition of the provinces of the
great empire where they now appeared, and which
they made a beaten highway for their passage ?
Little change for the better had their- social and
domestic life experienced as the ring of empire had
widened more and more. Crushed under a weight of
merciless taxation, drained of their population by
repeated levies for the imperial armies, Italy and

INTRODUCTION.

Gaul, and even more distant provinces, had almost
ceased to till the soil. Many tracts were given up to
the wasteful tenure of discharged soldiers, or were
cultivated by the manacled hands of slaves. Native
chieftains, aspiring to the pomp and state of the
Roman patrician, exalted themselves to their fancied
dignity on the ruins of the yeomanry class. " The
old tenantry, or clansmen, were ejected from their
ancient holdings, to constitute from the aggregation ¦>*
of them one of those vast estates, or latifundia, which
were cultivated entirely by slaves for the behoof of
the proprietors alone. From them they drew the
means of boundless self-indulgence, but left to the hus
bandman nothing beyond the most scanty allowance
of the bare necessaries of human existence ; and
when they were hurried by fatigue, by want, and
by sickness to premature graves, they recruited their
number from the Roman slave-markets." l
And when this work of depopulation had been
going on for centuries, what was likely to be the con
dition of the more remote country districts in Gaul
or Italy, when they were exposed to the ravages of
tribes as careless of the arts of agriculture as the
imperial legions they had expelled ?
As it was in the days of the Judges in Israel, so
was it now. The villages ceased2 throughout the
land. Towns deserted by their inhabitants com
pletely disappeared, or could be traced only by the
1 Sir James Stephen's " Lectures on the History of France," vol. i.
p. 27.
2 Judg. v. 7.

INTRODUCTION.

attentive traveller, with the utmost difficulty, under
the thick overgrowth of dense woods. Temples and
baths, villas and streets, became a mass of crumbling
ruins, over which the tangled underwood gradually ex
tended its sway, till at length it joined the immense and
impenetrable forests, which always were a prominent
feature in the scenery of Gaul and Germany, and
formed, by the thick growth of maple and birch, aspen
and witch-elm, a boundless wilderness of forest trees.
" On the north of the Rhine alone," writes Monta-
lembert, "six great deserts existed at the end of
the sixth century — the desert of Reome, between
Tonnerre and Montbard ; the desert of Morvan ; the
desert of Jura ; the desert of the Vosges ; the desert
of Switzerland, between Bienne and Lucerne ; and
the desert of Gruyere, between the Savine and the
Aar. Advancing towards the north, the wooded
regions become more and more profound and exten
sive. Even in the provinces least depopulated and
best cultivated, through the most favourable soils
and climates, long wooded lines extended from north
to south, and from the rising to the setting sun, con
necting the great masses of forest with each other,
surrounding and enveloping Gaul as in a vast net
work of shade and silence.''
" We must imagine Gaul," he continues, " and
all the neighbouring countries, the whole extent of
France, Switzerland, Belgium, and both banks of the
Rhine — that is to say, the richest and most populous
countries of modern Europe — covered with forests
such as are scarcely to be seen in America, and of

INTRODUCTION.

which there does not remain the slightest trace in
the ancient world. We must figure to ourselves these
masses of sombre and impenetrable wood covering
hills and valleys, the high table-land as well as the
marshy bottoms, broken here and there by water
courses which laboriously forced a way for them
selves across the roots of fallen trees; perpetually
divided by bogs and marshes which swallowed up
the animals or men who were so ill-advised as to risk
themselves there ; and inhabited by innumerable wild
beasts, whose ferocity had scarcely been accustomed
to fly before man, and of which many different species ¦
have since almost completely disappeared from our
country." l
And now, as from the gloom of these solitudes the
new tribes, wild and wasteful, without prudence or
forethought or steady industry, issued forth Upon the
towns and cities of Southern Europe, according as in
ternal war or factions drove them to seek new homes,
and gradually settled down in their midst, a grave
question arose. Who would have the courage to
seek out these wild races ? Who would brave all
dangers in preaching to them the word of life ?
Who would plunge into the darkness of these forests,
proclaim the divine message to the inhabitants that
dwelt around, improve their infant agriculture, and
instil amongst them the first principles of civilization ?
This was the question, and we shall see how it was
answered. At this critical period, when the founda-
1 Montalembert's "Monks of the West," vol. ii. pp. 319, 320/
English Translation.

INTRODUCTION.

tions of the great deep seemed to be broken up, and
chaos to have come back to earth, we shall take our
stand to watch how the Christian Church set out on
her great work ; how she sent forth men who did not
count their lives dear unto them, if they might win
over to the fold of Christ the multitudes that bade
them come over and help them.
Mindful of the difficulties to be encountered in
making the effort at all, and of the features of the
times when it was made, we shall not expect per
fection of men who partook of the common infirmities
of our nature ; we shall rather rejoice to trace from
time to time the fulfilment of the Divine word, Be-
'hold I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
worlds and to observe how the Lord of the harvest
was pleased in the darkest times to send forth
labourers into his harvest?
1 St. Matt, xxviii. 20. 2 St. Matt. ix. 38.

CHAPTER I.
THE MISSION FIELD OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
And, first, it will be well to notice some of the more
striking features, moral and religious, of the nations
which now awaited the missionary zeal of the Chris
tian Church. As an outline is all that can possibly be
attempted, we may, sinking minor divergences of race,
and regarding them solely in their social and religious
aspects, arrange these nations under the several groups
of Celts, Teutons, and Sclaves.
i. With the first group indeed we shall be but very
partially concerned. The Celtic races had, except in
Ireland and Northern Britain, to a great extent become
amalgamated with the institutions, feelings, and social
life of their Roman conquerors, and had learned to
ascribe to their deities the attributes of the gods of
Rome. We are therefore hardly concerned with their
religious creed, except so far as they formed an
advanced outpost among the Western nations, and,
when evangelized by Christian missionaries, became,
in their turn, signally ardent and successful preachers
of their newly-adopted faith.
The Commentaries of Csesar give us the earliest
sketch of the social and moral features of the Celtic

THE MISSION FIELD.

character. During his campaigns, which lasted upwards
of fourteen years, and cost him two millions of men,
thi ; great commander had ample opportunities of
becoming acquainted with them, and he has described
with, minute accuracy their gigantic stature, fair com
plexions, enormous muscular strength, and love of
personal decoration.1
Fond of war, hot of temper, but simple and void of
malice, they knew little of that personal liberty, which
was the proud characteristic of the Teuton. While
the meanest Teuton was independent and free, the
lower orders among the Celts were little better than
in a state of slavery, for all real freedom and power
centred in their chieftains.
The same great warrior has given us the fullest
account of the Druids, the all-powerful religious order
of the Celtic tribes. Under their various divisions,
they were at once the ministers of a theocracy and
the judges and legislators of the people. Enjoying
an immunity from service in the army and the obliga
tion to pay taxes, they instructed the youth of the
nation in the mysteries of learning, the majority of
which they veiled in inviolable secrecy, and did not
suffer to be committed to writing. The chief doctrine,
however, that they did impart, seems to have been the
immortality of the soul, or rather its transmigration
to another body, to which was added instruction in
the nature and motions of the sun, moon, and stars,
and the power and greatness of the immortal gods.
Though proscribed by successive Roman generals,
>¦ Csesar, " De Bel. Gall." vi. 13.

12 THE MISSION FIELD
and nominally exterminated in Britain by Suetonius
Paulinus, Druidism lingered on for centuries in Ireland
and the Scottish Highlands. In the " Book of Armagh"
the monarch of Ireland is represented, at the arrival
of St. Patrick, as having in his service his soothsayer
and magicians, his augurs and diviners. A member of
the same order withstood with the utmost pertinacity
the first preaching of St. Columba in Scotland,1 and
in the " Book of Leinster" we find an early Irish king
asking the Druids to ascertain for him by their arts
the events that were to happen to him during the
ensuing year.
Almost of equal rank with the Druids was the
Ollamh, the "bard" or "gleeman," and only a step
lower stood the Seanchaidhe, the "historian" or
"story-teller." The person of the former was regarded
as inviolate. With the princes and the Druids, he took
part in the great national assemblies ; he ranked next
to the monarch himself, had a fixed title in the chief
tain's territory, besides ample perquisites for himself
and his attendants, and by carrying or sending his
wand to any person or place he conferred a temporary
sanctuary from injury or arrest.
As to the Celtic religious belief, however modified
it may have been by subsequent contact with Roman
or Teutonic systems, it is clear that in its original
i See Adamnan's "Life of St. Columba," by Reeves, p. 74 n. In
the Irish MS. of St. Paul's Epistles at Wurtzburg the gloss on Jannes 1
and Jambres, in 2 Tim. iii. 8, is duo Druidce ^Egyptiaci. In an' J
ancient hymn, ascribed to St. Columba, we find the expression, • |
'Christ the Son of God is my Druid."— Miscell. Irish Arch. Soc.

OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 13
form it was essentially the worship of the powers
of nature. Highest in the Celtic pantheon was the
sUn, the " life of everything," the " source of all
being," who shared the devotion of his worshippers
with the moon and stars, with genii of the hills and
the valley, of the grove and the spring. The sacred
principle of fire also received special adoration. The
season of the vernal equinox was ushered in by the
sacred festival of the Bel-tine, or- "the lucky fire,"
and was celebrated with those peculiar rites, which
once from every hill-top in Ireland welcomed the
return of the solar beams and the banishment of
winter's gloom, but now linger only in the popular
sports of May Day.
The records of missionary labour in Ireland and
Scotland dd not make any special mention of those
numerous gods, which Caesar describes as worshipped
in Gaul, and to which he has transferred the attributes
of the deities of Rome. But the apostle of Ireland
is represented in the earliest annals as recalling his
converts from the worship not only of spectres and
genii, but of idols also, the greatest of which, the
image of Crom-cruach,1 stood on the plain of Magh
Slecht, "the Plain of Adoration," in the county of
Cavan, and was the chief object of native worship
till its destruction by him.
As a rule, however, the original form of the Druidic
1 "Supposed to have been also termed Crom-dubh, 'the black stooping-
stone,' and to have given rise to the name of Cromdubh or Cromduff
Sunday, b}' which the last Sunday in summer, or the Sunday next
before All Saints' Day, is commonly known in Ireland." — Todd's "Life
of St. Patrick," p. 128.

14 THE MISSION FIELD

ritual was marked by much simplicity. The shadow
of the sacred grove, or the wide-spreading oak with its
mystic misletoe, was the Druid's temple ; the hill-top,:
with its cromlech or altar-stone, his nearest approach
to architecture ; while the triple procession round the
sacred circle from east to west, the search for the
misletoe on the sixth day of the moon, the sacrifice of-
the milk-white bull, and the usual methods of augury
and divination, constituted the chief portion of his
sacred rites. But at particular times the earnest
craving to appease offended powers, or the dread of
sudden danger, or the outbreak of some terrible pes
tilence, suggested the offering of those sacrifices of
human beings which Caesar has described, and which
long continued to be the custom of the Celtic tribes.
2. With this outline of Celtic superstitions, we must
pass on to the Teuton. Under this generic name we
include not only the inhabitants of v the extensive
region ; which, bounded by the 'Baltic on the north, the
Rhine on the west, the Vistula and Oder on the east,
may be called, with tolerable accuracy, the European
home of the Teutonic tribes, but also those hardy
Northmen, whose gaudy but terrible barks bore them,-,
during the eighth and ninth centuries, from their
homes in Denmark and Sweden to be the scourge of
the European shores.
Differ as these undoubtedly did in minor points, in
all the essentials of their mora/1 and religious character^
they were similar, and for our purposes it will suffice
to speak of them together. !
The earliest Teutonic doctrine, then, appears to

OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

have recognised one Supreme Being, whom it repre
sents as Master of the universe, whom all things obey.
" Who is first and eldest of the gods ?" it is asked in
the Edda, and the answer is, " He is called Allfadir
in our tongue. He lives from all ages, and rules over
his realm, and sways all things, great and small ; he
made heaven and earth, and the lift — that is, the sky
— and all that belongs to them ; and, what is more,
He made man, and gave him a soul that shall live
and never perish, though the body rot to mould or
burn to ashes. His is an infinite power, a boundless
knowledge, an incorruptible justice. He cannot be
confined within the enclosure of walls, or represented
by any likeness to the human figure."1
Such appears to have been the primitive faith.
Allfadir would be a name naturally dear to a people
which as yet had hardly passed the limits of the
patriarchal state, amongst whom every father of a
family was at once a priest and king in his own
house. But the idea of a pure spirit was too refined to
retain any lasting hold on the mind and conscience.
It lost its original distinctness, and retired more and
more into the background, surviving only as the
feeble echo of an older and purer creed. Just as
the Aryan in crossing the Hindu Alps was spell
bound by the new and beauteous world into which he
was transplanted, so the Teuton, in the course of
his migrations towards colder climes, bowed down
i See Dasent's " Norsemen in Iceland," p. 187, and compare Tacitus,
"Germania," chap. ix.

16 THE MISSION FIELD
before the wild and overbearing powers of nature, and
then out of nature-worship arose an elaborate form
of hero-worship, the adoration of the conquerors of
nature, that is, of man himself, with his virtues and
his vices.
From the Invisible One emanates, so thought the
Teuton, an infinite number of inferior deities, whose
temple is every part of the invisible world. Hence
nature was to be venerated in all her forms and mani
festations. The heavenly bodies, the sun and moon
and stars ; the earth, with its trees and springs, its
fountains and hills ; the sea, with its ebb and flow,
itsstorm and calm ; — all were regarded with deepest ;
reverence. And since all nature was but an organ
and instrument of deity, it was of the utmost import
ance to pay attention even to the most indifferent
phenomena. Nothing was too trifling. The quivering
leaf, the crackling flame, the falling thunderbolt, the
flight .or singing of birds, the neighing of horses, man's
dreams and visions, even the movements of his pulse,
all needed attention, all might give some sign from
the other world.
Hence the peculiar regard that was paid, amongst
all the Teutonic nations, Gothic, Saxon, and Scan
dinavian, to oracles and divinations, to auspices,
presages, and lots. Hence the functions of the pro- ,
phetess-and the sibyl, of the enchanter, the interpreter.
of dreams, the diviner by offering-cups,1 or the entrails
of victims, or human sacrifices. Hence the raisers of
storms, the Runic sticks, and all the usual instru-
1 Comp. Gen. xliv. 5.

. OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 17
ments of heathenism for exploring the secrets either
of the past or the future. Upsal was the Teutonic
Delphi, as famous for its oracles as for its sacrifices.
Here might be found diviners, both male and female,
who could supply runes to secure victory in the
battle, to preserve from poison, to heal bodily in
firmities, or to chase away melancholy.1 Thus all
nature had a voice which could speak, and to which
all men were bound to hearken. The skies, the
•woods, the waters, were the Teuton's books, his
oracles, his divinities.
But nature-worship did not satisfy. The Teuton
ceased in time to quail before her mighty powers.
He learnt to defy the wind and storm, the frost and
cold. So nature-worship became entangled with a
complicated system of human gods.
The first and eldest of the gods, we saw, was
Allfadir, Odin, or Wotan. But in process of time
the great Father was resolved into his attributes.
His power was divided amongst a number of inferior
divinities, sprung from himself, to each of whom he
had imparted a portion of his greatness. Hence the
twelve iEsir and the twelve Asyniar. Moreover, as
in the Hindu mythology, Brahm is almost forgotten
before Vishnu, or the more terrible Siva and Kali, so
Odin shared the worship of his votaries with Thor
the " Thunderer," the " chief of the gods in strength
1 The " Indiculus Superstitionutn " and the Lives of the Mediaeval
Missionaries afford an insight into the various kinds of Teutonic
sorcery. Comp. the letter of Boniface to Cuthbert, Ep. lxiii. ed. Migne,
and the appendix to Kemble's " Saxons in England," vol. i.
S.L. VII. C

THE MISSION FIELD

and might;" with Tyr, the Teutonic Mars, the
" bravest of all the gods, the giver of victory, and god
of battle ; " with Freyr, the god of fertility, of seed
time and harvest, of marriage and fruitfulness ; with
Baldr, fairest of all the sons of Odin, the Phoebus
Apollo of the Teuton, "the restorer of peace, the
maker-up of quarrels ; " while Frigga, Odin's wife,
presided over the sweet spring-time and the rising
seed, with her attendants, Fulla, "plenty," Hlin,
" warmth," and Gna, " the sweet and gentle breeze."
The ^Esir and the Asyniar were the blithe, bene
ficent powers. But the Teuton could not look out
upon the natural world, without tracing in its contra
dictory phenomena the operation of other powers,
dark and sinister, which had brought about a convul
sion in high places, and with whose machinations
the human race had become entangled. Hence the
belief in monstrous fiends and giants, cruel, powerful,
and inexorable. Chief of these was Loki, the
" calumniator and backbiter of the gods," " the grand
contriver of deceit and fraud." In his form he was
fairer than any of human mould, but his mind was
evil, his nature feeble, and "he cheated in all things,
and in the arts of perfidy and craft he had no equal."
Once the friend and associate of the vEsir, united
with them in sacred brotherhood, he fell like Lucifer
from his high estate, and terrible was his threefold
offspring, — the first, Fenris-wolf; the second, Mid^-
gard's worm ; the third, a daughter, Hel, the goddes|j
of death. These are the enemies of the ^Esir, the
authors of disquiet and strife, and with their entrance

OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 19
into the Teutonic and Scandinavian mythology the
older and milder religion assumed a more warlike
and savage character. Instead of ruling the world
in peace, the "Father of gods and men" became
Valfadir, the god of battles, the " terrible and severe
god," who prepared for the warrior the feast in
Valhalla.1 Such, roughly and briefly, were the outlines of the
Teuton's creed, to which everywhere and at all times
he clung, and for which he died, for it was "the
transfiguration of the natural man, with all his virtues
and vices, with all his feelings, and passions, and
natural affections." 2 Hence the free and easy way in
which the Teuton regarded his gods. If he honoured
them right, and offered the due sacrifices, he claimed
his reward. If he considered himself unfairly treated,
he openly reproved them, forsook their worship, and
destroyed their temples.
For though it may be true that in early times the
Teuton knew nothing of temples made with hands,
that the Deity, whom no enclosure could contain, or
mortal form represent, received the adoration of his
worshippers in the obscurity of the wood, or on the
lonely mountain-top, yet without doubt the intro
duction of an elaborate form of polytheism brought
with it in time a more elaborate form of external
worship. The transition from the sacred oak-grove to the
1 See Dasent's "Norsemen in Iceland," p. 191 ; "Prose Edda,
p. 446.
3 Dasent's " Burnt Njal," I. xvii.
C 2

THE MISSION FIELD

hill altar and the cairn was easy. Equally easy the
transition thence to the temple of wood, with its nave
and shrine, its " holy place," and its " holy of holies."
In the Norse temples, formed doubtless on a plan
common in earlier times, the images of the gods
stood on a platform in the shrine. In front of them
was the altar, on which burnt the holy fire. On it,
too, was laid the great ring, which, stained with the,
sacred blood, was placed in the hand of all such as
were about to take any solemn oath. Hard by also
was the brazen vessel, in which the blood of the
slaughtered victims was caught, and the brush or
twig wherewith the worshippers were sprinkled, while ,
they stood behind a partition-wall opposite the plat-'
form of the gods, and from this outer court beheld
the ceremonies.
The temple of Upsal, the Teutonic Delphi, was in
circumference not less than nine hundred ells, and
glittered on all sides with gold. In it Odin was
represented with a sword in his hand, while on his
left stood Thor, with the insignia of a crown, a
sceptre, and a hammer, and on his right Freyja, an
hermaphrodite, with many emblems characteristic of
productiveness. Near Eresburg, on the Drirnel, stood, :
till the times of Charlemagne, the celebrated Teu
tonic idol, called the Irmin-Saule.1 On a high stone
column rose the figure of a gigantic warrior, girt with
a sword, holding in his right hand a banner, on which;
was painted a bright red rose, in his left hand a
i Meibomius, "De Irminsula;'' AdamBrem. I 6; Akerraan's "Pagan
Saxondom," p. xxi.

OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

balance. The crest of the warrior's helmet was a
cock ; on his breast was figured a bear ; on the
shield was the representation of a lion in a field full
of flowers. The image itself was eleven feet in height,
and of a light red colour. Its base was of rude stone,
surrounded with belts of orichalcum, of which the
upper and lower were gilded. It was the largest idol
of all Saxony, and pictures of it were suspended in
other temples, and its priests enjoyed a high repu
tation. It was believed to be able to aid the warrior
in the din of battle, who oftentimes rode round it,
and murmured to it his prayers. Sometimes it was
borne into the field, and when the conflict was over,
all the prisoners, and all who had disgraced them
selves by cowardice, were immolated at its feet.1
The offerings presented in these temples consisted
of all living things — sheep, oxen, swine, and especially
horses. The latter sacrifice was particularly charac
teristic of the Germanic races. The victims having
been slaughtered before the images of the gods, the
heads were by preference offered to them, and with
the hides were fixed or hung on trees in the sacred
groves. The blood was caught in the blood-bowl,
and sprinkled with the blood-twig on the altar, the
,images, and the people, while the fat was used for
anointing the images themselves, which were after
wards rubbed dry. The flesh was boiled down in
caldrons over fires placed along the whole length of
the nave. Round these the worshippers took their
seats, and ate the flesh and partook of the broth,
1 See Dasent's " Burnt Njal," I. xxxix.

THE MISSION FIELD

while the chief to whom the temple belonged blessed
the cups of mead or beer in honour of Odin, Freyr,
Thor, Frigga, and, last, of departed friends. Then the
rest in order took the cup, and each made his prayer
or offered his vow; and so the feast went on, termi
nating too often in riot and drunkenness.
Such were the usual sacrifices. On great occa
sions, however, human victims were offered, especially
slaves, criminals, and captives. This custom was
common to all the Germanic races. But at Upsal
the ninth month in each year — and every ninth year
appear to have been specially set apart for these
sacrifices. On such occasions, the presence of the
king, together with all citizens of importance, was
deemed absolutely essential. Human victims appear
to have been offered either as sacrifices of atonement,
or to appease the wrath of malign deities, or as pro
pitiatory sacrifices to the dead in the nether world.1
In seasons of more than ordinary calamity, the king
himself was expected to lay down his life. Thus, on
the occasion of a great dearth, the first king of Ver-
maland, in Sweden, was burnt in honour of Odin.
Again, in a great sea-fight with the Jomsburg pirates,
the jarl Hakon offered up his son to obtain the vk>
tory ; and Aun, another king of Sweden, immolated
at the shrine of Odin nine of his sons, in order that
his own life might be prolonged.
3. But it is now time to glance at the third group
of nations, the Sclavonic.
1 See Bartholini's "Antiq. Danicae," pp. 388-396; Adam Brem.
"Gesta PP. Hammaburg," iv. 26.

OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

On a map of Europe in the beginning of the sixth
century we find the Sclaves represented as forming
three principal branches, or aggregates of tribes.
Towards the east, resting on the Euxine, and ex
pending from the Dniester to the Dnieper and the
Don, are the Antes, the progenitors of the great Rus
sian people. Towards the west, resting on the Baltic,
are the Venedi, or Wends. Between the two inter
vene the Slavenes, a nomad race blending sometimes
with the eastern, sometimes with the western branch.
The first coming of the Sclaves was peaceful. They
occupied quietly such lands as their Teutonic brethren
left them, and thence pushed forward to the south
and west, building trading cities like Kieff and Nov
gorod and Arcona, sinking mines in Germany, smelt
ing and casting metals, preparing salt, and planting
fruit-trees, leading a quiet and contented life.
Early writers uniformly speak of them in favourable
terms. Procopius describes them as free from malice
and fraud, generous and hospitable. Adam of Bremen
extols their kindness and courtesy towards strangers.1
But they became at an early period the victims of
unparalleled oppressions, and the consequences could
be traced with terrible clearness in the change which
their national character underwent. Under the iron
heel of the Germans on the north, of the Turks on
the south, and afterwards of the Mongols on the east,
their veracity and good faith were exchanged for du
plicity and cunning. At first they displayed all the
1 " Hist. Eccles." ii. 12 ; and compare the letter of Boniface to Ethel
bald, Ep. lxii. ed. Migne.

24 THE MISSION FIELD
characteristics of the pastoral tribe. Living in huts
of rough timber in the depths of forests, or along. the
banks of rivers, they tended their numerous flocks of
sheep and cattle, defending themselves in time of war
with nothing but a shield for a weapon of defence, and
for offence a bow and a quiver of poisoned arrows,
or the lasso. But after centuries of oppression they
became demoralized and debased. Submissive in
adversity, they were tyrants in their hour of power,
and obtained a notoriety for cruelties practised only
amongst the most savage nations.
Procopius sketches the chief features of their reli
gious system. " The Sclavonians," he says, " worship
one god, the ' Maker of the Thunder,' whom they hold
to be the only lord of the universe, and to whom
they offer cattle and different kinds of victims. They
do not believe in fate, or that it has any power over
mortals. Whenever they are in danger of death,
either from illness or from the enemy, they make
vows to God to offer sacrifices if they should be saved.
When the peril is over, they fulfil their vows, and
believe that it was this which saved them. They also
worship rivers, nymphs, and some other deities, to
whom they offer sacrifices, making divinations at the
same time." 1
Later writers give us further particulars, from which
it would appear that the Sclavonic religion was marked
on the one hand by the worship of the gladdening, fruc
tifying powers of nature, and on the other by the de-,
precation of dark and sinister powers, who manifested
1 Procopius, "De Bello Gothico."

OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 25
their malignant arts by creating discord, sickness, and
death. The first was symbolized by Lada, the god
dess of love and pleasure ; Kupala, the god of the
fruits of the earth ; Koleda, the god of festivals, who
delighted in .offerings of fruits, and rejoiced in songs
and dances round lighted fires. Of the second, the
chief was Zernabog, "the black deity," whose name
recalls the Matchi Manito of the Mexicans, and who,
like the latter, was approached with fear and horror,
and propitiated with human sacrifices.
The Lord of Thunder was worshipped at Kieff
and Novgorod under the name of Peroun, and in
Moravia his idol was of wood, with the head of silver.
At Rugen were the images of Porenut, " the god of
the seasons," with four faces and a fifth on his breast ;
and of Rhugevit, "the god of war," with seven faces,
and seven swords suspended at his side and an eighth
in his hand.
At Romove, in Prussia, as late even as the year
A.D. 1230, three gods were especially worshipped;
Percunos, " the god of thunder," Potrimpos, " the god
of corn and fruits," Picullos, " the god of the infernal
regions." The face of the first was expressive of ex
treme anger, his head being wreathed with a crown of
. flames ; the second was represented by a beardless
youth, and wore a chaplet of green leaves and ears of
corn ; the face of the third was pale, the beard snow-
white, the eyes looking downwards on the ground.
But the most famous idol, at least of the Baltic Scla-
vonians, was Sviantovit, or Swantevit. His temple
was at Arcona, the capital of the island of Rugen, and

THE MISSION FIELD

was not destroyed till the year A.D. 1 168. A Danish
historian 1 informs us that the temple, which was of
wood and beautifully constructed, rose from a level '
spot in the midst of the town. It had two enclosures. k
The outer consisted of a wall with a roof painted red;
the interior was hung with tapestry and ornamented
with paintings.
The idol, which stood in the sanctuary, was of gi
gantic size, with four heads and as many necks, two
chests, and two backs, one turned to the right, the
other to the left. In his right hand the god held a
horn made of various metals, which was once a year
filled with mead by the attendant priest. His left
arm was bent towards his side in the form of a bow.
He was arrayed in a long flowing robe reaching down
to the feet, while around him lay his bridle, and a sword
of enormous size with a beautiful hilt and scabbard.
The worship of the idol was defrayed by an annual
tax, payable by every inhabitant of the island, by a
third of the spoils taken in war, and by the numerous
votive offerings sent to the temple by neighbouring
chiefs. A regiment of three hundred chosen cavalry
was specially dedicated to his service, who went forth
to fight in his name, and brought back the booty,
which the priest made up into various ornaments for
the shrine.
The god himself was believed to accompany his
votaries to the battle-field on a white horse, which
specially belonged to him. It was a sin to pull a hair
1 Saxon Grammaticus, " Hist. Danicse," lib. xiv. : compare also Her-
bordi " Vita Ottonis," ii. 31 ; Pertz, " Mon. Germ." xii. 794.

OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 27
from his mane or tail, and the priest alone might feed
or mount him. This horse was especially consulted
on going forth to war, for it was believed to be able to
reveal the secrets of the future. When the tribe
wished to declare war, three rows of spears were laid
down before the temple, solemn prayers were then
offered up, and the horse was led forth by the priest.
If, in passing over these spears, he lifted his right foot
first, then the war would be prosperous ; if the left, or
both together, it was a fatal omen, and the expedition
was given up.
The most solemn festival was after harvest. On
this occasion the people of Rugen assembled, offered
sacrifices of cattle, and held a solemn feast. The
priest, conspicuous for his long hair and beard, first
carefully swept the sanctuary, holding his breath
lest the divine presence should be defiled, and if
he wished to respire, retiring into the open air. On
the morning of the festival he brought forth to the
assembled people the sacred mead-cup, which he took
from the idol's hand. If the mead had decreased
therein, he announced the fact to the worshippers,
and bade them beware of scarcity ; if it had increased,
it was an omen of abundance. The old liquor was
then poured forth as a libation at the foot of the idol,
and the priest, refilling it, engaged in solemn suppli
cation for the people, that they might be prosperous
and have victory in war. He then emptied the horn
at a single draught, and once more refilling it, placed
it in the right hand of the idol, where it remained till
the next year.

28 THE MISSION FIELD.
Round cakes of flour and honey were then offered,
and the priest concluded the ceremony by blessing1
the people in the name of the god, exhorting them to
frequent sacrifice, and promising them, as their reward,
victory both by sea and land. The rest of the day"
was spent in feasting on the remains of the offerings,
and the people were taught that on this occasion
intemperance was a virtue, sobriety a sin.1
Such is the account given by a contemporary writer
of this celebrated Sclavonic idol ; and it gives us a
very vivid idea of Sclavonic worship as it was observed
as late even as the middle of the twelfth century.
The belief in fairies and sprites, in water-nymphs and
wood-nymphs, in sorcery and magic, was as active
amongst the Sclavonians as amongst their Teutonic
brethren, while the respect paid by them to their
priests, who united civil and religious functions, was
as submissive as that of the Celt to his Druid teacher.
1 " Historias Danicae," lib. xiv.

CHAPTER II.

ST. PATRICK.

With this sketch of the religious systems of the three
great groups of nations now presented to the mis
sionary zeal of the Christian Church, we pass on to
describe the lives and labours of some of those who
devoted themselves to the work of communicating to
them the word of life.
We might have expected that it would be necessary
to begin with those who went forth from the long-
established churches of the Continent. But it is not
so. It is true that instances are not wanting of, men
who left these churches to evangelize the heathen
tribes around them: that Ulphilas laboured with: no
little success amongst the Goths of Msesia ; that the
great Chrysostom founded in Constantinople an insti
tution in which Goths might be trained and educated
to preach the Gospel to their fellow-countrymen ; 1 that
Valentinus won for himself the titl'e of " the apostle
of Noricum ;"2 that his work was carried on with
i Theodoret, " H. E." v. 30.
2 See Surius, "Acta SS." Aug. 4.

3o ST. PA TRICK.

signal success by Severinus;1 that, after the conversion
of Clovis and the foundation of the Frankish Church,
Avitus of Vienne, Caesarius of Aries, and Faustus of
Riez, proved what might be done by energy and
self-devotion among the masses of heathendom.
But the Frankish Church was not destined to evan
gelize the rude nations of Europe. The internal dis
sensions, the constant wars, among the successors of
Clovis, were not favourable either to the development
of Christianity in their own dominions or its propaga
tion abroad. The rapid accession of wealth more and
more tempted the Frankish bishops to live as mere
laymen, and the light of their Church grew dim. Not
only were the heathen lying around neglected, but
within her own territory the Frankish Church saw her
own members relapsing in some instances into the old
idolatries. A new influence, therefore, was required if this light '
was to be rekindled, and the nations of Europe evan
gelized. And this new influence the providence of
God supplied. But to trace its origin we must leave
the Continent of Europe for an island high up in the
Northern Sea, which the Roman Agricola had once
dreamt of invading and holding with a single legion,2
but where the imperial proconsuls and praetors had
never landed, and which was now almost forgotten
amidst the breaking up of the Roman empire. In
short, we must begin with the great apostle of
Ireland, St. Patrick.
1 See "The Hermits," by Professor Kingsley, pp. 224-246.
2 Taciti "Vita Agricola;," ch. xxiv.

ST. PATRICK. 31

The original name of St Patrick was Succat, which
is said to signify " strong in war." Patricius appears
to have been his" Roman name. He was born of
Christian parents at some period between A.D. 395
and A.D. 415. His father Calphurnius was a deacon,
his grandfather Potitus a priest. Though an eccle
siastic, Calphurnius would seem to have held the
rank of decurion,1 and may therefore have been of
Roman or provincial British extraction. His birth
place was a spot which he himself calls Bonavem
Taberniae, and which in all probability may be iden
tified with the modern Kirkpatrick, between Dum
barton and Glasgow.
The parents of Succat, as has been already said,
were Christians, and it would seem that the Gospel
had been preached to some extent in the neighbour
hood of his father's home. Whatever amount, how
ever, of instruction he may have received was rudely
interrupted, when he was about sixteen years of age.
The coasts of Scotland were at this time exposed to
the frequent incursions of Irish chieftains, who landed
in their swift barks, ravaged the country, and having
carried off as many of the inhabitants as they could,
consigned them to slavery. In one of these expedi
tions the house of Calphurnius was attacked, and
Succat, with two of his sisters and many of his country-
• men, was carried away, and conveyed to the north of
Ireland. Here he was purchased as a slave by Michul or
1 "S. Patricii Ep. ad Coroticum;" Todd's "Life of St. Patrick,'"
P- 354-

32 ST. PATRICK.

Milchu, a chief of North Dalaradia, who dwelt in the
valley of the Braid, near Mount Slemish, in the
county of Antrim. The work assigned him was that
of attending his master's flocks and herds, and in his
" Confession," which he wrote towards the close of his
life, he describes how he wandered over the bleak
mountains, often drenched with the rains, and numbed
with the frosts. His period of servitude lasted six
years ; and during this time he would seem to have
made himself acquainted with the language of the
native tribes, and to have learnt their habits and
modes of life. At length he succeeded in effecting
his escape to the sea-side, where he took ship and.
after a tempestuous passage, regained his father's
house. His stay, however, was destined to be very-
short. In a predatory excursion he was a second
time taken captive, and again, after a brief interval,
succeeded in making his escape.1
Had he listened to his parents, he would now have
remained with them, but he was bent on a very dif
ferent occupation. " The Divine Voice," he says^
"frequently admonished me to consider whence I
derived the wisdom which was in me, who once knew
neither the number of my days nor was acquainted with
God; and whence I obtained afterwards so great and
salutary a gift as to know and to love God." During the
weary hours, moreover, of his captivity, he had often
reflected how blessed a thing it would be if he, to
whom it had been given to know the true God and
1 This second captivity, however, appears somewhat doubtful. See
Todd's "Life of St. Patrick," pp. 375, 376.

ST. PATRICK. 33

his Son Jesus Christ, could carry the glad tidings to
his master's people and the land of his exile.
One night, he tells us, he had a dream, in which he
thought he saw a man coming from Ireland with a
number of letters. One of these he gave him to read,
and in the beginning occurred the words, " The voice
of the Irish." While he was reading it, he thought he
heard a voice calling to him across the Western Sea,
"We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk
among us."
Obedient, therefore, to what he deemed to be a. plain
leading from heaven, and resisting the arguments and
entreaties of relatives and friends, who mocked at his
enthusiastic resolve, he set out for the monasteries
southern France, there to prepare himself for the work
of preaching the Gospel in the land of his captivity.
Amidst the conflicting legends which now follow him
at every step, it seems probable that he repaired to
the monastic schools of Tours, Auxerre, and Lerins,
where he studied, and was employed for some little
time in pastoral duties, having been ordained succes
sively deacon and priest.
There, too, he would seem to 'have been elevated to
the episcopate, and thence with a band of fellow-
labourers he set sail for Ireland, about the middle
of the fifth century. Landing on one of the islands
off the coast of Dublin, he and his companions
tried unsuccessfully to obtain provisions, which they
greatly needed. Thence sailing northwards, they
put in at a strait called Brene, and after land
ing at the south-western extremity of Strangford
s.l. vu. ^\M^7of^-
//

34

ST. PATRICK.

Lough,1 advanced some considerable way into the
interior. They had not gone far before they encountered a
native chief named Dichu, at the head of a band of
men. Mistaking St. Patrick for the leader of one of
the many pirate crews, which at that time often ap
peared upon the coast, he was on the point of putting
him to death. But struck by the missionary's appear
ance, and seeing that both he and his companions
were unarmed, he hospitably received them into his
house. In frequent interviews he now heard the doc
trines of the faith, and after a time was baptized, with
all his family. According to some authorities, he also
bestowed upon his instructor the ground whereon hi's
barn was built ; and here arose the celebrated church
called Sabhall Patraic, " The Barn of Patrick," which
still retains the name of Sabhal, or Saul, and is
situated about two miles north-east of Downpatrick.
Leaving Saul, the missionaries proceeded to north
ern Dalaradia, and the residence of St. Patrick's old
master, Milchu. But nothing would induce the old
chief to receive one who had been once his slave,
or to forsake the paganism of his forefathers. His
journey thus ineffectual, St. Patrick returned to the
district where Dichu resided, and made the neighbour
hood for some time his head-quarters.
Thence proceeding southward, he determined to
visit the central parts of the island, and especially
the famous hill of Tara, where King Laoghaire was
.. ' out to hold a great religious festival in the presence
i Todd's " Life of St. Patrick," pp. 406, 407.

ST. PATRICK. 35

of all his tributary chieftains, Druids, and bards. In
this stronghold of Druidism he resolved to celebrate
the approaching festival of Easter, and preach the
word to the assembled chiefs. It was Easter Eve,
we are told, when he reached the neighbourhood of
Tara, and having erected a tent, he made prepara
tions for spending the night with his companions, and
kindled a fire for the purpose of preparing food. As
the smoke curled upwards in the evening air, it was
observed by the Druids in the king's tents, and caused
the greatest consternation.- To kindle any fire during
the solemn assembly of the chiefs, before the king had
lighted the sacred flame in the palace of Tara, was a
sin of the greatest enormity, and the Druids did not
scruple to warn the king that if the fire of the stranger
was not extinguished that night, unto him, whose fire it
was, would belong the sovereignty of Ireland for ever
Messengers were accordingly sent to discover the
authors of the sacrilege, and to order them to appear
before Laoghaire. The missionaries went, and their
fearlessness when in the presence of the monarch and
his nobles won for them a respectful hearing. On
the following day St. Patrick again addressed the
chiefs, doubtless in their own language, and pro
claimed to them the doctrines of the faith. Laoghaire
himself, indeed, did not profess to be a convert, but
he gave permission to the man of God to preach the
word on condition that he did not disturb the peace
of the kingdom.' During the ensuing week, there
fore, when the great public ..games were celebrated at
Tailten, the missionary and his companions addressed
D 2

36 ST. PATRICK.

themselves to the youngest brother of the king, and
were so favourably received that he professed himself
a believer, submitted to baptism, and is said to have
given the site of a church, called afterwards "The
Great Church of Patrick."
The impression thus made upon the chiefs was
soon shared by their subjects, and though the pagan
party made frequent attempts to put the missionaries
to death, from which they narrowly escaped, they were
heartily received in Westmeath, Connaught, Mayo,
and Ulster, and before long found themselves strong
enough to destroy the great idol Crom-cruach, on the
plain of Magh Slecht,1 in the county of Cavan, and, in
the district of the clan Amalgaidh, admitted to baptism
the seven sons of the king and many of their people.
To the worshippers of the powers of nature, and
especially the sun and other heavenly bodies, St.
Patrick proclaimed that the great luminary which
ruled the day had no self-originated existence, but was
created by One, whom he taught them to call God
the Father. " Beside him," said he, " there is no
other god, nor ever was, nor will be. He was in the
beginning before all things, and from him all things
are derived, visible and invisible." He told them
next of " his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, who
had become man, had conquered death and ascended
into heaven, where he sat far above all principalities
and powers, and whence he would hereafter come to
judge both the quick and the dead, and reward every
i See O'Curry's Lectures, p. 103 ; O'Donovan's " Tribes and Customs j
of Hy-Fiachrach," p. 3io«. and the Addenda.

ST. PATRICK. 37

man according to his deeds." " Those," he declared,
" who believed in him, would rise again in the glory
of the true Sun, that is, in the glory of Jesus Christ,
being by redemption sons of God and joint-heirs oi
the Christ, of whom, and by whom, and to whom, are
all things ; for the true Sun, Jesus Christ, will never
wane nor set, nor will any perish who do his will,
but they shall live for ever, even as he liveth for
ever with God the Father Almighty, and the Holy
Spirit, world without end."1
Such, as it would seem from his " Confession," was
the Gospel he proclaimed, and his words, confirmed
and illustrated by his own intrepid zeal, ardent love,
and sincere and devoted life, made a deep impression
on the minds of the Celtic chiefs. With the religious
enthusiasm deeply seated in the primitive Celtic
character, which many years before won for St. Paul
so warm a reception in Galatia,2 their hearts were
touched, and they welcomed the missionary and
believed the word which he preached.
As time went on, the labours of St. Patrick were
lightened by the arrival of the bishops Secundinus,
Auxilius, and Isserninus, whom he had sent either to
France or Britain to receive consecration. Their coming
enabled him to extend the sphere of his operations,
and he undertook missionary tours in Meath, Lein-
ster, Ossory, and Munster. These continued for
several years, during which he was occupied in preach
ing the word, baptizing new converts, and erecting
1 See " S. Patricii Confessio," O'Connor, " Script. Hibern." vol. i.
pp. cvi. cxvii.
2 Gal. iv. 13-15.

3 8 ST. PATRICK.

churches. Knowing well how much his own acquaint
ance with the native language had contributed to his
success, he laboured diligently to establish a native
ministry wherever he went. Cautiously selecting from
the higher classes those whose "piety and intelligence
seemed to fit them for the work of the ministry, he
established seminaries and monastic schools, where
they were trained and educated ; and to these schools
the young of both sexes flocked with extraordinary
eagerness. While he was labouring in the south-eastern part
of Munster, a petty prince of Cardiganshire, named
Coroticus, though apparently professing Christianity,
set out from Wales, and descending on the Irish
coast with a band of armed followers, murdered
several of the people, and carried off a large number
with the intention of disposing of them as slaves.
This outrage, perpetrated in one of the districts where
St Patrick was baptizing, roused his keenest indigna
tion, and he wrote a letter, which he sent by one of
his companions, calling upon Coroticus to restore the
captives, many of whom had been baptized. But his
request being treated with contempt and scorn, he
composed another circular epistle, in which he in
veighed in the strongest terms against the cruelty
of the marauding tribe and its chief. He contrasted
his conduct with that of the Christians of the Con
tinent, who were in the habit of sending large sums
of money to ransom captives, and concluded by
threatening him and his followers with excommunica
tion, unless he desisted in future from his piratical

ST. PATRICK. 39

habits. What was the result of the epistle is , not
known, but it is to be feared that the attempt to
recover the captives was not successful. Slavery and
the trade in slaves was almost more difficult to root
out than paganism, and the inhuman traffic was in
full activity as late as the tenth century between
England and Ireland, and the port of Bristol was
one of its principal centres.
Meanwhile, after a somewhat lengthened sojourn in
the district of Lowth and parts of Ulster, St. Patrick
reached the district of Macha, containing the royal
city of Emania, the residence of the kings of Ulster,
the remains of which, under the name of the Navan,
still exist about two miles west of Armagh. Here
he was cordially received by Daire, a wealthy chief,
who made over to him a pleasant piece of ground
on an eminence, Druim-saileh, or " Hill of the Wil
lows." The spot pleased St. Patrick, and here he
determined to erect a church. The foundations were
accordingly laid, and around it rose by degrees
the city of Armagh, the ecclesiastical metropolis of
Ireland ; and here its founder spent the remainder of
his life, only leaving it now and then to visit his
favourite retreat at Saul, round which clustered so
many associations of his earliest labours, and of his
first convert Dichu.
Here, too, having called to his aid the bishops
Secundinus, Isserninus, and Auxilius, who next to
himself were best qualified by long experience for
the work, he proceeded to hold synods and to make
regulations for the general government of the churches

40 ST. PATRICK.

he had founded. Again and again he was solicited
to revisit his friends and relatives in Scotland, but
nothing could induce him to leave his post. In his
" Confession," written when far advanced in years, he
touchingly describes how often he had been requested
to come amongst his kinsmen once more, but how a
deep sense of the spiritual love between himself and
his flock ever retained him in Ireland.
It was while he was staying at Saul that the apostle
of Ireland was seized with his last illness. He had
lived to a good old age, and the sunset of his life was
calm and peaceful. ' Perceiving that his end drew nigh,
and desirous, as we are told, that Armagh should be the
resting-place of his remains, he set out thither, but
was unable to continue the journey. Increasing weak
ness, and^ as it seemed to him, the voice of an angel,
bade him return to the church of his first convert;
and there he closed his eyes in death, probably in
the year A.D. 493,1 leaving behind him the visible
memorials of a noble work nobly done. He and
his fellow-labourers had made for themselves by the
labours of their own hands civilized dwellings amidst
the tangled forest and the dreary morass. At a time
when clan-feuds and bloodshed were rife, and princes
rose and fell, and all was stormy and changeful, they
had covered the island with monastic schools, where
the Scriptures were studied, ancient books collected
and read, and native missionaries trained for their
own country, and, as we shall see, for the remotest
parts of the European continent.
1 See Todd's " Life of St. Patrick," p. 497.

CHAPTER III.

ST. COLUMBA,

But though dead, the apostle of Ireland still
continued to speak in the unremitting energy of
his successors. Benignus, the next metropolitan of
Armagh, and those who came after him, zealously
increased the number of schools and monastic
foundations throughout the country ; and from one
of these went forth the next eminent missionary of
whom we shall speak, the founder of the far-famed
monastery of Hy or lona.
Columba, or, according to his Irish name, Colum,
was born at Gartan, among the wildest of the Donegal
mountains, about the year A.D. 521. His father,
Feidlimidh, was one of the clan which occupied and
gave name to the country round Gartan, and belonged
to the royal family of Ireland, being descended from
one of the eight sons of King " Niall of the Nine
Hostages." His mother, Eithne, was descended from
a Leinster family, which also claimed connexion with
royalty. Enthusiastic biographers have related how
before his birth his mother saw in a vision a beautiful
robe placed in her hands by an angel, adorned with

42 ST. COLUMBA.

pictures of flowers of every hue, which, after a while,
he took from her and suffered to float in mid air.
As it floated, it grew more and more, till at length it
, covered all the mountains and the country round,
and there came a voice, saying, "Be not sorrowful,
O woman, for thou shalt have a son who shall be as
one of the prophets of God, and is foreordained by
God to be the guide of innumerable souls to their
heavenly home."1
At his baptism the boy received the name of
Colum, to which was afterwards added cille, or " of the
church," from his constant attendance at the church
which he frequented in early years. From the home
of the priest who baptized him, and imparted to him
the first rudiments of a literary education, he was re
moved to the school of St. Finnian of Moville in Down,
thence to the care of a Christian bard in Leinster,
and finally to a famous monastic seminary at Clonard.
His education completed, he laid the foundations
of several monasteries ; one on a hill covered with
oaks near Lough Foyle, where in process of time
rose the city of Deny, and another at Dairmagh, or
Durrow, in the diocese of Meath, of which Bede has
made special mention.2 In the foundation of these
and other cells Columba was diligently employed
till the year A.D. 561, when he left Ireland on his
famous mission to the Highlands of Scotland.
The occasion of this mission arose out of circum-
1 See Dr. Reeve's edition of " Adamnan's Life of Columba," Pref.
p. Ixx. n.
2 Bede, "H. E." iii. 4.

ST. COLUMBA. 43

stances singularly characteristic of the times in which
he lived.
Columba had a passion for borrowing or copying
volumes and manuscripts in the various monasteries.
On one occasion he paid a visit to St. Finnian at
Drom Finn, in Ulster, and borrowed his copy of the
Psalter. Anxious to retain a copy of the volume,
and yet afraid that Finnian would not grant per
mission if he made the request, he resolved upon
a stratagem to effect his purpose. Every day he re
paired to the church, and when the people had all
left, remained behind and transcribed as much as
he could of the volume. The circumstance did not
escape the notice of St. Finnian, but he resolved to say
nothing about the matter till Columba had concluded
his labours, when he sent and demanded the book,
reminding him that as the original was his, so also
was the copy which he had made without his per
mission. Columba was extremely indignant, and
refused outright to comply. Words followed, and it
was agreed to refer the dispute to Diarmaid, the king
of Ireland.
Accordingly the disputants repaired to Tara, and
were admitted to an audience. The case was heard,
and at the close Diarmaid gave the curious judgment
which to this day is a proverb in Ireland. Le gach
boin a boinin, le gach leabhar a leabhran, said he ; that
is, "To every cow belongeth her little cow or calf,"
and so to every book belongeth its son book or copy :
" therefore the book you wrote, O Colum, belongs by
right to Finnian." "That is an unjust decision, O

44 ST. COLUMBA.

Diarmaid," was Columba's reply, " and I will avenge
it on you."
It happened that at the very time the son of
Diarmaid's steward and the son of the King of Con-
naught, who was a hostage, were playing a game of
hurling on the green before the king's palace. A
dispute arose between them, in the midst of which
the royal hostage struck his playfellow with his
hurley and killed him. Thereupon the young prince
fled for sanctuary to Columba, who was still in the
king's palace. But the king ordered him to be
dragged away, and he was put to death for dese
crating the precincts of the palace against the ancient
law and usage. At this insult Columba was still
more indignant, and escaping with difficulty from
the court, made his way to the mountains of his
native Donegal. Here he was in the midst of rela
tives and friends, who took up his quarrel, and
marched with the men of Tyrone and the King of
Connaught to Cooldrevny, between Sligo and Drom-
cliff, where a battle was fought in which Diarmaid
was discomfited.1
Meanwhile, though Columba had become recon
ciled, to Diarmaid, his conscience could not forgive
1 The manuscript of the Psalter, which had been the cause of this
strange conflict, was now returned to Columba, and was hereafter known
as The Cathach or Book of Battle, and became the national relic of the
clan of the O'Donnells. In an engagement which took place in 1497
between the O'Donnells and the MacDermotts, it was taken into battle
enshrined in a sort of portable altar, but was captured by the Mac
Dermotts. They restored it, however, in 1499, and it is now to be
seen in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. — Reeve's Adamnan,
p. 249 ; "Annals of the Four Masters," vol. i. p. 193.

ST. COLUMBA. 45

him for having been the cause of so much bloodshed,
and he himself became the subject of ecclesiastical
censure. A synod was summoned at Teltown, in
Meath, and it was agreed that Columba, as a man of
blood, and the author of so great a slaughter, ought
to quit his country, and win over to Christ from
amongst the heathen as many souls as had perished
in battle. In this sentence all present concurred,
except the' famous abbot Brendan, of the monastery
of Birr, who protested against it, and St. Finnian of
Moville, the old instructor of Columba, who expressed
his admiration for his former pupil.
Accordingly, after announcing his intention to his
royal relatives, Columba, now in his forty-second
year, collected twelve companions, and in the year
A.D. 563 embarked in an osier boat covered with
skins, and made for the western shore of Scotland.
By Pentecost Eve he had reached an island, one of the
smaller Hebrides, about three miles long and a mile
and a half broad, and separated by a narrow strait
from the south-west extremity of the Ross of Mull,
and named Hy or lona. In one of its rocky bays,
still called Port-an-Churaich, or " The Bay of the Osier
Bark," he cast anchor, and climbing the highest point
in the island, and perceiving no trace of Ireland on
the horizon, deemed that he had reached the scene of
his labours.
About sixty years before a portion of the family
of Eire, chief of the Irish Dalriada, had passed
over, with a considerable body of followers, to
the nearest coast of Argyllshire, where they settled

46 ST. COLUMBA.

and founded the kingdom of British Scotia, or Dal
riada, gradually establishing themselves in the dis
tricts of Cowall, Kintyre, Knapdale, Argyll proper,
Lorn, and, probably, part of Morven, with the islands
of Islay, lona, and Arran. As yet, however, the
colony had not acquired much strength, and Bruide,
the chief of the northern Picts, was a prince of con
siderable power, and could bring a formidable force
into the field. Constant warfare gave the colonists
but little leisure for agricultural pursuits, and their
chief occupation consisted in pasturing their flocks
and herds. Numbering it has been thought scarcely
more than half the present population of Glasgow,
they were scattered here and there over the country, the
central district of which consisted of one vast forest,
called " The Caledonian Wood," and abounded in
enormous wild boars and formidable packs of wolves.
The rest of the country was bare and mountainous,
and was covered to a great extent with impassable
fens, through which even the natives could with
difficulty force their way.
Columba's first care, therefore, was to obtain a
grant of the island of Hy, which was freely conceded
by Conall, the chief of the British Dalriada, who
was allied to him by blood. He next proceeded to
erect a monastery, on the model, doubtless, of those
which he had already erected in Ireland, whither, as
he tells us, his mind ever returned with the fondest
regret, and his memory recalled the wind sighing
amongst the oak-groves of Durrow, and the notes of
the cuckoo and the blackbird. The buildings were

ST. COLUMBA. 47

of the simplest character, and consisted of a number
of small wattled huts, surrounding a green court,
including a chapel, a dwelling-house for the mission
aries, another for the reception of strangers, a refectory
and kitchen, and, outside the trench or rampart, a byre
for the cows, and a barn and storehouse for the grain.
Over this little establishment Columba presided.
He was the abbot, "the father," of the society. In
ecclesiastical rank he was a priest ; he officiated at
the altar in the little chapel, and pronounced the
benediction, but did not usurp the functions of a
bishop. The rest of the community were his " family,"
his " children." At first, as we have said, they were
twelve in number and his companions from Ireland ;
but before long they received numerous accessions
from the British, and even the Saxon tribes. Living
together under a common rule, they were to cultivate
the virtues of obedience, humility, and chastity ; to
regard one another as fellow-soldiers of Jesus Christ,
and their life as a continual * warfare under His
banner. Their rule required them to repair every morning
and evening to the oratory and join in the sacred
services. Every Wednesday and Friday, save only
between Easter and Whitsunday, was a fast-day,
and no food was taken before three in the afternoon,
except on the occasion of the arrival of a stranger,
when the rule was relaxed that they might indulge
their national hospitality. The intervals of devotion
were employed in reading, writing, and labour in the
field. Unremitting diligence was inculcated alike by

48 ST. COLUMBA.

the exhortations and example of their abbot, who
allowed no hour to pass during which he was not
engaged in prayer, reading, writing, or some other
employment. .Reading included chiefly the study of the Holy
Scripture, especially the Psalter, which was diligently
committed to memory, and, besides this, of books in the
Greek and Latin languages, and the lives of some of
the saints. Writing was the subject of special atten
tion. Columba was distinguished for his devotion to
the work of transcription, and the books of Kells and
Durrow are wonderful specimens of the perfection
which his followers acquired in the art of copying and
illuminating service-books and manuscripts. Active
outdoor labour was also required of every member
of the community. They were expected to till the
ground, to sow the corn, to store the grain, to milk
the cows, and to guide their boats of osier on the
stormy sea.
In each and all of these employments the abbot
set an eminent example to the society over which he
presided on the seagirt island. He had many natu
ral gifts which fitted him in an eminent degree for his
arduous work. Tall of stature, of a vigorous and ath
letic frame, of a ruddy and joyous countenance, which,
his biographer tells us, rejoiced the hearts of those
who saw him, he possessed an extraordinary power of
winning the love of all with whom he came in contact.
He was celebrated also for the power of his voice, which
could be heard at an amazing distance. He could
render aid when required in any emergency. He could

ST. COLUMBA. 4g

bale the boat, grind the corn in the quern or hand-
mill, administer medicine to the sick, and superintend
the labours of the farm.
When we add to this that he was of a princely
family, we cease to wonder at the influence which he
rapidly gained over Conall and the other Dalriadic
chiefs. Every day, his biographer tells us, the brethren
of lona could hear loud cries from the other side of
the strait which separated them from the island of
Mull. These shouts were the signal for the monastery
boat to put across and ferry the strangers over to the
island, there to seek either material help in alms or
medicines, or more frequently to obtain spiritual com
fort and admission into the monasteiy. The narrow
enclosure of the island speedily became too small for
the crowds that sought admission, and it was neces
sary to send off numerous colonies to the neighbour
ing islands and the mainland of Caledonia to found
monasteries and build churches, all of which owned
allegiance to the abbot of lona.
But it was not only to the colonists of Dalriada
that the missionary believed he had been sent. North
and east of the country occupied by the Irish Scots
dwelt the Picts, so called from their habit of painting
their naked bodies with various colours, whom the
Roman arms had never conquered, whom Tacitus
describes as the remotest inhabitants of the earth, who
successfully opposed the arms of Agricola, drove the
Roman legions from Britain, and laid waste the coun
try till the arrival of the Saxons. Crossing Breadal-
bane, Atholl, and the Grampians, Columba traversed

50 ST. COLUMBA.

in his skiff Loch Ness, and made his way to the prin
cipal fortress of the Pictish chief, Bruidh, the son of
Malcolm. This spot, now known as Craig Phadrick,-
about two miles south-west of Inverness, was then
the capital of the great chief, and, like the pagan
master of the apostle of Ireland, he was exceedingly
unwilling to meet the missionary and his companions,
and ordered the gates to be closed against him. But
Columba went up to the entrance, and had no sooner
made the sign of the Cross over it than, according to
his biographer, the gates flew open, and admitted him
into the presence of the king.
Much alarmed, the Pictish chief received his visitor
with peaceful words, and, in spite of all the endeavours
of the Druids to put down the new-comer, agreed to
befriend him, and confirmed to him the possession of
the island of lona, the sovereignty of which he appears
to have disputed with the chief of the Irish Scots.
But the favour of Bruidh did not secure for him the
friendship of the native priests, who strove in every
way to thwart him in his work. They regarded with
little favour his endeavours to recall the people from
the worship of streams and rivers, of woods and trees,
and on one occasion dared him to drink of a sacred1
stream, the water of which they declared would kill!
any one who ventured to put it to his lips.1 There-:
upon Columba drank of it in their presence, and thus
proved the emptiness of their threats.
Supported, however, as he was by the protection
of their chief, they did not venture to offer him any
1 See Adamnan, lib. ii. 2.

ST. COLUMBA.

Si

personal violence, and Columba occupied himself in
constant journeys to and fro, preaching the word,
sometimes with, sometimes without, the aid of an
interpreter, wherever he could find an ear to listen.
But not content with penetrating the forests, the
moors, the rocks, and defiles of Scotland, he and his
companions courted new dangers and yet greater
hardships. Committing themselves to their boats of
osier covered with skins, they braved the perils of'
the Northern Sea, and carried the Cross into the dis
tant Hebrides and Orkney Isles. One monastery the
abbot founded at Hymba, and placed in charge of it
his maternal uncle Ernan ; another he established at
Ethica; a third at Elena or Elachnave, "the holy
isle;" a fourth in Skye: and memorials of his visits
survive to this day in the bay of Loch ColumHlle and
the islands called Eilean Columkille.
Meanwhile he had never forgotten his native land,
or the monasteries he had founded under the oaks of
Deny and Durrow, and before long he had an oppor
tunity of rendering important aid in the settlement
of the country. On the death of Conall, the Dalri-
adan king, in A.D. 574, and the succession of his cousin
Aidan, Columba was selected to perform the ceremony
of coronation, which took place in the monastery of
lona, and marks the beginning of the Scottish mon
archy. In the following year he accompanied the
newly-crowned king to the Council of Druimceatt,
now Drumkeith, in the county of Londonderry.
Two important points awaited discussion and settle
ment. Hitherto the Dalriadan chiefs had paid tribute
E 2

52 ST. COLUMBA.

to the King of Ireland, on account of that part of the
country whence their forefathers had gone forth to
the coast of Argyll. The question now arose, should
the tribute be any longer paid ? The matter was
referred to the abbot of lona, who declined to give
an opinion himself, and advised the assembled chiefs
to consult St. Colman, an ecclesiastic famous for his
legal knowledge. In accordance with his advice the
Irish king renounced all right of tribute from the
King of the Dalriadans in Scotland, and promises
of mutual alliance and hospitality were exchanged
between the two monarchs.
The second cause of discussion arose from the
overgrown power and degeneracy of the Ollamhs, or
bardic Order, which, as we have already seen, ranked
next to the king himself. The people never tired of
listening to their praises of the national valour, or of
the heroic deeds of some national hero, and the bards,
strong in their own numbers and the popular affection,
did not scruple to lampoon all that gave them any
cause of annoyance, or failed to secure their goodwill
by costly presents. The consequence was that many
of the influential chiefs, stung by their satirical verses,
clamoured for the suppression of the Order, and the
King of Ireland himself was inclined to direct that
they should be banished from the country. Columba,
himself a poet, mediated between the bards and the
exasperated chiefs. Though the king was eager for
their suppression, he stood up for the Order, and ven
tured to point out that the good wheat ought not to be
pulled up with the tares, and to urge the impolicy of

ST. COLUMBA.

S3

suppressing a class so strongly supported by national
feeling. After some dispute, his advice prevailed, and
it was resolved that the Order should be preserved,
but their number limited, and their profession made
subject to certain rules.
When the council had broken up, Columba repaired
to the monasteries he had founded before his depar
ture for Scotland, inquired into their welfare, and
arranged matters of discipline and ritual. Then he
returned to Hy, and, with the exception of several
short visits to his native land, devoted the rest of his
life to the task of superintending the monasteries
and churches he had founded in Scotland.
The boats he had used in his earlier expeditions
were either the osier canoes covered with skins, such
as Caesar has described, which were usually small and
portable, so that he could take one with him to
traverse the inland lakes when he visited the Picts,
or they were hollowed out of the trunks of trees,
such as those still found buried in the bogs of Ireland.
But as time went on, and the community at lona
increased, larger vessels were built, which could be
navigated like galleys with sail or oar, and a small
fleet of barks lay off the island ready for instant
use. In these the missionary and his companions made
frequent expeditions amidst the numerous gulfs and
straits of the storm-lashed coast. Encouraged by
their abbot's example, and instructed by him in sea
manship and knowledge of the winds and tides, his
disciples learnt to despise the terrors of the deep,

54 ST. COLUMBA.

navigating their frail vessels even as far as the
steeps of St. Kilda, and more northerly still, to the
Shetland and Faroe isles, and even Iceland itself,
where they left relics of their visits in Celtic books,
bells, and crosses.
But our space will not allow of our recounting
further incidents in the life of the apostle of Cale
donia. We must pass on to the close.
For some time he had had a presentiment of his
approaching end, and he had made all preparation
for his departure. At length, towards the close of1
May, A.D. 597, he desired to visit the monks who
worked in the fields on the western, the only fertile,
side of the island, that he might give them his
blessing. His great age prevented his going thither
on foot, and he was drawn to the field in a car by
oxen. On reaching the field he told them that he
had greatly desired to leave the world a month be
fore, on Easter Day, but it had been so ordered that
he should wait a little longer, and thus their joyous
festival had not been turned 'into mourning. Now,
however, he felt his days were very few ; and when
they wept at the thought of his departure, he bade
them be of good cheer, and gave them his last
blessing. On the Saturday in the next week following he
went, leaning on one of the brethren, to the granary
where the corn was stored, and thanked God that he
had provided for the wants of the brotherhood, and
that for that year at least there would be no lack of
food, though he himself would not share it with them.

ST. COLUMBA. 55

Then, perceiving the sorrow of his companion, he con
tinued : — " This day in the Sacred Scriptures is called
Sabbatum, or rest ; and truly will it be a day of rest
to me, for this day shall I bid farewell to the toils of
my life and enter into the rest of heaven. For now
my Lord Jesus Christ deigns to invite me, and to
him shall I at midnight depart."
Then the two turn back towards the monastery;
but when they had got half-way, an old white horse,
which had been used tp cary milk every day from
the dairy to the monastery, came towards them, and
put his head on his master's shoulder. Columba's
companion would have driven him away, but the
aged saint forbade him, and, having caressed him
for the last time, he went to the summit of a little
hillock, and there, lifting up both his hands to heaven,
bestowed upon the island and the monastery his
solemn blessing.
Descending they entered the little wattled hut,
and the saint began to transcribe the 34th Psalm j1 but
on coming to the words in the nth verse, They who
seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is
good, he remarked that he had come to the end of
a page, and to a place where he might well stop.
"The next words," said he, "Come, ye children,
hearken unto me, belong rather to my successor than
to myself." Then rising he went to vespers, and when
they were ended, returned to his cell, and sent his last
exhortation by his companion to his disciples, urging
them to mutual love and goodwill, and expressing
1 Psalm xxxiii. 10, n, in the Vulgate.

56 ST. COLUMBA.

his hope of meeting them hereafter. The evening
wore on, and on the turn of midnight, as the bell
rang for matins, he rose and went to the chapel, and
knelt down before the altar in prayer. The lights
had not yet been brought in, but his faithful atten
dant Diarmid found him by groping in the darkness,
and supported his head upon his knees till the rest
of the brethren entered. Seeing what was rapidly
drawing near, they set up a bitter cry, but Columba
looked upon them with cheerfulness, and tried to raise
his right hand as if to bless them. His voice failing,
he could only make the accustomed sign, and, with
his hand lifted up in blessing, breathed his last on
the morning of Sunday, June the 9th, A.D. 597, in
the seventy-seventh year of his age.

CHAPTER IV.

ST. COLUMBANUS.

And now that we have watched the rise of the Celtic
churches in Ireland and on the western shores of
Scotland, we shall see how they poured back with
interest the gifts of civilization and Christianity on
the Continent of Europe. We have already observed
the fervid zeal with which the disciples of the apostles
of Ireland and Caledonia, despising all perils and
hardships, penetrated the most inaccessible retreats
of Pictish heathenism and the rocky islands of the
northern seas, planting wherever they went the banner
of the Cross. Blending the ardour of Christian en
thusiasm with an inextinguishable love of travelling
and adventure, they now began to search out the most
rugged fields of labour amongst the most barbarous
tribes of Switzerland and Germany.
The outward appearance of these Celtic missionaries
must have been very striking. Travelling generally
in companies — the Irish tonsure high on their shaven
heads, their long locks flowing behind, their outfit
a pastoral staff, a leathern water-bottle, a wallet,
a leathern case for their service-books, another con-

58 ST. COLUMBANUS.
taining relics — they flocked across the sea, landed on
the western shores of France, and, after paying their
devotions at some shrine, generally that of St. Martin
at Tours, pressed on to some forest, and there — all
obedient to one man, all, as they styled themselves,
"soldiers of Christ" — they settled down, and by
dint of great labour cleared some portion of the
waste. Before long the wooden huts arose, with the
little chapel and round tower or steeple by its side,
with the abbot's chamber, the refectory, the kitchen,
the barn for the grain, and other buildings ; and here
they lived, and prayed, and studied, tilling the waste,
preaching the word, healing the sick, comforting the
afflicted, and teaching the heathen tribes a "more
excellent way " than the cruel worship of Odin and
of Thor.
One of the earliest and most eminent of these Celtic
missionaries must now engage our attention.
Two years before St. Columba sailed for his island
home in lona, Columbanus was born in Leinster, of
noble parents, and was placed at a very early age
under the venerable Senile, abbot of Cluain-inis, in
Lough Erne. Under this able teacher his studies
embraced — besides the Holy Scriptures — grammar,
rhetoric, and geometry ; and his rapid progress was
attested by a commentary on the Psalms, which he
composed at an early age, besides other religious
works. Resolved on embracing the monastic state,
he left Cluain-inis for the great monastery of Banchor,
on the coast of Ulster, and submitted himself to the
discipline of the eminent abbot, St. Comgall. But he

ST. COLUMBANUS. 59
could not make up his mind to stay at Banchor.
Seized with the yearning after foreign travel which
seemed to have taken so many of his countymen by
storm, and eagerly desirous to preach the Gospel to
the pagan tribes on the Continent of Europe, he
acquainted the abbot with his resolve to leave his
own county and his father's house, and labour
abroad. In vain St. Comgall remonstrated. Colum
banus remained firm, and, at the age of thirty, having
selected twelve companions from amongst the brethren,1
he bade farewell to Ireland, and, after barely touching
on the shores of Britain, landed in France in the
year A.D. 580.
He found the kingdom of the Franks Christian in
deed, but only in name, distracted with furious wars,
and neglected by its own bishops. After traversing
the country for some time and preaching the word,
he arrived in Burgundy, where he was eagerly wel
comed by Guntram, the least blameworthy of the
grandsons of Clovis. Here he might have found a
secure retreat and a sphere of useful labour ; but his
ascetic spirit longed for a sterner mission field. On
the confines of the kingdoms of Austrasia and Bur
gundy rose the wild and desolate range of the Vosges,
and tribes of pagan Suevians roamed over districts
once colonized by the Roman legionaries. Here he
determined to take up his abode ; and with his twelve
companions first settled down amidst the ruins of the
ancient Roman castle of Anegray. Here and at
Luxeuil, where the speedily increasing number of his
1 See "Vita S. Galli ;" Pertz, " Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 47.

60 ST. COLUMBANUS.
disciples forced him to lay the foundations of another
monastery, were charms for the severest ascetic.
" Over a range of sixty leagues, and a breadth of ten
or fifteen, nothing was to be seen but parallel chains
of inaccessible defiles, divided by endless forests,
whose bristling pine-woods descended from the peaks
of the highest mountains to overshadow the course
of the rapid and pure streams of the Doubs, the
Dessoubre, and Loue." 1 War and devastation had
well-nigh effaced every trace of Roman colonists.
What their industry had cultivated the sword of the
barbarous invaders, and especially of Attila, had
restored to solitude, and made once more the haunt
of the bear, the bison, and the wolf.
No spot could have been found more suited to the
spirit of Columbanus. Nowhere could he and his
companions better learn to practise self-denial and
inure themselves to the severest hardships. Before
long, at Anegray and Luxeuil, monasteries arose
amidst the waste, on the model of those Columba
had raised under the oaks of Derry. The boundaries
of the monastic colony were duly marked out, and
the forest cleared. Within these rose the humble cells
of thatch and wattles, and conspicuously the church
with the round tower, which could serve as a place of
refuge in times of need. In fields reclaimed from
desolation the seed was sown, and when the summer
had mellowed the waving grain, the brethren reaped
the golden harvest. The mysterious life of the
strangers profoundly moved the hearts of Franks and
1 Montalembert's "Monks of the West," vol. ii. pp. 403, 404.

ST. COLUMBANUS. 61
heathen alike. Hundreds flocked to listen to their
religious instructions ; hundreds more, encouraged by
their labours in clearing and tilling the land, took to
copying their example. At Anegray, at Luxeuil, at
Fontenay, they beheld forests cleared, trees felled,
and the lands ploughed by the same assiduous hands,
all obedient to one head, who sometimes assisted in,
and always encouraged, their labours.
A Rule severer than that of Benedict bound every
member of the increasing fraternity. Incessant toil,
either in the field or in copying and illuminating
manuscripts ; the punctilious observance of repeated
devotional exercises, three by day and three by
night ; the severest discipline, extending to ' evey
motion of the body, and regulating even the tone of
the voice ; — these and other methods were employed
by the enthusiastic abbot in moulding to implicit
obedience those who were admitted to his cloisters.
" Obedience " is the heading of the first chapter of
his Rule, and the question, "What are the limits of
obedience?" is answered, "Even unto death; for
unto death Christ submitted himself to the Father
for us." The life of the monastic brother is thus
described : — " Let the monk live under the discipline
of one father, and in the society of many — that
from the one he may learn humility, from the other
patience — from the one silence, from the other gentle
ness ; let him never gratify his own wishes ; let him
eat whatever he is bidden ; let him possess only what
he receives ; let him perform his allotted task with
diligence ; only when wearied out let him retire to bed ;

62 ST. COLUMBANUS.
let him be compelled to rise before he has slept suffi
ciently ; when he is injured, let him hold his peace ;
let him fear the head of the monastery as a master,
and love him as a father ; let him believe that what
ever he orders is for his good, and obey him without
question, seeing that he is called to obedience, and to
fulfil all that is right ; let his fare be homely and
sparing, sufficient to support life without weighing
down the spirit — a little bread, vegetables, pulse, or
flour mixed with water ; let this be his diet, as
becometh one who professeth to seek in heaven an
eternal crown."
/But the abbot was far from teaching his disciples
that the essence of piety consisted in externals.
Again and again he reminds them that true religion
consists not in the outward humility of the body but
of the heart. He himself ever set them a worthy ex
ample. At once practical and contemplative, he would
work as hard as the best of them in clearing the
waste, and then he would penetrate into the deepest
recesses of the forest, there to read and meditate om
the Scriptures, which he always carried with him. .
On Sundays and high festivals he abstracted himself
even yet more from outward things. Seeking a cave,
or some other secluded spot, he would devote himself
entirely to prayer and meditation, and so prepare
for celebrating the holy services of the day without'
distraction. " Whosoever overcomes himself," he was,
wont to say, " treads the world under foot. No one
who spares himself can really hate the world. If
Christ be truly in us, we cannot live to ourselves ; if

ST. COLUMBANUS: 63
we have conquered ourselves, we have conquered all
things. If the Creator of all things died for us, that
he might redeem us from sin, ought not we to die
to sin ? Let us die unto ourselves. Let us live in
Christ, that Christ may live in us."
These quotations, and others to the same effect
might be easily multiplied, express the innermost
feelings of his heart, and the principles which he
sought to instil into the Order he had founded, in
superintending which he found constant occupation
for upwards of twelve years.
But he was not without his sorrows and anxieties.
Death carried off seventeen of the brethren, and the
, abbot buried them in a portion of the forest he had
so lately cleared. Moreover, the severity of his
life and his zeal for monastic discipline excited the
bitter prejudices of the Frankish clergy, whose own
lethargy and worldliness stood rebuked by his self-
denial. The pertinacity also with which he clung
to the customs he had learnt in Ireland, and especially
the time for the observance of Easter, did not mend
matters, and involved him in a correspondence with
Pope Gregory the Great, in which, while expressing
all due respect for his exalted position, he neverthe
less stoutly asserted his independence, and declined to
alter the traditions he had received.
Before long his adherence to his Irish customs
induced several bishops of the Frankish Church to
convene a synod and deliberate how they should act
towards the intrepid missionay. Hearing of their
intention, he addressed them in a letter, wherein, after

64 ST. COLUMBANUS.

expressing his thankfulness that they had met on his
account, and his wish that they would meet rather
oftener, as the canons required, he referred them as
regards the Easter question to his correspondence with
Gregory, and assured them with pathetic dignity that
he was not the author of these differences.
" I came as a stranger amongst you," he says, " in
behalf of our common Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.
In his name, I beseech you, let me live in peace and
quiet, as I have lived for twelve years in these woods
beside the bones of my seventeen departed brethren.
Let France receive into her bosom all who, if they
deserve it, will meet in one heaven. For we have one
kingdom promised us, we have one hope of our call
ing in Christ, with whom we shall reign together if we
suffer with him here on earth. Choose ye which rule
ye will respecting Easter, remembering the words of
the Apostle, Prove all things, hold fast that which is
good} But let us not quarrel with one another, lest
our enemies, the Jews, heretics, and heathen, rejoice
in our contention." Then he concludes, " Pray for us,
my father, even as we, humble as we are, pray for you.
Regard us not as strangers, for we are members
together of one Body, whether we be Gauls, or Britons,
or Iberians, or to whatever nation we belong. There
fore let us all rejoice in the knowledge of the faith,
and in the revelation of the Son of God, and let us
strive earnestly to attain together unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ ;2 in communion with him let us learn to love
1 i Thess. v. 21. 2 Eph. iv. 13.

ST. COLUMBANUS.

one another, and pray for one another, that with him
we may together reign for evermore."
Thus with mingled firmness and pathos did the
abbot plead with the Frankish prelates. But he
was soon called to engage in a nobler strife, and to
protest against the vices of the Burgundian court, at
this time ruled by the notorious Brunehaut, who,
expelled from the palace of Theodebert II., king of
Austrasia, had taken up her abode with her younger
son, Thierri. Thierri had given himself up to the un
bridled indulgence of his lusts, and Brunehaut con
niving at his licentiousness, opposed in every possible
way the substitution of a lawful wife for his numerous
concubines, and sought to gain a complete ascendency
in his kingdom, and to rule him through his vices.
But the fame of the abbot of Luxeuil attracted
Thierri, who was not without religious instincts, and
he often visited the monastery. Columbanus did
not neglect the opportunity thus afforded him. He
solemnly reproved the king for his disorderly life, and
bade him leave the society of his mistresses for an
alliance with a queen, who might bring him a legiti
mate heir. The young king promised amendment,
but Brunehaut saw in a legitimate queen a deathblow
to all her influence, and her rage against the abbot
was unbounded ; but she dared not treat him as Didier,
bishop of Vienne, had been treated, who had paid with
his life for boldly rebuking the king's incontinence.
Shortly afterwards, whether at her request or of his own
accord, the abbot visited the palace, and the queen-
mother implored his blessing on Thierri's four illegiti-
S.L. VII. F

66 ST. COLUMBANUS.
mate sons. "These bastards born in sin," was the
uncompromising reply, "shall never wield the royal
sceptre." Brunehaut, furious, bade the children retire,
and from that day forward commenced a series of
petty persecutions, cutting off supplies from the Irish
monasteries, and stirring up jealousy between them
and the neighbouring convents.
Thereupon the abbot determined to repair once
more to the court, and to remonstrate with the king
himself. It was sunset when he appeared before the
palace, and on his arrival being announced, the king
ordered a sumptuous supper to be prepared and sent
out to him. " It is written," said the abbot, " that the
Most High abhors the offerings of the wicked, who
wickedly persecute the servants of God, and exclude
them not only from their own, but from the habitation
of others." Thereupon, according to his biographer,
the dishes in a marvellous fashion brake in pieces,
and the wine and other viands were spilt upon the
ground. Alarmed at the intelligence of what had
occurred, Thierri again promised amendment, and
Columbanus returned to Luxeuil. Shortly afterwards,
however, hearing that the king had relapsed into his
old habits, he indited a letter full of the severest
rebukes, and threatening him with excommunication
if he did not repent.
Brunehaut felt that her turn was now come. She
inflamed the mind of the king against his stern
monitor ; she roused the nobles and courtiers, . and
appealing to the bishops, endeavoured to rouse their
jealousy against the strange monk. At last, stung to

ST. COLUMBANUS. 67

the quick, Thierri repaired to Luxeuil, and demanded
a free entrance to the monastery for himself and his
suite. Nothing daunted, the abbot forbade his ad
vancing a step further. The king ventured as far as
the refectoy, but shrunk from proceeding beyond, so
menacing were the other's words. "Thou thinkest,"
said he, with a sneer, " that I shall confer on thee a
martyr's crown ; I am not so utterly foolish as to
gratify thy pride. But since it pleaseth thee to live
apart from all other men, thou shalt go hence by the
way that thou earnest."1
Columbanus refused to leave the monastery except
by compulsion, whereupon he was forcibly taken and
conducted to Besancon. But he managed to elude his
guards, and made his way back to Luxeuil. Again
he was taken, and with two or three of his companions
was hurried to Auxerre, thence to Nevers, where he was
placed on board a vessel and conveyed down the Loire
to Orleans, and so to Nantes, where he was put on
board a ship bound for Ireland. But a storm arose,
and the vessel was driven back and left high and dry
on the coast of Neustria, nor till the abbot and his
companions had been put safely on shore did the
waters return and float the ship out to sea.
Thus once more in France, Columbanus repaired to
the court of Clotaire II., king of Neustria, who besought
him to remain and hallow his realm with his presence.
The abbot could be persuaded to stay only a few days
at the court, and then, after advising the monarch
about some political matters, requested a safe-conduct
1 Jonae "Vita S. Columbani," capp. xix. xx.
F 2

68 ST. COLUMBANUS.
to the court of the Austrasian Theodebert. His
request was granted, and he reached his destination
in safety. The King of Austrasia received him with
delight, but could not prevail upon him to remain
more than a brief space in his dominions.
As he was now not far from Luxeuil, not a few of
the brethren flocked around him once more, and re
joiced to see their revered abbot. But pining for the
solitude which had been so long denied him, he re
solved to proclaim the faith among the pagan tribes
bordering on the Austrasian confines, and embarking
on the Rhine with a few followers, ascended the river
as far as the lake of Zurich, and halted finally at
Tuggen. Here the tribes of heathen Suevians roamed
up and down the country, and are described as cruel
and impious, offering sacrifice to idols, and addicted
to augury and divination. One of the abbot's com
panions, an Irish monk named Callech, or Gallus,1 set
fire to their wooden temples, and flung their idols
into the lake ; while on another occasion Columbanus
himself broke one of the vats whence the beer was to
be drawn for a sacred festival in honour of Woden.
These proceedings roused the wrath of the Suevians,
and they drove the missionaries from their country.
Shaking off the dust from their feet, and invoking
terrible maledictions on the natives, Columbanus and
his companions left for Zug, and thence shaped their
1 The practice of Latinizing the Irish names of these early missionaries
was very common. Thus, Fergal wns called VirgHias ; Siadhail, Sedulius;
Cathal, Cataldus ; Donnchadh, Donatus ; Comgall, Faustus. See
"Ulster Archaeol. Journal," vol. vii. p. 242.

ST. COLUMBANUS. 69

course to Arbon, a small town situated about mid
way along the south bank of the lake of Constance.
Here they found traces of Christianity planted
under the Roman or Frankish government, and a
priest named Willimar received them with much cor
diality. Seven days were spent in pleasant inter
course, and in reply to the inquiries of his visitors
Willimar pointed out Bregenz, at the south-eastern
extremity of the lake, as well adapted for a centre
of missionary activity. A boat was manned by the
friendly priest, and Columbanus and his companions
made for the spot, and- found it well suited for their
purpose. Bregenz occupied the site of an ancient
Roman camp, and contained the ruins of a church
originally dedicated to St. Aurelius. Within the ruins,
however, the missionaries found three images of brass
gilded, fixed to the wall, which the people were wont
to worship as the presiding deities of the place, and
to invoke as their protectors.
These strange gods Columbanus resolved to remove,
and availing himself of a festival, when great numbers
resorted to Bregenz from the country round, he
directed Gallus, who was acquainted with the native
language, to address the people on the foolishness of
their idolatry, and to persuade them to embrace a
true faith. His companion complied with his request,
and in the presence of a vast multitude proceeded to
reason with them on the absurdities of the heathen
errors, and to proclaim to them the one living and
true God and his Son Jesus Christ. Then taking the
idols, he broke them in pieces, and flung them into

70 ST. COLUMBANUS.
the lake, while Columbanus sprinkled the church with
holy water, and cleansed it of the taint of idolatry.
The people were divided : some seeing the inability of
their gods to help themselves, approved the boldness
of the abbot, and were baptized ; others went away
filled with anger and bent on revenge.
In spite, however, of the exasperation of the greater
proportion of the inhabitants, Columbanus and his
little colony remained there upwards of three years,
erected a monastery, and cleared a portion of the
forest. At first their hardships were very great, and
Gallus provided for the wants of the community by
making nets and fishing on the lake, which to this day
abounds with many varieties of fish.
One night, we are told, while he was thus engaged,
he overheard the Spirit of the Mountain call to
the Spirit of the Waters, " Arise and hasten to my
assistance ! Behold, strangers have come and driven
me from my temple. Hasten to my aid, and help
me to expel them from the land !" To whom re
plied the Spirit of the Waters, " Lo ! even now one
of them is busy on my surface, but I cannot injure
him. Oftentimes have I desired to break his nets,
but as often have I been baffled by the invocation
of an all-prevailing Name, which never fails to
cross his lips. Thus defended, he always despises
my snares." Gallus shuddered at this unearthly
dialogue, but quickly crossing himself, addressed
the spirits, "I adjure you, in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that ye depart from this place, and never
venture to injure any one any more." He then hastily

ST. COLUMBANUS. 71
made for the shore, and recounted to the abbot what
he had heard, who rejoiced at this manifest proof that-
even the spirits were subject unto the brethren.
Human hostility, however, they found not so easy
to overcome. The heathen party roused against them
one of the native chieftains, and Columbanus resolved
to leave the neighbourhood. At first he thought of
going to labour among the Sclavic and Wendish tribes
who bordered on the Germanic nations, but forbidden
by a dream to undertake this mission, he took with
him a single disciple named Attalus, and crossing the
Alps, repaired to the court of Agilulf, king of the
Lombards, who with his queen, Theodelinda, welcomed
him with the utmost cordiality. Agilulf bestowed
upon him the territory of Bobbio, situated in a defile
of the Apennines, between Genoa and Milan. Here
were the ruins of a church dedicated to St. Peter,
which Columbanus restored, and with the aid of com
panions, who quickly joined him, added to it the
famous monastery of Bobbio.1 Here also he welcomed
several of the brethren from Luxeuil, who, with the
abbot. Eustacius at their head, came on an embassy
from Clotaire II., now sole king of the Franks, and
master of Austrasia, Burgundy, and Neustria, begging
him to return to the scene of his early labours. This,
however, Columbanus declined to do, and spent the
remaining years of his life in his new monastery, and
1 This monastery existed as late even as the year 1803. Its valuable
library preserved not only Cicero's treatise " De Republica," but an
Irish antiphonarium of the eighth century and an early Irish missal.
The name of its founder still survives in St. Columbano, near Lodi.

73 ST. COLUMBANUS.
died at the ripe age of seventy- two, November 21
A.D. 615.
Meanwhile his companion Callech, better known a.1
Gallus or St. Gall, prevented by a severe attack 0
fever from accompanying his master across the Alps
remained behind at Bregenz. On his recovey he
sought out his old friend Willimar at Arbon, and ir
his society, and that of two of the Luxeuil brethren
Magnoald and Theodore, found ample employment
for his boat and nets on the waters of the lake.
But soon yearning, like his master, for profoundei
solitudes, he determined to seek a retreat in the midsf
of the surrounding forests. On communicating his
design to Hildebald, a deacon under Willimar, whc
was intimately acquainted with the woods, the lattei
tried to dissuade him, by describing the perils of the
forest and the multitude of wild beasts. " If God
be with us," replied Gallus, " who can be against us r
all things work together for good to them that love
God." Thus overruled, the deacon persuaded him at least
to take some bread and a fishing-net, and aftei
prayer the two set out on their journey. They had
travelled till nearly three in the afternoon, when the
deacon proposed that they should stop and refresh
themselves before proceeding further. Gallus, how
ever, true to the rule of his master, bade the deacon
do as he pleased, but declared that, for himself, he
was resolved to taste nothing till God should point
out the site of their retreat.
Evening was closing on a long summer's day as they

ST. COLUMBANUS. 73
reached a stream falling down from a rock, where
they succeeded in taking a few fish, which the deacon
proceeded to broil over a fire, while the other in the
meantime retired to seek a quiet spot where he
might engage in prayer. He had not gone far when
his foot caught in some bushes, and he fell down.
The deacon hastened to raise him up, but Gallus
declined his aid, saying, " Let me alone : this is my
resting-place for life ; here will I dwell." Then rising
up, he made a cross of hazel boughs and planted it
in the ground, and suspending from it his casket of
relics, continued for some time engaged in prayer
that God would enable him to erect a monastery on
this spot. Their devotions ended, the two partook
of supper ; and while the deacon pretended to be
asleep, Gallus engaged in conflict with a bear, which,
his biographer tells us,1 in obedience to the words of
so holy a man, condescended to lay aside its usual
ferocity, and to leave them unharmed.
In the morning the deacon repaired to the stream
of the Steinach, and while fishing beheld two demons
in the form of women, who pelted him with stones,
and imprecated curses on the head of his master.
He returned to Gallus, to whose word the demons
were found to be as obedient as the bear had been on
the preceding night, and forsook the stream. With a
present of fish they now made their way back to
Willimar, and recounted all that had befallen them.
Shortly afterwards a message from Gunzo, the pagan
chieftain who had been instrumental in expelling
1 "Vita S. Galli," Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 9.

74 ST. COLUMBANUS.

Columbanus from the country, summoned Gallus to
cure his daughter, who was possessed with a demon.
The spirit recognised the voice of him who had
spoken words of power on the lake, the maiden
recovered, and on her arrival at the court of the King
of Austrasia, to whom she was espoused, recounted
all that had befallen her, and secretly took the veil,
a step which had been suggested by the missionay,
and was not resented by the king. The valuable
presents which were bestowed upon him in acknow
ledgment of the benefit he had conferred Gallus
distributed among the poor of Arbon. Among them
was a silver cup, which one of his disciples begged
him to keep for the service of the altar. " Silver and
gold have I none," replied the other; "vessels of
brass sufficed my master for the celebration of the
sacred feast, and they shall be sufficient for me.
Let it be given to the poor."
He then retired permanently to his retreat in the
forest, where he was joined by a deacon named John,
and twelve other monks, with whose assistance he
cleared the waste, and erected the famous monastery
which now bears his name. The see of Constance
falling vacant, he repaired thither with the deacons
John and Magnoald on the invitation of the duke,
Gunzo, and there met the bishops of Autun, Spires,
and Verdun, and a large body of clergy and laity
assembled to elect a successor. After some deli
beration Gunzo addressed them, and exhorted them
to choose a proper bishop according to the canons,
and one who would rule his see with diligence.

ST. COLUMBANUS. 75
The eyes of all were fixed upon Gallus, and all
agreed that no other was so fitted for the high office.
But the missionary declined the proffered honour,
remarking that the canons, except in the most urgent
cases, did not permit strangers to be ordained bishops
of districts of which they were not natives. "But,"
he added, " I have a deacon of your own people, who
is well fitted to fill the office, and I propose him for
your acceptance." Thereupon the deacon John, who
during their deliberations had retired to the church
of St. Stephen, was brought forth with acclamations
by the people, presented to the bishops, and forthwith
consecrated. Mass was then celebrated, and after
reading the Gospel, Gallus was requested to preach
to the assembled multitude. Accordingly he com
menced his sermon,1 which the newly elected bishop
interpreted. The discourse was little more than an abridged
history of religion, and of the chief events from the
Creation to the preaching of the Apostles. The
Origin of the world, the Fall of our first parents, the
Flood, the Call of Abraham, the miracles of Moses,
the kingly period of Israel's history, the calling and
functions of the Prophets, the miracle of the Incar
nation, the Sufferings, Death, and Resurrection of
man's Redeemer, the mission of the Apostles, — each
of these points was treated in turn, and made the
text of some moral observations.
1 It is given in full in Canisius, " Antiq. Lect" vol. i. p. 784, and the
"Acta SS." Oct. 16; -in an abridged form in Pertz, "Vita S. Galli,"
vol. ii. p. 14.

76 ST. COLUMBANUS.
Seven days were spent at Constance, and then
Gallus returned to his cell in the forest, where he
spent the rest of his life, superintending for twelve
years the labours of his monastic brethren. Re
ceiving information of the death of his great master.
Columbanus, he sent one of his disciples to make
inquiries as to the day and hour of his demise, and
received in reply a letter from the brethren at Bobbio,
and the pastoral staff of the great abbot, which the
latter had bequeathed to him. Once, and only once
more, did he consent to leave his retreat. At the
urgent request of Willimar he paid a visit to him at
Arbon, and on the occasion of a solemnity preached
to a large congregation. Setting out on his return,
he was attacked with fever, and before he could
regain his favourite retreat was overtaken by death,
on the 16th of October, A.D. 627.
The life of St. Gall, like that of his master, Colum
banus, had been eminent for self-denial and useful
ness. He had revived the faith in the ancient see
of Constance, he had reclaimed from barbarism the
district bordering on the Black Forest. He had
taught the people the arts of agriculture, as well as
the duties of religion, and the humble cell of the
apostle of Switzerland became after his death the
resort of thousands of pilgrims, and was replaced by
a more magnificent edifice, erected under the auspices
of Pepin I'Heristal, which during the ninth and tenth
centuries was the asylum of learning and one of the
most celebrated schools of Europe.

CHAPTER V.

ST. ELIGIUS.

WHILE the work of gradual evangelization was thus
proceeding in Southern Germany, the more northern
parts of Europe were not overlooked.
Bordering on the kingdom of the Franks, in the
early part of the seventh century, was the powerful
tribe of the Frisians, the nearest blood-relations of
the Anglo-Saxon race. Their authority extended not
only over the strip of territory which still recalls the
name of the Frieslanders, but a considerable portion
also of the Netherlands, and they even encroached
upon the Franks in Belgic Gaul.
The natural consequence was, that between the
Franks. and these outlying tribes, fierce and barba
rous, and clinging to their native superstition with
fanatical tenacity, a series of border wars was per
petually maintained. The task, therefore, of planting
Christianity amongst them was one of the utmost
difficulty and peril.
Men, however, were not found wanting to make the
attempt. Thus Amandus, who was consecrated a
missionary bishop about the year A.D. 628, selected
the neighbourhood of Ghent as the centre of his

78 ST. ELIGIUS.

operations, and strove with some success to win the
pagans to the faith. About the same time Andomar,
or St. Omer, from the monastey of Luxeuil, preached
the word from the neighbourhood of Boulogne as far
as the Scheldt. Ireland also sent over the missionay
bishop Livinus,1 who left his country with three
companions and suffered martyrdom amongst the
barbarous natives of Brabant and Flanders.
About twelve years later than Amandus, appeared,
in an adjoining district, another Frankish bishop, the
famous St. Eligius, or, as he is better known, St. Eloy.
Born in the year A.D. 588, at Chatelat, a village
about a mile from Limoges, Eligius was remarkable
at an early age for excellence of character and genuine
piety. His father placed him with a goldsmith at
Limoges, and he soon displayed such skill as to attract
the notice of Bobbo, the treasurer of Clotaire II. By
him he was entrusted with a commission for the king,
and the fidelity with which he executed it won for
him the favour of the court, and he was appointed
to superintend the royal mint.
Though surrounded by temptations, in the midst
of a profligate court, he did not forget the Christian
lessons he had learnt in childhood, but became eminent
for the integrity of his life, for his kindness to the
poor, and the interest he took in the relief and redemp
tion of captives. In this latter sphere of charity his
labours were unwearied. Whenever he heard that a
slave was about to be put up for sale, he hurried to the
place and procured his redemption. Bands of twenty,
1 See the "Annales Gaudenses," Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 186.

ST. ELIGIUS. 79

thirty, and even fifty, were thus liberated, and some
times whole shiploads of slaves, Romans, Gauls,
Britons, Moors, and especially Saxons from Germany,'
experienced the benefits of his kindness. To rescue
them from the hardships of the servile lot, he stinted
himself to the last farthing, and all who were willing
to embrace the monastic life he assisted liberally,
hoping to train them as missionaries amongst their
own countymen. So munificent was he in his chari
ties, that he was ever surrounded by a crowd of needy
applicants for his bounty, arid it became a common
reply to any one inquiring for his house, " Wherever
you see the largest crowd of paupers, there you may
be sure to find Eligius."1 He was equally earnest in
erecting churches and monasteries.
One of these latter his biographer describes at
length, and we gain a vivid conception of the civilizing
effects of such institutions at this period. Screened
by a lofty mountain and a dense forest, and sur
rounded by a moat, the gardens of the monastery
were filled with flowers and fruit-trees of every kind,
while a colony of monks employed the intervals of
devotion in various kinds of handicraft, under the
superintending eye of the skilful master of the royal
mint. Nothing shocked him more in his journeys from
place to place than the sight of the bodies of male
factors hanging on gibbets and slowly rotting in the
air. Wherever he saw such, he always had them
removed and decently interred. On one occasion his
1 See the Life of Eligius in Surius, "Acta SS." Nov. 30.

So ST. ELIGIUS.

attendants had taken down the body of a man who
had been hanged that very morning, and were preparing
his grave, when Eligius fancied he saw a quivering
motion which gave sign of life not being quite extinct.
He immediately used all his efforts to restore vitality,
and was successful. " What a sin it would have been
to have buried this man alive ! " was his simple remark
to his followers, anxious to ascribe the man's restora
tion to miraculous agency : " let him be clothed, and
rest awhile." It was with difficulty, however, that he
rescued him from his accusers, and, in spite of their
furious declamations against any mitigation of his
punishment, succeeded in obtaining his pardon from
the king.
In such works of charity, and the duties of the lower
clerical office, he found ample employment till his
elevation, in the year A.D. 641, to the bishopric of
Noyon opened to him a still more direct and special
sphere of usefulness. His diocese comprised the dis
tricts of Noyon, Vermondes, and Tournay, and was
inhabited in great part by barbarous heathen tribes,
who had never yet received the message of the Gospel.
Here, in spite of imminent peril to himself, and amidst
every hardship, he strove to win over, by his consistent
life and ceaseless self-devotion, the savage hearts of his
people. He founded churches and monasteries, and
traversed his diocese in every part, proclaiming the
word to the people, and warning them against their
idolatries. Fragments of some of his sermons have been pre
served by his biographer, which are interesting as

.ST'. ELIGIUS. -8 1

giving us an insight into the way in which, in the
seventh centuy, a bishop like Eligius would provide
for the spiritual wants of his people. In these, while,
on the one hand, we find exhortations to a diligent
cultivation of such Christian graces as love, faith, self-
denial, purity, and concord, to a careful attention to
Christian ordinances, as prayer, attendance at church,
hearing the word, and the reception of the Lord's
Supper, we find, on the other, exhortations to avoid
ance of all such heathen superstitions as were then rife
in the country.
In one sermon, after a persistent protest against the
idea that men can win the favour of the Almighty by
the mere performance of external ceremonies, the
bishop proceeds, " It sufficeth not, my brethren, that
ye be called Christians, if ye do not the works of a
Christian. That man alone is benefited by the name
of a Christian, who, with his whole heart, keeps the
I precepts and laws of Christ, who abstains from theft,
Ifrom bearing false witness, from lying, from perjury,
I from adultery, from hatred of his fellow-man, from
I strife and discord. For these commands Christ
himself vouchsafed to give us in his Gospel, saying,
Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit
adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear
false witness, honour thy father and thy mother, and
love thy neighbour as thyself ; whatsoever ye would
that men should do unto you, even so do ye unto them,
for this is the law and the prophets. Nay, he adds
' stronger commands than these, for he says, Love
your enemies : bless them that curse you : do good to
S.L. VII. G

8a ST. ELIGIUS:

them that hate you : pray for them that despitefully
use you, and persecute you} Behold, this is a hard and
difficult command, and seems impossible to men, but
it .has a great reward ; for hear what he declares it
is, That ye may be the children of your Father which is
in heaven. Oh, what grace is here ! Of ourselves we
are not worthy to be his servants, and yet by loving
our enemies we become the sons of God. He then
who wishes to be a Christian indeed must keep these
commandments. He who keepeth them not deceiveth
himself. He is a good Christian who putteth his trust
not in amulets or devices of demons, but in Christ alone.
" But above all things, if ye would be Christians^
indeed, beware of resorting to any heathen customs,
or consulting in any trial or difficulty soothsayers,
fortune-tellers, or diviners. He who doeth thus5.
speedily loseth the grace of his baptism. Let there .
be amongst you no resorting to auguries or obser
vance of the flight or singing of birds when ye set out
on a journey. Rather, when ye undertake a journey
or any business, sign yourselves in the name of Christ,
repeat the Creed and the Lord's Prayer with faith and
devotion, and no enemy will draw nigh to hurt you.
No Christian will choose superstitiously a lucky day
for going out or coming in, for all days are made by
God. No Christian will attend to the moon before
commencing any undertaking, or on the first of
January will join in foolish and unseemly junketings
and frivolity, or nocturnal revellings.
" Neither heaven, nor earth, nor stars, nor any
1 St Matt. v. 44,

ST. ELIGIUS. 83

other creature, is deserving of worship. God alone
is to be adored, for he created and ordained all
things. Heaven indeed is high, and the earth wide,
and the stars passing fair, but far grander and fairer
must he be who made all these things. For if the
things that we see are so incomprehensible and past
understanding, even the various fruits of the earth,
and the beauty of the flowers, and the divers kinds
of animals in earth, air, and water, the instinct of the
provident bee, the wind blowing where it listeth, the
crash of the thunder, the changes of the seasons, the
alternations of day and night ; if these things that we
see with our eyes cannot be comprehended by the
mind of man, how shall we comprehend the things we
do not see ? Or what kind of Being must he be by
whom all these things are created and sustained ?
Fear him, my brethren, before all things, adore and
love him, cleave fast to his longsuffering, and never
despair of his tender mercy."
In other sermons the bishop enlarges on the pro
mises made by the Christian at his baptism, on the
duy of remembering them in the course of daily life,
on the true aspect and responsibility of life as a state
of warfare against sin, and a preparation for the Great
Day, when an account must be given for the deeds
done in the body.
On this latter topic his exhortations are powerful
in their reality and earnestness. " Let us reflect," he
says, "what terror ours will be, when from heaven
the Lord shall come to judge the world, before whom
the elements shall melt in a fervent heat, and heaven
G 2

84 St. ELIGIUS.

and earth shall tremble, and the powers of the heavens
shall be shaken. Then while the trumpets of the
angels sound, all men, good and evil, shall in a
moment of time rise with the bodies they wore on
earth, and be led before the tribunal of Christ:
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, while
he points out to them the marks of the nails where
with he was pierced for our iniquities, and shall
speak unto them and say, ' I formed thee, O man, of
the dust of the earth ; with my own hands I fashioned
thee and placed thee, all undeserving, in the delights
of Paradise ; but thou didst despise me and my words,
and didst prefer to follow the deceiver, for which
thou wast justly condemned. But yet I did pity thee,
I took upon me thy flesh, I lived on earth amongst :
sinners, I endured reproach and stripes for thy sake ;
that I might rescue thee from punishment, I endured
blows and to be spitted on; that I might restore, to
thee the bliss of Paradise, I drank vinegar mingled
with gall. For thy sake was I crowned with thorns,
and crucified, and pierced with the spear. For thy
sake did I die, and was laid in the grave, and de
scended into Hades, that I might bring thee back to
Paradise. Behold and see what I endured for thy
sake ! Behold the mark of the nails wherewith I was
fixed to the Cross ! I took upon me thy sorrows*
that I might heal thee. I took upon me thy punish
ment, that I might crown thee with gloy. I endured
to die, that thou mightest live for ever. Though I
was invisible, yet for thy sake I became incarnate.
Though I knew no suffering, yet for thy sake I

ST. ELIGIUS. 85

deigned to suffer. Though I was rich, yet forlhy
sake I became poor. But thou didst despise my low
liness and my precepts, thou, didst obey a deceiver
rather than me. My justice, therefore, cannot pro
nounce any other sentence than such as thine own
works deserve. Thou didst choose thine own ways,
receive then thine own wages. Thou didst despise
light, let darkness then be thy reward. Thou didst
love death, depart then to perdition. Thou didst
obey the Evil One, go then with him into eternal
punishment.' "
In the lips of the preacher these were no empty
words. He lived in the constant realization of that
awful day whose coming he thus vividly describes.
With unwearied activity he persevered in his self-
denying labours till his seventieth year. Increasing
weakness, at last, warned him that his end was near,
and he spoke of it openly on one occasion, as he
was walking in Noyon to a church with some of his
younger clergy. Noticing a defect in the building
which threatened its speedy fall, he sent for a work
man to have it repaired. His companions suggested
that the repairs should be deferred till such time as
they could be completely carried out. " Let it be
repaired now, my children," he said ; " for if it is not
done now, I shall never live to see it finished." To
their expressions of sorrow at such a speedy loss of
their friend and guide he replied, that he had long
felt the day of his departure was coming, and he
would not be sorry to leave the world.
Shortly, afterwards worse symptoms appeared, but

86 S7\ ELIGIUS.

he still continued his labours of love, so far as he was
able. He employed the last days of his life in solemnly^
charging his monastic brethren to remember their!
vows, and not to forsake the flock of Christ, but to
labour diligently to cary on his work. When he felt
that his hour was really come, clasping his hands in
prayer, he said, " Now lettest thou thy servant depart,
according to thy word. Remember, O Lord, I am
but dust, and enter not into judgment with thy
servant. Remember me, O thou that alone art free
from sin, Christ the Saviour of the world. Lead me
forth from the body of this death, and give me an
entrance into thy heavenly kingdom. Thou who
hast ever been my protector, into Thy hands I com
mend my spirit. I know that I do not deserve to.
behold thy face, but thou knowest how my hope
was always in thy mercy, and my trust in thy faitlu
fulness. Receive me, then, according to thy loving-
kindness, and let me not be disappointed of my hope."
With which words he departed this life A.D. 659.

CHAPTER VI.

ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY.

While, however, these and other missionary bands
were carrying the light of the Gospel into the countries
bordering on the northern and eastern parts of France,
events had taken place in England destined to exer
cise a profound influence on the consolidation and
development of the churches of the Continent, and
the evangelization of the Germanic races.
Some five years before the founder of Luxeuil
left Ireland for France, that is, about A.D. 575, the
famous Gregoy the Great, then a monk in the mo
nastery of St. Andrew on the Ccelian mount at Rome,
was one day passing through the market-place, when
he noticed several gangs of slaves exposed for sale.1
Amongst them three boys, distinguished for their
fair complexion, the beautiful expression of their
faces,2 and their light flaxen hair, especially arrested
his attention. Struck with pity, he inquired from
what part of the world they had come, and was
answered, " From Britain, where all the inhabitants
1 On the traffic in slaves see above, pp. 38, 39.
2 See Bede, "II. E." ii. 1.

88 ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY.
have the same fair complexion." He next proceeded
to inquire whether the people of this strange county ¦
were Christians or pagans, and hearing that they
were pagans, he heaved a deep sigh, and answered •
that it was sad to think " that beings so full of light \
and brightness should be in the power of the prince
of darkness."
He next asked the name of their nation. "Angles,"
was the reply ; whereupon, as was his manner, play
ing on the word, he answered, " Rightly are they
called 'Angles,' for their faces are as the faces of
angels, and they ought to be fellow-heirs with the
angels of heaven." Once more he asked, " And from
what province do they come ? " He was told that
they came from Deira.1 "Rightly," he replied, "are
they named Deirans. From the ire of God are they
plucked, and to the mercy of God are they called.
And who is the king of this province ? " he proceeded.
" ./Ella," was the reply. The word reminded him of
the Hebrew expression of praise, and he answered,'
" Allelujah ! the praise of God shall be chanted in
that clime."
Then the abbot went his way, but he could not
forget the sight of those fair-haired Yorkshire boys.
He immediately conceived the idea of proceeding as a
missionary to England, and, having obtained the per
mission of the Pope, had actually accomplished three
days' journey thither, when he was overtaken by the
messengers, whom a furious mob had compelled the
1 The country between the Tyne and the Humber, including Durham
and Yorkshire.

ST. A UGUSTINE ¦ OF CANTERBUR Y.

Pontiff to send and recall him to their city. Five
years, however, after his own elevation to the Papal
chair, A.D. 595, an opportunity occurred of carrying
out by another the work he had been prevented
executing in person.
In the year A.D. 568 Ethelbert succeeded to the
.kingdom of Kent, and soon became lord over all
the kings south of the Humber. The proximity of
Kent to the Continent had favoured the maintenance
of the old connexion between Britain and France, and
Ethelbert had married a Christian princess, Bertha,
the daughter of Charibert, king of Paris. As one of
the conditions of the marriage it had been agreed that
the queen should be allowed to enjoy the free exercise
of her religion, and she had been attended to the
Kentish court by a French bishop named Luidhard,
who was permitted by Ethelbert to celebrate the
worship of the Christians' God in the little church of
St. Martin, a relic of Roman-British times, outside
the walls of Canterbuy.
It is only probable that Bertha should have en
deavoured, during a union of twenty years, to in
fluence her husband on the side of. Christianity, and
it is not surprising that many of the people of Kent,
whose own heathen hierarchy had sunk into insig
nificance, should have been anxious to receive some
instruction in the religion of their queen. Accordingly
they made application to the Frankish bishops for
Christian teachers, and it was probably intelligence
of this which determined Gregory to make another
attempt to evangelize the county. He wrote, there-

90 ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY.-
fore, to Candidus,1 who administered tbe patrimony
of the Roman Church in Gaul, directing him to'
buy up English youths from seventeen to twenty
years of age, that they might be trained in differ
ent monasteries, and become missionaries in their
native land. At length, in the sixth year of his
pontificate, A.D. 596, he selected from his own monas- _
tery on the Coelian hill a band of forty monks,
whom he placed under their prior, Augustine, and
enjoined them to commence a direct mission in
England. Accordingly, in the summer of that year, Augus-
• tine and his companions set out, traversed rapidly
the north of Italy, and crossing the Gallic Alps reached
the neighbourhood of Aix in Provence. Here the
-courage of the little band began to fail, and they
sighed for the security of their cells on the Ccelian
hill. The accounts they received of the savage
character of the Saxons filled them with alarm, and
they prevailed on Augustine to return to Rome, and
obtain for himself and his companions a release from
their arduous enterprise.
But Augustine had to deal, in Gregoy, with one
who lived up to the stern rule of the Benedictine ,
order, who had learnt to crush all human weakness, .
and to recognise no call but that of duty. He was ,
forthwith sent back with a letter to his timid brethren,
wherein they were enjoined to suffer nothing to deter
them from carrying out the work they had under
taken, and bidden to remember that the more
1 See Greg. Epp. viii. 7.

ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY. 91
arduous the labour,, the greater would be their eternal
reward. Thus urged by an authority they dared not resist,
the missionaries slowly bent their steps from Aix
to Aries, thence to Vienne, and so through Tours
and Anjou to the sea-coast. There they provided
themselves with interpreters from among the Franks,
and settiftg sail, landed at some point on the Isle
of Thanet.1
Once safely off shore, they sent messengers to
Ethelbert to announce that they had come from
Rome, that they were the bearers of joyful tidings,
and could promise him glory in heaven and an
everlasting kingdom with the living and true God.
Ethelbert received the messengers in a friendly spirit,
but with characteristic caution begged that , for the
present they would remain on the other side of the
Stour, and would abstain from entering Canterbury ;
and stipulated further that their first interview should
not take place under a roof, but in the open air, for
fear of the charms and spells which he fancied they
might exercise upon him.
Accordingly the Saxon king repaired to the Isle of
Thanet, and there under an ancient oak awaited the
coming of Augustine. To make a deeper impression
on the monarch's mind, Augustine, following probably
advice he had received from Gregoy, advanced in
solemn procession, preceded by a verger carrying a
1 Either at (1) Ebbe's Fleet, or (2) at a spot called the Boarded Groin,
or (3) at Stonar near Sandwich, or (4) at Richborough. See Stanley's
"Memorials of Canterbury," pp. 34, 35.

92 ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY.
silver cross, and followed by another bearing aloft on
a board, painted and gilded, a representation of the
Saviour. Then came the rest, of the brethren, and
the choir headed by Laurence and the deacon Peter,
who chanted a solemn litany.
Arrived in the king's presence, they were bidden.
to seat themselves upon the ground. Ethelbert could
not understand Latin, and Augustine could not speak
Anglo-Saxon ; so the Frankish priests interpreted
while the missionary explained the meaning of the
picture which was borne aloft, and told the king how
"the merciful One there depicted had left his throne in
heaven, died for the sins of a guilty world, and opened
the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Ethelbert listened attentively, and then, in a manner
at once politic and courteous, replied that the pro--
mises of the strangers were fair, but the tidings they
had announced new and full of a meaning he did
not understand. He promised them, however, kind
ness and hospitality, together with liberty to cele
brate their sacred services, and undertook that none
of his subjects, who might be so disposed,' should
be prohibited from espousing their religion. Thus
successful beyond their utmost expectations, Augus
tine and his companions again formed a procession, -
and crossing the ferry to Richborough, advanced
into the rude city of Canterbury, then embosomed
in thickets, chanting as they went along one of the
solemn litanies they had learned from Gregory, and
took up their abode in the Stable-gate, till the king
should finally make up his mind.

ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY. 93
Admitted into the city, tlie missionaries devoted
themselves to prayer and holy exercises, and winning
the regard of all the people were next allowed to
worship with the queen in the church of St. Martin,
and devoted themselves to their great work with
renewed zeal. At last Ethelbert avowed his willing
ness to embrace the faith, and to the great joy, we
need not doubt, of Bertha, was baptized in all proba
bility at St. Martin's church, on the 2d of June, being
the feast of Whitsunday, A.D. 597. The conversion
of the sovereign was the signal for the baptism of
the people also, many of whom, it is not improbable,
had intermarried with their British subjects ; and on
the next Christmas Day upwards of ten thousand
were baptized in the waters of the Swale, at the mouth
of the Medway, and thus sealed their acceptance of
the, new faith.
Augustine's next step was to repair to France,
where, in accordance with the plans of Gregoy, he
received consecration to the episcopal office at the
hands of the Archbishop of Aries. On his return he
took up his abode in the wooden palace of the king,
who retired to Reculver. Hard by the residence of the
bishop, shrouded in a grove of oaks, was an old British
or Roman church. This Ethelbert had converted into
a temple wherein to worship his Saxon gods. Augus
tine did not destroy it, but dedicated it to St. Pancras,1
and it became the nucleus of his first monastery.
1 Thus recalling to mind the monastery on the Coelian hill, which
had been built on the property belonging to the family of St. Pancras,
See Stanley's." Memorials of Canterbury," p. 38.

94 ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY.
Now also Laurence and Peter were entrusted
with the task of returning to Gregory at Rome,-,
and recounting to him the success of the mission.
They were to tell him how the country of the
fair-haired slaves he had pitied in the Forum had
received the faith, and how Augustine himself, in
conformity with his instructions, had been raised to
the episcopate. Moreover, they were to beg for
answers to certain questions which caused the new
bishop some anxiety. These related to the establish
ment of the revenues of Canterbuy, various points of
discipline, and especially the differences between the
Roman and the Gallican liturgies, with which Augus
tine had become acquainted during his passage:
through France, and which in the face of the British
clergy in the island might cause trouble.
After some time the messengers returned with the
replies of the Pope. Respecting the liturgies, Augus
tine was directed to select either from the Roman
or the Gallican uses whatever appeared to him pious,
religious, and right, to collect it into a volume, and,
establish it as the liturgy of the Anglo-Saxon Church-
ever remembering as a guiding principle that " things
were not to be loved for the sake of places, but places
for the sake of good things." With these directions <
were others respecting the way in which the mission
ary was to deal with the monuments of heathenism.
Gregory had written to Ethelbert requesting him to
destroy the heathen temples in his dominions. But
he was not satisfied as to the expediency of such a
course, and now, after much consideration, he wrote

ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY. 95
to Augustine, directing him not to destroy the
temples, but only the idols that might be therein.
As tb the structures themselves, if well built, they
were to be purified with holy water and converted
into Christian churches. The heathen festivals might,
instead of being rudely abolished, be similarly conse
crated by Christian associations and the celebration
of the birthdays of the saints.
The bearers of these letters were accompanied by
fresh labourers as a reinforcement to the mission,
and they brought with them ecclesiastical vestments,
sacred vessels, some relics of apostles and martyrs,
a present of books, including a Bible in two volumes,
two Psalters, two copies of the Four Gospels, and
expositions of certain Epistles. They were further
charged with the pall of a metropolitan for Augus
tine himself, which made him independent of the
bishops of France, and with a letter explaining the
course which the archbishop was to take in developing
his work. London was to be his metropolitan see,
and he was to consecrate twelve bishops under him ;
and whenever Christianity had extended to York, he
was to place there also a metropolitan, with a like
number of suffragans.
The course he was to pursue being thus defined,
Augustine invited the old British or Welsh clergy to
a conference at a spot on the Severn, in Gloucester
shire, which was for a long time afterwards called
"Augustine's Oak." Prepared to make considerable
concessions, he yet felt that three points did not
admit of being sacrificed. He proposed, therefore,

96 ST! AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY.
that the British Church should conform to the Roman
usage in the celebration of Easter and the sacrament
of baptism, and that they should aid him in evange
lizing the heathen Saxons. After a long and fruitless
discussion on the first day, during which the British
clergy clung as pertinaciously to their traditions as
Columbanus at Luxeuil, he proposed that an appeal
should be made to the Divine judgment. A blind
Saxon was brought in, whom the British Christians .
were unable to cure. Augustine supplicated the
Divine aid, and the man, we are told, forthwith
recovered his sight.
Convinced, but unwilling to alter their old customs,
the vanquished party proposed another meeting.
Seven British bishops assembled on this occasion,
together with Dinoth, abbot of the great monaster}-
of Bangor in Flintshire. Before the synod met, they
proposed to ask the advice of an aged hermit whether
they ought to change the traditions of their fathers.
" Yes," replied the old man, " if the new-comer be a
man of God." " But how are we to know whether he
be a man of God ? " they asked. " The Lord saith,"
was the reply, " ' Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly.' Now if this Augus
tine is meek and lowly, be assured that he beareth
the yoke of Christ." " Nay, but how are we to know
this ? " they asked again. " If he rises to meet you,
when ye approach," answered the hefrmit, "hear and
follow him ; but if he despises you, and fails to rise
from his place, let him also be despised by you."
The synod met, and Augustine remained seated*}

ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY. 97
nor rose at their approach to receive them. It was
enough. It was plain that he had not the spirit of
Christ, and no efforts of the archbishop could induce
the British clergy to yield one of his demands. " If
he will not so much as rise up to greet us," said his
opposers, " how much more will he contemn us if we
submit ourselves to him ? " Thereupon Augustine
broke up the conference, with an angry threat that, if
the British clergy would not accept peace with their
brethren, they must look for war with their foes, and if
they would not proclaim the way of life to the Saxons,
they would suffer deadly vengeance at their hands.
Thus unsuccessful in winning over the British clergy
to conformity, Augustine returned to Canterbury.
And now, as all Kent had espoused the faith, Justus
was consecrated to the see of Rochester, and at the
same time, through the connexion of Ethelbert with
the King of Essex, that kingdom was opened to
ecclesiastical supervision, and Mellitus was advanced
to the bishopric of London. This was the limit of
Augustine's success. It fell, indeed, far short of
Gregory's design, but that design had been formed
on a very imperfect acquaintance either with the con
dition of the island, the strong national prejudices of
the British Christians, or the relations which subsisted
between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In the fol
lowing year, May 26, A.D. 605, the first Archbishop
of Canterbuy died,1 having already consecrated
Laurence as his successor, and was laid in a grave
by the Roman road outside the city walls.
1 Stanley's "Memorials of Canterbury," p. 44 n.
s.L. VII. H

98 ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY.
After his death the work of evangelization still
went on. It was the work, however, not of one, but of
two parties ; the Roman, aided by their converts and
some teachers out of France, and the Irish, whom
Augustine had vainly endeavoured to persuade to
join him in the work of proclaiming the faith to
the Saxons.
The first party sent Paulinus to Northumbria,
Felix to East Anglia, Birinus to Wessex, and Wilfrid
to Sussex ; the latter sent Fursey to East Anglia,
Aidan from the monastey of Hy to Northumbria,1
Finan to Essex, Cedd, Atta, Diuma, and Cellach
into Mercia. Though the labourers could not agree
together on several points of ritual and discipline,
the work nevertheless prospered, and at length the
missionary stations dotted over the island were re
placed by a regularly established Church, and our
forefathers, once notorious for their fierceness and
barbarity, were so far softened by Christian in
fluences, that in no country was the new faith more
manifestly the parent of progress and civilization,
and, as will be seen in the next chapter, of an ardent
missionary zeal, eager to transmit the light of truth
to kindred Teutonic tribes in their native Germanic
forests. 1 See " The Hermits," by Professor Kingsley, pp. 289 — 291.

CHAPTER VII.

ST. WILLIBRORD.

It was from Northumbria that the first of the nume
rous Anglo-Saxon missionaries went forth to proclaim
the word to their Teutonic brethren.
About the year A.D. 690, Ecgbert, a Northumbrian
of noble birth, left his native land, like many of his
fellow-countrymen, to study in retirement amongst the
famous schools of Ireland. Taking up his abode in a
monastey in Connaught, he became eminent for his
piety and learning, but was before long prostrated by
a severe illness. Recovering, contrary to all expecta
tion, he made a vow that, instead of returning to his
county, he would devote himself to the service of
the Lord.
The condition of the heathen tribes in Northern
Germany, and along the Frisian coast, was at this
time a subject of deep solicitude in many of the Irish
monasteries. Ecgbert was filled with a desire to pro
ceed thither, and proclaim the message of the Cross.
Selecting, therefore, the most zealous of his brethren,
he made every preparation for the voyage. But on
the vey eve of their embarkation a storm shattered
II 2

ST. WILLIBRORD.

the vessel which was to have conveyed him and his
companions. Though thus discouraged, Ecgbert was not willing
to give up his project altogether. A vision bade him
remain himself in Ireland, and "instruct the monas
teries of Columba," and he began to look out for
other labourers, who would carry on the work.
At last his eye rested on a Northumbrian country
man of his own, named Willibrord, whose education,
commenced in the monastey of Ripon, had for twelve
years been carried on under his own direction in
Ireland. He was now thiry-two years of age, and in
Ecgbert's opinion possessed many qualifications for
such an undertaking.1
Yielding to the solicitations of his abbot, Willibrord
agreed to select twelve companions, and enter upon the
arduous undertaking. The vessel in which he sailed
bore him in safety to the Frisian shores, where he
was heartily welcomed by Pepin I'Heristal, who had
been lately successful in several engagements against
Radbod, a powerful native prince, and an energetic
supporter of heathenism.
Commencing his labours in that part of Frisia
which Pepin had wrested from his adversay, Willi
brord showed such zeal and devotion, and attained
such satisfactory results, that at the expiration of four
years Pepin sent him to Rome, with the request that
he might be elevated to the episcopal rank.
Sergius, the Pope, willingly complied, and in the
i "Vita S. Willibrordi," "Acta SS. Bened." ssec. iii. p. 564; Bede,
"H. E."v. 10.

ST. WILLIBRORD.

year A.D. 696 he was consecrated under the name of
Clemens, and his seat as archbishop was fixed at
Utrecht. Here Willibrord established himself, and
succeeded in evangelizing a considerable portion of
Frankish Frisia, and in building several churches and
monasteries, being assisted by the brethren he had
brought over from Ireland, and by others, who came
out as soon as they heard of the opening in the Frisian
territory. In the following year the archbishop resolved to
sail to Denmark, and plant there the Christian faith.
The terror, however, inspired by Ongend, a ferocious
Dane, rendered his efforts utterly useless, and he was
fain to content himself with finding thirty boys, whom
he resolved to take back with him to Utrecht, and
educate as future missionaries.
On his return a severe storm drove him for shelter
to the shores of Heligoland. This island was then of
much greater extent than it is now, and was known
by the name of Fositesland, from the Teutonic deity
Fosite,1 son of Baldr, to whom it was dedicated. So
sacred indeed was it accounted, that it. was deemed
unlawful to touch any animal living there, or, except
in solemn silence, to drink of its holy well. The
archbishop, however, having to wait some time for a
fair wind, killed several of the sacred cattle to provide
food for his crew, and baptized three of his com
panions in a sacred spring.
1 Son of Baldr and Nanna, who "settles all quarrels, and neither
gods nor men know any better judgments than his. " — Thorpe's "Northern
Mythology," p. 30.

102 ST. WILLIBRORD.
The natives, horrorstruck at his audacity, expected
the god would instantly vindicate his power by striking
him down with immediate death. Nothing, however,
occurred, and they deemed it right then to send mes
sengers and recount the affair to Radbod, who was
then in the island. That chief instantly summoned
Willibrord into his presence, and decided that one of
the offenders must die. Thrice were the lots cast
before the victim could be determined. At last one
was taken and put to death to appease the wrath of
the insulted Fosite. Then Radbod asked the arch
bishop to explain his conduct, on which the latter
replied, in terms which certainly were explicit.
"It is not a god, O king," said he, "whom thou
worshippest, but a demon, who has seduced thee into
fatal error. For there is no other god but One, who
made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things
that are therein. He who worships this God with
true faith shall receive eternal life. I am his servant,
and I testify unto thee this day that thou must aban
don these dumb idols which thy fathers worshipped,
and believe in one God Almighty, and be baptized
in the Fount of life, and wash away thy sins. If thou
followest my words, thou shalt enjoy eternal life with
God and his saints ; but if thou despisest me and the
way of salvation, know assuredly that thou shalt suffer
eternal punishment with the Wicked One whom thou
obeyest." Radbod marvelled at the boldness of the
speech, but acknowledged that the missionay's deeds
at least corresponded with his words, and sent him
back with an honourable escort to Pepin.

ST. WILLIBRORD. 103
Encouraged by the protection of the latter and of
his successor, Charles Martel, Willibrord now pushed
forward his spiritual conquests, visited all parts of his
diocese, and preached the word in every town and
village whose inhabitants professed to have received
the faith, adjuring them to stand fast and to glorify
God by a consistent life.
Before long the news of his success reached Eng
land, and many Anglo-Saxons left their native land
and eagerly associated themselves in his labours. Thus
Adelbert came and laboured in the north of Holland,
Werenfrid in the neighbourhood of Elste, Plechelm,
Otger, and Wiro amongst the people of Gueldres. Two
brothers also named Ewald joined the noble band,
and selecting the territory of the Old Saxons as the
scene of their labours, made their way thither, and in
the first village they entered met with a hospitable
reception.1 Encouraged by this, they announced to
their host that they wished to be led into the presence
of their chief, for whom they had a message of the
utmost importance. The introduction was promised,
and they remained with their entertainer for some
days. Meanwhile their daily prayers, Psalmody, and
mysterious rites provoked the suspicions of the Saxons,
and they began to fear lest, if introduced to their
chief, the strangers might prevail upon him to forsake
his ancestral faith, and so draw away the whole tribe
into apostasy. They therefore fell upon them one
day unexpectedly, and having decapitated one of the
brothers, and hacked the other to pieces, flung their
1 Bede, " H. E." v. 10.

104 ST. WILLIBRORD.
bodies into the Rhine. The chief, however, of the
country, on hearing of what had taken place, did not
approve of this cold-blooded murder. Considering
that an insult had been offered to his authority, he
slew all the inhabitants of the village and laid it in
ashes. The bodies of the martyrs were afterwards
dragged from the river and buried with much pomp
at Cologne.
Another coadjutor who came to take part in the
work was Wulfram, bishop of Sens.1 The exact date
when he appeared in the Frisian mission field is some
what doubtful,2 but it was the fame of the archbishop's
success which induced him to apply to the abbot of
Fontenelle for monks to accompany him to Frisia.
The abbot complied with his wishes, and on his
arrival amongst the Frisians Wulfram preached the
word with no little success.
Several incidents which occurred during his sojourn
in the country tended to make a considerable impres
sion on the minds of the people. Wulfram found
them addicted to the custom of immolating human
beings in sacrifice to their gods. Some were hanged
on gibbets, others were strangled, others were drowned
in the sea or some river. Once, on the occasion of
a great festival, the bishop beheld a boy being led
forth to suffer. The gibbet had been erected, and
a vast crowd was collected to feast their eyes on the
cruel sight. Amongst those present was Radbod,
and with him Wulfram pleaded earnestly that the
1 "Vita S. Wulframmi," "Acta SS. Bened." saec. iii. p. 342.
2 Dollinger fixes the date at about A.D. 712.

ST. WILLIBRORD. 105
boy's life might be spared. This the Frisian chief
said could not be. The sacred lot had marked
him out as the destined victim, and he must die.
Still the bishop persisted in entreating for his life, and
at last the chief said, " If your Christ can rescue this
boy from death, he may be his servant and yours
for ever." Thereupon the victim was placed under the
beam, the rope fastened, and he was thrown off. Mean
while Wulfram had flung himself on his knees and
prayed earnestly that, if it was God's will, he would
glorify his name by saving the boy's life. His prayer
was no sooner ended than the rope broke, and the
victim fell to the ground. Wulfram hurried to the
spot, and finding life not yet extinct took measures
for recovering him from the swoon into which he had
fallen, and then sent him, with others whom he had
similarly saved from a cruel death, to the monastery
of Fontenelle.
On another occasion the two sons of a widow
woman, one seven, the other five years of age, were
selected for sacrifice. A stake was erected on the
sea-shore, to which the boys were fastened, and they
were left to the mercy of the rising tide in a spot
where two seas met. As the waves crept nearer, the
elder of the two children tried to support the other
on his shoulders, and so save him for a little time at
least from his too certain doom. The crowd was
watching anxiously for the end, when Wulfram again
went to Radbod and begged the life of the children,
declaring it monstrous that beings made in the image
of God should be exposed to the sport of demons.

106 ST. WILLIBRORD.
" If your God Christ," Radbod replied, " will deliver
them from their peril, you may have them for your
own." Thereupon the bishop prayed earnestly to
God, and the waves, suddenly gathering into a heap,
seemed to leave the spot where the children stood, so
that it became as dry land. Then the bishop flung
himself into the water, and seizing one of the'children
in his right hand and the other in his left, conveyed
them safely home and restored them to their mother.
It is easy to imagine that incidents like these would
make a strong impression on the people, and it is not
surprising that Wulfram's expostulations won the sym
pathy of „ many who in their inmost hearts must have
revolted from such cruel scenes. Even Radbod's son \
consented to be baptized, and that chief himself is said/'
to have entertained at one period serious thoughts of
following his example. He actually approached the
baptismal font, but stopped on the way to ask the
bishop, adjuring him to tell the truth, whether, if he
received the rite, he might hope to meet in heaven his
Frisian ancestors, or whether they were in that place of
torment of which he had been told. " Do not deceive
thyself," was the prelate's uncompromising reply. " In
the presence of God assuredly is the ordained number
of"his elect ; as for thy ancestors, the chiefs of Frisia,
who have departed this life without baptism, it is
certain that they have received the just sentence of
damnation." Thereupon Radbod drew back from
the font, preferring, he said, to join his own people,
wherever they might be, rather than sit down in the
kingdom of heaven with a handful of beggars.

ST. WILLIBRORD. 107
The obstinacy of the chief perplexed the bishop not
a little. A last effort to overcome his scruples appears
to have been made while he was confined to his bed
by the disease which eventually terminated in his
death. But this also was frustrated by an incident
which is^oo curiously illustrative of the ideas of the
times tobe omitted.
" One day," writes the biographer of Wulfram,
"while Radbod was lying sick, the Evil One, who
is sometimes permitted to transform himself into an
angel of light, appeared to him, crowned with a
golden diadem, studded with brilliant gems, and
arrayed in a robe spangled with gold. While the
chief trembled with astonishment, his visitor asked
him reproachfully, 'Tell me, who has so seduced
thee, that thou wishest to give up the worship of thy
gods, and the religion of thy ancestors ? Be not de
ceived, continue constant to the faith thou hast been
taught, and thou shalt assuredly sit down in the
golden mansions of bliss, which I have appointed for
thee in the world to come. And now tbat thou may est
know the truth of my words, go to-morrow to that
Bishop Wulfram, and ask of him where is that man
sion of eternal splendour which he promises thee if
thou wilt receive the Christian faith, and when he
fails to show it thee, then let two messengers, one of
each faith, be sent, and I will lead the way, and show
them the mansion of eternal gloy, which I am about
to give thee hereafter.'
" In the morning Radbod did as he was bid, and
told Wulfram of the vision. But the latter was not to

108 ST. WILLIBRORD.
be duped. ' This is an illusion of the devil,' said he,
' who wishes all men to perish, and none to be saved.
But be not thou deceived, hasten to the font, believe
in Christ, and receive the remission of thy sins. As
for the golden mansions which thy visitor has pro
mised thee, believe him not, for he it is that seduceth
the whole world ; by his pride he fell from His place
in heaven, and from a beneficent angel became the
enemy of mankind.' Radbod replied that he was
willing to be baptized, but he should like first to see
the mansion which his own deity had promised him.
Thereupon Wulfram sent the messengers, his own
deacon and a heathen Frisian. They had not gone
far before they met one in human form, who said to
them, ' Make haste, for I am about to show you the
glorious abode which his god has prepared for Prince
Radbod.' " The messengers followed their guide, and after
a long journey they came to a street paved with
different kinds of marble, at the end of which was a
golden house of marvellous beauty and splendour;
entering it, they beheld a throne of immense size, and
their guide addressing them, said, 'This is the man
sion, and glorious palace, which his god has promised
to bestow on Prince Radbod after his death.' The
deacon, astonished at the sight, made the sign of the
Cross, and replied, ' If these things have been made
by Almighty God, they will remain for ever; but if
they be the work of the devil, they will speedily
vanish.' He had no sooner spoken these words, than
their guide was instantly changed into the form of the

ST. WILLIBRORD. 109
Prince of Darkness, and the golden palace into mud,
and the messengers found themselves in the midst
of a huge morass, filled with reeds and rushes. A
tedious journey of three days brought them back to
Wulfram, and they recounted to him what had
befallen them."1
But they returned too late for their intelligence to
be of any avail to the pagan chief, by assuring him
that he had been deceived by the Prince of Darkness,
for before their arrival he had paid the debt of nature.
But the news of this marvellous occurrence made a
deep impression on the Frisians. Multitudes of them
agreed to receive the rite which their chief had scorned,
and gladdened the heart of Wulfram by, at least, a
nominal profession of Christianity, before his death in
the following year, A.D. 720.
On the decease of Radbod, Charles Martel once
more reduced the Frisians to a state of nominal sub
jection, and Willibrord was enabled to push forward
his missionay operations with greater hope of per
manent success. But he had been already joined by
a still more eminent fellow-labourer, whose success
speedily eclipsed his own, who won for himself the
name of the " apostle of Germany," and whose labours
must form the subject of our next chapter.
1 " Vita S. Wulframmi," " Acta SS. Bened." ssec iii. p. 348.

CHAPTER VIII.

ST. BONIFACE.

About the year A.D. 680 there was living at Crediton,
or Kirton, about eight miles north-west of Exeter, a
noble family, amongst whose children was a boy
named Winfrid. At an early period the boy betrayed
much promise, and was designed by his parents for a
secular career. But the visit of some monastic brothers
to his father's house quickened a desire in his heart
to embrace the monastic life. His father strongly
opposed such a step, till at length alarmed by a
dangerous illness he relented, and at seven years of
age Winfrid was removed to a conventual school at
Exeter under Abbot Wolfard, and thence to Nutes-
celle in Hampshire, in the diocese of Winchester.1
Here, under Abbot Winberct, he took the name
of Boniface, and became eminent for his diligence and
devotion, for his deep acquaintance with the Scrip
tures and his skill in preaching. At the age of thirty
he received ordination, and his well-known talents
procured for him on several occasions high ecclesias
tical employments. King Ina honoured him with
his confidence, and the united recommendations of
1 "Vita S. Bonifacii," Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 336.

ST. BONIFACE.

his brethren led to his being sent, on more than one
occasion, on a confidential mission to Archbishop
Brihtwald. He might therefore have risen to an
honourable position in his native land, but other
aspirations had now taken possession of his soul.
No stories were listened to at this time in the
Anglo-Saxon monasteries with greater avidity than
those connected with the adventurous mission of
Archbishop Willibrord among the heathen tribes of
Frisia, and Boniface longed to join the noble band
beyond the sea. On communicating his design to
his abbot, the latter would have dissuaded him
from the arduous enterprise, but he remained firm,
and with three of the brethren, whom he had per
suaded to accompany him, left Nutescelle for London.
There he took ship, and crossing the sea, landed
at Doerstadt, then a flourishing emporium, now
almost obliterated from historical memory. But
the time of his coming, A.D. 716, was unpropitious.
Radbod was engaged in a furious conflict with
Charles Martel, a fierce persecution of the Christians
had broken out, and Boniface was fain to return to
his cloister at Nutescelle.
During the ensuing winter Abbot Winberct died, and
Boniface, had he listened to the earnest solicitations of
his brethren, might have been cordially welcomed as
his successor. But the old missionay ardour still
burned brightly, and with the return of spring he had
made up his mind to make another effort in Frisia.
Daniel, bishop of Winchester, strongly favoured his
designs, and gave him commendatoy letters to the

112 ST. BONIFACE.

Pope, whose consent and patronage he was anxious
to secure before entering a second time on his difficult
enterprise. Accordingly, the year A.D. 717 saw him
again in London, where he embarked and sailed to
Etaples, on the coast of Normandy. In the autumn
he set out through France with a large body of
pilgrims, and, crossing the Alps, reached Rome in
safety, and delivered the letters of his diocesan to
Gregory II. That Pontiff gave the ardent monk
a hearty welcome, and during the winter discussed
with him in frequent interviews the prospects of the
mission, and finally presented him with a letter
authorizing him to preach the Gospel in Germany
whenever he might find an opportunity.
In the following spring, therefore, armed with this
commission, he set out, and, crossing the Alps, first
commenced labouring in Thuringia. While thus em
ployed he received intelligence of the death of Radbod,
and immediately repaired to the country of that chief
tain. The recent successes of Charles Martel had
opened a way for Christianity in the Frisian king
dom, and for three years Boniface united himself with
the missionary band under Willibrord at Utrecht, and
in the destruction of many heathen temples and the
rise of Christian churches saw his labours crowned
with no little success. Feeling the advance of age,
Willibrord was now anxious that his friend from
Nutescelle should succeed him in the see of Utrecht,
but Boniface firmly declined the honour, and left him
to plunge into the wilds of Hesse. Two native chiefs
were attracted by his preaching, and submitted to

ST. BONIFACE. 113

baptism. At Amoneburg, near the Ohm, a monastery
speedily arose, and the energetic missionary found
that the protection of the converted chief, and his
own acquaintance with the native language, gained
for him such an access to the hearts of the people,
that multitudes, both in Hesse and on the borders of
Saxony, accepted baptism at his hands.
A faithful brother, Binna, was now deputed to
announce to Gregoy these gratifying results ; and the
Pope, who could not fail to foresee the issue of labours
so auspiciously begun, summoned him once more to
Rome. Thither Boniface obediently went, escorted by
a numerous retinue of Franks and Burgundians, and
in reply to the Pope's questions respecting the faith
which he preached, handed him a copy of his creed.
Gregoy duly examined it, and, after an interval of
five days, again admitted him to an audience, and
announced that, in consideration of the success he
had already achieved, he was ready to confer upon
him the episcopal dignity. Accordingly, on the
Feast of St. Andrew, A.D. 723, he was consecrated
regionay bishop, without any particular diocese, but
with a general jurisdiction over all whom he might
win over from paganism to the Christian fold. Thus
elevated . to the episcopal dignity, with letters of
commendation to Charles Martel, to the bishops of
Bavaria and Alemannia, and the native chiefs of the
countries where he was about to labour, Boniface
recrossed the Alps, and, with the permission and pro
tection of Charles Martel, recommenced operations in
Hesse. S.L. VII. I

H4 ST. BONIFACE.
He found that matters had not improved during hi
absence. Some of his converts had remained firm ii
the faith, but the majority, still fascinated by the spel
of their old superstitions, had blended their new anc
old creed in a wild confusion. They still worshippec
groves and fountains, still consulted augurs and cas
lots, still offered sacrifice on the old altars. Bonifaci
saw that he must take strenuous measures to con
vince them of the vanity of their old belief. A lette:
he received about this time from the Bishop o
Winchester, now blind and far advanced in years
suggested caution in dealing with the primitive super
stitions of the people. A Teuton himself, and writing
to a Teutonic missionay, he would have him scru
pulously avoid all contemptuous and violent language
and advised that he should try, above all things, tc
cultivate a spirit of patience and moderation. Ii
preference to open controversy, he suggested that h<
should rather put such questions from time to tim<
as would tend to rouse the people to a sense o
the contradictions which their superstitions involved
especially in relation to the genealogy of their gods.
"They will admit," he writes, "that the gods the]
worship had a beginning, that there was a time whei
they were not. Ask them, then, whether they con
sider the world also to have had a beginning, o:
whether it has always existed from the first com
mencement of things. Again, inquire who governec
and sustained the world before the birth ofithose god:
whom they adore ? By what means were they abli
to gain a supremacy pf power over a universe whicl

ST. BONIFACE. n5

had existed from all time ? Whence, how, and when
was the first god or goddess born ? Are more deities
still in process of generation ? If not, why and when
did the law of celestial increase come to an end ?
Ask them, again, whether, amidst such a multitude
of powerful deities as they acknowledge, there is
not danger of failing to discover the most powerful,
and thus offending him ? Why, in fact, are these
gods worshipped ? For the sake of »present and tem
poral, or for the sake of future and eternal happiness ?
What, again, is the import of' their sacrifices ? If the
gods are all-powerful, what ; do they gain by them?:
If 'they do not need them, why attempt to appease
them with such costly offerings ? Such questions JL
would have thee put to them, not in the way of taunt
or mockery, which will only irritate, but kindly and
gently. Then, after a while, compare their super
stitions with the Christian doctrines, and touch upon
the latter judiciously, that thy people may not be
exasperated against thee, but ashamed of their foolish
errors."1 Useful and wise as was such advice in reference to
his general conduct, Boniface deemed that the pre
sent juncture required sterner and more uncompro
mising measures. Near Geismar, in Upper Hesse,
stood an ancient oak, sacred for ages to Donarr or
Thor, the god of thunder. By the people it was
regarded with peculiar reverence, and was the rally-
ing-point of* the assemblies of all the tribes. Again
and again had Boniface declaimed against such sense-
1 Migne's " Script. Eccles." ssec. viii. p. 707.
I 2

n6 ST. BONIFACE.

less worship of the stock of a tree, but his sermons
had fallen dead on the ears of his hearers. He deter
mined, therefore, to remove an object of such super
stitious reverence from the midst of his converts.
One day, axe in hand, and accompanied by all his
clergy, he advanced to cut down the offending monarch
of the forest. The people assembled in thousands;
many enraged at his interference with their traditions,
many more confident, like the natives of Fositesland,
that an instant judgment would certainly strike down
so daring an offender. But stroke after stroke of the
axe fell, and it became clear that Thor could not
defend his own. In vain his votaries supplicated his
vengeance, and besought him to vindicate his power.
Before long a crashing was heard in the topmost
^boughs, and then the leafy idol came down to the
aground, and split asunder into four quarters. Unable
lo gainsay the reality of his victoy, the people ac
knowledged that the missionay had prevailed, nor
did they interfere when he directed that an oratoy in
honour of St. Peter should be constructed out of the
remains of their old divinity.
This stumbling-block having been removed out of
the midst of his people, Boniface found the work
of evangelization materially facilitated. Throughout
Hesse and Thuringia the word had free course ;
heathen temples disappeared; humble churches rose
amidst the forest glades ; monastic buildings sprung up
wherever salubrity of soil and the presence of running
water suggested an inviting site ; the land was cleared
and brought under the plough ; and the sound of prayer

ST. BONIFACE. 117

and praise in humble churches awoke unwonted echoes
in the forests. The harvest truly was plenteous, but
the labourers zvere few} Boniface determined, there
fore, to invite assistance from his native land. In a
circular letter addressed, in the year A.D. 733, to the
bishops, clergy, and principal abbots in England,
he pointed, in moving words, to the . wants of his
German converts. " We beseech you," he writes, " that
ye will remember us in your prayers to God and
our Lord Jesus Christ, who would have all men to
be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth,
that he will vouchsafe to convert to the true faith
the hearts of the heathen Saxons, that they may be
delivered from the snares of the Evil One, wherewith
they are now held captive. Have compassion on
them, brethren. They often say, ' We are of one
blood with our brothers in England.' Remember
they are your kinsmen according to the flesh. Re
member that the time for working is short, for the
end of all things is at hand, and death cannot praise
God, nor can any give him thanks in the pit.2 Aid
us, then, while yet it is day." 3
In other letters he begs for copies of different por
tions of the Divine Word. Thus to the abbess Ead-
burga he writes, to request her to send him the Epistles
of St. Peter inscribed in gilded letters, that he might
use them in preaching ; to another he writes for copies
of the Gospels, written in a good, clear hand, suitable
1 St. Matt. ix. 37, 38.
2 Ps. vi. 5. ; Isa. xxxviii. 18.
s Migne, "Script. Eccles." saec. viii. p. 739.

n8 ST. BONIFACE.

for his weak eyes, as also for commentaries, among
which he particularly specifies those of the venerable
Bede. His appeals were not ineffectual. Not a few
flocked from England to rally round him, and even
devout women were found willing to sacrifice the
pleasures and comforts of home, and go forth to
superintend the convents which the missionay had
inaugurated. As iron sharpeneth iron, so the coun
tenances of friends from the old county refreshed
and invigorated the spirits of the good bishop.
"""¦" Meanwhile news arrived of the death of Pope
Gregoy II. Still anxious to maintain his connexion
with the Holy See, Boniface wrote to his successor
and besought his blessing on his labours, and in the
pall of a metropolitan received a marked recognition
of his work. But not content with a distant corre
spondence, he once more, A.D. 738, crossed the Alps
and sought a personal interview with Gregoy III.
The latter received him with more than ordinay
respect. He invested him with plenary power as
legate of the Apostolic See, and authorized him
to visit and organize the Bavarian churches.
With letters accrediting him in his new capacity,
Boniface returned, in the spring of A.D. 739, and after
a short stay at Pavia with Liutprand, king of the
Lombards, commenced a thorough visitation of the
diocese of Bavaria, and added to the solitay see of
Passau those of Salzburg, Freisingen, and Ratisbon.
While at Rome, the archbishop had learnt that his
kinsman Wunibald had come thither from England,
and that another, Willibald, had just, returned from

ST. BONIFACE. ug

the Holy Land and entered the monastery of
Monte Cassino. He persuaded both of them, how
ever, to jom him in Germany ; placed Wunibald
in charge of seven churches in the newly-converted
Thuringia, and stationed Willibald at Eichstadt, then
a waste forest-land, which Count Suiger of Hirsberg
had bestowed upon the ' Church. He then wrote to
Tetta, abbess of Winburn, in Dorsetshire, requesting
that Walpurga, a sister of Wunibald, as well as any
other of his countrywomen who might be willing,
should be sent out to share the work in Germany.
Walpurga did not shrink from the perils of the
journey ; with thirty companions she crossed the sea,
and after a joyful meeting with the archbishop, pro
ceeded to join her brother in Thuringia, and settled
for a time in a convent beside him there. Afterwards
she accompanied him to Heidenheim, in the wilds of
Suevia, where they built a church, and, after much
difficulty, a double monastery for monks and nuns.
The companions also of Walpurga before long presided
over similar sisterhoods. Thus Lioba, afterwards the
friend of Hildegard, consort of Charlemagne, was
stationed at Bischofsheim on the Tuber ; Chunichild,
another devout sister, in Thuringia; and Chunitrude
in Bavaria. It was not always easy to reconcile the
natives to the erection of these outposts of civiliza
tion in their midst. Many deemed it a profanation
of the awful silence of the old oak-groves, and an
insult to the elves and fairies who for untold ages had
haunted the'primeval solitudes. Many more regarded
with much suspicion this intrusion on their old hunting-

120 ST. BONIFACE.

grounds, and would have preferred that the peace
of the wolf and the bear should not be disturbed.
But as years rolled on, the peaceful lives of the mis
sionaries won their respect and reverence, and the
sight of waving cornfields reconciled them to the
violation of their forest sanctuaries.
In the year A.D. 741 Charles Martel died, and
Boniface saw fresh opportunities opened up for carry
ing on and consolidating the labours of the various
missionay bands. It is true that the great Mayor of
the Palace never thwarted his operations, or declined
to recognise his authority, but he tolerated many of'the
clergy whose lives by no means corresponded with'
their sacred profession, and the gratitude due to the
conqueror of the Saracens was considerably marred
by his practice of pillaging churches and monasteries
from time to time, when he wanted money for his
numerous wars. Now that he was dead, the arch
bishop's course was more clear, and by reason of his
great influence over Carloman and Pepin he could
develope his plans for a systematic organization of the
German churches. He began by founding four new
bishoprics, Wiirzburg, Eichstadt, Bamberg, and Erfurt,
and in the following year proceeded to call a council
of ecclesiastics and the national estates to make pro
vision for the moral and spiritual superintendence of
the newly-formed churches.
Three years afterwards the Bishop of Cologne died,
and the idea occurred to Boniface of elevating that
place to be his metropolitan see, especially as it was
suitable for a basis of more extended missions in

ST. BONIFACE. 121

Friesland, where, since the death of Willibrord, the
work had somewhat retrograded. While correspond
ing on the subject with the Pope, an event oc
curred which gave an entirely different turn to the
negotiations. In the same year that the Bishop of
Cologne died, Gerold, bishop of Mayence, was slain
in a warlike expedition against the Saxons. To
console his son Gewillieb for the loss of his father,
he was consecrated as his successor, though until now
he had been only a layman in Carloman's court, and
had displayed more than ordinary fondness for the
chase. In the following year Carloman headed
another expedition against the Saxons, and Gewillieb
followed in his train. The armies encamped on either
side of a river, and, unmindful of his sacred office,
Gewillieb sent a page to inquire the name of the chief
who had slain his father. Ascertaining it, he sent the
same messenger a second time to request the chief to
meet him in friendly conference in the middle of the
stream. The latter complied, and the two rode into
the water, and during the conference the bishop
stabbed the Saxon to the heart.
This act of treachey was the signal for a general
engagement, in which Carloman gained a decisive
victory over the Saxons. Gewillieb returned to his
diocese. But Boniface could not allow so flagrant an
infraction of the canons enacted in the recent synod
to pass unrebuked. In the Council, therefore, of the
following year, he made a formal charge against the
blood-stained bishop. Unable to struggle against his
authority, Gewillieb was obliged to vacate his see, and

122 ST. BONIFACE.

Mayence became the seat of Boniface as metropolitan
where he exercised jurisdiction over the dioceses o
Mayence, Worms, Spires, Tongres, Cologne, Utrecht
as well as the newly-evangelized tribes whom he hac
won over to the Christian faith.
In the letter wherein Boniface communicated tc
the Pope this alteration in his plans he made a request
more nearly relating to himself. He was now verging
on threescore years and ten, and his long and inces
sant labours had begun to tell upon his constitution.
Weighed down with the care of all the churches in
Germany, he longed for some diminution of the
burdens which pressed upon him, and had already
requested to be allowed to nominate his successor,
This the Pope declined to allow, but conceded to his
age and infirmities the permission to select a priest
as his special assistant, who might share a portion oi
his episcopal duties. Increasing weakness now induced
him to reiterate his request, and the Pope, while re
minding him of the words, He that shall endureunto thi
end, the same shall be saved} agreed that if he could
find amongst his clergy one in whom he could place im
plicit confidence, he might elevate him to the post, and
receive his assistance as his coadjutor and representa
tive. Upon this Boniface nominated his fellow-county-
man and disciple, Lullus, and proposed to retire himself
to the monastey now rising on the banks of the river
Fulda, where he might spend the autumn of his life in
watching the beneficial results of the labours of the
brethren amidst the surrounding tribes.
1 St. Matt. xxiv. 13,

ST. BONIFACE. 123

But while thus toiling in the land of his adoption,
he was not unmindful of his old friends in England.
Pleasant memories of Crediton and Nutescelle still
lay near his heart ; and though unable to revisit
these familiar scenes, he yet maintained a constant
correspondence with friends in the old country, and
rejoiced to receive tidings of the welfare of the
Anglo-Saxon churches, just as he was pained to
the heart when he heard of any moral or spiritual
declension. Thus, hearing that Ethelbald, king of
Mercia, was living in gross immorality, he wrote to
him in earnest terms, and endeavoured to shame
him into a more consistent life by contrasting his
conduct with that of the still heathen Saxons in the
forests of Germany, who, though they had not the
law of Christianity, yet did by nature the things con
tained in the law, and testified by severe punishments
their abhorrence of impurity. He also wrote to Arch
bishop Cuthbert, informing him of the regulations
made in the recent synods, and urging him to use
every endeavour to maintain the vitality of the Church
of their native land.
Thus, amidst increasing infirmities and many causes
for anxiety, he yet found time to remember old scenes
and old friends. But vey soon the conviction was
deepened in his own mind that the day of his depar
ture was at hand. Lullus had, indeed, been appointed
his coadjutor in the see of Mayence, but his appoint
ment had not yet received the royal sanction, and till
this was secured Boniface could not feel free from
anxiety for the welfare of his flock. One of his latest

124 ST- BONIFACE.

letters, therefore, was addressed to Fuldrad, Pepin's
arch-chaplain, soliciting his protection and that of his
royal master in behalf of his clergy and his many
ecclesiastical foundations. In this very year he had
been called upon to restore upwards of thirty churches
in his extensive diocese, which had been swept away
during an invasion of the heathen Frisians, and it was
with gloomy forebodings that he contemplated the
fate of the German Church, if it was not shielded by
royal protection.
" Nearly all my companions," he writes to Fuldrad,
"are strangers in this land. Some are priests dis
tributed in various places to celebrate the offices
of. the Church and minister to the people. Some
are monks living in different monasteries, and engaged
in teaching the young. Some are aged men, who
have long borne with me the burden and the heat
of the day. For all these I am full of anxiety,
lest after my death they should be scattered as sheep
having no shepherd. Let them have a share of your
countenance and protection, that they may not be
dispersed abroad, and that the people dwelling on the
heathen borders may not lose the law of Christ. Suffer
also Lullus, my son and coadjutor, to preside over the
churches, that both priests and people may find in
him a teacher and a guide ; and may God grant that
he may prove a faithful pastor to the flock. I have
many reasons for making these requests. My clergy
on the heathen borders are in deep poverty. Bread
they can obtain for themselves, but clothing they can
not find here, unless they receive aid from some other

ST. BONIFACE. 125

quarter to enable them to persevere and endure their
hardships. Let me know, either by the bearers of this
letter or under thine own hand, whether thou canst
promise the granting of my request, that, whether I
live or die, I may have some assurance for the future."1
The royal permission that Lullus should succeed
him arrived, and his mind was relieved of its load of
anxiety. But again the old missionary ardour burnt
up as brightly as in earlier years. Though upwards
of seventy-five years of age he determined to make
one last effort to win over the still pagan portion
of Friesland, and to accomplish what Willibrord had
begun. Bidding, therefore, his successor a solemn
farewell, he ordered preparations to be made for the
journey. Something told him he should never return,
and therefore he desired that with his books, amongst
which was a treatise of St. Ambrose on " The Advan
tage of Death," his shroud also might be put up.
Then, with a retinue of three priests, three deacons,
four monks,, and forty-one laymen, he embarked on
board a vessel, A.D. 755, and sailed down the Rhine.
At Utrecht he was joined by Eoban, an old pupil
whom he had placed in charge of the see, and then
together they advanced into the eastern part of Frisia,
and commenced their labours.
For a time all went well. The missionaries were
welcomed by several of the tribes, and were enabled
to lay the foundation of several churches. Gladdened
by the accession of many converts, they at length
reached the banks of the river Burde, not far from
1 Migne, " Script. Eccles." saec. viii. p. 779.

126 ST. BONIFACE.

Dockum. It was the month of June, and th(
festival of Whitsunday drew near. Boniface had
dismissed many who had been baptized, bidding
them return on the eve of Whitsunday to receive the
further rite of confirmation. On the morning of the
appointed day, June 5, the noise could be plainly
heard of an advancing multitude, and the brandishing
of spears and the clang of arms told only too plainly
on what errand they were bound. The heathen party,
enraged at the success of the daring missionay, had
selected this day for a signal act of vengeance. Some
of the archbishop's retinue counselled resistance, and
were already preparing to defend themselves, when he
stepped forth from his tent, and gave orders that no
weapon should be lifted, but that all should await the
crown of martyrdom. "Let us not return evil for
evil," said he ; " the long-expected day has come, and
the time of our departure is at hand. Strengthen ye
yourselves in the Lord, and he will redeem your
souls. Be not afraid of those who can only kill the
body, but put all your trust in God, who will speedily
give you an eternal reward, and an entrance into his
heavenly kingdom."
Calmed by his words, his followers bravely awaited
the onset of their enemies, who rushed upon them,
and quickly despatched them. The archbishop him
self, we are told,1 when he saw that his hour was
come, took a volume of the Gospels, and making it
a pillow for his head, stretched forth his neck for the
blow, and in a few moments received his release.
1 "Vita S. Bonifacii," Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 351 «.

ST. BONIFACE. 127

The heathens speedily ransacked the tents of the
missionaries; but instead of the treasures they had
expected, found only the bookcases which Boniface
had brought with him. These they rifled, scattering
some of the volumes over the plain, and hiding others
among the marshes, where they remained till they
were afterwards picked up and reverently removed to
the monastey of Fulda, together with the remains of
the great missionary.
Thus died the father of German Christian civiliza
tion. A Teuton by language and kindred, he had
been the apostle of Teutons. Combining singular
conscientiousness with earnest piety, dauntless zeal
with practical energy, he had been enabled to con
solidate the work of earlier Irish and Anglo-Saxon
missionaries ; he had revived the decaying energies of
the Frankish Church; he had restored to her the
long dormant activity of the Ecclesiastical Council ;
he had covered central and western Germany with
the first necessay elements of civilization. Monastic
seminaries, as Amoneburg and Ohrdruf, Fritzlar and
Fulda, had risen amidst the Teutonic forests. The
sees of Salzburg and Freisingen, of Regensburg and
Passau, testified to his care of the Church of Bavaria ;
the see of Erfurt told of labours in Thuringia ; that of
Buraburg, in Hesse ; that of Wurzburg, in Franconia ;
while his metropolitan see at Mayence, having jurisdic
tion over Worms and Spires, Tongres, Cologne, and
Utrecht, »was a sign that even before his death the
German Church had already advanced beyond its
first missionay stage.

128 ST. BONIFACE.
Well may Germany look back with gratitude to thi
holy Benedictine, and tell with joy the stoy of thi
monk of Nutescelle. The roll of missionay heroes
since the days of the Apostles, can point to few mort
glorious names, to none, perhaps, that has added tc
the dominion of the Gospel regions of greater extenl
or value, or that has exerted a more powerful in
fluence on the histoy of the human race. In the
monastery of Fulda was exposed for ages, to hosts ol
pilgrims, the blood-stained copy of St. Ambrose on
"The Advantage of Death," which the archbishop
had brought with his shroud to the shore of the
Zuyder Zee, and the long-continued labours of many
of his loving pupils and associates will prove that in
his case, as in so many others, " The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of the Church."

CHAPTER IX.
GREGORY OF UTRECHT, STURMI OF FULDA, LEBUIN AND LIUDGER.
DURING one of his earlier missionary journeys in
Hesse, Archbishop Boniface arrived on one occasion,
about the year A.D. 719, at a nunney in the district
of Trier, on the banks of the Moselle, presided over
by the abbess Addula.1 After service the abbess and
her guest repaired to the common hall, and, as was
customary, a portion of Scripture was read during
meal-time. The reader was Gregory, a nephew of the abbess, a.
lad of fifteen, who had lately returned from school..
Boniface was pleased with the way in which the boy
read his Latin Vulgate, and proceeded to inquire
whether he understood the passage he had been,*
reading. The boy, misunderstanding his question,
read the words a second time. " Nay, my son„"'
replied the missionay, " that is not what I meant;,
I know you can read well enough, but can you
translate the passage into your own mother-tongue?"
The other confessed he was unable, and thereupon
Boniface himself translated it into German, and
having done so, proceeded to make the passage the
» "Vita S. Gregorii," "Acta SS. Bolland." Aug. 25.
s.l. vu. K

130 GREGORY OF UTRECHT.
ground of a few words of exhortation to the whol
company. We know neither what the passage was, nor wha
the missionary said, but we know what was uppermos
in his mind, and may be quite certain he did nc
lose the opportunity of exhorting the inmates of th
secluded cloister to prize the blessings they enjoyed
and of telling them of the many thousands in northen
and western Germany, bone of their bone and flesl
of their flesh, who knew not the truth, and to whom i
was his privilege to proclaim the word of life. 0
one other thing also we are certain ; and that is, th*
effect of his earnest words. So deep was the impres
sion they made on the mind of the listening youth
that he was seized with an unconquerable desire t<
accompany the preacher in his arduous work. Ii
vain the abbess tried to dissuade him from intrusting
himself to an entire stranger. The boy persisted ii
his request, and at length the abbess was fain to yield
and supplying him with horses and attendants, sh
suffered him to depart and accompany his new-founc
friend. That friend he never forsook. He shared witl
him all his trials and dangers, and, in spite of man]
privations and frequent poverty, continued his con
stant companion wherever he went. He was witl
him during his journeys to Rome, and brought bacl
many copies of the Scriptures, in which, as hi:
master's chief assistant, he taught the numerous can
didates for missionay work, whom Boniface had ii
training in his different monasteries. He was witl

GREGORY OF UTRECHT. 131
him also during his last journey to Frisia ; and on
the death of Bishop Eoban determined to take upon
himself the direction of the mission in that county.
Under his superintendence as abbot, the monastey
of Utrecht became an important missionay college,
where assembled youths from England, France, Fries-
land, Saxony, Suabia, and Bavaria, whom he dili
gently trained to emulate the zeal of his deceased
master. In preparing them for their high duties, he
was instant in season and out of season. Early in
the morning he might be found sitting in his cell
writing for such of his pupils as sought his counsel
or encouragement. One by one they would come to
him, and received suitable advice according to their
individual wants and peculiarities. |
A pleasing instance of the way in which he was
enabled to adorn the doctrine of a merciful and
crucified Redeemer amongst the heathen population
is recorded by his biographer. Two of his brothers
were journeying into France, when they were waylaid
by robbers and murdered. A pursuit was set on foot,
and on the capture of the murderers they were dragged
into the presence of the abbot, and it was thought
likely to soothe the pang of sorrow, if he should be
allowed to select the kind of death by which they
should die. But Gregory persuaded the captors to
suffer the men to be released, and furnishing them
with clothes and food, dismissed them with a suitable
admonition. (
In labours of love like these, teaching and preach
ing, he persevered till he had reached his seventieth
K 2

132 STURMI OF FULDA.
year. He was then seized with paralysis of the lefl
side, which continued for three years. During this
period he still strove to exhort his scholars, dividing
amongst them presents of books, one of which, the
" Enchiridion " of St. Augustine, his biographer affec
tionately mentions as having been bestowed upon
himself, and bidding all, amidst the toils and priva
tions of their daily life, to think of those encouraging
words of the Apostle, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive
the things that God hath prepared for them that love
him} At last his sufferings became so severe he
could bear up no longer. Having bidden his suc
cessor Albric a final farewell, he ordered that he
should be carried to the church, and placed at the
door, and in full view of the altar. There he prayed ;
and, having received the Holy Eucharist, died in the
midst of his disciples, who had gathered round his
bed, uttering as his last words, " To-day I have my
release." Another eminent pupil of the great apostle of
Germany was the abbot Sturmi.2 His parents, who
were of noble descent and natives of Bavaria, com
mitted him to the care of Boniface, at the period that
he was engaged in organizing the Church in that
county. Boniface accepted the boy with joy, and
on his arrival at Fritzlar placed him in a monastey
there, under the care of the abbot Wigbert. The
latter undertook his education with alacrity, taught
1 Isa. lxiv. 4 ; I Cor. ii. 9.
" "Vita S. Sturmi Abbatis," Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 366.

STURMI OF FULDA. 133
him to repeat by heart the Psalms, then opened up
to him the four Gospels, and bade him commit to
memoy large portions of the Epistles, and also of the
Old Testament.
The period of instruction completed, Sturmi was
consecrated priest, and for three years continued to
assist Boniface in missionay work. He was then
seized with an eager desire to found a monastey in
the awful forest of Burchwald, which then covered a
great portion of Hessia. Such a desire was no sooner
communicated to Boniface than it met with his most
cordial approval ; and he saw that an opening was
now possible towards converting that impassable forest
into a cultivated county, and establishing another of
his numerous monastic colonies in its midst. Two
companions were assigned to Sturmi ; and before the
three set out, Boniface solemnly commended them to
the Lord, and prayed that he who made heaven and
earth, from whom evey good thing proceeded, and
without whom all the efforts of human weakness were
vain, would enable them to find a suitable habitation
in the wilderness, and lead to a good issue the journey
on which they were setting out.
The three then started on their way, and after some
days reached a spot now called Hersfelt, which seemed
well adapted to their purpose. A portion of ground
was cleared, a few small huts were constructed of the
bark of trees, and their new abode was consecrated
with fasting and prayer. Sturmi, after a short stay,
determined to return and recount to* the archbishop
all that had befallen them. He told him exactly evey

134 STURMI OF FULDA.
particular respecting the situation, soil, watershed, anc
salubrity of their new abode. The prudent Bonifac<
would not immediately discourage his zealous disciph
by telling him the spot was not suitable. He bade
him stay and refresh himself awhile, and cheered hi:
spirits by reminding him of the consolatory promises
of Scripture, and the enduring reward promised tc
perseverance.' At length he told him plainly the
situation was not advantageous ; it was too neai
the pagan Saxons, and might suffer from their wild
incursions : he bade him, therefore, renew the search
for some locality more suitable and more secure.
Again Sturmi set out, rejoined his associates at Hers
felt, and informed them of the decision of Boniface.
A second journey was accordingly undertaken amidst
the trackless forest, but was scarcely more successful,
In a boat the little band sailed up the river Fulda,
and observed several spots which seemed adapted tc
their purpose, but none combined the precise qualifica
tions which Boniface required. To Hersfelt, therefore,
they returned, and there found a messenger from the
archbishop, summoning Sturmi to meet him at Fritzlar.
The faithful monk straightway obeyed, and recounted
to him the bootless result of the second expedition.
But Boniface still encouraged him to make another
attempt. " A place," he said, " is prepared for us in
the forest. Whenever it is the will of Christ, he will
show it to his servants. Therefore desist thou not
from thy efforts, but be assured that without doubt
thou wilt discover it there."
After a short interval of refreshment and repose,

STURMI OF FULDA. 135
Sturmi, undeterred by previous failures, again deter
mined to prosecute the search. This time he pro
ceeded alone, under the huge oak-groves where the
foot of man had never trod. Against the wild beasts
he protected himself in the day-time by chanting
hymns and prayers, and in the night-time he cut down
branches from the trees, kindled a fire, signed himself
with the sign of the cross, and commended' himself to
the divine protection.
On the fourth day, guided by a forester, he reached
a spot on the banks of the Fulda which seemed
to combine all the advantages of situation, salubrity,
and seclusion which Boniface required. Carefully
he examined and re-examined the spot. Every hill,
evey valley, every spring was duly noted, anjd" then
he went back ; and after communicating the joyful
news to the brethren, who were praying for his
success at Hersfelt, passed on and sought out the
archbishop, and declared his belief that the long-
desired locality had at last been found. Boniface,
overjoyed, listened eagerly to evey detail, and then
announced that he was satisfied. Shortly afterwards
he repaired to the court of Carloman, and prevailed
upon him to grant him the spot with a demesne
extending four miles each way. Sturmi then set out,
and with seven companions commenced the founda
tion of the monastery. Thither also Boniface himself
repaired with several of the brethren, and watched the
felling of the trees and the clearing of the ground
with the utmost interest.
Thus was founded the great monastery of Fulda.

136 STURMI OF FULDA.

No other of his many conventual houses did Boniface
regard with such deep affection. Appointing Sturmi
its first abbot, he despatched him into Italy to inspect
all the monastic houses, especially that of the Bene
dictines at Monte Cassino, that they might be re
produced at Fulda. So popular did the new establish
ment become, especially after the remains of the
great apostle of Germany had been transferred thither
from the Frisian plain where he fell a martyr, that
numbers, even more than it could hold, sought to be
received within its walls. Sturmi is said to have
directed the labours of upwards of four thousand
monks, who gladly submitted to his paternal rule,
and employed themselves in clearing the waste, felling
the trees, reducing the wilderness to cultivation, and
preparing themselves for missionary labours amongst
their Teutonic brethren.
In the year A.D. 768 Charlemagne ascended the
throne, and four years afterwards had commenced the
first of his eighteen campaigns against the Saxons,
and slowly but steadily extended his conquests from
the Drimel to the Lippe, from the Weser to the Elbe,
and thence to the Baltic Sea. In the year A.D. 772 he
captured Eresburg, a strong fortress on the Drimel,
and thence advanced to the neighbourhood of the
source of the Lippe, where was the celebrated idol
called the Irminsaule, which has been already de
scribed.1 This he destroyed, and then devoted himself
to the task of penetrating the bleak and unknown
Saxon world, seeking out the native tribes amidst
1 See above, pp. 20, 21.

STURMI OF FULDA. 137
their endless swamps, their trackless forests, and wide
heaths, and erecting everywhere the Christian church
and the monastic seminay.
Sturmi now found full employment for all his
energies. The greater part of the conquered races
which had felt the conqueror's sword, and witnessed
the destruction of the Irminsaule, were committed to
his care. Aided by numerous helpers from Fulda, he
busied himself with exhorting them to destroy their
temples, cut down their groves, and embrace the faith.
His exertions were crowned with no inconsiderable
success. But before long a rebellion broke out. The
Saxons burst in vast numbers into the territoy of
Fulda, determined to destroy the monastery, and
crush the foes of their national faith. The abbot was
informed of their design, and determined to seek safety
in flight. The coffin of the apostle of Germany was
hastily exhumed, and the brethren set forth from their
retreat. But they had not proceeded far before they
heard that the tide had turned, and the Saxons had
been driven back. Charlemagne, informed of the
irruption, had flown to the rescue, and advanced with
his forces as far as the Weser.
But Sturmi, who had been far from well when
obliged to fly, sickened rapidly after his return to
the monastey. In vain Charlemagne sent his own
physician, Wintar, to minister to him. A mistake
was made in the prescription, and the sufferings of
the patient were only aggravated. Perceiving that
his end was nigh, the abbot ordered all the bells to
be rung, and when the brethren had assembled round

138 LEBUIN.
his bed, he begged them all to forgive him if any
had aught against him. The next day he sank
rapidly, and, as the brethren stood round his bed,
" Father," said one, " we doubt not thou art about to
depart hence and to be with the Lord ; we beseech
thee therefore that in the kingdom of heaven thou
wilt remember us, and pray unto the Lord in behalf
of thy servants, for sure we are that the prayers of such
an advocate will avail us much." " Show yourselves
worthy that I should pray for you," said the dying
abbot, "and I will do as ye require;" and with these
words he expired, on the 27th December, A.D. 779.
While Sturmi was thus breathing forth his life in
the seclusion of the monastery of Fulda, the storm of
war was raging without. Throughout the length and
breadth of the Saxon territoy troops were marching
and countermarching, and Charlemagne was pushing
on his conquests. In the midst of the din of arms it
is not surprising that even missionaries were tempted
to forget that the weapons of their warfare were not
carnal, and to appeal at times to other feelings than
those of faith and love. One of these, Lebuin,1 a man
of intrepid zeal, had come over from England, and
built an oratoy on the banks of the Ysell. Here,
encouraged by the advice and countenance of Gregory,
the abbot of Utrecht, he continued to exhort the
heathen Saxons to forsake their idolatries, and by
the ruggedness of his life succeeded in awing many
even of the martial chiefs.
But at length the wrath of the Saxons was kindled;
1 "Vita S. Lebuini," Pertz, " Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 361.

LEBUIN. 139
they rose in arms and burnt his oratoy to the ground.
Nothing daunted, Lebuin resolved to go forth and
confront an enormous gathering of the tribe at their
approaching assembly on the banks of the Weser.
Arrayed in full canonicals, with an uplifted cross
in one hand and a volume of the Gospels in
the other, he presented himself to the astonished
Saxons, as they were engaged in solemn sacrifice to
their national gods. " Hearken unto me," he thun
dered forth ; " and yet not to me, but unto him that
speaketh by me. I declare unto you the commands
of him, whom all things serve and obey."
Struck dumb with astonishment, the warriors
listened as he went on, " Hearken, all ye, and know
that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, the sea
and all things that are therein. He is the one only
true God. He made us, and not we ourselves. The
images, which ye call gods, and which, beguiled by
the Evil One, ye worship, what are they but gold, or
silver, or brass, or stone, or wood ? They neither
live, nor move, nor feel. They are but the work of
men's hands, and can neither help themselves nor any
one else. God, the only good and righteous Being,
whose mercy and truth remain for ever, moved with
pity that ye should be thus seduced by doctrines of
demons, has charged me, his ambassador, to beseech
you to lay aside your present errors, and to turn with
sincere and true faith to him, by whose goodness ye
were created, and in whom we live and move and
have our being} If ye will acknowledge him, and
1 Acts xvii. 28.

Ho LEBUIN.
repent and be baptized in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and will keep
his commandments, then will he preserve you from
all evil, he will vouchsafe unto you the blessings of
peace, and in the world to come life everlasting.
" But if ye despise and reject his counsels, and
persist in your present errors, know that ye shall
suffer terrible punishment for scorning his most
merciful warning. Behold I, his ambassador, declare
unto you the sentence which has gone forth from his
mouth, and which cannot change. If ye do not obey
his commands, then will sudden destruction come
upon you. For the King of kings and Lord of lords
hath appointed a brave, prudent, and terrible prince,
who is not afar off but near at hand. He like a swift
and roaring torrent will burst upon you and subdue
the ferocity of your hearts and crush your stiff-
necked obstinacy. He will invade your land with a
mighty host, and ravage it with fire and sword, with
desolation and destruction. As the avenging wrath
of that God, whom ye have ever provoked, he will
slay some of you with the sword, others he will cause
to waste away in poverty and want, others he will lead
into perpetual captivity. Your wives and children
he will sell into slavey, and the residue of you he will
reduce to ignominious subjection, that in you may be
justly fulfilled what has been long ago predicted,
' They were made a handful, and scattered and
tormented with the tribulation and anguish of the
wicked.'"1 1 "Vita S. Lebuini," Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 363.

LEBUIN. 141
The effect of these words can easily be imagined.
The warriors, who had listened at first with awe
struck reverence, were seized with ungovernable fury.
"Here is that seducer," they cried, "that enemy of
our sacred rites and of our county. Away with him
from the earth, and let him suffer the just penalty
of his crimes." Thereupon the whole assembly was
in a ferment. Stakes were cut from the adjoin
ing thickets, stones were taken up, and Lebuin
would have atoned for his temerity with his life had
it not been for the intervention of an aged chief
named Buto, who, standing on an eminence, thus
addressed the excited throng :
" Men and heroes all, listen to my words. Many a
time have ambassadors come to us from the Normans,
Sclaves, and Frisons. As is ever our custom, we have
listened attentively to their words, received them
peaceably, and dismissed them to their homes loaded
with suitable presents. But now an ambassador from
a powerful deity hath not only been (despised, but
struck and stoned, and almost deprived of life. That
the God, whose messenger he is, hath power and
majesty, is plain from the fact that he has delivered
his servant out of our hands. Be assured, then, that
what he has threatened will surely come to pass, and
those judgments he has denounced will be fulfilled
by a deity whom we know and see to be great,
powerful, and mighty."
With these words the old chief calmed the storm,
and so Lebuin escaped. The spirit, however, which
breathes through his address illustrates the spirit of

142 LEBUIN.

the times. The Saxons were regarded as barbarians
and heathens, with whom no promises were to be kept,
no treaties maintained. While Charlemagne's soldiers
fought against their idolatrous foes, threw down
their temples, and cut down thefr groves, the priests
followed in their wake. The reception of baptism
was regarded as the symbol of peace ; refusal of the
sacrament the symptom of disaffection and the
signal for war.
In vain men like Alcuin protested against the
monarch's plan for securing at once the subjection
and the conversion of the Saxons. In vain the em
peror was exhorted to remember the example of the
Apostles and their Divine Master in the propagation
of the Gospel. Charlemagne persisted in his policy.
Death was denounced as the penalty for neglecting
baptism, or resorting to secret idolaty. The same
penalty was threatened for burning churches, neglect
ing fasts, burying the dead according to heathen
customs, or offering human sacrifices, and at last,
wearied with the ceaseless din of war, the Saxons
were fain to lay down their arms, and to acknowledge
that they were conquered.
Still side by side with this short-sighted policy,
which could not fail to promote the commingling of
Christian and heathen elements, other and better
agencies were at work. The disciples whom Boniface
had trained did not fail to walk in the steps of their
master, and laboured not only to uproot idolatry, but
to plant the truth which should absorb heathen error,
building schools and monasteries, erecting churches,

LIUDGER. 143

and thus laying the best and surest foundations for
the future.
The abbey of Utrecht, under the presidency of the
devoted Gregory, had sent forth many noble labourers
into the mission-field, and many more had come over
from England to take their share in the good work,
and to spread the knowledge of the truth. One of
the most eminent of these was Liudger, the grandson
of Wursing, a Frisian chief, and a firm friend of Willi
brord. The seeds of early piety had been quickened
within him in the school of Utrecht, and his know
ledge had been still further extended in that of Alcuin
at York, whither Gregoy had sent him with his co
adjutor Alubert. He returned after an interval of
three years and six months, and being well supplied
with books, and well instructed, commenced his mis
sionary labours in the region where Boniface had
met with his death, assisting Albric, the successor of
Gregoy, who was consecrated bishop of Cologne.
His exertions, however, had not continued more
than seven years, when they were rudely cut short by
a rebellion of the Saxons, who rose in A.D. 780, under
their leader Widikind, and ravaged the country from
Cologne to Coblentz. Albric died, and from the sight
of burning churches and exiled clergy Liudger betook
himself, with two companions, to Rome, and thence
to the abbey of Monte Cassino, to study the monastic
rule of St. Benedict. Returning after the lapse of five
years he found that peace had been restored, and
that the Saxon chief Widikind had submitted to
baptism ; and his arrival becoming known to the

144 LIUDGER.
emperor, the latter assigned him a sphere of labour
among the Frisians in the neighbourhood of Gro-
ningen and Norden.1
Not content with the area marked out for him,
Liudger extended his labours to Heligoland, or Fosites-
land, famous, as we have seen,2 in the life of Willibrord.
His biographer tells us that, as he sailed to the island,
holding the cross in his hand, a dark mist appeared to
the sailors to roll off the shore, followed by a bright
calm. Interpreting this as an omen of good success,
Liudger landed, preached the word, and destroyed
the temples, erecting churches in their stead. Many
listened to his message, and were baptized in the
waters of the very fountain in which Willibrord, at so
much risk, had baptized three of the islanders on a
former occasion. A son also of one of the chiefs em
braced the faith, was baptized, and became a teacher
of the Frisians and the founder of a monastery.
After the complete subjugation of the Saxons,
Liudger was directed by the emperor to repair to
the district of Munster. Here he erected a monastey,
travelled over the district with unflagging energy,
instructed the barbarous tribes, and appointed priests
to take charge of them. After many refusals he was
at last induced by Hildebold, archbishop of Cologne,
to accept the episcopal dignity ; but he did not cease
to carry on as strenuously as ever his missionay
work, and even longed to undertake a mission to the
wild Normans. This, however, the emperor would
1 "Vita S. Liudgeri," Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol. vii. p. 410.
2 See above, pp. 101, 102.

LIUDGER.

H5

riot allow, and he was fain to remain in his own
diocese, where he did not cease to labour till the day
of his death. On this day, after preaching to two
different congregations in the morning at Cosfeld, and
celebrating the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the
afternoon at Billerbeck, he bade farewell to the sheep
for whom he had so long laboured, and entered into
his rest, A.D. 809.1
Another eminent missionary, and during part of his
life a contemporary of Liudger, was Willehad, a native
of Northumbria,2 who was induced to leave his country
and join the band of missionaries, commencing, like
Liudger, in the district where Boniface suffered. Re
moving thence to the district of Grdningen, he found
himself in the midst of a population still fanatically
addicted to paganism. Undeterred by the enmity he
was too likely to arouse, he persevered in delivering
his message, declaimed against the futility of the
national worship, and urged his hearers to embrace
the true faith.
Thereupon the wrath of the people burst forth ;
they gnashed with their teeth at the contemner of
their gods, and declared him worthy of death. One
of the chiefs urged caution before proceeding to such
an extremity. " This faith," said he, " is new to us,
and as yet we know not whether it be offered to us
by some deity ; the preacher is not guilty of any
crime ; let him not, then, be put to death, but let us
cast lots, and ascertain what is the will of heaven
I "Vita S. Liudgeri," Pertz, vol. ii. p. 414.
2 "Vita S. Willehadi," Pertz, vol. ii. p. 380.
S.L.VH. L

146 LIUDGER.
respecting him, whether he ought to live or die." Thi
people consented, and the lots were cast. The deci
sion was in his favour, and he was sent away ir
safety, and was enabled to prosecute his labours ir
the region of Drenthe.
There, for some time, all went well ; the people
listened to the intrepid preacher ; and not a few
embraced the doctrines he taught them. At lasl
some of his companions began to attack the objects
of native worship. A riot ensued, and Willehad was
set upon with clubs and severely wounded. One oi
his assailants drew his sword, but the blow, which
was intended to have cleft his skull, only severed
the thong which fastened the box of relics that he
carried. Even the pagans interpreted this as a
favourable omen, and he was suffered to depart.
Charlemagne, who had just returned from an ex
pedition against his old enemies the Saxons, now
proposed that he should labour amongst the people
in the district of Wigmodia, and raise up amongst
them an outpost of Christian civilization. The in
trepid man eagerly accepted the arduous task, settled
down amongst the people, and, for a space of two
years, saw in the adhesion, whether feigned or real,
of the natives to the new faith, some reward of his
labours. But the rebellion of Wittekind in A.D. 782
roused all the old animosity, the churches fell, several
of the clergy were murdered,1 and Willehad was con
strained to flee for his life.
An interval of rest was now afforded him, and he
1 " Vita S. Willehadi," cap. vi.

LIUDGER. 147

turned it to account by visiting Rome, and obtained
an interview with the Pope. Returning through
France, he took up his abode in a convent founded by
Willibrord at Epternach. Here he gathered together
his scattered scholars, and spent two years in the
quiet study of the Scriptures, edifying many by the
consistency and holiness of his life and conversa
tion. Again, however, he was called forth from his
seclusion by the emperor, and bidden to revisit his
former sphere of labour. The churches which had
been destroyed during the Saxon rising were rebuilt,
and approved clergy stationed in all places where the
people appeared willing to receive the word. The
land enjoyed a still longer period of rest on the
baptism of Wittekind, and Charlemagne, judging it a
fit opportunity to found an episcopal diocese, caused
Willehad to he consecrated the first bishop of Eastern
Frisia and Saxony.1
He had no sooner been raised to this new dignity
than he commenced a general visitation of his diocese,
preaching the word where as yet it had not been
heard, and confirming all that had been baptized.
He also erected and consecrated with no little pomp
a cathedral church at Bremen. But he had presided
over his diocese little more than two years, when a
fever, caught during one of his numerous visitation-
journeys, laid him on his deathbed near Blexem on
the Weser. Round his bed gathered the many
scholars he had trained, and with whom he had shared
so many perils. To their mournful regrets at the
1 "Vita S. Willehadi," cap. viii.
L 2

148 LIUDGER.

prospect of being so soon parted from their master
and friend1 he replied in words which expressed not
only his own feelings, but those, doubtless, of many
then toiling in the arduous Saxon mission-field.
"O seek not," said he, "to detain me any longer from
the presence of my Lord ; suffer me to be released from
the trials of this troublesome world. I have no desire
to live any longer, and I fear not to die. I will only
beseech my Lord, whom I have striven to love with
my whole heart, that he will deign to give me such a
reward for my labour as he in his mercy may see fit.
The sheep which he entrusted to me, I again commit
to his care. If I have done anything that is good, it
has been done through his strength. His goodness
will never fail you, for the whole earth is full of his
mercy." 2 With these words he expired on the 8th
of November, A.D. 789, and was buried in his own
cathedral at Bremen.
Three years after his death the long struggle be
tween Charlemagne and the Saxons, between civili
zation and heathenism, came to a close. For thirty-
one years that monarch had persevered in his policy
of subjugating his restless foes, and now he had his
reward. Slowly but steadily the wave of conquest
had extended into the unknown Saxon world, from
the Drimel to the Lippe, from the Weser to the
Elbe, and thence to the sea, the limit of the Saxon
dominion. Peace and rebellion, the reception of
baptism and the burning of Christian churches, had
1 " Vita S. Willehadi," cap. 9.
a "Vita S. Willehadi," Pertz, vol. ii. p. 384.

LIUDGER. 149
marked the successive alternations of the bloody
strife, and at last, wearied with the ceaseless din of
war, the Saxons were fain to acknowledge that civili
zation had conquered. Cruel as may have been some
of the expedients to which the victor resorted in
gaining his end, he followed up his conquests by
measures which command our respect.
His eight bishoprics1 of Osnaburg, Bremen, Miin-
ster, Minden, Halberstadt, Paderbom, Verden, and
Hildesheim, with many monasteries, which he richly
endowed, were so many great religious colonies,
whence the blessings of Christianity and civilization
spread abroad in ever-widening circles.
It may, indeed, be said that he exalted the Church
to a dangerous elevation ; but while she possessed a
monopoly of the knowledge of the age, it was in
evitable. Nowhere else could either the means or the
men be found to exert a beneficial influence on the
half-civilized masses he had subdued, and it is difficult
to see how the wild world of the ninth century could
have been lifted out of the slough of barbarism, or
how the isolated efforts of a Sturmi, a Willehad, a
Liudger, could have brought forth any fruit to per
fection, had it had not been for the rare energy and
skill of this great monarch.
For the dark shadow of his private life, and the
cruelty of many of his campaigns,2 may be pleaded
as some atonement the huge Dom-Minsters which
1 Milman, ii. 287.
2 Palgrave's "Normandy," vol. i. p. 26; Sir J. Stephen's "Lectures,''
vol. i. p. 96.

150 LIUDGER.
look into the waters of the Rhine, and the schools
where Alcuin from England, and Clement x from Ire
land, and Peter of Pisa, and Paulinus of Aquitaine,
and many others, kept alive the torch of learning, and
handed it on to others.
1 Lanigan's "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland," vol. iii. p. 208.

CHAPTER X.

ST. ANSKAR.

THOUGH the victories which Charlemagne now
gained over the Saxons were thus decisive, he yet
lived to see that the tide of barbaric invasion had
been thrown back only to be poured upon Europe
by a different channel.
He was once, we are told,1 at Narbonne, when,
in the midst of the banquet, some swift barks were
seen putting into the harbour. The company started
up, and while some pronounced the crew to be
Jewish, others African, others British traders, the
keen eye of the great emperor discerned that they
were bound on no peaceful errand. " It is not
with merchandise," said he, "that yonder barks
are laden ; they are manned by most terrible ene
mies." And then he advanced to the window, and
stood there a long while in tears. No one dared to
ask him the cause of his grief, but at length he ex
plained it himself. " It is not for myself," said he,
" that I am weeping, or for any harm that yon barks
can do to me. But truly I am pained to think that
1 Pertz, " Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 757.

152 ST. ANSKAR.

even while I am yet alive they have dared to
approach this shore ; and still greater is my grief
when I reflect on the evils they will bring on my
successors." His words were only too truly fulfilled. The sight
of those piratical banners told its own tale. The
fleets he had built, the strong forts and towns he had
erected at the mouths of the various rivers through
out his empire, were neglected by his successors, and
what he foresaw came to pass. Year after year,
during the ninth century, the children of the North
burst forth from their pine forests, their creeks, their
fiords, and icebound lakes, and prowled along the
defenceless shores of Germany, France, and England.
They laughed at the fiercest storms, landed on the
most inaccessible coasts, and pushed up the shal
lowest rivers, while Charlemagne's degenerate suc
cessors, bowed down by a wretched fatalism, scarcely
dared to lift a hand, and tamely beheld the fairest
towns in their dominions sacked and burnt by the
terrible crews of those terrible barks.
" Take a map," writes Sir Francis Palgrave, " and
colour with vermilion the provinces, districts, and
shores which the Northmen visited, as the record
of each invasion. The colouring will have to be
repeated more than ninety times successively before
you arrive at the conclusion of the Carlovingian
dynasty. Furthermore, mark by the usual symbol
of war, two crossed swords, the localities where
battles were fought by or against the pirates ; where
they were defeated or triumphant, or where they

ST. ANSKAR. 153

pillaged, burned, destroyed ; and the valleys and
banks of the Elbe, Rhine, and Moselle, Scheldt,
Meuse, Somme, and Seine, Loire, Garonne, and
Adour, the inland Allier, and all the coasts and
coastlands between estuary and estuay, and the
countries between the river-streams, will appear
bristling as with chevaux-de-frise. The strongly-
fenced Roman cities, the venerated abbeys, and their
dependent bourgades, often more flourishing and
extensive than the ancient seats of government, the
opulent sea-ports and trading-towns, were all equally
exposed to the Danish attacks, stunned by the
Northmen's approach, subjugated by their fuy."1
But while the mind faintly strives to conceive the
misery arid desolation thus inflicted on well-nigh every
town and village of Germany and France, it finds
satisfaction in the thought that even now missionary
zeal did riot falter ; that while every estuary and river
darkened under the dark sails of the Northmen's
barks, there were not lacking those who had the
Christian bravery to penetrate into the dreary
regions whence they issued forth, to seek them out
amidst their pine forests and icebound lakes, and
to plant amongst them the first germs of Christian
civilization. The first mission in Denmark was organized in the
year A.D. 826, when Harold, king of Jutland, his queen, »,
and a large retinue of Danes, were baptized with '
great pomp in the vast Dom of Mayence. On this
occasion, Harold solemnly did homage to Louis le
1 Palgrave's "Normandy and England," vol. i. p. 419.

154 ST. ANSKAR.

Debonnaire, and agreed to hold the Danish kingdom
as a feudatory of the Carlovingian crown. On this
occasion, also, Ebbo, the primate of France, deter
mined to seek out a monk who would be willing to
accompany the newly-baptized king on his return to
Denmark, and remain at his court as a priest and
teacher. But the well-known ferocity of the North
men long deterred any one from offering himself for
such a duty. At length the abbot of Corbey, near
Amiens, announced that one of his monks was not
unwilling to undertake the arduous task.
The intrepid volunteer was Anskar,1 a native of a
village not far from Corbey. Born in the year A.D. 801,
and early devoted by his parents to the monastic life,
he had always evinced the deepest religious enthu
siasm, and his ardent imagination taught him to
believe that he often saw visions and heard voices
from another world. When he was only five years
of age, he lost his mother ; and a dream, in which he
saw her surrounded by a majestic choir of virgins,
the fairest of whom bade him, if he would join his
mother in bliss, flee the pomps and vanities of the
world, exerted a profound impression upon him, and
induced him to devote himself more than ever to
prayer and meditation.
But when he was thirteen years of age, A.D. 814, an
event occurred which exercised a still deeper influence
over his susceptible mind. News reached the monastery
that Charlemagne was dead. The greatest of great
emperors had passed away, and now, in the sepulchre
1 "Vita S. Anskarii," Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 690.

.ST. ANSKAR. 155

which he had made for himself, "he was sitting on
his curule chair, clad in his silken robes, ponderous
with broidery, pearls, and orfray, the imperial diadem
on his head, his closed eyelids covered, his face
swathed in the dead-clothes, girt with his baldric, the
ivory horn slung in his scarf, his good sword ' Joyeuse '
by his side, the Gospel-book open on his lap, musk
and amber and sweet spices poured around."1
Great were the searchings of the heart in the silent
cloisters when the tale of the mighty monarch's death
and strange entombment was repeated from lip to lip.
Dread were the misgivings in the hearts of many
respecting the great emperor's eternal state, and some
even told how in dreams they had seen him punished
in the fire of a purgatorial Phlegethon.
Anskar at this time had relaxed somewhat of his
usual austerities, and now the thought that even that
mighty prince, whom he himself had seen in all the
plenitude of his power, could not escape the hand of
death, filled him with awe and horror, and he gave
himself up more unreservedly than ever to the severest
discipline. Meanwhile his talents had brought him into
general notice, and when his abbot founded another
monastic outpost in Westphalia, in a beautiful valley
on the west bank of the Weser, and called it New
Corbey, Anskar was removed to the new foundation,
and at the age of twenty-five was elected, with the
common consent of all, to superintend its conventual
school, and to preach to the neighbouring population.
He was on a visit to Old Corbey, when the news
1 Palgrave's "Normandy and England," vol. i. p. 158.

156 ST. ANSKAR.

arrived that a monk was much needed to accompan
the Danish Harold to his native land, and that th
abbot Wala had nominated him to the emperor as
fit person to be entrusted with the arduous missior
Summoned to the court, Anskar calmly but resolute!
announced his willingness to go. In dreams am
visions, he said, he had heard the voice of Chris
himself bidding him preach the word to the heathei
tribes ; and nothing could induce him to shrink fron
the plain path of duty. In vain, therefore, on hi:
return to the monastery, the brethren learning tha
he was about to resign all his hopes and prospect:
to preach amongst heathens and barbarians, warned
protested, and even mocked at him for his madness
Immovable in his resolution to brave all risks, h(
began to prepare himself for his great enterprise b]
prayer and the study of the Scriptures ; and so deej
was the impression made by his evident sincerity anc
self-devotion that Autbert, steward of the monastery
and a man of noble birth, when every one else hung
back, declared that he could not find it in his heart tc
desert his friend, and was resolved to become his
companion. A foretaste of the difficulties that awaited them was
experienced at the very outset. No one could pos
sibly be prevailed on to accompany them as ar
attendant. The abbot himself shrank from interpo
sing his authority, and they were fain to set out alone.
Before starting they had an interview with Louis, and
received from him everything they were likely tc
need for their undertaking in the shape of church

ST. ANSKAR. 157

vessels, tents, and books. From. Harold, however,
they met with but little encouragement, and neither
he nor his nobles cared much for their company.
On their arrival at Cologne, whence they were to
sail up the Rhine to Holland, and so to Denmark,
Bishop Hadebold bestowed upon them a ship with two
cabins. The better accommodation promised in such
a vessel induced Harold to share it with Anskar ; and
the engaging manners of the missionary gradually
won his respect, and inspired him with an interest in
his undertaking.
On landing, Anskar fixed his head-quarters at
Schleswig, and commenced the foundation of a school,
purchasing or receiving from Harold Danish boys,
whom he tried to train so as to form the nucleus of a
native ministry. Two years thus passed away, and
some impression seemed to have been made upon the
people, when Autbert sickened, and was obliged to
return to Corbey, where he died. Meanwhile the
baptism of Harold, and still more his destruction
of the native temples, was bitterly resented by his
subjects. Before long a rebellion broke out, and the
king was obliged to fly for refuge to a spot within
the ancient Frisian territoy, while Anskar finding it
necessary to leave Schleswig, was consoled by an un
expected opportunity of commencing a similar work
in Sweden.
In the year A.D. 829 ambassadors from Sweden pre
sented themselves at the court of Louis, and after
arranging the political object of their mission, an
nounced that many of their countrymen were favour-

158 .ST. ANSKAR.
ably disposed towards Christianity.1 The commei
carried on at this period between Sweden and the pt
of Doerstadt, combined with the teaching of sor
Christian captives whom the Swedes had carried i
in their piratical excursions, had predisposed not
few towards lending a favourable ear to Christi;
teachers. The emperor gladly embraced the oppc
tunity thus afforded, and summoned Anskar to ti
palace, who, after an interview, declared his enti
willingness to undertake the enterprise.
A monk named Gislema was therefore left wi
Harold, and Anskar having found a new companion
Witmar, a brother monk of Corbey, set out in the ye
A.D. 831 with presents from Louis to the King
Sweden. But the voyage was most disastrous. The missio:
aries had not proceeded far when they were attacke
by pirates. A fierce battle ensued, and their crei
though first victorious, were overpowered in a secor
engagement, and barely escaped to land. The pirat
plundered them of everything, the presents for tl
king, their sacred books, and all their ecclesiastic
vestments. In this forlorn and destitute conditic
they reached Birka, a haven and village on the Mal;
lake, not far from the ancient capital Sigtuna, tl
residence of rich merchants, and the centre of tl
northern trade. Here they were hospitably welcome
by the king, Biorn "of the Hill," and received fu
permission to preach and baptize. The nucleus of
church was found already existing in the persons <
1 "Vita S. Anskarii," cap. ix.

ST. ANSKAR. 159

many Christian captives, who had long been deprived
of the consolation of Christian ordinances. The work,
therefore, of the missionaries commenced under fair
auspices, and before long Herigar, the king's coun
sellor, announced himself a convert, and erected a
church on his estate.
A year and a half was thus employed, and then
Anskar returned to the court of Louis with a letter
from the King of Sweden, and an account of all that
had befallen him. ' Thereupon Louis resolved without
delay to give effect to the ecclesiastical plans of his
father, and to make Hamburg an archiepiscopal see,
and the centre of operations for the northern missions.
accordingly Anskar was elevated to the archiepiscopal
dignity, and was consecrated at Ingelheim by Drogo,
archbishop of Mayence, and other prelates. At the
same time, because of the poverty of the diocese and
the dangers to which the mission would be inevitably
exposed, the monastery of Turholt in Flanders, between
Bruges and Ypres, was assigned to him as a place of
refuge and a source of revenue. Then he was directed
to repair to Rome, where he . received the pall from
Gregoy IV. and was regularly authorized to preach
the Gospel to the nations of the North.
These arrangements made, Anskar returned from
Rome. Ebbo, who had been associated with him
in the commission to evangelize the northern tribes,
deputed his missionary duties to his nephew Gauzbert,
who was raised to the episcopal dignity, and entrusted
with the special care of the Swedish mission. Thither,
accordingly, Gauzbert set out, received a hearty wel-

160 ST. ANSKAR.

come from Biorn and his people, and laid the founda
tion of a church at Sigtuna. Meanwhile Anskar had
proceeded to Hamburg, and, in pursuance of his former
plan, bought or redeemed from slavery a number of
Danish youths, whom he either educated himself or
sent for that purpose to the monastery of Turholt.
But the times were hardly ripe for successful ope
rations. Three years had barely elapsed when an
enormous -army of Northmen, led by Eric, king of
Jutland, attacked Hamburg, and before relief could
arrive, sacked and burned it, together with the church
and monastery which Anskar had erected with great
trouble. He himself had barely time to save the
sacred vessels, and, before the sun went down, every
external memorial of his mission was reduced to ashes.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, and
blessed be the name of t/ie Lord} was the exclamation of
the archbishop, as he surveyed the scene. Driven
from Hamburg, he now wandered for a long time
over his devastated diocese, followed by a few of his
clergy and scholars, and at length sought refuge at
Bremen. But the envious Bishop Leutbert refusing
to receive him, he was fain to avail himself of the
hospitality of a noble lady in the district of Holstein.
And as if this was not enough, he now received intel
ligence that, owing to similar risings of the Northmen,
the hopes of the Swedish mission were utterly crushed.
The pagan party had conspired against Bishop
Gauzbert, expelled him from the country, and mur
dered his nephew Nithard. But divine vengeance, so
1 Job i. 21.

.ST. ANSKAR. 161

we are assured, did not fail to pursue the conspirators.
One of them had carried home some of the property
of the missionaries. Before long he died, together
with his mother and sister, and his father found his
own property wasting from day to day. Alarmed at
this sudden reverse of fortune, he began to consider
what god he could have offended to bring all these
troubles on his house. Unable to solve the difficulty
himself, he had recourse to a soothsayer. The lots
were cast, and it was found that none of jhe native
deities bore him any ill will. At length the sooth
sayer explained the cause. "It is the God of the
Christians," said he, " who is the author of thy ruin.
There is something dedicated to him concealed in thy
house, and therefore all these evils have come upon
thee, nor canst thou hope to prosper till the sacred
thing is restored."
After vainly trying for some time to comprehend
what this could mean, he suddenly recollected the
day when his son had brought home from the spoil of
the missionaries' dwellings one of their sacred books.
Stricken with alarm, he immediately called together
the inhabitants of the place, told them all that had
occurred, and prayed their advice in the emergency.
Evey one declined to receive the terrible relic, and at
last, fearful of further vengeance if he retained it any
longer in his house, the man covered it carefully, and
then fastened it to a stake on the public road, with a
notice that any one who wished might take it down,
and that for the crime he had unwittingly been guilty
of against the Christians' God he was ready to offer
S.L. VII. M

162 ST. ANSKAR.

any satisfaction that might be required. One of the
native Christians took it down, and the man's terrors
were appeased.1
Anskar meanwhile was still wandering over his
desolated diocese. Even the monastey of Turholt
which Louis had bestowed upon him for the vey pur
pose of being a covert from such storms as these, was
closed against him, having been bestowed upon a lay
man by Charles the Bald. Under such accumulated
misfortunes most men would have sunk, but Anskai
waited patiently in the hope of some change, and
comforted himself with the words of Archbishop Ebbc
before his death : " Be assured, brother," said thai
prelate, "'that what we have striven to accomplish foi
the glory of Christ will yet, by God's help, bring fort!
fruit. For it is my firm and settled belief, nay, I know
of a surety, that though the work we have undertaken
among these nations is for a time subject to obstacles
and difficulties on account of our sins, yet it will nol
be lost or perish altogether, but will, by God's grace,
thrive and prosper, until the name of the Lord is
made known to the uttermost ends of the earth."2
Before long events occurred which seemed to pro
mise that the clouds would roll away, and a brightei
era be inaugurated. . Mindful of the converted chief,
Anskar sent to Sigtuna an anchoret named Ardgar,
with directions to see how he fared, and to strengthen
him against falling back into heathenism. Thither
Ardgar set out, and was rejoiced to find Herigai

1 "Vita S. Anskarii," cap. xviii.
2 Ibid. cap. xxxiv.

ST. ANSKAR. 163

still remaining faithful to the faith he had embraced.
The recollection of the Divine vengeance, which was
deemed to have attended the previous outbreak, pro
tected the missionay from injury, and the new king
who had succeeded Biorn was persuaded by Herigar
to permit Ardgar to preach the Gospel without fear
of molestation.
That chief was no half-hearted believer, and openly
confronted the malice of the pagan party. On one
occasion, as they were boasting of the power of their
gods, and of the many blessings they had received by
remaining faithful to their worship, and were reviling
him as a traitor and apostate, he bade them put the
matter to an open and decisive proof. " If there be so
much doubt," said he, " concerning the superior might
of our respective gods, let us see whose power is
greatest ; whether that of the many whom ye call gods,
or that of my one omnipotent Lord, Jesus Christ. Lo!
the season of rain is at hand. Do ye call upon the
names of your gods that the rain may be restrained
from falling upon you, and I will call upon the name of
my Lord Jesus Christ that no drop may fall on me ; and
the god that answereth our prayers, let him be God."
The heathen party agreed, and repairing to a
neighbouring field, took their seats in great numbers
on one side, while Herigar, attended only by a little
child, sat on the other. In a few moments the rain
descended in torrents, drenched the heathens to the
skin, and swept away their tents; while on Herigar
and the little child, we are assured by Anskar's bio
grapher, no drop fell, and even the ground around
M 2

164 ST. ANSKAR.

them remained dry. " Ye see," he cried, " which is the
true God ; bid me not, then, desert the faith I have
adopted, but rather lay aside your errors, and come to
a knowledge of the truth."
On another occasion the town of Birka was attacked
by a piratical expedition of Danes and Swedes, under
the command of a king of Sweden who had been
expelled from his realm. The place was closely in
vested, and there seemed to be no prospect of a success
ful defence. In their alarm the townspeople offered
numerous sacrifices to their gods, and when all other
means failed, collected such treasures as they pos
sessed, together with a hundred pounds of silver, and
succeeded in coming to terms with the hostile chiefs.
But their followers, not satisfied with the amount,
prepared to storm the town. Again the gods were
consulted, the altars raised, the victims offered, but
with results equally unpromising. Herigar now inter
posed, rebuked the people for their obstinate adherence
to the worship of gods that could not profit them or
give any aid in their trouble, and when they bade him
suggest some device, and promised to follow his counsel,
he urged them to make a solemn vow of obedience
to the Lord of the Christians, assured that, if they
turned to him, he, at any rate, would not fail them
in the hour of danger. The people took his advice,
went forth to an open plain, and there solemnly vowed
to keep a fast in honour of the God of the Christians,
if he would rescue them from their enemies.
Help came in an unexpected fashion. The Swedish
king, while the army was clamouring for the signal to

ST. ANSKAR. 165

attack, suggested that the gods- should be consulted
by lot, whether it was their will that Birka should be
destroyed. "There are many great and powerful
deities there," said he ; " there also formerly a church
was built, and even now the worship of the great
Christ is observed by many, and he is more powerful
than any other of the gods, and is ever ready to aid
those that put their trust in him. We ought, then, to
inquire first whether it is the divine will that we attack
the place." Accordingly the lots were cast, and it
was discovered that the auspices were not favourable
for the assault ; and thus Birka was spared. The
arrival, therefore, of Ardgar was well timed, and
he was not only welcomed by Herigar, but the
Christians were strengthened by his coming in their
adherence to the faith.
Nor was it in Sweden only that the prospects of the
missionaries brightened. In A.D. 847, Leutbert, the
bishop of Bremen, died. Anskar's own see of Ham
burg was now reduced by the desolating inroads of
the Northmen to four baptismal churches.1 It was
therefore proposed that the see of Bremen should be
annexed to the archbishopric of Hamburg, and after
some difficulty the plan was matured, and Anskar no
longer found himself hampered by want of means from
devoting all his energies to the wider planting of the
faith. At the same time he was enabled to appoint a
priest over the church at Schleswig, and from Horik,
king of Jutland, he no longer experienced opposition
in preaching the word amongst the people. This
1 " Vita S. Anskarii," cap. xxii.

1 65 ST. ANSKAR.

encouraged many who had been baptized at Hamburg
and Doerstadt, but who had secretly conformed to
idolatrous practices, to publicly profess their adhesion
to the Christian faith, and they rejoiced in the oppor
tunity of joining in Christian fellowship. The trade
also of Doerstadt prospered by the change ; Christian
merchants flocked thither in greater numbers and
with greater confidence, and thus helped forward the
work of Anskar and his colleagues.
At this juncture the hermit Ardgar returned from
Sweden. Anskar, more than ever unwilling that the
mission there should be allowed to drop, tried to pre
vail on Gauzbert to revisit the scene of his former
labours. But the latter, discouraged by his previous
failure, declined, and Anskar finding no one else will
ing to undertake the work, once more girded up his
loins, and encouraged by Horik, who gave him letters
to Olaf, king of Sweden, set out for Birka. The
time of his landing was unfortunate. The heathen
party had been roused by the native priests, and a
crusade was proclaimed against the strange doctrines.
Suborning a man who pretended to have received a
message from the native deities, the priests announced
it to be the will of heaven that, if the people wished
for new gods, they should admit into their company
the late king, Eric, and allow divine honours to be
paid to him. This wrought up the feelings of the
populace to such a pitch that the retinue of the
archbishop pronounced it absolute madness to per
severe in his undertaking.
But Anskar was not thus to be thwarted. He

ST. ANSKAR. 167

invited Olaf to a feast, set before him -the presents
sent by the King of Jutland, and announced the
object of his visit. Olaf on his part was not indis
posed . to make the concessions he desired, but as
former missionaries had been expelled from the
country, he suggested that it would be well to submit
the affair once for all to the solemn decision of the
sacred lots, and consult in an open council the feelings
of the people. Anskar agreed, and a day was fixed
for deciding the question.
First, the council of the chiefs was formally asked,
and their opinion requested. They craved the cast
ing of the sacred lots. The lots were accordingly
cast, and the result was declared to be favourable
to the admission of the archbishop and his retinue.
Then the general assembly of the people of Birka
was convened, and at the command of the king a
herald proclaimed aloud the purport of the arch
bishop's visit. This was the signal for a great tumult,
in the midst of which an aged chief arose, and thus
addressed the assembly :
" Hear me, O king and people. The God whom
we are invited to worship is not unknown to us, nor the
aid he can render to those that put their trust in him.
Many of us have already proved this by experience,
and have felt his assistance in many perils, and espe
cially on the sea. Why, then, reject what we know to
be useful and necessay for us ? Not long ago some
of us went to Doerstadt, and believing that this new
religion could profit us much, willingly professed our
selves its disciples. Now the voyage thither is beset

168 .ST. ANSKAR.

with dangers, and pirates abound on every shore,
Why, then, reject a religion thus brought to our very
doors, which before we went a long way to seek ?
Why not permit the servants of God, whose protecting
aid we have already experienced, to abide amongst
us ? Listen to my counsel, then, O king and people,
and reject not what is plainly for our advantage. We
see our own deities failing us, and unable to aid us in
time of danger. Surely it is a good thing to obtain
the favour of a god who always can and will aid those
that call upon him."
His words found favour with the people, and it was
unanimously resolved that the archbishop should be
permitted to take up his abode in the country, and
should not be hindered in disseminating the Christian
faith. This resolution was announced to Anskar in
person by the king, who further conceded a grant of
land for building a church, and welcomed Erimbert, a
colleague of the archbishop, whom he presented as
the new director of the Swedish mission.
Meanwhile matters had not been so prosperous in
Denmark. Eric "the Red," though not professedly
a Christian, had, as we have seen, aided the arch
bishop materially in the introduction of Christianity.
His apostasy provoked the inveterate hostility of the
Northmen, and the sea-kings determined to avenge
the insult offered to >the national gods.
Rallying from all quarters under the banner of
Guthrun, the nephew of Eric, they attacked the apos
tate king near Flensburgh, in Jutland. The battle
raged for three days, and at its close Eric and

ST. ANSKAR. 169

Guthrun, and a host of kings and jarls, lay dead upon
the field ; and so tremendous had been the slaughter,
that the entire Viking nobility seemed to have been
utterly exterminated.1
The new king, Eric 1 1., easily persuaded that the
recent reverses were entirely due to the apostasy
of his predecessor, ordered one of Anskar's churches
to be closed, and forbade all further missionary opera
tions. After a while, however, he was induced to
change his policy, and Anskar, on his return from
Sweden, was reinstated in the royal favour, and re
ceived a grant of land for the erection of a second
church at Ripa, in Jutland, over which he placed
Rimbert, a native, charging him to win the hearts of
his barbarous flock by the sincerity and devotion of
his life.
Anskar now returned to Hamburg, and devoted
himself to the administration of his diocese. One of
the latest acts of his life was a noble effort to check
the infamous practice of kidnapping and trading in
slaves. A number of native Christians had been
carried off by the northern pirates, and reduced to
slavery. Effecting their escape, they sought refuge
in the territory of Northalbingia. Instead of shelter
ing the fugitives, some of the chiefs retained a portion
of them as their own slaves, and sold others to heathen
and even professedly Christian tribes around. News
of this reached Anskar, and at the risk of his life he
sternly rebuked the chiefs, and succeeded in inducing
1 "Vita S. Anskarii," cap. xxxi.; Palgrave's "Normandy and
England," vol. i. p. 449.

170 .ST. ANSKAR.

them to set the captives free, and to ransom as mam
as possible from the bondage into which they hai
sold them.
This noble act formed an appropriate conclusion o
his life. He was now more than sixty-four year:
of age, and during more than half that period hac
laboured unremittingly in . the mission-field. Hi
biographer expatiates eloquently on his character a;
exhibiting the perfect model of ascetic perfection
Even when elevated to the episcopal dignity he nevei
exempted himself from the rigid discipline of the
cloister. He wore a haircloth shirt by night as wel!
as by day. He measured out, at least in his earliei
days, his food and drink by an exact rule. He
chanted a fixed number of Psalms, alike when he
arose in the morning and when he retired to rest at
night. His charity knew no bounds. Not only did
he erect a hospital at Bremen for the sick and needy,
distribute a tenth of his income among the poor, and
divide amongst them any presents he might receive,
but every five years he tithed his income afresh that
he might be quite sure the poor had their proper
share. ^Whenever he went on a tour of visitation
through his diocese, he would never sit down to
dinner without first ordering some of the poor to be
brought in, and he himself would sometimes wash
their feet, and distribute amongst them bread and
meat. Such a practical exhibition of Christian love could
not fail to exercise a gradual influence even over the
rough pirates of the North, and they testified their

ST. ANSKAR. 171

sense of the power he wielded over them by ascribing
to him many miraculous cures. But he was not one
to seek a questionable distinction of this kind. " One
miracle," he once said to a friend, " I would, if worthy,
ask the Lord to grant me ; and that is, that by his
grace he would make me a good man."
A single source, however, of disquietude troubled
his last hours. In vision he believed it had been
intimated to him that he might hope to win the
martyr's crown. What sin of his had deprived him
of this honour ? In vain one of his most attached
companions pointed out that it had not been told
him distinctly by what death he was to die,
whether by fire, or the sword, or shipwreck. In
vain he recalled the hardships the archbishop had
undergone, and the perils which had made his life
a continual martyrdom. At length, his biographer
tells us, another and a last vision assured him that
his fears were groundless, that no sin of his had
robbed him of his crown. Thus comforted, he em
ployed his last days in arranging the affairs of his
diocese, and of his various mission-stations, and
calmly expired on the 3d of February, A.D. 865.

CHAPTER XI.
OLAF TRYGGVESON AND OLAF THE SAINT.
UNTIL the ninth century Norway was divided inti
numerous petty principalities, and was little knowi
to the rest of Europe, except as the hive wheno
issued numberless hordes of pirates who devastate!
her shores. Up to the same period the politica
power in the country had been shared by a host o
petty princes, who, true to the motto of the Norse
men, " a man for himself," gratified their love of wa
by constant contentions with one another.
But about the year A.D. 860 there arose a king wh<
had vey different ideas respecting royal power thai
those he had received from his fathers. Harold, soi
of Halfdan " the Black," having conquered many of th
petty kings of the country, sought, we are told, th
hand of Gyda, most beautiful of all the maidens ii
Norway.1 But his suit was rejected with scorn. Gyd;
would never marry the lord of a few thinly-peoplei
kingdoms. He who had the courage and power ti
win for himself the mastery over the whole county
he, and he alone, should gain her hand. Haroli
heard her reply, and swore he would never, comb hi
1 Snorro Sturleson's "Heimskringla," translated by Laing, i. 273.

OLAF TRYGGVESON. 173
beautiful hair till he had become absolute monarch,
like Eric of Sweden, or Gorm of Denmark.
Assembling a crowd of youthful warriors, he quickly
fought his way with his terrible sword, and wherever
he went, broke up the little separate clans, abolished
the allodial laws of inheritance, and made every land
a fief to be held directly from himself. Furthermore,
he insisted that all rents should be paid in kind, that
the Northman should be his, not only in time of war,
but at all times, that he should submit to the jarl
appointed by the king, and do him the same suit and
service that the Franks rendered to the great counts
set over them by Charlemagne. It was a long struggle,
but his undaunted courage and perseverance carried
him through, and then, mindful of his vow, he cut
and combed his hair, and exchanged his name Harold
Lufa, or Harold " of the horrid hair," for Haarfager
or "Fair-hair," and sent for and married Gyda, by
whom he had one daughter and four sons.
But the change was utterly repugnant to his sturdy
and ^independent subjects, and he saw them leave
the land in numbers, to colonize the Orkneys, the
Hebrides, the Faroes, and Iceland, to invade Russia
and Normandy, and become the terror of the coasts of
England, Ireland, and Spain. He retained, however,
his supremacy, till the year a.d. 938, when he resigned
in favour of his son Eric Blodoxe. The new king
became involved in perpetual wars with his surviving
brothers, and the people, groaning under his rule,
began to sigh for a deliverer.
At length news of Eric's cruelties reached the court

i74 OLAF TRYGGVESON
of our Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan, where Hacon,
the youngest son of Harold, was at this time residing.
His ^.protector had taken care that the young prince
should be baptized and "brought up in the right
faith, and in good habits, and all sorts of exercises,"
and now strongly favoured his design of offering
himself to his countrymen as their deliverer. Fur
nished with ships and men, Hacon sailed to Dron-
theim, and was straightway joined by Sigurd, earl of
Lade, who espoused his cause, and recommended him
to the Thing. The people welcomed their deliverer
with shouts of applause, and listened with delight while
he promised to secure to] the bonders their full udal
rights, and restore the old customs. One by one the
jarls gave in their adhesion to his cause, and when
Eric, convinced of the disaffection of his people, left the
country, they gladly made Hacon sole king in his stead.
During his residence in England the new king had,
as we have said, been baptized, and he now deter
mined to expel the native heathenism, and plant in
its stead his newly-adopted faith. Such a design,
however, was fraught with peril, and Hacon could not
fail to foresee the storm of opposition he would
encounter. Resolved to proceed by degrees, he con
tented himself, for the present, with a secret con
formity to his new creed, and kept holy the Sundays
and the Friday fasts. As a first step, however, in the
proposed direction, he contrived to persuade his people
to keep the great festival of Yule1 at the same time
i "Yule, or the midwinter feast, was the greatest festival in thi
countries of Scandinavia. Yule bonfires blazed to scare witches anc

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 175
that Christian people celebrated the Saviour's nativity.
His next step was to entice over to the new faith
such of the courtiers as were dearest to him, and
sending to England for a bishop and priests, he per
suaded some of them to receive baptism, and lay
aside their heathen rites. He even succeeded in
building a few churches in the Drontheim district,
and at last determined to propose to the people, at
the next Froste-Thing, that all, great and small,
should be baptized, " believe in one God, and Christ
the son of Mary, abstain from all heathen sacrifices,
keep holy the seventh day, and refrain from all work
thereon." The Thing accordingly was summoned, and after
the usual solemn sacrifices, and great feastings, Hacon
made his formal proposition. It was received with
universal surprise. The masters were entirely opposed
to such a frequent cessation from labour, the slaves
were equally opposed to the imposition of repeated
fasts, and the heathen faction mustered so strong
that the king's proposition was rejected with general
indignation. " We bonders," said one, speaking for the rest,
" do not know whether we have really got back our
freedom, or whether thou wishest to make vassals of
us again by this extraordinay proposal that we should
abandon the ancient faith, which our fathers and fore-
wizards ; offerings were made to the gods ; the boar dedicated to Frey'r
was placed on the table, and over it the warriors vowed to perform
great deeds. Pork, mead, and ale abounded, and the Yuletide passed
merrily away with games, gymnastics, and mirth of all kinds." —
Worsae's "Danes and Northmen," p. 83.

176 OLAF TRYGGVESON
fathers have held from the oldest times, in the days
when the dead were burned, as well as since they
were laid under rftounds, and which, though they were
braver than the people of our days, has served us as
a faith to the present time. Thou, king, must use
some moderation towards us, and only require from
us such things as we can obey thee in, and are not
impossible for us. If, however, thou wilt take up this
matter with a high hand, and wilt try thy power and
strength against us, we bonders have resolved, among
ourselves, to part with thee, and to take to ourselves
some other chief, who will so conduct himself towards
us, that we can freely and safely enjoy that faith
which suits our own inclinations."
Great applause followed this independent speech,
and Earl Sigurd, who presided over the sacrifices, was
fain to intimate to the people the king's acquiescence
with their wishes, and to advise him to postpone his
religious reforms to a more convenient season. But
the suspicions of the people were now excited, and
Earl Sigurd's promises did not satisfy them. At
the next harvest festival, therefore, they demanded
that Hacon should openly avow his attachment to
the national faith by drinking, as heretofore, in
honour of the gods. Earl Sigurd promised that he
should do so, and persuaded the king, who had
hitherto been wont on such occasions to take his
meals in a little house by himself, to present himself
on his throne before his people, and quiet their
suspicions. The first goblet went round, and was
blessed in Odin's name. The earl drank first, and

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 177
then handed it to Hacon, who took it, and made
the sign of the Cross over it. " What does the
king mean by doing so?" said one of the bonders;
"will he not sacrifice?" "He is blessing the goblet
in honour of Thor," replied the earl, " by making
the sign of his hammer over it when he drinks it."
This quieted the people.
But, on the next day, they resolved to put Hacon's
sincerity to a severer test, and therefore pressed him
to eat of the horseflesh slain in the sacrifices. This
was one of the distinguishing marks of heathenism,
and had been solemnly forbidden by the Church
ever since the days of Archbishop Boniface. Hacon,
therefore, positively refused to comply with the
demand. Thereupon the bonders offered him the
broth ; and when he also declined this, they declared
he should at least taste the gravy ; and when he
refused this too, they were going to lay hands on
him, when Earl Sigurd interposed, and so far pre
vailed with the king that he consented to hold his
mouth over " the handle of the kettle, upon which
the fat smoke of the boiled horseflesh had settled
itself; and the king first laid a linen cloth over the
handle, and then gaped over it, and returned to the
throne ; but neither party was satisfied with this."1
In the following winter the popular feeling ex
pressed itself still more plainly against Hacon's reli
gious reforms. Four chiefs bound themselves by an
oath to root out Christianity in Norway, while four
others resolved to force the king to offer sacrifice to
1 Snorro, i. 331.
S.L. VIL N

178 OLAF TRYGGVESON
the gods. Three churches were burnt and three priests
killed at Msere, and when Hacon came thither with
Earl Sigurd to hold the Yule feast, the bonders
insisted that the king should offer sacrifice. The
tumult could only be appeased by some show of
compliance, and at Earl Sigurd's intercession Hacon
consented at last to taste some of the horse-liver,
and to empty such goblets as the bonders filled for
him. This determined opposition to his plans roused
the king's anger, and he was meditating a violent
revenge, when the news arrived of the invasion of
his kingdom by the sons of his brother Eric. A
battle ensued, and the invaders were forced to retire.
Henceforth Hacon is said to have become more
tolerant of heathen rites, and finding it impossible
to stem the torrent of opposition, consented to forego
his designs.
In the year A.D. 963 his kingdom was again in
vaded by his nephews, and in a great battle he
himself was mortally wounded. Perceiving that his
end drew near, he called together his friends, and after
arranging the affairs of his kingdom, began to feel
the pangs of remorse on account of his guilty con
cession at the Drontheim feast. " If Fate," said he,
" should prolong my life, I will at any rate leave this
county, and go to a Christian land, and do penance
for what I have done against God ; but should I die
in a heathen land, give me any burial you may think
fit." Shortly afterwards he expired, and was buried
" under a great mound in North Hordaland, in full
armour, and in his best clothes." Though he had

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 179
incurred much enmity from his determination to
impose Christianity on his people, all was now for
gotten ; friends and enemies alike bewailed his death,
and solaced themselves for his apostasy by believing
that because he had spared the temples of Odin he
had now found a place in Valhalla, "in the blessed
abodes of the bright gods."
On the death of Hacon, the sons of Eric, of
whom Harold was the eldest, assumed the supreme
authority, and having been baptized in England,
thought it their duty to pull down the heathen
temples, and forbid the sacrifices in all places where
they had the power. Great opposition was roused,
which was not appeased by the badness of the
seasons during their reign, and the harshness they
displayed towards the bonders. "In Halogaland,"
says the Saga, " there was the greatest famine and
distress ; for scarcely any corn grew, and even snow
was lying, and the cattle were bound in the byres
all over the country, until midsummer."1
In the midst of the commotions that now ensued,
Harold Blaatand, king of Denmark, conquered the
country, and placed over his new territory the jarl
Hacon as his viceroy. Hacon allied himself with the
heathen party, and did all in his power to re-establish
paganism, in direct contravention of the wishes of
Harold Blaatand, who, on: the occasion of his baptism,
had given him priests and other learned men, and
commanded him to make all the people in Norway
be baptized. Hacon's crowning act of apostasy was
1 Snorro, i. 365.
N 2

180 OLAF TRYGGVESON
the sacrifice of one of his sons in honour of Thor,
in the great battle with the Jomsburg pirates. His
rule was offensive and unpopular, and he was de
posed in A.D. 995 by Olaf, the son of Tyggve, a
petty prince, whom the oppressed Norsemen welcomed
as their deliverer.
The histoy of the new king is a remarkable illus
tration of the times in which he lived, as the transition
period between Odinism and Christianity. He is
represented in the Sagas as one of the handsomest
men, excelling in all bodily exercises. He was, withal,
a great traveller, and had visited not only England
and the Hebrides, but northern Germany, Greece,
Russia, and Constantinople. In Germany he had be
come acquainted with a certain ecclesiastic of Bremen,
named Thangbrand, a son of Willebald, count of
Saxony. Thangbrand is described "as a tall man
and strong, skilful of speech, a good clerk, and a good
warrior, albeit a teacher of the faith ; not provoking
others, but once angered, and he would yield to no
man in deeds or in words." Olaf was attracted by a
large shield which the martial ecclesiastic was wont to
carry. On it was embossed in gold the figure of Christ
on the Cross. Olaf asked the meaning of the symbol,
and was told the story of Christ and of his death.
Observing how greatly he was taken with it, Thang
brand offered him the shield as a present, which was
gratefully accepted, and preserved with diligent care.
The rude Viking carried it about with him wherever
he went, and ascribed to it his deliverance from many
dangers both by sea and land.

Thangbrand gives I'is shield to Olaf—V. 180.

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 181
During one of his many piratical voyages, Olaf
touched at the Scilly Islands,1 where he heard of the
fame of a great seer. Having made trial of his skill,
he repaired to his cell, and asked him who he was,
and whence he had this knowledge of the future.
The man told him he was a hermit, and that the
Christians' God revealed to him the secrets of the
future. Thereupon Olaf resolved to be baptized with
all his followers, and going thence to England, was
confirmed by Elphege, bishop of Winchester, in the
presence of the Saxon king Ethelred. Repairing
afterwards to Dublin,2 he married Gyda, sister of
King Olaf Kvaran, and during his stay in Ireland
received a visit from one of the northern Vikings,
who persuaded him to revisit his native land, and
assured him that one of Harold Haarfager's race
would be welcomed by the people. Adopting his
advice, Olaf sailed to Norway, where he was wel
comed as a deliverer from the oppressive cruelty of
Hacon the Bad, and at a general Thing held at
Drontheim was unanimously chosen to be king
1 Snorro, i. 397; Lappenberg, ii. 158; Dasent's "Burnt Njal," ii.
360. Worsae, however, holds that the Isles where Olaf landed were
" not the Scilly Isles near England, but the Skellig Isles on the south
west coast of Ireland, on one of which there was at that time a celebrated
abbey." — "Danes and Northmen," p. 333.
-' Dublin was the central point of the Norwegian power in Ireland,
though the Ost-men also settled in considerable numbers at Waterford
Limerick, Wexford, and ,Cork. The Norwegians and Danes settled
in Ireland, were soon converted from heathenism by Irish monks and
priests, and through these converts Christianity was communicated to
many of their Scandinavian fellow-countrymen. — Worsae's "Danes,"
P- 3'S-

OLAF TRYGGVESON

over the whole country, as Harold Haarfager had
been. No sooner had Olaf strengthened himself on the
throne than he resolved on the extermination of
heathenism. His long abode with his brother-in-law,
King Olaf Kvaran, in Dublin, where he had been in
constant intercourse with the Irish Christians, could
not fail to have strengthened him in this determina
tion. The means he resorted to were such as might
have been expected from a northern Viking, with an
ecclesiastic like Thangbrand at his side. He began
by destroying the heathen idols and temples, wherever
it was practicable, and then, summoning his relatives,
declared he would either bring it to pass that all Nor
way should be Christian, or die. "I shall make you all,"
he said, "great and mighty men in promoting this work,
for I trust to you most as blood-relations and brothers-
in-law." They agreeing to do as he desired, he made
a public proclamation to all the people of Norway,
declaring it to be his will and pleasure that Chris
tianity should be adopted as the national faith. Those
who had already pledged their assistance straightway
gave in their adhesion, and being very powerful and
influential, speedily induced others to follow their
example, till at last the inhabitants of the eastern
part of Viken allowed themselves to be baptized.
Proceeding thence to the northern part of the same
district, he invited every man to accept the new faith,
and punished severely all who opposed him, killing
some, mutilating others, and driving the rest into
banishment.

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 183
Successful in his own kingdom, and in that of his
relative Harold Greenske, he next proceeded to Hor-
daland and Rogaland, summoned the people to a
Thing, and proposed the same terms. Here, however,
he encountered more active opposition. The bonders
no sooner received the message-token for the Thing,
than they assembled in great numbers and in arms,
and selecting three men who were regarded as the
best spokesmen, they bade them argue with the king,
and answer him, and especially decline anything
against the old customs, even if the king demanded it.
" When the bonders came to the Thing," we read
in the quaint language of the Saga, " and the Thing
was formed, King Olaf rose, and at first spake
good-humouredly to the people ; but they observed
he wanted them to accept Christianity, with all his
fine words ; and in conclusion he let them know
that those who should speak against him, and not
submit to his proposal, must expect his displeasure
and punishment and all the ill it was in his power to
inflict. When he had ended his speech, one of the
bonders stood up, who was considered the most elo
quent, and who had been chosen as the first to reply
to King Olaf. But when he would begin to speak,
such a cough seized him, and such a difficulty of
breathing, that he could not bring out a word, and
was obliged to sit down again.
" Then another bonder stood up, resolved not to let
an answer be wanting, although it had gone so ill
with the former ; but he became so confused, that he
could not find a word to say, and all present set up a

1 84 OLAF TRYGGVESON
laughter, amid which the bonder sat down again.
And now the third stood up to make a speech ; but
when he began, he became so hoarse and husky in
his throat that nobody could hear a word he said,
and he also had to sit down again. There were
now none of the bonders to speak against the king,
and as nobody answered him, there was no opposi
tion ; and it came to this, that all agreed to what the
king had proposed. Accordingly all the people were
baptized before the Thing was dissolved."1
Shortly afterwards, the king summoned the bonders
of the Fiord district, South More, and Raumsdal, and
offered them two conditions, either to accept Chris
tianity, or to fight. Unable to cope with the forces
the monarch had brought with him, they too made
a virtue of necessity, and agreed to be baptized.
Sailing next to Lade, in Drontheim, Olaf destroyed
the temple, despoiled it of its ornaments and pro
perty, and, amongst the rest, of the great gold ring
which the apostate Hacon had ordered to be made
and caused to be hung in the door of the temple.
Then at a Thing held in Viken he denounced terrible
penalties against all who dealt with evil spirits, or
were addicted to sorcery and witchcraft.
Summer came round, and Olaf, collecting a large
army, sailed northwards to Nidaros, in the Drontheim
district, where he summoned the people of eight dis
tricts round to a Thing. The bonders, however,
changed the Thing-token into a war-token, and
called together all men, free and unfree. to resist
1 Snorro, i. 429.

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 185
the king. Remembering how they had succeeded in
forcing Hacon into some sort of submission, they
interrupted Olaf's proposals by threatening him with
violence. Perceiving that this time he was numerically
weaker, Olaf feigned to give way, and expressed a
desire to go to their temples, and see their customs,
and decide which to hold by. A midsummer sacrifice
was fixed to take place at Maere, the site of an ancient
temple in the Drontheim district, and thither all the
great chiefs and bonders were invited to repair. As
the day approached, Olaf ordered that a great feast
should be prepared at Lade, at which the mead-cup
went round freely.
Next morning he ordered early mass to be sung
before him, and then summoned a House-Thing, to
which the bonders repaired. "We held a Thing at
Froste," said he, when they were all seated, " and I
proposed to the bonders that they should allow them
selves to be baptized. But they invited me to offer
sacrifices, as Hacon had done. So we agreed to meet
at Msere, and make a great sacrifice. Now if I, along
with you, shall turn again to making sacrifice, then
will I make the greatest of sacrifices that are in use ;
and I will sacrifice men. But I will not select slaves
or malefactors for this, but will take the greatest men
only to be offered." Thereupon he nominated eleven
principal chiefs, whom he proposed to sacrifice to the
gods for peace and a fruitful season, and he ordered
them to be seized forthwith.
So unexpected a proposal utterly confounded the
bonders, and they were fain to be baptized, and to

1 86 OLAF TRYGGVESON
remain as hostages until the arrival of their relatives'.
Having taken these precautions, Olaf set out for the
great sacrifice at Maere. Here the whole heathen
party had assembled in great force, determined to
make the king comply with the national customs.
Olaf proposed his usual terms, and the bonders de
manded that he should offer sacrifice to the gods.
Mindful of his former promise, Olaf then consented
to go to their temple and watch the ceremonies, and
entered it with a great number of his men. As the
sacrifice proceeded, the king suddenly struck the
image of Thor with his "gold-inlaid axe, so that it
rolled down at his feet, and at this signal his men
struck down the rest of the images from their seats.
Then coming forth, he proposed his usual conditions,
and the bonders, after this manifest proof of the.
powerlessness of their deities, surrendered to his will,
and gave hostages that they would remain true to
Christianity, and " took baptism."
Shortly afterwards Olaf made him a great long
ship, which he called the Crane, and sailed northwards
to Halogaland, imposing Christianity wherever he
went. But at Godo Isle in Salten Fiord he encoun
tered great opposition. There dwelt here, the Saga
tells us, a chief of great power, but a great idolater,
and very skilful in witchcraft, named Raud the Strong.
Hearing that Olaf was coming, he went to meet him
in his own great ship the Dragon. A fight ensued,
in which Raud was vanquished, and forced to retreat
to his island. Olaf followed, but when he reached
Salten Fiord, which is more dreaded even than the

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 187
famous Maelstrom, such a storm was raging that for
a whole week he could not make the land. In this
difficulty he applied for counsel to Bishop Sigurd, who
accompanied him on this occasion, and whom he had
placed over the Drontheim district. Sigurd promised
to try if " God would give him power to conquer these
arts of the devil."
Accordingly, arrayed in all his mass-robes, he went
to the bows of the Crane, lit many tapers, kindled
incense, set the crucifix at the stern, read the Evan
gelist, offered many prayers, and finally sprinkled
the whole ship with holy water. Then, declaring that
the charm could not fail to be efficacious, he bade
Olaf row into the fiord. Thus encouraged, the king,
followed by his other long ships, rowed boldly up the
throat of the fiord : and so efficacious had been the
bishop's prayers, that " the sea was curled about their
keel-track like as in a calm, so quiet and still was the
water ; yet on each side of them the waves were
lashing up so high that they hid the sight of the
mountains." After a day and a night's rowing, Godo Isle was
reached, and an attack was immediately made on
Raud, as he was sleeping. After many of his ser
vants had been killed, the chief was dragged into the
presence of Olaf.. " I will not take thy property from
thee," said the king, " but will rather be thy friend, if
thou wilt make thyself worthy to be so, and be bap
tized." Raud exclaimed he would never believe in
Christ, and made his scoff of God. Thereupon Olaf
was wroth, and ordered him to be put to death amidst

188 OLAF TRYGGVESON
revolting tortures,1 and having carried off all his effects
and his fine dragon-ship, he made all his men receive
baptism, and imposed Christianity on all the people
of the fiord, and then returned southward to Nidaros.
Thus did Olaf " bend his whole mind " to uprooting
heathenism and old customs which he deemed con
trary to Christianity. Iceland, also, did not escape
his attentions. He had sent Thangbrand thither on
account of his misdeeds, to bring it over to the faith.
But that rough ecclesiastic found this no easy matter.
Some of the chiefs submitted to baptism, while others
not only refused, but composed lampoons upon him;
whereupon Thangbrand slew two of them outright.
About this time some of the Icelandic chiefs paid a
visit to Nidaros, and stayed there during the winter,
where they encountered Olaf, and were obliged, much
against their will, to answer him many questions
about Iceland. The following Michaelmas the king
had high mass celebrated with great splendour, and
the Icelanders came, and listened to the singing and
the sound of the bells, and on the following day were
baptized and treated with much kindness. At this
juncture Thangbrand returned, and informed the king
of his ill success, and how the Icelanders made lam
poons upon him, and threatened to kill him. Olaf
was so enraged that he ordered a horn to be blown
and all the Icelanders in Nidaros to be summoned,
and would have put them all to death, had not one
of them reminded him of his promise to forgive all
1 According to the Saga, a serpent was forced down his throat, which
ate its way through his body (!) and caused his death. Snorro, i. 448.

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 189
who turned from heathenism and became Christians,
and declared that Thangbrand's ill success was the
result of his own violence and bloodshed. It was
owing to the influence of these Icelandic chiefs on
their return, that the lawman Thorgeir proposed to
the Icelandic national council that Christianity should
be introduced, which resolution was supplemented
afterwards by another, that all the islanders should be
baptized, the temples destroyed, and at least the
public ceremonies of paganism abolished.1
In the same year, however, that this resolution was
passed in Iceland, Olaf's violent efforts to uproot
heathenism in Norway were brought to • a close.
Worsted in a tremendous engagement with the united
forces of Denmark and Sweden, rather than yield to
his enemies, he flung himself from the deck of Raud's
ship into the sea, and sank beneath the waters. He
was the type of a northern Viking. The Sagas
delight to record instances of his strength and agility :
how he climbed the Smalsor Horn, an inaccessible
peak of a mountain in Bremager, and fixed his shield
upon it ; how he could run across the oars of the
Serpent, while his men were rowing ; how he could
cast two spears at once, and strike and cut equally
1 It was at this Thing that Snorri made his famous speech. " Then
came a man running, and said that a stream of lava (earth-fire) had
burst out at Olfus, and would run over the homestead of Thorod the
priest. Then the heathen men began to say, ' No wonder that the
gods are wroth at such speeches as we have heard.' Then Snorri the
priest spoke and said, ' At what, then, were the gods wroth, when this
lava was molten, and ran over the spot on which we now stand?'" —
Dasent's "Burnt Njal," vol. i. p. xci, «.

1 90 OLAF TRYGGVESON
with both hands. In private life, they tell us, he was
gay, social, and generous ; and though, when enraged,
he was distinguished for cruelty, burning some of his
enemies, tearing others to pieces by mad dogs, and
mutilating or casting down others from high preci
pices, yet he was as dear to his subjects as Ivan the
Terrible to the Russian people of Moscow ; nay, many
of them are said to have died of grief for him, and
after his death exalted him to the dignity of a saint.
During the fifteen years which succeeded the death
of Olaf Christianity made but slow progress in Nor
way, though its followers were not persecuted by the
sons of Earl Hacon, whom the conquerors at the great
battle of Svoldr had set over the country. At length,
about the year A.D. 1015, a descendant of Harold
Haarfager, Olaf Haraldson, better known as Olaf the
Saint, gathered a party, put an end to the domination
of the Swedes and Danes in Norway, and became
Overking. His youth had been spent in piratical
expeditions, and he had shared in the invasions
of England. Seated on the throne, he invited a
considerable number of clergy from that country,1 at
1 "The English missionaries with Scandinavian names," who went
over to Scandinavia in the tenth century, for the purpose of con
verting the heathens, were, as their names show, of Danish origin,
and undoubtedly natives of the Danish part of England. Sprung from
Scandinavian families, which, though settled in a foreign land, could
scarcely have so soon forgotten their mother-tongue, or the customs
which they had inherited, they could enter with greater safety than
other priests on their dangerous proselytizing travels in the heathen
North ; where, also, from their familiarity with the Scandinavian lan
guage, they were manifestly best suited successfully to prepare the
entrance of Christianity." — Worsae's "Danes and Northmen," p. 135.

AND OLAF THE SAINT.

191

whose head was Bishop Grimkil, who composed a
system of ecclesiastical law for the Norsemen. Olaf
also wrote to the Archbishop of Bremen, and re
quested his aid in evangelizing his people. His own
measures savoured too much of the example set by
Olaf Tryggveson. Accompanied by Bishop Grimkil,
" the horned man," as the people called* him from the
shape of his mitre, he made frequent journeys through
his kingdom, summoned the Things, and read the
laws which commanded the observance of Christianity ;
all who refused to obey them he threatened with con
fiscation of property, maiming of the body, or death.
At length, having discovered that the old heathen
sacrifices were still secretly offered in divers places,
he determined to ascertain the truth of these reports.
Summoning his bailiff in the Drontheim district,
he desired to know whether the proscribed rites
were still celebrated there. Under a promise of
personal security, the man confessed that the old
autumn, winter, and summer sacrifices were still
secretly offered, and presided over by twelve of the
principal bonders. Thereupon Olaf equipped a fleet
of five vessels and three hundred men, and* sailed for
Maere Fiord, where, in the middle of the night, he
surprised the guilty parties, put their leader to. death,
and divided their property amongst his men-at-arms.
Then, having taken many of the chief bonders as
hostages, he summoned a Thing, and obliged the
people to submit to the erection of several churches,
and the location amongst them of several clergy.1
1 Snorro, ii. 152.

192 OLAF TRYGGVESON
Proceeding afterwards to the Uplands, he sum
moned a Thing for the districts of Loar and Hedal,
and made his usual requisition. Not far from Loar
dwelt a powerful chief named Gudbrand, who, hear
ing of Olaf's arrival, sent a message-token calling
together the peasantry far and wide, to resist these
encroachments on the national faith. " This Olaf,"
said he in the Thing, "will force upon us another
faith, and will break in pieces all our gods. He says
he has a much greater and more powerful god ; and
it is wonderful that the earth does not burst asunder
beneath him, or that our god lets him go about
unpunished when he dares to talk such things. I
know this for certain, that if we carry Thor, who
has always stood by us, out of our temple that is
standing on this farm, Olaf's god will melt away,
and he and his men be made nothing, so soon as
Thor looks upon them."
The bonders shouted applause, and Gudbrand's
son was directed to repair northwards to Breeden,
and watch the movements of Olaf, who, with Bishop
Sigurd, was busy in fixing teachers in various places.
Hearing rumours of opposition, Olaf hurried to
Breeden, and in a battle which ensued utterly
routed the rude peasantry, and captured Gud
brand's son, whom he sent to his father with the
news of his own speedy approach. Gudbrand, in
his alarm, consulted the neighbouring chiefs, and it
was resolved to send an embassy to Olaf to propose
that a Thing should be summoned to decide whether
there was any truth in this "new teaching," and that

AND OLAF THE SAINT.

193

during it a strict truce should be maintained on both
sides. Olaf consented, and the bonders met to decide the
question between the rival creeds. The king rose
first, and informed the assembly how the people of
the neighbouring districts had received Christianity,
broken down their houses of sacrifice, and now be
lieved in the true God, "who made heaven and earth,
and knows all things." "And where is thy god?"
asked Gudbrand. " Neither thou nor any one else
can see him. We have a god who can be seen day
by day. He is not here, indeed, to-day, because the
weather is wet ; but he will appear to thee, and I
expect fear will mix with thy vey blood when he
comes into the Thing. But since, as thou sayest, thy
god is so great, let him send us to-morrow a cloudy
day, without rain, and then let us meet again."1
His counsel was adopted, and Olaf returned to his
lodging accompanied by Gudbrand's son, whom he
retained as a hostage. As the evening drew on, the
king inquired of the youth what the god was like of
which his father had spoken. Thereupon he learnt
that the image was one of Thor, that he held a
hammer in his hand, was of great size but hollow
within, that he lacked neither gold nor silver about
him, and every day received four cakes of bread,
besides meat.
Thereupon, while the rest retired to bed, the king
spent the night in prayer, and in the morning rose,
heard' mass, and after service proceeded to the
1 Snorro, ii. 157.
S.L. VII. O

i94 OLAF TRYGGVESON

Thing, the weather being such as Gudbrand had
desired. The first speaker was Bishop Sigurd, who,
arrayed in all his robes, with his mitre on his head
and his pastoral staff in his hand, spake to the
bonders about the true' faith, and the wonderful
works of God.
To this one of the bonders replied, " Many things
are we told of by this horned man with the staff in
his hand crooked at the top like a ram's horn ; but
since ye say, comrades, that your God is so power
ful, and can do so many wonders, tell him to make it
clear sunshine to-morrow forenoon, and then we shall
meet here again, and do one of two things, either
agree with you about this business, or fight you."
Then they separated. One of the king's retinue
on this occasion was Kolbein the Strong, a chief
of high birth, who usually carried, besides his sword,
a great club. Olaf begged him to keep close to
him next morning, and meanwhile sent men to bore
holes in the bonders' ships, and loose their horses
on the farms. This done, he again spent the night
in prayer, and in the grey of the morning, as soon
as he had heard mass, proceeded to the Thing-field,
he and his party ranging themselves on one side,
Gudbrand and his faction on the other.
Before long a great crowd appeared carying "a
great man's image " glittering all over with gold and
silver. The bonders rose, says the Saga, and did
obeisance to the "ugly idol," while Gudbrand cried
aloud to the king, " Where is now thy God ? I think
neither thou nor that horned man yonder will lift your

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 195
heads so high as in former days. See how our idol
looks upon you." Olaf, thereupon, whispered to Kol
bein, " If, while I am speaking, the bonders look else
where than towards their idol, see that thou strike
him as hard as thou canst with thy club." Then turn
ing to the bonders, he said, " Dale Gudbrand would
frighten us with his god that can neither hear, nor
see, nor save himself, nor even move without being
carried. Ye say our God is invisible ; but turn your
eyes to the east, and see him advancing in great
splendour." At that moment the sun rose, and all turned to
look. Kolbein was duly on the alert, and imme
diately struck the image with all his might, so that
it burst asunder and disclosed a number of mice and
other vermin which had hitherto fattened on the
sacrifices offered to the idol. The bonders, terrified
at this unexpected result, fled in alarm to their ships,
which soon filled with water, while others ran for their
horses, and could not find them.
Retreat being thus cut off, they returned once' more
to the Thing-field. " I cannot understand," said Olaf
when they were seated, " what this noise and uproar
means. There is the idol, which ye adorned with gold
and silver, and supplied with meat and provisions. Ye
see for yourselves what he can do for you, and for all
who trust to such folly. Take now your gold and orna
ments that are lying strewn about on the grass, and give
them to your wives and daughters ; but never hang them
hereafter upon stock or stone. Here are now two con
ditions between us to choose upon, — either accept
O 2

196 OLAF TRYGGVESON
Christianity, or fight this very day ; and the victoy
be to them to whom the God we worship gives it."
Even Gudbrand could do nothing. " Our god,"
he said to the king, "will not help us, so we will
believe in the God thou believest in;" and he and
all present were baptized, and received the teachers
whom Olaf and Bishop Sigurd set over them, and
Gudbrand himself built a church in the valley.1
This story, told with all the quaintness of the
Saga, illustrates sufficiently the contest which was
now going on throughout the length and breadth of
the land .between Christianity and expiring Odinism.
Wherever Olaf went, accompanied by his bishops, the
same scenes were constantly enacted. He even ex
tended his care to Greenland and the Orkneys, and sent
to Iceland a quantity of timber for building a church,
and a bell to be suspended in it, and endeavoured at
the same time to introduce Grimkil's ecclesiastical
laws. The example which he himself set to his subjects
was more satisfactory than that of either of his pre
decessors. He was exemplary in observing the ordi
nances of religion. It was his custom, the Saga tells
us, to rise betimes in the morning, put on his clothes,
wash his hands, and then go to church and hear
matins. Thereafter he went to the Thing-meeting to
arrange quarrels or amend the laws, and settled all
matters of religion in concert with Bishop Grimkil
and other learned priests.
The impartial severity with which he administered
the laws, punishing equally both great and small, was
1 Snorro, ii. 161.

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 197
one of the chief causes of the rebellion against his
rule which broke out about the year AD. 1026, and
was greatly fomented by Canute, king of Denmark,
who sowed disaffection amongst the chiefs. At last
Olaf determined to leave his kingdom, and fled to
Russia, where he was honourably received by Yaros-
loff, and requested to settle in the country.
But, while doubting between accepting the offer of
a province and undertaking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem,
Olaf Tryggveson is said to have appeared to him in
vision, and bade him return to Norway and reclaim
his kingdom. Olaf therefore set out, and sailed to
Sweden, where the king, Onund, his brother-in-
law, welcomed him, and aided him in his plans for
recovering Norway.
He no sooner appeared in the latter country than
multitudes flocked to his standard, but he rejected all
who did not comply with the one condition of service,
— the reception of baptism. The helmets and shields
of all who fought on his side were distinguished by a
white cross, and on the eve of battle Olaf directed
many marks of silver to be given for the souls of his
enemies who should fall in the battle, esteeming the
salvation of his own men already secured. He also
directed that the war-shout should be, "Forward,
Christ's-men ! cross-men ! king's-men." The battle
was hot and bloody, and Olaf was defeated and
slain. After his death his people repented of their re
bellion. They found that, if Olaf had chastised them
with whips, the new ruler, Swend, son of Canute,

1 98 OLAF TRYGGVESON
chastised them with scorpions ,-1 and they groaned
under the taxes now imposed upon them. Mean
while it began to be whispered that Olaf was a holy
man, and had worked miracles; and many began
to put up prayers to him as a powerful saint, and to
invoke his aid in dangers and difficulties.
News of this reached the ears of Bishop Grimkil,
who, during Olaf's absence in Russia, had remained
in Norway. He came to Nidaros, and obtained leave
from Swend to exhume the body of the departed
king. On opening the coffin, the Saga tells us, " there was
a delightful and fresh smell, the king's face had under
gone no change, but his hair and nails had grown as
though he had been alive." Alfifa, Swend's mother,
remarked sneeringly that " people buried in sand rot
very slowly, and it would not have been so if he had
been buried in earth." Grimkil bade her notice his
hair and beard. " I will believe in the sanctity of his
hair," replied Alfifa, " if it will not burn in the fire."
Thereupon the bishop put live coals in a pan, blessed
it, cast incense on it, and then laid thereon King
Olaf's hair. The incense caught fire, but the hair
remained unsinged.
Alfifa proposed it should be laid on unconsecrated
fire. But her unbelief shocked the bystanders ;
bishop, and king, and assembled people, all agreed
that Olaf should be regarded as a man " truly holy."
His body was, therefore, removed to St. Clement's
church, which he himself had built at Nidaros, and
1 I Kings xii. ii.

AND OLAF THE SAINT. 199
enclosed in a shrine mounted with gold and silver,
and studded with jewels.1 And so Olaf became patron
saint of Norway, pilgrims flocked to his tomb, and
churches were dedicated to his name not only in his
native land, but in England and Ireland, and even in
distant Constantinople.
The stoy of Olaf the Saint may be taken as a sign
of the change which was now coming over the Norse
man. He was beginning to lay aside his old habits
of lawless piracy, and to respect civilized institutions ;
the Viking was gradually settling down into the
peaceful citizen. Expeditions to Christian lands,
intermixture with the populations, admission to eccle
siastical offices, had gradually brought about vey
different feelings towards Christian institutions than
those entertained by the Vikings of the eighth and
ninth centuries.
We are not surprised, then, that when Canute
had seated himself on the throne of England, and
had espoused an English consort, he not only
promulgated severe laws against heathenism,2 and
undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, but despatched
missionaries to evangelize his Scandinavian subjects,
and strengthen the cause of Christianity throughout
the North. His influence in Denmark, combined with
1 Snorro, ii. 350; Adam Brem. ii. 59. "St. Olave's church and
Tooley Street in London are very remarkable memorials of the con
version of the Scandinavians on English soil." — Pauli's "England,"
p. 412.
2 Amongst the objects of worship forbidden are, the sun and
moon, fire and flood, fountains and stones, trees and logs ; also witch
craft, framing death-spells, either by lot or by torch, or phantoms.

OLAF THE SAINT.

that of Olaf the Lap-kirtg in Sweden, had an im
portant influence on the progress of the Scandinavian
churches. Schools and monasteries now gradually
rose, bishoprics were founded, the rude Runic charac
ters retired before the Latin alphabet, agriculture was
encouraged by the Benedictine monks, and new kinds
of corn were planted, mills were built, mines were
opened, and before these civilizing agencies Odinism
retired more and more from a useless contest, as surely
as Brahmanism in India is yielding before European
science and European literature, before the telegraph
and the railway, the book and the newspaper.

CHAPTER XII.

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.

And now let us turn from the blue fiords and pine
forests of Scandinavia to the great Sclavonian family
of nations, whose wide territory extended eastward
from the Elbe to the sluggish waters of the Don, and
from the Baltic on the north to the Adriatic on the
south. While for upwards of three centuries the Teu
tonic tribes had been yielding to the influences of
Christianity, scarcely any impression had been made
on the vast population which clustered together
on 'either side of the Danube, and thence spread
onwards into the vey heart of the modern Russian
empire. They were still rude, warlike, and chiefly
pastoral tribes, inaccessible alike to the civilization
and the religion of Rome. The Eastern Empire
had neither a Charlemagne to compel by force of
arms, nor zealous missionaries like those of Germany
to penetrate the vast plains and spreading morasses
of the provinces on either side of the Danube, to
found abbacies and bishoprics, to cultivate the soil
and reclaim the people.1
1 Milman's "Latin Christianity," vol. ii. p. 419.

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.

I. With the death, however, of the great apostle of
Denmark synchronizes one of the earliest missionary
efforts made amongst any portion of this great
family. A map of Europe in the sixth centuy
discloses to us the Bulgarians established along the
western shore of the Euxine, between the Danube
and the Dnieper. About the year A.D. 680 they had
moved in a southerly direction into the territory
known in ancient times as Macedonia and Epirus.
Here they bestowed their names on the Sclavonians,
whom they conquered, gradually adopted their lan
guage and manners, and by intermarriage became
entirely identified with them.
Unable to return either in a northerly or westerly
direction, in consequence of the formidable barrier
which the irruption of more powerful nations had
interposed in their rear, they extended their con
quests to the south of the Danube, and became
involved in continual struggles with the Greek
emperors. In the year A.D. 811 the Emperor
Nicephorus advanced into the centre of their king
dom, and burnt their sovereign's palace. The insult
was terribly avenged. Three days after his disastrous
success, he was himself surrounded by the collected
hordes of his barbarous foes, and fell ignominiously
with the great officers of the empire. His head was
exposed on a spear, and the savage warriors, true to
the traditions of their Scythian wilderness, fashioned
his skull into a drinking-cup, enchased it with gold,
and used it at the celebrations of their victories.
But these border-wars were destined to produce

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS. 203
more beneficent results. In the early part of the
ninth century, when Theodora was Empress of
Byzantium, a monk named Cupharas fell into the
hands of the Bulgarian prince Bogoris.1 At the
same time, a sister of tbe prince was in captivity at
Constantinople, and it was proposed by the empress
that the two captives should be exchanged. During
the period of her captivity the princess had adopted
the Christian faith, and on her return she laboured
diligently to deepen in her brother's mind the im
pression which had already been made by the captive
monk. The prince long remained unmoved by her en
treaties. At length a famine, during which he had
vainly appealed to his native deities, induced him to
have recourse to the God of his sister. The result
was such as he desired, and he was baptized by
Photius the patriarch of Constantinople, the emperor
himself standing sponsor by proxy, and the Bulgarian
prince adopting his name. A short time afterwards
the prince requested the emperor to send him a
painter for the decoration of his palace. A monk,
named Methodius, was accordingly sent, and was
desired by Bogoris to adorn his hall with paintings
representing the perils of hunting. As he appeared
anxious for terrible subjects, the monk employed
himself in painting the scene of the " Last Judg
ment ;" and so awful was the representation of the
fate of obstinate heathens, that not only was Bogoris
himself induced to put away the idols he had till
1 Cedreni " Annales," p. 443.

204 ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.
now retained, but even many of the court were so
moved by the sight as to desire admission into the
Christian Church.
So averse, however, was the great bulk of the nation
to the conversion of their chief, that his baptism,
which was celebrated at midnight, was kept a pro
found secret, the disclosure of which was the signal
for a formidable rebellion in favour of the national
gods, and Bogoris could only put it down by resorting
to the severest measures. Photius had given to the
prince at his baptism a long letter, or rather a treatise
on Christian doctrine and practice, as also on the
duties of a sovereign. But its language was far too
refined for his comprehension ; and his difficulties
were further increased by the arrival of missionaries,
Greek, Roman, and Armenian, who all sought his
union with their respective Churches, and all pro
pounded different doctrines. Thus perplexed by
their rival claims, and unwilling to involve himself
in more intimate relations with the Byzantine court,
Bogoris turned to the west for aid, and made an
application to Louis II. of Germany, and, at the
same time, to Nicholas the Pope, requesting from
both assistance in the conversion of his subjects, and
from the latter more intelligible advice than he had
received from the Patriarch of Constantinople.
The Pope replied by sending into Bulgaria Paul,
bishop of Populonia, and Formosus, bishop of Portus,
with Bibles and other books. At the same time he
also sent a long letter treating of the various subjects
on which Bogoris had requested advice, under one

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS. 205
hundred and six heads. Respecting the conversion
of his subjects, he advised the Bulgarian chief to
abjure all violent methods, and to appeal to the
weapons of reason only. Apostates, however, ought
to meet with no toleration, if they persisted in
refusing obedience to the monitions of their spiritual
fathers. As to objects of idolatrous worship, they
ought not to be treated with violence, but the com
pany of idolaters ought to be avoided, while the
cross, he suggested, might well take the place of
the horse-tail as the national standard. All recourse
to divination, charms, and other superstitious prac
tices, ought to be carefully abolished, as also poly
gamy. As to prayer for their forefathers, who had
died in unbelief, in respect to which the simple prince
had requested advice, such a vain mark of filial
affection could not be allowed for a moment.
With these precepts bearing on their spiritual
welfare were mingled others designed to soften and
civilize their savage manners. The Pope exhorted
them to greater gentleness in the treatment of their
slaves, and protested against their barbarous code of
laws, their use of the rack in the case of suspected
criminals, and their too frequent employment of
capital punishment. Finally, as to the request of
the prince that a patriarch might be sent him, the
Pope could not take such an important step till he
had more accurate information as to the numbers
of the Bulgarian Church : meanwhile he sent a
bishop, who should be followed by others if it was
found necessary; and as soon as the Church was

206 ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.
organized, one with the title of archbishop or
patriarch was promised.
2. The reception of Christianity in Bulgaria paved
the way for its admission in other quarters. The
Chazars of the Crimea, the Sclaves in the interior of
Greece, the Servians, who extended from the Danube
to the Adriatic, and other tribes, were more or less
affected by Christian influences, though in several
cases they were weakened by the equally zealous
efforts of Jewish and Mussulman propagandists.
But a more important portion of the South-Scla
vonic area was now to be added to the Church.
In the early part of the ninth century the kingdom
of Moravia comprised a considerable territory, extend
ing from the frontiers of Bavaria to the river Drina,
and from the banks of the Danube to the river
Styri in Southern Poland. Falling within the ever-
widening circle of the empire of Charlemagne, it had
acknowledged that monarch, and afterwards his son
Louis, as its suzerains. According to the settled
policy of these princes, the conquered territoy had
received a compulsoy form of Christianity, and a
regionary bishop had endeavoured, under the auspices
of the Archbishop of Passau, to bring about the con
version of the people. But these efforts had been
productive of very partial results. Foreign priests,
unacquainted with the Sclavonic language, were not
likely to attract many to their Latin services, or to
prevent the great bulk of the people relapsing into
heathenism. But in the year A.D. 863 Moravia made great efforts

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS. 207
to recover its independence, and Rostislav, its ruler,
requested the Greek emperor Michael to send him
learned men, who might translate the Scriptures into
the Sclavonic tongue, and arrange the public worship
upon a definite basis. "Our land is baptized," ran
the message, "but we have no teachers to instruct
us, or translate for us the sacred books. We do not
understand the meaning of the Scriptures. Send us
teachers who may explain them to us and tell us their
meaning." When the emperor Michael heard this, he called
together his philosophers, and told them the message
of the Sclavonic prince. The philosophers replied,
" There is at Thessalonica a man named Leon. He
has two sons, who both know well the Sclavonic
tongue, and are both clever philosophers." On hear
ing this, the emperor sent to Leon at Thessalonica,
saying, " Send to us thy sons Methodius and Con
stantine." Whereupon Leon straightway sent them ;
and when they came to the emperor, he said to them,
" The Sclavonic lands have sent to me, requesting
teachers, that they may translate for them the Holy
Scriptures."1 Persuaded by the emperor, they therefore went
into Moravia, and having arrived began to compose
a Sclavonic alphabet, making use in the composition
of it of Greek letters, with the addition of certain
other characters, partly Armenian and Hebrew, and
partly of their own invention ; the whole number
amounting to forty. They then translated the
1 "Vita S. Constant™ " (Cyrilli), "Acta SS. Bolland." March 2.

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.

Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, the Psalter, and
other books, and this innovation on the methods
hitherto employed by western missionaries was
blessed with signal success. Many of the people
rejoiced to hear the word of God in their own
language, and several churches were erected.
For four years and a half their work went on in
peace ; but soon they found no little opposition from
the neighbouring German clergy, who regarded their
translation of the Scriptures into the Sclavonic tongue
as little short of heresy. Intelligence of this strange
innovation even reached the ears of the Pope, who
summoned Cyril and Methodius to Rome. Admitted
to an audience with Adrian, they recounted the
method of their proceedings, and offered their creed
for examination. Adrian pronounced himself satisfied,
and appointed Methodius metropolitan of Moravia,
and Pannonia, but without any fixed see.
Thus armed with Papal authority, Methodius re
turned to the scene of his labours, and achieved still
greater success. But before long political troubles
arose ; Rostislav was betrayed into the hands of
Louis of Germany, dethroned, and blinded. Thus
deprived of the protection of his patron, Methodius
was constrained to retire from his dangerous post
into Pannonia. But even here he found himself
exposed to constant suspicions, owing to his Sclavonic
liturgy and Bible, and deemed it necessary to repair
a second time to Rome and defend his conduct before
Pope John VIII.
From this Pontiff, after much discussion, he sue-

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS. 209
ceeded in obtaining a qualified approval of his work.
The Pope's scruples, we are told, were removed by
remembering the verse in the Psalms, " Praise the
Lord, all ye nations" This verse appeared to him
decisive. It could hardly mean that the Creator's
praise was to be restricted to three languages, Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin. He who formed these languages
must have formed others for His own glory. One
condition, however, was annexed to the concession.
The mass must be celebrated in one at least of the
languages of the Church, either Greek or Latin, and
the Gospel must be read in Latin, and then if it
was thought necessary translated into the Sclavonian
tongue. Once more, therefore, Methodius returned to Mo
ravia, and in spite of much opposition adhered firmly
to the great principle that the language of each
separate nation is not to give place in public worship
to a sacred language peculiar to the clergy, but is
itself adapted alike for public instruction and for
private reading. But after his death, about a.d. 885,
the opposition of the German party increased greatly,
and many of the Sclavonic clergy were driven out of
Moravia. Before long Moravia was invaded by the pagan
Magyars or Hungarians, whose ravages at this period
in Bavaria, Germany, and Southern France, pre
sented one of the most serious obstacles to the
establishment of Christianity. More terrible than
the Saracen and the Northern viking, inexhaustible
in number, superior to all the Scythian hordes in
S.L. VII. p

210 ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.
military prowess, they were identified by fear-stricken
Christendom with Gog and Magog, the forerunners
of the dissolution of the world. From their devasta
tions the wretched people of Moravia suffered terribly,
and on the restoration of order found themselves
united to the kingdom of Bohemia.
3. From Moravia, therefore, let us turn in an
easterly direction towards those Scythian wilds and
level steppes, where, in A.D. 862, arose the Russian
kingdom of Ruric the Norman ; and where, while the
Western Church was contemplating with awe and
terror the gradual approach of the Day of Doom,
the Eastern Church " silently and almost uncon
sciously bore into the world her mightiest offspring."1
In A.D. 955 the Princess Oiga, accompanied by
a numerous retinue, left Kieff on a journey to the
Byzantine capital. There she was induced to embrace
Christianity, and returning to her native land exerted
herself with exemplay diligence to instil the doctrines
of her new creed into the mind of her son Swiatoslav.
But on this prince her exhortations produced little or
no effect. He was the very type of the rough Varan
gian warrior. " Wrapped in a bearskin," writes Gib
bon, " he usually slept on the ground, his head reclin
ing on a saddle. His diet was coarse and frugal, and,
like the heroes of Homer, his meat (it was often horse
flesh) was boiled or roasted on the coals."2 For
him the gods of his ancestors were sufficient, and the
entreaties of his mother were entirely thrown away.
1 Stanley's "Eastern Church," p. 294.
a Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," vol. vii. p. 92.

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.

Her grandson Vladimir seemed likely to prove a
more docile pupil, though the zeal he subsequently
displayed for the savage idolatries of his countrymen
was not for some time calculated to inspire much
confidence. In his reign the only two Christian
martyrs of the Russian chroniclers were put to death
by the fury of the people, because one of them, from
natural affection, had refused to give up his son,
when he had been devoted by Vladimir to be offered
as a sacrifice to Peroun.1
But before long the desire of converting so powerful
a chief attracted missionaries from many quarters.
First, according to the Russian chronicler, came the
Mahometan Bulgarians from the Volga, but "the
mercy of Providence inspired Vladimir to give them
a decided refusal."
Then appeared Jews from amongst the Chazars,
priding themselves on their religion, and telling many
stories of the ancient glories of Jerusalem. " But
where is your country ? " said the prince. " It is
ruined by the wrath of God for the sins of our
fathers," was the reply. Thereupon the interview was
cut short by the decisive answer, " How can I embrace
the faith of a people whom their God has utterly
abandoned ? "
Next appeared Western doctors from Germany,
who would have had the prince embrace the creed
of Western Christendom. But Vladimir knew of
no form of Christianity save such as was taught at
Byzantium. 1 MouravietT's "Church of Russia," translated by Blackmore, p. 10.
P 2

212 ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.
Last of all came a teacher from Greece. He
reasoned with Vladimir long and earnestly, and learn
ing that he had received emissaries from the Jews,
who accused the Christians of worshipping a God
who had been crucified, he took the opportunity of
relating the true account from beginning to end.
Then he went on to speak of judgment to come, and
showed the prince on a tablet the scene of the Last
Day. On the right were the good going into ever
lasting joy ; on the left were the wicked departing
into eternal fire. " Happy are those on the right,"
said Vladimir; " woe to the sinners who are on the left."
" If thou wishest to enter into happiness with those
on the right," replied the missionary, " consent to be
baptized." 1
The prince reflected in silence, but deferred his
decision. Next year, however, he sent for certain of
his nobles, and informed them of the different deputa
tions he had received. " Every man praises his own re
ligion," said they; " send, therefore, certain of thy court
to visit the different churches, and bring back word."
Messengers were accordingly despatched to the
Jews and Mahometans, as also to the German and
Eastern churches. They returned a very unfavour
able report of all, except only the Church of Con
stantinople. Of this they could not say enough.
When they visited the Byzantine capital, they were
conducted to the Church of St. Sophia, then perhaps
one of the finest ecclesiastical structures in the world.
The patriarch himself celebrated the Liturgy with
Mouravieff, p. ii.

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS. 213
the utmost pomp and magnificence. The gorgeous
processions, the music, the chanting, the appearance
of the deacons and sub-deacons with lighted torches
and white linen wings on their shoulders, before whom
the people prostrated themselves, crying, " Kyrie
eleison," — all this, so utterly different from anything
they had ever witnessed amidst their own wild steppes,
had such an overpowering effect on the Russian
envoys, that on their return to Vladimir they spoke
not a word in favour of the other religions, but of
the Greek Church they could not say enough.
" When we stood in the temple," said they, " we did
not know where we were, for there is nothing else like
it upon earth. There in truth God has his dwelling
with men, and we can never forget the beauty we saw
there. No one who has once tasted sweets will after
wards take that which is bitter, nor can we any
longer abide in heathenism." Thereupon the Boyars
said to Vladimir, " If the religion of the Greeks had
not been good, your grandmother Oiga, who was the
wisest of women, would not have embraced it." The
weight of the name of Oiga decided her grandson,
and he said no more in answer than these words,
" Where shall we be baptized ? " 1
Still he hesitated before taking so important a
step, and "led by a sense which had not yet been
purged by grace," to adopt the words of the Russian
chronicler, he thought fit to overawe the country
where he intended to receive the new faith, and laid
siege to Cherson in the Tauride. The siege was long
1 Mouravieff, pp. 13 and 353.

214 ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.
and obstinate. At length, by means of an arrow
shot from the town, a priest informed the Russian
chief that its safety depended on cutting off the
supply of water from the aqueducts. Elated at the
prospect of success, Vladimir vowed to be baptized
as soon as he should be master of the place. His
wish was gratified, and forthwith he sent ambassadors
to Constantinople to demand the hand of Anne, sister
of the Emperor Basil.
Compliance was promised on condition of his ac
cepting Christianity. Vladimir declared his consent,
and the sister of the emperor was constrained to go,
and she sailed from Cherson accompanied by a large
body of clergy. Her arrival hastened the baptism of
the prince, which, according to the Russian authority,
was not unaccompanied by miracle. Vladimir was
suffering from complaint of the eyes when his new
consort reached him, but no sooner had he risen from
the font cleansed of the leprosy of his heathenism,
than the bishop of Cherson laid his hands upon his
eyes, and his sight was restored, while the prince
exclaimed, " Now have I seen the true God."
Thereupon many of his suite consented to follow his
example ; and shortly afterwards, accompanied by the
Greek clergy, he returned to Kieff, one of the great
centres of the Sclavonic religion, and forthwith ordered
that his twelve sons should be baptized, and proceeded
to destroy all the monuments of heathenism. The
huge idol Peroun was dragged from its temple at a
horse's tail, scourged by twelve mounted pursuers,
and then flung into the Dnieper. " The people," we

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS. 215
are told, " at first followed their idol down the stream,
but were soon quieted when they saw it had no power
to help itself."
Thus successful, Vladimir felt encouraged to take
a further step, and gave orders for the immediate
baptism of his people. "Whoever on the morrow,"
ran the proclamation, " shall not repair to the river,
whether rich or poor, I shall hold him for my enemy."
On the word all the inhabitants, with their wives and
children, flocked in crowds to the Dnieper, and there,
in the words of Nestor, " some stood in the water up
to their necks, others up to their breasts, holding their
young children in their arms, while the priests read
the prayers from the shores, naming at once whole
companies by the same name." Vladimir, transported
at the sight, cried out, " O great God, who hast made
heaven and earth, look down upon thy new people ;
grant unto them, O Lord, to know thee the true
God, as thou hast been made known to Christian
lands, and confirm in them a true and unfailing faith ;
and assist me, O Lord, against my enemy that op
poses me, that, trusting in thee and in thy power,
I may overcome all his wiles."
The spot where the temple of Peroun had stood
now became the site of the Church of St. Basil, and the
Greek priests were encouraged by Vladimir in erect
ing- others throughout the towns and villages of his
realm. The close of the tenth century saw Michael
the first metropolitan travelling from place to place,
baptizing and instructing the people. Churches were
built, the choral music and service books of Constan-

216 ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS.
tinople were introduced, as also the Greek canon law.
Before long schools also arose, and the people became
familiar with the Sclavonic Scriptures and Liturgy,
which the labours of Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria
and Moravia had made ready to their hands.

CHAPTER XIII.
BISHOP OTHO, THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA.
THOUGH by his reception of Christianity Vladimir
dealt a heavy blow to the supremacy of Sclavonic
superstitions in Russia, they long continued to main
tain their ascendency in other parts of Europe, and
nowhere more persistently than in Poland, Pomerania,
and Prussia. In these countries the Sclavonic hier
archy, who were as numerous and almost as potent
as in the religious institutions of India and Egypt,
presented a formidable obstacle to the labours of the
Christian missionary. Not only had they their
representatives in every town and village, but the
higher members of the order wielded a power always
equal, and often superior to that of the dukes or
princes of the several tribes.1
About A.D. 1 121 the eastern and western dis
tricts of Pomerania became, after ceaseless contests,
tributary to the Polish duke, Boleslav IIL, who
thereupon became anxious to extend amongst his
new subjects some notions of Christianity. But so
fanatical were they known to be that the Polish
1 Helmold, "Chron. Slav." ii. 12; Peter de Dusburg, "Chronicon
Prussia?," p. 79.

21 8 BISHOP OTHO,

bishops each and all declined the dangerous task of
attempting their evangelization.
In A.D. 1 122, however, a Spanish priest named
Bernard, who had been elevated to a bishopric at
Rome, appeared at his court, and requested permis
sion to preach the word in Pomerania. The duke
did not conceal from his visitor the difficulties of the
undertaking ; but Bernard, though unacquainted with
the Pomeranian language, resolved to make the at
tempt. Accompanied^ by his chaplain, and an in
terpreter supplied him by Boleslav, he repaired to
the town of Julin, barefooted and in the garb of a
mendicant. The Pomeranians — an easy, merry, well-conditioned
race1 — accustomed to the splendid appearance of their
own priests, regarded the missionary with profound
disdain. When he asserted that he had come as the
messenger of God, they asked how " it was possible
to believe that the great Lord of the world, glorious
in power and rich in all resources, would send as his
messenger a man in such a despicable garb, without
even shoes on his feet. If he had really desired their
conversion, he would surely have sent a more suit
able envoy and representative. As for Bernard, if he
had any regard for his own safety, he had better
straightway return whence he came, and not discredit
the name of his God by pretending to have a mission
from him, when in reality he only wanted relief
amidst his destitution."
1 Herbordi, "Vita Ottonis," ii. p. 40; Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol.
xii.

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 219
Bernard replied by proposing, if they would not
believe his words, that a ruinous house should be set
on fire, and he himself flung into the midst. " If,
while the house is consumed, I come forth unscathed,"
said he, "then believe that I am sent unto you by
Him whom fire and every other created thing obeys."
The Pomeranians, convinced that he was mad, urged
him to leave the place ; but, instead of heeding the
advice, Bernard struck down one of the sacred images,
on which a riot ensued and he was hurried from the
place with the advice, since he was so eager to preach,
to exercise his talents in addressing the fish of the
sea and the fowls of the air.1
Bernard, seeing there was no hope of success, retired
to Bamberg, and there met with Bishop Otho, a Sua-
bian of noble family, who had lived in Poland as the
chaplain of the Duke Wratislav. In his visitor Bernard
felt he had found one peculiarly suited to carry out
an enterprise which had so signally failed in his own
hands, and he assured the bishop that he could t not
fail of success if he would consent to make his appear
ance amongst the Pomeranians with becoming pomp
and circumstance, and attended by a numerous
retinue. To the solicitations of Bernard were soon
added those of Boleslav, who engaged to defray all
the expenses of the mission, to provide an escort, a
body of interpreters, and whatever else might be
necessary. Thus pressed on all sides, Otho at length
determined to comply ; and having received from the
Pope, Callixtus II., the appointment of Papal legate,
1 " Vita Ottonis," ii. 1.

BISHOP OTHO,

and collected a numerous body of clergy, ecclesi
astical furniture for such churches as he might build,
together with costly robes and other presents for the
Pomeranian chiefs, he set out on the 25 th of April,
A.D. 1 1 24.
Passing through the friendly territory of the Duke
of Bohemia, he arrived at Breslau on the 2d of May,
and, after a stay of two days at Posen, proceeded to
Gnesen, where Boleslav was awaiting his arrival with
several of the neighbouring chiefs. Otho's entrance
into the town was welcomed by a crowd of spectators,
who flung themselves at his feet and besought his
blessing. Seven days were spent here, during which
the legate discussed with Boleslav their future mode
of operations, and was furnished with waggons to
carry provisions and baggage, money, interpreters,
and a protecting escort under the command of a
captain named Paulicius.
On the eighth day Otho and his retinue bade fare
well to their entertainer, and plunged into the vast
forest which then formed the boundary between the
Polish and Pomeranian provinces. As yet it had
only once been traversed by the soldiers of Boleslav,
and the trees they had felled marked the only practi
cable path. Into this the missionary party struck,
and with the utmost difficulty, and no little danger
from wild beasts and quaking morasses,1 succeeded in
making their way to the river Netze, where a Pome
ranian chief met them at the head of five hundred
soldiers. i " Vita Ononis," ii. 10.

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 221
While Otho and the chief conferred together in
private, the ecclesiastics in his train were thrown
into no little alarm by the terrible looks of the
Pomeranian warriors, who, drawing their long knives,
threatened to flay them alive and bury them in the
ground up to their necks. These threats, and the
uncertainty as to the intentions of the Pomeranian
chief, added to the rapidly deepening shades of
evening, threw a gloom over the whole party, which,
however, was dispersed in the morning, when it was
discovered that the chief's intentions were peaceful,
and that his rude warriors shared his feelings.
Pyritz was their next destination, and the way
thither lay through a district which had suffered
severely during the late wars, and thirty scattered
peasants were the sole representatives of many
ruined villages. They were asked whether they
were willing to -be baptized, and, scared by the
martial retinue of the legate, they flung them
selves at his feet, and professed their entire willing
ness to submit to his wishes. Without more ado
they were baptized, and the missionaries resumed
their journey towards Pyritz, which was reached late
in the evening. A great religious festival was going
on at the time, and the town was crowded with a
vast number of strangers who had assembled to join
in the revels. It was thought prudent, therefore, to
remain outside the walls ; and the night was spent
in the open fields, the trembling missionaries scarcely
daring to sleep, much less to kindle a fire or address
one another in tones louder than a whisper.

BISHOP OTHO,

As soon as it was day, Paulicius entered the
town, and convened an assembly of the principal
inhabitants. Reminding them that their promise to
accept Christianity was one of the conditions of
peace between them and their liege lord Boleslav,
he announced that the legate, a man of noble birth,
and no mendicant like Bernard, but rich and powerful,
was nigh at hand, and he warned them not to incur
the displeasure of his master by declining to receive
him. Overawed by this threatening address, and deem
ing themselves deserted by their national gods,
the people of Pyritz agreed to admit the legate
within the town. Accordingly a procession was
formed, and Otho made his entrance with evey
sign of pomp which a long train of baggage-wag
gons, and his retinue of ecclesiastics and soldiers,
could inspire. At first the people misinterpreted
the meaning of this display, and thought they had
been deceived. But Otho quickly reassured them,
and after fixing his tent in one of the squares,
ascended an eminence, attired in his full pontifical
robes, and thus opened his commission : —
" The blessing of the Lord be upon you, people
of Pyritz. We return you many thanks for having
refreshed our hearts by your hearty and loving
reception. Doubtless ye have already heard what
is the object of our coming, but it will not be
amiss to remind you again. For the sake of your
salvation, happiness, and joy, we have come a long
and weary way, and assuredly ye will be happy and

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 223
blessed, if ye be willing to listen to our words, and to
acknowledge the Lord your Creator, and to serve and
worship him only."
Having thus announced the object of his coming,
he and his attendant ecclesiastics appointed a fast
of three days, and bade the people prepare them
selves for baptism. Meanwhile large vessels were
sunk in the ground, filled with warm water, and
surrounded with curtains. Hither great numbers of
candidates were led, and were solemnly addressed by
Otho on the vows they were about to make. The
usual questions were duly asked and answered, and
then the bishop and the rest of the clergy baptized
the different groups as they were successively led up.1
From Pyritz, where they spent twenty days, they
next repaired to Cammin, where the missionaries
stayed for forty days, instructing and baptizing the
people, and laying the foundations of the Church.
The waggons which had hitherto conveyed the bag
gage were now exchanged for boats, in which to
navigate the inland rivers and lakes which lay
between Cammin and Julin in the island of Wollin,
the spot selected for their next visit.
Julin was a place strongly fortified and devoted to
the Sclavonic superstitions. As they neared the town,
therefore, the boatmen advised that they should cast
anchor at some little distance till the evening, and
thus avoid the tumult likely to be excited by entering
the place in the broad daylight. Not far from the
spot where they anchored was a fort, which had been
1 "Vita Ottonis," ii. 15.

224 BISHOP OTHO,

erected according to a custom common to all the
Pomeranian towns, as a sanctuary and place of
refuge for such as might fly thither when pursued
by an enemy, or in any sudden emergency. The
boatmen advised the bishop to steal into the sacred
inclosure under cover of the night, and assured him
that there he would be quite secure. The suggestion
was acted on, and the night was spent in safety.
But the morning had no sooner dawned than an
immense multitude of the townspeople surrounded
the fort, and threatened the legate and his retinue
with death if he did not instantly quit the place. In
vain the commander of the escort begged them to
respect the sanctity of the asylum ; the excited
throng would pay no heed to his words, and with
the utmost difficulty the missionaries effected their
escape, and got safely to their boats, having broken
down the bridge in their rear.
It was now resolved to anchor for a week on the
other side of a neighbouring lake, and to wait any
change that might take place in the popular feeling,
and in the meantime communications were kept up
between the town and the military escort, who pro
claimed the rank and style of the legate, and threat
ened the speedy vengeance of the duke for the insult
they had received. This alarmed the people. The
leading chiefs called together an assembly, and
after much discussion respecting the admission of the
legate, it was agreed to abide by the decision of the
people of Stettin, the oldest and wealthiest of the
Pomeranian towns. If Stettin was willing to receive

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 2:5
him, they would be also. A pilot was therefore pro
cured, who escorted the boats of the missionaries till
the Pomeranian capital was in sight, and then left
them for fear of detection.
Night was setting in when they reached Stettin, and
again Otho and his retinue sought security by taking
refuge in a fort which had been erected by the duke.
In the morning their landing was discovered, and.
they explained to the townspeople the purport of
their visit, and the desire of the duke that they
should embrace Christianity. But their overtures
were rejected with scorn. "What have we to do
with you ? " was the universal cy. " We will not
put away our national customs, and are well content
with our present religion. Are there not thieves and
robbers among you Christians, whom we have seen
deprived of their feet and eyes ? Keep your own
faith for yourselves, and intermeddle not with us."1
After two months had been spent in fruitless efforts
to induce the people to reconsider their resolution,
Otho determined to send messengers to Boleslav,
informing him of the obstinacy of the Pomeranians,
and asking his advice as to the course that ought
to be pursued. His intentions transpired, and the
townspeople, filled with alarm, determined to send
a counter-embassy, promising conformity to the
duke's wishes, if he would promise them a per
manent peace, and agree to reduce the heavy tribute
hitherto exacted from them.
While the messengers went on their respective
1 "Vita Ottonis," ii. 25.
S.L. VII. Q

2;6 BISHOP OTHO,

errands, Otho and his companions paid frequent
visits to the town, set up a cross in the market
place, and, in spite of much opposition, persevered
in preaching to the people and exhorting them to
abandon their errors. At length two young men,
sons of one of the principal chiefs, paid him a visit,
and requested information concerning the doctrines
which he preached. To them accordingly the legate
expounded the teaching of the Church respecting
the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the
body, and the life of the world to come.
The visit was often repeated, and before long the
young men declared their willingness to be baptized.
Unknown to their parents they approached the font,
and during the eight days following remained with
the missionaries, who welcomed with joy these fruits
of their toil. Meanwhile news of what had occurred
reached their mother, and she immediately set out'
to visit the legate and receive back her sons.
Knowing her influence in the place, Otho received'
her seated on a bank of turf in the open air, surrounded
by his clergy, with the young men, arrayed in their
white baptismal robes, seated at his feet. As she
approached, they on a signal from the bishop rose and
went forth to meet her, when, to the surprise of all
present, she prostrated herself on her knees upon
the ground, and in a flood of tears gave glory to
God that she had lived to see the day of her sons'
baptism. Then turning to Otho she informed him
that she had long been secretly a Christian, and
now she was willing openly to avow the Faith which

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 227
-she had learnt while a captive in a distant land.
The impression made upon the townspeople was
profound. The baptism of the entire household
speedily followed, and the young men, returning
with costly presents from the legate, were suc
cessful in inducing many to listen favourably to his
texhortations. While the excitement caused by this incident was
at its height, the messengers returned from Gnesen,
with a letter from Boleslav, in which he informed
the townspeople that he could not understand their
behaviour towards his friend the legate. Had it not
been for the intercession of the latter, he would have
inflicted on them the severest punishment ; as it was,
he had determined to forgive them, and was willing
to remit a considerable portion of the tribute, and
to guarantee a permanent peace, on condition that
they submitted to the instructions of their spiritual
"teachers. This letter Otho did not fail to read to the
¦people, exhorting them to embrace the terms pro
posed by the duke, and, by way of proving their
sincerity, to suffer the,, temples of their gods to be
destroyed. If they felt any scruples about doing this
themselves, he, with his clergy, would commence the
work of destruction ; and if they escaped unhurt, this
should prove the worthlessness of the national faith.
Permission was at length given ; and after mass had
been duly celebrated, Otho set out at the head of his
-clergy, armed with clubs and axes, to commence the
work of demolition, while crowds of the townspeople
Q 2

228 BISHOP OTHO,

stood anxiously on the watch to see what their own
gods would do. One temple fell, and then another, and
still the bishop with his retinue were unharmed.
Thereupon the multitude cried out, " What power can
these gods have, who do not defend their own abodes ?
If they cannot defend themselves, how can they defend
or advantage us ? " Hundreds of willing hands now
joined in the work of destruction, and in a very short
time four of the largest temples were razed to the
ground, and the materials converted into fuel.1
One of these structures, dedicated to the triple-
headed Triglav, and adorned1 with the rarest carvings,
was stored with a vast number of votive offerings of
considerable value, consisting of the spoils taken in
battles, gold and silver beakers, bulls' horns tipped
with gold, swords, knives, and sacred vessels. These
the people freely offered to Otho, but he caused them
to be sprinkled with holy water, and then gave therm
up for general distribution. All he reserved for him
self was the triple head of Triglav, which he sent to
Pope Honorius IL, as a memorial of his victory over
Sclavonic idolatry.
Other monuments of superstition now excited his
attention, among which were a gigantic oak, and a
sacred spring close by, which were regarded with pecu
liar reverence. The> tree Otho consented to spare,
in compliance with the solicitations of the people,
on condition that they would agree to resort to it
for the future merely to enjoy its shade, and not to
perform any heathen ceremonies.2 The like indul-
1 "Herbordi Vita," ii. 31. a Ibid. iii. 22.

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 229
gence, however, he would not extend to a black horse
of great size," which was ' used for taking the spear-
omens on going out to war.
When the emblems of heathen worship had thus
been put away, the bishop exhorted the people
to regard all Christian men as brethren, whom it
was sinful to sell into slavery, maltreat, or torture ;
he warned them against piracy, robbery, and infan
ticide ; and after instructing them in the first prin
ciples of the Christian Faith, admitted numbers to
the baptismal font. The only man of influence who
held out against his exhortations was the high priest,
whose duty it was to wait upon the sacred horse.
Nothing would induce him to forsake his old faith, and
we are assured that his obduracy was punished by a
sudden and awful death ; and before Otho left, he
could point to a tangible memorial of his victory
over the national heathenism, in a church which was
erected in the market-place of the town.
Meanwhile what had taken place was not unknown
at Julin. The townspeople had sent messengers and
spies to the Sclavonic capital, who narrowly watched
and reported the bishop's proceedings, and the con
duct of the people of Stettin. Consequently, when
Otho again presented himself at Julin, he found the
populace ready and eager to receive baptism. The
sacrament was celebrated as in other places, and with
the consent of the chiefs it was agreed that a bishopric
should be established here, to which Boleslav subse
quently nominated one of his chaplains, Adelbert,
who had accompanied Otho on his tour. Having

230 ' BISHOP OTHO,

consecrated the chancels of two churches, he left
Julin, and visited Clotkowe, Colberg, and Belgrade,
where he was equally successful in inducing many to
abandon idolatry. But the approach of winter warned
him to bring his labours to a close, and after revisiting
the places where he had achieved such rapid success,
and exhorting the infant churches to constancy
in the faith and in a holy life, left the county for
his own diocese, where he arrived in the February
of A.D. 1 125.
Though anxious to resume his labours in the
Pomeranian mission-field, Otho found the cares of his-
own diocese sufficient to claim all his attention. But,
in the spring of A.D. 1127, he determined to set out
again, and once more collected, as preliminary to his
journey, a number of costly presents. On this occa
sion he selected a different route. Passing through
Saxony, he laded his vessels at Halle, and: dropping
down the Elbe, reached the town of Demmin. Here
he met his old friend Wratislav, and agreed with him
that a diet should be assembled at Usedom, at which,
the acceptance of Christianity should be formally
proposed to the neighbouring chiefs.
Whitsunday was the day fixed for the diet, and'.
on the arrival of the chiefs Wratislav addressed them;
in the presence of the bishop, and urged that they-
should lay aside their idolatrous rites, and follow the
example of their countrymen at Stettin and Pyritz.
Otho then came forward, and, basing his discourse on
the theme suggested by the day, preached on the
first Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Spirit, on the

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 231
various gifts then imparted to the early Church, on
the remission of sins, and the divine mercy.
His words were not lost upon his hearers. Many
who had relapsed into idolatry confessed their sin?,
and were reconciled to the Church ; others received
instruction, and were then baptized. The diet ended,
Wratislav suggested to the bishop, now that the re
ception of Christianity had been formally attested by
a solemn . assembly, that he should send forth his
clergy, two and two, to the different towns and
villages, and prepare the people for his own coming.
Accordingly two of. his clergy, Ulric and Albin, set
out for the town of Wolgast, and were hospitably
welcomed by the wife of the burgomaster. No sooner,
however, had they explained to her the object of their
coming, than in great alarm she informed them that
the people were in no friendly mood, that their priests
had denounced death as the penalty if any emissaries
of the hateful bishop entered the place.
The reason of this unusual hostility soon transpired.
One of the chief priests in the town, enraged at the
decree passed at Usedom, determined to defeat it by
stratagem.1 Clad in his white sacerdotal robes, he
concealed himself in the night-time in a neighbouring
wood, and remained there till dawn. As the day
broke, a peasant journeying towards the town heard
a voice calling to him from the sombre forest. Look
ing up, he could just discern, in the dim light, a white
figure partially concealed by the brushwood. "Stand,"
said the voice, " and hearken to what I say. I am thy
1 " Herbordia Vita," iii. 3.

232 BISHOP OTHO,
god ; I am he that clothes the fields with grass, and
arrays the forest with leaves ; without me the fruit-tree
cannot yield its fruit, or the field its corn, or the cattle
their increase. These blessings I bestow on them that
worship me, and from them that despise me I take
them away. Tell the people of Wolgast, therefore, that
they think not of serving any other god but me, for
no other can profit them, and warn them that they
suffer not those preachers who are coming to their
town to live." With these words the figure vanished
into the depths of the woods.
Trembling with alarm, the peasant staggered into
the town, and announced to the people what had
occurred. The excitement was intense. Again and
again he was constrained to tell the tale to eager
listeners, amongst whom at length stole in the priest
himself. Pretending to disbelieve the account, he bade
the man repeat afresh every detail ; and when he saw
the people were sufficiently moved, " Is not this," he
burst forth, "what I have been telling you all the
year long ? What have we to do with any other god ?
Is not our own god justly angry with us ? How can
we, after all his benefits, ungratefully desert him for
another? If we would not have him in righteous
anger strike us dead, let us put to death these men
who would seduce us from our faith."
Such was the tale which had roused all Wolgast
against the missionaries. The woman, however,
though at great risk, concealed her visitors for two
days, till Otho made his appearance with a large
body of troops, and some of the chiefs from Usedom.

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 233
Overawed by their appearance, the people did not
venture to oppose his entrance, and he was enabled
to open his mission as in other towns. But some
of his clergy, ridiculing the alarming news of the
hostility of the inhabitants which had been spread
by Ulric, strayed carelessly into the town to view
the idol temples, and were followed by a mob threat
ening vengeance if they proceeded further. Some,
therefore, made their way back to the bishop's
quarters, but one, undeterred by danger, rushed
into a temple dedicated to Gerovit, the god of war,
and, arming himself with the sacred shield which
hung there, and which no one might touch on penalty
of death, came forth amongst the people, who gave
way on every side at this daring instance of im
piety. A commotion ensued, but the heathen party
found it useless to struggle against the well-known
determination of the dukes, and, before he left, Otho
laid the foundation of another church, and adminis
tered baptism to considerable numbers.
From Wolgast the bishop proceeded to Giitzkow.
This was the site of one of the most splendid of the
Sclavonic temples, which Otho determined to raze to
the ground, fearing to suffer so prominent a memorial
of their old superstitions to remain. The people at
length consented, and the bishop rewarded their
obedience by commencing the erection of a church
of unusual size and splendour.
The foundations were laid, and at the consecra
tion he preached so eloquently on the duty of
consecrating the heart to God, and the utter use-

?J4 BISHOP OTHO,

lessness of temples of wood and stone, if; men did
not devote themselves to works of mercy, forgive
ness,, and love, and avoid all rapine, fraud, and slave-
dealing, that Mizlav, the governor of the district,
who had been already baptized at Usedom, agreed
to release all those he held imprisoned for debt.
In reply to the bishop's exhortation to remember
the words of - the Lord's Prayer, Forgive us our
debts, as , we forgive our . debtors, . he . exclaimed,
" Here, then, in the name of ,the Lord Jesus,
I give these men their liberty, that, according to
thy words, my sins may be forgiven me, and that
dedication, of the heart, of which thou hast spoken,
may be fulfilled in me."
Shortly after an accident revealed the .existence
of a noble Danish youth in one of his subterranean
cells, whowas: detained- there as -a security for a
debt of five hundred pounds, which his father owed
the governor. Otho hardly . ventured ' openly, to Re
quire another and so great a sacrifice from his. new
convert, but suggested to some of his clergy that
they should intimate to him how acceptable to
the Lord would be such a proof of obedience and
mercy. It was a hard struggle, but at last the
governor consented ; the young man, laden with
fetters, was brought forth from his cell, and in the
presence of large numbers, who could not restrain
their tears when they beheld his forlorn condition,
was led to the altar of the newly-erected church,
where the governor solemnly pronounced his freedom,
and expressed his own hope that, as he had forgiven

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 235
his father that debt, so his sins might be forgiven
him at the last day. The example of a man.of so
much influence was not lost upon the people, and
many, according to their measure, strove to prove the
sincerity of their faith by works of mercy and justice.
Otho's influence with the Pomeranians was thus-
greatly increased, and he had his reXvard in the peace-
arid prosperity of his newly-founded churches.
One place alone withstood "all his efforts.! The
island of Rugen, situated about a day's voyage from
Usedom, xvas, as we have said, the Mona of the Baltic
Sclavonians; and hither all the lingering fanaticism of
the native religion fled as to its, last refuge. The
bishop, indeed, would .have gladly flung' himself upon
the island and perished, if need be, in preaching. to its
benighted inhabitants; but only one of his clergy
was found willing td share with him ) the dangerous
enterprise, and" repeated- stormsprevented their land
ing. At last, the .Pomeranian chiefs absolutely' for
bade his exposing himself to certain death, and, much
against his will, he was forced to comply.
He now determined to divide his followers, and
to send them into different parts of the Pomeranian
territory, while he himself selected Stettin for another
visit. Here the heathen faction had again acquired
their old ascendancy, and the uncertainty of their
reception so discouraged his clergy that none would
volunteer to follow him. He determined, therefore,
to set out alone, and stole away, after engaging in
earnest prayer, without disclosing his intentions to
any one. In the morning he was found missing, and

236 BISHOP OTHO,
then some of his clergy, ashamed of their own cow
ardice, and alarmed for his safety, hurried in quest
of him, and persuaded him to enter the place with
them. Their presence was greatly needed to revive
the spirits of the new converts.
Irritated at the success which had attended the
bishop's efforts, the pagan party, whose influence
was unbounded with the lower orders, had succeeded
in rousing a great commotion. A pestilence had
broken out, and was readily interpreted by the priests
as a sign of the anger of the national gods. An
assault was commenced against the churches which
Otho had erected, when one of the ringleaders in
the movement was struck by a sudden fit, his hand
stiffened, and his club fell. On his recovey he per
suaded his fellow-townsmen, after this proof of the
power of the Christians' God, to spare the church,
and to erect an altar to one of the national deities
by the side of the Christian altar, that so the joint
protection of both might be secured.1
Such was the state of affairs when the bishop and
his party entered the town. The incident just related
had somewhat calmed the popular excitement, and
now aid came in another shape. During his previous
visit Otho had baptized an influential chief, who , had
subsequently been captured by the Danes, and thrown
into prison. One night, so his story ran, having
fallen asleep after earnest prayer for release, he
dreamt that Bishop Otho appeared to him, and pro
mised him speedy liberation. On awaking he found
1 " Herbordi Vita," iii. 15.

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 237
the door of his cell unclosed, and taking advantage of
this unlooked-for opportunity he darted forth, escaped
to the shore, and, finding a boat, succeeded in reach
ing Stettin. He could only ascribe his deliverance to
miraculous interposition, and therefore hung up the
boat at the gates of the town, recounting to the
people his dream and his escape. His tale, coming
so soon after the late mysterious failure in the attack
upon the church, made a deep impression on the.
people of Stettin in favour of the bishop, who had
now entered the town.
But the heathen party determined to make one
last effort to rouse the popular feeling, and, surround
ing the church whither the bishop and his clergy had
repaired, threatened them with instant death. Had
the bishop's courage now failed him, he would in all
probability have fallen a victim to their fury. But
he ordered the cross to be uplifted, and went
forth at the head of his clergy, chanting psalms, to
meet his enemies. Half in awe, and half in admira
tion, the mob desisted from their attack. At the
suggestion of Witstack — the chief who had just
escaped from captivity — the bishop on the next
Sunday repaired to the market-place, and there
preached to the people.
He had just concluded his sermon, when a heathen
priest, blowing a trumpet, called on the people
to make an end of the enemy of their gods. This
was the most critical moment in Otho's life. The
lances were already poised to pierce him through,
when again the undaunted composure with which

238 BISHOP OTHO,

he confronted his adversaries struck them with
mysterious awe, and induced them to stay their
hands. Otho seized the favourable moment, and
advancing with his clergy to the church threw down
the altar which the heathen party had erected, and
commenced the immediate repair of the edifice. An
assembly was then summoned, and the acceptance or
rejection of the Christian faith was formally proposed.
After a long discussion it was resolved to offer no
further opposition to the establishment of Christianity.
The bishop, overjoyed at the favourable turn affairs
had taken, received back all who had apostatized
from the faith, and baptized all who were xvilling to
receive that rite. His uniformly kind and conciliating
disposition, joined to the readiness he displayed in
redeeming numerous captives from the horrors of
slavery, won for him the popular respect, which was
not lessened when he once more interceded for the
people with Boleslav, and succeeded in averting
another threatened invasion.
News of what occurred at Stettin soon reached
Julin, and, on his second visit, Otho found himself
able to consolidate his previous success, and secure
the adherence of tbe wavering. From Julin he set
out on a final visit to the churches he had founded
in Pomerania, and in the following year returned
to Germany to attend the imperial diet, and thence
repaired to his diocese at Bamberg. Though unable
to revisit the scene of his missionay labours, he did
not forget the churches he had founded. One of the
last acts of his life evinced the interest he took in his

THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 239
converts. Hearing that a number of Pomeranian
Christians had been taken captives by a horde of
heathen invaders, he bought up a quantity of valuable
cloth at Halle, and sent it into Pomerania, with orders
that part should be distributed among the chiefs to
conciliate their goodwill in behalf of the native Chris
tians, and part sold and applied to the ransom of the
captives. Thus, as well as in other ways, he con
tinued, so far as he was able, to superintend the
Pomeranian Church till the year A.D.1139, when he
departed this life amidst the universal regret of all
ranks in his diocese.1 1 " Herbordi Vita," iii. 35.

CHAPTER XIV.
ST. VICELIN, BISHOP OF OLDENBURG.
BESIDES the efforts in Pomerania which have formed
the subject of the last chapter, attempts were made to
win over to the Christian fold other tribes belonging
to the great Sclavonic family.
In the countries bordering on the Elbe, the Oder,
and the Saale dwelt the Wends. Hemmed in on the
one side by the rapidly-increasing German empire,
on the other by the Scandinavian Vikings, they long
resented all efforts to curb their independent spirit
and to plant the seeds of Christian civilization.
The clergy, moreover, who came amongst them,
having but the scantiest acquaintance with the Scla
vonic language, were too often regarded as mere
political agents of the German emperors, and their
work was too often identified with a settled design of
perpetuating their national bondage. Under these
circumstances it is not surprising that such scanty
seeds of knowledge as were sown amongst them fell
on the stoniest ground, and having no depth of
earth in which to strike root speedily withered away.
Once and again, perhaps, a few monks or an in-

ST. VICELIN, BISHOP OF OLDENBURG. 241
dividual bishop might acquire a knowledge of the
Sclavonic tongue ; but their efforts, though com
paratively successful, were inappreciable amidst the
general ignorance.
With the year A. D. 936, however, there dawned a
somewhat brighter epoch. The emperor Otho I.,
anxious for the conversion of his Wendish subjects,
founded bishoprics at Havelburg, Aldenburg, Bran
denburg, and other places, and made them subordinate
to the metropolitan see of Magdeburg.
For these posts the emperor used his utmost en
deavours to select men who had been tried in other
fields of missionary labour, and Boso, bishop of
Merseburg, one of his chaplains, applied himself
diligently to acquire the Sclavonic language, and was
eventually able to preach in it with some success.
He also translated some of the liturgical forms into
the Sclavonian dialect, but failed to make even
the Kyrie Eleison intelligible to the people, who,
caught by a somewhat similar jingle of sounds,
changed it into Ukrivolsa, or "the adder stands in
the hedge."1
The partial success, however, of such prelates, was
rendered abortive by the cruel oppressions to which
the Wends were subjected, and the persistency of the
German clergy in levying from them ecclesiastical
dues. Every fresh conquest, therefore, of the German
empire, was succeeded by a fresh rebellion, and cease
less efforts were made to throw off the yoke of the
1 Thietmar, "Chron.;" Pertz, "Mon. Germ." voL r. p. 755.
s.L. VII. R.

242 ST. VICELIN,

stranger. Thus, in A.D 983, a Sclavonic chief named
Mistawoi embraced Christianity, and was attached
to the emperor's court. But so exasperated did he
become at the personal injuries inflicted' upon him,
that he summoned his countrymen- to Rethre, the
centre of the Sclavonic idolatry, and, unfurling the
banner of open rebellion, wasted Northern Germany
with fire and sword, razing to the ground every
church and monastery that came in his way.
Again his grandson Gottschalk, though he had
received a Christian training at Luneburg, stung to-
the quick at the cold-blooded murder of his father,
the Wendish prince Udo, flew to arms, gathered
round him the Wendish youth, and spread havoc over
Hamburg and Holstein. One day, however, as he
surveyed a district, formerly covered xvith churches,.
now lying waste and desolate, he is said to have
been filled with remorse, and to have vowed to
make atonement for the evil he had done, by pro
pagating the faith he had been taught in his earlier-
years. Under his auspices arose, in A.D. 1047, a great
Wendish kingdom, into which he invited a large staff
of ecclesiastics from Bremen, and even expounded
the Scriptures himself to his subjects, or interpreted
to them in their own tongue the words of the foreign
clergy. At this period, the palace of Albrecht,
archbishop of Bremen, would appear to have been
a harbour of refuge for ecclesiastics of all grades,
whom the distractions of the times had driven from
their dioceses. Here they were sure of a welcome.

BISHOP OF OLDENBURG. 243
and, in return for the kindness and hospitality of the
archbishop, were ready to go forth at his bidding
into such parts of the mission-field as promised the
slightest hope of success. The goodwill of Gottschalk
naturally encouraged many to diffuse a knowledge
of Christianity amongst his subjects ; but though
several churches and mission-stations were erected,
the results of their exertions were only too speedily
obliterated. The heathen party, who would never forgive their
king for favouring a hostile faith and allying himself
with the German princes, at last rose in fury, stoned
many of the clergy, murdered Ebbo, the priest of
Lutzen, at the. altar, and their king Gottschalk
himself. In this persecution perished one of the last repre
sentatives of the earlier Irish missionaries, in the
person of John, bishop of Mecklenburg. Leaving
Ireland, he had travelled into Saxony, and had
been hospitably received by the archbishop of Bre
men. This prelate induced him to take a share
in the mission to the Wends, and recommended
him to Gottschalk, by whom he was stationed at
Mecklenburg. His labours are said to have been unusually suc
cessful, but in the end he fell a martyr to his zeal.
The Wends seized him, and after beating him cruelly
with clubs, carried him about as a show through the
chief towns, and at Rethre, when he refused to deny
the faith, cut off his hands and feet, and then be
headed him. Not satisfied with this, they flung his
R 2

244 ST. VICELIN,

body into the street, and fixing his head on a pole,
carried it in triumph to the temple of Radegast, and
there offered it as an atonement to the offended deity.
This cruel murder was the signal for a general revolt,
during which nearly every vestige of the mission was
swept away; and during the subsequent rule of Cruko,
a chief determinately hostile to Christianity, the old
idolatries regained their former ascendancy.
After an interval, however, of somewhat more than
fifty years, the Wendish Christian kingdom was re
established. But the period of its true independence
was very limited. Year after year, in consequence of
internal dissensions, it became an easier prey to the
princes of Germany. At length Henry the Lion
and Albert the Bear invaded the country, and while
the latter founded the Margravate of Brandenburg,
the former vanquished the Obotrites, and colonized
the devastated districts with German settlers, who,
assisted by foreign clergy, reorganized the Wendish
sees. Amidst, however, the ceaseless din of arms, we come
across one true missionary, who strove to soften the
hearts of the vanquished Wends, and to win them over
by other arms than those of the militay oppressors.
This was St. Vicelin, afterwards bishop of Oldenburg.
Born at Quernheim, on the banks of the Weser, he
was first educated at the flourishing school of Pade-
born. Thence he was removed to take charge of an
educational establishment at Bremen, and after suc
ceeding there, studied for three years at the University
of Paris. Having received holy orders, and heard of

BISHOP OF OLDENBURG. 245
the need of missionary efforts in the Wendish king
dom, he betook himself, in the year A.D. 1125, to the
archbishop of Bremen, who gave him a commission
to preach amongst the Wends.
His first efforts at Lubeck were cut short by
political disturbances and a heathen reaction. The
old idolatries still retained a great hold over the
people, and sacrifices not only of sheep and oxen, but
even of human beings, in honour of the native gods
Prone and Radegast, were renewed, while the Christians
were in many instances crucified and exposed to
revolting tortures. From Lubeck, therefore, Vicelin
removed to Faldera, or, as it was afterwards called,
Neumunster, as being a convenient outpost for evan
gelizing the districts north of the Elbe. The neigh
bouring country lay waste and desolate under the
repeated ravages of war, and the impoverished
inhabitants, despairing of aid and protection, had
relapsed in many instances into their old idolatries.
Vicelin, however, settled down amongst them, and
so won the hearts of many by his zeal, that a number
of laymen and ecclesiastics rallied round him, and
formed themselves into a fraternity, who vowed to
devote their lives to prayer, charity, and good works,
to visit the sick, relieve the poor, and especially labour
for the conversion of the Wends. For nine years this
pious band toiled on amidst every kind of obstacle ;
and when the province of Holstein was visited, in
A.D. 1 134, by the emperor Lothaire IL, they could
point to many proofs that their exertions had been
largely blessed, and Lothaire was so gratified by the

246 ST. VICELIN,

success that had attended Vicelin's efforts, that he com
mitted to him the superintendence of the churches of
Lubeck and Segeberg, and encouraged him with much
earnestness to persevere in his work.
But it was only by slow and painful stages that the
Wendish mission could gain a secure footing. On the
death of Lothaire, in A.D. 1 137, the Wends again rose
in rebellion against their German rulers, fell upon the
churches and monasteries, and expelled every mis
sionary from the country. Vicelin was constrained to
fall back upon Faldera, and there persecuted, but not
forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed} he continued for
several years to animate the faith of his flock. A
brighter day dawned when Adolph, count of Hol
stein, succeeded in restoring the German supremacy.
His church at Segeberg was now restored to him, but,
in prospect of too probable interruptions, he removed
the monastery he had established to Hogelsdorf.
There, aided by Dittmar, a canon of Bremen, he pre
sided over the little society, and on the occurrence of
a grievous famine was enabled, by his welcome charity,
to supply the wants of many who crowded round the
gates of the monastery.2
Meanwhile the wave of German conquest again
swept over the districts xvhence it had been obliged to
recede during the late rebellion, and the archbishop
of Bremen found himself able to re-establish the
ruined sees. Vicelin, therefore, was nominated, in
A.D. 1 148, to the see of Oldenburg, and continued for

1 2 Cor. iv. 9.
2 "Chron. Sclav." cap. xxii.

BISHOP OF OLDENBURG. 247

some years to set an eminent example of devotion to
the true object of missionary labour till his death,
A.D. 1 154. After this a still larger number of German
colonists were introduced into the country, who dis
placed the original inhabitants, consolidated the influ
ence of the German emperors, and established more
and more at least a nominal form of Christianity.
About this time the important island of Riigen,
which has been already mentioned as one of the chief
fortresses and asylums of Sclavonic superstition, was
brought within the widening circle of Christian civili
zation. Ever since the conversion of the Pomeranians
by Bishop Otho, sanguinary feuds had arisen between
the new converts and the pagan islanders. Resenting
the apostasy of Stettin and Julin, the natives of this
Mona of the northern seas had menaced them again
and again with the direst vengeance, and in the terror
of Otho's companions, when he proposed to visit the
island, we saw a striking proof of the reputation in
which they were held.
At length the Danes resolved to subjugate the
island, and Waldemar I. king of Denmark, assisted
by the chiefs of Pomerania and of the Obotrites, set
out in the year A.D. 1168, and after frequent engage
ments succeeded in reducing the people to subjection.
One spot, however, long resisted all their efforts to
effect its reduction. This was Arcona, the capital,
.situated on the most northern point of Riigen, at a
height of one hundred and seventy-three feet above
the level of the sea, and commanding from its rugged
¦chalk cliffs an extensive view many miles round.

248 BISHOP ABSALOM.
Here was the stronghold of the Wends, consisting of
a circular intrenchment from thirty to forty feet in
height, within which was the temple of the gigantic
four-headed idol Swantevit.1
Round this sole remaining stronghold of the na
tional faith the islanders rallied in great numbers, and
resisted with the utmost ferocity all the efforts of the
Danes to capture it. At length, after a long siege,
King Waldemar took the place, and the inhabitants,
finding it impossible to withstand the Danish arms,
agreed to surrender, and permit the introduction of
Christianity according to the usage of the Danish
Church. The introduction of Christianity was entrusted to
Bishop Absalom of Roeskilde, in Zealand. His first
care was the destruction of the idol Swantevit, for
until this had been effected it was certain that no
progress could be made.
A vast crowd surrounded the inclosure within
which the temple stood, expecting that a sudden
and awful death would be the inevitable penalty of
violating the sanctity of the ancient shrine. But
Absalom and his retinue entered the temple aud
removed the purple curtains, mouldering with age,2
which were suspended before the idol. Then they
plied their axes against the feet of the enormous
image. These appear to have been fastened firmly
to the platform on which it stood, but after a few
blows it fell with a crash to the ground; and at
1 See above, pp. 25 — 27.
2 "Saxo-Grammaticus," lib. xiv.

BISHOP ABSALOM. 249

the same moment, according to the common mediaeval
belief, the demon which haunted the temple was
suddenly seen to dart from the shrine in the form of
a black animal and disappear.
But though the idol lay prostrate on the ground,
the awe with which it had for ages been regarded
was not entirely removed. No native of the island
dared to touch it. Thereupon Bishop Absalom pre
vailed on certain captives and foreigners to make the
dangerous experiment. ' Ropes were fastened to the
image, and amidst some lamentations, but not a little
mockery and laughter, it was dragged into the Danish
camp, hewn in pieces, and converted into fuel for
cooking the soldiers' provisions.
Other temples were then attacked, and other images
destroyed. Amongst these was an enormous one of
oak with seven heads, and of such size that the
bishop, though he stood on its feet, could scarcely
reach the chin of the image with his axe. It fell,
howeve'r, like that of Swantevit, and with it the nests,
which generations of swallows had built round its
head and neck, so as wellnigh to hide the outline
of the features of the deity. Besides this, another
idol was destroyed with five heads, and a third
with four, all which stood in shrines contiguous to
that of Swantevit.
These objects of idolatrous superstition having been
removed, Bishop Absalom employed himself zealously
in laying the foundations of several churches, which
were served by ecclesiastics whom he procured from
Denmark, and supported at his own cost. The dis-

.250 BISHOP ABSALOM.
tribution of these clergy in various parts of the island,
added to the exemption of the natives from ecclesi
astical dues, considerably facilitated the reception of
this ancient stronghold of Sclavonic heathenism within
the advancing circle of Christendom, and the sound
of prayer and praise rose from amidst the beech
forests which once, in all probability, witnessed the
worship of the ancient Hertha, goddess of the
¦earth.1 1 See Tacitus, " Germania," chap. xl.

CHAPTER XV.

MEINHARD, BISHOP OF YXHULL.

Beyond the Wends, and along the eastern coast
of the Baltic, extending to the Gulf of Finland, dwelt
the Livonians, or Lieflanders, another branch of the
Sclavonic family, though considerably intermixed
with the Ugrian race of Finns.
Like other tribes already mentioned, the Livonians
were addicted to the worship of groves and trees, the
practice of magic and sorcery, and the immolation,
on occasions of great necessity, of human victims.
Till the year A.D. 1 158, when Henry II. was king of
England and Thomas a Becket was rapidly rising into
notice, Livonia was wellnigh utterly unknown to the
rest of Europe. Some traders of Bremen then visited
it, and formed several settlements along the coast.
These commercial relations with their western
neighbours first opened up the country to missionary
enterprise, and in the year A.D. 1186 one of the mer
chant-ships of Bremen brought to the mouth of the
Diina a venerable canon named Meinhard. He had
been trained in one of Vicelin's monasteries at Sege
berg, and having obtained permission from the Russian

252 MEINHARD,

prince Vladimir of Plozk founded the first Livoniani
church at Yxhull on the Diina, where the Bremen
merchants had- already erected a fort for the pro
tection of their trade.1
Though the people were sunk in the grossest igno
rance, Meinhard did not find it impossible, by care
and patience, to instil amongst them the seeds of civi
lization. A fortunate incident served to secure their
goodwill. On one occasion the Livonians at Yxhull
were attacked by a hostile army, and the fort erected
by the Bremen merchants proved unequal to protect
them. Thereupon Meinhard instructed them how to
construct a larger fort for their permanent defence and
security. Grateful for these benefits, not a few pro
fessed themselves willing to listen to the doctrines
which he preached, and even to receive baptism.
Having thus made a satisfactory commencement,
Meinhard repaired to Bremen, and announced to
Hartwig, the archbishop, the result of his endeavours,
and was appointed to the see of Yxhull.
But on his return to his diocese he found nothing
but disappointment. No sooner had their immediate
wants been relieved, than the fickle multitude re
lapsed into their heathen errors, and the utmost
efforts of Meinhard were vainly spent in attempting
to induce them to forsake their old superstitions.
Soon afterwards a Cistercian monk, named Theo-
doric, came to his aid, and began to cultivate some
land in the neighbourhood of the mission station.
His crops were remarkably productive, far more pro-
1 "Origines Livonia," ed. Gruber, pp. I — 5.

BISHOP OF YXHULL. 253
ductive, indeed, than any in the fields of the Livonians,
while the corn they had cultivated was unfortunately
destroyed by a flood of water which inundated the
land. Filled with jealousy, they rose up against the
more fortunate Cistercian, and determined to offer
him in sacrifice to their gods. It was thought ex
pedient, however, to ascertain the will of the native
deities before proceeding to this extremity. Ac
cordingly, the sacred horse was thrice led by the
attendant priest over the rows of spears, and on each
occasion the omens favoured the sparing of his life,
and he escaped.
But shortly afterwards he incurred similar or even
greater perils. An eclipse of the sun took place, and
the superstitious people could account for it in no
other way than by ascribing it to sinister influences
which he had exercised over the source of light.
This, added to the success of his agricultural labours,
rendered his stay in the country more and more
hazardous, and he was constrained to fly; while
Meinhard, after much fruitless labour, died at Yxhull,
in the year A.D. 1 196.
Meinhard was succeeded by Berthold, abbot of a
Cistercian monastery in Lower Saxony. The new
comer thought to conciliate his flock by a distribution
of provisions and numerous presents. So long as his
stock lasted, their goodwill was readily secured, but
no sooner had they come to an end than a revulsion
of feeling ensued. Like Bishop Bernard, at Wolgast
in Pomerania,1 he was despised as a beggarly stranger,
1 See above, p. 213.

254 BERTH01D.

and various schemes were proposed as to the mnde
of dealing with him. Some suggested that he should
be burnt, together with his church ; others wished to
ning him into the Diina; others to slay him with the
sword.1 Accordingly he xvas fain to leave the county,
but returned after the lapse of a year, A.D. 1198,
at the head of an army of crusaders, whom Pope
Innocent III. had summoned to his aid from the
neighbouring countries, directing those who had taken
upon them a vow of making a pilgrimage to Rome
to substitute for it a crusade against the Lieflanders.
On his arrival at the head of his martial array, Ber
thold bade the people surrender without delay, and
not provoke a useless contest. Undeterred by the
sight of the warriors in his retinue, they replied by
bidding him dismiss his forces and enter peacefully
on his duties, and advised him to try and compel
those who had espoused Christianity to remain
faithful to their new creed, and induce others to
adopt it by good words instead of violent blows.
Thereupon a battle ensued, in which Berthold fell.
But the rude pagans, unable to cope with a disciplined
force, were soon defeated, promised obedience to the
demands of their conquerors, and consented, in some
instances, to receive baptism. The change, however,
was not destined to continue. The crusaders had no
sooner departed than, as might naturally be expected,
a reaction immediately followed. The heathen party
rose and wreaked their vengeance with terrible effect
1 " Orig. Livonise," ii. 2.

A LBER T VON A PELDERN. 25 5.
on the new converts and such clergy as had been left
amongst them, and many of those who had consented
to be baptized now flung themselves into the Diina,,
and strove to efface the effects of their baptism by
washing in its waters.
Thevsuccessor of Berthold was Albert von Apeldern
of Bremen. With a fleet of twenty-three ships and a
numerous army of crusaders he sailed up the Diina
and strove to accomplish what his predecessor had
failed to achieve. He laid the foundations of the
town of Riga, and transferred thither, as being a more
secure locality, the bishopric of Yxhull.
His efforts, however, to secure any permanent
results, were not more successful than those of his
two predecessors, and, harassed by the incursions of
neighbouring pagan tribes, he determined to establish
a permanent military force, at once to defend his own
diocese and overawe the Lieflanders into a reception
of Christianity. Accordingly he instituted, in the year
A.D. 1 201, with the concurrence of the emperor Otho
IV. and the approbation of the Pope, the knightly
" Order of the Sword," and placed it under the special
protection of the Virgin Mary. The members of this
Order bound themselves by solemn vows to hear mass
frequently, to abstain from marriage, to lead a sober
and chaste life, and to fight against the heathen. In
return for these services they were to have and to
enjoy whatever lands they might wrest with their
swords from their pagan adversaries.
Remorseless war was now waged against the
Lieflanders for upwards of twenty years. In vain

256 ALBERT VON APELDERN.
they courted alliances with other tribes, and strove
to resist their oppressors. Castle after castle xvas
erected in their territory, and German colonists in
ever-increasing numbers flocked into the county,
and, taking up their residence, extended German
influences far and wide.
Albert von Apeldern made Riga the starting-point
of his operations. Thence, aided by Waldemar II. king
of Denmark, he directed the arms of his crusaders
against Esthonia, and the neighbouring countries
of Semgallen and Courland. On these war-wasted
districts he succeeded in imposing a nominal form
of Christianity, and the bishoprics of Revel, Dorpat,
and Pernau were so many ecclesiastical fortresses
strengthening the power of the " Order of the Sword,"
and securing the fruits of their victories.
As might naturally be expected from the character
of the efforts thus made, there was no such thing
as any vernacular literature, in which the Livonians
could learn the elements of the Christian faith. Curi
ous means were consequently adopted for diffusing
amongst them a glimmering knowledge of their new
creed ; and of these miracle-plays formed a con
spicuous part.
Thus at Riga, in the year A.D. 1204, a miracle-play
was performed, representing scenes from the Old
and New Testaments, and an attempt was made to
enlist the sympathy of the eye with events which the
uninstructed ear of the rude people was unable to com
prehend. Accordingly, while the exploits of Gideon,
David, and Herod were visibly enacted before their

ALBERT VON APELDERN. 257

wondering gaze, interpreters from time to time ex
plained the meaning of the dramatical representations.
But they do not appear to have been uniformly
successful in their endeavours to do this. On one
occasion, the spectators interpreting the scenes more
literally than their instructors intended, fled in terror
at the sight of the Midianites attacked by Gideon's
army, and imagined that the next assault would be
directed against themselves.
During the following winter, Archbishop Andreas
of Lund, who had come into the country with the
allied army of the Danes, set an example which many
of his clergy would have done well to follow. He lec
tured to the people, in their own tongue, on the Book
of Psalms ; and proofs were not wanting that, when
ever an attempt was made in a meet and becoming
spirit, the Leiflanders were not unwilling to listen to
the words of those, who addressed them in a language
suitable to the faith they sought to propagate.

CHAPTER XVI.
THE MARTYR ADALBERT OF PRUSSIA.
CLOSELY bordering on Livonia was Prussia, which
was at this time inhabited chiefly by Sclaves, with a
Lithuanian and German admixture, and divided into
eleven petty independent states.
Nowhere, perhaps, was the ancient Sclavonic super
stition more deeply rooted. Nowhere had the Scla
vonic priesthood more undisputed sway.
The people worshipped not only the heavenly
bodies and the elements of nature, but also a number
of divinities, of whom the three held in chiefest
estimation have been already mentioned,1 — Percunos
the god of thunder, Potrimpos the god of corn and
fruits, Picullos the god of the infernal regions.
Every town and village possessed a larger or a
smaller temple, but the sanctuay of the nation was
at Romove, not far from the present Konigsburg.
Here also resided the chief pontiff, who was held in
such veneration that not only he himself, and many of
his connexions, but even a herald bearing his staff, or
other insignia, was accounted sacred.2 The priests
1 See above, p. 25.
- Hartknoch's " Dissertations," vii.

THE MARTYR ADALBERT OF PRUSSIA. 259

were required to live in celibacy, and possessed un
bounded influence over the people, and they did
not scruple, at particular seasons, to exact of them
human sacrifices, especially in honour of Picullos
and Potrimpos.
Evey native of the country was allowed to have
three wives, who were regarded as slaves, and on
the death of their husbands they were expected to
ascend the funeral pile or otherwise put an end to
their lives.1 Infanticide, especially of female children,
was common, and it was the custom to destroy or sell
all the daughters of a family save one. Children
also that were deformed, aged persons, and all whose
recovery was doubtful, were put out of the way, and
male and female slaves were burnt with the corpse of
their master, as also his horses, hounds, hawks, and
armour. One of the earliest preachers who endeavoured to
proclaim amongst the Prussians the word of life was
Wogteich, or Adalbert, bishop of Prague. Born of
a respectable family about the year A.D. 956, he was
educated at Magdeburg, and was chosen bishop of his
native town in the year A.D. 983.
The rough heathen manners of too many in his
diocese, added to their addiction to their old super
stitions, caused him the greatest anxiety. Full of
zeal and ardour, but lacking moderation and patience,
he frequently declared his intention of leaving a flock
which would not lay aside their lawless customs and
1 In the "Origines Livoniae," p. 31, we have an instance of fifty
women hanging themselves on the death of their husbands.
S 2

260 THE MARTYR

follow his guidance and directions. At length, anxious
to embrace the monastic life, he undertook a journey
to Italy and sought out the venerable monk Nilus,1
who was frequently visited by men of every rank and
station seeking his counsel and direction. But after
a while he left his adviser, and returning to his
diocese resumed his labours amongst his people.
After a few years, however, attracted by a favour
able opportunity of missionary work, he repaired to
Bohemia, and, with the aid of Boleslav the Pious,
sought to extinguish the remains of paganism in that
country. But the natural hastiness of his character,
added to the harshness- of the measures he adopted,
marred all hopes of real success. His -stringent disci
plinary measures provoked opposition, and he resigned
his post and retired, to a convent.
In the year A.D. 994 the Roman synod ordered
him to resume his labours, and, obeying' the injunction
xvith reluctance, he returned to Bohemia, only to be
a second time expelled by the Sclavonic population,
xvho disliked his1 German nationality as much as the
harshness of his measures. He now passed into
Hungary, and was welcomed by the duke Geisa, who
xvas persuaded by the influence of his wife to be
baptized. But here, also, his success was limited to
the effect which his life and conversation appear to
have exercised over their son Stephen, the first king
of Hungary, who afterwards so widely established
Christianity amongst his subjects.
1 See a notice of him in Neander's "Memorials of Christian Life,"
p. 492.

ADALBERT OF PRUSSIA. 261

And now his restless spirit prompted him to pene
trate into Prussia, where as yet no missionary had
set his foot. Boleslav I., duke of Poland, granted
him an escort of soldiers, and in the year A.D. 997 he
proceeded to Dantzic, then a border-town between
Poland and Prussia. His landing was not opposed,
and he succeeded in inducing not a few to listen to his
message.# Leaving this district, accompanied only by
a priest named Benedict, and one of his own pupils,
Gaudentius, he landed at the Frische Haff, and- thence
in a little boat proceeded to a small island at the
mouth of the river Pregel. There his landing was
opposed, and the natives fell upon him and his
companions with clubs. Struck with an oar 'while
engaged in chanting the Psalter, Adalbert fell stunned
to the bottom of the boat.
After a while they succeeded, though with much
difficulty, in making their way to the other side of the
Pregel, and into the district of Samland. Here they
were met by a chief of one of the villages, who brought
them to his house, and, summoning the inhabitants,
bade the strangers explain the object of their visit.
Thereupon Adalbert declared who he was and
whence he had come, and proceeded to say : " It is
for the sake of your salvation that I have made my
way amongst you. The gods ye worship neither
hear, nor speak, nor see. I come to bid you turn from
these deities to the worship of the one true God,
your Creator, beside whom there is no other God, in
order that ye may put your faith in his name, and
may receive hereafter eternal life, and partake, in the

262 THE MARTYR

mansions he has prepared for them that love and
fear him, of everlasting joy."
These words roused the furious wrath of his hearers,
and they gnashed upon him with their teeth. "Away,"
they exclaimed, " with such fellows from our land !
These are they that cause our crops to fail, our trees
to decay, our herds to sicken. Let the strangers deem
themselves fortunate that they have come, thus far
unhurt. Let them now depart before night comes on,
or expect instant death as the penalty of any further
delay."1 Thereupon Adalbert and his companions departed
and made their way to the coast. He himself was
inclined to linger in the country, and thought that, if
they suffered their hair to grow, laid aside their clerical
garb, and took to working with their own hands, they
might hope to disarm the prejudices of the people,
and be enabled in time to obtain greater success.
But such ideas were not destined to be realized.
When they awoke on the next day, Gaudentius told
the bishop a dream which he had had in the night.
" I beheld," said he, " an altar, and in the middle a
golden cup half filled with wine. When I looked, I
saw no one near on the watch. I therefore wished
to drink of the wine, but one drew near and said, " It
cannot be. Of that cup it is not meet that thou or
any man shouldst drink. This wine is reserved for
the spiritual refreshment of thy bishop at some future
day." Adalbert, who deemed this an intimation of
approaching martyrdom, replied, " My son, may God
1 Brunonis "Vita S. Adalbert!;" Pertz, "Mon. Germ." vol. ii. p. 608.

ADALBERT OF PRUSSIA. 263
bless to us this vision ! But let us not repose too
much confidence in what may deceive." At daybreak
they plunged into a thick forest and pursued their
journey, chanting psalms and invoking the protection
of the Lord.
About noon they halted, and Gaudentius celebrated
mass, and the bishop partook of the Lord's Supper.
Then they took some refreshment, after which Adal
bert essayed to proceed still further. But, feeling
wearied, he repeated a verse of Scripture, chanted a
psalm, and fell asleep. His companions followed his
example. But they had not slept long before they
were roused by the loud shouts of a troop of the
natives of the district, who bound them prisoners and
clamoured for their instant execution.
Still preserving his coolness, Adalbert bade his two
friends not to be discouraged. " Be ye not troubled,"
said he ; " we know for whom we are thus called
to suffer, even for our Lord. His might surpasses
all might, his beauty exceeds all beauty, his grace
transcends all expression. What can be a nobler
death than to die for him ?" He had scarcely spoken,
when a priest appeared from amongst the infuriated
crowd and pierced him with a lance in the breast;
others followed his example and plunged their spears
into his body. Thus, raising his eyes to heaven, and
offering up prayers for his murderers, Adalbert perished
on the 23d of April, A.D. 997.
Another attempt to carry the word of life into this
dangerous region was made by Bruno, chaplain to the
emperor Otho III. Instigated, it is said, to under-

264 BISHOP CHRISTIAN.
take the mission by the sight at Rome of a picture of
Archbishop Boniface, the great Apostle of Germany,
he procured a commission from Pope Sylvester II.
empoxvering him to preach to the heathen Prussians,
and was consecrated regionay bishop at Magdeburg.
With eighteen companions he entered Prussia in the
year A.D. 1008, but within twelve months he and all
his retinue had shared the fate of Bishop Adalbert.
After the death of Bruno a period of nearly two
centuries elapsed, during which the national repug
nance of the Prussians to Christianity was still further
intensified by long and persistent wars with Poland.
At length, in the year A.D. 1207, a Polish abbot named
Gotefried penetrated into the country with one of his
monks, and had succeeded in achieving a scanty suc
cess, when his companion fell a victim to the hostility
of the people, and he himself was obliged to give up
in despair.
Three years afterwards, A.D. 12 10, a monk named
Christian, from a Pomeranian convent near Dantzic,
accompanied by several brethren, and accredited with
the express authority of Pope Innocent IIL, deter
mined to make another attempt. For a space of four
years he prosecuted his task in peace, and then set
out for Rome, accompanied by two converted chiefs,
the firstfruits of his mission.
The Pope received them cordially, and appointed
Christian bishop of the new community. He also
wrote to various Cistercian abbots in the county,
desiring them to aid instead of impeding the efforts
of the new bishop, and to the Polish and Pomeranian

BISHOP CHRISTIAN. 265
dukes, inveighing strongly against the oppressive
burdens they had laid upon the Prussian converts,
which only tended to irritate the people and prejudice
them against the Gospel.
Thus accredited, Christian once more returned to
his diocese. But the -suspicions of the heathen party
had been aroused, and the new converts themselves
groaned under the taxes and imposts exacted from
them by the authorities of Poland and Pomerania.
The consequence was a general reaction. The Prus
sians rose in fury, destroyed nearly three hundred
churches and chapels, and put many Christians to the
sword.1 Other agencies were now invoked by Bishop
Christian, and the "Order of Knights Brethren of
Dobrin," formed -on the model of that which we have
already encountered in Livonia, was bidden to coerce
the people into the reception of Christianity. But
they failed to achieve the task assigned them, and
then it was that the famous " Order of Teutonic
Knights," united with the " Brethren of the Sword "
in Livonia, concentrated their energies on this
European crusade.
Originally instituted for the purpose of succouring
German pilgrims in the Holy Land, the "Order of
Teutonic Knights," now that the old crusades had
become unpqpular, enrolled numbers of eager ad
venturers determined to expel the last remains of
heathenism from the face of Europe. After the union
of the two Orders had been duly solemnized at
1 " Chronicon Prussia;," p. 29 ; Hartknoch, " Dissert." xiv. .

266 BISHOP CHRISTIAN.
Rome, in the presence of the Pope, in the year A.D.
1238, they entered the Prussian territory, and for a
space of nearly fifty years continued a series of
remorseless wars against the wretched inhabitants.
Slowly but surely they made their way into the very
heart of the country, and secured their conquests by
erecting castles, under the shadow of which rose the
towns of Culm, Thorn, Marienwerder, and Elbing,
which they peopled with German colonists.
The authority of the Order knew scarcely any
bounds. Themselves the faithful vassals of the Pope,
they exacted the same implicit obedience, alike from
the German immigrant, or colonist, and the converted
Prussians. Baptism was made the one condition of
admission to the enjoyment of any rights, individual
or social.1 The baptized proselyte might regard
himself as a freeman, might boast that, in some sense,
he was a man. The Prussian who still persisted, in
spite of being conquered, to adhere to his old super
stitions, forfeited all claim to personal freedom, and
xvas as much the property of his master as his horse
or his hound.
In A.D. 1243 the conquered lands were divided by
the Pope into three bishoprics, Culm, Pomerania, and
Ermeland, each of which was again divided into
three parts, one being subject to the bishop, and the
other two to the brethren of the Order. With this
subdivision there gradually sprang up a number of
churches and monasteries, and the Prussians began to
discontinue many of their heathen customs, such as
1 See Milman's " Latin Christianity," v. 404.

BISHOP CHRISTIAN. 267
sacrifice to idols, infanticide, the practice of poly
gamy, and the burning of their dead. In return for
these concessions, a greater degree of personal liberty
was guaranteed to them, the Polish laws were intro
duced, and the Popes, who to the utmost of their
power befriended the new converts, enjoined an
equable distribution of the country into parishes,
. impressed upon the clergy the duty of instructing the
people, and on the knights a due regard to the
gentler precepts of the Gospel. In A.D. 125 1 schools
also began to be erected, though numbers of the
Prussian children were sent for instruction into Ger
many, and especially to Magdeburg, and numerous
Dominican monks laboured for the more effectual
conversion of the people.
Paganism, however, was not yet extinct. In the
year A.D. 1260 the Teutonic knights found them
selves confronted by a formidable invasion of Lithua
nians. The polytheism of these tribes assumed even
a more degraded form than that of the heathen
Prussians. Not only the heavenly bodies and the
god of thunder, but even serpents were regarded with
superstitious- veneration, and were actually worshipped
with human sacrifices.1
The Lithuanians utterly defeated the knights, and
eight of the Order who were taken prisoners were
burnt alive in honour of the gods. This was the signal
for another rebellion. Aided by the Lithuanians, the
Prussians rose and wasted the country far and wide,
1 Adam Brem. "de Situ Daniae;" ^Eneas Sylvius "de Statu
Europse," cap. xxii. p. 418.

268 BISHOP CHRISTIAN.
murdered the clergy, and pillaged the monasteries
and churches. Thereupon the knights retaliated.
The favourable terms granted to the Prussians ten
years before were cancelled, and a sanguinay war
was carried on for upwards of twenty-two years.
Aided by armies of crusaders sent to them by the
Popes, the knights at length gained the mastery,
Many of the Prussian chiefs were deprived of their
freedom, and reduced to the condition of serfs, and
the bulk of the population consented, in sheer despair,
to recognise the sovereignty of the Order, and to
receive at least a nominal form of Christianity.

CHAPTER XVII.

RAYMTJND LULL.

AMONG the letters of St. Boniface to numerous
friends in England is one addressed to the abbess
Eadburga, in which he dissuades her from undertaking
a pilgrimage to Rome in consequence of the perpetual
incursions of the Saracens.
Meagre, doubtless, were the tidings which the
Apostle of Germany received respecting the limita
tion of the Church in the distant East, • but events
had occurred far nearer Europe itself calculated to
excite in his mind deep musings as to the designs
of Providence.
Bursting from its home in the Arabian deserts,
the wave of Mahometanism had swept on unchecked
over Persia, Syria, Egypt, and Northern Africa, nor,
stopping there, had inundated the length and breadth
of Spain, save only a little Gothic kingdom in the
inaccessible fortresses of Asturia. Restless even here,
the Moslem warriors had crossed the Pyrenees, and
the sword of Charles Martel alone saved the Frankish
churches from the fate which had already befallen
those of Augustine and of Cyprian.

270 RA YMUND LULL.
Strange indeed and sad must have been the re
flection of the early pioneers of Christian civilization
among the Teutonic nations, when they heard that
churches which a Paul or an Apollos had planted and
watered had been swept away before the austere
monotheism of Arabia. Little could they understand
at the time that this sudden revolution was no less a
judgment on the decrepit Eastern churches for their
disunion and moral corruption, than a means destined
to minister, and that not ineffectually, to the ultimate
civilization of modern Europe.
On the history, however, of mediaeval missions the
conquests of the Saracens exercised a sinister influ
ence. For a time they seemed to change the vey
spirit of Christianity, and taught the soldiers of the
Cross to imagine that the weapons of their warfare
were not spiritual but carnal. When, moreover, as
years rolled on, and stories began to be circulated
throughout the length and breadth of Europe of
the cruelties practised on Christian pilgrims by the
Moslem warriors, and thousands roused by the frenzied
hermit, Peter, poured forth from evey land to rescue
the Holy City from the infidel, the crusading spirit
penetrated into the very heart of society, animating
the solitary monk no less than the follower of God
frey, the peaceful burgher no less than the steel-clad
soldier. Before the fiery propagandism of the Cru
sades the gentler spirit of true missionary enterprise
fled away, and the record of its triumphs seems to
have come to an end.
Still from time to time we come across traces of

RA YMUND L ULL. 2 7 1

some, who even now, while the din of arms was per
petually sounding around them, did not forget that
there was a voice more potent in appealing to
the hearts of men than the fire, the earthquake,
and the storm.
Let us first take an instance in the life of St.
Francis of Assisi.
In the year A.D. 12 19 the champions of the Cross,
numbering two hundred thousand Franks, lay en
camped under the walls of Damietta.1
It was the tenth year of the Franciscan era, and
the founder of the Franciscan Order was in the camp.
He had just returned from his second general chapter,
and had seen upwards of five thousand mendicants
marching in long procession from the Porzioncula,
two miles from Assisi, to Perugia. The cardinal
Ugolino had quailed before the stern and menacing
words, in which the " Spouse of Poverty" had rebuked
his attempt to weaken, by tempting offers of mitres
and even of the purple, the allegiance of his followers.
To turn their thoughts into other channels Francis
proposed, as an object worthy of their ambition, the
spiritual conquest of the world, and had reserved for
himself the seat of war between the champions of the
Cross and of the Crescent. The Christian camp itself
was in a state of unutterable confusion, and an effort
to quell its anarchy would have been worthy of all his
energies. But St. Francis burnt with an ardour which nothing
could quench, to go alone and unattended into the
1 Gibbon, vii. p. 268.

272 RA YMUND L ULL.
Moslem camp, and attempt the conversion of the
Soldan himself* After spending many hours in rapt
devotion, he went forth in the squalid robe of a men
dicant and crossed the boundary lines between the
rival armies, chanting the words of the Psalmist :
Though I walk through the valley of thef shadow of
death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me}
Apprehended by the Saracen outposts, he was con
veyed to the tent of their leader and asked the reason
of his coming. " I am sent," he replied, " not of man,
but of God, to show thee the way of salvation." The
Soldan, we are assured by an eye-witness, received the
brave monk with respect, and not only permitted him
for several days to preach before himself and his
officers, but listened to his words with attention, and
sent him back to the Christian camp, saying, " Pray for
me, that God may enlighten me to hold fast that faith
which is most acceptable in his sight."
Other authorities inform us that, when asked by the
commander of the faithful to remain in his tent, the
intrepid monk replied, " Yes, I will remain, if thou
and thy people will become converts for the love of
the Saviour my Master. If thou art unwilling, kindle
a furnace, and I and thy priests will enter it together,
and let God determine whether the true faith is on
thy side or on mine." The most venerable of the
imauns trembled, and the commander declared his
fears that none of his priests would be willing to face
such an ordeal. " Only promise then," replied St.
Francis, " to become a Christian, and I will enter the
1 Ps. xxiii. 4.

RA YMUND LULL. 273
fire alone. If I come forth unharmed, acknowledge
Christ ; but even should I be burnt, conclude not that
my faith is false, but that on account of my sins I am
unworthy to receive this honour." ,
The commander of the faithful courteously declined
the proposal, and dismissed the enthusiastic monk with
ample presents, and the Bishop of Acco, then present
xvith the army, assures us that the Saracens were far
from unwilling to listen to the preaching of the fol
lowers of St. Francis. They only complained when, in
a spirit utterly alien from that which the greatest
of Christian missionaries displayed towards the Athe
nians on Mars Hill, they resorted to coarse abuse and
fanatical declamation.
The spirit of the Apostle .of the Gentiles, rare at all
times, was especially rare at this period. It is pleasant,
therefore, to meet with another eminent man, who in a
still more striking manner displayed all the attributes
of the true Apostle, and whose life and labours mark
an era in the missionary history of the Middle Ages.
This was the once famous, now almost forgotten,
Raymund Lull.
This celebrated man was born of noble parents at
Palma, the capital of Majorca, about the year A.D.
1236.1 His father had served with great distinction in
the army of James I., king of Arragon, and the boy
was introduced at an early age into the royal court,
and there rose to the post of seneschal.
The traditions of his youth represent him as gifted
with extraordinary mental accomplishments, and an
1 " Vita B. Raymundi Lulli Mart. ;" " Acta Sanct." June 30.
S.L. VII. T

274 RA YMUND LULL.
ardent cultivator of poetry, but addicted to gross
sensual pleasures. He married, but this did not
restrain him from gratifying lawless passions, and the
theme of his poetical effusions was seldom any other
than the joys of guilty love. " I see, O Lord," he
writes in his xvork on The Contemplation of God,
" that trees bring forth every year flowers and fruit,
each after their kind, and from them mankind derives
pleasure and profit. But thus it was not with me,
sinful that I am. For thirty years I brought forth no
fruit in this world. I cumbered the ground, nay, was
noxious and hurtful to my friends and neighbours."
But on reaching his thirtieth year, the seneschal
was one day sitting on his couch composing an erotic
song, when. suddenly, as he tells us, there appeared to
him the image of Christ hanging on the cross. So
deep was the impression made upon his mind that he
was absolutely unable to write any more. Some days
passed away, and he was again similarly engaged,
when once more the same divine image presented
itself, and he was fain for the second time to lay
aside his pen. On this occasion the effect was not
so transitory ; and when it returned a third time, he
xvas unable to resist the conviction that a special
message was intended by it for himself; that the
Saviour of men, who died upon the cross, was thus
inviting him to conquer his lower passions, to come
to him, and devote himself to his service.
But then, he tells us, arose the difficulty. " How
can I, defiled with impurity, rise and enter on a holier
life?" Night after night he lay awake, a prey to

RA YMUND LULL. 275

doubt and despondency. At length the thought
occurred to him, " Christ is meek, and full of com
passion and tender mercy. He invites all to come
to him, and whosoever cometh to him, he will in no
xvise cast out. Sinful as thou art, peradventure he
will accept thee, if thou wilt turn to him."
With that thought came peace and consolation. He
concluded that he was indeed invited to forsake the
world, to renounce its transitory pleasures, and follow
his Saviour. At length he resolved to give up every
thing for his sake, and as this resolution gained a hold
upon him, he began to feel that he was walking in the
right path. Old things began to pass away. Powers
long dormant, or dwarfed and stunted by devotion
to lower aims, put forth greater activity. The flower
at the bottom of the long sunless cavern had caught
at last the quickening ray of the Sun of Righteousness,
and was beginning to expand and put forth its bloom.
After long reflection, he came to the conclusion that
he could not devote his energies to a higher work
than that of proclaiming the message of the cross
to the Saracens.
His thoughts would naturally take such a direction.
The Balearic Isles had long been in the possession
of the Saracens. His father had served in the wars
and shared the triumphs of the King of Arragon, and
had been rexvarded for his bravery by the grant of
a portion of Majorca. It occurred to his son that
possibly the sword of the Spirit might conquer foes,
whom the arms of mailed knights had failed to win
over to the Christian fold. T 2

276 RA YMUND LULL.
" I see," he writes in one place, " many knights
who cross the sea on their way to the Holy Land.
They think that they shall conquer it by force of
. their arms, but one after another they are constrained
to leave it without accomplishing their purpose. It
seems to me, therefore, that the Holy Land can be
xvon in no other way than that whereby thou, 0
Lord Jesus Christ, and thy holy Apostles won it,
even by love, and prayer, and shedding of tears and
blood. The Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Land can
be won back far more effectually by proclaiming the
i word of truth than by force of arms. Let then
spiritual knights go forth thither; let them be filled
with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Let them an
nounce to man the sufferings which their dear Lord
underwent, and out of love to him shed forth their
blood, even as he shed his for them."
But now there arose another difficulty. How could
he, a layman and uninstructed, enter upon such a
work ? Thereupon the idea struck him that at least
a beginning might be made by composing a volume,
which should demonstrate the truth of Christianity,
and convince the warriors of the Crescent of their
errors. But even if such a volume were composed, of what
avail, he reflected, would it be in the hands of the
Saracens, who understood no other language but
Arabic. As he pondered over this, he was filled with
the idea of calling upon the Pope and the monarchs
of Christendom, instead of spending blood and trea
sure in bootless martial enterprises against the Sara-

RA YMUND LULL. 277

cens, to join in founding monasteries and schools, where
men might learn the language of the Saracens, .and
so be enabled to go forth to preach the word to some
purpose. Full of such thoughts, he repaired on the
following day to a neighbouring church, and poured
forth his whole soul to God, beseeching him, if he
did indeed inspire these thoughts, to enable him to
carry them out, and to give him strength and courage
for the work.
This was in the month of July, A.D. 1266. But
though old things were passing away, all things had not
yet become new. Former passions rose and struggled
afresh for the mastery, and so far succeeded in
thwarting and baffling higher aspirations, that for
three months his great design was laid aside.
The fourth of October came round. It was the fes
tival of St. Francis of Assisi. Lull went to the Fran
ciscan church at Palma, and heard from the lips of the
preacher the tale of the " Spouse of Poverty" ; how the
son of Pietro Bernadone di Mericoni, once foremost in
all deeds of arms, and gayest at the gay festival, was
taken prisoner at Perugia, and brought by disease to
the very gates of death ; how, in sight of the awful
portals of the tomb, he learnt to weigh the things of
time and sense in the balances of eternity, and, recover
ing, arose to live no more to himself but to his Lord ;
how he exchanged his gay apparel for the garb of the
mendicant ; how he visited the sick, tended the lepers,
and, renouncing the world, achieved the victory that
overcometh it.
The words of the preacher rekindled the resolu-

278 RA YMUND LULL.
tions of the listening seneschal. He now made up
his mind once and for ever, sold all his property,
save a scanty sustenance for his wife and children,
assumed the coarse garb of the mendicant, made
pilgrimages to various churches in the island, and
prayed earnestly for grace and assistance in the
work he had resolved to undertake.1
At one time he thought of repairing to Paris, and
there, by close and diligent study, training himself for
controversy with the Saracens. But he was induced
to remain at Majorca by his kinsman the Dominican
Raymund de Pennaforte, who a few years before had
urged the famous St. Thomas Aquinas to compose
his work in four volumes, " On the Catholic Faith, or A
Summay against the Gentiles." He next proceeded
to purchase a Saracen slave, and entered on the study
of Arabic, xvith which he occupied himself for upwards
of nine years, till a tragical incident interrupted his
studies. On one occasion the Saracen uttered words
of blasphemy against Christ. Lull, unable to control
his indignation, struck him violently on the face. The
Moslem, roused to fury, attempted his life. For this
he was flung into prison, and there committed suicide.
Still Lull persevered in his resolution, and retired
for a period of eight days to a mountain to engage in
prayer and meditation. While thus employed, the
idea occurred to him of composing a work which
should contain a strict and formal demonstration of
all the Christian doctrines, of such cogency that the
Moslem doctors could not fail to acknowledge their
1 "Lib. Contemp." xci. 27.

RA YMUND LULL. 279
truth and to embrace the faith. With such force did
this thought take possession of his mind, that he
could regard it in no other light than a divine revela
tion, and having traced the outline of such a work,
which he called the "Ars Major sive Generalis," he
returned to the spot where the idea had first burst
upon him, and remained there for four months,
developing the argument, and praying for the divine
blessing upon his work. This treatise, while primarily
intended for the special work of convincing the Mos
lems, was to include " an universal art of acquisition,
demonstration, and confutation, to cover the whole
field of knowledge, and to supersede the inadequate /
methods of previous schoolmen."
In the year A.D. 1262 the Balearic Isles had been
erected into a kingdom under the name of Majorca.
With the monarch of the islands Lull, as soon as his
treatise was completed, held an interview, then pub
lished the first book, and lectured upon it in public.
At length he persuaded the king to found and endow
a monastery in Majorca, xvhere thirteen Franciscan
monks might be instructed in the Arabic language, and
trained to become able disputants among the Moslems.
The success of his request to the king encouraged
him to hope that the Pope might evince a similar
interest in his plans. He therefore undertook a
journey to Rome, expecting to obtain from Llono-
rius IV. the approbation of his treatise, and efficient
assistance in founding missionary schools and colleges
in various parts of Europe. But on his arrival at
Rome he found that Honorius was dead, and that men

280 RA YMUND LULL.
xvere busied with one thing only, the election of his
successor. He resolved therefore to wait for calmer times ;
but impediments were always throxvn in his way,
and his plans received little encouragement. The
heads of the Christian world cared for none of these
things. Accordingly, he repaired to Paris, lectured
on his treatise at the University, and composed another
xvork on the '' Discovery of Truth."
At length, tired of seeking aid for plans in xvhich
no one took any interest, he determined to set forth
himself, and attempt alone and single-handed the
propagation of the faith among the Moslems in
Northern Africa. For this purpose he betook himself
to Genoa, and finding a ship bound for the African
coast, engaged his passage thither.
At Genoa the story of his life was not unknown.
Men had heard with wonder of the change that had
come over the once gay and dissolute seneschal. It
was now whispered that he had devised an entirely
new method for the conversion of the infidel, and
was about to set forth alone for the shores of Africa.
The expectations of the Genoese were raised to the
highest pitch, and the utmost interest was taken in his
project. The ship was lying in the harbour. The
missionary's books had been conveyed on board, and
everything was ready for the voyage.
But at this juncture a change came over him. He
was overwhelmed with terror at the thought of what
might befall him in the country whither he was going.
The idea of enduring torture or lifelong imprisonment

RA YMUND LULL. 281
presented itself with such force to his mind, that he
could not control his emotions. His books were
ordered to be removed from the vessel, and she sailed
without him. But no sooner had he received tidings
that this was the case, than he was seized with the
keenest remorse. The thought that he had proved
a traitor to his Master, slighted a divine call to a
special work, and given a handle to all scoffers at
religion, threw him into a violent fever.
While, however, he was yet suffering the greatest
bodily and mental prostration, he heard that another
ship was lying in the harbour ready to sail for Tunis.
Weak as he was, he implored his friends that his
books might again be put on board, and he himself
suffered to essay the voyage. He xvas conveyed to
the ship, but his friends, convinced that he could not
live, insisted on his being again landed. He returned
to his bed, and his troubled mind found no peace,
and his bodily sufferings no alleviation.
Before long another ship was announced as on the
point of sailing, and he determined at all risks to be
put on board. His wishes were complied with, and
the vessel had hardly lost sight of land before he felt
himself a different man. His conscience no more
rebuked him for cowardice, his peace of mind re
turned, and to the surprise of all he seemed to have
regained perfect health.
He reached Tunis at the close of the year A.D. 1291,
or the beginning of A.D. 1292. His first step was to
invite the Mahometan literati to a conference. When
they eame, he announced that he had diligently studied

RA YMUND LULL.

the arguments which were commonly urged in support
not only of the Christian but also of the Mahometan
religion. He was anxious for the fullest and freest
discussion, and was willing, if they succeeded in con
vincing him by fair argument, to espouse their faith.
The Imauns eagerly responded to the challenge, and
flocking to the place of conference in great numbers
exhausted their whole store of arguments in the hope
of winning him over to the religion of the Prophet.
After a lengthened discussion the missionary ad
vanced the following propositions :
" Every wise man," he said, " must acknowledge
that to be the true religion which ascribed the greatest
perfection to the Supreme Being, and not only con
veyed the worthiest conceptions of all His attri
butes, such as his goodness, wisdom, poxver, and
glory, but also demonstrated the harmony existing
between them. Now their religion was defective in
acknowledging only two active principles in the Deity,
his will and his wisdom, whilst it left his goodness
and greatness inoperative, as though they were in
dolent qualities, and had not been called forth into
active exercise. But the Christian faith could not be
charged with this defect. In its doctrine of the Trinity
it conveyed the highest conception of the Deity, as the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in one essence
and nature. In that of the Incarnation of the Son it
evinced the harmony that exists between God's good
ness and his greatness, and in the person of Jesus
Christ displayed the true union of the Creator and
the creature. In his Passion, which he underwent

RA YMUND LULL. 283
out of his great love for man, it set forth the divine
harmony of infinite goodness and infinite love ;
even the love of him who, for us men and for our
salvation, underwent these sufferings and died upon
the cross." 1
This argument, whatever else was thought of it,
was deemed worthy of drawing down persecution on
the head of its author. A learned Moslem pointed
out to the king the danger likely to beset the law
of Mahomet, if such a zealous propagandist was
allowed to go on disseminating his opinions, and
therefore suggested that he should be put to death.
Accordingly Lull was thrown into prison, and only
escaped the capital penalty by the intercession of a
less prejudiced counsellor, who reminded his sovereign
that a professor of their own faith would be held
in high honour if he imitated the self-devotion of
the prisoner in propagating their doctrines among
the Christians. Let him, then, be fairly dealt with,
and let them do as they would be done by.
This timely intervention saved him, and the sen
tence of death was commuted to banishment from
the country. He was placed on board the vessel
which had conveyed him to Tunis, and warned that
if he ever made his xvay into the country again, he
would assuredly be stoned to death. But Lull, un
willing to relinquish the hopes of a lifetime, managed
to return to Tunis unawares, and for three months
concealed himself in the neighbourhood of the harbour.
1 "Vita Prima," p. 665 : comp. also "Lib. de Contempl. in Deum,"
liv. 25 — 28.

R A YMUND LULL.

Finding, however, no opportunity for disseminating
the doctrines of the faith, he sailed to Naples, and
there remained several years teaching and lecturing
on his new method, till, hearing of the elevation of
Coelestine V. to the papal chair, he betook himself to
Rome, hoping to obtain that assistance in establishing
his favourite plan of missionary colleges, which he
had vainly besought before. But Ccelestine's reign
was brief, and his successor, Boniface VIIL, failed to
shoxv him any encouragement.
Seeing that his journey to Rome was likely to lead
to no practical results, he resolved to travel from place
to place, and preach wherever he might have an oppor
tunity. After endeavouring, therefore, to convince
the Mahometans and Jews in Majorca of their errors,
he sailed for Cyprus, and thence, attended only by a
single companion, penetrated into Armenia, and strove
to reclaim the various Oriental sects to the orthodox
faith. Ten years having been thus spent, he returned
and lectured in several of the universities of Italy
and France ; and then in A.D. 1307 made his way once
more to Northern Africa, and standing up at Bugia,
then the capital of a Mahometan kingdom, proclaimed
publicly in the Arabic language that Christianity was
the only true faith, that the religion of the Prophet
was false, and he was ready to prove this to the satis
faction of all.
A commotion ensued, and not a few hands were
lifted to stone him to death. The Moslem literati
however, rescued him, and expostulated with him on
his madness in thus exposing himself to imminent

RA YMUND LULL. 285
peril. "Death has no terrors," he replied, "for a
sincere servant of Christ, who is labouring to bring
souls to a knowledge of the truth." Thereupon
certain Moslems, who were well versed in the Arabian
philosophy, challenged him to produce his proofs of
the superiority of his religion to that of the Prophet.
Lull fell back upon his favourite position, and
dilated on the beauty and harmony of the Christian
doctrine of the Trinity. But, as before, his arguments
only entailed upon him bitter persecution. He was
flung into a dungeon, and for half a year remained a
close prisoner, befriended only by some merchants of
Genoa and Spain. Meanwhile riches, wives, high
places, and power were offered him, if he would
consent to abjure the faith. To all such temptations
he replied, "And I will promise you wealth, and
honour, and everlasting life, if you will forsake your
false creed, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."
He also proposed that both parties should compose
a written defence of their respective tenets, and he
was engaged in fulfilling his part of the engagement,
when a sudden command of the king directed that
he should be sent out of the country.
During the voyage a storm arose, and the vessel
was driven on a point of the coast not far from Pisa.
Here he was received with all the respect that became
so eminent a champion of the faith. Though upwards
of seventy, his old ardour was not abated. The same
high aspirations still animated him. "Once," he
writes, " I was rich ; once I had a wife and children ;
once I tasted freely of the pleasures of this life. But

!3
286 RA YMUND LULL.
all these things I gladly resigned that I might spread
abroad a knowledge of the truth. I studied Arabic,
and several times went forth to preach the Gospel to
the Saracens. I have been in prisons. I have been
scourged. For years I have striven to persuade the
princes of Christendom to promote the common good
of all men. Now, though old and poor, I do not
despair. I am ready, if it be God's will, to persevere
even unto death."
Full of his former ardour, and in keeping with the
spirit of the age, he conceived the idea of founding a
new order of spiritual knights, who should be ready
to embark at a moment's notice, to war against the
Saracens, and attempt the recovery of the Holy
Sepulchre. Pious noblemen and ladies at Genoa
offered to contribute towards this object the sum of
thirty thousand guilders. Thus encouraged, he set
out for Avignon, to lay his scheme before Clement V
But the same fate befell this appeal that had attended
all the rest. He repaired, therefore, to Paris, and
there heard that a general council was to be sum
moned at Vienne. A general council might support
xvhat Popes had scarcely deigned to notice. Accord
ingly he betook himself to Vienne, and proposed that
missionary colleges should be established in various
parts of Europe ; that the different order of spiritual
knights should be consolidated, with a view to another
effort to recover the Holy Land ; and, lastly, that men
duly qualified should be invited to combat the opinions
of Averroes. The first of these propositions was favour
ably received, and the council passed a decree that

RA YMUND LULL. 287
professorships of the Oriental languages should be
endoxved in the universities of Paris, Salamanca, and
Oxford, and in all cities where the Papal Court
resided. Thus, at last, he lived to see some portion of the
labours of his life brought to fruition. When the
deliberations of the council were over, it might have
been thought he would have been willing to enjoy the
rest he had so well deserved. But such was not his
xvish. "As the needle," he says, " naturally turns to
the north when it is touched by the magnet, so is it
fitting, O Lord, that thy servant should turn to love
and praise and serve thee, seeing that out of love to
him thou wast willing to endure such grievous pangs
and sufferings." Or, as he says again, " Men are wont
to die, O Lord, from old age, from the failure of
natural warmth, and excess of cold. But thus, if
it be thy will, thy servant would not wish to die.
He would prefer to expire in the glow of love, even
as thou wast willing to die for him."
Animated by these sentiments, he crossed over once
more to Bugia on the 13th of August, A.D. 13 14, and
for nearly a year laboured secretly among a little circle,
on whom, during previous visits, he had prevailed to
listen to his teaching. To them he- continued to ex
patiate on the theme, of which he never seemed to
tire, of the inherent superiority of the Christian religion
to that of the Jews or of the Mahometans. " If the
latter," he still argued, " according to their law, affirm
that God loves man because he created him, endowed
him with noble faculties, and pours his blessings upon

R A YMUND LULL.

him, then the Christians, according to their law, affirm
the same. But inasmuch as the Christians believe
more than this, and affirm that God so loved man that
he was willing to become man, to endure poverty,
ignominy, torture, and death for his sake, which the
Jews and Saracens do not teach concerning him ;
therefore is the religion of the Christians, which thus
reveals a love beyond all other love, superior to
that of those, which reveals it only in an inferior
degree." On the length and breadth and depth and height
of this love, a love which passeth knowledge, he never
ceases to expatiate in his work on the contemplation
of God, and now it was the one theme of his earnest
converse with his little flock. At length, longing for
the crown of martyrdom, he came forth from his
seclusion, and presenting himself openly to the people,
proclaimed that he xvas the same man they had once
expelled from the town, and boldly denounced their
errors. The consequences can be easily anticipated.
Filled with fury the populace seized him, dragged him
outside the town, and then, by command of the king,
stoned him to death on the 30th of June, A.D. 131 5.
There under a pile of stones the body remained, till a
few faithful merchants of Majorca succeeded in ob
taining permission to remove it, and conveyed it for
interment to their native land.

CHAPTER XVIIL

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.

WITH this notice of the famous Raymund Lull we
must close our account of some of the more eminent
Apostles of Mediaeval Europe.
At this point, therefore, it may not be amiss to
look back and gather up some of the chief lessons
which their lives enforce, and that with special refer
ence to the missionary histoy of the Middle Ages.
I. And first let us make a remark respecting the
Mediaeval period itself.
It is always useful to bear in mind that this period
was one of transition, that it was not ultimate but
intermediate and preliminary. Trite and common
place as the observation may seem, it is one which
deserves recollection, if we would form a just estimate
of the efforts then made to spread a knowledge of
Christianity. We started at that point when the Christian Church
had absorbed into herself whatever was good and
valuable in the culture of the Greek and Roman world.
We have paused just before the dawn of the bright
S.L. VII. TJ

290 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
morning of the last three hundred years, which
have given birth to what has been not inaptly called
Teutonic, as contrasted with Latin, Christianity.
The missionary history, therefore, of the Middle
Ages partook of the characteristics of the Mediaeval
period itself. To a great extent it was disciplinary
and preparatory. During the earlier portion of the
period, the Church was called upon to undertake one
of the most difficult tasks that could have been pre
sented to her energies and her zeal. In her contact
with the world she herself had lost somewhat of her
original simplicity, and the form of Christianity which
she presented to the new races for their reception was
not that of purer and Apostolic times. The stage of
culture which the nations had reached whom ' she
was called to civilize was low ; they were little
capable of discerning the outward from the inward,
the letter from the spirit ; and before learning the
simplest lesson of the Christian faith, they had to
unlearn a ferocity and a lawlessness which made
them at first a terror even to their teachers.
However defective, therefore, may have been the
development obtained during this period, it may be
pleaded that on the one hand it was almost inevitable
from the nature of the case, and on the other that it
was adapted as a transitionary stage for the childhood
of the new races. They needed parental discipline
before they could learn or value independence. They
needed to be governed before they could govern
themselves. At the first promulgation of Christianity, the old

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 291
Roman empire had, in the providence of God, sup
plied the framework that held together the various
masses of social life, which the Gospel was intended
to pervade. During the Mediaeval period, a great
Latin Christian empire was, if not needed, at least
overruled, to address the nations in language legal and
formal, and, so to speak, to naturalize Christianity in
the West.
The Primitive Church has been compared to the
Patriarchal period of Jewish history, and the Mediaeval
Church to the Mosaic Dispensation.1 If the latter
comparison is allowed, we may conclude that like
that Dispensation the Mediaeval Church was destined,
after performing its office of legal discipline, to vanish
away; but that, while needed, it was " of great conse
quence and undeniable aptitude." " The task," ob
serves Professor Ranke, " of bending the refractory
spirit of the Northern tribes to the pure laws of
Christian truth was no light one. Wedded, as these
nations were, to their long-cherished superstitions,
the religious element required a large predominance
before it could gain possession of the German charac
ter; but by this predominance that close union of
Latin and German elements was effected, on which
is based the character of Europe in later times.
There is a spirit of community in the modern world
which has always been regarded as the basis of its
progressive improvement, whether in religion, politics,
manners, social life, or literature. To bring about
this community it was necessay that the Western
1 Dean Stanley's " Sermons on the Apostolic Age," p. 105. /
U 2

292 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
nations should at one period constitute what may be
called a single politico-ecclesiastical state." x
II. If from this notice of the Mediaeval period itself
we turn to its most eminent Apostles, we cannot but
be struck with the immense influence of individual
energy and the subduing force of personal character.
Around individuals penetrated with Christian zeal
and self-denial centred not merely the life, but the
vey existence of the Churches of Europe. In the
most troubled epochs of these troublous times they
always appeared to do the work of their day and
' their generation.
I am with you always, even to the end of the world,
said the ascending Saviour to his first Apostles.2
Again and again we have seen that promise ful
filled. While the Roman world was sinking in an abyss of
decrepitude, and the continent of Europe was a scene
of the wildest disorder and confusion, still there were
men, like Ulphilas and Severinus, to sow amongst the
new races the seeds of civilization, before they took
up their positions on the ruins of the Empire.5
When the light of the Frankish Church grew dim,
and its missionay zeal waxed cold, a beacon was
kindled in the secluded Celtic Churches of Ireland
and Scotland, whence, in the words of Alcuin, "the
light of truth might give shine to many parts of the
world," and the disciples of St. Columba might go
1 Ranke's "History of the Popes," i. p. 22.
2 St. Matt, xxviii. 20.
3 See above, pp. 29, 30.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 293
forth in troops to the forests of Switzerland and of
Southern Germany.1
When the British Church, in our own island, failed
to evangelize her Teutonic invaders, a Gregory was
ready to send an Augustine to her shores, whose
disciples laboured here side by side with the Celtic
missionaries from lona, till the conversion of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was complete.2
Then when the Teuton of the Continent was crying
from his native forests, like the Macedonian of old to
the great Apostle of the Gentiles, Come over and
help us,3 the members of the churches which Roman
and Celtic missionaries had founded throughout the
length and breadth of England were prepared to go
forth and emulate the zeal which had already founded
the monasteries of Luxeuil and St. Gall, and, Teutons
themselves, to evangelize the Teutons of Friesland
and Northern Germany.4
When again an opportunity was offered of carrying
the word into the forests of Central Germany, a
Winfrid5 was raised up to go forth and labour with
unwearied zeal in Thuringia and Hessia, to persuade
numbers of devoted women to leave their homes in
England and join him in the work, and to bequeath,
his martyr spirit to numerous scholars and disciples,
like Gregory of Utrecht and Sturmi of Fulda.6
When, lastly, on the death of Charlemagne, the
barks of the terrible Northmen were prowling round
every coast, and carying havoc and desolation into
1 See above, pp. 57, S»- ° Ib- P- 98' 3 Acts xvL *
* See above, pp. 99— no. 5 lb. p. no. 6 Ib. pp.129— 138.

294 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
the fairest fields of France and England, even then an
Anskar was found willing to go forth with dauntless
bravery and lay the foundations of the Churches of
Denmark and Sweden, carrying the Gospel into the
very home of the Scandinavian Vikings.1
It was the same with the Sclavonic nations. A
Cyril and a Methodius were prepared to preach the
word in Bohemia and Moravia,2 a Vicelin to toil
amidst perpetual discouragements among the savage
Wends,3 a Meinhard to labour in Livonia,* an Adal
bert to suffer martyrdom in Prussia,5 an Otho to
penetrate into the furthest recesses of fanatical
Pomerania.6 Nay, when the crusading spirit had sunk deeply
into the heart of European society, and the patience
of an Anskar was exchanged for the fiery zeal of the
Champion of the Cross, we have seen how even then
there was a Raymund Lull to protest against propa
gandist! by the sword, to develop a more excellent
way"1 towards winning over the Moslem warriors than
the argument of force, and to seal his constancy with
his blood outside the gates of Bugia.8
Thus, even in the darkest times, there were ever
some streaks of light, and the leaven destined to
quicken the whole lump of society was never alto
gether inert or ineffectual. Take axvay these men,
blot out their influence, and how materially would
events have varied, how much the entire history of
1 See above, pp. 151 — 171. 2 Ib. pp. 202 — 206. 3 Ib. pp. 244 — 246.
4 Ib. pp. 250 — 254. 5 Ib. pp. 258 — 263. e Ib. pp. 220 — 239.
7 1 Cor. xii. 31. 8 See above, p. 288.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 295
the Middle Ages would have been altered ! They
had their defects, the defects of their day and genera
tion. But it becomes us always to speak with grati
tude and kindness of men who counted not their lives
dear unto them if they might win over to the truth the
Teuton and the Sclave, and to whom modern Europe
owes much of its present civilization.
III. If we turn from the agents themselves to the
work they accomplished, we cannot but notice a
striking contrast between the Mediaeval and Apostolic
missions. During the Apostolic period, we are chiefly struck
by the presence of direct miraculous agency and
spiritual gifts, and by the corresponding absence of
temporal aid.
In the Sub-apostolic age, again, Christianity found a
point of contact with the Greek and Roman mind, as
well as a distinct national culture which it could purify
and transfigure. It found also a language long pre
pared for its service, in which it could everywhere
address itself to the intellect and the reason as well as
to the conscience of its hearers.
It was the season, too, of its first love} Hence the
attitude of complete antagonism of its first believers
towards paganism, their repudiation of all compro
mise, their studious renunciation of all heathen prin
ciples and practices. It was the season also of the
Church's struggle, always for toleration, sometimes for
existence. Hence her conversions were individual
rather than national ; the new faith made its way from
1 Rev. ii. 4.

296 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
below rather than from above ; not many wise, not
many mighty, not many noble were called}
But even before the beginning of the period, whose
chief Apostles we have chronicled, all this had passed
away. The consolation of the slave or of the fugitive in
the catacombs had become the creed of the Emperor.
Instead of pleading for toleration, the Church herself
had learnt to be aggressive. The Greek Fathers had
moulded her Creeds, Rome had regulated her laws,
and bequeathed to her its own love of organization
and government. No longer in dread of the caprice
or malice of the occupant of the imperial throne, she
awaited, with fixed institutions, magistrates, and laws,
the incoming of the new races.
For a while, indeed, her own safety seemed in peril ;
but when the agitated elements of society had been
calmed, she emerged to present to the world the
single stable institution that had survived the shock.
In her dealings, therefore, with the new races, there
was a great change from the missions of the first age.
Whereas the latter had, from the necessity of the case,
worked upwards from below, till at length the number
of converts became too great and too influential to be
ignored by the ruler, and the voice from the catacombs
found an echo in the palace, during the Mediaeval
period all this was reversed.
With an almost monotonous uniformity, in Ireland
and England, in Southern and in Northern Germany,
among the Sclavonic no less than the Scandinavian
1 i Cor. i. 26.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 297

nations, the conversion of the people followed that of
the king or chief.
The fourth century, indeed, presents the somewhat
anomalous spectacle of the emperor Constantine, as
yet unbaptized, taking an active part in Christian
preaching.1 But turn where we will in this age, we
cannot but be struck by the religious aspect of the
temporal rule. The Apostle of Ireland addresses him
self to Irish, the founder of lona to Pictish princes.
Columbanus rebukes Thierri and Brunehaut; Boniface
discusses plans for his Thuringian missions in the
courts of Austrasian kings ; his disciples follow in the
track of Charlemagne's victorious armies. It is with
a prince of Denmark that Anskar embarks on his first
missionary voyage. It is to Bogoris, the Bulgarian
chief, that Methodius displays the awful picture of the
Judgment Day. A Polish duke supplies all the ne
cessities of the Apostle of Pomerania, while another
welcomes him on entering the land he had come to
evangelize, and offers to protect him with a regiment
of soldiers. Moreover, if anything were wanting to
complete the picture, it is supplied by the record of
the visit of the missionaries of the Eastern Church to
the Russian court, where the religious aspect of the
temporal ruler finds its highest expression, and Vladi
mir bears the same title as the emperor Constantine,
Isapostolos, Vladimir, equal to an apostle.
Various explanations have been offered to account
for this feature of the Mediaeval missions.
Some have ascribed it to the deliberate policy of
1 Dean Stanley's "Eastern Church," p. 198.

298 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
the missionaries themselves. Others have dxvelt on
the aristocratic character of society amongst the Ger
manic tribes, and have drawn attention to the docile
and imitative tendencies of the Sclavonic races.
But we need not linger over these speculations.
The success of the Mediaeval missionay did not more
depend on the will of princes than that of the Refor
mation movement in every country that became Pro
testant in the sixteenth century. St. Boniface only
expresses the experience of many eminent missionaries
of more recent times when he writes, "Without the
patronage of the Frankish chiefs, I can neither govern
the people, exercise discipline over the clergy and
monks, nor prohibit heathen writers."
And if these national conversions depended so
much on the smile or favour of the prince, we cannot
fail to observe how often the conversion of the prince
himself was due to his alliance in marriage with a
Christian queen. The story of Clovis and Clotilda, of
Ethelbert and Bertha, of Vladimir and Anne, repeats
itself again and again.
It has been noticed that the interpretation so gener
ally adopted by early Christian writers of the words
of St. Paul, What knowest thou, 0 wife, whether thou
shalt save thy husband ? or how knowest thou, 0 hus
band, whether thou shalt save thy wife ? x exercised no
small influence in early times in promoting the con
version of unbelieving husbands by believing wives.
At any rate, the saying of St. Chrysostom, that "no
teacher has so much effect in conversion as a wife,"
1 I Cor. vii. 16.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. "299
has been verified not only in the instance of the two
great kingdoms of France and England, but accounts,
in some measure, for these rapid conversions of whole
tribes, which form so characteristic a feature in the
missionary annals of this period. The intermarriage
of the Goths with their Christian captives in the days
of Ulphilas, of the Saxons with the conquered Britons
in England, of the Northmen with the Franks in Nor
mandy, hints at a solution of what is otherwise
perplexing. In the latter case, moreover, it suggests
a reason why the followers of Rollo ceased to be
Teutons as well as Pagans, why they became French
men as well as Christians.1
1 Milman's " Latin Christianity," ii. 434.

CHAPTER XIX.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.

We have noticed the chief characteristics of the
Mediaeval period itself, the Providence which decreed
a succession of Apostles for Mediaeval Europe, and
the national character of the conversions they effected.
I. Another feature now demands attention, namely,
the prominence in the execution of the work of the
Monastic Orders.
Monasticism founded the Celtic Churches in Ireland
and Scotland ; already existed in England when the
Saxon invader appeared on her shores ; fled with the
British Church to the fastnesses of Wales and Cum
berland ; returned with Augustine to the coast of
Kent ; with Aidan spread to the Fame Islands ; xvith
Columbanus penetrated the forests of Switzerland;
with Winfrid civilized Thuringia and Frisia ; with
Sturmi opened up the forests of Buclomia ; with
Anskar found an entrance into Denmark and Sweden ;
with Methodius and Cyril visited Bulgaria, Moravia,
and Bohemia; with members of the Cistercian Order
penetrated Lithuania and Prussia ; with ardent dis
ciples of St. Francis and St. Dominic confronted the
Moslem soldiery.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 301
We have already1 glanced at the physical neces
sities, so to speak, which dictated the employment of
these heroic pioneers. We have seen how many of
the fairest provinces of the Roman empire, groaning
under the weight of merciless taxation, had wellnigh
ceased to till the soil ; how many tracts had been utterly
depopulated by the ceaseless levies for the imperial
armies ; how before the inroad of barbarous invaders
village life had ceased, and towns, forsaken by their
inhabitants, had gradually disappeared ; how dense
woods had arisen, and completely concealing the ruins
of temples and baths, villas and streets, spread onwards
till at length they joined the immense and impene
trable forests which covered the whole extent of France,
Switzerland, Belgium, and both banks of the Rhine.
The question, we have said, was, Who would plunge
into the gloom of these forests, proclaim the word
of life to the wild tribes that dwelt around them,
and teach them the first principles of civilization ?
It was a momentous question, but the lives of the
Apostles of Mediaeval Europe tell us how it was
answered. Armed with none of the inventions of
modern industry, strong only in invisible protection,
the monastey sent forth hundreds of devoted men to
undertake the work. "It is an ugly thing for an
unarmed man," writes Professor Kinsgley, " to traverse
without compass the bush of Australia or New
Zealand, where there are no wild beasts. But it was
uglier still to start out under the dark roof of those
primaeval Germanic forests. Knights, when they rode
1 See above, pp. 5 — 8.

302 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
thither, went armed cap-a-pie, like Sintram through
the dark valley, trusting in God and their good swords.
Chapmen and merchants stole through it by a few
tracks in great companies, armed with bill and bow.
Peasants ventured into it a few miles, to cut timber,
and find forage for their swine, and whispered wild
legends of the ugly things therein — and sometimes,
too, never came home. Away it stretched, from the
fair Rhineland, wave after wave of oak and alder,
beech and pine, God alone knew how far, into the
land of night and wonder, and the infinite unknown,
full of elk and bison, bear and wolf, lynx and glutton,
and perhaps of worse beasts still." x
But the disciples of St. Columba and St. Boniface
did not hesitate to penetrate the darkness of these
primaeval forests, there to live and pray and study,
and till the waste.
Strange indeed, passing strange, must these pioneers
of civilization have appeared to heathen Suevians and
Allmannen. They themselves knew of no power save
physical force. These wanderers seemed to hold
physical force in utter contempt. They themselves
acknowledged no influence but that of the sword and
the battle-axe, the club and the spear. These soldiers
of an Invisible King seemed to acknowledge no such
weapons in their warfare. And yet out of weakness
they were made strong. Where others trembled, they
showed no fear ; where others ventured nothing, they
ventured eveything. It was clear that they made
little of Frankish count or Suevian king. In their
i "The Monks and the Heathen," Good Words, Jan. 1863.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 303
palaces they were no reeds shaken by the wind. A
Thierri quailed before them. A Brunehaut could not
endure their pure and upright life. A Radbod was
forced to acknowledge the fearlessness with which
they rebuked cruelty and barbarity. Such men the
simple people could not but revere, and believe to be
possessed of mysterious power. They might at times
be austere ; they might with more zeal than love pro
test against their idolatries ; but to the widow and
the orphan, to the lame and the blind, to the sick and
the afflicted, they were ever fast and patient friends,
and for them they ever had words of true comfort and
mysterious consolation.
The wisdom of Providence assigned the order in
which these Apostles of Civilization were to enter
upon the work.
The Celtic disciple of St. Columba went first.
The Anglo-Saxon disciple of St. Boniface followed.
Eager, ardent, impetuous, the Celtic anchorites seemed
to take the Continent by storm. With a dauntless
zeal that nothing could check, an enthusiasm that
nothing could stay, they flung themselves into the
gloomiest solitudes of Switzerland and Belgium, and
before long their wooden huts made way for the
statelier buildings of Luxeuil and St. Gall.
These Celtic pioneers laid the foundations. The
disciples of St. Boniface raised the superstructure.
With practised eye they sought out the proper site
for their monastic home, saw that it occupied a
central position with reference to the tribes amongst
xvhom they proposed to labour, that it possessed

304 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
a fertile soil, that it was near some friendly water
course. These points secured, the word was given, the trees
were felled, the forest was cleared, the monastery
arose. Soon the voice of prayer and praise was heard
in those gloomy solitudes. The thrilling chant and
plaintive litany awoke unwonted echoes amidst the
forest glades. The brethren were never idle. While
some educated children, whom they had redeemed
from death or torture,1 others copied manuscripts, or
toiled over the illuminated missal, or transcribed a
Gospel ; others cultivated the soil, guided the plough,
planted the apple-tree and the vine, arranged the
bee-hives, erected the water-mill, opened the mine,
and thus presented- to the eyes of men the kingdom
of Christ as the kingdom of One, who had redeemed
the bodies no less than the souls of His creatures.
Such were the modes in which these Apostles of
Mediaeval Europe accomplished the work of their day
and their generation.
Their numbers, their union, their singular habits,
could not fail to make a deep impression on the
heathen tribes whom they addressed. The contrast
between the teachers and the taught was sharp and
startling. On the one side was a horror of all de
pendence, and an indomitable spirit of restlessness ;
on the other was a life of continued self-sacrifice and
obedience. Grant that the institutions which they founded,
though "clear in the spring," proved "miy in the
1 See above, pp. 104, 105.

RETROSPECT AND- REFLECTIONS. 305
stream ; " grant that, in the days of their prosperity
and ease, when the original necessities which had
called them forth had ceased to operate, they forgot
their original simplicity, and became too often a by
word and a proverb ; yet we must never forget what
European civilization owes to the self-devotion of a
Columbanus and a Gallus, a Boniface and a Sturmi.
" The monks," writes Livingstone, " did not disdain
to hold the plough. They introduced fruit-trees,
flowers, vegetables, in addition to- teaching and eman
cipating the serfs. Their monasteries were mission-
stations xvhich resembled ours in being dispensaries
for the sick, almshouses for the poor, and nurseries of
learning. Can we learn nothing from them in their
prosperity as the schools of Europe, and see naught
in their history but the pollution and laziness of their
decay ?"
II. Next to the prominence of the monastic orders
in the missionay work of the Middle Ages, the most
noteworthy feature is the important aid afforded (1)
by Episcopal Supervision, and (2) by Ecclesiastical
Councils, in directing and consolidating the efforts of
the various missionary bodies.
1. During the Mediaeval period, from first to last,
the introduction of Christianity amongst any tribe was
followed up as speedily as possible by the establish
ment of episcopal government. The first seeds of the
Gospel may have been sown by inferior ministers, by
the influence of a Christian queen, by Christian cap
tives in the land of their captivity, by Christian
merchants during trading voyages. But uniformly
S.L. VII. X

306 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
the management of the infant churches when formed
was entrusted to a local episcopate. Sometimes a
bishop headed from the first a body of voluntary
adventurers. More often, as soon as any considerable
success had been achieved, one of the energetic
pioneers was advanced to the episcopal rank, and
in this capacity superintended the staff of monks or
clergy around him, and ordained, as soon as possible,
a native ministry from amongst the converted tribes,
and established a cathedral or corresponding eccle
siastical foundation.
Such a course it is not necessary to attribute to an
empty craving after hierarchical display. It had other
recommendations of the most practical character.
Already, before the inroad of the new races, the
bishops had become not only a kind of privy council
to the emperor, but were regarded in almost every
town as the natural chiefs. They alone stood bravely
by their flocks when the barbarous host appeared
before a defenceless city. When the civil magistrate
and the military leader often sought safety in flight,
they alone were found able and willing to mediate
between the people and the heathen chief.
It is no wonder, then, that, on the reception of
Christianity by any tribe, the native prince was glad
to have near him one who could assume the functions
of the pagan high-priest, and advise him in any
matter of civil or religious moment.
To say that, when placed in this position, and in his
priestly character regarded as superior to the prince
himself, the bishop was prone to abuse his influence,

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 307
and to foster many corruptions he ought to have
checked, is only to say that he was not superior to the
ordinary temptations of human nature. At any rate
we know what his own generation expected of him.
We know how it was required of the bishop that
"he should ever be busied with reconciliation and
peace, as he best might ; that he should zealously
appease strife, and effect peace with those temporal
judges who love right ; that in accusations he should
direct the lad, so that no man might wrong another,
either in oath or ordeal ; that he should not consent
to any injustice or wrong measure or false weight ;
that every legal right should go with his counsel and
xvith his witness ; that together with the temporal
judges he should so direct judgments that, as far as
in him lay, he should never permit any injustice to
spring up there ; that he should ever exalt righteous
ness and suppress unrighteousness ; that he should
flinch neither before the lowly nor the powerful,
because he doeth naught if he fear or be ashamed
to speak righteousness."1
This was certainly no mean standard of duty, and
however far the bishops may at times have come
short of it, it was a matter of the utmost importance
to have in the court and by the side of the newly-
converted chieftain one, who by the duties of his office
was bound to be a counterpoise to the rude and
capricious government of a military aristocracy, a
mediator between the noble and the serf, a defender
of the weak and the down-trodden. The interposition
1 Kemble's "Saxons in England," ii. p. 393.
X 2

308 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
of Boniface in the matter of Gewillieb's succession to
the bishopric of Mayence is one instance out of many,
xvhich must often have occurred in those times of
constant warfare, when a bishop's exalted position
enabled him to speak out boldly against a positive
xvrong, and to speak xvith effect.
2. And in carrying on their xvork they were mate
rially aided by the provincial and diocesan synods
xvhich they assembled.
For these synods not only decided' doctrinal ques
tions, but dealt also with some of the most important
social problems of the age. Not merely did they
regulate the life and manners of the clergy, but they
defined the degrees of affinity within which marriage
could be contracted, determined' the mutual relation
of master and servant, laid down rules concerning
false coin, theft, and homicide, and sometimes enacted
sumptuary laws and sanitary regulations.
Our Indian Government boasts that during the last
forty years the enormities of Thuggee and Dacoitee
have been suppressed, that piracy has been put down,
that female infanticide has been checked, that Suttee
has been made criminal, that slavery as a legal status
and compulsory labour have been abolished.
But the Mediaeval synods can point to no less
satisfactory results. They forbade the Teutonic and
Scandinavian custom of exposing weak and deformed
children ; they interdicted sacrifice of men and animals
in honour of the gods, and xvitchcraft and sorcery of
all kinds. They inculcated a due regard for the
sanctity of human life, and taught the necessity for

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 309

punitive justice and regular forms of law, in contra
distinction to the low and unworthy notions which
would condone all crimes, even murder, by pecuniary
fines. They elevated the peasant class, and bent all
their efforts to abolish slavey.
The means employed towards the attainment of
the latter object xvere necessarily and wisely gradual,
instead of sudden and violent. The example of the
Jewish legislator, who, while obliged to recognise
slavery as an institution, yet endeavoured by all the
means in his power to mitigate its evils, was followed
by the Apostles of Mediaeval Europe. As even in the
Decalogue the slave in respect to his spiritual rela
tion was pronounced equal before God, and was ad
mitted to the enjoyment of all religious privileges,
and was, never regarded as a mere thing or chattel,
so the Church never faltered in her proclamation that
the image of God was to be discerned in every human
creature, and that the blessings of redemption were
designed for all alike, whether bond or free.
The change brought about was gradual, but sure.
At first monks, especially Eastern monks, refused
to be xvaited upon at all by slaves. Then, as we have
so often seen in the preceding pages, missionaries
never lost an opportunity of redeeming slaves, and,
after giving them suitable instruction, of admitting
them, if qualified, to offices in the Church. Practical
teaching like this, in the course of time, Could not fail
to leave its mark. The heathen proprietor was forced
to regard his slave with other and higher feelings
than those of the Roman master, with whom it was

310 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
an axiom incapable of disproof, that all men were by
nature free or bondmen.
Thus more and more the tone of public feeling was
pervaded with the spirit that dictated the noble words
of Gregory the Great, in a deed manumitting two
slaves :
" As our Saviour," he writes, " the Author of all created
beings, was willing for this reason to take upon him
the nature of man, that he might by his grace set
us free from the chains of bondage by which we were
enthralled, and restore us to our original freedom, so
a good and salutary thing is done when men, whom
Nature from the beginning had created free, and whom
the law of nations has subjected to the yoke of servi
tude, are presented again with the freedom in which
they were born." l
Penetrated with these sentiments, the Mediaeval
synods restored many of the earlier edicts of Constan
tine, declaring the slave to be a man, and not a thing
or chattel. They laid it down that his life was his
own, and could not be taken from him without public
trial. They imposed on a master guilty of the in
voluntary murder of his slaves penance and exclusion
from the rites of the Church ; they opened asylums to
those who fled from their masters' cruelty ; they de
clared the enfranchisement of the serf a work accept
able to God ; they demanded it from time to time of
princes on their death-beds, as a necessary preparation
for their release ; they hallowed manumission at all
times with the sanctity of a religious rite.
1 Greg. Ep. vi. 12.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 311
The abolition of domestic slavery xxras one of the
most important duties incumbent on the Mediaeval
missionaries. It is to their exertions we owe the fact
that political Helotry no more interposes to perpe
tuate the severance of race from race in an attitude
of bitter, enduring hostility. Theirs is the credit
that "praedial serfdom, the true gulf before the
Roman senate-house, which the devotion of no
Curtius might close, no longer swallows up people
after people, draining into its abyss the springs of
free industry which are the sap and sustenance of
maturer civilization." x
1 "Secularia, or Surveys on the Main Stream of History," G. Lucas.
P. 25.

CHAPTER XX.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.

It is impossible to close a review, however brief, of the
work of the Apostles of Mediaeval Europe, without
noticing one or two additional points.
I. And the first which calls for remark is the
national and seemingly indiscriminate baptisms which
the influence of various princes secured, and the
Church did not hesitate to administer.
It is obvious that in the Middle Ages necessity
would often dictate a departure from ordinary rules.
But it is hardly possible to read of the multitudes
admitted to baptism after a very limited preparation
without suspecting that there was at times a far
greater anxiety to multiply the number than to
enlighten the minds of the proselytes.
It is true, indeed, that we ought to bear in mind the
fewness of the teachers, the great masses of the people,
and the general ignorance ; still the habitual practice
of thus administering the sacred rite must have been
the reverse of an adequate preservative against the
danger of relapse. The baptism of the ten thousand
subjects of Ethelbert in the waters of the Swale, of
the many thousand Teutons by the Apostle of

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 313
Germany, of the Russians in the waters of the Dnieper,
of the Pomeranians by Bishop Otho, the absence of
adequate preparation, and the influence of the prince
or king, will cause such administrations to be regarded
by some as a subject for a compassionate smile rather
than for regard or forgiveness.
But in forming a fair ©pinion on the subject, it
ought to be borne in mind that the Mediaeval mis
sionaries had to contend with unusual difficulties. To
say nothing of the relaxed condition of society, of the
constant wars which were ever setting tribe against
tribe and people against people, of the fact that the
administrators of the baptismal rite were in many
cases themselves but recently converted, there were
other and more formidable difficulties in regard to the
recipients of the rite themselves.
For they had known nothing of that long education
under a preliminary Dispensation, which had exerted
its influences over those three thousand converts whom
the Apostle Peter admitted into the Church in one
day. The revelation of an external law and the
warnings of the prophets had not made Monotheism
natural to them, or taught, " here a little, and there a
little, line upon line, and precept upon precept," those
elementary religious truths which appear to us so
easy to apprehend, because we have lived from child
hood in an atmosphere permeated with their influence.
They were not proselytes of the gate, to whom, like
the Ethiopian eunuch, a Philip could explain the true
meaning of sacred prophecy, and receive into the
Christian Church on the simplest profession of belief.

3 H RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
Neither were they in a condition analogous to that of
the Graeco-Roman world at the first promulgation of
the faith, convinced of its inability to regenerate
itself, and wearied of its long tossing on the ocean of
Uncertainty. The utter failure of Art, and Science,
and Philosophy to solve the deepest problems of life,
had not brought them as proselytes in riper years to
"the True Philosophy."
Infants alike in knowledge and civilization, they
were admitted to infant baptism by teachers them
selves in many cases but imperfectly educated, whose
whole theology was often contained in the Creed and
the Lord's Prayer. It was " the day of small things,"
and the men who did not despise that day, but acted
up to the extent of their knowledge, hoping for a
future day of greater things, accomplished no mean
work, and reaped no inconsiderable harvest.
II. We have abundant evidence, however, of the
use of a course of instruction by the Mediaeval mis
sionaries as preparatory to baptism, which was far
from being unworthy of its object. Their biographers,
it is true, have not given us such full and complete in
formation on the subject as might have been desired ;
still such information as we possess is full, of interest.
Much, indeed, has been said of a peculiar natural
and national predisposition on the part of the Teutonic
nations towards Christianity.
We admit freely that under the poetic legends of
Teutonic mythology there lay a residuum of truth, to
which the new faith could attach itself, and which it
could transfigure. We admit that in its ideas respect-

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 315
ing the origin of the world, in its distorted legends of
the Creation, in its conception, however much after
wards overlaid, of a great Allfadir, in its belief in the
final triumph of good over evil, in its traditions of a con
flict between Balder, the lord of light and life, and the
goddess of death, and in its hope of an ultimate resto
ration of all things, there may have been scattered
seeds which Christianity might quicken and make
fruitful. Yet it must be conceded that there were few
amongst the missionaries of this period who could,
even if they had been willing, have seen the matter in
this light.
That largeness of heart, that more than human
wisdom, which suggested to the great Apostle of
the Gentiles, when he stood on Mar's Hill, the pro
priety of "taking his smooth stone," as Chrysostom
expresses it, " out of the Athenians' oxvn brook," and of
finding a common ground between himself and those
whom he addressed, are qualities rare at all times,
and which it would be folly to expect in the period
with which we are concerned.
The teaching, however, of the Apostles of Mediaeval
Europe, so far as it has come down to us, had one
great merit. From first to last it xvas eminently
objective. It dealt mainly with the great facts of
Christianity. It proclaimed the incarnation of the
Saviour, his life, his death, his resurrection, his
ascension, his future coming to judge the quick and
dead, and then it proceeded to treat of the good works
which ought to flow from the, vital reception of these
Christian truths.

316 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
To the Celtic worshippers of the powers of nature,
and especially of the sun, we saw how the Apostle of
Ireland proclaimed the existence of one God, the
Creator of all things, and then proceeded to dwell
upon the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of
his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, whom he de
clared to be the true Sun, of whom, and by whom, and
to whom, are all things.1
Similarly we saw how Augustine directed the
attention of the royal worshipper of Odin and Thor
in Kent to the picture of the Saviour on the cross,
and then told him of such events in his wondrous life
as were likely to make an impression on his mind ;
how at his birth a star appeared in the East ; how
he walked upon the sea ; how at his death the sun
withdrew his shining ; how at his resurrection the
earth trembled and the rocks were rent ; how, having
been looked for as the Great Deliverer of mankind
from the beginning of the world, and having sealed
his mission as divine, he ascended up on high, and
was now worshipped eveywhere as the only-begotten
Son of God.2
From the sermons of Eligius we have already
offered some quotations, which sufficiently- illustrate
the same objective mode of preaching, as also the
earnest way in which he sought to warn his flock
against heathen errors.3
1 See above, p. 37.
2 See above, p. 92, and compare " Vita S. Augustin." Migne, " Patro-
logia," Sasc. vii. p. 61.
3 See above, pp. 81 — 85.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 317
The sermon of Gallus on the occasion of the conse
cration of his disciple to the see of Constance is
interesting from the testimony it bears to his intimate
acquaintance with the Old Testament history, and the
order of the events in the Saviour's life, and the know
ledge it displays is far in advance of that which is
popularly ascribed to the period in which he lived.1
The correspondence of Daniel, bishop of Win
chester, with his friend and fellow-countryman, St.
Boniface, is peculiarly deserving of notice, as illustrating
the way in which he would have him deal with the
errors and superstitions of their Teutonic kinsmen,
and xvin them over to 'the right faith.2 If from this
prudent advice we turn to the fifteen sermons of the
great Apostle of Germany which have been preserved
to us,3 we have ample proof that he desired something
far more real than a mere superficial form of Christian
belief. The first of these treats of the right faith, of the
doctrine of the Trinity, the relation of baptism to
the remission of sins, the resurrection of the dead,
the future judgment, and the necessity of repentance.
The second, preached on Christmas Day, is con
cerned with the creation of man, the history of his
fall, the promise of a Saviour, and his first Advent
in great humility.
The third has for its subject the twofold operation
of justification.
The fourth treats of the Beatitudes.
1 See above, p. 75- " Ib- PP' "4. "5-
3 Migne, "Patrologia Latina," Sasc. viii. p. 813.

318 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
The fifth of faith and the works of love.
The sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth of deadly
sins and the Ten Commandments.
The tenth and eleventh are mainly concerned with
further explanations of man's original state, of his
fall and redemption through Christ, of the hope of
the world to come, and the necessity of preparation
by leading a fresh and holy life for the Day of Judg
ment. The subject of the twelfth and thirteenth is an
explanation of the necessity of observing the season of
Lent ; while the fourteenth is an Easter sermon.
The last appears to have been preached on the
occasion of the celebration of the Sacrament of Bap
tism, and illustrates the simple missionary character
of the rest.
" Listen, my brethren," it begins, " and consider
attentively what it was ye renounced at your baptism.
Ye renounced the devil and all his works. What are
the works of the devil ? They are pride, idolaty,
envy, backbiting, lying, perjury, hatred, variance,
fornication, adultery, theft, drunkenness, sorcery,
witchcraft, recourse to amulets and charms. These
and such like are the works of the devil, and all such
ye renounced at your baptism, and, as the Apostle
saith, ' They who do such things are worthy of death,
and shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'
But because we believe that through God's mercy ye
renounce all these sins in heart and life, therefore,
that ye may deserve to obtain pardon, I warn you,
brethren beloved, to remember what ye promised
unto God Almighty.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 319
" For ye promised to believe in God Almighty, and
in Jesus Christ his Son, and in the Holy Spirit, One
God Almighty in a perfect Trinity.
"These are the commandments of God, which we
ought to observe and keep : ye must love the Lord,
in whom ye have professed your belief, with all your
heart, and mind, and strength. Be ye patient, tender
hearted, kind, chaste, and pure. Teach your children
to love God, and your household in like manner.
Reconcile them that are at variance. Let him that
judges give righteous judgment, let him not receive
bribes, for bribes blind the eyes even of the wise.
" Observe the Lord's Day, assemble yourselves at
church, and there pray, not making vain repetitions.
Give alms according to your means, for as water
extinguisheth the flame, so almsgiving blotteth out sin.
Observe hospitality, visit the sick, minister to widows
and orphans, give tithes to the Church, and what ye
xvould not men should do unto you, that do ye not
unto them. Fear God, and him only. Servants, be
obedient unto your masters, and maintain the rights
of your master among your fellow-servants. Learn
diligently the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, and
teach them to your children, and to those for whom
ye stood sponsors at their baptism. Practise fasting,
love righteousness, resist the devil, receive the Eucha
rist at the stated seasons. These, and such like, are
the commands that God bade you do and keep.
"Believe that Christ will come, that there will be
a resurrection of the body, and a general judgment
of mankind. Then the wicked will be separated from

320 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
the good, and the one will go into eternal fire, the
other into eternal bliss, and they shall enjoy ever
lasting life with God without any more death, light
without darkness, health, without sickness, happiness
without fear, joy without sorrow ; there shall be peace
for evermore, and the righteous shall shine forth, as
the sun, for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither
hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what
things God hath prepared for them that love him."1
Such was the missionary instruction which the
Apostle of Germany imparted to his flock.
Further information on the same point is supplied
by the correspondence of Alcuin with, the emperor
Charlemagne, who had entrusted Arno, archbishop of
Salzburg, with a mission amongst the Avars. Lie
congratulates the emperor on his success and the
prospect of the speedy spread of the faith, but im
presses upon him the necessity for due attention to
public preaching and an orderly celebration of bap
tism.2 A mere external xvashing of the body, he
reminds him, xvill avail nothing, unless the mind has
first duly received.
" The Apostolic order," he observes, " is first to
teach all nations, then is to follow the administration
of baptism and further instruction in Christian duties.
Therefore in teaching those of riper years, that
order should be strictly observed, which the blessed
Augustine has laid down in his treatise on the very
subject : 3
1 I Cor. ii. 9. 2 See Migne, " Patrologia," Ssec. ix. p. 187.
3 " De Catechizandis Rudibus. "

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 321
" 1. First, a man ought to be instructed in the
immortality of the soul, in the future life, and its
retribution hereafter of good and evil.
" 2. 'Secondly, he ought to learn for what crimes and
sins he will be condemned to future punishment, and
for what good and beneficial actions he will enjoy
eternal happiness with Christ.
" 3. Thirdly, he ought to be very carefully instructed
in the doctrine of the Trinity, in the advent of the
Saviour for the salvation of mankind, in his life, his
passion, his resurrection, his ascension, and future
coming to judge the world. Strengthened and
thoroughly instructed in this faith, let him be bap
tized, and afterwards let the precepts of the Gospel
be further unfolded by public preaching, till he attain
to the measure of the stature of a perfect man, and
become a worthy habitation for the Holy Ghost."
In another letter, after exhorting the emperor to
provide competent instructors for his newly-conquered
subjects, he remarks that they ought to follow the
example of the Apostles in preaching the word of
God. " For they," he says, " were wont at the
beginning to feed their hearers with milk, that is,
with gentle precepts, even as the Apostle Paul saith :
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in
Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat :
for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now
are ye able} And thereby that great Apostle of the
whole world, Christ speaking in him, signified, that
1 1 Cor. iii. I, 2.
S.L. VII. Y

322 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
newly-converted tribes ought to be nourished with
simple precepts, like as children are with milk, lest if
austerer. precepts be taught at first, their weak mind
should reject what it drinks. Whence also the Lord
Jesus Christ himself in the Gospel replied to those ask
ing him why his disciples fasted not : Men put not new
wine into old bottles : else the bottles break, and the wine
runneth out, and the bottles perish : but they put new
wine into new bottles, and both are preserved ; 1 ' for,'
as Jerome saith, ' the virgin purity of the soul which
has never been contaminated with vice is very different
from that which has long been1 in bondage to foul
lusts and passions.' "
III. And here a few remarks on the policy of the
missionaries as regards heathenism may not be out of
place, especially as they have sometimes been accused
of too great accommodation to the weaknesses and
scruples of their pagan converts.
A review of the efforts made during this period
does not tend to substantiate the charge at least
against the missionaries themselves. Again and again
we have seen them hewing down the images, pro
faning the temples, and protesting xvith vehemence
against sorcery, witchcraft, and other heathen prac
tices. The Apostle of Ireland did not, as we saw,
spare the great object of Celtic worship ; his country
men, Columbanus and Gallus, provoked the grievous
wrath of the Suevians by their hostility to Thor and
Odin ; Willibrord, at the peril of his life, polluted the
sacred fountains of Fosites-land ; Boniface risked not
1 Matt. ix. 17.

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 323
only personal safety, but all his influence over the
people of Hesse by hewing down the sacred oak
of Geismar ; the address of Lebuin to the Saxon
assembly did not betray one easily "shaken by the
wind;" Bogoris flung away his idols at the first
request of Methodius ; Vladimir flogged the huge
image of Peroun, and flung it into the waters of the
Dnieper before the face of his people ; Olaf and
Thangbrand overthrew the monuments of Scandi
navian idolatry with a zeal worthy of a Jehu ; Bishop
Otho in Pomerania insisted, in spite of imminent
danger to himself, on destroying various Sclavonic
temples. As far as such external protests against idolatry
could avail, their missionary zeal did not err on the
side of laxity. It cannot be said that there was any
accommodation here to the views of the heathens, or
anything like the policy of the unworthy followers of
Xavier, in India.
In several cases, however, the advice of Gregory the
Great to Augustine appears to have been mainly fol
lowed, at least by the Anglo-Saxon missionaries.
From the letter of that Pope to Mellitus1 it seems
that the question of the destruction of the heathen
temples had caused him considerable anxiety, and
had long occupied his thoughts. The conclusion to
which he at last came was that, instead of being
destroyed, they should be "cleansed from heathen
pollution by being sprinkled with holy water," and
1 Epp. Greg. lib. xi. 76 ; Bede, i. 30, " Diu mecum de causa Anglo
rum cogitans tractavi."
Y 2

324 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
consecrated to Christian purposes by the erection of
the Christian altar and the " deposition of relics of
the saints."
Whatever may be the reason of the strange con
trast betxveen the policy advocated in this letter and
in that addressed to Ethelbert, it is certain that Gre
gory xvas wisely anxious to facilitate the transition
from heathenism to Christianity. In this spirit,
therefore, he advised Augustine to deal cautiously
with the heathen festivals which were celebrated in or
near the temples ; he would not have them abolished
altogether, but suggested that on the anniversaries of
the Martyrs, whose relics had been placed in the
temples now converted into churches, booths should
be erected, and the people permitted to celebrate
their feasts in honour not of the old pagan deities,
but of the True God, the Giver of all good.
Gregory, whose spirit is said to have yearned towards
the old heathen sages who had died without hearing
of the work of Christ, considered that he had found a
precedent for the advice he now gave in the divine
system of educating the Jewish people after their
departure from Egypt. "They had been wont," he
remarks, " to sacrifice to false gods ; they were not
forbidden now altogether to abstain from offering
sacrifice. The object only of their xvorship was
changed, and the same animals they had been wont
to sacrifice to idols, they now sacrificed in honour of
the Lord their God."
Grant that he may have regarded the Jewish sacri
ficial system from far too low a point of view, still, in

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 325
the circumstances of the Anglo-Saxons just emerging
from heathenism, there was much to remind him of
the Jewish nation in its long contact with idolatry in
Egypt. The latter, unfitted, as the very genius of
their language attests, for abstract thought or meta
physical speculations, absolutely required material
symbols, and with a Book of Symbols they were
mercifully provided.
The same mode of proceeding, Gregory was of
opinion, was requisite in the case of the Anglo-Saxon
converts, and if existing ceremonies could only be
exalted and purified, a gradual ascent might be sup
plied towards understanding higher truths. Where,
as in England, and probably on the Continent, every
town had its religious establishment, the Mediaeval
missionaries, themselves in many cases but lately con
verted, may be pardoned for the natural desire to
make as much as possible of the religio loci, and to
avail themselves, so far as it was practicable, of old
associations. Architectural reasons may very probably have pre
vented in many cases a compliance with Gregory's
advice, but its. spirit was obeyed, wherever the Teu
tonic missionary went forth to evangelize Teutons.
And independently of the sound principle which was
thus taught, " that the evil spirit can be cast out of
institutions without destroying them," the early mis
sionaries must have found that it is easy to destroy
the image or fling it into the stream, but vey hard
to extirpate a faith, and eradicate time-honoured
superstitions.

326 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
They to xvhom they preached xvere, as we have
already seen, worshippers of all above them and
around them ; in the skies, the woods, the waters,
they found their oracles and sacred books ; they
revelled in spirits of the grove and of the fountain, of
the lake and of the hill ; they believed devoutly in
divinations, and presages, and lots. Imagine, then,
one xvho from his earliest years had lived and moved
in the atmosphere of a faith like this, which identified
itself with all the associations of nature and the world
around, which taught him to hear voices from another
world in the forest roaring round his cottage in the
wintry night, or on the lake where he flung his net ; —
imagine such an one, out of deference to the will of
his chief, or the stern command of the conqueror, in an
age of " implicit, childlike, trusting, fearing, rejoicing
faith," exchanging his early creed for that of the
Christian ; and can we wonder that the old ideas long
retained their sway, or that councils were obliged to
denounce, and the missionary to inveigh against,
lingering traces of well-worship and tree-worship,
against divination and witchcraft ?
Can we wonder that in an age when the old
divinities were still regarded as real powers, which were
not entirely bereft of all influence over their apostate
votaries, even after they had bowed before the uplifted
cross, or been signed with the same symbol in the
baptismal stream, the missionary was tempted, almost
unconsciously, to meet heathenism halfway, and to
Christianize superstitions he found himself powerless
to dispel ?

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 327
Can we wonder that many, unable to resist the
glamour of old beliefs, in the midst of which their
forefathers " had lived and moved and had their
being," were still prone at times to offer the ancient
sacrifices, and, as we gather from the letters of Boni
face, to resort to the old magic and soothsaying ?
When we remember that as late as the fifteenth
century the Church was engaged in eradicating the
remains of Sclavonic heathenism, and protesting
against a rude fetishism and serpent worship, it is
surely no matter of surprise that the boundary line
between the old and the new faith was not very
sharply defined, that a continual interchange long
went on betweem Christian legends and heathen
myths. It was no settled policy on the part of the fore
fathers of European civilization, but the spirit of the
age itself, which refused to disjoin the judicial assembly
from its old accompanying heathen rites ; which kept
heathen festivals on Christian holidays, and celebrated
heathen festivals, purified of their grosser elements,
under a Christian guise; which exchanged the remem
brance cup once drunk at the banquet in honour of
Thor and Woden for a similar salutation of the
Apostles, and in place of the image of Frigga caused
the staff of some saint to be carried round the corn
fields to drive away the fieldmice or the caterpillars ;
which preserved the heathen names of the days of the
week, and inextricably united the name of a Saxon
goddess with the most joyous of the Christian
festivals : names which have survived all the inter-

328 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
vening changes of thought and feeling, and remain to
the present day the undying memorials of the period
of twilight between heathendom and Christianity.
IV. Our retrospect has, from the nature of the case,
been chiefly concerned with the more legitimate
efforts made during the earlier • period of the Middle
Ages to propagate the Gospel. But during the later
period we noticed how other agencies besides the
holy lives and. eloquent tongues of devoted men,
besides the monastic colony and the missionary
school, were employed to complete the circle of
European Christendom. We saw how the genuine
missionary spirit became tinged with fanaticism, and
was succeeded by violent and coercive propagandism.
The wars of Charlemagne against the Saxons are
the subjects of legitimate censure. That these wars
were carried on with relentless severity, that the
Saxon territory was invaded from year to year, that
on one occasion four thousand five hundred prisoners
xvere beheaded for sharing in an insurrection, that on
another ten thousand Saxons were forcibly removed
from their own country into the older Frankish terri
tory, cannot be denied.
Still the peculiarities of Charlemagne's position
must not be overlooked. Other causes than the
simplelust of conquest promoted these wars. Anti
pathies of race and divergences of religious belief
lent a peculiar bitterness to the conflict between the
Frank and the Saxon. Charlemagne knew well that
if these hardy pirates of the North gained the upper
hand, all order and security in Europe would be

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 329
at an end. At the root of the new civilization,
whereof he was the champion, lay the Christian faith.
In the Christian Church, he felt, were the only
elements of order, and he had strengthened his
own power by the most intimate relations with it.
It is no wonder, therefore, that he believed himself
bound, as a Christian king, to impose that faith, which/
alone promised any definite union or concord, on
races that still clung to the blood-stained rites of
Odinism. " That the alternative, ' Believe or die,' was some
times proposed by Charlemagne to the Saxons,"
writes Sir James Stephen, " I shall not dispute. But
it is not less true that, before these terms were ten
dered to them, they had again and again rejected his
less formidable proposal, 'Be quiet and live.' In
form and term, indeed, their election lay between the
Gospel and the sword. In substance and in reality,
they had to make their choice between submission
and destruction. A long and deplorable experience
had already shown that the Frankish people had
neither peace nor security to expect for a single
year so long as their Saxon neighbours retained their
heathen rites and the ferocious barbarism inseparable
from them. Fearful as may be the dilemma, ' Submit
or perish,' it is that to which every nation, even in our
own times, endeavours to reduce a host of invading
and desolating foes ; nor, if we ourselves were exposed
to similar inroads, should we offer to our assailants
conditions more gentle or less peremptory."1
1 Lecture i. p. 92.

33° RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
These considerations may tend to modify our view
of Charlemagne's policy, but the wholesale and in
discriminate mode of administering the rite of bap
tism on the conclusion of his compaigns cannot
possibly be defended, and drew forth, as we saw, the
indignant expostulations of Alcuin, and men of
kindred spirit.
The violent efforts of the Norwegian princes to
enforce Christianity as- the national faith have a
grotesqueness of their own, which relieves them
from the imputation of those darker motives which
prompted the Albigensian Crusades and the establish
ment of the Inquisition. As for the violence of the
Viking, it may be pleaded that, however low and
unworthy the conceptions he had formed of the
Christian faith, his mode of enforcing his new creed
on his rough and hardy subjects was at least straight
forward. He had believed once in the might of Thor's
great hammer, " the crusher and smasher," and force
was the only weapon he could conceive capable of
effecting his purpose. To expect maxims of toleration
from a Viking would indeed be absurd ; but the fact
that, in spite of the violence with which Christianity
was introduced into the Scandinavian and other king
doms, the leaven was found able to work mightily, and
to do great things for their advancement, is surely an
encouragement as regards the future of modern mis
sionary efforts. When we reflect how long a period
even the partial evangelization of Europe occupied,
how slow, how gradual was its progress, how at times
it seemed to have come to a standstill altogether, we

RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS. 331

shall not be impatient for immediate results of
missionary work in modern times..
Whenever the Church effected anything real or
lasting, it was when she was content to persevere in a
spirit of absolute dependence on him who has pro
mised to be with her alzvays, even unto the end of the
world; when in the person of a Columba, a Boniface,
a Sturmi, an Anskar, a Raymund Lull, she was con
tented to go forth and sow the seed, and then leave
it to do its work, remembering that if " earthly seed is
long in springing up, imperishable seed is longer
still.'" Whenever she failed in her efforts, it. was
when she forgot in whose strength she went forth,
and for whose glory alone she existed, when she was
tempted to resort to other means and to try other
expedients, than those which her great Head had
sanctioned when, instead of patiently leaving the good
seed to grow of itself, she strove to hurry its develop
ment, and was impatient of small beginnings and
weak instruments.
For if the retrospect of the missionary efforts of
the Middle Ages teaches one lesson more than another,
it is the value of those " slender wires " on which the
greatest events are often hung, and the importance of
not despising the day of small things. " Let any
one," writes the author of the " Historical Memoirs
of Canterbuy," " sit on the hill of the little Church of
St. Martin at Canterbury, and look on the view which
is there spread before his eyes. Immediately below
are the towers of the great Abbey of St. Augustine,
where Christian learning and civilization first struck

332 RETROSPECT AND REFLECTIONS.
root in the Anglo-Saxon race ; and within which now,
after a lapse of many centuries, a new institution
has arisen, intended to carry far and wide, to coun
tries of which Gregory and Augustine had never heard,
the blessings which they gave to *us  From
Canterbury, the first English Christian city — from
Kent, the first English Christian kingdom — has, by
degrees, arisen the whole constitution of a Church
and State in England, which now binds together
the whole British Empire. And from the Christi
anity here established in England has flowed, by
direct consequence, first, the Christianity of Germany,
— then, after a long interval, of North America, — and
lastly, we may trust, in time, of all India and Austral
asia. The view from St. Martin's Church is indeed
one of the most inspiriting that can be found in the
world ; there is none to which I would more willingly
take any one who doubted whether a small beginning
would lead to a great and lasting good, — none which
carries us more vividly back to the past, or more
hopefully forward to the future."1
1 Stanley's "Memorials of Canterbury," p. 39.

^ LONDON : R. CLAY, SONSj AND TAVLOK, H<INTJ£KS.

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