CHAP. IV. THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN THIS CHAP. WILLIBRO D*, with other English missionaries, IV. BROD*, continued to labour with success in the conversion of the Frisons. His episcopal seat was, as we have seen †, at Utrecht; for fifty years he preached, founded churches and monasteries, and appointed new bishops. The consequence of his labours was, that great numbers of pagans were received into the pale of the Church. The great light of Germany in this century was an Englishman named Winfrid, born at Kirton in Devonshire, about the year 680. He was brought up in the monastic life from infancy. His residence was in the monastery of Nutcell, in the diocese of Winchester, which was afterwards destroyed by the Danes, and was never rebuilt. Here he was made acquainted with the sacred and secular learning of the times. At the age of 30, he was ordained priest, on the recommendation of his abbot, and laboured with much zeal in preaching the word of God. His spirit was ardent, and he longed to be employed as a missionary in the conversion of pagans. The example of a number of pious persons of his own country might, no doubt, have great inEnglish Auence with him; for we have seen already, that Missionary. the zeal of spreading the Gospel was peculiarly 716. strong in the British isles. He went over with two monks into Friezeland about the year 716. He Winfrid an A. D. * Fleury, fifth Vol. XLI. 1. + See page 114 of this volume. Fleury, XLI. 35, &c. Alban Butler, Vol. 6. proceeded to Utrecht "to WATER, where Willibrod had PLANTED;" but finding that circumstances rendered it impracticable at present to preach the Gospel there, he returned into England with his companions, to his monastery. On the death of the abbot of Nutcell, the society would have elected Winfrid in his room; but the monk, steady to his purpose, refused to accept the Presidency; and, with recommendatory letters from the bishop of Winchester, went to Rome, and presented himself to the pope, expressing a desire of being employed in the conversion of infidels. Gregory II. encouraged his zeal, and gave him a commission of the most ample and unlimited nature in the year 719. With this commission Winfrid went into Bavaria and Thuringia. In the first country he reformed the Churches, in the second he was successful in the conversion of infidels. Here also he observed, how true religion, where it had been planted, was almost destroyed by false teachers: some pastors, indeed, were zealous for the service of God, but others were given up to scandalous vices: the English missionary beheld their state, and the ill effects of it on the people, with sorrow; and laboured with all his might, to recover them to true repentance. It was with sincere delight that he afterwards learned that the door, which had been shut against his first attempts in Friezeland, was now opened for preaching the Gospel in that country. Ratbod, king of the Frisons, who had planted idolatry afresh among his subjects, was dead, and the obstacles were removed. Winfrid returned into Friezeland, and for three years co-operated with Willibrod. The pale of the Church was hence enlarged: churches were erected many received the word of God; and idolatry was more and more subdued. Willibrod, declining in strength through old age, chose Winfrid for his successor. I have before CENT. VIII. English Missionaries. CHAP. observed, that the duration of his pastoral labours, IV. in his mission, was no less than fifty years. The example, of this great and holy person had long before this stirred up others to labour in the best of causes. Soon after that he, with eleven companions in 690, had begun to preach the Gospel in FriezeTwo other land, two brothers of the English nation went over into the country of the ancient Saxons, in order to preach to the idolaters. They were both called A. D. Ewald. They arrived in this country about the year 694. 694, and meeting with a certain steward, desired him to conduct them to his lord. They were employed all the way in prayer, in singing psalms and hymns. The barbarians fearing lest these men might draw their lord over to Christianity, murdered both the brothers; and thus, toward the close of the foregoing century, it pleased God to take to himself two persons who had devoted themselves to preach the Gospel of his Son among the hea then. The time of the more peculiar visitation of Germany was reserved for the age which we are now reviewing. It must have been extremely delightful to Willibrod, to have met with a coadjutor so zealous and sincere as Winfrid. However, the latter declined the offer, because the pope had enjoined him to preach in the eastern parts of Germany; and he felt himself bound to perform his promise. It is not possible, indeed, to conceive such a man as Gregory to have had any other views than those of secular ambition in exacting this promise from Winfrid. But it seems also equally apparent, that the motives of the latter were holy and spiritual. Wilfibrod acquiesced in Winfrid's desires, and dismissed him with his blessing. The younger missionary departed immediately, and came into Hesse, to a place called Omenbourg, belonging to two brothers, who were nominal Christians, but practical idolaters. Winfrid's labours were successful, both on them and their subjects: and, throughout Hesse, or at least a very great part of it, even to the confines of Saxony, he erected the standard of truth, and upheld it with much zeal, to the confusion of the kingdom of Satan. It ought not, however, to be concealed, that Winfrid suffered great hardships in a country so poor and uncultivated as the greater part of Germany then was; that he supported himself at times by the labour of his hands, and was exposed to imminent peril from the rage of the obstinate pagans. After some time he returned to Rome, was kindly received by Gregory II. and was consecrated bishop of the new German Churches, by the name of Boniface. There seems, even in that little circumstance, something of the policy of the Roman See. A Roman name was more likely to procure from the German converts respect to the Pope, than an English one. Gregory, moreover, solicitous to preserve his dignity, exacted from the new bishop an oath of subjection to the papal authority, conceived in the strongest terms; a circumstance, remarkably proving both the ambition of Gregory and the superstition of the times. Boniface armed with letters from the pope, and, what was far better, encouraged by the addition of fresh labourers from England, returned to the scenes of his mission.Coming into Hesse, he confirmed, by imposition of hands, several who had already been baptized, and exerted himself with much zeal against the idolatrous superstitions of the Germans. An oak of prodigious size had been an instrument of much pagan delusion: his sincerest converts advised him to cut it down; and he followed their counsel. It ought to be observed, that the famous Charles Martel protected him with his civil authority; for the domi nion of the French extended a considerable way * Fleury, B. XLI. 44, &c. CENT. VIII. IV. CHAP. into Germany. It does not appear, however, that Boniface made any other use of this circumstance, than what the most conscientious ecclesiastic may do, wherever the Christian religion is established by the laws, of Boniface. A. D. 723. " 66 The advice Daniel, bishop of Winchester, about the year 723, wrote to Boniface concerning the best method of dealing with idolaters. "Do not contradict," says he, in a direct manner their accounts of the genealogy of their gods; allow that they, were born from one another in the same way as mankind are; this concession will give you the advantage of proving, that there was a time when they had no existence.-Ask them, who governed the world before the birth of their gods-ask them, if these gods have ceased to propagate. If they have not, show them the consequence; namely, that the gods must be infinite in number, and that no man can rationally be at ease in worshipping any of them, lest he should, by that means, offend one, who is more powerful.-Argue thus with them, not in the way of insult, but with temper and moderation; and take opportunities to contrast these absurdities with the Christian doctrine: let the pagans be rather ashamed than incensed by your oblique mode of stating these subjects.-Show them the insufficiency of their plea of antiquity: inform them that idolatry did antiently prevail over the world, but that Jesus Christ was manifested, in order to reconcile men to. God by his grace."-Piety and good sense appear to have predominated in these instructions, and we have here proofs, in addition to those already given, of the grace of God conferred on our ancestors during the heptarchy. Boniface preserved a correspondence with other friends in England, as well as with Daniel. From his native country he was supplied also, as we have seen, with fellow-labourers. In Thuringia he confirmed the churches, delivered them from heresies, |