454 British Miffionaries in Germany.

[CENT. 8. court derived its moft diftinguifhed literary ornaments from this fource. Their fuperior defire for the promotion of knowledge was proportioned to their fuperior attainments; and France, Italy, and Germany bear witnefs to their accomplishments, and to their zeal in the cultivation of fcholaftic theology. Many British miffionaries, fraught with religious knowledge, and influenced by a pious defire of imparting to their pagan neighbours the advantages they poffeffed, defpifing the difficulties of their way, and the dangers which awaited their arrival, croffed the ocean, and penetrated into the gloomy receffes of the German forefts, for the inftruction of that fierce and uncivilized people.

One of the most eminent miffionaries of the eighth century was Wilfrid, a Benedictine monk, who was defcended from an illuftrious British family, and whofe vigorous and fuccessful labours entitled him to the appellation of the Apostle of the Germans. That Wilfrid endeavoured to accomplish the object of his miffion by violence and ftratagem; that he confulted the canons of the Romish church, rather than the dictates of the gofpel; and that he was more folicitous to ad.vance the interefts of the papacy than the knowledge of true religion, cannot be denied. The German apoftle was fubtle, infinuating, and haughty; but his contempt of danger, his zeal, and his abilities, have juftly entitled him to the notice of pofterity. Repulfed in his first at

tempt

CENT. 8.] Dispute concerning the Antipodes.

455

tempt to influence the minds of that furious and ignorant people, he redoubled his efforts to propagate the faith. With unwearied zeal, and perfevering diligence, he addreffed his arguments both to the reafon and to the paffions of his auditors. His zeal for the authority of the pope (whose fupremacy was by his means afterwards firft acknowledged in a council convened by his archiepifcopal authority at Mentz) was honoured by the highest approbation of the Roman pontiff, who confecrated him a bishop, and gave him the name of Boniface he was diftinguifhed alfo by the patronage and affiftance of Charles Martel. Monafteries and churches were erected, by the affiduity of Boniface and his pious affociates, on the ruins of the heathen temples, and confecrated groves of paganifm. In the course of his minifterial labours he was engaged in a warm difpute with his difciple Vigilius 'upon the validity of baptifm, which had been performed by a prieft, who, ignorant of the Latin language (which Boniface had introduced into the ritual of the German church), had made a small mistake in the words of that or- • dinance. The Roman pontiff efpoufed the caufe of the validity, and of Vigilius; and Boniface was determined upon revenge. This he effected by attacking the opinions of his difciple, who had heretically afferted the globular figure of the earth, and the existence of antipodes. The apostle, who, unlike his predeceffor, was far from being poffeffed

Gg 4

Curious Controversy.

456 [CENT. 8. poffeffed of all knowledge, could not comprehend this new fyftem; and concluded, that Vigilius, by his strange affertions, could only mean that a world • exifted under this, inhabited by other men, and illuminated by other planets. In confequence of this idea, he accused Vigilius of the herefy of afferting a plurality of worlds; and Zachary the pontiff, who conceived the propofition equivalent to a declaration that all men were not defcended from Adam, nor involved in his guilt, and confequently that Christ had not died for all, was extremely alarmed at a doctrine which he regarded as totally repugnant to fcripture; he therefore ordered Boniface to convene a council, in which if the heretic refused to abjure his errors, he was to ⚫ be degraded and lopped off, as a rotten member, from the body of the faithful. The event of these inquiries is uncertain; but as Vigilius was afterwards preferred to the fee of Saltzburgh, and is honoured as a faint, it is probable that he exculpated himself from the fufpicion of herefy*. Favoured by princes and by popes, Boniface, in addition to the archiepifcopal fee of Mentz, received the further honour of being created primate of Belgium and Germany. A tranquil death was not however the termination of a life, devoted to the most active, though frequently injudicious, exertions in the cause of Christianity. After

* Bower's Hift, of the Popes, iii. 338.

forty

CENT. 8.]

Murder of Boniface.

457

forty years spent in his laborious miffion, the apostle of Germany, with fifty ecclefiaftics his companions and friends, were, on their return into Friefland, inhumanly murdered by the inhabitants of that barbarous country. Besides his Lives of the Saints, Boniface compofed fome Sermons and Letters.

THE

THE NINTH CENTURY.

CHAP. I.

GENERAL STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THIS
CENTURY.

Converfion of Jutland-of Part of Sweden-of Sclavoniaof Ruffia-Mr. Gibbon's Sentiments concerning thefe Converfions-Saracens conquer Sicily, &c.—Incurfions of Northern Barbarians-State of the Church and ClergyInjudicious Diftribution of Preferments-Manner of electing Popes--Pope Joan-Donations of Lewis the Meek— Diffenfions in the Carlovingian Family—Increase of the Papal Power from this and other Circumstances-Forgery of the Decretals, &c.—Increase of Monkery—Revival of the Iconoclaffic Controverfy-Council at Conftantinople-Progrefs of Image-Worship in the West-Final Schifm between the Greek and Latin Churches.

HE fpirit of Chriftianity is but little con

TH

fiftent with the warlike fpirit of the ninth century; however, therefore, we may commend the intentions of the illuftrious fon of Pepin, the means which he employed cannot meet our approbation.