# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 03 02_S109
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

109

Winfrid or Boniface, Apostle of the Germans.

A Presentation from the History of Missions, by Karl Graul.

(Continuation.)

But let us return to the story of Winfrid's life. After his return from Italy he betook himself first to the Frankish duke Charles Martel, with a letter of recommendation from the Pope, in order to obtain from him mightier protection than hitherto. In a second letter the Pope exhorted all princes, bishops and persons of rank to receive Boniface well and to provide him with all that was needful, mindful of the promise: He that receiveth you receiveth me! as he had likewise furnished him with everything required for the journey. With renewed strength Winfrid then went to his work and now developed more and more all the qualities of a great man. Calm, calculating prudence, heart-winning love, and glowing, zealous energy were united in him in a rare manner, and withal were transfigured by a self-denying humility wholly devoted to the service of his Lord. He turned first of all to his Hessians again. Here he found the most of those converted by him, it is true, fallen back again into heathenism; yet his preaching soon wrought so much that, with the help of those who had remained faithful, he was able to lay hand upon the old heathen sanctuaries. In particular he felled, near Geismar, a huge oak consecrated to the thunder-god, before the eyes of the assembled heathen. Far and wide it was regarded by the idolatrous people with holy awe, and dreadful legends went about concerning it. Boniface first delivered in its shade an earnest sermon on the nothingness of idol-worship, and then himself struck the first blow into the trunk. Soon the ancient tree fell crashing down, and in vain the terrified multitude awaited that punishment from heaven should strike the offender. Then the wood was sawn and split, and a small Christian chapel was built from it, as a memorial of the victory of Christ over the false gods. But one would err greatly if one wished to conclude from this that his whole art of conversion consisted in a violent extirpation of heathenism. To such outward violence he could surely not proceed until the roots of heathenism in the hearts had become loose; otherwise the letter of protection from Duke Charles could hardly have availed him against the bitterness of the heathen. From some letters we perceive with what prudence he proceeded, and to what toils, labors and conflicts of spirit he nevertheless submitted in the work of converting the heathen. In a letter to Bishop Daniel in England he pours out his wearied heart to this fatherly friend and seeks comfort and counsel from him. I have conflicts within and without, he writes, and the latter not merely against heathen, but also against false brethren, who cry: Peace, peace! where there is no peace, and sow tares among the pure seed, planting errors, abstaining from lawful foods, living on milk and honey, rejecting bread and other things, or also maintaining that even persistent murderers and adulterers may be priests; and the people gladly heap up teachers to themselves, after whom their ears itch. I cannot wholly refrain from intercourse with such, yet I avoid their counsel and the partaking of the Holy Supper with them. Thus I have my labor with such, and with heathen, and with a mixed multitude; but my greatest distress is when a clergyman falls away from the faith of the truth and breaks out with the heathen into revilings against the faithful sons of the Church and becomes a hideous hindrance to the Gospel. Pray God that in such whirlpools He may keep His laborer pure and steadfast, and stand by me with your counsel; for without the duke's support I cannot protect the servants of the Lord, nor hinder idolatry and heathen customs; but if I turn to him, I cannot avoid bodily fellowship with such false teachers. Finally he asks for himself a large-print book of the Prophets, because he cannot obtain one in Germany, and small print no longer suffices for his eyes. Daniel gives him in reply, in two letters, for the most part truly evangelical grounds of comfort and counsels to this effect: Hold out in your heavy conflicts, look to the heavenly crown of victory. To intercourse with impenitent, criminal clergymen only necessity, not inclination, may drive you, even as our Lord also dwelt and ate with sinners, in order to have opportunity for teaching. Be subject to every human ordinance. According to the parable tares and wheat shall grow together, and into the ark there went clean and unclean beasts through One door. But all this is written, not to lead to laxity, but to patient endurance. For the treatment of the heathen he gave him excellent counsels: He should not begin by disputing their gods with them, but lead them, by their own narratives of the begetting of the gods, to a beginning of the same, and ask whether these or the world had been first, and thereby lead them to the necessity of an eternal, almighty God, and that with calmness and great patience; further, on occasion to compare their doctrines and customs with the Christian ones, to their shame; finally to teach them how Christianity has overcome idolatry in so many lands, nowhere the reverse.

After the first favorable results of his labors in Lower Hesse he went on eastward through the land of Hesse as far as the Werra and to the Eichsfeld and the Harz, preaching, erecting chapels, destroying idols, in order thus, over this whole tract, to deal the death-stroke to heathenism in the hearts and to prepare the victory for the Gospel. To still more blessed activity he went in the following year (724) to Thuringia, where Christianity, planted already earlier in the midst of darkness, had fallen into the saddest decay through want of church order and of enlightened clergy and through devastating incursions of the heathen Saxons, and superstition and idolatry had again come up. He sought first to gain a foothold among those who still had love for Christianity in their hearts, and that by letters of the Pope to the nobility and people of the Thuringians to this effect: Our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son and Himself very God, who came from heaven, became man, suffered for us and was crucified, and rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven, saith to His disciples: Go ye and teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost! and promiseth to them that believe on Him eternal life. Since we now desire that you should rejoice with us eternally, where there is no end, nor affliction, nor any bitterness whatever, but eternal glory, we have therefore sent unto you our brother, the most holy Boniface, that he may baptize you and teach the faith of Christ and lead you from error to the way of salvation, that ye may have salvation and eternal life. But obey ye him in all things and honor him as your father, and incline your hearts to his instruction, for we have not sent him to you for the sake of temporal gain, but to win your immortal souls. Love God, therefore, and receive baptism in His name, for the Lord our God hath prepared for them that love Him that which eye hath not seen, nor hath entered into the heart of man. Depart from evil works and do good. Honor no idols, nor offer flesh, for God accepteth it not; but all that our brother Boniface shall teach you, that observe and do, and ye shall be saved, and your children forever. Build, therefore, also a house in which your father may dwell, and churches wherein ye may pray that God may forgive you your sins and give you eternal life.

Equipped with the authority of this papal letter and with the power of the evangelical Word, he went among the inhabitants of Thuringia, to which at that time a part of Franconia also belonged. He prevailed upon the princes and lords of the land to put away heathen ways and to turn again with earnestness to Christianity; he admonished and rebuked the fallen clergy and encouraged the better ones; he traversed the land teaching and baptizing, and in such power knew how to awaken a better spirit and to suppress the bad, that no one dared to withstand the mighty stranger. Mightily there awoke in the hearts the confidence in the crucified Savior. In throngs the people streamed in and let themselves be baptized, overcome by the power