Fouracre P. The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 1: c. 500-c. 700
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Christianisation and the dissemination of Christian teaching 723
which entered the Roman Empire in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, or
of all those which remained in Germany.
There are numerous references to shrines or idols that are not explicitly
linked to the gods of the Germanic pantheon.
82
Bede does not name the
devils to whom Redwald supposedly offered sacrifice,
83
nor the gods culted at
the temple at Goodmanham which was desecrated by its own priest, Coifi.
84
Referencesto the idol and sanctuary of the Irminsul, destroyedby Charlemagne
in 772,donot specify which god was worshipped there.
85
Idols and shrines
seem to have been common in Frisia, although the details of which cult was
involved are rarely provided by hagiographers: at times one may suspect that
of Nehalennia, which is attested in the Roman period. The sacred place most
fully described in an eighth-century source is the island dedicated to the god
Fosite, probably Heligoland.
86
According to Alcuin, no pagan dared to touch
the animals on the island or to drink from the spring. Willibrord, by contrast,
used the spring to perform baptisms.
87
The same site was later visited by
Liudger, who also baptised there. His biographer adds to Alcuin’s description
of the island a temple, which was destroyed by the saint.
88
The impression
is one of a cult site devoted to a god of localised importance, Fosite, but
located on a major seaway. Whether or not the shrine had a priest, like Coifi at
Goodmanham, or even a group of priests is nowhere stated – though outside
England there is little evidence for Germanic priests.
89
Down the coast at
Walcheren, Alcuin does record the existence of the guardian of an idol
90
who
tried, unsuccessfully, to kill Willibrord.
On the whole it is not the cults of major gods, their shrines or their acolytes
which constitute the paganism denounced in contemporary sources. They
existed, but they do not appear to have been the chief problem facing the
missionaries of the early Middle Ages. Commitment to them was apparently
limited, perhaps to certain groups or classes, and they could be abandoned
with relative ease. Much more prominent in the sources, and probably more
tenacious, is the threat of superstition or magic.
91
Describing this there are
a number of works, in particular the De Correctione Rusticorum, written by
Martin of Braga in the north-west of the Iberian peninsula shortly after 572,
92
two sermons attributed to the seventh-century bishop Eligius of Noyon,
93
and
the Scarapsus de Libris Singulis Canonicis, compiled by Pirmin, a monastic
founder and reformer in the Luxeuil tradition, active in southern Germany
82
Wood (1995), pp. 255–7.
83
Bede, HE ii.15.
84
Bede, HE ii.13.
85
Wood (1995), pp. 255–7.
86
Wood (1995), pp. 255–60.
87
Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi, 10.
88
Altfrid, Vita Liudgeri i.19, 22.
89
Wood (1995), pp. 257–9.
90
Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi c.14.
91
Flint (1991).
92
Martin of Braga, De Correctione Rusticorum.
93
Praedicatio Sancti Eligii; see also the comments of Hen (1995), p. 197.
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724 ian wood
during the first half of the eighth century.
94
Despite their importance, these
three works present the historian with problems of interpretation. The Eligius
sermons and the Scarapsus of Pirminboth draw heavily on the work of Martin of
Braga, which in turn is heavily indebted to Augustine of Hippo and Caesarius
of Arles, whose writings also had a direct influence on the seventh-century
sermons.
95
Thus condemnations of paganism in fifth-century North Africa
and sixth-century Provence, both heavily Romanised areas, are reused in sixth-
century rural Galicia and seventh-century north-eastern Gaul, both of which
had been within the Roman Empire, but which had been less influenced
by Roman culture and had been settled by barbarian invaders. These same
condemnations are also reused in eighth-century Alamania. There is an acute
difficulty in determining how far there were superstitions common to all these
areas, and how far the content of these works was determined merely by literary
tradition. The dependence of Martin of Braga, the Eligius sermons and Pirmin
on earlier authors is unquestionable – and the problem of mistaking a literary
borrowing for a description of current practices is, therefore, considerable. At
the same time, there is enough evidence, both written and archaeological, to
showthat the sorts of practices they name, even if not the specific ones originally
condemned by Augustine and Caesarius, were common across western Europe
in the early Middle Ages.
Oneofthe fullest lists of superstitions compiled in the early medieval period
is the Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganiarum.Itwas apparently prepared in
743/4.Inthese years Boniface called three church councils, one known as the
Concilium Germanicum (743), the others held at Estinnes (744) and Soissons
(744)respectively.
96
The clear parallels between the canons of the Concilium
Germanicum and the Indiculus suggest that the latter was drawn up as part of
this conciliar activity. Unfortunately the Indiculus is cursory in the extreme,
providing no more than a list of superstitions, without any attempt to describe
them. Most of them, however, can be identified with practices known from
other sources. Only one, the cursus called yrias,isotherwise unattested, while
only one other, de petendo (or possibly petenstro) quod boni vocant Sanctae
Mariae, has proved impossible to interpret with any degree of certainty.
Tw oofthe thirty entries in the Indiculus indicate the cult of Mercury and
Jupiter, presumably Woden and Thor, and their feast days. Others refer to idols
made of dough and rags, and idols carried through fields. Sanctuaries and holy
places including springs as well as rites performed in woods are listed, as are
wooden hands and feet used in pagan rites. The celebration of the spurcalia in
February is mentioned, and so too are actions performed on stones. Nodfyr,or
94
Pirmin, Dicta de Singulis Libris Canonicis (Scarapsus). On Pirmin see Angenendt (1972).
95
Boudriot (1928).
96
Ed.Werminghoff (1906–8).
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Christianisation and the dissemination of Christian teaching 725
fire produced by rubbing sticks together, appears, as do incantations. All these
may suggest formal cults of one sort or another and there were clearly also rituals
associated with the dead. The first two titles are directed at sacrilege committed
at the graveside whilst other headings deal with everyday superstition. Amulets
are on the list, as are furrows dug around villae,presumably to ward off evil.
The moon is twice a matter of concern, in eclipse and because some thought
that women could eat it, as they could the hearts of men. An entry on storms,
horns and snails also suggests superstition. Auguriesare the subject of four titles,
including one relating to the brains of animals and another to the inspection
of the fire on the hearth. The remaining three entries refer to practices that
are semi-Christian: sacrilege in church, sacrifice offered to saints and the belief
that all the dead were saints.
Despite the references to Woden and Thor, the weight of the document
is concerned with natural religion, with auguries, with superstition and with
the dead. This natural religion is equally apparent from the archaeological
record. Offerings at springs are known. There is evidence for funerary banquets
in cemeteries, and some graves include the bones of birds associated with
divination.
97
It seems to have been practices by which man defined his relations
with nature and with the dead that formed the bulk of the superstitions, and
not the organised cult of gods of the Germanic pantheon, which confronted
the missionary in the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries.
98
Superstitions of this
type may well have been common across much of western Europe, both within
and without what had once been the territory of the Roman Empire. It is also
clear that some of these practices were still observed by Christian communities.
The need to enforce higher standards on the church east and west of the Rhine,
which was the dominant feature of Boniface’s career however much he wished
to follow a life of mission to the pagans, is apparent from the Indiculus,which,
so far as can be ascertained, is a description of religion to be found within a
Christian state.
For the paganism beyond the immediate confines of the Merovingian and
early Carolingian state, it is the evidence for Frisia that is most illuminating.
The Life of Liudger provides information on the workings of pagan society
in addition to that on the island of Fosite. Much of this is admittedly very
generalised: the comment on the temple of Fosite apart, references to shrines
are only made in passing. The work begins, however, with a long and detailed
account of Liudger’s family.
99
The saint’s grandmother was a formidable pagan:
when her daughter-in-law gave birth only to daughters, the old lady ordered
that the infant Liafburg should be drowned. The child was saved only because
it survived for long enough to be given honey by compassionate neighbours.
97
Salin (1959), pp. 35–9.
98
Wood (1995).
99
Altfrid, Vita Liudgeri i.1–7.
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726 ian wood
It was not legal to kill a child that had tasted food. Although this story is not,
technically, concerned with sacrifice, but rather with child-exposure, the social
traditions involved overlap with descriptions of sacrificial practices in Frisia. In
particular the Life of Wulfram of Sens refers to drowning as a standard method
of sacrifice,
100
suggesting that water played a very prominent role in Frisian
religion, which is not surprising given the geography of the region.
The Life of Wulfram is potentially as important a text as that of Liudger in
providing evidence on Frisian paganism. It is, however, a forgery from c.800.
Not only is it a forgery in the sense that it claims to have been written shortly
after the saint’s death, which occurred in the 690s; it is also suspect in that
much of its narrative is palpably untrue.
101
On the other hand Wulfram was,
unquestionably, a missionary bishop, and it is likely that the author of his
Life worked from genuine information about him.
102
Moreover, the monks
of St Wandrille, where the Life was composed, could have had other sources
of information about Frisian paganism. Abbot Wando had been in exile in
Maastricht between 719 and 747.
103
He could well have been in contact with
Willibrord, and may have brought information on the Frisian mission back to
his own monastery. Thus, although its narrative is a farrago of lies, the Life of
Wulfram may on occasion present an accurate picture of pagan practice. Where
the picture that it presents overlaps with that to be found in other sources, they
may be used in conjunction.
Victims condemned to death by ritual drowning in the Life of Wulfram had
been chosen by lot.
104
The casting of lots seems to have been integral to Frisian
paganism. According to Alcuin, when Willibrord desecrated the island of
Fosite, the king, presumably Radbod, cast lots to determine what punish-
ment, if any, should be meted out. As a result one of Willibrord’s companions
was martyred.
105
The importance of the casting of lots within Frisian society is
further confirmed by its survival into the Christian period. In the Lex Frisionum
of the early ninth century a Christianised version of the casting of lots is used
in the identification of murderers.
106
Lot casting was not confined to Frisia: it
seems to have been common in parts of western Europe and in Scandinavia,
where it is attested in the ninth century.
107
It apparently played a significant
part in Frisian religious practice.
The Life of Wulfram is otherwise most interesting where it is most suspect:
in the saint’s dealings with Radbod. Since Wulfram died long before Radbod,
the stories relating to the attempts to convert the king and to save him from
damnation cannot be accepted at face value.
108
Even so there are elements in
100
Vita Vulframni cc.6–8.
101
Wood (1991b), pp. 12–14.
102
Lebecq (1994).
103
Wood (1991b), pp. 12–14.
104
Vita Vulframni cc.6–8.
105
Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi, c.11.
106
Lex Frisionum 14.
107
Rimbert, Vita Anskarii cc.18, 19, 24, 26, 27, 30;Wood (1995), p. 260.
108
But see Lebecq (1994).
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Christianisation and the dissemination of Christian teaching 727
the stories which tally with other information. Thus, according to the Life of
Wulfram, Radbod was so nearly baptised that he actually had one foot in the
font, but he withdrew when he learnt that by receiving baptism he would be
separating himself from his unbaptised forebears, who would remain in hell
while he was in heaven.
109
Concern for one’s ancestors may not be stated so
explicitly elsewhere, but Avitus of Vienne, in his letter congratulating Clovis
on his baptism, made much of the king’s breach with his forebears.
110
The issue
may well have been one of substance for the potential convert.
Having withdrawn from the font, Radbod, according to the Life of Wulfram,
was visited by the Devil, who urged him to return to the cult of the gods,
promising him a heavenly mansion. A beautiful house appeared in due course,
only to vanish at the sign of the cross, but Radbod himself had been tricked, and
died a pagan.
111
The story of Radbod’s death, as presented by the hagiographer,
is certainly a work of fiction, but it may contain a reference to a pagan tradition
of an afterlife. Norse mythology obviously provides an analogue with Valhalla,
and the presence of grave-goods in cemeteries may suggest that the afterlife
was a matter of concern to pagans.
Paganism encompassed a multitude of beliefs. Christianity, although
more precisely defined, was not monolithic: it was made up of ‘micro-
Christendoms’.
112
Yet for most Christians there was a commonly accepted
core: belief in the Bible; the performance of certain rituals and the rejection
of others. In his De Correctione Rusticorum Martin of Braga begins his attack
on superstition with an account of the Creation, the fall of Satan, Adam and
Eve and the Flood. Having provided a biblical context in which the origins
of paganism could be placed, he described how the Devil and his demons
began to deceive men, persuading them to offer sacrifice on high mountains
and in woods, and calling themselves by the names of pagan gods. From this
developed the use of temples, the worship of idols, and the veneration of mice,
worms and locusts as gods. The use of divination and augury also flourished.
Against this Martin asserts God’s Creation and the Incarnation, before warning
that those who lapsed into idolatry, homicide and perjury after baptism were
damned. He emphasises the importance of baptismal vows, and then defines
Christianity in terms of renunciation of the Devil and all his works. Worship
of stones, trees, springs, cults at crossroads and the ritual burning of corn he
condemns as idolatry. Divinations, auguries and the dedication of certain days
to idols are described as the cult of the devil, as are celebration of the Vulcanalia
and the Kalends, and such rituals as the decoration of tables. For a woman to
call on Minerva and Venus on her wedding day was to invoke the demonic,
109
Vita Vulframni c.9.
110
Avitus, Ep. 46.
111
Vita Vulframni c.10.
112
Brown (1996), pp. 216–32.
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728 ia n wood
as was the use of herbs and incantations. In place of all should be the sign of
the cross, the Lord’s Prayer, penitence, good works, belief in the Resurrection,
Sunday observance and prayer.
Martin’s work thus defined not only paganism, but also the Christian life.
In this Pirmin followed him. The opening of the Scarapsus is heavily indebted
to Martin’s work, although Pirmin follows his own account of the origins of
idolatry with a brief narrative of the Incarnation, the Passion, the harrowing of
Hell, the Ascension, Pentecost, the dispersal of the Apostles and the institution
of the church. Thereafter he provides a rather more extensive list of pagan
practices to be abjured, defining a Christian as one who does not perform
pagan actions. The workconcludes with a fuller list of Christian duties than that
provided by Martin. Tithes are now required, as is confession; the education of
children in religion is specified, as are the duties of godparents. The church’s
idea of what constituted Christianity had developed between the late sixth and
the early eighth century.
The Eligius sermons, like the Scarapsus of Pirmin, echo the emphasis on
the importance of Christian doctrine and condemnation of pagan practice to
be found in the De Correctione Rusticorum,while Daniel of Winchester, in
his letter of advice sent to Boniface in the early 720s, also emphasised the
importance of belief.
113
Christianisation, therefore, involved the dissemination
of biblical teaching, the condemnation of superstition and the development of
a Christian lifestyle, which included the performance of specified rituals and
duties. To supervise all of this an organised church was necessary.
At one level church organisation was a matter of buildings and priests. It
is possible to chart the Christianisation of the Touraine in the late fourth and
early fifth centuries by noting the foundation of churches by St Martin and
his followers.
114
Churches, as opposed to oratories, would be staffed by a priest
or priests who could ensure the regular and frequent provision of Christian
cult. The importance of church-foundation is most apparent in the Conversio
Bagoariorum et Carantanorum, which describes the Christianisation of Bavaria
and Carinthia largely in terms of the foundation of churches. Churches and
their priests provided the basis on which a parish system would in time be built.
The establishment of bishops and dioceses to supervise churches at a local level
and to provide such necessary functions as baptism and ordination took place
sometimes after, sometimes alongside and sometimes before the creation of
local churches.
The creation of a diocese, however necessary to the dissemination of
Christian teaching, did not always command general agreement even within
the church. The allocation of land to a new bishopric might be thought of as
113
Boniface, Epistola 23.
114
Stancliffe (1979).
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Christianisation and the dissemination of Christian teaching 729
undermining the claims of an established see. In the eighth century Cologne
was hostile to the existence of a diocese at Utrecht,
115
and in the ninth century
its bishop opposed the amalgamation of Hamburg and Bremen.
116
Boniface
was faced with opposition of a rather different type when Pope Zacharias ques-
tioned the suitability of W
¨
urzburg, Buraburg and Erfurt as diocesan centres,
on the grounds that such centres should not be established on estates or in
small towns for fear of undermining episcopal prestige.
117
Although such a rul-
ing may have made sense in those areas where the effects of Roman civilisation
had included urbanisation, in a free Germany it was unworkable.
Supervision was certainly needed if the church was to maintain a single
orthodox tradition. What confronted Boniface in Bavaria,Thuringia and Hesse
was not so much paganism as a level of superstitious survival which he found
unacceptable within the Christian church. Similar problems could be found
further west in Francia. The two heretics Adalbert and Clemens were both
clerics, however bizarre and indeed idolatrous their actual beliefs may have
been.
118
Adalbert promoted himself as a saint, consecrating chapels to himself
and setting up crosses and shrines at springs and in fields. He also distributed his
hair and fingernails as relics. Clemens rejected the teachings of the Fathers, and
asserted that Christ had delivered idolators as well as Christians from hell. That
these two clerics were heretical was clear enough to Boniface and to the papacy.
In other cases, however, there was room for disagreement. While Boniface
thought that a priest who had performed the baptismal rite ungrammatically
was acting heretically, Pope Zacharias, by contrast, insisted that the baptism
was valid, and that for Boniface to rebaptise was heretical.
119
Despite the common emphases of works like the De Correctione Rusticorum
and the Scarapsus of Pirmin, there was a wide variety of opinion on what was
acceptable within Christianity and the Christian life. Boniface took a more
puritanical stance than the papacy over the question of baptism, but on other
matters he was more pragmatic. Unlike Pope Zacharias he was aware that the
tradition of establishing diocesan centres in cities was unworkable in a free
Germany. Similarly, he was aware of the difficulty of enforcing the increasingly
harsh definition of the prohibited degrees ofmarriage, which had been extended
from the third or fourth to the sixth degree since the early seventh century.
120
Indeed Boniface was so alarmed by the current papal ruling that he asked the
archbishop of Canterbury, Nothelm, to check the Responsiones of Gregory the
Great over the issue.
121
115
Boniface, Epistola 109.
116
Rimbert, Vita Anskarii c.23.
117
Boniface, Epistola 51.
118
Boniface, Epistolae 59, 60, 62, 77; Council of Soissons (744), cc.2, 7, ed. Werminghoff; Willibald,
Vita Bonifatii, c.7.
119
Boniface, Epistola 68.
120
Goody (1983), pp. 134–44.
121
Boniface, Epistola 33.
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730 i an wood
It is in the letters of Gregory the Great more than in any other surviving
block of pre-Carolingian evidence that an awareness of the difficulties of pre-
scribing what was and what was not acceptable within Christianity is most
readily apparent.
122
In June 601 Gregory responded to Augustine’s request for
helpers by sending a second party of missionaries to Kent, led by Mellitus,
who carried with him a letter from the pope to Æthelberht, telling the king to
destroy idols and shrines. Meanwhile Gregory must have continued to ponder
what he had learned about the progress of the mission, for in July of the same
year he sent a letter to Mellitus ordering him to advise Augustine not to destroy
pagan shrines, but to asperge them with holy water and to set relics and altars
in them. He also instructed Mellitus to tell Augustine to make use of the pagan
practice of sacrificing cattle to devils, by encouraging the people to slaughter
the animals on the festivals of the martyrs, and to celebrate them with feasting.
Gregory clearly came to appreciate that the survival of certain elements of pagan
practice could usefully be preserved within Christianity. He, or the author of
the Libellus Responsionum, attributed to him by Bede among others, also saw the
advantage of dealing sympathetically with established social practices.
123
Thus
marriages between first cousins, and between a man and his brother’s widow
were to be frowned upon, but those contracted by parties while they were still
pagan were to be dealt with gently. Gregory’s final position on Christianisa-
tion did not require an absolute break with the social traditions of the pagan
past.
Gregory’s correspondence sheds some light on the pagan practices encoun-
tered by Augustine, and on the Christianity which was to replace them. It also
provides an insight into one method of evangelisation. There were others. To a
large extent the possible forms of mission were determined by circumstances.
The opportunities for mission within an officially Christian state differed from
those within a pagan state where the ruler was tolerant towards missionaries,
and they differed yet again from those where the governing classes were divided
in their attitudes. Missionaries were sensitive to such circumstances: not sur-
prisingly they tended – at least in those narratives which have come down
to us – to prefer to work with royal support, or at least permission, some-
thing which gave them at least a modicum of physical security. Within the
Frankish kingdom a bishop like Eligius acted as an official of the established
church. In Kent Augustine had the approval of a king who may have accepted
Christianity even before the bishop’s arrival. Both in Merovingian Francia and
in Augustine’s Kent missionaries could work from ecclesiastical communities,
from episcopal households or from monasteries. Elsewhere such bases and
retreats were not available. Nevertheless pagan kings were prepared to allow
122
Gregory, Register xi.37, 56:Markus (1970), pp. 29–38.
123
Bede, HE i.27.
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Christianisation and the dissemination of Christian teaching 731
missionaries to preach. Penda in Mercia
124
and Radbod in Frisia
125
were both
tolerant in this respect. In Saxony, however, Lebuin at best had the support of
some members of the aristocracy, but he was certainly opposed by others.
Despite the variety of circumstance, in all these cases preaching was at the
heart of missionary work. Sometimes it required translators. The Northum-
brian king Oswald initially acted as an interpreter for the Irish missionary
Aidan.
126
In some instances the question of language involved forethought.
Augustine took Frankish interpreters to Kent.
127
Sometimes slaves were pur-
chased and trained to act as missionaries to their homelands. This was a policy
used by Anskar in the ninth century,
128
but it may have been developed earlier
by Willibrord, who took thirty Danes back to Francia with him.
129
Earlier
missionaries, including Aidan and Amandus, also bought slaves and trained
them as clerics,
130
while Gregory the Great had already instructed his agent
Candidus to do something similar.
131
These freedmen may have gone on to
help in missionary work, even when the sources do not say as much.
The message of the missionaries seems largely to have been a statement of
the Christian faith, together with a condemnation of idolatry. The sermons
ascribed to Eligius and the letter of Daniel of Winchester to Boniface suggest
that what was preached in the field during the seventh and eighth centuries
differed little from the content of the De Correctione Rusticorum of Martin of
Braga and the Scarapsus of Pirmin. Daniel does, however, suggest an additional
line of approach. He points out that the gods fail to take revenge on the
Christians who destroy their idols, and also that the Christians possess the
most fertile lands.
132
Lebuin is said to have drawn the attention of his Saxon
hearers to the threat posed to them by the Christian empire of the Franks
on their doorstep.
133
The hagiographer says that Lebuin’s words fell on deaf
ears. Although the speech given to him is a literary invention, perhaps of the
late ninth century, some pagans may well have found comparison with the
greater power, wealth and achievement of the Christian Franks’ telling. The
Hewalds who followed Willibrord from Ireland to the continent, and who
worked among the Old Saxons, were killed by barbarians who were afraid that
the message of the two Christians might prove attractive to the local ‘satrap’.
134
He in turn ordered the destruction of the murderers and their village. Some
124
Bede, HE iii.21.
125
Despite the hostility of the hagiographers it is clear from the narratives of Alcuin’s Vita Willibrordi,
the Vita Vulframni and Altfrid’s Vita Liudgeri that Christianisation was carried out at various times
during Radbod’s reign.
126
Bede, HE iii.3.
127
Bede, HE i.25.
128
Rimbert, Vita Anskarii c.15.
129
Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi c.9.
130
Bede, HE iii.5; Vita Amandi c.9.
131
Gregory, Register vi.10; see Markus (1997), pp. 177–8, for a discussion.
132
Boniface, Epistola 23.
133
Vita Lebuini Antiqua c.6.
134
Bede, HE v.10.
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732 ian wood
were clearly willing to listen to and be convinced by the arguments which the
missionaries put before them.
The reaction of the ‘satrap’ to the martyrdom of the Hewalds is an indication
that even in pagan areas Christians could expect a hearing. Indeed there is little
evidence for outright hostility to missionaries when they first arrived in their
chosen field of work. According to Alcuin, Willibrord was well received by
Radbod and by the Danish king Ongendus, who was supposed to be more
cruel than any wild beast and harder than any stone.
135
Although he achieved
nothing in Denmark Willibrord apparently met no difficulty in approaching
the king. It may be that traditions of hospitality among the Germanic peoples
here facilitated the work of a missionary.
136
At the same time the clearly distinctive features of a missionary’s lifestyle,
those points which distinguished him as ‘other’, could cause problems. Bede, in
his account of the martyrdom of the Hewalds, stresses that it was their habit of
reciting the psalms, of saying prayers and of celebrating mass which identified
them as Christians, and which first made them suspect to their killers.
137
Clearly
this is a reconstruction of events on Bede’s part, but it is one which fits well
with other evidence. Boniface, for instance, was martyred on a day which he
had set aside for the confirmation of Christian neophytes.
138
Later, in the last
decade of the tenth century, Adalbert of Prague seems to have recognised the
gulf caused by the practice of Christian rituals and a Christian style of life,
or so his hagiographer, Bruno of Querfurt, who was himself a missionary,
claimed.
139
Doubtless the performance of Christian rituals was comforting
to the individual missionaries, but at times it seems to have made them too
ostentatiously different from those they wished to evangelise. Christian rites
could provide the flashpoints which led to martyrdom.
By comparison the aggressive tactics adopted by some missionaries could
be less hazardous than the simple singing of psalms, saying of prayers and
celebration of mass. Certainly missionaries did come close to being lynched
when they attacked pagan shrines and other objects of devotion. Even inside
the Roman Empire, Martin of Tours was attacked by incensed pagans on more
than one occasion,
140
and in the Merovingian period, Gallus of Clermont
narrowlyavoidedmartyrdom when he desecrated a temple in the Trier region.
141
Willibrord was physically attacked when he destroyed an idol on Walcheren.
142
When, however, he broke the taboos at the shrine of Fosite the pagans only
took action after they had consulted the sortes:asaresult one, but only one,
135
Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi c.9.
136
Wood (1987), pp. 349–51.
137
Bede, HE v.10.
138
Willibald, Vita Bonifatii c.8.
139
Bruno of Querfurt, Vita Adalberti c.26;Wood (1987), pp. 358–9.
140
Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini c.15.
141
Gregory of Tours, Vitae Patrum vi.2.
142
Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi c.14.