Editing Saint Boniface (section)

==Boniface and the Carolingians==

[[File:St Boniface - Baptising-Martyrdom - Sacramentary of Fulda - 11Century.jpg|thumb|right|Fulda Sacramentary, Saint Boniface baptising (top) and being martyred (bottom)]]
The support of the [[Franks|Frankish]] [[mayor of the palace|mayors of the palace]], and later the early [[Pippinids]] and the Carolingian dynasty, was essential for Boniface's work. Boniface had been under the protection of [[Charles Martel]] from 723 onwards.<ref>Greenaway 25.</ref> The Christian Frankish leaders desired to defeat their rival power, the pagan Saxons, and to incorporate the Saxon lands into their own growing empire. Boniface's campaign of destruction of [[Germanic paganism|indigenous Germanic pagan]] sites may have benefited the Franks in their campaign against the Saxons.

In 732, Boniface traveled again to Rome to report, and [[Pope Gregory III]] conferred upon him the [[pallium]] as archbishop with jurisdiction over what is now Germany. Boniface again set out for the German lands and continued his mission, but also used his authority to work on the relations between the papacy and the Frankish church. Rome wanted more control over that church, which it felt was much too independent and which, in the eyes of Boniface, was subject to worldly corruption. [[Charles Martel]], after having defeated the forces of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] during the [[Battle of Tours]] (732), had rewarded many churches and monasteries with lands, but typically his supporters who held church offices were allowed to benefit from those possessions. Boniface would have to wait until the 740s before he could try to address this situation, in which Frankish church officials were essentially [[sinecure]]s, and the church itself paid little heed to Rome. During his third visit to Rome in 737–38, he was made [[papal legate]] for Germany.<ref>Moore.</ref>

After Boniface's third trip to Rome, Charles Martel established four dioceses in Bavaria ([[Bishopric of Salzburg|Salzburg]], [[Bishopric of Regensburg|Regensburg]], [[Bishopric of Freising|Freising]], and [[Bishopric of Passau|Passau]]) and gave them to Boniface as [[archbishop]] and [[metropolitan bishop|metropolitan]] over all Germany east of the Rhine. In 745, he was granted Mainz as metropolitan see.<ref>Good.</ref> In 742, one of his disciples, [[Saint Sturm|Sturm]] (also known as Sturmi, or Sturmius), founded the [[Fulda monastery|abbey of Fulda]] not far from Boniface's earlier missionary outpost at Fritzlar. Although Sturm was the founding abbot of Fulda, Boniface was very involved in the foundation. The initial grant for the abbey was signed by [[Carloman (mayor of the palace)|Carloman]], the son of [[Charles Martel]], and a supporter of Boniface's reform efforts in the Frankish church. Boniface himself explained to his old friend, Daniel of Winchester, that without the protection of Charles Martel he could "neither administer his church, defend his clergy, nor prevent idolatry".

According to German historian Gunther Wolf, the high point of Boniface's career was the [[Concilium Germanicum]], organized by Carloman in an unknown location in April 743. Although Boniface was not able to safeguard the church from property seizures by the local nobility, he did achieve one goal, the adoption of stricter guidelines for the Frankish clergy,<ref>Wolf 2–5.</ref> who often hailed directly from the nobility. After Carloman's resignation in 747 he maintained a sometimes turbulent relationship with the king of the Franks, [[Pepin the Short]]; the claim that he would have crowned Pepin at [[Soissons]] in 751 is now generally discredited.<ref>Wolf 5.</ref>

Boniface balanced this support and attempted to maintain some independence, however, by attaining the support of the papacy and of the [[Agilolfings]] of [[Bavaria]]. In Frankish, Hessian, and Thuringian territory, he established the diocese of [[Würzburg]] (741).<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03064b.htm Kirsch, Johann Peter. "St. Burchard of Würzurg." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 27 December 2022 {{PD-notice}}</ref> By appointing his own followers as bishops, he was able to retain some independence from the Carolingians, who most likely were content to give him leeway as long as Christianity was imposed on the Saxons and other Germanic tribes.