REVUE BENEDICTINE TOME CENT NEUVIEME 1999 ABBAYE DE MAREDSOUS Belgique ', ": `ýe. ý' `. =; 1ý"ýtýiIL: ivi , . ., ` . 99 ýý2eS MILITES CHRISTI UTRIUSQUESEXUS GENDER AND THE POLITICS OF CONVERSION IN THE CIRCLE OF BONIFACE* In the late ninth century, the nuns of Monheim played an active role in the evangelisation of south-eastern Germany by promoting the cult of \Valpurgis and by providing accommodation for the many pilgrims who made their way to Monheim. Furthermore, the nuns of Monheim devised their own liturgical forms to cope with all those pilgrims, and in the absence of any priest, it was the abbess herself who said bless- ings over them. ' This may seem a strange point from which to begin a discussion on gender and conversion in the circle of Boniface. The case of Monheim, however, raises in sharp detail the culmination of a phe- nomenon whose origins, I would argue, are well rooted in the time and circle of Boniface: namely, the interesting and crucial role played by nuns in early medieval society. My purpose in this paper is to ask whether there was a change in Gaul in the second half of the eighth century in the way that the missionary work was understood by Boni- face himself and by his contemporaries, and how such a change influ- enced the role played by women in the missionary circle of Boniface. Boniface and conversion Let me first fill in the historical background. The history of the Church Frankish in the first half of the eighth century was dominated by the activities of missionaries, who had emerged, relatively suddenly, as the new dominant figures in the ecclesiastical history of the Frank- *I am grateful to Rosamond 111eKitterickand 111aykeDe Jong for their advice and comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 1. See J. NELSON,`Les femmes et l'evangelisation an ixC siecle', Revue du Nord 68 (1986), pp. 471-85, especially pp. 479-80. 18 REVUE BENEDICTINE ish kingdom. ' Foremost among those missionaries was \Vynfrith, 'an impressive but troubled" Anglo-Saxon who, after an abortive mission- ary expedition to Frisia in 716, returned to Hesse and Thuringia two years later charged by Pope Gregory II 'to teach the heathens'. ' This time he was also given the new name of Boniface' The abundant and explicit evidence concerning Boniface and his activities - the uilae of Boniface himself and of his Anglo-Saxon followers as well as his co- pious correspondence - might give the false impression that Boniface was sent by the Pope to convert the heathens in a virgin pagan terri- tory. ' Reality, however, was quite different. From other contemporary sources and thanks to modern research it is now clear that the regions to which Boniface was sent and in which he operated were far from 2. See K. SCIIÄFERDIEK, Kirehengesehichle als Missionsgeschichte, 11 - Die Kirche des frühen 4llillelallers (Munich, 1978); J. M. WALLACE-1-IADIBLL, The Frankish Church (Oxford, 1983), pp. 143-61; I. N. Wool), The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751 (London, 1999), pp. 301-21; L. E. vox PADBEnG, Mission und Christianisierung. Formen und Folgen bei Angelsachsen und Franken im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1995); P. BROWN, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A. D. 200-1000 (Oxford, 1996), pp. 25.1-75. 3. BROWN,The Rise of WesternChristendom, pp. 263-1. 4. BoNIFACE, Epislola 12, cd. M. TANGL, Die Briefe des heiligen Bonifatius und Lltl- lus, MGI-I Epistolae Selectae (Berlin, 1916). pp. 17-18. A useful selection of Boniface's letters in English translation can be found in E. EIERTON ed., The Lepers of Saint Boniface (New York, 19-10); C. H. TALBOT ed., The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Ger- many (London, 195.1), pp. 65-149. 5. The amount of literature on Boniface and his mission is enormous and cannot be listed here. The following studies are the most important contributions to the bur- geoning literature on Boniface: W. LEVISO., England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (Oxford, 1916), pp. 70-93; T. ScIIIEFFER, Winfrid-Bonifalius und die kirchliche Grundlegung Europas (Freiburg, 195-1); J. M. WALLACE-I IADnILL, 'A background to St. Boniface's mission, in P. CLESIOFSand K. Ilucues eds., England before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 35-18 [reprinted in IDEM, Early Medieval History (Oxford, 1975), pp. 138-591; T. IieI. -rl: R ed., The Greatest Englishman: Essays on St. Boniface and the Church at Crediton (Exe- ter, 1080); R. MCKITrERICK, Anglo-Saxon missionaries in Germany: personal canner- lions and local influences, Vaughan Paper 36 (Leicester, 1991) preprinted in EADESI, The Frankish Kings and Culture in the Early Middle Ages (Aldershot, 1995), chapter I]. For further bibliography, see A. DI BERARDINO cd., Patrologia, IV (Home, 1996), pp. 40.1-29. 6. For the life of Boniface, see \VILLIBALD, Vila Bonifatif, ed. W. LEvIsoN, MGI-I SRG in usum scholarum 57 (Hannover, 1905). For an English translation, sec TALBOT ed., The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries, pp. 25-62 [reprinted with introduction and notes in T. F. X. NOBLE and T. HEAD eds., Soldiers of Christ: Saints and Saints' Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (London, 1995), pp. 105-101. On the vitae of Boniface and his followers, see W. BERSCIIIN, Biographie und Epochenstil irn latei- Millelaller, 111- Karolingische Biographie, 750-920 Quellen Untersuchun- nischen , und gen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters 10 (Stuttgart, 1991), pp. 1-9.1; I. N. WOOD, 'Missionary hagiography in the eighth and ninth century', in K. I3nuNNl: lt and B. MERTA eds., Ethnogenese und Überlieferung: Angewandte Melhoden der Frlillmit- lelallerforschung (Vienna and Munich, 1991), pp. 189-99. Y. HEN 19 being pagan, nor was he the only missionary working there. ' In fact, Boniface hardly converted any pagans to Christianity. A close exam- ination of the sources reveals that Boniface was mainly preoccupied with the enhancement of ecclesiastical rules and regulations and with the reorganisation of the Frankish Church. ' Like Caesarius of Arles two hundred years before him, Boniface wanted to bring the Frankish Church into line with ecclesiastical norms from which he thought it had deviated. ' Thus, promoting Roman norms in doctrine, canon law, and liturgy in an already Christianised territory, rather than Christia- nising pagan tribes, was the heart of Boniface's labour on the Conti- nent. At a fairly early stage of his mission, Boniface travelled to Rome to seek the Pope's approval for his activities, and supported by the early Carolingians lie completed the reorganisation of the Church east of the Rhine by the early 740s. 10 Under the auspices of Carloman, Boniface became one of the most influential bishops in the Frankish kingdom, but not for long. After Carloman's retirement to the monastery of Monte Casino in Italy, Boniface seems to have had little access to the Frankish court and consequently little influence on the Frankish Church. Only then Boniface embarked on a more 'traditional' mission- 7. See, for example, A. ANGENENDT, `Pirmin und Bonifatius: ihr Verhältnis zu Mönchtum, Bischofsamt und Adel', in A. BORST ed., Mönclilum, Episkopat und Adel zur Gründungszeit des Klosters Reichenau (Sigmaringen, 1974), pp. 251-304; H. LÖWE, `Pirmin, Willibrord und Bonifatius: ihre Bedeutung für die Missionsgeschichte ihrer Zeit, in La conversione at cristianesimo nell'Europa dell'allo medioevo, Settimane di stu- dio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo 14 (Spoleto, 1967), pp. 327-72 [re- printed in IDEM, Religiosität und Bildung inn frühen Millelaller (Weimar, 1994), pp. 133-771. 8. SCHIEFFER, Winfrid-Bonifatius, pp. 139-57; H. J. SC1IUSSLER, 'Die fränkische Reichsteilung von Vieux-Poitiers (742) und die Reform der Kirche in den Teilreichen Karlmanns und Pippins. Zu den Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Bonifatius', Francia 13 (1986), pp. 47-112; T. REUTER, '"Kirchenreform" und "Kirchenpolitik" im Zeitalter Karl Martells: Begriffe und Wirklichkeit', in J. JARNUT, U. NoNN and M. RICHTER eds., Karl Martell in seiner Zeit, Beihefte der Francia 37 (Sigmaringen, 1994), pp. 35- 59; R. MCKITTERICK, 'England and the continent', in EADETI ed., The New Cambridge Medieval History, II - c. 700 - c. 900 (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 64-84, at pp. 72-6. 9. See R. A. MARKUS, 'From Caesarius to Boniface: Christianity and paganism in Gaul', in J. FONTAINE and J. N. HILLGARTII eds., The Seventh Century: Change and Continuity (London, 1992), 159-68. On Caesarius of Arles, see W. E. KLINGSIIIRN, Cae- sarius of Arles: The Making of a Christian Community in Laic Antique Gaul (Cam- bridge, 1994), especially pp. 171-243. 10. See BoNIFACE,Epislolae 48,50 and 51, pp. 76-8,80-86 and 86-92 respectively. See also H. LÖWE,'Bonifatius und die bayrische fränkische Spannung: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen dem Papsttum und den Karolingern', Jahrbuch für fränkische Landesforschung15 (1955), pp. 85-128; F. STARE,'Die Grundung der Bistümer Erfurt, Büroburg und Würzburg durch Bonifatius im Rahmen der frän- kischen und päpstlichen Politik', Archiv für mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte40 (1988), pp. 13-11; ,McKIrrERICK, 'England and the continent', pp. 73-5. 20 REVUE BENEDICTINE ary activity among the pagans of north Frisia, where he was murdered in 754 near Dokkum shortly after arriving there. " Against this background, one has to redefine the term 'mission' in order for it to fit the work of Boniface and his followers. The idea of 'mission' as the conversion of pagans into Christianity is far too blunt an analytical model with which to dissect the role of Boniface and his pupils. 12Resorting to such a notion of 'mission' ignores both the multi- formity of Boniface's activities and the limited role he had in convert- ing pagan people. After all, Boniface was nothing like Martin of Tours.