io6 Readings in European History 45. Oath taken by Boniface to the pope (722). 46. How Boniface destroyed the oak of Thor. (From Willibald's Life of Boniface, written before 786.) according to the custom and precepts of the holy Catholic Apostolic Church ; . . . And ye shall abhor the rites of the heathen, and the teaching of those coming from Britain and of false heretical priests. . . . I, Boniface, bishop by the grace of God, promise to you, the blessed Peter, chief of the apostles, and to thy vicar, the blessed Pope Gregory, and to his successors, by the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, the indivisible Trinity, and by this thy most holy body, that, God helping me, I will maintain all the belief and the purity of the holy Catholic faith, and I will remain steadfast in the unity of this faith in which the whole salvation of Christians lies, as is established without doubt. I will in no wise oppose the unity of the one universal Church, no matter who may seek to persuade me. But as I have said, I will maintain my faith and purity and union with thee and the benefits of thy Church, to whom God has given the power to loose and to bind, and with thy vicar and his successors, in all things. And if it comes to my knowledge that priests have turned from the ancient practices of the holy fathers, I will have no intercourse nor connection with them ; but rather, if I can restrain them, I will. If I cannot, I will at once faithfully make known the whole matter to my apostolic lord. 1 Many of the people of Hesse were converted [by Boniface] to the Catholic faith and confirmed by the grace of the spirit : and they received the laying on of hands. But some there were, not yet strong of soul, who refused to accept wholly the teachings of the true faith. Some men sacrificed secretly, some even openly, to trees and springs. Some secretly practiced divining, soothsaying, and incantations, and some openly. But others, who were of sounder mind, cast aside all heathen profanation and did none of these things ; and it 1 This oath follows almost word for word that taken to the pope by the bishops in the immediate vicinity of Rome, who were under his special control.
