FULDA, MONASTERY OF, was founded in 744 by Boniface, " the apostle" of Ger many, who sent Sturmius, one of his followers, to search for a suitable site secure from Saxon attack. This was discovered on the banks of the Fulda, in the depths of the forest, within what afterwards became the duchy of Hesse-Cassel. A grant of the spot, with 4 m. of surrounding territory, was obtained from Carloman, son of Charles Martel. Boniface superintended the clearing of the ground and the erection of the building, while Sturmius .pent a year in Italy, visiting the monasteries, and studying the mode of life pursued at the celebrated Benedictine convent of Monte Cassino. The Benedictine rule having been adopted, Sturmius was made abbot, and, with seven began the work of preaching, instruction, and civilization. The rude tribes were taught agriculture, building, and other peaceful arts. A school was established on the model of those taught by Patrick and Columba in the British isles. This soon became the most important work of the monastery, and a center of mediaeval theologi cal learning. Under -Rabanus Maurus. the first of the schoolmen, there were instructors who taught grammar, rhetoric, logic, the German language, and theology, together with a practical knowledge of mechanics and fine arts. Many princes, after
wards famous, were educated there. Alcuin, in his great work of founding and advanc ing universities in continental Europe, looked for help to Fulda as one of the acknowl edged centers of There also originated many other missionary monasteries, the most celebrated of which was Hirsgaw, in the diocese of Speier. In 968, the abbot of Fulda was made primate of the abbeys of Germany. But with the advance in influ ence and wealth there was an increasing corruption in many of the monasteries; and from this Fulda did not escape. At the beginning of the 11th c., a reform was attempted by substituting new monks from Scotland for the old, and re-establishing in all its strictness the Benedictine rule. The reformation of the 16th c. seems to have been welcomed by many of the monks; but in 1573, the abbot thoroughly effected among them the suppression of evangelical doctrine.