Europe had freed herself from the danger of Mohammedanism attacking from the east and South, but before the end of the century was to witness an invasion of almost more serious nature from the opposite quarter. The Vikings or Norsemen invaded Britain in the last decade of the century and were to prove a serious foe to civilization for the next three centuries in many countries of Europe. Bri tain and Ireland had succeeded in developing education and culture, and Gaul had made a magnificent beginning under Charlemagne, but the Danes were to prove a serious detriment and obstacle. Alfred overcame them in the next century for a time in Britain, but the northern coast of France had to be given over to them and they obtained a foothold in Sicily and southern Italy. They represent a much more serious impediment to the evolution of civiliza tion at this time than any internal factor.
The 8th century was the scene of the career of one of these men who, forgetting them selves in life, are never willingly forgotten. This was Boniface, the apostle of Germany. His name was Winf rid (A. S., uwin-peace)), and he received the surname of Bonifacius from the Latin signifying ((good face or the benevolent.) Born of noble parents in Devon shire, England, he insisted on devoting himself to the spiritual and intellectual life in a monas tery at Exeter, and when his talents assured his advancement, he obtained permission to be come a missionary to the old Saxons. Some 40 years were spent in missionary labors, and Boniface has been in honor ever since as the apostle of civilization as well as of Christianity to the German people. Distinction came to him unsought and Boniface was made a bishop and subsequently archbishop of Mainz and primate of Germany. Having solved some of the serious problems of ecclesiastical jurisdiction by his genius in the management of men as well as his kindliness of disposition he gave up his archbishopric to become a missionary to the Frisians by whom he was put to death. His letters which have been preserved show us the interests of the time better, perhaps, than almost any other set of documents of the period that we possess.
One of the most interesting of Boniface's developments in Germany was his invitation to English nuns to help him in his mission. He recognized that the German women still swayed that influence in the communities which has been described by Tacitus and realized that women auxiliaries would be of great help on the mission. Thecla and Lioba, to whom the title of Saints has been accorded, accepted this invitation and exercised great influence. Boniface's letters show how thoroughly he ap preciated the nuns as intelligent fellow-laborers in his apostolate. The education of the chil dren of the Germans was confided to them and a greater influence was thus brought to bear on the Teuton women than could otherwise have been exercised. It was to the rising generation that Boniface looked for the exhibi tion of genuine Christianity for it had proved extremely difficult to bend the savage natures of the Germans to the milder virtues of the Gospel. Saint Thecla particularly did much to organize the rising generation of young German women to carry on her missionary work.
The 8th century is usually considered one of the low periods of intellectual life in history and yet it contains the careers of three men famous ever after for their intellectual work.
The greatest of these is undoubtedly the man who, within two generations of his death, came to bear the title of Venerable Bede, by which he has been known ever since. Something of the place that he secured for himself in Chris tian scholarship will probably be best appre ciated from the fact that in November 1899 Pope Leo XIII decreed to him the title of Doctor of the Church. Bede's influence was very great in his own time, not only in England but throughout all of western Europe, and in spite of the incursions of the Danes which dis turbed English Christianity and its influence so much, Bede's work came to be widely known. He has come to be recognized as the greatest scholar of his time—a writer whose style and critical judgment have made him a favorite author even in modern times. With a literary propriety seldom exhibited in his time he re ferred all his materials to their sources and insisted on copyists giving all the references. His critical, historical judgment has given him a distinct place among the historians. His life was a round of study and prayer with oc casional visits for a few tlays to friends and is the ideal scholarly writer's life at all dines. The surprise is to find it so well exemplified in the England of the first half of the 8th century.
The second of these great scholars, John of Damascus, or Saint John Damascene, also had the distinction of being enrolled among the Doctors of the Church by Pope Leo XIII. His intellectual distinction is that of being the first of the scholastic philosophers and his 'De fide orthodoxa' is often hailed as the first work of scholasticism. He undoubtedly had a deep influence upon the Arabian scholars of his tirne, and their philosophy owes much to his inspiration for they admired him as much as his Christian colleagues. The most important of his works is that one known as the (Foun tain of Wisdom.' It has a special significance in the history of theology because it is the first attempt at a Sumnia Theologica that has come down to us, though there were to be many such in all the centuries of the Middle Ages after ward. Damascene's work for the Church is due to Leo the Isaurian's attempt to be head of both Church and state and dictate the beliefs of his people in the matter of the veneration of images. When Leo issued his first edict, John was chief councillor of the city of Damascus and not a cleric, but he took up the defense of Church traditions, and then, recognizing his lacic of knowledge for Christian apologetics, he en tered a monastery, pve himself to study and became the great leader of the Christian thought of the time. He suffered bitter pros ecution at the hands of the emperor and his satellites, but he was vindicated by the Seventh General Council of Nice (787) and came. to be known after the Greek fashion of adding a title of admiration as John Chrysorrhoas, that is, cJohn of the Golden Stream,'" because of his golden flow of words in defense of Christianity. Damascene is besides one of the world's great writers of hymns, and modern hymnologists have even spoken of him as the prince of Greek hymnodists. Three of his hymns, 'Those Eternal Bowers,' 'Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain) and PTis The Day of the Resurrection,' are widely known and admired in their English version.