To the most reverend and beloved lord and master to be revered in fear and honour, Zacharias, invested with the privilege of the apostolic office and raised to the dignity of the Apostolic See, Boniface, your humble and most unworthy servant, but your devoted legate in Germany, sends greetings of unfailing love.
I beg Your Gracious Highness with earnest prayer to receive with kindness and favour a priest of mine, Lull, and bearer of my letter. He brings certain confidential messages for your gracious hearing only, partly by word of mouth, partly in writing. He will also make certain enquiries of importance to me and bring me for the comfort of my old age your answers and fatherly advice given with all the authority of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles. When you have heard and considered all these matters, if they meet with your approval, I shall strive with God's help to enlarge upon them, but if, as I fear, they may not altogether please you, I shall follow your apostolic precept and either crave your indulgence or do penance as is fitting.
When your predecessor once removed, Gregory II, of revered memory, consecrated me bishop, unworthy as I was, and sent me to preach the word of faith to the Germans, he bound me by oath to support by word and deed all those bishops and priests who were canonically elected and of blameless life. This by divine grace I have tried to do. False priests, however, and hypocrites misleading the people, I was either to convert to the way of salvation or to reject and refrain from associating with them. This I have in part accomplished, but in part have not been able to maintain. In spirit I have kept my oath, because I have not agreed with them nor taken part in their counsels; but in the letter I could not avoid contact with them because when I went to the Frankish court on urgent ecclesiastical matters there were men there whom I would rather not have met.
The Pontiff also told me to make reports to the Apostolic See on the life and customs of the races I visited. And this I hope that I have done. But on the matter which I made known to you about the archbishops making their pleas for pallia from Rome, as the Franks promised they would, I crave the indulgence of the Apostolic See, because they are slow to carry out their promises. They are still discussing the matter and putting it off, and it is uncertain what they intend to do. But had it been left to me, the promise would have been kept. There is a wooded place in the midst of a vast wilderness situated among the peoples to whom I am preaching.[] There I have placed a group of monks living under the rule of St. Benedict who are building a monastery. They are men of ascetic habits, who abstain from meat and wine and spirits, keeping no servants, but are content with the labour of their own hands. This place I have acquired by honourable effort through the help of pious and God-fearing men, especially of Carloman, formerly King of the Franks, and have dedicated it in honour of the Holy Saviour.
A fuller account of the foundation of the Abbey of Fulda will be found in the Life of St. Sturm, its first abbot.
Here I propose with your kind permission to rest my aged and worn body for a little time and after my death to be buried here. The four peoples to whom we have preached the Word of God by the grace of God dwell., as all know, round about this place, and as long as I Eve and retain my faculties I can with your support be useful to them. It is my desire, sustained by your prayers and led by God's grace, to continue my close relations with you and to remain in your service among the German people to whom I was sent, and to follow your directions as it is written:[Ecclus iii.2] "Hear the judgment of your father, 0 my children, and so act that you may be saved. He that gives glory to his father shall have length of days. In deed and word honour thy father that a blessing may come to thee from him, for a blessing of the father establisheth the houses of children."
To the most reverend and beloved lord and master to be revered in fear and honour, Zacharias, invested with the privilege of the apostolic office and raised to the dignity of the Apostolic See, Boniface, your humble and most unworthy servant, but your devoted legate in Germany, sends greetings of unfailing love.
I beseech Your Gracious Highness with earnest prayer to receive with kindness and favour a priest of mine, Lull, and bearer of my letter. He brings certain confidential messages for your gracious hearing only, partly by word of mouth, partly in writing. He will also make certain enquiries of importance to me and bring me for the comfort of my old age your answers and fatherly advice given with all the authority of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles. When you have heard and considered all these matters, if they meet with your approval, I shall strive with God's help to enlarge upon them, but if, as I fear, they may not altogether please you, I shall follow your apostolic precept and either crave your indulgence or do penance as is fitting.
When your predecessor once removed, Gregory II, of revered memory, consecrated me bishop, unworthy as I was, and sent me to preach the word of faith to the Germans, he bound me by oath to support by word and deed all those bishops and priests who were canonically elected and of blameless life. This by divine grace I have tried to do. False priests, however, and hypocrites misleading the people, I was either to convert to the way of salvation or to reject and refrain from associating with them. This I have in part accomplished, but in part have not been able to maintain. In spirit I have kept my oath, because I have not agreed with them nor taken part in their counsels; but in the letter I could not avoid contact with them because when I went to the Frankish court on urgent ecclesiastical matters there were men there whom I would rather not have met.
The Pontiff also told me to make reports to the Apostolic See on the life and customs of the races I visited. And this I hope that I have done. But on the matter which I made known to you about the archbishops making their pleas for pallia from Rome, as the Franks promised they would, I crave the indulgence of the Apostolic See, because they are slow to carry out their promises. They are still discussing the matter and putting it off, and it is uncertain what they intend to do. But had it been left to me, the promise would have been kept. There is a wooded place in the midst of a vast wilderness situated among the peoples to whom I am preaching.[] There I have placed a group of monks living under the rule of St. Benedict who are building a monastery. They are men of ascetic habits, who abstain from meat and wine and spirits, keeping no servants, but are content with the labour of their own hands. This place I have acquired by honourable effort through the help of pious and God-fearing men, especially of Carloman, formerly King of the Franks, and have dedicated it in honour of the Holy Saviour.
A fuller account of the foundation of the Abbey of Fulda will be found in the Life of St. Sturm, its first abbot.
Here I propose with your kind permission to rest my aged and worn body for a little time and after my death to be buried here. The four peoples to whom we have preached the Word of God by the grace of God dwell., as all know, round about this place, and as long as I Eve and retain my faculties I can with your support be useful to them. It is my desire, sustained by your prayers and led by God's grace, to continue my close relations with you and to remain in your service among the German people to whom I was sent, and to follow your directions as it is written:[Ecclus iii.2] "Hear the judgment of your father, 0 my children, and so act that you may be saved. He that giveth glory to his father shall have length of days. In deed and word honour thy father that a blessing may come to thee from him, for a blessing of the father establisheth the houses of children."
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To the most reverend and beloved lord and master to be revered in fear and honour, Zacharias, invested with the privilege of the apostolic office and raised to the dignity of the Apostolic See, Boniface, your humble and most unworthy servant, but your devoted legate in Germany, sends greetings of unfailing love.
I beg Your Gracious Highness with earnest prayer to receive with kindness and favour a priest of mine, Lull, and bearer of my letter. He brings certain confidential messages for your gracious hearing only, partly by word of mouth, partly in writing. He will also make certain enquiries of importance to me and bring me for the comfort of my old age your answers and fatherly advice given with all the authority of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles. When you have heard and considered all these matters, if they meet with your approval, I shall strive with God's help to enlarge upon them, but if, as I fear, they may not altogether please you, I shall follow your apostolic precept and either crave your indulgence or do penance as is fitting.
When your predecessor once removed, Gregory II, of revered memory, consecrated me bishop, unworthy as I was, and sent me to preach the word of faith to the Germans, he bound me by oath to support by word and deed all those bishops and priests who were canonically elected and of blameless life. This by divine grace I have tried to do. False priests, however, and hypocrites misleading the people, I was either to convert to the way of salvation or to reject and refrain from associating with them. This I have in part accomplished, but in part have not been able to maintain. In spirit I have kept my oath, because I have not agreed with them nor taken part in their counsels; but in the letter I could not avoid contact with them because when I went to the Frankish court on urgent ecclesiastical matters there were men there whom I would rather not have met.
The Pontiff also told me to make reports to the Apostolic See on the life and customs of the races I visited. And this I hope that I have done. But on the matter which I made known to you about the archbishops making their pleas for pallia from Rome, as the Franks promised they would, I crave the indulgence of the Apostolic See, because they are slow to carry out their promises. They are still discussing the matter and putting it off, and it is uncertain what they intend to do. But had it been left to me, the promise would have been kept. There is a wooded place in the midst of a vast wilderness situated among the peoples to whom I am preaching.[] There I have placed a group of monks living under the rule of St. Benedict who are building a monastery. They are men of ascetic habits, who abstain from meat and wine and spirits, keeping no servants, but are content with the labour of their own hands. This place I have acquired by honourable effort through the help of pious and God-fearing men, especially of Carloman, formerly King of the Franks, and have dedicated it in honour of the Holy Saviour.
A fuller account of the foundation of the Abbey of Fulda will be found in the Life of St. Sturm, its first abbot.
Here I propose with your kind permission to rest my aged and worn body for a little time and after my death to be buried here. The four peoples to whom we have preached the Word of God by the grace of God dwell., as all know, round about this place, and as long as I Eve and retain my faculties I can with your support be useful to them. It is my desire, sustained by your prayers and led by God's grace, to continue my close relations with you and to remain in your service among the German people to whom I was sent, and to follow your directions as it is written:[Ecclus iii.2] "Hear the judgment of your father, 0 my children, and so act that you may be saved. He that gives glory to his father shall have length of days. In deed and word honour thy father that a blessing may come to thee from him, for a blessing of the father establisheth the houses of children."
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.