at this time were Arians, as were nearly all the Germanic tribes that had received Christianity from the West Goths. By the middle of the seventh century, however, they had all renounced the heretical creed and come under the jurisdiction of the Church of Rome.

Though there were Christian congregations and colonies in Gaul at an early period, and the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne were among the distinguished confessors of the truth in the face of heathen persecution, there was not much extension till the end of the fourth century. The beginning of a new era is marked by the baptism on Christmas day, in 496, of Clovis, King of the Franks, together with three thousand of his soldiers. He was the one ruler in the West who accepted the Nicene creed, and he lost no time in pressing the advantage it gave him and in adding Arian provinces to his kingdom.

The sturdy and patriotic Germans met with stubborn opposition those who endeavored to subjugate them and to impose upon them a religion different from that of their fathers. To them it meant the supplanting of the gods they had been taught to revere, and it seemed to threaten their national independence. But through the regenerating power of the divine Word they came to bow in allegiance before the King Immanuel, and, once their hearts were given to Him, they proved loyal subjects.

The earliest Christian congregations in Germany were doubtless started in connection with military camps and colonies. Among the places noted are Cologne, Treves, Mainz, Worms, Strasburg and Basel. Among the pioneer missionaries of the cross are mentioned Severin, Fridolin and Kilian. There was a distinct advance in the work of evangelization when Columbanus,

with twelve associates, came across the channel in 583 and began to preach the Gospel to the dwellers in the Vosges mountains. They soon came into conflict with the Roman monks and prelates and were forced to leave the country. They continued their labors in Switzerland and Italy. His fiery zeal against heathenism made Columbanus somewhat of an iconoclast, for it is said not only that he preached the Gospel of divine love, but also that he burned temples, broke idols in pieces, and flung them into the lake. His pupil Gallus founded the celebrated monastery of St. Gall and Christianized many in Switzerland.

Among the distinguished representatives of the Anglo-Saxon churches of England in affiliation with Rome are Willibrord, who labored with some success in West Friesland, and Boniface, also named Winifred, whose successful career gained for him the title, apostle of Germany.

With reference to the work of Boniface it has been a mooted question among historians, whether he was more concerned about the task of Christianizing the Germans, or whether the stress of his efforts was not laid on the subjugation of the nation to the papal see. His self-denying labors seem to indicate that he was sincere both as a Christian missionary and as a Roman prelate. With Hildebrand, the powerful pope of a later age, he seems to have been swayed by the conviction that the domination of the papacy would inure to the greater glory both of Germany and of Christ. And so he fought heathenism and the priests of the more evangelical and independent British Church with equal vehemence. In accordance with his oath of obedience he bound the German Empire to the pope with bonds which in the course of time became so galling as to demand a

thorough reformation, and which still hold in bondage a large part of the Fatherland in spite of the Reformation of the sixteenth century.

Boniface, it is only fair to believe, was a sincere missionary of the cross, but above all things a Romish emissary. While he laid stress on the external unity of the Church and paid devout homage to the papacy, his efforts in this direction were coupled with genuine Christian piety and strict morality. His greatest missionary successes were achieved in Thuringia and among the Hessians. His courage and fearlessness were displayed when one day, at Geismar in Hesse, he directed a telling blow at the very heart of heathenism by felling, in the presence of the amazed and awe-struck natives, an ancient oak, consecrated to the god of thunder, and out of its timber built a Christian church. His schools served to advance the cause of education in Germany. Late in life, in his seventy-fifth year, the archishop and apostolic vicar sought out the mission field of his early days, where heathenism still flourished, and (in 755) met a martyr's death at the hands of the pagan Frisians.

The Saxons, a warlike, freedom-loving people, contended long and bravely against the armies of Charlemagne and the priests of the Romish Church. They were finally subjugated, and those who had escaped the edge of the sword were compelled to receive the rite of baptism. Backsliding was made perilous by severe laws against any return to their ancestral religion. It stands to the credit of Alcuin, the Anglo-Saxon teacher and counsellor at the court of Charlemagne, that he raised his voice in protest against such violent measures and methods of Christianization.

From France and Germany Christianity spread into Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Ansgar (died 865), a monk of Corvey, a French convent near Amiens, deserves the title of apostle of the Scandinavian races. After Harold, King of Denmark, was baptized at Mainz, efforts were put forth to secure a man who should go back with him as missionary to his heathen subjects. Ansgar was chosen and did not for a moment hesitate to undertake the perilous mission. From this country, nearly nine centuries later, during the reign of Frederick IV, were sent forth the first efficient Protestant missionaries to India and to Greenland. Ansgar labored also, and with greater success, in Sweden. He established churches and schools, freed slaves and captives, provided for the continuance of the work by preparing and sending out native workers, and devoted all his personal income and resources to the cause to which he had consecrated his life.

The Slavic nations received their first effective knowledge of Christianity from the Greek Church. Two brothers, Cyril and Methodius, about the middle of the ninth century, did the work of pathfinders and pioneers in Moravia. Cyril gave the Slavs a written language and translated the Bible into the vernacular. The services were conducted in the native tongue. When they came under the jurisdiction of Rome Methodius still contended for the use of the Slavic language and the Greek orders of worship, and he was able to secure some concessions from the papal see. Thus were the foundations laid for the martyr churches of Moravia, which, after enduring the ordeals of the Hussite revolution, were organized in the fifteenth century as the "Brethren of the Law of Christ," later known as the Unitas Fratrum, or the Moravian Church, that with matchless devotion has stood in the forefront of the Protestant missionary enterprise.

From Moravia the Gospel was carried to Bohemia, and then to Poland, and in both countries Christianity was established as the state religion through the influence of the reigning princes, who accepted Christian baptism and were followed in large numbers by their subjects.

Hungaria, too, received Christianity from Constantinople through the influence of a prince (Gylas) who had been baptized there and returned with missionaries. Later, under the reign and leadership of Stephen, the Hungarian Church came under the jurisdiction of Rome.

In a similar way Christianity had been established among the Bulgarians in Thrace and Moesia under the leadership of Prince Borgoris. After a period of submission to Rome from political considerations, these churches reunited with the Greek Church.

After some efforts during the ninth century to Christianize the Eastern Slavs in Russia, the Greek Church was firmly established when King Vladimir and his twelve sons were baptized at Kieff in 988. The people readily followed the example of their ruler, cast their idols into the Dnieper, and were immersed in its waters, while the king gave thanks to God and the Greek priests read the baptismal service from the banks. It was, however, cause for greater thankfulness that the Scripture version of Cyril in the Slavic tongue was accessible for the instruction of the people.

Ignorance of the Slavic tongue and political oppression interfered with efforts to Christianize the Wends, Slavonian tribes that dwelt along the Elbe and the Oder. Acceptance of Christianity was finally forced upon them, after desolating wars by German rulers, and their lands were settled anew by German colonists.

The Pomeranians, after the efforts of a Spanish