Germanic Kingdoms: Notable People / Figures (inc. Religious Figures, Writers, Artists, etc.)

Includes both Frankish (Merovingian and Carolingian) and Anglo-Saxon (Heptarchy) Kingdoms as well as other Germanic Kingdoms

311 - 383 - Ulfilas (All Facts) 

• First Gothic Bishop and Preacher

• He translated (most of) the Bible into the Gothic language 

  • In so doing, he had to create a new and holy version of the Gothic language since some Christian ideas could only be conveyed by adapting Latin words for use as part of Gothic vocabulary

  • Additionally, he had to expand the Gothic alphabet, since its script was inadequate

• He converted many Goths to Christianity, albeit they absorbed Arian Christianity 

560 - 636 - Isidore of Seville (All Facts)

• Bishop of Seville in Visigothic Spain

• Considered the most learned scholar of his age

• He wrote many books, including

  • A dictionary of synonyms

  • A treatise on astronomy and physical geography

  • Histories

  • Theological works

• He was a renowned teacher and proposed a liberal curriculum that attempted to embrace all learning

560 - 636 - Isidore of Seville: Etymologies (All Facts)

• Work which shows that the nature of all things can be derived from tracing their names back to the original roots and forms

• Embracing all contemporary knowledge, it is an incomparable book by an unrivaled intellect

634 - 687 - St. Cuthbert (All Facts)

• Bishop of Lindisfarne

• Hermit who lived on the Farne Islands

• He

  • Was initially a noble soldier

  • Entered the Melrose Abbey

  • Lived in Ripon for a time, where he worked tirelessly preaching and healing plague-victims before returning to Melrose Abbey

  • Moved on to the monastery of Lindisfarne, where he became its bishop

  • Moved on to choose a life of hermitage on a remote island where King Ecgfrith of Northumbria had persuaded him to become a bishop

    • Upon becoming a bishop with zeal, he fell ill and died two years later

  • Was venerated as saint shortly after his death

654 - 722 - St. Eadfrith of Lindisfarne (All Facts)

• Bishop of Lindisfarne

• Credited with authoring the Lindisfarne Gospels, the finest of all the Anglo-Saxon “illuminated manuscripts”

639 - 729 - St. Egbert of Ripon (All Facts)

• Bishop of Ripon

• He was born in the Kingdom of Northumbria

• He was famous for winning over the monks and monasteries of Iona in accepting the Roman (Byzantine) custom of Easter

658 - 739 - St. Willibrord (All Facts)

• Northumbrian Monk

• With help from the Franks, he evangelized to the heathen Frisians

• Founded the Abbey of Echternach

  • He died there

• Traveled to Rome to meet with Pope / St. Sergius, where he was consecrated by the pope as the (first) bishop of Utrecht (modern-day Netherlands) to serve his recently converted Frisians

673 - 735 - St. Bede (All Facts)

• He is considered the greatest scholar in Anglo-Saxon history

• He is considered the father of English history

• He devoted his life to

  • The study of scripture

  • Commentaries on the bible

  • An important treatise on chronology which dates history from the time of the birth of Christ or AD

    • An earlier and shorter version of this treatise brought a charge of heresy against him

• He wrote

  • A history of the Abbots of Jarrow

  • A biography of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

• Monk from Jarrow in Northumbria

• Taught until his death where he died giving his final lecture

• Taught his pupils to learn quickly because one does not know how long they will live before God takes them away from this life

• When he was only seven, his family entrusted him with monastic life

  • He and the abbot were the only monks to survive an outbreak of plague at Jarrow

  • At age 19 he became deacon

  • At age 30 he became priest

• He only left his monastery on brief visits to Lindisfarne and York, but never left Northumbria

• He was perhaps the greatest product of a time of cultural flowering in the field of scholarship, sculpture, and manuscript illumination, which have developed in Northumbria under the combined influence of the Roman Church and of Celtic monasticism from Ireland

675 - 754 - St. Boniface / Wilfrid (All Facts)

• Benedictine West Saxon Monk sent by Pope / St. Gregory II who gave him his saintly name, to evangelize to the heathens in Germany

  • He was ordained as bishop of Germany by Pope / St. Gregory II and then was sent back to Germany to continue his work of conversion

• He worked to convert much of southern Germany to Christianity and he received protection from Charles Martel of the Kingdom of Francia

• When he embarked on yet another evangelical mission to the unevangelized tribes of northeastern Frisia (in modern-day Netherlands), he was killed by the heathen tribes there

712 - 766 - St. Chrodegang (All Facts)

• Bishop of Metz

  • He essentially reorganized the corrupt Frankish church

• Initially, he was the chancellor under Charles Martel

732 - 766 - St. Ecgbert (All Facts)

• Archbishop of York

• He was a member of the Northumbrian royal family

• He made York a renowned center of learning

• He founded a library in York

766 - 780 - Aethelbert (All Facts)

• Archbishop of York

• He greatly enhanced the library there

• He put his pupil Alcuin in charge of the cathedral school there

735 - 804 - Alcuin (All Facts)

• Learned Scholar and Monk from York in the Kingdom of Northumbria

  • He was born in Northumbria

  • He was educated in York

• He took charge of York’s Cathedral School and became its leading scholar

  • Even after he left to work with Charlemagne and his institutions, he never forgot about this school

  • He wrote a long poem in praise of this school’s saints and bishops

• He was remembered for his having been chief advisor to Charlemagne

  • His life was transformed after he had met Charlemagne in Parma

  • Charlemagne was said to have been impressed by the namesake’s piety and scholarship so much so that he persuaded him join the group of leading scholars at the Frankish court

  • He took charge of the Palace School (of Aachen)

  • He advised Charlemagne notably on religious issues

  • He was granted permission by Charlemagne to send some of his pupils in Aachen back to York to acquire books they needed from there

• As a result of his connection with Charlemagne, broader political and cultural connections were developed between the Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms

  • Thus, the highly developed culture of the Kingdom of Northumbria influenced scholarship on the European continent

• He published a treatise on musicography called “De Musica,” in which he expounded the theories of his time

• He wrote a letter to Aethelred, King of Northumbria, suggesting that the Vikings and their raids came because they were a part of God’s judgement on the Anglo-Saxons for the emergence of widespread fornication

• He was given the Abbey of St. Martin of Tours by Charlemagne

  • He died there

775 - 840 - Einhard (All Facts)

• Frankish scholar, courtier, and builder

• He was from the Rhineland

• He spent 40 years in the royal service at Aachen

775 - 840 - Einhard: Vita Caroli Magni (All Facts)

• Biography of Charlemagne

  • It was a brilliant portrait of the great mean

• Work which was unusually down-to-earth and secular in its portrayal of the emperor

• Work which was modeled on the style of Suetonius, the Roman writer

801 - 865 - St. Ansgar (All Facts)

• Frankish Monk

• Bishop of Hamburg

• He was appointed by Pope Gregory IV to Christianize all the northern peoples of Europe

  • He became known as the "Apostle of the North" because of his travels and missionary mandate to bring Christianity to Northern Europe

• He was taken by Harald Klak to evangelize to the Danes

• He fled Hamburg after its church was destroyed and the town was sacked by the Vikings

• He continued his missionary work to the Danes as well as the Swedish in Bremen

815 - 877 - John Scotus Eriugena (All Facts)

• Irish Writer and Philosopher during / under the Carolingian / Holy Roman Empire during the reign of Charles II, whose court he had visited

• Despite his offensive works to many at the time, he continued to be favored at the court of Charles II, for his knowledge of the Greek language was unparalleled and his reputation as a scholar came to save him from severe penalties

• He was one of the most original thinkers of his time

815 - 877 - John Scotus Eriugena: De Divina Praedestinatione (All Facts)

• Work which asserted that man has complete free will, the freedom to choose between good and evil

• Work which refutes the extreme (pre-Calvinist) views of Gottschalk, a monk who rejected the notion of divine redemption

• Work which offended many at the time

808 - 868 - Gottschalk (All Facts)

• Saxon monk and theologian

• He was a pre-Calvinist who rejected the notions of free will and divine redemption

• His views are condemned in John Scouts Eriugena’s work “Da Divina Praedestinatione”

875 - 918 - William, Duke of Aquitaine (All Facts)

• Founded Cluny Abbey (the monastery of Cluny)

850 - 927 - St. Berno (All Facts)

• 1st Abbot and Founder of Cluny Abbey

• He was initially a Benedictine monk who has started a monastery in the Jura, but when that became too small, he persuaded William, Duke of Aquitaine and count of Macon, to give him a hunting lodge at Cluny in Francia, which he then won a unique charter for to turn into an abbey, Cluny Abbey

  • It was put under the direct authority of the pope, but the pope could only intervene in cases of “great disorder” amongst Cluny monks

  • Otherwise, Cluny was to be free of interference from both princes and pontiffs

• He established a monastic life devoted to prayer and religious services

  • His “vow of silence” encouraged meditation

  • External work and labor were almost entirely forbidden

  • Book production was restricted to religious works

• His spiritual leadership caused him to be the abbot of several other monasteries

878 - 942 - St. Odo (All Facts)

• 2nd Abbot of Cluny Abbey

• During his fifteen years in office, he made Cluny Abbey one of the most influential monasteries in Europe

  • Italian monasteries like Monte Cassino had become deeply influenced by the practices at Cluny Abbey

  • He got Pope John X to confirm the unusual charter

  • He persuaded Pope Leo VII to allow him to bring the other monasteries under the direct control of Cluny Abbey

    • After that, he expanded the network of satellite monasteries

    • Thus, his succeeding elected abbot inherited the world’s largest monastic order up to that point

906 - 994 - St. Maiolus (All Facts)

• 4th Abbot of Cluny Abbey

• He was captured with a large caravan in the Great St. Bernard Pass in the Alps by Arab pirates

  • Local monks had raised a random to secure his release, but this did not end the affair

  • The monks under him put pressure on Otto the Great to use his army to repel the Arab pirates from Cluny once and for all