Page "Pope Gregory II" Paragraph 7

Gregory next turned his attention to Germany.

In 718, he was approached by an Anglo-Saxon missionary, Winfrid, who proposed undertaking missionary work in Germany.

Gregory agreed, and after changing his name to Boniface, commissioned him in May 719 to preach in Germany.

After hearing of the work that had been done so far, in 722 Gregory summoned Boniface back to Rome to answer rumours concerning Boniface ’ s doctrinal purity.

Interestingly, at this face to face meeting, Boniface complained that he found Gregory ’ s Latin difficult to understand, a clear indication that Vulgar Latin had already started to evolve into the Romance languages.

After examining Boniface ’ s written profession of faith, Gregory was satisfied enough that he made Boniface a bishop in November 722, and returned him to Germany to continue his mission.

Continued successes saw Gregory write to Boniface in December 724 to offer his congratulations, followed in November 726 by a response to Boniface ’ s questions about how to structure the newly emergent churches in Germany.