HIST-102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 41: Consecration, Pope Sylvester I, Papal States
Document Summary
The frankish church had degenerated as badly as the do-nothing monarchy itself. Religious practice was irregular, corruption abounded, and heresies sprang up anew. The most significant of these centered on a curious figure named aldebert, who believed himself to be an angel and who carried with him a letter that he claimed to have received from christ himself. His followers became so numerous that he began to consecrate churches to himself to which he donated his fingernail clippings as holy relics. : boniface struggled for the better part of a decade against such problems. He held a series of synods to condemn particular abuses and tried to remodel the ecclesiastical structure of the frankish church. Of particular concern for the aged missionary was a recent new development in charles. Those lands were extensive, and seizing them gave charles ample new wealth with which to attract soldiers to his cause. He justified himself by pleading that drastic circumstances require drastic measures.