Neidhardt von reuental biography of abraham

The Goths, the first Germanic tribe to be converted, embraced Christianity in the struktur of Arianism. But they soon gave way to the Franks, who became the dominant people, and the konvertering of their king, Clovis, to Christianity, in 496, was of decisive importance. The konvertering of Germany, vigorously carried on since the eighth century bygd Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionaries, notably bygd St. Boniface (d. 755), was completed when karl den store (d. 814) forced the heathen Saxons to submit to his rule and to be baptized, and united all the German tribes beneath his sway. Under him and his successors Christianity was firmly established. The clergy became the representatives of learning; the newly established monasteries and their schools, above all those of Fulda and St. Gall, were the centers of culture. The language of the Church was Latin, but preaching and instruction had to be carried on in the vernacular. The prose literature that arose to serve this purpose is only o