Boniface and the Irish Heresy of Clemens

Abstract

One of the few Irishmen active on the Continent in the eighth century of whom we have some information was a priest (or bishop) named Clemens. Together with the Gaul Aldebert, this peregrinus was the subject of an extensive correspondence between Boniface and the pope, which eventually led to the condemnation of both men at the Roman Council of 745. The accusations brought against Clemens by Boniface display parallels with known Irish teachings and practices, as well as other allegations leveled against individual traveling Irishmen and the Irish in general. This article closely examines the context of Boniface's charges and introduces an additional source to the framing of his arguments. It argues that the allegations must be viewed in the context of both contemporary practices and debates in Irish church and society, and the portrayal of these Irish peculiarities in texts written in and spread throughout the mid-eighth-century Continent and Anglo-Saxon England.

With one foot in the font: the failed baptism of the Frisian king Radbod and the 8th-century discussion about the fate of unbaptized forefathers

“…53 Yet, the text 50 Glatthaar (2004), 152, 523. 51 For Clemens's connection to Austrasia, see Meeder (2011) does not seem to indicate any rivalry between the two men, it rather stresses their cooperation: 'together with the blessed Wulfram, who agreed [with him] in his religious teaching'. 54 Willibrord fully endorses Wulfram's theological position.…”

“…On Boniface's two opponents, seede Jong (2005);Innes (2008); Meeder(2011).24 For the influence of heretical stereotypes, seeZeddies (1995); the links with Irish traditions are stressed byMeeder (2011).25 Roman Synod of AD 745 (ed. by Albert Werminghoff in MGH Conc.…”