He was soon obliged to return, however, probably
owing to the hostility of Radbod, king of the Frisians, then at war with
Charles Martel. At the end of 717 he went to Rome, where in 719 Pope
Gregory II. commissioned him to evangelize Germany and to counteract the
influence of the Irish monks there. Crossing the Alps, Boniface visited
Bavaria and Thuringia, but upon hearing of the death of Radbod he
hurried again to Frisia, where, under the direction of his countryman
Willibrord (d. 738), the first bishop of Utrecht, he preached
successfully for three years. About 722 he visited Hesse and Thuringia,
won over some chieftains, and converted and baptized great numbers of
the heathen. Having sent special word to Gregory of his success, he was
summoned to Rome and consecrated bishop on the 30th of November 722,
after taking an oath of obedience to the pope. Then his mission was
enlarged. He returned with letters of recommendation to Charles Martel,
charged not only to convert the heathen but to suppress heresy as well.

Charles's protection, as he himself confessed, made possible his great
career. Armed with it he passed safely into heathen Germany and began a
systematic crusade, baptizing, overturning idols, founding churches and
monasteries, and calling from England a band of missionary helpers,
monks and nuns, some of whom have become famous: St Lull, his successor
in the see at Mainz; St Burchard, bishop of Wurzburg; St Gregory, abbot
at Utrecht; Willibald, his biographer; St Lioba, St Walburge, St Thecla.
In 732 Boniface was created archbishop. In 738 for the third time he
went to Rome. On his return he organized the church in Bavaria into the
four bishoprics of Regensburg, Freising, Salzburg and Passau. Then his
power was extended still further. In 741 Pope Zacharias made him legate,
and charged him with the reformation of the whole Frankish church. With
the support of Carloman and Pippin, who had just succeeded Charles
Martel as mayors of the palace, Boniface set to work. As he had done in
Bavaria, he organized the east Frankish church into four bishoprics,
Erfurt, Wurzburg, Buraburg and Eichstadt, and set over them his own
monks. In 742 he presided at what is generally counted as the first
German council. At the same period he founded the abbey of Fulda, as a
centre for German monastic culture, placing it under the Bavarian Sturm,
whose biography gives us so many picturesque glimpses of the time, and
making its rule s