Boniface: Archbishop, Legate, and Postmaster General

Abstract

Boniface was the prime mover in the transalpine Church during the eighth century, forming dioceses in Germany while reorganizing and reforming those in Bavaria and Frankland. To accomplish this, he made use of a communion of believers, including Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Germans and Italians. Among the participants were monks, nuns, counts, kings and popes. To keep this spiritalis communio alive and healthy, Boniface had to devise a communication system which covered all of Roman Christendom. His postal service consisted primarily of highly-educated priests, performing the duties of mailmen, delivery men and ambassadors-at-large. This network of envoys formed a "barbarian" answer to the Roman cursus publicis, while laying the groundwork for the missi dominici of Charlemagne’s empire.