Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/146

 no Readings in European History [This para- graph is condensed.] Boniface procures a charter iroiu Kiag Carloman for Fulda. The building of the monastery. fervent prayers. He told them of the place he had found and bade them make ready to go thither with him. But Sturmi went straightway to the holy bishop Boniface to tell him how he had found a place for the brethren to dwell in. Together they rejoiced and gave God thanks and held sweet converse about the life and conversation of monks. Then did the bishop let Sturmi go back to his wilderness, while he went to the palace of Carloman, the king, to gain from him a grant of the place Sturmi had chosen. When Boniface came before the king, he said to him: "We have found in the wilderness called Bochonia, beside the river named Fulda, a place meet for the servants of God to dwell in, where before us no man has dwelt. It is under your sway, and we do beg of your beneficence to give us this place, so that we may be enabled to serve God under your protection." . . . Then did the king before all the lords of his palace give over to the bishop the place he had asked for, saying, " This place which thou seekest on the bank of the river Fulda I give over whole and entire from my law to the law of God from that place in all directions in a circle four thousand paces toward east and west and north and south, ye shall hold the region." Then the king gave command that a charter be written to this end, and he sealed it with his own hand. In the year of the incarnation of Christ 744, in the first month, the twelfth day of the month, while the brothers Car- loman and Pippin were reigning over the Frankish people, did Sturmi arise, in the name of God, and with seven breth- ren he did go to the place where now the monastery stands. They prayed to the Lord Christ that he would ever protect and defend them by his power; and, serving God in sacred psalms and in fasts, vigils, and prayers by day and by night, they did busy themselves cutting down the forests and clearing the ground by their own labor so far as strength was given them. When two months had passed by, and a multitude of men were gathered together, the reverend archbishop Boniface came unto them ; and when he looked and saw the conven- ience and great resources of the place, he exulted in the