he was totally routed by Charles Martell in a great battle (A.D.750) and
perished with a vast number of Frisians. The Christian dispensation,
thus enforced, was now accepted by these northern pagans. The
commencement of their conversion had been mainly the work of their
brethren from Britain. The monk Wilfred was followed in a few years by
the Anglo-Saxon Willibrod. It was he who destroyed the images of Woden
in Walcheren, abolished his worship, and founded churches in North
Holland. Charles Martell rewarded him. with extensive domains about
Utrecht, together with many slaves and other chattels. Soon afterwards
he was consecrated Bishop of all the Frisians. Thus rose the famous
episcopate of Utrecht. Another Anglo-Saxon, Winfred, or Bonifacius, had
been equally active among his Frisian cousins. His crozier had gone hand
in hand with the battle-axe. Bonifacius followed close upon the track of
his orthodox coadjutor Charles. By the middle of the eighth century,
some hundred thousand Frisians had been slaughtered, and as many more
converted. The hammer which smote the Saracens at Tours was at last
successful in beating the Netherlanders into Christianity. The labors of
Bonifacius through Upper and Lower Germany were immense; but he, too,
received great material rewards. He was created Archbishop of Mayence,
and, upon the death of Willibrod, Bishop of Utrecht. Faithful to his
mission, however, he met, heroically, a martyr's death at the hands of
the refractory pagans at Dokkum. Thus was Christianity established in
the Netherlands.

Under Charlemagne, the Frisians often rebelled, making common cause with
the Saxons. In 785, A.D., they were, however, completely subjugated, and
never rose again until the epoch of their entire separation from the
Frank empire. Charlemagne left them their name of free Frisians, and the
property in their own land. The feudal system never took root in their
soil. "The Frisians," says their statute book; "shall be free, as long