Boniface and the Irish heresy of Clemens

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 leveled at Clemens by Boniface display parallels with known Irish teachings and practices, as well as other allegations laid 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 contemporary practices and debates in the Irish church and society, as well as the portrayal of these Irish peculiarities in texts written on or spread over the mid-eighth-century Continent and Anglo-Saxon England.