168 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



came holy as the place where a saint had performed 

 some marvellous act. The oak was still reverenced 

 as the most sacred of trees, but now, with a cross 

 cut in its bark, was a special protection against man 

 and elfin enemies. As late as the twelfth century, 

 church canons in England and Ireland thundered 

 against an over-reverence for sacred trees. 



It is said that when St. Augustine made his fa- 

 mous missionary landing in England in the sixth 

 century, he wisely chose an oak as a pulpit from 

 which to preach to King Ethelbert. Remarkable 

 were the experiences of St. Bonniface with the great 

 "Thor's Oak" in the land of the Hessians. Going 

 on a missionary expedition from England to cen- 

 tral Germany, he found the natives standing in 

 great awe of the Tree of the Thunder God. He 

 determined to cut it down and so destroy their rev- 

 erence. When the great tree was half cut through, 

 the story says that it was shaken by a supernatural 

 wind so that it fell to the ground and divided into 

 four parts. The round-standing heathens recog- 

 nised this as a miracle and were converted on the 

 spot. As a memorial of the event St. Bonniface 

 built an oratory from the wood of the fallen giant. 



Many beautiful mediaeval legends grew up to ex- 

 plain the history of the true Cross. One version 

 narrates that the tree on which the Saviour was 



