<=2i7^b%/iA&riJ pfn*V*iM&'^ c fya/t^ornt HARVARD TRANSLATIONS HARVARD TRANSLATIONS Eugdppitjs: The Life of Saint Severinus. Translated into English for the first time, with Notes, by George W. Robinson, A.B., Secretary of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. 8vo. $1.50 net Willibald: The Life of Saint Boniface. Translated into English for the first time, with Introduction and Notes, by George W. Robinson. 8vo. $1.15 net THE LIFE OF SAINT BONIFACE BY WILLIBALD TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY GEORGE W. ROBINSON SECRETARY OF THE HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS IQl6 6 X HI 00 /3 lode*" COPYRIGHT, 1916 HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS SiNRY MORSE STEPHEW 1/? MANIBUS SAMUEL COLCORD BARTLETT HENRICI ELIAE PARKER EDUARDI RUSH RUGGLES LUDOVICI POLLENS RUFI BYAM RICHARDSON MARVINI DAVIS BISBEE CAROLI FRANCISCI RICHARDSON PROFESSORUM DARTMUTHENSIUM INTER ANNOS MDGCCXC ET MDCCCXCIII SACRUM SEDEM SEPULCRI SERVET IMMOTUS CINIS MEMORIA VIVAT NOMINUM 510225 PREFACE This first English translation of Willibald's Life of Saint Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, is based on Wilhelm Levison's edition of the text: Vitae Sancti Bonijatii Archiepiscopi Moguntini (Hannoverae et Lipsiae, 1905), pp. 1-57. I am glad to express my obligations to Professors Ephraim Emerton and Edward Kennard Rand of Har- vard University for helpful suggestions; and to Mr. Frederick C. Dietz, who has kindly examined for me a number of editions and translations in the British Museum. For some of the references in the notes I am indebted to earlier commentators. Where these references seem to have become common property, I have con- sidered specific acknowledgment unnecessary. For the sake of convenience, I have employed cer- tain abbreviations in the footnotes, as follows : E Ernst Durnmler, S. Bonijatii et Lulli Epistolae. In M . G. H., Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini Aevi, torn, i (Berolini, 1892). M.G.E.. .Monumenta Germaniae Historica. P.L Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina. George W. Robinson. Cambridge, Massachusetts, June, 1915. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION n THE LIFE OF SAINT BONIFACE 21 A LIST OF EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS OF THE LIFE 95 INDEX OF AUTHORS CITED IN THE NOTES . . 105 GENERAL INDEX 109 INTRODUCTION The chief sources from which our knowledge of Saint Boniface is drawn are, first, the writings of Boniface himself, particularly his Letters, with the letters ad- dressed to him which have been preserved with his own; secondly, the Life by Willibald. The Life of Gregory, 1 the saint's beloved disciple, by Liudger, 2 also presents a number of valuable notices; and the Life of Abbot Sturmi 3 of Fulda. by Eigil, 4 gives the best and fullest account of the beginnings of the great abbey of Fulda, 8 the special delight of the declining years of Boniface, 6 and the spot which he chose as the final resting place for his body. 7 Other contemporary material includes a few passages in the chroniclers, and in the Lives of Willibald, bishop of Eichstatt, 8 and Wynnebald, abbot of Heidenheim, 9 brothers, and rela- tives of Boniface, 10 by the Nun of Heidenheim. 11 1 Abbot of Saint Martin at Utrecht; died about 775. 2 ' Apostle of the Frisians and Saxons '; bishop of Minister c. 804- 809; died 809. 8 Died 779. 4 Died 822. 6 Founded 12 March 744. Eigil, Vita Sturmi, 13. 6 E., 86; Albert Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, i (2d ed., Leipsic, 1898), p. 566. 7 .,86; pages 79, 90, below. 8 Page 77, below. Bishop Willibald died not before 786. 9 Died 19 December 761. 10 Vita Wynnebaldi, 4: "qui carnale propinquitatis et sanguini copulatione illo fuerat sociatus atque glutinatus." u The Nun appears to have written the Life of Willibald, from his 12 INTRODUCTION The extant works of Boniface comprise a grammar, some fragments on metres, poems, letters, and fifteen sermons. 1 The Life of Saint Livinus, 2 formerly wrongly ascribed to him, was probably composed about the middle of the eleventh century. 3 The grammar (Ars Domni Bonifacii Archiepiscopi et Martyris) was edited by Angelo Mai in 183 5. 4 It may dictation and notes, not long after 23 June 778, and the Life of Wynne- bald a little later, from the relation of his sister Waldburga, abbess of Heidenheim, and of his friends and disciples. Both Lives are printed in M . G. H., Scriptores, xv, 1. 1 The authenticity of the sermons has been doubted; but without sufficient cause. See the remarks of F. W. Rettberg, Kirchenge- schichte Deutschlands (Gottingen, 1846-48), i, pp. 408 f.; and Adolf Ebert, Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Literatur bis zum Zeitalter Karls des Grossen (Leipsic, 1874), p. 614. The so-called Poenitentiale S. Bonifacii, printed by Anton Joseph Binterim in his Denkwiirdigkeiten der christ-katholischen Kirche, v, 3 (Mayence, 1829), pp. 430-436, cannot in its present form be earlier than the ninth century. Whether its substance may be in part de- rived from the teachings of Boniface has been a matter of discussion. F. W. H. Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnungen der abendlandischen Kirche (Halle, 1851), p. 89, n. 2; P. H. Kulb, Sammtliche Schriften des heiligen Bonifacius (Ratisbon, 1859), % PP- 439 *; H. J. Schmitz, Die Bussbiicher und die Bussdisciplin der Kirche, i (Mayence, 1883), p. 745. August Niirnberger publishes from Vatican manuscripts some doc- trinal fragments ascribed to Boniface. Programm des konigl. kathol- ischen Gymnasiums zu Neisse, 178 (Neisse, 1883), pp. xvii ff. One of these fragments is highly interesting to students of the tradition of the Roman exempla virtutis. 2 First published by Nicolaus Serarius, Epistolae S. Bonifacii (Moguntiae, 1605), pp. 233-252. 8 Wilhelm Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittel- alter (7th ed., Berlin, 1904-), i, pp. 147, 433. 4 Classicorum Auctorum e Vaticanis Codicibus editor um Tomus VII (Romae, 1835), pp. 475"548. INTRODUCTION 13 be assigned without hesitation to the period of the author's teaching activity at Nhutscelle. 1 The work is wholly based on earlier writers, above all Donatus; 2 but the material is revised with a view to the practical needs of teacher and scholar. 3 The fragments on metres 4 probably date from the same period. 5 They appear to be based largely on Isi- dore of Seville. 6 Of the poems the most important is a series of twenty riddles on the virtues and vices, in 388 hexa- meters. John Allen Giles published the first 161 verses in 1 844/ from a manuscript in the British Museum; and the whole poem, from a Cambridge manuscript, in 1851. 8 The best edition is by Ernst Dummler 9 (Bero- lini, 1881). The riddles cannot be said to possess 1 Page 33, below: " imbued . . . with the eloquence of the art of grammar." 2 Max Manitius, Geschichie der lateinischen Literatur des Mittel- alters, i (Munich, 191 1), p. 149. 3 Ibid. 4 Printed in Thomas Gaisford's Scriptores Latini Rei Metricae (Oxonii, 1837), pp. 577-585; and (in part) by August Wilmanns, in the Rheinisches Museum, Neue Folge, xxiii (1868), pp. 403 f. 6 Page 33, below: " imbued . . . with the pithy modulation of the eloquence of metres "; E., 98. 6 Wilmanns notes a comical misunderstanding on the part of Boni- face. Isidore (Etymologiae, i, 37 Wilmanns's reference is wrong) says prosae autem studium sero viguit; Boniface renders this Orationis autem studium primum egit Seron. 7 Bonifacii Opera, ii, pp. 109-115. Not the complete poem, as Manitius wrongly says (op. cit., i, p. 151) : erring through a misunder- standing of a passage in Dummler's preface. 8 Anecdota Bedae, Lanfranci, et aliorum, pp. 18-24, 38-45. 9 M. G. H., Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini, i, pp. 3-15. 14 INTRODUCTION much merit as poetry; nevertheless they are import- ant because of the light which they shed upon the ideas and character of Boniface. We have a brief introduc- tion, and then addresses of the ten principal virtues and as many vices: Love, Orthodoxy, Hope, Justice, Truth, Mercy, Patience, Christian Peace, Christian Humility, Virginity; Greed, Haughtiness, Gluttony, Drunken- ness, Luxury, Envy, Ignorance, Vainglory, Negligence, Wrath. That the riddles were composed after Boni- face entered upon his work in Germany has been in- ferred from verses 323 f., in the address of Ignorance: " Ob quod semper amavit me Germanica tellus, Rustica gens hominum Sclafonim et Scythia dura." In addition to the riddles, there remain verses ad- dressed to Dudd, 1 which may have served as a dedica- tion of the grammar; 2 and lines attached to letters to Nithard 3 and Pope Zacharias. 4 The letters were first edited by Nicolaus Serarius in 1605; 6 the best editions are those of Philipp Jaffe 8 1 Diimmler, op. cit., pp. 16 f. 2 Manitius, op. cit., i, p. 149. * E., g. 4 E., 50. Diimmler, op. cit., pp. 1-19, publishes all these as Boni- fatii Carmina, with a preface. He also assigns Carmina, iv (p. 18), to Boniface, but withdraws the ascription in his edition of the Letters printed eleven years later. E., 140. 6 Epistolae S. Bonifacii Martyris, Primi Moguntini Archiepiscopi, Germanorum Apostoli, pluriumque Pontificum, Regum, & aliorum. Moguntiae, 1605. In his Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum, torn, iii (Monumenta Moguntina), pp. 24-315. INTRODUCTION 15 (1866) and Ernst Dummler l (1892). The collection in which they are preserved includes not only letters of Boniface and his successor Lul, but many written to them, and a number of others of the same time; besides a few earlier ones by Aldhelm 2 and others, 3 apparently included as models of composition. The letters of Boniface, which cover the period from about 716 nearly to the time of his death, are of great interest and value. Some are to the popes, 4 concerning questions of doctrine and administration; 5 one is a striking mes- sage of admonition to King Aethelbald of Mercia; others are to the Frankish rulers; 7 but a peculiar charm attaches to those which the saint wrote to his devoted Anglo-Saxon friends, male 8 and female, 9 as- suring them of his warm and constant love, thanking them for gifts, 10 and asking, now for advice, 11 now for their prayers in his behalf 12 and in that of the pagan Germans 13 whose conversion he sought, but perhaps 1 In M . G. H., Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini Aevi, i, pp. 231- 43i. 2 E., 1, 2, 3; 6V (inverse). 3 Ibid., 4, s, 7, 8; 6I-6IV (in verse). 4 To Zacharias, ibid., 50, 86; to Stephen III, ibid., 108, 109. 6 Ibid., 50, 86, 109. Ibid., 73. 7 Ibid., 48, 93, 107. 8 Ibid., 9, 32, 33, 34, 38, 63, 69, 74, 75, 76, 78, 9** 9 Ibid., 10, 27, 30, 35, 65, 66, 67, 94, 96. 10 Ibid., 27, 30, 75, 78, 91. 11 Ibid., 32, 33, 34, 63, 91. 12 Ibid., 27, 30, 33, 34, 38, 65, 66, 67, 74, 76, 91, 94- u Ibid., 38, 65. 46 is a general request " to all God-fearing Catho- lics of English race and stock " to pray for the conversion of the heathen Saxons. 1 6 INTRODUCTION most eagerly of all for books. 1 " I beseech that thou copy for me in gold the epistles of my lord, Saint Peter the Apostle, unto the honor and reverence of the Holy Scriptures before the eyes of fleshly folk when I preach." 2 Dr. Giles has given English translations of letters of Boniface to Bishop Daniel of Winchester, the Abbess Bugga, and the youth Nithard. 3 Dr. Isaac Gregory Smith translates the letter to Bugga; others to the Abbess Eadburga and to Abbot Dudd; and part of one to Pope Zacharias. 4 Edward Kylie has translated the correspondence of Boniface and his English friends. 5 The sermons, first printed in 1733, 6 are most easily accessible in Giles's 7 or Migne's 8 edition of the works of Boniface. Dr. Giles, in the preface to the second volume of his edition, turns into English Remy Ceil- lier's summary of their contents; and a translation of part of one may be found in Dr. Smith's Boniface. 9 In the sixth sermon is an especially vigorous denunciation of heathen practices, and a lively description of the place of torment that awaits those who are guilty of them or of other capital sins. 1 E-> 33, 34, 35, 63, 75, 7, 91- 2 Ih M; 35- 3 Bonifacii Opera (1844), h PP- 12-20. E., 63, 94, 9. 4 Boniface (1896), pp. 81-93. E-, 65, 94, 34, 5- 6 The English Correspondence of Saint Boniface (London, 191 1): in the series called The King's Classics. 6 At Paris, in Edmond Martene and Ursin Durand's Veterum Scrip- torum Amplissima Collectio, torn, ix, coll. 185-218. 7 London, 1844: vol. ii, pp. 57-107. 8 P. L., vol. lxxxix (Parisiis, 1850), coll. 843-872. 9 Pp. 99 ff. INTRODUCTION 17 The Life of Boniface by Willibald, the translation of which we give, was written within a few years of the saint's death, almost certainly not later than 768 ,* at the request of Boniface's successor, Lul, and of Bishop Megingoz of Wtirzburg. Willibald, a priest of Anglo- Saxon origin, 2 is an author worthy of all respect as regards industry and veracity. The chief defects of his work are two: a style inflated and obscure, sup- ported by no sufficient foundation of grammatical knowledge; and the comparative scantiness of the in- formation which he supplies concerning much of the later life of Boniface. 3 Fortunately the omissions can be supplied in part from the other sources. Later lives of Boniface are printed, in full or in part, and discussed by Levison in his Vitae Bonifatii. These add little or nothing to our knowledge; indeed, they have rather served to confuse the history of the saint. This is particularly true, in different ways, of the worthless Mayence legends collected in the work which Levison calls the ' Fourth Life,' and of the attempts to simplify and popularize made by the monk Otloh of St. Emmeram, the most distinguished writer of his 1 Levison, Vitae Bonifatii, p. x. 2 Ibid., pp. viii f. He was long confused with Saint Willibald, bishop of Eichstatt. Ibid., pp. vii f. To this confusion may be traced Manitius's amazing reference to him as a relative of Boniface. Ge- schichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters , i, p. 146. 8 E. g., he does not mention Pope Zacharias (741-52), with whom Boniface had a copious correspondence. Wattenbach discusses the general question of the omissions. DeutscMands Geschichtsquellen, i, pp. 151 f. i8 INTRODUCTION time, whose work was written during his stay at Fulda in the years 1062 to 1066. 1 The modern literature relative to Boniface is impos- ing in quantity, particularly in Germany; of its aver- age quality not so much can be said. One may begin with the notices annexed to the editions which I have named, and with the sections in the Ecclesiastical His- tories of Rettberg and Hauck, in Ebert's Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Literatur, and in Max Mani- tius's Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelal- ters: these, with Potthast's Wegweiser, will point the way to further study. In English there is little of scholarly worth, save for the booklet Boniface, by Isaac Gregory Smith, in the series The Fathers for Eng- lish Readers. We are indebted to England, on the other hand, for William Selwyn's fine poem Winfrid, afterwards called Boniface (Cambridge and London, 1865), in blank verse. 2 In German poetry Johann Baptist Rousseau's Das Bonifazius-Lied 3 (Mayence, 1855) is not without merit. Dr. Wiss's Latin poem Bonifacius, affixed to 1 " Petitionibus vestris, fratres Fuldenses, prout scientiae meae parvitas permisit, parere studui. Petistis enim, ut sancti patris nostri Bonifacii vitam precipuo quidem elegantique, utpote sancti Willi- baldi, stilo antiquitus editam, sed in locis quibusdam ita infirmo intel- lectui velatam, ut difficile pateat quo oratio tendat, hanc ego sententia apertiori reserarem." Otloh, Vita Bonifacii, Prologus. 2 915 lines. 8 Zur Erinnerung an die Verherrlichung des heil. Winfried-Boni- fazius, des Apostels von Deutschland und Erzbischofs von Mainz, bei der eilfhundertjcthrigen Jubelfeier von dessen Martyrium im Juni 1855. Fifty-six pages. There is a curious Politische Apostrophe (pp. 50-5 2 ) INTRODUCTION 19 his translation of the Letters (Fulda, 1842), also should not be overlooked. Trithemius's story of a poem on Boniface in heroic verse, by Ruthard, a monk of Hirschau, is a pure invention. 1 The importance of the work of Boniface in the ec- clesiastical, and, indeed, in the general history of Europe cannot easily be exaggerated. His activities may, however, be viewed under several aspects, ac- cording as we consider him as one of the foremost scholars of his time, introducer of learning and litera- ture and to a large extent of the arts of civilized life into the German lands; or as the great champion of Rome and of ecclesiastical uniformity in Central Eu- rope; or as a missionary of God, a soldier and leader in the great Christian warfare against the heathen of the North. The relative value which should be assigned in denunciation of the English for their aid to Turkey in the Crimean War: " Vor eilfhundert Jahren und noch frtiher Sandte England Manner uber's Meer, Deutsche Heiden, die im Pferdgewieher Gottes Nahe wahnten, als Erzieher Zu gewinnen fur die Christuslehr'. Nach eilfhundert Jahren ziehn die Briten . . . Hort! . . . mit einer Riesenflotte aus, Um fur Die, wodurch wir nur gelitten, Heiden, Haremshelden, Sodomiten, Christen zu bereiten blut'gen Strauss." 1 Joannes Trithemius, Chronicon Monasterii Hirsaugiensis (Basil- eae, 1559), p. 21: " Ruthardus quoque . . . hujus coenobii Hirsau- giensis . . . scripsit . . . passionem sancti Bonifacii archiepiscopi heroico carmine pulcherrime in duobus libris." See Levison, Vitoe Bonifatii, p. xlvii, n. 2. 20 INTRODUCTION to his labors in enforcing uniformity within the church, and in seeking the conversion of the pagan folk with- out, must always remain an open question. No doubt certamJfin.d.enries, poiiik^USSSo^J^^J^^^^i^ the German historical writing of the last half-century have tended to exalt iJie proportionate importance oi n his work as an ecclesiastical organizer. I think the man himself saw more truly, as the witness oi Jus martyr's death attesjs. #W