bibliomaniacal character
and fine library we have yet to speak, Boniface thanks that illustrious
collector for the choice volumes he had kindly sent him, and further
entreats Egbert to procure for him transcripts of the smaller works
_opusculi_ and other tracts of Bede, "who, I hear," he writes, "has, by
the divine grace of the Holy Spirit, been permitted to spread such
lustre over your country."[265] These, that kind and benevolent prelate
sent to him with other books, and received a letter full of gratitude in
return, but with all the boldness of a hungry student still asking for
more! especially for Bede's Commentary on the Parables of Solomon.[266]
He sents to Archbishop Nothelm for a copy of the Questions of St.
Augustine to Pope Gregory, with the answers of the pope, which he says he
could not obtain from Rome; and in writing to Cuthbert, also Archbishop
of Canterbury, imploring the aid of his earnest prayers, he does not
forget to ask for books, but hopes that he may be speedily comforted with
the works of Bede, of whose writings he was especially fond, and was
constantly sending to his friends for transcripts of them. In a letter to
Huetberth he writes for the "most sagacious dissertations of the monk
Bede,"[267] and to the Abbot Dudde he sends a begging message for the
Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and to the
Corinthians[268] by the same. In a letter to Lulla, Bishop of Coena, he
deplores the want of books on the phenomena and works of nature, which,
he says, were _omnio incognitum_ there, and asks for a book on
Cosmography;[269] and on another occasion Lulla supplied Boniface with
many portions of the Holy Scriptures, and Commentaries upon them.[270]
Many more of his epistles might be quoted to illustrate the Saxon
missionary as an "_amator librorum_," and to display his profound
erudition. In one of his letters we find him referring to nearly all the
celebrated authors of the church, and so aptly, that we conclude he must
have had their works on his desk, and was deeply read in patristical
theology. Boniface has been fiercely denounced for his strong Roman
principles, and for his firm adherence to the interests of the pope.[271]
Of his theological errors, or his faults as a church disciplinarian, I
have nothing here to do, but leave that delicate question to the
ecclesiastical historian, having vindicated his character from the charge
of ignorance, and displayed some pleasing traits which h