Editing Saint Boniface (section)

==Sources and writings==
==={{lang|la|Vitae}}===
The earliest "Life" of Boniface was written by a certain Willibald, an Anglo-Saxon priest who came to [[Mainz]] after Boniface's death,<ref>This is not the Willibald who was appointed by Boniface as [[Willibald|Bishop of Eichstatt]]: "The writer of the Life was a simple priest who had never come into direct contact with Boniface and what he says is based upon the facts that he was able to collect from those who had been Boniface's disciples." Talbot 24.</ref> around 765. Willibald's biography was widely dispersed; Levison lists some forty manuscripts.<ref>Levison xvii–xxvi.</ref> According to his lemma, a group of four manuscripts including {{lang|la|Codex Monacensis}} 1086 are copies directly from the original.<ref>Levison xxxviii.</ref>

Listed second in Levison's edition is the entry from a late ninth-century Fulda document: Boniface's status as a martyr is attested by his inclusion in the ''Fulda Martyrology'' which also lists, for instance, the date (1 November) of his [[Translation (relic)|translation]] in 819, when the [[Fulda Cathedral]] had been rebuilt.<ref>Levison xlvii.</ref> A {{lang|la|Vita Bonifacii}} was written in Fulda in the ninth century, possibly by [[Candidus of Fulda]], but is now lost.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte]] | title=Neue Hinweise zum Rechtsstatus des Klosters Fulda aus der ''Vita Aegil'' des Brun Candidus |first=Gereon |last=Becht-Jördens |year=1991 |volume=41 |pages=11–29|language=de}}</ref>

The next {{lang|la|vita}}, chronologically, is the {{lang|la|Vita altera Bonifatii auctore Radbodo}}, which originates in the [[Archdiocese of Utrecht (695–1580)|Bishopric of Utrecht]], and was probably revised by [[Radboud of Utrecht]] (899–917). Mainly agreeing with Willibald, it adds an eye-witness who presumably saw the martyrdom at Dokkum. The {{lang|la|Vita tertia Bonifatii}} likewise originates in Utrecht. It is dated between 917 (Radboud's death) and 1075, the year [[Adam of Bremen]] wrote his {{lang|la|[[Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum]]}}, which used the {{lang|la|Vita tertia}}.<ref>Levison lvi–lviii.</ref><ref>Haarländer.</ref>

A later {{lang|la|vita}}, written by [[Otloh of St. Emmeram]] (1062–1066), is based on Willibald's and a number of other {{lang|la|vitae}} as well as the correspondence, and also includes information from local traditions.

===Correspondence===
Boniface engaged in regular correspondence with fellow churchmen all over Western Europe, including the three popes he worked with, and with some of his kinsmen back in England. Many of these letters contain questions about church reform and liturgical or doctrinal matters. In most cases, what remains is one half of the conversation, either the question or the answer. The correspondence as a whole gives evidence of Boniface's widespread connections; some of the letters also prove an intimate relationship especially with female correspondents.<ref name="Noble xxxiv–xxxv">Noble xxxiv–xxxv.</ref>

There are 150 letters in what is generally called the Bonifatian correspondence, though not all them are by Boniface or addressed to him. They were assembled by order of archbishop [[Lullus]], Boniface's successor in Mainz, and were initially organized into two parts, a section containing the papal correspondence and another with his private letters. They were reorganized in the eighth century, in a roughly chronological ordering. Otloh of St. Emmeram, who worked on a new {{lang|la|vita}} of Boniface in the eleventh century, is credited with compiling the complete correspondence as we have it.<ref name="Noble xxxiv–xxxv"/> Much of this correspondence comprises the first part of the [[Vienna Boniface Codex]], also known as {{lang|la|[[Codex Vindobonensis 751]]}}.

The correspondence was edited and published already in the seventeenth century, by Nicolaus Serarius.<ref>''Epistolae s. Bonifacii martyris, primi moguntini archiepiscopi'', published in 1605 in Mainz and republished in 1625, and again in 1639, Paris.</ref> Stephan Alexander Würdtwein's 1789 edition, {{lang|la|Epistolae S. Bonifacii Archiepiscopi Magontini}}, was the basis for a number of (partial) translations in the nineteenth century. The first version to be published by {{lang|la|[[Monumenta Germaniae Historica]]}} (MGH) was the edition by Ernst Dümmler (1892); the most authoritative version until today is Michael Tangl's 1912 {{lang|de|Die Briefe des Heiligen Bonifatius, Nach der Ausgabe in den Monumenta Germaniae Historica}}, published by MGH in 1916.<ref name="Noble xxxiv–xxxv"/> This edition is the basis of [[Ephraim Emerton]]'s selection and translation in English, ''The Letters of Saint Boniface'', first published in New York in 1940; it was republished most recently with a new introduction by Thomas F.X. Noble in 2000.

Included among his letters and dated to 716 is one to Abbess [[Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet]] containing the ''Vision of the Monk of [[Wenlock Priory|Wenlock]]''.<ref>Emerton, 25–31; Tangl, 7–15.</ref> This otherworld vision describes how a violently ill monk is freed from his body and guided by angels to a place of judgment, where angels and devils fight over his soul as his sins and virtues come alive to accuse and defend him. He sees a hell of purgation full of pits vomiting flames. There is a bridge over a pitch-black boiling river. Souls either fall from it or safely reach the other side cleansed of their sins. This monk even sees some of his contemporary monks and is told to warn them to repent before they die. This vision bears signs of influence by the [[Apocalypse of Paul]], the visions from the ''Dialogues'' of [[Pope Gregory I|Gregory the Great]], and the visions recorded by [[Bede]].<ref>Eileen Gardiner, ''Medieval Visions of Heaven and Hell: A Sourcebook'' (New York: Garland, 9113, 143–45).</ref>

===Sermons===
{{main|Sermones (Pseudo)-Bonifatii}}
Some fifteen preserved sermons are traditionally associated with Boniface, but that they were actually his is not generally accepted.

===Grammar and poetry===
Early in his career, before he left for the continent, Boniface wrote the {{lang|la|[[Ars Bonifacii]]}}, a grammatical treatise presumably for his students in Nursling. [[Helmut Gneuss]] reports that one manuscript copy of the treatise originates from (the south of) England, mid-eighth century; it is now held in [[Marburg]], in the [[Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg|Hessisches Staatsarchiv]].<ref>Gneuss 130, item 849.</ref> He also wrote a treatise on verse, the {{lang|la|Caesurae uersuum}}, and a collection of twenty acrostic [[riddle]]s, the {{lang|la|Enigmata}}, influenced greatly by [[Aldhelm]] and containing many references to works of [[Vergil]] (the ''[[Aeneid]]'', the ''[[Georgics]]'', and the ''[[Eclogues]]'').<ref>Lapidge 38.</ref> The riddles fall into two sequences of ten poems. The first, {{lang|la|De virtutibus}} ('on the virtues'), comprises: 1. {{lang|la|de ueritate}}/truth; 2. {{lang|la|de fide catholica}}/the Catholic faith; 3. {{lang|la|de spe}}/hope; 4. {{lang|la|de misericordia}}/compassion; 5. {{lang|la|de caritate}}/love; 6. {{lang|la|de iustitia}}/justice; 7. {{lang|la|de patientia}}/patience; 8. {{lang|la|de pace uera, cristiana}}/true, Christian peace; 9. {{lang|la|de humilitate cristiania}}/Christian humility; 10. {{lang|la|de uirginitate}}/virginity. The second sequence, {{lang|la|De vitiis}} ('on the vices'), comprises: 1. {{lang|la|de neglegentia}}/carelessness; 2. {{lang|la|de iracundia}}/hot temper; 3. {{lang|la|de cupiditate}}/greed; 4. {{lang|la|de superbia}}/pride; 5. {{lang|la|de crapula}}/intemperance; 6. {{lang|la|de ebrietate}}/drunkenness; 7. {{lang|la|de luxoria}}/fornication; 8. {{lang|la|de inuidia}}/envy; 9. {{lang|la|de ignorantia}}/ignorance; 10. {{lang|la|de uana gloria}}/vainglory.<ref>'Aenigmata Bonifatii', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Karl J. Minst, in ''Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus'', Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968), [https://archive.org/details/corpuschristiano0133unse I] 273-343.</ref>

Three octosyllabic poems written in clearly Aldhelmian fashion (according to [[Andy Orchard]]) are preserved in his correspondence, all composed before he left for the continent.<ref>Orchard 62–63.</ref>

===Additional materials===
A letter by Boniface charging [[Adalbert (mystic)|Aldebert]] and Clement with heresy is preserved in the records of the Roman Council of 745 that condemned the two.<ref name="Meeder">{{cite journal|last=Meeder|first=Sven|year=2011|title=Boniface and the Irish Heresy of Clemens|journal=[[American Society of Church History#Church History|Church History]]|volume=80|issue=2|pages=251–80|doi=10.1017/S0009640711000035|s2cid=163075473 }}</ref> Boniface had an interest in the Irish canon law collection known as {{lang|la|[[Collectio canonum Hibernensis]]}}, and a late eighth/early ninth-century manuscript in [[Würzburg]] contains, besides a selection from the {{lang|la|Hibernensis}}, a list of rubrics that mention the heresies of Clemens and Aldebert. The relevant folios containing these rubrics were most likely copied in Mainz, Würzburg, or Fulda—all places associated with Boniface.<ref name="Meeder"/> [[Michael Glatthaar]] suggested that the rubrics should be seen as Boniface's contribution to the agenda for a synod.<ref>Glatthaar 134-63.</ref>