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tion, but, like Shakespeare, whatever he borrowed he made his own and hving, by placing the adventures in the lives of his contemporaries. The indecency which is the greatest blot on the "Decameron", but to which it undoubtedly owes not a little of its celebrity, is no greater than is to be found elsewhere in medieval literature, and is due as much to the time and the circle in which the work was written as to the temperament of the author. He himself in his later years expressed deep repentance for the too free works of his youth; moreover, his jibes and anecdotes at the expense of clerics did not impair his belief in the teachings of the Church. Boccaccio's character was by no means a despicable one. He was a steadfast friend, a son who felt tenderly for his mother and never forgave his father for having abandoned her. He speaks with affection of his daughters who had died in childhood; it is not known who their mother was. He was a scholar of the first rank for liis time, a man of independent character, and a good patriot.

No autograph copy of the "Decameron" exists, but there are three manuscript copies dating from the fourteenth century. The first edition was not printed until 1470 in Venice, and since then numerous editions have appeared, but there is as yet no critical edition. Of the modern editions P. Fanfani's is convenient (2 vols., reprinted Florence, 1904). An excellent school edition of selected novelle with notes is that of R. Fomaciari (Florence, 1890). The "Decameron" has been translated into nearly every European tongue; the first complete English edition dates from 1620.

The best edition of the ItaHan works of Boccaccio is Mou- TIER, Opere volgari di Giovanni Boccaccio corrette su i testi a penria (Florence, 1827-34). For sources of the Decameron, I.\M>\i, Iin- (Juetlen des Dekameron (Stuttgart, 1884); for I'.oi. \<(ii.-^ hfe antl works in general. Landau, Giovanni y; '.,,,,, ,,., K. ,» Leben u. seine Werke (Stuttgart. 1877); Cre- s(iM, r,u,inl,nio agli studi sul Bocc. (Turin. 1887); see also Ferrari, Bibliogralia Boccaccesca (Florence, 1S8S).

Joseph Dunn.

Bocken (Bockhn), Pl.^cidus, a German Bene- dictine, canonist, and Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- versity of Salzburg, b. at Munich, in Bavaria, 13 July, 1690; d. at Salzburg, 9 February, 1752. He entered the Order of St. Benedict at an early age, made his religious profession at the .A.bbey of St. Peter, Salz- burg, in 1706, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1713. Having been made a Doctor of Canon and Civil Law (1715), he was sent to Rome and on his re- turn was chosen, in 1721, to succeed the noted can- onist Benedict Schmier, as professor of canon law at the Benedictine University of Salzburg, where he re- mained for a period of twenty years. He proved himself a brilliant jurist, and an exceptionally gifted teacher. In 1729 he was appointed vice-chancellor of the university. He was also attached to the theological faculties of Salzburg and Fulda, was secre- tary of the university, and a valued ecclesiastical councillor of four successive archbishops in the See of Salzburg and of the Prince-Abbot of Fulda. Event- ually he appears to have incurred the displeasure of Archbishop Leopold of Salzburg, and in consequence of repeated friction resigned his position in 1741. He was then made pastor of Dornbach, a suburb of Vienna, and, two years later, superior of Maria-Plain near Salzburg, where he spent the last nine years of his life as confessor to the many pilgrims frequenting that famous shrine.

The "Commentarius in Jus Canonicum universum" which Bocken published at Salzburg (1735-39), and dedicated to his friend and patron the Prince-Abbot of Fulda, is his most important work. He had previously (1722-28) issued a number of separate treatises on the five books of the Decretals, all written with great learning and care; these, now thoroughly revised and supplemented, were incorporated in liis

larger work, to the third volume of which, in an ap- pendi.x, he also added a lengthy disquisition "De praescriptionibus". A reprint of the "Commenta- rius" appeared at Paris in 1776. Bocken's work, like that of the Salzburg canonists generally, is one of definite value. Bocken held rather extreme views on the subject of the veneration due the saints. He maintained that the special veneration and invoca- tion of the saints, particularly of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is absolutely necessary for salvation. A ser- mon which he preached on this subject in 1740 precipitated an acrid discussion at the university be- tween the members of the " Old School " and the "New School" of theology, between the Sycophantce and the Illuminati as they were called. The ser- mon appeared also in print, with annotations wherein Bcicken characterized as erroneous the contrary opin- ion of Muratori.

^,^,^,^^^^,^ ,^^riss, monasterii S. Petri, 674-677: Sattler, KoUectaneenbldtter (1890), 337 sqq.; Sedelmayer, Hist. Univ. Salisburg,,405; Ziegelbauer, Hist, rei lit. O. S. B. (Augsburg, 1754), III, 484, 485.

Thoma-s Oestreich.

Booking (or Bokkyng), Edward, English Bene- dictine, b. of East Anglian parentage, end of fifteenth century; d. 20 April, 1534. He graduated B. D. at Oxford, in 1513, and D. D. in 1518, was for some time Warden of Canterbury College there, and became a monk at Canterbury 1526. When Elizabeth Barton, "The Holy Maid of Kent", commenced her alleged Divine revelations, Becking, with another monk, was sent to examine and report upon their authenticity, and he is said to have induced her to declare herself an inspired emissary for the over- throw of Protestantism and the prevention of the divorce of Queen Catherine. To further this scheme he had her removed to the Convent of St. Sepulchre at Canterbury. There is little doubt that he was her chief instigator in the continuance of her career of deception. His share in the affair, though it cannot be excused, must be ascribed to a mistaken zeal for the preservation of the ancient f^aith. After the divorce of Queen Catherine and Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn in 1533, Cromwell had Elizabeth Barton arrested, together with Bocking and others. Bocking confessed the imposture and, with his accomplices, did public penance at Paul's Cross. He and si.x others were hanged at Tyburn.

Documents from Cottonian MSS. in Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries (London. 1843), 13-34; Gairdner, Letters and Papers of Henry Vlll for 16SS- S.4(London, 1882-83); Sander, ed. Lewis, Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism (London, 1877), III; Bdrnet, ed. Pocock, Hist, of the Reformation. (Oxford, 1865), I; Strtpe, Memorials (Oxford, 1882), I, i, 271; Gasquet, Henry VIlI and the English Monasteries (London, 1S99), I. iv; Stephens and Hunt, History of the English Church (London, 1902), IV, 144.

G. Ctprian Alston.

Bodenstein. See K.arlstadt, Andreas Rudolf.

Bodey, John, Venerable, martyr, b. at Wells, Somerset, 1549; d. at Andover, Wilts., 2 November, 1583. He studied at Winchester and New College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow in 1568. In June, 1576, he was deprived, with seven other Fel- lows, by the Visitor, Home, Protestant Bishop of Winchester. Next year he went to Douay College to study ci\il law, returned to England in February, 1578, and probably married. Arrested in 1580, he was kept in iron shackles in Winchester gaol, and was condemned in April, 1583, together with Jolm Slade, a schoolmaster, for maintaining the old religion and denying the Royal Supremacy. There was appar- ently a feeling that this sentence was unjust and il- legal, and they were actually tried and condemned again at Andover, 19 August, 1583, on the same in- dictment. Bodey had a controversy with Humph- reys, Dean of Winchester, on the Nicene Council, and the martyr's notes from Eusebius still exist. After