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 BOERI

610

BOETHIUS

Paris he was a student, then Bachelor of Di\-inity, and finally a professor at the College of Montaigu, whose course had been reorganized on the principles of monastic poverty and severe routine by James Standone of Brabant, at one time rector of the university. At the college, Boece formed a lasting friendship with Erasmus. From about 1495, Boece was zealously aiding Wm. Elphinstone, the learned Bishop of Aberdeen, to carrj' out the provisions of a Bull of Alexander VI, obtained at the request of James IV, chartering a imiversity with all faculties in the city of Aberdeen. Finally, in 1505, having received help from various sources, they founded the collegiate church of St. Mary of the Nativity, later known as King's College, and regular teaching took the place of the occasional lectures of the canons. The organization was modelled upon that of the Universities of Paris and Orleans. The foundation was to support, on meagre stipends, four doctors in the respective faculties, two teaching masters, five student masters, thirteen poor scholars, eight chap- lains, and four choristers. Boece was principal and read lectures on divinity and on medicine. History was not regularly taught, but both Elphin- stone and Boece made collections of materials. In 1527, Boece received a pension of £50 Scots, and, from 1529 to 1534, a like amount, to be paid annually \mtil he should obtain a benefice of 100 marks Scots. Besides his principalship, he held the offices of Canon of Aberdeen and Rector of Tyrie.

Boece published at Paris, 1522, " Lives of the Bishops of Murthlack and Aberdeen", about a third of which is devoted to Elphinstone (d. 1514). In 1527 appeared, also at Paris, his " Scotorum Historioe" in seventeen books. Boece was preceded in the field of published Scottish history only by the learned work of Mair. The Scottish translation of this work by Bellenden, in 1536, was later used by Holinshed and thus indirectly by Shakespeare. As a historian, Boece has been praised for elegance, patriotism, and love of freedom; and most severely arraigned, even by contemporaries, for his credulity in the matter of historic origins. His literary honesty, attacked in his own day, has more recently been de- fended. The impetus which he gave to historical studies at Aberdeen has been of lasting effect.

Mackay in Diet. Xal. Biag.: Henderson, ScoUish Vernacular Literature (London. 1898 1; Morley, English Writers. VII; Episcoporum M urthlacensium et Aberdonensium pT Hectorem Boetium Vitcr (reprinted bv Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh. 1825, and by New Spalding Club, 1895, with tr.); The History and Chronicle of Scotland, tr. Bellenden (1821).

J. Vincent Crowne.

Boeri (Bohier), Petrus. a French Benedictine can- onist and bishop, b. during the first quarter of the four- teenth century at Laredorte, department of Aude. can- ton of Peyriac Minervois; d. probably 13SS. Of his early fife nothing is known. In 1350, when he is first mentioned. Boeri was Abbot of St. Chinian {St.- Anianus, Herault) in the small Diocese of Saint- Pons de Tomieres {Sandi Pontii Tomeriaruni) which at that time formed a part of the Metropolitan Province of Narbonne. By his virtue and learning he attracted the favourable notice of Urban V, who appointed him Bishop of Orvieto, 16 Nov., 1364. A few years later (7 Oct., 1370) he was transferred by the same pontiff to the See of Vaison, near Avignon in France. But in 1371, shortly after Urban's death, he returned to Orvieto and remained in pos- session of that see until 28 June, 1379, when he was deprived of his bishopric by Urban VI for having espoused the cause of the Antipope Robert of Geneva, then reigning at Avignon as Clement VII. Upon his subsequent withdrawal to France he served ■Charles V in the capacity of ambassador to the pontifical court at Avignon. (Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, II, 27-28.) However, 31 August, 1387, Clement VII likewise deposed liim from his episcopal

office and entrusted the temporal and spiritual ad- ministration of Orvieto to Thomas de Jarente, Bishop of Grasse. Boeri died shortly afterwards. He was the author of two commentaries on the Rule of St. Benedict; in one, written when he was Abbot of St. Chinian, he deals with the Rule from the point of view of the canonist; in the other, written in the Sacro Speco at Subiaco when he was Bishop of Orvieto, he deals with it more from the point of view of the ascetic. He dedicated the later commentary to Charles V, King of France. He also wrote a commentary on the Constitution "Pastor bonus" of Benedict XII; "Speculum Monachorum"; " De Signis locutionum"; "Notae in Damasi Pontificale" (an annotated copy of the "Liber Pontificalis", like- wise dedicated to Charles V); and began at Rouen in 1379 a treatise on the question of calling a general council with a view to ending the deplorable schism then distracting the Church. This treatise remained unfinished. With the exception of "In Regulam S. P. Benedicti Commentarium " (ed. Dom Leone AUodi, Subiaco, Rome), and " Nota? in Damasi Ponti- ficale " Boeri's works have never been printed.

EuBEL, Hierarehia eathol. med. wvi (Munster, 1898-1901), I, 537; Fabricius, Bibliolheca Lot. Media: et Infim^ £tati* (Hamburg. 1734), I, 686. 687; V, 737; Schdlte, GeschichU der Quell, u. Litl. des kanoniichen Rechts (1875-80), II, 256; Valois, La France et le Grand Schisme (Paris, 1896), I. 325, 326, 398; II. 129; Ziegelbacer, Hist, rei literarite Ord. S. Benedicti (Augsburg, 1754), I, 77; III. 613; IV, 581, 702.

Thojlvs Oestreich.

Boemerian Codex. See Mss. of the Bible; Le Long, Jacques.

Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus, Roman statesman and philosopher, often styled "the last of the Romans", regarded by tradition as a Christian martjT, b. at Rome in 480; d. at Pavia in 524 or 525. Descended from a consular family, he was left an or- phan at an early age and was educated by the pious and noble-minded SjTnmachus, whose daughter, Rusti- ciana, he married. As early as 507 he was known as a learned man, and as such was entrusted by ICmg Theodoric with several important missions. He enjoyed the confidence of the king, and as a patrician of Rome was looked up to by the repre- sentatives of the Roman nobility. When, however, his enemies accused him of disloyalty to the Ostro- gothic king, alleging that he plotted to restore "Roman liberty", and added the accusation of "sacrilege" (the practice of astrology), neither his noble birth nor his great popularity availed him. He was cast into prison, condemned unheard, and executed by order of Theodoric. During his im- prisonment, he reflected on the instabQity of the favour of princes and the inconstancy of the de- votion of his friends. These reflections suggested to him the theme of his best-known pliilosoptucal work, the "De Consolatione Philosophi;e".

Tradition began verj' early to represent Boethius as a martjT for the Christian Faith. It was believed that among the accusations brought against him was devotion to the Catholic cause, which at that time was championed by the Emperor Justin against the Arian Theodoric. In the eighth century this tradi- tion had assumed definite shape, and in many places Boethius was honoured as a martjT, and his feast observed on the twenty-third of October. In recent times, critical scliolarship has gone to the opposite extreme, and there have not been wanting critics who asserted that Boethius was not a Christian at all, or that, if he was, he abjured the Faith before his death. The foundation for this opinion is the fact that in the "Consolations of Philosophy" no mention is made of Christ or of the Christian religion, A saner view, which seems at the present time to be prevalent among scholars, is that Boethius was a Christian and remained a Christian to the end.

That he was a Christian is proved by his theological