Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/696

 BOLANDEN

626

BOLGENI

tc be contradicted by the friar's own statement that his birtliplaee was in the vicinity of a "pryory of blake [black] canons" which Mr. Sydney Lee (Diet. Nat. Biogr., V, 314) identifies with a famous house of Augustinian canons at Bokenham, now Old Buck- enham, Norfolk. Bokenham may or may not have got some early schooling from these "blake canons", but he certainly spent five years as a yomig man in Italy, chiefly at Venice, making frequent pilgrimages to the great Italian centres of devotional life, Rome, of course, among them. His long residence in Italy, in a generation to which the memory of Petrarch (d. 1374) was still recent, must have been in itself something of a liberal education. Bokenham is kno'nn to have read both Cicero and Ovid — classical accomplishments not by any means a matter-of- course \\ith young Englishmen destined to the eccle- siastical state in those days. Lydgate (d. 1451?) was among his contemporaries; Gower (d. 1402) and Chaucer (d. 1400) had been living in England in his boyhood, and had demonstrated the splendid possi- bilities of a language which for more than three centuries had been a mere rustic vernacular. His admission to the Order of Hermit-Friars of St. Au- gustine, whatever the exact date, certainly fell within the period of that order's greatest intellectual activity in England, when Dr. John Lowe (d., Bishop of Rochester, 1436) was making such valuable ad- ditions to the great Austin-Friars library in London. Bockenham finally became a professed religious in the Augustinian convent at Stoke Clare, Suffolk.

His writings were chiefly religious in theme and feeling. A "Dialogue" (printed in vol. VI of Dug- dale's "Monasticon"), on the genealogj^ of a great Suffolk family, is attributed to Bokenham on in- ternal evidence. The "Ly\ys of Seyntys" he com- piled cliiefly from the "Legenda Aiu-ea" of Jacobus a Voragine. These are the lives of twelve female saints, with an account of the legendary "11,000 virgins". Though valuable in a devotional sense, the "Ly\-ys of SejTitys" cannot be very seriously considered by modern hagiologists; but as illustrating the evolution of English literature, their historical value is inesti- mable. The language, described by its author as "of Suthfolke speche", is forced into the exotic form of ottava rima. This work, preserved among the Arundel MSS. in the British Museum, was printed for the Roxburghe Club in 1835; but Horstmann's edition (vol. I of Kolbing's "Altenglische Biblio- thek") had appeared at Heilbronn two years earlier. Bokenham's ideas of religious himiility are ciniously illustrated by his using the names of several con- temporary ladies of higli rank as nonis de plume to cover his own authorship.

Did. of Nat. Bwgr. (London and New York, 1886\ V. s. v.; Steele, .Monasteries and Religious Houses (London. New York, etc., 1903). The two printed editions of Bokenham's poem furnish material for critical study of the author.

E. M.\CPHERSON.

Bolanden, CoNR.\D von (Joseph Bischoff), a Ger- man novelist, son of a rich merchant, b. 9 August, 1828, at Niedergeilbach, a village of the Palatinate. He attended the Latin school at Blieskastel, the seminary at Speyer, and in 1849 entered the Uni- versity of Munich to study theology. Ordained priest in 1852 he was appointed assistant pastor at the cathedral. Two years later he became pastor at Kirchheim Bolanden whence his pen name "Con- rad von Bolanden ". The following year he was trans- ferred to Borrstadt and three years later to Berg- hausen. During this timehewTofe his first four works: "A Wedding Trip", "Queen Bertha", "Historical Tales of Frederick II", and "Gustav Adolf". In 1870 he resigned his parish to devote himself ex- clusively to literarv work, and lived in strict retire- ment at Speyer. tie published numerous novels of which the most noteworthy are: "Canossa". "Trowel

or Cross", "Night of St. Bartholomew", "Savon- arola", Crusades", "Wambold", "Charlemagne", "Otto the Great", "Pillar of Truth".

His novels and romances, though not aU of equal worth, are ■nTitten for the people, brilliant in con- ception, simple in style. He fearlessly defends the Catholic standpoint and supports his position by frequent quotations from original sources. But in discussing questions of the day his criticisms are often severe and imjust. His works are T\idely read and have been translated into English and other European languages.

The Catholic trorld, XVII, 308; Keiter, Katholische Ev zahler, 131.

B. DiERINGEB.

Boleslaw. See Poland.

Bolgeni, Giovanni Vincenzo, theologian and con- troversialist, b. at Bergamo, Italy, 22 January, 1733; d. at Rome, 3 May, 1811. He entered the Society of Jesus, 31 October, 1747, taught philosophy and theology with marked success at Macerata and was a member of the Society when it was suppressed by Clement XIV. Henceforth he devoted himself to controversy and in recognition of his signal services against Jansenism and Josephinism, Pius VI appointed him Theologian-Penitentiary, an office of which he was deprived by Pius VII on account of the Jacobin principles he tolerated and advocated during the occupation of Rome by Napoleon I.

Of Bolgeni's theological writings, the best kno'mi and at the same time the least fortunate was his "Delia carita o amor di Dio" (Rome, 1788). In it lie endeavoured to refute the Dominican, de Rubeis, by demonstrating that the theological virtue of charity essentially consists in loving God as He is good to us and not as He is absolute goodness. This position won for him misrepresentation at the hands of Teofilo Cristiani, fictitious author of "Lettera teo- logico-critica suU' amore di Dio" (1791) and opposi- tion from his former Jesuit comrades, Mazzarelli (1790-91), Regono (1791), Cortes (1790-93), Chantre y Herrera (1790-92) and Gentilini (1803). Against Cristiani he successfully disposed of the charge that he held purely ser\'ile fear a sufficient motive for attrition, but the arguments of his other adversaries he met at first with more subtlety than precision, and later with silence. He did not attempt to answer the searching criticism of his doctrine contained in Palestrina's "Idea genuina della carita o amor di Dio" (1800). In addition to his original work he contributed to the controversy, " Schiarimenti in con- fermazione e difesa della sua dissertazione " (Rome, 1788; Foligno, 1790), and "Apologia dell' amor di Dio detto di concupiscenza" (Foligno, 1792). Though practically defeated in this dispute Bolgeni's presen- tation of his case proved that he was endowed with controversial talents of no mean order, and these he used with telling effect in his writings on moral sub- jects and on matters which may be classed as po- litico-theological. As Theologian-Penitentiary he edited a novel defence of probabilism under the caption, "II posesso, principio fondamentale per de- cidere i casi morali". The second part of this work, " Dissertazione seconda fra le morali sopra gli atti umani" (Cremona, 1816; Orvieto, 1853), together with a treatise on usury, published under his name but probably not written by him, appeared after his death. The defence of probabilism aroused a storm of controversy, and among the noted anti-probabil- ists who engaged in the discussion may be mentioned the Bishop of Assisi (1798) Agapitus de Palestrina, O. Min. Ref. (1799), Cajetan Maria de Fulgore (1798), Canon John Trinch of the Cathedral of Tivoli (1850), and Montbach (1857). Of these Trinch added to his "II Bolgenismo Confutato" a "digression on the necessity of confessing all mortal sins, whether cer- tain or doubtful, just as they are in conscience."