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From The English Correspondence of Saint Boniface: Being for the Most Part Letters Exchanged Between the Apostle of the Germans and His English Friends: Translated and Edited with an Introductory Sketch of the Saint’s Life by Edward Kylie, M.A.; London: Chatto & Windus: 1911; pp. 38-41.
To the holy abbot, Aldhelm, bound to me, as his merits demand, by an unbreakable chain of burning love, Aedilwald, a humble suppliant of thy paternal goodness, greetings of eternal salvation in the lord.
During the course of the summer, while this unhappy country was being terribly harassed by great expeditions of death-dealing invaders, I lingered in thy company for the sake of my reading; then thy holy wisdom — thoroughly acquainted, as I believe, with almost all literary compositions contained whether in profane volumes written in an elegant and rhetorical style or in spiritual books carefully composed after the manner of dogmatic exposition — clearly revealed to me, when the veil of stupidity and folly had been quickly turned away, the deeper studies of 39 the liberal arts, which, because of their mysteries and difficult character, are barred to the ignorant mind. After the greedy jaws of my thirsty intelligence had eagerly consumed to the last the banquet laid by the well-stored intellect, my mind, still lean and pallid, was fully revived by the expectation based on thy generous and flattering promise willingly to educate and instruct me with all the means of information which my moderate industry craved. Wherefore, my beloved guide to learning undefiled, we think it well that thou shouldst readily prove the truth of thy words by corresponding action, encouraged, as we are, by the words of holy scripture: “My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, thou hast engaged fast thy hand to a stranger: thou art ensnared with the words of thy mouth, and caught with thine own words.”2 But if thou canst not remember that thou art tied and bound by the strong bonds of thy given promise, yet, since from my most tender infancy thou hast loved and nourished me, strengthened me with the more delicate food of thine industry, and brought me step by step to full manhood, it is thought right by all of sane intelligence that thou shouldst nourish me, fed until now upon food suited to the tender mind, with the more solid viands of deeper 40 wisdom. If my humble devotion begs and insists, do not refuse to offer a feast for my nourishment, nor, though thou regardest me as of little account, to enrich thy adopted son at the right moment from the full store of thy paternal knowledge; that the hated groups of audacious rivals may not show their joy and satisfaction with the ringing laughter of eager blame, when they find that the successor is not heir to the rich treasure of paternal philosophy, but remains in the poverty of barbarous ignorance; and let me not, in my misery, be compared with Rehoboam, who, though sprung of the noble stock of King Solomon, distinguished both for his admirable wisdom and his abundant riches, was born in an unhappy hour and lacked almost entirely his father’s good fortune. Wherefore, come, discharge thy promise and bring to completion the generous work of instruction once begun, assured that thou shalt win thereby the greater glory of an eternal reward, on the assurance of the Lord who says: “He that endureth to the end shall be saved.”3
We have added to this letter three poems suitable for singing, arranged in different ways. The first employs the dactylic hexameter, usual in heroic poetry; its metre is, I think, carefully worked out, and through chance, or, to speak more accurately, through the will of divine providence, 41 it is divided into seventy equal verses. The third, which has no regular metre, contains eight syllables in each verse, and one and the same letter is repeated at the beginning of the words in the same line; it has been arranged hastily with a rapid pen. I am sending it dedicated to thee, my wise teacher. The middle one, which is composed with the same arrangement of verses and syllables, deals with the journey across the sea of Wynfrith, my client and thine: I have shown and forwarded it to him. These I thought it necessary to lay before the eyes of your4 holiness; it seemed proper in my poor judgment that I should first reveal to thee my feeble literary efforts. Since, if approved by your taste and corrected in accordance with the true standard, they become forthwith acceptable to great numbers of readers.
Farewell in Christ.
1 This side-figure is in each case the number of the letter in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolarum III.
2 Prov. vi. 12. The Scriptural references are to the Vulgate; the English rendering is that given in the Authorized Version.
3 Matt. x. 22.
4 Aedilwald here uses the plural “you,” instead of the more familiar “thou” which he has used up to this point. In practically every case where such changes occur in the letters, the translation follows the text. The writer usually lapses into the more official and correct form, as though he suddenly became conscious of the dignity of the person addressed.
