Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

more personal level, Leoba credited her education in the art of poetry to a different
Eadburg. 88 Once abbess of Bischofsheim, Leoba in her turn agreed to educate ‘a certain
maiden’ in her monastery, with the agreement of Boniface. 89 Monasteries could clearly
still be used as educational centres, despite Gregory II's prohibition of oblates leaving
their monasteries at puberty in his letter to Boniface of 22 nd November 726. 90 On a more
personal note, Angildruth, a later abbess of Tauberbischofsheim, asked Eigil to produce a
life of Sturm, the founder of the monastery of Fulda. 91 She, and the other dedicated
women who had joined Boniface in Bavaria, felt themselves to be deeply involved in the
progress and success of his mission, and wished to have their own texts commemorating
its leading lights.
Perhaps the clearest example of the intellectual wealth of the nuns attached to the
Bonifacian mission comes in the person of Huneburc of Heidenheim, author of the
Hodoeporicon of St Willibald. In her preface to the text, Huneburc makes much of her
lack of literary accomplishment: ‘I know that it may seem very bold on my part to write
this book when there are so many holy priests capable of doing better, but as a humble
relative I would like to record something of their deeds and travels for future ages’. 92
However, she is also careful to note that her work is based on the best authority: ‘We
heard them [Willibald’s adventures] from his own lips in the presence of two deacons
who will vouch for their truth: it was on the 20th of June, the day before the summer
solstice.’ 93 Huneburc’s work is a mixture of her own words, organisation and
interpretation, and what appears to be text taken down from Willibald as dictation.
Occasional sentences betray Huneburc’s absorption in the story that was unfolding:
‘There, between the two fountains [at the source of the river Jordan], they passed the
88
Epist. 29, MGH Epp. III, 281. Although Tangl assumed these two abbess Eadburgs to be the same
person, Barbara Yorke has convincingly argued for there to have been one abbess Eadburg in Thanet (the
writer of letters to Boniface) and one in Wessex (the teacher of Leoba). Yorke, ‘The Bonifacian mission’,
150-2.
89
Epist. 96, MGH Epp. III, 382-3.
90
Epist. 26, MGH Epp. III, 275-6
91
Eigil, abbot of Fulda, Vita Sturmi, MGH SS II, 365-77. Angildruth’s commission is noted in the Preface.
92
Huneburc, Vita Willibaldi Episcopi Eichstetensis [Hodoeporicon] MGH SS XV:I (86-106), Praefatio,
87; tr. Talbot, The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries, 153.
93
Vita Willibaldi, Praefatio, 87; tr. Talbot, The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries, 153.
194