WAS BOETHFUS A CHRISTIAN?
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—I have not had an opportunity of seeing Mr. Hugh Fraser Stewart's essay on Boethius, of which I have just read the review in the Spectator of April 23rd ; and I do not know whether the author refers to the essay, " De l'Origine -des Traditions any le Christianisme de Boece," which is the first of the late M. Charles Jourdain's instructive "excur- sions" in his "Excursions Historiques et Philosophiques travers le Mo yen Age," Paris, 1888. On the possibility, how- ever, that that paper may not be well known to English students of Boethius, you may perhaps be kind enough to allow me to point out that, in regard to the specific ques- tion to which M. Jourdain confines himself—that is, the origin of the tradition of Boethius's Christianity—the French scholar reached the following conclusions :—(1), That the con- temporaries and the immediate successors of Boethius (who died in 525) did not reckon him among the defenders of the Christian faith; (2), that the reputation of Boethius as a Christian dates from the eighth century only, and can be traced to the time when Luitprand, King of the Lombards, erected a tomb in the Church of St. Peter at Pavia for the holding of his supposed remains; (3), that this tomb was erected in consequence of the discovery in the Island of Sardinia of the remains of an old African Bishop, whose name was also Boethius (Boece), who lived in the beginning of the sixth century, and with whom Boethius the Consul was confounded; (4), that this Bishop was the author of the theo- logical writings commonly attributed to the Consul.
I should add that I write in much general ignorance of the *subject ; but I think that students of Boethius may be glad to have their attention called to M. Jourdain's investigations and results.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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