Amicitia in old English letters: Augustine's ideas of "friendship" and their reception in Eangyth's letter to Boniface

Abstract

Main themes under discussions of the Boniface's correspondences are the sources for his writings and the motif of "friendship". Although these aspects have often been examined in conjunction with patristic writings, nevertheless a concrete comparison between the patristic sources and the letters to and from Boniface has not been attempted. In this article, on the basis of Augustine's Confessiones and Eangyth's letter to Boniface, I would like to demonstrate that Anglo-Saxon writers adopted not only motifs and themes shown in Augustine's Confessiones but also his theories on friendship in particular, and that he can therefore be valued as the main source of Anglo-Saxon letter-writing in general.