Abel

ON ST. ABEL, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

IN THE MONASTERY OF LOBBES IN HAINAUT.

About the year 750 or 760.

A HISTORICAL COLLECTION.

Abel, Bishop and Confessor, in the monastery of Lobbes in Hainaut (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

§ I. The monastery of Lobbes, the Saint's eulogy, his fatherland; his monkhood at Lobbes; arguments for his archbishopric of Reims.

So clear and distinct a notice of the monastery of Lobbes in Hainaut, professing the institute of the Order of St. Benedict, has already been given among us, Notices of the monastery of Lobbes that it is not necessary now to add more to what we have said elsewhere about it. For in volume 1 of February, at the IV day, page 498, St. Ulgisus, abbot of that place, furnished occasion for exhibiting its situation, the various expression of its name, its foundation, its enrichment, and the series of its first abbots. But on the occasion of St. Amulwin, governor of that same house of ascetics, in volume II of February, at the VII day, page 82, the memory of that monastery and of its first abbots recurs. But among the other ascetics of that place St. Abel claims for himself an excellent place; who, inasmuch as he dwelt in it, made it illustrious by his examples of virtue and by his holy death. Before all things I premise a sketch of the Man from his eulogy in Saussay at this V day of August, framed in these words:

[2] At Lobbes in Belgium, the deposition of St. Abel, archbishop of Reims and confessor. the Saint's eulogy is subjoined He, a Scot by nation, out of zeal for enlarging the faith crossed into Belgic Gaul by the breathing of the Holy Spirit: and being made abbot of Lobbes, the glory of his heavenly teaching and of his sanctity, evident on every side, shining forth, at the suggestion of blessed Boniface, apostle of Germany, and of Pepin and Carloman, princes of the Franks, he received the pallium from Pope Zacharias with the title of archbishop, so that he himself, as archbishop of Reims, in whose province he was managing the business of increasing religion, might with greater authority execute a part of the office. Nor in vain: for he so weightily fulfilled the ministry he had undertaken that, preaching with a plainly apostolic spirit, he drew innumerable unbelievers to Christ's sweet yoke, and was the chief teacher of the people of Liège and of Hainaut in the Gospel.

[3] Wherefore, blessed Rigobert, metropolitan of Reims, from Saussay. whose chorepiscopus he had been, being called from the prison-house of the flesh to eternal glory, he was appointed in his place not without the applause of all: and governed the church of Reims for nearly ten years with great praise for episcopal virtues. From which nevertheless, being expelled out of hatred of solid piety and justice, he sought again Lobbes, the celebrated monastery which he had before ruled: and there again, bending his course to the enlightening of the Belgic people, after many gains of souls he departed from the course of mortality; and for the interest of his merits obtained the eternal beatitude for which he had long panted. But presently, having attained sacred honors, he began to be celebrated with that veneration with which the heaven-dwellers are venerated in the Church, adorned with a twofold feast: namely of his ordination, which is observed on the ninth of the Kalends of October, and of his deposition, which is solemn today, as the ecclesiastical records testify. Thus far Saussay. But various things concerning this eulogy offer themselves to be noted: which will be examined in the course of this Collection.

[4] Announcements in the sacred calendars: Rightly first of all does Saussay announce our Abel with the title of Saint; whom indeed very many hagiologists both before and after him had endowed with the same honor. Of the monastic ones are Wion, Dorgan, Menard: of whom the first records him thus at this day: At Lobbes, the birthday of St. Abel, archbishop and confessor. He, by the example of the first martyr, resolving to serve the Lord in simplicity of heart, was proved just by very many proofs. Nearly the same words Dorgan uses: but Menard thus most briefly: At Lobbes, the birthday of St. Abel, bishop of Reims and confessor. Trithemius had gone before, On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, book 3, chapter 298; where among other things he is called a man greatly learned in the divine Scriptures, and comely with the adornment of many virtues. And in the same place, book 4, chapter 118: singularly distinguished for uprightness of manners, taken up to ecclesiastical rule, he so carefully and holily presided over Christ's sheep that he deserved to be reckoned among the Saints.

To these add Bucelin in the Benedictine Menology, and Mabillon, Acts of the Order of St. Benedict, century 3, part 1, page 568, in the appendix. But what need is there to cling to more recent testimonies, when Fulcuin, published in d'Achery's Spicilegium, volume 6, from page 544, who both dwelt in the monastery of Lobbes and ruled it as abbot and published its Chronicle, adorns him with the title of sanctity, as will be said below? With the monastic writers in assigning to Abel the honor of the Saints various other authors agree at this day, namely Molanus in the additions to his Usuard of the second edition, and in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium; Miraeus in the Belgian Calendars; Fisen in the Flowers of the church of Liège; to whom is added Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology. Molanus in both places cited announces him at Lobbes; but in the earlier edition he had marked him at Binche: where also Ferrarius announces him on this day, in the General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology. But that he may be assigned to either place will be plain below. Now let us set about gathering the other things which illustrate the holy Man's deeds.

[5] He is a Scot by nation to Saussay, as we have seen; such also he is to Le Cointe, to be cited below, his fatherland: at the year 745, number XCVII; to Bucelin a German by nation; to Fulcuin a Scot by family; but to Alford an Englishman: who, at the year 745, treating of Boniface's third synod, or that of Mainz (of which we below at number 22), and of those who were present at it, proves from St. Boniface's letter to Herefrid, which he brings forward in the same place at number 18, and which is the tenth among Boniface's letters, that St. Abel's fatherland was this. From the said letter I take this: We eight bishops, who have come together to one synod, whose names we have noted below… born and reared of that same nation of the English (although Serarius in his notes to that letter says: In all the copies which I have seen those names are lacking). But because St. Abel among other prelates is handed down to have been present at that synod, according to what is to be said below at number 22, therefore one seems to have to stand by Alford's conclusion, who in the place cited at number 19 writes this: From this letter gather that all the bishops who judged that the king (Ethelbald of the Mercians; of whom at the same number 22) must be admonished not only came forth from this island, and were born and reared here, but were of the same nation of the English as Boniface. Whence those who called Abel a Scot found it in the dark, not in Boniface's letters and in the light. It is not surprising, therefore, if the authors stumbled; especially since Boniface himself is called a Scot by some.

[6] That our Saint was an ascetic of the monastery of Lobbes his monkhood among the people of Lobbes: is established from the praised Fulcuin, chapter 5; where he speaks thus of St. Erminus, abbot there: He had also as fellow-workers or successors, governors of that same place, and co-abbots, namely the holy Abel, a Scot by family, and holy Wlgisus the bishop, and master Amulguin likewise a bishop; who, whether they succeeded one another in turn, or, St. Erminus being occupied with spiritual matters, administered the place in common, antiquity has left nothing certain. Yet it did not keep silent that they both held and governed the place of Lobbes; and moreover, as the times gave opportunity, improved the place. Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, volume 2, book 21, page 103, number XXXVI, treats of the praised illustrious men of the monastery of Lobbes, fellow-workers of St. Erminus, or, as he writes, of abbot Ermino, among the things which he narrates at the year 737. From these it is clear that our Saint was a monk in the monastery of Lobbes. But whether he truly and properly presided over it as abbot will be examined, after it has first been investigated whether he was archbishop of Reims.

[7] Fulcuin, chapter 7, says: When we had lately been at Reims, the dignity of archbishop of Reims and were conversing with the venerable man Adalbero, the most learned of those parts, archbishop, when we inquired the origin of that city, and the succession of bishops in it, he satisfied us, as the time gave opportunity, from the approved pontifical deeds of that same city. In which deeds indeed it was found that in that same city a certain Abel was bishop, who acquired or ordered many things in it. But what his end was, the writer of his deeds either did not know or wished altogether to keep silent. We, things being collected from every quarter, have proved by easy reasoning that this same Abel was both ours, and a Scot, and a bishop. But that his end was uncertain to his writer, the length of the journey perhaps caused, and the voluntary self-deprivation of a religious man, and the love of the heavenly fatherland. The above-named bishop also said that a custom of his predecessors was carried down to himself, that amid the solemnities of Masses, in that special commemoration of the dead which is called above the diptychs, and is solemnly performed at the consecration of the Lord's body, daily into the priest's ear, the subdeacon reciting silently, the names of all the bishops of that see should be recited one by one from writing; and that he wondered enough that in that commemoration this man is not found: which, as we conjecture, was done for this reason, that he himself was ordered to occupy the vacant see for a little while as a bishop already before; so that

he of his own accord repudiated that catalogue by a voluntary cession for the love of God. For it is not to be believed that he was in this a heretic, since not to resist heretics is almost the same as to favor them, and so many and so great men at that time would not allow any such thing to creep in; nay rather, public writings being issued, whether to forestall or to confute a heresy, they would pursue it with free authority, the Lord terribly threatening: Cursed, he says, is he who withholds his sword from blood. Nor could it happen that he sought out those whose conversation in mind was in the heavens — I mean Ursmar and Erminus — except to imitate them, since he could not be received by them unless he had been approved and had himself before been exercised in the Lord's camps. Thus far Fulcuin, who lived in the tenth century.

[8] by various arguments Flodoard, priest and canon of the church of Reims, contemporary with Fulcuin, in the History of that same church, book 2, chapter 16, asserts the bishopric of Reims for our St. Abel by several arguments, speaking thus: Following blessed Rigobert, Abel is found in the order of the episcopate, although some hand down that he was only a chorepiscopus. That he was nevertheless a pontiff we find by divers assertions, and chiefly in the letters of Pope Zacharias directed to St. Boniface, in one of which he records that the aforesaid blessed Boniface had indicated in his letters, among other things, that he had ordained three bishops for the several metropolitan cities: that is, Grimo in the city which is called Rouen; but the second, Abel, in the city which is called Reims; the third, finally, Hartbert in the city which is called Sens: "Who also (he says) was with us, and brought us alike your writings, and those of Carloman and Pepin, through which you suggested that we should direct three palliums to those same three aforenamed metropolitans, which also we have bestowed for the uniting and reforming of the churches of God."

[9] ought to be assigned to St. Abel, Likewise in another letter of his to the same: "But concerning the metropolitan bishops, that is Grimo, whom we now have knowledge of; Abel, and Hartbert, whom you have appointed for each metropolis through the provinces, these we confirm on your testimony, and we direct palliums for their firm stability and the increase of the Church of God, that it may thus advance in a better state. For what the custom of the pallium is, or in what manner they ought to set forth their faith who are granted the license of using the pallium, we have directed to them, informing them, that they may know what the use of the pallium is, and to preach to their subjects the way of salvation, that ecclesiastical discipline may be kept unmutilated in their churches and remain unshaken, and that the priesthood which shall be in them may be not polluted, as it was before, but pure and acceptable to God, so far as the human condition allows; so that none may be found to stray from the sacred canons, and that a pure Sacrifice may be offered by them: so that God may be appeased by their gifts, and, the minds of God's peoples being purified from all foulness, they may be able to exhibit the sincere service of the Christian religion." But also certain charters are found entitled with that bishop's name.

[10] it is asserted, Concerning whom also the aforesaid Pope Adrian in the aforementioned (chapter 13) letter to Tilpin the archbishop, after those things which were premised above, thus adds: "Boniface of holy memory, archbishop and legate of the holy Roman Church, and the aforesaid most beloved Fulrad, archpriest of France, in the time of our predecessors Zacharias and Stephen his successor, labored much that our predecessor of good memory, lord Zacharias, should transmit the pallium to the archbishop of Reims, Abel by name, at the entreaty of the above-written Boniface, because he had been appointed by him: but he was not permitted to remain there, but rather was cast out against God, and the church of Reims was for many seasons and for many years without a bishop, and the goods of the Church were taken away from that bishopric and divided among laymen; as also from other bishoprics, but chiefly from the metropolitan city of Reims." These things in Flodoard; to whose text what you see added in the margin I have taken partly from the Colvener edition, which I give, partly from the Sirmond. Further, Colvener's scholia on chapter 16 of Flodoard's book 2 may be consulted. The letters, fragments of which were just cited at number 8 and following, you have in Labbe, volume 6 of the Councils, column —, column —, and column —. From what has been said, therefore, it seems consequent that St. Abel presided as prelate over the see of Reims.

[11] This is confirmed, first, from letter 19 of St. Boniface, martyr and archbishop of Mainz, to Ethelbald, king of the Mercians, [and it is confirmed from St. Boniface's letter, from the series of the archbishops of Reims,] published among others by our Serarius, page 22; where among the names of the other fellow-bishops who bid him greeting there occurs Abel. Second, from the order of the archbishops of Reims in the Sammarthani, volume 1, page 480; which is thus: XXVIII. St. Rigobert. XXIX. St. Abel. XXX. Tilpin. XXXI. Wlfarius, otherwise Wolfarius. XXXII. Ebo. XXXIII. Hincmar. In the Translation of St. Rigobert, which is extant among us at the IV day of January, page 179, this is read: Master Hincmar, who was the FIFTH archbishop of Reims from him, translated him. Now indeed, if from the aforesaid series you strike out St. Abel, Hincmar will not be the fifth archbishop of Reims from him, but only the fourth.

[12] To the same number and order of those Prelates William Marlot adheres in the History of the Metropolis of Reims, as also from elsewhere. volume 1, books 2 and 3. To these add, third: To the argument which might be drawn from St. Remigius' epitaph, where Hincmar calls himself the 31st archbishop of Reims, and the 16th from Remigius, which cannot stand if Abel is counted among the archbishops, as it is in Marlot, volume 1, book 2, chapter 48 — the same author says: We have proved elsewhere that the latter part of the epitaph, where this reckoning is set down, is not Hincmar's; but he neither adds, nor do I find, where he proved this; nor is it worth the trouble to inquire it out more laboriously. Fourth: In the council of Soissons, which is noted as celebrated under Pepin by 23 bishops in the year of Christ 744 in volume 6 of the Councils in Labbe, canon 3, column —, this is had: We have determined by the counsel of the priests and of their nobles, and have ordained lawful bishops through the cities: and therefore we have appointed over them as ARCHBISHOPS Abel and Ardobert, that to their judgments both bishops and the rest of the people may have recourse in every ecclesiastical need. Le Cointe, Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, volume 5, at the year 745 (to which he attaches the synod of Soissons), number 8, indicates that the most mournful state of the church of Reims, whose bishopric had for twenty-eight years groaned under the infamous Milo, was the cause why Abel was appointed Archbishop of the said church in that synod, Milo being cast down from the see of Reims, which he had seized when Rigobert was driven into exile. He proves the matter from Flodoard, whom we gave above. These things concerning St. Abel's archbishopric of Reims being thus established, I subjoin some questions which bear on this.

* Others: "the numbers of the times being recited from every quarter"

* read "but"

* Sirmond: "chorepiscopus"

* Sirmond: "Rothomagus"

* Others: "also"

* Sirmond: "they"

* Others: "what"

* Others: "who"

* that is, of the Mercians

§ II. The pallium; arguments against the Saint's archbishopric; our opinion concerning him; the time of his ordination.

Whether St. Abel received the pallium, You will ask, first, whether the pallium which, at St. Boniface's urging, was said to have been granted by Pope Zacharias in that supreme Pontiff's letter above at number 8, really reached St. Abel? The reason for doubting is that in that very letter Zacharias wonders that Boniface then asks a pallium for Grimo alone, which he had before asked for three. Hear the text: But now, receiving again your letters, we are, as we have said, greatly astonished, in that before you suggested to us, together with the aforesaid princes of the Gauls, for three palliums, and afterward for Grimo alone. But we wish that your Fraternity would indicate to us why you have thus written to us before for three, and afterward for one, so that we too, being made certain, may retain no ambiguity from this. Had the pallium then not yet reached Abel? Or did he receive it only afterward? Or had Abel and Artbert already then received it, before Zacharias wrote back those other letters to Boniface, but not so Grimo; and did Boniface therefore ask it for him alone, because he alone had not yet received it — since indeed what was sent from Rome had not come to his hands? Who then among these conjectures would dare to determine the matter here in controversy? Mabillon in the Benedictine Acts cited above says: Whether he received the pallium you may deservedly doubt, from Zacharias' letter. The same author in his Annals, volume 2, book 22, at the year 744, number IV, adheres to that opinion, which pleases me more than Wion's, who in the Tree of Life, part 2, book 3, page 263, affirms that our Saint received the pallium from Pope Zacharias; not because, in his opinion, he was archbishop of Reims, but because he was ordained for another reason, as I shall presently report from him.

[14] There are reported You will ask, second: Upon this, or upon another — and upon what at last — argument do those rely who strike St. Abel from the roll of the archbishops of Reims? I answer by bringing forward some judgments of writers on this point. Colvener on page 76, in his notes to Flodoard's chapter 16 of book 2, assigns this reason: But why he is passed over by some in the Catalogue of the archbishops of Reims, we have the reason from those things which are cited from Adrian's letter in this chapter; because, although he was appointed bishop there, yet he was not permitted to remain there: and therefore he returned to Lobbes, etc. Wion, whom I cited a little before, says: He was ordained bishop for the planting of the churches of God… But he is called by Trithemius and some others archbishop of Reims: not because he governed the church of Reims, but because in that metropolis he was a titular archbishop for the conversion of unbelievers.

[15] in various ways Our James Longueval in the History of the Gallican church, volume 4, book 11, at the year 744, page 296, after he had treated of the three palliums which Boniface had asked, etc., according to what was said above, asserts that it is credible that the factions of the magnates who had usurped the goods of the churches of Reims and Sens were a hindrance to Abel and Ardobert being acknowledged as bishops; and also that love of peace was the cause why Boniface desisted. However the matter may stand, that Milo, intruded into the see of Reims after St. Rigobert's exile, acted the part of the bishop of that church, etc. Marlot, volume 1, book 2, chapter 47, a fragment from the fifth letter of Pope Zacharias to Boniface being cited, says: Others think that Abel was consecrated for discharging the episcopal office while Rigobert was still living,

and given him as fellow-bishop or suffragan, on account of these cited words of the aforesaid letter, which contain some ambiguity: FOR EACH OF THE METROPOLISES. See above at number 8.

[16] Pagi in the Baronian Critique, volume 3, at the year of Christ 743, arguments from number VII discourses thus: All things, therefore, in the Gauls were disturbed: bishops seemed only the vicars of administrators or commendataries, and both the church of Sens and that of Reims lacked Metropolitans. Rigobert having died in an uncertain year, because Milo, who occupied the church of Reims, was only a cleric, Abel was consecrated bishop of Reims: but because he did not possess that church's revenues, he was called only a chorepiscopus or suffragan of Milo the pseudo-archbishop. And after he had cited Flodoard, book 2 of the History of Reims, chapter 16, whose words we brought forward above at number 8, he continues thus: These different opinions are not contrary to one another: for Abel, immediately after Rigobert's death declared chorepiscopus, was in this year designated archbishop, and confirmed by Pope Zacharias, who sent him the pallium. But these things brought nothing whereby the condition of the wretched Abel might be better: for Milo and the other usurpers of ecclesiastical goods did not allow the prey to be snatched from their hands. Wherefore in the following year Pepin decreed by the third canon of the council of Soissons that lawful bishops, and not laymen intruded into the bishoprics, should possess them by full right. But that decree had no effect, because those who held the ecclesiastical goods were too powerful for them to be wrested out of their hands. Besides that Pepin, who was perhaps thinking of assuming the royal title, was too cautious to be willing to alienate very powerful men from himself.

[17] And presently he subjoins the manner and order of the matter thus: Abel was in this year called by that same Pepin archbishop of Reims, against St. Abel's archbishopric of Reims: and endowed by Pope Zacharias with the pallium. But Pepin in the following year decreed by canon 3 of the council of Soissons, in these words, that he be put into real possession of the archbishopric: We appoint OVER THEM AS ARCHBISHOPS Abel AND Ardobert; but his will lacked effect; which he proves from the words of Pope Adrian's letter given to Tilpin: who (Abel) was appointed by him (namely Boniface); but there (namely in the church of Reims) he was not permitted to remain. The remaining words of the letter read above at number 10. You see that not only the church of Reims, but also not a few others, were in the power of administrators and commendataries; that the bishops who remained in them were suffragans destitute of all authority; and that the ancients wrote with good right that Abel was only a chorepiscopus, since he never enjoyed the archbishopric of Reims, although Pepin had established that by the decree of the council of Soissons. Pagi, having said this, advises that Folcuin should be read in the Chronicle of Lobbes: whose passage we gave above at number 7. Although Pagi uses now this, now another manner of speaking, yet: Abel was consecrated bishop of Reims.

[18] These things having thus far been argued on both sides, let it now be permitted me to set forth the reasons which nevertheless more probably which lead me to incline rather to that opinion which truly and properly attributes to St. Abel the see of Reims. It moves me, first, that Fulcuin, cited above at number 7, clearly and expressly affirms it; where from the pontifical deeds of that same city he records that in that same city a certain Abel was bishop, who acquired or ordered many things in it. And indeed, whose is it to acquire or order many things in an archiepiscopal city, if not the bishop's of that place? Second, that Flodoard above at number 8 says: Following blessed Rigobert, Abel is found in the order of the episcopate: where both of the bishopric of Reims and of St. Abel's predecessor in that same bishopric the mention is by no means doubtful. But what the same author presently subjoins manifestly signifies that our Saint was something more than a chorepiscopus: although some hand down that he was only a chorepiscopus, that he was nevertheless a Pontiff we find, he says, by divers assertions, etc. Then, after he had treated, from Pope Zacharias' letters directed to St. Boniface, of the three metropolitan bishops and of as many of their palliums, according to what was said in the number cited, turning his discourse to proving Abel's metropolitan bishopric, he writes thus: But also certain charters are found entitled with that bishop's name. Finally, from number 10: He was appointed Prelate of Reims; but he was not permitted to remain there; but rather was cast out against God, etc. If therefore he was appointed; but not permitted to remain; but cast out: if no one can truly and properly be cast out from an office in which he neither is nor ever was, it is consequent that St. Abel was truly and properly metropolitan of Reims. Third, the argument which Pagi above at number 17 drew from Fulcuin — namely because Abel's name was not recited among the diptychs of the archbishops of Reims — is so far from overturning our opinion that from it it rather seems to be confirmed.

[19] it is asserted for him. For tell me, pray, why does Adalbero, archbishop of Reims, say that he wonders enough that in that commemoration this man is not found, unless because he supposes, and tacitly in a manner indicates, that Abel was at some time archbishop of the see of Reims? For what is remarkable in there being no sacred memory among the archbishops of that see of him who was never archbishop there? But why it so happened, we gave above Fulcuin's conjecture: that he himself was ordered to occupy the vacant see for a little while as a bishop already before; but that for the love of God, by a voluntary cession, he of his own accord repudiated that catalogue. But indeed who occupies a vacant see even for so short a time; who abdicates it by voluntary cession, and repudiates the catalogue of his predecessor bishops, unless he who, where and when he does those things, is then truly and properly bishop there? Fourth, Pagi's other argument, which is drawn from the disturbance of the churches of Gaul, the plundering of episcopal goods, and Abel's wretched condition among the people of Reims, does not convince. For it is one thing truly and properly to be an archbishop; another at the same time to enjoy the yearly revenues of the archbishopric. Even if we admit that our Saint lacked these, what nevertheless forbids that without them he was not among the people of Reims their true and lawful prelate, at least for a short time — since, from what was said above, he was not permitted to remain there, etc.? To these I subjoin two brief observations. First: Richard de Wassebourg in the Gallo-Belgic Antiquities, book 2, folio 132, in the Life of St. Magdalveus, bishop of Verdun, says: We read in our old chartularies that Abel, archbishop of Reims, gave a great sum of money in alms to the aforesaid Magdalveus, or, as is noted in the margin in the same place, to the church of Verdun. If anyone should wish this to have happened at the time when St. Abel had been raised to the archbishopric of Reims, I for my part do not see how that agrees with his afflicted condition in temporal matters; so much so that its prelate was better fitted for receiving alms than for giving them. Second: the Saint does not seem to have been consecrated bishop before he went to Lobbes: for Fulcuin in chapter 5, praising abbot St. Erminus' fellow-workers — namely the holy Abel, a Scot by family, and holy Wlgisus the bishop, and master Amulguin, likewise a bishop — assigns the episcopal title to those two, but not so to Abel.

[20] Meanwhile, since not infrequent mention has been made of Milo, the pseudo-bishop and invader of the see of Reims, A sketch of Milo, intruded into that archbishopric. it is useful to note the following concerning him from the Manuscript history of Trier in the cited Mabillon, in these words: "After Lutwin, Milo his son discharged the priestly office at Trier and Reims. At first indeed an imitator of his father, at last he became a tyrant, and nothing of clerical honor or life shone in him except the tonsure alone. For at that time graver wars and internal parricidal strife arose in this province, when Charles the tyrant gave bishoprics to laymen, and allowed the bishops to have no power. With this Charles the aforesaid Milo set out to war, now a cleric by the tonsure alone, irreligious in habit and in manners: and after the victory he was endowed by that same Charles with the bishoprics of Trier and Reims: in whose unhappy time many things were taken away from these churches, and the goods divided from the bishops," etc. And below: "Milo the tyrant therefore, these things being thus accomplished, while devoting himself to hunting, struck by a boar, dies in a village which is called Iranc, at the first milestone from Trier: where also he was buried after 40 years of his tyrannical invasion."

[21] Here now for you are certain matters concerning the time of the often-mentioned archbishopric. The time of St. Abel's Ordination: Mabillon in the Appendix cited says: Abel was elected archbishop of Reims in the year 743, as is plain from the aforecited letters of Boniface. Le Cointe at the year 745, number LI, affirms that Abel was in that year made archbishop in the synod of Soissons, from its second canon. In the Catalogue of the Archbishops of Reims in Colvener I read this: St. Abel from the year 749 alone occupies the church of Reims. But he is also driven from it in the year 758. But does so long a delay seem probable amid so many difficulties as we have mentioned? Mabillon indeed in the designated Appendix judges that he did not long retain his dignity, being expelled by the said Milo certainly before the year 748, as he gathers from Pope Zacharias' letter, given in that year, which is inscribed to Reginfred, archbishop of Rouen, to Deodatus of Beauvais, and to other provincials of the metropolis of Reims, Abel being passed over. This the praised author observes. But that letter is the 136th among Boniface's; likewise it stands in Labbe, volume 6 of the Councils, column —. Of the time in which it was written, consult Sirmond's note, column —, and Baronius at the year 748; as also Le Cointe and Pagi. The Sammarthani say that his pontifical ordination was made by canon 3 of the council of Soissons, and attach it to the year 744. What I might add from the ancients, I have not. That some things, however, were anciently written about him Fulcuin indicates above at number 7, when he reports: But what his end was, the writer of his deeds either did not know or wished altogether to keep silent. There is added that Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, folio 167, thinks that blessed Abel's history perished through the Northmen: so that no one ought to wonder that his deeds are treated by us so sparingly and meagerly. It remains, however, to be said whether and at what synods he was present.

[22] whether and at what synods he was present. Miraeus in the Calendars, page 464, hands down thus: Abel was present at the synods of Les Estinnes in the year 743, and of Mainz in the year 745. Sirmond in his notes to that council, volume 6 of the Councils, column —, observes that it has not been recorded what bishops were present at the synod of Les Estinnes. But Severinus Binius in the same place in his notes says: At this council there seem to have been present, besides three others, these metropolitans: Germo, Abel, Arbertus, or

Hartbert: because it is plain from Zacharias' ninth and tenth letters that palliums were sought for these. Hence, therefore, we have almost nothing to our purpose except conjecture. Of the third German council it is treated in the same place, column —, Serarius noting, Affairs of Mainz, book 3, note 31, why the place of the third synod may be called Mainz. Binius in the same place, column —, adds moreover from the cited Serarius that at this synod there were present those bishops whose names are had in the title of that letter which out of this council St. Boniface wrote to Æthelbald or Athelbald, king of the Mercians in England, who was leading a most wicked life, etc. That letter is the nineteenth among Boniface's in Serarius; and in its title, together with the other fellow-bishops, Abel is written. Baronius confirms the matter, when at the year 745 he writes this: To this council belongs that St. Boniface… in order to convert Athelbald to better ways, wrote a letter, not in his own name only, but also in that of the bishops who were present at the synod, full of fatherly admonitions; which is subjoined in the same place, with the name of Abel also expressed in the address which is prefixed to it, as of a fellow-bishop among the others noted there. From these things it is concluded that St. Abel was one of the prelates who were present at the said synod of Mainz. There may also be consulted what Alford has at the aforesaid year 745, numbers 1 and 2.

* "Treberos"

* "Grimo"

§ III. Whether the Saint was abbot of Lobbes; the time of his death; his body, and its translation.

It is inquired There now remains another question: namely, whether St. Abel was abbot of the monastery of Lobbes in the true and proper sense of the name. Le Cointe at the year of Christ 745, number LXXXVIII, reports that in that year, the second of king Childeric, on the day after the Kalends of February, Carloman the Mayor of the palace showed himself munificent toward the church of Lobbes, Theoduin being at that time abbot of that place; proving the deed from Fulcuin in the Deeds of the abbots of Lobbes, chapter 6; from which it is established that Theoduin in the said year, in the month of February, was abbot. Besides this, the place assigned him by Fulcuin between the holy Erminus and Theodulf; since he closes the fifth chapter of his work with St. Erminus' death, and, beginning the sixth chapter, substitutes Theoduin for him. To him he substitutes St. Theodulf the bishop in chapter 8; but Anso he gives as the next successor to him in the abbatial office in chapter 9, two little books having been inscribed by him to that same Theodulf, then abbot — one on the Life of St. Ursmar, the other on the Life of St. Erminus: who, as the praised author testifies at the end of that Life of his among us in volume III of April, at the XXV day of that month, page 376, Advanced in age, and full of days, in a good old age, in the seven hundred and thirty-seventh year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, on the seventh of the Kalends of May, went to the Lord.

[24] The aforesaid author of the Annals judges at number XC whether our Saint that this Catalogue of the abbots of Lobbes must be retained, and that no other computation of years can be admitted; but that Fulcuin needs interpretation when he speaks of Abel, of Wlgisus and Amulguin the bishops, whom he insinuates must be reckoned among the abbots of Lobbes; nor do most of the Moderns deny it. For Le Cointe advises that there are two texts of this author: one in chapter 5, the other in chapter 7. The former we gave above at number 5; the latter, which Le Cointe says needs interpretation, you have likewise above at number 7. That Wlgisus was St. Erminus' successor Fisen affirms in the Flowers of the church of Liège, at the IV day of February, and that he was made abbot in the year 737; in which the same author testifies at the XXV day of April, number 2 at the end, that St. Erminus departed from life. Among us at the IV day of February, in the historical Commentary on St. Ulgisus or Wlgisus, volume 1 of that month, page 500, Bolland, favoring Fisen's assertion concerning his immediate succession after St. Erminus in that year, says that this must altogether seem to be asserted, if indeed he himself, Amolwin, and Abel presided over the place successively, and not together with St. Erminus, as this latter earlier with St. Ursmar. And indeed, unless perhaps they were transferred elsewhere to cultivate Christ's vineyard, they did not long hold that dignity, since in the year, as we have said, 742, Theoduin was already abbot. Of St. Amulwin it is treated among us on the VII day of February, volume II of that month, page 82.

[25] But this does not please Le Cointe; because he affirms that Fisen, on whose authority it rests, is not consistent with himself, in that at the XVIII day of April, number 1, he thus begins the Catalogue of the abbots of Lobbes: truly and properly To the holy… Patriarch, namely Ursmar, dying in the year 713, succeeded St. Erminus, and he died in the 37th year of the same century. To him was substituted St. Theodulf. In whose lifetime St. Abel, driven from the archbishopric of Reims, came to Lobbes, and was added as colleague to St. Theodulf in the year 58, and there died in 764. But St. Theodulf died in the year 766. For Le Cointe observes that St. Theodulf prolonged his life far beyond the year of Christ 766: then that abbot Theoduin, of whom above, is by Fisen either wrongly omitted or confounded with Theodulf: whereas the one must be distinguished from the other, and in the nomenclature of the abbots of Lobbes Theoduin must be placed before Theodulf; as may be seen in the praised Le Cointe: who finally observes that Fisen, in the aforecited catalogue of the abbots of Lobbes, when he either substitutes St. Theodulf immediately for St. Erminus, or joins Abel as colleague to that same St. Theodulf, leaves no place for Wlgisus, Amulwin, and Abel among the abbots of that monastery; he concludes therefore that nothing forbids him, in weaving the index of the abbots of Lobbes, from following Fulcuin, and from substituting Theoduin for St. Erminus, St. Theodulf for Theoduin, and Anso for St. Theodulf, Wlgisus, Amulwin, and Abel being struck out: although he admits that St. Erminus and his successors, with whom they long lived at Lobbes, were greatly helped by their counsel and labor, and that in their absence the abbatial duties were most wisely administered.

[26] These things are confirmed from the recent edition of Gallia Christiana, begun at Paris in the year 1716 at the royal press; where in volume 3, was abbot of the monastery of Lobbes: column 80, a new series of the abbots of Lobbes is brought forward, arranged with new labors by Master Denis de Sainte-Marthe, the beginner of the said work, chiefly from Fulcuin and from the Brief Chronicle of Lobbes, published in Martène among the Anecdota, volume 3, column —; and continued down to the year of Christ 1707: in which is marked: I. Abbot St. Landelinus… at length begins the monastery of Lobbes with rude workmanship in the year 654… He died on the XVII of the Kalends of July of the year 686. II. Domitian… down to the year 689. III. St. Ursmar in the year 691… was released from the prison of the flesh in the year 713, on the XIII of the Kalends of May. IV. St. Erminus or Ermino… To him, seeking the contemplative life, there were as coadjutors the excellent men Abel, Wlgisus, and Amulwin, bishops, and also Dodo, afterward abbot of Wasslar… Erminus passed to the Lord on the VII of the Kalends of May in the year 737. V. Theoduin, under whom, Carloman the Mayor of the palace granting it, the monastery was increased by an estate called Fontaine, in the second year of Childeric… This abbot is omitted both in the praised Chronicle and in the Flowers of the church of Liège of Bartholomew Fisen, volume 2, page 221. VI. St. Theodulf… He died on the day of the festivity of St. John the Baptist in the year 776; to Le Cointe, from the note in the margin, 777. VII. Anso or Ansus, etc. From these it seems more probable that our Saint was not properly and strictly abbot of Lobbes, but only the helper of the abbot of Lobbes. And what forbids that we understand in that sense the passage from Fulcuin brought forward above: Erminus had also as fellow-workers or successors governors of that same place, and co-abbots, etc.?

[27] as also in what place and time Concerning the place, year, and day of his death I determine thus. That the place was the monastery of Lobbes, the announcements brought forward at number 4 indicate. To these add other authors, whom I shall review on the occasion of the year in which that death occurred. In the Catalogue of the archbishops of Reims added in Colvener in his edition of Flodoard I read thus: He died in the monastery of Lobbes, of the diocese of Cambrai, on the V day of August in the year 764. Fisen, cited above, held that he died at Lobbes in the same year. From both Le Cointe dissents, at the year of Christ 751, number XXIX, writing thus: Abel the archbishop… happily passed to God in the monastery of Lobbes about this year, on the Nones of August. In Mabillon neither in the appendix mentioned above, nor in the Benedictine Annals, volume 2, book 22, number IV, do I find in what year St. Abel departed from the living. Castellanus, in his announcement of him in Hainaut, by the note of time which he appends in the margin, judges that this happened about the year 780. Let us therefore, that in an uncertain matter something be set down determinately, say that the Saint departed this life about the middle of the eighth century, or a little later, that is about the year 750 or 760; according to what I have reported from the authors.

[28] he departed this life. That there is no controversy about the day of his death is made plain both from the Hagiologists who record him on this V day of August, and from what has just been said. There is added Mabillon, volume 2 of the Annals, book 22, number IV, saying: They hand down that Abel… withdrew into the monastery of Lobbes, where he most holily finished his last days, dying on the Nones of August. Although Trithemius, On the Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, book 3, chapter 298, affirms that his feast is celebrated on the ninth of the Kalends of October. Why he is here so singular, is hidden from us. For indeed he ought not to have been such on account of the translation of the body among the Belgians, of which I shall now speak.

[29] In the Sammarthani, among the archbishops of Reims, volume 1 of Gallia Christiana, page 480, to St. Abel's death in the monastery of Lobbes The translation of the body. is subjoined this notice: The sacred pledges of Abel the canons of Lobbes preserve, on the testimony of the Chronicle of this abbey. Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium hands down this at this day concerning St. Abel's translation: His sacred body, with the bodies of other Saints, and with the college of clerics or Canons, was translated in the year one thousand four hundred and nine from the parish of Lobbes to Binche: which is a town of Hainaut, of the diocese of Cambrai; but greatly worn down by the storms of wars. In both places his birthday is celebrated on the fifth day of August. With Molanus concerning that day Mabillon agrees, cited in the number immediately preceding, when he says: Which day (namely the V of August) is kept as a feast at Binche in the district of Hainaut: where his body is preserved in the collegiate church. But the Brief Chronicle of Lobbes, mentioned above at number 26, column —, defers the translation of the bodies of the Saints of Lobbes to the people of Binche to the following year, in these words: 1410. The bodies of the Saints of Lobbes are translated from Lobbes to the church of Binche on account of the storm of wars. Of the said translation we made mention among the Passed Over at the 2nd day of July, page 293, the names of the Saints whose bodies were translated being expressed.

* others: 685

* others: 712

* others: VIII

* others: 736