ON ST. ÆTHERIUS, BISHOP,
AT LYONS IN GAUL,
In the year DCII.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Of his cult, of his deeds before the episcopate and in the episcopate down to his death.
Ætherius, bishop, at Lyons in Gaul (St.)
BY J. S.
Since St. Ætherius, or Etherius, The Saint's cult, but fixed to no day, has no cult fixed to a certain day, and his Acts are connected with the Acts of St. Syagrius, of whom we have already treated, we have judged that the Acts of Ætherius should be linked to this place, because they cannot more fittingly be placed elsewhere. The Saint's immemorial cult Théophile Raynaud proves in the Hagiologium Lugdunense, page 47, in this manner: St. Etærius, or, as others write, Ætherius, although all the Martyrologies are silent, is prefixed with the title of Saint in the latest and more accurate than the rest series of the prelates of Lyons (in Claude Robert in Gallia Christiana, as he has it in the margin). In the special litanies also of the church of Lyons he is invoked among the other holy bishops of the same church, long since, as a Saint. Besides this, in the very ancient Acts of St. Austregisilus, promoted by Ætherius to be abbot of St. Nicetius, the same Ætherius, already deceased, is called MOST BLESSED and is adorned with a notable eulogy of sanctity. So in Surius at the XX of May, whom he notes in the margin. But in our edition, volume V of May, page 230, Ætherius in the same place of those Acts is named Saint, which word proves the matter more effectually.
[2] In Aimoin, and in the Breviary of Autun, when St. Syagrius is treated, it is asserted from various sources. Etærius of Lyons is reckoned in the first place among the bishops who, irradiated by the grace of divine power, shone as luminaries of Gaul in the times of queen Brunhild, and he is numbered with the most holy prelates of his age: Desiderius of Vienne, Syagrius of Autun, Aunarius of Auxerre, Austrenus of Orleans, and Lupus of Sens. The Office of Syagrius we have just given, where these things are found at number 1. Finally St. Gregory the Great commends him for his love of the ecclesiastical order, his love of discipline, his zeal for the observance of wholesome decrees, and his prompt and humble mind and zeal toward the admonitions of the supreme Pontiff. And so the sanctity of so great a Man, and his due enrollment among the citizens of heaven, may be held established. I readily agree with Raynaud, especially on account of the invocation of Ætherius in the ancient litanies, which Andreas Saussay also affirms in the Appendix to the Gallican Martyrology, page 1222, on whose testimony likewise he is called most holy and most blessed in the old codices. And so I proceed to gathering and discussing his deeds.
[3] [He lives at court as an intimate of St. Guntram the king, and from him obtains for St. Austregisilus that he may become a cleric:] St. Ætherius lived before his episcopate in the court of St. Guntram the king, as we learn from the Life of St. Austregisilus, volume V of May, page 230, where he is said to have obtained from Guntram leave for St. Austregisilus to embrace the clerical life, and these things are reported of him: There was then in the king's house, most excellent among the other senators, Ætherius by name, a most prudent man and endowed with singular caution, to whom the king especially laid open all the secrets of his counsel: who was then worthy of the episcopate, and afterward was ordained bishop of Lyons, a most noble city of Gaul, and who loved the aforesaid servant of God (Austregisilus) in singular fashion: whom Austregisilus asked to seek, with the king's leave, that he might come to the burden of the clerical state: and he suggested it and obtained it. These things were done about the year 585, for a little before it is narrated that Austregisilus prayed in the church of St. Martin, which, as Henschen notes at letter k, had been built in the suburb of Chalon by Guntram in the year of Christ 584. But Ætherius, though he lived in the king's court, was already then a cleric: for thus the aforesaid things are narrated in Labbe's Bibliotheca of Manuscripts, volume 2, page 363: That this might be done, he (Austregisilus) obtained it by the prayers of a certain most noble cleric, Ætherius by name, to whom the king especially laid open all the secrets of his counsel; and he (Ætherius) sent him to Bl. Aunarius, bishop of Auxerre, that by his holy hands the hair of his head might be laid aside. Who fulfilled in this the wish of the Friend who asked it, and moreover promoted him to the office of the diaconate. Being made a cleric, therefore, he at once returned to the king.
[4] These things were done before his episcopate: by which we are taught with how great a friendship he was joined to St. Guntram, St. Aunarius, and St. Austregisilus: [he honors St. Nicetius, who foretells his episcopate, to which he is demanded by the people of Lyons:] whence one might not badly conjecture that he was not unlike them in life and manners: yet this is more certainly proved from the Life of St. Nicetius, bishop of Lyons, volume 1 of April, page 101, where it is reported that St. Nicetius not only approved the life and manners of Ætherius, but also foretold his episcopate. But let us hear the author of the Life himself, who wrote while Ætherius was still living: And for the most blessed prelate Ætherius, he says, let him (Nicetius) intercede by his prayers: who labored with holy zeal that his Life, which after his death also flourished by the assiduity of its work, might be set forth by the office of reading. But not without cause does he solemnly honor his memory with the zeal of love, who foretold that he would be his successor in the second place, while he rejoiced in his manner of life. Whom straightway after his passing the devotion of the people of Lyons eagerly demanded for the rank of that pontificate: but what the foreseeing disposal of the prince (Guntram) then denied, when his successor was dead he did not cease to grant: and so what the word of the holy prelate uttered while he remained in the body, this God the author poured into the heart of the most merciful king; by whose obtaining it also came about that he who was hitherto Father of the country should now be father of the church. We see hence besides both that he was called Father of the country by the people, and that after the death of St. Nicetius he was demanded for the episcopate with great eagerness by the people of Lyons, which things suggest no mean esteem of his virtues. Moreover Ætherius declared his piety toward St. Nicetius not only when he took care that his Life should be written; but St. Gregory of Tours brings forward another proof of the same piety in the preceding Life of St. Nicetius in our edition, page 98, number 15, in these words: The couch on which the Saint was wont to rest is often adorned with illustrious miracles: which, being made with great zeal by Ætherius, now bishop, is most devoutly venerated.
[5] The year in which St. Ætherius was raised to the metropolitan see of Lyons could not thus far be assigned. made bishop between the years 585 and 589, Between St. Nicetius, who died in the year 573, and Ætherius sat St. Priscus. Whence Henschen on the Life of St. Austregisilus, chapter 2, letter m, notes the following about the beginning of the episcopate: Ætherius was made archbishop between the year DLXXXV, in which his predecessor Priscus was still living (for in that same year he presided over the second council of Mâcon), and the year DLXXXIX, in which he subscribed to the rescript of the bishops in St. Gregory of Tours, book IX of the History, chapter XLI. With these the editors of the reprinted Gallia Christiana, volume 4, column 38, agree, nor do they assign the year more closely. Moreover that rescript of the bishops in Gregory of Tours is the confirmation of the excommunication passed by four bishops against Chrodield and the nuns of Poitiers who adhered to her: for Ætherius with nine bishops assembled before king Guntram ratified that excommunication, and subscribed the rescript first. Of these disturbances of the nuns of Poitiers we have said a few things in
the treatise on Syagrius, number XI, but more may be seen in Le Cointe at the year 589, number XI and following.
[6] Ætherius, when now a bishop, showed his former friendship with St. Austregisilus. [He ordains St. Austregisilus priest: he is present at the baptism of Chlothar II:] For in the praised eulogy of that Saint in Labbe's Bibliotheca, volume 2, page 363, after what was recited above the author continues thus: Seeing whom (Austregisilus, on his return to Guntram), the aforesaid Ætherius at once asked of the king that he might be committed to him. For he himself had already obtained from the prince the see of the church of Lyons: for he preferred to have with him one who was known to be most famous to all the people. Whom also the aforesaid Ætherius presently ordained priest and abbot in the basilica of holy Nicetius. The same things are reported in the Life of St. Austregisilus already mentioned, number 7, in these words: Returning thence he came to the aforesaid Ætherius: he, having now received the episcopate, most kindly received him with unspeakable joy, and ordained him priest and abbot of the basilica of Bl. Nicetius, bishop and confessor: and out of love for his perfection he gave him from the goods of the church the farm of Albiacum, to serve for his uses. That the intimacy between the two Saints afterward continued is gathered from the same Life, number 9, where it is reported that a miracle happened to St. Austregisilus at that time when the aforesaid man of God was with St. Ætherius the bishop at a certain estate. In the year 591 Ætherius, with Syagrius and other bishops, set out for Paris at Guntram's request, and was present at the baptism of Chlothar II at Nanterre, as we said of Syagrius in his Acts, number 12. This the praised authors of Gallia Christiana also have in the article on Ætherius; but they wrongly refer it to the year 594, in which Guntram was dead, who received the boy from the sacred font, as they themselves confess.
[7] St. Gregory commends to him Augustine, apostle of the English, St. Gregory made much of Ætherius, as we learn from various letters of his to him. He is found to have first written to him in the year 596, when he was sending Augustine into England for the conversion of the English, whom, together with Candidus the priest, sent into Gaul to administer the patrimony of the Church there, he commends to Ætherius, just as he commended the same men to Syagrius of Autun and to other bishops of Gaul in other letters, which we have among the Gregorian letters, book 6, letters 52, 53, and 54. This letter sent to Ætherius is not indeed found among Gregory's letters; but Bede recites it in the Ecclesiastical History, book 1, chapter 24, in this manner: To his most reverend and most holy brother and fellow bishop Etherius, Gregory, servant of the servants of God. Although among priests who have a charity pleasing to God religious men need no man's commendation, yet, since a fitting occasion of writing has presented itself, we have taken care to send our letters to your fraternity, making known that we have sent thither, with the Lord's help, for the profit of souls, the bearer of these presents, Augustine, the servant of God, of whose zeal we are assured, with other servants of God. Whom your holiness must help with priestly zeal and hasten to afford him his comforts. And that you may be the readier to give support, we have charged that the cause be carefully set forth to you: knowing that, when it is known, you will apply yourselves with all devotion for God's sake to consoling him, since the matter requires it. He adds a commendation of Candidus and the chronological notes, which designate the X Kalends of August of the year 596, in which the Indiction was the 14th. Moreover Bede was deceived when he thought Ætherius was prelate of Arles: for the prelate of Arles at that time was St. Virgilius, to whom Gregory sent letter 53 of book 6 for the same cause, which differs not a little in words from this one.
[8] whom, we prove by various reasons, it is more probable was ordained bishop We cannot doubt that St. Ætherius received Augustine most kindly, and so abundantly satisfied St. Gregory's desire. But another question arises from the aforesaid error of Bede, which has drawn learned writers into various parties: namely, whether St. Augustine the apostle of the English was afterward consecrated bishop by Ætherius of Lyons or by Virgilius of Arles. For the praised Bede in chapter 27 has this: Meanwhile the man of the Lord Augustine came to Arles, and was ordained archbishop for the nation of the English by Etherius, archbishop of that city, according to what he had received as the commands of the holy father Gregory. And returning to Britain, etc. Writers now agree that that ordination happened in the year 597, in which Ætherius presided over the church of Lyons and Virgilius over that of Arles, and thence conclude together that Bede erred either in the name of the city or in the name of the prelate who ordained. Henschen in the treatise on St. Laurence, volume 1 of February, page 290, thought that the error was in the name of the city, and so attributes the ordination to Ætherius; and he repeated the same in volume III of the same month, page 472, in the treatise on St. Ethelbert the king. But Le Cointe at the year 597, number 12, contends that the error is in the name of the archbishop, and thence attributes the consecration to Virgilius: nay, he would not even have the letter of commendation for Augustine sent to Ætherius, at the year 596, number 14. Pagi in the Critique of Baronius adheres partly to Henschen, partly to Le Cointe: for he acknowledges that the letter which we have just recited was without doubt written to Ætherius, at the year 596, number 8; but he holds that the consecration was performed at Arles by Virgilius, at the year 597, number 3.
[9] Neither opinion do I judge altogether certain: by Ætherius, not by Virgilius of Arles, yet that seems to me the more probable which ascribes the consecration to Ætherius, because Bede could more easily err in the name of the city than in the name of the archbishop. This reason I shall explain in a few words. Bede in the preface of his History testifies that he was helped by abbot Albinus, who through Nothelm, priest of the church of London, transmitted what seemed worthy of memory: Which Nothelm, coming afterward to Rome, found there, having searched the archive of that same holy Roman Church, some letters of blessed Pope Gregory and of other Pontiffs: and returning, he brought them to us to be inserted in our History, with the counsel of the aforesaid most reverend father Albinus. Hence, first, there seems no doubt that the letter to Ætherius already recited is one of these. And so in the name of that archbishop, which he read in the very superscription, Bede could not err. But he could err in the city over which he presided, since the name of the city was not added to the letter. But now, whence Bede was led into that error, so as to think that Ætherius was prelate of Arles, is not at all established: but it is certain that he was in that error. Perhaps, because he knew that the office of vicar of the Apostolic See had been committed by Gregory to the archbishop of Arles, and had come upon that single letter of commendation for Augustine, he judged by a likely conjecture that it had been written to the bishop of Arles, and therefore that Ætherius presided over that church. However that may be, he thought Ætherius bishop of Arles and Virgilius his successor in the same church: for in chapter 27 he has this of another letter of Gregory: But the letter which he (Gregory) records that he had written to the bishop of Arles, he had sent to Virgilius, the successor of Etherius.
[10] Moreover what Bede writes about Augustine's consecration we prove by various reasons. he seems to have drawn from some letter of Gregory: for he writes that he was ordained at Arles by Ætherius according to what he had received as the commands of the holy father Gregory. Hence I conclude that in that letter either the name of Ætherius only, or that of the city only, was expressed: for both could not be expressed without error. But indeed, if anyone turns over Gregory's letters, he will find that the name of the episcopal city is often omitted by him, but not that of the bishop himself, when he makes mention of a particular bishop. So in book 6, letter 55, writing to other bishops, he mentions Virgilius of Arles in these words: Say to Virgilius our brother and fellow bishop, etc.; so very frequently elsewhere. From Gregory's custom, therefore, it is likely that Bede drew Ætherius's name from his letter, to which by an error he added the city of Arles, as we have seen done above in the letter written to Ætherius. Then, if Bede had found the name of the city expressed in Gregory's letter, he could not have designated Ætherius without rashness, since he knew Virgilius also, whom he thought Ætherius's successor: Bede would therefore in that case have doubted whether the ordination should be ascribed to Ætherius or to Virgilius, because in the earlier letters he had found Ætherius, but in the later Virgilius, both of whom he believed to be of Arles, and whose succession he certainly could not have known, since they did not succeed one another. And so, in whatever way we consider the matter, it appears on all sides more probable that Bede persisted in the first error, which is certain, and to Ætherius's name, of which he was certain, added the city of Arles; and therefore that Augustine was ordained not by Virgilius of Arles but by Ætherius of Lyons, and not at Arles but at Lyons. By these reasons what Le Cointe and Pagi have argued in the assigned places for the contrary opinion is also sufficiently refuted. But Longueval in the History of the Gallican Church, volume 3, pages 323 and 324, thinks the contrary opinion more probable, because Virgilius held the office of vicar of the Roman Pontiff. But there could be other reasons why Ætherius might seem preferable, such as the favor of him and of Syagrius of Autun with the princes of Gaul; the shorter journey to Lyons; and other things of this sort.
[11] St. Gregory, having praised Ætherius's virtues, exhorts him In the year 599 St. Gregory wrote a letter to four bishops of the Gauls, among whom Ætherius is named second, for abolishing certain abuses by a synod, as was said in the treatise on Syagrius, number 21, where we also noted that that synod was not celebrated at that time. Hence Gregory again in the year 601 sent letter 56 of book XI about the same synod and other businesses, which is of this kind: Gregory to Ætherius, bishop of Gaul. The utterance of your letters, full of venerable gravity, has so fastened your affection to our heart that it is always a pleasure to exchange mutual converse: so that, although we cannot enjoy your bodily presence, absence may avail to claim nothing for itself against us while this intercourse runs between. For how great a love of the Ecclesiastical order shines in you, how great is your love of discipline, how great your zeal for the observance of wholesome decrees, you show by this, that you receive our exhortation humbly and altogether willingly, and proclaim that it must be inviolably kept. Since therefore you bear a heart ready for the amendment of others, and condemn with free voice, as is fitting, the evil of long standing, since this is also the will of our other brothers and fellow bishops, you ought with one mind to rise up against the Lord's enemies and to cast avarice out of God's house by a synodal definition.
[12] to abolish simony by a synod, Let the savage hunger for gold find nothing in the giving of ecclesiastical orders; let no flatteries steal anything away; let favor confer nothing: let life be the reward of honor, modesty the increase of advancement: so that, when an observance of this kind prevails, both he who seeks to rise by rewards may be judged unworthy, and he to whom his conduct bears good testimony may be worthily honored. Let this be your care, most beloved Brother; let this solicitude always keep watch in your minds, that you may show by deed that the zeal which you display in your letters is a witness of your heart. Therefore press assiduously and urgently for the gathering of a synod; and so the more earnestly
show yourselves, that you may fulfill the dignity of your name by the administration of your office. Gregory wrote on the same matter to the kings of the Franks and to queen Brunhild, and to various bishops of the Gauls: but none of them does he adorn with such praises as Ætherius. But what stood in the way of gathering the synod I do not divine. The Pontiff, however, continues thus:
[13] But as to what you demand should be granted to your church by ancient custom, and he answers other matters; then commends the monks sent to Augustine: we have caused search to be made in the archive, and nothing has been found. Whence send us the letters which you say you have, that from them we may gather what should be granted. But as for the deeds or writings of blessed Irenæus, it is long since we carefully sought them: but thus far nothing of them could be found. Besides, let your Fraternity strive to hold in all things commended the monks whom we have sent to our most reverend brother and fellow bishop Augustine, and show them your charity for God's sake; and so earnestly concur with them in priestly zeal, and hasten to help them with your comfort in making their journey, that, while nothing there gives them cause of delay, they may go on the more swiftly and you may find a reward for what you have furnished. Given the X day of July, Indiction IV. What St. Ætherius wished to be granted to his church is not sufficiently clear from this: perhaps he asked that the pallium be sent to him and that the office of vicar of the Roman Pontiff be committed to him. But what is subjoined about the writings of St. Irenæus modern writers commonly so understand as to think that Irenæus's writings were not at Lyons, and were therefore asked for by Ætherius: and indeed even today many of them lie hidden, as may be seen in the Literary History of France, volume 1, page 337 and following. Yet it does not follow from Gregory's words that no writings of St. Irenæus were at Lyons.
[14] Gregory's last letter to the Saint, and the Saint's death. Besides this, St. Gregory wrote to Ætherius a letter in which he teaches by what means provision must be made for a church when a bishop cannot discharge his office because of weakness of mind. It is the fifth of book 13, and is referred to the VI Indiction, so that it is uncertain whether it was written before Ætherius's death, since the VI Indiction began in the month of September of the year 602, and the letter seems to have been written in the month of November, because it is placed midway between two letters of that month, and in that same year at last the Saint died, in an uncertain month and day. For Fredegar in his Chronicle, chapter 22, has this: In that year, the seventh of king Theodoric, that is, of Christ 502, Ætherius bishop of Lyons died. Aimoin agrees, book 3, chapter 90, and from them the moderns commonly. These are the things which, on account of the scarcity of monuments of that time, I have only been able to gather about this excellent Man.