CONCERNING SAINT PHILIP, BISHOP OF VIENNE IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR 578.
CommentaryPhilip, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul (Saint)
I. B.
[1] Very many Bishops adorned the See of Vienne with the splendor of their illustrious sanctity. Three are inscribed in the calendar on this very day: Saint Simplicius, of whom we have already spoken, Saint Philip, and his successor Euantius. Philip is mentioned by Johannes Chenu, Philip, Bishop of Vienne, Claudius Robertus, Johannes Boscius, and Johannes Lievraeus, as the twenty-fifth Bishop, twenty-fourth according to Demochares.
[2] Ado briefly summarizes his deeds thus in his Chronicle under the times of the Emperor Tiberius Constantinus: Philip, Bishop of Vienne, flourished with great renown. In his time the monastery of Saint Andrew the Lower at Vienne was founded by Remila Eugenia, daughter of Duke Ansemundus, and left by testament to the Mother Church. For another monastery of Saint Andrew the Upper, situated on the hill of the city, already existed. He persuades the Virgin Remila to build a monastery: For the most blessed Leonianus had founded it in the times of Saint Avitus, Bishop of the same city: where that same Remila had been nurtured under regular discipline. Concerning Saint Avitus we shall treat on February 5. Concerning Saint Leonianus on November 16, of whom mention is also made on January 1 in the Life of Saint Eugendus, chapter 2. Saussaius writes that Remila was induced by pious persuasions from Philip to found that monastery; and he calls her Remilla, elsewhere Romelia, Boscius calls her Remilia. Her father, moreover, Saussaius and Lievraeus call Ansalmundus.
[3] In the sixth year of the reign of Guntram and his brothers, the year of Christ 566, the Second Council of Lyon was held, at which Philip was present and subscribed in the first place. Baronius, volume 7, under the year 570, number 23, writes that this was the first Council of Lyon; because he had not seen the earlier one, held in the time of King Sigismund, which Sirmondus afterward published. he attends the Second Council of Lyon; Mention of Philip and of that Council is made in canon 1, first annotation, distinction 16, where the principal Synods are reviewed; and concerning this one the following is stated: The twenty-third, at Lyon, in which the Fathers established eighteen Canons, of whose authorship Philip, Bishop of Vienne, was the principal. the principal author of its Canons: But only six canons of that Synod survive. For all those things that were decreed concerning the Bishops Salonius and Sagittarius are missing, though Guntram had ordered that Synod to be assembled principally for their case, as Gregory of Tours, book 5, chapter 20, attests.
[4] When afterward a dispute arose between Kings Guntram and Sigebert, says Gregory of Tours, book 4, History of the Franks, chapter 42: King Guntram assembles at Paris all the Bishops of his kingdom, then at the Fourth Council of Paris, convoked for peace among the Kings, in order that they might declare what the truth held between both parties. This is the Fourth Synod of Paris, held in the twelfth year of King Chilperic and his brothers, namely the year of Christ 572. What was done for the reconciliation of the Kings is not clear. The Bishops confess in their decree to Bishop Aegidius of Rheims, to which the same Philip of Vienne subscribed in the first place, that they were summoned to Paris for public affairs and the complaints of private individuals. The outcome of the Synod Gregory indicates in the cited chapter of book 4: in vain: But so that the civil war might grow to greater destructiveness, with sins so disposing, they delayed hearing them.
[5] While the Bishops remained at Paris, Pappolus, Bishop of Chartres, complained to them that in the castle of Dunois, he removes Promotus ordained as Bishop within another's diocese, a town of his diocese, a certain Promotus had been ordained Bishop by Aegidius, Bishop of Rheims, contrary to the Canons. A synodal decree was sent by them to Aegidius, that he should summon Promotus to himself and keep him with him, so that he might henceforth inflict no injury on his own Bishop or Church. They also gave letters to King Sigebert of Austrasia himself, and writes to King Sigebert not to defend him, in which they state: Recently, having been summoned, not without the connivance of your glory, as we believe, and coming to Paris, we have learned that a new and unheard-of ordination was performed in the castle of Dunois, in the parish of Chartres. Although we can scarcely believe that this could have been done with the consent of your glory, nevertheless if you have consented to such obscene and universally contrary actions through the wicked suggestion of anyone, purge the conscience of your sincerity from the defense of such a scandal, etc. Philip subscribed, after Sapaudus of Arles, with these words: Your humble Philip ventures reverently to greet you. The people of Dunois and Tours belonged at that time to the kingdom of Sigebert, as Gregory of Tours indicates, book 4, chapter 45; and indeed the same King had ordered Promotus to be ordained there. who had arranged his ordination and supported him until his own death; Thus Gregory, book 7, chapter 17: Promotus, who had been installed as Bishop in the castle of Dunois by order of King Sigebert, and after the death of the King had been removed, because that castle was in the diocese of Chartres; against whom a judgment had been passed that he should exercise only the office of a priest, approached King Guntram begging to receive the ordination of his episcopate in the aforesaid castle. after which he was deposed. But with Pappolus, Bishop of Chartres, resisting and saying, "Because it is my diocese," especially showing the judgment of the Bishops; he was unable to obtain anything else from the King except to recover the properties that he had under the territory of that castle, in which he might reside with his still-surviving mother.
[6] in what year and on what day did he die? When Philip died, we have nowhere read. He cannot have been alive beyond the twenty-first year of Chilperic and Guntram, the year of Christ 581, since in November of the same year his successor Euantius subscribed to the Council of Macon, as we shall say below. The day of Philip's death is established by Boscius, Lievraeus, Claudius Robertus, and Chenu as February 3, on which day Ferrarius inscribed him in the general Catalogue of Saints, and Saussaius in the Gallican Martyrology: Boscius, Lievraeus, and Chenu pronounce him a Saint without qualification.