Augulus

CONCERNING ST. AUGULUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, IN THE CITY OF AUGUSTA IN BRITAIN

A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Augulus, Bishop and Martyr, in the city of Augusta in Britain (Saint)

By the author G. H.

[1] Gildas, the most ancient of British writers, in his book on the ruin of Britain, In Britain there were formerly cities, reports that it was adorned with twenty-eight cities. Following Gildas, Bede in book 1, chapter 1, says that Britain was once distinguished by twenty-eight most noble cities. Catalogues of these cities are exhibited by Ussher in his work on the Origins of the British Churches, chapter 5: one written in the ninth century of Christ by Nennius in his British Chronicle, which he himself excerpted from two most ancient Cottonian manuscripts, and collated with nine other manuscripts: the other was found in book 1 of the English History of Henry of Huntingdon. In these cities, as many Episcopal Sees were formerly erected, maintains Geoffrey of Monmouth in book 4 of his History of Britain, chapter 19, and Bishoprics: and very many later writers, whom Ussher cites. Whatever may have been the case regarding that number of Bishoprics, the Catalogue of which we do not know to exist anywhere, it is certain that Britain had its own Bishops: from among these, today in absolutely all the sacred tables of the Martyrologies, St. Augulus, St. Augulus, Bishop and Martyr or Augulius, Martyr, is recorded. Concerning him we read the following in the ancient manuscript Roman Martyrology under the name of St. Jerome: "In Britain, in the city of Auguria, the birthday of Augulus, Bishop and Martyr." No trace of this Auguria is found in the Catalogue of British cities in Nennius and Huntingdon, or in other British writers: in the city of Augusta, so that we suspect an error crept into the said Martyrology, and that the city of Augusta should be substituted, which the remaining authors express: Bede, Ado, Rabanus, the manuscript Martyrologies of Tournai (St. Martin), Lessies, Brussels, Liege (St. Lambert), Utrecht (St. Mary), and Trier (St. Maximin), and the manuscript Florarium: "In Britain (in some: the Britains), in the city of Augusta, the birthday of St. Augulus, Bishop and Martyr." Some read "Auguli"; the manuscript of St. Riquier under the name of Bede reads "Atiguli." Usuard as published, and in all manuscripts passim, Bellin, the Prague manuscript Martyrology and the ancient Cologne one: "In the Britains, in the city of Augusta, the birthday of Blessed Augulus, Bishop, who completing the course of his time through martyrdom, deserved to receive eternal rewards." Peter de Natalibus, book 3, chapter 105: "Augulius," he says, "a Bishop in Britain, suffered martyrdom. For this Pontiff of the city of Augusta in Britain, advanced in age and strength, completing the course of his time through martyrdom, deserved to receive eternal rewards."

[2] These are the only things we find among the more ancient writers concerning this glorious Martyr, whose Acts either were never written owing to the calamity of the times, or certainly perished along with other ancient monuments. As to the city of Augusta, this is certain: that not only were surnames customarily imposed upon cities by the Emperors and the Roman Senate, but that the ambition and adulation of such surnames grew to such an extent that individual cities chose as many as they wished by their own authority, as Dio observes in book 54 of his Roman History, where he reports that Paphos was surnamed Augusta. And the surname Augusta was sought above the rest, since no more honorable one seemed able to be devised: especially if Emperors had at some time resided in those cities. In the judgment of Henry Spelman in his Apparatus to the British Councils, the city of York shone forth more illustrious under the Romans: perhaps York, not only the capital of the whole kingdom, but a second Rome of the British world: the Palace, the Curia, and the Praetorium of the Caesars, where the Emperor Severus dictated law and breathed his last. In this same city, as Camden attests in his section on the Brigantes, Constantius Chlorus died and was enrolled among the gods by apotheosis: and immediately his son Constantine was raised to the rank of Emperor. Hence afterward at the First Council of Arles in the year of Christ 314, the Bishop of York subscribed first among the Bishops of Britain in this manner: "Eborius, Bishop of the city of York, Province of Britain. Restitutus, Bishop of the city of London, the aforesaid Province," etc. So that it would not be surprising if the surname Augusta were attributed to it just as to the city of London, concerning which Ammianus Marcellinus writes in book 27: "Theodosius, setting out or London, and heading for London, an ancient town which posterity has called Augusta." And in book 28: "Theodosius, setting out from Augusta, which the ancients called London." Where "London" is added to remove the doubt that would exist regarding several Augustas. Hence however Ferrarius, in his Topography of the Roman Martyrology, writes that Augusta of Britain, which is also Augusta of the Trinobantes, was afterward called London. The same Ferrarius, following the English Martyrology, and also Ussher in book 7, Colgan in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland for February 7, and other more recent authors, make St. Augulus a Bishop of London. But since it is not established that London alone was designated by this surname of Augusta, we prefer to retain the ancient name of Augusta with the Roman Martyrology, in which

the following is read: "At Augusta in Britain, the birthday of Blessed Augulus, Bishop, who completing the course of his age through martyrdom, deserved to receive eternal rewards." So much for the place.

[3] The time of the martyrdom is even more obscure. Galesini is the first, as far as we can recall, to pronounce on this matter thus: "At Augusta in Britain, of St. Augulus, Bishop, He is said to have suffered under Decius, who, excelling in virtues, when he had completed the course of his life under the Emperor Decius by the steadfast combat of martyrdom, was adorned with a heavenly reward." Cited in the Annotations are Ado, Usuard, Bede, Wandelbert, and Hermann. We have given the words of the first three. Wandelbert thus addresses the Saint:

"Augulus, by conquering the world you triumph on the seventh day."

If by the name of Hermann is understood the supplement to Usuard by the Carthusians of Cologne, which was elaborated by Hermann Greven, nothing is added there beyond the words of Usuard about Decius. Ferrarius also, in the Topography, citing Bede and the Catalogue, reports that he suffered under this Decius, but among whom there is likewise no mention of Decius. Following the Topography of Ferrarius, Constantinus Ghinius in his Birthdays of the Holy Canons, to which he assigns St. Augulus, says that he is reported to have suffered under Decius. Ghinius is challenged by Ussher, rather under Diocletian, who asserts that the passion of St. Augulus must be referred to the tenth persecution of Diocletian, rather than to any preceding one, if one does not depart from the common consensus of British writers, who establish that Alban was the first of all to shed his blood for Christ in Britain: and therefore in his Chronological Index he assigns his martyrdom to the year of Christ 304. The English Martyrology in its first edition assigns it to the following year, in these words: "On the same day, at London, the deposition of St. Augulus, Bishop and Martyr, who in the persecution of Diocletian, on account of the preaching of the Christian faith, was killed in our island of Great Britain by the enemies of the truth, around the year of Christ 305, shortly after the slaying of St. Alban." In the later edition he is said to have been killed by the command of the Governor of Britain, around the year 300. St. Alban is venerated on June 22, preeminent among the ancient Martyrs of Britain, whose Acts are described by Gildas in his work on the Ruin of Britain and by Bede in book 1, chapter 7.

[4] There exists, printed by the Plantin press in the year 1569, an Ecclesiastical Calendar of Johannes Horolanus, and called a revised one, presumably on account of the Ecclesiastical Calendar of Radulphus de Rivo, formerly around the year 1390 Dean of Tongeren, published by Molanus in 1568 together with Usuard. In this revised Calendar the following is read: Was he a Bishop of Ireland? "On the 7th day before the Ides of February, of Augurius, Bishop of Ireland, in the year 361, under Valentinian." Bede and Usuard are cited, for whom the name is Augulus, in some manuscripts Augulius, not Augurius: and he is called Bishop of Britain, not of Ireland: nor do they indicate the time of his death, which is also not correctly recorded here. In the year 361, in the month of February, Constantius was still reigning, who finally died on the 3rd day before the Nones of November. Julian succeeded him, then Jovian: and finally Valentinian in the year 364. Our Henry Fitz-Simon inscribed Augurius as a Bishop on February 7 in his Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland, printed at Liege in 1619; citing Genebrard in the Calendar, among the Saints of the year 361. Ferrarius also records the same Augurius in the Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, printed at Venice in the year 1625: "In Ireland, of St. Augurius, Bishop." He notes from the Calendar of Genebrard, who reports that he lived under Valerian. He thinks moreover that he is the same as St. Augulus. Valerian reigned from the year 254 to 260. Ussher in his Additions to chapter 7, and Colgan following him on this day, cite Genebrard in the Chronology of the Roman Calendar; and they repeat the same words which we gave from the Calendar of Horolanus: so that the authority of both may be reckoned as one. Colgan then further confuses these matters, while maintaining that St. Augurius was not a Bishop of Ireland, as Horolanus, or Irish by origin? Genebrard, Fitz-Simon, and Ferrarius write, but Irish by fatherland or origin, and Bishop of Augusta in Britain, that is, of the city of London -- which Ussher also seems to imply.

[5] Thomas Dempster in book 1, number 40, of his Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, writes the following: "St. Augurius, Augulius, Aulus, Augulus, a most holy man, was he a Bishop of Scotland? held the Episcopate in Britain, that is, Scotland. For in that century there were no Christians in England, since the first reception of the Gospel had vanished: nor had St. Augustine, the most holy Apostle of that nation, arrived, as the clear succession of time indicates. Hunibertus indeed, a most ancient Scottish writer, in his history, extols his labors in Scotland, his preaching, and his miracles. He wrote one book on planting the faith, and one on the flight from persecution. And a writer? He suffered at Augusta in Britain on February 7 in the year 360. Ghinius, Genebrard, Usuard, Wandelbert." We have set forth the words of these authors. Ussher reproves Dempster's wantonness in fabricating the history of Hunibertus and the books written by Augulus, and for claiming for the more recent Scotland an ancient Martyr of Christ. Add that it is absurdly asserted that in the said year 361 the first reception of the Gospel had vanished: around which time the Christian faith is shown to have been flourishing greatly, both by the presence of British Bishops at the Synod of Ariminum under Constantius in the year 359, as found in Sulpicius Severus, book 2 of his Sacred History; and by the approval given by this British Church to the faith which the Fathers had professed at the Council of Nicaea, indicated in letters addressed to the Emperor Jovian in the year 363, by St. Athanasius and the other Bishops in the name of all the Bishops of Egypt, the Thebaid, and Libya, found in the same Athanasius, volume 1, page 399, Theodoret, book 4 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 3, and Nicephorus Callistus, book 10, chapter 42. Finally, even if we permitted the year 361 to be exchanged for 561, when St. Augustine had not yet arrived, a great part of Britain was nevertheless neither occupied by the Angles nor reduced by them to idolatry; so that even for that reason it is not necessary to relegate St. Augulus the Bishop to the Scots. Indeed the Scottish historian Hector Boethius in book 8 reports that Vodinus, Bishop of London, was killed by Hengist, the first leader of the Anglo-Saxons who entered Britain; so that even St. Augulus, if Dempster had proved that he lived in the time of the Angles, might have found a place among the successors of Vodinus; who all lie hidden and unknown until Theonus, whom the Westminster author writes finally fled to Wales with the relics of the Saints in the year 586. The same is narrated about Todiacus, Archbishop of York. But let him himself vouch for the truth of this.

[6] David Camerarius inscribed the same in his Menologium of the Saints of Scotland, and reports that his relics were preserved at Dundrane among the Brigantes. The Brigantes were however a people not of Scotland but of England, whose territory is now occupied by the West Riding of York, Durham, Lancashire, whether the relics survive, and others. The Life of Dernagilla cited by Camerarius is entirely unknown to us. He acknowledges however that he is treating of the same St. Augulus, when he adduces the authority of Constantinus Ghinius. St. Augulus was therefore a Bishop and Martyr in Britain, in the city of Augusta. The rest, drawn from various sources, possesses no solid reasoning; and therefore all has been set forth by us at greater length.