Fulrad

ON ST. FULRAD, ABBOT OF ST. DENIS IN FRANCE, CHIEF CHAPLAIN OF THE ROYAL PALACE

In the year of Christ 784.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Fulrad, Abbot of St. Denis in Gaul (St.)

By G. H.

§ I. The sacred veneration of St. Fulrad, the dignity of Chief Chaplain in the Palace, his dealings with Pope St. Zacharias, his familiarity with St. Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz.

[1] That the entire Clergy of the Palace of the Kings of the Franks was governed under the care and direction of the Chief Chaplain (whom they also called the Apocrisiarius, the Archpriest of France, the Guardian of the Palace) is taught by St. Adalard, the Chief Chaplains of the Palace were initially Bishops: a kinsman of Charlemagne and Abbot of the monastery of Corbie, as quoted by Hincmar, volume 2 of his Works, title 14. He ascribes the origin of this office to the Emperor Constantine the Great, and among the Franks to Clovis after his conversion to Christ, whose Palace and that of the succeeding Kings was managed by Bishops visiting at the appropriate time, who arranged this administration in turn. But from the time of Pippin and Charles, by the royal will and with episcopal consent, this office was carried out by Deacons or Priests rather than by Bishops. Those assumed for this ministry are enumerated: Fulrad the Priest, Engelram and Hildebold the Bishops, then Fulrad the Priest: etc. The dignity, power, and ministry of these Palace Chaplains have been illustrated by Guillaume Peyratus, Counselor and Almoner of Kings Henry IV and Louis XIII, in a notable commentary; who in Book 1, chapter 26, enumerates the supreme Priests of the sacred Palace who, because of the sanctity of their lives, were enrolled among the Saints and enjoy public veneration in the Church; and having listed eighteen Bishops and Abbot Wandregisel, after nineteen other Saints: about the sacred veneration of all of whom no one versed in sacred history ever doubted, he proceeds from the first Merovingian line to the Carolingian and presents as the twentieth Saint enrolled among the Saints the Palace Archpriest Fulrad, adding that he alone among the 69 Abbots who governed that most famous monastery of St. Denis from the times of King Dagobert I and Abbot Aigulf I and himself a Saint: is and is held to be a Saint. Jacques

Doublet, a Dionysian monk, in Book 1 of the Antiquities of this monastery, chapter 28, says that St. Fulrad was buried in the monastery of St. Alexander, which he had founded in Alsace, he is venerated on the 17th of February: and that his sacred relics are honored there by all the faithful, and that his feast day is celebrated on the 17th of February. This sacred veneration he had previously indicated in chapter 26, where, however, by a typographical error the day is given as the 27th of February. Our confrere Francois Lahier, who has done excellent work for the Saints with his great Menology of Virgins published in French, informed us by letter that St. Fulrad the Abbot is venerated on the 17th of February in Lorraine and Alsace, chiefly in Alsace: in the Valley of the Hare, in a small monastery formerly dependent on the Abbey of St. Denis near Paris. Concerning the monasteries he built and his governance of the monastery of St. Denis, we shall treat below, after we have set forth what he accomplished as the first Priest or Chief Chaplain, as they call him, and Legate in the Palace of the Kings and at the court of the Roman Pontiffs.

[2] That men were customarily chosen for the said dignity of Chief Chaplain who were praised not only for the sanctity of their lives but were also distinguished by great nobility of birth and excelled in various disciplines is shown by the aforementioned Peyratus in chapters 28 and 30. That St. Fulrad was endowed with these gifts of nature and grace is indicated by his illustrious deeds, on account of which he himself, though not a Bishop, was elevated to that supreme office. was he from that region? That he built a cell on his own property in the district of Alsace, in the place called Fulradovillare, is attested by Charlemagne in a diploma published by Doublet on page 707, so that he seems to have been a native of Alsace or the neighboring regions, and to have had among his ancestors other Fulrads from whom the place Fulradovillare was named — unless it received the name from himself. Among the first labors of St. Fulrad about which no controversy arises, his assistance to St. Boniface, Archbishop and Legate of the Apostolic See, in establishing Bishops throughout the kingdom of France stands out. Hincmar in the Preface to the Life of St. Remigius reports that Milo, a tonsured cleric but in character, conduct, and dress an irreligious layman, had ruined the bishoprics of Reims and Trier under Charles Martel. But after Charles's death, St. Abel was given to the people of Reims as Archbishop; and that SS. Boniface and Fulrad labored by their authority with the Roman Pontiff to make his See firm and stable, he seeks the pallium from Pope St. Zacharias for St. Abel, Archbishop of Reims: is written by Pope Hadrian to Tilpin, Archbishop of Reims, successor of St. Abel: "Then," he says, "the holy memory Boniface, 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 his successor Stephen, labored greatly so that our predecessor of blessed memory, Zacharias, would transmit the pallium to the Archbishop of Reims, Abel by name, at the entreaty of the above-written Boniface." This letter was written in the year 773, while St. Fulrad was still living and had given good testimony for Tilpin to Pope Hadrian. But Pope Zacharias sent along with the letter to St. Boniface three pallia, to be conferred on St. Abel of Reims, Grimo of Rouen, and Artbert of Sens. given in the year 744: The letter was dated on the 10th day before the Kalends of July, Indiction 12, in the year of Christ 744. St. Abel is venerated on the 5th of August.

[3] After five years had elapsed, a most noble embassy was sent by Pippin to Pope Zacharias, by which the kingdom of the Franks was obtained for him. Very many annals, written by contemporary or very ancient authors, treat of that embassy. He is sent to Rome with St. Burchard, Bishop of Wurzburg, in the year 749: Such are the expanded Annals of the Franks from the year 708 to the year 808, in which the author testifies that he lived, published from the Tilian manuscript by Chesne in volume 2 from page 11, in which the following is read under the year 749: "Pope Zacharias, through Fulrad, commanded that Pippin should be raised to the Kingship." In other Annals the companion of the embassy is said to have been St. Burchard, Bishop of Wurzburg: so the Annals of Frankish affairs, published from a Bavarian manuscript by Henry Canisius in volume 3 of his Antiquae Lectiones, from the year 741 to 793, which are continued from the Loiselian manuscript in Chesne from page 24 to the year 814. Likewise the Annals of the Kings of the Franks, written by a certain astronomer of that era and domestic of King Louis, and published by Reuber. Then the Bertinian Annals, in which this is read: "In the year 749, Burchard, Bishop of Wurzburg, and Folrad the Chaplain were sent to Pope Zacharias, to inquire about the Kings in France, who at those times did not have royal power, whether this was proper or not. And Pope Zacharias commanded Pippin that it was better for him to be called King who had the power, he obtains the kingdom of the Franks for Pippin, than for him who remained without royal power. So that order should not be disturbed, by Apostolic authority he ordered Pippin to be made King." Regino adds: "and to be anointed with the oil of holy unction." Which in the Annals of Einhard are thus expressed: "Burchard, Bishop of Wurzburg, and Folrad, a Priest and Chaplain, were sent to Rome to Pope Zacharias, to consult the Pontiff about the Kings who at that time existed in France, who had only the name of King but no royal power. Through whom the aforesaid Pontiff commanded that it was better for him to be King in whom the supreme power resided: then anointed in the year 750: and having given his authority, he ordered Pippin to be made King." Pippin was therefore anointed by St. Boniface in the year 750 and elevated as King by the Franks, and Childeric in the year 751 was tonsured as a monk and banished to the monastery of St. Bertin at Sithiu, as we have elsewhere accurately demonstrated. St. Burchard the Bishop is venerated on the 14th of October.

[4] St. Boniface, foreseeing that he would soon die, commends his disciples to King Pippin through St. Fulrad, he is asked by St. Boniface through a letter and especially Lull, whom he designates as his successor. This is Letter 92 among those published by Serrarius, and reprinted by Sirmond in volume 2 of the Councils of Gaul, page 8, with this inscription: "Boniface, servant of the servants of God, by the grace of Christ a Bishop, to his dearest fellow-priest Fulrad, a Priest: perpetual greeting of charity in Christ." And the letter reads: "To your fraternal love, on account of the spiritual friendship which you have often shown in my necessities for the sake of God, I cannot render sufficient thanks; but I beseech almighty God that He may reward you in the high summit of heaven with the prizes of recompense in the joy of the Angels for eternity. Now therefore, in the name of Christ, I beg that what you began with a good beginning, you may complete with a good end; that is, that he may give thanks to King Pippin, that you would greet on my behalf the glorious and beloved King, our Pippin, and render him great thanks for all the works of piety which he has done with me; and that you would convey to him that it seems to me and to my friends that I must soon end this temporal life and the course of my days through these infirmities. Therefore, I beg the Majesty of our King, for the name of Christ the Son of God, that he would deign to indicate and command to me, while I still live, concerning my disciples, what reward he wishes to confer upon them afterward. For they are almost all pilgrims, that he commend his disciples, some are Priests established in many places for the ministry of the Church and the people; some are monks in our small monasteries, and children assigned to learn letters; and some are aged men who have lived and labored with me for a long time and helped me. I am anxious about all of them, that after my death they not be scattered; but that they may have the counsel of your reward and the patronage of your Majesty, and not be scattered like sheep without a shepherd, and that the peoples near the border of the Pagans may not lose the law of Christ. that he procure St. Lull as successor of the See of Mainz: Moreover, I diligently beg the clemency of your kindness, in God's name, to have my dear son Lull, my fellow-Bishop, if God wills and if it so pleases your clemency, appointed and established in this ministry of the peoples and Churches as a Preacher and Teacher of Priests and peoples. And I hope that, if God wills, the Priests may have in him a master, and the monks a regular teacher, and the Christian people a faithful preacher and pastor. Therefore I especially ask that this be done, because my Priests near the border of the Pagans lead a very poor life: they can acquire bread to eat, but they cannot find clothing there that he obtain for the others the necessities for sustaining life unless they have counsel and a helper from elsewhere, so that they can endure and persevere in those places for the ministry of the people, in the same way as I helped them. And if the piety of Christ inspires you to this, and you are willing to consent to and do what I ask,

through these present envoys of mine, or by a letter of your kindness, deign to command and indicate this to me, so that I may live or die the happier in your reward."

[5] Thus far St. Boniface, from whose letter it is clear that St. Fulrad was held in the highest esteem by St. Boniface for his virtue, and for the same reason — of which Boniface was well aware — held the supreme place with King Pippin. Moreover, everything he asked to have obtained through this letter, St. Fulrad accomplished these things, he appears to have gained. For before he set out on his last journey to Frisia, St. Boniface consecrated St. Lull as his successor. Which Othlonus in Book 2 of his Life, chapter 23, explains thus: "But before he undertook the journey of such great peril, knowing that it was not fitting that while laboring to save the sheep of others he should allow his own sheep, those committed to him, to perish, he chose St. Lull... with the consent of the venerable King Pippin, as well as of the Bishops and Abbots and Canons and all the Nobles belonging to his diocese, and ordained him Bishop in his place. For he had already previously obtained from the Apostolic Pontiff that the same should be ordained in his place." Then St. Boniface departed for Frisia, and there was made a Martyr of Christ in the year 754, on the 5th of June, on which day he is venerated. The day sacred to the veneration of St. Lull is the 16th of October.

[6] Among learned men the following celebrated question is debated: whether St. Eucherius, a Bishop expelled from his See of Orleans by Charles Martel, was, after the latter's death, caught up in ecstasy and saw him being tortured in the underworld, whether warned by St. Eucherius and was warned by an Angel that his soul and body were now consigned to eternal punishments. Then Eucherius, having returned to himself, as the story relates, summoned St. Boniface and Fulrad, Abbot of the monastery of St. Denis and Chief Chaplain of King Pippin, told them these things, and gave them a sign: that they should go to his tomb, and if they did not find his body there, they should believe what he said to be true. he inspected the tomb of Charles Martel and found it empty? They, proceeding to the said monastery where the body of Charles had been buried and opening his tomb, a dragon was seen to have suddenly emerged, and the entire interior of that tomb was found blackened as if it had been burnt. St. Eucherius is venerated on the 20th of February; this same story is inserted in the Life edited by Surius. But I shall then show that it is better absent from three manuscript codices of the highest trustworthiness, and that it is not found in any writer who flourished within a full century after the death of both Charles Martel and St. Eucherius, and that it appears to have been rashly adopted later in the time of Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims. Which matters we do not wish to repeat here. That St. Fulrad was not made Abbot of the monastery of St. Denis until sixteen or even more years after the death of Charles Martel, we shall demonstrate below in Section IV. Regarding the kingdom conferred on Pippin in the year 750, we have already treated the matter, so that he could not have been called the Chief Chaplain of that King, nor the Abbot of St. Denis, at the time when others have believed that story to have taken place.

Section II. The Legation of St. Fulrad to Pope Stephen III, the restoration of cities in the Exarchate procured by him, actions under Carloman and Charlemagne, his death.

[7] In the year 752, Pope Zacharias died on the 15th of March, and was enrolled among the Saints after his death. Stephen II succeeded, and after he died four days later, Stephen III, who, being severely harassed by Aistulf, King of the Lombards, was escorted to him by the envoys of King Pippin, and thence set out for Gaul near the end of the year 753: Anastasius the Librarian testifies in his Life that St. Fulrad was sent to meet him, in these words: St. Fulrad was sent to meet Pope Stephen: "On the fifteenth day of the month of November, in the aforesaid seventh Indiction, departing from the city of Pavia, he set out on his journey to France... And proceeding on the journey he had begun, he arrived at the venerable monastery of the holy Martyr of Christ, Maurice; at which it had been arranged that the King of the Franks would meet with him at the same time... And remaining there for some days, Fulrad the Abbot and Rothard the Duke, sent by the oft-mentioned Pippin, most excellent King of the Franks, arrived at the said venerable monastery, requesting the same most holy Pontiff to proceed to their King. He escorts him to King Pippin, Whom they conducted with great honor, together with all who were with him, to him. When the same King heard of the arrival of the same most blessed Pontiff, he came most hastily to meet him, together with his wife, his sons, and his chief men; for which purpose, advancing a hundred miles, he sent his son, named Charles, to meet the same Co-Angelic Pope, with some of his nobles. He himself, in his palace, in the place called Ponthion, descending from his horse at a distance of about three miles, with great humility prostrate on the ground together with his wife, sons, and nobles, received the same most holy Pope. And, serving as his groom, he walked beside his mount for some distance. Then the aforesaid most holy man, together with all his company, raising his voice in extended thanksgiving, rendered unceasing praises and glory to almighty God, and with hymns and spiritual canticles, together with the King, all proceeded to the aforesaid Palace January 6 of the year 754 on the sixth day of the month of January, on the most sacred solemnity of the Epiphany of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and sitting down together in the oratory within, the same most blessed Pope immediately implored the aforesaid most Christian King with tears, that through covenants of peace he would settle the cause of Blessed Peter and of the Roman Commonwealth. He immediately satisfied the same most blessed Pope by oath, promising to obey all his commands and admonitions with all his strength, and to restore the Exarchate of Ravenna and the rights and territories of the Commonwealth in every possible way. But because the winter season was upon them, he arranged for the same most holy Pope and all his company to proceed to Paris to dwell at the venerable monastery of Blessed Denis. When this was done, and when he had met the same most Christian Pippin at the same venerable monastery, by the Lord's will, after some days, the same most Christian whom he anoints as King together with his sons King Pippin, by the grace of Christ, was anointed King of the Franks by the same most holy Pope, together with his two sons Charles and Carloman. July 28: That this consecration of the Kings took place on the 5th day before the Kalends of August, Baronius writes at this year 754, number 5, from ancient Dionysian records. That day fell on a Sunday, in solar cycle 8, with the Dominical letter F.

[8] Various envoys were sent by Pippin to Aistulf, but to no avail. Then, as Einhard says in his Annals at the year 755, "King Pippin entered Italy with a strong force, besieged Haistolf, King of the Lombards, in the city of Pavia, and received hostages for the restoration of what had been taken from the Roman Church. When these were given and promises confirmed by oath, he himself returned to his kingdom, and sent Pope Stephen back to Rome with Fulrad, the Priest and Chaplain, and a considerable Frankish escort." In the Bertinian, he escorts the Pope back to Rome: Loiselian, and other Annals, it is said that Pope Stephen was escorted back to the Holy See through the envoys of the Lord King Pippin, Fulrad and the others who were with him.

[9] When Aistulf then delayed in restoring the cities and harassed the Church with fresh attacks, Pope Stephen, in letters sent with St. Fulrad to King Pippin, besought him to bring aid and to strive to fulfill in reality the donation promised to St. Peter. This letter is extant in Baronius at the year 755, numbers 2 and following, and in Sirmond, volume 2 of the Councils, page 19, and others. In it, among other things, this is read: "From the day whose letters are sent back to King Pippin: on which we were separated from your honey-sweet goodness, he has seen fit to afflict and trouble us as much as the mouth of man cannot express. For he has seen fit to hold in great contempt the holy Church of God, and our humility, and your envoys, because even his evil command and machination has been directed toward taking our very life. What more shall we say? He has so afflicted us that, if it may be said, even the stones would weep for us. Nevertheless, your Counselor Fulrad the Priest and Abbot, together with his companions, if they have God before their eyes, can relate all things to you."

[10] Aistulf, meanwhile, having gathered a very strong army from all the peoples subject to him, [when King Aistulf of the Lombards rebels in the year 755, after the siege of Pavia,] besieged Rome: at which time Pope Stephen wrote tearful letters to King Pippin and the Nobles of France, some in his own name, others in the person of Blessed Peter, by which he implored their aid with all his prayers. "On account of this," says Einhard at the year 756, "King Pippin again entered Italy with his army, besieged Haistolf, who had shut himself up in the city of Pavia, and compelled him by siege to fulfill his promises: and having received back Ravenna and the Pentapolis and the entire Exarchate belonging to Ravenna, he handed them over to St. Peter; and having accomplished these things, he returned to Gaul." So far the account. Anastasius in the Life of Pope Stephen narrates the restoration of those territories thus: "For the reception of these cities, the same most Christian King of the Franks sent his Counselor, he is placed in charge of the restoration of the Exarchate: that is, Fulrad, the venerable Abbot and Priest. And immediately the same King felicitously returned to France with his armies. The aforesaid venerable Abbot and Priest Fulrad, arriving in the territory of Ravenna with envoys of the aforementioned King Aistulf, and entering each city, both of the Pentapolis and of Emilia, and receiving them, and taking hostages from each one, he carries the keys of the cities to Rome and bearing their chief men together with the keys of the gates of the cities, arrived at Rome. And placing those keys, both of the city of Ravenna and of the various cities of the Exarchate of Ravenna, together with the aforesaid donation concerning them issued by his King, at the Confession of Blessed Peter, he handed them over to be possessed and administered in perpetuity by the same blessed Apostle and his Vicar, the most holy Pope, and all his successors the Pontiffs. That is: Ravenna, Rimini, he receives Ravenna and other cities Pesaro, *Conca, Fano, Cesena, Senigallia, Jesi, Forli, Forlimpopoli, with the fortress of Sussubi, Montefeltro, Acerragio, Monte Lucati, Serra, Castel San Marino, Bobbio, Urbino, Cagli, Luceoli, Gubbio, and also Comacchio, as well as the city of Narni, which had been invaded by the Duke of Spoleto from the Roman territory for a span of years." Leo of Ostia, Book 1 of the History of Monte Cassino, chapter 7, says of Pippin: "The same King, coming to Italy together with the Roman Pontiff, twenty: subjected Ravenna and twenty other cities, taken from the aforementioned Aistulf, to the Apostolic See, for which service he was made a Roman Patrician." Girolamo Rossi in Book 4 of his Histories of Ravenna explains and divides the said Exarchate into the Pentapolis and Emilia, and assigns to each their cities: the reader should consult him.

[11] Meanwhile, as Aistulf was plotting how not so much to fulfill his promises as to craftily alter what had been fulfilled, upon Aistulf's death in the year 756 he fell from his horse by accident while hunting, and having contracted an illness from this, ended his life within a few days. Desiderius, who was his Master of the Horse, succeeded him in the kingdom. So writes Einhard at the said year 756. But what useful service St. Fulrad then rendered to the Apostolic See, Anastasius explains thus: "While therefore these things related by us above were being transacted, that wretched Aistulf, going to a certain place for hunting, was struck by a divine blow and perished. Then a certain Desiderius, a Duke of the Lombards, who had been sent by the same most wicked Aistulf to the regions of Tuscany, hearing that the aforesaid Aistulf had died, immediately gathered the entire military force of the same Tuscany, as Ratchis and Desiderius contend for the succession, and strove to seize the summit of the Lombard kingdom. His person being held in contempt by Ratchis, formerly King and afterward a monk, brother of the aforesaid Aistulf, and also by many other Lombard nobles, who, despising the same Desiderius together with him, gathered a very great multitude of armies from beyond the Alps and the rest of the Lombards, and set out to fight against him. At this, the aforesaid Desiderius earnestly besought the aforesaid most blessed Pontiff to bring him aid, so that he might be able to assume the royal dignity: promising on oath to fulfill every wish of the aforesaid most blessed Pontiff. Moreover, he professed that he would restore to the Commonwealth the cities that remained, and would even give generous gifts. Then St. Fulrad is taken into counsel by Pope Stephen and sent to Desiderius, the same distinguished Father and good Shepherd, having taken counsel with the oft-mentioned Fulrad, venerable Priest and Abbot, and Counselor of the most Christian Pippin, King of the Franks, sent his brother, namely Paul the Deacon, and Christopher his Counselor, together with the aforesaid Fulrad to the regions of Tuscany, to the aforesaid Desiderius. Speaking with him, immediately by a written document and a terrible oath, the same Desiderius professed to fulfill the entire sponsion set forth above. After these things were done, he immediately sent his envoy, that is, Stephen the venerable Priest, and Apostolic letters of exhortation to the aforesaid Ratchis and to the entire Lombard nation. The aforesaid venerable Fulrad also hastened with some Franks to the aid of the same Desiderius; he brings military reinforcements: and several armies of Romans, if necessity should require it, were also arranged to come to his assistance. And with the prayers of the aforesaid most holy Pontiff, acceptable to God, prevailing, so did almighty God dispose matters that, without any danger to lives, the aforesaid Desiderius, through the assistance of the same Co-Angelic Pope, assumed the royal dignity which he sought."

[12] Pope Stephen, having sent legates to King Pippin with accompanying letters, gives him thanks for liberating the City and recovering several cities of the Exarchate, and begs that he order the remaining cities not yet returned to be restored. "Since," he says, "our God-beloved son Fulrad, your faithful man, he is adduced as a witness by Pope Stephen before King Pippin: having seen everything, was satisfied that the said people cannot in any way survive outside their borders and territories and possessions without those cities, which were always united with them under the jurisdiction of a single dominion." Then, having described the death of King Aistulf, he adds: "Now, however, by the providence of God, through the hands of His Prince of the Apostles, Blessed Peter, and at the same time through your most mighty arm, he receives the oath of King Desiderius: with the exertion of the God-beloved man Fulrad, your faithful servant, our beloved son, leading the way, Desiderius, a most gentle man, has been ordained as King over the Lombard nation, and in the presence of the same Fulrad he has promised under oath to restore to Blessed Peter the remaining cities: Faenza, Imola, and Ferrara with their territories, as well as Saltora and all the territories, and likewise the cities of Osimo, Ancona, and Numana with their territories. And afterward, through Duke Garinone and Grimoald, he promised to restore to us the city of Bologna with its territories, and he professed that he would always remain in peaceful tranquility with this Church of God and our people, and he declared himself to be faithful to your God-protected kingdom." Stephen then commends that Pippin, by his royal authority, command that everything be restored according to the pledge given by Desiderius, and then makes this request: "In whatever manner you have spoken with the Silentiary, and how your goodness has dismissed him, together with a copy of the letters you have given him, inform us, so that we may know how to act in common accord, as was agreed between us and the God-beloved Fulrad. he is praised for his fidelity: That beloved son of ours, Fulrad, has conducted himself in all matters according to your command, and we have given him the greatest thanks for his exertions. He, returning to you, will inform your goodness of everything as it happened."

[13] So writes Pope Stephen, who, as Anastasius attests, took from those cities which King Desiderius had promised to restore: Faenza with the fortress of Tiberiano, and Gabello, and the entire Duchy of Ferrara in its entirety. But when Stephen died on the 6th day before the Kalends of May of the year 757, King Desiderius did not restore the remaining cities to the Roman Church. For which reason Paul I, created as his successor, sent a letter to King Pippin asking that Desiderius should restore those cities — namely Imola, Bologna, Osimo, and Ancona — "which," he says, "he promised in our presence and at the same time through your envoys, namely also by Pope Paul: Fulrad, the God-beloved Abbot, and Rodbert,

to your most excellent Christianity, and through you also to Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, that he would restore." So Anastasius. King Pippin died in the year 768, on the 8th day before the Kalends of October; his sons succeeded him as Kings, being consecrated by the Priests on the 7th day before the Ides of October: Charles at the city of Noyon, Carloman at Soissons. To the latter, in the division made by Pippin during his last illness, is recorded to have fallen the kingdom of Burgundy and Provence, Alsace and Alemannia, in the Historical Collection of the manuscript codex of Queen Christina of Sweden, published in volume 2 of the Antiquae Lectiones of Henry Canisius, page 728, where instead of "Alesaus" or "Alesans," it seems one should read "Alsatia": in which and in Alemannia then Chief Chaplain of the Palace of Carloman: St. Fulrad built his monasteries, as will presently be said. He was the Chief Chaplain of Carloman's Palace after Pippin's death. Concerning him the following is found in the Annals of Einhard at the year 771, in which Carloman died: "After holding a general assembly on the river Scheldt at the villa of Valenciennes, King Charles set out to spend the winter. And while he was lingering there for some time, his brother Carloman died on the day before the Nones of December at the villa of Samoussy. And the King, turning his attention to seizing the entire kingdom, came to the villa of Corbeny. There he received Wilhar, Bishop of Sion, and Fulrad the Priest, and several other Priests, Counts, and Nobles of his brother, among whom the chief were Warin and Adalhard, who came to him." In the Annals of Metz these last events are thus narrated: from his death he comes to Charlemagne: "Charles came to the villa of Corbigny, and there Fulcarius and Fulrad, the Chaplains, came to him with other Bishops and Priests, and Warin and Adalard the Counts with other Nobles who had been Carloman's, and they anointed the Lord Charles as King over them, and he happily obtained the monarchy of the kingdom of the Franks." Similar accounts are found in other ancient Annals and in the Life of Charlemagne by the monk of Angouleme and other writings by an unknown author.

[14] By the aforesaid Carloman, Tilpin (whom some call Turpin) is said to have been nominated as Archbishop of Reims, formerly a monk of St. Denis, who at the promotion of Charlemagne was ordained in the year 773, he acts on behalf of Tilpin, Archbishop of Reims, before Pope Hadrian: to whom Pope Hadrian transmitted the pallium, with a letter at the beginning of which he makes mention of St. Fulrad. "Because," he says, "at the petition of our spiritual son and the glorious King of the Franks, Charles, with the most beloved Abbot Fulrad, Archpriest of France, giving a good testimony of your holiness and learning, we well remember having transmitted to you the pallium with a privilege, in accordance with custom, so that the metropolitan Church of Reims might remain in its status." The entire letter is found in Flodoard, Book 2, chapter 17. Peyraut, although he indicates repeatedly that by "Archpriest of France" the Chief Chaplain of the Palace is meant, was he also the Chaplain of Charlemagne? nevertheless in Book 1, chapter 44, endeavors to demonstrate that St. Fulrad never held that dignity in the Palace of Charlemagne, and that the words of St. Adalard as cited by Hincmar at the place indicated above are corrupted by copyists where it says he discharged this ministry "in the time of Pippin and Charles," and reads instead "in the time of Pippin and Carloman."

[15] Among the codices of Queen Christina of Sweden, after the booklet of Quintus Julianus Hilarion on the Duration of Time and another Historical Collection which we mentioned above, there is an epitomized history of Fredegar and a Chronicle, but mutilated in the middle, and then continued to the year 806. In it the following is read at the year 784: he dies in the year 784: "Abbot Helmeric, and Abbot Fulrad, and Bishop Albric died." The same is printed in Chesne, volume 2, page 22, and in the Chronicle of Moissac it is thus reported: "Abbot Olimric, and also Abbot Fulrad, and Bishop Albric died." This Albric seems to be the Bishop of Cambrai mentioned by Balderic in the Chronicle of Cambrai, chapter 36.

* Variant: "atque Fanum."

Section III. The monasteries of Lebraha, St. Hippolytus, and others built by St. Fulrad. The bodies of SS. Vitus, Alexander, Hippolytus, and Cucuphas translated by him.

[16] Thus far we have indicated what St. Fulrad accomplished with distinction at the court of the Kings and before the Roman Pontiffs for the Church of God; now we turn our pen to his domestic activities, and since he is from time to time called Abbot by the above-cited authors, we inquire into the monasteries over which he presided and the times to be assigned to his governance. There exists an illustrious testimony of 21 Bishops, gathered in Synod at Vermeria in the year 853, Indiction 1, in the month of August, in a letter which they wrote to Conrad, the renowned and most noble man, whom others identify as the Count of Paris and brother of Queen Judith, uncle of Charles the Bald. In the capitula of this letter the following is recorded: "When," they say, "among other ecclesiastical business, we were arranging for the orderly disposition of the monastery of St. Denis, the monks of that sacred house came into the presence of the venerable Synod, bearing documents, St. Fulrad confers on St. Denis the monasteries of Lebraha and St. Hippolytus, namely the testament which Abbot Fulrad of holy memory had made concerning the monastery of Lebraha, where St. Alexander the Martyr rests buried, and concerning the cell called St. Hippolytus, and concerning other properties which the same venerable Abbot had conferred upon St. Denis through the same testament; as well as the privilege which the holy Apostolic See through Blessed Pope Stephen had granted to the same monastery regarding the aforesaid testament: saying that their venerable Abbot, the Lord Louis, by the command of our glorious King, the Lord Charles, had consulted them and sought their consent, in order that the aforesaid monastery might be granted to you as a precaria, with the properties handed over by you to be assigned to the same house of God, to which they did not dare consent without the counsel of their Bishop and Archbishop, indeed of the sacred Synod. Which cause we have carefully investigated and thoroughly ascertained, and we have decreed, in accordance with sacred and divine authority and according to the testament of the aforesaid Fulrad of pious memory, and also according to the decree of the Apostolic See, that at no time should the said monastery of St. Alexander, with the properties belonging to it, be in any way separated from the greater monastery of St. Denis, nor disposed of by benefice or precaria." So far the text. We have not yet seen the privilege of Pope Stephen, whom we suspect to be the predecessor of Hadrian, who sat from the year 768 to the year 772, since it is said below that the monastery of Lebraha was built or endowed by St. Fulrad through the munificence of Emperor Charles.

[17] Jean Ruyr, in Part 3 of the Antiquities of the Vosges, Book 1, chapter 1, identifies St. Fulrad as the founder of St. Alexander in the Valley of the Hares, and of St. Hippolytus in Alsace, of St. Privatus in the territory of Salonne, of St. Varanus in Alemannia, built by him in Alsace, and of many other churches. What is here called the church in the Valley of the Hares is above called the monastery of Lebraha, where St. Alexander the Martyr rests; in the diploma of Charlemagne in Doublet, page 714, it is called the church of Lebraha, situated in the district of Alsace, where St. Alexander the Martyr rests in body. By others it is called Leberacum, in German Leberau, between Selestat and the town of Markirch, on the stream Lebre, which flows into the river Ill below Selestat. Leberau is a small town or rather large village, but miserably devastated by the recent wars, the monastery destroyed, and some part of the church remaining. The other church, of St. Hippolytus, commonly called St. Pilt, between the same Selestat, from which it is not far distant, and the town of Rappoltsweier, and still belongs to the Duke of Lorraine; and it is said in another diploma of Charlemagne, page 707, that Fulrad, on his own property in the district of Alsace, in the place called Fulradovillare, within the bounds of Audoldovillare, built a cell or constructed a new building, and wishing henceforth with God's help and that of good men to build further,

where the most blessed Martyr Hippolytus rests buried in body. Merian treats of both places in his Topography of Alsace, pages 31 and 51. But our confrere Francois Lahier informed us that the church of St. Privatus is at Salonne in the diocese of Metz: [and the church of St. Privatus in the diocese of Metz, and of St. Varanus in Alemannia:] mention of it is found in the diploma of Charlemagne, page 713; as also of the church of St. Varanus, page 715, where it is said that Fulrad, on his own property within Haircbertingas, on the river Braille, in the Duchy of the Alemanni, in the county of Hurma, constructed a new building where the body of St. Varanus rests.

[18] We have the Acts of the Translation of St. Vitus the Martyr from ancient manuscripts of the monastery of Gladbach in the territory of Julich and the monastery of Bodeken in the diocese of Paderborn, in which mention is made of the relics of SS. Alexander and Hippolytus. We give here the part that relates to St. Fulrad. "At that time, then," says the contemporary author, "when the glorious King Pippin governed the Frankish empire, there was a venerable man named Fulrad, who had received the monastery of the most blessed Martyr Denis for the governance of the holy community of monks. Burning with great desire for how he might render due honor to the most blessed Martyrs, having been given permission by King Pippin, he was not content to embrace their bodies alone, to whom he rendered constant service, but approached the aforesaid Prince and asked that he be permitted to go to Rome, and thence to transfer some bodies of Saints, as he eagerly desired, to the aforesaid monastery. The most pious Prince, willingly accepting this, not only gave permission, but also gave thanks for such a desire. But the venerable Abbot sought vigorous and worthy helpers and companions for accomplishing this work. There was meanwhile a layman, having taken a certain kinsman as companion, but a worthy one, a kinsman of the same Abbot, who, having much inheritance and household but no son, began to consider how he might consecrate his inheritance to the Lord. Hearing then of the said Abbot's desire, he asked to be allowed to go with him, he sets out for Rome, and the Abbot, rejoicing at his prayers, commanded him to go with him. When the aforesaid man had revealed all his desire to him, by divine grace accompanying them, they found such a plan: he obtains for him the body of St. Vitus: that he would take the body of the most blessed boy and most sacred Martyr Vitus from the place where it was buried, and place it most carefully on his own estate, and also build a church dedicated to his name — all of which he accomplished, by the Lord's gift. At which place, by divine generosity, through the merits of Blessed Vitus the Martyr, many miracles and signs are shown even to this day. The aforesaid Abbot, however, translated the bodies of the blessed Martyrs Alexander and for himself, the bodies of SS. Alexander and Hippolytus: Hippolytus. After this, when the most devout men who then dwelt in the aforesaid monastery had learned that the relics of Blessed Vitus were with the aforesaid man, and had read in his Passion how he had shed his blood for the name of Christ, they decreed with all their strength to see to it that he should be placed with the relics of the other Martyrs in the basilica of St. Denis. But the one who had translated them, surrendering his entire inheritance and himself together with those relics to St. Denis, at last obtained that they be allowed to remain in the place where they had been deposited." This place is afterward said to be situated in the diocese of Paris and donated to St. Denis. The body of the most blessed Martyr remained in the same place until the 23rd year of the most pious Emperor Louis and the year of the Lord's Incarnation 836, when it was translated to New Corbey in Saxony, as is narrated there.

[19] Thus far those manuscripts, which Henry Meibomius published in a much abbreviated form after the Annals of Widukind of Corvey from page 139, and from Meibomius Chesne in volume 2 of his History of the Franks from page 344, who calls it a little book of an ancient writer. We regret that the name of St. Fulrad's kinsman is not expressed, nor the place where they were deposited and the church built in honor of St. Vitus, and finally in what year St. Fulrad and his kinsman made this Roman journey. In the printed copies of Sigebert at the year 755, the following is found: not in the year 755: "Fulrad, Abbot of St. Denis of Paris, translated the body of St. Vitus the Martyr from Rome to Paris." But it was translated not so much by St. Fulrad as by his kinsman, and not to Paris, but to an estate in the diocese of Paris, where he built a church. Whence those words are better absent from the manuscript codex of Queen Christina of Sweden, in which the Chronicles of Eusebius, Jerome, Prosper, Sigebert, and others are contained. Indeed, that in the year 755 St. Fulrad was engaged in the Italian expedition at the court of Pope Stephen is clear from what was related above. Among the letters of Pope Hadrian in Chesne, volume 3, page 780, the following is found: "The aforesaid Addo, the God-beloved Deacon, formerly, nor under Pope Hadrian, when he again went to Rome for relics, when he had come here with our brother Fulrad, the God-beloved, devout Abbot and Priest, petitioned us to grant him a holy body. But we, terrified by a revelation, as we have long since written to you, dare not in any way to disturb any more of the bodies of the Saints." This journey, different from the earlier one, necessarily occurred after the year 772, when Hadrian was created Pontiff, by which time Pippin had been dead for some years; but before the year 768: before whose death, or the year 768, the bodies of SS. Vitus, Alexander, and Hippolytus were brought to Gaul.

[20] Saussaye in his Gallic Martyrology at the 15th of June writes that the body of St. Vitus, which had long lain buried in Rome, was brought to Gaul by Fulrad (read Fulrad) the Abbot, and was deposited with much honor in the monastery of the precious Martyr of Christ, Denis. But not even [the body of St. Vitus was not deposited in the monastery of St. Denis, nor from Corbey of Gaul,] while these sacred bones shone with miracles and wonders elsewhere, did the monks of St. Denis obtain them. The same Saussaye in his Supplement at the 13th of June asserts that on that day the translation of St. Vitus the Martyr from Corbey of Gaul to Corbey of Saxony is commemorated. Rather, that body was brought from the place of deposit in the year 836 to the monastery of St. Denis and, after the solemn celebration of Mass on the 14th day before the Kalends of April, a Sunday, by Abbot Hilduin, was handed over to Warin, Abbot of the monastery of Rebais, who kept it in his monastery until the 12th day before the Kalends of June, brought to Corbey in Saxony, the Sunday before Pentecost, when it was carried thence to Saxony and on the Ides of June, the vigil of St. Vitus, deposited at New Corbey. The rest we shall give on his feast day.

[21] Together with the relics of St. Vitus, the bodies of SS. Alexander and Hippolytus were brought from Rome by St. Fulrad; to which Saussaye adds the body of St. Cucuphas on the Ides of August, where he reports: "The body of St. Hippolytus was taken from Rome and given by Pope Leo III to Charlemagne as a precious gift, [the body of St. Cucuphas was not brought from Rome together with the bodies of SS. Alexander and Hippolytus:] and brought to Gaul together with the venerable relics of St. Alexander, Pope and Martyr, as well as of Blessed Cucuphas, also a witness of Christ, and deposited with fitting veneration in the monastery of the Valley of the Hares by the same most pious Emperor. But after his death, Fulrad, his nephew, the distinguished Abbot of the monastery of St. Denis, transferred it thence to the basilica of the same monastery of St. Denis, where he placed it in its own casket and chapel, to be observed with perpetual veneration by posterity, as it is still venerated." So he writes: but in this there are some things not sufficiently sound. For Saussaye himself on the 25th of July, on which day St. Cucuphas is venerated, asserts that the body of St. Cucuphas, Martyr of Barcelona, was carried to Gaul when the Moors were invading Spain, and deposited in the revered basilica of the Martyr Denis and his companions. In the manuscript Acts but carried from Barcelona by St. Fulrad to Lebraha, the following is found: "From Barcelona the honorable body of St. Cucuphas was translated by Fulrad, the most reverend and glorious Abbot of the monastery of the holy Martyrs Denis the Precious, Rusticus, and Eleutherius, on the 4th day before the Kalends of March, to the cell of the same monastery which the same Fulrad built on his own property through the munificence of the Emperor Charles of divine memory, and handed over to his Patron, the most glorious Denis. It is situated in the forest of the Vosges and is called Lebraha. At which place, having been buried in a modest manner, just as it had been brought, and remaining there for a while, by the more expedient counsel of the devout Father and by the diligent care and most devoted desire of the aforesaid Abbot Hilduin of that same monastery (who was, as he was, a lover and cultivator of God and the Saints), by Hilduin to the monastery of St. Denis, it is venerated as buried in the crypt before the feet of the same most holy Denis and his companions, which the same Hilduin built in honor of God and the holy and inviolate Mother of God and of all the Saints, from the year of the Lord's Incarnation 835, the eighth day before the Kalends of September." So far the manuscript Acts, which Surius also published with altered style, writing that the body was translated to Lebraha by Fulrad not on the 4th but the 14th day before the Kalends of March. Francisco Diago,

in Book 1 of the History of the ancient Counts of Barcelona, chapter 10, confusing the times, reports that the body of St. Cucuphas was translated from Barcelona in the time of the Emperor Louis the Pious to the monastery of St. Denis near Paris in the time of Abbot Fulrad, and deposited on the 16th of February in some chapel.

[22] But when the body of St. Cucuphas was translated from Lebraha in Alsace to the monastery of St. Denis under Louis the Pious, the body of St. Alexander the Martyr was left there, the bodies of St. Alexander the Martyr which 21 Bishops, assembled in Synod at Vermeria in the year 853, testified above had rested buried at Lebraha. But that Saussaye and before him Doublet write that it is the body of St. Alexander, Pope and Martyr, not the Pope, is not entirely proven, both because the ancients do not call him Pope, Pontiff, Bishop, or Priest, and because Octavius Panciroli in his Thesaurus of the City asserts that parts of the body of St. Alexander, Pope and Martyr, are in the churches of St. Lawrence in Lucina and St. Sabina, and that various relics are found elsewhere; as will be discussed on the 3rd of May, his feast day. The same reasoning applies to St. Hippolytus the Martyr, baptized by St. Lawrence and of St. Hippolytus the Martyr, and buried in the Verano field, whose head is reported by Franciotti to be preserved at Lucca in the cathedral; others say the head is in Rome in the church called Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and the body in the church of the Four Crowned Martyrs, while it is read in a certain writing that it is at Brescia in the monastery of St. Julia, to be published by us on the 18th of February with the Acts of St. Epimeneus. These matters will be examined on the 13th of August. What concerns us here, the bodies of SS. Alexander and Hippolytus the Martyrs, they were not given by Leo III to Charlemagne, whoever they may have been, were not given by Pope Leo III to Charlemagne, nor was the body of St. Hippolytus deposited by him in the Valley of the Hares, and then after his death transferred by Fulrad, Abbot of St. Denis, to his monastery; nor was this Fulrad a nephew of Charlemagne. Rather, the holy bodies of these Martyrs were brought from Rome by St. Fulrad to Gaul while King Pippin was still living, but brought by St. Fulrad; the former to Lebraha, as was shown above from the Acts of the Translation of St. Vitus. One, namely that of St. Alexander, St. Fulrad deposited in his monastery of Lebraha, in the Valley of the Hares, where it was still preserved in the year 853, as was proven above. But the body of St. Hippolytus, the same St. Fulrad brought to his estate of Fulradovillare, which on account of the sacred relics was called the Cell of St. Hippolytus, the latter to Fulradovillare, situated in inner Alsace toward the river Ill, from the Valley of the Hares. If, moreover, after the death of Emperor Charles the body of St. Hippolytus was translated to the monastery of St. Denis, this was not done by St. Fulrad, who had died nearly thirty years before Charlemagne, but perhaps by Hilduin, whom we said had transferred the body of St. Cucuphas from Lebraha to his monastery; and Doublet, page 309, writes that both bodies were deposited at St. Denis by St. Fulrad at the same time, but after the death of Charlemagne, and elsewhere the year 818 is assigned — the cause of which error will soon become clear. But that various relics of Saints were deposited by St. Fulrad in the monastery of St. Denis will be established below from his Epitaph.

Section IV. The deeds of Fulrad, Abbot of St. Quentin, falsely attributed to this St. Fulrad. The period of his governance of the monastery of St. Denis. His Epitaph.

[23] Just as the already-cited Saussaye and Doublet, Book 1, chapter 25, call St. Fulrad the nephew of Charlemagne, St. Fulrad was not born of a father named Jerome, son of Charles Martel, so the Sainte-Marthe brothers in Book 6 of the Genealogy of the Royal House of France, chapter 17, Buchet in Part 1 of the true Origin of the same Royal House of France, chapter 9, page 83, Hemere in Book 2 of his Augusta Viromanduorum, page 72, the above-cited Ruyr, and others, assert that he was the son of Jerome, son of Charles Martel: by which Jerome Pope Stephen III was escorted back from Gaul to Rome, as is read in the Freher manuscript codex of Anastasius the Librarian's Lives of the Pontiffs, in the Life of Stephen III, and among various readings in the printed text, in these words: "The aforesaid most Christian and God-beloved King of the Franks, Pippin, also sent with him Pope Stephen his companion on the journey when Pope Stephen was escorted back to Rome: his brother Jerome, and other nobles of his, with not a few men, who would be in his service until he returned to Rome." That St. Fulrad was placed in charge of Pope Stephen's return was stated above from the Annals of Einhard, the Bertinian, Loiselian, and others. To this escort of Fulrad and indeed of Pope Stephen was therefore attached Jerome, still a young prince, whom the Sainte-Marthe brothers assert to have been the last son of Charles Martel. He, by a noble wife Ersensinda of Gothic lineage, begot various children: St. Folquin, Bishop of Therouanne, who died in the year 855, on the 14th of December; Fulrad, Abbot of St. Quentin, and others, that Fulrad was a different Abbot of St. Quentin, as the manuscript Acts of St. Folquin have, and their excerpts in the above-mentioned Buchet, page 88, in the Proofs. That is the Fulrad who, as Hemere attests, raised anew the structure of the monastery of St. Quentin, which had been repaired by St. Eligius and was enlarged in its precinct, in a truly royal construction and broader compass, in the year 814, and completed it in the year 823. Concerning this construction there survive verses by Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans, a contemporary poet, who, after describing the year 814 and the reign of Louis the Pious, adds:

"The venerable Abbot Fulrad, renowned for his nobility, began to build this hall's noble work. For Jerome was his father, and Charles was father to him, who raised the glory of his family to the stars; waging wars, guarding the peace, who sent the heights of the kingdom to his offspring with God's help."

This Fulrad attended the Council of Noyon in the year 814, where, as Flodoard reports in Book 2, chapter 18, there was a dispute about the boundaries of the bishoprics of Noyon and Soissons. The same is said in the year 843 to have recovered the body of St. Audomarus, which had been stolen, together with his brother St. Folquin the Bishop, he was still alive in the year 843, brother of St. Folquin, as Malbrancq, our confrere, explains at length in his work on the Morini, volume 2, Book 6, chapter 3. But then it would have to be said that the care of the monastery of St. Quentin had been ceded to Hugh, the son of Charlemagne, who is said to have died in the year 844 and to have long been Abbot of St. Quentin and other monasteries.

[24] From this Fulrad, Abbot of St. Quentin, brother of St. Folquin, and cousin of Charlemagne, who flourished in the ninth century of Christ, clearly distinct is St. Fulrad, about whom we have been treating up to now, who died in Alsace in the year of Christ 784. [St. Fulrad, having died in the year 784, is succeeded by Maginarius and Fredulphus under Charlemagne, and Hilduin under Louis the Pious:] He was then succeeded, or perhaps earlier, by Maginarius, commonly held to be the 17th Abbot of the monastery of St. Denis; after him Fredulphus, or Fardulphus, the 18th Abbot — both promoted to that dignity under Charlemagne. Hilduin, the Chief Chaplain of the Palace of Emperor Louis the Pious, was substituted for the latter. This order is disturbed by a Bull ascribed to Pope Leo III in Doublet, page 452, which is said to be dated the 6th day before the Kalends of June, in the 3rd year of the most sacred See of Blessed Peter, or in the 25th year of the Lord Charles, most excellent King of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans, from which Italy was taken, Indiction 6 — therefore in the year of Christ 798. In this Bull, Leo addresses St. Fulrad as if he, fourteen years after his death, had come back to life. But there is against this the Privilege granted by Pope Hadrian to the monastery of St. Denis, in Sirmond, volume 2 of the Councils of Gaul, page 113, with this inscription: Hadrian writes to Maginarius: "Hadrian, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Maginarius, devout Abbot of the venerable monastery of the holy Martyr of Christ, Denis, situated in the territory of Paris, where the venerable holy body rests, and through him to the same venerable monastery in perpetuity." In that Privilege he grants that they may have their own Bishop, and it ends thus: "Written by the hand of Christopher, notary and secretary of our See, in the month of June, Indiction 9. Farewell. Given on the Kalends of July, by the hand of Anastasius the Primicerius, in the reign of the Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, with God the Father Almighty and the Holy Spirit, through infinite ages. In the year, God willing, of the Pontificate of our Lord in the Apostolic most sacred See of Blessed Peter, 15, Indiction 9" — which, however, better fits the 16th year of the Pontificate, and the year of Christ 787. The same Pope Hadrian mentions the same "Maginarius, devout Abbot" in letters 11 and 12 to Charlemagne in the same Sirmond, and in volume 18 of the Councils published by the Royal Press. Then that dating by Leo III from the capture of Italy by Charlemagne is suspect and has not hitherto been observed by us. Not to mention that very many of the diplomas and Privileges of Pontiffs and Kings compiled by Doublet do not hold up, and that the subscriptions frequently teem with various errors. Those attributed to Dagobert I, the founder of the monastery, we have discussed elsewhere; various such diplomas are rejected as doubtful, uncertain, and interpolated by our confrere Labbe in his Historical Eulogies of the Kings of the Franks and Miscellanies of Curiosities, as well as by Peyraut and others.

[25] Before St. Fulrad the Abbots were Turnald, With these matters settled, we inquire into the time at which St. Fulrad was given as Abbot to the monks of St. Denis. By Claude Robert in his Gallia Christiana, the following are listed as Abbots in the eighth century: the 12th, Turnald or Gurnald or Grimoald, afterward the 34th Bishop of Paris, under Kings Chilperic and Theoderic and Prince Charles Martel. But we have shown elsewhere that he left the bishopric and became both a monk and an Abbot. After him succeeded the 13th, Delphinus, Delphinus, Sigebert, under King Theoderic; the 14th, Sigebert, under King Childeric III, ambassador of the King to Gregory III — rather, he was sent to him by Charles Martel together with Grimo, Abbot of Corbie, in the year 741, the last year of both Charles and Gregory; but he is called a recluse of the basilica of St. Denis in the Annals of Metz at that year and in the history written at the command of Childebrand, appended to the Chronicle of Fredegar, chapter 110: perhaps he was afterward created Abbot under Childeric. The 15th Abbot who was substituted was Constramnus under King Pippin, not St. Fulrad, as is widely assumed, but Constraninus, or Constramnus, under King Pippin, says Claude Robert. There exists in Doublet, page 697, a diploma of King Pippin "at the request of the Lord Constramnus, venerable Abbot of the monastery of the holy Lord Denis the Martyr... enacted at Soissons, in the palace, on the 3rd day before the Nones of April, Indiction 4, in the 6th year of the reign of our Lord Pippin." But Indiction 4 falls in the year of Christ 751, the 2nd year of Pippin's reign, which must either be substituted, or else Indiction 8, with the year of Christ 755. After this Constramnus, then Fulrad, St. Fulrad succeeded, in whose time Clipiacum was given to St. Denis by Charles Martel, as the same Claude Robert writes. But the deed of donation in Doublet, page 690, makes no mention of Fulrad or any other Abbot; yet it is reported as given on the 17th of September, in the fifth year after the death of King Theoderic, therefore in the year 741 — after which year, as even Robert attests, Sigebert was Abbot under Childeric, and Constramnus under Pippin. We gave above the letter of St. Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, which he sent to St. Fulrad around the year 753, foreseeing his death, with this inscription: not yet saluted as Abbot by St. Boniface around the year 753, "To his fellow-priest Fulrad, a Priest" — omitting the title of Abbot, which he was accustomed always to attribute to others, as he inscribed his letters to Huetbert, Duddo, Alderius, and Gutbert as Abbots, and especially sent Letter 106 inscribed "to his fellow-priest Optatus, Abbot." The ancient Annals of the Franks agree with St. Boniface, from which we related above that Fulrad the Chaplain was joined with Burchard, Bishop of Wurzburg, in the embassy to Pope St. Zacharias, when the kingdom of the Franks was to be transferred from Childeric to Pippin.

[26] Anastasius the Librarian in the Life of St. Stephen calls the same St. Fulrad an Abbot when he was sent near the end of the year 753 to the monastery of Agaunum to meet Pope Stephen, he is recognized as Abbot by Anastasius the Librarian and by Pope Stephen, whom he escorted to King Pippin on the 6th of January of the following year. The same Stephen, upon being escorted back to Rome, sent Fulrad back with letters to King Pippin; in these he calls him Pippin's Counselor, a Priest and Abbot. The same Pope grants St. Fulrad the privilege of building monasteries and concedes to them their liberty. This privilege has been published from manuscript schedules by Sirmond in volume 2 of the Councils of Gaul, page 38, and reprinted thence in volume 17 of the General Councils, page 570; because it sheds no small light on this controversy, we give it here as well. It is as follows:

"Stephen, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Fulrad, beloved of God, Archpriest and Abbot of the venerable monasteries founded under his own auspices, but of the monasteries founded by himself: and in succession to all his Abbatial successors in perpetuity.

Since those things must always be granted which are agreeable to reasonable desires, it is fitting that the devotion of the founder of a pious construction of a holy place should by no means be denied in the granting of privileges. Therefore, since you have asked of us, most beloved son, that we should grant you license to build monasteries in the province of France, wherever it shall please you, in various places — whether on properties that belong to you by right of ownership, whether also on those that have come to you through a deed of purchase, or on the properties of your parents, or from whatever source they may come to you — and that the same monasteries, once founded by you, should be fortified by the privileges of the Apostolic See for the future, so that, being established under the jurisdiction of the holy Church which we serve by God's authority, they should not be subjected to the jurisdictions of any other Church: for this reason, favoring your pious desires, by this our authority we commit to execution what is requested. And therefore, by this Apostolic authority, we grant license and power to you, the aforesaid beloved son Fulrad, and to all your Abbatial successors, to build monasteries wherever you shall wish in the province of France, whether on the properties of your own ownership, or also on those which have come or shall come to you, the aforesaid our son, through a deed of purchase, or from wherever they have come or shall come to you. For which he obtains broad immunity, And we prohibit by this authority any Bishop or other Priest of any Church, or any other person, from having any jurisdiction in the aforesaid monasteries, except the Apostolic See. So that no Bishop or other Priest, or even any layperson, should presume to inflict any opposition upon the same monasteries; unless you, man beloved of God, or your Abbatial successors, shall have permitted some Priest to perform some spiritual work, when you shall have built those venerable places.

[27] Moreover, we strictly forbid that any Bishop should presume to ordain a Priest or Deacon, or the remaining Ecclesiastical orders, in the aforesaid monasteries, or to celebrate Mass there, and exemption from Bishops, unless he who shall have been invited by the Abbot at that time; and no other Bishop of any Church should dare to condemn, for the same reason, the Bishop who shall have performed such a consecration of sacred Orders in those monasteries. But we grant you the license to consecrate altars and chrism likewise. And promulgating this by the authority of Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, we decree and that he cannot be compelled to accept a bishopric, that in no way should a Council of Bishops and laypeople, without the will of our most excellent son, King Pippin, or of your dilection, man beloved of God, dare to consecrate you Bishop in any manner. And you shall have the license to appeal all your causes and those of your monastery through the most sacred Apostolic See, and to enjoy your property in all things, when you prefer to plead your case together with an envoy of the Franks at the Apostolic See: and in the meantime let no one condemn you; rather, as one truly a personal familiar of the most sacred Apostolic See, you shall receive from all the honor of the most excellent vigor; and we promulgate that those venerable monasteries built by you, confirmed under the jurisdiction of the most sacred See of Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, be protected by Apostolic protection in all things: so that, in accordance with what they have been established by Apostolic privileges, they may remain to be endowed unshakably. Constituting by the document of this our decree and forbidding all Bishops of any Church, or persons endowed with power of any dignity, under the interposition of anathema, who shall have presumed to violate the present constitution, granted by us to the aforesaid monasteries, in any manner whatsoever. Farewell. The 4th day before the Kalends of March, in the reign of our most pious Lord Constantine, crowned by God, the great Emperor, in his 38th year, and in the 18th year after his consulship, and in the 4th year of Leo the Elder, his son, as Emperor, Indiction 10.

[28] Thus far the Privilege of Pope Stephen, who, although he had traveled some years earlier, as stated above, to Gaul to Pippin and stayed for a long time in the monastery of St. Denis, was he then Abbot of St. Denis? and having been detained by a deadly illness, testified that he had been divinely freed through the beneficence of the same holy Martyr, as he declared in the published Revelation, as it is called, published by Sirmond on page 13; yet in the Privilege just cited he makes no

mention of the said monastery of St. Denis, nor does he call St. Fulrad the Abbot of this monastery, but of "the venerable monasteries founded under his own auspices," among which that one, formerly constructed by Dagobert I, King of the Franks, cannot be counted. The cited Indiction 10, in the month of February, falls in the year 757, in the year of Christ 757 and the 38th year was running since Constantine Copronymus, in the 4th year of his father Leo, the year of Christ 720, Indiction 3, was crowned as Emperor on Easter day by St. Germanus the Patriarch, as an infant; his father having died on the 14th day before the Kalends of July, in the year 741, Indiction 9, he assumed the governance of the Empire; and in the 10th year of his reign, the year of Christ 751, Indiction 4, at the solemnity of holy Pentecost, he had his son Leo crowned Emperor by the Patriarch Anastasius, as Anastasius narrates in his History from Theophanes. Hence, in the Privilege of Pope Stephen cited above, the year of Leo the son should read not 4 but 6.

[29] In the same Indiction 10, the same Pontiff granted St. Fulrad a hospice and a house in Rome, concerning which donation there exists the following Prescript, published from manuscript schedules by the same Sirmond:

"Stephen, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Fulrad, beloved Priest and Abbot.

It behooves us to grant assent to the desires of those who petition, yet so that the interests of the Church should not be subjected to any losses in subsequent times. For then the petition of those who ask seems to receive a fitting effect, when ecclesiastical properties, having been suitably arranged, shall have been brought without doubt to a better state. Therefore, since you have asked of us he receives a hospice in Rome, that we should grant you the hospice situated within the basilica of Blessed Peter, next to the tomb of Blessed Pope Leo, which Ratchis the monk held, belonging to that same basilica of Blessed Peter; and also the house situated next to the monastery and another house, of Blessed Martin, with its lower and upper stories, with its court and little garden, which Nazarius the monk held, belonging to the venerable monastery of St. Stephen near Galla Patricia — by an issued prescript to grant these to you for a time: inclining to your requests, by the terms of this Prescript we grant you the aforesaid hospice and house with their lower and upper stories, and everything in full belonging to them, from the present tenth Indiction, for the days of your life, for you to hold. But after your death, both the hospice and house, to be possessed for life, as is read above, shall return in full to the possession of the aforesaid pious places, to which the property also belongs. Farewell."

[30] Pope Stephen died on the 6th day before the Kalends of May, in the same Indiction 10 and year 757; from whose death it seems the care and administration of the monastery of St. Denis, with the title of Abbot, was committed to St. Fulrad. Doublet, after relating in Book 4 of the Antiquities of St. Denis the royal rescript granted to Abbot Constramnus in the 6th year of Pippin, as we said above, various diplomas wrongly attributed to St. Fulrad, adds various diplomas signed on behalf of St. Fulrad as Abbot of St. Denis: four in the 15th or 17th year of Pippin's reign, and many more of Charlemagne. Of these, several are reported as given after the 18th year of the reign, the year of Christ 787; but at that time we showed above from the letters of Pope Hadrian that Maginarius was Abbot of St. Denis, and we believe that various diplomas granted by Pippin and Charlemagne to the monastery of St. Denis, without the name of any Abbot being appended, as we said was also done by Charles Martel above, were attributed by posterity to St. Fulrad as a very illustrious man.

[31] At last, St. Fulrad, having accomplished the greatest deeds for the Church of God and having led a holy life, migrated to heaven to receive the reward of his labors from God: his death, burial: and his sacred body was buried at Lebraha in Alsace, or at least translated there, and is honored to this day with sacred veneration by the faithful, with an annual feast established on the 17th of February, as Doublet attests in nearly these words in Book 1 of the Antiquities of St. Denis, chapter 28. Alcuin afterward composed this Epitaph for Fulrad, Abbot of St. Denis, printed among his poems as number 123:

"An outstanding Priest and a venerable Abbot, active in deed, in work, in heart, pious in mind, an epitaph composed by Alcuin, Fulrad in body rests in this tomb, known far across the world, our father in this world. This renowned man was the Pastor of the sacred Chapel, an ornament of the Church, ready for every good. This gracious house of God has been renewed with great splendor, as you see, reader, indeed in his time. This man loved the pious Fathers with great love, whose relics this gracious house holds. We believe, therefore, that he is united with them in heaven, since on earth he always loved them."

To this is appended the Epitaph of Maginarius, who succeeded Fulrad; because it redounds to the praise of St. Fulrad and serves as confirmation of the chronology we have established, we also include it here:

"Here beneath the feet of your Master, Maginarius, may there now be sacred rest from worldly times. another about Maginarius his successor, his pupil, That pious Father nurtured you from your tender years, and you were also the successor of his honor. For too brief a time (alas!) you governed this flock: amidst the flowers, wicked death carried you off. But he whom Christ loves, no death can harm: after death he lives better in the citadel of heaven."

So Alcuin, who died on the 19th of May, 804, the day of Pentecost.