Paulinus of Aquileia

LIFE OF ST. PAULINUS, PATRIARCH OF AQUILEIA.

Collected from various ecclesiastical writers.

Year of Christ 803.

From various sources.

Section I. The Patriarchate of Aquileia, Forum Julii.

[1] Aquileia, once a spacious and populous city, and equal to the greatest cities of Italy (whose antiquity Sabellicus described in six books), was adorned with an episcopal See from the very beginnings of the Church. Baronius, volume 1, at the year of Christ 45, number 41, asserts that this See was erected there by St. Mark -- though this rests on tradition rather than on the definite testimony of the ancients. Afterward, the bishops who presided over it were called Patriarchs in the manner of the Greeks and Orientals The Patriarchs of Aquileia. by their own people, a little before the Lombards occupied Italy, as we said on January 8 in the life of Blessed Lorenzo Giustiniani, number 6, in the prolegomena. Claudius Robertus in the appendix to his Gallia Christiana sets forth a catalogue of these from Onuphrius, Sigonius, Sabellicus, Candidus, and Leander, and notes that these Patriarchs are sometimes called "of Forum Julii" by the cited authors. The origin of this appellation was as we shall state.

[2] "From Pannonia," says Paul the Deacon, book 2, chapter 7, "the Lombards set out in the month of April, in the first Indiction, on the day after holy Easter, whose festival in that year, according to the reckoning of the calendar, fell on the very Kalends of April -- when five hundred and sixty-eight years had already elapsed, or rather were elapsing, from the Lord's incarnation." "The Blessed Paul the Patriarch," he says in chapter 10, "presided over the city of Aquileia and its peoples; They migrate to the island of Grado. and fearing the barbarity of the Lombards, he fled from Aquileia to the island of Grado, and carried with him all the treasure of his Church." This Paul is called Paulinus I by Onuphrius in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle and in the catalogue of Claudius Robertus. And so Paulinus II is the one we are treating. Paul, or Paulinus I, was succeeded by Probinus, who governed the church for one year, as Paul the Deacon says, book 3, chapter 14. Afterward Elias was placed over the same Church. To him, as the same writer says in chapter 20, since he was unwilling to accept the Three Chapters of the Council of Chalcedon, Pope Pelagius sent a very useful letter, which Blessed Gregory composed while he was still a Deacon. Sabellicus says nearly the same thing, more fully, in book 4 on the antiquities of Aquileia, and testifies that others assign these events to Severus the Patriarch, Elias's successor. But Elias's schism did not consist in his refusing to accept the Three Chapters, but rather in his obstinately defending them against the judgment of the Catholic Church.

[3] After the death of Severus, there were two Patriarchs, says Sigonius, book 2 on the Kingdom of Italy, at the year of Christ 605: one who occupied Aquileia, Thenceforth two Patriarchs, at Grado and at Aquileia. the other Grado. The Lombards gave occasion for this arrangement. For Gisulf, Duke of Friuli, having received the Christian religion, and seeking for his domain the eminence of this ancient dignity, dared to distribute sacred honors by a new precedent, and caused John the Abbot to be designated Patriarch through the clergy of the Church of Aquileia. On the other side, the clergy of Grado elected Candidianus. When this harmful and pernicious division arose, the matter was referred to Rome: the Pontiff, rejecting John, approved Candidianus and adorned him with the pallium. Nevertheless, Gisulf retained his own Patriarch. Hence the division of those very Churches ensued. All the bishops who sat on the mainland of Venetia, which was under Lombard rule, obeyed the Patriarch of Aquileia; those who held the lagoons and Istria, which looked to the Emperor, obeyed the Patriarch of Grado. So Sigonius. Paul the Deacon says the same more briefly, book 4, chapter 34: "In those days, upon the death of Patriarch Severus, John the Abbot was ordained Patriarch in old Aquileia, with the consent of the King and Duke Gisulf. At Grado also, the bishop Candidianus was ordained by the Romans. When Candidianus had died, Epiphanius, who had been chief of the notaries, was ordained Patriarch at Grado by the bishops who were under the Romans; and from that time there began to be two Patriarchs."

[4] Sabellicus writes nearly the same from Pope Pius, and in book 5 writes thus about the successors of John: "John, Bishop of the Church of Aquileia, about whom we made mention in the previous book, was succeeded by Marcianus; after whom, up to the times of Callistus, seven bishops intervened. During their tenure, nearly nothing worthy of record (as regards the Church itself) was done. Callistus, however, who was appointed to replace the deceased Serenus (for he was the last of those seven), since he was a man of great spirit -- being born not of humble fortune but of a most distinguished family -- bore it very ill that the Patriarchal See should be in an obscure place. The Patriarch of Aquileia resides at Cormone. For from the time of Patriarch Elias to that day (nearly a hundred years had intervened), it had been at Cormone. Meanwhile the Lombard Dukes had created for themselves a Bishop of Forum Julii, who, established in a prominent place and amid a throng of nobles, seemed to enjoy a more distinguished fortune than the Patriarch. Callistus, moved by the indignity of the situation -- that any bishop of his diocese should be considered more worthy than himself -- expelled the Bishop Amator, who had succeeded Fidentius (though elsewhere we read Fidentium instead of Fredericus) from Forum Julii; and he himself shortly after migrated there with the Patriarchal See, and where the house of Amator had been, he erected fine buildings for himself and his successors, in keeping with the character of the place."

[5] Paul the Deacon says more clearly, book 6, chapter 51: "A serious quarrel of discord indeed arose at that time between Duke Pemmo and Patriarch Callistus. He migrates to Forum Julii. The cause of this discord was as follows. In former times Bishop Fidentius had come from the stronghold of Julium, with the consent of the earlier Dukes, and had settled within the walls of the stronghold of Forum Julii, and there established the seat of his episcopate. Upon his death, Amator was ordained in his place. For up to that same day the earlier Patriarchs, since they could by no means dwell in Aquileia on account of the incursions of the Romans, had their See not at Forum Julii but at Cormone. This greatly displeased Callistus, who was distinguished for his nobility -- that a bishop should dwell in his diocese with the Duke and the Lombards, while he himself lived among common people only. In short, he took action against the said Bishop Amator, expelled him from Forum Julii, and established his own dwelling in that man's house."

[6] Hence it came about that the Patriarchs of Aquileia, since they had fixed their domicile at Forum Julii, were called "of Forum Julii." Hence the Patriarch is called "of Forum Julii." Forum Julii, or Forum Julium, is called by Ptolemy Forum Julium, a colony -- a city of the Carni on the river Natisone, commonly called Cividale del Friuli or Ciudad de Friuli; for the region itself is now called Friuli (Forum Julii). Concerning the city, Paul the Deacon says, book 2, chapter 14: "The capital of this Venetia was the city of Aquileia, in place of which Forum Julii now stands." Therefore the Patriarchs migrated from Cormone (a stronghold or town between Forum Julii and Gradisca, commonly Cormons) to Forum Julii; now they reside at Udine, or Vedini. The stronghold of Julium, whose bishop Fidentius Paul mentions, was perhaps Julium Carnicum, once a famous town, of which scanty remains now survive, with the common name Zuglio.

[7] Callistus, about whom we have spoken, was succeeded by Sigualdus; and him by St. Paulinus II, whose beginnings Onuphrius reports at the year of Christ 776, and asserts that he presided for altogether twenty-five years. When St. Paulinus held office. Under him the assembly of bishops, reverently gathered to the municipality of Forum Julii, the metropolis of Aquileia, is recorded to have convened in the acts of the Council of Forum Julii, held under Paulinus himself, about which more below.

Section II. Learning. Friendship with Charlemagne and Alcuin Flaccus.

[8] The Acts of St. Paulinus, collected by Ferrarius from the records of the Church of Aquileia and to be cited below, He is dear to Charlemagne on account of his learning. declare that he was raised to the Patriarchate on account of the uprightness of his life and his learning. We shall treat first of his learning, then of the uprightness of his life. His learning is shown by what he accomplished at the court of Charlemagne, inasmuch as he was placed in charge of settling that ruler's affairs not only in Italy but also in Gaul and Germany. Certainly he himself attests that he was present at many synodal assemblies convened under Charles, in the Council of Forum Julii, not without complaint that he could not meanwhile provide the care for his own province that he desired. But his renowned erudition is testified to by the very Councils celebrated by him and the treatises published on divine matters. A distinguished grammarian. Baronius, volume 9 of the Ecclesiastical Annals, at the year of Christ 802, number 12, says that before he became Patriarch, he had been a professor of polite letters, because in a diploma of Charlemagne he is called "Master of the Art of Grammar." We give this diploma from Baronius, to show how greatly Charles then esteemed him.

[9] "Charles, by the grace of God King of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans, to all bishops, A donation by Charlemagne made to Paulinus before his episcopate. abbots, dukes, counts, stewards, and all our faithful, present and future. Rightly indeed are those elevated by our gifts who faithfully serve our interests. And therefore, if we bring to effect the petitions of those who approach our ears on behalf of others, we exercise the royal custom and incite their spirit to serve us. Let it therefore be known to the greatness of all of you that we cede and donate from ourselves to the truly venerable man Paulinus, Master of the Art of Grammar, the following: namely, the property and possessions that belonged to Waldandius, son of the late Mimo of Laberiano, which devolved to our palace because he was killed by our faithful men on the field of battle with Forticausus, our enemy -- that is, the estate at Laberiano with all its integrity and entirety: namely, with lands, houses, buildings, appurtenances, servants, farmsteads, with serfs and aldiones, vineyards, forests, fields, meadows, pastures, waters, and watercourses, movable and immovable goods, all and everything, as much as the aforesaid Waldandius was seen to have there or anywhere else, whether from the house of Kings or Judges, or from purchase, or from any other source -- all this we hand over and cede to the aforesaid Paulinus from the present day to possess in perpetuity, so that from this day the aforesaid Paulinus may hold and possess the aforesaid properties in quiet order; and whatever he shall wish to do with them, he shall enjoy free judgment in all things. Commanding therefore, we order that no one of our faithful or their successors shall presume at any time to disturb or raise a claim against the aforesaid Paulinus concerning the said properties; but at all times, by the gift of our largesse, he shall be able to possess those properties by the right of full ownership. And that this precept may be firmly held and better preserved in our times and in the future, we have decreed to strengthen it with our own hand forever and have ordered it to be sealed with our ring. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of July, in the eighth year of our reign, from the city of Loreia, in the name of God, happily." Thus far the diploma, given in the year of Christ 773, in which year, says Baronius, Charles himself came into Italy against Desiderius. Concerning Charles, more on January 28.

[10] Sabellicus, in his work on the antiquities of Aquileia, book 5, mentions the donations made by Charlemagne to St. Paulinus when already Patriarch. "Paulinus," he says, In his episcopate. "the Bishop of Aquileia, obtained certain distinguished privileges from the same Charles, by which the property of the Church was considerably increased."

[11] Besides this familiarity with Charles, he had a great bond of souls with Alcuin, the master of Charles himself -- The friendship of Paulinus with Alcuin. arising perhaps from both men's affection for and devotion to polite letters. Alcuin himself manifests this in letter 62: "When will the page of Ausonian nobility show me the prosperity of my desired friend? That I might see whether any memory of the friendship pledged in Christ remains in his breast; whether he keeps the name of his Albinus, inscribed with the pen of charity, stored in the secret place of his heart -- just as the most sweet name of Father Paulinus, inscribed with letters of perpetual love, lives in the heart of his son." And soon, having received letters from him, he bursts into joy: "If anything could have been added to the full measure of charity, I would certainly have heaped up the former fullness of love with the abundance of new joy." This letter is addressed "to a certain person," but Quercetanus (Du Chesne) suggests in the margin of the 1617 edition that the addressee is Paulinus. He also calls him "the Ausonian," that is, the Italian, in poem 212, in which he also mentions his sacred songs:

"Dip your pens, O charity, in the stream of Christ, And fill my breast with heavenly songs, That I may be able to give worthy thanks to Paulinus, Who had filled our ears with honeyed Muses And, remembering his friend of one mind after a long time, Repeating with sacred songs: 'Farewell, Albinus.' How festive was the day when the joyful page, Inscribed with the titles of the longed-for greeting, came to us! All the words flowed for me with the honey of charity; Wherever the reader's glad eye turned, It saw everywhere new joys for his own mind, Especially now rejoicing in his father's prosperity, Whom may God preserve in health for eternal time. O light of the Ausonian fatherland, its glory, its distinguished author, Cultivator of justice, lover of sacred piety, My mind burns for you, inscribed with sacred chains, Loves, seeks, embraces, draws, and courts you, And will store you away in the eternal ark of my breast."

[12] Walafrid Strabo reports that he composed sacred hymns, book on Ecclesiastical Matters, chapter 25: His learning praised by Walafrid. "Paulinus, Patriarch of Forum Julii, is said to have frequently celebrated hymns composed either by others or by himself, especially in private Masses, around the time of the immolation of the Sacraments. I indeed believe that so great a man of such great knowledge did this neither without authority nor without the weight of reason." So Strabo.

Section III. His outstanding piety toward God, and devotion to prayer.

[13] How great was Paulinus's piety toward God is shown by the uprightness of his life and his devotion to prayer. Alcuin placed great trust in his sacrifices and prayers. This is clear from his letters 73 and 113. The former, together with letter 72 to Pope Leo III, was delivered by Angilbert, Abbot of Saint-Riquier. Mention of them is made in the Syntagma of Paul Petau on Nithard, grandson of Charlemagne, in André du Chesne, volume 2 of the Historians of France, in these words: "Then Angilbert also brought letters of Alcuin to Leo III and to Paulinus, Patriarch of Aquileia." In the other, whose inscription reads "To Paulinus, most holy Patriarch, the deacon Alcuin sends greeting," Alcuin commends himself to his sacrifices. the following is read: "If I have written the name of my Paulinus not on wax, which can be erased, please do not forget in your holy prayers the name of your friend Albinus, but store it in some treasury of your memory and bring it forth at the opportune time -- when you have consecrated the bread and wine into the substance of the body and blood of Christ. I have long awaited the promises of your love, that is, the protection of the life-giving Cross or of other relics. Do not, I beseech you, deprive me of so great a gift." And in letter 95, he writes that he placed in the bearer's right hand a letter on behalf of his daughter Liutgard, a religious and devout woman. "For she directed to your holiness two golden bracelets of refined gold, weighing twenty-four denarii of the new coinage of the King, a little less than a full pound, Likewise others. so that you would pray for her with your priests, that the divine clemency might dispose her days for the salvation of her soul and the exaltation of His holy Church. I, not doubting your faithfulness, urged her to do so. But you, holy Father, be mindful of me and her everywhere; in Christ's love, farewell."

[14] And in letter 94, he writes thus to Duke Aericus: "I would perhaps have written to you at greater length, venerable one, about the observance of Christian piety, if my Paulinus, His piety praised by the same. that excellent teacher and pious instructor in the heavenly life, were not at hand -- from whose heart there flows a fountain of living water, springing up to eternal life. Have him as the mediator of your eternal salvation, lest the foot of your way of life stumble anywhere, but running on the right path, may it, by the gift of divine grace, deserve to arrive at the gates of perpetual life." He repeats the same in poem 214:

"O Father Paulinus, Pastor, Patriarch, Priest, Better part of my soul, glorious part of my life, Be mindful of Albinus as you stand at the sacred altars; And amid the sweet tears flowing over your face, Again he commends himself to his prayers and tears. Say: 'Have mercy, O God, graciously upon our friend, And kindly grant pardon for his sins, That it may be permitted to praise You with the Saints forever.' Almighty power of the Father, wisdom of Christ, I beseech You humbly, a poor man from my whole heart, That Your right hand may always preserve Paulinus, Protect and govern him, and adorn him with the flowers of virtues. And You, Mary, most holy Mother of God, In turn he prays for Paulinus's welfare. We pray, ask all good things for my Paulinus, That he may thrive and prosper, filled with the love of Christ. You also, O beloved throng of Saints together, before the Thunderer, Who as Fathers of the Church always kept your ears Open and inclined to heavenly counsels, And now hold the heavenly kingdoms with Christ: Pour forth, and for the salvation of my Paulinus, I ask, Prayers with piety to the King supreme over all, That he may thrive and prosper, following Christ's precepts. And you, most holy offspring of the Church, I pray you all together, with body prostrated and sound, May you have the dear face of the angelic Paulinus forever, And commend his life to Christ with your prayers, That he may thrive and prosper in health for a long time. You who behold the kindly face of the angelic host Of the eternal Father always on the summit of heaven, With hands outstretched but with a humble heart I ask You also to defend Paulinus with your prayers, That rejoicing he may reign, united to your honor, And be present with you amid the eternal praises of God, Blessedly holding the kingdoms of heaven without end. These little verses, best of Fathers, I ask you to keep with you, That your mind may remember the nod for a joyful song. May Christ be your love, virtue, glory -- Christ all things. May He be your way, life, salvation, hope, praise, and glory forever: May He always sound on your lips and remain in your heart always, That He may grant you the heavenly kingdoms with the Saints. Where be mindful of your son, I beseech you through Him Who leads you to the eternal hall of heaven. Both now and always, my dearest Paulinus, farewell. Here we shall end our song with beloved tears, But we shall never end our sacred love."

Section IV. Sermons. The faith propagated.

[15] In the letter cited shortly before, number 113, Alcuin thus extols the zeal of Paulinus in his sermons: Alcuin exhorts him to the work of the Gospel. "If our petition has any power with you, and your petition always has power with God -- who placed you on so high a rank, where, having been made a servant of the same God our Lord Jesus Christ... See how sublime is this name. Strive to be in merits what you are called by name. Cry out and do not cease; lift up your voice like a trumpet. Let your throat be the trumpet of God. Preach in season and out of season. You are the rooster in preaching, girded in chastity; you are the ram in truth most mighty, whom no king shall be able to resist. You are the lamp upon the lampstand in the house of God. Your tongue closes and opens heaven; it opens first through the devotion of preaching. Return to the example of Christ, who made His way evangelizing through cities, towns, villages, and estates; He did not even shrink from entering the houses of tax collectors or sinners for the sake of the opportunity to preach. Let the hope of the reward be the comfort of your labor. What am I foolishly doing against the philosophical proverb -- carrying wood to the forest, watering rivers with drops? I have exceeded my measure in this figure. I beseech you by the love of Him who preferred the two coins of the widow to the gifts of the rich. Charity suffers all things; he who abides in charity abides in God, because God is charity."

[16] He is said to have preached to the Carinthians. That by his evangelical preaching the peoples of Carinthia and the neighboring nations were brought to the faith of Christ, Ferrarius teaches from ancient documents. Whether he himself announced the faith of Christ to the Avars is uncertain. That he was either designated for that office at the court of Charlemagne, or at least considered most suited for it, we infer from letter 112 of Alcuin to St. Paulinus: "Perhaps," he says, "even the reader of this letter remembers himself to be such as he recognizes me to be in it, and especially you, holy Father, from whose heart the fountain of life flows -- charity -- and from his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And He who promised these things for the consolation of our hope is the inhabitant of your breast, who is the power and wisdom of God, by whose might and grace a wonderful triumph was achieved over the race of the Avars, whose envoys, directed to our lord the King, promise peaceful submission and the faith of Christianity. He is appointed for the conversion of the Avars. And if this, by God's prevenient grace, is true, who among the servants of God ought to withdraw himself from so pious and praiseworthy a labor, that the savagery of the devil may be destroyed and the service of Christ our Lord may increase? But the eyes of very many, O best of Fathers, look to you, to see what your venerable holiness intends to do. For the nearness of places is suited to you, the glory of wisdom is at hand, the excellence of authority summons you, and all things come together that seem necessary for such a work. Therefore the curiosity of my insignificance desires for this reason the truth of this holy matter, and begs to know the counsel of your prudence, and what so good a will may have determined to do about this. For the work is arduous, but, as Truth itself attests, 'All things are possible to him who believes.' Mark 9:22. And He who made the persecutor into a preacher, and raises the poor from the dunghill to sit with princes, is able to produce from the dry rock of my heart streams of the living fountain springing up to eternal life. How much more can He from your breast cause the most abundant Gehonic streams to flow, spreading through the whole breadth of the Nilotic plain, to fertilize flowers of every kind? Let your son of one mind hear, I beseech you, through you, what fatherly prudence foresees should be done. For the most certain counsel of salvation ought to be hoped for from the mouth of him whose breast is known to be inhabited by the Spirit of sevenfold counsel."

[17] Concerning the Avars, more is said elsewhere. In the manuscript Annals of the Franks that are in our possession (those published by Du Chesne in volume 2 of the Historians of France agree, though they narrate the events a year later), it is said that in the year of Christ 795, The conversion of the Avars. "envoys of Thudun, who held great power among the nation and kingdom of the Avars, came to Charlemagne. They said that Thudun wished to surrender himself, together with his land and people, to the King, and to receive the Christian faith by his ordination." And in the following year, 796: "Thudun, according to his promise, came to the King with a great part of the Avars, surrendered himself with his people and country to the King, and he himself and his people were baptized and returned, honorably endowed with gifts." And in the year 797: "Envoys of the nation of the Avars came with great gifts." The Fulda Annals record the same events concerning the Huns. And indeed Paul the Deacon, book 2, chapter 10, says: "The Huns who are also the Avars." That the above-cited letter of Alcuin was written after the first embassy can easily be understood from this.

Section V. Heresies opposed, Councils celebrated, books published.

[18] A twofold heresy was at that time disturbing the Church of God: one in the East concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit; in the West, another concerning the Incarnation of the Word. The Council of Forum Julii, year 791. Certain Greeks taught that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone; Elipandus, Bishop of Toledo in Spain, together with Felix of Urgel, asserted that Christ was indeed the natural Son of God according to His divine nature, but adoptive according to His human nature -- and thus they were in a certain sense reviving the long-since-extinct doctrine of Nestorius. Paulinus applied a remedy to both evils in the provincial Council that he convoked at Forum Julii in the twenty-third year of the reign of Charles, the year of Christ 791. There the heresy, already often condemned, was slain once more, with the Patriarch teaching that the Father and the Son are one principle of the procession of the Holy Spirit -- and that this had been the judgment of the universal Church since the time of St. Leo the Great. There the novelty of Elipandus and Felix was most solidly refuted, rejected, and proscribed. The Nicene and Constantinopolitan Symbols of faith were set against both heresies and inserted into the synodal Acts.

[19] In the following year, 792, the Council of Regensburg was assembled in the palace of the King, The Council of Regensburg, 792. where Felix of Urgel, convicted of error, was sent to Rome into the presence of Pope Hadrian, where he also confessed and abjured his heresy in the presence of the Pope himself in the basilica of St. Peter the Apostle. So the published Annals of the Franks. But our manuscript codex reads: "At Regensburg the Felician heresy was first condemned there; Angilbert brought him into the presence of the Apostolic Hadrian, and having made confession, he again abjured his heresy."

[20] The Council of Frankfurt, 794. In the year 794, "Easter was celebrated," as the same manuscript codex says, "at Frankfurt, and there a great synod of the bishops of Gaul, Germany, and Italy was assembled in the presence of the aforesaid Prince and the envoys of the Apostolic Lord Hadrian, whose names are these: Theophylactus and Stephanus, bishops. There the Felician heresy was condemned for the third time." This condemnation the bishops wrote down in a book by the authority of the holy Fathers, "and all the priests subscribed with their own hands." Besides the canons of the Council, there survive a letter of Pope Hadrian, a Libellus of the bishops of Italy, a synodal letter in the name of the bishops of Gaul and Germany, and a letter of King Charlemagne -- all sent to the bishops of Spain. Nowhere are subscriptions appended. That the Libellus was composed specifically by Paulinus himself, as one who surpassed the others in erudition, may be gathered from his own words: The Libellus then written by Paulinus in the name of the others. "Wherefore I, Paulinus," he says, "although an unworthy sinner and the last servant of all the servants of the Lord, Prelate in name but not in merit of the See of Aquileia, girded to the Hesperian shores, to which by God's authorship I minister, together with the most reverend and wholly worthy Peter, Archbishop of the See of Milan, and all our colleague brethren and fellow priests, the venerable Prelates of the Catholic Churches of Liguria, Austria, Hesperia, and Aemilia, in accordance with the slender capacity of our understanding, with the holy Spirit teaching, am not afraid to respond with heart, tongue, and pen against the ravings of those who are adversaries of the right faith -- since the holy and universal Church is founded firmly and immovably upon the rock, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it." Concerning the same Libellus, Charles says in his letter: "Then, in the second place, we have placed the booklet drawn up with their own responses, expressing what the ecclesiastical Doctors and priests of the Churches of Christ from the nearer parts of Italy, with Peter, Archbishop of Milan, and Paulinus, Patriarch of Forum Julii or Aquileia, men deeply venerable in the Lord, wished to be understood or firmly believed -- because they too were present at our synodal assembly."

[21] Paulinus's writings. Nor did the zeal of Paulinus stop here. He composed three other books against the Felician heresy (with a Rule of Faith written in verse added at the end), which he also dedicated to Charlemagne himself, and begged in a letter to the King -- of which a fragment survives -- that they be delivered to the hands of his most skilled orator Albinus, at the urging of his commands. For Alcuin, having undertaken from King Charles the commission of refuting that heresy, asked that helpers in the defense of the Catholic faith be given to him -- Paulinus, Patriarch of Aquileia, Richbod and Theodulf, bishops, and other celebrated Doctors and Masters, as he himself attests in letters 4 and 8 to Charles. These books of St. Paulinus, which had not previously seen the light, Andreas Quercetanus (Du Chesne) published together with the works of Alcuin, and demonstrated that the seven other books that circulated under St. Paulinus's name against the same Felix were truly and genuinely the product of Alcuin. A splendid testimony to St. Paulinus's authority in the Council and to the books he wrote is found in the continuator of Paul Warnefrid on the history of the Lombards: "In the year 794, in Gaul, in the place called Frankfurt, a great Synod was assembled against Elipandus, Bishop of the See of Toledo in Spain, and his associate Felix. These asserted the Son of God to be adoptive, not natural. This heresy the most holy men Paulinus, Patriarch of Aquileia, and Peter, Archbishop of Milan, and Alcuin, Archdeacon of the island of Britain, together with the other bishops, destroying it with the assertions of the divine Scriptures, decreed that He should be called natural and not adoptive. Against this heresy Pope Leo III, having assembled a Synod at Rome, condemned it in perpetuity with many testimonies of the Gospels and holy Fathers. For Paulinus too, a man of wonderful knowledge and a Patriarch, composed against this most abominable heresy three books in elegant style."

[22] Praised by Alcuin. Concerning these, Alcuin writes thus in letter 81 to St. Paulinus: "When I am deemed worthy to behold the letters of your blessedness, sweeter than any honeycomb, do I not seem to myself to be wholly conversing among the various flowers of Paradise, and with the eager right hand of my desire to be plucking spiritual fruits from it? How much more, when I read through the Booklet of your most sacred faith, adorned with the purity of Catholic peace, most delightful in the beauty of its eloquence, most firm in the truth of its ideas, did I give full rein to the joy of my whole soul! Where from one most brilliant and salutary fountain of Paradise I saw four rivers of virtues irrigating not only the meadows of Ausonian fertility but the fields of all ecclesiastical Latinity. Where I also perceived the gold-bearing depths of spiritual ideas abounding with the gems of scholastic urbanity. You have made a most profitable and very necessary work for many in the exposition of the Catholic faith, which I long desired, and more often urged upon the Lord King -- that the Symbol of the Catholic faith should be gathered into one document in the plainest opinions and most elegant language, and should be given to all the priests throughout the individual parishes of the episcopal governments to be read and committed to memory, so that even though they spoke in different tongues, the one faith might resound everywhere. Behold, what my humility desired, your sublimity has fulfilled. It has from the author of our salvation an eternal reward for this good intention as well; and from men, the praise for this completed work. May your most fervent charity always fortify the camp of the eternal King on every side with the most unconquerable shields of faith, lest the cunning of the ancient enemy find from any quarter an opening for his wickedness."

[23] And shortly after: "But you, O Apostolic man, armed with this power, fight manfully, conquer bravely, that you may reign happily with Christ. Alas, O grief! Many are accustomed to rend the seamless tunic of Christ with heretical claws, and to do in the peace of the Church what soldiers did not dare to do in the Passion of Christ. Wherefore, venerable Father and most learned champion and sweetest Doctor, Various praises of the same. let us always be comrades in the camp of Christ, and fighting in one battle line under the banner of the holy Cross with harmonious counsel and valor, so that He who cannot be conquered may conquer His adversaries through us." And finally toward the end: "It is yours, O chosen Pastor of the flock and guardian of the gates of the city of God, who hold the key of knowledge in your powerful right hand, and store away in your left the five most limpid stones, to shatter with one blow of truth all the Philistines who blaspheme against the army of the living God, in the person of the most proud Goliath. It is ours, with hands raised to heaven like Moses, to assist you with the prayers of humility, and to watch with David from the most fortified tower of the city, until the scout, crying from the high summit of the roof, announces to us your victory. To you all eyes look, desiring to hear something heavenly from your most abundant eloquence, and expecting that through you the most frigid hailstones, which do not fear to strike the rooftops of the wisest Solomon, may be more quickly melted by the most fervent sun of wisdom. But you, a burning and shining lamp -- we rejoice to exult in your light, that with you shining and leading us to the light that illuminates every man coming into this world, we may, with the help of the grace of that eternal light, deserve to arrive there."

Section V. Ecclesiastical immunity defended.

[24] St. Paulinus celebrated a Council at Altino, a town in the province of Aquileia, in the year of Christ (as Baronius maintains) 802, the seventh of Pope Leo III, the second of the reign of Charlemagne as Emperor. In the name of this Council, St. Paulinus appealed to Charles for vengeance against a most monstrous crime perpetrated by the Doge of the Venetians, who in a frenzy against the Bishop of Grado had hurled him headlong from a tower. The Venetian Annals record, as Baronius at the year of Christ 802 and Binius in volume 3 of the Councils, part 1, section 2, have annotated, that Doge John, The savage cruelty of the Venetian Doge against the Patriarch of Grado. moved to anger against John, Patriarch of Grado, having assembled a fleet, perpetrated an immense slaughter and threw the Patriarch himself headlong from a lofty tower. Against these so abominable deeds, the bishops of that region, gathered together, sought by letters the aid of the Franks. Moreover, in the following year, Fortunatus was substituted in the place of the slain Patriarch, to whom Pope Leo is found to have granted the pallium in the same year, in the eleventh Indiction, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of April. But learn the reason that preceded, why Bishop John of Grado was so inhumanly butchered: Christophorus, a Greek from Olivolo, had been established as bishop with the assent of Doge John and the favor of the Emperor Nicephorus serving in the matter. Since the Tribunes of the Venetians bore this with an angry spirit, they begged John, Patriarch of Grado, not to consecrate him. And so John, complying, not only did not consecrate Christophorus, but also removed him from the communion of the pious. At which Doge John was so inflamed with anger that, taking his son Mauricius as commander, he led a fleet to Grado, and having captured the town at the first assault, he seized the Patriarch and hurled him from the highest tower. So Baronius. But Sabellicus, Ennead 8, book 9, and Pietro Giustiniani, book 1 of the Venetian History, write that the Patriarch was killed by those nefarious Doges because he was criticizing their monstrous crimes.

[25] The letter of St. Paulinus to Emperor Charles reads thus: "To the Catholic and ever illustrious triumphator, our Lord Charles, by the crowning divine clemency Emperor, Paulinus, the least of all the servants of servants, with concordant and equal devotion, together with our brethren and fellow priests, in Christ Jesus, Paulinus exhorts Charles to vengeance. with roseate blood, may we sing with a suppliant, resonant voice eternal greetings multiplied. And with the sacred and powerfully rousing documents of the Fathers' canons, and your (as the truth proclaims) honeyed and wholesome syllables watering this See, where by God's authorship, though unworthy, I minister with unworthy service -- we have thought it worthwhile to intimate to the most tranquil ears of your serenity, by these humble little marks of these, admittedly unpolished, characters, with suppliant little notes, that a Council was held at Altino in the name of the King." And below: "Concerning the priests, however, who were left half-dead by the blows inflicted, or indeed slain by diabolic fury raging through his satellites -- the judgment will not be mine, but of your determination. It has therefore been reserved to the height of your power, as I recall having read in a certain judicial booklet once salutarily composed by the holy Fathers. For what reason therefore they did these things, I know for certain has not escaped nor does escape your sacred memory. For they judged no one else able to avenge the holy Church for the injuries inflicted upon it so powerfully as by royal punishment, seeking from him a reciprocal care of requital -- that just as the Church does not cease to crown him both in the present age and among wars with spiritual triumphs, and entreats the divine clemency that he may become a sharer in the heavenly kingdom, so too he, having obtained the principal power, should not cease both to defend her valiantly against her enemies and to avenge her against her foes with the avenging sentence of prosecution. Let not therefore the excellence of your kindness disdain to bear vigilant care of solicitude for her in this matter, remembering in all things the womb of the sacred font, from which you were far more happily reborn and nurtured with the sweetness of the milk of faith, than when first, though well, generated from the maternal womb and weaned from carnal breasts. Let there go forth therefore (if it please), throughout the widely spread monarchy of your kingdom, one vindication of a decretal sentence concerning this matter, which no hostile oblivion -- enemy of truth and adversary of justice -- may ever be able to abolish, by whatever pressing instigation of opposition. For the terrible machinations of this crime have greatly prevailed, through neglect of discipline, throughout all parts of the churches of the world. Whence it is the censure of your authority to cut down this pestilence of harmful disease in every way, and to extirpate it from the foundations with a most powerful and skillful hand -- so that the holy Church, aided by your protection, may be free, unpolluted by human blood, she who is clothed in the precious blood of Christ. Wherefore, happily held in the bosom of the same, may you both in this life, safe and glorious, and joyful with eternal blessedness, ever be blessed and happy, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God in perfect Trinity, through all ages of ages, Amen."

Section VII. Death. Public veneration.

[26] Paulinus himself was held, says Quercetanus (Du Chesne), to be celebrated for learning and sanctity, just as Alcuin was, Year of death. and the ancient records of the Church of Aquileia, over which he presided, attest that he was distinguished by miracles both in life and after death. He died in the year of salvation 802, as Hermann Contractus states in his Chronicle. So Quercetanus. In the Chronicle of Hermann Contractus that we have used, there is deep silence about the death of Paulinus. But in the Fulda Annals of the Franks the following is found: "In the year 802, Paulinus, Patriarch of Forum Julii, died" -- from which Baronius, at the year 802, number 11, corrects what is found in his life, that he died in the year of the Lord eight hundred and four. It is clear from what was said above that Pope Leo granted the pallium to Fortunatus, Patriarch of Grado and successor of John, who was slain by the Venetian Doge, in Indiction 11, the year 803, in the month of April. Paulinus perhaps died at the beginning of that year, in the month of January, which according to the reckoning of the Gauls, who began the year from Easter, was counted as belonging to the preceding year.

[27] His feast is celebrated on this day by the Carthusians of Cologne in the Additions to Usuard: "Likewise, of Paulinus, Patriarch of Aquileia." The German Martyrology says the same, Annual feast. in which Aquileia is called Aglar. The manuscript Martyrology of St. Mary at Utrecht reads: "At Aquileia, of Paulinus the Patriarch." The manuscript Martyrology of the monastery of St. Martin at Trier: "At Aquileia, of Paulinus the Patriarch." Ferrarius in the general catalogue of the Saints, from the Tables of the Church of Cividale and of Aquileia: "At Forum Julii in the land of the Carni, St. Paulinus, Bishop of Aquileia." He briefly describes his deeds from the records of the cited Church as follows:

[28] "Paulinus, on account of the uprightness of his life and his learning, Life from Ferrarius. was raised to the episcopate or Patriarchate of Aquileia by the Emperor Charlemagne. He was so dear to the Emperor that he employed his services in settling affairs not only in Italy but also in Gaul and Germany, and bestowed many riches upon him, which Paulinus however distributed to the poor. He strove vigorously against heretics, especially at the Council of Frankfurt convened by Pope Hadrian I against the Iconoclasts. He himself convoked and celebrated the Council of Forum Julii, in which he enacted many things against heresies and for the reformation of morals. Occupied with these things, he nevertheless did not relax anything of the austerity of his life, since he constantly pursued fasting, vigils, pious meditations, and other spiritual exercises. He also devoted himself to evangelical preaching, by which he brought the peoples of Carinthia and the neighboring nations to the faith of Christ. He was desirous of martyrdom, but although he did not attain his wish, he nevertheless suffered many injuries and annoyances from the barbarians. He was also distinguished by many miracles, by which he confirmed the doctrine he preached. On his account the Emperor Charles adorned the Church of Aquileia with many gifts and privileges. At last, having endured many labors for the Church and worn out by old age, he departed to Christ in the year of salvation 804, and was buried at Forum Julii in the greater basilica." His feast is celebrated on the third day before the Ides of January by the Church of Aquileia. So Ferrarius, who seems to have wished to write "the third day before the Ides of January." The aforesaid basilica was sacred to the Mother of God and ever-Virgin, in which he himself celebrated the Council of Forum Julii. Ferrarius in the general Catalogue says that his body is still preserved and venerated in the Church of Cividale. Alcuin composed for him this Epitaph, poem 213:

Here Paulinus, triumphant, rests for all eternity, And may the Father deem worthy to have this resting place. May the envious enemy never pass through this temple, Lest he suddenly part dear friends from their souls, Whom the love of Christ has joined as dear friends.