Albert

ON ST. ALBERT, BISHOP [AND] CONFESSOR,

AT LODI [LAUS POMPEIA] IN ITALY.

IN THE YEAR 1179.

His date restored against Ferrarius, his cult among the people of Lodi, and what survives of his deeds.

Albert, Bishop [and] Confessor, at Lodi in Italy (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

This Saint Ferrarius suggested to us, both in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, where he reports his elogium, and in the other, the General Catalogue, in which he thus announces: "At Lodi, the feast of St. Albert the Bishop, patron of that same city." But in the annotations he asserts that he received his material from the Tables of the church of Lodi, A more recent memory of the Saint which venerate him on this day with an octave, with the highest solemnity. Of Lodi the old, subverted by the Milanese, and afterward restored by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Bolland formerly treated in the treatise on St. Bassianus at the 19th of January, page 221, so that consequently other notice is not needful in this place. I ask, from what ancient monuments of that church Ferrarius could have drawn out that St. Albert presided over the church of Lodi for 30 years, but departed hence, famous for miracles, in the year 1123. Nor do I understand that which he had also noted in the earlier Catalogue: "Since," he says, "St. Albert is asserted to have been the third Bishop of Lodi, either he must have lived and died long before that time, or that church long lacked a Bishop, unless he be called the third of this name." Vain are all those doubts, excogitated by I know not what drowsy man, and if from documents of that kind Ferrarius transcribed the compendium of the life, published by himself in the earlier catalogue, he has given nothing which can be admitted as indubitable, especially since he embraces most things in vague terms, as you will perceive from his words.

[2] Thus it stands: Albert of Ripalta (it is a place of the diocese of Milan), sprung of the family Quadrella; much confused in the elogium of Ferrarius, whom a certain priest, summoned that by praying he might bring aid to his mother imperiled in childbirth, foretold would be great. The outcome proved the matter. Educated in the Christian religion and virtues, when he had reached the manly age, the poor and those needing help flowed together to him, as bees to the hive.* So pious and merciful was he toward all, that, content with humble food and clothing, he expended his resources on the sustenance of others. Made a priest, not much after he is created the third Bishop of Lodi. In which office he omitted nothing which pertained to the duty of a good pastor. He first instituted the community of the clergy of Lodi, many resources being assigned them, for relieving the indigences of the poor, for placing girls in matrimony, for offering suffrages to the deceased, and for sustaining the clerics of the cathedral church. Though he ministered alms copiously to crowds of the poor, yet there was ever, as if divinely led, the same faculty of bestowing. Nay, even this is handed down to memory of him, that when he had spent all his money in alms, after a few hours he found the place, which he had left empty, full of moneys. When he had presided over his church for thirty years, famous for miracles he flew away to the heavenly fatherland on the IV Nones of July, about the year of salvation 1123. Thus far the elogium.

[3] These things Ferrarius gave, as I suppose from his good faith, as taken from the cited monuments, which without doubt he had received from the people of Lodi themselves, whose errors are refuted. and which perhaps were wont to be recited in the ecclesiastical office, by men caring little for the correct historical and chronological series of things. But if he himself had by himself more closely inspected and examined the whole matter; he would easily have detected that St. Albert was not the third Bishop of Lodi, nor the third of that name; since many preceded him, who indeed are reckoned to the number of twenty-five in Ughelli; but our Saint himself is found alone of that name, in the whole list of the Bishops of Lodi. Far also does the so-often-mentioned Collector of the Saints wander in the duration of the episcopate, which he most badly extends to thirty years, whereas he sat only twelve years not full, elected on the 29th of March 1168, deceased moreover on this IV of July in the year 1179, so that it may also manifestly appear that the year of death was ineptly assigned 1123, in which perhaps the Saint had not yet beheld the light. Perhaps, I say, for of his true age, or when he was born, or how long he lived, neither did Ughelli find anything certain, nor has it been handed down by others, so far as I know. Certainly Castellanus ought to have followed another guide in his Universal Martyrology, when he added in the margin the year of death 1180.

[4] For the rest, the life of St. Albert of Lodi no one has written hitherto, More certain notice concerning the time of the episcopate at least none that has become known to us; nor in any Martyrologies, except in the Catalogues of Ferrarius just recited, and the praised Universal Martyrology of Castellanus, is his memory signed, nor do I think that many things of his deeds survive at Lodi or elsewhere. That he was an honorable and religious man is established by irrefragable testimony, which nothing but truth itself could have extorted. His holiness is proved by the miracles which followed, the cult formerly established among the people of Lodi, the translation of his body made in the year 1588 by Ludovico Taberna, at that time Bishop of Lodi, and the rest of the public arguments of veneration in that city. To his life pertain the very few things which Ughelli collected about him in the fourth volume of Italia Sacra, from column 913, where from Alberico Merlino, the predecessor of St. Albert, he passes to the deeds of this Albert: "For the rest, when between Victor the pseudo-pontiff and Alexander III a most foul schism had boiled up, Alberico, the juster cause being deserted, went over to the parts of the impious Barbarossa: wherefore, stripped of the honor of the episcopate, Galdinus, Archbishop of Milan and legate of Alexander III, ejected him from the see in the year 1168. Who not much after, more truly a soldier than an ecclesiastic, contumacious, departed from life."

[5] from Acerbo Morena, From these things we begin to know the true times of St. Albert, which Ferrarius above had so badly confused. Thus Ughelli continues: "St. Albert next, of the Quadrelli, from the castle of Ripalta of the Glaria of the Adda, Provost of that town, and famous for the report of holiness, the clergy, at the exhortation of Galdinus the Archbishop of Milan, promoted by all suffrages to the see, whence Alberico had fallen, in 1168, on the 29th day of the month of March, which was the day sacred to the Lord's Supper: but on the fifth feria after Easter, with solemn rite and the people rejoicing, he entered on the possession of the obtained episcopate, as Acerbo Morena reports in the history of the affairs of Lodi." And hence at length there are things to be changed by us, which have been handed down to memory concerning holy Albert of Lodi with at least some certainty; by a suspect writer indeed, and a zealous encomiast of Frederick Barbarossa, as being the restorer of the city of Lodi, but who in this part is worthy of so much the greater credence, because he more closely beheld the things which he narrates; but who altogether does not favor holy Albert, pouring out no praises but those which truth itself, as I said above, extorted from him; for the rest describing only the deposition of his predecessor Alberico, the manner of St. Albert's election, and the entrance into possession. Thus therefore has Acerbo Morena, toward the end of the history of the affairs of Lodi, published in the year 1639, from page 121.

[6] who describes the deposition of the predecessor "Meanwhile the Lord Galdinus de la Sala, a Milanese citizen and cleric; and who formerly had for many years been Chancellor of the Lord Ribaldus and the Lord Ubertus of Pirovano, Archbishops of Milan, and in the place of the already said Ubertus had been raised to the archbishopric of Milan by the Lord Pope Alexander; then constituted legate of that same Pope in Lombardy, sent his messengers, namely the Abbot of St. Ambrose and the Abbot of St. Vincent of Milan, to the Lord Albert of Cazano, then Provost of the greater church of Lodi, and to the rest of the Provosts, Abbots, presbyters, and clerics, and also the Consuls of Lodi; saying and admonishing that they should altogether leave the part of Pope Paschal and the Lord Frederick the Emperor, and favor the part of Pope Alexander; and should make satisfaction to the Pope himself for the injury done to him, and should elect a Catholic Bishop; and unless they did this, they should abstain from ecclesiastical office and benefice. But the said Provost and the rest of the clerics, hearing this, were exceedingly sad; both because a great part of them had sworn by the command of the Emperor that they would hold Pope Paschal for Pope forever, and also because nearly all had sworn fidelity to the Lord Albert * Merlino, at that time, as it seemed to them, the Catholic Bishop of Lodi, and not yet canonically deposed by law; and therefore they greatly feared to do this, and reputed [it] to themselves for the greatest disgrace: conferring also among themselves, that if the said Pope Paschal and the Emperor should still be victors, they would damn themselves forever, and each of them would be deprived of dignity and grace.

[7] They dreaded exceedingly to obey the commands of the above-written Galdinus; and explains the election of St. Albert. and dreaded also to refuse this which the said Lord Galdinus had commanded them. Many were stupefied; both on account of Pope Alexander and the Lord Galdinus the Archbishop, who as it were were then victors in those parts, and on account of the cities of Lombardy nearly all conspiring together; because they knew that if they were expelled from Lodi, they would have no dwelling in Lombardy, or place in which they could withdraw themselves. At length doubtful, the straits being for a good while revolved this way and that; when they could find no mercy from the said Archbishop, unless they should fulfill what he had commanded them; choosing rather to live than to die; and rather too to abide in their own fatherland, than to wander in a foreign one; they disposed to believe in Pope Alexander and favor his part, and to elect a new Bishop according to the will of the Archbishop. Therefore on the holy Thursday, which was then the IV Kalends of April, in the first Indiction, in the year 1168, the above-written Lord Albert, Provost of the greater church of Lodi, counsel being taken in common, both of the Abbots, Provosts, presbyters, and other clerics of the city of Lodi, and also of those who were outside the city in the episcopate of Lodi, to the honor of God and of the most blessed Virgin Mary, and of the blessed precious confessor Bassianus, elected the Lord Albert, at that time Provost of the church of Ripalta, an honorable and religious man, as Bishop and pastor of Lodi: but on the next Wednesday after Easter, the Abbots, Provosts, presbyters, and many other clerics of Lodi, the Consuls also of Lodi and many judges and wise men of Lodi went to Bergamo, where the Lord elect was then present, and on the following next Thursday led him to Lodi with ineffable joy: who there was received most honorably by all, both clerics and laymen."

[8] Here Morena describes only the cause, or occasion, by which it came to pass that, Alberico Merlino, the favorer of Barbarossa, being expelled, Of his deeds scarcely anything has been handed down, St. Albert was canonically elected as Bishop of Lodi, with this

sole elogium, that he was an honorable and religious man; nor did he carry his history beyond. There is likewise had a distinct epoch of the episcopate entered upon; the particular deeds through the whole remaining time of his life no one, as we said, has pursued one by one. Some virtues and miracles, in good faith I suppose, the people of Lodi indicated to Ferrarius, to which, without doubt, can be added that, while the schism yet endured, he constantly adhered to the legitimate head of the Church, Alexander III. The sacred cult exhibited to St. Albert is beyond controversy: the rest, however few, together with the year and day of death, are to be received from Ughelli. He teaches that in the times of Albert, Alexander III ratified the translation of the new city of Lodi from the old place, and confirmed [it] by Apostolic authority, a diploma being given at Venice in Rivo alto on the 17th Kalends of July in the year 1177, which is extant in the praised Ughelli, received from the archive of the cathedral church of Lodi, by the work of the erudite Lord Defendens de Lauda, canon of that same church. Then indeed he also subjoins a privilege of the same Alexander, granted to the monastery of SS. Fabian and Damian, at the petition of Galdinus, Archbishop of Milan, and Albert of Lodi.

[9] but of his cult it cannot be doubted. To describe these things here, or to pursue incidental matters of this kind more fully, is neither of our forum nor of our purpose; let him consult Ughelli who wishes to learn more from the aforesaid diplomas: for us it is enough to have brought forth, concerning holy Albert of Lodi, whatever we could anywhere detect handed down by writers. That here may be the end, the rest which make to the matter we describe from the praised Ughelli. Thus he himself concludes whatever sort of life of our Saint, and we with him: "This church of Lodi Albert piously and holily administered, and compelled the clergy, instituted with the best laws and examples, to obey the true Pontiff, Alexander the third. He was present at the Lateran council celebrated by the same Pontiff [in] 1179, to which he subscribed, and returning to the church committed to him, a little after he departed from the living on the 4th day of the month of July of the same year. His sacred body they brought into the cathedral to be entombed, and it shone thenceforth with miracles. But in the year 1588 Ludovico Taberna the Bishop laid up his sacred relics under the altar of the Holy Trinity, his head being enclosed in a silver vessel, where now with the highest veneration of the faithful it is honorably kept."

* a hive.

* read Alberico.