ON ST. AUSPICIUS, BISHOP,
AT TRIER.
Second Century.
Notice from more recent Martyrologies.
Auspicius, Bishop, at Trier (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Baronius in the Roman Martyrology thus concludes his little roster for this day: At Trier, of St. Auspicius, bishop and confessor. In his notes, however, he left this written: Molanus also treats of him in his Additions to Usuard. He is reckoned the fourth Bishop of that church in the table of Demochares. In the Roman Martyrology There was another of the same name, bishop of Toul, fifth in order, conspicuous for sanctity and learning; whose notable letter written in verse to Count Arbogastus is extant: and he lived in the times of the Emperor Theodosius. Distinct from all these is to be held that Auspicius, to whom Sidonius Apollinaris writes in epistle 11, book 7. Many things are here confusedly asserted in few words, which need a longer discussion. To our matter this pertains, that Baronius seems to have had only Molanus before his eyes, when he added this St. Auspicius to the Roman Martyrology with the title of Confessor, whereas among the people of Trier he is held for a Martyr, I know not on how great an authority: since in the more ancient Kalendars and Martyrologies of that city and of St. Maximin, no memory of that holy Bishop is anywhere found.
[2] called a confessor by the more recent, Neither therefore in these, nor in any other ancient or classic Fasti, is St. Auspicius of Trier set down, of whom the first mention is extant on this day in the Lübeck-Cologne edition of the year 1490, in these words: At Trier, of St. Auspicius, bishop and confessor, which Grevenus, Molanus, and Canisius followed, the last two of whom referred the same Saint to the sixth of June. The same did Ferrarius in his General Catalogue, the same Saussay in his Supplement, thus writing: At Trier, of St. Auspicius, bishop and confessor, whose glorious memory is marked by yearly veneration in the tables of the holy Roman Church, to be kept on the eighth of July. On which day he fits to him a common eulogy, subjoining to him the other Auspicius of Toul, of whom below. Rightly is he placed on this day by Ghini: At Trier, of St. Auspicius, bishop and confessor, who, succeeding St. Valerius, is reckoned there the fourth bishop. Immediate succession cannot be understood, since among the people of Trier St. Maternus preceded Auspicius. In such an order the Sammarthani also referred him, admonishing that concerning him Baronius and Molanus are to be consulted: namely because they found no other monuments of him elsewhere: in which matter we have not been more fortunate than they, since besides the name and cult nothing has been handed down to memory concerning St. Auspicius. Concerning the series of the Bishops of Trier, let Bollandus be seen in his treatment of St. Celsus, St. Auspicius's successor, on the twenty-third of February.
[3] From what has been said it is clear that St. Auspicius of Trier was not so long ago reckoned among the Martyrs, he is venerated as a Martyr by the people of Trier; so that the more recent is that opinion which so expressly asserts to him the laurel of martyrdom. The chronological index of Brower, or of Masenius, has somewhat timidly: St. Auspicius succeeded, Methodius being witness, whom they hold to have been put to martyrdom. But on what author, on what surety? In the margins is added on the one side the year 129, on the other the eighth of July. In the very text of the Annals at the year 128, one may thus read: Auspicius therefore, Methodius also being witness, the successor of Maternus, thereafter had charge of the sacred things of the people of Trier and of the neighboring churches: that he was crowned with the palm of martyrdom is the opinion of certain men, and not a feeble one. But that he was entered in the Fasti, and is venerated among the citizens of heaven as a confessor, his solemn anniversary recurring yearly on the eighth of July, is most fully ascertained; although the title of confessor is wont to be used even of candidates. I gladly admit that all Martyrs are confessors, but not conversely: but this I chiefly ask, whence it became known to the people of Trier, after the sixteenth century, that their Saint was to be numbered among the Martyrs, to whom in their Lectionary of the year 1645, on the eighth of July, they attached the title of Bishop and Martyr of Trier, which I also found in a more recent manuscript Catalogue of the Saints of Trier, where the year of Christ 131 is set down.
[4] Let us freely confess that all things which are related of St. Auspicius are obscure, things being involved in much doubt and that neither the beginning of his episcopate, nor its duration, nor its end, is anywhere made known; but neither is it rightly established in the Annals that Methodius, in Marianus, is witness that Auspicius succeeded Maternus. Let us give the matter as it stands: thus Marianus has at the year 128: In the sixth year of Sixtus's priesthood, and in the eighth year of the empire of Ælius Adrianus Cæsar, St. Maternus, Archbishop of the see of Trier, forty years after Valerius, his pontificate being worthily fulfilled, passed to the heavenly things, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 128. This says he, whom you may unfold through the ages, to find Auspicius or another Bishop of Trier; this only he notes at the year 180; and in the same time an author of all probity ruled Trier, so that from the opinion of Methodius it is most difficult to weave a continuous chain of the Bishops of Trier. I do not deny that in the hypothesis one proceeds rightly; for if it is certain that Maternus was the third Bishop of Trier, and Auspicius the fourth, it aptly follows that about the year 128 the latter ought to have succeeded the former: but nothing stands firm, where you may set your foot, in that so ancient a series of Bishops, which in whatever manner had to be connected without interruption with the age of St. Peter.
[5] which require greater elucidation. Learned men have long seen that those matters are involved, but no one has applied the sickle by which to cut away the superfluous. Castellanus, in his first bimester of the Martyrology edited with notes, treating of Celsus, Auspicius's successor, indicates a confusion between the names of the Bishops of Trier and of Toul, insisting on which in his other Universal Martyrology, at the announcement of St. Auspicius cited above from the Roman, he did not hesitate to add this little note: Auspicianus, not of Trier, but bishop of Toul. I observe indeed that something lies hidden here, which has not yet hitherto been sufficiently unfolded, to be elucidated perhaps by those whose concern it is, before we come to Auspicius of Toul, whom I hear is venerated there on the twenty-eighth of this month, on which day the whole matter can be treated afresh. The Lectionary of Trier says nothing when it fits to its Saint on the eighth of July such a eulogy: Auspicius, whom the Roman tables of the Saints designate a Confessor, with the first Bishops of the church of Trier poured out his blood in the confession of the Christian religion; by the ferocity of the heathen he obtained the crown of martyrdom. For the Christian cause was growing bright with splendid increases, and was dazzling the envious eyes of impiety with the purity of its light. But he lies hidden in darkness among mortals, whom God perhaps judged the great glory of his ancestors unworthy of, with no loss to the most invincible hero. If therefore some cloud of oblivion has here veiled him, easily does the glory of retribution and the eternal brightness, by which he is illustrious among the heavenly citizens, make it up. Whose anniversary day, recurring on the eighth before the Ides of July, the Church venerates.