Gallus II

ON ST. GALLUS II, BISHOP OF THE ARVERNI IN GAUL,

BEFORE THE MIDDLE OF THE 7TH CENTURY.

Gallus II, bishop of the Arverni. (S.)

BY C. D. S.

The old catalogues of that church report that Gallus, the second of this name, was put in place of St. Caesarius in the see of the Arverni [Savaron, Les origines de la ville de Clairmont, p. 54; Gonod, Chronologie des eveques de Clermont, p. 14.] , [The cult of St. Gallus II, like that of St. Caesarius, confirmed by the holy see.] and the writers of Gallia Christiana say that his feast is celebrated on the kalends of November Vol. II, p. 244. . Le Cointe, however, Annal. eccles. Franc., year 643, n. 8. says only: Gallus had succeeded St. Caesarius, whose memory is celebrated on the kalends of November. But the legitimate cult of Gallus II may now be affirmed with more security, after the publication in the year 1855, with the approval of the holy see, of the Proper of Clermont, in which at the 5th day of November there is indicated to be celebrated the feast of All the Saints of Auvergne, among whom in Lesson IV we read our saint named with other holy bishops of that city Cf. above, Comment. Præv. on St. Caesarius bp. of the Arverni, no. 7. .

[2] Gallus the archdeacon, who translated the relics of St. Amabilis. As to his deeds, first there are commonly referred to him the things read in the ancient Life of St. Amabilis, which our predecessors edited at the 11th day of June. Namely: Among other things we read (so says Justus the presbyter or whoever was the writer of this work), that St. Gallus, archdeacon of the city of the Arverni, who afterwards obtained the episcopate, when he saw that the tomb of Blessed Amabilis was frequented with miracles and many mighty works and that all were giving thanks for the benefits of the magnificent confessor, gave praises to the Lord, who deigned to fortify the citizens of the Arverni with so great a patron, and full of the Holy Spirit, as we read of St. Stephen, decided it to be most worthy that the holy body should be taken from the place where it had first been placed, and should be more honourably entombed in the front part of the church. The vow is therefore hastened: the cause is made manifest to religious and friends: all rejoice and urge that it be so done. He built therefore at the very front of the basilica a hall, which we call an apse, with honourable work, in which, under an ark of this kind, the title of the altar might be dedicated: and thither he solemnly carried the holy clod of the servant of God, with choirs of clerics joyfully singing psalms, with an assembly of peoples carrying tapers and lamps in homage; dedicating that structure with special devotion to his name. For on account of the amplitude of the money that was offered to the holy confessor in vineyards and fields and territories, from which those who canonically served in this place might receive the nourishment of their living, or on account of the greatness of the miracles, they by custom call the church of St. Benignus also the church of St. Amabilis. The same venerable Gallus also made a most beautiful pavement of various stones, before the mausoleum of St. Amabilis, whose many-formed colour represented now the brightness of gold, now of silver, as long as that structure lasted: in which, in order to hand down his memory to posterity, by an ordered series of little stones, he left such a written monument of himself: Gallus the Archdeacon ordered this to be made Act. SS., vol. II June, p. 469. .

[3] not St. Gallus II, but an elder of the same name seems to be meant, This Gallus, then, Savaron Loc. cit. , Le Cointe Loc. cit. , Papebroch Vol. cit., p. 470, annot. b. and others judged to have been afterwards bishop of the Arverni, the second of this name; Faydit objecting, who contends La vie de S. Amable, par l'abbe Faydit, p. 284. that Gallus I, whose Acts from Gregory of Tours Vit. Patr., ch. 6. have been edited in our collection at the 1st day of July Vol. I July, p. 105. , is designated in this place, and adduces in favour of this opinion, besides two other less valid arguments, this third not so contemptible; namely that from the narrative of Gregory of Tours it is established that that Gallus I, up to the time at which he undertook the episcopate, discharged the office of the diaconate in the church of the Arverni Cf. Act. SS., vol. I July, p. 106, n. 5 . Certainly no indication exists in the chapter cited from the Life of St. Amabilis from which it could be gathered that Gallus II rather than I was the author of that elevation or translation.

[4] and certainly he did not translate those relics from the Arverni to Riom. But the writer of the Life of St. Amabilis has also blundered in no moderate degree in interpreting the old Acts (unless the error is to be ascribed to the Acts themselves, perhaps the same ones mentioned in no. 16 of the Life, and which certainly, although they are said to be most ancient, are not older than the 11th century) [Cf. Papebroch, Comment. præv. on St. Amabilis, no. 3 (Act. SS., vol. II June, p. 466).] , where he says that the body of Amabilis was translated by Gallus the archdeacon into the church of St. Benignus, which they by custom therefore also call the church of St. Amabilis. For there can be no doubt that in this place there is signified the church which he said was raised at Riom by St. Amabilis in a great structure Vit. no. 4 (ibid., p. 467). and in which he himself is now held to be buried, and accordingly that the translation of the body was made by St. Gallus from the Arverni to Riom. But from the little work De sanctis ecclesiis et monasteriis Claromontii, edited by Savaron in the Appendix to the book on the history of the city of Clermont Les origines de la ville de Clairmont, p. 341. , we learn that at the time at which this little work was composed the body of St. Amabilis had not yet been translated to Clermont; for among the churches of Clermont there is mentioned Bk. I, n. 12 (Savaron, p. 352). the church of St. Hilary, where sancti* Amabilis rests in the body. And that the little work was not composed before the very end of the 9th century is gathered from the fact that among the saints whose bodies are indicated to rest in those churches, or to whose title altars or the churches themselves are indicated to be dedicated, there occur not only SS. Genesius Bk. I, nn. 17, 25. , Præjectus Bk. I, nn. 19, 24, 26; bk. II, nn. 2, 11. , Bonitus Bk. I, nn. 4, 24, 32; bk. II, nn. 3, 7. , who after St. Gallus II were set over the see of the Arverni in the 7th century, and Pardulf Bk. I, n. 24; bk. II, n. 8. , who lived at the beginning of the 8th century, but also Sigo Bk. I, n. 2. , who after the middle of the 9th century held the pontificate of the same church of the Arverni, whereas St. Gallus I before the middle of the 6th century, and St. Gallus II around the middle of the 7th century presided over the same church. Moreover, as Savaron has already noted In a note on the cited little work, bk. I, n. 12. , the credit of that writer is sufficiently undermined by the shameful parachronism by which he made St. Præjectus, bishop of the Arverni, two centuries more recent than St. Amabilis, a contemporary of his Vit. no. 4 (vol. II June, p. 467). .

[5] [The controversy of St. Gallus II with Angelbert of Reims concerning certain ecclesiastical possessions.] More certainly of St. Gallus II is understood to be said what Flodoard reports in the History of the Church of Reims Bk. II, ch. 6. , where he speaks of Leudegisel, Angelbert and Lando, bishops of Reims in order: After him (Sonatius) Leudegisel .. ruled the episcopate in the time of King Dagobert… Him follows Angelbert… Whom Lando succeeded, a most illustrious man and possessor of many estates: of which he joined some to the church, and distributed others to his kinsmen. But also those things which the church of Reims had held beyond the Loire, and which a certain Felix, abbot of the church of St. Julian the martyr, was unduly retaining, having been vindicated by the laws before the royal majesty

he received back; concerning which already before his predecessor Bishop Angelbert is found to have had a controversy with Gallus, bishop of the Arverni, before the king. This controversy Angelbert could not have had with St. Gallus I, bishop of the Arverni, since he preceded the times of King Dagobert by nearly a full century. It remains therefore that he should be said to have had it with St. Gallus II: for no other of this name is read in the catalogue of the bishops of the Arverni. Mabillon judges Annal. Bened., vol. I, year 643, n, 20. , with no one contradicting, that the matter of the controversy was the church of St. Julian of Brioude, which then belonged to the diocese of the Arverni, and now to that of Saint-Flour.

[6] His letter to St. Desiderius of Cahors. To St. Gallus II they also commonly attribute a letter to Desiderius of Cahors, which is read among the letters sent to this bishop by various other bishops, framed in these words: To his ever lord and apostolic father, Pope Desiderius, Gallus a sinner. Since such a report of a plague has come from Marseilles, that it is laying waste almost the whole province depopulating it, let my lord order guards to be sent, and let no one from the Cahors country presume to go out to those fairs in the Rodez country or the neighbouring cities, lest, which God forbid, on any occasion he should seem to bring so great an evil into your city. For through these places bordering on those parts guards have been posted, so that no one at all may have access for buying or selling. If you do not take care anxiously to provide for this, the danger of death is at hand. Moreover, sending greeting with due veneration, I beg that in your holy prayers you deign to remember our littleness, my lord, more truly father P. L., vol. LXXXVII, p. 265. . This letter, then, displaying a solicitude so worthy of a bishop, is deservedly ascribed to Gallus II of the Arverni, who in the ancient Life of Desiderius Ch. XV (ibid., p. 232). is reckoned among the bishops then especially illustrious in the Gallican church for the fame of their virtues, nor is any other bishop of the same name held celebrated at that time.

[7] In what year St. Gallus II died and how long he held the see is uncertain. These few monuments of the deeds of St. Gallus II remain to us, too meagre, alas! to seem to bring any light for composing his history. From the synchronism with Angelbert of Reims and Desiderius of Cahors this alone may be gathered, that our Gallus presided over the church of the Arverni around the middle of the 7th century. For Angelbert succeeded Leudegisel, who ruled the diocese of Reims in the time of Dagobert I, that is, after the year 622 Cf. above, no 5. , and Desiderius held the see of Cahors from the year 629 to the year 654, as Mabillon seems amply to have demonstrated Veter. Analect., 2nd ed., pp. 520–521. . But in what particular year Gallus was ordained and died, and how long he discharged the episcopal functions, seems capable of being defined only rashly, documents being lacking. What Le Cointe has signified Annal. eccles. Franc., at the year 643, n. 9. , that Gallus was of advanced age when he undertook the episcopate, since he discharged the office of archdeacon under the pontiff Avolus, I would wish to be confirmed by a more certain authority than that of Savaron. He indeed cites Les origines de la ville de Clairmont, p. 54. a manuscript Life of St. Amabilis; but this Life does not seem different from that which Papebroch edited at the 11th day of June, and in this it is read only that the body of St. Amabilis was translated by Gallus the archdeacon, not that this was done with Avolus as bishop of the Arverni Cf. above, no 2. .

[8] From the testimonies concerning the burial of both St. Galli, It remains that we treat of the burial of our saint. In the little book De sanctis ecclesiis et monasteriis Claromontii, edited in Savaron and praised more than once above, there occurs a threefold mention of some St. Gallus resting in one of them. First, namely, In the church of St. Lawrence, the altar of St. Lawrence: there rest St. Gallus, and St. Briccius and other saints whose names God knows Bk. I, n. 3 (Savaron, p. 345). . Then In the church of St. Gallus, the altar of St. Mary, where rest St. Gallus, and St. Urbicus, and St. Antolianus and St. Gerivald Bk. I, n. 8 (Savaron, p. 348). . Finally In the church of St. Illidius, the altar of St. Clement, the altar of St. Mary, where St. Illidius, and St. Desideratus, and St. Gallus, and St. Avolus, and St. Justus, and St. Injuriosus and Scholastica rest in the body Bk. I, n. 11 (Savar., p. 350). . In the notes to this last place Savaron cites three other documents of the monastery of St. Illidius, in which it is indicated that relics of St. Gallus are kept in the church of the same monastery. Namely the Illidian Tablet: Gallus, Bishop. Likewise an old little book on the dedication of the monastery of St. Illidius: For in the monastery of St. Illidius rests Blessed Venerandus, bishop, for love of St. Mary and of other holy martyrs, and also blessed Gallus, and Cassius. St. Gallus rests on the right, and Cassius on the left side. Likewise a manuscript book on the feast of the revelation of St. Illidius: Within which there were found, in a certain copper chalice, relics of Gallus and Peter, in one bone and in dust, very carefully and reverently placed, the memorial of which, read by the bishop and certain others, was at once resolved into ashes from age.

[9] which church preserved the body of St. Gallus II And indeed no one doubts that that Gallus who rested in the church of St. Lawrence was the first bishop of the Arverni of this name, since Gregory of Tours De vita Patrum, ch. 6, end (P. L., vol. LXXI, p. 1035). expressly wrote of his burial: And the bishops arriving on the fourth day, they raised him from the church, and carrying him into the basilica of St. Lawrence they buried him there. Whence it was an easy step to conclude that the church of St. Gallus, of which there was question in the second place cited above, and in which likewise St. Gallus rested, was dedicated under the title of St. Gallus II, and preserved his body. This church, already in the time of Savaron, that is, around the middle of the 17th century, buried in its own ruins, had not left even a trace of itself; but, as he himself notes on this place, its site is sufficiently indicated by the words of Gregory of Tours writing of St. Urbicus (who also is said to rest in the church of St. Gallus) Hist. Franc., bk. I, ch. 44. : The priest himself also with his wife and daughter was buried in the crypt of Chantoin, beside the public road. From these words, therefore, it may be gathered that the church of St. Gallus was situated within the precincts of the monastery of Chantoin (commonly Chantoin), concerning which the little work edited by Savaron treats, bk. I, n. 26. It could however also have happened that St. Urbicus was translated from the crypt of Chantoin into a church afterwards built in honour of St. Gallus (which Ruinart conjectures in a note on the place of Gregory of Tours just cited); and thus the church of St. Gallus would have nothing in common with the convent of Chantoin.

[10] with complete certainty Whatever may be the case in that matter, Savaron and others who after him have spoken of our saint held that Gallus II rested there. But no moderate trouble is caused by the third place brought forward from the little work De sanctis ecclesiis Claromontii, where it is indicated that in the church of St. Illidius also some St. Gallus rested in the body. Nor indeed does Le Cointe solve the difficulty At the year 643, n. 11. by supposing that the body of St. Gallus the younger was translated from the church dedicated in his name into the Illidian: for from the little work so often praised it is gathered that the body of St. Gallus was present at the same time both in the church of St. Gallus and in the Illidian. And since no other saint of this name is known whose cult was celebrated at Clermont, apart from the two bishops Gallus, perhaps it may be held by a more probable conjecture that by the name of body in our anonymous writer only a part of the body or some notable relics are designated: and that conjecture can be confirmed from the place brought forward from the book on the feast of the revelation of St. Illidius Above, no. 8 end. , where the relics of Gallus and Peter kept in the Illidian church are said to consist in one bone and in dust. And so the relics of St. Gallus displayed in this saint's church and in the Illidian were perhaps parts of the same holy body.

[11] cannot be defined. But, this being posited, another grave doubt rises of itself. For one reason why the church of St. Gallus and the relics of the same saint placed in it were judged to be of St. Gallus II was this, that, since it is established that the body of St. Gallus I was laid in the church of St. Lawrence, it seemed to follow from this that the body of St. Gallus preserved in the church of St. Gallus was not of Gallus I, but of the younger. Now if by the name of body it is permissible to understand in the anonymous writer of the little book on the churches of Clermont not so entirely the whole body, but only some part of the body, what hinders us from supposing that both in the church of St. Gallus and in the Illidian there were relics of St. Gallus I, who certainly seems to have been far more illustrious among the Arverni than the younger, taken from the church of St. Lawrence. I confess that no way of solving this doubt occurs to my mind: whence I have judged rather to leave the matter in uncertainty than, rashly affirming or conjecturing, to offer doubtful things for certain.

* read sanctus