ON ST. PROCULUS, BISHOP OF AUTUN,
AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME
CommentaryProculus, bishop of Autun. (S.)
BY J. V. D. G.
[1] St. Proculus, who seems to have been Concerning St. Proculus a twofold question is discussed, the one whether he governed the church of Autun, the other whether he was distinguished with the palm of martyrdom. To the first the Benedictine editors of Gallia christiana answer Vol. IV (1728), pp. 341, 342. that it seems to them undoubted that St. Proculus presided over the see of Autun, although concerning the time of his pontificate they have nothing fixed and certain to assert, except this, which is only probable, that St. Proculus sat between St. Pragmatius and Agrippinus, that is, between the years 517 and 533. Those who have held the opinion of the episcopate of St. Proculus at Autun have drawn their arguments from a twofold source, namely first from the list of the bishops of the city of the Aedui; in which, since the name of Proculus is read, both the aforesaid editors and the Sainte-Marthe brothers Gallia christiana, vol. II (1656), p. 30. and Gams did not hesitate to reckon St. Proculus among the prelates of Autun. bishop of Autun The other series of documents is furnished by almost all the Hieronymian martyrologies, in whose various formulas St. Proculus, bishop, is celebrated at Augustodunum or Augustidunum; and other hagiological fasti, such as those of Ado and Usuard, hand down a similar enunciation. In transcribing the name there appears also the more contracted form Proclus. In the martyrology of Auxerre one reads: At Augustidunum the natal day of St. Patroclus; under which evidently faulty form the name of our saint lies hidden. For the usage of the French language there is another form, Saint Preuil. Down to our times the church of Autun has testified by its cult to the pontificate of St. Proculus Cf. Officia propria ecclesiae Aeduensis, 1873, autumn part, pp. XVII and 121., since, keeping his commemoration at the 4th day of November, it announces him under this indication: Commemoration of St. Proculus, bishop of Autun and martyr.
[2] his history is unknown. But of the deeds of St. Proculus nothing has come down to us. The Sainte-Marthe brothers relate only this Loc. cit., that his body lies in the church of Saint Symphorian. Claude Robert Gallia christiana, p. 199., and after him the same Sainte-Marthe brothers Loc. cit., the Benedictine editors Loc. cit. and the anonymous canon who wrote the history of the church of Autun Histoire de l'Église d' Autun, p. 22., warn that one should by no means assent to Saulnier Autun chrétien, p. 10., who conjectures that St. Proculus, bishop of Autun, is the one whom St. Jerome, in his letter to Rusticus P. L., vol. XXII, p. 1084., calls a holy and most learned pontiff. For the reckoning of the times is opposed to these words fitting St. Proculus of Autun, since St. Jerome died in the year 420, and, although the chronology of St. Proculus is uncertain enough, he nevertheless seems to have lived in the sixth century rather than the fifth. Some Sainte-Marthe, loc. cit.; Saulnier, Autun chrétien, p. 10. acknowledge two Proculi, bishops of Autun, following a certain catalogue of bishops which the Sainte-Marthe brothers report was preserved in the sacristy of the principal basilica of the city of the Aedui Loc. cit.. But with the Benedictine editors Loc. cit. and Giorgi Martyrologium Adonis, p. 563. one would more rightly say that, according to the ancient monuments, only one Proculus, prelate of Autun, is to be acknowledged. In what place in the series of these pontiffs he is to be put does not shine out so clearly: some, like the editors of Gallia christiana, in the 6th century, after Pragmatius, which Giorgi rejects; others, like Saulnier, in the 5th century, between Leontius and Euphronius. What is to be held among these mutually contradictory opinions, documents being lacking, cannot be defined.
[3] Yet the older monuments The Roman martyrology calls St. Proculus a martyr: At Autun, of St. Proculus, martyr. Cardinal Baronius, the corrector of the martyrology, was moved to ascribe this title to St. Proculus, as he declares in the notes, by the authority of Peter de Natalibus, and above all of Ado and Usuard. In actual fact not a few recensions of the Usuardine text, namely both the Antwerp ones, the Lübeck, Ughelli's, Belinus's, the Utrecht, Leiden, Louvain and Anchin ones, proclaim St. Proculus both bishop and martyr. Yet in the purer text of Usuard, such namely as the Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Noirmoutier and Munerat copies give, St. Proculus is called simply bishop of Autun, but by no means martyr, by no means favour those Nor is it so certain that Ado supports the martyrdom of St. Proculus, as Tillemont had already noted Mémoires, vol. V, p. 546.; since in the editions of Mosander and Rosweyde, which Giorgi approves Martyrologium Adonis, p. 563., Proculus was thrown back into the Adonian appendix, although Sollerius thinks he is to be inserted in the very text of Ado At 4 November, p. 561.. As regards Peter de Natalibus, his authority is sufficiently struck down by Rabanus and Usuard, as Sollerius advises Ibid.. Of Usuard it has just been spoken; and Rabanus has this: At Augustodunum, the deposition of blessed Proculus, bishop, the title of martyr being passed over in silence P. L., vol. CIX, p. 1178.. This too must be kept before the eyes, which the often-praised Sollerius had already observed, that the Hieronymian codices, whether they belong to the first or to later hands, mention St. Proculus, but everywhere call him bishop, nowhere martyr. Let it suffice to have cited the reading of the Bern codex: At Agustidunum, of Proculus, bishop. Therefore, if one is to stand by the hagiographical fasti, arguments firm enough can hardly be found which prove St. Proculus a martyr.
[4] who call him by the name of martyr. And these things indeed are at hand for whoever has questioned the sources and primitive monuments about the martyrdom of St. Proculus. For in our time, as Sollerius already lamented in his, documents of his Life are also lacking. And if one approaches the more recent interpreters, one will meet very few who affirm St. Proculus a martyr. For they are almost alone, Saulnier Op. cit., p. 10., who asserts that St. Proculus was put to death by Attila in the year 451 while he was interceding with him for the people committed to him, and Saussay Martyrologium Gallicanum, p. 828., who reports that St. Proculus was at last intercepted and slain by the impious, who raged against him with perpetual envy. But the editors of Gallia christiana Loc. cit. and also Tillemont Loc. cit. rightly complain that these things are fabricated, and that it is entirely unknown whence they were drawn, indeed that they are in conflict with one another, since Saulnier teaches that St. Proculus suffered in the year 451, as one whom he makes the successor of St. Leontius, while Saussay thinks he governed the church of Autun after St. Andochius. The Rev. F. E. Pequegnot Légendaire d'Autun, vol. II, p. 410. does not altogether resist the opinion which holds that St. Proculus suffered for the faith, relying
the testimony of Longueval Histoire de l'Église gallicane, 1825, vol. III, p. 13., who relates that a certain Proculus, a bishop of unknown see, was expelled by Gundobad, king of the Burgundians. But since Longueval does not indicate whence these things were taken, no one will be entitled to affirm that such things are to be referred to St. Proculus of Autun. The martyrdom of St. Proculus is rejected by Fiorentini Vetustius Martyrologium., Châtelain Martyrologe universel., Giorgi Martyrologium Adonis, p. 563., Du Sollier Martyrologium Usuardi, on the 4th day of November. and the above-mentioned editors of the Gallia christiana, who with one voice ask that this title of martyr be deleted. And in very truth it must be admitted that this designation was introduced into the hagiological calendars only rather late, and that the purer among them always abstained from it.