ON ST. FIBICIUS, BISHOP OF TRIER,
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 6TH CENTURY
CommentaryFibicius, bishop of Trier. (S.)
BY A. P.
[1] St. Fibicius seems As we approach treating the life of St. Fibicius [In the older catalogues of the bishops he is called not only Fibicius (-tius), but also Hibitius, Tibitius, Fabicius; and in the more recent writers there occur besides these forms of the name: Febicius (-tius), Vibicius, Fabricius, Feberius.], we must again deplore the same dearth of ancient monuments which we bore grievously in weighing what pertains to the memory of St. Modesta Acta Sanctorum, November vol. II, 1, p. 299 and following.. St. Fibicius is mentioned at this day by the Roman Martyrology in these words: At Trier, of St. Fibitius, from abbot bishop of the same city. And indeed that he was bishop of Trier, although some have denied it [A. Wion, Lignum vitae (1595), vol. II, pp. 361–62; G. V. Schmid, Die säcularisirten Bisthümer Teutschlands, vol. II (1858), pp. 487 and 512; cf. Baronius, in the notes to the Roman Martyrology, at this day.] and Fr. Boniface Gams of blessed memory did not dare to affirm it Series episcoporum, p. 318., is nevertheless testified with unanimous consent by the older catalogues of the bishops of Trier [MG., Scriptores vol. XIII, pp. 296–301; cf. St. Beissel, Geschichte der Trierer Kirchen, I Theil (Trier, 1887), p. 181.], in all of which Fibicius holds the middle place between Maximian and Abrunculus. In agreement are both the author of the Gesta Treverorum: then Maximian, after whom Fibicius, whom Abrunculus succeeded MG., Scriptores vol. VIII, p. 158., and the calendar of the psalter of St. Simeon of Trier, written in the 11th century This is now codex 14 of the city library of Trier.;
in which, at the 5th day of November, there is inscribed the memory of Fibicius, bishop of T(rier) Hontheim, Prodromus historiae Trevirensis, vol. I, p. 385.. These testimonies no monuments contradict, and no chronological or other consideration whatever stands in the way. For what has been brought forward on the opposite side is, to speak more mildly, so slight that it can introduce even doubt into no one. For thus Arnold Wion, who alone has tried to confirm his opinion: "That Fibicius was not, however, a bishop we gather both from the chronicle of the monasteries of Germany [Unless I am much mistaken, by these words Wion designates the work of Caspar Bruschius, Monasteriorum Germaniae … chronologia, whose first century was published in the year 1551. In it, fol. 126, Fibicius is indeed called not only abbot but also bishop of Trier; but a little above there is talk of another Fibicius, whom Bruschius relates was abbot of St. Maximin, but not bishop.], where he is called simply abbot, and from the catalogue of the bishops of Trier in Demochares, volume 2, chap. 33 [Antoine de Mouchy (Demochares), Christianae religionis institutionis per dominum nostrum Iesum Christum et apostolicae traditionis … historica propugnatio, qua sacrificium missae… (Paris, 1562), part II, fol. 54 (= book II, c. 33), where Fibicius is entirely passed over.], among whom he is not found numbered." Just as, moreover, the authority of these modern writers is to be held cheap when, bringing forward no reason, they contradict documents of the 10th and 11th centuries, such as are the ancient catalogues of Trier, so the testimony of these catalogues, although in other respects they are by no means free of faults, to have been bishop of Trier can be retained at least as probable; which the church of Trier still receives, while on this day it honours St. Fibicius with public cult as its former bishop Cf. Proprium officiorum dioecesis Treverensis (1888), autumn part, pp. 68, 70..
[2] and indeed at the beginning of the 6th century. About what time Fibicius sat is easily determined. For although the ancient monuments provide almost no chronological marks for his nearest predecessors, yet Jamlychus, who seems to have sat sixth before Fibicius [Cf. J. Friedrich, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. II, p. 169, and the authors cited there.], was recommended about the year 460 by Auspicius, bishop of Toul, to Count Arbogast, who had recently been designated count of the Treveri MG., Epistolae vol. III, p. 137, verse 79.. And it is established that Abrunculus, who succeeded Fibicius next, was taken from life in the year 525 [Cf. MG., Scriptores rerum merovingicarum vol. I, p. 682 (Greg. of Tours, Vitae Patrum, VI, 3); cf. ibid., p. 728, note 3, and p. 685, note 2; Le Cointe (Annales ecclesiastici Francorum, vol. I, p. 351, cf. pp. 794–95) championed the year 527 with weak arguments; whose opinion not a few have embraced.]. Between these two years, therefore, the episcopal rule of Fibicius must be placed, yet in such a way, as is clear from what has been said, that it comes closer to the latter. The time we cannot determine more closely. Recent writers indeed know more, and affirm that the beginning of the episcopate undertaken by Fibicius was made in the year 496 [Catalogus episcoporum Trevirensium, in the Paris codex Bibl. Nat. lat. 5539, 16th century, fol. 55.] or 498 [Bruschius, l. c.; Le Cointe, op. cit., vol. I in the latter index; Gallia christiana, vol. XIII, cols. 379 and 526, etc…] or 500 [Browerus-Masenius, Annales Trevirenses, vol. I, p. 304; vol. II in the chronological index, p. 5; Kolb, Series episc. et archiep. et elect. Mogunt., Trevir. et Colon. (1733), p. 91.] or 511 [Alex. Wiltheim, Annales S. Maximini, in the Brussels codex of the Royal Library 3169, vol. I, book II, p. 16; Hontheim, Hist. dipl. Trevir., vol. I, p. LX; vol. III, pp. 1003–4.] or even 518 [Series abbatum S. Maximini, written at the end of the 16th century, ed. Reiffenberg in Compte rendu de la Commission royale d'histoire, vol. V (Brussels, 1842), pp. 8–9; cf. p. 28.]; while for the time of his death some designate the year 500 [Nicolaus Novillanus († 1618), Chronicon S. Maximini in Hontheim, Prodromus, p. 999; Catal. episc. Trev., in the Paris codex, of which above, note 15.], others 520 Siard Van Dyck in Acta Sanctorum, October vol. VI, p. 535, num. 14., others 528 Browerus-Masenius, vol. cited, p. 310; Kolb, l. c., so that some extend the time of his whole rule to twenty-eight years, some contract it to two P. Merssaeus, Electorum ecclesiasticorum … catalogus (Cologne, 1580), p. 252.. But since all these are mere conjectures, confirmed by no certain authority of ancient monuments, it will be better for us to establish that Fibicius sat at the beginning of the sixth century, without determining the time precisely.
[3] A not sufficiently certain conjecture It will, however, be possible to attain something more certain, and Fibicius will have to be said to have prolonged his life at least to the year 511, and indeed a little after, if we shall agree with certain modern writers who, led by Brower [Annales Trevir., book V, CXXIX (vol. I, p. 308). That the same could be read in the earlier edition we know from Le Cointe (Annales eccl. Franc., vol. II, p. 452, X). Brower was followed by Hontheim, Alex. Wiltheim, the authors of Gallia christiana, our Pinius (Acta Sanctorum, July vol. II, p. 328 and following), and more recently J. Friedrich and others.], have said that St. Fibicius is the same as that Felicius or Felix, bishop of the Treveri, of whom the Life of St. Goar makes mention. Its anonymous author, namely, who relates that St. Goar lived in the days of Childebert, king of the Franks, son of Clovis, says: He, coming among the towns of the Germans on the river Rhine, within the boundary of Oberwesel, in the suburban territory of Trier, where the little river is called Wocara, there the man of God himself, with the consent of the bishop who at that time is known to have been prelate of the Treveri, who is called Felicius, made a little church [The older Life of St. Goar, c. 1 (ed. Br. Krusch, MG., Scriptores rerum merovingicarum vol. IV, p. 411).]. And Wandelbert of Prüm, who polished the deeds of St. Goar with his own style, which, as he himself testifies, he had received from old and very ancient copies Life, book I, c. 29 (Mabillon, Acta, saec. II, p. 288)., likewise narrates that St. Goar, within the boundaries of Oberwesel … with the permission and will of the bishop who then presided over the city and people of the Treveri, Felix by name, built a church … Ibid., c. 4 (p. 282)..
[4] he has been thought to be the same as Felicius the bishop, Now the learned men we have mentioned were impelled by several considerations not to distinguish that Felicius from our Fibicius: first, because in the catalogue of the bishops of Trier no one was found by that name or a similar one who had lived in the time of St. Goar. For whether you say that Goar lived in the 6th century, which is the common opinion, or, as some will have it, in the 7th century, there occurs in the whole series of bishops one Felix, also called Felicius; but he is proved to have flourished at the end of the 4th century. Added to this was that the name of Fibicius could without any difficulty be deformed in the lapse of time into "Felicius"; as an example of which Alex. Wiltheim Annales S. Maximini in the cited Brussels codex 3619, vol. I, book I, pp. 89–90. brought forward the name of another Fibicius, I mean the second abbot of the Trier monastery of St. Maximin, who they assert lived in the 4th century. He, although commonly called Fibicius or Vibicius, was nevertheless called Felicius in a very ancient catalogue of abbots which was kept in the library of Maria Laach and had been written at the turn of the 12th century. Finally, those writers pointed out that the reckonings of time did not agree so badly with their opinion. For one who lived in the time of Childebert I (511–558), Goar, could certainly, when he came to Trier, have approached our Fibicius; and he could also, some time afterwards, which is related in his Life, have been accused before Rusticus, bishop of Trier, since all the ancient catalogues of the bishops present him as the second successor of Fibicius, with Abrunculus interposed.
[5] of whom the Life of St. Goar makes mention But all these things have only the appearance of truth. For all those catalogues are faulty in this place, since they indicate that Rusticus was substituted for Aprunculus [MG., Scriptores vol. XIII, pp. 296–301; cf. also the Gesta Trevirorum, ibid., vol. VIII, p. 158.]. And since none of the catalogues is older than the 10th century, while the Life of St. Goar was written in the 9th century or perhaps even before the year 768 Cf. Krusch, vol. cited, p. 406., the suspicion indeed arises of itself that in this matter the catalogues depend on that Life, and that in them the name of Rusticus, received from the Life, was intruded in the place that seemed more suitable. That the catalogues are faulty we are taught by Gregory of Tours, a witness certainly most reliable, who clearly relates that Nicetius was substituted for Aprunculus immediately Vitae Patrum, VI, 3.. But since no place could be given to Rusticus after Nicetius either, as Venantius Fortunatus testifies that Magnericus succeeded Nicetius next [MG., Auctores antiquissimi vol. IV, 1, p. 291 (= appendix XXXIV); cf. the Life of St. Magnericus written about the year 975, c. 1 (Acta Sanctorum, July vol. VI, p. 183).], who sat at least until the year 587 Greg. of Tours, Hist. Franc., IX, 10., Hontheim [Hist. dipl., vol. I, pp. LX and 52; that the same man thought otherwise ibid., vol. III, p. 962, I should think he did not do with sufficient deliberation.] and after him Ph. Schmitt Die Kirche des hl. Paulinus bei Trier (1853), pp. 87 and 447 and following. and Friedrich Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. II, p. 175 and following. had thought they would bring a remedy to the whole matter by a slight correction, if they placed Rusticus immediately after Fibicius and after him Aprunculus. But it is manifest that these things, which were devised so that account might be taken of the Life of Goar, do not cohere with this very Life; for in that Life it is read that, when Goar, accused before Rusticus, had in his turn revealed the bishop's unspeakable crime, the matter was carried to the ears of king Sigibert, who, having summoned Goar to himself, wished to ordain him bishop of Trier in place of Rusticus The older Life, c. 9 (ed. Krusch, p. 420).. Moreover, how badly these things accord with what we have recalled above is sufficiently clear, since the first king of the Franks of this name began to reign in the year 561 and died in the year 575.
[6] difficult to explain I know indeed that, to extricate themselves from these difficulties,
and to preserve these narratives, or at least some part of them, for genuine history, different men have used different arts, while some feign two men named Rusticus, the one holy, the other wicked; some expunge Rusticus from the catalogue of the bishops of Trier and imagine he was a chorepiscopus; and some even — which in a historical matter is a childish, but not so rare, kind of disputing — so long as whatever in the Life of Goar does not conflict with things known from elsewhere is held as true, freely agree that the rest be exposed as false: namely, that the name of king Sigibert was wrongly intruded by the author or interpolator of the Life in place of the name of another Merovingian king, and that the whole narrative of Rusticus's wicked deed is a fable, by which a pious custom introduced on behalf of what they call foundling children was twisted and depraved by an unskilled narrator Cf. Friedrich, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, vol. II, pp. 176–81, 219–22..
[7] and of no great authority. But, omitting these things, which have often been disputed in vain with many words, as seeming to have been devised more acutely than truly, it will be enough for us to have noted the one point which is the chief, how slight is the authority of that Life of St. Goar, which in this matter alone serves us as a source. For that both Lives of Goar are by no means free of errors both chronological and historical is both plainly manifest and agreed among all See Krusch, l. c., pp. 402–5.. Moreover, since nothing is available from which we may determine how far that licence of inventing went, reason demands that, until we obtain something more certain from elsewhere, we abstain from placing that Life in the number of historical documents. As, then, it is not our intention to deny obstinately the whole history of Goar and in particular what is narrated in it in a few words about Felicius (or Fibicius?) the bishop, so we shrink from asserting these same things as certainly true or even probable.
[8] That he presided over the abbey of St. Maximin It is read in certain modern writers that Fibicius, before he was set over the church of Trier, presided as abbot over the Trier monastery of St. Maximin. Confirmation of this is to be found in only one monument, and that not very ancient, in the catalogue of the abbots of St. Maximin written at the turn of the 12th century, which Alex. Wiltheim brings forward Annales S. Maximini (cod. Brux. 3169), vol. I, book I, p. 89; book II, p. 15.; in which Fibicius is designated the ninth abbot of the most celebrated monastery. There agree, as was to be expected, the more recent catalogues written before the year 1614 [Edited from the Brussels codex 6835 in Compte rendu de la Commission royale d'histoire, vol. V (1842), p. 7 and following.] and between the years 1623–1652 That second one is read in the Brussels codex 2221, 17th century.. In all these, however, and also in more recent authors, Fibicius is said to have been the second abbot of this name, recent documents relate. since before this a certain Fibicius or Felicius had ruled the monastery in the 4th century after John, the first abbot. Why Du Saussay Martyrologium gallicanum, at the 5th of November. makes our Fibicius not the ninth but the fifth abbot of St. Maximin, since he supports it with no argument, I cannot determine. Nor do several writers bring forward any argument to prove in some way what they firmly assert, that Fibicius lived from the year 466 So the catalogue which is written out in the cited Brussels codex 2221., or was elected abbot from the year 494 [So, for example, J. Marx, Geschichte des Erzstifts Trier, 2nd division, vol. I (1860), p. 40.], and other things of this kind. Finally, so as to omit nothing of what is commonly handed down about the offices filled by our saint, I by no means understand why the second catalogue of the abbots of St. Maximin mentioned above Compte rendu de la Comm. roy. d'hist., vol. V, p. 9. calls Fibicius "the first archbishop of Trier"; while what Le Cointe teaches Ann. eccl. Franc., vol. I, in the latter index.: "(Fibicius) is reckoned the last of the prelates of Trier who enjoy metropolitan right through both Germanies. For that right, in the reign of Clovis, is attributed to the see of Worms," rests solely on the opinion so often attacked and entirely foreign to the truth, by which St. Rupert, bishop of Worms and then of Salzburg, is feigned to have lived in the 6th century.
[9] The cult shown to him These "few things" about the deeds of St. Fibicius, as Wiltheim wrote Annales S. Maximini, in cod. Brux. 3169, vol. I, book II, p. 15., "and, such is the injury of antiquity, absolutely all" we have had to say. It remains, therefore, for us to inquire briefly about his ecclesiastical cult. Its beginning Brower reported thus [Ann. Trev., book V, CXIII (vol. I, p. 304); cf. vol. II in the chronological index, p. 5.]: Of St. Fibicius, "the miracles worked after death betrayed the truly approved holiness of his life. His bones, buried in an oratory beside the bridge of the Moselle, were taken away thence, either by the wickedness of evil men or by the immoderate devotion of Christians, as the opinion of the ancients became widespread. Thence the perpetual memory of the prelate flourishes in the church, to be recalled on the 5th of November." These meagre and not sufficiently certain things Brower perhaps took from some not very ancient catalogue of the bishops of Trier, in the same way as the author of the cited catalogue of the abbots of St. Maximin, compiled before the year 1614 Cf. above, note 1., drew from it; in which there is read of St. Fibicius Page 9.: "Buried beside the bridge of Trier, shining with miracles. So the catalogue of the bishops of Trier has it." Similar things are related by Wiltheim Annales S. Maximini, book II, p. 17., Mabillon Ann. O. S. B., year 563, XXVII (vol. I, p. 153)., Hontheim Prodromus, p. 999. and others; and Mabillon and Hontheim say that the little shrine in which the saint was buried was sacred to St. Nicholas. Since all these things are confirmed by no ancient monument that we have been able to find, let credit for them rest with the authors.
[10] monuments not very ancient. However that may be, the cult of our saint does not seem to have been very ancient, or at least celebrated in ancient times. For we have only one testimony of it before the 13th century, namely in the psalter of St. Symeon of Trier of the 11th century, of which above, num. 1. On the other hand, wherever some series, whether longer or shorter, of the prelates of Trier who were venerated as saints has been handed down, we have nowhere found Fibicius. For he does not appear at the end of the 10th century among those 19 holy bishops of Trier whose images are painted in that Gertrudian codex, formerly at Trier, now kept in the city of Cividale [Cf. F.-X. Kraus, Die ältern Bischofskataloge von Trier, in Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinlande, vol. XLIV/XLV (1868), pp. 165–66.]; nor even among the nine holy prelates with whose images was adorned, at the same time, the case in which, in the greater church of Limburg on the Lahn, "the staff of St. Peter" is kept enclosed [Cf. Kraus, vol. cited, pp. 166–67; Id., Die christlichen Inschriften der Rheinlande, II Theil (1894), pp. 212–13.]. Indeed, even in the series of the bishops of Trier written in the 11th and 12th centuries, in which not a few bishops are honoured with the appellation "saint" [MG., Scriptores vol. XIII, pp. 296–301; these are series II, III, VI; the rest (10th–12th centuries) give only the names.], Fibicius is inserted with his bare name. But from the beginning of the 13th century, though not always, yet often, the memory of St. Fibicius is read inscribed at the 5th of November in the liturgical books of Trier [For example in the psalter of St. Maximin of the beginning of the 13th century (cod. of Trier, City Library 435); in the martyrology and necrology of St. Maximin of the 12th century (ibid. cod. 1634), in whose calendar indeed there is nothing about St. Fibicius, but in the martyrology itself (fol. 51) these words have been added in a 13th-century hand: On the same day (5 Nov.), of St. Fibitius, archbishop of Tr(ier) and abbot of this place [it will be helpful to have noted that in the calendar of the psalter of St. Maximin, of the 10th century (Hontheim, Prodromus, vol. I, p. 378), Fibicius is not inscribed]; in breviaries of the 14th century (ibid. cod. 427, 441 and 469); in missals of the 14th and 15th centuries (codices of Trier, Library of the Cathedral 156 and City Library 358), etc.], and in very many more recent martyrologies, whether manuscript or printed, the same day is assigned for celebrating either his feast or at least his commemoration.