Adelgisus

ON ST. ADELGISUS, BISHOP OF NOVARA AND CONFESSOR, IN THE DUCHY OF MILAN,

About the middle of the 11th Century.

SYLLOGE.

The Saint's sacred cult, age, and munificence toward his church.

Adelgisus, bishop of Novara, confessor, in the duchy of Milan. (S.)

BY J. B.

Among the nobler bishoprics of Insubria which are suffragan to the metropolitan of Milan, that of Novara holds not the last place, St. Adelgisus, bishop of Novara, says Ughelli, volume 4 of the enlarged Sacred Italy, column 689, ancient from its first foundation, noble and opulent. I pass over the things which the same Ughelli writes of the antiquity of the city of Novara; of the various peoples to whose dominion it was subject; and of the origin of the Catholic faith spread among its inhabitants: Ughelli mentions in the same place, column 690, two churches of Novara especially, of which speech will recur below, namely the cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God assumed into heaven, and that of St. Gaudentius, bishop of Novara, situated formerly in the suburb of the city, now destroyed, whose Provost and some canons were transferred to the cathedral church. Then, unfolding the series of the prelates of Novara, Ughelli records in the thirty-second place St. Adelgisius (called Adelgisus by others, and by others also Aldigisius), which is likewise done in the Catalogue of the bishops of Novara in Carlo Bascapè, likewise bishop of Novara, book 2, page 599. His deeds are for the most part in obscurity, if you except the few which the envy of time has spared: whence he is known also to few martyrologists, yet he did not escape the diligence of Chastelain, who announces him on the 6th day of October in the Universal Martyrology, written in French, in few words, and with a note of the time in which he flourished, in this manner: At Novara in the Duchy of Milan, St. Adelgisus (in French S. Algis, as he interprets), bishop.

[2] Somewhat more Ferrari supplies from the Monuments of the church of Novara in both Catalogues of the Saints: Begun in the 16th century to be venerated with a double Office, his body in that which he wrote of the Saints of Italy, he speaks thus likewise on the 6th day of October: Adelgisus, or Aldegisius, bishop of Novara, did many things both religiously and liberally, whose piety shone forth in every work. He enlarged the College of Canons of the cathedral basilica with benefices, and adorned the cathedral itself with gifts. He lived in the episcopate XIX years, Sergius II and Leo IV (of whom the former governed the Church from the year 844 until the year 847, and the latter from then until the year 855) being supreme Pontiffs. And full of days and merits he fell asleep in the Lord on the day before the Nones of October, whose body, entombed in the church of St. Gaudentius, rests up to these times. To the same come the things which Ferrari has of St. Adelgisus in the General Catalogue of the Saints. Of the sacred cult paid to their Bishop by the people of Novara we have as witness Carlo, bishop of Novara, in the Work praised above, page 280, writing thus: The church of Novara venerates him with the honour of the Saints, and celebrates his memory on the Nones of October. To this also contributes what Ferrari writes of St. Adelgisus in the Annotations in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy: The birthday of this holy Bishop began to be celebrated from the year of the Lord MDLXXXII (he says in the General Catalogue of the Saints that it is celebrated with double rite) by Francesco Bossi, bishop of Novara, noted in the tables composed for sacred use. To this finally contributes also the translation of the body of St. Adelgisus, already made before, from the destroyed church of St. Gaudentius into that of St. Vincent, situated within the walls of the city of Novara.

[3] [it rested long in the old church of St. Gaudentius, then for a while in the church of St. Vincent,] Carlo, prelate of Novara, page 27, writes thus of it: The relics (of St. Gaudentius) were first brought from the old church of St. Gaudentius into the church of St. Vincent on the 22nd day of October MDLIII, on which day the memory of his translation is celebrated. And they are still in that church, which remains on the Southern side of that new church, now indeed in place of a sacristy. Here, then, is venerated the body of St. Gaudentius, first bishop and patron of the church of Novara, and likewise of St. Aldegisius, a very celebrated bishop. On what occasion and for what cause that solemn translation of SS. Gaudentius and Adelgisus was made by John Cardinal Morone, as Ughelli writes under Morone, the same Carlo Bascapè teaches, book 2, page 574: At that time (Morone at Novara) certain persons judged (how piously they themselves may see) that the churches and monasteries which were near the walls should be destroyed for the sake of fortification; at the same time that their material might be of use for building the walls; which ruin had already been begun in the year MDL. For when war had been renewed again in the region of Piedmont between Henry, king of the French, and Charles (V), the emperor, there was treating of fortifying the city of Novara, the suburbs, which had also themselves once been fortified, being excluded. This was the occasion and cause of the translation: And there were destroyed, says moreover Carlo, prelate of Novara, the church and monastery of St. Mary of the Carmelites, the ancient church of St. Gaudentius (in which the relics of St. Adelgisus lay), the church and monastery of St. Mary of the nuns ad casellas: the church and monastery of St. Peter Martyr of the Order of St. Dominic: the church and monastery of St. Lawrence, the church and monastery of St. John of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine.

[4] now he rests in the new one of St. Gaudentius, The old church of St. Gaudentius being overthrown, the citizens of Novara wished to raise a new one to the same Saint within the bosom of the city; whose first stone at length, says Carlo, book 1, page 27, was laid on the 21st day of March MDLXXVII: which, when in thirteen years it had been built with sumptuous and elegant work, although not finished, had yet been brought into such a state that divine things could be celebrated in it, was consecrated by the bishop (of Novara) Cesare Speciano on the 15th day before the Kalends of January MDXC. From which words, compared with what I adduced at the beginning of the preceding number from the same Carlo, it appears that the relics of St. Gaudentius, and, as the same Carlo adds at page 287, of St. Adelgisus, were first translated in the year 1553 into the church of St. Vincent, and then after the year 1577 into the new church of St. Gaudentius: whence you may correct Ughelli, writing thus under Adelgisus: His body with other relics of the Saints was translated from the Old church of St. Gaudentius into the New in the year MDLIII. From the same it likewise appears how those words of Ferrari which I related above are to be understood: Whose body, entombed in the church of St. Gaudentius (namely formerly in the old, but now kept in the new), rests up to these times. And let these things said of the sacred cult of the holy Bishop suffice: a few things, however, are to be said of the day on which he is venerated.

[5] Ferrari says in the words cited above that St. Adelgisus departed from this life on the day before the Nones; and he seems to be venerated on the 7th of October. wherefore he inserted him in his Catalogue on the 6th day of October. So perhaps he found in the Tables of the church which he praises: I do not delay here over Chastelain, who most probably transferred St. Adelgisus from Ferrari into his Martyrology: but to us, whose custom it chiefly is to refer the Saints to those days on which they are venerated, whether of their death, or of their deposition, or finally of their translation, it seemed good to treat of him on this day, as was said on the preceding day among the Passed-over, because Carlo Bascapè, bishop of the place, testifies in express words, as may be seen at number 2, that St. Adelgisus is venerated at Novara on the Nones of October, and that in the Work which he wrote of set purpose about his church, and not very many years after St. Adelgisus was entered into the ecclesiastical tables: for from the year 1582, in which Ferrari writes that Francesco Bossi, bishop of Novara, did this, until the year 1612, in which Carlo's Work, which I have in hand, came forth from the press of Novara, there are only 30 years; and therefore he without doubt had very well explored the deeds of his predecessor Bossi, though not his immediate one, and the day on which St. Adelgisus was venerated while he himself was bishop; so that, if either of the two committed an error here, it seems far more advisable to ascribe it not to Carlo but rather to Ferrari, in whom accuracy is otherwise not rarely wanting.

[6] Chastelain, since he added to St. Adelgisus no

note of the time in which he lived and died, He acted as bishop of Novara about the middle of the 9th century, seems to have held as less safe the statement of Ferrari, by which he asserted that he flourished about the middle of the ninth century, Sergius II and Leo IV being Pontiffs: yet Ferrari rightly assigned his age. This is made out from a threefold monument of that age: the first Muratori exhibits, volume 5 of the Italian Antiquities of the middle age, columns 985 and 986, and it is the synodal decree of Angelbert, archbishop of Milan, and of the bishops of the province, by which the immunity of the monastery of SS. Faustinus and Jovita at Brescia is confirmed, given in the Year of the Lord's Incarnation (the words are the Decree's) DCCCXLII. In the twenty-third year also of the empire of the most Christian emperor Lothair, Indiction v. Where in the second place St. Adelgisus is read subscribed in this way: I, Aldigisius, unworthy bishop, have subscribed and consented. The second is a charter of Adelgisus himself, praised by Carlo, bishop of Novara, page 284, as existing in the episcopal archive, and given at Pavia in the XXth year of the empire of Lothair, Indiction III. The third is a diploma of Louis II Augustus in Muratori, cited volume 1, columns 925 and following, by which he confirms all privileges and rights to Dodo (whom Ughelli calls Oddo), bishop of Novara and the immediate successor of St. Adelgisus, in the year, Christ being propitious, of the Empire of the Lord Hlothar, most glorious augustus, XXXV, and of Hlodovic his son, most pious emperor in Italy, v, Indiction II. The Indictions V, III and II designate the years 842, 840 and 854, whatever may be concerning the epoch from which the years of Lothair are computed in them, which Pagi at the year 821 and following, and Muratori in the Annals of Italy at the year 822, teach was various. Further, from the last monument it is clear that St. Adelgisus did not survive among the living after the year 854, and held the chair of Novara from about the year 835 at least, if the author of the Catalogue of the prelates of Novara in the most illustrious Carlo Bascapè, page 599, Carlo himself, and Ughelli rightly wrote that it was occupied by him for nineteen years.

[7] by race perhaps a Lombard: his deeds lie almost hidden; If we ask the race from which St. Adelgisus sprang, it may be suspected from his name that he was a Lombard by birth: for we know that Adelgisus, son of Desiderius, king of the Lombards, was called by that name. The reckoning of time also somehow favours this conjecture: for since he did not prolong his life beyond the year 854, as we said above, he could easily have been born about those times in which, the eighth century already declining, the kingdom of the Lombards in Italy was cut off by the valour of Charlemagne. For the rest, the antiquity of the times has grudged us the deeds of the holy Prelate, as we have said: not so, however, but that at least a few monuments survive which bear testimony to his love and munificence toward his clergy. Hear on this matter Carlo, bishop of Novara, already very often praised. Adelgisus, then, the excellent bishop, he says, page 282 and following, gave to the Cathedral church many goods, which are noted in the ancient parchments of the same church, and in the letters of the emperor Lothair, as will be said: although by the change of names, as happens, some are now unknown: and also corrupted by Frankish men, namely the Court of St. Germanus with its appurtenances, together with the chapel or oratory of St. Michael, with the things which pertain to it. The court which is called Gemini, with its appurtenances. The tithe of the corn, wine and cattle, to be received from the city and from certain courts of his. Whose names are noted thus: Domus, Celeda, Ruscalina, Cista, Bauca, Cado, Episcopiano, Casale Madenig. Likewise the right of receiving the tithe from the benefices of his vassals, which they specially retain in their own dominion.

[8] there survive, however, Likewise the tithe from certain villages standing through his diocese, which are called Granotium, Paliada, Nemenoniae, Piscinarioli, Casaligla, Glauciana, Oblatum, Agoniata, Camilianum, Isarnia, Severiascum, Mateum, Berzini, Vebra, Aquilianum, Cameri, Secalianum, Galiatum, Berzonate, Perninate, Mapunianum, Palatiolum, Vilane, Graticinum, Saciacum, Tercade, Villa S. Germani. Which names are in great part corrupted, as is also the speech. Thus far Carlo, thinking that these were granted by Adelgisus to the clergy for the most part out of the ecclesiastical goods, of which the fourth part was owed to the clergy by the institution of the ancient canons, which truly appears even from the very context of the donation, partly copied out by Carlo: whence you may deservedly gather that the holy Bishop was most observant of the ancient canons. But he also made another donation to the church of St. Gaudentius, out of his own goods, as appears, since he says that he made it for his own salvation and that of his parents, and forbids his heirs to dare to break it, which still exists, and is transcribed here in memory of the holy Bishop from the same Carlo, page 285 and following: and it is of this kind: I, in the name of God, Adelgisus, by the grace of God bishop of the holy church of Novara, have spoken for salvation: Considering the mercy of almighty God, that for the remedy of my soul or of my parents, that it may profit me unto salvation in eternal life: it is necessary always to do that whence here and in the world to come a full reward may remain with almighty God.

[9] Accordingly I, the above Adelgisus, bishop, judge, certain things toward his church and institute, and by the present little charter of judgment confirm, that is, I give my court, the cultivated land which I have in the boundary or estate of the lower village of Cistum, or in its territory, and also the tenant-houses which I have in our village of Cistum and which came to me from the things of the ban of Adelard of the race of the Franks, and also from other men, that is, with houses, court-buildings, gardens, fields, threshing-floors, meadows, vineyards, woods, pastures, astalaria, water-rights, by-roads, cultivated or uncultivated, divided or undivided, movable or immovable, and self-moving, well, use of the well, outside or inside, houses, access or entrance: all, and in all, and entire, I give the court, the cultivated land, and also the tenant-houses, however many I shall have acquired in our village of Cistum by charter and purchase, or by whatever means, there; I, the above Adelgisus, bishop, judge and institute them for the canonry of St. Gaudentius (St. Lawrence is wrongly read in Ughelli), which is founded outside the wall of the city of Novara, where his holy body rests.

[10] of his munificence And I will that the canons themselves, who shall be there for the time, should have and ought to enjoy our things; and thence ought to procure clothing and footwear, that they may profit me unto salvation in eternal life. And this I will and institute, that they should have only defence from the Pontiff who shall be in the city of Novara for the time. For let no other claim from the same pontiff obtain anything; but this I will, that my deed, as is read above, remain firm and stable for perpetual times, and that it be not permitted to will otherwise than I have willed; but what has once been done or written by me I promise to be kept inviolably at all time. And if any of my heirs or kinsmen shall wish in any way to go against this my deed, let him not avail to claim what he has sought back; but let him be liable in fifty pounds of gold together with the fisc, his partner, and let this my deed remain firm and stable. Done within the city of Novara.

[11] documents, I, Adelgisus, although an unworthy bishop, have subscribed with my own hand this little charter of donation made or strengthened by me; and have decreed that it be strengthened by good men. Signs … of the hands of Ragimbert the Frank and Vassal of the Lord king … Sign … of the hand. I … Vhildritdus, priest, have subscribed. I, Crembert, being asked, have subscribed. I, Ansfred, priest, in this judgment have subscribed … with my own hand… I, Basiliscus, priest, in this judgment have written with my hand. I, Julio, notary, writer of this little charter of judgment, have written, after delivery have completed, and have given etc.