ON SS. AMICUS AND AMELIUS, VENERATED AS MARTYRS, AT MORTARA IN THE DUCHY OF MILAN,
ABOUT THE YEAR 773.
CRITICAL-HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Why the Saints are announced at Mortara; their name inserted in the sacred Fasti; the cult rendered to them; about what time they met death; what is to be thought of their martyrdom, and what kind of Acts they have.
Amicus, venerated as a martyr at Mortara in the duchy of Milan. (S.)
Amelius, venerated as a martyr at Mortara in the duchy of Milan. (S.)
BY D. A. B.
Most martyrologists who make mention of our Saints today place them in no locality. Molanus, however, in his announcement printed in smaller type, the Saints are announced at Mortara, places Amelius and Amicus at Pavia; but since it is established that they neither died in this city, nor were venerated or honoured in their sacred remains formerly kept here, there is surely no reason why I should judge that they are to be announced here. Castellanus, in his general Martyrology of the Saints, composes his announcement thus, turned by me from the French language into Latin: Between Novara and Pavia, the holy martyrs Amicus and Amelius, whose relics are kept at Mortara. Nor do I depart much from the mind of this martyrologist in marking our Saints at Mortara, since this town, situated between Novara and Pavia on the river Gogna, on Baudrand's testimony, is scarcely 4 miles distant from Vigevano towards the winter West, 10 from Novara towards the winter East, and 24 from the city of Ticinum towards the West, 18 towards Vercelli. I was moved to judge that they should be announced at Mortara by this reason only, that, although, as it seems, they did not die here, their relics were nevertheless kept with religious cult in this town for many centuries, as I am presently going to say. Therefore, the reader being forewarned of this matter, I undertake to say some things concerning their cult and history.
[2] Of the ancient martyrologists whom they call Classical, by more recent Martyrologies none inscribed the name of Amelius and Amicus in his Fasti. Their memory, however, is celebrated on this day by the author of our manuscript Florarium, who finished his Work about the year 1486, in words which I subjoin: The Passion of the blessed soldiers Amelius and Amicus, in the time of Charles the Great, in the year of Salvation DCCLXX, of whom one of them was the son-in-law; whose death, precious in the sight of the Lord, an evident miracle shown at their burial declared. The same are recalled by the writer of the Martyrology which Sollerius, in his Auctaria to Usuard at today's day, calls Matric.-Cartus.-Ultrajectens., and by Greven, whose announcement, put together in a rather prolix style, runs thus: Of SS. Amelius and Amicus, whose wonderful acts are read in the Speculum of Vincent, book 24, chapter 162. And since they were wonderfully alike, at length, in the war which Charles the Great waged in Italy against Desiderius, king of the Lombards, abounding in many works of piety, slain with many others, they obtained the palm of martyrdom. Molanus, copying everything about our Saints from Greven in the edition of the year 1568, in the edition of the following year supplies in smaller type only this: At Pavia, of the holy martyrs Amelius and Amicus, whom king Desiderius slew in the war against Charles the Great.
[3] and indeed inscribed on the 12th day of October, But why Maurolycus in his Martyrology, Petrus de Natalibus in the Catalogue of the Saints, book 9, chapter 21, and Du Saussay at the 4th day of October made mention of Amicus and Amelius is not clear to me. For since the church of Novara celebrates their feast on the twelfth of October, they seem for this reason with good cause to have been announced on this day, although perhaps on the fourth day of this month some memory of our Saints was made on account of some translation of theirs of whatever kind. That their sacred remains were kept with pious cult at Mortara, a not undistinguished town of the territory of Pavia, formerly belonging to the diocese of Novara, now to that of Vigevano, Castellanus teaches us. Ferrari asserts the same in the Catalogue of the Saints who are lacking in the Roman Martyrology, composed by him, where meanwhile, in the Notes subjoined to the individual days, he observes that our Saints are venerated with no ecclesiastical Office — not rightly, as the reader will understand from what is presently to be said.
[4] who in the church with public cult, as is narrated here, And indeed to one inquiring about the cult of SS. Amelius and Amicus there occur the things which the most illustrious Lord Carlo Bascapè, who governed this church from the year 1593 to 1615, as Ughelli writes in Italia Sacra, volume IV, column 727, has on page 23 of his books concerning the History of the Church of Novara, published in the year 1612. There are also venerated as martyrs, he says, Amicus and Amelius. A chapel has been instituted in the name of the first in the cathedral church, and his Office is customarily celebrated in the church on the 12th of October. Another also is recorded as instituted at Milan. There are those at Novara who on his account are called by the name of Amicus, and at Milan. Of their cult as Saints and Martyrs I have found nothing in the Martyrologies except in the Additions of Molanus to Usuard on the same 12th day of October …, where that mark is added by which the author declares the knowledge of the Saints not sufficiently certain. Vincent in the Speculum, book 23, chapter 162, has many things about their Life, and not all probable; which S. Antoninus also relates in the History of the Eighth Century, title 14, chapter 16, not however approving all. And these indeed say nothing of their sacred cult, only that they were Franks, pious and noble men, very alike in manners and countenance; who after many things, when they were in the army of Charles the Great, were slain on the same day in the battle against Desiderius, king of the Lombards, at Mortarium; since they had also been born and baptized on the same day. Indeed, when their bodies had been placed in two coffins by Charles's order, the one, of Amelius, being put in the church of St. Peter, and the other in the church of St. Eusebius, which was called the Royal, they relate that on the next day both were found in the royal church. And that was the part of Mortara in which the two churches were built, in the diocese of Novara, which part afterwards became part of the diocese of Vigevano, as will be said. Of these Men, the most illustrious author goes on, the writers of the History of Milan have also written, and Robert Gaguin in book 4 of the Deeds of the Franks. Boninus Mombritius wrote the Life of these as Martyrs, relating almost the same things as St. Antoninus … By which authors is confirmed the opinion that Desiderius fought with Charles in that place, so that from the multitude of the dead it received the name of Mortarium or Mortaria. And searching whether any memorial or monument of these Men remained there, we learned that traces of the coffins still remain and their images in military bodily dress. Moreover, that the people of Mortara have received from their forefathers that their bodies were in the church of St. Albinus: and that they were handed over for a price by a certain wicked Sardonius to the people of Casale; although among the people of Casale I found no memory of the matter.
[5] So the most illustrious bishop: from which it is beyond doubt plain that our Saints were inserted in the ecclesiastical Fasti already many centuries ago, enjoyed, and who, that they enjoyed sacred cult at least in the church of Novara, that a chapel dedicated to the name of Amicus existed both at Novara and at Milan, that the cult rendered to the Saints is very ancient, and that it is therefore to be retained in the church. By these monuments just recited, therefore, the whole truth of the cult rendered to the Saints is established: but the other things, which concern either their history, or the time at which they exchanged mortal life for the immortal, or finally the kind of death by which they were presented with the laurel of martyrdom, I would not dare to define with certainty, since no monuments of these exist. Yet I shall gladly set forth here what concerning these shrinks less from the appearance of truth.
[6] That the holy Men fell in the war undertaken by Charles the Great against Desiderius, king of the Lombards, although in the war against the Lombards in the year 773, the writers of the Martyrologies and the various copies of the Acts, either printed or manuscript, which are kept in the Bollandian Museum, assert with unanimous agreement of words: the same is reported by the tradition of the people of Novara, of which the most illustrious author whose words we have recited speaks. Therefore the death of the Saints cannot be marked before the year 773, in which the king of the Franks, roused by the letters of Pope Adrian, declared war on Desiderius, who had invaded the cities and goods of the Roman Church. Nay, I would not unwillingly say that it occurred before the month of November of this year. For since, according to Anastasius the Librarian in the Life of Pope Hadrian, published among the writers of Gaul, volume V, pages 458 and 461, the city of Pavia, besieged by the army of the Franks for the space of six months, was reduced into Charles's power only after the Easter feast, which in the year 774 fell on the first day of April, it hence comes about that the Franks held this city besieged from the beginning of the month of November of the year 773, or perhaps from about the end of the month of October of the same year: and consequently it is most probable that our Saints suffered death on the 12th day of October, on which the church of Novara celebrates their feast day. Hence the author of our Florarium is to be emended, who attaches the death of Amelius and Amicus to the year 770. For indeed Charles the Great had not then declared war on the king of the Lombards, whose daughter he had taken in this year to be joined to him in marriage, nor had Adrian himself, roused by whose prayers Charles moved against Desiderius, been raised to the supreme Pontificate: we have therefore judged that the day of the Saints' death is more rightly to be fixed in the year 773 in the chronological note placed at the beginning of this Sylloge.
[7] not in a continuous battle of some days, But perhaps, you will say, the biographer of our Saints narrates that Amelius and Amicus fell in a battle fought over several days, namely when, the crags of the Alps having been surmounted, there was such fighting between the Franks and the Lombards at Mortara that Mortara received its name from the huge number of the dead. But this battle fought at Mortara is rightly rejected among old wives' tales by Muratori, Annals of Italy, volume 4, page 357: for the writers whom Bouquet inserted in volume V of his collection of the Writers of Gaul do not mention it. And indeed on page 138 the Saxon Poet, who lived in the time of the emperor Arnulf, has thus:
The horrid Alps therefore having been crossed, like a whirlwind the double army had burst upon the fields of Ausonia, far and wide laying waste the opulent kingdom. And now a huge fear of the Franks struck all. For Desiderius, who at first was preparing war, hoping in vain to be able to withstand Charles, he put to flight by terror, before any engagement had been made.
Einhard writes the same in his Annals, brought into Bouquet's Collection from page 202. Having overcome,
he says, the ridge of the Alps, he put to flight without an engagement king Desiderius, who was trying in vain to resist him. So also almost all the other chronologers, whose texts I forbear to report here. And therefore our Saints could not fall in a general battle, which was not given at all at that time: whatever, then, their biographer narrates of their death and burial is to be banished among the fables.
[8] but they were slain in a skirmishing fight, But what that author, whoever he was, writes here and in the whole history of our Saints which he composed is of very little weight. For I judge with Muratori that Amelius and Amicus did not fall in a drawn-up battle line, or in a battle continued for some days, but also that no such battle was then joined. But that at least a light or skirmishing fight took place between some soldiers of each army, while Desiderius advanced with his forces to meet Charles, no one, as I think, will deny. Some writers who have spoken of this war seem surely to intimate it: for Ado, writing at the year 773, has these words: King Desiderius had then drawn up the army of the Lombards beside the cluses; but, not being able to withstand the onset of the Franks, he fled back to Pavia. The annalist of Metz, whose Work is inserted in Bouquet's Collection, volume V, from page 341, also narrates the matter not obscurely. His words are these: King Charles pitched camp opposite the Cluses: but the Lombards were defending the rampart. And Charles sent a detachment of most approved soldiers by a difficult ascent of the mountain, who, the mountain having been crossed, turned the Lombards with Desiderius their king to flight. With these agrees Hermann Contractus, writing thus at the often-mentioned year: Charles makes for Italy, and having gained the Cluses by force, besieged Desiderius, fleeing, at Pavia. That the Franks pursued the fleeing Lombards is related in express words by Anastasius in the Life of Hadrian, in Bouquet, volume V, page 461, and by Flodoard in the verses reprinted by Bouquet on page 463. And therefore Desiderius at once opposed force with force, then, broken by terror, fled to Pavia, the Franks pursuing. But who would believe it foreign to the appearance of truth that our Saints could have been slain either in this first clash, sent perhaps with the most approved men against Desiderius, or perhaps in a second conflict, while the Franks pursued the fleeing Lombards, and that their bodies, by order of Charles the Great, were committed to the ground at Mortara, by which the way lay open to the city of Pavia? Nor certainly do these things disagree with what the authors relate; but that a battle, or at least a certain clash, took place between soldiers of each army in the passes of the Alps is taught in clear words by the author of the Salerno Chronicle, published among the Writers of Italian Affairs, volume 7, who composed his Work after the middle of the twelfth century, writing thus at the year 773, column 149: Having overcome the ridge of the Alps, he conquered in a battle joined and put to flight king Desiderius, who was trying in vain to resist him. And this surely suffices for the tradition of the church of Novara concerning our Saints to remain whole and intact. Are these men, then, slain in the war undertaken against Desiderius, to be held as Martyrs?
[9] Although Amicus and Amelius were killed neither in hatred of the faith nor for the cause of justice, as they were held to be Martyrs. they were nevertheless held as Martyrs by the pious credulity of the faithful; nor was the thing very unusual in those centuries: for to our Saints there happened what Bolland, illustrating the Acts of St. Canute the king in volume 1 of January, page 391, asserts befell many others, wickedly slain by wicked men, who are venerated as Martyrs: whoever has gone through the volumes of this vast Work will discover not a few examples of similar martyrdom. Du Cange too in his Glossary, under the word Martyr, names some who, killed neither in hatred of religion nor for the cause of justice, were nevertheless presented with the honour of martyrdom: which I think is to be said of our Saints also. For since they fell in the war against the Lombards, who for many years had been hostile to the goods of the Church, and some of whom perhaps, as it appears, were still addicted to the superstitions of the heathen, hence, as I think, the people of Novara and others seized the occasion of holding them as Martyrs.
[10] Their Acts do not seem to be worth editing. The Acts of our Saints had long since been brought into their works by Vincent of Beauvais, St. Antoninus, Mombritius and some other hagiologists. We found in the Bollandian Museum two copies of them, copied from a very ancient codex of the monastery of Sithiu and from the papers of Rouge-Cloître, which do not differ from the printed ones; but in all of them the reader will see nothing that is not contrary to historical facts known from elsewhere. For from the fact that both gave their names to military service and fell in battle on the same day, whoever committed their Acts to writing, in I know not what century, asserted from this that they were born and washed in the sacred waters on the same day, and were so alike in manners, disposition and countenance that one could scarcely be distinguished from the other. I pass over the other fictions with which the copies extant with us, or those published by hagiologists, abound. Therefore, lest this Bollandian Work be burdened with useless bulk, I do not judge that they should be reprinted here.