ON ST. AMANDUS OF WORMS, BISHOP, VENERATED (AS IT SEEMS) AT SALZBURG,
ABOUT THE YEAR 650.
CRITICAL COLLECTION.
Amandus, confessor and bishop, at Worms and Salzburg. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ I. The civil and Christian origins of Worms. The first bishops. Amandus I and St. Amandus II. The notable donation of Dagobert I. The church of St. Amandus II at Worms. The cessation of the cult.
How much labour was needed in the preceding Commentary on St. Amandus, bishop of Strasbourg, to show that he was other than St. Amandus, [In what darkness St. Amandus, bishop of Worms, or the one venerated at Salzburg, is wrapped, on account of confusion with St. Amandus of Maastricht.] bishop of Maastricht, there is no need for me to remind the reader; and there at least the good fortune was such that not only did the difference between the two become certain, but also the chief deeds of the prelate of Strasbourg became known. But now, when discourse is to be held of the St. Amandus who is venerated at Salzburg and is said to have been bishop of Worms, we run into a much denser forest. To extricate ourselves from which conveniently (as far as may be), these things seem to be noted at the threshold. It appears first that before St. Rupert there sat in the chair of Worms two bishops named Amandus, and that one was honoured with the praise of sanctity; next that in the monastic church of St. Peter at Salzburg there exists the body of a certain St. Amandus, which is manifestly different from the body of St. Amandus of Maastricht, formerly preserved in the ascetery of Elnone. And yet the monks of Salzburg contend that their St. Amandus is a bishop of Worms, whose remains St. Rupert carried there, when, leaving the see of Worms, he made for Salzburg and there set up a new chair. But at Salzburg and at Worms there existed churches under the title of St. Amandus, and in both places at the days 6 February and 26 October the festivity of St. Amandus has been celebrated: whether these look to Amandus of Maastricht, or to the one of Worms or another buried at Salzburg, has been so disputed by some, especially by Hansiz, that you would say that St. Amandus, whose body was held in much honour at Salzburg, almost never existed among men. Let us, then, bring back to some heads the things that are certain; from which a probable opinion may then be delivered about those things that are less luminous.
[2] [In Upper Germania, whose ancient fortunes are briefly indicated, the fourth city is Borbitomagus, also Vangiones and Worms.] Germania, circumscribed by its first boundaries, was formerly divided into Transrhenane and Cisrhenane, because the Rhine, running from its sources to the Ocean, flowed through the middle and cut it in two parts. The Transrhenane, called also Great and extending eastward from the right bank of the Rhine, I omit; since it does not relate to this matter. But the other, held to be a part of Gaul and extending from Mainz as far as the Batavi, Julius Caesar subdued in the year 57 before the birth of Christ and reduced to the form of a province; which Augustus or Tiberius who succeeded him (as we have shown in the Commentary on St. Amandus of Strasbourg) divided into Upper and Lower Germania. Then a president was placed over each and the Rhine frontier was fortified with forts, towns and garrisons of legions; until at length, the Transrhenane Germans having been conquered, Valerius Martial could direct these prayers to the Rhine Bk. X, epigr. 7.:
Nor may the barbarian wheel of the insulting Ploughman crush you, trampled: So both golden, your horns recovered, And Roman may you go on either bank.
Between the Nemetes and the Treveri there dwelt on the left bank the Vangiones, whose city bore the Celtic name of Borbitomagus Ptolemy, bk. II, in D. Bouquet, vol. I, p. 78.
And those who imitate you, Sarmatian, with loose breeches Lucan, Pharsalia, bk. I, v. 430.
Auxiliaries of the Roman people, but often faithless and prone to the enemy (if opportunity smiled). In the middle of the 4th century their lands were occupied by the Alemanni; whom however Julian, prefect of Gaul, the same who is called the Apostate, removed Ammianus Marcellinus, bk. XVI, ch. 2.. Then there took his post in their city, which was the fourth of Germania Superior or Prima, a prefect of the soldiers of Flavia Secunda under the disposition of the distinguished duke of Mainz Notitia imperii, in D. Bouquet, vol. I, p. 128.. Which city, like almost all the others in Gaul, laying aside the name of Borbitomagus and taking the gentile name of the Vangiones, lacked none of the adornments of Roman cities, having an aqueduct, baths, an amphitheatre Cf. Schannat, Hist. episc. Wormatiensis, vol. I, pp. 4 and 5.. But at the beginning of the 5th century the Vangiones, as St. Jerome expresses it Epist. XCI to Ageruchia, in D. Bouquet, vol. I, p. 744., were destroyed by a long siege. The walls seem to have been restored by the Burgundians and it was made the head of a kingdom, under the name of Worms. From the year 453 to 496 it seems to have obeyed the Alemanni Pauli, Geschichte der Stadt Worms, pp. 94 and 95.; whom the Franks succeeded, whose kings built themselves a palace there, bringing back its former splendour Ibid., p. 101 and following..
[3] [Christianity having been established there, in the 4th century the bishops were Victor and] The origin of Christianity is no less obscure there than at Strasbourg. Yet it flourished in the middle of the 4th century, under Bishop Victor, who in the year 346 was present at the council of Cologne, which we have vindicated at length elsewhere See above, p. 829 and following., and judged that Euphrates, guilty of insult against Christ, Amandus I, who is said to have gone out to meet St. Servatius. should be deposed Labbe, Concilia, vol. II, col. 616.. He who then comes in the Catalogues (of which however I know none that is ancient) pertains more properly to us, since he is Amandus the first; the same whose body the monks of Salzburg suppose they possess; whether rightly, will be said below: in the Chronicle of Worms, then, which seems never to have come to light, but excerpts of which were sent in the year 1661 to those venerable monks Historia de corpore S. Amandi, p. 17., it is read that he lived in the year 364. The same is mentioned by Jakob Schopper Chorographia Germaniæ, part III, ch. 6, fol. 735., Jean Gaultier Chronicum chronicorum, p. 1., Démocharès De Sacrificio missæ, bk. II., Bertius, writing by mistake Arnold Commentarii rerum Germanicarum, bk. III, fol. 723., Brusch, whose book came to light in the year 1549 Magni operis de omnibus Germaniæ episcopatibus epitome, fol. 103., and the vernacular Chronicle of Worms, printed in the year 1551 Cf. Historia de corpore, etc. p. 4.; whom there follow behind all the Galliae Christianae, Schannat in the History of the bishopric of Worms, and other more recent writers. But besides common praises, nothing is read in all these except these few things, which Brusch has comprised in brief: Amandus, pious pastor of the church of the Vangiones, presided faithfully by preaching and teaching. To him came from Rome St. Servatius, bishop of Tongeren. There exist concerning this Bishop Amandus old little verses, excellently depicting his episcopal life:
Præsul amavit oves proprias et pavit Amandus; Iccirco superis semper amandus erit. Ille Deum docuit ardenter Amandus amandum: Et nobis igitur semper Amandus erit.
[The prelate Amandus loved and fed his own sheep; / Therefore he will ever be to be loved by those above. / That Amandus ardently taught that God is to be loved: / And to us therefore he will ever be Amandus, the one to be loved.]
But that St. Servatius in the year 384 Cf. Acta SS., vol. III of May, p. 213., returning from Rome, turned aside to Amandus, prelate of Worms, was first handed down by Jucundus From a manuscript codex of our museum., who in the 11th century sprinkled the Life of St. Servatius with fables, and after him by Aegidius of Liège, a monk of Orval, who flourished in the year of the Lord 1240. Approaching Worms, says the latter In Chapeauville, Gesta pontificum Tungrensium etc., vol. I, p. 41., he was magnificently received by blessed Amandus, prelate of the same city. Where is to be noticed the title of blessed, with which Amandus is decorated; than which I know no more ancient indication of veneration. Yet almost all abstain from calling him a saint; nor did the monks of Salzburg have anything from which to call him a saint, except that beneath his arms (certainly a recent fiction), which had been sent to them, there was written: S. Amandus Historia de corpore, etc. p. 4.. On which very weak authority I should not dare to pronounce that Amandus I, prelate of Worms, was ever lawfully reckoned among the saints.
[4] [Before the middle of the 7th century there flourished in the same place St. Amandus II, whose praises are celebrated.] Then there follow three Frankish names: Charles, St. Crotold and St. Rupert; but since St. Rupert lived in the 8th century, as my lamented colleague Antoine Tinnebroek has shown with wonderful sagacity in the Commentary on St. Vitalis at the 20th day of October Acta SS., vol. VIII of October, p. 913 and following., I have no doubt that these names have been moved from their place and are to be referred to more recent times. St. Amandus II, then, must be said by me to have preceded them, whom Brusch heaps with these praises: St. Amandus presided over the archbishopric of Worms in the times of Dagobert, the most Christian king of the Gauls, and the most munificent benefactor and restorer of all the bishoprics situated on the Rhine: who had his royal seat outside the walls of the city of the Vangiones in that very place where now is Neuhausen, a celebrated college of canons. In the times of this archbishop that Dagobert, king of the Gauls, offered and gave as a gift, in the presence of Arnulf of Metz and Hunibert * of Cologne, bishops, to St. Peter the apostle, patron of the bishopric of Worms, the county of Ladenburg with the whole adjacent territory, in the sixth year of his reign. The original diploma of this memorable donation is still had entire in the archives of the bishop of Worms, given at Mainz. This Bishop Amandus was also renowned for such religion and such miracles, by which God confirmed the Christian doctrine, that the senate and people of the city of the Vangiones erected a church for him after his death, for the sake of gratitude and piety; which, situated even today in the suburb, is called the parish of St. Amandus. There exist concerning him the following little verses, not altogether unhappy:
Pacis amatorem ferventer Amandus amavit; Ergo pacificus cœlica regna colit. Vota, preces, gemitus, lachrymas, suspiria, planctus, Fer, pater, ad superos: te Deus audit enim.
[Amandus fervently loved the lover of peace; / Therefore the peaceful man dwells in the heavenly realms. / Vows, prayers, groans, tears, sighs, lamentations, / Bear, father, to those above: for God hears you.]
[5] How it came about that he is wrongly called archbishop. That St. Amandus is called archbishop could have given a handle, among the first, to Othlo [In the Life of St. Boniface, in Mabillon, Sæculum Benedictinum II, part III, p. 52.], a writer of the 11th century, when in favour of Boniface he would have the church of Mainz, “which before (he says) was subject to another,” erected into a metropolis; although he did not express that subjection, which perhaps then had some regard to Cologne; but that anonymous writer who the deeds of the people of Trier down to the year 1132
comprised, dealing with the same aforesaid Boniface, contends in express words that before his times “the bishops of Mainz were suffragans of the bishops of Worms.” Which opinion Albert, abbot of Stade, Sifrid the presbyter, Dietrich Engelhus, Wilhelm Eisengrein, Franciscus Irenicus, Freher, Brusch and others then embraced, and supported not so much by the authority of truth as of antiquity, transmitted it by long tradition to posterity together with the following verse:
“Behold, the bishop of the kindly city gives to the people of Mainz The height of metropolis, which was yours, O Worms.”
But since no sufficiently plausible reason appears why or when the former of these two churches was subject to the other, since indeed still in the year of Christ 346 in the council of Cologne each had its own prelate present, distinguished from each other not by dignity or character, but by name alone; we stick in the darkness, which among the moderns Le Cointe has not sufficiently dispelled [Annales ecclesiastici Francorum, at the year 455, number 14, vol. I, pp. 83 and 84.]. For what he narrates, that in the reign of Clovis Crotold, bishop of Worms, was metropolitan of both Germanies, and that his other successors down to Amandus inclusive shone with this excellent quality; and that when Amandus died, Germany lacked an archbishop until the year 742, in which Boniface was ordained; all this he should have proved by solid testimonies; otherwise, if it is permissible to employ mere conjectures and adhere to them, the credit due to none of those who wrote before him will be adjudged him in these matters also. To which most weighty censure of the historiographer of the bishopric of Worms Schannat, Historia episcopatus Wormatiensis, vol. I, p. 637. I should wish to add nothing.
[6] He obtains a notable diploma from Dagobert I, Brusch has handed down better things about the diploma of King Dagobert I, which St. Amandus obtained in the year 627 or the following and which is as it were the foundation of the whole temporal dominion which the bishops of Worms thereafter possessed. Behold the diploma according to the copies of Schannat and of the Palatine Academy Ibid., p. 309; Acta academiæ Palatinæ, vol. VIII, p. 61.: Dagobert, king of the Franks. We wish all to know how we, thinking of the remedy of our soul and of the future retribution, have wholly purposed in our kingdom to make the churches of God co-heirs of our allods and to increase the places of the saints. On this we have taken the good counsel of our nobles Pepin, who is mayor of the palace, Arnulf, bishop of Metz, Cunibert , bishop of Cologne ; and thence we trust to attain the mercy of God and to merit the intercessions of his saints. Therefore, all faithful of God and ours, present and future, know how all things of our right in the district of Lobdengau , and whatever has seemed to go to our use , and all that has hitherto pertained to our fisc (excepting the gallows and the county, leaving nothing of it), we hand over wholly and entire, great and small, to the basilica of St. Peter and Paul the apostle or of the other lords, which is built in the city of Worms, over which presides the lord apostolic man Amandus. This is what we hand over: our city Lobdenburg, our palace , buildings, slaves, vineyards, lands cultivated and uncultivated, fields, meadows, plains, all forest right in the forest of the Odenwald, with every utility in the whole district of Lobdengau , and everywhere in Itter in the pastures between the rivers , waters and the courses of waters with fisheries, and all things sought and to be sought, all toll, market, and whatever can be said or named, as it seemed formerly to go to our use, so henceforth we have given it to be possessed by the aforesaid basilica for the increase of the eternal reward; and under entire immunity we confirm anew by our order all things pertaining to the same basilica, as in the previous year we gave the protection of immunity: and all villages, properties, or abbeys, and whatever seems to look to the city of Worms itself; that no public judge, whether for hearing causes , or exacting freda, or constraining the men of that church, free men as well as servants, should dare to make any impediment; unless for the part of that church, either Bishop Amandus himself or his successors should have this conceded and indulged, to possess and hold lordship in quiet order, what it was the custom to render to the parts of our fisc. And that this authority may be the firmer we have decreed to strengthen it with our hand by subscriptions below. — Dagebert, king of the Franks. — Godefrid has recognized. — Given on the 11th before the Kalends of October, in the 6th year of our reign. Done at Mainz, in our palace, happily enough *.
[7] [by which there was granted to the church of Worms the district of Ladenburg with forest right in the Odenwald and other gifts; which are each explained.] It is clear in the first place from this diploma that in the year before another diploma, which no longer appears, was granted by the same king; by which all its possessions were confirmed to the bishop of Worms and his church and made immune from civil authority: a good specimen of the cares which St. Amandus spent on preserving and promoting the temporal and spiritual affairs of his episcopate. Yet of greater avail is the acquisition of the town of Lobdenburg, now Ladenburg, with the palace or royal villa, the adjacent district and the forest right in the Odenwald; which Dagobert gave to the church of Worms. Freher wrote a particular booklet on the town of Ladenburg, wishing it to be Lupodunum, celebrated by Ausonius Mosella, v. 423.: but Cluverius Germania antiqua, bk. III, ch. V, pp. 12 and 13. tried to make it manifest that Ausonius' Lupodunum is Lüpff, seven thousand paces from the sources of the Danube toward the west. Yet I should not dare to assert that the former name of Lobdenburg was not also Lupodunum; so that there were two places of the same name. Without doubt it is an old town, in which in the year 292, in the consulate of Aurelius and Annibalianus, the city of Mainz set up an altar for the safety of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian and of the Caesars Constantius and Maximian: on which Schoepflin has eloquently written a commentary Acta academiæ Palatinæ, vol. I, p. 183 and following.. There were found there great remains of baths or a Roman bath, a notable indication of former greatness; on which occasion Casimir Häffelin published a commentary Ibid., vol. III, p. 185 and following. not only on this bath, but also on the town itself, contending that it is the old Lupodunum. It is situated on the right bank of the Neckar, between Mannheim and Heidelberg, on the Frankfurt railway. That a fort was there the name of burg indicates; hence in a charter of Pepin of Lorsch Cod. Laurishamensis, number 281. is read: Done at the fort of Lobodunum. It was often called a public city, as if it belonged to the fisc, although it had long since been given to the church of Worms. Andreas Lamey Acta academiæ Palatinæ, vol. I, p. 215 and following. and Franz Joseph Dumbeck Geographia pagorum vetustæ Germaniæ cisrhenanorum, p. 146 and following. have diligently inquired into the bounds of the district; indeed Lamey has published a topographical map, made with much study Work cited above.. This district lies on the right of the Rhine on both banks of the Neckar, bordering on the north on the Rhine district, on the south on the Kraichgau; on the east on the Odenwald. Dumbeck records in alphabetical order and illustrates from old documents seventy-five places, most of them villages and some monasteries; similarly Lamey, his guide, a few less and in another order. The Odenwald, whose forest right or forestage Dagobert also added as a gift, is no less extended; stretching in length from the Via Montana * eastward as far as Franconia and the river Tauber, as Tolner reports Historia Palatina, p. 42.; between Franconia and Swabia, bounded by the rivers Main, Neckar and Altmühl, as Christian Juncker reports Anleitung zu der Geographie der mitlern Zeiten, p. 146.. Finally Itter, whose pastures and waters were given, is a little river on the borders of the Odenwald and the district of Wingartheiba, flowing into the Neckar between the villages of Igelsbach and Eberbach [Cf. Map of the district of Wingartheiba, in the Acta academiæ Palatinæ, vol. VII, p. 41.]. Whence it appears that, although the king reserved to himself the gallows or forks, the sign of higher justice Cf. Supplement to the Latin Glossary of Du Cange, under Stips.; and the county or the dignity and rule of a count, the donation made to St. Amandus was very splendid. Yet it was much less profitable and lucrative than anyone would believe, as the reader will easily detect from what we have disputed elsewhere Acta SS., vol. IX of October, pp. 217 and 218.. The time of the giving of the diploma is known from this, that Dagobert began to reign in Austrasia in the year 622 and St. Arnulf laid down the mitre of Metz in the year 629. With the sixth year of the reign of Dagobert in Austrasia, then, the year of Christ 627 or 628 coincided. What the various fortunes of that donation were, see in the historians of the Palatinate or in Schannat's History of the bishopric of Worms.
[8] [What Dagobert built at Worms in the pontificate of St. Amandus II. The church built at Worms in honour of St. Amandus: the cessation of his cult.] To pursue further the things done by this Amandus, says Schannat Hist. episc. Wormatiensis, p. 309., the penury of documents forbids; although from what follows it is an easy conjecture that he obtained also from King Sigebert Wimpfen with its appurtenances as a gift. Yet this conjecture seems to rest on no other foundation than that in the year 858 Wimpfen had long been in the keeping of the church of Worms, inasmuch as in that year, a new diploma of immunity having been granted by King Louis II, it was defended from the power of the king's ministers See the diploma, ibid. proofs, p. 8.. And while St. Amandus presided over the faithful of Christ at Worms, Dagobert is said to have built a notable palace, as it were the principal one in the East, in this very place on which there afterwards rose the church of the Holy Trinity; and the old one, which stood near Neuhausen or the New House, a lawful endowment being assigned, he converted into a monastery under the title of St. Denis, afterwards changed to St. Cyriac. Moreover he built a baptistery or church of St. John the Baptist, furnished with a crypt, and among the most splendid fabrics of Germany; which, because it threatened ruin, seemed to have to be pulled down about the eighth year of this century Pauli, Geschichte der Stadt Worms, pp. 103 and 104.. And who would doubt that in all these things a part of the cares fell on St. Amandus? The church built in honour of the blessed man appears from this to have been at first a cemetery church, that it was built in a suburb; it was afterwards made parochial. Schannat reports the following about it Historia episc. Wormatiensis, p. 65.: Mention of this parish already recurs in a letter of the year 1270, and its right of patronage belonged to the provosts of the major church of Worms; until a certain Henry of these conferred it in the year 1318 for the use of the collegiate church of St. Mary; to which in the year 1661 there was still
incorporated Pachler, Historia de corpore, etc. p. 5.. But this monument of the former veneration toward St. Amandus has long since been destroyed Pauli, Geschichte, etc. p. 107.; nor does there now seem to survive at Worms any trace of the ecclesiastical honour with which they once attended the most blessed prelate. No wonder: for what we detected in the case of St. Amandus of Strasbourg held also in that of St. Amandus of Worms; that is, St. Amandus of Maastricht so prevailed that in the Breviary which Bishop Dietrich ordered to be printed in the year 1576, he has at the 6th day of February an office of nine lessons, taken from the Common, and another of three lessons, of which the third is proper, at the 26th day of October: where this is notable, that St. Amandus of Maastricht is said to have passed by a happy passing to the Lord on the 7th before the Kalends of November.
Annotata* Cuniberti
* signo Pal.
* Huniberti Pal.
* archiepiscopi Sch.
* Domni Pal.
* Lobedunburg Sch.
* urbem Pal.
* e. P. v. c. d. omitted Sch.
* n. omitted Pal.
* silvis Pal.
* o. omitted Sch.
* Lburg Sch.
* intrantia Sch.
* materiamina Pal.
* cum omitted Pal.
* e. o. omitted Pal.
* et omitted Sch.
* audiendo … exigendo … distringendo Pal.
* habentur Pal.
* Odelfridus Pal.
* Dat omitted Pal.
* satis omitted Pal.
* Bergstrasse
§ II. In the 17th century the body of St. Amandus is twice found at Salzburg beneath the high altar of the monastic church of St. Peter.
[In the year 1606 there is uncovered beneath the high altar of the monastic church of St. Peter at Salzburg the body of St. Amandus, which is attributed to Amandus I of Worms;] I have nowhere found that the people of Worms gloried in the possession of the relics of their St. Amandus: did St. Rupert, then, translate them to Salzburg, as the monks of St. Peter of Salzburg contend? A most obscure argument. Wherefore let us first bring forward what again is certain. It is established in the first place that the body of a certain St. Amandus has long been preserved at Salzburg; which cannot but be different from the remains of St. Amandus of Maastricht, formerly held in honour at Elnone. For when Martin Hattinger, who from the year 1584 to 1615 held with wonderful diligence and the highest alacrity the abbatial staff of St. Peter's, with Bishop Wolf Dietrich as instigator and most liberal helper, had undertaken to renew and enlarge the monastery in accordance with the glory of its antiquity, he wished also to change the church and bring it back to a more beautiful form: which immense work he completed within four years, namely from the year 1606 to 1610 Novissimum chronicum antiqui monasterii ad S. Petrum Salisburgi, p. 301.. And while this was being carried out, the bones of St. Amandus were uncovered; as is manifest from the commentary of Abbot Martin himself on the consecration of the high altar of the greater church. Take the monument written in the year 1613 Historia de corpore S. Amandi, pp. 34 and 33.: In the year of the Lord 1606, while this high altar with its ambulatory, which was then round, was being moved a space of six feet further from the old place, there was found beneath it in a wooden little chest, wholly rotted indeed and covered on all sides with squared stones, the body or bones, yet still entire and incorrupt, namely the head, the white teeth of the jaw, the backbone with the ribs, the shin bones and other joints of the hands and feet of St. Amandus, first of that name and second in order of Worms. (It will be spoken of below.) Which St. Rupert, likewise eighth bishop of the Vangiones or of Worms and founder and pastor of this monastery and of the bishopric of Salzburg, about the year 580 (this year will also be spoken of) brought here with him from Worms in a portable tomb and laid in this church; where down to this year one thousand six hundred and thirteen they are preserved enclosed in a bronze coffer.
[10] it is replaced there with much solemnity; This altar, after the demolition of the former old altar, built by the reverend father and lord in Christ, Lord Martin, abbot of this monastery, and adorned with carved and gilded work placed above, with the assent of the most illustrious and most reverend prince and lord, Lord Wolf Dietrich, archbishop of the holy church of Salzburg, legate of the apostolic see, etc., was consecrated by the most reverend Lord, Lord Francesco Wenni of the order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, bishop of Scala and Ravello, suffragan of the aforesaid lord archbishop, to the glory and reverence of the most holy and undivided Trinity, and of the most blessed Mary, mother of God, but specially in honour of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and of the holy confessors and bishops Rupert and Amandus, whose bones, for the greater part incorrupt, rest laid beneath this altar; other relics of saints being added: namely of the wood of the holy Cross; of the Tunic of Christ; likewise of the tomb of the Lord and of the Blessed Virgin Mary; of the Mount of Olives; of St. John the Baptist; of Andrew and Bartholomew the apostles; likewise of Alexander, pope, Urban, pope, of St. George, of Hermes, Vincent, Chrysanthus, Daria, Hippolytus, martyrs; of Martin, Rupert, Gislarius, Miniatus, Justin the presbyter, confessors; of Agatha, Margaret, Felicity, Anastasia, virgins; likewise of the chapel of St. Catherine on Mount Sion: and other relics of saints whose names have perished: granting to each of the faithful of Christ today one year, and on the anniversary day of this consecration to those visiting it 40 days of true indulgence in the customary form of the church. This consecration was made in the year of the Lord 1607, on the very day of the translation of St. Amandus, which was Sunday the 26th of October.
[11] some relics being kept separately, Note. Before the bones of St. Amandus were laid up in the bronze coffer, there were kept out the larger and longer shin bone of the foot, and the forearm (die Spindel von dem Arm); which afterwards together with the joint of one finger were by the reverend father and lord in Christ, Lord Martin, abbot of this place, in the year of the Lord 1611 enclosed in a round crystal glass, skilfully adorned with gilded silver and gems and fashioned in the form of a monstrance. There were also kept out of the aforesaid bones the lower jaw of the same St. Amandus, with some white teeth still fixed in it; which afterwards in the year 1612 by the same Abbot Martin was laid up in a wooden chest-image, sufficiently fittingly adorned and covered with pearls and gems, enclosed in a precious little chest.
[12] with an authentic instrument. Further under this chest-image (understand a herm) there was placed a parchment slip, subscribed by the hand of Martin, containing this Ibid., pp. 37 and 38.: D. O. M. These relics are from the body, or from the bones of St. Amandus, first of that name and second in order bishop of the city of Worms, all of whose bones, entire, his successor, eighth of the bishops of Worms, St. Rupert, after he had been cast out of the aforesaid bishopric by impious heretics and pagans and had founded the bishopric of Juvavum about the year of the Lord 582, brought here from Worms to Salzburg and in the church of this monastery built by him (it will be spoken of below) laid in a case, which is still seen above the tomb of St. Rupert. Which at length in the course of time were translated and laid up in a wooden little chest beneath the high altar, surrounded on all sides with squared stones: where they remained unmoved for some centuries, until the aforesaid altar was moved in the year 1606. Then also the above-mentioned little chest, already wholly rotted, with the bones still entire and incorrupt (which is certainly wonderful, since twelve centuries are already numbered from the death of St. Amandus) was again placed in a copper coffer beneath the new structure of the high altar between stone slabs and buried. Of which those which are contained here, namely the lower jaw with four teeth, two larger pieces of the ribs, likewise pieces of the top of the larger shin bone and of the larger joint of the hand, were kept out, and shut up in this little chest, and placed in this image, made specially for the memory and veneration of the most blessed Amandus, bishop and confessor, by Martin, abbot of this monastery. In the year of the Lord 1612, on the eve of Pentecost.
[13] What is the reason why in the year 1661 St. Amandus is sought again and found, This slip, says Abbot Amand Pachler in a booklet published in the year 1661 Historia de corpore S. Amandi, p. 38., when it says that Martin “placed it again in a copper coffer beneath the new structure of the altar between stone slabs, etc.,” offered us an indication for seeking this treasure. For although only 54 years have passed since that invention and deposition, yet the memory of this invention had so been abolished that it was almost no longer known where the holy body had been laid. Wherefore when we intended to renew the old pavement and the steps of the altar, having first asked the most gracious consent of our most high ordinary, and asked for a commissary from the most reverend consistory, a public notary and five witnesses being also brought in, on the 29th of March of this current year 1661 we began to dig around and beneath the high altar and, the labour being continued for three whole days, at last behind the altar, nearly two feet under the ground, marble slabs were found, which were an indication of the holy relics lying hidden there. Whence the slabs having been removed, beneath the altar itself an oblong bronze tomb was found, and on the 31st of March, in the presence of the said lords the commissary, notary, physician and witnesses, the tomb was raised by the lord abbot, and by a religious priest of our monastery, with lights and the community accompanying in choir habits, about the eleventh hour before noon it was carried to the sacristy, as is contained more fully in the public instrument drawn up on the matter; which we add.
[14] as is established from a public commentary, “In the name of Christ. Amen. By the tenor of the present public instrument let it be evidently clear and known to all who behold it that in the year from his nativity one thousand six hundred and sixty-one, indiction fourteen, in the sixth year of the pontificate of our most holy lord, Lord Alexander, by divine providence pope, seventh of this name, the most reverend father and lord in Christ Amandus, abbot of the monastery of St. Peter of the order of St. Benedict at Salzburg, after he had discovered from documents worthy of credit and various other ancient writings that long ago the bones or body of St. Amandus, bishop of Worms, had been brought by St. Rupert to this city of Salzburg, and were religiously preserved there to this day, indeed that in the year one thousand six hundred and six, by the lord of happy memory Martin, abbot of the same monastery (as may be seen in a certain writing on parchment, subscribed by his own hand), that very body, some pieces being left outside to be exposed to the veneration of the faithful, had been laid beneath the altar of the greater church of the aforesaid monastery; but that the place itself was unknown through length of time: not a little roused by these things in his religion toward him, since besides the pavement around the high altar of the aforesaid church had to be newly laid, he applied his mind to tracing the holy body, that the increase of divine worship, the greater
honour of the saint himself might be called forth, and the devotion of the faithful kindled; for the sake of which, that all things and each might proceed duly, he thought that most humble prayers should be offered to the most high and most reverend prince and lord, Lord Guidobald, archbishop of Salzburg, legate of the holy apostolic see, etc., as ordinary of the place, that he might deign most clemently to grant him licence to carry out so pious a purpose, and kindly to appoint or delegate someone who in the name of his highness might preside over this work.
[15] by which the uncovering of the tomb, “These things having been obtained, in the year above-mentioned, and on the twenty-ninth day of March, in the name of the Lord the holy body began to be sought around and beneath the high altar, and the labour being continued for three days, at last on the thirty-first day of the aforesaid month, in the presence of the very reverend, most noble and most distinguished Lord Balthasar Zauchenperger, doctor of both laws, privy councillor of his aforesaid most reverend highness, director of the metropolitan consistory of Salzburg, provost of St. Virgil at Friesach, and canon here of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Snows, as commissary specially deputed for this act, and also of me the notary, and of the lords witnesses written below, behind the altar nearly two feet under the ground marble slabs were found, and these being removed, beneath the altar itself there was found a chest or tomb of copper of oblong shape; which after it had been raised by the above-named most reverend lord abbot, and brought by a priest of the said monastery with lights and the whole community accompanying in choir habits, about the tenth and eleventh hour before noon, into the sacristy of the same church, and at once unlocked, in it the holy body was found, wrapped in a silken cloth, already wholly decayed; which then with the chest itself was translated to the upper dormitory of the monastery, placed there in a certain cell and left, and both the tomb itself and the cell were secured and sealed with the seal of the lord commissary impressed.
[16] and the recognition, “Afterwards, on the fourth day of April, again the lord commissary, I the notary and the lords witnesses named below betook ourselves to the aforesaid place: and first having inspected and recognized the seal of the lord commissary impressed on the door of the cell, and having found it whole and uninjured, we entered the cell, and inspected the other seal also, existing on the tomb; we recognized it, and found it likewise whole and uninjured; the tomb itself was opened, and as it seemed necessary to expose the holy bones, because they were damp, to the free air to be dried, that they might the better be handled, inspected and described, they were taken out of the tomb, and by the noble and most distinguished Lord Georg Khienne, doctor of medicine, councillor and chief physician of his above-mentioned most reverend highness etc., as far as could then be done, arranged together on a table, the cell having been sealed with the old seal, and were left there.
[17] and the review of the bones. “On the following day, the twentieth of the same month, again the lord commissary, I the notary, and the lords witnesses went to the often-mentioned cell, recognized the seal, and found it unmoved and whole, unlocked the cell, and that the holy body or bones might be described in Order, the aforesaid lords commissary and abbot requested and asked the aforesaid lord doctor Khienne; who, gladly undertaking the labour, inspected and examined all and each of the parts, and asserted that nearly the whole body was present, and that it contained the following parts, namely: in the head the whole skull consisting of seven bones, with both jaws whole, of which the upper numbers all sixteen, but the lower only four jaw teeth. In the trunk or thorax and lower belly, besides one bone of the shoulder blade and collarbone on each side, the whole spine, and all the ribs, namely six entire, and the others somewhat broken, together with 24 spondyles or vertebrae, and the sacrum, and each lateral hip bone. In the upper limbs both hands or arms, one bone of the shoulder, two bones of the elbow, together with the required joints of each extremity of the hand or fingers, and almost all the little bones of the carpus and metacarpus. In the lower limbs, namely in each foot, one thigh bone, one patella in each knee, two bones of the shin, and the navicular bone of the talus and heel, with others making up the tarsus and metatarsus, and the end joints of the toes, and very many and various fragments and pieces of other bones and little bones. Which parts afterwards wrapped separately, marked with numbers, were replaced in the tomb secured with the seal of the lord commissary, and carried into the sacristy and shut in. Finally on the twenty-sixth of October of the same year, the aforesaid bones were carried about in procession with all solemnity, and were arranged in a chest newly constructed of polished wood stained with black colour, and placed and laid up honourably above the altar sacred to St. John the Baptist, existing in the same church.
[18] and the solemn exaltation are explained: “These things were done in the year, indiction, pontificate, place and time as above etc. There being present the very reverend, magnificent, most noble, most distinguished and honoured men, the Lords Fr. Alphons Stadlmayr, and Fr. Roman Müller of the order of St. Benedict, doctors of sacred theology, privy councillors of his above-mentioned most reverend highness, rector and pro-chancellor of this university of Salzburg, Johann Andreas Weickh, doctor of both laws, advocate of causes here, Johann Baptist Mayr, court and academic printer, and Wolfgang Praunmüller, beadle of the university, witnesses worthy of credit, specially asked and requested for the foregoing. And I, Johann Wilhelm Turner, doctor of both laws, councillor of the metropolitan consistory of Salzburg, and notary of the same and also public notary, because I was present together with the aforenamed lords witnesses at the aforesaid unsealing, the reception of the sacred relics, the exaltation, recognition, and all and each of the other things, while they were so (as is stated above) being done and carried out, and saw and heard all and each of them being so done: therefore I have made this public instrument therefrom, subscribed it with my own hand, and affixed the signet of my notariate, asked and requested, at the time and place as above, etc. Johann Wilhelm Turner, doctor of both laws, as above.”
[19] how solemn this last celebration was. What is reported in the last place briefly, the Newest Chronicle of the monastery of St. Peter at Salzburg will give more explicitly: Finally, say its writers Historia de corpore S. Amandi, p. 577., on the 26th of October, on which day there falls otherwise the feast of the translation of the same saint, it was carried about with great apparatus in public procession and laid on the altar of the Beheading of Blessed John the Baptist. The beginning of this solemnity was made by the high office, which the lord abbot sang; during which not only the most high prince, but also some of the most reverend lords canons read Mass. This office being finished, they went with due ceremonies through the new building or monastery; for the rainy sky did not admit a further going out (as had been proposed). There appeared the greater and lesser congregations from the university, the confraternities of SS. Sebastian and Rochus, of St. Anne, of St. Monica, of the Most Holy Body of Christ and of the Faithful souls; whom followed the Reverend Fathers Augustinians, Capuchins and Franciscans: after whom immediately went the lords religious boarders and professors: after an interval there followed the archiepiscopal students, the vicars of the church and of the cathedral choir; then the music: finally after the conventual cross immediately our community, conspicuous in the attire it uses on the feast of the Most Holy Body of Christ; and after this the most illustrious lords cathedral canons, clothed in like manner. At length the sacred tomb of St. Amandus appeared, carried on high by six priests of our community as if on a triumphal chariot: after which went the lord abbot in pontificals; then the most high prince Guidobald, notable in red archiepiscopal habit, who drew after him the whole court and a huge multitude of people. Where through the cemetery they came to the church and before the high altar, the aforesaid tomb was placed in the middle; and the Rev. Fr. Roman Miller of Seeon delivered a panegyric; which being finished, the sacred remains were translated by six religious of St. Peter's to the altar of the Beheading of St. John, and there laid with due honour. The lord abbot finished this festivity before the middle of the high altar by intoning the Ambrosian hymn; during which fifty cannon were fired in the citadel. And that nothing might be lacking to this solemnity, in the vestibule of the greater church a triumphal gate was seen erected. Most solemn, then, was this translation of the body.
§ III. The body of St. Amandus already placed beneath the high altar in the 15th century. Offices and statues in honour of St. Amandus of Maastricht. An error is corrected.
[St. Rupert is said to have brought the body of St. Amandus from Worms to Salzburg,] Now from what time the body of St. Amandus has been preserved at Salzburg is nowhere found written in ancient monuments, since the archives of St. Peter's have suffered many injuries from fire, war and other calamities. An inquiry was instituted by the Chronographer of St. Peter's in the 16th century; another before the middle of the 17th century by Abbot Albert Keuslin; a new one by Amand Pachler in the year 1661; and another finally by those who for the jubilee year 1782 prepared the “Newest Chronicle of the ancient monastery of St. Peter at Salzburg”; from which almost nothing else has come forth than what Abbot Albert brought into his Catalogue of the abbots of St. Peter's, printed in the year 1646. When St. Rupert, he says Catalogue of the abbots of St. Peter's, p. 3., left Worms, he brought with him to Salzburg the body of St. Amandus, bishop of Worms, second in order; where, laid in the church of St. Peter beneath the principal altar, it has always been held in great veneration; and St. Amandus has at all times been numbered among the chief patrons of the monastery; whose festivity also under a double on the sixth day of February, and his translation under the title of abbatial feasts on the 26th day of October, have been celebrated from immemorial times in the aforesaid church; and no less in the metropolitan church of St. Rupert his feast on the aforenamed sixth day of February has been kept every year with nine lessons and is still usually kept; although for some time, an error intervening, not as that of the holy bishop of Worms, but under the name of another St. Amandus, namely bishop of Maastricht, as is gathered from the proper of the saints of Archbishop Wolf Dietrich, published in the year 1598.
[21] which in the 15th century was placed beneath the high altar; There was in the church of St. Peter above the railings of the tomb of St. Rupert a certain wooden case; in the year 1627 it was taken away from there and translated to the chapel of St. Vitus (where it now remains); on which toward the wall of the church was seen written in capital letters: S. Amandus; and on the other side toward the altar of the Holy Cross (which, that the church might be made more spacious, has since been removed), these things were read: The body of St. Amandus, bishop, laid up in the high altar of this church, was brought in this chest by St. Rupert from Worms. And on the panelling of the old church above the high altar the following little verses, formerly written around it, are noted in the chronicles:
If you wish to see the names and pictures of any: You will find them clearly, if you look behind the altar. This altar holds the body of the holy bishop Amandus; The bodies of seven bishops crowd about him together:
namely of Ansologus, Savolus, Ezzius, Flobargisus, John, Bertricus and Ammilonius Pachler, Historia de corpore, etc. p. 32.. These verses were caused to be set up by Peter, surnamed Klueghamer, who governed the abbey of St. Peter from the year 1436 to 1466 and in whose times the Chronicles were written which Albert Keuslin has cited Ibid., p. cited..
[22] Now the body of St. Amandus seems to have been brought into St. Peter's and laid beneath the high altar in the year 1443. placed there (as it seems) in the year 1443. For before there existed there no altar dedicated in his name; nor are his relics recorded among those which were laid there when the high altar was consecrated in the year 1143 Ibid., p. 29.. On the contrary his name comes in the instrument of consecration of the year 1443; which now take Ibid., p. 30.: In the year of the Lord 1443, on the third before the Ides of May, with the assent of the most reverend lord in Christ, Lord Frederick, archbishop of the holy church of Salzburg, Legate of the Apostolic See, this high altar was consecrated by the reverend father and lord in Christ, Lord Sylvester, bishop of the church of Chiemsee, out of reverence for the holy and undivided Trinity and the most holy Mary, mother of God: but specially in honour of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and of the holy confessors and bishops Rupert, Amandus and Vergil etc., of Benedict, abbot, and St. Scholastica, virgin. And the Dedication of the aforesaid altar is celebrated every year on the next Sunday after the feast of St. Michael.
[23] More recent writers report that the body was brought by St. Rupert. But as to what Abbot Albert wrote, that the relics of St. Amandus were brought from Worms to Salzburg by St. Rupert, the chronographer of St. Peter's of the 16th century went before him in these words Ibid., p. 10.: St. Rupert, bishop of the same church of Worms, afterwards made teacher and pastor of the people of Salzburg, … brought with him to Salzburg the bones of the aforesaid Bishop Amandus, his predecessor; where they are now venerated, laid beneath the greater altar in the church of the monastery of St. Peter; who also added these things: The narrative of our elders alone, handed down as it were from hand to hand, attests that his sacred relics are preserved in this place. And surely a tradition of antiquity of this kind is not so easily to be disapproved or rejected, which many times is more certain than the vain conjectures of authors: by which words he admits that no written documents were found by him. Johann Stainhauser had written similar things in the year 1602 in the Life of St. Rupert, which is preserved in manuscript at Salzburg Ibid., p. 11.. Nothing older is reported, by which it may be really established that St. Rupert brought the body of his predecessor from Worms.
[24] [The people of Salzburg kept two feasts of St. Amandus every year in the 15th and 16th centuries;] That a certain St. Amandus was reckoned among the patrons of the monastery from before human memory and that his feast was celebrated twice a year is beyond controversy; but to which Amandus these honours were paid is not so clear. We have in our museum the “Winter part of the Breviary according to the order or rubric of the kindly church of Salzburg, revised with diligence and with faithful study by Georg Stuchs, craftsman of Sulzbach, in the renowned town of Nuremberg in the saving year of Christ 1497,” in whose calendar at the 6th day of February is read: Dorothy, Virgin. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure. Amandus, bishop. IX lessons. Let your loins be. Which things are thus explained in the Breviary itself: Of St. Dorothy we make IX lessons as of a virgin and martyr. This feast, on account of the feast of St. Amandus, is to be postponed to the following day or afterwards when it can conveniently be performed; and that of St. Amandus all things be done from the Common of confessor bishops except the prayer. And at the 26th day of October in that same calendar the feast of St. Amandus, bishop, is ordered to be kept with IX lessons: Let your loins be; but what was read in the body of the Breviary, since I lack this part, I am not one to say; yet judging that all things again were to be drawn from the Common. Certainly Abbot Amand Pachler Pachler, Historia de corpore S. Amandi, p. 44. found an old Breviary of Salzburg, published in the year 1518 under Archbishop Leonhard, printed at Venice; whose title is Breviary according to the use of the kindly church of Salzburg: in which on the 6th of February all things of St. Amandus were taken from the common; and on the feast of his translation, the 26th of October, a single proper prayer had been placed in the office.
[25] [but they meant St. Amandus of Maastricht, as is manifest from the liturgical offices and especially] In these things, then, there was nothing by which it could be discerned whether the festivity was that of St. Amandus of Maastricht, or of St. Amandus of Worms, or of whomever's body was preserved at Salzburg. For on the 6th day of February of the year 684 the prelate of Maastricht departed from among the living, and on the 26th day of October, fifteen years after his death, he was solemnly translated [Milo, Sermon on the translation of the body of St. Amandus, number 4, in the Acta SS., vol. I of February, p. 890; Cf. p. 842 and following.]; and this latter day (since the former, like the birthday of St. Benedict [Martène, De antiquis monachorum ritibus, p. 584 and following; Bernard, Ordo Cluniacensis, part II, ch. 29, in Hergott, Vetus disciplina monastica, p. 343.], sometimes falling in Lent, could be celebrated little or not at all) was made far more festive, as also the anniversary day of the translation of St. Benedict. Whence at first sight it seems that on those days St. Amandus of Maastricht was honoured at Salzburg. There is added that, when Archbishop Wolf Dietrich no longer thought fit to remain within the lessons from the Common of confessor bishops, proper lessons were introduced from the Life of St. Amandus of Maastricht: all which without doubt have moment and weight, although yet they are not ineluctable arguments. For everywhere the feasts of saints who are less known are transferred to the birthdays of very celebrated saints; whence they themselves gradually are confused with these. But the monks of St. Peter's could not have run into that error, in whose keeping indeed the body of St. Amandus was! But why should they not themselves have thought that they had the body of St. Amandus of Maastricht, which Hansiz himself Germaniæ sacræ, vol. II, p. 64., a plainly most sagacious man, was at one time persuaded had been partly translated to Salzburg by Archbishop Arno, formerly abbot of Elnone? What of the fact that formerly St. Amandus was usually painted at Salzburg with a serpent held in his hand (which is the symbol of St. Amandus of Maastricht)?
[26] from ancient images. Hear Abbot Pachler himself Historia de corpore, etc. p. 45.: Finally there is sometimes added as a symbol to this saint a serpent, held in the hand; which however is not his proper symbol, but taken on account of identity of name from St. Amandus of Maastricht, to whom it is the proper symbol. By which is noted that story, when he drove a serpent out of the island of Yeu, which he inhabited as a youth. I find two images, in which no symbol is added to St. Amandus: the first is a very ancient panel and picture, affixed to the portable tomb of St. Amandus, in which a bishop is seen depicted without any symbol; the other is a panel of the year 1613, which is still preserved in the abbey, likewise made without any symbol under Abbot Martin. But there are also other images with the said symbol in the monastery: as on the high altar on the epistle side high up one, which formerly held a serpent, although today no longer; likewise on the first altar of the chapel of St. Amandus: which symbol without doubt the older men added, that this saint our patron might be distinguished from our other patrons. What could be brought forward more manifest than these things for it to be understood that the monks of St. Peter's formerly celebrated St. Amandus of Maastricht with ecclesiastical offices and thought they had his relics, I for my part do not see.
[27] [The error is wholly uncovered in the 17th century and offices are celebrated in honour of St. Amandus of Worms.] But after in the 16th century and especially at the beginning of the following one the error was uncovered, when in the years 1625, 1644 and 1647 it seemed good to Archbishop Paris to bring to light anew the Proper of the saints of Salzburg, those who saw to this left in the middle whether Amandus of Maastricht or another was venerated, all things at the 6th day of February being ordered to be taken according to the old custom from the Common of confessor bishops; indeed the feast of the 26th day of October was taken away. But when in the year 1661 the tomb had been found again and Abbot Amand Pachler had written the “History of the body of St. Amandus, first of this name, and second in order bishop of Worms, translated by St. Rupert from Worms to Salzburg, and in this current year found in the church of St. Peter at Salzburg, and newly translated on the 26th day of October, gathered from the ancient monuments of the monastery of St. Peter by a certain ascetic of the same monastery in the year 1661, published with the licence of superiors at Salzburg by the press of Johann Baptist Mayr, court and academic printer;” when these things, I say, had been done, the people of Salzburg, keeping the office from the Common at the 6th day of February, but omitting at the 26th day of October all memory of St. Amandus of Maastricht, began to celebrate on this latter day the translation of St. Amandus of Worms, using the following for the fourth lesson: “From the ancient monuments of the monastery of St. Peter.” Amandus, first of this name, bishop of the people of Worms, when he had instructed his flock by word and example to all piety, after a happy passing from this age was chosen patron of the people of Worms. But when St. Rupert, appointed bishop of Worms in the eighth place, had been driven into exile by the factions of the impious, he took away secretly the body of St. Amandus his predecessor, and, Bavaria having been converted to the Catholic faith and an episcopal see instituted at Juvavum, brought it with him to Salzburg, and laid it honourably in a church built by him in the name of St. Amandus: which in the course of time, placed in the monastery of St. Peter beneath the high altar of the greater church, in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty-one was again solemnly found and solemnly raised and translated to the side altar of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist; where it is still venerated and preserved with due honour. “The rest from his feast of the 6th of February.” These things from the Proper which came to light in the year 1689 at the order of Archbishop Johann Ernst, and again in the year 1728 by authority of Archbishop Leopold; more recent copies I do not have before me.
§ IV. At the beginning of the 9th century there stood at Salzburg a church of St. Amandus, celebrated by Alcuin; thither the body of St. Amandus of Worms seems to have been brought by St. Rupert.
Where the Salzburg body of St. Amandus was before the year 1113. St. Amandus of Worms, then, was wholly conquering St. Amandus of Maastricht, much happier at Salzburg than at Worms. But in the year 1749 our Marcus Hansiz intervened Germaniæ sacræ vol. II, p. 61 and following. and tried to restore St. Amandus of Maastricht, and then to introduce any other whatever Ibid. p. 1007 and following.; whom there opposed for thirty-three years
afterwards the monks of St. Peter's, but so softly that they finished their little dissertation by admitting that the arguments neither of their own nor of Hansiz's opinion stood certain and authentic Novissimum chronicum monasterii ad S. Petrum Salisburgi, p. 48.. In which matter they went too far, since it plainly cannot be that, according to the positions of Hansiz, the remains of St. Amandus of Maastricht were preserved at Salzburg, which most certainly rested at Elnone until the end of the last century Cf. Acta SS. vol. I of February, p. 841.. But it is manifest that the testimonies on which the monks of St. Peter's relied to show that the body of St. Amandus of Worms was in their keeping they handled too weakly and with a feeble hand. But first we must return to this question, where the Salzburg body of St. Amandus was placed, before it was laid beneath the altar in the church of St. Peter in the year 1443. The monks of St. Peter's judge that it first rested in the little cemetery church of St. Amandus, which St. Rupert built; but that afterwards, the tomb having been renewed, it was placed by Arno above the railings of the tomb of St. Rupert; and that it stood there, until it seemed good to Abbot Peter that it should be buried beneath the high altar. The individual points must be brought back to examination.
[29] [To the little cemetery church of St. Amandus belong the verses of Alcuin, by which it is established that it was renewed by Arno,] The first of all to mention that little church is he who at the end of the 12th century patched together with unhappy labour the Acts of St. Rupert. Having narrated, that is, the martyrdom of Maximus the presbyter and his hermit companions near Salzburg: Whose bodies, he says In Canisius and Basnage, Lection. antiq. vol. III, part II, p. 324., were buried by other faithful who had escaped in that place, where afterwards a chapel was built by St. Rupert, bishop, and consecrated by the same under the honour of St. Amandus and also of the sacred virgin and martyr Margaret; which he wished to be called the polyandrium, that is, the cemetery of St. Amandus. And concerning this there exist the verses written below:
This house, once renowned, levelled with the ground, grew worthless: Arno, the humble prelate, devoted to the honour of Christ, Did not bear this sight; he began to renew what lay fallen, And built the whole church better than before; Consecrating it to the highest intercessors: First to the honour of the excellent prince Michael, And under the name of Peter, prince of the church, And of Amandus, prince and renowned father of the brethren And of Margaret, the faithful athlete of Christ; That it might be, as he wished, a holy burial place for the brethren. Rest you in the peace of God, dear brethren, Until the holy angel cries from the ethereal height: Arise now readily from the dust of the earth, brethren: The judge who is coming calls you from the summit of heaven: Take up your souls with their proper merits: Stand now before the great tribunal of God the Christ, That each may receive worthy rewards for his deeds. And fear you that day, I pray, at all hours, You who read the verses of the work, while you have time, That that coming light may find you prepared. And mindful of me, I suppliantly ask, ever say with your mouth: Christ, be kind to thy servant for ever. I am called Alcuin; now farewell without end.
[30] although others think otherwise, These poems are Alcuin's; but whether he wrote them for the cemetery church of Salzburg or for that of Elnone is not agreed, Mabillon Acta SS. Ord. S. Bened. century IV, part I, p. 63. and Hansiz Germaniæ sacræ vol. II, p. 61. (to omit others) contending that they were written by Alcuin for Elnone; Amand Pachler Historia de corpore etc. pp. 22 and 23. and his fellows Novissimum chronicum, p. 47., by the example of the biographer of St. Rupert, referring them to their own cemetery. That this controversy may be understood, it must first be known that Arno, a cleric of Freising, then a monk of Elnone and from the year 782 abbot, three years later was made bishop of Salzburg and abbot of St. Peter's; and that he performed these offices until he died in the year 821 [Cf. Hansiz, Germ. sac. vol. II, p. 97 and following. Noviss. Chronic. p. 117 and following.]. He is judged to have retained the abbatial staff of Elnone; which is wholly to be admitted. Further, not in the year 809, which Milo [On the elevation of the body of St. Amandus, in the Acta SS. vol. I of February, p. 891.] and the Annals In Pertz, Monum. Germaniæ, vol. V, p. 11. and the Chronicle of Elnone have De Smedt, Corpus chronic. Flandriæ, vol. II, p. 10., but before Alcuin, who wrote a poem on this matter [Various inscriptions, number XXIX, in Migne, Patrologia latina, vol. CI, col. 738.], died on the 14th before the Kalends of June of the year 804 [Cf. Life of Blessed Alcuin by Frobenius, ch. XIII, ibid. vol. C, col. 76 and following.], on account of the inundation of the Scarpe he ordered to be renewed the crypt in which the body of St. Amandus of Maastricht lay at Elnone, and the little church placed above to be consecrated in honour of St. Michael. But besides the poem which I have just indicated, there comes in the poetic writings of Alcuin another, which with some others about buildings, clearly of Salzburg, was found in a codex of Salzburg, namely that very poem which I recited above from the biographer of St. Rupert, except that the Leonine verse enclosed by me in parenthesis is absent: Et Margarethæ, Christi fidelis athletæ And of Margaret, the faithful athlete of Christ.
[31] [they are really to be referred, and not to the little church and crypt of Elnone.] I for my part shall admit that, before I had more deeply inspected both poems and compared them with each other, I went over on foot to the opinion of Mabillon and Hansiz; but when I had examined them more closely, I wholly withdrew from it, not doubting at all that the matter concerns two different fabrics, one at Elnone, the other at Salzburg. For the one praised in poem XXIX was sacred to St. Michael alone; the one in poem CXXIV, to St. Michael, St. Peter and St. Amandus. The former was renewed because,
When the river, often growing with gathered flood, Pervaded the sacred thresholds of the present church *, Arno the priest did not bear that the church be fouled;
the latter on the contrary because
This house, once renowned, levelled with the ground, grew worthless.
In the former the chief labour was placed in building a crypt and strengthening twelve arches; in the latter no trace of a crypt occurs. In the former, since Arno was staying at Salzburg, Lothar the custodian made it, the master commanding; and Milo [On the elevation of the body of St. Amandus, number 3, in the Acta SS., vol. I of February, p. 891.] also brought in the mention of Lothar alone: in the latter Lothar is omitted, and
Arno, the humble prelate, began to renew What lay fallen:
and he himself dedicates it,
Consecrating it to the highest intercessors.
[32] [And since that little church at the beginning of the 9th century was already levelled with the ground and to be renewed, it seems really to have been built a century before by St. Rupert in honour of St. Amandus:] I agree, then, with the ancient biographer of St. Rupert, Pachler and other people of Salzburg that in Alcuin's poem CXXIV, which is entitled In the cemetery, the cemetery of St. Peter's at Salzburg is celebrated; and that there had accordingly long existed there a little church, which about the year 800 had grown worthless, levelled with the ground. There is added that in the Annals of St. Rupert of Salzburg, written in the middle of the 12th century Cf. Pertz, Monum. Germ. vol. I, p. 759., these things are read at the year 478 Ibid. p. 766.: At St. Amandus Maximus the presbyter with more than 50 of his companions suffered, that is, in the place where in the 12th century there stood the cemetery church of St. Amandus. Of which it is reported in the same place at the year 1141 Ibid. p. 775.: The church of St. Amandus is consecrated by Roman, bishop of Gurk: the records of which consecration Amand Pachler recites Hist. de corpore, p. 24.. Their beginning is this: In the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1141, indiction 4, on the 4th before the Ides of July there was dedicated the basilica of St. Amandus and St. Margaret by the venerable Roman, bishop of Gurk, in honour of the holy and most victorious Cross and of St. Mary, mother of the Lord. There are then recorded the relics placed there; among which come those of St. Amandus: whence Pachler tried to deduce that the body of St. Amandus was there at that time. Not rightly, since the discourse there is not of a body, but of a very few relics, which are usually inserted mixed with others in the sepulchre coffer of an altar; and indeed they are read under the same title in the records of the consecration of the same little church, celebrated in the year 1492, when we have said that the body of St. Amandus had long been in the church of St. Peter. It is better, then, to omit such things. Yet this is certain from the places brought forward, that about the year 800 there was renewed at Salzburg the cemetery basilica of St. Amandus, which had long existed and so then the house once renowned had grown worthless, levelled with the ground: wherefore it is very likely that it was really built a century before by St. Rupert; nor is there anything for believing that it was under another title than that of St. Amandus: so that in this part credit accrues, much less is taken away, to the biographer of St. Rupert (whom I adduced above), however many years later he was.
[33] whose body also, as is clear from another poem of Alcuin, was preserved there. To complete these things with a sort of finishing touch and to show that the body of St. Amandus really existed there at that time, one must consider Alcuin's poem XXXIV, which is entitled At the tomb of St. Amandus, renewed by Arno; for it seems to pertain to the St. Amandus preserved at Salzburg, and not (as they commonly would have it) to St. Amandus of Maastricht. For behold In Migne, Patrol. lat. vol. CI, col. 740.:
Arno, the humble prelate of the Lord and devoted to his honour, Renewed the tomb of St. Amandus, Not sparing wealth; for whatever he had he had scattered To the wretched, and as priest he adorned the sacred temples of Christ: For whom, whoever you are who read the verses, remember to pray.
Where first observe that Arno is called the humble prelate of the Lord and devoted to his honour, as in poem CXXIX (which is also about a work at Salzburg) Arno the humble prelate devoted to the honour of Christ is celebrated: secondly that his largess is proclaimed, in that (although he had scattered all things in good works) yet he did not spare wealth in renewing the tomb of St. Amandus; which he could not have done from the treasury of Elnone, since he had long been absent; thirdly that Milo Acta SS. vol. I of February, p. 892., although he explains at length the translation of the body of St. Amandus of Maastricht, which was made in the time of Arno, wholly passes over the renewal of the tomb, huge expenses incurred and other things of that kind; but only narrates that the body was placed in a higher place, to which the waters did not reach, by Lothar the custodian: The body, he says, after thirty days he placed again in the prepared place: and the urn of the sepulchre he set, not (as it had been before) in deeper places, but in higher, so that its foundation could be seen and a light lit under it, and he placed it and wrote above it that verse of the psalm “This is my rest etc.” Observe finally fourthly that this poem, found
is found in a very ancient Salzburg codex, where other affairs of this city are recorded [Historia de corpore etc. p. 13; cf. Hansiz, Germ. sacr. vol. II, pp. 1007 and 1008.].
[34] Some have written encomia of all the saints of one and the same name; It remains for us to inquire who that St. Amandus was. Hansiz, who (as we saw above) at first would have it that some relics of St. Amandus of Maastricht were carried to Salzburg, afterwards embraced another opinion, deciding German. sacr., vol. II, p. 1009. that this body was that of some other holy man, however he was called, whether abbot or bishop. But in truth no one comes up among the saints known by the name of Amandus to whom that body can more fittingly be ascribed than St. Amandus of Worms. That this may appear the more easily, I shall review all the Saints Amandus, not indeed with the design with which, for example, Antonius Sanderus [Of famous Antonies, three books: the first comprises those known for holiness of life, the second prelates and magnates, the third those outstanding in letters and learning. Louvain, 1627, in quarto.] collected all the Antonies; or with which a certain Arnold [Fasti Arnoldini, assigning to thirty Arnolds conspicuous for holiness of life each his own day, on which they are venerated in menologies, martyrologies, etc.; together with an appendix of four others, whose feast is nowhere found. Collected and arranged from various authors by the labour of the client F. A. N. E. A.] collected thirty Saints Arnold; Agostino Oldoini [On the Clements illustrious by the title of sanctity or of character. Perugia, 1675.] all the Clements he could; the Venerable D. C. Cavedoni [Dichiarazione della iscrizione sepolcrale di S. Giorgio, giovinetto martire, Modena, 1840, p. 25 and following.], in whom God has given this age a singular example of exceptional learning joined with splendid piety and holiness of life, twenty-four Georges; a certain anonymous writer, whose manuscript book was kept in the Museum of our predecessors, the saints whose name was Fortunatus; Franz Stiller [The Year of the Francises, or their historical calendar, written according to the days of the year from the records of various events and deeds. Prague, 1680, in quarto.], a fellow-member of our Society, all the Saints Francis; Janos Nadasi The Year of John, or on the saints called by the name of John, Prague, 1664., likewise a man of our Society, all the Saints John, of all of whom our Bohuslav Balbin also caused portraits to be engraved beside the pictures of the life of St. John Nepomucene [Life of St. John Nepomucene … illustrated with XXXIII engravings, Augsburg, 1730.]; and finally our Theodore Schmal [Catalogue of the saints and of men illustrious by the merits of their life who were called by the name of Theodore… Collector Theod. Schmal, S. J. Aachen, 1708. Ms. of our museum.] all the Saints Theodore he found: to which you may also refer Leo Allatius's diatribe on the Simeons, long since edited by Combefis Leo Allatius, Diatribe on the writings of the Symeons, Paris, 1640., and three others, on the Nicetases, on the Philos and on the Theodores, brought to light not so long ago by Cardinal Mai Nova Patrum bibliotheca, vol. VI, part II, p. 1 and following.: I shall bring together the Saints Amandus, I say, not in order to review a huge number, but in order to remove all confusion, so far as that can be done, and to dispel the darkness.
[35] [with a wholly different design all the Saints Amandus are reviewed in the order of the calendar;] Now, leaving aside those who come up in calendars and martyrologies by mistake in place of Amantius, Amaranthus and other similar names, the following list can be drawn up:
On the 5th of January, in the auctarium to Usuard, there occurs a St. Amandus, as though he were a companion of St. Felix, martyr; but he seems to have been wrongly thrust in.
On the 6th of February St. Amandus, bishop of Maastricht, far the best known of all.
On the 14th of February St. Amandus, martyr, in the Martyrology Col. 921B of Jerome; where according to certain codices he is called Amantius.
On the 19th of March St. Amandus, companion of SS. Amandus of Maastricht and Landoald.
On the 6th of April St. Amandus, count, at Gisalba in the diocese of Bergamo.
On the 6th of June St. Amandus, martyr at Cauna in Spain.
On the 9th of June St. Amandus, martyr at Nicaea, in the Martyrology of Jerome, where according to certain codices he is again called Amantius.
On the 13th of June St. Amandus, the same as at the 19th of March.
On the 16th of June St. Amandus, priest and hermit, venerated at Reims.
On the 18th of June, St. Amandus, bishop of Bordeaux.
On the 25th of June St. Amandus, confessor and hermit, companion of SS. Sorus and Cyprian, venerated at Genouillac, wrongly associated with Domnolenus, honoured among the Limousins, and mistakenly confused with St. Amandus of Comodoliacum, master of St. Junian; indeed in a certain auctarium to Usuard he is even called bishop and confessor, as though he were St. Amandus of Maastricht.
On the 6th of July St. Amandus or Amantius, martyr at Nevedunum.
On the 16th of August the translation of St. Amandus, priest and hermit; on whom see the 16th of June.
On the 26th of August St. Amandus, hermit of Comodoliacum, master of St. Junian.
On the 20th of September, at Elnone, the elevation of the body of St. Amandus of Maastricht.
On the 23rd of October, at Elnone, the restoration of St. Amandus, bishop of Maastricht.
On the 24th of October the feast of St. Amandus the confessor, bishop of Maastricht, and of Lucian, Marcian and Florus is announced in one Usuardine codex, by a manifest error of two days.
On the 26th of October the bare name of St. Amandus the confessor is read in some fasti; in others his feast; in others his elevation; in others the translation of his body; in others the translation of his body, and the ordination of his episcopate, and the dedication of his church; in others, finally, the commemoration of SS. Vedast and Amandus: where the one St. Amandus of Maastricht is always understood.
On the 27th of October the ordination of St. Amandus of Maastricht is read in one Usuardine codex; it belongs to the preceding day.
On the 3rd of November our predecessors found the name of St. Amandus, bishop, in some calendar: the bishop of Strasbourg is understood, whose bones were once honourably translated on this day.
On the 5th of November our predecessors again found the memory of St. Amandus, bishop, in a place unknown to me. It seems that the bishop of Strasbourg is to be understood.
On the 13th of November Amandus, bishop of Rennes.
On the 14th of November Saussay records Amandus, bishop of Rennes, by an error of one day.
On the 15th of November, at Strasbourg, St. Amandus, bishop and confessor: so Molanus in the auctarium to Usuard of the second edition.
On the 17th of November an Amandus is noted in the notes of our predecessors; he seems to be the same as St. Amandus of Lérins.
On the 18th of November St. Amandus, abbot of Lérins.
And these are the blessed men named Amandus that I have found in the martyrologies and other sacred fasti: among whom (as is plain) there is no bishop of Worms, nor any who is venerated at Salzburg.
[36] [that is to say, that it may become known to be by far the most probable that the body of St. Amandus II, bishop of Worms, was brought to Salzburg by St. Rupert about the year 710.] But there is nothing to wonder at in this omission, since neither a Worms nor a Salzburg martyrology or calendar was ever published, and since the memory of our St. Amandus lay for a long time almost buried together with his sacred relics, and was confused with that of St. Amandus of Maastricht. However that may be, in all that list only four bishops and confessors come up, namely those of Maastricht, Bordeaux, Rennes and Strasbourg; of whom some have believed that only the bishop of Maastricht could be attributed to the people of Salzburg: but wrongly, if it be admitted (as has seemed necessary to admit) that the cemetery chapel was consecrated by St. Rupert under the title of St. Amandus. For since St. Rupert, as we have noted elsewhere Cf. Acta SS., vol. VIII of October, p. 913 and following., at the invitation of Duke Theodo, laid the first foundations of the church of Salzburg about the year 710 and departed from among the living about the year 720, while St. Amandus of Maastricht, who died in the year 684, was elevated or beatified only on the 26th of October of the year 699, which day was a Sunday; it seems that not a great enough space of time intervened for his cult to have spread beyond the Rhine, and above all for his name to have been used by way of title in the dedication of sacred buildings. All things therefore tend to this, that we should grant that St. Amandus of Worms is both venerated at Salzburg and rests there in the body; departing from the opinions of the people of Salzburg only in this, that they would have it that Amandus I, and not Amandus II, was once translated to their city. For as we have understood above, not Amandus I but Amandus II was enrolled among the saints by the people of Worms; nor did they substitute Amandus I, who flourished in the middle of the 5th century, for St. Amandus II, who lived about the year 630, for any other reason than that they supposed that St. Rupert had set out for Salzburg about the year of Christ 582 [Cf. Pachler, Historia de corpore etc., pp. 10 and 15; Mezger, Hist. Salisburg., p. 69 and following.]; whereas he went there more than a hundred years later. And these are the things, partly certain, partly probable, that we had to set out concerning St. Amandus of Worms and of Salzburg.
Annotations* la Scarpe.