Angelramnus

ON ST. ANGELRAMNUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, AT METZ IN GAUL,

IN THE YEAR DCCXCI.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Angelramnus, bishop of Metz in the Gauls. (S.)

Victor I, bishop of Metz in the Gauls. (S.)

Victor II, bishop of Metz in the Gauls. (S.)

Sambatus, bishop of Metz in the Gauls. (S.)

Hesperius, bishop of Metz in the Gauls. (S.)

Villicus, bishop of Metz in the Gauls. (S.)

Peter, bishop of Metz in the Gauls. (S.)

BY R. D. B.

§ I. The early life and monastic life of St. Angelramnus. His promotion to the episcopate of Metz.

This is the glory of great kings and emperors, that they not only themselves arouse admiration and astonishment, [St. Angelramnus, whose first years are little known, does not seem to have been a monk at Gorze,] but that either by their example or by their incitements they everywhere fire the men of their retinue to emulate their virtues, to dare the highest things, or at any rate to perform excellently the offices entrusted to them. Yet, while the eyes of all are fixed on them, their most skilled and greatest helpers are easily less regarded. Which is especially found in St. Angelramnus; inasmuch as he was among the principal ministers of Charlemagne, appearing everywhere, but having obtained no contemporary biographer. And indeed his birth, parents, home, youth and studies are little or not at all known to us. Certainly in the History of Lorraine by Augustine Calmet Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, col. 525, edition of 1746, and in the History of Metz, written by John François and Nicholas Tabouillot Histoire de Metz, vol. I, p. 527, one reads that he sprang from more noble parents, who sent him to the very celebrated school of Gorze of that region, that there under the guidance of the monk Nagaudus he might apply himself to divine and human letters: but these things seem less certain. For Calmet, François and Tabouillot affirm that they took these things from the manuscript History of Benedict Picard, Capuchin, and from the cartulary of Gorze: but since two codices of this cartulary were known to me, one of the major seminary of Nancy, the other of the public library of Metz, where also is preserved the manuscript History of Metz of Benedict Picard, I applied by letters to the venerable man Noël, president of the major seminary of Nancy, and to the distinguished men V. Jacob and C. Lorrain, librarians of Metz, to receive from them what is to be thought of the training of St. Angelramnus in the monastery of Gorze. I was most courteously answered that neither in the Nancy codex nor in the Metz codex of the cartulary of Gorze is any word made of the youth of St. Angelramnus being passed there. It was also written to me that in the History of Metz of Benedict Picard one reads indeed that St. Angelramnus, sprung from a noble lineage, was trained in the monastery of Gorze by the monk Nagaudus, but that it is by no means added from what sources the author took these things. Wherefore, although Benedict Picard was a prudent and learned writer, I cannot yet but remain doubtful, until his narrative is declared by some historical monument. In so great an obscurity, if anything is to be determined, it seems rather that one must say that St. Angelramnus was taken by Benedict Picard for another Angelramnus, first primicerius of Toul, then of Metz, who, having renounced his riches, took up the monastic life at Gorze under St. John of Gorze, and there, with a great fame of sanctity, died about the middle of the twelfth century Acta SS., vol. III of February, p. 701 and following.

[2] but rather in the monastery of St. Nabor. It is more pleasing that St. Angelramnus embraced the monastic life in the monastery of St. Nabor; which, since the common people called it San Navau Ruyer, Sainctes antiquités de la Vosge, p. 221, changing (as is familiar to the Germans) b into V, and then badly separating the words, as in so many other names, it now for several centuries has called San Avold. That St. Angelramnus was a monk most writers deduce from these words which Meurisse Histoire des évêques de Metz, Book II, p. 177 excerpted from a certain charter of the monastery of St. Nabor: Angelramnus, prelate of the aforesaid see (of Metz) and a pupil of the cenobitic life, increased the monastery with privileges and suitable revenues, and put the last hand to the part of the building (which Bishop Sigibald at his death had left unfinished), in the year from the passion of Christ eight hundred and one. But this fragment of a charter shows only this, that St. Angelramnus was a monk, and not a monk of St. Nabor. And if he was very benevolent toward this monastery, neither can a firm argument be drawn from this, since he was no less benevolent toward the monastery of Gorze. Yet, since, when he died in Germany (as we shall see later), he was given burial in the monastery of St. Nabor, it seems that it can to some extent be gathered from this that he was a pupil of the cenobitic life among the monks of St. Nabor. Wherever in the end he practised monasticism, it was an excellent preparation for duly performing the episcopal offices to which he was called by God.

[3] On the 25th day of September of the year 768 he was made bishop of Metz. For after the death of St. Chrodegang, who died on the 6th day of March [Paul the Deacon, History of the bishops of Metz, in Pertz, Monum. Germaniæ, vol. II, p. 268] of the year 766 [Annales Petaviani, in Bouquet, vol. V, p. 13; Chronicon Lareshiamense, ibid., p. 382. Cf. Acta SS., vol. XI of October, pp. 933 and 934], the see of Metz having been vacant for 2 years, 6 months, 19 days [Catalogue of St. Symphorian of the bishops of Metz, at the end of Ansberti familia rediviva, p. 24; Catalogue of St. Arnulf of the bishops of Metz, in Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, vol. I, Proofs, col. CXVIII], he was himself created bishop of Metz on the 25th day of September of the year 768. It could indeed be disputed whether this took place on Saturday the 24th, or on the following day, Sunday the 25th of the month of September; because, if the day of death is reckoned among the days of vacancy, the ordination must be said to have been performed on the 24th day of September: otherwise on the 25th. But there will be no difficulty for one who attends to the fact that by the discipline of that time the ordination of bishops began on Saturday evening, to be completed on Sunday: unless it was carried out wholly on Sunday De antiquis ecclesiæ ritibus, vol. II, p. 283 and following.

§ II. St. Angelramnus, chancellor and chief chaplain of Charlemagne, and apocrisiarius of Hadrian I with him. What these offices were. The privileges of the church of Metz renewed. The dedication of the basilica of Lorsch.

St. Angelramnus before his episcopate was chancellor of Charlemagne St. Angelramnus, before he occupied the see of Metz, held the distinguished office of chancellor in the court of Charlemagne; and afterwards, when he had already presided for several years over this church, he was established archchaplain of the same king, and apocrisiarius of the Roman pontiff with him. But since he held these three offices in one and the same court, although at different times, we shall treat of them in one course. — Moreover, as Richer is the authority [Chronicon Senoniense, Book II, ch. I, in d'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. II, p. 612, Paris edition, 1723], Angelramnus was at that time so dear to the emperor (Charlemagne) that he made him his chancellor. That he was adorned with this dignity both before and after he took up the episcopate of Metz the same Richer adds. But, although this chronographer, a grave man, who spared no labour in writing his annals, and was a monk of the abbey of Senones, over which St. Angelramnus once presided, reports this in undoubted words, without any other ancient writer going over to another opinion, yet Le Cointe Annales ecclesiastici Francorum, vol. V, p. 733, both because St. Angelramnus is absent from Philip Labbe's index of chancellors, and because he is called a pupil of the cenobitic life Meurisse, work cited, p. 177, holds Richer as a narrator of a fable. That the opinion of Le Cointe may stand more firmly, it could also be added that neither Mabillon Books on diplomatic, p. 118 and following nor Launoy De sanctis Franciæ cancellariis, p. 189 reported him in the series of chancellors composed by them: then that no capitulary of Charlemagne can be shown by Angelramnus as notary or chancellor; or also that by canon XLIV of the Council of Chalon of the year 813 presbyters were altogether forbidden to perform the office of chancellors Labbe, Collectio Conciliorum, vol. VII, col. 1282. But everyone sees that the reasons brought forward by Le Cointe are of lesser weight: for if Labbe, Mabillon and Launoy in enumerating the chancellors of Charlemagne pass over St. Angelramnus: on the contrary Du Cange Glossarium latinum, under Cancellarius, Anselme D. Anselme, Histoire de la maison royale de France, vol. VI, p. 241, Moreri Moreri, Dictionnaire universel, under Chancelier reckon him among them. Then that he was a pupil of the cenobitic life did not at that time prevent him from being admitted among the royal chancellors, for if presbyters are prohibited by the fathers of Chalon from being chancellors, this only shows that at the beginning of the ninth century presbyters were not rarely taken up as chancellors, and thus that it is no wonder that St. Angelramnus accepted the same office. Then, since besides clerics and monks few at that time were skilled in the art of writing, recourse could not but be had to them in such matters: hence Marculf in the seventh century composed his formulas. Then by canon XXV of the Council of Verneuil of the year 755 the power of pronouncing law is recognised to abbots, provided they accept no gifts Labbe, Collectio Conc., vol. VI, col. 1669. Moreover in a charter of King Robert of the year 997 for the monastery of Cormery there occurs this subscription: Godfrey the monk wrote in place of Franco the chancellor, and Franco himself subscribed with his own hand Annales Benedictini, vol. IV, appendix, p. 636: add that in the cartulary of St. Peter of Chartres there are found several charters of the eleventh century, which the monks Paul or Robert testify were written by them Guérard, Cartulaire de S. Père de Chartres, pp. 124, 148, 152, 158, 184 and 186, and that monks were most frequently employed as public notaries or chancellors in the tenth century the Maurists prove in a singular commentary Nouveau traité de diplomatique, vol. II, p. 429.

[5] and about the year 784 his chief chaplain, with the permission of Hadrian I, Now when in the year 784 Blessed Fulrad, abbot of St. Denis and chief chaplain of Charlemagne, had departed from among the living, as the old Chronicle of the monastery of Moissac reports In Duchesne, Historiæ Francorum scriptores, vol. III, p. 139, St. Angelramnus was substituted for him in the office of chief chaplain: and this we gather not only from the catalogues of St. Symphorian Dominicy, Ansberti familia rediviva, at the end, p. 26 and of St. Arnulf Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, Proofs, col. CXVIII, where he is called chaplain of the palace, or from the d'Acheryan Chronicle of the bishops of Metz, in which he is said to have been archchaplain of the palace of Charlemagne D'Achery, Spicilegium, vol. II, p. 228: but also from this, that among the additions to the rule of St. Chrodegang he himself wrote Clouet, Hist. eccl. de la province de Trèves, vol. I, p. 391: But it has pleased me, Angelramnus, archbishop, and chaplain of the most excellent King Charles, that there be added, because, while we and our clergy, etc. We know the same from these words of Alcuin,

a contemporary, writing to Usuald:

Once, says Alcuin, through Angelramnus the archbishop and primicerius of the holy chapel, I commended myself to your holiness Works of Alcuin, epist. 20, vol. I, col. 175, Migne edition..

But since it pleased many bishops but little that St. Angelramnus was always at the royal court, and hence (which was against the sacred canons) absent from his diocese, Charlemagne brought the matter before Hadrian I, the Roman pontiff, and readily obtained satisfaction of his wishes. And this is certain to us first from the capitulary of Frankfurt of the year 794: for since St. Angelramnus had at that time passed to eternal life, and Hildebald, archbishop of Cologne, was to be co-opted in his place as supreme chaplain, the lord king (Charles) said Labbe, Collection of Councils, vol. VII, col. 1064. in the same synod that he had had leave from the apostolic see, that is, from Pope Hadrian, to keep Archbishop Angelramnus constantly in his palace on account of ecclesiastical needs. He begged the same synod that in the manner in which he had had Angelramnus, so he might also have Bishop Hildebald, since concerning him too, as concerning Angelramnus, he had apostolic leave. The whole synod consented, and it pleased them that he should be in the palace on account of ecclesiastical needs. And Pope Hadrian seems to have granted this faculty to King Charles in the year 786; in which year he came to Rome to wage war against the duke of Benevento. This controversy seemed of such great moment to Hincmar of Reims that in his letter to the nobles he not only related it, but also vehemently rebuked Pepin, who had appointed Bishop George, and Charlemagne, who had appointed Angelramnus and Hildebald, likewise bishops, as chaplains of their palace, though he passed over the fact that a faculty had been granted to the former by Paul I and to the latter by Hadrian I. But from the time of Pepin and Charles, he says Works of Hincmar, vol. I, col. 999, Migne edition., this office was discharged sometimes by priests, sometimes by bishops: because bishops ought to keep continual watch over their flock assiduously, by example and word, and not, according to the sacred canons, be absent from their parishes for too long. Nor, according to the decrees of blessed Gregory promulgated from the sacred canons, ought they to attend uselessly upon the praetoria, which are now called royal residences and more commonly palaces, lest they incur the judgment that, acting against the rulings of the canons delivered to them at their ordination, they deprive themselves of ecclesiastical honor. And that we may set down examples of things lawful, and not keep silent about things unlawfully usurped: in the time of Pepin and Charles this ministry was discharged with the consent of the bishops by Fulrad the priest; in the time of Charles also by Angelramnus and Hildebald, bishops; and finally in the time of Louis by Hilduin the priest, and after him by Fulco, likewise a priest, then by Drogo the bishop. As this dispute grew hotter by the day, they say that St. Angelramnus spread abroad a certain collection of ancient canons, some of which forbade anyone to accuse a bishop rashly: but this matter will have to be treated below.

[6] who created him his apocrisiarius with the same king. Nor is it less certain that St. Angelramnus was created by Pope Hadrian his apocrisiarius with Charlemagne. For Charles the Bald wrote to Pope Nicholas: Which see of Metz, at the request of our grandfather of divine memory, the Emperor Charles, was found worthy to be honored by the apostolic see, so that Angelramnus, the predecessor of this man (Adventius), became for a time supreme chaplain and apocrisiarius of the apostolic see in these regions. And afterward, at the entreaty of our lord and father, the pious Augustus of holy remembrance, it had been honored by the apostolic see with an excellent distinction in the person of our aforesaid uncle Drogo, the venerable bishop, so that, together with the aforesaid ministry both of the emperor and of the apostolic see, he also obtained the use of the pallium, which was and still is the sign of a share in the authority of St. Peter.

[7] What the pontifical apocrisiarii were, It must now be set forth what the duties of the apocrisiarius, the supreme chaplain, and the chancellor were. And first, there existed several kinds of apocrisiarii. For Hincmar of Reims, as we shall see below, assigns this name to the supreme chaplains of the kings of the Franks; whence he also calls them responsales of ecclesiastical business. By Honorius of Autun, however, and others, those are called apocrisiarii who kept the seal or ring of kings or princes, with which they sealed their diplomas and precepts. Apocrisiarii moreover, says du Cange, was the name given especially to those who were sent by the Roman pontiff, or also by archbishops, to the imperial retinue, to transact the affairs of their churches and report on them to the prince. For if any difficulty arose in ecclesiastical or political affairs which had to be decided by the prince, or on which he was to be consulted, it was handled through the apocrisiarius who was stationed in the retinue or court of the prince; who, as a go-between, informed the pontiff who had sent him of the prince's replies, and in turn the prince of the pontiff's, until the matter was brought to a lawful conclusion Latin Glossary, under Apocrisiarius.. Apocrisiarii of this kind, who around the age of Justinian had the name of responsales, the Roman pontiffs employed for a long time with the emperors of Constantinople: in this they were imitated by the eastern patriarchs and some metropolitans, among them the one of Ravenna Ibid., loc. cit.. In the court of the kings of the Franks too there lived apocrisiarii of this kind of the Roman pontiff; for, to omit the testimony of St. Adalard, which we shall quote further on and from which it appears that it was for some time a fixed institution that the archchaplain should be the apocrisiarius Historical and Canonical Examination of the Rights of Regulars, p. 204 ff., examples are St. Fulrad, abbot of Saint-Denis Acta SS. vol. III of Feb., p. 35., St. Angelramnus and Drogo, bishops of Metz Labbe, Collection of Councils, vol. VIII, col. 486., who were at the same time archchaplains. And these are to be distinguished somewhat from apostolic legates, such as were St. Boniface and, for a short time, the said Drogo, bishop of Metz Works of Hincmar, epistle XXX, to the bishops, vol. II, col. 206, Migne edition.. Closer to these apocrisiarii (if not the delegation alone, but the ordinary duties be regarded) come the apostolic nuncios, whom the Roman pontiffs began to send to princes from the fifteenth century [Réflexions sur les 73 articles du pro memoria présenté à la diète de l'empire, p. 19; Défense des réflexions sur le pro memoria, pp. 54 and 85; Reply of Pius VI to the metropolitans on the apostolic nunciatures, ch. 8, sect. 5, p. 258 ff., Rome edition, 1789; Pacca, Memorie sul di lui soggiorno in Germania in qualità di nunzio apostolico, p. 235; Biner, Apparatus Eruditionis, vol. VII, p. 358; Kersten, Journal Historique et Littéraire, vol. II, p. 19 ff.; Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione ecclesiastica, vol. XLVII, under Nunzio apostolico.]. But when St. Angelramnus had been taken up as apocrisiarius of the Roman pontiff, Pope Hadrian, as we saw in the letter of Charles the Bald to Nicholas, granted him the use of the pallium as a token of the shared authority of St. Peter, and the title of archbishop on account of his eminence above the other bishops. With this prerogative St. Chrodegang before him and Drogo after him, both bishops of Metz, and other bishops also before, had been enhanced: St. Chrodegang, because he had freed Pope Stephen III from the plots of Aistulf Meurisse, Histoire de l'Eglise de Metz, p. 166.; Drogo, because he had discharged the office of apocrisiarius with Louis the Pious, as Charles the Bald writes to Nicholas. And on Wala, likewise bishop of Metz, Pope John VIII conferred the same dignity, without a cause being disclosed Labbe, Collection of Councils, vol. IX, col. 239..

[8] of the supreme chaplain But no less distinguished in the court of the kings of the Franks were the offices of supreme chaplain and chancellor. Now if anyone should inquire into the etymology of the word chaplain, he would meet with more than one opinion. It has been disputed by Louis Archon Hist. de la chapelle des rois de France, vol. I, p. 6 ff., Giuseppe Carafa De capella regis utriusque Siciliæ et aliorum principum, p. 10 f., du Cange, and others: and they derive it from the word cappa or capsa. For the cappa was a garment worn by laymen, laywomen, monks, and clerics. But since the cappa of St. Martin was held among the principal relics of the saints among the Gauls and Franks, the sanctuary where it was kept was called the capella, and its custodians capellani. This opinion of du Cange Latin Glossary, under Capella and Capellanus., of Giuseppe Carafa [De Capella regis etc., p. 10; Oroux, Histoire de la Cour de France, vol. I, introduction, p. LIII.] and of others is not embraced by Louis Archon: rather, he affirms without doubt that the chapel, and hence its custodians the chaplains, borrowed their name from the capsa or capsella, which was used to store away the relics of the saints. But the true opinion was disclosed by Gervaise La Vie de Saint Martin, p. 299., provost of St. Martin's, relying on the authority of the Monk of St. Gall, On the Deeds of Charlemagne, book I, ch. IV; of Walafrid Strabo in the Exordium of Ecclesiastical Matters, last chapter; and of Durandus in the Rationale of the Divine Offices, book II, ch. X. He teaches, then, that the cappa of St. Martin was not the garment of the saint himself, but of his sepulcher, that is, a hanging or veil on which the image of the holy bishop was painted; with which veil his tomb was covered, and which could also be used in war in place of a standard, and was therefore called a vexillum. And those clerics who guarded this sacred pledge in the tent were called cappellani or capellani; which thereafter became a common noun. At what time that word began to be used to designate the priests of the royal court cannot be accurately determined; certainly Louis Archon Hist. de la Chapelle des rois de France, vol. I, p. 6., besides confessing that he has discovered very little in the writings of the ancients about the royal chaplains and their office under the kings of the first dynasty, adds that he has read the word chaplain in no historical monument older than the council of Leptines of the year 742, not noticing that Aiglibert, who flourished about the year 680, is called in the Acts of the Bishops of Le Mans archchaplain and prince of the bishops of the kingdom Mabillon, Vetera Analecta, p. 276, edition of 1725.; unless the chronicler, who ought to have said abbot, said archchaplain according to the custom of his own time.

[9] and the part of the chancellor. Now, to come at last to the third court office of St. Angelramnus, the cancellarii among the Latins appear to have been those who stood at the bars of the forum or of the judges, and carried out their commands and orders. Accordingly they differed little from doorkeepers; but in the laws too

Ripuarian and Lombard, as well as in the capitularies of the kings of the Franks, the office of doorkeepers was entrusted to the cancellarii du Cange, Latin Glossary, under Cancellarius.. He who presided over them, and was called the chancellor of the king or archchancellor, exercised the supreme magistracy; for it was he who kept the royal seal. Further, on the offices held at court by St. Angelramnus there is a lucid discussion by St. Adalard, abbot of Corbie, one of the chief counselors of his kinsman Charlemagne; a writing which Hincmar of Reims has preserved for us.

[10] [Among the Franks the apocrisiarius or supreme chaplain presided over the clergy of the palace, as the supreme chancellor did over the scribes;] Now the apocrisiarius, he says Complete Works, vol. I, letter to the nobles, col. 998 f., whom our people call chaplain or custodian of the palace, governed all the clergy of the palace under his care and disposition. With him was associated the supreme chancellor, who was formerly called the a secretis; and subject to him were prudent, intelligent, and faithful men, who wrote out the royal precepts without the immoderate venality of greed, and faithfully kept the secrets entrusted to them. After them, the sacred palace was ordered through these ministers: namely through the chamberlain and the count of the palace, the seneschal, the butler, the count of the stable, the mansionarius, four principal huntsmen, and one falconer. And although under these, at their side, there were other ministerials, such as the doorkeeper (who brought people in to the king), the sacellarius (who took care of the daily expenses of the royal purse), the dispensator (who was the steward in the palace, in French maitre d'hotel), the scapoardus (who had custody of the vessels), or whichever of them were juniors or deacons, or also others at their side, such as the bersarii (keepers of the forests), the veltrarii (in charge of the coursing or scenting hounds), the beverarii (keepers of the beavers), or any others that remained: nevertheless, although these too were each intent on this according to their rank, yet it was not to them, as to the others principally, as is inserted below, that the confederation of the whole kingdom in greater or lesser matters, in each of the daily necessities as they arose, was fastened together with the palace. But neither could all the superiors themselves be of equal service, on account of the diversity, quality, or suitability of their ministries: although none could have withdrawn, or even wished to withdraw, for the sake of keeping true faith to the king and the kingdom… These things being thus briefly said concerning the choosing and appointing of the aforesaid ministers, we must now come to the order of these same ministers and ministrations, how they ran… Of whom two especially, that is, the apocrisiarius, who among us is called chaplain or custodian of the palace, concerning all ecclesiastical business or ministers of the church, and the count of the palace, concerning all secular cases or judgments, had the care of receiving them urgently: so that neither ecclesiastics nor seculars should have need to disturb the lord king first without consulting them, until they had foreseen whether there was need that the case should rightly come before the king. But if the case was a secret one, which it was fitting to tell to the king before anyone else, they would prepare for the same person a place for telling it, the king having first been informed, so that he might receive this according to the manner of the person, whether honorably, or patiently, or even mercifully.

[11] [and moreover to be approached for greater business, both monastic and ecclesiastical,] The apocrisiarius, indeed, had charge of all ecclesiastical religion or order, and also of the disputes of canons or monks, and of whatever came to the palace for ecclesiastical needs, and only those matters from outside went to the king which could not be more fully settled without him. Moreover, that not only concerning those things which pertained specially to them to be done within the palace, in the way of all ecclesiastical ornament or office, but also that whoever sought any spiritual consolation or counsel for the whole palace should faithfully find it with him as was needful: and he who did not seek it, and yet whom the man himself perceived to need it, he should strive, according to the quality of the person, both to draw away from perverse thought or deed and to turn to the way of salvation. And the other spiritual matters, whatever were necessary to be provided and foreseen for the palace, both by those who lived constantly in it and by those who came to it, whether according to God or according to the world, which it would be long to enumerate, pertained specially to his care. Not in such a way that anyone else, whether of the palace or a visitor from outside, enlightened by wisdom and true devotion through the grace of God, should in no way do any such thing; but it was very much the custom that he should do what was to be done either together with the same apocrisiarius, or certainly through his counsel, lest perhaps anything less useful or unworthy should steal upon the king…

[12] and he held the first place in ecclesiastical assemblies. Now the apocrisiarius, that is, the chaplain or custodian of the palace, and the chamberlain were always present: and therefore such men were chosen with the greatest care, or those chosen were instructed, who could deservedly be present… There may also be added from Louis Archon Hist. de la Chap. des rois de France, vol. I, p. 504. that the supreme chaplains, if they were bishops, were held in the most magnificent honor above the other bishops in the councils of the Gauls. Which certainly suffices for anyone to understand how highly the supreme chaplains were esteemed. And this is the praise of Pepin, Charlemagne, and their successors, that to fill that office, as is clear from the series of supreme chaplains drawn up by du Cange du Cange, under Cappellanus. and Oroux Hist. de la cour de France, vol. I, p. LVII ff., they chose men outstanding in learning and holiness.

[13] [Since Bl. Angelramnus had such great authority with Charlemagne, he obtained from him for his church the renewal of its ancient privileges;] Since, then, St. Angelramnus had great authority with Charlemagne even before he was taken up as bishop of Metz, he readily obtained from him on the 22nd day of January of the year 775 a renewal of the privileges granted of old by kings to the churches and monasteries of the diocese of Metz. Wherein we have learned, says Charles, that it is generally set down that such a benefit had long since been granted to his predecessors, that none of the public judges should presume to enter into the courts of the said church of Metz and of the lord Stephen our patron, or the basilicas built within the said city, or within the said parish, or the monasteries, villages, or castles looking to it, or to cause any detriment there: nor should anyone be bound to summon Ibid., under Admallare. (to cite to court) their men to the malli du Cange, under Mallus. (the greater public assemblies), the public byrgi (the lesser public assemblies), or to audiences (private assemblies), or presume by any unjust devices to condemn them, nor to exact Ibid., under Exactare. (to demand) freta Ibid., under Fredum. (fines) or telonea Ibid., under Telo. (tolls to be paid at the shores of the sea or of rivers), or to make any Ibid., under Parata. paratae (expenses at the visitation of public envoys): but that in their private audiences the agents of the said church should render to each one right (justice) concerning the matters charged, and should likewise receive the truth from others, and where the said agents or the other men of the said church received a fine, the fines should go to the increase of those holy places under Christ's governance. In the same manner also, if their men paid a fine for any excess of whatever kind, the fine which might thence have been expected for the public treasury should be granted to those churches. … For we command, says Charlemagne, that whatever is established to have been delegated, whether in estates, houses, buildings, slaves, vineyards, woods, fields, meadows, pastures, waters and watercourses, tenants of both kinds, sex, or age, with their whole boundaries and their sound condition, both from the munificence of kings and queens, and what by titles of sale, gift, exchange, and cession, or by any instruments of charters, or by any lawful devices, to the said church of the lord Stephen, or to other churches which appear to be built under the said city of Metz or in the parishes of the said bishop, and which the side of those churches is seen at present to possess or hold, know that by this our authority (the royal diploma) it is in God's name more fully confirmed and granted to those churches, or to the said bishop, or his abbots and their successors. For, ordering, we command that neither you (Angelramnus), nor your subordinates or successors, into the courts of the said church, or of the said bishop, or of his abbots, or of the monasteries, castles, villages, both beyond and on this side of the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Loire, or into the aforesaid city of Metz, or into its districts or parishes, and monasteries or cells, with all the churches pertaining to it or looking to it, should in any way enter for the purpose of levying any fines, or tolls, or contributions, or summutae, or any paratae, or of causing any detriment by any device whatever, if you wish to have my favor propitious to you in all things. It pleased us to add to what is written, that concerning three causes, concerning the public host, that is, concerning our ban (the army convoked by the king), when it is publicly set in motion, and the wacta (the watch) or the repairing of bridges, those men who are well free, who appear to be immune as being well free in their own person, who are known to dwell on the lands of the said church, or of the said bishop, or of his abbot; if they should appear negligent in any way in these three causes, let them render account for it with our judges; but neither more nor less: in the rest, however, for the increase of our reward, let them be kept under immunity, that they may be of profit to the said house in its increase. And the said immunity, which was granted by us or by our predecessors and fathers to the aforesaid church of the lord Stephen, or to the aforesaid monasteries, or castles, villages, districts, parishes, or abbeys which appear to look to the said bishop, shall remain perpetually unshaken and preserved: so that it may more fully delight the said bishop or clergy, or the poor who hope for sustenance there, to entreat the mercy of the Lord more attentively Bouquet, vol. V, p. 728 ff..

[14] [and with him he took part in the dedication of the basilica of Lorsch and the translation of the bones of St. Nazarius to it.] At the same time, say the Annals of Fulda under the year 774, the basilica of St. Nazarius in Lorsch was dedicated, and his bones were translated into it In Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae, vol. II, p. 348.; which solemnities, according to the Chronicle of Lorsch, were celebrated at the head of the kalends of September In Freher, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, vol. I, p. 100., that is, on the kalends of September, as the calendar of Lorsch of the ninth century notes Mabillon, Benedictine Annals, at the year 774, no. 49, vol. II, p. 212.; and at this celebration St. Angelramnus was present. Now the monastery of Lorsch had been founded by St. Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, who had also enriched it with the remains of St. Nazarius given by Pope Paul, and had set over it his brother Gundeland, a man no less notable for prudence than for holiness. He to the monastery

had added a basilica, and when it was finished and, as befitted a house of God, adorned with every kind of beauty In Freher, vol. I, p. 100., he was planning to have it consecrated with great pomp. Meanwhile Charlemagne came to Speyer: and Gundeland met him, earnestly entreating that he would deign to be present in person at the consecration of that church; and the pious king, graciously assenting, with Queen Hildegard and his sons Charles, Pepin, and Louis, and many princes of the kingdom, through Lullus, archbishop of the see of Mainz… and through the bishops Megingoz (of Würzburg), Wiomad (of Trier), Angelramnus (of Metz), and Waldric (of Passau), with magnificent display and the highest veneration, at the head of the kalends of September, celebrated the dedication of the said church, and translated into it with the greatest honor of devotion the body of the blessed martyr Nazarius (which had rested from the year 765 in the monastery of Gorze Mabillon, Benedictine Annals, book 24, no. 6, vol. II, p. 194.) In Freher, vol. I, p. 100.. Thus far the chronicler of Lorsch; who in this place is not free from all error, namely in relating that Pepin and Louis, at that time not yet born Mabillon, loc. cit., were present with their father Charlemagne at the dedication of Lorsch. But for tying this solemnity to the year 777 he is blamed by Pagi; yet from the arguments which one of my colleagues set out in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Lullus Acts of Senones, book VII, of October, p. 1069 f., it is clear that Pagi's opinion cannot safely be assented to, but rather that the chronology of the Chronicle of Lorsch is to be preferred to that of the Annals of Fulda.

§ III. St. Angelramnus abbot of the monastery of Senones; which from imperial becomes episcopal. The translation of St. Simeon, bishop of Metz. Nargaud abbot of Senones. An advocate given to the monastery of Senones.

[St. Angelramnus, already bishop, is created by Charlemagne abbot of the monastery of Senones; which, against the will of the monks, from imperial becomes episcopal;] Now after the monk Richer had narrated the beginnings of the monastery of Senones, and had recited the series of its abbots, and in what manner, St. Chrodegang bishop of Metz having died, St. Angelramnus was given as his successor, he adds: It happened that Stephen, abbot of this imperial place (the monastery of Senones), departed from this light. When Archbishop Angelramnus learned of this, he at once ran to his emperor: and asked that he subject this abbey to his authority. For this place from its beginning depended on the empire. The emperor, unwilling to cross him, gave assent to his petition, and granted the said monastery with its appurtenances to the bishop of Metz in perpetuity, by that right by which the emperors too had held it from the first. Whence this our place is known to have been subject to the bishops of Metz down to this day. Indeed, because this place, as we have said, was widowed of its ruler, the same Archbishop Angelramnus governed both the bishopric and the abbey of Senones for some time. And thus the monastery, which had before been imperial, from then on is compelled to live under the hand of the bishop of Metz. But the monks, because they saw that they had descended from so great an honor, or rather, as it were better said, burden, took it very ill. For they did not consider that, like the other surrounding churches, they were often being worn down and failing under imperial oppression, both through sending troops of armed men on campaign, and because they were cruelly harassed by the enemies of the empire, and there was none to help, since the emperor was many times absent, and the churches could not be delivered from their enemies. So they were consumed with a vain grief. Certainly if from those times all these monasteries situated on this side of the Vosges still belonged to the empire, by now not one stone would have remained upon another, since they are placed here and there under other dominions of adversaries. Especially since, if they suffered anything from their enemies, they could not easily go to the emperor, nor could they amend those things by themselves, which a bishop, found in one or two days, can correct; and thus, as I think, they were consumed with a vain grief Chronicle of Senones, book II, in d'Achery, vol. II, col. 612..

[16] [and so, as before it depended wholly on the emperor's nod, it thereafter began to depend on the bishop's.] From these words of Richer the reader will gather that the condition of the monastery of Senones was entirely changed by the action of St. Angelramnus, and that from imperial it was made episcopal. Indeed, there were in remote times two kinds of monasteries: some were said to be the king's own or in his allod, under royal defense, guardianship, protection, or authority, to pertain to the right of the king, or were designated by other appellations of the kind, used by the supreme pontiffs: and these monasteries were so numerous that Baluze contended, relying on the testimonies of many ancients, that before the close of the ninth century all the monasteries of Gaul stood under royal guardianship or authority. Other monasteries were called episcopal and were under the defense and guardianship of bishops. The royal monasteries, just like those which were under the protection of the Roman pontiff, were called free: of which kind was the monastery of Saint-Denis near Paris: on which depended the monastery of Salonnes or of St. Privatus in the diocese of Metz, afterward established under royal guardianship by Charlemagne, with the consent of St. Angelramnus, about the year 777 Mabillon, De re diplomatica, p. 490 f.: and although by a capitulary of the year 823 those dwelling in free monasteries were to obey bishops in spiritual matters, yet that never prevailed so long as this discipline of ampler royal guardianship lasted: so much so that very holy men who lived under royal tutelage (for example St. Abbo, abbot of Fleury at the close of the tenth century) refused all subjection. Then the care of temporal affairs and of regular discipline devolved on kings or on bishops, according as the monasteries were royal or episcopal. For the Council of Ver of the year 755 had framed this canon, which is the twentieth: Those monasteries where monks or nuns have lived according to rule, for that which you left them of those properties from which they could live, let the abbot or abbess render account thereof, if it was royal, to the lord king; and if episcopal, to that bishop. Likewise also concerning those villages Labbe, Councils, vol. VI, col. 1669.; just as afterward Pepin, king of Italy, in the year 793, decreed that monasteries of men and of girls, both those known to be in the mundium of the palace and also in the mundium of a bishop or of other men, should each be held strictly by him in whose mundium they are, that they might live according to rule Baluze, Capitularies of the Kings of the Franks, vol. I, col. 546.. Hence kings without the intervention of bishops, as is manifest from many examples, deposed negligent abbots, expelled disobedient monks, brought in others and appointed new superiors, or even united these their monasteries to others, subjected them, or entrusted them to others to be reformed. This did not, however, prevent kings from using the services of bishops to ascertain whether all things were being duly done in their monasteries, as has been shown, after Baluze [Notes on the Works of Servatus Lupus, Epistle XII to Pardulus, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. CXX, col. 455 ff.], by the authors of the Historical and Canonical Examination of the Rights of Regular and Secular Clerics P. 201., from the second synod of Soissons, can. VII, of the year 853 Labbe, Collection etc., vol. VIII, col. 83., and from the capitulary of Compiègne of the year 868 Ibid., col. 93., or also from many other instruments. But if the monasteries were episcopal, the same care belonged to the bishops. And this suffices for everyone to see that the state of affairs in the monastery of Senones was changed in no small way by St. Angelramnus. Nor does it seem that the part of St. Angelramnus need here be championed against the ancient monks of Senones, since this has been excellently done by Richer himself, to whom Calmet, abbot of the same monastery of Senones in the eighteenth century, wholly adheres Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, col. 525..

[17] This change is defended by Richer of Senones. But Archbishop and Abbot Angelramnus, says Richer, seeing that things stood thus, resolved to quiet the vexation of the brethren by a shrewd act. For he wished to confer shepherd for shepherd, defender for defender, patron for patron; but not alike in power. The one could preserve and protect for the present, the other both here and with God: the one a temporal helper, the other an everlasting one; the one knew how to save the body only, the other body and soul, and knows it always: the one could confer temporal goods, the other knows how to prepare for those who serve him the aids of both lives. For he conferred on this place, in place of a momentary helper, a continual and ready one, the blessed bishop, seventh bishop of Metz from Blessed Clement, Simeon, most renowned for miracles, and a most ready helper. For we have heard that men drowned in the waters were recalled to life by his prayers; that lamps hanging before his sacred body, their ropes having broken, fell upon the pavement, and standing of themselves miraculously on their sharp point, full of oil, kept themselves unharmed; he drives away the burnings of fevers; he changes floods of rain into fair weather; invoked, he at once tempers harmful summer heats; besought, he drives off the horrible threats of tempests. What more? The vexations of all infirmities and pains he knows how to relieve, not a tardy but a ready physician; in short, against the importunity of all necessities he ever shows himself a most ready defender. Such and so great a patron did this our monastery of Senones deserve to have. Who, translated hither by that venerable man Angelramnus, though he was held to be of such great merit, as we have said, yet, as we have heard from the brethren of this place, was by no means received. But the said archbishop and abbot, wishing like a prudent man to decline the fierceness of their indignation for a time, on the slope of the mountain which overlooks the monastery to the south built a chapel, and there placed that incomparable and holy treasure. To whom, his saint Simeon, God conferred such grace in that little place, that the divine mercy denied the aid of his wish to no needy person who there begged his help. Thus, however, through the obstinacy of those brethren, that sacred man beloved of God remained for some time in the said chapel, full of miracles…

[18] St. Angelramnus appoints Norgaud as abbot. Therefore Archbishop and Abbot Angelramnus, seeing himself entangled in other arduous business both of the empire (at court) and of the archbishopric, decided to put an abbot in his place over this house. And having taken counsel, he set over it a religious man, Norgaud, whom the bishop himself appointed for this place, seventh from our founder Gundelbert, as eighth abbot for this monastery. And from that time the abbots of this cenoby have received their temporalities from the bishop of Metz, and their spiritualities from the bishop of Toul, as we see still happens Chronicle of Senones, book II, ch. I, p. 642, in d'Achery, vol. II, p. 612.: that is, the abbatial blessing, orders, and chrism. But if for repairing discipline outside help seemed necessary, recourse was had to the bishop of Metz, as is clear from the reform of the cenoby carried out in the time of Abbot Rambert. The cause, however, why St. Angelramnus subjected the monastery of Senones in spiritual matters to the bishop of Toul seems to be that it lay within the bounds of his diocese, and so spiritual aids could more easily be supplied by him: after

the thirteenth century, however, it came about that it was entirely exempt from the bishops both of Metz and of Toul.

[19] The monks translate the body of St. Simeon to their monastery; Meanwhile the brethren of this place (Senones), seeing that they were consuming themselves in vain with grief for the imperial dignity from which they had fallen, lest they should perhaps be deprived of so great a helper, hastened to bring back to the monastery the body of the most holy Simeon, which we said above was placed in the oratory on the hill. And an opportune time having offered itself, the mortal remains of the saint were translated with a great company of people on the eighth day before the feast of All Saints into the church of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, where he now rests in a silver casket: on which day all the parish priests who hold churches of the abbot of Senones are bound every year to pay services of fish in honor of the feast, every pretext * being set aside. For I have seen some summoned into his presence by Abbot Henry for failure in the service of fish which they had not paid at that festival, and that they made amends for this to the abbot, and paid the neglected service. I have also seen at some of those festivals so great a quantity of fish brought in that their value was reckoned at up to ten pounds of Toul Chronicle of Senones, book II, ch. 1.. And this Translation of the holy remains, which our predecessors in illustrating the deeds of St. Simeon scarcely touched upon for lack of historical instruments Acta SS. vol. II of February, p. 859., we have thought it right to recite in full.

[20] St. Angelramnus gives this monastery an advocate, who soon became a plunderer. But since St. Angelramnus was entangled in innumerable affairs, being bishop of Metz, supreme chaplain of the palace, chancellor of the king, and apocrisiarius of the apostolic see, and so had too little time to defend the monastery of Senones from every injury, he gave it an advocate. It fell to him by his office first to go to war with the abbot's men, if the abbot should be summoned by the prince, then to administer the property and resources of the monastery, or even, if need required, to defend them with arms, with soldiers and vassals called in: moreover, it pertained to them to administer justice in the abbot's place and to enter into duel. But since it was known to St. Angelramnus that a good many advocates panted after nothing but their own good, the monasteries being neglected: indeed that they were rather their plunderers than their defenders, he carefully wrote down each and every right and duty of the advocate of Senones. Relating these, Richer says: The venerable man Angelramnus therefore, considering that he could not apply himself to so many and so great concerns except with great labor, because he had very often to be present in the imperial chancery, and could not (as was fitting) defend this place, decided to provide the monastery with an advocate on this condition, that whatever advocate should be instituted through the bishop of Metz, to whom the institution of the advocate belongs, should receive the third part of those amends (fines), namely of the pleas (judgments), to which he should be called by the abbot, and should not extend his hand to the rest. A portion of land and of men, which is still commonly called the abajum (bayon), was conferred on the said advocate for his advocacy, which in our time the heirs of Salm still possessed; and content with these, he shall thereafter usurp to himself absolutely no right in the men, lands, ban, waters, groves, pleas, justices, or in all the dependencies of the monastery. But wherever it is necessary, he is bound to stand up for the abbey and its property and men, in return for the benefice of the advocacy conferred on him. The abbot, however, shall summon the men to plea, shall judge, and through his scabinus shall levy the amends adjudged without the advocate: and if any fault should arise at other times in the ban, the abbot or his villicus, who shall be instituted by the abbot himself and not by another, shall deal with those matters and determine them without due. And whoever is abbot of Senones shall place and displace the villici, deans, foresters, scabini, and also the matricularii of the churches of St. Maurice, of St. John de Plama, and of Wipodi cella, and shall institute and remove them at his own will without any contradiction, nor shall the advocate lay a hand on the villicus and other ministerials of the church or of the abbot, or on the men; but all things shall remain to be ordered at the disposition of the abbot. But if anyone, either the advocate in the aforesaid matters or any other, should trouble the church, all things ought to be corrected and amended through the bishop of Metz, and moreover, besides all the foregoing, it is established that this our church of Senones is founded and strengthened by the privileges of popes, emperors, bishops, dukes, counts, and other magnates, so that four popes, and bishops and archbishops, pronounce the infringers of the church's privileges bound with the chain of excommunication and worthy of divine displeasure. Nevertheless his hope sometimes deceived St. Angelramnus: for afterward many advocates showed themselves such harassers of the monastery of Senones that, as Richer adds, it had many excommunicated advocates. Then the counts of Salm, who from the beginning of the twelfth century had been taken up as advocates of the monastery of Senones by the bishops of Metz, did not hesitate about the middle of the sixteenth century, when all rights were turned upside down, to refuse all obedience to the bishops of Metz, and about the middle of the seventeenth century to declare themselves, without their knowledge, princes of that territory [François and Tabouillot, Histoire de Metz, vol. I, p. 531; Benoit, Histoire de Toul, p. 43 ff.]. — But the care of other monasteries too pertained to the episcopal solicitude of St. Angelramnus.

* excuse.

§ IV. Whether St. Angelramnus was abbot of the monastery of Saint-Trond. Donatus, writer of the Life of St. Trudo. Paul the Deacon, writer of the History of the Bishops of Metz. Collections of chapters attributed to St. Angelramnus.

[Of the monastery of Saint-Trond in the diocese of Liège, which was subject to the bishops of Metz,] St. Trudo, born in Hesbaye, the district between Liège and Louvain, of a most noble Frankish lineage, at the prompting of God and with the approval of St. Remaclus, bishop of Maastricht, had gone to St. Chlodulf, bishop of Metz, and there had made the senior church of St. Stephen the heir of all his goods. After many years, having been co-opted among the priests of Metz, he returned to his own people at the command of St. Chlodulf, and on the estate of Sarchinium, which he held by paternal inheritance, built a monastery and a basilica in honor of blessed Quentin and St. Remigius: which he subjected not to the bishop of Maastricht, within the circuit of whose diocese Sarchinium was situated, but to the bishop of Metz Mabillon, Benedictine Annals, book XV, no. 21, vol. I, p. 428 f.. For by the discipline of that time it was permitted to subject monasteries built in one diocese, but not yet dedicated, to an outside bishop: in which case the bishop consecrating the church, no less than his successors, had jurisdiction over that house of ascetics [Acta SS., Supplement to vol. VI of October, p. 46 f.; Examen historicum et canonicum, p. 163 f.]. Further, the monastery of Saint-Trond remained subject to the bishops of Metz down to the year 1227, in which Hugh de Pierrepont redeemed the monastery and town of Saint-Trond from John, bishop of Metz Mabillon, Annals, vol. I, p. 428 f..

[22] [St. Angelramnus is said to have been abbot, and at his prayers Donatus wrote the Life of St. Trudo;] These things being made clear, it is understood how St. Angelramnus could exercise jurisdiction over the monks of Saint-Trond: indeed Mabillon judges Ibid., book XXXI, no. 79, vol. II, p. 558. that he, like St. Chrodegang, was their abbot, because Rodulf, abbot of Saint-Trond, an author of the eleventh century, recounting the series of his first predecessors with no order of time preserved, on account of the loss of ancient monuments, writes: The names of the abbots who formerly ruled the cenoby of St. Trudo are these: Abbot Grimo, Abbot Reyramnus, Abbot Hardebenus, Abbot Columbanus, Abbot Angelramnus, Abbot Ambrose, Abbot Gislebert, Abbot Adelbodus, Abbot Hildradus, Abbot Sabatinus, Abbot Ermemmarus, Abbot Radulf, Abbot Louis, Abbot Ratbert, Abbot Rodegang [Deeds of the Abbots of Saint-Trond, in Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae, vol. X, p. 229.]. But if it is less certain from these words that St. Angelramnus was abbot of the monks of Saint-Trond, yet no one will deny that they were subject to him as bishop of Metz. And since there was so great an intimacy between the monastery of Saint-Trond and the bishops of Metz, St. Angelramnus prompted the deacon Donatus (whether of Metz or of Saint-Trond is not known Acta SS. Belgii, vol. V, p. 5 f.) to collect the Acts of St. Trudo, as is clear from Donatus himself, who begins his preface with these words: To the most blessed father Archbishop Angelramnus, Donatus, a lowly and last exile, everlasting salvation in the Lord. At the suggestion of your Beatitude, most blessed father, I am compelled to append with compendious brevity, by the pen of my littleness, certain things concerning the life and manner of living of the most happy father Trudo, priest, etc. Ibid., p. 23.. Where the word archbishop shows that the Life of St. Trudo was written out by Donatus after the year 784, that is, after St. Angelramnus had been appointed apocrisiarius of the Roman pontiff.

[23] likewise Paul the Deacon wrote the Order of the Bishops of Metz. Nor should it be passed over that Paul the Deacon, otherwise the son of Warnefrid, at the request of St. Angelramnus, composed a booklet on the order of the bishops who succeeded one another in the city of Metz from the very beginning of the preaching. For handing down to posterity the deeds of the Lombards, and mentioning in passing St. Arnulf, bishop of Metz, he says: Concerning whose wonders there exists at the church of Metz, where he held the bishopric, a book containing his miracles and the abstinence of his life. But I too, in the book which I composed on the bishops of the same city, at the urging of Angelramnus, a most gentle man and conspicuous for holiness, archbishop of the aforesaid church, composed about this most sacred man Arnulf certain of his wonders, which I have now thought it superfluous to repeat [Deeds of the Lombards, book VI, ch. 16, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. XCV, col. 635.]. The same attests at the end of the Life of St. Chrodegang and of his booklet on the order of the bishops of Metz: Here now, most holy father Angelramnus, he says, in the course of the narrative the place awaits your Beatitude. But I, not unmindful of my slenderness, dare not attempt with too little fitness those things that must be brought forth in a greater style concerning the praiseworthy course of your life Deeds of the Bishops of Metz, in Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae, vol. II, p. 268.. Paul was indeed a Lombard by origin, most versed in literary studies, and therefore very dear to Ratchis, Cunibert, and Desiderius, the last kings of the Lombards: moreover he was the notary of Desiderius [Leo of Marsica, Chronicle of Monte Cassino, book I, ch. 15, in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum scriptores, vol. IV, p. 284.]. After the capture of Pavia in the year 775, however, and the overthrow of the kingdom of the Lombards, Charlemagne took him with him to court, where he was induced by St. Angelramnus, who treated him as a dearest friend, to collect the deeds of the bishops of Metz.

[24] The Compendiosa traditio canonum is wrongly attributed to him. But there is attributed to St. Angelramnus himself, in Migne's Latin Patrology, a collection of canons first published by Henricus Canisius from a manuscript codex of the monastery of Weingarten, with this title: Compendiosa traditio canonum Orientalium sive Africanorum, which the blessed Pope Hadrian in one volume with the above

councils gave for the ordering of the western churches to Charles, when he was at Rome, king of the Franks and Lombards and patrician of the Romans. First, on the canons of the Apostles under number I Thesaurus Monumentorum, vol. II, part I, p. 266, Basnage edition.: but I think that this was done rather carelessly by the editor, since Canisius, Sirmond, Labbe, Poisson, and all the others, without any hint of St. Angelramnus, proclaim Pope Hadrian the author of the compendious tradition of canons.

[25] The Collection of Chapters is not to be attributed to him. But a much hotter dispute has flared up over another collection of chapters, of which several very ancient codices survive. At the head of these it is written (as we shall see below) sometimes that the chapters were delivered by Angelramnus to Hadrian, sometimes by Hadrian to Angelramnus, when his case was being tried, against certain Gallic bishops, as the Ballerini [The Ballerini, On the Ancient Collections of Canons, part III, ch. 6, Works of St. Leo the Great, vol. III, col. 244 f.] add, who contended that he was illicitly discharging the office of supreme chaplain at the court of Charlemagne. In almost the same words Hincmar of Reims wrote concerning this collection, which Hincmar of Laon was citing to strengthen his case: But concerning the sentences, he says, which are said to have been collected from the Greek and Latin canons and from the decrees of the prelates and leaders of the Romans by Pope Hadrian, and given to Engelramnus, bishop of the people of Metz, when his case was being tried [Treatise against Hincmar of Laon, ch. 24, in the Works of Hincmar, vol. II, col. 377, Migne edition.]. Indeed Sirmond Concilia Antiqua Galliæ, vol. II, p. 99, Labbe Collection of Councils, vol. VI, col. 1828., Augustin Theiner Dissertation on the Pseudo-Isidorian Collection of Canons, year 1829, p. 33 f., and others, because the collection bears the name of Hadrian in most manuscripts, attribute it to him, just as Hincmar, an almost contemporary author, does: on the other hand it is ascribed to St. Angelramnus by Baluze [Baluze, Antonii Augustini dialogorum libri duo de emendatione Gratiani, Preface, no. IV.], by Noël Alexandre [Ecclesiastical History, vol. III, cent. I, diss. 21, art. II, p. 218, Venice edition, 1778.], and also by Calmet Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, col. 525.; to whose arguments, as being more approved, Hartzheim adheres Concilia Germaniæ, vol. I, p. 349.: namely, that it belongs to the accused to defend his case, not to the judge before whom the accused pleads his case: and it is added that Pope Hadrian in the year 787 or at some earlier time had given King Charles the codex of old canons of the Roman church, such as Dionysius Exiguus had compiled, in which no pontifical decretal letter appears before Siricius, none after Gregory: but Antonio Agustín contends that the Angelramnian chapters were taken from the Pseudo-Isidorian collection: a deception which would be unworthy of Hadrian, a most learned and upright man.

[26] although the Ballerini and others have gone over to the contrary opinion; For which reason neither opinion is held by the brothers Ballerini Concilia Germaniæ, vol. I, p. 349. and Blasco [Commentary on the Collection of Canons of Isidore Mercator, Appendix. In Galland: De vetustis canonum collectionibus, p. 151, Mainz edition.], whom Francesco Saverio Castiglioni [Artaud de Montor, Histoire du Pape Pie VIII, ch. I, p. 8 f., Brussels edition, 1844.], afterward Pius VIII, follows in the notes added to the work on canon law of Giovanni Devoti [Devoti, Institutiones canonicæ, book I, ch. 4, §45, vol. I, p. 67, Ghent edition, 1822.]. These hold that neither Hadrian nor St. Angelramnus is the author of those chapters, both because they were extracted from the Pseudo-Isidorian collection, which was not concocted until after the death of Hadrian and Angelramnus: and because many things are contained in them which neither Hadrian nor St. Angelramnus would by any means have proposed, such as are, in chapter VI: But if anyone thinks himself oppressed by his own metropolitan, let him bring his suit before the primate of the diocese or before the see of the city of Constantinople, and so on; in chapter XLIV: Let the informer either have his tongue cut out, or, if convicted, his head cut off. Now informers are those who betray others out of envy. Others have been of the opinion that the said chapters are the work either of Hadrian or of St. Angelramnus, both because they are ascribed now to the one, now to the other, in all the ancient manuscript codices, and because Hincmar of Reims recorded that they were collected by Pope Hadrian and given to Engelramnus, bishop of the people of Metz, when his case was being tried. For they judged that they should rather be attributed to St. Angelramnus, because it belongs to the accused to defend his case before the judge, not to receive from him the arguments with whose help he may maintain it. As for the fact that many sentences of these chapters are found in the Pseudo-Isidorian collection, who will demonstrate, they reply, that Pseudo-Isidore did not excerpt them from the chapters? Nor do they think that the collection of chapters is in any way damaging to the memory of Hadrian or of St. Angelramnus, since all that is contained in it was either proposed or approved by councils or pontiffs.

[27] [but, as Hinschius has lately shown most learnedly by a review of the codices and by other arguments,] But on the Angelramnian chapters there has lately been published a most erudite commentary by Paul Hinschius Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianæ et Capitula Angelramni, p. CLXIII ff., in which he proposed this opinion: that Pseudo-Isidore used as sources both the capitularies of Benedict and the chapters of Angilramnus, but that many chapters of Angilramnus were drawn from the capitularies of Benedict Ibid., p. CLXXX.. Having thoroughly searched not a few public and private libraries of Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain, and England, Hinschius handled a good many manuscript books of the Pseudo-Isidorian laws to which the chapters of Angelramnus are added, as well as forty-one codices of the chapters of Angelramnus: he also came to know of two other codices of the chapters. These codices of Angelramnus, if you except the untitled one of Cambridge, he found to divide into three great classes: of which some, thirty in number, have an inscription in which Pope Hadrian I is said to have delivered the said chapters to Angelramnus; others on the contrary, eight in number, have Angelramnus to Hadrian: three others state that Angelramnus is their author, without speaking of Hadrian; one, finally, omitting the name of Angelramnus, attributes them to Hadrian. The most ancient of all, the codex of Saint-Germain, has this title: From the Greek and Latin canons and Roman synods and the decrees of the prelates and princes of the Romans these chapters were collected here and there and delivered at Rome to Angilramnus, bishop of the city of the Mediomatrici, by the blessed Pope Hadrian on the 13th day before the kalends of October in the ninth indiction, when his case was being tried Ibid., p. CLXV.. This title Hincmar of Reims had also read. All the other codices of better note of the same class are inscribed in much the same way. But the codices of the other class, Paris 3853, St. Victor 184, Vatican 63 and others, written out in the twelfth or thirteenth century, begin with these words: Here begin the chapters collected from various councils or decrees of the Romans by Angilramnus, bishop of Metz, and offered to Pope Hadrian P. CLXII.. Nor did it escape Hinschius that if credence were to be given to so many and so great codices, either Hadrian or Angelramnus must be called the author of the chapters; which can be thought of neither without injury.

[28] [it is the work of an unknown forger, who also fabricated the false Capitularies of Benedict and the Decretals of Isidore.] There is the further point that it seems by no means admissible that Bl. Angelramnus came to Rome on the 13th day before the kalends of October in the ninth indiction (19 September of the year 786). For this journey, which he could not undertake without a huge retinue and without the greatest expense, he would rather have postponed by three months, since at that time Charlemagne, whose chancellor and archchaplain he was, was going to Rome: who there too before Pope Hadrian seems to have taken up his defense with success against the Gallic bishops Labbe, Collection of Councils, vol. VII, col. 1064.. Nevertheless, since in that age a journey to Rome undertaken by a bishop and distinguished magistrate of the empire was a great matter, which could neither easily be invented nor easily be wiped from memory, it is very probable that the blessed man did at some time go to Rome. For unless the recollection of some journey had survived, that fabricator of the capitularies of Benedict, the chapters of Angelramnus, and the decretal letters of Isidore was not so inept as to let himself be caught in a manifest lie. But the time assigned seems less probable. Moreover, for a space of about seventy years after the death of St. Angelramnus a deep silence was kept about those chapters. Hinschius also observed that the Angelramnian chapters agree word for word with the capitularies of Benedict the Deacon or Levite more often than with the decretals of Pseudo-Isidore, and hence were composed after the collection of Benedict and before that of Pseudo-Isidore. Now the Capitularies of Benedict were used at the Council of Reims of the year 853 Hinschius, p. CLXXXVI., and are said to have been written by their author after Autgar of Mainz had died in the year 847 Pertz, Laws, vol. II, p. 39.. But the Pseudo-Decretals became known about the year 864: for Nicholas I, who in the year 862, writing to Salomon, king of Armorica, had affirmed that accused bishops are not to be deposed except by twelve bishops, or except after hearing seventy witnesses, on the contrary in the year 865, in a letter to the bishops of the Gauls, relying on the pseudo-decretals, says that a bishop ought in no way to be deposed without consulting the Roman pontiff Letters of Nicholas I, in Migne, Patrology, vol. CXIX, col. 807 f.. Hence it is the opinion of Paul Hinschius, which we too embrace, that the chapters attributed by some to Hadrian I, by others to Bl. Angelramnus, were written by the man who called himself Benedict the Levite between the years 847 and 865. We have indeed dwelt rather long on this dispute; although we have scarcely tasted the excellent commentary of Hinschius; but the memory of St. Angelramnus had in some way to be vindicated against Baluze, who did not hesitate to write Antonii Augustini dialogorum libri duo, Preface, no. IV.: First of all Angelramnus, archbishop of Metz, used this new law by which the judgments of bishops are reserved to the authority of the Roman pontiff; first, I say, of all mortals he attempted against the divine canons to overturn the ancient law, "when his case was being tried," that is, when, accused of some crime, as I judge, he wished to withdraw himself from the cognizance of his judges. Let us return to the true deeds of St. Angelramnus.

§ V. Donations of Angelramnus to the monasteries of Gorze and of St. Nabor. The tomb of St. Nabor adorned.

[St. Angelramnus gives to the monastery of Gorze several estates in the districts of Chaumont,] There is a certain tract of land, says Bolland, illustrating the Acts of Bl. John, abbot of Gorze, in the region of the Mediomatrici, formerly called the pagus of Scarpone, or Scarponinse or Scarpona, on this side of the river Moselle, inclining to the west, and assigned in the first division of the kingdom of Lothar between his uncles to Charles the Bald, king of Western Francia. In this pagus of Scarpone, some leagues from the city of Metz itself, the notable monastery called Gorze, from the stream by which it lies, was founded by

St. Chrodegang, bishop of Metz Acta SS. vol. III of September, p. 334.: which would now lie in the department of the Moselle , had it not, after many and wretched misfortunes, been suppressed partly at the close of the sixteenth and partly at the close of the eighteenth century. On this monastery St. Angelramnus, following in the footsteps of his predecessor St. Chrodegang, almost from the beginning of his episcopate, that is, from the year 770, with the consent of the canons according to the common law, conferred great goods of the church of Metz. And first, in the pagus of Chaumont , which takes in all the territory between the sources of the rivers Moselle, Meurthe, and Saar and the confluence of the Moselle and the Meurthe [Valois, Notitia Galliarum, under Calvomontensis pagus; Benoit Picard, Histoire de Toul, ch. XII, p. 29; Lepage, Dictionnaire Géographique de la Meurthe, p. 74.], he gave the estate of Warangesi-Villa Lepage, Dict., p. 253. with its adjacencies or appendages or appurtenances, as well lands, fields, meadows, pastures, vineyards, woods, cultivated and uncultivated, waters and watercourses, movables and immovables, slaves, liti, tenants, money, chattels of both sexes, kinds, or ages, with its whole boundary and its sound condition, all things done and out of all the whole and entire, however much appears to look to the said estate … he willed to be given to the said monastery … In like manner he gave in the said pagus that property in Manicocurtis … that property in Rehensacoldocurtis, which Beto … holds, and also that allotment in the said estate which Vibollagus appears to hold by a benefice of St. Stephen or of ours. On like condition he gave in the same pagus at the estate of Acciagum Ibid., p. 99. together with that church built there, with all things pertaining to it. He gave also a certain land in the same pagus of Chaumont named Nodulphus Ibid., p. 182., the land of the estate of Buxariæ, of which name there are in the pagus of Chaumont, to the north of Nancy, two places adjoining each other: one Bouxières-aux-Dames, where about the year 936 Benedictine nuns fixed their seat, who were afterward succeeded by secular canonesses: the other Bouxières-aux-Chênes. I judge that both places were only one village in the ninth century. Likewise he gave lands in the said pagus in the place called Hadulfi curtis Ibid., p. 132. and at Burtsolonivilla (in the department of the Meurthe). In like manner in the place named Arcæ (in the department of the Meurthe) Ibid., p. 129., and also at Niguiemons Ibid., p. 173. (Montaigu, as they think, now the chapel and castle of the village of La Neuville-devant-Nancy), that they might be for the increase of the said house of God. Likewise he gave certain lands upon the said river Cernone Ibid., p. 215..

[30] of Suggentum, of Bedensis, and of Woëvre; On like condition he gave in the pagus Suggentensis an estate called Childulfi-Villa Ibid., p. 69. (in the department of the Meurthe) together with a certain allotment (namely a measure of land). All these things, says St. Angelramnus, comprised above, both in lands, houses, buildings, fields, meadows, vineyards, woods, cultivated and uncultivated, waters and watercourses, movables and immovables, slaves, liti, tenants, adjacencies, appendages, with their whole boundaries and sound conditions pertaining or looking to those properties, shall be for the increase of the aforesaid monastery or of the said brethren, that it may the better delight them to entreat more attentively the mercy of the Lord for us, and for our renowned kings Charles and Carloman, and for the stability of the kingdom of the Franks, and for our successors. He gave also to the same monastery by another diploma of the same year an estate of his cathedral church of St. Stephen, called Faho (in the department of the Meurthe) Lepage, Dict., p. 108; Benoit, Histoire de Toul, p. 80., in the lesser pagus Bedensis , a part of the greater pagus of Toul, which on the one side adjoins the Meuse, and on the other touches the lesser pagi of the same tract and that of Ornois [Lepage, Dict., p. 44; Benoit, Histoire de Toul, p. 74 ff.; Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, col. 20.]; and also another estate of the account of the said St. Stephen, situated in the pagus of Woëvre , which took in the villages of Beaumont, Mandres, Manoncourt, Esey, Charey, and Rembercourt [Lepage, Diction., p. 266 f.; Benoit, Histoire de Toul, p. 73 f.; Bexon, Histoire de Lorraine, p. 321 f.], named Gaudiacum * Histoire de Metz, vol. I, p. 532; Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, vol. I, col. 526.. And to shut off all roads of litigation St. Angelramnus adds: That is, in lands, houses, buildings, fields, meadows, pastures, vineyards, woods, cultivated and uncultivated, waters and watercourses, movables and immovables, slaves, liti, tenants, adjacencies, appendages with their whole boundaries and sound conditions, looking or pertaining to the same aforesaid estates Faho and Gaudiacum, shall be for the increase of the portion of St. Peter or of St. Gorgonius, or of the said brethren, that it may the better delight them to entreat more attentively the mercy of the Lord for us and for our renowned king and for the stability of the kingdom of the Franks and for our successors. And that rent which until now the said Fredelaigus or Godfrid have given to the portion of St. Stephen or to us, let them pay every year to the portion of the said monastery or to the said brethren. And when they shall have departed from this light, let the said brethren receive into their power the said aforesaid estates with all that stands upon them, without anyone's contradiction, and without awaiting any delivery by a judge or by the bishops, our successors… Meurisse, Op. cit., book II, p. 176 f..

[31] and he prevents the monks of St. Nabor from being harassed by their advocate. About the same time Walter, advocate of the monastery of St. Nabor, wonderfully forgetful of his office, so harassed the monks living there that they lacked the means to live. St. Angelramnus did not suffer this, and he settled the matter as best he could, as he himself declared in the following diploma: I, Engilramus, in God's name the unworthy bishop of Metz: we ought to provide solicitously for all the churches committed to us, and to make peace for the brethren living there to God, and to defend them from wicked men, and to guard their property, that they may be able to serve God more securely. Therefore, condoling and sympathizing piously and mercifully with the daily calamities and miseries of the cenoby of blessed Nabor, which under the advocate and minister of Count Wolmer, our advocate, both in exactions and in plunderings, which they incessantly inflict and commit night and day upon the men of the same church, oppressing and afflicting them daily, so that they could not bear their outcries; by all these things that cenoby came to such poverty and misery that the brethren who would be willing to serve God and St. Nabor there could hardly be found, because they had not the means of living there: at length, having taken counsel, we convoked the same count, and by our justice nevertheless constrained him, so that he himself ceased from this injury, and rebuked the sub-advocates and ministers. For this correction therefore and amendment of the aforesaid cenoby, Wasco the abbot and his brethren, by our counsel and that of all, and of the same count, that it might be firm and ratified, and that thereafter neither the count nor their successors should disturb them on that account, delivered in perpetuity to the count certain estates which belonged to their prebend, so that henceforth neither the count himself nor the sub-advocates or ministers should inflict or commit any exaction or disturbance upon the said church or its peasants; but if their peasants should prove rebellious against them, or refuse to come to justice, the aforesaid count, being warned by the abbot or by the brethren, should come there, and the abbot, entertaining him with his men for the night, should see to it that in the night and on the following day justice was done upon the peasants, and that of the fines the abbot should have two parts, the count the third, and that he be content with this; but the other benefices of the church and the annual services the abbot and brethren should possess in perpetuity, and hold them freely and peacefully without any disturbance. The names of the estates: Walo, which is beside the castle of Morspec in Alsace (which at that time stretched from the Ripuarians to the Alemanni), near Hamburo: the estate of Ropac at Iugeswile, four manses near Salrab Cundici with the church; an estate near Bozonis-villa: likewise Ostingam-villa and nine manses at Altor, near Tannævilla, and one manse at Hinkingam-villa. All these things, as they are seen to be written in the present document, so by the authority of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and of all the saints, men and women, and by our own, we confirm and strengthen, that no count or advocate, or any person or man, should dare to violate, infringe, or change this charter, but that it remain firm and stable always down to this present day, and that all who attempt to violate or contravene it incur the wrath of God and the curse and our excommunication. Sign of Botpert the advocate. Sign of Sigibald. Sign of Liepbrid the archdeacon. Sign of Manfrid the archdeacon. Sign of Heliman the dean. Sign of Benco the provost. Sign of Otto the provost. Done this year 29, in the reign of Charles the glorious king, on the 15th day of the month of June. — Subscribed: I, Allo the notary, wrote this, and Christopher Thilman. Calmet, Hist. de Lorr., vol. II, proofs, p. CXVIII.

[32] He completes the ornaments of the tomb of St. Nabor. But it must be noted that there was affixed to this diploma the 28th year of the reign of Charlemagne, which falls in the year 797, when St. Angelramnus, as we shall show afterward, had already departed from this life six years before: but, as the authors of the history of Metz Histoire de Metz, vol. I, p. 536., following in the footsteps of Mabillon Benedictine Annals, book XXVI, at the year 791, no. 16, vol. II, p. 282., observe, the copyist wrote XXVIII in place of XVIII. There survives also another document of the benevolence of St. Angelramnus toward the monastery of St. Nabor, namely fourteen verses in which Alcuin celebrates Wasco, abbot of the monastery of St. Nabor, and St. Angelramnus, the former of whom had completed the ornaments with which the latter had begun to adorn the tomb of St. Nabor. Receive, reader, these verses:

The pontifical crown, shepherd, patriarch, priest, Angilramnus exulting, relying on pity his mistress, Led by love of the illustrious martyr Nabor, Had begun, intent, to clothe the sacred tomb, With the help of the pious King Charles, through his gifts. Lest he complete the work, wicked death snatched the father away: Afterward a humble levite completed that vessel. You who read the verses, commend both to Christ, That whoever shall come here to pay his vows Remember the disciple with the father in kindly words. The one began it, but the other has now perfected it. One work of both; may Christ preserve them both. And you, holy martyr of God, unconquered in your triumphs, Help your servants, shepherd, best of fathers Works of Alcuin, vol. II, col. 753, Migne edition..

[33] He makes an exchange with the bishop of Toul. Moreover, about three years before

he flew away to heaven, St. Angelramnus entered into an arrangement, which Charlemagne by a decree of the 29th day of June of the year 788 willed to be firm [Gallia Christiana nova, vol. XIII, Proofs, col. 446 f.; Calmet, Hist. de Lorr., vol. VII, p. CXLIV.], with Borno, bishop of Toul, such that the former should give to the church of Toul certain lands of St. Stephen of Metz or of the monastery of Gorze, situated in Siavolum, a place of the pagus Suggentensis: the latter in turn should confer on St. Stephen of Metz or on the monastery of Gorze certain fields of the church of Toul, which lay in the place called Stilonium of the pagus Vongensis.

* Dept. of the Moselle.

* Chaumontois.

* La Sare.

* Varangeville

* Manoncourt en-Vermois.

* Essey-les-Noncy

* Neuvelotte.

* Heillecourt.

* Hausonville.

* Art-sur-Meurthe.

* Le Saintois

* Chaouilley.

* Foug.

* Le Void.

* Ornois.

* La Voivre.

* Ioui-en-Voivre

§ VI. The death of St. Angelramnus in the Avar war. The day of his death not altogether certain. Ecclesiastical cult. Liturgical lessons. Music.

St. Angelramnus dies in the war against the Avars, in the year 791, Yet what we have related thus far are rather indications of his exceptional administration than a review of the distinguished deeds which we can suspect, but not demonstrate, to have been done by him in the course of his episcopate. Now after he had diligently discharged these labors, the time came for him to render to the supreme master and judge an account of his stewardship and to receive the reward of his work. This last day dawned while, for the sake of his offices, he was accompanying Charlemagne in the year 791 as he marched to war against the Avars, then the inhabitants of Pannonia. For we read in the Annals of Lorsch, or of Loisel In Pertz, vol. I, p. 34.: In the year 791 … he himself (Charles) entered Illyricum and thence Pannonia… And when King Charles saw that no one from the side of the Avars dared to resist him or his men, he then went around that land for 52 days, burning and laying waste that land… And on that very march there died Enghilramnus of good memory, archbishop of the Mediomatrican church. Likewise in the Chronicle of Moissac Ibid., p. 299; Bouquet, vol. V, p. 73.: In the year 791 … on that very march there died Ingilramnus of good memory, archbishop of the Mediomatrican church. The author of the Annals of the Alamanni dissents indeed Pertz, vol. I, p. 47., saying: In the year 790 … Angilramnus and Suidbert departed from this light. But his account must be set behind the account of others, since it conflicts with the most ancient historical monuments, all of which, except only the Annals of Tillet Bouquet, vol. V, p. 21; Pertz, vol. I, p. 222., assign to the years 791 and 792 the war in which St. Angilramnus died. For these are the Annals of the Franks Bouquet, vol. V, p. 65., the short Chronicle excerpted from a codex of the monastery of Saint-Denis in France Ibid., p. 29., the greater Annals of Regensburg Pertz, vol. I, p. 92., the Chronicle of Moissac Bouquet, vol. V, p. 73; Pertz, vol. I, p. 34., the Annals of Einhard Bouquet, vol. V, p. 210; Pertz, vol. I, p. 177., the Chronicle of Ado Bouquet, vol. V, p. 319., the Annals of Fulda Bouquet, vol. V, p. 330; Pertz, vol. I, p. 95., the Annals of Metz Bouquet, vol. V, p. 347; Pertz, vol. I, p. 335., and following these the short Chronicle of St. Gall Bouquet, vol. V, p. 360; Pertz, vol. I, p. 65., the Chronicle of Hermann the Lame Bouquet, vol. V, p. 364., the Chronicle of Lambert of Aschaffenburg Ibid., p. 367., etc. But in the Annals of Tillet, as Dom Bouquet observes Ibid., p. 19, in the note., all events from the year 774 to the end, that is, to the year 807, are given one year late: hence it is understood how the march to the Avars came to be tied not to the year 791, but to the year 790. From this discussion it is also clear that the Chronicle of Metz was less correct in prolonging the episcopate of St. Angelramnus to thirty-eight years, and Meurisse to fifty years and twenty-nine days.

[35] on the 24th or 26th day of October; As for the day of the death of St. Angelramnus, no one will readily deny that it was one of the kalends of November: for in the catalogue of St. Symphorian it is read Ansberti familia rediviva, at the end, p. 24; in Pertz, vol. I, p. 269.: Angelramnus, archbishop and chaplain of the palace, who sat 23 years and 28 days. He rests in the monastery called Nova Cella. He died on the 7th before the kalends in the place called Asnagahunc * Chunisberch. With this agrees the Catalogue of St. Arnulf, in which these things are read Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, vol. I, Proofs, col. CXVIII.: Angelramnus, archbishop and chaplain of the palace, sat 28 years. He died on the 7th before the kalends of November. He rests in the monastery called Nova Cella. He died in the place Asnagan, now Cunisberg. There agrees also the Chronicle of Metz, where these things occur In Pertz, vol. X, p. 540.: This distinguished man (St. Chrodegang) was succeeded by Lord Angerannus, thirty-eighth in order. He was archchaplain of the palace of Charlemagne… The aforesaid Angerannus, among his other good deeds, built the monastery of Nova Cella, in which also he rests. He ruled the bishopric for 23 years under the popes Hadrian, Leo aforewritten, and Stephen III: then the ancient codices of the martyrology of Metz, some at the 8th, others at the 7th, or also at the 5th or 4th before the kalends of October, give these words [Histoire de Metz, vol. I, p. 543; Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine, vol. I, p. 532; Meurisse, Histoire des évêques de Metz, pp. 177 and 179; Ruyer, Antiquités des Vosges, p. 221.]: Lord Angelramnus died, archbishop of the holy church of God of Metz, who granted Milleriacum (an estate) to St. Paul, that is, to the canons of this church. From which we ought to have a full service. But since St. Angelramnus presided over the people of Metz for 23 years and 28 days, he must be said to have died, provided the days of consecration and death are subtracted, on the 24th day of October; on the contrary, if they are not subtracted, he must be said to have died on the 26th day of October. But if only the day of consecration or of death is taken away, his death must be tied to the 25th day of October; on which day some books report his death. But since in the chronology of St. Chrodegang the authors of the catalogues count neither the day of consecration nor that of death in his episcopate, it may be judged that they took the same way in the chronology of St. Angelramnus, whose day of death accordingly seems to be the 26th of October, or the 6th before the kalends of November. And indeed, when the Passed-Over were written at the 25th day of October, it was our intention to speak of him at the following day, since (as we noted in that place) his birthday is inscribed in the Martyrology of the cathedral church of Metz at the 6th before the kalends of November; but by a printer's error it was printed that we would speak of him at the 27th day of October in place of the 26th of October. But since his name has met us in no fasti at the 27th day, we have preferred to report him at the next day, the 28th of October; not because he died on that day, but because this at least favors it, that on this day his death is marked in some books Hist. de Metz, vol. I, p. 543.. Now Königsberg, where St. Angelramnus died, in Latin Regiusmons and Nova Banya, in Hungarian Uj-Banya, is a very well known town of Hungary, in the county of Bars, on the right bank of the river Gran, MM D paces from Schemnitz.

[36] he was buried in the monastery of St. Nabor. After his happy departure St. Angelramnus, as we have just related from the catalogues of St. Symphorian Ansberti familia rediviva, at the end, p. 24; in Pertz, vol. I, p. II. and St. Arnulf Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, Proofs, col. CXVIII. and from the Chronicle of Metz In Pertz, vol. X, p. 540., was buried in the monastery of Nova Cella or of St. Nabor. The Ritual of Metz of the year 1713 lends its support Ritual of Metz of the year 1713, p. XXI., though wrongly adding that the blessed man was present at the Council of Frankfurt of the year 769 (which never existed). His tomb, however, remained unknown until the 5th day of August of the year 1609: at which time it was found by Jean de Maillane Porcelet, bishop of Toul, when he was restoring and embellishing the church of St. Nabor, of which he was commendatory abbot. His coffin was of stone, four feet long: on its front was carved the image of a bishop, having at his feet several monks praying on bended knees. The bones of St. Angelramnus together with his chalice were deposited in the church of the sacristy Calmet, vol. I, p. 532; Meurisse, p. 179; Hist. de Metz, vol. I, p. 543.. But at the beginning of the supreme upheaval of the eighteenth century, as Rev. Mr. Poncelet, the present parish priest and archpriest at St. Nabor (Saint-Avold), learned from men worthy of belief, impious men trampled them underfoot and scattered them in all directions, so that thoroughly Christian men could collect only a few particles, afterward stored away with an arm of St. Sigibald and of other saints at the back of the high altar. But of all these relics only the arm of St. Sigibald, since a sufficiency of witnesses was lacking for the others, was recognized as genuine some years ago by the venerable man Beauvallet, vicar general of the bishop of Metz. Nevertheless, even at this day, as Rev. Fr. Julien Bach, a diligent investigator of the antiquities of Metz, has written to me, in the treasury of the church of Metz there are preserved some bones and the skull of St. Angelramnus, together with the bones and skull of St. Sigibald, bishop of Metz, who in the past century likewise rested in the monastery of St. Nabor.

[37] [There was a cult in the monasteries of St. Nabor and of St. Clement, and for some time through the whole diocese of Metz. Liturgical lessons on him.] That ecclesiastical cult was anciently paid to St. Angelramnus in the monastery of St. Nabor is related by Ruyer Antiquités des Vosges, p. 221., Meurisse Histoire des évêques de Metz, vol. I, p. 178., Calmet Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, p. 532., François and Tabouillot Hist. de Metz, vol. I, p. 543., the writers of Gallia Christiana Gallia Christiana nova, vol. XIII, col. 711., and Chaussier De l'origine apostolique de l'Eglise de Metz, p. 55.. And François and Tabouillot record that he attained the same honor in the church of St. Clement at Metz Histoire de Metz, vol. I, p. 543.. For a short time also, namely from about the year 1827 to the year 1848, throughout the whole diocese of Metz on the 5th day of August, on which was commemorated the anniversary

memorial of its finding, the feast of St. Angelramnus was kept with semi-double rite. All was from the common of confessor bishops, except the prayer from that of doctors and the following second and third lessons: Angelramnus, born of illustrious parentage, was educated in divine and liberal disciplines at Gorze, where a celebrated school was then kept. Entering thence Nova Cella, which afterward had the name of the cenoby of St. Nabor, he received the habit of religion. And when in that place for many years he had shown himself conspicuous for learning and the virtues of an excellent monk, Charlemagne set him as abbot over Senones, at the foot of the Vosges mountain. Thence in the year seven hundred and sixty-eight he was raised to the see of Metz, which had been vacant for nearly three years after the death of blessed Chrodegang, and was distinguished with the pallium and the prerogatives of an archbishop. Also archchaplain of the sacred palace, and legate of Pope Hadrian to King Charles, he fulfilled all these offices, relaxing nothing of his pastoral care, always with the highest praise. Remarkable was his munificence toward the cathedral church, which he increased with very ample estates. The canonical discipline introduced by his holy predecessor he took care to have observed with the greatest zeal, and he himself, though distracted by so many cares and affairs, always observed it. Under his episcopate there was also instituted at Metz the school of ecclesiastical chant famous throughout the Gauls. After he had ruled the flock committed to him for twenty-three years, he departed to the supreme shepherd of our souls; and he was buried at Nova Cella, on whose buildings, begun by Sigisbald, he had set the last hand. His sacred relics the most illustrious de Porcelet, bishop of Toul and abbot of St. Nabor, solemnly exhumed in the year one thousand six hundred and nine, on the nones of August. A part of these was some years ago translated into the cathedral church, where they are venerated with the greatest honor.

[38] Whether St. Angelramnus promoted music. In these lessons, as the reader will have seen, it is turned to the praise of St. Angelramnus that in his episcopate a school of ecclesiastical chant was established in the church of Metz. What part the most holy man had in this matter, who can define? It is reported by the Anonymous of Angoulême Life of Charlemagne, in Duchesne, Historiæ Francorum scriptores, vol. II, p. 75., by John the Deacon Acta SS. vol. II of March, Life of St. Gregory the Great, p. 148., and by Ekkehard Ibid., vol. I of April, Life of Bl. Notker, p. 582. that Charlemagne brought with him to Rome several of his own nation who were held to be skilled in chant in their homeland, and who contended that they excelled the Romans in the chant promoted by St. Gregory the Great, while the Romans on the contrary said that they were more skillful than the Gauls. The narrative of the Anonymous, of John the Deacon, and of Ekkehard was condensed by Sigebert of Gembloux, with the dates noted, in these words: In the year 774… King Charles, offended at the dissonance of ecclesiastical chant between the Romans and the Gauls, and judging it more just to drink from the pure fountain than from the troubled stream, sent two clerics to Rome, that they might learn the authentic chant from the Romans and teach the Gauls. And through these first the church of Metz, and through it all Gaul, was recalled to the authority of the Roman chant… In the year 790… King Charles, wholly intent on ecclesiastical decorum, diligently corrected the discipline of reading and of singing psalms. For considering that the Gauls again differed from the Romans in singing, and that the people of Metz were somewhat dissonant solely through the lightness of nature, he corrected the dissonance of the chant through cantors sent again to him from Rome by Pope Hadrian Chronicle of Sigebert of Gembloux, col. 147 and 150, Migne edition.. But it is manifest that Sigebert erred in referring the events of the year 787 to the year 790: for King Charles undertook a journey to Rome four times: he went to Rome first in the year 774 Mabillon, Benedictine Annals, vol. II, book 24, no. 45, p. 211., second in the year 780 Ibid., book 25, no. 15, p. 239., third in the years 786 Ibid., no. 58, p. 258. and 787 Ibid., no. 61, p. 259., and fourth at last in the year 800 Ibid., book 26, no. 87, p. 318.; but in the year 790 he did not go there. On these journeys it could easily have happened that St. Angelramnus followed Charlemagne (whom he also accompanied in the war against the Avars), having with him some cantors. But we want ancient testimonies. Lest anyone suppose, however, that St. Angelramnus was the first at Metz to devote his effort to the care of the right manner of chant, the praise of St. Chrodegang must be recalled to memory, that each may be assigned his own certain part. Thus about the year 774 Paul the Deacon wrote of St. Chrodegang: The clergy itself, abundantly steeped in the divine law and in Roman singing, he commanded to keep the custom and order of the Roman church; which until that time had by no means been done in the church of Metz. But, as easily happens in this kind of affair, when all were striving to do their very best, contentions perhaps arose in the times of St. Angelramnus; which contentions, a comparison having been made with the Roman cantors, were laid to rest. But it does not please us to dwell longer on this obscure business, since many have learnedly disputed about it, among them the Benedictine monks Guéranger Institutions liturgiques, vol. I, ch. X, p. 245 ff. and Gerbert De Cantu et Musica sacra, vol. I, book II, part I, ch. 1, p. 268 ff., and a son of our Society, Fr. L. Lambillotte Antiphonaire de S. Grégoire, p. 10 ff..

* Asnagan, now.

APPENDIX

Of certain holy bishops of Metz.

Angelramnus, bishop of Metz in Gaul. (S.)

Victor I, bishop of Metz in Gaul. (S.)

Victor II, bishop of Metz in Gaul. (S.)

Sambatus, bishop of Metz in Gaul. (S.)

Hesperius, bishop of Metz in Gaul. (S.)

Villicus, bishop of Metz in Gaul. (S.)

Peter, bishop of Metz in Gaul. (S.)

BY R. D. B.

The church of Metz abounded in holy bishops, The church of Metz has preserved down to our times a pontifical and canon of the Mass most skillfully written out in the time of Charlemagne; and inscribed on these are verses in praise of the bishops of Metz: of which this is the beginning:

You who with lively zeal go through the sacred dwellings, If love of knowing touches your breast, by the labor of what Great men this city, renowned in its heroes, was won for Christ, Or who first brought to these shores, Old error removed, the skillful light of fruitful faith From the true Orient: Read through the poem set below, and you will briefly be taught.

[2] [concerning whom it has been spoken partly in our work, and partly will be spoken in this place] But if a poet sang such things to the glory of Metz at the close of the eighth century, would he not have spoken much more magnificently of the same church in more recent time, after, that is, from this age on, many other bishops who were honored with the cult of saints joined themselves to the earlier ones? The deeds of most of them have been illustrated in the Bollandist Work, namely of Saints Caelestis Acta SS. vol. VI of Oct., p. 480., Felix Ibid., vol. III of Feb., p. 236., Patiens Ibid., vol. I of Jan., p. 468., Simeon Ibid., vol. II of Feb., p. 859., Adelphus Ibid., vol. VI of Aug., p. 507., Firminus Ibid., vol. VI of Jul., p. 430; vol. III of Aug., pp. 39 and 70., Auctor Ibid., vol. II of Aug., p. 563., Expletius Ibid., vol. VII of Jul., p. 157., Urbitius Ibid., vol. III of Mar., p. 86., Gosselin Ibid., vol. VI of Jul., p. 304., Romanus Ibid., vol. II of Apr., p. 134., Phronimius Ibid., vol. VII of Jul., p. 430., Grammatius Ibid., vol. III of Apr., p. 369., Agatimber Ibid., vol. II of May, p. 632., Arnulf Ibid., vol. IV of Jul., p. 423., Godo Ibid., vol. II of May, p. 307., Abbo Ibid., vol. II of April, p. 388., Sigebald Ibid., vol. IX of Oct., p. 931., Chrodegang Ibid., vol. I of Mar., p. 452., Peter of Luxembourg Ibid., vol. I of Jul., p. 486., Gondulf Ibid., vol. II of Sept., p. 782., Legontius Ibid., vol. II of Feb., p. 66., Arnoald Ibid., vol. IV of Oct., p. 1008., and Chlodulf Ibid., vol. II of June, p. 126., and at this 28th day of October St. Angelramnus. To these in the present Appendix we annex Saints Victor I and Victor II, Sambatus, Hesperius or Sperus, Villicus, and Peter, passed over by our predecessors for various reasons. Add that a little further on, at the 29th day of October, we shall pursue the deeds of St. Terentius, likewise bishop of Metz. Afterward, in their own time, will come the Acts of Saints Clement, Rufus, Pappolus, and Albero.

[3] according to sure documents, the rest being deferred to another time. Most of these holy bishops were honored at one time or another with ecclesiastical cult in the church of Metz itself: which we gather both from an ancient calendar of this church, formerly of our predecessors, now of the Royal Library of Brussels, whose most recent saints are Saints Anthony of Padua, Francis of Assisi, and Clare, and which therefore seems to be referred to the thirteenth century: and from the Martyrology of Metz, which the Benedictine monks François and Tabouillot inserted piecemeal into their history of this town, or also from the Breviary of Metz, which the bishop of this church, Cardinal Louis de Montmorency-Laval, published in the year 1778, Jacques Besson augmented about the year 1827, and the most illustrious and most reverend Paul Georges Marie Du Pont des Loges in the year 1848, with some changes, again committed to print. To these add the supplement which the same most illustrious and most reverend Paul Georges Marie Du Pont added to the Roman Breviary, introduced by him into his diocese. That the reader may easily grasp this, we subjoin a table here: whose first series shows the holy bishops inscribed in the ancient calendar of Metz, the second those inscribed in the martyrology of the same church; the third the holy bishops whose office is in the Breviary of the year 1778; the fourth those whom Jacques Besson added about the year 1827; the fifth those whom the most illustrious and most reverend Du Pont ordered in the year 1848 to be venerated with the same rite; the sixth those whom the same bishop, the Roman liturgy having been again introduced, with the approval of the supreme pontiff Pius IX, proposed to all the priests of his diocese to be honored with the ecclesiastical Office and the Mass.

THE HOLY BISHOPS OF METZ

INSCRIBED IN THE CALENDAR OF METZ OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

Bishops of Metz inscribed in the older sacred fasti January: 8 Patiens. February: 16 Simeon; 18 Leguntius; 21 Felix. March: 20 Urbitius. May: 2 Translation of St. Clement; 11 Rufus and Agatimber; 16 Translation of St. Terentius. June: 16 Leguntius and Forminius. July: 18 Translation of St. Arnulf. August: 16 Arnulf; 21 Privatus; 27 Rufus. September: 6 Gondulf; 19 Goericus. October: 9 Arnoald; 14 Caelestis; 26 Sigibald. November: 23 Clement. December: 11 Glodulf.

THE HOLY BISHOPS OF METZ

INSCRIBED IN THE MARTYROLOGY OF METZ.

January: 8 Patiens. February: 16 Simeon; 18 Leguntius; 21 Felix. March: 20 Urbitius. April: 13 Romanus; 15 Abbo; 17 Villicus, Arnoald, and Goericus; 25 Grammatius; 26 Translation of St. Clement. May: 8 Godo and Clodulf; 11 Translation of Saints Rufus and Agatimber; 16 Translation of St. Terentius. June: 16 Translation of Saints Leguntius and Phronimius. July: 18 of Flondulf. August: 9 Auctor; 27 Rufus; 29 Adelphus. October: 14 Caelestis. November: 21 Pappolus. December: 16 Glodulf.

THE HOLY BISHOPS OF METZ

INSCRIBED IN THE CALENDAR OF THE BREVIARY OF THE YEAR 1778.

and in the more recent May: 6 Chrodegang. August: 16 Arnulf. November: 23 Clement.

THE HOLY BISHOPS OF METZ

INSERTED IN THE CALENDAR OF METZ ABOUT THE YEAR 1827.

February: 21 Felix. March: 20 Urbitius. April: 17 Villicus. May: 8 Clodulf. August: 5 Angelramnus; 23 Hesperius. September: 6 Gondulf; 19 Goericus. October: 3 Chrodegang; 14 Caelestius; 26 Sigibald. November: 23 Clement.

THE HOLY BISHOPS OF METZ

INSCRIBED IN THE CALENDAR OF THE BREVIARY OF THE YEAR 1848.

January: 8 Patiens. February: 21 Felix. March: 20 Urbitius. June: 8 Clodulf. August: 9 Auctor; 16 Arnulf; 18 Phronimius; 29 Adelphus. September: 6 Gondulf; 19 Goericus. October: 2 Chrodegang; 14 Caelestis; 26 Sigibald. November: 23 Clement.

THE HOLY BISHOPS OF METZ

INSCRIBED IN THE CALENDAR OF THE BREVIARY OF THE YEAR 1859.

January: 8 Patiens. February: 21 Felix. March: 6 Chrodegang; 20 Urbitius. July: 5 Bl. Peter of Luxembourg. August: 9 Auctor; 16 Arnulf; 18 Firminus. September: 1 Adelphus; 6 Gondulf; 19 Goericus. October: 16 Caelestis; 26 Sigibald. November: 7 Rufus; 23 Clement.

ST. VICTOR I

St. Victor, who took part in the Council of Cologne of the year 346 St. Victor I, in the most ancient catalogues of the bishops of Metz, namely those of the monasteries of St. Symphorian Ansberti familia rediviva, by Dominicy, at the end, p. 24. and St. Arnoald Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, Proofs, col. CXVI., and also in the metrical catalogue [Meurisse, Histoire des évêques de Metz, p. 685; Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, vol. I, Proofs, col. CXVIII.] written about the year 770 in the Missal of Metz, as well as in the book of Paul the Deacon on the bishops of Metz Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae, vol. III, p. 260. and in the Chronicle published long ago by d'Achery Spicilegium, vol. II, p. 225, de la Barre edition. and lately by Pertz Pertz, Monum. Germaniae, vol. X, p. 535., occupies the fifth place. And indeed in the catalogues of St. Symphorian and St. Arnoald is read: V Victor, bishop, sat 9 years and 2 months. He died on the 10th before the kalends of October, or 22 September. From these the Chronicle of d'Achery does not disagree, except that it is silent about the two months. The predecessors of St. Victor I were Saints Clement, Caelestius, Felix, and Patiens. And these things are admitted by all. But they go off into various opinions where the time of his episcopate is to be determined; which some, chiefly because it is recorded in d'Achery's Chronicle that he presided over the church of Metz under Pope Pius and Antoninus Pius, refer to the middle of the second century, others to the middle of the fourth. For the decision of the former, besides resting on a historical monument that is hardly ancient and is faulty, conflicts entirely with the Acts of the Council of Cologne of the year 346. It does not escape me that these Acts, or even the council itself, are rejected as apocryphal by many learned men. And indeed their chief argument has been that it is scarcely credible that the fathers of Cologne held a council and there pronounced a sentence of excommunication against Euphrates, who three years later (in the year 346) not only took part in the Council of Sardica, but was held worthy by the fathers sitting in it to be sent as legate of the council to the Emperor Constantius; but not long ago, as one of my colleagues, illustrating the Acts of St. Amandus of Strasbourg Acta SS. vol. XI of October, p. 830 ff., has shown, with the aid of the Chronicle of the times of St. Athanasius and of his Festal Letters (which were published first by Cureton in the year 1848, then by Mai in the year 1853 and by Migne in the year 1857), it has become plain that the Council of Sardica was held not in the year 346 but in the year 343; and that Euphrates, after the Council of Sardica, on his return to his church embraced Arian dogmas, perhaps enticed by the Emperor Constantius himself. This done, the neighboring bishops, lest they leave Euphrates the opportunity of spreading heresy, at once assembled a council and expelled him from the church.

[7] where he condemned Euphrates of Cologne, The other arguments proposed against the Council of Cologne were no less easily washed away in the same commentary on St. Amandus, and it was demonstrated that the Council of Cologne of the year 346 is to be held among the genuine ones, and consequently that St. Victor held the reins of the church of Metz in the year 346. Thus in the Council of Agrippina St. Victor pronounced an anathema against Euphrates in these words: Since it has been made plain and proved that Euphrates, unmindful of the heavenly sacrament, has blasphemed against the Holy Spirit by denying that Christ is God the Son of God, and he is convicted of many crimes, which in no way befits a bishop, I consent that he be deposed Labbe, Collection of Councils, vol. II, col. 616.. Beyond this we have learned nothing of the deeds of St. Victor.

[8] [the people of Metz buried him in the crypt of St. Clement; whence his relics were taken up in the year 1142] The people of Metz buried St. Victor in the church or crypt of St. Clement outside the city; where afterward the monastery of St. Clement was built: in which place his remains rested until the month of June of the year 1142. Then the monks of St. Clement raised from the earth the body of St. Victor together with the bodies of many other saints, lest any of these should be transferred by Bishop Stephen to the church of Luchisin. Of this elevation, performed in secret, they wrote the following testimony Histoire de Lorraine, vol. VI, Proofs, col. XX f.: In this shrine are contained the relics of the holy confessors and likewise bishops of Metz, Victor, and also the other Victor, Leguntius, Sperus, and of the virgin Apprincia, the cause of whose collection from various places and bestowal in one was this. There is in the diocese of the church of Metz a place, belonging to St. George's near Saarbrücken, which is called Luchisin , where a very great multitude of faithful monks, lay brothers, and devout women had been gathered to serve the Lord; and it was most famous all around in no small degree for its religion and holiness of life. Its prior, then, being solicitous for the flock and the place committed to him, and procuring everything necessary for them and especially useful to their souls, seeing that his church lacked the patronage of the saints, as being newly built and not yet sufficiently adorned or fortified with relics of the saints, went to the lord Stephen, bishop of Metz; and entreated him with many prayers to assist him in this. When the aforesaid bishop wished to satisfy his prayers, and was anxiously turning over in his doubtful mind where he could find what was sought; he learned from those who stood by him that the church of St. Clement was distinguished by the tombs of the saints who had passed away in the same city, which could sufficiently supply what was asked of it without detriment to itself, and from which some pledges of the saints had already been taken and were honorably venerated, translated to other churches. Forthwith therefore, having summoned the abbots of St. Vincent and of St. Arnulf, he ordered the brethren of St. Clement to dig up the ground and uncover the body of St. Leguntius, which had until then lain buried with them, and to expect that he would soon raise the relics of the aforesaid confessor; all things needful for this work being prepared, keeping silent about what he had arranged to deliver to the aforesaid prior; and when this became known to the brethren, having asked for a delay, that they might confer among themselves and reply concerning the things about which they had been addressed, at length, having shared counsel, fearing to be deprived of so great a patron, they collected from all sides the relics of this saint and of the aforesaid saints, and placed them distinctly and separately in this shrine, with a separate brief assigned to each relic . Now there are the head with the other members of the body of St. Sperus, wrapped in no linen cloths, namely placed here and there through the shrine, and above them the relics of the aforesaid saints, fitted specially with their briefs and wrapped in linens. These things were done, therefore, in the year from the incarnation of the Lord, in the month of June 1142, indiction V.

[9] The fortunes of his cult. So formerly in the monastery of St. Clement the feast of St. Victor was celebrated on the 23rd day of September. But when in the year 1552 Francis of Guise overturned the monastery of St. Clement from its foundations in order to build a citadel there against Charles V [Huguenin, Les Chroniques de la ville de Metz, p. 871; Bégin, Histoire des sciences etc. dans le pays Messin, p. 389; Meurisse, op. cit., p. 622.], the bodies of both Victors, of Leguntius, and of Sperus were carried first to the monastery of the Girls, then to the new church, which afterward had the name of St. Clement. But at the close of the eighteenth century, when all holy things were being despised by the impious, they met with wretched fortunes Chaussier, Origine apostolique de l'Eglise de Metz, p. 19 f..

ST. VICTOR II

[St. Victor II, successor of St. Victor I, was buried likewise in the crypt of St. Clement. His cult] St. Victor II is recorded in the very ancient catalogues of the bishops of Metz of which we have just spoken, and they assign him the first place after St. Victor I. And indeed in the catalogue of St. Symphorian, which pleases the learned above the others, is read: VI Victor, bishop, sat 3 years and 2 months. He died on the 9th before the kalends of October. From which it is clear that he flourished about the middle of the fourth century. The monks of St. Clement celebrated his feast on the 23rd day of September in their monastery, just like the feast of St. Victor I Histoire de Metz, vol. I, p. 219.. What fortune the sacred relics of St. Victor II met with, and how they were honored with lawful cult, we have abundantly said in the article on St. Victor I.

ST. SAMBATUS

St. Sambatus, successor of St. Simeon, was honored with ecclesiastical cult. The name of St. Sambatus is sometimes written Sambatius, Sambacus, and in Ferrari General Catalogue of Saints, at the 14th of September. Ambatius. In Athenaeus a flute-player of the name Σαμβας occurs, and in the Inscriptions of Boeckh a man of the name Σαμβατευς [Compare the Greek Lexicon of Stephanus, under Σαμβας and Σαμβατευς, Didot edition.]. This name is unknown to the Latins, very rare among the Greeks, but among the Armenians Sembat is very common. It is thus most probable that this name was passed from the Armenians to the Greeks, and from these to the Gauls; among whom in the first centuries of the church there were many bishops called by Greek names or names that were held to be Greek. In the aforesaid catalogues of the bishops of Metz St. Sambatus thus occurs after St. Simeon, who departed from the living about the year 380. But further we read in the catalogue of St. Symphorian that he sat 18 years and died on the 18th

before the kalends of October, or 14 September. With which agree, besides Paul the Deacon, the other catalogues and d'Achery's Chronicle, where it is added also that he was buried in the crypt of St. Clement beside his predecessors: from which monuments it follows that he departed to God at the beginning of the fifth century. Few call St. Sambatus a saint; yet we gather that ecclesiastical cult was paid him from this, that not only Ferrari (alas, too often deceptive!) in his Catalogue of Saints at the 14th day of September General Catalogue of Saints, p. 365. testifies that he took this from the records of the church of Metz, but also that a canon of the same church, the venerable man Chaussier Origine apostolique de l'Église de Metz, p. 54., affirms that Sambatus is called a saint in the most ancient liturgical books of this city. Add that Meurisse, bishop of Madaura and suffragan of the church of Metz, writing in the year 1634, and thus after the earlier decrees of Urban VIII, did not hesitate to reckon St. Sambatus among the holy bishops of the church of Metz Meurisse, Histoire des évêques de Metz, p. 36..

ST. HESPERIUS OR SPERUS

St. Hesperius, who took part in the Council of Clermont of the year 536, St. Agatimber was succeeded by St. Hesperius, who is also called by apocope Sperius or Sperus. So Paul the Deacon, the catalogues of the bishops of Metz, and d'Achery's Chronicle: of which the metrical catalogue alone celebrates his praises, in these very brief words:

After these was Sperus, whom hope upheld from on high Meurisse, op. cit., p. 586..

How many years he presided over the church of Metz, and on what day he departed from life, we are taught, besides the catalogue of St. Arnoald and d'Achery's Chronicle, by the Catalogue of St. Symphorian: Sperus, bishop (so it is read there), sat 17 years. He died on the 10th before the kalends of September (23 August). But d'Achery's Chronicle adds that he flourished under Vigilius, who presided over the Roman church from the year 537 to 555, and Justinian, who reigned from the year 527 to 565; but it fixes his death on the 10th before the kalends of December, or the 22nd day of November: in which matter it dissents from the other historical monuments and from the common tradition of the church of Metz. The other deeds of St. Hesperius are less known: we know, however, that together with St. Honoratus of Bourges, St. Gallus of Clermont, St. Gregory of Langres, St. Hilary of Javols, St. Ruricius of Limoges, Flavius of Reims, St. Nicetius of Trier, Deuterius of Lutensis, St. Dalmatius of Rodez, Lupus of Châlons, Domitian of Cologne, Venantius of Viviers, Desideratus of Verdun, and Gramatius of Windisch, he took part in the Council of Clermont in the year 535, and there confirmed sixteen canons on ecclesiastical discipline and the keeping of moral precepts Labbe, Collection of Councils, vol. II, col. 1803.: on which council we should perhaps have to dwell longer, had it not long since been abundantly treated in the Life of St. Hilary of Javols Acta SS. vol. XI of October, p. 616.. St. Hesperius lived among men at least until the year 537, in which Vigilius was created Roman pontiff. Le Cointe, however, resting on conjecture, asserts that he passed to a better life in the year 542 Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, at the year 486..

[13] for some years he had a feast in the whole diocese of Metz. St. Hesperius was buried beside his predecessors in the crypt of St. Clement; where his sacred pledges underwent the same fate as the relics of Saints Victor I and II.

[14] Lessons from the ecclesiastical office. The feast of St. Hesperius was celebrated with semi-double rite in the church of Metz from about the year 1827 to the year 1848: in which space of time the breviary of Jacques Besson, bishop of Metz, was used there. The prayer in honor of St. Hesperius was this: Grant us, we beseech you, almighty God, worthily to venerate the memory of our bishop and shepherd Hesperius; and as you willed that he should profit by word and example those over whom he presided, so may we ever feel with you the support of his intercession. Through the Lord. Lesson II, however, comprised his life in these few words: Hesperius, also called Sperus, twenty-third bishop of Metz, shone greatly with works of piety, and fulfilled exquisitely all the parts of an excellent prelate. He subscribed the Council of Clermont, at which, though few in number yet lofty in merit, fifteen bishops took part, most of whom were renowned for outstanding holiness. It was held in the year of Christ five hundred and thirty-five, and in it, among other things, it was enacted: that the chief care is to be taken in choosing priests, since it behooves those to be irreproachable who must preside over those to be corrected; and so to shine with the light of a holy conscience, that by the probity of their acts they may escape the reproaches of slanderers. Relying on these rules, he ever governed and increased the clergy of his diocese; and adorned with merits, truly a father and pattern of the flock, he departed to the Lord on the tenth before the kalends of September, in the seventeenth year of his episcopate, the five hundred and forty-second of restored salvation; and he was buried in the old basilica of St. Clement. But when in the year 1848, by the action of the most illustrious and most reverend Du Pont des Loges, bishop of Metz, the breviary of this church was changed, the feast of St. Hesperius was suppressed.

ST. VILLICUS

St. Villicus, whose praises in their letters Dynamius, Mappinus All the ancient writers who have dealt with the succession of the bishops of Metz record that St. Villicus was put in the place of St. Hesperius. Nor is his cult in this church recent: for in the ancient Martyrology of Metz at the 17th day of April there was read Histoire de Metz, vol. I, p. 303.: On the fifteenth before the kalends of May, at Metz, the deposition of the holy confessors and likewise bishops Villicus and Arnoald. From about the year 1827 to 1848 his feast was celebrated on the same day throughout the whole diocese of Metz with semi-double rite. How highly St. Villicus was esteemed by his contemporaries is made plain by the letters which Dynamius and Mappinius addressed to him, and also by the poems which St. Fortunatus the poet directed to him. Now Dynamius, a man of letters (whom not a few learned men [Rivet, La France littéraire, vol. III, p. 306 ff.; Ceillier, Histoire des Auteurs sacrés etc., vol. XVII, p. 80 f.] think to be the same who, holding the prefecture of Provence for King Childebert, had dreadfully harassed the bishops of that tract, and for this had been punished with exile and stripped of his wealth), had received splendid gifts from St. Villicus, especially after he had returned to better ways: in return for this kindness, as a token of a grateful heart, he exalts his benefactor in a certain letter with brilliant praises for his high birth, his exceptional beauty, his humble and benevolent mind. Then with many suppliant words he begs him to be willing to plead his cause with the king, that he might obtain from him a speedy return. To this petition St. Villicus, as is likely, lent a ready ear: for shortly afterward, St. Guntram, king of Burgundy, interceding with his nephew Childebert, Dynamius was again received into the friendship of his king In Duchesne, Historiæ Francorum scriptores, vol. I, p. 861.. Another man of letters, Mappinius, namely that bishop of Reims Rivet, La France littéraire, vol. III, p. 306 ff. of whom there is mention in the Acts of the Councils of Orléans of the year 549 and of Toul of the year 551, also addressed a letter to St. Villicus, in which with fine encomia he celebrates his singular sweetness, piety, prudence, and holiness; then, explaining Christ's command, Feed my sheep, he subjoins that this pertains not only to the prince of the apostles, but also to all bishops of whatever age, and that accordingly Villicus above the other bishops does not cease to fatten both his own sheep and the priests of other sheep with honeyed perfection and an abundance of delights. By which words Mappinius signifies that St. Villicus was accustomed to speak to his people and to write ambitiously adorned letters to his fellow bishops: which was also the pursuit of other prelates of that age. After this he begs with his whole heart a long life for the man who is to be proposed as a pattern to priests; and at length he earnestly asks him to be willing to give him help in a domestic matter (namely by informing him of the price of the pigs of Metz) [Letters of Mappinius, in Migne, vol. LXVIII, col. 44; Duchesne, op. and vol. cit., p. 360.].

[16] as also St. Fortunatus the poet wrote, St. Fortunatus also enjoyed the society of St. Villicus. For when he was on his way to the court of the king of Austrasia, liberally received at Metz by St. Villicus, he so admired his distinguished virtues that he undertook to celebrate them in four poems. In the principal one, which is composed of forty-four verses, after a very beautiful description of the site and pleasantness of the city of Metz, he sings of the piety of St. Villicus toward God, his pastoral vigilance, his mercy toward pilgrims, his generosity toward the poor, and his munificence toward sacred buildings, in these verses [Meurisse, Hist. de l'Église de Metz, book II, p. 78 f.; Ceillier, Histoire des Auteurs sacrés, vol. XVII, p. 84 f.; Rivet, La France littéraire, vol. III, p. 464 f.]:

City strongly fortified, girded by wall and river, You stand, to be mightier still by your bishop's merits. Villicus, who wars so well with heavenly arms, With his knees spread on the ground, he raises you up on them. Hence, gracious priest, you cast yourself humbly to the earth, And so by praying lead your country's head to the stars. By constant tears you win joy for the people: The sheep are gladdened by the shepherd's weeping. Though the wicked one threatens with feeble blows, Those to whom you are a wall fear no wounds. And though the wolf lies in wait for the enclosed fold, With you as guardian of the flock, the robber harms you not at all. You delight the peoples with your serene unclouded face, And a winning grace warms the hearts of all. If a new guest asks help, you hold out food, And he finds his own household gods beneath your roof. While you satisfy the complainer, the exile forgets the more The wealth he has in the bounds of his homeland. He who tells his losses, you take the groans from his lips; Restoring joys, you put all sorrows to flight. Here you clothe the naked, there you feed the needy, The destitute repays you nothing; God repays you with love. You send your granaries ahead, keeping them better stored; The wealth you scatter thus, Paradise gives back. The roofs of the temples you have renewed, Villicus, their tender; When the Lord shall come, behold, your labor stands. I see the talent entrusted has not been buried, But rather the longed-for work is multiplied. Through years long extended may you carry out such worthy things, And may your name, rich man, remain forever.

[17] for many years there was a cult throughout the whole diocese of Metz. St. Villicus seems to have died on the 15th before the kalends of May, or 17 April, about the year 568 [Le Cointe, Ecclesiastical Annals, vol. I, at the year 486, p. 116; vol. II, at the year 578, p. 192.]. From about the year 1827 to 1848 throughout the whole diocese of Metz on the 17th day of April was celebrated the

feast of St. Villicus. The prayer in his honor was this: Grant us, we beseech you, almighty God, worthily to venerate the memory of our bishop and shepherd Willicus; and as you willed that he should profit by word and example those over whom he presided, so may we ever feel with you the support of his intercession. Through the Lord. This was the second lesson of the Nocturn: Willicus ruled the church of Metz for twenty-five years; and he illustrated with new splendor a see already adorned by the virtues of so many predecessors. Renowned for his lineage, he is shown to us as more renowned for humility and modesty. Wonderful was the gentleness of the holy bishop; his countenance so serene and suffused with a certain heavenly grace, that it delighted the hearts of all, and by the very sight, as it were, drew them to piety and the worship of God. By tireless preaching of the divine word he strengthened the weak of the flock committed to him, bound up the broken, converted the depraved; and at the same time, intent on prayer, stretched on the ground, he begged from the supreme Lord with constant tears an increase of his labor. Inexhaustible also was his mercy toward the needy: thus a good shepherd, spending his whole self on feeding the sheep, he bestowed on them both his care and his substance. Mappinius of Reims relates that the blessed bishop burned with such zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, that he stirred up his fellow bishops to the same ardor of charity not only by examples but also by frequent exhortations. His age not yet advanced, but already ripe for heaven, he merited to attain the eternal rewards of beatitude, and the fellowship of the author and finisher of faith, on the fifteenth before the kalends of May, in the year five hundred and sixty-eight; and he was buried in the crypt of St. Peter ad Basilicas. After the Roman liturgy was restored in the diocese of Metz in the year 1859, the feast of St. Villicus was not introduced again.

St. Peter

The name of St. Peter is inscribed in some martyrologies. St. Villicus being dead, St. Peter was created bishop of the people of Metz, who sat, as is recorded in the Catalogue of St. Symphorian, for 10 years, and died on the 5th before the kalends of October. With which agree the Catalogue of St. Arnoald and d'Achery's Chronicle. In the metrical catalogue, written at the end of the ancient pontifical, these few words are read of him Meurisse, op. cit., book IV, p. 685.:

Peter, twenty-fifth, gives utterances to the people.

There survives a letter full of goodwill from Gogus Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules, vol. IV, p. 79. (whom Mabillon Benedictine Annals, vol. I, book VIII, p. 200 f., Bouquet Bouquet, vol. IV, p. 79., Rivet La France littéraire, vol. III, p. 332 ff., and others think to have been mayor of the palace of King Sigebert) to St. Peter; in which letter he asks him in many words to be willing to greet in his name the most distinguished men of the church of Metz. Meurisse Hist. des évêq. de Metz, book II, p. 82., François and Tabouillot Histoire de Metz, vol. I, p. 304. record that he was buried in the church of St. Clement, where his feast was formerly kept on the day of his death. Moreover in the Martyrology of Metz these words were recited: On the fifth before the kalends of October. At Metz, the deposition of St. Peter, bishop of Metz Ibid., loc. cit.. Likewise at the same day memory of him is made in the Martyrology of Maurolycus, in the Gallican Martyrology of du Saussay, and in Ferrari's General Catalogue of Saints. Le Cointe thinks [Ecclesiastical Annals, vol. I, at the year 486, p. 116; vol. II, at the year 578, p. 578.] that the holy man departed from the living in the year 578. Some of his bones, as Rev. Fr. Julien Bach has written to me, are preserved in the cathedral church of Metz, as are also some bones of other bishops of the same church, namely Saints Clement, Caelestius, Firminus, Phronimius, Sigebald, Goericus, Chlodulf, Arnulf, Peter of Luxembourg: likewise the ring of St. Arnoald and the sleeves of St. Sigebald.

* Lixin.

* slips.