ON ST. ARNULF, MARTYR, AT NOVALESA IN PIEDMONT,
PROBABLY ABOUT THE YEAR CMVI.
CRITICAL COMMENTARY.
Arnulf, martyr, at Novalesa in Piedmont. (S.)
BY R. D. B.
Single §. Cult of St. Arnulf. Origins of the monastery of Novalesa. The disaster inflicted on it by the Saracens. At what time St. Arnulf met his death.
At Novalicia or Novalicium, which is a town of Piedmont in the valley of Susa, the veneration of St. Arnulf the martyr was once most celebrated. For although the prelates of the Church do not seem ever to have prescribed Mass or office in his honor, Concerning the cult long since shown to St. Arnulf and our predecessors discovered no traces of public honor Acta SS., vol. II March, p. 331 f. , yet there is no doubt that the cult is both legitimate and to be sought back from the highest antiquity. The chronographer of Novalesa, an author of the eleventh century, of whom there will be discussion below, calls Arnulf blessed, and testifies that his Life was formerly written Pertz, Mon. Germ. hist., Scriptt., vol. VII, p. 81, note, and 84. . At almost the same time, abbot Gotefred,
who at the beginning of the eleventh century presided over the cenobies of Breme and Novalesa, honorably deposited the body of St. Arnulf in the same reliquary as the bones of St. Heldrad, abbot of Novalesa Diario de' santi e beati della reale casa di Savoja, vol. II, p. 194. . These things indeed we read in Giuseppe Massa. And the venerable man Giuseppe Sciandra, formerly capitular vicar of the diocese of Susa, afterward bishop of Acqui, adds, in a letter most kindly sent to me on the 17th day of June of the year 1871, that that reliquary remained in the church of the monastery of Novalesa until the year 1794: at which time, when the French were bursting into the region, it was translated by abbot Gimondi to the parish church. Moreover there had long since existed there a chapel sacred to St. Arnulf, which at the beginning of the nineteenth century was given over to profane use. On its walls the life and martyrdom of the holy patron were displayed; which paintings the traveler Millin, who in the year 1816 saw them almost effaced, supposes to have been made in the eleventh or twelfth century Voyage en Savoie, Piémont etc., vol. I, p. 142 f. .
[2] there is no doubt; That the memory of the holy man was not blotted out in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries may be gathered from Pingone [Augustæ Taurinorum chronica, p. 7, in Grævius, Thes. antiq. Italiæ, vol. IX, part VI, col. 7.] , Francesco Agostino della Chiesa Cardinalium, archiep. etc. Pedemontanæ regionis historia, p. 200. , Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. IV, col. 1023. Cf. Lubin, Abbatiarum Italiæ notitia, p. 259. and other writers, who extol the sanctity of the servant of God with praises. Paolo Brizio, bishop of Alba, was writing this in the year 1652 Progressi della Chiesa Occidentale, p. 385, Turin 1652. : At Novalesa the death of the holy martyr Arnulf is celebrated even today every year on the vigil of All Saints; on which day some think the glorious contest took place. The same was handed down in the eighteenth century by Giacinto Gallizia [Atti de' santi che fiorirono ne' dominj della reale casa de Savoja, vol. III, p. 84.] , and he added that at Novalesa there are venerated and at fixed times displayed for the veneration of the people, in two silver reliquaries, the head and arm of St. Arnulf; and in another reliquary his remaining bones with the body of St. Heldrad. Writing to me of these things, the most illustrious J. Sciandra is silent about the head, but relates that the arm is kept at Novalesa, although destitute of all ecclesiastical cult, because no letters survive by which the genuineness of the relics might be confirmed. The bones indeed of SS. Arnulf and Heldrad, on the day on which the latter's feast is observed, namely the 13th of March, are carried every year in most elaborate pomp from the parish church to a very ancient chapel, which had been built above the place of the burial of St. Heldrad himself. But in this public procession the people honor St. Heldrad, scarcely thinking of St. Arnulf. There is no reason, however, why his cult should be doubted, which is not only very ancient, but also tolerated by the bishop of the place.
[3] and although the Chronicle, But as certain as the name and veneration are, so doubtful is the history of the holy man. For nowhere is to be found that Life which a historian of the eleventh century records in these words Pertz, Mon., vol. VII, p. 84. : We know then in truth that there were once several Lives written in that place (Novalesa), of those abbots or monks and of the doings * of that place, who, practicing sanctity there very long ago, shone gleaming with mighty works; as we read of Asinarius and Waltarius, and of Arnulf and Frodoin, of Aldrad also… But … the aforesaid books, dispersed through the world, are an irrecoverable loss to us. There remains only popular tradition, and some books into which it has passed. That not even to the most ancient of these, namely the Chronicle of Novalesa, is great authority to be attributed, we hold as ascertained. Bethmann thinks [Ibid., p. 73 ff. Cf. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, vol. II, p. 181 f., Berlin 1877.] that it was written by a monk of the cenoby, as it seems, of Breme, but who lived at least three years at Novalesa. He put the work together at diverse times; for the second book was written before the year 1027, the fifth begun long after this year, and to one reading more attentively it will very often appear that the narrative does not run in an even style, but is now broken off, now interrupted, now resumed, as is accustomed to happen when someone comes to writing at varying times… As sources he used popular narratives, the tradition of contemporaries, the poem on Waltharius, the Pilgrimage and Acts of the same, diplomas, inscriptions, etc… He erred indeed very often, but never knowingly said false things, etc… The sole codex of the chronicle, still kept in a reliquary at Novalesa in the year 1693, afterward came with the charters of the monastery to Turin into the royal archive… That it is the author's own Pertz first indicated, then Combetti proved at length… The codex was written in the middle of the eleventh century, partly by scribes, partly by the author himself. Pingone still saw it whole, Baldessano ((seventeenth century) already lacking the six first chapters: nor had more perished in the time of Duchesne… While it was still whole, Philibert Pingone excerpted certain things from it, which are now kept in the same (royal) archive among the Novalesa documents… For supplying our apograph the Pingone excerpts indeed are most useful and worthy of credit… A little afterward Guglielmo Baldessano excerpted the codex already indeed mutilated, but much less than it is now: for besides the first six chapters of the first book and the beginning of the fourth book, the rest were then still present, which can in part be supplied from it; for neither did Baldessano take everything word for word, but contracted much. This is what Bethmann thinks of the Chronicle of Novalesa, and almost the same things do Duchesne Hist. Franc. scriptt., vol. II, p. 223, vol. III, p. 635. , Muratori Scriptores rerum Italicarum, vol. II, part II, col. 696 ff. and Combetti Historiæ patriæ monum., Scriptt., vol. III, Monita ad Chronicon Novaliciense. , who edited the work. It is not only maimed, but, as all now agree and can be gathered from what has been said before, of moderate authority in the description of the first times.
[4] which alone has preserved his deeds for us, This we have excerpted from it for our matter as preserved by Pingone: Theodoric, … king of the Goths, who killed two distinguished senators and ex-consuls, Symmachus and Boethius, … fought at Verona against Odoacer, and killed him at Ravenna, and was made king. And in the fifth year of his reign Abbo built the monastery of Novalesa… He established Godo as abbot… The place of Novalesa was destroyed three times, … by the Saracens the first time, … by three dukes of the Lombards, namely Amo, Zaban and Rhodanus; the second time, when they killed the monk Arnulf; … the third when the monks of that place came to the city of Turin to dwell, and this under abbot Bonitus, who was the fifth from blessed Benedict Pertz, Mon., p. 79 f. Historiæ patr. monum., Scriptt., vol. III, col. 43. . In a slightly different way Baldessano transcribed, or rather contracted, the same part of the Chronicle: The cenoby was then destroyed first by the dukes of the Lombards, Amo, Zaban and Rodanus, second when they killed a certain most religious monk named Arnulf; third when the monks of that place came to inhabit the city of Turin. A little below the chronographer writes, on the witness of the same Baldessano: Therefore seven years after the Lombards had taken Rome by force (that is in the year 575), the three dukes mentioned above went out into Gaul for plunder, Amo and Zaban ascended by the Mont Genèvre, while Rodanus, taking the other way, ascended with his men by the Mont Cenis to Grenoble. When he came to the cenoby of Novalesa, he killed many of those monks who did not refuse to die for the Lord, of whom the soldiers were the holier: while others escaped in flight through windows * and doors, by the byways of the mountains and rocks. Then the monastery was plundered and burned; and only two boys, hiding under the altar cloth, were saved by God… Then Baldessano adds: What follows cannot be read; yet it seems to narrate the death of a certain holy monk, whom it calls blessed Arnulf, renowned for miracles Pertz, vol. VII, p. 81, note. .
[5] errs in reckoning the time The same has been seen also by Pingone In Grævius, vol. IX, part VI, p. 7. and others. On the other hand Paolo Brizio Cf. Rossotti, Syllabus scriptorum Pedemontii, p. 459. narrates that those two boys, hiding under the altar cloth, were killed, and goes on thus Progressi della Chiesa, p. 385. : When the Lombards were plundering the goods of the monastery, they met a certain old man, who was held the glory of the whole monastery; and they cut off his head, because he had detested their impiety with singular ardor. There has persisted, as a common opinion, that he was the holy martyr Arnulf, to whom the 31st day of October is sacred. It has been handed down to memory, then, as is seen from those testimonies, that the cenoby of Novalesa of the Order of St. Benedict was founded in the period of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths; that in the course of time it was destroyed three times; that when it received this disaster the second time, namely in the year 575, a certain monk advanced in age, whose name was Arnulf, was slain by the Lombards; whom afterward the local people venerated as a martyr. Of the name, condition and martyrdom of the servant of God no one has ever doubted; and indeed, that credit should be given to the perpetual tradition, this also moves one, that the remains of the blessed man have been honored at Novalesa from the first times; indeed, as we have shown, adorned with ecclesiastical cult, and down to our age, although that tract has been very ill used by warring parties and by heretics, religiously preserved. But as regards the time of the martyrdom, that series of events which we have presented above, and which Pingone, Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. IV, col. 1023. , Le Cointe Annales eccl. Francorum, vol. VI, p. 421 ff. and a good many others defend, is most certainly to be rejected. That is, to say nothing of the opinion of those who will have the church consecrated by St. Peter himself, the prince of the apostles Cf. Pertz, vol. VII, p. 79 f. , the cenoby did not even exist when Theodoric was reigning over the Ostrogoths, nor when the three dukes of the Lombards, as Paul the Deacon says, that is Amo, Zaban and Rodanus, burst into the Gauls [Histor. Langobardorum, in Mon. Germ. hist., Scriptores rerum Langob., p. 96, Hanover 1878.] . For in the very diploma of foundation, which the royal society of Turin published in the year 1836 from the original copy, it is said that Abbo, son of Felix, founded the monastery of Novalesa, and drew up the charter on the third day before the kalends of February, in the fifth year of the reign of our lord King Theodoric, in the ninth indiction Historiæ patriæ monum., Chartarum vol. I, col. 18. , that is, on the 30th day of January
of the year 726. Which things altogether agree with the testament of the same Abbo, drawn up on the third day before the nones of May, in the twenty-first year, in the VIIth indiction, with the most illustrious Charles happily governing the kingdoms of the Franks [Le Cointe, Annales eccl. Francorum, vol. VI, p. 422. Cf. Mabillon, De re diplomatica, book VI, p. 507, Paris 1704. Annales O. S. B., book XXI, p. 109, Paris 1704. Acta SS., vol. VIII Oct., p. 374.] , that is on the 5th day of May of the year 739; in which these words occur: You, most holy church… of the monastery of Novalicium in the valley of Susa, which * by our labor we built on our own property, where we placed a company of monks under … the rule of St. Benedict …, … I will that you be my heir. It is not Charlemagne who is signified there, as Le Cointe wrongly judged Annal., vol. VI, p. 428. , but Charles Martel, who in the twenty-first year, in the VIIth indiction, King Theodoric being dead, was governing the kingdoms of the Franks Mabillon, De re dipl., book VI, p. 512. .
[6] and in the origins of the monastery, In sum, then, it is established that the cenoby was not founded in the sixth century, as many have handed down; whose error, as Bethmann says Pertz, vol. VII, p. 79. , was born from the words of the foundation: "In the fifth year of the reign… of Theodoric." The memory of this one, of Chelles, the glory of Theodoric the Great easily blotted out, in just the same way as there have sometimes been attributed to Charlemagne things which other Charleses had done. The glory sought from a more ancient origin fostered and enlarged the error; the devastations of the pagans made it easier still, under which name Lombards and Saracens were comprised and sometimes confused… The truth was first seen by Henskens, in the Acta SS., 13 Mar., and Mabillon, Ann. Bened., II, book 21. Not a few indeed contradicted, citing also a bull given in the year 1014 by Benedict VIII. But besides that only an apograph of the twelfth century and of doubtful credit survives Ibid., p. 133. , it in no way conflicts with our opinion, provided it be rightly understood. For the pontiff, receiving under his protection the monastery of Breme (to which the monks of Novalesa had fled), says only that the monastery, which was formerly founded to the praise of God and in memory of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, in the time of King Theodoric, by the patrician Abbo near the Alps in the place called Novalicium, … afterward, as the persecution of the Saracens impended, by the zeal of Adalbert, marquis devoted to God, was translated to the town which is called Breme Hist. patr. monum., Chartarum vol. I, col. 399, Turin 1836. .
[7] gives more credit as regards the manner of his death, From what has been said before it sufficiently appears that St. Arnulf, if he met his death in the monastery of Novalesa, as all relate, was not killed in the sixth century by the Lombards, as they laid waste the Susa region. Wherefore some authors suppose that he was slain about the year 906, and indeed by the Saracens. To this opinion the chronographer of Novalesa himself in some measure lends support, as we shall presently show. And certainly if the martyrdom of St. Arnulf is in fact to be attributed to the Saracens, as they devastated Novalesa, which is by no means foreign to popular tradition, we must refer his death to about the year 906. Not rarely indeed before that age, in the eighth and ninth centuries, the Saracens burst out from Spain [Cf. Pertz, vol. I, p. 300, 307, 439, 485. Acta SS., vol. VI May, p. 812; vol. III March, p. 488; vol. VIII Oct., p. 517 ff.] . But there is nothing from which it can be gathered that they then ravaged Piedmont, and by name the Susa tract. But after they had occupied Fraxinetum Cf. Casalis, Dizionario di Sardegna, vol. VI, p. 885. , which is also called Fraxinetum of the Saracens [Liutprand's Antapodosis, book I, in Pertz, vol. III, p. 275; cf. vol. VII, p. 83.] , about the year 906, having devastated the province of Arles, Burgundy, Cimiez, they also submerged all Subalpine Gaul in blood and fire. For which cause the monks fled from the monastery of Novalesa and carried away all their more precious things to Turin to the church of St. Andrew. And among other things six thousand books were carried. Finally, as the monks departed from that cenoby, at once the most dire race of the Saracens occupied the place. These, immediately plundering all that they could find, burned all the churches and all the houses. For they found there TWO OLD MONKS who had been left there for the custody of the churches and houses; seizing them, they beat them, wounding them even to death Ibid., vol. VII, p. 108. . So far the author of the Chronicle of Novalesa, whose authority at this place has seemed to no one to be spurned. And in very truth, since he was committing the fortunes of the monastery to writing about the year 1030, the disasters which had been inflicted at the beginning of the tenth century could more easily become known, than what we have corrected above concerning the foundation of the monastery.
[8] inflicted by the Saracens. That the monastery of Novalesa before the end of the tenth century was neither restored nor again plundered by the barbarians seems to be gathered both from the Chronicle of the cenoby, where we read: that that destruction was the last which the Saracens themselves made who went out from Fraxinetum, and from the silence of other writers, who yet have carefully indicated all the irruptions and devastations of the Saracens in Gaul and in Italy. Add that King Hugh Historiæ patriæ monum., Chart. vol. I, col. 135. , the Roman pontiff John XIII Ibid., col. 228. , the emperors Otto I Ibid., col. 230. and Otto III Ibid., col. 317. , in diplomas of the years 929, 972 and 998, speak thus of the monastery of Novalesa, as if, destroyed by the Saracens, it had never been restored. It follows therefore that St. Arnulf, whom all agree to have been killed by the barbarians, we should suppose to have been slaughtered in the irruption of the Saracens, at the beginning of the tenth century. Nor is it incredible that he was one of the two old monks who, on the witness of the writer of Novalesa, were then slain by the enemy. On what day the martyrdom took place is unascertained. For on the 31st day of October, on which he is venerated, he was not slain, says Giuseppe Massa, but was set forth for the veneration of the faithful by the abbot Gotefred.
[9] Nothing further certainly known. Agostino della Chiesa judges moreover Card., Arch., Episc., Abb. Pedemont. chronol. hist., p. 200, Turin 1645. that the servant of God presided over the whole monastery. Following this opinion, Caretto In Gallizia, vol. III, p. 85. and Giuseppe Massa Diario de' santi e beati di Savoja, vol. II, p. 194. add that the holy abbot abdicated his office, because he was too far advanced in age. On the other hand Pingone, who searched the archive of Novalesa, calls St. Arnulf a monk, nor does he anywhere indicate that he was abbot. Which opinion is to be embraced cannot be established with certainty, since both the ancient monuments and the tradition of the local people themselves are silent.
[10] The monastery of Novalesa no longer exists. It remains for us to indicate in a few words the last fortunes of the monastery of Novalesa, which St. Arnulf is said to have inhabited and in which he rested after death. When in the year 1796 the army of the French was bursting into Italy, the monks deserted Novalesa. Only abbot Gimondi remained, and by his care the sacred things which had been left in the monastery passed to the parish church. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the cenoby, church and adjoining estates were given over to profane uses, until the monks of Novalesa who were still surviving, in the year 1817 sought again their former seat. From there they were again expelled according to the new civil laws, on the 25th day of October of the year 1856, and their buildings sold. This the venerable man Giuseppe Sciandra wrote back to us. We learn moreover from Goffredo Casalis that the manuscript codices and diplomas of the cenoby were deposited in the year 1856 in the archive of Turin, and the books in the episcopal seminary of Susa; finally that the reliquary in which the relics of St. Heldrad were contained is in the parish church of Novalesa.
Annotated* hactu in edit.
* finestras in edit.
* sic in edit.
ON ST. WOLFGANG, BISHOP OF REGENSBURG,
NOTICE.
Wolfkangus, bishop of Regensburg. (S.)
When in the past month of August, at a very advanced age, there died the last of the Bollandist associates in whose name the present volume is to be published, the work of the printers had already gone so far that the Acts of St. Wolfgang were soon to be printed. But when we, who have succeeded in their place, inspected the labor prepared many years ago, it easily appeared that not a few gaps in it had now to be filled. So, lest the publication of the volume, already so long delayed, should suffer longer delays, we have at last thought it the plan to adopt, that those Acts be deferred to the first or second volume of November. Which we trust our kindly readers will not take ill.