Gondulph

ON ST. GONDULPH, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

AT METZ IN GAUL

In the year DCCCXXII.

COLLECTION

Of his cult, deeds, the time of his death and the beginning of his episcopate.

Gondulph, bishop and confessor at Metz in Gaul (S.)

BY J. L.

In the Gallican Martyrology of Saussaye the memory of S. Gondulph (elsewhere thou wilt also find it written Gundulph, [The memory of S. Gondulph in the sacred calendars at the 7th and the 6th of September: at Gorze,] Gondulf and Gundulf), bishop of Metz in Gaul on the Moselle, is celebrated with a eulogy at the VII of September, mention of which will return at the end of number 3. That day too Ferrarius makes sacred to the Saint in the general Catalogue of the Saints, announcing him briefly thus: At Metz, of S. Gundulph the bishop. But in an ancient manuscript Kalendar of the church of Toul the holy Bishop's name is inscribed at the preceding day, that is, the VI of September: to which day he is also referred in these words in our manuscript Florarium of the Saints: At Metz, of blessed Gondulph, bishop and confessor. Greven and the Parisian Martyrology printed in the year 1727 commemorate the Saint on the same day, as also Castellan in the Universal Martyrology, whose announcement is this: At Metz, of S. Gondulf the bishop, whose relics are at Gorze; where the same Castellan asserts in the index of his Martyrology, containing the names of the Saints, that he is venerated. That place is situated by the stream Gorze, from which it took its name, not far from the left bank of the Moselle flowing to Metz, from which city it is distant about four leagues. There was once a famous abbey there of the Order of S. Benedict, founded in the VIII century by S. Chrodegang, bishop of Metz. It was leveled to the ground by fire and the inroads of war in the XVI century, some canons who were substituted for the monks now performing the sacred rites in the neighboring parish church. Calmet may be read, volume 2 of the History of Lorraine, column 1245, and volume 3, column CXI.

[2] From two ancient Catalogues of the bishops of Metz, [where he was formerly laid, he is no longer venerated, nor do any relics of him any more survive.] whose words about S. Gondulph will be transcribed entire at number 6, it is certain that his body once rested at Gorze; for the one affirms of the Saint: He lies at Gorze; but the other: He rests in the monastery of Gorze. I had thought that the body or relics of S. Gondulph had once been translated from the monastery of Gorze, which with its church now lies wholly destroyed, to the parish church of that same place, now distinguished by a college of canons, and that in this the Saint and his sacred remains are held in veneration even today. Into this opinion I had been led by Castellan, a martyrologist of this century, whose testimony I have reported. But otherwise the Reverend Fr. Edmund Charon, Rector of our college of Metz, taught me; who, being asked about the Saint's cult and his relics, still resting there, as I believed, on the XXX of September of the year 1747 wrote back this: As regards Gorze, the lord dean of that church, which was formerly a monastery, answered a letter given him by me, that no Office is celebrated of S. Gondulph, that no commemoration is made, that no cult is offered; that if the Saint's body was laid there, no relics survive; that it could have happened, if they were laid there, that they were consumed when the church was destroyed by fire in the time of the wars. It cannot be called into doubt that our holy Bishop was really once laid at Gorze: whence a not improbable conjecture is drawn that he was at some time honored there with public cult; but that it has now ceased, since neither the monastery nor its church, in which he was probably venerated, nor any relics any longer exist in the parish church, where the canons, substituted in the place of the monks, perform the divine Offices.

[3] [At Metz on this day an Office is recited in which the third Lesson is proper to the Saint.] Although I had found that the Saint is announced in most of the sacred calendars adduced at number 1 at the VI of September, yet I somewhat doubted whether this day was consecrated to his veneration, because I had found his memory marked in Ferrarius' general Catalogue of the Saints and in Saussaye's Gallican Martyrology at the following day, which was that of his death, as will be seen below. From all doubt the letter of the obliging Reverend Fr. Edmund which I have indicated freed me; from which also I learned what cult the Saint has obtained at Metz. In the cathedral church of this city, he says, the Office of S. Gondulph is celebrated on the sixth day of September. Besides that the lord dean asserted this to me by living voice, I read the very same in their ceremonial book, in which is had this Lesson about the Saint, which I report word for word. "The VI day of September. Of S. Gondulph, bishop of Metz. Third Lesson. Gondulph, conspicuous for the ornament of great virtues, but especially of chastity and charity, was substituted for Angelram, archbishop of Metz, not for the loftiness of his birth, but of his merits. He governed this see with God's honor and with the admirable fruit of all for nearly six years. He was present at the synod at Thionville, at the request of Louis the Pious: where many things were appointed for the security of the ministers of God. At length, full of merits, he flew away to heaven under Eugene the second, on the Ides of September." It should have been written, unless I am mistaken, on the VII Ides of September, on which day he passed to a happier life. The eulogy with which the said Saussaye adorns the Saint differs little from the third Lesson already given of the Office which is recited with a simple or ferial rite in the cathedral of Metz. What the most illustrious Meurisse, bishop of Madaura and suffragan of Metz, affirms about the Saint in his History of the bishops of this church, pages 183 and 186, agrees also with this Lesson. [Things not cohering are handed down about the duration of his episcopate, and false things about the time of his death.]

[4] In d'Achery, volume 6 of the Spicilegium, page 655, in the Chronicle of the bishops of Metz, written before the middle of the XII century, the Saint is thus praised: After him (Angelram) is exalted Gundulf, the thirty-ninth bishop of Metz, venerable in manner of life and in faith. He sat VI years, in the time of Louis the Pious, under the Apostolic Pontiffs Paschal and Eugene. He died on the VII Ides of September. This holy Bishop is here said to have sat VI years, to which eight months are added in three, and moreover seven days in two, of the Catalogues to be produced at number 6. These are contradicted by the third Lesson, by Meurisse and by Saussaye, who attribute to S. Gondulph nearly six years of episcopate; about whose duration the discourse will return at the end of this Collection. In the same Lesson he is affirmed to have died under Eugene the second as Pontiff, under whom also he is related in the Chronicle praised to have presided over the church of Metz. In another Chronicle of Metz from the year 511 to 1279, in Labbe, volume 1 of the Bibliotheca of Manuscripts, page 344, it is read: DCCCXIX in the year Gundulf bishop of Metz. DCCCXXV Drogo bishop of Metz. According to the Catalogues of the bishops of this church, whose words I have promised to give below, the death of S. Gondulph must be deferred to the same year 825, to which the succession of Drogo in his place is tied in the latter Chronicle. In that

therefore the monuments of Metz hitherto mentioned agree, that the Saint met his last day under Eugene II, Pope, who in the first half of the year 824 succeeded Paschal I, Pope. Meurisse judges this to have been the VII of September of that same year 824, but Le Cointe with others of the year 825. The Sainte-Marthes in the old Gallia Christiana and Castellan in the Universal Martyrology refer the Saint's death to the same day of the year 823, in which Paschal I, Pope, was living. About the day I agree with them: but I deny that S. Gondulph prolonged his life to the Pontificate of Eugene II or to the year 823. That both are false will be demonstrated at number 7 and following.

[5] It is agreed between us and all others that the Saint was surviving among the living in the month of October of the year 821, [He was present at the synod at Thionville, and conferred sacred Orders on S. Aldric.] in which at Thionville a synod was held against those who struck clerics, about which see Labbe, volume 7 of the Councils of the second edition, col. [ ], where among the rest Hetto, archbishop of Trier, is read to have been present at it with his suffragans, namely the bishop of Metz, who then was S. Gondulph, of Toul and of Verdun. Other things which our holy Bishop did I do not find handed down to memory, except that which is narrated in the Life of S. Aldric, bishop of Le Mans, written by his disciples, in Baluze, book 3 of the Miscellanea, page 3. S. Aldric, serving as a soldier under Louis the Pious and burning with the desire of leading a holier life in the ecclesiastical state, sought his discharge from him: which when he had obtained, with a canonry in the cathedral of Metz, he set out in haste to the said city; and there, being lovingly and devoutly received by all, he was both made a cleric by the bishop of that same city, and, the whole clergy chanting divine blessings and singing spiritual hymns, he was strengthened, and clothed with clerical garments, and, by the impositions of hands of the bishop and of all the priests being consecrated with the clerical benediction, he was placed among the elder Brethren… After two years also of his clerkship he was ordained deacon by the bishop of that same city, named Gundulf, in the church of saint Stephen. The bishop of Metz who had consecrated S. Aldric as deacon and two years before as cleric is one and the same as our S. Gondulph; since before him the see was vacant for many more than two years, as will appear from what follows.

[6] In the Corpus historiæ Francicæ, published at Hanau in the year 1613, page 177, there occurs a Catalogue of the bishops of Metz, ending with Wala, who died in the year 882, [Mention of him in the Catalogues of the bishops of Metz, according to which he died in the year 825:] and recording this about our holy Bishop: Gundulf the bishop sat VI years, VIII months. He died on the VII Ides of September. Calmet in the Monuments of the History of Lorraine, volume 1, column 79 and following, produces two other Catalogues of the bishops of Metz, of which the latter, carried down to Wala's successor Ruotbert, has: Gundulph departed on the VII Ides of September. But the former, having related Angelram's death, thus continues: The bishopric ceased for XXVII years and IV months. Gondulph VI years, VIII months, VII days. He died on the VII Ides of September. He lies at Gorze. In this Catalogue the last reckoned is Adalbero I, who died in the year 964, as also in that which Marcus Antonius Dominicius published among the Monuments of antiquity, appended to the Ansbert Family Revived, from an ancient Metz codex of S. Symphorian: in which at page 26 it is thus read: The bishopric ceased after Angelram's death for XXVII years and III months. Gundulf the bishop sat VI years and VIII months and VII days. He rests in the monastery of Gorze. He died on the VII Ides of September. Angelram, whom S. Gondulph succeeded, is said in the said Catalogues to have died on the VII Kalends of November: which day must be tied to the year 791, as Pagi shows at that same year, numbers 4 and 5. Now indeed, if thou shouldst add the years, months and days assigned, during which according to the two latter Catalogues, Angelram being dead, the see of Metz was vacant and S. Gondulph's episcopate lasted, to the time which was that of Angelram's death, thou wilt come to the autumn of the year 825. But our holy Bishop departed this life on the VII of September of the year 822: it remains that the notes of time are not accurate by which the duration either of the see vacant after Angelram's death or of the episcopate administered by S. Gondulph is bounded in those same Catalogues.

[7] [but that the Saint's day of death, the 7th of September, must be tied to the year 822, from the testimonies of the ancients] About the Saint's day of death, the VII of September, which is distinctly expressed in the former Chronicle and in the four Catalogues of the bishops of Metz adduced at number 4 and the preceding, there is no controversy. Nor will there remain any room for doubting that that day belonged to the year 822, when I shall have proved that Drogo in the month of June of the next following year, in the assembly at Frankfurt held by Louis the Pious the emperor, was substituted for S. Gondulph. From the Annals of Einhard, a contemporary writer, which end in the year 829, I transfer hither these things to our purpose: DCCCXXIII in the year in the month of May an assembly was held there (at Frankfurt by Louis the Pious). There follow the things which were done in it, until Lothair returned from Italy, crowned emperor at Rome by Paschal I, Pope; who in the month of June is said to have come to his father Louis staying at Frankfurt. A little after Einhard thus continues: Drogo, his brother [], living under the canonical life, Louis the Pious appointed as ruler of the church of Metz, the clergy of that same city consenting and choosing him, and judged that he should be promoted to the rank of the pontificate. And that this happened in the assembly at Frankfurt is manifest from what is immediately subjoined: In the same assembly the place and time of holding another assembly were appointed; namely the month of November and the palace of Compiègne. The same is testified by the contemporary author of the Life of Louis the Pious, known to the learned under the name of the Astronomer, in Pithou, volume 2 of the Annals of the Franks from page 218: where, when he had narrated that Lothair came in the month of June to his father, who was holding an assembly at Frankfurt, he thus continues: Further, Gundulf, bishop of Metz, having died at that same time, all the clergy and people of that same church, as though animated by one spirit, ask that Drogo, the emperor's brother, living most nobly under the canonical habit, be given to them as their priest… Therefore the emperor with the highest joy assented to the church's petition; and gave them as bishop him whom they asked. In the same assembly the death of the tyrant Liudewit is announced,* etc.

[8] Contemporary too is the author of the Historical Annotations which Florentinius, excerpted from the Blumanian codex of Vienna, subjoined at the end of the older Hieronymian Martyrology, page 1056; [is so clearly established that the authors of the Catalogues, with many others, must be said to have erred.] where among others I find this: DCCCXXIII. On the Ides of June was born Charles, son of Judith. On the same day was ordained Drugo. Ademar in his Chronicle, in Labbe, volume 2 of the Bibliotheca of Manuscripts, page 159, writes at the same year: Louis the Pious ordained his brother Drogo, a canon at Metz, bishop, with the election of the citizens. The word ordained is here the same as designated. Pagi at the year 823, number 6, brings forward other ancient writers for our opinion, and attributes to the word ordained, which the author of the Annotations uses, the same signification in which Ademar took it. In the same place, number 4, he proves that Charles, son of Louis the Pious, who afterward reigned and was surnamed the Bald, came forth into the light at Frankfurt in the year 823, on the Ides of June. On the same day, says the author of the Annotations, was ordained Drugo: but that this happened on the day before the Ides of June Hugh, abbot of Flavigny, writes in the Chronicle of Verdun, and the author of the Chronicle of S. Bénigne of Dijon, whose words Pagi gives at the place first cited. But whatever be the case about the day on which Drogo was consecrated or designated bishop of Metz, this must be admitted as an indubitable matter, that he was set over the church of Metz in the month of June of the year 823 in the assembly at Frankfurt, and consequently that S. Gondulph's death, which he met on the VII of September, must be drawn back to the year 822. The two latter Catalogues of the bishops of Metz adduced at number 6 therefore err; for between the death of Angelram, who died on the XXVI of October of the year 791, and that of S. Gondulph they place nearly 34 intervening years, which, added to the former, run out to 825 of Christ. The authors also of the third Lesson and of the Chronicles of Metz err, and Meurisse, Castellan and the others mentioned at number 4, who say that the Saint prolonged his life to the VII of September of the year 823 or to the Pontificate of Eugene II, who in the year 824 began to preside over the universal Church.

[9] [He was ordained bishop on the first day of the year 816 in Pagi's opinion, to which I do not yet assent.] Although it is uncertain on what day and in what year S. Gondulph was consecrated bishop of Metz, and how long he bore this sacred dignity; yet the said Pagi at number 5 determines those times, pronouncing thus too positively: Gundulf had been ordained bishop of Metz on the first day of the month of January of the year eight hundred and sixteen, sacred to the feast of the Circumcision of Christ, and had departed from the living on the seventh day of September of the preceding year DCCCXXII. For Marcus Dominicius in the book on the Ansbert Family Revived published a Catalogue of the bishops of Metz, in which it is read: Gundulf the bishop sat VI years and VIII months and VII days. He rests in the monastery of Gorze. He died on the VII Ides of September. Wherefore an error crept into that same Catalogue, where, Angelram the archbishop's death being narrated, which happened on the XXVI day of October of the year DCCXCI, it is said: The bishopric ceased XXVII years and III months: for it must be read ANN. XXIIII in place of ANN. XXVII, which error is easily committed by copyists, when they join the first two little strokes and form a V out of II. That error of the copyists drove Le Cointe [] astray, and impelled him to place Gundulf's death in the year DCCCXXV, but Drogo's beginning in the following year.* I wonder why Pagi should say that the XXVII years by which the vacancy of the see of Metz is defined were formed by copyists out of XXIIII, rather than the VI years of S. Gondulph's episcopate out of III; since III could as easily be corrupted into VI as XXIII into XXVII. Unless therefore it be proved from elsewhere that the Saint presided over the church of Metz for more whole years than three, I shall never more believe that he was consecrated bishop on the Kalends of January of the year 816, as Pagi asserts, than on the same day of the year 819.

* his own

read Le Cointe*