Agobard, Saint

AGOBARD, Saint. - Archbishop of Lyon, b. in Spain in 769 or 779, d. June 6, 840. He was brought as a boy into Gallia Narbonensis and in 792 to Lyon. Here Bishop Leidrad, in view of the good qualities of the youth, took him under his protection: he had him educated, ordained him priest (804), consecrated him bishop (813), choosing him as his coadjutor, and, now old and infirm, retiring to the monastery of St. Medard of Soissons, he left him the government of the diocese. Thus in 816, on the death of Leidrad, A. became, not without strong opposition, his successor.

By intelligence, will and culture he proved to be one of the most eminent personages of the empire under Louis the Pious, and took an active part in the major ecclesiastical and political affairs of the time. During the crisis of the imperial family, unfortunately with various writings, especially with the famous Liber apologeticus, he sided against the sovereign in favor of his sons, hoping that a change of persons would put an end to the abuses of misgovernment. But in 835, disappointed in his hopes, banished by Louis (who, having already been deposed, had resumed the throne), he had to leave his diocese, whose provisional administration was given to Amalarius of Metz (v.). He took refuge with Lothair in Italy, and, from exile, began against Amalarius the controversy that is so interesting for the history of the liturgy. After the council of Kiersy of September 838 (MGH, Conc., II, p. 768) he was able to return to his see, spending the rest of his days in peace. He died at Saintes, during a journey on which he accompanied the Emperor (cf. Ado, Chronicon: PL 123, 155). The Church of Lyon honors him as a saint on June 5 or 6 (cf. Acta SS. Iunii, I, ed. Venice 1741, pp. 748-49; V. Leroquais, Les Bréviaires manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, I, Paris 1934, p. 235).

WORKS: The works of A. are collected in PL 104, 9-352, following the text of the edition of Étienne Baluze (Paris 1566). Partial critical editions are found in MGH, Scriptores, XV, Hannover 1887, pp. 274-79 (Liber apologeticus); Capitularia, II, ibid. 1897, pp. 56-57 (Cartula); Epistolae, V, Berlin 1899, pp. 150-239 (letters and opuscules).

The works of A., almost all occasional, can be divided into six classes:

I. THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS

1) Liber adv. dogma Felicis Urgellensis, against Spanish Adoptionism; dedicated to the Emperor Louis the Pious, and occasioned by a writing found among the papers of the heresiarch Felix of Urgel (v.), who died at Lyon in 818; 2) De imaginibus Sanctorum, that is Liber contra eorum superstitionem qui picturis et imaginibus Sanctorum adorationis obsequium deferendum putant, in which A., rather than an iconoclast, reveals himself as the victim of a misunderstanding then very widespread in Gaul (v. CAROLINI, LIBRI): there are points of contact with the thought of Claudius of Turin (v.).

Theology and biblical exegesis are also of interest in the Epistola to Bartholomew, bishop of Narbonne, De quorundam iulusione signorum, concerning portentous events that occurred in the church of St. Firmin of Uzès; the Liber contra obicectiones Fredegisi (the abbot of St. Martin of Tours, disciple and successor of Alcuin), a self-apology in which A. also touches on the nature of biblical inspiration, denying verbal mechanism («corporalia verba»: PL 104, 166); the Epistola to Ebbo of Reims; De spe et timore, a pamphlet of ascetic value as well, unfortunately mutilated.

II. WRITINGS AGAINST SOME SUPERSTITIONS OF HIS TIME

1) De grandine et tonitruis, against the foolish popular belief that storms were the work of sorcerers and the plague of animals the effect of certain powders scattered throughout the kingdom by sorcerers sent by Duke Grimoald of Benevento; 2) Adversus legem Gundobaldi, against judicial duel, sanctioned by the ancient Burgundian laws; 3) De divinis sententiis, against ordeals.

III. ANTI-JUDAIC WRITINGS

In Lyon, where the Jews (whom the Emperor had taken under his protection) were particularly powerful, Jewish proselytism constituted a danger for Christians. Moreover, since the pagan slaves of the Jews, by converting to Christianity, had a right to freedom, it was decided, in order to prevent abuses, that baptism could not be conferred on them without the consent of their master. Against such provisions A. protested with the writing Consultatio et supplicatio de baptismo iudaicorum mancipiorum, addressed to the great officials of the court. And since an imperial decree reconfirmed the harmful prescription, A. renewed his protest with the memorial Contra praeceptum impium de baptismo iudaicorum mancipiorum. As such a state of affairs did not change, A. addressed to the Emperor himself a third writing, De insolentia iudaicorum, and, shortly afterwards, a learned collective letter, his own and that of other bishops, De iudaicis superstitionibus. To Nebridius, moreover, bishop of Narbonne, he sent the exhortatory letter De cavendo convictu et societate iudaica.

IV. PASTORAL WRITINGS

Intended to instruct the people and to defend the rights of the clergy: 1) De privilegio et iura sacerdotii, to Bernard, bishop of Vienne, an interesting pamphlet on a biblical basis; 2) De dispensatione ecclesiasticarum rerum, a letter in which he claims for the Church the right to possess; 3) De modo regiminis ecclesiastici, to the clergy and the monks of Lyon: it contains excellent advice; 4) De Fidei veritate et totius boni institutione, a sermon to the people, of a moral character; 5) the "deploratory" letter De iniuritiis, to the court counsellor Matfred, against the abuses of the lords toward ecclesiastical property.

V. POLITICAL WRITINGS

After the Liber apologeticus, mention should be made of the "febilis epistola" De divisione imperii and the notable Cartula de poenitentia Ludovici, the public penance to which the deposed Emperor, after the Council of Compiègne, had to submit at Soissons (Oct. 833). When, in that same year, Pope Gregory IV had gone to France hoping to be able to prevent the fall of Charlemagne's empire, A. wrote to Louis the letter De comparatione regiminis ecclesiastici et politici, in order to illustrate the superiority of ecclesiastical power over civil power.

VI. LITURGICAL WRITINGS

Of those published among the works of A., only the circular De correctione Antiphonarii to the clergy of Lyon seems certainly his, published around 839 as a preface to the new Antiphonary, which was to eliminate the Roman-Metz one introduced there by Amalarius: A., a rigid conservative, admitted nothing in the liturgy but liturgical texts. The violent polemical pamphlet De Divina Psalmodia is instead by Florus (v.), to whom Wilmart thinks the other one, Contra libros IV Amalarii, should also be attributed, in truth more serene: cf. Rev. Bénéd., 9 (1892), p. 346 ff.; 16 (1924), p. 327 ff.

Finally, two poetic compositions are attributed to A. (PL 104, 349 ff.): the epitaph of Charlemagne and the hymn for the translation of relics Rectre magnificus. The latter is certainly by Florus (cf. MGH, Poetae, II, Hannover 1884, p. 544); for the Epitaph and for the acrostic poem in his honor (Agobardo pax), interesting for its meter, cf. ibid., p. 118.

The works of A. have the merits and defects of polemical writings; but many of his pamphlets, especially those against superstition and against the Jews, are precious sources for the history of civilization. His style, lively and vigorous, recalls that of Tertullian, by whom he was inspired, as the best codex of the African's works (except the Apologeticus) owned by him would suggest, the Codex Agobardinus (today in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, lat. 1622). If as a man of action he often went too far, he was nonetheless a great figure of a pastor and has the merit of having defended the purity of the faith against Adoptionism and genuine piety against superstitious deviations. The Codex of the Confraternitates of Reichenau shows us that he had established between his diocese and that abbey an intimate union of prayers (MGH, Libri Confraternitatum, Hannover 1884, p. 257).

Igino Cecchetti