AIMONE (Lat. Haymo, *Haimo, Aimo*, *Hemmo*), bishop of HALBERSTADT. - Born c. 778, died 26 or 27 March 853.
According to some, his birthplace was in England or France; but with a high degree of probability A. was born in Germany. He was a student at Fulda; around 822, together with Rabanus Maurus, he went to Tours, to the school of Alcuin. Returning to Fulda, he became master of theology and chancellor of the monastery, for which reason many Fulda documents, especially from the years 815-820, were drawn up and written in his own hand.
In 839 he was appointed abbot (39) of Hersfeld and in 841 bishop (39) of Halberstadt in Saxony. On this occasion, or shortly thereafter, Rabanus Maurus dedicated to him his encyclopedia *De universo*, advising him not to meddle in secular affairs, but to devote himself entirely to the instruction and sanctification of the people (PL 111, 11-14).
A. remained faithful to this rule. Devoted to study and pastoral duties, he rarely left his diocese: he went to Mainz (847) to attend the first provincial council, then (852 or 851) to take part in the national council of Germany.
Rabanus Maurus celebrates him as «iustitiae cultor et pietatis amator... decus Ecclesiae, plebis laus, gloria cleri»: indeed, the four poems of Rabanus *ad praeclarum episcopum* (PL 112, 1591-96) seem to be addressed to him. In some early editions he bears the title of saint.
Works. — «Vir undecunque doctissimus», writes Trithemius, A. was above all a «divinarum Scripturarum interpres» (PL 116, 189). He commented on almost the entire Bible, but few of his works remain, and not all are authentic.
1. *Explanatio in Psalmos*, of which an edition was prepared by Erasmus (Freiburg 1533; Cologne 1561), who calls A. «veluti spiritualis apicula», because his work «ex omnium veterum hortis ac pratis florentissimis decerspit, quo simplicibus et occupatis esset parata saluberrimi mellis copia». The work, however, at least in its present text, is contested; some attribute it to Aimo of Hirschau (d. 1107).
2. Following the commentary on the Psalms is that on six Canticles of the Old Testament used in the Divine Office (the two of Moses, those of Anna, Isaiah, Hezekiah and Habakkuk).
3. *Commentariolum in Cantica Canticorum*, which he interprets as an «epithalamium Christi et Ecclesiae»: a contested work.
4. *Comm. in Isaiam libri tres*: A. begins by explaining the intellectual nature of the prophetic «vision».
5. *Evaristio in XII Prophetas Minores*, in which he prefers to illustrate the mysteries concerning Jesus Christ and the Church; probably the commentaries on Joel and Amos are not his.
6. *In divi Pauli Epistolas expositio*, attributed by some to St Remigius of Lyon and by others, more probably, to Remigius of Auxerre: a fragment of ch. 13 of the commentary on Rom. has passed, under A.’s name, into the *Corpus Iuris Canonici* (Decretum of Gratian, Causa XXIII, q. V, cap. 39).
7. *Expositionis in Apocalypsim libri septem*, which many attribute to Remigius of Auxerre; everything is referred to the two spiritual cities: the society of the elect and that of the reprobate. It is almost an epitome of the commentaries of Ambrose Autpert (v.).
8. The Homilies on the Gospels *de tempore et sanctis*, and some on the Epistles of the Mass, have not yet been critically established; the second part (from Easter to Advent) is attributed to Aimo of Hirschau.
In his commentaries, more moralising, especially on the Psalms and the Song of Songs, A. follows the allegorical-mystical method. While making use, especially in his writings on the prophets, of St Jerome and others, he rises above his contemporaries as an exegete, since he does not limit himself to collecting the Fathers’ texts, but expounds their thought with a certain originality.
There are also those who consider him the author of the *Heliand* (v.), a vast Saxon poem, probably of Fulda origin. A. also left an *Epitome* of ecclesiastical history up to the 4th century, in ten very brief books, extracted from Eusebius, Rufinus and others; and an ascetical pamphlet in three books (the third eschatological): *De amore caelestis patriae* (also called by Trithemius, less correctly, *De varietate librorum*), a work of patristic compilation, attributed by some to Aimo of Hirschau. Among his works is also found an important treatise, perhaps a fragment, *De Corpore et Sanguine Domini*, which Geiselmann, however, considers to be from the 11th century, perhaps by Aimo of Hirschau or even Aimo of Telleia.
The writings of A. are collected in PL, vols. 116-18.
(prop. 2. Aorigemme)