Arn, Archbishop of Salzburg

ARNONE, archbishop of SALZBURG. — Born around 746 in Bavaria, he died at Salzburg on 24 January 821. Having completed his studies at Freising and been ordained a priest, in 776 he became a Benedictine at St-Amand, where he was elected abbot in 782. He came into close contact with Charlemagne and his court, especially with his learned friends Alcuin and Angilbert. Appointed archbishop of Salzburg in 785, he brought his diocese to the height of its power and extent. After the Avar wars, he initiated a grandiose missionary activity among the Slavic populations of Carinthia and Pannonia, thereby extending the diocesan boundaries as far as the Drava (made the boundary toward Aquileia by Charlemagne in 811) and the Hungarian plains. He was an excellent administrator and a patron of the sacred sciences and the arts.

As Charlemagne’s trusted representative, he was also frequently entrusted with political assignments: in 799 he brought Leo III back to Rome, was present at Charlemagne’s coronation, and was among the signatories of his will in 811. In 790 he obtained solemn confirmation of the possessions of his diocese, and in 798 he received the pallium, having been elevated

as metropolitan of Bavaria. In 799 he celebrated the first Provincial Synod, with statutes that offer very interesting material for knowledge of that region (v. MGH, Leges, III; Concil., II, 1, 212). Between 788 and 790 he had the celebrated Indiculus Arnonis composed, later completed by the Breves Notitiae, that is, a list of the properties of the church of Salzburg, a very important document (ed. W. Hauthaler, Salzburger Urkundenbuch, I, 1–29). His library of 150 codices, still preserved, was famous. He also promoted the writing of annals: the Annales Iuwavenses minores and maiores belong to this period (cf. H. Widmann, Geschichte Salzburgs, I, p. 110 ff.).