9th-century Spanish archbishop and saint
Saint Agobard
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Born
| c.
769
Spain
[1]
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Died
| 840 (aged 70–71)
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Feast
| 6 June
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Agobard of Lyon
(
c.
769
?840) was a
Spanish
-born priest and
archbishop of Lyon
, during the
Carolingian Renaissance
. The author of multiple treatises, ranging in subject matter from the
iconoclast controversy
to
Spanish Adoptionism
to critiques of the
Carolingian
royal family, Agobard is best known for his critiques of
Jewish
religious practices and political power in the
Frankish
-
Carolingian
realm. He was succeeded by
Amulo of Lyons
.
Early life
[
edit
]
A native of Spain, Agobard moved to Lyon in 792. He was ordained as a priest
c.
804
, and was well-liked by the archbishop of Lyon,
Leidrad
(r. 799?816). At some point, Agobard was ordained as a
chorbishop
, or assistant bishop. Controversy arose in 814, when the aging Leidrad retired into a monastery, appointing Agobard as his successor. While Carolingian emperor
Louis the Pious
did not object to the appointment, some of the other bishops did, calling a synod at Arles to protest the elevation of a new bishop while the old bishop still lived. Archbishop Leidrad died in 816, and the controversy fizzled out, leaving Agobard as the new archbishop. Soon after taking office, he confronted several issues, which included opposing
trials by ordeal
,
[2]
and, in 818, writing against
Felix of Urgel
's
Spanish Adoptionist
Christology.
[3]
Anti-Jewish polemic
[
edit
]
Agobard is notorious for his vocal attacks on the local Jewish population and their religious practices. Jewish communities living in the
Frankish
or
Carolingian
realm had been granted considerable freedoms under
Louis the Pious
son of Charlemagne, including a prohibition on Christian proselytizing. Louis appointed a magister Iudaeorum to ensure Jewish legal protection, and did not force Jews to allow baptism for their slaves. Agobard found this last provision particularly galling, and wrote his first anti-Jewish tract on the matter:
De Baptismo Judaicorum Mancipiorum
(
c.
823
).
[4]
For the rest of the decade, Agobard campaigned against what he saw as the dangerous growth in power and influence of Jews in the kingdom that was contrary to canon law.
[5]
It was during this time that he wrote such works as
Contra Praeceptum Impium
[6]
(
c.
826
),
De Insolentia Judeorum
[7]
(
c.
827
),
De Judaicis Superstitionibus
[8]
(
c.
827
), and
De Cavendo Convictu et Societate Judaica
[9]
(
c.
827
).
[10]
Agobard's rhetoric, which included describing Jews as "
filii diaboli
" ("children of the devil") was indicative of the developing anti-Jewish strain of medieval Christian thought. As Jeremy Cohen has claimed, Agobard's response was paradoxically both stereotypical and knowledgeable (he showed a great knowledge of contemporary Judaism, while maintaining and perpetuating stereotypes).
[11]
Icons
[
edit
]
In the 820s, a controversy emerged over the iconoclastic policies of bishop
Claudius of Turin
.
[12]
This stance was opposed by
Dungal of Bobbio
at the request of Louis the Pious. Agobard, in his
Book on Paintings and Images
, came out in opposition to Dungal's method of using secular knowledge to justify veneration of images.
[13]
Political problems
[
edit
]
In the 820s, Agobard had already shown his willingness to challenge Louis the Pious on the subject of Jews and on secular holdings of church land.
[14]
Agobard continued to confront the emperor, particularly on the issues of royal succession and the matter of land ownership. Agobard accused the emperor of abandoning his 817 Ordinatio imperii decree, which promoted an all-encompassing unity of church and empire.
[15]
In both of the two rebellions against Louis, 830 and 833, Agobard supported the ill-fated revolt of Louis' son
Lothair I
. In 833, when Lothair launched his second revolt, Agobard published his support for Lothair once more in several works:
A Comparison of Ecclesiastical and Political Government and Wherein the Dignity of the Church Outshines the Majesty of Empires
and the
Liber Apologeticus
in defense of the rebelling sons of Louis.
[16]
Exile and return
[
edit
]
After Louis was restored to his power, backed by his sons
Louis the German
and
Pepin I of Aquitaine
, Agobard was suspended from his episcopate by the
Council of Thionville
and exiled, replaced by the
chorbishop
Amalarius of Metz
(
c.
775
–
c.
850
).
[17]
During his tenure in Lyon, Amalarius worked to impose liturgical reforms upon the archdiocese of Lyon. Amalarius' reforms were characterized by a heavy reliance upon allegorical and symbolic representations within the Mass. Agobard, on the other hand, disdained Amalarius' reforms as "theatrical" and "showy" and favored a more plain liturgy.
[18]
Amalarius' reforms were also opposed by Agobard's disciple
Florus of Lyon
; Amalarius was deposed and accused of heresy in 838.
[19]
Agobard wrote three works against Amalarius:
On Divine Psalmody
,
On the Correction of the Antiphonary
, and
Liber officialis
. When he returned to Lyon, Agobard worked to roll back Amalarius' actions, with the support of Florus.
[20]
Other works
[
edit
]
During his life, Agobard wrote more works on other issues, including several against pagan practices,
[21]
two on the role of clergy,
[22]
and a treatise on icons.
[23]
Agobard also wrote a treatise arguing against weather magic called
De Grandine et Tonitruis
("On Hail and Thunder"). A passage in it mentions the popular belief in ships in the clouds whose sailors were thought to take crops damaged by hail or storms to their land of
Magonia
.
Many of his works were lost
until 1605
, when a manuscript was discovered in Lyons and published by
Papirius Masson
, and again by
Baluze
in 1666.
[24]
Agobard's complete works can be found in Volume 104 of
J.P. Migne's
Patrologia Latina
, and, in a more recent edition, in Van Acker's
Agobardi Lugdunensis Opera Omnia
.
[25]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Jones, Terry.
"Agobard"
.
Patron Saints Index
. Archived from
the original
on 9 February 2007
. Retrieved
2007-03-18
.
- ^
For example,
Adversus legem Gundobadi
(PL:104:113B-126B) and
Contra judicium Dei
(PL 104: 249C- 287C).
- ^
Against the Dogma of Felix: Adversus dogma Felicis Urgellensis
PL:104:29C-70A.
- ^
PL 104:99D-106B
- ^
Allen Cabaniss,
Agobard of Lyons: Churchman and Critic
, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1953), 46?7.
- ^
PL 104:173D-178C
- ^
PL 104:69B-76B
- ^
PL 104:77A-100C
- ^
PL 104:107A-114B
- ^
McCracken,
Early Medieval Theology
, 329.
- ^
Jeremy Cohen,
Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity
, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 144?5.
- ^
S. Wemple, "Claudius of Turin's Organic Metaphor or the Carolingian Doctrine of Incorporation,"
Speculum
49 (1974): 222?37; James R. Ginther,
Westminster Handbook to Medieval Theology,
(Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 40.
- ^
Giulio D'Onofrio, ed.
History of Theology II: The Middle Ages
, (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008),68-9.
- ^
Cabaniss,
Agobard of Lyons
, 85.
- ^
Cohen,
Living Letters of the Law
, 138-9.
- ^
Cabaniss,
Agobard of Lyons
, 85-9.
- ^
D'Onofrio,
History of Theology II: The Middle Ages
, 68.
- ^
McCracken,
Early Medieval Theology
, 331.
- ^
McCracken,
Early Medieval Theology
, 330.
- ^
Ginther,
Westminster Handbook to Medieval Theology
, 9.
- ^
For example,
De grandine et tonitruis
(PL 104:147A-158C) and
De quorumdam inclusion signorum
(PL 104:179A-186A).
- ^
De modo regiminis ecclesiastici
(PL 104:189A-200A);
De privilegio et jure sacerdotii
(PL 104: 127A-148A).
- ^
De imaginibus
(PL 104: 199B-228A).
- ^
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911). "
Agobard
".
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 380.
- ^
Agobard of Lyon,
Agobardi Lugdunensis Opera Omnia
, L. Van Acker, ed. CCCM 52 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1981).
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Agobard of Lyon,
Agobardi Lugdunensis Opera Omnia
. Ed. L. Van Acker. CCCM 52. Turnhout: Brepols, 1981.
- Cabaniss, Allen.
Agobard of Lyons: Churchman and Critic
. Syracuse, 1954.
- Cohen, Jeremy.
Living Letter of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity
. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
- D'Onofrio, Giulio, ed.
History of Theology II: The Middle Ages
. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008.
- Ginther, James R.
Westminster Handbook to Medieval Theology
. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.
- Levy, Richard S., ed.
Antisemitism: A historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution
(Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO, 2005) p. 6.
- Wemple, S. "Claudius of Turin's Organic Metaphor or the Carolingian Doctrine of Incorporation."
Speculum
49 (1974): 222?37.
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