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The Personality of Amalarius

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Allen Cabaniss
Allen Cabaniss
Affiliation:
University of Mississippi
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Extract

The first fleeting glimpse we have of the shadowy figure of Amalarius is one of him as a youth in the city of Tours at the monastic school of Saint Martin under the careful tuition of Alcuin, the most learned teacher in the Carolingian realm. The last we hear of him, many years later, is a bitter remark that by his words and books he had infected and corrupted almost all the churches within and beyond France and that his writings should have been destroyed after his death. Both the date and the place of the beginning and the end of his life are unknown, and even his full name is uncertain—some have called him Amalarius Fortunatas; others, Symphosius Amalarius. Yet this man, whom J.-K. Huysmans called “the most ancient of the liturgists,” played a vital role in the busy years of the first half of the ninth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , September 1951 , pp. 34 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1951

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References

1 . Together with Laistner, M. L. W., Thought and Letters in Western Europe A. D. 500 to 900 (London: Methuen, 1391), p. 357, n. 2Google Scholar, and Manitius, M., Geschichte der Lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich: Beck, 1911), I, pp. 396–401Google Scholar, I shall make the reasonable assumption that Amalarius, archbishop of Trêves, and Amalarius, author of De Ecclesiastieis Officiis (Liber Officialis) and De Ordine Antiphonarii, are one and the same person. Although the opposite contention has been made and generally accepted since the seventeenth century, I believe that the arguments advanced by Morin, G., “La Question des Deux Amalaire,” Revue Bénédictine, VIII (1891), pp. 433–442Google Scholar, are cogent. Yet since Morin's article appeared, Sahre, Rudolf, “Der Liturgiker Amalarius,” Programm des Gymnasiums sum heiligen Kreuts in Dresden (Dresden: Lehrmann, 1893) pp. iii–liiGoogle Scholar, Mönchemeier, Reinhard, Amalar von Metz: Sein Leben und Seine Schriften (Münster: Sehöningh, 1893)Google Scholar, and Franz, Adolph; Die Messe im Deutschen Mittelalter (Freiburg. i/B: Herder, 1902)Google Scholar, have continued to deny the identification. It would seem from the index of Simson, Bernhard, Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reichs unter Ludwig dem Frommen (Leipzig: Dunckler-Humblot, 1874–1876), II, p. 307Google Scholar, and the places there cited, that Simson believed that there were three men in this period named Amalarius!

2 Amalarius, , De Ordine AntiphonariiGoogle Scholar, ch. lviii, Migne, J.-P., Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series LatinaGoogle Scholar, (hereafter cited as P. L.) ev, 1303C; ibid., lvii, P. L. cv, 1307B; ibid., ch. xvi, P. L., cv, 1271D; also his De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (Liber Officialis), Book IV, ch. xvii, P. L., ev., 1198A.

3 De Tribus Epistolis (among the works of Remigius of Lyons, but probably written by Florus of Lyons), ch. xl, PL, cxxi, 1054C.

4 Huysmans, J.-K., Là-Bas, ch. ix near the beginning.Google Scholar

5 William of Malmesbury, Abbreviatio Amalarii, ad fin., PL, clxxix, 1774.Google Scholar

6 Florus, , Opuscula Adversus Amalarium, I, ch. 2Google Scholar, PL, cxix, 73CGoogle Scholar. Ibid., II, ch. 4, PL, cxix, 81A.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., I, ch. 2, PL, cxix, 73D.Google Scholar

8 De Tribus Epistolis, ch. xl, PL, cxxi, 1054C.Google Scholar

9 Honorius, , Gemma AnimaeGoogle Scholar, 4 books, PL, clxxii, 543–738Google Scholar. It is curious to note that Amalarius used the word gemma twice in his letter to Hilduin, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Epistolae Karolini Aevi (hereafter cited as MGH:EppKA) III, p. 254.

10 Hanssens, J. M., “Le Texte du ‘Liber Officialis’ d'Amalaire,” Ephemerides Liturgicae, XLVII (1933), pp. 113–125, 225–424, 493–505Google Scholar; XLVIII (1934), pp. 66–79, 223–232, 549–569; XLIX (1935), pp. 413–435.

11 Letter to Hilduin, , MGH:EppKA, III, p. 249Google Scholar; De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (Liber Offieialis), praefatio, PL, cv, 985C; and elsewhere.

12 Letter to Hilduin, , MGH:EppKA, III, p. 251Google Scholar; De Eeclesiasticis Officiis (Liber Officialis), praefatio, PL, cv, 986C; and elsewhere.Google Scholar

13 De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (Liber Officialis), praefatio, PL, cv, 986CGoogle Scholar: “… non frenum passus sum timoris alicujus magistri, sed illico meo gratias agens Deo, scripsi quod sensi.”

14 Florus, , Opuscula Adversus Amalarium, IGoogle Scholar, ch. 7, PL, cxix, 76XGoogle Scholar:“… sed tune jaetantius et insolentius cornua erigens …”

15 De Eeclesiasticis Officiis (Liber Officialis), praefatio altera, PL, cv, 988Google Scholar f.: “In omnibus quae scribo, suspendor virorum sanctorum atque piorum patrum judicio: interim dico quae sentio.”

16 De Ordine Antiphonarii, prologus, PL, cv, 1243A.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., ch. vi, PL, cv, 1257BGoogle Scholar, and numerous other places in De Ordine Antiphonarii.

18 Letter to Peter, , PL, xcix, 891CGoogle Scholar: “… ne intret in dentes obtrectatorum neque caehinnis superborum …”

19 De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (Liber Officialis), praefatio, PL, cv, 987BGoogle Scholar: “… periculose scripsissem …”

20 Letter to Guntard, , PL, cv, 1336–1330.Google Scholar

21 De Ordine Antiphonarii, prologus, PL, cv, 1244AGoogle Scholar; ch. xxiv, PL, cv, 12780.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., ch. lviii, PL, cv, 1303C.Google Scholar

23 Florus, , Opuscula Adversus Amalarium, IGoogle Scholar, ch. 7, PL, cxix, 76AGoogle Scholar; Agobard, De Corrections Antipnonarii, ch. ii, PL, civ. 330CGoogle Scholar: “… omnia humana figmenta ‥”

24 Letter to Hilduin, , MGH:EppKA, III, p. 251Google Scholar; De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (Liber Officialis), Continentia causae scriptionis secuturae, PL, cv, 992D.Google Scholar

25 De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (Liber officialis), praefatio, PL, cv. 987BGoogle Scholar; ibid., Continentia causae scriptionis secuturae, PL, cv, 992DGoogle Scholar: “… quid ia eorde esset prhnorum dietatorum offieii nostri …”

26 Versiis Marini, Monumento. Germaniae Historica: Poetae Latini Acvi Carolini (hereafter cited as MGH:PLAC ), I, pp. 426–428Google Scholar; letter to Peter, , PL, xcix, 890–892Google Scholar; letter to Hilduin, , MGH:EppKA, III, pp. 247–257Google Scholar; De Ecclesiastieis Officiis (Liber Officialis), I, ch. xxxviii, PL, cv, 10690Google Scholar; De Ordine Antiphonarii, prologus, PL, cv, 1243A.Google Scholar

27 De Ecclesiastieis Officiis (Liber Officialis), praefatio, PL, cv, 985C.Google Scholar

28 De Ordine Antiphonarii, ch. xxix, PL, cv, 1281AB.Google Scholar

29 Agobard, , De Divina Psalmodia, passim, PL, civ, 325–330Google Scholar; Florus, , Opuscula Adversus Amalarium, II, ch. 22Google Scholar, PL, cxix, 93D.Google Scholar

30 Florus, , Opuscula Adversus Amalarium, IIGoogle Scholar, ch. 6, PL, cxix, 82A.Google Scholar

31 Peter, to Amalarius, , PL, xcix, 890B.Google Scholar

32 De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (Liber Officialis), IV, ehGoogle Scholar. xlvii, PL, cv, 1242C.Google Scholar

33 Florus, , Opuscula Adversus Amalarium, IIGoogle Scholar, ch. 6, PL, cxix, 810.Google Scholar

34 De Ordine Antiphonarii, prologue, PL, cv, 1245 f.Google Scholar

35 Ibid., PL, cv, 1244B.Google Scholar

36 De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (Liber Officialis), I, ch. i, PL, cv, 996AGoogle Scholar; ibid., ch. xxi, PL, cv, 10570; ibid., ch. xxxii, PL, cv, 1059AGoogle Scholar; ibid., IV, eh. ii, PL, cv, 1167C.Google Scholar

37 De Caerimoniis Baptismi, PL, xcix, 898B.Google Scholar

38 See, for example, Tertullian, De Spectaculis, chh. 4, 26, 29, 30, and Apoloaeticus, ch. 15. See also Chambers, E. K., The Medicval Stage, I (Oxford University Press, 1903; impression of 1925), p. 11.Google Scholar

39 Letter to Guntard, , PL, cv, 1336 f.Google Scholar

40 See the material cited in Maxwell, W. D., John Knox's Genevan Service Book 1556 (London: Oliver and Boyd, 1931), p. 210.Google Scholar

41 Florus, , Opuscula Adversus Amalarium, III, PL, cxix, 95 f.Google Scholar; I, ch. 2, PL, cxix, 73B–DGoogle Scholar; II, ch. 4, PL, cxix, 80 f.Google Scholar

42 Florus uses such epithets for Amalarius as vulnus putridum, impudens audacia, sordida mens, praevaricator, auctor inauditi execrandigue erroris, dementissimus; Agobard's repertory includes stultus et improbus, calumniator, contentiosus et pertinax, philosophus, vagus et furibundus.

43 Florus, , Opuscula Adversus Amalarium, I, ch. 7, PL, cxix, 760.Google Scholar

44 Many of the manuscripts of Amalarius's Liber Officialis bear his name with widely divergent titles, such as monk, abbot, priest, Roman arch-deacon, bishop, archbishop, and chorepiscopus. The 10th-century Gesta Treverorum refers to him as a Roman cardinal as well as archbishop of Trêves; Honorius of Autun mentions him as bishop of Metz; and Ademar of Chabannes calls him only a deacon!

45 Morin, , op. cit., p. 442.Google Scholar