ONE of the most illustrious and most holy prelates of the eighth and
ninth centuries was Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia, who seems to have
been born {285} about the year 728, in a country farm, not far from
Friuli. His family could boast of no advantages of fortune, and his
parents having no other revenue than what arose from the tillage of
their farm, he spent part of his youth in agriculture. Yet he found
leisure for his studios, and in process of time became so eminent a
grammarian and professor, that Charlemagne honored him with a rescript,
in which he styles him Master of Grammar, and Very Venerable. This
epithet seems to imply that he was then priest. The same prince, in
recompense of his extraordinary merit, bestowed on him an estate in his
own country. It seems to have been about the year 776, that Paulinus was
promoted, against his will, to the patriarchate of Aquileia, which
dignity had not then been long annexed to that see, after the extinction
of the schism of Istria. From the zeal, abilities, and piety of St.
Paulinus, this church derived its greatest lustre. Such was his
reputation, that Charlemagne always expressed a particular desire that
he should be present at all the great councils which were assembled in
his time, though in the remotest part of his dominions. He assisted at
those of Aix-la-Chapelle in 789, of Ratisbon in 792, and of Frankfort in
794; and held himself one at Friuli, in 791, or 796, against the errors
which some had begun to spread in that age concerning the Procession of
the Holy Ghost, and the mystery of the Incarnation.
Felix, bishop of Urgel in Catalonia, in a letter to Elipandus, bishop of
Toledo, who had consulted him on that subject, before the year 783,
pretended to prove that Christ as man is not the natural, but only the
adoptive Son of God: which error he had already advanced in his public
discourses.[1] The rising error was vigorously opposed by Beatus, a
priest and abbot, and his disciple Etherius, who was afterwards bishop
of Osma. Soon after it was condemned by a council at Narbonne, in
788,[2] and by another at Ratisbon, in 792, while Charlemagne kept his
court in that city. Felix revoked his error first in this council at
Ratisbon, and afterwards before pope Leo III. at Rome.[3] Yet after his
return into Spain he continued both by letters and discourses to spread
his heresy; which was therefore again condemned in the great council of
Frankfort, in 794, in which a work of our saint, entitled
Sacro-Syllabus, against the same, was approved, and ordered to be sent
into Spain, to serve for all antidote against the spreading poison.[4]
From this book of St. Paulinus it is clear that Elipandus also returned
to the vomit. Alcuin returning from England, where he had stayed three
years, in 793, wrote a tender moving letter to Felix, exhorting him
sincerely to renounce his error. But the unhappy man, in a long answer,
endeavored to establish his heresy so roundly as to fall into downright
Nestorianism, which indeed is a consequence of his erroneous principle.
For Christ as man cannot be called the adoptive Son of God, unless his
human nature subsist by a distinct person from the divine.[5] By an
order of Charlemagne, Alcuin and St. Paulinus solidly confuted the
writings of these two heresiarchs, the former in seven, our saint in
three books. Alcuin wrote four other books against the pestilential
writings of Elipandus, in which he testifies that Felix was then at
Rome, and converted to the Catholic faith. Elipandus, who was not a
subject of Charlemagne, could not be compelled to appear before the
councils held in his dominions, Toledo being at that time subject to the
Moors. Felix, after his relapse, returned to the faith with his
principal followers in the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 797.[6] From
that time he concealed his heresy, but continued in secret to defend it,
and at his {286} death, in 815, left a written profession of his
heresy.[7] Elipandus died in 809.[8]
The zeal of St. Paulinus was not less successful in the conversion of
infidels than in the extinction of this heresy. Burning with zeal for
the salvation of souls, and a vehement desire of laying down his life
for Christ, he preached the gospel to the idolaters, who had remained to
that time obstinately attached to their superstition among the Carantani
in Carinthia and Stiria; in which provinces also St. Severinus the
abbot, who died in 481, and afterwards St. Virgilius, bishop of
Saltzburg, who died in 785, planted several numerous churches. Whence a
contest arising between Arno, St. Virgilius's successor, and Ursus, the
successor of Paulinus, to which see Carinthia ought to be annexed, it
was settled in 811, that the churches which are situated on the south of
the Drave should be subject of the patriarchate of Aquileia, and those
on the north to the archbishopric of Saltzburg.[9] The Avares, a
barbarous nation of Huns, who were settled in part of Pannonia, and were
twice subdued by Charlemagne, received the faith by the preaching of St.
Paulinus, and of certain missionaries sent by the archbishops of
Saltzburg.[10] Henry, a virtuous nobleman, being appointed by
Charlemagne Duke of Friuli, and governor of that country which he had
lately conquered, St. Paulinus wrote for his use an excellent book Of
Exhortation, in which he strongly invites him to aspire with his whole
heart after Christian perfection, and lays down the most important rules
on the practice of compunction and penance: on the remedies against
different vices, especially pride, without which he shows that no sin
ever was, or will be committed, this being the beginning, end, and cause
of all sin:[11] on an earnest desire and study to please God with all
our strength in all our actions:[12] on assiduous prayer and its
essential dispositions: on the holy communion, of the preparation to
which after sin he shows confession and penance to be an essential
part:[13] on shunning bad company, &c. He closes the book with a most
useful prayer; and in the beginning promises his prayers for the
salvation of the good duke. By tears and prayers he ceased not to draw
down the blessings of the divine mercy on the souls committed to his
charge. Alcuin earnestly besought him as often as bathed in tears he
offered the spotless victim to the divine Majesty, to implore the divine
mercy in his behalf.[14] In 802, St. Paulinus assembled a council at
Altino, a city near the Adriatic sea, which had been destroyed by
Attila, and was at that time only a shadow of what it had been, though
famous for a monastery, in which this synod was probably held.[15] It is
long since entirely decayed. St. Paulinus closed a holy life by a happy
death on the 11th of January, in 804, as Madrisius proves.[16] His
festival occurs on this day in the old missal of Aquileia, and in
several German Martyrologies: but it is at present kept at Aquileia,
Friuli, and in some other places, on the 28th of January.[17] See the
life of St. Paulinus of Aquileia, compiled by Nicoletti, {287} with the
notes of Madrisius; and far more accurately by Madrisius himself an
Oratorian of U{}na, who in 1737 published at Venice the works of this
father in folio, illustrated with long notes and dissertations on every
circumstance relating to the history or writings of our saint. See also
Ceillier t. 18, p. 262, and Bollandus ad 11 Januarii.
Footnotes:
1. See Madrisius, Dissert. 4, p. 214.
2. On this council see Baluse, additam. ad. e. 25, l. 6, Petri de
Marca, de Concord. Sacerd. et. Imp.
3. Leo III. in Conc. Rom. 799. Act. 2, et Eginard in Annal. &c.
4. See Madrisius, dissert. 4, p. 219.
5. See Natal. Alex. Saec. 8. diss. 5.
6. Alcuin, l. 1, contra Elipand.
7. Agobard, l. 1, adv. Felicem. n. 1 & 5.
8. From certain false chronicles, Iamayo and Ceillier (in St. Beatus.
t. 18, p. 364,) relate that Ellpandus revoked his error in a council
which he held at Toledo, and died penitent. Madrisius shows this
circumstance to be uncertain, (Diss. 4, in op. S. Paulini, p. 225,)
and Nicolas Antony of Seville, in his Bibl. Hisp. l. 6, c. 2, n. 42,
has proved the monuments upon which it is founded to be of no
authority. Claudius, bishop of Turin, a disciple of Felix of Urgel,
renewed this heresy in Italy, and denied the veneration due to holy
images, and was refuted by Jonas, bishop of Orleans, and others.
9. Sconleben, Annal. Austr. and Madrisius, Vit. S. Paulini, c. 8.
10. Alcuin. ep. 112. F. Inchofer, in Annal. Hungar. Eccl. ad an. 795.
Madrisius, in Vit. St. Paulini, c. 8, p. 31.
11. St. Paulin. l, Exhort. ad Henr. ducem. c. 19, p. 29.
12. C. 24, p. 34.
13. C. 33, p. 29. See 1 Corinth. xi. 28, St. Cypr. ep. 9, 10, 11, and
Tract. de Lapsis.
14. Alcuin, ep. 113, and Poem. 214.
15. See Madrisius, Dissert. 6.
16. Mardis. in Vita St. Paulini, c. 13, p. 37.
17. Besides the polemical and spiritual works of St. Paulinus of
Aquileia, mentioned above, we have several poems of his composition:
the first contains a rule of faith against the Arians, Nestorians,
and Eutychians: the rest are hymns or rhythms on the Chair of St.
Peter, and on several other festivals and saints. Among his letters
the second is most remarkable, in which he complains severely to
Charlemagne that several bishops attending the court neglected to
reside in their dioceses. Against this abuse he quotes the council
of Sardica, which forbade any bishop to be absent from his see above
three weeks. Madrisius, p. 188.