Abbo of Fleury

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From the title page of an anonymous manuscript of a treatise by Abbo von Fleury

Abbo von Fleury , French Abbon de Fleury , Latin Abbo Floriacensis (* 940 or 945 in Orléanais ; † November 13, 1004 in La Réole , today the Gironde department ) was an outstanding scholar, clergyman and also an important figure in political life during the early phase of the Capetian rule in France. He belonged to the monastery reformers and was abbot of Fleury from 988 .

Life

Abbo was the son of Laetus and Ermengarde, who belonged to the class of the free , but were not of noble origin. At the instigation of his parents, Abbo was brought up as a Benedictine oblate and student in the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire ( Fleury ) from around 950 and entrusted the care of Abbot Wuilfalde. In order to obtain a higher education, he later studied philosophy, mathematics and astronomy in Paris and Reims . One of his teachers there was Gerbert von Aurillac, who later became Pope Silvester II. In Orléans , Abbo received in-depth knowledge of music theory. As a result, he became a versatile scholar and around 965 by Abbot Richard, Wuilfaldes successor, appointed teacher at the monastery school of Fleury, which he held for almost 20 years.

After the death of Amalbert, who had been abbot of Fleury from 978-985, Abbo followed a call from Archbishop Oswald of York in 985 to act as director of the school of the newly founded Ramsey Abbey in Cambridgeshire , England. One of his most prominent students there was Byrhtferth , who became not only a cleric, but also an important scholar, especially in the field of computistics . The manual written by Byrhtferth is based to a large extent on the works of Abbo. During his two-year stay in England, Abbo also came into contact with Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury , whose monastic reform he supported.

In 987 Abbo, who had meanwhile become a priest, returned to Fleury, whose abbot Oylbold had called him back. After Oylbold's death, Abbo was elected Abbot of Fleury in 988, despite the opposition of a monk supported by King Hugo Capet . In this position he developed a lively ecclesiastical and extensive literary activity. He defended the rights of the monks and got into disputes with several bishops, in particular with Bishop Arnulf of Orléans . The latter demanded that Fleury Abbey be placed under his authority. But Abbo refused the vassal oath, proving that his abbey was independent. In 993 the king settled this matter.

At a council held in Saint-Denis around 993 , in which Abbo and his opponent Arnulf von Orléans took part, the bishops tried to withdraw the monks' income from the church tithing , which Abbo resolutely opposed. The council was dissolved as a result of an uproar that broke out over the above-mentioned episcopal demand. Abbo was suspected of having caused the riots. The abbot justified himself against these and other accusations in an apology addressed to King Hugo Capet .

Abbo was also involved in the dispute over the Reims Archdiocese. In 991 he took sides at the Synod of Saint-Basle on the occasion of the dismissal of Archbishop Arnulf von Reims for alleged infidelity against Hugo Capet and Arnulf von Orléans, emphasizing that this ecclesiastical act fell within the competence of the Pope. But Gerbert von Aurillac became the new Archbishop of Reims. When Hugo died in October 996, it came with the approval of King Robert II. For reinstatement Arnulf as archbishop, the Pope Abbo at the direction of Gregory V. the pallium delivered.

After Abbo already under Pope John XV. to maintain the exemption for its monastery and again during the 996 Sedisvakanz had traveled the Holy See to Rome, he made 997 in the fall as an envoy Roberts II. for the third time on the way to the Eternal City . He was supposed to negotiate with Gregory V regarding the king's marriage to Bertha of Burgundy , because the Pope had demanded the dissolution of this relationship because the couple were too closely related and threatened to impose an interdict in the event of refusal . Because Gregory V before the antipope John XVI. Having fled Rome, Abbo met him in Spoleto . Gregory V stuck to his demand. Thereupon Abbo consistently represented the directive of the Pope that the king had to part with Bertha. Therefore, the abbot lost his influence on Robert II, but from now on maintained correspondence with the Pope. Through his influence, Abbo also helped to reduce the fear that was rampant in Europe at the time of an alleged imminent end of the world around the year 1000. He also tried to settle disputes between the local monks and their respective abbots in several monasteries.

In the church, Abbo paid attention to strict monastic discipline, taking the Cluniac reform as a model. His zeal for the restoration of monastic discipline cost him his life. In La Réole priory , which was dependent on Fleury and located in Gascony , casual morals had broken down, and after a first visit there in 1004, Abbo left some monks from Fleury behind, who, however, did not get along with their fellow Gascon believers and returned to Fleury. Since other monks sent by Abbo were also not better received, he traveled with an entourage, including his student Aimoin , a second time to La Réole, where he arrived on November 9, 1004. After the abbot had reprimanded a local monk for participating in a banquet in honor of St. Martin , the rebuked religious incited his confreres and a bloody clash broke out between them and Abbo's companions. Abbo tried to mediate, but was fatally injured by a lance stab and passed away on November 13, 1004. He was buried in Fleury. Miracles are said to have occurred at his grave, which is why he was soon venerated as a saint and martyr in various churches in France . The monk Aimoin, also known as a historian, described the life of his teacher in his Vita Abbonis .

plant

World map Abbos after Macrobius in the handwriting Berlin, Staatsbibliothek , Ms. Phill. 1833, fol. 39v (10th century)

Abbo von Fleury discussed various subjects in his numerous works. He wrote, among other things, ecclesiastical political writings, hagiographic vitae, tracts on grammar and astronomy , a comprehensive description of syllogistics and a textbook on ecclesiastical chronology. In particular, recent research has highlighted this scholarly orientation.

Probably the first work Abbo wrote the Commentarius in cyclum Victorii on the Calculus of Victorius of Aquitaine . It is a treatise on calendar calculation in two books. In Migne's edition of Abbo's writings there is only the preface to this commentary; Fragments of the actual text were only later rediscovered and published. In this work Abbo set up a perpetual Julian calendar for the first time and corrected the time calculation of Dionysius Exiguus .

During his stay in England, Abbo heard from Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury the story of the martyrdom of Saint Edmund , King of East Anglia , in 869 , as allegedly passed down by Edmund's elderly armorer. At the request of the monks of Ramsey Abbey, Abbo then wrote a hagiographic Vita sancti Eadmundi regis Anglorum et martyris in 987 , which is not as legendary as later versions and shows echoes of classical authors, especially Virgil . Abbo also wrote three poems to Dunstan. He was also supposed to verse Dunstan's first prose Vita, which was sent to him around the year 1000 by the Abbey of St. Augustine , but did not carry out this work. As the first work after his return from England to Fleury Abbo wrote the Quaestiones grammaticales , which work he dedicated to the monks of Ramsey and in which he discussed issues of Latin grammar, among other things.

In his later literary work, Abbo dealt mainly with subjects that preoccupied him in his position as abbot. In the Apologeticus ad Hugonem et Rodbertum reges Francorum , written down in 994 , he defended his negative attitude towards Arnulf von Orléans on the question of the church tithing; in it he also fought against the belief in an alleged end of the world in the year 1000. Between 994 and 996 he created a collection of canons ( Collectio canonum ) in 52 chapters, a compilation of important regulations of canon law . In it he defended the rights of kingship and explained the relationship between monasticism and episcopate. He also published an epitome on the life of 91 popes ( Epitome de XCI pontificum romanorum vitis ), which is probably based on the Liber Pontificalis .

Abbo wrote other scientific works, mostly short treatises on computist and astronomical subjects. So he acted about the course of the sun , moon and planets . Abbo wrote a text on logic, which today bears the title Syllogismorum categoricorum et hypotheticorum enodatio and De syllogismis hypotheticis . He addressed a Latin poem to Emperor Otto III. ( Carmen acrostichum ad Ottonem imperatorem ).

Finally, there are still a few letters from Abbo to high-ranking contemporaries. Sixteen of these Epistolae are printed in the Migne edition. There are also two other letters, the Epistolae ad Geraldum et Vitalum de natura magni circuli et de anno Dominicae incarnationis . The letters from the abbot that have survived deal, among other things, with a question of exegesis , the oath, the relationship between the bishops and the monasteries, the restoration of peace in various monastic communities and, once again, the correction of the calendar of Dionysius Exiguus.

expenditure

  • Jacques Paul Migne , Patrologia Latina , Vol. 90 (1850), Col. 725-742, 749-758, 787-820, 823-826, 855-858, 859-878 (computational materials included in the edition reprinted by Migne were incorrectly printed by Noviomagus under the name Bedas )
  • Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina, Vol. 139 (1853), Col. 375-584:
    • Epistolae : Col. 417-461
    • Apologeticus ad Hugonem et Rodbertum reges Francorum : Sp. 461-472
    • Collectio Canonum : Sp. 471-508
    • Vita sancti Eadmundi : Sp. 507-520
    • Carmen acrostichum ad Ottonem Imperatorem : Sp. 519-520
    • Quaestiones grammaticales : Sp. 521-534
    • Epitome de XCI romanorum pontificum vitis (incomplete): Sp. 535-569
    • Excerpts and praefations on mathematical-computist writings: Sp. 569–579
    • Fragmentum de Sancti Martiali (quoted by Ademar von Chabannes ): Sp. 579
  • Nicolaus Bubnov, Gerberti postea Silvestri II papae Opera Mathematica (972-1003) , R. Friedländer & Sohn, Berlin 1899, pp. 199–204 (excerpts from the commentary on the Calculus Victorii ), pp. 203–204 (Abbonis Abacus, only printed here), pp. 225–244 ( Regulae de minutis , uncertain as to the attribution)
  • Louis-Marie Gantier, L'abrégé du Liber pontificalis d'Abbon de Fleury (vers 950–1004): une histoire des papes, en l'an mil . Collège Érasme [u. a.], Louvain-La-Neuve 2004 (= Bibliothèque de la Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, 86)
  • Scott Gwara, Three Acrostic Poems by Abbo of Fleury , in: Journal of Medieval Latin 2 (1992), pp. 203-235 ( Carmen acrostichum ad Ottonem Imperatorem , Carmina acrosticha ad Dunstanum )
  • Anita Guerreau-Jalabert, Abbon de Fleury, Questions grammaticales: Texts établi, traduit et commenté , Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1982, ISBN 2-251-33630-8
  • Michael Lapidge / Peter S. Baker, More Acrostic Verse by Abbo of Fleury , in: Journal of Medieval Latin 7 (1997), pp. 1–27 ( Ardua conexae with prose commentary Quadratus hic equilaterus , also three less certain in the attribution)
  • Alison M. Peden, Abbo of Fleury and Ramsey: Commentary on the Calculus of Victorius of Aquitaine , Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003 (= Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi, 15), ISBN 0-19-726260-0
  • Franz Schupp, Abbo von Fleury: De syllogismis hypotheticis. Edited critically, translated, introduced and commented on , Brill, Leiden 1997 (= studies and texts on the intellectual history of the Middle Ages, 56), ISBN 90-04-10748-7
  • Ron B. Thomson, Two Astronomical Tractates of Abbo of Fleury , in: John D. North / JJ Roche, The Light of Nature. Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science, presented to AC Crombie , Nijhoff, Dordrecht [u. a.] 1985 (= Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, 110), pp. 113-133 ( Sententia Abbonis de ratione spere , Tractatus 'Denique luna' )
  • Ron B. Thomoson, Further Astronomical Material of Abbo of Fleury , in: Medieval Studies 50 (1988), pp. 671-673 ( De duplici signorum ortu vel occasu )
  • Alfred Lohr, Abbonis Floriacensis miscellanea de computo, de astronomia et de cosmographia: secundum codicem Berolinensem Phill. 1833 , Brepols, Turnhout 2019 (= Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, 300), ISBN 978-2-503-58476-8

literature

  • Friedrich Wilhelm BautzABBO from Fleury. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 5-6.
  • Eva-Maria Engelen : Time, number and image: studies on the connection between philosophy and science in Abbo von Fleury (= philosophy and science , volume 2), De Gruyter, Berlin [u. a.] 1993, ISBN 3-11-013849-2 (Dissertation University of Konstanz 1990, VIII, 171 pages, 21 cm, under the title: Abbo von Fleury , DNB 911380469 , table of contents ).
  • GR Evans / AM Peden: Natural Science and Liberal Arts in Abbo of Fleury's Commentary on the Calculus of Victorius of Aquitaine. In: Viator 16 (1985), pp. 109-127.
  • Nadja Germann: De temporum ratione: Quadrivium and knowledge of God using the example of Abbos von Fleury and Hermanns von Reichenau. Brill, Leiden 2006 (= studies and texts on the intellectual history of the Middle Ages, 89), ISBN 90-04-15395-0 .
  • Marco Mostert: The political theology of Abbo of Fleury: A study of the ideas about society and law of the tenth-century monastic reform movement. Lost, Hilversum 1987 (= Middeleeuwse studies en bronnen, 2).
  • Barbara Obrist (Ed.): Abbon de Fleury: philosophie, science et comput autour de l'an mil.Actes des journées organisées par le Center d'Histoire des Science et des Philosophies Arabes et Médievales, CNRS / EPHE / Université Paris. Bureau des Publications de l'Université de Paris VII, Paris-Villejuif 2004, 2nd verb. 2006 edition (= Oriens, Occidens: sciences, mathématiques et philosophie de l'antiquité à l'âge classique, 6).
  • Richard W. Pfaff: Abbo of Fleury . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), Vol. 1 (2004), pp. 10 f.
  • M. Prevost: subscription 13 . In: Dictionnaire de Biographie française (DBF). Vol. 1 (1932), col. 83-86.
  • Pierre Riché: Abbon de Fleury: un moine savant et combatif (verse 950-1004) . Brepols, Turnhout 2004, ISBN 2-503-51096-5 .
  • Karl F. Werner (with Jan Pinborg): Abbo von Fleury . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 15.

Individual evidence

  1. Les actualités de l'IRHT Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes. (No longer available online.) In: www.irht.cnrs.fr. Archived from the original on August 26, 2016 ; Retrieved July 8, 2016 . (French)
  2. ^ M. Prevost: Abbon 13 . In: Dictionnaire de Biographie française . Vol. 1 (1932), Col. 83.
  3. U. Berlière: Abbon 10 . In: Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques . Vol. 1 (1912) col. 49; Richard W. Pfaff: Abbo of Fleury . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (2004), p. 10.
  4. ^ Abbon de Fleury . In: Dictionnaire des lettres françaises. Le moyen âge , p. 1.
  5. ^ Richard W. Pfaff: Abbo of Fleury . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (2004), p. 10.
  6. ^ J. Heidemann: Abbo von Fleury . In: Realenzyklopädie für Protestantische Theologie und Kirche , 3rd edition, Vol. 1 (1896), p. 26; M. Prevost: subscription 13 . In: Dictionnaire de Biographie française . Vol. 1 (1932), Col. 83 f.
  7. a b M. Prevost: Abbon 13 . In: Dictionnaire de Biographie française . Vol. 1 (1932), Col. 84.
  8. ^ Karl F. Werner (with Jan Pinborg): Abbo von Fleury . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 15.
  9. U. Berlière: Abbon 10 . In: Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques . Vol. 1 (1912) col. 50; M. Prevost: subscription 13 . In: Dictionnaire de Biographie française . Vol. 1, Col. 84 (1932); Karl F. Werner (with Jan Pinborg): Abbo von Fleury . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 15.
  10. ^ Abbo von Fleury in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints .
  11. ^ Jacques Paul Migne: Patrologia Latina , vol. 139 (1853), col. 569-572.
  12. ^ M. Prevost: Abbon 13 . In: Dictionnaire de Biographie française . Vol. 1 (1932), Col. 84 f .; Abbon de Fleury . In: Dictionnaire des lettres françaises. Le moyen âge , p. 1; Richard W. Pfaff: Abbo of Fleury . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (2004), p. 10
  13. ^ Richard W. Pfaff: Abbo of Fleury . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (2004), pp. 10 f.
  14. ^ So Richard W. Pfaff: Abbo of Fleury . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (2004), p. 11; according to M. Prevost ( Abbon 13. In: Dictionnaire de Biographie française . Vol. 1 (1932), Col. 83) Abbo wrote the Quaestiones grammaticales while he was in England.
  15. a b M. Prevost: Abbon 13 . In: Dictionnaire de Biographie française . Vol. 1, Col. 85 (1932); Abbon de Fleury . In: Dictionnaire des lettres françaises. Le moyen âge , p. 1.
  16. ^ Richard W. Pfaff: Abbo of Fleury . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 1 (2004), p. 11

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