AKMA asked on the post below why I was equating Ardo’s use of “prelates” to “confessors” in the discussion of the place of St Martin. There’s a good answer for that but it takes more space than I can get in a com-box so I’m moving it here to a new post.

The short answer is that Ardo seems to be utilizing the traditional Carolingian framework for Commons and Martin fits into the “Confessor” slot,  in the Carolingian West “Confessor” was regularly assumed to mean “clergy” and preeminently “bishop”, and St Martin (of Tours, naturally) is noted as a bishop and confessor  in the Carolingian kalendars, was one of the great heroes of the monastic West, and thus the exemplar of his category.

Now I’ll trot out the evidence that supports all of this…

First, let’s note that Ardo is utilizing a common trope but is using “prettified” language that may obscure the trope a little for those not used to his sources.

Dipping into the Latin (I’m relying here on PL 103, col. 565A [this whole bit is in Migne’s section 26]), it reads: “Petrus et Paulus capita sunt apostolorum; Stephanus protomartyr principatum tenet in choro testium; Martinus vero gemma refulget praesulum; Benedictus cunctorum est Pater monachorum.”

In a standard sacramentary, lectionary, or homiliary, the entries for the Temporale and Sanctorale would be followed by a group of generic templates for use in celebrating local or, at least, non-universal saints. They were arranged in order of their liturgical importance and came with both singular and plural versions—Common of One Apostle, of Many Apostles, of One Martyr, of Many Martyrs, of One Confessor, of Many Confessors, of One Virgin, and of Many Virgins. The commune sanctorum was never a completely formalized set, however. Nevertheless, the order above is the exact order given in the Missal of Robert of Jumieges and is the standard order of the Hadrianum supplement which recent scholarship (cf. Vogel) has identified as the very work of Benedict of Aniane rather than Alcuin as earlier believed.

So, in the little snippet quoted above Ardo gives us Apostles, Martyrs but uses the flowery term “in choro testium”, then [Martin] using the term “praesulum”, then monks. The order seems to me to mirror the usual commons even if he’s not explicitly using the usual terms.

Moving to other points of evidence, we need to look at the hymns appointed for All Saints. Again, I know the English sources best and have them to hand, so here are the hymns of the Durham Hymnal which is from the Frankish New Hymnal promulgated in Carolingian times:

This hymn is a perfect example of the Carolingian configuration of the Saints. Its point of departure is clearly the Te Deum; stanza 4 hits the main categories, then we expand from there (Note John the Baptist in 5). Stanza 6 has the brief “confessio sacerdotum” which Millful in her translation expands as “the priests by virtue of their being confessors”. That is reading a bit into it, but given the later evidence, I’ll present I don’t think it’s a stretch.

Here the confessors aren’t more explicitly identified, but we are once again given the standard framework which moves from apostles, to martyrs, to confessors to virgins/monks.

Moving to the two sermons I mentioned before, the Ps-Bede “Legimus in ecclesiasticis historiis” identifies the confessors quite explicitly as clergy: “Christi vero sacerdotibus atque doctoribus sive confessoribus huius festivitatem diei non ignotam esse credimus.” I don’t have the full text in front of me at the moment but Aelfric’s sermon uses “Legimus” as a starting place. Following his section on martyrs he moves to his section on confessors:

After the cessation of the cruel persecutions of kings and governors, holy priests of God prospered under peaceful conditions for God’s church. They, by true learning and holy example, pointed men of the nations to God’s joys. Their minds were pure and filled with chastity,  and they worshiped God almighty with clean hands at his altar glorifying the holy sacrament of Christ’s body and his blood. They also offered themselves as living sacrifices to God without wicked or sexually perverse works. They established God’s teaching among their underlings as a permanent deposit and inclined their minds with compulsion and prayers and great diligence to life’s way and not for any worldly thing scorned the proper fear of God. Though they did not experience the persecution of the sword yet through the merit of their lives they were not deprived of martyrdom because martyrdom is accomplished not in blood alone but also in abstinence from sins and in the application of God’s commands.

After these follow hermits and solitaries. . . . (CH I.36, ll. 89-104)

When these four items are put in parallel, they look like this:

So—that’s why I feel entirely justified in conflating “prelates” with “confessors”.

[2] Legimus conflates virgins and monks by stating that “an innumerable multitude of both sexes followed in her footsteps (innumerabilis utriusque sexus multitudo eius sequebatur uestigia)” (ll. 171-2).

There’s a fascinating section of Ardo’s Life of Benedict of Aniane where he describes the churches in the re-done monastery of Aniane:

Because it glistened with outstanding religious observance, we deem it appropriate to relate for future generations some things about the location of that place. The venerable Father Benedict decided upon pious reflection to consecrate the aforesaid church, not by the title of one of the saints, but in the name of the Holy Trinity. For it to be more clearly recognized, he determined that three small altars should be placed near the main altar so that by them the persons of the Trinity might be figuratively indicated.

. . . [he describes the altar arrangement and the seven (branched?) candelabra]…

Lastly, three further altars were dedicated in the basilica: one in honor of Saint Michael the archangel; another in veneration of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and a third in honor of gentle Stephen the protomartyr.

In the church of Blessed Mary, Bearer of God, which was the first established, there are altars of Saint Martin and also blessed Benedict. But the one which is built in the cemetery is distinguished by being consecrated in honor of St John the Baptizer, than whom among those born of women none greater has arisen, as the divine oracles testify. To ponder with what profound humility and reverence this place was held in awe by them is appropriate, this place protected by so many princes. The Lord Christ is indeed the Price of all princes, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Blessed Mary, the Bearer of God, is believed to be the queen of all virgins. Michael is set over all angels. Peter and Paul are chief of the apostles. Stephen the protomartyr holds fist place in the choir of witnesses. Martin shines as the jewel of prelates. Benedict is the father of all monks. By the seven altars, by the seven candelabra, and by the seven lamps, the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit is understood. (Ardo’s Life 17.3,5-6; 78-9)

The last bit is what’s catching my attention at the moment. It lays out a Carolingian reckoning of the commons and identifies who’s at the head of each rank:

• Apostles—Peter & Paul
• Angels—Michael
• Martyrs—Stephen
• Confessors—Martin
• Virgins—the BVM
• Monks—Benedict

Quite interesting. I’m a little surprised that John the Baptist isn’t explicitly mentioned as the greatest of all prophets as that would certainly fit with the rest of the structure. Prophets, of course, aren’t typically recognized within Western liturgical kalendars. This arrangement is all the more interesting against the backdrop of the hymns and sermons that lay out the theology of the saints—typically the items appointed for the Feast of All Saints which, in the form that we have it, is Carolingian in origin having been greatly popularized by Alcuin.

There’s a sermon attributed to Bede that we find in a number of homiliaries (including Paul the Deacon) know by its incipit “Legimus in ecclesiasticis historiis” that works through the various ranks of the Commons. Aelfric relies it on it for the second half of his sermon on All Saints and if anyone might wonder why the BVM isn;t mntioned until late in these sermons its because she’s placed as Ardo has her here–as the chief of the virgins.

I actually made a chart once of the ranks of commons and how they appear in Legimus, Aelfric’s sermon and the hymns appointed for All Saints but am now quite unable to find it…