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 ELEUTHERIUS

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ELEUTHERIUS

tian (Hie accepit epistula a Lucio Brittanio rege, ut Christianus efficeretur per ejus mandatum). Whence the author of the first part of the " Liber PontificaUs" drew this information, it is now impossible to say. Historically speaking, the fact is quite improbable, and is rejected by all recent critics.

As at the end of the second century the Roman administration was so securely established in Britain, there could no longer have been in the island any real native kings. That some tribal chief, known as king, should have applied to the Roman bishop for instruction in the Cliristian faith seems improbable enough at that period. The unsupported assertion of the " Liber Pontificalis", a compilation of papal biog- raphies that in its earliest form cannot antedate the first quarter of the sLxth century, is not a sufficient basis for the acceptance of this statement. By some it is considered a storj^ intended to demonstrate the Roman origin of the British Church, and consequently the latter's natural subjection to Rome. To make this clearer they locate the origin of the legend in the course of the seventh century, during the dissensions between the primitive British Church and the Anglo- Saxon Cliurch recently established from Rome. But for this hyiiothesis all proof is lacking. It falls before the simple fact that the first part of the " Liber Ponti- ficalis" was compiled long before these dissensions, most probably (Duchesne) by a Roman cleric in the reign of Pope Boniface II (.530-532), or (Waitz and Mommsen) early in the seventh century. Moreover, during the entire conflict that centred around the peculiar customs of the Early British Church no refer- ence is ever made to this alleged Kng Lucius. Saint Bede is the first English writer (673-735) to mention the story repeatedly (Hist. Eccl., I, V; V, 24, De temporum ratione, ad an. 161), and he took it, not from native sources, but from the " Liber Pontificalis ". Harnack suggests a more plausible theory (Sitzungs- berichte der Berliner Akademie, 1904, I, 906-916). In the document, he holds, from which the compiler of the "Liber Pontificalis" drew his information the name found was not Britanio, but Britio. Now this is the name (Birtha- Britium) of the fortress of Edessa. The king in question is, therefore, Lucius iElius Sep- timius Megas Abgar IX, of Edessa, a Christian king, as is well known. The original statement of the "Liber Pontificalis ", in this hypothesis, had nothing to do with Britain. The reference was to Abgar IX of Edessa. But the compiler of the " Liber Pontificalis" changed Britio to Brittanio, and in this way made a British king of the Syrian Lucius.

The ninth-century " Historia Brittonum " sees in Lucius a translation of the Celtic name Llever Maur (Great Light), says that the envoys of Lucius were Pagan and Wervan, and tells us that with this king all the other island kings (reguli Britannia") were baptized (Hist. Brittonum, xviii). Thirteenth-century chron- icles add other details. The " Liber Landavensis ", for example (ed. Rees, 26, 65), makes known the names of Elfan and Medwy, the envoys sent by Lucius to the pope, and transfers the king's dominions to ^Vales. An echo of this legend penetrated even to Switzer- land. In a homily preached at Chur and preserved in an eighth- or ninth-century manuscript, St. Timothy is represented as an apostle of Gaul, whence he came to Britain and baptized there a king named Lucius, who became a missionary, went to Gaul, and finally settled at Chur, where he preached the gospel with great suc- cess. In this way Lucius, the early missionary of the Swiss district of Chur, became identified with the al- leged British king of the "Liber Pontificalis". The latter work is authority for the statement that Eleu- therius died 24 May, and was buried on the Vatican Hill (in Vaticano) near the body of St. Peter. His feast is celebrated 26 May.

Acta SS, May, III, 363-364; Liber Panlificalis. ed. Dc- CHB8NE, I, 136' and Introduction, cii-civ; IIarnack, Ge-

schichte der aUchn'stl. Literatur, II, I, 144 sqq.; Idem, Z>er Brief des brilinchen Kimigs Lucius an den Papsl Eleutherus (Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Alsademie, 1904), I, 906-916; Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche (Bonn, 1881), I, 157 sqq.; Maver, Geschichte des Bistums Chur (Stans, 1907), I, 11 sqq.; Cabrol, L'Angleterre chretienne avant les Normands (Paris. 1909), 29-30; Duchesne, Eleuthere et le rm breton Lu- cius, in Revue Celtique, (18S3-S5), VI, 491-493; Zimmeh, TAe Celtic Church in Britain and Scotland, tr. Meter (London, 1902); Smith and Wace, Did. of Christian Biography, a. v.; see also under Lucius. , „ -,-

J. P. IVIRSCH.

Eleutherius (Fr. Eleuthiore), Saint, Bishop of Tournai at the beginning of the sixth century. Historically there is very little known about St. Eleu- therius, but he was without doubt the first Bishop of Tournai. Theodore, whom some give as his immediate predecessor, was either a bishop of Tours, whose name was placed by mistake on the episcopal list of Tournai, or simply a missionary who ministered to the Chris- tians scattered throughout the small Frankish King- dom of Tournai. Before he became bishop, Eleu- therius lived at court with his friend Medardus, who predicted that he would attain the dignity of a count and also be elevated to the episcopate. After Clovis, King of the Franks, had been converted to Christian- ity, in 496, with more than 3000 of his subjects, bishops took part in the royal councils. St. Remigius, Bishop of Reims, organized the Catholic hierarchy in Northern Gaul, and it is more than likely that St. Eleutherius was named Bishop of Tournai at this time.

The saint's biography m its present form was really an invention of Henri of Tournai in the twelfth cen- tury. According to this, Eleutherius was born at Tournai towards the end of the reign of Childeric, the father of Clovis, of a Christian family descended from Irena^us, who had been baptized by St. Piatus. His father's name was Terenus, and his mother's Blanda. Persecution by the tribime of the Scheldt obliged the Christians to flee from Tournai and take ref- uge in the village of Blandinium. The conversion of Clo\'is, liowever, enabled the small community to reas- semble and build at Blandinium a church, which was dedicated to St. Peter. Theodore was made Bishop of Tournai, and Eleutherius succeeded him. Con- sulted lay Pope Hormisdas as to the best means of eradicating the heresy which threatened nascent Christianity, Eleutherius convened a synod and pub- licly confounded the heretics. They vowed ven- geance, and as he was on his way to the church, one day, they fell on him and, after beating him unmerci- fully, left him for dead. He recovered, however, but his days were numbered. On his death-bed (529) he con- fided his flock to his lifelong friend, St. Medardus.

The motive underlying this biography invented by Canon Henri (1141), was to prove the antiquity of the Church of Tournai, which from the end of the eleventh centiuy had been trying to free itself from the juris- diction of the bishops of Noyon. The sermons on the Trinity, Nativity, and the feast of the Annun- ciation (Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. XV), sometimes at- tributed to St. Eleutherius, are also of a more than doubtful authenticity. His cult, however, is well es- tablished; there is record of arecovery of his relicsdur- ing the episcopate of Hedilo in 897 or 898, and a trans- lation of them by Bishop Baudoin in 1064 or 1065, and another in 1247. Relics of this saint were also preserved in the monastery of St. Martin at Tournai, and in the cathedral at Bruges. His feast is given in niartyrologies on 20or21 July, but is usually celebrated on the former date. The translation of his relics is commemorated 25 August.

Sources- Vila S. Eleutherii I and Vita II in Acta SS. Belgii (Bnissels, 1783), I, 475-94; Vita Medmdi. ii, in Ada SS., June, II, SO. Works: Henschen. De S. I'l. !<'. ." . f.r,<po Torna- censi in Belqio commentarius pra-vi', m 1 ' ^ ^. tirlfjn. Inc. cit., 455-75; FifcvET, Saint Eleuthtr., . ' mm ( I.<mr-

nai! 1S90); Kurth. Clovis (Paris, 19(11, I i , |.; I, J U, 17; W ari- CUE.Z, Les origincs de Viglise de Tourmii \Uju\:nn, I'JDJ), passim;