Page 305 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Chronology of Constantius, Vita Germani

reconstructed local church calendar preserved in Gallic recensions of the
Martyrologium Hieronymianum; 6
v. Vita Amatoris, written by the priest Stephanus Africanus also in the late sixth
century as part of a literary promotion of the cult of St Germanus, likewise gives
Amator’s date of death as 1 May, and specifies that this was the quarta feria. 7
In the decades before 429, 1 May fell on a Wednesday only in 407, 412,and
418;
vi. the first service in the late seventh/early eighth century Missale Gallicanum
vetus, a mass in honour of St Germanus, states that he was bishop for thirty
years; 8
vii. the Gesta episcoporum Autissiodorensis, written in the 870s by Hericus, a monk
of the monastery of St Germanus in Auxerre, and the canons Alagus and
Rainogalus, includes an abridged, interpolated version of Constantius’ Vita
Germani which states that Germanus was bishop for thirty years and twenty-five
days. 9
Germanus’ thirty-year episcopate, if it were to include the year 444/5 (iii above),
musthave begun on 418,not 407 or 412 (see v above). The year of his death must
therefore have been 448.
The fragility of this construction is obvious. It depends on a saint’s vita with a clear
agenda, and on ecclesiastical records, dating from between one to four centuries after
Germanus’ life, set down to support a flourishing local cult. Levison described the
dates 418 to 448 as only approximate, but these dates have calcified on the basis of his

6 Martyrologium Hieronymianum, ed. J. B. de Rossi and L. Duchesne, AASS Nov ii pars 1 (Brussels,
1894), 53 (death of Amator), 98, 124, 128 (on the Kal. Autiss.: xl–xliii). The Kal. Autiss. also gives
anniversary dates for the death of Germanus (31 July), the reception of his body into Auxerre
(22 September), and his burial (1 October). For the liturgical cycle of early medieval Auxerre and
its attendant writings: Yitzak Hen, Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul, ad 481–751 (Leiden,
1995), 97–100.
7 Stephanus Africanus, Vita sancti Amatoris episcopi Autissiodorensis, AASS Mai i, 51–61,c. 31. Literary
promotion of cult: Introduction to Vita Amatoris, 51–2: letters of bishop Aunarius of Auxerre and
Stephanus Africanus. Aunarius commissioned Stephanus to set the vita of Germanus (presumably
Constantius’) to verse, and to write a prose life of Amator. The verse vita of Germanus, if completed,
is not extant.
8 Missale gallicanum vetus (Cod. Vat. Palat. lat. 493), ed. L. C. Mohlberg (Rome, 1958), i, Contestacio,
3–6 at 5; also ed. J. Mabillon, PL 72, 339–82,at 342 (on the missale: 219).
9 Hericus, Alagus, and Rainogalus, Gesta pontificum Autissiodorensium, ed. L.-M. Duru, Biblioth` eque
historique de l’Yonne i (Auxerre, 1850), c. vii,p. 315: annos XXX,dies XXV; Levison, Introduction
to Vita Germani, 226 n. 9 (the edition of the Gesta by P. Labb´ e, as reprinted in PL 138,c. 7,
p. 226, gives Germanus’ episcopate as annos 25,dies 30). On the Gesta: Duchesne, Fastes ´ episcopaux
ii, 432–3, 438–44.
The authors of the Gesta give data in a formula derived from Liber pont. (Duchesne, Fastes
´ episcopaux ii, 433), including consular, regnal, and papal dates. The account of Germanus also
includes a citation from Liber pont.,c. 44 (an anachronistic reference to Valentinian III as emperor
residing in Ravenna, where Germanus would die). The dates, clearly the authors’ reconstruction,
are notsound; e.g. itis unlikely thatGermanus pursued a secular career as early as the reigns of
Valentinian (presumably I) and Gratian (i.e. in or before 375); the Gesta gives Celestine (d. 432)
as the last pope during Germanus’ lifetime, but states that his successor, Alodius, came into office
four years after the death of Germanus, during the pontificate of Leo I (440–61); Gesta,cc. vii,
viii,p. 321, 322; Duchesne, Fastes ´ episcopaux ii, 439.

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