Agobard
| Saint Agobard | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Archbishop | |
| Born | c. 779 Spain |
| Died | 840 (aged 60–61) |
| Feast | 6 June |
Agobard of Lyon (c. 779–840) was a Spanish-born priest and archbishop of Lyon, during the Carolingian Renaissance. The author of multiple treatises, ranging in subject matter from the iconoclast controversy to Spanish Adoptionism to critiques of the Carolingian royal family, Agobard is best known for his critiques of Jewish religious practices and political power in the Frankish realm. He was succeeded by Amulo of Lyons.
A native of Spain, Agobard moved to Lyon in 792. He was ordained as a priest c. 804, and was well-liked by the archbishop of Lyon, Leidrad (r. 799-816). At some point, Agobard was ordained as a chorbishop, or assistant bishop. Controversy arose in 814, when the aging Leidrad retired into a monastery, appointing Agobard as his successor. While emperor Louis the Pious did not object to the appointment, some of the other bishops did, calling a synod at Arles to protest the elevation of a new bishop while the old bishop still lived. Archbishop Leidrad died in 816, and the controversy fizzled out, leaving Agobard as the new archbishop. Soon after taking office, he confronted several issues, which included opposing trials by ordeal, and, in 818, writing against Felix of Urgel’s Spanish Adoptionist Christology.
Agobard is notorious for his vocal attacks on the local Jewish population. Jewish communities in the Frankish realm (today's France) had been granted considerable freedoms under Louis the Pious son of Charlemagne, including a prohibition on Christian proselytizing. Louis appointed a magister Iudaeorum to ensure Jewish legal protection, and did not force Jews to allow baptism for their slaves. Agobard found this last provision particularly galling, and wrote his first anti-Jewish tract on the matter: De Baptismo Judaicorum Mancipiorum (c. 823). For the rest of the decade, Agobard campaigned against what he saw as the dangerous growth in power and influence of Jews in the kingdom that was contrary to canon law. It was during this time that he wrote such works as Contra Praeceptum Impium (c. 826), De Insolentia Judeorum (c. 827), De Judaicis Superstitionibus (c. 827), and De Cavendo Convictu et Societate Judaica ( c. 827). Agobard’s rhetoric, which included describing Jews as “filii diaboli,” – children of the devil – was indicative of the developing anti-Jewish strain of medieval Christian thought. As Jeremy Cohen has claimed, Agobard’s response was paradoxically both stereotypical and knowledgeable (he showed a great knowledge of contemporary Judaism, while maintaining and perpetuating stereotypes).
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