ANGILRAMNUS OF METZ

Bishop and canonist; d. 791. He was at one time abbot of the benedictine monastery of Sens and was consecrated bishop of metz on Sept. 25, 768. He was chaplain at the court of charlemagne from 784. Angilramnus seems to owe his place in history almost entirely to the accidental circumstance of being named author of that part of the pseudo-Isidorian decretals called the Capitula or Capitularia Angilramni (see false decretals). This collection of canons, which represents one stage in the gradual build-up of the celebrated pseudo-corpus, concerns itself chiefly with the defense of bishops against encroachments and molestations of civil tribunals and with establishment of the privilegium fori. Ostensibly Angilramnus sent the collection to Pope adrian ii (Capitularia Hadriani ) as part of his defense against accusations impugning his episcopal administration at Metz. Evidently, the sketchily known facts of his episcopate illustrate the evils that the pseudo-Isidorian decretals were designed to counter. The long-acclaimed text of P. Hinschius, Decretals pseudo-Isidorianae et capitula Angilramni, has recently come under severe criticism on scientific and paleographical grounds, but the continuing debate at least preserves for Angilramnus his anomalous place in history.

Bibliography: g. hocquard, Catholicisme 1:560–561. a. amanieu, Dictionnaire de droit canonique 1:522–526. p. fournier and g. lebras, Histoire des collections canoniques en occident depuis les fauses décrétales jusqu'au Décret de Gratien 1:142–145. Decretales Pseudo–Isidorianae et Capitula Angilramni, ed. p. hinschius, (Leipzig 1863; repr. 1963) 757–769. j. p. migne, Patrologia latina 96:1031–1102. a. m. stickler, Historia iuris canonici latini 1:128. s. williams, "The Pseudo–Isidorian Problem Today," Speculum 29 (1954) 702–707. a. humbert, Diction-naire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 3:125–127.

[p. l. hug]