AUXILIUS OF NAPLES

Frankish priest and polemicist; date and place of birth and death unknown. He was ordained in Rome by Pope formosus (891–896), and may have either established himself as a grammarian near Naples, or entered monte cassino, where a necrology mentions an "Auxilius" as author of a commentary on Genesis. When sergius iii (904–911) reenacted the decrees of the "cadaveric synod," which had declared all actions of Pope Formosus invalid and threatened with excommunication those who exercised Holy Orders conferred by him unless they were reordained, Auxilius and eugenius Vulgarius became spokesmen of the position. In several pamphlets they defended the legality of the election of Formosus and the validity of the Holy Orders conferred by him. According to Auxilius, the validity of Orders did not depend on the personal worthiness of the bishop and, therefore, he opposed reordination. Despite the prerogatives of the Apostolic See, Auxilius believed a council was necessary to vindicate Formosus, and to judge Sergius. His pamphlets included De ordinationibus a Formoso papa factis (Patrologia latina 129:1059–74, completed in Dümmler 107–116); Infensor et defensor (Patrologia latina 129: 1073–1102); In defensionem sacrae ordinationis papae Formosi (Dümmler 59–95); and In defensionem Stephani episcopi et prefatae ordinationis (Dümmler 96–105).

Bibliography: e. dÜmmler, ed., Auxilius und Vulgarius (Leipzig 1866). l. saltet, Les Réordinations: Étude sur le sacrament de l'ordre (Paris 1907) 143–145, 152–163. m. manitius, Geschidte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelaiters, 3v. (Munich 1911–13) 1:437–439, 2:805. d. pop, La Défense du pape Formose (Paris 1933). j. pozzi, "Le Manuscrit Tomus XVIIIus de la Vallicelliana et le Libelle 'De Episcoporum Transmigratione'" Apollinaris 31 (1958) 313–350. s. lindemans, "Auxilius et le Manuscrit Vallicellan Tome XVIII," Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 57 (1962) 470–484.

[s. p. lindemans]