Atto of Vercelli
Atto of Vercelli or Atto II (c. 885 AD – 961 AD) was a
Early life
Atto was born around 885 and lived approximately seventy-five years, dying on 31 December 961.[1] He was born into a noble Lombard family;[2] his father was a man named Aldegarius.[3] Atto's writing later in life shows a mastery of Latin and Greek – Latin being the only common language in Italy by the 9th Century – which indicates that his education must have been substantial, in line with the social standing of his family.[4] Little else is known about Atto's childhood or ecclesiastic career beginnings.
Episcopate of Vercelli
Atto's rise to become
Religious Zeal and Church Corruption
Atto was highly concerned with the welfare of the people in his diocese, both spiritual and secular. He disapproved of the use of
His spiritual zeal was more famously directed toward the church itself.
Atto opposed several other practices within the Church. In the early Middle Ages, it was profitable for clergymen to sell holy cloth, i.e. altar furnishings or priest’s clothing, to families who wished to carry their dead to the grave with a liturgical article for the purpose of ensuring the dead a safe trip into the afterlife.[27] Atto did not disapprove of this due to the actual ‘selling’ of holy articles, however.[28] It was said that once restored to its original purpose, the cloth used to bear the dead would be tainted and pollute the altar and Mass it was meant to serve.[29] Atto thus saw the appropriation of holy cloth during funeral services as a fault of the clergy: in his opinion, the ecclesiastics who performed this practice were unaware of the appropriate way to treat articles that are instrumental in sacred worship.[30]
In the centuries before Atto's time, clerics from the lowest to the highest ranks were known to take counsel from magicians, or seers.[31] This practice – and the general fear that clergymen were corrupted by or becoming magicians – died out in the middle of the 9th Century.[32] Atto inexplicably decided to warn against the consultation of magicians and seers in all ranks of the clergy during his time as Bishop of Vercelli, although there is little evidence that it was still widely regarded as a problem.[33]
Works
Atto of Vercelli's literary canon survives in partial form and is largely instructional.
De pressuris ecclesiasticis
The earliest of his principal compositions, De pressuris ecclesiasticis was written around 940 AD.
Polypticum
Sometimes referred to as Perpendiculum, meaning “perpendicular,” “line,” or “plummet,” this work seems to have been completed near the end of Atto's life, perhaps in his last months.[43] It may have been sent to a friend or colleague of Atto's, who wrote the foreword using Latin similar to that of Atto, before being published.[44] It has been suggested that only the first two drafts of the work are in the hand of Atto himself, and that the aforementioned friend or colleague of Atto may have forged his hand for the later edition of the text.[45] The work itself discusses the troubling political atmosphere of the Kingdom of Italy, albeit in an obscure way.[46] It satirizes the political struggles between princes and nobility in the time period, and shows Atto's distaste and pessimism about the age in which he lived.[47]
Canones: Ecclesiastic Law
The name of Atto's compilation of canon law is debatable. Linda Fowler-Magerl calls it the long-winded Capitula canonum excerptarum de diversis conciliis decretalibus statutis atque epistolis congruentium ad forense iudicium tempore domini Attonis episcopi, which translates roughly to “Excerpt chapters of canons about the different decretal statute councils and the corresponding letters to the legal judgment in the time of the lord Bishop Atto.”[48] W. C. Korfmacher uses the shortened Canones statutaque Vercellensis Ecclesiae, roughly meaning “Canons and Statutes of the Church of Vercelli.”[49] Paul Collins prefers the abbreviated Capitulare, simply meaning “capitulary.”[50] It is clear in their writing, however, that Collins, Korfmacher, and Fowler-Magerl reference the same work, namely Atto's compilation of and additions to ecclesiastic law.
In this work, Atto assembled preexisting law from multiple resources: the decrees and letters of several
The collection as a whole generally discusses legislation surrounding clerical discipline and lifestyle.
References
- ^ W. C. Korfmacher, “Atto of Vercelli,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967), 1032.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ George Alan Willhauck, “The Letters of Atto, Bishop of Vercelli: Text, Translation, and Commentary” (Ph. D dissertation, Tufts University, 1984), 3.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Willhauck, 3.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Willhauck, 5.
- ^ Willhauck, 5.
- ^ Bernadette Filotas, Pagan Survivals, Superstitions, and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature (Toronto: PIMS, 2005), 133.
- ^ Filotas, 133.
- ^ Filotas, 133.
- ^ Filotas, 84.
- ^ Filotas, 84.
- ^ Willhauck, 21.
- ^ Willhauck, 21.
- ^ Willhauck, 21.
- ^ Willhauck, 28.
- ^ Willhauck, 116.
- ^ Willhauck, 116.
- ^ Willhauck, 117.
- ^ Willhauck, 117.
- ^ Willhauck, 117.
- ^ Filotas, 324
- ^ Filotas, 325.
- ^ Filotas, 324.
- ^ Filotas, 325
- ^ Filotas, 285.
- ^ Filotas, 285
- ^ Filotas, 285.
- ^ Willhauck, 9.
- ^ Ray C. Petry, ed, No Uncertain Sound: Sermons that Shaped the Pulpit Tradition (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1948), 115.
- ^ Willhauck, 9.
- ^ Benedetta Valtorta, Clavis Scriptorum Latinorum Medii Aevi. Auctores Italiae, (700-1000), (Florence: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2006), 49.
- ^ Valtorta, 49.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Valtorta, 48.
- ^ A. K. Zeigler, "Medieval Literature," in New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 9 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967), 600.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Valtorta, 55.
- ^ Zeigler, 600.
- ^ Willhauck, 12.
- ^ Linda Flowler-Magerl, Clavis Canonum: Selected Canon Law Collections before 1140 (Hanover: Hahnsche, 2005), 74.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Paul Collins, The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, And the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century (New York: PublicAffairs, 2013), 344.
- ^ Willhauck, 9.
- ^ Suzanne F. Wemple, "The Canonical Resources of Atto of Vercelli (926-960)," Traditio 26 (1970), 335.
- ^ Korfmacher, 1032.
- ^ Fowler-Magerl, 74.
- ^ Collins, 344.
- ^ Collins, 344.
- ^ Collins, 344.
- ^ Filotas, 105.
- ^ Collins, 344.
Sources
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Atto of Vercelli". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Frugoni, Arsenio (1962). "ATTONE di Vercelli". ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
- Boenig, Robert. Saint and Hero: Andreas and Medieval Doctrine. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1990.
- Collins, Paul. The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century. New York: PublicAffairs, 2013.
- Filotas, Bernadette. Pagan Survivals, Superstitions, and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005.
- Fowler-Magerl, Linda. Clavis Canonum: Selected Canon Law Collections Before 1140. Hanover: Hahnsche, 2005.
- Korfmacher, W. C. "Atto of Vercelli." In New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.
- Petry, Ray C, ed. No Uncertain Sound: Sermons that Shaped the Pulpit Tradition. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1948.
- Valtorta, Benedetta. Clavis Scriptorum Latinorum Medii Aevi. Auctores Italiae (700-1000). Florence: SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2006.
- Wemple, Suzanne F. “The Canonical Resources of Atto of Vercelli (926-960).” Traditio 26 (1970): 335-350.
- Willhauck, George Alan. “The Letters of Atto, Bishop of Vercelli: Text, Translation, and Commentary.” Ph. D Dissertation, Tufts University, 1984.
- Zeigler, A.K. “Medieval Literature.” In New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.