Audradus Modicus

Audradus Modicus (or Hardradus; fl. 847–53) was a Frankish ecclesiastic and author during the Carolingian Renaissance. He wrote in Latin.

Audradus was a monk of Saint Martin's of Tours.^[1] He served as an auxiliary bishop (chorepiscopus) to Archbishop Wenilo of Sens (836–65) from 847 until 849, when he was deposed by the Council of Paris.^[2] After his deposition, he went to Rome, where he presented his writings to Pope Leo IV.^[2]

Audradus was a prolific author. In verse, he composed the Liber de fonte vitae ("Book of the Source of Life") in 404 hexameters,^[1] the Carmen in honore sancti Petri ecclesiae ("Song in Honour of Saint Peter's Church"), some verses in honour of Saint Martin and a passion of Saint Julian (Passiones beatorum Iuliani et sociorum eius) in 800 lines.^[2] He also wrote the prose Liber revelationum, known from passages quoted by Alberic of Trois-Fontaines in the 13th century. They show him to have been a partisan of Charles the Bald, king of West Francia, and of Archbishop Hincmar of Reims, and extremely hostile to Charles's brothers, the Emperor Lothair I and Louis the German, king of East Francia. The Liber revelationum can be dated to no earlier than 853.^[2]

Audradus was buried in the church of Saint-Didier at Nevers.^[2] Like his superior, Wenilo, he morphed into a villain in popular memory. The chansons de geste, such as Amis et Amiles and Jordain de Blaivies, remember him as the henchman Hardré or Adradus to the archtraitor Ganelon, a figure based on Wenilo.^[3]

Notes

Sources

• Holmes, Urban T. Jr. (1955). "The Post-Bédier Theories on the Origins of the Chansons de Geste". Speculum. 30 (1): 72–81. doi:10.2307/2850039.
• Molinier, Auguste (1901). "813. Audradus Modicus, chorévêque de Sens". Les Sources de l'histoire de France: Des origines aux guerres d'Italie. Vol. 1. Paris: A. Picard et fils. pp. 250–51. Retrieved 15 December 2013.

This page was last edited on 18 January 2024, at 16:51