View source for Aldebert

{{Short description|8th-century Christian preacher}}
{{other uses}}
'''Aldebert''',{{fact|date=May 2024}} '''Adalbert''',{{fact|date=May 2024}} or '''Adelbert'''{{sfnp|Strong & al.|1880}} was a preacher in 8th century [[Gaul]]. He claimed that an [[angel]] had conferred miraculous powers on him at birth, and that another had brought him [[relic]]s of great sanctity from all parts of the earth. He claimed to be able to see the future and read people's thoughts, telling those who came to him that they had no need to confess, since he knew what they had done, and that their sins were forgiven.
==Life==
Aldebert appeared in the district of [[Soissons]] in the 8th century and practised and preached a life of [[Apostolic poverty]].  He was banned by his bishop from preaching in churches, and worked in the countryside, in the open air and later in churches that his followers (he had acquired many of them) built for him.
According to [[Saint Boniface|St Boniface]], he erected crucifixes at fields and springs and claimed to have received a letter that [[Jesus Christ]] had given from heaven to [[Jerusalem]], which Aldebert used in his own preachings.
He used mystic prayers of his own composition to call on angels who were not accepted by church canon (Uriel, Raguel, Tubuel, Adinus, Tubuas, Sabaoc and Simiel), and who his detractors alleged were demons (some of these names had [[Gnosticism|gnostic]] connections). One of his prayers invoked the angel [[Raguel (angel)|Raguel]]. His "miracles" gained him the awe of the people, and he began to give away parings from his nails and locks of his hair as [[amulet]]s. He managed to get 'unlearned' (''indoctri'') bishops to consecrate him a bishop. He erected crosses and built small chapels in the countryside and at springs and ordered public prayers to be offered there.
St. Boniface wrote to Rome asking for the [[Pope]] to help him "lead back the Franks and Gauls to the right path",<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/boniface-letters.asp |title=Medieval Sourcebook: The Correspondence of St. Boniface  |last=Halsall |first=Paul |date=2000 |website=Internet History Sourcebooks |publisher=Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies |access-date=14 September 2017 |quote=}}</ref> claiming that Aldebert had seduced the multitudes. St Boniface appealed to the Pope for a [[synod]], which [[744 Council of Soissons|held in 744 in Soissons]],{{sfnp|Strong & al.|1880}} with the help of [[Carloman (mayor of the palace)|Carloman]]. The synod, led by Boniface, decided to take Aldebert into custody. The Synod ordered Aldebert's crosses burned.  Aldebert escaped and continued to preach. A German synod the following year, presided over by Boniface and Carloman, excommunicated him along with an Irish preacher named Clement and many others.
They continued to preach. [[Pope Zachary]] held another council in Rome in 745 to deal with him. Boniface's account and biography was personally approved by Aldebert (neither Boniface nor Aldebert was present). Although the decisions of the northern councils that condemned him were upheld by the Roman council, they did not accede to Boniface's wish to have him excommunicated. The Council thought him to be a lunatic (as opposed to a charlatan) and decided he should be given a chance to repent, rather than excommunicated (the Irish preacher's excommunication was upheld). The Synod ordered his writings (his approved biography, his prayer, and his supposed letter from Jesus) burned.
He was still active in 746; [[Pepin the Short|King Pepin]] sent an embassy to Rome to report that the heretics were still at large and still preaching. [[Pope Zachary]] sent a letter to Boniface in 747, calling for a new council that both Boniface and Aldebert should attend, and that if the council found Aldebert to be a heretic, that Aldebert should then be sent to him so that he could personally judge the case.
A century later, the Anonymous of Mainz wrote that Aldebert had been condemned and deposed at a Synod at Mainz (which may have been the council that Pope Zachary had called for), and that afterwards he was imprisoned for [[blasphemy]] in the monastery of [[Fulda monastery school|Fulda]].<ref>Shepard, 1:6-7</ref> The same account noted that he later escaped and was killed by thieves, although he may have died in jail. He wrote an account of his own life, but only a fragment survives. St Boniface also wrote about him, and left the largest extant record.
==References==
===Citations===
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===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation |contribution-url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07698b.htm |contribution=Imposters |title=[[:s:Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)|Catholic Encyclopedia]] |publisher= |location= |date=1913 }}.
* {{citation |author-link=Norman Cohn |first=Norman |last=Cohn |title=The Pursuit of the Millennium |date=1957 |location= |publisher= }}.
* {{citation |author-link=Richard A. Fletcher |first=Richard A. |last=Fletcher |title=The Barbarian Conversion |location= |publisher= |date=1997 }}.
* {{citation |last=Meeder |first=S. |date=2011 |contribution=Boniface and the Irish Heresy of Clemens |title=Church History |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=251–280 }}.
* {{citation |first=Jeffrey B. |last=Russell |contribution=Saint Boniface and the Eccentrics |title=Church History |volume=33 |issue=3 |date=September 1964 |publisher= |location= |pages= }}.
* {{citation |author-link=Lewis Spence |first=Lewis |last=Spence |title=The Encyclopedia of the Occult |date=1988 |publisher= |location= |edition= }}.
* {{citation |contribution-url=https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/S/soissons-councils-of.html |contribution=Councils of Soissons |last=Strong |first=James |author-link=James Strong (theologian) |author2=John McClintock |display-authors=1 |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Bros. |date=1880 |title=The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature |ref={{harvid|Strong & al.|1880}} }}.
{{refend}}
== External links ==
* {{PASE|2076|Adalbert 1}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:8th-century Christian mystics]]
[[Category:8th-century Christians]]
[[Category:8th-century Frankish people]]
[[Category:French Christian mystics]]
[[Category:Patristic mystics]]
[[Category:People excommunicated by the Catholic Church]]