Peter
Acta Sanctorum, May 7
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-07/peter.html
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ON SAINT PETER

BISHOP OF PAVIA IN ITALY.

ABOUT DCCXXXVIII.

[Commentary]

Petrus, Bishop of Pavia, in Italy (S.)

By the author G. H.

[1] The tables of the present Roman Martyrology on this
VII of May celebrate S. Peter, Bishop
of Pavia. The same celebrate Galesinius
in his Martyrology, [Cultus.] and with some elogium
Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy.
But chiefly his age nearest Paul the Deacon,
Warnefred the Lombard's son, book 6 on the Deeds of the Lombards
chapter 58 or of the whole history the last, where these things he has.

[2] At that time also flourished in life and acts of the Pavian
church the Bishop Peter: who because of the King was
a kinsman, [Elogium from Paul the Deacon.] by Aripert once King at
Spoleto into exile was thrust. To him, the blessed Martyr
Sabinus's church frequenting, the same venerable Martyr
foretold, that a Bishop at Pavia future
he would be. Who afterward when this had been done, a basilica
to the same blessed Martyr Sabinus on his own seat,
at the same city, he constructed. He, among the rest
of the best life which he had virtues, also with virginity's
flower adorned shone: of whom we some miracle,
which in a later time was done, in
its own place will put. Thus Paul the Deacon, who whether
of a later time the deeds by writing he attained, we know not:
that certain which exists history thither does not reach. To this most ancient
writer we adjoin the most recent John
Baptist de Gasparis, who published with his name kept silent,
and to us in the year MDCLXII at Pavia being donated, a Breviary
of the Life of the Saints of the Pavian Church's Bishops,
whose birthday by the same holy Pavian
Church under a double rite to be celebrated in the Preface
he indicates, [The Office under a double rite.] and of S. Peter the first, the XXXVI Bishop of Pavia,
by a long inquiry from several writers gathered
the following.

[3] Peter the first, of Pavia, of the royal Lombard
stock born, by blood a Bavarian, a youth to Aripert the second
King of the Lombards into suspicion came: by
whom also into Etruria relegated, [An exile he venerates S. Sabinus:] most patiently the exile's hardships
in the Arezzo territory he sustained. There on a little hill's
ridge consecrated to the divine Martyr Sabinus he frequented
the temple. Wherefore withdrawing himself from men's fellowship,
wholly himself to contemplation and the spirit's devotion
he gave. Sometimes by the Martyr Sabinus's apparitions
recreated, at length by the same himself to be a future
Bishop of Pavia he is admonished. Of inviolate most observant
chastity, innocence he obtained and
grace: for Aripert being dead in the year seven hundred
sixteenth, and in the same year his successor
Asprandus Peter's cousin from human things being taken,
Luitprand by the royal scepter was augmented, of the same
Peter a kinsman: [to the same returned he constructs basilicas:] by whom with admirable of the city's applause
from exile into his fatherland recalled, according to S. Sabinus's
foretelling Bishop of Pavia created, basilicas
two, one at Pavia, the other indeed near the walls
to the same Martyr Sabinus he built, which also with the greatest
gifts he augmented. Of this holy man, not yet
the Bishopric bearing, by the work and exhortation, in the year
seven hundred twenty-sixth in S. Armentarius's
Pontificate, the same Luitprand the King from Sardinia the island
the body of S. Augustine, of the Catholic Church the light,
at a great price redeemed, to Pavia to be translated
took care. Of the tranquility of the Roman church
a notable lover, with skillful zeal he persuaded, that the same King
from an enemy should become of the Christian religion a fosterer, and of the Roman
Pontiff above all zealous. Very many
infidel Princes, in war captured, with the sacred wave
he dipped. [he dies in the year of his Episcopate 13.] But when for thirteen years the Bishopric
most religiously he had borne, on the Nones of May by death he was snatched away, in the year seven hundred forty-third,
illustrious for miracles. His body, in S. John
of the Marsh, or (as now it is called) in the Borgo, placed,
with the highest veneration is held.

[4] Thus far those Acts, in which S. Peter is said relegated
into the Arezzo territory of Etruria: [Who was that S. Sabinus?] which follow
Stephen Breventanus, Bernard Saccus, James Gualla,
and other writers of the Pavian History, asserting there
a little town, by fame conspicuous, commonly called
the mount of S. Sabinus: whom the townsmen as their Patron
venerate on December VII, judging him to have been Bishop
of Chiusi and a Martyr. But on the same day also is venerated
S. Sabinus, Bishop of Spoleto and Martyr: and
by others one and the same is held, to whom by S. Peter Bishop
of Pavia a temple constructed is reported to have been, hands down at
the said day Ferrarius. Paul the Deacon says, this one at
Spoleto into exile was thrust. Perhaps the Duchy of the Lombards
of Spoleto he understands, in which enclosed seem the cities
of Perugia and Arezzo with their territories. The rest to the Acts
of S. Sabinus will have to be discussed. But how many basilicas to S. Sabinus
erected S. Peter, not sufficiently agree among the authors.
Paul the Deacon makes mention of one on his own seat (perhaps
on his own soil) at the Pavian city constructed: [where were basilicas constructed to him?]
Adds James Gualla, near the walls and the Ticino river
on the Eastern part, which afterward in the year MDXXV,
Francis the King of the Gauls the same city with a great
army besieging, was overthrown. Ughellus volume I of Italia
sacra in the Bishops of Pavia says, to the same a temple
erected in a square, to which S. Sabinus's name was given:
and so basilicas two to S. Sabinus built hands down
above John Baptist de Gasparis.

[5] [The Epitaph of his sepulchre.] The Epitaph of his sepulchre from Jano Gruter in the said
Breviary reprinted, is of this kind.

White on the funereal marble are carved the deeds:
      But not to be wept is he who lies in the tomb.
Let the unhappy mourn, who knows not to live for Christ,
      Whom after his dear death the depths of hell retain.
This Prophet of the Lord, because in the world with body he lived,
      Joined rejoices with the Angelic companies.
Shone here by his honest merits Peter the Bishop,
      The norm of Priests, an excellent pillar.
Munificent, constant, skillful, and prudent, modest,
      Who in innumerable always excels everywhere with good things.
Renowned by lineage, and the Kings' stemmas touching;
      Noble in eloquence, in manners nobler.
He by a foreign at length wasted life,
      Twice five years exiled blameless.
Hunger and thirst he suffers, while also colds his body,
      In hope, virtue, faith his spirit was increased.
But seeking again his native soil, pious offices he bore,
      He presided over the church, ruled the sheepfold of God.
He the sacred halls of the Lord founding liberally,
      Enriched with his own most excellently the lands.
Lofty, humble, middling, rich, needy,
      There fell our Pastor lo excellent.
With laments immense crying out weep your grief:
      The light of the fatherland fell, the law, honor and ornament.
O venerable Father, good Pastor, great Priest,
      Form of chastity, O Father excellent:
You have changed your fatherland, leaving our fellowships,
Us only groans retain, you the joys of heaven.
Ten lustra being completed in your mortal body,
With these four joined you lived firmly years.

[6] [his age.] As to chronology, it from the Lombards'
deeds, with the Epitaph collated, is to be arranged. To be known
therefore that Cunibert the King, about the year DCCVI dead,
succeeding his little son Lintbert; eight after his father's death
month, together with his guardian Asprand, expelled
by Ragumbert, the Duke of Turin, the vacant in the same
year by the invader's death kingdom in vain to recover endeavoring out of
the hands of the son of Aripert, vanquished at Pavia and seized
was, Asprand by flight slipped away, and at length into Bavaria
betaking himself. By this occasion Peter into exile driven, not
before into his fatherland returned, than the kingdom obtained Asprand:
which in the year at length of Aripert the tenth done is written,
nor ill into the year of Christ DCCXVIII is referred.
Perhaps however not ill Bernard Saccus the restitution
of Peter to Luitprand attributes, because his father Asprand
months only three in the kingdom lived. But how long after these
times private lived Peter is unknown; if however
for thirteen years to have borne the Bishopric be proved, from the year of life
LIV in which he died, and that which is fitting to have had age,
of years at the least XXIV when driven into exile he was,
easily you may conclude not more than five or six years
to have flowed from his return, before he was made Bishop; and so beyond
the year of Christ DCCXXXVIII the life to him hardly to be prolonged
can be.

[7] Adds de Gasparis, that, the Bishopric thirteen years being borne,
to the highest Pontiff elected, but by death
he was snatched away: which because no one else has said, nor do I see
on what foundation it rests, to expunge from the elogium I preferred, [The Roman Pontificate to him wrongly ascribed.] and
here to note. For neither after Gregory II's death, who
in the year DCCXV ordained, died DCCXXXI; nor after the departure
of Gregory III, who after him ten years sat,
those were the times, that from the Lombards, by whom then
most the Romans were vexed, a Pontiff for themselves they would wish to elect;
much less appears verisimilar, that the Roman
Clergy, of Episcopal Sees' translations always averse
where it could, itself for itself an example of that matter first to set
would wish in this Peter, which after a century and a half first
seen in Formosus, before Bishop of Porto, so great
at Rome tragedies excited, as great the Pontiffs' history
after his death narrates. Moreover when I consider, how
in the year DCCCCXIV Peter Bishop of Pavia, of Otto
the Emperor Chancellor, to the Pontificate assumed, and
John called of that name XIV, after eight in that office
months in the Castle of S. Angelo by hunger killed on the XX of August;
I am compelled to fear, lest by the likeness of name carried away de Gasparis,
ascribed to Peter of this name the First, what of the third
of that appellation Bishop of Pavia he had read.
