AGOBARD, SAINT

born 769/779, Spain died June 6, 840, Lyon; feast day June 6 archbishop of Lyon from 816, who was active in political and ecclesiastical affairs during the reign of the emperor Louis I the Pious. He also wrote theological and liturgical treatises. Moving from Spain to southern Gaul in 782, he went to Lyon in 792 and was ordained priest in 804. As archbishop, he was frequently in conflict with the secular powers, opposing their interference in ecclesiastical elections, and attempting to free church lands from lay control. Having written a public justification of the deposition of Louis the Pious in 833, he lost his see when Louis was restored to his throne, but was reinstated at Lyon in 838. Agobard wrote against the Adoptionist heresy (that Jesus was not the son of God by nature but by adoption) of Felix of Urgel (who was confined at Lyon from 800 to 818) and against the Jews. His zeal for reform led him to attack trial by ordeal and image worship, and his critical ability led him to deny the verbal inspiration of the Bible and to object to the invocation of saints.