RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Christopher, Saint Chromatius
logians to the Palatinate, in the raargravate Baden- Pforzheim, in the domain of Count Helfenstein, in the country of Oettingen, in the free-towns of Rothenburg, on the Tauber, and Hagenau, also in the remote duchies of JiiHch-Cleves and Brunswick- Wolf enbiittel, whose Duke Julius, his cousin, followed him implicitly. The ecclesiastical reservation carried through by Ferdinand at the Religious Peace of Augsburg (q-v.) Christopher opposed as an impediment to Protestantism and a denial of the principle of religious liberty. His hopes, however, in Maximilian II., the son and successor of Ferdinand, his friend, who had been influenced by the spirit of the Reformation, were not realized. He helped exiled Englishmen in 1554-55, the Waldensians in 1557, and in a quiet manner, not to excite the wrath of the emperor, in 1568 William of Orange in the war of liberation in the Netherlands. For his people and the Evangelical Church of Germany Christopher's death came too soon. His efforts for his people's welfare, his zeal for the Church and Protestantism, his pure intentions mark him as one of the ablest princes of Germany. His reign and that of his son Louis (1569-93) form the golden age of Wiirttemberg. G. Bossbrt.
Bibliography: J. C. Pfiater, Herzog Christoph von Wilrttemberg, 2 vols., Tubingen, 1819-20; B. Kugler, Christoph, Herzog von Wiirttemberg, 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1868-70; C. F. Stalin, Wilrttembergische Geschichte, vol. iv., Stuttgart, 1873; E. Schneider, WUrttembergische Reformations' geschichte, Stuttgart, 1887; WUrttembergische Kirchevgeschichte, Stuttgart, 1893; E. Schneider, WUrttembergische Geschichte, Stuttgart, 1896; V Ernst, Briefwechsel des Herzogs Christoph, 3 vols., Stuttgart, 1899-1902.
CHRISTOPHORUS: Pope 903-904. In the autumn of 903 he overthrew Leo V. and seized the papal throne; but a few months later he met the same fate at the hands of Sergius III. According to Herimannus, he became a monk; Vulgarius, on the other hand, says that he was murdered in prison. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Jaff^, Regesta, i. 443-444; Bower, Popes, ii. 306.
CHRO'DE-GANG (Hrodegandus, Ruotgang, Ruggandus): Prankish bishop; b. in Hasbania (ex pago Hasbaniensi, in the Belgian province of Limburg) early in the eighth century; d. at Metz Mar. 6, 766. He was the son of Sigramnus and Landrada, who belonged to one of the noblest families of the Ripuarian Franks, was set aside for the Church, admitted into the clergy of the court, and was raised by Charles Martel to the post of referendarius, a position influential in secular as well as in spiritual affairs. In 742 he was made bishop of Metz by Pepin, and became the means of reestablishing the long-interrupted intercourse of his country with Rome. When Stephen II. was hard pressed by the Lombards, Chrodegang received from Pepin in 733 the commission to go to Italy and to accompany the pope to Gaul, which he accomplished successfully; for this he was rewarded by the pope with the dignity of archbishop, the use of the pallium, the privilege of having the cross borne before him, and of consecrating bishops, although Metz was not an archbishopric. His property he gave to the needy, for the founding of church-establishments, particularly of monasteries (among which
Gorze and the reestablished Lorsch were notable), and for the beautifying and renovating of churches. In 764 he journeyed to Rome in quest of relics, but his chief claim to be remembered is found in his exertions in behalf of ecclesiastical discipline and morals, which were in a sad plight in the Gallic Church. This task Boniface had in part accomplished. Chrodegang considered that the most proper means of accomplishing this end would be to carry over the discipline and mode of life of the regular clergy into that of the secular clergy. He enforced strictly the rule of Benedict of Nursia, strengthened the work begun by Eusebius of Vercelli, Augustine, and his predecessors among the Franks, and drew up a rule of thirty-four chapters. This was in great part a verbal repetition of Benedict's rule (cf. Hauck, ii. 60), retaining even the term claustrum for his new institution, though exr changing episcopus and archidiaconus for abbas and prcepositus, and canonici for monachi. The vita canonica, the keeping of the horm canonicce, and so on, are mainly the same, differing however in two places, necessarily so, since the complete identification of the secular clergy with the regulars seemed hardly profitable. These differences were (1) the distinction between major and minor orders, with their interrelations, and (2) the vow of poverty, which was not required of the canonicals. The rule in its first form (cf. Mansi, Concilia, xiv. 313-314) is intended only for the cathedral of Metz. Later it was enlarged to eighty-six chapters and has now a more common form, in which it found a place in the Regula Aquisgranensis, 817 a.d. That Chrodegang thus helped to diffuse Roman customs through Germany was noted by Paul Warnefried, who tells us also that Chrodegang was bishop of Metz for twenty-three years, five months, and five days. He lies buried in the monastery of Gorze, and his epitaph is to be found in Mabillon, Vetera Analecta, Paris, 1723, 377. (E. Friedberg.)
Bibliography: Sources for a history are in Paulus Warnefridus. Liber de episcopis Mettensibus, ed. G. H. Pertz, in MGH, Script., ii (1829), 267; the Epitaphium, ed. E. Dtimmler, in MGH, Poetce latini cevi Carolini, i (1881), 108-109; and the Vita by John of Gorze, ed. Pertz, in MGH, Script., x (1852), 552-572, and in ASB, March, i. 352 sqq. (cf. G. H. Pertz, Ueber die Vita Chrodegangi, Berlin, 1852). Consult: Rettberg, KD, i., §§ 87-88; Hauck, KD, ii. 48 sqq. '
CHROMATIUS, cro-me'shius : Bishop of Aquileia from 387 or 389; d. 406 or a little later. He was a highly respected and much revered contemporary of Ambrose, Rufinus, and Jerome, who owed to him many encouragements in scientific endeavors. In the dogmatic controversies of the time he was a bold defender of orthodoxy. The destruction of Arianism in Aquileia was his work. To the emperor Honorius he presented an opinion on Chrysostom, who was suspected at the Byzantine court, and Honorius officially transmitted it to his brother Arcadius. His exegetical writings include a treatise ou the Gospel of Matthew, seventeen short writings, and an excellent popular homily on the beatitud&s. The best edition of his works is that by P. Braida (Udine, 1816), reprinted in M PL, xx. 247-368, where the literature is also given. G- Kruger.
Chronicles, Books of