Saint Arcontius

His holy body, honored by miracles, buried with honor by his clergy in the church of Viviers, next to the chapel of Saint-Martin, remained in a reliquary until the year 1563, when the unbridled rage of the Calvi nists broke Calvinistes Religious group that destroyed the relics of Aptone in 1568. it at the same time as the body of Saint Aule saint Aule Saint whose body was preserved alongside that of Saint Arconce. .

To explain the martyrdom of Saint Arconce in the middle of the 8th century, one must not forget the historical environment in which this prelate moved: it was at a time when the bands of Charles Ma Charles-Martel Mayor of the palace, possible ancestor of the saint. rtel had just driven back the Sarac Sarrasins Muslim invaders responsible for the massacre of the nuns. ens and were occupying the Vivarais as advanced sentinels. The master had thought that the soldiers who had reconquered the properties of the Church could well retain a portion of them as compensation. Abandoned to the fierce impetuosity of semi-barbaric instincts, the Frankish men -at-ar Francs People and army with whom Cessator allied himself to fight. ms committed such excesses that they made people regret the Saracens themselves.

The fact is so incontestable that several churches in the South, thos e of Lyon Episcopal see of Saint Eucher. Lyon a nd Vie Vienne Episcopal see and principal city of the saint's activity. nne among others, were completely destroyed and their bishops forced to flee.

The Bishop of Viviers publicly raised his voice to condemn the scandals of the conquerors from beyond the Rhine: this race has always been the same; we had proof of it in 1870-71, where we saw the Prussian and the Bavarian, the Saxon and the compatriots of Luther at work; and it took long centuries, the climate, the customs, and the genius of Christian Gaul to civilize the Franks, brothers of the Germans. It was therefore the newcomers, the inhabitants and not the citizens of Viviers, who, trembling with rage and despairing of ever overcoming the resistance of the Pontiff, swore his death and lay in ambush at one of the city gates where they cowardly assassinated him.

This distinction between citizens (Cives) and inhabitants (Incolae) is essential to make: if the modern legend of the Viennese Breviary had made it, it would not have cast the odium of this crime upon the entire population of Viviers: it is the inhabitants, and not the citizens, that the old martyrology of Viviers designates, whose every term must be weighed. In Roman and Athenian law, as in the language of the Middle Ages, the word citizens designates the natives, the members of the city inscribed on the registers; inhabitants means people simply domiciled in the city, the *moments*, as they were later called. Roman law assigns the deep source of this distinction. 'It is origin,' it says, 'that makes citizens; and domicile, inhabitants.' In the Charters of Viviers, where it is most important to find this distinction, one never fails to encounter it and to see designated by the name of citizens those who have the right to the privileges inherent in the right of citizenship alone: bearing arms, election of magistrates, administration of public funds; — if, on the contrary, it concerns provisions that regard the generality of the inhabitants, great care is taken to designate by the name of inhabitants all the classes of which the commune is composed.

The martyrology adds that it was for having energetically defended the liberties of his church that Arco nce was Arcence 8th-century Bishop of Viviers and martyr. assassinated. This simple indication suffices to characterize the authors of the murder: these authors did not come from the ranks of the people: the latter felt well that it had no better support, no more solid guarantee of its independence than the bishops, so well named its defenders, its advocates. Outside the people, outside the citizens, where to find these oppressors of whom the martyrology speaks? It obviously only remains to look for the m among the F leudes francs People and army with whom Cessator allied himself to fight. rankish leudes whom the conquest had implanted in the country and who remained long foreign by their origin as much as by their customs.

Conclusion: the death of Saint Arconce was not the result of a general plot, of a popular riot. The martyrology gives clearly enough to understand that the courageous Pontiff was surprised and struck alone, without defense, in an infamous ambush.

Cf. Histoire religieuse, civile et politique du Vivarais, by M . Bouchier, M. Bouchier Historian and author of the Histoire du Vivarais. vol. 1, page 279 et seq.; Thouillide, Hist., vol. 2, p. 149; Theodosian Code, book x, title 39, law 7; Charters of Raymond I, Bishop of Viviers, 1159.