Leidrad

Leidrad (or Leidrat, as he spelled it) was the bishop of Lyon from 797 and its first archbishop from 804 until 814. He was a courtier of Charlemagne before he was a bishop. As bishop, he helped resolve the adoptionist controversy. He also began a programme of building and renovation in his diocese, turning Lyon into a centre of learning. Of his writings, two letters and a treatise on baptism survive. Leidrad was a native of Noricum (that is, the Duchy of Bavaria). He received his primary education at Freising Cathedral, where one of his colleague was Arn, future bishop of Salzburg. He became a deacon of Freising under Bishop Aribo (764–783). He joined Charlemagne's court shortly after 782. It has sometimes been asserted that he was Charlemagne's librarian. At court, he befriended Alcuin of York, who speaks highly of him in his letters. After an illness, Leidrad convalesced for a year at church of Saint Martin at Tours, where Alcuin was abbot. Leidrad was appointed to the diocese of Lyon by Charlemagne in 797. In a letter he wrote to the emperor years later, between 809 and 812, he recalled how he had been appointed "to remedy the sins of carelessness in the past" that had left the church of Lyon "destitute ... with regard to its buildings as well as its liturgical offices". In 798, he completed a circuit as missus dominicus (royal envoy) in the Rhône valley and Septimania. Accompanied by Theodulf of Orléans, he visited Avignon, Nîmes, Maguelonne, Agde, Béziers, Narbonne and Carcassonne. Theodulf describes the court they held at Narbonne in his treatise Ad iudices ("To Judges"). Leidrad did not finally take up his episcopal duties until 799. Two letters of Alcuin refer to him as bishop elect before this. In 799, he was appointed...