Arno of Salzburg

ARNO OF SALZBURG: Archbishop of Salzburg 785–821. He seems to have been born in the diocese of Freising, where his name occurs in the records as deacon and as priest down to 776. After 782 he is found as abbot at St. Amand at Elnon in Hainault, which he retained even after his consecration as bishop of Salzburg, June 10, 785. He was sent to Rome in 787 to implore the help of the pope in reconciling Charlemagne with Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, but failed, and Bavaria lost its independence the following year. Arno gained the confidence of the new ruler, however, and Charlemagne confirmed the church of Salzburg in its possessions (790). The bishop was employed as missus dominicus in Bavaria; and at the close of the war with the Avars, all the conquered lands were placed under the spiritual authority of Salzburg. When Pope Leo III. was driven out by the kinsmen of his predecessor, Arno was charged by Charlemagne with the task of restoring peace and order in Rome, and explaining to the pope the king’s wishes for the settlement of ecclesiastical affairs in the eastern part of his realm (797). In deference to these wishes, Bavaria was included ecclesiastically as well as civilly in the Frankish kingdom, and Salzburg was raised to the dignity of a metropolitan see, Arno receiving the pallium April 20, 798. He visited Rome again in 799 to restore Leo III. once more, and in 800 for the coronation of Charlemagne. He was missus dominicus in Bavaria almost continuously from 802 to 806; he appears on the occasion of Charlemagne’s making his will, and at the Council of Mainz in 813, after which he seems to have retired from public life. He was a friend of learning and art, and is said to have had more than 150 books copied.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: Alcuin’s letters to Arno are in Jaffé, BRG, vi., Monumenta Alcuiniana, Berlin, 1873; consult also Rettberg, KD, ii. 200, 237, 558; Wattenbach, DGQ, i. (1904) 166, 172, 475 sqq., 215, ii. 505; Hauck, KD, ii. passim.