Amalarius (''c''. 775–''c''. 850) was a Frankish prelate and courtier, temporary bishop of

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

(812–13) and

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

(835–38), and an accomplished

liturgist Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

. He was close to

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...

and a partisan of his successor,

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqu ...

, throughout the latter's tumultuous reign. He was appointed the third archbishop of Trier in 811 by Charlemagne. In 813 he was sent as the chief Frankish ambassador to the court of Michael I Rhangabes at

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

. On Charlemagne's death in 814, Amalarius resigned his see. In 831, Amalarius travelled to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

to meet Pope Gregory IV and arrange a new Frankish liturgy. In 835, he replaced

Agobard Agobard of Lyon (–840) was a Spanish-born priest and archbishop of Lyon, during the Carolingian Renaissance. The author of multiple treatises, ranging in subject matter from the iconoclast controversy to Spanish Adoptionism to critiques of the ...

at the Synod of Diedenhofen. During Agobard's exile (c. 834) he was responsible for administering the

Diocese of Lyon The Archdiocese of Lyon ( Latin: ''Archidiœcesis Lugdunensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Lyon''), formerly the Archdiocese of Lyon–Vienne–Embrun, is a Latin Church metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. The Archbisho ...

. He implemented liturgical reforms. He wrote extensively on the

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

, including the ''Liber officialis'' and the ''De ordine antiphonarii'', and was involved in the great

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

debates regarding

predestination Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby ...

. We must rely on his enemy, Florus of Lyon, for an account of Amalarius' condemnation on the accusation of heresy at Quierzy, 838.,Eleanor Shipley Duckett, ''Carolingian Portraits: A Study in the Ninth Century'' (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1962. which banned some of his works. Nevertheless, his writings form a good portion of our current documentation of the ninth century liturgies of the Western Church. While the exact date of his death is not known, it is believed that it happened around 850 in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

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