Hugues Metel (Lat. Metellus)
Hugues Metel (Lat. Metellus) [1]
Metel (Lat. Metellus), Hugues
a French canon, was born at Toul, in Lorraine, about 1080. He was the offspring of wealthy parents. While yet a child he lost his father, and was indebted to the solicitude of his mother for a liberal education. He studied theology at Laon under the celebrated teacher Anselm, and embraced Christianity at Toul about 1118, when he was entered a member of the regular canons in the abbey of Saint Laon. He remained in that institution until his death, which occurred near 1157. Fifty-five noted epistles bear his authorship. The first of them is addressed to St. Bernard, whom Hugues Metel calls a " clarissima lampas," while to himself he attributes the humbler qualifications of quondam nugigerulus, nunc crucis Christi bajulus. See Calmet, Histoire de la Lorraine, i, cxxi; Fortin d'Urban, Histoire et (Euvrages de Hugues Metel (Paris, 1839, 8vo).
