Halitgar (Halitgarius, Halitcharius, Halitgaire, Aligerio) was a ninth-century bishop of Cambrai (in office 817–831). He is known also as an apostle to the Danes, and the writer of a widely known penitential.
In 822 he travelled to Denmark as a missionary with Ebbo of Rheims and Willeric of Bremen, though not to great immediate effect.[1] In 823 he dedicated the church and relics of St UrsmeratLobbes.[2] In 825, with Amalarius of Metz, he carried the conclusions of a Paris synod on iconoclasmtoLouis the Pious.[3] He went as ambassador to Byzantium in 828.[4]
His De Paenitentia laid down qualities Christians should aspire to in their lives.[5] He discussed a distinction between killing in warfare (a sin), and in self-defense in battle.[6][7] Heavy penances for homosexual acts were imposed on older men.[8] The work is also a source for information about surviving pagan practices.[9]
It was written in five volumes, at Ebbo's request.[10] Ebbo's intention was to have a normative penitential; Halitgar set aside tariffs of penances for exhortations.[11][12] This work and the two attributed to Hrabanus Maurus were considered to supersede those written before, and were very influential, particularly in pre-Norman England.[13] At this point, "the books used by confessors began to consist more and more of instructions in the style of the later moral theology".[14]
His sources have been much debated:
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