- Expository Works. 1. Glosses,^1279 i.e., brief notes upon the entire Latin Bible, including
the Apocrypha; a very meritorious compilation, made especially from Augustin, Gregory the Great,
Isidore of Seville, and Bede, with very many original remarks. This work was for five hundred
years honored by the widest use in the West. Peter Lombard quotes it as "the authority" without
further designation; and by many its notes have been given equal weight with the Bible text they
accompany. It was one of the earliest printed works, notwithstanding its extent.^1280 2. Exposition
of the first twenty Psalms,^1281 rather allegorical than really explanatory. 3. Epitome of Rabanus
Maurus’ Commentary on Leviticus.^1282 This work is an indication of Walahfrid’s reverence for his
great teacher. 4. Exposition of the Four Evangelists.^1283 It was formerly printed among the works
of Jerome. The notes are brief and designed to bring out the "inner sense." 5. The beginnings and
growth of the divine offices.^1284 This valuable and original work upon the archeology of the liturgy
was written about 840 at the request of Reginbert, the learned librarian of the abbey of Reichenau,
who desired more accurate information upon the origin of the different parts of the liturgy. The
supplementary character of the work explains its lack of system. Walahfrid treats in disconnected
chapters of temples and altars; bells; the derivation of several words for holy places; the use of
"pictures," as ornaments and aids to devotion, but not as objects of worship; the things fitting divine
worship; "the sacrifices of the New Testament" (in this chap., No. XVI., he dissents from the
transubstantiation theory of Radbertus, saying, Christ "after the Paschal supper gave to his disciples
the sacrament of his body and blood in the substance of the bread and wine and taught them to
celebrate [the sacrament] in memory of his passion"^1285 ); then follow a number of chapters upon
the Eucharist; sacred vestments; canonical hours and hymns; baptisms; titles, &c. The work closes
with a comparison of ecclesiastical and secular dignities.
II. A Homily on the Fall of Jerusalem.^1286 Walahfrid gives Josephus’ account of the fall of
the city and then proceeds to the spiritual application of our Lord’s prophetic discourse (Matt.
xxiv.).
III. Biographies. 1. Life of the Abbot St. Gall,^1287 the apostle of Switzerland (d. 645 or 646).
It is not original, but a rewriting of the life by Wettin, Walahfrid’s honored teacher at Reichenau.
Walahfrid reproduced the same in verse.^1288 2. Life of St. Othmar, abbot of St. Gall,^1289 similarly
reproduced. 3. The prologue to his edition of Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne, which gives valuable
information about Einhard.^1290
(^1279) Glossa ordinaria, Migne, CXIII.—CXIV. col. 752.
(^1280) Bähr (pp. 398 sq.) gives the dates of nine editions between 1472 and 1634.
(^1281) Expositio in XX. primos Psalmos, Migne, CXIV. col. 752-794.
(^1282) Epitome commentariorum Rabani in Leviticum, ibid. col. 795-850.
(^1283) Expositio in Evangelia, ibid. col. 849-916.
(^1284) De ecclesiasticarum rerum exordiis et incrementis, CXIV. col. 919-966.
(^1285) De rebus eccl. XVI. Ibid. col. 936.
(^1286) De subversione Jerusalem, ibid. col. 965-974.
(^1287290) Vita S. Galli, ibid. col. 975-1030.
(^1288) Dümmler, l.c., Vita Galli, pp. 428-473.
(^1289) Vita S. Othmari, Migne, CXIV. col. 1031-1042.
(^1290) Jaffé, Monumenta Carolina, pp. 507-8.