 Benedictus Levita, using what is obviously an assumed name, claims in his prefatory remarks to have been a deacon in the church of Mainz.He says that he assembled his collection from materials he found in the archiepiscopal archives of Mainz, at the command of the late Archbishop Otgar (d. 847).Though earlier scholars were inclined to believe some of these statements, modern authors agree that Benedict's preface is entirely fictional.