§ 173. ST. PASCHASIUS KADBERTUS. 741
notes of Druth mar's expository lectures on those books, and not the works he promises in his preface to Matthew.1
§ 173. St. Paschasius Radbcrtus.
I. Sanctus PASCHASIUS HADBERTUS: Opera omnia, in Migne, Tom.
CXX.
II. Besides the Prolegomena in Migne, see MELCHIOR HAUSHER : Der
heilige Paschasius Radbertus. Mainz 1862. CARL RODENBERG : Die Vita Walae als historische Quelle (Inaugural Dissertation). Gottingen 1877. Du PIN, VII. 69-73, 81. CEILLIER, XII. 528-549. Hist. lit. de la France, V. 287-314. BAHR, 233, 234, 462-471. EBERT, II. 230-244.
RADBERTUS, surnamed Paschasius ,2 the famous promulgator of the doctrine of Transubstantiation, was born of poor and un known parents, about 790, in or near the city of Soissons in France. His mother died while he was a very little child, and as he was himself very sick he was "exposed" in the church of Soissons. The nuns of the Benedictine abbey of Our Lady in that place had compassion upon him and nursed him back to health.3 His education was conducted by the adjoining Benedic tine monks of St. Peter, and he received the tonsure, yet for a time he led a secular life. His thirst for knowledge and his pious nature, however, induced him to take up again with the restraints of monasticism, and he entered (c. 812) the Benedictine monastery at Corbie, in Picardy, then under abbot Adalhard. There he applied himself diligently to study and to the cultiva tion of the monastic virtues, and so successfully that he soon won an enviable reputation for ascetic piety and learning. He was well read in classical literature, particularly familiar with Virgil, Horace and Terence, and equally well read in the Fathers. He knew Greek and perhaps a little Hebrew. His qualifications for the post of teacher of the monastery's school were, therefore, for that day unusual, and he brought the school up to a high
1 Ibid. col. 1263.
2 From Pascha, probably in allusion to his position in the Eucharistic con troversy.
3 Their abbess was Theodrada. Mabillon, Annales, lib. 27 (vol. 2, p. 371).
742 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
grade of proficiency. Among his famous pupils were Adalhard the Younger, St. Ansgar, Odo, bishop of Beauvais, and Warinus, abbot of New Corbie. He preached regularly and with great acceptance, and was strict in the observance by himself and others of the Benedictine rule.
In the year 822 he accompanied his abbot, Adalhard, and the abbot's brother and successor, Wala, to Corbie in Saxony, in order to establish there the monastery which is generally known as New Corbie. In 826 Adalhard died, and Wala was elected his successor. With this election Radbertus probably had much to do ; at all events, he was deputed by the community to secure from Louis the Pious the confirmation of their choice. This meeting with the emperor led to a friendship between them, and Louis on several occasions showed his appreciation of Radbertus. Thus in 831 he sent him to Saxony to consult with Ansgar about the latter's northern mission, and several times asked his advice. Louis took the liveliest interest in Radbertus's eucharistic views, and asked his ecclesiastics for their opinion.
In 844 Radbertus was elected abbot of his monastery. He was then, and always remained, a simple monk, for in his humility, and probably also because of his view of the Lord's Supper, he refused to be ordained a priest. His name first appears as abbot in the Council of Paris, Feb. 14, 846. He was then able to carry through a measure which gave his mon astery freedom to choose its abbot and to govern its own pro perty.1 These extra privileges are proofs that the favor shown toward him by Louis was continued by his sons. Radbertus was also present in the Council of Quiercy in 849, and joined in the condemnation of Gottschalk. Two years later (851) he resigned his abbotship. He had been reluctant to take the posi tion, and had found it by no means pleasant. Its duties were so multiform and onerous that he had little or no time for study ;
i Privilegium monasterii Corbeiensis, in Migne, CXX. col. 27-32. Cf. Hefele, IV. 119.