g 173. ST. PASCIIAS1US RADBERTUS. 743
besides, his strict discipline made his monks restive. But per haps a principal reason for retiring was the fact that one of his monks, Ratramnus, had ventured to criticize, publicly and severely, his position upon the Eucharist ; thus stirring up oppo sition to him in his own monastery.
Immediately upon his resignation, Radbertus went to the neighboring abbey of St. Riquier, but shortly returned to Corbie, and took the position of monk under the new abbot. His last days were probably his pleasantest. He devoted himself to the undisturbed study of his favorite books and to his beloved literary labors. On April 26, 865,1 he breathed his last. He was buried in the Chapel of St. John. In the eleventh century miracles began to be wrought at his tomb. Accordingly he was canonized in 1073, and on July 12th of that year his remains were removed with great pomp to St. Peter's Church at Corbie.
The fame of Paschasius Radbertus rests upon his treatise on The body and blood of the Lord? which appeared in 831, and in an improved form in 844. His arguments in it and in the Epistle to Frudegard3 on the same subject have already been handled at length in this volume.4 His treatise on The birth by the Virgin,5 i. e. whether Christ wras born in the ordinary man ner or not, has also been sufficiently noticed.6
Besides these, Radbertus wrote, 1. An Exposition of the Gospel of Matthew? He explained this Gospel in his sermons to the monks. At their request, he began to write out his lectures, and completed four of the twelve books before his election as abbot, but wras then compelled to lay the work aside. The monks at St Riquier's requested its continuance, and it finally was finished. The special prefaces to each book are worth
1 This is the date given in the Necrology of Nevelon. See Mabillon, Annales, lib. XXXVI. (vol. III. p. 119).
2 De corpore et sanguine Domini, in Migne, CXX. coJ. 1259-1350.
8 Epistola de corpore et sanguine Domini ad Frudegardum. Ibid. col. 1351-1366. 4 Pp. 543, 546 sqq. 5 De partu virgin^, Migne, CXX. col. 1367-1386. 6 Page 553. 7 Expositio in evangelium Matthcci, Migne, CXX. col. 31-994.
744 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
attentive reading for their information concerning the origin and progress of the commentary, and for the views they present upon Biblical study in general. As the prologue states, the principal sources are Jerome, Ambrose, Augustin, Chrysostom, Gregory the Great, and Bede.1 Of these, Jerome was most used. His excerpts are not always literal. He frequently alters and expands the expressions.2 Kadbertus was particular to mark on the margin of his pages the names of the authors drawn upon, but in transcribing his marks have been obliterated. His interpre tation is rather more literal than was customary in his day, and he enlivens his pages with allusions to passing events, dwelling especially upon the disorders of the time, the wickedness of the clergy and monks, the abuses of the confessional, and the errors of the Adoptionists, Claudius of Turin and of Scotus Erigena. He also frequently quotes classic authors.3
2. An Exposition of Psalm XLIV* It was written for the nuns of Soissons, to whom he owed his life, and the dedication to them is an integral part of the first of its four books. It is allegorical and very diffuse, but edifying.
3. An Exposition of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.5 This was the fruit of his old age, and once more, as in his early manhood, he deplored the vices, both lay and clerical, which disgraced his times. His allusion to the Norman incursions in the neighbor hood of Paris,6 which took place in 857, proves that he must have written the work after that date. In his prologue, Radbertus states that he had never read a commentary on Lamenta tions written by a Latin author. Hence his information must have been derived from Greek sources, and he was unacquainted with the similar work by Rabauus Maurus. He distinguished a triple sense, a literal, spiritual, and a moral, and paid especial regard to types and prophecies, as he considered that there were prophecies in Lamentations which referred to his own day.
1 Ibid. col. 35. 2 Ibid. col. 394. 3 Bahr, 465.
4 Expositio in Psalmum XL1V. Ibid. col. 993-1060.
6 In Threnos sive Lamentationes Jeremwe. Ibid. col. 1059-1256. 6 Ibid. col. 1220.