2 173. ST. PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS. 745
4. Faith , Hope and Love.1 This work is preceded by an acrostic poem, the first letters of each line forming the name " Radbertus Levita." Each of the three books is devoted to one of the Christian virtues. Radbertus wrote the treatise at the request of abbot AVala, for the instruction of the younger monks. The book on faith is remarkable for its statement that faith precedes knowl edge, thus antedating the scholastics in their assertion, which is most pregnantly put in the famous expression of Ansclin, Credo ut inteUigam.2 The third book, On Love, is much later than the others on account of the author's distractions.
5. Life of Adalhard,3 the first abbot of New Corbie. It is a panegyric rather than a strict biography, but contains much in teresting and valuable information respecting the abbot and the founding of the German monastery of Corbie. The model for the work is the funeral oration of Ambrose upon Yalentinian II. Its date is 826, the year of Adalhard's death. It contains much edifying matter.
6. Life of Wala? the brother of Adalhard at Old Corbie, and his successor. It is in the peculiar form of conversations. In the first book the interlocutors are Paschasius, as he calls him self, and four fellow Corbie monks — Adeodatus, Severus, Chremes, Allabicus; and in the second, Paschasius, Adeotatus and Theophrastus. These names are, like Asenius, as he calls Wala, mani festly pseudonyms. He borrowed the idea of such a dialogue from Sulpicius Severus, who used it in his life of St. Martin of Tours. The date of the book is 836, the year of Wala's death.
7. The Passion of Rufinus and Valerius,5 who were martyrs to the Christian faith, at or near Soissons, in the year 287. In this work he uses old materials, but weakens the interest of his subject by his frequent digressions and long paraphrases.
i De fide, spe ct charitate. Migne, CXIX, col. 1387-1490. 2 Ebert, /. c. 235
3 Vita Sancti Adalhardi, Migne. CXX. col. 1507-1556. Ebert, I. c. 236-244, gives a full account of Paw basins' Lives of Adalhard and Wala.
4 Epitaphium Arsenii sen vita venerabilis Wales. Migne, CXX. col. 1559-1650.
5 De Passione SS. Rufini et Valerii. Ibid. col. 1489-1508.
746 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
§ 174. Ratramnus.
I. RATRAMNUS, Corbeiensis monachus: Opera omnia, in Migne, Tom.
CXXI. The treatise De corpore et sanguine Domini was first pub lished by Johannes Prae'l under the title Bertrami presbyleri ad Carolum Magnum imperatorum, Cologne, 1532. It was translated into German, Zurich 1532, and has repeatedly appeared in English under the title, The Book of Bertram the Priest, London 1549, 1582, 1623, 1686, 1688 (the last two editions are by Hopkins and give the Latin text also), 1832; and Baltimore, U. S. A., 1843. The best edition of the original text is by Jacques Boileau, Paris, 1712, reprinted with all the explanatory matter in Migne.
II. For discussion and criticism see the modern works, Du PIN, VII. pas
sim; CEILLIER, XII. 555-568. Hist. lit. de la France, V. 332-351. BAHR, 471-479. EBERT, II. 244-247. JOSEPH BACH: Dogmengeschichte des Mittelalters, Wien, 1873-75, 2 parts (I. 193 sqq.) ; JOSEPH SCHWANE : Dogmengeschichte der mittleren Zeit, Freiburg in Br., 1882 (pp. 631 sqq.) Also NEANDER, III. 482, 497-501, 567-68.
Of RATKAMNUS 1 very little is known. He was a monk of the monastery of Corbie, in Picardy, which he had entered at some time prior to 835, and was famed for his learning and ability. Charles the Bald frequently appealed to his judgment, and the archbishop of Rheims gave over to him the defense of the Roman Church against Photius. He participated in the great controversies upon Predestination and the Eucharist. He was an Augustinian, but like his fellows he gathered his argu ments from all the patristic writers. In his works he shows independence and ingenuity. One of his peculiarities is, that like Bishop Butler in the Analogy, he does not name those whom he opposes or defends. He was living in 868 ; how long thereafter is unknown.
He was not a prolific author. Only six treatises have come down to us.
1. A letter upon the cynocephali.2 It is a very curious piece, addressed to the presbyter Rimbert who had answered his
1 Bertramnus, although a common variant, is due to a slip of the pen on the part of a scribe, and is therefore not an allowable form. 3 Epistola de cynocephalis, Migne, CXXI. col. 1153-1156.