RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Provincial Prudentius of Troyes
burg and in Berlin. Cloister provosts are not unknown to the Evangelical church, where the name denotes certain officials entrusted with supervision over the property of Evangelical sisterhood foundations. E. Sehling.
Bibliography: Bingham, Origines, II., ii. 4-5, xix. 14, III., xii.; F. J. Meyer, De dignitatibus in capitulis, 4, § xiii., Gottingen, 1782; A. J. Binterim, Denkwilrdigkeiten, iii. 2, pp. 361-362, Mainz, 1826.
PRUDENTIUS, AURELIUS CLEMENS: Christian poet; b. in the province of Tarragona, Spain, 348; d. after 403. He came of a distinguished Christian family and received an excellent education, studied law, became an office-holder and rose rapidly, was twice governor of a province, and finally received high office at the court of Theodosius. When past middle life, he came to view his course of life as little worthy and withdrew from public life to devote himself to poetry in the service of religion and the Church. His earliest poems are the twelve hymns contained in the Cathemerinon (for use in the morning, at meals, and at night, from which the collection took its name). The model of Prudentius in poetry was Ambrose, though there is a distinct independent development. He employs the events of the times, and is not restricted to the forms of verse used by Ambrose. While his verse is popular, the lyrical element often recedes in consequence of the introduction of the didactic and epic admixture. A second collection, the Peristephanon, shows still greater originality and variety of verse form. This celebrates Spanish and Roman martyrs, and may have been influenced by the inscriptions of Damasus (see Damasus I.) .which celebrated the martyrs. The epic and dramatic elements here are quite pronounced. There are extant also two didactic-polemic poems: Apotheosis, in 1,408 hexameters, exalts the deity of Christ against Patripassians, Sabellians, Jews, and Eremites ; Hamartigenia, in 966 hexameters, deals with the origin of evil in a polemic against Marcion's gnostic dualism. Both of these lean on Tertullian. He also left a purely polemic work in two books (657 and 1,132 hexameters) called Contra Symmachum, in which he combats the heathen state religion. It is under the influence of Ambrose's epistle against Symmachus. All three of these lastnamed contained passages of beauty, but the Hamartigenia is the noblest. A fourth work, of slight esthetic interest, but important from a literaryhistorical point of view (915 hexameters), is the Psychomachia, the first example in the West of allegorical poetry, setting forth the conflict of Christian virtues with heathen vices. It comes out of the times of the author and portrays the life of those times, and had a great influence during the Middle Ages. Finally, there is extant a collection of forty-nine quatrains in hexameter with the title Dittochceon, which sets forth a Biblical picture in each quatrain. It has been supposed that these explain decorations in the basilica attended by the author, twenty-four Old-Testament pictures on one side, twenty-four from the New Testament on the other, and one in the apse. (G. Kruger.)
Bibliography: Owing to the fact that the poems of Prudentius were great favorites in Germany and were even
used as a text-book, a large number of excellent MSS. are extant (cf. the work of Stettiner below) and a prodigious number of German glosses. The number of editions is large. The noteworthy editions are: M. Heinsius, Amsterdam, 1667; F. Arevalo, 2 vols., Rome," 1788-89, reproduced with prolegomena, MPL, lix.-lx.; T. Obbar, Tubingen, 1845; and A. Dressel, Leipsie, 1860. In English may be noted the Cathemerinon, London, 1845; also a transl. of the Hymns, by G. Morison, 3 parts, Cambridge, 1S89; by R. Martin Pope, London, 1905; Translations from Prudentius: a Selection, by F. St. J. Thackeray (in verse), London, 1890; Songs (.Selected and Translated), by E. Giliat-Smith, London, 1898. Consult: A. Ebert, Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters, i. 251-293, Leipsie, 1880 (indispensable) ; L. Paul, Fitude sur Prudence, Strasburg, 1862; P Gams, Kirchengeschichte Spaniens, ii. 1, pp. 337-358, Regensburg, 1864; C. Brockhaus, Aurelius Prudentius Clemens in seiner Bedeutung fur die Kirche und seine Zeit, Leipsie, 1872; P. Allard, in Revue des questions historiques, xxv (1884), 345-385, xxxvi (1884), 5-61, xxxvii (1885), 353-405; A. Rosier, Der katholische Dichter Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, Freiburg, 1886 (detailed; has eye to church and doctrinal history) ; P. A. J. Puech, Prudence; Stude sur la poesie latine chretienne au 4- siecle, Paris, 1888 (elaborate); M. Manitius, Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Poesie, pp. 61-99, Stuttgart, 1891; C. Weymann, in Commentationes Woelfflinianat, pp. 281—287, Leipsie, 1891; G. Boissier, in RDM, xci (1889), 357- 390; idem, La Fin du paganisme, pp. 106-151, Paris, 1894; A. Baumgartner, Geschichte der Weltlitteratur, iv. 152 sqq., Freiburg, 1900; T. R. Glover, Life and Letters in the Fourth Century, pp. 249-277, Cambridge, 1901; O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur, ii. 396, 503, 635, 640, Freiburg, 1903; F. Maigret, Le Poete Chretien Prudence, Paris, 1903; E. O. Winstedt, in Classical Review, xvii (1903), 203-207; M. Schanz, Geschichte der riimischen Litteratur, iv. 211-235, Munich, 1904 (has full list of references) ; R. Stettiner, Die illustrierten Prudentius-Handschriften, Berlin, 1905 (sumptuous) ; DCB, iv. 500-505. Richardson, Encyclopaedia, p. 8S9, furnishes references to some excellent periodical literature.
PRUDENTIUS OF TROYES: Bishop of Troyes from shortly before 847; d. Apr. 6, 861. He was a Spaniard named Galindo, and was educated at the Frankish court-school. In 849 he wrote to Hincmar of Reims and Pardulus of Laon championing Augustinianism in the predestination controversy of the time (see Gottschalk, 1 ; Hincmar of Reims) . God predestinated the wicked not so much to sinning— Adam's fall was entirely free — as to wellmerited punishment; the elect alone are redeemed by Christ's death from the massa perditionis (MPL, cxv. 975-976). Nevertheless Prudentius seems to have signed the theses of Hincmar at Quierzy in 853, but in the same year (or in 856) he attacked them in four theses which he presented to a synod at Paris (MPL, cxv. 1365 sqq.). He remained Hincmar's bitter opponent, although he wrote no more in the controversy. His part in the Annates Bertiniani, for which he wrote the years 835-861, is his chief service to history. (R. Schmid.)
Bibliography: The Annates Bertiniani of Prudentius are best in MGH, Script., i (1826), 429-454, then in MPL. cxv. 1377-1420, exxv. 1203-1302; also ed. C. Dehaisnes, Paris, 1871, and G. Waitz, Hanover, 1883; the poems are in MGH, Poet. Lat. med. osvi, i (1884), 679-680. There is a Germ, transl., new ed. by W.Wattenbach, Leipsie, 1890, and Fr. transl. in Guizot, Collection des memoires, vol. iv., Paris, 1824. Consult: J. Lebeuf, Dissertations sur Vhist. . . de Paris, i. 432-497, Paris, 1739; J. C. F. Bahr, Geschicte der romischen Literatur im karolingischen Zeitalter, pp. 167, 453-456, Carlsruhe, 1840; J. C. Pritchard, Life and Times of Hincmar, Littlemore, 1849; J. Girgensohn, Prudentius und die bertinianischen Annalen, Riga, 1875; E. Dummler, in NA, iv (1879), 314; A. Ebert, Geschichte der Literatur ies Mittelalters, ii. 267, 365-368, Leipsie, 1880; Wattenbach, DGQ, i (1885), 196, 263, 277, i (1893), 214- 294, 295; idem, in NA, xvi (1891), 607-609.
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