the younger monks. The book on faith is remarkable for its statement that faith precedes knowledge,
thus antedating the scholastics in their assertion, which is most pregnantly put in the famous
expression of Anselm, Credo ut intelligam.^1360 The third book, On Love, is much later than the
others on account of the author’s distractions.
- Life of Adalhard,^1361 the first abbot of New Corbie. It is a panegyric rather than a strict
biography, but contains much interesting 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 Valentinian II. Its date is 826, the year of Adalhard’s death. It contains much edifying
matter. - Life of Wala,^1362 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 himself,
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, manifestly
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. - The Passion of Rufinus and Valerius,^1363 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.
§ 174. Patramnus.
I. Ratramnus, Corbeiensis monachus: Opera omnia, in Migne, Tom. CXXI. The treatise De corpore
et sanguine Domini was first published by Johannes Praël under the title Bertrami presbyteri
ad Carolum Magnum imperatorum, Cologne, 1532. It was translated into German, Zürich 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. passim; Ceillier, XII. 555–568.
Hist. Lit. de la France, V. 332–351. Bähr, 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 Ratramnus^1364 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
(^1360) Ebert, l.c. 235.
(^1361) Vita Sancti Adalhardi, Migne. CXX. col. 1507-1556. Ebert, l.c. 236-244, gives a fulI account of Paschasius’ Lives
of Adalhard and Wala.
(^1362) Epitaphium Arsenii seu vita venerabilis Walae. Migne, CXX. col. 1559-1650.
(^1363) De Passione SS. Rufini et Valeri. Ibid. col. 1489-1508.
(^1364) Bertramnus, although a common variant, is due to a slip of the pen on the put of a scribe and is therefore not an
allowable form.