Ratramnus
Encyclopedia
Ratramnus, a Frankish
monk of the monastery of Corbie
, was a Carolingian
theologian known best for his writings on the Eucharist
and predestination
. His Eucharistic treatise, De corpora et sanguine Domini (On the Body and Blood of the Lord), was a counterpoint to his abbot Paschasius Radbertus’ realist Eucharistic theology. Ratramnus was also known for his defense of the monk Gottschalk, whose theology of double predestination was the center of much controversy in 9th century France
and Germany
. In his own time, Ratramnus was perhaps best known for his Against the Objections of the Greeks who Slandered the Roman Church, a response to the Photian schism
and defense of the filioque addition to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.
monastery of Corbie
in 844, when Paschasius Radbertus was made abbot. Additionally, he appears to have had a reasonably close relationship with King Charles the Bald
.
When Charles the Bald
visited Corbie in 843, he apparently met Ratramnus and requested an explanation of the Eucharist. It was to the emperor, then, that Ratramnus addressed his work, also entitled De corpora et sanguine Domini. In this book, Ratramnus advocated a spiritual view in which the bread and the wine of the Eucharist represent Christ’s body and blood figuratively and serve as a remembrance of him, but are not truly (perceptible by the senses) Christ’s body and blood in truth. Ratramnus used the same two terms (figura and veritas) to describe the Eucharist as Paschasius, but used them differently. For him, veritas meant “perceptible to the senses,” so the Eucharist could not truly be Christ’s body and blood, as it – according to the senses – did not change in appearance, but remained bread and wine, nor was it literally Christ’s historical incarnate body.
No condemnations were issued as a result of the debate, and neither of the two monks quoted or referred to the other in his work. On account of this, Willemein Otten has challenged the traditional interpretation of Paschasius and Ratramnus’ different positions as a “controversy.”
In 851, John Scotus Eriugena was commissioned to oppose Gottschalk’s teaching, but his work, Treatise on Divine Predestination, essentially denied any form of predestination whatsoever, a denial which raised the ire of Ratramnus and Florus of Lyon. In response, Ratramnus composed the two-book work On the Predestination of God (De Praedestinatione Dei), in which he defended double predestination, while objecting to the notion of predestination to sin.
of 863-7 between Eastern and Western Christianity over the appointment of Photius as Patriarch of Constantinople
. This wide-ranging controversy spanned various East-West disagreements, such as the appointment of the patriarch, ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Bulgaria, and the Western addition of filioque to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. Ratramnus’ defense of Western theology and practice in his Against the Objections of the Greeks who Slandered the Roman Church, is largely occupied with proving the filioque, although the final section of the work deals with other disagreements, such as the monastic tonsure
and priestly celibacy.
formulation of trina deitas against Hincmar of Rheims’ proposed summa deitas.
Additionally, Ratramnus wrote an odd Letter on the Dog-headed Creatures, dissenting from the commonly-held belief that the mythical cynocephali were animals. Instead, he argued, those creatures who have reasoning faculties must surely be related to human beings, not animals.
Ratramnus wrote another treatise, The Birth of Christ, possibly as a response to Paschasius’ De Partu Virginis. In this work, Ratramnus defended the idea that Christ’s birth from the Virgin Mary occurred in the natural human way, so as to not detract from Christ’s real human nature.
Ratramnus wrote two treatises on the soul, upholding traditional Augustinian psychology. The first, On the Soul, was written against someone named Macarius Scotus, and the second, The Book on the Soul, addressed to bishop Odo of Beauvais, challenged an idea raised by an anonymous monk of Fly Abbey – that all human beings participate in a universal soul. In The Book on the Soul, Ratramnus argued that a soul cannot be universal, only individual.
On a whole, Ratramnus’ works have been described by medieval scholar Giulio D'Onofrio as marked by a careful methodological clarity and consistency possibly modeled on Boethius’ Answer to Eutyches.
seized upon “Scotus’” book as a source for his view of the Eucharist in his debate with Lanfranc of Bec, and was summarily condemned by the local Council of Vercelli
in 1050. Around 1100, further confusion arose when Ratramnus’ name was mistakenly copied in some works as Bertramus, a mistake which endured even into the 19th century.
In the 16th century, Ratramnus’ work once more became the center of controversy. After De corpora et sanguine Domini was printed in 1531
, Protestant reformers seized upon the book as a counterpoint to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation
. It was especially influential in England, where Thomas Cranmer
claimed to have been finally convinced against transubstantion by Ratramnus. Willemein Otten writes:
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
monk of the monastery of Corbie
Corbie
Corbie is a commune of the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:The small town is situated up river from Amiens, in the département of Somme and is the main town of the canton of Corbie. It lies in the valley of the River Somme, at the confluence of the River Ancre. The town...
, was a Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
theologian known best for his writings on the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
and predestination
Predestination
Predestination, in theology is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others...
. His Eucharistic treatise, De corpora et sanguine Domini (On the Body and Blood of the Lord), was a counterpoint to his abbot Paschasius Radbertus’ realist Eucharistic theology. Ratramnus was also known for his defense of the monk Gottschalk, whose theology of double predestination was the center of much controversy in 9th century France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. In his own time, Ratramnus was perhaps best known for his Against the Objections of the Greeks who Slandered the Roman Church, a response to the Photian schism
Photian schism
The Photian schism is a term for a controversy lasting from 863-867 between Eastern and Western Christianity....
and defense of the filioque addition to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.
Biography
Little is known of Ratramnus’ life, but some have suggested that he became the teaching master at the BenedictineBenedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monastery of Corbie
Corbie
Corbie is a commune of the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:The small town is situated up river from Amiens, in the département of Somme and is the main town of the canton of Corbie. It lies in the valley of the River Somme, at the confluence of the River Ancre. The town...
in 844, when Paschasius Radbertus was made abbot. Additionally, he appears to have had a reasonably close relationship with King Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
.
The Eucharist
Sometime around 831-33, Paschasius Radbertus, in his role as a teacher in the monastery at Corbie, wrote De corpora et sanguine Domini, articulating the view that in the moment of consecration, the bread and wine on the altar became identical with the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Paschasius was clear that the body and blood on the altar are precisely the same natural body and blood as Christ’s incarnate body on earth. In his description of the Eucharist, Pachasius drew a distinction between figura (figure) and veritas (truth), which he understood to mean “outward appearance” and “what faith teaches” respectively. No controversy seems to have arisen as a result of Paschasius’ treatise, which he first composed likely as a teaching aid and dedicated to one of his former students. Later, likely in 844, Paschasius also composed a revision of his book on the Eucharist, dedicated to Charles the Bald.When Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
visited Corbie in 843, he apparently met Ratramnus and requested an explanation of the Eucharist. It was to the emperor, then, that Ratramnus addressed his work, also entitled De corpora et sanguine Domini. In this book, Ratramnus advocated a spiritual view in which the bread and the wine of the Eucharist represent Christ’s body and blood figuratively and serve as a remembrance of him, but are not truly (perceptible by the senses) Christ’s body and blood in truth. Ratramnus used the same two terms (figura and veritas) to describe the Eucharist as Paschasius, but used them differently. For him, veritas meant “perceptible to the senses,” so the Eucharist could not truly be Christ’s body and blood, as it – according to the senses – did not change in appearance, but remained bread and wine, nor was it literally Christ’s historical incarnate body.
No condemnations were issued as a result of the debate, and neither of the two monks quoted or referred to the other in his work. On account of this, Willemein Otten has challenged the traditional interpretation of Paschasius and Ratramnus’ different positions as a “controversy.”
Predestination
In the 840s and 50s, Ratramnus became involved in the controversy over the teachings of Gottschalk of Orbais (ca. 803-68). Ratramnus likely first encountered Gottschalk during the wandering teacher’s stay at the monastery of Corbie around 830, and later supported him in his conflict with archbishop Hincmar of Rheims. Gottschalk taught a form of double predestination, teaching that God predestined the fates of both the elect and the damned.In 851, John Scotus Eriugena was commissioned to oppose Gottschalk’s teaching, but his work, Treatise on Divine Predestination, essentially denied any form of predestination whatsoever, a denial which raised the ire of Ratramnus and Florus of Lyon. In response, Ratramnus composed the two-book work On the Predestination of God (De Praedestinatione Dei), in which he defended double predestination, while objecting to the notion of predestination to sin.
Filioque
Late in Ratramnus’ life, he responded to the Photian schismPhotian schism
The Photian schism is a term for a controversy lasting from 863-867 between Eastern and Western Christianity....
of 863-7 between Eastern and Western Christianity over the appointment of Photius as Patriarch of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
. This wide-ranging controversy spanned various East-West disagreements, such as the appointment of the patriarch, ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Bulgaria, and the Western addition of filioque to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. Ratramnus’ defense of Western theology and practice in his Against the Objections of the Greeks who Slandered the Roman Church, is largely occupied with proving the filioque, although the final section of the work deals with other disagreements, such as the monastic tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
and priestly celibacy.
Other Works
In another show of support for Gottschalk, Ratramnus composed a short collection of patristic texts in favor of Gottschalk’s TrinitarianTrinitarian
The word trinitarian is used in several senses:*Ideas or things pertaining to the Holy Trinity.*A person or group adhering to the doctrine of Trinitarianism, which holds God to subsist in the form of the Holy Trinity....
formulation of trina deitas against Hincmar of Rheims’ proposed summa deitas.
Additionally, Ratramnus wrote an odd Letter on the Dog-headed Creatures, dissenting from the commonly-held belief that the mythical cynocephali were animals. Instead, he argued, those creatures who have reasoning faculties must surely be related to human beings, not animals.
Ratramnus wrote another treatise, The Birth of Christ, possibly as a response to Paschasius’ De Partu Virginis. In this work, Ratramnus defended the idea that Christ’s birth from the Virgin Mary occurred in the natural human way, so as to not detract from Christ’s real human nature.
Ratramnus wrote two treatises on the soul, upholding traditional Augustinian psychology. The first, On the Soul, was written against someone named Macarius Scotus, and the second, The Book on the Soul, addressed to bishop Odo of Beauvais, challenged an idea raised by an anonymous monk of Fly Abbey – that all human beings participate in a universal soul. In The Book on the Soul, Ratramnus argued that a soul cannot be universal, only individual.
On a whole, Ratramnus’ works have been described by medieval scholar Giulio D'Onofrio as marked by a careful methodological clarity and consistency possibly modeled on Boethius’ Answer to Eutyches.
Later Reception
At some point, Ratramnus’ Eucharistic work De corpora et sanguine Domini came to be identified as the work of John Scotus Eriugena. In the 11th century, Berengar of ToursBerengar of Tours
Berengar of Tours was a French 11th century Christian theologian and Archdeacon of Angers, a scholar whose leadership of the cathedral school at Chartres set an example of intellectual inquiry through the revived tools of dialectic that was soon followed at cathedral schools of Laon and Paris, ...
seized upon “Scotus’” book as a source for his view of the Eucharist in his debate with Lanfranc of Bec, and was summarily condemned by the local Council of Vercelli
Vercelli
Vercelli is a city and comune of about 47,000 inhabitants in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around the year 600 BC.The city is situated on the river Sesia in the plain of the river...
in 1050. Around 1100, further confusion arose when Ratramnus’ name was mistakenly copied in some works as Bertramus, a mistake which endured even into the 19th century.
In the 16th century, Ratramnus’ work once more became the center of controversy. After De corpora et sanguine Domini was printed in 1531
Editio princeps
In classical scholarship, editio princeps is a term of art. It means, roughly, the first printed edition of a work that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand....
, Protestant reformers seized upon the book as a counterpoint to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation
Transubstantiation
In Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation means the change, in the Eucharist, of the substance of wheat bread and grape wine into the substance of the Body and Blood, respectively, of Jesus, while all that is accessible to the senses remains as before.The Eastern Orthodox...
. It was especially influential in England, where Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from...
claimed to have been finally convinced against transubstantion by Ratramnus. Willemein Otten writes:
- "Protestants came to emphasize the figurative interpretation of the eucharist in Ratramnus, which put him in line with their largely commemorative reading of this sacrament, while the Catholics were at pains to show that Ratramnus was nevertheless a faithful son of the church, that is: their Roman Catholic church."