Denis Pétau also known as Dionysius Petavius, was a French

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...

 Jesuit theologian.

Life

Pétau was born at Orléans

Orléans

-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...

 where he had his initial education; he then attended the University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

, where he successfully defended his theses for the degree of Master of Arts

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

, not in Latin, but in Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

. After this he followed the theological lectures at the Sorbonne

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

, and, on the advice of Nicolas Ysambert

Nicolas Ysambert

Nicolas Ysambert was a French theologian.-Life:Born at Orléans, Ysambert studied theology at the Sorbonne and was made a fellow of the college in 1598...

, successfully applied for the chair of philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at Bourges

Bourges

Bourges is a city in central France on the Yèvre river. It is the capital of the department of Cher and also was the capital of the former province of Berry.-History:...

. At Paris he formed a friendship with Isaac Casaubon

Isaac Casaubon

Isaac Casaubon was a classical scholar and philologist, first in France and then later in England, regarded by many of his time as the most learned in Europe.-Early life:...

, then librarian at the royal library, where he spent all his spare time studying the ancient Greek manuscripts. At Orléans he was ordained deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

 and presented with a canon

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

ry. In 1603 he was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Bourges

University of Bourges

The University of Bourges was a university located in Bourges, France. It was founded by Louis XI in 1463 and deleted during french Revolution.-Notable alumni:* Patrick Adamson * John Calvin * Hugues Doneau...

, but resigned his place two years later, in order to enter the Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

.

After spending two years at Bourges he returned to Paris, and began a correspondence with Fronton du Duc

Fronton du Duc

-Life:Fronton du Duc was born b. at Bordeaux in France. At first he taught in various colleges of the Society of Jesus, and wrote for the dramatic representations encouraged by the Jesuits the "Histoire tragique de la pucelle de Domrémy, autrement D'Orléans" . It was acted at Pont-à-Mousson before...

, the editor of John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and his ascetic...

. In 1605 he became a Jesuit, taught rhetoric at Reims

Reims

Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....

 (1609), La Flèche

La Flèche

La Flèche is a municipality located in the French department of Sarthe and the region of Pays de la Loire in the Loire Valley. This is the sub-prefecture of the South-Sarthe, the chief district and the chief city of a canton. This is the second most populous city of the department. The city is part...

 (1613), and at the Collège de Clermont (1618). During this last period he began a correspondence with the Bishop of Orléans, Gabriel de Laubépine (Albaspinaeus), on the first year of the primitive Church. Beginning in 1622, he taught positive theology for twenty-two years, and during this time he left France on only two occasions: first in 1629, to teach ecclesiastical history at Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 at the invitation of Philip IV

Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...

; second in 1639 to become a cardinal

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

 at Rome where Pope Urban VIII

Pope Urban VIII

Pope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...

 wanted him. At sixty years of age he stopped teaching, but retained his office of librarian, in which he had succeeded Fronton du Duc (1623), and devoted the rest of his life to his great work, the Dogmata theologica. He died in Paris.

Work

He was one of the most brilliant scholars in a learned age. Carrying on and improving the chronological labours of Joseph Justus Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger was a French religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and Ancient Egyptian history.-Early life:He was born at Agen, the tenth child and third son of Italian...

, he published in 1627 an Opus de doctrina temporum, which has been often reprinted. An abridgment of this work, Rationarium temporum, was translated into French and English, and has been brought down to the year 1849.

The complete list of his works fills twenty-five columns in Sommervogel: he treats of chronology

Chronology

Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, such as the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is part of periodization...

, history, philosophy, polemics, patristics

Patristics

Patristics or Patrology is the study of Early Christian writers, known as the Church Fathers. The names derive from the Latin pater . The period is generally considered to run from the end of New Testament times or end of the Apostolic Age Patristics or Patrology is the study of Early Christian...

, and the history of dogma

Dogma

Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...

. His first edition of the works of Synesius

Synesius

Synesius , a Greek bishop of Ptolemais in the Libyan Pentapolis after 410, was born of wealthy parents, who claimed descent from Spartan kings, at Balagrae near Cyrene between 370 and 375.-Life:...

 appeared in 1612, undertaken ten years earlier at the advice of Casaubon (Synesii episcopi Cyrenensis opera, new ed., 1633); in 1613 and 1614 the discourses of Themistius

Themistius

Themistius , named , was a statesman, rhetorician, and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian, and Theodosius I; and he enjoyed the favour of all those emperors, notwithstanding their many differences, and the fact that he himself was not a...

 and Julian (new ed., 1630); in 1616 the Breviarium historicum Nicephori; then, after some poetical and oratorical works, an edition of Epiphanius

Epiphanius of Salamis

Epiphanius of Salamis was bishop of Salamis at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy...

 in two volumes (1622; new ed., 1632), which had been undertaken at the advice of Jacques Gretser, S.J., and was originally intended only as a revised translation of Janus Cornarius

Janus Cornarius

Janus Cornarius was a Saxon humanist and friend of Erasmus. A gifted philologist, Cornarius specialized in editing and translating Greek and Latin medical writers with "prodigious industry," taking a particular interest in botanical pharmacology and the effects of environment on illness and the body...

. In 1622 and 1623 appeared the Mastigophores, three pamphlets, and the notes dealing with Saumaise's Tertullian

Tertullian

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...

, a bitter polemical work.

Among his previous writings, Pétau had inserted some masterly dissertations on chronology; in 1627 he brought out his De doctrina temporum, and later the Tabulae chronologicae (1628, 1629, 1633, 1657). It surpassed Scaliger's De Emendatione temporum (Paris, 1583), and prepared the ground for the works of the Benedictines. A summary of it appeared in 1633 (1635, 1641, etc.) under the title of Rationarium temporum, of which numerous reprints and translations into French, English, and Italian have been made.

About the same time he wrote poetical works in Greek and in Latin and dissertations (often of a polemical nature) against Grotius, Saumaise, Arnauld, and others. His paraphrase of the Psalms

Psalms

The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...

in Greek verse was dedicated in 1637 to Pope Urban VIII. Finally there appeared in 1643 the first three volumes of the Dogmata theologica (dated 1644); the fourth and fifth volumes were published in 1650; the work was incomplete at Pétau's death, and despite several attempts was never continued. Numerous editions of the "Dogmata theologica" have been published, including that by the Calvinist Jean Le Clerc

Jean Leclerc (theologian)

Jean Le Clerc, also Johannes Clericus was a Swiss theologian and biblical scholar. He was famous for promoting exegesis, or critical interpretation of the Bible, and was a radical of his age...

, published in Antwerp in 1700; the last edition was brought out in eight volumes by J. B. Fournials (Paris, 1866-8). In 1757 F. A. Zaccaria, S.J., republished the work in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 with notes and dissertations; in 1857 Passaglia and Schrader undertook a similar work, but they produced only the first volume. His letters, Epistolarum libri tres, were published after his death; though far from being complete, they give an idea of his close acquaintance with the most famous men in Europe of his time; they also furnish valuable information on the composition of his works and his method.

Works

Petau's claim to fame chiefly rests on his vast, but unfinished, De theologicis dogmatibus, the first systematic attempt ever made to treat the development of Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 doctrine from the historical point of view.

The reputation Pétau enjoyed during his lifetime was especially due to his work on chronology; numerous eulogies were pronounced on him by his contemporaries, including Pierre Daniel Huet

Pierre Daniel Huet

Pierre Daniel Huet was a French churchman and scholar, editor of the Delphin Classics, founder of the Academie du Physique in Caen and Bishop of Soissons from 1685 to 1689 and afterwards of Avranches.-Life:...

, Henri Valois

Henri Valois

Henri Valois or in classical circles, Henricus Valesius, was a philologist and a student of classical and ecclesiastical historians...

, Hugh Grotius, Isaac Voss, F. Clericus, and Henry Noris

Henry Noris

Henry Noris was an Italian church historian, theologian and Cardinal, of English ancestry....

. His chronological work has long since been surpassed, and a list of errors — inevitable at the period — could be drawn up even in the case of this man who boasted that he counted no less than eight thousand mistakes in the Annals of Baronius. But the great glory, which in the eyes of posterity surrounds the name of Pétau, is due to his patristic works and his importance in the history of dogma. With good reason he may be styled the "Father of the History of Dogma". The success of his work in this sphere was slow to make itself felt — it brought upon the author accusations even from within his order — but it was highly esteemed by his pupils and far-seeing friends (e.g., Valois and Huet).

He had at hand only very imperfect editions of the Fathers of the Church, all inferior to the later work of the Benedictines. Many of the known texts of their works only existed in translations, or in late and poorly studied manuscripts, and his predecessors in this line were few and practically everything had to be created. What he wanted had already been outlined by Melchior Cano

Melchior Cano

Melchior Cano was a Spanish Scholastic theologian.-Clerical life:He was born in Tarancón, New Castile, and joined the Dominican Order in Salamanca, where by 1546 he had succeeded Francisco de Vitoria to the theological chair in the university. A man of deep learning and originality, proud and a...

, O.P., in his work De locis theologicis. Here we pass from theory to practice and we find a master at once.

The originality of Pétau's work has been questioned; it may have been inspired, it is said, by a similar treatise of Oregius (Agostino Oreggi, Cardinal, d. 1635), as Zöckler maintains, or by the Confessio catholica

Confessio Catholica

Confessio catholica is one of the main works of German Orthodox Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard . It seeks to prove the evangelical and catholic character of the doctrine of the Augsburg Confession from the writings of approved Roman Catholic authors.Confessio catholica, in qua doctrina...

of John Gerhard (d. 1627), as conjectured by Eckstein. But the Confessio catholica has a quite different aim, as is stated on the very first page; whole treatises, as for instance that on Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

, have but scanty quotations from three or four Fathers, and present nothing similar to the long historical developments of the sixteen books De Incarnatione Verbi of Pétau.

The relationship with Oregius, which rests solely on a conversation of a religious of the Minims

Minim (religious order)

The Minims are members of a Roman Catholic religious order of friars founded by Saint Francis of Paola in fifteenth-century Italy...

 of Dijon

Dijon

Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....

 related in the Voyage littéraire de deux bénédictins (Paris, 1717, p. 147), was examined in detail by François Oudin, S.J. in the Mémoires de Trévoux (July, 1718, pp. 109–33).

The state of religious strife during the days succeeding the Council of Trent

Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...

 drew all minds towards the primitive ages of the Church concerning which certain ancient documents were being discovered, while the excessive subtlety of many Scholastics

Scholasticism

Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...

 of the decadence instigated a return towards positive sources. Pétau was no doubt inspired by the same ideas, but the execution of the work is completely his own.

His aim and purpose are set forth by his dedicatory letter to the General of the Jesuits (Epist., III, liv), and in several parts of his Prolegomena. His method reveals all the resources which the sciences of history and philosophy have furnished to the theologians. He declares his opinion with full liberty for example, concerning the opinion of Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

 on the problem of 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...

, or the ideas on the Trinity

Trinity

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...

 of the ante-Nicene writers.

The work furnished a copious supply of documents; for theologians it has been a store of patristic arguments. Pétau, like Cano

Melchior Cano

Melchior Cano was a Spanish Scholastic theologian.-Clerical life:He was born in Tarancón, New Castile, and joined the Dominican Order in Salamanca, where by 1546 he had succeeded Francisco de Vitoria to the theological chair in the university. A man of deep learning and originality, proud and a...

, took the greatest pains with his literary style. He exaggerates the faults of Scholasticism; but on the other hand he defends it against the accusations of Erasmus. We still find the controversialist in the author of the Dogmata; after giving the history of each dogma, he adds the refutation of new errors.

In his polemical writings his style was bitter; here and there he is more gentle, as when engaged in discussions with Grotius, who was drawing near the Catholic faith. The memory of Pétau was celebrated the day after his death by Henri Valois, one of his best pupils, and by Leo Allatius

Leo Allatius

Leo Allatius was a Greek scholar, theologian and keeper of the Vatican library....

in a Greek poem composed at the request of Pope Urban VIII.