Prudentius of Troyes
Encyclopedia
Prudentius is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
; died at Troyes
Troyes
Troyes is a commune and the capital of the Aube department in north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about southeast of Paris. Many half-timbered houses survive in the old town...
, 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...
, on 6 April 861) was bishop of Troyes, and a celebrated opponent of Hincmar of Reims in the controversy on 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...
.
Life
Aragon was since 415 West-Gothic and in 812 became Frankish. Prudentius left Spain in his youth, probably on account of take-over by the Saracens, and came to the Frankish EmpireFrankish Empire
Francia or Frankia, later also called the Frankish Empire , Frankish Kingdom , Frankish Realm or occasionally Frankland, was the territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks from the 3rd to the 10th century...
and was educated at the Palatine School, where he became Bishop of Troyes shortly before 847. As bishop he changed his native name of Galindo to Prudentius.
At Troyes his feast is celebrated on 6 April as that of a saint, though the Bollandists do not recognize his cult. His works, with the exception of his poems, are printed in Patrologia Latina
Patrologia Latina
The Patrologia Latina is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1844 and 1855, with indices published between 1862 and 1865....
, CXV, 971-1458. His poems in Mon. Germ. Poetæ Lat., II, 679 sq.
Theological views
In the controversy on predestination between Gottschalk of Orbais, Archbishop Hincmar of Reims, and Bishop Pardulus of LaonPardulus of Laon
Pardulus of Laon was bishop of Laon, France, from 847 to 857. He is known for his participation in theological controversy. A letter of his to Hincmar of Reims is known....
, he opposed Hincmar in an epistle addressed to him. In this epistle, which was written about 849, he defends against Hincmar a double predestination, viz, one for reward, the other for punishment, not, however, for sin. He further upholds that Christ died only for those who are actually saved.
The same opinion he defends in his De prædestinatione contra Johannem Scotum, which he wrote in 851 at the instance of Archbishop Wenilo of Sens who had sent him nineteen articles of Eriugena
Eriugena
Eriugena is an adjective meaning Irish . It was typically used in the early Middle ages as a surname when it was common to distinguish people by labeling them according to where they were born or lived. It has been notably applied to the following philosophers;* Augustine Eriugena* Johannes Scotus...
's work on predestination for refutation. Still it appears that at the synod of Quierzy, he subscribed to four articles of Hincmar which admit only one predestination, perhaps out of reverence for the archbishop, or out of fear of 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...
.
In his Epistola tractoria ad Wenilonem, written about 856, he again upholds his former opinion and makes his approval of the ordination of the new bishop Æneas of Paris depend on the latter's subscription to four articles favouring a double predestination. Of great historical value is his continuation of the Annales Bertiniani
Annales Bertiniani
Annales Bertiniani, or The Annals of St. Bertin, are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the monastery of St. Bertin, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus continuing the Royal Frankish Annals , from which, however, it has circulated...
from 835-61, in which he presents a reliable history of that period of the Western Frankish Empire.
He is also the author of Vita Sanctæ Mauræ Virginis and some poems.