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 PASCHASinS

518

PASSAGLIA

skill, to write a bioprajihy of St. Scvoriims from the ac- counts of the siiint which he (Hujjippius) had put to- gether in crude and inartistic form. Pivschasius, how- ever, replied that the acts and miracles of the saint could not be described better than had been done by Euftippius. The feast of Paschasius is celebrated on 31 May.

MioNE. P. L.. LXII, 9-40. 1167-70; LXXVII, 397-98; Enoei^ BBECHT, Studien Qber die Schriflen dfs Bischofs von Reii Faustus (VioDDa, I8S9), 28-46: Corpus scriptorum ecdesiasticorum latino- rum. XXI (Vienna. 1891); Paschnsii rpislola ad Eugippium, ibid., IX (ISSB). u, 68-70; Berqmann. Der handschrifllich bezeugle Nacltlass des Fatulwi von Reji (Leipzig, 1898), 35-55; Acta SS., May, VII, 438-40; Daniell in Dia. Christ. Biog.. a. v.

Klemens Lofplbr.

Paschasius Radbertus, Saint, theologian, b. at Soissons, TStiid. in the Monastery of Corbie, c. 860 (the date 805 is improbable). As a child he was exposed, but was taken in and brought up by Bencflictine Nuns at Soissons. He entered the Benedictine Order at Cor- bie under Abbot Adalard, and was for many years in- structor of the young monks. In 822 he accompanied Abbot Adalard into Saxony for the purpose of found- ing the monastery of New Corvey (Westphalia). He saw four abbots, namely Adalard, Wala, Heddo, and Isaac pass to their reward and on the death of Abbot Isaac, Paschasius was made Abbot of Corbie, though only a deacon; through humiUty he refused to allow himself to be ordained priest. On the occasion of a disagreement he resigned his office after about seven years and was thus enabled to devote himself to study and hterature.

He wrote a learned commentarj' on the Gospel of St. Matthew, "Commcntarii in Matt, libri XII"; an ex- position of the 44th Psalm, "Expos, in Ps. 44 hbri III" and a similar work on Lamentations, "Expos, in Lament, hbri V"; and a life of Abbot Adalard (cf. Holland., 2 Jan.). His biography of the Abbot Wala is a work of greater usefulness as an historical source (cf. Rodenburg, "Die Vita Wala; als historische Quelle", Marburg, 1877). Herevisedthe "PassioRu- fini et Valerii". His earliest work in dogmatic theol- ogj- was a treatise, " De fide, spe et caritate" (first pub- hshed in Pez, "Thesaur. Anecdot.", I, 2, Augsburg, 1721); he next wrote two books "De Partu Virginis, in which he defended the perpetual virginity of Mary, the Mother of God.

The most important of his works is: "De corpore et sanguine Domini", in Martene, "Vet. scriptor. et monum. amplis.sima Collectio", t. IX, written in 831 for his pupil Placidus Varinus, Abbot of New Corvey, and for the monks of that monastery, revised by the author and sent in 844 to Emperor Charles the Bald. The emperor commissioned the Benedictine Ratramnus of Corbie to refute certain questionable as- sertions of Pa-schasius, and when Rabanus Maurus joined in the discussion (cf. Ep. iii ad Egilem, P. L., CXII, 1.51.'i) there occurrred the first controversy on the Eucharist, which continued up to the tenth century and even later, for both the followers of Berengarius of Tours in the eleventh century and the Calvinists in the sixteenth century vigorously assailed the work, because they thought that they had found the real source of iloctrinal innovations, especially in regard to the Catholic dogma of Transubstantiation. His pri- mary object herein was to give in accordance with the doctrine of the Fathers of the Church (e. g. Ambrose, Augustine, and Chrj-.sostom), the clearest and most comprehensible explanation of the Real Presence. In carrj'ing out his plan he made the mistake of emphasiz- ing the identity of the Eucharistic Body of Christ with His natural (historical) Body in such exaggerated terms that the difference between the two modes of existence wa.s not sufficiently brought out.

In opposition to his a,ssertion that the Eucharistic Body of Christ is "non alia plane caro, quam qu;e nata est de Maria et passa in cruce et resurrexit de sepul- chre" (loc. cit.), Ratramnus thought it necessary to

insist that the Body of Christ in the Sacred Host — notwithstanding its essential identity with the histori- cal Body — is present by a spiritual iikkIc of existence and consequently as an "invisible substance", and hence that our eyes cannot immediately perceive the Body of Christ in the form of bread. It is difficult to admit that Paschasius really believed what is here inferred: his narration, however, of certain Eucharistic miracles may have given some foundation for the suspicion that he inclined towards a grossly carnal, Capharnaite-like apprehension of the nature of the Eucharist. His opponents also reproached him with having, in direct contradiction to his fundamental viewpoint, simultaneously introduced the notions of a.figura and of a Veritas, thus jjlacing side by side with- out any reconciliation the symbolic and the realistic conceptions of the Eucharist. The accusation seems altogether unwarranted; for hy figure he understood merely that which appears outwardly to the senses, and by Veritas, that which Faith teaches us. At bottom his doctrine was as orthodox as that of his opponents. He defended himself with some skill against the attacks of his critics, especially in his "Epistola ad Frudegardum". But a more thorough vindication of St. Paschasius was made by Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II (d. 1003), who, in a work bearing the same title "De corpore et sanguine Domini", contended that the doctrine of St. Pascha- sius was correct in every particular. The scientific advantage which accrued to theology from this first controversy on the Eucharist is by no means unim- portant. For, through the accurate distinction made between the Eucharistic Body of Christ and its exte- rior sensible appearances, the way was cleared for a deeper understanding of the Eucharistic species or accidents in distinction from, and in opposition to, the invisible Body of Christ hidden under them. Hence also the difficult notion of Transubstantiation gained much in clearness, distinctness, and precision.

St. Paschasius was first buried in the Church of St. John at Corbie. When numerous miracles took place at his grave under Abbot Fulco, his remains were solemnly removed by order of the pope, 12 July, 1073, anti interred in the Church of St. Peter, Corbie. His feast is on 26 April.

The collected Opera Pa.^chasii were first published by SlE- MOND (Paris. 1018) ; tbe.-^e were republished with numerous addi- tions in P.L.. CXX. Hi.f letters are in Pertz, Moji. Ger. Hist.: Epist.. VI. 132 sq.; his poems in Pertz. Poet, lal.. Ill, 38 sqq., 746 sq.; Das Epitaphium Arsenii (pseudonym for Wala), ed. DuMMLER in Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie (1900); Vita Paschasii is given in Mabillon, Acta SS. O.S.B., IV (Lucca, 1735), 2, 122 sq.; and in Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., XV, 452 sq.; Hausherr, Der hi. Paschasius Radbertus (Mainz, 1862); Sardemann, Der theol. Lehrgehalt der Schriften des Paschasius (^Ia^burg, 1877); Ernst, Die Lehre des Paschasius Radbertus von der Eucharistie mit besonderer Riicksicht der Stellung des Rabanus Maurus und des Ratramnus (Freiburg, 1896); Choisy, Paschase Radbert (Geneva, 1889) ; NiaLE, Ratramnus und die hi. Eucharis- tie, zugleich eine dogmatisch-kistorische Wurdigung des ersten Abendmahlsireites (Vienna, 1903); Schnitzer, Berengar von Tours (Stuttgart, 1892), 127 sq.; Bach. Dogmengeschichte des MittelaU ters, I (Vienna, 1873); Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichle der Literatur des Millelatlers, II (Leipzig. 1880), 230 sq.; GbTz, Die heulige Abendmahlsfrage in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung (2nd ed., Leipzig. 1908).

J. POHLB.

Passaglia, Carlo, b. at Liioca, 9 May, 1812; d. at Turin, 12March, 1887. HeenteredtheSociety of Jesus in 1827 : when scarcely thirty years old, he was teaching at the Sapienza, and was prefect of studies at the Ger- man College. In 1845 he took the solemn vows and became professor of dogmatic theology at the Grego- rian University. In 1850 he took a leading part in preparing the definition of the dogma of the Immacu- late Conception, on which he wrote three large vol- umes. He showed in his works a rare knowledge of the theological literature of all times. His historico- linguistic method met with criticism. It was said that "he substituted grammar for dogma". His chief works are: an edition of the "Enchiridion" of St.