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 PRUDENTIUS

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PRUDENTIUS

and December, 403. All other works antedate the journey to Rome.

Prudentius wrote to glorify God and atone for his sins. His works fall into three groups: lyrical, didactic, and polemical. The lyrics form two col- lections. In the " Cathemerinon " the hymns are for the sanctification of the hours of the day or certain important occasions, such as Christmas, the Epiphany, obsequies, etc. Some continue the liturgical tradi- tion of Saint Ambrose, and are written in the Ambro- sian iambic dimeter; others are an attempt to enlist the metres of Horace in the service of Christian lyrical poetry. Despite his negligence Prudentius displays more art. than Ambrose. Hymn xii, on the feast of the Epiphany, contains the two celebrated stanzas, "Saluete flores martyrum", characterized by pro- found feeling united to the purest art; hymn x on burial is likewise very remarkable. However, his style is generally diffuse, and the hymns admitted to the Roman Breviary had to be curtailed. The "Peristephanon" is dedicated to the glory of the martyrs: Emeterius and Chelidonius of Calahorra, LawTence the Deacon, Eulalia, the eighteen martyrs of Saragossa, Vincent, Fructuosus with Augurius and Eulogius, Quirinus of Siscia, the martyrs of Calahorra put to death on the site of the baptistery, Cassianus of the Forum Cornelium, Romanus, Hippolytus, Peter and Paul, Cyprian, and Agnes. Taken alto- gether, it is an endeavour to endow Christianity with a lyrical poetry independent of liturgical uses and traditions. Unfortunately, neither Prudentius's tal- ent nor current taste favoured such an enterprise. The narratives are spoiled with too much rhetoric. There are, however, beautiful passages, a kind of grave power, and some pretty details, as in the hymns on St. Eulalia (see v. 206-15) and St. Agnes. Certain others, such as that on St. Hippolytus, have an archaeological interest. The whole collection is curi- ous, but of unequal merit.

The two principal didactic poems are the "Apothe- osis", on the dogma of the Trinity, and the "Ha- martigenia", on the origin of sin. One is somewhat astonished to find Prudentius attacking ancient heresies, such as those of Sabellius and Marcian, and having nothing to say on Arianism. It is due to the fact that he closely follows and imitates TertuUian, whose rugged genius resembles his own. These poems are interesting examples of passionate, glowing ab- stractions, precise exposition being combined with poetic fantasy. Some brilliant scenes, like the sacrifice of Julian (Apoth., 460), merit quotation. The com- parison of souls led astray by sin with doves caught in snares (Ham., 779) has a charm that recalls the happy inspiration of "Saluete flores". Orthodoxy is his great preoccupation in these poems, and he in- vokes all kinds of punishments on heresy. Yet he is not always free from error, here or elsewhere. He be- lieves that only a small number of souls arc lost (Cath., vi, 95). It is an exaggeration of the meaning of his metaphors to assert that he makes the soul material. The "Psychomachia" is the model of a style destined to be lovingly cultivated in the Middle Ages, i. e., allegorical poetry, of which before Prudentius only the merest traces are found (in such authors as Apuleius, TertuUian, and Claudian). In Tcrtullian's "De Spectaculis", 29, we find its first conception; he per- sonifies the vices and the virtues and shows them contending for the soul. The army of vices is that of idolatry, the army of the virtues that of faith. The poem is, therefore, at once moral and apologetic. It would be difficult to imagine anything more unfor- tunate or insupportable. Incidents, action, and char- acters of the ^'Eneid are here travestied, and the de- plorable effect is licinlilcned by tl]<' borniwing of numerous hemistic-lis iIivcsUmI of (heir proper mean- ing. The "DiHochieon", forty-nine hexameter tetra- Sticbs commenting on various events of the Old and

New Testament, must be included among the didactic poems of Prudentius. Doubts have been raised re- garding the authenticity of these verses but with very little reason. Gennadius (De viris illustr., xiii) fur- thermore attributes to Prudentius, mistakenly per- haps, a "Hexaemeron" of which we know nothing.

His most personal work is the invective against Symmachus. It shows how the Christians reconciled their patriotism with their faith. Prudentius iden- tifies the Church with Rome and, in thus transforming it, preserves that ancient belief in the eternity of the city. He can be impartial towards the pagan and praise him for services rendered the State. He is proud of the senate, seeing its majority Christian. Christianity is come to crown the Roman institutions. Romans are superior to the barbarians, as man is superior to the animals. These two books against Symmachus undertake, therefore, to solve the prob- lem which presented itsell to the mind of the still hesitant pagan. A genius more powerful than pliant, Prudentius displays a more versatile and richer talent than that of his pagan eontemporarj', Claudian. The rhetoric he disparages, he himself misuses; he often exaggerates, but is never commonplace. The supe- rior of many pagan poets, among the Christian he is the greatest and the most truly poetic. His style is not bad considering the period in which he wrote, and, while there are occasional errors in his prosody due to the pronunciation then current, he shows himself a careful versifier and has the gift (then become rare) of varying his metres. An edition of Prudentius is to appear in the "Corpus" of Vienna, edited by J. Bergman. The best manuscript is at Paris, in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Latin department, 8084; on one of its margins is the half-effaced name of Vettius Agorius Basilius Mavortius (consul in 527), who made a recension of the works of Horace. This manuscript is free from the dogmatic corrections which are found in others.

Glover, Life and Letters in the Fourth Century (Cambridge, 1901), 249-77; Schanz, Gesch. der rom. Litteratur, IV, I, 211; PuECH, Prudence (Paris, ISSS) ; Lease, A Syntactic, Stylistic and Metrical Study of Prudentius (Baltimore, 1895) ; Robert, Notice sur te MS. de Prudence B. N. lat. 8084 in Mitanges Craux (Paris, 1S84), 406; Behgm.4n, De codicum prudentianorum generibus et virtute in Sitzungsberichte d, Wiener Akademie, CLVII, n. 5; Lock in Diet. Christ, Biog., s. v.

Paul Lejay.

Prudentius (Galindo), Bishop of Troyes, b. in Spain; d. at Troyes on 6 April, 861; celebrated op- ponent of Hincmar in the controversy on predes- tination. He left Spain in his youth, probably on account of the Saracen persecution, and came to the Prankish Empire where he changed his native name Galindo into Prudentius. He was educated at the Palatine school, and became Bishop of Troyes shortly before 847. In the controversy on predestination between Gottschalc of Orbais, Archbishop Hincmar of Reims, and Bishop Pardulus of Laon, 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 pra^destinatione contra Johan- nem Scotum", which he wrote in 851 at the instance of Archbishop Wenilo of Sens who had sent him nine- teen articles of Eriugena'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, perliaps out of rever- ence for the archbishop, or out of fear of King Charles the Bald. In his "Epistola tractoria ad Wenilonem", written about S.W, he again ujiholds his former opin- ion and iriakcs his ajiproval of the ordination of the new bisliop .Eneas of Paris dejiend on the lattcr's subscription to four articles favouring a double pre-