Christ are presented in them, not to the bodily senses, but to the faithful soul. And this must be in a figurative way; for otherwise there would be nothing for faith, "the evidence of things not seen," to work on; the sacrament would not be a mystery, since in order to a mystery there must be something beyond what is seen. The change is not material, but spiritual; the elements, while in one respect they continue bread and wine, are in another respect, by spirit and potency, the body and blood of Christ, even as the element of water is endued with a spiritual power in order to the sacrament of baptism." That which is visible and corruptible in them feeds the body; that which is matter of belief is itself immortal, sanctifies the soul, and feeds it unto everlasting life. The body of Christ must be incorruptible; therefore that which is corruptible in the sacrament is but the figure of the reality. Ratramn clears the interpretation of the passages which had been quoted from St. Ambrose in favour of the opposite view. He cites St. Augustine and St. Isidore of Seville as agreeing in his own doctrine;" and argues from the Liturgy, that the Saviour's presence must be spiritual and figurative, since the sacrament is there spoken of as a pledge, an image, and a likeness.

John Scotus, who will be more particularly mentioned hereafter, is said to have also written on the question, at the desire of Charles the Bald; but if so, his book is lost. His other works contain

a Cc. 33-6, 41-5, 77-8, 93-6. b Cc. 84-6. Ratramn's book was first published in 1532, and in that and other editions he is called Bertram. Some Romanists declared it to be a forgery of the Reformers, and it was classed by the Council of Trent among forbidden books. An attempt was afterwards made by some divines of Louvain and Douay to show that it was tolerable; but the use made of it by the reformed stood in the way of this opinion. It is excluded from the Lyons Bibliotheca (t. xv.), where other works of Ratramn are given, under the pretext that it had been corrupted by heretics. Mabillon (VI. 1. seqq.), Boileau (Patrol. cxxi.), the authors of the 'Hist. Litté raire' (iv. 260; v. 397), and others, have, however, attempted to show that the treatise is identical in doctrine with that of Paschasius-an opinion which the Abbé Rohrbacher maintains with his usual amount of modesty and good

sense (xii. 85-7). See Mosheim, ii. 233; Schröckh, xxiii. 479. Amid these conflicting views, the English church may fairly claim Ratramn as an ally, since Bishop Ridley was converted by this book from a belief in transubstantiation, and it served as a model for the doctrine of our Reformation. Ridley, ed. Park. Soc. 159.

It appears that the early quotations which profess to be from Scotus on the Eucharist are really from Ratramn's book, and that medieval writers who speak of a book by the one do not name the other; and to this Gieseler would trace the notion of Scotus having written on the subject (II. i. 123-4). But, as Neander observes (vi. 217-8), the confusion between the books is hardly enough to warrant us in supposing that Scotus did not write at all. De Marca (ap. D'Acher. Spicil. iii. 852) had supposed Ratramn's book to be really the work of Scotus, but was confuted by Mabillon, VI. xliv.-vii. See Dupin, vii. 67-8; Bähr, 474. Gieseler's opinion has been supported by Laufs; against it see Gfrörer, Kirchengesch. iii. 921-2.

grounds for thinking that he regarded the Eucharist as a merely commemorative rite, and that on this, as on other points, he was regarded as heterodox. While the most learned divines of the age in general opposed Paschasius, his doctrine appears to have been supported by the important authority of Hincmar, although it is doubtful whether the archbishop really meant to assert it in its full extent, or is to be understood as speaking rhetorically; and Haymo, bishop of Halberstadt, a commentator of great reputation, lays it down as strongly as the abbot of Corbie himself. The controversy lasted for some time; but the doctrine of Paschasius, which was recommended by its appearance of piety, and by its agreement with the prevailing love of the miraculous, gained the ascendancy within the following century. g

II. Throughout the west St. Augustine was revered as the greatest of all the ancient fathers, and the chief teacher of orthodoxy; yet his system was not in general thoroughly held. The councils which had been assembled on account of the Pelagian doctrines had occupied themselves with the subject of Grace, and had not given any judgment as to Predestination; and the followers of Augustine had endeavoured to mitigate the asperities of his tenets on this question. The prevailing doctrine was of a milder tone; in many cases it was not far from Semipelagianism, and

Dr. Floss thinks that Scotus did not write a special treatise on the Eucharist, but that his opinions on that subject were contained in his commentary on St. John (Patrol. cxxii. Præf. xxi.). Dr. Christlieb supposes that Scotus may have been asked by Charles the Bald to give an opinion on the question; that he wrote a short letter on it, in opposition to the views of Paschasius, and that hence Ratramn's book, which at first appeared anonymously, may have been ascribed to Scotus. Leben und Lehre des Joh. Scotus Erigena (Gotha, 1860), pp. 70, 78-9.

Mabill. vi. Præf. Ixiv.; Schröckh, xxiv. 482; Neand. vi. 217-8. Hincmar says of Prudentius and Scotus that, among other errors, they held "quod sacramenta altaris non verum corpus et verus sanguis sint Domini, sed tantum memoria veri corporis et sanguinis ejus' (De Prædest. 31, t. i. p. 232). A little additional light has been thrown on John's eucharistic doctrine by an imperfect commentary on St. John, which was first published by M. Ravaisson in 1849, and appears to be truly ascribed to him. From this, as from some pas

sages in his work 'De Divisione Naturæ,' it would seem that his view of the sacrament was connected with a belief that the Saviour's body was changed after the resurrection into a "reasonable soul" which is everywhere present (In Evang. Joh. Fragm. i., Patrol. cxxii. 312; De Div. Nat. v. 20, ib. 894; 38, ib. 992; Floss, Præf. ix.). "Spiritualiter eum immolamus, et intellectualiter, mente non dente, comedimus" (col. 311 b). The commentary unfortunately breaks off before entering on the critical part of chapter vi., perhaps, as Dr. Floss supposes (p. x.), because the transcriber was unwilling to reproduce the suspected doctrines of Scotus on the Eucharist. In his Expositions on Dionysius the Areopagite' (ib. 140), Scotus, although decidedly against Paschasius, speaks also against those who hold "visibilem eucharistiam nil aliud significare præter se ipsam." See Floss, note ib., 141.

Hincm. ii. 99-100.

even where it could not be so described, it fell so far short of the rigid Augustinianism that a theologian who strictly adhered to this might have fairly charged his brethren with unfaithfulness to the teaching of the great African doctor.i

k

Gottschalk, the son of a Saxon count, was in boyhood placed by his father in the monastery of Fulda. On attaining to man's estate, however, he felt a strong distaste for the life of a monk, and in 829 he applied for a release from his vows to a synod held at Mentz under Archbishop Otgar. His petition was granted, on the ground that he had been devoted to the monastic profession before he could exercise any will of his own. But the abbot of Fulda, Raban Maur, the pupil of Alcuin, and himself the greatest teacher of his time," appealed to Louis the Pious, arguing that persons offered by their parents, although without their own choice, were bound by the monastic obligations; and the emperor overruled the synod's decision."

Although compelled to remain a monk, Gottschalk was allowed to remove from Fulda, where his relation to Raban would have been inconvenient, to Orbais, in the diocese of Soissons. Here he gave himself up to the study of Augustine and his followers; he embraced their peculiarities with enthusiasm, and such was his especial love for the works of Fulgentius that his friends usually called him by the name of that writer. It is a characteristic circumstance that one of the most eminent among these friends, Servatus Lupus, abbot of Ferrières, in a letter of this period, charges him with an immoderate fondness for speculation, and

Schröckh, xxiv. 119-121; Neand. vi. 178; Giesel. II. i. 128.

k Schalk, in old German, signified a servant, although its meaning has undergone the same change as that of our own word knave. Gottschalk, therefore, = servant of God. The Epistle to Titus begins in the Gothic version " Paulus, skalks Guths." Patrol. xviii. 857.

Neand. vi. 156. He was, perhaps, born in 786, and he died in 856 (Kunstmann, Hrabanus Magnentius Maurus,' 14, 159, Mainz, 1844). The name of Maurus was given to him by Alcuin in remembrance of St. Maur, the disciple of St. Benedict. Ib. 37; Mabill. vi. 20.

Schröckh, xxiv. 5-6; Kunstmann, 70. Raban's tract De Oblatione Puerorum, contra eos qui repugnant institutis B. Patris Benedicti' (Patrol. cvii.), really belongs to this time, although Migne has erroneously dated it in 819. (Hefele, iv. 125.) Gottschalk's claim might seem to have been countenanced

by the Council of Mentz, in 813 (c. 23), which is against compelling persons to be monks or clergy; but Mabillon argues (VI. evi.) that it did not intend to forbid the oblation of boys. The capitulary for monks enacted at Aix-laChapelle in 817 (see p. 253) orders that boys offered by their parents shall confirm the obligation "tempore intelligibili" (c. 36); but it is not said that they may decline the monastic life. The rule of Cluny afterwards ordered that the benediction of boys should not take place under the age of fifteen; and in this, other orders, popes, and at length the Council of Trent, agreed. Mabill. VI., cvi.-cvii. See Petr. Venerab. Statuta, c. 36 (Patrol. clxxxix.); Hugonis Statuta, c. 6 (ib. ccix.), where the age is twenty; Ducange, s. v. Oblati; Mabill. Analecta, 157, seqq.; Nat. Alex. xiii. 374.

He is so styled by Walafrid Strabo, in a poem (Patrol. cxiv. 1115).

exhorts him to turn from it to matters of a more practical kind. Hincmar, on the report of the abbot of Orbais, describes him while there as restless, changeable, bent on perversities, addicted to argument, and apt to misrepresent what was said by others in conversation with him; as scorning to be a disciple of the truth, and preferring to be a master of error; as eager to gain an influence, by correspondence and otherwise, over persons who were inclined to novelty and desired notoriety at any price. With a view, no doubt, to qualify himself for preaching his doctrines, Gottschalk procured ordination as a priest from a chorepiscopus of Rheims, during the vacancy of that see after the deposition of Ebbo. This act appears to have been a token of disaffection to the episcopal body, with which the chorepiscopi were then on very unfriendly terms; it was censured as irregular, inasmuch as Gottschalk belonged to the diocese of Soissons, and as the chorepiscopus had no authority from any superior to confer the priestly ordination at all."

The doctrine on which Gottschalk especially took his stand was that of Predestination. The usual language in the church had been, that the righteous are predestinate, and that the wicked are foreknown, while the rigid Augustinianism spoke of the wicked as reprobate; but Gottschalk applied the term predestinate to both classes." There is, he said, a twofold predestination—a term for which he cited the authority of Isidore of Seville. In both cases predestination is to good; but good is twofold, including not only the benefits of grace but the judgments of justice. As life is predestined to the good, and they to it, so evil is predestined to the wicked, and they to it. His opponents usually charged him with maintaining that the wicked were irresistibly and irrevocably doomed to sin, as well as to its consequences. But it would seem, even by Hincmar's own avowal," that Gottschalk did not admit this representation of his opinions; he maintained only that, as the perseverance in evil of the devil, his angels, and wicked men was foreknown, they were predestinated to righteous punishment. He

P Serv. Lup. Ep. xxx. (Patrol. cxix.). a Hincm. De Prædest. c. 2 (Opera, i. 20); Ep. ad Nicol. Pap. t. ii. 262; ii. 264, 295.

See p. 195, and below, Ch. VIII. i. 2.
Hinem. i. 21; ii, 262.
Neand. vi. 180-2.

u Confessio prolixior, ap. Usser. 'Hist. Gotteschalci,' Dubl. 1631, pp. 215-7. On the controversy raised by Gottschalk, see also Petav. de Incarnat. 1. xiii. cc. 8, seqq.

a

Conf. brevior, ap. Usser. 212 (Isid.
Sentent. ii. 6, Patrol. lxxxiii.); Cf.
Hincm. de Præd. c. 9, p. 33.
y Conf. prolix. 214.

2 De Præd. c. 15, p. 63, where he treats Gottschalk's distinction as only nominal, "cum non nisi per peccatum perveniri valeat ad interitum." See Kunstm. 135.

Conf. brev. 211; Conf. prolix. 219, 222; Usser. 44; Giesel. II. i. 12).

denied that Christ died for any but the elect, and explained the texts which speak of God's willing all men to be saved as applicable to those only who actually are saved. And, unlike Augustine, he held that even the first human pair were subject to a predestination. The view which his adversaries took of his opinion may be in some degree excused by the violence with which he insisted on his difference from them, and by his zeal in condemning themcircumstances which could not but lead them to suppose the difference far greater than it appears to have really been.

Gottschalk was returning from a visit to Rome, in 847, when at the house of Eberhard, count of Friuli, a son-in-law of Louis the Pious, he met Notting, who had been lately nominated to the see of Verona. He propounded his doctrine of twofold predestination, at which Notting was greatly startled. The bishop soon after mentioned it to Raban Maur, whom he found at the court of Louis of Germany; and Raban, who had lately become archbishop of Mentz, wrote both to Notting and to Eberhard, in strong condemnation of Gottschalk's opinion, which he declared to be no doctrine of St. Augustine. Predestination, he said, could only be a preparation for grace; God foreknows evil, but does not predestinate to it; all who yield their corrupt will to the guidance of Divine grace may be saved. Count Eberhard, on receiving the archbishop's letter, dismissed his dangerous visitor, who then travelled slowly homeward through Southern Germany; and it would seem to have been on account of his proceedings in these already Christian lands that Hincmar speaks of him as having visited barbarous and pagan nations for the purpose of infecting them with his errors. In 848 Gottschalk appeared before a synod held by Raban at Mentz in the presence of King Louis. His attendance was probably voluntary, and, as if prepared for a disputation, he carried with him an answer to Raban's objections, in which he charged the archbishop with following the heresy of Gennadius and Cassian, and reasserted the doctrine of a double predestination. His opinions,

b Gottesch. ap. Hincm. de Prædest. cc. 25, 27, 29 (t. i. 147, 211, 226); Neand. vi. 181.

Eberhard was father of Berengar, who was crowned as empe.or in 916. Murat. Annali, V. i. 35.

Rab. Epp. 5, 6 (Patrol. cxii.); Kunstm. 120, seqq.

e Annal. Bertiu. A.D. 849; Kunstm. 127.

Schröckh, xxiv. 13-15; Gfrörer, i. 214-5. From the words in the Annales Bertiniani (A.D. 849) -" episcopali concilio detectus atque convictus"-Kunstmann (wrongly, as it appears to me) infers that he was dragged from a hiding place. [In. this I find myself agreeing with Hefele, iv. 131.]

Fragments of this are preserved in De Prædestinatione.' See Patrol.

Hinem. ii. 262; Remig. in Patrol. cxxi. 365. cxxi. 987.