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Horizontal and Vertical Theologies: “Sacraments” in the Works of Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus of Corbie*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2010

Owen M. Phelan
Owen M. Phelan*
Affiliation:
Mount Saint Mary's Seminary and University
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Extract

In the middle decades of the ninth century, Charles the Bald, the West Frankish Carolingian ruler, received two treatises on the subject of the Eucharist. Paschasius Radbertus (ca. 790–ca. 865) and Ratramnus (d. after 868), both monks from the royal monastery at Corbie in Neustria, composed treatises entitled De corpore et sanguine domini.1 That these were the very first Latin Christian treatises devoted solely to the Eucharist and, further, that they came to different conclusions, has attracted well-earned scholarly scrutiny from almost immediately after their appearance. I would like to return to the question of the difference between their views. Specifically, I will show that the doctrinal differences between the two treatises have their roots in different approaches to, or—perhaps better—interests in, sacraments in general. The two authors do not take opposed positions on the topic of the sacraments, or even mutually contradicting positions on the Eucharist, rather they choose to emphasize different aspects of the sacrament, different guiding themes which suggest to each different lines of analysis. Paschasius sees sacraments primarily as instruments of unity, while Ratramnus views sacraments principally as salvific tools. This recognition yields two insights. It recalibrates analysis of the eucharistic tracts, foregrounding the contemporary concerns of the authors, while deliberately deemphasizing the subsequent theological controversies and scholarly debates into which the treatises were drawn. For both Paschasius and Ratramnus, distinctive approaches to sacraments color not only their analyses of the Eucharist, but also their approaches to larger political and social questions. This recognition also emphasizes the vibrance and creativity characteristic of the Carolingian theological milieu, too often dismissed as a supposedly derivative and unoriginal era in Christian theology. To these ends, the paper will proceed in four stages. First, I situate my question in the long historiography of the Corbie eucharistic treatises. Second, I briefly set the authors and their treatises in historical context. Third, I compare their ‘sacramental’ theologies of the Eucharist, underscoring both Paschasius's emphasis on its horizontal or communal significance and Ratramnus's stress on its vertical or salvific importance. Fourth, I trace how each author's particular sacramental interests remain consistent across their other projects with ramifications for their theological and social opinions.

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Harvard Theological Review , Volume 103 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 271 - 290
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Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2010

In the middle decades of the ninth century, Charles the Bald, the West Frankish Carolingian ruler, received two treatises on the subject of the Eucharist. Paschasius Radbertus (ca. 790–ca. 865) and Ratramnus (d. after 868), both monks from the royal monastery at Corbie in Neustria, composed treatises entitled De corpore et sanguine domini.Footnote 1 That these were the very first Latin Christian treatises devoted solely to the Eucharist and, further, that they came to different conclusions, has attracted well-earned scholarly scrutiny from almost immediately after their appearance. I would like to return to the question of the difference between their views. Specifically, I will show that the doctrinal differences between the two treatises have their roots in different approaches to, or—perhaps better—interests in, sacraments in general. The two authors do not take opposed positions on the topic of the sacraments, or even mutually contradicting positions on the Eucharist, rather they choose to emphasize different aspects of the sacrament, different guiding themes which suggest to each different lines of analysis. Paschasius sees sacraments primarily as instruments of unity, while Ratramnus views sacraments principally as salvific tools. This recognition yields two insights. It recalibrates analysis of the eucharistic tracts, foregrounding the contemporary concerns of the authors, while deliberately deemphasizing the subsequent theological controversies and scholarly debates into which the treatises were drawn. For both Paschasius and Ratramnus, distinctive approaches to sacraments color not only their analyses of the Eucharist, but also their approaches to larger political and social questions. This recognition also emphasizes the vibrance and creativity characteristic of the Carolingian theological milieu, too often dismissed as a supposedly derivative and unoriginal era in Christian theology. To these ends, the paper will proceed in four stages. First, I situate my question in the long historiography of the Corbie eucharistic treatises. Second, I briefly set the authors and their treatises in historical context. Third, I compare their ‘sacramental’ theologies of the Eucharist, underscoring both Paschasius's emphasis on its horizontal or communal significance and Ratramnus's stress on its vertical or salvific importance. Fourth, I trace how each author's particular sacramental interests remain consistent across their other projects with ramifications for their theological and social opinions.

Historiography

Much of the scholarship on the eucharistic treatises has focused on the implications, theological or scholarly, of the eucharistic theologies of Paschasius and Ratramnus. In other words—in my view—many studies of Paschasius and Ratramnus accent modern academic concerns, sometimes at the expense of thoroughly exploring the concerns of the authors themselves. While both authors believe in Christ's presence in the Eucharist, they are typically viewed as having different understandings of that presence. Paschasius is credited with a corporeal or realist view. Ratramnus is seen to have a more spiritual understanding. The two treatises from Corbie inspired scholarly debate already by the end of the tenth century, when Heriger, abbot of Lobbes, fretted over the seemingly opposed positions.Footnote 2 Early modern scholarship on the treatises has focused squarely on the nature of the Eucharist, often anachronistically forcing the texts to answer questions beyond their scope. In the sixteenth century, the stakes in the treatises had grown, as seen, for example, in the efforts of the Lutheran authors of the Magdeburg Centuries, who viewed Paschasius and Ratramnus as adopting opposed positions anticipating Catholic and Protestant disagreements.Footnote 3 In the less distant past, while scholars have asked important questions with ever increasing care and nuance, they have largely continued to view the issue fundamentally as concerning the nature of the Eucharist, or what each author thought regarding the eucharistic species. To this end, many studies have concentrated on how the different positions of the two Corbie monks could be understood to betray exegetical dependencies on either Augustine or Ambrose or some combination of the two.Footnote 4 For example, Geiselmann's influential study of eucharistic theology before the scholastics identifies Paschasius as a realist and Ratramnus as a symbolist in their understandings of what the Eucharist is.Footnote 5 Furthermore, he constructs a theological disagreement between Paschasius and Ratramnus by presenting their thoughts as elaborations of Augustine and Ambrose or of Augustine alone.Footnote 6 These ideas become a conventional frame through which to view the Corbie authors. For example, Jaroslav Pelikan's magisterial survey of Christian doctrine foregrounds many of the same views. Especially, he argues that in evaluating Paschasius's and Ratramnus's disagreement over the nature of the Eucharist, their interpretation of the Fathers is the crucial element. Paschasius adopts a fundamentally Ambrosian perspective, while Ratramnus adheres to an Augustinian theology.Footnote 7

Recently, some scholars have tried new frames for interpreting the eucharistic treatises. These have made an effort to place the treatises' expositions of the Eucharist in the context of Carolingian theological trends.Footnote 8 For example, Rachel Fulton has envisioned a social context, suggesting that Paschasius's teachings be seen as “artifacts of [the Saxon] conversion to Christianity.”Footnote 9 She argues the work is evidence of a concern for making Christianity intelligible to the recently converted Saxons who served in the monastery of Corvey. Gary Macy, in the context of an introduction to scholastic analysis, has presented the issue as both a methodological and theological question. After a recapitulation of the positions of Paschasius and Ratramnus, Macy suggests that a helpful distinction between the two theologies may lie in their understandings of the “salvific function of the eucharist.”Footnote 10 Celia Chazelle has pulled the eucharistic treatises into larger Carolingian theological discussions, emphasizing continuities with discussions of the crucified Christ and of Predestination.Footnote 11 In two separate efforts, Chazelle has illumined how the terminology and concepts (such as “truth” or “power”) at stake in the discussions of the Eucharist appear in other Carolingian controversies. She explores Carolingian theology of liturgy as she examines the treatises for evidence of Carolingian approaches to “the potential contradiction between the doctrines of the crucifixion's uniqueness and the Mass as a sacrifice of Christ.”Footnote 12 While this valuable recent scholarship raises many questions, I would like to examine just one: How can attention to the specific interests of the authors within the treatises open new insights into the treatises themselves? Thus, taking stock both of the contexts of and the conclusions drawn by each text, I would like to explore how the Eucharist works. In addition to offering a fresh perspective on these texts, an examination of what the Eucharist does, as opposed what the Eucharist is has the advantage of following the tack taken both by Paschasius and Ratramnus.Footnote 13

An approach to the question of the Eucharist from the perspective of what it accomplishes shines a sideways light on the topic which throws into sharp relief two important features of this well-studied material. First, while both authors agree that the Eucharist must work like a sacrament, their analyses of the Eucharist reflect different concerns about sacraments in general. Behind their theories of eucharistic effect lurk fundamentally different interests in sacramental action. This first issue suggests a second, namely that an examination of what the Eucharist does begs the question do to or for whom? Both authors devote considerable space to describing the effects of sacraments upon those who receive them. The first line of inquiry provides an opportunity to see what each author viewed to be at stake in their respective studies. The second line creates a context within which to explore the importance of sacraments across the breadth of each author's corpus.

Historical Context

An examination of the different contexts within which each author worked helps set expectations for the different accents in the perspectives of the two Frankish monks. Superficial similarities between the works mask crucial differences evident only upon closer inspection. Both treaties share the same title and same topic, the body and blood of the Lord. Both were composed by learned masters from Corbie and both were provided to Charles the Bald in the early 840s. However, they were composed neither at the same time, nor for the same audience.

Paschasius Radbertus' life intertwined monastic routine and Carolingian politics. Born between 785 and 795, he was raised by the nuns at St. Mary in Soissons. At that time Theodrada, to whom he was especially devoted, served as abbess. She was a cousin of Charlemagne and connected to the Carolingian court. Several writings survive addressed to her by Alcuin of York, one of Charlemagne's chief court intellectuals, including an important treatise on the soul.Footnote 14 Her brothers Adalhard and Wala were monks and abbots at Corbie, where Paschasius took monastic vows under Adalhard. As a monk at Corbie, first under Adalhard and then under Wala, Paschasius was deeply involved in the monastery's activities beyond its walls. In 822 he was among the monks sent to establish a daughter monastery at Corvey. Located in Saxony, Corvey was part of a larger Carolingian project of bringing Christianity to Germanic-speaking peoples. In 826, Paschasius was among the contingent sent to the palace at Aachen and charged with securing the election of Wala to succeed Adalhard, who had died earlier that year. Paschasius himself, after a period as the monastery's chief catechist, was elected abbot in 846 and ruled for a tumultuous six years. His years at the helm were no less busy with tasks beyond the Corbie community. For example, he participated in the Council of Paris in 847. Around 852, internal unrest forced his abdication and he spent a few years in exile at St. Riquier before returning to Corbie for his final years. He died on April 2, 865.

Paschasius's writings reflect the important connections he enjoyed as a young man and the numerous difficulties faced by his benefactors. Most of his works are either pastoral or apologetic in nature. Shortly after Adalhard's death, he composed his life of Adalhard in which he chronicles how deeply engaged the abbot was with the Carolingian court and especially with his cousin, Charlemagne.Footnote 15 He further explores the depth of Adalhard's devotional life. Paschasius attributes the public and private sufferings endured by Adalhard over the course of his life to both political and spiritual trials. Similar themes are picked up in the life of Wala, which spans two books, the first written shortly after Wala's death and the second composed after Paschasius's abdication.Footnote 16 The communities which harbored Paschasius over his life also merited works. His massive commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew, as well as a treatise on the benedictions of the patriarchs, was dedicated to Guntbald, a monk of St. Riquier.Footnote 17 Between the late 820s and early 830s he wrote three little books on faith, on hope, and on charity to Warin, the abbot of Corvey.Footnote 18 He also wrote several works for the nuns of Soissons, including a treatise on the virgin birth and an exposition of a Psalm.Footnote 19

Paschasius's De corpore et sanguine domini survives in two editions, both written by the author.Footnote 20 Paschasius composed his treatise between 831 and 833, during Abbot Wala's exile from Corbie. He conceived of the work as a tool to invite novices to a deeper engagement with the Mass fitting for their lives as monks. The work is a wide-ranging text covering liturgy, theology, and biblical exegesis. In the original dedicatory letter, addressed to abbot Warin of Corvey, Paschasius wrote that he used a common style so that his thoughts could be easily understood by unlettered hearers.Footnote 21 Warin, as the abbot, would have been responsible for training the young monks in Christian doctrine and discipline. Only in 843 or 844, after he had been elected abbot of Corbie, did Paschasius revise and expand his work for submission to Charles the Bald. The most obvious change for this second edition is the addition of numerous eucharistic miracle stories drawn from the Vitae Patrum.Footnote 22 He described his efforts in a new dedicatory letter to Charles. His initial purpose was important enough to him that he reiterated that intent in the new prologue.Footnote 23

Ratramnus of Corbie was a younger contemporary of Paschasius.Footnote 24 Much less is known about his life. He entered Corbie around 825. Well-read and erudite, Ratramnus quickly won a reputation for scholarship. He maintained relationships with bishops like Hildegard of Meaux and thinkers such at Lupus of Ferrieres and Gottschalk of Orbais. No evidence survives to indicate that he held an office at Corbie. There is also no evidence to suggest he took part in political intrigue either at the monastery or at the court. Most of his writings are controversial in nature and reveal his participation in major theological controversies of the mid-ninth century. In 849 or 850 he composed a treatise on predestination for Charles the Bald in defense of his friend Gottschalk, a monk whose views drew attack from the powerful archbishop Hincmar of Rheims.Footnote 25 In 853, Ratramnus wrote a treatise on the birth of Christ in which he disagrees with Paschasius over whether or not Christ was born like other men.Footnote 26 In 863, at the request of bishop Odo of Beauvais, he composed a treatise on the nature of the soul, arguing against a monk who claimed that all humanity shared a single spirit.Footnote 27 Finally, in 867, he wrote a treatise against the Greeks for Pope Nicholas I in which he argued for the supremacy of the Roman see over the claims of the Patriarch of Constantinople.Footnote 28 Ratramnus died around 868.

Ratramnus's De corpore et sanguine domini was his first major work, written at the request of Charles the Bald in the mid-840s. Charles had written to Ratramnus specifically inquiring about two issues concerning the Eucharist, identified by Ratramnus as whether the Eucharist is Christ in mystery or in truth and whether the Eucharist is the historical body of Christ born of Mary.Footnote 29 As such, Ratramnus's treatise is much more focused than Paschasius's wide-ranging liturgically driven ruminations. It is also far shorter.

“Sacramental” Theologies

The different theological accents each author places on the idea of sacrament appear most clearly in their approaches to the function of the Eucharist. Paschasius consistently foregrounds a horizontal element, the creation of unifying bonds. Ratramnus, on the other hand, emphasizes a vertical element, the sanctification or salvation of individuals. Two elements common to both treatises clearly draw this distinction. First, Paschasius and Ratramnus preface their teachings on the Eucharist with differing analyses of the sacrament of baptism from which their theologies of the Eucharist flow. Second, both authors highlight different roles of the Holy Spirit in the sacraments.

At the beginning of his On the Body and Blood of the Lord, before he discusses the particulars of eucharistic liturgy and theology, such things as the significance of mixing water with wine in the chalice or how reward or judgment is gained in communion, Paschasius lays out some first principles of sacraments. He views unity as the defining purpose of sacraments. He writes that Christ left the sacraments, such as baptism and communion, to the church so that “participation in the unity of the body of Christ may be granted.”Footnote 30 Throughout his initial discussion, Paschasius identifies the sacrament of baptism as the model for other sacraments both in terms of its temporal priority in the believer's life and in terms of the path upon which it sets the believer. In the third chapter of the work, Paschasius considers what sacraments are and why they are called sacraments. Although he identifies four sacraments of the church—baptism, chrismation, the body, and the blood of the Lord—the section focuses on the baptism as the paradigmatic sacrament.Footnote 31 “In the sacrament of baptism a door is opened to believers for entering into adoption, so that thenceforth in Christ's members, through that same rebirth freed from evil, we may be made one body.”Footnote 32 In summarizing the significance of baptism to the church, he emphasizes unity. His evaluation certainly acknowledges the salvific importance of baptism, but clearly privileges its unitive aspect. The explicit mention of freedom from evil is subordinate to the ideas of moving into a new community through a door, joining a new community through adoption, and being unified with a new community in one body.

Paschasius evaluates the Eucharist as a continuation and completion of the sacramental work begun at baptism. The Eucharist is the true body of Christ because only the true body of Christ could truly incorporate one into Christ. “If, therefore, he dwells in us and we, the members of his body, remain in him, it is right, because we are in him to live from him. And for that reason we eat the flesh of the word and drink his blood.”Footnote 33 He continues with a summary statement. “This is, I say, the strength of our faith, this unity and sharing of life.”Footnote 34 Analagous to baptism, the core of the Eucharist, its strength, is the unity it brings about. Its sacramental effect on the community is a sharing together in the life of Christ. Importantly, Paschasius does not exalt the horizontal dimension of the Eucharist to the elimination of the vertical. He explicitly affirms the Eucharist's salvific power. However, he suggests that the sacrament derives its saving power from its unitive function.

Thus accordingly in that visible sacrament of communion, the divine virtue sustains us until immortality by its invisible power as if from the fruit of the tree in paradise, both by the taste of its wisdom and by virtue, and through it we are immortal in spirit, as long as we take it worthily, and finally, changed for the better, we are born to immortal things.Footnote 35

Even as he affirms the eschatological significance of the Eucharist, he emphasizes its unitive aspect by identifying it as a sacrament of communion and suggesting that its efficacy comes from participation in a greater whole, in this case the tree of paradise. Paschasius's vocabulary underscores his perspective. He knows the word “Eucharist,” but employs it only in citations or references to other works.Footnote 36 His own preference is to use “the body and blood of the Lord” or “communion” to identify the sacrament. For example, in the introduction for Charles the Bald he identifies the work as written for Warin and concerning the “sacraments of holy communion.”Footnote 37

Ratramnus does not make an initial declaration about sacraments at the beginning of his On the Body and Blood of the Lord. He emphasizes that he is simply answering questions posed by Charles the Bald. So while there is no explicit discussion of sacrament, his answers, especially the design of his arguments, provide a window into his sacramental assumptions. Immediately after his initial exposition of the terms of the debate—figure and truth—Ratramnus prefaces his consideration of the Eucharist with an excursus on the sacrament of baptism. His comments are illuminating because a discussion connecting baptism to the Eucharist affords readers a view of what Ratramnus views as commonly, or fundamentally, sacramental. Furthermore, the instinct to begin a discussion of the Eucharist with an exposition of baptism parallels Paschasius's treatise and offers a point of comparison. Ratramnus's analysis of the sacrament proceeds along a track much different than that of his fellow monk. He writes “let us consider the font of holy baptism, which is not undeservedly called the fountain of life, because it refashions in newness of a better life those who descend into it, and to those who are dead from sin it grants the boon of life in righteousness.”Footnote 38 Whereas Paschasius foregrounded the horizontal aspect of the sacrament, Ratramnus focuses on its vertical effect on the individual. For Ratramnus, the sacrament's effect is primarily salvific. It instills life and holiness in a person, very much in contrast to the unitive action emphasized by Paschasius.

Like Paschasius, Ratramnus views the effects of the Eucharist as complementing the effects of baptism—just along a different line. Whereas Paschasius sees the Eucharist first and foremost as establishing a sacramental union, Ratramnus unambigiously privileges the salvific effects of the Eucharist. In a section dealing with the distinction between what is outwardly observed in the Eucharist versus what is inwardly perceived, he writes: “If you carefully assess the power of the mystery [of the Eucharist], it is life, granting immortality to those partaking of it.”Footnote 39 For Ratramnus, as for Paschasius, the Eucharist continues the work of baptism in the soul of the believer. In this analysis, the Eucharist instills life and holiness in the believer. It cleanses the soul and paves the way to eternal life. In a later section in which he explores the sense in which the eucharistic elements are figures, he writes: “Whence according to their [the bread and wine] visible creation they feed the body, truly according to the power of a stronger substance they feed and sanctify the souls of the faithful.”Footnote 40 Ratramnus underscores that Christians recognize the elements as Christ on account of their action. Because of the power of the salvation it conveys to the believer can the Eucharist be the Body of Christ. Throughout the text, Ratramnus reiterates this sacramental action of the Eucharist.

Attention to the prominent role played by the Holy Spirit in effecting the sacraments—specifically, what the Holy Spirit effects through the sacraments—further underscores Paschasius's horizontal view against Ratramnus's vertical view of sacraments. Early in the first book of De corpore et sanguine domini, Paschasius identifies the Holy Spirit as a principal agent involved in the sacraments. “For Christ left to his church in mystery nothing greater than this sacrament [the Eucharist] and that of baptism, and also the Sacred Scriptures, in all of which the Holy Spirit who is the pledge of the whole church works interiorly the sacred mysteries of our salvation to immortality.”Footnote 41 Paschasius's analysis of the Holy Spirit's action in baptism allows him to refine his position on the unitive power of the sacraments. “The Holy Spirit is poured forth upon the soul of the one being reborn, so that the whole church of Christ may be quickened when a single spirit has been received, and it may be made one body.”Footnote 42 He posits that each Christian receives the Holy Spirit at baptism and it is through this reception of the one Holy Spirit that each Christian is incorporated into the one body of the Church. Later in the treatise, Paschasius returns both to the Holy Spirit and to baptism when describing the significance of reception of the Eucharist. “He therefore remains in Christ who, reborn from water and the Spirit, is held guilty of no mortal offense, and in him [remains] Christ who opened the door of faith through consecration by the Holy Spirit, so that he might be a member in his [Christ's] body, and he is a temple of the Holy Spirit.”Footnote 43 Again, the Eucharist builds upon the work begun with baptism. The Eucharist reinforces the unity established by baptism. The rebirth and entry through a door of faith met in baptism is enhanced by reception of the Eucharist.

Like Paschasius, Ratramnus carefully identifies the role of the Holy Spirit in the working of the sacraments. Again, however, while analysis of the Holy Spirit occurs within the context of answering Charles the Bald's questions, it offers both a parallel and a point of contrast to Paschasius. In the midst of his discussion of truth, Ratramnus develops an analogy to baptism in order to discuss how change within sacraments should be understood. “Through consecration by a priest, there is added [to the water of baptism] the power of the Holy Spirit, and it becomes capable of purifying not only bodies but also souls, and it removes spiritual filth by means of spiritual power.”Footnote 44 The Holy Spirit appears as the one with the power to effect change. But whereas Paschasius accents how the Holy Spirit incorporates the individual into the church, Ratramnus emphasizes how the Holy Spirit sanctifies. He accents how the Holy Spirit, through baptism, cleanses one from sin. Later, when he explores truth in the Eucharist, he returns to the agency and power of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing continuity between the sacraments of Eucharist and baptism. “ ‘It is the Spirit which gives life.’ So in this mystery the effect of the body and blood is spiritual. It gives life, and without its effect the mysteries are of no avail, since they, indeed, feed the body but cannot feed the soul.”Footnote 45 The parallel to baptism lies in the power of the Holy Spirit to sanctify through the sacrament, to give life to the soul of the worthy partaker.

Ramifications

The horizontal and vertical conceptions of sacraments that characterize Paschasius's and Ratramnus's approaches to the Eucharist remain consistent throughout their writings. Their respective “sacramental” thinking governs their approaches to other topics and coordinates their analyses of other theological, political, and social issues. The broad implications of each author's approach rely, in part, on the wide range of meanings still supported by the Latin word sacramentum in the early ninth century. It was not just a term of theological jargon, but retained much of its classical and late antique content including everything from liturgical rites, to legal oaths, to religious epiphanies.Footnote 46 Paschasius acknowledges the semantic range of the word in his treatise De corpore et sanguine domini. He defines the sacraments as “anything handed down to us in any divine celebration as a pledge of salvation, where the thing done visibly is far different from what is worked invisibly within, which should be received in a holy manner.”Footnote 47 He then offers subsets of sacraments. “Christ's sacraments in the church are baptism, chrismation, and the body and blood of the Lord.”Footnote 48 Then he adds “it is a sacrament of the law in which after the choosing of sides each one swears what he declared in his pact.”Footnote 49 He also posits that “it is a sacrament in the Scriptures wherever the Holy Spirit accomplishes something in them inwardly speaking.”Footnote 50 These diverse contexts for sacraments allows for exploration of both the continuity and complexity of thought in Carolingian authors like Paschasius and Ratramnus.

In Paschasius's work On the Virgin Birth, written sometime between 844 and 846 for the female monastic community at Soissons, he uses his horizontal idea of sacrament to evaluate the importance of unity at work in the doctrine.Footnote 51 The treatise vigorously defends the idea of Mary's perpetual virginity. Throughout he underscores the doctrine's importance in understanding both the unity of Christ's two natures and the unity of Christians with Christ in the Church.Footnote 52 The womb of Mary is both the womb of Christ and the womb of the Church.Footnote 53 Within the treatise, Paschasius uses the idea of the sacrament to identify multiple senses in which natures, individuals, and communities are unified.

The Word was made Flesh—not as other children are born, nor as men become by a gift of grace, but just as Gregory says in his Moralia—assumed into his person a man with the special character of each nature essentially preserved, through which remarkable sacrament is one and the same a true son of God and of man, both eternally from his Father and temporally from his mother.Footnote 54

Paschasius identifies the incarnation, the union of divinity and humanity in Jesus Christ, as a sacrament. What makes the incarnation a sacrament is the seamless, unconfused joining of two separate natures in a single person. He clarifies this point a bit later when he writes, “… the Word was made flesh, not by a mixture of nature, but out of a unity of person … because this is both ineffable and a wondrous nativity of flesh, not from the law of our common nature, as some blindly assert, but from a sacrament of grace.”Footnote 55 This sacrament of grace, which established the unity of divinity and humanity in Christ's person, constitutes the crucial factor in evaluating Christ's birth. That sacraments apply not only to particular circumstances such as the incarnation, Paschasius makes clear as he describes the consequences of the incarnation for humanity. The virgin birth illumines the relationship all Christians enjoy with Christ by means of the Church. Just as Christ was born from Mary via sacrament, so are all good men born from the Church. “In a sacrament of future prefiguration, they (the prophets) were called holy when they were not, until Christ came who is essentially holy and who opened the womb of his bride and poured back the fruitfulness of bearing sons.”Footnote 56 Sacraments tie together through Christ the Old and New Testaments. Here Paschasius asserts that by means of sacrament and through Christ are Old Testament figures able to be called holy. Typological insights into the meaning of Scripture turn on sacraments which establish the deeper unity connecting chronologically distant events in salvation history.

Ratramnus's use of sacrament in his treatise On the Predestination of God offers a sharp and consistent distinction from Paschasius's theology. The vertical dimension dominates, with sacraments describing God's salvific actions.Footnote 57 Around 850, Ratramnus wrote On the Predestination of God at the request of Charles the Bald.Footnote 58 The book is a study of the biblical and Augustinian foundations of double predestination. Divided into two books, Ratramnus first explains the governance of God and his divine arrangement of creation, then he considers how predestination works within God's creation. He argues that the will of God works through the world to ensure that some are spiritually sanctified for eternal life, while others head to eternal punishment for their sins. Throughout Ratramnus is clear: God predestines out of his foreknowledge of human actions.Footnote 59 People are predestined to salvation or perdition because of their good or evil lives and not vice versa. Near the end of book two, he uses the idea of sacrament to explore two crucial examples of salvific action in the Bible. He marshals two Old Testament texts in support of the idea that God foreknew what events would transpire and, while not directly causing them, established conditions in which everything happens as predestined. After recounting God's promises to Moses concerning the Israelites, Ratramnus describes how God took decisive action in rescuing the Hebrews from Pharaoh at the Red Sea. “And last of all, it had been predestined that the Pharaoh and his army would perish in the Red Sea, and Israel would cross unharmed. Just as the mystery of the great sacrament secures, so secretly the work of the divine arrangement corresponds, so that the Egyptians perished, and the Israelites were saved.”Footnote 60 The visible reality accomplishes what is mysteriously or inwardly ordained. Just as in the Eucharist, sacraments are tools by which God effects the salvation of his chosen people. In the case of the Exodus it was a miraculous event needed to guarantee a promise to Moses, a promise justified by the Egyptians' own free actions as foreknown to God. Ratramnus shows that this application of sacrament is not unique as he immediately proceeds to draw a parallel between each Christian's flight from sin and the biblical Exodus account.

A short while later, Ratramnus clarifies the mechanism by which predestined events occur. He writes: “[T]he statements of the Catholic Saints are that predestination is the eternal arrangement of the work of God, whence everything God is going to do, He has already arranged in the eternal plan of His justice.”Footnote 61 Predestination concerns God's eternality. His decisions and his works must reflect his timelessness. Ratramnus finds God's eternality pivotal for analyzing justice, specifically justice with regard to people's final ends. “Therefore, when it is said of the evil, that they are predestined to punishment, this is said: that God, by the secret sacrament of his judgment, has a plan for these which is going to be accomplished. Therefore it is not contrary to the divine judgment, if the evil are said to be predestined to punishment, since predestination is the work of God.”Footnote 62 Sacrament functions in his discussion of predestination in the same way it functions in his discussion of the Eucharist: as a description of God's activity in the salvation of man. Here, however, Ratramnus states that God's sacraments may not only bring life and holiness, but also deny them, ensuring punishment for the wicked.

In addition to the wide theological implications, the Corbie theologians' approaches to the idea of sacrament color their analyses of social and political issues across the breadth of their other works. In biographical works on his predecessors Adalhard and Wala, Paschasius exploits the semantic range of the word sacrament in evaluating social and political relationships.Footnote 63 Both of his predecessors had tumultuous tenures as abbots of Corbie. Both men were members of the Carolingian ruling family and deeply involved in the political and cultural upheavals of the early-ninth century Frankish world. Near the end of the Life of Saint Adalhard, as Adalhard prepares for his death, Radbertus has his predecessor echo the words of Simeon from the Gospel of Luke. “ ‘Now dismiss your servant, Lord, in peace, according to your word,’ for I have received all the sacraments of your mystery. Now what remains except for me to come to you?”Footnote 64 Paschasius views the sacraments as creating a union or a bond between the recipient and God. Having been brought into community with God by means of the sacraments, the only deepening of community which remained for the saint was to be with God face to face in the future life. Paschasius, of course, was certain of Adalhard's eternal reward insofar as he counted the abbot a saint. Emphasizing the closeness to God brought about by the sacrament of the Eucharist, he depicts Adalhard's last act as reception of Holy Communion.Footnote 65

Paschasius routinely folds together theological and political concepts in other instances within his lives of Adalhard and Wala. For example, Paschasius makes the argument that the central criterion for the political penalty of exile ought to be sin.Footnote 66 Strikingly, he sees an implicit analogy between political and religious communities defined by sacrament. In the Epitaph for Arsenius, or Life of Wala, Paschasius writes about political treachery and, again, sacrament provides a key concept for establishing community, although in this case a political and not theological one. In one scene he describes, using pseudonyms, how the emperor was betrayed by his comrades. “Honorius, long a partner with his father and recognized by all as emperor, was removed from power, was expelled from partnership. Sacraments which had been made to him were dissolved by authority of his father.”Footnote 67 The dissolution of the sacraments that hold together a community results in a rupture of the community's unity. Paschasius here views sacraments—in the sense of oaths—as a fundamental building block of political community.Footnote 68 In a comparable passage from his Life of Saint Adalhard, he describes a letter which Adalhard wrote to Louis the Pious in which he explicitly uses sacrament to encompass both religious and political fidelity. “ ‘O Prince, you know that faith has often prevailed amid bloodshed and clash of savage arms even among pagans. You know that this is so in order that each may commit himself more profoundly to sacraments of faith. How much stronger should be the agreement of a Christian pledged in truth?”Footnote 69 To remove any ambiguity about the statement, Paschasius underscores how secure is a bond wrought between individuals by sacraments as he explains: “On the basis of such statements it is clear beyond doubt that it would be easier to rupture chains of iron than for the faithful promises of this man to be ruined.”Footnote 70 Sacraments forge the strongest and most intimate bonds between individuals.

Sacraments also effect social and political decisions in the writings of Ratramnus of Corbie. In the early 860s, Rimbert, a missionary working in Denmark and based at Corbie's daughter monastery of Corvey, wrote to Ratramnus asking for an opinion on whether or not to launch a mission in a new town. Rimbert's question was driven by the fact that he believed the next town to be a community of dog-headed men. So, he wondered if they should be missionized. Ratramnus addresses this question head on and concludes that a mission should be established. His reasoning turns on the idea of the sacrament and its role in holiness and salvation. He argues that because cynocephs had immortal souls, they require the sacrament of baptism in order to be saved. His primary proof for this position is the well-known example of St. Christopher. Sacrament is the mechanism by which eternal life is given to souls and Ratramnus reasons backwards that since St. Christopher is in heaven, he must have received the sacrament of baptism—though perhaps in an unusual way. “For it is believed also that he [Christopher] divinely gained the sacrament of baptism, with the mystery pouring out over him from clouds, just as the little book itself [Christopher's vita] witnesses.”Footnote 71 Ratramnus clearly identifies baptism as a sacrament and views it as a decisive reason to initiate a mission among a bestial race. That Ratramnus sees his analysis of the sacrament as a reason to break with tradition on the theory of monstrous races underscores the importance of the notion of sacrament to the Corbie theologian. Important and influential thinkers including Isidore of Seville and Aethicus Ister held the position that cynocephs did not possess souls.Footnote 72 Ratramnus's influential predecessors in the theology of dog-headed people would not have subjected them to Christian mission.

Conclusion

For Paschasius Radbertus the primary utility of sacraments rests with their horizontal or unitive aspect. Baptism does many things, but most essentially, it incorporates new members into the church. The Eucharist, then, binds together the members of the Body of Christ. It guarantees the identity of the church as the Body of Christ. Other sacraments, including political oaths, also establish unions, binding individuals together in communities. For Ratramnus the first importance of sacraments lies in their vertical or salvific effects. Baptism imbues new Christians with holiness and life. The Eucharist restores and strengthens believers through the forgiveness of sins and promise of eternal life in heaven. Ratramnus's commitment to the centrality of sacraments to a Christian life leads him to make sharp breaks with his predecessor on the idea of mission to monstrous races.

Behind burning theological issues and complex social and political calculus rests a shared understanding of the centrality of “sacrament.” However, while Paschasius and Ratramnus privilege the idea of the sacrament, they emphasize different aspects. Their theoretical approaches to sacraments revolve around what sacraments do rather than what sacraments are. Sharply focused, this fresh perspective on the so-called ninth century eucharistic controversy allows us to recalibrate our analysis of the theological works of two important theologian monks from Corbie. It allows for clearer understanding of each one's distinctive eucharistic doctrine. It also brings into focus a common theological concern upon which markedly different analyses of sacraments rest. This new perspective then opens up avenues into how Paschasius and Ratramnus used sacraments to coordinate their ideas with implications for their political and social analyses. More generally, this study reminds us about the ways in which Carolingian theological discourses were complex and nuanced. We are also reminded of dangers inherent in modern scholarship of medieval Christianity. The question of “what is the Eucharist,” while burning for many medieval, early modern, and even contemporary theologians, can distract attention from the conceptual habits of particular Corbie monks.

References

1 Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine domini (CCCM 16; Turnhout: Brepols, 1969); Ratramnus, De corpore et sanguine domini. Texte original et notice bibliographique (ed. J. N. Bakuizen van den Brink; Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1974).

2 Gerbertus, De corpore et sanguine domini (PL 139.0179A—0183D). Although Migne published the text under the name Gerbertus, the text's attribution and significance have been well-established. See Willemien Otten, “Between Augustinian Sign and Carolingian Reality: The Presence of Ambrose and Augustine in the Eucharistic Debate between Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus of Corbie,” Dutch Review of Church History 80 (2000) 137—56, at 139; Jean-Paul Bouhot, Ratramne de Corbie. Histoire littéraire et controverses doctrinales (Paris: Études augustiniennes, 1976) 129—35; Joseph Lebon, “Sur la doctrine eucharistique d'Heriger de Lobbes,” Studia Mediaevalia in Honorem admodum Reverendi Patris Raymundi J. Martin (Brugis: De Tempel, 1948) 61—84; Josef Geiselmann, Die Eucharistielehre der Vorscholastik (Paderborn: F. Schöningh, 1926) 267—81.

3 The well-known Magdeburg Centuries highlights the episode. Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Ecclesiastica historia (Basel: Oporini, 1559—1574) Century 9 de doctrina. A similar spirit led to the popularity of Ratramnus's text in sixteenth-century England as with, for example, the publication of The Book of Barthram Priest/Intreatinge of thee Bodye and Bloude of Christe, Wryten to Great Charles the Emperoure (London: Thomas Raynalde, 1549). Van den Brink offers substantial detail concerning the transmission and reception of Ratramnus's work in his introduction to the critical edition of De corpore, see Ratramnus, De corpore, 71—137.

4 Michael Frassetto, “The Gentle Voice of Teachers: Carolingian Eucharistic Thought and the Sermons of Ademar of Chabannes” in Medieval Monks and Their World: Ideas and Realities. Studies in Honor of Richard E. Sullivan (ed. David Blanks, Michael Frassetto, and Amy Livingstone; Brill's Series in Church History 25; Leiden: Brill, 2006) 147—62; Otten, “Between Augustinian Sign and Carolingian Reality,” 137—56; Patricia McCormick Zirkel, “The Ninth-Century Eucharistic Controversy: A Context for the Beginnings of Eucharistic Doctrine in the West,” Worship 68 (1994) 2—23; Celia Chazelle, “Figure, Character, and the Glorified Body in the Carolingian Eucharistic Controversy,” Traditio 47 (1992) 1—36; Hans Jorissen, “Zum Verhältnis von Bild und Sakrament. Wandlungen des philosophischen Kontextes als Hintergrund der frühmittelalterlichen Eucharistiestreitigkeiten,” in Streit um das Bild. Das zweite Konzil von Nizäa (787) in ökumenischer Perspektive (ed. Josef Wohlmuth; Bonn: Bouvier, 1989) 97—111; Jaroslav Pelikan,The Growth of Medieval Theology 600—1300 (vol. 3 of The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980) 74—80; George H. Tavard, “The Church as Eucharistic Communion in Medieval Theology” in Continuity and Discontinuity in Church History: Essays Presented to George Huston Williams on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (ed. F. Forrester Church and Timothy George; Leiden: Brill, 1979) 92—103; W.V. Tanghe, “Ratramnus of Corbie: The Uses of the Fathers in His Writings,” StPatr16 (1982) 176—80; John F. Fahey, The Eucharistic Teaching of Ratramn of Corbie (Mundelein: St Mary of the Lake Seminary, 1951); Henri de Lubac, L'eucharistie et l'église au moyen âge (Paris: Aubier, 1949); Geiselmann, Die Eucharistielehre.

5 Geiselmann, Die Eucharistielehre, 194: “Radbert ist Realist, Ratramnus dagegen Symboliker.”

6 Ibid., 216: “Ratramnus zeigt unverkennbar eine innere Verwandt-schaft mit den an Augustin orientierten Theologen seines Jahrhunderts. Aber wie Radbert auf seiten der ambrosianisch denken den erste war, der den Metabolismus zum System ausarbeitet und an Stelle des unausgeglichenen Nebeneinander von Ambrosius und Augustin…ein organisches Ineinander schuf, indem er die symbolische und dynamische Betrachtungsart Augustins innerlich mit dem Realismus verarbeitete und ausglich, so arbeitet nunmehr Ratramnus auf der Gegenseite auf der Grundlage Augustins ein Sakramentssystem heraus.”

7 Pelikan, Growth of Medieval Theology, 74: “On the basis of a passage from Ambrose about ‘the order of nature,’ which was ‘the only true authority on which his theory is founded,’ but which was quoted by both sides in the conflict, Radbertus drew a parallel between the ‘temerity of certain brethren’ regarding the birth of Christ and their error regarding the eucharistic presence.” Ibid., 77: “Ratramnus could claim the support of a long and distinguished Augustinian tradition, in which the concept ‘body of Christ’ itself and the idea of ‘eating’ it in the Eucharist were part of a broader and more ‘spiritual’ way of speaking and thinking that went far beyond the Eucharist.”

8 Celia Chazelle, “Exegesis in the Ninth-Century Eucharist Controversy” in The Study of the Bible in the Carolingian Era (ed. Celia Chazelle and Burton Van Name Edwards; Turnhout: Brepols, 2003) 167–187; Rachel Fulton, From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary, 800–1200 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002) 47–59; Jorissen, “Zum Verhältnis von Bild und Sakrament,” 97–111.

9 Fulton, From Judgment to Passion, 16.

10 Gary Macy, The Theologies of the Eucharist in the Early Scholastic Period: A Study of the Salvific Function of the Sacrament according to the Theologians c. 1080–1220 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984) 30.

11 Celia Chazelle, The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001) 209–39; Chazelle, “Exegesis in the Ninth-Century Eucharist Controversy,” 167–87.

12 Chazelle, The Crucified God, 209–10.

13 This approach also helps to distinguish more clearly between the exegetical readings of the Bible, the Fathers, and the liturgy offered by Paschasius and Ratramnus in interpreting the Eucharist and the coming dialectical struggles over understanding the Eucharist appearing from the eleventh century. Henry Chadwick, “Symbol and Reality: Berengar and the appeal to the Fathers” Auctoritas und Ratio. Studien zu Berengar von Tours (ed. Peter Ganz, R. B. C. Huygens and Friedrich Niewöhner; Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1990) 25–45. R. W. Southern, “Lanfranc of Bec and Berengar of Tours” Studies in Medieval History Presented to Frederick Maurice Powicke (ed. R.W Hunt, W.A. Pantin, and R.W. Southern; Oxford: Clarendon, 1948) 27–48.

14 James J. M. Curry, “Alcuin, De ratione animae: A text with introduction, critical apparatus, and translation” (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1966). See also the comments in Paul E. Szarmach, “A preface, mainly textual, to Alcuin's De ratione animae”in The Man of Many Devices, Who Wandered Full Many Ways: Festschrift in Honor of János M. Bak (ed. Balázs Nagy and Marcell Sebők; Budapest: Central European University Press, 1999) 397–408.

15 Paschasius Radbertus, De uita sancti Adalhardi (PL 120.1507C–1556C).

16 Paschasius Radbertus, Epitaphium Arsenii (PL 120.1557A–1650D).

17 Paschasius Radbertus, Expositio in Matheo libri xii (CCCM 56–56B; Turnhout: Brepols, 1984); Paschasius Radbertus, De benedictionibus patriarchum Iacobi et Moysi (CCCM 96; Turnhout: Brepols, 1984).

18 Paschasius Radbertus, De fide, spe, et caritate (CCCM 97; Turnhout: Brepols, 1990), vii.

19 Paschasius Radbertus, De partu virginis (CCCM 56C; Turnhout: Brepols, 1985); Paschasius Radbertus, Expositio in Psalmum XLIV (CCCM 94; Turnhout: Brepols, 1991).

20 See the introduction to the modern critical edition Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore, vii–xii. For a general introduction to Paschasius Radbertus see Henri Peltier, Pascase Radbert, abbé de Corbie. Contribution à l'étude de la vie monastique et de la pensée chrétienne aux temps carolingiens (Amiens: L.-H. Duthoit, 1938).

21 Paschasius, De corpore, 4–5. “Quod ideo placuit communius stilo temperari subulco et ea quae de sacramento sanguinis et corporis tibi exigis necessaria tui praetextatus amore ita tenus perstringere, ut ceteri quos necdum unda liberalium attigerat litterarum, uitae pabulum et salutis haustum planius caperent ad medelam et nobis operis praestantior exuberaret fructus mercedis pro sudore, quia pecunia uerbi, sicuti plenius nosti, quantos repleuerit suis sumptibus auditores, tantis copiosius in sese amplificatur meritorum opibus.” Paschasius seems to have had a deep and consistent concern for Corbie's daughter monastery as seen in this text and the treatises on faith, on hope, and on charity.

22 The editor presents a single critical edition of Paschasius's work. He identifies additions to the second edition through the use of a smaller font.

23 Paschasius, De corpore, 8. “Inter quos nimirum etsi ultimus fide deuotus, quia monuistis et mea, ut opto, uos delectant, decreui non ignaui ponderis metalli maiestati uestrae munus offerre, sed libellum, quamuis exiguum corpore, magnum tamen de sacramentis sacrae communionis quem dudum Placidio meo Warino abbati deuoto, fideli uestro, consecrans ideo sic communiusuolui stilo temperare subulco,ut ea quae de sacramento corporis et sanguinisChristi sunt necessariarescire, quos necdum unda liberalium attigerat litterarum, uitae pabulum et salutis haustum planius caperent ad medelam.” Portions taken from the original prologue are in italics.

24 For a general biographical and textual introduction to Ratramnus see Bouhot, Ratramne de Corbie. Histoire littéraire et controverses doctrinales.

25 Timothy Roland Roberts,“A Translation and Critical Edition of Ratramnus of Corbie's De Predestinatione Dei” (Ph.D. diss., University of Missouri, 1997). For a fine summary of the controversy, including the main positions and major contributors see David Ganz, “The Debate on Predestination” in Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom (ed. Margaret T. Gibson and Janet L. Nelson; 2d rev. ed.; Norfolk: Variorum, 1990) 283–325.

26 J. M. Canal, “La Virginidad de María según Ratramno y Radberto, Monjes de Corbie. Nueva Edición de los Textos.” Marianum 30 (1968) 53–160.

27 Ratramnus, Liber de anima ad odonem bellovacensem (ed. C. Lambot; Namur: Editions Godenne, 1952).

28 Ratramnus, Contra Grecorum opposita (PL 121.225D–346B).

29 Ratramnus, De corpore,44. “Quod in ecclesia ore fidelium sumitur corpus et sanguis Christi, quaerit vestrae magnitudinis excellentia in misterio fiat, an in veritate… . Et utrum ipsum corpus sit quod de maria natum est, et passum, mortuum et sepultum, quodque resurgens et caelos ascendens ad dexteram patris consideat.”

30 Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore, 18. “participatio Christi in unitate corporis concedatur.”

31 Ibid., 24. “Sunt autem sacramenta Christi in ecclesia baptismus et chrisma, corpus quoque Domini et sanguis.” This number is common though not universally agreed upon by Carolingian theologians. For example, Hrabanus Maurus identifies the same four—counting the body and the blood of Christ as two sacraments—in his influential books on priestly formation. Hrabanus Maurus, De institutione clericorum libri IV (ed. Detlev Zimpel; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1996) 282, 316.

32 Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore, 25. “Porro baptismi sacramento intrandi ad eandem adoptionem ostium credentibus panditur, ut deinceps in membris Christi per eandem renascentiam liberati a malo unum corpus efficiamur.”

33 Ibid., 19. “Si ergo habitat in nobis et nos membra corporis eius maneamus in illo, iustum est, quia in illo sumus, ut ex eo uiuamus. Et ideo carne Verbi pascimur et potamur sanguine.”

34 Ibid. “Haec, inquam, firmitas fidei nostrae, haec unitas et uitae communicatio.”

35 Ibid. “Ita siquidem et in isto communionis sacramento uisibili diuina uirtus ad inmortalitatem sua inuisibili potentia, quasi ex fructu ligni paradysi, nos et gustu sapientiae sustentat et uirtute, quatinus per hoc inmortales in anima, quamdiu ex hoc digne sumimus, demum in melius transpositi ad inmortalia feramur.”

36 The term “Eucharist” appears in a miracle story Paschasius with striking parallels to an episode from Gregory of Tours' eight books of miracles. Ibid., 60. See Gregory of Tours, Libri octo miraculorum (ed. B Krusch, Hannover; MGH Script. Rer. Mero., 1885) 494.

37 Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore, 8. “libellum … magnum tamen de sacramentis sacrae communionis…. Placidio meo Warino abbati devoto …”

38 Ratramnus, De corpore, 47. “Consideremus sacri fontem baptismatis qui fons vitae non immerito nuncupatur quia descendentes in se melioris vitae novitiate reformat et de peccato mortuis viventes iustitiae donat.”

39 Ibid., 48. “Si misterii vero perpendas virtutem, vita est, participantibus se tribuens immortalitatem.”

40 Ibid., 55. “Unde secundum visibilem creaturam corpus pascunt, iuxta vero potentioris virtutem substantiae mentes fidelium et pascunt et sanctificant.”

41 Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore, 17. “Nihil enim Christus ecclesiae suae maius aliquid in mysterio reliquit quam hoc baptismique sacramentum, necnon et Scripturas Sanctas in quibus omnibus Spiritus Sanctus qui pignus totius ecclesiae est, interius mystica salutis nostrae ad inmortalitatem operatur.”

42 Ibid., 25. “Spiritus Sanctus in animam renascentis diffunditur, ut universa Christi ecclesia uno Spiritu percepto uiuificetur et corpus unum efficiatur.”

43 Ibid., 34. “Ille igitur in Christo manet qui renatus ex aqua et spiritu nullo mortali crimine reus tenetur, et Christus in eo utique, qui aperuit illi ianuam fidei, in Spiritu Sancto consecratus et [ut] membrum est [esset] in eius corpore et templum Spiritus Sancti.”

44 Ratramnus, De corpore, 47. “Sed accessit sancti spiritus per sacerdotis consecrationem virtus et efficax facta est non solum corpora verum etiam animas diluere et spiritales sordes spirituali potentia dimovere.”

45 Ibid., 51. “ ‘Spiritus est qui vivificat (Jn. 6:64).’ In hoc itaque misterio corporis et sanguinis, spiritualis est operatio quae vitam prestat. Sine cuius operatione misteria illa nihil prosunt. Quoniam corpus quidem pascere possunt, sed animam pascere non possunt.”

46 For a very brief summary of sacramentum in the ninth century see Brian Stock, The Implications of Literacy. Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983) 254–259. For an insightful treatment of intended conceptual overlap of politics and theology in Carolingian oaths see Matthias Becher, Eid und Herrschaft: Untersuchungen zum Herrscherethos Karl der Grossen (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 1993) 94–111. A survey of the semantic range of sacramentum from antiquity to the Carolingian period is found in Owen M. Phelan, “The Formation of Christendom: Baptism under the Carolingians” (Ph.D. diss. University of Notre Dame, 2005) 12–51.

47 Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore, 23. “… quicquid in aliqua celebratione diuina nobis quasi pignus salutis traditur, cum res gesta uisibilis longe aliud inuisibile intus operatur quod sancte accipiendum sit.”

48 Ibid., 24. “Sunt autem sacramenta Christi in ecclesia baptismus et chrisma, corpus quoque Domini et sanguis.”

49 Ibid. “Est sacramentum iuris in quo post electionem partium iurat unusquisque quod suo pactu decreuerit.” He draws this definition from Isidore, compare Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae (ed. W. M. Lindsay; Oxford: Clarendon, 1911) 5.24.31.

50 Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore, 24–25. “Est autem et sacramentum in Scripturis diuinis ubicumque Sacer Spiritus in eisdem interius aliquid efficaciter loquendo operatur.”

51 Paschasius Radbertus, De partu virginis, 13–14.

52 Concern for the unity of the church, including lengthy considerations of Baptism and the Eucharist, dominates Paschasius' massive Commentary on Matthew written for the monks of St. Riquier, with whom he spent his exile from Corbie. See examples in Paschasius Radbertus, Expositio in Matheo libri xii, 188–194, 1288–1298, and 1432–1437. Unity, as well as sacraments, also figure prominently in his treatise on faith, hope and charity written for the new community of monks at Corvey. See examples in Paschasius, De fide, spe et caritate, at 7, 31–38, and 135–39.

53 The importance of this identification in the theology of Paschasius Radbertus is developed in S. Bonano, “The Divine Maternity and the Eucharistic Body in the Doctrine of Paschasius Radbertus,” Ephemerides mariologicae 1 (1951) 379–94.

54 Paschasius Radbertus, De partu virginis, 51–52. “Verbum caro factum non ut caeteri nascuntur infantes, aut ut ex dono gratiae fiunt homines, sed sicut beatus Gregorius ait in Moralibus, salua proprietate utriusque naturae essentialiter in suam assumpsit personam hominem. Per quod mirabile sacramentum et aeternus ex Patre et temporalis ex matre, unus idemque esset uerus Dei hominisque Filius.”

55 Ibid., 55. “Verbum caro factum est (John 1:14), non commixtione naturae, sed ex unitate personae…. Quia et ista ineffabilis est et mira natiuitas carnis, non sicut isti caecutiunt, communis ex lege naturae, sed sacramento gratiae.”

56 Ibid., 62–63. “…in sacramento futurae praefigurationis uocabantur sancti, cum non essent, donec ueniret Christus essentialiter sanctus, qui et sponsae suae uuluam aperiret fecunditatemque periendi filios refunderet.”

57 MacDonald notices a logical correspondence between the Carolingian argument over predestination and theology of the sacrament. A. J. MacDonald, Authority and Reason in the Early Middle Ages (London: Oxford University Press, 1933) 53.

58 Ratramnus, De praedestinatione, 19.

59 E.g., ibid., 130.

60 Ibid., 346. “Et quod novissime in Mari Rubro Pharao cum exercitu suo perierit, et Israel in laesus transierit. Sicut magni continet mysterium sacramenti, ita constat divinae dispensationis secreto gestum, ut illi perirent, illi salvarentur.”

61 Ibid., 372, “At Sanctorum sententia est Catholicorum predestinationem esse operum Dei aeterna dispositionem, unde quia quaecumque facturus est Deus, in aeterno iudicii Sui consilio iam dispositum habet.”

62 Ibid., 372–74. “Quapropter, cum dicitur de malis, quia ad poenas praedestinati sunt; hoc dicitur. ‘Quia Deus, secreto iudiciorum suorum sacramento, dispositum habet, quid de his, facturus sit.’ Non est igitur divinae dispensatio repugnans, si mali dicuntur esse predestinati ad poenam, quoniam predestinatio est operum Dei.”

63 Paschasius's sympathetic portrayals are no doubt motivated in part by his own turbulent career as well as his affection for his predecessors. For a brief introduction to the lives and careers of Adalhard and Wala, as well as treatment of Paschasius' lives see David Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke, 1990) 22–30. Paschasius's biographies give considerable detail to the political turmoil embroiling Adalhard and Wala see Steven A. Stofferahn, “A New Majesty: Paschasius Radbertus, Exile, and the Masters' Honor” Medieval Monks and Their World, 49–69. David Ganz, “The Epitaphium Arsenii and Opposition to Louis the Pious” Charlemagne's Heir. New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (814–840) (ed. Peter Godman and Roger Collins; Oxford: Clarendon, 1990) 537–50. Brigitte Kasten, Adalhard von Corbie. Die Biographie eines karolingischen Politikers und Klostervorstehers (Düsseldorf: Droste, 1986). Lorenz Weinrich, Graf, Mönch und Rebell. Die Biographie eines Karolingers (Lübeck und Hamburg: Matthiesen, 1963). Henry Mayr-Harting, “Two Abbots in Politics: Wala of Corbie and Bernard of Clairvaux,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. Fifth Series 40 (1990) 217–37.

64 Paschasius Radbertus, De uita sancti Adalhardi 80 (PL 120.1547D): “Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace (Luke 2:29), quia percepi omnia tui mysterii sacramenta. Et nunc quid superest, nisi ut ad te veniam?”

65 Ibid., 82 (PL 120.1548D) The importance of the Eucharist to community with Christ is explored by Patricia McCormick Zirkel, “‘Why Should it be Necessary that Christ be Immolated Daily?'—Paschasius Radbertus on Daily Eucharist,” American Benedictine Review 47 (1996) 240–59.

66 Stofferahn, “A New Majesty,” 66.

67 Paschasius Radbertus, Epitaphium Arsenii (ed. E. Dümmler; Berlin: Abhandlungen der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1900) 74 (also PL 120.1623A–1623B) “Honorius, qui erat longe diu consors a patre et ab omnibus procreatus imperator, removetur a potestate, repellitur a consortio; sacramenta universorum, quae illi facta fuerant, auctoritate paterna violantur.”

68 For a survey of the evidence on oaths, with an emphasis on its institutional significance in the Carolingian World, see Francois Ganshof, “Charlemagne's Use of the Oath” in The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy. Studies in Carolingian History (trans. Janet Sondheimer; Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1971) 111–124, originally published “Charlemagne et le serment” Mélanges d'histoire du Moyen Age dédiés à la mémoire Louis Halpen (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1951) 259–70. Charles E. Odegaard, “Carolingian Oaths of Fidelity,” Spec 16 (1941) 284–96; idem, “The Concept of Royal Power in Carolingian Oaths of Fidelity,” Spec 20 (1945) 279–89; idem, Vassi and Fideles in the Carolingian Empire (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1945; repr., New York: Octagon Books, 1972). Ferdinand Lot, “Le serment de fidélité à l'époque franque” Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 12 (1933) 569–82.

69 Paschasius Radbertus, De uita sancti Adalhadi 18 (PL 120.1518A) “Quid putas, inquit, o princeps, si fides saepe inter cruores et saevientium arma, etiam inter paganos tantum valuit, ut quisque se committeret alterius fidei sacramentis: quantum valere debeat foedus Christiani in veritate promissum?”

70 Ibid., 18 (PL 120.1518A) “Talibus dictis procul dubio liquet, quod facilius fuerit ferri violari vincula, quam hujus viri fidei contaminari promissa.”

71 Ratramnus, Epistola. MGH Epp. VI, 156. “Nam et baptismi sacramentum divinitus illum consecutum fuisse, nubis mysterio eum perfundente, sicut libellus ipse testatur, creditur.”

72 Aethicus Ister, Cosmographia. (ed. Otto Prinz; MGH Quellen zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 14; Munich: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 1993) 114–15; Isidore, Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX12.3.12–17.