ORIGINAL RESEARCH

 

Vorscholastik: The contribution of the Carolingian monk Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie (c. 790-860) to early medieval philosophy

 

 

Johann Beukes

Department of Philosophy and Classics, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Correspondence

 

 

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ABSTRACT

This article reconsiders the historical-philosophical significance of the monk and abbot of Corbie Abbey (est. 657), Paschasius Radbertus (c. 790-860). Radbert is contextualised within the cultural and academic setting of the Carolingian period of the eighth and ninth centuries while taking into account the diverse scholarly accomplishments of his contemporaries such as Alcuin of York (c. 740-804), Rabanus Maurus (c. 780-856), Walafrid Strabo (c. 809-849) and John Scottus Eriugena (815-877). The characteristic absence of contributions regarding Radbert in otherwise comprehensive introductions and editorial works in medieval philosophy is subsequently surveyed. It is shown that only a few introductory works of note contain references to Radbert, while the current specialised research is also relatively limited. Reconsidering depictions of Radbert in several older commentaries, notably Martin Grabmann's (1875-1949) Die Geschichte der Scholastischen Methode I (1957), it is suggested that Radbert's philosophical importance could be traced to Vorscholastik or the earliest development of scholasticism, as presented in his extensive commentary Expositio in Matheo Libri XII - without diminishing the ecclesiastical weight of his dispute with Ratramnus (d.c. 868) regarding their interpretation of the Eucharist in their similarly titled but disparate treatises De corpore et sanguine Domini, for which Radbert is generally better known and accordingly reflected in studies of early medieval intellectual history.
CONTRIBUTION: This article contributes to scholarship in early medieval philosophy by reassessing the philosophical influence of Paschasius Radbertus, based on the most recent specialised analyses and older modern receptions of his texts De corpore et sanguine Domini and Expositio in Matheo Libri XII.

Keywords: Carolingian period; De corpore et sanguine Domini; Mayke de Jong (1950-); Gillian R. Evans (1944-); Expositio in Matheo Libri XII; Martin Grabmann (1875-1949); Willemien Otten (1959-); Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie (c. 790-860); Rabanus Maurus (c. 780-856); Ratramnus of Corbie (d.c. 868).

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Der Matthäuskommentar des Paschasius Radbertus ist die beste exegetische Arbeit des 9. Jahrhundert s

(Grabmann, Die Geschichte der Scholastischen Methode I, 1957:198[4])

 

Introduction

How does the Carolingian monk Paschasius Radbertus¹ of Corbie (c. 790-860) fit into the early medieval landscape of philosophy and the broader Western history of ideas? Could his name be mentioned in the same vein as his (in)famous contemporary John Scottus Eriugena and other eminent Carolingians² such as Alcuin of York, Rabanus Maurus and Walafrid Strabo? What was Radbert's most definitive contribution to medieval philosophy in particular? In an attempt to answer these questions, this article³ reappraises Radbert's life and work, expressly as a thinker from the Carolingian period in the early Middle Ages. Radbert is unquestionably one of the most important literary and intellectual figures of the Carolingian Renaissance but is better known as an author of biblical exegesis (especially regarding his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Expositio in Matheo Libri XII, cf. Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie 1984 [c. 822 - c. 856]), 'theologian' (for instance, his treatise on the Eucharist, De corpore et sanguine Domini, cf. Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie 1969 [c. 843]), and historical biographer (particularly the Vita Adalhardi [cf. De Jong & Lake 2020] and Epitaphium Arsenii [cf. De Jong 2019]), than as a philosopher or authentic exponent of philosophia. As such, Radbert is given little to no coverage in standard summaries of medieval philosophy. To the degree that Radbert is thought of as an intellectual figure with lasting influence, this is typically based on De corpore et sanguine Domini, which anticipated what would eventually become the official church position on 'transubstantiation' since the early 13th century. However, it is argued infra that the division between theology and philosophy from the 12th century onwards distorts Radbert's philosophical significance, because Expositio in Matheo Libri XII (thus an exegetical work) was an important contribution to the early development of the scholastic method, itself a profoundly philosophical enterprise.

Against this background, the article's research justification holds that the striking lack of references to Radbert in otherwise highly inclusive contemporary introductions and editorial works, with little to consult outside of the applicable specialised domains in early medieval research, point towards a relatively unacknowledged thinker from the early Middle Ages - who thus merits an accessible reappraisal. Reconsidering several older studies, notably the relevant passages in the first volume of early 20th-century scholar Martin Grabmann's Die Geschichte der Scholastischen Methode (1957), it is suggested that Radbert's philosophical significance could be traced to what only later came to be known as scholasticism, specifically regarding its earliest development (or Vorscholastik), as established in his extensive commentary Expositio in Matheo Libri XII, a work consisting of 12 volumes and written over a period of around three decades (c. 822 - c. 856). This rehabilitative emphasis is put forward without discounting the ecclesiastical significance of Radbert's dispute, for which he is more generally known, with his colleague Ratramnus of Corbie (d.c. 868) regarding their interpretation of the Eucharist in their similarly titled but opposing treatises De corpore et sanguine Domini.

 

Radbert's Carolingian context: Alcuin, Rabanus, Eriugena and Walafrid

Alcuin of York (730-804) set foot in the new Carolingian⁴ world from the Anglo-Saxon setting of Northumberland. Given the chaos⁵ that swept over continental Europe the previous two centuries, the centre of administered learning shifted away from Europe to Ireland and northern England during the eighth century. The reawakening of classical antiquity was one of Charlemagne's deepest aspirations: he thus sought out the most outstanding academics of his time to provide impetus to this rebirth - indeed as far as from Anglo-Saxon England and Ireland. The Carolingian Renaissance, which gained momentum from around 780, was therefore characterised by the influence of Irish and Anglo-Saxon thinkers at the first Carolingian courts.⁶ In 782, Alcuin accepted an invitation by Charlemagne to become executive principal of the palace school in Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle; cf. Figure 1).⁷ There he developed into a prestigious educator:⁸ some of the most outstanding figures from the Carolingian Renaissance were tutored directly by him, including Rabanus Maurus (c. 780-856). On Charlemagne's order, Alcuin set out in 789 to participate in the reforming of monasteries throughout the Carolingian empire, conforming them to their Irish counterparts' putative uniformity and academic achievement. Although Alcuin's role in the Carolingian monastic reform movement should not be overstated, over the next two decades he played a noteworthy role in the restructuring of Benedictine monasteries in Western Europe to correspond to this ideal, in spite of their cultural and geographical diversity, as well as furthering the Carolingian objective to rehabilitate the philosophical, scientific, architectural and artistic accomplishments of classical antiquity. Alcuin opened the intellectual history of the ancients with characteristic Anglo-Saxon erudition and concretised the Greek and Roman legacies in exceptional libraries within the more streamlined version of Benedictine monasticism. The reformed monasteries, with their newly established schools and libraries, later accompanied by cathedral schools, provided the institutional environment wherein the liberal arts would be practised for almost three centuries, until the establishment of the first university in Bologna in 1088. Alcuin unlocked the Carolingian door for one Irishman in particular, John Scottus Eriugena (815-877),⁹ as well as Rabanus and Walafrid Strabo (c. 809-849).¹⁰

Eriugena arrived at the Carolingian court, now that of Charles II, in the 840s. He can justifiably be regarded as the only genuinely speculative Carolingian philosopher (cf. Carabine 2000:13-14). Furthermore, Eriugena was the first Latin translator of Pseudo-Dionysius' (c. 500) whole extant oeuvre in Greek, presented as the Corpus Dionysiacum. His Periphyseon (864-866), a work that was repeatedly denounced, formally condemned in 1210 and put on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1684 (for nearly three centuries, before the Index itself expired in the 1960s [cf. Beukes 2021a:1-3; Carabine 2000:23]), consists of five magnificent volumes. Alcuin's student Rabanus was appointed abbot of the Abbey of Fulda in 824 (until 842), eventually rising to the archbishopric of Mainz (cf. Figure 1) in 847. He was considered an excellent exegete of the Gospel of Matthew and the Pauline letters, presented commentaries on the church fathers which were widely circulated and was, as the author of De rerum naturis, also known as a remarkable encyclopaedist in the tradition of Isidor of Sevilla's (c. 560-636) Etymologiae.¹¹ Walafrid again earned trust for his balanced and irenic handling of tense theological-philosophical issues, including the correct interpretation of the Eucharist (an issue, as we will see, that led to intense controversy in the Carolingian empire from the 830s onwards). As a hallmark of his conciliatory approach, Walafrid even succeeded in appeasing the predestinarian dissident Gottschalk Van Orbais' (c. 808-868) theological participation in the revolts of 828 and 832 against Louis the Pious. Walafrid became abbot of Reichenau Abbey (est. 724) at the uncommonly young age of 29. In Alcuin's footsteps, Rabanus, Eriugena and Walafrid contributed to an intellectual environment wherein their contemporary Radbert was sculpted into an authentic Carolingian who made an independent contribution to the early medieval history of ideas. The question is what that contribution was, and if Radbert's legacy is to be restricted to only a single yet consequential event: the circulation of his treatise De corpore et sanguine Domini in 822.

 

De corpore et sanguine Domini (822-843): Radbert and Ratramnus

Born between 785 and 790 and brought up as an orphan at the nunnery Notre-Dame de Soissons, Radbert became a monk at and later the abbot of Corbie Abbey (est. 657, cf. Figure 1) in Picardy, a Merovingian royal monastery containing an excellent library (cf. Ganz [1995] 2006:804).¹² At Soissons, he was educated by its later abbess, Theodara (d. 846), the youngest sister of two monks from the nobility and blood relatives of Charlemagne, Adalhard (d. 826) and Wala (d. 836), who acted as abbots of Corbie from 781 and 826, respectively (cf. De Jong 2019:19-34; Kasten 1986:13-41). Under Adalhard's guidance, Radbert started the novitiate at Corbie in 812. By the time of Adalhard's death in 826, master Radbert was the principal of the monastery school and a respected lecturer in biblical exegesis (cf. Contreni [1995] 2006:721). In that capacity, he was able to successfully advance the appointment of Wala as his late brother's successor. In 822 (cf. Matis 2019:177), Radbert circulated a treatise on the Eucharist, which initially was intended for use by Corbie Abbey's sister monastery in Corvey (in present North Rhine-Westphalia; cf. Figure 1). The objective of this first in a series of the same-titled treatises was to educate new converts from Saxony at the Corvey nunnery on the importance of the proper understanding of the sacrament. Titled De corpore et sanguine Domini (hence DcsD; Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie 1969 [c.843]), the document was deemed important from the outset as it was the first commentary from the Latin Christian West dealing exclusively with the Eucharist (cf. Phelan 2010:271). However, Radbert's technical¹³ exegesis of the relevant passages from scripture led to diverse interpretations, resulting in disagreement in the Carolingian court itself (cf. De Jong & Lake 2020:4). To avoid further misinterpretations, Radbert reworked the original document between 831 and 833. Charles II nevertheless decided in 843, with the authoritative support of Rabanus, to establish a comprehensive consensus in the empire regarding the correct interpretation of the Eucharist (cf. Matis 2019:176). Although Radbert was considered to be an exceptionally competent exegete at this stage, he was subsequently called up by Charles II in 843 to present his interpretation with yet another adaptation of the original treatise of 822 and the reworked version of 831-833 (cf. Chazelle 2001:210).

With the completion of this refinement in the same year, strategically presented as a gift to Charles II (albeit with exactly the same title as the original and reworked versions), Radbert's interpretation of the Eucharist came under fire again (cf. Ganz [1995] 2006:779). His former student at Corbie and successor as principal of its monastery school, Ratramnus (d.c. 868), answered Radbert's interpretation (without mentioning him by name) with a detailed commentary, explicitly supported by Rabanus, with (again, for obviously polemic reasons) the same title. In 843, there were, as a result, four documents bearing the title De corpore et sanguine Domini: Radbert's three versions of 822, 831-833 and finally 843 and Ratramnus' commentary dated the same year. Radbert presented the same argument in all the versions of his original text of 822, which echoed throughout the following centuries regarding (later¹⁴ correspondingly called) the doctrine of transubstantiation.¹⁵ He was, on the patristic trail left by Ambrose, the first medieval exponent of this interpretation in his attempt to demonstrate philosophically that Christ is substantial and fully present at the moment of consecration at the sacrament of the altar. The bread and wine become, in this transubstantiated sense, the true body (verum corpus) of Christ. Ratramnus countered this interpretation with his accent on the symbolical and (even) metaphorical functioning of the bread and wine (thus as 'signs'). Ratramnus used the same distinction between figura and veritas as Radbert but provided it with a sharper empirical content: figura accordingly points to 'that which can be recognised by the senses' and veritas that 'which is known to be true', a deduction based on the former recognition by the senses. The bread and wine could, as a result, not be the real body and blood of Christ because it is not recognised as such by the senses. The sensory experience of the bread and wine never changes: the bread and wine are at the time of receiving the sacrament precisely what they were before, namely bread and wine, and not the real, historical and incarnated body of Christ (cf. Chazelle 2001:32-36). However banal this may seem, the point was that something else was required for the sacrament to be truly functional: namely, on Augustine's trail, faith. Although Ratramnus had no intention to let this difference in interpretation develop into a formal controversy (e.g. not mentioning Radbert by name), it was clear to their contemporaries whose interpretation was critically exposed. Although Radbert was not formally reprimanded (because it was not an official controversy), Ratramnus' version was welcomed to such an extent that Radbert's position at Corbie Abbey was considerably weakened. Nevertheless, in the absence of any official proceedings, Radbert was appointed abbot of Corbie in September 843. He attempted to reform the monastery on several levels in this capacity, however, with negligible success.

Ratramnus' version of DcsD gained the upper hand on at least three possible grounds.¹⁶ Firstly, he quoted and annotated the patristic sources thoroughly and consistently, especially regarding Augustine, while even Radbert's last reworked version of 843 lacked a similar scope of referencing, including his preferred source, Ambrose. Secondly, and as a result of this, Radbert was suspected of indifference towards tradition: in fact, the students at the monastery school, under the guidance of one Fredugard, formally challenged his knowledge of and loyalty to the patristic sources (cf. Otten 2000:141, 158).¹⁷ The disagreement with Ratramnus, the questioning of his loyalty to tradition by his students and the broader resistance to his reform initiatives by the young monks at Corbie took their toll. After only 6 years as abbot, Radbert stepped down in 849 and withdrew to the nearby monastery at Saint-Riquier to continue his academic work. A decade later he returned to Corbie, where he died shortly after. Radbert was buried in the Church of St John in Corbie and later, on the pope's order, reburied in the proximate Church of St Peter.¹⁸

Recent interpretations prioritise DcsD as Radbert's fundamental contribution to the intellectual Middle Ages, especially regarding his role in medieval church history - because the doctrine on the eucharist from the early 13th century onwards was clearly based on his expositions of 822, 831-833 and 843. However, if portraits of Radbert in older 20th-century commentaries are reconsidered, it becomes clear that there is more to the monk's legacy than this dispute. The following two sections thus re-examine Radbert's philosophical trail via older analyses, finding his intellectual impact on the central and later Middle Ages not only in DcsD but the stylistic qualities of his exegetical method, as manifested in Expositio in Matheo Libri XII. Such a reconnaissance would have to start with an account of the current state of research.

 

The state of Radbert research, anno 2022

Radbert is a relatively unacknowledged thinker from the early Middle Ages: except for what eventually turned out to be the lasting nature of his version of DcsD, his broader historical impact is still underexplored in contemporary medieval philosophy scholarship. This statement could be substantiated by a comparative reading of the most significant introductions, companions and dictionaries published in the field over the past two decades. These kinds of works, also intended for a nonspecialised readership, are often helpful as barometers for the evaluation of a particular thinker's standing on the margins or completely outside the canon¹⁹ of medieval philosophy. The dictionary of Brown and Flores (2007:208) contained a cryptic examination of one paragraph, which focuses on DcsD only and which is comparable to the length of deliberations on other lesser-known thinkers in the particular work. A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages by Gracia and Noone (eds. 2006) contains an assessment (although not on Radbert as such but broad developments in the Latin Christian West from 750 to 1050), offered by King (2006:33-34) - again, the focus is on DcsD only while Expositio in Matheo Libri XII is not mentioned. However, in a unique overview of what she considers to be '50 key figures' in medieval philosophy, Evans (2002) remarkably included several lesser-known and (outside of the specialised research in each case) unknown thinkers, notably also Radbert (Evans 2002:44-50).²⁰ Evans' (2002:48) singling Radbert out as 'representative of a series of Carolingian and post-Carolingian scholars who took forward the work of Bede' (Venerabilis, 673-735) and her immediate focus on Expositio in Matheo Libri XII while only briefly discussing DcsD as of secondary interest thereafter (Evans 2002:49) should, in light of the above overview, be considered exceptional. Evans' reception holds that Radbert's legacy should not be restricted to only his participation in this 9th-century dispute on the Eucharist but include his exegetical style, that is, 'how to balance brevity with completeness' (Evans 2002:48). Regarding references to Radbert as an original Carolingian thinker, these three works stand out in the recent overview literature - because there is conspicuously little else.²¹ To depict Radbert as a relatively unacknowledged thinker from the early Middle Ages who therefore merits an accessible reappraisal is thus a reasonable deduction: wherever he is implied to be in the context of early medieval philosophy and Carolingian culture, he is being subordinated to other Carolingians who do feature in these introductory works.

Why is this the case? McKitterick and Marenbon (1998:96-97) provided a cue: 'The period from 800 to 1100 is even more neglected by historians of medieval Western philosophy than the rest of the Middle Ages […]'; however, '[T]he names of some of those besides Eriugena and Anselm who considered philosophical questions in the early Middle Ages are known […]', followed by an extensive list of Carolingians and post-Carolingians, with, of course, the exception of Radbert. Thus, apart from the Carolingian and post-Carolingian contexts as such being underrepresented in medieval scholarship, Radbert is not included even in a comprehensive list of thinkers from these two under-rated idea-historical periods. The reason for that is, taking McKitterick and Marenbon's second remark into count, that Radbert is evidently not considered a philosopher proper - but a theologian. On the one hand, that is true: Radbert did not contribute to the primary index of medieval philosophy regarding cosmology, epistemology, metaphysics, psychology and ethics (including political theory). On the other hand, up to the last decades of the 11th century, there was no fixed borderline between philosophy and (what would only from that time slowly but progressively be referred to as) theology. Until the development of scholasticism within the institutional framework of the upcoming universities of the early 12th century, there were no philosophers vis-à-vis theologians: all academics were still considered to be exponents of one administrated form of learning and tuition called philosophia. Even pura et vera 'philosophers' - thus, those who formally contributed to the given index - were as much theologians as they were literary theorists, linguists, natural scientists and jurists. And 'theologians', such as Radbert, who thus did not formally or substantially contribute to that index, utilised the full repertoire of (medieval) philosophy to address theological issues (in debates on, e.g. the Eucharist, regarding causality and the relation between substance, matter, form and accidental features). It is unclear how this trend of overlooking Radbert based on an implied distinction between theology and philosophy before the 12th century established itself in the later modern scholarship. If one wants to engage the broader significance of Radbert's legacy, it appears that the only route is to go back in the reception history to a point where that implied distinction was not made, which would be in commentaries from at least the first half of the 20th century.

The most recent specialised research on Radbert is also comparatively limited. It comprises the eminent scholar of the early Middle Ages, De Jong's (2019) outstanding Epitaph for an Era,²² De Jong and Lake's (2020) translation and annotation of Radbert's funeral oration for Wala, reminiscent of Cabaniss's (1967) translation and commentary of Radbert's vitae of both Adalhard and Wala; Vaillancourt's (transl. 2020) translation of De corpore et sanguine Domini; Appleby's (2005:1-46) survey of the place of the body in Radbert's thought; Matis' (2019:139-175) chapter on Radbert's use of Song of Songs as an exegetical leitmotif (although Radbert never wrote a commentary on it); and Phelan's (2010:271-289) fresh juxtaposition of Radbert and Ratramnus in the Eucharist dispute. Remarkably, Radbert was also one of a handful of monks presented as case studies in a relatively recent survey of developments in medieval monasticism (in eds. Blanks, Frasetto & Livingstone 2006; cf. Stofferahn 2006:49-69).

 

Radbert's contribution to the earliest development of scholasticism: Expositio in Matheo Libri XII (826-856)

Exploring the 12 books of Expositio in Matheo Libri XII (Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie 1984 [c.822 - c.856], hence EMLXII) is not possible within the limited scope of this article. However, its sheer size, and the fact that it has never been translated out of Latin, make in-depth analyses and applications of EMLXII a potentially fruitful source for further research, as Heydemann (2021:79-83) recently displayed in her analysis of Carolingian interpretations of 2 Timothy 2:4, employing sections of Volume X as Radbert's thematical contribution to Carolingian exegeses of the particular text. Expositio in Matheo Libri XII was edited in three volumes by Beda Paulus in 1984 in Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis (56, 56A, 56B). The 12 volumes were both Radbert's first and last project: he had completed volumes I to IV by 831 (ed. Paulus 1984:viii) and the remaining eight volumes only after he resigned as abbot in 849 (De Jong 2019:39).²³

Evans thus had good reason to not only include Radbert in her introduction but to specifically highlight EMLXII, not overstating DcsD and rather focusing on Radbert's exegetical style and method. Whatever Evans' unique considerations were in terms of the unconventional nature of her introductory work, the fact remains that the reception over the past decades focused on DcsD as Radbert's primary, if not exclusive, contribution to the intellectual Middle Ages, while on occasion taking into secondary account the weight of his vitae of Adalhard and Wala (as De Jong 2019; De Jong & Lake 2020 did again recently). In the recent scholarship, the import of EMLXII thus features as an exception to the rule, as in Evans' reception. However, this was not always the case: two common features of the older literature point precisely in this direction - firstly, these older appraisals of Radbert typically do not distinguish between philosophy and theology preceding the 12th century; secondly, they do not isolate DcsD as Radbert's primary contribution but present a balanced reception wherein EMLXII plays a significant role without necessarily discounting the (especially for church history) import of Radbert's version of DcsD.

The hermeneutical intention of the older generation of modern scholars is clear: if Radbert is remembered only for his role in the Eucharist debate, there would be no reason to consider him an authentic exponent of philosophia proper. However, when EMLXII forms part of a more comprehensive evaluation of Radbert's legacy, he has to be considered an influential Carolingian beyond the scope of a debate he initially lost and only got the upper hand in almost four centuries after his death. The older reception therefore presents a balanced approach by accounting for the influence of EMLXII on the earliest development of what later manifested in Anselm's (1033-1109) Monologion (c.1076) and Proslogion (c.1078) as a method, one which became the standard paradigm for textual exegesis from at least the early 12th to the first half of the 14th century. The scholastic method, as it was called only later, indeed combined brevity and completeness, stating as much as possible with as little as possible, even if it eventually meant presenting multivolume works on a certain topic. This method would indeed become indicative of the characteristic direction medieval philosophy took during that highest curve in the development (and eventually the demise) of accordingly so-called scholasticism.²⁴

Examples of these older studies are Ebert's (1880:230-244) Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande, which, in its solemn focus on EMLXII, was one of the first modern introductions that engaged Radbert's legacy beyond the Eucharist dispute; likewise, the relevant section in the first volume of Manitius' (1911:401-411) Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters found a balanced midway in its reception of both DcsD and EMLXII; the same applies to Henri Peltier's Pascase Radbert (1938; the only modern [or at least 'most recent', De Jong 2019:35] monograph on Radbert) and his earlier contribution to Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique (13[2]; cf. Peltier 1908:1628-1639; to be certain, Peltier discussed EMLXII first, before briefly turning to DcsD)²⁵; also, McCracken and Cabaniss' (1957:90-93) relevant section in their Early Medieval Theology presented a non-prioritised reception of the two texts. This unprejudiced focus on EMLXII vis-à-vis DcsD is also present in a remarkable series of passages contained in the first unit of a two-volume study on the development of scholasticism by an eminent German scholar from the first half of the 20th century, Martin Grabmann's (1875-1949) Die Geschichte der Scholastischen Methode (1957).²⁶ Grabmann's reception of Radbert can be presented as representative of these older receptions that made no implied distinction between theology and philosophy before the 12 century, as one would find in more recent interpretations. The two volumes of Die Geschichte der Scholastischen Methode were posthumously edited and composed of Grabmann's publications and unpublished manuscripts on scholasticism, presented from 1909 to 1949 (cf. publisher's Vorwort, second title page and vii-ix, in Grabmann 1957). The first volume covers developments only after Augustine (who Grabmann curiously but explicitly, if not polemically, excluded from the medieval corpus), specifically from Boethius (c. 477-524, 'der letze Römer und der erste Scholastiker', Grabmann 1957:148-177) onwards, ending with an exhaustive section on Anselm, to whom Grabmann (1957:258) rightly refers as the authentic founder of the scholastic method ('Der Vater der Scholastik'; cf. Grabmann 1957:258-340).

In the fourth section of this first volume, titled 'Die Überlieferung und Weiterbildung der patristischen und boethianischen Anfänge der scholastischen Methode in der Vorscholastik', Grabmann (1957:178-257) isolates two phases in the earliest phases of the development of scholasticism: Vorscholastik (which can possibly be translated as 'proto-scholasticism', cf. Grabmann 1957:178-214) indicating the relevant post-Roman and Carolingian contributions from Bede onwards ('Die wissenschaftlice Arbeitsweise im karolingischen Zeitalter') and Am Vorabend der Scholastik ('the dawn of scholasticism'), referring to post-Carolingian developments up to Anselm in the 11th century ('Methodische Strebungen und Strömungen in der Theologie des 11. Jahrhunderts'). Radbert was accordingly located in Vorscholastik, a subperiod which Grabmann (1957:178-214) qualified with reference to Eriugena in particular ('Ist Scotus Eriugena der Vater der Scholastik?' (pp. 202-210), a rhetorical question he answers in the negative). However, Grabmann (1957:198-200) singles out Radbert as the most significant contributor to Vorscholastik, next to Eriugena. While giving proper attention to the contributions of Alcuin (pp. 193-195), Rabanus (pp. 195-196) and Walafrid (pp. 197), he remarkably highlights EMLXII as 'the best exegetical work of the ninth century' ('Der Matthäuskommentar des Paschasius Radbertus ist die beste exegetische Arbeit des 9. Jahrhunderts'; Grabmann 1957:198[4]). Given Rabanus' reputation as the leading ninth-century commentator on Matthew, this statement is very significant. Although Grabmann (1957:198-200) thoroughly acknowledges the import of DcsD for medieval church history from the early 13th century onwards (i.e. after the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215), his main focus is on Radbert's import for his own time - that is, regarding Vorscholastik. Grabmann's statement and subsequent exposition were fundamentally based on Anton Schönbach's reading of Radbert in his Über einige Evangelienkommentare des Mittelalters (cf. Grabmann 1957:198-199; Schönbach 1903:142-174). Schönbach (1903:145-147) depicted the multivolume EMLXII as representative of a new style of multifaceted, polygonal and compilatory²⁷ works that, parallel with the historical-philosophical significance of the rise of encyclopaedic works such as that of Rabanus, thoroughly employed the available register of interpretations on a particular topic, synthesising it in a single event. This was not the scholastic method yet - but clearly a prelude to its development from Anselm onwards. For Schönbach and Grabmann Vorscholastik was, in this sense, of profound philosophical significance. This is the reason why Grabmann accentuated Radbert's meticulous exegetical style, his ability to combine concision and historical-discursive density, working proto-scholastically forward on the strengths of tradition without being held captive by it: an approach developed with painstaking precision over more than three decades in the 12 volumes of EMLXII. This methodical and indeed stylistic quality must have been of direct significance for 'all the great theologians of early- and high-scholasticism' (Grabmann 1957:200). If Radbert's exegetical ability was already noticeable in DcsD and other early treatises such as De fide, spe et caritate, it was, according to Grabmann, shadowing Schönbach, blueprinted by EMLXII. Grabmann (1957:200) concluded that Paschasius Radbertus:

[W]as probably the most erudite and capable scholar since Alcuin, one deeply versed in the texts of both the Greek and Latin fathers, notably also Augustine, an encyclopaedic and lively spirit, one that was able to unite theory and praxis and thoroughly internalize all tradition had to offer […] he did for his time what Origen did for all of Christian dogmatics. (author's semantic translation of Grabmann 1957:200 [par. 1], also supra)

However, Grabmann did not pursue these remarks about Radbert any further, neither in the section on Radbert (Grabmann 1957:198-200) nor in the section on Anselm (Grabmann 1957:258-340). In what sense then, did Radbert's exegetical method represent a stepping-stone on the path to the development of scholasticism, as Grabmann in this teleological understanding of the development of scholasticism maintained? Had Anselm indeed read EMLXII? If it cannot be confirmed, we must deduce that Grabmann's highlighting of Radbert's significance for the later development of scholasticism was based on stylistic considerations only.

There is no evidence that Anselm read EMLXII. A survey of Evans' (ed. 1984) four-volume concordance of all Anselm's works and their English translations by Davies and Evans (eds. & transl. 1998 [2008]) and Hopkins and Richardson (eds. & transl. 2000) shows that Anselm did not make any reference to Radbert, EMLXII or DcsD. Plus, if there was such a reference, however subtle, as a leading Anselm scholar Evans most likely would have mentioned it in her previously mentioned section on Radbert (thus, in Fifty Key Medieval Thinkers, Evans 2002:44-50). Grabmann, for his part, knew there was no such reference and that is why he did not further elaborate on any possible textual relation between Anselm and Radbert. He already stated his case: simply put, Vorscholastik was key in the early development of scholasticism and EMLXII was exemplary of it. As Evans did more than four decades later, in her highlighting of Radbert's exegetical style and method, Grabmann concentrated on matters of style and composition, and, for the first time in a long time, Radbert was recognised as important beyond an infamous dogmatic debate on the Eucharist - indeed, as an encyclopaedic spirit and a Carolingian of philosophical consequence.

 

Conclusion

This article endeavoured, within a limited scope, to draw attention to the philosophical impact Paschasius Radbertus exerted on early medieval intellectual and religious culture. He should be considered an influential exponent of the development of the earliest stages of scholasticism and not be relegated to only his participation in the Eucharist debate of the ninth century. Based on the lack of references to Radbert in contemporary nonspecialised introductions and taking into account a limited specialised scholarship, he was depicted as a relatively unacknowledged thinker from the early Middle Ages: however, by reconsidering portraits in modern, less recent commentaries, of which Grabmann's Die Geschichte der Scholastischen Methode I of 1957 could be considered representative, it was suggested that Radbert's historical-philosophical significance could be traced to Vorscholastik or the earliest stages of the development of scholasticism, as established over more than three decades in Expositio in Matheo Libri XII. This reconstructive reading was presented without disregarding the ecclesiastical significance of the Eucharist debate in De corpore et sanguine Domini, as typically underscored in contemporary scholarship. The modest master from Corbie deserves to be remembered for more than his participation in an eventual influential dogmatic debate: certainly, also for his encyclopaedic exegetical style, which helped paved the way for the myriad of multivolume commentaries presented by the prestigious schoolmen of the central Middle Ages.

 

Acknowledgements

Competing interests

The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.

Author's contributions

J.B. is the sole author of this article.

Ethical considerations

This article followed all ethical standards of research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.

Funding information

This article was funded by the Department of Philosophy and Classics, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Free State.

Data availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.

 

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Correspondence:
Johann Beukes
beukescj1@ufs.ac.za

Received: 09 May 2022
Accepted: 09 July 2022
Published: 30 Nov. 2022

 

 

1 . Like many other medieval monks who received a sobriquet or moniker at their base monasteries, Paschasius Radbertus was primarily known as 'Paschasius': the byname most likely referred to the penitent deacon in the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great (590-604), because Radbertus, in characteristic modesty, chose to remain a deacon and refused to be ordained a priest (cf. De Jong & Lake 2020:xix). In medieval scholarship, the moniker, original first name and location (or 'medieval surname') are normally used in titles, initial references to and the bibliography of a particular thinker, after which only one is typically prioritised: Appleby (2005:1-46), De Jong (2019:35-43), De Jong and Lake (2020:2-5), Otten (2000:137-138) and Cabaniss (1967:3), for example, use 'Radbertus' while Brown and Flores (2007:208), Matis (2019:177) and Evans (2002:44) preferred 'Paschasius'. Other scholars, for example, Contreni ([1995] 2006:709-757), choose to consistently use both names in full. Following the first preference, De Jong (2019) and De Jong and Lake's (2020) abbreviation of the Latin version to simply 'Radbert' in English is practical and maintained here.
2 . The term 'Carolingians' refers to a group of diverse politicians and thinkers who worked at or were associated with successive Carolingian courts from around 780 to the end of the ninth century. For an internal periodisation of medieval philosophy from 410 to 1464 (including the Carolingian [742-877] and post-Carolingian [877-1088] periods), see Beukes (2020b:2 [fn.2]).
3 . The article's objective is modest, namely to reassess Radbert not from the periphery of medieval philosophy but its 'canon'. In terms of scope and methodological orientation, it is akin to Ideengeschichte (a term difficult to translate in English, pointing towards the 'idea-historical', 'historical-philosophical', 'discursive' or an 'intellectual history'), which is a more limited form of historiography that focuses on the origins and development of an idea, the relation between ideas and institutions or thought and praxis and situated in the more flexible space between historiography and exposition. In extensive works, such as dissertations or specialised monographs, one could expect a more pertinent positioning regarding either a fully developed historiographical survey or a thorough literary analysis (in this instance, it would involve an in-depth analysis of the 12 volumes of Expositio in Matheo Libri XII). However, a short ideengeschichtliche study, such as the one in hand, given its discreet purpose and declared limited scope, does not necessarily have to rigidly position itself to either historiography or literary analysis but can afford to utilise the restricted space between the two.
4 . For recent overviews of Carolingian cultural and political history, see Airlie (2016:90-102, 109-127, 2020:27-92, 173-216), the diverse contributions in the editorial work of Airlie, Pohl and Reimitz (eds. 2006), Booker (2009), Contreni ([1995] 2006:709-757); De Jong (2006:622-653, 2009, 2015:6-25, 2019:151-177), Costambeys, Innes and MacLean (2011), Flierman (2017), Kennedy ([1995] 2006:249-271); Keynes ([1995] 2006:43-54); McKitterick (2004, [1995] 2006:64-84, 2008), Nelson (1996:37-50, 2001:17-42), Noble (2009:1-6), Patzold (2008), Schäpers (2018:1-42) and Rembold (2018). The synopsis provided in footnotes 5-7 represents a reworked synthesis of these recent analyses and provides the décor for what is to follow in the main text.
5 . The transitional phase from the post-Roman to the Carolingian period (530-742) could be characterised as the 'Dark Ages' proper: there is, for example, virtually no record of systematic philosophical activity during these two centuries. The transition was typified by social, religious and political instability in terms of the long-term consequences of the eventual fall of Rome in 530; the resulting shift of the empirical seat to the East and the remarkable ascent of Byzantium, with a subsequent polarisation between East and West and tension between the Eastern and Western church; the rise of Islam, as a result of its almost immediate imperialist inclinations after the death of the prophet Muhammad (c. 570-632); the southern migration of several European tribes, notably the Visigoths, which by the 6th century (after their successful invasion of Rome in 410) spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula, seizing the best part of Spain, and the violent inflow of the Lombards, who eventually ruled over most of the Italian Peninsula up to 774. Within a decade after Muhammad's death, Islam had spread from Arabia to Persia and the old Roman provinces of Syria, Palestine and Egypt. In 698, the Muslims occupied Carthage, and only a decade later, the whole of Northern Africa was under their control. Islam crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in 711, demolished the Visigoths in Spain and expanded to Portugal and the western parts of Italy. Islam's advance towards Northern Europe was only halted by the leader of Francia (present-day France and Germany), Charles Martel (686-741). Martel's grandson Charlemagne (Charles I [Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, Karl der Große], 742-814) became king of the Franks in 768 and of the Lombards in 774. Charlemagne's successor was one of his three legitimate sons, Louis I ('the Pious', 778-840), who from 813 acted as co-emperor and after his father's death in 814 as sole emperor of the Frankish empire (or the Holy Roman Empire, as it was called only later). Louis the Pious was effectively succeeded by the sons with his first wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye (c. 778-818), Lothair I (795-855), Louis II ('the German', 806-876) and second wife Judith (of Bavaria, 797-843) and Charles II ('the Bald', 823-877). The two brothers and their half-brother engaged in a fierce contest for succession to the throne after Louis the Pious' death in 840, resulting in a civil war that lasted three years and was ended by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843. According to this agreement, the Frankish empire was redivided among the three, who were already established in one kingdom each (Lothair I in Italy, Louis II in Bavaria and Charles II in Aquitaine). Lothair I was offered the central part (Francia Media), Louis II the eastern part (Francia Orientalis) and Charles II the western part (Francia Occidentalis). Although Charlemagne could during the 770s make no significant change to the dominant presence of Islam in the western parts of Spain, he did succeed in driving them back to the Pyrenees and lower Alps. He also intervened in the eastern parts of Spain and the western parts of Italy by bringing Lombardy, Bavaria and Saxony under Frankish control and having his second son Pepin (Carloman, c. 777-810) crowned as king of Italy (781-810). When Pope Leo III (c. 750-816, pope 795-816) was evicted from Rome in 799, Charlemagne famously interceded and restored Leo to the Holy See. In recognition, Leo crowned Charlemagne on 25 December 800 as the first emperor of the new empire, which included virtually all Christians from continental Western Europe at the time of Charlemagne's death in 814.
6 . Although the Roman empire controlled Britain for four centuries, it never conquered Ireland. Christianity, however, accelerated its attempts to christianise Ireland by the introduction of Latin academic culture, especially regarding logic, grammar and rhetoric, the first three of the seven liberal arts, otherwise known as the trivium. Gaelic culture was thus penetrated intellectually by the Latin Christian West. The unique, apparently outlandish Byzantine-Benedictine form of monasticism, a hybrid of Eastern and Western influences, subsequently evolved to something more authentically Western European during the eighth century. For example, Columbanus (c. 591-615), an influential Irish missionary, established rhetoric as a standard academic discipline in Irish monasteries, while the founder of the monasteries at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, Benedictus Biscop of Northumberland (c. 628-690), was highly competent in both Greek and Latin. He was also an associate of both the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Byzantine Greek Theodore of Tarsus (c. 602-690) and the Northern African scholar Hadrian of Canterbury (d. 710), who in turn was deeply embedded in the Greek culture of southern Italy. Out of this Byzantine-Benedictine fusion of traditions and influences at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, several influential scholars stepped to the fore, including Bede Venerabilis (673-735), Anglo-Saxon England's most erudite Latin writer, and Alcuin.
7 . At this stage, Charlemagne already had employed several foreigners as educators at his court: the Italian Peter of Pisa (Petrus Grammaticus, 744-799), the famous historian of the Lombards Paul the Deacon (Paulus Diaconus, c. 720-799) and the Spaniards Agobard, Archbishop of Lyon (c. 779-840) and Theodulf, Bishop of Orléans (c. 750-821), were all non-Frankish intellectuals who were working at the court and palace school by the time of Alcuin's arrival (cf. Ganz [1995] 2006:802-805).
8 . For accessible appraisals of Alcuin (also known as Alchuine, Eahlwine, Ahlwin and Alchoin), see Allott (1974), Bullough (2004), Dales (2004, 2012), Duckett (1951), Gaskoin (1966), Houwen and McDonald (eds. 1998), Kempshall (2008:7-30), Marenbon (1981:1-88) and Wallach (1959).
9 . For Eriugena's role in and signifance for the Carolingian period and immediately thereafter, see Beierwaltes (ed. 1987:9-38), Carabine (2000:13-26), Copleston (1993:112-135), Hyman, Walsh and Williams (eds. 2010:145-148), Marenbon (1981:88-111, 1988:48-52), Moran (1989:35-47, 1990:131-151), O'Meara (1988), Otten (1991:40-81) and Weiner (2007:1-40). For an overview of the most recent (2018-2021) Eriugena research and especially the work of the Society for the Promotion of Eriugena Studies (SPES) from 1970 to 2020, see Beukes (2021a:1-13).
10 . At the same time the Carolingian Renaissance gained momentum from the 780s onwards, the Arabic thinkers of the early Middle Ages opened their own philosophical gateways in Baghdad and Cordova, Spain. In terms of intellectual historiography, the Carolingian period in the 9th century would, after Alcuin, accordingly reflect two basic sides: the speculative work of Eriugena from the Latin Christian West and the extensive circles of rising Aristotelian scholars from the Arabic Islamic East (cf. Beukes 2018:502-564).
11 . For an overview of Rabanus' historical-philosophical significance, especially as an encyclopaedist, see Heyse (1969). The import of encyclopaedic works during the 9th century will be discussed in the last section of the article.
12 . Given the limited biographical information on Radbert, De Jong's (2019:35-43) account is the most extensive and updated offering in the current scholarship. For an analysis of the social conditions in Picardy relating to Corbie Abbey around the middle of the 9th century, see Ganz (1990:1-25) and Krüger (1982:181-196). Apart from its distinguished library, the school at Corbie was highly regarded ('[f]ew centres could match the record of Auxerre, whose known masters, Muretach, Haimo, Heiric and Remigius, span the course of the ninth century. Corbie comes close with [its masters …] Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus' [Contreni [1995] 2006:725]).
13 . Just how complex Radbert's exposition was becomes apparent in Otten's (2000:141-154) nuanced analysis. Radbert effectively maintained Ambrose's (c. 339 - c. 397) view that the Eucharist points to a mysterium because it indeed contains the verum corpus of the crucified Christ (cf. Otten 2000:148-149). He subsequently distinguished figura (external form) and veritas (internal truth), arguing that the form of the bread and wine should not be confused with the internal truth of it, namely that the external bread and wine, when received at the moment of consecration, become the internal truth of the body and blood of Christ (cf. Fulton 2005:41-60), confirming the reading of McCracken and Cabaniss (1957:110-111). In this sense, 'what makes the eucharist a true mysterium for Radbert(us) […] (is) that it is veritas and figura at the same time' (Otten 2000:149; cf. Chazelle 1992:1-36). Ratramnus, on the other hand, confirmed Augustine's (354-430) view in De doctrina Christiana (III.16.55), according to which the bread and wine are simultaneously considered to be 'signs' and 'things' and should thus be accepted in faith as a commemoration (therefore as an interpretation) of the meaning of the crucified body of Christ (cf. Otten 2000:147-148). Radbert's version of DcsD was recently translated by Vaillancourt (transl. 2020) in Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 16. Ratramnus' version was translated in English six decades ago by McCracken and Cabaniss (1957:118-147).
14 . The term 'transubstantiatio' was used informally since the 11th century (inter alia, by the bishop of Le Mans, [1096-1097], Hildebertus van Lavardin [c. 1055-1133]), but was only employed officially after the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, subsequently designating a firm dogmatic position in the Catholic teaching on the sacrament of the altar (cf. Bautz 1990:843-844). The Catholic interpretation of the early 13th century was thus formally based on Radbert's exposition presented four centuries before (cf. McCormick Zirkel 1994:2-23; Stock 1983:252-271). According to the formulation (in Constitution 1) of the Fourth Lateran Council, in the Eucharist, the full substance of the bread and wine is completely changed (hence 'transubstantiated') into the body and blood of the crucified Christ: 'There is indeed one universal church of the faithful, outside of which nobody at all is saved, in which Jesus Christ is both priest and sacrifice. His body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread and wine having been changed in substance, by God's power, into his body and blood, so that in order to achieve this mystery of unity we receive from God what He received from us' (Constitutions of the Fourth Lateran Council 1215:1 [par.3]; my italics).
15 . Two examples are Marsilius of Inghen (c. 1340-1396; cf. Bakker 2001:247-264; Beukes 2020c:8) and Jean Quidort (also called John of Paris, c. 1255-1306; cf. Beukes 2019:130; Briguglia 2015:412-415). Quidort's distinctive interpretation of in paneitas (so-called because of the parallelism of Christ's 'becoming bread' in the Eucharist with 'becoming flesh' in the Incarnation, hence critiqued by Hervaeus Natalis [c. 1250-1323] and elaborated on by William of Ockham [c. 1285-1349]; cf. Plotnik [1970:59-64]) had the objective to embed his Aristotelian interpretation of causality also theologically: only the accidental features of the bread and wine change, not its full substance (thus, at odds with Constitution 1 of the Fourth Lateran Council). The key feature of this 'impanation' theory (or 'consubstantiation') is that the substance of the bread and wine does remain in the Eucharist; however, 'it does not remain in its own supposit but is drawn into the supposit of Christ' (Plotnik 1970:57). Quidort essentially extended (Augustine's and) Ratramnus' interpretation and anticipated the 16th-century Protestant version (particularly that of Zwingli) that the bread and wine are signs of Christ's presence and have no theological basis other than semiotically. When only accidental features change in the bread and wine, nothing substantially changes - Quidort's point exactly. The most thorough work on medieval doctrines on the Eucharist is Bakker's (1999) two-volume La raison et le miracle: Les doctrines eucharistiques (c. 1250 - c. 1400), while the work of Plotnik (1970) is very useful because of its accessible format.
16 . Because of the more favourable reception of his version of DcsD, Ratramnus presented a second influential theological work, again ordered by Charles II and circulated since 850 onwards: De praedestinatione presented a summary of existing interpretations of God's knowledge of future contingents and the resulting teachings on divine predestination, as embedded in patristic texts and post-Roman theologies. As both his version of DcsD and this work focused on an interpretation (rather than an uncritical validation of authoritative readings) of the relevant biblical texts, the two works were positively reappraised in the initial phases of the Reformation of the early 16th century. Radbert, after 843, on the other hand, finalised his second book on the Vita Walae (after having completed the Vita sancti Adalhardi before the onset of the dispute), a two-volume commentary on the theological significance of the virgin Mary (De partu virginis) and a series of three books on Psalm 45. Whatever one may think of the two monks' views, their dispute was far more sophisticated than the controversies of the preceding generation. Both consistently and spontaneously employed the analytic and discursive techniques provided by philosophy, including 'argumentation, drawing or rejecting distinctions, attempts to define issues on an abstract level, use of examples and counterexamples, and drawing out consequences of positions' (King 2006:34) - indeed, philosophical discourse was an integral part of their debate, as it was of everything else that would since the early 12th century progressively be distinguished as 'theology'.
17 . One may add, counter-intuitively so for the modern reader, that Ratramnus' interpretation conformed more closely to the mediated nature of the Carolingian worldview than that of Radbert. To an even greater extent than in the central and later Middle Ages, the mediated nature of all things was the defining feature of the worldview in the early period: everything in this world was a sign of a higher order, mediating the divine and the mundane, representing not itself but an elevated and wholly different reality (cf. Colish 1997:72-73). By interpreting the Eucharist as a signified and indeed metaphorical event, Ratramnus thus played in on a Carolingian matrix. This may be the reason why it took another four centuries for Radbert's interpretation to be formally reconsidered in the central Middle Ages - and only then to the extent that it effectively provided the keystone for the Catholic dogmatic position and resulting doctrine, as articulated in Constitution 1 of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215.
18 . See De Jong and Lake (2020:4-5; cf. Matis 2019:176-177). Two centuries later it became progressively clear that Radbert's interpretation of the Eucharist would eventually become the dogmatically dominant position: he was thus canonised pre-emptively in 1073 by Pope Gregory VII (1020-1085, pope 1073-1085). Two decades ago, Otten (2000:137-156) convincingly showed that the traditional understanding of a direct conflict or controversy between Radbert and Ratramnus on the Eucharist is exaggerated: it was a difference of opinion, an informal dispute and, officially speaking (cf. Noble [1995] 2006:580), nothing more. Neither of the two monks had the intention that their interpretations would be taken as official treatises: Ratramnus analysed Radbert's interpretation without calling him by name and Radbert never referred to Ratramnus in any of the reworked versions of the original document. Moreover, both monks simply (albeit in a highly scholarly manner) addressed the patristic sources (Ambrose via Radbert, although, as far as his students were concerned, not nearly adequately and Augustine via Ratramnus): if there was something controversial about the two monks' interpretations, the positions of at least these two church fathers' on the Eucharist should thus apply. Lastly, there were no direct consequences for either: although Ratramnus' version enjoyed far greater acceptance, Radbert was not disciplined, at least not explicitly. He did suffer indirectly from the dispute, as indicated by his short term as abbot of Corbie. Ratramnus became the succeeding principal of the monastery school in 843 and held this position until his death around 868. In addition to Otten's analysis, Phelan (2010:271-289) suggested that the two monks did not present incommensurable interpretations but essentially the same teaching with disparate accents: in Radbert's version, the Eucharist functions as an instrument of salvation; in Ratramnus', as one of unity.
19 . For an exposition on the (problem of the) 'canon' in medieval philosophy, see Beukes (2020c:1-6; 2021b1-3). The following sections are consequentially not building a case for only Radbert but the many solitary or non-canonised thinkers in the medieval history of ideas. They are the 'lesser' ones on whose shoulders the 'giants' or canonised thinkers stood - in this case, the giant Anselm of Canterbury on the shoulders of the lesser Radbert of Corbie: 'We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants; we perceive more and see farther than they, but not because we have better vision, nor because we are taller than they, but because they have lifted us up and added their gigantic height to ours' (Bernard of Chartres [d.c.1224] on his predecessors, quoted via Livingstone 2006:1).
20 . Apart from Radbert, Evans (2002) included several other under-represented medieval thinkers, notably Hincmar of Reims (c. 806-882), Remigius of Auxerre (c. 841 - c. 908), Berengar of Turin (c. 1010-1088), Adelard of Bath (c. 1080 - c. 1152), Ivo of Chartres (c. 1040-1115), Rupert of Deutz (c. 1075 - c. 1130), Anselm of Havelberg (c. 1100 - c. 1158), Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135-1202) and Baldus of Ubaldis (c. 1319-1400).
21 . For instance, Luscombe's (1997:32) introduction refers to Ratramnus and Gottschalk but not Radbert. Marenbon's (1981, 1988, 1991, 2007) four excellent introductions contain no references to Radbert (while thoroughly engaging Ratramnus and Gottschalk, cf. Marenbon 2007:53-55); also, both his editorial works (ed. Marenbon 1998:96-120, 2012) only imply and never name Radbert in references to, for example, Alcuin, Eriugena, Ratramnus and Gottschalk. A similar lack of references to Radbert is notable in otherwise highly inclusive introductions, companions, handbooks and readers of late, such as Beukes (2020a), Bosley and Tweedale (eds. 2004), Copleston (1993), Grant (2004), Hyman, Walsh and Williams (eds. 2010), Kenny (2005), Koterski (2009), even in the most comprehensive encyclopaedia in the field in English, that of Lagerlund (ed. 2011), McGrade (2003), both volumes of Pasnau and Van Dyke's (eds. 2010a, 2010b) exhaustive overview, as well as the older comprehensive introduction of Kretzmann, Kenny and Pinborg (eds. 1982). Currently (July 2022), the extensive online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy under the editorship of E.N. Zalta does not provide a section on Radbert either.
22 . Also see Meens et al. (eds. 2016), […] Studies in honour of Mayke de Jong; cf. De Jong [2009]).
23 . Canabiss' (1967:2-3) timeline, according to which Radbert finished I to IV by 826, worked on V to VIII until 845, had IX completed by the time he resigned as abbot in 849 and had X to XII finalised before he returned to Corbie in 859, probably around 856, had been substantially modified by Paulus (ed. 1984:vii-viii) and De Jong (2019:39, 64-68), based on the Prologue of Volume V (in ed. Paulus 1984).
24 . Elaborating on scholasticism and the scholastic method as such falls beyond the scope of this article: for recent translations of and introductions to Monologion and Proslogion, see Davies and Evans (eds. & transl. [1998] 2008) and Hopkins and Richardson (eds. & transl. 2000); for recent overviews of the development of the scholastic method from Anselm onwards, see Evans (ed. 1984), the contributions in Davies and Leftow (eds. 2006), Logan (2009), Rogers (2008), Vaughn (2012) and Visser and Williams (2009).
25 . Also, see Grégoire's (1992-1995:295-301) 'Paschase Radbert' in Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire (Tome 12 Colonne 295): although published in the (now digitalised) dictionary between 1992 and 1995, the undated overview clearly was written much earlier. Grégoire also did not prioritise DcsD in his précis and referred substantially to EMLXII as well. The same applies to Aris' (1993:1754-1755) appraisal of Radbert in the sixth volume of the most exhaustive German dictionary in the field, Lexikon des Mittelalters.
26 . Indeed, '[a]ll too often, modern scholars ignore at their peril the absolutely massive accomplishments and enduringly useful information contained in studies such as Grabmann's, and those by any number of German scholars from the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries' (acknowledging an anonymous peer-reviewer's remark).
27 . ([Radb ert] 'justified the compilatory method of his commentary on Matthew by repeating Cicero's story from the De Inventione of the painter X(Z)euxis who painted parts of the five prettiest girls he could find to create an adequate portrait of Helen of Troy. He used the same story but to a different end in his Vita Adalhardi' (Contreni [1995] 2006:737, referring to the Prologue of EMLXII).