Durandus of Troarn (b. about 1012, at Le Neubourg near Evreux; d. 1089, at

Troarn Troarn () is a commune in the Calvados in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Saline, but this merger was undone on 31 December 2019. Population Sights * The abbey founded by Roger ...

near

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Benedictine and ecclesiastical writer. Affiliated from early childhood to the Benedictine community of Mont-Sainte-Cathérine and of Saint-Vandrille, he was made abbot of the newly founded Saint-Martin of Troarn by

William, Duke of Normandy William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...

, in whose esteem he stood on a par with

Lanfranc Lanfranc, OSB (1005 1010 – 24 May 1089) was a celebrated Italian jurist who renounced his career to become a Benedictine monk at Bec in Normandy. He served successively as prior of Bec Abbey and abbot of St Stephen in Normandy and then ...

, Anselm, and Gerbert of Saint-Wandrille. Ordericus Vitalis calls him ''ecclesiastici cantus et dogmatis doctor peritissimus''. Of his achievements in sacred music we know nothing beyond that mention, but we have his ''Liber de Corpore et Sanguine Domini'' against

Berengarius Berengar of Tours (died 6 January 1088), in Latin Berengarius Turonensis, was an 11th-century French people, French Christianity, Christian theologian and archdeacon of Angers, a scholar whose leadership of the cathedral school at Chartres set a ...

. The ninth and last part of it contains precious historical information about the heresiarch. In Durandus's mind Berengarius is a

figurist Figurism was an intellectual movement of Jesuit missionaries at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, whose participants viewed the ''I Ching'' as a prophetic book containing the mysteries of Christianity,. and prioritized wo ...

pure and simple, after the manner of

Scotus Eriugena John Scotus Eriugena, also known as Johannes Scotus Erigena, John the Scot, or John the Irish-born ( – c. 877) was an Irish Neoplatonist philosopher, theologian and poet of the Early Middle Ages. Bertrand Russell dubbed him "the most ...

, whose now lost book he is said to have possessed and used. In the rest of his book Durandus follows

Paschasius Radbertus Paschasius Radbertus (785–865) was a Carolingian theologian and the abbot of Corbie, a monastery in Picardy founded in 657 or 660 by the queen regent Bathilde with a founding community of monks from Luxeuil Abbey. His most well-known and influe ...

, whom he somewhat emphatically styles ''Divini sacramenti scrutator diligentissimus discussorque catholicus'', and from whom he borrows both his

patristic Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...

apparatus and his theological views.

Joseph Turmel Joseph Turmel (13 December 1859 Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) – February 1943) was a French Catholic priest, historian of Christianity, Christian dogmas, who was Excommunication in the Catholic Church, excommunicated. Biography Joseph Turmel was b ...

, however, notes that Durandus quotes new texts of

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

Amalarius Amalarius (''c''. 775–''c''. 850) was a Frankish prelate and courtier, temporary bishop of Trier (812–13) and Lyon (835–38), and an accomplished liturgist. He was close to Charlemagne and a partisan of his successor, Louis the Pious, througho ...

Fulbert de Chartres Fulbert of Chartres (french: Fulbert de Chartres; 952–970–10 April 1028) was the Bishop of Chartres from 1006 to 1028 and a teacher at the Cathedral school there. Fulbert was a pupil of Gerbert of Aurillac, who would later become Pope Syl ...

, and St. John Chrysostom. His presentation of the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

ic dogma is frankly Ambrosian, i.e., he maintains with Paschasius and Gerbert the conversion of the bread and wine into the identical body and blood of Christ, thus excluding the

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

theory of the ''Praesentia spiritalis'' still held by some of his contemporaries and contributing to prepare the definition of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). Durandus explains with skill the Augustinian texts, chiefly in the ''De doctrinâ christianâ'' and the ''Letter to Boniface,'' misused by Berengarius; but in the last analysis he appeals to the argument of authority already used by Guitmond:''

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published between ...

'', CXLIX, 1415. "The saintly Doctor of Hippo, wearied by the labours of composition, fails at times to clearly bring out his thought. Hence he may appear obscure to the unlearned and even become a source of error. If perchance he should have erred in so great a mystery, we should then bethink ourselves of the Apostolic saying: 'But though an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which you have received, let him be anathema'". Durandus wrote also against Berengarius a poem of 900 verses, of which twenty-five preface the above treatise and thirteen are quoted in Mabillon's ''Annales'' (LXIV, 119), the rest being unpublished.

Migne Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a u ...

'', CXLIX, appends to the ''Liber'' two epitaphs composed by Durandus, one for Abbot Ainard and the other for the

Countess Mabile Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility.L. G. Pine, Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty'' ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Durandus of Troarn 1010s births 1089 deaths 11th-century French Catholic theologians French Benedictines Benedictine theologians