Pierre Batiffol (27 January 1861,

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

– 13 January 1929,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) – was a French Catholic priest and prominent

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, specialising in Church history. He had also a particular interest in the history of

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

. Batiffol studied from 1878 at the priest seminary '' Saint-Sulpice'' in Paris, was ordained in 1884 and continued his studies at the ''Institut catholique'' in Paris and at the ''Ecole des Hautes Etudes''. He was taught by church historian

Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne (; 13 September 1843 – 21 April 1922) was a French priest, philologist, teacher and a critical historian of Christianity and Roman Catholic liturgy and institutions. Life Descended from a family of Breton sailors ...

. Under Giovanni Battista de Rossi in Rome, he studied from 1887 to 1889 the archaeology, research and liturgical antique Christian literature. From 1889 to 1898 and from 1907 until 1929, he lectured at ''Ecole Sainte-Barbe in Paris''. Together with his friend

Marie-Joseph Lagrange Marie-Joseph Lagrange (born Albert Marie-Henri Lagrange on 7 March 1855, in Bourg-en-Bresse, died on 10 March 1938, in Marseille) was a Catholic priest in the Dominican Order, theologian and founder of the École Biblique in Jerusalem. Life Al ...

OP, Batiffol founded in 1892 the magazine "

Revue Biblique ''Revue Biblique'' is an academic journal published by the École Biblique, an institute of a French community of Dominicans based in Jerusalem. The journal was established in 1892 by Pierre Batiffol and Marie-Joseph Lagrange Marie-Joseph Lagr ...

" for the historical-critical method of exegesis of the

Old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

and

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

. In 1899 he founded the "Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique". In 1898 he became the head of the ''Institut catholique'' in Toulouse. He used historical criticism method in his theological research. He applied strict critical method while studying the Church dogma and history as well as manuscripts of the Holy Scripture. He lost his chair in the Institute in the aftermath of the publication of '' Pascendi dominici gregis'' (8 September 1907) encyclical of

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...

.Cf. the text o
''Pascendi dominici gregis''
encyclical. That was due particularly to his book on the Eucharist (1905) being put on ''

Index librorum prohibitorum The ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' ("List of Prohibited Books") was a list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former Dicastery of the Roman Curia), and Catholics were forbidden ...

'' and his affinity to the

historical criticism Historical criticism, also known as the historical-critical method or higher criticism, is a branch of criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts in order to understand "the world behind the text". While often discussed in terms of ...

method. He was considered falling into the

Catholic modernism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a p ...

. Batiffol examined

Codex Beratinus Codex Purpureus Beratinus ( sq, Kodiku i Beratit, Kodiku i Purpurt i Beratit) designated by Φ or 043 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 17 ( von Soden), is an uncial illuminated manuscript Gospel book written in Greek. Dated palaeographicall ...

, Beratinus II, Codex Curiensis, and several other manuscripts. He rediscovered and described

Codex Vaticanus 2061 Codex Vaticanus Graecus 2061, usually known as Uncial 048 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α1 ( Soden), is a Greek uncial manuscript on parchment. It contains some parts of the New Testament, homilies of several authors, and Strabo's ''Geograp ...

in 1887.

Works

* ''«Evangeliorum Codex Graecus Purpuraeus Beratinus»'', in: ''Mélanges d’archéologie et d’historie'' (École française de Rome) 5 (1885).
''Les manuscrits grecs de Berat d'Albanie et le Codex Purpureus Φ''
Paris 1886. * '' Didascalia 318 patrum pseudepigrapha'', 1887. * ''«Ungedruckte Papst- und Kaiserurkunden aus basilianischen Archiven»'', in: ''Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte'', 1888, s. 36 * ''Studia Patristica I. II'', 1889/90 * ''La Vaticane de Paul IV à Paul V'', 1890
''L'Abbaye de Rossano''
(doktoravhandling), 1891 * ''L'Histoire du bréviaire romain'' (Paris, 1893) * ''Anciennes littératures chrétiennes: La littérature grecque'', 1897 * ''Etudes d'histoire et de théologie positive'', 1902 * ''L'Eucharistie'', 1905 * ''L'Enseignement de Jésus'' (m.

Alfred Loisy Alfred Firmin Loisy (; 28 February 18571 June 1940) was a French Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic priest, professor and theology, theologian generally credited as a founder of Modernism (Roman Catholicism), modernism in the Roman Catholic Church. ...

), 1905 * ''L'Avenir prochain du Catholicisme en France'', 1907 * ''L'Eglise naissante et le catholicisme'', 1908 * ''La paix constantinienne'', 1914 * ''Leçons sur la messe'', 1916 * ''Etudes de liturgie et d'archéologie chrétienne'', 1919 * ''Le catholicisme de Saint Augustin'', 2 vol., 1920 * ''Les Survivances du Culte Impérial Romain, à propos des rites shintoïstes'' (1920, sammen Louis Bréhier) * ''Le Siège apostolique'', 1924 * ''Saint Grégoire'', 1925 * ''Catholicisme et papauté'', 1926. * ''Cathedra Petri: Études d'Histoire ancienne de l'Église'' (utgitt posthumt, 1938)

References

External links

* * * P. Batiffol
''The Oldest Text of the Gospels''
trans, E. S. Buchanan, (New York 1924). {{DEFAULTSORT:Batiffol, Pierre 1861 births 1929 deaths Writers from Toulouse 19th-century French historians 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French Roman Catholic priests Clergy from Toulouse

Works

See also

References

Further reading

External links