Prosper of Aquitaine
Encyclopedia
Saint Prosper of Aquitaine ( – ), a Christian
writer and disciple of Saint Augustine of Hippo
, was the first continuator of Jerome
's Universal Chronicle
.
, and seems to have been educated at Marseilles. By 429 he was corresponding with Augustine
. In 431 he appeared in Rome
to interview Pope Celestine I
regarding the teachings of Augustine; there is no further trace of him until 440, the first year of the pontificate of Pope Leo I
, who had been in Gaul
, where he may have met Prosper. In any case Prosper was soon in Rome, attached to the pope in some secretarial or notarial capacity. Gennadius of Massilia
's De viris illustribus (lxxxiv, 89) repeats the tradition that Prosper dictated the famous letters of Leo I against Eutyches
. The date of his death is not known, but his chronicle goes as far as 455, and the fact that the chronicler Marcellinus
mentions him under the year 463 seems to indicate that his death was shortly after that date.
Prosper was a layman, but he threw himself with ardour into the religious controversies of his day, defending Augustine and propagating orthodoxy
. In his De vocatione omnium gentium ("The Call of all Nations"), in which the issues of the call to the Gentiles is discussed in the light of Augustine's doctrine of Grace
, Prosper appears as the first of the medieval Augustinians.
The Pelagians
were attacked in a glowing polemical poem of about 1000 lines, Adversus ingratos, written about 430. The theme, dogma
quod ... pestifero vomuit coluber sermone Britannus, is relieved by a treatment not lacking in liveliness and in classical measures. After Augustine's death he wrote three series of Augustinian defences, especially against Vincent of Lerins
(Pro Augustino responsiones).
His chief work was his De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio (432), written against John Cassian's Collatio. He also induced Pope Celestine to publish an open letter to the bishops of Gaul, Epistola ad episcopos Gallorum against some members of the Gaulish Church. He had earlier opened a correspondence with Augustine, along with his friend Hilary (not Hilary of Arles), and although he did not meet him personally, his enthusiasm for the great theologian led him to make an abridgment of his commentary on the Psalms
, as well as a collection of sentences from his works—probably the first dogmatic compilation of that class in which Peter Lombard
's Liber sententiarum is the best-known example. He also put into elegiac metre, in 106 epigrams, some of Augustine's theological dicta.
Far more important historically than these is Prosper's Epitoma chronicon (covering the period 379-455) which Prosper first composed in 433 and updated several times, finally in 455. It was circulated in numerous manuscripts and was soon continued by other hands, whose beginning dates identify Prosper's various circulated editions. The Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 found it a careless compilation from Saint Jerome
in the earlier part, and from other writers in the later, but that the lack of other sources makes it very valuable for the period from 425 to 455, which is drawn from Prosper's personal experience. Compared with his continuators, Prosper gives detailed coverage of political events. He covers Attila's invasions of Gaul (451) and Italy (452) in lengthy entries under their respective years. Though he was a poet himself, the sole secular writer Prosper mentions is Claudian
. There were five different editions, the last of them dating from 455, just after the death of Valentinian III
. For a long time the Chronicon imperiale was also attributed to "Prosper Tiro", but without the slightest justification. It is entirely independent of the real Prosper, and in parts even shows Pelagian tendencies and sympathies.
De vocatione omnium gentium (Calling of All Nations)
This was Prosper’s attempt to reconcile Augustine of Hippo
’s teaching on grace in which he suggests that God wishes all men to be saved. The argument is that although all human beings do not receive the grace that saves, they do receive God’s general grace. Written in AD 450, the Calling of All Nations was Prosper’s most original contribution to theology.
Epitoma Chronicon
This was Prosper’s version of the history of the World. In it he sought to give his own version of the Pelagian controversy and in his own interpretation of recent history. The Epitoma Chronicon ends in 455.
Capitulla
This was a simple list of ten doctrinal points asserting the efficacy and necessity of God’s Grace, each separately supported by papal statements. It was a strong defense of an essential Augustinian doctrine, but most moderate one to its date. Prosper did not mention Augustine’s name in the doctrine, but also did not reject any of his thoughts on predestination
. It was written between 435 and 442.
Sententia and Epigrammata
The Sententia was a collection of 92 maxims drawn up against the writings of Augustine of Hippo
. The epigrammata was a compilation of 106 epigrams of florilegium
in verse. Both were intended to be used as handbooks for the serious Christian, drawn from an Augustinian point of view. The work was devoted to the discussion of doctrines of grace and the incarnation. The motto of the florilegia was monastically influenced, urging the reader to patience through adversity, exercise of virtue, and constant striving to perfection.
Liber contra Collatorem
This writing represents the final opinion of Prosper on the problem of necessity of grace. It was written during the reign of Pope Sixtus III
(link) and is a step-by step response to Conference XIII of the Conlationes of John Cassian.
Carmen de Providentia Divina (Poem on Divine Providence)
The problem of providence is discussed in the context of God’s creation of the World and in relation to the invasion of Gaul
by the Vandals
and the Goths
. This work has been attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine in the past, but this theory has been discredited.
Most of his works were aimed at defending and distribution Augustine’s teachings, especially those pertaining to grace and free will. Following Augustine’s death in 430, Prosper continued to disseminate his teachings and spent his life working to make them acceptable. Prosper was the first chronicler to add to Jerome’s account, beginning his continuation half a century later. Prosper’s epigrams became most popular in his later years, providing a method for students of Christianity to learn moral lessons and aspects of the Augustinian doctrine.
Prosper also played a vital role in the Pelagian controversy in southern Gaul
in the 420’s. With the help of Augustine and Pope Celestine
, Prosper was able to put down revolutions of the Pelagian Christians.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
writer and disciple of Saint Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, was the first continuator of Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
's Universal Chronicle
Chronicon (Jerome)
The Chronicle was a universal chronicle, one of Jerome's earliest attempts in the department of history...
.
Life
Prosper was a native of AquitaineAquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
, and seems to have been educated at Marseilles. By 429 he was corresponding with Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
. In 431 he appeared in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
to interview Pope Celestine I
Pope Celestine I
Pope Saint Celestine I was elevated to the papacy in the year 422, on November 3 according to the Liber Pontificalis, but on April 10 according to Tillemont....
regarding the teachings of Augustine; there is no further trace of him until 440, the first year of the pontificate of Pope Leo I
Pope Leo I
Pope Leo I was pope from September 29, 440 to his death.He was an Italian aristocrat, and is the first pope of the Catholic Church to have been called "the Great". He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452, persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy...
, who had been in Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
, where he may have met Prosper. In any case Prosper was soon in Rome, attached to the pope in some secretarial or notarial capacity. Gennadius of Massilia
Gennadius of Massilia
Gennadius of Massilia , also known as Gennadius Scholasticus or Gennadius of Marseille, was a 5th century Christian priest and historian....
's De viris illustribus (lxxxiv, 89) repeats the tradition that Prosper dictated the famous letters of Leo I against Eutyches
Eutyches
Eutyches was a presbyter and archimandrite at Constantinople. He first came to notice in 431 at the First Council of Ephesus, for his vehement opposition to the teachings of Nestorius; his condemnation of Nestorianism as heresy precipitated his being denounced as a heretic...
. The date of his death is not known, but his chronicle goes as far as 455, and the fact that the chronicler Marcellinus
Marcellinus Comes
Marcellinus Comes was a Latin chronicler of the Eastern Roman Empire. An Illyrian by birth, he spent most of his life at the court of Constantinople, which is the focus of his surviving work.-Works:...
mentions him under the year 463 seems to indicate that his death was shortly after that date.
Prosper was a layman, but he threw himself with ardour into the religious controversies of his day, defending Augustine and propagating orthodoxy
Orthodoxy
The word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
. In his De vocatione omnium gentium ("The Call of all Nations"), in which the issues of the call to the Gentiles is discussed in the light of Augustine's doctrine of Grace
Prevenient grace
Prevenient grace is a Christian theological concept rooted in Augustinian theology. It is embraced primarily by Arminian Christians who are influenced by the theology of Jacob Arminius or John Wesley. Wesley typically referred to it in 18th century language as prevenient grace...
, Prosper appears as the first of the medieval Augustinians.
The Pelagians
Pelagius
Pelagius was an ascetic who denied the need for divine aid in performing good works. For him, the only grace necessary was the declaration of the law; humans were not wounded by Adam's sin and were perfectly able to fulfill the law apart from any divine aid...
were attacked in a glowing polemical poem of about 1000 lines, Adversus ingratos, written about 430. The theme, dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
quod ... pestifero vomuit coluber sermone Britannus, is relieved by a treatment not lacking in liveliness and in classical measures. After Augustine's death he wrote three series of Augustinian defences, especially against Vincent of Lerins
Vincent of Lérins
Saint Vincent of Lérins was a Gallic author of early Christian writings.In earlier life he had been engaged in secular pursuits, whether civil or military is not clear, though the term he uses, "secularis militia," might possibly imply the latter...
(Pro Augustino responsiones).
His chief work was his De gratia Dei et libero arbitrio (432), written against John Cassian's Collatio. He also induced Pope Celestine to publish an open letter to the bishops of Gaul, Epistola ad episcopos Gallorum against some members of the Gaulish Church. He had earlier opened a correspondence with Augustine, along with his friend Hilary (not Hilary of Arles), and although he did not meet him personally, his enthusiasm for the great theologian led him to make an abridgment of his commentary on the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
, as well as a collection of sentences from his works—probably the first dogmatic compilation of that class in which Peter Lombard
Peter Lombard
Peter Lombard was a scholastic theologian and bishop and author of Four Books of Sentences, which became the standard textbook of theology, for which he is also known as Magister Sententiarum-Biography:Peter Lombard was born in Lumellogno , in...
's Liber sententiarum is the best-known example. He also put into elegiac metre, in 106 epigrams, some of Augustine's theological dicta.
Far more important historically than these is Prosper's Epitoma chronicon (covering the period 379-455) which Prosper first composed in 433 and updated several times, finally in 455. It was circulated in numerous manuscripts and was soon continued by other hands, whose beginning dates identify Prosper's various circulated editions. The Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 found it a careless compilation from Saint Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
in the earlier part, and from other writers in the later, but that the lack of other sources makes it very valuable for the period from 425 to 455, which is drawn from Prosper's personal experience. Compared with his continuators, Prosper gives detailed coverage of political events. He covers Attila's invasions of Gaul (451) and Italy (452) in lengthy entries under their respective years. Though he was a poet himself, the sole secular writer Prosper mentions is Claudian
Claudian
Claudian was a Roman poet, who worked for Emperor Honorius and the latter's general Stilicho.A Greek-speaking citizen of Alexandria and probably not a Christian convert, Claudian arrived in Rome before 395. He made his mark with a eulogy of his two young patrons, Probinus and Olybrius, thereby...
. There were five different editions, the last of them dating from 455, just after the death of Valentinian III
Valentinian III
-Family:Valentinian was born in the western capital of Ravenna, the only son of Galla Placidia and Flavius Constantius. The former was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius, and the latter was at the time Patrician and the power behind the throne....
. For a long time the Chronicon imperiale was also attributed to "Prosper Tiro", but without the slightest justification. It is entirely independent of the real Prosper, and in parts even shows Pelagian tendencies and sympathies.
Writings
Prosper of Aquitaine’s most influential writings are admired for their classical qualities, but have been criticized for being flat and dull. This lack of interest is proof that technical competence is not sufficient to make a poet. His writings come mostly from the second quarter of the fifth century.De vocatione omnium gentium (Calling of All Nations)
This was Prosper’s attempt to reconcile Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
’s teaching on grace in which he suggests that God wishes all men to be saved. The argument is that although all human beings do not receive the grace that saves, they do receive God’s general grace. Written in AD 450, the Calling of All Nations was Prosper’s most original contribution to theology.
Epitoma Chronicon
This was Prosper’s version of the history of the World. In it he sought to give his own version of the Pelagian controversy and in his own interpretation of recent history. The Epitoma Chronicon ends in 455.
Capitulla
This was a simple list of ten doctrinal points asserting the efficacy and necessity of God’s Grace, each separately supported by papal statements. It was a strong defense of an essential Augustinian doctrine, but most moderate one to its date. Prosper did not mention Augustine’s name in the doctrine, but also did not reject any of his thoughts on predestination
Predestination
Predestination, in theology is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others...
. It was written between 435 and 442.
Sententia and Epigrammata
The Sententia was a collection of 92 maxims drawn up against the writings of Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
. The epigrammata was a compilation of 106 epigrams of florilegium
Florilegium
In medieval Latin a florilegium was a compilation of excerpts from other writings. The word is formed the Latin flos and legere : literally a gathering of flowers, or collection of fine extracts from the body of a larger work. It was adapted from the Greek anthologia "anthology", with the same...
in verse. Both were intended to be used as handbooks for the serious Christian, drawn from an Augustinian point of view. The work was devoted to the discussion of doctrines of grace and the incarnation. The motto of the florilegia was monastically influenced, urging the reader to patience through adversity, exercise of virtue, and constant striving to perfection.
Liber contra Collatorem
This writing represents the final opinion of Prosper on the problem of necessity of grace. It was written during the reign of Pope Sixtus III
Pope Sixtus III
Pope Saint Sixtus III was pope from 31 July 432 to 18 August 440.The name of Sixtus is often connected with a great building boom in Rome: Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill was dedicated during his pontificate and he built Santa Maria Maggiore, whose dedication to Mary the Mother of God reflected...
(link) and is a step-by step response to Conference XIII of the Conlationes of John Cassian.
Carmen de Providentia Divina (Poem on Divine Providence)
The problem of providence is discussed in the context of God’s creation of the World and in relation to the invasion of Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
by the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
and the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
. This work has been attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine in the past, but this theory has been discredited.
Legacy
"Prosper of Aquitaine was much more famous for what he wrote than for what he did." (Abbé L. Valentin) However, many historians believe his chief fame rests not on his historical work, but on his activities as a theologian and an aggressive propagandist for the Augustinian doctrine of grace. It is no doubt that Prosper holds a place in the ranks of the moulders of theological understanding of the doctrine of grace.Most of his works were aimed at defending and distribution Augustine’s teachings, especially those pertaining to grace and free will. Following Augustine’s death in 430, Prosper continued to disseminate his teachings and spent his life working to make them acceptable. Prosper was the first chronicler to add to Jerome’s account, beginning his continuation half a century later. Prosper’s epigrams became most popular in his later years, providing a method for students of Christianity to learn moral lessons and aspects of the Augustinian doctrine.
Prosper also played a vital role in the Pelagian controversy in southern Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
in the 420’s. With the help of Augustine and Pope Celestine
Pope Celestine
There have been five Popes Celestine of the Roman Catholic Church:# Pope Celestine I #* Antipope Celestine II # Pope Celestine II # Pope Celestine III # Pope Celestine IV # Pope Celestine V...
, Prosper was able to put down revolutions of the Pelagian Christians.