DRUTMAR (CHRISTIAN OF STAVELOT). — Benedictine exegete, born at the beginning of the 9th century in Aquitaine, died c. 870, probably at Stavelot. He was educated in the monastery of Corbie, then a flourishing center of learning. Sent to the monasteries of Stavelot and Malmédy (diocese of Liège), governed by the same abbot, he held the office of master there with distinction.
The fruit of his teaching were commentaries on *Matthew*, *Luke*, and *John* (of the latter only fragments remain), which, printed by Jakob Wimpheling in Strasbourg in 1514 and later by Menardus Malderus in Hogenau in 1530, sparked a lively controversy between Catholics and Protestants over the passage in *Matthew* concerning the Eucharist. This was all the more significant since Sixtus of Siena attested to having seen in Lyon a manuscript (now lost) where the disputed text had a perfectly Catholic meaning. Until recent times, Protestants (e.g., Dümmler) regarded D. as a precursor of Zwingli and Œcolampadius, while some Catholics (e.g., Vernet and Geiselmann) conceded that D. indulged in an accentuated symbolism. Today, however, the judgment appears quite different, even if the Eucharistic text, somewhat harsh, proposed by Lebon to replace the one edited by Migne (PL 106, 1474-77), is considered authentic. D., who grew up in Corbie precisely during the celebrated Eucharistic controversy between Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus, sided with Ratramnus, assimilating his doctrine and phraseology. Now impartial criticism is increasingly favorable to the orthodoxy of the sharp critic of Paschasius, since the terms *spiritualiter*, *figura*, *sacramentum*, which abound in the writings of Ratramnus and D., harmonize, in a complete system, with the truth of real presence. In any case, D.’s commentary on *Matthew* is notable for its fidelity—more unique than rare in those times—to the literal and historical sense as the foundation for further allegorical considerations.
Drusus — Romanized portrait of Drusus the Elder — Roman sculpture of the 1st century — Naples, National Museum.
1941
DRUTMAR — DUALISM
J. Lebon, *Notes sur Christian de Stavelt*, in *Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique*, 9 (1908), p. 491; F. Baix, *Etude sur l'abbaye de Stavelt-Malmédy*, Paris 1924, passim; cf. also H. Nelis, in *Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique*, 21 (1925), pp. 553-61 (review of the preceding work); J. Geiselmann, *Die Eucharistielehre der Vorscholastik*, Paderborn 1926, pp. 133-34; L. M. W. Laistner, *A ninth-century commentator on the Gospel according to Matthew*, in *The Harvard Theological Review*, 20 (1927), pp. 129-49.