PETAU (Petavius), DENYS. – Jesuit, theologian and patrologist, born at Orléans on 21 August 1583, died in Paris on 11 December 1652. At the age of sixteen he became « Magister philosophiae » with a dissertation in Greek, and immediately turned to the study of theology at the Sorbonne, where, under the guidance of Isaac Casaubon, he deepened his patristic research. In 1603 he was professor and canon at Bourges; in 1605 he returned to Paris, entered the Society of Jesus, and, ordained a priest in 1610, taught rhetoric from 1611 to 1621 at the colleges of Reims, La Flèche, and Paris; thereafter, from 1621 to 1644, he taught positive theology at the College of Clermont in Paris; from 1645 until his death he devoted himself to the library and to his works.
The fame of his profound and extensive erudition led Philip IV to request him for the Imperial College of Madrid and Urban VIII for Rome; but Louis XIII firmly opposed this, and he also intervened with the Pope to prevent P.’s appointment as cardinal, because the poor Father, upon learning of the dignity awaiting him, fell seriously ill, and the only remedy—which in fact was adopted—was to leave him in his humility.
His work, not sufficiently appreciated at first, embraced three fields: chronology, patristics, and theology together with the history of dogma. His principal works may be listed as follows. In the field of chronology he published: De doctrina Temporum (2 vols., Paris 1627), which drove De emendatione temporum by Scaliger, the only authority recognized in his day, from its position of dominance, refuting it without reserve and laying the foundations of a universal chronology. In thirteen books it arranges facts and events up to A.D. 533 (among other things, he corrected 8,000 inaccuracies found in Baronius’s Annals). Despite the acclaim with which the work was received, P. could certainly not at that time have the final word on every date and every event; he nevertheless remains a bold pioneer in the field, stimulating further and progressive research. A summary of the work is the Rationarium temporum (ibid. 1633), which went through many reprintings and translations. P. also worked on chronological tables of the popes and emperors (ibid. 1628) and of the most celebrated families and cities (ibid. 1628; 4th ed. 1637). In the field of patristics he published the works of Synesius, bishop of Cyrene (ibid. 1612, better ed. 1640); the orations of Themistius (La Flèche 1603) and of the emperor Julian (Paris 1614); the Bresidarium historicum of Nicephorus (ibid. 1616); the complete works of St. Epiphanius (2 vols., ibid. 1622; appendix, ibid. 1624); also noteworthy is the Greek paraphrase of the Psalms of David, completed at the request of Urban VIII (ibid. 1637). In the field of theology and the history of dogma he left: Theologica dogmata (4 vols., Paris 1644–50), which remained unfinished (it treats only De Deo uno, De Deo triuo, De Deo creante, De Incarnatione) and went through numerous editions, including that of the Calvinist Jean le Clerc (Amsterdam 1700) and that of Fr. F. A. Zaccaria (7 vols., Venice 1737), the latter enriched with notes, defenses, and dissertations; Fathers C. Passaglia and C. Schrader undertook a new edition, but stopped at vol. I. The true merit and value of this work lie in its having opened the way to a theology more restrained in its speculative aspect and, instead, richer in its historical and positive aspect. P., who took up the teaching method inaugurated by Fr. Maldonado and followed by Fr. Fronton de Duc, did not intend to supplant scholasticism; indeed, although he deplored its subtleties, its poor Latin, and its useless and captious disputes, he defended it against the sarcasm and disdain that had become fashionable after Erasmus. Rather, he wished to give the study of dogmatics what many scholastic theologians ignored, namely, the sources and first principles of doctrine, grounding it above all in scriptural exegesis and the study of the patristic tradition—the surest means of repelling the attacks of opponents against the Church’s current doctrine in the name of primitive tradition. Certain particular points concerning penance in the early centuries, the Trinitarian doctrine of the ante-Nicene Fathers, and the sanctification of souls through the work of the Holy Spirit provided grounds for false interpretations or even for opinions and positions later abandoned by theologians (cf. Galtier, art. cit. in bibl., cols. 1324–36), but they also almost always admit of a valid defense. It should also be noted that P. occasionally used incorrect translations of the Fathers and manuscripts not yet critically prepared; he nevertheless remains the man who took the decisive step toward the program of assigning positive theology the place that truly belonged to II. Among his other works one must also mention: De potestate consecrandi et sacrificandi sacerdotibus a Deo concessa, deque communione usurpanda (ibid. 1639); De libero arbitrio (ibid. 1643); De la pénitence publique et de la préparation à la communion (ibid. 1644), against A. Arnauld’s pamphlet De la fréquente commu-
nion); Epistolarum libri tres (ibid. 1652), published after the author’s death, which give an idea of P.’s relations with the most celebrated figures of his time, French and foreign, and provide useful information about his works and his method.