PETAU (Petavius), Denys. - Jesuit, theologian and patrologist, b. at Orléans on 21 Aug. 1583, d. at Paris on 11 Dec. 1652. At the age of 16 a "Magister philosophiae" with a dissertation in Greek, he passed at once to the study of theology at the Sorbonne and, under the guidance of Isaac Casaubon, deepened his patristic research there. In 1603 he was a professor and canon at Bourges; in 1605 he returned to Paris, entered the Society of Jesus, and, ordained a priest in 1610, held from 1611 to 1621 the post of rhetoric in the colleges of Reims, La Flèche and Paris; then from 1621 to 1644 that of 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 wide 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 avert the appointment of P. as cardinal, because the poor father, having learned of the dignity that awaited him, fell gravely ill and the only remedy, as in fact happened, was to leave him in his humility.
His work, not sufficiently recognized at first, embraced three fields: chronology, patristics and theology together with the history of dogmas. Its principal works are cited: in the field of chronology he published: De doctrina Temporum (2 vols., Paris 1627), which drove out of the nest Scaliger's De emendatione temporum, the only authority recognized in his time, refuting it without sparing it and laying the foundations of a universal chronology. In it the facts and events up to 533 A.D. are set out in 13 books (among other things he corrects there 8000 inaccuracies found in Baronio's Annali). Despite the acclaim with which the work was received, P. certainly could not, then, have the last word on every date and every fact; he remains, however, a bold pioneer in the field, who stimulates further progressive research. A summary of the work is the Rationarium temporum (ibid. 1633), which had many reprints and versions. P. also dealt with the 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, carried out at the desire of Urban VIII (ibid. 1637). In the theological field and that of the history of dogmas he left: Theologica dogmata (4 vols., Paris 1644-50), which remained unfinished (in it he treats only De Deo uno, De Deo triuo, De Deo creante, De Incarnatione), which had numerous editions, among them that of the Calvinist Jean le Clerc (Amsterdam 1700) and that of Fr. F. A. Zaccaria (7 vols., Venice 1737), the latter rich in notes, defences and dissertations; a new ed. was undertaken by Frs. C. Passaglia and C. Schrader, but they stopped at vol. I. The merit and true value of this work is that it opened the way to a theology more sober in its speculative part and more nourished, instead, in its historical and positive part. P., who takes up the method of teaching inaugurated by Fr. Maldonado, and followed by Fr. Fronton de Duc, does not intend to supplant scholasticism, which on the contrary, while lamenting its subtleties, its incorrect Latin, its useless and captious disputes, he vindicates from the sarcasms and the disesteem that had come into fashion after Erasmus; but he wants to give to the study of dogmatics what many scholastic theologians ignored, that is, the sources and the first principles of doctrine, founding it first of all on scriptural exegesis and on the study of patristic tradition; a surer means of repelling the adversaries' attacks against the current doctrine of the Church in the name of primitive tradition. Certain particular points on penance in the first centuries, on the Trinitarian doctrine of the ante-Nicene Fathers, on the sanctification of souls through the work of the Holy Spirit, laid themselves open to false interpretations or even to opinions and positions later abandoned by theologians (cf. Galtier, art. cit. in bibl., coll. 1324-36), but they also almost always admit of a valid defence. It should also be noted that P. sometimes used incorrect versions of the Fathers, manuscripts not yet critically edited; he nevertheless remains the one who made the decisive step in the programme of giving positive theology the place that truly belonged to it. Among the other works mention must still be made of: 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 little work: De la fréquente communion); Epistolarum libri tres (ibid. 1652), published after the author's death, which give an idea of P.'s relations with the most celebrated personages of the time, French and foreign, and useful information on his works and his method.
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