PRUDENTIUS of TROYES. - Theologian and writer of Spanish origin, d. at Troyes on 6 Apr. 861, he changed his name from Galindo to P. and was educated in France, where he became court chaplain and later succeeded Adalbert in the see of Troyes, apparently between 844 and 847.
His works are in PL 115, 965-1458 and include a florilegium of the Psalms and another of Holy Scripture (1421-40): Sermo de vita et morte gloriosae Virginis Maurae (ibid., 1367-76), a saint whom P. had known; Annales (ibid., 1377-1420) continuing the Annales Bertiniani from 835 to '61, of great value for the history of the Carolingian Empire; Incarnatus of Reims, whose work he corrected in many expressions concerning Gottschalk (ed. G. H. Pertz, in MGH, Scriptores, I, pp. 419-99). Little survives of his poetic works and letters (a short poem on the Gospels: PL 115, 1419-20, ed. MGH, Poëtae lat., II, pp. 679 ff.; a letter addressed to his brother the bishop: PL 115, 1367). He dealt with the question of predestination: Ep. ad Hincmarum et Pardulum (ibid., 971-1010), in which, calmly, he defends the doctrine of St Augustine (end of 844), at the request of Incarnatus of Reims; De praedestinatione contra Joannem Scotum (ibid., 1109-1136) in 852; Ep. tractoria ad Venilonem (ibid., 1365-68). P. is one of the most resolute representatives of the rigid Augustinianism (v.) of his time.