RATERIO OF VERONA. - Bishop and theologian, b. near Liège around 890, d. at Namur on 25 April 974.
I. LIFE
He grew up in the school of Hilduin, abbot of Lobbes, with whom he went down to Italy in 926; in Aug. 932 he was elected bishop of Verona. The government of this diocese cost him countless sacrifices and bitterness. Having fallen into disfavor with Hugh of Provence, he was imprisoned by him in the tower of Walbert at Pavia, where he remained until Aug. 937.
Having left prison, he left Italy and, after many wanderings and painful vicissitudes, found refuge, at the end of 944 or the beginning of 945, among his monks at Lobbes. Soon, however, impatient of quiet and still more desirous of putting a curb on the evils he had noticed in his diocese, he returned to Verona in 946. He stayed there only two years, since, assailed by new violent enemies, he had to leave in 948. After further wanderings, on Sept. 21, 953 he was elected bishop of Liège. But having here too begun to inveigh "aequo mordacius" against corruption, at the beginning of 955 he was expelled from the see. Then he was elected abbot of a monastery (perhaps that of Alma), which depended on Lobbes. In 961 he was brought back by Otto to Verona, where he remained until 968. In July or Aug. of that year, pressed by too many enemies and now old, he renounced the dignity and, having retired to Namur, died there after a few years.
R. belongs to the number of the great reformers; but his principal error consisted perhaps in demanding the immediate implementation of his program of reform: he wished to obtain a radical and total transformation in too short a time and to change almost as if by enchantment, and by methods perhaps too resolute, an inveterate state of affairs.
II. WORKS
The numerous writings of R., published by the Ballerini brothers (Verona 1775) and reprinted by Migne (PL 136), are the mirror of his soul and of his time; the principal ones are noted: Praeloquiorum libri sex (PL 136, 145-344): it is the major work, written during his imprisonment at Pavia (935-37), in which R. reviews all the states of human life, showing their defects and indicating the remedies offered by the Gospel: it is notable for history, moral theology and the doctrine of the relations between Church and State; Excerptum ex dialogo confessionali (ibid. 393-444): an examination of conscience very interesting for the history of religious psychology; Exhortatio et preces (ibid. 444-50): beautiful prayers in preparation for the Mass; Decreta de clericis a Milone ordinatis (ibid. 477-78): on 12 Feb. 965 R. declared null the ordinations of the intruded bishop Milo, but because of the disturbance caused among the clergy he revoked the declaration; Libellus cleri Veronensis nomine inscriptus ad Romanum Ecclesiam (ibid. 479-82): submits the preceding case to the Pope; Itinerarium Ratherii Romanum euntis (ibid. 579-600): a program of reforms made known to the Veronese clergy before of going to the Council, which was to be convened in Rome at the end of 966: a clear affirmation of the Pope's primacy (ibid. 582); Epistolae (ibid. 643-88, others in Studi e documenti di storia e diritto, 24 [1903], pp. 51-72; see now the ed. by F. Weigle) important for history; Sermones (PL 136, 689-758), one of which describes the penitential discipline of the time (ibid. 714-19).
Bibliography9 works
Giuseppe Pavani