RATRAMNO
of CORBIE. - Benedictine theologian,
the Body and Blood of Christ; indeed, he sometimes expressly states that the substance of the bread and that of the wine become the substantia of the Body and Blood of the Lord (PL 121, 140). He further asserts, with particular insistence, the objective reality of the external species and, from this point of view, his doctrine is superior to that of P. Radberto, although it remains inferior in establishing the substantial identity of Christ’s Eucharistic Body with the historical one; for, while incidentally affirming it, he is constantly concerned to demonstrate their accidental difference (in the sense of the future scholastic question of the modus praesentiae).
This obscurity of language gave rise to the fluctuating judgment that posterity passed upon his Eucharistic teaching. Already in the 10Erigero di Lobbes (v.) saw in R. an opponent of Pascasio, and in the 11th century his work, under the name of Scoto Eriugena, Berengario di Tours (v.) and rejected as heretical by anti-Berengarian writers. In the following century Sigeberto di Gembloux considered R. a defender of Eucharistic faith, and as such he was praised by Tritemio (15th century) and by s. G. Fischer (16th century). With the edition by Ecolampadio (Basel 1532), Protestant appropriation began, which led to the inclusion of the work in the Index of the Council of Trent (1559); the theologians of Lovanio (known as duocenses) reacted in 1571, and above all Boileau, who defended its orthodoxy with learning and acumen (1712). Present-day theology has been unfavourable to R., especially after Geiselmann, followed by Guadel, Amann, and Peltier (v. BIBLICA). A convincing rehabilitation has been carried out by p. Gliozzo (v. BIBLICA).