TEODOLFO (Τεοδυλφο), Bishop of Orléans. — Theologian and poet of Spanish origin, born in the first half of the 8th century, died, according to a necrology, on 18 Sept. 821.
Especially dear to Charlemagne, he was appointed by him Bishop of Orléans (c. 798) and Abbot of Fleury. A zealous bishop, above all concerned with the welfare of his diocese, he was swept up in the historical events that followed Charlemagne’s death. Implicated in the revolt of Bernard, King of Italy (817), he was proscribed like all the former counsellors of the late Emperor, and from 818 was replaced in the see of Orléans by Jonas (v.). He died before the amnesty of 831, according to some in exile, according to others poisoned after his return to Orléans.
As a theologian, he displays his particular erudition in the collection of texts on the question of the *Filioque* in his *De Spiritu Sancto*; in the *De ordine Baptistis* he offers a detailed explanation of the rites of Baptism. As bishop he left two collections, *Capitula* and *Capitulare*, of precepts and counsels, valuable for the history of ecclesiastical discipline in the Carolingian period. Besides two short *Sermones*, one must recall, for their felicitous theological formulae, the *Interpretatio Missae* edited by Cuissard (v. BIBLICA). He is the author of numerous poetic works (ed. by E. Dümmler, in MGH, *Poetae*, I, pp. 437-581), among which the *Gloria, laus* is famous and is included in the liturgy of Palm Sunday. He emended, not happily, the text of the Vulgate, using manuscripts, especially Spanish ones, attributed to a certain Peregrinus. Theodulf’s recension spread little; its original manuscript (ο) is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (cf. E. Power, *Corrections from the Hebrew in the Theodulfian Mss. of the Vulgate* in *Biblica*, 5 [1924], pp. 233-58).