Saint Prosper of Aquitaine

Having left Aquitaine, his homeland, he retired to Provence, where he received the books *On Correction* and *On Grace* from S aint Augustine saint Augustin Cited for his definition of fraternal charity. . Some priests in that region were beginning to murmur against the doctrine of Saint Augustine, who was fighting the Pelagian heresy with great vigor.

The reading of this book did not cause them to abandon their prejudices. A pious layman named Hilary took the side of the holy doctor and took it upon himself to defend the faith of the Church. As he was known to Saint Augustine, he wished to procure the same advantage for Saint Prosper. He therefore encouraged him to write to this holy bishop, judging him very capable of explaining to him the nature of the error of those they had to combat, and of proposing to him the difficulties upon which it was necessary for him to provide clarification.

Saint Prosper therefore informed this holy Doctor and wrote him a beautiful letter which has remained to us: he explains to him all the complaints they were making against his dogmas, and points out the means they were using to establish a middle ground between what he taught regarding the necessity of grace for good works, and what Pelagius had taught regarding the strength and sufficiency of nature.

Saint Augustine, to refute and enlighten these semi-Pelagians, composed the books *On the Predestination of the Saints* and *On the Gift of Perseverance*. In them, he solidly establishes the necessity we have for the grace of Jesus Christ, not only to complete good, but also to begin it, to will it, to desire it, to think of it holily, and for the first steps of faith and conversion. However, these divine books, far from silencing the semi-Pelagians, gave them, on the contrary, new material to complain about the doctrine of the same Saint Augustine: they claimed they could not reconcile this doctrine with other Catholic truths regarding God's will to save all men, the death of Jesus Christ for the whole world, and the inexcusable malice of sinners, who are damned only because they wish to be damned.

The semi-Pelagians, not daring to openly combat the doctrine contained in the two books of Saint Augustine, had recourse to calumny; they accused the holy Doctor and his disciples of introducing a fatalism and admitting two natures in man. Rufinus, a friend of Saint Prosper, knowing that he was accused of holding bad sentiments, wrote to him to ascertain the truth. Saint Prosper received his letter as a token of his friendship and satisfied him fully with a rather long letter, in which he explains what rumors the enemies of Saint Augustine were spreading, what motive they had, what errors they themselves were in, and what the true doctrine of Saint Augustine on grace and free will was.

Saint Prosper having reproached, in the same letter, the calumniators of Saint Augustine for not daring to reveal their sentiments, they did so through various writings, where, however, they applied themselves less to marking what they themselves thought on matters of grace than to drawing false consequences from the doctrine established by Saint Augustine. But our Saint refuted them with as much force as modesty in two epigrams; and, in order to highlight and make better known such important truths, which they were striving to decry with such malignity, he composed his poem *Against the Ungrateful*. This poem, however, no more than the two epigrams, was not capable of stopping the enemies of grace. For, as Car dinal Baronius rem Contre les ingrats A major theological poem by Saint Prosper. arks on this same subject, heretics can be confounded because they are weak and in no way firm; but they cannot surrender to the truth because they are obstinate.

Some priests continued to disturb the Church. They accused Saint Prosper and Hilary of supporting falsehoods, and decried the doctrine of Saint Augustine once again, claiming that he maintained that God predestines the reprobate to sin, as well as to the condemnation in which they are engaged by original sin. All this provided them with material for a list of fifteen alleged errors, which they spread among the public. Saint Prosper composed a writing in which, responding to each article of this list, he shows through Saint Augustine himself what his true doctrine is, and what one must think of it.

An undertaking so worthy of praise served only to irritate the enemies of Saint Augustine further, and led them to turn their weapons against his disciple and defender. Persons who had forgotten what they owed to Christian and fraternal charity, and who did not notice that they were ruining their own reputations by wishing to blacken those of others, drew up another list of sixteen unsustainable propositions which they again cast into the public, as containing only the true sentiments of Saint Prosper. This Saint could have covered them with confusion by saying anathema to the propositions that these people were spreading only to attract public hatred toward him. But, for fear that they might quibble over such a short, albeit decisive, response, he was willing to answer them at greater length. He therefore demonstrated the purity of his sentiments on each article, so that if he could not close the mouths of his calumniators, at least those who read his writing would see how punishable their calumnies were.

The same difficulties, which served as a pretext for the priests of Gaul to disturb the Church, also caused some embarrassment to those of Genoa. But the latter showed as much wisdom and moderation in their conduct as the others had shown impudence and bitterness. Two of them, Camillus and Theodore, having drawn up a list of their difficulties, sent it to Saint Prosper to know what he judged of them, and how they should be understood. The Saint satisfied them with a writing he addressed to them, in which he explains what he and the most enlightened faithful who were united with him believed on this subject. He accompanied this response with traits of modesty that give it great distinction. "I do what you command me," he said to the Genoese, "not that I presume upon my knowledge, but to obey the command you give me; trusting in the assistance of the Lord, who gives wisdom to the little ones."

The semi-Pelagians, continuing to accuse Saint Prosper and Hilary as well as Saint Augustine of error, declared moreover that they wished to follow, on matters of grace, only what the Roman Church had decided through the mouth of its Pontiffs. This new subterfuge prompted Saint Prosper and Hilary to go to Rome to bring their complaints to Pope Saint Celest ine. This Pontiff a pape saint Célestin Pope who confirmed the election of Maximian. pproved the zeal they had for God, and was moved by the persecutions they were made to suffer. In this frame of mind, he wrote a famous letter in their favor to the bishops of Gaul. He reproached them for their negligence in repairing the scandal caused by the enemies of grace. Speaking of Saint Augustine, he said: "This man, of holy memory, has always been in our communion for his merit and has never been tarnished by the slightest rumor of any bad suspicion. His knowledge was such that my predecessors counted him among the principal doctors. He was loved and honored by everyone. Therefore, you must resist those who dare to attack his memory, and impose silence upon them." Attached to this letter were nine articles concerning grace, to serve as answers to these new heretics, who declared they would only abide by what had been decided by the Holy See.

The letter of Saint Celestine did not appease the troubles. As it said nothing of the latest works of Saint Augustine, which had in part occasioned the disputes, his enemies claimed that they had not been approved in Rome. They therefore continued to slander him and to say that instead of having well defended the cause of grace, he had disturbed the peace of the Church. These rumors, spread by persons of wit and learning, and who even made a profession of piety, made an impression on those who were either poorly instructed or who did not have enough discernment to judge things soundly. This is what obliged Saint Prosper, barely returned to Gaul, to take up once again the defense of the doctrine of Saint Augustine. He did so with such light and erudition that one can grant him the glory of having completed what Saint Augustine had begun, and of having disarmed these remnants of the Pelagian heresy.

His principal effort was against Cassian, who, in the thirtee nth of Cassien Abbot of Saint-Victor of Marseille, author of the Conferences. his conferences, had taught, under the name of the Abbot Chaeremon, that God awaited the beginnings of our wills and of our free will to give us the grace to accomplish good; that the difference which existed between the just and the impious, the elect and the reprobate, came from the fact that some began the good by themselves, whereas others, being able to begin it, abused their free will, and rendered themselves, by this abuse, unworthy of the grace of Jesus Christ. But our Saint, who had learned from Saint Paul and from his master, Saint Augustine, that we can do nothing of ourselves; that we have no salutary movement that does not come from the mercy of God, powerfully refuted these errors by the book entitled *Contra Collatorem*, that is to say, against the a uthor of the Conf Contra Collatorem Work refuting the theses of John Cassian. erences.

This great erudition and the happy harmony of all the virtues that accompanied it, making him very famous in the Church, led Pop e Saint Leo, wh pape saint Léon Pope whose body was transferred by Sergius to a new mausoleum. o ascended the chair of Saint Peter in the year 440, to desire him by his side; he made him his secretary and made advantageous use of his hand to write several ecclesiastical letters, just as Pope Saint Damasus had used that of Jerome to answer the questions addressed to him from all over the Christian world. Many, such as Cardinal Noris and Tillemont, even affirm that the letter to Flavian, in which this blessed Pope explains so admirably the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word and the unity of person with two natures in Jesus Christ, is of the composition of Saint Prosper, and that Saint Leo, in reviewing it, gave it his style. There are also authors who say that our Saint carried this letter to Constantinople, and that he was later at the Council of Chalcedon to uphold the orthodox faith against the heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches, which were causing great havoc throughout the East; but we have no authentic testimonies of these journeys in antiquity; and they may well have been attributed to Saint Prosper of Aquitaine by confusing him with others of the same name.

Saint Prosper crushed Pelagianism, which was beginning to raise its head again in the capital of the Christian world. It was, says Photius, to his zeal, his knowledge, and his tireless labors that we owed the complete extirpation of this heresy. In 444, the famous dispute took place which arose between the Westerners and those of Alexandria, and which was renewed eleven years later, concerning the precise day on which Easter should be celebrated. It was mainly on these two occasions that he made known his skill in the human sciences, especially in mathematics, astronomy, and chronology. He then composed for the Latin Church a paschal cycle which has not been preserved for us.

Everything suggests that Saint Prosper was neither a bishop nor even a priest. But he spent his whole life fighting heresy, supporting the truths of Christianity, and clarifying, through his pen, the mystery of the grace of Jesus Christ: thus the Church gives him rank among its Fathers and Doctors. The year he died is not certain, but it is constant that it was only after the middle of the 5th century, since he continued his chronicle, which is commonly called the Chronicle of Saint Prosper, until the year 455.

One must not confuse Saint Prosper of Aquitaine with Saint Prosper, Bishop of Riez, predecessor of Saint Maximus, nor with another Saint Prosper, Bishop of Reggio; the latter s saint Prosper, évêque de Reggio Bishop of Reggio often confused with Prosper of Aquitaine. ucceeded Belpidius. Jean-Antoine Flaminius of Imola, who composed the life of this holy bishop, says that having read in the Gospel these words of Our Lord: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor and come follow me," he gave freedom to his slaves, sold his inheritances, distributed the price to the unfortunate, and retired to Rome, where Pope Leo I, who recognized his talents and virtues, gave him various duties and finally named him bishop of this city of Reggio, which the Latins call Rhegium Lepidi, in the Duchy of Modena.

He administered this diocese with such zeal for the salvation of souls, and such charity toward the poor, that he became the model of a perfect and accomplished prelate. Indeed, he preached very often to his people, and his sermons, which were filled with divine eloquence, made such an impression on the minds of his listeners that many renounced the foolish maxims of the world, with which they had let themselves be occupied, to enter the path of virtue and walk the narrow road that Our Lord taught in the Gospel. The example of his life had even more efficacy than his remonstrances; for he knew so well how to mix severity with gentleness, and gentleness with severity, that those whom he chastised could not complain that he was too rigorous: just as those to whom he forgave could not abuse his indulgence. He was always the same in prosperity as in adversity; and if the one did not swell his heart, the other did not shake his constancy and never made him lose the peace and tranquility of his spirit. His faith was lively, his hope firm, his charity ardent and always full of a new fervor. There was no miserable person in his diocese whom he did not know, and he always had before his eyes the wards, the orphans, the widows, the ruined families, to find the means to help them. He made himself a victim for all his people; and, if he chastised his body to subject it to the spirit, he also chastised it to punish in his own person the faults of his flock and to divert from their heads the vengeances of God.

Such admirable conduct so reconciled him to the friendship of everyone that they feared nothing so much as losing him. However, after having governed his Church for twenty-two years, he died in the midst of his priests and his levites who were all melting into tears, on June 25, 466. Before dying, he gave a marvelous speech to all those who were present; he assured them that he would be much more useful to them in heaven than he would have been on earth. Thus, having been buried in the church of Saint Apollinaris, which he had himself consecrated, outside the walls of the city, he performed so many miracles there that one cannot express the esteem and veneration he acquired throughout the country.

Several centuries later, that is to say in the time of Luitprand, King of the Lombards, he appeared in a dream to Thomas, Bishop of Reggio, one of his successors, and ordered him to build him a more magnificent church with a more honorable tomb, to transfer his bones there. The bishop, who was a very holy personage, obeyed his order, and, when he opened his sepulcher, such a marvelous odor came out of it that there is no balm or perfume on earth that can produce a similar one. The translation was made with extraordinary joy and solemnity, and the miracles that were performed at this new tomb were no less than those that had been performed at the death of the Saint.

This is what the learned Flaminius, and after him Surius, say of Saint Prosper, Bishop of Reggio. Those who have written about the Bishop of Riez also apply the same things to him; which comes from the fact that Riez and Reggio having only one name in Latin, one has easily confused one with the other. They also insert a part of what we have said about Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, and especially his function as secretary to Pope Leo I, for lack of distinguishing this holy ecclesiastic from the bishops of the same name. We will add further that there was a Saint Prosper, Bishop of Orleans, and confessor, whose life we will give on the twenty-ninth day of July, and who must not be confused with those of whom we have spoken. As for the rest, if it is a question of the Bishop of Riez, one can place him in the 4th century; but as for the famous adversary of the semi-Pelagians, he belongs to the 5th.

## WRITINGS OF SAINT PROSPER OF AQUITAINE.

We have from this Doctor of the Church:

1. The Letters to Saint Augustine and Saint Hilary against the Pelagians. 2. A very beautiful Letter to Rufinus. 3. The Poem against the Ungrateful, which was mentioned in the life of the Saint. Following this work are some other poems, such as the Epitaph of Nestorianism and Pelagianism, and two Epigrams against the enemies of Saint Augustine. The Poem against the Ungrateful was translated into French verse by Le Maistre de Sacy. 4. One hundred and six Epigrams with the preface. These are as many truths and maxims drawn from Saint Augustine. 5. Answers to the Objections of the Gauls. This is a defense of the doctrine of Saint Augustine on grace. 6. Answers to Vincent. Saint Prosper shows in this work that he does not support, and has never supported, the sixteen erroneous propositions that had been slanderously attributed to him. The Vincent against whom he writes could be the Gallic priest of that name, mentioned by Gennadius, who attended the Council of Riez in 439.

7. The Answer to the Priests of Genoa is an explanation of some propositions of Saint Augustine.

8. The book on the Grace of God and Free Will against the Collatore. This Collatore is the famous Cassian, from whom we have a book of the Conferences of the Fathers. He had advanced, in the third of these conferences, that the beginning of faith is from us. Saint Prosper did not wish to name him, because, in other respects, he was a great man; he contented himself with designating him by the title of Collatore. He proves to him that the principles spread in his third conference had already been condemned by the Church in its decrees against the Pelagians. He ends his work with an exhortation to bear with patience the enemies of the truth, to avenge oneself upon them only through sincere charity, to avoid all dispute with those who are not capable of hearing the language of reason, and to pray unceasingly to Him who is the principle and source of all, so that He may deign to be the beginning of our thoughts, our desires, our words, and our actions.

9. A Commentary on the Psalms, from the one hundredth to the one hundred and fiftieth, which is, strictly speaking, only an abridgment of that of Saint Augustine. We have only a part of it left.

10. The Book of Sentences. It is a collection of three hundred and ninety-two sentences drawn from the works of Saint Augustine, which contain an excellent abridgment of the doctrine of this Father on grace.

11. A Chronicle, which begins at the creation of the world and ends in the year 455. The chronicle of Tyro Prosper is the same as that of our Saint, except that it was falsified by some Pelagian and is filled with slanders against Saint Augustine.

Among the works that have not reached us, we cite: 1. his first Letter to Saint Augustine; 2. some works on the Errors of the Semi-Pelagians; 3. a paschal cycle.

Among the doubtful works, we cite: 1. The beautiful Poem of a Husband to his Wife; 2. the book on Providence; 3. the Confession of Prosper of Aquitaine; 4. the two books on the Calling of the Gentiles; 5. the Letter to the virgin Demetrias; 6. the Collection of the authorities of the Popes on the grace of God and the free will of man.

The supposed works that bear his name are: 1. The book of the Promises and Predictions of God. It is an explanation of several prophecies relating to the Savior, the Antichrist, etc. 2. the three books of the Contemplative Life; 3. a Collection of letters addressed to various persons; 4. a book of Illustrious Men; 5. a work on the Sack of Rome.

One finds in the poems of Saint Prosper much ease, elegance, sweetness, unction, and fire. The style of his prose works is natural, concise, and vigorous; everywhere he shows himself less occupied with the ornaments of discourse than with the utility of his readers. His reasonings are linked and conclusive, his expressions noble, and his thoughts full of elevation. He joins to all these advantages a sure judgment and a great penetration of mind.

Mangeant provided a good edition of the works of Saint Prosper, which appeared in Paris in 1711, in-folio. One finds there the life of the Saint, translated from the memoirs of Tillemont by the learned editor. It was reprinted in Venice in 1782, in-4°. It is reproduced in volume LI of the Patrologia Latina.

Jean Salinas, a canon regular of the Congregation of Saint John Lateran, had the works of Saint Prosper, which treat of matters of grace, reprinted in Rome in 1732, in-8°, along with those of Saint Honoratus of Marseille.

Pierre-François Foggini, having published in Rome in 1754 the treatises of Saint Augustine on grace in two small volumes (reprinted in Paris in 1757), later provided a third volume to complete the collection, under the following title: S. Prosperi Aquitani, S. Leoni M. Notarii, de gratia Dei, opera omnia, editionem variis lectionibus, præcipue e Cod. MSS. Vaticanis adornatum curavit P. F. F. Rome, 1758, in-8°.

The authentic works of Saint Prosper were translated into French by Lequeux, in Paris, in 1762, in-12.

Acta sanctorum; — Cf. Godescord: Tillemont: Collier; Rivet.