Durandus of Troarn was a French

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

and ecclesiastical writer, b. about 1012, at Le Neubourg near Evreux; d. 1089, at

Troarn Troarn () is a commune in the Calvados of the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Saline, but this merger was undone on 31 December 2019. Population Sights * The abbey founded by Rog ...

near

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

). Affiliated from early childhood to the Benedictine community of Mont-Sainte-Cathérine and of Saint-Vandrille, he was made abbot of the newly founded Saint-Martin of Troarn by

William, Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was ...

, in whose esteem he stood on a par with

Lanfranc Lanfranc, OSB (1005 1010 – 24 May 1089) was an Italian-born English churchman, monk and scholar. Born in Italy, he moved to Normandy to become a Benedictine monk at Bec. He served successively as prior of Bec Abbey and abbot of St Ste ...

, Anselm, and Gerbert of

Saint-Wandrille Fontenelle Abbey or the Abbey of St. Wandrille is a Benedictine monastery in the commune of Rives-en-Seine. It was founded in 649 near Caudebec-en-Caux in Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. First foundation It was founded by Wandregisel (d. 2 ...

Ordericus Vitalis Orderic Vitalis (; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England.Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 6 Working out of ...

calls him ''ecclesiastici cantus et dogmatis doctor peritissimus''. Of his achievements in sacred music we know nothing beyond that mention, but we have his ''Liber de Corpore et Sanguine Domini'' against Berengarius. The ninth and last part of it contains precious historical information about the

heresiarch In Christian theology, a heresiarch (also hæresiarch, according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary''; from Greek: , ''hairesiárkhēs'' via the late Latin ''haeresiarcha''Cross and Livingstone, ''Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' 1974) ...

. In Durandus's mind Berengarius is a figurist pure and simple, after the manner of Scotus Eriugena, whose now lost book he is said to have possessed and used. In the rest of his book Durandus follows

Paschasius Radbertus Paschasius Radbertus (785–865) was a Carolingian theologian and the abbot of Corbie, a monastery in Picardy founded in 657 or 660 by the queen regent Bathilde with a founding community of monks from Luxeuil Abbey. His most well-known and inf ...

, whom he somewhat emphatically styles ''Divini sacramenti scrutator diligentissimus discussorque catholicus'', and from whom he borrows both his

patristic Patristics, also known as Patrology, is a branch of theological studies focused on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers, between the 1st to 8th centuries CE. Scholars analyze texts from both orthodox and heretical authors. Patristics em ...

apparatus and his theological views. Joseph Turmel, however, notes that Durandus quotes new texts of

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

, Amalarius, Fulbert de Chartres, and St. John Chrysostom. His presentation of the

Eucharist The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...

dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...

is frankly Ambrosian, i.e., he maintains with Paschasius and Gerbert the conversion of the bread and wine into the identical body and blood of Christ, thus excluding the Augustinian theory of the ''Praesentia spiritalis'' still held by some of his contemporaries and contributing to prepare the definition of the

Fourth Lateran Council The Fourth Council of the Lateran or Lateran IV was convoked by Pope Innocent III in April 1213 and opened at the Lateran Palace in Rome on 11 November 1215. Due to the great length of time between the council's convocation and its meeting, m ...

(1215). Durandus explains with skill the Augustinian texts, chiefly in the ''De doctrinâ christianâ'' and the ''Letter to Boniface,'' misused by Berengarius; but in the last analysis he appeals to the argument of authority already used by Guitmond:''

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published betwe ...

'', CXLIX, 1415. "The saintly Doctor of Hippo, wearied by the labours of composition, fails at times to clearly bring out his thought. Hence he may appear obscure to the unlearned and even become a source of error. If perchance he should have erred in so great a mystery, we should then bethink ourselves of the Apostolic saying: 'But though an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which you have received, let him be anathema'". Durandus wrote also against Berengarius a poem of 900 verses, of which twenty-five preface the above treatise and thirteen are quoted in

Mabillon Dom Jean Mabillon , (; 23 November 1632 – 27 December 1707) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He is considered the founder of the disciplines of palaeography and diplomatics. Early life Mabillon w ...

's ''Annales'' (LXIV, 119), the rest being unpublished.

Migne Jacques Paul Migne (; 25 October 1800 – 24 October 1875) was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias, and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a ...

'', CXLIX, appends to the ''Liber'' two epitaphs composed by Durandus, one for Abbot Ainard and the other for the Countess Mabile.

Notes

References

This article reproduces the article in the public domain by Joseph Sollier, "Durandus of Troarn" in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. available online at 1010s births 1089 deaths 11th-century French Catholic theologians French Roman Catholic theologians French Benedictines Benedictine theologians