Pierre Batiffol (27 January 1861, in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, France – 13 January 1929, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France) – was a French Catholic priest and prominent

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

, specialising in Church history. He had also a particular interest in the history of

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 ...

. Batiffol studied from 1878 at the priest seminary '' Saint-Sulpice'' in Paris, was ordained in 1884 and continued his studies at the ''Institut catholique'' in Paris and at the ''Ecole des Hautes Etudes''. He was taught by church historian Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne. Under Giovanni Battista de Rossi in Rome, he studied from 1887 to 1889 the archaeology, research and liturgical antique Christian literature. From 1889 to 1898 and from 1907 until 1929, he lectured at ''Ecole Sainte-Barbe in Paris''. Together with his friend

Marie-Joseph Lagrange Marie-Joseph Lagrange (born Albert Marie-Henri Lagrange; 7 March 1855 – 10 March 1938) was a Dominican priest and founder of the École Biblique in Jerusalem. His cause for beatification has been initiated in 1991. Life Albert Marie-Henri ...

OP, Batiffol founded in 1892 the magazine '' Revue Biblique'' for the historical-critical method of exegesis of the Old and

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

. In 1899 he founded the ''Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique''. In 1898 he became the head of the ''Institut catholique'' in Toulouse. He used historical criticism method in his theological research. He applied strict critical method while studying the Church dogma and history as well as manuscripts of the Holy Scripture. He lost his chair in the Institute in the aftermath of the publication of '' Pascendi dominici gregis'' (8 September 1907) encyclical of

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X (; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing Modernism in the Catholic Church, modern ...

.Cf. the text o
''Pascendi dominici gregis''
encyclical. That was due particularly to his book on the Eucharist (1905) being put on ''

Index librorum prohibitorum The (English: ''Index of Forbidden Books'') was a changing list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former dicastery of the Roman Curia); Catholics were forbidden to print or re ...

'' and his affinity to the

historical criticism Historical criticism (also known as the historical-critical method (HCM) or higher criticism, in contrast to lower criticism or textual criticism) is a branch of criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts to understand "the world b ...

method. He was considered falling into the

Catholic modernism Modernism in the Catholic Church describes attempts to reconcile Catholic Church, Catholicism with modern culture, specifically an understanding of the Bible and Sacred tradition, Sacred Tradition in light of the Historical criticism, historical ...

. Batiffol examined Codex Beratinus, Beratinus II, Codex Curiensis, and several other manuscripts. He rediscovered and described

Codex Vaticanus 2061 Codex Vaticanus Graecus 2061, usually known as Uncial 048 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α1 ( Soden), is a Greek uncial manuscript on parchment. It contains some parts of the New Testament, homilies of several authors, and Strabo's ''Geogra ...

in 1887.

Works

* ''«Evangeliorum Codex Graecus Purpuraeus Beratinus»'', in: ''Mélanges d’archéologie et d’historie'' (École française de Rome) 5 (1885).
''Les manuscrits grecs de Berat d'Albanie et le Codex Purpureus Φ''
Paris 1886. * '' Didascalia 318 patrum pseudepigrapha'', 1887. * ''«Ungedruckte Papst- und Kaiserurkunden aus basilianischen Archiven»'', in: ''Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte'', 1888, s. 36 * ''Studia Patristica I. II'', 1889/90 * ''La Vaticane de Paul IV à Paul V'', 1890
''L'Abbaye de Rossano''
(doktoravhandling), 1891 * ''L'Histoire du bréviaire romain'' (Paris, 1893) * ''Anciennes littératures chrétiennes: La littérature grecque'', 1897 * ''Etudes d'histoire et de théologie positive'', 1902 * ''L'Eucharistie'', 1905 * ''L'Enseignement de Jésus'' (m. Alfred Loisy), 1905 * ''L'Avenir prochain du Catholicisme en France'', 1907 * ''L'Eglise naissante et le catholicisme'', 1908 * ''La paix constantinienne'', 1914 * ''Leçons sur la messe'', 1916 * ''Etudes de liturgie et d'archéologie chrétienne'', 1919 * ''Le catholicisme de Saint Augustin'', 2 vol., 1920 * ''Les Survivances du Culte Impérial Romain, à propos des rites shintoïstes'' (1920, sammen Louis Bréhier) * ''Le Siège apostolique'', 1924 * ''Saint Grégoire'', 1925 * ''Catholicisme et papauté'', 1926. * ''Cathedra Petri: Études d'Histoire ancienne de l'Église'' (utgitt posthumt, 1938)

References

External links

* * * P. Batiffol
''The Oldest Text of the Gospels''
trans, E. S. Buchanan, (New York 1924). {{DEFAULTSORT:Batiffol, Pierre 1861 births 1929 deaths Writers from Toulouse 19th-century French historians 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French Roman Catholic priests Clergy from Toulouse

Works

See also

References

Further reading

External links