Aurelius Clemens Prudentius
A Christian poet, boen in the Tarraconensis, Northern Spain, 348; died probably
in Spain, after 405. He must have been born a Christian, for he nowhere speaks
of his conversion. The place of his birth is uncertain; it may have been
Saragossa, Tarragona, or Calahorra. He practised law with some success, and in
later life deplored the zeal he had devoted to his profession. He was twice
provincial governor, perhaps in his native country, before the emperor summoned
him to court. Towards the end of his life Prudentius renounced the vanities of the
world to practise a rigorous asceticism, fasting until evening (Cath., iii, 88) and
abstaining entirely from animal food (ibid., 56). The Christian poems were written
during this period; he later collected them and wrote a preface, which he himself
dated 405. A little before (perhaps in 403) he had to go to Rome, doubtless to
make some appeal to the emperor. A number of his poems (Peristephanon, vii,
ix, xi, xii, xiv) were written subsequently to this journey, of which he took
advantage to visit the sanctuaries and tombs of the martyrs. "Contra
Symmachum" must have been written at Rome; the second book belongs to the
period between 29 March and December, 403. All other works antedate the
journey to Rome.
Prudentius wrote to glorify God and atone for his sins. His works fall into three
groups: lyrical, didactic, and polemical. The lyrics form two collections. In the
"Cathemerinon" the hymns are for the sanctification of the hours of the day or
certain important occasions, such as Christmas, the Epiphany, obsequies, etc.
Some continue the liturgical tradition of Saint Ambrose, and are written in the
Ambrosian iambic dimeter; others are an attempt to enlist the metres of Horace
in the service of Christian lyrical poetry. Despite his negligence Prudentius
displays more art than Ambrose. Hymn xii, on the feast of the Epiphany,
contains the two celebrated stanzas, "Saluete flores martyrum", characterized
by profound feeling united to the purest art; hymn x on burial is likewise very
remarkable. However, his style is generally diffuse, and the hymns admitted to
the Roman Breviary had to be curtailed. The "Peristephanon" is dedicated to the
glory of the martyrs: Emeterius and Chelidonius of Calahorra, Lawrence the
Deacon, Eulalia, the eighteen martyrs of Saragossa, Vincent, Fructuosus with
Augurius and Eulogius, Quirinus of Siscia, the martyrs of Calahorra put to death
on the site of the baptistery, Cassianus of the Forum Cornelium, Romanus,
Hippolytus, Peter and Paul, Cyprian, and Agnes. Taken altogether, it is an
endeavour to endow Christianity with a lyrical poetry independent of liturgical
uses and traditions. Unfortunately, neither Prudentius's talent nor current taste
favoured such an enterprise. The narratives are spoiled with too much rhetoric.
There are, however, beautiful passages, a kind of grave power, and some pretty
details, as in the hymns on St. Eulalia (see v. 206-15) and St. Agnes. Certain
others, such as that on St. Hippolytus, have an archæological interest. The
whole collection is curious, but of unequal merit.
The two principal didactic poems are the "Apotheosis", on the dogma of the
Trinity, and the "Hamartigenia", on the origin of sin. One is somewhat astonished
to find Prudentius attacking ancient heresies, such as those of Sabellius and
Marcian, and having nothing to say on Arianism. It is due to the fact that he
closely follows and imitates Tertullian, whose rugged genius resembles his own.
These poems are interesting examples of passionate, glowing abstractions,
precise exposition being combined with poetic fantasy. Some brilliant scenes,
like the sacrifice of Julian (Apot.h., 460), merit quotation. The comparison of
souls led astray by sin with doves caught in snares (Ham., 779) has a charm
that recalls the happy inspiration of "Saluete flores". Orthodoxy is his great
preoccupation in these poems, and he invokes all kinds of punishments on
heresy. Yet he is not always free from error, here or elsewhere. He believes that
only a small number of souls are lost (Cath., vi, 95). It is an exaggeration of the
meaning of his metaphors to assert that he makes the soul material. The
"Psychomachia "is the model of a style destined to be lovingly cultivated in the
Middle Ages, i. e., allegorical poetry, of which before Prudentius only the merest
traces are found (in such authors as Apuleius, Tertullian, and Claudian). In
Tertullian's "De Spectaculis", 29, we find its first conception; he personifies the
vices and the virtues and shows them contending for the soul. The army of vices
is that of idolatry, the army of the virtues that of faith. The poem is, therefore, at
once moral and apologetic. It would be difficult to imagine anything more
unfortunate or insupportable. Incidents, action, and characters of the Æneid are
here travestied, and the deplorable effect is heightened by the borrowing of
numerous hemistichs divested of their proper meaning. The "Dittochæon",
forty-nine hexameter tetrastichs commenting on various events of the Old and
New Testament, must be included among the didactic poems of Prudentius.
Doubts have been raised regarding the authenticity of these verses but with very
little reason. Gennadius (De viris illustr., xiii) furthermore attributes to Prudentius,
mistakenly perhaps, a "Hexaemeron" of which we know nothing.
His most personal work is the invective against Symmachus. It shows how the
Christians reconciled their patriotism with their faith. Prudentius identifies the
Church with Rome and, in thus transforming it, preserves that ancient belief in
the eternity of the city. He can be impartial towards the pagan and praise him for
services rendered the State. He is proud of the senate, seeing its majority
Christian. Christianity is come to crown the Roman institutions. Romans are
superior to the barbarians, as man is superior to the animals. These two books
against Symmachus undertake, therefore, to solve the problem which presented
itself to the mind of the still hesitant pagan. A genius more powerful than pliant,
Prudentius displays a more versatile and richer talent than that of his pagan
contemporary, Claudian. The rhetoric he disparages, he himself misuses; he
often exaggerates, but is never commonplace. The superior of many pagan
poets, among the Christian he is the greatest and the most truly poetic. His style
is not bad considering the period in which he wrote, and, while there are
occasional errors in his prosody due to the pronunciation then current, he shows
himself a careful versifier and has the gift (then become rare) of varying his
metres. An edition of Prudentius is to appear in the "Corpus" of Vienna, edited by
J. Bergman. The best manuscript is at Paris, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Latin
department, 8084; on one of its margins is the half-effaced name of Vettius
Agorius Basilius Mavortius (consul in 527), who made a recension of the works of
Horace. This manuscript is free from the dogmatic corrections which are found in
others.
GLOVER, Life and Letters in the Fourth Century (Cambridge, 1901), 249-77; SCHANZ, Gesch. der
röm. Litteratur, IV, I, 211; PUECH, Prudence (Paris, 1888); LEASE, A Syntactic, Stylistic and
Metrical Study of Prudentius (Baltimore, 1895); ROBERT, Notice sur le Manuscript de Prudence B.
N. lat. 8084 in Mélanges Graux (Paris, 1884), 406; BERGMAN, De codicum prudentianorum
generibus et virtute in Sitzungsberichte d. Wiener Akademie, CLVII, n. 5; LOCK in Dict. Christ.
Biog., s. v.
Paul Lejay
Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XII
Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York