Claudius of Turin

Ludwig the Pious , Emperor and one of the main patrons of Claudius.

Claudius of Turin ( Latin : Clavdivs Tavrinensis , Claudius, Episcopus Tauriensis , French: Claude ; f. 810 – around 827) was bishop of Turin from 817 until his death around 829 . He was a courtier to Louis the Pious and author of Bible commentaries in the Carolingian Renaissance . He is known for promoting iconoclasm and some other ideas that anticipated the controversies of the Reformation . He was attacked as a heretic by Dungal von Bobbio and Jonas von Orléans in various works . In his fall, Hrabanus Maurus , who then wrote out Claudius' works without naming him as a source, played a central role.

Career (up to 817)

It is believed that Claudius came from Spain . Especially from the attacks by Jonas von Orléans, it seems that he was a pupil of Felix von Urgell . Felix was a bishop in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees and Claudius may have known him personally. Felix had been condemned by Alcuin at the synod of Frankfurt in 794 because he is said to have taught adoptianism . Today, however, it is certain that Claudius was not a student of Felix. He received his education either in Spain or in Lyon under Archbishop Leidrad of Lyon . Presumably by Leidrad and, as Claudius himself relates, also by his schoolmates and the future Emperor Ludwig the Pious, he was encouraged to deal with exegesis and to concentrate on certain parts of the scriptures . In addition, he dealt with the church fathers .

When Louis the Pious King of Aquitaine was still, he called Claudius to his court in Chasseneuil (before 811). In 813, Charlemagne called Ludwig, his only remaining legitimate son, to his court and crowned him his inheritance. The following year Karl died and Ludwig became regent of the Holy Roman Empire . He brought Claudius to Aachen in the capital. There he gave exegetical lectures before the emperor and his court and was even urged by the emperor to write down his thoughts. Claudius was a member of an elite circle of secular and ecclesiastical politicians and authorities and a creatura della corte di Aquisgrana ("Creation of the Court of Aachen"). In 817 he was sent to Turin by Ludwig as bishop. It has been assumed that the appointment of a theologian and scholar who also had military tasks due to the Saracen attacks was also due to the necessity that the emperor needed a loyal man in Italy who could also take action against the rebellion of Bernhard . Bernhard was the illegitimate son of King Pippin , the third son of Charlemagne. Ludwig had given Italy to his eldest son Lothar when the empire was divided among his three sons in 817. Bernhard rebelled against his uncle with the support of Bishop Theodulf von Orléans . The rebellion was put down, but the emperor's prestige among the Frankish nobles was shattered and it became strategically important that the Bishop of Turin be a loyal retainer.

Episcopate (817–827)

As Bishop of Turin, Claudius found that many people were sent on pilgrimage to Rome to repent and that believers had the habit of worshiping Christ and the saints by prostrating themselves before the images and relics. Claudius was not used to this provincial type of worship. He attacked the customs and had little respect for the authority of the Pope because he assumed that all bishops were equal. Claudius had the pictures removed from the churches of his diocese and criticized the veneration of the cross.

He was then attacked by Dungal von Bobbio and Jonas von Orléans. At the emperor's request, he wrote a reply to the allegations. The last mention of Claudius can be found in a charter of the St. Peter monastery in Novalesa in May 827. When Dungal completed his Responsa contra peruersas Claudii Taurinensis episcopi sententias at the end of 827, he was most likely already dead.

Works

Claudius started from works like the Treasury Gospels when composing his commentaries.

Claudius worked both as a writer and as a copyist . Although most of his works are commentaries on the Bible, his writings are very personal. He had a penchant for detail at a time when brevity and anonymity were key features of the writers. Around 811 Claudius was preparing an exhaustive and encyclopedic commentary on Genesis . This commentary was written at the emperor's request and was published by Johann Alexander Brassicanus in Vienna before it was first printed by Hieronymus Froben in Basel in 1531 .

He wrote further comments on Leviticus , the historical books of the Old Testament , the Gospel according to Matthew, and all of Paul's letters . The commentary on Paul's letter to the Galatians reveals thoughts which the Waldensians and Protestants were later to formulate in a similar way. It has even been claimed that he was one of the founders of the Waldensians, but this was refuted in the 19th century. However, his letters on 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians , which were dedicated to the Theodemir, Abbot von Psalmody , were sent by him to Aachen and found to be bad by the synod of the bishops of this part of the empire. They remained unpublished because it was these comments that had fueled the controversy over the worship of the images and the pilgrimages.

Claudius introduced the "metaphor of the limbs" of the state in his commentary on 1 Corinthians. He suggested that just as the church is the body of Christ, the state is also the body of the emperor. The imperial court had received the work well, although Theodemir von Nismes had taken great pains to have it condemned. The works were not condemned and Claudius tried in vain to get Theodemir's approval.

In 1950 Claudius was discovered by Paulino Bellet OSB as the author of some works previously ascribed to Pseudo-Eucherius .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} M. Gorman 1997, p. 279
2. ↑ ^{a b} S. F. Wemple 1974, p. 222
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} FL Cross; EA Livingstone (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edition . Oxford University Press, USA March 13, 1997, ISBN 0-19-211655-X , p. 359.
4. ↑ Johannes Heil: Claudius - a case study , p. 404 and 406.
5. ^ Diocesan Museum of Urgell . Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved August 22, 2007.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} M. Gorman 1997, p. 280.
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} M. Gorman 1997, p. 281.
8. ↑ , Altmann and Bernheim Selected Documents 1891, p. 12.
9. ^ George Holmes: The Oxford History of the Medieval Europe . Oxford University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-19-285272-8 , p. 98.
10. ↑ Margaret Deanesly: History of Early Medieval Europe 476-911 . Methuen & Co Ltd, London 1969, ISBN 0-416-29970-9 , pp. 434-435.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} M. Gorman 1997, p. 282.
12. ↑ Malcolm Lasmbert: Heresy in the Middle Ages: Heresies from Bogumil to Hus . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 2001, ISBN 3-8289-4886-3 , pp. 24-25.
13. ↑ Tractatus in epistola ad Ephesios , Tractatus in epistola ad Philippenses : Editions in C. Ricci (= Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis 263), Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2014, ISBN 978-2-503-55266-8 .
14. ↑ SF Wemple 1974, p. 224.
15. ↑ M. Gorman 1997, p. 283.
16. ↑ Paulino Bellet: Claudio de Turin, author of the comentarios “In genesim et regum” del Pseudo Euquerio . In: Estudios Biblicos , Vol. 9 (1950), pp. 209-223.

literature

• Pascal Boulhol: Claude de Turin. Un évêque iconoclaste dans l'Occident carolingien (= Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Moyen Âge et Temps Modernes , vol. 38). Institut d'Études Augustiniennes, Paris 2002.
• Michael Gorman: The Commentary on Genesis of Claudius of Turin and Biblical Studies under Louis the Pious . In: Speculum , Vol. 72 (1997), No. 2, pp. 279-329.
• Johannes Heil : Claudius of Turin - a case study on the history of the Carolingian era . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft , vol. 45 (1997), pp. 389-412.
• Suzanne F. Wemple: Claudius of Turin's Organic Metaphor or the Carolingian Doctrine of Corporations . In: Speculum 49.2 (1974) pp. 222-237.

Web links

• The Apology of Claudius of Turin . Archived from the original on October 5, 2012.
• Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes
• Commentary on Genesis by Migne Patrologia Latina (erroneously attributed to Eucherius of Lyons)

predecessor	Office	successor
Andreas	Bishop of Turin 817–827	Witgario