Ratramnus

Ratramnus (died c. 868) was a Frankish monk of the monastery of Corbie, near Amiens in northern France, and a Carolingian theologian known best for his writings on the Eucharist and predestination. His Eucharistic treatise De corpore et sanguine Domini (On the Body and Blood of the Lord) was a counterpoint to his abbot Paschasius Radbertus’s realist Eucharistic theology. Ratramnus was also known for his defense of the monk Gottschalk, whose theology of double predestination was the center of much controversy in 9th-century France and Germany. In his own time, Ratramnus was perhaps best known for his Against the Objections of the Greeks who Slandered the Roman Church, a response to the Photian schism and defense of the filioque addition to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. The writings of Ratramnus influenced the Protestant reformation of the 16th century.

Biography

Little is known of Ratramnus’ life, but some have suggested that he became the teaching master at the Benedictine monastery of Corbie in 844, when Paschasius Radbertus was made abbot. Additionally, he appears to have had a reasonably close relationship with King Charles the Bald.

The Eucharist

Sometime around 831-833, Paschasius Radbertus, in his role as a teacher in the monastery at Corbie, wrote De corpore et sanguine Domini (Concerning the Body and Blood of the Lord), articulating the view that in the moment of consecration, the bread and wine on the altar became identical with the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Paschasius was clear that the body and blood on the altar are precisely the same natural body and blood as Christ’s incarnate body on earth. In his description of the Eucharist, Paschasius drew a distinction between figura (figure) and veritas (truth), which he understood to mean “outward appearance” and “what faith teaches”, respectively.