Denis Pétau

Dionysius Petavius

Denis Pétau(21 August 1583 – 11 December 1652), also known asDionysius Petavius,was a FrenchJesuittheologian.

Life

Pétau was born inOrléans,where he had his initial education; he then attended theUniversity of Paris,where he successfully defended his theses for the degree ofMaster of Arts,not inLatin,but inGreek.After this he followed the theological lectures at theSorbonne,and, on the advice ofNicolas Ysambert,successfully applied for the chair ofphilosophyatBourges.At Paris he formed a friendship withIsaac Casaubon,then librarian at the royal library, where he spent all his spare time studying the ancient Greek manuscripts. At Orléans he was ordaineddeaconand presented with acanonry.In 1603 he was appointed to a lectureship at theUniversity of Bourges,but resigned his place two years later, in order to enter theSociety of Jesus.

After spending two years at Bourges he returned to Paris, and began a correspondence withFronton du Duc,the editor ofJohn Chrysostom.In 1605 he became a Jesuit, taught rhetoric atReims(1609),La Flèche(1613), and at theCollège de Clermont(1618). During this last period he began a correspondence with theBishop of Orléans,Gabriel de Laubépine(Albaspinaeus), on the first year of the primitive Church. Beginning in 1622, he taughtpositive theologyfor twenty-two years, and during this time he left France on only two occasions: first in 1629, to teach ecclesiastical history atMadridat the invitation ofPhilip IV;second in 1639 to become acardinalat Rome wherePope Urban VIIIwanted him. At sixty years of age he stopped teaching, but retained his office of librarian, in which he had succeeded Fronton du Duc (1623), and devoted the rest of his life to his great work, theDogmata theologica.He died in Paris.

Works

Dogmata theologica,1757

A bust of Pétau in thePalace of Versailles

Continuing the chronological labours ofJoseph Justus Scaliger,Pétau published in 1627 anOpus de doctrina temporum,which has been often reprinted. An abridgment of this work,Rationarium temporum,was translated into French and English, and has been brought down to the year 1849.

The complete list of his works fills twenty-five columns inSommervogel:he treats ofchronology,history, philosophy,polemics,patristics,and the history ofdogma.His first edition of the works ofSynesiusappeared in 1612, undertaken ten years earlier at the advice of Casaubon (Synesii episcopi Cyrenensis opera,new ed., 1633); in 1613 and 1614 the discourses ofThemistiusand Julian (new ed., 1630); in 1616 theBreviarium historicum Nicephori;then, after some poetical and oratorical works, an edition ofEpiphaniusin two volumes (1622; new ed., 1632), which had been undertaken at the advice ofJacques Gretser,S.J., and was originally intended only as a revised translation ofJanus Cornarius.In 1622 and 1623 appeared theMastigophores,three pamphlets, and the notes dealing withSaumaise'sTertullian,a bitter polemical work.

Among his previous writings, Pétau had inserted some masterly dissertations on chronology; in 1627 he brought out hisDe doctrina temporum,and later theTabulae chronologicae(1628, 1629, 1633, 1657). It surpassed Scaliger'sDe Emendatione temporum(Paris, 1583), and prepared the ground for the works of theBenedictines.A summary of it appeared in 1633 (1635, 1641, etc.) under the title ofRationarium temporum,of which numerous reprints and translations into French, English, and Italian have been made.

About the same time he wrote poetical works in Greek and in Latin and dissertations (often of a polemical nature) againstGrotius,Saumaise,Arnauld,and others. His paraphrase of thePsalmsin Greek verse was dedicated in 1637 to Pope Urban VIII. Finally there appeared in 1643 the first three volumes of theDogmata theologica(dated 1644); the fourth and fifth volumes were published in 1650; the work was incomplete at Pétau's death, and despite several attempts was never continued. Numerous editions of the "Dogmata theologica" have been published, including that by theCalvinistJean Le Clerc,published inAntwerpin 1700; the last edition was brought out in eight volumes byJ. B. Fournials(Paris, 1866–68). In 1757F. A. Zaccaria,S.J., republished the work inVenicewith notes and dissertations; in 1857 Passaglia and Schrader undertook a similar work, but they produced only the first volume. His letters,Epistolarum libri tres,were published after his death; though far from being complete, they give an idea of his close acquaintance with the most famous men in Europe of his time; they also furnish valuable information on the composition of his works and his method.

Petau's claim to fame chiefly rests on his vast, but unfinished,De theologicis dogmatibus,the first systematic attempt ever made to treat the development ofChristian doctrinefrom the historical point of view.

The reputation Pétau enjoyed during his lifetime was especially due to his work on chronology. He boasted that he counted eight thousand mistakes in theAnnales EcclesiasticiofBaronius.Eulogies were pronounced on him by his contemporaries, includingPierre Daniel Huet,Henri Valois,Hugh Grotius,Isaac Voss,F. Clericus,andHenry Noris.His chronological work has long since been surpassed.

In hispatristicworks he had at hand only imperfect editions of theFathers of the Church.What he wanted had already been outlined byMelchior Cano,in his workDe locis theologicis.Pétau's work has been questioned; it may have been inspired, it is said, by a similar treatise of Oregius (Agostino Oreggi,Cardinal), asZöcklermaintains, or by theConfessio catholicaofJohn Gerhard(d. 1627), as conjectured by Eckstein. But theConfessio catholicahas a different aim, stated on the first page; there are long historical developments in the sixteen booksDe Incarnatione Verbiof Pétau. The relationship with Oregius was examined in detail byFrançois Oudinin theMémoires de Trévoux(July 1718, pp. 109–33). He declares his opinions with full liberty, for example concerning the opinion ofAugustine of Hippoon the problem ofpredestination,or the ideas on theTrinityof the ante-Nicenewriters.

The work furnished a copious supply of documents. Pétau exaggerates the faults of Scholasticism; but he defends it against the accusations ofErasmus.In theDogmata,after giving the history of each dogma, he adds the refutation of new errors.

In his polemical writings his style was bitter; he was more gentle in discussions with Grotius. The memory of Pétau was celebrated the day after his death by Henri Valois, one of his pupils, and byLeo Allatiusin a Greek poem composed at the request of Pope Urban VIII.

Legacy

A crater on the Moon is namedPetaviusin his honour.

Works

• Dionysius Petavius,Opus de Doctrina Temporum,1627
• Dionysius Petavius,The History of the World or an Account of Time,1659
• Denis Petau.Antonii Kerkoetii Aremorici Animadversorum liber. Ad Claudii Salmasii notas in Tertullianum de Pallio,ristampa anastatica dell'edizione 1622 a c. di A. CAPONE, Clioedu, Lecce 2010.