Ratramnus

d. c.868. Early medieval theologian. Little is known of his life. His importance rests on his books and his involvement in a number of theological controversies. His most famous work, De Corpore et Sanguine Domini was written in reaction to a tract on the sacrament written by his former teacher, Radbertus,* which taught an excessively realistic doctrine. Ratramnus emphasized a more symbolic interpretation which denied the identity of Christ's sacramental and historical body. His book was condemned in 1050 as medieval theology moved in the direction of defining the doctrine of transubstantiation.* During the Reformation some of the Reformers cited Ratramnus as a precedent for their teaching, and the book was placed on the Index* in 1559, where it remained until 1900. In 850 Ratramnus wrote De Praedestinatione in support of Gottschalk's position on double predestination.* His last book, Contra Graecorum Opposita, was written at the urging of Nicholas I* and provided a defense of the Latin Church against the attacks of the Eastern Church. He pleaded for unity, but maintained that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (Filioque) and he held to the primacy of Rome.