Ratherius

Ratherius (887×890 – 974), also known as Rathier or Rather of Verona, was a teacher, writer, and bishop. His difficult personality and political activities led to his becoming an exile and a wanderer.

Ratherius (887×890 – 974), also known as Rathier or Rather of Verona, was a teacher, writer, and bishop. His difficult personality and political activities led to his becoming an exile and a wanderer. ==Works== Ratherius was also a fine preacher: one of his strengths was his skill in reviving old ideas and making them new again He was one of the first to employ the use of fables to illustrate his sermons, and respected ordinary intelligence, speaking against "swollen rhetoric". His writings are as unsystematic as his life was changeable and tumultuous. While his style is confused and lacks clarity, his writings generally made reference to particular occasions, and were pamphlets and invectives against his contemporaries. He also wrote complaints against himself in his own affairs. In one of his Verona sermons, Rather mentions reading the Latin poet Catullus in 966, which makes him a figure in the tenuous transmission of Catullus medieval manuscripts. While imprisoned in Pavia, Ratherius wrote Praeloquia, criticizing all social ranks of the period. His other writings include: Conclusio deliberativa, and Phrensis (twelve books composed during a later time of strife, when Ratherius had been forced to relinquish the episcopal see of Verona), both in defense of his right to the Diocese of Liège Dialogus confessionum and Qualitatis conjunctura, a self-accusation De contemptu canonum, Synodica, Discordia inter ipsum et clericos, and Liber apologeticus, against the ecclesiastics of his era and in defence of himself Some of his sermons and letters have also been preserved. The writings shine light upon his era. His works were edited by the brothers Ballerini (Verona, 1765); also in Patrologia Latina, CXXXVI. Unedited letters are to be found in Studi e documenti di storia e diritto (1903) 51–72.

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