CLAUDIANUS, MAMERTUS

Gallic writer of the 5th century; b. Lyon; d. c. 474. A monk and a priest, he collaborated with his brother, Saint Mamertus, bishop of Vienne. His principal work, De statu animae, is dedicated to his friend sidonius apollinaris. It is a refutation of faustus of riez and his theory of the corporeal soul. Book one establishes the spirituality of the soul on a rational basis; book two makes an appeal to the arguments of authorities: the Greek and Latin philosophers, the Fathers of the Church, and the Bible; book three refutes the arguments of Faustus. Though a hymn and a lectionary are lost, Mamertus's letters to the rhetor Sapaudus and to Sidonius Apollinaris have been preserved; none of the poems attributed to him were his. Mamertus was formed by the ancient thought, particularly that of Plato and Neoplatonism. He seems also to have reflected Augustinian views and to have influenced the early scholastics and Descartes.

Bibliography: Opera, ed. a. engelbrecht, Corpus scriptorium ecclesiasticorum latinorum 11; 1885. f. boemer, Der lateinische Neuplatonismus und Neupythagoreismus und Claudius Mamertus (Leipzig 1936). a. jÜlicher, Paulys Realenzyklopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, ed. g. wissowa et al. (1899) 2660–61. j. madoz, ed., Liciniano de Carthagena (Madrid 1948) 35–53. p. courcelle, Les Lettres grecques en occident (rev. ed. Paris 1948) 223–235. w. schmid, Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, ed. t. klauser (Stuttgart 1950–) 3:169–179. n. k. chadwick, Poetry and Letters in Early Christian Gaul (London 1955) 207–210. É. amann, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al. (Paris 1903–50) 9.2:1809–11.

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