CLAUDIUS OF TURIN

Bishop and exegete; b. probably near Seo de Urgel, Spain; d. Turin, Italy, toward the end of 827. He received his education among the clerics of Felix of Urgel, one of the main figures of the Adoptionist heresy (see adoptionism). Toward the end of the 8th century he went to Lyons, attracted by the reputation of the school of leidradus. There he received most of his theological and scriptural formation. He became a priest in the court of Louis the Pious in Aquitaine, and when the latter became emperor, Claudius followed him to Aachen. His teaching in the schools of both cities gave him material for his numerous Biblical commentaries. In 817 or 818 he was elevated to the bishopric of Turin. As bishop he attacked the cult of images, as can be seen in his Liber de imaginibus, long attributed to agobard of lyons; an Excerptum of this work is preserved. It was on this excerpt that his opponents dungal and jonas of orlÉans based their attacks against him. Claudius's Biblical commentaries belong to the collectanea type: they constitute true Biblical catenae. He contributed to the formation of this type of commentary, which was generally followed in Carolingian and later medieval times. His commentaries are: Genesis (808 or 811), a Chronicle (814), Matthew (815), Galatians (815), Ephesians-Philippians (816), Romans (812–820), 1 and 2 Corinthians (820), Exodus (821), Numbers (823 or sometime before—lost), Leviticus (823), Ruth-Kings—Questions on Kings (824), and Josue-Judges (825–826). He probably prepared commentaries on all of the Pauline Epistles, but none of the introductory letters are known to be extant. Many of his works are unedited and some are attributed to other authors: Genesis and Kings, for example, appears as pseudo-eucherius of lyons. The following commentaries attributed to atto of vercelli certainly belong to Claudius: Colossians, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews. The homilies found in various Breviaries and dictionaries under Claudius's name are extracts from his exegetical works.

Bibliography: Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne (Paris 1878–90) 104:199–250, 615–928; 50:893–1208; 105:459–464; 134:609–644, 699–834. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Epistolae (Berlin 1826–) 4:586–613. f. stegmÜller, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi (Madrid 1949–61) 2: no. 1949–75. j. b. hablitzel, Historisches Jahrbuch der Görres-Gesellschaft 27(1906) 74–85; 38 (1917) 539–548. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literature es Mittelalters (Munich 1911–31) 1:390–396. g. boffitto, "Il codice Vallicelliano C 3," Atti Acc. Sc. Torino 33 (1898) 250–285. e. riggenbach in Forschungen z. Geschichte d. Neutestamentlichen Kanons u. d. altkirchl. Literatur, v.8.1, ed. t. zahn (Leipzig 1907). a. souter, The Earliest Latin Commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul (Oxford 1927). p. bellet, "Claudio de Turín, autor de los comentarios In Genesim et Regum del Pseudo Euquerio," Estudios biblicos 9 (1950) 209–223; in Colligere fragmenta: Festschrift Alban Dold (Beuron 1952) 140–143; "El Liber de imaginibus sanctorum, bajo el nombre de Agobardo de Lyon, obra de Claudio de Turín," Analecta Sacra Tarraconensia 26 (1953) 151–194. a. bigelmair, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 2:1220.

[p. bellet]