EVRARD OF BÉTHUNE

Grammarian, polemicist; b. Béthune, Pas-de-Calais, France. Little is known of his life: several historians have considered him to have been two persons, the first living before 1124, the other dying shortly after 1212. It is certain, however, that his major work, the Antihaeresis (ed. J. Gretser, Ingolstadt 1614) could only have been written during the second part of the 12th century or at the beginning of the 13th. This work outlines at length the fundamental beliefs of the cathari in order to refute them. In this polemic Evrard successfully criticized the arbitrary scriptural interpretation of the Cathari. Then he discussed the waldenses, and finally the Jews, for whom he proposes texts that are difficult to interpret and that he feels might confuse them. His other work, the Graecismus [ed. A. J. Wrobel, Corpus grammaticorum Medii Aevi (Brussels, 1887) 1], a much-used textbook during the Middle Ages, is a versified Latin grammar based on the interrelationship of Latin and Greek. Evrard aspired to a good style and showed literary knowledge, particularly of early medieval Latin authors; but his writing is mediocre, and his thought not very worthwhile: often he extols faith at the expense of the work at hand. His treatise against the Cathari, however, is extremely helpful for determining their beliefs: J. B. bossuet used it in his Histoire des variations des églises protestantes to show the differences in doctrine between the Waldenses and the Cathari.

Bibliography: a. wauters in Biographie nationale de Belgique, v.6 (1878) 747–751. u. chevalier, Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen-âge (Paris 1905–07) 1:1261. e. faral, Les Arts poétiques du XII ^e et du XIII e siècle (Paris 1924) 38–39. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters 3:747–751. f. vernet, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 4.2:1995–98. É. griffe, Catholicisme 3:1230. m. grabmann, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (Freiburg 1957–65) 3:627–628.

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