PROSPER
487
PROSPER
surgeon in the campaign of 1S13-.5. He was also an
enthusiastic lover of ecclesiastical chant. At length
in 1821 he determined to become a priest, and was
ordained at Ratisbon, 11 April, 1826. Henceforward
he devoted himself to the acquisition of ancient
church music, and spent the whole of his private in-
come as well as the emoluments from his church pre-
ferments, searching through Italian and other musical
archives. In 18-30 he was made Canon and Kappel-
meister of Ratisbon cathedral, of which he had been
vicar choral since 1827. With unwearied patience he
collected and transcribed hundreds of musical scores,
and in 1853 started the pubhcation of his invaluable
"Musica Di^^lla", the fourth volume of which ap-
peared in 1862; this was followed by a "Selectus
Novus Missarum", in two volumes (1857-61).
Gbove, Oict. of Music and Musicians, new ed.. Ill (London, 1907): Kirchenmxisik Jahrbuch (Ratisbon. 1894); Weixmanx, Karl Proske (Ratisbon, 1906) ; private correspondence.
\V. H. Gr-^tt-vn'-Flood.
Prosper of Aquitaine, Tiro. — The first sure date in the life of Prosper is that of his letter to St. Augus- tine written under the following circumstances. In 428 or 429 a certain Hilarj- wrote to St. Augustine in reference to difficulties raised against his doctrine in Marseilles and the neighbourhood. Hilarv- distrusted his own abihty to give St. Augustine a proper grasp of the situation, so he prevailed with a friend whom he described as a man distinguished lum moribus, turn eloquio et studio (for morals, eloquence and zeal) to write also. This friend was Prosper who, though he had never met St. Augu.stine, had corresponded with him. The two letters were despatched at the same time, and may be said to have opened the semi- Pelagian controversv-. St. Augustine repUed to the appeal made to him with the two treatises, "De Pne- destinatione" and "De Dono Perseverantiae. " It was about this time that Prosper wrote what was really a short treatise on grace and free will, under the form of a letter to a certain Rufinus, and his great dogmatic poem of over a thousand hexameter lines, "De Ingratis", on the semi-Pelagians, who were enemies of grace and are represented as re%-i\-ing the errors of Pelagianism. Two epigra m s of twelve and fourteen Unes respectively against an "obtrectator" of St. Augustine seem also to have been composed in the lifetime of the saint. Three opuscules belong to the time immediately after the death of St. Augustine (4.30): (1) " Responsiones ad capitula Gallorum". These capitula were a series of fifteen propositions attributed to St. Augustine by his opponents, e. g. "the Sa\-iour was not crucified for the whole world." To each Prosper appended a brief responsio, and con- cluded the treatise with fifteen corresponding sen- tentia, setting forth what he held to be the true doc- trine. (2) "Ad capitula objectionum Vincentianarum responsiones". The Vincentian objections were like the "capitula Gallorum", but more ^-iolent, and they attacked Prosper as well as St. Augustine. Prosper replied to them one by one. The Vincent who drew them up was probably Vincent of Lerins (Barden- hewer, Hauck, Valentin), but some writers have con- tested this point. (3) "Pro Augustino responsiones ad excerpta Genuensium". This is an explanation of certain passages in St. Augustine's treatises, "De prjedest" and "De dono persev.", which presented difficulties to some priests at Genoa who asked Prosper for an e.xplanation of them. These three opuscula are placed by Bardenhewer after Prosper's visit to Rome.
In 431 Prosper and a friend went to Rome to invoke the aid of St. Celestine. The pope responded with the Letter, "Apostolioi Verba", addressed to the bishops of Gaul, in which he blamed their remissness with re- gard to the enemies of grace, and eulogize<l St. Augus- tine. On returning to Gaul, Prosper again took up the controversy in his "De Gratia Dei et Ubero
arbitrio; Uber contra coUatorem". The "Collator"
was Cassian who in his "Conferences" had put for-
ward semi-Pelagian doctrine. The date of this, the
most important of Prosper's prose writings, can be
fixed at about 433, for the author speaks of twenty
years and more ha\'ing elapsed since the beginning of
the Pelagian heresy, viz., according to his "Chron-
icle", A. D. 413. An ironical epitaph on the Xestorian
and Pelagian heresies was probably composed shortly
after the Ck)uncil of Ephesus. The "Expositio
psalmonum" is substantially an abridgment of the
"Enarrationes" of St. Augustine. It probably com-
prised the whole psalter, but as it has come down to us
it only comments on the last fifty. The "Sententiffi
ex Augustine delibats" are a collection of sajings
extracted from the writings of St. Augustine. In
framing them Prosper as a nile dealt rather freely
with the text of St. Augustine, chiefly in the interests
of rhj'thmic prose. Canons 9, 14, 15, 16, 18 of the
second Council of Orange were taken from sentences
22, 222, 226, 160, 297. The epigrams are a number
of the sentences turned into verse. Both these works
must have been composed about the time of the Coun-
cil of Chalcedon, and probably, therefore, in Rome,
whither Prosper was summoned about A. D. 440 by
Leo the Great. According to Gennadius (De vir. Ul.,
84), he was said to have drawn up the letters written
by this pope against Eutyches.
The "Chronicle" of Prosper, from the creation to A. D. 378, was an abridgment of St. Jerome's, with, however, some additional matter, e. g. the consuls for each year from the date of the Passion. There seem to have been three editions: the first continued up to 433, the second to 445, the third to 455. This chronicle is sometimes called the "Consular Chron- icle", to distinguish it from another ascribed to Prosper where the years are reckoned according to the regnal years of the emperors and which is accordingly called the "Imperial Chronicle". This is certainly not the work of Prosper. It was compiled by a man whose sym- pathies were not with St. Augustine, and who was for- merly supposed to be Tiro Prosper and not Prosper of Aquitaine, but this theory- has broken down, for Prosper of Aquitaine in some MSS. of the "Consular Chronicle" is called Tiro Prosper. With regard to the writings of Prosper not yet mentioned, Valentin pro- nounces the poem "De procidentia " to be genuine; the "Confessio S. Prosperi", and "De vocatione gentium" to be probably genuine; the "Epistola ad Demetriadem ", the " Prateritorum sedis Apostolicae auctoritates de Gratia Dei, etc." appended to the Epistle of St. Celestine, and the "Poema mariti ad conjugem" to be verv* likely genuine. The "De \-ita contemplativa" and "De promissionibus etc." are not by Prosper, according to Valentin and Hauck. Hauck agrees with Valentin with regard to the "Poema mariti" and the "Confessio", but pronoimces against the "De vocatione", the "De procidentia", and on the other doubtful works expresses no cnew.
The storv- that Prosper was Bishop of Reggio in Italy was exploded by Sirmondi and others in the seventeenth centurj'. For the origin of this legend see Dom Morin in "Reciie benedictine", XII, 241 sqq. Prosper was neither bishop nor priest. The question whether he mitigated the severity of St. Augustine's doctrine has been much debated. The difference of opinion probably arises more from differ- ent cnews regarding St. Augustine's doctrine than from different interpretations of Prosper's. The gen- eral trend of opinion among Catholic writers seems to be in favour of the affirmative view, e. g. Kraus, Funk, Bardenhewer, Valentin, and others.
Valentin, Saint Prosptr (T Aquitaine (Toulouae. 1900); Bab- DEN'HEWER. PatTologie. The best edition of Prosper is the one published by the Benedictines Le Brck and Masgeavt (Paris, 1711). Many of the more important works are included in the Benedictine edition of St. AtJGuaTlXE. The De ingratis and some other treatises are contained in Hitbteb, 5S. Patr. opusc. Moum-
