The New International Encyclopædia/Ratramnus

RATRAM′NUS (sometimes incorrectly called Bertram, or Bertramus). An Aquitanian monk and theologian of the early ninth century, connected with the Monastery of Corbie, Picardy. He wrote a famous treatise, De Corpore et Sanguine Domini, a defense of the purely symbolical theory as to the Eucharist. In 1526 the work was brought into prominence through its being quoted by Bishop Fisher, of Rochester, as an exposition of the Roman Catholic doctrine regarding the Eucharist. Reprinted in 1527 at Cologne, it was much read by Protestants, and was placed on the Index by the Council of Trent. Subsequently it was defended within the Roman Catholic Church by Sainte-Beuve and Jacques Boileau. Ratramus also wrote Contra Græcorum Opposita, in defense of the whole system of Western dogma. The collected works may be found in Migne's Patrologia Latina, cxxi. (Paris, 1844-64).