PETAU, Denys (1583-1652), better known in some departments of literature under the Latin form of his name as Dionysius Petavius, a highly-distinguished Catholic theologian and one of the most learned men of the 17th century, was born on 21st August 1583 at Orleans, where his father was a well-to-do merchant with some literary culture. Petau received his early education at Orleans, but finished his university course in Paris, where, after graduating in arts, he attended theological lectures at the Sorbonne. By Isaac Casaubon, who had perceived his abilities, he was introduced to the MS. treasures of the Bibliothèque Royale; and, at the suggestion of that scholar, he began to work for the edition of Synesius which he afterwards published. In 1603, before he had completed his twentieth year, he received a teaching appointment in the faculty of philosophy at the university of Bourges; here his leisure hours were devoted to his editorial labours and to a systematic study of the ancient philosophers and mathematicians. Having come under the influence of the learned Jesuit Fronton le Duc, he was induced to resign his post at Bourges in order that he might join the Society of Jesus, and in June 1605 he entered upon his novitiate at Nancy. After an interval of four years, he taught rhetoric successively at Rheims, La Flèche, and Paris, taking the four vows of the order at the last-named place in 1618; from 1621 to 1644 he was professor of positive theology in the college of the order. On account of growing infirmities and to secure leisure for his great work, to be mentioned below, he then retired from teaching duties, but retained the librarianship in the Collège de Clermont until his death, which took place on 11th December 1652....
The list of Petau’s literary labours bears witness to an extraordinary and many-sided activity, and includes several works which still enjoy the recognition of scholars. He edited Synesius (1611, 2d ed. 1631, 3d ed. 1633), Themistius (1613), Julian (1630), the Breviarium of Nicephorus (1616), and Epiphanias (1622); his Animadversiones on the last-named have been reprinted by Dindorf, as a still unexhausted mine of valuable material, in the fifth vol. of his Epiphanii Opera (1859). Carrying on and improving on the chronological labours of Scaliger, he published in two folio volumes an Opus de doctrina temporum (1627; frequently reprinted), followed in 1630 by Uranologion s. systema variorum authorwm quidesphaera ac sideribus eorumque motibus graece commentati sunt and Variarum dissertationum ad Uranologion libri VIII. Of the first-mentioned of these he made an abridgment, entitled Rationarium temporum, which passed through numerous editions, was translated into English and French, and in a recent reprint has been brought down to the year 1849. In theology proper Petau’s first appearance was polemical, and quite in the manner of that time,—a pseudonymous criticism on the recently-published commentary of Salmasius on Tertullian’s Be Pallio {Antonii Kerkoetii Aremorici animadversionum liber, 1622). The controversy was continued in a series of replies and rejoinders, and was renewed in connexion with other publications of his distinguished antagonist. In particular, some references to the church doctrine as to the authority of bishops made by Salmasius in his Be faenore trapezitico was the occasion of Petau’s Bissertationum ecclesiasticarum libri duo, in quibus de episcoporum dignitate et potestate deque aliis ecclesiasticis dogmatibus disputatur (1641) and also of his Bc ecclesiastica hierarchia libri V. (1641). Petau also had his share in the Jansenist controversy, and has the honour of being twice mentioned as a Jesuit authority in the Provinciales. His first appearance in the dispute was against Arnauld’s Be la fréquente communion, which he met with a treatise, Be la pénitence publique et de la préparation à la communion (1643); his subsequent works, viewed in the light of the struggle then at its height, explain themselves by their titles {Be lege et gratia libri II. (1648), Be Tridentini concilii interpretatione et S. Augustini doctrina (1649), Be adjutorio sine quo non et adjutorio quo (1651). In his great but unfinished work, Be theologicis dogmatibus (5 vols, fol., 1644-50), he deals with the doctrine of God, the Trinity, Creation, and the Incarnation; his design had been to complete it by an exhaustive treatment of the sacraments and of the Christian graces and virtues. Its scope, which was to free theology from the subtleties of scholasticism and to rest the science on the simple and firm basis of Scripture, the councils, and the fathers, is well enough explained by his own avowal, “nova quaerant alii, nil nisi prisca peto.” The work is a treasury of well-digested learning, and justly entitles its author to the praise of Muratori, who speaks of him as “the restorer of dogmatic theology.” By some of his fellow-J esuits he was supposed to have been too ready to recognize the Jansenism of Augustine, and in various quarters his declaration that many of the ante-Nicene fathers were less orthodox than the decrees of the first council has been made a matter of reproach. But in these charges the impartial critic will recognize only proof of his candour. Petau, it may be added, was a rigid ascetic, and in particular is said to have indulged in the discipline of self-flagellation to a degree that injured his health.
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