Paul Orose

Paul Orose is a priest and Spanish apologist of the 5th century.

Life of Orose

It was born with Taragonne or Corogne towards 380. He becomes priest with Braga. In 414 it leaves Spain, occupied by the German ones since 409, to join holy Augustin in Hippone in Africa. It wished to consult it about the heresy priscillianism.

This last sent it in Palestine towards 415, to assist Jerome in his combat against the Pélagianisme. Orose took part in the synod of Jerusalem (July 415) and published against this Hérésie the Apologeticus of arbitrii libertate . The mission was however a failure, since the Eastern bishops did not condemn Pélage.

Of return to Hippone, it brought back with him a bulky mail for the bishops of Africa and Numidie, as well as a fragment of the relics of the protomartyr Etienne, that Lucien de Kaphar Gamala had discovered in Jerusalem during the behavior of the council of Diospolis. It writes then a Histoire against pagan the ( Historiae countered paganos ), because in 414 Augustin d' Hippone books IV of the City of God had required a historical file of him to supplement.

He probably died towards 418, whereas he turned over in the Iberian peninsula. It is known that it approached with the Balearic Islands and, the season being already quite late to sail, it had undoubtedly the project to gain Tarragone by sea, then to finish his voyage until Braga by overland route. It remained some time with Minorque at the end of 417, could not pass to Spain as it hoped for it, and decided to return to Africa; before embarking, he entrusted to the Sévère bishop the relics of Etienne which appeared miraculous. From there, the traces of Orose are lost; there is any more no testimony of his existence, and it is probable that it disappeared in a shipwreck during the crossing.

Work of Orose: the Stories against pagan the

An ordering of Augustin d' Hippone

In 414 Augustin d' Hippone request in Orose to compose a collection of misfortunes of time. Indeed, in the Cité of God the bishop of Hippone sought to prove that the bag of Rome by Alaric in 410 was not the consequence of the abandonment of paganism. It thus had to be proven that the men were not happier before the Christian time.

An original work

But Orose, if it preserves the praeceptum augustinianum , i.e. the idea to tell misfortunes of the world since its origin (it starts in Adam) until its time (the book is completed in 416), will divert the augustinien project by giving him three original methodological axes:

It integrates the history of the Eastern people
It associates, in accordance with the postulate of Eusèbe de Césarée, the history of the Roman Empire and that of Christianity. Indeed, like the evil would be the consequence of the sin of the men, plus Christianity progresses less the man undergoes misfortunes of the history.
It locates the cruel invasions within the framework of a eschatology millenarist based on chronological parallels between Babylon, Rome, Carthage and Macedonia. According to its interpretation of the book of Daniel there remain two century before the end of the world.

For him these two centuries will be the Christian times (the will tempora christiana are an expression of Augustin d' Hippone) based on the harmony within the framework of a universal christianization, in particular of the German ones.

The disavowal of Augustin

Although recipient of the dedication Augustin d' Hippone could not approve the work of Orose for several reasons:

Orose confuses the terrestrial city and the celestial city.
It affirms the existence of a providential action in the political history.
It associates the history of the Roman Empire with that of Christianity.
It speculates in the end of the world.

This is why, in 425 in book XVIII of the Quoted of God , he refutes the historical ideas of Orose. Nevertheless it never named it, which let think of an agreement between the two men.

The posterity of Orose

Orose composed the first Christian universal history, since the creation of the world until its time, ab sphere condito usque AD dies nostros , a history whose presence in all a little important medieval libraries attests immense success, at the same time as the duration of the influence of an author who was also the source of scientists compilers, of Cassiodore to Paul Diacre while passing by Isidore of Seville and Bède Worthy the.

The association of the idea of a providence related to imperial monarchy was a great success with the Middle Ages. This influence is found in particular in the Chronique of Otton de Frisingue or the Of monarchia of Dante Alighieri.

In addition, as one often regarded Orose as a disciple of Augustin, the Histoires of Orose were often a filter which deformed the ideas of Augustin. This is why Herve Inglebert (see bibliography) hesitated to write only “l'" augustinism politique" is not augustinien but orosien. ”

Bibliographical complement and bonds Internet

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