Fragments de l’Adversus haereses d’Irénée de Lyon dans l’œuvre exégétique de Claude de Turin

Abstract

The indirect medieval tradition of the treatise Against heresy by Irenaeus of Lyon, written around 185-190, is very limited. From the fifth century onward Irenaeus’s text was ignored by Latin theology. The work was present in the ninth century at Corbie as well as Lyon, where archbishop Agobard had a copy made to which he added a preface. In 1969 a fragment discovered in the commentary on the Epistle to the Romans by Claudius of Turin († ca. 828) was published by Werner Affeldt from two manuscripts. The discovery of seven new fragments of the Adversus haereses in the treatise on I Corinthians by the same author adds to our knowledge of that indirect tradition and underlines the diversity of sources used by Claudius, a controversial exegete who was educated at Lyon under Leidradus. The text of Irenaeus's treatise offered by these fragments cannot be tied exclusively to either of the two known families, but appears nonetheless to be closer to the Codex Lugdunenesis, from which the Lyon branch descends.