Ratherius

While still a boy, Ratherius was sent as an oblate to Lobbes Abbey, belonging to the Order of Saint Benedict in the County of Hainaut.

Consequently, despite his strict orthodoxy, wide learning, and good conduct, he met with difficulties in every position he assumed and failed to attain lasting success.

[1] As presiding bishop, he once commented that if he attempted to enforce the canons against unchaste persons who administered ecclesiastical rites, the Church would be without anyone except boys.

He took part in the expedition to invade Lombardy with Liudolf, Duke of Swabia, the son of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, but was unable to regain his diocese; so in 952, he returned again to Lobbes.

In 968 he went to Lobbes, where he incited such opposition against the Abbot Folcwin that Bishop Notker of Liège restored order by force, and in 972 sent Ratherius back to the Abbey of Aulne, where he remained until his death at Namur on 25 April 974.

[1] Ratherius was also a fine preacher: one of his strengths was his skill in reviving old ideas and making them new again[1] He was one of the first to employ the use of fables to illustrate his sermons, and respected ordinary intelligence, speaking against "swollen rhetoric".

While his style is confused and lacks clarity, his writings generally made reference to particular occasions, and were pamphlets and invectives against his contemporaries.