FLORUS: Deacon of Lyons; b. in the vicinity of Lyons (according to others, in Spain) in the latter part of the eighth century; d. at Lyons about 860. He was probably educated in Lyons, but despite his reputation for learning, never rose above the rank of deacon, or, according to some accounts, of subdeacon, the capacity in which he officiated under the archbishops Agobard (816-$40) Amolo (841-852), and Remigius. He was a firm advocate of the independence of the clergy and the autonomy of the Church of Gaul, so that he appears as a modest opponent of Amalarius, especially in his De diroinn pealmodia, although his defense of the ancient liturgy was not completed until Agobard, after his return from exile, yvrote his De corredione Antiphonarii. In his De elediontvws epiem, he advocated the canonical choice of bishops, and when Moduin, the bishop of Autun, inspected the diocese of Lyons at the command of the emperor Louis the Pious in 834, Florus assailed him both in prose and verse, moved not only by his affection for Agobard, but also by his devotion to the independence of his diocese and Moduin's attachment to, Louis. In the, dogmatic controversies of his time he was an opponent of Paschasius Radbertus (q.v.)., teaching that the only participation in the body and blood of Christ is that of faith, and accordingly calling the bread the mystical body of the Lord. He set forth his views in his Expoaitio mWste, a work written previous to 834 and consisting for the most part of excerpts from Cyprian, Ambrose, Jerome, and others. He also took part in the controversy on predestination in his Sermo de pro=destinations, while the Advereue cujuedam . . . , emores de prtedmindiotte, written in the name of the Church of Lyons against Johannes Scotus Erigena, also seems to have been composed by him. Among his other works special mention may be made of his commentary on the Pauline Epistles, his revision of the Martyrologium of Bede, and of his hymns, in all of which he shows wide reading and much skill in composition.

Bibliography: The Carmine, ed. E. Dümmler, are in MGM, Poets, Let. avi Carob, ii (1884). 507-580; Part of his Pr

duetions are in J. Mabillon, Vetera andeeta, i. 388 sqq. Paris, 1723; Bouquet, 1. vi. 282-283, vu. 301-304

MPL, can. Two Poems are printed for the first time b F. Patetta in AW of the Academy of Turin, xavii (1891-1892), 123-129. Consult: ASB. June, vi., pp. siii·-avi. J. C. F. Bbhr, oeechichte d er rt~nisches Littratur im kar

linpisches Z sitalter. PP- 108-109. - 447-463. Carleruhe 1840; E. Dümmler, in NA, tv (1879), 296-301. 518, 581 830; A. Ebert, Augeneine Gesebickte der Literatur de MiudaUsrs, ii. 268-272, Leipsic, 1880; Wattenbac

DQt;, i (1885), 5g, 199. 263, i (1893),60, 211, 280.