RAAMAH. See TABLE OF THE NATIONS, § 6.
RAAMSES. See MOSES, § 4.
RABANUS, r8-b8'nus (HRABANUS, RHABANUS), MAURUS:
One of the most important churchmen of the Carolingian period; b. at Mainz between 776 and 784; d. at Winkel (on the Rhine, 10 m. w. of Mainz) Feb. 4, 856. He writes his name Magnentius Hrabanus Maurus, Magnentius probably referring to his Mainz origin; Hrabanus is connected with Old High German hraban, "raven," and the surname Maurus was given him by Alcuin. He was educated in the abbey of Fulda, where he entered the Benedictine order, and was ordained deacon in 801. Then he was sent to Tours to study not only theology, but the liberal arts with Alcuin, and, returning to Fulda, taught in the school, which flourished under his care. He was ordained priest in 814, and became abbot of Fulda in 822, showing marked capacity for the manifold duties imposed upon him as the head of a great monastery. He completed the rebuilding of the abbey, begun under his predecessor, and erected a number of churches and oratories in the surrounding country, besides caring for the development of various artistic talents among the monks, and turning them to good account in the decoration of his churches. He increased the property and the immunities of the abbey, and defended them from attacks; but his principal attention was given to his spiritual duties. As abbot he found time to give instruction in the Scriptures, and preached zealously to the people round about, stirring up the neighboring clergy to a like zeal. After twenty years of rule, he resigned the abbacy in the spring of 842, and retired to a church which he had built on the Petersberg, not far away, where he divided his time between devotional exercises and literary activity. He was drawn from his retire ment in 847 by the call to succeed Otgar as archbishop of Mainz, and held his first provincial synod in October. Others followed in 848 and 852. Besides showing the same zeal for the welfare of souls that he had exhibited at Fulda, he impressed his contemporaries by his acts of charity, feeding more than 300 people daily in the famine of 850. He still managed to continue writing, and took part in the controversy aroused by the eucharistic teaching of Paschasius Radbertus (q.v.). He was acknowledged as the leading authority on Holy Scripture, later ecclesiastical literature, and canon law in the whole Frankish empire. His greatest services were to the cause of education; it was he who first made literary and theological culture at home east of the Rhine. His life was blameless, and eminent in the purity of his ideals.
His writings fall into various classes. Among those of an exegetical nature, the earliest is his commentary on Matthew, composed between 814 and 822. It is less an original work than a compilation, especially from Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great. During the period of his abbacy, at the request of Freculf, bishop of Lisieux, he dealt with the Pentateuch in a similar manner, though here the allegorical method of interpretation came into greater prominence. Commentaries followed on the other historical books of the Old Testament, with the exception of Ezra and Nehemiah, and including Maccabees. Then he explained Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. To a later period probably belong the commentaries on Proverbs, the Pauline epistles, and the Gospel of John. Of these there are yet unpublished Isaiah (a twelfth-century manuscript in the possession of Erlangen University), Daniel and John (Munich Library).
For the two collections of his homilies, one
dedicated to Haistulf (before 826) and one to the
Emperor Lothair, see HOMILARIUM. In the same
connection should be mentioned the treatise De
videndo Deo (after 842). The De modo poenitentioe
sometimes included with this as a third book is an
independent work, warmly exhorting the reader
and Melanchthon, and, after acting in an ecclesiastical capacity in Dinkelsbahl and being deacon at Crailaheim (1534), was pastor at Neckarbischofsheim (until 1540), Neuenstadt-on-the-Linde (until 1552), Pforzheim, and probably in the Palatinate (until 1556 or 1557), resigning shortly after the accession of Frederick III. In May, 1559, he was called to Heilbronn to succeed Menrad Molther (q.v-) as pastor, a position which he retained until his death. He was able and gifted, but violent and somewhat inconsiderate. His writings treat of several interesting problems of early Protestant dogma and ethics, as when he opposed Melchior Ambach in his vindication of dancing and other amusements. Among his works mention may also be made of his disquisition on fasting (1553) and of his Von der Hellen (Nuremberg, 1545).
G. BossrxT.BmLIOOS"BY: A sketch of the life and works of Bata by G. Bossert is in Blotter Air w*Uembergiacha KiTchenpe-
whichte, 1893, pp. 33 sqq., 1907, pp. 1 eqq.