REDEMPTORISTS. See LIGUORI, ALFONSO MARIA DI, AND THE REDEMPTORIST ORDER.

REDEN, rê'den, FREDERICA, COUNTESS OF: German philanthropist; b: at Brunswick May 12, 1774; d. at Erdmannsdorf (a village near Schmiedeberg, 31 m. s.s.w. of Liegnitz) May 14, 1854. In 1802 she married Count Reden, who, like herself, though humanitarian in ideal, was then devoid of special religious interests. The establishment of the Prussian Bible society in 1814, however, led him to found the Buchwald society in the following year

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and to make his wife its president. After the count's death in 1815, she came into contact with the Moravians, for whom she entertained the highest esteem; she was also led to preside at private devotional meetings which were almost sectarian in character. In 1837 the countess was the prime mover in the settlement of the Zillerthalers (q.v.) near Erdmannsdorf and in providing for their instruction in Protestantism, even though she was confronted by opposition and discouragement. The closing decade and a half of the life of the countess of Reden was devoted chiefly to her Bible society and to the new edition of the Hirschberg Bible (Hirschberg, 1844; see BIBLES, ANNOTATED, AND BIBLE SUMMARIES, I., 5), which, under the patronage of Frederick William IV. of Prussia, was destined to replace the rationalistic Schullehrerbibel of Gustav Friedrich Dinter (q.v..).

(OTTO DIBELIUS.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. F. Reuss, Friederike, Gräfin von Reden, Berlin. 1888; E. Gebhardt, Gräfin Friederike von Reden, Diesdorf, 1908; ADB, xxvii. 513.

REDENBACHER, rê'den-baH"er, CHRISTIAN WILHELM ADOLF: Bavarian Lutheran, conspicuous for his rigid Protestant position; b. at Pappenheim (37 m. s.w. of Nuremberg) July 12, 1800; d. at Dornhausen (a village in the valley of the Altmühl) July 14, 1876. He was educated at Erlangen (1819-23), and after five years of work as a private tutor and vicar became, in 1828, pastor at the village of Jochsberg. Here he was A sturdy opponent of rationalism, particularly in the columns of the Homiletisch-liturgisehes Korrespondenzblatt, and he became known as a writer of popular devotional works also. Redenbacher achieved his chief fame, however, by his public remonstrance, while pastor at Sulzkirchen, against the order of the Bavarian ministry of war requiring all soldiers, including Protestants, to genuflect to the blessed sacrament when carried in procession (see KNEELING CONTROVERSY IN BAVARIA). In 1841 he declared such acts on the part of Protestants to be idolatrous, and in the following year he advocated open defiance of the order. In Oct., 1843, he was summoned before the military court at Nuremberg, and in January he was suspended for disturbing the peace by misuse of religion. He now retired to Nuremberg to await the outcome of his trial, and in Mar., 1845, was sentenced by the supreme court to a year's imprisonment. Such excitement had now been aroused among the Protestants, however, that the king remitted Redenbacher's imprisonment, although he still remained suspended. In 1848 the sympathy felt for Redenbacher outside of Bavaria resulted in his call to the pastorate of Sachsenburg in Saxony. Here he resumed literary activity, vigorously opposing the freethinking and revolutionary tendencies surrounding him. Meanwhile conditions had so changed in Bavaria that Redenbacher could accept a call, in 1852, to the pastorate of GrosshasIach, where he remained until 1880, when he was called to Dornhausen, holding the latter pastorate until his death.

The principal works of Redenbacher were: Wahrheit and Uebe (Nuremberg, 1842); Simon von Cana (1842; these two being his protests against genuflection); Christtiche Allerlei (4 vols., Nuremberg, 1844-76); Einfache Betrachtungen, der Ganze der Heilslehre umfassend 2 vols., 1844-45; Das Licitfreundthum (Dresden, 1846); Geschichtliche Zeugnisse für den Glauben (2 vols., Dresden and Calw, 1846-69); Kurze Reformationsgeschichte (Calw, 1856); Lesebuch der Weltgeschichte (3 vole., 1860-1867); Betrachtungen bei Leichengängnissen (Ansbach, 1869); Evangelienpostille (Schweinfurt, 1876); and the posthumous Epistelpostille (ed. by his son, T. Redenbacher, with a brief biographical sketch; Erlangen, 1878). He likewise edited the Neueste Volksbibliothek (7 vols., Dresden, 1847-53), and collected many of his own contributions in his Volks und Jugendschrfften (6 vols., Schweinfurt, 1871-75).

(E. DORN)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Worte der Erinnerung an C. W. A. Redenbacher, Ansbach. 1876; F. Reuter, Die Erlanger Burschenschaft 1816-35, Erlangen, 1898; E. Dorn in Beiträge zur bayerischen Kirchengeshichte, v. 1-2 (1898); Bachmann, Monatsschrift für Inhere Mission, June. 1900: ADB, xxvii. b18-518.