R
Rabanus (Hrabanus, Rhabanus), Mattrus Mag-
NENTius, Blessed, Abbot of Fulda, Archbishop of
Mainz, celebrated theological and pedagogical writer
of the ninth century, b. at Mainz about 776 (784?);
d. at Winkel (Vinicellum) near Mainz on 4 February,
856. He took vows at an early age in the Benedictine
monastery of Fulda, and was ordained deacon in
801. A year later he went to Tours to study theology
and the liberal arts, under Alcuin. He endeared him-
self to his aged master, and received from him the
surname of Maurus in memory of the favourite dis-
ciple of St. Benedict. After a year of study he was
recalled by his abbot, became teacher and, later,
head-master of the monastic school of Fulda. His
fame as teacher spread over Europe, and Fulda be-
came the most celebrated seat of learning in the
Frankish Empire. In 814 he was ordained priest.
Unfortunately, Abbot Ratgar's mania for building
temporarily impeded the progress of the school, but
under Abbot Eigil (818-82) Rabanus was once more
able to devote himself entirely to his vocation of
teaching and writing (see C.arlovingian Schools;
Fulda, Diocese of). In 822 Rabanus was elected
abbot, and during his reign the monastery enjoyed
its greatest prosperity. He completed the new
buildings that had been begun by his predecessor;
erected more than thirty churches and oratories;
enriched the abbey church ■nith artistic mosaics,
tapestry, baldachina, reliquaries, and other costly
ornaments; provided for the instruction of the laity
by preaching and by increasing the number of priests
in country towns; procured numerous books for the
library, and in many other ways advanced the
spiritual, intellectual and temporal welfare of Fulda
and its dependencies. In the political disttn-bances
of the times he sided with Louis the Pious against
his rebellious sons, and after the emperor's death
he supported Lothair, the eldest son. When the
latter was conquered by Louis the German Rabanus
fied from home in 840, probably to evade taking the
oath of allegiance. In 841 he returned and resigned
his abbacy early in 842, compelled, it is believed, by
Louis. He retired to the neighbouring Petersberg,
where he devoted himself entirely to prayer and
literary labours. In 845 he was reconciled n'ith the
king and in 847 succeeded Otgar as Archbishop of
Mainz. His consecration took place on 26 June. He
held three provincial sjTiods. The 31 canons enacted
at the first, in the monastery of St. Alban in October,
847, are chiefly on matters of ecclesiastical discipline
(.\ct8 in Mansi, " Cone. Coll. Ampl.", XIV, 899-
912). At the second sjTiod, held in October, 848, in
connexion with a diet, the monk Gottschalk of
Orbais and his doctrine on predestination were con-
demned. The third synod, held in 852 (851?), oc-
cupied itself with the rights and discipline of the
Church. Rabanus was distinguished for his charity to-
wards the poor. It is said in the " Annales Fuldenses "
that, during the famine of 850, he daily fed more than
300 persons. Mabillon and the BoUandists style
him "Blessed", and his feast is celebrated in the Dio-
ceses of Fulda, Mainz, and Limburg on 4 February.
He was buried in the monastery of St. Alban at
Mainz, but his relics were transferred to Halle by
Archbishop Albrecht of Brandenburg.
Rabanus was probablv the most learned man of his age. In Scriptural and patristic knowledge he had
no equal, and was thoroughly conversant with canon
law and liturgy. His literary activity extended over
the entire field of sacred and profane learning as
then understood. Still, he cannot be called a pioneer,
either as an educator or a writer, for he followed in the
beaten track of his learned predecessors. A complete
edition of his numerous writings is still wanting.
Most of them have been edited by Colvenerius
(Cologne, 1627). This uncritical edition is reprinted
with some additions in P. L., CVII-CXII. His
poems were edited by Diimmler in " Mon. Germ. :
Poeta; lat. £Evi Carol.", II, 154-244. He was a
skilful versifier, but a mediocre poet. His epistles
are printed in "Mon. Germ.: Epist.", V, 379 sq.
Most of his works are exegetical. His commen-
taries, which include nearly all the books of the
Old Testament, as well as the Gospel of St. Matthew
and the Pauline Epistles — a commentary on St. John
is probably spurious — are based chiefly on the exegeti-
cal wTitings of St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Gregory
the Great, St. Isidore of Seville, Origen, St. Ambrose,
and St. Bede. His chief pedagogical works are: "De
universe ", a sort of encyclopedia in 22 books, based
on the Etjonologies of Isidore; "De coraputo",
a treatise on reckoning; "Excerptio de arte grammat-
ica Prisciani", a treatise on grammar, etc. Other
important works are: "De ecolesiastica disciplina";
sermons, treatises, a martyrology, and a penitential.
A contemporaneous biography, written by his disciple, the scholaaticus Ri-bolph, ia printed in P. L., CVII, 40-68. Ma- BiLLO.v, B. Rabani Mauri Elogium hisloricum, ibid., 40-68; Acta SS., I Feb., 506-44; Kunstmann, Hrabanus Magnentiua Maurus. eine hist. Monographic (Mainz, 1841); SpENOLER, Leben des hi. Rhabanus Maurus, Erzbischofs von Mainz (Ratiabon, 1856); RicHTER, Hrabanus Maurus, Bin Beitrag zur Gesch. der Padagogik im Mittdalter (Malchin. 1882); Turnau. Rabanua Maurus. Ein Beitrag zur Gesch. der Pddag. des MittehxUera (Munich. 1900); DtJMMLER, Hrabansstiidien in Sitzungsber. der kdnigl. preuss. Akademie (Berlin, 1898), 24^2; Idem in Allg. deutsche Biogr., XXVI. 6(5-74; Hauck in Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, II (Leipzig, 1900), 620-41; Burger, Hrabanus Maurus der BegrQnder der theol. Studien in Deuischland in Ka- tholik. II (Mainz, 1902), 51-69, 122-35; Hablitzel, Hrabanus Maurus. Ein Beitrag zur Gesch. der mittetutt. Exegese (Freiburg, 1906): Birele, Rhabanus Maurus und seine Lehre von der Eucharistie in Studien und Mittheilungen aus dem Ben.-u. Cist.- Orden. XXIII (Brunn, 1902), 77-86, 339-60, 609-24; XXIV (1903), 33-58; Ceiluer, Auteurs sacrls et ecclesiastiques, XII (Paria, 1862); Hisloire lit. de la France, V, 151-204; West, Alcuin and the Rise of Christian Schools (New York, 1892), 124-64.
Michael Ott.
Rabbi and Rabbinism. — The special condition which prevailed in Palestine after the Restoration led to the gradually increasing importance of the Temple, and of the priesthood ministering in it. The spirit of Esdras's reform outlasted the reformer and sur- vived in the authority henceforth attached to the Law, an authority soon to overshadow the prestige of the Temple and of the priesthood itself; and tended to put into prominence the teachers and expounders of the Law, the Scribes (Sopherim). Originally the word scribe meant " scrivener " ; but rapidh- it was ac- cepted as a matter of course that the scribe who copies the Law knows the Law best, and is its most qualified expounder: accordingly the word came to mean more than it implies etymologically. Knowledge of the Law became the chief passport to fame and pop- ularity. The earliest scribes, like Esdras, who came to be hailed as the model of the "ready scribe" (i. e. skilful) in the Law of Moses (I Esd., vii, 6), were
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