401 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA nationalism
revelation already mentioned are two other movements Evangelicalism and Wesleyism. The former as represented by Henry Venn and William Ro
me (qq.v.), the latter by the Wesleys and Whitefield (qq.v.), are not a scholastic but a religious phenomenon, depending upon belief in the inspiration, inerrancy, and literal interpretation of the Scriptures, the fall and total corruption of man in sin, and the immediate consciousness of a renewed life originated by the Spirit of God.
In America during this period the chief advocate of supernaturalism as against rationalism was Jonathan Edwards (q.v.). His essay on The Freedom of the Will and his dissertation on Original Sin were a reply to treatises on original sin by John Taylor and by D. Whitby (qq.v.) written from the Arminian point of view, in which, by a use of the Scriptures which prevailed among opponents of rar tionalism in Great Britain, God is proved to be the efficient cause of all human action.
The course of rationalism for the next fifty years or until about 1830 shows less reliance upon individual names than upon a general movement registered in several directions. Authority 4. Entrance whether ecclesiastical or civil in respect of Scientific of religious beliefs was fast losing its
Method. hold, so that everywhere freedom of
inquiry became less subject to restraint.
The right of the individual consciousness was grad
ually gaining recognition. The age of experience,
of observation, and verification had arrived wherein
the slow method of induction was substituted for
the " high priori road." In particular, attention
is directed to two features affecting positions sup
posed to rest, one on the Scriptures, the other on
philosophy. The beginnings of Hebrew history
were subjected to the same criteria as Wolff and
Niebuhr had applied to Greek and Roman history.
The chief representatives here are Bishop Thirl
wall, Thomas Arnold, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and
Dean Milman (qq.v.). The points on which inter
est centered were the story of creation, the fall and
original sin, miraculous accounts as the burning
bush and the sun and moon standing still, the di
vine authority of the judges, the integrity and au
thenticity of the Synoptic Gospels, in a word, many
of the questions which have since become common
places in literary and historical criticism. The im
tendencies were either atheistic or social as repre
sented by Bentham, pantheistic or spiritual as rep
resented by Coleridge, agnostic or ethical as repre
sented by James Mill. The empiricism of Locke and
Hume, the idealism of Kant, and the individualistic
and socialistic teachings of the French Encyclo
pedists together with the matter of fact temper of
the English mind were the main forces at work.
The Evangelical movement had grown to large pro
portions; at the close of the eighteenth century it
included about five hundred clergy, its chief repre
sentative being William Wilberforce (q.v.; Practical
View, London, 1797).
In the following period of about thirty years, or until about 1860, appeared a remarkable group of IX. 26
writers, partly theological, partly scientific and literary, by whom the rational temper of English thought was still further refined. 5. Develop Among those of theological significance meats were John Frederick Denison Maurice,
:83o 6o. Charles Kingsley, Frederick William
Robertson of Brighton, and Benjamin
Jowett (qq.v.). Positions already assumed are ad
vanced to yet farther stages. Questions were raised
all along the line: Old and New Testament criti
cism, miracles, natural religion, sin, the nature, and
character of Jesus, atonement, eternal life and eter
nal death. Other contemporary writings were symp
toms of the new spirit, as, e.g., Robert Chambers,
Vestiges of the Creation; F. W. Newman, Phases of
Faith; R. W. Gregg, The Creed of Christendom;
Harriet Martineau, Eastern Life; also Essays and
Reviews (q.v.) by several writers. The significance
of this movement is understood only when set on
the background of religious thought to which it
was a protest. The Evangelical party continued
the traditions of piety and reliance upon the super
natural which had marked their predecessors. On
the inspiration and integrity of the Scriptures, the
fall of man and original sin, regeneration, expiation
vigorous advocates of the same against all rational
istic tenets. In common with the Tractarian party,
until the withdrawal of John Henry Newman (q.v.)
to the Roman Catholic Church in 1845, they de
fended the authority of the ancient symbols and
church authority in general, and they subordinated
reason to faith. Among the representatives of the
Evangelicals were Henry Rogers and Isaac Taylor
(qq.v.). The Tractarian movement went still far
ther in its antagonism to rationalism, defending
baptismal regeneration, the real presence, exclusive
prerogatives of the priesthood derived from the
apostles, and authority centering in the Scriptures
communicated to the Church. The chief advocates
of these positions were Cardinal Newman, Richard
Hurrell Froude, Edward Bouverie Pusey, and John
Keble (qq.v.). In America the revolt of reason
against traditional, authoritative supernaturalism
found in Theodore Parker (q.v.) its most learned
and outspoken advocate, and in the Unitarian
churches its freest opportunity (am UmTArorexs).
It was also fostered by Horace Bushnell (q.v.) in
the Christian nurture of children as against the pre
vailing evangelistic methods of conversion, and in
the growing emancipation of thought in portions of
the Congregational and Presbyterian churches. No
new lines of defense of supernaturalism appeared.
Since about 1860 all the rational tendencies previously active have rapidly advanced, accelerated by two new, pervasive, and radically transforming interests Evolution and Comparative
6. Since Religion (qq.v.), to which may be r86o. added the idealistic philosophy and the new psychology, and the vast extension of the scientific spirit resulting in naturalism. Rationalism has in many instances issued in atheism (cf. A. W. Benn, fistory of Rationalism in, the Nineteenth Century, London, 1906), in others in
Rationalism THE NEW SCELAFF HERZOG 402
agnosticism (cf. H. Spencer, First Principles, ib. 1884; T. Huxley, Science and Culture, ib. 1881), and in yet others, where it has not relieved Christianity of all its supernatural elements, thus reducing it to pure theism, it has set it in a wider natural order and interpreted that order no longer as simply mechanical but also as teleological. Perhaps it has influenced apologetics more profoundly than any other branch of theological inquiry, whether the point of view be conservative or liberal (see Arol, oGEnca). The traditional dualism of natural and supernatural is indeed in some quarters still maintained; where, however, the divine immanence is seriously held, the line between the natural and the supernatural is disappearing, and the supernatural is the natural viewed from its causal ground or its teleological import. Thus the supernatural is reinstated not as anomalous and shrouded in mystery, but as ultimate source and final end of the rational order (see PoLEMles and THEOLOGY, the end).
C. A. BEC%wITH.
BiBicoanAray: J. Tulloch, Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy in England in the 17th Century, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1872; L. Stephen, Hist. of Eng. Thought in the 18th Century, 2 vols., New York, 1881; K. F. Stliudlin, Gesehichte des Rationalismus and Supranaturalismus, GUtingen, 1826; E. B. Pusey, Probable Causes of the Rationalist Character lately Predominant in the Theology of Germany, London, 1828; A. Saintes, Hist. critique du rationalisme en Allemagne, Paris, 1841, Eng. tranel., Critical Hist. of Rationalism in Germany, London, 1849; F. A. G. Tholuck, Vorgeschichte des Rationalismua, 4 vole., Berlin, 1853 62; idem, Geschichte des Rationalismus, vol. i., ib. 1865; A. de Gasparin, The Schools of Doubt and the School of Faith, Edinburgh, 1854; G. Smith, Rational Religion, London, 1861; A. F. Arbousse Bastide, Christiani8me et 1'esprit moderns, Paris, 1862; A. S. Farrar, Critical Hist. of Free Thought, London, 1862; W. Howitt, The Hilt. of the Supernatural in all Ages and Nations, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1863; K. R. Hagenbach, German Rationalism in its Rise, Progress, and Decline, Edinburgh, 1865; W. E. H. Lecky, Hiet. of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, 2 vols., new ed., London, 1867; G. P. Fisher, Faith and Rationalism, New York, 1879; J. Cairns, Unbelief in the Eighteenth Century, London, 1881 • J. Cook, Scepticism and Rationalism, ib. 1881; H. Coke, Creeds of the Day, 2 vols., ib. 1883; H. Heussler, Der Rationalismus des siebzehnten Jahrhunderta, Breslau, 1885; E. Costansi, It Razionaliemo a la Ragione storica, Rome, 1888; C. M. Mead, Supernatural Revelation, London, 1890; C. Brun, Rationalismen i dens hiatoriske Sammenhong med det attende Aarhundredes Oplysning, Christiania, 1891; O. Pfleiderer, Geschichte den protestantischen Theologie seit Kant, Berlin, 1891; F. Utopy, Le Rationalisme philosophique et religieux, Paris, 1891; F. V. A. Aulard, Cults de to raison, Paris, 1892; J. H. King, The Supernatural: its Origin, Nature, and Evolution, 2 vols., London and New York, 1892; W. H. Mallock, Studies of Contemporary Superstition, London, 1895; K. Fischer, Geschichte den neueren Philosophic, vole. iii. vii., 10 vols., Heidelberg, 1897 1903; J. M. Robertson, Studies in Religious Fallacy, London, 1900; idem, Short Hint. of Free Thought, 2d ed., 2 vols., ib. 1906; A. J. Balfour, Foundations of Belief, 8th ed., London, 1901; G. Forester, The Faith of an Agnostic; or, first Essays in Rationalism, London, 1902; J. F. Hurst, Hist. of Rationalism, revised ed., New York, 1902; C. E. Plumptre, On the Progress of Liberty of Thought during Queen Victoria's Reign, London, 1902; G. Henslow, Present Day Rationalism, ib. 1904; C. Watts, The Meaning of Rationalism, ib. 1905; A. W. Berm, Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols., ib. 1906; J. M. Robertson, A Short History of Free Thought, Ancient and Modern, 2 vols., 2d ed., New York, 1906; F. Podmore, The Naturalisation of the Supernatural, London, 1908, C. F. D'Arey, Christianity and the Supernatural, ib. 1909; the works on the hist. of philosophy by J. E. Erdmann, New York, 1893, W. Windelband, vol. iii., London, 1898, and F. Ueberweg, ed. Heinze,
vols. iii. iv., Berlin, 1901 02. Related literature will be found under AoxosTiczsM; ATemsm; Daisx; ENLIaBTmNMENT; MATMIUALMM, etc.
RATRAMBUS, rd"trdm'nus (RATHRAMNUS): Monk of Corbie and one of the most important theological authors of the ninth century; d. after 868. Of his life almost nothing is known, even his writings containing no biographical material; and the date of his birth, like that of his proLife. fession, can not be ascertained. He was deeply versed in Biblical and par tristic learning, and theologically was a disciple of Augustine. He took part in all the theological controversies of his period, and his opinion was frequently sought by Charles the Bald, while his bishop delegates him to refute the attacks of the Patriarch Photiua on the Roman Catholic Church. It is also evident that he was warmly admired by Gottachalk (MPL, exxi. 367 368).
The chief work of Ratramnus was the De corpore et sanguine Domini liber, written at the request of Charles the pB~a~ld, probably after Paschasius Radbertus (see RADBERTUs, PAscanarUa) had sent him his treatise on the same theme. In this
Doctrine work Ratramnus maintained that the of the eucharistic elements are not the actual
Eucharist. body and blood of the Christ of history,
but are mystic symbols of remem
brance. He might, therefore, be regarded as a sym
bolist, seeing in the Eucharist a sacrificial meal, the
efficacy of which depends on the intensity with
which the recipient realizes the redeeming passion
of Christ. This does not, however, completely ex
press his position, for he maintained at the same
time that " according to the invisible substance,
i.e., the power of the divine Word, the body and
blood of Christ are truly present " (cap. xlix.).
This shows that Ratramnus was more than a sym
bolist, and that he believed in a real presence which
was received by the faithful through the spirit of
God. His eucharistic doctrine is elucidated by his
teaching on baptism. Baptismal regeneration is
not due to the water in itself, but to the Holy Ghost
who enters it at the priestly consecration. Both in
baptism and in the Eucharist, then, a mutable and
transitory element perceptible to the senses co
exists with an immutable and eternal element which
faith alone can grasp. This distinction between ex
ternal and internal runs, with slight inconsistencies,
through the entire presentation of Ratramnus, the
concomitance of the two constituting the divine
mystery. The change of the bread and wine into
the body and blood of Christ for those who receive
in faith is defined by Ratramnus as due to the sanc
tification of the Holy Ghost invisibly contained in
(" Word " here seeming to mean the words of insti
tution as spoken by the priest at the consecration of
the elements rather than the Scriptures in general
or the Logos). It would furthermore appear that
he held that the Eucharist is the visible vehicle of
invisible grace, and that in the sacrament the power
of God, under its material veil, secretly works the
salvation to which the Eucharist testifies. The eu
chariatic teaching of Ratramnus thus approximated
403 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Rationalism one side of the doctrine of Radbertus (q.v.), the difference being merely in their concept of " truly " in the transformation of the sacramental elements, Radbertus making this include both symbol and substance, while Ratramnus understood by the term a presence cognoscible to the senses, and so combated it. While, therefore, he taught a real change of the elements, in virtue of priestly consecration, not only in signification, but also in efficacy, this change was perceptible only to faith, not to the senses.
The De corpore et sanguine Domini of Ratramnus has had a strange history. The synod of Vercelli, in 1050, condemned and burned it as a work composed by Johannes Scotus Erigena (see SCOTUS ERIGENA, JOHANNES) at the instance of Charles the Bald; and during the Middle Ages its very existence was well nigh forgotten. In 1526, however, John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, appealed to it in his controversy with C;colampadius. Attention was thus again drawn to it, and in 1532 it was edited at Cologne by Johannes Prael under the title of Bertrami presbyteri ad Carolum Magnum imr peratorem. It was then repeatedly edited 'and translated, especially in French and English (e.g., London, 1548, 1581, 1624, 1686, 1838, 1880). The appeals of Protestants, especially of the Reformed wing, to it rendered it an object of suspicion to the Roman Catholic Church, and as a Protestant forgery it was placed on the Index by the censors of the Council of Trent in 1559. This unfavorable view was shared by the leading Roman Catholic scholars of the period, and though others maintained its authenticity and orthodoxy, it was not removed from the Index until 1900.
The other writings of Ratramnus may be dismissed more briefly. The earliest of his works seems to have been the De eo quod Christus ex Virgine natus est, on the contents and relation of which to Radbertus' De partu Virginis see R.wBERTus, PAs
caAsrus. He was active in the GottOther schalk controversy, was indeed a per
Writings. sonal friend of the monk of Fulda (see
GOTTSCHALK, 1). In 850, at the request of Charles the Bald, he wrote his two books, De prcededinatione Dei, in which he defended the doctrine of twofold predestination to salvation and damnation, but rejected the theory of a predestination to sin. Between 853 and 855 he wrote an apology of the Trina Deitas (now lost), assailing Hinemar's proposed change of te, trim Deitas unique in the hymn " Sanctorum meritis inclyta gaudia " into te, summa Deitas, his reasons being suspected Sabellianism. Ratramnus gained his chief fame by his four books Contra Gr&,corum opposita, written about 868 in reply to the attacks of Photius (q.v.) on the Filiosue and other differences between East and West. The first book is devoted to the demonstration from the Bible of the doctrine of the double procession, and the second and third to proofs from the councils and the Greek and Latin Fathers. Particular interest attaches to the first chapter of the fourth book, in which Ratramnus touches upon one of the chief points of difference between the Greek and Latin Churches. The Eastern Church traces not only its dogma, but also its ecclesiastical rites and customs, back to the apostolic age, and forbids
the slightest deviation; while the Church of the West, especially after the time of Augustine, permits variations in forms of observance according to the necessities of place and time, though maintaining the same inflexibility of dogma as the East. The remainder of the concluding book is occupied with the justification of distinctively Roman usages, such as celibacy and the tonsure.
Ratramnus also wrote a curious Epistola de cynocephalia ad Rimbertum presbyterum, this Rimbert probably being the biographer and successor of Ansgar (q.v.). Here Ratramnus decides that, though most theologians are inclined to consider the cynocephali as animals rather than men, the human traits in their mode of life imply the possession of reason, so that there is no good reason to object to the view that they are descendants of Adam. In this same work he also denies complete authority to the " Book of St. Clement " (probably the " Recognitions "), on the ground that it is not in entire harmony with the doctrines of the Church. In his De anima Ratramnus polemized against the theory of a certain Maearius Scotus (who had misunderstood a passage in Augustine's De quantitate animw) that all mankind have a single soul in common. The work, which has never been edited, is described, from a manuscript apparently now lost, by Jean Mabillon (ASM, iii. 140; ASB, IV., ii. 76). In another work, likewise unedited, Ratramnus refutes the theory that the soul is circumscribed, or restricted by limits of space (cf. L. Traube, in MGH, Poet. Lat. red. avi, iii. 2 [1896], 715). All the works of Ratramnus thus far edited are collected in the reprint in MPL, cxxi. 1 346, 1153 56, while his letters are given in MGH, Epist., vi. 1 (1902), 149 sqq.
Like Radbertus and most other theologians of
the Carolingian and succeeding centuries, Ratramnus
was a traditionalist, drawing on and systematizing
patristic literature primarily for polemic pur
poses and for establishing his intense Augustinian
ism. Through his controversial writings runs a noble
strain, personal attack is avoided, and demonstra
tion of the truth is the one and only end. He is
likewise noteworthy because of the attention given
his writings in the Reformed Church and during the
period of the Enlightenment, even though he had
been unrecognized by the " Magdeburg Centuries "
and by early Lutheranism. (A. HAUCK.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Naegle, Ratramnus and die heilige Euw charistie, Vienna, 1903; Hist. litwaire de la France v. 332 351; J. Bach, Dogmengeschachte des Mittelalters, i. 193 sqq., Vienna, 1873; A. Ebert, Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters, ii. 244, Leipsic, 1880; J. Schwane, Dogmenpeschichte der mittleren Zeit, pp. 631 sqq., Freiburg, 1882; J. Schweizer, Berengar von Tours, pp. 150 174, Munich, 1890; J. Ernst, Die Lehre des . . . Pasckasius Radbertus van der Bucharistie, pp. 99 sqq., Freiburg, 1896; Harnaek, Dogma, v. 297, 302, 310, 318 sqq., vi. 47 48; Neander, Christian Church, iii. 482, 497 501; Schaff, Christian Church, iv. 304, 532, 549 sqq., 746 sqq.; Ceillier, Auteure sacrbs, xii. 555 568, 594; KL, x. 802 807.
RATZ, rats, JAKOB:German Lutheran; b. at Saulheim (a village s. of Mainz) 1505; d. at Heilbronn (26 m. n. of Stuttgart) 1565. He was educated at the University of Mainz, and, though an admirer of Erasmus, seems to have entered a monastery. He later went to Wittenberg to hear Luther
Ra~rs°.guch THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG404
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.
RATZEBERGER, rat'se.bbra er (RATZENBERGER), MATTHAUS:German physician and lay theologian; b. at Wangen (5 m. e. of Stuttgart) 1501; d. at Erfurt Jan. 3, 1559. He was educated at Wittenberg, and early made the acquaintance of Luther, for whom he cherished a lifelong veneration. He left Wittenberg in 1525 to become city physician at Brandenburg, and there met the electress, whom he is said to have induced to study the writings of Luther. When, however, she fled to Saxony, Ratzeberger's career at Brandenburg was at an end, and he then became physician to Count Albrecht of Manefeld, while in 1538 he entered the service of John Frederick, elector of Saxony, in the same capacity. He was a medical adviser of Luther, with whom he was apparently connected by marriage, and after the Reformer's death was one of the guardians of his children. Such was Ratzeberger's reputation for theological learning that in 1546 Friedrich Myconius (q.v.) proposed him as one of the speakers at the Conference of Regensburg (see REGENSBURG, CONFERENCE OF) His meddlesome and officious nature [or, perhaps, his conscientious performance of duty], however, brought about his enforced retirement from attendance on John Frederick, whereupon he settled at Nordhausen as a practitioner. In 1550 he removed to Erfurt, where he watched with increasing dissatisfaction the growth of Philippism.
The chief literary production of Ratzeberger was his Historia Lutheri (first edited completely by C. G. Neudeeker, Die handschrifaiche Gesch%chte Ratzeberger8 fiber Luther and seine Zeit, Jena, 1850). The first part of this work contains a biography of Luther, but its meager and anecdotic character is disappointing, considering that it was written by one who had associated so long and so closely with the Reformer. The second portion is devoted to the Schmalkald War and similar matters. The rancor displayed toward the advisers of the elector, and toward the Wittenberg theologians, especially Melanchthon, renders Ratzeberger's work valueless as history, although it is important for its data on the Gnesio Lutherans, and, despite its partizanship, for
the controversies of the Interim.(T. KOLDE.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Poach, Vom christtichen Abachied . . du . . . M. Ratseberpera, Jena, 1559; G. T. Strobel, Matthdi Raaeberpers tpeacAiehte. Altdorf, 1775.