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THE AGES DIGITAL LIBRARY REFERENCE CYCLOPEDIA of BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE Rhabanus - Roman Empire by James Strong & John McClintock To the Students of the Words, Works and Ways of God: Welcome to the AGES Digital Library. We trust your experience with this and other volumes in the Library fulfills our motto and vision which is our commitment to you: MAKING THE WORDS OF THE WISE AVAILABLE TO ALL — INEXPENSIVELY. AGES Software Rio, WI USA Version 1.0 © 2000 2 Rhabanus (more properly Rabanus) MAURUS, a distinguished German theologian and prelate, was born of French parents, named Raban, at Mentz, about 776. On the completion of his early studies at Fulda, in Hesse, he was there made a deacon in 801; and he betook himself to Tours the following year to enjoy the tuition of the famous Alcuin, who is said to have surnamed him the Moor, from his dark complexion. It is also apparent from his writings that he had in his youth made a pilgrimage to Palestine. In his twenty-fifth year he became head of the convent school at Fulda, where his successful teaching drew around him many pupils, and not a few of the nobility intrusted him with the education of their sons. In 822 he was consecrated abbot; but he still directed the seminary, which supplied many able teachers for the Frankish and German churches. On a complaint of the monks that his absorption in literary pursuits hindered the discharge of his more active conventual duties, he retired in 842. He was, however, drawn out of this voluntary seclusion, in 847, by being made archbishop of Mentz, whence he is supposed by some to have received the epithet of Magnentius. In this situation he was the opposer and persecutor of Gottschalk (q.v.), who advocated the doctrine of predestination. Rabanus founded the monastery of Mont St. Pierre, and rebuilt that of Klingemunster. In 850 he showed great devotion in relieving the poor who had suffered from a flood. In 852 he presided at a council held in his metropolis. He died Feb. 4, 856. His influence was great among the churches in the diffusion of practical piety, and he had several illustrious disciples. His erudition and general attainments were respectable for the age in which he lived, and, as a lecturer, he instructed his scholars in general literature and science as well as theology. He wrote commentaries on all the canonical books and many of the Apocryphal ones, and left behind him numerous treatises, sermons, and letters. His Opera Omnia were edited by Henin and Colvener (Cologne, 1627, 6 vols. fol.). See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Générale, s.v.; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliog. s.v., and the literature there cited; also, Johann, De Vita ac Doctrina Rhab. Mauri Magn. (Jen. 1724); Schwarz, De Rabano Mauro (Heidelb. 1811); Dahl, Leben. u. Schr. d. Rab. Maur. (Fulda, 1828); Kunstman, Ueb. Hraban, Maur. (Mainz, 1841). 3 Rhabdos Ek Tes Rhizes ( JRa>bdov ejk th~v rJi>zhv, a stem out of the root) is the beginning of one of the odes of St. Cosmas, surnamed “the Melodist,” also “Hierosolymitanus,” and sometimes “Hieropolites.” Like his foster-brother John of Damascus, Cosmas became a monk of St. Sabas, and, against his will, was consecrated bishop of Maiuma, near Gaza, by John, patriarch of Jerusalem, about A.D. 745. He led a holy life, and died in good old age about 760. Cosmas was the most learned of the Greek poets. He wrote an the Nativity, the Transfiguration, and the Purification, and on Gregory Nazianzen. His fondness for types, boldness in their application, and love of aggregating them make him the Oriental Adam of St. Victor. His hymns are much used and praised in the Eastern Church, and he is commemorated on Oct. 14. We subjoin the first stanza of this ode in Neale’s translation: “Rod of the Root of Jesse, Thou, Flower of Mary born, From that thick shady mountain Cam’st glorious forth this morn: Of her, the ever Virgin, Incarnate wast thou made, The immaterial Essence — The God by all obeyed! Glory, Lord, thy servants pay To thy wondrous might today!” Comp. Neale, Hymns of the Eastern Church, p. 127 sq.; Miller, Singers and Songs of the Church, p. 16. (B.P.) Rhanatosan Hemin Anothen ( JRana>twsan hJmi~n a]nwqen) is the beginning of the sixth ode by St. Joseph of the Studium, or the “Hymnologist” (q.v.), of which the following stanza is the translation of Neale: “Rain down, ye heav’ns, eternal bliss! The cherub-cloud today Bears Jesus where his Father is, Along the starry way.” See Neale’s Hymns of the Eastern Ch. p. 229 sq. (B.P.) 4 Rhea, Samuel Audley, a Presbyterian missionary, was born in Blountville, East Tenn., Jan. 23, 1827. He graduated at the University of East Tennessee in 1847, after which he entered the Union Theological Seminary, New York, at which institution he graduated in 1850, and was ordained Feb. 2, 1851. After his ordination he was appointed missionary to Gawar, Persia, where he labored faithfully for eight years, at the expiration of which time he removed to Seir, another part of the Persian field, where he remained but a year in consequence of declining health. Being advised by his physician to return to the United States, he came to his former home, and on recovering his health returned to his post. From this place he went to Oroomiah, where he labored with zeal and success till his death, Sept. 2, 1865. (W.P.S.) Rhees, Morgan John (1), a Baptist minister, was born in Glamorganshire, Wales, Dec. 8, 1760. He devoted himself at first to teaching; but having studied theology in the Baptist College at Bristol, he entered the ministry. His liberal views led him to France at the beginning of the revolution in that country, but, disappointed by its excesses, he came back and began expounding his particular views in a quarterly entitled The Welsh Treasury. This brought him into some difficulties with the authorities, and he emigrated to the United States in 1794 as the protector of a Welsh colony. Here he traveled through the Southern and Western states, preaching with remarkable success. Having, in connection with Dr. Benjamin Rush, purchased a tract of land in Pennsylvania, to which he gave the name of Cambria, he planned the capital of the county, which he called Beulah, and settled there with a company of Welsh emigrants in 1798. He remained for several years, acting as pastor of the church at Beulah, but finally removed to Somerset, Somerset Co., where he died, Sept. 17, 1804. One of his sons was M.J. Rhees, D.D. (q.v.). His earlier productions were published in the Welsh language, and but few of them have been translated. He published a few Orations and Discourses in this country, which evince great vivacity and eloquence. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulp. 6:344. Rhees, Morgan John (2), D.D., a Baptist minister, was born at Somerset, Somerset Co., Pa., Oct. 25, 1802. He devoted himself at first to law, began practicing in May, 1826, 5 and gave promise of great success in that profession; but, directing his attention to the study of theology, he acted for a time as temperance agent, and was finally ordained Sept. 9, 1829, and on April 1, 1830, became pastor of the churches at Bordentown and Trenton, N.J. Here he was also one of the founders of the New Jersey State Convention for missionary purposes in 1829, of which he became secretary, besides being chairman of the executive committee of the State Temperance Society, and editing for a time the Temperance Reporter. He closed his connection with the church at Bordentown in 1833, retaining that at Trenton. In 1840 he also resigned the latter to become corresponding secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society, in which position his services proved very useful. In 1843 he became pastor of the Second Baptist Church at Wilmington, Del., where he remained until 1850, when he accepted a call from the First Baptist Church of Williamsburgh, L.I. and here, still acting as recording secretary of the Board of the Missionary Union and the American and Foreign Bible Society, death closed his useful career, Jan. 15, 1853. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 6:780. Rhe’gium Picture for Rhegium ( JRh>gion, prob. from rJh>gnumi, alluding to the abrupt character of the coast). The mention of this Italian town (which was situated on the Bruttian coast, just at the southern entrance of the Strait of Messina) occurs quite incidentally (<442813>Acts 28:13) in the account of Paul’s voyage from Syracuse to Puteoli, after the shipwreck at Malta. But, for two reasons, it is worthy of careful attention. By a curious coincidence the figures on its coins are the very “twin-brothers” which gave the name to Paul’s ship. SEE CASTOR AND POLLUX. Again, the notice of the intermediate position of Rhegium; the waiting there for a southerly wind to carry the ship through the strait; the run to Puteoli with such a wind within the twenty-four hours, are all points of geographical accuracy which help us to realize the narrative. As to the history of the place, it was originally a Greek colony: it was miserably destroyed by Dionysius of Syracuse; from Augustus it received advantages which combined with its geographical position in making it important throughout the duration of the Roman empire. It was prominently associated, in the Middle Ages, with the varied fortunes of the Greek emperors, the Saracens, and the Romans; and still the modern Reggio is a town of 10,000 inhabitants.