Ransom > 'jT'lD, pidyon', Exod. xxi,30; " rt demp- tion," Psa. xlix, 8; or D'P'IQ, pidyom', "redemption," Numb. iii. 19,51 ; elsewhere ~tz, Icopher, forgiveness, or bxj, to act the part of Go ! [q. v. ; N. T. Xirpov, or av- riXvrpov), a price paid to recover a person or tiling
from one who detains that per- r thing in captivity.
Hence prisoners of war or slaves an- .-aid to he rau- Bomed when they are liberated in exchange lor a valu- able consideration | i ( ,,r. vi. p.'. 20 . Whatever is sub- stituted or exchanged in e pensation for the party is
hi- ransom; hut the word ransom is more extensively taken in Script ore. A man i- -aid to ransom hi- life
(Exod. xxi, 30); that i-. i.. substitute a Bum of i ley
in-:ead of his life as the penally of certain offences (Exod. xxx. ll': Job xxxvi. 18). The poll-tax of half a sbekt 1 for every Hebrew was deemed the ransom, or atonement money, and was declared to he a heave-of- fering to Jehovah, to propitiate for their lives (Exod. sxx, 12 l''. i. Some oi the sacrifices (as the sin- ami trespass-offerings) might I" regarded as commutations or ran>ouis (Lev. iv. 1 35 : v. I 19). In like manner, our Blessed Lord is said to give himself a ransom lor all (1 Tim. ii. <J; Matt. xx. 23; -Mark x, 43)— a substitute for them, bearing sufferings in their stead, undergoing that penally which would otherwise attach to them (Rom. iii. 34; vii, 23; 1 Cor. i, 30; Eph. i, 7; iv, 30; I lei.. i\. 13). .-see Redemption.
Ranters is (1) one of the many names by which the Presbyterians designated the most advanced ofthe mystical radicals of tin- Cromwellian period. They were Antinomian heretics, and were probably related io the Familists (q.v.),to whom Puller (Ch. Hist, iii, •ill sq.) traces them. In Ross's rLavoefitia, the Rant- I ers are described as making an open profession of lewd- ness and irreligion; a- holding that God, angels, devils, heaven, hell, etc., are fictions and fables : thai Mo-,-, John the Baptist, and our Lord were impostors; that praying and preaching are useless: thai all ministry has come to an end: ami that sin is a mere imagina- tion. He says that in their letters the Ranters en- deavored to be strangely profane and blasphemous, ut- tering atheistical imprecations: and he uives a speci- men which quite bears out his words. He also alleges that they sanctioned and practiced community of wom- en (ed. 1655, p. 287). Much the same account, also, is given a few years later by l'agitt (Heresiography [ed, 1662 |, p. 259,294 ). Baxter also writes respecting them: ■■1 have myself letters written from Abingdon, where. among both soldiers and people, this contagion did then prevail, full of horrid oath- and curses, and blas- phemy not lit to be repeated by the tongue and pen of man: and this all tittered as the effect of knowledge and a part of their religion, in a fanatic si rain, and fathered on the Spirit of God" {Own Lift a p. 77 1. The following passage is found in a I. If, if Buny an, added to an imitati f his work which is call- ed I If Third Part of the Pilgrim's Progress : "About this time" tin Uunyan's early life), "a very large liber- ty being given a- to conscience, there started up a sect of loose, profane wretches, afterwards called Ranters and Sweet Singers, pretending themselves safe from, or be- ing incapable of. sinning: though, indeed, they were the debauches! and profligate wretches living in their ban- dy meetings and revels. For, fancying then. Adam's state, as he was in Paradise b< lore the fall, they would strip themselves, both men and women, and si catch as catch could: and to it they went, to satiate their Inst under pretence of increasing and multiply- ing" (An Account »f tl,, Lift and Actions of Mr. John Buny an, etc. ] London. 1692 |, p. 22 I. t See Weingarten, RevoluHons-Kirchen Englands [Leips, 1868 . p. 107 Bq.; Blunt, Diet, of Sects, s. v.). (2.) In recent times since 1828 the name of ".Ranters" has been given to those Primitive Methodists who separated from the main body of .Methodist.-, and were distinguished by their unusual physical demonstrations. Blunt, Diet, of Sects, -.v.
Raoul de Flaix, a French monastic, flourished near the middle of the 12th century. It is difficult i- . numerate definitely his works. He is undoubtedly i he author of Commentaiti sur /< Ltvitiqui (Cologne,
1686, foL). The authors of the Literary History if
RAOUL
909
RAPHAEL
France claim for him a discourse abridged from the Work of Six Days, which is found in a manuscript in the King's Library, No. C47 ; also a Commentary on the Proverbs, of which they mention a copy at Cambridge in the library of Pembroke College; ami a Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul. They add that Raoul de Flaix commented on Nahum and the Apocalypse. These glossaries on Nahum and the Apocalypse exist, in fact, under the name of Master Raoul (Magistri Ra- dulfi), in a volume of Clairvaux, which is numbered at present 227 in the library of Troves. But this is a mistake into which Lelong led the authors of the Lit- erary History. A commentary on the Song of Songs, published in some ancient editions of Gregory the Great, had been attributed to Raoul de Flaix. Lelong and Mabillon having proved that this work is by Robert de Tombelaine, abbey of St. Vign de Bayeux, the authors of the Literary History have thought it necessary, in con- sequence, to strike the Canticle of Canticles from the list of sacred books annotated by our Raoul. But in that they appear to be mistaken. In fact, the volume of Clairvaux which is to-day preserved in the library of Troyes offers us, besides the glossaries on the Apoca- lypse and Nahum, glossaries on the Canticles entirely different from those which have been published under the name of Gregory and restored to the abbot Robert. Sanders mentions also, among the works of Raoul de Flaix, a theological summary — Summa Radulfi Flavia- censis — and a treatise, De Amore Carnis et Oiiio Carnis — works of which we have no other account. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v.