\ 167. RABANUS MAURUS. 717
was discussed. Gottschalk had been a pupil at Fulda and his course had incurred tho anger of Raban, who accordingly op posed him in the council. The result was that the synod de cided adversely to Gottschalk and sent him for judgment to Hincmar. In the Annals of Fulda begun by Enhard (not to be confounded with Einhard), and continued by Rudolf, it is gratefully recorded that during the great famine in Germany in 850 Raban fed more than 300 persons daily in the village of AVinzel.1 In October, 851 or 852, Raban presided over a third synod at Mainz, which passed a number of reform canons ; such as one forbidding the clergy to hunt, and another anathematizing a layman who withdrew from a priest who had been married, thinking it wrong to receive the eucharist from such a one.2
Raban died at Mainz Feb. 4, 456, and was buried in the mon astery of St. Al ban's. He wrote his own epitaph which is modest yet just. In 1515 Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg removed his bones to Halle.
HIS POSITION AND INFLUENCE.
Raban was one of the most eminent men in the ninth century for virtue, piety and scholarship. As pupil he was unremitting in his pursuit of learning ; as teacher he was painstaking, inspiring and instructive ; as abbot he strove to do his whole duty ; as arch bishop he zealously contended for the faith regardless of adversa ries ; according to his own motto, " When the cause is Christ's, the opposition of the bad counts for naught." He bore his honors modestly, and was free from pride or envy. While willing to yield to proper demands and patient of criticism, he was inflexible and rigorous in maintaining a principle. He had the courage to oppose alone the decision of the council of 829 that a monk might leave his order. He denied the virtues of astrology and opposed trial by ordeal. He early declared himself a friend of Louis the Pious and plainly and earnestly rebuked the unfilial conduct of his sons. After the death of Louis he threw in his
1 Migne, CVII, col. 24. 2 Hefele, IV. 179-181.
718 FOUKTH PERIOD. A.D. 590-1049.
fortune with Lothair and the defeat of the latter at Fontenai, June 25, 841, was a personal affliction and may have hastened his resignation of the abbotship, which took place in the spring of the following year. The relations, however, between him and his new king, Louis the German, were friendly. Louis called him to his court and appointed him archbishop of Mainz.
Raban's permanent fame rests upon his labors as teacher and educational writer. From these he has won the proud epithet, Primus Germanioe Prceceptor. The school at Fulda became famous for piety and erudition throughout the length and breadth of the Frankish kingdom. Many noble youth, as well as those of the lower classes, were educated there and afterwards became the bishops and pastors of the Church of Germany. No one was refused on the score of poverty. Fulda started the example, quickly followed in other monasteries, of diligent Bible study. And what is much more remarkable, Raban was the first one in Germany to conduct a monastic school in which many boys were trained for the secular life.1 It is this latter action which entitles him to be called the founder of the German school system. The pupils of Raban were in demand elsewhere as teachers ; and princes could not find a better school than his for their sons. One of the strongest proofs of its excellence is the fact that Einhard, himself a former pupil at Fulda, and now a great scholar and teacher, sent his son Wussin there, and in a letter still extant exhorts his son to make diligent use of his rare advantages, and above all to attend to what is said by that " great orator," Raban Maur.2 Raban's encyclopedia, The Universe, attests his possession of universal learning and of the power to impart it to others. So, while Alcuin was his model, he enlarged upon his master's conception of education, and in himself and his works set an example whose influence has never been lost.