I 167. EABANUS MAURUS. 727
(5) The Passion of our Lord* a brief and pious meditation upon our Lord's sufferings.
VI. LETTEKS. (1) A letter to Bishop Humbert upon law ful degrees of relationship between married persons.2 (2) Seven miscellaneous letters.3 Epist. i. to suffragan bishop Regimbald on discipline. Epist. iii. to Eigil against Radbertus's view of the Lord's Supper. Epist. iv. v. vi. to Hincmar, Xotingus and Count Eberhard upon predestination. Epist. vii. to Louis the German ; the acts of the Mainz council of 848. Epist. viii. on Gottschalk, a synodical letter to Hiucmar.
VII. POEMS. Raban was no poetic genius ; yet he had carefully studied prosody and he wras able to write verses to his friends and for different occasions.4 He also wrote some epitaphs, including his own. His most extraordinary produc tion is a long poem, "The praise of the Cross." This was begun at the suggestion of Alcuiu in Tours, but not completed until 815. It is a monument of misdirected skill and patience. He presents twenty-eight drawings by his friend Hatto. Some are geometrical, others are of persons or objects. The page on which is the drawing is filled in by a stanza of the poem, the letters of which are regularly spaced and some are purposely arranged in prominent and peculiar positions so that they catch the eye and form other words. Each stanza is followed by an explanatory section in prose, and the second book is a prose treatise upon the subject. The whole is prefaced by three poems ; the first pleads for the intercession of Alcuin, the sec ond is the dedication to the Pope, and the third, "The figure of Caesar," is the dedication to Louis the Pious. Alcuin had written a poem, "On the Holy Cross/' upon a somewhat simi lar plan. So that the suggestion may have come from him, but the idea may be traced to Fortuuatus. This poem of
1 De passione Domini, CX1I. col 1425-1430.
2 Quota generatione licitasit connubium epistola, CX. col. 1083-1 088.
3 Epittolce, CXII. col. 1507-1576. * Carmina, ibid. col. 1583-1682.
728 FOUKTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
Raban Maur was very popular in the Middle Age and was considered a marvel of ingenuity.
The hymns of Raban are few in number, for although many have been attributed to him his right to most of them is very doubtful.
§ 168. Haymo.
I. HAYMO, Halberstatensis episcopus : Opera, in Migne, Tom. CXVL-
CXVIII.
II. PAUL ANTON : De vita et doctrina Haymonis, Halle, 1700, 2d ed.
1705 ; C. G. DERLING : Comm. hist, de Haymone, Helmstadt, 1747. CEILLIEB, XII. 434-439. Hist. lit. de la France, V. 111-126. BAHR, 408-413.
HAYMO (Haimo, Aymo, Aimo) was a Saxon, and was probably born about 778. He took monastic vows at Fulda, was sent by his abbot (Ratgar) with his intimate friend Rabanus Maurus in 803 to Tours to study under Alcuin ; on his return he taught at Fulda until in 839 he was chosen abbot of Hirschfeld. In 841 he was consecrated bishop of Halberstadt. In 848 he sat in the Council of Mayence which condemned Gottschalk. He founded at considerable expense the cathedral library of Hal berstadt, which unfortunately was burnt in 1179. He died March 27, 853. He was an excellent scholar. As an exegete he was simple and clear, but rather too verbal.
His WRITINGS are voluminous, and were first published by the Roman Catholics in the Reformation period (1519-36). They teach a freer and less prejudiced Catholic theology than the Tridentine. Thus he denies that Peter founded the Roman church, that the pope has universal supremacy, and rejects the Paschasian doctrine of transubstantiation. His works consist principally of (1) Commentaries.1 He wrote or compiled upon the Psalms, certain songs in the Old Testament, Isaiah, the Minor Prophets, Canticles, Pauline Epistles and the Apocalypse.
Besides these commentaries, (2) Homilies? upon the festivals
1 Migne, CXVI. col. 193-CXVII. col. 1220. * Homilies, Migne, CXVIIL col. 11-816.