RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Baffles Raimundus
a supernal illumination within the hearts of the holy Prophets and Apostles " (Gnadenreich, a, iii. 2r). According to Rahtmann, whose affiliations in thought are with Schwenckfeld, a sharp distinction is to be drawn between the inward and the outward word in the way of " cause and effect," or " sign and thing signified." Moreover, the Scriptures can not yield more than essentially and potentially belongs to tbem; they are a beckoning or guiding " hand by the way, whose operation is just this, and no more, that one knows whither he is to go " (Gnadenreich, 6r). So Scripture is only an index and a witness of grace. It addresses itself exclusively to the understanding, and creates in the same the conception of religious objects. If Scripture is to become the actual means of grace, another power, the Holy Ghost, must supervene; in fact, both Scripture and man are alike objects of the illumining operation of the Spirit. In Rahtmann's theology the testimony of the Holy Spirit becomes an independent, immediate act of the Spirit. This " preventive," or antecedent grace is " a voluntary gift which God accords to those whom he, like a loving father, has destined from eternity to dispose for conversion " (Gnadenreich, a, iii., v.). This is a contingent approach to the doctrine of predestination. In Rahtmann's later apologetic writings there are no advancements, but only attenuations and veilings of his fundamental thoughts. Among these, his valuation of Scripture as fountain of knowledge is orthodox, while his doctrine of inspiration reflects influences from Schwenckfeld and Arndt. His thought as to antecedent grace appears rooted in Augustine. In so far as he assigns the operation of grace to the Spirit, Rahtmann coincides with Schwenckfeld. By disavowing the permanent immanence of the Spirit in the word, Rahtmann was in accord with Luther and nearly all the Lutheran theology down to that time; but in that he could not apprehend Scripture to be an effectual vehicle of the divine grace, he fell away from the religious type of Lutheranism.
Because of the views above set forth, Rahtmann became the object of vehement attacks. His significance in the history of theology inheres in the fact that he, for the first time, made the divine Word, in its aspect of a means of grace, the main theme of theological discussion, and thus led the way toward creating a specific and formally elaborated doctrine of this matter within the pale of Lutheran orthodoxy. R. H. Grutzmacher.
Bibliography: R. H. Grutzmacher, Wort und Geist, pp. 220-261, Leipsic, 1902; G. Arnold, Fortsetzung . der ■ . ■ Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie, Frankfort, 1729; J. G. Walch, Einleitung in die Religionsstreitigkeiten der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirchen, parts i. and iv., Leipsic, 1733- 1739; Engelhardt, in ZHT, 1854; E. Schnaase, Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche Danzigs, Danzig, 1863. For an outline of Rahtmann's works and of those which were in criticism of them cf. J. Moller, Cimhria literata, vol. iii., Copenhagen, 1744; J. G. Walch, Bibliotheca theologia selecta, vol. ii., Jena, 1758.
RAIKES, rSks, ROBERT: Founder of Sundayschools; b. at Gloucester Sept. 14, 1735; d. there Apr. 5, 1811. His father was a printer and the publisher of the Gloucester Journal; at his death in 1757 the son Robert succeeded to the business. The latter manifested an interest in philanthropic move-
ments, and in 1768 inserted in his paper an appeal in behalf of the prisoners at Gloucester. John Howard (q.v.) visited Gloucester in 1773 and spoke favorably of him. His attention was early drawn to neglect in the training of children. The suggestion upon which he started his movement is variously described. He himself mentions an interview with a woman who pointed out a crowd of idle ragamuffins, and he is said to have taken a hint from a dissenter, William King, who had set up a Sundayschool at Dursley. With Thomas Stock, a curate of a neighboring parish, who had started a Sundayschool at Ashbury, Berkshire, he engaged a woman as teacher of a school at a shilling and sixpence weekly. Raikes afterward established a school in his own parish, St. Mary le Crypt, July, 1780, a notice of the success of which he published in his paper, Nov., 1783, arousing many inquiries. This became the starting-point for a far-reaching movement. By 1786 it was said that 200,000 children were being taught in English Sunday-schools, and in Apr., 1785, a London society was organized for the establishment of these institutions, which ten years later had 65,000 scholars. The movement spread rapidly, gaining favor within and without the churches. At Christmas, 1787, Raikes was admitted to an interview with the queen, which resulted in the opening of schools which were graciously visited by George III., and copied by Hannah More (q.v.) in Somerset. Raikes owes his fame as the founder of Sunday-schools to the development of a sense of the need for instruction for children and to his use of his position as publicist in spreading a knowledge of his cheap and successful expedient.
Bibliography: A. Gregory, Robert Raikes, Journalist and Philanthropist. Hist, of the Origin of Sunday Schools, London, 1877 (from original sources) ; J. Ivimey, Memoir of William Fox, London, 1831; G. Webster, Memoir of R. Raikes, Nottingham, 1873; P. M. Eastman, Robert Raikes and Northamptonshire Sunday Schools, London, 1880; Robert Raikes: the Man and his Work. Biographical Notices collected by Josiah Harris, ed. J. H. Harris, London, 1899; J. H. Harris, Robert Raikes, London, 1900; DNB, xlvii. 168-170; and the literature under Sunday- Schools.
RAIMUNDUS, rai'mun'dus, DE SABUNDE (RAYMUND SABIEUDE): Spanish physician and educator; b. at Barcelona toward the close of the fourteenth century; d. at Toulouse in 1437. He was a teacher of medicine and philosophy and later of theology at Toulouse 1430-32, and rector of the high school at that place until 1437. Trithemius places the time of his literary activity c. 1430. His fame rests upon a remarkable religious philosophical work, the earliest Parisian manuscript (in translation) of which places the date of the original at 1434-36. Originally in Spanish, it appeared in a Latin translation, Theologia naturalis seu liber creaturarum (first, as Liber natures sive creaturarum, about 1484; Deventer, before 1488; Strasburg, 1496; French transl., by M. de Montaigne, La Theologie naturelle, Paris, 1569). The theology of the Middle Ages had been dominated by the distinction made by Augustine between " light of nature " and " light of grace." The latter, more or less in the ascendency, supported itself by a Platonic, realistic formulation, giving to reason a place for logical
Raimundus Rambacb.