RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Rationalism Ratz
one side of the doctrine of Radbertus (q.v.), the difference being merely in their concept of " truly " in the transformation of the sacramental elements, Radbertus making this include both symbol and substance, while Ratramnus understood by the term a presence cognoscible to the senses, and so combated it. While, therefore, he taught a real change of the elements, in virtue of priestly consecration, not only in signification, but also in efficacy, this change was perceptible only to faith, riot to the senses.
The De corpore et sanguine Domini of Ratramnus has had a strange history. The synod of Vercelli, in 1050, condemned and burned it as a work composed by Johannes Scotus Erigena (see Scotus Ekigena, Johannes) at the instance of Charles the Bald; and during the Middle Ages its very existence was well-nigh forgotten. In 1526, however, John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, appealed to it in his controversy with CEcolampadius. Attention was thus again drawn to it, and in 1532 it was edited at Cologne by Johannes Prael under the title of Bertrami presbyteri ad Carolum Magnum imperatorem. It was then repeatedly edited and translated, especially in French and English (e.g., London, 1548, 1581, 1624, 1686, 1838, 1880). The appeals of Protestants, especially of the Reformed wing, to it rendered it an object of suspicion to the Roman Catholic Church, and as a Protestant forgery it was placed on the Index by the censors of the Council of Trent in 1559. This unfavorable viewwas shared by the leading Roman Catholic scholars of the period, and though others maintained its authenticity and orthodoxy, it was not removed from the Index until 1900.
The other writings of Ratramnus may be dismissed more briefly. The earliest of his works seems to have been the De eo quod Christus ex Virgine natus est, on the contents and relation of which to Radbertus' De partu Virginis see Radbertus, Paschasius. He was active in the Gott- Other schalk controversy, was indeed a per-
Writings. sonal friend of the monk of Fulda (see Gottschalk, 1) . In 850, at the request of Charles the Bald, he wrote his two books, De prcedestinatione Dei, in which he defended the doctrine of twofold predestination to salvation and damnation, but rejected the theory of a predestination to sin. Between 853 and 855 he wrote an apology of the Trina Deitas (now lost), assailing Hincmar's proposed change of te, trina Deitas unaque in the hymn " Sanctorum meritis inclyta gaudia " into te, summa Deitas, his reasons being suspected Sabellianism. Ratramnus gained his chief fame by his four books Contra Grcecorum opposita, written about 868 in reply to the attacks of Photius (q.v.) on the Filioque and other differences between East and West. The first book is devoted to the demonstration from the Bible of the doctrine of the double procession, and the second and third to proofs from the councils and the Greek and Latin Fathers. Particular interest attaches to the first chapter of the fourth book, in which Ratramnus touches upon one of the chief points of difference between the Greek and Latin Churches. The Eastern Church traces not only its dogma, but also its ecclesiastical rites and customs, back to the apostolic age, and forbids
the slightest deviation; while the Church of the West, especially after the time of Augustine, permits variations in forms of observance according to the necessities of place and time, though maintaining the same inflexibility of dogma as the East. The remainder of the concluding book is occupied with the justification of distinctively Roman usages, such as celibacy and the tonsure.
Ratramnus also wrote a curious Epistola de cynocephalis ad Rimbertum presbyterum, this Rimbert probably being the biographer and successor of Ansgar (q.v.). Here Ratramnus decides that, though most theologians are inclined to consider the cynocephali as animals rather than men, the human traits in their mode of life imply the possession of reason, so that there is no good reason to object to the view that they are descendants of Adam. In this same work he also denies complete authority to the " Book of St. Clement " (probably the " Recognitions "), on the ground that it is not in entire harmony with the doctrines of the Church. In his De anima Ratramnus polemized against the theory of a certain Macarius Scotus (who had misunderstood a passage in Augustine's De quantitate anima) that all mankind have a single soul in common. The work, which has never been edited, is described, from a manuscript apparently now lost, byJeanMabillon (ASM, iii. 140; ASB, IV., ii. 76). In another work, likewise unedited, Ratramnus refutes the theory that the soul is circumscribed, or restricted by limits of space (cf. L. Traube, in MGH, Poet. Lat. med. ozvi, iii. 2 [1896], 715). All the works of Ratramnus thus far edited are collected in the reprint in MPL, cxxi. 1-346, 1153-56, while his letters are given in MGH, Epist., vi. 1 (1902), 149 sqq.
Like Radbertus and most other theologians of the Carolingian and succeeding centuries, Ratramnus was a traditionalist, drawing on and systematizing patristic literature primarily for polemic purposes and for establishing his intense Augustinianism. Through his controversial writings runs a noble strain, personal attack is avoided, and demonstration of the truth is the one and only end. He is likewise noteworthy because of the attention given his writings in the Reformed Church and during the period of the Enlightenment, even though he had been unrecognized by the " Magdeburg Centuries " and by early Lutheranism. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: A. Naegle, Ratramnus una* die heilige Eucharistie, Vienna, 1903; Hist, litteraire de la France, v. 332-351; J. Bach, Dogmengeschichte des Mittelalters, i. 193 sqq., Vienna, 1873; A. Ebert, Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters, ii. 244, Leipsic, 1880; J. Schwane, Dogmengeschichte der mittleren Zeit, pp. 631 sqq., Freiburg, 1882; J. Schweizer, Berengar von Tours, pp. 150-174, Munich, 1890; J. Ernst, Die Lehre des . Paschasius Radbertus von der Eucharistie, pp. 99 sqq., Freiburg, 1896; Harnack, Dogma, v. 297, 302, 310, 318 sqq., vi. 47-48; Neander, Christian Church, iii. 482, 497-501; Schaff, Christian Church, iv. 304, 532, 549 sqq., 746 sqq.; Ceillier, Auteurs sacres, xii. 555-568, 594; KL, x. 802-807.
RATZ, ruts, JAKOB: German Lutheran; b. at Saulheim (a village s. of Mainz) 1505; d. at Heilbronn (26 m. n. of Stuttgart) 1565. He was educated at the University of Mainz, and, though an admirer of Erasmus, seems to have entered a monastery. He later went to Wittenberg to hear Luther
Ratzebergrer Rauten s trauch