RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bimmon Rinckart
P. Scholtz, Gotzendienst und Zavberwesen bei den alten Hebraern, pp. 244-247, Regensburg, 1877; J. Halevy, in Melanges de critique et histoire, p. 424, Paris, 1883; F. Baethgen, Beitrdge zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, pp. 69, 75, 84, 255, Berlin 1889; P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye, Religionsgeschichte, i. 287-288, Tubingen, 1905. For epigraphic and other illustrative material consult: H. C. Rawlinson, Inscriptions, iv. 28, no. 2, London, 1861; E. Glaser, Die Abessinier in Arabien, p. 35, Munich, 1889; P. Jensen, Kosmologie der Babylonier, pp. 488-489, Strasburg, 1890; idem, Die Hittiterund Armenier, pp. 171-173, ib. 1898; A. H. Sayce, Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments, London, 1894; H. Winckler, T 'el-el- Amarna Letters, New York, 1896; idem, Der Thontafelfund, Berlin, 1896; C. W. H. Johns, Doomsday Book, Leipsic, 1901 ; idem, Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters, Edinburgh, 1904; and the following magazine literature: ZDMG, xxix (1875), 237 sqq., xxxi (1877), 734-736; Gazette archeologique, ii (1876), 78-82; ZA, ii (1887), 331- 332, ix (1894), 310-314; JA, 1887, p. 461, 1895, p. 386; American Journal of Semitic Languages, xii (1895-96), 159-162.
RINALDI, ri-nal'di, ODORICO (ODERICUS RAYNALDUS): Italian Oratorian and church historian; b. at Treviso (18 m. n. by w. of Venice) 1595; d. at Rome Jan. 22, 1671. He was educated in his native city, the Jesuit college at Parma, and Padua; and in 1618 went to Rome, where he entered the Oratorian order, of which he was twice general superior. A diligent Thomist, such was his learning that he was chosen by his order to continue the annals of Caesar Baronius (q.v.), beginning with 1198. Taking as his sources the notes of his predecessor and the documents contained in the archives and libraries of Rome, he completed a history of the Church from the pontificate of Innocent III. to the Reformation. His work is the best of all the continuations of Baronius, though not free from errors and prejudices. His history, the last volume edited and supplemented after his death by other Oratorians, appeared under the title Annates ecclesiastici db anno 1198 ad annum 1565 (9 vols., Rome,
1646-77), and he also made an abridgment of both Baronius' annals and his own in Latin (3 vols., Rome, 1667) and Italian (3 vols., 1670). In recognition of his services Innocent X. offered to place him at the head of the Vatican library, but Rinaldi declined the honor. A complete edition of the annals of Baronius and Rinaldi was edited by J. D. and D. G. Mansi (38 vols., Lucca, 1738-59), and, with the continuation of Giacomo Laderchi and an extension to modern times, by A. Theiner (23 vols., Bar-le- Duc, 1864-73). (O. ZocKLERf.)
Bibliography: The preface to Mansi's ed. of the Annates, vol. i., Lueca, 1747; G. Tiraboschi, Storia delta Letteratura Italiana, vol. viii., 10 vols./Rome, 1782-97; H. Laemmer, De Coesaris Baronii literarum commercio, Freiburg, 1903; KL, x. 842-843.
RINCKART (RINKART), rink'Srt, MARTIN: German dramatist and hymnist; b. at Eilenburg (12 m. n.w. of Leipsic) Apr. 24, 1586; d. there Dec. 8, 1649. He was educated at the University of Leipsic (1608-10), and in 1610-11 taught at Mansfeld, besides being choirmaster at the church of St. Nicholas. He was then called to be deacon of St. Ann's at Eisleben, and there wrote in 1613 the Luther drama Der eislebische christliche Ritier, in which the fable of the three rings, later used by Lessing, is used to typify the contest of the three confessions for the inheritance of Immanuel. In the same year Rinckart was called to the pas-
torate of Erdeborn, where he remained four years and wrote his second drama, Lutherus desideratus, in which he treated the concepts and tendencies to reform which prevailed from 1300 to 1500. A third drama, the Indidgentiarius confusus, was written to celebrate the jubilee of the Reformation, forming the third part of the author's intended heptalogy on Luther. In 1617 Rinckart was called to his native city as archdeacon, and there until his death he delivered weekly sermons on the catechism, the result being his Die Katechismuswohlthaten (Leipsic, 1645). In 1621 he wrote his fourth drama, of which the manuscript is lost, entitled Lutherus magnanimus. This was followed in 1624 by the fifth drama, Monetarius seditiosus oder der muntzerische Bauernkrieg. During this period, when the land was devastated by the hosts of Tilly, Wallenstein, and Gustavus Adolphus, and when Rinckart himself was afflicted with domestic grief, he wrote Jobs christliche, wirkliche und wunderbare Kreuzschule (1619), Christbeschreibung an die herzliebste Mutter (1619), and the brief Kreuz-Schule. Never losing courage, however, he wrote in 1628 the comforting Der evangelischen Pilgrim giildener Wander stab. This was preceded in 1627 by the Novantiqua Eilenbergica, a history of Eilenburg in Latin and German verse from its foundation to 1545. To the same period of exile belongs his Zehnfacher biblischer Lokal- und Gedenkring oder Gedenkzirkel.
In 1630 Rinckart wrote the sixth drama of his heptalogy, Lutherus Augustus, based on the prophecy of Cardinal Cusanus that in 1630 John the Baptist would rise again and show the lamb of God to all the world. To this same period belong Rinckart's four "parodies," or remodelings of older poems. The first of these is the song of the " Lutheran Deborah" of 1636; the second the "extract from Martin Rinckart 's jubilee comedy" of 1630, the third the Latin-German poem Fera arundinis ! ferarum ferocissimarum ferocissima, and the fourth the hymn by which Rinckart is best known, the " Nun danket alle Gott," apparently written in its briefer form in 1630 and expanded in its author's Jesu Herzbilchlein (Leipsic, 1636). This hymn has been called, not inaptly, "the German Te Deum." The melody also is by Rinckart, who derived it from an older composition by Lucas Maurentius, master of the chapel at Rome (1581-99) . During the famine of 1638 Rinckart composed the Deutscher Jeremias und sein geist- und leihliches Hungerlied aus dem vierzehnten und filnfzehnten Kapitel.
With the meeting of the envoys of the powers at Miinster and Osnabriick in 1643 came hopes of peace, marked by Rinckart in his Des teutschen Friedens- Herolden guldenes Pacem und uberschones Freuden- Kleinod (written about 1644). Rinckart himself, the ardent lover of peace, was fortunately spared to enjoy for a brief space the Peace of Westphalia.
(A. Freybe.) Bibliography: The biographical work which uses in especially full and worthful manner a wealth of sources is W. Biichting, Martin Rinckart, ein Lebensbild, Gottingen, 1903. Other noteworthy sketches are: L. Plato, Martin Rinckart nach seinem ausseren Leben und Wirken, Leipsic, 1830; J. D. Vorkel, Martin Rinckart, ein evangelisches Bildaus der Zeit des 30-jahrigen Krieges, Eilenburg, 1857; J. Linke, M. Rinckarts Geistliche Lieder nebst einer Darstellung des Lebens und der Werke des Dichters, Gotha,
Ring: Kitschl