RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Rowe Rudelbach
the editors of the Proceedings of the South Indian Missionary Conference held in 1858.
RUBRICS (Lat. rvbrica, from ruber, "red"): In the ecclesiastical sense, the directions in service books which show how, when, and where the various parts of the liturgy should be performed. The name was derived from the fact that rubrics were originally written in red, a custom which is now almost obsolete. The word was borrowed from the legal usage, according to which it was applied to the titles or headings of chapters in certain law-books.
RUCHAT, ru-sha', ABRAHAM: Historian of the Reformation in French Switzerland; b. at Grandcour (28 m. n.n.e. of Lausanne) Sept. 15, 1678; d. at Lausanne Sept. 29, 1750. He was educated at Lausanne, and after b^ing ordained in 1702 was for several years a teacher in Bern. In 1705 he secured a scholarship which enabled him to travel, and he accordingly studied for a time in Berlin, and still longer in Leyden, during this period preparing his Grammatica Hebraica facili methodo digesta (Leyden, 1707). Returning to Switzerland, he made his first essay in what was to prove his future field in his Abr6g6 de Vhistoire ecclesiastique du pays de Vand depuis V etablissement du christianisme jusqu'a notre temps (Bern, 1707; Lausanne, 1838). After being vicar in his native district, he was appointed minister at Aubonne in 1709, and in 1716 was called to the pastorate of Rolle, where he remained more than twelve years. The sole production of his pen during this period was his Delices de la Suisse (4 vols., Leyden, 1714), a work which won high praise and evoked equally strong opposition. In 1721 Ruchat was appointed professor of eloquence at Lausanne, a position which carried with it the rectorate of the Latin school. The success which his own talents should have gained was, however, frustrated by the theological animosities of the time, and he accordingly plunged into the historical studies for which he had been collecting materials for two decades. He now published the first half (1516-36) of his Histoire de la reformation en Suisse (6 vols., Geneva, 1727-28); but political conditions forbade the publication of the entire work, which extended to 1566, until a century later, when the complete history was edited by L. Vulliemin (7 vols., Lausanne, 1835-38; abridged Eng. transl. by J. Collinson, London, 1845). In 1733 Ruchat became second professor of theology, and was promoted to the first professorship fifteen years later. During this period of his career his writings were mainly theological and in the domains of polemics and Old-Testament theology. To the former category belong his Examen de Vorigenisme (Lausanne, 1733) and the anti-Roman Catholic Lettres et monuments de trois pbres apostoliques (2 vols., Leyden, 1738; translations of the epistles of Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp and the martyrdoms of the two latter, with excursuses attacking the Roman Catholic Church); to the latter, among others, his Traite des poids, des mesures et des monnoyes dont il est parte dans Vicriture sainte (Lausanne, 1743). He took an active interest in missions to the Jews, while his leisure was devoted
to studies in Swiss history, especially of the medieval period, the results being contained in manuscript in the libraries of Bern and Lausanne. Ruchat's Devices de la Suisse and Histoire de la reformation en Suisse were placed on the Index, and two unnamed Jesuits sought, in 1724, formally to refute his history of the Reformation in Vaud. In addition to the works already noted, mention may be made of his anonymous French translations from the English and Spanish of works of J. Beeverell and J. Alvarez de Colmenar under the respective titles Dilices de la Grande Bretagne et de Vlrlande (8 vols., Leyden, 1707) and Delices de I'Espagne et du Portugal (5 vols., 1707).
(H. VuiLLETJMIER.)
Bibliography: Bridel, in Conservateur Suisse, vol. xiv (1828); the sketch by L. Vulliemin in his ed. of the Hist, de la reforme de la Suisse, vii. 423-448, 1838; E. Secretan, Galerie Suisse, i. 586-590, Lausanne, 1874; P. Godet, Hist, litteraire de la Suisse francaise, pp. 178—179, Paris, 1889; V Rossel, Hist, litteraire de la Suisse romande, ii. 53 sqq., ib. 1890; Lichtenberger, ESR, xi. 342-346.
RUCHRATH, JOHANN. See Wesel, John of.
RUDELBACH, ru'del-baH, ANDREAS GOTTLOB: Dano-German Lutheran; b. at Copenhagen Sept. 29, 1792; d. at Slagelse (50 m. s.w. of Copenhagen), Zealand, Mar. 3, 1862. He was educated at the university of his native city, where he became privat-docent. During this period he edited, in collaboration with N. F. S. Grundtvig, the Theologisk Maanedskrift (13 vols., 1825 sqq.), and in 1829 was called to the pastorate of Glauchau, Saxony, where he powerfully aided religious awakening and revolt against the rationalism of the period, though at the same time he opposed any formal separation from the Lutheran Church. In 1830 he aided in founding the Muldenthal pastoral conference, but opposition gradually developed against him, largely on account of his uncompromising Lutheranism, and in 1845 he gladly resigned his pastorate and returned to Denmark. From 1846 to 1848 he lectured at the University of Copenhagen on dogmatics and introduction, but the death of his royal patron in the latter year exposed him to the attacks of those who regarded him as a German and a traitor. He accordingly accepted a call to the pastorate of Slagelse, where he passed the remainder of his life.
He edited the Zeitschrift fur die gesammte lutherische Theologie und Kirche (in collaboration with H. E. F Guericke, Leipsic, 1839 sqq.) and Christliche Biographie, i (1849), and wrote, in addition to the works already mentioned and several volumes of sermons: Hieronymus Savonarola und seine Zeit (Hamburg, 1835); Reformation, Luthertum und Union (Leipsic, 1839); Historische-kritische Einleitung in die Augsburgische Konfession (Dresden, 1841); Amtliches Gutachten ilber die Wiedereinfuhrung der Katechismus-Examina im Kbnigreich Sachsen, nebst historischer Erorterung der Kathechismus-Anstalten in der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche Deutschlands (1841); and Om Psalme-Literaturen og Psalmebogs-Sagen, historisk-kritiske Undersogelser (Copenhagen, 1856). (Oswald Schmidt)-.)
Bibliography: An autobiography was projected, and its
publication as " Confessions " begun in the Zeitschrift filr
lutherische Theologie und Kirche, 1861, i. 1 sqq., ii. 601
Rudln Eueetschi