THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
is an immediate sense and possession of God without knowledge or bounds. It means the dying and annihilation of self, in order to behold the absolute and eternal essence. This life, a gift of grace, renewed in the inner secrecy of the Spirit through love, comes to its reality in the quiet contemplation of God and in the absolute submission to his operation. From this repose of the Spirit is developed the superessentia, a supraessential contemplation of the means of differentiation of the Trinity, an indescribable feeling and state of bliss. The ultimate differences in consciousness between God and creature, between thing and nothing, disappear. This is the bridal flight of Christ with the human spirit; the Word is continually reborn in the eternal present, in which God is self-producing in the highest excellence of the spirit. This proceeds from light to light until the clearness by which it sees, the clearness which it sees, and itself are one and the same. Consciousness of supraessential being and unity of essence in God are attained. Here Ruysbroeck arrives on the border of pantheism. Yet he ever endeavored to distinguish between the eternal spirit and the created; and in the union with God he held that only the difference of will and thought vanished, not the difference of personality. However, so delicate was the line that in his phraseology he often overstepped it; and, though he was in reality in thorough accord with orthodoxy, and he continually antagonized the Brethren of the Free Spirit and the Beghards (see Free Spirit, Brethren of the; Beghards and Beguines), yet in his writings he roused grave suspicions among some more cautious minds, among whom was J. C. Gerson (q.v.). The influence of Ruysbroeck on theological and philosophical thought in the Netherlands was relatively slight, and the mystical writings of his immediate pupils were either ascetic or repetitions of his own thoughts. This was doubtless due in part to his obscurity and the liability of his phraseology to misinterpretation and also to the fear of the Flemish heretical pantheistic mysticism of the Beghards. Ruysbroeck's activity, indeed, lay rather in the power of his personality and in the influence he exerted on kindred minds. It was his pupil Groote who founded the Brethren of the Common Life (see Common Life, Brethren of the), who also very probably drew his inspiration from Ruysbroeck himself.
(S. D. van Veen.)
Bibliography: In addition to the editions noted in the text F. A. Lambert edited Die Zierde, Vom glanzenden Stein, and Das Buch von . Wahrheit, Leipsic (1901). In English there is Reflections from the Mirror of a Mystic, being Gleanings from the Works of John Ruysbroek (" Doctor Ecstaticus"), a Mystic of the XIV th Century, translated by Earle Baillie, London, 1905 (contains sixteen chapters of the choicest thoughts of the great mystic). Besides the literature under Mysticism, and under the articles to which reference is made in the text, especially Common Life, Brethren op the, consult: M. Maeterlinck, Ruysbroeck and the Mystics, with Selections from Ruysbroeck, London, 1894, new ed., 1908; J. G. V. Engelhardt, Richard von St. Victor und Johannes Ruysbroeck. Zur Geschichte der mystischen Theologie, Erlangen, 1838; C. Schmidt, Etudes sur le mysticisme allemand au quatorziime siicle, Strasburg, 1S45; F. Bohringer, Die Deulschen Mystiker des 14. und 15. Jnjirhunderts, pp. 442-611, Zurich, 1855; G. 0. Schmidt, Etude sur Jean Ruysbroeck, sa vie, ses icrits, et sa doctrine, Strasburg, 1859; A.
Jundt, Hist, du panthHsme populaire au moyen dge, Paris, 1875; C. Ullmann, Reformers before the Reformation, ii. 31-55, Edinburgh, 1877; A. Auger, De doctrina et mentis Joannis van Ruysbroeck, Louvain, 1892; W. L. de Bresse, Bijdrage tot de Kennis van het Leven en de Werken van J. van Ruusbroec, Ghent, 1896; A. A. van Otterlos, Johannes Ruysbroeck. Een Bijdrage tot de Kennis van den Ontwikkelingsgang der Mystiek, 2d ed. by J. C. van Slee, The Hague, 1896; V. Sully, Short Account of the Life and Writings of the Blessed John Ruysbroeck, London, 1910; Schaff, Christian Church, v. 2, pp. 273-278; Lichtenberger ESR, xi. 363-366.
RYAN, PATRICK JOHN: Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia; b. at Thurles (21 m. n.e. of Tipperary), County Tipperary, Ireland, Feb. 20, 1831; d. at Philadelphia Feb. 11, 1911. He was educated at Carlow College, Ireland (from which he was graduated in 1852), and, leaving Ireland for the United States, was attached to the clergy staff of the Roman Catholic cathedral in St. Louis, of which he became rector in 1856. Later he was appointed rector of St. John the Evangelist's in the same city, and rose to be vicar-general of the diocese. During the Civil War he was chaplain of the Gratiot Street Military Prison and Hospital, St. Louis, and in 1868 accompanied the archbishop of St. Louis to Rome, where he preached the English Lenten sermons. Four years later (1872) he was consecrated titular bishop of Tricomia and appointed bishop-coadjutor of St. Louis, with the right of succession. He was again in Rome in 1883 as one of the United States prelates to represent the interests of religion, and in 1884 was created titular archbishop of Salamis. Within the year he became archbishop of Philadelphia. He wrote Some of the Causes of Modern Religious Scepticism (St. Louis, 1895).
RYDBERG, rid'berg, ABRAHAM VIKTOR:
Swedish author and educator; b. at Jonkoping (80 m. e. of Gothenburg), province of Smaland, Sweden, Dec. 18, 1828; d. at Stockholm Sept. 21, 1895. He studied philosophy at the University of Lund, 1848-52; was literary editor of Goteborgs Handelstidning, 1854-76; lay representative at the church congress of the Swedish State Church, 1868; member of the lower house of the Swedish Parliament as representative of the city of Gothenburg, 1870-72; and professor at the high school of Stockholm from 1884. His service to Sweden was in the dissemination of liberal thought. He was author of " The Doctrine of the Bible on Christ " (Gothenburg, 1862); "The Jehovah Worship among the Hebrews before the Babylonian Captivity " (1864); " Magic of the Middle Ages " (Stockholm, 1S65; English transl., New York, 1S79); "On the Preexistence of Man" (1868); "Church and Priesthood" (1868); "Genealogy of the Patriarchs in Genesis and the Chronology of the Septuagint " (Gothenburg, 1870); " Roman Legends about St. Paul and St. Peter " (Stockholm, 1874); " Roman Days" (1877; Eng. transl., including "Roman Legends," New York, 1879); and "The Ultimate Things " (1880). In his romances he strives for freedom, tolerance, and knowledge: " The Pirate of the Baltic" (Gothenburg, 1S57); " Singoalla " (1857); and "The Last Athenian" (1S59; Eng. transl., Philadelphia, 1869). His scientific works