'De Laude Crucis': Hrabanus Maurus presenting his book to Pope Gregory IV (Fulda, 831-840).
In the Liturgica Horarum there are three hymns
from (or possibly from) Raban Maur: Praesulis
exaltans, Quod chorus vatum, and Veni,
creator.
Raban was born at Maiz, probably around the year
776, and was admitted to the monastery school under Abbot Baugulf von Fuld (780
- 802). Already ordained as a deacon in 801, he was sent by Baugulf's
successor, Ratgar, to Tours, to Alcuin, whose exegetical, moral-philosophical,
and humanist lectures were followed. Alcuin, with whom he had a lasting friendship and
later a lively correspondence, gave him the nickname Maurus;
Franz
Brunhölzl, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters
Magnentius Rabanus Maurus is the commanding
figure among the ecclesiastics of his age, a great churchman and the first
German theologian." As a boy he went to school at Fulda, the monastery
where the bones of Boniface reposed, and where the classical studies which the
saint had loved, were still pursued. But as he showed exceptional promise, he
was dispatched to Tours to the care of the most distinguished master of the
day. Alcuin loved him and gave him the name of Maurus, after Benedict's dearest
disciple. Raban's passion was knowledge in every form, but theological studies
were nearest his heart, and he was, above all, an excellent teacher. On his
return to Fulda, and even after his elevation to the rank of Abbot (822), he
continued to teach and followed Alcuin's example in the composition of various compendia for use
in the school. Strict, and not too sympathetic by nature, he ruled the Abbey well,
caring little for politics and testing all things by a high standard of duty.
When in 842, for personal and political reasons, he resigned his Abbacy, he
sought a solitary retreat where he could devote himself to the mastery of the
universal knowledge which he embodied in the encyclopedic De Universo, a treatise based on Isidore of Seville, explaining the
universe of things both mystically and historically. In a world of change, it
appeared to him that the written word alone had a chance of
survival, and that knowledge had an
abiding value not subject to vanity.
Louis the German, recognizing his work, in spite
of their political differences, persuaded him in his old age to undertake the charge
of the Archbishopric of Mainz. Raban was now involved in worldly cares and theological
controversies. His sense of duty gave him no rest. He stood out as the upholder
of order in a time of social disintegration, and as the zealous supporter of
sound doctrine against heretics like Gottschalk, his old pupil, whose
condemnation he pronounced at the Synod of Mainz. As a writer, Raban conveys
the impression of immense industry. He contented himself, in all modesty, with
garnering in the harvests of his predecessors. He created nothing, and in the
harvest what he collected from Jerome, from Isidore, or from Bede, he did not
attempt to stamp with the mark of his own personality.
…
simplicity and piety, stern with monkish rigor, are shown in Raban's poetical
prayers, prayers for mercy:
eripe me miserum, flenti et miseratus adesto,
qui graviter peccans
aeger in orbe dego.
eripe me his, invicte, malis, procul omnia
pelle,
quae mentem et corpus
crimina dura tenent,'
His
pupil Rudolf, at any rate, was an admirer of Raban's verses, for he describes
him as 'sui temporis poetarum nulli secundus '. But Raban wrote for the most
part as though he were composing school exercises, borrowing freely from his Christian
predecessors Sedulius, Fortunatus, and Alcuin, as well as from Virgil and Ovid.
F.J.E Raby, Christian Latin Poetry
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