Raban Maur (780-856)

 

Raban Maur (780-856)

 

In the Liturgica Horarum there are three hymns from (or possibly from) Raban Marus: 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 Alkuin, whose exegetical, moral-philosophical, and humanist lectures were followed. Alkuin, with whom a lasting friendship and later a lively correspondence were connected, 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.