as the first in which the Gottschalk matter was discussed. Gottschalk had been a pupil at Fulda and
his course had incurred the anger of Raban, who accordingly opposed him in the council. The result
was that the synod decided adversely to Gottschalk and sent him for judgment to Hincmar. In the
Annals of Fulda begun by Enhard (not to be confounded with Einhard), and continued by Rudolf,
it is gratefully recorded that during the great famine in Germany in 850 Raban fed more than 300
persons daily in the village of Winzel.^1224 In October, 851 or 852, Raban presided over a third synod
at Mainz, which passed a number of reform canons; such as one forbidding the clergy to hunt, and
another anathematizing a layman who withdrew from a priest who had been married, thinking it
wrong to receive the eucharist from such a one.^1225
Raban died at Mainz Feb. 4, 456, and was buried in the monastery of St. Alban’s. He wrote
his own epitaph which is modest yet just. In 1515 Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg removed his
bones to Halle.
His Position And Influence.
Raban was one of the most eminent men in the ninth century for virtue, piety and scholarship.
As pupil he was unremitting in his pursuit of learning; as teacher he was painstaking, inspiring and
instructive; as abbot he strove to do his whole duty; as archbishop he zealously contended for the
faith regardless of adversaries; according to his own motto, "When the cause is Christ’s, the
opposition of the bad counts for naught." He bore his honors modestly, and was free from pride or
envy. While willing to yield to proper demands and patient of criticism, he was inflexible and
rigorous in maintaining a principle. He had the courage to oppose alone the decision of the council
of 829 that a monk might leave his order. He denied the virtues of astrology and opposed trial by
ordeal. He early declared himself a friend of Louis the Pious and plainly and earnestly rebuked the
unfilial conduct of his sons. After the death of Louis he threw in his fortune with Lothair and the
defeat of the latter at Fontenai, June 25, 841, was a personal affliction and may have hastened his
resignation of the abbotship, which took place in the spring of the following year. The relations,
however, between him and his new king, Louis the German, were friendly. Louis called him to his
court and appointed him archbishop of Mainz.
Raban’s permanent fame rests upon his labors as teacher and educational writer. From these
he has won the proud epithet, Primus Germaniae Praeceptor. The school at Fulda became famous
for piety and erudition throughout the length and breadth of the Frankish kingdom. Many noble
youth, as well as those of the lower classes, were educated there and afterwards became the bishops
and pastors of the Church of Germany. No one was refused on the score of poverty. Fulda started
the example, quickly followed in other monasteries, of diligent Bible study. And what is much
more remarkable, Raban was the first one in Germany to conduct a monastic school in which many
boys were trained for the secular life.^1226 It is this latter action which entitles him to be called the
founder of the German school system. The pupils of Raban were in demand elsewhere as teachers;
and princes could not find a better school than his for their sons. One of the strongest proofs of its
excellence is the fact that Einhard, himself a former pupil at Fulda, and now a great scholar and
teacher, sent his son Wussin there, and in a letter still extant exhorts his son to make diligent use
(^1224) Migne, CVII, col. 24.
(^1225) Hefele, IV. 179-181.
(^1226) Migne, CVII. col. 82, 83, 84.