RAUTENSTRAUCH, rau'ten-strouH, FRANZ STEPHAN: Austrian Roman Catholic; b. at Platten (14 m. n. of Elbogen), Bohemia, July 26, 1734; d. at Erlau (67 m. n.e. of Budapest), Hungary, Sept 30, 1785. He entered the Benedictine order at Brewnow, where he taught philosophy, canon law, and theology. After he had been raised by Maria Theresa to the prelacy of the united monasteries of Braunen and Brewnow in 1773, and, in 1774, to the directorship of the theological faculty of Prague and later of Vienna, he prepared his Neue allerhöchste Instruction für alle theologischen Facultäten in den kaiserlich-königlichen Erblanden (Vienna, 1776), in which he insisted upon the study of the Scriptures in the original, of hermeneutics and of church history, and urged the students not to attend lectures on dogmatics before their third year of study; then should follow the practical branches, among which especial stress was laid on catechetics.

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Polemics should be the last subject, and this should be so treated that the system of each sect would first be presented in its entirety and then be refuted. Rautenstrauch actively advocated the reforms of Joseph II., but was bitterly opposed by the Jesuits. Among his writings special mention should be made of his Institutiones juris ecclesiastici (Prague, 1769) and Synopsis juris ecclesiastici (Vienna, 1776).

(J. J. HERZOG†.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. von Wursbach, Biographisches Lexicon des Kaiserthums 0esterreich, xxv. 87 sqq., Vienna, 1858 sqq.; ADB, xxvii. 459.

RAUVENHOFF, rau'ven-hef, LODEWIJK WILLEM ERNST: Dutch Protestant; b. at Amsterdam July 27, 1828; d. at Moran (15 m. n.w. of Bozen), Austria, Jan. 26, 1889. He was educated at the universities of Amsterdam and Leyden (18461852), and was then minister at Mydiecht (18521856), Dort (1856-59), and Leyden (1859-60). In 1860 he was appointed professor of church history at Leyden, a chair which he exchanged in 1881 for that of encyclopedica and the philosophy of religion. The latter position he retained until his death. Theologically Rauwenhoff was a pronounced and optimistic radical, utterly contemptuous of orthodoxy; but he crystallized the vague tendencies and concepts of the critical school of Dutch theology, instead of himself becoming a pioneer worker and leader. He was thus a natural advocate of the separation of Church and State and of the purely scientific teaching of theology in the universities. His attitude toward church history-that the facts of history are valuable only in their philosophic implications-finds its expression in his Geschiedenis van het Protestantisme (3 vols., Haarlem, 1865-71), in which he proceeded from authoritative Christianity to an individualistic religion made to agree with science and the demands of modern life. The views of Rauvenhoff on the philosophy of religion were set forth in his Wijsbegeerte van den godsdienst (Leyden, 1887). He was also the author of many briefer contributions, one of the founders and editors of the Theologisch Tijdschrift, and for many years a member of the General Synod.