Rathmann, Herrmann

Rathmann, Herrmann a German theologian of the Pietistic tendency, was born at Lubeck in 1585; studied at Leipsic, Rostock, and last at Cologne, where he became magister of the philosophical faculty; and delivered philosophical lectures at Frankfort-on-theMain and Leipsic until 1612, when he became dean of St. John's Church at Dantzic. In 1617 he took a like position at St. Mary's, in the same place, and in 1626 was made pastor of St. Catharine's. He died June 30, 1628. He got into a controversy with his zealous Lutheran colleague, John Corvinus (q.v.), regarding Mysticism and Osiandrianism. Rathmann was a very devout man, and rejected the mere profession of faith as sufficient to entitle a person to Christian fellowship. He also distinguished between the mere letter of the Holy Word and its inner meaning, regarding the former as a dead, fruitless instrument ("instrumentum passivum, lumen instrumentale historicum"), which could only take life by the inspiring influence of the Holy Spirit. The Konigsberg theologians (Osiander school) accused him of Schwenkfeldianism; those of Jena, of Calvinism; only Rostock accepted his theology as orthodox. See Dorner, Gesch. der deutschen Theologie, p. 551 sq.; Frank, Gesch. d. prot. Theol. i, 365 sq.; Niedner, Zeitschr. f. hist. Theol. 1854, p. 43-181. (J. H. H.)