RASHI. 711 RASKOLNIKI. Tarchi) (1040-110.5). A great .Jewish commenta- tor and exegete. He was born in Troves, France, July 13, 1040. He began his studies undei- his father and continued them at Worms, at Mainz, and at Speyer under distinguished .Jewish schol- ars. Returning to Troyes. he established a school for the study of the Bible and Rabbinic litera- ture, and his fame drew scholars from far and %vide, while many who could not consult liim per- sonally sought his opinion by letter. Rashi's reputation is greatest as a commentator. His Bible commentary is complete except from Job xl. 21 to the end of Chronicles. It wa< the first He- brew book printed (1474), and is still generally included in good editions of the Bible for .Jews. It has been translated into Latin by Breithaupt (Gotha, 1710-14). The renderings are generally the traditional ones and Jlidrashic authorities are followed, but simple literal explanations are also given, and the style is concise and full of meaning. Rashi also wrote a few liturgical poems of little value, and a famous commentary to 23 treatises of the Talmud, which was supplemented by his grandson. Rabbi Samuel ben Jleir (Rash- bam). This always accompanies editions of the Talmud. Consult: Zunz. in Zeitschrift fiir die "n' issensclwft des Judenthums (Berlin, 1822) ; Graetz, History of the Jeics (Eng. trans., Phila- delphia, 1873). BASK, rask. R.siius Kbistl^x (1787-1832). A Danish philologist. He was born at Brende- kilde, near Odense, in the island of Fiinen; stud- ied at Copenhagen, and in 1808 published his first work, an introduction to the Icelandic lan- guage. In 1813 he went to Iceland, where he lived for two or three years, perfecting his knowledge of the language and history of the inhabitants. On his return to Copenhagen he was appointed sub-librarian to the university, and in 1818 published his researches on Ice- landic, which led Grimm to his discovery of the sound-shifting in the Germanic languages. (See Grimm's Law. ) After spending a year in Stock- holm, where he published his Anglo-.Saxon Gram- mar and the first critical and complete edition of the !<!iwn-a Edda and the Eddn ^wmiindar. he went to Saint Petersburg, where for two years he studied Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Russian, and Finnish. He then went to Astrakhan, where he .studied the languages of the Tatars, and then began a journey through the counti-y of the Turk- omans, the Caucasus. Persia, Hindustan, and finally Cevlon. where he wrote his Singalesish Skriftltere' (1822). In 1823 Rask returned to Copenhagen: in 1825 he was appointed professor of literary history, and in 1828 of Oriental lan- guages, in the following year he was made chief custodian of the university library: and in 1831. professor of Icelandic. But his immense labors had exhausted his energies, and he died at the early age of 45. Besides the productions already mentioned, Rask wrote Frisisk Hproglwre (1825) ; Den fiamle Aegypfiske Tidsrerfnimj (1827); Den (eldest e Hebraiske Tidsregiiiiig (1828); besides grammars of several languages, and a great num- ber of miscellaneous articles which were col- lected after his death, and published (1834-38), together with a Life by Peterson. EASKOLNIKI, ras-k61'ne-ke. or KASKOL- NIKS (Russ.. schismatics). The generic name applied to all those of the Greek faith who dis- sent from the established Church in Russia. The name used by the Raskolniki themselves is titaroobryadtsy (old ritualists) or Starovyertsy (old believers). The immediate occasion o£ schism was the correction of the old ec- clesiastical books. In the first quarter of the sixteenth century Maksim, the Greek, be- gan to revise them, but made some errors and was accused of heresy and imprisoned. The 'Hundred Chaptered Council' of 1550 undertook a correction by collating current translations, and not by comparing them with the Greek originals, and still more errors crept in and more dissatis- faction was occasioned. In the middle of the sev- enteenth century the Patriarch Xikon (q.v.) un- dertook a new revision. His predecessor, .Joseph, had also corrected ecclesiastical books, and issued over 6000 copies, all containing the grossest mis- takes. Nikon's opponents — and he had many, owing to his domineering spirit — now made the old revision a point of issue in their controversy with the patriarch. Prominent among them were the popes (priests) Lazar and Nikita. the deacon Fyodor. and especially the protopope ATakum, a man uncommonly well-read, and a forceful speaker. The ecclesiastical council convened on December 11-22, 1667, approved the decisions of the previous councils with regard to religious matters and books, and anathematized those dis- agreeing with the council. The latter were now officially called Raskolniki, and from this time dates the rise of the raskol. Most of the dissent- ers were banished to remote monasteries, like that at Solofki on the White Sea. The Raskol- niki kept up their objectionable propaganda from their places of confinement, and after a seven years' siege the monastery at Solofki was taken in 1676, the rebellious monastics were punished without quarter, and in 1681 Avvakum was exe- cuted. The anti-governmental spirit moved the Raskolniki to take a prominent part in the in- surrections of the Streltsy ( q.v. ) , and the Regent, Sofia, executed many of them in 1084. About 1685 there came a split in the ranks of the Raskolniki. One faction considered priests a useless institution; these were called be::popoitsy (priestless). The other half argued that they were the champions of the old faith against the encroachments of Antichrist, and therefore priests were necessary for the struggle: these were the popoitsy (priest party). Xikon had been declared the Antichrist, as the correction of books in 1666 (= 1000 -f 066), according to apocalvptic calculations, coincided with the ex- pected appearance of the Antichrist and the end of the world was due three years later, a date afterwards changed to 1702. After 1702, the Raskolniki turned to the internal arrangement of their Church, and then the division into the two factions mentioned above was consummated. Looking upon the Czar as Antichrist, they con sidered it a crime to pray for him. and everything anti-Czarist enlisted their sympathy. They were very active in the PugatchefT rebellion in the lat- ter' half of the eighteentli century. A curious feature of the movement is the frequent occur- rence of suicide among the Raskolniki. The doc- trine took its rise in ATakuni's preaching of scorn for death and laudations of martyrdom. In the District of Poshekhonyc (Government of Yaroslav) as many as 1020 persons burned themselves during 1676-03, and in all about 20,- 000 people destroyed themselves up to 1690. As late as 1860 fifteen persons burned themselves in
