[Remington, Philo], inventor of the Remington breech-loading rifle, born at Litchfield, in New York State; 25 years manager of the mechanical department in his father's small-arms factory; Remington type-writer also the outcome of his inventive skill; retired in 1886; b. 1816.
[Remonstrance, The], the name given to a list of abuses of royal power laid to the charge of Charles I. and drawn up by the House of Commons in 1641, and which with the petition that accompanied it contributed to bring matters to a crisis.
[Remonstrants], a name given to the Dutch Arminians who presented to the States-General of Holland a protest against the Calvinist doctrine propounded by the Synod of Dort in 1610.
[Remus], the twin-brother of Romulus, and who was slain by him because he showed his scorn of the city his brother was founding by leaping over the wall.
[Rémusat, Abel], Orientalist, born in Paris; studied and qualified in medicine, but early devoted himself to the study of Chinese literature and in 1814 became professor of Chinese in the College of France; wrote on the language, the topography, and history of China, and founded the Asiastic Society of Paris (1788-1832).
[Rémusat, Charles, Comte de], French politician and man of letters, born in Paris; was a Liberal in politics; drew up a protest against the ordinances of Polignac, which precipitated the revolution of July; was Minister of the Interior under Thiers, was exiled after the coup d'état, and gave himself mainly to philosophical studies thereafter (1797-1875).
[Renaissance], the name given to the revolution in literature and art in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, caused by the revival of the study of ancient models in the literature and art of Greece and Rome, especially the former, and to the awakening in the cultured classes of the free and broad humanity that inspired them, an epoch which marks the transition from the rigid formality of mediæval to the enlightened freedom of modern times.
[Renaix] (17), a busy manufacturing town in East Flanders, Belgium, 22 m. SW. of Ghent; has large cotton and linen factories, breweries, and distilleries.
[Renan, Ernest], Orientalist and Biblical scholar, born in Brittany, son of a sailor, who, dying, left him to the care of his mother and sister, to both of whom he was warmly attached; destined for the Church, he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice, where his studies threw him out of the relation with the Church and obliged him to abandon all thoughts of the clerical profession; accomplished in Hebrew, he was appointed professor of that language in the College of France in 1861, though not installed till 1870, and made a member of the French Academy in 1878; having distinguished himself by his studies in the Semitic languages, and in a succession of essays on various subjects of high literary merit, he in 1863 achieved a European reputation by the publication of his "Vie de Jésus," the first of a series bearing upon the origin of Christianity and the agencies that contributed to its rise and development; he wrote other works bearing more immediately on modern life and its destiny, but it is in connection with his views of Christ and Christianity that his name will be remembered; he entertained at last an overweening faith in science and scientific experts, and looked to the latter as the elect of the earth for the redemption of humanity (1823-1893).
[Rendsburg] (12), a fortified town in Schleswig-Holstein, on the North Sea and Baltic Canal, 19 m. W. of Kiel; manufactures cotton, chemicals, brandy &c.