[Revere, Paul], American patriot, born in Boston, U.S., bred a goldsmith; conspicuous for his zeal against the mother-country, and one of the first actors in the revolt (1735-1818).
[Reverend], a title of respect given to the clergy, Very Reverend to deans, Right Reverend to bishops, and Most Reverend to archbishops.
[Réville, Albert], a distinguished French Protestant theologian, born at Dieppe; was from 1851 to 1872 pastor at Rotterdam, in 1880 became professor of the History of Religions in the College of France, and six years later was made President of the Section des Études Religieuses at the Sorbonne, Paris; has been a prolific writer on such subjects as "The Native Religions of Mexico and Peru" (Hibbert Lectures for 1884), "Religions of Non-civilised Peoples," "The Chinese Religion," &c.; b. 1826.
[Revival of Letters], revival in Europe in the 15th century of the study of classical, especially Greek, literature, chiefly by the arrival in Italy of certain learned Greeks, fugitives from Constantinople on its capture by the Turks in 1453, and promoted, by the invention of printing, to the gradual extinction of the dry, barren scholasticism previously in vogue. See [Renaissance].
[Revival of Religion], a reawakening of the religious consciousness after a period of spiritual dormancy, ascribed by many to a special outpouring of the Spirit in answer to prayer, and in connection with evangelical preaching.
[Revolution], a sudden change for most part in the constitution of a country in consequence of internal revolt, particularly when a monarchy is superseded by a republic, as in France in 1789, in 1848, and 1870, that in 1830 being merely from one branch of the Bourbon family to another, such as that also in England in 1658. The French Revolution of 1798 is the revolution by pre-eminence, and the years 1848-49 were years of revolutions in Europe.
[Revue des Deux Mondes], a celebrated French review, devoted to literature, science, art, politics, &c., established in 1829, and conducted afterwards by Buloz.
[Reybaud, Marie Roch Louis], a versatile littérateur and politician, born at Marseilles; travelled in India, established himself as a Radical journalist in Paris in 1829, and edited important works of travel, wrote popular novels, published important studies in social science; elected a member of the Academy of Moral Sciences (1850); was an active politcian, investigated for government the agricultural colonies in Algeria; author of "Scenes in Modern Life," "Industry in Europe," &c. (1799-1879).
[Reykjavik] (i. e. reeky town), (3), capital of Iceland, situated in a barren misty region on the SW. coast, practically a village of some 100 wooden houses; has a brick cathedral, and is the see of a bishop.
[Reynard the Fox], an epic of the Middle Ages, in which animals represent men, "full of broad rustic mirth, inexhaustible in comic devices, a world Saturnalia, where wolves tonsured into monks and nigh starved by short commons, foxes pilgrimaging to Rome for absolution, cocks pleading at the judgment-bar, make strange mummery." The principal characters are Isengrim the wolf and Reynard the fox, the former representing strength incarnated in the baron and the latter representing cunning incarnated in the Church, and the strife for ascendency between the two one in which, though frequently hard pressed, the latter gets the advantage in the end.