Part 371 (2/2)
REFORMATION, the great event in the history of Europe in the 16th century, characterised as a revolt of light against darkness, on the acceptance or the rejection of which has since depended the destiny for good or evil of the several States composing it, the challenge to each of them being the crucial one, whether they deserved and were fated to continue or perish, and the crucial character of which is visible to-day in the actual conditions of the nations as they said ”nay” to it or ”yea,” the challenge to each at bottom being, is there any truth in you or is there none? Austria, according to Carlyle, henceforth ”preferring steady darkness to uncertain new light”; Spain, ”people stumbling in steep places in the darkness of midnight”; Italy, ”shrugging its shoulders and preferring going into Dilettantism and the Fine Arts”; and France, ”with accounts run up on compound interest,” had to answer the ”writ of summons” with an all too indiscriminate ”Protestantism” of its own.
REFORMATION, MORNING STAR OF THE, the t.i.tle given to JOHN WYCLIFFE (q. v.).
REFORMATORIES, schools for the education and reformation of convicted juvenile criminals (under 16). Under an order of court offenders may be placed in one of these inst.i.tutions for from 2 to 5 years after serving a short period of imprisonment. They are supported by the State, the local authorities, and by private subscriptions and sums exacted from parents and guardians. Rules and regulations are supervised by the State. The first one was established in 1838. There are now 62 in Great Britain and Ireland; but the numbers admitted are diminis.h.i.+ng at a remarkable rate.
REFORMED CHURCH, the Churches in Switzerland, Holland, Scotland, and elsewhere under Calvin or Zwingle, or both, separated from the Lutheran on matter of both doctrine and policy, and especially in regard to the doctrine of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
REFRACTION. Light travels in straight lines; but when a ray travelling through one medium pa.s.ses obliquely into another of either greater or less density it is bent at the point of incidence. This bending or breaking is called refraction. The apparent bend in a stick set sloping in a sheet of water is due to this phenomenon, as are also many mirages and other optical illusions.
REGALIA, the symbols of royalty, and more particularly those used at a coronation. The English regalia include the crown, the sceptre with the cross, the verge or rod with the dove, St. Edward's staff (in reality dating from Charles II.'s coronation), the orbs of king and queen, the sword of mercy called Curtana, the two swords of spiritual and temporal justice, the ring of alliance with the nation, bracelets, spurs, vestments, &c. These are to be seen in the Tower of London, and are valued at 3,000,000. The regalia of Scotland consist of the crown, the sceptre, and sword of State, and are on exhibition in the Crown-room in Edinburgh Castle.
REGENERATION, THE, ”new or second birth” required of Christ before any one can become a member of His kingdom, and which, when achieved, is a resolute and irreversible No to the spirit of the world, and a no less resolute and irreversible Yea to the spirit of Christ, the No being as essential to it as the Yea. For as in the philosophy of Hegel, so in the religion of Christ, the negative principle is the creative or the determinative principle. Christianity begins in No, subsists in No, and survives in No to the spirit of the world; this it at first peremptorily spurns, and then disregards as of no account, what things were _gain_ in it becoming _loss_. A stern requirement, but, as Carlyle says, and knew, one is not born the second time any more than the first without sore birth-pangs. See HIS ”EVERLASTING NO” IN ”SARTOR,” LAST PARAGRAPH.
REGENERATION, BAPTISMAL, the doctrine that the power of spiritual life, forfeited by the Fall, is restored to the soul in the sacrament of baptism duly administered.
REGENSBURG. See RATISBON.
REGGIO (24), an Italian seaport; capital of a province of the same name; occupies a charming site on the Strait of Messina; built on the ruins of ancient Rhegium; is the seat of an archbishop; manufactures silks, gloves, hose, &c.
REGICIDES, murderers of a king, but specially applied to the 67 members of the court who tried and condemned Charles I. of England, amongst whom were Cromwell, Bradshaw, Ireton, and others, of whom 10 living at the time of the Restoration were executed, and 25 others imprisoned for life.
REGILLUS, LAKE, celebrated in ancient Roman history as the scene of a great Roman victory over the Latins in 496 B.C.; site probably near the modern town of Frascati.
REGINA, ST., a virgin martyr of the 3rd century, usually depicted as undergoing the torments of martyrdom, or receiving spiritual consolation in prison by a beautiful vision of a dove on a luminous cross.
REGIOMONTa.n.u.s, name adopted by Johann Muller, a celebrated German astronomer and mathematician, born at Konigsberg, in Franconia; appointed professor of Astronomy in Vienna (1461); sojourned in Italy; settled in Nuremberg, where much of his best work was done; a.s.sisted Pope Sixtus IV.
in reforming the Calendar; was made Bishop of Ratisbon; died at Rome; was regarded as the most learned astronomer of the time in Europe, and his works were of great value to Columbus and other early navigators (1436-1476).
REGISTRAR-GENERAL, an official appointed to superintend registration, specially of births, deaths, and marriages.
REGIUM DONUM, an annual grant formerly voted by Parliament to augment the stipends of the Presbyterian clergy in Ireland, discontinued from 1869.
REGNARD, JEAN FRANcOIS, comic dramatist, born in Paris; inherited a fortune, which he increased by gambling; took to travelling, and was at 22 captured by an Algerine pirate, and when ransomed continued to travel; on his return to Paris wrote comedies, twenty-three in number, the best of them being ”Le Joueur” and ”Le Legataire,” following closely in the steps of Moliere; he was admired by Boileau (1656-1710).
<script>