311 



REN AN. 



i.^stion a. their amendment is local, it is oon- 

 o-iv.ible that in \ery possible coniinganoM* a St.it.- 

 Uliglit effiu* the prn\ isions that recognize religious 

 freedom us among the inalienable rights uf man. F.x- 

 (icririiiv !ia- shown lliat political alliance* with churches 

 are moiv likely to be made by State and city govern- 

 ments than by tlie govern nient of the I'nited Stales. 

 Payments might be made from a city treasury to a 

 f.norcd rlimrli without attracting any wide pulilir 

 an. mion : anil, on the other hand, a ehurch might 

 secure virtual control of local governments, manipu- 

 lating them liir its purposes. As only the State con- 

 stitutions Maud between the people and Mi.-h betrayal 

 of their rights, it is worthy of considenilion whether 

 additional security is nut possible and dcsirah; 

 amendment to the Constitution of the United States, 

 to tli,- effect that "No State shall make any law for 

 the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free 

 exercise thereof." thus extending to the States the 

 restriction now imposed upon Congress, would be a 

 wholesome preventive of insidious loeal encroachments 

 upon the public liberties. The Constitution now pro- 

 vides that the I'nited States shall guarantee to every 

 Suite a republican form of government. A further 

 guarantee to the people of every State against inter- 

 ference with the free exercise of religion would put 

 the essential rights and immunities of the citizen 

 under the guardianship of the whole nation. But 

 (he must perfect definitions of rights, and the most 

 precise limitations jf power, will be ineffective with- 

 out an intelligent love of freedom on the part of the 

 people, and a firm resolution to maintain it. In the 

 last resort, constitutional law expresses only the fixed 

 determination of the popular will. 



On the general subject iee Schaff' Hillary nf I/if Ctirit- 

 tinn Church, Vol. VI., p. 51, iq.; Jeremy Taylor's l.ibrrn/ 

 of fraphnyiny ; John Smart Mill's '>> J.ihrrty. The 

 trentise of l^eonard Biisher, above n-ferreil to h been re- 

 pnMi-hc il ill the collations of the llan;inl Knotty* So- 

 ciety, Kngland. The treatises of Roger Williams have been 

 reprinted l>y the NarntganaeU Club, I'rovidi-nc-e. As to 

 R.il>ert Browne, see Congrrgationalitm a* .Veen in it* Lilfm- 

 tnrf, by II. M. Dexter, p. 101, q. The ca*e of Mnssa- 

 chmotti rt. Roger Williams is ably slated in Palfrey's 

 Jlittortf nf .\'ftp Anj/niK/j Vol. I., p. 405, iq. For strik ing 

 view of the fathers of New England, see Hu.slnicll's H'ttrt 

 and I'lny, p. 124, tq. (L. E. 6.) 



REX AN, JOSEPH ERNEST, French philologist and 

 writer, was born at Tr<5guier, in the Department Cotes 



dii Nurd, Feb. '_'", ISJ.'J. His parents, pious Catholic 

 its, destined him to the priest hood and sent him 

 t.i tli college of his native town. Hi* talents nt- 

 iracied attention, and lie was invited to pursue his 

 studies in the Seminary of St. Snlpiee. at Paris, then 

 presided over by AbW Dupanloup, afterwards \ivli 

 bishop of Bordeaux. He devoted himself with 

 ness to the Semitic languages, under Abbe LC Hir. to 

 whom he pays tribute in his Souvenir*. Hut his philo- 

 logical studies caused him to lose faith in Catholic 

 dogmatic- theoloiry. In October, 1845, he left the 

 seminary and sought to support himself by giving 

 private instruction, llis sister, a governess, oame to 

 hi- aid. and gave him 13)0 francs, her entire saviiiL's. 

 In 1S4.8 at an examination for a fellowship in philoso- 

 phy he took the highest rank, and the Institute 

 awarded him the Volney prize for a dissertation on 

 the Semitic IniiL-iiaues. In IM'.i the Academy of In- 

 scriptions sent him on a literary mission to Italy, where 

 he obtained materials for an important work on Arabic 

 philosophy, Avrrnii* ft F Arerrn>*>nr (IS.Iu'). An- 

 other work of the same time on the (!rcek of the Mid- 

 dle Ages was crowned by the Academy. In l v :>l 

 ]!en:in was installed in the manuscript department of 

 the National Library. In 1 *.V> he VMeboMV a meni- 

 lr of tin- Academy of Ins.-ri|itions. Within a few 

 he piibli.thed a translation of the Book of Job. 

 \Mllianessay on its nee and character (18.08), and a 

 similar work on the <'antifles (I860). He had U i, 



also a diligent contributor to reviews and perio 

 and from these he had collected two volumes, Etu<l<t 

 l!,li'ii,uiic (ls"'T); Ettai* de Morale et ale 



In 18ni) the French government sent an nrniy to 

 Syria and in accordance, with pm-edcnt M'tit alsi a 

 scientific commissioner to that ancient land. To 

 Kenan. a< the foremost Semitic scholar, was afforded 

 the opportunity of exploring Tyre, the Lebanon, and 

 1'alcstine. On his return he was appointed professor 

 of Hebrew in the College de France, but his intro- 

 ductory lecture was attended with such disorder that 

 the course was suspended. In ISf>4 he was dismissed 

 after the appearance of his famous book, the religious 

 result of his visit to the Holy J^ind, the Vie tlr ./. 

 The work circulated with astonishing rapidity, but the 

 outcry against it was most vigorous. Ihiruy, the 

 minister of public instruction, tried to conceal the re- 

 moval from the professorship by appointing him to a 

 position in the Imperial Library, out Kenan refused 

 to accept. After tnc downfall of the Knipire he was 

 restored on the unanimous request of the faculty of 

 the College and of the Institute. In 1883 he was 

 made administrator of the college. His wife and 

 daughter have cheered him in later life as, his MM. r 

 did at the commencement of his career. 



The Vif (fcA*M*WM intcndi-d to be the introduction 

 to a history of the origin of Christianity. Tliis de- 

 sign was carried out in Lf* Apfitres (1806); Knlut I'mil 

 ft , Miss!,,,, (I MM): L'AiitMirut (1873); L' Eyl i*r. 

 ('/!><' tii n >i i' ( IST'J). He published also official re|Mirts 

 of his mission to Phoenicia, discussions of Oriental 

 and archaeological subjects, and contributions to the lit- 

 erature of the day. The latter were partly collected 

 iniiler the title. Oursfioiis cniit<-ni-)nirnhirs (ISC.S). In 

 lS7s:Renan was elected to the French Academy, nnd 

 in his inaugural address in April, J879, he touched 

 with trenchant satire certain defects in German schol- 

 arship and literature. In 1880 he became an officer of 

 the Jyegion of Honor, a position from which the ob- 

 stinacy of Pres. MacMahon in refusing to sign the 

 decree had excluded him for months. In the same 

 year he delivered the Hibl>ert lectures in London, 

 taking for his theme The Iiifliifitef. of 1'utjnn Rome on 

 ('/iriftinniti/. Closely connected with these is his 

 J/rc Anrelf ft In fin tin monde antiijnc (1881). 

 Kenan has written charming autobiographic sketches 

 under the title, Sourrnin if f'u/iiiirr <t </ ./<'iineme 

 (1883), which have appeared in English as AV,-,, //,,-- 

 limit of My }~<iuth. Some dramas from his pen in 

 later years appear to indicate a depraved imagination. 

 His latest works are 1802, a panegyric of Victor ilii^'o 

 and Ifarniirx rt Cmjfiraum (188T). 



The Vie dr Jfniit totally ignores any divinity in the 



Founder of the Christian religion, yet some critic.- ha\e 



regarded it as an elaborate tribute to his character. It 



was utterly different from the mythical theory pro- 



pounded in Stranss's Ijftien Jesu, but it was a more in- 



sidious attack on Christian belief. Combining his 



own youthful experience in Brittany with his mature 



study and sympathetic observation of Oriental life 



and scenery, Kenan presents Jesus of Nazareth as a 



Jewish philosophcrof mystical tendency; in fact, what 



jhe himself might have been had he lived in 



the Roman province of Jinhoa. The central figure, 



; moves under the brilliant light of a cloudless Ka.-tern 



sky. The consummate art of the portrait seems but 



j the poetic rendering of the truth of nature. Vet the 



picture remains French in its idea, its accessories, and 



j Itx limitations. It has the feminine tone character- 



istic of French emotion. Worst of all, while pi 



ing love for the person of Jesus and reverence for his 



cr. it taints his moral purity. The intense and 



deadlj hostility of (he attack on Christianity v 



at onee by l>ih friend and foe. All France, and soon 



I all Kuropc, was roused, and numerous replies to the 



work, of vnrtoin dogm-s of ability, were prepared. 



Yet ouuuiiu of Fraucc it haa had little real effect and 



