KKKIXIXi:. 



KMAT10X. 



coral-reefs, moat voyagers have spoken of them under the follouing 

 heads, which are nearly identical with the descriptive terms already 

 employed in this article : Lagoon Islands, or Atolls ; Barrier, or 

 Enuircling Reefs ; and Fringing, or Shore Reefs. With respect to the 

 lagoon islands, he remarks, everyone must be struck with astonishment 

 when he first beholds one of these vast rings of coral-rock, often many 

 leagues in diameter, here and there surmounted by a low verdant 

 island with dazzling white shores, bathed on the outside by the foaming 

 breakers of the ocean, and on the inside surrounding a calm expanse of 

 water, which, from reflection, is of a bright but pale green colour. 

 The naturalist, he adds, will feel this astonishment more deeply after 

 having examined the soft and almost gelatinous bodies of the appan-ntlv 

 insignificant creatures, thepolypifers[PoLYPiFERA, in NAT. HIM. IMV. j. 

 which construct these vast works ; and when he knows that 1 1 

 reef increases only on the outer edge, which day and night is lashed by 

 the breakers of an ocean never at rest. As the reef of a lagoon island 

 generally supports many separate small islands, the word "island," 

 applied to the whole, is often the cause of confusion ; on which account 

 Jir. Darwin in this work invariably uses the term "atoll," which 

 name given to these circular groups of coral islets by their inhabitants 

 in the Indian Ocean, and is synonymous with lagoon island. Reefs in 

 moat respects allied to those of the fringing class also occur around 

 submerged banks of sediment and of worn-down rock ; and others are 

 scattered quite irregularly where the sea is very shallow. Mr. Darwin 

 has given a separate chapter of his work to each of these c! 

 coral-reefs; but the classification, he states, admits of a more lund.i 

 mental division into atoll-formed and barrier-reefs on the one hand. 

 where there is a great apparent difficulty with respect to the foundation 

 on which they must first have grown ; and into fringing-rcefs on the 

 other, where, owing to the nature of the slope of the adjoining land, 

 there is no such difficulty. Barrier-reefs, though little less marvellous in 

 their structure than atolls, had previous to Mr. Darwin's researches 

 received but little attention, and scarcely any attempt had been 

 made to explain their origin. He concludes, in conformity with the 

 summary statement of.his theory, given above, that in them as well :u< in 

 atolls, the foundation on which the coral was primarily attached has 

 subsided, and that during this downward movement the reefs have 

 grown upwards. " This conclusion," he says, " explains most satisfac- 

 torily the outline and general form of atolls and barrier-reefs, and 

 likewise certain peculiarities in their structure. The distribution, also, 

 of the different kinds of coral-reefs, and their position with relation to 

 the areas of recent elevation, and to the points subject to volcanic 

 eruptions, fully accord with this theory of their origin." After three 

 descriptive chapters, Mr. Darwin describes in three others the dis- 

 tribution and growth of coral-reefs, gives in detail his theory of the 

 formation of the different classes, and discusses their distribution with 

 reference to the theory of their formation. In an appendix, every 

 existing coral-reef is briefly described in geographical order, as far as 

 the author possessed information ; and their distribution over the 

 equatorial regions of the globe is further illustrated by a map. 



Still more recently, since the year 1847, the subject of coral- forma 

 tions has been treated at great length by Dr. James D. Dana, in the 

 ' Geology' of the ' United States Exploring Ex|x:dition,' during the 

 years from 1838 to 1842, under Commander Wilkcs, U.S.N. This 

 volume was published at New York, but is undated. 



REFINING. [ASSAYING; COPPER; LEAD; SCGAB.] 



REFLECTING TELESCOPES [TELESCOPE.] 



REFLEXION AND REFRACTION. [LIGHT; OPTICS; Ki 

 TIOH, REFRASGIBII.ITV.] 



REFORMATION is the name generally given to the great schism 

 which took place in the Western Church in the first half of the 16th 

 century, and by which a large part of the population of Europe has 

 become separated from the Church of Rome ; besides which, the great 

 majority of the people of the United States of North America, as well 

 as of the English and Dutch colonies, follow the same mode of faith. 



In order to understand correctly the history of the Reformation, it 

 is necessary to be acquainted with the social, political, and intellectual 

 state of Europe in tho 15th century; and for this purpose the histories 

 of the councils of Constance and of Basel, and the ' Historia Bohemica,' 

 by ./Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini, are of great service. [Pius II., in Bioo. 

 Div.] Previous to the Reformation the see of Rome claimed of divine 

 right, and asserted, with the assistance of the lay power of the various 

 states of Europe, an absolute authority over the whole Christian 

 Church ; indeed, a universal authority, as exemplified by the gift* of 

 the Western world, the inhabitants being heathens, to the monarchs of 

 Spain and Portugal ; while the Greek Church was denounced as here- 

 tical. By virtue of this supreme authority, the Roman pontiff decided 

 absolutely all doubts and disputes which might arise, whether in 

 matters of doctrine, jurisdiction, or discipline : his decisions were con- 

 sidered as infallible ; and whoever resisted or gainsayed them was con- 

 sidered a heretic, and as such liable to canonical censures, and also to 

 the temporal penalties awarded by the canon law against heretics. 

 The government of the Church was therefore absolute ; and the 

 Church, or rather the bishop of Rome, as head of the Church, assumed 

 also a supremacy even in temporal matters, although the exi-: 

 this last supremacy was resisted by various princes. [GREGORY VII. ; 

 IMOCK.NT III. ; INKOI i .iiKioRY IX., in Bioo. Div.] 



The treat object of the Reformers of tits 1 6h century was to over- 



throw the principle of absolutism in the government of the Church, by 

 contesting the infallibility and supremacy of the bish This 



had been already contested, and indeed set a.-ide l,y th 

 Constance and of Basel ; but the point of contention had nev< i 

 finally and permanently settled. The Reform* n- of the 16th century, 

 however, went much farther : they denied the absolute authority even 

 of the councils, and they leaned towards tin 



le in religious matters, by allowing tin- ri-ht of iml,. 



tation of the Scriptures, and discarding all tradition and 

 human authority in matters of faith ; and as in the course of their 

 struggle they were met by several dogmas or doctrinal t< 



I'roin passages of the Scriptures as interpreted by the i 

 Church, or from tradition, or from decisions of the councils or decretals 

 of the popes, which were urged in opposition to them, they set 

 translating and commenting on the Scriptures, substituting a ditl'crent 

 interpretation of the disputed passages, and thus sapping th< 

 foundations of the whole fabric of Church authority. 



It has lieen maintained by several writers that the principles asserted 

 by Luther and other reformers were those of the early ages 01 the 

 Church ; but all that can be proved seems to be that in almoct 



< e the apostolic times there has been here and th. 

 -in. >n to the absolute system in the Church; that some p. 

 doctrines of Luther ami ( 'alvin had been asserted by others long ' 

 them ; and that the Valdenses especially, and their neighbours of the 

 valleys of Dauphine, had retained from time immemorial a system of 

 Church discipline similar to that established by the Reformation in the 

 churches of Switzerland ami Scotland. 



The progress of the Reformation in Germany and Swit/erland has 

 been related in the BIOG. Div. under the names of the chief actors in 

 that great movement. [1-fTHKn: Bi'i'KH ; M 



CAIAIN; (' ,KI .'. -, V. ; KKKIJINANII I.; MAt'inn:, Duke of Saxony ; 

 and others.] 



The Reformation in England sprung from among the people and the 

 clergy. It had begun with \Vycliffe ; it spread from England to Germany 

 among the Lollards and the Hussites, and was earn a the 



Continent to the shores of Britain with a fresh impinV 

 preaching of Luther, Bucer, and the Swiss reformers. The sch i 

 Henry VIII. paved the way, but it did not originate, nor promote, nor 

 establish the doctrines of the Reformation; they made their way 

 rather in spite of, than by the favour of, that capricious king. ! 

 only under his successor, Edward VI., that the Kcform.i 

 established by authority. Still the origin of the Church of England as 

 a body independent of Rome dates from the wayward deeds of 

 Henry VIII., and when that Church afterwards adopted the reformed 

 doctrines, there was a great admixture of political and state rea.-" 

 the final establishment of it, especially under Elizabeth, ami conse- 

 quently much severity and harshness were exhibited towards those 

 who adhered to the old religion, which threw for a time a dubious 

 light over the ascendancy of the Reformation in England. 



For its progress and final settlement, we must refer to the hi>ti 

 this country, and the articles BucER ; CHANMEK ; CROMWELL, Tn< 

 EDWARD VI.; EI.I/AIIKTH of England; GARDINER: lii::,i;\ \II1.; 

 MARY I. of England ; and POLE, REGINALD, in BIOG. Div. For the 

 Reformation in Scotland, see KNOX and MAHY STUAIIT, in Bioa. Div. 



In France, as early as 1580, the doctrines of the Reformation had 

 found their way from Germany and Switzerland. Some of those 

 doctrines had lingered in the south for ages before, especially in the 

 mountains of Dauphine bordering on the Valdenses. Pierre Robert 

 d'Olivet, Michel Cop, rector of the University of Paris, licza, and 

 others, adopted and spread them; and Margaret, sister of Francis I.. 

 and Renee, daughter of Louis XII., gave them their countenance. 

 But Francis I., who through policy secretly encouraged the Protestant 

 states of Germany against the emperor, persecuted his own subjects 

 who had embraced the new doctrines. The stake and the faggot 

 employed at the mine time in France and in England, by i 

 Henry VIII., against the Reformers. In 1535, Francis, attended by 

 his family, the clergy, the magistrates, and other officers of stat. 

 present at the burning by a slow fire of six citizens of Paris, wh 

 been condemned by the parliament as heretics. The execution lasted 

 two hours. This was the forerunner of many scenes of a similar 

 character which disgraced France for more than half a century. The 

 persecutions, the civil and religious ware, the truces and other vicissi- 

 tudes of the French Calvinists, during the reigns of Francis I., 



II., Francis II., Charles IX., and Henri III., are part of the 

 history of France. De Thou, in his ' Historic sui Temporis,' Beza, 

 ' History of the Reformed Churches of France,' and the ' Mdmoi 

 Correspondence de Duplessis Mornay pour servir a 1'Histoire de la Refor- 

 mation et des Guerres civiles et religieuses en France dcpuis Ton 1571 

 jusqu'en 1628,' Paris, 1824-34, are the best contemporary authorities 

 for that period. At last, Henri VI., by his Edit de Nantes,' 1598, 

 acknowledged the Reformed communion as the lawful creed of a part 

 ..t the French population. 



The doctrines of the Reformation had made many converts in the 

 Netherlands in Luther's lifetime, and a fresh influx of Calvinists from 

 France and Switzerland increased tho number of dissidents from the 

 Roman Church. The wild outbreak of the Anabaptists at Leyilen, 

 MUnster, and other places, threw discredit for a time on the cause of 

 the Reformation ; but those disturbances v,. i . ..on put down. During 



