REUNION 



judge of the Swabian League, and 

 held professorships at Wittenberg, 

 Ingolstadt, and Tubingen. His 

 Rudimenta Linguae Hebraicae, 

 1506, gave a remarkable impetus 

 to the study of the Hebrew text of 

 the Bible. When the destruction 

 of Jewish books except the O.T. was 

 proposed, he aroused controversy 

 by maintaining that only those 

 of pronounced anti-Christian char- 

 acter should be condemned. He 

 published a Greek grammar and a 

 Latin lexicon, edited Greek texts, 

 and wrote De Verbo Mirifico, 1494 ; 

 and De Arte Cabbalistica, 1517. 

 He died at LiebenEell, Bavaria, 

 June 30, 1522. See Renaissance ; 

 consult also Life and Times of R., 

 F. Barham, 1843. Pron. Roikhlin. 



Reunion. Name applied to the 

 union of the various Christian 

 churches. The movement for re- 

 union took shape and strength 

 during the 19th century, and in the 

 20th several unions took place. In 

 England three of the Methodist 

 bodies, in 1907, united to form the 

 United Methodist Church, and the 

 Free Church and the United Pres- 

 byterian Church united in Scotland 

 in 1900 to form the United Free 

 Church of Scotland (q.v.). 



In Scotland, Presbyterians are 

 working for further reunion, first 

 among themselves and also with 

 the other religious bodies. A step 

 forward was the carrying of the 

 second reading of the Church of 

 Scotland bill in Parliament in 1921, 

 to facilitate the union between the 

 two great branches of Presby- 

 terianism, the Church of Scotland, 

 and the U.F. Church. In England 

 proposals are before the Free 

 Churches, already federated, to 

 unite with the Church of England, 

 and meetings of representatives of 

 both sides have taken place ; also 

 for a reunion of all the Methodist 

 churches. In the U.S.A. and Can- 

 ada reunion has made great ad- 

 vances. See Lambeth Conference. 



Reunion, in, DE LA. Island of 

 the Indian Ocean, a French colonial 

 possession. It lies about 400 m. E. 

 of Madagascar, and, measuring 

 some 45 m. in length and 32 m. 

 broad, has a total area of 970 sq. m. 

 The surface is mountainous, and 

 the island, of volcanic origin, is 

 crowned by the extinct volcano, 

 the Piton des Neiges, 10,070 ft. It 

 is well watered, and has a fairly 

 healthy climate. Sugar planting 

 is the chief agricultural activity, 

 other products including coffee, 

 tea, tobacco, rubber, cloves, rice, 

 tapioca, and maize. Rum is manu- 

 factured in large quantities. A rly., 

 built 1887, serves the chief centres. 



The capital is St. Denis (pop. 

 24,000), other towns being St. 

 Pierre (29,000), St. Paul (19,000), 



658O 



St. Louis (13,000), and St. Benoit 

 (11,000). The island is adminis- 

 tered by the colonial governor, 

 assisted by a private council, and 

 there is a general council of 36 

 members, elected by universal 

 suffrage, which formulates the 

 local budget, etc. In Paris Re- 

 union is represented by one 

 senator and two deputies. Its 

 mixed pop. totals 175,000, which 

 includes 130,000 French. 



Discovered by the Portuguese 

 Pedro de Mascarenhas, 1513, it was 

 taken over by a French explorer in 

 1638, and was known as Bourbon 

 from 1649. From 1810-15 it was in 

 English hands, and was renamed 

 Reunion when restored to France. 

 Reus. City of Spain, in the 

 prov. of Tarragona. It is 10 m. by 

 rly. W. of Tarragona, and 4 m. N. 

 of Salou, its port on the Mediter- 

 ranean. It has an art academy, 

 and handsome public buildings. 

 The prosperity of the town dates 

 from 1750, when an English 

 colony here founded a trade in 

 cottons, leather, wine, etc. It 

 manufactures also hats, silk, soap, 

 and linen, and exports flour, fruit, 

 and brandy. Pop. 25,000. 



Reuss. River of Central Switzer- 

 land, a tributary of the Aar. It 

 rises on the N. slope of Mt. St. 

 Gotthard, in canton Uri, and 

 flowing past Andennatt and 

 Amsteg, enters the lake of Lucerne 

 near Fluelen. Leaving it by the 

 town of Lucerne, it flows through 

 Aargau to unite with the Aar near 

 Windisch after a course of about 

 90 m. See Aar ; Rhine. 



Reuss. District of Germany, 

 part of the republic of Thuringia. 

 In the Middle Ages this tract of 

 land in the centre of Germany 

 came under the rule of a line of 

 counts who were vassals of the 

 emperor. One of them was, for one 

 reason or other, known as der 

 Russe, or the Russian, and this 

 became the name of his county, 

 which, in 1564, was divided into 

 three parts. The branch ruling one 

 quickly died out, but the other 

 little states remained until the 

 changes of 1918. Their rulers ob- 

 tained the title of prince in 1778 

 and 1806 respectively, and were 

 known as the princes of Reuss- 

 Greiz and Reuss-Schleiz-Gera. 



In 1918 the principality of 

 Reuss-Greiz had an area of 122 

 sq. m., and that of Reuss-Schleiz- 

 Gera one of 319 sq. m. The total 

 pop. was 212,000. The chief rivers 

 therein are the Saale and the White 

 Elster, and the district is mainly 

 an agricultural one. Greiz and 

 Gera were the capitals and each 

 had a constitution, including a 

 tiny legislature. The reigning 

 families had the curious custom of 



CHRISTIAN 

 (1810-74). 



naming each male member Heary, 

 distinguishing them by numbers. 

 In 1871 both states joined the 

 German Empire, and they sent 

 one member each to its Bundesrat 

 and one each to its Reichstag. In 

 April, 1919, the two, being then 

 republics, were united into one, and 

 in Dec., 1919, they joined with 

 other states in forming the re- 

 public of Thuringia (q.v,). ' 



Reutel. Village and ridge of 

 Belgium. It is in the prov. of W. 

 Flanders, 1J m. E. of Polygon 

 Wood (q.v.). Captured by the 

 British in 1917, they were lost in 

 the German advance of April, 1918, 

 and finally recovered by the Allies 

 in the autumn of that year. Sec 

 Ypres, Battles of. 



Reuter, GABRIELE (b. 1859). 

 German novelist. Born Feb. 8, 

 1859, at Alexandria, Egypt, where 

 her father was in business, she re- 

 turned to Germany on his death, 

 1872, and eventually settled in 

 Berlin. She had been writing 

 fairly successful novels, 1876-94, 

 when she produced a remarkable 

 study of the feminine mind in Aus 

 guter Familie, 1895. This achieved 

 considerable success, and was 

 followed by others. Pron. Roiter. 

 Reuter, HEINRICH LTJDWIG 

 FRIEDRICH, OR FRITZ 

 German humorist. He 

 was born at 

 S t avenhagen, 

 Mecklenburg- 

 S c h w e r i n, 

 Nov. 7, 1810. 

 As a law stu- 

 dent at Jena, 

 he became in- 

 volved in po- 

 litical agita- 

 tions in 1833, 

 and was sen- 

 tenced to death, but the sentence 

 was commuted to 30 years' im- 

 prisonment. Freed at the amnesty 

 of 1840, he subsequently led a 

 varied life as farmer, teacher, and 

 journalist. 



In 1853 he published Lauschen 

 un Rimels, a volume of verses 

 and anecdotes in Low German. 

 This work attained immediate 

 popularity and was succeeded by 

 other sketches and stories of 

 mingled humour and pathos, which 

 gained for him the title of the 

 German Charles Dickens, and the 

 position of one of Germany's 

 leading literary humorists. His 

 other works included Olle Kamellen 

 (Old Time Stories), 1860-66. 

 In this series were Ut Mine Fes- 

 tungstid (From my Prison Life), 

 1862 ; and Ut Mine Strom tid 

 (From my Life as Farm Steward), 

 1864 ; this, one of his finest books, 

 was translated into English, 1878. 

 He died at Eisenach, July 12, 1874. 



Fritz Reuter, 

 German humorist 



