RESUSCITATION IlETZ. 



851 



hopes disappointed by his death, and had lost their 

 confidence in him, could have been inspired with a 

 lively faith in his divine mission, and with a belief 

 which gave them strength to preach the gospel amid 

 danger and persecution. He who considers Christ- 

 ianity as a revelation, as an institution founded by 

 the immediate act of God, cannot think it strange 

 that it was established by miracles, and that Provi- 

 dence used extraordinary means to attain an extra- 

 ordinary end. Of the resurrection of the body, men 

 have often adopted the grossest ideas. In the notion 

 itself, that Almighty Power can form, of the mater- 

 ials of the old body dissolved by death, a new body, 

 which may serve as an instrument in a new order 

 of things, there is nothing opposed to reason. 



RESUSCITATION. See Drowning. 



RETICULATED WALLS. See Architecture. 



RETINA, in anatomy ; a membrane of the eye, 

 formed by an expansion of the optic nerve, and 

 constituting the immediate organ of vision. See 

 Eye. 



RETORT, in chemistry ; is a kind of round- 

 bellied vessel, made of earth, glass, or metal, hav- 

 ing a crooked neck or beak, to which the recipient 

 is fastened. Retorts are of essential service in dis- 

 tillations, and most frequently for those which 

 require a degree of heat superior to that of boiling 

 water. 



RETRENCHMENT, in the art of war; any kind 

 of work raised to cover a post, and fortify it against 

 the enemy. See Intrenchment. 



RETROCESSION OF THE EQUINOXES. 

 See Precession of the Equinoxes. 



RETZ, JEAN FRANgois, PAUL DE GONDI, cardinal 

 de, was born at Montmirail, in 1614, and, contrary to 

 his own inclinations, was designed by his father, 

 general of the galleys, for the church. His instruc- 

 tor was the celebrated St Vincent de Paul. In 1643, 

 he received a doctorate at the Sorbonne, and was 

 appointed coadjutor of the archbishop of Paris. Al- 

 though earnestly desiring to enter the military ser- 

 vice, Gondi was too politic and ambitious not to 

 bring his talents into action in the career forced 

 upon him ; and, although levity and vivacity led 

 him to commit many actions very inconsistent with 

 his station. his numerous airours, and affairs of 

 honour settled by the young abbe' with the sword 

 yet his impassioned eloquence won him the favour 

 of the Parisians, and often served to appease the 

 indignation of the clergy. His talents and address, 

 together with his evident ambition of political dis- 

 tinction, which too often degenerated into cabal 

 against the court party and the ministers, could not 

 fail to draw the attention and excite the hatreil of 

 the all-powerful Richelieu, and, after his death, of 

 Mazarin. The Fronde, or the party opposed to the 

 court and Mazarin, received the coadjutor as a man 

 whose genius and popularity made him a valuable 

 accession, and De Retz embraced their cause with 

 zeal. The intrigues which agitated the court, the 

 various insurrections of the people and the Fron- 

 deurs, c. , ofiered him a wide field for the execution 

 of his projects, and, when the court finally saw itself 

 compelled by a decree of the parliament to release 

 the prince Conde, and Mazarin himself (see Mazarin) 

 was obliged to leave France, De Retz seemed to 

 have attained his object, and to have it in his power 

 thenceforth to hold the reins of government. But 

 Mazarin soon returned from his banishment, more 

 powerful than ever. The Fronde, which had never 

 been firmly united, and the members of which, with 

 the exception of Conde and De Retz, were weak 

 and wavering, was dissolved ; and, soon after, the 

 latter, by the mediation of the court, and not with- 

 out the management of his enemy Mazarin. had ob- 



tained the cardinal's hat, the storm which had just 

 before threatened Mazarin burst upon him. At the 

 command of the court, or rather of Mazarin, he was 

 suddenly imprisoned in the castle of Vincennes, 

 whence he was removed to Nantes. Here he found 

 means to escape, and, perpetually pursued by the 

 minions of Mazarin, wandered for nearly eight years 

 through Spain, Italy, Holland, Germany mid Eng- 

 land, meeting with a series of truly romantic adven- 

 tures. In pope Innocent, he found a powerful 

 support ; and his death was a heavier loss to Retz, 

 as his successor Alexander, who was in some degree 

 indebted to him for his elevation, gave him no 

 assistance. In addition to his early extravagance 

 and profuseness, the enormous burden of his debts 

 was daily increased by the expenses of a princely 

 retinue, with which he surrounded himself, partly 

 from love of pomp, partly for protection against 

 the persecutions of his enemy. This debt amounted 

 to 5,000,000 livres, when Retz repaired to Holland 

 by way of Germany. Here he dismissed the mass 

 of his attendants, but, chagrined by his misfortunes, 

 plunged into a course of excesses. The offers of 

 the Spanish court, of an asylum and support, he re- 

 jected ; those of Charles II. he accepted, and pro- 

 ceeded to England. But, as that monarch was not 

 disposed to follow his counsels, De Retz returned 

 to the continent, where the peace of the Pyrenees, 

 concluded between Spain and France, opened to 

 him a gleam of hope. But his situation was, never- 

 theless, so distressing, that he was on the point of 

 printing a description of his circumstances, and of 

 the hatred of his enemies, to be sent to the higher 

 clergy of all countries a proceeding from which 

 he was only restrained by the information that his 

 enemy Mazarin was on the point of death. But, 

 even after the death of Mazarin, in IGo'l, he was 

 not allowed to return, till he had solemnly promised 

 never to take part again in political combinations. 

 From this time he seemed to be a different person, 

 and appeared before the throne with the language 

 of a flatterer. When Louis XIV. said to him 

 " Cardinal, you have grown gray," he replied, 

 " Sire, one grows gray quick, who is under the dis- 

 pleasure of your majesty." He now resigned his 

 archbishopric, governed the abbey of St Denis, 

 lived retired, restricted his wants, paid his immense 

 debts, and, besides, distributed pensions to his 

 friends. Reconciled with all parties, the man whose 

 comprehensive mind had hitherto taken pleasure 

 only in the tangled web of politics, now lived quiet 

 and retired like a philosopher. " Cardinal de Retz," 

 says Rochefaucault, " has much elevation of mind, 

 but more ostentation of courage than true courage ; 

 an extraordinary memory ; readiness and elegance 

 of expression. He seems ambitious, without being 

 so ; and his attacks upon Mazariu were aimed less 

 to subvert the latter, than to render himself formid- 

 able and important to him. His imprisonment he 

 bore with firmness, and he owed his freedom to his 

 own boldness. As long as Mazarin lived, he main- 

 tained his archiepiscopal see, unshaken by ail the 

 vicissitudes of fortune; when his enemy was no 

 more, he voluntarily resigned it. As a cardinal, he 

 gained respect, by his conduct, in several conclaves. 

 Although he had a strong propensity to pleasures 

 and idleness, yet his activity was really astonishing 

 as soon as it was awakened by circumstances. The 

 presence of mind, with which he was able to 

 understand and turn to advantage the most un- 

 looked for circumstances, is worthy of admiration." 

 His posthumous Memoires (Cologne, 1718, 3 vols.) 

 give an interesting picture of his character. A 

 history of the conspiracy of count Fiesco, in Genoa, 

 which he wrote while a youth of seventeen years- 

 3 H 2 



