REUCIILIX REVELLIERE-LEPAUX. 



of age, willi a visible predilection for his hero, 

 shows the tendency of his mind a fact which did 

 not escape the notice of cardinal Richelieu, when 

 be first saw this youthful production. In the last 

 years of his life, lit- rarely went to Paris. He died 

 in that city in 1 679. Some years before his death, 

 he returned his cardinal's hat to Clement X., for 

 the sake, as he said, of withdrawing wholly from 

 the world ; but he received it back, with the com- 

 mand of the holy father to retain it. See St Au- 

 laire's Histoire de la Fronde (Paris, 1827, 3 vols.) 



REUCHLIN, JOHN (called also, in allusion to 

 the signification of his name, Capnio), was born at 

 Pforzheim, in 1455. of respectable parents. Fie 

 distinguished himself at school by his industry and 

 food conduct ; and the excellence of his singing 

 procured him a place in the chapel of his prince, 

 Charles, margrave of Baden, who appointed him 

 companion, on his travels, to his son Frederic, 

 afterwards bishop of Utrecht. In 1473, Reuchlin 

 accompanied that prince to Paris, to study there in 

 the most celebrated school of the times. He was 

 obliged to leave Paris again, in 1475, with the 

 prince. In Basle, he excited the astonishment of 

 his countrymen by his knowledge of languages, at 

 that time unparalleled, displayed in his Latin dic- 

 tionary (under the title- Breviloquus), and his 

 Greek grammar, both the first published in Ger- 

 many. In 1478, he went back to France, studied 

 law at Orleans, while he taught, at the same time, 

 the ancient languages. In 1481, he returned to 

 Germany, and taught law and the belles-lettres at 

 Tubingen. Eberhard, count of Wurtemberg, soon 

 after took him, as the best Latinist in Germany, in 

 his train, on an embassy to Rome. The treasures 

 of science, which Lorenzo de' Medici had accumu- 

 lated in Florence, and those of Rome, were thus 

 opened to the curiosity of Reuchlin. The emperor 

 Frederic II. created him a noble of the empire in 

 1492. After Eberhard's death, Reuchlin lived 

 several years at the court of Philip, elector of the 

 Palatinate. Here he enriched the Heidelberg 

 library with manuscripts, and productions of the 

 new art of printing. The elector having been 

 basely calumniated at the Roman court, and even 

 excommunicated. Reuchlin repaired again to Rome, 

 and defended the rights of his prince with equal 

 prudence and eloquence. He was subsequently 

 appointed president of the court of the confed- 

 eracy, which had been established by the Suabian 

 princes against the encroachments of the house of 

 Bavaria. He was also engaged in translating the 

 penitential psalms, preparing a Hebrew grammar 

 and dictionary, and correcting the translation of 

 the Bible. His agency in introducing his relative 

 Melanchthon into the field, where he eventually 

 exerted himself so beneficially in conjunction with 

 Luther, places Reuchlin among the contribu- 

 tors to the reformation. But in an age in which 

 ignorance and priestcraft prevailed, he could not 

 fail of having enemies. A converted Jew, John 

 Pfeflercorn, and one Hoogstraten, were the insti- 

 gators of these blind zealots in their attacks upon 

 Hebrew literature. They persuaded the emperor 

 Maximilian that all Hebrew works, the OldTesta 

 inent only excepted, were of bad tendency. In 

 1509, the emperor issued a decree, ordering all 

 Midi works in his dominions to be burned ; but he 

 added, that the opinion of a secular scholar might, 

 in all cases, be consulted : this saved the Oriental 

 literature. Reuchlin assured the emperor that 

 these works, instead of injuring Christianity, con- 

 tributed, on the contrary, to its honour and glory, 

 since the study of them produced learned and bold 

 champions to fight for the honour of the Christian 



religion, and that to destroy these books would bo 

 to put arms into the hands of its enemies. This 

 measure of Reuchlin served to exasperate his ene- 

 mies still more. A war of pens raged for ten years. 

 On one side were Hoogstraten and the universities 

 of Paris, Louvain, Erfurt, and Mentz ; on the other, 

 Reuchlin and the most learned and enlightened 

 men of all countries. Unmoved amid the revilings 

 and excommunications of his opponents, Reuclihn 

 finally brought this dispute before the pope, 

 when Maximilian, regretting that he had given rise 

 to so unhappy a controversy, declared in favour of 

 Reuchlin. Francis von Sickingen and Ulrich von 

 Hutten avowed themselves ready to use the sword 

 in this contest, in case it should be necessary. 

 About the same time appeared the Epistola Olscti- 

 rorum Virorum, in which Reuchlin's enemies were 

 rendered ridiculous. This gave the matter another 

 turn ; the umpire appointed by the pope, the arch- 

 bishop of Spires, decided for Reuchlin, Reuchlin 

 subsequently resigned his judicial station, to avoid 

 being compelled to give a decision against his 

 prince, duke Ulric, who had precipitately attacked 

 the city of Reutlingen. William of Bavaria ap- 

 pointed him professor in the university of Ingol- 

 stadt. The plague having broken out in Ingolstadt, 

 in 1522, he removed to Tubingen, where, retired 

 from state affairs, he again devoted himself to 

 study. He died at Stuttgard. June 30, 1532. See 

 Meiner's Account of the Life of Reuchlin (in 

 German). 



REUSS; a sovereign principality in the central 

 part of Germany, lying between the Thuringian 

 forest and the Erzegebirge, bounded north by Saxe- 

 Weimar, east by Saxony, south by Bavaria, and 

 west by Saxe-Meiningen, and Schwartzburg-Rudol- 

 stadt. It is divided between the elder line, Reuss- 

 Greitz, with a population of 24,100 (capital Greitz, 

 6300 inhabitants), and the younger line, Reuss- 

 Schleitz (capital Gera, 8000 inhabitants), with a 

 population of 57,690 ; total, 81,790, on 600 square 

 miles. Each of the princes have a vote in the 

 Germanic plenum, and the two principalities, in 

 union with Hohen-Zollern, Liechtenstein, Waldeck, 

 and Lippe, have the sixteenth vote in the: ordinary 

 assembly. (See Germanic Confederation.) Con- 

 tingent of troops to the army of the confederacy, 

 744 men ; revenue of the elder line, 13,500 ; 

 debt, 18,000 ; revenue of the younger line, 

 45,000 ; debt, 63,000. 



REVEL, CR REVAL ; a Russian naval station, 

 the capital of the Russian province of Esthonia, on 

 the gulf of Finland, 200 miles south-west of Peters- 

 burg ; lat. 59 26' N. : Ion. 24 39' E. It is 

 built in an old style, with narrow and irregular 

 streets; population, 13,000. Revel contains thir- 

 teen churches, an imperial palace, with public 

 gardens, several hospitals, an arsenal, &c. The 

 harbour, constructed in 1820, is deeper than that 

 of Cronstadt, but is more difficult to be entered : 

 the road, which is sheltered by islands, allows of 

 vessels sailing with any wind. Revel was one of 

 the Hanse towns. It was conquered by the Swedes 

 in 1561, and taken by Peter the Great in 1710. 

 The inhabitants are Swedes, Finns, Esthonians, and 

 Russians. 



REVELLIERE-LEPAUX, Louis MARIE LA, 

 one of the members of the French directory, was 

 born at Montaigne, in 1753, and on the breaking 

 out of the revolution, the principles of which he 

 embraced, became a member of the constituent 

 assembly, and, in 1792, of the convention, where 

 he opposed the violence of the terrorists. He was 

 afterwards named one of the directory (q. v.) ; and 

 having, in a memoir read before the institute, of 



