REG 



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that, according to their cuftom in other countries, they per- 

 mitted liis poilcrity to fucceed him, perhaps for feviral gene- 

 rations. Although tlie Regiii were very early and very obe- 

 dient fubjedls of the Roman empire, yet as they v.7cre long 

 after under the immediate government of Britidi princes, few 

 of the Romans feem to have fettied among them. This is, 

 witliout doubt, the reafon that we meet with fo few veltiges 

 of thofe great and active people in thofe countries which 

 were anciently iniiabited by the Regni. Cliichetter was cer- 

 tainly a confiderable place in tlic time of the Romans, and 

 probably the capital of the Regni, which led the Romans 

 to call it Regnum. However, Camden, Gale, Baxter, and 

 others, are unanimous in fixing Regnum, the capital of the 

 Regni, at Ringwood ; but Mr. Horlley has produced feveral 

 reafons for fuppohng it to have been fituated where Chi- 

 cheiler now ftands. The Neomagus of Ptolemy, and the 

 Noviomagus of the Itinerary, was a city of the Regni, and 

 it is generally placed nt Woodcote, near Croydon, in Sur- 

 rey ; though Mr. Baxter and fome other antiquaries contend 

 for Ravenfham, in Kent. In the moil perfeft Itate of the 

 Roman government in Britain, the country of the Regni 

 made a part of the province called Flavia Csefarienfis, and 

 was governed by the prefident of that province. 



REGNIER, Mathurin, in Biography, a French poet, 

 was born at Chartres in 1573. He is faid to have difplayed, 

 at a very early period, a great propenfity to fatire, which 

 his father in vain attempted to reprefs by challifement. The 

 exercife of liis fatirical talents procured him patrons, among 

 whom were the cardinal Francis de Joyeufe, and Philip de 

 Bethune, both of whom he accompanied to Rome. By the 

 interell of thefe great men he received confiderable prefer- 

 ment in the church, but the dignity and gravity of the 

 clerical charafter was no rellraint upon his pleafures, and he 

 died at the age of forty, worn out with licentious praftices. 

 The works of Regnier confift of fatires, epiftles, elegies, 

 itanzas, odes, &c.: of thefe his fatires are moft efteemcd, and 

 they were thought to make a kind of epoch in French poetry. 

 The poems of Regnier have been frequently printed ; the 

 bell editions are tliofe of Rouen, 1729, and of London, 

 1734, with remarks. 



kEGNIER-DESMARAIS, Francis-Seraphin, a 

 French author of confiderable reputation, was born at Paris 

 in 1632, of a family originally from Saintonge. Being the 

 younger fon of a numerous family, he had to depend folely 

 upon his own exertions for making his way in the world, 

 and he fucceffively attached himfelf to feveral perfonsof rank, 

 V, hom he accompanied in their travels. Making a proper 

 life of his opportunities, he acquired a knowledge of the 

 Italian and Spanidi languages, and he became fo much a 

 mailer of the former, that when he attended the duke of 

 Crequi on his embaffy to Rome, in 1662, he wrote the 

 official letters in Italian with fo much purity, that they were 

 not known to be the compofitions of a foreigner. But he 

 obtained a itill greater triumph, by palling upon the acade- 

 micians of Delia Crufca one of his own odes for a newly dif- 

 eovered piece of Petrai'ch. In confequence of this he was 

 eleiSed, in 1667, a member of that celebrated academy. At 

 the age of thirty-fix he took ecclefiaftical orders, for the 

 purpofe of enjoying a priory given him by Lewis XIV., as- 

 a reeompence for his public iervices, and iu 1670 he was ad- 

 mitted a member of the French Academy, in the hope that 

 he might become a contributor in the compilation of their 

 diilionary. Soon after this, at the requeil of the Jefuits, he 

 tranflated from the Spanifh language a treatife " On Chrif- 

 tian Perfe&ion." In his capacity of academician, Regnier 

 difplayed fo much activity and zeal, that on the death of 

 Mezerai, in 1C84, he was appointed to fucceed him as fe- 



cretary. When the diftionary was completed, the fecretary 

 by order of the Academy, drew up a preface, and an epilllc 

 dedicatory to the king ; but, during his abfence, other 

 members, who were inlpired with the dcfire of emulating 

 him in this honour, procured a preference for their own pro- 

 duftions. This difappointment drew from Regnier fome 

 critical remarks U])on the rival performances, tinged with 

 that cavilling and difputatious fpirit, to which it appears he 

 fo often gave way, that he obtained the title of the abbe 

 Pertinax. He was fo attached to his own opinion, that he 

 could feldom be prevailed upon to give up his point, or to 

 drop a difputc. Fontenelle, being once prefent at an acade- 

 mical difcufiion, in which Regnierwas warmly engaged, ex- 

 claimed, " this is a difpute that might be prevented from 

 ever ending, and therefore it ought to be ended immediately." 

 Regnier obtained feveral benefices, and would probably have 

 been promoted to the very higliefl dignity in the church, had 

 he not been fufpedled of tranflating a fcene in the " Paftor 

 Fido," which feems to inculcate a licentious morality, and 

 likewife fufpcfted of writing a Hill more objedtionable copy 

 of verfes. He was occafionally employed in public bufinefs. 

 He died at Paris in 1 7 13, at the age of 81. He had drawn 

 up a great many of the moi^l important articles in the dic- 

 tionary of the French academy, and he pubh(hed, as the 

 refult of his long llndy of the principles of the French 

 language, his " Grammaire Frangoife," in 2 vols. i2mo., 

 which is confidered as a very valuable performance. His 

 other works in profe were " L'Hiftoirc des Demeles de la 

 France, avec la Cour de Rome, au Sujet de I'AfFaire des 

 Corfes." Tranflations of feveral of Cicero's pieces. In 

 verfe he gave an Italian verfion of the Odes of Anacreon, 

 and mifcellaneous poems in Latin, French, Italian, and 

 Spanifh. His French poems are varied, ingenious, and well 

 turned, but they are allowed not to poffefs much fire or 

 force. We have alluded to the abbe's unyielding difpofi- 

 tion : but it mull be added, that he was fledfaft in his friend- 

 fliips, inflexibly upright, and fcrupuloufly veracious. The 

 lalt quahty, fays his biographer, he nobly exprefled, when, 

 on being urged to violate the truth in favour of a man in 

 power, and under the penalty of lofing his friendfhip, he 

 laid, " I had rather quarrel with him than myfelf." 



REGNO, in Geography, a town of Sweden, in Ea(l 

 Gothland ; 28 miles N. of Nordkioping. 



Regno, Ne exeat, in Law. Se Ne exeat, &c. 

 REGNUM. See Regni. 



Regnum Ecdejiajl'uum, a denomination given to one of 

 the two kingdoms, which the clergy fuppofcd to have ex- 

 ifted in fome countries : this, they pretended, was abfolute 

 and independent of any but the pope, comprehending eccle- 

 fiaftical men and caufes, and exempt from the fecular magif- 

 trate : the other was a regnum fee ul a re of the kuig or civil 

 magiflrate, whicj^ was fubordinate and fubjeft to the eccle- 

 fiaftical kinrrdom : but thefe ufurpations were exterminated 

 here by Henry VIII. 2 Hale's Hift. P. C. 324. 



REGNY, in Geography, a town of France, in I'the -de- 

 partment of the Rhone and Loire ; feven miles E. of 

 Roanne. 



REGOLA, Ital., a rule in mufic, a canon. 

 Regoi.a Armonica, a monochord. 



REGOLETS, in Geography, a palTage from the gulf of 

 Mexico into lake Pontchartrain, about ten miles long, and 

 three or four hundred yards wide. 



REGRADATION, Regradatio. See Degrada- 

 tion. 



REGRATOR, Regratarius, a law-word, formerly 

 ufed for one that bought wholefale, or by the great, and 

 fold again by retail. 



^ ' The 



