R i: N 



REN 



111 i6So, the Algcrincs liiviiig docliircd war aguinit I'Vanco, 

 Reiiaii propofcd th^ bonibardiiifiit of Algiers, for which 

 purpofe lie conceived the idea of bomb-veftels, which were 

 as yet unknown. .This was at firfl regarded as vifionary ; 

 but reliance being placed on his talents, he was permitted 

 to make the trial, and he brougiit five of thefe vefTels before 

 the town, where, under the command of Du Quefnc, the 

 boiiibardnient was executed with complete fucctfs. In 

 1684 lie was employed, as engineer, at the bombardment 

 of Genoa ; from this place he went to join Vauban, who 

 was fortifying the frontiers of Flanders and Germr.ny, and 

 he coiitraded an inlimate friendfliip with that great man. 

 In 1688 he accompanied \'auban to the liege of Phihpfhurg, 

 and afterwards conducted, or was prcfeiit, at fome other 

 fico-es ; vet in the midil of thefe adive fervices he found 

 leifiire to attend to his lludies, and publiflied in 1689 his 

 " Tlieorie de la Manoeuvre des Vaiffeaux :" fome of the 

 propolitions in this work were contelted by the celebrated 

 Huygens. In this fame year he endeavoured to prove, by 

 argument, that the navy of France might be rendered 

 capable of making head againll that of England and Hol- 

 land united, and his obfervation produced lucli an effect 

 upon tlie government, that an order was made to change all 

 the 50 and 60-gun veflels, on the ftocks, into (hips of a 

 iiigher rate. About the fame time he invented a new 

 lerics of naval evolutions, lignals, and Orders of battle. 

 His merits wera well uiiderftood by the government, who 

 rewarded him with a penfion, and confiderable rank in the 

 iervice. He was now fent to Brelt for the purpofe of 

 inltruAing the naval ofFicei-s in his newly invented evolu- 

 tions, &c. He met with an oppoiition, which is not un- 

 common in endeavouring to change old ettabliftied cuiloms. 

 Of his opponents, two of the moil dillinguiflied were put 

 under arrell and broke, though he did his utmoll to pre- 

 vent the punilhment being carried to that extremity. He 

 afterwards ferved under Vauban at the iiege of Namur, from 

 thence he repaired to St. Malo after the battle of La 

 Jiogue, to lave the relics of the French fleet which had 

 taken fhclter there. Having conifructed a veifel of 54 

 guns upon his own plan, Renau put to fea with the view 

 of intercepting two rich Englilh Ealt Indiamen, one of 

 which he captured after a deiperate engagement. Among 

 the booty were fomie packets of diamonds, which he 

 thoutrht of too great value to be claimed by himfelf, though 

 the naval cultoms would have jullilied him in it, and he car- 

 ried them to the king, who accepted the pri/.e, and remu- 

 nerated the captor with an annuity. When Philip V. fuc- 

 ceeded to the crown of Spain, he fent to his grandfather, 

 Lewis XIV., to requell that he might have Renau to diredt 

 his engineers in fortifying his molt important towns. He 

 found means to render the crown of Spain the mod import. 

 ant fervices, and was, in 1704, employed in the fiege of 

 Gibraltar, which, it has been alTumed by the French bio- 

 grapher, was about to furrender, when it was reheved by 

 the Englilh fleet. To the difgrace of the court of Spain, 

 whofe interefls he had effeftually promoted, and in whofe 

 caufc he had expended his own property, he was fuffered 

 to return to France with a fingle piftole in his pocket, 

 though his Catholic majefty had given him the title of lieu- 

 tenant-general of the armies of Spain. The high reputa- 

 tion which Renau had acquired as an engineer, caufed the 

 grand-mafter of Malta to requeft that he might be fent to 

 that ifland on an alarm of an invafion, which was readily 

 granted. Soon after this Lewis XIV. died, and the .duke of 

 Orkans fucceeded to the regency, who appointed Renau 

 to be counfellor of the marine council, and graiid-croix of 

 ^t. I,ouis. He dicfi of a dropfy in 17:9, and bis death 



was, like tliat of La Trappe, in ardent afpirations after 

 another life : " What a difterence," he exclaimed, " from one 

 moment to the following ! 1 am going to pafs in an indant 

 from the thickell darkncfs to perfedt liglit." He had been 

 twrnty years an honorary member of the Academy of 

 Sciences, and was among the firfl after that clafs was in- 

 flituted. 



RENAUDOT, Ei'sebius, a learned writer 011 the ec- 

 clefiallical hiitory and antiquities of the Eafterii church, 

 was born at Paris in 1646. He was educated at the 

 .Icfuits' college, and entered the congregation of the oratory 

 when he was about 19 years of age, though he liad no in- 

 tention of entering into holy orders, or to the taking any 

 ecclefiallical degree. He was particularly attached to tlie 

 iUidy of the oriental languages, in the knowledge of which he 

 far excelled almoft all his contemporaries ; and he applied 

 with fuccefs to the lludy of fo many other tongues, that he 

 was fufficieritly mafter of ieventceu difierent languages, to be 

 able to fpeak the greater number of them witli facility. 

 He became well Imown at court, where his genius, his ta- 

 lents, and his pohtencfs, made him much elleemed and ad- 

 mired. Here he was noticed by M. Colbert, who was 

 defirous of ellablifhing printing-prefl'es for the oriental lan- 

 guages at Paris, and confulted Reiiaudot upon the fubjeft, 

 as a perlon who might ably contribute to render fuch an 

 eftablifhment ufeful to the ftate as well as the church. To 

 engage his affiitance, he prcmifed him the revertion of the 

 poll of keeper of the king's library ; but the minifler died 

 before the place became vacant. He received a fimilar pro- 

 mife from the archbifhop of Rheims, and was again dilap- 

 pointed. He was, however, einployed by the king in 

 various confidential concerns of great importance relating 

 to the affairs of Rome, England, Spain, &c. So much 

 was his time occupied by thefe engagements, that he almofl 

 entirely difcontinued his favourite iludies. In the year 

 16S9 he was received into the French Academy, and in 1692 

 into the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres. He 

 found a patron in the cardinal de Noailles, arehbiihop of 

 Paris, whom he accompanied to Rome in the year 1700, 

 and into the conclave which ekaed Clement XI. to the 

 papal dignity. While he remained in that city, the Gollec- 

 tions of the Vatican furnifhed him with new matter relating 

 to the oriental churches, and revived an intention, which he 

 had long before encouraged, of preparing for publication 

 fome pieces which ferve to illuilrate their hiilory and opi- 

 nions. In this delign he was affifled by the new pope, who 

 perfuaded him to remain in Rome feveral months after the 

 departure of cardinal de Noailles. His hohnefs would 

 gladly have conferred upon him fome valuable benefices, 

 but he refufed to accept of any thing beyond a fmall priory. 

 The abbe Renaudot afterwards went to Florence, where 

 he met with moil flattering reception from the grand duke, 

 who affigned him apartments in his own palace, loaded him 

 with prefents, and on his departure directed that he (hould 

 be conveyed on board one of his own veilels to Maifeilles. 

 At Florence, likewife, he was made a member of the Aca- 

 demy de la Crufea. Soon after his return from France, he 

 was roufed by an attack upon father Nicole's " Perpetuity 

 of the Faith of the Catholic Church refpeifting the Eucha- 

 rift ;" and in 1708 he publilhed " A Defence of the Perpe- 

 tuity of the Faith againil the Calumnies, &c." He after, 

 wards entered more fully into the fubjeft which he defended, 

 and difplayed all his erudition and ingenuity in endeavouring 

 to fnew the conformity between the doftrine of the Greeks, 

 and all the oriental Chriilians, with that of the Latin 

 church. What he wrote upon the fubjedl extended to two 

 vols. 4to. wiiich were pubhfhed in 171 1 and i7i3> by way 



of 



