Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/397

Rh E M R E M 379 Hinemar, has lately found an able champion of its authenticity in the Abbe Dessailly. For Remigius's connexion with Vcdastus (who assisted in the conversion of Clovis), St Medard, St Elcutherius, &c., see the Bollandist Vila Rf.migii alluded to above and the Ada Sanctorum for Feburary 6, June 8, and February 20. KEMIREMONT, the chief town of an arrondissement of the department of the Vosges, France, 17 miles south- south-east of Epinal by rail, on the banks of the Moselle where it is joined by the Moselotte. It is a pretty and well-built town picturesquely surrounded by forest-clad mountains, and commanded by Fort Parmont, one of the line of defensive works along the Moselle. Besides a great cotton spinning-mill (30,000 spindles) brought from Miilhausen after the war of 1870, it possesses tanneries, weaving-factories, and saw-mills ; and it trades in timber, cattle, cheese, coopers' wares, &c. The more interesting buildings belong to the ancient abbey, to which the town owes most of its fame. The abbey church was consecrated to Pope Leo IX. in person in 1051. The abbatial resi- dence (which now contains the mairie, the court-house, and the public library) has been twice rebuilt in modern times (in 1750, and again after the fire of 1871), but the original plan and style have been preserved in the imposing front, the vestibule, and the grand staircase. The popula- tion of the town was 6212 in 1871, and 7857 in 1881; that of the commune 6510 and 8126. Reniiremont has its name from St Romaric, one of the com- panions of St Columban of Luxeuil, who founded a monastery and a convent on the hills above the site where the town now stands. On the destruction of these establishments by the Hungarians in 910 A.D. the nuns took refuge at Reiniremont, and their new convent became famous under an abbess who "carried not a crosier but a sceptre." Enriched by dukes of Lorraine, kings of France, and emperors of Germany, the ladies of Reiniremont ultimately attained to great power. The abbess was a princess of the empire, and received consecration at the hands of the pope at Rome. The canonesses (fifty in number) were selected only from those who could give proof of noble descent. Their property comprised fifty- two signiories and twenty-two petty lordships. On "Whitsun Mon- day the neighbouring parishes paid homage to the chapter in a ceremony called the "Kyrioles"; and on their accession dukes of Lorraine had to come to Remiremont with great pomp to swear to continue their protection. The " War of the Scutcheons " (Panon- ceaux) in 1566 between the duke and the abbess ended in favour of the duke ; and the abbess never recovered her former position. The townsfolk took advantage of this and similar contests to extend their municipal privileges. In the 17th century the ladies of Reniiremont fell away so much from the original monastic rule as to take the title of countesses, renounce their vows, and marry. The town was attacked by the French in 1638, and ruined by the earthquake of 1682. With the rest of Lorraine it was joined to France in 1760. The monastery on the hill (Mont dc Romeric or Saint Mont) and the nunnery in the town were both suppressed in the Revolution. REMONSTRANTS meant originally those Dutch Pro- testants who, after the death of ARMINIUS (q.v.), continued to maintain the views associated with his name, and in 1610 presented to the states of Holland and Friesland a "remonstrance" in five articles formulating their points of departure from stricter Calvinism. Their adversaries met them with a " counter remonstrance, " and so were known as the Counter Remonstrants. The conflict continued to rage till 1618-19, when the synod of Dort (see DORT, SYNOD or) established the victory of the stricter school. The judgment of the synod was enforced by the deposition and in some cases the banishment of Remonstrant ministers; but the Government soon became convinced that their party was not dangerous to the state, and in 1630 they were formally allowed liberty to reside in all parts of Holland and build churches and schools. In 1621 they had also received liberty to make a settlement in Schleswig, where they built themselves the town of Friedrichstadt. This colony still exists. The doctrine of the Remonstrants was embodied in 1621 in a confessio written by EPISCOPIUS (q.v.), their great theologian, while Wytenbogaert gave them a catechism .and regulated their churchly order. The Remonstrants adopted a simple synodical constitution ; but their importance was henceforth more theological than ecclesiastical. Their seminary in Amsterdam has boasted of many distinguished names Curcellaeus, Limborch, Wetstein, Le Clerc ; and their liberal school of theology, which naturally grew more liberal and even rationalistic, reacted powerfully on the state church. The Remon- strants are now a small body (see HOLLAND, vol. xii. p. 66), but respected for their traditions of scholarship and liberal thought. REMSCHEID, a manufacturing town of Rhenish Prussia, in the district of Diisseldorf, sometimes dignified with the title of the " Rhenish Sheffield," is situated about 20 miles to the north-east of Cologne, at a height of 1120 feet above the sea. It is the centre of the German hard- ware industry, and large quantities of tools, scythes, skates, and other small articles in iron, steel, and brass are annually made here for exportation to all parts of Europe, the East, and North and South America. In 1880 the commune contained 30,029 inhabitants (26,844 Pro- testants), of whom 11,000 belonged to Remscheid proper and the rest to the manufacturing villages with which it is grouped. The name of Remscheid occurs in a document of 1132, and the town received the first impulse to its industrial importance through the immigration of Pro- testant refugees from France and Holland. REMUSAT, ABEL (1788-1832), a distinguished Chinese scholar, was born at Paris, 5th September 1788. His father, a surgeon, superintended his early education in person and designed him for the medical profession. Jean Pierre Abel Remusat graduated with distinction as M.D. in 1813, and for a short time held a hospital appointment, but his heart had long been in other studies. A Chinese herbal in the collection of the Abbe Tersan had attracted his attention when he was still a lad ; he taught himself to ! read by great perseverance and with very imperfect helps, j and at the end of five years' study he produced in 1811 an j Essai sur la langue et la litterature Chinoises, and a paper on foreign languages among the Chinese, which procured him the patronage of De Sacy. In 1814 a chair of Chinese was founded at the College de France, and Remusat was placed in it. From this time he gave himself wholly to the languages of the Extreme East, and published a long series of useful works, among which his contributions from Chinese sources to the history of the Tartar nations claim special notice. Remusat became an editor of the Journal ': de Savants in 1818, and founder and first secretary of the Paris Asiatic Society in 1822 ; he held also in the course of his life various honourable and lucrative Government I appointments. He married in 1830, but had no children. ! He died at Paris, 4th June 1832, and his eloge was written by De Sacy. REMUSAT, CHARLES FRANCIS MARIE, COMTE DE (1797-1875), French politician and man of letters, was born at Paris on the 13th March 1797^ His father, also Comte de Remusat, of a good though not very dis- tinguished family in the district of Toulouse, was a man of considerable literary taste, of much administrative ability, and of moderate Liberal views in politics. He was chamberlain to Napoleon, but disapproved of the emperor's absolutist government and aggressive policy, and after the restoration became prefect first of the Haute Garonne and then of the Nord. His wife (mother of Charles) was a ! still more remarkable person, whose full abilities have only 1 recently been made known. Her maiden name was Claire ! Elisabeth Jeanne Gravier de Vergennes. She was born 1 in 1780, and was early introduced to the salons, which I reopened after the cessation of the Terror. She married ' the Comte de Remusat when she was very yoiing, and was
 * long attached to the service of Josephine, to whom she was