written in conjunction with Charles de la Vallée-Poussin (1827–1904), was the Mémoire sur les caractères minéralogiques et stratigraphiques des roches dites plutoniennes de la Belgique et de l'Ardenne française (1876). In later essays and papers he dealt with the structure and mineral composition of many igneous and sedimentary rocks, and with the phenomena of metamorphism in Belgium and other countries. In acknowledgment of his work the Bigsby Medal was in 1885 awarded to him by the Geological Society of London. Still more important were his later researches connected with the Challenger Expedition. The various rock specimens and oceanic deposits were submitted to him for examination in association with Sir John Murray, and their detailed observations were embodied in the Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. “ Challenger.” Deep Sea Deposits (1891). The more striking additions to our knowledge included “ the detection and description of cosmic dust, which as fine rain slowly accumulates on the ocean floor; the development of zeolitic crystals on the sea-bottom at temperatures of 32° and under; and the distribution and mode of occurrence of manganiferous concretions and of phosphatic and glauconite deposits on the bed of the ocean ” (Geikie). Renard died at Brussels on the 9th of July 1903.
Obituaries by Sir A. Geikie in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., lx. 1904, and in Geol. Mag., Nov. 1903.
RENAUD DE MONTAUBAN (Rinaldo di Montalbano), one of
the most famous figures of French and Italian romance. His
story was attached to the geste of Doon of Mayence by the 13th century trouvére who wrote the chanson de geste of Renaus de
Montauban, better known perhaps as Les quatre fils Aymon.
The four sons of Aymon give their name to inns and streets in
nearly every town of France, and the numerous prose versions
show what a hold the story gained on the popular imagination.
Renaud's sword Floberge, and his horse Bayard passed with
him into popular legend. The poem of Renaus de M ontauban
opens with the story of the dissensions between Charlemagne
and the sons of Doon of Mayence, Beuves d'Aigremont, Doon
de Nanteuil and Aymon de Dordone. The rebellious vassals
are defeated by the imperial army near Troyes, and, peace
established, Aymon rises in favour at court, and supports the
emperor, even in his persecution of his four sons, Renaud,
Alard, Guichard and Richard. A second feud arises from a
quarrel between Renaud and Bertolai, Charlemagne's nephew,
over a game of chess, in the course of which Renaud kills Bertolai
with the chess-board. The hero then mounts his steed
Bayard, and escapes with =his brothers to the Ardennes, where
they build the castle of Montessor overlooking the Meuse. At
Chateau Renaud, near Sedan, there existed in the 18th century
a ruined castle with a tower called the “ tour Maugis ” and the
reputed stable of Bayard. The outlaws are eventually persuaded
to seek their fortune outside Charlemagne's kingdom, and cross
the Loire to take service with King Yon of Gascony against
the Saracens, accompanied by their cousin, the enchanter Maugis.
Yon, however, is compelled by Charlemagne to withdraw his
protection, and the castle of Montauban, which the brothers
have built on the Dordogne, is besieged by the emperor. They
next seek refuge beyond the Rhine, and sustain a third siege
at Trémoigne (Dortmund), after which the emperor is persuaded
by the barons to make peace. Bayard is abandoned
to Charlemagne, and thrown into the Meuse, only to rise again.
He still gallops over the hills of the Ardennes on St John's
Eve. Renaud, who throughout the story is a type of the
Christian and chivalric virtues, makes a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land and is invested with some of the exploits of Godfrey de
Bouillon. On his return he gives himself up to religion, working
as a mason on the church of St Peter at Cologne, where he
receives martyrdom at the hands of his jealous fellow-labourers.
The story is closely connected with the legend of Girard
de Roussillon. The chanson de geste of Renaus de M ontauban
falls into sections which had probably been originally the
subject of separate recitals. These may have arisen at different
dates, and were not necessarily told in the first instance of
the same person, the account of Renaud on the crusade being
obviously a late interpolation. The outlaw life of the brothers
in the Ardennes bears the marks of trustworthy popular tradition,
and it was even at one time suggested that the Gascon and
Rhenish episodes were re duplications of the story of Montessor.
The connexion of the four brothers with Montessor, Dortmund,
Mayence and Cologne, and the abundant local tradition,
mark the heroes as originating from the region between the
Rhine and the Meuse. Nevertheless, their adventures in
Gascony are corroborated by historical evidence, and this
section of the poem is the oldest. The enemy of Renaud was
Charles Martel, not Charlemagne; Yon was Odo of Gascony,
known indifferently as duke, prince, or king; the victory over
the Saracens at Toulouse, in which the brothers are alleged
to have taken part, was won by him in 721, and in 719 he
sheltered refugees from the dominions of Charles Martel, Chilperic
II., king of Neustria, and his mayor of the palace, Raginfred,
whom he was compelled to abandon. In a local chronicle
of Cologne it is stated that Saint Reinoldus died in 697, and in
the Latin rhythmical Vila his martyrdom is said to have taken
place under Bishop Agilolf (d. 717). Thus the romance was
evidently composite before it took its place in the Carolingian
cycle.
In Italy Renaud had his greatest vogue. His Connexion with the treacherous family of Mayence was thrust into the background, and many episodes were added, as well as the personage of the hero's sister, Bradamante. Rinaldo di Montalbano had been the subject of many Italian poems before Il Rinaldo of Tasso.
Bibliography.—The chanson of Maugis d'Aigremont and the prose romance of the Conqueste de Trebizonde belong to the same cycle. The prose Ystoire de Regnault de Montauban (Lyons, c. 1480) had a great vogue. It was generally printed as Les quatre fils Aymon, and was published in English, The Faure Sonnes af Aymon, by William Caxton, and subsequently by Wynkyn de Worde and William Copland. See Hist. litt. de la France, xxii., analysis by Paulin Paris; Renaus de, Montauban (Stuttgart, 1862), edited by H. Michelant; F. Wulff, Recherches sur les sagas de Magus et de Geirard (Lund, 1873); Magus saga, ed. G. Cederschiold (Lund, 1876); Renout von Montalbaen, ed. J. C. Matthis (Groningen, 1873); A. Longnon, in Revue des questions historiques (1879); R. Zwick, Uber die Sprache des Renaut von Montauban (Halle, 1884); F. Pfaif, Das deutsche Volksbuch von den Heyrnonskfindern (Freiburg in Breisgau, 1887), with a general introduction to the study of the saga; The Four Sonnes of Annan (E. E. Text. Soc., ed. Octavia Richardson, 1884); a special bibliography of the printed editions of the prose romance in L. Gautier's Bibl. des chansons de geste (1897); rejuvenations of the story by Karl Simrock (Frankfort, 1845), and by Richard Steel (London, 1897); Storia di Rinaldino, ed. C. Minutoli (Bologna, 1865). Stage versions are: Renaud de Montauban, a play translated from Lope de Vega was played at the Théâtre italien, Paris, in 1717; Les Quatre fils Aymon, opéra comique by MM. de Leuven and Brunswick, music by Balfe, in 1884.
RENAUDOT, EUSÈBE (1646-1720), French theologian and Orientalist, was born in Paris in 1646, and educated for the church. Notwithstanding his taste for theology and his title of abbé, much of his life was spent at the French court, where he attracted the notice of Colbert and was often employed in confidential affairs. The unusual learning in Eastern tongues which he acquired in his youth and maintained amid the distractions of court life did not bear fruit till he was sixty-two. His best-known books are Histortia Patriarcharum Alexandrinorum (Paris, 1713) and Liturgiarurn orientalium collection (2 vols., 1715-16). The latter was designed to supply proofs of the “ perpetuity of the faith ” of the church on the subject of the sacraments, the topic on which most of his theological writings
turned, and which was then, in consequence of the controversies attaching to Arnauld's Perpétuité de la foi, a burning one between French Catholics and Protestants. Renaudot was not a fair controversialist, but his learning and industry are unquestionable.
He died in 1720.
RENAUDOT, THÉOPHRASTE (1586-1653), French physician and philanthropist, was born at Loudun (Vienna), and studied surgery in Paris. He was only nineteen when he received, by favour apparently, the degree of doctor at Montpellier. After some time spent in travel he began to practise in his native town. In 1612 he was summoned to Paris by
