Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/260

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244 REES REFORMATION an octave below ; clarion and fife, an octave above ; two forte stops, to increase the volume of sound ; a principal, which opens all the stops at once ; the two stops first named also actuating the percussion; and two stops, ex- pression a la main and expression of pedals, by which superior power of expression, or swell and diminuendo, is secured by merely varying the pressure of the fingers or of the feet. With these are also introduced the sour- dine, modifying the tone of certain stops, voix celeste, voix humaine, musette, forte, tremolo, and combination swell. In 1870 nearly 30,000 of these instruments were manufactured in the United States. REES, Abraham, a British scholar, born at Llanbrynmair, Wales, in 1743, died June 9, 1825. He studied for the ministry at Hoxton academy, near London, and was appointed tutor there in his 19th year, which post ho retained for more than 22 years. In 1768 he became also pastor of a Presbyterian congre- gation in Southwark, and in 1783 in the Old Jewry. From 1786 to 1795 he was also pres- ident of the dissenting academy at Hackney. He was a fellow of the royal society of Lon- don, and of the Linnamn society. Many of his sermons were published. In 1776 he was engaged to edit a new edition of Chambers's " Cyclopaedia," which was completed in 1786 (4 vols. fol.) ; and in 1802 he began " Rees's Cyclopaedia," which was completed in 45 vols. 4to in 1819. REEVE. See RUFF. REEVES, Sims, an English singer, born in Woolwich in 1821. He received his earliest instruction from his father, from H. C;illcott lessons in harmony, from J. B. Cramer on the piano, and from Hobbs and T. Cooke in sing- ing. His early vocal instructors mistook the character of his voice, developing it as a bari- tone, and at 19 Reeves made his debut at New- castle-on-Tyne as Rudolpho in La sonnambula. Later he took lessons of Bordogni in Paris, who corrected the mistake as to the quality of his voice, and brought out its true character, that of a tenor of great range. He completed his musical education under Mazzucato at Mi- lan, and before leaving that city appeared at La Scala as Edgardo in Lucia dl Lammermoor, He made his debut in London, at Drury Lane, Dec. 6, 1847, in the same r61e. At the Nor- wich musical festival in the autumn of 1848 he showed a faculty for interpreting the works of Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn, which has made him the leading oratorio tenor in England. He continued to sing with increas- ing reputation in Italian and English opera and in concert and oratorio till 1856, since which he has sung chiefly in the concert room. REFORMATION, the historical name for the great religious movement of the 16th century, which divided the Latin Catholic church into two opposing sections, and resulted in the es- tablishment of the various ecclesiastical organ- izations of evangelical or Protestant Christen- dom. There were many "reformers before the reformation," and almost every doctrine of Luther had its advocates long before him. The whole struggling of mediaeval Catholicism toward reform and liberty; the long conflict between the German emperors and the popes; the reformatory councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basel ; the Waldenees and Albigenses in France and northern Italy; Wycliffe and the Lollards in England, Huss and the Hussites in Bohemia, Arnold of Brescia, and Savonarola with his politico-religious reform movement, in Italy ; the spiritualistic piety and theology of the mystics of the 14th and 15th centuries ; the theological writings of Wesel, Goch, and Wessel in Germany and the Netherlands ; the rise of the national languages and letters in connection with the feeling of national inde- pendence ; the invention of the printing press ; the revival of letters and classical learning under the direction of Agricola, Reuchlin, and Erasmus ; all these and many similar per- sons and movements were so many prepara- tions for the reformation of the 16th century. The reformation was originally neither a po- litical nor a philosophical nor a literary, but a religious and moral movement. It started with the practical question : How can the troubled conscience find pardon and peace, and become sure of personal salvation? It re- tained from the Catholic system all the objec- tive doctrines of Christianity concerning the Holy Trinity and the divine-human character and work of Christ in fact, all the articles of faith contained in the apostles' and other oecumenical creeds of the early church. But it joined issue with the prevailing system of religion in soteriology, or in the doctrines re- lating to subjective experimental Christianity, especially the justification of the sinner be- fore God, the true character of faith, good works, the rights of conscience, and the rule of faith. It asserted the principle of evangel- ical freedom as laid down in the epistles of Paul to the Romans and Galatians, in opposi- tion to the system of outward legalistic au- thority which held the individual conscience and private judgment bound. It brought the believer into a direct relation and union with Christ as the one and all-sufficient source of salvation, in opposition to traditional ecclesi- asticism, and priestly and saintly intercession. The Protestant goes directly to the word of God for instruction, and to the throne of grace in his- devotions ; while the pious Catholic always consults the teaching of his church, and often prefers to offer his prayers through the medium of the Virgin Mary and the saints. From this general principle of evangelical free- dom and direct individual relationship of the believer to Christ proceed the two fundamen- tal doctrines of Protestantism, the absolute su- premacy of the word of Christ, and the abso- lute supremacy of the grace of Christ. The one is called the formal principle, or princi- pium cognoscendi; the other the material prin-