RENAIX (17), a busy manufacturing town in East Flanders, Belgium, 22 m.  SW. of Ghent; has large cotton and linen factories, breweries, and distilleries.

RENAN, ERNEST, Orientalist and Biblical scholar, born in Brittany, son of a sailor, who, dying, left him to the care of his mother and sister, to both of whom he was warmly attached; destined for the Church, he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice, where his studies threw him out of the relation with the Church and obliged him to abandon all thoughts of the clerical profession; accomplished in Hebrew, he was appointed professor of that language in the College of France in 1861, though not installed till 1870, and made a member of the French Academy in 1878; having distinguished himself by his studies in the Semitic languages, and in a succession of essays on various subjects of high literary merit, he in 1863 achieved a European reputation by the publication of his “Vie de Jesus,” the first of a series bearing upon the origin of Christianity and the agencies that contributed to its rise and development; he wrote other works bearing more immediately on modern life and its destiny, but it is in connection with his views of Christ and Christianity that his name will be remembered; he entertained at last an overweening faith in science and scientific experts, and looked to the latter as the elect of the earth for the redemption of humanity (1823-1893).

RENDSBURG (12), a fortified town in Schleswig-Holstein, on the North Sea and Baltic Canal, 19 m.  W. of Kiel; manufactures cotton, chemicals, brandy &c.

RENE I., titular king of Naples, born at Angers, son of Louis II., Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence; on the death of his father-in-law, Duke of Lorraine, he in 1431 claimed the dukedom; was defeated and imprisoned; bought his liberty and the dukedom in 1437, in which year he also made an ineffectual attempt to make good his claim to the throne of Naples and Sicily; settled down in Provence and devoted himself to literature and art and to developing the country (1409-1480).

RENFREW (7), a royal burgh and county-town of Renfrewshire, situated on the Clyde, 6 m. below Glasgow; dates back to the 12th century as a burgh; industries include thread, cotton cloths, shawl factories, and shipbuilding.

RENFREWSHIRE (291), a south-western county of Scotland; faces the Firth of Clyde on the W., between Ayr on the S. and SW., and the river Clyde on the N.; bordered on the E. by Lanark; hilly on the W. and S., flat on the E.; is watered by the Gryfe, the Black Cart, and the White Cart; dairy-farming is carried on in extensive scale, stimulated by the proximity of Glasgow; nearly two-thirds of the county is under cultivation; coal and iron are mined, and in various parts the manufacture of thread, cotton, chemicals, shipbuilding, &c., is actively engaged in.

RENNELL, JAMES, geographer, born near Chudleigh, Devonshire; passed from the navy to the military service of the East India Company; became surveyor-general of Bengal; retired in 1782; author of many works on the topography of India, hydrography, &c.; the “Geographical System of Herodotus Examined and Explained” is his most noted work (1742-1830).