works of later date- have ben largely indebted to it.
Among the contributors to this collection were Tallia, Morlej . How la i id, and all the great masters of the day; the name of John Milton, the father of the poet, appears
as the i poser of York and Norwich tunes; while St.
David's, Canterbury, Bangor, and many others which have since become popular, are by Ravenscroft bun-, If.
Each oi the L50 Psalms has a distinct melody assigned to it. Two collections of secular songs similar to the Melismata, and entitled Pammelia and Deuteromelia, have been assigned to Ravenscrofl : but it is probable
that only a few of these songs were composed by him, while he may have revised and edited the w boh . A
selection from the if dismata, Brief Discourses, Pam-
RAYESTEYN
933
RAWLINSON
melia, and Deuteromelia was printed by the Roxburghe Club in 1823. He died about 1640.— Chambers. See also Engl. Ch. Register, vol. i; Amer. Quar. Ch. Rev. Jan. 1871, p. 526.
Ravesteyn, Josse (in Latin Tiletanus), a Belgian theologian, was born about 1506 at Tielt, Flanders. He was educated at Louvain, and taught theology there. He was sent by Charles V to the Council of Trent (1551), then to the Colloquy of Worms (1557), and dis- tinguished himself at these ecclesiastical councils by his knowledge and moderation. In 1559 he replaced Buard Tapper in the charge of the nuns who had the care of the hospital of Louvain. He had twice been elected rector of the university of that city, and held divers benefices of imperial munificence. " He was," said Pa- quot, " a wise doctor, quick at controversy, a zealous defender of the Church, and much opposed to the errors of Baius, whom he regarded as his most ardent adver- sary." He died at Louvain Feb. 7, 1571. His princi- pal writings are, Confessionis editce a Ministris A ntwer- piensibus Confutatio (Louvain, 1567, 8vo) ; the Confes- sion of the pastors had already been refuted by William of Linda : — Apologia Catholicce Confutationis, etc. (ibid. 1568, 8vo); directed against the Centuries de Magde- bourg, of which Matthew Flach Francowitz was the principal author: — Apologia; Decretorum Concilii Tri- dentini de Sacramentis (ibid. 1568-70, 2 vols. 12mo). He left several works in manuscript. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Ravignan, Gustavus Francis Xavier Dela- croix de, one of the most celebrated of Roman Catholic preachers of our times, and also a distinguished member of the Jesuit Order, was born at Bayonne Dec. 2, 1795. He studied in the Lycee Bonaparte at Paris, and was by his parents intended for the legal profession, which he also entered by obtaining his degree and being named auditor of the Cour Royale at Paris. In 1821 he received an appointment in the Tribunal of the Seine. The prospect thus opened for him, however, lost its attraction after a change of views in religion had made him serious about the future, and in 1822 he formed the resolution of relinquishing his career at the bar, and entering the Church. Having spent some time in the College of St, Sulpice, he soon passed into the novitiate of the Jesuits at Montrouge, and thence to Dole and St. Acheul for his theological studies, at the termination of which he was himself appointed a professor. The religious fervor of his soul found ex- pression in many of the material forms which prevail so generally among the Romanists of his order. Thus, for example, he wore for a long time, as a mark of penance, a leather girdle stuck full of needles, around his waist, on the bare body. On the expulsion of the Jesuits from France in 1830, father Ravignan withdrew to Freiburg, in Switzerland, where he continued to teach in the schools of his own order; but after some time, when he was supposed to have gained sufficient notoriety by the afflictive discipline of his body, he was transferred to the more congenial duty of preaching, first in several of the Swiss towns, and afterwards in Savoy, at Cham- ber}', at St. Maurice, and other places. At length, in 1835, he appeared in the pulpit of the cathedral of Amiens. In the following year he was chosen to preach the Lenten sermons at the church of St. Thomas d'Aquin in Paris; and finally, in 1837, was selected to replace Lacordaire (q. v.) at Notre Dame in the duty of con- ducting the special " conferences" for men which had been opened in that church. For ten years father Ra- vignan occupied this pulpit with a success which has rarely been equalled, and his Conferences are regarded as models of ecclesiastical eloquence. In 1842 he un- dertook, in addition, to preach each evening during the entire Lent; and it is to the excessive fatigue thus in- duced, as well as to the many trials imposed, that the premature break-down of his strength is ascribed. To the labors of the pulpit he added those also of the press.
He published an Apology of his order in 1844; and in 1854 a more extended work with the same view. Cle- ment XIII et, Clement XIV (2 vols. 8vo), which was in- tended as a reply to the Life of Clement XIV by the Oratorian father Theiner. These, with some occasional Sermons and Conferences, constitute the sum of the pub- lications issued during his life. In 1855 he was invited by the emperor Napoleon III to preach the Lent at the Tuileries. He died Feb. 26, 1858, in the convent of his order at Paris. None of the Jesuit preachers of our times have so zealously labored among the Protestants as father Ravignan, but, alas! too frequently he em- ployed measures in no way adding honor to the already overcast name of the Jesuitical order. His Memoirs have been published by his brethren, and a collected edition of his works and remains has been for some time in progress. The Memoir has been translated into Eng- lish, under the title of The Life of Father Ravignan, bv father De Ponlevoy (Dublin, 1869; N.Y. 1869).