THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
altogether, one of the latest being Johanna of Cambry, who had herself immured as a recluse at St. Andrew's Church, Lille, in 1625, and died there in 1639 (Helyot, Ordres monastiques, iv. 338 sqq.).
In the Evangelical church, intense ascetic zeal urged certain Dutch Reformed extremists to restore the medieval recluse life, the best-known being the solitary Johann Gennuvit of Venningen on the Ruhr (d. 1699), who tenanted a lonely cabin (Zockler, p. 576). G. Gbutzmacher.
Bibliography: The literature of the subject is largely bound up with that on Monasticism; special treatment may be found in: I. Hauber, Leben und Wirken der Eingeschlossenen, Schaffhausen, 1844; L. A. A. Pavy, Les Recluseries, Lyons, 1875; G. Kingsley, The Hermits, London, 1885; M. C. Guigue, Recherches sur les recluseries de Lyon, Lyons, 1887; A. Basedow, Die Inklusen in Devischland . . im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert, Heidelberg, 1895; Lina Eckenstein, Woman under Monasticism, Cambridge, 1896; Mrs. Anna Jameson, Legends of the Monastic Orders, Boston, 1896; O. Zockler, Askese und Monchtum, pp. 463 sqq., Frankfort, 1897; A. W. Wishart, Monks and Monasteries, consult the Index under " Hermits," Trenton, 1902; KL, vi. 631 sqq.
RECOLLECT: The designation (from recolligere, " to gather again ") applied to certain congregations inside different monastic orders, because their members returned to the primitive strict rule of life. So in the latter part of the sixteenth century, there were recollects of the Augustinians, and among the Franciscans there were recollects of both sexes.
(J. J. HERZOGt-)
RECONCILIATION. See Atonement.
RECUSANT: The term used in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches to denominate those who refuse (Lat. recusare, " to refuse ") to attend church and worship after the manner of those communions.
RED CROSS SOCIETY: Henry Dunant, a native of Switzerland, having witnessed the great and unnecessary suffering of the wounded after the battle of Solferino, in 1859, and being inspired The Treaty by the work of Miss Florence Nightof Geneva, ingale (q.v.) and other women, during the Crimean War, wrote a pamphlet entitled Un Souvenir de Solferino (3d ed., Geneva, 1862). This work and his untiring energies aroused the interest of many of the sovereigns of Europe. In 1864, by invitation of the Swiss government, a convention of the representatives of several powers was held in Geneva, at which was signed the first treaty of Geneva, sometimes called the Red Cross treaty. This treaty was revised by a second convention in 1906, and by the Hague convention its provisions have been extended to naval warfare. It has been ratified by forty countries, representing all the civilized nations of the world (by the United States of America in Mar., 1882). This instrument provided that " officers, soldiers, and other persons officially attached to armies, who are sick or wounded shall be respected and cared for without distinctions of nationality, by the belligerent in whose power they are." Hospital formations, their personnel and supplies are neutralized and protected by the troaty, which also recognizes and includes under its 1 revisions the volunteer aid societies of the Red
Cross. Out of compliment to Switzerland, the Swiss flag, reversed in color (red cross on a white field), was selected as the universal emblem and distinctive sign for the protection provided by the treaty. The treaty provides further that all the signatory powers shall obtain, as far as possible, legislation preventing the use by private persons or by societies, other than those upon which this convention confers the right thereto, of the emblem or name of the Red Cross or Geneva Cross, particularly for commercial purposes (trade-marks).
Under the Treaty of Geneva have grown up the great national Red Cross societies of the world.
Each society is organized independ- Red Cross ently and according to the customs Societies, and laws of its respective country. It
must be " duly recognized and authorized " by its respective government. After a society is organized and has secured the necessary recognition by its respective government, its credentials are forwarded to the international committee at Geneva, which passes upon them. If these are found satisfactory the international committee informs the foreign office of the Swiss government, which in its turn notifies the foreign offices of all the other signatory powers of the official standing of the society. In the charter granted by congress to the American Red Cross in 1905, the reasons for the formation of an official volunteer society as stated in the act are that " The International Conference of Geneva recommends that there exist in every country a committee whose mission consists in cooperating in times of war with the hospital service of armies by all means in its powers," and that a " permanent organization is an agency needed in every nation to carry out the purposes of said treaty," and, furthermore, that " the importance of the work demands a reincorporation under government supervision." The purposes of the society " are and shall be to furnish volunteer aid to the sick and wounded of armies in time of war in accordance with the spirit and conditions of the Treaty of Geneva," " to act in matters of voluntary relief and in accord with the military and naval authorities as a medium of communication between the people of the United States of America and their army and navy, and to act in such matters between similar national societies of other governments through the international committee and the government and the people and the Army and the Navy of the United Stutes of America." In the majority of Red Cross societies the sphere of work has been broadened to include relief after national or international disasters. In the charter of the American Red Cross the additional duty is imposed upon the society " to continue and carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other great national calamities and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the
same.
The first use of the emblem of the Red Cross in actual warfare was made by a corps of the Sanitary Commission in the last year of the Civil War in the United States of America. The volunteer societies of the Red Cross began their most active assistance