Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

R U F-
544) considers that this is only the case in the earlier
part of the season, and that later the females greatly out¬
number the males. It remains to say that the moral
characteristics of the Ruff exceed even anything that
might be inferred from what has been already stated.
By no one have they been more happily described than by
Wolley, in a communication to Hewitson {Eggs of Brit.
Birds, 3d ed., p. 346), as follows : —
“The Ruff, like other fine gentlemen, takes much more trouble
with his courtship than with his duties as a husband. Whilst the
Reeves are sitting on their eggs, scattered about the swamps, he
is to be seen far away flitting about in flocks, and on the ground
dancing and sparring with his companions. Before they are con¬
fined to their nests, it is wonderful with what devotion the
females are attended by their gay followers, who seem to be each
trying to be more attentive than the rest. Nothing can be more
expressive of humility and ardent love than some of the actions of
the Ruff. He throws himself prostrate on the ground, with every
feather on his body standing up and quivering; but he seems as
if he were afraid of coming too near his mistress, If she flies off,
he starts up in an instant to arrive before her at the next place of
alighting, and all his actions are full of life and spirit. But none
of his spirit is expended in care for his family. He never comes to
see after an enemy. In the [Lapland] marshes, a Reeve now and
then flies near with a scarcely audible Ica-ka-lcuk ; but she seems a
dull bird, and makes no noisy attack on an invader. ”
Want of space forbids a fuller account of this extremely
interesting species. Its breeding-grounds extend from
Great Britain1 across northern Europe and Asia ; but the
birds become less numerous towards the east. They
winter in India, reaching even Ceylon, and Africa as far
as the Cape of Good Hope. The Ruff also occasionally
visits Iceland, and there are several well-authenticated
records of its occurrence on the eastern coast of the
United States, while an example is stated {Ibis, 1875, p.
332) to have been received from the northern part of
South America. (a. n.)
RUFINUS, Tyrannius (Turranius, Toranus), the
well-known contemporary of Jerome, was born at or near
Aquileia about the year 345. In early life he studied
rhetoric, and while still comparatively young he entered
the cloister as a catechumen, receiving baptism about 370.
About the same time a casual visit of Jerome to Aquileia
led to the formation of a close and intimate friendship
between the two students, and shortly after Jerome’s
departure for the East Rufinus also was drawn thither (in
372 or 373) by his interest in its theology and monasticism.
He first settled in Egypt, hearing the lectures of Didymus,
the Origenistic teacher at Alexandria, and also cultivating
friendly relations with Macarius and other ascetics in the
desert. In Egypt, if not even before leaving Italy, he had
become intimately acquainted with Melania, a wealthy and
devout Roman matron, who since the death of her husband
had devoted all her means to religious and charitable
works; and when she removed to Palestine, taking with
her a number of clergy and monks on whom the persecu¬
tions of Yalens had borne heavily, Rufinus ultimately
(about 378) followed her. While his patroness lived in a
convent of her own in Jerusalem, Rufinus, in close co¬
operation with her and at her expense, gathered together a
number of monks in a monastery on the Mount of Olives,
devoting himself at the same time with much ardour to
the study of Greek theology. When Jerome came to reside
at Bethlehem in 386 the friendship formed at Aquileia was
renewed. Another of the intimates of Rufinus was John,
bishop of Jerusalem, and formerly a Nitrian monk, by
whom he was ordained to the priesthood in 390. In 394,
in consequence of the attack upon the doctrines of Origen
made by Epiphanius of Salamis during a visit to
Jerusalem, a fierce quarrel broke out, which found Rufinus
and J erome ranged on different sides; and, though three
In England of late years it lias been known to breed only in one
locality, tlie name or situation of which it is not desirable to publish.
-RUG 55
years afterwards a formal reconciliation was brought about
between Jerome and John through the intervention of
third parties, the breach between Jerome and Rufinus re¬
mained unhealed.
In the autumn of 397 Rufinus embarked for Rome,
where, finding that the theological controversies of the East
were exciting much interest and curiosity, he published a
Latin translation of the Apology of Pamphilus for Origen,
and also (398-399) a somewhat free rendering of the
Trepi apyuv of that author himself. In the preface to the
latter work he had referred to Jerome as an admirer of
Origen, and as having already translated some of his works ;
this allusion proved very annoying to the subject of it,
who was now exceedingly sensitive as to his reputation
for orthodoxy, and the consequence was a bitter pamphlet
war, very wonderful to the modern onlooker, who finds it
difficult to see anything discreditable in the accusation
against a Biblical scholar that he had once thought well of
Origen, or in the countercharge against a translator that
he had avowedly exercised editorial functions as well.
Some time during the pontificate of Anastasius (398-402)
Rufinus was summoned from Aquileia to Rome to vindicate
his orthodoxy, but he excused himself from personal
attendance in a written Apologia pro fide sua ; the pope in
his reply expressly condemned Origen, but leniently left
the question of Rufinus’s orthodoxy to his own conscience.
In 408 we find Rufinus at the monastery of Pinetum (in
the Campagna?); thence he was driven by the arrival of
Alaric to Sicily, being accompanied by Melania in his
flight. In Sicily he was engaged in translating the
Homilies of Origen when he died in 410.
The original works of Rufinus are—(1) Da Adultcratione
Librorum Origenis—an appendix to his translation of the Apology
of Pamphilus, and intended to show that many of the features in
Origen’s teaching which were then held to be objectionable arise
from interpolations and falsifications of the genuine text; (2)
De BenedAciionibus XII Patriarcharum Libri II,—an exposition
of Gen. xlix.; (3) Apologia s. Invectivarum in Hieronymum Libri
II; (4) Apologia pro Fide Sua ad Anastasium Pontificem ; (5)
Historia Eremitica—consisting of the lives of thirty-three monks
of the Nitrian desert; (6) Expositio Symboli. The Histories,
Ecclesiastical Libri XI of Rufinus consist partly of a free translation
of Eusebius (10 books in 9) and partly of a continuation (bks.
x. and xi.) down to the time of Theodosius the Great. The other
translations of Rufinus are—(1) the Instituta Monachorum and some
of the Homilies of Basil; (2) the Apology of Pamphilus, referred to
above ; (3) Origen’s Principia(4) Origen’s Homilies (Gen. -Kings,
also Cant, and Rom.); (5) Opuscula of Gregory of Nazianzus ; (6)
the Sententias of Sixtus, an unknown Greek philosopher ; (7) the
Sentential of Evagrius; (8) the Clementine Recognitions (the only
form in which that work is now extant); (9) the Canon Paschalis
of Anatolius Alexandrinus.
Vallarsi’s uncompleted edition of Rufinus (vol. i., fol., Verona, 1745) contains
the De Benedictionibus, the Apologies, the Expositio Symboli, the Ilistoria
Eremitica, and the two original hooks of the Hist. Eccl. See also Migne, Patrol.
(vol. xxi. of the Latin series). For the translations, see the various editions of
Origen, Eusehius, &c.
RUGBY, a market-town of Warwickshire, is finely
situated on a table-land rising from the southern bank of
the Avon, at the junction of several railway lines, and
near the Grand Junction Canal, 30 miles E.S.E. of
Birmingham, and 20 S.S.W. of Leicester. It is a well-
built town, with a large number of modern houses erected
for private residences. It occupies a gravel site, is well
drained, and has a good supply of water. It owes its
importance to the grammar school, built and endowed by
Laurence Sheriff, a merchant grocer and servant to Queen
Elizabeth, and a native of the neighbouring village of
Brownsover. The endowment consisted of the parsonage of
Brownsover, Sheriff’s mansion house in Rugby, and one-
third (8 acres) of his estate in Middlesex, near the Found¬
ling Hospital, London, which, being let on building leases,
gradually increased to about £5000 a year. The full
endowment w7as obtained in 1653. The school originally
stood opposite the parish church, and was removed to its