[Wilson's Dissenting Churches of London, 1808, i. 358 sq., 1810, iii. 184, 385; Marsden's Dictionary of Christian Churches [1854], pp. 853 sq.; Tyerman's Life of Wesley, 1870, i. 536 sq., ii. 240, 400.]
RELPH, JOSEPH (1712–1743), Cumberland poet, was born on 3 Dec. 1712 at Churchtown, a small estate belonging to his father in the parish of Sebergham, Cumberland. His father, though a freeholder or ‘statesman’ of very small means, procured for his son an excellent education at the celebrated school of the Rev. Mr. Yates of Appleby. At fifteen Josiah went to Glasgow, but soon returned to fill the post of master in the small grammar school of his native village. Taking holy orders, he also succeeded to the incumbency of the parish of Sebergham, a perpetual curacy. This, it is said, was hardly worth 30l. a year; and it is probable that his income at no time exceeded 50l. a year. After working energetically to reform the rough manners of his parishioners and to educate their children, he died at the early age of thirty-two, on 26 June 1743, at his father's house, Churchtown. He was buried at Sebergham, and there is a monument with an inscription to his memory in the church.
Relph's poetical works were first published in 1747 under the title of ‘A Miscellany of Poems,’ Glasgow, 8vo. They were edited by Thomas Sanderson, who supplied a life of the author and a pastoral elegy on his death. A second edition appeared at Carlisle in 1798, with the life of the author, and engravings by Thomas Bewick. Relph's best verses are in the dialect of his native county; they show talent and appreciation of natural beauties.
[Hutchinson's Hist. of Cumberland; Gent. Mag. 1790 ii. 1166, 1791 i. 520, 1805 ii. 1212, 1820 i. 228, 1823 ii. 486; Memoir in Poems.]
REMIGIUS (d. 1092), bishop of Lincoln, was in 1066 almoner of Fécamp, and contributed one ship with twenty knights for the invasion of England by the Normans. He took part in the expedition, and was present at the battle of Hastings. In the following year he received the bishopric of Dorchester, according to later scandal as the price of his aid to the Conqueror. Remigius was consecrated by Stigand, then archbishop of Canterbury; according to his own account, he was unaware of the uncanonical character of Stigand's position (Profession ap. Gir. Cambr. vii. 151). In spite of this flaw in his own consecration, Remigius was one of the bishops who consecrated Lanfranc on 29 Aug. 1070. But when Thomas of York and Remigius accompanied Lanfranc to Rome in 1071, they were both suspended from their office by Alexander II. Remigius himself says that the reason for his suspension was his consecration by Stigand; but Eadmer (Hist. Nov. pp. 10, 11), who is followed by William of Malmesbury, ascribes it to the charge of simony. Both accounts agree that Remigius was restored through the mediation of Lanfranc, to whom he then made his profession of obedience.
In the first years of his episcopate Remigius commenced to build on a worthy scale at Dorchester; but in 1072 a council held at Windsor ordered that bishops should fix their sees in cities instead of villages (Will. Malm. Gesta Regum, ii. 353). In accordance with this decision, Remigius soon after transferred his see to Lincoln. Some authorities put the date as late as 1086, when the change was completed (Schalby, p. 194, cf. Gir. Cambr. vii. 19 n.). It is possible that Remigius was implicated in the rebellion of Ralph Guader in 1075, for Henry of Huntingdon says that he was accused of treason, but cleared by a servant, who went through ordeal for him (Hist. Anglorum, p. 212). In 1076 Remigius made a second visit to Rome with Lanfranc (Ord. Vit. iii. 304). Ten years later he was one of the Domesday commissioners for Worcestershire (Ellis, i. 20). At Lincoln Remigius began to build the cathedral on the castle hill. The work was completed in 1092, and Remigius proposed to have it consecrated. But he was opposed by Thomas of York, who renewed a claim to jurisdiction previously preferred and abandoned. Remigius, however, bribed William Rufus, who ordered the bishops to assemble for the cathedral's consecration on 9 May (Flor. Wig. ii. 30, Engl. Hist. Soc.). But three days previously, on Ascension day, 6 May, Remigius died without seeing the completion of his work (cf. Gir. Cambr. vii. 21, n. 2). He was buried before the altar of the holy cross in the cathedral. His remains were translated in 1124, when they were found still incorrupt (ib. vii. 22, 25–26).
Remigius had a great soul in a little body; William of Malmesbury adds that he was so small as to seem ‘pene portentum hominis;’ Henry of Huntingdon that he was ‘swarthy in hue, but comely in looks’ (Gesta Pontificum, p. 313; Hist. Anglorum, p. 212). Henry of Huntingdon, who was well acquainted with the bishop's contemporaries at Lincoln, gives no hint as to special sanctity of character. The tradition of the saintliness of Remigius appears to have grown up at Lincoln in the course of the twelfth century. Giraldus
