Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/141

 ROGATISTS

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ROGER

816). This is asserted by St. Gregory of Tours in "Hist. Franc", II, 34, by St. Avitus of Vienne in his "Horn, de Rogat." (P. L., LVIII, 563), by Ado of Vienne (P. L., CXXIII, 102), and by the Roman Martyrology. Sassi, in " Archiepiscopi Mediolanen- ses", ascribes their introduction at an earher date to St. Lazarus. This is also held by the Bollandist Henschen in "Acta SS.", II, Feb., .522. The liturgical celebration now consists in the procession and the Rogation Ma.ss. For 25 April the Roman Missal gives the rubric: "If the feast of St. Mark is trans- ferred, the procession is not transferred. In the rare case of 25 April being Easter Sunday [1886, 1943], the procession is held not on Sunday but on the Tuesday following".

The order to be observed in the procession of the Major and Minor Rogation is given in the Roman Ritual, title X, ch. iv. After the antiphon "Exurge Domine", the Litany of the Saints is chanted and each verse and response is said twice. After the verse "Sancta Maria" the procession begins to move. If necessary, the litany may be repeated, or some of the Penitential or Gradual Psalms added. For the Minor Rogations the "Ceremoniale Episcoporum", book II, ch. xxxii, notes: "Eadem serventur sed aliquid re- missius". If the procession is held, the Rogation Mass is obligatory, and no notice is taken of whatever feast may occur, unless only one Mass is said, for then a commemoration is made of the feast. An exception is made in favour of the patron or titular of the church, of whom the Mass is said with a commemoration of the Rogation. The colour used in the procession and Mass is violet. The Roman Breviary gives the in- struction: "All persons bound to recite the Office, and who are not present at the procession, are bound to recite the Litany, nor can it be anticipated".

Rock, The Church of Our Fathers, III (London, 1904), 181; Duchesne, Chr. Worship (tr. London, 1904), 288; Binterim, DenkxDilrdigkeiten; Amberoer, Pnslorallheologie, II, 834; Van DER Steppen, Sacra Liturgiu, IV, 405; Nilles, Kalendarium Manuale (Innsbruck, 1897).

Francis Mershman.

Rogatists. See Donatists.

Roger, Bishop of Worcester, d. at Tours, 9 August, 1179. A younger son of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, he was educated with the future king, Henry II, afterwards ordained priest, and consecrated Bishop of Worcester by St. Thomas of Canterbury, 23 Aug., 1163. He adhered loyally to St. Thomas, and though one of the bisho[)s sent to the pope to carry the king's appeal against the archbishop, he took no active part in the embass}% nor did he join the appeal made by the bishops against the archbishop in 1166, thus arousing the enmity of the king. When St. Thomas desired Roger to join him in his exile, Roger went without leave (1167), Henry having refused him per- mission. He boldly reproached the king when they met at Falaise in li70, and a reconciliation followed. After the martyrdom of St. Thomas, England was threatened with an interdict, but Roger interceded with the pope and was thereafter highly esteemed in England and at Rome. Alexander III, who frequently employed him as delegate in ecclesiastical causes, spoke of him and Bartholomew, Bishop of Exeter, as "the two great lights of the English Church ".

Materials for the History of Archbishop Becket in R. S. (London, 1875-85); Gervase of Canterbury, Hist. Works in R. S. (Lon- don, 1879-80) ; de Diceto, Opera Hist, in R. S. (London, 1876) ; P. L., CXCIX, 365, gives one of his letters to .Alexander III; Giles, Life and Letters of Becket (London, 1846); Hope, Life of St. Thomas a Becket (London, 1868); Morris, Life of St. Thomas Becket (London, 1885); Norgate in Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v.

Edwin Burton.

Roger Bacon, philosopher, surnamed Doctor MiRABiLis, b. at Ilchester. Somersetshire, about 1214; d. at Oxford, perhaps 11 June, 1294. His wealthy parents sided with Henry III against the rebellious barons, but lost nearly all their property.

It has been presumed that Robert Bacon, O.P., was Roger's brother; more probably he was his uncle. Roger made his higher studies at Oxford and Paris, and was later professor at Ox-ford (Franciscan school). He was greatly influenced by his Oxonian masters and friends Richard Fitzacre and Edmund Ricli, but especially by Robert Grosseteste and Adam Marsh, both professors at the Franciscan school, and at Paris by the Franciscan Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt (see Schlund in "Archiv. Francisc. Histor.", IV, 1911, pp. 436 sqq.). They created in him a predilection for positive sciences, languages, and physics ; and to the 1 a s t - m e n- tioned he owed his entrance about 1240(125171257?) into the Francis- cans, either at Oxford or Paris. He continued his learned work; ill- ness, however, compelled him to give it up for two years. When he was able to recommence his Roger Bacon

studies, his SU- From an old engraving by Sadeler

periors imposed other duties on him, and forbade him to pubhsh any work out of the order without special permission from the higher superiors "under pain of losing the book and of fasting several days with only bread and water".

This prohibition has induced modern writers to pass severe judgment upon Roger's superiors being jealous of Roger's abilities; even serious scholars say they can hardly understand how Bacon conceived the idea of joining the Franciscan Order. Such critics forget that when Bacon entered the order the Franciscans numbered many men of ability in no way inferior to the most famous scholars of other religious orders (see Felder, "Gesch. der wissenschaftlichen Studien im Franziskanerorden bis um (he Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts", Freiburg, 1904). The prohibi- tion enjoined on Bacon was a general one, which ex- tended to the whole order; its promulgation was not even directed against him, but rather against Gerard of Borgo San Donnino^ as Salimbene says expressly (see "Chronica Fr. Salimbene Parmensis" in "Mon, Germ. Hist.: SS.", XXU, 462, ed. Holder-Egger). Gerard had pubhshed in 1254 without permission his heretical work, " Introductorius in Evangelium seternum"; thereupon the General Chapter of Nar- bonne in 1260 promulgated the above-mentioned decree, identical with the "constitutio gravis in contrarium" Bacon speaks of, as the text shows (see the constitution published by Ehrle, S.J., "Die altesten Redactionen der Generalconstitutionen des Franziskanerordens" in "Archiv fiir Literatur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters", VI, 110; St. Bonaventure, "Opera Omnia", Quaracchi, VIII, 456).

We need not wonder then that Roger's immediate superiors put the prohibition into execution, especially as Bacon was not always very correct in doctrine; and although on the one hand it is wrong to consider him as a necromancer and astrologer, an enemy of scholastic philosophy, an author full of heresies and suspected views, still we cannot deny that some of his expressions are imprudent and inaccurate. The judgments he passes on other scholars of his day are sometimes too hard, so it is not surprising that his friends were few. The above-mentioned prohibition was rescinded in Roger's favour unexpectedly in 1266.