Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/260

Ross secrating two clergymen selected by themselves, and without conveyance of jurisdiction or assignment of dioceses. It seems doubtful whether George Haliburton (1628–1715) [q. v.], bishop of Aberdeen, took any part in this measure. John Sage [q. v.] and John Fullarton (d. 1727) were consecrated, with great privacy, on 25 Jan. 1705, by Archbishop Paterson, Rose, and Robert Douglas (1625–1716), bishop of Dunblane, in an oratory within Paterson's house at Edinburgh. Rose, in the deed of Sage's consecration, describes himself as vicar-general of St. Andrews (‘sedis Sancti Andreæ nunc vacantis vicarii’), a claim which was not in accordance with ancient right. The vicarial powers of jurisdiction were exercised during a vacancy by the dean and chapter of St. Andrews, and by statute of 1617 the bishop of Dunkeld was vicar-general for convening the electing clergy. The statement that Rose further assumed the title of ‘primus Scotiæ episcopus’ is dismissed by Grub as groundless. On Paterson's death he had precedence of the remaining bishops, and the death of Douglas left him the sole prelate with right of jurisdiction. Hence he virtually possessed ‘an ecclesiastical authority in his own communion unlike anything which had been known in Scotland since the time of the first successors of St. Columba’. He pursued the policy of consecrating bishops without jurisdiction, presiding at the consecration, on 28 June 1709, of John Falconer (d. 1723) and Henry Christie (d. 1718) in Douglas's house at Dundee. The subsequent consecrations of Archibald Campbell (d. 1744) [q. v.] at Dundee, 1711, in which Rose took part, and of James Gadderar [q. v.] in London, 1712, which Rose promoted, exhibit his strong sympathies with the English nonjurors, whose episcopal succession was continued by help of Campbell and Gadderar. When asked by Oxford divines, in 1710, whether the Scottish bishops were in communion with the established church of England, he characteristically replied that he could give no answer ‘without a previous conference with my brethren.’

Neither on occasion of the union (1707) nor of the rebellion of 1715 did Rose emerge into public politics. His quiet life was devoted to his clerical duties. He seems never to have used the Book of Common Prayer in his public services, though its use was legalised by the Toleration Act of 1712. James Greenshields (not a nonjuror), who in 1710 incurred a prosecution for introducing the English prayer-book at his chapel in Edinburgh, was not licensed by Rose. When consulted by Falconer about the validity of baptism by clergymen not episcopally ordained, he declined (July 1713) to express an opinion, recommending conditional baptism if any doubted the validity of their previous baptism. In the administration of the eucharist (held usually in private) he used the English communion office. When in 1712 George Seton, fifth earl of Wintoun, reprinted the Scottish office, and introduced it in his chapel at Tranent, it was against the strong remonstrances of Rose. Led by Falconer, he restored the rite of confirmation, practically disused in Scotland since the reformation. His last important official act was to preside at the consecration in Edinburgh (22 Oct. 1718) of Arthur Millar (d. 1727) and William Irvine (d. 1725). Rose died of apoplexy at Edinburgh on 20 March 1720, in his seventy-fourth year, and was buried amid the ruins of Restalrig church, near Edinburgh, a religious edifice dismantled by authority in 1560 as a monument of idolatry, and used as a burial-place by episcopalians, a service at the grave being prohibited in the city churchyards.

In person Rose was tall and graceful. He was a man of character, accomplishment, and respectable abilities, but of no great sagacity. Perhaps it was well for the peaceful conduct of affairs that those who opposed the presbyterian settlement had no more formidable ecclesiastic than Rose to direct them. So long as he lived, the studious moderation of his personal bearing preserved the unity of his communion; but his policy of creating bishops at large, dictated no doubt by a scrupulous reverence for the royal right of nomination to sees, proved a legacy of division and strife. He published only ‘A Sermon [Acts xxvi. 28] preached before … the Lords Commissioners of His Majesties … Privy Counsel, at Glasgow,’ &c., Glasgow, 1684, 4to.

[Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scotic.; Keith's Historical Cat. (Russell), 1824; Lathbury's Hist. of the Nonjurors, 1845, pp. 412–66; Grub's Eccles. Hist. of Scotland, 1861, iii. 284 seq.]  ROSS, ALEXANDER (1699–1784), Scottish poet, born on 13 April 1699 in the parish of Kincardine O'Neil, Aberdeenshire, was the son of a farmer, Andrew Ross. After four years' study at the parochial school under Peter Reid, Ross obtained a bursary at Marischal College in November 1714, and in 1718 he graduated M.A. For some time afterwards he was tutor to the family of Sir William Forbes of Craigievar and Fintray, who promised him his help if he went into the church. Ross did not,