ROPER
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ROSA
richest fields for the activity of his brethren in the
Society, namely the home and foreign missions.
During his administration, the order increased two-
fold in the number of its members (5000) and in its
apostolic activity, although it had meanwhile to
suffer banishment and persecution in many places,
especially in the year of revolution, 1848. The Gen-
eral himself had to quit Rome for two years. On his
return his health was broken, his strength began to
fail, and fits of weakness announced his approaching
end. The characteristics of Roothaan are well ex-
pressed in the words which he himself declared the
principle of his administration: "fortiter et suaviter".
The same idea is expressed in the words of his bio-
grapher: "Impetuous by nature, he governed all
passions by the exercise of Christian self-denial, so
that a most measured moderation in all things forms
his distinctive characteristic."
Thym, Levenschets Van P. Joannes Philippus Roothaan, General der Societeit van Jesus (Amsterdam. 188,5), German tr. Martin (Ravensburg, 1898) ; Terwecoren, Esquisse hislorique sur le T. R. P. Roothaan (Brussels, 1857).
N. SCHEID.
Roper, Margaret. See Thomas More, Blessed.
Roper, William, biographer of the Blessed Thomas More, b. 1496; d. 4 Jan., 1578. Both his father and mother belonged to distinguished legal families. He was educated at one of the English universities, and received his father's office of clerk of the pleas in the Court of King's Bench. He held this post till shortly before his death. When he was about twenty-three ho seems to have been taken into Sir Thomas More's household, and he married Mar- garet, Sir Thomas's eldest daughter, in 1.521. Envs- mus who saw much of the More family describes him as a young man "who is wealthy, of excellent and modest character and not unacquainted with litera- ture". He became fascinated, however, by the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith, and pro- fessed his heresy so openly as to be summoned before Wolsey. Sir Thomas frequently reasoned with his son-in-law: "Meg", he said to his daughter, "I have borne a long time with thy husband; I have reasoned and argued with him in these points of religion, and still given to him my poor fatherly counsel, but I perceive none of all this able to call him home; and therefore, Meg, I will no longer dispute with him, but will clean give him over and get me to God and pray for him". To these prayers Roper attributed his return to the Faith ; henceforth he was an ardent Catholic. He sat in four of Mary's parliaments, twice as member for Rochester and twice as member for Canterbury. His Catholicism got him into dif- ficulties with the Government under Elizabeth and he was summoned before the Council in 1568; in the following year he was bound over to be of good behaviour and to appear before the Council when summoned. He does not seem to have been troubled further. His reminiscences of Sir Thomas More were written in the time of Queen Mary nearly twenty years after the events with which they deal, but his relations with his father-in-law had been so close and the impressions he received in that delight- ful household so vivid, that these rather disjointed notes form a most attractive biography. Roper's "Life" was not printed till 1626, but it was used by the earlier biographers of More, and is the chief authority for his personal history.
Bridgett, Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More (London, 1891), Diet, of Nat. Biog.; Gillow, Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath.; Wood's Athence Oxon, ed. Bliss (London, 1820).
F. F. Urquhart.
Rorate Coeli (Vulgate, text), the opening words of Is., xlv, 8. The text is used frequently both at Mass and in the Divine Office during Advent, as it gives exquisite poetical expression to the longings of Patriarchs and Prophets, and symbolically of the
Church, for the coming of the Messias. Throughout
Advent it occurs daily as the versicle and response at
Vespers. For this purpose the verse is divided into
the versicle, "Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant
justum" (Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain the just), and the response:
"Aperiatur terra et germinet salvatorem" (Let the
earth be opened and send forth a Saviour"). The
text is also used: (a) as the Introit for the Fourth
Sunday in Advent, for Wednesday in Ember Week,
for the feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin,
and for votive Masses of the Blessed Virgin during
Advent; (b) as a versicle in the first responsory of
Tuesday in the first week of Advent; (c) as the first
antiphon at Lauds for the Tuesday preceding Christ-
mas and the second antiphon at Matins of the Ex-
pectation of the Blessed Virgin; (d) in the second re-
sponsory for Friday of the third week of Advent and
in the fifth responsory in Matins of the Expectation
of the Blessed Virgin. In the "Book of Hymns"
(Edinburgh, 1910), p. 4, W. Rooke-Ley translates
the text in connexion with the O Antiphons (q. v.):
"Mystic dew from heaven
Unto earth is given:
Break, O earth, a Saviour yield —
Fairest flower of the field". The exquisite Introit plain-song may be found in in the various editions of the Vatican Graduale and the Solesmes "Liber Usualis", 1908, p. 125. Under the heading, "Prayer of the Churches of France during Advent", Dom Gueranger (Liturgical Year, Advent tr., Dublin, 1870, pp. 155-6) gives it as an antiphon to each of a series of prayers (" Nc irascaris", "Peccavimus", "Vide Domine", "Consolamini") expressive of penitence, expectation, comfort, and furnishes the Latin text and an English rendering of the Prayer. The Latin text and. a different lOnglish rendering are also given in the Baltimore " Manual of Prayers" (pp. 603-4). A plain-song setting of the "Prayer", or series of prayers, is given in the So- lesmes " Manual of Gregorian Chant " (Rome-Tournai, 1903, 313-5) in plain-song notation, and in a slightly simpler form in modern notation in the "Roman Hymnal" (New York, 1884, pp. 140-3), as also in "Les principaux chants hturgiques" (Paris, 1875, pp. 111-2) and "Recueil d'anciens et de nouveaux cantiques notds" (Paris, 1886, pp. 218-9).
H. T. Henry.
Rosa, Salvatore, or Salvator (otherwise known as Renella, or Arenella, from the place of his birth), Neapolitan artist, b. at Renella, a little village near Naples, 1615; d. at Rome 15 March, 1673. He was the son of poor parents; his father, Vita Antonio, was trained as an architect ; his mother, Giulia Greca Rosa, belonged to one of the Greek families of Sicily. The boy was intended first of all for the Church, and by the assistance of a relative of his mother's was sent to a college in Naples to be trained, but his excitable and impulsive nature started all kincls of difficulties, and he had to leave before his education was completed. His mother had come of a family of painters, and a Sicilian uncle had early in his life given him some lessons in drawing, while his sister's husband was an artist who had been trained by Spagnoletto, therefore there were divers reasons why the young lad should take up painting. He threw his whole heart into his work, but succeeded so poorly that presently he left home, joined a band of robbers who infested the southern part of Italy, and wandered about with them, meanwhile making all kinds of sketches, which were eventually very useful in his larger pictures. His father died when Salvatore was seventeen; the income for the family ceased, and young Rosa as its head, was regarded as its sole supi)ort. He again took to painting, and worked ex- ceedingly hard, exposing his pictures for sale in the
