Robigus, in Roman mythology, was a deity who averted mildew from growing harvests, and was vene- rated by the rustic population.
Robing-room, a room attached to a church for the keeping of the vestments and sacred vessels, called also Vestiiy (q. v.).
Robins, Sanderson, an English clergyman, was rector of St. James's Church, Dover, r.fterwards vicar of St. Peter's, in the isle of Thanet, and rural dean. He died in 1862. His principal works are. The Church Schoolmaster (Lond. 1850, 12mo) : — Argument for the Royal Sujyremacy (ibid. 1851, 8vo) : — Evidence of Script- ure against the Claims of the Romish Church (ibid. 1853, 1854, 8vo):— 2"/(e Whole Evidence against the De- vices of the Romish Church (ibid. 1858, 8vo) :— .4 De- fence of the Faith (ibid. 1861, 8vo). See Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. A uthors, s. v.
Robinson, Benjamin, a learned Presbyterian minister, was born at Derby, England, in 1666. He be- came pastor at Findern. Derbyshire, in 1688, from which place he removed to Hungerford, Berkshire. He was settled at Little St. Helen's, London, in 1700, and died in 1724. He wrote, A Review of the Causes of Liturgies, etc. (Lond. 1710, 8vo) : — Letter to Thomas Bennet in De- fence of the Review (ibid. 1710, 8vo). See Allibone, Diet, of Brit, mid Amer. A nth. s. v. ; Darling, Cycloj}. Bibliog, s. V.
Robinson, Charles G., a minister of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, was born in Newville, N. Y., in 1822, and when nineteen years of age was converted. Although early impressed that it was his duty to preach, he endeavored by diligent attention to other duties to pacify his conscience. At length he yielded, and was received on trial in the Oneida Conference in 1852. He was ordained deacon in 1854, and elder in 1856; but the condition of his health forbade active service, and, tak- ing a supernumerary relation, he went in October, 1856, to Mansfield, O., where his parents resided, and failing rapidly, died on the 24th of the same month. — See Min- utes of Annual Conferences, 1857, p. 293.
Robinson, David, a Presbyterian minister, was born in Cropimck Township, Washington Co., Pa., about the year 1808. He graduated at Washington College, studied theology in the Western Seminary, Allegheny City, was licensed by Washington Presbytery in 1841, and ordained and installed as pastor of Mill Creek Church, Hookstown, April 19, 1842. This relation ex- isted until 1854, when it was dissolved, and in 1856 he joined New Lisbon Presbytery and was installed pastor of Madison Church, at Calcutta, O., where he remained until 1858, when he returned to Hookstown, Pa., where he died, March 17, 1861. See Wilson, Presb. Hist. Al- manac, 1862, p. 117. (J. L. S.)
Robinson, Edward, D.D., LL.D., the most Ger- man among I'jiglish-spcaking scholars, whose classical and invaluable work on Palestine has made his name
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as well known in Germany and England as in his na- tive land, was of Puritan descent, and iiilu'rited the pie- ty, energy, love of liberty, and high moral principle of the settlers of New iMigland. He was the son of a Congregational minister, was born atSoiithington,Conn., April 10, 1794, and from 1812 to 1810 attended Hamilton College at Clinton, N. Y., where he distinguished him- self chieHy in mathematics and the ancient languages, and was at the head of his class. In the fall of 1817, after studying law for some time at Hudson, N. Y., he was called to a tutorship at Hamilton College and accepted. A year later he married Eliza Kirkland, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, known as mis- sionary to the Oneidas. Though somewhat older than her husband, she was a woman of uncommon intellect and cultivation, and very attractive in appearance. She died, however, within a year after her marriage. Mr. Robinson remained at Clinton initil 1821, when he went to Andover, Mass., to publish an edition of eleven books of the Iliad, with notes and a Latin introduction, which appeared in 1822. This stay at Andover, however, des- tined him to the service of theology and the Church. He entered into intimate relations with Prof. INIoses Stuart, the patriarch of Biblical scbolarship in America, and became assistant professor of the Hel)rew language and literature at the Anilover Theological Seminary ( 1823-26). He assisted Prof. Stuart in preparing the sec- ond edition of his Hebrew Grammar (which was found- ed on that of Gesenius), and in the translation of Winer's Gi'ammar of the Neto Testament Greek (1825). At the same time he prepared alone a translation of Wahl's Claris Philologica Novi Testamenti (Andover, 1825), which, in later editions, grew to be a much more im- portant, independent work. These labors determined his future career, as well as the whole character of mod- ern exegetical theology in Atnerica, of which Stuart and Robinson must be considered the founders and rep- resentatives. Stuart was brilliant and enthusiastic; Robinson, calm, sober, and critical; the former fresher and more animating, the latter more thorough and scholarl3^ The school of exegesis originated by them consists in an independent elaborating of the results of modern German investigation on the basis of Anglo- American orthodoxy and practical piety. By this proc- ess many excrescences and extravagances of German research were done away with, but at the same time the old Puritan severity was largely modified. Since then it has become a necessity for ever}' American the- ologian who would keep up with the times to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the German lan- guage and literature: and this necessity will long con- tinue to exist, even after most of the classical works of German theology have been made accessible to the An- glo-American literary world by translations.