Rota, in Norse mythology, was one of the Walkures, or Odin's messengers, to select the victims who were to fall in death.
KOTA, in Lapp mythology, was an evil god of hell, the ruler of the place of punishment for the souls of transgressors.
Rota Romana (or Sacra Rota), the supreme pa- pal tribunal at Kome, was instituted by pope John XXH in A.D. 1326, and improved by Sixtus IV and Benedict XIV. The name is variously derived from the circular arrangement of the judges' seats, or the form in which the calendars are arranged, etc.; comp. Dom. Bernino, // Tribunale della S. Rotii Rum. (Kome, 1717) for et}-- mology of the title and history of the court. The Rota was long the supreme court of tlie entire Roman Cath- olic Church; but legal causes in the Church in foreign ]iarts are now generally tried hyjudices inpartibus who have been delegated by the pope. The Rota is divided into two colleges, or senates, one of which forms a low- er court of appeal, while the other has supreme juris- diction. Each senate is composed of at least five judges, namely, a referendary (termed a jmnens), who presides, and four associates {correspondentes). The action of the higher senate may, however, be subjected to the ]irocess of restitutio in integmm, on which the matter is referred to the plenum of the Rota. This plenum con- sists of twelve members {Uditori Rom<ini, or Auditores Rot(e), each of whom is assisted by a lawyer {adjutante di studio). The senior judge is denominated denn, and takes the chair. Sessions are held on Monday and Fri- day of every week, except in the vacation during Au- gust and September, in the Vatican. The decisions of this court have been gathered into different collections, the first in 1470, etc. A more recent edition containing selected trials is Decis. S. Rotce R. Recentiores .Selectee (Venet. 1697, xxv parts in xix vols. fol.). They are also published in full in annual issues. — Wetzer u. Wel- le, Kirchen-Lex. s. v. See Curia Rojiana.
Rote, a mediieval musical instrument, not unlike the ancient psidteiium.
Rotger (HuoTGER, Rutger), archbishop of Treves from 9lx to 928. He was chosen, without intervention of the king, by the clergy and people of the Church of Treves, and In- the wisdom and energy of his adminis- tration justified their choice. He induced Giselbert, the i duke of Lorraine, to restore the abbey of St. Scrvetius at Maestricht, which he had seized, to the archbishop- | ric of Treves, and was the leading agent in overcoming j the faction of noliles who sought to transfer Lorraine to the usurper Rudolph of Burgundy after that province had been forever ceded (923) to Henry, king of (ierma- ny. He also sustained a literary intercourse with Flo- doard of Rlieims, the learned aiitlior of the Hist. Rlie- ■mens., and induced him to write a large poetical work on the triumphs of Christ and various Palestinian and Italian saints, the manuscript of which was still pre- served in the library of the cathedral at Treves in the 17tli century. His principal ambition, however, was to
regulate the affairs of the Church in the province of Treves, and to administer the canons in the spirit of the councils. He accordingly instituted a collection of can- ons from the fathers and the popes, and submitted it to a provincial synod of the suffragans of Metz, Verdun, and Tull at Treves in 927. See Wetzer u. Welte, Kirch- en-Lex. s. V. ; and comp. Hist, de la France, vii, 201-203; Brower, .4 unal. Trev. lib. ix, n. 04-79.
Rotger, Gottfried Sebastian, a German doctor of theology, was born at Klein -Germersleben, not far from Magdeburg, April 6, 1749, and died May 16, 1831, as director of the cloister school and provost of ISIagde- burg. He wrote: Versuch eiiier maf/deburgischen Re- formationsgeschichte (Magdeburg, 1792) : — Kirchliche Gebetsiibungen (Bonn, 1824). See Winer, Handbuch der theolog. Liferatur, i, 806 ; ii, 283, 889, 738. (B. P.)
Roth, Karl Johann Friedrich yoy, jm-is utriusque doctor, and during twenty years president of the Protes- tant high consistory at Munich, tills an important place in connection with the history of the Church in Bava- ria from 1828 to 1848. He was born at Vaihiiigen, in Wiirtemberg, Jan. 23. 1780, and trained in the study of the ancient languages from early childhood. In his youtli he shared in the enthusiasm of the times for theories set afloat by Voltaire and still more by Rous- seau, and consequently chose the law for his profession instead of theology, as both his father and himself had originally intended. Entering the University of Tu- bingen in 1797, he found a jtulicious guide in Malblanc, and, through the study of the sources of Roman law, ac- quired the historical faculty which distinguished him through life. At the age of twenty-one he published a treatise, De Re Romanorum Muiiicipidi, ^v■hich won for him the doctorate of laws and secured the approval of prominent legal minds. He became jurisconsult to the then free city of Nuremberg, in which position he was led to study the subject of finance, which he had not previously examined ; and when the city was trans- ferred to Bavaria he entered the service of that king- dom in the finance department. He was elected to membership in the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1813 ; and the pul)lication in 1817 of the Weisheit Dr. Mar- tin Luther's — extracted apotliegms from the reformer's writings — and oi Hamann's Werke m 1825 gave evi- dence that his conversion to orthodox views in religion had progressed side by side with his growing attain- ments in scientific culture. In 1828 king Louis I ap- pointed Roth to the presidency of the high consistory. When Roth received this appointment, the reaction against rationalism had begun, and a number of clergy- men were conducting a brave battle for its overthrow. The attitude of Roth, who made it his business to fos- ter the good wherever it might exist, gave them the encouragement they needed for a successful prosecution of their task. In other respects his work was marked out for him. His department was thoroughly organized into a high consistory, three consistories, and a number of deaneries, with district and general synods having advisory jurisdiction and the right to propose measures. It was requisite that this machinery should be quietly but energetically worked, and Roth succeeded in his task to a degree that made tlie Bavarian Church a mod- el of systematized powers and eff'ective discipline. In the matter of training theologians for the future. Roth was likewise earnestly employed. He discovered men like Hiifling, Thomasius, and Harless, and had them ap- pointed to the faculty of Erlangen, the local university. He also originated the ephorale to supervise the Jirog- rcss of theological students and report directly to the ministry of the interior, and founded the Preacliers' Seminary at Munich to receive a number of candidates who iiad passed the first examination, and afford them two additional years of practical training under the di- rection of the high consistory. The accession of Von Abel in 1837 to tlie ministry of the interior began a new a-ra, in which the Protestants of the kingdom were