(G. H. KLIPPELf.)
Bibliography: Sources are: J. W. Knevel, Grauel der Verwiistung an heiligen Statte, oder die Geheimnisse der Bosheit der Ronsdorfer Sekte, Frankfort, 1750; P. Wiilffing, Ronsdorffischer Katechismns, Diisseldorf, 1756; idem, Ronsdorffs silberne Trompete oder Kirchenbuch, ib. 1761; J. Bolckhaus, Ronsdorf s gerechte Sache, ib. 1757; P. Wulffing and J. Bolckhaus, Das j-ubilierende Ronsdorf, Miihlheim, 1751. Consult: J. A. Engels, Versuch einer Geschichte der religiosen Schwarmerei in Herzogtum
Berg, Schwejm, 1826.
ROOS, ros, MAGNUS FRIEDRICH: German Lutheran and devotional writer; b. at Sulz (40 m. s.w. of Stuttgart) Sept. 6, 1727; d. at Anhausen (about 20 m. s.e. of Tubingen) Mar. 19, 1803. He was educated at Tubingen, and in 1767 became pastor at Lustnau and dean of the diocese of Bebenhausen, also lecturing on theology at Tubingen. He was later transferred, in accordance with his own wish, to Anhausen, where he could have more leisure for writing. In 1788-97 he was also a member of the national committee of Wiirttemberg. Theologically Roos was a moderate Pietist and essentially a pupil of Johann Albrecht Bengel both in his life and his writings. Among the latter, which were very numerous, special mention may be made not only of his commentaries on Daniel, Galatians, Romans, the Johannine Epistles, etc., but also of his Einleitung in die biblischen Geschichten (Tubingen, 1774; Stuttgart, 1876) and Christliche Glaubenslehre (Stuttgart, 1786; Basel, 1867). He likewise wrote much on eschatology, as Beleuchtung der gegenwdrtigen grossen Begebenheiten durch das prophetische Wort Gottes (Tubingen, 1779) and PriXfung der gegenwdrtigen Zeit nach der Offenbarung Johannis (Stuttgart, 1786); while his strictly devotional works include his Chrisiliches Hausbuch (2 parts, Stuttgart, 1790;
Roots Rosary
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
1871); Kreuzschule (1799; 8th ed., 1896), and Beicht- und Kommunioribuch (4th ed., 1805).
(Hermann Beck.)
Bibliography: An autobiography with notes by his son and his grandson is contained in the Einleitung, ut sup., ed. of 1S76. Consult: Christenbote, 1831, pp. 1 sqq., 1832, pp. 53 sqq.; C. Grosse, Die alten Troster, pp. 484 sqq., Hermannsburg, 1900.
ROOTS, LOGAN HERBERT: Protestant Episcopal missionary bishop of Hankow, China; b. near Tamaroa, 111., July 27, 1S7U. He was educated at Harvard (A.B., 1MH), and, after a year as graduate secretary of the Harvard Christian Association and traveling secretary of the college department of the Y. M. C. A., entered the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass., from which he was graduated in 1896. He was ordered deacon in the same year and was advanced to the priesthood in 1898. In 1896 he went to China, and, after studying at Wuchang until 1898, was stationed as a missionary at Hankow until 1904, when he was consecrated (second) missionary bishop of Hankow.
ROPES, CHARLES JOSEPH HARDY: Congregationalist; b. in St. Petersburg, Russia, Dec. 7, 1851. He was educated at the City of London School (1862-67). the gymnasium of Arnstadt, Germany (1868-69). the Sorbonne, Paris (1869), Yale College (A.B., 1S72), the University of Tubingen (1872-73), Andover Theological Seminary (1873-75; resident licentiate, 1875-76), and L'nion Theological Seminary (1S76-77). He was pastor at Ellsworth, Me. (1877-1881); and professor of New-Testament language and literature in Bangor Theological Seminary (1881-1908). He was also librarian of the same institution from 1SS7-1901, and resumed this office in 1906. He has written The Morality of the Greeks as shown by their Literature, Art, and Life (New York, 1872), and has translated G. Uhlhorn's Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism (in collaboration with E. C. Smyth; 1879).
ROPES, JAMES HARDY: Congregationalist ; b. at Salem, Mass., Sept. 3, 1866. He was graduated from Harvard (A.B., 1889), Andover Theological Seminary (1893), and studied at the universities of Kiel, Halle, and Berlin (1893-95). He was instructor in New-Testament criticism and exegesis at Harvard (1895-1903), and has been Bussey professor of the same subjects since 1903, as well as Dexter lecturer on Biblical literature since 1904. He has written Die Spriiche Jesu die in den kanonischen Evangelien nicht uberliefert sind (Leipsic 1896).
ROSARY: A string of beads, each eleventh one larger than the rest, used in the Roman Catholic Church to aid in the reciting of a fixed number of Our Father's and Hail Marys; also the devotion in which such a string of beads is employed. Quasianalogues may be traced in non-Christian religions, as among the Tibetan Buddhists, who use strings of beads, generally 108 in number, and made of jewels, sandal-wood, mussel-shells, and the like, according to the status of their owners; while the Mohammedans, in like manner, have a tasbih, or string of thirty-three, sixty-six, or ninety-nine beads, to be counted as the corresponding names of Allah in the Koran are recited.
The custom of repeatedly reciting the Our Father arose in the monastic life of Egypt at an early time, being recorded by Palladius and Sozomen. The Hail Mary, or Ave Maria, on the other hand, first became a regular prayer in the second Origin half of the eleventh century, though it and was not until about the thirteenth that History, it was generally adopted. The addition of the words of Elizabeth, "blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus'' (Luke i. 42), to the Angelical Salutation, " Hail, Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women " (Luke i. 28), is first mentioned about 1130; but Bishop Odo of Paris (1196-1208) requires the recitation of the Hail Mary together with the Our Father and the Creed as a regular Christian custom. The closing petition, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death," developed gradually in the sixteenth century, and was regarded even by the Council of Besancon (1571) as a superfluous but pious custom. These facts show that the traditions which ascribe the invention of the rosary to Benedict of Nursia, Bede, or Peter the Hermit are untrustworthy, and the same statement holds of the Dominican tradition which makes Dominic receive a vision of the Virgin commanding him to introduce the use of the rosary. At the same time, the rosary was originally an essentially Dominican mode of devotion, though first arising long after the death of the founder of the order; but while some influence may have been exercised by the acquaintance of oriental Christians with the Mohammedan tasbih, all the characteristics of the recitation of the Our Father, like the meditations connected with it, can be explained only from the operation of specifically Christian ideas.
The devotions of the rosary are some twenty in number, of which the most important now call for consideration. The complete, or Dominican, rosary discovered, according to tradition, by Dominic about 1208, consists of fifteen decades of small beads (Hail Marys), each separated by a large bead (Our Father). This is also called the Chief rosary (or psalter) of the Blessed Types and Virgin Mary, the alternative title im- Derivation plying that the 150 Psalms may likeof Name, wise be regarded as so many prayers to the Virgin. The ordinary rosary, traditionally ascribed to Peter of Amiens about 1090, contains five decades of Hail Marys and five Our Fathers, the former shaped (toward the end of the Middle Ages) like white lilies to symbolize the purity of the Virgin, and the latter like red roses to typify the five wounds of Christ. The rosary of St. Bridget consists of sixty-three Hail Marys, representing the traditional number of years of the V'.rgin's life (or seventy-two among the Franciscans), and seven Our Fathers. The Crown of our Savior is a rosary traditionally ascribed to a Camaldolite monk of the early sixteenth century, and consists of thirty-three Our Fathers (representing the thirty-three years of the life of Christ) and five Hail Marys (typifying the five wounds of Christ). A similar devotion is the "little rosary," with three decades of Hail Marys and three Our Fathers, and