THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
of Johann Busch (1621); an edition of the " Imitation of Christ " (1617); and one of the Vita patrum (1615). His faithfulness to duty was no less admirable than his scholarly activity, and his last illness was due to disease contracted at the bedside of the dying.
Bibliography: ASB, Jan., i., preface, § 6, and Mar., i., preface to the life of J. Bolland, § 4; [V. de Buck], in Analectes pour servir a Vhistoire ecclisiastique de la Belgique, v (1868), 261-270; KL, x. 1314-15; Lichtenberger, ESR, xi. 301-302.
ROSWITHA, ros-vi'ta (ROSWITH, HROS- WITHA, HROTSUIT) : Nun of Gandersheim in the duchy of Saxony in the last third of the tenth century; the years of her birth and death are not known. Her abbess Gerberga (959-1001) asked her to write a heroic poem in honor of the Emperor Otho I. It was finished in 968 and is entitled Hrotsuitha carmen de gestis Oddonis I. imperatoris, but is not preserved entire. As the authoress drew her material from members of the imperial family, diplomatic considerations influenced her work; yet her representation is an important source of history. Later she wrote the history of her monastery, De primordiis ccenobii Gander sheimensis, and also composed many poems on saints. Her Christian comedies, modeled after those of Terence, are well known. Ebert has disputed with good reason the earlier view that these plays were written with the intention of suppressing the immoral plays of Terence.
(A. Hatjck.)
Bibliography: Roswitha' s works were edited by K. A. Barack, Nuremberg, 1858; and K. Strecker, Leipsic, 1906; and are in MPL, cxxxvii. 971-1196. The two historical poems are in MGH, Script., iv (1841), 302-335. There are German translations of the Otto by W. Gundlach, Innsbruck, 1894, and others. Consult A. Ebert, Litteratur des Mittelalters, iii. 285 sqq., Leipsic, 1887; A. H. Hoffmann, De Roswithce vita et scriptis, Wratislaw, 1839; O. Rommel, in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, iv (1864), 123-158; R. Kopke, Hrotsuit von Gandersheim, Berlin, 1869; idem, Die alteste deutsche Dichterin. Kulturgeschichtlich.es Bild aus dem 10. Jahrhundert, ib. 1869; R. Steinhoff, in Zeitschrift des Harzvereins fur Geschichte und Alterthumskunde, xv (1SS2), 116-140; a notable series of contributions by O. Grashof are to be found in Studien und Mittheilungen aus den Benediktiner- und Cistercienser- Orden, 1884-88; Wattenbach, DGQ, i (1885), 4, 313-316, i (1893), 334-336; W. H. Hudson, in English Historical Review, 1888, pp. 431-457; ADB, xxix. 283-294; Mary Reed, in Free Review, i. 269-282, London, 1893-94; Hauck, KD, iii. 301 sqq.
ROTA ROMANA. See Curia, § 3.
ROTH, rot, KARL JOHANN FRIEDRICH: German Lutheran; b. at Vaihingen (5 m. s.w. of Stuttgart), Wurttemberg, Jan. 23, 1780; d. at Munich Jan. 21, 1S52. He studied law at the University of Tubingen (1797-1801), and was then consul for Nuremberg at Paris, Vienna, and Berlin. When Nuremberg came under Bavarian control, Roth entered the service of the state, first as financial counselor for the circle of Pegnitz at Nuremberg, then (1810) as chief financial counselor at Munich, and finally (1817) as ministerial counselor in the royal ministry of finances. His De bello Borussico commentarius (1809) proved his unusual scholarship. Meanwhile he had passed from the point of view of \ oltaire and Rousseau to orthodoxy, as was shown by his selections from Luther's writings, Die Weisheit Dr. Martin Luthers (1817), and his editions of
the works of J. G. Hamann (Leipsic 1821-25). As president of the supreme consistory of Bavaria (1828-48) he exercised rare tact and administrative skill, in guiding the Church through the troublous reaction against rationalism, in cultivating the personal acquaintance of the clergy, and in executing the existing order, thus elevating the moral and the intellectual status of the clergy. He established a stated supervision of theological students at Erlangen, which was soon given up, and a seminary for the training of the Evangelical clergy at Munich, which was soon obliged to reduce its number of students from eight to six annually. During the period 1837-48, the Roman Catholics were in the ascendency with the government, and Roth was blamed for being remiss in not insisting upon the Protestant claims, though, perhaps, without justice. Nevertheless, in 1848 he was retired in order to allay the agitation against him. Soon after, he was made a member of the council of state, in which he continued almost till his death.
(Karl Burger-)-.)
ROTHE, rS'te, RICHARD: Theologian; b. at Posen (100 m. e. of Frankfort-on-the-Oder) Jan. 28, 1799; d. at Heidelberg Aug. 20, 1867 His father was characterized by strong fidelity to duty
and patriotic devotion; his mother by
Early Life fervent piety. The latter was of a
and rationalistic type, as was also the
Education, wretched religious instruction obtained
from the side of the school and the Church. However, he was led into a supernatural vein of thought by the imaginative works of Novalis and other leaders in the Romantic movement, and by his own reading of the Bible. He thus acquired a living Christianity. Accordingly, against his parents' inclination, he resolved to study theology, and, at Easter, 1817, betook himself to Heidelberg. Here he was influenced anew by Romanticism, so that he came to entertain warm sympathies with Roman Catholicism. At Berlin, whither he removed in 1819, there prevailed, in part, a Pietistic type of religion, together with a very conservative spirit in matters of State and Church, and a preference for the Hegelian philosophy. Rothe listened to Hegel's lectures on natural law and political science with enthusiasm, and was but little attracted by Schleiermacher's lectures and sermons. He acquired growing reverence for August Neander (q.v.), through whose good offices he found entrance to the circle that gathered about Baron von Kottwitz. Yet he felt not at all content, but tired of academic life and yearned for home. Cheered and refreshed by a brief visit to his parents, he went to the Theological Seminary at Wittenberg in the autumn of 1819. Most influential over him here was the third director H. L. Heubner (q.v.); nevertheless Rothe aimed to preserve his individuality and mental freedom. He also here, as formerly at Berlin, at first vigorously withstood the attempts of the new seminary adjunct Rudolf Stier and of Baron von Kottwitz and the licentiate Tholuck on a visit from Berlin to win him over to a Pietistic form of religion; but before long his sensitive temperament yielded. On May 9, 1821, he reports of the inward