ROBERT
98
ROBERTS
rior. The pope granted their request, and in 1074
Robert initiated the hermits of Collan in the monastic
life. As the location at Collan was found unsuitable,
Robert founded a monastery at Molesme in the valley
of Langres at the close of 1075. To Molesme as a
guest came the distinguished canon and doctor
Xecxyl&irc) of Reims, Bruno, who, in 1082, placed him-
self under the direction of Robert, before founding the
celebrated order of the Chart reux. At this time the
primitive discipline was still in its full vigour, and the
religious lived by the labour of their hands. Soon,
however, the monastery became wealthy through a
number of donations, and with wealth, despite the
vigilance of the abbot, came laxity of discipline.
Robert endeavoured to restore the primitive strict-
ness, but the monks showed so much resistance that
he abdicated, and left the care of his community to
his prior, Alberic, who retired in 1093. In the follow-
ing year he returned with Robert to Molesme. On 29
Nov., 1095, Urban II confirmed the institute of
Molesme. In 109S Robert, still unable to reform his
rebellious monks, obtained from Hugues, Archbishop
of Lyons and Legate of the Holy See, authority to
found a new order on new lines. Twenty-one religious
left Molesme and set out joyfully for a desert called
Citeaux in the Diocese of Chalons, and the Abbey of
Citeaux (q. v.) was founded 21 March, 1098.
Left to themselves, the monks of Molesme appealed to the pope, and Robert was restored to Molesme, which thereafter became an ardent centre of monastic life. Robert died 17 April, 1111, and was buried with great pomp in the church of the abbey. Pope Honorius III by Letters Apostolic in 1222 authorized his veneration in the church of Molesme, and soon after the veneration of St. Robert was extended to the whole Church by a pontifical Decree. The feast was fixed at first on 17 April, but later it was transferred to 29 April. The Abbey of Molesme existed up to the French Revolution. The remains of the holy founder are preserved in the parish church.
VOa S. Roberti, Abbalis Molismensis, auclore monacho molismensi lab Adone, atjb. sire. XII; Exordium Cisterciensis Cenobii; Cui- ONABD, Leu Monuments primitifs de la Regie Cistercienne (Dijon, 1878j; William OF Malmesbcry, Bk. I.De rebus gestis Anglorum, P. L.,CLXXIX; Lacren-t, Carl, de Molesme, Bk. I (Paris, 1907).
F. M. Gild AS.
Robert of Newminster, Saint, b. in the dis- trict of Craven, Yorkshire, probably at the village of Gargrave; d. 7 June, 1159. He studied at the University of Paris, where he is said to have composed a commentarj' on the Psalms; became parish priest at Gargrave, and later a Benedictine at Whitby, from where, with the abbot's permission, he joined the founders of the Cistercian monastery of Fountains. About 1138 he headed the first colony sent out from Fountains and established the Abbey of Newminster near the castle of Ralph de Merlay, at Morpeth in Northumberland. During his abbacy three colonies of monks were sent out; monasteries were founded: Pipfjwel! (1143), Roche (1147) and Sawley (1148). Capgrave's life tells that an accusation of misconduct was brought against him by his own monks and that he went abroa/1 (1147-8), to defend himself before St. Bernard, but doubt has been cast upon the truth of this Htx)r>', which may have ariwm from a desire to a«w>ciate tlie English saint personally with the greaUtfit of the Cistercians. His tomb in the church of NewmmKter became an object of pilgrimage; hlH fe^aKt is kept on 7 .June.
/»j*i ,S.S Jiin.-. II, 47-8; Dawairnh, The Cintercian Saint,, of Bn^Uirul 'lyjri'lori, 1814); Hakdt. Denrriptive Catalogue. II, 282; MCLLEK, III. Robert ron Newmtnnler jn CUtercienner Chronik, V {Mehrerau. ]Hmn ChnrtuUirium AbbaluK de Novo Mona^tleric
(Hums. K,.,. ,H78). Raymund Webster.
Robert Pullus (Pullen, Puli.an, Pully), car- dinal. Knghsh philosopher and theologian, of the twelfth century, b. m England about 1080; d. 1)47- 50. He secmH U) have studied in Paris in the firet
decades of the twelfth century. In 1153 he began to
teach at O.xford, being among the first of the cele-
brated teachers in the schools which were afterwards
organized into the University of Oxford. After the
death of Henry II he returned to Paris; thence he
went to Rome, where he was appointed cardinal and
Chancellor of the Apostolic See. His influence was
always on the side of orthodo.xy and against the en-
croachments of the rationalistic tendency represented
by Abelard. This we know from the biography of
St. Bernard \^Titten by William of St. Thierry, and
from his letters. Robert wrote a compendium of
theology, entitled "Sententiarum Theologicarum Libri
Octo", which, for a time, held its place in the schools
of Western Europe as the official text book in theology.
It was, however, supplanted by the "Libri Senten-
tiarum" of Peter the Lombard, compared with
whom Robert seems to have been more inclined to
strict interpretation of ecclesiastical tradition than
to yield to the growing demands of the dialectical
method in theology and philosophy. The Lombard,
however, finally gained recognition and decided the
fate of scholastic theology in the thirteenth century.
Robert's "Summa" was first published by the Bene-
dictine Dom Mathoud (Paris, 1055). It is reprinted
in Migne (P. L., CLXXXVI, 639 sqq.).
Hauh]6au, Hist, de la phil. scol, I (Paris, 1872), 483 sqq.
William Turner.
Roberts, John, Venerable, first Prior of St. Gregory's, Douai (now Downside Abbey), b. 1575-6; martyred 10 December, 1610. He was the son of John and Anna Roberts of Trawsfynydd, Merionethshire, N. Wales. He matriculated at St. John's College, Oxford, in February, 1595-6, but left after two years without taking a degree and entered as a law student at one of the Inns of Court. In 1.598 he travelled on the continent and in Paris, through the influence of a Catholic fellow-countryman, was converted. By the advice of John Cecil, an English priest who afterwards became a Government spy, he decided to enter the English college at Valladolid, where he was admitted 18 October, 1.598. The following year, however, he left the college for the Abbey of St. Benedict, Vallado- lid; whence, after some months, he was sent to make his novitiate in the great Abbey of St. Martin at Compostella wiiere lie made his profession towards the end of 1600. Ilis studios coiiiplctcd he was ordained, and set out for England 2(5 Dcccinbcr, 1602. Although observed by a Government spy, Roberts and his com- panions succeeded in entering the country in April, 1603; but, his arrival being known, he was arrested and banished on 13 May following. He reached Douai on 24 May and soon managed to return to England where belaboured zealously among the plague-stricken people in London. In 1604, while embarking for Spain with four postulants, he was again arrested, but not being recognizcil as a priest was soon released and banished, but returned again at once. On 5 Novem- ber, 1605, while Justice Grange was searching the house of Mrs. Percy, first wife of Thomas Percy, who was involved in the Gunpowder Plot, he found K()l)ert8 there and arrested him. Though acciuittcd of any complicity in the plot itself, Roberts was imprisoned in the Gatehouse at Westminster for seven months and then exiled anew in July, 1606.
This time he was absent for some fourteen months, nearly all of which he spent at Douai where he founded a house for the English Benedictine monk.s who had entered various Spanish monasteries. This was the beginning of the monastery of St. Gregory at Douai which still exists as Down.side Abbey, near Bath, England. In October, 1607, Roberts returned to England, was again arrested in December and placed in the Gatehouse, from which he contrived to escape after some months. He now lived for about a year in London and was again taken some time before May,
