ROBERT
99
ROCABERTI
1609, in which month he was taken to Newgate and
would have been executed but for the intercession of
de la Broderie, the French ambassador, whose petition
reduced the sentence to banishment. Roberts again
visited Spain and Douai, but returned to England
within a year, knowing that his death was certain if
he were again captured. This event took place on 2
December, 1610; the pursuivants arriving just as he
was concluding Mass, took him to Newgate in his
vestments. On 5 December he was tried and found
guilty under the Act forbidding priests to minister in
England, and on 10 December was hanged, drawn,
and quartered at Tyburn. The body of Roberts was
recovered and taken to St. Gregory's, Douai, but dis-
appeared during the French Revolution. Two fingers
are still preserved at Downside and Erdington Abbeys
respectively and a few minor relics exist. At Erding-
ton also is a unique contemporary engraving of the
martyrdom which has been reproduced in the " Dov\ti-
side Review" (XXIV, 286). The introduction of the
cause of beatification was approved by Leo XIII in his
Decree of 4 December, 1886.
The earlier accounts given by Challoner, Dod (Dodd), Plow- den, and Foley are misleading, as they confound John Roberts the Benedictine with an earlier priest of the same name. This has been shown conclusively by Camm, whose work is the best on the subject. Yepes, Coronicn general de la Orden de San Benito, IV (Valladoiid, 1613), folios 58-63; Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891), 143-70; Camm, A Benedictine Martyr in England, Being the Life . . . of Dom John Roberts O.S.B. (London, 1897) ; Idem, The Martyrdom of V. John Roberts in Downside Review, XXIV, 286; Bishop, The Beginning of Douai Convent and The First Prior of St. Gregory's in Downside Review, XVI, 21; XXV, 52; FuLLERTON, Life of Luisa de Carvajal (London,
1873). G. Roger Hudleston.
See Thomas Johnson,
Robert Salt, Blessed.
Blessed.
Robertson, James Burton, historian, b. in Lon- don 15 Nov., 1800; d. at Dublin 14 Feb., 1877, son of Thomas Robertson, a landed proprietor in Grenada, West Indies, where* he .spent his boyhood. In 1809 his mother brouglit him to England, and placed him at St. Edmund's College, Old Hall (1810), where he remained nine years. In 1819 he began his legal studies, and in 1825 was called to the bar, but did not practise. For a time he studied philosophy and theology in France under the influence of his friends Lamennais and Gerbct. In 1835 he published his translation of Frederick Schlegel's "Philosophy of History", which passed through many editions. From 1837 to 1854 he lived in Germany or Belgium. During this time he translated Miihler's "Symbol- ism", adding an introduction and a life of Mohler. This work considerably influenced some of the Ox- ford Tractarians. In 1855 Dr. Newman nominated Robertson as professor of geography and modern history in the Catholic University of Ireland. In this capacity he published two series of lectures (1859 and 1864), as well as "Lectures on Edmund Burke" (1869), and a translation of Dr. Hergenrother's "Anti Janus" (1870) to which he prefixed a history of Gallicanism. He also wrote a poem, "The Prophet Enoch" (1859), and contributed several articles to the " Dublin Review ". His services to literature ob- tained for him a pension from the Government in 1869, and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Pius IX (1875). He is buried in Glasnevin cemetery.
Tablet (24 Feb., 1877); Gillow in Bibl. Did. Eng. Cath.; The Edmundum, II, no. 8 (1895). EdwIN BuRTON.
Robinson, Christopher, Venerable, martyr, b. at Woodside, near Westward, Cumberland, date un- known; executed at Carlisle, 19 Aug., 1598. He was admitted to the English College at Reims in 1589, and was ordained priest and sent on the mission in 1592. Two years later he was a witness of the condemnation and execution of the venerable martyr John Boste(q. v.) at Durham, and wrote a very graphic account of this, which has been printed from a seventeenth-century transcript in the first volume of the "Catholic Record
Society's Pubhcations" (London, 1905), pp. 85-92.
His labours seem to have been mainly in Cumberland
and Westmoreland; but nothing is knowm about
them. Eventually he was arrested and imprisoned at
Carlisle, where Bishop Robinson, who may have been
a relative, did his best to persuade him to save his life
by conforming; but the priest remained constant, and
being condemned, under 27 Eliz., c. 2, for being a
priest and coming into the realm, suffered the last
penalty with such cheerful constancy that his death
was the occasion of many conversions.
Challoner, Missionary Priests, I, no. 114; Gillow, Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath., s. v.; Wilson in Victoria History of Cumberland, II (London, 1905), 87. JoHN B. WaINEWRIGHT.
Robinson, John, Venerable. See Wilcox, Robert, Venerable.
Robinson, William Callyhan, jurist and educa- tor, b. 26 July, 1834, at Norwich, Conn.; d. 6 Nov., 1911, at Washington, D. C. After preparatory studies at Norwich Academy, Williston Seminary, and Wes- leyan University, he entered Dartmouth College from which he was graduated in 1854. He then entered the Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was graduated in 1857, and ordained to the Episcopalian Ministry, in which he served first at Pittston, Pa. (1857-8), and then at Scran ton. Pa. (1859-62). He was received into the Catholic Church in 1863, was admitted to the Bar in 1864, and was lecturer and professor in law in Yale University (1869-95). For two years (1869-71) he was judge of the City Court and later (1874-6) judge of the Court of Common Pleas at New Haven, Conn. In 1874 also he served as member of the Legislature. From Dartmouth College he received (1879) the de- gree LL.D., and from Yale University the degree M.A. (1881). He married, 2 July, 1857, Anna Elizabeth Haviland and, 31 March, 1891, Ultima Marie Smith. His thorough knowledge of law made him eminent as a teacher and enabled him to render important service to the Church. In 1895 he was appointed professor in the Catholic University of America, where he or- ganized the School of Social Sciences and remained as Dean of the School of Law until his death. Besides articles contributed to various periodicals, he wrote: "Life of E. B. Kelly" (1855); "Notes of Elementary Law" (1876); "Elementary Law" (Boston, 1876); "Clavis Rerum" (1883); "Law of Patents" (3 vols., Boston, 1890); "Forensic Oratory" (Boston, 1893); "Elementsof American Jurisprudence" (Boston, 1900).
Catholic University Bulletin (Deo., 1911); Catholic Educational Review (Dec. 1911). E. A. PaCE.
Rocaberti, Juan TomXs de, theologian, b. of a noble family at Perelada, in Catalina, c. 1624; d. at Madrid, 13 June, 1699. Educated at Gerona he en- tered the Dominican convent there, receiving the habit in 1640. His success in theological studies at the convent of Valencia secured for him the chair of theology in the university. In 1666 he was chosen provincial of Aragon, and in 1670 the General Chapter elected him general of the order. He became en- deared to all who came in contact with him. No one, perhaps, held him in greater esteem than Clement X. The celebrated Dominican Contenson dedicated to him his "Theologia mentis et cordis". He obtained the canonization of Sts. Louis Bertrand and Rose of Lima, the solemn beatification of Pius V, and the annual celebration in the order of the feast of BI. Albert the Great and others. In 1676 he was ap- pointed by Charles II first Archbishop of Valencia and then governor of that province. In 1695 he was made inquisitor-general of Spain.
Rocaberti is best known as an active apologist of the papacy against Gallicans and Protestants. His first work in this sense was "De Romani pontificis auctoritate" (3 vols., Valentia, 1691-94). His most important work is the "Bibliotheca Maxima Pouti-
