ROLLS
120
ROMAN
maine", of which he was able to finish only five vol-
umes out of the nine composing the work, displays
facility, interest, enthusiasm, but lack of a critical
spirit." Rollin was a talented writer, though accord-
ing to his own statement he was sixty years old when
he decided to
1
^\Tite in French.
Jlc was upright
- ind serene, a pious
and sincere Chris- tian, whom it is deplorable to find concerned in the ridiculous scenes at the cemetery of St. M6dar;d near the tomb of the deacon Paris. Without the an- noyances due to his Jansenism, his ])ure conscience, sweet gaiety, \igorous health, and the esteem he enjoyed should liive made him
lie of the most Mirtunate men of his times.
T R o G N o N, Eloge (Paris. 1818); Gui- nea u D E M D 8 8 Y,
TraiU des Etudes de Rollin (Paris, 1805) ; Sainte-Beuve. Causeries du lundi, VI (Paris, 1851-62) GeORGES BeRTRIN.
Rolls Series, a collection of historical materials of which tlie general scope is indicated by its official title, "The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages". The publication of the series was undertaken by the British Government in accordance with a scheme submitted in 18.57 by the Master of the Rolls (the official Cu.stodian of the Records of the Court of Chancerj' and of the other Courts), then Sir John Romilly. A previous undertaking of the same kind, the "Monumenta Historica Britannica", had come to grief after the publication of the first volume (1036 folio pages, London, 1S48) owing partly to the death of the principal editor, Henry Petrie, partly to its cumbrous form and other causes. Strong rep- resentations were, however, made by a very earnest worker in the field of historical research. Rev. Joseph Stevensf^n (q. v.), and the scheme of 1857 was the direct outcome of this appeal. In the new Series "preference was to be given in the first instance to such materials an were most scarce and valuable", ea<'h chronicle was to be edited as if the editor were engagrnl upon an eflitio princeps, a brief account was to be provided in a suitable preface of the life and timfss of the author as well as a description of the manuwripts employed, and the volumes were to be issued in a convenient octavo form. In accordance with this scheme 25o volumes, representing 99 separate works, have now hotm published. With the exception of the sf;rira of h-gal records known as the "Year BfK>ks" of ?>]ward I and Edward III, the further issue of thf^K<; materials has for some time pa«t IxMrn suspr-ndf^l. Almost all the great medieval English chronicles have in turn been included, for it was found that most of the existing editions pub- lisher! by the scholars of the sf!vente<;nth and eigh- t(«nth centuri<« were unBatisfa<;tory. It would be impf>«Hible here U) give a catalogue of the materials edite<l in the c/)urs«! of this great undertaking. It must he sufficient t-o mention thr; magnificent edition of the "Chronica Majora" of Matthew Paris by Luard; the Hoveden, Benedict of Peterborough,
Ralph de Diceto, Walter of Coventry, and others, all
edited by Bishop Stubbs; the works of Giraldus
Cambrensis by Brewer, and the "Materials for the
History of St. Thomas Becket" by Canon Robert-
son. But the scope of the Series is by no means
limited to the ordinary English Chroniclers. Legal
records and tractates, such as the "Year Books", the
"Black Book of the Admiralty", and Bracton's great
work "De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Anglia^";
materials of a more or less legendary character relat-
ing to Ireland and Scotland, such as Whitley Stokes's
edition of "the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick", or the
Icelandic Sagas edited bj- Vigfusson and Dasent;
rhymed chronicles like those of Robert of Gloucester
and Robert of Brunne in English, and that of Pierre
de Langtoft in French; even quasi-philo.sophical
works like those of Friar Roger Bacon and Alexander
Neckam, together with folklore materials like the
three volumes of "Leechdoms, Worteunning and Star-
craft" of Anglo-Saxon times, have all been included
in the Series. It need hardly be said that hagiograph-
ical documents, dealing for example with the lives
of St. Dunstan, St. Edward the Confessor, St. Hugh
of Lincoln, St. Thomas, as well as St. Wilfrid and other
northern saints, occupy a prominent place in the
collection. The vast bulk of the texts thus edited
are in Latin, and these are printed without transla-
tion. Those in old P'rench, Anglo-Saxon, Irish,
Gaelic, Welsh, old Norse, etc. always have a trans-
lation annexed.
The progress of the Rolls Series may best be traced in the Annual Reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, but a general account is also given in Gross, The Sources and Litera- ture of English History (New York, 1900) ; Potthast, Bibliotheca Historica (Berlin, 1896).
Herbert Thurston.
Rolph, Thomas, surgeon, b. 1800; d. at Ports- mouth, 17 Feb., 1858. He was a younger son of Dr. Thomas Rolph and Frances his wife, and brother of John Rolph, the Canadian insurgent . Having quali- fied as a surgeon, he began to practice in Crutched- friars, where he came into conflict with the Anglican rector of St. Olave, Hart Street, on the subject of tithes, a dispute which led him to petition the House of Commons on the subject and to publish two pam- phlets: "Address to the Citizens of London" and "Letter addressed to the Rev. H. B. Owen, D.D." (1827). He also took a prominent part in Catholic affairs. In 1832 he went to the West Indies, the United States, and Canada, where his brother John had become chairman of committee in the Upper Canada House of Assembly. For a time Thomas Rolph settled in Canada, acting as Govcrnmeiif emi- gration agent, hut he returned to England in 1S3!) and published a series of works on emigration: "Compara- tive advantages between tlie United States and Can- ada for Britisli Settlers" (1<S42); "Emigrants' Manual" (1843); "Emigration and Colonization" (1844). In his earlier life he had published two pamphlets on the proceedings of the Religious Tract Society, and one against phrenology. He was also a constant contributor to the "Truthteller", a Catholic magazine published by William Eu.sebius Andrews. He spent his last years at Portsmouth where he died of apoplexy.
AbLiBONE, Critical Did. of Eng. Lit. (Philadelphia, 1869-71); Gil.ixiw, fiihl. Did. Eng. f'nih., s. v.
Edwin Burton
Roman Catechism.— This catechism differs from o( her summaries of C'hristian doctrine for the instruc- tioii of the people in two jwints: it is |)rimarily in- t(aided for pri(!sts having care of souls (ad parorhos), and it enjoys an authority ecjualied by no other catechism. The need of a popular authoritative manual arose from a lack of systematic knowledge among pre-Reformation clergy and the concomitant neglect of religious instruction among the faithful.
