153 



RONSARD, PIERRE DE. 



ROOKE, ADMIRAL, SIR GEORGE. 



Idl 



in trying to get a man of their own appointed. A man of liberal 

 opinions named Knauer had however been nominated bishpp, and the 

 efforts of the Jesuits took the shape of activity at the Roman court so 

 as to delay his confirmation. The delay lasted a year, and caused 

 some excitement. While it yet continued (1842), Ronge published in 

 a Saxon journal a letter on the subject, entitled ' Rome and the 

 Chapter of Breslau,' in which the conduct of the ultra-Roman party 

 was severely criticised. Being suspected though not identified as the 

 author of this letter, he was deprived of his charge, and ordered into 

 penance in the Catholic seminary (January 1843). He then removed 

 to the village of Laurahiitte in Silesia, where he became teacher in a 

 school attended by the children of the miners of that neighbourhood. 

 He was thus occupied when, in the summer of 1844, Arnoldi, bishop 

 of Treves, issued his famous announcement to the effect that on the 

 18th of August in that year, and for six weeks following, there would 

 be a public exhibition in the cathedral of Treves of the " seamless 

 coat of Christ," which had been preserved in the cathedral from time 

 immemorial, and which had on previous occasions been exhibited to 

 the great satisfaction of the German Catholics. At the same time a 

 historical account of the ' Holy Coat ' was published under the bishop's 

 auspices setting forth how it had been procured in the Holy Land 

 in the 4th century by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Con- 

 stantino ; had been presented by her to her native city of Treves ; had 

 there been kept till the year 1121, when it was first openly seen ; had 

 at length been publicly produced in 1512 ; and had in 1514 been made 

 the subject of a special bull by Pope Leo X., in virtue of which an 

 indulgence had been granted to all who should go and pay homage to 

 it, and subscribe for its preservation and adornment. 



On the day appointed the ' Exposition ' did take place ; and between 

 that day and the 6th of October following, immense crowds of Ger- 

 mans and also of foreign Catholics flocked to see the relic to the 

 number, it was calculated, of more than a million in all. There were 

 rumours of miracles performed by the ' Holy Coat.' Meanwhile the 

 exhibition being regarded as an attempt to " revive Middle-age 

 Catholicism in Germany" had aroused much comment throughout 

 the country ; and pamphlets had been published by Protestants 

 denouncing it as an imposture including one by two professors at 

 Bonn, entitled ' The Holy Seamless Coat at Treves and the Twenty 

 other Holy Seamless Coats ' intended to prove historically that there 

 were many rivals to the relic of Treves, having equal claims to 

 authenticity with it, if not better. Into this controversy Ronge threw 

 himself. Under the date, October 1, 1844, he published in his own 

 name, and from his address at Laurahiitte, in Silesia, a ' Letter from a 

 Catholic Priest to Bishop Arnoldi ' denouncing the Exposition of the 

 Holy Coat. The letter was published in the ' Siichsische Vaterlands- 

 bliittern.' Ronge was thereupon excommunicated by the Chapter of 

 Breslau (December 9, 1844). Even among Roman Catholics however, 

 there was a strong public opinion in his favour; and, other circum- 

 stances transpiring to produce the result, the occasion was taken to 

 proclaim a schism with Rome and the design of founding a Catholic 

 German Church independently of the Papal See. On the 26th of 

 January 1845, the first German Catholic congregation on the new 

 principle was founded in Breslau, with Ronge as pastor ; and in the 

 Easter of the same year, there was a council at Leipzig to agree upon 

 a Creed and settle the organisation of the new Church. The move- 

 ment spread; an enormous number of pamphlets were published pro 

 and con; Ronge travelled hither and thither, as the chief of the 

 movement ; and over Europe he was heard of as a " second Luther." 

 In a short time as many as 200 societies of the new faith and discipline 

 are said to have been instituted the Protestants, on the whole, wel- 

 coming the phenomenon as a new phase of Protestantism. Time 

 passed on; and after the revolutionary outbreak of 1848, the German 

 governments found it their interest to oppose the new religious 

 development. Most of the Societies were put down; and in 1850 

 Ronge himself was obliged to take refuge in England. Since that 

 time he has resided chiefly in London, occupying himself partly as a 

 teacher, and partly as a preacher to German exiles : in which latter 

 capacity he has been endeavouring to found what he calls a 

 'Humanistic Society. He has published, among other things, 'A 

 Practical Guide to the English Kinder-Garten (Children's Garden) ; 

 being an Exposition of Frcebell's System of Infant Education,' 1855. 

 In Germany the societies founded under his impulse have been, in the 

 main, suppressed ; but there are said to be societies, on the same 

 footing, among the Germans in America. 



RONSA'RD, PIERRE DE, was born in 1524, in the district of old 

 France called Venddmois. He was the son of a maitre-d'hotel of 

 Francis I., who made him a knight. Pierre studied for a short time 

 in the college of Navarre at Paris, but soon after he entered the 

 service of the Due d' Orleans, son of Francis I., in the quality of page. 

 He afterwards attended, in the same capacity, James Stuart, king of 

 Scotland, who had come to Paris to marry Marie de Lorraine, and he 

 accompanied James on his return to Scotland, where he remained 

 three years. On his return to France he resumed his post with the 

 Due d' Orleans, who sent him on several missions to Scotland, Ireland, 

 and other countries. He was afterwards sent by Francis I. on a mission 

 to Piedmont. In these several journeys he suffered much, in conse- 

 quence of which he became deaf. On withdrawing from active life he 

 retired to the college of Coqueret, where he studied the classics under 



Turncbe, became a good Greek scholar, and took orders as a priest. 

 He also began writing French poems, and was crowned in the floral 

 games at Toulouse. He was considered as the successor of Marot, and 

 the chief of the French poets of the time. Montaigne, De Thou, 

 Scaliger, Muret, Pasquier, and others commended him highly ; but 

 modern critics have judged him mere severely. Boileau says that 

 Ronsard's language was a heterogeneous compound of various languages 

 and dialects, and that his muse spoke Greek and Latin in French 

 verses. Malherbe and La Bruyere have spoken of him in the same 

 strain. Charles IX. bestowed on Ronsard an abbacy and other benefices. 

 His moral conduct however is said not to have been strictly clerical. 

 He died in 1585, in one of his livings near Tours, and a solemn funeral 

 service was celebrated in honour of him at Paris, in the chapel of the 

 college of Boncour. Ronsard had certainly poetical genius, but he 

 was deficient in taste. He was in this respect in France what the 

 seicentisti of the following century were in Italy and Spain. His 

 poetical works are numerous ; they consist of odes, hymns, eclogues, 

 &c. : ' Mascarades, Combats, et Cartels faits a Paris et au Carnaval de 

 Fontainebleau.' He also began a poem, ' La Franciade/ which he left 

 unfinished. His works are now nearly forgotten. The most complete 

 edition of them is that by Richelet, 2 vols folio, Paris, 1623. 



ROOKE, ADMIRAL SIR GEORGE, the eldest son of Sir William 

 Rooke, was born at his father's seat, the priory of St. Lawrence near 

 Canterbury, in the year 1650. He entered the navy as a volunteer, 

 and at the age of thirty had attained the rank of post-captain. In 

 1689 he was sent out as commodore with a squadron to the coast of 

 Ireland, where his services were such as to induce William III. to 

 promote him to the rank of rear-admiral of the red. He soon 

 afterwards bore a part in the indecisive action between the Earl of 

 Torrington's fleet and that of the French admiral Tourville, off Beachy 

 Head. In 1692 Rooke was advanced to the rank of vice-admiral of the 

 blue, and greatly distinguished himself in the battle off Cape La Hogue 

 (properly La Hague) between the French fleet and the combined 

 English and Dutch fleets under Admiral Russell, May 19, 1692; but a 

 part of the French 'fleet having escaped into La Hogue, and being 

 hauled up so high that the English ships of the line could not reach 

 them, Rooke volunteered on the following day to attack them with 

 the boats of his squadron. This service he performed at night under 

 cover of a fire from his frigates and smaller vessels ; and so well was 

 his plan contrived, and so unexpected and suddenly executed, that 

 though six French three-deckers were burnt that night and seven 

 other ships of the line on the following morning, the loss of the English 

 only amounted to ten men. For this exploit Rooke was rewarded 

 with the rank of vice-admiral of the red, a pension of 1000Z. a year, 

 and the honour of knighthood. 



After the peace of Ryswick in 1697, Sir George Rooke was elected 

 member of parliament for Portsmouth ; and though he was attached 

 to the Tory party, then in opposition to the government, Queen Anne, 

 on her accession in 1702, appointed him " vice-admiral and lieutenant 

 of the admiralty, and also lieutenant of the fleets and seas of this 

 kingdom," having previously constituted her royal consort prince 

 George of Denmark generalissimo of her forces by land and sea. The 

 war of the succession had now commenced, and an attack upon Cadia 

 was resolved upon, the land-forces being under the command of the 

 Duke of Ormond, and the combined English and Dutch fleets under 

 'Rooke. The attack was begun, but, in consequence of the opposition 

 of the Prince of Hesse, was not persevered in. Having received intel- 

 ligence however that the Plate fleet, under convoy of a French squadron, 

 had taken shelter in the port of Vigo, the duke and Sir George resolved 

 to proceed there. The duke stormed the town with 3000 men, while 

 the fleet took and destroyed seventeen ships ; six galleons being taken 

 by the English and five by the Dutch, who burnt five others. The value 

 of the specie and goods taken was estimated at five millions of dollars. 

 Sir George Rooke having been joined by Sir Cloudesley Shovel, with 

 a large reinforcement from England, they resolved to make an attack 

 upon Gibraltar. On the 21st of July 1704 the Prince of Hesse, with 

 1800 marines, was landed on the isthmus, while the ships commenced 

 a cannonade upon the fortress, which, having been kept up for .about 

 six hours, the Spaniards began to fly from the batteries. The boats 

 were then manned and armed, and the seamen succeeded in making 

 themselves masters of the great platform, which they retained till the 

 following day, when a reinforcement of seamen enabled them to carry 

 another strong battery, which put them in possession of most of the 

 enemy's cannon. The governor then accepted the offered terms of 

 capitulation, and the fortress surrendered. 



On the 9th of August 1704 Rooke fell in with the French fleet under 

 the Comte de Toulouse, who had recently put to sea from Toulon, 

 with fifty-two ships of the line and twenty-four galleys. The French 

 admiral endeavoured to get away, though, according to Rooke's state- 

 ment, he had a superiority of 600 guns, but on the 13th of August 

 Rooke brought him to action off Malaga. The battle began in the 

 forenoon, and ended with the day, when the French went off to lee- 

 ward, and, the weather being hazy, escaped. This was a hard-fought 

 battle. The French lost upwards of 3000 men, and the English 

 upwards of 2000. 



Sir George Rooke on his return to England was received by Queen 

 Anne at Windsor with great distinction, but finding that the govern- 

 ment was hostile to him, he resigned his employments, gave up his 



