894 



ROMAN CEMENTS ROMANCE. 



would necessarily require the extension of 

 this power to the successors of the apostles. The 

 apostles, therefore, actually established bishops in 

 every place ; ami, after their death, these bishops 

 conducted the church, which continued to remain 

 01^ and Uie same, until, in modern times, it 

 entered into the heads of the reformers, to attack 

 is ti'ii-timtion: liriice the Catholic church 1ms 

 been preserved from the fate of Protestant churches, 

 which, for want of such a constitution, have 

 been lost in isolated communities. The bishops 

 and successors of the apostles now form an 

 association like that of the apostles. "There 

 is one hishoprick," says Cyprian (De Uniiate 

 M>). "of which a part is held by each 

 individual bishop, who is also a partaker of the 

 whole in common with his brethren." (Episcopatus 

 *nut t*t cvjut a singvlis in solidum pars tenetur). 

 Therefore as the rays of the sun are many but there 

 is only one liht ; and as the branches of a tree are 

 many, but make only one tree, fastened to the 

 ground by a strong root ; and as from one fountain 

 many brooks may flow, and yet remain one at their 

 source ; so the church, which, by means of her pro- 

 litic increase, extends herself in great numbers, far 

 around, is also one. Every bishop is not merely a 

 bishop of the world, but also of his own diocese. 

 He is not an oecumenical or universal bishop, as John 

 the Faster, of Constantinople, maintained of himself 

 a title which even Gregory declined. The dio- 

 cese of the bishop originally consisted of the Chris- 

 tian community of a city. From this place the 

 bishop spread Christianity, and organized new Chris- 

 tian communities, to which he gave pastors, as his 

 delegates, to discharge a part of his official duties. 

 These pastors, and the presbytery of the capital, 

 formed the bishop's very influential council. They 

 gave their opinions in the synod of the diocese ; and 

 the presbytery of the capital, afterwards called the 

 cathedral chapter, was the representative of those 

 pastors who did not assemble. The bishop only had 

 episcopal power, properly so called. Pastors and 

 presbyters were only an emanation from him. That 

 bishops and priests, however, did not, as the Pro- 

 testant systems of presbyterianism maintain, consti- 

 tute only one order under different names, follows, 

 not only from tradition, but with uncommon clear- 

 ness, from the genuine epistles of St Ignatius, who 

 lived about 107, and was a pupil of the apostles. 

 In these, the bishop, as one ordained by God, is 

 always distinguished from the assembly of priests. 

 That, moreover, the order of priests was generally 

 distinguished from the laity, by consecration, and 

 by a divine mission, from the commencement of the 

 church, follows from tradition, and also from the 

 pistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus, and several 

 "ther of his epistles. (Concerning the relation of 

 the pope to bishops, and to the church in general, 

 see Pope.) It will be sufficient to observe, here, 

 that the church forms a kind of confederacy, in or- 

 I!T to maintain her union, through the bishop at 

 Koine, as successor to the chief of the apostles' 

 through him whom Cyprian has called the centrum 

 vnitati* of the church ; that the pope, by divine 

 BppototBMOt is the organ of the church ; and that, 

 at the assemblies of the church, he presides as first 

 aiiK.ng equals (primus inter pares). Archbishops, 

 I'Jitriarchs, &c., are not essential parts of the hier- 

 nrchy, but liave only become incidentally attached 

 t<> it. 



l!< MAN CEMENTS. See Cements. 



ROM AK KING. See German Empire 



ROMAN LAW. See Civil Law. 



ROMAN LITERATURE. See Rome. 



ROMANCE (so called from the Romance or 



Romanic language) ; a fictitious narrative in pro^e 

 or verse, the interest of which turns upon marvel, 

 lous and uncommon incidents. The name is derived 

 from the circumstance of the romantic compositions 

 of this kind having been written in the vulgar 

 tongues, which were derived from the Roman, at a 

 period when Latin was still the language of litera- 

 ture, law, &c. We have already given some gen- 

 eral views of the origin and character of romantic 

 fiction under the head of Novels. The modern 

 European romance was at first metrical in its form, 

 and founded on historical, or what was thought to 

 be historical, tradition. The transition from the 

 rhymed chronicles, which we find in the early per- 

 iods of modern European history, to the metrical 

 romance, was easy, and much of the material of the 

 latter was derived, with suitable embellishments, 

 from the former. The Anglo-Norman romance Le 

 Brit (1515), written by Wace, was founded on the 

 chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth. The Roman 

 de Rose, by the same author, is a fabulous history of 

 the Norman dukes. In the end of the twelfth and 

 beginning of the thirteenth centuries, great numbers 

 of French metrical romances were written in Eng- 

 land and Normandy, principally on the subject of 

 Arthur and his knights of the round table, or on 

 classical subjects, such as the Trojan war. The 

 metrical romance was followed by the prose 

 romance, which was founded on the same cycles of 

 events and characters, but with great additions of 

 adventures, machinery, &c. The prose romances 

 were written chiefly during the thirteenth, four- 

 teenth, and fifteenth centuries, and were at first 

 mere versions of the metrical romances. They 

 assumed the tone of history, and pretended to the 

 character of presenting historical facts. They may 

 be divided into romances of chivalry, spiritual or 

 religious romances, comic, political, pastoral, and 

 heroic romances. The romances of chivalry, con 

 sidered in reference to the personages of whom they 

 treat, form four classes: 1. Those relating to Ar- 

 thur and the knights of the round table, and their 

 exploits against the Saxons : among these are Mer- 

 lin, Sangreal, Lancelot du Lac, Artus, &c. 2. Those 

 connected with Charlemagne and his paladins, 

 in which the enemy against whom the heroes con- 

 tend are the Saracens : these are Guerin de Mon- 

 glave, Huon de Bordeaux, &c. ; the latter are 

 founded on the fabulous chronicle of Turpin, from 

 which are borrowed the expedition of Charlemagne 

 into Spain, the battle of Roncesvalles, &c. ; ihe 

 former are derived, in a great measure, from the 

 chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth. 3. The Spa- 

 nish and Portuguese romances contain chiefly the 

 adventures of two imaginary families of heroes, 

 Amadis and Palmerin : their opponents are the 

 Turks, and the scene is often in Constantinople. 

 (See Amadis.") 4. The classical romances repre- 

 sent the mythological or historical heroes of anti- 

 quity in the guise of romantic fiction ; thus we have 

 the Livre de Jason, Vie de Hercule, Alexandre, c., 

 in which those heroes are completely metamorphosed 

 into modern knights. The romances of chivalry 

 are of Anglo-Norman origin, and, though natural- 

 ized in the Spanish peninsula, did not obtain that 

 popularity and influence in Germany, Southern 

 France (see Provencal Poets') and Italy, which they 

 enjoyed in England, Northern France and the pen- 

 insula. Italy adopted, indeed, at a later period, the 

 tales of Charlemagne and his peers, which form the 

 subjects of the romantic epics of Boiardo (Orlando 

 Jnnamorato), Pulci (Morgante Maggiore}, and Ario- 

 sto (Orlando Furioso] ; and thus the fictitious nar- 

 ratives originally composed in metre, and then re- 

 written in prose, were decorated anew with the hon- 



