186 R O G 
by the consuls, or the tribunes, of the Roman peopl e when a 
law was proposed to be passed. 
The demand was made in these terms: Do you will and 
appoint that (for instance) war he declared against Phillip ? 
This was the rogatio; and what the people returned in 
answer, as. The Roman people do appoint war to be made 
against Phillip , was the decretum, decree , or resolve. 
The word rogatio is frequently also used for the decree 
itself, to distinguish it from a senatus-consultum, or decree 
of the senate. 
Frequently, also, rogatio is used in the same sense with 
law, because there were never any laws established among the 
Romans, but what was done by this kind of rogation. Other¬ 
wise they were null. 
ROGA'TION, s. [rogation , Fr. from rogo, Lat.] Litany; 
supplication.—Supplications, with this solemnity for appeas¬ 
ing of God’s wrath, were of the Greek church termed lita¬ 
nies, and rogations of the Latin. Bp. Taylor. 
ROGATION-WEEK, s. The second week before 
Whit-sunday ; thus called from three fasts observed therein, 
the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, called Rogation 
days, because of the extraordinary prayers and processions 
then made for the fruits of the earth, or as a preparation for 
the devotion of Holy Thursday. 
Dr. Godolphin says, the Rogation days derive their name 
from certain ordinances for abstinence, or days of fasting, 
which the bishop of Rome recommended to be ob¬ 
served by the western churches, before he assumed the power 
of compulsion; and which he, therefore, called by the gentle 
name of Rogation, the time of abstinence being appointed at 
the beginning by that ordinance, which was called Rogatio, 
and not lex, or'decretum. 
The first who appointed these rogations was St. Ma- 
mertus, bishop of Vienne, who, in 474, assembled several 
bishops, to implore the mercy of God by a fast of three days, 
on occasion of an incursion then made in the country by a 
number of wild beasts. Others say, it was first set on foot by 
the same Mamertus, in 463, on occasion of some great public 
calamities. 
His example was soon followed, first by the church of 
Cleremont, in Auvergne, then by all their neighbours, and 
afterwards throughout all Gaul, 
In 801, Leo III. confirmed this fast, and made it uni¬ 
versal. 
ROGATTCHEV, a small town of the west of European 
Russia, on the Dnieper; 54 miles south-south-west of 
Mohilev. 
ROGAZ, a village of Prussian Saxony; 14 miles north- 
by-east of Magdeburg, with 800 inhabitants. 
ROGER, king of Sicily. See Sicily. 
ROGER DE HOVEDEN, alearned historian of the 13th 
century, was probably born at the town of Hoveden or 
Howden, in Yorkshire, some time in the reign of Henry I. 
Having received the early parts of his education, he began to 
study the civil and canon law, which were then become the 
most fashionable branches of learning. He was appointed 
domestic chaplain to Henry II„ who employed him in many 
ecclesiastical affairs, in which he acquitted himself with high 
honour. He is, however, best known by his annals of 
England, from the year 731, where Bede’s Ecclesiastical 
History ends, to 1202. This work, which is one of the most 
voluminous of our ancient histories, is more valuable for the 
sincerity with which it is written, and the great variety of 
facts which it contains, than for the neatness of its style, or 
the regularity of its arrangement. 
ROGERS (John), a celebrated controversial divine of 
the church of England in the 18th century, was bom at 
Ensham in Oxfordshire, of which parish his father was vicar, 
in the year 1679. He was instructed in grammar-learning at 
New-college school in Oxford ; whence he was elected, in 
1693, to a scholarship of Corpus-Christi-college, where he pur¬ 
sued his academical studies with commendable diligence, and 
having before taken the degree of B. A. proceeded M. A. in 
the year 1700, with considerable reputation. In 1712, he 
was invited to London, and chosen lecturer of St. Clement’s 
R O G 
Danes. On this new scene, the excellence of his discourses, 
his graceful gesture, and his clear pathetic elocution, soon 
rendered him a very popular preacher; and his reputation in 
this line became so well established, that the inhabitants of 
the united parishes of Christ-church and St. Leonard, Foster 
Lane, unanimously chose him their lecturer also. This rela¬ 
tion towards those respective parishes he retained many years, 
to the entire satisfaction of the people, by whom he was 
respected and beloved for the uniform diligence and unabated 
zeal with which he discharged his professional duties, and 
for his exemplary and agreeable manners. He was presented 
to the rectory of Wrington in Somersetshire. In the year 
1739, he embarked in the celebrated Bangorian controversy, 
by publishing “ A Discourse of the Visible and Invisible 
Church of Christ: in which it is shown that the Powers 
claimed by the Officers of the visible Church are not incon¬ 
sistent with the Supremacy of Christ as Head, or with the 
Rights and Liberties of Christians, as Members of the invisible 
Church,” 8vo. This discourse was received with great 
applause by the advocates for church authority, and is 
certainly deserving of praise, for the temper and seriousness 
with which itis written, as well as for the methodical arrange¬ 
ment of his matter, and the perspicuity of reasoning which 
the author displays. The advocates for the right of private 
judgment, however, maintained that the whole superstructure 
of his argument is built upon an untenable foundation, an 
inadmissible distinction of Visible and Invisible church, 
which is not to be found in the Christian code, and is utterly 
inconsistent with the principles of the Reformation. He also 
wrote “ Reasons against Conversion to the Church of Rome, 
in a Letter to his Guardian, a late Convert to that Church, 
by a Student in the Temple,” Svo. “ The Necessity of Divine 
Revelation, and the Truth of the Christian Religion asserted 
in eight Sermons,” 8vo. These discourses were introduced 
by “ A Preface, with Remarks on the Scheme of Literal 
Prophecy,” &c., written by Mr. Anthony Collins. In 
this preface he discovered a dis position to repress freedom of 
inquiry and debate on the subject of the evidences of reve¬ 
lation, and even used indirect threatenings against the author, 
on account of the covert attack on Christianity which was 
made in his work. His exceptionable sentiments and lan¬ 
guage on this occasion, not only exposed himself to great 
severity of reproof from Mr. Collins, but were animadverted 
upon, in a very spirited manner, by Mr. Samuel Chandler, 
who censured him for ushering in his discourses in vindication 
of a religion which abhors persecution, with a preface that 
strongly savours of it. And even in the opinion of his friends, 
such an introduction of them seemed liable to some exception, 
or, at least, demanded a more fulland distinct explication. He 
therefore published, in the year 1728, “ A Vindication of the 
civil Establishment of Religion; wherein some positions of Mr. 
Chandler, the Author of ‘ The Literal Scheme,’ and an Anony¬ 
mous Letter on that Subject, are occasionally considered,” &c., 
8vo. Soon after he obtained the valuable vicarage'of St. 
Giles’s, Cripplegate, but he enjoyed it only for a short time, 
since he died on the 3 st of May, 1729, in the 50th year of his 
age. He was a man of good abilities, and was generally 
esteemed an excellent writer; though he was by no means a 
profound scholar, nor ambitious of being thought one. He 
neither collected nor read many books; being persuaded that 
from a few, well chosen, and diligently studied, the most real 
knowledge would be acquired. In private life, he adorned 
the virtues of a Christian with the manner of a gentleman; 
and he was particularly distinguished by the liveliness of his 
disposition, and the polite freedom of his conversation. 
ROGER’S POINT, a cape on the west side of Lake 
Huron. Lat. 44. 19. N. long. 82. 45. W. 
ROGERSTOWN, a township of the United States, in the 
territory of the Missouri. 
ROGERSVILLE, a township and capital of the United 
States, in Hawkins county, Tennessee, on the Holston. It 
is pleasantly situated in Carter’s Valley, and contains a court¬ 
house, a bank, an academy, and a printing office; 9 miles 
south-west of the town there are extensive salt works; 65 
miles east-north-east of Knoxville. 
ROGERSVILLE, 
