bert and Richard Poor [see Poor, Herbert, and Poor, Richard] (Stubbs, Pref. to Rog. Hov. vol. iv. p. xci n.) His failings were family ambition and avarice.
In the accomplishment of his designs he spared no expense. Above all else he was a great builder, particularly of castles. He founded the castles of Sherborne and Devizes, added to that at Salisbury, and commenced a fourth at Malmesbury. The castle of Devizes is described as the most splendid in Europe (Hen. Hunt. p. 265). Freeman speaks of him as having ‘in his own person brought to perfection that later form of Norman architecture, lighter and richer than the earlier type, which slowly died out before the introduction of the pointed arch and its accompanying details … The creative genius of Roger was in advance of his age, and it took some little time for smaller men to come up with him.’ But after the anarchy ‘men had leisure to turn to art and ornament, and the style which had come in at the bidding of Roger was copied by lesser men almost a generation after his time’ (Norman Conquest, v. 638–9). Besides his castle-building, William of Malmesbury relates that Roger made new the cathedral of Salisbury, and adorned it so that there was none finer in England (Gesta Regum, p. 484). Nor was Roger unmindful of the temporal welfare of his see. Through his influence with Henry I and Stephen additional endowments and prebends were obtained for the cathedral (cf. Reg. St. Osmund, vol. ii. pp. xlvii–viii; Sarum Charters, pp. 5–10). He also annexed to his see the abbeys of Malmesbury and Abbotsbury, which after his death recovered their independence (Will. Malm. Hist. Nov. pp. 559–560). Two copes and a chasuble that had belonged to Roger were preserved at Salisbury (Reg. St. Osmund, ii. 130, 133). Roger lived openly with his wife or concubine, Matilda de Ramsbury, who was the mother of his acknowledged son, Roger Pauper (see below). Alexander of Lincoln and Nigel of Ely, who owed their education and advancement to Roger, seem to have been his brother's sons.
Roger Pauper (fl. 1139), chancellor, was the son of the great Bishop Roger, and is supposed to have been called Pauper or Poor in contrast to his father's wealth (Cont. Flor. Wig. ii. 108; Will. Malm. Hist. Nov. p. 549; Genealogist, April 1896, where Count de la Poer argues that Le Poher or Poor is a territorial name). He became chancellor to King Stephen through his father's influence, and as chancellor witnessed three charters early in the reign, including the charter of liberties granted at Oxford in April 1136. He retained his post down to June 1139. The part which he and his mother played in the overthrow of the bishops and capture of Devizes is described above. Roger Pauper was kept in prison for a time, and eventually released on condition that he left England.
[William of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontificum, Gesta Regum, and Historia Novella, Henry of Huntingdon, Eadmer's Historia Novorum, Register of St. Osmund, Sarum Charters and Documents (all these in Rolls Ser.); Gesta Stephani, and Flor. Wig. (Engl. Hist. Soc.); English Chronicle; Ordericus Vitalis (Soc. de l'Hist. de France); Freeman's Norman Conquest; Stubbs's Constitutional Hist.; Norgate's England under the Angevin Kings; Round's Geoffrey de Mandeville; Foss's Judges of England, i. 151–9; Boivin-Champeaux, Notice sur Roger le Grand.]
ROGER INFANS (fl. 1124), writer on the ‘Compotus’ (i.e. the method of computing the calendar), states that he published his treatise in 1124, when still a young man, though he had already been engaged for some years in teaching. For some reason he was called ‘Infans,’ which Leland, without sufficient justification, translated Yonge. Wood, whom Tanner follows, puts Roger's date at 1186, and absurdly calls him rector of the schools and chancellor of the university of Oxford. The only known manuscript of his Treatise is Digby MS. 40, ff. 25–52, where it commences with a rubric (of the thirteenth century): ‘Præfatio Magistri Rogeri Infantis in Compotum.’ Wright has printed an extract from this preface. Roger's chief authorities are Gerland and Helperic, whom he frequently corrects.
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 718; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. Univ. Oxon. i. 153; Wright's Biogr. Brit. Litt. ii. 89; Cat. of Digby MSS.]
ROGER of Ford (fl. 1170), called also Roger Gustun, Gustum, and Roger of Cîteaux, hagiographer, was a Cistercian monk of Ford in Devonshire. He went to Schonau, and while there wrote, at the order of William, abbot of Savigny, ‘An Account of the Revelations of St. Elizabeth of Schonau,’ with a preface addressed to Baldwin (d. 1190) [q. v.], abbot of Ford, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. The preface begins ‘Qui vere diligit semper,’ and the text ‘Promptum in me est, frater.’ A manuscript of this work is in St. John's College, Oxford, cxlix, No. 8; another copy is in Bodleian MS. E. 2. Roger also wrote a sermon on the eleven thousand virgins of Cologne, beginning ‘Vobis qui pios affectus,’ and an encomium of the Virgin Mary in elegiacs, both of which are contained in the
