Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/227

This page needs to be proofread.

ROSATE


189


ROSCELIN


and sisters." Even at that time the entry of the name of each associate on the register was an indis- pensable condition of membership, and so it remains to this day. It was undoubtedly to this and similar confraternities, which by degrees began to be erected in many other places under Dominican supervision, that the great vogue of the Rosary as well as the acceptance of a more uniform system in its recitation was mainly due. The recitation of the Rosary is alone prescribed for the members — at present they undertake to recite the fifteen mysteries at least once in each week — but even this does not in any way bind under sin. The organization of these con- fraternities is entirely in the hands of the Dominican Order, and no new confraternity can be anywhere begun without the sanction of the general. It is to the members of the Rosary confraternities that the principal indulgences have been granted, and there can be no need to lay stress upon the special advantages which the confraternity offers by the union of prayer and devotional exercises as well as the participation of merits in this which is probably the largest organization of the kind within the Cath- oHc Church. Moreover, in the "patent of erection", which is issued for each new confraternity by the General of the Dominicans, a clause is added granting to all members enrolled therein "a participation in all the good works which by the grace of God arc performed throughout the world by the brethren and sisters of the said [Dominican] Order." An impor- tant "Apostolic Constitution on the Rosary Con- fraternity", which may be regarded as a sort of new charter, was issued by Leo XIII on 2 Oct., 1898.

The "Perpetual Rosary" is an organization for securing the continuous recitation of the Rosary by day and night among a number of a-ssociate^s who perform their allotted share at stated times. This is a development of the Rosary Confraternity, and dates from the seventeenth ccmtury.

The "Living Rosary" was begun in 1826, and is independent of the confraternity; it consists in a number of circles of fifteen members who each agree to recite a single decade every day and who thus complete the whole Rosary between them.

Nearly all the works mentioncfl in the last article devote more or less space to the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. The gen- eral treatises on indulgences by Berinoer (in French as well as German), Mocchegiani (Latin), Melata. etc., referred to in Indulgences, give copious details concerning the special priv- ileges of the members of the Rosary Confraternity. The rules of the Cologne Rosary Confraternity were printed in German in 1476, and, in the same or the following year, the first edition of the Quofllibet de veritnlr fnitirniliilin Rosarii scu Pnalterii B. M. V. (frequently reprinted) by Michael Francisci. A number of other booklets dealing with the confraternity belong to the same period.

Herbert Thurston.

Feast of the Holy Rosahy. — Apart from the signal defeat of the Albigeiisiaii lieretics at the battle of Muret in 1213 which l('g(>ii(l has attributed to the recitation of the Rosary by iSt. Dominic, it is believed that Heaven has on many occasions rewarded the faith of those who had recourse to this devotion in times of special danger. More particularly, the naval victory of Lepanto gained by Don John of Austria over the Turkish fleet on the first Sunday of October in 1571 responded wonderfully to the processions made at Rome on that same day by the members of the Rosary confraternity. St. Pius V thereupon ordered that a commemoration of the Rosary should be made upon that day, and at the request of the Dominican Order Gregory XIII in 1573 allowed this feast to be kept in all churches which possessed an altar dedicatcid to the Holy Ros- ary. In 1671 the observance of this f(>siival was extended by Clement X to the whole of Spain, and somewhat later Clement XI after the important victory over the Turks gained by Prince Eugene on 5 Aug., 1716 (the feast of our Lady of the Snows),


at Peterwardein in Hungary, commanded the feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church. A set of "proper" lessons in the second nocturn were conceded by Benedict XIII. Leo XIII has since raised the feast to the rank of a double of the second class and has added to the Litany of Loreto the invocation "Queen of the Most Holy Rosary". On this feast, in every church in which the Rosary confraternity has been duly erected, a plenary indulgence lolies quolies is granted upon certain conditions to all who visit therein the Rosary chapel or statue of Our Lady. This has been called the "Portiuncula" of the Rosary.

Kellner, Heortology (tr. London, 190S), 268 sqq.; see also authorities mentioned under Rosary.

Herbert Thurston.

Rosate (Rosciate), Alberico de, jurist, date of birth unknown; d. in 1354. He was born in the village of Rosate (Rosciate) in the district of Bergamo, and was of humble parentage. He studied law at Padua where he gained the degree of Doctor, without, however, becoming a teacher. He passed his life at Bergamo where he was a lawyer and took part in various public affairs. He was employed in particu- lar by Galeazzo Visconti of Milan, and after Gal- eazzo's death by Lucchino Visconti and Lucchino's brother John, Bishop of Novara. In 1340 he was commissioned by the bishop to go as his envoy in important matters to Pope Benedict XII at Avignon. In his later years Rosate devoted himself cspi'cially to scientific literary labours. The last certain n-ixyrt concerning his Ufe belongs to the year 1350, when he went with his sons to Rome to attend the jubilee. His writings won him a high reputation, esi)ccially among practical jurists. Special mention should be made of his commentaries on the "Digests" and the "Codex", which were often printed later, as at Lyons (1517, 154.5-48); the "Opus Statutorum" (Como, 1477; Milan, 1511); and the "Dictionar- ium", a collection of maxims of law as well as a dictionary, which was often reprinted.

Salvioni, Intorno ad Alberigo da Rosciate ed alle sue opere (Bergamo, 1842); Schulte, Gesch. des canon. Rechts, II. 245 sq.; Saviony, Gesch. des rSm. Rechts im Mittelalter, VI (Heidelberg, 1831), 112-21; Tiraboschi, Storia lelteraria ital., V, pt. i (1807), 312-14.

J. P. KiRSCH.

Rosati, Joseph. See Saint Louis, Archdiocese of.

Roscelin, a monk of Compiegne, was teaching as early as 1087. He had intercourse with Lanfranc, St. Anselm, and Ivo of Chartres. Brought before a council at Soissons (1093), where he was accused of Tritheism, he denied the doctrines attributed to him; but this was done through fear of excommunica- tion, for later he returned to his early theories. He; Wiis successively in England, at Rome, and finally returned to France. Of his writings there exists only a letter addressed to Abelard. Haureau brings forward his name in connexion with a text: "Sen- tentia de universalibus secundum magistrum R." ("Notices et extr. de quelques manuscr. lat.", V, Paris, 1892, 224), but this is a conjecture. On the other hand we have as evidences of his doctrine texts of St. Anselm, Abelard, John of Salisbury, and an anonymous epigram. His share in the history of ideas and especially the value of his Nominalism have been exaggerated, his celebrity being far more due to his theological Tritheism. This article will study him from both points of view.

I. Roscelin's Nominalism, or " sententia vocum". — According to Otto of Freisingen Roscelin "primus nostris temporibus sententiam vocum instituit" ("Gesta Frederici imp", in "Mon. Germ. Hi.st.: Script.", XX, 376), but the chronicler of the "His- toria Francica" (cf. Bouquet, "Rec. des hist, des Gaules et de la France", XII, Paris, 1781, 3, b, c) mentions before him a "magister Johannes", whose