his former place at Windsor, which situation, however, he soon lost again, owing to the troublous nature of the times, though he obtained an allowance in lieu of his salary from the persons in power. About the year 1653, having the reputation of being an admirable composer, he, "at the request of great personages," says Anthony Wood, "composed several sets of ayres of four parts, to be performed by violins and an organ, which being esteemed the best of their kind that could be then composed, were sent as great rarities into Germany, to the court of Archduke Leopold (otherwise emperor), and often played by his (the prince's) own musicians, he himself being a composer and great admirer of music." In 1658 Rogers was, by a mandate from the Protector Cromwell, admitted to the degree of bachelor of music, by the university of Cambridge. At the Restoration the city of London having invited Charles II. and both houses of parliament to dine at Guildhall, Rogers was employed to write some music for the occasion, which Wood tells us "being admirably well done, gave great content, and the author being present, obtained a great name for his composition and a plentiful reward." He soon afterwards became organist of Eton, and afterwards of Magdalen college, Oxford. In 1669 the university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of doctor in music—an honour which did not secure him against a change in fortune, for he died in very straitened circumstances in 1698. The most striking characteristic of this composer is melody, a great freedom of which he was the first to introduce in our cathedrals. His service in D, so well known to every choir in Great Britain, was the earliest attempt at a new style in that kind of composition, and proved not only most successful at the time, but still continues to be constantly used and admired.—E. F. R.
* ROGERS, Henry, essayist, and literary champion of orthodoxy, was born in 1806 at St. Alban's, Hertfordshire. He was educated for the medical profession, but abandoned all thoughts of it, and entering Highbury college, was for a brief period an Independent minister. In 1836 he was appointed professor of the English language and literature in University college, London, and in the same year he published "The Life and Character of John Howe, with an analysis of his writings." In 1839 he began to contribute to the Edinburgh Review a series of quiet and thoughtful papers, the most popular of which were biographico-critical, such as those on Fuller, Andrew Marvell, Leibnitz, and Pascal. They were first collected and republished in 1850 (second edition 1855). Mr. Rogers is also the author of "The Eclipse of Faith," in resistance to recent sceptical attacks upon orthodoxy; of a "Defence" of that work, published in reply to Professor Francis Newman; of "Reason and Faith: their claims and conflicts;" and of "Selections from the correspondence of R. E. H. Greyson," an anagram of his own name. In 1839 he became philosophical tutor in the Independent college at Spring Hill, Birmingham, an office which he exchanged a few years ago for the principalship of the Lancashire Independent college, near Manchester.—F. E.
ROGERS, John, the protomartyr in the Marian persecution, was a graduate of the university of Cambridge. The date and place of his birth are not known with certainty. Having gone to Antwerp as chaplain to the English factory, he entered into intimate friendship with such refugees as Tyndale and Miles Coverdale, threw off the "yoke of popery," and laboured with reforming scholars in translating the scriptures into English—a version afterwards published under the name of Thomas Matthewe. Renouncing what Fox calls "unlawfull vowes," he married and settled for a time in Wittemberg. Such was his knowledge and mastery of German, that he was ordained pastor over a congregation—a position which he held with credit for several years. In the reign of Edward VI. he returned to England, and Bishop Ridley made him a prebend in St. Paul's. His eloquence and ability were conspicuous in this new sphere. But the accession of Mary changed the face of affairs, and dark years of reaction and blood set in. The queen made a procession to the Tower on the 3rd of August, 1553, and on the 6th of the same month Rogers preached at St. Paul's Cross, boldly vindicating the new doctrine established in King Edward's time, and inveighing bitterly against idolatry and superstition. He was immediately apprehended and brought before the council, where he made a "stout, wittie, and godly answere," and was dismissed. But a royal proclamation was immediately issued which forbade protestant preaching; and for disobedience to it Rogers was first confined in his own house for a considerable period, and finally lodged, at Bonner's instigation, in Newgate. He was examined at great length on the 22d of January, 1555, Gardiner being lord chancellor; and on the 28th of the same month there was a similar examination, the topics being the papal primacy, the sufficiency of scripture, and his marriage. On questioning him as to the real presence, the bishops rose and took off their caps in honour of the doctrine. The result was that Hooper and he were sent to the Compter in Southwark. A similar scene took place on the 29th, and then the chancellor caused him to be degraded and condemned, and handed him over to the sheriffs. Rogers pleaded that his wife might be permitted to see him in Newgate, "for she hath ten children, hers and mine;" but the request was bluntly and cruelly refused. At length, on the 4th of February, the jailor's wife suddenly awaked him out of a sound sleep, and warned him that his time was come. On being commanded to make haste, he calmly replied, "If it be so, I need not tye my points." On being formally degraded by Bonner, he asked again that he might talk a few words with his wife, but was again sternly denied. The sheriffs then brought him to Smithfield, and on his way to it he was met by his wife, carrying one child in her arms and with the other nine children around her, a sad and melting spectacle. Brought to the stake, he refused to recant though pardon was promised. The pile was kindled and he was burned to ashes—the first martyr of that bloody reign. Though he lay in prison a year and a half, his courage never forsook him, and as Fox says, "the Sunday before he suffered he drank to Mr. Hooper, being then underneath him."—J. E.
ROGERS, Samuel, was born on the 30th of July, 1763, at Newington Green, a suburb of London. He was the third son of Thomas Rogers, the head of the well-known London banking house of Rogers, Olding, & Co. By the mother's side he was descended from a daughter of Philip Henry, and sister of Matthew Henry, the eminent nonconformist divine. The poet's father was originally connected with the Church of England; but after his marriage he became a member of the Presbyterian or Unitarian Church at Newington, of which the celebrated Dr. Price, the adversary of Burke, was pastor. On completing his education Rogers was placed in his father's banking house, preparatory to his being admitted as a partner. From a very early age he manifested a fondness for literature, and in 1781, when he was in his eighteenth year, he contributed eight essays under the title of "The Scribbler," to the Gentleman's Magazine, common-place in point of thought, but marked by the correctness and care of the language. In 1786 he published his "Ode to Superstition, with other Poems," but the volume deserved and attracted so little notice, that at the end of four years only about twenty copies had been sold. Shortly after his first poetical publication Rogers spent some time in France, where he saw Condorcet and other celebrities. He also visited Scotland, and in the course of a single Sunday at Edinburgh, he breakfasted with Principal Robertson, heard him preach in the forenoon and Blair in the afternoon, drank tea with the Piozzis, and supped with Adam Smith. In 1792 he made a second and much more successful experiment on the public taste, by the publication of his far-famed "Pleasures of Memory," which has long taken its place as an English classic. Parson Este, then an authority in fashionable circles, pronounced the author "a child of Goldsmith;" and it must be admitted that not a few of the passages in the poem are only too redolent of the Traveller and Deserted Village. Although there are a number of feeble lines in the "Pleasures of Memory," it is characterized by purity of language, exquisite symmetry, and artistic finish, as well as by concise, well-selected imagery and refined thought; but it must be admitted that it is defective in simplicity, spontaneity, and vigour. In 1793 the poet's father died, and he soon after withdrew in a great measure from the management of the banking house, though he still remained a partner. In 1798 appeared his "Epistle to a Friend," in which he gives his "notions of social comfort and happiness as influenced by residence, furniture, books, pictures, and companions—subjects on all of which he was admirably qualified to speak." He now mingled familiarly in the best society of the metropolis. Some time before this he had removed from Newington to the Temple where he lived till 1803, when he took up his residence in his celebrated house in St. James' Place, in which he spent the remainder of his protracted life, and which for more than half a century was "the recognized abode of taste, and the envied resort of wit, beauty, learning, and genius." Charles James Fox, whom Rogers
