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of Johann Busch (1621); an edition of the " Imitar tion of Christ " (1617); and one of the Vitce patrum (1615). His faithfulness to duty was no less admirable than his scholarly activity, and his last illness was due to disease contracted at the bedside of the dying.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: ASB, Jan., i., preface, § 6, and Mar., i., preface to the life of J. Bolland, § 4; [V. de Buck], in Analectes pour eervir h l'histoire eccusiastique de la Belgique, v (1868), 261-270; %L, x. 1314-15; Lichtenberger, ESR, xi. 301-302.

ROSWITHA, ros-vi'td (ROSWITH, HROSWITHA, HROTSUIT): Nun of Gandersheim in the duchy of Saxony in the last third of the tenth century; the years of her birth and death are not known. Her abbess Gerberga (959-1001) asked her to -i: rite a heroic poem in honor of the Emperor Otho I. It was finished in 968 and is entitled Hrotsuithce carmen de gestis Oddonis 1. imperatoris, but is not preserved entire. As the authoress drew her material from members of the imperial family, diplomatic considerations influenced her work; yet her representation is an important source of history. Later she wrote the history of her monastery, De primordiis canobii Gandersheimensis, and also composed many poems on saints. Her Christian comedies, modeled after those of Terence, are well known. Ebert has disputed with good reason the earlier view that these plays were written with the intention of suppressing the immoral plays of Terence.

(A. HAucs.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Roswitha's works were edited by K. A. Barack, Nuremberg, 1858; and K. Strecker, Leipsic, 1906; and are in MPL, cxxxvii. 971-1196. The two historical poems are in MGH, Script., iv (1841), 302-335. There are German translations of the Otto by W. Gundlach, Innsbruck, 1894, and others. Consult A. Ebert, Litteratur des Mittelalters, iii. 285 aqq., Leipsie, 1887; A. H. Hoffmann, De Roswithe vita et acriptis, Wratislaw, 1839; O. Rommel, in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, iv (1864), 123-158; R. Kopke, Hrotsuit von Gandersheim, Berlin, 1869; idem, Die alteste deutsche Dichterin. %ulturgeschicheliches Bild aus dem 10. Jahrhundert, ib. 1869; R. Steinhoff, in Zeitschrift des Harzvereins far Geschichte and Alterthumskunde, xv (1882), 116-140; a notable series of contributions by 0. Grashof are to be found in Studien and Mitthealungen aus den Benediktiner- and CistercienserOrden, 1884-88; Wattenbach, DGQ, i (1885 ), 4, 313-316, i (1893), 334-336; W. H. Hudson, in English Historical Review, 1888, pp. 431-457; ADB, xxix. 283-294; Mary Reed, in Free Review, i. 269-282, London, 1893--94; Hauck, KD, iii. 301 sqq.

ROTH, rot, KARL JOHANN FRIEDRICH: German Lutheran; b. at Vaihingen (5 m. s.w. of Stuttgart), Wurttemberg, Jan. 23, 1780; d. at Munich Jan. 21, 1852. He studied law at the University of Tubingen (1797-1801), and was then consul for Nuremberg at Paris, Vienna, and Berlin. When Nuremberg came under Bavarian control, Roth entered the service of the state, first as financial counselor for the circle of Pegnitz at Nuremberg, then (1810) as chief financial counselor at Munich, and finally (1817) as ministerial counselor in the royal ministry of finances. His De bello Borussico commentarius (1809) proved his unusual scholarship. Meanwhile he had passed from the point of view of Voltaire and Rousseau to orthodoxy, as was shown by his selections from Luther's writings, Die Weisheit Dr. Martin Lulhers (1817), and his editions of

the works of J. G. Hamann (Leipsic 1821-25). As president of the supreme consistory of Bavaria (1828-18) he exercised rare tact and administrative skill, in guiding the Church through the troublous reaction against rationalism, in cultivating the personal acquaintance of the clergy, and in executing the existing order, thus elevating the moral and the intellectual status of the clergy. He established a stated supervision of theological students at Erlangen, which was soon given up, and a seminary for the training of the Evangelical clergy at Munich, which was soon obliged to reduce its number of students from eight to six annually. During the period 1837-48, the Roman Catholics were in the ascendency with the government, and Roth was blamed for being remiss in not insisting upon the Protestant claims, though, perhaps, without justice. Nevertheless, in 1848 he was retired in order to allay the agitation against him. Soon after, he was made a member of the council of state, in which he continued almost till his death.

(KARL BURGERt.)

ROTHE, rote, RICHARD: Theologian; b. at

Posen (100 m. e. of Frankfort-on-the-Oder) Jan.

28, 1799; d. at Heidelberg Aug. 20, 1867. His

father was characterized by strong fidelity to duty

and patriotic devotion; his mother by

Early Life fervent piety. The latter was of a

and rationalistic type, as was also the

Education. wretched religious instruction obtained

from the side of the school and the

Church. However, he was led into a supernatural

vein of thought by the imaginative works of Novalis

and other leaders in the Romantic movement_ and by

his own reading of the Bible. He thus acquired a

living Christianity. Accordingly, against his par

ents' inclination, he resolved to study theology,

and, at Easter, 1817, betook himself to Heidelberg.

Here he was influenced anew by Romanticism, so

that he came to entertain warm sympathies with

Roman Catholicism. At Berlin, whither he re

moved in 1819, there prevailed, in part, a Pietistic

type of religion, together with a very conservative

spirit in matters of State and Church, and a prefer

ence for the Hegelian philosophy. Rothe listened

to Hegel's lectures on natural law and political sci

ence with enthusiasm, and was but little attracted

by Schleiermacher's lectures and sermons. He ac

quired growing reverence for August Neander (q.v.),

through whose good offices he found entrance to the

circle that gathered about Baron von Kottwitz.

Yet he felt not at all content, but tired of academic

life and yearned for home. Cheered and refreshed

by a brief visit to his parents, he went to the Theo

logical Seminary at Wittenberg in the autumn of

1819. Most influential over him here was the third

director H. L. Heubner (q.v.); nevertheless Rothe

aimed to preserve his individuality and mental free

dom. He also here, as formerly at Berlin, at first

vigorously withstood the attempts of the new semi

nary adjunct Rudolf Stier and of Baron von Kott

witz and the licentiate Tholuck on a visit from

Berlin to win him over to a Pietistic form of relig

ion; but before long his sensitive temperament

yielded. On May 9, 1821, he reports of the inward