and Wednesday preceding
Ascension Day, on which special litanies are sung or recited by the Roman
Catholic clergy and people in public procession; has its origin in an old
custom dating from the 6th century. In England the practice ceased after
the Reformation.

ROGER I., the youngest of the 12 sons of Tancred of Hauteville;
conquered Sicily from the Saracens after a war of 30 years, and governed
it under the title of count in part from 1071 and wholly from 1089 to
1101.

ROGER II., son and successor of the preceding, was crowned king of
the two Sicilies by the Pope; waged war advantageously against the
Emperor of the East and the Saracens of North Africa; ruled the country
well and promoted industry (1097-1154).

ROGER OF WENDOVER, an early English chronicler, lived in the 13th
century; was a monk of St. Albans and subsequently prior of Belvoir;
wrote a history of the world down to Henry III.'s reign, the only
valuable portion of it being that which deals with his own times.

ROGERS, HENRY, English essayist; contributed for years to the
_Edinburgh Review_; author of the "Eclipse of Faith" (1806-1877).

ROGERS, JAMES E. THORWOLD, political economist, born in Hampshire;
became professor of Political Economy at Oxford; author of a "History of
Agriculture and Prices in England" and "Six Centuries of Work and Wages,"
an abridgment of it (1823-1890).

ROGERS, JOHN, the first of the Marian martyrs, born at Birmingham;
prepared a revised edition of the English Bible, preached at Paul's Cross
against Romanism the Sunday after Mary's entrance into London, and was
after a long imprisonment tried for heresy, and condemned to be burned at
Smithfield (1505-1555).

ROGERS, SAMUEL, English poet, born in London, son of a banker, bred
to banking, and all his life a banker--took to literature, produced a
succession of poems: "The Pleasures of Memory" in 1792, "Human Life" in
1819, and "Italy," the chief, in 1822; he was a good conversationalist,
and told lots of good stories, of which his "Table-Talk," published in
1856, is full; he issued at great expense a fine edition of "Italy" and
early poems, which were illustrated by Turner and Stothard, and are much
prized for the illustrations (1763-1855).

ROGET, PETER MARK, physician, born in London; was professor of
Physiology at the Royal Institution; wrote on physiology in relation to
natural theology; was author of a "Thesaurus of English Words and
Phrases" (1779-