v. 11, speaks of wine mixed and flavoured with the perfume of

Nard—

Demisit _Nardini_ unam amphoram cellarius.

Horace, in one of his odes addressed to Virgil (_Carmina_, lib. iv. c. 12), invites his brother poet to a drinking-party, provided Virgil will earn his wine by bringing some spikenard; and he declares that a small box of the perfume shall draw a whole cask of wine from the storehouses of Sulpicius.

_Nardo_ vina merebere. _Nardi_ parvus onyx eliciet cadum Que nunc Sulpiciis accubat horreis.

The _onyx_, or alabaster box, mentioned in these lines of Horace, was made of a kind of gypsum, and was used for containing the more precious ointments, under the belief, as we are told by Pliny (lib. xxxv. cap. 12), that this material prevented the fragrance of the ointments from being dissipated (quoniam optime servare incorrupta dicitur). In explanation of the great use of ointments among the Romans, it is to be remembered that they then formed their only vehicle for the enjoyment of perfumes, the art of distillation being altogether unknown to them.

[561] _Tetrabiblos_, Sermo III. cap. cxiii. pp. 436-8.

[562] Hujus auxilii actiones ac efficaciam dicere non est facile. Audientes enim vix crediderint. Nam desperatas affectiones ad naturalem statum revocat.—_Ibid._ p. 438.

[563] _Journal of the British Archæological Association_, vol. iv. p. 280.

[564] Sichel’s _Cachets Inedits_, p. 15; and Duchalais’ _Observations sur les Cachets_, p. 35. See also _Mémoire de la Commission des Antiquaires de Department de la Côte-d’Or_, vol. x. p. 338; or _Rapport sur deux Cachets Inedits d’Oculistes Romains_; Dijon, 1841.

[565] See _Medicæ Artis Principes_,—Oribasius, p. 50; _Paulus Ægineta_, p. 672.

[566] See, for example, Kühn’s _Galen_, vol. xiv. p. 409.

[567] _Illustrations of the Remains of Roman Art in Cirencester, the site of the Antient Corinium_, p. 117.

[568] See, for example, Gruter’s _Inscriptiones Romanæ_, vol. ii. p. DCCLXXXIII. 2; CML. 3; MXXVII. 4.

[569] Notice of a stamp used by a Roman oculist or empiric, discovered in Ireland. _Archæological Journal_, p. 354.

[570] Much stranger relics than Roman coins or medicine-stamps have been found in Ireland. Above fifty Chinese porcelain seals, with legends, etc., inscribed upon them in ancient Chinese characters, have now been discovered in different parts of Ireland, and generally in localities indicating that they had lain entombed for many long ages. See Smith in _London and Edinburgh Philosophical Journal_ for March 1840; and Getty’s _Notices of Chinese Seals found in Ireland_, Belfast, 1850.

[571] See Ledwich’s _Antiquities of Ireland_, p. 45—Roman coins found at New Grange. A celebrated passage in Tacitus proves that, even as early as the first century of the Christian era, the Irish seaports were better known to the merchants of these times than those of Britain were—(“Melius aditus, portusque per commercia, et negotiatores cogniti”). See _Agricolæ Vita_.

[572] Hildebrand states, that in the northern or Scandinavian districts of Europe there have been found “Roman silver coins from about the middle of the first to the commencement of the third century (Vespasianus to Severus Alexander); but especially those of Hadrianus, Antoninus Pius, Aurelius, and Commodus. Along with them,” he continues, “are sometimes found various bronze articles, as statuettes, vases, and ornaments of various kinds of Roman workmanship, and apparently of the same age. These coins, etc., are usually found about the islands of Gothland and Oland, and in Scanïa. The coins are worn and clipped, so that often the legends and reverses are defaced, and the portrait alone tells by whom they were struck. The reason of this is (he suggests), that the coins came to the north after long voyages. As the Roman eagles were never planted on Swedish soil, these coins, etc., must either have been brought by the northern pirates from Roman possessions, or by merchants trading with Roman subjects. Only one gold coin (of Titus), and one ? (of Faustina the elder), are as yet known to have been found in the North.” See Hildebrand’s _Monnaies Anglo-Saxonnes du Cabinet Royal de Stockholm_. Introduction, pp. vi. vii. note.

[573] See the _Pharmacopœia Londonensis_ for 1662, p. 48.

[574] See Ainslie’s _Materia Indica_, vol. i. p. 513; and Royle’s _Antiquities of Hindoo Medicine_, p. 102.

[575] I shall quote Galen’s own graphic account of his personal visit and observations:—“At the mine in Cyprus, in the mountains of the Soli, there was a great cave dug in the mountain, at the right side of which, that is to say, on our left hand as we entered, there was a passage into the mine, in which I saw certain specimens of the three substances stretched upon one another like zones, the lowest being that of _sori_, upon it _chalcitis_, and then that of _misy_. In process of time the chalcitis changes into misy by degrees, and the sori can change into chalcitis, but requires a much longer space of time. So that it is no wonder that these three substances should be possessed of homogeneous (similar) powers, as differing from one another in tenuity and density of their parts—the grossest being the sori, and the finest the misy, whereas chalcitis possesses an intermediate power. When burnt, they become more attenuant, but less styptic.”—Adams’ _Paulus Ægineta_, vol. iii. note, p. 400. (Kühn’s _Galen_, vol. xii. p. 226.)

[576] See his Edition of _Paulus Ægineta_, vol. iii. notes in pp. 253, 400, and 402.

[577] _Opera_, lib. v. cap. 117, p. 370.

[578] Kühn’s Edit. of _Galen_, vol. xii. p. 228.

[579] _Opera_, lib. xv. p. 515, and lib. xiv. p. 483.

[580] Dr. Adams’ Sydenham Society Edition, vol. iii. p. 253.

[581] Kühn’s Edit. vol. xii. p. 701.

[582] _Hist. Nat._ lib. xxxiv. c. xii. v. iii. p. 399.

[583] See Milligan’s Edit. p. 194, Misy _sanguinem suppremit_; p. 197, _rodit_; p. 199, _crustas inducit_, etc.

[584] See _De Methodo Medendi_, lib. vi. pp. 305-308.

[585] Viper wine (_Vinum Viperinum_) and viper broth (_Jus Viperinum_) had long a place in the London Pharmacopœia; and still longer the vipers were retained in it as an ingredient in the celebrated but multifarious Theriaca Andromache, which, with its discordant farrago of seventy and odd ingredients, was only expelled about a hundred years ago from the British Pharmacopœias. (See Alston’s _Materia Medica_, vol. ii. p. 517; Hill’s _Materia Medica_, p. 829; Quincy’s _Dispensatory_, p. 400; Mead’s _Essay on the Viper_, 1745, etc.)

[586] Perhaps this incantation was but a remnant of that ophite worship which appears to have in former times prevailed so generally throughout the world. On the ancient extent of serpent-worship in the old world, see Stukeley’s _Abury_, p. 32; Colonel Tod’s _History of Rajasthan_; the Rev. J. B. Deane’s learned Treatise on the Worship of the Serpent, and his observations on various ancient Dracontia, or ophite temples in England, France, etc., in the _Archæologia_, vol. xxv. p. 180, etc. Latterly, the observations of Mr. Squier would seem to show that the same type of worship was, in long past times, diffused as extensively over the new world. (See his late work, entitled _Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature in America_.) The supposed connection of the serpent and serpent-worship with the healing art has been handed down to us emblematically in the serpent symbol with which the caduceus of Æsculapius is always represented as surrounded. The Romans regarded the serpent as a symbol of health, and we find it figured as such on some of the coins of Augustus and Claudian.

[587] _Aphrodisiacus, sive, Collectio Auctorum de Lue Venerea._ Venet. 1566-67; and Lugd. Batav. 1728.

[588] _De Morbis Venereis._ Paris, 1740.

[589] _Abhandlung über die Venerischen Krankheiten._ Göttingen, 1788.

[590] See also a collection by Grüner of the opinions of many authors, who wrote in the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century, as to the disease being new and unknown,—in his _Morborum Antiquitates_, p. 69, _seq._

[591] _Aphrodisiacus, sive de Lue Venerea._ Jena, 1789.

[592] _Vide_ Grüner’s _Aphrodisiacus_, p. 38.

[593] _De Morbis Venereis_, 1740.

[594] _Ueber die Venerischen Krankheiten_, 1788.

[595] _The History, etc., of the Venereal Disease._ London, 1841.

[596] _Sur l’Origine de la Maladie Venerienne._ Paris, 1752.

[597] _Geschichte der Lustseuche._ Altona, 1783.

[598] Grüner’s _Aphrodisiacus_, p. 115.

[599] Grüner’s _Aphrodisiacus_, p. 86.

[600] See _Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen_, edited by my friend Mr. John Stuart, and published by the Spalding Club.

[601] By an evident clerical error this word is mis-spelled “vakis” in the copy of the edict contained in the Town-Council records.

[602] _History of Scotland_, by John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, p. 76.

[603] _The Chronicles of Scotland_, by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 249.

[604] Two of these entries were published by Mr. Pitcairn, in the _Criminal Trials of Scotland_, vol. i. p. 117. My friend Mr. Joseph Robertson, Superintendent of Searches in the Literary and Antiquarian Department of the General Register House, most kindly collated for me the other entries, while looking over the Treasurer’s accounts for another purpose.

[605] Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, vol. i. p. 110.

[606] Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, vol. i. p. 232.

[607] See Mr. Laing’s admirable edition of Dunbar’s _Poems_, vol. i. p. 115.

[608] Lyndsay’s _Warkis_ (1592), p. 262.

[609] See Dunbar’s _Poems_, vol. ii. p. 24.

[610] _Astruc_, p. 634.

[611] _Historical, etc., Account of the Principal Families of the name of Kennedy_, p. 17.

[612] Cleland, in 1st Part of the _Transactions of the Glasgow and Clydesdale Statistical Society_, p. 13.

[613] See Grunbeck, in _Tractatus de Pestilentia Scorra_, c. 8; and Brant, in his poetical Eulogium _De Scorra Pestilentiali_—

“Nec satis extremo tutantur in orbe Britanni.”

[614] _A Brieffe and Necessary Treatise touching the Cure of the Disease now usually called Lues Venerea._

[615] See Mr. Beckett’s papers in the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1718.

[616] _Archæologia_, vol. xxx. pp. 358 and 359.

[617] Holdtfeldt’s _Chronik_, p. 6. Astruc (p. 116) points to the same fact in regard to Paris, where two leper hospitals existed when syphilis began; but the syphilitic patients were not sent to them, but to other houses specially hired for the purpose.

[618] See Dr. Cleland’s “Extracts,” in _Transactions of Glasgow Statistical Society_, Part i. p. 13, etc.

[619] _Parliamentary History_, vol. iii. p. 44; Henry’s _History of Great Britain_, vol. xii. p. 219; the _Life and Reign of King Henry VIII._, by the Right Hon. Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury, 1572, p. 295.

[620] See his _Consilium pro reverendissimo Episcopo et Hungariæ Vicerege_; in Luisinus’ Collection, vol. ii. p. 6.

[621] _Astruc_, p. 113 (English Edition).

[622] Tytler’s _History of Scotland_, vol. iv. p. 319.

[623] _De Morbo fœdo et occulto, his temporibus affligente._

[624] The simple and newly elected Pontiff, Adrian VI., when writing to his Legate at the Diet of Nuremberg, A.D. 1522, in the same spirit observes, “We are well aware that for many years past the holy city has been a scene of many corruptions and abominations. The infection has spread from the head through the members, and has descended from the popes to the rest of the clergy.”—_Pallav. Op._, vol. i. p. 160; _Sarpi_, p. 25.

[625] See _Claud. Espencæi Opera Omnia_, p. 479. The morals of those assembled at the “sacred” Councils of the Church showed, perhaps, in these days, little or no amendment upon the morals of Rome itself. At the great Council of Constance, for example, held in the fifteenth century, there were, according to the long list of those present, as given by Lenfant, “seven hundred common women” whose habitations were known to Ducher; whilst the Vienna list of the same Council sets down the list of “meretrices vagabundæ” as fifteen hundred in number (Lenfant’s _History of the Council of Constance_, vol. iv. pp. 414, 416). This Council was summoned together by that misnamed “Vicegerent of God on earth,” Pope John XXIII., a man who, according to his own secretary, Thierry de Niem, was guilty of “all the mortal sins, and of a multitude of abominable acts not fit to be named” (Niem _de Vita Joh. XXIII._, ap. Von’der Hardt, tom. ii. p. 391.) Among other matters, the Procurators of the Council publicly accused him before it of “cum uxore fratris sui, et cum sanctis monialibus incestum, cum virginibus stuprum, et cum conjugatis adulterium, et alia incontinentiae crimina” (Concil. Constan. Sess. xi., Binius, tom. iii. p. 874). Yet this same “infallible” Council of Constance, as it termed itself, called together, as it was, professedly for the cure of the evils and doctrines of the Church and Papacy, principally distinguished itself in history by burning John Huss and Jerome of Prague for preaching from the Scriptures the pure and simple gospel of Jesus Christ.

[626] Nicol. de Clemangiis, _Opera_ (edit. Lydii), p. 22.

[627] _Opera_, tom. vi. col. 296 (ed. of 1617). The history of these and other dark times shows us, however, occasional bright and isolated glimpses of the existence of true Christianity in general society and in the cloisters. In the personal history of Luther, for example, few circumstances are more interesting than the fact of Staupitz, the Vicar-General of the Order of Augustine Monks of Germany, earnestly and tenderly assisting the young and distressed monk of Erfurth to arrive at a knowledge of salvation by faith alone (as laid down in the Scriptures—a copy of which he presented to him), and not by works.

[628] See Sir John Dalyell’s _Fragments of Scottish History_, p. 11.

[629] _Polydor. Vergilii Angl. Histor._ (Bull 1570), p. 633.

[630] See his _History of Great Britain_, vol. vi. p. 434.

[631] See the whole details given more fully and broadly in the _Letters relating to the Suppression of Monasteries_, published by the Camden Society, p. 58, etc.

[632] See his _Supplication of Beggars_, presented to Henry VIII. in 1530.

[633] “Insuper hoc tempore (A.D. 1282) apud Invirchethin in hebdomada paschæ, sacerdos parochialis Johannes, Priapi prophana parans, congregatis ex villa puellulis, cogebat eas, choreis factis, Libero patri circuire; ut ille feminas in exercitu habuit, sic iste, procacitatis causa membra humana virtuti seminariæ servantia super asserem artificiata ante talem choream præferebat, et ipse tripudians cum cantantibus motu mimico omnes inspectantes et verbo impudico ad luxuriam incitabat,” etc. See the _Chronicon de Lanercost_, p. 109.

[634] George Bannatyne’s _Ancient Scottish Poems_ (1770), p. 42.

[635] _King James’s Works_, p. 301.

[636] _Cardani, Philosophi ac Medici, Opera_, tome ix. p. 135.

[637] Yet we find the Archbishop, who left some bastard offspring, when writing as an author, violently and virtuously declaiming against “all kind of lichorie.” See fol. li., etc., of “The Catechisme set furthe by the Most Reverend Father in God, John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews,” printed at St. Andrews, 1552. Perhaps the Archbishop held some of the other commandments in little more respect than the seventh, if we may judge by one of his sayings regarding Queen Mary, when a girl of nine or ten years of age, as reported by Sir James Melville in his _Memoirs_, p. 73. There is no wonder that Sir James found it difficult or impossible to translate the coarse saying of the Scotch Primate for the polite ears of Montmorency the Constable of France. See _Memoirs of his own Life_, p. 21.

[638] See the edicts in Wilkins’s _Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ_, tom. iv. pp. 47-8.

[639] See the forthcoming _Statuta Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ_, p. 155, edited for the Bannatyne Club by Mr. Joseph Robertson; also Wilkins’s _Concilia_, iv. 20.

[640] See his note to Bannatyne’s _Scottish Poems_, p. 210.

[641] _Book of Bon Accord_, p. 377; Keith’s _Historical Preface_, p. xv.; _Aberdeen Magazine_, 1796, p. 270.

[642] See Prescott’s _Ferdinand and Isabella_, vol. ii. p. 354. In Spain, indeed, it was recognised and sanctioned by law, till the scandal was uprooted by strong hand of Ximenes.

[643] _History of Edinburgh_, p. 497.

THE END.

_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_.

End of Project Gutenberg's Archaeological Essays Vol. 2, by James Y. Simpson