Chapter 3

Such phrases and terms plain John Bunyan utterly despised. They prove, as does the whole plan of the treatise, that it must have been a very different man to the author of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ who wrote these _Visions_.

{90} It is not likely that Hobbes and Bunyan were acquainted; they lived in distant parts of the country. Bunyan's _Pilgrim_, which was the foundation of his wide-spread fame, was not published till 1678, when the Leviathan philosopher was ninety years of age; he died in 1679. Hobbes' company were the learned and illustrious among men,--the Des Carteses, Gassendis, and Wallises of his age; while Bunyan associated with the despised Nonconformists. Nor is is likely that Bunyan read the _Leviathan_; Dent's _Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven, The Practice of Piety_, Fox's _Martyrs_, and, above all, his Bible, constituted his library during his imprisonment for conscience-sake, which lasted from 1660 to 1672. Had he suffered from Hobbes's philosophy, he would have proclaimed it upon the house-tops, especially in his _Grace Abounding_, that others might have been guarded from such dangerous scepticism. The _Vision_ of Hobbes was doubtless intended to render the forgery more popular.

GEORGE OFFOR.

Hackney, Jan. 1851.

* * * * *

THE MOTHER CHURCH OF THE SAXONS.

In "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. ii., p. 478.) SIR HENRY ELLIS observes, that--

"Although St. Martin's, Canterbury, is commonly called the mother church of England on account of its having been the first used here by Augustine, tradition represents, that when this missionary arrived in Kent, he found an ancient church on the site of what is now called St. Martin's."

SIR H. ELLIS adds, that--

"A charter of King Canute's styles Saviour's church, Canterbury, the mother and mistress of all churches in the kingdom of England."-_Æcclesia Salvatoris_, &c.

I conceive these accounts to be perfectly reconcilable. From Bede's _Ecclesiastical History_ (b. i., caps. 25, 26.), we learn that, on the east side of Canterbury, in the year 597, there was a church dedicated to the honour of St. Martin, that was "built while the Romans were still in the island," some two hundred years before this date. St. Martin's was the church wherein Bertha, Queen of Kent, used to pray; she having been a Christian of the Royal Family of the Franks.

It will, of course, be allowed that during the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, different saints were held in especial honour in different countries. For instance, not long after the arrival of the Roman missionaries in England, various churches and monasteries,--at Canterbury, Lindisfarne, Bamborough, Lichfield, Weremouth, and Jarrow, and the capital city of the Picts,--were wholly or partially named after St. Peter. When Naitan, King of the Picts, was about to build his church, he sought the assistance of the Abbot of Weremouth, a strong supporter of Roman observances, and "promised to dedicate the same in honour of St. Peter," and to follow the custom of the Roman church, in certain matters, which the subjects of his kingdom had protested against, for more than a hundred years.

Now, on the occasion of Queen Bertha's leaving France, she was accompanied to England by a bishop of her native country, named Luidhard; and when it is remembered that they settled in Kent, amongst heathens of great superstition,--an example of which is recorded on the part of her own husband,--it is natural to suppose they would, in some public manner, seek the especial protection of the popular saint of France; and that saint was Martin. For so profound was the popular veneration which the Franks at one period offered to the power of Saint Martin, that they even computed ordinary occurrences and national events, by an era which commenced with the year of his death.[3]

It is therefore very probable that the public act of reverence just alluded to, consisted in a new dedication of the repaired church, by adding to the ancient name that of St. Martin.

That a practice of altering the names of sacred edifices in this manner was common at the date under consideration, cannot be questioned. For example, Bishop Aidan, about the year 652, built a church in the island of Lindisfarne, the name of which is now unknown. This structure, however, having been destroyed by a fire, his successor, Finan, erected another on the same site, and apparently of the same name. But when a second fire destroyed this church also, in some five and twenty or thirty years, "a larger church" was erected on the old site, and gratefully "dedicated in honour of St. Peter," by Theodore of Roman appointment, "the first archbishop whom all the English church obeyed." (_Bede_, iii. 17. and 25., and iv. 2.) Here, then, a new name was given to a church on the site of a former one of different appellation; and in Lichfield, we have two examples of similar alterations in the names of churches; one St. Chad's Church, Stow, and the other, the cathedral. On the site of the former, according to Bede, Bishop Chad built a St. Mary's Church, hard by which he was buried; "but afterwards, when the church of the most holy prince of the apostles, Peter, was built, his bones were translated into it." (_Ecc. History_, iv. 3.) That is to say, when Chad was canonised, his remains were removed to the site of the present cathedral, as relics over which the principal church of the Mercian kingdom was to be erected.

Throughout the various documents relating to this church, which are preserved in Dugdale's _Monasticon_, vol. iii. pp. 219-255, Savoy edition, {91} the cathedral is generally styled the church of St. Mary and St. Chad. And again, on a recently discovered seal of the dean and chapter, engraved some two hundred years after Stephen's reign, the inscription is this:

"S' DECANI ET CAPL'I ECCLE'IE SCE MARIE ET SCI CEDDE LYCHFELD' AD CAS."[4]

But in a grant from King Stephen to Bishop Roger de Clinton, who commenced the present fabric, it is simply styled _ecclesia Sancti Ceddæ de Lichfield_; and in the year 1341 a document was addressed _Decano et Capitulo ecclesiæ Sancti Ceddæ Lych'_, as may be learned from the _Foedera_, vol. ii. p. 2.

We thus perceive, that the original name of Lichfield Cathedral has been dropped for centuries, and so has that of the church which Bishop Chad built in honour of the Virgin Mary at Stow; for this Church has, for a long time, been known only by the name of Stow Church, or by that of St. Chad's, Stow.

And in this manner, I fancy, may be reconciled the different names of Saviour's, or St. Saviour's, Canterbury, and St. Martin's, Canterbury; both alluding to the same church, THE MOTHER CHURCH of _Saxon_ England.

J. RAWSON, M.D.

Lichfield.

[Footnote 3: See Brady's _Clavis Calendaria_, November 12.]

[Footnote 4: See the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for August 1848; in which an accurate representation of this seal is given.]

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_The Frozen Horn_ (Vol. ii., p. 262.; Vol. iii., p. 25.).--In an old edition of _Hudibras_ now before me, I find the following note on the lines quoted by J. M. G.:--

"Some report that in Nova Zembla and Greenland men's words are wont to be frozen in the air, and at the thaw may be heard."

The application of the idea by Charles Dickens, in his _Old Curiosity Shop_, is also, I think, extremely felicitous.

"'Don't be frightened, mistress,' said Quilp, after a pause. 'Your son knows me: I don't eat babies; I don't like 'em. It will be as well to stop that young screamer though, in case I should be tempted to do him a mischief. Holloa, Sir! will you be quiet?' _Little Jacob stemmed the course of two tears which he was squeezing out of his eyes, and instantly subsided into a silent horror.... The moment their_ [Quilp and Swiveller] _backs were turned, little Jacob thawed, and resumed his crying from the point where Quilp had frozen him._"--Vol. i. pp. 207-9.

J. B. COLMAN.

_To Pose._--In Vol. ii., p. 522., your correspondent F. R. A. points out some passages in which the word "posing" appears to be used in a sense equivalent to "parsing." Neither the etymology nor the exact meaning of the word "to pose," are easy to determine. It seems to be abbreviated from the old verb "to appose;" which meant, to set a task, to subject to an examination or interrogatory; and hence to perplex, to embarrass, to puzzle. The latter is the common meaning of the word _to pose_; thus in Crabbe's _Parish Register_:--

"Then by what name th' unwelcome guest to call, Was long a question, and _it posed them all_."

Hence, too, the common expression, that a question which it is difficult to answer, or an argument which seems to decide the controversy, is a _poser_. The word "posing" in the passages cited by F. R. A. may refer to the examination of the pupil by the teacher of grammar. Thus, Fuller, in his _Worthies_, art. Norfolk, says that--

"The University appointed Dr. Cranmer, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, to be the _poser-general_ of all candidates in divinity."

Roquefort, _Gloss. de la Langue Romaine_, has "apponer, appliquer, poser, plaier." See Richardson in _appose_ and _pose_.

L.

_Culprits torn by Horses_ (Vol. ii., p. 480.).--In reply to MR. JACKSON'S question respecting culprits torn by horses, I beg to inform him that Robert François Damiens was the last criminal thus executed in France. He suffered on the 28th March, 1757, for an attempt on the life of Louis XV. The awful penalty of the law was carried out in complete conformity with the savage precedents of former centuries. Not one of the preparatory barbarities of question, ordinary and extraordinary, or of the accompanying atrocities of red-hot pincers, melted lead, and boiling oil, was omitted. The agony of the wretched man lasted for an hour and a half, and was witnessed, as Mercier informs us, by all the best company in Paris.

The men amused their leisure with cards, while waiting, as he says, for the boiling oil; and the women were the last to turn their eyes from the hideous spectacle. Your correspondent may be glad to be informed that the same punishment was inflicted on Poltrot de Méré for the murder of the Duke of Guise, in 1563; on Salcède, in 1582, for conspiring against the Duke of Alençon; on Brilland, in 1588, for poisoning the Prince de Condé; on Bourgoing, Prior of the Jacobins, as an accessory to the crime of Jaques Clément, in 1590; and on Ravaillac, for the murder of Henry IV. in 1610. These, with the case of Jean Chastel, are all of which I am aware. If any of your readers can add to the list, I shall feel obliged.

As I am upon the subject of judicial horrors, I would ask, whether any of your correspondents can supply me with a reference to the case of a {92} woman executed, I think in Paris, and, if my recollection serves, for a systematic series of infanticides.

She was put to death by being suspended over a fire in an iron cage, in which a number of wild cats were shut up with her.

I read the story many years ago, and for some time have been vainly endeavouring to recover it.

J. S.

_Torn by Horses_ (Vol. ii., p. 522.).--This cruel mode of execution was practised both in antiquity and the middle ages. Livy, speaking of Tullus Hostilius, says:--

"Exinde, duabus admotis quadrigis, in currus earum distentum illigat Mettum; deinde in diversum iter equi concitati, lacerum in utroque curru corpus, qua inhæserant vinculis membra, portantes. Avertere omnes a tantâ foedidate spectaculi oculos."--L. i., c. 28.

Livy adds, that this was the first and last example of so savage a punishment among the Romans. The punishment, however, must have been well-known in antiquity, as it is alluded to by Seneca among the tortures which accompanied death.

"Cogita hoc loco carcerem, et cruces, et equleos, et uncum; et adactum per medium hominem, qui per os emergat, stipitem; _et distracta in diversum actis curribus membra_."--Epist. xiv. 4.

Grimm (_Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_, p. 692.) quotes the following instance of this punishment from Gregory of Tours, _Hist. France_, iii. 7.:

"Puellas crudelinece interfecerunt ita ut ligatis brachiis super equorum cervicibus, ipsique acerrimo moti stimulo per diversa petentes diversas in partes feminas diviserunt"

He adds that it occurs frequently in the legends of the Carolingian period. Thus Turpin, c. 26., describes as follows the punishment of the traitor Gannalon:--

"Jussit illum Carolus quatuor equis ferocissimis totius exercitus alligari, et super eos quatuor sessores agitantes contra quatuor plagas coeli, et sic dignâ morte discerptus interiit."

Almost all cruel punishments have been used in the East, and it is not improbable that execution by means of horses may be mentioned in some oriental narrative.

L.

_The Conquest_ (Vol. ii., p. 440.).--In _Cambria Triumphans_, by Percy Enderbie, at p. 283, will be found a copy of a deed, the conclusion of which runs thus:--

"Sigilla nostra apposuimus in Castro nostro de Burgavenny vicessimo secundo die Julii, anno regni Regis Henrici sexti, post _Conquestum_ vicessimo septimo."

The word is here used for the accession of the King.

S. K.

_Mayors--their correct Prefix_ (Vol. i., p. 380.).--Since propounding my Query in Vol. i., p. 380., relative to this subject, I have to inform your readers, that I have been favoured with the opinion of gentlemen very high in official authority on all points connected with heraldry and the rules of precedence; which is, that the proper style of the mayor of a borough is "the worshipful;" and they are further of opinion, that there can be no ground for styling the mayor of a city "the right worshipful."

J.

_True Blue_ (Vol. iii., p. 27.).--On the origin of this expression, I must claim the right to dissent from your correspondent G. F. G., who appears to have fallen into the error of confining a form of very wide application to one particular case, in which he discovers a trifling coincidence of fact. The connexion of the colour blue with truth is of very ancient date, of which the following may for the present suffice as an example:--

"And by hire beddes hed she made a mew And covered it with velouettes blew, In signe of trouth, that is in woman sene." Chaucer, _Squiere's Tale_.

Blue, in the early practice of the tinctorial art, appears to have been the most humble of the colours in use, and the least affected by any external influence; and, down to the present day, if certain tints of recent invention be excepted, the same character may be claimed for it. What then more natural, than that it should be taken as the type of immutability, or that every party, political or religious, should in turn assume it as the badge of honesty of purpose, and of firm adherence to their principles?

F. S. Q.

_Modum Promissionis_ (Vol. ii., pp. 279, 347, 468.).--This phrase is perhaps connected with the promissivus modus, _i.e._ tempus promissivum or futurum of Diomedes and other mediæval grammarians.

T. J.

_Fronte capillatâ, &c._ (Vol. iii., pp. 8. 43.).--The representation of "Occasio," or "Opportunity," with hair in front, and bald behind, is far more ancient than the drama referred to by your correspondent G. A. S.

In the _Anthologia_ (Brunck's edition, vol. ii. p. 49.) the following beautiful epigram is the 13th by Posidippus:--

[Greek: Eis Agalma tou Kairou.] [Greek: Tis, pothen ho plastês? Sikuônios. Ounoma dê tis?] [Greek: Lusippos. Su de, tis? Kairos ho pandamatôr.] [Greek: Tipte d' ep' akra bebêkas? Aei trochaô. Ti de tarsous] [Greek: Possin echeis diphueis? Hiptam' hupênemios.] [Greek: Cheiri de dexiterêi ti phereis xuron? Andrasi deigma] [Greek: Hôs akmês pasês oxuteros telethô.] [Greek: Hê de komê, ti kat' opsin? Hupantiasanti labesthai,] [Greek: Nê Dia. Taxopithen pros ti phalakra pelei?] [Greek: Ton gar hapax ptênoisi parathrexanta me possin] [Greek: Ou tis eu' himeirôn draxetai exopithen.] [Greek: Tounech' ho technitês se dieplasen? Heineken humeôn,] [Greek: Xeine, kai en prothurois thêke dikaskaliên.]

{93} The same epigram, with an inconsiderable alteration, is given in Bosch's _Anthologia Græca_, vol. ii. p. 478., with a close Latin translation by Grotius.

The following English version of the Greek is as nearly literal as the idioms of the two languages will allow.

"Who is the sculptor, say, and whence? From Sicyon. What is he By name? Lysippus. Who art thou? I am Opportunity.

"Why is thy step so high and light? I am running all the day. Why on each foot hast thou a wing? I fly with the winds away.

"Why is a razor in thy hand? More keen my edge is set. Why hast thou hair upon thy brow? To seize me by, when met.

"Why is thy head then bald behind? Because men wish in vain, When I have run past on wingèd feet To catch me e'er again.

"Why did the artist form thee so? To place me in this hall, That I a lesson thus might give To thee, friend, and to all."

Ausonius, in the fourteenth century of the Christian era, imitates this in his 12th epigram.

Phædrus (lib. v., fab. 8), in the Augustine age, speaks of the same representation as already sanctioned by antiquity:--

"OCCASIO DEPICTA. "Cursu veloci pendens in novaculâ, Calvus, comosâ fronte, nudo corpore; Quem si occuparis, teneas: elapsum semel Non ipse possit Jupiter reprehendere; Occassionem rerum significat brevem. Effectus impediret ne segnis mora, Finxere antiqui talem effigiem temporis."

T. C.

Durham, Jan. 20. 1851.

_Cross between a Wolf and a Hound_ (Vol. iii., p. 39.).--There is no doubt that a dog and a wolf are capable of breeding together. The fact is well known, and has been long ascertained. See _Penny Cyclopædia_, art. "Dog." The only question is whether the offspring of this cross is a mule, and, like other mules, incapable of continuing its race; or whether it is prolific? The latter position is maintained by Mr. Bell, in his _History of British Quadrupeds_. "The dog and wolf will readily breed together (he says), _and their progeny is fertile_." But query, can any authentic instance be produced of a cross between a dog and a wolf, which has produced a prolific animal?

L.

Professor Thomas Bell states that the dog and wolf will readily breed with each other, and that their progeny thus obtained will again mingle with the dog.

W. J. BERNARD SMITH.

Temple, Jan. 19. 1851.

I have read somewhere (in Kohl's _Russia_, if I mistake not) that this cross is not uncommon in the southern portions of European Russia, but I have not the book at hand to refer to.

DISS.

Your correspondent, T----N, will find this fact referred to in Sir John Franklin's _Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea_, vol. i., p. 268., 2nd edition, London. Murray, 1824. Lieutenant Hood says--

"On our way to the tent a black wolf rushed out upon an Indian, who happened to pass its den. It was shot, and the Indians carried away three black whelps, to improve the breed of their dogs."

W. H. H. K.

Drayton Beauchamp, Jan. 22. 1851.

_Touching for the Evil_ (Vol. iii., p. 42.).--I have seen an illuminated MS. containing the form of prayer in use previous to the Reformation. As far as I remember, the MS. in question must have been of the fifteenth century. Where it may now be found I am not aware. At the time of my seeing it, it was in the possession of Mr. Toovey of Piccadilly.

A somewhat curious field for inquiry on this subject is opened by a passage in Voltaire's _Siècle de Louis XIV_. Speaking of James II. touching for the evil while in exile at the French court, he says--

"Soit que les Rois Anglais se soient attribué ce singulier privilège, comme prétendans à la couronne de la France; soit que cette cérémonie soit établie chez eux depuis le temps du premier Edouard."

Have we any evidence of the ceremony having been performed by any French monarchs? I am not aware of any.

J. SN.

_Old Booty_ (Vol. iii, p. 40.).--In 1830 there appeared a humorous versification, by W. T. Moncrieff, of this story, for the authenticity of which he prudently says he cannot vouch. He furnishes a sort of account of the affair, and of an action at the suit of Booty's widow, the records of which, it says, are at Westminster, Jan. 2. 1687.

Notwithstanding this apparent circumstantial account, we find in a very entertaining anonymous work, entitled _The History of Man; or, the Wonders of Human Nature_, 2nd edit. Edinb. 1790, 8vo., vol. i. p. 376., a similar incident related of a Mr. Gresham, an eminent merchant of London, which happened in the reign of Hen. VIII., the authorities for which are cited, _Sandy's Trav._ l. 4. p. 248. _Clark's Mir._ c. 33. p. 115.

F. R. A.

_Breeches Bible_ (Vol. iii., p 17.).--The first edition of this Bible is now before me. The title-page and portions of the addresses to Queen Elizabeth and to the reader are unfortunately {94} wanting, as is also the first leaf of Genesis. But the title of the New Testament as follows:--

"The Newe Testament of ovr Lord Jesus Christ [***] Conferred diligently with the Greke, and best approued translacions in divers languages. At Geneva: Printed by Rouland Hull. M.D.LX."

There is a woodcut of the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites on the shore of the Red Sea, surrounded with texts from scripture. It is a small quarto in Roman type, and divided into verses.

ECHO.

_Separation of Sexes in Church_ (Vol. ii., p. 94.).--This custom appears to be of considerable antiquity. Sir Thomas More, in his _Utopia_ (p. 285. of the edition of 1639), says--

"When they be come thither, the men goe into the right side of the church, and the women into the left side."

J. SN.

_Defender of the Faith_ (Vol. iii., p. 9.).--By a hasty perusal of the letter of COL. ANSTRUTHER in your number of the 4th of January, I perceive that some doubt has been raised whether any of our sovereigns have used the title of Defender of the Faith, prior to the time of King Henry VIII.

If you will refer to the forth part of Prynne's _Institutes_, pp. 229-30, and 295-6-7, you will find set out at full length divers letters close and patent from King Richard II. in the 6th, 11th, and 19th years of his reign, for suppressing the heresies of Wickliff and his followers. These letters are addressed to the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, William Archbishop of Canterbury (Courtney), and to Ralfe Crombewell, Chivalier, and John Lekyll, and the Mayor and Bailiffs of Nottingham, in which King Richard II. styles himself thus--"Nos Zelo Fidei Catholicæ, Cujus Sumus Et Esse Volumus Defensores," &c.

H. WITHAM.

Lincoln Chambers, Chancery Lane, Jan. 14. 1851.

_Epigram on Synod of Dort_ (Vol. iii., p. 23.).--The statement in the _Biographie Universelle_, that this epigram was made _in England_, is probably taken from Mosheim (_Eccl. Hist_.), who says the same; but his authority Neal (_Hist. of the Puritans_) does not say that it was made _in England_; and one can hardly read the sentence in which he quotes it without feeling satisfied that he did not know _who_ made it. After stating that the proceedings of the synod were much approved of by the English divines, and quoting expressions of Mr. Baxter and the learned Jacobus Capella in its favour, he proceeds--

"P. du Moulin, Paulus Servita, and the author of the life of Waleus, speak the same language. But _others_ poured contempt upon the Synod, or burlesqued their proceedings in the following lines:

'Dordrechti Synodus, nodus; chorus integer, æger; Conventus, ventus; sessio stramen. Amen.'

Lewis du Moulin, with all the favourers of the Arminian doctrine, as Heylin, Womeck, Brandt, &c., charge them with partiality and unjustifiable severity."