Chapter C: De D

[Maffeo Barberini (Urban VIII.) was the Roman pontiff between 1623
and 1644, and is said to have been born at Florence in 1568, of a
noble family. He was a good classical scholar, and no mean Latin
poet. One charge brought against him was his weak partiality
towards his nephews, who abused his old age and credulity. It is
probable some of our correspondents can throw some light on this
mysterious document.]

_Almanacs._--A friend of mine, in taking down his old rectory house last year, found under one of the floors a book almanac, of which the following is the title given:

"A Prognossicacion and an Almanac fastened together, declaring the
Dispocission of the People, and also of the Wether, with certaine
Electyons and Tymes chosen both for Phisicke and Surgerye, and for
the Husbandman. And also for Hawekying, Huntying, Fyshing, and
Foulyinge, according to the Science of Astronomy, made for the
yeare of our Lord God M. D. L. calculed for the Merydyan of Yorke,
and practiced by Anthony Askam."

At the end of the Almanac:

"Imprynted at London, in Flete Strete, at the Signe of the
George, next to Saynt Dunstone's Churche, by Wyllyam Powell, cum
priuilegio ad imprimendum solum."

Then follows the "Prognossicacion," the title-page to which is as follows:

"A Prognossicacion for the yere of our Lord M.CCCCCL., calculed
upon the Meridiane of the Towne of Anwarpe and the Country
thereabout, by Master Peter of Moorbecke, Doctoure in Physicke of
ye same Towne, whereunto is added the Judgment of M. Cornelius
Schute, Doctor in Physicke of the Towne of Bruges in Flanders,
upon and concerning the Disposicion, Estate, and Condicion of
certaine Prynces, Contreys, and Regions for thys present yere,
gathered oute of hys Prognostication for the same yere. Translated
out of Dutch into Englyshe by William Harrys."

At the end--

"Imprynted at London by John Daye, dwellynge over Aldersgate and
Wylliam Seres, dwellyng in Peter Colledge. These Bokes are to be
sold at the Newe Shop by the lytle Conduyte in Chepesyde."

The print is old English. Mr. Francis Moore and the Almanacs have figured in your recent Numbers, and I have thought that a brief notice of an almanac three hundred years old might not be unacceptable to your "NOTES AND QUERIES" friends.

D.

Exeter, June 18. 1851.

Queries.

GHOST STORIES.

From some recent experiments of the Baron von Reichenbach, it seems probable that wherever chemical action is going on light is evolved, though it is only by persons possessing peculiar (though not very rare) powers of sight, and by them only under peculiar circumstances, that it can be seen. It occurred to him that such persons might perhaps see light over graves in which dead bodies were undergoing decomposition. He says:

"The desire to inflict a mortal wound on the monster,
superstition, which, from a similar origin, a few centuries ago,
inflicted on European society so vast an amount of misery; and by
whose influence, not hundreds, but thousands of innocent persons
died in tortures on the rack and at the stake;--this desire made
me wish to make the experiment, if possible, of bringing a highly
sensitive person, by night, to a churchyard."--§ 158. Gregory's
Translation, p. 126.

The experiment succeeded. Light "was chiefly seen over all new graves; while there was no appearance of it over very old ones." The fact was confirmed in subsequent experiments by five other sensitive persons, and I have no design of questioning it. My doubt is only how far we can consider the knowledge of it as giving a "mortal wound" to superstition. "Thousands of ghost stories," the Baron tells us, "will now receive a natural explanation, and will thus cease to be marvellous;" and he afterwards says, "Thus I have, I trust, succeeded in tearing down one of the densest veils of darkened ignorance and human error." I repeat that I do not question the fact; my Query is, where to find the "thousands of ghost stories" which are explained by it; and as I suspect that you have some correspondents capable of giving information on such subjects, I shall feel much obliged if they will tell me.

S. R. MAITLAND.

Gloucester.

A BOOK WANTED OF ENZINAS.--FRANCISCO DE ENZINAS, OR DRYANDER, TRANSLATOR OF THE SPANISH NEW TESTAMENT, 1543.

Can any obliging reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" inform me of the existence, in any of our public libraries, or for sale, of the following book: _Dryandri (Franciscus) Flandriæ propriæ incarcerationis et liberationis Historia_: Antwerpiæ(?) 1545. Sm. 8vo.? Fox, the martyrologist, writing of Dryander, says:

"I read the book in the shop of John Oporine, printer, of Basil."

I have a French translation of it, and a Spanish version is sanctioned by Pellicea (after Gerdes), under this title: _Breve Descripcion del Pais Baxo, y razon de la Religion en España_, en 8vo.; but in such a manner as leaves it questionable. If a Spanish version is known, I should esteem it a favour to be informed where it can now be found.

Enzinas passed part of the years 1542-3 with Melancthon at Wittemberg. Having completed his New Testament, he returned early in the latter year to Antwerp to get it printed. After much reflection and advice with his friends, he made an agreement with Stephen Mierdmann of Antwerp, in the following manner:

"I determined," says he, "to do my duty in the affair, at all
events; which was, to undertake the publication, and to leave the
consequences, and the course of the inspired Word, to the
providence of God, to whom it of right belonged. I therefore spoke
with a ----, and asked him whether he was willing to print my
book. He answered, Yes, very gladly; partly because I desire to do
some good for the commonweal more than for my own particular
interest, caring little for gain or for the slander of opponents;
and partly, also, said he, because it is a book that has long been
desired. Then I asked him whether it was needful to have a
_license_ or _permission_, and whether he could not print it
without these: for, said I, it would ill beseem the Word of God,
from which kings and rulers derive the authority for the exercise
of their power, that it should be subject to the permission or
prohibition of any human feeling or fancy. To this he answered,
that no law of the Emperor had ever forbidden the printing of the
Holy Scriptures; and this was well known, for in Antwerp the New
Testament had already been printed in almost every language of
Europe but the Spanish, and that neither himself nor any other
printer had ever previously asked permission. From his experience,
he had no doubt that, provided it was faithfully translated, the
New Testament might be freely printed without leave or license.
Then, said I, get ready your presses and everything needful for
the work. I will answer for the interpretation of the text, and
you shall take the risk of printing. And more, in order that you
shall not suffer by loss or fine from our Spaniards, I will take
the expense of the impression on myself. So I delivered to him the
copy, and begged him to dispatch the business as soon as possible.

"Nothing relating to it was done in secret; everybody knew that
the New Testament was being printed in Spanish. Many praised the
project; many waited for it with eagerness; my rooms were never
closed, every one who wished came in and out: and yet I doubt not
that some who came and beforehand praised my book, when they were
behind my back, and with their own parties, sung another song;
well perceiving that the reading of the Scriptures by the people
is not very likely to profit their avaricious stomachs. I care
little, however, for such opinions and selfish passions, confiding
in God alone, who directed and would protect an undertaking
devoted solely to His own glory."

It were too long for the "NOTES AND QUERIES" to tell how he was induced to cancel the first leaf of his New Testament after it was printed, because it had one word which savoured of Lutheranism; of his presenting the finished volume to the Emperor Charles V. at Brussels; how he received him, and what he said of his being entrapped by his confessor, and cast into prison for fifteen months, escaping and being let down by a rope over the city wall, until he found repose and security again at Wittemberg with Melancthon.

Few of the early translations of the New Testament into the vulgar languages of Europe are so little known as the Spanish of Francisco de Enzinas, or Dryander; and yet, perhaps, of no one of them are there such minute particulars of the printing and publication to be found upon record as that published by him in 1543, and of his imprisonment in consequence of it.

BENJAMIN B. WIFFEN.

Mount Pleasant, near Woburn.

SALTING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD.

Every reader of Ariosto, of Boiardo, or of Berri, is acquainted with the character of Turpin, as an historian. John Turpin's _History of the Life of Charles the Great and Roland_ has long since been regarded as a collection of fables; as a romance written under a feigned name. Its real character is, however, best described by Ferrario, when he says that it is not to be considered as "the mere invention of any one impostor, but rather as a compilation of ancient tales and ballads that had been circulating amongst the people from the ninth century." (_Storia ed Analisi degli Antichi Romanzi di Cavalleria_, vol. i. pp. 21, 22.) In such a work we must not calculate upon meeting with facts, but we may hope to be able to obtain an insight into ancient practices, and an acquaintance with ancient customs. It is for this reason I would desire to draw the attention of the reader to a curious mode of preserving the bodies of the dead, stated by Turpin. He says that the Christians, being without a sufficient supply of aromatic drugs wherewith to embalm the dead, disembowelled them, and filled them up with salt. The passage thus stands in the original:

"Tunc defunctorum corpora amici eorum diversis aromatibus
condiverunt; alii myrrha, alii balsamo, alii _sale_ diligentes
perfuderunt: _multi corpora per ventrem findebant et stercora
ejiciebant, et sale, alia aromata non habentes, condiebant._"--C.
27.

Does any other author but Turpin mention this mode of "salting," or rather of "pickling" the dead? This is the Query which I put, in the expectation of having it answered in the affirmative, as I am quite certain I have met with another author--although I cannot cite his name--who mentions the body of a Duke of Gloucester being thus preserved with salt; but unfortunately I have not taken a note of the author, and can only thus vaguely refer to the fact.

W. B. MACCABE.

Minor Queries.

_The Star in the East_ (St. Matt. ii. 2.).--I have been told that in the year of the Nativity three of the planets were in conjunction. Some one of your astronomical correspondents may probably be able to furnish information on this subject: it is full of sacred interest and wonder.

J. W. H.

_Meaning of Sinage: Distord: Slander._--In a translation of Luther's _Revelation of Antichrist_ by the Protestant martyr Frith, the word _sinage_ occurs in a list of ecclesiastical payments, which the popish prelates were wont to exact from the parochial clergy.

If any of your correspondents can say what _sinage_ means, he may oblige me still further by explaining the word _distord_, in the same page; where it is said "they stir princes and officers to distord against them," viz., against such as resist the claims of churchmen.

Is there any authority for supposing that _sclawnder_, ordinarily _slander_, may sometimes mean injury, without reference to character? It is certain that the parallel term _calumnia_ was so used in monkish Latin.

H. W.

_Miss._--It is generally, I believe, understood that, prior to the time of Charles II., married women were called _Mistress_, and unmarried had _Mistress_ prefixed to their Christian name; and that the equivocal position of many in that reign, gave rise to the peculiar designation of _Miss_ or "Mis." Can any of your readers show an earlier use of the term than the following, from _Epigrams of all Sorts_, by Richard Flecknoe, published 1669?

"To Mis. Davis on her excellent Dancing.
Dear Mis., delight of all the nobler sort,
Pride of the stage and darling of the court."

Again, was the term, when used with especial reference to these ladies, always spelt with one _s_, as _Mis_?

M. S.

_Jacques Mabiotte._--I read, that certain members of the continental masonic lodges interpret the Hiram, whose death the freemasons affect to deplore, as meaning Molai, Grand Master of the Templars; but that others understand the said Hiram to mean Jacques Mabiotte. Now, I should think the person whom secret associations can be even imagined, ever so falsely, to keep in continual remembrance, and who is thus placed in competition with the Grand Master of the Temple, should at least enjoy that moderate share of celebrity that will enable some of your correspondents to inform me who he was, and what were the circumstances of his death. I have not myself been able to find him.

A. N.

_Registry of British Subjects abroad._--There is a notion that all British subjects born in foreign parts are considered as born within the diocese of London. What is the origin of this notion? I have heard it said that it is founded on some order made by King George I., on the occasion of his journeys to Hanover. But it must be of older date.

Can any of your readers throw any light upon this? and greatly oblige,

J. B.

[A notice was published in the _London Gazette_ in March, 1816,
stating that the Bishop of London's registrar would register all
marriages of British subjects solemnised in foreign countries; and
also the births and deaths of British subjects which occurred
abroad. Has that notice any reference to the notion?]

_Shawls._--When were shawls first introduced into this country from the East? and whence has the name arisen? for I see no trace of it in our English dictionaries. Is it from its Persian name, "do-shâllâ?" I should also much wish to know when plaids and tartans were first mentioned as part of the national dress of Scotland.

A JUROR.

"_Racked by pain, by shame confounded._"--From whence are the following lines taken?

"Racked by pain, by shame confounded;
Goaded to the desperate deed."

Y. G. F.

Oxford, June 17. 1850.

_Figures of Saints._--During some slight repairs in my parish church, vestiges of mural paintings were discovered above and on each side of the chancel arch. I caused the plaster and whitewash to be removed, and discovered two colossal angelic figures, but in a very imperfect state. Each have nimbi of a blue colour, surmounted by crosses, with globular extremities.

The S. figure holds an enormous spear. The N. one is so much defaced that nothing could be traced but the outline of the figure, and what appears a gigantic serpent, or perhaps a scroll of a blue colour behind it. The clerk reports that traces of an anchor could be seen ten years ago; but on his statement I cannot place much reliance. I should be obliged for any information respecting the subject. Above the centre of the arch I could only see a profusion of fragments of wings surrounded by a glory.

E. S. TAYLOR.

Martham, Norfolk, June 7.

_Conceyted Letters, who wrote?_--

"Conceyted Letters, newly laid open: or a most excellent bundle of
new wit, wherein is knit up together all the perfection or art of
episteling, by which the most ignorant may with much modestie
talke and argue with the best learned." London: B. Alsop, 1618.

Who is the author of this little work? Lowndes gives it as an anonymous production, but it is sometimes ascribed to Nicolas Breton. The initials I. M. affixed to the preface, would rather denote Jervase Markham as the author.

[Greek: D].

_Acta Sanctorum._--Is any endeavour being made for the completion of that vast work, the _Acta Sanctorum_, the last volume of which I believe was published at Brussels in 1845?

P. S. E.

_Pope's "honest Factor."_--I shall be obliged if any of your readers can inform me who was the "honest factor" referred to in Pope's "Sir Balaam" in the lines:

"Asleep and naked, as an Indian lay,
An honest factor stole a gem away:
He pledg'd it to the knight," &c.

I have seen it noticed in the biography of an individual who held some official post in India, but have forgotten the name.

J. SWANN.

Norwich, May, 1851.

_Meaning of "Nervous."_--Will any of your correspondents kindly oblige me, by stating what is the actual meaning of the word _nervous_? On reference to Johnson, I find it expressed as follows:--

"Nervy, sinewy, _vigorous_; also having _diseased_ or _weak_
nerves."

Now, by this definition, I am led to believe that the word has two meanings, directly opposed to each other. Is this so?

K. BANNEL.

Liverpool.

_Doomsday Book of Scotland._--In vol. xx. of Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_, 1798, the following extract of a letter appears from John Pinkerton, Esq., the antiquarian writer, dated the 23rd February, 1794:

"In looking over the _Survey of Scotland_ accomplished by your
exertions, it occurred to me that I could furnish an article,
worthy to appear in an Appendix to one of the volumes of the
_Statistical Account_. I need not inform you, that in the third
volume of Prynne's _Records_ there is a large but undigested list
of all those in Scotland who paid homage to Edward I. in 1291 and
1296, forming a kind of Doomsday Book of the country at that
period. Four years ago, I, with some labour, reduced the numerous
names and designations into alphabetical order, and the list being
now adapted to general use, and containing the names and
designations of the chief landholders, citizens, and clergy of the
time, it may be regarded as of no small importance to our ancient
statistics, topography, and genealogy. If your opinion coincides,
I shall with pleasure present it to you for the purpose, and
correct the press."

Now the article so kindly proffered by Mr. Pinkerton did not appear in the _Statistical Account of Scotland_, or in any of Mr. Pinkerton's subsequent publications, that I am aware of. I should feel obliged if any correspondent could inform me if it was ever published.

ABERDONIENSIS.

Minor Queries Answered.

_Dr. Sacheverell._--Was Dr. Sacheverell's speech on his trial (supposed to have been the work of Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester) ever published? If so, when, and by whom?

COLLY WOBBLES.

[A printed copy of Dr. Sacheverell's speech is now on our table,
but without any publisher's name. The following is a copy of the
title: "The Speech of Henry Sacheverell, D.D., upon his
Impeachment at the Bar of the House of Lords, in Westminster Hall,
March 7. 1709-10. London, Printed in the year 1710." On the back
of the title-page appears the following advertisement: "Just
published, Collections of Passages referred to by Dr. Henry
Sacheverell in his Answer to the Articles of his Impeachment,
under four Heads. I. Testimonies concerning the doctrine of
Non-resistance to the Supreme Powers. II. Blasphemous,
irreligious, and heretical Positions, lately published. III. The
Church and Clergy abused. IV. The Queen, State, and Ministry
reflected upon."]

_Princess Wilbrahama._--Advertisement of a pamphlet appearing in 1767:

"A plain Narrative of Facts relating to the Person who lately
passed under the assumed name of the Princess Wilbrahama, lately
detected at the Devizes: containing her whole History, from her
first Elopement with the Hon. Mrs. Sc***ts, till her Discovery and
Commitment to Devizes Bridewell; together with the very
extraordinary Circumstances attending that Discovery, and the
Report of a Jury of Matrons summoned on that Occasion, &c. London:
printed for the Author."

I shall be very thankful for any elucidation of the above case. It appears to have been sufficiently popular to warrant the publisher in engaging, as he says, "the best artists" to illustrate it with a series of caricatures. I have never been able to meet with a copy in any public library.

J. WAYLEN.

[The notorious impostor noticed in the communication of our
correspondent, performed her surprising feats of hazardous
versatility between the years 1765 and 1768. On different
occasions she assumed the names of Wilson, alias Boxall, alias
Mollineaux, alias Irving, alias Baroness Wilmington, alias Lady
Viscountess Wilbrihammon, alias Countess of Normandy. In 1766 her
ladyship, "with gentle mien and accent bland," received for her
dextrous lubricities something like a whipping at Coventry. In
1767 she was adjudged a vagabond at Devizes, and in the following
year sentenced to transportation at the Westminster assizes.
Alderman Hewitt of Coventry, in 1778, published some memorabilia
of her ladyship in a pamphlet entitled, _Memoirs of the celebrated
Lady Viscountess Wilbrihammon, the greatest Impostress of the
present age_. The alderman does not notice the tract mentioned by
our correspondent, so that it still remains a query whether it was
ever issued, although it may have been advertised.]

_Early Visitations._--In Noble's _College of Arms_, it is stated, p. 25., that--

"Henry VI. sent persons through many of the counties of England to
collect the names of the gentry of each; these lists have reached
our time. It is observable, that many are mentioned in them who
had adopted the meanest trades, yet were still accounted gentry."

Where are these lists to be found?

H. WITHAM.

[Noble's statements upon such points are extremely loose. We know
not of any such lists, but would refer to Grimaldi's _Origines
Genealogicæ_, under "Rolls and Visitations," where, in all
probability, something may be found in reference to the subject,
if there ever were any such lists.]

Replies.

WRITTEN SERMONS.

(Vol. iii., pp. 478, 526.)

Perhaps the publication of the following document may lead to a solution of the question sent by M.C.L. (Vol. iii., p. 478.). It is a copy of a letter from the Duke of Monmouth, as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, intimating to the clergy the displeasure of Charles II. at their use of periwigs, and their practice of reading sermons. His Majesty, it will be found, thought both customs equally important and equally unbecoming. Of the latter, it is stated that it "took beginning with the disorders of the late times, and that the way of preaching without book was most agreeable to the use of the foreign churches, to the custom of the University heretofore, and to the nature and intendment of that holy exercise." It will surprise many of your readers to find that the reading of sermons was considered to be a mere puritanical innovation.

"_The Duke of Monmouth, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge,
to the Vice-Chancellor and University._

"Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen,

"His Majesty having taken notice of the liberty which several
persons in holy orders have taken to wear their hair and periwigs
of an unusual and unbecoming length, hath commanded me to let you
know, that he is much displeased therewith, and strictly injoins
that all such persons as profess or intend the study of divinity,
do for the future wear their hair in a manner more suitable to the
gravity and sobriety of their profession, and that distinction
which was always maintained between the habit of men devoted to
the ministry and other persons.

"And whereas, his Majesty is informed that the practice of reading
sermons is generally taken up by the preachers before the
University, and there for some time continued, even before
himself, his Majesty hath commanded me to signify to you his
pleasure, that the said practice, which took beginning with the
disorders of the late times, be wholly laid aside; and that the
foresaid preachers deliver their sermons, both in Latin and
English, by memory, or without book, as being a way of preaching
which his Majesty judges most agreeable to the use of the foreign
churches, and to the custom of the University heretofore, and to
the nature and intendment of that holy exercise.

"And that his Majesty's commands in the premisses may be duly
regarded and observed, his Majesty's farther pleasure is, that the
names of all such ecclesiastical persons as shall wear their hair
as heretofore in an unfitting imitation of the fashion of laymen,
or that shall continue in the present slothfull way of preaching,
be from time to time signified unto me by the Vice-Chancellor for
the time being, upon pain of his Majesty's displeasure.

"Having in obedience to his Majesty's will signified thus much
unto you, I shall not doubt of that your ready compliance; and the
rather because his Majesty intends to send the same injunctions
very speedily to the University of Oxford, whom I am assured you
will equal in all other excellencies, and so in obedience to the
king; especially when his commands are so much to the honour and
esteem of that renowned University, whose welfare is so heartily
desired, and shall ever be endeavoured by, Mr. Vice-Chancellor,

"Your loving friend and Chancellor,

"MONMOUTH."

I believe this letter, or something like it, was published by Peck in his _Desiderata Curiosa_, and also by Mr. Roberts in his _Life of Monmouth_. The transcript I send you was made from a copy in the handwriting of Dr. Birch in the _Additional MS._ 4162., fo. 230.

JOHN BRUCE.

The following passage occurs in Rutt's _Diary of Thomas Burton_, 4 vols.: Colburn, 1828. I have not the work at hand, but from a MS. extract from the same, believe it may be found as a note by the editor in vol. i. p. 359.

"Burnet was always an extempore preacher. He says that reading is
peculiar to this nation, and cannot be induced in any other. The
only discourse he ever wrote beforehand was a thanksgiving sermon
before the queen in 1705. He never before was at a pause in
preaching. It is contrary to a university statute, obsolete,
though unrepealed."