Volume 4 — Replies.

WRITTEN SERMONS AND EXTEMPORE PREACHING. (Vol. iii., pp. 478. 526.; Vol. iv., p. 8.)

Your versatile correspondent MR. GATTY has been led astray by an incorrect assertion of Bingham's (magni nominis vir), that Origen was the first who preached extempore. The passage to which Bingham refers us, in Eusebius, asserts nothing of this sort; but simply that Origen would not suffer his sermons to be taken down by the short-hand writers till he was sixty years old,—a sufficient proof, if any were needed, that the custom of taking down sermons by notaries in the third century was not unusual.

Some rogue has stolen my Number of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" in which the inquiry on the subject of written sermons was made; but, if I remember rightly, the question was put correctly, it having been asked when written sermons were first preached. As I at one time took some pains to look into this point, and as no one else seems inclined to take it up, perhaps you will allow me space for a few remarks.

1. I suppose no one will be disposed to question the extreme improbability of the "sermons" in the Apostolic are having been written discourses: if, however, this be considered doubtful, I am willing to argue the point, and be set right if I am wrong in thinking it unquestionable.

2. I believe it is almost as improbable, that in what Professor Brunt calls the "post-Apostolic" times sermons were written, not only from the complete silence of the Apostolic Fathers on the point—for that would really prove next to nothing,—but because it seems quite incredible that no vestige of any such sermon should have come down to us; no forgery of one, no legend or tradition of the existence of one if the practice of writing sermons had prevailed at all.

3. In the Apologies of Justin and Tertullian [Justin, ed. Otto, i. 270.; Tertullian, Ap. ch. xxxix.] there is a description of the addresses delivered in the congregations of their times, which appears to me to prove that they knew of no such practice as reading a sermon and the passage from Origen contra Cels., which De la Cerda gives in his note on Tertullian, though it is only quoted in the Latin, surely shows the same (vol. i. p. 190.). I came across something of the sort in Cyprian about two years ago and, if I may dare trust my memory, it appeared to me at the time to be more satisfactory than the passages above referred to; but I made no note of it,—and I was hunting for other game when I met with it. Still, if your querist is going into the subject as a student into a matter of history, I dare stay I could find the paragraph.

4. I have really no acquaintance with the post-Nicene fathers, the mere desultory reading out of some few of the works of the Arian period counting for something less than nothing; but, as far as secondary sources are to be trusted, I certainly never met with anything that would lead me to conclude that sermons were ever read in the fourth or fifth centuries. [I shall come to the only shadow of an argument in favour of such a practice having prevailed so early, presently.] Certainly, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, were extempore preachers by Bingham's showing. Gregory the Great, much later, for all that appears to the contrary, never wrote his sermons at all, and even preached his homilies on Ezekiel almost without any preparation. Indeed the prevalence of that most abominable system of applauding the preacher, which St. Chrysostom protests against in the magnificent sermon on 1Cor.xiv.38., could scarcely have been universal where sermons were read.

5. I come now to the argument which Bingham deduces from a passage in Sidonius Apollinaris; where, in speaking of Faustus, Bishop of Riez, he says that he was "raucus plausor," while hearing "tuas prædicationes, nunc repentinas, nunc, cum ratio poposcisset, elucubratas." Until I had turned up the passage itself, I thought there was no doubt that Bingham was right in explaining it as referring partly to extempore, partly to written-and-read sermons; but taking the passage as it stands, I would submit that the "prædicationes elucubratas" were not at all read sermons, though prepared and studied beforehand, and that the "prædicationes repentinas" were such as St. Augustine sometimes delivered, viz., on a text which suggested itself to him during the time of service, or in consequence of some unforeseen event having happened just before his ascending the pulpit.

6. I have as yet dealt only with the negative evidence; but the positive testimony against the reading, and in favour of the reciting or preaching sermons, is far from small. I should look upon man as crazy who ventured to speak slightingly of Bingham, and should as soon think of setting up myself against that great man as of challenging Goliah of Gath to fisty-cuffs; but I can never get rid of the thought that Bingham had a strong prejudice against extempore preaching, and treated the history of sermons somewhat unfairly: e.g., in his 22nd section of that 4th chap. of the xivth book (with which chap. I take it for granted my readers are acquainted), he somewhat roguishly misrepresents Mabillon and the Council of Vaison; and as to every other passage he quotes or refers to, every one asserts that the sermons were to be preached or recited, not one says a word about reading.

The Council of Vaison is, of course, that which was held in A.D. 529, and at which Cæsarius of Arles presided: but the 2nd canon does not say a word about reading; so far from it, it commands that the homilies which the deacons preached should be recited [recitentur, Labbe, iv. p 1679.], as though the practice of reading a sermon were not known. So, with regard to the other passages from St. Augustine, there is not a hint about reading: if a man could not make his own sermons, he was to take another's; but to take care to commit it to memory, and then deliver it.

I should be glad to furnish you with a few "more last words" on this subject, but I fear that these remarks have already proceeded to too great a length: still, if you give me any encouragement, I should like to take up the matter again.

I should be glad to be informed whether it be true, as I have heard, that the practice of learning their sermons by heart is universal and avowed by the preachers in Germany; and whether it be really a common thing for a preacher there to deny himself on a Saturday, on the plea that he is getting his sermon by heart?

AJAX.

Papworth St. Agnes, July 8. 1851.

Written Sermons (Vol. iii., p. 478.).

—Your querist M. C. L. may be referred to Dr. Short's History of the Church of England, § 223.; or to Burnet's Reformation, vol. i. p. 317., folio; where he will find that the practice commenced about the year 1542.

N. E. R. (a Subscriber.)

FEST SITTINGS. (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 396.)

Not questioning the meaning given to the word Fest by R. VINCENT, I take leave to refer you to Dr. Willan's list of words in use in the mountainous districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in the seventeenth volume of the Archæologia. You will there find: "FEST, to board from home." The word is used in that sense at the present time. A gentleman resident in the West Riding writes to me:

"I have heard the term 'fest' used generally as applying to sending out cattle to pasture, and so says Carr in his Dialect of Craven. I have also frequently heard it used in this manner: 'I have fest my lad out apprentice to so and so.' In my own neighbourhood, in the West Riding, it is a frequent practice for poor man who possesses a cow, but no pasture, to 'fest' her with some occupier of land at a certain sum by the week, or for some other term. So a gamekeeper is said 'to fest' his master's pointer, when he agrees with a farmer to keep it for a time. In these cases the boy, the cow, the pointer, 'are boarded from home.'"

As to "statutes" or "sittings," the word "statutes" is explained in Blount's Dictionary as follows:

"It is also used in our vulgar discourse for the Petty Sessions which are yearly kept for the disposing of servants in service by the statute 5 Eliz. chap. iv." (§ 48.)

See in the Archaic and Provincial Dictionary, "SITTINGS" and "STATUTE." In Holderness (I collect it from the Query of F. R. H.) the term "sittings" is used in the same sense as "statute" in the West Riding, and in many other parts of the kingdom. "Fest sittings" appear then to mean "the annual assemblage of servants who hire themselves to board from home." In many places the "statute" or "stattie" is connected with the fair.

"Statute Fairs," my friend writes, "are held at Settle, Long Preston, and other places, which don't occur to me, in our district (Craven). At Settle servants wishing to hire stand with a small white wand in their hands, to show their object. In like manner horses, when taken to a fair, wear on their heads a white leather kind of bridle; and (to come nearer home) when a young lady has attained a certain age, and begins to look with anxious eye to future prospects, we say that she also has put on the white bridle."

He adds: "I have myself had servants hired at Long Preston Statute Fair." Another friend writes to me:

"Richmond Statties are very famous, every servant desirous of hiring having a peeled twig or stick. At Penrith they put a straw in their mouths. I remember a poor girl being killed by an infuriated cow at Penrith; and the poor thing had the straw in her mouth when dead."

In the East Riding, Pocklington Statute is well known; and York has its Statute Fair. At these "statutes" or "statties" ("Stattie Fairs" and "Sittings," or Fest Sittings), servants "fest themselves," that is, hire themselves to board from home.

Standing in the market-place to be hired will occur to any one who may take the trouble of reading these desultory observations.

Excuse my adding irrelevantly the following use of the word "sitting." It is said that a young man is "sitting a young woman," when he is wooing or courting her.

F. W. T.

HISTOIRE DES SÉVÉRAMBES. (Vol. iii., pp. 4. 72. 147. 374.)

In Quérard's France Littéraire (Didot, Paris, 1839), tome x. p. 10., I read the following notice of the author of Histoire des Sévérambes:—

"Vairasse (Denis) d'Alais, écrivain français du XVII. Siècle.

"—— Grammaire raisonnée et méthodique, contenant en abrégé les principes de cet art et les règles les plus nécessaires de la langue français. Nouv. édit. Paris, D. Mariette, 1702, in-12.

"La première édition a paru en 1681.

"—— Histoire des Sévérambes (Roman politique) nouv. édit. Amsterdam, Etienne Roger, 1716, 2 vol. in-12.

"La première édition parut de 1677 à 1679, en trois vol. in-12.

"Cet ouvrage a été réimprimé dans la collection des Voyages imaginaires."

La France Littéraire is a compilation of extraordinary labour and research; and, in the absence of more authentic information, I believe we may safely rely on the above statement. The facts, therefore, in so far as they have been brought to light, may be summed up as follows:—

1. The original work was written in English, was entitled History of the Sevarites, and published in 1675.

2. That work suggested the idea of the Histoire des Sévérambes, which was published in 1677-9, and in all essential respects may be said to be an original composition.

3. The Captain Liden of one edition, and the Captain Siden of another (from whose memoirs the work is said to have been translated), are one and the same imaginary personage.

4. The author of the History of the Sevarites has not been ascertained; the claims of Vairasse, Algernon Sidney, and Isaac Vossius, being founded on mere conjecture.

5. There seems no reason to doubt that Denis Vairasse d'Alais was the author of Histoire des Sévérambes; supported as that opinion is by the testimony of Christian Thomasius, Barbier, and Quérard.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

SALTING THE DEAD. (Vol. iv., p. 6.)

An amusing instance of this custom—perhaps even now, under certain circumstances, prevalent in some parts of England—occurs in Mrs. Bray's Letters on the Superstitions, &c. of Devonshire. A traveller while passing over one of the large uninclosed tracts of land near Tavistock, was overtaken by a violent snowstorm, which compelled him to seek a night's shelter from the inhabitants of a lonely cottage on the moor. In the chamber assigned for his repose, he observed a curiously carved oak chest of antique appearance.

"He noticed or made some remarks upon it to the old woman who had lighted him up stairs, in order to see that all things in his room might be as comfortable as circumstances would permit for his rest. There was something he thought shy and odd about the manner of the woman when he observed the chest; and after she was gone, he had half a mind to take a peep into it."

After a while he does, and horribile dictu! a human corpse, stiff and cold, lay before his sight! After a night spent in the most agonizing apprehensions he descends to breakfast, and his fears become somewhat lightened by the savoury fumes of the morning meal.

"Indeed so much did he feel reassured and elevated by the extinction of his personal fears, that, just as the good woman was broiling him another rasher, he out with the secret of the chest, and let them know that he had been somewhat surprised by its contents; venturing to ask, in a friendly tone, for an explanation of so remarkable a circumstance. 'Bless your heart, your honour, 'tis nothing at all,' said her son; 'tis only fayther!'—'Father! your father!' cried the traveller; 'what do you mean?'—'Why, you know, your honour,' replied the peasant, 'the snaw being so thick, and making the roads so cledgy like, when old fayther died, two weeks agon, we couldn't carry un to Tavistock to bury un, and so mother put un in the old box, and salted un in: mother's a fine hand at salting un in.'"—Vol. i. pp. 29. 32.

In connexion with this subject you will perhaps permit me to observe, that the custom of placing a plate of salt on the body is still retained in many parts of the country. An instance of its use in the metropolis came under my notice only last week. The reason assigned for this is, that it prevents the spread of any noxious vapours. But query, is it not an ancient superstitious observance? According to Moresin:

"Salem abhorrere constat diabolum et ratione optima nititur, quia Sal æternitatis est et immortalitatis signum, neque putredine neque corruptione infestatur unquam, sed ipse ab his omnia vendicat."—Moresini Papatus, p. 154.

SPERIEND.

Replies to Minor Queries.

Bogatsky (Vol. iii., p. 478.).

—A very satisfactory biographical sketch of Bogatsky, author of the Golden Treasury, will be found in Evangelical Christendom, vol. iii. for 1849, pp. 69. and 101.

C. W. B.

Baronette (Vol. iii., p. 450.).

—Selden was of opinion that Baronet was used for Banneret, as may be seen in the following extracts from the second part of Titles of Honor.

Chap. iii. sect. 23.:

"Bannerets ... some have stiled them Baronets, as if they had a diminitive title of Barons."

Chap. v. sect. 25.:

"And whereas in the statutes of the same King" (Richard II.), "as we read them in English, every Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, Prior, Duke, Earl, Baron, Baronet, Knight of the Shire, &c., are commanded under paine of amerciament or other punishment, according to ancient use, to appear in Parlament; the French, both of the Roll and of those Books that are truly printed, hath Banneret and by some little mistake Barneret for the same word. And as when mention is in the old stories of Knight Banneret, the word Baronet (which runnes easier from the tongue) is often for Banneret; so fell it not only in the English print of our statutes, but also in a report of a case that is of a later time than that to which our present division confines us, that Baronet (for Banneret) is likewise used for a Baron. For in an attaint under Henry the Sixt, one of the Jury challenged himselfe because his ancestors had been Baronets and Seigneurs des Parlements. I cannot doubt but that the title of Banneret in this sense was meant there."

Chap. v. sect. 39.:

"Of the name of Banneret as it sometimes expressed a Baron of Parlament enough is before said. And as in that notion of it, Baronet was often miswritten for it, so also in this." (Milites vexilliferi): "Neither only have the old stories Baronetti very frequent for Banneretti, but even in a patent passed to Sir Ralph Fane, a Knight-Banneret under Edward the Sixt, he is called Baronettus for Bannerettus."

LLEWELLYN.

Rifles (Vol. iii., p. 517.).

—In reply to A. C., I can safely assert that the best American rifles are nearly equal, in point of workmanship, to the common ones made in Birmingham, and that there is no "use for which an American rifle is to be preferred to an English," French, or Belgian one; and further, that the American rifles will not bear comparison with those of any London maker.

Colt's revolvers were submitted to our Government twelve or fourteen years ago, and not approved. The present revolvers, made in England, have always been considered improvements upon them.

I do not pretend to be the "highest authority," though I profess to know something of the subject.

THE AUTHOR OF "ENGINES OF WAR."

Miss (Vol. iv., p. 6.).

—Evelyn's notice of this word is prior to the instance cited by your correspondent. Under the 9th of January, 1662, he has,—

"I saw acted The Third Part of the Siege of Rhodes. In this acted ye faire and famous comedian call'd Roxalana, from ye part she perform'd; and I think it was ye last, she being taken to be ye Earle of Oxford's Misse (as at this time they began to call lewd women)."

SPERIEND.

Lady Flora Hastings' Bequest (Vol. iii., p. 522.).

—I can state positively, that the lines with the above title were "in reality written by that lamented lady." I was not aware they had ever appeared in print, nor do I think her family are aware either. I am truly sorry that a "Christian Lady" should have been guilty of such a shameless, heartless act of literary piracy.

I here take the opportunity of remarking that, in the last stanza but one, and sixth line, "upon" is a misprint for "uprose."

ERZA.

English Sapphics (Vol. iii., p. 494.).

—In the translation of the Psalms of David by Sir P. Sidney and his sister, the Countess of Pembroke, the 125th Psalm is rendered in Sapphics. The first stanza is as follows:

The 120th Psalm is in Alcaics, and, I think, very successful, considering the difficulty of the metre. It commences thus:

There are also specimens of other Latin metres in the same collection.

I remember about eighteen or twenty years ago an "Ode to December," in Blackwood's Magazine, the first stanza of which was as follows (I quote from memory):

M. W.

Welwood (Vol. iv., p. 1.).

—The imprint of the first edition of his Memoirs is "London, for Tim. Goodwin, 1700." The Museum copy which bears the press-mark 808. f. is a distinct impression.

BOLTON CORNEY.

Bellarmin's Monstrous Paradox (Vol. iii., p. 497.).

—In your paper of June 21st, there is a question inserted as to the precise text in which Cardinal Bellarmin is said to maintain that "should the Pope command the commission of vice, and forbid the practice of virtue, it would become the duty of Catholics to perform the one and to avoid the other." To that question you have replied by quoting a passage from the fourth book of the cardinal's great work. It is quite true that the words quoted by you occur at that place; it is quite as untrue that the "monstrous paradox" is there attempted to be maintained. A reference to the book will show at once that this paradox is simply used as an argument to enable the cardinal to prove his point by the common method of a reductio ad absurdum. If what I maintain, says the cardinal, is false, then it follows that "should the Pope," &c. Of course, the rest of the argument fully stated would be: But this consequence is not true, therefore neither is the antecedent true; that is to say, "what I maintain" is true. So that instead of maintaining in this passage the monstrous paradox alleged, the cardinal, in reality, is only quoting it as a monstrous absurdity, which he himself condemns, and which would result from the contradiction of his proposition. In justice to the memory of a great man, who has been much and most unjustly slandered upon this very point, may I ask for the insertion of this letter.

J. W. CT.

Jonah and the Whale (Vol. iii., p. 517.).

—E. J. K. probably founds his unqualified rejection of the word "whale" on the English version, as a presumed more correct interpretation of the corresponding term in the original Hebrew. But it should not be forgotten, that the equal, or perhaps superior authority of the Seventy translators, to that of our best modern interpreters, is becoming daily more apparent. At all events, without a reference to such collateral aid, it is scarcely safe to pronounce on the meaning of any word or passage in the Old Testament. On this subject, among many other works, may be consulted the valuable Lexicon of the Rev. Dr. Wilson, Canon of Winchester; and the learned Apology for the Septuagint, by the Rev. E. W. Grinfield.

In the present case, it is certainly of little consequence, whether the Greek word κῆτος, and the Latin cetus, be translated "whale," or "great fish," both of which may be comprehended under them. Though the former is the usual interpretation, and though the English translators employ the term "great fish" in the passages "Καὶ προσέταξε Κύριος κήτει μεγάλῳ," and "ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ τοῦ κήτους," the commonly accepted word seems more in accordance with an authority of unquestionable importance.

C. H. P.

Brighton, June 28. 1851.

It must have escaped the memory of your correspondent E. J. K., in speaking of the supposed error of calling the "great fish" which swallowed Jonah a "whale," that our Lord, in giving this sign to the Jews, calls it in our English version a "whale" (τοῦ κήτους, St. Matt. xii. 40., this being the word used in the Septuagint version, from which the Evangelists quoted the SS. of the Old Testament).

Surely then there is not any popular error in the term "whale" as expressing the "great fish" of the prophet Jonah, for your correspondent does not go beyond the English version, nor can I say what the word used in the original Hebrew would strictly signify. Κῆτος, it is true, may not, and probably does not, mean anything more definite than the "great fish" of the Hebrew; but certainly our translators, by adopting the term "whale" in the Gospels, have so sanctioned the interpretation, that the error, if such, must be referred to them, and not to any later period, and therefore can hardly be reckoned amongst those of the popular class.

OXONIENSIS.

Walthamstow, June 30. 1851

Great disputes have been raised what the fish was. As it is called a whale in the Septuagint, and in St. Matthew, xii. 40., one can hardly call it a vulgar error to speak of it commonly as a whale.

C. B.

Book Plates (Vol. iii., p. 495.).

—Your correspondent inquiring about book plates mentions, that 1698 is the earliest date he has heard of. In a sale at Sotheby's, commencing on the 21st inst., there is a copy of Evelyn's Silva, presented by him to Sir Robert Clayton, Lord Mayor of London, with his book plate in it, date 1679.

E. N. W.

Southwark, July, 1851.