to as early as A.D. 1100, when Urban II. granted indulgences and remission of sins to all persons who should join in the Crusades to liberate the sepulchre of Christ from the hands of the infidels. Hence it became customary to grant them also to such as without adventuring in their own persons, should provide a soldier for these expeditions, and from this origin the transition was easy to any other purpose which the Roman Church had in view" (Roscoe's Life of Leo X. chap. xii. par. 3). There is an account of a "pardon" in Britanny given by Souvestre (Les derniers Bretons, Paris, 1843, p. 262 et seq.). They are said not to have been known before A.D. 1200. (See Townshend's Accusations of History against the Church of Rome, 8vo, 1825, p. 106); or, as Townshend modifies it, "not till the Council of Lateran.' But see Phillpot's Letters to Charles Butler (8vo, 1825, pp. 158-195). He acknowledges, p. 183, that they are older than the Council of Lateran, having been employed by Honorius II., who was elected pope in 1124; but according to the confession of Chais, they were known" vers le milieu du xie siècle!" (Lettres sur les Jubilés, La Haye, 1751, tome ii, p. 529), and the decree of Innocent III. in Council of Lateran, which Townsend fancies to be the first mention of indulgences, was intended to modify them! (Ib. p. 531, and see also Art. 1328).' Blunt has discovered that they are of Pagan origin (Vestiges of Ancient Manners, 8vo, 1823, p. 190). Among the Japanese an indulgence is the reward of a pilgrimage (see Thunberg's Voyage to Japan in his Travels, Lond. 1795, vol. iv. p. 27). 21. CLASSICAL LEARNING OPPOSED BY COUNCILS, AND BY ST. JEROME. "A Council of Carthage forbade bishops from reading clas- See also sical authors, and Jerome, whose authority was not inferior ART. 134. to that of any Council, censured the young clergy for studying comedies and Virgil to the neglect of the Prophets and Evangelists. . . . . The celebrated Alcuin forbade his disciple Sejulpus from reading Virgil to his pupils. The prejudice indeed was widely spread in the time of Charlemagne that classical authors corrupted Christian morality” (Mills' Travels of Theodore Ducas, vol. i. p. 27). .... See Tertullian's opinion of schoolmasters, in Bishop of Lincoln's Illustrations from the Writings of Tertullian, p. 361. See Campbell's Lectures on Eccles. History, ii. 268. Wiseman's Lectures on Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion, pp. 428-434, 8vo, 1842, 2nd edit. See Lord King's Enquiry into Constitution of the Primitive Church, part i. pp. 89-95, Lond. 1691. Bishop This was in A.D. 400. of Lincoln on Clement of Alexandria, p. 119, 8vo, 1835. Radel, Recherches sur les Bibliothèques, Paris, 1819, p. 32. Even Whewell notices their contempt of science (Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences, 8vo, 1847, vol. i. p. 269). 22. SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE HUNS AND THE SAVAGES OF NORTH AMERICA. "Some parts of their character" [the Huns] "and several of their customs are not unlike those of the savages in North America. They delight,' says Ammianus, in war and danger.'. . . . They boast with the utmost exultation of the number of enemies whom they have slain, and, as the most glorious of all ornaments, they fasten the scalps of those who have fallen by their hands to the trappings of their horses.' See Ammian. Marc. lib. xxxi. p. 477, edit. pro. nov. Lugd. 1693" (Robertson's Charles V. vol. i. p. 241). The same custom exists among the Dahomans (see Duncan's Travels in Western Africa, 8vo, 1847, vol. i. pp. 233-261). The people of Musgon vary it a little by wearing their enemies' teeth. (See Denham and Clapperton's Africa, 1826, 4to, p. 118.) It has been often observed that American women are not prolific. That is, however, ascribed by Malthus (Essay on Population, 6th edition, 1826, vol. i. p. 37) to the want of sexual passion in the men, which he supposes natural to a savage state. He shows (i. 44) that savages are shortlived. See also at pp. 51, 52, some good remarks on the entire want of honour among savages. This was remedied by chivalry. Longevity is rare among negroes (i. 145-146). 23. NUMBER OF THE HINDOO GODS. "The number of the Hindoo gods is not less than one hundred and thirty millions" (Edinburgh Review for February 1838, p. 383). The same thing is stated in Horne's Introduction to the Scriptures, vol. i. p. 17. 24. ORIGIN OF THE WORD ABBOT. "The monastic order, of which we have been taking a general view, was distributed into several classes: it was first divided into two distinct orders, of which the one received the denomination of Cœnobites, the other that of Eremites. The former lived together in a fixed habitation, and made up one large community under a chief whom they called Father or Abbot, which signifies the same thing in the Egyptian language" (Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 102, cent. iv. chap. 3). Campbell calls it a Syrian word. See ART. 152. 25. ORIGIN OF THE INQUISITOR OF THE FAITH. "The office of Inquisitor of the Faith, a name so deservedly abhorred, was first instituted under the reign of Theodosius (Gibbon's History of Rome, 4to, p. 447, chap. xxvii. par. 11). Epistolæ HoElianæ, pp. 232-234, 8vo, 1754. Leclerc, Bibliothèque universelle, xxiii, 362-364. 26. ETYMOLOGY OF APRON. "Minsheu and others conceived that this word was derived from afore one, an etymology that perfectly accords with the burlesque manner of Dean Swift. It has been also deduced from the Greek words Tρò and Tepì; the Latin porro and operio, &c. Skinner, with more plausibility, has suggested the Saxon aconan. After all, an apron is no more than a corruption of a napron, the old and genuine orthography. Thus in The Merry Adventure of the Pardonere and Tapstere': . . and therewith to wepe She made, and with her napron feir and white ywash We have borrowed the word from the old French naperon, a large cloth. See Carpentier, Suppl. ad Cangium, v. Naperii” (Illustrations of Shakespeare and of Ancient Manners, by Francis Douce, 8vo, 1839, pp. 316, 317). Naperon occurs several times in oid English (see Collection of Ordinances, &c., published by Society of Antiquaries, 1790, 4to, pp. 61, 65, 71, 72, 80). See Strutt, Dresses, edit. Planché, 1842, 4to, vol. i. p. 101, vol. ii. pp. 266, 267. He says he has found no notice of it before the twelfth century, and that until modern times it was only used by servants. According to Planché (British Costume, 1846, p. 322), aprons did not become fashionable till early in the eighteenth century. In the middle of this century, Dr. Shebbeare mentions them as being peculiar to the English (Letters on the English Nation, by Angeloni, 8vo, 1755, vol. i. p. 219). 28. GREEK LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN ITALY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. “Neither was the vulgar use of the Greek tongue entirely extinct in some of those parts of Italy till of late; for Galatius, a learned man of that country, hath left written (see Galat. in Descriptione Calliopilii) that when he was a boy (and he lived about 120 years ago) they spake Greek in Calliopili, a city on the east shore of the Bay of Taranto. But yet it continued in ecclesiasti See also ARTS. 16051650. See also cal use in some other parts of that region of Italy much later; for Gabriel Barrius, that lived but about forty years since (see Bar. lib. v. de Antiquit. Calab.), hath left recorded that the Church of Rossano (an archiepiscopal city in the Upper Calabria) retained the Greek tongue and ceremony till his time, and then became Latin. Nay, to descend yet a little nearer the present time. Angelus Rocca that writ but above twenty years ago, hath observed (see Rocca, Tract. de Dialectis in Italica Lingua) that he found in some parts of Calabria and Apulia some remainders of the Greek speech to be still retained" (Enquiries touching the Diversity of Languages and Religions through the chief Parts of the World, written by Edw. Brerewood, sometime Professor in Gresham College in London, Lond. 12mo, 1674, pp. 6, 7). Fosbroke's British Monachism, 8vo, 1843, 3rd edit. p. 250. 29. SNOW WATER NOT THE CAUSE OF GOITRES. "Sir John Sinclair, in the chapter on Water in his work on Health and Longevity, is not of opinion that the swellings of the neck which are found among the inhabitants of the Alps are occasioned by the use of snow-water, and observes, with more pertinency than is very usual with him, that the very same disease is prevalent in Sumatra, where ice and snow are never seen, and that it is wholly unknown in Chili or Thibet, although the rivers of those countries are chiefly supplied by the melting of the mountain snow. It ought to have been mentioned, on the other hand, that Captain Cook found several of his people affected with those swellings after having been confined for some time to the use of water formed from the dissolution of ice taken from the middle of the ocean" (Edinburgh Review for October 1807, p. 202). Evelyn's Diary, vol. i. pp. 369–376. 30. LANGUAGES INTO WHICH THE BIBLE HAS BEEN TRANSLATED. "The total number of dialects spoken in every part of the world is computed to be about 500, and of them somewhat more than 100 seem to constitute languages generically distinct, or exhibiting more diversity than resemblance to each other. Into upward of 150 of these various dialects, the Sacred Scriptures have been translated either wholly or in part, and not less than sixty of them are versions in the languages and dialects of Asia (Bibliographical Appendix to vol. ii. of an Introduction to Study of Scriptures, by T. H. Horne, 8vo, 1834, p. 59). Beloe's Sexagenarian, vol. ii. p. 47, 8vo, 1817. 2. In 1563, the English Parliament ordered the Bible to be translated into Welsh. (Camden's Elizabeth, in Kennett, vol. ii. p. 391). 31. ORIGIN OF BACKGAMMON. 291. "This game (the Tesseranian Art), which might be translated by See also the more familiar term of trictrac or backgammon, was a favourite ARTS. 149, amusement of the gravest Romans, and old Mucius Scævola the lawgiver had the reputation of being a very skilful player. It was called Ludus duodecim Scriptorum, from the twelve scripte or lines which equally divided the alveolus or table. On these the two armies, the white and the black, each consisting of fifteen men or calculi, were regularly placed and alternately moved, according to the laws of the game and the chances of the tessera or dice. Dr. Hyde, who diligently traces the history and varieties of the nerdiludium (a name of Persic etymology) from Ireland to Japan, pours forth on this trifling subject a copious torrent of classic and oriental learning" (Gibbon's History of Rome, 4to, p. 506, note z, chap. xxxi.). Epistolæ HoElianæ, p. 393, book ii. letter lxvi. 8vo, 1754. It is mentioned in Etherege's comedy of She would if she could, end of act iii. in Etherege's Works, 8vo, 1704, p. 146. In Shadwell's Sullen Lovers, act iii., in Shadwell's Works, 12mo, 1720, vol. i. p. 53. Nuga Antiquæ, edit. Park, 8vo, 1814, vol. i. p. 198, vol. ii. p. 144. See The Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII., by Nicolas, 8vo, 1827, p. 356. Retrospective Review, second series, vol. i. pp. 133, 134. The Rev. Arthur Kinsman, head master of Bury St. Edmunds, was very fond of backgammon (see Cumberland's Memoirs of himself, 8vo, 1807, vol. i. p. 43). This was about 1740. George II. used to play at it nearly every night (see Mrs. Thompson's Memoirs of Lady Sundon, 2nd edit. 8vo, 1848, vol. ii. p. 231). The celebrated Lady Russell was very fond of it, and used to play at it for 2s. 6d. a game (see her letters to her husband, dated London, 1680, in Life of Rachel Wriothesley, Lady Russell, 8vo, 1820, 3rd edit. p. 235). 32. THE EARLIEST HYMNS WERE IN THE FOURTH CENTURY, AND WERE OF PAGAN ORIGIN. "The earliest hymns of which we have any remains were composed in the fourth century. It is probable that they were taken from Pagan temple worship, for their versification bears no resemblance to Hebrew poetry, but is conformable to the laws of Greek and Roman music" (Mills' Travels of Theodore Ducas, vol. i. p. 142). 33. WONDERFUL PHYSICAL IDIOSYNCRASIES. "Darwin, in his Zoonomia, records the almost monstrous in- See also stances of a person who could suspend at pleasure the pulsations ART. 565. |