Jan. 10. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



33 



described as Rose, Roose, otherwise Cooke, and 

 Rouse), prescribing the mode of punishment as 

 above, and declaring the crime of poisoning to be 

 treason for the future. The occurrence is thus 

 related in a foot-note to Rapin, 2nd edit. vol. i. 

 p. 792. : — 



" During this Session of Parliament [1531] one 

 Richard Rouse, a cook, on the 16th February poisoned 

 some soop in the Bishop of Rochester's kitchen, with 

 which seventeen persons were mortally infected ; and 

 one of the gentlemen died of it, and some poor people 

 that were charitably fed with the remainder were also 

 infected, one woman dying. The person was appre- 

 hended ; and by Act of Parliament poisoning was 

 declared treason, and Rouse was attainted and sentenced 

 to he boiled to death, which was to be the punishment 

 of poisoning for all times to come. The sentence was 

 executed in Smithfield soon after." 



This horrible punishment did not remain on the 

 Statute Books for any very lengthened period, the 

 above statute of Henry being repealed by statutes 

 1 Edw.VI. c. 12., and 1 Mary, stat. 1. c. 1., by which 

 all new treasons were abolished, since which the 

 punishment has been the same as in other cases of 

 murder. If within the reach of any correspon- 

 dent, an extract from the statute of Henry would 

 be interesting. J. B. Colman. 



Eye, Dec. 16. 1851. 



[The Act of 22 Hen. VIII. c. 9. recites, that 

 " nowe in the tyme of this presente parliament, that is 

 to saye, in the xviij"* daye of Februarye in the xxij. 

 yere of his moste victorious reygn, one Richard Roose 

 late of Rouchester in thecountie of Kent, coke, other- 

 wyse called Richard Coke, of his moste wyked and 

 dampnable dysposicyon dyd caste a certyne venym or 

 poyson into a vessell replenysshed with yeste or barme 

 stondyng in the kechyn of the Reverende Father in 

 God John Bysshopp of Rochester at his place in 

 Lamebyth Marsshe, wyth whych yeste or barme and 

 other thynges convenyent porrage or gruell was forth- 

 wyth made for his famylyc there beyng, wherby nat 

 only the nombre of xvij persons of his said famylie 

 whych dyd eate of that porrage were mortally enfected 

 and poysoned, and one of them, that is to say, Benett 

 Curwen gentylman therof is deceassed, but also certeyne 

 pore people which resorted to the sayde Bysshops 

 place and were there charytably fedde wyth the remayne 

 of the saide porrage and other vytayles, were in lyke 

 wyse infected, and one pore woman of them, that is to 

 saye, Alyce Tryppytt wydowe, is also thereof now de- 

 ceassed : our sayde Sovereign Lorde the Kynge of hys 

 blessed disposicion inwardly abhorryng all such ab- 

 homynable otTences because that in maner no persone 

 can lyve in suertye out of daunger of death by that 

 meane yf practyse therof should not be exchued, hath 

 ordeyned and enacted by auctorytie of thys presente 

 parlyament that the sayde poysonyng be adjudged and 

 demed as high treason. And that the sayde Richard 

 [Rose or Roose] for the sayd murder and poysonynge 

 of the said two persones as is aforesayde by auctoritie 

 of this presente parlyament shall stande and be attaynted 



of highe treason : And by cause that detestable offence 

 nowe newly practysed and comytted requyreth condigne 

 punysshemente for the same; It is ordeyned and en- 

 acted by auctoritie of this present parlyament that the 

 said Richard Roose shalbe therfore boyled to deathe 

 withoute havynge any advauntage of his clargie. And 

 that from hensforth every wylfull murder of any per- 

 sone or persones by any whatsoever persone or persones 

 herafter to be comytted and done by meane or waye of 

 poysonyng shalbe reputed, demed, and juged in the 

 la we to be highe treason ; And that all and every per- 

 sone or persones which hereafter shalbe lawfully indyted 

 appeled and attaynted or condemned of such treson 

 for any maner poysonyng shall not be admytted to the 

 benefyte of hys or theyre clargye, but shalbe imme- 

 dyatly committed to execucion of deth by boylynge for 

 the same.] 



THE ROMAN INDEX EXPDRGATORIUS OF 1607. 

 (Vol. iv., p. 440.) 



U. U. will be extremely sorry to hear that he 

 has not any reason for persuading himself that 

 his copy of this Index belongs to the original 

 edition. On account of the difference of spaces 

 observed in the reprint, each page, though con- 

 taining only the same matter that appears in the 

 earlier impression, has been elongated to the extent 

 required for three lines. The Eatisbon octavo is 

 generally about an inch taller, and a third part 

 thicker, than the Roman volume. The woodcuts 

 are totally distinct, and are better In the authentic 

 book ; and the beau papier, of which Clement 

 speaks, at once eliminates the modern pretender. 



I have been able to obtain two copies of the 

 genuine Vatican Index as well as its Serpilian 

 rival ; and with respect to what your correspond- 

 ent calls " the BergomV (more properly the 

 Bergamo) " edition" of 1608, I beg to assure him 

 that there is an "undoubted" exemplar likewise 

 producible, and that I have dispersed a thousand 

 facsimiles of it since the year 1837. 



U. U. has charged Mr. Mendham with having 

 imagined that " Brasichellen" was a "complete" 

 word. I happen to know very well, and many of 

 your readers also know, that my excellent friend 

 is not altogether such a simpleton; but he will 

 most probably not take the trouble on this occa- 

 sion to defend himself. The fact is, that the Ser- 

 pilian counterfeit alone Is without the full stop in 

 the case of this word, which in the Bergamo title- 

 page ends at " Brasichell." The master of the 

 sacred palace, with whom we are now concerned, 

 is very rarely mentioned as Gi(^vanni Maria da 

 Brisighella, the designation which he rightly gives 

 to himself in his Italian edicts ; and the Latinized 

 forms Brasichellanus and Brasichellevsis easily 

 arrive at English abridgments. In 1607, when 

 the Vatican Expurgatory Index was first published, 

 the Commissary-General of the Roman Inquisition 

 was Agostino Galamini da Brisighella, and his 



