148 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'xi S. X. Aug. 25. '60. 



Here we find Brett harmonising with Dr. 

 Deacon and the Jacobitic clergy of Manchester. 

 On what grounds, then, does Radcliffe, in Bib- 

 lioiheca Chethamensis, vol. i. p. 1 70., mention these 

 two writers as adversaries, thus : — 



" 1742. Essentialists, Tracts in Defence of the Essen- 

 tialists, by several hands, viz. Wagstafie, Lawrence, 

 Grabe, Leslie, Brett, Griffin, &c. London, 1718, &c. 



" 1743. Tracts against the Essentialists, by Hart, My- 

 nors, Deacon, Snat, Earberrv, and^ "Walker. London, 

 1718, &c. 



Does Mr. Lathbury, in his History of Non- 

 Jurors, furnish a Biographic BihliograpMque of 

 this sect ? Index Ikdicatobius. 



Platform (?) an Americanism. — I am igno- 

 rant of the precise signification of the American 

 political term platform, and rashly, perhaps, there- 

 fore venture to question its originality. Peter 

 Heylyn uses the word in an appropriate sense (iii 

 fallor), in his Microcosmos, ed. 1627, p. 204. : 

 " Contarenus supposeth the Venetian Republique 

 to be a very modell of Platoe's old plat-form." 



Delta. 



_ [^Platform, in some parts of the New England States, 

 signifies an ecclesiastical constitution, much as we say 

 " the platform of Geneva " : but perhaps with this differ- 

 ence ; that we, when we speak of an ecclesiastical plat- 

 form, employ the term with an implied reference to those 

 Christian communities which recognise no " divers or- 

 ders " (the Presbyterian, for instance), in contra-distinc- 

 tion to the threefold gradation. Bishop, Priest, Deacon, 

 prevailing in the Anglican Church. This is a distinc- 

 tion with which Brother Jonathan does not appear to 

 trouble himself. Of late years the word platform has 

 also got into very common use throughout the U. S. to 

 denote the collection of principles avowed by a political 

 party ; in which connexion any particular principle of the 

 party is called a plank. " The Free Soil party regard 

 every plank and splinter of the BaSalo platfonn as a relic 

 of untold value." " Distrust a bad man, even if put 

 upon the best platform, .... every plank of which 

 could be stood upon." See Bartlett's Diet, of American- 

 isms, 185d, on platforin and plank.'] 



Shamrock.— Query the etymology ? J. K. 



[Shamrock, qu, Seamar-ogb, i. e. holy trefoil. When 

 S. Patrick preached the Gospel to the Irish, he used the 

 leaf of the shamrock for a holy purpose, namely, to illus- 

 trate the doctrine of the Trinity, Three in One.] 



PossiE-PucK FisTE. — What is the meaning of 

 this term, which is applied to John Goodwin, the 

 celebrated Nonconformist and controversialist, by 

 John Vicars in a violent pamphlet entitled Cole- 

 man Street Conclave visited. London, 1648, paore 

 13? DeltI. 



[On referring to Vicars's pamphlet, we find the true 

 reading to be " Puffie-Puck fiste." Puck-fist is supposed 

 by Nares to be what we now call a fuz-ball or puflF-ball 

 (fungus puherulentus). The term was often used re- 



proachfully or satirically. The prefix " Puffie " appears 

 to have been employed by Vicars with a special allusion 

 to the personal appearance of John Goodwin, whom, just 

 after, he styles a " fat-fed body," and, in the title-page, 

 " this most huge Garagantua."] 



St. James or Calatkava. — Where can I find 

 full information regarding this knightly Order, 

 which appears to have flourished about the 

 twelfth century ? Was charity its primary ob- 

 ject, like that of the Order of Malta ? 



James W. Brtans. 



[An account of the military Order of Calatrava, for- 

 merly known as the Order of Salvatierra, will be found in 

 Burke's Orders of Knighthood, pp. 301—306., 8vo., 1858.3 



Claude Du Val. — Where shall I meet with a 

 true and correct sketch of the life and doings of 

 Claude du Val, the renowned highwayman. Also 

 whether any " Life " of him has ever been pub- 

 lished? Martin de Barreau. 



[The Life of this noted highwayman, who was exe- 

 cuted at Tyburn, 21 Jan. 1669, in his twenty-seventh 

 year, was published in 4to., 1670, under the title of 3Ie- 

 moirs of Monsieur Du Val.l 



Marriages before Noon. — Can any of your 

 correspondents tell me the origin or meaning of 

 the law which obliges marriages to be before 

 noon? Cantab, 



[The regulation which limits the hours when matrimony 

 may be celebrated is due to Canon 62 : " Neither shall 

 any Minister . . . under any pretence whatsoever, join 

 any persons so licensed in marriage at any unseasonable 

 times, but only between the hours of eight and twelve in 

 the forenoon." 



On a careful perusal of Canon 62 it would seem that 

 the limitation as to time, 8 to 12, was intended only for 

 marriages by licence, not for those by banns. This is not 

 so understood at present; but it fully accords with Canon 

 102, which clearly indicates that the limitation as to 

 time was expressly intended for marriages bg licence. 

 The right of granting special licences (for persons to be 

 married quolibet loco ant tempore honesto) is reserved to the 

 Archbishop by stat. 26 Geo. II. 



The canonical restriction, as it affects ordinary mar- 

 riages by licence, appears to have originated in the consi- 

 deration that "licensed persons," having avoided the 

 publicity of banns, ought at any rate to be married 

 openly, and not " at any unseasonable hours " (" for 

 better security against clandestine marriages," Wheatly). 

 The framers of our Canons did not surely meditate any 

 needless restriction ; nor are they likely to have forgot- 

 ten that great principle of English law, which holds 

 good within all reasonable limits, "matrimonium debet 

 esse liberum." 



It has been thought that the forenoon was indicated as 

 a fitting time for marriage, on the old Church principle 

 that the bridegroom and bride, when they made their 

 matrimonial vow, should be fasting ; and in many wed- 

 dings we may yet discern traces of this idea, in the wed- 

 ding breakfast after the ceremony. It has also teen 

 suggested that the forenoon was appointed in order that 

 a due interval might elapse between the religious part of 

 the ceremony and the concluding festivities of the even- 

 ing.] 



