2*^ S. VIIL July 9. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



29 



David's and himself; but whether any immediate prac- 

 tical good resulted to the college, or is likely to do so, we 

 are unable to say.] 



Bibliographical Queries. — Who 'were the re- 

 spective authors of the following anonymous pub- 

 lications ? — 



I 1. An Impartial Consideration of the Speeches of the 

 five Jesuits lately executed. 4to. London. 1679. 

 [By Dr. John Williams, Bishop of Chichester. ] 



2. Histoire de I'lnquisition et son Origine. 12mo. 

 Cologne. 1693. 



[Par rAbb(J MarsoUier.] 



3. The Rights of the Christian Church Asserted, &c. 

 8vo. London. 1706. 



TBy Dr. Matthew Tindal. See «K & Q.," 1" S. vi. 

 11.] 



4. Popery against Christianity ; or, an Historical Ac- 

 count of the Present State of Rome, &c. 8vo. London. 

 1719. 



[By Parenthenopeus Hereticus, i. e. William Gordon.] 



5. The Cries of Royal Blood. 12mo. London. 1722. 



6. A Critical Review of the Political Life of Oliver 

 Cromwell. 12mo. Dublin. 1739. 



[By John Bankes ( ?). See " N. & Q.," !■' S. iv. 180 J 



Abhba. 



II Sepolchro del Santo Sangue. — At some town 

 in the northern part of Italy there is a church 

 which contains a shrine in the centre of the build- 

 ing, intituled " II Sepolchro del Santo Sangue," 

 the legend being that the Roman soldier who 

 pierced the Saviour's side, caught the blood as it 

 flowed, preserved it, and brought it to his native 

 town, where he, having become a believer, con- 

 secrated it, and deposited it, and that this church 

 was erected on the spot. 



The memory of the inquirer as to the locality 

 fails him. C. 



[The shrine is in the Basilica di Santa Andrea at 

 Mantua. " In a crypt beneath the high altar is a shrine 

 to contain the blood of our Lord collected by the centu- 

 rion." (Murraj''s Hand- Book of Northern Italy, 6th edit, 

 p. 226.) According to Zedler (vol. xxxiii. col. 2028.), 

 " Sanguis Jesu Christi is the name of a Mantuan order of 

 knighthood, instituted in 1608 by Vincent IV., Duke of 

 Mantua, in honour of Our Saviour's blood, of which it is 

 maintained that they have at Mantua a few drops." 

 (Then follows a description of the collar of the order.) 

 " At its extremity is suspended an oval, whereon are two 

 angels holding a coronated chalice, with three drops of 

 blood and this postil : Nihil isto triste recepto."^ 



Pregnant Women pardoned. — In the case of 

 Johan Norkett, who was murdered in the fourth 

 year of King Charles I. by her husband, aunt, 

 and grandmother, " Judgement was given, and 

 the grandmother and the husband executed, but 

 the aunt had the privilege to be spared execution, 

 being with child." (Quoted from some notes on 

 the case by Sir John Maynard in Collet's Relics 

 of Literature, 1823, p. 163.) 



Was such exemption usual in similar cases ? 



Here, in Norfolk, there is a popular belief (qu. a 

 vulgar error ?), that if a woman in this condition 

 be guilty of theft, and her state at the time be 

 known to the judge, he " can't punish her nohow." 

 The ground of this exemption is referred to the 

 " woman's longing " at such periods, which is sup- 

 posed to render her absolutely incapable of ab- 

 staining from any means of gratifying her desires, 

 however unlawful in other circumstances. I have 

 been told of more than one case of acquittal on 

 these grounds, said to have occurred in this 

 county ; but I have had no opportunity of veri- 

 fying, or disproving them. Ache. 



[It is a " vulgar error," that women, upon a capital con- 

 viction, and being in a state of pregnancy, are on that 

 account not amenable to the utmost demands of the law. 

 Under such circumstances, the Court is, and ever has 

 been, bound to grant a reprieve, until such time as she 

 is delivered of a child, or it is no longer possible in the 

 course of nature that she should be so delivered. The 

 fact of pregnancy is generally determined by a jury of 

 matrons, impanelled for that purpose. The reprieve, in 

 these cases, is usually followed by a commutation of the 

 original sentence; hence, no doubt, the popular notion 

 alluded to by our correspondent.] 



Spoils '■'■History of Carderburyr — Somner, in 

 his preface to his Antiquities of Canterbury, al- 

 ludes to a work entitled " Spot's History of Can- 

 terbury, mentioned byBalaeus," as a book "which, 

 if he had but gotten, he should perchance have 

 brought the work to more perfection." Can any 

 of the readers of " N. & Q." give any information 

 in respect of Spot's History ? It must have been 

 extremely scarce, even if extant in Somner's time, 

 A.D. 1640, or he would doubtless have succeeded 

 in obtaining it. John Bkest. 



[This work was published by Heame in 1719, entitled 

 Thorns Sprotti Chronica, from a MS. in the library of 

 Sir Edward Dering, of Surrenden. Thomas Sprot, or 

 Spott, was a monk of St. Augustine's at_Canterbury, and 

 flourished a.d. 1274.] 



^ei^liti. 



USSHER's BHITANNICARUM ECCLESIAE0M ATiTTIQUI- 



TATES. 



(2'"i S. vii. 121. 523.) 

 Agreeing with Lancastrtensis as to the " na- 

 tional" character of Ussher's great work, written 

 in compliance with a royal command, I also admit 

 that it is desirable to trace out the source of the 

 text given in Dr. Elrington's edition. But I 

 cannot agree with him that there is reason^ to 

 doubt what I had asserted, of that edition being 

 " at most but a reprint," although it might not be 

 difficult to prove that it is even somewhat less. 

 It was undertaken, as the reverend and learned 

 editor informs us, at the request of the Provost 

 and Senior Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, 

 who defrayed all the expenses of printing and 

 publication. The Horatian precept, " nonumque 



