2»<i a Vm. July 9. '69.] 



NOTES ABTD QUERIES. 



33 



f)salm Miserere, and the prayer Respice in a very 

 ow tone. At the conclusion of the prayer, the 

 officiatincr priest and the clergy in the choir alone 

 make a slight noise by clapping on their books or 

 desks. This is the signal for the light to be 

 brought forth from behind the altar, and replaced 

 on the top of the triangular candlestick. Originally 

 this clapping was done by the superior priest 

 only, as a signal for all to depart : but when the 

 attendance in the churches was more numerous, 

 the clergy in the choir joined, that the signal 

 .might be better heard. The rubrical direction 

 runs thus : " Finita oratione, fit fragor et strepitus 

 aliquantulum." The Church, however, attaches 

 a mystical meaning to all her ceremonies. The 

 office of these three evenings is called Tenehrce, 

 because at the end all the lights are extinguished 

 to express the darkness at our Saviour's cruci- 

 fixion ; and the noise made by beating the books 

 or desks, represents the earthquake, the rending 

 of the rocks, and the other signs which followed 

 the death of the world's Redeemer. F. C. H. 



This is evidently an allusion to a part of the 

 ceremonies of the Catholics in the Holy Week. 

 For, in the rubric of the Tevebrce office we read, 

 after the prayer Respice, "Finita oratione fit 

 fragor et strepitus," etc. An explanation of 

 which is given by several writers, and particularly 

 by Francesco Cancellieri, in his Description of 

 the Ceremonies of Holy Week in the Pontifical 

 Chapel at Rome. Of that work the third edition 

 was published at Rome in 1802. He adopts as 

 most probable the opinion of Mazzinelli, that this 

 noise expresses the dreadful disturbance and con- 

 fusion of all nature which happened at the death 

 of our Lord. (^Descrizione^ etc., pp. 34, 35.) 



Abteeus. 

 Dublin. 



3K«pIte^ to ;^iit0r <lBMttiti, 



Antonio de Dominis (2"* S. viii. 20.) — In the 

 " Notes on Books," at the above reference, occurs 

 the following sentence concerning this person- 

 age:— 



" We must acknowledge how faithfully he discharged, 

 to the close of his life, those solemn obligations into 

 which he entered with the ministry of the Church of 

 England, upon the eve of bidding an eternal farewell to 

 our shores." 



The reader would Infer from this that the " dis- 

 tinguished ecclesiastic " in question had remained 

 a member of the Church of England, not only to 

 the period of quitting our shores, but even to the 

 close of his life. Now, without any intention, or 

 desire, to raise discussion, or provoke controversy, 

 it is only fair and just to state the undeniable 

 facts, that before he left England, Antonio de Do- 

 minis mounted the pulpit, and in the face of a 



large congregation, solemnly retracted whatever 

 he had written or preached against the Catholic 

 religion. This excited the displeasure of King 

 James I., and he was commanded to leave the 



fountry in three days. He repaired to Rome, 

 egged pardon for his past conduct, retracted his 

 late opinions, and composed a treatise entitled 

 My Motives for Renouncing the Protestant Reli- 

 gion, a new edition of which was published ia 

 London, by Keating and Brown, In 1827. 



F. C. H. 

 [Just before De Dominis quitted England, James I. de- 

 puted several bishops to wait upon him, who put to him the 

 following question: "What he thought of the religion 

 and Church of England, which for so many years he had 

 owned and obeyed, and what he would say of it in the 

 Roman court ? " To this query he gave in writing the 

 memorable answer, " I am resolved, even with the dan- 

 ger of my life, to profess before the Pope himself, that the 

 Church of England is a true and orthodox church of 

 Christ." " This," says Bishop Cosin, " he not only pro- 

 mised, but faithfully performed." (^Treatise against Tran- 

 substantiation, Works, vol. iv. p. 160., edit. 1851.) Few 

 persons were better acquainted with the uncomfortable 

 history of De Dominis than the learned Bishop of Dur- 

 ham, and here he has given his deliberate judgment on 

 this particular point. We also beg leave to submit to our 

 able correspondent, that there are other and equally 

 weighty reasons, besides those urged by Dr. Newland in 

 his recent Life of De Dominis, for concluding that the 

 archbishop died in the faith he professed whilst a minis- 

 ter of the Church of England; and none stronger, we 

 conceive, than the fact of the barbarous treatment to 

 which his remains were exposed in the Campo di Fiori, 

 according to the sentence of the Sacred Congregation. 

 If the Church of Rome cannot convict the unhappy arch- 

 bishop of final " apostacy," it then becomes impossible to 

 account for, much less extenuate, the cruel practices of 

 her agents on that memorable occasion. We can do no 

 more than refer our correspondent to the 4th vol. of our 

 1* Series (p. 295.) ; and also to a Relation sent from Rome 

 of the Processe, Sentence, and Execution done upon the Body, 

 Picture, and Bookes of Marcus jLntonius de Dominis, 

 Archbishop of Spalato, after his Death. Published by 

 Command. London, 1624, 4to., and reprinted in the first 

 collection of Lord Somers's Tracts, vol. iv. p. 575.] 



Fresco in the Record- Room, Westminster Abbey 

 (2"* S. vli. 515.) — I have no doubt but that the 

 "white doe" described by M. C. H. is a royal badge, 

 and is probably a white hart, couchant under a 

 tree proper, gorged with a crown and chained, or, 

 which was one of the badges of Richard IT., who 

 rebuilt the neighbouring hall ; or it may be an 

 antelope gorged and chained, or, which was borne 

 as a badge by Henry V., and also by Henry VL 

 Your correspondent can easily perceive which of 

 these animals is Intended ; a hart would have 

 antlers, while an heraldic antelope would have its 

 horns serrated in an upward direction. 



On the brass lectern In King's College Chapel, 

 Cambridge, is a figure of the founder, Henry VI. 

 He has at his feet an antelope couchant, chained 

 and gorged. I have also lately met with a figure 

 of the same king, painted on the wall of a Norfolk 

 church. He holds the sceptre and orb : at his 



