2'>d S. VIII. Sept. 10. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



201 



LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. 1859. 



No. 193. — CONTENTS. 



NOTES :_Wa3 Lord Bacon a Calvinist or an Arminian ? by David 

 Gam, 201 — Indexes to Episcopal Regiaters, "by B. B. Woodward, 202 



— Proverbs worth Preserving, by Hubert Bower, /i. — Food of Para- 

 dise, by T. J. Buckton, 76. _ Snuff-box presented to George IV., by 

 Capt. Anderson, 203 — Florence Wilson: Erasmus: John Ogilvie, 

 Parson of Cruden : Forbes of Tolquhon, 76. 



Minor Notes :— History of Pews — Fate of three Men ofXietters_The 

 last of tlie " Shannon " — A modem Giant — Somersetshire Poets, 204. 



QUERIES :— Super- Altars in Cathedrals, by John Ribton Garstln, 



201 — Calcuith, 20r). 

 MiNOH Queries : — Vauxhall Punch, &c Translators' Interpolations 



— Counsellor Tilly — Sir Henry Killigrew _ Sir Richard Steele's 

 former Wife — Planet Showers — Beaumont's " Life of Dean Gran- 

 ville," or Grenville — Sir John Jacob, Bart John Rowe, M.P 



Crossley of S. Leonard's, Shoreditch — Mrs. Glasse's Cookery, &c., 206. 



Minor Queries with Answers : —Yorkshire Worthies, by Hartley 

 Coleridge — Vulture Hopkins — Bibliographical Queries — Wiclif's 

 Testament — " Hallow e'en" : the Wren Song, Sec, 207. 



REPLIES :— The Duke of Buckingham's York House, by W. Niiel 

 Sainsbury, 210 —Handel in Bristol, by Edward F. Rimbault, 210 — 

 " Baratariana," by William John Fitz-Patrick, 211 —Peter Cunning- 

 ham, by J. Macray, 212 — Skeletons with Wax Heads at Cuma;, 213 



— Patron Saints, by Rev. Thomas Boys, 2U — Abigail Hill, 215 — 

 Cock and Bull Stories, 76. 



Replies to Minor Queries : — Dr. Donne's Seal — Ralph Rokeby, &c.— 

 Cromwell's Knights — Ring Posies — John de Witt — Ballad : EUand 

 or Eland— Shooting Soldiers : Oak Leaves— James Anderson, &c.,21fi. 



Notes on Books, &c. 



WAS LORD BACON A CALVINIST OR AN ARMINIAN ? 



This question is suggested by a passage in Lord 

 Macaulay's well-known Essay. After observing 

 that controversies on speculative points of theology 

 seem to have engaged scarcely any portion of 

 Bacon's attention, — a remark in which few who 

 are conversant with his writings will be disposed 

 to concur, his Lordship goes on to say, — 



" He lived in an age in which disputes on the most 

 subtle points of divinity excited an intense interest 

 throughout Europe, and nowhere more than ^'n England. 

 He was placed in the very thick of the conflict. He was 

 in power at the time of the Synod of Dort, and must for 

 months have been daily deafened with talk about elec- 

 tion, reprobation, and final perseverance. Tet ice do not 

 remember a line in his zvorks from which it can be ivferred 

 that he was either a Calvinist or an Arminian." — Essays, 

 p. 397., one vol. ed. 



These observations must have been written 

 currente calamo, and without due recollection. 

 Bacon's general acquaintance with theology was 

 considerable : he was evidently quite familiar 

 with the vexed and thorny questions involved in 

 the great controversy alluded to, and there can- 

 not be any doubt that he held strong Calvinistic 

 opinions. 



In the second book Of the Advancement of 

 Learning, near the end, in speaking of the dif- 

 ferent functions of the several persons in the 

 Trinity, he says that the work — 



" of the redemption in the election and counsel " be- 

 longs " to the Father; in the whole act and consumma- 

 tion to the Son; and in the application to the Holy 

 Spirit : for by the Holy Ghost was Christ conceived in 

 flesh, and by the Holy Ghost are the elect regenerated in 

 spirit. This vjork [of redemption] likewise we consider 



either effectually, in the elect; or privately [sic, sed qu. 

 privatively"] in the reprobate" — Works, i. 129. ed. 1765. 



In his Confession of Faith, the doctrine of elec- 

 tion is very clearly asserted. He affirms his be- 

 lief that God 



" chose according to his good pleasure, man to be that 

 creature to whose nature the eternal Son of God should 

 • be united ; and amongst the generations of men elected a 

 small flock in whom by the participation -of himself he 

 purposed to express the rays of his glory ; all the minis- 

 tration of angels, damnation of devils and reprobates, 

 universal administration of all creatures, and dispensation 

 of all times have no other end, but as the ways and am- 

 bages of God to be further glorified in his saints, who 

 are one with their head the Mediator, who is one with 

 God."— Works, iil 121. 



And farther on it is said 



" That the sufierings and merits of Christ, as they are 

 sufficient to do away the sins of the whole world, so they 

 are only effectual to such as are regenerated by the Holy 

 Ghost; who breatheth where he listeth of free grace." — 

 p. 124. 



And afterwards, in the same page, we are told 

 that the means of grace operate in the " vocation 

 and conversion of the elect" only. And, again, 

 that the Catholic Church consists " of the spirits 

 of the faithful dissolved, and of the spirits of the 

 faithful militant, and of the names^yet to be born, 

 which are already ivritten in the Book of Life." 



These passages, I think, afford a conclusive 

 answer to the question at the head of this Note. 

 There are two other passages to which I shall 

 very briefly refer. 



In the Charge against Mr. Oliver St. John, 

 delivered in the Star Chamber in 1615, Bacon 

 praises James 1. for " his constant and holy pro- 

 ceeding against the heretic Vorstius, whom, being 

 ready to enter into the Chair, and there to have 

 authorized o?ze of the most pestilent and heathenish 

 heresies that ever was begun, his Majesty by his 

 constant opposition dismounted and pulled down." 

 (Works, u. 587.) In explanation of this it will 

 be sufficient to remark that Vorstius was the 

 unfortunate Professor of Theology at Leyden 

 who was appointed to succeed Arminius, but 

 against whom a violent outcry was raised by 

 the Calvinistic party in Holland, and who was 

 ultimately banished by the Synod of Dort in 

 1619. James had taken an active and prominent 

 part against him ; had pronounced his book to be 

 full of heresies; had caused it to be publicly 

 burnt at Oxford, Cambridge, and London, and 

 had recommended the States of Holland not to 

 tolerate such a heretic within their territory. 

 He also wrote a tract against Vorstius ; declared 

 that burning was much too mild a punishment 

 for him, and threatened to cause all orthodox 

 Protestants to unite their strength against the 

 Arminian heresies. — (P. Cye. art. "Vorstius.") 

 Such was the " constant and holy " proceedings 

 commended by Bacon. 



In the essay Of the Vicissitude of Things, pub- 



