^-•1 S. VIII. Dec. 17. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



501 



impressing arms and heraldic insignia on book 

 covers was prevalent at the time. I have a 4to. 

 Prayer-book of 1620, said to have been King 

 Charles the First's own when Prince of Wales, 

 bearing on its black and worm-eaten covers the 

 "Oestreich" feathers, 'and the initials C. P., but 

 there is here a direct probability of a royal con- 

 nection. The constant recurrence of the arms on 

 copies of the Eikon necessitates another supposi- 

 tion, E. S. Taylor. 



PRISONER S ARRAIGNMENT : HOLDING UP THE 

 HAND. 



(2°*S.viii. 414.) 



When an oath is taken by a witness in a French 

 court of justice, the President tells him to hold tip 

 his hand, and to speak the truth. " Quand on fait 

 serment devant le Juge, il faut lever la main." 

 Hence " holding up the hand " is considered 

 equivalent to " swearing." " En ce sens, on dit, 

 j'en leverois la main, pour dire, j'en ferais ser- 

 ment." (Alberti.) 



This practice may possibly be, in part, the 

 origin of the prisoner's holding up his hand, 

 when pleading guilty or not guilty. But the 

 custom goes much farther back. In the early 

 jurisprudence of Germany, the original rule was 

 that the hand, in swearing, touched some sacred 

 object, generally relics after the introduction of 

 Christianity. Swearing in criminal cases (in 

 peinliches Gericht) was, a. with the mouth (mit 

 mund), /3. with the hand (mit hand). The right 

 hand was laid upon the sacred object, whatever 

 it might be. " Der rechten wurde der heilige 

 gegenstand angeriihrt." (Grimm, D. R. Altert. 

 1828, p. 903.) But mark the progressive change. 

 Instead of the whole hand, in time it became the 

 practice to touch the sacred object with two 

 fingers only ; and this, again, passed to simply 

 lifting them up. Accordingly, Grimm asks the 

 question, " May we not infer that they were not 

 always laid upon [the sacred object], but only 

 held up ? " And he adds, " as, at this day, the 

 use of relics having passed into desuetude, it is 

 the practice to sivear." That is, in swearing, the 

 lifting up of the hand or fingers continued, though 

 the use of relics was dropped. 



There is another mediasval custom which throws 

 light upon the practice of pleading to an indict- 

 ment by holding up the hand. A person who 

 became surety was called manulevator. To be 

 bound as surety is manulevare. These terms of 

 mediaeval Latin reappeared, in old Italian, as 

 mallevadore, mallevare. The explanation is that 

 parties, in becoming surety, used to lift up the 

 hand. " Mallevare. Spondere. Quegli cli' en- 

 travan mallevadori, alzavan la mano in segno di 

 promessa." (Menage.) 



Would we go back to the common origin of 



these various practices, we must turn to the pages 

 of the Old Testament, where we shall find that 

 lifting up the hand is the oldest form of an oath 

 recorded in the Bible. {Gen. xiv. 22. Cf. Deut. 

 xxxii. 40., Ezek. xx. 5, 6, and marg. renderings 

 of Ex. vi. 8. and Num. xiv. 30.) 



It does not, however, exactly follow that, when 

 a prisoner in a criminal court with uplifted hand 

 pleads guilty or not guilty, he is put upon his oath. 

 Were that so, it would be a very wrong thing ; 

 especiall}' as the plea of not guilty is sometimes 

 technical. The uplifted hand would seem rather 

 to be simply a recognition of the fact that he was 

 there to be tried and to stand the issue ; in short 

 that, identifying himself as defendant, he was his 

 own mallevadore, responsible if convicted, and to 

 be dealt with in due course of law. There is a 

 great deal more that might be cited upon the 

 present subject. Thomas Bots. 



The practice of a prisoner on arraignment hold- 

 ing up his right hand arose thus : a prisoner found 

 guilty of a felony, on pleading his clergy, was 

 branded on the brawn of the right thumb, and 

 discharged. Benefit of clergy could not be claimed 

 more than once ; a prisoner, therefore, on arraign- 

 ment was made to hold up his right hand, that 

 the court might judge whether he had been 

 branded previously. J. C. M. 



HENRT SMITH S SERMONa. 



(2"* S. viii. 254. 330.) 



I am possessed of a copy of Henry Smith's Ser- 

 mons, of which I subjoin a description. 



A volume without title-page, the first part of 

 which contains 632 pages, and the second a fresh 

 pagination of 176 pages. 



« The Life of Mr. Henry Smith," by Thomas Fuller. 

 An Address " to the Reader," signed " H. S." 

 " The Epistle to the Treatise of the Lord's Supper." 

 The Contents. 



Then the Sermons, &c., in the following order : — 

 " A Preparative to Marriage, pp. 1 — 32. 

 A Treatise of the Lord's Supper, in Two Sermons, pp. 

 33—71." 



Then comes a title-page : — 



" The Examination of Usurj', in Two Sermons, by 

 Henry Smith. London : Printed by A. Maxwell, for 

 Edward Brewster, at the Crane in St. Paul's Churchyard, 

 and John Wright in Little Britain, 1673." 



There is an Address to the Reader before the two 

 Sermons, signed " H. S.," pp. 77—96. Then fol- 

 lows "The Christian's Sacrifice," with an Address 

 " to my late auditors, the congregation of Cle- 

 ment Danes all the good-will which I can wish," 

 pp. 97—109. 



« The True Trial of the Spirits, pp. 111—124. 

 The Wedding Garment, pp. 125 — 1S4. 



