470 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2n'i S. No 50., Dec. 13. '56. 



THE ORDER OP ST. MICHAEL. 



(2"'' S. ii. 420.) 

 I am obliged to J. C. H. for the references he 

 gives : but what I require is not brief notices, but 

 a full history of this order, once pre-eminent in 

 France, though subsequently eclipsed by other 

 institutions. More particularly I wish to find a 

 list of the knights, or at least of those of its early 

 days. Before King Edward VI., his father had 

 been placed upon its roll. Upon the conclusion 

 of peace with France in 1528, the ambassadors 

 that came thence — 



" had commission to establish the King in the order of 

 France, for whom they brought for that intent a collar of 

 fine gold with the Michaell hanging thereat, and robes to 

 the same order appertinent, the wliich was of blew velvet 

 richly embrodered. And tlie King, to gratifie the French 

 king with the semblable, sent a noble man of the order 

 here in England, with Garter the herault, into France to 

 establish the French King in the order of the Gartar, with 

 a semblable collar, with a gartar and robes according to 

 the same." — Stowe's Chronicle. 



A book of the laws of the Order of Saint Mi- 

 chael, having a very fine illumination prefixed, 

 which represents the sovereign and knights in 

 chapter, was sent to Henry VIII. on this occasion, 

 and is still preserved in the Chapter-House at 

 Westminster. Again, in 1566, when Charles IX. 

 was elected of the Garter, he returned the com- 

 pliment, as the English sovereign was a female, by 

 bestowing his order upon two of her subjects, 

 nominated by herself. Stowe thus records this 

 occurrence : 



" In January monsieur Rambuley, a knight, of the 

 order in France, was sent over into England by the 

 French king Charles the ninth of that name, who at 

 Windsore was stalled in the behalfe of the said French 

 king, with the Knighthood of the most honourable order 

 of the Garter ; and the 24. of January, in the chappell of 

 her Majesties pallace of Whitehall, the said monsieur 

 Kambuiey invested Thomas (Howard) Duke of Norfolk, 

 and Robert (Dudley) Earl of Leicester, with th% said 

 order of Saint Michaell." 



The great seal of the Earl of Leicester, which is 

 engraved in Nichols's History of Leicestershire, 

 (vol. i. pi. xxxiii.) displays on the one side his 

 equestrian figure, surrounded by the collar of St. 

 Michael, and on the other his shield of arms sur- 

 rounded by the Garter (not the collar of the 

 Garter). These four, King Henry VIII., King 

 Edward V4, the Duke of Norfolk, and the Earl 

 of Leicester, are all the Englishmen that I am at 

 present aware of having been companions of the 

 Order of St. Michael. From the more intimate 

 connection which prevailed between France and 

 Scotland, it is not improbable that this order was 

 conferred upon a larger number of the natives of 

 that country. The Regent Arran was already a 

 knight of St. Michael before he was created Duke 



of Chatelherault in 1548. (Douglas's Peerage of 

 Scotland, by Wood, i. 700.) Subsequently, when 

 Queen Mary was married into France, it would 

 probably be bestowed on several of her country- 

 men. A calendar of the knights would show how 

 far this was the fact. I find in April, 1556, the 

 Cardinal of Lorraine desiring his sister, the Queen 

 Dowager of Scotland, to return to France the 

 collar of St. Michael that had belonged to the 

 Earl of Angus. (Lettres de Marie Stuart, par 

 Labanoff, 1844, i. 36.) J. G. N. 



JANE LEAD AND SWEDENBORG. 

 (2°1 S. i. 93.) 



We are occasionally met with the curious idea 

 that persons of eminence steal from others of 

 lesser mark ; and Mr. Clifton Barry has furnished 

 an additional instance in his article respecting 

 Mrs. Jane Lead, of whom he observes, that 



" Nearly half a century after her death we find Trapp 

 accusing William Law of stealing his mysticism from her; 

 and I fear the ' unspirilualized ' critic would hardly absolve 

 Swedenborg from a similar charge" 



Swedenborg, who was a most honourable man, 

 believed, and constantly asserted, that he wrote his 

 theological works from a spiritual illumination. 

 See this stated, in the strongest form, in his in- 

 troduction to his great work, entitled Arcana Cce- 

 lestia. As to the idea of his having been indebted 

 to the Mystics, it is fully met in a passage of a 

 letter from him to his friend Dr. Beyer, dated 

 Stockholm, Feb. 1767. (It is to be found in the 

 Biographies of Swedenborg.) 



"By your friend, Sir, I have been asked several 

 questions, to which be pleased to receive the following as 

 an answer : 



"I. Mt/ opinion concerning the turitings of Behmen and 



L ? — 1 have never read them, as I was prohibited 



reading dogmatic and systematic Theology, before Heaven 

 was opened to me, by reason, that unfounded opinions 

 and inventions might thereby easily have insinuated 

 themselves, which with difhculty could afterwards have 

 been extirpated ; wherefore, when Heaven was opened to 

 me, it was necessarj' first to learn the Hebrew Language, 

 as well as the Correspondencies of which the Bible is com- 

 posed, which led me to read the Word of God over many 

 times ; and inasmuch as the Word of God is the source 

 whence all Theology must be derived, I was thereby 

 enabled to receive instructions from the Lord, who is the 

 Word." 



It is not known who is designated by the L , 



Mr. Barry intimates that his knowledge of Jane 

 Lead's works is confined to the books entitled 

 Laws of Paradise and Wonders of God's Creation, 

 &c. Both of these are in the British Museum*, 



* They are, indeed, I believe, the only works of Mrs. 

 Lead's in the Museum Library, which is much to be re- 

 gretted, as, besides being extremely rare, they are very 

 interesting in their kind. I would mention her narrative 



