330 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Oct. 27. 1855. 



proper device for Ireland, tlie notion prevailed, as it has 

 done since, that the ancient triangle was intended to re- 

 present a harp ; and therefore a harp was thought more 

 proper than any other device for that kingdom. So much 

 is certain, that there was no settled device for Ireland 

 before the reign of King Henrj' VIII. If they had no 

 settled device before this time, much less had they arms 

 for that kingdom which M'as divided into many states, 

 and no one monarch of the whole, 'till after the time that 

 arms came into use ; yet there are some circumstances 

 that would lead one to think they had some insignia for 

 that kingdom in the time of Edward I. By the statute, 

 A.D. 1288, and the seventeenth year of his reign, ' pro statu 

 Hibernie,' it appears there was a Great Seal of Ireland, 

 and another for the Exchequer there ; these must conse- 

 quently have some impression different from the English, 

 but whether the same as upon the money must remain 

 uncertain 'till any impression of such seals as were used 

 in Ireland can be produced. There was likewise an Ire- 

 land King of Arms, probably as early as Richard II. : for 

 there is the will of Thomas Ireland, 2 Henry V., wherein 

 he st3'les himself ' Thomas Irland, Rex Armorum Hy- 

 bernie,' which afterwards is mentioned by Froissard in 

 1382 ; but probably his office was only nominal. 



( Jb he concluded in our next.^ 



"EBTENKI MANI. 



O^ol. xii., p. 264.) 



Mani, the Persian, from whose Grsecised name, 

 Mwijs, the sect of Manichseans derived their appel- 

 lation, after retiring for several months into a 

 cave, produced, on returning to his followers, a 

 mysterious book containing many well-painted pic- 

 tures ; and he declared that this book had been 

 communicated to him by angels. Oriental au- 

 thorities state that his original profession was that 

 of a painter, which circumstance may account for 

 this illustrated volume. 



He anticipated Mahomet, by affirming that he 

 was the promised Comforter ; and he anticipated 

 the Mormonite impostor by the production of a 

 divinely-communicated book. 



This book went under the name of <^S^>j\ 



^t«, Erteng i Mani, the Library of Mani. 



The word t ^ C'J,\ originally means a shop. 



In the twenty-first chapter of Hyde's Treatise 

 on the Religion of the Ancient Persians (4to 

 Oxonii, 1700, pp. 280—289.), there is a good 

 account of Mani, and also in the Bibliotheque 

 Orientale of Herbelot. Hyde adds that, from this 



word I ■^ t.-JJj\. or, by abbreviation, t^,<[ij. being 



used for Mani's Book of Pictures, the word i"^ ti^'j 

 gradually became an established expression among 

 the Arabic and Persian writers for any collec- 

 tion of pictures ; so that ^.1^', Tengizush, is 



used for the paintings of Zeuxis. 



It does not appear that Mani's Picture Booh 

 No. 313.] 



contained symbols, but, according to Hyde's trans- 

 lation of Khondernir, from whom he cites the above 

 details, tabulas egregie pictas. 



Bishop Usher believed that Mani's name was 

 derived from the Hebrew nniJO, Rest, or Com- 

 fort; because this word is more like the Greek 

 Uavixaios, and is connected in sense with Mani's 

 assumption of " the Comforter's" office. The ob- 

 jection to this etymology "is, that the Persian name 

 contains the radical aleph, which is wanting in the 

 Hebrew word. 



Beausobre, however, adopts this etymology. 



E. C. H. 



CONFUSION OF ECCLESIASTICAT. TEBMS. 



(Vol. xii., p. 160.) 



Mk. Davis has done well in calling attention to 

 the confusion of the appellations of ecclesiastical 

 persons. I wish to add a few remarks to those 

 which he has made. 



The parson is undoubtedly the spiritual go- 

 vernor or rector of the parish, who is himself a 

 corporation (see Blackstone's Comm., book i. 

 ch. ii.). He is so called because " personam ec- 

 clesia; gerit." At the same time, the layman who 

 receives the impropriated tithes is sometimes 

 called the lay rector, while a layman is never 

 known as a parson. 



The word clerk is a term of very ancient eccle- 

 siastical use. The clergy were originally con- 

 sidered as being peculiarly the divine inheritance, 

 k\tJpos ; and they were, therefore, known very 

 early in the church as kX^pol and K\rjpos, and, in 

 TertuUian's Latin, clerus. The comments of the 

 Fathers upon the Ixx. version of Psalm Ixviii. 

 V. 13. would seem to point to a scriptural original 

 for the employment of the word in this sense. 

 From clerus, the adjective clericus was formed ; 

 which was in mediaeval times not confined to the 

 higher orders in the church, but was commonly 

 applied also to those who had taken the minor 

 orders. The word clericus, or clerk, which at first 

 denoted one in holy orders strictly, in England 

 came to bear its secondary significations from two 

 causes. The first of these is thus given by Hody : 



" Anciently, all Masters of Chancery and of the Rolls 

 were clergymen, and therefore called 'masters' or ma- 

 gistri. So not only the Lords Chancellors, and many of 

 the judges were clergymen, but all the clerks likewise of 

 all the king's courts, as well of the two Benches and the 

 Exchequer as the Chancery : from whence they had the 

 name of clerici, clerks or clergymen, which has since been 

 usurped by all the little servants of the law. The clerks 

 of the king's courts being men in holy orders, for that 

 very reason all livings in the king's gift, not exceeding 

 the value of twenty marks, were put into the hands of 

 the Lord Chancellor, viz. to be disposed of to them for 

 their encouragement, as his majesty's servants, as he saw 

 they deserved .... In Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium, 

 there is a writ to excuse clerks in Chancery, though 



