2"^ S. No 84., Aug. 8. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



109 



DJESCBIPTION OF OUR SAVIOUB. 



(2°'i S. iv. 67.) 

 A correspondent, Vox, makes inquiry as to 

 tbe "Epistle of Publius Lentulus, the Roman 

 Proconsul, in whioli the person of our Saviour is 

 said to be accurately described, and of which he 

 very naturally says that he has been unable to 

 find any trace in Eutropius, on whose authority 

 the story has been propa<2;ated. Many years ago 

 I had occasion to look into the history of this sup- 

 posed letter of Lentulus, and the following note 

 may perhaps satisfy the curiosity of your corre- 

 spondent. As to the Epistle itself, it is thus 

 printed in the second volume of the Orthodoxo- 

 grapha oj Basle : 



" Lentulus Hierosolymitanorum Prceses S.P.Q. Romano, 



" Adparuit nostris temporibus et adhuc est homo magnaa 

 virtutis nominatus Christus Jesus, qui dicitur h gentibus 

 propheta veritatis, quern ejus discipuli vocant lilium Dei, 

 suscitans mortuos et sanans languores. Homo quidem 

 staturaj procerse, spectabilis, vultum habeus venerabilem, 

 quern intuentes possunt et diligere et formidare : capillos 

 vero circinos et erispos aliquanium cceruliores et fuigen- 

 tiores ab humeris volitantes; discrimen habens in medio 

 capitis, juxta morem Nazareiiorum : frontem planam et 

 sereuissimam, cum facie sine ruga ac macula aliqua, quam 

 rubor moderatus venustat: nasi et oris nulla prorsus est 

 reprehensio, barbam habens copiosam et rubram, capillo- 

 rum colore, non longani sed bifurcatam : oculis variis et 

 Claris exsistentibus. In increpatione terribilis, in admoni- 

 tione placidus ac amabilis, hilaris, servata gravitate, qui 

 nunquam visus est ridere, flere autem saspe. Sic in statura 

 corporis propngatus, manus habens et membra visu delec- 

 tabilia, in eloquio gravis, rarus et modestus speciosus 

 inter filios hominum." 



Besides numerous versions of this singular 

 Epistle in German, French, and Italian, two 

 others in Latin are particularly remarkable, viz. 

 that of Xaverius, a Spanish Jesuit, who introduces 

 it in his Historia Christi (Pars iv. p. 533 ), a 

 work abounding with monkish fictions, written in 

 Persian, at the request, as the author informs us, 

 of Acbar the Magnificent, Emperor of Hindostan. 

 It has been rendered into Latin by Le Dieu, and 

 from his translation Fabricius has transcribed the 

 version of Lentulus's letter which is inserted in 

 his Codex Apocryphus Novi Testameuti (vol. i. 



f>. 302.). The other is pi'eserved in a MS. in the 

 ibrary of Jena, which bears date, a.d. 1502, and 

 is preceded by the following title : 



" Temporibus Octaviani Cfesaris, Publius Lentulus, Pro- 

 consul in partibua et Judaeae et Herodis Regis Senatori- 

 bus Romanis banc Epistolam scripsisse fertur, quae postea 

 ab Eutropio reperta est in Annalibus Komanorum," 



It is needless to say that Eutropius offers no 

 authority for such an assertion ; that it is still 

 doubtful whether he (Eutropius) was a Pagan or 

 a Christian, and that the passages in the lives of 

 Augustus and Tiberius, relative to Jesus Christ, 

 are more than suspected by Yossius and others to 



be amongst the numerous Interpolations made In 

 this historian by Paulus DIaconus in the ninth 

 century. The several copies of the Letter of 

 Lentulus differ in many particulars from each 

 other, but the discrepancies are In general non- 

 essential. The authenticity of all has been at- 

 tacked and supported by numerous ecclesiastics 

 and antiquaries ; but as the assertions of the for- 

 mer have been merely assailed by the conjectures 

 of the latter, and neither party can adduce his- 

 torical evidence In support of their arguments, 

 the decision is still unsatisfactory, though de- 

 cidedly the sceptics have by far the most popular 

 and probable side of the question. 



Molanus, Chlffletlus and Huarte (see Bayle, 

 Diet. Hist., art. Huarte) have each asserted the 

 reality of the letter ; whilst it has been denied on 

 numerous grounds, but chiefly from the Internal 

 evidence of Its corrupted idiom and the silence of 

 all the early Fathers down to the eighth century ; 

 by 'ijaurentius Valla in his Declamation agaiiist 

 the Donation of Constantine to Sylvester ; by John 

 Raynoldes, Professor of Divinity of Oxford under 

 Queen Elizabeth (see his treatise De Bomauoe 

 Ecdes. Idolatria, 1. ii. c. ill. p. 394.) \ by Gerhard, 

 a commentator on Hugo Grotius; and by a long 

 list of other names of equal authority. A sum- 

 mary of these will be found in Fabricius, Codex 

 Apoc. Nov. Test., vol. i. p. 302. ; Riiiskin's JExer- 

 citationes de Iinag. Christi, ex. vii. c. i. p. 149.; 

 and in Le Dieu's Annotations to Xaverius Histor. 

 Christ, p. 636. Of one point we are at least 

 certain, that in the early ages of the church the 

 Christians were totally unaware of the existence 

 of this or any similar document. 



J. Emebson Tennent. 



DB. DOB AN AND SOMEBTON CASTLE. 



(2"'i S. iv. 72.) 



Db. Doean is perfectly right throughout (If he 

 will but remain so) in placing in Lincolnshire the 

 castle where the French king (John) was con- 

 fined. There is no contradicting the authority of 

 Rymer'a Fcedera (p. 131.), which gives the very 

 deed between Edward III. and William D'Eyn- 

 court, by which he was committed to the custody 

 of that knight, to be conveyed to the Castle of 

 Somerton, in the county of Lincoln ; and the 

 whole account which De. Doean has given of the 

 French monarch's journey to and residence at 

 Somerton, from the Due d'Aumale's work, is per- 

 fectly confirmatory of the above deed. Somerton 

 Castle, as I well know, is under the Cliff in the 

 parish of Boothby GrafFoe, and about eight miles 

 from lAncoln. It is stated that tTohn had lodgings 

 at Lincoln for the winter months, which Is likely 

 enough; and that at the sale of his effects one 

 Wm. Spain of Lincoln got "the King's Bench" 



