July 1. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Isaac Newton, nor yet in any previous age of the 

 world. C. W. 



Franciscan Dress. — Mr. MacHse, in his large 

 picture of Strongbow and Eva, dated 1171, has 

 introduced a friar dressed as a Franciscan. St. 

 Francis, the founder of the Order, was born in 

 A.D. 1182. Is there any authority to show that 

 this garb was used before the time of the great 

 saint of Assisi ? Xpovos. 



Richard Colwell of Faversham. — I observed 

 some years since, in an old pedigree of the ancient 

 family of Colwell of Faversham in Kent, that one 

 Robert Colwell had a son and heir called Richard 

 Colwell of Faversham, and that he was twice mar- 

 ried, viz. 1st, a daughter of John Bellinger, of co. 

 Kent ; 2nd, a daughter of John Master, of Sand- 

 wich. My object is to ascertain, in the first place, 

 the Christian names of these wives ; and, secondly, 

 to what fiimily the above Jolin Bellinger belonged, 

 and where his residence was, and when he died. 



As some aid, I may add that the father of the 

 second wife died in 1558. Perhaps some of your 

 able antiquarian correspondents can give me the 

 information I require. F. T. 



Conspiracy to dig up Corpses. — Niebuhr, in 

 his Lectures on Roman History, vol. i. p. 290., 

 2nd ed., by Dr. Schmitz, has the following pas- 

 sage : 



" A person who looks with fondness upon past ages, 

 and would fain recall them, is not a homo gravis, but is 

 diseased in his mind. I would rather see a man pre- 

 ferring the present to the past ; but the legislative 

 conceit of our age is very injurious, for legislators 

 imagine that they can determine everything. I was 

 once present in a country where the discovery was 

 made that there existed a conspiracy of men who dug 

 up corpses from their graves after they had been buried 

 for many years ; and as the law had made no pro- 

 vision for such a crime, the monsters escaped with 

 impunity." 



Does any of your correspondents know what is 

 the country, and what the circumstances, to which 

 Niebuhr here alludes ? L. 



The Herodians. — In the Add. MSS. of the 

 British Museum, No. 7197., there is a history of 

 Paul the Presbyter, and his dispute with Satan. 

 In this is contained some account of a semi- 

 Christian sect called Herodians, who only received 

 the Gospel by Mark, and four of the Books of 

 Moses. They were Socialists in a very wide sense, 

 and lived in Samaria. Who can give me any 

 other reference to them ? B. H. C. 



"Animali Purlanti" of Casti. — Will some cor- 

 respondent kindly inform me if there exists a 



translation of this poem into English ? Watt 

 mentions only a French translation. T. A. T. 



Florence. 



[There is an admirable English translation by the 

 late William Stewart Rose, the translator of Ariosto, 

 which was published by Murray in 1819, under the 

 title of The Court and Parliament of Beasts, freely trans- 

 lated from the "Animali Parlanti " of Giamhattista Casti, 

 a Poem in Seven Cantos. The translation was ad- 

 dressed to Ugo Foscolo in a poetical dedication, in 

 which the translator treats of the liberties he has taken 

 with his original, and which concludes : 



" Dear Foscolo, to thee my dedication 's 

 Address'd with reason. Who like thee is able 

 To judge betwixt the theme and variations? 

 To whom so well can I inscribe my fable 

 As thee ? since I upon good proof, may sing thee 

 Doetum sermones utriusque linffttm."] 



Confessor to the Royal Household. — D'Israeli, in 

 his Commentaries on Life and Reign of Charles I., 

 describing the difficulties which Elizabeth and 

 James had to contend with in relation to their 

 Catholic subjects, says : 



" So obscure, so cautious, and so undetermined were 

 the first steps to withdraw from the ancient Papistical 

 customs, that Elizabeth would not forgive a bishop for 

 marrying ; and auricular confession, however con- 

 demned as a point of Popery, was still adhered to by 

 many. Bishop Andrews would loiter in the aisles of 

 St. Paul's to afford his spiritual comfort to the un- 

 burtheners of their conscience." 



And he then adds this note : 



" This last remains of Popery may still be traced 

 among us; for, since the days of our Eighth Henry, 

 the place of confessor to the royal household has never 

 been abolished." 



Query, is the office still in existence ; and if so, 

 who holds it, and by whom is the confessor ap- 

 pointed ? Of course, I do not suppose that our 

 Queen maintains a Roman Catholic confessor ; 

 but is the office still retained in the same manner 

 as that of the Abbot of Westminster, referred to in 

 one of Cardinal Wiseman's Pastorals ? 



A YouKG Subscriber. 



[The office is connected with the Chapel Royal, 

 St. James's, and is at present held by Dr. Charles 

 Wesley, who is also sub-dean. The appointment is by 

 the Dean of the Chapel Royal, the Bishop of London. 

 The confessor (sometimes called chaplain) officiates at 

 the early morning prayers, so punctually attended by 

 the late Duke of Wellington. Chamberlayne, in the 

 MagncB Britannice Notitia, p. 97., edit. 1755, has the 

 following notice of the Chapel Royal : " For the eccle- 

 siastical government of the King's court, there is first 

 a dean of the Chapel Royal, who is usually some 

 grave, learned prelate, chosen by the King, and who, 

 as dean, acknowledgeth no superior but the King ; for 

 as the King's palace is exempt from all inferior tem- 

 poral jurisdiction, so is his chapel from all spiritual. 



