480 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 185. 



Pyladcs and Corinna, and the possibility that it 

 might be the work of Defoe ; but I believe that 

 my question has not been answered. 



I have already trespassed unreasonably on your 

 columns ; but still I must beg, in justice to a man 

 whose character, as I have said, I very highly re- 

 spect, to add one remark. When his imposture is 

 referred to, it is not always remembered that when 

 he came to this country he was not his own master. 

 It seems that he rambled away from his home in 

 the South of France, when about fifteen years old ; 

 that he spent about two years in wandering about 

 France and Germany, and astonishing people by 

 pretending to be, at first a converted, and after- 

 wards an unconverted, Formosan ; that when per- 

 forming this second, pagan, character, he arrived at 

 Sluys, "where a Scotch regiment in the Dutch ser- 

 vice, under Brigadier Lauder, was stationed ; that 

 the chaplain, named Innes, detected the fraud, but 

 instead of reproving the lad for his sin and folly, 

 only considered how he might turn the cheat to 

 his own advantage, and render it conducive to his 

 own preferment. The abandoned miscreant actu- 

 ally went through the blasphemous mockery of 

 baptizing the youth as a convert from heathenism ; 

 named him after the brigadier, who stood god- 

 father ; claimed credit from the Bishop of London 

 for his zeal ; and was by the kind prelate invited 

 to bring his convert to London. The chaplain lost 

 no time in accepting, was graciously received by 

 the bishop and the archbishop, snapped up the first 

 piece of preferment that would answer his views 

 (it happened to be the office of chaplain-general 

 to the forces in Portugal), and made off, leaving 

 his convert to bear the storm which was sure to 

 burst on him, as best he might. That a youth 

 thus tutored and thus abandoned, before Johnson 

 was born, should have lived to attract his society, 

 and win from him the testimony that he was "the 

 best man" whom he had ever known, gives him a 

 claim to our respect, which seems to me to be 

 strengthened by everything which I have been 

 able to learn respecting him. S. R. Maitland. 



Gloucester. 



CONSECRATED ROSES, ETC. 



(Vol. vii., p. 407.) 



Had G.'s Query referred solely to the conse- 

 cration of The Golden Rose, I might have given 

 him a satisfactory answer by referring him to 

 Cartari's essay on the subject entitled La Rosa 

 dOra Pontificia, ^^c, 4to. 1681, and to the account 

 (with accompanying engraving) of the Rose, Sword, 

 and Cap consecrated by Julius III., and sent by 

 him to Philip and Mary ; and to Cardinal Pole's 

 exposition of these Papal gifts, which are to be 

 found in the 1st volume of F. Angeli Rocca, Opera 

 Omnia (fol. Rome, 1719). In the authors to whom 



I have referred, much curious information will, 

 however, be found. I take this opportunity of 

 saying, that as I am about to submit a communi- 

 cation on the subject of The Golden Rose to th& 

 Society of Antiquaries, I shall feel obliged by any 

 hints which may help me to render it more com- 

 plete ; and of putting on record in " N. & Q." the 

 following particulars of the ceremonial, as it was 

 performed on the 6th of March last, which I ex- 

 tract from the Dublin Weekly Telegraph of the 

 9 th of April. 



"On Sunday, the 6th [March, 1853], the Benedic- 

 tion of the Golden Rose was, according to annual 

 usage, performed by the Pontiff previously to High. 

 Mass, in the Sistine Cliapel, celebrated by a cardinal, 

 at which he assists every Sunday during Lent. To the 

 more ancient practice of blessing, on the fourth Sunday 

 of ' Quaresima,' a pair of gold and silver keys, touched 

 with filings from the chains of St. Peter (which are still 

 preserved in Rome), the Holy See has substituted that 

 of the Benediction of the ' Rosa d'Oro,' to be presented, 

 within the year, to some sovereign or other potentate^ 

 who has proved well deserving of the Church. Thcj 

 first positive record respecting the Golden Rose has 

 been ascribed to the Pontificate of Leo IX. (1049-53); 

 but a writer in the Civitta Catolica states that allusion 

 to a census levied for its cost may be found in the 

 annals of a still earlier period. The Pontiffs used 

 formerly to present it annually to the Prefect of Rome, 

 after singing Mass, on this Sunday, at the Lateran, 

 and pronouncing a homily, during which they lifted 

 the consecrated object in one hand whilst expounding* 

 to the people its mystic significance. Pius II. (1458) 

 is the last Pope recorded to have thus preached in re- 

 ference to and thus conferred the Golden Rose ; and 

 the first foreign potentate recorded to have received it 

 from the Holy See is Fulk, Count of Anjou, to whom, 

 it was presented by Urban II. in 1096. A homily of 

 Innocent III. also contains an explanation of this- 

 beautiful symbol — the precious metal, the balsam and 

 musk used in consecrating it, being taken in mystic 

 sense as allusion to the triple substance in the person 

 of the Incarnate Lord — divinity, soul, and body. It 

 is not merely a single flower, but an entire rose-tree 

 that is represented — the whole about a foot in height, 

 most delicately wrought in fine lamina of gold. This- 

 being previously deposited between lighted candelabra, 

 on a table in the sacristy, is taken by the youngest 

 cleric of the camera, to be consigned to his Holiness, 

 after the latter has been vested for the solemnity, but 

 before his assuming the mitre. After a beautiful forrr* 

 of prayer, with incense and holy water, the Pontiff 

 then, holding the object in his hand, imparts the Bene- 

 diction, introducing into the flower which crowns the 

 graceful stem, and is perforated so as to provide a re- 

 ceptacle, balsam of Peru and powder of musk. He 

 then passes with the usual procession into the Sistine, 

 still carrying the rose in his left hand ; and during the 

 Mass it remains beneath the crucifix over the altar.. 

 If in the course of the year no donation of the precious 

 object is thought advisable, the same is consecrated 

 afresh on the anniversary following. Some have con- 

 jectured that the Empress of France will be selected 



