Jan. 13. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



29^ 



Menenius. — To whom are we indebted for 

 an 8vo. volume of pamphlets, published a few 

 years ago, and entitled Ireland : the Political 

 Tracts of Menenixis f On their appearance from 

 the press they attracted a considerable share of 

 public attention. Abhba. 



[These remarkable political tracts are attributed to 

 Digby Pilot Sarkie in the Catalogue of the British 

 Museum. ] 



Hanwell, Oxon, — Can either of your correspon- 

 dents supply, or give a reference to any work 

 containing, information respecting a ruin called 

 The Castle in this parish ? also a Dr. Gill, who 

 was the rector about fifty years ago ? N. 



[Some account of Sir Antony Cope's "gallant house at 

 Hanwell," as Leland calls it, will be found in the Beauties 

 of England and Wales, vol. xii. part ii. p. 518.] 



QOLDEN TABLE OF LUNEBURG (Vol. V., p. 256. ; 



Vol. vii., p, 355. ; Vol. x., p. 428.) : ancient 



PUNISHMENT OP THE JEWS (Vol. X., p. 126.) 



I have never seen the Vortrefflich Geddchtniss 

 der Gottlicher Regierung, but have a Dutch trans- 

 lation, the abridged title-page of which is 



" Verhael van meede geplegede en nooit gehoorde Dief- 

 stallen, als voornamentlyk an de zeer beruchte Goude 

 Tafel, in 't Hooge Autaar van St. Michiels Kerke te 

 Lunenburg. Door M. S. H. uit de Hoogduits vertaald. 

 Amsterdam, 1710, 4to., pp. 425." 



The book contains the lives, deaths, and por- 

 traits of twelve leading members of a large and 

 well-organised gang of thieves, who operated 

 chiefly on churches and goldsmiths' warehouses. 

 The most important of the many cases proved 

 againstthera was the plunder of the golden table 

 at Luneburg. Besides the portraits there are — 

 a frontispiece, in four divisions, representing the 

 thief's career, stealing, spending, imprisonment, 

 hanging ; an Indian plant called Datura, used to 

 produce temporary unconsciousness in persons 

 intended to be robbed ; and three folding plates : 



1. The place of execution at Zell, with the bodies 

 of the culprits, showing how each was executed ; 



2. A plan of the golden table, with the parts which 

 were not stripped distinguished in stipple ; and 



3. An engraving from a drawing of the pictures 

 on the table. These seem to have been beautiful. 

 The body is divided into eighteen compartments, 

 each illustrating an event of Gospel history ; 

 and on each of the two volets twelve saints are 

 painted. 



How the table got to St. Michael's Church is 

 not known. The received tradition was, that it 

 was made from the gold and jewels which Otto IL, 

 in the year 965, won from the Saracens at a great 

 battle m Italy. So many were killed that it bore 



the name of "Pallida Mors Sarecenorum," yet 

 there is no satisfactory evidence that any such 

 battle was fought. Another tradition is, that the 

 table was taken from the Greeks when they were 

 defeated at Apulia by Otto I. Upon these points 

 the author refers to H. Bunting's Brunswyckse en 

 Lunenburgsche Cronyk, fo. 47. ; Meibomius, Iter. 

 Germ., tom. iii. p. 77. ; and Wittichindus, Annal. 

 i. 3. 



The table stood at the back of the high altar of 

 St. Michael's Church. It was safe on Wednesday, 

 March 9, 1698. On the following Sunday the 

 sacristan, going to open the doors, found them 

 forced, and the table stripped of nearly all the 

 gold and jewels. Two lists are given ; one of the 

 articles stolen, the other of those left. The first 

 contains 105 items of enormous value ; the second 

 only 21, and those mostly relics in silver or ivory 

 boxes. 



In the second folding plate a place marked 

 No. 3. is vacant. The explanation is — 



" Eenig goud, dat zekere Koningin van England in 

 steede van dat zy'er wel eer ten Sieraad haarer kroone hadde 

 uitgenoomen, volgens oude gedenkenisse zou weder vereerd 

 hebben. Want vermids deze Koningin zinneloos wierd, 

 heeft men dit volgens het oude erfgeruchte, aan haare 

 kroon toegeschreven, en haar vervolgens geraaden het 

 goud aan de Tafel weder te schenken ; waar van de 

 kruis-beelden, in het tweede vak van vooren te reekenen, 

 en in het tweede van 't laatste staande, die van een tame- 

 lyke breete en hoogte waren, en met edel gesteente en 

 paerlen bezet, gemaakt zyn ; en in gemelde vakken 

 onder No. 3. stonden." — P. 377. 



I think there can be no doubt that the above 

 relates to the crown mentioned by Paul Hentzner. 

 Who was the "certain queen?" At p. 364. the 

 author pauses between two executions, and says : 



" Tegenwoordig will ik de oude overlevering van een 

 zekere Koninginne uit Engeland niet gaan ouderzoeken, 

 die, van deze Tafel lets tot sieraad haarer kroone verzogt, 

 en na dat men 'er het zelve uitgenomen hadde, eerlang 

 zinnelos wierd, derhalven zy vervolgens twee goude 

 kruis-beelden van eener groote, nevens het goud wede- 

 rom zond. Zeker ist, dat er in een bezondere Lyst op 

 veele plaatsen iets ingelast was, dat men uit de bleeke 

 kleur, tegens 't andere goud te rekenen, ligtelyk kon 

 merken. Indien 'er eertyds diergelyks was vorgevallen, 

 zoo hadde men reden te denken, dat zulks ten tyde van 

 Henryke Leo moest gebeurt zj'n, die met de Engelsche 

 Prinses Machtild, Dogter van Konig Henrik den Tweede, 

 gehouwd was, en als Bruid, in den Jaare 1168 uit de 

 lande gevoerd met Hartog Henrik Leo, te Minden voor 

 St. Pieters Autaar het Huwelyk sloot, dat ook in 't vol- 

 gende Jaar 1169, met een plegtige Bylegering zeer prag- 

 tig te Bronswyk voltrokken wierd. Als wanner men toeu 

 met Engeland in een vertrouwelyk Vrendschap leefde." 



A slight foundation for a charge of larceny ! 



The table, though impoverished, was of import- 

 ance in 1710. I find no subsequent notice of it 

 in the descriptions of Luneburg to which I have 

 referred. Several things worth seeing there are 

 enumerated in Murray's Handbook of Northern 

 Germany for 1854, but none of those in the 



