April 28. 1855.J 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



329 



I beg your readers to notice that this reply, though 

 long, answers only the half of P. S.'s Query ; and 

 that any indication of the cases of Walkingham 

 and Harwood will be acceptable. H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



AEIOSTO S " BRUTTO MOSTRO. 



(Vol. xi., p. 297.) 



It is well remarked by Mr. Stewart Rose, in the 

 notes of his excellent, but neglected, translation 

 of the Orlando JFurioso, that — 



" One simple explanation of the figure will no more 

 satisfactorily illustrate this typical monster than one 

 simple explanation would unriddle the beast in Kevela- 

 tions, or those in the Inferno." 



It is impossible to explain the fortieth or forty- 

 first stanzas, except with reference to Avarice ; 

 and this is the interpretation which has been given 

 by all the best Italian commentators. Avarice 

 led to the corruptions of Christianity, the grasp- 

 ing for temporal power, and the introduction of 

 errors, which strengthened that power and in- 

 creased the wealth of the Romish Church. Avarice 

 also induced the powerful nobles and princes, 

 without disputing the doctrines of Popery, to 

 grasp at the treasures which had been amassed 

 under its sanction. For this purpose they availed 

 themselves of the awakened feelings of the people. 

 Francis at one time attacked the Pope ; Charles 

 ravaged his territories, besieged Rome, and nearly 

 was the cause of the Pope's murder. Henry VIII. 

 threw off his authority, and plundered the church 

 in England. The same practices were adopted by 

 the constitutional government of Spain ; where 

 however superstition is as strong as ever, mingled 

 with absolute infidelity ; but in none of these cases 

 was Protestantism or heresy the leader's motive, 

 nor does Ariosto view it as such. The poets of Italy 

 (that is, the great poets) — Dante, Boccaccio, Pe- 

 trarca, and Ariosto — were all antipapal, all opposed 

 to what one may call " le parti pretre," as distin- 

 guished from either Roman Catholic or Protestant 

 views : and certainly there were no bitterer ene- 

 mies of mere Protestantism than Francis, Charles, 

 and Henry. If Ariosto Included Protestantism In 

 his Idea of the brutto mostro, it seems only because 

 he identified the Protestant spirit among its more 

 powerful supporters with that of avarice and 

 plunder. If the church had been less wealthy in 

 Scotland, John Knox would never have enlisted 

 so many feudal chiefs on his side ; and the many 

 enlightened Italians, some even of the Papal Col- 

 lege, who at first favoured the doctrines of the 

 Reformation, would not at last have opposed 

 them, if they had not found among their powerful 

 supporters a desire of plunder, which so alarmed 

 them as to blind their judgments to the truth. 

 M'Crie, in his very interesting History of the Re- 



formation in Italy, has clearly, perhaps involun- 

 tarily, shown this to have been the case. E. C. H. 



COMMERCIAX QUERIES BANKING AND INSURANCE. 



(Vol. xi., p. 224.) 



I fear your correspondent will be unable to 

 obtain a satisfactory reply to his Query respecting 

 the " Court of Policies," established under statute 

 43 Eliz. c. 12., and subsequently amended by 13 

 & 14 Charles II. c. 23., any discovery relative to 

 the laws, orders, or customs of which has long 

 been regarded as next to hopeless. Marshall, in 

 his Treatise on the Law of Insurance (Preliminary 

 Dis., p. 26), says : 



" So completely forgotten is this court, that after every 

 inquirj' I could make at the different oflSces in the city, I 

 have been unable to discover where it was held, or 

 whether any records of its proceedings yet remain." 



Of the origin of the institution, however, we are 

 somewhat better informed. It appears from the 

 statute in question, that it had heretofore been 

 usual to refer all disputes that arose on contracts 

 of insurances for settlement by arbitration ; for 

 which purpose a particular tribunal was established 

 in London, composed of certain " grave and dis- 

 creet " personages appointed by the Lord Mayor. 

 Malynes informs us that there was an " office of 

 assurances " on the west side of the Royal Ex- 

 change, where assurances were made, to which be- 

 longed commissioners annually appointed. But 

 abuses having grown out of this practice, or, as it 

 is expressed in the words of the statute itself, — 



"Divers persons having withdrawn themselves from 

 that arbitrary course, and sought to draw the parties 

 assured to seek their money of everj'- several assurer by 

 suits commenced in Her Majesty's courts, to their great 

 charge and delay," &c. 



for remedy thereof It was thought expedient to 

 empower the lord chancellor to award a com- 

 mission, to be renewed yearly, for the determining 

 of causes arising on policies of assurances, directed 

 to the Judge of the Admiralty, the Recorder of 

 London, two doctors of civil law, two common 

 lawyers, and eight discreet merchants, or to any 

 five of them, to determine all such causes in a 

 summary course, without formalities of proceeding, 

 &c. ; with an appeal, however, by way of bill, to 

 the Court of Chancery. The jurisdiction of this 

 court having proved somewhat defective, its 

 powers were farther enlarged in the reign of 

 Charles II. The statute 13th and 14th of that 

 monarch, c- 23., after reciting the provision of the 

 former act, to wit, that there could be no court 

 without five commissioners, and no proceedings 

 without a court, whereby delay was occasioned, 

 goes on to enact that three instead of five com- 

 missioners (of whom a doctor of civil law, or a 



