Mar. 4. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



201 



mantling to be disinterred. But this seemed a curious 

 request, and excited suspicion, for it was not likely that 

 a soul in purgatory would ask to have the body re- 

 moved from holy ground, neither had any in purgatory 

 ever been known to desire to be exhumed. 



" The soul after this did not try speaking any more, 

 but haunted everybody in the convent and church. 

 Brother Peter of Arras adopted a very awkward 

 manner of conjuring it. He said to it, ' If thou art 

 the soul of the late Madame de St. Memin, strike four 

 knocks,' and the four knocks were struck. ' If thou 

 art damned, strike six knocks,' and the six knocks were 

 struck. ' If thou art still tormented in hell, because 

 thy body is buried in holy ground, knock six more 

 times,' and the six knocks were heard still more dis- 

 tinctly. ' If we disinter thy body, wilt thou be less 

 damned, certify to us by five knocks,' and the soul so 

 certified. This statement was signed by twenty-two 

 cordeliers. The father provincial asked the same 

 questions and received the same answers. The Lord 

 of St. Memin prosecuted the father cordeliers. Judges 

 were appointed. The general of the commission re- 

 quired that they should be burned ; but the sentence 

 only condemned them to make the ' amende honorable,' 

 with a torch in their bosom, and to be banished." 



This sentence is of the 18th of February, 1535. 

 Vide Abbe Langlet's History of Appai-itions. 



From the above extract, and from what your 

 correspondents Mr. Jardine and R. I. R. have 

 written, it is satisfactorily shown that rapping is 

 no novelty, having been known in England and 

 France some centuries ago. Mr. Jardine has 

 given us an instance in 1584, and leads us to sup- 

 pose that it was the earliest on record. I now 

 give one as early as 1534; and it would be inte- 

 resting to know if the monks of Orleans were the 

 first to have practised this imposition, and to have 

 been banished for their deception and fraud. 



William Winthrop. 



Malta. 



In Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xxix. cap. i. 

 p. 552. of a Paris edition, 1681, two persons, 

 Patricius and Hilarius, charged with disseminat- 

 ing prophecies injurious to the Emperor Valens, 

 were brought before a court of justice, and a 

 tripod, which they were charged with using, was 

 also produced. Hilarius then made the following 

 acknowledgment : 



" Construximus, magnifici judices, ad cortina? simi- 

 litudinem Delphicae, diris auspiciis, de laureis virgulis 

 iiifaustam banc mensulam quam videtis ; et impreca- 

 tionibus carminum secretorum, choragiisque multis ac 

 diuturnis ritualiter consecratam movimus tandem ; mo- 

 vendi autem, quoties super rebus arcanis consulebatur, 

 erat institutio talis. Collocabatur in medio domus 

 emaculata; odoribus Arabicis undique, lance rotunda 

 pure superposita, ex diversis metallicis materiis fabre- 

 facta; cujus in ambitu rotunditatis extremo elemento- 

 rum viginti quatuor scriptiles formae incisae perite, 

 dijungebantur spatiis examinate dimensis. Hac linteis 

 quidam indumentis amictus, calciatusque itidem linteis 



soccis, torulo capiti circumflexo, verbenas felicis arboris 

 gestans, litato conceptis carminibus numine prajsci- 

 tionum auctore, cajrimoniali scientia perstitit ; corti- 

 nulls pensilem anulum librans, sartum ex carpathio filo 

 perquam levi, mysticis disciplinis initiatum : qui per 

 intervalla distincta retinentibus singulis litteris incidens 

 saltuatim, heroos efflcit versus interrogationibus con- 

 sonos, ad numeros et modos plene conclusos ; quales 

 leguntur Pythici, vel ex oraculis editi Branchidarum. 

 Ibi turn quaerentibus nobis, qui praesenti succedet im- 

 perio, quoniamomni parte expolitus fore memorabatur 

 et adsiliens anulus duas perstrinxerat syllabas, 0EO 

 cum adjectione litterae postrema, exclamavit prajsen- 

 tium quidem, Theodorum prasscribente fatal! necessi- 

 tate portendi." 



In lib. xxxi. cap. ii. p. 621. of same edition, a 

 method of prognostication by the Alami is de- 

 scribed ; but there is no mention of tables there. 

 The historian only says : 



" Rectiores virgas vimineas colligentes, casque cum 

 incantamentis quibusdam secretis praestituto tempore 

 discernentes, aperte quid portendatur norunt." 



H. W. 



The mention of table-turning by Ammianus 

 Marcellinus reminds me of a curious passage in 

 the Apologeticus of Tertullian, cap. xxiii., to which 

 I invite the attention of those interested in the 

 subject: 



" Porro si et magi phantasmata edunt et jam de- 

 functorum infamant animas ; si pueros in eloquium 

 oraculi elidunt; si multa miracula circulatoriis pras- 

 stigiis ludunt ; si et somnia immittunt habentes semel 

 invitatorum angelorum et dajmonum assistentem sibi 

 potestatem, per quos et caprae et mensce divinare con- 

 sueverunt ; quanto magis," &c. 



Here table divination by means of angels and 

 demons seems distinctly alluded to. How like 

 the modern system ! The context of this passage, 

 as well as the extract itself, will suggest singular 

 coincidence between modern and ancient preten- 

 sions of this class. B. H. C. 



GENERAL WHITELOCKE. 



(Vol.viii., pp.521. 621.) 



Much interesting information concerning Ge- 

 neral Whitelocke, about whose conduct some 

 difference of opinion appears to exist, will be 

 found in the Rev. Erskine Neale's Risen from the 

 Ranks (London, Longmans, 1853); but neither 

 the date nor the place of his death is there given. 

 The reverend writer's account of the general's 

 conduct is not at all favourable. After alluding 

 to him as " a chief unequal to his position," he 

 says : 



" John Whitelocke was born in the year 1759, and 

 received his early education in the Grammar School 

 at Marlborough. His father was steward to John, 

 fourth Earl of Aylesbury ; and the peer, in acknow- 



