482 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 59. 



and annexed for ever to the imperial crown of Iiis 

 highness's realms of England." 



By the supposed authority of this statute, and 

 notwithstanding the revocation of the title by Pope 

 Paul III., and its omission in the Bull addressed 

 by Pope Julius III. to Philip and Mary, that 

 princess, before and after her marriage, used this 

 style, and the statute having been re-established 

 by 1 Eliz. c. 1., the example has been followed by 

 her royal Protestant succes.^ors, who wished there- 

 by to declare themselves Defenders of the Anti- 

 papal Church. The learned Bishop Gibson, in his 

 Codex (i. 33., note), treats this title as having 

 commenced in Henry VIII. So do Blount, 

 Cowel, and such like authorities. 



Wm. Sidney Gibson. 



Newcastle- on- Tyne, Dec. 1850. 



P. S. Since writing the above, I have found (in 

 the nineteenth volume of Archaologia, pp. 1 — 10.) 

 an essay by Mr. Alc.x. Luders on this very subject, 

 in which tliat able writer, wlio was well accus- 

 tomed to examine historical records, refers to many 

 examples in which the title " Most Christian 

 King" was attributed to, or used by English sove- 

 reigns, as well as the kings of France ; and to the 

 fact, that this style was used by Henry VII., as 

 appears from his contract with the Abbot of West- 

 minster (Harl. SIS. 1498.). Selden tells us that 

 the emperors had from early times been styled 

 "Defensores Ecclesias;" and from the instances 

 cited by Mr. Luders, it appears that the title of 

 "Most Christian" was appropriated to kings of 

 France from a very ancient period; that Pepin re- 

 ceived it (a. d. 755) from the Pope, and Charles the 

 Bald (a. d. 859) from a Council : and Charles VI. 

 refers to ancient usage for this title, and makes use 

 of these words : 



" nostiorum progenitorum iraitatione — evan- 



gelic£e veritatis — defensokes — nostra regia dignitas 

 divino Christianae religionis titulo gloriosius iiisig- 

 nitur ■ — . — ." 



j\Ir. Luders refers to the use of the words " Nos 

 zelo Jidei cathuUca, cujus sumus et erimus Deo 

 dantc Defenso7-es, salubriter commoti " in the 

 charter of Richard II. to the Chancellor of Oxford, 

 in the nineteenth year of his reign, as the earliest 

 introduction of such phrases into acts of the kings 

 of England that he had met with. This zeal v as 

 for the condemnation of WyclitFs TriaJogus. In 

 the reign of Hen. IV. the writ " De Hajretico 

 comburendo" had the words " Zelator justitia et 

 fidei catholicrc cultor ;" and the title of " Tres 

 Chretien" occurs in several instruments of Hen. VI. 

 and Edw. IV. It appears very probable that this 

 usage was the foundation of the statement made 

 by Chamberlayne and by Mr. Christopher Wren : 

 but that the title of Defender of the Faith was 

 used as pai't of the royal style before 1521, is, I 

 believe, quite untrue. W. S. G. 



MEANING or JEZEEEL. 



(Vol. ii., p. 357.) 



There appear to be two serious objections to the 

 idea of your correspondent W. G. H. resjjccting 

 the appearauce of Baal in this word: 1. The 



original orthography (?3•V^^) ; whereas the name of 

 the deity is found on all Phoenician monuments, 

 where it enters largely into the composition of 



proper names, written ^V^ : and, 2. The fact of 

 female names being generally on these same monu- 

 ments (as tombstones and so forth) compounded 

 of the name of a goddess, specially Astarth 



(JTiriX or y). I do not know ihat we have any 

 example of a female name into which Baal enters. 

 The derivation of tlie word appears to be that 

 given by Gesenius (s. v.) ; that it is compounded 



of the root 73T (habitavit, cohabitavit) and the 



negative PX, and that its meaning is the same as 

 &K0X0S, casta : comp. Agnes. Isabel, in fact, would 

 be a name nearer the original than the form iu 

 which we have it. Sc. 



Cai-marthen, Oct. 29. 1850. 



Jezebel. — W. G. II. has been misled by the end- 

 ing bel. The Phoenician god Bel or Baal has 

 nothing to do with this name, — the component 

 words being Je-zebel, not Jeze-bel. Of the various 

 explanations given, that of Gesenius (Heb. Lex., 

 s. voc.) appears, as usual, the simplest and most 



rational. The name 73Pi< (Jezebel) he derives 



from ''X (?) "not" (comp. I-chabod, "In-glorious" ) 



and ?5t (zabal), " to dwell, cohabit with." 



The name will then mean " without cohabita- 

 tion," i. e. &K0X0S (Plat. Thecet.^ " chaste, modest." 

 Comp. Agnes, Katherine, &c. 



Less satisfactory explanations may be found in 

 Calmet's Dictionary, and the C'l/clopcedia of Bib- 

 lical Literature, edited by Dr. Kitlo. II. T. II. G. 



Jezebel. — The Plebrew spelling ?3rN presents 



so much difficulty, that I fear such a derivation as 

 W. G. H. wishes to obtain for the name is not 

 practicable by any known etymology. Nothing 

 that I am aware of, either in Hebrew, Syriac, or 

 Arabic, will help us. The nearest verb that I can 

 find is the Chuldee NTN, signifying " to light a fire," 



parts of which occur two or three times in Dan. iii. ; 

 but I fear it would be too daring a conjecture to 

 interpret the name cjuem Bclus accendit on the 

 strength of that verb's existence. At present I 

 feel myself obliged to take the advice of Winer, in 

 his Lexicon, " Satius est ignorantiam fateri quam 

 argutari." 



" Nominis origo (he says) non liquet. Sunt qui 

 iiiterpretentur non ste.rcus. Coll. 2 Reg. ix. 27., inepte. 



