NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 88. 



the Spanish, and ths>t neither himself nor any other 

 printer had ever previously asked permission. From 

 his experience, he had no doubt that, provided it was 

 faithfully translated, the New Testament might be 

 freely printed without leave or license. Then, said I, 

 get ready your presses and everything needful for the 

 work. I will answer for the interpretation of the text, 

 and you shall take the risk of printing. And more, in 

 order that you shall not suffur by loss or fine from our 

 Spaniards, I will take the expense of the impression on 

 myself. So I delivered to him the copy, and begged 

 him to dispatch the l)usiness as soon as possible. 



" Nothing relating to it was done in secret ; every- 

 body knew that the New Testament was being printed 

 in Spanish. Many praised the project ; many waited 

 for it with eagerness; my rooms were never closed, 

 every one who wished came in and out : and yet I 

 doubt not that some who came and beforehand praised 

 my book, when they were behind my back, and with 

 their own parties, sung another song; well perceiving 

 that the reading of the Scriptures by the people is not 

 very likely t I profit their avaricious stomachs. I care 

 little, however, for such opinions and selfish passions, 

 confiding in God alone, who directed and would protect 

 an undertaking devoted solely to His own glory." 



It were too long for the " Notes and Queries" 

 to tell how he was induced to cancel the first leaf 

 of his New Testament after it was printed, because 

 it had one word which savoured of Lutheranism ; 

 of bis presenting the finished volume to the Em- 

 peror Charles V. at Brussels ; bow be received 

 bim, and what be said ; of bis being entrapped by 

 bis confessor, and cast into prison fcir fifteen 

 months, escaping and being let down by a rope 

 over the city wall, until he found repose and 

 security again at AA'itteniberg with Melancthon. 



Few of the early translations of tbe New Testa- 

 ment into the vulgar languages of Europe are so 

 little known as the Spanish of Francisco de En- 

 zinas, or Dryander ; and yet, perhaps, of no one of 

 them are there sucb minute particulars of the 

 printing and publication to be found upon record 

 as that publisbeil by bim in 1543, and of bis im- 

 prisonment in consequence of it. 



Benjamin B. Wiffen. 



Mount Pleasant, near Woburn. 



SALTING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD. 



Every reader of Ariosto, of Boiardo, or of 

 Berri, is acquainted with the character of Turpin, 

 as an historian. John Turpin's Histortj of the 

 Life of Charles the Oreat and Roland has long 

 iBiuce been regarded as a collection of fables ; 

 as a romance written under a feigned name. 

 Its real character is, however, best described 

 by Ferrario, when be says that it is not to be 

 considered as " the mere invention of any one im- 

 postor, but rather as a compilation of ancient tales 

 and ballads that had been circulating amongst tbe 

 people from tbe nintb century." (^Storia ed Analisi 



degli AiUichi Romanzi di Cavalleria, vol. i. pp.21, 

 22.) In sucb a work we must not calculate upon 

 meeting with facts, but we may hope to be able to 

 obtain an insight into ancient practices, and an 

 acquaintance with ancient customs. It is for this 

 reason I would desire to draw the attention of the 

 reader to a curious mode of preserving the bodies 

 of tbe (lead, stated by Turpin. He says that tbe 

 Christians, being without a sufiicient supply of 

 aromatic drugs wherewith to embalm tbe dead, 

 disembowelled them, and filled them up with salt. 

 The passage thus stands in the original : 



" Tunc defunctorum corpora amici corum diversls 

 aromatibus condivemnt; alii myrrha, alii balsamo, alii 

 snle Hiligontes perfuderunt: 7}iulti corpora per ventrem 

 findehant et stercora ijiciehant, et sale, alia aromata non 

 hahentes, condiehant." — C. 27. 



Does any other .author but Turpin mention this 

 mode of " salting," or rather of "pickling" the 

 dead ? This is the Query which I put, in the ex- 

 poct.ation of having it answered in the affirmative, 

 as I am quite certain I have met with another 

 author — although I cannot cite his name — who 

 mentions the body of a Duke of Gloucester being 

 thus jireserved with salt ; but unfortunately I have 

 not taken a note of the author, and can only thus 

 vaguely refer to the fact. W. B. MacCabe. 



The Star in the East (St. IMatt. ii. 2.).— I have 

 been told that in the year of the Nativity three of 

 the planets were in conjunction. Some one of 

 your astronomical correspondents may probably 

 be able to furnish information on this subject : it 

 is full of sacred interest and wonder. J. W. H. 



Meaning of Sinage : Distord : Slander. — In a 

 translation of Luther's Reoelatioii of Antichrist by 

 the Protestant ni.artyr Frith, the word sinage 

 occurs in a list of ecclesiastical payments, which 

 the popish prelates were wont to exact from the 

 parochial clergy. 



If any of your correspondents can say what 

 sinage means, he may oblige me still further by 

 explaining the word distord, in the same page ; 

 where it is said " they stir princes and officers to 

 distord ag.ainst them," viz., against such as resist 

 the claims of churchmen. 



Is there any authority for supposing that sclawn- 

 der, ordinarily slander, may sometimes mean in- 

 jury, without reference to character? It is certain 

 that the parallel term calumnia was so uised in 

 monkish Latin. H. W. 



Miss. — It is generally, I believe, understood 

 that, prior to the time of Charles II., married 

 women were called Mistress, and tinmarried had 

 Mistress prefixed to their Christian name ; and 

 that the equivocal position of many in that reign, 

 gave rise to the peculiar designation of Miss or 

 " Mis." Can any of your readers show an earlier 



