100 
Minnesingers were love singers, singing their own 
love, or expressing the love of others. On re- 
ference to Adelung’s Worterbuch, we find the fol- 
lowing explanation : 
“Die Minne, plur. car., an antiquated word, which 
formerly signified love, and which was used for any kind 
oflove. Der Heilige Geyst entziindet den Menschen zu Gotes 
Minne und zu des Niichsten Liebe. (Buch der Natur., 1483.) 
Whatever the nature of the love, the word, as well as the 
verb minnen, to love, used frequently, as well by Ottfried 
as the Schwabian poets, is used also for friendship. It is 
frequently used by the poets of the Middle Ages to ex- 
press love towards the gentler sex; but it does not 
follow, as has been asserted by a modern author, that it is 
limited to this, As the word was often used to express 
lewd intercourse, by one in itself innocent, it is possible 
that it was gradually disused, and finally became obsolete. 
Our modern word Liebe (love) seems to be menaced with 
a similar fate. In Holland, however, it is still in use. 
The verb minnen, to love, and figuratively, to kiss, is, ac- 
cording to all appearances, the intensitive of mine, that 
which is mine own; minne is the abstract form. From 
this comes the French word mignon, a darling. In Lower 
Saxony children are still accustomed to call their nurses 
minne. 
So far Adelung. The German passage he 
quotes from the Book of Nature, may be trans- 
lated, ‘ The Holy Ghost kindles the remembrance 
(or love) of God and love of our neighbour.” 
Minne and Liebe are evidently synonymes. Fur- 
ther, minnie in Lowland Scotch is almost synony- 
mous with hinnie, my love. 
affection when speaking of a mother, as a mother, 
as well as one beloved. The following lines will 
occur to many readers : 
“My daddie he’s a cankered carl, 
Will no tine o” his gear; 
My minnie is a scolding wife, 
Keeps a’ the house a-steer.” 
For further information we would refer the 
querist to Adelung, under the word Meinen. 
J. K. 
Perhaps I do not catch the drift of your cor- 
respondent's inquiries, but there does not appear 
to be any doubt as to the old use of the word 
Minne. 
In Schilter’s Glossarium Teutonicum he will 
find, — 
“ Minna, caritas, amor, affectus dilectionis.” 
“ Minnon, amare.” 
and Schilter derives the French words, mignon, 
mignards, from this source. 
Be Der Minne Buch, das hohe Lied Salomonis.” 
“ Minna, thinan nahistun Dilige proximum tuum.” 
While Minne is also another name for Venus. 
Referring to Wachter’s Glossarium Germani- 
cum, we find: 
“ Minnen, meminisse, from Minne, memoria,” &c. 
And then: 
“ Minnen, amare, from Minne, amor. 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
It is a term of 
[2n¢ §, No 5., Frx. 2. °56, 
“Obsoleta sed Francis et Alaman: olim usitatissima. 
Gloss. Keron amor minna; caritas minna. 
“ Hodie utuntur Belgz, quibus minne amor, minnen, be- 
minnen, amare. Inde Gallis vocabula blandientia mignon, 
mignard,” &c, 
The above extracts may show that the word 
was used both for terrestrial and celestial love, 
and a good German dictionary of modern date 
confirms this view. Hermes. 
Replies ta Minar Queries. 
Samuel Brewer (2S. i. 75.)—In the de= 
scription of the old church of St. Alphage, London 
Wall (taken down in 1774), given in Hatton’s 
New View of London, p. 114., the following pas- 
sage occurs : 
“ Near the communion-table, on a white marble stone, 
is this inscription: ‘Samuel Brewer, of the Inner Temple, 
Gent., died March 10, 1684. 
World adieu, 
Friends adieu, 
Life adieu. 
But hoping for a better after this, only through the 
Merits and Mediation of our Blessed Saviour, Jesus 
Christ.’ ” 
If Mr. Scorr could find this monumental stone in 
the present edifice, it may assist him to discover 
Mr. Brewer's armorial bearings. Hughson, vol. iii. 
p- 287.; Nightingale, p.223.; and Thomas’s Wards, 
vol. ii. 134., in their several histories of London, 
state that Mr. Brewer was a member of the Inner 
Temple. The Commissioners for inquiring into 
the Charities of England, in their Twenty-ninth 
Report, p. 464., subject “ Sion College,” allude to 
p- 28 of a printed book containing an account of 
the College, and Mr. Brewer's gift to it. Has 
Mr. Scorr seen that book? Henry Epwarps. 
Curious Anachronism (1* §. xii. 507.) —I beg 
to suggest to Mr. Sansom, whether the assumed 
anachronism he courteously notes in Sir E, B. 
Lytton’s Harold, does not arise from his own mis- 
apprehension of the passage? What ground has 
Mr. Sansom for the inference that Sir Edward 
alludes at all to the individual known as Peter 
Lombard? ‘The words, to an ordinary reader, 
seem simply to refer to the learned ‘quibbles of 
the two great races broadly defined as the Lom- 
bard and the Frank, in whose cloisters the 
writings of John Scotus Erigena, and other fore- 
runners of the scholastic philosophy, had found 
subtilising students long even before Harold’s 
birth. 
With regard to the low state of the Saxon 
clergy, Mr. Sansom appears somewhat sceptical. 
The fact, however, is admitted and deplored by 
Saxon, as well as by Norman writers. And 
when it is remembered how long and how ruth- 
