50 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2">» S. IX. Jan. 21. '60. 



five hundred and fifty days of pardon, granted by fourteen 

 bishops whilst he was alive : Wherefore in the name of 

 charity (say) Pater and Ave." 



When Gough, quoting Mr. Lethieullier, states 

 that " This plate, having no date, shows it was 

 set up in his life-time," he misreports Mr. Lethi- 

 eullier's words. Mr. Lethieullier (Archaologia, 

 ii. 296.) is speaking of the effigy of Sir Robert 

 when he says, "This having been set up in his 

 life-time, there is no being certain as to its date." 

 The inscription, when it asks for prayers for Sir 

 Robert " so long as he shall live," proves that it 

 was erected in his life-time. That fourteen bishops 

 should have promised five hundred and fifty days 

 of pardon to all comers for an object so perfectly 

 personal as the temporal and spiritual welfare of 

 Sir Robert Hungerford seems very strange to 

 our modern notions; but there is no doubt that 

 there was a market always open for the sale of 

 these visionary benefits. The bishops who made 

 such grants were generally those of inferior grade, 

 or suffragans : the amount, of pardon to which 

 their grants were usually limited was forty days, 

 and sometimes thirty. If each of the fourteen to 

 whom Sir Robert Hungerford was endebted had 

 granted forty days, the total would have amounted 

 to 560 : probably they were all for forty days but 

 one, and that for thirty days only. There will be 

 found a long catalogue of such indulgences granted 

 to the fabric of the church of Durham, at the end 

 of the edition of the Rites of Durham, printed for 

 the Surtees Society in 1842 ; and several to a far 

 less important structure, the Guild Chapel at Strat- 

 ford-upon-Avon, are described in the folio volume 

 upon that building, commenced by the late Thomas 

 Fisher, F.S.A., and edited by myself after Mr. 

 Fisher's death. John Gough Nichols. 



PROHIBITION OF PROPHECIES. 

 (2 nd S. viii. 64.) 



The prohibition of prophecies dates from anti- 

 quity. The Chaldaei or mathematici, the profes- 

 sors of astrological prediction, were prohibited 

 by various acts of the Roman emperors ; but the 

 craving after this species of divination prevented 

 the laws from being rigorously enforced. See 

 Tacit. Ann. ii. 32., xii. 52. ; Hist. i. 22., ii. 62. In 

 the third of these passages Tacitus calls the mathe- 

 matici a " genus hominum potentibus infidur.i, 

 sperantibus fallax, quod in civitate nostra et 

 vetabitur semper et retinebitur." See also Dio 

 Cass. lxv. 1.; Suet.' Vitell. 14.; and the laws in 

 Cod. Theod. ix. 16.; Cod. ix. 18.; Coll. Leg. 

 Mos. et Rom. tit. 15. There was a rescript of the 

 Emperor Marcus Antoninus, which denounced 

 transportation to an island against any person 

 who terrified the minds of others with super- 

 stitious fear. (.Dig. 48. 19. 30.) A rescript of 



Diocletian and Maximian permitted geometry, 

 but proscribed the art of the mathernaticus or 

 astrologer as pernicious : " Arteni geometriae 

 discere atque exercere publice interest. Ars 

 auteni mathematica damnabilis est et interdicta 

 omnino." (Cod. ix. 18. 2.) Ulpian (Coll. 15.) 

 says on the rescript of Marcus : " Et sane non 

 debent impune ferri hujusmodi homines, qui sub 

 obtentu et monitu deorum quEedam vel renuu- 

 tiant vel jactant vel scientes confingunt." (Com- 

 pare Rein, Criminalrecht der Romer, p. 905.) 



According to the law laid down by Faulus 

 (Sentent. Rec. v. 21.), all persons professing to be 

 inspired diviners are treated as criminals. " Vati- 

 cinatores qui se deo plenos adsimulant idcirco 

 civitate expelli placuit, ne humana credulitate 

 publici mores ad spem alicujus vi corrumperentur, 

 vel certe ex eo populares animi turbarentur." 

 Paulus proceeds to declare that the punishment 

 for their first offence is flogging and simple banish- 

 ment ; but that if this does not suffice, they are 

 subject to imprisonment or transportation to an 

 island. To consult an astrologer or other di- 

 viner concerning the health of the emperor, or 

 the state of public affairs, was a capital offence. 

 The same punishment was due to a slave for a simi- 

 lar consultation concerning thehealth of his master. 

 Paulus adds that the safer course is to abstain not 

 merely from the practice of divination, but even 

 from all knowledge of it, and from the perusal of 

 books of divination. The latter doctrine is re- 

 peated in Cod. Theod. ix. 16. 8. with respect to 

 the study of mathematical or astrological writings : 

 " Neque enim dissimilis culpa est f>rohibita dis- 

 cere quam docere." 



Maecenas in his speech to Augustus warns him 

 against magicians, who by false predictions lead 

 the people to disturbance. (Dio Cass. lii. 36.) 



It has been remarked that when a person re- 

 ceives a prophecy, promising him some great ele- 

 vation of dignity, his disposition is, not to sit 

 quiet, awaiting the spontaneous fulfilment of his 

 destiny, but to resort to active measures for 

 bringing about the event. This observation has 

 been illustrated by a reference to the example of 

 Macbeth, who is not satisfied to await the natural 

 accomplishment of the prophecy of the weird sis- 

 ters that " he shall be king hereafter," but murders 

 Duncan in order to obtain his crown. This ten- 

 dency of human nature did not escape the pene- 

 tration of Tacitus, who thus comments on the 

 prediction of the astrologer Ptolemaeus that Otho 

 would one day become emperor: — " Sed Otho 

 tamquam peritia et monitu fatorum prjedicta ac- 

 cipiebat, cupidine ingenii humani libentius ob- 

 scura credendi. Nee deerat Ptolemreus, jam et 

 sceleris instinctor, ad quod facillime ab ejusmodi 

 voto transitur." — Hist i. 22. (Compare Meri- 

 vale's Rome under the Emperors, vol. vi. p. 386.) 



It is this tendency which has led to the pro- 



