164 



NOTES AND QUEBIES. 



L2"» S. IX. Mai:. 3. '60. 



builder so called, who purchased the whole street on a 

 repairing lease.] 



Saint Uncumber. — At p. 116., vol. v. of Nor- 

 folk Archaeology is printed an inventory of the 

 plate, bells, goods, vestments, and ornaments re- 

 maining in the church of S. Peter de Parmenter- 

 srate, Norwich, on Feb. loth, in the 2nd year of 

 Edw. VI. Towards the end are these two items : 



" Item. Two of maide Uncumbres best cotes, and 

 an orfreys of green damaske - xyj d 



" Item. A cote of Maide Uncumber of redde silk, 

 and an olde clothe of oure Lady - - xiv d ." 



In the testament and last will of John Hyrn- 

 ynge*, dated and proved in 1504, among bequests 

 to certain lights in the church of S. Giles, Nor- 

 wich, is the following : — 

 " Item. To seynt vnckumber light - - xij'V 



Who was Saint Uncumber, V. ? Extraneus. 



[Concerning St. Uncumber, whose votaries propi- 

 tiated her by an offering of cats, and who helped married 

 women to get rid of troublesome husbands, some infor- 

 mation will be found in " N. & Q.," 1'* S. ii. 381. and iii. 

 404. Uncumber, as it will be seen presently, does not 

 appear to have been originally a proper name, but an old 

 form of our more modern verb disencumber, so as to inti- 

 mate the good offices of the Saint in disencumbering 

 wives of their husbands. 



The question winch now remains to be decided, is whe- 

 ther St. Uncumber was the French saint Rhadegund, 

 or the Portuguese (Gothic?) IFylgeforte. Both have a 

 claim, on the ground of their private history. For Rha- 

 degund abandoned her royal husband to live iu a clois- 

 ter; and YVylgeforte escaped a highly uncanonical suitor 

 who on account of her beauty insisted on making her his 

 wife, by the sudden growth of a large and very ugly beard, 

 which in a single night attained maturity on her chin, aud 

 of course put an end to the courtship. 



" Namque viro ut proprior facta est barbata Virago, 

 Ccepit ab impuro tutior esse viro." 



Sautel. Annus Sacer Poeticus, xx. Jul. 



(Were it not, however, for the subsequent changes of 

 race in the Spanish Peninsula, one would almost wonder 

 how a woman's having a beard should have hindered her 

 having a husband.) 



The oaten offerings made to St. Uncumber seem rather 

 to connect her with St. Rhadegund. For once, when St. 

 Rhadegund was closely pursued, she escaped by aid of a 

 crop of oats, which very opportunely sprang up and con- 

 cealed her. Besides this, it is recorded that, as part of 

 her monastic mortifications, she ate l>arley-bren<\, some 

 say rye (sigalatium, Act. Sanct. 13 Aug. p. 72., marg.). 

 Hence, also, it may have been presumed that she would 

 not view with disfavour an offering of oats. 



But the name, on the other hand, St. Uncumber, points 

 rather to St. Wylgeforte or Wilgefortis. This V. and 

 M. (but not properly S., for it does not appear that she 

 was ever canonised) bore also, in the Netherlands, the 

 name of Ontkommeni ("bey denen Niederlanden Ontkom- 

 mera genannt," Zedler), which is only Uncumber- in a 

 different form. Kommer, trouble, literally cumber. Ont- 

 kommer, uncumber or disencumber. "Ontkommeren . . . 

 Van kommer, dat is angst en hartzeer, bevrijden." Wei- 

 land's Nederduitsch Woordenboek. (See also many ad- 

 ditional particulars respecting this much-controverted 



* Cousis. Rcgr. Rix, fol. 77. Norwich Court of Probate. 



V. and M., and respecting her name, iu Act. Sand. 20 

 July, pp. 49-70.) 



St. YVylgeforte also bore in Latin the name of Liberala, 

 between which and Ontkommera or Uncumber there 

 seems to be a mutual reference. Uncumber, she who un- 

 cumbered afflicted wives by disencumbering them of their 

 husbands. Liberuta, she who herself escaped a husbaud 

 by the sudden phenomenon on her chin. 



Perhaps those oats, which sprang up and concealed St. 

 Rhadegund, were bearded oats. In that case St. Rhade- 

 gund's oats and St. Wylgeforte's beard may have been 

 different versions of the same tradition : quite an eutha- 

 nasia, we think, of the discussion about St. Uncumber.] 



Ter-Sanctus. — Can any of your correspon- 

 dents tell me why the use of the Ter-sanctus was 

 the cause of a civil war a.d. 508, and in what 

 country did that war take place ? 



Alex. Burnett. 



[The disturbances referred to by our correspondent 

 were probably those which occurred at Constantinople, 

 but they appear to have come to a head a.d. 511, uot 

 508, though the storm was already brewing at a much 

 earlier date. Peter the Fuller (Pietro Fullone) had pre- 

 sumed to annex to the "Thrice Holy" a clause which 

 was supposed to derogate from its orthodoxy (about 

 a.d. 463. Cf. Moroni, on "Trisagio"). Hence the tumult 

 at Constantinople, a.d. 511. (" Tumultuatum Constan- 

 tinop. ob additionem Trisagio factum." See Pagius on 

 Baronius.) '• 1 he Monophysite monks iu the church of 

 the Archangel within the palace broke out after the 

 ' Thrice Holy,' with the burthen added at Antioch by 

 Peter the Fuller, ' who wast crucified for us.' The or- 

 thodox monks, backed by the rabble of Constantinople, 

 endeavoured to expel them from the church; they were 

 uot content with hurling curses at each other; sticks and 

 stones began their work. There was.a wild, fierce fray." 

 &c. — Milman, Hist, of Christianity, 1854, vol. i. p. 243-4.] 



Roman Military Oath. — What was the Ro- 

 man military oath from about a.d. 1 to the reign 

 of Constantine ? How often was it renewed? 

 And particularly whether the oaths imposed upon 

 the centurions and common soldiers of the legions 

 in Palestine and the provinces required adherence 

 to the idolatrous religion of the State ? R. M. O. 



[Of all Roman oaths the military {sacramentum') was 

 the most sacred. It was taken upon the ensigns (signa 

 miUtaria). Livy says (xxii. 38.), until the year 216 b.c. 

 the military oatli was only sacramentum, t. i. the soldiers 

 took it voluntarily, and promised (with imprecations) 

 that they would not desert from the army, and not leave 

 the ranks unless to fight against the enemy or to save a 

 Roman citizen. But in the year 216 B.C. the soldiers 

 were compelled by the tribunes to take the oath, which 

 the tribunes put to them, that they would meet at the 

 command of the consuls, and not leave the standards 

 without their orders, so tha% in . this case the military 

 oath became a jusjurandum. But Livy here forgets that 

 long before that time he has represented (iii. 20.) the 

 soldiers taking the same jusjurandum. Iu the time of 

 the empire (according to Dionysius, xi. 43.) a clause was 

 added to the military oath, in which the soldiers declared 

 that they would consider the safety of the emperor more 

 important than anything else, and that they loved neither 

 themselves nor their children more than their sovereign. 

 The oath was renewed each time that the soldier enlisted 

 for a campaign. On the military oath in general conf. 

 Brissonius, De Formid., iv. c. 1 — 5. ; Dionysius, vi. 23., 

 and Gellius, xvi. 4.] 



