428 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«* S. IX. Junk 2. '60. 



has been subjected to a minute and careful examination 

 by Sir N. H. Nicolas in an Appendix to vol. iii. of Nelson's 

 Dispatches, where he endeavours to mitigate or remove 

 the weighty charges brought against the brave admiral.] 



Passage in Bede. — In tie following passage 

 from Bede, what is the meaning and force of " pro 

 indigenis?" — 



" Quibus ad sua remeantibus, cognita Scotti Pictique 

 roditus denegatione, redeunt confestim ipsi, et solito con- 

 lidentiores facti, omnein Aquilonalem Extremarnque in- 

 sula? partem pro indigenis muro tenus usque capessuut." — 

 Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 12. 



OXONIENSIS. 



[We would submit to our learned correspondent that 

 in the passage to which he refers, Bede, by the expression 

 * pro indigenis," means to imply that the Scots and Picts 

 took possession of the N. part of the island " in the cha- 

 racter of natives," or " as being natives;" not meaning 

 thereby that they merely assumed that character, but 

 that they occupied the territory in the exercise of a 

 natural right. Conf. "pro possessori" (as possessor), 

 " pro civi " (as citizen). 



That such was Bede's view of the Scots and Picts is 

 sufficiently evident from Cap. xii. § 28 : — " Transmarinas 

 autem dicimus has gentes, non quod extra Brittanniam 

 cssent positoe, sed quia a parte Brittonum erant remotas, 

 duobus sinibus maris interjacentibus, quorum unus ab ori- 

 entali mari, alter ab occidentali, Brittanue terras longe 

 lateque irrumpit." 



In the translation of Bede's Ecc. Hist, edited by Giles, 

 1847, the expression " pro indigenis" seems to have been 

 entirely overlooked: but in the old translation by Sta- 

 pleton, 1569, the sense of the original is preserved with 

 tolerable fidelity: — " all that was without the walls they 

 taketh for their owne."~] 



Laystall. — In a late number of the Gentle- 

 mans Magazine, this term is .applied to a dunghill. 

 Does it not rather mean the right to lay offal on a 

 certain spot of land ? In Chester, during the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries, a grave in the 

 churchyard was denominated a laystall — surely 

 not from any analogy between the two ? 



T. Hughes. 



Chester. 



[ Nares states, that " Laystall is a dunghill ; according 

 to Skinner, from lay and stall, because they la} r there what 

 they take from the stalls or stables. Coles also renders it 

 by sterquilinium. Also any heap of dirt, rubbish, &c. 

 Perhaps (add9 Nares) it is rather a stall, or fixed place, 

 on which various things are 'aid; q.d. a lay-place, a lay- 

 heap.] 



Prideaux. — What is the etymology of Pri- 

 deaux ? S. E. P. 



United Service Club. 



[Playfair (-Famj/y Antiquity, vi. 190.) has given the most 

 plausible account of the origin of this name. He says, "The 

 name itself is, apparently, composed of the French words, 

 Pres (near) and d'eaux (waters) ; which compound, sup- 

 posing it to be the origin of the sirname of Prideaux, 

 was, at an early period, changed into Priddeaux, or 

 Pridiaux, or Prideaux: for in Cornwall, in the hundreds 

 of Powder and Pider, there are two places severally 

 called Priddiaux hart, in the former hundred, and Prid- 

 diaux magna, in the latter one, which may have either 

 given the name to the Prideaux family, or derived their 

 designation from it."] 



Asmodeus. — What is the etymology of As- 

 modeus ? On the supposition that by it Lesage 

 means " the god in the bottle " or elsewhere, the 

 latter portion is clear. But what is asmo f There 

 is no word like it, so far as I know, in Latin, nor 

 in Greek, unless dtr/cy be so considered. W. 



[Asmodeus, who appears under the several aliases of 

 Asmodseus, Asmodi, Asmodai, Asmedasus, and, in Rab- 

 binical Hebrew, Ashmedai, is generally supposed to have 

 derived his name from the Heb. shamad, to destroy. See 

 Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. Talm. Rabb. Some, however, have 

 thought, though with less probability, that the name was 

 originally Es-Modai, Median fire, " weil er denen Modern 

 das Feuer der unziichtigen Liebe eingeblasen hatte." 

 Zedler's Lexicon. The o of Asmodeus seems to intimate 

 that the word passed from the Heb. into modern lan- 

 guages through the Chaldee and Syriac] 



fU#Ite£. 



EXCOMMUNICATION. 

 (2» d S. ix. 364.) 



Instances of excommunication in the Protestant 

 communities, for which Mb. Williamson asks, 

 may easily be furnished him. By men of " the 

 new learning," the power itself was immediately 

 claimed and vigorously acted upon, both in Scot- 

 land and this country. In his Liturgy for the 

 Scottish Presbyterians, John Knox sets forth pre- 

 tensions to such an attribute of ecclesiastical au- 

 thority, in words about which there can be no 

 mistake : — 



" O Lord Jesu Christ, thy expressed word is our assur- 

 ance, and therefore, in boldness of the same, here in thy 

 name, and at the commandment of this thy present con- 

 gregation, we cut off, seclude, and excommunicate from 

 thy bod}', and from our society, N. as a proud contemner, 

 and slanderous person, and a member for the present al- 

 together corrupted, and pernicious to the body. And this 

 his sin (albeit with sorrow of our hearts) by virtue of our 

 ministry, we bind and pronounce the same to be bound, 

 in heaven and earth. We further give over, into the 

 hands and power of the devil, the said N. to the destruc- 

 tion of his flesh ; straitly charging all that profess the 

 Lord Jesus, to whose knowledge this our sentence shall 

 come, to repute and hold the said N. accursed and un- 

 worthy of the familiar society of Christians ; declaring 

 unto all men that such as hereafter (before his repent- 

 ance) shall haunt, or familiarly accompany him, are 

 partakers of his impiety, and subject to the like condem- 

 nation. 



"This our sentence, Lord Jesus, pronounced in thy 

 name, and at thy commandment, we humbly beseech 

 thee to ratify even according to thy promise." — Collier's 

 Ecc. Hist., ed. Lathbury, vi. 578. 



For not coming to the synod held at Westmin- 

 ster, a.d. 1571, Richard Clicyney of Gloucester 

 was thus solemnly excommunicated by Parker: — 



"Nos Matthseus, &c. reverendum in Christo patrem 

 Dom. Richardum Glocestren. &c. de consensu confratrum 

 nostrorum nobiscum in hac pra?senti convocatione assi- 

 dentium excommunicamus in hiis scrtptis." — Collier, 76. 

 ix. 342. 



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