302 



TABLE-TALK AND VARIETIES. 



OAvner. At all events, it was not 

 from this source he derived the ma- 

 terials of his Defence of the Seven 

 Sacraments, for which Pope Leo the 

 Tenth conferred upon him the title 

 of " Defender of the Faith," ever 

 since borne by the British sove- 

 reigns. Nor could it be from his 

 father that the youthful and pious 

 Edward VI. acquired that rever- 

 ence for the Scriptures, which led 

 him to reprove a companion for 

 laying upon the floor a Bible who 

 can say but it was this identical 

 copy ? that by standing on it he 

 might reach a shelf in an apart- 

 ment where they were amusing 

 themselves. 



Here also are the Elector of Sax- 

 ony's copy of Martin Luther's trans- 

 lation of the Bible, with illumina- 

 tions ; Martin Luther's own copy of 

 the Bible, 1542 ; Myles Coverdale's 

 Bible, 1530, the first printed in 

 England ; Charlemagne's Bible, &c. 



In glancing cursorily over a col- 

 lection of letters and other manu- 

 scripts of celebrated individuals, the 

 following were noticed : The hand- 

 writings of Shakspeare, Newton, 

 Voltaire, Tasso, Lady Jane Grey, 

 Edward the Sixth, Queen Elizabeth, 

 Oliver Cromwell, and Melancthon, 

 the latter broad, massive, angular, 

 and strongly resembling Dr. Chal- 

 mers'; Lady Jane Grey's prayer- 

 book ; Pope's Homer, with the 

 elaborate erasures, interlineations, 

 and re-castings, of which examples 

 are given in Johnson's Life of the 

 poetj by way of illustrating the in- 

 tellectual process by which that 

 great work was performed, and the 

 gradations by which it advanced to 

 correctness. This original copy of 

 the Iliad, it is stated by Johnson, 

 was " obtained by Bolingbroke as a 

 curiosity, descended from him to 

 Mallet, and is now, by the solici- 

 tation of the late Dr. Maty, deposit- 

 ed in the Museum." A variety of 

 Oriental manuscripts are included 

 in this miscellaneous department, 



amongst which are copies of the 

 Koran. 



But the interest felt by the visi- 

 tor here is centred chiefly on two 

 documents which belong to history. 

 The first is superscribed " Bull of 

 Pope Innocent III., whereby he re- 

 ceives in fee the Kingdom of Eng- 

 land, given to the Roman Church 

 by virtue of a Charter confirmed 

 by the Golden Seal of King John, 

 and takes it into his apostolical 

 protection. Given at St. Peter's, 

 11 Kalends of May, A.D.1214,and of 

 the Pontificate of Pope Innocent 

 the 17th year." The surrender of 

 his dominions to the Papal autho- 

 rity by this weak and worthless 

 monarch, is one of the dai'k spots of 

 our history. King John quarrelled 

 with Pope Innocent III. about the 

 appointment of an Archbishop of 

 Canterbury. The Pope quashed a 

 double election by the monks, and 

 appointed by his own authority 

 Stephen Langton, to whom we owe 

 the first division of the Bible into 

 chapters and verses. The King 

 espoused the cause of a favourite 

 bishop. The grand instrument of 

 the power and policy of the Eomish 

 Church in those days was the sen- 

 tence of interdict. The Pope launch- 

 ed this sentence against England. 

 The King made ineffectual attempts 

 to resist and roll it back. But the 

 priesthood stood by the Pope, and 

 the people by the priests. The 

 churches were closed ; the bells 

 were silent which summoned the 

 people to prayers ; the dead were 

 buried in unconsecrated places, 

 thrown into ditches or huddled 

 away in common fields ; marriag-es 

 were celebrated in church - yards, 

 that the most gladsome occurrences 

 of life might be shaded by the all- 

 pervading gloom ; the statues and 

 pictures of the saints were invested 

 in sable, or laid prostrate on the 

 ground ; no religious ordinance was 

 dispensed, save baptism to those 

 who had come into the world, and 



