132 FOLLIES CONDEMNED. [l^QS- 



Exi^ose Piety to Laughter, 



Mor render the sacred Truths suspected, Scandalous and Ridiculous, 



To such as want Knowledge and Discernment. 



May Heaven to the end of the World preserve thee 



From all these presumptuous Earthworms, 



Who proudly boast they can explain Mysteries, 



And pretend to Embellishi Faith and Worship, 



According to their Folly or Rashness. 



May no Astrologer ever be permitted in thy Common-Wealth. 



No learner of passages out of Homer, 



No Slave of musty Otho's,^ 



No Searcher after the Philosophers Stone.^ 



No Poetaster. 

 And may no Man be ever so Ridiculous, 



Devotions; some of these creep along from one side whilst others meet 

 them coming from the other, but all furnished with Beads and mutter- 

 ing Pater Nostcrs." 



^ In orig. : "qui s'erige en Embellisseur de Creance." 



2 In orig. : " Aucun Esclave d'Othons rouillez." This allusion is not 

 too easily to be comprehended. Rusty Othons can hardly refer to the 

 German Othos, Emperors, of the tenth century : can it not more pro- 

 bably have reference to the manuscripts and books relating to their 

 deeds, as, for instance, Hroswitha, de Gestis Oddonis? The formid- 

 able Otho the Great died on Christmas Day, 967. The valuable 

 chronicle, recovered by the industry of Pertz, records the death of 

 Otho II ; and Otho III, the religious Otho, was poisoned by the 

 remorseless Stephania in 1002. (See Milman's History of Latin 

 Christianity, vol. ii, pp. 389-418.) 



3 In orig. : " Aucun chercheur de Pierre Philosophale." Archbishop 

 Gerbert, subsequently known as Pope Silvester II, who succeeded to 

 the Pontificate in 999, was celebrated for his Arabian skill in arithmetic, 

 geometry, and astrology, which he had studied under Caliph Hakim II, 

 in Cordova. In remote Britain, according to William of Malmesbury, 

 the magical arts and enchantments of Gerbert were commonly believed, 

 and his funeral oration, in the Vit. Pontif. liarennat, is " Homagiuni 

 diabolo fecit et male finivit." Compare " Hist. Lit. de la France " and 

 Vincent of Beauvais in the Encyclopaedia of the Middle Ages. Gerbert, 

 in Spain, fell in love with the daughter of one of those accursed doctors ; 

 he stole his books. The Magician, by the aid of the stars, pursued the 

 robber. But Gerbert, too, had learned to read the stars. By their 

 counsel he lay hid under a bridge, when the devil descended and bore 

 him away, designing him for the Pontifical chair. (See Milman's Latin 

 Christianity, vol. ii, p. 419.) 



