QUE 



tlivifion is into^/j^ or /;«Ha»7 (luellions ; 3.i, Quid ejl? What 

 is J'uch a thing? AnA fccomUry, wliicli arile out of the 

 former ; as, How is it J' 



Question, QuoJliketical. See Quodi.ibetkal. 



Question, in Laiu. The gut/lio Je jure is generally to 

 be diftinguiihed from the gua/lio de faSo. 



Question is alfo fometimes ufed for torture ; which foe. 



QUEST-MEN, perfons chofen yearly in eacli ward, to 

 inquire into abufcs and mifdemeanors, efpecially fuch as re- 

 late to weights and meafures. 



Quest-men, in Ecclefmjlical Latu. See Sidesmen. 



QUESTOR, Qu.i-;sTOR, formed a quarendo, Jeeking, 

 fearching, or colleBing the revenues of the Jlate, an officer in 

 ancient Rome, who had the care of the pubhc treafurc. 



The queftorfliip, qud-Jiura, is very ancient, as having been 

 eftabliihed under the kings, probably in the time of Ro- 

 mulus or Nunia, or at leail under Tullus Hoitilius. Ta- 

 citus (Annal. xi. 22.) fays, that the firil quellors were 

 elefted by the people, 64 years after the foundation of the 

 republic ; but he is of opinion that they had, long before 

 that period, been annually appointed by the confuls, and 

 even by the kings. But this obfcure point of antiquity is 

 contefted by other writers. Dionyfius and Livy date the 

 original of queftors about A. U. C. 269. Plutarch refers 

 the inftitution to the time of Valerius Poplicola, when he 



QUE 



and the queftors, who were generally employed in the pro» 

 viiices abroad, aifigned to them feverally by lot, no fooner 

 returned from tiieir provincial adniinillration than they look 

 their places in the fenatc ; and from that time forward, 

 from the rank of equcllrians, or what we commonly call 

 knights, became fenators for life. 



The youth and inexperience of the queflors, who entered 

 on that important office in the 25th year, engaged Augullus 

 to remove them from the management of thetreafury ; and 

 though they were rcitorcd by Claudius, they feem to have 

 been finally difmifTed by Nero. In the provinces of the im- 

 perial divifion, the place of the quellors was more ably 

 fupplied by the procurators, or, as they were afterwards 

 called, " ratiiinaks." But in the provinces of the fenatc 

 we may lUll difcover a feries of quellors till the reign of 

 Marcus Antoninus. From Ulpian we may learn, that under 

 the government of the houfe of Severus, their provincial 

 adminillration was abolifhed ; and in the fubfequcnt troubles, 

 the annual, or triennial elections of quellors, mull have 

 naturally ceaied. 



There was alfo another kind of queftors, called qutejlores 

 parricidii, whofe office was to enquire into, and take cog- 

 nizance of capit il crimes, after the confuls were denied this 

 privilege. 



QuEs-iou _/(/fri palatii, or of \.\\e facred palace, was one 



allotted the temple of Saturn for the treafury, and granted of the firil dignities under the emperc.rs of Conilantinople 



the people the liberty of choofing two young men for the 

 treafurers. Afterwards, ■yis. A. U. C. 332, two others 

 were created to take care of the payment of the armies 

 abroad, of felling the plunder and booty, &c. for which 

 purpofe they generally accompanied the confuls in their ex- 

 peditions ; and they were diftinguiflied by the name of pere- 

 vrini from the other quellors, who alfumed the title of urbani. 

 This number continued till the entire conquell of Italy ; 

 and then, A. U. C. 439, it was again doubled. The four 

 that were added refided with the proconfuls and proprietors, 

 in the provinces, where they were employed in regulating 

 the taxes and culloms due to the ftate. 



In the time of the republic, the fenate appointed queftors 

 in each province, to afliil the proconfuls, as lieutenants or 

 treafurers, in the adminiftration of the revenues ; but, under 

 the emperors, there was properly but one queilor, or trea- 

 furer-general of the empire ; tliofe other inferior or fubor- 

 d'nate queftors were then called afliftants of the queftor, 

 adjutores quiejlor'is. 



The qucllor's office was originally confined to the army. 

 They paid the foldiery, and took charge of monies coming 

 by fpoil and plunder, &c. 



At length there \vere new ones ere£led to refide in the 

 city, and to receive the public money, taxes, tribute, &c. 

 Their number was increafed as the empire increafed. Sylla 

 Julius Cxfarto forty ; fome being 



It was this queftor that fubfcribcd the refcripts of the 

 emperor, and the anfwers to the petitions and fupplieations 

 prefented to him. He alfo drew up and figncd the lawr- 

 and conftitutions which the emperor thought ht to publifh ; 

 and took care of the adminillration of jullice. 



Some compare his funftion to that of our lord high chan- 

 cellor. It was ufually one of the jurifconfulti that was 

 charged with this office ; it being required, that he fhould 

 know the laws of the empire, be able to prefcribe and fee 

 them executed, and judge of caufes brought by way of ap- 

 peal before the emperor. 



Conftantine \\as the firil vi-ho erefted queftors of the 

 facred palace. 



OUESTUS, or Ou-TCstcs. See Qu.-estus. 

 QtKSTUS ejl nolis, a writ of nufance, which, by flat. 

 15 Edw. I. lies againil him to whom a houfe, or other 

 thing, that breeds a nufance, is defcended, or ahenated ; 

 whereas before that ilatute, the aftion lay only againtt him 

 who firil levied, or caufed the nufance, to the damage of 

 his neighbour. 



QUETIF, James, in Biography, a learned French Do- 

 minican monk, was born at Paris in the year l6lS. He 

 embraced the monaftic profeffion among the preaching friars 

 when he was not more than 17 years of age, and having 

 completed his philofophical coiufe at Paris, he was fent by 

 his fuperiors to Bordeaux, where he ftudied divinity, and re- 

 ceived prteft's orders in 1648. He lived to a great age, ex- 



augmented it to twenty ; 



nominated by the emperor, and the others by the people 



Tacitus (Annal. xi. 22.) feems to confider twenty as tiie ercifing his talents in various ways, and died in the year 1698, 



higheft number of queftors ; and Dion (hb. xhii. p. 374.) highly refpected for his great erudition, his extenfive know- 



infinuates, that if the didlatorCsefar once created forty. It was ledge, and his virtues. He pubhftied a new edition of the 



only to facilitate the payment of an immenfe debt of gra 

 titude. Under fucceeding emperors their number was not 

 fixed. Of thefe, two were appointed for the city, to take 

 care of the public treafure, and to keep the laws and decrees 

 of the fenate ; tl«: others pertained to the provinces and the 

 armies. 



The queftorlhip was the firft office which any perfon 

 could bear in the commonwealth, and might be undertook 

 at the age of twenty-four or twenty-tive years. Accord- 

 ingly, the qusellorffiip was called the firft ftep of honour, 

 13 



" Summa Theologix" of Aquinas, in three vols, folio, 

 with notes. He did the fame by a work entitled " ConciUi 

 Tridentini Canones." He was editor of " The Spiritual 

 and Afcetic Letters of Savonarola ;" and he publiftied, with 

 his own notes, ■" The Life of Savonarola," from the Latin of 

 John Picus, count of Mirandula, with confiderable addi- 

 tions. He wrote the preface to " The Letters of Peter 

 Morin," which he publiftied from the author's manufcripts ; 

 as he alfo did his treatife " On the good Ufe or Abufe of the 

 Sciences." He was author of a confiderable part of the 



work 



