BINGHAM'S ANTIQUITIES.
(Vol. ix., p. 197.)
I beg to send to your correspondent Mr. Richard Bingham the following replies to his seven Queries.
1. If there be any use in verifying so slight a verbal reference to Panormitan, one of whose huge folios, Venet. 1473, I have examined in vain, perhaps the object might be attained by the assistance of such a book as Thomassin's Vetus et Nova Ecclesiæ Disciplina, in the chapter "De Episcopis Titularibus," tom. i.
2. Bishop Bale's description of the monks of Bangor is to be found in his Scriptor. Britann. Catal. Compare Richard Broughton's True Memorial of the ancient State of Great Britain, pp. 39. 40, ed. an. 1650.
3. I should think in his Colloquies, and most probably in the Peregrinatio Religionis ergo. Erasmus, in his Modus orandi Deum, also observes that "quidam in concionibus implorant opem Virginis," and condemns the "vestigia veteris Paganismi." (sigg. u and s 2, Basil, 1551.)
4. Respecting the existence of what is called the Epistle of St. Athanasius to Eustathius, Cardinal Bona was right and Bingham in error. Vide St. Athan., Opp. ii. 560, ed. Bened.
5. Bingham was seriously astray in consequence of his misunderstanding Bona, who does not by any means refer to Pamelius, but to the anonymous author of the Antiquitatum Liturgicarum Syntagma, who is believed to have been Florentius Vanderhaer. If Pamelius is to be introduced at all, the reference in Bingham should be, not to "tom. iii. p. 307.," but to i. 328-30. I would remark too that, in the heading of one of the extracts subjoined, "ex Vita Ambrosiana," should be "ex Ritu Ambrosiano."
6. Joannes Semeca did not flourish A.D. 1250, but died in 1243. Suicer wrongly refers to "Dist. IV. cap. iv.," and Harding, more inaccurately, to "Dist. IV. can. iv." (Bp. Jewel's Works,
ed. Jelf, i. 419.) Cap. xxviii. is the one intended, and there is no corruption whatsoever.
7. Joseph Bingham was only closely following Barrow. The first edition of De la Bigne's Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. i., also has the evidently senseless reading, "ista quidam ego," instead of "nego," about which see Comber's Roman Forgeries, ii. 187. For MSS. of the Epistles of Pope Symmachus, your correspondent may consult the Carmelite Lud. Jacob à S. Carolo's Bibliotheca Pontifica, p. 216.; or, much more successfully, De Montfaucon's Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum Manuscriptorum, Paris, 1739.
R. G.
Should Mr. Richard Bingham not yet have verified the reference to Erasmus, I beg to furnish him with the means of doing so but I am tolerably certain that I recollect having met with another place in which this admirable writer more fully censures those preachers of his Church who, at the commencement of their sermons, called upon the Virgin Mary for assistance, in a manner somewhat similar to that in which heathen poets used to invoke the Muses. The following passage, however, may be quite sufficient for your correspondent's purpose:
"Sed si est fons gratiæ, quid opus est illi dicere Ora pro nobis? Non est probabile eam consuetudinem à gravibus viris inductam, sed ab inepto quopiam, qui, quòd didicerat apud Poëtas propositioni succedere invocationem, pro Musa supposuit Mariam."—Des. Erasmi Roterod. Apologia adversus Rhapsodias calumniosarum querimoniarum Alberti Pii, quondam Carporum Principis, p. 168. Basil. in off. Froben. 1531.
R. G.