Minor Queries Answered.
Unde derivatur "Gooseberry Fool?"
—I have heard some wild guesses on this subject; the most preposterous, perhaps, being that which would connect the term with gooseberry food.
Has not the French word fouler, "to press," or "squeeze," something to do with the matter?
T. J. T.
Cheltenham, May 6. 1851.
[Our correspondent will find ample confirmation of the accuracy of his derivation in Tarver's Phraseological Dictionary, where, under Fouler, he will find the examples, "Fouler des pommes, du raisin, to press, to crush, to squeeze apples, grapes.">[
Biography of Bishop Hurd.
—The longest biographical sketch I remember to have seen of the late Bishop Hurd, the friend and biographer of Bishop Warburton, was in a work called the Ecclesiastical Register, or some such name, I suppose of the date of 1809 or thereabouts. Can any correspondent of "NOTES AND QUERIES" direct me to the precise title and date of the work, or point out any better sketch of the Bishop's life?
F. K.
[In the collected Works of Bishop Hurd, 8 vols. 8vo., edit. 1811, will be found an autobiographical sketch of the Bishop, entitled "Some Occurrences in my Life," discovered among his papers after his decease. Nichols' Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, vol. vi. pp. 468-512., contains a long and interesting account of the Bishop. See also the Annual Register, vol. 1. p. 155.]
Friday, why considered unlucky.
—Can any of your readers tell me why Friday is considered an unlucky day?
E. N. W.
[There is no doubt the belief of Friday being an unlucky day originated in its being the day of the Crucifixion. A very early allusion to this superstition, and which has not we believe been recorded by Brande, will be found in Geoffrey de Vinsauf's "Lament for Richard Cœur de Lion," who was killed on a Friday:
"O Veneris lacrymosa dies, O sidus amarum!
Illa dies tua nox fuit, et Venus illa venenum."
It is to this passage Chaucer refers in his Nonnes Preeste's Tale, v. 15, 353., et seq., when he says:
"O Gaufride, dere maister soverain,
That, whan thy worthy King Richard was slain
With shot, complainedest his deth so sore,
Why ne had I now thy science and thy lore,
The Friday for to chiden, as did ye?
For on a Friday sothly slain was he.">[
The Lord Mayor a Privy Councillor.
—Can any of your contributors inform me whether the prefix "Right Honourable" is accorded to the title of the Lord Mayor of London as a mere matter of courtesy, or whether our Chief Magistrate is for the time being ex officio a Privy Councillor, and consequently "Right Honourable?"
If any authority for either position can be cited, so much the more satisfactory.
LEGALIS.
[The Lord Mayor is never sworn as a Privy Councillor; but on the demise of the Crown attends the meeting, of the Privy Council held on such occasion, and signs the proclamation of the new Sovereign. On the accession of William IV., some objection was, we believe, made to the admission of the Lord Mayor into the Council Chamber, which was, however, abandoned on an intimation that if the Lord Mayor was not admitted, he would retire, accompanied by his officers and the aldermen who were present.]
Alterius Orbis Papa.
—In the Bishop of Exeter's celebrated Pastoral Letter, p. 44., the Archbishop of Canterbury is styled—
"The second spiritual chief of Christendom, alterius orbis Papa."
In conversation a few days since I heard these expressions objected to, when a gentleman present observed that the title "Alterius orbis Papa" was conferred by the Bishop of Rome, or Pope of Christendom, on his confrère of Canterbury, at a very early period. His memory did not furnish him with the precise date, but he was convinced that such was the fact as reported in Collier's Ecclesiastical History, and seemed inclined to refer it to a period not long subsequent to the mission of Augustine.
Is such the fact? or, if not, to whom may the words be ascribed?
A. B.
Redland, June 5.
[Carwithen, in his History of the Church of England, vol. i. p. 40., speaking of Wolsey's attempt to gain the popedom, says, "His aim was the chair of St. Peter, and to the attainment of his wishes he rendered subservient both the alliances and the enmities of his own country. At home, even the papacy could confer on him no accession of power: he was indeed papa alterius orbis.">[
Mrs. Elstob.
—Mrs. Elstob, the Anglo-Saxon scholar, is stated by a recent reviewer to have passed the period of her seclusion in a village in Wiltshire, until taken notice of by a neighbouring clergyman. What village was this, and who was the clergyman? for other authorities place her at Evesham in Worcestershire.
J. W.
[We are inclined to think that Wiltshire must be a misprint for Worcestershire in the Review, as the notices of Miss Elstob in Kippis' Biographia Britannica, and Nichols' Anecdotes of Bowyer, only speak of her retirement in distressed circumstances to Evesham, where she attracted the notice of Mr. Ballard, author of Memoirs of British Ladies, and of Mrs. Capon, wife of the Rev. Mr. Capon, of Stanton, in Gloucestershire.]
Cardinal Bellarmin.
—I find the following passage in D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature:—
"Bellarmin was made a Cardinal for his efforts and devotion to the Papal cause, and maintaining this monstrous paradox—that if the Pope forbid the exercise of virtue and command that of vice, the Roman Church, under pain of sin, was obliged to abandon virtue for vice, if it would not sin against conscience."
Can any of your readers favour me with the text in Bellarmin, which contains this "monstrous paradox?"
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, May, 1851.
[The passage will be found in Disputationum Roberti Bellarmini, de Controversiis Christianæ Fidei: De Summo Pontifice, lib. iv. cap. v. sect. 8.: Pragæ, 1721, fol., vol. i. p. 456.:
"8. Secundò, quia tune necessariò erraret, etiam circa fidem. Nam fides Catholica docet, omnem virtutem esse bonam, omne vitium esse malum: si autem Papa erraret præcipiendo vitia, vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur Ecclesia credere, vitia esse bona, et virtutes malas, nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare. Tenetur enim in rebus dubiis Ecclesia acquiescere judicio summi Pontificis, et facere quod ille præcipit; non facere, quod ille prohibet; ac nè fortè contra conscientiam agat, tenetur credere bonum esse, quod ille præcipit: malum, quod ille prohibet.">[