Replies.

WRITTEN SERMONS AND EXTEMPORE PREACHING.
(Vol. iii., pp. 478. 526.; Vol. iv., p. 8.)

Your versatile correspondent MR. GATTY has been led astray by an incorrect assertion of Bingham's (magni nominis vir), that Origen was the first who preached extempore. The passage to which Bingham refers us, in Eusebius, asserts nothing of this sort; but simply that Origen would not suffer his sermons to be taken down by the short-hand writers till he was sixty years old,—a sufficient proof, if any were needed, that the custom of taking down sermons by notaries in the third century was not unusual.

Some rogue has stolen my Number of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" in which the inquiry on the subject of written sermons was made; but, if I remember rightly, the question was put correctly, it having been asked when written sermons were first preached. As I at one time took some pains to look into this point, and as no one else seems inclined to take it up, perhaps you will allow me space for a few remarks.

1. I suppose no one will be disposed to question the extreme improbability of the "sermons" in the Apostolic are having been written discourses: if, however, this be considered doubtful, I am willing to argue the point, and be set right if I am wrong in thinking it unquestionable.

2. I believe it is almost as improbable, that in what Professor Brunt calls the "post-Apostolic" times sermons were written, not only from the complete silence of the Apostolic Fathers on the point—for that would really prove next to nothing,—but because it seems quite incredible that no vestige of any such sermon should have come down to us; no forgery of one, no legend or tradition of the existence of one if the practice of writing sermons had prevailed at all.

3. In the Apologies of Justin and Tertullian [Justin, ed. Otto, i. 270.; Tertullian, Ap. ch. xxxix.] there is a description of the addresses delivered in the congregations of their times, which appears to me to prove that they knew of no such practice as reading a sermon and the passage from Origen contra Cels., which De la Cerda gives in his note on Tertullian, though it is only quoted in the Latin, surely shows the same (vol. i. p. 190.). I came across something of the sort in Cyprian about two years ago and, if I may dare trust my memory, it appeared to me at the time to be more satisfactory than the passages above referred to; but I made no note of it,—and I was hunting for other game when I met with it. Still, if your querist is going into the subject as a student into a matter of history, I dare stay I could find the paragraph.

4. I have really no acquaintance with the post-Nicene fathers, the mere desultory reading out of some few of the works of the Arian period counting for something less than nothing; but, as far as secondary sources are to be trusted, I certainly never met with anything that would lead me to conclude that sermons were ever read in the fourth or fifth centuries. [I shall come to the only shadow of an argument in favour of such a practice having prevailed so early, presently.] Certainly, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, were extempore preachers by Bingham's showing. Gregory the Great, much later, for all that appears to the contrary, never wrote his sermons at all, and even preached his homilies on Ezekiel almost without any preparation. Indeed the prevalence of that most abominable system of applauding the preacher, which St. Chrysostom protests against in the magnificent sermon on 1Cor.xiv.38., could scarcely have been universal where sermons were read.

5. I come now to the argument which Bingham deduces from a passage in Sidonius Apollinaris; where, in speaking of Faustus, Bishop of Riez, he says that he was "raucus plausor," while hearing "tuas prædicationes, nunc repentinas, nunc, cum ratio poposcisset, elucubratas." Until I had turned up the passage itself, I thought there was no doubt that Bingham was right in explaining it as referring partly to extempore, partly to written-and-read sermons; but taking the passage as it stands, I would submit that the "prædicationes elucubratas" were not at all read sermons, though prepared and studied beforehand, and that the "prædicationes repentinas" were such as St. Augustine sometimes delivered, viz., on a text which suggested itself to him during the time of service, or in consequence of some unforeseen event having happened just before his ascending the pulpit.

6. I have as yet dealt only with the negative evidence; but the positive testimony against the reading, and in favour of the reciting or preaching sermons, is far from small. I should look upon man as crazy who ventured to speak slightingly of Bingham, and should as soon think of setting up myself against that great man as of challenging Goliah of Gath to fisty-cuffs; but I can never get rid of the thought that Bingham had a strong prejudice against extempore preaching, and treated the history of sermons somewhat unfairly: e.g., in his 22nd section of that 4th chap. of the xivth book (with which chap. I take it for granted my readers are acquainted), he somewhat roguishly misrepresents Mabillon and the Council of Vaison; and as to every other passage he quotes or refers to, every one asserts that the sermons were to be preached or recited, not one says a word about reading.

The Council of Vaison is, of course, that which was held in A.D. 529, and at which Cæsarius of Arles presided: but the 2nd canon does not say a word about reading; so far from it, it commands that the homilies which the deacons preached should be recited [recitentur, Labbe, iv. p 1679.], as though the practice of reading a sermon were not known. So, with regard to the other passages from St. Augustine, there is not a hint about reading: if a man could not make his own sermons, he was to take another's; but to take care to commit it to memory, and then deliver it.

I should be glad to furnish you with a few "more last words" on this subject, but I fear that these remarks have already proceeded to too great a length: still, if you give me any encouragement, I should like to take up the matter again.

I should be glad to be informed whether it be true, as I have heard, that the practice of learning their sermons by heart is universal and avowed by the preachers in Germany; and whether it be really a common thing for a preacher there to deny himself on a Saturday, on the plea that he is getting his sermon by heart?

AJAX.

Papworth St. Agnes, July 8. 1851.

Written Sermons (Vol. iii., p. 478.).

—Your querist M. C. L. may be referred to Dr. Short's History of the Church of England, § 223.; or to Burnet's Reformation, vol. i. p. 317., folio; where he will find that the practice commenced about the year 1542.

N. E. R. (a Subscriber.)

FEST SITTINGS.
(Vol. iii., pp. 328. 396.)

Not questioning the meaning given to the word Fest by R. VINCENT, I take leave to refer you to Dr. Willan's list of words in use in the mountainous districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in the seventeenth volume of the Archæologia. You will there find: "FEST, to board from home." The word is used in that sense at the present time. A gentleman resident in the West Riding writes to me:

"I have heard the term 'fest' used generally as applying to sending out cattle to pasture, and so says Carr in his Dialect of Craven. I have also frequently heard it used in this manner: 'I have fest my lad out apprentice to so and so.' In my own neighbourhood, in the West Riding, it is a frequent practice for poor man who possesses a cow, but no pasture, to 'fest' her with some occupier of land at a certain sum by the week, or for some other term. So a gamekeeper is said 'to fest' his master's pointer, when he agrees with a farmer to keep it for a time. In these cases the boy, the cow, the pointer, 'are boarded from home.'"

As to "statutes" or "sittings," the word "statutes" is explained in Blount's Dictionary as follows:

"It is also used in our vulgar discourse for the Petty Sessions which are yearly kept for the disposing of servants in service by the statute 5 Eliz. chap. iv." (§ 48.)

See in the Archaic and Provincial Dictionary, "SITTINGS" and "STATUTE." In Holderness (I collect it from the Query of F. R. H.) the term "sittings" is used in the same sense as "statute" in the West Riding, and in many other parts of the kingdom. "Fest sittings" appear then to mean "the annual assemblage of servants who hire themselves to board from home." In many places the "statute" or "stattie" is connected with the fair.

"Statute Fairs," my friend writes, "are held at Settle, Long Preston, and other places, which don't occur to me, in our district (Craven). At Settle servants wishing to hire stand with a small white wand in their hands, to show their object. In like manner horses, when taken to a fair, wear on their heads a white leather kind of bridle; and (to come nearer home) when a young lady has attained a certain age, and begins to look with anxious eye to future prospects, we say that she also has put on the white bridle."

He adds: "I have myself had servants hired at Long Preston Statute Fair." Another friend writes to me:

"Richmond Statties are very famous, every servant desirous of hiring having a peeled twig or stick. At Penrith they put a straw in their mouths. I remember a poor girl being killed by an infuriated cow at Penrith; and the poor thing had the straw in her mouth when dead."

In the East Riding, Pocklington Statute is well known; and York has its Statute Fair. At these "statutes" or "statties" ("Stattie Fairs" and "Sittings," or Fest Sittings), servants "fest themselves," that is, hire themselves to board from home.

Standing in the market-place to be hired will occur to any one who may take the trouble of reading these desultory observations.

Excuse my adding irrelevantly the following use of the word "sitting." It is said that a young man is "sitting a young woman," when he is wooing or courting her.

F. W. T.

HISTOIRE DES SÉVÉRAMBES.
(Vol. iii., pp. 4. 72. 147. 374.)

In Quérard's France Littéraire (Didot, Paris, 1839), tome x. p. 10., I read the following notice of the author of Histoire des Sévérambes:—

"Vairasse (Denis) d'Alais, écrivain français du XVII. Siècle.

"—— Grammaire raisonnée et méthodique, contenant en abrégé les principes de cet art et les règles les plus nécessaires de la langue français. Nouv. édit. Paris, D. Mariette, 1702, in-12.

"La première édition a paru en 1681.

"—— Histoire des Sévérambes (Roman politique) nouv. édit. Amsterdam, Etienne Roger, 1716, 2 vol. in-12.

"La première édition parut de 1677 à 1679, en trois vol. in-12.

"Cet ouvrage a été réimprimé dans la collection des Voyages imaginaires."

La France Littéraire is a compilation of extraordinary labour and research; and, in the absence of more authentic information, I believe we may safely rely on the above statement. The facts, therefore, in so far as they have been brought to light, may be summed up as follows:—

1. The original work was written in English, was entitled History of the Sevarites, and published in 1675.

2. That work suggested the idea of the Histoire des Sévérambes, which was published in 1677-9, and in all essential respects may be said to be an original composition.

3. The Captain Liden of one edition, and the Captain Siden of another (from whose memoirs the work is said to have been translated), are one and the same imaginary personage.

4. The author of the History of the Sevarites has not been ascertained; the claims of Vairasse, Algernon Sidney, and Isaac Vossius, being founded on mere conjecture.

5. There seems no reason to doubt that Denis Vairasse d'Alais was the author of Histoire des Sévérambes; supported as that opinion is by the testimony of Christian Thomasius, Barbier, and Quérard.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

SALTING THE DEAD.
(Vol. iv., p. 6.)

An amusing instance of this custom—perhaps even now, under certain circumstances, prevalent in some parts of England—occurs in Mrs. Bray's Letters on the Superstitions, &c. of Devonshire. A traveller while passing over one of the large uninclosed tracts of land near Tavistock, was overtaken by a violent snowstorm, which compelled him to seek a night's shelter from the inhabitants of a lonely cottage on the moor. In the chamber assigned for his repose, he observed a curiously carved oak chest of antique appearance.

"He noticed or made some remarks upon it to the old woman who had lighted him up stairs, in order to see that all things in his room might be as comfortable as circumstances would permit for his rest. There was something he thought shy and odd about the manner of the woman when he observed the chest; and after she was gone, he had half a mind to take a peep into it."

After a while he does, and horribile dictu! a human corpse, stiff and cold, lay before his sight! After a night spent in the most agonizing apprehensions he descends to breakfast, and his fears become somewhat lightened by the savoury fumes of the morning meal.

"Indeed so much did he feel reassured and elevated by the extinction of his personal fears, that, just as the good woman was broiling him another rasher, he out with the secret of the chest, and let them know that he had been somewhat surprised by its contents; venturing to ask, in a friendly tone, for an explanation of so remarkable a circumstance. 'Bless your heart, your honour, 'tis nothing at all,' said her son; 'tis only fayther!'—'Father! your father!' cried the traveller; 'what do you mean?'—'Why, you know, your honour,' replied the peasant, 'the snaw being so thick, and making the roads so cledgy like, when old fayther died, two weeks agon, we couldn't carry un to Tavistock to bury un, and so mother put un in the old box, and salted un in: mother's a fine hand at salting un in.'"—Vol. i. pp. 29. 32.

In connexion with this subject you will perhaps permit me to observe, that the custom of placing a plate of salt on the body is still retained in many parts of the country. An instance of its use in the metropolis came under my notice only last week. The reason assigned for this is, that it prevents the spread of any noxious vapours. But query, is it not an ancient superstitious observance? According to Moresin:

"Salem abhorrere constat diabolum et ratione optima nititur, quia Sal æternitatis est et immortalitatis signum, neque putredine neque corruptione infestatur unquam, sed ipse ab his omnia vendicat."—Moresini Papatus, p. 154.

SPERIEND.