[134]. In two different rolls we come across such cognomens as ‘Osbert Diabolus’ and ‘Roger le Diable.’ These are very likely but relics of early jesting upon the local forms mentioned in the text. A ‘Thomas de Devyle’ occurs in the Parliamentary Rolls, while in the Writs of the same we find a ‘John de Evylle.’ The former instance, again, may be but a sarcastic reduplication of the prefix. Dean Milman, quoting the author of Anglia Judaica, tells the following story, which shows how early this name had been so played upon:—‘A certain Jew travelling towards Shrewsbury in company with Richard Peche, Archdeacon of Malpas, in Cheshire, and a reverend dean whose name was “Deville,” was told amongst other things, by the former, that his “jurisdiction was so large as to reach from a place called Ill Street all along till they came to Malpas, and took in a wide circumference of country.” To which the infidel, being more witty than wise, immediately replied: “Say you so, sir? God grant me then a good deliverance! For it seems I am riding in a country where Sin (Péché) is the archdeacon, and the Devil himself the dean; where the entrance into the archdeaconry is in Ill Street, and the going from it Bad Steps (Malpas).”’ (History of Jews, vol. iii. p. 232.)
[135]. Hall, in his ‘Chronicles,’ speaks of the ‘Duke of Burgoyne.’ (F. xxiiii.)
[136]. ‘Champaigne,’ of course, means simply plain-land, and is found locally in various parts of Western Europe. I have included ‘Champion’ with the others because, though sometimes a combative sobriquet, it is as often found to be the mediæval form of the local term, ‘Champian’ and ‘Champain’ being other modes of spelling the same to be met with at this period. Thus we find such double entries as ‘Katerina le Champion’ and ‘Roger de Champion.’ Our present Authorised Version uses the word twice, as in Deut. xi. 30:—‘Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?’ In the various translations of this passage almost all the above modes of spelling have been used.
[137]. Vide Words and Places, p. 436.
[138]. Camden says: ‘When Rollo had Normandy made over to him by Carolus Stultus, with his daughter Gisla, he would not submit to kiss Charles’s foot. And when his friends urged him by all means to kiss the king’s foot, in gratitude for so great a favour, he made answer in the English tongue, “Ne se, by God”—“Not so, by God”—upon which the king and his courtiers, deriding him, and corruptly repeating his answer, called him “Bigod,” from whence the Normans are to this day termed “Bigodi.”’
[139]. ‘John Spaynard’ is found in the Cal. Rot. Patentium; but the name is now obsolete, I imagine. ‘Peter Ispanier’ occurs in Clutterbuck’s Hertford (vol. i. Index).
[140]. Hence we find Skelton speaking in one of his poems of ‘That gentyll Jorge the Januay.’
[141]. Wicklyffe, in his preface to St. Paul’s Epistle to the ‘Romayns,’ quotes St. Jerome, and adds, ‘This saith Jerom in his prologe on this pistle to Romaynes.’
[142]. ‘Turk,’ we must not forget, was a general term for anyone of the Mahommedan faith. It still lingers in that sense in the Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics of our Book of Common Prayer.
[143]. Thus we find Bishop Coverdale, in his Prologue to the New Testament, written 1535, saying, ‘And to help me herein I have had sundry translations, not only in Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters, whom, because of their singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible, I have been the more glad to follow.’ (Park: Soc. p. 12.) Here he is manifestly speaking of the German reformers.