[502] ‘… Ita ut Nero se puero gravidum existimaret…. Tandem dolore nimio vexatus, medicis ait: Accelerate tempus partus, quia languore vix anhelitum habeo respirandi. Tunc ipsum ad vomitum impotionaverunt, et ranam visu terribilem, humoribus infectam, et sanguine edidit cruentatam…. Unde et pars illa civitatis, ut aliqui dicunt, ubi rana latuerat, Lateranum, à latente rana, nomen accepit.’ Matthæi Westmonast. part i. p. 98. Compare the account given by Roger of Hoveden, of a woman who vomited two toads. Script. post Bedam, p. 457 rev. In the Middle Ages there were many superstitions respecting these animals, and they appear to have been used by heralds as marks of degradation. See Lankester's Memorials of Ray, p. 197.
[503] ‘… Ego Turpinus in valle Caroli loco præfato, astante rege,’ &c. De Vita Caroli Magni, p. 74, edit. Ciampi.
[504] Turner (History of England, vol. vii. pp. 250–268) has attempted to prove that it was written by Calixtus II.; but his arguments, though ingenious and learned, are not decisive. Warton (Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. i. p. 128) says it was composed about 1110.
[505] The pope ‘statuit historiam Sancti Caroli descriptam a beato Turpino Remensi Archiepiscopo esse authenticam.’ Note in Turner, vol. vii. p. 250.
[506] In his famous Speculum, ‘il recommande spécialement les études historiques, dont il paraît que la plupart de ses contemporains méconnaissaient l'utilité; mais lorsqu'il indique les sources où il puisera ce genre d'instruction, c'est Turpin qu'il désigne comme le principal historien de Charlemagne.’ Histoire Littéraire de la France, vol. xviii. p. 474, Paris, 1835, 4to; see also p. 517; and on its influence in Spain, see Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature, vol. i. pp. 222, 223.
[507] Caroli Magni Historia, edit. Ciampi, pp. 3–5.
[508] ‘… Muri collapsi funditus corruerunt.’ De Vita Caroli, p. 5. On this, Ciampi, in his notes on Turpin, gravely says (pp. 94, 95): ‘Questo fatto della presa di Pamplona è reso maraviglioso per la subitanea caduta delle mura, a somiglianza delle mura di Gerico.’ This reminds me of a circumstance mentioned by Monconys, who, on visiting Oxford in 1663, was shown a horn which was preserved in that ancient city, because it was said to be made in the same way as that by which the walls of Jericho were blown down: ‘Les Juifs tiennent que leurs ancêtres se servirent de pareilles pour abbattre les murailles de Jérico.’ Voyages de Monconys, vol. iii. p. 95, edit. Paris, 1695.
[509] De Vita Caroli, cap. v. pp. 11, 12; is headed ‘De ecclesiis quas Carolus fecit.’
[510] ‘Gigas nomine Fenacutus, qui fuit de genere Goliat.’ De Vita Caroli, p. 39.
[511] ‘Vim xl. fortium possidebat.’ p. 39.