12. Dean Comber, "falsi Malleus". (Ib. v. 450.) The reader will at once recollect "The hammer of the whole earth," in Jeremiah, L. 23. Grotius, in his note on the "Malleus universæ terræ" of that passage, says,—
"Sic vocat Chaldæos, pari de causâ ut ob quam
Francorum quidam dictus est Martellus".
Compare George Herbert of Lord Bacon,—"Sophismatum Mastix ... Securis que errorum," &c. &c. (Poems, p. 253, ed. 1844.) Nor must we forget Attila, "the scourge of God."
R.A.
Charles Martel (Vol. i. p. 86.)—The following note may perhaps be acceptable in conjunction with that of G.J.K. (p. 86.), on Charles Martel. It is taken from Michelet's History of France, an easily accessible work.
"Charlemagne is usually considered as the translation of Carolus Magnus. 'Challemaines si vaut autant comme grant challes.' (Chro. de St. Denis, 1. i. c. 4.) Charlemagne is merely a corruption of Carloman, Karlmann, the strong man. In the above-cited chronicle itself, the words Challes and Challemaines are used for Charles and Carloman (maine, a corruption of mann, as leine of lana). In the Chronicle of Theophanes a still more conclusive text is found: he calls Carloman Καρουλλομαγνος; Scr. fr. v. 187. The two brothers must have borne the same name. In the 10th century, Charles the Bald was dignified, though most undeservedly, with the same title of Great, through the ignorance of the Latin monks.—Epitaph. ap Scrip. fr. vii. 322.
... Nomen qui nomine duxit
De Magni Magnus, de Caroli Carolus.
A similar kind of blunder was made by the Greek writers in the name Elagabal, which they transformed into Heliogabal, from "'Ηλιος, the sun."
With regard to Charles Martel, Michelet does not allude to M. Collin de Plaucy's explanation, and adopts the old version—
"Son surnom païen de Marteau me ferait volontiers douter s'il était chrétien. On sait que le marteau est l'attribut de Thor, le signe de l'association païcune, celui de la propriété de la conquête barbare."—Vide Michelet's Origines du Droit Français.
Charles was notoriously at variance with the Church. I should consider Michelet a much better authority than M. Collin de Plaucy, who, to judge from his preface to another work, Le Dictionnaire Infernal, slavishly submits his critical acuteness to the dicta of his Church.
J.B.D.