[The Act of 22 Hen. VIII. c. 9. recites, that "nowe in the tyme of this presente parliament, that is to saye, in the xviijth daye of Februarye in the xxij yere of his moste victorious reygn, one Richard Roose late of Rouchester in the countie of Kent, coke, otherwyse called Richard Coke, of his moste wyked and dampnable dysposicyon dyd caste a certyne venym or poyson into a vessell replenysshed with yeste or barme stondyng in the kechyn of the Reverende Father in God John Bysshopp of Rochester at his place in Lamebyth Marsshe, wyth whych yeste or barme and other thynges convenyent porrage or gruel was forthwyth made for his famylye there beyng, wherby nat only the nombre of xvij persons of his said famylie whych dyd eate of that porrage were mortally enfected and poysoned, and one of them, that is to say, Benett Curwen gentylman therof is deceassed, but also certeyne pore people which resorted to the sayde Bysshops place and were there charytably fedde wyth the remayne of the saide porrage and other vytayles, were in lyke wyse infected, and one pore woman of them, that is to saye, Alyce Tryppytt wydowe, is also thereof now deceassed: our sayde Sovereign Lorde the Kynge of hys blessed disposicion inwardly abhorryng all such abhomynable offences because that in maner no persone can lyve in suertye out of daunger of death by that meane yf practyse therof should not be exchued, hath ordeyned and enacted by auctorytie of thys presente parlyament that the sayde poysonyng be adjudged and demed as high treason. And that the sayde Richard [Rose or Roose] for the sayd murder and poysonynge of the said two persones as is aforesayde by auctoritie of this presente parlyament shall stande and be attaynted of highe treason: And by cause that detestable offence nowe newly practysed and com̅ytted requyreth condign̅e punysshemente for the same; It is ordeyned and enacted by auctoritie of this present parlyament that the said Richard Roose shalbe therfore boyled to deathe withoute havynge any advauntage of his clargie. And that from hensforth every wylfull murder of any persone or persones by any whatsoever persone or persones herafter to be com̅ytted and done by meane or waye of poysonyng shalbe reputed, demed, and juged in the lawe to be highe treason; And that all and every persone or persones which hereafter shalbe lawfully indyted appeled and attaynted or condemned of such treson for any maner poysonyng shall not be admytted to the benefyte of hys or theyre clargye, but shalbe immedyatly committed to execucion of deth by boylynge for the same.]
THE ROMAN INDEX EXPURGATORIUS OF 1607.
(Vol. iv., p. 440.)
U. U. will be extremely sorry to hear that he has not any reason for persuading himself that his copy of this Index belongs to the original edition. On account of the difference of spaces observed in the reprint, each page, though containing only the same matter that appears in the earlier impression, has been elongated to the extent required for three lines. The Ratisbon octavo is generally about an inch taller, and a third part thicker, than the Roman volume. The woodcuts are totally distinct, and are better in the authentic book; and the beau papier, of which Clement speaks, at once eliminates the modern pretender.
I have been able to obtain two copies of the genuine Vatican Index as well as its Serpilian rival; and with respect to what your correspondent calls "the Bergomi" (more properly the Bergamo) "edition" of 1608, I beg to assure him that there is an "undoubted" exemplar likewise producible, and that I have dispersed a thousand facsimiles of it since the ear 1837.
U. U. has charged Mr. Mendham with having imagined that "Brasichellen" was a "complete" word. I happen to know very well, and many of your readers also know, that my excellent friend is not altogether such a simpleton; but he will most probably not take the trouble on this occasion to defend himself. The fact is, that the Serpilian counterfeit alone is without the full stop in the case of this word, which in the Bergamo titlepage ends at "Brasichell." The master of the sacred palace, with whom we are now concerned, is very rarely mentioned as Giovanni Maria da Brisighella, the designation which he rightly gives to himself in his Italian edicts; and the Latinized forms Brasichellanus and Brasichellensis easily arrive at English abridgments. In 1607, when the Vatican Expurgatory Index was first published, the Commissary-General of the Roman Inquisition was Agostino Galamini da Brisighella, and his name is sometimes found recorded, unstopped, as "Augustinus Galaminius Brasichellen."
R. G.
HOBBES'S "LEVIATHAN."
(Vol. iv., pp. 314. 487.)
I am surprised that your correspondent H. A. B., who appears by his expressions to be an admirer of the Leviathan, should think the frontispiece an absurd conceit, very unworthy of its author. The design may be regarded, I think, as a very remarkable embodiment of the thought expressed in the passage where the term Leviathan is first used. The civil body or commonwealth, derived from the union of individuals, is represented by Hobbes as the origin of all rights and duties. And this combination of men is (Leviathan, p. 87.) something more than consent and concord. It is the real unity of them all in one and the same person. The multitude, so united in one person, is called a Commonwealth. "This is the generation," he says, "of that great Leviathan, or, to speak more reverently" (that is, with the reverence due to it), "of that mortal God to which we owe (under the Immortal God) our peace and defence." This "mortal God," thus constituted, may very fitly be represented by the giant image, made up of thousands of individual forms, wielding the mighty sword and the magnificent crosier, and spreading its arms, with an air of sovereignty, over castles and churches, rivers and ports, fields and villages. The emblems then represent, as H. A. B. observes, the manifestations of civil and of ecclesiastical power; and the parallelisms there exhibited appear to me to be curious: the castle, with a piece of ordnance discharged from the walls; the church, with a figure of Faith on its roof; the coronet and the mitre; the cannon, the thunderbolt of war; and the spiritual fulmination, represented by the mythological thunderbolts; the arms of Logic, Syllogism, and Dilemma, and the like; and the arms of war, pikes, and swords, and muskets; and finally, the judiciary tribunal, and the tribunal of the battle field, the ultima ratio regum.
The frontispiece in the edition of 1651 is a much better print than that of 1750; and in the former, I think, the resemblance to Cromwell is undeniable. In this edition, the tablet at the bottom has the words, "London: Printed for Andrew Crooke, 1651." In the edition of 1750 there are on the tablet the words, "Written by Thos. Hobbs, 1651," as C. J. W. states.
W. W.