FRENCH REVOLUTIONS FORETOLD.
(Vol. v., p. 100.)
A remarkable instance of foresight relative to the fate of some of the French sovereigns appears in an epistle of Erasmus to King Francis I.:
"Prætexunt fidei titulum, sed revera aliud agunt; moliuntur tyrannidem, etiam in capita Principum. Huc tendunt per cuniculos. Nisi Princeps ipsorum voluntati per omnia paruerit, dicetur fautor Hæreticorum; et destitui poterit per Ecclesiam; hoc est, per aliquos conjuratos Pseudomonachos et Pseudotheologos."
Richer, Doctor of the Sorbonne, after having alluded to this passage, uses the following very striking language:
"Cæterum regno Franciæ his artibus everso, (quod omen Deus avertat,) reliquis Monarchiis Christianis quæ supererunt eadem manet pestis; ut prophetia Apostoli, de iniquitatis mysterio, et politicarum Potestatum ruina atque interitu, complementum sortiatur; cujus pestis et ruinæ complementum in dies singulos Bullæ Cœnæ Domini et Directorii Inquisitorum arcanis promovetur. Tumque demum, in fine sæculorum, seditiones, conspirationes, et bella plusquam civilia fervebunt, propter Potestatum sæculi exarmatorum imbecillitatem atque impotentiam; quæ nec sibi ipsis, nec aliis, sufficienter consulere poterunt; quia omnes imperare, et nemo parere volet: quibus de bellis consule caput 24. Matthæi."
Apologia pro Joanne Gersonio, pp. 203-4. Lugd. Bat. 1676.
R. G.
GRIMESDYKE.
(Vol. iv. passim.)
NAUTICUS is informed that in Norfolk one of the hundreds, or subdivisions of the county, is called Grimshoo or Grimshow, after (as it is supposed) a Danish leader of the name of Grime or Gryme. He was undoubtedly either Præsitus Comitatus or Centuriæ Præpositus of that part of the country, and gave his name to the hundred as hundred-greeve, which name it still retains. In about the centre of this hundred is a very curious Danish encampment, in a semicircular form, consisting of about twelve acres.
In this space are a great number of large deep pits, joined in a regular manner, one near to another, in form of a quincunx, the largest in the centre, where the general's or commander's tent was placed. These pits are so deep and numerous as to be able to conceal a very great army. At the east end of this entrenchment is a large tumulus, pointing towards Thetford, from which it is about five or six miles distant; and which might possibly have served as a watch tower, or place of signal: and here the hundred court used to be called. This place also is known by the name of The Holes, or Grimes-graves. This part of the country, being open, was a great seat of war between the Saxons and Danes, as appears from many tumuli throughout this hundred, erected over the graves of leaders who fell in battle; or as tokens of victory, to show how far they had led their armies and conquered.—See Blomfield in loco.