212
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 a. H. SEPT. 9, me.
employ the formula, calling Casanova
" anima Swiftii habitans insicco," and sub-
joining a note to this effect :
" * En sec jamais Tame ne habite ' (Rabelais, i. 5). Les mots de Rabelais se rattaohent i une reflexion de 1'auteur des ' Qusestiones Veteris etNovi Testa- menti,' attributes autrefois a Saint Augustin, mais en realite plus anciennes : ' Anima certe quia spiritus eat, in sicco habitare non potest ' (V. T. qua?st. xxiii.1. C'est a ces deux passages que pense sans doute Coleridge."
DR. BULL.
Foreign Office, Copenhagen.
CHURCH WARDENS AND THEIR WANDS (12 S. ii. 90, 153). I may add to my reply at the latter reference that at the fashionable resort of Salcombe, Devon, these wands are also borne by the two wardens at the parish church. They are slender, tapering rods, cream coloured, of six feet in length, tipped with four inches of brass at the points. The church dates back only to 1843, but they may have been in use at the chapel of ease to Malborough, which existed at Sal- combe before the modern and severely plain church was thought of.
WM. JAGOARD, Lieut.
ST. SEBASTIAN (12 S. ii. 149). The Dominican Breviary, in the fifth and sixth lessons of the Second Nocturn of Matins for Jan. 20, the feast of St. Fabian, Pope and martyr, and St. Sebastian, martyr, gives the following account of the martyrdom of the latter saint :
" His [Christianis] Diocletiano delatis, Se- bastianum accersit et uehementius obiurgatum, omnibus artificiis a Christi fide conatur auertere : eed cum nihil proficeret, sagittis configi iubet. Bum omnium opinione mortuum, noctu sancta mulier Irene sepeliendi gratia iussit auferri : sed uiuum repertum, domi suae curauit. Itaque paulo post confirmata ualetudine, Diocletiano pbuiam factus, quern mortuum credebat. eius impietatem liberius accusauit : sed ab eo tamdin uirgis caedi iussus est, donee animam Deo redderet. Eius corpus in cloacam deiectum Lucina ab eodem in somnis admonita. ad Catacumbas sepeleuit : ubi ad coemeterium Callisti uia Appia sancti Se- bastiani nomine Celebris ecclesia, una ex septem praecipuis Urbis, est aedificata."
MONTAGUE SUMMERS.
Prof. Marucchi, in his ' Basiliques et Eglises de Rome,' gives two accounts of this saint's martyrdom. At pp. 265-6, speaking of the Church of S. Sebastiano in Palatino, he writes :
" Cette eglise doit son origine au souvenir local du martyre de S. 8e"bastien. Une legende tres ancienne rapporte qu' apres le supplice le corps fut jete dans un e"gout ; on placait jadis cet egout pres de St. Andre-della-Valle, mais on en a retrouve' un
au pied meme du Palatin, le long de la yoie-
Triomphale. Sebastien subit un double supplice r
d'abord ' in campo,' celui des fleches, puis ' in
hippodromo,' celui des fouets. Son corps fut
recueilli par la femme d'un employe* du palaif?
imperial, nominee Irene, laquelle demeurait atr
Palatin ' in scala excelsa.' II senible que dans ce
recit ' campus ' et ' hipnodromus ' designent un
meme lieu, le stade, qui fut apres le IV e siecle-
partiellement transforme en hippodrome, tandis
que le reste demeurait libre : un escalier le mettait
en communication avee le palais ; on en apercoit
encore les ruines."
At p. 488, when he is treating of the Church of S. Sebastiano fuori le Mura, he writes :
"D'apres la tradition, Sebastien, tribun de la premiere cohorte. commandait une compagnie de la garde pr^torienne et demeurait au Palatin ; if fut martyrise sous Diocle"tien, pendant la premiere- persecution militaire (289-292), et subit sur le Palatin meme. ' in hippodromo Palatii,' un double supplice, celni des fleches, puis celui des verges. Son corps,. jete 1 dans un egout, fut recueilli par les soins d'une- femme chre"tienne, Lucine, qui le transport* sur la voie Appienne ' apud vestigia Apostolornm,' et le- deposa ' in initio cryptae.' "
JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.
The life and death of St. Sebastian of Rome (M. 303, Jan. 20) will be found in ' The Golden Legend,' as englished by William Caxton. On the saint's professing- his belief in Christ, the Emperor Diocletian
"was much angry and wroth, and commanded him to be led to the field, and there to be bounden to a stake for to be shot at. And the archers shot at him till he was as full of arrows as an urchin is- full of pricks, and thus left him there for dead."
But, being rescued and revived by a Chris- tian woman, he again confronted the Emperor, who said to him :
" ' Art thon not Sebastian whom we commanded to- be shot to death ? ' And St. Sebastian paid : ' There- fore our Lord hath rendered to me life to the end 1 that I should tell you that evilly and cruelly ye do persecutions unto Christian men.' Then- Diocletian made him to be brought into prison into- his palace, and to beat him so sore with stones till he died."
The martyr's body was then thrown into " a great privy," but the saint appeared to St. Lucy, bidding her rescue his body from its ignominious resting-place, and bury it " at the catacombs by the apostles." This was accordingly done the same night. His martyrdom is represented in innumerable- works of 'art. A. R. BAYLEY.
According to the generally accepted tradition, St. Sebastian was a native of Nar- bonne in France, but migrated to Milan,, where he was educated in the Christian religion. He subsequently entered the army., and became a captain in the Pretorian Guard ~ While in Rome he employed himself itt
