Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/226

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NOTES AND QUERIES

218


NOTES AND QUERIES.


[2d g. NO 11., MAT?. \y. '56.


Adalbert, Archbishop of Hamburgh, was distin- guished alike for his ability and ambition, and liis fervent zeal to subjugate kings and nations to the Church. By whom Bishop William, the first, was appointed does not appear. The Icelandic nnnals make his death in 1168 ; and he was bishop, according to the Saga, sixty-six years, which would make, his entry to the bishopric in 1102. Lund was erected into an archbishopric by Pope Paschal II., dating 1099 to 1118, at the request of Erick the Good, King of Denmark, whose reign dates 1095 to 1103; and Drontheim is said to have been erected into an archbishop's fee by Eugenius III., who became Pope in 1145. Upsal dates 1163. The bishopric of Orkney was in the diocese of the archbishopric of Drontheim, till Orkney came under the dominion of Scotland in 1468 ; when it was transferred from Drontheim to the Scottish archbishopric of St. Andrews, Ralph Nowell ; who, from the date, must have been the Rodolfus, Bishop of Orkney, witness of a charter of David I. of Scotland. Of this vagrant bishop, as Lord Hailes calls him, the continuator of Florence of Worcester thus speaks :

" Radulphus quoniam nee principis teme, nee cleri, nee plebis electione, vel assensu fuerat ordinatus, ab omnibus refutatus, et in loco pontificis a nemine susceptus est. Hie quia nullius Episcopus urbis erat, modo Eboracensi, modo Dunholmensi, adhasrens, ab eis sustentabatur, et Vicarius utriusque in episcopalibus ministeriis habebatur." Quoted, Dalrymple's Annals, 4to., vol. i. p. 73.

Neither does Torfaeus think that any of the Orkney bishops appointed by the Archbishop of York inhabited Orkney. It may have been in the appointment of the early bishops of Orkney, as Adam of Bremen tells us it was in his time, the twelfth century, in Norway and Sweden. On ac- count of the new planting of Christianity, " et pro rara Christianitate," bishops were not named for a particular district, but elected by the king or the people ; each bishop built a church, converted as many as he could to Christianity, and governed them without jealousy as long as he lived.

Earl Thorfin, in his old age, journeyed to Rome : and on his return, laying aside piracy, and de- voting himself to religion and the peaceful admi- nistration of his earldom, he lived principally at Birsay, and at this house he built Christ's Kirk. He had applied to the Archbishop of Hamburgh for a spiritual teacher, and William is said to have been bishop in 1102. I am disposed to believe that he was appointed by the Archbishop of Ham- burgh. Lund was certainly in existence at that time, but Drontheim was not erected into an archbishop's see till later in the same century. The archbishops of York's claim of supremacy over all Scotland may account for their nomina- tion of bishops to Orkney. I offer the foregoing as some Notes on an obscure subject. W. H. if.

Kirkwall.


THE DE WITS : TICBELAAH, ETC.

(2 nd S. i. 35. 155.)

Allow me to propose for the consideration of your correspondent H. B. C., to whom your readers are indebted for so many interesting Notes upon the De Wits, the passage in Van der Hoe- ven's Biography of the brothers (Amsterdam, 1705, two vols. 4to.), which gives a different version of the episode of the pastor.

I annex my attempt at a translation of the passage, with the statement from Sir J. Mackin- tosh's History, for comparison :

(From the Dutch of E. Van der Hoeven, vol. ii. p. 419.)

" Thus were their corpses suspended by the feet, high up the gibbet, and the chief of the hangmen put the question to a certain ecclesiastical personage, who had been a witness of this incomparably cruel tragedy, ' Do- mine hangense hong genoeg ' ' Domine ! do they hang high enough ? Upon which one of the bystanders called out, ' Neen, fiangt die grootste Schelm noch een Sport hooger,' 'No! hang the greatest villain another step higher.' Thereupon this ecclesiastical personage, who had formerly preached in the pulpit with great bitterness against John de Wit, got into such an agitation, that pulling his hat over his eyes he ran thence, and his qualms obliged him to go and drink a glass of wine."

(From Mackintosh's History of England, 7th volume, Cab. Cyclo.)

" The disfigured remains were hung on a gallows by the heels. The person who acted the part of hangman, observing the pastor of the Hague, said, ' M. le Ministre sont ils assez hauts? ' ' Non,' replied the minister of the Gospel, ' pendez ce grand coquin un echelon plus haut.' "

It would certainly be more agreeable to believe that a bystander (as in Van der Hoeven's nar- rative), and not a pastor, responded to the awful pleasantry of the hangman ; and were there no other reason to doubt the different version, the latter would still be open to question from the incongruity of its putting French words into the mouths of a Dutch mob.

Besides the minute details of the torture and massacre of the De Wits, Van der Hoeven's re- marks inform us as regards the after fate and re- tribution of Tichelaar, that in 1705 this wretched individual was living at the Hague in beggary and scorn. This corroborates the result of H. B. C.'s researches on the subject. FRED. HENDBIKS.


ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN.

(2 nd S. i. 151.)

The usage, of which your correspondent com- plains, began at the commencement of the present century. But with whom it began, or in what place of education it was first adopted, it would be difficult to say. I believe it was first esta- blished at the Charter House, where it is carried somewhat farther than at other schools.