Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/38

 NOTES AND QUERIES. pi s. HI. JAN. u, 1911.

A " Totenlaterne " is to be distinguished from an " Ewige Lampe." An " Ewige Lampe " is lighted and placed before the picture of a deceased near relation. The praying before the " Eternal Lamp " has the same object as the reading of masses for the souls of the departed, i.e., the hope of shortening the time the departed has to spend in Purgatory. H. G. WARD.

Aachen.

In June last, when looking at some of the old tombstones in the cemetery of Linz, a picturesque little town on the Rhine near the Drachenfels, I noticed small lamps burning before some of the graves.

J. R. THORNE.

EARLY GRADUATION : GILBERT BTJRNET, JOHN BALFOUR (11 S. ii. 427). MR. P. J. ANDERSON, after instancing the case of a student who graduated at Aberdeen when just under thirteen years and six months old, asks whether that record can be broken. It can. A southern university has seen an example of still greater precocity.

William Wotton of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, afterwards Fellow of St. John's, who was born on 13 August, 1666, was " only twelve years and five months old when he commenced Bachelor in January " [1679] (' Hist, of St. Cath. College,' by Dr. G. Forrest Browne, Bishop of Bristol). Although at this early age a year one way or the other makes a real difference, there is some discrepancy among writers who have referred to Wotton' s juvenile success. J. H. Monk in his ' Life of Richard Bentley,' vol. i. p. 10, 2nd ed., speaks of Wotton at the time of his degree as " a boy of thirteen." The ' D.N.B.' life of Bentley, by Sir Richard Jebb, says that Wotton " became a bachelor of arts at the age of fourteen." The pub- lished lists of ' Graduati Cantabrigienses ' from 1659 to 1787 and from 1659 to 1823 give 1679 as the year in which Bentley as well as Wotton graduated. Now Bentley, who as an undergraduate was Wotton's contem- porary, appears to have taken his degree on 23 January, 1680. Can January, 1679, when Wotton became a B. A., be the historical year 1680 ? In either case, it may be observed, Wotton was younger than John Balfour when he proceeded to his first degree. Nor was Wotton without distinction in later life. Sir H. Craik treats him with singular harshness in his ' Life of Jonathan .Swift,' 1882, p. 66: "He faded into a maturity of eccentric and licentious nonen-

ity." Dr. Norman Moore in ' D.N.B.' ^ives a far juster estimate. One piece of eccentricity at least should be remembered to his credit. An Englishman holding a benefice in Wales, Wotton learnt the

anguage of ^ the country and published a Welsh sermon. EDWARD BENSLY.

COLANI AND THE REFORMATION (US. ii.

488). Though born in France, Timothee Colani (1824-88) received his" religious education in Germany, and subsequently settled at Geneva, where he assisted in the publication of a paper called La Reformation au dix-neuvieme Siecle. As a college thesis he had already written a vindication of Christianity against the views contained in Strauss's * Life of Jesus.' In 1850 he adopted the German critical method of inquiry, and with Scherer and other theo- logians founded the Revue de Theologie, which at once created a stir among French Protestants, and led to the formation of the Nouvelle Ecole, or liberal party in that Church, of which party Colani became the acknowledged leader. He undertook a vigorous campaign against religious despot- ism, publishing at different times several important tracts, besides writing critical articles on eclecticism and the philosophy of Leibnitz, Kant, and Hegel.

As a preacher he suffered much from the attacks of the orthodox French Protestants. In 1864 he was appointed to the Chair of Theology at Strassburg ; but after the war of 1870 he removed to Paris and devoted himself to literary pursuits, becoming Librarian of the Sorbonne. His other works include some volumes of sermons, a review of Renan's ' Vie de Jesus,' and in particular his own ' Jesus Christ et les croyances messianiques de son temps.' His religious opinions underwent material change at different stages of his career. For details see the articles in Brockhaus and Larousse.

N. W. HILL.

Timothee Colani' s ' Exposition critique sur la philosophie de la religion de Kant ' was printed as his thesis in 1846. His first two sermons, which appeared in 1856, were " L' Individualism^ Chretien ' and ' Le Sacer- doce Universel.' The ' Premier et Deuxieme Recueil ' of sermons in French, mostly delivered at Strasburg (but some of them at Nimes), were printed in 1860 in 2 vols., a copy of which I have before me. They were translated, with the author's sanction, by A. V. Richard into German, and printed at Dresden, under the title ' Predigten in