Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/372

 366

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 S. I. MAY 6, 1916.

SIMANCAS MSS. : DR. NICOLAS SANDER: DR. OWEN LEWIS.

IN his * Calendar of .... State Papers .... Simancas,' vol. iii. p. 119, in a note on a letter from Don Juan de Idiaquez to Don Bernardino de Mendoza, dated May 28, 1581, the late Martin A. S. Hume says :

" There is in the Paris Archives (Simancas, K. 1448) an extremely eulogistic report upon the career and qualities of Dr. Sanders, in connexion with the suggestion to raise him to the cardinalate. It is sent by the agent of the Duke of Savoy in Madrid to Don Juan de Idiaquez, and is undated, but was probably written shortly before this letter."

The only document in K. 1448 addressed by the Savoyard Ambassador to Idiaquez is No. 156, and is in favour of Dr. Owen Lewis, and belongs to the year 1587 or later. It is endorsed, in very bad handwriting, as follows :

" Informatione della persona di Mons re Audoeno, prelato Inglese, data al Ser mo S ro Duca di Savoia dal vescovo di Vasone, monaco cartusiano, sup- plicandosi S. M te di favorire esso Mon re Audoeno con Sua San a per il Cardinalato, se cosi la M ta Sua reputa essere servitio suo."

The " vescovo di Vasone " was William Ohisholm, Bishop of Vaison (formerly Bishop of Dunblane), whose biography may be read in the ' D.N.B.'

The document in the Bibliotheque Na- tionale numbered K. 1448, No. 156, is enclosed in an envelope, on which is written in a nineteenth-century hand : "Madrid. 1587? (In fine?)

" L'Amb eur de Savoie, Alessandro Costantino?* a Juan de Idiaquez. Informazione della persona di Mpns r Anboino, prelato Inglese, &c. Original, non sign ni date". Italien."

On this envelope " Anboino," which is a misreading of Audoeno, has been corrected in pencil to " Andorno," and the same hand has added below " Sanders."

Hence Major Hume's mistake ; but it is an unpardonable one, for he cannot have looked inside the envelope. The document, which is in praise of Audoeno Ludovico, i.e., Owen Lewis, who died Bishop of Oassano, Oct. 14, 1595, speaks of the happy memory of Mary, Queen of Scots. As it has not been calendared, it may be very briefly summarized here.

Owen Lewis, it says, was born in a part of -Great Britain where the English language was not spoken. He had been professor of

of the Duke of Savoy, but merely an informal agent.
 * Alessandro Costantino was not ambassador

canon and civil law in England and at Paris, and afterwards at the University of Douay, where he had been Regius Professor for seven years. He afterwards became Vicar-General of Cambray and Archdeacon of Hainau.lt. Sent to Rome on business by the Archbishop, he was nominated Referendary of both Signatures by Pope Gregory XIII. At this time he obtained from the Pope the foundation of the English Colleges at Rome and Douay. Afterwards he was Vicar- General of Cardinal Charles Borromeo at Milan, after whose death he returned to Rome and became Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops.

Speaking of him, the late Dr. T. F. Knox, in ' The First and Second Diaries of the English College, Douay,' at p. ciii, writes :

" Clement VIII. had determined to include him in the next promotion of Cardinals. This is a fact which Dr. Champney testifies he had himself heard from the mouth of Cardinal Borghese, afterwards Pope Paul V. Dr. Owen Lewis was a man of great learning, ability, and experience in ecclesiastical affairs. He had been one of the vicars general of St. Charles Borromeo at Milan, and the saint is said to have died in his arms. Sixtus V. on the nomination of Philip II. of Spain made him Bishop of Cassano. Clement VIII. appointed him one of the apostolic Visitors of the city of Rome."

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

' KING EDWARD III.' : HERALDIC AL- LUSION. This play, attributed by some to Shakespeare, contains a beautiful occult heraldic allusion, which has apparently baffled the commentators.

In Act IV., sc. iv., Edward, Prince of Wales, addressing Audley, says : Now, Audley, sound those silver wings of thine, And let those milk-white messengers of time Show thy time's learning in this dangerous time. The late Dr. Furnivall describes this as "an absurdly inconsistent and mixed metaphor," and asks, " Are the silver wings Audley 's moustachios, or words of ancient wisdom, or what ? "

The silver butterfly was the badge of the Audley family, derived from the original arms, three butterflies argent, subsequently changed for a fret. The badge appears over the tomb of Bishop Audley, Salisbury Cathedral, 1524.

Had the Elizabethan dramatists friends in the College of Arms ? The Earl of Southampton's family, the Wrythes or Wriothesleys, were members of that learned corporate body, and the Earl of Essex was acting Earl Marshal during the attainder of the Howards. ALFRED RODWAY.

Birmingham.