Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/182

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NOTES AND QUERIES. t* s. i. i?m 26, '&

connexion with the ancient Irish Church. When it is first mentioned in history it is in the charge of Komanist monks, and its story is only instructive as showing how honoured names were in later ages used to give countenance to superstitions which men like St. Patrick would never have allowed for a moment."

PALAMEDES.

SULPICIUS SEVERUS AND THE BIRTH OP CHRIST (9 th S. i. 5). Severus is not a reliable witness, even from MR. LYNN'S own showing. However, Severus places the birth of Christ only a few months earlier than I have shown to be the date, which MR. LYNN will perhaps note, and I have no reason to particularly find fault with the quotation. It would have, perhaps, been more satisfactory had MR. LYNN mentioned the exact date given by Severus, i. e., 25 December, B.C. 4.

What may or may not be the correct reading alluded to is of very little practical use ; the really important part of the subject has been treated in a fairly exhaustive manner in these columns under a different heading, therefore I cannot allow the inaccurate date given for the Crucifixion and what of necessity is inseparably connected therewith to pass unchallenged.

As to Herod's death see 8 th S. v. 291, and for the date of the Crucifixion, 8 th S. xii. 336 ; the particulars there found have in no essen- tial point been disproved. Eusebius states that Christ was born in the forty-second year of Augustus. Sir Isaac Newton informs us that " the first Christians placed the baptism of Christ in the fifteenth of Tiberius, and then counted thirty years back," fixing the birth in the forty-second year of Augustus. As to the coins said to exist, it is not the first we have heard of coins, genuine and otherwise, as having been brought forward to prove certain events connected with the subject ; but MR. LYNN has not thought proper to tell all that is known with regard to the coins ; had he done, or if he does, this, I venture the opinion the coin proof will not add to the value of his argument on the important ques- tion at issue. Coins have been thrown over- board when better and more reliable evidence lies at one's hand.

It is all very good to quote when the quo- tation can be, from other internal and outside evidence, homologated ; but to quote when on other important points connected with the subject your authority is known to be inaccu- rate displays a weak case, and is positively misleading, at least to those who are not familiar with the subject.

The reign of Tiberius was and is reckoned from the death of Augustus, A.C. 14, and that this year was counted the first is the unani-

mous verdict of history. All the opponents' thereof have never, that I am aware of^ produced authoritative proof for any othe? computation of Tiberius's reign. It is perfectly useless a waste of time and space to say more on this head. The Evangelist Luke clearly states when Christ was baptized, and to Theophilus, a man of rank and learning, who could only understand the fifteenth of Tiberius in accordance with the empire's records ; and if St. Luke used words which had no certain meaning, then why did he say anything about Christ's age ?

Nothing whatever has been produced to controvert the statements that Christ's death was in A.C. 33, and Herod's B.C. 1.

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.

CANNING AND THE 'ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRI- TANNICA' (8 th S. xii. 486; 9 th S. i. 17). Allow me to refer your readers who are interested in this family to the * Life of Canning,' by Robert Bell, published by Chapman & Hall, 1846, which contains much interesting infor- mation concerning the great statesman, and a pedigree of the Canning family traced up to William Canning, "representative of Bristol in several successive Parliaments, and six times mayor of the city between 1360 and 1390." It appears from the memoir that George Canning's mother, Miss Costello, was married three times first to Mr. Canning, secondly to Mr. Reddish, and thirdly to Mr. Hunn. She died 27 March, 1827, only five months before her distinguished son, the great statesman. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

HOODS AS HEAD-DRESSES (8 th S. xii. 324, 411, 437). A curious use of hoods is mentioned in Kirkpatrick's MS. notes on the history of Norwich. Under the year 1472 he says : "This year certain Raye, Wkoodes (that is striped hoods for whores) were devised in this city." JAMES HOOPER.

Norwich.

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND AND BURNING BUSH (8 th S. xii. 148, 237, 433, 511). In mediaeval times the burning bush was regarded as an emblem of the JBlessed Virgin, as in the antiphon, "Rubum quern viderat Moyses incombustum, conservatam agnovimus tuam laudabilem virginitatem"; and in the 'Prioress' Tale '-

bussh unbrent brennyng in Moises sight. We learn from Somner's ' Antiquities of Can- terbury ' that one window of old glass in that cathedral contained " Moses cum Rubo " and "Angelus cum Maria," with the legend " Rubus non consumitur tua nee comburitur