Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/270

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

19 th S. II. OCT. 1, '!.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW.

THERE are certain lacunae in the history of the mediaeval medical cult of St. Bartholomew which require the attention of students, and which may through their researches yet be filled up. In bringing the subject to the notice of ' N. & Q.,' one does no more than direct one's ignorance with wisdom, which is satisfaction sufficient for most of us, provided we do not fall victims to the sneers of the supercilious, who, happily, are ^scarce in the ranks of your contributors. It is well known that at the close of the tenth century the Emperor Otho III. came to Rome with an army to assist his Saxon kinsman, Gregory V., against the anti-Pope John XVII. and Cres- centius, and that, having defeated his enemies near Benevento, the emperor re-established that Pontiff in Rome. While at Benevento Otho obtained, as he believed, the treasured remains of St. Bartholomew of course minus his skin. The Beneventani, however, have ever since claimed to have practised a clever fraud upon their imperial visitor; and as their skill in that direction still remains un- questionable, there is no little probability that they are to be believed. They claim to have palmed off upon him the remains of St. Paulinus of Nola.

At any rate, what Otho got he took, and intended to carry back to Saxony. However, illness seized him, and he died in Rome. The apostolic relics so valuable an addition to the similar treasures already enshrined in the Eternal City were placed in the church then building in honour of the lately-mar- tyred St. Adalbert of Prague, on the site of the Temple of ^Esculapius upon the Tiber island. Now I shall first of all ask if there was not a reason for their being placed there, over and above its being the locality of a new and conspicuous church; and to the best of my knowledge the reason I shall venture to offer has never been offered before, even by tiresome Teutons.

St. Gregory of Tours, and, I think, Euse- bius (in addition to our scanty knowledge as to this apostle), speak of him as having journeyed into that country which treated Paul and Barnabas so unpleasantly, namely, Lycaonia, where the speech may have been at least as peculiar as that of the Northern Farmer, and which later on formed a portion of the province of Pisidia. Now it may be asked, What can Lycaonia have had to do with the Tiber island 1 The answer is just this and no more. On the Tiber island during consular times had arisen in suc- cession four temples, respectively those of

^Esculapius, Semo-Sancus, Faunus, and Jupi- ter Lycaonius.

It is strange to relate that although the worship of the classic god of medicine power- fully ruled this island for at least six cen- turies, and although the church now known as San Bartolommeo all' Isola occupies, the veritable site of his temple, until the latest mediaeval times the Tiber island was known to pilgrims (as evidenced by the itineraries) as Lycaonia in consequence of the cult of Jupiter Lycaonius; nor do I believe that the advent of the remains of any saint of lower estimation than an apostle would have sufficed to change the name of the island. At least there is no evidence to show that the island was ever called by the name of St. Adalbert.

It will, I think, then be conceded that the Romans of the eleventh century were not likely to admit themselves to have been fraudulently practised upon in such a signifi- cant matter oy the priests of Benevento; and therefore the cult of St. Bartholomew got great hold upon them. They possessed the venerated remains of yet another holy apostle. Rome was the richer. Nor, again, would the Saxon Gregory have been likely to allow that his victorious kinsman had been deceived. At all events, the laugh has been only on the side of the Beneventani and the Neapolitans. We shall see what came of it.

It now becomes necessary to notice that the Benedictines, who throughout the Middle Ages, previously to the invasion of Arabic or Semitic medicine, seem to have inherited and monopolized the science, settled on this island hard by the church as " Bene Fratelli," and organized a hospital founded by San Giovanni Calabita, who died in 1031, only thirty years later than the death of Otho. Whether these descendants of ^sculapius had carried on their humane science there anterior to that date I have been unable to determine. Aware of the wholesale adaptation to Christian pur- poses of the neighbouring pagan temples of Dea Matutina (commonly called Vesta) T Fortuna, and Ceres, one would be surprised to discover that the temples on the island had been completely neglected provided, of course, that floods had not destroyed them. Still, evidence of any Benedictine "continua- tion of ^Esculapian science on the "insula inter duas pontes " between the days of Theodosius and those of Benedictine IX. is still wanting. If it should be forthcoming (and no one would more enthusiastically hau it than myself), it will be possible to show that from the year 291 B.C. down to 1898 A.B. the island of St. Bartholomew has been con-