they worshipped an ass's head? You must know, that to a heathen, a Jew and a Christian were all one, that they What he says in effect is that, since Christianity had its origin in Judæa, since the early Christians were in great part Jews by race, and worshipped the same supreme God as the Jews, and since they preserved for some time the civil rites and ceremonies of their nation, it was quite natural that the alien peoples, among whom they lived and from whose worship they both alike kept markedly aloof, should have seen no difference between them, and that in point of fact they habitually included them both under the common name of Jews. See Selden, Works, i. 59. II. Prolegomena, p. 10. II. 405 and 657. The fiction about the ass's head was, Bochart says, started by Apion, an Egyptian grammarian of the first half of the first century, and he adds proof of the very wide credence which it received, about the Jews first, and about the Christians afterwards. The origin of the story he explains in several ways, but not very happily. See Hierozoicon, pt. 1, bk. ii. ch. xviii. Morinus criticises Bochart and the authorities which Bochart quotes, and then with some hesitation tries his own hand on the problem. One of his conjectures is that the Hebrew words for a pot (sc. of manna) and for an ass are so nearly alike as hardly to be distinguished, and that the pot of manna, with its two handles or ears, preserved in the holy place, might itself be taken as an image of an ass's head. Conf. Dissertationes Octo (Geneva, 1683), p. 157, on the question, 'Unde potuit venire in mentem gentium caput asininum esse Christianorum Deum?' The story, as told by Apion, takes two forms, viz. that the head of an ass in gold, an object of worship among the Jews, was found in the holy place of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes; and again that a man named Zabidus, in the course of a war between the Jews and the Idumæans, managed to make his way into the Temple, and there found and carried away the golden head. See Josephus against Apion, bk. ii. ch. 7 and 10. But if the calumny originated with Apion, and if the later versions of it can, as Bochart says, be traced to him as their source, it seems hardly worth while to enquire about it any further. Apion, it must be remembered, was notorious as a hater of the Jews. He not only wrote against them, but he was sent to Rome, on a special mission, as the most fit person to plead before the Emperor Caligula on behalf of the Alexandrian Greeks, in their quarrel with the Alexandrian Jews, and he did his work so effectively that the Emperor refused even to hear his opponent, Philo. The ass's head story, however started, and with whatever accessories it was adorned, would have regarded him not, so he was not one of them. Now that of the ass's head might proceed from such a mistake as this. By the Jewish law, all the firstlings of cattle were to be offered to God, except a young ass, which was to be redeemed; a heathen being present, and seeing young calves, and young lambs killed at their sacrifices, only young asses redeemed, might very well think they had that silly beast in some high estimation, and thence might imagine they worshipped it as a God. XV. CHRISTMAS. I. CHRISTMAS succeeds the Saturnalia, the same time, the same number of holy days; then the master waited upon the servant, just like the lord of misrule. 2. Our meats and our sports (much of them) have relation to church-work. The coffin of our christmas pies, in shape long, is in imitation of the cratch; our choosing gained ready credence at Rome about a people of whom they knew little, and for whom they had no love. It was told first about the Jews, and the identification of Jews and Christians explains sufficiently how it came to be told about the Christians afterwards. 1. 13. the lord of misrule] Strutt gives a full account of this 'mock prince,' or 'master of merry disports,' of the manner of his appointment, of the length of his reign, and of the nature and privileges of his office. He refers to and endorses Selden's opinion that all these whimsical transpositions of dignity are derived from the ancient Saturnalia, or feasts of Saturn, when the masters waited upon their servants, who were honoured with mock titles and permitted to assume the state and deportment of their lords. Sports and Pastimes, bk. iv. chap. 3, sec. 1-8. 1. 16. the cratch] An old English word for rack or manger. Fr. crèche. It is frequently used for the manger in which Christ was laid. Conf. And sche bare hir first borun sone, and wlappide hym in clothis, and leide hym in a cratche.' Luke ii. 7; Wycliffe's Trans. second version, as printed by Forshall and Madden. ΙΟ king and queen on twelfth-night, has reference to the three kings. So likewise our eating of fritters, whipping of tops, roasting of herrings, jack of lents, &c. they were all in imitation of church-work, emblems of martyrdom. Our tansies at Easter have reference to the bitter herbs ; though at the same time it was always the fashion, for a man to have in his house a gammon of bacon, to shew himself to be no Jew. 20 XVI. CHURCH. 1. HERETOFORE the kingdom let the church alone, let them do what they would, because they had something else to think of, viz. wars; but now in time of peace, we begin to examine all things, will have nothing but what we like, grow dainty and wanton; just as in a family, the heir uses to go a hunting, he never considers how his meal is dressed; takes a bit1, and away; but when he stays within, then he grows curious, he does not like this, nor he does not like that, he will have his meat dressed his own way, or peradventure he will dress it himself. 2. It hath ever been the gain of the church, when the 1 Takes a bit, H. 2] take a bit, H. 1.3. Jack a lent] Explained in Johnson's Dictionary as a puppet formerly thrown at in Lent, like shrove-cocks. Conf.: 'Thou, that when last thou wert put out of service, For boys to hurl three throws a penny at thee.' 1. 5. Our tansies] ding made with it.' Ben Jonson, Tale of a Tub, Act iv. sc. 2. Tansy, a herb: also a sort of pancake or pudBailey, Old English Dictionary. 1. 20. the gain of the church] I am not sure that this is the correct reading. The MSS. give gaine, which may quite possibly have been a mistake for game, a word better suited to the sense here. So, in Bacon's Essay 'Of Usury,' the unquestionably correct reading, ‘at king will let the church have no power, to cry down the king and cry up the church. But when the church can make use of the king's power, then to bring all under the king's prerogative. The catholics of England go one way, and the court clergy the other 1. 3. A glorious church is like a magnificent feast, there is all the variety that may be, but every one chooses out a dish or two that he likes, and lets the rest alone. How glorious soever the church is, every one chooses out of it his own religion, by which he governs himself, and lets 10 the rest alone. 4. The laws of the church are most favourable to the church, because they were the church's own making; as the heralds are the best gentlemen, because they make their own pedigree. 5. There is a question about that article, concerning 1 The other] corrected in MSS. from 'an other.' the end of the game,'. appears in some copies of the edition of 1625 as at the end of the gaine.' So, too, in the Table Talk (Power, State, end of sec. 7) the Harleian MS. 1315 reads, quite distinctly, 'comine,' instead of 'comme.' 1. 16. There is a question about that article &c.] The words in question 'The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith,' or, as they appear in the original Latin, 'Habet Ecclesia ritus statuendi jus, et in fidei controversiis auctoritatem '—were certainly part of the Latin text as printed in 1563, with the approval of the Queen. They were not in Archbishop Parker's preparatory draft of the articles, but they certainly were in the copy finally signed by the archbishop, the bishops and the clergy of the Lower House, at the convocation on January 29, 1562 (1563). Their subsequent history is not equally clear. They were not in the English MS. signed by the bishops in the convocation of 1571. They were in the Latin articles signed by the Lower House in the same year. It appears, too, that in 1571 there were copies of the articles printed in Latin and in English with the above words, and other copies, certainly in English, without the words. The whole question is discussed, and a summary of the arguments pro and con given, in Hardwick's History of the Thirty-nine Articles, p. 141. See also Laud's Works, vol. iv. 30, and vol. vi. 64 ff. A charge that the bishops had the power of the church, whether these words (of having power in controversies of faith) were not stolen in; but 'tis most certain they were in the Book of Articles that was confirmed, though in some editions they have been left out: but the Article before tells you, who the church is; not the clergy, but cœtus fidelium. XVII. CHURCH OF ROME. 1. Before a juggler's tricks are discovered we admire him, and give him money, but afterwards we care not for Io them so 'twas before the discovery of the juggling of the church of Rome. 2. Catholics say, we out of our charity believe they of the church of Rome may be saved: but they do not believe so of us; therefore their church is better according to our own selves. First, some of them no doubt believe as well of us, as we do of them; but they must not say so. Besides is that an argument, their church is better than ours because it has less charity? forged the clause and had foisted it into the articles, is dealt with at length in Laud's speech at the censure of Burton, Bastwick, and Prynne. Strype, in his Life of Archbishop Parker, bk. iv. chap. 5, says that a Latin copy of the articles, printed in 1563, and containing the disputed clause, 'is still extant in the Bodleian Library among Mr. Selden's books. . . being found in Archbishop Laud's library, from whence Mr. Selden immediately had it.' He adds, further, that there were three editions of the Thirty-nine Articles in English, printed in 1571 by Jugg and Cawood, all which have this clause; 'which three editions, with the said clause, I myself saw, as well as other inquisitive persons, at Mr. Wilkins's, a bookseller in St. Paul's Church-yard.' So that at length an edition that appeared abroad in the same year, printed by John Day, wanting the clause, hath been judged (and that upon good grounds) to be spurious.' 6 1. 17. Besides is that an argument, &c.] Dr. Prideaux makes this |