Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/547

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10 s. vii. JUNE s, 1907.] NOTES AND QUEEIES.


451


Maximus, that is, Bishop of Bishops ' ; this Roman title, however, actually signified the Pope in the days of Leo I. (440-461), and is still used to-day."

As to this title, I may add that not only Constantino, but also his more Christian successors Valentinian I. (364-75) and Gratian (367-83), made use of it, as inscrip- tions still extant show. Towards the end of his reign, however, the latter, as Zosimus tells us (lib. iv. c. 36), laid it aside : a.OffjLKrrov dvan Xpio-Tiayy TO cr^fJLa. vo/u<ras. Theo- dosius the Great (379-95) never used it. To resume :

" The title Holy Father was applied to Patriarchs and bishops, and therefore to the Pope, from the earliest days. That of ' Holiness ' was a common title of veneration in addressing great prelates and others ; Gregory the Great employs it when writing to the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch, and Augustin of Canterbury; and St. Augustine in a letter to Juliana, the mother of Demetrias, asks her whether a certain book has reached ' Your Holiness.' In the West the title has been confined to the Pope since the time of Johannes Diaconus (sixth century).

"'Servant of the Servants of God' was a title adopted by Gregory the Great when John, Patriarch of Constantinople, assumed that of (Ecumenical Bishop.* It became a usual episcopal title, and Boniface, the English apostle of Germany, calls himself ' Servant of the servants of God in a letter to Eadburga. It is still employed by the Popes ; and was used by other bishops until the style Dei et Apontoliw, Sedis gratia was introduced. This was first employed by a Bishop of Cyprus who had been granted extended jurisdiction by the Holy See. Originally the Popes styled themselves vicars of Peter and successors of Peter, or 'Apostolic.' As early as 202-220 Pope Zephyrinus is addressed as ' apostolice ' ; and Tertullian quotes Matt .xvi. 18 with reference to the position of this Pope. Inno- cent III. spoke of himself as Vicar of Cftrixt, and, as we see by her letters, this was perfectly usual by the time of St. Catherine. This title, and not Vicar of God, or Vice-Regent of God on earth, is the proper title of the Popes, the other being an

3. y


abuse. "H


JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.


St. Gregory the Great is believed to have been the first Pope who styled himself

  • ' Servus servorum Dei" (Southey, 'Com-

monplace Book,' vol. iii. p. 397).

ASTARTE.

  • "A title conferred on the Patriarch by the

emperors and by a synod held in 588. Pelagius, Pope of Rome, protested agcainst it. Leo I. had declined it when offered to him at the Council of Chalcedon. Gregory's letters on the subject to John and to Eulogius of Alexandria are full of noble words."

t "When Leo III. crowned Charlemagne in 800 it was the Emperor who was regarded as God's Vice-Regent. The same principle was assiduously preached from English pulpits after the Reforma- tion, with reference to the Tudors, the Stuarts, and the Georges."


SULPHUR MATCHES : MATCH - MAKER'S SONG (10 S. vii. 348, 396). I well remember an old Brighton character, whose portrait is in the Pavilion and one in my possession, whose song was

Come, buy my good matches ; come, buy them of me ; They are the best matches that ever you see. For lighting your candle, or kindling your tire, They are the best matches that you can desire. There was an old woman in Rosemary Lane ; She cuts 'em and dips 'em, and I do the same. For lighting your candle, &c.

He also sold penny almanacs, and sang " Here's yer new book almanac for the New Year : only one penny." But in time the almanac doubled in price, and then his lay was altered to " Here's yer new book almanac for the New Year : only one tuppence."

The use of flint, steel and tinder was universal in those days. R. P. H.

I, too, well remember seeing matches of the kind described by J. T. F. (unsplit at one end), and am surprised that nobody has referred to them before in this corre- spondence. I do not remember them in use, but we had some in the house in the early fifties of last century. MR. PEACOCK'S amusing anecdote reminds one of Haw- thorne's note : " Brimstone and wood ; a scold and a blockhead : a good match ! "

C. C. B.

" MATCHES " IN CONGREVE (10 S. vii. 269, 351, 397). A small bundle of the old " tunder-box " matches which I have are tipped at both ends with sulphur. They are those mentioned by J. T. F., and both ends are for " business." The first matches I remember used were " Congreves," and they were thrice as thick, and twice as long, as modern wooden matches. The big red tips were the delight of boys, for a match screwed into a slight hollow in a stone wall would emit from half a dozen to a dozen loud cracks, besides sparks, before the " brimstone " was spent. The sparks sent out were capable of burning the fingers badly, and that, perhaps, was why " lucifer " became one of the match-names. I remember three early kinds of match-boxes: one made oval in shape with a lid, another round with lid and of stronger wood, and the big slide box all to hold the big matches. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

The matches mentioned in Congreve were undoubtedly the old-fashioned brimstone matches which always accompanied the tinder-box with its flint and steel, because it was impossible, or at least very difficult,