232
NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii 8. XL MAR. 20, 1915.
Dr. Franz Joseph Schermer printed at
Weissenburg in 1840 a volume of Vieira's
Advent sermons translated into German,
with a biography. Another volume of
Lent sermons by the same translator
appeared at Regensburg, 1843. The first
article in vol. xi. of The Christian Remem-
brancer, ' On the Church in Portugal,'
contains very interesting references to Vieira,
" the politic ambassador in the dangerous
times that succeeded the Restoration, the
eloquent Court preacher, the indefatigable
missionary to Brazil, the fearless advocate
of the oppressed natives."
This writer thinks that his sermons somewhat resemble those of Bishop An- drewes, but considers his Letters, principally on the condition of the Brazilian natives, the most interesting of his works. The sermon which has attained the widest celebrity is that to the Fishes,* preached at Maranhao, 14 June, 1654. The most striking portions of this have been translated by Neale,f who considers that Vieira's two great faults are ingenious perversions of Scripture words of God, but not the Word of God, as he says himself and conceits carried to an almost incredible extent. For instance, to give only one, he is speaking, in a sermon on St. Antony (ii. 110, Lat. ed.), of Portugal as the depository of the Faith. She might take into her lips the words of Jeremiah, who, when God said, " I have given thee as a prophet to the nations/' replied "a, a, a, Domine Deus quia puer sum," meaning " I am unequal to the burden Thou layest on me.' 5 So, too, might Portugal reply. But God, taking that cry out of her mouth, wrote in the place of the first " a "' " Africa," in the place of the second "Asia,"' in the place of the third *' America, subjecting these three continents to her dominion as their mistress.
Of Vieira's ingenuity of interpretation there are abundant instances. His enumera- tion of the mischiefs caused by pens, ink, and paper, directed against Court abuses, in vol. i. pp. 160-64 and vol. ii. pp. 236-40, is well worth reading. As a specimen of a scribe's carelessness in punctuation, the angel's words to the women, " Surrexit, non est hie," become " Surrexit ? Nbn : est hie " : all the difference between faith and heresy.
Dr. Neale " discovered " Vieira for English students, and the volumes of his sermons, rivalling those of Caryl's
- Vol. ii. p. 311, Portuguese ed. ; ii. 246, Latin ed.
t ' Med. Preachers,' 321-32.
' Commentary on Job,' must have often
descended from their shelf to supply notes
for his ' Commentary on the Psalms,' con-
tinued after his death by Dr. Littledale. The
latter, writing to me 17 Jan., 1871, upon his
sources for the continuation of this important
work, says : " Besides, I look up the citations
in Rupert, Vieyra, St. Bernardine of Siena,
and several other writers." C. DEEDES.
Chichester.
FBANCE AND ENGLAND QUARTERLY (US,
x. 281, 336, 396, 417, 458, 510; xi. 50, 74 r
96, 138, 177). It is, of course, impossible
that ST. SWITHIN, or any other of your
correspondents, can remember all that
has now been written on this subject ;.
but if he will kindly refer again to my
article (11 S. x. 510), he will find that the-
fact which he now mentions namely, that
our King Henry IV. in 1405 changed the
French quartering of the English Royal
arms from " semee of fleurs-de-lis " to
three fleurs-de-lis only, in order to accord
with that of the then contemporary French
sovereign, Charles VI. (the Beloved) was
advanced by me in support of the argument
that by so doing the English sovereign must
have intended it to represent France and
not Anjou. And I there pointed out that
it had been previously so altered in the
French Royal arms by Charles V. (the Wise),
about the year 1365 (according to Boutell)
or 1376 (according to Woodward). So
perhaps ST. SWITHIN will forgive me if I add
that " used " would be a better word to
describe the actual facts than " adopted."
J. S. UDAL, F.S.A.
THE AYRTON LIGHT ON THE CLOCK TOWER AT WESTMINSTER (US. xi. 90, 154). I thank SIR WILLOITGHBY MAYCOCK for his reply to my question. I notice that he states that the light was placed on the Clock Tower in 1872. A correspondent has written direct to me to say that the light was first lighted in the early months of 1 873, and he also points out that an interesting account of it with two pictures is given in The Illustrated London News of 16 Aug., 1873. This article states that the erection of the light was carried out by M. Gramme, and that it was worked by a 2^ h.p. machine, which was placed 300 yards from the tower, in the basement of the House of Lords. Another correspondent has called my attention to a series of articles in The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle of 1890, entitled ' Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life,' by G. J. Holyoake. In these articles Mr.
