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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
of the Lord, Micbad, appeared unto me, saying — ^ I tell thee Seth, do not pray to God in tears, and entreat hinl for the oil of the tree of mercy, wherewith to anoint thy father Adam, for his head-ache, because thou canst not by any means obtain it, till the last day and times." A dia- logue then ensues between Satan, the prince and captain of death, and Beelzebub, the prince of hell, in which they are interrupted by sud- denly healing a voice, " as of thunder and the rushing of wmds, saying, ' Lift up your heads, O ye princes ; and be ye lift up, O everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall come in.' "
This is succeeded by the appearance of the King of glory enlightening the regions of dark- ness, and throwing the devils into confiision. " Then the King of glory trampling upon death, seized the prince of hell, deprived nim of all his power, ana took our earthly father Adam with tiim to his glory." A quarrel takes place be- tween Satan ana Beelzebub, in which the prince of hell reproaches the prince of death, with be- ing the occasion of the ruin of his kingdom, by urging the Jews to the crucifixion of Christ. Jesus then places Satan under the power of Beelzebub ; and delivers the saints out of bell. On the entrance of the saints into paradise, they meet Enoch and Elias, and after a conversation betwixt the liberated saints and them, the nar- rative proceeds, " Behold there came another man in a miserable figure, carrying the sign of the cross upon his shoulders. And when afl the saints saw him, they said to him, 'Who art thou? For thy countenance is like athiefs; and why dost thou carry a cross upon thy dioul- ders ?' Tu which he answering, said, ' Ye say right, for I was a thief, who committed all sorts of wickedness upon earth. And the Jews cruci- fied me with Jesus; and I observed the surpris- ing things which happened in the creation at the cruciJnxion of the Lord Jesus, and I believed him to be the Creator of all things, and the Almighty King, and I praved to him, saying, ' Lord rememMr me when tnou comest into thy kingdom.' He presently regarded my supplica- tion, and said to me, ' Venly, I say unto thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise.' And he gave me this sign of the cross, saying, ' Carry this, and go to paradise ; and if the angel, who is the guard of paradise, will not admit thee, shew him the sign of the cross, and say unto bim, Jesus Christ, who is now crucified, hath sent me hither to thee.' When I did this, and told the angel, he presently opened the gates, introduced me, and placed me oil the right hand in paradise, saying, ' Stay here a little time, till Adam, the father of all mankind, shall enter in with all his sons, who are the holy and righteous
i servants] of Jesus Christ, who is crucified.'" The relation concludes with the thanksgivings of the patriarchs ; and Charinus and Lenthius, after professing to have revealed all they were permitted, each deliver in a separate accoimt, written on "distinct pieces of paper," which, on examination, " are found perfectly to agree, the one not containing one letter more or less than
the other." Charinus and Lenthius immediatdy change " into exceeding white forms," and are seen no more. Joseph and Nicodemus after- wards relate the account to Pilate, who enters it in the public records, and going to the tern-
§le, summons all the rulers, and scribes, and octors of the law, and says to them, " I hare heard that ye have a certain large book in this temple ; I desire you, therefore, that it may be brought before me." And when the great book, carried by four ministers, [of the temple,] and adorned with gold and precious stones, is brought; Pilate adjures them to declare whe- ther the scriptures testify of Christ. Annas and Caiphas dismiss the rest, and then avow their conviction that " Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and true and Almighty God."
" Such is the nature of a work," says Town- ley, " which was deemed of sufficient merit and importance, to be translated into various lan- guages, to be one of the earliest specimens of typography ; and to be placed in the churches for ^e edification of the people." In the uni- veisities and cathedral churches, it was to a late period a general custom for the public lecturers to read upon any book, rather than upon the scriptures. The works of Scotus, Aquinas, and the SaUmcet of Lombard ; the Golden Legend, with miracles and mysteries, were the means the clergy employed in corrupting human rea- son, and the diristian faith. The ignorant and careless clergy imagined that the safest means to retain the popmace, was by miracle plays,^ ridiculous pageants, and profane festivals, such as' the Featt of FooU ; Feast of the Ast ; Featl of the Bull ; Feaet of the Innocentt, &c.*
1497. Erasmus was the first person who pub- licly taught the Greek grammar in the luuver- sity of Cambridge ; though, when he first came into England in this year, be bad so incompe- tent an acquaintance with that language, that our countryman, Linacre, who was just returned from Italy, perfected bim in the knowledge of it. Cornelius Vitellius, an Italian, was the first
- Da Cange noticei aerend of these groteaqne, prabnt
and licentioiu (euti, under dlArent terms In hit (Haonjr. —A cnrioos odlection has also been made bj the Abbt Aitlgny, in the fomth and seventh volumes of hit He- moira ^Hittoirt, be. Dn Radier, in hia Jl«TM«e«» UiMtmiquet, vol. i. p. 109> has noticed serenl wiiten on the tuhje^ and preserves one on the honting of a man. called Adam, from Ash-Wedncsdayto HolT-ThnrsdaT, ud treating him with a good sapper at nifikt, peculiar to a town in Saxony.— In Toner's second Tdame of his Hit- tory of EngloHd, p. 3(I7> will be foond a copious and a ca- rious note on tliis sntiject.— We had in Leicester, in \M, what was called a gbUton-maMt, dining the five day* of the festival of the Virgin Mary. The people rose eaily to mass, during which they practised eating arul diinUn; with the most zealous velocity, and, as in France, die* tiom the comers of the altar the rich puddings pland there. Francis Douce, Esq. supposes that toany of tlie grotesque figures in the lUumioatcd religions mann- scripts, generally, but erroneously, called mittaU, ate si- lusive to the ceremonies which arose out of the Romsn saturnalia, — ^which resembled, in a great decree, the ex- cesses of • mcxlem carnival, and that the archbishops siui bishops degraded themselves by Joining in these sports with the inA^or der^. An lUumination in the Bedfonl missal, representing several men feasting in a church- yard, as referring to an ancient festival of the Romans called the feast of the dead.
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