# Omniana/Volume 2/Luys de Escobar

246. Luys de Escobar.
Fray Luys d'Escobar is the author of Las Quatrocientas, one of the oddest books in the Spanish, or indeed in any other language. After the manner of bibliographers, here follow the full titles of the two volumes. They are in what we should call small folio, but the paper must have been of enormous size, the sheets being folded in octavo.
Las Quatrocientas Respuestas a otras tantas preguntas, quel illustrissimo Señor Don Fadrique Enrriquez, Almirante de Castilla, y otras personas, embiaron a preguntar en diversas vezes al autor, nombrado, mas de que era frayle menor. Con quinientos proverbios de consejos y avisos a manera de letania, agora segunda vez estampadas, corregidas y emendadas, Y por el mesmo autor añdidas cient glosas, ​o declaraciones, a cient respuestas que pa-rescia avellas menester. Dirigido a los Illustrissimos Señores, Don Luys Enrriquez, Almirante de Castilla, y Doña Ana de Cabrera, Duquesa de Medina, su muger, Condes de Modica, &c. En eyte año M. D. L. Con Privilegio Imperial.
Aqui se ponen estas quatrocientas respuestas, porque avia otras muchas mas con ellas, las quales se imprimiran presto, plaziendo a Dios, que sera la segunda parte deste libra.
At the end of the volume.—Fenesce el libro intitulado las Quatrocientas Respuestas, con las cient glosas o declaraciones, que nuevamente añadio su propio autor. El qual fue visto, examinado y aprobado por los senores del may alto consejo, y impresso en esta muy noble Villa de Valladolid (Pincia otro tiempo llamada). En casa de Francisco Fernandez de Cordova, junto a las escuelas mayores. Acabose a veynte y cinco dias del mes de Mayo. Ano de M. D. L.
​******* La Segunda Parte de las Quatrocientas Respuestas, en que se contienen otras Quatrocientas Respuestas a otras tantas preguntas, que el Illustrissimo Senor Don Fadrique Enrriquez Almirante de Castilla, y otras personas embiaron a preguntar al mesmo auctor, assi en prosa, como en metro. Con cincuenta declaraciones, o glosas, en los lugares que parescio ser mas menester, por el mesmo auctor. Impresso en Valladolid por F. F. de Cordova. Ano de M. D. L. I. I. Con privilegio. Tassado por los Senores del Consejo a dos m. r. s. el pliego.
At the end.—A gloria y alabança de nuestro señor Jesu Christo, y de su bendita Madre y señora nuestra, haze fin la segunda parte de las quatrocientas respuestas del Almirante de Castilla, Don Fadrique Enriquez y otras personas, respondidas por el autor no nombrado, el qual queda acabando otras dozientas para que con las quatrocientas de la primera parte, y ​con estas CCCC desta segunda seran mil cabales, Fueron impressas en la muy noble villa de Valladolid (Pincia otro tiempo llamada) por Francisco de Cordova, y a costa de Francisco de Alfaro, cuyo es el privilegio, acabose a dos dias del mes de henero deste ano de M. D. L. I. I.
There had been a prior edition of the first volume in 1545, printed in the same city, and a surreptitious one printed out of the Kingdom. I do not know whether the third part was ever published; Nicolas Antonio does not observe that it was promised. The manner in which he speaks of the book makes me believe, that he scarcely looked beyond the title. Certain it is, that he had not discovered the author's name, which if he had perused the first volume he must have done; for though the good Friar chooses to be anonymous in his title pages, he has by a sort of Irish contrivance given his name, at full length in an acrostic, at the end of what he calls his Litany. Fray ​Luys d'Escobar hyzo esta Letanya, T. 1, ff. 135.
This is so extraordinary and whimsical a work, that having once looked into it, I was led through the whole of the poetry, between 40 and 50,000 verses. "Social verses" of modern times are of all compositions the least interesting to those who are not concerned in them; but these "Diversions of Valladolid," such as Valladolid was nearly three centuries ago, give a most amusing picture of the Admiral and his circle of friends. They conceived the Friar to be a sort of living oracle, capable of resolving all questions, and every thing which came into their heads was propounded to him. Fray Luys complains in his Preface, or Argumento, as he calls it, that many of the questions came to him so badly versified, that it was more trouble to mend them than to reply to them, and they were not fit to appear till they were turned into a good ​style,. . except those of his Excellency, which were perfect;. . . salvo las de su Senoria, que eran perfectas.
The first and second parts consist wholly of theological questions, in which the Friar took such delight, that he wished every body would come to him with such questions, for day and night, he said, would be well employed upon them.
De essas preguntas querria
que todos me preguntassen,
y gastando noche y dia,
bien empleado seria
el tiempo que alli gastassen.
Sometimes, however, these questions puzzled him. A religioner sends to ask how many keys Christ gave to Peter, and he begins his answer by saying, he ought to prepare himself by a course of physic for such grave, sweet, and savoury questions.
Cumple me tomar xaraves, y aun otros preparativos, para preguntas tan graves, tan sabrosas, tan suaves, y de tan altos motivos.
The main amusement of the Admiral's old age seems to have been in inventing questions for the Friar. Before I got up this morning, says he, I and Roca could not agree how many years David lived before Christ; we are now sitting at table awaiting your answer. Presently he asks, who was the first writer in the world; what became of the Ark of the Covenant at the first destruction of Jerusalem; whether God concealed it, or destroyed it: and if it was not destroyed, whether it would ever be found? The Friar replies, that the oldest writing in the world was the work of Jubal, who having heard Adam prophecy that the world would be twice destroyed, once by water, and once by fire, was very solicitous to know by which element it ​was to suffer first. But as Adam would not gratify his curiosity, he, to secure the art which he had invented in either case, inscribed his system of music upon two pillars, one of stone, the other of clay, the one being secure from fire, the other from water; and accordingly at this very day the stone pillar is remaining in the land called Sirida. The Ark and the Tabernacle were carried by Jeremiah to a stone cave in the mountain of Nob; where at his prayers the rock opened and closed upon these precious relics: and he fastened the entrance of the cave with a stone, and wrote upon the stone the holy Tetragrammaton with his finger; the letters, as he traced them, being miraculously imprinted in the stone. His companions wanted to make some mark whereby the place might be known, but as this was not the will of Heaven, they were rendered unable to find it again. It is, however, somewhere between the two mountains ​Hor and Nob, where Moses and Aaron were buried, but whether it will ever ​be discovered or not, the Friar cannot tell.
When God made dresses for Adam and Eve, how did he get the skins of which those dresses were made, says my Lord the Admiral, observing that at that time no beasts had yet been killed. Why, replies the Friar, perhaps he made skins by themselves on purpose; or perhaps he did not actually clothe our first parents himself, but only gave them direc- ​tions about the cloaths. Which, says my Lord the Admiral, is most obliged to the other, the Virgin Mary to sinners, or sinners to the Virgin Mary; they to her for bringing forth their Redeemer, or she to them for having made a Redeemer necessary? Pinnacle of discretion, the Friar replies, wise among the wise,
Cumbre de la discrecion
de los discretes discreto.
When you went to quell the disturbances in Navarre, and procured the pardon of the guilty, if they had not been guilty you could not have obtained the honour of interceding for them; but are you indebted to them for your revolt, or they to you for your clemency? My Lord the Admiral wishes to know whether a babe in the womb has a guardian angel of his own, or if one guardian angel suffices for him and his mother before he is born. The answer of the ​Friar is, that one is enough for both, as the gardener who takes care of an apple tree takes care of the apples upon it, and as he who has the charge of a damsel, has the charge of her honour also.
Next comes a perilous question. The Friar has preached a sermon upon the Trinity, in which he has made the mystery appear so perfectly intelligible, that the Admiral is afraid he shall no longer have any merit in believing it, because he understands it so well. This occasions considerable discussion, for neither a first nor a second answer can persuade D. Fadrique that he has the same merit in believing the Trinity as he had when it was wholly incomprehensible. He now wishes to know whether the grief which our Lady felt at the Crucifixion was greater or less than her joy at the Resurrection. The wisdom of the question astonishes the Friar, who declares that he had never seen such a question in the writings of any Doctor of Theology.
In tan alta perficion pregunta su Senoria, que en doctor en theologia nunca yo vi tal quistion.
He gives reasons for both opinions; the Admiral desires to know which opinion is the most probable, and then Fray Luys says, her grief was the greatest, and that he can prove it by twelve reasons. Of course D. Fadrique wishes to hear these reasons, and the Friar then strings together twelve stanzas, much in the style of the Siete Dolores, or our own Christmas Carol of the Seven Good Joys, . . a relic of Catholicism which I have often heard in my youth.
We have now a very long discussion upon Free Will, to which I thought there would be no end. The good Friar, who never loses an opportunity of giving good advice to the Admiral, or of paying him a handsome compliment, reminds him dexterously here of his exploit at Tordesillas.
Vuestra Senoria ha hecho lo que acostumbra hazer, por do me avra de vencer o ponerme en gran estrecho: que haze en estas renzillas lo que hizo en Tordesillas, dar comhate tan seguido, que no pueda el combatido, si no venir de rodillas.
Notwithstanding this compliment, Fray Luys argues stoutly upon this knotty point; a friend of the Admiral interferes, and takes part with him against the Friar: the Friar, who grows very sore in the course of this long discussion of an endless subject, tells this person that he has fallen into a great blasphemy, and that he understands nothing at all about the matter, and he interdicts any farther dispute with him about it. Notwithstanding this, the Admiral goes on, till the poor Friar is obliged at last to tell him it is better to stop, or he will fall into Pelagianism, and therefore he begs pardon for positively declaring that ​he will answer no more questions upon the subject.
Metaphysics having thus been prohibited, my Lord the Admiral returns to theology, and desires to know why God is three persons rather than four or five, or any other number, particularly as musicians account three an imperfect number. The Friar answers, that God is three persons because he is, and moreover that three is a perfect number; but he is astonished at the depth and wisdom of such questions, and his astonishment is increased by the next, which is, Who governed Heaven when God was in the Virgin Mary's womb? The Friar is ready with two solutions, there were the other two persons of the Trinity, . . in this way the difficulty might be explained, but that in reality there is no difficulty, because the soul is not infused in conception.
Will Antichrist have a guardian angel, or not? Just as well as Judas, but to ​as little purpose. Is there a free will in brutes? When the Devil tempts us, does he come of himself, or does God send him? In what part of the body does the soul reside, and at what part does it go out? Why did Christ chuse to be born of a Virgin? The question and answer will give the Spanish scholar a good specimen of the style of this extraordinary old Omniana.
Pregunta 155
Del Senor Almirante, porque quiso Christ nascer de Virgen.
No es culpable que pregunto las dubdas en que me veo, pues es bueno mi deseo en las cosas que yo apunto: Que de lo que a Christo toca no se deve hombre hartar de saber y preguntar pues la sckncia no se apoca,
Dezidme porque razones de virgen quiso nascer,
"y en'esto no quiso ser como los otros varones; Que el mismo quiso ordenar que virgen le concibiesse, y que virgen le pariesse y en virginidad quedar.
Respuesta del Auctor.
Respondo por abreviar, que se dan muchas razones por los yllustres varones que en esso suelen hablar. Mas yo dire si acertare quatro solas, y no mas, que pone Sancto Thomas; enmendad si algo errare.
Razon primera.
A la dignidad de Dios gran descnnveniencia fuera, que si de varon nasciera ya sus padres fueran dos. Que por gloria de su nombre tiene alla padre sin madre, y aca la madre sin padre, Dios de Dios, y hombre de hombre.
Razon segunda.
Fuera otra inconveniencia ser hijo de corrupcion, pues la hembra y el varon no son sin concupiscencia; Y trayendo en tal manera tal concupiscencia bruta, o nasciendo de corrupta gran inconveniente fuera.
Razon tercera.
Mas assi devia ser segun el nomhre y la fama, que aquel que verbo se llama como verbo ha de nascer; Y mirad quanta le toca que el verbo sin corrupcion, qual le engendra el coraçon
tal le mana por le boca,
Razon quarta.
Y aun por mostrar la excelencia de aquella virginidad, pues que la summa verdad la escogio por preheminencia; Y assi la sublimo tanto, porque en su madre no uviesse cosa que a came supiesse, mas que todo fuesse sancto.
Mas misterio tan superno catalle hasta el hondon, no puede nuestra razon, tino solo Dios eterno. Harto nos basta Señor tener por la fe creydo, quefue de Virgen nascido, y aquello fue lo mejor.
Y assi querer alcançallo buscando la suma causa, esto baste para pausa, y loallo y contemplallo; Y aquella sancta donzella, sera muy sano consejo contemplar la coma espejo y remirar nos en ella.
Some of these reasons, like many other passages of this extraordinary book, could not be expressed in our language without shocking the reader. Nothing, however, is more evident than that the Admiral had no thought of irreverence in proposing such questions, and that the Friar replied to them not only with seriousness, but even with a sense of devotion.
​What will become of the world after the last judgement, is one of the following questions. The heavens, we are told, will be still, none of the spheres will move, time will cease, and the winds, and heat, and cold. Heaven will finally rest in that situation where it was first created, the sun will be in the east, and the moon in the west,
Estaran los cielos quedos, ninguno se movera, y assi el tiempo cessara, vientos, calores, y yelos.
El cielo en aquel lugar o sitio do fue criado, alli sera situado, y alli tornara a parar. No avra mas alteraciones; sera el sol en oriente, y la luna en ocidente segun muchas opiniones.
Where will the Lord appear at the Day of Judgement, because at that time both Heaven and Earth will have been ​destroyed? No, says the Friar, the world will only be destroyed as to its temporal uses, quanto al temporal provecho, and Christ will appear over the Valley of Jehosaphat near Mount Olivet, and there we shall all be gathered together, men, angels, and devils; and then if you have served God better than I have done, you will be better off than I shall be, and a pretty joke it would be if you with your rank and fortune were to go to Heaven, and the Friar to go to Hell.
y sera muy gran donayre, si con vuestro grande estado vays al cielo coronado, y vaya al infierno el frayre.
Will the glory of men be greater than the glory of angels? Yes, twofold: because they will be glorified in the body, and angels have no body in which to be glorified. Moreover, having had greater toil for salvation, they will have greater ​reward. Where was God before he created the Heavens? This is finely answered, though the answer somewhat diluted in the familiar verse of the original, . . he was then where he is now, for he who is incomprehensible cannot be in any place. God himself is in himself, and all things are in him.
que Dios mismo esta en si mismo y todo el mundo esta en el.
During what particular part of the Salutation did the act of Incarnation take place? The Friar, who resolves all questions, answers, that it was as soon as Mary had replied to the Angel, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word."
Y el hijo de Dios que oyo esta ultima respuesta, fuele tan grata y honesta que en este punto encarno. Que pues Christo contraya bodas con natura humana, el consentimiento y gana de entramos se requeria.
​The Admiral now condescending to a question of simple chronology, asks in what year of the world Christ was born, and the Friar says in reply, Let us count our own years; I am sixty, you are sixty-five; I am near death, and you, by this reckoning, are still nearer. Is bull-fighting sinful? Yes.—Is it sinful to treat the people with a bull-fight, if you do not fight yourself? Certainly it is.—But why is it sinful? pursues the Admiral, sticking with the keenness of a sportsman to his favourite amusement, . . why is it sinful, when the practice is so customary, and is a thing allowed? Sir, says the honest Friar, if you will persist in these things at your age, I must tell you that you have one foot in the grave, and another in Hell.—St. Cosmes and St. Damian cut off a black man's leg, and fastened it upon a white man; which will have this leg at the Resurrection? The black man, and the other will then have his own original ​leg.—How long will a soul remain in Purgatory for every particular sin? I cannot tell: you will know when you get there, and you will neither suffer the less nor get out the sooner for having been an Admiral.—At the Day of Judgement there will be souls in Purgatory who will not have been there their full time: how will their account be settled? The intensity of their sufferings may compensate for its brevity: they will have condensed and quintessential torments.
One division of the work consists of questions in physics, another of moral points, another of riddles. The Admiral enquires how many intestines (tripas) a man has, and what is the use of each, . . a question which the Friar says is of very dirty discussion, es may suzio pla- ticar, and he remarks upon this occasion,
Lo que puedo ymaginar es que estavades purgando, y alli estavades pensando si avria que preguntar.
es remedio singular que lo ayays de tolerar Y este se queda la muela.
This is a very unsatisfactory answer to a poor man with a raging tooth-ache, and the patient requests him in good verse to ​leave off joking, and tell him how he may obtain relief.
Remedio estoy esperando,
de essas burlas os dexad;
yo preguntava raviando,
vos me respondeys burlando; respondedme la verdad.
The prescription is, . . about a spoonful of salt, tied in a cloth, held in boiling oil during the time in which a man can twice repeat the creed, then laid on the jaw.
In the course of these physical questions it appears that the Friar never ate salt, because he says, that being only an earth it can afford no nutriment, . . an argument which I have heard a medical man assign as a philosophical reason for disliking salt, though if this condiment were not in some degree necessary to our well-being, savages and animals would not seek it with such an instinctive desire. Fray Luys also abstained from saffron, a great article in the cook​ery of those ages, in England as well as in Spain; he thought it hurt his eyesight. But he was a great eater of eggs; one of his rhyming friends reminds him of this, and expresses his astonishment at the Friar's ovivorous propensities: this seems to have nettled him, and he replies, I am more astonished that you do not eat straw; for one who brays ought to be fed like an ass, not with meat which has been drest, but with straw and barley, as his proper food.
Mas me maravillo yo como cos no comes paja. Que quien suele rebuznar, por asno le han de pensar, no con vianda guisada, sino con paja y cevada, que son su proprio manjar.
The Friar very honestly reproves the Admiral for his rigorous execution of the game laws, and complains to him ​of the grievous oppressions which his vassals endured in consequence. Certainly he was no fawner. The Admiral sends one day to consult him upon a case of conscience, whether he may lawfully keep any thing which he has found. Ah—ha! says Fray Luys, you found a hawk yesterday, and you want to keep her, though you know by her jesses and her bells that she belongs to another person! Whoever keeps any thing which he has found in such a way, and does not have it cried, is guilty of theft.
In this portion of the work is one of the most complete specimens of that sort of laborious trifling which gives two directly opposite meanings to one composition, according to the manner in which the lines are read. In this example the verses form a panegyric if they are read at length, or a satire, if read as two columns.
Pregunta 318.
De un honrrado bachiller, que pregunta de si mismo at autor en burla.
Segun de mi mismo yo puedo juzgar, no sienten algunos segun que yo siento, y algunos me juzgan por hombre sin tiento, y yo tengo a ellos por locos de atar. Yo os ruego que vos me querays informar, y en lo que dixeredes os quiero creer, y en todo pregunto vuestro parescer, porque yo sepa en que soy de tachar.
Respuesta.
No se que respuesta os pueda yo dar a vuestra pregunta la qual yo ley, sino quatro coplas que os quise embiar, que son las siguientes escriptas aqui. Si fueren leydas enteras en si, diran de vos mismo lo que juzgays vos: empero si de una hizieremos dos, es lo que paresce a otros y a mi.
1
Dechado y espejo . . . . de buena criança . . de nescios beodos, . . . . del todo quitado; por muchos de modos . . estays ya marcado . . en todo ya viejo . . . . sin otra mudança.
Razon ni reposo . . . . . . . no os falta jamas . . vos nunca tuvistes . . . . . en boca maldades; vos nunca entendistes . . . en viles ruyndades . . en ser virtuoso . . . . . . . no puede ser mas.
2
Vos soys muy amigo . . . . d' hablar verdad . . d' embidia y cobdicia . . . no es vuestra costumbre; de amor y justicia . . . . . . estays en la cumbre . . mortal enemigo . . . . . . de toda maldad. De hombres viciosos . . . vos os apartays . . vos soys estandarte . . . . de sabios prudentes; vos no teneys parte . . . . con pessimas gentes . . con los virtuosos . . . . . bivis y tratays.
3
Soys acostumbrado . . . . huyr de luxurias . . dezir nescedades . . . . . no lo acostumbrays;
hablar las verdades . . . vos nunca dubdays . . es muy escusado . . . . . hablar con injurias. En vos resplandesce . . . la sancta prudencia . . la ypocresia . . . . . . . . es vuestro enemigo; y la cortesia . . . . . . . teneys por amigo . . en vos no paresce . . . . offender in absencia.
4
Vos nada entendeys . . en hechizerias . . en hechos onestos, . . . . muy buen compañero: de sabios modestos . . . . vos soys el primero . . ni oys ni aprendeys . . . de trafaguerias. En murmuracion . . . . nunca soys hallado, . ni teneys pereza . . . . . en la devocion; con toda nobleza . . . . . teneys aficion . . gran odio y passion . . . al naype y al dado.
​Another metrical specimen occurs T. 1, ff. 90. The Friar has fallen out of bed, and sprained his foot, upon which the Admiral requires from him a whole copla de pie quebrado, and he rhymes away, exemplifying the metre by glosing upon this pun.
A Cavallero has such a pain in one of his double teeth, that he writes to ask if it is not the gout. Frays Luys replies, that he never heard of gout in the teeth; that all grinders, whether of man or of miller, will wear out in time; and that as the knight was threescore years of age, it was no wonder that his tooth should be done with, and be in a state to be plucked out. The knight is not pleased that one who is four and twenty years older than himself should call him sixty before his wife, and complains of this as an injurious mis-statement of the real fact. The Friar upon this makes something like an apology, but he says it is no great error, for he is fourscore, and fifty​six is not far from sixty. This occurs in the second volume, which is by no means so amusing as the first, . . less from any decay of faculties in the old Franciscan, than because his friends' stock of questions was nearly exhausted. Some of them, however, are sufficiently curious. Has any one entered the kingdom of Heaven, and afterwards been turned out of it? Would it not have been a greater work of power for God to have created Adam from nothing, than to have made him of clay? Why did God make woman, when he knew that she would be the occasion of the fall? May not Eve be called Adam's daughter, seeing that she was made out of him? Which sinned the most, Adam or Eve? Would there have been any distinction ​of master and servant in the world if Adam had not fallen? How happened it that Adam did not wake when Eve was taken out of his side? Why was she made of his rib more than of his head, or any other part? Had Adam a rib the less after this? and had Eve one rib more than her husband? The rib of which Eve was made having belonged to both, which will have it at the Resurrection? How did Adam learn Hebrew? Would the Serpent have been forgiven at the fall if he had confessed his fault, like Adam and Eve? These questions are my Lord the Admiral's, aad have all his genuine oddity about them, but when he quits the stage, and Doctor Cespedes mediso famoso, clerigo y cathedratico en Valladolid, succeeds as first querist to Fray Luys, a lamentable alteration appears. Who, indeed, could be worthy to propound questions after the Admiral?
Toward the close of the work the pic​tures of old age are loathsome to the last degree. The Friar seems to have been afflicted with every infirmity which can render age helpless, wretched, and disgusting. It may be worthy of mention, that he says he had past seven stones, in consequence of taking ivy berries. The last hundred and fifty questions are almost all in prose, . . dull prosing answers to dull questions from Monks and Nuns; chiefly from two noble Sisters, both old women, the one of whom was Abbess of St. Clara de Tordesillas, the other a Nun in the same Convent. At the end of the second volume he repeats his assertion, that he has finished two hundred more questions, in order that the whole number may be a thousand.
Nicolas Antonio not having discovered Escobar's name, notices the book under that of Federicus Henriquiz, and says of the Admiral, Non facile pro germano ingenii sui monumento venditari ​permississet, si vivus adhuc inter nos degeret; sed pro anonymi Franciscani opere, qui respondens interrogationibus cati hujus viri, interrogationes ipsas versibus formavisse credendus est. This opinion, gratuitous as it is, can have no weight against the positive affirmation of Fray Luys, that his Excellency's verses were perfectas. Had he been palming his own verses upon the world as the Admiral's, he would hardly have ventured to dedicate them to the Admiral's son. And indeed the internal evidence that D. Fadrique's questions are genuine, (particularly in the discussion concerning Free Will,) is decisive; even if the general character of the book were not far too dramatic, in its little delays, and apologies, and pettishnesses, to have been all the writer's fiction. This insinuation that my Lord the Admiral did not write his questions himself; is almost as unpardonable a want of proper respect to the character of the dead, as Berganza ​shows to the Bishop Don Hieronymo, when he attempts to prove that that perfect one with the shaven crown used no other arms against the Moors than those of the Spirit.
There is a remarkable similarity of talent between this quaint old Friar and John Byron, whose verbal criticisms and theological discussions in rhyme have found their way, by favour of Mr. Alexander Chalmers, into the last collection of the British Poets. There is something so odd and so original in this good man's verses, that in spite of their alloy of dullness, I was glad to find them there. Byron and Escobar seem to have differed only as the circumstances of their age and country and situations were different. But the Admiral must remain without a rival,..sibi ipsi simillumus, "none but himself can be his parallel."
END OF VOL. II.
W. Pople, Printer, Chancery Lane.
* ↑ Some Judaizing Christian invented this legend, which is given with varying but finer circumstances by Dorotheus, thus: "Before the temple was taken, this prophet (Jeremiah) took out the Ark of the Covenant, and all that was laid up therein, and hid it in a certain rock, saying unto such as were present, the Lord from Sinai is gone up into Heaven, and again, the law-giver shall come out of Sion with great power, and the signs of his coming shall be unto you, when all nations shall honour a tree. He said, moreover, to man shall take away that Ark except Aaron; and no man shall see the tables laid up therein, be he priest or prophet, except Moses, the chosen of God. And at the Resurrection the Ark shall first rise, and come forth out of the rock, and it shall be laid on Mount Sinai, and thither unto it will all the Saints assemble together, looking for the Lord, and flying from the enemy which would have destroyed them, coming unto this rock. And he sealed up this rock with his finger, writing thereon the name of God; the form of it was like the engraving of iron, and a light cloud overshadowed and covered the name of God; neither knew any man this place, neither could any man read the sealing unto this day, neither shall unto the end. This rock is in the desart where the Ark was made at the first, between two mountains, where Moses and Aaron lie buried. And in the night time a cloud, much like fire, covered the place, even as it did of old; the glory of God can never be away from the name of God. Therefore God gave unto Jeremiah the grace that he should finish this mystery, and become companion with Moses and Aaron, who are jolned together unto this day, for Jeremiah came of the line of the Priests," The Monks of Mount Sinai show an inscription at the foot of Mount Horeb, in unknown characters, which they affirm to be this very writing of Jeremiah. Pier della Valle had geographical doubts upon the subject when he saw it, but afterwards the authority of St. Epiphanius induced him to change his opinion, and incline to believe the tradition.
* ↑ The second volume also falls far short of the first in typographical beauty, though it has a noble L in the title page, after the fashion of that which is represented in Mr. Dibdin's.