Historic Oddities and Strange Events

Mrs. Chudleigh died in 1756, and her will mentions her daughter by her maiden name.

6

Mr. John Merrill died February 1767, and his burial was entered in it. Mr. Bathurst, who had married his daughter, found the register book in the hall, and handed it over to the rector, Mr. Kinchin. Nevertheless it was not produced at the hearing of the case for jactitation in the Consistory Court.

7

This place still bears the name. It is on the main road through Livland and Esthonia to St. Petersburg; about twenty miles from Narwa. It also goes by the name of Fockenhof. The present mansion is more modern, and belongs to the family of Von Wilcken.

8

Le Bibliophile Jacob says the same: "Les – pièces – détournées maladroitement par la Restauration."

9

This account is taken from a sermon preached in the Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople on Orthodoxy Sunday, printed by Combefisius (Auctuarium novum, pars post. col. 644), from a MS. in the National Library at Paris. Another copy of the sermon is in the Library at Turin. The probable date of the composition is the tenth century. Orthodoxy Sunday was not instituted till 842.

10

This famous figure was cast down and broken by Leo the Isaurian in 730, a riot ensued, the market-women interfering with the soldiers, who were engaged on pulling down the figure, they shook the ladders and threw down one who was engaged in hacking the face of the figure. This led to the execution of ten persons, among them Gregory, head of the bodyguard, and Mary, a lady of the Imperial family. The Empress Irene set up a mosaic figure in its place. This was again destroyed by Leo the Armenian, and again restored after his death by Theophilus in 829.

11

Sergius was patriarch of Constantinople between 610 and 638. He embraced the Monothelite heresy.

12

Fabricius, Bibl. Græca, Ed. Harles, T.X. p. 124, 125.

13

Augustus the Strong was King of Poland and Elector of Saxony.

14

Aurora v. Königsmark went out of favour in 1698 – probably then sold the gold snuff-box. She died in 1728.

15

In Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland, clerical celibacy was never enforced before the Reformation. Now and then a formal prohibition was issued by the bishops, but it was generally ignored. The clergy were married, openly and undisguisedly.

16

Johann M. Sailer was a famous ex-Jesuit preacher, at this time Professor at the University of Landshut, afterwards Bishop of Ratisbon. He died, 1832.

17

This is supposed to have been the contents of the packet addressed to the Elector, the contents have never been revealed.

18

There was some idea of a younger brother being elected.

19

In three years Suess gained a profit of 20,000 florins out of the sale of jewellery alone.

20

The Duke, at Suess's instigation, wrote to the Emperor to get the Jew factotum ennobled, but was refused.

21

On the following night a confectioner set up a transparency exhibiting the Devil carrying off the Duke.

22

He had, however, just received a pension from the Czar, so that he was relieved from abject poverty.

23

"Of myself," he says, "I must confess that I have heard great and famous preachers, true Bourdaloues, Massillons, Zollikofers, &c., in Vienna, Carolath, Breslau, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Hanover, and have been pleased with the contents, arrangement, and delivery of their sermons; but never once have I felt my heart stirred with religious emotion. On the contrary, on the 25th March, 1782, when Pius VI. said mass in the Capuchin Church, and on the 31st March, when he blessed the people, I trembled on the edge of conviction and religious faith, and was only held back by my inability to distinguish between religion and the Church system. Still more now does the Sermon on the Mount move me, and for the last 23 years the divine liturgical prayer in John xvii., does not fail to stir my very soul."