I may mention that there is the tradition about the dyke, common to most works of the sort, that it was "done by the Devil in a night."
149. _Passage in Luther._--In Luther's _Responsio ad librum Ambrosii Catharini_, where he attacks the confessional, he says:
"Cogit etiam papa peccata suarum legum confiteri--ad hæc tot peccatorum differentiis, speciebus, generibus, _filiabus_, _nepotibus_, _ramis_, circumstantiis," &c.
Were these expressions merely jocular, or have any papal canonists or casuists given the title of _filiæ_, _nepotes_ or _rami_ to offences deducible from the same root?
150. _Linteamina and Surplices._--What is the meaning of _linteamina_ to be met with in the writings of ecclesiologists of a past age, and in the canonists?
At what date did the surplice first become an ecclesiastical vestment, and what are the differences discernible in the surplices of the Greek, Latin, and English churches?
_Ellrake or Hellrake._--Can you kindly give me any information respecting the word _ell-rake_ or _hell-rake_ (for I know not which it is), an agricultural implement in frequent use? It is not alluded to in Todd's _Johnson's Dictionary_, 1818.
[In Shropshire an _ell-rake_ means a large rake: an _ellock-rake_, a small rake used for breaking up ant-hills.]
_Francis Clerke._--I have now before me a MS. in small folio on paper, pp. 225., besides index, entitled--
"Pro Curatorium ac Modus postulandi in Curijs et Causis ecclesiasticis Auct'at'e reverendissimi in Christi patris ac D̅mi D̅mi Johannis providentia Divina Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi, totius Anglie Prima'ts et Metropolitani Londoni celebrā que communiter Curie de Arcubus appellantur. Per Franciscum Clerke, Alme Curie de Arcubus procuren' collecta et edita."
Who was Francis Clerke; and was this collection ever published, and when?
[Francis Clerke for about forty years practised the civil law in the Court of Arches, Admiralty, Audience, Prerogative, and Consistorial of the Bishop of London. In 1594, the Oxford University conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law. His principal work, entitled _Praxis curiæ Admiralitatis Angliæ_, passed through several editions. A short notice of the author will be found in Wood's _Athenæ_, i. 657. (Bliss), and a list of his other works in Watt's _Bibliotheca Britannica_.]