TO-DAY IN HISTORY

Southland Times, Issue 20538, 14 July 1928, Page 6

TO-DAY IN HISTORY

JULY 14. Born: Cardinal Mazarin, at Pescino in Abruzzo, 1602; Sir Robert Strange, engraver, at Orkney, 1721; James Hunter, eminent surgeon, at Long Calderwood, 1728; Aaron Arrowsmith, publisher of maps, at Winston, Durham, 1750; John S. Bowerbank, naturalist, at London, 1797. Died: Dr William Bates, eminent physician, at Hackney, 1699; Colin Maclaurin, mathematician, 1746; Goertner, German botanist, 1791; Baroness de Stael Holstein (nee Anne Necker),at Paris, 1817; Ex-President Kruger, 1904. Events: Storming of the Bastille, France, 1789; first Governor-General of Australia appointed, 1900; Peace Celebration in Paris, 1919. “DE HERETICO COMBURENDO.” Among the last victims of the religious persecutions under Mary, were six persons who formed part of a congregation caught praying and reading the Bible in a by place at Islington in May, 1558. Seven, of the party had been burned at Smithfield on the 27th of June, the six who remained being kept in a miserable confinement in the palace of Bonner, Bishop of London, at Fulham, whence they were taken on the 14th of July, and despatched in a similar manner at Brentford. While these six unfortunates lay in their captivity at Fulham, Bonner felt annoyed at their presence and wished to get them out of the way; but he was sensible at the same time of there being a need for getting these sacrifices to the true church effected in as quiet a way as possible. He therefore penned an epistle to (apparently) Cardinal Pole, which later came to light and certainly gives a curious idea of the coolness with which a fanatic will treat of the destruction of a few of his fellow creatures when satisfied that it is all right. “Further,” he says, “may it please your Grace concerning these obstinate heretics that do remain in my house, pestering the same and doing much hurt many ways, some order may be taken with them, and in mine opinion, as I showed your Grace and my Lord Chancellor, it should do well to have them burnt at Hammersmith a mile from my house here, for then I can give sentence against them here in the parish church very quietly and without tumult and have the sheriff present, as I can have him, he, without business or stir, (can) put them to execution in the said place, when otherwise the thing (will need a) day in (St.) Paul’s, and with more comberance than now it needeth. Scribbled in haste, etc.” EXPLOSION IN THE COURT OF KING’S BENCH. On the 14th of July, 1737, when the courts were sitting in Westminster Hall between one and two o’clock in the afternoon, a large brown paper parcel, containing fireworks which had been placed unobserved, near the side-bar of the Court of King’s Bench, exploded with a loud noise, creating great confusion and terror among the persons attending the several courts. As the crackers rattled and burst they threw out balls of printed bills, purporting that on the last day of term, five libels would be publicly burned in Westminster Hall. JULY 15. St. Swithin’s Day. Born: Richard Cumberland, bishop of Peterborough, at Aldersgate, London, 1632; Gerald Langbaine the younger, bibliographer of the drama, at Oxford, 1656; Viscount Northcliffe, 1865. Died: Anne of Cleves, consort of Henry VIII., at Chelsea, 1567; James, Duke of Monmouth, executed on Tower Hill, 1685: John Wilson, botanist, 1751; Cardinal Passionei, librarian at the Vatican, at Rome, 1761; Thomas Dermody, peasant-poet, 1802; William Mackworth Praed, comic poet, 1839; Prince Adam Czartoryski, Polish patriot, at Paris, 1861. Events: Relief of Kumasi (Ashanti), 1900; 10th N.Z. Contingent left Durban for New Zealand, 1902; National Registration Act (U.K.) passed, 1915; second battle of the Marne, 1918. ST. SWITHIN’S DAY. The common adage regarding St. Swithin, as everyone knows is to the effect that as it rains or is fair on St. Swithin’s Day, the 15th of July, there will be a continuous track of wet or dry weather for the forty days ensuing. “St. Swithin’s Day, if thou dost rain For forty days it will remain: St. Swithin’s Day, if thou be fair, For forty days ’twill rain nae mair.” The explanation given by Brand in his “Popular Antiquities” of this saying—an explanation which has been pretty currently received as correct —is as follows: St. Swithin, Bishop of Winchester, was a man equally noted for his uprightness and humility. So far did he carry the latter quality that on his death bed, he requested to be buried not within the church, but outside in the churchyard, in the north of the sacred building, where his corpse might receive the eaves-droppings from the roof, and his grave be trodden by the feet of the passers-by. His lowly request was complied with and in this neglected spot his remains reposed until about a hundred years afterwards, when a fit of indignation seized the clergy, at the body of so pious a member of their order being allowed to occupy such a position; and on an appointed day they all assembled to convey it with great pomp to the adjoining cathedral of Winchester. When they were about to commence the ceremony a heavy rain burst forth, and continued without intermission for the succeeding forty days. The monks interpreted this tempest as a warning from Heaven of the blasphemous nature of their attempt, to contravene the directions of St. Swithin, and instead of disturbing his remains they erected a chapel over his grace, at which many astounding miracles were performed. From this circumstance it is stated arose the popular belief of the anniversary of the attempted translation of St. Swithin, being invested with a prophetic character in reference to the character of the weather for the ensuing six weeks.