P.S.--Upon a second reference to the communication of W. S. W. I find
that the above dates _are not_ consistent with those quoted by him, but
differ by exactly a hundred years: that this should be the exact
difference is very singular, and would lead me to suspect that there
might have been a mistake in transcription, were it not that in his
smaller work Bede has this sentence:
"Hujus anno Dominus nascitur, completis ab Adam annis
3952.--_Juxta alios_, 5199."
_Naturalis proles_ (Vol. iv., p. 161.).--Undoubtedly in Latin
_naturalis_ is opposed to "adopted;" _e.g._ "P. Scipio ... _naturalis_
consulis Paulli, _adoptione_ Africani nepos." (Livy, xliv. 44.) I
stumbled some time ago upon the following:
"The Act of Settlement by which Napoleon, Emperor of France, was
declared King of Italy, with the right of succession to his sons
_natural_ or _adopted_, and male heirs.... He declared that he
accepted, and would defend, the iron crown; and that even during
his lifetime he would consent to separate the two crowns, and
place one of his _natural_ or _adopted_ sons upon the
throne."--Alison's _History_, chap. xxxix. §§ 38, 39.
I have no means of ascertaining whether this is a literal rendering from
the French document. If I may trust my _Dictionnaire de l'Académie_,
this sense of the word is unknown to the French language, as well as to
ours.