On reading the _Times_ of the 7th ult. at our city library, in which the
following translation of a paragraph in the French journal, _Le
Constitutionnel_, appeared, application was made to me for an
explanation of that part where the Emperor Napoleon is represented as
stating, among other advantages of preferring an eagle to a cock as the
national emblem or ensign, which, during the ancient dynasty of France,
the latter had been--
"_that it owes its origin to a pun._ I will not have the cock,
said the Emperor; it lives on the dunghill, and allows itself to
have its throat twisted by the fox. I will take the eagle, which
bears the thunderbolt, and which can gaze on the sun. The French
eagles shall make themselves respected, like the Roman eagles. The
cock, besides, has the disadvantage of owing its origin to a pun,"
&c.
Premising that the French journalist's object is to authorise the
present ruler of France's similar adoption and restoration of the noble
bird on the French standard by the example of his uncle, I briefly
stated the circumstance to which Napoleon, on this occasion, referred;
and as not unsuited, I should think, to your miscellany, I beg leave to
repeat it here.
In 1545, during the sitting of the Council of Trent, Peter Danes, one of
the most eminent ecclesiastics of France, who had been professor of
Greek, and filled several other consonant stations, appeared at the
memorable council as one of the French representatives. While there, his
colleague, Nicholas Pseaume, Bishop of Verdun, in a vehement oration,
denounced the relaxed discipline of the Italians, when Sebastian Vancius
de Arimino (so named in the "Canones et Decreta" of the Council), Bishop
of Orvietto (Urbevetanus), sneeringly exclaimed "Gallus cantat,"
dwelling on the double sense of the word Gallus--a Frenchman or a cock,
and intending to express "the cock crows;" to which Danes promptly and
pointedly responded, "Utinam et Galli cantum Petrus resipisceret," which
excited, as it deserved, the general applause of the assembly, thus
turning the insult into a triumph. The apt allusion will be made clear
by a reference to the words of the Gospels: St. Matthew, xxvi. 75.; St.
Mark, xiv. 68. 72.; St. Luke, xxii. 61-2.; and St. John, xviii. 27.,
where the ἀλεκτοροφωνία of the original is the "cantus galli"
of the Vulgate, and where Petrus represents the pope, who is aroused to
_resipiscere_ by the example of his predecessor St. Peter.
This incident in the memorable assembly is adverted to in the French
contemporary letters and memoirs, but more particularly in the
subsequent publication of a learned member of Danes's family, _La Vie,
Eloges et Opuscules de Pierre Danes, par P. Hilaire Danes_, Paris, 1731,
4to., with the the portrait of the Tridentine deputy, who became Bishop
of Lavaur, in Languedoc (now département du Saone), and preceptor to
Francis, the short-lived husband of Mary Stuart, before that prince's
ascent to the throne. So high altogether was he held in public
estimation, that he was supposed well entitled to the laudatory anagram
formed of his name (Petrus Danesius), "De superis natus."
In the Council of Trent there only appeared two Englishmen, Cardinal
Pole and Francis Gadwell[1], Bishop of St. Asaph, with three Irish
prelates, (1) Thomas Herliky, Bishop of Ross, called Thomas Overlaithe
in the records of the Council; (2) Eugenius O'Harte, there named
Ohairte, a Dominican friar, Bishop of Ardagh; and (3) Donagh MacCongal,
Bishop of Raphoe: Sir James Ware adds a fourth, Robert Waucup, or
Vincentius, of whom, however, I find no mention in the official
catalogue of the assisting prelates. Deprived of sight, according to
Ware, from his childhood, he yet made such proficiency in learning,
that, after attaining the high degree of Doctor of Sorbonne in France,
he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh, or Primate of Ireland; but of
this arch-see he never took possession, it being held by a _reformed_
occupant, Dr. George Dowdall, appointed by Henry VIII. in 1543.
[Footnote 1: [Query, Thomas Goldwell.]]