_Tenet for Tenent_ (Vol. viii., p. 258.).--The note of your correspondent
BALLIOLENSIS does not address itself to the Query put by Y. B. N. J. in
Vol. vii., p. 205., When did the use of _tenent_ give way to _tenet_?
You will find that Burton, in the _Anatomy of Melancholy_, which was
published in 1621, uses uniformly _tenent_ (vide vol. i. pp. 1. 317. 408.
430. 446. &c.)
But Sir Thomas Browne in 1646, twenty-four years later, printed the first
edition of his _Vulgar Errors_ under the title of _Pseudodoxia epidemica,
or Enquiries into very many received Tenets and commonly presumed Truths_.
I cannot find that Burton in any passage respects the grammatical
distinction suggested by both your correspondents, that _tenet_ should
denote the opinion of an individual, and _tenent_ those of a sect.
He applies the latter indifferently, both as regards the plural and
singular. Thus, "Aponensis thinks it proceeds," but "Laurentius condemns
_his tenent_" (part i. sect. iii. mem. 3.). And again, "they are furious,
impatient in discourse, stiff and irrefragable in _their tenents_" (ib.
p. i. s. iv. mem. 1. sub. 3.).