St. Lucia.
[This is a quaint abbreviation of the words _objectiones et
solutiones_, being frequently so contracted in the margins of books of
controversial divinity to mark the transitions from the one to the
other. Hence Butler (_Hudibras_, III. ii. 1237.) has coined the name of
_ob_ and _sollers_ for scholastic disputants:
"But first, o' th' first: the Isle of Wight
Will rise up, if you should deny't;
Where Henderson, and the other masses,
Were sent to cap texts and put cases:
To pass for deep and learned scholars,
Although but paltry _ob_ and _sollers_:
As if th' unseasonable fools,
Had been a coursing in the schools."]
_Fystens or Fifteenths._--Can you inform me what is the meaning of the word
"fystens." In looking over an old corporation chamber book some years ago I
found the following entries, of which I made extracts:
"1587. Paid to Mr. Mayor for fystenes, iiij. [_sic_].
1589. Paid Mr. Dyston for the fystens, xxxs.
More for the fystens, xxvjs.
1592. Paid for the fystenes, xixs. iijd.
More for the fystenes, xxxi_s_, vijd. _q._
1594. Paid to make up the fystenes, xxxijs. iijd.
1595. Paid for the fistenies, xxxs."
In a recent publication this last entry is extracted thus:
"1595. Paid for the fifteenths, 30s."