A writer under the signature CRITO in the “Truth Teller” dilates most
pleasantly in his fourth letter concerning flowers and their names. He
says “the pilgrimages and the travelling of the mendicant friars, which
began to be common towards the close of the twelfth century, spread this
knowledge of plants and of medical nostrums far and wide. Though many of
these vegetable specifics have been of late years erased from our
Pharmacopœias, yet their utility has been asserted by some very able
writers on physic, and the author of these observations has himself
often witnessed their efficacy in cases where regular practice had been
unavailing. Mr. Abernethy has alluded to the surprising efficacy of
these popular vegetable diet drinks, in his book on the ‘Digestic
Organs.’ And it is a fact, curiously corroborating their utility, that
similar medicines are used by the North American Indians, whose sagacity
has found out, and known from time immemorial, the use of such various
herbs as medicines, which the kind, hospitable woods provide; and by
means of which Mr. Whitlaw is now making many excellent cures of
diseases.” He then proceeds to mention certain plants noted by the
monks, as flowering about the time of certain religious festivals: “The
SNOWDROP, _Galanthus nivalis_, whose pure white and pendant flowers are
the first harbingers of spring, is noted down in some calendars as being
an emblem of the purification of the spotless virgin, as it blows about
Candlemas, and was not known by the name of snowdrop till lately, being
formerly called FAIR MAID OF FEBRUARY, in honour of our lady. Sir James
Edward Smith, and other modern botanists, make this plant a native of
England, but I can trace most of the wild specimens to some neighbouring
garden, or old dilapidated monastery; and I am persuaded it was
introduced into England by the monks subsequent to the conquest, and
probably since the time of Chaucer, who does not notice it, though he
mentions the daisy, and various less striking flowers. The LADYSMOCK,
_Cardamine pratensis_, is a word corrupted of ‘our lady’s smock,’ a name
by which this plant (as well as that of _Chemise de nôtre Dame_) is
still known in parts of Europe: it first flowers about Lady Tide, or the
festival of the Annunciation, and hence its name. CROSS FLOWER,
_Polygala Vulgaris_, which begins to flower about the Invention of the
Cross, May 3, was also called _Rogation flower_, and was carried by
maidens in the processions in Rogation week, in early times. The monks
discovered its quality of producing milk in nursing women, and hence it
was called _milkwort_. Indeed so extensive was the knowledge of botany,
and of the medical power of herbs among the monks of old, that a few
examples only can be adduced in a general essay, and indeed it appears
that many rare species of exotics were known by them, and were
inhabitants of their monastery gardens, which Beckmann in his
‘_Geschichte der Erfindungen_,’ and Dryander in the ‘_Hortus Kewensis_,’
have ascribed to more modern introducers. What is very remarkable is,
that above three hundred species of medical plants were known to the
monks and friars, and used by the religious orders in general for
medicines, which are now to be found in some of our numerous books of
pharmacy and medical botany, by new and less appropriate names; just as
if the Protestants of subsequent times had changed the old names with a
view to obliterate any traces of catholic science. Linnæus, however,
occasionally restored the ancient names. The following are some familiar
examples which occur to me, of all medicinal plants, whose names have
been changed in later times. The _virgin’s bower_, of the monastic
physicians, was changed into flammula Jovis, by the new pharmaciens; the
_hedge hyssop_, into gratiola; the _St. John’s wort_ (so called from
blowing about St. John the Baptist’s day) was changed into hypericum;
_fleur de St. Louis_, into iris; _palma Christi_, into ricinus; _our
master wort_, into imperatoria; _sweet bay_, into laurus; _our lady’s
smock_, into cardamine; _Solomon’s seal_, into convallaria; _our lady’s
hair_, into trichomanes; _balm_, into melissa; _marjorum_, into
origanum; _crowfoot_, into ranunculus; _herb Trinity_, into viola
tricolor; _avens_ into caryophyllata; _coltsfoot_, into tussilago; _knee
holy_, into rascus; _wormwood_, into absinthium; _rosemary_, into
rosmarinus; _marygold_, into calendula, and so on. Thus the ancient
names were not only changed, but in this change all the references to
religious subjects, which would have led people to a knowledge of their
culture among the monastic orders, were carefully left out. The THORN
APPLE, _datura stramonium_, is not a native of England; it was
introduced by the friars in early times of pilgrimage; and hence we see
it on old waste lands near abbeys, and on dunghills, &c. Modern
botanists, however, have ascribed its introduction to gipsies, although
it has never been seen among that wandering people, nor used by them as
a drug. I could adduce many other instances of the same sort. But vain
indeed would be the endeavour to overshadow the fame of the religious
orders in medical botany and the knowledge of plants; go into any garden
and the common name of _marygold_, _our lady’s seal_, _our lady’s
bedstraw_, _holy oak_, (corrupted into holyhock,) the _virgin’s
thistle_, _St. Barnaby’s thistle_, _herb Trinity_, _herb St.
Christopher_, _herb St. Robert_, _herb St. Timothy_, _Jacob’s ladder_,
_star of Bethlehem_, now called ornithogalum; _star of Jerusalem_, now
made goatsbeard; _passion flower_, now passiflora; _Lent lilly_, now
daffodil; _Canterbury bells_, (so called in honour of St. Augustine,) is
now made into Campanula; _cursed thistle_, now carduus; besides
_archangel_, _apple of Jerusalem_, _St. Paul’s betony_, _Basil_, _St.
Berbe_, _herb St. Barbara_, _bishopsweed_, _herba Christi_, _herba
Benedict_, _herb St. Margaret_, (erroneously converted into _la belle
Marguerite_,) _god’s flower_, flos Jovis, _Job’s tears_, _our lady’s
laces_, _our lady’s mantle_, _our lady’s slipper_, _monk’s hood_,
_friar’s cowl_, _St. Peter’s herb_, and a hundred more such.--Go into
any garden, I say, and these names will remind every one at once of the
knowledge of plants possessed by the monks. Most of them have been named
after the festivals and saints’ days on which their natural time of
blowing happened to occur; and others were so called, from the tendency
of the minds of the religious orders of those days to convert every
thing into a memento of sacred history, and the holy religion which they
embraced.”
It will be perceived that CRITO is a Catholic. His floral enumeration is
amusing and instructive; and as his bias is natural, so it ought to be
inoffensive. Liberality makes a large allowance for educational feelings
and habitual mistake; but deceptive views, false reasonings, and
perverted facts, cannot be used, by either Protestant or Catholic, with
impunity to himself, or avail to the cause he espouses.
* * * * *
Leo the XII., the present pope, on the 24th of May, 1824, put forth a
bull from St. Peter’s at Rome. “We have resolved,” he says, “by virtue
of the authority given to us by heaven fully to unlock the sacred
treasure composed of the merits, sufferings, and virtues of Christ our
Lord, and of his Virgin Mother, and of all the saints, which the author
of human salvation has intrusted to our dispensation. Let the earth
therefore hear the words of his mouth. We proclaim that the year of
Atonement and Pardon, of Redemption and Grace, of Remission and
Indulgence is arrived. We ordain and publish the most solemn Jubilee, to
commence in this holy city from the first vespers of the nativity of our
most holy saviour, Jesus Christ, next ensuing, and to continue during
the whole year 1825, during which time we mercifully give and grant in
the Lord a Plenary Indulgence, Remission, and Pardon of all their Sins
to all the Faithful of Christ of both sexes, truly penitent and
confessing their sins, and receiving the holy communion, who shall
devoutly visit the churches of blessed Peter and Paul, as also of St.
John Lateran and St. Mary Major of this city for thirty successive days,
provided they be Romans or inhabitants of this city; but, if pilgrims or
strangers, if they shall do the same for fifteen days, and shall pour
forth their pious prayers to God for the exaltation of the holy church,
the extirpation of heresies, concord of catholic princes, and the safety
and tranquillity of christian people.” The pope requires “all the earth”
to “therefore ascend, with loins girt up, to holy Jerusalem, this
priestly and royal city.”--He requires the clergy to explain “the power
of Indulgences, what is their efficacy, not only in the remission of the
canonical penance, but also of the temporal punishment,” and to point
out the succour afforded to those “now purifying in the fire of
Purgatory.” However, in February, 1825, one of the public journals
contains an extract from the French _Journal des Debats_, which states
that there was “a great falling off in the devotion of saints and
pilgrims,” and it proves this by an article from Rome, dated January 25,
1825, of which the following is a copy:
“The number of pilgrims drawn to Jerusalem (Rome) by the Jubilee is
remarkably small, compared with former Jubilees. Without adverting to
those of 1300 and 1350, when they had at least a _million_ of pilgrims;
in 1750, they had 1,300 pilgrims presented on the 24th of December, at
the opening of the holy gate. That number was increased to 8,400 before
the ensuing New Year’s day. This time (Christmas, 1824) they had no more
than thirty-six pilgrims at the opening of the holy gate, and in the
course of Christmas week, that number increased only to 440. This is
explained by the strict measures adopted in the Italian states with
respect to the passports of pilgrims. The police have taken into their
heads, that a vast number of individuals from all parts of Europe wish
to bring about some revolutionary plot. They believe that the
_Carbonari_, or some other Italian patriots, assemble here in crowds to
accomplish a dangerous object. The passports of simple labourers, and
other inferior classes, are rejected at Milan, and the surrounding
cities of Austrian Italy, when they have not a number of signatures,
which these poor men consider quite unnecessary. They cannot enter the
Sardinian states without great difficulty. These circumstances are
deplorable in the eyes of religious men. We are all grieved at this
place.”
On this, the _Journal des Debats_ remarks, “Notwithstanding the excuse
for so great a reduction of late years in the number of these devotees,
it has evidently been produced by the diffusion of knowledge. Men, in
1825, are not so simple as to suppose they cannot be saved, without a
long and painful journey to Jerusalem (Rome.)”
* * * * *