{116} Were there need of proving that these both lie in ‘beneficium’,
which there is not, for in Wiclif’s translation of the Bible the
distinction is still latent (1 Tim. vi. 2), one might adduce a
singularly characteristic little trait of Papal policy, which once
turned upon the double use of this word. Pope Adrian the Fourth
writing to the Emperor Frederic the First to complain of certain
conduct of his, reminded the Emperor that he had placed the
imperial crown upon his head, and would willingly have conferred
even greater ‘beneficia’ upon him than this. Had the word been
allowed to pass, it would no doubt have been afterwards appealed
to as an admission on the Emperor’s part, that he held the Empire
as a feud or fief (for ‘beneficium’ was then the technical word
for this, though the meaning had much narrowed since) from the
Pope--the very point in dispute between them. The word was
indignantly repelled by the Emperor and the whole German nation,
whereupon the Pope appealed to the etymology, that ‘beneficium’
was but ‘bonum factum’, and protested that he meant no more than
to remind the Emperor of the ‘benefits’ which he had done him, and
which he would have willingly multiplied still more. [‘Benefice’
from Latin _beneficium_, and ‘benefit’ from Latin _bene-factum_,
are here confused.]
{117} [‘Hoard’ (Anglo-Saxon _hord_) cannot be equated with ‘horde’ (from
Persian _órdú_).]
{118} [These words have been differentiated in comparatively modern
times. ‘Ingenuity’ was once used for ‘ingenuousness’.]
{119} [The words are really unconnected, ‘to gamble’ being ‘to gamle’ or
‘game’, and ‘to gambol’ being akin to French _gambiller_, to fling
up the legs (_gambes_ or _jambes_) like a frisking lamb.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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