Notes and Queries, Number 05, December 1, 1849Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 05, December 1, 1849
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
I am well acquainted with the medal described by Mr. Nightingale, and
can confirm his statement of the difficulties which numismatists have
experienced in attempting to explain the circumstances alluded to by
the lobster which is the badge of "the order of the pretended Prince of
Wales," and upon which, on the other side of the medal, Father Petre is
represented as riding with the young prince in his arms. Upon other
medals also the Jesuit appears carrying the prince, who is decorated, or
amusing himself, with a windmill. There is likewise a medal on which a
Jesuit is represented concealed within a closet or alter, and raising
or pushing up through the top the young prince to the view of the
people, while Truth is opening the door and exposing the imposition.
Similar representations of the Jesuit's interference occur upon
caricatures and satirical prints executed in Holland. Upon one,
entitled, "Arlequin sur l'Hippogryphe, a la croisade Lojoliste," the
lobster, on which the Jesuit is mounted, carries a book in each claw;
the young prince's head is decorated with a windmill. All these intimate
the influence of Father Petre upon the proceedings of James II, and of
the Jesuits in general in the imposition, as was by many supposed, of
the pretended prince. The imputation upon the legitimacy of the young
child was occasioned in a great degree, and almost justified, by the
pilgrimages and superstitious fooleries of his grandmother, increased by
his mother's choosing St. Francis Xavier as one of her ecclesiastical
patrons, and with her family attributing the birth of the prince to his
miraculous interference. This may have provoked the opposers of popery
to take every means of satirising the Jesuits; and the following
circumstances related in the _Life of Xavier_ probably suggested the
idea of making the lobster one of the symbols of the superstitions and
impositions of the Jesuits, and a means of discrediting the birth of the
prince by ridiculing the community by whose impositions they asserted
the fraud to have been contrived and executed.
The account is given by a Portuguese, called Fausto Rodriguez, who was a
witness of the fact, has deposed it upon oath, and whose juridical
testimony is in the process of the Saint's canonization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account