In reply, I beg to remark that by "Socinian" is, I suppose, meant "Unitarian," for even the immediate converts of Socinus refused to be called Socinians, alleging that their belief was founded on the teaching of Jesus Christ; and modern Unitarians, disowning all human authority in religious matters, cannot take to themselves the name of Socinus. The distich, however, appears to have been in use among the Polish Unitarians shortly after the death of Faustus Socinus, as respectfully expressive of the exact effect which they conceived that he had produced in the religious world. Mr. Wallace, in his _Antitrinitarian Biography_, vol. iii. p. 323., states that it is "the epitaph said to have been inscribed on the tomb of Faustus Socinus." Mr. Wallace's authority for this assertion I have not been able to discover. Bock (_Hist. Antitrinitariorum_, vol. iii. p. 725.), whom Mr. Wallace generally follows, observes that the adherents of Faustus Socinus were accustomed to use these lines "respecting his decease," (qui de ejus obitu canere soliti sunt). This would seem to imply that the lines were composed not long after the death of Faustus Socinus. Probably they formed originally a part of poem written as a eulogy on him by some minister of the Unitarian church. The case would not be without a parallel. Three versions of the distich are before me; that cited by Dr. Pusey, and the two which follow:-- "Alta ruit Babylon; destruxit tecta Lutherus, Muros Calvinus, sed fundamenta Socinus." Fock, _Socinianismus_, vol. i. p. 180. "Tota ruet Babylon; destruxit tecta Lutherus, Muros Calvinus, sed fundamenta Socinus." Bock, _ut supra_. Which is the original? Bock's reading has the preference in my mind, because he is known to have founded his history on the results of his own personal investigations among the manuscripts as {484} well as the printed documents of the Polish Unitarian Churches. Besides, if, as there is reason to believe, the lines were composed shortly after the death of F. Socinus, _ruet_ (_will_ fall) would now correctly describe what, at so small a distance from the days of Luther and Calvin, may be supposed to have been the feeling among the Polish Unitarians; whereas Dr. Pusey's _jacet_ (lies low, in the _present_ tense) does as certainly partake somewhat of the grandiloquent. That no "boast," however, was intended, becomes probable, when we consider that the distich was designed to convey a feeling of reverence towards Socinus rather than an insult to Rome. JOHN R. BEARD. * * * * * REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.