and "abbot counts," upon whom the sovereign
had bestowed certain abbeys, for which they were obliged to render
military service, as for common fiefs. In the time of Charles the Bald
many of the nobility in France were abbots, having a dean to officiate
for them. Thus, too, in Scotland, James Stuart, the natural son of
James V., was, at the time of the Reformation, Prior of St. Andrew's,
although a secular person. The Earl of Kilmorey, who is impropriator of
the tithes of St. Mary, Newry, is a lay abbot, or representative of the
preceding abbots of a Cistertian Abbey which formerly existed in that
town. His abbatial functions, however, are confined to convening
ecclesiastical courts, and granting probates of wills, and licenses for
marriages, subject only to the metropolitan jurisdiction of the
Archbishop of Armagh. A remnant of the secularisation of ecclesiastical
dignities has already been noticed in our pages (Vol. ii., pp. 447.
500.), in the case of the late Duke of York, who was at the same time
Commander-in-chief and Bishop of Osnaburg.]

* * * * *

Replies.

SIR BALTHAZAR GERBIER.

(Vol. ii., p. 375.)

Your correspondent J. MT. has great reason to congratulate himself on the
possession of the singularly curious tract which he describes, and which
gives an autobiography of this extraordinary adventurer. I am not aware of
any other copy in any public or private collection. I have a 4to. tract in
nineteen pages, evidently printed abroad, the title of which is--

"Balthazar Gerbier, Knight,
to
All Men that love Truth."

{305}

This gives a very interesting life of him by himself, perfectly distinct
from, and containing many particulars not given in the tract possessed by
your correspondent, which also contains matter not in the above. I have
likewise another tract, privately printed in Holland in English, French,
and Dutch, in fifteen pages 12mo., the English title to which is--

"A true Manifest,
By S^r B. Gerbier.
Anno
1653."

In this, which gives some curious particulars as to "Mr. Hughe Peeters,"
and the book entitled _The Nonsuch Charles_, he refers to another "little
manifest" published on the 2nd day of October, 1652, "that the world might
take notice that he was not at all invested with any foreigne engagement."
Of the tract so referred to, I regret to say no copy is known. None of the
other three tract