Cromwell’s hellfire foe
QUESTION In 1650, Scots preacher Zachary Boyd accused Oliver Cromwell to his face of being a ‘sectary and blasphemer’. What became of him? Zacharias (Zachary) Boyd (c1585-1653) was educated i n Kilmarnock before attending Glasgow in 1601 and then studying at st andrews University (16031607). he graduated with an Ma.
From there he went to France and became a student at the great University of saumur where his cousin was Professor of Divinity. he remained in France for 14 years, r eturning i n 1623 f ollowing persecution of protestants.
he became Minister of the Barony of Glasgow and held that position until his death. Boyd was heavily involved in the religious politics of his time and wrote many sermons, scriptural poems and other devotional works.
he met charles i the day after his coronation at holyrood i n 1633 and wrote a Latin ode f or t he King’s coronation which he delivered on the steps of the palace. he later became a committed covenanter.
When Oliver cromwell came to Glasgow in autumn 1650 as the leader of the Parliamentarian army, there was a general state of alarm among ministers and magistrates following the defeat of the covenanters at Dunbar.
cromwell arrived in the city and sent out an order that on sunday there was to be no preaching in the pulpits, but Zachary Boyd wasn’t one to quail before cromwell and determined to fulfil the services of the day.
cromwell attended the service in the Barony church, accompanied by a detachment of his troops just as the fiery Boyd was sermonising about ‘ram and the he- goat as they appeared unto Daniel’. he called cromwell a ‘sectary’ (a member of a s ect or cult) and a blasphemer. By one account, John Thurloe, cromwell’s secretary, offered to shoot him on the spot.
cromwell responded by inviting Boyd to dinner and subjected him to three hours of prayer — and Boyd l eft his headquarters with a completely changed opinion of the ‘intruder’.
Boyd served as Dean of Faculties, rector and Vice-chancellor at the University of Glasgow in the 1630s and 1640s. On his death in 1653, his last will and testament left £20,000 and his books and manuscripts to the university. his manuscripts are in Glasgow University Library.
Alan Mills, Glasgow. QUESTION When was the term noman’s-land first used? Although this expression is most strongly associated with the trench warfare of World War i, it dates back to at least 1320 and perhaps even earlier.
The Oxford English Dictionary cites the term ‘nones-manneslond’ being used to describe a patch of land over which there was a legal disagreement.
Over the years the term has been used for a number of purposes, including the name of an area outside the north wall of the city of London where executions were carried out, and to describe part of the forecastle of a ship where ropes and tackle were stored. at the outbreak of World War i, the term wasn’t widely used in the army. in the early days of the war the phrases ‘ between the trenches’ and ‘ between the l i nes’ were the ones commonly used and approved.
The first known use in relation to trench warfare was by soldier and author Ernest swinton, who employed it in his short story The Point Of View.
he also used it in his correspondence from the Western Front, especially in relation to the ‘race to the sea’ in which the British and Germans attempted to outflank each other before either side could get to the natural barrier of the English channel. The failure to achieve a decisive result in this race was what condemned the warring nations to four years of trench warfare.
The christmas Truce of 1914 brought the term to popular attention, and after that, it was increasingly used in official communiques, news reports and personal correspondence.
There is no defined width to no-man’sland. During World War i it could be as much as several hundred yards or, on occasions, as little as ten yards.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton. QUESTION Chinese Communists once promoted chicken-blood therapy. Did it work? Further to the earlier answer, there is a modern-type of chicken blood therapy that appears to work i n knees with osteoarthritis, where normal joint fluid becomes thin and inflexible, losing its cushioning properties.
a similar situation might occur in acute knee i njury. a critical substance in synovial fluid known as hyaluronic acid breaks down, and the loss of hyaluronic acid appears to contribute to joint pain and stiffness.
a treatment that is gaining favour is the injection of compounds containing hyaluronic acid directly into the joint. Patients often refer to the series of injections as ‘chicken shots’ because the injected fluid is extracted from the combs on the back of chickens’ heads.
Dan Rogers, Sheffield.