Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature

Excerpt: ...translation of the early Christian ?Quod-vult-deus.? Grainger, in his ?History of England? (iii. 360, fifth edition), says- ?In Montfaucon's 'Diarium Italicum' (p. 270), is a sepulchral inscription of the year 396, upon Quod-vult-deus, a Christian, to which is a note: 'Hoc ævo non pauci erant qui piis sententiolis nomina propria concinnarent, v.g. Quod-vult-deus, Deogratias, Habet-deum, Adeodatus.'? Pg 136 Closland, or Crosland, the grandfather, was evidently a Puritan, with a horror of the Latin Vulgate, Latin Pope, and Latin everything. Hence the translation. Nevertheless, the Puritans seem to have favoured Latin names at first. It was a break between the familiar sound of the old and the oddity of the new. Redemptus was less grotesque than Redeemed, and Renata than Renewed. The English equivalents soon ruled supreme, but for a generation or two, and in some cases for a century, the Latin names went side by side with them. Take Renatus, for instance: ?1616, Sep. 29. Baptized Renatus, son of Renatus Byllett, gent.?-St. Columb Major. ?1637-8, Jan. 12. Order of Council to Renatus Edwards, girdler, to shut up his shop in Lombard Street, because he is not a goldsmith. ?1690, April 10. Petition of Renatus Palmer, who prays to be appointed surveyor in the port of Dartmouth.?-C. S. P. ?1659, Nov. 11. Baptized Renovata, the daughter of John Durance.?-Cant. Cath. It was Renatus Harris who built the organ in All-Hallows, Barking, in 1675 (?Hist. All-Hallows, Barking,? Maskell). Renatus and Rediviva occur in St. Matthew, Friday Street, circa 1590. Rediviva lingered into the eighteenth century: ?1735, --. Buried Rediviva Mathews.?-Banbury. Desiderata and Desiderius were being used at the Pg 137 close of Elizabeth's reign, and survived the restoration of Charles II.:...