Old English here... Mumpsimus- A Middle English noun denoting an incorrigible, dogmatic old pedant- jokingly called a foolosopher.
Which grew to mean any incorrect opinon stubbornly clung to~ thus Mumpsimus was born. Mumpssimus was taken from the word sumpsimus a word incorrectly copied and read for years in mass by a lack-latin, an illiterate 15 th Century English Preacher. Upon being shown his error, this obstinate clergyman reportedly replied, " I will not change my old mumpsimus for your new sumpsimus." This attitude was often ridiculed by French writer Michel Montaigne, who elegantly wrote of a common human blind spot, " I never met a man who thought his thinking was faulty." There are many songs that mocked theological arrogance.
The 18th Century lampoon: "The Deist" became very popular because it ridiculed theological arrogance.
The Deist:
Religion's a political law,
Devised by the prigs of the schools,
To keep the rabble in awe,
And amuse poor bigoted fools.
And they for good victuals and bub [drink]
Will bellow their nonsense aloud
And cant out a tale of a tub
To frighten the poor ignorant crowd.
Yet he vouches it to be true;
And that Eve was made of a rib,
Pray, gentlemen, what think you?
I pity the flogging old shaver,
Who pretends he does miracles show,
And makes flesh and blood of a wafer
A baker had just made the dough.
A lawyer with the narrow mindedness of a mumpsimus was sometimes called a jurisprude. Go figure.. even today the beat goes on.
X.