sed vide interim, ut Christo liberatori servias in sanctitate et justitia coram ipso omnibus diebus tuis."

Our indefatigable Hon. Secretary, Mr. W. de G. Birch, has contributed a paper, "On Two Anglo-Saxon MSS. in the British Museum," to the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature (vol. xi, New Series), from which some further interesting illustrations of the present Roll may be obtained; for in the first of the two MSS. (Titus, D. xxvi) the third article treats "De Mensura Salvatoris." It is as follows:

"Hæc figura sedecies multiplicata perficit mensuram domini nostri ihesu Christi corporis & est assumpta a liguo pretioso dominice. Crux Christi de . iiijor. lignis facta est. qui vocantur cipressus. & cedrus & pinus & buxus. Sed buxus non fuit in cruce nisi tabula de illo ligno super frontem Christi fuerat in qua conscriptum judei illud titulum habuerunt. Hic est rex judeorum."

The words "Hæc figura" imply that the scribe had intended to add a figure of the cross itself. He has, however, omitted to do so. Mr. Birch supplies such a representation from the Harleian Roll, 43, A. 14,—“ a narrow roll of paper containing a drawing of a cross, with the following lines below it in English of the fifteenth century." The text of the Roll is as follows:

This cross xv tymys metyn ys ye lenght of oure lord Ihu criste. And yt day yt y" beryst it vpon ye or lokest yer vpon y" shalt haue yese gret giftes yt folowyth. The furst is y" schalt die no soden deth. The seconde is y" schalt not be hurte nor slayne w no maner of wepyn. The iijd is y" shalt haue reasonabull godis & helth vnto y lyuys ende. The iiijth is yyne enmys shalle neuer ouyr com ye. The vth is no maner of preson nor fals wytnes shall' neuyr greue ye. The vith is y" shalt not die wtoute the sacramenttes of the chirche. The viith is y" schalt be defended from all maner of wykkid spryttes tribulacons & dissesis & from all' infirmitees & sekenis of ye pestilence. The viijth is yf a woman be in travell' of childe lay yis vpon her womb and ye childe schall haue cristindom & ye moder schall' haue purificacōn ffor Seynt Cerice and Seynt Julitt his moder desired yise graciouse gyftis of God which he grauntid vn to yem and yis is regestird on Rome.

"Salue decus parvulorum
Miles Regis Angelorum.

1 By an error of the original scribe the article is entitled "De Mensiu Salvatoris."

"O cerice cum beata Julitta. christus et marianos saluet in hora mortis nostre. Amen.

'Preciosa est in conspectu Dei mors sanctorum eius. "Deus qui gloriosis martiribus", etc.

The special interest of these three manuscripts lies in the circumstance that the stature of our Blessed Lord forms the main feature of the charm or amulet. In the paper on the measure of the wound in the side of Our Lord, already referred to, we have had a remarkable example of a once popular amulet. Here is another example of an analogous nature. I had thought it not unlikely that these manuscripts might represent a current tradition as to the height of our Redeemer, but whether the scribe who copied the Hearne MS. was careless or indifferent, or ignorant of any such tradition, cannot now be determined. The three manuscripts under consideration give the following results :

―

In British Museum MS., Titus D, xxvi, the cross depicted is about 5 ins. in length-15 times 5 ins. 6 ft. 3 ins. In Hearne's manuscript the cross measures about 42 ins.

-15 times 4 ins. 5 ft. 103 ins.; whilst in the Magical Roll now printed (British Museum, Rot. Harl. T, 11) the cross measures 15 times 5 ins. 6 ft. 3 ins., as in the first instance.

Western tradition generally represents Our Lord as being of commanding stature. The Letter of Lentulus, a late mediæval forgery,' says of the Redeemer: "He is a man of lofty stature, handsome, having a venerable countenance, which the beholders can both see and fear.... In stature of body, He is tall." Didron, in his Christian Iconography, gives the Latin text: "Vir est altæ staturæ proportionate......Protracta statura corporis."

St. John of Damascus, a writer of the eighth century, says, "Trium forte cubitorum magnitudine

præstanti

statura." Mrs. Jameson quotes part of the passage, but gives no exact reference.

The legend of S. Anschaire, Archbishop of Hamburg

1 B. Harris Cowper, The Apocryphal Gospels, 221, 222, 2nd edition.

2 Didron, i, 247, from Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus.

3 Didron, i, 248, quoting St. John Damasc., Opera, i, 630, 631. 4 History of Our Lord, i, 35.

5 Didron, i, 248.

and Bremen, in the ninth century, describing a vision of the Person of the Lord, speaks of Him as "statura procerus".

In my paper on the measure of the wound in the side of the Redeemer1 will be found a short account of the Sindon Taurinensis, and of the Sindon Vesontina, where it said:

"Staturam corporis Christi, a vertice ad calcem usque, in Sudario Vesontino reperi sex pedum geometricorum, tribus digitis minus; seu, quod eodem recidit, quinque pedum et trium quartarum unius pedis, duodenum enim digitorum, ut solet, pedem mathematicum facio."2

At the Church of San Stefano, at Bologna, in the Confessio, "one of the pillars professes to give the exact height of our Saviour".

Our Magical Roll brings comfort to the sleepless; they have but to write out the names Beatorum Dormiencium, and place the scroll beneath their heads, to ensure repose.

The devotion to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus is scarcely so familiar to English readers as that to the Three Kings of Cologne. All are aware that

"Caspar brings myrrh; Melchior, incense; Balthasar, gold. Whoever carries these three names about with him will, through Christ, be free from the falling sickness."4

Everyone who has visited the magnificent Cathedral at Cologne has seen the Shrine of the Three Kings, still well worthy of minute examination, though it has lost many of its most precious gems.

Perhaps it may be as well to add a few particulars about the singular legend of the Seven Sleepers, found in most Lives of the Saints.

During the persecution under the Emperor Decius there lived in the City of Ephesus seven young men who were Christians: their names were Maximinian, Malchus, Marcian, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine. As they refused to offer sacrifice to the idols, they were accused before the tribunal; but they fled, and escaped

66

1 Journal Brit. Arch. Assoc., xxx, 363.

2 Quaresmius, Historia Theologica ac Moralis Terræ Sanctæ Elucidatio, 532.

3 Murray's Handbook of North Italy.

4 Ennemoser's History of Magic, ii, 95. (Tiedeman, 102.)

to Mount Coelian, where they hid themselves in a cave. Being discovered, the tyrant ordered that they should roll great stones to the mouth of the cavern, in order that they might die of hunger. They, embracing each other, fell asleep."

Their slumbers lasted till the thirtieth year of the reign of the Emperor Theodosius, when the cavern was discovered by an inhabitant of Ephesus. The Sleepers were aroused. They thought that their slumbers had lasted but a single night. They despatch one of their number, Malchus, to the city to buy food. He offers to the baker, in payment for his loaves, a coin of Decius. The citizens think that Malchus has discovered some hoarded treasure, and they take him to the Bishop, to whom he relates his story. Theodosius himself hastens to the cave, where one of the Sleepers exhorts him, saying, “We have been raised, O Emperor, that thou mightest believe in the Resurrection of the dead." Having uttered these words, they expired. They had slept 196 years.

It is a wide-spread legend, found in the whole of Western Christendom, in Abyssinia, in Scandinavia. Mahomet, it is said, introduces it into the Koran.

The Seven Sleepers are found in the Museum Victorium at Rome, on an engraved gem (une pierre qui ressemble assez à une pierre précieuse). Each has his name, and an accompanying symbol: John and Constantine have each a club, Malchus and Marcian an axe, Denis a large nail, Serapion a torch, and Maximinian a knotted club. Mrs. Jameson suggests that these may be intended for implements used in their respective trades: the story will not allow them to be instruments of their martyrdom.

Varying versions of the legend will be found in Mr. Baring Gould's Lives of the Saints. There are sometimes. eight sleepers, and their sleep lasts over 372 years. Photius calls them Maximilian, Jamblicus, Martin, Dionysius, Exacustodian, Antoninus, and John. Names given by other narrators are Dianus, Melito, Diomed.

1 Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, ii, 581.

2 Les Petits Bollandistes, July 27.

3 Mr. Baring Gould describes this "pierre" as a "curious cast of sulphur and plaster."

King Edward the Confessor, one Easter Day, musing in his palace at Westminster, saw the Seven Sleepers, who for two hundred years had been lying on their right sides, in a cavern of Mount Celion, suddenly turn to their left sides: they would so lie, he said, seventy-four years-years of war, pestilence, and famine. Earl Harold sent a messenger to ascertain the truth of this vision, who, being admitted to the cave, found them lying as the King had said. Hence it is, I suppose, that the Seven Sleepers are represented on the frieze of the Chapel of Edward the Confessor at Westminster.

They are commemorated in the Sarum Breviary by three lessons and the following Collect :

Oratio. Deus qui gloriosos resurrectionis æternæ præcones septem dormientes magnifice coronasti: præsta, quæsumus, ut eorum precibus resurrectionem sanctam, quæ in eis mirabiliter præostensa est, consequamur. Per Dominum."

"Seincte Cyriac and Seinct Julite", whose names appear in the Roll, are to be found in the Martyrologies.

S. Cyriac was a Deacon of Rome, martyred under Diocletian.1 "S. Cyriaque, Diacre, et ses compagnons...... transférés par saint Marcellin, Pape, dans le champ de Lucine sur la voie d'Ostie."2

S. Julitta, a wealthy lady, was martyred at Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, about the year 303. S. Basil pronounced a homily upon her circa 375.3 Her name occurs in a Litany in the Sarum Breviary.*

Unconnected with the Magical Roll, which forms the subject of this paper, but yet having a certain kindred interest, I venture to submit to the readers of this paper the following extracts, which I have taken from the Burleigh Papers in the British Museum."

1 Baring Gould, Lives of the Saints, August 8.

2 Les Petits Bollandistes. Alban Butler says that their bodies" were translated into a farm of the devout lady Lucina, on the Ostian Road, on the eighth day of August."

3 Baring Gould, Lives, July 30; but the Sarum Breviary gives June 16, and in another place July 15.

4 Brev. ad Usum Sarum. Fascic. ii, p. 257.

5 Lansdowne MS. 96, art. 44, f. 104,