Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/438

362 Temple Church in London," a seal of circular form, with the device of the Holy Lamb, as on the relic found at Bristol, with the legend ✠ . On Certain documents the seal of the order is found, the device being tho liead of a man with a long beard and a small cap: the legend is,.

"The Agnus was doubtless a device regarded with special veneration, and probably considered to possess certain talismanic or physical virtues. The Agni of wax, blessed by the Pope, and formed from the Paschal candle, to be presented by the Holy Father with great solemnity, as related in the "Ordo Romanus," were treasured as efficacious against evil spirits, pestilent infection, tempests, fire, and sudden death. Matthew Paris, relating that the church of St. Alban's was twice set on fire, in the time of Abbot John de Hertford, about 1235, deplores the want of wonted efficacy of the Agnus of wax blessed by the Pope, which had been placed on the summit of the tower. Several examples are known of small boxes or ornamental capsules, in which the hallowed relic was preserved, and worn by the faithful.

"It should appear that besides the "impressio Papalis cerea in qua Agnus Dei figuratur," prepared at Rome with so much solemnity, there were other objects bearing the same device, and made in our own country or elsewhere, by special permission of the Holy Father. In 1773 a round matrix was found near Shaftsbury Abbey, and exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries: it was supposed to have been used for fashioning such sacred objects. By a statute of Henry VIII., such seals, or their impressions, subjected the possessor to the penalties of premunire for the first offence. For the second the offender was accounted guilty of high treason."

The remarked that he had a similiar matrix brought him about forty years ago at Newport, and it was probably of the thirteenth century. It is figured above.