que aquesta lettra S. . . . La primera, sanctedat; sauiesa; sapiencia; senyoria; e moltes altres coses que per S principien."
Martorell may have invented this story, but we are
inclined to believe that he had heard or read an explanation
of the kind. Perhaps the story was current at
the time. Ashmole, too, had his curiosity aroused by
the letters on the collars, and remembers that he had
read or heard that there was once an organization called
the "Society of Saint Simplicius" and that the members
of that society used to wear collars with SS on them,
and these letters stood for Saint Simplicius. This saint
suffered martyrdom under Diocletian about 287 A.D.
All that Martorell has to say about the rules, ceremonies, initiation, ladies of honor and their vows, reveals that he knew a great deal about the Order. Where did he obtain his information? Was it through reading or through hearsay? In some respects his account resembles that of an eye-witness, yet in giving the names of members of the Order, Martorell was obliged to invent some, for the reason that he did not have enough English names at his command. Some of the names are purely Catalan, and this fact indicates that the account was not written in England, nor in Portugal, but very probably in Valencia; another argument in favor of the contention that Tirant lo Blanch was written originally in Catalan, and not in Portuguese.
- [Footnote: letter S. The first thing it stands for is sanctity; then sapience;
science; seigniory; and many other things that begin with S. Tirant lo Blanch, chaps. xcvi and xcvii.]
