Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/148

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118 NOTES AND QUERIES. f i2ax.E.n.m*. in the nimbus, (2} the inscription ajb the base, and (3) the " twisted " fingers. 1. I should think that, if he carefully examines the three letters, " Omega," " Omicron " and " Eta " as he calls them, he will find that peculiar dash like the top of a T not only over the " Omega " but also over the " Eta." In the latter case, how- ever, there would be no truncated T stem. The " Omicron " very probably has a slight dash carried on directly from its apex. This being so, we evidently have before us letters from the Cyrillic form of the old Slavonic alphabet (i.e., the Greek liturgical uncial form adopted by the Russian Orthodox Church). The " Eta " must be an N in the Russian form H. The dashes denote contraction. The " Omi- cron " as I read it would be in reality a Gamma and Delta combined and would stand for Gospod = the Lord. The " Omega " would stand for Otietz = ihe Father. The H would stand for nash = our. The whole would mean " The Lord our Father." 2. The inscription at the base of the icon cannot mean " Where is the Almighty ? " Such an inscription would be inadmissible in a Russian icon. That first word is again, I should think, a con- tracted form of Gospod, an accent being added as generally after consonants. It is not gdie, meaning where. " The Lord Almighty " would then be the reading. 3. The Orthodox sign of the cross is made on the forehead with the thumb (God), the first finger (Son) and the second (Holy Ghost) joined together. The followers of the Old Rite make this sign with the thumb and third finger joined together, the first two more or less rigid, and the fourth bent. VALENTINE J. O'HABA. National Liberal Club, London. THE PAPAL TRIPLE CROWN (12 S. x. 92). GENERAL LAMBARDE will find practically all the evidence available .on this subject sum- marized in the article ' Tiara,' in the ' Catholic Encyclopedia,' which article is from the pen of the Rev. Joseph Braun, S. J. The tiara took its rise in a head-dress of white stuff shaped like a helmet and called the camdaucum. This was worn by the Pope as early as the beginning of the eighth century, as appears from the biography of Pope Constantino I. (708-15), in the ' Liber Pontificalis.' This camelaucum or phrygium probably received the first crown .at the time when the mitre developed from the tiara, perhaps in the tenth century, in order to distinguish the mitre and tiara from each other ; j in any case, the latter was provided with a circlet j about 1130. During the pontificate of Boniface j VIII. (1294-1303), a second crown was added to I the former one. . . . What led Boniface VIII. to make this change, whether merely love of pomp, or whether he desired to express by the tiara with two crowns his opinions concerning the ! double papal authority, cannot be determined. His effigy above his tomb in the crypt of i St. Peter's wears a sugar-loaf -shaped camelau- surrounded by two crowns. The first notice of three crowns is con- | tained in an inventory of the papal treasure of the year 1315 or 1316. The tomb of the successor of Boniface, Blessed Benedict XL (1303-4), at Perugia shows a tiara with one 1 crown only. The tomb of John XXII. (1316-1334) at Avignon shows a tiara with two crowns : but his successor, Benedict XII. i (1334-1342), had an effigy with three crowns, I the remains of which are preserved in the j museum at Avignon. The addition of the third crown is often ! erroneously attributed to Blessed Urban V. (1362-1370). No reason for the assumption of the third crown has been forthcoming ; and in fact some subsequent Popes down to the close of the fifteenth century are re- presented with two crowns only. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. FREEDOM OF A CITY (12 S. ix. 489; x. 55, 97). My grandfather's great-grandfather, John Wainewright, at the beginning of 1751 lent the mayor and burgesses of the Borough of Nottingham the sum of 400 at 4 per cent., and on Sept. 19, 1752, he was made a burgess j of that town gratis (' Records of the Borough I of Nottingham.' vol. vi., pp. 239, 247, 348). JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. AUTHORS WANTED (12 S. x. 72). 1. The lines on the statuette of a goat climbing a vine, " Eat, goat, and live ; The fruitful vine Will ever yield Enough of wine," would certainly seem to have been suggested by the couplet in the ' Fasti,' i. 357-8, " Rode, caper, vitem : tamen hinc cum stabis ad aram, In tua quod spargi cornua possit erit," or by one or other of the two epigrams in the ' Palatine Anthology,' to one of which Ovid appears to have been indebted in the lines just quoted : rl pifav, #ucos ert u <rol, rpdye, 6vouevcf. (' Anth. Pal.,' ix. 75), by Evenus of Ascalon, and Ep. 99 of the same book, by Leonidas of Taren- tum. EDWARD BENSLY.