Dec. 3. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



545 



man was doubtless the cousin referred to in tbe 

 will of the elder Paget. It farther happens, that 

 Thomas Minshull, the grandfather of this Man- 

 chester apothecary, married a daughter of Gold- 

 smith of Nantwich. The John Goldsmith of the 

 Middle Temple would then doubtless be the 

 nephew or grand-nephew of this lady, and in 

 either case a cousin of Thomas Minshull of Man- 

 chester, and of Elizabeth Minshull of Wistaston. 

 This is another, if not a completing link in the 

 genealogical chain, and convinces me, now more 

 than ever, of the correctness of my conclusions. 



I may add that the whole of the deeds referred 

 to by Mr. Singkr are now in the safe and worthy 

 keeping of Mr. J. Fltchett Marsh, of Warrington; 

 and that they are published in extenso, together 

 with a valuable essay on their historical import- 

 ance by their present possessor, in the first volume 

 of Miscellanies issued by the Chetham Society. 



T. Hughes. 



ANTICIPATORY USE OF THE CROSS. 



(Vol. viii., pp. 132. 417.) 



I am not sure that any of your correspondents 

 have noticed the resemblance between the letter 

 T t, especially in some of its ancient forms, and 

 the form of the cross. In the Greek, Etruscan, 

 and Samaritan forms of this letter, we have re- 

 presentations of the three principal forms which 

 the cross has assumed : T, fj X. It is also re- 

 markable that in Ezekiel ix. 4. 6. : " Set a mark on 

 the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry," 

 &c., the word rendered "mark" is in (Tau), the 

 name of the Hebrew letter answering to the above : 

 and as the Samaritan alphabet, which the present 

 Hebrew characters have superseded, was then in 

 use, it is highly probable that the "mark" re- 

 ferred to in Ezekiel's vision was the Samaritan 

 Tau, as seen on ancient Hebrew shekels, resem- 

 bling a St. Andrew's cross. 



A circumstance relating to the Paschal sacrifice 

 mentioned by Justin Martyr, in his conference 

 with Trypho the Jew, and which he asserts with- 

 out contradiction from his learned opponent, is 

 worthy of a note : 



" This lamb, which was to be roasted whole, was a 

 symbol of the punishment of the cross, which was in- 

 flicted on Christ, To yap otttoimvov irpoParov, k. t. \, 

 For the lamb which was roasted was so placed as to 

 resemble the figure of a cross ; with one spit it was 

 pierced longitudinally, from the tail to the head; with 

 another it was transfixed through the shoulders, so that 

 the forelegs became extended." — Vid. Just. Martyri 

 Opera, edit. Obcrther, vol. ii. p. 106. 



Your correspondent H. N. appears to have 

 fallen into several errors, which (having appeared 

 in "Jj^. & Q.") ought not to pass unnoticed. 



1. He confounds the basilica with the cruciform 



cathedral, and with " the plan of the Roman 

 forum." 



Basilica (from Gr. BcutiMk^, a royal dwelling) 

 was the name given by the Romans to those 

 public edifices in which justice was administered 

 and mercantile business transacted. Several of 

 these buildings, or the remains of them, still exist 

 in Rome, each forum probably having bad its 

 basilica. Vitruvius, who constructed one at 

 Fanum, says it ought to he built " on the warm 

 side of the forum, that those whose affairs call 

 them thither might confer without being incom- 

 moded by the weather." Yet H. N. says : "The 

 basilica seems to have originally been the archi- 

 tectural plan of the Roman forum." The most 

 perfect specimen of the antique basilica is that 

 discovered at Pompeii, on the south side of the 

 forum and at right angles with it. By consulting 

 a good plan of Pompeii, or glancing at a plan of 

 its basilica, any one may see that it was not cruci- 

 form, but " In the form of a long parallelogram," 

 with a central .space and side porticoes, answering 

 to the nave and aisles of a church. The early 

 Christians adopted the basilica form for their 

 churches : those built in the form of a Greek or 

 Latin cross are of much later date. Yet H. N.'s 

 learned friend exclaims, when viewing the temple 

 of Muttra, " Here is the cross ! the basilica car- 

 ried out with more correctness of order and 

 symmetry than In Italy ! " 



2. II. N. assumes that the Jews practised 

 crucifixion as a punishment, and "may have imi- 

 tated the Assyrians, as crucifixion may have been 

 adopted long before that of Christ and the two 

 thieves (Qy. robbers)." Crucifixion appears to 

 have been in use from a very remote pei-Iod, but 

 was never adopted by the Jews. The Romans, 

 who with all their greatness were an atrociously 

 cruel people, employed it as the peculiar and 

 appropriate punishment of delinquent slaves. 

 Christ was " crucified under Pontius Pilate," the 

 Roman Procurator of Judea, at a time when that 

 country had become subject to the Romans, and 

 its rulers could say, "It is not lawful for us to 

 put any man to death." 



3. When H. N. refers to " the advocates of 

 conversion and their itinerant agents," it is diffi- 

 cult to perceive exactly what he intends, except 

 " to hint a fault and hesitate dislike." But before 

 a writer undertakes to cast a reflection on those 

 great societies who have been labouring — not by 

 coercion, but by instruction and persuasion, by 

 the circulation of the scriptures and the preaching 

 of the Gospel — to substitute Christianity for 

 idolatry among those who are under the govern- 

 ment of Great Britain, he should well understand 

 the grounds of his censures, so as to be able " to 

 explain to the converslonlsts that, unless this doc- 

 trine be openly refuted, the missionaries may in 

 truth be fighting their own shadow." 



