June 30. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



507 



cution of all such sentences, for bonnie King 

 Jamie was very greedy of escheats. The culprits 

 had been of the rank of gentlemen, or they would 

 have been hanged. Anon. 



The origin and purposes of crosses erected by 

 way-sides have been explained as follows. In a 

 treatise on the Ten Commandments, entitled Dives 

 et Pauper, printed at Westminster by Wynken de 

 Worde, a. d. 1496, the real and pious object for 

 erecting the cross by the road-side is thus ex- 

 pressively assigned : 



" For this reason ben crosses by ye waye, that whan 

 folke passynge seethe crosses theysholde thynke on Hym 

 that deyed on the crosse, and worshyppe Hym above all 

 thynge." 



From the earliest ages of Christianity the cross 

 has very naturally been made the emblem of our 

 holy faith. It was the private mark or signal by 

 •which the Christians used to distinguish each other 

 among their Pagan adversaries during the times 

 of persecution, as it was afterwards their public 

 emblem when their danger became less imminent ; 

 and it is yet the sign with which all Christian 

 churches, however widely differing in other re- 

 spects, mark those who are admitted to the benefits 

 of baptism. Wherever the gospel was first 

 spread, a pious care caused crosses to be erected 

 as standards, around which the faithful might 

 assemble the more conveniently to hear the divine 

 truths inculcated, and by degrees those symbols 

 were fixed in every place of public resort. Every 

 town had its cross, at which engagements, whether 

 of a religious or worldly interest, were entered 

 into. Every churchyard had one, whereon to 

 rest the bodies of the deceased, from which the 

 preacher gave his lessons upon the mutability of 

 life. At the turning of every public road was 

 placed a cross for the two-fold purposes of rest 

 for the bearers of the pious defunct, and for re- 

 minding travellers of the Saviour who died for 

 their salvation. The boundaries of every parish 

 were distinguished by crosses, at which, during 

 the ancient perambulations, the people alternately 

 prayed and regaled themselves. Every grant 

 from sovereigns or nobles, every engagement be- 

 tween individuals, was alike marked with the 

 cross; and in all cases their emblem alone was 

 deemed an efficient substitute for the subscription 

 of a name (Brady's Clavis Calendaria, vol. i. 

 p. 359.). Crosses, in short, were multiplied by 

 every means which the ingenuity of man could 

 invent, and the people were thus kept in constant 

 remembrance, both at home and on their journeys, 

 as well as in every transaction of their lives, of 

 the foundation of the Christian faith. {Tb. 361.) 



I am unable to say whether any, and if any, 

 what service was used at the crosses. Brady says 

 that from the churchyard cross the preacher gave 



his lessons upon the mutability of life; but he 

 makes no reference to any authority for his state- 

 ment ; the practice probably continued till the 

 Reformation. In Devonshire many road-side 

 crosses still remain, and in that county, according 

 to the Ordnance map, there are one hundred and 

 thirty-five places called by the name of the cross, 

 either in the singular, or the plural, or connected 

 with some scriptural or local name, e. g. Cross 

 Crosses, Christ Cross, Peter's Cross, Mary Cross, 

 Alphington Cross, &c. J. G. 



Exon. 



THE TEMPLAES. 



(Vol. xi., pp. 407. 452.) 



The following extracts which have been taken 

 from the Exchequer Records of Ireland, relate to 

 the incarceration of the Templars in the Castle of 

 Dublin, and the seizure of their Irish estates : 



The king, by his writ, witnessed by himself at 

 Byflete, on December 20, anno primo, and directed 

 to John Wogan, his Justiciary of Ireland, and the 

 Treasurer of the Exchequer, states that he had 

 sent to them an ordinance made by him and his 

 council for certain reasons ; and that he had di- 

 rected execution to be made thereof upon the 

 Wednesday next after the feast of the Epiphany 

 next ensuing, and that he wishes execution to be 

 made in Ireland " cum omni celeritate qua com- 

 mode fieri poterit" and " antequam rumor a par- 

 tibus Anglie inde ad partes Hibernie poterit 

 pervenire." 



The ordinance Is set forth upon the record, and 

 its purport is, that all the friars of the order 

 "militie templi" in all the counties of England 

 should be attached by the sheriffs and other law- 

 ful men; and all their lands, tenements, goods, 

 and chattels, ecclesiastical and temporal, should 

 be seized for the king, together with their charters, 

 writings, and muniments ; that their cattle should 

 be kept, and their lands cultivated and sown ; 

 the bodies of the Templars safely, securely, and 

 honestly kept in a fit place, other than their own 

 places, but not " in dura et vili prisona," and that 

 their reasonable support be provided out of the 

 profits of their goods ; that the sheriffs should 

 make returns into the Exchequer of the number 

 and names of the Templars. The ordinance is 

 followed by a statement showing the manner in 

 which writs were sent to the several sheriffs by 

 clerks specially appointed for that purpose, the 

 sheriff's oath and the oath of the jurors, that they 

 should not reveal to any the contents of the writs. 

 And the king wishes, as he states, that all the 

 friars of that Order in Ireland should be attached 

 upon one certain day, and their lands, &c. seized ; 

 and a report of the proceedings made to the Ex- 



