144 



to be just: he asserts, (p. 115.) " I know somebody did think fit 

 " to stamp a fe>v," (scil. Hebrew coins,) " in Germany ; and that 

 " within this little lohile ; thus the medal of Jesus Christ, though 

 " perhaps made by some converted Jews, is one of these," &c. 

 These medals, thus fabricated " ivithin a little while," could be 

 only the copies of those, which, in the commencement of ;he sixteenth 

 century, are described as being so rare ; and they must have liad 

 some value attached to them, as charms or otherwise, or expense 

 would npt have been incurred in their imitation. The very discus- 

 sions that have taken place among the learned concerning them, de- 

 monstrate, that they have been considered by the disputants as being 

 curious, and also rare. In fine, it is quite manifest, from a passage in 

 Mnrinus, that those specimens, which Wagenseil saw in common use, 

 could not have been originals. He speaks of one of them as " ce- 

 " lebratus in gazophylacio Pontificio accurate conservatus, quare 

 " qui Pontifices ab omni errore tutos profitentur, vix possunt ejus 

 " sinceritatem in dubium revocare." From hence it follows clear- 

 ly, that, although the originals might have been possibly them- 

 selves the forgery of imposture, they could not be the same of which 

 AVagenseil speaks ; and tiiat the assertion which he makes con- 

 cerning them can only apply to the copy. 



The Vice Provost has permitted me to add an ingenious conjec- 

 ture, that he has made, relating to some cabalistic meaning, which 

 he supposes to be couched in the inscription. It contains two final 

 Mems, both of them " dilated, such as we find them made at the end 

 " of a line, in order to fill up space ; though here they are not at 

 " the end of lines, and consequently it could not have been for that 

 " purpose, that they were dilated. I think them, therefore," he says, 



