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ing the coins of Agrippa, which are still extant. It is a fact well 

 known, that the arts declined from the reign of Adrian, and were not 

 revived till the age of Leo X, As this beautiful medal is known to 

 have existed before the latter aera, it is probable it existed before the 

 former also, since there is no good medal extant, which is ascertained 

 to be the production of the intervening dark period. 



With respect to their use, and the purposes for which they were 

 made, authors are as much divided as on the date of their origin. 

 They must however have been intended either for circulating coins ; 

 for medals to commemorate some interesting event ; for reliques to 

 gratify pious credulity ; or for amulets or charms to protect the wearer 

 against injury or misfortune. Of these opinions Leusden adopts the 

 first, Morinus the second, and Wagenseil the third. But whatever 

 might have been their origin, there is strong evidence to suppose, 

 that they were very generally applied to the fourth purpose. The 

 following passage occurs in a French work entitled, " Pratiques 

 Superstitieuses," printed in the year 1700. " Les Chretiens succom- 

 berent bientot a la tentation d'user semblables moyens, pour prevenir 

 ou guerir les maladies. Des le second siecle, on voit en usage des 

 Talismans, c'est a dire, des petites fig; ires ou des images graves sur 

 du metal qu'on portoit sur soi — On trouve des Talismans, avec le 

 noms de Jesu Christ," &c.* — It is highly probable, that many of 

 these medals were made, and most of them used for a similar pur- 

 pose, in the early and middle ages. In the time of Wagenseil, they 

 were suspended from children's necks ; like the " Agnus Dei," which 



* The Abraxas or Abrasax of the Basiliens, an heretic sect of Christians of the second cen- 

 tury, were of this kind : small medals containing different mysterious figures and obscure 

 inscriptions in different languages. One is preserved by Baronius, in his voluminous Eccle- 

 siastical History. It is the fignre of a man surrounded by letters in the Greek character, to 

 which Baronius gives a variety of mysterious interpretations. Similar medals are mentioned by 

 Chifflet and Montfaucon. On one of the latter is the figure of the patriarch Abraham. 



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