338 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[294 S. No17., Aprin 26. °56. 
a 
vol. v. p. 87. cent. 6th, where Mr. Tuoms will 
find abundant references to authorities. 
Tt may, however, be questioned, whether the 
golden rose was “substituted” for the keys and 
the filings, as the letter from Rome, quoted in 
The Times, informs us. Lenfant, alluding to the 
acceptance of the golden rose by the Emperor 
Sigismond from John XXIII, adds that — 
“The canon lawyers have been at a great deal of pains 
to show us the origin of the Golden Rose. Theophilus 
Raynaud, who has treated of it expressly, says, that this 
is a very ancient custom in the Church, and that it is 
not easy to trace the antiquity of it, nor to discover who 
was the first author of it. Some say that it was insti- 
tuted in the fifth, others in the ninth century.” 
The former period would carry us a century, or 
more, higher than the time of Gregory. Lenfant 
gives a long account of the golden rose in his 
History of the Council of Constance, vol. ii. pp. 244, 
5. James Piccart, a canon of S. Victor, at Paris, 
in his Notes upon the History of England, written 
by William of Newbourgh, about the end of the 
twelfth century, gives us the extract of a letter 
from Alexander ITT. to Lewis, the young king of 
France, when he sent him the golden rose: 
“In imitation,” says this pope to the monarch, “ of 
the custom of our ancestors, who carried a rose of gold in 
their hands upon Letare Sunday (Mid-Lent), we thought 
we could not present it to any body who better deserved 
it than your Excellence, by reason of your extraordinary 
devotion to the Church and to ourselves.” 
The reader must bear in mind that the cele- 
brated Pragmatic Sanction was not then enacted. 
Andrew Du Chesne tells us that Pope Urban V., 
in 1368, gave the golden rose to Joan, Queen of 
Sicily, preferably to the King of Cyprus, who was 
at the ceremony of blessing it, and that from 
that time began the custom of sending such roses to 
queens and princesses, At first it was a religious 
ceremony, but in process of time it became an act 
of authority, by which popes, when they gave the 
oe rose to sovereigns, acknowledged them as 
such. 
Henry VIII. received the golden rose from 
Popes Julius II. and Leo X. Durandus enters 
minutely into the mystical character of the golden 
rose: 
“Rosa pre ceteris floribus colore delectat, odore re- 
creat, et sapore confortat, delectat in visu, recreat in 
olfactu, et confortat in gustu. Nempe Rosa in manu 
Romani Pontificis, gaudium Israelitici populi designat, 
quando per gratiam Christi data est illi de Babylonica 
captivitate licentia redeundi: — Deinde illa donatur nobi- 
liori et potentiori, qui tunc in Curia reperitur, in quo 
nobilitas et excellentia illius peculiaris populi Domini 
designatur...... Triplex autem est in hoe flore ma~- 
teria, aurum, videlicet, muscus et balsamum, quia triplex 
est in Christo substantia, deitas, corpus et anima.” —Ra- 
tionale Div. Off., lib. 6. cap. 53. n. 8. — 
where the subject, ‘‘ Rosa Aurea Pontificis Max- 
imi, quid significet” is treated of at large. Does 
_ the present pontiff anticipate that Napoleon IIL, 
pleased with the bauble, will follow the example 
of Francis I., and betray the liberties of the Gal- 
lican Church 2 
I trust that the readers of * N. & Q.” will at 
least not think that J have any veneration for the 
golden rose or the filings and the keys; but I have 
read their own account of this and other mummery, 
having long been convinced that to peruse popish 
books is the most efficient way of learning the 
follies and absurdities of Popery. Take, for ex- 
ample, the above passage from Durandus, and the 
letter and present of St. Gregory to the Empress 
Constantina ! E. C. Harrerton. 
The Close, Exeter. 
Mr. Toms asks, “ where can I find any ac- 
count of the ‘gold and silver keys,’ and ‘the 
pieces cut with a file from St. Peter’s chains,’ 
mentioned by the writer” (of a letter from Rome 
in the Debats) ? I answer, in the epistles of that 
illustrious doctor of the church, whose memory is, 
or ought to be, dear to every Englishman, St. 
Gregory the Great. In his letter to the Empress 
Constantina, who had begged some relics from 
him, that learned and zealous Roman pontiff says : 
“De catenis quas ipse sanctus Paulus Apostolus in 
collo et in manibus gestavit, ex quibus multa miracula in 
populo demonstrantur, partem aliquam vobis transmittere 
festinabo, si tamen hane tollere limando prvaluero ; 
quia dum frequenter ex catenis eisdem multi venientes 
benedictionem petunt, ut parvum quid ex limatura acci- 
piant, assistit sacerdos cum lima, et aliquibus petentibus 
ita concite aliquid de catenis ipsis excutitur, ut mora 
nulla sit. Quibusdam vero petentibus, diu per catenas 
ipsas ducitur lima, et tamen ut aliquid exinde exeat, non 
obtinetur.” — $8. Gregorii Pape Op. ii. 711., Parisiis, 1705. 
In a letter to Dynamins, the patrician, acknow- 
ledging the receipt of some money, the same holy 
pontiff adds : 
“Transmisimus autem beati Petri Apostoli benedic- 
tionem, crucem parvulam, cui de catenis ejus beneficia 
sunt inserta. Que illius quidem ad tempus ligaverunt 
sed vestra colla in perpetuum a peccatis solvant.” — Jb., 
p. 648. 
Writing to King Childebert, St. Gregory tells 
him: 
“Claves preeterea sancti Petri, in quibus de vinculis 
catenarum ejus inclusum est, Excellentiw vestre direxi- 
mus, que collo vestro suspense, & malis vos omnibus 
tueantur.” — Jb. p. 796. 
Another of such keys the same pope sends to 
Richaredus King of the Visigoths, with these 
words : 
“Clavem vero parvulam & sacratissimo beati Petri 
Apostoli corpore vobis pro ejus benedictione transmisimus, 
in qua inest ferrum de catenis ejus inclusum.” — Jb., 
p 1031. 
That such keys were often at least, if not al- 
ways, of gold we learn by a passage of a letter 
from the same pontiff to the patrician Theoctista, 
(tb. p. 872.) too long to be quoted here. Pope Vi- 
talian, in his letter, a.v. 667, to the Northumbrian 
