VESTAL. 



VIADUCT. 



and dignified attitude and expression of a majestic and pun maiden, 

 with the attiro and veil of a matron, and holding in her hand a Meptre 

 or a lamp. 



(Hartung, Du Rdiyion ittr RUmer, ii., p. Ill, *<-. ; R. H. Klausen, 

 jgnmt *rf dir Ptmatn. ii., p. 624, Ac. ; Miiller, Arch, tier Ktuut, 

 | SS2 ; Hirt, tlyAohy. Bildtrbtu*. i., p. 70.) 



TA I. r Virgo vestalis," 4<rru(i), a priestess of the Roman deity 

 Ve*U. The number of these priestesses, according to the regulations 

 >f King Numa, was four, two for each of the ancient tribe*. Servius 

 Tullius, or. according to others, Tarquiniui Priscus, added two more, 

 to lepiesent the third tribe, or Lucerea. In the earliest times they 

 were chotm by the kings, but afterwards by the Pontifex Maximus, 

 who had the especial superintendence of everything connected with 

 the worship of Vesta. At first the selection seems to have been loft 

 to his discretion, but subsequently, whenever there was a vacancy in 

 the sisterhood, he drew by lot one out of twenty select virgins in the 

 assembly (in condone). It might happen that a parent offered his 

 daughter, though this seems to have been the case very rarely. 

 After the lot was drawn, the Pontifex took hold of the virgin, as if 

 she were a prisoner, and having pronounced a certain solemn formula, 

 he conducted her to the atrium of Vesta. Parents could only oppose 

 their daughter being thus taken from them and devoted to the service 

 of the goddess, in three cases : first, if one of her sisters was already a 

 vestal ; secondly, if the parent* had no more than three children ; and, 

 thirdly, if the father held one of certain high priestly offices. In these 

 cases parents were exempt from the obligation of allowing their daugh- 

 ter to become a priestess of Vesta. The conditions, on the other hand, 

 on which alone a virgin could be made a vestal were 1, that her 

 father was not carrying on a disreputable occupation ; 2, that her 

 parents were free and free-born, and settled in Italy ; 3, that both her 

 parents were alive; and, 4, that she was neither younger than six nor 

 older than ten years. From the moment that a vestal virgin was 

 chosen and taken to the atrium of Vesta, she was emancipated from 

 her father's power ; she required no patron in any court of justice, and 

 had the right to dispose of her property by testament ; and if she died 

 without having made a will, her property fell to the republic. A 

 vestal virgin, if once appointed, was obliged to serve the goddess for 

 thirty years. The first ten years were a period of noviciate, during 

 which they received instruction respecting the various duties that 

 they had to perform. Then followed ten years during which they 

 were allowed to perform all the functions of their office ; and during 

 the last ten years they instructed those who were going through their 

 apprenticeship. After the expiration of the thirty years they might, 

 if they liked, unconsecrate (exaugurare) themselves, and might marry. 

 This, however, happened very seldom : it was considered unlucky for 

 vestals to marry. The habits which they had acquired during their 

 priesthood generally induced them to continue in the service of their 

 goddess for life. These virgin priests enjoyed at Rome the highest 

 distinctions. When they went out a lictor walked before them ; 

 pnetora and consuls when they met them lowered the fasces, and any 

 criminal whom their eye caught sight of was immediately set free. In 

 the theatres honorary scats were set apart for them. Augustus how- 

 ever prohibited their being present at the athletic games. Nero, on 

 the other hand, abolished this law, and permitted them to be present, 

 on the ground that the priestesses of Ceres were allowed to be present 

 at the Olympic games. They bad an official residence on the Via 

 Sacra, and salaries derived from estates of the goddess, which wore 

 increased from time to time. A vestal virgin was considered to be of 

 the same rank as the Flamen Dialis, and in a court of justice she could 

 not be compelled to confirm her evidence by an oath. Their prayers 

 were believed to be of particular efficacy, and wills and important 

 documents were often intrusted to their keeping. They had also the 

 privilege of being buried within the pomccrium. 



The duties of the vestals were to keep the fire on the altar in the 

 temple of Vesta burning, to guard the sacred relics and symbols 

 preserved in the temple, to sprinkle the temple of the goddess every 

 morning with water from the Egerian well, and various other things 

 connected with the worship of Vesta. Besides the functions directly 

 connected with the worship of Vesta, they had to perform in the 

 course of the year various others. Thus, for instance, they conducted 

 the mysterious worship of the Bona Dea on the fint of May, and had 

 to prepare the sacrifice to be offered on certain occasions. If ever the 

 sacred fire in the temple of Vesta became extinct by the carelessness 

 of a priestess, the neglect was atoned for by sacrifices, and the guilty 

 vestal was scourged by the Pontifex Haximua on her naked back. The 

 fir* was not rekindled from a common fire, but from one produced by 

 the Pontifex by the friction of two pieces of wood, or from the rays of 

 the tun by means of a burning-glass, and the vestal caught it in a 

 brass sieve by means of tinder, and thus carried it into the temple. 

 On entering on the priesthood every vestal had to make a solemn 

 vow to keep her chastity purr, like the goddess whom she served, 

 during the yean of her priesthood. 4 breach of this vow was 

 regarded as a terrible crime and as a fearful calamity to the whole 

 state. When a vestal was found guilty by the college of pontifis, she 

 was condemned to death without having the right of appeal to, the 

 people. As nothing but death could atone for her crime, and as it was 

 nevertheless not allowed for any mortal to lay hands on the priestess of 

 VrtU, she was buried alive in a subterraneous vault in the Campus 



Soeleratus, near the Colline gate. The mournful solemnity on such 

 occasions was this. The guilty vestal was laid on a bier, tied fast with 

 leather thongs, and covered in such a manner that not even the sound 

 of her voice could be heard. In this position she was carried, as it 

 were, in a funeral procession, accompanied by her friends and relations, 

 amidst the dead silence of all the people, to the place of execution 

 near the Colline gate. On her arrival here she was relieved of her 

 bands, the Pontifex Maximus with uplifted hands said a mysterious 

 prayer, and then conducted the veiled vestal to the ladder which led 

 into the tomb. The executioner took her down and drew up the 

 ladder; and during this process the pontiff and the other priests 

 turned away their faces. In her tomb the vestal found a couch, a 

 lamp, and some bread, water, milk, and oil. The tomb was closed and 

 covered over with earth to a level with the rest of the ground. The 

 man who had seduced a vestal was scourged to death. Notwithstanding 

 the severity of the punishment, Roman history has on record several 

 instances in which the punishment was inflicted. During the time of 

 the republic the violation of chastity on the part of a vestal was always 

 visited by the punishment prescribed by law, unless the goddess 

 herself interposed in some miraculous manner to show that her 

 priestess had been unjustly charged with the crime. Several inte- 

 resting instances of this kind are related by the Roman historians. 

 During the early part of the empire the conduct of the vestals appears 

 to have become rather loose, since Domitian found it necessary to 

 make the law concerning it more strict. 



(Lipsius, De Vata et Vatalibut Syntagma ; Hartung, Die Jirlii/ioa 

 der KSmer, ii., p. 115, &c. ; Qottling, Gachichte dor ItHmitchcn Slnalt 

 rcrfaaunft, p. 189, &c.) 



VESTED REMAINDER. [REMAINDER.] 



VESTRY is the name of that part of a parish church where the 

 ecclesiastical vestments are kept ; and inasmuch as meetings of parish- 

 ioners have been usually held in this part of the church for parochial 

 purposes, such meetings, duly convened, have acquired the name of 

 vestries ; so that even where a building remote from the church has 

 been erected for parochial meetings, it is usually called the vatry-room. 

 When the meeting is held in the church, or even in a building within 

 the precincts of the churchyard, the ecclesiastical courts claim juris- 

 diction over the conduct of the parishioners. 



By the common law all rated inhabitants of a parish have a right, 

 either periodically or when specially convened, to meet in vestry for 

 the affairs of the parish, and to vote the necessary pecuniary rates. 

 But this common law right has been modified in many ways. 



1. By custom, which has vested the government of some parishes in 

 a select and usually a self-elected body of persons, probably the suc- 

 cessors of individuals to whom the parishioners at some previous time 

 delegated the management of their parish for a stated period, but who, 

 by the indifference and neglect of their constituents, came to hold 

 permanently the powers intrusted to them. The principal act for the 

 regulation of these vestries is the 58 Qeo. III., c. 69, but it does not 

 extend to parishes within the city of London or borough of South- 

 mrk. 



2. The act 10 Anne, c. 11 (for the purpose of erecting fifty new 

 churches in London and its neighbourhood) appoints "a select vrstrv 

 for each parish." The 59 Qeo. III., c. 134, also permits the election of 

 a select vestry out of the " substantial inhabitants of the district," 

 parish, or chapelry ; and several local acts have also created vestries. 



3. The 69 Qeo. III., c. 12 (Sturges Bourne's Act), enables general 

 vestries to appoint special vestries for certain purposes ; but they are 

 little more than committees of the general vestries, to which they are 

 responsible. 



4. A fourth kind of vestry is created by 1 & 2 Wm. IV., c. 60 (Sir 

 John Hobhouse's Act), but the adoption of this act is left to the dis- 

 cretion of each particular parish ; rural parishes of less than 800 rated 

 householders being excluded from its operation. 



It is the duty of vestries to provide funds for the maintenance of 

 the edifice of the church and the due administration of public worship ; 

 to elect churchwardens; to present for appointment fit persons as 

 overseers of the poor ; to administer such estates and other property 

 as belong to the parish ; and in some cases, under local acts, to super- 

 intend the paving and lighting of the parish, and to levy rates for those 

 purposes. 



The remedy for neglect of duty by a vestry is a mandamut from the 

 Court of Queen's Bench, directed to the officer whose duty it would be 

 to perform the particular act, or in some cases by an ordinary process 

 against him, or by a process against the churchwardens out of the 

 ecclesiastical courts. 



VIADUCT. A bridge erected over a valley, for the purpose of 

 avoiding the necessity for carrying a roadway either by long inclines, 

 by zigzags, or by precipitous descents, from a high level on one side of 

 the hills bounding the valley, to a corresponding height on the other 

 side. The conditions under which it is advisable to incur the expense 

 of such a work, are principally when the annual cost of the traction 

 upon the additional length of the inclined roods would exceed the 

 interest upon the capital invested in the construction of the viaduct, 

 added to the cost of its repairs ; or when the rate of inclination of the 

 roads is such as to render economical traction impossible. In roads 

 designed to accommodate rapid traffic, for instance, inclines of 1 in 12 

 are inadmissible under any circumstances, and inclines of 1 in 80 are 



