126 



On a Hoard of Gold Nobles 



Although many may have used the above text superstitiously, 

 many may have used it religiously ; and as Mr. Pegge remarks in 

 contending against the alehymist interpretation, it is not reasonable 

 to suppose that even in the fourteenth century the text was placed 

 upon the public coin of this realm as a mere amulet or charm. 1 The 

 true explanation seems to be that religion was in that day a pre- 

 vailing fashion of thought, and that many of the great offices of 

 state were held by ecclesiastics. Hence many of the inscriptions on 

 coins and medals were religious. Englishmen reflecting from a re- 

 ligious point of view upon the victory of Sluys would naturally re- 

 gard it as a great providential deliverance from annihilation by 

 overwhelming numbers. The experience of Crecy and Poitiers 

 would confirm the use of the favorite text. Other inscriptions in 

 use at the time were Exaltabitur in gloria, Ps. cxi., 9. Domine ne 

 in furore tuo arguas me, Pss. vi., 1 and xxxvii., 2. Posui Deum 

 adjutorem meum. Cf. Ps. li., 9. " Dieu et mon droit " was first 

 placed on his seal by Edward III. in 1339. 2 



Before some of the great battles, as Crecy, the soldiers of both 

 armies confessed and heard mass, and some received the Holy 

 Sacrament. 3 



Much light upon the gold coinage of Edward III. and religious 

 inscriptions is obtained by reference to the coinage of French kings, 



1 At the conclusion of the reading of this paper, A. W. Franks, Esq., Director, 

 remarked that this text, " Jesus autem," &c, is certainly found in treatises of 

 alchemy, and on finger rings of the fourteenth century of Italian workmanship. 

 K. S. Poole, Esq., of the British Museum, has kindly called my attention to 

 " Botica de los Templarios," the wooden front of a druggist shop, fourteenth cen- 

 tury, formerly attached to a house of the Templars in Toledo, and now in the 

 Architectural Hall of the Kensington Museum, having carved upon it the same 

 text. In 1866 a gold ring was found about five inches deep in the ground at 

 Montpensier in Auvergne by a shepherdess, inscribed " S. Georgius. Jesus autem 

 transiens per medium illorum ibat." This ring was exhibited by Mr. Hailstone 

 before the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, as stated in "The Academy," p. 518, 

 June 8th, 1878. It was afterwards submitted to Mr. Franks, and by him pro- 

 nounced to be an interesting ring of Italian workmanship, fourteenth century, 

 but not necessarily connected with Edward III. or the Black Prince. 



3 Longman's " Life of Edward III.," vol. i., p. 156. 

 3 Froissait's " Chron." 



