Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/70

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52
ON CROSS-LEGGED EFFIGIES.

beard, or having either of these peculiarities, such an effigy may probably be that of a Templar or a Hospitaller. At this distance of time, however, the colours which distinguished the two orders would hardly remain; but the form perhaps of the cross, or, in the absence of a helmet, the coif, cap, or chapeau, might furnish the means of determining to which of the orders he belonged.

I have confined these remarks to knights of the order of the Temple. Some of the effigies in the Temple Church may very likely represent persons who were attached to the order as lay-associates, or affiliated. These however were not properly Templars; they were not of the order; they neither took the habit nor the vows; and in fact lived and died as if they were quite independent of them.

I may mention, in conclusion, on the authority of Mr. Addison's History of the Knights Templars, (p. 97. 2nd edit.,) that a monumental effigy of a priest of the order, holding a chalice, may be found in the church of St. Mary at Bologna, in Italy. The time of his death appears in the following epitaph.

"Stirpe Rotis, Petrus virtutis munere clarus,
 Strenuus, ecce, pugil Christi jacet ordine charus;
 Veste ferens menteque crucem nunc sidera scandit,
 Exemplum nobis spectandi cœlica pandit:
 Annis ter trinis viginti mille trecentis
 Sexta quarte maii fregit lux organa mentis."

Although this monument was executed after the dissolution of the order, viz. A. D. 1329, or later, it would be interesting to see a careful drawing of it. For I think it highly probable that it represents the Peter of Bologna, who, with Raynal de Pruin, defended the order from the charges preferred against them before the Papal commission. Mr. Addison calls him Peter de Rotis; but though "Stirpe Rotis," he might also have been called, from the place of his birth, Peter de Bologna. Mr. Addison also mentions a clock at the Temple House in Bologna, on which are the words "Fr. Petrus de Bon (Bononia) Procur. Militiæ Templi in curia Romana M.CCC.III." Surely this Peter and that in effigy were one and the same person! W. S. W.

Middle Temple, Feb. 23, 1844.