Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/236

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192


NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. ii. SEPT. 3,


lish Ecclesiology,' it was written : " We have

proved elsewhere that this [monogram]

is simply the contracted Greek form IH2/ for IH2OY2. The mark of contraction makes a cross with the upright stroke of the h" (pp. 243-4).

In a publication no more recondite than the Penny Post for 1857, p. 238, we have admirable cuts of coins of the ninth and tenth centuries on which the contraction appears in connexion with an effigy of our Saviour. The belief that it originated in the sixteenth century is therefore absurd. All that Ignatius Loyola did was to adopt the acrostic suggestion made by Greek characters which had been translated into Roman letters.

I may as well add that the C in IHC comes of a form of the Greek sigrna less suggestive of S than that which has given us IHS. ST. SWITHIN.

Is not I.H.S., as a religious motto or badge, a Latin transcription of the first three letters of the Greek name IHCOYC or IH2OY2, and well known in ecclesiastical art long before St. Ignatius of Loyola founded his company ? As he was a native of the province (once called '* The Kingdom ") of Guipuzcoa (Ipuscoa in the Latin of the sixteenth century), he might, without going for a very long ride or walk (twelve miles as the crow flies) from his father's " casa solar " in Loyola (= mud-factory, tejeria) at Azpeitia, have seen these initials on the beautiful and most interesting doorway of the parish church of Idiazabal, the date of which seems to be early in the thirteenth century. It symbo- lizes the seven sacraments by its sevenfold mouldings, is transitional between decadent "Byzantinp" and incipient ogival, and has details in its ornamentation which indicate the influence of Irish art.

E. S. DODGSON.

If LTJCIS will turn to 1 st S. ix. 259 he will find a note by the Editor referring a corre- spondent to a valuable tract entitled 'An Argument for the Greek Origin of the Monogram I.H.S.,' published by the Cam- bridge Camden Society, which clearly shows that this symbol is formed out of the first two and the last letter of the Greek word IH2OY2. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

[Additional replies from MR. R. FOULKKS, A. H., MR. HARRY HEMS, L. L. K., MR. HOLDEN MAC- MICHAEL, MR. HOBSON MATTHEWS, DR. FOSTER PALMER, MR. R. J. STEGGLES, MR. J. TOWNSHEND (New York), and the REV. C. S. WARD have been forwarded direct to Lucis.j

THACKERAY'S PICTURES (10 th S. ii. 169). The contents of Thackeray's house, Palace


Green, Kensington, including his pictures and drawings, were sold by us on 16-17 March, 1864. CHRISTIE, MANSON & WOODS.

LONGEST TELEGRAM (10 th S. ii. 125, 176).

I am the fortunate possessor of the Chicago Times, the gift of my friend Mr. Frowde, of the Oxford Press, mentioned by R. M. L. The number of words far exceeds his estimate. The Chicago Times stated that the portion of the New Testament tele- graphed " contains about 118,000 words, and constitutes by many fold the largest special dispatch ever sent over the wires." On the- day before the publication of the paper, a copy of the Revised Version was received. In telegraphing it was forgotten to give instructions as to the arrangement of the paragraphs, and the four Gospels are printed with the verse divisions. The Chicago Times opens with the following headlines :

" The Will, which is more commonly designated as the New Testament, as it bequeaths Eternal Life to the Heirs of God. It is the charter under which all branches of the Church are organized, and the source whence the Theologians derive their doctrines. The Times presents to its readers the entire revised New Testament, which does not differ radically from the common version. In its records and teachings it is not brought down to-

date And old-fashioned Christians will find it

unobjectionable."

JOHN C. FRANCIS.

/'SAINT" AS A PREFIX (10* S. ii. 87). Similar contractions are seen in S. Befana> an Italian corruption of the Greek 'ETric^ai/ta,. the Epiphany, and in Santa Glaus, the Dutch name of St. Nicholas. " Tooley " in " Tooley Street" is a contraction of St. Olave, a fact,, however, perhaps as well known as that "tawdry" is abbreviated "St. Audrey,"" "tawdry lace" being lace bought at St. Audrey's Fair, held in the Isle of Ely OR St. Audrey's Day, i.e., St. Etheldrida's Day. And is not "Tantony," as well as Stanton, a contraction of St. Anthony? Cf. also-

II Sanfoin," " Sangreal," " St. Sepulchre," and " Saunter." In St. Sepulchre the " St." is, I think, believed to be redundant, " Sepulchre " being in reality a contraction of St. Pulchre ;. but I have never been able to make out whether the historic edifice at the western end of Newgate Street is dedicated in the- name of the Holy Sepulchre or of St. Pulcheria, Empress of the East, upon whom the epithet of " guardian of the faith " was conferred by the Fathers of the General Council of Chalcedon in 451. In Skeat's 'Concise Dictionary' we are told that the- origin of the word " saunter" is unknown. Might I venture to suggest that the ety-