class="bla">Minor Queries.

349. Hell Paved with the Skulls of Priests.

—The proverb "Hell is paved with good intentions" (Vol. ii. pp. 86. 140.), brings to my recollection a remark I once heard from the lips of a French priest. He was addressing an audience chiefly composed of students in divinity, and while descanting on the peculiar dangers to which ecclesiastics are exposed, and the obstacles they have to encounter at every step on the road to salvation, he said there could be no doubt that by far the greater number of them would incur eternal damnation. "It was this" (added he, with an emphasis which sent thrill of horror through all present), "It was this that made one of the early fathers assert, that Hell is paved with the skulls of priests." I think the preacher mentioned Tertullian as his authority for this singular sentiment, but he only gave the words: "L'enfer est pavé de têtes de prêtres." Can any of your readers point out the precise passage referred to?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

350. Charib.

—Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the derivation and meaning of the word Charib? The Charibs were the ancient inhabitants, as is well known, of the smaller West Indian islands.

W. J. C.

St. Lucia.

351. Thumb Bible.

—Can any of your readers tell me the history of the Thumb Bible, reprinted by Longman, 1850? Who was "J. Taylor," who seems to have been the author? He has strangely spoilt Bishop Ken's Morning and Evening Hymns at the conclusion of his book.

HERMES.

352. Tripos.

—What is the origin of the term "tripos" as applied to the mathematical and classical honour lists in the university of Cambridge?

A. F. S.

353. Louis Philippe and his Bag of Nails.

—Has any of your correspondents heard a story about a bag of rusty nails which Louis Philippe used to carry about with him; with which he considered his fate as in some way connected; and which he lost a few days before February 24, 1848? If so, is it known whether the story is well authenticated?

R. D. H.

354. Brass Statues at Windsor.

—"The Brass Statues at Windsor," sold in 1646 by order of the House of Lords to pay the troops at Windsor:—What were these statues?

WAYLEN.

355. Edmund Bohun.

—Is it possible that some Trans-atlantic notist may be able to supply a scrap or two of intelligence respecting the brief career of Edmund Bohun, as Chief Justice of South Carolina, 1698-1701? I believe he died in the latter year, and was buried at Charlestown.

S. W. RIX.

Beccles.

356. Bishop Trelawney.

—To what parliamentary decision does Atterbury allude in the subjoined extract from the dedication to Trelawney, Bishop of Winchester, prefixed to his Sermons in four volumes, 1723?

"This and another parliamentary decision, which your lordship not long after with equal difficulty obtained, and by which the bishop's sole right to judge of the qualifications of persons applying for institution was unutterably confirmed, are such instances of your magnanimity and public spirit as will remain in memory while the church or the law of England lasts."

E. H. A.

Minor Queries Answered.

Companion Ladder.

—Why are the stairs leading from the deck to the chief cabin of a ship called "the companion ladder?"

A CONSTANT READER.

[The companion in merchant ships is a wooden porch placed over the entrance or staircase of the cabin. Hence the ladder by which officers ascend to and descend from the quarter-deck, is called the companion ladder.]

Macaulay's Ballad of the Battle of Naseby.

—Where is Mr. Macaulay's ballad of the "Battle of Naseby" to be found printed entire? It is not republished in the last edition of his Lays of Ancient Rome.

D. B. J.

[It has never, we believe, been printed since its first publication in Knight's Magazine, about the year 1824. From the omission pointed out by our correspondent, it is obvious that the accomplished writer of it does not himself regard this ballad as deserving of republication.]

Replies.

THE CRUCIFIX AS USED BY THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.
(Vol. iv., p. 422.).

A correspondent questions the accuracy of MR. CURZON'S statement, in his Monasteries of the Levant, that—

"The crucifix was not known before the fifth or sixth century, though the cross was always the emblem of the Christian faith,"—

and asks for information as to its use, and the dates of the earliest examples. Some twenty years ago I devoted some care to this inquiry, and the result will be found in a chapter on the decline of the arts in Greece, in a History of Modern Greece, which I published in 1830. To that essay, but more especially to the authorities which it cites, I would refer your correspondent; and I think, after an examination of the latter, he will be disposed to concur with me, that Mr. Curzon's statement is correct. It is in accordance with that of Gibbon, and sustained by the same authorities as Basnage, to the effect that the first Christians, from their association with the Jews, and their aversion to the mythology of the Greeks, were hostile to the use of images of any description in their primitive temples, in which they reluctantly admitted the figure of the ignominious cross, as a memorial of the Redeemer's death. At a later period, however, the veneration for the relics of departed saints led to the admission of their painted portraits, and eventually to the erection of their images and effigies in wood and marble. (Gibbon, chap. xxiii. xlix.) Reiskius states that it was not till the fourth century after Christ that the latter innovation began:

"Ecclesia vero Christiana tribus seculis prioribus ne quidem imagines recepit aut inter sacra numeravit instrumenta. Sed demum sub finem quarti seculi ea lege admisit ut in templis memoriæ ac ornatus causa haberentur."—Reiskius, De Imaginibus Jesu Christi Exercitationes Histor., ex. i. c. i. sec. ii. p. 12.

Lillio Giraldi concurs with Reiskius:

"Illud certe non prætermittam nos dico Christianos ut aliquando Romanos fuisse sine imaginibus in primitiva quæ vocatur ecclesia."—Lillius Gregorius Giraldus, Historiæ Deorum Syntage, v. i. p. 15.

The earliest images of Christ were those mentioned as being placed, by Alexander Severus, along with those of Abraham, Jupiter, Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle. (Reiskius, ex. vii. c. i. sec. i. p. 151.) Constantine placed two equestrian statues of the Saviour in the Lateran Church. But Molanus, who mentions the latter fact, insists that there were existing about this period numerous statues of the Saviour, which he would refer to the