Sthenium Termitanum, hofpitem fuum, cujus domum per hofpitium exhaufit et exinanivit, abfentem in reos retulerit, caufa indicta, capite damnarit; ab eo nunc hofpitiorum jura atque officia quæramus ?"

"Unpitied may he die

Who to a friend affiftance can deny;
Nor, to afflicted virtue kind,
Unlocks the treasures of his mind !"*

SECTION V.

THE privileges of this Friendship might be claimed by the defcendants of the contracting parties.

WHEN this Friendship was contracted it became perpetual. The memorials of it were tranfmitted from father to fon.

"Eo prefente homini extemplo oftendit fymbolum, Quem tute dederas ad eum, utferret filio."t

* EURIPID. Medea. Potter's tranflation.

PLAUT. Bacchid. Act. II. Sc. 3.

PLAUTUS, in his comedy entitled Poenulus, plainly intimates that the defcendants of those who formed the friendly compact, might challenge its rights. In the second fcene of Act v, he, who had made "the brotherly covenant" with Antidamus, comes to his fon, not doubting of an affectionate welcome; for, faith he,

"Deum hofpitalem, ac tefferam mecum fero."

THE interview which fucceeds, is a pleafing illustration of many of the preceding remarks. Pœnulus is introduced inquiring for Agoraftocles, who thus replies,

"Siquidemæ tu Antidam hic quæris adoptatitium, Ego fum ipfus, quem tu quæris.

PEN. Hem! quid audio?

AG. Antidamæ gnatum me effe.

PŒN. Si ita eft, tefferam conferre fi vis hospitalem, Eccam attuli.

AG. Age dum huc oftende! Eft par? Probe.

Nam habeo domi.

PON. O mi hofpes, falve multum ! Nam mihi tuus

pater,

Pater tuus ergo mihi Antidamas fuit.

Hæc mihi hofpitalis teffera cum illo olim fuit. AG. Ergo hic apud me hofpitium tibi præbebitur.

POEN. Dii dent tibi omnia quæ velis !"

THE antient Greeks, also, deposited these tokens among their treasures, to keep up the memory of their friendships to fucceeding generations; as we are informed by the comment of Euftathius on that paffage of Homer where Diomedes recounts to Glaucus the gifts which their ancestors Oeneus and Bellerophron had presented each other.

SECTION VI.

A PRACTICE of this kind feems to have been in ufe among the early chriftians.

TERTULLIAN has these words "Sic omnes probant unitatem; dum eft illis communicatio pacis, et appellatio fraternitatis, et contefferatio hofpitalitatis: quæ jura non alia ratio regit quam ejufdem facramenti una traditio."*

THE teffera was carried by them in their travels as an introduction to the friendship and brotherly kindness of their fellow chriftians. Afterwards, heretics, to enjoy those privileges, counterfeited the teffera. The christians then altered the infcription. This was frequently done, till the Nicene council gave their fanction to thofe marked with the initials of the words Πατήρ, Υιος, Αγιον Πνευμα. Thefe B. Hildebrand calls "tefferæ canonicæ."‡

THE impoftor Peregrinus, as we learn from the particulars ftated by Lucian,§ feigned

*De Præfcrip. cap. 20. See alfo S. AMBROS. lib. ii. offic. cap. 21, and lib. iii. cap. 7. CHRYSOSTOM. concione 2, de Lazaro. AUGUSTIN. ferm. 70, de temp. CONCIL. TRIDENT. feff. XXV. c. 8.

+C. CORN A LAPIDB, Comment. in Pauli Apost. epift. Hæbr. сар. Col. in Alma Julia.

§ LUCIANI opera, tem. III, lib. 9. p. 325. edit. Amft. 1743.

xiii.

himself a chriftian, that he might not only be clothed and fed by them, but affifted on his travels and enriched by their generofity. But his artifice was detected and exposed.

"PEREGRINUS, philofophus gentilis, lucri caufa religionis chriftianæ ftimulator, etiam carcerem toleravit; fed collecta non parva pecunia ex eleemofynis Sanctorum, defcivit, fatis fibi aiens in hospitalitate christianorum.*

THE procuring a teffera, as a testimony of evangelization, anfwered all the purposes, and faved the trouble of formal written certificates, and introductory letters of recommendation. The danger of its being used by impoftors, as in the cafe of Peregrinus, made it neceffary to preserve the token with great care, and never to produce it but upon special occafions. Notwithstanding the fimplicity of this method, it continued in ufe until the time of D. Burchardus, Abp. of Worms, who flourished A. D. 1020, who mentions it in a vifitation charge.

EUSEB. chron. anno xti. 78. See also the teftimonies of AULUS GELLIUS, AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, ATHENAGORAs, and TER

TULLIAN.