CHAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

125

well worthy was that splendid gift of a place inthe imperial treasury, where it was long pre-served. 1

To Girino was directed a bull 2 in 1232, by whichGregory IX. exhorts him and his knights to assisthis dearest son in Christ Jesus, Frederick theRoman Emperor, and King of Jerusalem andCyprus; precisely of the same tenor as that four

years later, and which has already been. ’ . * 1236

given as a talisman to meet whatever ac-cusations, and reduce them to their just value. 3 Itwould not have been long now to wait for the treatymade by Frederick to have ended, but a great dealtoo long for perturbed spirits.

Many of these documents are dentati. Readersof ancient parchments will know very well what ismeant; but others will not object to learning thatit consists in writing counterparts in two differentcolumns, divided by an alphabet, or some adage,generally pious, as Gratia, Dei. This is cut allalong through the middle of its letters; so the twoparties take each a column, which contains one ofthe duplicates and halves of the letters of the adage,and by joining the two halves, if they fit and pro-duce the adage whole, then each of the duplicates

1 Cologne Chron.—Bib. Crois., iii. 22.—Arab. Chron., 435,

2 Cod. Dipl. Geros., Bolla, iv., i. 271.—Appendix, lxv.

3 Appendix, lxiii.