various objects were supposed to possess talismanic virtues. Of this
class were the coins attributed to the mother of Constantine, the
authenticity of which is questioned by Du Cange, in his treatise "_de
Inferioris ævi numismatibus_." He observes, also, that the same name was
given, vulgarly, to almost all the coins of the Byzantine emperors, not
only to those bearing the effigies of St. Helena, but indeed to all
marked with a cross, which were commonly worn suspended from the neck as
phylacteries; "hence," he subjoins, "we find that these coins are
generally perforated." It was quite in accordance with the superstitious
character of Henry the Third that coins of St. Helena should be
preserved in his wardrobe, among numerous other amulets and relics. But
what was the peculiar virtue attributed to such coins? Du Cange, in the
same treatise, says, on the authority of "Bosius," that they were a
remedy against the "_comitialem morbum_," or epilepsy. The said
"Bosius," or rather "Bozius," wrote a ponderous work, "_de Signis
Ecclesiæ Dei_" (a copy of which, by the by, is not to be seen in the
library of the British Museum, although there are two editions of it in
the Bodleian), in which he discourseth as follows:--"Monetæ adhuc
aliquot exstant, quæ in honorem Helenæ Augustæ, et inventæ crucis, cum
hujusmodi imaginibus excusæ antiquitus fuerunt. Illis est præsens
remedium adversus morbum comitialem: et qui hodie vivit Turcarum Rex
Amurathes, quamvis a nobis alienus, vim sanctam illarum expertus solet
eas gestare; e morbo namque hujusmodi interdum laborat. Nummi quoque
Sancti Ludovici Francorum regis mirifice valent adversus nonnullos
morbos."--Lib. xv. sig. 68.

This mention of the sultan Amurath carrying these coins about his person
as a precaution against a disease to which he was subject, and indeed
the whole passage shows a belief in their efficacy was still prevalent
in the sixteenth century, when Bozius wrote. It only remains to add,