Ebony Snuff
Box with Working Tools
This ebony and silver snuff box is
a beautiful work of art. It combines many symbols of Freemasonry
from the working tools, the 47th Problem of Euclid to the Scottish Rite 18th
degree Pelican feeding her babies. It even depicts a Holy Bible with
the monogram of the name of Jesus Christ. From the third century the names of
our Saviour are sometimes shortened, particularly in Christian inscriptions (IH
and XP, for Jesus and Christus). In the next century the "sigla" (chi-rho)
occurs not only as an abbreviation but also as a symbol. From the beginning,
however, in Christian inscriptions the nomina sacra, or names of Jesus
Christ, were shortened by contraction, thus IC and XC or IHS and XPS for
Iesous Christos. These Greek monograms continued to be used in Latin during
the Middle Ages. Eventually the right meaning was lost, and erroneous
interpretation of IHS led to the faulty orthography "Jhesus". In Latin the
learned abbreviation IHC rarely occurs after the Carlovingian era. The mongram
became more popular after the twelfth century when St. Bernard insisted much on
devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, and the fourteenth, when the founder of the
Jesuati, Blessed John Colombini (d. 1367), usually wore it on his breast.
Towards the close of the Middle Ages IHS became a symbol, quite like the chi-rho
in the Constantinian period. Sometimes above the H appears a cross and
underneath three nails, while the whole figure is surrounded by rays. IHS became
the accepted iconographical characteristic of St. Vincent Ferrer (d. 1419) and
of St. Bernardine of Siena (d. 1444). The latter holy missionary, at the end of
his sermons, was wont to exhibit this monogram devoutly to his audience, for
which some blamed him; he was even called before Martin V. St. Ignatius of
Loyola adopted the monogram in his seal as general of the Society of Jesus
(1541), and thus it became the emblem of his institute. IHS was sometimes
wrongly understood as "Jesus Hominum (or Hierosolymae) Salvator", i.e. Jesus,
the Saviour of men (or of Jerusalem=Hierosolyma).
