The School Arms

twelfth man, since the Headingley Test Match began the next day. The presentation was a fitting climax to Rayson's distinguished career in School Cricket and we wish him all success in the future. * *

It has long been realised that the environment of the School was a likely site for the discovery of Roman antiquities, since the Roman road north from Eboracum passed through it. It was not, then, entirely a surprise that the excavations in connection with the rebuilding of the Rise revealed a quantity of fragments of Roman pottery and human skeleton remains. The hopes of a second Mildenhall hoard had less basis in history and were not realised. * * Visit of the Rev. J. W. de Graft Johnson

The School was fortunate in being able to hear at first hand some details of West Africa from a native of the Gold Coast, the Rev. J. W. de Graft Johnson. Mr. Johnson had taken a London B.A. in Mathematics and was a teacher in an African school, but, after deciding to enter the Methodist Ministry, came to England to study Theology at Cambridge, and has taken his B.D. here. Mrs. Johnson also came to England to qualify as a teacher and to learn as much as possible about our hospitals. Their intention is to be missionaries among their own people.

Mr. Johnson came to School on Thursday, 26th June, and spoke to the VIth forms on the history of missionary enterprise in the Gold Coast. In addition he gave to the geographers of the VIth details about his native country and interested two forms of the Junior School with his anecdotes.

So impressed were many boys that they asked if Mr. Johnson could not pay another visit to St. Peter's. Accordingly, he came a second time, on Monday, 7th July, and interested a large audience by describing the life of the boys in the large, well-known boarding school for boys at Achimota, and other details of the life of the natives of the Gold Coast. Numerous questions were asked at all of his talks, which were enlivened by touches of humour.

By the time this appears in print, Mr. Johnson will be back in his native home. We heartily thank him for coming to St. Peter's and wish him success in his work. H.e proposes to return to England in 6 years' time to take his Ph.D.

The beautiful shield so long associated with the School, and so familiar to many generations of Peterites, is identical with the arms of the Dean and Chapter of York; and its use by the School commemorates the fact that the School has been throughout the centuries the Minster Grammar School. The shield, as used by the School, is accompanied

35

by a scroll bearing the motto, "Super antiquas vias," and upon the red ground, or field, of the shield are three charges: two crossed keys, one of gold and the other of iron, surmounted by a golden. coronetted cap of a tall, conical form, having a small cross at its apex; and is described in heraldic 'blazonry in these words: Gules. Two keys in saltire, argent and or. In chief, a cap of St. Peter, or.

The keys are appropriate to the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St. Peter, as being symbolical of the words spoken by our Lord to His disciple Simon Peter: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates, of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (St. Matthew, XVI, 18 and 19).

The third charge, the cap of St. Peter, has been the subject of some discussion, partly because in many old representations of the shield the cap has been deliberately defaced. This has led to some doubt about its proper. shape, and it has, at times, been mistaken for a mitre. Fortunately, there remain two early representations which clearly show the original form of this cap. Firstly, there is the seal of Robert Waldby, Archbishop of York, A.D. 1397, which is preserved in the Yorkshire Philosophical Society's Museum, and which has on the obverse the Archbishop's official arms, and on the reverse or counterseal, a shield bearing the device which he had adopted, that is, the cross-keys and the conical coronetted cap surmounted by a small cross. Secondly, there is a carving on the great door of the South Transept, showing the cross-keys and a similar cap, probably of the time of Archbishop Kemp, 1426-1454.

Dean Purey-Cust, in the course of a thorough discussion of the origin and form of the cap, after citing the abovementioned representations together with other evidence, stated that: "This seems to indicate that there was a special head-dress assigned to St. Peter from the earliest times, and recognised on mediaeval seals as appropriate to 'him Of course, when the Bishop of Rome asserted his claim to be considered the successor to St. Peter, this cap, as well as other insignia associated with the apostle, were appropriated by him. In 1299.1303, a second crown was added by Boniface VIII; and in 1362.1370, a third crown by Pope Urban V. These three crowns are said to represent (1) spiritual authority, (2) kingly authority, (3) universal sovereignty. These constitute what is called the Tiara, which is the recognised emblem of the papacy; and this would account for the shields being defaced in the Minster at the time of the Reformation, when the simple cap of 1St. Peter was either mistaken for the Tiara, or had already become perverted into it.

Archbishop Waldiby seems to have been the first Archbishop of York to use these devices. His predecessors, so far as we can judge from 36