The Tessera Hospitalis.

THE TESSERA HOSPITALIS .

THIS is an old ancl curious custom of bye-gone clays which requires some notice at the hands of the Masonic student , though we do not see that it has , as some have liked seemingly to bold , any connection with Masonry . It had to do Avith the social system ancl the " soclalitia" and " collegia" of the Romans and the " Summorice" of the Greeks , ancl in that sense , no doubt , may fairly be claimed as an interesting relic of early guilds ancl classic times . Many inscriptionsas reported by various writersattest the use and antiquit

, , y of the custom of the tessera hospitalis . We read of " tabula hospitali , " "tabulis hospitalibus , " "hospitium fecit , " "hospitium fecerunt . " There were also " Dii Hospitales , " and Plautus says , as some may remember , " Deum Hospitalem , ac Tessaram mecum fero . " Ovid says , "Ante fores hominum stabat Jovis hospitis ara . " Venus was also called Hospitalis , as also wan Minerva ; ancl from Pausanias Ave learn " Quo in loco Parcce sunt , ibidem est Hospitalis

Jupiter et Hospitalis Minerva . " Many other instances of this fact may be quoted , but these ivill suffice . The idea of "hospitium , " hospitalitas , and our hospitality , was that a stranger , or traveller , or felloiv citizen received into a public or private house to be cared for , fed , healed , or helped on his way . There were , both , among the Greeks and Romans , public " hospitia ' , " and though the idea of the " hospital" for the gratuitous relief of the ill ancl

suffering cannot , Ave think , be traced beyond christian times , though the Hebrews claim a similar provision , there Avere undoubtedl y hospitia for the entertainment of travellers and strangers . In 1647 a learned Italian bishop , Jacobus Philippics Tomasinus , Episeopus . / Emoniensis , wrote a work , IIOAV rather rare , dedicated to Pope Innocent X ., entitled " De Tesseris Hospitalitatis . " He divides his work into thirt-two

y chapters or " capita , " and goes through carefully all the uses of hospitality , ancl dAvells on the use of the tessera , which he full y describes . There were several kinds of tesserre , such as the " oval pebbles , " each Avith the same name ; or tAvo oblong pebbles , Avith . tbe names of the two friends mutuall y inscribed , which Avere exchanged ; a wooden or ivory four-sided staff , or even little tiles of baked brick , with the name and a monogram or symbol inscribed .

Tbe " tessera hospitalis was thus carried about by persons who claimed hospitality , that they might be recognized by paternal and fraternal hosts , for this claim of . hospitality once conceded descended from father to son ancl to all the descendants . Thus Luotatins says , " Veteres quoniam non poterant omnes hospites suos noscere , tesseram illi dabunt , quam illi ad hospitia reversi ostendebant propro hospiti . Uncle intcllig ebantur hospites . " The Scholiast of Euriides on Medea describes another sort of tessera

p Avhich he terms "Asphragalon , " which was , among the Greeks , broken into two parts for mutual recognition . Harris ori ginally called attention to the subject among Masonic writers , and Mackoy has clivelt upon it at length . We are not aware , so far , of any Masonic tessera . The Bishop describes one Avith a trident upon it ; but we have never seen any , so far , with Masonic emblems . Still as all the collegia and Snmmorise had no doubt travellin g

members , they would use the " tessera , " ancl it is not impossible such may turn up . There is a Christian use of the tessera Avhich some say lasted until the eleventh century , and there were "tokens , " no doubt , in the middle a-o-es which were used by the guilds ancl the monasteries for help and hospitality