It is generally considered that the jewel adorned and occupied a central place on the mitre, and its dimensions (2 by 2¼ inches) render its employment in that position probable. As, however, there are no indications of such an ornament on contemporary representations of mitres, and above all on the mitre figured on the founder's own tomb at Winchester, there remains the possibility of the jewel having been employed as a brooch or nouche on some other part of the vestment. This remarkable jewel stands quite alone in point of excellence. It goes far to justify the contention that English jewellers at this period, as well as in Saxon times, equalled, if they did not outstrip, the craftsmen of other nations in the successful cultivation of the goldsmith's art. [Illustration: Interior of a jeweller's shop. From _Kreuterbuch_ (Frankfort, 1536).] CHAPTER XIII THE MYSTERY OF PRECIOUS STONES One of the most curious and interesting facts in connection with the jewellery of the Middle Ages is the peculiar respect which seems to have been paid to precious stones. "In a scientific age," says Mr. Paton, "it is difficult to apprehend and sympathise with the state of mind which endowed natural objects with the properties of charms and fetiches. Before it was the habit to trace phenomena to natural causes, faith in occult powers was strong, and credulity exercised a marked influence on the habits and actions of the people."[41] Precious stones, on account of the mystery and romance attaching to most things of Eastern origin, had long attracted to themselves a superstitious reverence; so that their choice and arrangement, which appear to us merely arbitrary nowadays, had in the Middle Ages a distinct meaning consecrated by traditions dating back from very ancient times. Every stone, like those which enriched the breast-plate of the High Priest, and those which in St. John's vision formed the foundations of the Heavenly Jerusalem, was supposed to possess special powers and virtues. Abundant proof of this is exhibited in the mediæval inventories, where the beauty or rarity of a stone counted for infinitely less in the estimation of its value than the reputed talismanic virtue, such as the toadstone, for example, was supposed to possess. The mediæval literature of precious stones,[42] wherein is expounded their medicinal virtues or their supernatural powers in baffling evil spirits, is based on a classical poem of about the fourth century A.D., entitled _Lithica_, which claims to be a statement of their magic properties made by the seer Theodamas to the poet Orpheus. Similar belief in the virtues of precious stones was still in existence in the sixteenth century, and finds an exponent in Camillus Leonardus, physician to Cæsar Borgia, in his work entitled _Speculum Lapidum_, published at Venice in 1502. Even as late as the following century the use of precious stones as charms was more than half