The naturalist Pliny (23–79) stated: “In Brittaine it is certain that some do grow; but they bee small, dim of colour, and nothing orient. For Julius Cæsar (late Emperor of famous memorie) doth not dissimble, that the cuirace or breastplate which he dedicated to Venus mother within her temple was made of English pearles.”[185] This decoration of pearls was a very proper offering to the goddess who arose from the sea. The historian Tacitus noted in “Vita Agricolæ” that the pearls from Britain were dusky or brownish (_subfusca ac liventia_).[186] In his commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew, Origen (185–253), one of the Greek fathers of the church, described the British pearls as next in value to the Indian. Their surface, he stated, was of a golden color, but they were cloudy and less transparent than those from India. We have no certain information whether the pearls secured by the Romans were from the edible mussel (_Mytilus edulis_) of the sea-coast or from the Unios of the fresh-water streams. Tacitus’s statement that they were collected “as the sea throws them up,” seems to locate them on the sea-coast; but conditions in modern times make it appear more probable that they were from the fresh waters. Some of the very early coins of the country indicate that pearls were used to ornament the imperial diadem of the sovereigns of ancient Britain. In “Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum,” the celebrated English monk, Bede (673–735) surnamed “The Venerable,” enumerated among other things for which Britain was famous in his day, “many sorts of shell-fish, among which are mussels, in which are often found excellent pearls of all colours; red, purple, violet and green, but mostly white.”[187] And Marbodus, Bishop of Rennes, in his lapidarium, written about 1070, refers to the British pearls as equaling those of Persia and India. About 1094 a present of an Irish pearl was made to Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, by Gilbert, Bishop of Limerick.[188] In the twelfth century there was a market for Scotch pearls in Europe, but they were less valued than those from the Orient.[189] An ordinance of John II, King of France, in August, 1355, which confirmed the old statutes and privileges of goldsmiths and jewelers, expressly forbade mounting Scotch and oriental pearls together in the same article, except in ecclesiastical jewelry (Orfèvre ne peut mettre en œuvre d’or ne argent parles d’Ecosse avec parles d’orient se ce n’est en grands joyaulx d’église).[190] Writing in the sixteenth century, the historian William Camden (1551–1623) stated in his “Britannia”: [Illustration: OLD PRINT SHOWING FOUR METHODS OF CATCHING PEARL-BEARING MOLLUSKS Reproduced from “Margaritologia, sive Dissertatio de Margaritis,” by Malachias Geiger, Monachii, 1637 ]