§ 8. AND whereas we have spoke of another kind of Collar, call’d a Collar of SS’s, worn as Badges of lower and inferior Honour, it will not be amiss to inform our Judgment in other Affairs concerning them. _Wicelius_ informs us from a Book in the Library of _Fulda_, where (in the Life of the Two Brothers _Simplicius_ and _Faustinus_, both Senators, and suffer’d Martyrdom under _Dioclesian_) there is a Description of the Society of St. _Simplicius_, consisting of Noble Personages in their own Families, and describing the Collar wore as the Badge of it says, thus: _It was the Custom of those Persons to wear about their Necks Silver Collars, compos’d of double SS’s, which denote the Name of Saint_ Simplicius, _between these double SS’s. The Collar consisted of Twelve small Plates of Silver, in which were engraven the Twelve Articles of the Creed, together with a single Trefoil: The Image of St._ Simplicius _hung at the Collar, and from it Seven Plates, representing the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost. As to the manner of their Martyrdom, they were bound together by the Neck to a Stone, and thrown over the Bridge into the River_ Tyber.
AT what Time the Collar of SS’_s_ came into _England_ is not fully determin’d, but it will appear at least Three Hundred Years since, and worn as an Ornament for Women, as well as Men; for on a Monument in the Collegiate Church of _Warwick_, the Figure of _Margaret_, Wife to Sir _William Peito_ (said to be interr’d _Temp. Edw._ III.) hath a Collar of SS’_s_ drawn about, and set close to her Neck, which the Sculpture in _The Antiquities of_ Warwickshire, by mistake, represented like a Ruff. There was also a Collar of SS’_s_ about the Neck of Sir _Simon Burley_’s Statue in St. _Paul_’s _London_.
IN the ancient Creation of an Esquire in _England_, part of the Ceremony was the King’s putting about his Neck a Silver Collar of SS’_s_. And _Selden_, in his Titles of Honour contemns not the old Ballad, _The Tanner of_ Tamworth, to prove the Creation of Esquires in King _Edw._ IV’s Reign, by conferring such Collars on them. But that the Golden one was the undoubted Badge of a Knight, as may be instanc’d by many undeniable Examples, deduc’d from the Monuments of such Persons, _Temp. Hen._ VI. _Ed._ IV. _Hen._ VII. _Hen._ VIII. and since, and so legally appropriate thereto, that in the Act 24 _H._ VIII. made for Reformation of Apparel, there is a Proviso entred, That Knights, notwithstanding, might publickly wear a Gold Collar of SS’_s_, tho’ since it is grown obsolete and useless. _Favin_ tells us that our _Hen._ V. instituted an Order surnam’d Knights of the SS’_s_ on the Day of the Martyrs St. _Crispine_ and _Crispianus_; which tho’ he found nothing of it in our _English_ Historians, yet from the Chronicle of _Juvenal des Ursins_, where he treats of the Battle of _Agincourt_, he collected this following Relation.