Scribal abbreviation by "contraction" and was mostly a Christian usage for sacred words, Nomina Sacra; non-Christian sigla usage usually limited the number of letters the abbreviation comprised and omitted no intermediate letter. One practice was rendering an overused, formulaic phrase only as a siglum: DM for "Dis Manibus" ("Dedicated to the Manes"); IHS from the first three letters of "ΙΗΣΟΥΣ"; and RIP for "requiescat in pace" ("Rest in Peace") because the long-form written usage of the abbreviated phrase, by itself, was rare. According to Trabe, these abbreviations are not really meant to lighten the burden of the scribe but rather to shroud
John Pace death; in Elizabeth's reign he was transferred to the court. That a man of education like Pace should have voluntarily assumed "the fool's coat" often excited hostile comment. To such criticism Pace's friend, John Heywood, the epigrammatist, once answered that it was better for the common weal for wise men to "go in fools' coats" than for fools to "go in wise men's gowns". Thomas Nash authored epistles honouring Pace. Two examples of Pace's wit survive. Cardinal Allen relates in his "An Apology for the English Seminaries" (1581) that when the English government interdicted the circulation of catholic books in