The excommunication reserved for certain gross sins is represented § 55. as a necessary means enjoined by St. Paul to prevent the spread of wickedness.  It is said § 141. to be an old tradition that on leaving Paradise Adam went to live in Jewry, and there died; that after his death, his skull appearing bare, it was carried to a certain place hence named “place of a skull,” and that for this reason Jesus Christ, Who came to destroy death’s kingdom, willed to die on the spot where the first fruits of mortality were interred. The tradition that Adam’s skull was found at the foot of the cross gave rise to the frequent representation of a skull in Christian art.  Instances are given by Mr. Jameson, Hist. of our Lord, i. 22.  Jeremy Taylor, (Life of our Lord, Part iii. § xv.) quotes Nonnus (In Joann. xix. 17): Εἰσόκε χῶρον ἵκανε φατιζομένοιο κρανίου Αδὰμ πρωτογόνοιο φερώνυμον ἄντυγι κόρσης. cf. Origen, In Matt. Tract. 35, and Athan, De Pass. et Cruc.  Jerome speaks of the tradition in reference to its association with the words “As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive,” as “smooth to the ear, but not true.”  One version of the tale was that Noah took Adam’s bones with him in the ark; that on Ararat they were divided, and the head fell to Seth’s share.  This he buried at Golgotha.  cf. Fabricius i. 61.