GIFT OF 
 MICHAEL REESE 
 
 
THE HISTORY 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE 
 
 OP 
 
 n 
 
 f Itmitmt ltd 
 
 & 
 
 F. EDWARD HULME, F.L.S., F.S.A. 
 
 " Familiar Wild Flowers," "Suggestions in Floral Design,' 1 " Wayside Sketches," 
 
 'History Principles and Practice of Heraldry," "Myth-land," " Art Instruction in 
 
 England," " Principles of Ornamental Art," etc., etc. 
 
 SECOND 
 
 EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO 
 
 NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO 
 
 1892 
 
h 
 
 BUTLER & TANNEB, 
 
 THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS, 
 
 FROME, AND LONDON. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. . 9 
 
 CHAPTER III 30 
 
 CHAPTER IV 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. . . . 73 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 101 
 
 CHAPTER VII . 121 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. ." 149 
 
 CHAPTER IX. . 167 
 
 CHAPTER X 184 
 
 CHAPTER XI 203 
 
 APPENDIX , 223 
 
OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of 
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY, PRINCIPLES, AND PRACTICE 
 
 OP 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN AET. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 What a Symbol is Definitions of Symbol, Allegory, and Type Sym- 
 bolism reveals or conceals The Great Sources of Symbolism 
 Classes of Symbol The same Form may mean two entirely dif- 
 ferent Things Abuse of Symbolism Parables The Writings of 
 Durandus Extravagant Symbolism Symbolic Bites of the Jews 
 World-wide Use of Symbolism Arrangement of Subject in suc- 
 ceeding Chapters. 
 
 A SYMBOL is a form that in itself may be trivial, barbarous, 
 or even repellent, but which, nevertheless, from, the associa- 
 tion connected with it, is the sign of something higher than 
 meets the outward eye. Symbolic forms can never again 
 attain the importance they have done in the past. Their 
 study is nevertheless deeply interesting ; for, grotesque and 
 quaint as they often are, we must remember that they were 
 but the outer shell, and often beneath a rugged exterior bore 
 a golden wealth of significance. To the artist and archaeo- 
 logist such study is indispensable. The field of inquiry is 
 so vast, both in space and time, that it is evident that an 
 exhaustive treatment is impossible ; we purpose then in the 
 present pages to do little more than deal with the subject in 
 its association with Christianity and its illustration in art. 
 
 Though the terms symbol, allegory, and type appear to be 
 ordinarily regarded as interchangeable, there is a difference 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 of meaning and application. Symbolism employs real 
 objects, such as the lamb, the cross, the crown, to illustrate 
 the truth. It is a picture language. Allegory uses fictitious 
 things and imaginary personages. Symbolism appeals to the 
 mind through the eye, is more or less artistic and pictorial ; 
 while allegory is more especially literary, and the picturesque 
 treatment of such works as the " Pilgrim's Progress " or the 
 " Holy War " affords us very excellent examples of its scope. 
 A type is a something or somebody that prefigures some 
 greater thing or person ; thus the ark riding in safety amidst 
 the waters of the deluge was a type of the Church of God. 
 As the thing that originally prefigures also afterwards repre- 
 sents, many of these typical forms have been pressed into the 
 service of symbolism. 
 
 The sculptured fonts or stained-glass windows in the 
 churches of the Middle Ages were full of teaching to a 
 congregation of whom the greater part could not read, to 
 whom therefore one great avenue of knowledge was closed. 
 The ignorant are especially impressed by pictorial teaching, 
 and grasp its meaning far more readily than they can follow 
 a written description or a spoken discourse. 1 Hence the 
 clergy wisely supplemented their discourses with these 
 appeals to the eye. But symbolism, though ordinarily a 
 very effective way of imparting instruction, has at times 
 been emplo7ed in an entirely opposite direction. Thus the 
 priests of Egypt reserved to themselves an inner meaning to 
 many of theiv rites ; and thus too the early Christians em- 
 ployed symbols that, though full of significance to themselves, 
 conveyed no meaning to the heathen around them. We too 
 may at first see nothing but poverty of design and poorness 
 of execution in these rude and strange imaginings ; but when 
 we recall how essential they once were as pledges and 
 declarations of faith, they acquire a strong interest, and we 
 see through and beyond the visible representation, and grasp 
 something of the great ideas veiled in these simple and rude 
 forms. 
 
 1 Some few weeks before writing this we found ourselves in a large 
 church in Brighton. What the text was, what the sermon was, and 
 everything else concerning the servjce, we have utterly forgotten ; but we 
 vividly remember a fresco of the Last Supper, and poor, dishonoured 
 Judas going forth into the outer darkness clutching at his bag. A whole 
 course of sermons embodied in one touching figure. 
 
SOURCES OF EARLY SYMBOLIC FORMS 3 
 
 Clement of Alexandria suggested to the Christians of his 
 day that, in' place of the heathen subjects cut on stones nnd 
 rings by the Roman_Japidaries and metal workers, they 
 should have such devices as a dove, symbolic of the Holy 
 Spirit of God within them, the palm branch of yjctoi-v^ the 
 anchor, emblematic of their hope, and other devices of like 
 import. The strong expressions of Tertullian in his treatise, 
 " De Idololatria," are directed against the pagan rites, and in 
 his zeal against error he objects to all representations what- 
 soever, and stigmatises the art of the painter as an unlawful 
 thing; though he, in spite of his anxiety to prevent any 
 tampering with arts that had been perverted to the service 
 of heathendom, made exception in favour of the devices sug- 
 gested by Clement. The influences of the life around them 
 did in fact considerably affect early Christian art. Christ 
 Himself, the Good Shepherd, we shall see, was often repre- 
 sented as Orpheus ; while St. Paul finds in the Isthmian 
 Games apt illustration of the Christian race. St. John 
 Damascenus, writing in the eighth century, strongly defends 
 the introduction of sculpture and painting as accessories to 
 the teaching of the Church. 
 
 The great sources from whence our knowledge of Christian 
 symbolism is derived are, from the third to the eighth cen- 
 turies, the frescoes and sarcophagi in the catacombs, the 
 mosaics in the Italian churches, and the vessels of glass 
 or pottery found in tombs. Later on, for another three 
 hundred years or so, we find a rich store of illustrations in 
 the carved crosses or richly illuminated books of the Irish 
 and Anglo- Saxon scribes ; and, still later, the magnificent 
 manuscripts of the Middle Ages, the profusion of sculpture, 
 the glorious stained-glass windows, 1 the pavements of figured 
 tiles afford us numberless other examples. 
 
 Symbolic forms may be readily divided into three distinct 
 classes. The first of these comprises those that still survive, 
 and convey their meaning to us as clearly as they have done 
 to preceding generations. The dove is a good illustration of 
 these, and it will ordinarily be found that such symbols are 
 
 1 In her oryall there shee was 
 Closyd wel with roial glas, 
 Fulfilled it was with ymagery 
 Every window by and bye/' 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 based on some definite passage of the Bible. The second 
 class comprises forms that for some reason or other have 
 now wholly ceased to be employed, though their significance 
 is still clearly understood. While a third and much smaller 
 class includes forms that from their associations are clearly 
 symbolic, but of which all clue to their meaning is lost. It 
 is of course necessary to bring some little knowledge and 
 experience to bear on the matter, as it does not certainly 
 follow that a thing is meaningless because it is so to us. 
 Many old legends and beliefs have now faded away ; but no 
 one to whom the legend of the phoenix is unknown, to whom 
 the old belief in the pelican feeding its young with its own 
 blood is unfamiliar, is in a position to express an opinion 
 as to their introduction in old work. A knowledge of such 
 superstitious beliefs, and with the various legends that are 
 associated with the saints in the Church's calendar, is as 
 needful to the due appreciation of early art or modern re- 
 vivals of it as a knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology 
 is to those who would desire to intelligently appreciate the 
 paintings on classic vases or the masterpieces of Greek 
 sculpture. 
 
 The student must moreover be warned that the points of 
 resemblance between the symbol and the thing symbolised 
 must not be pushed too far, nor too rigid a parallelism 
 exacted. Often therefore but one face of a many-sided 
 truth can be given. Thus our Saviour may be represented 
 as the Good Shepherd, the guardian of the flock, and the 
 symbol is a just and beautiful one ; but such a symbol gives 
 no suggestion of the fact that he was also the Lamb without 
 spot or blemish, or that hereafter He will be the Judge in that 
 dread tribunal that closes the drama of this world's history. 
 A symbol too, we must remember, may mean two entirely 
 different and opposing things. Thus the lion may symbolise 
 the evil spirit walking about as a lion to devour his prey, 
 or the all-conquering Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 
 Our Lord too compared the kingdom of heaven in one of His 
 parables to leaven ; yet elsewhere He spoke in an entirely 
 different sense of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees. 
 
 While symbolic teaching is of great service, and a most 
 valuable means of imparting truth, it can, like most other 
 things, be carried to a point where it becomes forced and 
 almost ridiculous. Hence the abuse has been made an argu- 
 
SYMBOLIC TEACHING, REAL AND UNREAL. 5 
 
 ment against the use. Our Lord's teaching, while clear and 
 distinct, was clothed almost invariably in parabolic, figura- 
 tive, descriptive, allegorical, and symbolic form. Our duty to 
 our neighbour was not coldly set forth in a harsh, unbending 
 formula, a rigid and frigid command, but brought home 
 to us in the parable of the traveller who so sorely needed 
 and so readily obtained compassion ; and every discourse was 
 lighted up and brightened by some picturesque allusion, the 
 pearl of great price, the lost and wandering sheep, the work- 
 ing leaven, the house founded upon a rock, the sower and 
 the seed, the labourers in the vineyard, the unjust judge, the 
 beautiful story of the prodigal son. 1 The method of teaching 
 thus inaugurated by the Founder of the Church may well be 
 adopted by His followers. 
 
 At the same time, as we have already indicated, this sym- 
 bolic teaching has suffered at the hands of its too zealous 
 friends. There is perhaps no better illustration of this 
 than the " Rationale Divinorum Officiorum " of Durandus, 
 a book on the symbolism of churches and church ornaments. 
 Durandus was chaplain to Pope Clement IV., afterwards cap- 
 tain of the Papal forces, and, finally, in the year 1286, became 
 Bishop of Mende. The " Rationale " was the first book from 
 the pen of an uninspired author ever printed. Though it 
 passed through many editions, it is now of extreme rarity. 
 
 Durandus deals in his book with all the component parts 
 and details of a church, and finds in each and all an inner 
 meaning that, ingenious as it frequently is, is often sadly 
 strained. We may give but one illustrative example of this, 
 the bell, to most of us a useful but prosaic thing enough. 
 
 "Bells do signify preachers, who ought after the likeness 
 of a bell to exhort the faithful ; the which was typified in 
 that the Lord commanded Moses to make a vestment for the 
 high priest, having seventy-two bells, to sound when the 
 high priest entered into the Holy of Holies. Also the cavity 
 of the bell denoteth the mouth of the preacher, according to 
 the saying of the apostle, * I am become as sounding brass 
 or a tinkling cymbal.' The hardness of the metal signifieth 
 
 1 " If man had been incorporeal, God would have given him purely 
 incorporeal gifts ; but since his soul is joined to a body, things supra- 
 sensible are ministered to him by means of sensible things." ST. JOHN 
 CHRYSOSTOM. 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 fortitude in the mind of the preacher; whence saith the Lord, 
 * Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces.' 
 The clapper or iron which, by striking on either side, maketh 
 the sound, doth denote the tongue of the teacher, the which 
 with the adornment of learning doth cause both testaments 
 to resound. The striking of the bell denoteth that the 
 preacher ought first of all to strike at the vices in himself 
 for correction, and then advance to blame those of others. 
 The link by which the clapper is joined or bound unto the 
 bell is meditation. The wood of the frame upon Avhich the 
 bell hangeth doth signify the wood of our Lord's cross. The 
 pegs by which the wooden frame is joined together are the 
 oracles of the prophets. The iron cramps by which the bell 
 is joined with the frame denote charity, by which the 
 preacher being joined indissolubly unto the cross doth boast 
 and say, ' God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ ! ' The hammer affixed to the frame 
 by which the bell is struck signifieth the right mind of the 
 preacher, by which he himself holding fast to the Divine 
 commands doth by frequent striking inculcate the same on 
 the ears of the faithful." 
 
 While pictorial and sculptured forms have their undoubted 
 value as exponents of truth, we must not forget that there 
 is a possibility of such use degenerating into mere picture 
 worship, as may be very evidently seen in the adoration paid 
 by the Russian peasantry to their sacred pictures. 
 
 The use of symbol may be as well seen in the earliest art 
 of which we have knowledge as in any later period, the 
 sacred writing of the priests of Egypt being essentially of 
 this nature. Amongst the Jews again symbolism was one of 
 the most striking features ; the Passover feast, the dismissal 
 into the wilderness of the scapegoat, the Feast of Tabernacles, 
 the sabbatic year, were all in the highest degree figurative, 
 while the Song of Solomon, and many others of the Jewish 
 writings are a mine of picturesque imagery. Canon West- 
 cott, in his " Christus Consummator," points out clearly how 
 the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews " dwells with reve- 
 rent memory on the significance of the ritual which he had 
 known ; and then he shows how to the Christian every sym- 
 bol had become a truth, every shadow a reality." Writers 
 have noticed especially in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the 
 repeated employment of the word " true," showing over and 
 
VARIOUS FORMS OF SYMBOLISM. 
 
 over again that in the fulfilment we have the reality of which 
 in the Jewish dispensation there was but the shadow. The 
 prohibition in the Jewish religion against the representation 
 of the Deity or of any living thing to a great extent pre- 
 vented the use of symbolic forms, a prohibition that we also 
 find in full force amongst the followers of Muhammad. 
 Where no such religious restriction is exercised, the love 
 of symbolism has shown itself almost universally, from the 
 cultured Greek, the learned priesthood of the valley of the 
 Nile, or the followers of Hinduism, to the North American 
 nomad Indians, or the dwellers in the mysterious cities of 
 ancient Mexico and Peru. It is equally at home on a 
 Japanese lacquer tray, in the carvings of a Celtic cross, 
 the rich mosaic pavements of an old Roman villa, or in the 
 wealth of sculpture of our grand cathedrals. 
 
 Having, we trust, demonstrated the importance of the 
 study, we now indicate, in concluding our introductory 
 remarks, the course we propose to pursue ; for " whosoever 
 shall address himself to write of Matters of Instruction, 
 or of any other Argument of Importance, it behoveth that, 
 before he enter therein, he should resolutely determine with 
 himself in what Order he will handle the same, so shall he 
 best accomplish that he hath undertaken, and inform the 
 Understanding, and help the Memory of the Reader." l 
 Symbolism may manifest itself in several ways ; for though 
 our thoughts naturally turn in the first place to symbolism of 
 form, there may be, equally, symbolism of language, of action, 
 of number, or of colour. Having briefly dwelt upon these 
 points, we propose to deal more especially with symbolic 
 forms as we meet with them in art, in the works of the 
 painter or the sculptor, the embroiderer or the glass painter, 
 burnt into flooring tiles, woven into hangings, stamped upon 
 coins, or whatever other possibilities of production yet 
 remain unspecified. 
 
 The symbols associated collectively and individually with 
 the three Persons of the Trinity will first engage our atten- 
 tion, then the cross and passion symbols associated with the 
 
 1 " A display of Heraldry manifesting a more easie access to the 
 Knowledge thereof than hath hitherto been published by any, through 
 the benefit of Method ; whereunto it is now reduced by the Study and 
 Industry of John Guillim " (extract from the preface of the edition of 1G79.) 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 earthly life and sacrifice of onr Lord. These in turn will 
 suggest a consideration of the ordinary emblems of mortality. 
 After this we may very naturally dwell for awhile on the 
 representation in art of the human soul and of angels, good 
 and bad, of heaven and hell, the apostles and saints of God, 
 the dragon and the serpent, symbols of evil. We shall then 
 proceed to refer to the emblems of authority, such as the 
 crown, mitre, sceptre, orb, and staff. The various forms 
 derived from the animal kingdom will be followed by those 
 based on flowers. Various symbolic forms again are founded 
 on the sun, the moon, and the starry host of heaven. Geo- 
 metrical forms must not be overlooked ; and the sea too 
 will contribute its quota in such maritime forms as the 
 ship, the trident, the shell, and the fish. Even stones have 
 their associations ; while we shall require to deal also with 
 a large section of objects, such as instruments of martyr- 
 dom, the gridiron of St. Lawrence, or the wheel of St. 
 Catherine, that almost defy classification in any formal way. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Symbolism of Language Symbolism of Action Of Number The 
 Number of Perfection The great Councils of the Early Church 
 The Number of Probation Symbolism of Colour White Ponti- 
 fical of Bishop Clifford Value of old Church Inventories " Les . 
 Couleurs Liturgiques" of Malais Heraldic Symbolism of Colours -r 
 Old Authors thereupon "Great divergence of Use irr~various I 
 Dioceses Illustrations of this Yellow Colour used sometimes 
 in Good, sometimes in Bad Sense Golden Vestments Eed Early 
 Christian Art The Colour-sense of the Ancients Scarlet Crim- 
 son Green Blue Political Colours Purple Violet Gray or 
 Ash-coloured Black. 
 
 SYMBOLISM may be of language. This imagery of diction is 
 especially characteristic of savage and semi-civilized peoples, 
 though by no means confined to them. The oratory of the 
 New Zealanders or of the North American Indians owes 
 much of its force and beauty to this symbolism of language, 
 and it is a very marked feature in the literature and daily 
 speech of many of the Eastern races. Thus, amidst the 
 decoration of the Alhambra, we find entwined a great variety 
 of laudatory inscriptions, such as the following : " Thou hast 
 risen in the horizon of empire like the sun in the vault of 
 heaven, mercifully to dissipate the shadows of injustice and 
 oppression. Thou hast secured even the tender branches 
 from harm and the breath of the summer gale." Biblical 
 examples may also very readily be found : " As the apple 
 tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved. I sat 
 down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was 
 s>veet to my taste." We may instance also the blessing 
 given to Jacob, "With corn and wine have I sustained him": 
 corn, the source of the staff of life, and wine to make glad 
 the heart of man, being selected as symbolising the general 
 material and temporal prosperity which the expression was 
 meant to convey. The proverbs that are found in the lite- 
 
io SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 rat are and speech of almost all races of men are a further 
 illustration of this delight in a picture-language. 1 
 
 Symbolism may be of action. It may be seen in the smok- 
 ing of the pipe of peace and the burial of the war hatchet 
 amongst the Sioux, in the passing round of the loving cup 
 at the banquets of the city magnates. The rites of the 
 Levitical priesthood afford many examples. 2 The Arab 
 custom of tasting salt with one's guest is a binding symbol 
 of amity thereby established ; and many other illustrations 
 will readily occur to our readers. 
 
 FIG. 1. 
 
 Symbolism may be of number. Examples of this section, 
 though frequently to be encountered, often escape notice, as 
 they do not so clearly and immediately reveal their meaning 
 as some other forms of symbolic treatment do. Threefold 
 arrangements, such as a three-light window, a trefoil, or 
 triangle, ordinarily symbolise the Trinity when found in 
 Christian art. Pythagoras calls three the number of com- 
 pletion, expressive of beginning, middle, and end. The 
 number was a favourite one in classic mythology, where we 
 meet with the three-headed Cerberus, the three Fates, the 
 three Furies, the three Graces, while the Muses are three 
 times three in number. The wise men, or kings, or Magi, 
 who followed the guiding star to Bethlehem were three in 
 
 1 As for example : 
 
 ' 111 weeds grow apace." 
 
 ' The scalded dog fears cold water." 
 
 ' There is a silver lining to every cloud. 1 ' 
 
 ' Birds of a feather flock together." 
 
 ' Where bees are, there is honey." 
 
 ' One sword keeps another in its scabbard." 
 
 2 Other good Biblical examples will be found in Isa. xx. 2, 3, 4 ; in 
 Ezek. iv. 1 et seq., xii. 3 et seq., xxi. 6 et seq. ; and in Amos vii. 7 
 et seq. 
 
THE NUMBER OF PERFECTION. 
 
 i i 
 
 number, according to generally accepted tradition. In fig. 1, 
 the reverse of an early medal, we have a representation of 
 the visit of the Magi, three in number, to the infant Christ. 
 While we must be careful not to read meanings where 
 they were never meant or intended, the number four will 
 ordinarily in Christian art represent the evangelists ; while 
 
 FIG. 2. 
 
 six stands for the attributes of Deity, power, majesty, wis- 
 dom, love, mercy, justice. 
 
 Seven has by old writers been called the number of per- 
 fection, and it is curious to notice how often this idea seems 
 to be involved in its use. Thus to quote some few repre- 
 sentative examples out of many : Balaam, as an effectual test 
 of the will of God, built seven altars and prepared seven 
 
12 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 oxen and seven rams for sacrifice. Job, referring to the 
 effectual protection of Providence, says, " In seven troubles 
 there shall no evil touch thee " ; and again, "Wisdom hath 
 hewn her seven pillars." Jacob, as a sign of perfect sub- 
 mission, bowed himself seven times before his brother. The 
 sevenfold circuit of Jericho prior to its complete overthrow 
 is another example. Naaman was commanded to bathe 
 seven times in the Jordan as a prelude to his complete 
 restoration to health. Samson for full security was bound 
 with seven bands. The Jewish Church has seven great holy 
 days in each year. The Romish Church has seven sacra- 
 ments. On the first appointment of deacons in the early 
 Christian Church seven men of honest report were to be 
 chosen. " How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I 
 forgive him ? " The question suggested seven times as the 
 limit of endurance of wrong. The golden candlestick of the 
 Jewish temple was seven-branched. 1 It is represented in 
 fig. 2, a portion of one of the sculptured panels on the 
 triumphal arch of Titus at Rome. The great apocalyptic 
 angels are seven in number; and Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, 
 Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodocea were the seven 
 Churches of Asia. In the same book we read of seven candle- 
 sticks, seven stars, seven trumpets, the seven spirits before 
 the throne of God. Pharaoh in his dream saw seven oxen 
 and seven ears of corn. On the seventh day of the seventh 
 month a holy observance was ordained to the children of 
 Israel, who feasted seven days and remained seven days in 
 tents. The seventh year was to be observed as a Sabbath, 
 and at the end of the seven times seven came the great year 
 of Jubilee. 
 
 When we shall, later on, deal with the attributes of the 
 Trinity, mention must be made of the sevenfold gifts of the 
 Holy Spirit. At the creation of the world the seventh period 
 marked its completion. Psalms vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., cii., 
 cxxx., cxliii., are those known as the seven penitential psalms 
 
 1 In the Talmud we read that over the throne of king Solomon hung a 
 chandelier of gold with seven branches, and on these the names of the 
 seven patriarchs, Adam, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Job, 
 were engraven. On the second row of the branches were engraved the 
 names of the " seven pious ones of the world" : Levi, Kehath, Amram, 
 Moses, Aaron, Eldad, and TMadad. 
 
THE NUMBER OF PERFECTION. 13 
 
 from their especially contrite character. There are also 
 seven deadly sins. The seven joys and the seven sorrows 
 of the Virgin mother are frequently represented in the art 
 of the Middle Ages. The first series comprises the Annun- 
 ciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the 
 kings, the Presentation in the temple, the Finding of Christ 
 among the doctors in the temple, the Assumption. The 
 seven sorrows are the prophecy of Simeon, the flight into 
 Egypt, Christ missed in the temple, the betrayal of her Son, 
 the Crucifixion, the Deposition from the Cross, and the 
 Ascension. 
 
 There were also seven great councils of the early Church ; l 
 while in the Roman Catholic service of consecration of a 
 church, the altar is sprinked seven times in remembrance of 
 the Lord's Passion and the seven outpourings of His sacred 
 blood. " The first whereof was at circumcision ; the second, 
 in prayer in the garden ; the third, at the scourging ; the 
 fourth, from the crown of thorns ; the fifth, from the pierced 
 hands ; the sixth, when His feet were nailed to the cross ; 
 the seventh, when His side was wounded by the spear." 
 
 There are in addition the seven champions of Christen- 
 dom ; St. George of England, St. Andrew of Scotland, St. 
 David of Wales, St. Patrick of Ireland, St. James of Spain, 
 St. Denys of France, and St. Anthony of Italy. 
 
 We read too of the seven wonders of the ancient world. 
 As a matter of fact there were eight, but in any list there 
 is an "or," and not an "and," where they are enumerated. 2 
 This verbal difference may seem trifling ; but while the use 
 
 1 The first oecumenical synod at Nicaea, under Constantiue the Great 
 in the year 325, against the errors of Arius. The second at Constan- 
 tinople, under Theodosius the Great in the year 381, against the heresy 
 of Macedonius in denying the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. The third 
 at Ephesus, under Theodosius in 431, against Nestorius. The fourth at 
 Chalcedon, under Marcian in 451, against Eutyches and Dioscuros, who 
 asserted that there was only one nature in Christ. The fifth at Con- 
 stantinople, under Justinian in 553, against Origen. The sixth at Con- 
 stantinople also, under Constantine Pogonatus in 680, against Honorius, 
 Sergius, and Pyrrhus ; and the seventh at Nicaea, under Constantine and 
 Irene in the year 787, against the Iconoclasts. 
 
 2 The pyramids of Egypt ; the hanging gardens of Babylon ; the tomb 
 of Mausolus ; the temple of Diana at Ephesus ; the statue of Zeus by 
 Phidias, the Colossus of Khodes, the Pharos of Egypt or the temple 
 of Cyrus. 
 
14 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 of the latter word would make the total eight, the use of 
 i he former sacrifices one on the list to the desire to bring 
 the total to the mystic number of perfection. We have also 
 the seven wise men of Greece, while Shakespeare gives us 
 the seven ages of man, from puling infancy to decrepit old 
 age. The Hindus believe in seven mansions of all created 
 spirits, the earth being the lowest of these, while the seventh 
 and highest is the seat of Brahma. The Moslem pilgrimage 
 is at last consummated when seven circuits have been made 
 round the sacred stone at Mecca. The astronomers tell us 
 of seven greater planets, the alchemists dealt with seven 
 metals, 1 and we all of us recognise seven days in each week. 
 With our forefathers the period of apprenticeship was seven 
 years, and Jacob for the love he bore to Rachel was willing, 
 in the old world story, to serve Laban for as long. The lease 
 of a house is often for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years ; 
 and when we desire to give a rogue his deserts, he goes off 
 to penal servitude for a like period. In the eyes of the law 
 the stripling enters into manhood, with its contingent rights 
 of sueing and being sued, paying his own debts, and serving 
 on a jury, when three times seven years have gone over his 
 head ; while the tenth seven marks the natural period and 
 duration of human life. 
 
 Eight is the number of regeneration, hence by far the 
 greater number of the old fonts and baptistries are octagonal. 
 Twelve, the number of the apostles, has naturally been a 
 somewhat favourite number in art symbolism, being applied 
 not merely in this more limited sense, but also in a more 
 extended meaning, as representative of the Church generally. 
 As an example of the mystical meanings often attached to 
 numbers we may quote the words of St. Augustine where, 
 after referring to the passage in St. Paul, " What, know ye 
 not that the saints shall judge the world ? " and explaining 
 that the twelve thrones represent the twelve apostles, he 
 goes on to say : " The parts of the world are four : the east, 
 the west, the north, aud the south. From these four, saith 
 
 1 The bodies seven, eek, to hem heer anoon : 
 Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe ; 
 Mars yren, Mercurie quyksilver we clepe ; 
 Saturnus leed, and Jubiter is tyn, 
 And Venus coper, by my fader kyn." CHAUCER. 
 
THE NUMBER OF PROBATION. 
 
 the Lord in the gospel, shall the elect be gathered together. 
 Called, and how ? By the Trinity. Not called except by 
 baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost; so four parts each called by the Three make 
 twelve." 
 
 Nine as a number scarcely appears in Christian art, though 
 Milton writes that the gates of Hell are thrice threefold, 
 three of brass, three of iron, three of adamantine rock, and 
 tells us that when the fallen angels were expelled from 
 heaven "nine days they fell." A sense of completion has 
 been associated with the number. There were nine Muses. 
 In the " Lays of Ancient Rome," it will be remembered that 
 Lars Porsenna swears by the nine gods ; while in our own 
 experience we still see leases granted for ninety-nine- years. 
 We have been taught that it takes nine tailors to make a 
 man ; that a cat's tenacity of life is equal to nine times that 
 of other animals ; that possession is nine points of the law; 
 that if we we want to make the flogging of our burglar 
 effectual and complete, the cat-o'-nine-tails must be brought 
 out ; while we can pay the hero of the banquet no higher 
 compliment than to toast him with three times three. The 
 witches in " Macbeth " for the effectual working of the 
 charm sing around the caldron 
 
 " Thrice to thine and thrice to mine 
 And thrice again, to make up nine." 
 
 The ten petals of the passion flower represent the apostles 
 in the mystical meanings that have been associated with the 
 flower, since among the twelve one betrayed and one denied 
 his Lord. 
 
 The number forty is expressive of a period of probation or 
 trial. The Israelites wandered forty years in the wilderness, 
 and forty years of bondage they also had to serve under the 
 hard yoke of the Philistines. Moses was forty days on the 
 mount of Sinai. Elijah was in hiding forty days. For forty 
 days the deluge fell, and for yet another forty days Noah 
 was shut within the ark. The men of Nineveh had a like 
 period of probation under the preaching of Jonah. The 
 fasting of our Lord in the wilderness again was for forty 
 days. Our readers will remember too that St. Swithin's 
 Day is still anxiously looked for by many who believe that 
 
16 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 a very possible forty days of wet weather is in store for them j 1 
 while many old legal observances were based on this number, 
 such as the privilege of sanctuary, the duration of quaran- 
 tine, and so forth. 
 
 We pass now to a consideration of the influence of colour, 
 and of the meanings that have been assigned to the various 
 tints employed. 
 
 White has ever been accepted as symbolic of innocence of 
 soul, of purity of thought, of holiness of life. 2 Hence the 
 priests of the great divinity Osiris were robed in white, and 
 thus too were the priests of Zeus. The ministers on the 
 worship of Brahma, and the initiated in the Druidic rites, 
 like the Vestal Virgins, wore robes of the same spotless hue. 
 When the sins that are as scarlet shall have been made as 
 the untrodden snow, that soul shall stand amidst the great 
 army of the redeemed, clothed in stainless garb of white. 
 Hence in the early ages of the Christian Church those 
 admitted into its fellowship wore white garments. In 
 2 Chronicles v. 12 we read that the Levites at the dedi- 
 cation of Solomon's temple were " arrayed in white linen." 
 At the transfiguration of Christ " His garment," St. 
 Matthew tells us, " was white as the light," 3 while the 
 angel at the tomb of the Saviour was clothed in " raiment 
 
 1 " Now if on Swithun's day the welkin lours, 
 
 And every penthouse streams with hasty showers, 
 
 Twice twenty days shall clouds their fleeces drain, 
 
 And wash the pavement with incessant rain. 
 
 Let not such vulgar tales debase thy mind, 
 
 Nor Paul nor Swithun rule the clouds and wind." GAY. 
 
 The French have a very similar belief : 
 
 " S'il pleut le jour de Saint Medard, 
 II pleut quarante jours plus tard ; 
 S'il pleut le jour de Saint Gervais et de Saint Protais 
 II pleut quarante jours apres." 
 
 2 Thus Cyprian during the Decian persecution wrote to the Church at 
 Carthage : " Happy is our Church, illumined with so Divine a glory, and 
 ennobled in our day by the blood of the martyrs. She was before white 
 with the purity of her children, now she has found a robe of purple in 
 their blood." 
 
 3 "He was transfigured before them. And His raiment became 
 shining, exceeding white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white 
 them " (St. Mark ix. 2, 3). 
 
SYMBOLIC USE OF WHITE. 17 
 
 white as snow." The Apocalypse yields several illustra- 
 tive texts of a like nature. 
 
 In the Pontifical of Bishop Clifford, Bishop of London 
 from 1406 to 1426, we read, " Albus color inter omnes colores 
 est prior purior, simplicior. et festivior." St. Jerome speaks 
 of bishops, priests, and deacons being arrayed in white 
 in his time, and the white surplice of the clergy is as 
 marked a feature to the present day. It is used at all 
 Feasts and at all seasons relating to the Lord that are not 
 associated with suffering; such as the Annunciation, Pre- 
 sentation in the temple, Epiphany, and Easter. It is also 
 associated with the blessed Virgin l and to those saints who 
 were not also martyrs ; used too at dedication and harvest 
 festivals, at confirmations, and at weddings. 2 
 
 In the Middle Ages white was the general Lenten colour; 
 not from its association however with the idea of rejoicing 
 or of purity. Its use probably arose from the custom of 
 covering the altars, reredoses, etc., during Lent with white 
 cloths, as signifying the absence or veiling of all colour; 
 and thus regarded, its use during Lent is neither unseemly 
 nor inconsistent. Later on the original meaning was not so 
 
 1 At the coronation of Charles I. the royal robes were of white satin, 
 The previous sovereigns ha I always been attired in purple ; but Charles 
 being crowned on the Feast of the Purification, deliberately elected to be 
 robed in white in honour of the feast day and " to declare the virgin 
 purity with which he came to be espoused to his kingdom." This he 
 did, notwithstanding a very threatening prophecy, popularly attributed 
 to Merlin, of the disasters of all kinds that would attend the coming of a 
 " White King '' to the throne of England. Herbert records that at the 
 king's funeral " the sky was serene and clear ; but presently it began to 
 snow, and fell so fast, as by that time they came to the West end of 
 the lloyal Chapell the black velvet pall was all white (the colour of 
 Innocency), being thick covered over with Snow. So went the White 
 King to his grave." 
 
 2 In a very good French work, " Les Coulenrs Liturgiques," by the 
 Abbe Malais, we find the following passages that bear upon, and further 
 illustrate, our subject. " On voit tout de suite que le l-lauc caracterise 
 la joie et la purete ; la joie a Noel, a Paques, par exemple, et la purete 
 aux fetes des vierges." " Les Baptemes, les Manages, les Funerailles 
 des petits enfants, la Deuicace des Eglises, 1'Anniversaire de cette 
 Dedicace, les Ceremonies d'actions de graces comportent a peu pres 
 universellement la couleur blanche." "La fete de tous les Saints, a 
 cause de la grande joie qu'elle respire, a la vue de tant de bienheureux, 
 DOS protecteurs et nos modeles, est assez geiieralmeut celebree avec la 
 couleur blanche." 
 
1 8 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 strictly regarded, and instead of the plain linen covering, 
 silk and other rich materials were introduced, and both vest- 
 ment and altar covering became embroidered or painted with 
 symbols of the Passion. 
 
 The old church inventories supply ns with many excellent 
 illustrations of this use. Thus, for example, at St. Cuth- 
 bert's, Wells, in the year 1393, we find in use " one white 
 cloth for hanging in time of Lent." At St. Nicholas', Bristol, 
 A.D. 1432, "viij clot 8 of wyzht w* crucyfyx for leynt." At 
 St. Margaret's, Southwark, 1485, " iiij whyte frontelles with 
 Red crosses for Lente seson " ; and at Westminster Abbey in 
 1540, " a white clothe of sylk with a red crosse servying for 
 Lent." * The white hangings were exchanged for red during 
 the last fortnight of Lent ; while Good Friday varied from 
 red, through purple and violet, to black. 
 
 Several portraits of Mary Queen of Scots are extant in 
 which she is depicted as wearing white for mourning on 
 account of the death of her first husband, Francis II. of 
 France. The custom was by no means rare at that period. 
 Elizabeth of Eugland is recorded as wearing " Le Deuil 
 blanc " for example, and several other instances could be 
 cited. In China it is invariably the colour of mourning. At 
 funerals the chief mourners wear robes of white, while 
 friends don a sash of white in lieu of our crape trimming. 
 The visiting cards used must be of white in place of the 
 ordinary ci'imson. After a while salmon-coloured cards are 
 substituted, then those of a deeper red, till ultimately the 
 deep crimson cards are resumed. Any letter sent or received 
 during this period of mourning must be upon white paper. 
 
 It has been held that the symbolic colours used in the 
 Middle Ages in the services and adornment of the church 
 were based on those used in the temple service in the vest- 
 ments of the high priest and the hangings of the sanctuary 
 under the Jewish dispensation, and that the liturgical colours 
 of .the medioeval Church would naturally be allied to the 
 Levitical; but the facts are altogether against this theory. 
 In the early Christian Church the rites were celebrated in 
 a vesture that only differed from that of every-day life from 
 
 1 The whole subject, together with very numerous references to these 
 old inventories, will be found very ably and thoroughly worked out in 
 W. St. John Hope's treatise " On the English Liturgical Colours." 
 
AUTHORITIES ON COLOUR SYMBOLISM. 19 
 
 its greater costliness and richness of quality. Even as e. rly 
 as the tenth century certain colours were associated with 
 particular days, and were ascribed with liturgical authority 
 and significance. In the Greek Church, according to the 
 ' Enchologion " of Goar, published at Paris in the year 
 1647, only two colours were in use, purple for the Lenten 
 and other fast : ng days, and white for all other occasions. 
 Amongst the Armenians there are no special colours in use; 
 while in the Churches of the West where such symbolic 
 vestments are in service there is a great diversity of custom. 
 Had the colours been handed down from the temple obser- 
 vances we should have found all Christian Churches prob- 
 ably equally ready to employ them, and there would have 
 been no divergence in the use from the old standard. 
 
 It has been fancifully and poetically pointed out that if 
 every virtue has its own colour, white, the colour of light, 
 being produced by the blending of all the tints in the spec- 
 trum, may with peculiar appropriateness be employed as a 
 symbol of the union of every virtue. Whatever poetic idea 
 however we may read into old observance, we must carefully 
 distinguish between historic fact and ingenious afterthought; 
 and there is no doubt that the grand discovery of Newton 
 was not at the service of the mediaeval ecclesiastics. 
 
 The old writers on heraldry often delighted to throw a 
 glamour of symbolism over their science; hence we find 
 Guillim, for example, writing, "The colour White is re- 
 sembled to the Light, and the Dignity thereof reckoned 
 more worthy by how much the more the Light and the 
 Day is of more Esteem than Darkness and the Night." 
 The subject, from the heraldic point of view, may be very 
 well studied in " La vraye et parfaite Science des Armoires," 
 published at Dijon in the year 1660. Other curious old 
 authorities on the symbolism of colours are Krausen's " Dis- 
 sertatio de Colore Sacro, speciatim Vestibus Sacerdotalis," 
 published at Wittemberg in 1707, and the book of Innocent 
 III., entitled "De Sacro Altaris Mysterio." This is the 
 pope, it will be remembered, that king John was so unfor- 
 tunate as to differ in opinion from, and his book is the 
 earliest on the subject, dating from the year 1198. 
 
 It is somewhat curious, symbolism of colours being once 
 recognised in the Western Churches, to find such a diver, 
 gence of custom, as it might naturally be supposed that 
 
20 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 some definite and binding ordinance on the point, some pre- 
 cise code of rules, would have been forthcoming. Directly 
 however we look into the matter and refer to the "uses" 
 of the various dioceses, we are struck with the difference 
 in practice. Thus while white is held to be the appropriate 
 colour for Trinity Sunday in Rome, Milan, Troyes, Sens, 
 Auxerre, Rouen, and Lyons, we find green in use at Rheims 
 and Exeter, yellow at Poictiers, blue at Toledo, violet at 
 Soissons, red at Laon, Coutance, Wells, and Cologne. All 
 these colours have their legitimate and appropriate meaning, 
 white, for instance, typifying the spotless dignity of the 
 Godhead, while the violet, very sparingly found, characterizes 
 the obscurity of the mystery of the Divine Trinity; l but the 
 divergence from uniformity is striking. 
 
 Yellow is comparatively but seldom met with. It is a 
 good example of the fact the student in colour symbolism 
 must by no means overlook, that a colour may be employed 
 either in a good or a bad sense, and it is therefore often 
 necessary to judge from the surroundings before we are able 
 to assign a definite meaning to any colour. In France, 
 during the sixteenth century, the doors of felons and traitors 
 were painted yellow ; and in some countries the Jews were 
 required to wear yellow, because they denied the Messiah. 
 It is the colour of jealousy 2 and treason, and Judas is often 
 represented in old glass painting in a yellow robe. Where 
 
 1 " Quant a la fete du Saint- Sacrement beaucoup d'Fglises 1'ont ce!6- 
 bree avec des ornements blancs, signe de joie et de purete, comme Rouen, 
 Bayeux, Coutances, Metz, et Beauvais ; mais grand nombre d'autres 
 dioceses ont fait usage de rouge, souvenir du sang et de la Passion 
 du Seigneur, a savoir : Evreux, Paris, Cbartres, Meaux, Versailles, Le 
 Mans, Soissons, Amiens, Cambrai, Toul, et Laon. Pour Auxerre le 
 missel ne desigue que les oruements les plus precieux, sans indiquer 
 aucune couleur particuliere." MALAIS, " Les Coulenrs Liturgiques." 
 
 2 In " Much Ado about Nothing" the count is described as " civil as 
 an orange, and something of that jealous complexion." In "Twelfth 
 Night " we read of one who " pii ed in thought" and was afflicted with 
 " green and yellow melancholy " ; wiiilein the " Merry Wives of Windsor " 
 Nym declares that he will possess Ford " with yellowness." We are 
 all familiar too with the disparaging and fault-nndiug nature that is 
 involved in the idea of the " jaundiced eye." 
 
 " A!l seems infected that the infected spy, 
 As all seems yellow to the jaundiced eye." 
 
 POPE, "Essay on Criticism." 
 
THE USE OF GOLD AND OF RED. 21 
 
 however it is represented by gold, or is a substitute for 
 it, it signifies love, constancy, dignity, wisdom ; thus one of 
 the early Fathers of the Church was called Chrysostom, the 
 golden mouth, from his eloquence and wisdom. " This 
 colour in Arms is blazed by the name of Or, which is as 
 much as to say Aurum, which is Gold. It doth lively repre- 
 sent that most excellent Metal, the possession whereof en- 
 chanteth the Heart of Fools, and the Colour whereof blindeth 
 the Eyes of the Wise. Such is the Worthiness of this Colour, 
 which doth resemble it, that none ought to bear the same in 
 arms but Emperors and Kings, and such as be of the Blood 
 Royal. And as this Metal exceedeth all others in Value, 
 Purity, and Fineness, so ought the Bearer (as much as in 
 him lies) to endeavour to surpass all other in Prowess and 
 Virtue." 
 
 We are told by Verrius that Tarquinius Priscus wore a 
 tunic of gold, arid we read too that Agrippiria, the wife of 
 the emperor Claudius, had a robe made entirely of woven 
 gold. When the tomb of the wife of the emperor Honorius 
 was opened in the year 1544 the golden tissue that had 
 enwrapped her was still intact, though she was interred in 
 the year 400 ; and when the foundations for St. Peter's at 
 ROD e were being excavated, the workmen came upon the 
 marble sarcophagus of an illustrious Roman, Probus Anicius, 
 and his wife, each of whose bodies was encircled in a robe 
 woven of pure gold. Another regal association, and one 
 more familiar, will be found in the Field of the Cloth of 
 Gold. Biblical illustrations of its use as a symbol of royalty 
 and power are abundant, as for instance when king Bel- 
 shazzar bestowed a chain of gold upon Daniel and made him 
 third ruler in his kingdom, and when the king of Hamath 
 sent an embassy to salute king David, and presented his 
 brother ruler with vessels of gold- 
 Red, as applied to spiritual virtues, signifies an ardent 
 love, a burning zeal for the faith; in mundane virtues, 
 energy and courage ; in an evil sense, cruelty and blood- 
 guiltiness. It is used on the feasts of martyrs and at 
 Whitsuntide. In the former case it speaks of the blood 
 which was shed for Christ, and in the latter of the tongues 
 of fire which descended upon the apostles. Hence, in the 
 inventory of Westminster Abbey, of the year 1388, we find 
 ' albae rubeas pro Commemoratione Apostolorum," and in that 
 
22 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 drawn up about the year 1540 an " albe of sylk with parells 
 of red nedyll work, etc., servyng for the chaunter at ye feast 
 of Seynt Peter." In the pontifical of Bishop Clifford we 
 find the various colours referred to, and the several occasions 
 when they are to be used ; and it is there stated, " Rubeus 
 color igneus est et sanguineus : caritati Spiritus et effusioni 
 sanguinis consimilis." 1 
 
 The Good Friday colours we have seen have varied from 
 red through purple or violet to black, but the majority of 
 the old inventories give red or purple. Thus, in the list of 
 vestments made in the year 1432 at St. Nicholas', Bristol, 
 we find "j rede, chysypull for gode fryday." We find also 
 in the inventory of Peterborough Abbey, A.D. 1539, "red 
 albes for passion week." 
 
 In the catacombs of Home many of the paintings are 
 evidently portraits of the persons buried there. Of these, 
 several very interesting examples may be seen in the National 
 Gallery. They are ordinarily accompanied by paintings of 
 scriptural subjects or by symbols indicative of the faith of 
 the deceased, who is usually attired in a flowing dress closely 
 resembling surplice and stole. The surplice is either white, 
 the symbol of the purified soul, or red, as washed in the 
 blood of Christ ; and the stole is the symbol of the yoke of 
 Christ, borne over the shoulders. 
 
 According to Guillim, " heraldically red representeth fire, 
 which is the chief est, lightsomest, and clearest of the Ele- 
 ments. This colour inciteth courage and magnanimity in 
 persons that do grapple together in single or publick fight." 
 We read that those that " strengthened their battels with 
 Elephants, when they would provoke them to fight, produced 
 before them resemblances of this martial colour, as the blood 
 of Grapes and of Mulberries," 2 an analagous proceeding 
 
 1 Malais again refers to its use in the following passage: " L'usage 
 de la couleur rouge a la veille et a la fete de la Pentecote, jour Folennel 
 auquel le Saint Esprit descendit sur les apotres en forme de langues en- 
 flainmees. Tous les offices diriges spe'cialment vers le culte de 1'Esprit 
 divin, comme le Sacrement de Confirmation, veulent cette couleur vive et 
 eclatante." 
 
 2 This idea is clearly based on the thirty-fourth verse in the sixth 
 chapter of the first book of Maccabees : " And to the end that they might 
 provoke the elephants to fight, they showed them the blood of grapes 
 and mulberries. ' 
 
VAGUENESS OF ANCIENT COLOUR NAMES. 23 
 
 apparently to waving a red flag at a bull. The colour has 
 a curiously exciting effect on various animals. It is a sure 
 provocative of the grotesque ire of the turkey-cock, and we 
 remember an old man in the country who supplied adders' 
 fat as a rustic remedy, who used to angle successfully for 
 his game amongst the heath and furze with rod and line, 
 having a piece of scarlet cloth attached. 
 
 Whatever the ceremonial colour of the day may be, the 
 Pope when he hears mass is vested in red, and at his death 
 he is clothed in the same colour; while we need scarcely 
 remind our readers that it is also the colour of the cardinal's 
 robes and hat. Our familiar phrase, " a red letter day," a 
 day of good fortune and happiness, refers to the old custom 
 of printing the saints' days in red ink. On the other hand, 
 the red flag is the symbol of insurrection and terrorism. 
 
 In China five symbolical colours are employed. " Red is 
 appointed to fire, and corresponds with the south; black 
 belongs to water, and corresponds with the north ; green 
 belongs to wood, and signifies the east ; white to metal, and 
 refers to the mist," says the commentator Li-ki. Yellow is 
 apportioned to the earth. What led to this division of colours 
 seems scarcely clear in some of the cases ; but it is known 
 to have been in force over a thousand years before the Chris- 
 tian era, so that it has at least antiquity in its favour. Red 
 holds a conspicuous place in the Chinese marriage ceremony. 
 
 The term red is after all somewhat vague, and includes 
 two colours so far distinct as scarlet and crimson. It is 
 often difficult to determine what the ancient colours were, 
 partly from our inability to decide what such terms as pur- 
 pi.irens, hyacinthus, and coccineus conveyed to those who 
 used them, and partly on account of the changeful effect of 
 time on paintings, embroideries, and the like. It has been 
 suggested that the ancients had either a very limited colour 
 vocabulary or were absolutely less gifted with a sense of 
 colour, or else we should scarcely find, as we do, one word, 
 pur/i-tireus, doing duty as descriptive of the colour of the sea, 
 of the sunrise, of the poppy flower, of the fruit of the fig, 
 of the human hair, of blood, and many other things. It is 
 also shown by Dr. Wickham Legg in his excellent work on 
 " The History of the Liturgical Colours," that the same 
 ignorance prevails as to the value of the mediceval words 
 rubeus, blodius, and others. It will be noted that St. Mat- 
 
24 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 thew says that the soldiers in mockery placed on Christ a 
 scarlet robe, while St. John calls it purple. 
 
 Scarlet is ordinarily found in the Bible as a symbol and 
 sign of honour and prosperity. It entered largely into the 
 adornment of the tabernacle. The daughters of Israel are 
 mentioned in 2 Samuel i. 24 as " clothed in scarlet, with 
 other delights." The ideally good wife of the last chapter 
 of Proverbs has her household " clothed with scarlet," and 
 the merchandise of the great city mentioned in Revelation 
 xviii. 12 included " gold and silver and precious stones, 
 pearls, fine linen, purple, and silk, and scarlet." 1 
 
 In ecclesiastical and other decorative work we ordinarily 
 meet with crimson as the red employed, rather than scarlet, 
 the latter being too crude and garish. Thus to give but one 
 example out of many, we find in the inventories of West- 
 minster " a cope, a chezabull, 2 etc., of crymsyn serving for 
 Palme Sonday." 
 
 Green, the characteristic colour of the Springtime, when 
 all Nature appears to revive again, and in the bursting buds 
 and blossoms gives rich promise of future fruitfulness, is 
 naturally associated with hope. Hence, while the Easter 
 ecclesiastical colour is almost everywhere white, as for 
 example, at Salisbury, Paris, Toledo, Cologne, and Milan, 
 at Soissons Cathedral we find it replaced by green. " The 
 Latins call it viridis," saith an old author, " in regard of 
 the strength, freshness, and liveliness thereof; and therefore 
 it best resembleth youth, in that most vegetables so long 
 
 1 There is considerable question amongst commentators as to what 
 the biblical colours were, and we must not necessarily conclude that the 
 scarlet of the Bible is the same thing as the scarlet of a Life Guard's 
 tunic. The word rendered scarlet is in the original tola, a word signify- 
 ing a worm. Besides the dyes produced from the murex, a crimson or 
 scarlet was in ancient times derived from an insect allied to the cochi- 
 neal, and called by the Arabs the kermes (hence our modern word car- 
 mine) ; and it is highly probable that this would be the source of the 
 " worm-dye." Our modern word vermilion carries the same significance, 
 a colour derived from a worm, though the facts of the manufacture do 
 not in this case bear out the name of the pigment. 
 
 2 In "the good old times," before school boards and Civil Service 
 examiners, spelling gave our ancestors but little anxiety. We find this 
 word in the different inventories and documents of the Middle Ages 
 appearing not only as above, but as chysypull, chesebyll, chesebull, 
 chesable, chyssypull, etc., etc. 
 
USE OF GREEN AS A SYMBOLIC COLOUR. 25 
 
 as they flourish are beautiful with verdure. It is a colour 
 most wholesome and pleasant to the eye." 3 In the ponti- 
 fical of Bishop Clifford, written in the fifteenth century, 
 we read, " Viridis color vividus est et visu jocund us atque 
 comfortaturus." 
 
 Amongst the ancient Britons a strict rule limited the 
 colour of the official dress assigned to each of the ranks of 
 the bardic order, spotless white, as we have seen, for the 
 druid or priest ; sky-blue for the bard or poet ; and green, 
 the verdant decking of wood and downlaiid, for the teacher 
 of the virtues of herbs and the mysteries of leech-craft. 
 
 Durandus associates with green the idea of contemplation, 
 an interpretation that it may well bear, since the lover of 
 nature is ever thoughtful ; hence Wordsworth exclaims, 
 
 " To me the meanest flower that blows can give 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tea s." 
 
 Young affirms " the course of nature is the art of God." 
 Chaucer calls Nature " the vicar of the Almightie Lord," 
 while the Bible abounds in passages teaching the same 
 truth. " All Thy works shall praise Thee, God, and Thy 
 saints shall bless Thee. Praise ye Him, sun and moon ; 
 praise Him, all ye stars of light, mountains and all hills, 
 fruitful trees, and all cedars." 
 
 Green in mediaeval days was ordinarily associated with 
 the Feast of the Trinity. 2 Hence, in the instructions of 
 Bishop Grandisson of Exeter, issued to his clergy about the 
 year 1337, we find the direction, " On the feast of Trinity, 
 if they have beautiful green vestments with copes, tunicles, 
 and dalmatics in a sufficient number for such a feast, they 
 must be used: otherwise let wholly white or light vestments 
 be assumed." 
 
 Shakespeare, in " The Merchant of Venice," writes of 
 "green-eyed jealousy," and again, in Othello: 
 
 " beware, my lord, of jealousy; 
 It is the green-eyed monster." 
 
 1 " A mead with lively verdure fresh." DANTE. 
 
 2 " Symbole d'esperance, couleur employee plus generalement au 
 temps qui n'est point characterise par la joie, par le feu divin, par le 
 sang, par la penitence ou la tristesse. Cette couleur verte est done 
 appliquee au temps libre avant la Septuagesime et surtout au temps qui 
 s'ecoule apres la Pentecote, jusqu'a 1'Avent." MALAIS. 
 
26 SYMBOLISM JN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 In many ways green was regarded in mediaeval folk-lore 
 unfavourably, from its supposed association with the fairies, 
 and from divers other superstitions that need not here be set 
 forth, since our space can, we think, be better appropriated. 
 
 It is curious to find that in some of the Italian liturgical 
 books green is given as an alternative for black in the office 
 for the dead. It may be so found for example in the "Liber 
 Sacerdotalis," printed at Venice in 1537, and in the " Liber 
 Clericorum," A.D. 1550. 
 
 Blue, the colour of the clear sky, does not carry on its 
 face so evident a meaning as the purity of spotless white, 
 the burning ardour of glowing red ; hence it has somewhat 
 arbitrarily been taken to represent eternity, faith, fidelity, 
 loyalty, truth, spotless reputation. It was one of the Levitical 
 colours, and many references to it will be found in Exodus, 
 in the description of the tabernacle and of the priestly robes. 
 In the book of Esther we read of Mordecai " in royal apparel 
 of blue and white," but this probably should rather be ren- 
 dered purple. 
 
 " Blew, which colour," says an old writer, " representeth 
 the Aire amongst the elements, is of all the rest the greatest 
 favourer of life, as the only nurse and maintainer of vitall 
 spirits in any living creature. The cullor of blew is com- 
 monly taken from the cleere skye, which appeareth so after 
 that the tempests be overblowne, a prosperous successe and 
 good fortune to the wearer in all his affayres." 
 
 The Earl of Surrey, in his " Complaint of a Dying Lover," 
 associates the idea of loyalty and devotion with blue in the 
 lines, 
 
 " By him I made his tomb, 
 
 In token he was true, 
 And as to him belonged well, 
 I covered it with blue." ^ 
 
 Chaucer, again, in the " Courj^nf Love," writes, 
 
 "Lo, yonder folke (quod she) that knele in blew, 
 
 They wear the colourage, and ever shal, 
 TLe signe they were, and ever will be true, 
 Withouten change." 
 
 " True blue" is now generally associated politically with the 
 Conservative party. 
 
 Other political colours are the orange of the Ulsterman, 
 
SYMBOLIC USE OF PUKPLE AND GRA Y. 27 
 
 the green of the Irish Nationalist, the white of the Bourbon 
 and the Stuart, the black of the House of Hanover, the 
 red and white roses of Lancastrian and Yorkist, the violet 
 of the Napoleons, and so forth. 
 
 Purple has always been associated with royal majesty, 
 and accepted as the sign of imperial power. Thus in ancient 
 Rome the toga of the emperor, or of conquerors on the day 
 of their Triumph, was purple. The Babylonians and other 
 Eastern heathen nations used to array their gods in purple 
 robes. Homer intimates that garments of this colour were 
 worn by princes alone, and a very early illustration of this 
 royal use will be found in Judges viii. 26, where the kings 
 of Midian, defeated by Gideon, are described as being clad 
 in purple raiment. The pre-eminence still given to purple 
 is no doubt a result of the old regal association. Probably 
 the ancient preference arose when the relative superiority 
 in beauty and brilliancy of purple to other colours was 
 greater than at the present day, as the Tyrian dye prepared 
 from shell-fish was highly esteemed, and the Phoenicians 
 excelled all others in the manufacture of these pre- 
 eminently beautiful garments. 
 
 Ecclesiastically purple and violet have borne an entirely 
 different significance, being devoted, not to imperial pomp, 
 but to penitence and fasting. "La couleur violette," says 
 Malais, "represente 1'obscurite, la tristesse, et la penitence "; 
 and amongst other items we find in the inventory, dated 
 1466, of a London church, "j purpyll chesebyll for gode 
 fryday." Though white has ordina.rily been used as the 
 liturgical colour for Epiphany, violet has occasionally in 
 some "uses" been substituted, in allusion to that text in 
 Isaiah where the Gentiles are walking in darkness until 
 the Epiphany manifestation has shone upon their path : 
 " Populus qui ambulabat in tenebris vidit lucem magnam." 
 Still more rarely green has been employed, the colour of 
 hope, to sjmbolize the ingathering of the Gentiles that till 
 then had been outside the fold. 
 
 Gray or ash-colour has sometimes been substituted for 
 purple as the Lenten colour, and more especially on the 
 Continent. Its use was of course suggested by the ashes 
 distributed on the first day of Lent. Claude Villette in his 
 book, " Les Raisons de 1'Oifice et Ceremonies qui se font en 
 1'Eglise," published in 1648, speaks of it as " couleur de 
 
28 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 terre, cendre, et penitence." In the inventory of the church 
 property of Exeter Cathedral, A.D. 1327, we meet with " una 
 capa cinerei coloris pro Die Cinerium." Liturgically, gray, 
 blue, and violet, and even white, are treated as alternative 
 and secondary colours to black. 
 
 Black, suggestive of the material darkness and gloom 
 that follows the withdrawal of the cheering light of day, 
 is meet symbol of the spiritual darkness of the soul un- 
 illumined by the Sun of righteousness. We see therefore 
 how appropriately the title " Prince of Darkness " is applied 
 to the arch-tempter, the great enemy of the souls of men. 
 It is the colour of mourning, of shame, and of despair 
 "black despair, the shadow of a starless night," 1 and of 
 
 " all the grisly legions that tro^p 
 Under the soi ty flag of Acheron." 2 
 
 In the apse of one of the Greek churches is a fresco of the 
 Last Sapper. All the apostles have the nimbus; but while 
 those of all the other apostles are bright in colour, that of 
 poor lost Judas is black as the gloomy path of Erebus, the 
 valley of the shadow of death that led to Hades. 
 
 " Whatsoever Thing there is that hath in it either Light 
 or Heat, or else a Life, either Animal or Vegetable, the 
 Same being once extinct, the Thing itself becometh forthwith 
 Black, which is said to be the colour of Horror and Destruc- 
 tion ; for which respect mourning Garments are made of 
 that Colour that doth most significantly represent the Horror 
 of Death and Corruption." 3 
 
 In Byzantium the emperor wore white on the death of a 
 kinsman, as black garments were forbidden within the 
 palace ; and the same rule is, we are aware, rigidly enforced 
 at the present day at the court of Morocco. 
 
 1 Shelley, 2 Milton. 
 
 3 Thus far Guillim. Another old writer however, Feme, willing to 
 show that even black is not so black as it is painted, bestows upon it a 
 somewhat less gloomy character. ''The colour of blacke," he says, "is 
 the most auncient of all colours, for in the beginning there was darkness 
 over the face of the earth. And although that the colour of white was 
 alwaies most praiseworthy for the brightness of the same, yet can we not 
 omit the honours due to the colour of black ; as first, it is the most 
 perdurable of all colours, for it can hardly be altered into any other 
 show or colour than the same which of nature it is, whereas of the 
 contrarie part it doth easily extinguish and blot out any other colour." 
 
THE SYMBOLIC USE OF BLACK. 29 
 
 On the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, the crusaders 
 installed a patriarch over the church of the Holy Sepulchre 
 and attendant Augustinians, and in their liturgical formula 
 we find the strange fact that all feasts of the Virgin were 
 to be marked by black. " Ornnes sollemnitates beate Marie 
 cum pannis et vestibus nigris." In all other service books 
 white is the invariable colour. It has been suggested that 
 its use had reference to the passage in the Song of Solomon, 
 "I am black, but comely"; but there seems no reason why 
 on such a ground the church at Jerusalem should make so 
 marked a departure from universal custom. Can it possibly 
 have been from a feeling that Jerusalem was the scene of 
 the betrayal and crucifixion of the Divine Son, and that 
 whatever homage might elsewhere be meetly paid to the 
 virgin purity of Mary must at the scene of her bitter 
 sorrows give place to the sadder memorial of heart-breaking 
 anguish ? 
 
 In the thirteenth century it was the custom on Christmas 
 Eve to have a threefold vesting: first of black, to signify 
 the time before the declaration of the law to Moses; on the 
 removal of this, white, to indicate the days of prophecy ; and 
 then red, to symbolise the love and charity to mankind that 
 the coming of the Christ brought into the world. 
 
 In an inventory of 1407 we find the item, "an hole ves- 
 timent of blac for masse of requiem " ; while in another, 
 dating from about 1540, we come across "a pair of curt- 
 teynes black for dyrges." 
 
 Black was in the Middle Ages associated with witchcraft. 
 It is naturally a type of darkness, and therefore the transi- 
 tion to moral darkness and dealing with familiar spirits is 
 readily made ; hence such incantations and invocations of 
 diabolic power were naturally known as the black art. 
 Almost all allusions to the colour have a touch of the 
 disquieting element in them. Thus a man who would fain 
 get into a somewhat exclusive club fails to do so because 
 he is blackballed ; he loses his cash through black-mail if 
 he is so unfortunate and weak as to yield to the menaces 
 of a blackleg ; while the knave himself, if he goes from bad 
 to worse, may not impossibly see the judge put on the black 
 cap when his sentence is pronounced. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Representations of the Trinity The "Trinita" in Art Pictures in the 
 National Gallery Reasons for Avoidauce by Early Christians of 
 all Representations of the First Person Policy Reverence The 
 Gnostic Heresy The Eye, Hand, and Arm of the Lord Latin 
 and Greek Forms of Benediction The Head The Whole Figure 
 Final Irreverence of Treatment The Second Person of the 
 Trinity In Early Ages represented as almost a Youth Change dl 
 Feeling The Type adopted in the Latin Church And in the Greek 
 Church The Incarnation Christ as Orpheus As the Good 
 Shepherd The Passion Plays of the Middle Ages The Crucifix 
 The Holy Spirit in Human Form. 
 
 REPRESENTATIONS of the Trinity do not appear till somewhat 
 late in the history of art. Figures or symbols of the Saviour 
 may be met with at a very early period, as also the dove 
 and other symbolic forms of the Holy Spirit ; but for cen- 
 turies no sculptor or painter ventured on any symbol of 
 similitude of the first Person of the Trinity, Why this 
 was the case we shall see later on, when we deal with the 
 three Persons individually. 
 
 While we find amongst the Hindus a Trinity of Deities, 
 Brahma the great creator, who presides especially over the 
 earth, Siva the destroyer, who reigns over fire, and Vishnu, 
 whose empire is the water; and amongst the Greeks and 
 Romans, Zeus or Jupiter reigning over earth and heaven, 
 Poseidon or Neptune controlling the sea, and Aidoneus or 
 Pluto the governor of the shades of Hades ; the Triune 
 God of Christendom is a Trinity of almighty Power, of 
 boundless Love, of beneficent Wisdom. 
 
 Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, who flourished in the 
 second century, was the first who used the word trinity to 
 express the three sacred Persons in the Godhead, and the 
 doctrine it expresses has been generally received amongst 
 Christians. No reference will be found to it in the Old 
 
 30 
 
REPRESENTATIONS OF THE TRINITY. 31 
 
 Testament, but in the New it is very explicitly set forth in 
 the directions as to the rite of baptism in Matthew xxviii. 
 19, and in other passages. 
 
 In the National Gallery will be found a picture by 
 Garofalo entitled, "The Vision of St. Augustin." Augus- 
 tinus, bishop of Hippo, and one of the Doctors 1 of the 
 Church, relates that while engaged in a work on the Trinity, 
 he had a vision in which he saw a child endeavouring with 
 a ladle to empty the ocean into a hole which he had made 
 in the sand; and upon the saint pointing out to him the 
 uselessness of his toil, the child retorted by observing how 
 infinitely more futile was the endeavour to explain what the 
 Deity had left an inscrutable mystery. 
 
 Amongst later Italian painters the " Trinita," a conven- 
 tional representation of the Godhead, was a favourite subject. 
 A very good typical example may be seen in the National 
 Gallery, by Pesellino, in which we see Christ extended upon 
 the cross, while the Dove hovers above. The Father is 
 seated, surrounded by cherubim and seraphim, and with 
 outstretched hands beneath those of the Saviour sustains 
 the weight of the cross. In other representations all three 
 Persons are given in human form, the Father as an aged 
 man, the Son and Spirit being younger looking; while in 
 some few cases all three are as exactly alike, to carry out 
 the idea of perfect equality, as the artist could make them. 
 In such cases one extended cloak frequently enwraps all 
 three figures, while one figure holds a globe, the emblem of 
 dominion, the second the cross of sacrifice, while the third 
 bears a roll or book, the attribute of wisdom. In the old 
 church records we often find mention of representations of 
 the Trinity, but unfortunately so briefly given, that we get 
 no hint of the composition of the group. Thus in a parish 
 book of St. Christopher's, London, dated 1488, we find " a 
 chales with a patent of silver with a Trinite weyng xxi 
 owncs," arid "ij cloths stained white for thappostles altar, 
 above with the Trinity and beneath with Our Lady," and 
 yet again, " a Banner-Cloth with the Trynyte theryn." 
 Illuminated manuscripts often supply illustrations, and in far 
 
 1 These were Saints Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and 
 Chrysostom in the Greek Church; Saints Jerome, Augustin, and 
 Gregory the Great in the Bomish Church. 
 
32 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 better condition than the sculptures on fonis and elsewhere, 
 that by stress of time and puritanical violence are so far 
 disfigured as to make identification of subject often mere 
 guesswork. 
 
 A picture of the Madonna and Holy Child by Domenico 
 Veneziano, in the National Gallery, supplies us with anothei 
 variation of treatment of the subject. In the " Trinita ' 
 we see the suffering Christ; in other examples, as in some 
 we have referred to, He appears with the other two Persons 
 in strict equality, co-ruler with them of heaven and of earth ; 
 but in another class, of which this picture is a good example, 
 Christ is the babe of Bethlehem standing on the Virgin 
 mother's knee, or enfolded in her arms, while the Dove 
 hovers over the group, and, above all, the Father bends 
 down from heaven with arms outstretched in love and pro- 
 tection. While there is often in such representations a 
 treatment that gives us a sense of shock and irreverence, we 
 must nevertheless bear in mind that in all such cases inten- 
 tion is everything, and the intention undoubtedly, whatever 
 we may now think of its expression, was beyond question 
 reverential, and mast be judged from that standpoint alone. 
 
 Three very different reasons influenced the artists of the 
 early Christian period in their avoidance of any representa- 
 tion of the first Person in the Trinity policy, reverence, 
 and irreverence. 
 
 Jehovah, the eternal Father, " the Lord, strong and 
 mighty, the Lord mighty in battle," He " who hath measured 
 the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven 
 with the span," before whose almighty power Abraham and 
 Job and all the sons of men are but as "dust and ashes," 
 was in attributes too much like the Jupiter of the old 
 religion to make it at all advisable to attempt a personifica- 
 tion that would possibly remind the converts to the new 
 faith of the great Olympic idol that they had so lately 
 worshipped, while it was scarcely possible for even the most 
 ignorant to confound the loving Redeemer, Christus Con- 
 solator, with any creation of pagan mythology. While the 
 Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst the sons of men, 
 the glory of God the Father has had no visible manifestation, 
 for "no man hath seen God at any time." The glorified 
 humanity of Christ was at least attemptable, but the inef- 
 fable majesty of " the King of Glory" was infinitely beyond 
 
THE REPRESENTATION OF JEHOVAH. 33 
 
 all human imagination or the loftiest ideal : hence not policy 
 alone, but a feeling of the deepest awe and reverence was a 
 restraining influence. Later on, when the new religion had 
 become more established, and a generation arose who had 
 never bowed the knee before the shrine of Jove, the necessity 
 for avoiding any representation that might suggest the old 
 religion became needless. It may at first sight appear that 
 it is a dishonour to Jehovah to suggest a comparison with 
 Jupiter; but we must bear in mind that while the actual 
 difference is infinite, such men as Phidias and other great 
 artists had invested the images of the gods of Greece and 
 Rome with the highest and noblest art that the world has 
 ever seen, forms that it was impossible, no matter how 
 immeasurably grander the new theme, for the art of man to 
 surpass. Later on this noble reverence was almost wholly 
 lost, and what the early ages in awe and a sense of its utter 
 futility did not dare to attempt became at length so mate- 
 rialized that we find the great God who dwelleth "in the 
 light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath 
 seen, nor can see," represented in the pontifical robes and 
 tiara, or bearing the orb and sceptre and the royal crown of 
 an earthly ruler. 
 
 Not policy nor reverence alone were restraining causes. 
 In the first century of the Christian era there arose many 
 strange heresies ; and one of these, the Gnostic, held that 
 Jehovah was a stern, unpitying tyrant, condemning all for 
 the sin of one, and indifferent to the sorrows of the creatures 
 He had made. Hence they turned with aversion from the 
 Jehovah of the Old Testament to the loving and merciful 
 Saviour of the New, and refused to acknowledge His claim 
 on their allegiance. 
 
 For many centuries the eye, hand, or arm of God emerging 
 from the clouds that veiled the brightness of the Divine 
 Majesty were the only symbols employed. At a later date 
 the head or entire figure was shown, but with not nearly so 
 grand and impressive an effect as that produced on the mind 
 by the more reverential treatments of the subject. The 
 frequent allusions in the Old Testament to the hand and 
 the arm of the Lord as the instrument of His sovereign 
 power, such as, " His right hand, and His holy arm hath 
 gotten Him the victory"; or of 'His might in creation, as 
 " Thy hands have made me and fashioned me " ; of His 
 
 D 
 
34 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 goodness to the creatures dependent on His bounty, " Thou 
 openest Thy hands, they are filled with good " ; and of His 
 justice, " the works of His hands are verity and judgment " 
 suffice to show how apposite such a symbol would be, and 
 thus to clearly account for its frequent recurrence. Other 
 texts, such as " His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He 
 seeth all his goings," "The eyes of the Lord are upon the 
 righteous," or, " The eyes of the Lord are in every place, 
 beholding the evil and the good," justify and explain the use 
 of the other early symbol of the God who is not only omni- 
 potent, but omniscient. 
 
 The hand, as in fig. 3, at times sends down streams of light, 
 and is often in the act of benediction. 1 Our illustration is 
 from a Greek miniature of the tenth century. The inscrip- 
 tions show that the figures introduced are the prophet 
 Isaiah and representations of Night and Aurora, these latter 
 being suggested by the passage in Isaiah : " I am the Lord, 
 and there is none else. I form the light and create dark- 
 ness." The writings of Isaiah dwell in a marked degree on 
 the coming kingdom of Messiah, and in the illustration before 
 us darkness passes away before the coming dawn, the advent 
 of the Sun of righteousness. It is a curious blending of 
 Christian and pagan ideas and symbols. In the earliest ex- 
 amples those in the catacombs and in the mosaics of the 
 early Italian churches the hand is without the surrounding 
 nimbus that we, later on, often find added. The earliest 
 known representation is from a tomb in the catacombs, dated 
 359, where Moses is represented as receiving the tables of the 
 law from the Divine hand issuing from a cloud. An inter- 
 esting example to Englishmen will be seen in the Bayeux 
 tapestry, where the hand of God is represented over the 
 Church of St. Peter. It may be seen also on the coins of 
 some of our Saxon kings, in one case accompanied by the 
 Alpha and Omega. Constantine II. struck a beautiful gold 
 
 1 In the Latin form of benediction the thumb and first two fingers 
 are extended, and the last two bent down. It symbolises the Trinity. 
 In the Greek form of benediction the forefinger is extended to resemble 
 the letter I, while the middle finger is bent into a C-like form. The 
 thumb and third finger are crossed to make an X, and the little finger 
 is bent into a C again, so that we get 1C XC, the initial and final letters 
 of the Greek name for Jesus Christ Ir)<rovC 
 
THE HAND OF GOD. 
 
 35 
 
 medallioD at Byzantium, representing Constantine I. with 
 his sons Constantine II. and Constans on either side, while 
 a hand from heaven crowns him with a wreath. This was 
 
 FIG. 3. 
 
 issued about the year 330. Eusebius speaks of the same 
 monarch as gaining the victory over all his enemies, and 
 enjoying the protection of the right hand of the King of 
 kings. In fig. 4, the Divine hand issues from the clouds, and 
 
3 6 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 delivers the righteous that trust in God from the perils of 
 the world, for the souls of the righteous are in the hand 
 of God, and no evil shall befall them : " Into Thy hand I 
 commit my spirit." In a picture by Yerrocchio of the 
 baptism of Christ in Jordan, the celestial Dove hovers over 
 His head, and above this again two outstretched hands are 
 seen issuing from the sky in a position suggestive of pro- 
 tection and blessing. In a bas-relief by Luca del la Robbia of 
 the Virgin adoring the infant Christ, two arms issuing from 
 above are about to place a crown upon her head. These 
 are but illustrative examples of many others that might 
 
 FIG. 4. 
 
 readily be brought forward. Even in an Egyptian papyrus 
 in the British Museum, the god Horus, with widely out- 
 stretched arms, represents the vault of heaven extended in 
 protection over the figures shielded from harm beneath. 
 Many texts of the Bible refer to the arm of the Lord, 1 and 
 fully explain why such a symbol should so naturally and 
 frequently recur. 
 
 It was not until the twelfth century of the Christian era 
 
 1 As for example Job xl. 9 ; Ps. xliv. 3 ; Isa. xl. 11, li. 9, Hi. 10 ; Jer. 
 xxi. 5 ; Ezek. xx. 33 ; Luke i. 51 ; Acts xiii. 17. 
 
FIG. 5. 
 
38 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 that this reverential treatment gave place to the head, and 
 then the half, and finally the whole figure. In a fresco by 
 Paolo Uccello, in St. Maria Novella, of Noah's sacrifice, the 
 patriarch and his family kneel around an altar, while over- 
 head the rainbow spans the sky, and in the midst of it God, 
 represented by a half figure, head downward, looks upon 
 the little remnant of humanity, and gives the sign of bene- 
 diction. A picture in the National Gallery, the Madonna in 
 ecstasy, by Crevelli, shows the eternal Father bending over 
 the Virgin ; and in the famous and well known picture by 
 Titian, at Venice, of the assumption of the Virgin, we get a 
 very similar treatment, where the Father is floating in mid 
 air, and surrounded by an attendant ring of cherubim. 
 
 On the walls of St. Francesco at Assisi, Giotto has painted 
 various pictures illustrative of the life of St. Francis, and in 
 one of these, again, the Father bends down, a half-length 
 figure, from heaven, and blesses His followers ; while, 
 not to needlessly multiply examples, we may mention the 
 Beatification of 8t. Ursula, by Vittore Carpaccio (tig. 5). In 
 all such cases the eternal Father, God from everlasting to 
 everlasting, " the Ancient of days," l is represented as a 
 venerable, graybearded old man. 
 
 The celestial surroundings and the majesty of the figure 
 in all these examples have rendered it impossible to doubt 
 the Person intended, mistaken and lacking in reverence 
 as we may deem the representation to be. But in some 
 examples the figure is so wholly at one with ordinary 
 humanity, that the last shred of Divine dignity and of gran- 
 deur of conception is lacking. Thus amid the sculptures 
 of the cathedral of Orvieto we come on two figures, one 
 prostrate and sleeping, the other leaning over the first and 
 making a puncture in his side. As the whole faade is 
 covered with the Bible history from the creation of man to 
 his redemption, we recognise that the particular group in 
 question is a representation of the creation of Eve, and that 
 the two very similar figures are really the Creator and 
 Adam. In the celebrated gates of Ghiberti at Florence, we 
 find in one of the panels a dignified but essentially human 
 
 1 " Or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from 
 everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" (Ps. xc. 2). And thrice in 
 Dan. vii., in vers. 9, 13, and 22, God is styled " the Ancient of days." 
 

 THE SECOND PERSON OF THE TRINITY. 39 
 
 figure raising another from the ground an incident that 
 would not strike us as any way exceptional, that might, for 
 instance, stand for the pitying Samaritan raising the robbed 
 and wounded traveller, but which all the surroundings indi- 
 cate is meant for the creation by the Father of Adam from 
 the dust of earth. 
 
 To the second Person of the Trinity art has ever rendered, 
 and continues to render, highest homage. He has been 
 figured at every era, and under great variety of form and 
 symbol. We purpose here to deal with representations of 
 Him in the form of humanity, but we shall find elsewhere 
 that the lamb, the pelican, the fish, the vine, are all 
 equally symbols of the Redeemer, while many other forms, 
 such as the Passion symbols, the cross, the sacred monogram, 
 the chalice, owe their existence and their meaning to their 
 association with Him. 
 
 During the early ages of Christianity the Saviour was 
 almost always represented as a young man, little more indeed 
 than & youth, no matter what the incident might be ; but 
 about the twelfth century His age was represented as being 
 in accordance with the period depicted. Thus we get the 
 babe of Bethlehem, and the boy Christ in the midst of the 
 doctors of the temple. During His public ministry we see 
 Him in the prime of manhood, gravely gracious as He 
 extends His hands in benediction, later on rising in glorious 
 majesty from the tomb, and, finally, severe and unapproach- 
 able on the throne of judgment. 
 
 At the approach of the year 1000 of the Christian era, 
 things political and social were greatly overcast, and it 
 was a general belief that that date would mark the de- 
 struction of the world. Many charters about this time com- 
 mence with the words, "As the world is now drawing to 
 its close." The impression seems to have been founded on 
 an expectation of the millennium. The earlier Christians 
 had dwelt lovingly on. the miraculous and benevolent actions 
 and the gentle utterances of the Christ; but these now gave 
 place to a gloomy theology that entirely banished that most 
 favourite image of the former centuries, the Good Shepherd, 
 and dwelt upon every painful episode of the Passion, which, 
 till then, had never been introduced in art or assigned a 
 prominent place in theology. Hence too scenes of the last 
 Judgment were depicted, and with every accessory of morbid 
 
40 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 horror ; while the ideal Christ of the earlier days disappears, 
 and the Man of sorrows, wounded, bleeding, takes His place 
 in art and in the thoughts of men. 
 
 Besides the youthful, beardless Christ, the ideal adolescent 
 of eighteen years or thereabouts, and the later type that Wes- 
 tern Europe is now familiar with, and of which we may see 
 countless medieval and modern examples in art, we get in 
 the Greek Church, and in work done under the later Byzan- 
 tine influence, yet a third type. The Latin Church has 
 always held that, while Christ was Son of man, He was still 
 Son of God, and that the sins He came to expiate, and all 
 the sorrows and vices of humanity that He bore the burden 
 of, were powerless to sully His glory and dignity ; while 
 the Greek Church, dwelling upon such a passage as that 
 in the Epistle to the Philippians, where Christ was said 
 to have made Himself of no reputation, and to have taken 
 upon Himself the form of a servant, depicted Him as hav- 
 ing, in the words of Isaiah, "no form nor comeliness, no 
 beauty that we should desire Him." l Hence these repre- 
 sentations depict the Saviour, crushed, impoverished, beaten 
 down beneath the load of human wretchedness. This is 
 however to represent the Conqueror of death and sin, the 
 Redeemer of mankind, as well-nigh vanquished in the strife, 
 and is surely, theologically and artistically, a mistaken view 
 and treatment. 
 
 Christ is the author of Christianity, the fountain from 
 whence all its blessings flow, and from Him, most naturally, 
 the new religion derived its title. Hence to Him all the 
 devout throughout the centuries have turned with pro- 
 foundest gratitude and homage, 2 and to Him art, and all 
 else, should ever render highest honour. 
 
 1 " Despised and rejected of men ; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted 
 with grief : and we hid as it were our faces from Him ; He was despised 
 and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried 
 our sorrows : yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and 
 afflicted. . . . He was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement 
 of our peace was upon Him." 
 
 2 "Millions of penitents find the peace and consecration of a new life 
 in laying the burden of their sins upon One who has borne it. Millions 
 of believers pass into the dark valley with a hope stronger than death, 
 because they have cast themselves upon One whose death is their life. 
 Christendom lives and dies upon one of His creative words, The Son 
 
SEEKING AFTER GOD. 
 
 In the incarnation of Christ was met and satisfied the 
 yearning of mankind for some visible manifestation of God. 
 Man is crashed and awed by the idea of the infinite, and the 
 impossibility of realizing the incomprehensible God. Hence 
 Job's cry was bat the articulate utterance of the heart-ache 
 of myriads : " Behold, I go forward, bat He is not there ; and 
 backward, but I cannot perceive Him." These 
 
 FIG. 6. 
 
 the noblest people of antiquity endeavoured to satisfy by 
 statues of the gods that will ever remain incomparable in 
 their beauty, while they were after all so unsatisfying that 
 
 of man came to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.' He 
 had but to breathe a few words into the air, and in unending succession, 
 martyrs spring forward to lead the ' forlorn hopes ' of the army of the 
 Cross : fearing but one thing, lest He may be ashamed of them ; hoping 
 greatly but one thing, that the Captain's voice may make music in their 
 hearts, and the Captain's smile fall with its sunshine upon their brows " 
 (" The Divinity of our Lord," by Dr. Alexander). 
 
42 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the final outcome was a statueless altar " to the unknown 
 god." l By the same indwelling instinct, the savage of 
 equatorial Africa carves the trunk of a tree, and decks it 
 with opalescent shells, or adorns it with the gay plumage of 
 rare birds ; and it is to him an ideal of that higher Power 
 which even he thus dimly recognises. Among the other 
 and manifold benefits of the Incarnation is the satisfying of 
 this craving. In this superhuman Humanity we recognise, 
 not man alone, but the Divine. 
 
 In the earliest period of Christian art we not unfre- 
 quently, as in fig. 6, meet with representations of Christ as 
 Orpheus. While evidently adopted from the heathen mytho- 
 logy, with which the early converts were so familiar, its 
 application to Christianity was felt to be very legitimate. 
 Orpheus seated with his lyre amongst the trees, and sur- 
 rounded by the wild beasts that the sweetness of his music 
 had tamed, might well be taken as an emblem of the attrac- 
 tive force of Christ. The symbol may be seen on early 
 coinage and in the catacombs. In a chamber, for instance, 
 in the catacombs of St. Calixtus, the central space imme- 
 diately over the interment is taken up by a long, semi-circular 
 painting of this subject ; while on one side is the prophet 
 Micah, on the other Moses striking the rock, and above it 
 the Virgin mother and Holy Child. 
 
 The early Christians would be very familiar with the legend 
 of Orpheus and the beasts, as it was a favourite subject of 
 representation amongst the Romans. We need but refer, in 
 illustration of this, to the mosaic pavements found at Hork- 
 stow and Winterton in Lincolnshire, and at Barton, near 
 Cirencester. 
 
 In all these, the treatment of the subject is very similar. 
 In the first of these, we have a series of ellipses, the centre 
 one containing Orpheus ; the next, rabbits, squirrels, weasels, 
 and such like small creatures ; the next, birds ; and the outer 
 and largest ring, the lion, elephant, bear, tiger, boar, etc. In 
 the second we have Orpheus in a central octagon, and then 
 eight outer spaces, with elephant, dog, fox, boar, stag, etc. 
 In the third example, the inner circle has the figure of Orpheus ; 
 
 1 Or, as it is still more strikingly put in its vagueness in the Kevised 
 Version, " To an unknown God." 
 
7 HE GOOD SHEPHERD. 43 
 
 the next has figures of birds, such as the duck, robin, 
 peacock, and several others; while the outer circle is occupied 
 by the elephant, horse, boar, lion, and other quadrupeds. 
 
 Christ as the Good Shepherd holds a very conspicuous 
 position in early art, and soon entirely supplanted the 
 Orpheus symbol. This treatment may be met with freely 
 in the catacombs, on the walls, on the lamps found in the 
 tombs, and in the mosaics of the oldest churches. Figs. 7 
 and 8 are from gems dating about the year 300 A.D., and 
 giving us a good illustration of the treatment of the sub- 
 ject in early Christian art. It is very strange that this 
 most expressive symbol died out completely before the tenth 
 century, and is never met with again until the sixteenth 
 century, and even then very sparingly, while it was never 
 
 FIG. 7. 
 
 adopted in the Greek Church at all. The Saviour Himself 
 most explicitly applied the title to Himself, " I am the Good 
 Shepherd," and in the Epistle to the Hebrews (xiii. 20) He 
 is again called " our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of 
 the sheep." He is represented in art as tranquilly resting 
 amongst the surrounding sheep, or as bearing one the 
 lost sheep of the parable upon His shoulders. " The good 
 shepherd lay eth down his life for the sheep": hence the 
 symbol testifies, not of protection and direction alone, but of 
 devotion carried to the extreme of willing sacrifice. 
 
 The dramatic representations in the Middle Ages, of which 
 the Oberammergau play is a survival, were of great educa- 
 tional value, as the graphic and dramatic arts appealed 
 most forcibly to those who were unable to read for them- 
 
44 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 selves; while the living actors gave reality to the personages 
 painted in the cathedral windows, or sculptured round their 
 doorways, and thus quickened the sculptor's and the painter's 
 art. No doubt art gained much from the mysteries and 
 plays of the time, which were pressed into the service of the 
 Church; and the great truths of religion were offered on 
 every hand to the eyes and ears of the people by carver, 
 painter, musician, actor, and poet. 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen, desiring to banish profane plays from 
 the theatre at Constantinople, prepared several sacred 
 dramas to take their place ; and Chrysostom wrote a tragedy 
 called " The Dying Christ," which was many times repre- 
 sented in the same city. 
 
 Christ as the infant was always, until the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, depicted clothed, and it was only at the decadence of 
 Christian art that He was represented as nearly or quite 
 naked. Christ as the sufferer on the cross of shame is not 
 found at all until the fifth century. Though the cross itself 
 early appeared as a symbol of the crucifixion, it was nearly 
 five hundred years after the event commemorated ere it 
 became the crucifix. Until the eleventh century the body of 
 Christ upon the cross is always clothed, as we see in fig. 9, 
 wherein He is represented as the great High Priest. After- 
 wards, the breast is uncovered, and the drapery becomes an 
 apron descending from the waist to the knees, till in the 
 fifteenth century it becomes the simple band, as shown in fig. 
 10, where nevertheless He wears the kingly crown upon His 
 brow, and is shown with the rayed nimbus. The sun and 
 moon, typical of nature, often appear in early work on either 
 side of the cross. In the early centuries the serpent is 
 placed beneath the foot of the cross, as a symbol of sin 
 overthrown. 
 
 The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, has from 
 about the sixth century down to the present day been con- 
 stantly symbolized by the dove. On this we shall dwell 
 more at length later on, when considering the various animal 
 forms that have been pressed into the service of symbolism. 
 In the tenth century the custom arose of representing the 
 Holy Spirit in human form ; but after being very freely in 
 use for nearly six hundred years, Pope Urban VIII (A.D. 
 1623) prohibited the practice as being contrary to the 
 traditions of the Church, and it was at once entirely aban- 
 
46 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 doned, and the older symbol of the dove substituted in its 
 place. When represented in human form, the distinguishing 
 attribute of the Holy Spirit is the roll or book held in the 
 hand, the symbol of intelligence and wisdom. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Sacred Monogram Its Appearance to Constantine The Chrisms 
 The Labarum Construction and Meaning of the Monogram 
 Examples from the Catacombs of Home On Coins, Charters, 
 etc. The I-H-S- The Nimbus Its Pagan Origin The Sun-god 
 Modifications of Nimbus Treatment in Christian Art The 
 Horned Moses The Old Testament Saints Nimbed Allegorical 
 Figures Nimbed Hexagonal Nimbus The two Uses of the Square 
 Nimbus The Triangular Nimbus Enrichment of Surface 
 Name of Wearer within Nimbus The Cruciferous Nimbus Clus- 
 tering Kays of Light Illuminaut Power of the Nimbus A Golden 
 Elliptical Line The Aureole A Glory of Flame-like Kays When 
 applied to the Virgin Mary Vesica Piscis Divine Oval Mystical 
 Almond Mandola Aureole of Cherubs. 
 
 WE propose now to consider the various forms assumed by 
 the monogram and the nimbus : the first a symbol exclu- 
 sively appertaining to Christ ; the second a mark of holiness 
 or of power of far wider application. 
 
 The earliest form of monogram is the symbol which is 
 said to have appeared to Constantine, outshining the sun in 
 its splendour, while a voice was heard to exclaim, " By this 
 sign shalt thou conquer." Assigning any value we may to 
 this legend, the fact at least remains that Constantine did 
 receive some sudden shock to his old superstitions, and that, 
 joining the Christian Church, he hencefor-th removed the old 
 Roman eagle from the standards of the legions, placing in its 
 stead the sacred monogram. There is no reason to suppose 
 that this monogrammatic symbol was not in use amongst 
 the Christians previously. What the monarch saw or fancied 
 he saw was doubtless a form whose meaning he already 
 knew ; it would, in fact, from its abbreviated character, have 
 been otherwise meaningless to him. 1 The monogram is 
 
 i One of the great difficulties in reading ancient inscriptions on tablets, 
 charters, coins, and so forth, arises from this very free use of abbrevia- 
 
 47 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 sometimes termed the chrisma, or, erroneously, the labarum. 
 The labarum is the standard marked with the sacred device, 
 and not the device itself. The labarum, see fig. 11, was 
 adopted by the Emperor Constantine after his victory over 
 Maxentius, duly described by Eusebius. The emperor also 
 caused the sacred symbol to be represented on the shields 
 of the soldiers. 1 Julian the Apostate removed it, but it was 
 again replaced by Jovian and his Christian successors, and 
 was continued in use by all the later Byzantine rulers. 
 
 FIG. 11. 
 
 The monogram is formed of the first two letters of the 
 Greek word for Christ, XPISTOS. X is equivalent to ch, 
 and the P is the Greek E. This is found on tombs of the 
 martyrs and others of the reigns of Adrian and of Antonine, in 
 
 tion. In mediaeval Latin, for instance, the letters M and N are specially 
 liable to elimination, a straight line over the next vowel being ordinarily 
 the hint that they are missing, while terminations of words are often 
 omitted, and at times an apostrophe substituted. Thus on old brasses 
 the invariable formula, " Cujus_anime propitietur Deus : Amen," is often 
 merely Cui' ale ppciet' de' alHe. The " D.g. Brit. reg. fid. def." on 
 our coinage in daily use would be equally meaningless to any one who 
 had not the key to their significance. 
 
 1 In the mosaics of the sixth century in the church of St. Vitale, at 
 Ravenna, amongst the guards surrounding the Emperor Justinian a 
 very good example of this may be seen, the field of the elliptical shield, 
 some three feet by two, being entirely filled with the monogram. 
 
ALPHA AND OMEGA. 
 
 49 
 
 the second century of the Christian era. After passing out of 
 use for some centuries, it has been in these latter days some- 
 what revived. The X is sometimes turned, so as to make 
 its arms come vertically and horizontally, instead of in the 
 sloping direction of the ordinary X : this arrangement 
 gives the added symbolism derived from its resemblance to 
 the cross. On the coins of Constantinus we get the Alpha 
 and Omega, one on either side, the acknowledgment of the 
 divinity of our Lord. " I am Alpha and Omega, the begin- 
 ning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, 
 and which is to come, the Almighty." As Alpha, God is the 
 beginning of all things at the creation in Genesis ; as Omega 
 
 
 FIG. 12. 
 
 in the apocalypse, He is the consummation of all things. 
 Or, to quote the words of the Venerable Bede : " Ego sum A 
 et O, initium et finis, dicit Dominus Deus. Initium, quern 
 nullus prsecedit ; finis, cui nullus in regno succedit. Qui 
 est, et qui erat, et qui venturus est, omnipotens." In fig. 
 12, a lamp of early Christian date and workmanship, we get 
 the cross- like disposition of the letters, together with the 
 Alpha and Omega ; while fig. 13 is an instance of the more 
 typical form of monogram. More rarely the P is turned into 
 the Latin J?, implying rex, the kingship of Christ. The 
 monogram is sometimes found inclosed in a circle, the 
 symbol of eternity, or standing upon a circle, symbol of the 
 
 nquering power of Christ over the world. At other times 
 1 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 we gefc the X alone or combined with the I, the initial letter 
 of Jesus, IHSOUS. When this latter arrangement, the X 
 and the I together, is placed within the circle, it resembles a 
 wheel with six spokes. Often in the catacombs the tombs 
 of martyrs have the monogram surrounded by a wreath, the 
 symbol of victory through Christ. Occasionally on lamps 
 or gems we see the dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit and of 
 heavenly peace, sitting upoft -'it, or represented as descend- 
 ing upon it. Early inscriptions, charters, and other docu- 
 ments are often prefaced by i the cross or the monogram ; 
 
 FIG. 13. 
 
 one may see many excellent examples of the latter in the 
 British Museum, one for example on a deed of Edgar, A.D. 
 961, and another on a charter of Canute, dated 1031. The 
 familiar abbreviation of Xmas for Christmas, that possibly 
 some of our readers may have used without consideration, 
 is another illustration of the X being equivalent to Christ. 
 
 In Greek art representations of the cross are often accom- 
 panied, as we see in fig. 14, by the inscription " 1C XC 
 NIKA," Jesus Christ the conqueror; 1 or in a still more abbre- 
 viated form XP and NI on either skle. The chrisma was 
 
 It is also in the Orthodox Eastern Church impressed on the sacra- 
 mental wafer. 
 
THE I-H-S MONOGRAM. 
 
 in use during the whole of the Roman-Byzantine period, fell 
 into abeyance during the Dark Ages, and re-appeared in the 
 twelfth century. On a coin of Constantius II., the emperor 
 in full armour is represented as standing in a galley steered 
 by Victory. In his right hand he bears the phoenix standing 
 on a globe (for due significance of which see phcenix), and 
 in his left the labarum emblazoned with the sacred mono- 
 gram. On a coin of Gratian we see the emperor bearing 
 the same standard of victory, the idea of triumph over his 
 enemies being further enforced by the introduction of the 
 
 FIG. 14. 
 
 kneeling captive at his feet. The sacred 
 placed by Louis VI. of France upon his coins, and was 
 maintained there by one sovereign after another until the 
 Renaissance scattered all the more ancient traditions and 
 revived classic forms. 
 
 The more familiar monogram based on the I'H'S is ordi- 
 narily of later date fchan the XP, replacing it entirely from 
 the beginning of the twelfth century. The earliest example 
 known is on a gold coin of Basilius I., A.D. 867. This I'H'S 
 monogram is the abbreviated form of the word IHSOUS, 
 the omission of the other letters being marked by the dash 
 or bar, above the I'H'S. This dash was afterwards pro- 
 mged through the upward stroke of the H, and thus formed 
 
52 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the cross. As the form of the Greek S differs from ours, 
 being somewhat like a C, the monogram sometimes appears 
 as I'H'O. 1 These letters are often read as signifying " lesus 
 Hominum Salvator," Christ the Saviour of men; and on 
 their introduction into the Latin Church, this meaning was 
 assigned to them. It is said that this reading was first 
 suggested by Bernardine of Siena (1380-1441) ; but appro- 
 priate and beautiful as it certainly is, it is an after- thought. 
 In the National Gallery may^be seen a picture by II Moretto z 
 of a group of saints, St. Bernardine, St. Jerome, St. Joseph, 
 St. Francis, and others. St. Bernardine is holding up in his 
 right hand a circle containing the I'H'S, and in his left hand 
 is an open book with the words, "Pater, manifestavi nomen 
 tuum hominibus," Father, I have set forth Thy name unto 
 men. Modern examples, stamped on Prayer-Book covers, 
 painted on gla,ss, embroidered on hangings, stamped on 
 tiles, carved in the stonework, may be met with in profusion 
 everywhere. 3 
 
 We turn now our attention to the nimbus. 
 
 This form, which we naturally associate so entirely with 
 the service of religion and of Christianity, is really pagan 4 
 in its origin, and was a symbol originally of power rather 
 than of holiness. Its origin dates back to an antiquity too 
 remote for identification. It has been conjectured that it 
 may probably have been in the first place suggested by the 
 
 1 Thus in an inventory of vestments and other church property of 
 Westminster Abbey, A.D. 1388, a mitre is referred to, " cum ymaginibus 
 habens in utraque parte hoc nomen insertum IBC XPC." 
 
 2 Alessandro Bonvicino, commonly called II Moretto de Brescia. His 
 pictures range in date from 1524 to 1556. 
 
 8 In the year 1643 an ordinance was passed for the utter demolition 
 and removal of all monuments of superstitious idolatry. In the parish 
 book of St. Bartholomew in the city of London we read the follow- 
 ing minute : " Bead an ordinance from a Committee of the House of 
 Commons for the demolition of superstitious and idolatrous things, both 
 within the church and without, where it was ordered that the three 
 letters in the pulpit cloth I-H-S. should be put out." In the church- 
 wardens' accounts for the year we meet with the entry, " p d to the 
 imbroderer for taking I-H-S. out of the pulpit cloth, and imbrodered 
 same again with other work, twenty shillings, besides five shillings he 
 allowed me for the old stuff." 
 
 4 " As to the whole company of Buddhist saints, with the golden glory 
 encircling every head, they are scarcely to be distinguished from those of 
 Christendom." GORDON GUMMING, " Wanderings in China." 
 
LIGHT AS AN ATTRIBUTE. 
 
 53 
 
 rajs of the sun. In fig. 15, a coin of Rhodes, we see on the 
 obverse the rayed head of Helios the sun god, the reverse 
 being the rose, the device or badge of the city. Sun 
 worship has amongst pagan peoples been a very prominent 
 
 FIG. 15. 
 
 feature in almost all ages, and even when the time has 
 arrived that they have acknowledged a higher power, the 
 sun has often remained an emblem of the Divinity. Light 
 has therefore been one of the attributes of the gods ; hence 
 
 16. 
 
 Jupiter wields the lightning flash, Apollo is crowned with 
 the glowing sunbeams, as in fig. 16, while to Diana is given 
 the softer light and chastened beauty of the crescent moon. 
 The idols of China, of Burma, and of Hindustan are often 
 
54 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 represented with a nimbus as characteristic as any seen in 
 the carvings or stained glass of a Gothic cathedral. The 
 face of Moses reflected with dazzling brightness the Divine 
 glory on his descent from Sinai, and a similar manifesta- 
 tion is claimed for Muhammad after the cleansing visit of 
 the angel Gabriel. 
 
 After the death of Constantino his sons struck medals 
 in his honour, in which he may be seen crowned with the 
 nimbus, a symbol not necessarily bestowed upon him on 
 account of his embracing Christianity (though no doubt 
 this fact had its influence), as we may also find on some of 
 the coins of the earlier emperors, as Claudius and Trajan, a 
 similar feature. 1 It was, as we have already indicated, a 
 symbol of dignity and power. So far was it from being at 
 
 FIG. 17. 
 
 first accepted as a mark of sanctity, that in some early Byzan- 
 tine works even Satan is represented as wearing the nimbus. 
 In a thirteenth century MS. the Magi and king Herod are 
 alike nimbed, and in one of the cathedral windows at Strass- 
 burg are fifteen kings, benefactors to the cathedral, and all 
 are assigned a nimbus; these date about the eleventh or 
 twelfth centuries. One of them is Charlemagne, the nimbus 
 having inscribed within the circumference the words Karolus 
 Magnus Rex. The double-headed eagle in the arms of 
 imperial Germany is, as we may see in fig. 17, represented 
 as being nimbed. In one of the mosaics in the church of 
 S to< Sophia at Constantinople we see Christ sitting on a 
 
 1 It was a custom with the emperor Commodus to sprinkle gold dust 
 over his hair, so that, while walking in the sunlight, his head might 
 appear to shine with supernatural splendour ! 
 
VARIETIES OF THE NIMBUS. 
 
 throne, and the emperor, richly attired, kneeling in submis- 
 sion and adoration at His feet. On either side of the throne 
 are medallions of the Virgin and of the archangel Michael. 
 Neither of these latter have the nimbus, while Christ, the 
 King of kings, and Justinian, the earthly ruler, each have this 
 symbol of sovereignty. On the other hand, Fra Angelico at a 
 later period gives to the three Magi the crowns of earthly 
 sovereignty, and reserves the heavenly glory for the holy 
 maiden mother and the holy child. 
 
 Where a nimbus in Christian art is rayed, the rays spring 
 from the centre of the circle, behind the head, and are 
 generally very numerous ; the individual rays, necessarily 
 very narrow and linear, being just the opposite in this re- 
 spect to the form seen on Greek and Roman coins. In these 
 latter, the rays are few in number (often seven) ; and, while 
 they, as a series, radiate from the head, they are individually 
 broad at the base and running out to a sharp point. In the 
 Christian form a circle is ordinarily shown as joining the 
 extremities of the rays ; while in classic examples it is more 
 commonly shown as about half way up them. At other 
 times, no less in Hindu than in Roman examples, the nim- 
 bus is composed of a series of pleats that give as a bounding 
 edge a zigzag line or sawlike appearance. On the coins of 
 Rhodes the head of the sun-god has, independently of it 
 and of each other, a surrounding series of pear- like forms, 
 fig. 15, which we may very naturally conclude to have been 
 intended to represent flames. 
 
 The Christian nimbus is not met with on any monument 
 prior to the sixth century, but during the next three cen- 
 turies its use rapidly grew. Until the twelfth century the 
 nimbus was luminous and transparent ; but during the two 
 following centuries it became an opaque disk. It then again 
 became translucent, and was indicated only by the bounding 
 circle, or by a series of fine rays without the circle at all. 
 Still later on the circle is put into perspective and becomes 
 an ellipse, more and more approaching, where the figures 
 have their heads in profile, a straight line. All early nimbi 
 were circular ; the triangular form does not appear till the 
 eleventh century ; and the square nimbus, as characteristic 
 of a living person, does not come into use until the ninth 
 century. The first nimbus forms were assigned to God ; 
 later on the angels, His ministers, receive them ; and only 
 
56 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 by slow degrees did the apostles, saints, and martyrs become 
 thus adorned with the seal of holiness. 
 
 As the writers on heraldry in the mediaeval period assigned 
 arms to the earlier kings, to Edward the Confessor and 
 others who had the misfortune to be dead and buried hun- 
 dreds of years before the birth of "the noble science," and 
 even devised coats of arms for Gideon and Joshua and other 
 valiant heroes of the Old Testament records, so the religious 
 painters of the Middle Ages gave to the pre-Christian saints 
 like honour with their successors. This was more especially 
 the case in the East. 1 Moses is always represented with a 
 curious form of nimbus composed of two rays, or two groups 
 of rays, only. In sculpture these become exceedingly like 
 horns. An old theory, more or less satisfactory, held that 
 God did not reveal Himself to him in all His glory, and 
 that He only delivered to him such portion of the Divine law 
 as was especially applicable to the Jews ; and that as the 
 advent of Christ, though foretold, was not accomplished, 
 the nimbus of Moses only bears testimony to the other two 
 Persons in the Godhead. This, we would venture to say, is 
 a particularly lame theory, though we give it as one that 
 has been gravely advanced, and we cannot supplant it by 
 a better. In the fresco by Signorelli, the *' History of 
 Moses," in the Sistine Chapel, the great leader is twice 
 introduced in the one picture, and each time with the charac- 
 teristic nimbus, two groups of three rays each. The colossal 
 statue of Moses by Michael Angelo on the monument of 
 Julius II. has the curious horn-like forms to which we have 
 referred. As a final example, out of many that might be ad- 
 duced, of the bestowal of the nimbus on the saints of the eld 
 dispensation, we may refer to the wall paintings of Benozzo 
 Gozzoli (1424-1455) in the Campo Santo at Pisa. They 
 represent the stories of the Old Testament, beginning with 
 Noah and ending with Joseph, and are full of patriarchal 
 
 1 In the Greek Church the Jewish patriarchs and prophets are held in 
 more visible esteem than in the West. Festivals are observed on the 
 saints' days of Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, and many 
 other Old Testament worthies ; and they speak as freely of St. Isaac 
 and St. Jacob as we do of St. Mattbew or St. Mark, and dedicate their 
 finest churches to them. In a fresco representing the sacrifices of Cain 
 and Abel, the latter has a golden nimbus. 
 
ALLEGORICAL AND IDEAL FIGURES. 
 
 57 
 
 simplicity, pastoral beauty, and incomparable naivete. One 
 of these is a vintage scene, wherein Noah figures twice in 
 the composition as superintending the ingathering of the 
 grapes ; and in each case he is depicted with the nimbus. 
 
 Allegorical and ideal figures are also at times assigned a 
 nimbus ; such impersonations, for instance, as Faith, Hope, 
 Charity, Prudence, Justice, and Fortitude. In the works of 
 the Italian painters such abstractions often have a nimbus 
 of hexagonal form, as in fig. 18, a head from the " St. 
 Francis Wedded to Poverty" of Giotto. The picture is in the 
 lower church of St. Franceso at Assissi. Poverty is no mere 
 abstraction, but is represented by a comely female figure, 
 though clothed in somewhat patched and torn apparel. Our 
 illustration is the head of Poverty. The Saviour Himself 
 celebrates the nuptial rite. Those imaginary personages to 
 
 FIG. 18. 
 
 whom the teaching of the Master has given semblance of 
 life, such as the wise virgins of the parable, are also 
 represented often in old pictures and carvings with this 
 attribute of holiness. On the coins of Faustina, the peacock, 
 symbol of the glorified soul, has its head encircled with the 
 nimbus ; and on the coins of the Antonines, the phoenix, 
 the symbol of immortality, is also thus distinguished. The 
 four evangelists when in human form are of course so 
 honoured ; but even when represented by their attributes, 
 the angel, the lion, the ox, and the eagle, the heads of these 
 creatures are almost invariably encircled by the nimbus. 
 
 Where the hand of God is seen proceeding from the clouds, 
 it is ordinarily surrounded by the nimbus. This is often 
 of three rays, indicative of the presence and sympathy of 
 the Trinity in whatever the work may be that has drawn 
 forth this symbol of the presence of God. 
 
58 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The idea of the nimbus as a symbol of saintliness being 
 once conceded, it might be thought that little or no practical 
 difficulty would arise in assigning it ; yet in practice carious 
 deviations are found from what might be imagined a simple 
 procedure. For instance, in a picture of the Holy Family 
 by Andrea del Sarto in our National Gallery we notice that, 
 while the Virgin and Elizabeth each have a golden nimbus 
 of similar character, St. John and the infant Christ have 
 none at all In a picture by Francia of the Virgin and the 
 dead Christ, the Saviour, the Virgin mother, and two atten- 
 dant angels, we note that all have exactly similar nimbi ; 
 while in another picture, the procession to Calvary, by 
 Ghirlandaio, Christ, the Virgin, St. Veronica, St. John, and 
 other saints, again all have nimbi of identical character. 
 We see the same thing again in a beautiful bas-relief by 
 Luca della Robbia of the Virgin mother in adoration of 
 the Divine Infant, where the Christ, the mother, and two 
 attendant cherubs form the group. The dignity and greater 
 technical difficulty of the sculptor's art doubtless go far 
 to justify this simplicity of treatment; but as the painter 
 could so readily enrich and vary his forms, it seems strange 
 that the greater or less dignity and importance of the persons 
 in such groups as we have indicated should not have been 
 noted and duly honoured by more or less enrichment of the 
 nimbus in each case assigned. 
 
 We occasionally find the square nimbus, though only in 
 Italian work. It is placed either with upright sides and 
 horizontal top edge, or else turned diamond- wise ; and this 
 alternative in the method of its arrangement makes all the 
 difference in its application and meaning. The latter position 
 is exclusively bestowed on the first Person of the Trinity, and 
 it is ordinarily given concave sides. In the "Disputa" of 
 Raphael, the Divine nimbus has straight sides instead of con- 
 cave; but it is placed, as is almost invariably the case, lozenge 
 or diamond- wise. Even here however we meet with an 
 exception or two; thus in the mosaic in the church of San 
 Giovanni in Laterano the square nimbus of God has upright 
 sides, but it is surrounded by a circle, emblem of eternity. 
 Much curious symbolism was associated by the Neo-plato- 
 nists and Pythagoreans and the Middle Age astrologers with 
 the square, though it would be foreign to our present pur- 
 pose to dwell upon it here* 
 
RECTANGULAR NIMBI. 59 
 
 When the nimbus is a square having upright sides, it 
 always implies that the person so marked was still living at 
 the time. It may be freely found in Italian work, and a 
 
 food early example may be noted in the South Kensington 
 luseum in a portion of an eighth century mosaic from 
 Ravenna. It may be seen too very well in the nimbus 
 surrounding the head of Pope Leo III., and in that of the 
 emperor Charles the Great in the mosaics of the Lateran 
 church. A mosaic in the church of St. Cecilia in Rome is 
 another good example, as it represents Pope Pascal similarly 
 distinguished. He holds in his arms a model of this church, 
 as it was erected through his instructions and assistance. 
 
 FIG. 19. 
 
 The mosaic dates from the year 820. The same pope, with 
 similar nimbus, will be met with again in the churches of 
 Sta Maria della Navicula and Sta Pressede. Both are 
 in Rome, and the mosaics date respectively 815 and 818. 
 Durandus sa.ys that " when any living prelate or saint is 
 pourtrayed, the glory is not fashioned in the shape of a 
 shield, but foursquare, that he may be shown to nourish 
 in the four cardinal virtues." 
 
 Occasionally this rectangular nimbus, instead of being flat, 
 is made with its two upright sides curling inwards, as though 
 the man were emerging from within a big roll of paper. 
 At other times we find a straight, upright back, and then 
 the two sides thrown forward at a sharp angle, suggesting 
 the idea of a small folding screen behind the head. 
 
60 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 In the fifteenth century the nimbus in the form of an equi- 
 lateral triangle appears. It is reserved for the first Person 
 of the Trinity ordinarily, though we occasionally find the 
 dove, the emblem of the Holy Spirit, with a similar nimbus. 
 As emblematic of the Trinity, it would manifestly be equally 
 properly applied to any one of the three Persons, though 
 ordinarily the second Person has the circular nimbus, and 
 a cross inscribed within it. In some cases beams of light 
 radiate beyond the triangle, their extremities forming an 
 exterior circle. In the sixteenth century, figures of the 
 eternal Father no longer appear, bat His name in Hebrew 
 characters is sometimes placed within an equilateral triangle, 
 and often the whole surrounded by a circular halo or radia- 
 tion, as we may see in fig. 19. 
 
 The nimbus is often represented as a solid circular dish 
 behind the head of the person so distinguished ; so solid, in 
 fact, that in many of the early pictures where many saints 
 are represented the nimbi overlap almost like tiles on a roof, 
 and allow only very small portions of the heads of those in 
 the rear to be visible at all. In the beautiful picture of the 
 Annunciation by Fra Angelico (fig. 20), the nimbus in each 
 case, that of the Virgin Mary and of the angelic visitant, is 
 of this solid type. u The righteous live for evermore ; their 
 reward is also with the Lord, and the care of them is with 
 the Most High. Therefore shall they receive a glorious king- 
 dom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord's hand : for with 
 His right hand shall He cover them, and with His arm shall 
 He protect them." x Durandus says that the crown of the 
 righteous " is made in the fashion of a round shield," because 
 the saints enjoy the Divine protection. Whence they sing 
 with joy, " Lord, Thou hast crowned us with the shield of 
 Thy favour." The solid nimbus is a necessity, of course, in 
 sculpture, but in painting also it is often represented Avith 
 most evident thickness and opacity. In a couple of heads of 
 saints in the National Gallery by Domenico Veneziano the 
 nimbi are of solid gold; but while the direction of the light 
 in the pictures throws them mostly into shade, their mar- 
 gins are defined by a broad edge of brilliant light; while in 
 a picture by Cossa, also in the National Gallery, of St. 
 Vincentius Ferrer, the solid plate of gold has its thickness 
 
 1 Wisdom of Solomon v. 15, 16. 
 
62 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 emphasized by a broad line of vermilion. In a picture by 
 Zoppo, in the same gallery, of Christ being placed in the 
 tomb, Christ and two saints have all similar nimbi, that, 
 instead of being absolutely opaque, are like disks of glass 
 through which the sky can be seen, but having a very 
 definite and thick edge. 
 
 An added dignity was speedily given to these solid nimbi 
 by a very considerable enrichment of the surface, by paint- 
 ing, by puncturing patterns on the golden ground, by em- 
 bossing, or by the addition of jewels and pearls. In Fra 
 Angelico's picture of the Adoration of the Magi, Christ, the 
 Virgin, and St. Joseph all have similar red nimbi, thickly 
 covered with radiating and radiant golden lines. In a pic- 
 ture of the procession to Calvary by Ugolino de Siena in the 
 National Collection, both the nimbi and the background are 
 gold, so the former have to be brought out by means of in- 
 cised lines and punctures. These are arranged in quatrefoils 
 and other geometrical forms. Fra Filippo Lippi, in the 
 same gallery, affords several good illustrations of this method 
 of treatment ; but the richest examples will be found in 
 Orcagna's grand picture of the Coronation of the Virgin, 
 where a wonderful variety of geometric and floral enrich- 
 ments will be found. 
 
 During the fourteenth century a custom arose of placing 
 the name of the wearer within the edge of the nimbus. This 
 lasted for some two hundred yearn, and may be seen alike in 
 Greek, Italian, and German art, except that in Greek ex- 
 amples, instead of the name they almost invariably give the 
 monogram of the person or some other abbreviation of the 
 full name, or even only its initial letter. Some very good 
 examples of these inscribed nimbi may be seen in the National 
 Collection. Thus in the Marriage of St. Catherine, by San 
 Severino, in the nimbus of Christ are the words " Sum 
 Lux"; in that of the Virgin, "Ave, gratia plena Domi " ; 
 while in the golden glory of St. Catherine is the inscription, 
 "Santa Ktrina de Sena." 1 While it may be objected by the 
 hypercritical that the first two of these examples are not 
 
 1 T\vo Catherines figure in art and legend : the St. Catherine of Alex- 
 andria, whose symbol, the spiked wheel of martyrdom, makes her always 
 readily recognised in the numerous pictures where she appears ; and the 
 St. Catherine of Siena of the present picture. 
 
THE CRUCIFEROUS NIMBUS. 6j 
 
 names at all, they fairly come within the scope of our 
 remarks, as ' they are fully equal to them as a means of 
 identification of those to whom they refer. 
 
 In Benozzo Gozzoli's picture of the Virgin and Child, sur- 
 rounded by angels and saints, the various nimbi are circular 
 plates of gold, and in every case the name of the wearer is 
 painted in black upon it. 1 In Ludovico da Parma's picture 
 of St. Hugh, a Bishop of Grenoble in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, the nimbus is inscribed S'VGO ; while, to quote but 
 one other example, the Ecce Homo of Niecolo Alunno, in 
 the glory around the head of the Saviour are the letters 
 YHS.XPS.NAZ., Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and beyond these 
 the inscription, " In nomine Jeu omne genu fleet celestium, 
 terrestrium, et inferno." The text in the Yulgate runs as 
 follows : " In nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur, ca3lestium, 
 terrestrium, et infernorum," At the name of Jesus every 
 knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
 and things under the earth. 
 
 We may frequently find the cross within the nimbus, and 
 it is generally supposed that the Person so distinguished is 
 necessarily the second Person of the Trinity. Thus Durandus 
 writes : " But the crown of Christ is represented under the 
 figure of a cross, and is thereby distinguished from that of 
 the saints ; because by the Banner of His cross He gained 
 for Himself the glorification of our Humanity, and for us 
 freedom from our Captivity." The cruciform 2 nimbus is not 
 however exclusively confined to Christ, though it is entirely 
 devoted to Deity. 3 In the " Biblia Sacra " we see, for in- 
 stance, an illustration of the creation of Adam. All three 
 Persons of the Trinity are present, and all have cruciferous 
 nimbi. In a " Coronation of the Virgin " by Borgognone the 
 diadem is placed upon her head by her Divine Son, the Holy 
 
 1 St. John the Baptist, St. Zenobius, St. Peter, St. Dominic, St. 
 Jerome, and St. Francis. 
 
 2 In all references to this subject we find the expression " cruciform 
 nimbus." It is not a particularly happy idea, as it suggests the notion 
 that the nimbus itself is in the form of a cross, instead of containing the 
 cross. Cruciferous would be preferable. 
 
 3 Nevertheless in the picture of the Virgin, St. Jerome, and St. 
 Dominick, by Filippino Lippi, in the National Gallery, the nimbus of 
 St. Jerome is distinctly cruciferous. It is the one exception, so far as 
 we know, to the otherwise invariable rule. 
 
64 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Spirit in the form of the dove hovers over them, while stand- 
 ing behind with extended arms is the eternal Father. In 
 this picture it is the first Person of the Trinity that has a 
 cruciferous nimbus, while Christ has a plain one. In fig-. 
 56 all three Persons of the Trinity are seen with the crossed 
 nimbus. In the Greek Church, on the three visible arms of 
 the cross we find the O micron, the Omega, and the Nu 
 respectively, signifying I AM ; while in the Latin Church 
 we occasionally find the letters B/E'X in token of the 
 sovereignty of God. 1 
 
 FIG. 21. 
 
 It is nevertheless true that the cruciferous nimbus is 
 especially devoted to Christ ; examples where He is without 
 it, or where others are with it, being comparatively few and 
 far between. Hundreds of examples are so readily to be 
 found in mediaeval and modern work, that it is almost need- 
 less to give illustrations of a fact so patent. 
 
 In fig. 21 the Master is at once distinguished from the 
 disciples by its presence. The illustration is from a MS. of 
 the ninth century. It is interesting too from its adherence 
 
 1 " I AM THAT I AM " (Exod. iii. 14). " The Lord is King for ever and 
 ever'' (Ps. x. 16). 
 
THE CRUCIFEROUS NIMBUS. 65 
 
 to the archaic principle, so distinctly seen in much early 
 work, of making the more important figures larger than the 
 others. Thus the Christ is the largest of all, the disciples 
 somewhat smaller, the churlish Pharisee much more insig- 
 nificant, and least of all the repentant outcast. The whole 
 story, see Luke vii. 36 el seq., is admirably rendered. Fig. 
 22 is of much earlier date ; it is the obverse of the medal of 
 which we have seen the reverse in fig. 1. It will be noted 
 that the legend " Emmanuel " is in characters partly Greek 
 and partly Latin. 
 
 The artists of olden time were quite capable of drawing 
 an equilateral triangle in a circle, or of dividing a disk into 
 three equal parts by divergent rays from its centre. A 
 theory has nevertheless been advanced that oftentimes the 
 mediaeval painters did not in their apparently cruciferous 
 
 FIG. 22. 
 
 nimbi intend to refer to the cross at all, but that the three 
 rays that are ordinarily visible were symbolic of the Trinity. 
 In most cases the head or beard would prevent the fourth 
 ray of the cross being seen, even if it were there ; but un- 
 doubtedly in some cases, where the position of the head would 
 render it visible, it is nevertheless omitted. While we cannot 
 dismiss the matter by assuming that the artist carelessly 
 overlooked the necessity in such cases of indicating the much 
 or little of the fourth arm that became visible, it certainly 
 seems curious that, if a suggestion of the Trinity were in- 
 tended, the three arms should not be placed at the diver- 
 gent angles that geometrical construction calls for in the 
 equal division of a circle into three parts'. Theologically and 
 symbolically the idea of perfect equality is not adequately 
 expressed by a construction thab divides a circle into two 
 quarters and one half. 
 
 Sometimes rays of equal dimensions spread equally, so that 
 
66 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the bounding line would be a circle ; but at other times the 
 rays from the crown of the head and from the temples are 
 more pronounced, while the intermediate rays fall gradually 
 away. In this case the bounding line used would be a lozenge 
 with concave sides. At other times the circle is entirely 
 absent, and we get only these three clusters of rays ; 1 or 
 the circle is present, and while the majority of the rays 
 stop at its circumference, these three groups stretch beyond 
 it. These clustering rays from their position naturally 
 suggest the cross form again, and are no doubt often dis- 
 tinctly intended to do so. 
 
 In Fra Angelico's interesting picture of " Christ sur- 
 rounded by Angels," some of the figures, instead of nimbi, 
 have rays of light of varying length, a very early example 
 of the absence of the bounding circle. In later work, in- 
 stead of the nimbus, we get a halo of light ; as for example 
 in the " Christus Consolator " of Ary Scheffer, or the faint 
 gleam around the head of Christ in the " Flight into Egypt " 
 of K/ubens. The illuminant power of the nimbus, an idea 
 full of poetry and admirably expressive of the " Light of the 
 world" is beautifully introduced in Correggio's "Adoration 
 of the Shepherds " at Dresden, and in the works of Raphael 
 and others, where the nimbus is an actual source of light in 
 the composition. 
 
 In late work the nimbus, if shown at all, becomes a mere 
 golden line, as in fig. 23, and instead of being a flat circular 
 form becomes amenable to the laws of perspective, and 
 more or less elliptical, as influenced by the position of the 
 head, until in the case of a directly side view of the head 
 it becomes almost or quite a straight line. The " Christian 
 Martyr" of Delaroohe (fig. 24) affords us a good example 
 of this later treatment. In the " Holy Family " by Andrea 
 del Sarto in the National Gallery, the Virgin so nearly 
 faces us that the golden line of the glory is almost circular ; 
 while Elizabeth, being almost in profile, shows in her nim- 
 bus the close approximation to the simple straight line. 
 In a picture in onr National Collection by Cosimo Tura of 
 the "Madonna and Child Enthroned," Christ, the Virgin, 
 and two angels have nimbi that are just indicated by the 
 
 1 A very good example of this may be seen in the " Vision of St. 
 Augustine " by Garofalo, in the National Gallery. 
 
Fio. 23. 
 
63 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 elliptical lines, while four other angels have nimbi as solid 
 as dinner plates. 
 
 In the sixteenth century the nimbus disappears, though 
 in these later days of art revival and study of ancient work 
 it is occasionally introduced, and especially in designs for 
 church glass. In Holbein's beautiful picture of the Madonna 
 and Child, the Virgin stands in a niche that has its upper 
 portion fashioned in the form of a shell, that gives a radia- 
 tion of line strongly suggestive, and no doubt intentionally 
 so, of the nimbus. 
 
 24. 
 
 The nimbus adorns the head, while the aureole surrounds 
 the whole figure. The aureole appears in art later than the 
 nimbus and disappears before it ; and even when it was a 
 fully recognised feature, it was a much rarer form. In the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the nimbus, as we have 
 noted, often lost the hard bounding line seen in earlier 
 work ; and in like manner the aureole became a golden 
 halo at this period, a glory of simple or of flame-like rays, 
 or in some instances alternately one and the other. 
 
 The aureole is especially devoted to the Deity, though we 
 
70 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 also find ifc associated with the Virgin mother when she 
 carries the Holy Child in her arms ; or at her assumption, 
 when borne by angels to heaven ; or at the last judgment, 
 when she intercedes for the lost and fallen ; or when repre- 
 sented as in the apocalyptic vision " a woman clothed with 
 the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head 
 a crown of twelve stars." 
 
 Abundant passages in the Scriptures suggest the idea of 
 the radiance of the Divine glory. Thus at Sinai we read, 
 " the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire." 
 At the dedication of the Temple " the glory of the Lord 
 filled the house." At the Transfiguration the face of Christ, 
 St. Matthew tells us, " did shine as the sun, and His raiment 
 was white as the light " ; while St. Mark says that " His 
 raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no 
 fuller on earth can whiten them," St. John in his glorious 
 vision saw the Christ with eyes as flame of fire, with feet as 
 if in glowing furnace, with countenance as the sun shining 
 in His strength. 1 
 
 The aureole is often, when in the form of a pointed ellipse, 
 called the " vesica piscis." We may see it in fig. 25, the 
 screen of Hereford Cathedral, where the central figure is 
 thus surrounded. It is also sometimes termed the '* Divine 
 oval," or the " mystical almond." The generic name aureole 
 is however preferable, as it includes all the other forms. 2 
 Sometimes when the figure is represented as sitting, the 
 aureole takes the form of a circle or a quatrefoil ; or instead 
 of being a geometric figure at all, it may be a mass of aerial 
 vapour bounded by a waved and irregular line, or a glowing 
 nebulous sp'endour fading imperceptibly away. In fig. 26, 
 the Annunciation, by Fra Angelico, the Father and the 
 Holy Spirit have both nimbus and aureole. 
 
 Very good examples of the ichthus or vesica piscis may 
 
 1 When the worn and wearied exile saw the brightness of the glory, 
 the vision of the splendour of God, he fell at His feet as dead, even as 
 did St. Paul when the great light shone from htaven upon his path. It 
 is hence most natural to express our sense of deep humility by some 
 such symbolic action as prostration or kneeling. The Komans alwa.vs 
 covered their heads in the presence of their deities. The Jewish veiling 
 during their devotions is another example. 
 
 2 By Vasari and other Italian writers on art, the form is called the 
 mandola or inandorla, from its similarity in shape to the almond. 
 
USE OF BOTH NIMBUS AND AUREOLE. 
 
 be seen in the picture of the Virgin and Child by Margari- 
 tone in the National Gallery, and in the picture by 
 Emmanuel, in the same collection, of St. Cosmas and 
 Damianus. It was more especially in use in the Grseco- 
 Byzantine school, to which the two painters just referred 
 to belonged ; but we also find it in works of the later Italian 
 
 FIG. 23. 
 
 school, as in the " Sts. Anthony and Geoige" of Pisano, or 
 the " Beato Ferretti " of Carlo Crivelli, both also in the 
 National Collection. The Flemish painters, who compara- 
 tively rarely introduce the nimbus, equally seldom employ 
 the vesica, though it may occasionally be seen. 
 
 We frequently, as in fig. 26, find both nimbus and aureole 
 employed; thus in the "Speculum Humanae Salvationis " 
 we may see a figure of Christ surrounded by the elliptical 
 
72 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 aureole and the head crowned with the cruciferous nimbus. 
 In the " Trinita " of Pesellino, in the National Gallery, the 
 figure of the crucified Christ has again both nimbus and 
 aureole. In the " Ascension " in the '' Benedictionale " of 
 Ethelwol'd, the risen Lord is crowned with cruciferous nim- 
 bus again, and enveloped in the radiant aureole. In the 
 frescoes of Francesco da Volterra in the Campo Santa at 
 Pisa, illustrating the history of Job, the eternal Father is 
 more than once represented with both these accessories and 
 symbols of power and gh-ry. In the fresco of the last 
 judgment at Pisa, Christ and the Virgin are side by side, 
 and surrounded by equal and similar aureoles. 
 
 While in the work of the architect, sculptor, and metal 
 worker the aureole, as in the screen at Hereford Cathedral, 
 is necessarily bounded by definite lines, a characteristic also 
 of the earlier paintings, it is often in later work an indefinite 
 flood of golden glory, a luminous nebula. In a curious old 
 mosaic at Rome, God interposes it as a solid shield to 
 protect Moses and Aaron from the violence threatened by 
 Korah and his company. In late art, as in fig. 5, ador- 
 ing cherubs often form an encircling aureole. We may 
 see a good example of this in a picture in the National 
 Gallery of the Madonna and Child by an unknown painter 
 of the Umbrian school. In the Madonna di Foligno of 
 Raphael the seated Virgin and Child are placed within a 
 circular aureole beyond the circumf3rence of which art) 
 clustering cherubim; while in his Madonna di S. Sisto the 
 stiffness of the line is wholly absent, and the glorious cen- 
 tral group is surrounded by these radiant forms. In the 
 "Assumption of the Virgin," one of Murillo'smost celebrated 
 works in the Louvre, a step further is reached; all suggestion 
 of an aureole has vanished, though the Virgin has a glory of 
 golden rays around her head, and the attendant cherubim 
 float in happy freedom around the glorified Virgin. In the 
 early legends and apocryphal gospels, such as the " Gospel 
 of the Infancy," we find many suggestions that doubtless 
 influenced the painters of a later age. Thus we read that 
 the cave of the Nativity "was filled with light more beautiful 
 than the glittering of lamps, brighter than the light of the 
 sun. When the blessed Mary had entered it, it became all 
 light with brightness." " Quando Christus natus est corpus 
 ejus resplenduit ut sol quando oritur." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Cross Morbid cross-worship The Tau or anticipatory Cross 
 Crux ansata The blood on the Lintel Special cognizance of St. 
 Anthony Latin Cross Greek Cross Cruciform ground-plans 
 Passion Cross Cross of the Kesurrection Cross of Lorraine 
 Triple Cross of the Popes Deviation of line of Chancel from that of 
 Nave, the Keason The multitudinous Variations of the Cross in 
 Heraldry The prefatory Cross in Charters Dedication or Conse- 
 cration Crosses Legend tracing the Cross from the Tree of Life 
 The wood of the Cross The " Invention of the Cross "The 
 Crucifix Cross of St. Andrew Celtic Crosses Passion Symbols 
 Destruction at the Eeformation The Chalice Stigmata The 
 Crown of Thorns Symbols of Time and Death The Scythe and 
 Hour-glass The Skeleton The Dance of Death God's Acre 
 The broken Column The Urn Dust and Ashes. 
 
 THE cross, erewhile, like the gallows or the guillotine, the 
 symbol of the doom of the malefactor, has by the sacrifice 
 of Calvary become the symbol of sublime abnegation, of 
 Divine pity for the lost and sorrowing sons of men. Hence 
 for evermore it is no longer the badge of shame, but the 
 emblem of triumph and eternal hope; and what to the 
 Roman of old was a sign of infamy has by its association 
 with the Saviour of mankind become the symbol of victory. 1 
 
 1 By a natural tendency of the human mind, a certain morbid state of 
 feeling has from time to time arisen, and the honour due to the Saviour 
 has been largely transferred to the instrument of His sufferings. Thus 
 in a mediaeval MS. of devotions we find the lines : 
 
 " Sainte vraie Croix aouree, 
 Qui du corps Dieu fus aournee 
 Et de son saint sane enluminee 
 Par ta uertu, par ta puissance 
 Deffent mon corps de meschance." 
 
 The French is somewhat difficult to follow. The lines would read, in 
 'English: " True and holy Cross adored, adorned with the body of God, 
 
 73 
 
74 SYMBOLISM TN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 It glitters on the crown of the monarch (fig 1 . 27), while the 
 crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick form our 
 national ensign. It crowns alike the loftiest spires of 
 Christendom and the lowliest parish churches. It marks 
 the resting-place of the departed who have died in faith in 
 its efficacy j and it is the sign in baptism of their admission 
 
 '27. 
 
 to the kingdom of the Crucified. Hence the cross has 
 become one of the most familiar of symbols throughout the 
 whole range of Christian art. 
 
 FIG. 28. 
 
 The T or Tau cross (fig. 28) is sometimes termed the anti- 
 cipatory or type cross, the cross of the Old Testament. It 
 was the symbol of eternal life with the ancient Egyptians, 
 
 and brightened with His sacred blood, by thy virtue and thy power, 
 defend me from evil." 
 
 In another book of prayers we find the same feeling still more strongly 
 exhibited : 
 
 " O crux gloriosa. crux admiranda. O lignum preciosum. 
 admirabile signum, per quod diabolus est victus, et mundus cristi sanguine 
 redemptus, que sola fuisti mater cristi et redemptoris. lignum dulces 
 clauos dulce pondus sustinens que digna fuisti portare presium huius 
 seculi. Crux domini sit mecum. Crux sicut vidi. Crux sit salus. 
 Crux sicut ripa. Crux mihi prodest protector et adiutorium in present! 
 et in future et in secula seculorum." 
 
THE HIEROGLYPHIC FOR LIFE. 
 
 75 
 
 and as such was borne by Thoth. On an Egyptian mummy 
 wrapping we have seen the dead man painted lying on a 
 couch, while above him a winged figure hovers, bearing in 
 
 one hand the hieroglyphic symbol for Breath, and in the 
 other the Tau, or crux ansata, as it is sometimes termed, 
 the hieroglyphic for Life. On a wall-painting may be seen 
 the monarch worshipping before Thoth, while the god pours 
 
76 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 over him from a vessel in his hand what at first sight 
 appears to be a thin line or stream of water, but which is 
 seen on a closer investigation to be a series of these symbols, 
 the gift, in answer to the prayers of the king, of eternal life. 
 In fig. 29, also from an Egyptian source, we have a very 
 similar rendering. The Greeks adopted it in a like sense, 
 and the early Christians of Egypt at first used it instead of 
 other forms of cross. In the early Christian sepulchres 
 throughout Egypt and the great oasis numerous examples 
 may yet be seen ; and it has been urged, with at least great 
 probability, that this symbol of life was the form made by 
 the children of Israel in blood upon their door-posts when the 
 angel of death passed through the land of Egypt to smite the 
 first-born of the nation ; and it was, maybe, the form of cross 
 on which the brazen serpent in the wilderness was raised. 1 
 Many of the early basilicas were built on this as a ground- 
 plan, and the symbol is found in the catacombs of Rome. 
 Tertullian writes, " haec est litera Grsecorum T, nostra autem 
 T, species orrcis." 
 
 Fa,. 3 .). 
 
 The Tau cross is the especial emblem of St. Anthony, and 
 011 the institution in 1352, by Albert II. of Bavaria, of the 
 order of the Knights of St. Anthony, the members of the 
 order wore a golden collar made in the form of a hermit's 
 girdle, and suspended from it a stick cut like a crutch, the 
 Tau cross of the saint. 
 
 Though St. Paul, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Chrysostom, 
 and other Fathers of the early Church made many trium- 
 
 1 In Ezek. ix. 4-6, we read of a mark being set upon the foreheads of 
 those that sigh for the abominations committed in the land, and of the 
 instructions to the destroying angel : " Slay utterly old and young : 
 . . . but come not near any man upon whom is the mark." In an 
 enamel of the thirteenth century, where this is represented, the faithful 
 are marked with the Tau. In a sermon by Bishop Andrews on this 
 text we read, " This reward is for those whose foreheads are marked with 
 Tau." 
 
VARIOUS FORMS OF CROSSES. 77 
 
 phant references to the cross, it was not till the fifth century 
 that it began to appear in art, the monogram of Christ 
 having till that time been exclusively used. The first occur- 
 rence is in a mosaic at Ravenna, and the date is about 440. 
 
 When the lower portion of the upright piece is longer 
 than the rest, as in fig. 30, it is termed the Latin cross ; 
 when all four arms are equal, as in fig. 31, it is the Greek 
 cross. At first both forms were used indiscrimatingly in 
 each Church, and each form may be found in the catacombs. 
 The church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople was 
 cruciform in ground-plan, the nave being somewhat longer 
 than the upper part ; for, as Procopius very explicitly states, 
 " the western nave is longer than the choir by all the extent 
 
 FIG. 31. 
 
 necessary to constitute a cross of crucifixion or Latin cross." 
 The Latin cross suggests the actual form, while the Greek 
 cross is idealized ; the Romans being an essentially matter 
 of fact people, and the Greeks equally essentially an artistic? 
 and poetic race. 
 
 The Latin cross is also termed the cross of Calvary, or 
 the Passion cross. The cross of the Resurrection is often 
 placed in the hands of the risen Christ. It is ornate in 
 character, and ordinarily bears a banner attached. The 
 cross is sometimes represented as made of branches, in refer- 
 ence to such passage as that in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 where Peter declares, " The God of our fathers raised up 
 Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree " ; and elsewhere, 
 " Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the 
 tree." Sometimes instead of rugged branches the cross is 
 idealized, and represented as bearing leaves and fruit. 
 
 On the cross of Calvary was nailed a scroll bearing an 
 inscription, and, suggested by this, the Latin cross has 
 occasionally, as in fig. 32, a double cross piece. This is the 
 cross of Lorraine and of the Knights Hospitallers. It is a 
 form constantly seen in Greek and Byzantine art, and dates 
 from a very early period. The pope has borne before him 
 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 a triple cross, cardinals and archbishops have the double 
 form, and the single cross is devoted to the bishops. 
 
 Fio. 32. 
 
 In the "Descent from the Cross," by Quentin Matsys, the 
 central cross is of the Latin form, while those on either side 
 are of the Tau type. In the " Crucifixion," by Antonello 
 da Messina, in the museum at Antwerp, Christ has a well- 
 formed cross, while the malefactors on either side are bound 
 on rough trees that are not at all cruciform in character. 
 
 When the basilica form was gradually abandoned, there 
 was a general adoption of the Latin cross in the West, and 
 of the Greek cross in the East, as the ground-plan. The 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre was made circular, a natural 
 arrangement in that particular instance, as the traditional 
 site of the actual sepulchre of our Lord thus became the 
 central point; and all other circular churches in Europe 
 were suggested by this, and had in themselves but little 
 appropriateness of form. The Latin cross may be very 
 well seen in the ground-plans of the cathedrals of Santiago 
 di Compostella, in Spain ; of Siena and Florence, in Italy ; 
 of Cologne, in Germany; of Elgin, in Scotland; of Lincoln, 
 Rochester, Salisbury, and many other cathedrals and 
 churches, both in the United Kingdom and abroad. 
 
 In the early churches a cross was frequently inlaid in the 
 design of the pavement, part of it running into the chancel, 
 the arms passing down the centre of each transept, and the 
 rest along the middle of the nave ; but a solemn anathema 
 was pronounced at the second CEcumenical Council on those 
 who should tread the sacred symbol under foot, and the 
 custom of placing the cross where it could be thus trampled 
 on at once ceased. 
 
 In many churches a slight deviation in the chancel from 
 the line of direction of the nave may be found. It is very 
 clearly marked in the cathedrals of York and Lichfield, and 
 in many large parish churches. It symbolises the inclination 
 
nrj 
 xy 
 
 FIG. 33. 
 
 FIG. 
 
 FIG 35. 
 
 FIG. 30. 
 
 FIG. 37. 
 
8o SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 of the Saviour's head upon the cross. While generally to 
 the south, it is not unfrequently toward the north, no rule 
 of practice having been laid down in favour of either. 
 
 Not a few churches are dedicated to the cross. The 
 cathedral of Orleans is that of the Sainte Croix, while at 
 Florence we find the Santa Croce. Other instances are 
 St. Cross at Winchester and the Scottish Holyrood. 
 
 Unless distinctly stated to the contrary, the various crosses 
 of heraldry have arms of equal length. The shape of the 
 shield would naturally render this the more convenient 
 form, and as by far the greater number of these devices 
 originated with the wars of the cross, the crusaders in their 
 eastward wanderings would naturally come under Greek 
 influence. Engrafted upon the original Greek cross, the 
 heralds have produced great variation of detail. 1 Examples 
 of ten of these are given in figs. 33-42. Dame Juliana 
 Berners, at a time when blazonry was comparatively simple, 
 declares in her " Boke of St. Albans " that " orossis innu- 
 merabull are borne dayli " ; while Legh, another old writer, 
 
 FIG. 38. FIG. 39. FIG. 40. Fm. 41. FIG. 42. 
 
 affirms, "You bring in so many crosses, and of so sundry 
 fashions, that you make me in a maner werye of them." 
 Berry's " Encyclopedia Heraldica" enumerates and figures 
 385 varieties, but many of these are seldom employed. 2 
 
 1 Sach as the cross pommee, where the ends terminate in circles, 
 suggestive, as the name shows, of apples ; the cross fleurie, where the 
 extremities end in forms like the fleur-de-lys ; the cross-crosslet, where 
 each arm is itself crossed, as in figs. 41, 43, together with other forms, 
 moline, recereelee, patonce, botonee, clechee, patee, and multitudinous 
 other examples that may be found duly set forth in any good book on 
 heraldry. 
 
 2 Heraldry is largely symbolic ; but, interesting as the subject is, it 
 would be impossible to deal with it adequately here. Our companion 
 volume, " The History, Principles, and Practice of Heraldry," goes fully 
 into the matter. 
 
THE INVOCATORY CROSS. 
 
 Si 
 
 On early deeds and charters we often find the subject 
 matter prefaced with a cross as a pledge that its contents 
 are just and true, or in other cases having a dedicatory or 
 invocatory meaning. 1 
 
 FIG. 43. 
 
 1 On the back of an ivory diptych, still preserved, the following 
 inscription, dating A.D. 772, may be seen : " %4 Let us stand well. 
 >J< Let us stand with reverence. ^ Let us stand with fear. Let us 
 attend upon the holy oblation, that in peace we may make the offering 
 to God. The mercy, the peace, the sacrifice of praise, the love of God 
 and of the Father and of our Saviour Jesus Christ be upon us, Amen. 
 In the first year of Adrian, patriarch of the city. Kemember, Lord, 
 thy servant John, the least priest of the church of St. Agatha. Amen. 
 ffc Remember, Lord, thy servant Andrew Machera. Holy Mother of 
 God ; holy Agatha. ^ Remember, Lord, thy servant and our pastor 
 Adrian the patriarch. ^ Eemember, Lord, thy servant, the sinner, 
 John the priest." 
 
 G 
 
82 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 We now turn to dedication or consecration crosses. Those 
 who are at all interested in the subject will doubtless have 
 observed crosses carved or painted on the walls of various 
 old churches. These are known as dedication crosses, and 
 they were placed at the various spots touched by the bishop 
 while performing the ceremony of consecration. Very few 
 dedicatory crosses of the Norman period are now extant, 
 though they may be seen in the churches at Wiston, 
 Ditteridge, Barfreston, and some few other places ; but 
 many crosses of later date and of varied and elegant design 
 may be found. 
 
 In a consecration service of the eleventh century we find 
 that an important part of the ceremony was the anointing 
 of the walls with oil of chrism at various points in the 
 building, and it was the custom to mark the places before- 
 hand with the cross. A MS. of the sixteenth century in the 
 British Museum shows us the bishop in the act of anointing 
 one of these crosses. Injudicious restoration and wall- 
 scraping have unfortunately destroyed many of these interest- 
 ing relics of the past. Ordinarily three were placed on the 
 north, south, east, and west walls respectively, both inside 
 the building and out, thus making a total of twenty-four. 
 The following extract from the old writer Durandus explains 
 their significance and use. It will be seen that he refers to 
 twelve instead of twenty-four, as his description clearly 
 refers to the interior of the church alone. ** Next when 
 the Altar hath been anointed with chrism, the twelve crosses 
 painted on the walls of the church are also anointed. The 
 crosses themselves be painted, first, as a terror to evil spirits, 
 that they, having been driven from thence, may be terrified 
 when they see the Sign of the Cross, and may not presume to 
 enter there again; secondly, as a mark of triumph, for crosses 
 be the Banners of Christ, the Signs of His triumph. Crosses 
 therefore are with reason painted there, that it may be 
 made manifest that that place hath been subdued to the 
 dominion of Christ. For even in the pomp of Jin earthly 
 Sovereign it is customary when any city hath been yielded 
 for the imperial Standard to be set up in it. The twelve 
 lights placed before these crosses signify the twelve apostles 
 who have illumined the whole world by the Faith of the 
 Crucified, and whose teaching hath dispelled the darkness. 
 Wherefore the crosses on the four walls of the Church are 
 
THE WOOD OF THE CROSS. 83 
 
 lighted up and anointed with chrism, because the apostles 
 preaching the mystery of the Cross have by the Faith of 
 Christ illumined the four quarters of the earth with know- 
 ledge, have lighted them up unto love, have anointed them 
 unto purity of conscience, which is signified by the oil, and 
 unto the Savour of a good reputation, which is signified by 
 the balsam." 
 
 Old legends tell us that after the expulsion from Eden 
 Adam begged for a seed of the tree of life. The request 
 was granted, we are told, though this involves a direct 
 contradiction of the Biblical narrative. 1 The tree that 
 sprang from this seed was held in great honour, and its 
 wood was preserved in Solomon's temple ; but the queen of 
 Sheba, apparently wiser for once than the great king, told 
 him that He who should hereafter one day be slain upon 
 that tree would by His death cause the destruction of 
 Jerusalem. Solomon therefore, missing the obvious idea 
 of having it burnt to ashes, had it removed and deeply 
 buried in the earth. The Pool of Siloam sprang from it, and 
 owed its healing virtues to it ; but when the hour of the 
 crucifixion drew nigh, the trunk floated to the surface, and 
 as it seemed a useful piece of timber, it was drawn out of 
 the water, and was presently used for the cross | 
 
 According to Sir John Maundeville, who travelled much 
 over Europe and the Holy Land, and wrote his experiences 
 in the year 1371, the cross of our Lord was made of four 
 kinds of trees. The piece that went upright from the earth 
 to the head was of cypress, and the cross-piece was of palm ; 
 the stock that stood in the ground, to which the upright 
 was fastened, was of cedar, while the tablet bearing the 
 inscription was of olive. The reason he gives is that the 
 Jews were of so vindictive a mind that they determined that 
 the victim of their hatred should hang upon the cross for 
 ever, therefore they chose cedar for the foot, because of its 
 lasting qualities j the cypress was selected from its pleasant 
 
 1 "Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil : 
 and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, 
 and eat. and live for ever : therefore the Lord God sent him forth from 
 the garden of Eden. . . . And He placed at the east of the garden 
 cherubims, and a naming sword, ... to keep the way of the tree 
 of. life" (Gen. iii. 22-24). 
 
84 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 fragrance, as a corrective of the results of dissolution; the 
 palm was chosen because it is an emblem of victory, in sign 
 of their triumph ; while the tablet was of olive, the emblem 
 of peace, because they held that Christ had made discord 
 and brought trouble to the nation, and that His death would 
 restore to them political and religious concord. 
 
 If we are to credit tradition, Isaac, in carrying the wood 
 for his sacrifice, held it in the form of a cross upon his 
 shoulders, and therefore the angel was sent to rescue him 
 from death ; while the widow of Sarepta, in carrying home 
 her two sticks, had them cross-wise, and thus received the 
 blessing of the prophet, the restoration of her son to life, 
 
 FIG. 44. 
 
 and an inexhaustible supply of oil and meal : stories which, 
 despite their morbid and extravagant character, and their 
 wild impossibility, are at least a testimony to the honour 
 and virtues ascribed to the cross. 
 
 According to the old writers, the cross was found, deeply 
 buried in the ground, at Jerusalem, some three hundred 
 years after the crucifixion, or, to be as absolutely precise as 
 the legend, on May 3rd, A.D. 328. Hence this date was 
 commemorated as the "Invention of the Cross." The word, 
 of course, comes from the Latin invenio, to come upon or 
 discover, though most of our readers doubtless will be fully 
 prepared to accept the word in its more familiar sense, and 
 regard the whole tale as very much indeed of an invention. 
 
THE HEALING POWER OF THE CROSS. 85 
 
 The discovery was made by St. Helena. All three crosses 
 were found, but that of our Lord was at once discriminated 
 from those of the thieves who were crucified with Him, 
 because a woman who was grievously sick was immediately 
 
 FIG. 45. 
 
 restored to health on touching it, while a dead body laid, 
 upon it returned to life ! The custom of crossing one's self 
 was first practised by the Christians about A.D. 110, thereby 
 to distinguish themselves from the pagans around, and as 
 a sign of recognition amongst themselves. 
 
 
86 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The crucifix is the most materialized of the symbols of 
 the cross, and often develops into a mere representation of 
 acute physical suffering, that, whatever aid to faith it may 
 be to some who gaze upon it, is dishonouring to the Saviour 
 in its repulsive dwelling upon one side alone, and that the 
 least, of His great sacrifice. The agony of the cross was 
 not the smart of bodily pain, but the burden of the sins of 
 the whole race of mankind. 
 
 Fio. 46. 
 
 FIG. 47. 
 
 The cross of St. Andrew, as in fig. 44, the badge of the 
 Order of the Thistle, is shaped like the letter X, though it 
 was not till the fifteenth century that it was so represented. 
 One may just notice in passing the grotesque contrast be- 
 tween the suffering saint of God, the lowly follower of the 
 Prince of peace, and the aggressive and self-asserting motto 
 that surrounds the whole. 
 
 Early tradition affirms that St. Andrew was crucified on 
 a cross of the ordinary form, but with his body extended 
 horizontally. Like St. Peter, he deemed it far too great an 
 
EARLY FORMS OF THE CROSS. 87 
 
 honour to be crucified as was his Lord ; and he therefore 
 gained from his persecutors the concession of being fixed 
 sideways, while St. Peter was crucified head downwards. 
 We may see this very well in fig. 45, " The Crucifixion of 
 St. Peter," by Guido Reni, in the Vatican. Tradition has 
 it that this form of cross appeared in the sky to Achaius, 
 king of the Scots, the night before a great battle with 
 Athelstane, and being victorious, he went barefoot to the 
 church of St. Andrew, and vowed to adopt his cross as the 
 national device. In Scottish heraldry St. Andrew's cross, 
 as we may see in the Union Jack, is argent on a field azure. 
 
 FIG. 48. 
 
 The crucifixion of St. Peter has been a somewhat favourite 
 subject with painters. A very good example may be seen 
 in the church of the Carmine at Florence, by Fiiippino 
 Lippi, and another by Guido Reni, in the Vatican. 
 
 Very early examples of the cross form, as in figs. 46, 47, 
 may be seen in the sculptured Celtic crosses of Great Britain 
 and Ireland. They are ordinarily found thickly covered 
 with interlacing ; but when figure subjects are introduced 
 the scenes and incidents are generally those of the Bible. 
 The cross at Clonmacnois, in Ireland, is called the Cross of 
 
88 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the Scriptures, in an entry in the annals of Tigernach, 
 dated 1060. The monuments themselves are more or less 
 cruciform, and the cross also often enters as a detail into 
 the ornament. Fig. 48 is the ancient Danish jewel known 
 as the Dagmar Cross. 
 
 Besides the cross we meet also with other forms that are 
 known as the Passion symbols. These are chiefly found in 
 the wood-carving and stained glass of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, though even as early as the tenth century they may 
 occasionally be seen. Such early examples are however 
 distinctly exceptional. Like many other things, they were 
 held, with more or less of reason, to be of superstitious ten- 
 dency ; and at the time of the Reformation, and again during 
 the Commonwealth, a very clean sweep indeed was made of 
 all such objects, so that only comparatively few examples 
 now remain. 1 
 
 Such symbols include the ladder, the dice, seamless robe, 
 the cock, spear, sword, the thirty pieces of silver, 2 pincers, 
 hammer, pillar, scourge, reed and sponge, the nails, and 
 crown of thorns. Good examples may be seen at Bishop 
 Lydiard church in Somersetshire, Swaft'ham church in 
 Norfolk, Mildenhall in Wiltshire, Horsham church in 
 
 1 The following document relating to the zeal of the Scottish Ee- 
 formers is a good illustration of this : 
 
 " To our traist friendis, the Lairds of Arntilly and Kinvaid. 
 " Traist friends, after rnaist harty commendacion, we pray yow faill 
 not to pa^s incontinent to the kyrk of Dunkeld. and tak down the haill 
 images thereof, and bring furth to the kyrkzard, and burn tbayin 
 oppinly. And siclyk cast down the altaris, and purge the kyrk of all 
 kynd of monuments of idolatrye. And this ye faill not to do, as ze 
 will do us singular empleseur ; and so committis yow to the protection 
 of God. From Edinburgh, the xii of August, 1560. 
 
 " Faill not, bot ze tak guid heyd that neither the dasks, windocks, 
 nor durris, be ony ways hurt or broken eitber glassin wark or iron wark. 
 
 " AB. EKGYLL, 
 " JAMES STEWART, 
 " EUTHVEN. " 
 
 2 " Titus, the son of Vespasian, laid siege about Jerusalem to overcome 
 the Jews, because they put our Lord 10 deatb without tbe emperor's 
 leave. And when he bad won the city he burnt tbe temple, and beat 
 it down and all the city, and took the Jews and put to death one million 
 one hundred thousand of them ; and the others he put in prison, and 
 sold them to slavery, thirty for a penny, because they said tbey bougbt 
 Jesus for thirty pennies ; and he sold them cheaper, giving thirty for 
 one penny." Sir John Maundeville. 
 
THE SYMBOLS OF 7"HE PASSION. 
 
 89 
 
 Sussex, and elsewhere. They are but rarely found on 
 seals ; but they occur on that of the Guild of Corpus 
 Christi at Oxford, and on that of the Friars Minors at Cam- 
 bridge. They are sometimes surrounded with the legend, 
 " Vulnera quinque Dei sint medicina mihi." 
 
 
 On an Italian picture frame containing a representation of 
 the scourging of our Lord we notice the introduction of the 
 following symbols : two staves and the sword of St. Peter, 
 torch and lantern, bag of money, faggots for making the fire 
 at which St. Peter stood and warmed himself, the crow- 
 ing cock, the pillar of scourging, two scourges, a chain for 
 binding the hands to the pillar, the seamless coat, the purple 
 robe, the reed-sceptre and thorny crown, the basin and 
 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 ewer used by Pilate, the cross, the cup of wine mingled with 
 myrrh, the dice, the three nails, hammer, pincers, ladder, 
 sponge, lance, winding sheet, spices in a vase, the chalice, 
 and rope and chain for the deposition of the body from 
 the cross. 
 
 Pope Innocent VI. (1352-1362) affirmed in a decree that 
 " the lance and nails and other instruments of the Passion 
 are everywhere to be held in reverence of all Christ's faithful 
 
 FIG. 50. 
 
 people," and he instituted in their honour a religious festival, 
 the Feast of the Lance and Nails. 
 
 The finest existing series in England is on the bosses of 
 the vaulting in the choir of Winchester Cathedral, a roof 
 erected by Bishop Fox in the early part of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury ; and a very good foreign example will be found on the 
 bridge of St. Angelo at Rome, where the colossal statues of 
 angels bear the various instruments of the Passion. These 
 symbols were often introduced on the vestments and hang- 
 
THE SYMBOLS OF THE PASSION. 91 
 
 ings ; thus in one of the old church inventories that supply 
 us with so much that is interesting and valuable, we tind 
 the item " ij steyned clothes for above and beneathe w* the 
 tokenis of the passyon in tyme of lent w l ij curtyns accord- 
 yng to ye same " ; and many other references of like nature 
 might be added. In the picture of St. Dominic, by Zoppo, 
 in the National Gallery, we may see Christ in glory sur- 
 rounded by angels, each bearing one of the Passion symbols. 
 
 The chalice (fig. 49) and the crown of thorns (fig. 50) are 
 frequently introduced to the exclusion of all the other 
 Passion symbols, the latter especially being freely employed. 
 In the picture by De Bles in the National Gallery, entitled 
 " Mount Calvary," we see three angels receiving in chalices 
 the sacred streams flowing from the wounded body of the 
 Saviour. 1 
 
 The crown of thorns, though essentially connected with 
 the sufferings of our Lord, is also an attribute of St. Francis 
 of Assisi, St. Catherine of Siena, and one. or two other less 
 well-known saints. It was a favourite subject for legend 
 in medieval times that certain men and women of peculiar 
 holiness, desirous to share the sufferings of Christ, were so 
 highly favoured of heaven as to be permitted to bear in their 
 own bodies the stigmata, the signs of the sufferings of their 
 crucified Lord, some bearing all the marks and others one 
 or more of them. Thus several bore the scar of the spear 
 wound in their sides, others the lacerations of the thorny 
 crown, and others again the marks in the palms of their 
 
 1 The necessary association of the chalice with the commemoration of 
 the Lord's Supper gives it naturally a prominent place. Those who 
 would care to see to what morbid lengths the human imagination may 
 go may turn to a book written some two hundred years ago and entitled, 
 " The School of the Eucharist, established upon the miraculous respects 
 and acknowledgments, which beasts, birds, and insects have rendered to 
 the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, whence Catholicks may increase in 
 devotion towards this divine mystery, and hereticks find there their con- 
 fusion." The following headings to a few of the stories will give an idea 
 of the contents of this extraordinary volume : Bees adore the Host, and 
 sing the Divine praises, dividing themselves into two quires A lamb of 
 i?t. Coleta kneeled at the elevation during the Masse A Spider revenges 
 an affront done to the Sacrament Asses honour the Sacrament Ducks 
 are present at Masse The admirable vigilancy and devoires of a dog in 
 honour of the Sacrament A pigeon brings to the Host to communicate 
 one newly converted to the faith. 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 lentil A. > 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 hands or on their feet of the nail prints. The stigmatization 
 of St. Francis by the angel as he kneels in rapture on the 
 ground is a favourite subject with the older painters : such 
 marks, whoever may be the saint bearing them, are ordi- 
 narily surrounded by a halo of golden rays. 
 
 The corona, radiata is a representation or suggestion of the 
 golden rays of Helios, a symbol of divine effulgence and of 
 
 FIG. 51. 
 
 the favonr of the. gods, that on the deification of the emperor 
 took the place in later Rome of the earlier laurel- wreath 
 of mundane glory. An example of this latter may be seen 
 in fig. 51, the laureated head of Tiberius. It has been 
 suggested that the crown of thorns was a mockery of the 
 radiate diadem assumed by the Roman emperors when they 
 arrogated to themselves both divine and human kingship. 
 While doubtless an instrument of physical suffering, it was 
 probably intended, like the purple robe, rather as an instru- 
 
DESTRUCTION AT THE REFORMATION. 93 
 
 ment of moral suffering in scornful derision of the kingly 
 claim, and brutal parody of the imperial insignia. The first 
 representation, so far as is at present known, of Christ 
 crowned with thorns will be found in the catacomb of 
 Praetextatus in Rome, where the spiked and thorny wreath 
 encircling the head of the Saviour has distinctly given to 
 it the radiate character of the classic and imperial nimbus- 
 like diadem. 
 
 In the frontispiece of the "Eikon Basilike," A.D. 1648, we see 
 the king, Charles I., taking in his hand a crown of thorns, 
 inscribed " Gratia." At his feet is the royal crown of 
 England, marked " Vanitas," while in the air above is a 
 starry crown marked " Gloria." Beyond we have a land- 
 scape, in which a palm tree bears a conspicuous position in 
 the foreground, while several other emblems are introduced 
 that we need not here dwell upon. Beneath is the " Ex- 
 planation of the Embleme," in two columns, one being in 
 Latin and the other in English. The portion that at present 
 concerns us runs as follows : 
 
 " TLat sp'endid but yet toil som Crown 
 Regardlessly I trample down. 
 With joie I take this Crown of thorn, 
 Though sharp, yet easy to be born. 
 That heavenlie Crown already mine, 
 I view with eies of Faith divine. 
 I slight vain things and do embrace 
 Glorie, the just reward of grace." 
 
 "We now proceed to consider the various symbols of mor- 
 tality. 
 
 At the Reformation a clean sweep was made of all pictures 
 suggestive of the old creed. In the third year of the reign 
 of Edward VI. an injunction was issued ordering all pictures 
 in churches not hitherto disturbed to be either destroyed 
 if movable or defaced if fixed ; and it became penal, by fine 
 or imprisonment, to possess, even privately, pictures of this 
 forbidden nature. In 1558, after the accession of Elizabeth, 
 the law was made still more stringent, and the various 
 church officers were required to certify their obedience to 
 the law ; thus at Thorpe, in Lincolnshire, for instance, to 
 give but one example out of many, we find the following 
 entry : " Item, we had noe Roode nor other Imageis but that 
 were painted on the wall, and thei we defaced and put oute." 
 
94 SYMBOLISM IN CHRIST! AN ART. 
 
 The coats of whitewash being altogether too frigid-looking, 
 and moreover presenting a tempting surface for renewed 
 decoration, it became necessary to see what could be sub- 
 stituted for the obliterated work, that should have teaching 
 value, without being illegal, and we find that figures of Time 
 and Death were largely introduced. 
 
 The lapse of years, the damp that is often a conspicuous 
 feature in old churches, and more especially " restoration," 
 as it is termed, have played havoc with these ancient wall 
 paintings; but in an old poem by Cowper, entitled "An 
 Elegy wrote in a Country Church," we get many interesting 
 details as to the furniture and arrangements of a village 
 church. We quote three of the stanzas that bear on our 
 subject. 
 
 " Tho' Painting her Italian Pencil here 
 
 Has never dip'd, yet on that Western Wall 
 Two formidable Powers allied appear, 
 
 Which shew Man's Rise, his Progress, and his Fall. 
 
 To ev'ry Act of Duty to persuade, 
 
 On these two Forms the Preacher turns his Looks, 
 Points to thy Scythe, Time, or, Death, thy Spade, 
 
 And makes mere painted Stones affecting Books. 
 
 When from God's Word he proves that Time shall cease, 
 
 And Death must to Eternity consign, 
 He to the Hour- Glass points, and cries : ' Heaven's Peace 
 
 To gain, this Hour alone is truly thine ! ' ' 
 
 Time is ordinarily represented as an old man, naked or 
 but slightly clothed, and quite bald, with the exception of 
 a single lock of hair on the forehead. In "King John" 
 Shakespeare calls him "that bald sexton, Time " ; and we are 
 all familiar with the occasional necessity of '' taking Time by 
 the forelock." In his hand he holds a scythe, or in one hand 
 a scythe and in the other an hour-glass. In an engraving 
 by Bernard, executed in 1560, Time has scythe and crutches, 
 and in some few cases he is represented as winged. 
 
 " Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 
 
 Old Time is still a-flying." HERRICK. 
 
 Though in later days Time and Death have been associated 
 together, and the symbols they bear freely interchanged, in 
 earlier days they were never represented as necessary com- 
 panions. Time was associated with ideas of growth and 
 
ALL-CONQUERING DEATH. 
 
 95 
 
 life, rather than with destruction and decay. Time in the 
 Greek Church was young and unbearded, while Death was 
 a noble and angelic form, as in the Campo Santo at Pisa, 
 and it was centuries before it changed to the ghastly skeleton 
 that it afterwards became. 
 
 In the later figures of Death the skeleton forms are often 
 horribly badly drawn, the bones incorrect in form, the arti- 
 culations with no vestige of anatomical accuracy. So gro- 
 tesquely horrible indeed are the forms, that it has even been 
 
 FIG. 52. 
 
 snq-2'ested that in many cases the bad drawing was not the 
 result of ignorance, but of a deliberate intention to make the 
 forms more repulsive. 
 
 In figs. 52, 53, 54, we have good illustrations of this 
 medieval treatment of the subject. Such drawings, illus- 
 trating the all-conquering power of Death, are very com- 
 monly to be met with. We give but three of these : the 
 warrior with uplifted sword, himself succumbing to the fate 
 that many others have suffered at his hands ; the student 
 poring over his books, mocked by the gift of the Elixir Vita9 
 
96 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 at the hands of Death ; and the wealthy dame, who awakens 
 suddenly to the fact that her life of ease and dignity is over, 
 and that her next step is to the edge of the grave. 
 
 The Dance of Death was a favourite mediaeval subject. 
 Well-known examples may be seen at Basel, Lucerne, and 
 elsewhere. In these we often see the scythe and hourglass 
 attributed to Death. In Holbein's Dance of Death more than 
 half of the skeleton figures have one or other or both of these 
 emblems assigned to them ; and we may see the scythe again 
 
 FIG. 53. 
 
 in the work of Orcagna, in Titian's "Triumph of Death," 
 and in many illustrations in the old MSS. Figures of Death 
 as a skeleton are frequently introduced in the sepulchral 
 brasses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; and on 
 the older gravestones in many churchyards one finds a free 
 use made of skulls, cross-bones, and other such-like emblems 
 of mortality. Much of the religious writing of that period 
 busied itself in representing the weakness, sinfulness, and 
 misery of man, and men were goaded heavenwards by fiery 
 denunciations and glowing descriptions of the torments of 
 
EMBLEMS OF MORTALITY. 
 
 97 
 
 the unregenerate. 1 Even the gentle Jeremy Taylor made the 
 key-note of his "Holy Dying," "He that would die well must 
 always look for Death, every day knocking at the gates of 
 the grave"; and the cross-bones on the tombstones are but 
 one indication the more of the prevalent tone of mind. 
 
 On many of the rings and other personal adornment of 
 this period these emblems of mortality are freely introduced. 
 The watch of Mary Queen of Scots, for example, was in the 
 form of a skull. On the forehead was a small figure of 
 
 FIG. 54. 
 
 Death standing between a palace and a cottage, and around 
 it the passage from Horace, " Palida Mors sequo pulsat pede 
 pauperum tabernas regumque turres." 
 
 1 " All Adam's offspring through his sinne are made einfull, not by 
 imitation only, but by propagation, receiving the contagion of sin and 
 uncleannesse before they behold the light of this life." " Man is now 
 spoiled of freedome of will, and made subject to miserable bondage." 
 " Out of the corrupt nature of man proceedeth nothing but what is 
 damnable." CALVIN. 
 
98 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 On a mediaeval trencher, with device of a skull, we find the 
 lines : 
 
 " Content y 1 felfe w th thyn ef tat : 
 And fende no poore wight from y 1 gatt : 
 For why this councell I y e geue : 
 To learne to die and die to lyue " ; 
 
 and in another example, with the same emblem of mor- 
 tality, the inscription : 
 
 " Truste not this worlde thou wooeful wighte : 
 But lett thy ende be in thy lighte." 
 
 It was customary in the Middle Ages to provide richly- 
 decorated palls to be nsed at the burial of members of various 
 guilds, and some of these still survive the ravages of Time. 
 In one of these the general black surface is crossed by broad 
 bands of white, and on these are embroidered skulls holding 
 thigh bones in their mouths, scapulae, ossa innominata, and 
 other portions of the skeleton. Kings too were commonly, 
 when of a memorial character, made in the form of a skeleton, 
 or a skull was placed where we should ordinarily look for 
 the stone or other adornment. Luther used to wear a gold 
 ring with a small death's head in enamel, and the inscription 
 " Mori saepe cogita." This ring is still preserved at Dresden. 
 It will be remembered too that in " Love's Labour Lost " 
 Biron compares the face of Holofernes to " a Death's face 
 in a ring." 
 
 We remember seeing in the " God's acre" at Basel a striking 
 commentary on the truth of the stanza in the noble " Elegy " 
 of Gray : 
 
 " The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
 Await alike the inevitable hour : 
 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 
 
 On one of the tombstones the armorial bearings of the 
 person interred were all duly set forth in their heraldic 
 significance, but behind the shield was carved the figure of 
 Death, 1 and his bony hands had seized the shield with all 
 its testimony of earthly rank and dignity, and had torn it 
 apart from top to bottom. " Sic transit gloria mundi." 
 
 1 " An uncouth, hideous thing, nothing but bones." 
 
 " Flesh being turned to dust, and bones to sticks." George Herbert. 
 
EMBLEMS OF MORTALITY. 99 
 
 The idea appeared to us a very striking one, as we came 
 suddenly upon it in the solitude of this home of the dead. 
 That the high-born relatives of the deceased should thus 
 admit the solemn truth for him and for them was perhaps 
 still more striking, as poor humanity ordinarily clings to 
 the last to all such distinctions, as we may so abundantly 
 see in 
 
 ' The marble tombs that rise on high, 
 Whose dead in vaulted arches He, 
 Whose pillows swell with sculptured stones, 
 Arms, angels, epitaphs, and bones : 
 These, all the poor remains of state, 
 Adorn the rich, or praise the great." l 
 
 Cowley, in a well-known passage, tells us how " beauty, 
 and strength, and wit, and wealth, and power," all nourish 
 and joy in their pre-eminence awhile, but the end is the 
 same after all ; for 
 
 " Alas ! Death mows down all with an impartial hand " 
 
 as the reaper with his swinging scythe and steady, onward 
 step brings to one common fall the useless and noxious weeds, 
 the gay and brilliant blossoms, and the ripe heads of nodding 
 corn. 
 
 Other familiar symbols of death are the broken column, 
 and the urn. 2 Both were introduced at the period of the 
 Renaissance, when anything of classic association was wel- 
 comed ; the urn of course referred to the Roman custom of 
 preserving the ashes after cremation. 
 
 St. Jerome and Mary Magdalene are ordinarily represented 
 as having a skull in their hands or in close proximity to 
 them ; while St. Eutropius has his cleft with a sword. St. 
 Francis of Sales and St. Catherine of Siena are often repre- 
 sented as bearing their hearts in their hands ; and we may 
 in like manner find SS. Winifred, Valeria, and Regula, Dio- 
 nysius, Proculus, and Piat carrying their heads about with 
 them. The famous healing spring or holy well in Wales is 
 said to mark the spot where St. Winifred's head fell on her 
 decapitation. 
 
 1 PARNELL : " Night Piece on Death." 
 
 2 " Can storied urn or animated bust 
 
 Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ? "GRAY. 
 
ioo SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The dust and ashes of the penitent are equally symbols of 
 death. 
 
 " Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust, 
 Or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death ? " 
 
 The frequent Biblical use of the idea amply justifies the 
 association. When man, made in the image of God, fell 
 from his high estate, he learned the sad and solemn truth, 
 " dust thoii art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Job in 
 his misery exclaims, "Thou hast made me as the clay: wilt 
 Thou bring me into dust again ? " and elsewhere, " Now 
 shall I sleep in the dust : and thou shalt seek me in the 
 morning, but I shall not be"; while the writer of Eccle- 
 siastes, dwelling on the vanity of all earthly things, sums 
 up, "then shall the dust return to the earth": for, as he 
 elsewhere writes, "All are of the dust, and all turn to dust 
 again." The psalmist sings, " All that go down into the 
 dust shall bow before Him," for death is but the threshold 
 of immortality : " Mors janua vitae." Therefore Isaiah 
 writes, " Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust : for 
 the earth shall yield her dead " the glimmering light of 
 the dawn that bursts into the full glory of the triumphant 
 words of the New Testament : " Now is Christ risen from 
 the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 
 For since by man came death, by man came also the resur- 
 rection of the dead. . . . For this corruptible must put 
 on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." 
 In this radiant vision of coming bliss the Master's gracious 
 welcome is all in all; and in the light of that greeting 
 skulls and cross-bones, scythes and urns, fade away for ever 
 and ever. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Soul of Man as a Little Child Naked or clothed The Campo 
 Sauto at Pisa Soul as Serpent or Bird Weighing of Souls in the 
 Balance Butterfly Symbol Elijah Depicted as a Type of the 
 Resurrection The Torch of Life Angels Their Ministry to 
 God and to the Saints The Mystical Vision of Ezekiel The 
 Orders of Angels The Angel of the Mighty Will of God The 
 Fallen Angels The Tempter The Mediaeval Conception of Hell 
 The Eenaissance Hell Satan as the Dragon Dragons and Dragon- 
 SlayersSatan as the Serpent The Serpent as a Talisman The 
 Deaf Adder Serpent as Emblem of Immortality of Eternity 
 Serpent Worship The Ophites The Serpents of Goodness and of 
 Evil Gnostic Gems The Krishna of Hindu Mythology. 
 
 THE soul of man is usually symbolically depicted as a little 
 child coming out of the mouth of the dying person, and good 
 and bad angels are generally present to receive it, and to 
 contest its possession. It is sometimes naked, at other times 
 clothed and robed. Naked, for naked came man into the 
 world, and stripped of all must he return to Mother Earth ; 
 "for when he dieth he shall carry nothing away." 1 When 
 the soul is clothed, it typifies the robe of Christ's righteous- 
 ness. " Clothed upon," as St. Paul has it, "that mortality 
 might be swallowed up of life." Sometimes both soul and 
 body, the ascending spirit and the dying saint, are repre- 
 sented with the nimbus ; while in other examples the soul 
 issues as a little black imp or fiend. 
 
 In the Campo Santo at Pisa will be found a wonderful 
 series of paintings, that up till the last few years have been 
 assigned to Orcagna, though it is possible that the ascription 
 is in fault. Whoever the artist may have been, he was a 
 man of great artistic power and of vivid imagination. In 
 the " Triumph of Death," gay and festive groups of ladies 
 and cavaliers sit beneath the orange trees and amuse them- 
 
 1 Ps. xlix 17 ; Eccles. v. 15 ; 1 Tim. vi. 7. 
 101 
 
102 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 selves with songs and music, while Death approaches with 
 rapid flight and menacing scythe. At his feet are already 
 a great host of the departed, some wearing the kingly crown 
 or the coronet of the princess, some the robes and hat of the 
 cardinal, or the panoply of steel of the knight. The souls 
 of these, as they rise, fold their hands in prayer, or shrink 
 back in horror as they see the fiends awaiting them. On 
 the one hand, bright angels ascend to heaven with the souls 
 of some, while others are dragged to a fiery mountain crater, 
 and flung headlong into the raging flames. In another por- 
 tion of the picture a crowd of beggars, the maimed, the 
 blind, and the halt, with outstretched arms call upon Death 
 to end their sorrows ; but their appeal goes unheeded. 
 
 In another of these wonderful pictures, " The Last Judg- 
 ment," the trumpet sounds, and the dead emerge from the 
 earth, clad in the appropriate dress of their former condition ; 
 and on their rising the angels divide them into two great 
 companies, the redeemed and the lost. 
 
 We remember to have seen an example in Byzantine art 
 where the soul issues as a serpent from the mouth of the 
 dying man. It is sometimes also represented as a bird. In 
 one of the ancient Egyptian funeral tablets in the British 
 Museum, the spirit of a man is represented as a bird having 
 a human head ; it is being fed with divine food by the 
 goddess Neith out of the sacred tree in which she stands. 
 Elsewhere on a mummy-wrapping we find the dead man 
 pictured, swathed for his burial, while above the lifeless 
 body hovers his soul in form of a bird (see fig. 55) having 
 human head and hands. It bears in one hand the hiero- 
 glyphic for breath, 1 and in the other the Tau, the hieroglyphic 
 for life. On another mummy case a man is depicted as 
 suddenly falling dead to the ground, while above him stands 
 another erect and with outstretched arms. The mortal man 
 is painted red; the spiritual man, his risen soul, is blue, the 
 colour of the sky. In this example, the two figures are the 
 same size, it is the same being, in spite of the change that 
 has come over him ; but in Christian art examples of this 
 
 1 The Egyptian symbol for breath is the sail of a vessel : a happy and 
 expressive idea, as the sail is inert and useless till quickened by the 
 breath of the wind, but springs beneath its influence into movement and 
 service. 
 
WEIGHING OF THE SOUL. 
 
 identity of size are very rarely encountered, the bold figure 
 of the Saviour in his discourse to Nicodemus, "ye must be 
 born again," naturally suggesting the infant form. 
 
 The weighing of the souls in the balance by the archangel 
 Michael is a favourite mediaeval subject, and was often 
 depicted on the walls of the churches as a sermon and a 
 warning. 1 Very frequently evil spirits cling to the scale, 
 and endeavour by their weight to depress it in their favour. 2 
 
 
 FIG. 
 
 The Egyptians entertained the belief that the actions of the 
 departed were solemnly weighed before Osiris, and the final 
 condition of the soul determined by the preponderance of 
 the good or the evil. The Babylonians probably held a 
 
 1 " On the point of separation of the soul from the body, the good and 
 bad angels come, and the merits and demerits of the man are weighed. 
 The good angel alleges and recites the man's good works, the bad a^igel 
 calling to memory all the evil ones. And if indeed the bad preponderate, 
 so that he departed in mortal sin, immediately the soul is delivered to 
 the tormentors." St. GREGORY, A.D. 604. 
 
 2 "Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine 
 integrity " (Job xxxi. 6). 
 
104 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 similar belief, so that the mysterious writing on the wall 
 during the impious feast of Belshazzar would appear to 
 them the presage not only of national, but of eternal loss. 
 " God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Thou 
 art weighed in the balances, and found wanting." With 
 that awful verdict against him, " in that night was Bel- 
 shazzar the king slain," slain by his country's foes, while he 
 was yet under the ban of the Divine displeasure, and in all 
 that made for righteousness found wanting. 
 
 The souls of men are weighed too before Brama in Hindu 
 art, and by the Muhammadans the archangel Gabriel is 
 called the u soul- weigher." 
 
 The butterfly as a symbol of the soul is but rarely seen in 
 early work ; for though the Greek word for the butterfly and 
 the spirit of life is the same psyche yet, owing to the 
 imperfect idea of all pre-Christian races as to the immor- 
 tality of the soul, much of the force of the symbol was in 
 early days lost. Even in later times, owing to the want of 
 study of the lower forms of nature, the analogy between 
 the spirit of life and the butterfly first appearing as a 
 creeping, toiling caterpillar, and then, its span of existence 
 apparently over, burying itself in the earth a seemingly life- 
 less chrysalis, yet finally at the appointed season the perfect 
 creature soaring above its tomb into the sunlight, was not 
 perceived. 
 
 " Yet wert thou once a worm, a thing that crept 
 On the bare earth, then wrought a tomb, and slept. 
 And such is man ! soon from his cell of clay 
 To burst a seraph in the blaze of day." 
 
 In some few Greek examples the butterfly is represented 
 hovering over the dead, and in comparatively modern work 
 it may not uncommonly be found among us. We have 
 already referred to the Gottesaker at Basel as supplying a 
 striking piece of symbolic teaching ; and we remember to 
 have there seen also, sculptured on one of the gravestones, 
 the shrouded chrysalis and above it the soaring butterfly. 
 
 As a symbol of the ascension of Christ, Elijah borne to 
 heaven in the chariot of fire occurs often in early work. 
 Many examples may be seen on the tombs of the martyrs of 
 the early Christian Church. 
 
 The torch of life, though originally a pagan conception, is 
 
THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 105 
 
 occasionally introduced into Christian art, and, naturally, is 
 more especially found where the work is Renaissance in 
 treatment, and therefore influenced by the old classic ideas 
 and forms. 
 
 Angels, the ministers and messengers of God, are abun- 
 dantly met with in ancient, mediaeval, and modern art, either 
 in attendance upon the first Person of the Trinity, or the 
 Saviour, or ministering to the needs of the saints. Often 
 they are hymning the praises of God or playing on musical 
 instruments. In the National Gallery, for instance, in the 
 picture by Filippo Lippi of the " Madonna and Holy Child " l 
 attendant, angels are playing on the lute and the violin ; and 
 in old churches we often find paintings or carvings of the 
 heavenly host with various instruments of music, as though 
 taking part in the devotions of earth. In Fra Angelico's 
 beautiful picture in the National Gallery of the risen Lord 
 surrounded by angels and saints, the devotion of service of 
 the angels forms by far the greater portion of the picture. 
 As Dr. Alexander in his book, " The Divinity of our Lord," 
 excellently observes : " Christianity is not a temporary influ- 
 ence, to be absorbed into pure theism. The religion of 
 heaven, like that of earth, is Christianity." A statement con- 
 firmed in the wondrous vision vouchsafed to -the worn exile 
 of Patmos : " I heard the voice of many angels round about 
 the throne : and the number of them was ten thousand times 
 ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ; saying with a 
 loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
 power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and 
 glory, and blessing." And then the grand confirmatory cry 
 in unison of all creation, of " every creature which is in 
 heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as 
 are in the sea," bursts with one accord into the thrilling 
 anthem of devotion, " Blessing, and honour, and glory, and 
 power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
 the Lamb for ever and ever." 
 
 Of the ministry of angels to the saints we find abundant 
 examples in art and legend. Thus to quote but a few : by 
 angelic protection St. Hugh is defended from the lightning, 
 while an angel holds the plough for St. Isidore during his devo- 
 tions ; an angel makes clothing for St. Homobonus, while 
 
 1 "Let all the angels of God worship Him " (ETeb. i. 6). 
 
106 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 another sings to St. Nicholas of Tolentinum, and yet another 
 celestial visitor brings store of heavenly food to St. Congall. 
 
 We ordinarily associate the idea of white raiment with the 
 angels ; bnt the early painters did not by any means confine 
 themselves to this, 1 as we may readily see in any collection 
 of the works of the old masters. They are often represented 
 as having a bright flame of fire, two or three inches high, 
 rising from just above the forehead. This may be very well 
 seen in a decorative panel in the National Gallery by Are- 
 tino, and in several other pictures in the collection. They 
 are almost invariably winged, ordinarily with two wings, but 
 sometimes with six : these are expressive of swiftness 
 and alacrity of service. Sometimes they are standing npon 
 flaming and winged wheels, forms suggested by the mystical 
 vision of 'Ezekiel. 2 At times they are without bodies : in- 
 corporeal intelligences. 
 
 The orders of angels, as represented in art, would appear 
 to have been suggested by a treatise, " De Hierarchia 
 Ca3lesti." St. Thomas Aquinas gives them as follows : 
 " Seraphim, Cherubim, Throni, Dominationes, Virtutes, 
 Potestates, Principatus, Archangeli, Angeli." 
 
 " But over the hye desse 3 in pryncypall place 
 Where the sayd thre Kynges sat crowned all 
 The best hallynge 4 hanged as reason was. 
 Whereon were wrought the ix orders angellicall, 
 Dyvyded in thre ierarchyses, not cessynge to call 
 Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, blessyd be the Trynite, 
 Dominus Deus Sabaoth, thre persons in one De)te." 
 
 In the Greek Church, St. John the Baptist, while clad in 
 garment of camel hair, is winged, since that Church translates 
 literally the text, " Behold, I will send My messenger (angel), 
 
 1 " Les Saints Anges ont gen^ralment partout la couleur blanche : 
 cependant, le missal de Paris engageait a se servir, aux fetes de ces 
 esprits celestes, de la couleur jaune, ainsi qu'a 1'eglise metropolitaine. 
 II en fut de meme au diocese de Lisieux. Serait-ce un symbole de 1'eclat 
 de leur gloire ? Mais pourquoi le rouge a Laon, a propos des Saints 
 Anges : ce qui est difficile a justifier. Voudrait-on y voir le feu ardent 
 de leur zele pour la gloire de Dieu ?" MALAIS. 
 
 2 Ezek. i., also iii. 13 and the greater part of x. 
 
 3 The high dais. 
 
 4 Tapestry hanging round the hall. 
 
ANGELIC MESSENGERS. 107 
 
 and he shall prepare the way before Me." l He often has 
 two heads, one in the ordinary position, and a second, also 
 his own, borne in his hand in a basin ! Christ too, as the 
 bearer of reconciliation between God and man, is called in 
 the Greek Church " the Angel of the Mighty Will," result- 
 ing in a wonderful creation of Greek art, which in the 
 symbolism of the West has no parallel. 
 
 No subject perhaps has been more frequently painted than 
 the Annunciation. The celestial messenger is the great arch- 
 angel Gabriel, 2 who stands in the immediate presence of 
 God. The only other archangel mentioned in the canonical 
 books of the Bible is Michael (Jude 9) ; but in the Book of 
 Enoch we read of the four great archangels, Michael, Uriel, 
 Eaphael, and Gabriel, while in Tobit xii. 15 reference is 
 made to " the seven holy angels, which present the prayers 
 of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the 
 Holy One," the speaker being Raphael. Seven, as we have 
 already seen, has been accepted as the number symbolic of 
 perfection and completion ; and thus both in artistic and 
 literary work, the great " angels of the presence " are ordi- 
 narily seven in number. To give but one illustration, when 
 Milton introduces, in " Paradise Lost," the archangel Uriel, 
 it is as 
 
 " one of the seven 
 
 Who in God's presence, nearest to His throne, 
 Stand readj at command." 
 
 For the first four centuries we do not find in the catacombs 
 or elsewhere any representation of the devil, except as the 
 serpent, the tempter of Eve. Later on the fallen angels 
 and their leader have ordinarily been depicted with every 
 accessory of grotesque horror. The Satan of Milton is a 
 grand conception; but at the other end of the scale we may 
 place the Satan of the " Ingoldsby Legends," a Pan-like 
 creature with hoofs and horns and tail ; and it is in some 
 such guise as the latter that he generally figures in the art 
 of the Middle Ages. In the illustration of a fourteenth 
 century missal before us, the mouth has great protruding 
 tusks that curl upward nearly to the eyes ; the ears are long 
 
 1 Mai. iii. 1 ; Matt. xi. 10 ; Mark i. 2 ; Luke vii. 27. 
 
 2 Luke i. 19, 26 ; see also Dan. viii. 16 and ix. 21. 
 
io8 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 and pointed. At the shoulders and the thighs are other 
 heads, from the mouths of which issue the arms and legs 
 of the figure, the arms terminating in bears' claws, the legs 
 in eagles' talons ; the body, open at the waist, exposes a nest 
 of serpents darting forth and hissing in fury, while the rest 
 of the figure is covered with large scales. He is often repre- 
 sented also with wide-spreading draconic pinions. 
 
 The gurgoyles on old churches often represent evil spirits. 
 They are supposed to be flying from the sacred building, and 
 great faith was held in the church bells as a protection 
 against evil. " The reason for consecrating and ringing bells," 
 says a mediaeval writer, " is this : that by their sound the 
 faithful may be mutually cheered on towards their reward ; 
 that the devotion of faith may be increased in them ; that 
 their fruits of the field, their minds,- and their bodies may be 
 defended ; that the hostile legions and all the snares of the 
 enemy may be repulsed ; that the rattling hail, the whirl- 
 winds, and the violence of tempests and lightning may be 
 restrained ; the deadly thunders and blasts of wind held 
 off; the Spirits of the storm, and the Powers of the air, 
 overthrown." 
 
 The Tempter is represented as being driven away by the 
 sign of the cross made by St. Hilarion ; as chained by St. 
 Norbert ; as driven off by a large stone by St. Oswald ; as 
 seized with hot pincers by St. Dunstan ; as trampled under 
 foot by SS. Theodore, Cyriacus, and Euphrasia; as cast by 
 SS. Zeno, Hermes, and Hidulphus out of one possessed. 
 The histories of the saints, and the pictorial representations 
 in old work of their lives, would yield numerous other illus- 
 trations of the assaults of Satan and his defeats. 
 
 While sometimes represented as of colossal proportions, 
 the evil spirit is more commonly given the stature of a man, 
 and occasionally is found much more diminutive. Thus in 
 some old MSS. he is represented as tempting David and other 
 good men in the form of a little black figure sitting upon 
 their shoulders and whispering suggestions of evil in their 
 ears ; and often in representations of Christ casting out 
 devils, the evil spirit issues in diminutive form from the 
 mouth of the demoniac. 
 
 The Greek Hades, the Scandinavian Hella, originally the 
 unseen world, has gradually become, in popular idea, the 
 place of torment, the kingdom of Satan. As merely the 
 
FIG. 56. 
 
 
no SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 invisible state, it is referred to in Matthew xi. 23, xvi. 18 ; 
 Acts ii. 27, 31 ; Revelation i. 18 ; and several other passages. 
 As the place of punishment, it is referred to in Matthew v. 
 22, x. 28, xviii. 9 ; Mark ix. 43 ; Luke xii. 5 ; James iii. 6 ; and 
 elsewhere. In the original these two quite distinct meanings 
 are represented by two entirely different words. 
 
 Hell is generally, with the medieval painters and sculptors, 
 the yawning mouth of a huge monster, breathing smoke and 
 flames (as in fig. 56), or a large caldron set on flames, into 
 either of which attendant spirits hurl their victims ; and 
 often, with a grim touch of humour and bitterness of satire, 
 we find some of these with kingly crowns, or wearing the 
 cowl of the monk or the mitre of the bishop. It is carious 
 to note that when the Spaniards entered the City of Mexico, 
 they found that the doorway of the temple of the god of the 
 air was made like the mouth of a serpent or dragon, painted, 
 to quote one of their chronicles, " with foule and devilish 
 gestures, with great gums and teeth wrought, which was a 
 thing to feare those who should enter in thereat, and espe- 
 cially the Christians, unto whom it represented very hell, 
 with that ugly face and those monstrous teeth." 
 
 Representations of the kingdom of Satan are very numerous 
 in the Middle Ages, though in earlier work there is no sug- 
 gestion either of hell or of evil spirits. These mediaaval wall- 
 paintings in the churches probably suggested to Spenser the 
 lines 
 
 " He shewed him painted in a table plaine, 
 The damned ghosts that doe in torments waile, 
 And thousand feends that doe them endless paine 
 
 With fire and brimstone, which for ever shall remaine." 
 
 It will be remembered how Dante's fellow citizens re- 
 garded him, such was the power of his poetry, with awe, as 
 the man who had " seen hell." 1 
 
 The Renaissance idea of hell may be very well seen in 
 
 1 " Vermes et tenebrae, flagellum, frigus et ignis, Demonis aspectus." 
 Thus in Dante's " Inferno " Charon says : 
 
 " I come 
 
 To take you to the other shore across, 
 Into eternal darkness, there to dwell 
 In fierce heat and in ice." 
 
 Milton in like manner in " Paradise Lost," writes of 
 
THE CONFLICT WITH THE DRAGON. in 
 
 the " Last Judgment " of Michael Angelo, where Charon is 
 landing the lost souls on the farther side of the Styx, near 
 to the mouth of a dismal cavern, clearing his boat of its 
 unwilling passengers by the vigorous swinging of his oar. 
 
 In the Rabbinical book, u Bab. Berachoth," we are told 
 that, if we could but discern the evil hosts around us, no one 
 could withstand the shock; for every man has ten thousand 
 at his right hand, and one thousand at his left. Wier, in his 
 book, " I)e Praestigiis Daemonum," is content with a total 
 altogether of lost spirits of 7,405,926. 
 
 Satan is most commonly symbolised as the dragon or as 
 the serpent : the serpent representing the evil spirit as the 
 wily tempter that first betrays to sin, the dragon as the 
 devouring monster that remorselessly consumes those that 
 have become its victims. " When lust hath conceived, it 
 bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth 
 forth death." 1 
 
 The dragon and the dragon-slayer (fig. 57) appear in 
 many creeds and form the subject of countless legends. 
 While the story of the conflict varies with race and country, 
 the legends of classic days, such as that of Perseus and 
 Andromeda, the still older struggles carved on the slabs 
 of Persepolis and Nineveh, the stories narrated around the 
 camp fires to the awed rings of Eastern nomads, or listened 
 to with glistening eyes or rapt attention in the nurseries 
 of England, the great mass of legend that in the Middle 
 Ages clustered around the names of God's faithful saints, 
 the local traditions of every land, all point to the fatal 
 presence of some evil principle, and record the ultimate 
 triumph of good. Beneath the mass of everchanging fable 
 we find at length the one foundation to all, the deadly strife 
 between two great antagonistic principles. 
 
 The evil spirit is described in the Book of the Revelatior 
 
 " The bitter change 
 
 Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 
 From beds of raging fire to starve in ice." 
 
 And Shakespeare, in "Measure for Measure," has a similar idea in 
 the lines, 
 
 " To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 
 
 In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ioe. " 
 1 James i. 15. 
 
112 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 as "that great dragon." The conflict between St. Michael 
 and the dragon is a favourite subject in art. We may see 
 it, for instance, in Fra Carnovale's picture in the National 
 Gallery; while the combat of our own national saint with 
 the monster may be seen in the same collection in the works 
 of Memling, Tintoretto, Pisanello, and Domenichino, and in 
 old church carvings : as, for example, at Pitsford in North- 
 amptonshire, at Moreton Valence and at Ruarden, Gloucester- 
 shire, Brinsop, Herefordshire, and Fordington in Dorsetshire ; 
 in a brass at Elsyng church, Norfolk, 1 and in considerable 
 profusion on tiles, stained glass, and so forth. 
 
 Fia. 57. 
 
 Besides the religious and artistic association of the dragon 
 with St. Michael and St. George, we find St. John of Rheims 
 and St. Cyriacus represented in art with a dragon held en- 
 chained. SS. Longinus and Servatius also have one at their 
 sides. St. Theodore is accompanied by a dragon having 
 three heads, while St. Germanus of Auxerre has one with 
 seven heads. St. Margaret is represented thrusting a staff 
 
 1 In another of our books, " Mythland," we have gone at considerable 
 length into dragon lore and legend, and do not therefore repeat what 
 we have elsewhere written. We would also refer the reader interested 
 in St. George to an excellent paper in Archceologia, commencing at p. 243 
 in the second part of vol. xlix. 
 
THE DRAGON AND THE SERPENT. 113 
 
 into the jaws of a dragon at her feet, while St. Remain has 
 the monster bound with his girdle and captive at his feet. 
 As we have not sufficient space, or possibly sufficient incli- 
 nation, to give at full length the various legends, we are 
 content to give but one as an illustration of all. 
 
 St. Romain was a bishop, and it is said that in his time 
 a frightful winged dragon devastated the neighbourhood 
 of Rouen, and indulged, after the approved fashion of 
 such monsters, in sundry feasts on human beings, etc. St. 
 Remain determined to rid the country of this scourge, and 
 after many snares and traps had been set and laid in vain, 
 he resolved to go in person to the forest-haunt of the 
 monster, taking with him two companions to assist him 
 in the chivalric deed. As they drew near the spot, one of 
 his colleagues fled at the sight of the dragon ; but the other, 
 taking the girdle of the holy man, approached the monster. 
 At the sight of the girdle it became " as gentle as a lamb," 
 and submitted to be bound therewith, and was thus con- 
 ducted to the prelate, who caused it to be taken into the 
 market-place at Rouen and publicly burnt. Its ashes were 
 then thrown into the river Seine. One cannot help feeling, 
 on reading the story, that while the bishop gets most of the 
 credit, his companion took most of the risk. 
 
 Another subject in which the dragon is represented is in 
 connexion with St. John, in allusion to some poison which 
 was once given to him to drink, but from which he took no 
 hurt, as, on placing the cup to his lips, the poison rose out of 
 the vessel in the visible form of a dragon. 
 
 The Biblical account of the temptation and fall of Eve 
 naturally makes the serpent a peculiarly appropriate symbol 
 of Satan. As early as the eighth century it was supposed 
 that the serpent that beguiled Eve had the face and head of 
 a woman, 
 
 " A cherub's face, a reptile all the rest " ; 
 
 and we therefore often find it so represented in art. In a pic- 
 ture, for instance, by Ercole di Giulio Grandi, in the National 
 Gallery, the tempter has a woman's head and bust, and long 
 flowing hair, 1 though the form is otherwise serpentine ; the 
 
 1 " Albertus saith that the hair of a woman, taken at some seasons and 
 laid in the ground, will become venomous serpents. Which some have 
 supposed to befall that Sex because of the ancient familiarity it had at 
 first with that accursed Serpent." GUILLIM. 
 
 I 
 
114 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 head of the monster and of Eve are on a level, and face to 
 face. We see this again in "the Fall " by Filippino Lippi, 
 in the church of S. M. del Carmine at Florence ; though here 
 the human face is so small, and the writhing, serpentine con- 
 volutions so evident, that the woman's face, instead of being 
 an attraction and a snare, is but an added horror. "We see 
 the human head again in the work of Pietro d'Orvieto in 
 the Campo Santo at Pisa, and in many early illuminated 
 MSS. Fig. 58, a sufficiently ghastly example, though the 
 
 FIG. 58. 
 
 ugliness is probably less intentional than indicative of want 
 of artistic skill, is from the " Ortus Sanitatis," a Latin herbal 
 printed first in the year 1491. From a praiseworthy desire 
 to make his book as comprehensive as possible, the author 
 starts from the Garden of Eden, and gives us this illus- 
 tration, the arbor vitce, the tree of life, with its golden 
 fruit and beguiling tempter in the midst. The arms of the 
 Fruiterers' Company are a tree having a serpent coiled 
 round it and on either side Adam and Eve. 
 
 In one of these old MSS. we meet with the passage, " Quod- 
 
THE SERPENT AS A SYMBOL. 115 
 
 dam ergo genus serpentis sibi dyabolus eligebat, qui cnm 
 erectus gradiebatur et caput virgineum habebat." It is known 
 from very similar passages in the " Historia Scholasfrica" and 
 elsewhere, that this belief was held at least as early as the 
 eighth century : we have therefore both pictorial and literary 
 proof of the antiquity of the idea. Even Michael Angelo, 
 one of the later and greater men, an artist capable of the 
 grandest idealizations, still conforms to the old treatment in 
 his representation in the Sistine Chapel of the Fall of Man, 
 though his feeling for beauty and his art-power enabled 
 him to combine the human and the serpentine more plea- 
 singly than in the work of the earlier men. While the 
 betraying spirit is still beguiling Eve, the angel of the 
 drawn sword hovers above ready to drive out of the Garden 
 .of Eden the guilty progenitors of our fallen race, a grand 
 and suggestive addition to the work, arid emblematic of the 
 swift punishment that followed upon the fall. 
 
 On a medal struck in 1605 to commemorate the discovery 
 of the Gunpowder Plot, we see on the obverse a snake gliding 
 amongst lilies and roses, while on the reverse is the name of 
 Jehovah set amidst a glory of rays. 
 
 On a Greek vase in the British Museum we have tie 
 daughters of Hesperus gathering the golden apples, while a 
 serpent coiled round the tree appears to be guarding them, 
 thus strikingly suggesting some far away echo amidst pagan 
 fancies of the Bible story. The serpent is often represented 
 as winged ; but winged or wingless, footed or purely serpen- 
 tine, with one head or a dozen, with false woman face or 
 stony ophidian glare, it coils round the tree of life full of 
 malignant subtlety and evil power, the sad symbol of enmity 
 to good and God. 
 
 " Some flow'rets of Eden ye still inherit, 
 But the trail of the serpent is over them all." * 
 
 The winged serpent was probably suggested by the pas- 
 sage in Isaiah that refers to the "fiery flying serpent," and 
 the additional attribute of swiftness would be accepted and 
 welcomed as one feature the more of terror, an added horror 
 bestowed on the loathsome crawling reptile, as a further 
 
 1 MOORE, " Paradise and the Peri." 
 
ii6 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 means of compassing the destruction of its victims. The 
 winged serpent is represented in the Egyptian wall-paintings 
 many centuries before its appearance in Christian art. 
 
 In the Book of the Revelation Satan is " the dragon, that 
 old serpent, called the Devil, which deceiveth the whole 
 world." Various texts refer to the subtlety of the serpent, 
 to its deadly poison, to its dangerous lurking in the dust ; 
 and only twice do we find anything commendatory : in the 
 first instance, when the brazen serpent gave life to those who 
 looked upon it, and was thus made the type of the great 
 Saviour of mankind ; and, secondly, when the righteous were 
 instructed to combine the wisdom of the serpent with the 
 Varmlessness of the dove. Even here the commendatory 
 application is of the most oblique kind. The notion of the 
 wisdom of the serpent probably sprang originally from the 
 opening verse of the third chapter in Genesis: "Now the 
 serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which 
 the Lord God had made." As the outcome of this was in 
 the case of the serpent a malignant cunning, it can scarcely 
 be made a legitimate basis for the higher idea we associate 
 with wisdom. 
 
 As a talisman against evil and sickness we find the ser- 
 pent the companion of the physician, the magician, the 
 soothsayer. It may be seen at the foot of the tripod at 
 Delphi, or twined round the staff of Esculapius ; while Cas- 
 sandra, licked behind the ear by the serpent, became gifted 
 with prophecy and foresaw all the evil that should befall 
 Troy. Blind Plutus, after a serpent had licked his sightless 
 eyes, saw clearly all the past, the present, and the future ; 
 and strange powers of healing and of mysterious insight 
 were ascribed to those who had come within the influence 
 of the serpent's power and fascination. 
 
 In the Middle Ages men, for the possession of power, were 
 held to have sold themselves to evil ; and if a man were but 
 a little wiser, a little sadder, a little more taciturn than his 
 neighbours, he was held, like Dr. Faustus, to have invoked 
 the enemy of mankind, and it was a moot point whether 
 he should be viewed with awed respect as a magician, or 
 burnt alive. 
 
 As the serpent refuses to hear the voice of the charmer, so 
 the man of wisdom will imitate the prudence of the reptile, 
 and refuse to listen to beguiling words that are full of future 
 
THE WISDOM OF THE SERPENT. 117 
 
 peril. Snakes are naturally attracted by sweet sounds, and 
 the serpent charmers take advantage of the fact to capture 
 them ; a fact that was evidently well known in the days of 
 the psalmist, who states that " the deaf adder stoppeth her 
 ears, and will not heed the voice of the charmer, charm he 
 never so wisely." The deafness, it will be noted, is no mere 
 lack of the hearing faculty, but a deliberate turning away 
 from peril. It was an old belief that when the asp heard 
 the voice of the charmer it stopped its ears by burying one 
 of them in the sand and coiling its folds over the other. 1 
 
 Marguerite de France, the daughter of Francis I., who was 
 styled by her subjects the mother of her people, bore as her 
 device an olive branch entwined with serpents, and the motto, 
 "Rerum sapientia custos," 2 signifying that all things should 
 be guided and governed by wisdom. 
 
 The serpent has also been accepted as an emblem of re- 
 generation or immortality from the annual casting of its 
 skin. As a symbol of eternity, the serpent may often be 
 seen having its tail in its mouth, thus forming a complete 
 circle, the accepted emblem of everlasting life. 
 
 Amongst various early sects the serpent was regarded not 
 only as the symbol of wisdom, but also of goodness, and its 
 form was largely employed in charms and amulets. Ifc ap- 
 pears from St. Augustine that the Manichseans used it as a 
 direct type of Christ; but its employment was ordinarily 
 antagonistic to Deity. Thus the Ophites, an offshoot of the 
 Gnostics, and sharing with them their belief in the implaca- 
 bility of Jehovah, taught that God was jealous of man, and 
 wished to prevent his acquiring more knowledge, but that 
 the serpent came to teach man wisdom. The Ophites conse- 
 quently adored the serpent, a worship probably prompted 
 and suggested by the reminiscences of the older faiths of 
 Phoenicia and Egypt, where the serpent was revered as a 
 beneficent being. 
 
 The Egyptian serpent of goodness, the cobra, is often 
 
 1 " Pleasure and revenge have ears more deaf than add jrs 
 
 To the voice of any true decision " Troilus and Cressida. 
 
 " He flies me now, nor more attends my pain 
 
 Than the deaf adder heeds the charmer's strain." 
 
 Orlanio Furivso. 
 
 2 Wisdom the guardian of affairs. 
 
n8 SYMBOLISM IN CHRIS 1 'IAN ART. 
 
 represented with a human head. It stands erect upon its 
 folds, while the serpent of evil creeps along the ground. It 
 may be seen crowned with the diadem of the monarch, the 
 double crown formed of the distinctive head coverings im- 
 plying lordship over Upper and over Lower Egypt. The 
 serpent of evil is very commonly met with in the Egyptian 
 sculptures and wall paintings. In one example the goddess 
 Isis is piercing it through the head ; 1 in another we see 
 the advancing monster destroying mankind by the breath of 
 its mouth. a 
 
 Serpent worship is a widely spreading form of religion 
 that we find in many lands and throughout centuries of 
 time, 3 the idea in most cases probably being not a recognition 
 of beneficence, but rather a sense of the necessity of propi- 
 tiating a potent evil power. The subject is a most interesting 
 one, but its proper consideration would encroach upon our 
 pages more than would be justly its due. 
 
 In the Hindu mythology we read that there was once a 
 manifestation of the Deity who appeared on earth as coun- 
 sellor, warrior, and teacher. " They who trust in me," cried 
 Krishna, " know Brahma. I am the Victim, I am the Sacri- 
 fice, I am the Worship, I am the Road of the Good, the Creator, 
 the Witness, the Asylum, and the Friend." This same being 
 is the dragon-slayer of their creed, and none of the Indian 
 sculptures are of greater interest and beauty than those of 
 Krishna suffering, enveloped in the coils of a serpent that 
 
 1 "I will put enmity between tbee and the woman, and between thy 
 seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his 
 heel." 
 
 2 On Gnostic gems and coins we naturally find many other illustra- 
 tions. Thus on one we find the serpents of good and evil face to face, 
 rising from their coils for the coming conflict ; while on another we have 
 a galloping horse and the serpent of evil upon its back doubtless the 
 Gnostic treatment of the text, " I looked, and behold a pale horse : and 
 his name that sat on him was Death." The coins of the later Roman 
 emperors are rich with Gnostic and astrological devices. 
 
 3 In Squier's " Serpent Worship in America," many legends are g'V3n 
 that admirably illustrate the feelings of the North American aborig nes 
 the Peruvians, Mexicans, and other dwellers on that continent with 
 regard to the great serpent that represents to them, as to so many 
 other races, the great evil power. Other books to refer to are Cooper's 
 " Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt," Pbene's work " On Prehistoric Con- 
 ditions and Customs in Connexion with Serpent Worship," or Deane's 
 " Worship of the Serpent Traced throughout the World." 
 
THE SLAYER OF THE DRAGON. 
 
 119 
 
 fastens its fangs into his heel, and Krishna triumphant, 
 trampling under foot the crushed head of the monster. In 
 this myth before the eyes of the teeming millions of India 
 of a terrible yet vanquished power of evil, of a wounded yet 
 conquering saviour, who proclaims himself the sacrifice, the 
 way, the truth, and the life, we find a wonderful parallel 
 with the Christ of God ; while in fig. 59, a portion of a 
 
 FIG. 59. 
 
 Hindu picture, we see a strange similarity to the multi- 
 tudinous pictures of the Virgin and the holy Child found 
 in Christian art. 
 
 The serpent is not much associated in art with the saints. 
 St. Didymus is represented as treading one under foot, and 
 we also find it in association with SS. Paternus, Pirminius, 
 Thecla, and Phocas. Unfamiliar as these names may be, 
 and generally unknown the legends that make the introduc- 
 tion of the serpent appropriate, the same difficulty scarcely 
 
 
120 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 arises in the case of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, 
 the benefactor who once and for ever banished snakes and 
 all such noxious creatures from the Emerald Isle, and who 
 therefore, very justly, in recognition of his deed, bears the 
 serpent as an attribute. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Church as a Flock of Sheep Figures in Mediaeval Art of the 
 Jewish and Greek Churches Old Testament Incidents treated 
 Symbolically The " Biblia Pauperum," Illustration from Apo- 
 cryphal Sources of Information of the Artists of the Middle Ages 
 The Sibyls Symbols of the Patriarchs The Apostles The 
 Evangelists The Four Creatures in the Vision of Ezekiel The 
 Mysterious Beasts of the Apocalypse The Meaning of the Evan- 
 gelistic Symbols according to St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and Wyck- 
 liffe The Iconoclasts Saint-worship Apparent Anachronisms in 
 Art Art Traditions Reckless Destruction of MSS. at the Reforma- 
 tion St. Sebastian St. Christopher St. Cecilia St. Laurence 
 St. Catherine St. Veronica The Sudarium St. Agatha Attri- 
 butes of Divers Saints St. Luke, artist The Kings in Heraldry 
 and Symbolism Martyrdom The Forces against the Early Chris- 
 tian Church. 
 
 WE proceed now to some brief consideration of the faithful, 
 the body of believers, the Church militant of God, and pass 
 in review the glorious company of the apostles, the goodly 
 fellowship of the prophets the noble army of martyrs. 
 
 FIG. 60. 
 
 The Church as a whole we shall find is often represented 
 either by a flock of sheep or of doves. The first symbol 
 
 121 
 
122 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 naturally follows from the Saviour of the world speaking 
 of Himself as the Shepherd, 1 and from His solemn charge 
 to Peter, " Feed My sheep " : while the dove, primarily an 
 emblem of the Holy Spirit, is secondarily applied to all 
 those upon whom He has breathed the breath of life eternal. 
 Hence in the catacombs we often find representations of 
 the Good Shepherd surrounded by His flock, and bearing 
 a sheep in His arms, as in figs. 60, 61, 62, or at other times 
 we see Christ as the Lamb of God, surrounded on either 
 side by the sheep of His pasture. 2 Fig. 63, an early Chris- 
 tian gem in the British Museum, shows us the soul resting 
 
 FIG. 61. 
 
 in peace on Christ, the believer being symbolised by the 
 dove with the olive branch, while the fish and the monogram 
 
 1 " I am the good shepherd : the good shepherd giveth his life for 
 the sheep " (John x. 11). " Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the 
 sheep" (Heb. xiii. 20). 
 
 a In a lower sense the earthly monarch may 
 
 " Act the shepherd in a noble sphere, 
 And take his nation into royal care." 
 
 Hence on the coronation of Charles II. a medal was issued having on its 
 reverse the king as a shepherd tending his sheep ; while on a memorial 
 medal of Charles I., struck after the Eestoration, on the reverse we see 
 a hand from heaven, holding a celestial crown, and below a landscape 
 with sheep scattered without a shepherd. 
 
THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 123 
 
 are both emblems of the Saviour. The duplication seems at 
 first needless ; yet through it we get this double meaning, 
 the sure rest for the wanderer on the Redeemer, and the 
 steadfast gaze fixed on Christ. In fig. 64, a portion of one 
 of the slabs in the catacombs of Rome, the single sheep 
 with the palm branch aptly symbolises the victory over 
 death of the member of the little flock thus commemorated. 
 In mediaeval work we not uncommonly find sculptured 
 two female figures as symbols of the Jewish and the Christian 
 Churches ; but these are ordinarily found more freely in 
 the continental cathedrals and churches than in England. 
 
 FIG. 62. 
 
 The Church is represented as a woman, " the spouse of 
 Christ," l even in the earliest ages ; but later on the second 
 figure is added. The Jewish Church or synagogue is re- 
 presented as blinded, a veil being over her eyes; in one 
 hand she bears the tables of the law, in the other a droop- 
 ing banner on a broken staff. The figure symbolizing the 
 Christian Church wears the crown, holds in one hand the 
 chalice, the pledge of communion with her Lord, and in 
 the other the once despised cross, the symbol of her faith 
 
 1 "As a bride adorned fur her husband" (Rev. xxi. 2). "As the 
 bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee " 
 (Isa. Ixii. 5). 
 
I2 4 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 and power. Good examples of these figures may be seen 
 at Strassburg cathedral. At Le Mans, in a painted window 
 of the twelfth century, the Church is depicted as crowned 
 by St. Peter, while the figure representing the synagogue 
 falls fainting into the arms of Aaron. 
 
 During the papacy of Leo the Great (A.D. 440-462) the 
 wonderful mosaics in the church of S. Paolo Fuori le Mura 
 in Rome were produced. Here we see the enthroned Christ, 
 above Him the four winged creatures symbolic of the Evan- 
 gelists, while on either side are the four and twenty elders, 
 those on the right being bareheaded, and those on the left 
 covered: the one group signifying the prophets of the Old 
 Testament, who only saw the truth veiled ; the others, the 
 apostles of the New Testament, who beheld it face to face in 
 all its fulness and beauty. Thus in one united ascription of 
 
 Fm. 63. 
 
 praise and adoration to the Christ the great teachers of the 
 olden time and the evangelists of the new dispensation join 
 in one grand outburst of joy and thanksgiving. 
 
 The Old Testament scenes are often represented, not only 
 from the histoi^ical, but from the symbolical standpoint, not 
 merely as depicting the actual incident, but utilizing it to 
 enforce other and greater truths such as the Incarnation, 
 the resurrection of the body, and the everlasting life of the 
 soul. This kind of treatment is abundantly met with in 
 the catacombs of Rome. The ark floating upon the stormy 
 waters of the deluge becomes a type of the Church riding 
 in safety amidst the strifes and turmoil of the world. 
 Abraham's sacrifice of his son reflects the sacrifice on 
 Calvary. Moses striking the life-giving stream of water 
 from the rock in the arid desert, not obscurely points to 
 Christ, the great spiritual Rock and the source of living 
 water to the thirsty soul. Daniel in the den of lions 
 
THE "BIB LI A PAUPERUM." 
 
 125 
 
 suggests not merely God's protecting care over the faithful 
 servant of God and the king, but becomes a type of victory 
 over death. The ascent of Elijah prefigures the greater 
 Ascension ; and in the same way the prophet Jonah, the 
 three faithful ones in the burning fiery furnace, the brazen 
 serpent in the wilderness, and many other Old Testament 
 histories and incidents, furnish the substratum upon which 
 higher truths are built. 
 
 The following extracts from the " Biblia Pauperum " 
 illustrate this teaching by type and symbol very clearly : 
 
 Fm. 64. 
 
 " It may be read in the book of Numbers that in one night 
 the rod of Aaron brought forth buds and blossoms, whereby 
 is figured the Virgin Mary, who miraculously brought forth 
 the ever-blessed Jesus Christ. It may be read in the first 
 book of Kings that the queen of Sheba heard of the fame 
 of Solomon, and came into Jerusalem with great gifts in 
 adoration for him ; which queen was a Gentile, which will 
 typify the Gentiles who came from afar to worship with gifts. 
 We read in the book Genesis that when the Ishmaelites who 
 had bought Joseph came into their own country, they sold 
 him in Egypt; this boy Joseph is a type of Christ, who 
 
 
126 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 was sold by the impious Judas. We read in the book of 
 Judges concerning Samson, that in the middle of the night 
 he arose, and of his own might cast down the brazen gates 
 of the city, and carried them away with him. Samson is a 
 type of Christ, who, rising from the grave in the middle of 
 the night, cast down the gates of the tomb, and left it in 
 freedom and power. We read in the first book of Kings 
 that when Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, had entered 
 
 FIG. 65. 
 
 in unto him in his palace, king Solomon commanded a 
 throne to be placed for his mother next to his own throne. 
 Bathsheba signifies the glorious Virgin, whose throne is 
 placed next the throne of the true Solomon, that is Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 As the old was made a type of the new, so the new was 
 occasionally a reflex of the old. Thus in representations of 
 the adoration of the Magi the travellers are almost always 
 depicted as kings, as in fig. 65, a picture by Era Angelico, 
 though there is nothing in the Bible record of the visit to 
 
SYMBOLIC INTRODUCTION OF OX AND ASS. 127 
 
 justify the idea. It is based on that passage in the Psalms 
 where we read, " The kings of Tarshish and of the isles 
 shall bring presents : the kings of Sheba and Seba shall 
 offer gifts: yea, all kings shall fall down before Him, all 
 nations shall serve Him." Hence again in almost every 
 representation of the Nativity the ox and the ass are intro- 
 duced. This was not merely done from an idea that they 
 formed very natural accessories in an event of which the 
 scene was a stable, 1 bat quite definitely in illustration of 
 the words of Isaiah, " The ox knoweth his owner, and the 
 ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know, My people 
 doth not consider." 
 
 Where we sometimes find a difficulty in comprehending a 
 subject, we must bear in mind that, besides the canon of 
 Scripture as now received, the ancient writers, sculptors, 
 and painters drew their inspiration from various apocry- 
 phal sources ; such as the " Evangelium de Nativitate 
 Marice," the " Protevangelium Jacobi," the " Speculum 
 Salvationis," the " Flos Sanctorum," the " Aurea Legenda," 
 and many other writings of the kind. 
 
 During the Middle Ages, and especially where the Re- 
 naissance influence is paramount, we occasionally find the 
 sibyls introduced. They were held to be next in dignity to 
 the prophets : the function of the latter being to proclaim 
 the Messiah to the chosen people, of the former to foretell 
 His coming to the heathen world. References to the sibyls 
 will be found amongst the writers of Greece and Rome, 
 amongst the Jews, and in the writings of most of the 
 Christian Fathers. Plato speaks of one, Pliny of three, 
 ^Elian of four, and Yarro of ten. The Erythraean sibyl is 
 said, by Livy, to have offered to Tarquin II. nine books 
 containing the destinies of Rome, demanding for them three 
 hundred pieces of gold. He declined the offer, whereupon the 
 sibyl threw three of them into the fire, and asked the same 
 price for the other six ; this being still refused, she burned 
 three more, and again demanded the same sum for those 
 that remained, when Tarquin, conferring with the augurs, 
 was advised to buy them. These books were destroyed at 
 the burning of the Capitol, A.L>. 670. In mediaeval times the 
 
 
 1 The scene of the Nativity is in the East always shown as a grotto 
 cave, while in Western Art it is depicted as a stable. 
 
FIG. 66. 
 
SIBYLS, PATRIARCHS, AND APOSTLES. 129 
 
 traditions of the Church had assigned to each of the sibyls 
 her distinctive prophecy and proper emblem. Thus to the 
 Libyan sibyl was assigned the statement, " The day shall 
 come when men shall see the King of all living things," her 
 emblem being a lighted torch. To the Persian sibyl was 
 assigned the prophecy, " Satan shall be overcome by a true 
 prophet," her attribute being a dragon. To the Delphic 
 sibyl was imputed the prophecy, " The prophet born of vir- 
 gin shall be crowned with thorns." These prophecies were 
 manifestly merely monkish legend ; but even so early as the 
 second century certain writings were held in great honour 
 amongst the pagans, and the pious fraud of interpolating 
 passages bearing allusions to the Messiah was practised. 
 These spurious predictions were held in veneration for 
 centuries, and the sibyls were freely introduced into art, 
 the best known examples being in the magnificent work of 
 Michael Angelo in the Sistine Chapel at Rome. In Raphael's 
 picture of the " Adoration of the Kings," l in the Berlin 
 Museum two sibyls are placed in the upper portion of the 
 work, and two saints in the corresponding lower portion. 
 
 In religious art the patriarchs and other Old Testament 
 worthies are distinguished by their special symbols. Thus 
 Aaron bears a censer or rod, and is clothed in the vestments 
 of the priesthood, while Abraham has in his hand the knife 
 of sacrifice ; Daniel is accompanied by a lion ; Amos has the 
 crook of the shepherd ; Moses carries the tables of the law, 
 and is crowned with a radiant glory ; Noah bears the dove 
 and olive-branch, or a small figure of the ark, in his hand ; 
 David has the harp, or sometimes the stone and sling ; Elias 
 a scroll or chariot; Jonah a big fish or a ship. 
 
 The apostles, as the forerunners and symbols of the whole 
 Christian Church, are in the earliest work represented as 
 sheep, six on either side of the central figure of the Shep- 
 herd or of the Divine Lamb. Later on they are shown, as 
 in fig. 66, in human form, and then the need was soon felt of 
 giving them distinctive symbols to aid in their identification. 
 They first appear wearing the nimbus in the mosaics 2 of the 
 
 1 See Appendix A. 
 
 2 The mosaics of the early churches supply us with most valuable 
 materials. Had they been lost to us, there \vas nothing else that could 
 have taken their place. The Christian mosaics date from the fourth 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 church of St. Maria, Ravenna, dating from the year 553. It 
 was the custom to bestow a certain personality upon each 
 of the Apostles : thus St. Peter always had a short, rounded 
 beard, while St. Andrew had a long, flowing one ; St. Philip 
 was of advanced age, St. John almost a youth. But it was 
 no doubt soon found that it was impossible by such means 
 to clearly distinguish from one another twelve or more dis- 
 tinct persons. 1 Attributes or symbols were therefore assigned 
 to them. St. Andrew bears the X shaped cross, the emblem 
 of his crucifixion. St. Bartholomew was flayed alive, and 
 therefore has in his hand a large knife. St. James the Elder 
 
 FIG. 07. 
 
 carries the scallop shell, water-bottle, and staff of the 
 pilgrim. St. James the Less has the fuller's pole, the in- 
 strument of his martyrdom. St. John bears in his hand a 
 cup with a winged serpent emerging from it, in reference 
 to the tradition that one of the priests of Diana challenged 
 the apostle to drink a draught of poison ; after St. John had 
 
 century. The early pictures are very simple in character, and deal with 
 the historical facts of the Old Testament, and such emblems as the 
 vine, Orpheus, or the Good Shepherd. Later on we see the gradual 
 development of various doctrines and the first indications of various 
 errors that had crept into Church government or Christian belief. 
 
 1 The number varies, since sometimes Judas is not introduced, while 
 at others SS. Matthias, Barnabas, and Paul are included, though not in 
 the original band of twelve. 
 
SYMBOLS OF THE SAINTS. 
 
 made the sign of the cross over the cup, Satan, in the form 
 of a dragon or serpent, rose from it and flew away. Judas, 
 the traitor, bears the bag, since he was the treasurer of the 
 band. St. Jude bears a big knotted club, the instrument 
 
 FIG. 68. 
 
 of his death ; and St. Matthew, for the same reason, a 
 hatchet. St. Peter ordinarily carries a couple of keys, or 
 at other times is accompanied by a cock ; St. Simon a large 
 saw, and St. Thomas a lance, in each case the instrument of 
 martyrdom. St. Philip has a long staff or pillar, a>s he 
 
 
132 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 suffered death by being suspended from a lofty column ; St. 
 Matthias a battle-axe ; St. Paul a sword, the instrument of 
 his decapitation. 
 
 The Evangelists are abundantly introduced, and under 
 very varying forms. Sometimes they are men with rolls or 
 books in their hands, inscribed with their names ; at other 
 times we get the inscribed books or rolls alone. Most com- 
 monly the evangelistic symbols are the angel, the lion, the 
 ox, and the eagle ; and these also, as in fig. 67, are generally 
 associated with the rolls. Sometimes the men are introduced 
 with these four creatures by their sides, or at their feet, while 
 in a few cases the forms are human, except that they have 
 the heads of the angelic or animal type. In fig. 67, a piece of 
 early carving from the church of Sta. Maria, Rome, instead 
 of, as in fig. 48, having Christ surrounded by the evan- 
 gelists, we have the hand in benediction, and around it the 
 four evangelistic symbols, each bearing the roll in hand, 
 paw, hoof, or claw. Fig. 68 is a much later piece of work, 
 a portion of a picture by Van Eyck, representing St. Luke 
 painting the portrait of the Virgin. Even though the treat- 
 ment is purely pictorial and modern in character, we still 
 see introduced in the background the symbolic ox bearing 
 its scroll of writings. We may even occasionally find all 
 four symbols combined into one, with the four distinctive 
 heads, and supported on the foot of the angel, the paw of 
 the lion, the hoof of the ox, and the claws of the eagle. In 
 other examples again they are depicted as men holding urns, 
 and pouring from them the living waters of the gospel, or 
 at other times the four streams alone are seen issuing from 
 Christ the rock. 1 
 
 As some of our readers may find a certain difficulty in 
 remembering the appropriate symbol of each evangelist, 
 they will find the following mechanical aid to memory verj 
 serviceable : if the word ALOE be taken, it will be found to 
 be composed of the initial letters of the four symbols, angel, 
 
 1 " Paradisi hie fluenta 
 Nova fluunt sacramenta 
 
 Quae descendunt caelitns : 
 His quadrigis deportatur 
 Mundo Deus, sublimatur 
 Istis area vectibus." 
 
 ADAM DE ST. VICTOKE. 
 
THE VISION OF EZEKIEL. 133 
 
 lion, ox, eagle, and in their proper sequence for Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke, and John. This key-word will at once give the 
 symbol required. 
 
 These four figures, the man or angel, the lion, ox, and 
 eagle, are in a marked degree common to almost all periods 
 of art. Thus in Egypt we find the Sphinx human, eagle- 
 headed, or leonine in character, while the ox is amply re- 
 presented in the countless figures of the sacred Apis. 1 In 
 the Assyrian remains we are confronted by bulls or lions 
 with human heads, or by figures in human form, but having 
 the wings and heads of eagles. The four creatures seen in 
 the wonderful vision of the prophet Ezekiel were of this 
 nature ; for he expressly says in his description that they 
 were similar to those he had seen while a captive by the 
 river Chebar a river of Assyria that runs into the Euphrates 
 about two hundred miles north of Babylon whither he and 
 the great bulk of his nation were carried by the Assyrian 
 king Shalmaneser, 721 years before the Christian era. The 
 Assyrian sculptures therefore must have been familiar in 
 appearance to him and to those to whom he was sent to 
 prophesy. 
 
 The prophecy opens with the words, "Now it came to 
 pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth 
 day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river 
 of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions 
 of God." The whole of the first chapter is full of glowing 
 imagery, and he reverts to it again in the tenth chapter ; 
 though we realize as we read it how utterly inadequate he 
 must have felt all verbal description to be to express the 
 glory of that vision of the opened heaven. 2 
 
 1 It is curious too to notice that the four Egyptian go is of the dead 
 that stand before the Judge have four different natures, though in this 
 case they have the heads of the dog or jackal, ape, man, and eagle. 
 These four, as we may see in funeral tablets in the British Museum and 
 elsewhere, always appear at the trial of the dead man, and mediate to 
 Osiris on his behalf. When the body was embalmed, various parts of 
 the internal organs were placed within jars having lids surmounted with 
 
 es. heads. 
 
 2 "The Christian Church, looking at the origin of the four gospels, 
 and the attributes which God has in rich measure been pleased to be- 
 stow upon them by His Holy Spirit, found a prophectic picture of them 
 in the four living cherubim, named from heavenly knowledge, seen by 
 the prophet Ezekiel at the river of Chebar. Like them the gospels are 
 
 
134 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 In the apocalyptic vision of another captive exile, St. 
 John of Patmos, the mysterious creatures adoring cease- 
 lessly before the throne reappear to mortal eye. We read 
 that the first creature was like a lion, and the second like a 
 calf, and the third had a face as a man, and the fourth crea- 
 ture was like a flying- eagle. Probably it was upon these 
 passages in the Old and New Testaments that the evan- 
 gelistic symbols were based. 
 
 St. Jerome and St. Ambrose assert in their writings that 
 these four creatures represent, through the evangelists, our 
 Lord under four aspects. Wyckliffe, in his translation of 
 the Old Testament, published in the year 1380, refers to the 
 beliefs of both these older writers. His English is almost 
 too quaint for direct quotation, but the substance of it is 
 that Matthew is represented as a man or angel, inasmuch as 
 he dwells in his gospel chiefly upon the manhood of Christ ; 
 Mark is shown as the lion, as he treats most fully of His 
 rising again ; Luke is represented as the ox, writing as he 
 does more especially concerning the sacrifice and the priest- 
 hood ; while John is the eagle, since he passes in his writings 
 over many of the little details given by the other evangelists, 
 and dwells most lovingly on the sacrament and the higher 
 mysteries. Another theory on which he touches differs 
 slightly from this, as it sees in the life of our Saviour Him- 
 self four great incidents which the forms symbolize : the 
 man, referring to His human birth ; the sacrificial ox, to His 
 death on the cross; the lion, to His resurrection; and the 
 eagle, to His ascension into heaven. 
 
 Though art soon became an aid to faith, its previous asso- 
 ciation with heathenism made the early Christians shrink 
 from its use, and the carvers of graven images were regarded 
 as the servants of Satan, and forbidden the rite of baptism. 
 This repudiation of art was however a matter of Church 
 
 four in number ; like them they are the chariot of God who sitteth 
 between the cherubim ; like them they bear Him on a winged throne into 
 all lands; like them they move wherever the Spirit guides them; like 
 them they are marvellously joined together, intertwined with coinci- 
 dences and differences : wing interwoven with wing, and wheel interwoven 
 with wheel ; like them they are full of eyes, and sparkle with heavenly 
 2ght ; like them they sweep from heaven to earth, and from earth to 
 heaven, and fly with lightning speed and with the noise of many waters." 
 BISHOP WORDSWORTH, " The Four Gospels." 
 
RECKLESS DESTRUCTION OF OLD WORK. 
 
 _ . _ . . . , . , ., i -. .... --,. 
 
 policy, and was in practice for only a limited time, the pro- 
 hibition being removed as soon as the contest between the 
 old beliefs and the new faith -ended in the victory of the 
 latter. Later on we find Gregory IT. writing : " The sacred 
 pictures elevate the feelings of men. Fathers and mothers 
 lift up their children to view them. Youths and foreigners 
 point with edification to the painted histories. All hearts 
 raise themselves to God." There was nevertheless, as one 
 may see at the present day in Russia, a tendency for this 
 appreciation of picture and image to presently develop into 
 worship and idolatry ; and in the year 726 the emperor Leo 
 III. published an edict condemnatory of the veneration and 
 use of religious paintings and images. Hence arose the sect 
 of the Iconoclasts or image-breakers, and this crusade was 
 in active operation for over a century, and doubtless an 
 enormous wealth of early art fell beneath the zeal of these 
 enthusiasts. Later on in our own country, in the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, Jnestimable treasures of medieval 
 art were destroyed by men whose fanatical ardour was more 
 characterized by a burning zeal than a just discretion. 
 
 The reckless and ignorant destruction of the MSS. in the 
 monastic establishments at their dissolution is a conspicuous 
 illustration of this sadly misplaced energy. Bale, who was 
 himself an advocate for the dissolution of the religious 
 houses, cannot help exclaiming : " Never had we bene 
 offended for the losse of our lybrayes beyng so many in 
 iiombre and in so desolate places for the moste parte, yf the 
 chief monuments and moste notable workes of our excellent 
 wryters had bene reserved, yf there had bene in every shyre 
 in Englande but one solemyne lybrary to the preservacyoii 
 of those noble workes, and preferrements of good learnynges 
 in our posteryte it had bene yet somewhat. But to destroye 
 all without consyderacyon is and wyll be unto Englande for 
 ever a most horryble infamy amonge the grave seiiyours of 
 other nations. A grete nombre of them wych purchased of 
 those superstycyose mansyons reserved of those lybrarye 
 bokes, some to serve their jaks, some to secure theyr candel- 
 styckes, and some to rubbe theyr bootes : some they solde to 
 the grossers and sope-sellers, and some they sent over see to 
 the bokebynders, not in small nombre but at times whole 
 shippes ful. I know a merchantman, whyche shall at thys 
 tyme be nameless, that boughte the contents of two noble 
 
136 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 lybraryes for xl shyllyngs pryce, a shame it is to be spoken. 
 Thys stuffe bathe he occapyed in the stide of greye paper 
 for the space of more than these ten years, and yet hathe 
 store ynongh for as manye years to come. A prodygouse 
 example is this, and to be abhorred of all men who love 
 theyr natyon as they shoulde do." 
 
 Another good example of the destruction that went on all 
 over the land may be gathered from the following extracts 
 from the diary of William Dowsing, Parliamentary Visitor 
 for the county of Suffolk, recording the smashing and break- 
 ing of the "superstitious pictures and ornaments of 
 churches " : " Sudbury, Suffolk, Peter's Parish, January 
 9th, 1643 : We break down a picture of God the Father, two 
 crucifixes, and pictures of Christ about an hundred in all ; 
 and gave orders to take down a cross off the steeple, and 
 divers angels twenty, at least on the roof of the church." 
 " Clare, January 6th : We brake down one thousand pic- 
 tures superstitious. I brake down 200 three of God the 
 Father, and three of Christ and the Holy Lamb, and three 
 of the Holy Ghost, like a dove with wings ; and the twelve 
 Apostles were carved in wood on the top of the roof, which 
 we gave orders to take down, and twenty cherubim to be 
 taken down, and the sun and moon in the east window, by 
 the King's Arms, to be taken down." " Bramford, February 
 1st : A cross to be taken off the steeple ; we brake down 841 
 superstitious pictures." 
 
 The church of St. Agnes, originally founded by Constantine, 
 and rebuilt by Pope Honorius (A.D. 626-638), is an example of 
 how things were tending, since not the Saviour as heretofore, 
 but St. Agnes is made the central figure in the great mosaic ; 
 and though the previous representation of various saints 
 as accessories to the Saviour could not suggest or provoke 
 creature-worship, the case was somewhat altered when the 
 one grand central figure that invited special attention was 
 that of a saint receiving such special honour, and this 
 feeling rapidly grew into invocation and adoration. 
 
 In many of the old pictures a certain anachronism would 
 appear to be involved ; but this is only apparently so, as the 
 groups of saints of various periods assembled together are not 
 intended to represent historic fact, but have symbolic refer- 
 ence to the communion of the faithful in one mystical body. 
 Thus in a picture in the National Gallery painted by Giro- 
 
I 
 
 Fio. 69. 
 
I 3 8 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 lamo da Treviso as an altar-piece for the Boccaferri Chapel 
 in Bologna, we have the Madonna and Child enthroned 
 under a canopy with SS. Joseph, James, and Paul, the 
 latter of whom is presenting the donor of the picture to 
 the infant Christ. In another picture in the same collection, 
 painted by Schiavone, of the same subject, the attendant 
 saints include SS. Bernard, John the Baptist, Anthony of 
 Padua, Catherine, Cecilia, and Sebastian, an assemblage 
 that certainly never met together in this world. Such 
 gatherings represent a heavenly rather than an earthly 
 assembly. The pictures were ordinarily altar-pieces, and each 
 church or religious body made its own selection of the saints 
 to be represented quite independently of all considera- 
 tions of geography or chronology. In Mantegna's "Madonna 
 of Victory," in the Louvre, the infant Saviour is surrounded 
 by two bishops, a cardinal, and a pope, all in gorgeous vest- 
 ments; while in Van Eyck's "Adoration of the Lamb," three 
 popes, two of them amicably singing from the same book, 
 appear in the picture, a state of things that is materially, 
 though not spiritually, an impossibility and rank absurdity. 
 Fig. 69, the " San Sebastiano " of Titian, is another charac- 
 teristic example of this. 
 
 Besides the essential knowledge of the symbols attributed 
 to each saint before identifiation is often possible, we require 
 to know something of the various art traditions. Thus, for 
 example, St. John is represented in Western art as the 
 young man that he was at the death of the Saviour ; while 
 the Greek Church paints him as a venerable, gray-bearded 
 old man, writing the Apocalypse some sixty years after 
 the death of his Lord. 
 
 Amongst the noble army of martyrs there is no more 
 favourite and common subject in art than St. Sebastian. He 
 is always represented as divested of his clothing, tied to a 
 tree, and pierced by arrows. In the National Gallery we 
 have several examples : one by L'Ortolano, the figures life- 
 size, where he is accompanied by St. Rock and St. Deme- 
 trius ; and another by Pollajuolo, where the saint is seen in 
 the middle of the picture, bound to a tree, and already pierced 
 with arrows. In the foreground are four of his executioners, 
 two of them in the act of discharging their weapons, and the 
 other two charging their cross-bows : here again the figures 
 are almost life size. A very beautiful exainnle, the work 
 
REPRESENTATIONS OF SAINTS. 139 
 
 of Bazzi (II Sodoma) in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, shows 
 the martyr bound and pierced, while an angel descends 
 from heaven to crown the suffering saint with the diadem 
 of victory. In the " Madonna and Saints " of Giovanni 
 Bellini, in the Academy at Venice, St. Sebastian occupies a 
 prominent position. When the subject may be considered 
 as painted from the historical point of view, the treatment 
 generally leaves nothing to be desired ; but in a group of 
 saints, including possibly a cardinal or other gorgeously 
 robed ecclesiastic, the appearance of St. Sebastian, attired 
 with a mere strip of cloth around the loins, and three-foot 
 arrows sticking out all round him, is at first sight quaint. 
 We may without breach of charity assume that doubtless 
 one reason why this saint so often appears in art is that 
 draughtsmen of the nude figure find in his sufferings an 
 excellent opportunity of exhibiting their skill and anatomical 
 knowledge. 1 
 
 Another very popular saint in art is St. Christopher. He 
 may be seen in the picture of Joachim de Patinir in the 
 National Gallery, and he is also on one of the panels on the 
 tomb of Henry VII., at Westminster Abbey. He may 
 always be recognised from his bearing on his shoulders a 
 little child, and he often also has the bough of a tree in his 
 hand. The little child is the Saviour of the world ; the 
 saint's name signifies the Christ-bearer. It would be mani- 
 festly impossible to give at length the legends associated 
 with the various saints, but that of St. Christopher is so 
 interesting that we may place it at the end of our book, for 
 reference. (See Appendix B.) 
 
 St. Cecilia, a Roman lady who suffered martyrdom in the 
 third century, was said to have been the inventor of the 
 organ. She may therefore be recognised in art from the 
 organ or other musical instrument that is represented 
 with her. She is the patroness of musicians. In the fine 
 "St. Cecilia," by Raphael (a portion of which is given in the 
 frontispiece), the saint gazes in rhapsody into the heavens, 
 where an angelic choir is singing. She holds in her hands 
 an o^gan, and at her feet are scattered various other musical 
 instruments. In the picture by Domenichino in the Louvre, 
 
 1 Amongst the specimens of majolica preserved in the South Kensing- 
 ton Museum is a figure of St. Sebastian by Maestro Giorgio. 
 
140 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 she is depicted as playing the violoncello, an attendant 
 angel standing by and aiding the performance by holding 
 out the music-book. 
 
 St. Lawrence the Deacon was broiled to death A.D. 258, 
 and is therefore recognisable by the great iron framework or 
 
 gridiron that he holds at his side. He may be so seen in a 
 Mending in the National Gallery. In the basilica of Galla 
 Placidia at Ravenna, we may see him in a mosaic, standing 
 before the heated gridiron, holding a copy of the gospels in 
 his hand, to symbolize his office of deacon, and a cross, the 
 cross of martyrdom. In the fourth bay of the north aisle 
 in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster, St. Lawrence, 
 
MARTRYDOM OF ST. CATHERINE. 141 
 
 clothed in dalmatic as a deacon, is sculptured amongst the 
 many other interesting figures of saints that may there be 
 found. He reads from a book which is supported on a 
 gridiron. 
 
 SS. Catherine, Euphemia, and Quintin all have a wheel as 
 a symbol ; but the first-named of these is by far the most 
 popular, and is almost always the one represented. She was 
 a virgin of royal birth at Alexandria, and publicly confessed 
 the Christian faith at a feast to the gods ; for which con- 
 fession she was put to death. The sentence of the emperor 
 was that she was to be crushed and torn by toothed wheels ; 
 but the apparatus was broken by angelic agency, if we may 
 credit the legend, and she was therefore beheaded. In a fine 
 picture by Raphael in the National Gallery she is looking 
 upward with, an expression of resignation, and leaning with 
 her left arm on the spiked wheel, the intended instrument 
 
 FIG. 71. 
 
 of her death. Another good example in the same collection 
 is by Pinturicchio, where the saint stands erect, with the 
 crown of a princess upon her head, the nimbus of the saint 
 also, a sword erect in her right hand, and the wheel behind 
 her. Representations of her recur constantly in mediaeval 
 work. Of these fig. 70 may be taken as a good illustra- 
 tion. In some examples, the wheel is much larger, and 
 more of the matter of fact character seen in fig. 71. The 
 wheel borne by the saint in fig. 70 is but a graceful symbol 
 of the actual instrument of martyrdom, while the sword is of 
 much more realistic type. The illustration is from a German 
 source. 
 
 Other favourite female saints are SS. Veronica and 
 Agatha. The legend of the former is given by John Dama- 
 scenus, in "De Fide Orthodoxa." We are told that Berenice, 
 the woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years, and 
 who was healed of her plague by her faith in the great 
 Physician, encountered our Lord on His journey to Calvary, 
 
1 42 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 and in loving pity gave him her kerchief to wipe His bleed- 
 ing brows. When He gave it back to her it bore the impress 
 of His features, and became the Vera Icon, the miraculous 
 portrait, and she was ever afterwards called St. Veronica. 
 In the National Gallery we may see, in a picture by William 
 of Cologne, the saint holding before her the sudarium or 
 white cloth containing the sacred portrait. 1 St. Agatha 
 is indicated in art by her symbol, the pincers, her breast 
 having been lacerated by those instruments before she was 
 put to death. She may be seen accompanied by this symbol 
 in Sebastian del Piombo's picture representing her ; a pic- 
 ture called by Vasari " divine." It is one of the works in 
 the National Collection. 
 
 The pincers are also associated with SS. Apollonia, Ma era, 
 Lucy, Pelagius, and Dunstan. With the first of these a 
 tooth is always held in the pincers, as Apollonia, like the 
 medieval Jews and many other unfortunates, had to submit 
 to a severe experience of involuntary dentistry as an induce- 
 ment to abandon her way of viewing matters. St. Lucy is 
 the patron saint of the blind. A heathen ruler praised the 
 beauty of her eyes, and desired to marry her ; so she tore 
 them out with pincers and sent them to him, with the mes- 
 sage, " Having these, let me now live to God." Heaven, 
 we are told, restored her sight ; but the rejected wooer 
 accused her to the authorities of holding the Christian faith, 
 and she was put to death. Her attributes in art are the 
 palm branch of the martyr, and the more distinctive symbol 
 of a platter having two eyes in it. The pincers of St. 
 Pelagius are always depicted as being red hot ; but St. Dun- 
 stan, who also has them as an attribute, and in like manner 
 represented as of a glowing red, was more fortunate in his 
 association with them. The former saint had them applied to 
 
 1 This poetical fable is of great antiquity, and re-appears under many 
 modifications. This miraculous kerchief or veil was said to have healed 
 Abgarus at the hands of St. Thaddeus, and it was also, we are told, 
 carried to Borne for the healing of the emperor Tiberius. According to 
 other versions of the legend, Abgarus, in his zeal to know something of 
 Christ, sent his own painter to Jerusalem to take the portrait of the 
 Saviour ; but the Divine face far outshone the feeble powers of the 
 artist. The Christ, ever kindly and full of consideration, pressed a 
 handkerchief over His countenance, and sent it to Abgarus, stamped 
 with the glorious image, the Vera Icon, of his Divine features. 
 
ATTRIBUTES OF VARIOUS SAINTS. -143 
 
 himself, while the latter applied them to some one else, which 
 makes, practically, a very considerable difference. The old 
 legend tells us that while St. Dunstan, who was a great handi- 
 craftsman in metals, was working in his cell, the devil in 
 disguise came to his window and chatted with him. The 
 saint soon detected from the tone of the conversation the 
 person he had to deal with, and picking up a pair of red-hot 
 pincers seized the tempter by the nose, and only let go on 
 faithful promise of no further molestation. His statue may 
 be seen in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, and elsewhere, 
 with the cope and crozier of the bishop, and in his left 
 hand a formidable pair of tongs or pincers. 
 
 It is impossible to dwell on the legends that explain the 
 attributes borne by the various saints. We must therefore 
 perforce be content with little more, or in most cases nothing 
 more, than just mentioning them. The prominent display 
 of a cloak probably refers to an act of charity especially 
 associated with St. Martin ; but if spread out on the ground 
 before the figure represented, that figure will be St. Alban. 
 St. Hyacinth floats out to sea upon his, while St. Raymond 
 uses his cloak as a sail. 
 
 A lamp in the hand will probably betoken St. Hiltrudis or 
 St. Nilus, while in a general sense the lamp implies truth 
 and righteousness, and the illumination of the Holy Spirit : 
 " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your 
 good w^orks, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 
 The lamps of the early Christians are found in abundance in 
 the catacombs 1 and other cemeteries. They were accus- 
 tomed to place them with the dead, and from the fourth 
 century lamps were often kept burning before the tombs of 
 the revered departed. They supply numerous and excellent 
 examples of symbolic design. Christ as the good shepherd, 
 the fish, lamb, monogram, cross, palm tree, ark, dove, and 
 many other devices of like nature, are found upon them. 
 
 Where we find a saint carrying a lantern which a fiend 
 is trying to extinguish, we are in the presence of St. Hugh. 
 The torch is more especially a heathen symbol, and is often 
 associated with Aurora, while the reversed torch signifies 
 that the light of life has departed. It is seen in Christian 
 art as a symbol of some few saints, and generally, as in the 
 
 1 See Appendix C. 
 
144 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 case of SS. Dorothy and Dioscurus, as an instrument of pain 
 and death. 
 
 We not unfrequently find statues and pictures of saints 
 represented as holding books in their hands : these are 
 divines and Fathers of the Church, whose writings have con- 
 tributed to the building up and defence of the faith. St. 
 Jerome, for example, is ordinarily thus represented. At 
 other times we may find the individual carrying the small 
 model of a church in his hand, thus marking him as the 
 founder of the building, or in some other way betokening 
 his connexion with it. In Orcagna's picture in the National 
 Gallery of the " Coronation of the Virgin," we find amongst 
 the various saints depicted a figure of St. Peter. He is 
 supporting on his knees a model of the church of San Pietro 
 Maggiore in Florence, not, of course, because he founded 
 it, but because it is dedicated to him ; and it was for the 
 altarpiece of this church that the picture was originally 
 painted, and the ecclesiastical authorities naturally wished it 
 to be understood by all who saw the picture that the great 
 apostle had them under his especial care. In the public 
 library at Boulogne is a MS. copy of the Psalter that contains 
 on its fly-leaf the symbolic description of a church. Though 
 it soon runs into extravagance, and gives a forced meaning 
 to everything, the beginning struck us as being excellent : 
 " Fundamentum est Fides, Altitude ejus est Spes, Latitude 
 ejus est Caritas, Longitude est Perseverantia." In Crivelli's 
 picture in the National Gallery of the Annunciation, beside 
 the angel is kneeling St. Emidius, the patron-saint of Ascoli, 
 and in his hand he holds a model of that town. 
 
 St. Luke is claimed as the patron saint both of the artists 
 and of the physicians ; but it is naturally in the former rela- 
 tionship that he appears in art. The doctors may be as 
 fully convinced of their claim ; but while their lack of artis- 
 tic skill prevents their representing the saint as healing, the 
 practical art power of the painters enables them to represent 
 him as one of themselves. Many old pictures still extant 
 have at one time or another been ascribed to St. Luke. 
 Metaphrastus mentions his skill as an artist, and John of 
 Damascus refers in his writings to his portrait of the 
 Virgin. Hence besides his best known symbol of the 
 ox, the paraphernalia of the painter may often be found 
 bestowed upon him. 
 
ATTRIBUTES OF SAJNTS. 145 
 
 The bag of money that generally indicates Judas is also 
 sometimes bestowed as a symbol on St. Matthew, in allusion 
 to his occupation before he became one of the chosen band 
 of apostles. St. Mary Magdalene bears the jar and box of 
 ointment, as also do SS. Cosmas and Damian; while St. Wil- 
 geforte, besides her flowing tresses of hair, has a long beard. 
 She may be seen thus represented in Henry the Seventh's 
 Chapel at Westminster, in the ninth bay on the south side, in 
 company with SS. Dorothy, Barbara, and Mary Magdalene. 
 Her beard was bestowed upon her, we are told, in answer to 
 her prayers, in order that she might escape matrimony. As 
 it might therefore reasonably be supposed that she would 
 sympathise with others who were of like feeling, she was 
 the patron saint of all ladies who desired to get rid of their 
 lovers or husbands, and was popularly therefore called St. 
 Uncumber 1 in England, Oncombre in Flanders, Kummer- 
 nicht in Germany, and Liberata in France. 
 
 The great apostle St. Peter is sometimes represented with 
 a single key, but more often with two, one of silver and 
 the other of gold. The symbol is in obvious allusion to the 
 text, " I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
 heaven " (St. Matt. xvi. 19). 2 In Perugini's fresco in the 
 Sistine Chapel of Christ's charge to Peter, the Saviour hands 
 the apostle two large keys; and we see this again in Raphael's 
 cartoon of the subject. They are naturally a favourite charge 
 in ecclesiastical heraldry. They may be seen, for instance, 
 
 1 In Sir Thomas More's " Dialogue concerning Heresies and matters 
 of Religion," we find the following passage : " Sainct Apoline we make a 
 toth drawer, and may speake to her of nothing but of bad teeth. Saint 
 Uoke we set to se to the great sykeness, bycause he had a sore. And- 
 with hym they joyne Saint Sebastian, bycause he was martiret with 
 arowes. Some serve for the eye onely, and some for a sore brest. Saint 
 Germayne onely for children, and yet wyll not ones loke at them, but 
 if the mother bring with them a whyte lofe : and yet is he wiser than 
 Saint Wylgeforte, for she, good soule, is as they say served and coutjeut 
 \\ith otys.' Whereof I can npt perceive the reason, but if it be bicause 
 she should provide an horse for an evil housebonde to ryde to the Devyll 
 upon : for that is the thyng she is sought for as they say. In so much 
 that women have therefore changed her name, and instede of Saint 
 Wylgeforte call her Saint Uncumber, bycause they reckon that for a 
 pecke of otys she will not fayle to uncumber them of their housebondys." 
 
 1 " Pannus aureus antiquus rubei coloris cum ymaginibus diversis 
 Sancti Petri cum clavibus pendentibus ad zonam suam " (Inventory of 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, A.D. 1402). 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 alone, or in conjunction with other charges, in the arms of 
 the dioceses of York, Ripon, Exeter (fig. 72), Gloucester, 
 Peterborough (fig. 73), and St. Asaph ; in each case two keys 
 being introduced, and crossing each other like the strokes of 
 the letter X. At Winchester the two keys are both sloping 
 
 FIG. 72. 
 
 in the same direction, but are crossed by a sword, the sym- 
 bol of St. Paul, in the opposite direction. In the arms of 
 Truro (fig. 74), we get key and sword again. The arms of 
 the cathedral church of St. Paul are very appropriately two 
 
 FIG. 73. 
 
 FIG. 74. 
 
 FIG. 75. 
 
 crossed swords, as we may see in fig. 75, and we get the 
 sword again at St. Alban's, but this time as the symbol of the 
 death of the great proto-martyr of Britain. 
 
 St. Adrian was put to death by having his limbs and head 
 chopped off on a smith's anvil; his attributes therefore are 
 an anvil and an axe or sword. St. Adalbert is pierced with 
 
OPPOSING FORCES TO CHRISTIANITY 147 
 
 a lance. SS. Aurea, Christina, Callixtus, Quirinus Lave a 
 millstone round their necks. A caldron of boiling oil is 
 the attribute of SS. John and Felicitas ; of boiling lead, of 
 St. Fatista. Red-hot ploughshares are the symbol that marks 
 St. Cunegundes. The rock from which he was pushed into 
 the sea is associated with St. Pantaleon ; while others bear 
 red-hot stones, are cohered with burning charcoal, are pierced 
 with the sword, are tormented in every conceivable way 
 that the malice of their persecutors could suggest. It is 
 impossible here to mention a tithe of the saints who make 
 their appearance in art and are recorded in legend. 
 
 It was speedily felt by all who were interested in main- 
 taining the pagan rites that the new sect of the followers of 
 the despised Nazarene could not be bent, and must therefore 
 be broken. It claimed an exclusive allegiance, and its pro- 
 gress meant the downfall of all other systems of faith. Poli- 
 tically too it was regarded with disfavour ; not only therefore 
 did the bloodthirsty Nero fulminate against its followers, 
 and strive to crush the rising Church, but even the just and 
 generous Trajan saw in it a danger to the State that must 
 be promptly dissipated. Against the new creed were arrayed 
 the mighty material force of the empire of Home ; the intel- 
 lectual power of the keenest minds, who brought their solid 
 learning and acute argument to bear against it ; the social 
 influence of the old rites, that had been the stay and guide 
 of their followers in times of trouble, and no less associated 
 with them in the days of national and individual rejoicing ; 
 the conservative force that resented the intrusion of a new 
 cult ; the aesthetic force of all that was grandest in archi- 
 tecture and sculpture ; the spiritual power wielded over the 
 minds of men by the older beliefs ; and, less reputable than 
 these six great opposing influences, but as potent as any, 
 the bitter, selfish opposition of such men as the makers of 
 the silver shrines of Diana, who saw their gains diminished. 
 Against these seven potent influences the infant Church,, 
 strong in a mightier power, prevailed and triumphed, esteem- 
 ing the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the fading 
 treasures of earth. 
 
 Fantastic legends have grown around the names of some, 
 and many have had their glory dimmed by the mistaken zeal 
 of those who strove to honour them, and yet imputed to them, 
 in all good faith, actions far removed from the Christ-like 
 
SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 spirit, while not a few are wholly mythical ; but above and 
 beyond all the great fact remains the noble army of mar- 
 tyrs : and it is meet and right that the fearless saints of 
 the living God, the Church triumphant, should ever be held 
 in highest honour in the Church still militant on earth. 
 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Symbols of Povereignty The Crown The Tiara The Wreath The 
 Mitre Cardinal's Hat Sword Coronation Swords Resurrec- 
 tion Banner Sceptre Virge or Bod The Budding Staff of Aaron 
 Glastonbury Thorn Pastoral Staff Crozier Flabellum Orb or 
 Globe 1 he Umbrella The Ring Signet Fisherman's Eing of 
 the Pope Posy-rings Gold The Gifts of the Magi -The Breast- 
 plate of Aaron -Precious Stones Initial Kings - Onyx Diamond 
 Amethyst Agate Emerald Chrysolite Coral Sapphire. 
 
 WE pass now to a consideration of the various symbols of 
 sovereignty and authority, spiritual and temporal. Of these 
 the crown is naturally the first that occurs to us. It is 
 sometimes introduced as an attribute of earthly sovereignty ; 
 at others, as a celestial reward and proof of victory won. 
 In the arms of the see of St. Alban's, for instance, we find, 
 see fig. 76, a sword surmounted by a crown : the first, a 
 
 FIG. 76. 
 
 r mbol of the death of the great British proto-martyr ; the 
 second, the reward of his constancy to the faith. In Cri- 
 velli's picture in the National Gallery of " the Madonna in 
 Ecstasy," two angels are seen supporting a crown over her 
 
 
 149 
 
150 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 head, and many other such-like renderings may be met 
 with. 1 
 
 The first mention of a royal crown is where the Amalekites 
 bring Saul's golden diadem to David. Tarquin, B.C. 616, was 
 the first Roman sovereign who assumed it, and the earliest 
 English crown was that of king Alfred, A.D. 872. The 
 tiara or triple crown of the popes was originally a plain high 
 cap, much like those in which the Doges of Venice are so 
 often represented in old pictures and medals. It was first 
 introduced by Pope Damasus II. in 1048. It is doubtful 
 when the first coronet was added, but the second was placed 
 by Pope Boniface VIII. in 1295, and the third by Pope 
 Benedict XII., about 1334. It has been held that the three 
 crowns refer to the Trinity, though that could evidently not 
 have been the original idea, or they would not have been 
 added one after the other with an intervening interval in 
 each case of many years. Others affirm that they denoted 
 the threefold royalty of the pope : one being the symbol of 
 the temporal power over the Roman states, another the 
 spiritual over the souls of men, and the third assumed as 
 ruler over all the kings and potentates of Christendom. A 
 third explanation is, that the three crowns are the lord- 
 ship claimed by the papacy over heaven and earth and 
 purgatory. 
 
 The arms of St. Edmund were three golden crowns on a 
 shield of azure ; thus referred to by Lydgate, 
 
 "In which of gold ben notable crownys thre 
 The first tokne in cronycle men n>ay fynde 
 Granted unto him for royal d ignite 
 And the second for his virginyt6 
 For martyrdom the thridde in his suffring." 
 
 While the crown is an emblem ordinarily of power, the 
 wreath is a symbol of victory. 
 
 " Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths." 
 
 Kiny Richard II. 
 
 It is ordinarily of the bay or sweet laurel, as in fig. 2, 
 though the myrtle, olive, and other plants also appear. 
 
 1 Another very good example in the same gallery is the " Virgin and 
 Chjld " of Botticelli, where two angels hold a crown over the head cf the 
 Virgin mother. See also Guide's " Coronation of the Virgin." 
 
THE WREATH A<VD THE MITRE. 151 
 
 On the magnificent gold medallion of Constantius II., Con- 
 stantine I. is represented standing between his two sons, 
 while a hand from heaven crowns him with a wreath ; and 
 on many coins of ancient, mediaeval, and modern date the 
 luureated head of the victorious ruler is a marked feature. 
 
 FIG. 
 
 The wreath expressive of triumph won is one of the com- 
 monest of symbols in the catacombs. 
 
 The mitre, the symbol of authority of the Jewish high 
 priest, is also the attribute of bishops and archbishops. 
 Cardinals anciently wore them ; but at the Council of Lyons, 
 
 FIG. 78. 
 
 in the year 1245, they were appointed the scarlet hats that 
 are so familiar to us all. As an ecclesiastical emblem we 
 find the mitre introduced in the arms of the sees of Car- 
 lisle (fio-. 77), Norwich (fig. 78), etc. In II Moretto's picture 
 of St. Bernardino, at the feet of the saint are three mitres, 
 
152 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 inscribed with the names Urbino, Siena, and Ferrara, the 
 bishoprics of which he is said to have refused. 
 
 The sword as the symbol of authority and power, or, in 
 an evil sense, of bloodshed and wrong, is freely introduced. 
 Four symbolic swords are used at the coronation of a British 
 sovereign. (1) The s\vord of state, a large, two-handed 
 weapon, having a gorgeous scabbard of crimson velvet, 
 decorated in gold with the portcullis, harp, rose, thistle, 
 and other heraldic symbols. (2) The curtana, or pointless 
 sword of mercy. (3) The sword of spiritual justice. (4) The 
 sword of justice of the temporality. In the very interesting 
 series of figures of the prince-bishops of Wiirzburg, in the 
 cathedral church of that city, the crozier, the symbol of 
 their spiritual office, is held in one hand, while in the other 
 is the sword of their temporal power. 
 
 The resurrection banner of triumph over death is freely 
 met with in old pictures representing the risen Lord. It 
 is of pure white, very long in proportion to its width, and 
 having a red cross upon it. It may be seen very well in Fra 
 Angelico's beautiful picture in the National Gallery of the 
 Christ surrounded in glory by saints and angels. A banner 
 is also borne as an attribute, often in conjunction with other 
 symbols, by various saints. Thus St. Victorinus bears a 
 banner and globe ; St. Julian a banner and palm ; St. Ursus, 
 a banner and sword. Every one is familiar too with the 
 importance of the flag in a secular sense as the emblem of 
 the country, and of the deeds of heroism that its folds 
 waving amidst the battle smoke have inspired. 
 
 The sceptre is a more ancient emblem of royal dignity 
 than the crown itself. Homer makes it the only cognisance 
 of the Greek kings, and the historian Justin declares that 
 the ancient kings of Rome used no other ensign of royalty. 1 
 The Greek poets describe the gods as having sceptres to 
 indicate their empire, and declare that an oath taken on the 
 sceptre was the most solemn that could be sworn. In 
 Jacob's prediction of the Messiah we find the sceptre 
 specifically mentioned as the emblem of regal power: " The 
 sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from 
 between his feet, until Shiloh come." Justin tells us that 
 
 1 Tarquin the Elder was the first who assumed the sceptre amongst 
 the Eomans. about '468 B.C. 
 

 THE SCEPTRE AND THE ROD. 
 
 153 
 
 among the Romans the sceptre was originally a spear; but 
 the sceptres described by Homer were simply big walking- 
 staves, designed to show that the monarchs ruled by acknow- 
 ledged right, and not by force. Le Gendre tells us that in the 
 earlier days of the French kings the sceptre was a golden 
 rod, crooked at one end, and of the height of the king him- 
 self. At the coronation of an English sovereign the sceptre 
 is placed in the king's right hand ; and in his left, during the 
 
 FIG. 79. 
 
 ceremony of investiture, he takes the virge or rod, which is 
 carried before him in the concluding procession. The dis- 
 tinction between the sceptre and the rod is that the former 
 is surmounted by a cross ard the latter by a dome. This 
 distinction is of very ancient date, as we find that it was 
 observed in the ceremonial of the coronation of Richard I. 
 A very good illustration of a sceptre may be seen in fig. 79, 
 the seal of Margaret, queen of Edward I. The lions em- 
 broidered upon her dress' are the heraldic symbols of her 
 
154 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 consort's kingdom ; the fleur-de-lys, those of her father's 
 realm. 
 
 The rod, or staff, or wand of office is one of the most 
 familiar of symbols ; and its use stretches in an unbroken line 
 from the Pharaohs of Egypt in the childhood of the world, 
 to the baton of the field marshal and the signs of office of 
 the parish beadle, the cathedral verger, or Gold-stick in 
 Waiting of the present day. The Israelites were familiar, 
 during their residence in Egypt, with the notion that the rod 
 was the emblem or cognisance of dignity. Hence we find 
 Moses striking the rock at Meribah with his rod ; and when 
 the revolt of Korah rendered it necessary to affirm beyond 
 doubt the high priesthood of Aaron, the signal miracle per- 
 formed was the blossoming of this symbol of his authority. 
 The memory of this was perpetuated amongst the Jews, not 
 only by the preservation of the rod, bat by the introduction 
 of a device of budding almond flowers upon the shekels of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 "The Lord spake unto Moses, saving, Speak unto the 
 children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod 
 according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes 
 according to the house of their fathers twelve rods : write 
 thou every man's name upon his rod. And thou shalt write 
 Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi : for one rod shall be for 
 the head of the house of their fathers. And thou shalt lay 
 them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the 
 testimony, where I will meet with you. And it shall come to 
 pass, that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom : 
 and I will make to cease from Me the murmurings of the 
 children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you. And 
 Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of 
 their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, 
 according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods : and the 
 rod of Aaron was among their rods. And Moses laid up the 
 rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. And it 
 came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the taber- 
 nacle of witness ; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house 
 of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed 
 blossoms, and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all 
 the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of 
 Israel : and they looked, and took every man his rod." 
 
 In fig. 80 we have an illustration of the Jewish shekel 
 
THE STAFF AND THE CROZIER. 155 
 
 In the centre is the budding rod of Aaron, and the inscrip- 
 tion, Jerusalem the Holy. In fig. 81 we have the reverse, 
 having in the centre the pot of manna, and around it the 
 words, Shekel of Israel. The date of this coin is about 
 450 B.C. 
 
 In Christian art the bearer of a budding staff may be, not 
 Aaron, but St. Joseph of Arimatheea or St. Ethelreda. 
 
 Near Glastonbury Abbey stands an old hawthorn that has 
 been the subject of many legends, the current belief how- 
 ever being that it sprang from the staff of St. Joseph, who, 
 it is asserted, was the first preacher of Christianity to 
 Britain, and who, to convince the benighted islanders of his 
 mission, thrust his staff into the ground, when it at once 
 budded and blossomed. The tree has ^ver since flowered, 
 
 FIG. 80. FIG. 81. 
 
 not only at its proper season, but also at each Christmas, 
 the anniversary of its miraculous origin. 1 
 
 In the earliest examples of Christian art, as in the cata- 
 combs or in the Museum of the Lateran (see appendix D), 
 our Saviour is often depicted as bearing a wand, and em- 
 ploying it in the working of various miracles, as in the turn- 
 ing of the water into wine, the raising of Lazarus, and other 
 instances of the exertion of Divine authority. 
 
 The error of confusing the pastoral staff or crook with 
 the crozier is one constantly made. The two things are per- 
 
 1 A piece that came under our notice on December 16th had eight 
 bunches of flowers upon it, and each of these was composed of from 
 twenty to thirty blossoms and buds, about a dozen in each bunch being 
 fully expanded. The blossoms were a little smaller than would ordi- 
 narily be looked for, but had all the beauty and regularity of form and 
 the characteristic hawthorn scent of the normal plant. The only thing 
 abnormal in the appearanee of the spray was the entire absence of 
 foliage. 
 
156 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 fectly distinct, and should be carefully discriminated. The 
 pastoral staff belongs officially to all cardinals, archbishops, 
 and bishops, and was also in medieval times assigned by 
 courtesy to certain abbots and abbesses. It is borne in the 
 left hand, thus leaving the right free to perform the neces- 
 sary functions of ceremonial and worship. The crozier, a 
 cross or crucifix on a staff, is never carried by the higher 
 ecclesiastics, but is borne immediately before them, to indi- 
 cate and emphasise their office and dignity. In Englard 
 the pastoral staff was in use from a very early period : the 
 pontifical of Dunstan (A. D. 957-988) gives the form of service 
 for its benediction ; while the Venerable JBede, in his treatise 
 " De Vii Ordinibus," dwells on its symbolic significance. In 
 the form for the consecration of a bishop in the first Prayer- 
 book of Edward VI., the archbishop puts into his hand the 
 pastoral staff, saying, " Be to the flock of Christ a shepherd, 
 not a wolf ;' feed them, devour them not ; hold up the weak, 
 heal the sick, bind together the broken, bring again the out- 
 casts, seek the lost." 
 
 The carving in the head of the crook is religious or 
 symbolic in character. Several of th?Fo pastoral staves may 
 be seen in the South Kensirgton Museujn. In one of the en. 
 the subject within the volutt is the crowning of the Virgin 
 by Christ, in another the Annunciation, in another St. Michael 
 and the dragon, and' so forth. Numerous beautiful examples 
 may be seen in monumental effigies and ecclesiastical seals. 
 Scores of the actual crooks were destroyed at the Reforma- 
 tion, partly because they were held to be popish, but pro- 
 bably more especially because, being often richly gilt and 
 adorned with precious stones, the appeal to the cupidity of 
 the king's underlings proved altogether irresistible. 
 
 The orb, mound, or globe is a symbol of sovereignty, and 
 is borne in the left hand. It was assumed as a cognisance by 
 the emperor Augustus, and was sometimes termed the apple ; 
 in all cases it was regarded as the symbol of far-reaching 
 dominion. The surmounting cross was added to the globe 
 by Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Suidas, describ- 
 ing the statue of the emperor Justinian, says : " In his left 
 hand he held a globe, in which a cross was fixed, which 
 showed that by faith in the cross he was emperor of the 
 earth. For the globe denotes the earth, which is of like 
 form, and the cross denotes faith, because God in the flesh 
 
THE ORB, MOUND, OR GLOBE. 157 
 
 was nailed to it." The globe and cross were first introduced 
 as ensigns of authority in Western Europe by Pope Benedict 
 VIII. Almost all the English kings, from Edward the Con- 
 fessor, have the globe in their left hand on their coinages 
 or great seals, and it seems also to have been frequently so 
 placed when sovereigns lay in state after their decease. In 
 the picture by Rubens, " Henry IV. entrusting the Symbol 
 of his Power to Mary de Medici," the symbol is the globe, 
 which he places in her hands. 
 
 As the orb signifies far-reaching domi'nion, we naturally 
 find it associated in early art with the Deity. In Giotto's 
 " Christ adored by Angels," we see over all the eternal 
 
 FIG. 82. 
 
 Father, bearing the globe in His hand ; and we may see the 
 same treatment again in the " Adoration of the Magi " by Fra 
 Angelico, and in many other instances of early work. We 
 have examples of this in figs. 82 and 83. The first of these 
 is a gem dating from the sixth century, the letters on either 
 side of the head clearly indicating, apart from the cruciferous 
 nimbus, that the second Person of the Trinity is repre- 
 sented ; while in the second illustration (fig. 83) we see 
 above the sitting Christ the eternal Father, and in each case 
 beaming the orb. Fig. 26 is another example that may be 
 referred to. 
 
 Many other symbols of authority will doubtless occur to 
 our readers ; the fasces carried by the Roman lictors, the 
 caduceus of Mercury, the trident of Neptune, the thunder- 
 
FIG. 83. 
 
THE USE OF THE FLABELLUM. 159 
 
 bolts of Jupiter. 1 The Pharaohs of ancient history again, 
 and the popes of mediaeval and modern days, had gorgeous 
 feather fans borne before and around them ; while not merely 
 the cooling fan, but the sheltering umbrella becomes in hot 
 countries a sign of distinction. In the wall paintings of 
 Egypt and the carvings of Nineveh and Persepolis, the 
 monarch has the sunshade held over him ; and one of the 
 most honourable titles of the king of Siam is Lord of the 
 Twenty-four Umbrellas. On the coinage of Herod Agrippa 
 I. we find as a device an umbrella. 
 
 
 FIG. 84. 
 
 The flabellum had its origin in the Eastern Church, and 
 was of distinctly practical use, cooling and refreshing the 
 celebrant, and driving away the flies and other insect plagues 
 of the sultry East from the eucharistic elements. With 
 the spread of ritual came also the flabellum or muscarium, 
 though in the less sunny lands of the North and West it 
 ceased to be of any practical value. As its original employ- 
 ment was one of the duties of the deacon, it became a symbol 
 of the diaconate, and in the early service books full directions 
 were given at the ordination of a deacon as to the fit use 
 of the muscarium then bestowed. The flabellum, though 
 often of feathers, was also made of vellum, linen, and other 
 materials of the kind, and we may sometimes find it a richly 
 decorated disk of brass or silver. In an ancient Greek 
 fresco we have a representation of the Saviour preaching, 
 wh^e an angel holds a circular flabellum of metal over His 
 head, as a protection against the sun. Several examples of 
 
 1 As we see in fig. 84, a coin struck by Nero, A.D. 66. The eagle 
 thereon is a symbol of imperial Home, and the palm branch, of victory. 
 
160 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 its use in the Western Church may readily be cited. We 
 see an illustration of it, for example, in the "Book of Kells," 
 an Irish MS. of the sixth century, and the " muscatorium de 
 pennis pavonium " figures in the inventories of York, Salis- 
 bury, and other cathedrals. It has been held that the use of 
 the peacock feathers symbolised the countless eyes, not of 
 men only, but of good and evil spirits, watching the actions 
 of the pontiff or other ecclesiastical dignitary, and reminding 
 him. thereby of the urgent need for holy watchfulness in 
 return ; but we may well consider such an explanation a 
 laboured after- thought, and see in the splendour of the 
 feathers a sufficient reason for their use at a time when men 
 gave freely of their best for the service of the sanctuary. 
 
 The ring is another very characteristic emblem of power, 
 as investiture by its means was the most ancient form of 
 conferring dignity : it was by this ceremony that Pharaoh 
 created Joseph his viceroy over Egypt. "Thou shalt be 
 over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my 
 people be ruled : only on the throne will I be greater than 
 thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee 
 over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring 
 from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed 
 him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his 
 neck." 
 
 The ring appears to have been employed originally as a 
 signet ; as, for instance, when the prophet was cast into the 
 den of lions, and a big stone was rolled to the mouth of the 
 den, the king sealed it with his own signet and with the 
 signet of his lords. Sir Gardner Wilkinson, in his " Manners 
 and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," refers to one bearing 
 the name of a king who was reigning about 1,400 B.C. The 
 device is a scorpion. Many excellent examples may be seen 
 in the British Museum. 
 
 In medieval days a jewelled ring was part of the necessary 
 adornment of the higher ecclesiastics, and it was ordinarily 
 buried with them. In the old romance of "Sir Degrevant," 
 we are told that at the marriage of the hero there were 
 
 " Archbishops with rings, 
 More than fifteen." 
 
 and in another fourteenth century tale, " King Athelstan," 
 the king exclaims to an offending cleric, 
 
SYMBOLIC USE OF THE RING. 161 
 
 " Lay down thy cross and thy staff, 
 Thy mitre, and thy ring, that I to thee gaff, 
 Out of my land thou flee." 
 
 The prayer for the blessing of the ring ran as follows : 
 " Creator and preserver of mankind, Author of Spiritual 
 grace and Giver of everlasting Salvation, send Thy bless- 
 ing upon this ring, that whosoever shall walk distinguished 
 by this sacred sign of faith may by the protection of Thy 
 heavenly power attain everlasting life, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. Amen." The bishop wore a ring as representa- 
 tive of the heavenly Bridegroom, and guardian of the Church. 
 
 The grand ceremony of wedding the Adriatic by casting 
 therein a ring will be familiar to all who have studied 
 Venetian history. The next thing we need refer to is the 
 famous " fisherman's ring " of the pope. It is a signet of 
 steel used for the marking of the official documents issued 
 from the papal court. A new one is made for every pope, 
 though all are based on a very ancient original, representing 
 St. Peter in his boat drawing his net to the surface. The 
 classic form of the boat and oar shows a direct derivation 
 from an antique original. 
 
 Rings were used too for the purposes of divination, as 
 amulets to protect the wearer from all harm, and as symbols 
 of affection. 1 These latter, the posy rings as they were 
 termed by our ancestors, had ordinarily an inscription upon 
 their inner surface ; such as, " United hearts death only 
 parts"; "A faithful wife preserveth life"; "As God 
 decreed so we agreed." 
 
 It is said that king Edward the Confessor was met by a 
 venerable old man, who asked alms of him ; and the chari- 
 table monarch, being at the moment destitute of money, 
 gave the suppliant his ring. Soon afterwards two English 
 pilgrims, who had lost their way, were met, at the approach 
 of night, by this same old man, who led them into a mag- 
 nificent city with golden streets, the New Jerusalem, the 
 
 1 Those who care to pursue the subject further may advantageously 
 turn to the following works : Warne's essay *' On Ancient Coins, Medals, 
 and Gems"; Kings "Memoir on Amulets and Talismans"; King's 
 " The Gnostics and their Kemains, Ancient and Mediaeval" ; Fortuum's 
 "Early Christian Engraved Gems"; or Ayzal's " Symbolique des Pierrts 
 Precieuses, ou Tropologie des Gemmes." 
 
1 62 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 visible existence of which was a popular article of faith iu 
 the Middle Ages. The old man entertained them hospitably 
 and gave them lodgings for the night. In the morning he 
 informed them that he was St. John the Evangelist, of whom 
 it was believed by many of the ancient Fathers that he was 
 appointed to tarry on earth until the second coming of the 
 Lord Christ. St. John told the pilgrims that it was to him 
 in person that their king had given the ring, and he sent 
 it back by them to him, with a promise that Divine grace 
 should encircle every British sovereign who was invested 
 with this ring at his coronation. The sacred ring was long 
 preserved at the shrine of St. Edward, and only brought out 
 at the time of a coronation. It deserves to be remarked 
 that legends of the appearance from time to time of St. John 
 continued to be held so late as the reign of Henry VIII. 
 
 Should we see in Christian art a figure holding out a ring, 
 the statue or painting is probably meant for St. Edward 
 the king and confessor; while SS. Theodosius and Gregory 
 have as attribute a large iron ring round their bodies. St. 
 Pelagia, the penitent, has the ground before her strewn with 
 jewels and ornaments, the vanities of earth that she has cast 
 from her. 
 
 Gold, as one of the two noble metals, has always been 
 held in symbolic honour. It is a favourite emblem in Scrip- 
 ture of faith triumphant in adversity and suffering, 1 while 
 its brightness and value make it equally appropriate as a 
 symbol of majesty and honour. 
 
 Gold, frankincense, and myrrh were the three symbolic 
 gifts brought by the wise men of the east to the Babe of 
 Bethlehem. 
 
 " Eastern sages at His cradle 
 
 Made oblations rich and rare ; 
 See them give, in deep devotion, 
 Gold and frankincense and myrrh. 
 
 Sacred gifts of mystic meaning : 
 Incense doth their God ditclose, 
 
 1 " They shall be tried as the gold in the fire " (2 Esdras xvi. 73) ; 
 " When He hath tried m", I shall come forth as gold " (Job xxiii. 10) ; 
 " The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold which 
 perisheth " (1 Pet. i. 7) ; "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the 
 lire, that tLou mayest be rich" (Kev. iu. 18). 
 
THE GIFTS OF THE MAGI. 163 
 
 Gold the King of kings proclairaeth, 
 Myrrh His sepulchre foreshows " 1 
 
 iccording to an ancient legend, this choice of gifts was 
 ascertain whether the mysterious stranger that they were 
 going to worship was a king or a prophet or God Himself. 
 If he were a king, he would select the gold ; if he were a poor 
 man, he would choose the myrrh; but if God, He would take 
 the incense. As both God and man, the King of kings 
 veiled in humanity, He accepted from them all three of 
 their gifts. 
 
 " An Age shall bring about the Day 
 When Lord of Lords shall lodge in clay ; 
 Three kings from east him to adore 
 Shall come with incense, myrre, and ore." 
 
 Other ancient writers assigned the gold to the race of 
 Sliem, the myrrh for Ham, and the incense for Japhet. 
 
 " Then entered in those Wise men three 
 Full reverently upon their knee, 
 And offered there, in His Presence, 
 Their gold and myrrh and frankincense." 
 
 The various precious stones have been endued with sym- 
 bolic meaning and application. A notable example of this 
 was the breastplate of judgment borne by Aaron when, he 
 entered the holy place. This breastplate had twelve pre- 
 cious stones, one for each tribe of Israel. The first row was 
 a sardius, topaz, and carbuncle ; the second, an emerald, 
 a sapphire, and a diamond ; the third, a ligure, an agate, 
 and an amethyst ; the fourth, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper ; 
 and on each stone was engraved the name of the tribe it 
 symbolized. 
 
 The episcopal rings of mediaeval days were jewelled ; and 
 the stones usually chosen for such rings were ruby, emerald, 
 or crystal. The choice had significance, as indeed almost all 
 else had that entered at all into the ritual of the Roman 
 Catholic Church : ruby being indicative of burning zeal, 
 emerald of tranquil peace, crystal of simplicity and purity. 
 
 1 " Thus, aurum, myrrharn, regique, hominique, Deoque, 
 Dona ferunt." 
 
 " Aurea nascenti fuderunt munera regi, 
 Thura dedere Deo, myrrham tribuere sepulchre." 
 
i6 4 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 In like manner the diamond indicated invulnerable con- 
 stancy ; the sapphire, hope ; the amethyst, humility ; the 
 onyx, sincerity. 
 
 A hundred years or so ago it was the custom in England 
 to use the stones in such a way in a ring that the initials of 
 their names might spell out some little love message, some 
 political catchword, or the name of the donor or the recipient. 
 Thus, if we place, one after another, round a ring or bracelet 
 a ruby, emerald, garnet, amethyst, ruby, and a diamond, we 
 get the word REGARD. 
 
 The onyx was held to be a sure talisman of victory over 
 one's enemies. Our word diamond is a corruption of adamant, 
 and this in turn is derived from the Greek word for invincible; 
 not, as has been generally supposed, on account of its exces- 
 sive hardness, 1 but from the ancient belief in the inability 
 of the gods to resist the prayer of any suppliant who carried 
 one with him. "He who carries the diamond upon him, it 
 gives him hardness and manhood, and it keeps the limbs of 
 his body whole. It gives him victory over his enemies in 
 court and in war, if his cause be just ; and it keeps him that 
 bears it in good wit, and it keeps him from strife and riot, 
 from sorrows and from enchantments, and from fantasies 
 and illusions of evil spirits. And if any cursed witch or 
 enchanter would bewitch him that bears it, all that sorrow 
 and mischance shall turn to the offender, through virtue of 
 that stone ; and also no wild beast dare assail the man who 
 bears it on him. It makes a man stronger and firmer against 
 his enemies : heals him that is lunatic, and those whom 
 the fiend pursues or torments. And if venom be brought in 
 presence of the diamond, anon it begins to grow moist." 
 Thus says Sir John Maundeville, writing in the year 1356 ; 2 
 but as, even in those ages of faith, some people evidently 
 
 1 " Hard-hearted adamant.'' 
 
 " Midsummer Night's Dream." 
 
 " Strike as hard as you will with an hammer upon the point of a 
 diamant, you shall see bow it scorneth all blowes, and rather than it 
 will eeeme to relent first flieth the hammer that splitteth in pieces, and 
 the very anvil itself underneath cleaveth in twaine. Besides it has a 
 Nature to conquer the furie of fire, nay you shall never make it hote, 
 doe what you can." 
 
 2 We have of course modernised the language. The original English 
 is excessively quaint, and almost unreadable in places. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF PRECIOUS STONES. 165 
 
 raised doubts, he adds : " Nevertheless it happens often that 
 the good diamond loses its virtues by sin, and for inconti- 
 nence of him that bears it, and then it is of little value." 
 Any critic therefore who cavilled might be delicately re- 
 minded that there were undoubtedly occasions when the 
 diamond refused to exercise its beneficent power, and that a 
 little self-amendment might well take the place of adverse 
 criticism. 
 
 The amethyst was held to possess the power of preserving 
 wine-drinkers from the natural result of their over-indul- 
 gence ; while the agate made its wearer proof against deadly 
 serpents, and the emerald strengthened the sight and the 
 memory. The chrysolite could drive away evil spirits, while 
 the onyx dispelled grief. Coral was held to keep off storm 
 and thunder- 
 It is possible that the pagan belief in the efficacy of cer- 
 tain stones, such as the diamond, the jasper, the topaz, the 
 sapphire, and the opal, to win from the gods a favourable 
 answer to prayer, and, in the case of other stones, to ward 
 from threatening dangers, may have not been altogether 
 without influence when Christianity superseded the worship 
 of the gods of paganism. The great wealth of jewellery 
 expended on shrines, crucifixes, vestments, and pictures may 
 have been partly the result of belief in its efficacy as well 
 as a gift of faith and homage to the glory of God and the 
 enhanced honour of the saints. A decree of Pope Innocent 
 III., in the twelfth century, ordained that henceforth the sap- 
 phire should always be the stone used in the rings whereby 
 the bishops at their investiture were wedded to the Church. 
 When sacrifices were offered, and responses sought from 
 Phoebus, it was thought that he was better pleased, and 
 that it was easier to get one's request granted, if the 
 sapphire were exhibited, since it was a sign of concord, and 
 therefore in the Middle Ages it was held to keep a man 
 safe from fraud, fear, or envy. 
 
 The mediaeval writers attributed to each gem a special 
 influence over each month, and also assigned a precious 
 tone to each of the twelve apostles. 
 
 Amongst the treasures prepared by David for the glorious 
 temple that he would fain have built for the worship of 
 Jehovah we find "onyx stones, and stones to be set, 
 glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of 
 
1 66 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 precious stones." These are repeatedly introduced in the 
 picturesque eastern imagery of the Bible as the symbols of 
 prosperity and magnificence : " thou afflicted, tossed with 
 tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones 
 with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. 
 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of 
 carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones " 1 
 
 The Book of Job again gives us many interesting refer- 
 ences ; but the most beautiful Biblical use of these gems is 
 the attempt, the hopeless but magnificent attempt, to pic- 
 ture to mortal eyes something of the grandeur of the 
 Paradise of God, with its walls of jasper, founded in 
 sapphire and emerald and chrysolite, its gates of pearl, and 
 streets of pure gold like unto clear glass. The writer could 
 but put together all that seemed to him most splendid and 
 radiant. He failed where it was impossible to succeed, since 
 no material imagery that the heart of man can conceive can 
 picture to our yet blinded eyes the ineffable grandeur and 
 glory of that heavenly city, or give even a suggestion of the 
 dazzling splendour of the New Jerusalem. 
 
 1 Isa. liv. 11, 12. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Animal Forms The Lamb Agnus Dei Lamb of the Apocalypse The 
 Lion : in good and in bad sense The " Book of Beasts " of Philip do 
 Thaun Strange Mediaeval Beliefs Symbol of St. Jerome Stag- 
 Ox Ass Elephant Horse Unicorn Bear Dog Pig Satanic 
 Possession Wolf Satirical Eepresentations in Middle Ages Fox 
 Monkey. 
 
 WE proceed now to a consideration of the various animal 
 forms that have been employed symbolically in art. These 
 are not very numerous ; but one of them, the lamb, as a sym- 
 bol of Christ, the great Lamb of the sacrifice, is one of the 
 most freely met with of all symbolic representations. Its 
 occurrence ranges from almost the earliest days of Chris- 
 tianity, throughout all the intervening centuries, down to 
 the present time. 
 
 The sacrificial lamb is repeatedly referred to in the Old 
 Testament; and the prophets, looking beyond the material 
 rites of the Mosaic law, saw clearly in that sacrifice the 
 future Messiah. John too, the great forerunner, announced 
 the Christ to his followers as "the Lamb of God." It is 
 therefore very natural that we should find it as one of the 
 earliest symbols. 
 
 " An hevenly sigue, a token off most vertu, 
 To declare how that humylite 
 Above alle vertues pleseth most Jesu. 
 Off Adamys synne was wasshe away the rust 
 Be vertu only off thys lambys blood." LYDGATE. 
 
 It soon became so favourite a form that we presently find 
 some little danger of idolatry creeping in. In the sixth 
 century it was placed with crown and nimbus on the cross ; 
 and in the year 692 a council of the Church was forced to 
 decree that it should not henceforth be thus substituted for 
 
 the human form. In the catacombs, on the sarcophagus of 
 
 107 
 
1 68 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Junius Bassus, a lamb is represented as changing water into 
 wine, raising the dead Lazarus, and performing other acts 
 that clearly indicate that the animal form is but a symbol 
 of the Christ. The early examples have no nimbus; but 
 later on this is frequently added, being generally cruciferous 
 or inclosing the sacred monogram. In other instances the 
 lamb has the palm branch of victory. 
 
 In the church of St. Bavon, Ghent, may be seen a picture 
 by Van Eyck of the " Adoration of the Lamb," where an 
 actual lamb stands upon an altar, and is surrounded by 
 worshipping angels and saints. We give in fig. 85 an illus- 
 tration of this work. 
 
 In some of the early mosaics we see a lamb, and on either 
 side of it six sheep, a symbol of Christ and His apostles. 
 This may be very well noticed in the great mosaic in the 
 apsis of St. Cosmo Damian in Rome, executed about the 
 year 526. At other times a variable number of sheep is 
 introduced ; in which case it is to be understood that they 
 are symbols of the Church, the general body of believers. 
 
 In mediaeval art the lamb is associated with St. John the 
 Baptist and SS. Agnes, Regina, Genevieve, Catherine, and 
 Joanna ; and in the form of the Agnus Dei, the symbol of 
 Christ appears in numberless examples on embroideries, 
 painted on wall surfaces or in missals, or sculptured on the 
 tympana, capitals, or fonts. It ordinarily bears a cross of 
 very slender proportions, to which a banner is frequently 
 attached. 
 
 On the door of the church of St. Pudentiana at Rome, for 
 instance, is a medallion containing the Agnus Dei, together 
 with the inscription : " Dead or living I am but one ; I am 
 at once the Shepherd and the Lamb." On the celebrated 
 Syon cope at South Kensington, amongst other devices, we 
 see the Agnus Dei embroidered. In the Westminster in- 
 ventory of 1540, we find " A nother albe haveyng wrought 
 a egle, a gryffen, a holly lambe, and a lyon, with dyvers other 
 beasts." 
 
 Louis IX. of France (St. Louis), who reigned from 1226 
 to 1270, caused the " agnel d'or " to be struck. This coin 
 bore on one side the Agnus Dei, with the inscription, 
 " Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis," and 
 on the other, " XPC vincit XPC regnat XPC imperat." 
 This coin was imitated by Edward III., and, when the sacred 
 

1 70 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 significance of the symbol was forgotten, was popularly 
 called the mouton d'or. 
 
 Countless myriads of people the wide world over, who in 
 many cases know or care nothing of symbolism, or regard 
 it as quite a feature of the past, Sunday after Sunday raise 
 the prayer to heaven, " O Lamb of God. that takest away 
 the sins of the world, have mercy upon us." 
 
 The Lamb of the Apocalypse, with the seven horns and 
 seven eyes that indicate the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, 
 is occasionally met with in mediaeval art ; but the poetic 
 imagery of the Book of the Revelation does not readily 
 lend itself to material representation, and of this " the Lamb 
 that is in the midst of the throne " is but one instance of 
 many that might be referred to. No painter or sculptor 
 can reduce these images to form ; the mere effort results 
 in grotesque impossibilities that are only preserved from 
 irreverence by the honesty and good faith of those who 
 attempted them. The title of the Lamb is applied to Christ 
 twenty- nine times in the Revelation, and any one turning 
 to these passages will at once realize how natural it is that 
 the Agnus Dei should be one of the most cherished of sym- 
 bols. Earthly sorrow finds consolation, and the great burden 
 of humanity and the mystery of life is irradiated with Divine 
 light, in the touching words, "For the Lamb which is in the 
 midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto 
 living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all 
 tears from their eyes " ; while, the sorrows of earth over for 
 evermore, we listen in another passage to the great triumph 
 song of the redeemed, as the thrilling anthem rises from 
 the innumerable host, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain 
 to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
 honour, and glory, and blessing ! " 
 
 St. John the Baptist is often represented in art as bearing 
 a lamb. He may be thus seen in a picture by Murillo in our 
 own National Gallery, where he is painted as a child caress- 
 ing a pet lamb, the type of the mediatorial and sacrificial 
 work of Christ. The standard is lying on the ground beside 
 them. On St. John's Day in Venice a little fellow is selected 
 to impersonate the great forerunner of the Messiah by ap- 
 pearing with a sheep's skin tied round his otherwise naked 
 body, and attended by a lamb. Such customs are survivals 
 from the Middle Ages, when, as in the Passion plays, it was 
 
THE LION IN SYMBOLIC ART. 171 
 . 
 
 endeavoured to appeal to the senses, and to render the scenes 
 and characters of the Bible or the traditions of the Church 
 in as realistic a manner as possible. 
 
 We pass now to a consideration of the use of the lion in 
 religious art. We find it under several modifications of 
 meaning, and it often becomes necessary to study the sur- 
 roundings before we are able to appreciate the motive that 
 may have led to its introduction. It is, for instance, some- 
 times used as a symbol of Christ, the Lord of life ; at other 
 times as a symbol of the prince of darkness. In the former 
 case it illustrates such texts as " the Lion of the tribe of 
 Judah has conquered"; in the latter it fitly personifies the 
 lost angel fallen from his high estate, who " walketh about 
 as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." It is 
 often introduced too in a general way as an emblem of 
 strength, majesty, courage, and fortitude ; or as the attribute 
 of some especial saint ; or, again, from its connexion with 
 some particular historic event recorded in the Bible. 
 
 In a quaint old MS. of the twelfth century, " The Book of 
 Beasts," x written by Philip de Thaun, we find a curious 
 literary exemplification of the association of the lion with 
 the second Person of the Trinity. As the tone of thought 
 of that period naturally influenced the missal painter, the 
 stone-carver, and all who were in any way concerned in 
 art, we may very legitimately quote the passage. " The 
 
 1 Of the " Livre des Creatures " seven copies only are known. The 
 author had as patron Adelaide of Louvain, queen of Henry I. His 
 poems are the earliest examples extant of the Anglo-Norman language. 
 The MS. was written in the first half of the twelfth century, and in it he 
 deals with the Creation. We give a sample, followed by the translation, 
 as rendered by Thomas Wright, F.S.A. 
 
 " En un livre divin, que apelum Genesim. 
 Hoc lisant truvum quae Des list par raisun 
 Le soleil e la lune, e.esteile chescune. 
 Pur eel me plaist a dire, d'ico est ma materio, 
 Que demusterai e a clers e a loi, 
 Chi grant busmn en unt, e pur mei perierunt." 
 
 " In a Divine book which is called Genesis, 
 There reading, we find that God made by reason 
 The sun and the moon, and every star. 
 On this account it pleases me to speak of this is my m itter 
 Which I will show both to clerks and to laics, 
 Who have just need of it, and will perish without it." 
 
172 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 lion," writes our old author, " in many ways rules over many 
 beasts, therefore is the lion king. He has a frightful face, 
 the neck great and hairy ; he has the breast before square, 
 hardy, and pugnacious ; his shape behind is slender, his tail 
 of large fashion, and he has flat legs, and haired down to the 
 feet ; he has the feet large and cloven, the claws long and 
 curved. When he is hungry or ill-disposed he devours ani- 
 mals without discrimination, as he does the ass which resists 
 and brays. Now hear, without doubt, the significance of 
 this. The lion signifies the Son of Mary. He is king of all 
 people without any gainsay. He is powerful by nature over 
 every creature, and fierce in appearance, and with fierce 
 look he will appear to the Jews when he shall judge them, 
 because they made themselves guilty when they hanged him 
 on the cross, and therefore they have merited to have no 
 king over them. The square breast shows strength of the 
 Deity. The shape which he has behind, of very slender 
 make, shows humanity, which he had with the Deity. By 
 the foot, which is cloven, is demonstrance of God, who will 
 clasp the world and hold it in his fist." Ws need not follow 
 our old authority any further in his laboured mysticism ; the 
 passage given will sufficiently indicate the association in the 
 Middle Ages of the lion with Christ. 
 
 It was an ancient belief that the lion cubs were born 
 dead, but were brought to life three days after their birth 
 by the roaring of the lion ; and it was very easy to trans- 
 fer this belief into a natural symbol of the resurrection of 
 Christ. 1 
 
 The use of the lion as an emblem of strength, majesty, 
 and fortitude naturally arises from many passages in the 
 Scriptures. Samson asks, " What is stronger than a lion ? " 
 Job speaks of " the voice of the fierce lion." Any good con- 
 cordance will supply an ample number of illustrative texts 
 for the use of the lion as an emblem of the qualities we have 
 named. 
 
 1 " N'oublions pas que les Peres de 1'Eglise se preoccuperent toujours 
 beaucoup plus de la purete des doctrines qu'ils avaient a developper, que 
 de 1'exactitude Scientifique des notions sur lesquelles ils les appu^aient." 
 HIPPEAU, on " Le Bestiare Divin" of Guillaume. 
 
 And elsewhere : " L'objet important pour nous est de considerer la 
 signification d'un fait et non d'en discuter 1'authenticite " ! 
 
THE LION IN SYMBOLIC ART. 
 
 173 
 
 The lion was believed by the mediaeval writers on natural 
 or perhaps we should rather say unnatural history to 
 always sleep with its eyes open, an idea that they in turn 
 borrowed from more ancient authors in lieu of investigating for 
 themselves. Hence the idea of watchfulness was superadded 
 to the other qualities ascribed to the lion. This idea probably 
 had some influence in the selection of the twelve flanking 
 lions of Solomon's throne. The lion is not unfrequently 
 
 FIG. 86. 
 
 found in early Christian churches, and especially those under 
 Lombard influence, as a sentinel at the doors, as the base to 
 pillars, or at the foot of the pulpits. 
 
 The lion, again, as the attribute of some particular person, 
 may freely be met with. The most notable example of this 
 is seen, as we have already noted, in its association with St. 
 Mark. Fig. 86, from some ancient stained glass in the South 
 Kensington Museum, is a good illustration of this special 
 
174 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 application of the lion. In mediaeval art it is also largely 
 associated with St. Jerome. In sculpture or painting the 
 animal is ordinarily represented at his side. A well known 
 example of this, fig. 87, familiar to most of our readers, 
 doubtless, from photographs and engravings, is the " Last 
 Communion of St. Jerome," by Domenichino. The aged saint 
 has been brought by loving hands to the altar, the minister- 
 ing priest hands him the wafer, and attendant angels hover 
 near to convey his soul to heaven. At his side crouches 
 a full-grown lion. 
 
 In our own National Gallery many good examples may be 
 seen. The friendship between the saint and the lion began 
 by a little kindly surgery on the part of St. Jerome, and in 
 a picture by Cosimo Tura the lion is seen in the background 
 limping with a thorn in one of his paws towards the kneel- 
 ing saint. In a picture by Cosimo Rosselli St. Jerome turns 
 to meet the lion and is taking him by the paw, while an 
 attendant monk runs away towards the monastery, at the 
 door of which are several wondering and admiring monks. 
 It is a delicate point of discrimination that the artist has 
 given St. Jerome a nimbus, while the weak brother who flees 
 faithlessly and abandons his companion has no such distinc- 
 tion. In the " St. Jerome in his Study," attributed to 
 Giovanni Bellini, the " St. Jerome in the Desert," by Bono 
 Ferrarese, and in " The Virgin, the Child, attended by St. 
 Jerome and St. Uomenick," of Filippino Lippi, the lion is 
 in each case conspicuously introduced. 
 
 In mediaeval art the lion is introduced also in represen- 
 tations of several other saints. It is placed by the sides or 
 at the feet of SS. Prisca, Euphemia, Natalia, Thecla, and 
 Adrian. With St. Gerasimus it is represented as carrying . 
 a basket in its mouth. It fawns in the amphitheatre on St. 
 Germanicus. It is represented as devouring SS. Silvanus, 
 Agapetus, and Ignatius, as digging the grave of St.* Mary 
 of Egypt, and in the den with St. Pontianus. The student 
 who desires full information on the various legends involved 
 will do well to refer either to Butler's " Lives of the Saints," 
 Newman's " Lives of the English Saints," and to Faber's 
 " Lives of the Saints and Servants of God." The first runs 
 to twelve volumes, the second to fourteen, while the last 
 needs forty-two to do the subject justice. 
 
 On the tombs of ecclesiastics, the effigy has frequently a 
 
FIG. 87. 
 
176 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 
 lion at the feet, significative of trampling upon the evil one. 
 Sometimes it is a dragon instead. In either case it is sug- 
 gested doubtless by the text, " Thou shalt tread upon the 
 lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou 
 trample under foot." 1 
 
 We may, in conclusion, find the lion represented in illu- 
 minations, stone-carving, etc., in a way that is not symbolic 
 at all, but historic. Several such examples will readily occur 
 to the mind of the reader. We need only instance repre- 
 sentations of Daniel in the lions' den. Even here such 
 treatments may be considered as in part symbolic very often, 
 since the particular example we have instanced occurs fre- 
 quently in the catacombs, and there can be no doubt that, 
 beyond the illustration of a Bible incident, there was the 
 recognition also of the general deliverance from evil of those 
 who trusted in the God of Daniel. 
 
 The stag in Christian art is the emblem of solitude and 
 purity of life. It is the attribute of SS. Hubert, Eustachius, 
 Aidan, Felix, Julian, and Ida. When associated with the 
 two former of these, it bears a cross between its antlers, in 
 allusion to legends that are generally well known, and 
 somewhat foreign to our present purpose to here detail. It 
 was also taken as an emblem of religious aspiration, probably 
 from the passage in the Psalms, commencing " Like as the 
 hart panteth after the waterbrooks." The form appears 
 very commonly in the sculptures and wall paintings in the 
 catacombs of Rome and elsewhere in early Christian art. 
 In the old belief that the stag was " a great enemy to all 
 
 1 The figures at the feet of monumental effigies are in their intention 
 at times incomprehensible, though we may ordinarily interpret their 
 meaning. They will generally fall into one of three classes. The first 
 of these includes all spiritual enemies to be trodden under foot ; and 
 these are symbolized by dragons, serpents, basilisks, and all such crea- 
 tures, mythical or real, as bear evil significance. The second great class 
 comprises all forms used with heraldic intent, or that are allusive in 
 character to the name rr vocation of the person with whom they are 
 associated ; such as the two hares at the feet of Bishop Harewell, on 
 his tomb in Wells Cathedral. The third class comprises emblems of 
 courage, strength, fidelity, and attachment. Dogs are frequently thus 
 introduced : that they were often pets may be seen from the collars and 
 bells attached to them ; on the brass of Sir Bryan Stapleton the dog's 
 name " Jakke " is inscribed on the collar. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF THE OX AND ASS. 177 
 
 kinds of serpents, which he labours to destroy when he finds 
 any, though he be afraid of almost all other creatures," it 
 became in the days of exaggerated symbolism a still more 
 popular emblem, its supposed ruthless antipathy to the 
 serpent rendering it not inaptly a symbol of the Christian 
 fighting against evil. 
 
 The ox was emblematic of patience and strength, and in 
 the writings of some of the early Fathers it is accepted as a 
 symbol of Christ the true sacrifice ; secondarily of prophets, 
 apostles, and saints slain for the sake of Christ ; and in the 
 third place, of all who patiently bear the yoke, and labour 
 in silence for the good of others. It is the well known 
 evangelistic symbol attributed to St. Luke, and is also asso- 
 ciated with SS. Leonard, Sylvester, Medard, Julietta, and 
 Blandina. 
 
 The ox is, together with the ass, almost invariably intro- 
 duced in representations of the Nativity, partly as natural 
 accessories when the scene is treated historically, and more 
 ordinarily as representatives of the homage due to God from 
 all the creatures of His hand. 1 St. Bernard dwells upon this 
 idea, and apart from this there is a very ancient tradition 
 that an ox and ass were actually present at the birth of our 
 Saviour. Besides this, the two animals were regarded as 
 being symbolic respectively of the Jews and of the Gentiles. 
 
 SS. Germanus and Philibert have the ass as an attribute, 
 and it kneels before the consecrated wafer borne by St. 
 Anthony of Padua. It is a firm belief with many ignorant 
 people that the conspicuous lines that form a cross on the 
 back of the animal are a memorial of our Saviour's ride 
 on the creature into Jerusalem, and that in remembrance of 
 that event the whole race have ever since borne this badge 
 of honour. 
 
 1 In the " Historia de Nativitate Maria} et de Infantia Salvatoris," we 
 are told that once when the Holy Child lay upon the lap of His mother 
 in a cave in the wilderness, during the flight into Egypt, dragons and 
 other noisome creatures of the place came forth from their hiding-places 
 and worshipped at His feet ; a poetic fiction that finds its warrant in the 
 words of St. Dionysius Areopagitica : " Such representations are less likely 
 to mislead than those which pretend to pourtray the actual, since the 
 former do not profess to contain tbe truth in themselves, and are rejected 
 at once by the mind, which then passes on at once to the ideal and 
 spiritual. The mind dwells in and is satisfied with the latter." 
 
 N 
 
1 78 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 " The mother of tbe eternall Somie 
 A Mayd shall be: Salvation 
 Shall bring the world : yet far from Pride, 
 Though King He on an asse shall ride." 
 
 In an example of French glass of the sixteenth century 
 we see that the angel who is sounding the trumpet of the 
 last judgment, at whose dread summons the earth is yield- 
 ing up her dead, is represented as riding on an elephant that 
 tramples a man underfoot; while on a seal in private hands 
 we see the device of St. Peter bearing the usual keys, and 
 riding upon an elephant too. The invincible might of the 
 creature may probably have in each instance led to its intro- 
 duction. In the latter case it may represent the Church 
 under the guidance of St. Peter going forth to conquer. 
 The elephant was long regarded as the emblem of the kingly 
 rank from a belief that he could not bow his knees, an idea 
 that is met with from time to time in the old writers. 
 
 In Christian art the horse appears as the symbol of three 
 saints, Anastasius, Hippolytus, and Quirinus. In any repre- 
 sentations of those saints that approach the pictorial, they 
 are depicted as being dragged and torn by wild horses. The 
 horse is sometimes regarded as an emblem of courage and 
 generosity. In the Roman catacombs it ordinarily denotes 
 the swiftness of life. Sometimes the palm branch of victory 
 is placed over its head. 
 
 SS. Martin, Maurice, Victor, and George are generally 
 represented on horseback. The latter, as our own patron 
 saint, will be familiar enough to all ; for, to quote the Golden 
 Legend, " the blyssyd and holy martyr Saynt George is 
 patron of this Realme of Englande," and he is represented 
 freely on our coinage and elsewhere. 
 
 The mythical unicorn was regarded as a symbol of purity 
 and strength, and is figured in the catacombs. From its 
 supposed love of solitude it was also a symbol of the mon- 
 astic life. It is associated too with St. Justina. In our 
 book " Mythland " we have gone at very considerable length 
 into the legendary, heraldic, and religious references to the 
 creature ; and to this we would beg to refer those of our 
 readers who care to follow out an old belief through its 
 various phases. 
 
 While we in England naturally regard the bear as a 
 creature only to be seen in zoological gardens, it was in 
 
SYMBOLIC REFERENCES TO 7 HE DOG. 179 
 
 earlier days, as it still is, on the continent a common animal 
 enough, and the hermits in their caves and woodland soli- 
 tudes had abundant opportunities of making its acquaintance. 
 Hence in Christian art we find the bear associated with SS. 
 Maximinus, Blandina, Florentius, Corbinian, and perhaps 
 more especially with St. Gall. In this latter case the bear 
 is generally represented as carrying a log of wood. On the 
 seal of the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland the saint is 
 represented sitting on a throne, and offering a small loaf of 
 bread to a bear, who stands on his hind legs and receives the 
 gift in his two forepaws. The same device is found on the 
 seal of the town of St. Gallen on a document dated 1300. 
 According to the accepted legend it appears that, as St. Gall 
 was praying in the wilderness on the spot where the famous 
 monastery called after him was afterwards erected, he saw 
 a bear come from the forest and devour the fragments that 
 remained of his frugal supper. He at once called the beast 
 before him, and commanded him as some little set off to the 
 lost meal to fetch some wood for his fire. The bear retired 
 to the forest, and shortly emerged with an enormous log, 
 which he cast upon the embers, whereupon the saint in kindly 
 good nature went to his small store, gave the bear a whole 
 loaf from his scanty supply, and dismissed him in peace. 
 
 Probably one great reason why the dog, " the friend of 
 man," as we call him, is so seldom introduced in religious 
 art is that it is an animal that is but rarely mentioned in 
 the Bible, and when referred to at all is seldom named in 
 aught but an evil sense. The only indication of their pos- 
 sessing any value is in a passage in Job, 1 where the dogs of 
 the flock are referred to, though even here the reference is 
 somewhat contemptuous. Elsewhere the children of Israel 
 are told not to bring the price of a dog into the house of the 
 Lord for. any vow. The thankless people of God are com- 
 pared by Isaiah to dumb dogs, elsewhere to greedy dogs ; 
 and in the last chapter of the whole Bible we read that 
 dogs, sorcerers, murderers, and idolaters shall be excluded 
 
 1 In the apocryphal book of Tobit the dog figures ful'y as a com- 
 panion. Ver. 16 of chap. v. is a pleasant picture: "And when his 
 son had prepared all things for the journey, his father said, Go thou with 
 this man, and God, which dwelleth in heaven, prosper your journey, and 
 the angel of God keep you company. So they went forth both, and the 
 young man's dog with them." 
 
i8o SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 from the paradise of God. It will be naturally objected to 
 this latter passage that it cannot be taken in any literal 
 sense; but if the animal be introduced in a symbolic sense, it 
 only strengthens our assertion that all the associations con- 
 nected with the dog in the Bible are unfavourable to its 
 introduction in any art under religious influence. If our 
 readers will take the trouble to look up some of the passages, 
 and there are over thirty of them where the animal is ex- 
 pressly named, they will find that our statement is fully 
 borne out by the facts. The dog even to the present clay 
 throughout the East occupies a very inferior position. He 
 is tolerated as a public scavenger, but he calls no man 
 master, and, prowling as he does with his fellows in large 
 packs, g'oes far to become a public nuisance. In medieval 
 art he is generally intended as a symbol of fidelity. He is 
 placed at the feet of SS. Bernard, Wendelin, Sira, and Roch; 
 while St. Parthenius is represented as slaying a mad dog by 
 the sign of the cross 
 
 The pig is intended in a good sense as the symbol of St. 
 Anthony; in an evil sense, as one of the forms in which Satan 
 has from time to time appeared. St. Anthony was said to 
 have been originally a swineherd, and is therefore ordinarily 
 represented as accompanied by a hog ; and pigs were in some 
 cases dedicated to him. In Pisano's picture in the National 
 Gallery of " St. Anthony and St. George," the two saints 
 confront each other, and at the feet of one is the pig, and 
 of the other the vanquished dragon. Amongst the figures 
 carved in Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster will 
 be found St. Anthony, a bearded figure in frock and scapular, 
 and at his side a gaunt pig is standing. 
 
 The use of the pig in an evil sense has probably been a 
 good deal influenced by the Biblical story of the possession 
 of the herd of swine by the evil spirits cast out from the 
 demoniacs, 1 and by its being included amongst the unclean 
 beasts forbidden to the chosen people. 2 Such texts again as 
 that in Proverbs, " As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, 
 so is a fair woman which is without discretion," or that in 
 Matthew against casting pearls before swine, show a ten- 
 dency towards depreciation of the animal. 
 
 1 See Matt. viii. 28 et >eq. : Mark v 2 et *eq.\ Luke viii. 27 et seq. 
 
 2 S e Lev. xi. 7 ; Isa. Ixv. 4, Ixvi. 3 and 17. 
 
ANIMALS INTRODUCED IN EVIL SENSE. 181 
 
 "Gregory relateth in a dialogue in his third book that 
 when a certain church of the Arians having been restored 
 to the Orthodox was being consecrated, and reliques of St. 
 Sebastian and the blessed Agatha had been conveyed thither, 
 the people there assembled of a sudden perceived a swine 
 to be running to and fro among their feet: the which regain- 
 ing the doors of the Church could be seen of none, and 
 moved all to marvel. Which sign the Lord showed for this 
 cause, that it might be manifest to all that the unclean in- 
 habitant had gone forth from tht place. But in the follow- 
 ing night a great noise was made on the roof of the same 
 church, as if some one were running confusedly about. The 
 second night the uproar was much greater. On the third 
 night also so vast a noise was heard as if the whole church 
 had been overthrown from its foundations, but it imme- 
 diately ceased, and no further inquietude of the old Enemy 
 hath appeared in it." 1 
 
 The goat, wolf, fox, and ape were ordinarily employed by 
 the old writers and sculptors in an evil sense as symbols of 
 lust, cruelty, and fraud. St. Anthony, for instance, is repre- 
 sented as tempted by Satan in the form of a goat. 
 
 " The Wolfe indeede signifieth craft, subtiltie, greedinesse 
 of mind, inordinate desire of that which appertaineth to 
 another, to some discord and sedition : for it is saide how 
 that the Wolfe procureth all other beasts to fight and con- 
 tend. He seeketh to devour the sheepe, that beast which 
 of all other is the most hurfclesse and simple and void of 
 guile, thirsting continually after their blood : yea, nature 
 hath implanted so inveterate a hatred atweene the wolfe and 
 the sheepe, that being dead, yet in the secret operation of 
 Nature appeareth there a sufficient trial of their discording 
 natures, so that the enmitie betweene them seemeth not to 
 dye with their bodies : for if there be put vpon a harpe, 
 or any such like instrument, strings made of the intrailles 
 of a sheepe, and amongst them but only one made of the 
 intrailles of a wolfe, be the musician never so cunning in his 
 skil yet can he not reconcile them to an vnity and concord 
 of sounds, so discording always is that string of the wolfe. 
 It may well likewise denote the seditious persons, of which 
 sort it' there be but one in a whole commonwealth yet he is 
 
 1 Duraudus. 
 
182 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 able to disturb the quiet concord and agreement of many 
 thousands of good subjects, even as one string of that beast 
 is able to confound the harmony of many other well tuned 
 strings." 
 
 In Scandinavian mythology the wolf is the bringer of 
 victory, and amongst the Romans, from its association with 
 Romulus and Remus, it was held in honour ; but the extract 
 we have just given from Ferae, a mediaeval writer on 
 heraldry, very fairly reflects the feeling of the Middle Ages, 
 and helps to account for its evil repute. 
 
 Though every allusion to the wolf in the Bible is of an 
 unfavourable nature, the creature is often in the legendary 
 history of the saints represented in a favourable light, doubt- 
 less with the idea of making the miracle still more miracu- 
 lous. He is in the Bible the "grievous wolf," " the ravening 
 wolf," the "fierce evening wolf"; while to St. Vedast he 
 brings a goose in his mouth, and to St. Mark a rani's skin 
 (in each case, we fear, making the saint a receiver of stolen 
 goods). He guards the dead body of St. Carpophorus and 
 that of our own St. Edmund until they receive fit interment 
 and the last rites of the Church. 
 
 We often in the Middle Ages find bitter and satirical evi- 
 dences of the feud between the various orders of clergy and 
 the itinerant friars, leading to such representations as a fox 
 preaching to geese, an ass's head beneath the cowl, a 
 monkey at prayers, a fox with the mitre and staff of the 
 bishop. These illustrations, whatever may be lacking of 
 grace, or frequently even of decorum, are often pungent and 
 graphic in the extreme, and remain as curious records in 
 our old churches of this strong antagonism. The following 
 title from a book written by one of our bishops, but secretly 
 printed under an assumed name at Zurich in 1543, is a good 
 literary illustration of the opprobrious use of the fox in theo- 
 logical controversy : " YET A COURSE AT THE ROMYSHE FOXE, 
 A DYSCLOSYNGE OR OPENING OF THE MANNE OF SYNNE, Con- 
 tayned in the late Declaratyon of the Popes old Fay the, made 
 by Edmonde Bonner, Byshopp of London. Whereby Wyl- 
 lyam Tolvvyn was than newlye professed at Paules Crosse 
 openlye into Antichristes Romyshe Relygyon agayne by a 
 newe Solempne Othe of obedyence, notwythstadnge the 
 Othe made to hys Prynce afore to the contrarye." 
 
 While the predatory disposition and crafty policy of the 
 
THE HYMN OF CREATION. 183 
 
 fox rendered the creature an apt emblem where such features 
 had, with more or less of charity, to be satirised, the monkey 
 and ape were rather the symbols of indecorum and of unseemly 
 levity ; though in a fourteenth century window in the north 
 aisle of the nave of York Minster we find them (very excep- 
 tionally) introduced in an entirely different spirit, playing 
 on musical instruments as a part of the great choir of crea- 
 tion : " Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all 
 deeps: . . . beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying 
 fowl." " Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet : praise 
 Him with the psaltery and harp. . . . Let everything that 
 hath breath praise the Lord." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Dove The Sevenfold Gifts of the Spirit The Pelican" Arm one 
 of Honour " Extracts from Skelton and Guillim Phoenix Eagle 
 Peacock Cock " Mystical Mirrour of the Church " Swan Owl 
 Raven Magpie Hen and Chickens Vine Palm White Li'y 
 Passion Flower Amaranth Hose Olive Tree of Jesse Yew. 
 
 AMONGST bird forms the dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, 
 is most freely met with in art. Such distinct Bible refer- 
 ences as that in Matthew iii. 16, where upon the baptism of 
 Christ " the Spirit of God descending like a dove," or in the 
 words of St. Luke, " the Holy Ghost descended in bodily 
 shape like a dove," are an ample warrant and justification 
 of the symbol. See figs. 26, 56, 69, 85, 88, 89. Doves of carved 
 wood are frequently found on font covers in our old English 
 parish churches, and probably in former days no font would 
 have been considered duly complete without such a symbol 
 of the sacramental rite, and of the presence of the Holy 
 Spirit in it. The symbol is one of the few that have fully re- 
 tained their place and meaning throughout the centuries down 
 to the present day, and it is as intelligible to us now as to 
 the Christians in the earliest ages of the Church. The three 
 scenes in which the figure most freely occurs are in repre- 
 sentations of the baptism of Christ, of the annunciation of 
 the Virgin, and of the creation of the world, though we also 
 see it introduced hovering over the heads of the saints of 
 God as the inspirer of noble thoughts, or at times resting 
 on their shoulders. In the picture by Borgognone of the 
 " Coronation of the Virgin " all the persons of the Trinity 
 are present ; and here, as elsewhere, when any event which 
 concerns all the Persons of the Godhead is represented, the 
 Holy Spirit, with but few exceptions, is in the form of a dove. 
 Examples are so numerous that it seems scarcely worth 
 while to particularize at any length. As three typical ex- 
 
 184 
 
SYMBOLIC USE OF THE DOVE. 
 
 185 
 
 amples however we may mention the " Baptism of Christ," 
 by Franoesca, in the National Gallery ; the " Annunciation," 
 in the same collection, by Crivelli ; and the " St. Peter of 
 Alcantara," by Zurbaran (fig. 89). In the last example 
 the dove is hovering over the saint, while in a statue at 
 Chartres Cathedral of Pope Gregory the Great the dove is 
 
 FIG. 88. 
 
 on his shoulder, holding commune with him, and inspiring 
 holy thoughts. 
 
 Sometimes in old work (as in fig. 90) we find a ring of 
 seven doves surrounding a figure ; but the significance is the 
 same the reference is still to the Holy Spirit, though in this 
 case the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit are more especially 
 emphasised. 1 
 
 1 At other times the symbol for these gifts is a group of seven lamps, 
 in illustration of the passage : " There were seven lamps of fire burning 
 before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God." 
 
Fm. 89. 
 
SYMBOLIC USE OF THE DOVE. 
 
 187 
 
 In Isaiah xi. 2 we have in the Authorized Version but 
 six of these Divine gifts mentioned : " The spirit of wisdom 
 and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the 
 spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord "; but in 
 the Vulgate rendering of this passage we have " Sapientia, 
 Intellectus, Consilium, Fortitude, Scientia, Pietas, Timor." 
 
 Authority is the attribute of God the Father ; and as ruler 
 of all things He bears the orb, the symbol of universal sway. 
 Love is the attribute of God the Son ; hence as Redeemer of 
 the children of men He bears the cross of Calvary. Know- 
 ledge is the special attribute of God the Holy Spirit; hence 
 He bears the book, the symbol of intelligence and reason. 
 He is the instructor of the ignorant, the illuminator of the 
 blind, the Spirit of truth to abide with man for ever. The 
 
 FIG. 90. 
 
 Spirit of wisdom reveals God to man ; the spirit of under- 
 standing teaches us about Him ; the Spirit of counsel teaches 
 us to distinguish good from evil ; the Spirit of strength 
 enables us fearlessly to struggle for the right ; the Spirit of 
 knowledge guides into the way of peace ; the Spirit of god- 
 liness gives us love ; the Spirit of fear teaches us humility, 
 and the reverence due to the great King. 
 
 In a more general sense, the dove becomes the symbol of 
 all believers. Such a text as " be ye harmless as doves" 
 would naturally suggest the idea. Doves are generally 
 employed in the Bible as the symbols of guilelessness, gentle- 
 ness, innocence, and faithfulness. David, in the midst of his 
 troubles, dreams of a haven of peace, and sighs for the wings 
 of a dove, that he might flee away from earthly turmoil to 
 celestial rest. Other passages will be found in the Canticles, 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Nahum, and elsewhere. 
 Doves as emblems of believers figure largely in the cata- 
 
1 88 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 combs of Rome, and throughout early Christian art. As 
 emblems of conjugal affection sometimes two are placed 
 together. 
 
 On the martyrdom of St. Polycarp the legend tells us that 
 his blood extinguished the flames that surrounded him, and 
 that from the ashes arose a white dove which flew heaven- 
 ward out of sight. In representations of St. Celestin and St. 
 Cunibert the dove is whispering in their ear the heavenly 
 message; to St. Albert it brings the eucharistic elements ; to 
 St. Agnes, virgin bride of heaven, a ring ; to St. Remigius, a 
 cruse of oil. 
 
 The dove with the olive branch in its mouth points to its 
 association with the receding waters of the Deluge, and is 
 thus an emblem of restoration to prosperity and peace. 
 
 The pelican, though without Biblical authority, and only 
 having its symbolic meaning based upon an error in natural 
 history, is perhaps, next to the dove, the most familiar of 
 bird symbols. 
 
 The pelican is in an especial manner a Christian symbol, 
 an emblem of the Redeemer of mankind ; and we know of no 
 instance of its use with any symbolic meaning in pre-C hris- 
 tian times. The bird has at the tip of its long bill a crimson 
 spot, and this gave rise to the belief amongst the older 
 naturalists that the pelican, while really pruning its 
 feathers, was feeding its young with its own blood. It is 
 the symbol therefore of loving sacrifice. Hence Dante 
 calls the Saviour " nostro pelicano." ' In the black-letter 
 " Bibliotheca Biblia " we read that " the Pelicane, whose 
 sons are nursed with bloude, stabbeth deep her breast, self- 
 murtheresse through fondnesse to hir broode." Shake- 
 sperian students again will recall the lines in " Hamlet " : 
 
 " To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms, 
 And, like the kind, life-rend'ring pelican, 
 Refresh them with my blood." 
 
 While in the " Giaour'' of Byron we find allusion to 
 
 " The desert bird whose beak unlocks her bosom's stream, 
 To still her famished nestlings' scream." 
 
 1 In the inventory of the goods of Westminster Abbey of the year 1510 
 we find mention of a " Cropse Staff of S.sluer Gylt withe the Salutacon 
 thereon and a Pelycan," the latter the symbol and type of the coming 
 Messiah (Luke i. 42). 
 
THE PELICAN AS A SYMBOL. 189 
 
 In the " Account of the Antient Rites and Monuments of 
 the Monastic Church of Durham," as they existed before the 
 suppression, written in 1593, we read : "At the north end of 
 the high altar there was a goodly fine letteron of brass, with 
 a great pelican on the height of it, finely gilt, billing her 
 blood out of her breast to feed her young ones, and her 
 wings spread abroad, whereon lay the book. Also there 
 was, lower down in the choir, another letteron of brass, with 
 an' eagle on the height of it, and her wings spread abroad, 
 whereupon the monks laid their books." The first of these 
 was for the epistle and gospel, the second for the lessons. 
 
 In the year 1649 an enthusiastic admirer of Charles I., 
 and an evident believer in the idea that he shed his blood for 
 his people, wrote a book on that king, entitling him " The 
 Princely Pelican." 
 
 A variation in the mediaeval pelican legend may occasion- 
 ally be met with, where, instead of the young being nourished 
 by the blood of the bird, their dead bodies are restored by it 
 to life. Whichever reading we accept has equally valuable 
 symbolic meaning, though the generally accepted version 
 is the more pleasing. The alternative reading we quote 
 from Bossewell's " Armorie of Honour " is as follows : 
 " The pellicane feruently loueth her young byrdes. Yet 
 when thei ben haughtie, and beginne to waxe hote, they 
 smite her in the face and wounde her, and she smiteth them 
 and slaeth them. And after three daies she mourneth for 
 them, and then striking herself in the side till the bloode 
 runne out, she sparpleth it upon their bodyes, and by Tertue 
 therof they quicken againe." ] 
 
 We find the same idea again in the " Armorie of Birds " 
 of Skelton : 
 
 " Then sayd the Pellycane : 
 
 When mv Byrdts be slayne, 
 With my Bloude I them revyve. 
 
 Scripture doth record, 
 
 The same dyd our Lord, 
 And rose from deth to lyve." 
 
 1 " Le pelican est un oiseau merveilleux qui habite les bords du Nil. 
 Quand les petits du pelican sont devenus grands ils frappent leur pere a 
 coups de bee, et celuici dans sa colere les tue. Mais trois jours apres 
 il revient vers eux, se dechire le flanc avec son bee, et son sang repaudu 
 sur ses petits les rappelle a la vie." GUILLIM. 
 
190 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Though all belief in the phoenix has been for some CGD-- 
 turies exploded, that mythic fowl was firmly believed in by 
 the ancients ; Pliny, Ovid, and many other writers giving full 
 details of its mysterious existence. As we have in our 
 "Mythland " fully gone into the whole subject, we forbear to 
 do so afresh, contenting ourselves here with just explaining 
 that the ancient belief was that the phoenix, after living a 
 thousand years or so, committed itself to the flames that 
 burst at the fanning of its wings from the funeral pyre of 
 costly spices that it had itself constructed, and that from its 
 ashes a new phosnix arose to life. Tertullian, one of the 
 
 FIG. yi. 
 
 early writers of the Christian Church, in all good faith 
 accepts it as a most marked and evident symbol of the 
 resurrection and of eternity. The phoenix is represented 
 in some of the earliest Christian mosaics in the churches 
 of Rome, and often has a star-shaped nimbus. 
 
 The powerful heavenward flight of the eagle, fixing its 
 gaze upon the sun, has made it a very natural symbol in 
 Christian art of the Ascension, while it is still more widely 
 employed and far more commonly recognised as the symbol 
 of St. John. SS. Medard and Bertulph are represented in 
 art as sheltering beneath an eagle with outstretched wings ; 
 and St. Servatius, sleeping in the hot sunlight, is shaded 
 
'2 HE PEACOCK, COCK, AND SWAN. 191 
 
 and fanned by the pinions of an eagle that hovers ove.. 
 him. 
 
 T The peacock, like the dove, is a very favonrite form in 
 
 JByzantine art ; though now-a-days thought of rather as an 
 
 [emblem of vanity or pride, it was in earlier days regarded as 
 
 a symbol of the Resurrection. Hence it is generally repre- 
 
 Wnted as standing upon a small ball or globe, the glorified 
 
 spirit rising above all mundane cares. Many good examples 
 
 of it may be seen in the mosaics of Ravenna and Venice. 1 
 
 (Fig. 91 is from an early Christian monument at Athens.) 
 
 The peacock was regarded as an emblem of the resurrec- 
 tion, from the yearly changing and renewal of its brilliant 
 feathers, and from an old belief in the incorruptibility of its 
 flesh. 
 
 The cock is another very ancient symbol. If associated 
 With any representation of the denial of Christ by St. Peter, 
 It signifies repentance, since the crowing of this bird awoke 
 )the time-serving apostle to a sense of the depth to which 
 he had fallen. At other times it is employed as a symbol of 
 vigilance. In the "Mystical Mirrour of the Church," by 
 Hugo de Sancto Yictore, we learn that " the cock repre- 
 senteth the preacher. For the cock in the deep watches of 
 the night divideth the hours thereof with his song, and 
 aroaseth the sleepers. He foretelleth the approach of day, 
 but first he stirreth up himself to crow by the striking of 
 his wings. Behold ye these things mystically, for not one 
 of them is there without meaning. The sleepers be the 
 children of this world, lying in sins. The cock is the com- 
 pany of preachers, which do preach sharply, do stir up the 
 sleepers to cast away the works of darkness, which also do 
 foretell the coming of the light, when they preach of the 
 Day of Judgment and of future glory. But wisely before 
 they preach unto others do they rouse themselves by virtue 
 from the sleep of sin and do chasten their bodies." 
 
 The swan figures but rarely in Christian art. It is repre- 
 sented by the side of St. Hugh, St. Ludger, and St. Cuthbert. 
 We find a curious passage in Foxe's " Book of Martyrs," 
 
 1 Even to mediaeval days examples of its use are not uncommon. 
 Thus for instance in an inventory of the property of Westminster Abbey, 
 made in the year 1388, we find an alb " cum pavonibus rotulas in rostris 
 tenentibus," and another vestment embroidered " cum floribus et avibus 
 viridibus pavonibus et bestijs aureis." 
 
192 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 wherein, speaking of the martyrdom of Huss, he tells us 
 that he said, " Yon are now going to burn a goose (the name 
 of Huss signifying a goose in the Bohemian language), hut 
 in a century you will have a swan, whom you can neither 
 roast nor boil." Foxe goes on to say that "if this were 
 spoken in prophecy he must have meant Martin Luther, who 
 shone about one hundred years after, and who had a swan 
 for his arms, whether suggested by this circumstance or of 
 family descent and heraldry is not known." 
 
 A mediaeval moralist says that " swans are looked upon as 
 symbols of hypocrites, because they have fine wings, and yet 
 can scarce raise themselves from the earth, so that they are 
 of no use to them; besides the feathers of a swan are white 
 to perfection, but their flesh is very black, as are the hypo- 
 crites, appearing outwardly virtuous, and being inwardly 
 very wicked." 
 
 In religious art the owl is associated with the idea of 
 mourning and desolation. '* The owle betokeneth alwaies 
 some heavie newes, and is most execrable and accursed. He 
 keepeth ever in the deserts, and is the verie monster of the 
 night, neither crying nor singing out cleare, but uttering a 
 certaine heavie grone of dolefull moning. Therefore if he be 
 seene within citties or otherwise abroad in any place it is 
 not good, but prognosticated some fearfull misfortune." We 
 see the same idea again in Shakespeare : " Out on ye owls ! 
 Nothing but songs of death ! " and another well-known 
 passage in Macbeth will readily occur to our readers. 
 
 In some cases no doubt the Christian symbolism was a 
 deliberate reaction from the pagan. Thus the owl, as the 
 bird of Athene, was held in especial esteem by the Athenians, 
 who claimed that goddess as the patron and founder of their 
 city, and stamped her emblem on their coinage. Hence 
 therefore the early Christians would feel an objection to 
 the introduction of the bird. The raven again, the standard 
 of the Norsemen, and amongst the classic nations a bird 
 dedicated to the sun-god Apollo, was, like the magpie, 
 held in later days to be a symbol of ill fortune. When 
 these birds therefore are introduced in Christian art, they 
 ordinarily reflect the prevalent idea; thus in some MSS. 
 they are represented as perching in the tree from whence 
 Eve gathers the forbidden fruit. The association of the 
 raven with the story of the subsiding Deluge has also made 
 
THE HEN AND CHICKENS. 
 
 '93 
 
 it an emblem of wandering and unrest. It is connected with 
 the legendary history of some few saints ; it is placed at 
 the feet of St. Benedict, it bears a ring in its mouth to St. 
 Ida, brings a letter to St. Oswald, and guards the body of 
 the sainted martyr Vincent. 
 
 FIG. 92. 
 
 The hen and chickens, as an emblem of God's providence, 
 are sometimes met with in old sculptures on ecclesiastical 
 buildings. Their introduction evidently springs from that 
 passage in the Bible that shows us the infinitely tender 
 Redeemer mourning over the guilty city of Jerusalem, and 
 declaring that, had its inhabitants so willed it, God's good 
 providence would have been to them a shield and sure 
 defence, an effectual succour, even as the hen gathers her 
 young beneaih her wings, and guards them from every 
 harm. 
 
194 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Many other animal forms might have been referred to, 
 the spotless ermine and the stork, the emblem of filial piety, 
 until in descending scale we reached the ant, the emblem of 
 industry, and the bee, the symbol of busy forethought ; but 
 it is scarcely desirable, in pity to our readers, to make an 
 exhaustive catalogue, so we pass now to a consideration of 
 some few of the plants that have had symbolic meaning 
 attached to them in Christian art. 
 
 The vine as a symbol of Christ, based upon His own 
 words, " I am the Vine," has at all times been freely 
 employed. Often, as on the tomb of the empress Con- 
 stantia, the sister of Constantine, it is the sole symbol of 
 the Christian faith. In the early Christian mosaics (as in 
 fig. 92) the vine plays a conspicuous part ; and we see in 
 
 FIG. 93. 
 
 
 these early works how persistently, in the well nigh exclu- 
 sive use of such symbols as the vine and the Good Shepherd, 
 the mind of the Church then dwelt almost solely on the 
 risen Lord. 
 
 The vine is several times employed in the Old Testament 
 as a symbol of the chosen people : " A vine Thou didst 
 bring out of Egypt. Thou castedst out the nations, and 
 plaiitedst it. Thou preparedst the ground for it ; and it 
 spreads its roots and tilled the land. The mountains were 
 covered with its shade, and with its tendrils the lofty cedars." 
 
 Sometimes it is used in a general sense as expressive of 
 temporal blessing, as in the benediction of Jacob by Isaac. 
 " God give thee of the dew of heaven, the fatness of the 
 earth, and plenty of corn and wine " ; or later on as an 
 emblem of the joyous, festive innocence of the Christian 
 
THE PALM BRANCH OF VICTORY. 
 
 '95 
 
 life. It is also often found as one of the symbols of the 
 Eucharist. 
 
 The palm, the symbol of victory, is one of the earliest of 
 Christian symbols, and commemorates, times without num- 
 ber, in the catacombs the triumph of the martyrs for the 
 faith. 1 In the darkness of these subterranean vaults, to the 
 survivors it bore testimony of conflict past and death van- 
 quished, as in fig. 94, while in the light of heaven we see 
 it recognised and honoured as a testimony for evermore of 
 
 FL* IOVIKA. . QVAE .VTXIT 
 
 . D.XXXIT.DEPO 
 
 FIG. 94. 
 
 victory won, where the great army of the faithful unto 
 death, out of every nation and kindred and people, stand 
 before the eternal throne, clothed in spotless white and 
 bearing the palms of victory in their hands. 
 
 In the " Peter Martyr " of Titian, the saint looks up to 
 heaven in expectation of speedy death, while hovering over- 
 
 1 In fig. 93, a gem of about 380 A.D., we have an interesting repre- 
 sentation of the martyrdom of a follower of Christ. The sacred mono- 
 gram indicates her Lord's presence in her time of need, the dove and 
 olive branch point to the rest and peace into which she is soon to 
 enter, and at her feet is the victor's palm. 
 
196 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 head a cherub bears a palm branch ; and in the " Massacre 
 of the Innocents," by Guido Reni, in the clouds above the 
 scene of violence and bloodshed two cherubs bear large 
 bundles of the palm branches in their arms. 
 
 FIG. 95. 
 
 FIG. 96. 
 
 It was an ancient belief that the palm tree would always 
 grow erect, no matter how it might be weighted or pulled 
 aside, hence it was a favourite emblem in the Middle Ages of 
 triumph over adversity. Mary Queen of Scots ar opted it 
 
 FIG. 97. 
 
 FIG. 98. 
 
 for instance, in this sense ; and on the frontispiece of the 
 " Eikon Basilike " we see, amongst many other emblems, a 
 palm tree standing erect, with two heavy weights^ attached 
 to it, and the legend, " Crescit sub pondere virtus," and the 
 " Explanation of the Embleme " : 
 
198 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN AR7. 
 
 " Though clogged with weights of miseries, 
 Palm -like depressed I higher rise." * 
 
 The palm is also associated with the triumphant entry of 
 Christ into Jerusalem, commemorated thereafter as Palm 
 Sunday. It was the special emblem of Judaea. 2 
 
 The white lily, or annunciation lily, from its association in 
 art with the Virgin Mary, is one of the commonest of floral 
 symbols. The fragrance, purity of colour, and beauty of 
 the flower render it a most appropriate emblem. Abundant 
 examples of the association of this flower with the Virgin 
 mother may be found in the National Gallery and else- 
 where, so that it is almost needless to particularize special 
 instances. 3 - In Roman Catholic countries the snowdrop is, 
 from a similar motive, dedicated to the Virgin Mary ; and on 
 the festival of the Annunciation in March, when white lilu 
 are not procurable, her altars are decked with it. 
 
 The passion flower is freely used in modern work 
 symbolise, as its name implies, the passion of our Lord. II 
 is a good illustration of that exaggerated symbolism that on* 
 so often encounters, in that straining after analogy that sees 
 a wealth of meaning in the most natural and ordinary of 
 arrangements. The ten members composing the perianth 
 of the flower, we are told, represent the apostles, Peter being 
 absent because he deceived his Master, and Judas because he 
 betrayed Him. The rays within the flowers are the nimbus 
 
 1 For many curious illustrations of such like old fancies the reader 
 may advantageously turn to the " Symbolorum et Emhlematum ex He 
 Herbaria, Animalibus Volatilibus Aquatilibus et Insectus de Sumtorum " 
 of Camerarius. or to tbe " Symbola divina et huinana," the first being 
 issued in the year 1654, and the second in 1666. 
 
 2 We may see this very well illustrated in figs. 95, 96, 97, repre- 
 senting coins struck by the Romans on the defeat of the Jews and the 
 destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 "Beneath her palm, here sad Judesa weeps." POPE. 
 
 In fig. 95 we see two captives at the foot of the symbolic palm ; and 
 fig. 96 is very similar, except that the place of one of the captives is 
 taken by a Roman soldier. In fig. 97 a winged figure of Victory in- 
 scribes the SPQR on tbe shield, in token of the subjugation of Judaea 
 by the armies of Rome. Fig. 98 gives the obverse of this coin, and 
 shows us the laurel-crowned head of the conqueror, tbe emperor 
 Vespasian. 
 
 3 Fig. 99 will suffice as an illustration ; it is taken from a bas-relief 
 by Audrea della Robbia. 
 
THE AMARANTH AND THE ROSE. 199 
 
 or gloiy. The ovary is supposed to resemble a hammer, 
 while the three styles with their rounded heads are the 
 nails, the five stamens being the five wounds. Though the 
 passion flower is now not uncommon, our readers will remem- 
 ber that it was introduced from abroad ; hence it does not 
 occur in early English art in our cathedrals, illuminations, 
 or elsewhere. 
 
 The immortal amaranth has a literary l rather than an 
 artistic existence. Clement of Alexandria refers to it as the 
 " amaranthus flos, symbolum immortalitatis." The name is 
 derived from two Greek words, signifying not withering. 
 The passage in our New Testament, " a crown of glory that 
 fadeth not away" is in the original Greek "the amaranthine 
 crown of glory." 
 
 < The rose is only twice referred to in the Bible, and the 
 Commentators are generally agreed that the plant so called 
 lhas been wrongly named. One reference will be found in 
 .'the Song of Solomon, " I am the rose of Sharon, and the 
 lily of the valleys"; while the second is in Isaiah, where 
 we read that when the kingdom of righteousness shall be 
 established on earth, the desert shall rejoice and blossom as 
 the rose. 
 
 Though the rose was known in Syria, and one species, the 
 damask, takes its name from Damascus, the word trans- 
 lated rose in the Bible indicates a bulbous-rooted plant. The 
 plant intended was probably the narcissus, a flower that is 
 abundant throughout Syria. 
 
 Amongst the various flowers consecrated to the Virgin 
 
 1 Milton introduces it several times in the " Paradise Lost," as for 
 example : 
 
 '* The multitude of Angels, with a shout 
 Loud as from numbers without number, sweet 
 As from blest voices, uttering joy Heaven ruug 
 With jubilee, and loud hosanu is filled 
 The eternal regions. Lowly reverent 
 Towards either tbrone they bow, and to the ground 
 With solemn adoration down they cast 
 Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and gold, 
 Immortal amaranth, a flower which once 
 lu Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life 
 Began to bloom, but, soon for Man's offence 
 To Heaven removed where first it grew, there grows 
 And flowers aloft, shading the Fount of Life." 
 
200 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 by our forefathers, the rose occupies a conspicuous position, 
 and amongst the numerous titles bestowed upon her we 
 find that of Santa Maria della Rosa. This title therefore 
 is given to several pictures in various continental collections, 
 in which a rose is placed either in her hand or in that of 
 her Divine Son. We may see a good example of the intro- 
 duction of this flower, together with the white lily, in one 
 of the pictures of the Virgin and Child, by Beiiozzo Grozzoli, 
 in our own National Gallery. The Virgin is hailed in some 
 books of devotion the Rosa Cseli, the Rose of Heaven, or 
 the Mystic Rose. 
 
 The rose figures again in the legendary history of St. 
 Dorothea, who suffered martyrdom under the government 
 of Fabricius, and who converted afterwards one Theophilus 
 to the Christian faith by sending him some roses from 
 Paradise. It is also associated with SS. Casilda, Elizabeth 
 of Portugal, Rose of Viterbo, Rose of Lima, Rosalia, Vic- 
 toria, Angelus, Francis, and several others. 1 
 
 The olive has been celebrated from the earliest ages. Jt 
 must have been known before the flood, as the dove returned 
 to Noah in the ark with a leaf of it in her mouth. There 
 can be little doubt of this incident having been the origin 
 of the recognition of the plant as the emblem of peace and 
 good-will. It is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures. 
 Jacob, for instance, poured the oil of the olive on the 
 memorial pillar that he set up in Bethel, and the Promised 
 Land was to be "a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, 
 and fig trees, and pomegranates ; a land of oil olive, and 
 honey." The holy anointing oil of the Temple was olive oil) 
 scented with myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus, and cassia. 
 
 As sacred history made the olive emblematic of peace, so 
 from its great value to man has it been also considered the 
 
 1 " For als moche as a fayre Mayden was blamed with wrong and 
 sclaundered sche was denied to the dethe, and to be brent in that place 
 to the whiche sche was ledde. And as the Fyre began to burne about 
 hire sche made hire Preyers to our Lord, that als wisely as sche was not 
 gylty of that Synne, the he wold helpe hire and make it to be knownen 
 to alle men of his mercifulle Grace. And whan sche hadde thus sayde 
 sche entered into the Fuyre, and anon was the Fuyr quenched and 
 oute ; and the Branddes that were brennynge becomen rede Roses, and 
 they that were not kyndled becomeu white Hoses. And these were the 
 first roses, both white and rede that ever ony man saughe." 
 
REPRESENTATIONS OF TREE OF JESSE. 201 
 
 sign and expression of plenty. As a symbol in one or 
 other of these senses we thus find it on the coins of those 
 countries where the plant is not a native. Our own Bri- 
 tannia, for instance, holds in her hand the olive branch of 
 peace and good-will on some of the coinage of previous 
 reigns. 
 
 In Christian art the old illuminators and glass-painters 
 often represented the genealogy of Christ under the form of 
 a tree, the tree of Jesse, in allusion to that text in Isaiah 
 where it states that " there shall come forth a rod out of the 
 stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." 
 Jesse is represented as recumbent, and the tree springs from 
 his loins, spreading into luxuriant foliage and bearing on its 
 numerous branches the various royal and other personages 
 who are mentioned in the first chapter of St. Matthew's 
 Gospel. The name of each is usually inscribed on a label 
 in close proximity to the figure, and crowning all, at the 
 summit of the tree is the Virgin Mary in an aureole, bearing 
 in her arms the Divine Son. Sometimes, though more 
 rarely, the tree terminates in a cross bearing the dying 
 Christ. The tree of Jesse first appears as a device in the 
 twelfth century, and in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies becomes exceedingly popular, occurring in stained 
 glass, mural paintings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, 
 wood carving, and embroidery. 1 The foliage is often that 
 of the vine, the symbol of spiritual fruitfulness, and allusive 
 to Him who said, " I am the Yine, ye are the branches." 
 
 The Celtic priesthood regarded the yew as an emblem of 
 immortality, and therefore planted it in their sacred groves. 
 It has been conjectured that the early Christian churches 
 were of set purpose erected on the sites of the old heathen 
 shrines as a more distinctive token of the supplanting of 
 the old creed by the new, and that in that case some of the 
 magnificent old yew trees seen in many country churchyards 
 may be relics of a yet older faith. In Brady's " Clavis 
 Calendaria" we read that "amongst our superstitious fore- 
 fathers the palm tree or its substitutes, box or yew, were 
 
 1 "A cope of blewe velvett rychely embrothered with a Jesse, the 
 ymages of the Jesse beyng garnysshed with perle." Inventory, West- 
 minster Abbey, A.D. 1540. In inventory of St. Paul's, A.D. 12A5, we find 
 a " J> see quam dedit Hex," and a red cope " bene breudata Jesse." 
 
202 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 solemnly blessed on Palm Sunday and some of their 
 branches burnt to ashes and used on Ash Wednesday in the 
 following year, while others were gathered and distributed 
 amongst the pious, who bore them in procession." Caxton 
 in 1483 also shows that the yew was a substitute in these 
 northern regions for the palm ; for he says in his book on the 
 Church festivals, " but for that we have none olyve, there- 
 fore we take yew instead of palm olyve." 
 
 Many of the ancient and mediaeval beliefs in various 
 branches of natural history affected theologians and artists, 
 and gave rise to symbols that lived for awhile ; but when 
 the false ideas upon which they were based were corrected 
 (though the myth of the pelican is a marked instance to the 
 contrary), the symbols in most cases lost their force, and 
 were discarded. 
 
 It is manifest that we have but referred to some few of 
 the more common vegetable forms. In some cases, as in 
 the apples presented to a king for the restoration of his 
 sight by St. Malachy, a plant may only once appear in Chris- 
 tian symbolism. It is impossible to extend our remarks to 
 such a length as would include all these exceptional cases. 
 In other legends " flowers " alone are mentioned, without any 
 attempt at distinction of species, while many well-known 
 references, such as the withering grass, the fading flower, 
 the purging hyssop, the parable of the wheat and the tares, 
 and the illustration of the grain sown in the earth as a 
 symbol of the resurrection of the dead, are very familiar 
 to us, but scarcely appear in art representation, and are 
 therefore somewhat outside the limits of our work. 
 
CHAPTER XT. 
 
 The fish Jonah as a type of the Resurrection Escallop Shell Pil- 
 grimages The Crocodile Water Exorcism Salt The Rock 
 The Ship -The Ark of Noah Anchor The Sun The Moon The 
 abodes of the Archangels Crescent of Byzantium The Stars The 
 Star as symbol of Christ Star of the East Representations of the 
 Seasons and Months Signs of the Zodiac Geometrical Forms 
 The Equilateral Triangle Octagon The Pantalpha Interlacing 
 Circles Fylfot Stauracin Patterns based on the Gamma The 
 Y of Pythagoras Triquetra -Conclusion. 
 
 THE multitudinous forms of the earth have supplied us with 
 numerous illustrations of their symbolic use. We turn now 
 to the great water depths, and find in sea and river further 
 examples of emblematic forms, and to the firmament of 
 heaven in search of the lessons taught by the revolving 
 seasons and the starry host. 
 
 Men have naturally, in the earlier days, given the greater 
 attention to the more distinctive and prominent forms. 
 Thus while the lamb, the lion, wolf, horse, fox, eagle, and 
 many other animal forms are introduced, the list of sym- 
 bolic plants is a much shorter one. This is still more 
 marked when we pass to marine creatures, where one or two 
 conventional types do duty for all the finny denizens of the 
 deep, while the eschallop shell sums up its conchology. 
 
 It is as an emblem of our Lord that the fish is most abun- 
 dantly met with in Christian arb. St. Augustine and Ter- 
 tullian both refer to the fish as an emblem of Christ, and 
 Clement of Alexandria enumerates the fish, the anchor, the 
 ship, dove, lyre, and fisherman, as fitting objects to be em- 
 ployed by the Christians on their seals and lamps. When 
 it was discovered that the letters in the Greek word for a 
 fish are the initials of " Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the 
 
 Saviour," the symbol at once sprang into use. Though the 
 
 20:3 
 
204 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 fish symbol arose from the Greek word, the Greek Church 
 ne\e L ' adopted it. It is found in the Latin communion alone. 
 In tig. 100 the Church, in the form of a ship, is borne by 
 Christ amidst the storm and stress of life. It is somewhat 
 curious that such a symbol should have held its ground so 
 lone 1 , since it sprang merely from a verbal, or rather a literal 
 coincidence, and that too of a somewhat forced nature. It 
 had nothing of the poetical feeling of that beautiful symbol, 
 the Lamb, nor did it express, like the lion, anything of the 
 
 FIG. 103. 
 
 royal majesty of the great King of kirvgs. The form was 
 based on no allusion in any text, and the difference and dis- 
 tance between the cold-blooded and apathetic creature of 
 the waters and the Creator, the Lord of all, who suffered 
 so freely for the sheep of His pasture, is something infinitely 
 great, and would, we should have thought, have led men 
 earlier to feel how unworthy the symbol was of One so 
 infinitely tender, One so immeasurably exalted. 
 
 The fish was sometimes applied secondarily as a symbol 
 of believers, and we find the early Fathers of the Church 
 writing of their flocks as pisciculi, since they cast off the 
 
SYMBOLIC USE OF THE FISH. 205 
 
 former life and became new creatures as they emerged from 
 the waters of baptism. 1 Tertullian says, " We are^ born in 
 water like the fish " ; and Clement speaks of Christ as 
 " drawing fish out of the waters of sin." It is one of the 
 earliest symbols employed, being freely found on the sepul- 
 chral slabs in the catacombs of Rome, often alone, but some- 
 times with the wreath or crown, the emblem of triumph 
 won through Christ, as in fig. 101 ; sometimes with the 
 anchor, as in fig. 102, the emblem of a sure and certain hope 
 of the resurrection. The name piscina, given to the bap- 
 tismal font, is derived from the Latin word for a fish. 
 
 Jonah, as a type of the resurrection, is freely introduced 
 in early art, and the big fish, his attribute, is always asso- 
 ciated with him in these representations. Fig. 103, a gem 
 
 PR/HE 
 
 VENEMERENTI QVAE VlXlT 
 ANNIS U MES IDVS V DIEBVS 
 
 FIG. 101. 
 
 of the fourth century, is a very quaint illustration of this. 
 As is common in much archaic art, several independent inci- 
 dents are grouped together into one composition, in defiance 
 of the possibilities. Thus in the present example we get 
 the prophet three times over : we see him sitting beneath 
 his sheltering gourd, tossed to the great sea-monster, and, 
 finally, preaching repentance to the men of Nineveh. 
 
 The fish is introduced in the legends of many saints, and 
 may be seen duly figured in art. To St. Congall a fish is 
 brought by an angel, and to St. Walter by a bird. Asso- 
 ciated with St. Mauritius we have a fish with a key in its 
 mouth. St. Zeno has one hanging from his crozier. The 
 
 1 Another very favourite reference to baptism in the catacombs is the 
 representation of the passage of the Israelites through the Eed Sea, as 
 the first step toward entrance to the promised land. 
 
206 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 corpse of St. Chrysogomus is borne up in the water by their 
 aid, and St. Anthony of Padua is represented as preaching 
 -to a congregation of fish. 
 
 FIG. 102. 
 
 The dolphin is often introduced in art as a symbol of 
 maritime power, bat it finds no place in Christian symbolism. 
 
 The escallop shell (fig. 104) is more particularly associated 
 in religious art with St. James the Greater. In represen- 
 
 FIG. 103. 
 
 tations of the saint the shell is either held in the hand or 
 fastened on the hat, cloak, or wallet. St. Felix, a less 
 
THE BADGES OF THE PILGRIM. 207 
 
 widely known preacher of the faith, though, like St. James, 
 one of the noble army of martyrs for that faith, is repre- 
 sented as laid upon a bed of shells. 
 
 Every pilgrimage had its special symbol, which sign the 
 pilgrim on his return wore conspicuously, that all might 
 know that he had accomplished that particular pilgrimage. 
 That for the Holy Land was the cross ; and it had this dis- 
 tinction above all others, that it was worn as a special sign 
 directly the vow to visit the sacred land was made. Some 
 even branded it with a hot iron upon their breasts in their 
 enthusiasm, until a rubric was inserted in the "Officium Pere- 
 grinorum " forbidding the practice. When the pilgrim had 
 fulfilled his vow and had visited the Holy Land, he was 
 entitled to wear the palm, and was hence termed a palmer. 1 
 
 FIG. 104. 
 
 The pilgrimage to Rome, the centre of the religion and 
 civilization of the West, was held in next highest esteem. 
 Many shrines were there visited, each indicated by a special 
 sign ; the chief of these were the figures of St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, the cross-keys, and the vernicle or kerchief of St. 
 Veronica. Hence we find that the pardoner in Chaucer, " a 
 vernicle hadde he served in his cappe," for "he strait was 
 comen from the court of Rome." The great Canterbury 
 pilgrimage had as its sign the ampulla, or flask suspended 
 round the neck, while that for Compostella was the escallop 
 shell. 2 
 
 1 " A prest that a palmer was, 
 
 A palme in his hand he had." TUNDAL. 
 
 2 The old Spanish writers affirm that while the body of St. James 
 was being miraculously conveyed in a boat, without either oars or sails, 
 from Joppa to Galicia, it passed a little village on the coast on the day 
 that a marriage had taken place there. The bridegroom and his friends 
 were riding on the sands, when the horse of the former became un- 
 manageable and plunged with its rider into the sea. The miraculous 
 
208 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 In the description of a pilgrim in " Piers Ploughman's 
 Vision," we read that he had 
 
 " An hundred of ampulles : on his hat seten 
 Signes of Synay and shells of Galice, 
 And many a crouche on his cloke, and keys of Borne, 
 And the vernic'.e before, for men sholde knowe 
 And se bi his signes whom he sought hadde. 
 Then folk prayed hym first fro whence he came ? 
 From Synay he seide, and from our Lordes Sepulcre : 
 In Bethlem and in Babiloyne I have ben in bothe : 
 In Armonye and Alesaundre, in many other places 
 Ye may see by my signes, that sitten in my hat, 
 That I have walked ful wide in weet and in drye, 
 And sought good seintes for my soules helthe." 
 
 Another interesting reference to this custom of going on 
 pilgrimage may be found in the " Canterbury Tales " of 
 Chaucer : 
 
 " And thries hadde sche ben to Jerusalem ; 
 Sche hadde passed many a straunge streem ; 
 At Kome sche hadde ben, and at Boloyne, 
 In Galice at Seynt Jame, and at Coloyne." 
 
 The pilgrimage to the Holy Land naturally took the highest 
 rank. Why Rome too was visited calls for no explanation. 
 "At Boloyne " a notable image of the Virgin was preserved, 
 while at Cologne were to be seen the bones, real or reputed, 
 of Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, the Wise Men of the 
 East. 
 
 The city of Compostella became in the eighth century one 
 of the great centres of attractive force to the pilgrims, from 
 a legend that the body of St. James had been discovered 
 there ; and in the ninth century the Galilaean fisherman was 
 transformed into the patron saint of Spain, and led her 
 chivalry, we are told, against the Moorish infidels. At the 
 
 stopped in its course, and horse and man rose from the sea beside 
 it. The disciples on board, who were in charge of the remains, apprised 
 him that he owed his rescue from death to the good offices of the saint ; 
 and on explaining the Christian religion to him he was baptized there 
 and then. The ship then resumed her voyage, and the knight galloped 
 back over the waves to his astonished party. On narrating to them all 
 that had happened, they too were converted to the faith. When the 
 knight rose from the sea his dress and the trappings of his horse were 
 covered with the shells of the escallop, hence the shell was ever after- 
 ward recognised as the cognisance of St. James. 
 
CROCODILEAN TEARS. 209 
 
 battle of Clavigo, A.D. 844, in which sixty thousand Moors 
 were slain, St. James was said to have appeared on a white 
 horse, the housings charged with escallops, and led the 
 Christian host to victory. Thenceforth enthusiasm for so 
 potent a champion of the faith rapidly grew, and, as in the 
 case of St. Thomas of Canterbury, national feeling and reli- 
 gious fervour combined to pay due honour to his shrine. 
 
 " The poor with scrip, the rich with purse, 
 They took their chance for better for worse, 
 
 From many a foreign land ; . 
 With a scallop-shell in the hat for badge, 
 
 And a pilgrim staff in hand." 
 
 While the foregoing extract from Southey introduces the 
 litei^al facts of the pilgrim's journey to the shrine of the 
 saint, the following passage from Raleigh deals rather with 
 the broader view of pilgrimage ; though we still find the 
 escallop selected as a notable symbol of the pilgrim's 
 equipment. 
 
 " Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, 
 
 My staff of faith to walk upon, 
 My scrip of joy, immortal diet, 
 
 My bottle of salvation, 
 My gown of glory, hope's time gage, 
 And thus I'll make my pilgrimage." 
 
 The crocodile has been accepted as a symbol of dissimu- 
 lation, from an old belief that this reptile sheds tears to 
 attract the sympathy of the passers by, in order that it may 
 bring them within reach of its formidable jaws and devour 
 them. Though the crocodile has occasionally been intro- 
 duced in art in this sense, the symbol has, on the whole, had 
 a literary rather than artistic application. Thus in Shake- 
 speare, 2 King Henry VI. iii. 1, we find the lines : 
 
 " As the mournful crocodile 
 With sorrow snares relenting passengers." 
 
 While Quarles writes : 
 
 " Oh what a crocodilian world is this, 
 
 Composed of treacheries and ensnaring wiles 1 
 She clothes destruction in a formal kiss, 
 
 And lodges death in her deceitful smiles : 
 She hugs the soul she hates ; and there does prove 
 The veriest tyrant, where she vows to love ; 
 And is a serpent most, when most she seems a dove." 
 
 p 
 
210 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Lelia, in "The Captain" of Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 exclaims : 
 
 "No, I would sooner trust a crocodile 
 When he sheds tears, for he kills suddenly, 
 And ends our cares at once." 
 
 Water, though sometimes associated in a bad sense with 
 the idea of an overwhelming flood of evil and of swift 
 destruction, is ordinarily a symbol of cleansing and regenera- 
 tion or of refreshment. " I will take you from among the 
 heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring 
 you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water 
 upon you, and ye shall be clean." " As cold waters to a 
 thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Biblical 
 examples could however be given in scores, and any one 
 with but little search will readily see excellent illustrations 
 of the symbolic use in both the good and evil sense. 
 
 In the Middle Ages, at the consecration of a church, evil 
 spirits were exorcised by the use of water, wine, salt, and 
 ashes. " These," to quote Durandus, " be four things which 
 expel the Enemy. The first is the outpouring of tears, which 
 is denoted by the water ; the second is the exaltation of the 
 soul, w r hich is denoted by the wine ; the third is natural dis- 
 cretion, which is the salt ; the fourth a profound humility, 
 which is signified by the ashes. Therefore not one of these 
 ingredients ought to be wanting, because the Church is 
 neither sanctified nor released from sins without the union 
 of these qualities. 
 
 Salt, in the Divine language, is often a symbol of wisdom : 
 "Let your speech be savoured with salt." Christ too said 
 to His disciples, " Have salt in yourselves, and have peace 
 one with another." And again, " Ye are the salt of the 
 earth : but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall 
 it be salted ? " In the second part of " King Henry IV.," 
 Shakespeare writes : " Some smack of age in you, some relish 
 of the saltness of time." 
 
 One of the most constantly recurring symbols in the cata- 
 combs, mosaics, etc., of the primitive Church, was a repre- 
 sentation of a rock from which four rivers proceed. Some 
 little doubt arises as to its significance. Ambrose, Bede, and 
 other authorities tell us that these streams represent the 
 writings of the four evangelists, flowing forth to fertilize and 
 
THE ROCK AND SHIP SYMBOLS. 211 
 
 enrich the world ; others see in them the four rivers of Eden, 
 while others again think them the four great councils of the 
 early Church. 
 
 The rock is primarily a symbol of Christ. " They drank 
 of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock 
 was Christ." It is often used in the Old Testament as a 
 symbol of stability and of the Divine protection, the place 
 of refuge in the day of trouble. " Unto Thee will I cry, O 
 Lord, my rock." Thou art my rock and my fortress." " In 
 God is my salvation and my glory : the rock of my strength , 
 and my refuge is in God." Our readers will readily recall 
 the parable of the house that was established immovably 
 upon the rock, and there is perhaps no more popular com- 
 position in the whole Christian hymnody than that of Toplady 
 which commences, "Rock of ages, cleft for me." The rock 
 is, secondarily, a symbol of the Church, an idea naturally 
 flowing from the words of the Saviour: "Thou art Peter, 
 and upon this rock I will build My Church." It is, finally, 
 a general emblem of steadfastness. Thus in the frontis- 
 piece of the " Eikon Basilike," we see amongst other forms 
 of symbolic meaning a raging sea having a rock rising from 
 the midst, with the words added, "immota triumphans." 
 The sky is black with rolling clouds, and on either side of 
 the rock we see dark faces amidst the storm blowing vehe- 
 mently against it. Beneath are the lines 
 
 " As the unmoved Eock outbraves 
 The boistrous Winds and raging Waves : 
 So triumph I and shine more bright 
 In sad Affliction's Darksom night." 
 
 The ship riding in safety amidst the storms was a very 
 frequent and favourite image of the Church in the earlier 
 days of Christianity. The mast is generally in the form 
 of a cross, and is surmounted by the dove or the monogram. 
 St. Clement of Alexandria and other early writers dwell 
 frequently upon this symbol, and Tertullian says that the 
 church, using the word in its more restricted sense as a place 
 of assembly for worship, must be oblong in form, and 
 expressly declares that it thus better symbolises a ship. 
 
 The Church of Christ, as a ship, is often found on early 
 gems (as in fig. 100), lamps, and other objects, and is freely 
 depicted (as in fig. 105), on the walls of the catacombs. In- 
 
212 
 
 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 stead of a masted vessel, it is often (see fig. 106) the ark of 
 Noah, 1 a form of perhaps additional significance, as it would 
 appear to promise future protection and deliverance to the 
 
 KEFRICE.RIVS QVI V1XIT 
 ANtfOS PL. M. VL MNS VIIII 
 V, -QVESCBT. IN PACE 
 
 FIG. 105. 
 
 Church by a reminder of the past mercy of God to His 
 faithful followers in the midst of a world of abounding 
 
 FIG. 106. 
 
 wickedness. In many cases the ship is merely introduced 
 in a lower symbolic sense, as an emblem of maritime power, 
 
 1 " Queinadmoduui euim post aquas diluvii quibus iniquitas antiqua 
 purgata est, post baptismum (ut ita dixerim) mundi pacem caelestis irse 
 prgeco columba terras annunciavit dimissa ex area et cum olea reversa 
 . . . eadem dispositione spiritalis effectus terras, id est carni nostras 
 emergent! de lavacro post vetera delicta columba Sancti Spiritus advolat 
 pacem Dei afferens emissa de cselis ubi ecclesia est area figurata." 
 TEKTULLIAN. 
 
SYMBOLIC USE OF THE ANCHOR. 
 
 213 
 
 as in fig. 107, where we see the prow of an antique galley 
 and the trident of Neptune. St. Jude is represented with 
 a ship, or sails, or an oar in his hand. St. Raymond in a 
 boat hoists his cloak for a sail. 
 
 FIG. 107. 
 
 The anchor, often, as in fig. 108, terminating in a cross, 
 is primarily the symbol of steadfastness and hope : "a strong 
 consolation, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, 
 both sure and steadfast." 
 
 F,o. 108. 
 
 It is, secondarily, associated with St. Clement as the instru- 
 ment of his martyrdom, he being bound to an anchor and 
 
 FIG. 109. 
 
 cast in the sea. The antique form of anchor may be very 
 well seen in fig. 109. 
 
 In the legends of the saints we find St. Bertulph changing 
 
214 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 water into wine ; St. Gummarus drawing it from a rock ; 
 SS. Rufina and Secundus, thrown into the sea, float miracu- 
 lously on the surface; while SS. Nazarius, Celsus, Aldegondes, 
 and Birinus walk in safety over the waves. 
 
 The beneficent sun, the source of light and heat, has natu- 
 rally been accepted as a symbol of the " Sun of righteous- 
 ness," the Day spring from on high, to give light to them 
 that sit in darkness. The ancient Egyptians depicted the 
 providence of God as a radiant sun, with wide, outstretching 
 wings; while our English word Sunday remains as a reminder 
 of the sun-worship of our ancestors. 1 
 
 The sun and the moon are often introduced together in 
 representations of the crucifixion, as symbolic of the great 
 powers of nature adoring the Lord of the universe ; or 
 veiled and eclipsed in the darkness that was over all from 
 the sixth to the ninth hour, when the earth did quake 
 and the rocks were rent, and all nature shuddered at the 
 deed enacted. Though the face often represented in sun 
 and moon is sufficiently, though involuntarily, grotesque, it 
 bears record to the belief, current in the Middle Ages, that 
 each was the home of an archangel, who was in turn the 
 leader of thousands of the angelic host. Thus the sun was 
 the abode of Michael, and the moon of Gabriel. Mercury, 
 in like manner, was the abode of Raphael, Venus of Anael, 
 Mars of Samael, Jupiter of Zadkiel, and Saturn of Cassiel. 
 Our illustration, fig. 110, is taken from the " tfialogus Crea- 
 turarum," A.D. 1480. 
 
 The crescent moon was the symbol of Byzantium. When 
 
 1 " Surely vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of God, and 
 could not out of the good things tbat are seen know Him that is: 
 neither by considering the works did tbey acknowledge the work-master ; 
 but deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, 
 or the -violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the gods which 
 govern the world. With whose beauty if they being delighted took 
 them to be gods ; let them know how much better the Lord of them is : 
 for the first author of beauty hath created them. But if they were 
 astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them, how 
 much mightier He is that made them. For by the greatness and beauty 
 of the creatures proportionably the Maker of them is seen. But yet 
 for this they are the less to be blamed : for they peradventure err, seek- 
 ing God, and desirous to find Him. For being conversant in His works, 
 they search Him diligently, and believe their sight : because the things 
 are beautiful that are seen." Wisdom xiii. 1-7. 
 
THE STARRY HOST OF PIEAVEN. 
 
 215 
 
 Philip, the father of Alexander, was besieging the city in the 
 fourth century before the Christian era, the sudden appear- 
 ance of the moon betrayed the details of the intended assault ; 
 and the citizens, grateful for their deliverance, erected a 
 statue to Diana, and took the crescent moon, her symbol, as 
 their device. When the Turks took the city in the fifteenth 
 century, they found the device still in use, and in turn 
 adopted it, and it remains to this day the symbol of the 
 city and of the Turkish sway. 
 
 The starry host of heaven is often introduced as an em- 
 blem of the universe : and in times when men believed in 
 
 FIG. 110. 
 
 the stellar influences, the presence of the stars had a deeper 
 meaning than now appears, as they would represent to them 
 a watching, guarding, and guiding Providence. The Virgin 
 Mary is often depicted with a number of stars around and 
 above her, and SS. Dominic, Humbert, Athanasia, Bruno, and 
 Svidbert have a star on head or breast. Richard I., on his 
 great seal, placed a star over a crescent in token of his 
 victories over the Saracens, and as a symbol of the triumph 
 of Christianity over Muhammadanism. 
 
 The sta,r is one of the less common symbols of Christ. It 
 owes its origin to the text in the Apocalypse, " I am the 
 root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning 
 
216 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Star " ; which in turn is a f ulfilment of the prophecy of 
 Balaam, " There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre 
 shall rise out of Israel." 
 
 The star is associated again with Christ at the Nativity 
 and Epiphany (see figs. 1 and 65), the star of the East 
 being always a feature in representations of that event. 1 
 A false Messiah, a century afterwards, in the reign of 
 Hadrian, called himself Bar-Cocheba, the Son of a Star, 
 and caused a star to be stamped upon the coinage that he 
 issued. 
 
 During mediaeval times we very frequently find repre- 
 sentations of the seasons, or of the months, or of the signs 
 of the zodiac. The introduction of the several employments 
 of the months often had mystical significance, showing too 
 that all labour is honourable, and teaching at the same time 
 that the God of grace is God also of nature. 
 
 These representations are especially common in the early 
 Norman doorways, though we have no examples in England 
 that will at all compare with some of the examples met with 
 on the continent. In the great west doorway of St. Mark's 
 at Venice, for instance, we get the signs of the zodiac carved 
 with great life and spirit; and then emblematic figures of the 
 months, an old man in fur coat and hood warming himself 
 before a blazing fire, a man with a sheep on his shoulders, a 
 mower amidst the long grass, a reaper in the harvest-field, and 
 many others ; and in the centre, hallowing all, a grand figure 
 of Christ seated in a firmament of stars. At Modena, Verona, 
 Lucca, Sens, Rheims, Amiens, Saint Denis, Chartres, other ex- 
 cellent illustrations may be found. We also find these figures 
 on paving tiles, fonts, capitals, and stained glass. 2 Very good 
 Renaissance examples may be seen in twelve large circular 
 medallions of enamelled terra cotta, preserved in the South 
 Kensington Museum, and attributed to Luca della Robbia, 
 They are painted in blue, the subjects being representations 
 of the agricultural operations symbolic of each month, and 
 in each case the appropriate zodiacal sign is introduced. 
 
 In conclusion, we have to deal with some few geometrical 
 
 1 " Frontal for the day of ye Epipbanye of wbyte wyth star/ys."- 
 Inventory, Westminster Abbey, A.D. 1540. 
 
 2 The whole subject will be found very fully and excellently worked 
 out in a paper in vol. xliv. of Archaologia. 
 
USE OF GEOMETRICAL FORMS. 217 
 
 forms and arrangements that have defied classification and 
 incorporation in any of the preceding chapters. 
 
 Conspicuous amongst these forms is the equilateral triangle, 
 fig. Ill, the simple yet most effective symbol of the Trinity 
 in unity. It occurs very rarely in the early Church, but 
 later it became commonly employed, and is still in use. St. 
 Angilbert, contemporary with Charlemagne, had the abbey 
 of St. Riquier built in the form of a triangle, and devoted 
 three hundred monks to its service, expressly stating that 
 this was so done in honour of the adorable Trinity. On 
 the coins of Edward I., the monarch's head, full-faced, 
 is placed within an equilateral triangle, in some cases the 
 apex being upwards, above the crown, and in others below 
 the beard. The idea of its use was no doubt symbolic, and 
 expressive of the king enjoying the Divine protection and 
 surrounded by Divine grace. 
 
 FIG. 111. 
 
 The octagon, as we have seen in our remarks upon num- 
 bers, was symbolic of regeneration, an old writer affirming 
 that as the whole creation was complete in seven periods of 
 time, the number next following may well be significative of 
 the new creation. We give the theory for what it is worth, 
 and the reader will doubtless concur with us in deciding 
 that its value is not very great. However defective the 
 theory, the use of the octagon in actual practice was very 
 marked. We note that in the ancient examples given^by 
 the Cambridge Camden Society, in a pamphlet drawn up 
 for church builders, the Norman fonts that are octagonal 
 only number fifteen, while those of all other shapes amount 
 together to forty-three. In the Early English period the 
 octagonal examples are nineteen, while the others amount te 
 thirty ; but in the Decorated or fourteenth century period, 
 the fonts of octagonal form that are given are twenty-four in 
 number, and there is only one of any other form ; while in 
 
2i3 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the next period, the Perpendicular, the numbers are respec- 
 tively fifty-seven and two. 
 
 The pentalpha, pentacle, or pentangle, is a five-pointed 
 star. If we mark off on the circumference of a circle five 
 equal divisions, and join each point in succession, we shall 
 form a pentagon ; but if we join instead every other point, the 
 result will be a pentalpha. The crossing of the lines suggests 
 five A's, hence the name. It was formerly considered the 
 symbol of health, and within the five points we sometimes 
 find the five letters SAL VS. It is sometimes termed the 
 pentacle of Solomon, and when it is delineated on the body 
 of a man, it is pretended that it points out the five places 
 wherein the Saviour was wounded, and that therefore all 
 evil spirits flee from it. It was held to be a magic talisman 
 against the powers of witchcraft, and in many wajs a 
 sign of great power. 1 The pentalpha may be seen in the 
 eastern window of the south aisle at Westminster Abbey. 
 It was at one time used by the Greek Christians in lieu of 
 the cross at the beginnings of inscriptions, and the Jews also 
 employed it. It is said to have had its origin in the secret 
 rites and doctrines of the Pythagoreans. From its associa- 
 tion with witchcraft and demonology it is also sometimes 
 called the Fuga Daemonorum. 
 
 The simple equilateral triangle is sometimes superseded 
 by a symbol of like significance, composed of three equal and 
 interlacing circles. This came into use first in the thirteenth 
 century, and its appropriateness, no less than its greater 
 beauty, soon gave it firm hold. The three equal circles sym- 
 bolise the equality of the three Persons in the Trinity, the 
 binding together into one figure the essential unity, while 
 the circular form signifies a never-beginning, never-ending 
 eternity. 
 
 The form known as the fylfot is frequently introduced on 
 the vestments of the Greek Church, and is found also some- 
 
 1 " It is always necessary," says an old author, " to have this Pentacle 
 in readiness to bind with, in case the spirits should refuse to be obedient, 
 as they can have no power over the exorcist while provided with and forti- 
 fied by the Pentacle ; the virtue of the holy names therein written pre- 
 siding with wonderful influence over the Spirits. It should be made in 
 the day and hour of Mercury upon parchment made of a kidskin, or on 
 pure clean white paper, and the figures and letters wrote in pure gold, 
 and ought to be consecrated and sprinkled with holy water." 
 
USE OF THE FYLFOT SYMBOL. 219 
 
 what more sparingly in the West, both in ecclesiastical and 
 heraldic work. It was most commonly employed amongst the 
 Western peoples in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
 and many examples of it may be seen on monuments, brasses, 
 and so forth. Amongst the various mediaeval textile fabrics 
 we find one called stauracin, a material taking its name from 
 the Greek word for a cross, and so called from its being 
 figured over with the form of the cross, the design being 
 sometimes of the simplest character, and in other examples 
 of very elaborate enrichment of detail. This was also known 
 as gammadion. In the Greek alphabet the capital letter 
 Gamma consists of two lines at right angles to each other, 
 like an English letter L, and many of the mystical writers 
 of earlier days have seen in this form a symbol of Christ as 
 the corner-stone. On this idea as a basis the mediaeval de- 
 signers combined these L-like forms into many more or less 
 
 ZVUTIKIU ZOTIKH 
 
 Vtti&t V\t*li* 
 
 FIG. 112. 
 
 decorative arrangements. Four of them placed with their 
 four angles towards each other create the form of the Greek 
 cross ; at other times they were so arranged as to form the 
 letter H ; or, placed with their angles outwards, a square is 
 produced. 
 
 By far the most ancient and most common form, fashioned 
 out of the repetition of the Gamma, is that known as the 
 fylfot. This may be found even in the catacombs, as in the 
 examples figs. 112 and 113 ; and from its resemblance to 
 two rough S's or Z's crossing each other S and Z in old 
 work being often interchangeable it has been conjectured 
 that it was probably the cross represented as signum, the 
 sign, i.e., of faith in the Crucified. 
 
 In the use of the fylfot the early Christians merely 
 adopted and diverted to their own purpose a symbol centuries 
 older than the Christian era, a symbol of early Aryan origin, 
 
220 SYMBOLISM JN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 found abundantly in Indian and Chinese art, and spreading 
 westward, long before the dawn of Christianity, to Greece 
 and Asia. The subject is beset with difficulties, and many 
 theories have been propounded in attempted elucidation, one 
 being that it represents a revolving wheel, and symbolises the 
 great sun god ; while another is that it stands for the light- 
 ning wielded by the omnipotent Deity, whether this Deity be 
 the Manu, Buddha, or Brahma of the East, or the Thor or 
 Zeus of the West. The fylfot is abundantly found on the 
 terra-cotta objects dug up by Dr. Schliemann at Troy, and 
 conjectured to date from 1000 to 1500 B.C. ; and the Greek 
 fret or key pattern is frequently seen in combination with 
 the fylfot, or is itself a fuller and more decorative develop- 
 ment of the form. The subject is one of immense interest, 
 but its consideration lies entirely beyond the limits we have 
 
 DOM1TIA. IVUANETI FILTH IN PA 
 QYE BIXIT. ANNlf III, MEftr. X. 
 2CEX. NOTlf" DEFVNTA E^T IDVS 
 MAZAf 
 
 FIG. 113. 
 
 imposed upon our work. Any one caring to pursue the sub. 
 ject at greater length will find an excellent paper upon it 
 in Arcliceologia, vol. xlviii., and it has also been dealt with by 
 Dr. Schliemann, Max Miiller, Fergusson, Ludwig Miiller, 
 Waring, and many other writers of authority and learning. 
 
 The letter Y is 'sometimes used symbolically. It is some- 
 times called the Y of Pythagoras, because that philosopher 
 called it the emblem of human life. The foot of the letter 
 represents infancy, but a time comes to all as their life goes 
 on when two paths open out before them, one leading to 
 good, the other to evil. A very good example of this sym- 
 bolic use may be seen in the frame of a mirror of Italian 
 workmanship of the sixteenth century in the magnificent 
 museum at South Kensington. At the branching of the Y 
 are placed two figures, one the recording angel, the other a 
 human skeleton. An acanthus scroll is interwoven through- 
 
THE TRIQUETRA IN CELTIC ART. 221 
 
 out, and within this are various animals, on the one side 
 those symbolic of the virtues, and on the other those re- 
 presenting the vices of human nature. Each animal is 
 accompanied by a golden letter, the one series spelling out 
 the word BONUM, the other MALUM. 
 
 The triquetra, made by the interlacing of three portions of 
 circles, is used in Christian art as a symbol of the Trinity 
 It may be frequently met with on Celtic crosses. On the 
 cross at Margam in Glamorganshire it is placed above the 
 figures of the saints that stand on either side of the shaft, 
 and at Llanfrynach it occurs in association with the figure 
 of a dove. On a cross at Calf of Man the triquetra appears 
 on the dress of the crucified Saviour, and on the breasts of 
 the evangelists in a sixth century manuscript in the library 
 of Trinity College, Dublin. Numerous examples may be 
 found figured in Stuart's " Sculptured Stones of Scotland," 
 in Westwood's " Lapidarium WalliaB," and in Cumming's 
 " Runic Remains of the Isle of Man." 
 
 In conclusion, we venture to express the hope that these 
 pages, the writing of which has been so enjoyable a task to 
 ourselves, may not prove altogether destitute of interest and 
 profit to others. The study is one of the greatest value, and 
 the fault is that of the exponent and not of the subject if we 
 have failed to transfer some idea of this from our own con- 
 victions to the mind of the reader. 
 
 Therefore "now pray I," in the quaint and honest language 
 of Chaucer, " to hem that harkene thys tretyse or rede, that 
 yf ther be oiiything that liketh him, that thereof they thank 
 HIM of whom proceedeth al wit and goodnes, and yf ther 
 be onything that displease hem, I pray hem also that they 
 arrete it to the defaulte of myn unkonnyng and not to my 
 will, that would have seyde better yf I had knowing." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 SOME few matters that are desirable to dwell on, and that yet 
 form too long a break in the general flow of the subject, and are 
 therefore somewhat out of place in the body of the text or in 
 the limited space available for footnotes, may advantageously 
 find a resting place in an appendix. 
 
 A. 
 
 The Magi in art and literature are ordinarily three. Gaspar 
 an old man with a long gray beard and venerable aspect ; 
 Melchior, a man of the prime of life, and always given a short 
 beard ; and the third, Balthazar, a young, beardless man, often 
 depicted as a negro, and having the thick lips and curly hair of 
 that race. The scene of the Nativity is in the East always shown 
 as a grotto or cave, while in the West it is a poor stable. The 
 following extracts from old carols indicate this very clearly, art 
 and popular belief reacting always upon each other. 
 
 " In Bethlehem, in Jewry, 
 
 This blessed Babe was born, 
 And laid within a manger, 
 
 Upon this blessed morn ; 
 The which His mother, Mary, 
 
 Did nothing take in scorn." 
 
 " And when they came to Bethlehem, 
 
 Where our dear Saviour lay, 
 They found Him in a manger, 
 
 Where oxen feed on hay ; 
 His mother Mary kneeling down, 
 Unto the Lord did pray." 
 
 " Onward then the Angels sped, the shepherds onward went, 
 God was in His manger bed, in worship low they bent. 
 In the morning, see ye mind, my masters one and all, 
 At the Altar Him to find who lay within the stall." 
 223 
 
224 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 1 Then were tliey constrained in a stable to lie, 
 Where horses and asses they u^ed for to tie : 
 Their lodgings so simple they took it no scorn, 
 But against the next morning our Saviour was born." 
 
 " Good Christian men, rejoice 
 With heart and soul and voice ; 
 Give ye heed to what we say : 
 
 News ! News ! 
 
 Jesus Christ is born to-day : 
 Ox and ass before Him bow, 
 And He is in the manger now. 
 Christ is born to-day ! " 
 
 B. 
 
 St. Christopher was of heathen birth and parentage, and the 
 old chronicles tell us that he was twelve cubits high, " a right 
 grete " stature indeed. He was ambitious to dedicate his strength 
 to the service of the mightiest monarch on earth, and after 
 considerable quest he arrived at the court of a sovereign who 
 seemed to meet the requirement, and he therefore entered his 
 service, and was gladly accepted. 
 
 One day however a strolling minstrel arrived at the court and 
 sang a lay in which the name of Satan was referred to, and 
 the king, being a good Christian, crossed himself and muttered 
 something at each repetition of the name. The puzzled and 
 observant heathen asked the monarch for an explanation; but 
 the prince evaded the question for some time, and finally con- 
 fessed that it was to protect himself from the power of the evil 
 spirit. Christopher exclaimed : " Then am I deceived in hope, 
 for I had thought that I had found the greatest lord in the 
 world; but this devil of whom you speak and whom you fear 
 is mightier than yourself. I go then to seek him and to become 
 his vassal." 
 
 Having left his first master, as he wandered over a great and 
 savage wilderness he encountered one who demanded of him 
 the cause of his travels, and, being told the object, the stranger 
 assured him that he need seek no further, as the object of his 
 quest stood before him ; and he at once welcomed Christopher 
 into his service. One day, as they were riding along together, 
 Satan espied a road-side cross some little distance ahead, and 
 at once turned out of the track into the thorny wilderness, 
 and only returned to the high road when well past the cross. 
 Christopher was much puzzled, and asked his lord why this 
 curious wooden object had so affected him. The devil, like his 
 former master, would have evaded the question, but at length 
 admitted that Christ, an old enemy of his, had vanquished him 
 by its means, and that whenever he saw a cross he fled. Then 
 
LEGEND OF ST. CHRISTOPHER. 225 
 
 answered Christopher, " This Christ then is a mightier than 
 thyself ; I go to seek Him as my king." 
 
 After a lengthened search, "whan he had demanded where 
 he shold fynd Crist, atte last he came to a grete desert to an 
 hermyte that dwelled there, and this hermyte preched to hym 
 of Jhesu Crist, and enformed hym in the fayth dylygently, and 
 sayd to hym, ' Thys kyng whom thou desirest to serve reqtiyres 
 the seruyse that thou mnst faste oft.' " But Christopher replied, 
 fasting not being at all to his taste, " Requyre of me somme 
 other thynge, and I shall doo it, for that whiche thou askest I 
 cannot." Whereupon the hermit replied, " Thenne must thou 
 wake and make many prayers." Then answered Christopher, 
 ' I wot not what this is ; I can doo no suche thynge." The 
 indulgent friar, unwilling to lose the services of one BO willing, 
 yet so very unconventional, taking a glance at the brawny limbs 
 of the giant, thought of yet another acceptable form of service, 
 and replied, " Know you a certain river in whych manye perish?" 
 On the disciple's affirmative reply, the hermit bad him, "by cause 
 he was noble and hye of stature and strong in the membris," 
 to dwell by the foaming torrent and carry all comers across. 
 This being a kind of service very much more to Christopher's 
 taste, he willingly accepted his instructions, and having built 
 himself a hut on the bank, bore over all who came that way. 
 
 One night as he was sleeping he heard the cry of a little 
 child, " Come out, good sir, and bear me over the stream " ; so 
 he at once ran out, but in the darkness saw no one, and concluded 
 that it was a dream. A second time the same thing happened ; 
 but as he decided that the sounds were a device of his late 
 master to annoy and frighten him, he composed himself to sleep 
 again. Scarcely had he closed his eyes than he heard himself 
 again called ; so hurrying again to the water's edge he found a 
 little child " whiche prayed hym goodly to bere him over the 
 water." So Christopher lifted him on to his shoulder, and bore 
 him into the stream. As he plunged into the foaming current 
 the water rose ever higher and higher, and the child " heavyer 
 and heavyer," until Christopher began to fear for his life. On 
 at last reaching the opposite bank, he exclaimed, " Childe, thou 
 hast put me in grete peryl ; thou wayest alle most as I had had 
 alle the world upon me, I myght bere no greater burden." The 
 child answered, " Chrystofre, merueyle thee nothynge, for thou 
 hast born Hym that created and made alle the world upon thy 
 shoulders. I am Jhu Cryste, the king whom thou servuest in 
 thys werke, 1 and bycause that thou knowe that I saye to thee 
 
 1 Hence called Christopher, the Christ-bearer, in the same way that 
 Simeon is sometimes called Theodokos, the receiver of God (Luke ii. 28), 
 and Ignatius, Theophoros, borne of God, from a tradition that he was one 
 
 Q 
 
226 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 truth, sette thy staf in the earthe by thy hous, and thou shalt 
 see to morne that it shalle bear flowres and fruyte, and anon he 
 vanysshed from his even." Christopher obeyed the command, 
 and on the morrow found that the promised miracle had been 
 fulfilled. 
 
 Full of joy at the Divine recognition, he hastened to the city 
 of Lycia to serve his new Master more fully ; but on arrival 
 there he was met by the practical difficulty of being wholly 
 unable to speak the language of the people, so he fell on his 
 knees in the market and besought the gift of tongues, a petition 
 that was immediately answered. He then hurried to the place 
 where the martyrs for Christ were imprisoned, and brought 
 them much comfort. The pagan judge, greatly incensed at this, 
 struck him in the face, whereupon Christopher said, " If I were 
 not Chrysten I shold anon auenge me of myn injurye." Plung- 
 ing his staff anew into the earth, he prayed that the miracle 
 might be repeated, and on the rod bursting into blossom eight 
 thousand men of the city immediately became Christians. 
 
 The king of that country, greatly alarmed at this startling 
 event, sent a party of knights to arrest this disturber of the 
 ancient faith ; but when they found him on his knees praying to 
 his God, and realized moreover what kind of reception so very 
 doughty a champion of the faith might have in store for them, 
 they thought discretion preferable to valour, and parleyed with 
 him as to their instructions from the king. Christopher, learn- 
 ing their business, " commanded them that they shold bynde 
 his hondes behynde his backe, and lede hym so bounden to theyr 
 kyng." The king when he beheld him fainted with fear, but 
 seems to have got over his apprehension when he saw that he 
 was tightly bound. Christopher replied, on being asked who he 
 was, that originally his name was Keprobus, but that he had been 
 baptized into the Christian faith, and was now named Chris- 
 topher. The king told him that he was a great fool for bearing 
 the name of a crucified malefactor, and added : " Yf thou wilt 
 now doo sacrefyze to the goddes I shall geue to thee grete gef tes 
 and grete honours, but yf not I shall destroye thee by grete paynes 
 and torments. But for alle thys he wold in no wyse do sacrefyse, 
 wherefoe he was sent into pryson." 
 
 The king commanded Christopher to be thrashed with red hot 
 rods and a ring of glowing iron to be placed upon his head. He 
 was bound too on an iron chair under which a fierce fire of pitch 
 and bitumen was kindled, so that his seat presently melted " like 
 waxe " in the intensity of the heat, the only result being that 
 when the chains by which he was bound melted from him the 
 saint " yssued out wythout ony hurte." 
 
 of the children whom Christ took in His arms and blessed (Mark x. 16). 
 Christopher was of course not the original and pagan name of the saint. 
 
THE CATACOMBS OF ROME. 227 
 
 The monarch, full of rage and fury, then gave orders that he 
 should be fastened to a tree and shot by the royal bodyguard of 
 archers ; but all the arrows missed their aim, though one of them, 
 on glancing from the tree, smote the king and blinded him. 
 St. Christopher on seeing this exclaimed, with the Christian 
 spirit that he had exhibited all through the proceedings, "I 
 shal die thys mornynge, tempre a little clay withe my bloude 
 and anoynt thy wounde, and strayhtwaye thou shalt be healed." 
 Though the flame and the skill of his marksmen had alike failed, 
 the king commanded that the saint should be beheaded ; and the 
 saint, having made "hys oryson," died at the hands of the execu- 
 tioner. The king, impressed with the fulfilment of the first part 
 of the saint's prophecy, was eager to put the rest to the proof ; 
 and on following the instructions given, his sight was immediately 
 restored. This softened his heart, so that he too became a 
 convert to the faith, and with all the fervour of a new convert 
 published a decree that whosoever should fail to worship the 
 God of Saint Christopher should be put to death. 
 
 C. 
 
 No attempt at a description of the various symbols introduced 
 in art could be at all complete without reference to that great 
 storehouse of early examples, the catacombs of Rome, excavations 
 which it is conjectured contain some seven million graves, and 
 having a combined length altogether of some five hundred miles. 
 These burial places were in use for some three centuries, the 
 earliest dated inscription being A.D. 72, the latest A.D. 410. They 
 were also places of refuge during the fierceness of persecution, 
 and later on were used as places of worship when a deepening 
 superstition led to adoration of the relics of the first martyrs of 
 the faith. The passages are some seven or eight feet high and 
 about three feet wide, and their sides are lined with the slabs 
 that cover the resting places of the members of the early Church., 
 
 After their abandonment in the year 410, bodies were so often 
 abstracted from them as relics that Pope Paul I. in 757 removed 
 many tp a church in Eome, and Pope Honorius III., about the 
 year 1220, transferred many others. The catacombs after this 
 date appear to have been absolutely forgotten, until a vine- 
 dresser in 1478 accidentally dug into one of these subterranean 
 passages. 
 
 The investigations of Padre Marchi and the two De Eossi, his 
 pupils and companions, are full of interest, and their books on 
 the subject may well be consulted: "I Monumenti delle arti 
 Christiane primitive nella Metropoli del Christianesuno," the 
 " Inscriptiones Christianas," and the " Eoma Sotteranea." The 
 soil is a tufa that is readily worked, and yet of sufficient rocky 
 
228 SYMBOLISM IN CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 solidity to bear excavation. It was at first thought when they 
 were re-discovered that the catacombs had been the common 
 burial places of both heathens and Christians, as many pagan 
 inscriptions were discovered ; but in by far the greater number 
 of cases these slabs were found either sideways, upside down, or 
 with their heathen inscriptions on the inner face, showing that 
 the Christians often used old slabs without troubling to remove 
 a former inscription. At the same time there are several 
 examples that cannot be thus explained away. The letters D'M : 
 or D'M'S* occur some forty times amongst the fifteen or twenty 
 thousand inscriptions that have been recorded. On heathen 
 monuments these letters occur abundantly, and they then signify 
 Dis manibus or Dis manibus sacrum, and it has been very reason- 
 ably surmised that the Christians, finding useful slabs thus 
 marked, were glad to employ them, and in doing so gave an 
 altered significance to these letters, as for instance Deo Maximo 
 or Deo Maximo Salvatori. 
 
 Nothing could often be ruder or less artistic than the Christian 
 symbols on the early monuments ; but they are most valuable 
 as expressing contemporary beliefs, and what later forms gain 
 in grace they may lose in sincerity. 
 
 The most favourite subject on these slabs after the various 
 symbols or inscriptions is the raising of Lazarus, in itself a sym- 
 bol of faith in Jesus and the resurrection of the dead. Other 
 very common Bible subjects are the three children in the fiery 
 furnace, Daniel in the den of lions, and the story of Jonah ; but 
 by far the commonest symbol is that of Christ as the Good 
 Shepherd. 
 
 D. 
 
 The Christian Museum of the Lateran. One of the most 
 interesting of the unrivalled collections of art treasures of the 
 Eternal City. The objects are chiefly casts from the reliefs on 
 ancient sarcophagi, paintings copied from the originals in the 
 catacombs, and inscriptions. In the catacombs the originals have 
 to be sought in far-reaching subterranean galleries, and examined 
 as well as may be by the light of flickering lamps ; but in this 
 museum the choicest examples are collected together, and, 
 thanks to the admirable descriptive catalogue, made much more 
 instructive and intelligible. Nevertheless no collection of casts, 
 however instructive, well arranged, or excellently lighted, can for 
 a moment compare in interest with the study of the original 
 slabs still in the position where these memorials of the saints 
 of God were placed centuries ago by the loving hands of the 
 brethren of the early Church. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 " Order gave each thing view." " King Henry VIII.," act i., sc. 1. 
 
 Abbreviations, use of, 47. 
 Action, symbolism of, 10. 
 Ages, seven, of man, 14. 
 Agnel d'or, 168. 
 Alexander, Dr., passages from, 
 
 105. 
 
 Alhambra, inscriptions in, 9. 
 Allegorical personifications, 57. 
 Allegory, its nature, 2. 
 Alpha and Omega, 49. 
 Amaranth, 199. 
 Amethyst, 164, 165. 
 Ampulla, 207. 
 
 Anachronisms, apparent, 136. 
 Anchor, 3, 203, 213. 
 Ancient books of colour use, 19. 
 Ancient colour-names, 23. 
 Angels, 105, 132, 133, 178. 
 Animals at feet of effigies, 176. 
 Anthony cross, 76. 
 Anvil, 146. 
 Ape, 181. 
 
 Apocryphal authorities, 127. 
 Apostles, symbols of, 129, 130. 
 Archangels, 107. 
 Arch of Titus, 12. 
 Ark, 2, 124, 200, 212. 
 Arm of the Lord, 33. 
 "Armorie of Birds," 189. 
 Art traditions, 138. 
 Ascent of Elijah, 125. 
 Ash-colour, symbolic use, 27. 
 Ashes, 100, 210. 
 Ass, at Nativity, 127, 177, 224 
 Assyrian animal forms, 133. 
 Attributes of Deity, 11. 
 Aureole, 68. 
 
 40, 
 
 Axe, 146. 
 
 Bag of money, 145. 
 Banner of resurrection, 152. 
 Battle of Clavigo, 209. 
 
 Bayeux tapestry, 34.* 
 
 Bear, 178. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, extract 
 
 from, 210. 
 Bee, 194. 
 
 Bell, Duraudns thereon, 5. 
 "Biblia Pauperum," extract from, 
 
 125. 
 " Biblia Sacra," illustration from, 
 
 63. 
 " Bibliotheca Biblia," extract from, 
 
 188. 
 
 Bishop Clifford, pontifical of, 17, 22. 
 Bishop Griandisson, instructions of, 
 
 25. 
 
 Black, 28. 
 
 Blessing, symbolic, -9. 
 Blue, 26. 
 
 Book as symbol, 46, 144. 
 " Book of Beasts," 171. 
 Bossewell's " Armorie of Honour," 
 
 189. 
 
 Box of ointment, 145. 
 Brahma, priests of, 16 ; throne of, 
 
 14. 
 
 Breastplate of Aaron, 163. 
 Broken column, 99. 
 Budding rod of Aaron, 155. 
 Buddhist saints, nimbed, 52. 
 Burial of war hatchet, 10. 
 Butterfly, 104. 
 Byzantium, crescent moon of, 214*- 
 
 229 
 
230 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Caldron, 147. 
 Calvin, extract from, 97. 
 Cambridge Camden Society, 217. ^ 
 Carols, 223. 
 
 crosses, symbols on, 3. 
 atacombs of Home, 22, 42, 50, 
 
 143, 167, 178, 195, 227. 
 Caxton, extract from, 202. 
 Celtic crosses, 7, 87, 221. 
 Chalcedon, Council of, 13. 
 Chalice, 39, 91. 
 Champions, seven, of Christendom, 
 
 13. 
 
 Charlemagne with nimbus, 54. 
 Charles I., coronation of, 17. 
 Charters prefaced with cross, 81. 
 Chaucer, passages from, 14, 25, 26, 
 
 208, 221. 
 
 Cherubs as aureole, 72. 
 Chinese mourning observances, 18. 
 Chinese symbolic colours, 23. 
 Chrisma, 48, 50. 
 Christian and Jewish Churches, 
 
 123. 
 
 Christian Museum of Lateran, 228. 
 Christmas Eve, custom on, 29. 
 " Christus Consummator," 6. 
 Chrysostom, extract from, 5. 
 Churches of Asia, 12. 
 Church inventories, 18. 
 Church symbolized, 121. 
 Claude ViHette, extract from, 27. 
 Clavigo, battle of, 209. 
 " Clavis Calendaria," 201. 
 Clement of Alexandria, 3, 205. 
 143. 
 191. 
 
 Colour, in good sense or bad, 20. 
 Colour, symbolism of, 16. 
 " Complaint of a Dying Lover," 
 
 extract from, 26. 
 Consecration crosses, 82. 
 Constantinople, Council of, 13. 
 Corn, 9. 
 
 Corner stone, 219. 
 Coronation swords, 152. 
 Councils of early Church, 13. 
 " Court of Love," extract from, 26. 
 Cowley, extract from, 99. 
 Cowp^r, extract from, 94. 
 Creation of Eve, 38. 
 
 Crocodile, 209. 
 
 Cross, 44, 73, 167, 211, 218. 
 
 -Crown, 36, 123, 149, 167 ; of thorns, 
 
 88, 91. 
 
 Crozier, 156, 205. 
 Cruciferous nimbus, 63. 
 Crucifix, 44, 86. 
 Cyprian, passage from, 16. 
 
 Dance of Death, 96. 
 
 Dante, extracts from, 25, 110, 188. 
 
 Deacons of early Church, 12. 
 
 Deaf adder, 117. 
 
 Death, representations of, 95. 
 
 Dedication of church to cross, 80. 
 
 Dedicatory cross, 81. 
 
 Deeds prefaced with cross, 81. 
 
 Definition of symbol, 1. 
 
 Deity, attributes of, 11. 
 
 Destruction of old work, 88, 93 ; of 
 MSS., 135. 
 
 Deviation of chancel, 78. 
 
 Devil, representation of, 107. 
 
 " Dialogus Creaturarum," illustra- 
 tion from, 215. 
 
 Diamond, 164. 
 
 Diptych, ivory, inscription on, 81. 
 
 " Display of Heraldry," 7. 
 
 " Dissertatio de Colore Sacro," 19. 
 
 Divergence of colour use, 19. 
 
 Divine oval, 70. 
 
 "Divinity of our Lord," extract 
 from, 40, 105. 
 
 Doctors of the Church, 31. 
 
 Dog, 179. 
 
 Dolphin, 206. 
 
 Dove, 3, 31, 32, 36, 44, 50, 60, 121, 
 184, 195, 203, 211. 
 
 Dragon, 111, 1 
 
 Dream of Pharaoh, 12. 
 
 Durandus, writings of, 5, 25, 60, 
 82, 210. 
 
 Durham rites, extract from, 189. 
 
 Dust and ashes, 100. 
 
 Eagle, 132, 190.' 
 
 Earl of Surrey, extracts from. 26. 
 Egyptian examples, 36, 102, 103, 
 
 133. 
 
 Eight, 14. 
 "Eikon Basilike," 93, 196, 211. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 231 
 
 Elephant, 178. 
 
 " Enchologion" of Goar, 19. 
 
 Enrichment of nimbus, 62. 
 
 Ephesus, Council of, 13. 
 
 Episcopal rings, 163. 
 
 Equilateral triangle, 60, 217. 
 
 Ermine, 194. 
 
 Escallop shell, 206. 
 
 "Essay on Criticism,'' extract 
 
 from, 20. 
 
 Eternity, symbol of, 49. 
 Evangelists, 11, 132. 
 Exeter Cathedral inventory, 28. 
 Exorcism, 210. 
 Eye of the Lord, 33. 
 
 Feast of tabernacles, 6. 
 
 Feast of the lance and nails, 90. 
 
 Feme, extract from, 28. 
 
 Field of Cloth of Gold, 21. 
 
 Fish, 39, 203. 
 
 Flabellum, 159. 
 
 Flying serpent, 115. ** 
 
 Forced symbolism, 4. 
 
 Forces against Christianity, 147. 
 
 Forty, symbolic value, 15. 
 
 Four, symbolic number, 11. 
 
 Fox, 181, 183. 
 
 Frankincense, 162. 
 
 Frescoes, early examples, 3. 
 
 Fresco of Last Supper, 2. 
 
 Fruiterers' Company, arms of, 114. 
 
 Fuga Daemonorum, 218. 
 
 Funeral palls, 98. 
 
 Fylfot, 218. 
 
 Gammadion, 219. 
 
 Gay, extract from, 16. 
 
 Gems, works on, 161. 
 
 Geometrical forms, 216. 
 
 Ghiberti, gates, 38. 
 
 Globe, 156, 191. 
 
 Gnostic influence, 33, 118. 
 
 Goar, " Enchologion " of, 19. 
 
 Goat, 181. 
 
 God's acre at Basel, 98, 104. 
 
 Golden candlestick of temple, 12. 
 
 Golden robes, 21. 
 
 Gold in heraldry, 21 ; symbolic 
 
 use, 162. 
 Good Shepherd, 3, 4, 43, 122, 228. 
 
 Gray, extracts from, 98, 99. 
 Gray, symbolic use of, 27. 
 Greek cross, 77. 
 Greek form of benediction, 34. 
 Green as alternative with black, 
 
 26. 
 
 Green as symbolic colour, 24. 
 Gregory, St., extract from, 103, 
 Gridiron, 140. 
 Ground-plan a cross, 78. 
 Guillim, extracts from, 7, 19, 22, 
 
 28, 113, 189. 
 Gargoyles, 108. 
 
 Hand of the Lord, 33, 57. 
 
 Hawthorn of Glastonbury, 155. 
 
 Hebrew name of Jehovah, 60. 
 
 Hell, 15, 110. 
 
 Hen and chickens, 193. 
 
 Heraldry, cross in, 80. 
 
 Herbert, extract from, 98. 
 
 Herrick, extract from, 94. 
 
 Hindu Trinity, 30. 
 
 Hippeau, extract from, 172. 
 
 1 ' History of the Liturgical Colours," 
 
 23. 
 
 Holy days of Jewish Church, 12. 
 " Holy War," 2. 
 Horse, 17" 
 
 Iconoclasts, 135, 136. 
 I'H-S form of monogram, 51. 
 Illuminant power of nimbus, 66. 
 Illuminated books, 3, 135. 
 Incarnation of Christ, 41. 
 Innocent III. on colour symbolism, 
 
 19. 
 
 Interlaced circles, 218. 
 Invention of the cross, 84. 
 Inventory, St. Paul's, 145, 201; 
 
 Westminster Abbey, 21, 24, 52, 
 
 188, 191, 201, 216. 
 
 Jehovah, representation of, 31, 32. 
 Jeremy Taylor, extract from, 97. 
 Jewish and Christian Churches, 
 
 123. 
 
 Jonah, as a type, 205. 
 Joseph, type of Christ, 125. 
 Joys, seven, of Virgin, 13. 
 Jubilee, year of, 12, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Keys of St. Peter, 145, 178, 207. 
 Knights Hospitallers, cross of, 77. 
 Krausen on colour symbolism, 19. 
 Krishna, 118. 
 
 Labarum, 48, 51. 
 
 Labourers in vineyard, parable of, 
 
 Lamb, 4, 39, 122, 167, 204. 
 
 Lamp, 143, 185. 
 
 Lance, 147. 
 
 Language, symbolism of, 9. 
 
 Last Judgment, 39. 
 
 Latin cross, 77. 
 
 Latin form of benediction, 34. 
 
 rel wreath, 92, 150. 
 " La Vraye et Parfaite Science des 
 
 Armoires," 19. 
 
 " Lays of Ancient Rome," 15. 
 Leaven, as symbol, 4, 5. 
 Le Deuil blanc, 18. 
 Lenten use of white, 17. 
 " Les Couleurs Liturgiques," 17, 
 
 20, 22, 25, 27, 106. 
 Levitical colours, 18. 
 " Liber Clericorum," 26. 
 " Liber Sacerdotalis," 26. 
 
 , 198. 
 
 Ljon, 4, 132, 133, 153, 171, 204. 
 ""^Liturgical Colours," Legg's, 23. 
 "Livre des Creatures," 171. 
 Lorraine, cross of, 77. 
 Lost sheep, parable of, 5. 
 Loving cup, 10. 
 Luther, memorial ring, 98. 
 Lydgate, extracts from, 150, 167. 
 
 Magi, or Wise Men, 10, 126, 223. 
 
 Magpie, 192. 
 
 Malais, "Les Couleurs Litur- 
 giques," 17, 20, 22, 25, 27, 106. 
 
 Mandola, 70. 
 
 Man of sorrows, 40. 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, portraits of, 
 18. 
 
 Maundeville, writings of, 83, 88. 
 
 Mecca, sacred stone of, 14. 
 
 Mediaeval spelling, 24. 
 
 Memorial rings, 98. 
 
 " Merchant of Venice," 25. 
 
 Merlin and the White King, 17. 
 
 Messenger of God, 107. 
 
 Michael, St., and the dragon, 112. 
 
 Millstone, 147. 
 
 Milton, extracts from, 28, 107, 111, 
 
 199. 
 
 Ministry of angels, 105. 
 Mitre, 151. 
 Monogram, 39, 47, 48, 168, 195, 
 
 211. 
 
 Moon, 214. 
 
 Moore, extract from, 115. 
 Mors janua vitas, 100. 
 Mosaics, 3, 7, 42, 48, 54, 59, 124, 
 
 210. 
 
 Moses, nimbus of, 56. 
 Mouton d'or, 170. 
 " Much Ado about Nothing," 20. 
 Museum of Lateran, 155, 228. 
 Myrrh, 162. 
 Mystical almond, 70. 
 "Mystical Mirrour," extract from, 
 
 191. 
 
 Name inscribed in nimbus, 62. 
 Nativity, scene of, 127, 223. 
 Nicaea, Council of, 13. 
 Nimbus, 52, 167. 
 Nine, symbolic number, 15. 
 Number of perfection, 11. 
 Number, symbolism of, 10. 
 
 Oberammergau passion play, 43. 
 
 Octagon, 217. 
 
 Old Testament references, hand of 
 
 God, 33. 
 
 Olive branch, 188, 200. 
 One side of truth only often given, 
 
 4. 
 
 Onyx, 164, 165. 
 Ophite sect, 117. 
 Orb or globe, 15ft? 
 Orders of angels, 106. 
 Orpheus, 3, 42. 
 " Othello," 25. 
 Owl, 192. 
 Ox, 127, 132, 133, 144, 177, 223, 
 
 224. 
 
 Palm branch, 3, 159, 195.-~* 
 Palmer, 207. 
 Papal crown, 150. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 233 
 
 Parabolic teaching of our Lord, 5. 
 Parnell, extract from, 99. 
 Passion cross, 77. 
 Passion flower, 15, 198. 
 Passion symbols, 39, 88. 
 Passover symbolism, 6. 
 Pastoral staff, 155. 
 Patriarchs, symbols of, 129. 
 Pavement, symbol on, 3, 78. 
 
 Peacock, 57, 160, 191. * - 
 
 Pearl of great price, 5. 
 Pelican, 4, 39, 188. 
 Penitential psalms, seven, 12. 
 Pentangle or pentalpha, 218. 
 Peterborough Cathedral, inventory, 
 
 22. 
 
 Phoenix, 51, 57, 190. 
 Picture worship, 135. 
 " Piers Ploughman's Vision," 208. 
 Pig. 180. 
 
 " Pilgrim's Progress," 2. 
 Pilgrims' signs, 207. 
 Pincers, 142. 
 Pipe of peace, 10. 
 Piant symbols, 202. 
 Political colours, 26, 27. 
 Pontifical of Bishop Clifford, 17, 
 
 22, 25. 
 
 Pope, extracts from, 20, 198. 
 Posy rings, 161. 
 Poverty, with nimbus, 57. 
 Prayer for blessing ring, 161. 
 Precious stones, 163. 
 " Princely Pelican," 189. 
 Prodigal son, 5. 
 
 Proverbs, a picture language, 9. 
 Purple, 27. 
 Pythagoras on the number three, 
 
 10. 
 
 Quarles, extract from, 209. 
 
 Raleigh, extract from, 209. 
 
 " Rationale Divinorum Officiorum," 
 
 5. 
 
 Raven, 192. 
 Red, 21. 
 
 Red-hot ploughshare, 147. 
 Red-letter day, 23. 
 Reformation zeal, 52, 88, 93, 135, 
 
 156. 
 
 Regeneration, number of, 14. 
 
 Ring, 160. 
 
 Rock, 124, 147, 210, 211.- 
 
 Rod or staff, 154. 
 
 Roll, 46. 
 
 Rose, 199. 
 
 Ruby, 163. 
 
 Russian sacred pictures, 6. 
 
 Sacraments of Romish Church, 12. 
 
 Sacred dramas, 44. 
 
 Sacred stone of Mecca, 14. 
 
 Sacred writing of Egypt, 6. 
 
 Samson, type of Christ, 126. 
 
 Salt, 10, 210. 
 
 Sapphire, 164. 
 
 Sarcophagi in catacombs, 3 
 
 Satan with nimbus, 54. 
 
 Scapegoat, 6. 
 
 Scarlet, 24. 
 
 Scene of Nativity, 127, 223. 
 
 Sceptre, 152. . 
 
 Serpent, 111, 113, 115, 177. 
 
 Serpent worship, 118. ,_ 
 Sevenfold gifts of Spirit, 12, 187. 
 Seven, symbolic number, 11. 
 Shakespeare, extracts from, 15, 20, 
 
 25, 94, 111, 117, 188, 209. 
 Sheep, 121, 168. 
 Shelley, extract from, 28. 
 Ship, 203, 204, 211. 
 Sibyls, 127. 
 Signet ring, 160. 
 Sir Thomas More, extract from, 
 
 145. 
 Six, 11. 
 
 Skelton, " Armorie of Birds," 189. 
 Skull, 97. 
 
 Song of Solomon, imagery of, 6. 
 Sorrows, seven, of Virgin, 13. 
 Soul of man, 101. 
 Southey, extract from, 209. 
 Spenser, extract from, 110. 
 Square nimbus, 58. 
 
 Stag, I76 f .. 
 
 Stained glass, symbolism in, 3. 
 
 Star, 215. 
 
 Stauracin, 219. 
 Stigmata, 91. 
 Stork, 194. 
 Sudarium, 142. 
 
234 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Sun, 44, 214. 
 Sun-worship, 53, 214. " 
 Sword, 146, 149, 152. 
 
 Talmud, 12. 
 Tau cross, 74. 
 Tertullian, 3, 205, 212. 
 Theophilus on Trinity, 30. 
 Three, 10. 
 Tiara, 150. 
 Time, 94. 
 Titus, Arch of, 12. 
 Tobit, extract from, 179. 
 Torch of life, 104, 143. 
 Tree of Jesse, 201. 
 Tree of life, 83, 114. 
 Trinita, the, in Italian art, 31. 
 Trinity, representations of, 30. 
 iple cross, 78. 
 
 "True blue," a party colour, 26. 
 
 Tundal, 207. 
 
 " Twelfth Night," extract from, 20. 
 
 Twelve, 14. 
 
 Type, its nature, 2. 
 
 Tyrian purple, 27. 
 
 Umbrella, 159. 
 Unicorn, 178. 
 
 Unjust judge, parable of, 5. 
 Unknown God, altar to, 42. 
 Urn, 99. 
 
 Value of pictorial teaching, 2. 
 
 Veiling truth by symbol, 2. 
 
 Venerable Bede, extract from, 49. 
 
 Vernicle, 207. 
 
 Vesica piscis, 70. 
 
 Vestal Virgins, 16. 
 
 Vine, 39, 194. 
 
 Violet, 27. 
 
 Virge or rod, 153. 
 
 Vision of Ezekiel, 133; of St. 
 Augustin, 31. 
 
 Wand or staff, 154. 
 
 Water, 210, 214. 
 
 Wedding the Adriatic, 161. 
 
 Westminster Abbey, inventories of, 
 21, 24, 52, 188, 191, 201, 216. 
 
 Westcott, "Christus Consum- 
 mator," 6. 
 
 Wheat and Tares, 202. 
 
 Wheel, 141. 
 
 White, 16, 17. 
 
 Wickham Legg on liturgical col- 
 ours, 23. 
 
 Wine, 9, 210, 214. 
 
 Winged serpent, 115, IK 
 
 Wisdom, book of, 214. 
 
 Wise Men or Magi, 10, 208. 
 
 Wise men of Greece, 14. 
 
 Wolf, 181. 
 
 Wonders, seven, of ancient world, 
 13. 
 
 Wood of cross, 83. 
 
 Wordsworth, extract from, 25. 
 
 Wordsworth, Bishop, quoted, 134. 
 
 Works on gems, 161. 
 
 Wreath, 50, 150. 
 
 Wyckliffe on evangelistic symbols, 
 134. 
 
 Xmas for Christmas, 50. 
 
 Y, letter, as symbol, 220. 
 
 Year of jubilee, 12. 
 
 Year 1000, 39. 
 
 Yellow, 20. 
 
 Yew, 201. 
 
 Young, extract from, 25. 
 
 Zeus, priests of, 16. 
 Zodiac, sign of, 216. 
 
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