v! M H M I ^m €r~frs i I ! fcjjasgsssIS Tua r -' i^ j — crs — tnr— -^o— t=S3~"c3-"-t- -.J XG SORGO 7=1 bLen^_i^_^ )iW\ P^ U5\\\ Tl -X F^ O U 5 e \ ^> ; >^t>M^ IVaterloiv <&* Sons, ST. MARKS. VENICE. I'libiishtd by Ceorgt AtUtt, London. The Bible of St. Mark St. Mark's Church ^ The Altar & Throne of Venice By Alexander Robertson, d.d., aAuthor of " Fra Paolo Sarpi," " Through the Dolomites," Gfc. ^^t^ With Eighty-three Illustrations London : George Allen, Ruskhi House 156 Charing Cross Road J5i* mdcccxcviii All rights reiewed 'To my Wife PREFACE I BELIEVE that there are few buildings in exist- ence more worthy of being minutely and accu- rately described, and of having their histories fully written, than St. Mark's Church, Venice ; and I believe that there are few people for whom such a description and history should have a greater interest than for those of English-speaking countries. Absolutely unique in the variety, wealth and preciousness of its sculptured marbles, and of its gold and coloured mosaics, it embodies and expresses the Religion, and throws light on the Policy of a great Commonwealth, that, throughout long centuries, held the place intellectually and commercially amongst the nations of the world, that England holds to-day. And when one knows the religion and the policy of a nation, or, what Thomas Arnold of Rugby calls, " their duties and affections towards God," and " their duties vi PREFACE and feelings towards men," one knows the source and strength of their life. The Religion of the old Venetians, as disclosed in St. Mark's Church, was altogether Biblical. Originally there was little inscribed upon its walls and domes in sculpture, text, and mosaic, that was not drawn directly and wholly from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. It is true that in later times some few mosaics and inscriptions of a different character were introduced into the church, but they were not sufficient to impair to any extent its character, and even these, I am glad to say, are being gradually removed, and facsimiles of the original ones, the cartoons of which have been fortunately preserved, are being put up in their places. St. Mark's is thus gradu- ally regaining its pristine purity and simplicity. Because, then, of this, its Scriptural character, I have called it the Bible of St. Mark ; and I have made this the main title of my book, as it is the point of view from which I have chiefly regarded it. But, as I have said, St. Mark's Church also throws light on the Policy of a great country, and this in a very important matter, namely, the relation which the civil power held to the ecclesi- astical. This, as we learn from St. Mark's, was one of absolute supremacy. In the church one PREFACE vii influence was felt, one voice was heard, one will was paramount, one mind was expressed always and in everything — that of the reigning Doge, acting directly, or through his Procurators. The Doge was the head of the Church in Venice, as Queen Victoria is the head of the Church in England, or, to take a more exact historical parallel, as Moses and his successors in civil authority were heads over Aaron, and the Jewish Church and priesthood. Indeed, Mr. Ruskin, in a note on the " Power of the Doges," appended to the first volume of his Stones of Venice^ says, " the subjection of the ecclesiastical to the popular and ducal powers, throughout her career was one of the most remarkable features in the policy of Venice." Because then of this sovereignty of the Doge in spiritual matters, because of this blending of the political and the ecclesiastical in St. Mark's Church, with the Doge as head over all, I have called it the Altar and the Throne of Venice, and have made this the sub-title of my book. And, from my own personal study of Venetian history, I have no hesitation in saying, that on these two principles, preserved and exhibited in St. Mark's Church — an open Bible^ and absolute freedom from priestly domination — rested, to a large extent, the stability and prosperity of the viii PREFACE old Republic of Venice, as on them rest, to a large extent, the stability and prosperity of England to-day. The illustrations in the book were all taken expressly for it, those in . black and white from photographs by Signor Carlo Naya, the chief photographer in Venice, and those in colour, in the Edition de Luxe, from oil-paintings by Signor Millo Bortoluzzi, a distinguished young Venetian painter. With few exceptions none of the subjects have ever been photographed before. Indeed, the very possibility of taking some of them, such as the Virtues of the Ascension Cupola, and the Crypt, did not previously exist. No pains have been spared by Mr. George Allen in the reproduction, and I trust that they will be found not only interesting and beautiful, but useful in helping to a just appreciation and understanding of this great Christian monument. My thanks are due to Signor Naya for his careful work. I also desire to thank my friend, Signor Pietro Saccardo, the eminent architect, to whom the Italian Government has confided the care of St. Mark's, for the special facilities he accorded my artists in their labours, and more especially for his kindness to me per- sonally, throughout many years — keeping me informed of the works he was carrying on PREFACE ix in the building, and of any discoveries of moment which he made, and in giving me access to his own governmental reports, and to his other writings which have since been published separately, or as contributions to Signor Ongania's Basilica di San Marco. References to other writers, ancient and modern, whom I have consulted, will be found in the text, but I wish particularly to express my indebtedness to Mr. Ruskin, repeating here that which I told him when I saw him during his last visit to Venice, now eight years ago, that it was he who first opened my eyes, as he must have opened the eyes of thousands, to the meaning of this unique city of Venice, and of this unique building, at once its Altar and its Throne — the glorious and imperishable Bible of St. Mark. ALEXANDER ROBERTSON. Ca' Struan, Venice. May I, 1898. CONTENTS How THE Bible of St. Mark was Made Page I Chap. 1. II. III. PART I THE TITLE-PAGE INSCRIBED ON THE FAgADE What the Title-Page Says of Christ . What the Title-Page Says of St. Mark What the Title-Page Says of the Venetians ..... PART II THE OLD TESTAMENT INSCRIBED IN THE ATRIUM I. The Creation ..... II. The History of Cain and Abel . III. The History of Noah and the Deluge IV. The Tower of Babel and the Dispersion V. The History of Abraham VI. The History of Joseph . VII. The History of Joseph {contittued) VIII. The History of Joseph {continued) IX. The History of Moses . 30 58 7+ 107 123 128 137 142 155 165 177 187 Xll CONTENTS PART III THE NEW TESTAMENT INSCRIBED IN THE INTERIOR Chap. Page General Characteristics . . . 203 I. The Birth and Infancy of our Lord . 210 II. Our Lord's Preparation for his Public Ministry . . . . . .221 III. The Discourses of our Lord . . . 227 IV. The Miracles of our Lord . . . 239 V. Closing Scenes and Incidents in our Lord's Life ..... 259 VI. The Passion of our Lord . . . 266 VII. Our Lord's Resurrection AND Appearances 273 VIII. The Ascension 278 IX. Pentecost . . . . . -294 X. The Acts of the Apostles . . . 300 XI. Revelation 315 APPENDIX Note A. Additional Scenes in St. Mark's Life . 331 i>. >J »> 5> 55 55 • 334 C. „ „ IN Christ's Infancy . 336 D. Life of John the Baptist . . . . 338 E. Crucifixion ...... 344 F. The Apostles Baptizing .... 348 G. The Four Sculptured Columns of the CiBORiuM ...... 350 H. The Pala d'Oro 354 I. The Chapel of St. Isidore . . '357 K. The Treasury 359 Index 363 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ^'' The Bible of St. Mark'' . . . Fronthfiece " The Bible of St. Mark "... Facing page I ^Gothic Lateral Door of St. Alipius . . „ lo Gentile Bellini's Picture of St. Mark's, 1496 (/» the Academy., Venice^ . . . ,,28 Christ the Keystone « 3° Great Central Doorway . . . . ,,32 \ First and Second Archivolts {Great Central Doorway') ...... v 3^ \Last Judgment and Third Archivolt {Great Central Doorway") .... ,,40 Byzantine Lateral Doorway {Right of Main Entrance) ...... ,,42 Byzantine Lateral Doorway {Left of Main Entrance) ...... ,,44 Gothic Lateral Door-Window . . . „ 44*? The Deposition ( Upper Tier of Arches) . . „ 4^ Patriarchs on Great Archivolt of Central Window . . . . . . 5) 5^ Evangelists on Great Archivolt of Central Window „ ^"^a Tabernacle of St. Luke . . . . ,,54 „ St. Mark .... ,,54^^ St. John .... ,,56 „ St. Matthew . . . . „ 56^ XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Ola \The Lion of St. Mark Reception of St. Mark's Body Original Facade of St. Mark {Mosaic over the Door of St. Alipius) The Crypt and Tomb of St. Mark Trades Archivolt — Architecture^ Boatbuilding. fVifie-selling, Baking . Trades Archivolt — Woodsazving, Blacksmith Trade, Fishing .... \ Bronze Horses and Apex of Facade t Time Archivolt — January, February, March t „ „ April, May, June . t „ „ Ju^y, August, Septe?nber t „ „ October, November, De cember Diagram of Mosaics in the Atrium Testament .... \The Creation {Atrium, First Cupola) The Atrium, looking North . Noah Building and Entering the Ark The Deluge .... The Tower of Babel and the Dispersion History of Abraham {Atrium, Second Cupola) ^ Abraham Receiving the Three Angels '^The Atrium, looking South Side Atrium .... Joseph and his Brethren {Atrium, Third) Cupola) .... Joseph as Potiphar's Servant {Atrium, Fourth Cupola) ..... Pharaoh's Second Dream \ Joseph, Governor of Egypt {Atrium, Fifth Cupola) ..... Jacob Sending Benjamin to Egypt Facing page 5 " „ ee „ 68 7° 8o 92 9+ 96 98 100 106 108 122 128 132 138 ipola) . „ 142 152 „ 15 + „ 156 160 166 174 178 184 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XV The History of S^oses {Atrium^ Sixth Cupola) Facing The Divine Child .... Diagram of U^osaics in the Interior. Nezv Testament .... ^The Interior ..... The " jEdicula " and North Aisle Youthful Christ {on wall of North Aisle) Hosea and Joel (on wall of North Aisle) The Infancy of Our Lord — Scenes 5, 6, 7, The Temptation .... Discourse at Nazareth Isaiah and David .... Solomon and Ezekiel '^" I am the Door" . Christ and the Woman of Samaria {South Transept, East Fault) Christ and Zacchaus {South Transept, East Vault) First dVIultiplication of the Loaves and Fishe {South Transept, East Vault) Christ Opening the Eyes of the Blind (Man {South Transept, East l\mlt) Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem \The Feet-Washing, and the Institution of the Lord^s Supper Gethsematie {First and Second Prayer) Gethsemane { Third Prayer) The Ascension {Central Cupola) t" Why stand ye gazing up into Heaven ? ' {Ascension Cupola) . Evangelists on the S\Iount of Olives {A seen si on Cupola) .... page 192 , 198 202 204 206 208 208tf 214 224 228 230 230(7 232 236 238 250 254 260 262 266 268 278 278^ 280 XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Apostles on the 3\iount of Olives {Jscension Cupola) ...... Facing page zSoa Temperance and Understanding [^Ascension Cupola) . . . . . . ,,282 (Mercy {^Ascension Cupola) . ... „ 284 Steadfastness {Ascension Cupola) . . „ 286 \SS. John, James, (Mark, and Peter {Ascen- sion Cupola) . . . . . „ zS6a Love {Ascension Cupola) . . . . ,,288 Hope {Ascension Cupola) .... „ 288^7 Faith {Ascension Cupola) . . . . ,,290 Fortitude {Ascension Cupola) . . . „ 290(7 \ Pentecost {West Cupola) .... „ 294 St. James the Less and St. Philip . . „ 310 (Micah and Jeremiah . . . . „ 336 Herod's Birthday Feast .... „ 342 fThe Baptistery Dome. The Apostles Bap- tizing ...... „ 348 \The'' Pala d'Oro'' .... ,,354 *#* The four illustrations marketi * are colour-reproductions from paintings by Signor Millo Bortoluzzi. Those marked f are from blocks made for this edition only. O Z THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK VENICE HOW IT WAS MADE Venice has produced many Bibles. In 1469, according to the consensus of opinion, she learned the art of printing, and in a com- paratively short time thereafter, that is, in the calends of August 1471, she produced the Bibbia Volgare His tor lata (Bible in the Vulgar Tongue, Illustrated), being the complete Bible, in two folio volumes, translated from the Vulgate into Italian by Nicolaus de Malermi, a Venetian, of the Order of the Cistercians. Two months later, in the calends of October 1471, another complete Bible in the vernacular came out, entitled, Bibbia Sacra Volgare (Holy Bible in the Vulgar Tongue). The title-page bears no name, so the translator is unknown. This 2 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK Bible also is in two folio volumes, and is beauti- fully printed, with handsome hand-painted initial letters. Thus, one of the very first books Venice printed, and certainly her first book of any magnitude, was the Bible ; and that, too, in Italian. She consecrated the new art, in which she was destined to obtain a world-wide celebrity, to the production of the Scriptures in a language intelligible to the common people. During the remaining twenty-nine years of the fifteenth century, from 147 1 to 1500, as Venice rose to be a great printing and publish- ing centre, possessing more typographers than all the other cities of Italy put together, the Bible held a first place amongst the productions of her presses. Altogether twenty-six editions of the complete Bible, besides many parts and portions, came out, published by ten different well-known houses ; making a new edition for nearly every year of the period. Whilst, too, the majority of these editions were of folio size, costing — if we may judge from a note that has come down to us, regarding an issue of 1478, which consisted of 930 copies at 430 golden ducats (^430) — about nine shillings and three pence each, yet towards the end of the century quarto and octavo Bibles began to appear, but at HOW IT WAS MADE 3 three francs each, or half a crown ; thus bringing the Holy Scriptures pretty well within the reach of all. It is worthy of note that Aldo Manuzio, who established his famous printing press in Venice in 149 1, conceived the great idea of a polyglot Bible, and actually began the printing of it in collateral columns of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. In the course of the next century, from 1500 to 1 600, sixty-three editions of the complete Bible were produced. These were in Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and several other languages; and in all forms and sizes, from folio down to sexto-decimo. One, an Italian edition of 1532, was a new version by Antonio Brucioli, who professed to have translated it from the original Hebrew and Greek. During the two succeeding centuries there was a great falling off in the production of Bibles, only twenty-eight editions coming out in the seventeenth century, and only sixteen in the eighteenth. In the present century but nine complete Bibles, and seventeen parts of Bibles, have been published. All these appeared before the close of 1842, in which year was published a Bible in Italian and in Latin in four volumes by Antonelli, the last to issue from a Venetian printing press. 4 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK And where are those Bibles now ? A few of them are to be found in Venice, amongst which, fortunately, there is a specimen of the first, and of the last published, that of the calends of October 1471, and that of 1842. But of the majority of these Venetian Bibles all that is left to us is the record of the fact that they once existed. But long before 147 1 Venice produced a Bible which she still possesses, and from which she will never part. It is a great illuminated volume which it took her centuries to produce. Its Text is precious. It is that of the Vetus Itala^ or Old Italic Version, the very earliest Latin translation of the whole Canon of Scripture which we possess, having been made at the end of the first century, and at the beginning of the second, and which remained in use till the end of the fourth, when it was supplanted throughout the Church, though not in Venice, by the version of Jerome, which was undertaken as a revision of it. In the Old Testament section of this Bible the quotations from the Vetus Itala are made simply and directly, in the New Testament section they are thrown into Leonine hexameter verses, rhyming in the middle and at the end. Greek epigraphs, and even some Arabic words are interspersed in the text. As the printing HOW IT WAS MADE 5 was not accomplished all at once — indeed it ex- tended throughout three centuries, from the eleventh to the thirteenth — it is not surprising that a variety of type has been employed, and different forms of the same type at different times. The constantly recurring ones, however, are Roman and Gothic. As the number of the leaves of this Bible were limited, and the text was subordinated to the illustrations, many con- tractions were adopted, letters being omitted from words, and words from sentences, the omissions being, however, always indicated by signs. Its Illustrations are precious. They appeal to the eye, and we remember what we see better than what we hear. There is truth in the maxim, " Eyes first, hands next, ears last." And they appeal to our sense of beauty, for We're made so that we love First when we see them painted, things we have passed Perhaps a hundred times, nor cared to see. And these illustrations not only imprint themselves on the mind through the eye, and give pleasure by meeting that love of line and form and colour divinely implanted in us, but they fulfil in a superlative degree the highest mission of art, by exhibiting and conveying to the mind spiritual truths under the aspect of 6 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK beauty, for the moulding of character, and the government of life. This mission they fulfil to-day ; but to estimate its importance we must remember that when they first began " to speak in silence upon the wall," from five to eight centuries ago, the bulk of the people were illiterate, and there were no printed Bibles to put into the hands of the few who could read. " Fill the holy sanctuary on both sides with histories of the Old and New Testaments, by the hand of a skilful artist, in order that those who are unable to read the Divine Scriptures may, by looking at the paintings, call to mind the courage of men who have served the true God, and be stirred by emulation of their heroic exploits," was the advice of Nilus in the fifth century. And, Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, a century before had said, that even the pavements of churches (which, like St. Mark's, were made of marble mosaics) ought to contain symbolic teaching for the people. These pictures, then, formed the Bible for those who could have little access to the Scriptures in manuscript. They formed the true Biblia Pauperum of the Venetians. The pictures are mosaics, the substance chiefly used in their composition being glass. Mosaic work is emphatically a Christian art, though it HOW IT WAS MADE 7 was not unknown in certain forms to the ancient Persians ; and in the book of Esther, written probably about 480 b.c, we read that the court of the garden of the palace at Shushan of King Ahasuerus had a mosaic pavement of red and blue, and white and black marble. It was the Emperor Constantine who brought this art into general use. In the fourth century he applied it very extensively to church-wall decoration, and it has been devoted to this service almost exclusively ever since. The background of the illustrations for this Bible is of gold, the tesseras for which are formed by putting thin sheets of the precious metal between two layers of glass and fusing them together. Black tesserae are scattered amongst the gold, to break the otherwise too bril- liant mirror-like reflection. The illustrations themselves are composed of cubes of glass coloured throughout, the dye being mixed with the vitreous substance in the furnace. Little else than the primitive colours were used, and yet they are much more effective than the sixty thousand tints employed in modern mosaic work. Their design and colouring, largely modified however by local Venetian influences, follow the laws and directions laid down for the illustration of Scripture in the Code of the Byzan- tine School of Christian Iconography, 8 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK which had its seat on Mount Athos, the Holy Hill of Greece. This Code, discovered quite recently (1839), in a monastery on Mount Athos, by Mons. Didron, Paris, was called 'Epfx- rmia rfjg ttoypcKpixm (The Interpretation of Life- painting), and although no precise date can be assigned for its compilation, it yet goes back in its main parts like the Felus Itala text, to times before Jerome. The illustrations are thus neces- sarily conventional in form, but they are full of life, and beauty, and dignity. An interesting fact in regard to those of the Old Testament section of this Bible is that they are identical in design, or nearly so, with the miniature paintings that adorned the Codex Cottonianus. This Codex was brought to England from Philippi by two Greek Bishops, who presented it to King Henry VJIL, telling him that it was believed to have belonged to Origen, " the father of biblical criticism," which would carry its age back to the beginning of the third century. Probably it was written somewhat later, but in any case it is the most ancient and the most correct manu- script of the Septuagint that is in existence. This precious Codex, as is well known, passed into the hands of Queen Elizabeth, who bestowed it upon Sir John Fortescue, her tutor in Greek. From him it went to Robert Cotton, and then. HOW IT WAS MADE 9 passing through the hands of the Arundel family, ultimately found a home in the Cottonian Library, Westminster. When that Library was burned, in 1731, only fragments of the Codex were saved, the chief of which are now preserved in the British Museum. The Materials of which this Venetian Bible, thus inscribed and thus illuminated, is composed, are so valuable, that if they were destroyed, it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to replace them. Its leaves are of marble — marble paper, some white, but most of it coloured — brought by the Venetians from the ruins of rich Roman cities, such as Aquileia and Grado ; and from cities conquered and sacked by them, such as Con- stantinople — marbles that represent in their origin the wealth of every quarry known to the ancients. There are Cipolin, the first marble imported into Italy, from Negro- pont, and the shores of the Sea of Marmora; Proconnesian, or Nero and Bianco, from an island in that sea ; Verde Antique from Thessaly ; Pomorolo from Dalmatia ; Red, Green and Serpentine Porphyries ; Red and Grey Lumachella or Shell Marbles; Synnadic or Pavo- nine (violet coloured), from Sinnada in Phrygia ; Red Syenite Granite from Syene, modern Assouan in Upper Egypt, on the Nile (from 10 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia, Ezekiel xxix. lo) ; Alabaster from Thebes ; Parian marbles, and African Breccias ; Red Verona and Yellow Sienna Brocatels (because resembling brocades) ; Sardonic Agate and Oriental Jaspers. None of these marbles can be called common, and many of them are decidedly rare and precious, the more so that the quarries from which some were obtained have been for centuries either exhausted or lost, although it is interesting to note that those in Thessaly, that yielded the Verde Antique, have been recently discovered by an Englishman at Casambula, near Larissa. I need not say that the Bible of which I am speaking is the glorious Church of St. Mark. The idea of constructing such a church, of publish- ing such a Bible, first occurred to the Venetians in 829, when the body of the Evangelist St. Mark was brought from Alexandria in Egypt to their city. The then reigning Doge, Giustiniano Partecipazio, at once set about carrying the idea into effect, but he died the following year. Still his share in the work was important, and not unlike that of King David's in the building of the Temple, for like him he said : " The house that is to be builded must be exceeding magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout Photo by C. Anyc II -.H. Ward &■ Co. GOTHIC LATERAL DOOR OF ST. ALIPIUS p. lo HOW IT WAS MADE 11 all countries, I will therefore now make provision for it." He accordingly secured its site. Between his palace and the church of St. Theo- dore to the north, lay, running east and west, a brolo (orchard), that he himself had given to the nuns of San Zaccaria. This ground, in which was a well, he re-acquired on which to build. Then " he prepared abundantly before his death " materials, we may suppose some of the elm and oak timbers and Istrian stones, which form the foundation of the present church, but especially, as we are told, marbles in slabs and columns from Sicily, for the support and decoration of its brick walls ; and leaving these and also much money, to his brother and successor Giovanni, charged him, as David charged Solomon, to hasten the work. This behest Giovanni Partecipazio carried out with promptitude and energy, for, beginning the church in 830, he finished it in 834. This is not however the St. Mark's Bible we possess, although it is bound up with it, and may be called its First or Ninth-century Edition, In form it was a basilica, probably resembling the one in Alexandria that bore the Evangelist's name, and from which his body had been brought. It was the size of the nave of the present church as far as the altar-screen. Under 12 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK the twelve large marble slabs in front of the screen, which formed the floor of the peribolum of the basilica, it had a curious, now partly sub- aqueous, crypt (for the ground is gradually sinking), only re-opened and cleared out a few years ago, in which can be seen the well spoken of above. Besides this remnant of the old church, it is thought the present one contains parts of its walls, and not a few of its columns, capitals and cornices — according to the late RafFaele Cattaneo, " no less than eighty specimens, architectural and decorative." Like all ancient bascilicas it had a roof of wood, which was destined to prove fatal to it, for in 976, when the Venetians, wishing to rid themselves of the tyrant Doge, Pietro Candiano IV., shut him up in his palace and set fire to it, the flames com- municated themselves to this roof and the church was burned. It had stood for nearly a hundred and fifty years, throughout the reigns of eleven doges, each of whom had done something for its embellishment. The successor of the " tyrant " Doge was Pietro Orseolo I., the " saint," as he was called, who quickly exchanged the council chamber for the cloister, but not before he had given us the Second or Tenth-century Edition of St. Mark's Bible, for finding the walls and other HOW IT WAS MADE 13 structural parts of the church but slightly damaged, the brief two years of his reign (976- 978) sufficed him in which to repair it ubi corn- bus ta erat (where it was burned), without, how- ever, either enlarging or altering it in any way. But in that short time he did more, for we read in the Dolfin Chronicle, Petrus Ursiolo adem Sancti Marci non restaurat solum^ vero musaico ornat proprio sumptu (Pietro Orseolo not only restored the temple of St. Mark, but, indeed, adorned it with mosaic at his own expense). For this purpose he brought Greek artists to Venice from Constantinople. This tenth- century church, or second edition of our Bible, supplied the needs of the Venetians until 1063, a period of eighty-five years. But now in this eleventh century, to which we have come, we find that Venice had attained to a state of great power and prosperity. Her exchequer was overflowing with money. The spoils of victories, won in the Levant, were in her store-houses. Her merchant ships brought her riches from afar. With new resources came new ideas. The possession of art treasures created and fostered art tastes. Especially her intercourse with the East had instilled into her a love of Byzantine architecture and ornamenta- tion. Beholding in Constantinople the glories 14 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK of St. Sophia and other churches, she could not but contrast with them the comparative poverty in size and form and decoration of her own basilica. She at last therefore resolved to re- construct it, to double its size, to change its form, and to beautify and embellish it in a style of oriental magnificence. The result of this decision is the Third, or Eleventh- century Edition of St. Mark's Bible, which is the one we now possess. Taking more especially the celebrated church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, built by the Emperor Constantine, as the model, the work was begun under Doge Domenico Contarini in 1063, and finished, so far as structural altera- tions and enlargements were concerned, in 1 07 1. In these years the basilica form of St. Mark's was changed to that of a Greek cross. This was exactly that kind of alteration that did not necessitate to any serious extent the destruction of the old building. By taking down its eastern wall and adding transepts and a chancel, and by changing the pent roof into a domed one, the transformation could be effected. And this it appears was substantially what was done. The churches of the ninth and tenth centuries now form the nave of the present eleventh- century one. Under the chancel a new crypt HOW IT WAS MADE 15 was made, and it is thought that the series of little arches, supported on flattened columns, under the altar-screen, and the two series of arches and columns under the stair of the double pulpit, belonged to the old crypt. The former row stands on the wall that divides the two crypts, and were originally win- dows to give light and air to the new one. With the north transept extension the old church of St. Theodore was incorporated, part of its site now being occupied by the chapel of St. Isidore. In 107 1, Doge Domenico Con- tarini died, and almost the first public services held in the new St. Mark's were those in con- nection with his funeral, and with the installation into office of his successor, Domenico Selvo. But the church was still undecorated. Its walls were only of bare brick — piere cote. And so Doge Domenico Selvo at once began incrusting them with these coloured marbles, the shades and hues and tints of which have now become mellowed with age, like the pictures of the old masters. In doing this blocks of the precious stone were sawn by wires into thin slabs, which were then so arranged on the walls that their lines and veins, and " flame-Hke stainings," formed figures and patterns. The twelve great slabs of Cipolin 16 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK marble that cover the old crypt in front of the chancel were similarly cut from one block. The marble veneering of the walls, and the laying down of the tesselated pavement were finished in 1096, under Doge Selvo's successor, Vital Falier. The next work was the re- decoration of the church with gold and coloured mosaics, the inscribing anew, on its glowing pages, by word and picture, the glorious truths of Scripture, making it the great illuminated volume, the true Biblia Pauperum^ we now possess. I say inscribing this anew, for whatever mosaic illustration Doge Pietro Orseolo had put upon the pages of the former edition of our Bible appears to have perished. This work was begun by Doge Vital Michiel in 1 1 00, and was continued by succeeding Doges until near the middle of the fourteenth century. That is to say, the printing and illu- mination of St. Mark's Bible, as we now know it, was the labour of two and a half centuries. In the execution of this work Greek artists, who were not unknown in Venice, as we have seen, even in Doge Orseolo's time, were largely employed, and Greek marbles and Greek tesseras were imported in great quantities. This Greek influence reached its climax in 1204, when Constantinople fell into the hands HOW IT WAS MADE 17 of the Venetians. Then there was a great influx of Greek artists and sculptors, and a wealth of Greek decorative material of all kinds was imported. By-and-bye, however, the Venetians learned the arts of the Greeks. Furnaces were constructed on the island of Murano, still the centre of their glass and mosaic manufacture ; and just as the old masters, Titian and Tintoretto, for example, extracted their own dyes, and ground their own colours, so native artists made their own gold and coloured tesserae, and carried on in the church the work of mosaic decoration and illustration. In saying that this Third Edition of St. Mark's Bible, which, begun in the eleventh century, was issued in the fourteenth, is the one that has come down to us, I do not mean to say that it is now as it left the press. It has been enriched, and it has been impoverished. Time, weather, fire, neglect, ignorance and vandalism, have left their marks upon it. Its pages, too, have been defaced, and their illustrations changed. In the seventeenth century especially many of its fine old Byzantine illuminations, true to the letter and to the spirit of the text, were cut out, and Renaissance ones, false to both, were put in their stead. But still, down these long centuries no possession of the Venetian B 18 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK Republic was so prized and so guarded. An order of men — the noblest and best of the Venetian nobility, who were privileged always to wear the ducal toga, and whose office was only second in esteem to that of the princedom, and from whose ranks the Doges were almost invariably chosen — the famous Procurators of St. Mark, were created near the very beginning of the church's history, in the time of Doge Pietro Orseolo I., to take charge of it. These men, acting under the Doge, regulated all its affairs, material and spiritual. They not only looked after its erection, its preservation and restoration, its income and expenditure, its altar vessels and treasury relics, but appointed and invested, and dismissed and punished when necessary, its primicerio or dean, its canons, priests, organists, singers, custodians and guardians, and regulated all its ceremonies and services. No Roman Curia, no Church Court, no ecclesiastical autho- rity, had a voice in anything touching its interests. The Doge designated himself, Solus Dominus Patronus et verus Gubernator Ecclesia S. Marciy (the only lord, patron, and true Governor of St. Mark's Church) ; and he called the church, Cappella nostra libera a servitute S. Matris Ecclesia (our chapel, free from the servitude of Holy Mother Church). HOW IT WAS MADE 19 Venice had also its Patriarch or Archbishop, and its cathedral, but these were so utterly eclipsed by, and subordinated to, the Doge and his chapel, that they were originally at the far-distant island-township of Grado ; and when, in 1445, they were brought to Venice, they were placed in the unimportant island of Castello, where the commonplace church of San Pietro was made the cathedral. It was not till ten years after the fall of the Republic, in 1807, that Napoleon transferred the Patriarchate to St. Mark's Church which thus became the cathedral. The rite used in St. Mark's down to 1807 was not the Roman one, nor was the Bible the Vulgate. The rite was the ancient one of the churches said to have been founded by St. Mark, and his companion Hermagoras, in Aquileia and Grado, and the Bible was the Old Italic Version, which, as I have said, is inscribed upon its walls. In the State Archives in Venice there is a document bearing the date. May 14, 1580, which tells how a Primicerio, who had dared to appeal to Rome about St. Mark's, was summoned to appear before the Doge and Council of Ten. He was not allowed to enter the Council Chamber, but was kept at the head of the stairs, where the Council intimated to him by a messenger that he had 20 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK oiFended in the thing most sacred in its eyes, namely its absolute control over the church of St. Mark, and that his conduct savoured of treason. It then ordered him to go back and bring the whole of his correspondence without retaining even a copy of any paper. With this, the Council said it would rest satisfied, as it believed he had acted more from ignorance than malignity, but it warned him as to the serious consequences that would follow any repetition of the offence. Another document tells how a priest was banished for having incensed the Doge and the Patriarch at the same time, instead of incensing the Doge first. Thus the Doge in St. Mark's would not only brook no superior, but no rival. He was clothed with all spiritual jurisdiction and, when solemn occasions required it, himself blessed the people. Nor was this all. He not only discharged spiritual functions as High Priest, but as the Prince of the land he imported into the church his civil privileges and offices. St. Mark's was more than a place for the carrying on of religious services, it was a place for the conducting of state business. Popular assemblies were held in it. Treaties were ratified in it. Decrees were promulgated in it. An ordinance abolishing all traffic in slaves was passed and HOW IT WAS MADE 21 published in it, in 959 — strange to say, too, under the rule of the tyrant Doge, Candiano IV., in getting rid of whom, as we have already seen, St. Mark's was accidentally burned, he being slain in the Church itself. In it the Doges received their badges of authority and wands of office, and were acclaimed by the people, and from the bigonzOy its octagonal porphyry pulpit, they harangued the electors. From it they proceeded annually in the bucintoro to the Lido to wed the Adriatic, by dropping into it the mystic ring with the words Desponcemus te mare. As we read in Ezekiel of ancient Tyre, " they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about, they have made thy beauty perfect," so those of the Doges after death were suspended in St. Mark's. From its central vault hung the banners of allied peoples, and on its roofs floated proudly those of the Republic. Along its aisles and in its domes resounded the pasans of victory. Scarcely less than the Ducal Palace, with which it communicated by a bridge behind the chancel, it was the centre of political life, though a life free from the intrigues of diplomacy on the one hand, and from those of priestcraft on the other ; and as the Doge was elected by the people, represented the people, ruled by and for the people, so it was the centre of the nation's life. 22 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK Here the civil and the religious spheres not only met but coalesced. Here there was not simply union of Church and State, there was identity. The name St. Mark was synonymous with that of the Republic — the symbol at once of a free nation's religious faith, and of its political prestige and power. To a very large extent, it seems to me, there was a realisation of the late Dr. Arnold of Rugby's ideal commonwealth — one in which Church and State were not two separate societies, but one and the same ; free, on the one hand, from what Dean Stanley tells us he called, " the secular notion of a state as providing only for physical ends," and free, on the other hand, from " the superstitious view of the Church as claiming to be ruled not by national laws, but by a divinely appointed succession of priests or governors." In these things, then, in St. Mark's being at once the people's Church and Senate-house, their Bible and their Charter, we have the explanation of its having been prized by the Venetians above all else. It was because of these things that they gave to it, for its construction, enlargement, preservation and decoration, throughout long centuries, the best of their thought, the best of their wealth, the best of their labour. And for these reasons it is prized to-day by the Italian HOW IT WAS MADE 23 nation as one of their most precious national monuments, and valued inheritances, bequeathed to them by a great people. And for these reasons the Government of Italy has become its custodian, watching over it with the utmost solicitude, keeping architects constantly at work upon it, maintaining a school of mosaic workers inside its walls, and spending in its preservation — apart altogether from its services — the sum of two thousand pounds annually. But it is not only as a monument of the past, around which gather the glories of a nation's history, that it is to be regarded. It has a present mission, a present use. If it no longer serves a political purpose, it still serves a religious one. This half of its mission it has never ceased to fulfil, and it is fulfilling it to-day. It is still, what we are specially regarding it as, the Bible of St. Mark. And as such it lasts on from age to age, its pages — constructed of materials as precious and beautiful in the world of matter as the truths inscribed on them are in the world of spirit — open to all, accessible to all, bearing a message to all, in a language legible to all, for it is the universal language of sign and symbol. Witnessing to its own marvellous power over the hearts and lives of men, it exercises that power still — unique among 24 THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK Bibles, as the old Republic, of which it was the soul and centre, was unique amongst Com- monwealths ; as Venice, of which it is to-day the crown and glory, is unique amongst cities. I purpose reading this Venetian Bible under the three following divisions, which correspond with the three main structural parts of the church. I. The Title-Page, as inscribed on the Facade ; II. The Old Testament, as inscribed in the Atrium ; III. The New Testament as inscribed in the Interior. And in order not to break this unity of plan, I have treated of the mosaics and sculptures that exist elsewhere in the building, in an Appendix, references to which will be found in the text. PART I THE TITLE-PAGE INSCRIBED ON THE FACADE PART I: THE TITLE-PAGE The facade of St. Mark's Church Is Byzantine in character, the severity of which, however, is broken by rich Gothic decorations. It consists of two tiers of arches grouped and harmonised. The lower tier has seven spans, the mystic number usually employed by Byzantine builders, and the upper has five. The central arches of each tier form the principal ones, to which the others, inferior to them in height and width and decoration, are subordinated. The outermost arches in the lower tier are open porticoes, the inner five are built out so as to form deep vaults or porches, the bevelled sides of which are lined with verde-antique, and decorated with double rows of shafts of porphyry and other precious marbles, resting on stylobates of the same materials. Through these porches, by one great central, and four small lateral gates, the church is entered. The five arches of the upper tier are decorated with Gothic crockets and finials, canopies and 28 THE TITLE-PAGE figures. The central large one serves as a great window, the others have smaller lights cut in them. Between the tiers, along the top of the projecting porches, runs a gallery, on which stand, above the principal door, and in front of the great window, the four famous horses of beaten copper work overlaid with gold, a unique example of a Greek or Roman quadriga^ or four- horsed chariot. The whole facade is covered with sculptures and mosaics, with figures and inscriptions. This, then, is the Title-page we have to read, and a very full, diversified, and beautiful one it is. Before we do so, however, I must repeat what I have already said, that it is not now what it was when first printed in this, the eleventh-century, or third edition, of our Bible. Since then it has undergone several alterations — not always improvements — and it has received several additions. Without even consulting documents, a good general notion of these can be obtained by examining two early prints of our Title-page that have been preserved to us. One is in mosaic over the further lateral door to the left of the main entrance, the door of St. Alipius, which shows it as it existed early in the thirteenth century. Looking at this we see that there were no mosaics on the facade. ITS DIVISIONS 29 save one over the main entrance ; it had no Gothic ornamentation, and none of the sculptured archivolts over the main door. The other ancient copy of our Title-page is a picture by- Bellini in the Academy in Venice, which shows it as it was in the fifteenth century. In it we see that it had by this time received all these three additions spoken of above, the Gothic ornamen- tation, but a short time before. Since the fifteenth century it has undergone little altera- tion, excepting one for the worse, namely, the removal of all the mosaics of Bellini's time, but the one over the door of St. Alipius, and the substitution of others in the last century and in the present, in their places. Fortunately the subjects of all these mosaics have remained the same, excepting the one over the main door, that belonged to the earliest Title-page, about which I shall say something later. Proceeding now to examine our Title-page we find that it brings before us these subjects. ( 1 ) Him of whom the Book speaks. (2) Him whose name it bears. (3) Those who made it. In other words, it speaks to us ; (i) Of Christ. (2) Of St. Mark. (3) Of the Venetians. CHAPTER I WHAT THE TITLE-PAGE SAYS OF CHRIST Christ holds the place of honour on the title- page. It is His name, the name that is above every name, that is inscribed oftenest and in largest letters upon it. (A) He is the Key-stone of every arch of every door by which the church is entered. (B) He is the subject of all the Bas-reliefs above these door-ways. (C) He is the subject of all the Mosaics of the upper tier of arches. (D) He is the subject of all the Sculptures that decorate the arches. (A) Christ is the Key-stone of every Arch of every Door by which the Church is entered. I have said that the church is entered by one great central, and four more small lateral door- WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 31 ways. But these five doors are one, and that one Is Christ, for he commands them all. He is carved on the key-stone of every one of them. The church cannot be entered but by Him. It stands or falls with Him. In other churches, whilst Christ may rule over the main door, very often Mary is set over a transept one, whilst other side doors are assigned to saints and martyrs. And Mr. Ruskin thinks that this may be done to teach that, whilst access to God is obtained through Christ, it is also, though in a lesser degree, secured through the mediation of His mother and of the saints. Then, if this be so, the exclusion from St. Mark's portals of every one save Jesus only, is meant to teach that solely through Him can God be approached. One name is there, not only above every name that is named, but alone in solitary majesty, the name of the God-man Christ Jesus. {a) The Great Central Doorway. — This doorway has three carved archivolts, and all three speak of Christ. Tho, first brings him before us as our Redeemer and Restorer, the second as our Creator and Teacher, and the third as our Saviour and Master. The First Archivolt. — Here Christ is repre- sented as our Redeemer and Restorer, its subject being Ruin by the Fall and Redemption 32 THE TITLE-PAGE by Him. This is set before us by a series of pictures in bas-relief, illustrative of the effects of sin and redemption. Looking at the Under side, or Soffit, of ihe archivoU, we see on its basement stones, fallen human life typified, on that on the left, by a half-naked woman with long unkempt hair, and on that on the right, by a half-naked man, both sitting on dragons, that, twining round them, and fastening on the breast of one and the mouth of the other, hold them in their power. Immediately above the man is a lion devouring a deer, and above the woman there is also a lion, but, suggesting times of civilisation and redemption, a child sits on it opening its jaws. This is sometimes used as the symbol of fortitude, '' The Lord breaks the teeth of the lion." " Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot." The rest of the soffit shows wild and tame animals m various combinations, especially the Byzantine one of a bird pecking a quadruped, symbolical of spirit dominating matter, whilst intertwined with all, and, on the key-stone, bursting into fulness of fruitage, is the vine, the symbol of Christ. Looking now at the Outer Face of the archivolt, on the left basement stone, there is again the same figure of the wild half-naked Photo by C. Naya GREAT CENTRAL DOORWAY WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 33 woman, only she is now seated on the back of a Hon. On the corresponding stone on the other side, there is, however, no savage man, but a youth, intelligent looking and well clothed, and with shoes on his feet, sitting calmly on the back of the patient ox. Above the woman there are boys quarrelling and fighting, and above the ox and its rider are a teacher and a scholar — the teacher with a roll in his hand, and the scholar doing a sum in arithmetic, by the aid of his fingers. Higher up on the left, are boys robbing nests, young men shooting birds with bows and arrows, and, lastly, men hunting the wild boar and the lion. Opposite these, in corresponding places on the right, a youth is leaving home, to pursue elsewhere an agricul- tural life, then come men engaged in business, buying and selling, and lastly, higher up, others are occupied in commerce, carrying and transport- ing goods. Clearly the two sides contrast. Set over against each other, there is, on the left savage and uneducated life, and on the right life civilised and redeemed. The whole archi- volt, thus, as I have said, teaches us the far reaching consequences of sin on the one hand, and the co-extensive saving influences of Christ, as our Redeemer and Restorer, on the other. If " the whole creation groaneth and travaileth 34 THE TITLE-PAGE in pain together until now," the whole creation shall participate in the redemptive work of Christ, in that " restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy- prophets since the world began." As here portrayed, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that makes the savage clothe himself, and abandon the bow and arrow, the rod, the spear, and the chase, for the plough and the sickle, for manufacture and commerce. It is the Gospel of Christ that creates the schoolmaster and the missionary, and that sends the youth from the paternal home to occupy the earth and to subdue it. Sin has brought dispeace and dis- union, separation and conflict, into the world of man and the world of nature ; Christ restores order and unity, binds up the scattered, and unites the severed, reconciles man to God, and nature to man its rightful head, undoes the work of the fall, and " makes all things new." The Second Archivolt. — This archivolt carries us forward in thought, showing us Christ on its soffit as our Creator, and on its outer side as our Teacher. First He is represented as our Creator, as if to suggest the thought that He could restore and redeem, because He created all things, and by Him all things consist. It is His figure then that is cut in bold relief in the WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 35 key-stone. It Is a youthful figure, for as yet He Is untouched by suffering. There Is no marring of His visage, although, as He Is the Iamb " foreordained before the foundation of the world," as He Is the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world," on the nimbus of sanctity and authority behind His head appears the shadow of the cross. In His left hand He holds a scroll, and His right Is raised In the act of blessing. He stands in a disc studded with stars — " the stars that He calleth all by name." On His right hand Is the head of a man, and on His left that of a woman, both bending towards Him, with hands raised in the attitude of prayer, representing " the sun and the moon which He hath made." And then, suggestive of the mission of these heavenly bodies, " to give light upon the earth," and to be "for signs and for seasons and for days and years," there are carved on the other stones of the soffit, six on either side of the key-stone, symbolic representations of the months of the year, with their zodiacal signs, which, however, fall to be dealt with later on. We, therefore, now proceed to read the Outer or External face of the archivolt, where Christ Is exhibited as our Teacher. From here He delivers to His disciples, and to the multitude 36 THE TITLE-PAGE below, the Sermon on the Mount, and as this archivolt, with its series of outside steps, is somewhat suggestive of a mount, the represen- tation is complete, although, as can be seen in Bellini's picture, it was at one time more visible and striking. A series of allegorical figures represent the Beatitudes and Virtues, each bear- ing a scroll, on which is inscribed an appro- priate saying of our Lord's, Once this sermon appealed to the eye with a vividness and a distinctness that it has now lost, for when first inscribed, at the close of the thirteenth, or the beginning of the fourteenth century, the figures and the writing shone out in gold on a background of blue. The word of the Lord was literally esteemed more precious than gold. Time has removed the colouring, and but little of the gold lettering remains, but the figures, for the most part, explain themselves, and, when they do not, they can be read by the help of this same sermon which is re-delivered in mosaic in the Ascension cupola inside the church itself. The central figure on the key- stone is Constantia (Steadfastness). With ex- tended arms she holds upright in her hands two discs, or medalUons, in one of which, that to the right, is a figure representing the sun, and in the other, to the left, one representing the moon o > < § Q O o B U c [tI (U g I WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 37 — steadfastness to be maintained as long as the sun and moon endureth. No text is legible, but on the corresponding figure in the Ascen- sion cupola there are these two, " Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake " (Matt. V. lo), and " He who shall endure unto the end shall be saved" (Matt. xxiv. 13), this latter being from another sermon on the mount, the Mount of Olives, which our Lord delivered towards the close of His ministry. Thus steadfastness is made to embrace the whole Christian life — its necessity enforced at the beginning and close of our Lord's public life. If the figure in the disc here is, as it is in the corresponding disc of the cupola, the figure of Christ, then this outer face of the key-stone, like its under part, sets forth Christ's person as well as His words. I shall do little more now than explain what the other allegorical figures are, leaving their fuller significance to be given when we again read the sermon as more fully recorded in the New Testament portion of our Bible. There are eight figures on either side of the key-stone, running down the archivolt to its base, thus making seventeen in all, one more than in the cupola. The first four on either side are reclining, and around them wreathes the 38 THE TITLE-PAGE Vine, the symbol of Christ, and of those united to Him by faith. The remaining figures are upright. Those on the right side of the key- stone, that is, on the onlooker's left, are, as they recede from Constantia^ Humilitas (Humility). The word Beati legible, suggests the first beatitude our Lord spoke, which is on the scroll of this virtue inside the Church, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven " (Matt. v. 3). Castitas (Chastity). The text legible, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God " (Matt. V. 8). Patientia (Patience). The text legible, " Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God " (Matt. v. 9). Compulsio (Compunction). Upright figure, its left hand on heart, text supplied from cupola, " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted " (Matt. v. 4). Abstinentia (Abstinence). Upright figure, right hand holds apples or bread, and left a vase of water. On its scroll the word satura- huntur gives the key to the text, " Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled " (Matt. v. 6). WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 39 Modestia (Moderation). There is no word on scroll to explain the figure, but its attitude erect, with the palm of the hand turned outward, resembles that of this virtue in the cupola. There the text is, " Blessed are ye when men shall hate you " (Luke vi. 22), the word Modestia being used in its original sense of moderation or self- restraint. Karitas (Love). " The love of the Lord endures for ever " ; not an exact biblical quotation. Spes (Hope). Hands raised in hopefulness ; text, " Hope in God, all ye congregation . . . God is our helper" (Ps. Ixii. 8). The figures on the other side of the key- stone (spectator's right hand) are, in receding order from Constantia, ( Unknown). Not a letter of the text is left, and there is no means of identifying this virtue. Misericordia (Mercy). On the scroll can be deciphered part of the text, " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy " (Matt. V. 7). Benignitas (Benignity). This is uncertain, but the figure is like that of this virtue in the cupola, where its text is, " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth " (Matt. V. 5). 40 THE TITLE-PAGE Prudentia (Understanding). Holding a serpent in each hand. The text on the scroll of this virtue in cupola is, " By under- standing He established the heavens" (Prov. iii. 19). Temperantia (Temperance). Pouring water from a vase into a bowl. The writing on scroll is illegible, and in the cupola this figure is without a text. Fides (Faith). Figure with a sort of crown, and a lily behind her. Texts, " The just shall live by faith" (Rom. i. 17), "But faith without works is dead" (J as. ii. 17). Justitia (Justice). Figure holds up a pair of balances. Text, " The Lord is righteous and loveth righteousness " (Ps. xi. 7). Fortitudo (Fortitude). Tearing open a lion's jaws, with the text " The Lord breaks the great teeth of the lions" (Ps. Iviii. 6). Before passing to the uppermost archivolt that carries us onward in Christ's life and work, showing Him as the suffering Saviour, and as our Lord and Master, let me draw attention to the mosaic in the apse or semi-dome^ below it. It represents the Last Judgment, the introduc- tion of which breaks the harmony of the teaching of this part of our Title-page, besides which, the conception of the subject is utterly < -^ — . o H ^ Z " < ^ O Q WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 41 unscriptural, and the workmanship is of a poor order. There are figures of our Lord with Mary and John the Baptist, in the centre, a crowd of cherubs float over and around them, while before them is a paltry represen- tation, on the right hand, of those who love His appearing, and, on the left, of those who are afraid to meet Him. This is the most modern of the modern mosaics to which I referred on page 29, as displacing beautiful ancient ones. It was made in 1836-38, from cartoons of the painter Lattanzia Querena, by Laborio Salandri, a mosaic worker who had been punished pre- viously for bad workmanship. It displaced one on the same subject by Pietro Spagna, made in 1683-85. This again displaced the one, also of the Last Judgment, shown in Bellini's picture of our Title-page, made previous to 1496, which superseded the original one — the only one in harmony with the subjects of the sculptures, and perfectly adapted to this place on our page. As shown in the mosaic over St. Alipius's door, it was a beautiful Byzantine con- ception of our Lord as the Teacher. His half figure filled the whole apse. In His left hand He held the written word. His right was raised in the act of teaching, and blessing as He taught, whilst behind His head was a nimbus with the 42 THE TITLE-PAGE shadow of the cross on it, on either side of which was inscribed, in bold characters. His monogram, ^c x'x:. Originally, then, this part of our Title-page showed the Teacher and Lesson, the Preacher and the Sermon. 'The Uppermost Archivolt. — Li this Christ is represented, as I have said, as the Suffering Saviour, and as our Lord and Master. On the underside of the key-stone we see Him in the former aspect, symbolised as a Lamb, a Lamb that had been slain, for the cross is twice re- peated ; but yet as a Lamb in the midst of a throne, living and reigning, for the starry firma- ment is its canopy, a nimbus of glory is behind its head, and ministering angels stand around. On either side of the key-stone, covering the whole soffit of the archivolt, are representations of the trades of Venice. These we shall read in detail when considering, by-and-bye, what our Title-page has to tell us of the Venetians. But now we have to deal with the lessons which their positions, grouped around the suffering Saviour — He in their midst on the key-stone — is meant to teach us. Clearly one lesson is that in His humility He identified Himself with manual labour, not only learning a trade, but working at it, for, as St. Mark tells us (ch. vi. 3), He was known as the carpenter. BYZANTINE LATERAL DOORWAY (Rij;ht of Main Entrance) WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 43 And another lesson Is, that Christ has not with- drawn Himself from the world, but is present to hallow all work and all workers, so that monotony of labour need not become monotony of life. Raising now our eyes from the under- side to the outer, or external face of this archi- volt, we again see Jesus Christ carved upon the key-stone ; and, in harmony with the idea of mastership we have just expressed, He is no longer the Lamb, but the Master, for His whole aspect betokens authority and power, as, with His right hand raised. He commands and He blesses, whilst from a wealth of sculptured foliage, which, Mr. Ruskin says, " is of rarest chiselling; nothing like it in Europe of this (four- teenth century) date," Old Testament prophets on His right hand and on His left, direct, by their gaze, our attention to Him, and, by the scrolls which they hold in their hands, bear wit- ness to Him, as David's son, and David's Lord. {b) The Lateral Doorway. — Of the four lateral doorways, the two inner ones, that is, the two immediately to the right and left of the central doorway, correspond architecturally, and the two outer ones do the same. The former have Byzantine, and the latter Gothic arches. We shall begin with the Byzantine, and with the one to the right of the main entrance, or to 44 THE TITLE-PAGE the onlooker's left. On its key-stone is carved Jesus Christ. His left hand holds a book, and his right is raised in the attitude of blessing. Behind His head is a disc with the cross upon it, and below it is cut, in Greek letters, His monogram, i^ X-C On either side, in the spandrils of the arch, are prophets with scrolls. Turning now to the other Byzantine arch we see that, though the carving on its key-stone is somewhat defaced, it clearly repre- sents Jesus Christ. Here, too. He has the disc with the shadow of the cross on it behind His head, His left hand holds a book, and His right hand is raised in the attitude of blessing. On the spandrils are archangels with the letters S.M. ar. and S.G. ar., namely, St. Michael and St. Gabriel. St. Michael is set at Christ's right hand, because he is spoken of in Daniel as one of the chief princes, and because Jewish tradi- tion assigns to him the leadership of the angels who stand on the right of the throne. St. Gabriel who announced Christ's birth both to Daniel and to Mary, is set at His left hand, according to the same Jewish tradition that makes him leader of the angels that stand on the left of the throne. Turning now to the two outermost Gothic arches, we shall look first at the one to the right Photo by C. Xaya II'. H. llardO- Co. BYZANTIXE LATERAL DOORWAY (Left of Main Entrance) WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 45 of the main entrance, that is to the onlooker's left hand, and here again the lintel of the door, and its tympanum, as well as the arch itself, all witness to Jesus Christ. On the lintel are sculptured the Announcement of His birth to the shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, who present gifts, and His first miracle at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. In the tympanum there are the four creatures that symbolically stand for the four evangelists, each holding its book with a text, namely, the Ox of St. Matthew, the Lion of St. Mark, the Man of St. Luke, and the Eagle of St. John — all these sculptures are thirteenth-century work. Looking next at the companion Gothic door (now turned into a window), at the extreme left of the main entrance, we find that here, too, the lintel as well as the arch speaks of Christ. On the centre of the lintel His figure is carved in a medallion, with His monogram, i-C X^ ; and on the key-stone of the arch above He is carved a second time, and appears as the child Jesus in His mother's arms. Thus we see how the figure of Christ is carved three times over the central door, twice over the last-mentioned lateral one, and once over the other three ; how He is the key-stone of every arch of every door of the building ; 46 THE TITLE-PAGE how the church cannot be entered except by Him, who is here, always, and in all places, emphatically and conspicuously, the Door. (B) The Six Bas-Reliefs between these Doorways speak of Christ. — These six bas-reliefs of Greek marble, set in the spandrels of the porches of the doorways, are conspicuous objects on our Title-page, and they, too, testify of Christ. The two outermost represent four of the labours of Hercules. In the one, to the on- looker's left hand, he is wearing the skin of the Nemean lion which he has strangled, and has the wild Erymanthean boar on his shoulder, which he has captured and brought to Eurys- theus, king of Mycenae, who looks up at him beseechingly, from the tub-like hiding-place within which he crouches from fear. In the other, to the right, he similarly bears on his shoulder the Arcadian stag, with its golden antlers and brazen feet, which he wounded and caught after a year's chase, whilst he tramples underfoot the nine-headed Lernean Hydra. These two sculptures are of different epochs and of unequal merit. The first is excellent Roman workmanship of the third century, and the latter inferior Venetian of, it is supposed, the thirteenth. The presence of these pagan sculptures on our WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 47 Title-page looks at first sight incongruous, but it is not so. They teach the same lesson as that taught by the figures on the first archivolt of the great central door ; namely, the world's need of Jesus Christ. Hercules, tempted to choose a life of ease and self-indulgence, denied himself, and chose one of toil and suffering for the good of others. His life, however, had no regenerating influence. His labours have some- time been compared, as by St. Augustine in his De Civitate Dei, to those of Samson, but they represent little more than the brute force in man and nature, or, to use an expression of Mr. Ruskin's, " the war of the world before Christ came." In beautiful sequence, then, to the teaching of these pagan bas-reliefs, comes that of the next two on our Title-page, namely those between the porches of the lateral doorways, for they portray the coming of Christ, to make to cease this " war of the world." The one is a bas-relief of Mary, supposed to be of the eleventh century, and the other is of the angel Gabriel, probably of a century earlier. Mary stands with her hands raised in the Byzantine attitude of prayer, and above her head is written M^p 9Y, and thus she is invariably represented — always asking blessing, never bestowing it, and her monogram 48 THE TITLE-PAGE was always written as it is here. That is to say whilst the Greek my and rho are always united, the theta and ypsilon never are. Whilst, then, the first word is, of course, /nvrrip, the second is not, I believe, OfoO, and the translation is not that commonly given, " Mother of God," The 9, and Y, stand for Qeov Ylov, and therefore the translation is " Mother of the Divine Son." It is so read and translated in the Greek Church to this day ; and the Nestorians, the disciples of St. Thomas in Chaldea, India, and China, deny to Mary the title " Mother of God " and call her the " Mother of the man Christ Jesus." Above the head of Gabriel are the words Angelus Gabriel^ and he bears in one hand a long staff with a trefoiled head, and in the other a ball with a cross upon it, the emblems of authority, the latter still, as we know, the emblem of sovereignty. The two innermost bas-reliefs, one on either side of the main entrance, are, as the names inscribed on them tell us, of St. George and St. Demetrius. They are of thirteenth-century workmanship. Both saints are depicted as clothed in armour, seated, and in the act of sheathing their swords. They are two Greek warriors, armed knights of the cross, conquered by Christ, and conquering for Him. c; < w .a a H w u X ~ WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 49 (C) Christ is the Subject of all the Mosaics of the Upper Tier of Arches. (a) The Mosaics under the four Gothic Arches of this Tier speak of Him. — Reading them from left to right, they represent the following scenes — the Deposition from the Cross, Christ in Hades, the Resurrection, and the Ascension. As, however, they are com- paratively modern, forming part of those that displaced the Byzantine ones shown in Bellini's picture, and as we shall meet with ancient ones inside the church, treating the same subjects with fuller and truer significance, I shall des- cribe these here but briefly. 'I'he Deposition. — In this we see the Apostle John on the ladder that rests against the Cross, tenderly lowering the body of Christ into the arms of three aged men, probably two Apostles and Joseph of Arimathasa. Mary, and Mary the wife of Cleophas, stand beside the Cross, and the Magdalene, with a wealth of yellow hair, appears behind. Around the arch are inscribed the words in Leonine rhyme : De cruce descendo^ sepeliri cum necetendo^ Qu^e mia sit vita, jam surgam morte relita. Christ in Hades. — Our Lord is shown in the act of delivering souls from the prison- D 50 THE TITLE-PAGE house of Hades. Holding in one hand the banner of the Cross, with the other He is helping a captive, apparently Abraham, out of the dark nether-vault. Adam and Eve with their fig-leaf aprons, and Moses with the tables of the law, are standing free and happy, having been the first rescued. The inscription of this mosaic is : Visitat infernum^ regnum 'pro dando supernum^ Patribus aniiquis, dimissus Cristus iniquis, Quis fr actio portis^ spoliat me campis fortis ! "The Resurrection. — This mosaic shows Christ bursting the fetters of the tomb, and "many bodies of the saints which slept " coming up out of their graves. Some soldiers of the Roman Guard are asleep ; others, rudely awakened, are rushing off in terror. Our Lord bears in His hand a white banner, in the centre of which is the Lion of St. Mark with the gospel in its paw. This banner with its device recalls a tradition recorded by Stringer. In the old mosaic the banner bore a red cross, and during a war between Venice and Genoa, as the Genoese Ambassador was passing to the Ducal Palace he observed to Orsato Giustiniani, a patrician in whose company he was, that the Redeemer's banner was of good omen to Genoa as it bore WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 51 its arms — a red cross on a white ground. The patrician said nothing, but, quitting him at the palace, sent instantly for workmen, and had the red cross obliterated, and the Lion put in its place. When the Ambassador again passed through the Piazza from the palace his attention was drawn to the mosaic, when utterly amazed he saw that Christ had changed His banner for one of good omen for the Venetians. The inscription is : Crimina qui purgo, tridus de morte resurgo, Et mecum multi^ dudum rediere sepulti^ En verus fortis^ qui /regit vincula mortis. The Ascension. — The conception of all the subjects is poor, and this one extremely so. Christ is being parted from His disciples and Mary, who stand gazing at His vanishing form. The inscription is : Sum victor mortis, regno super athera fortis, Plausibus angelicis, laudibus et melicis. These mosaics are by Luigi Gaetano, who worked in St. Mark's during the first half of the seventeenth century. They were executed in 1 6 1 7- 1 6 1 8 , from cartoons prepared by MafFeo Verona ; but as pieces of stone were used in their construction instead of glass, they soon 52 THE TITLE-PAGE began to crumble away, and in recent times (1861) all were renewed. Between the arches over these mosaics, rise four tabernacles, whilst two others close them in, one on either side. On the bases of these latter are four other mosaics which also WITNESS to Christ. On that to the left of the onlooker are those of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Apostle to the Jews and the Apostle to the Gentiles, and the common founders of a Church which is Catholic, which knows no distinction and no preference, but only a universal brotherhood of all mankind in Christ ; on that to the right are those of St. Nicholas, who " sold his possessions and gave to the poor," and of St. Christopher, who, illustrating the principle that man will worship the noblest he can find, at last had his desire met in the service of Jesus, whom he is here represented bearing as a child on his shoulder across the swollen torrent. Christ is thus here borne witness to by clergy and laity, by preaching and teaching, by almsgiving and work. The mosaic of St. Christopher was made in 1678, and the others in this century, St. Nic- holas having been put up in 18 15, and St. Peter and St. Paul in 1894, replacing mosaics of these Apostles that had been destroyed about 1626. Photo by t. A'aya II'. H. Hardin Co. PATRIARCHS OX GREAT ARCHIVOLT of Central Window Photo by C, Nay a 1 1'. H. llardO- Co. EVANGELISTS ON GREAT ARCHIVOLT of Central Window WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 53 (D) Christ is the Subject of all the Sculptures of the Upper Tier of Arches. — (a) Looking first at the great archi- VOLT OF THE CENTRAL WINDOW it IS SCCn tO be richly sculptured, both on its outer face and its soffit. On the former, interspersed with the figures of the patriarchs and the early prophets, are scenes from the book of Genesis — the Creation of Adam, the Fall of Man, the Death of Abel, Noah quitting the Ark, and lastly, the Sacrifice of Abraham, thus carrying our thoughts onward to Him who came to offer himself a sacrifice for sin, and who is the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. On the latter side, the under, there are eight figures set in niches, four on the left half of the arch, and four on the right. The former are the patriarchs, Araham, Isaac, Jacob and Noah ; the others are the evangelists, Mark, John, Matthew and Luke, each without his symbol, but with his gospel in his hand. We thus have the witness of both the Old and the New Testaments to Jesus Christ. (b) Looking now at the six tabernacles to which I have referred, that rise from between the arches, and that flank them on either side, we see that each contains a figure, and all these six witness to Christ. The two under the outermost tabernacles, the oldest, set up in 54 THE TITLE-PAGE 1385, are those of Gabriel and of Mary kneeling, thus bringing before us the Annuncia- tion. The four figures under the inner taber- nacles are the Evangelists with their sacred symbols and books. Reading from left to right they occur in this order : St. Luke, St. Mark, St. John and St. Matthew. These figures thus bring before us Christ's incarnation and His earthly life in its fourfold aspect, as set before us in the gospels. It will be noticed that each Evangelist rests his book on the head of his respective symbol, Matthew's on the Ox, Mark's on the Lion, Luke's on the Man, and John's on the Eagle. They thus remind us of the " leading ideas " of the several gospels : Suffer- ing, Strength, Sympathy, and Sublimity ; that St. Matthew wrote of Christ as the Messiah of Old Testament type and prophecy, who came to labour and to suffer for mankind ; that St. Mark saw Him as the " strong man armed," who came to spoil the house of our oppressors, as the " Lion of the tribe of Judah ; " that St. Luke describes Him as " the son of man," full of human sympathy, who had " compassion on the multitude," and who " healed all their diseases ; " and that St. John shows Him as "the son of God/' who reveals to us the Father, and who makes us to see the invisible and the eternal, Photo by C. Nay a II : H. Ifardi:-' Co. TABERNACLE OF ST. LUKE P- 54 Photo by C, Xaja ir. H. Ward &■ Co TABERNACLE OF ST. MARK WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 55 (c) The twenty-four figures of the GOTHIC ornamentation OF THE LATERAL ARCHES, four enclosed in the ogees, four standing on the finials of these arches, and the others amongst their rich foliage, all witness to Christ. Those in the ogees do so by the words of the Book of the Testimony which they hold in their hands, whilst those on the finials are warrior saints, clad in armour, who have sealed their testimony with their blood. The whole number reminds us of the four and twenty elders who worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, who is set, as we shall see, high over them. This part of our Title-page was partly obliterated in the early years of the seventeenth century, and was then reprinted. in other words, the Gothic ornamentation was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1511, the figures on the finials having been thrown to the ground, and thus much of the sculpture only dates from that epoch. (d) Lastly, as we look upward to the apex of the great central arch, we see angels ascending amongst its Gothic ornamentation — those highest with censers and offerings in their hands gazing adoringly upward, those lower, with their arms folded and their bodies bent in worship — who direct our eye to Him who 56 THE TITLE-PAGE stands on the topmost pinnacle of the arch, on the very apex of the facade, alone in solitary majesty, a disc of glory round His head, His right hand raised in the act of blessing, and in His left hand an open Bible, with the message of salvation gleaming in letters of gold on its page — Him of whom our Title-page primarily and emphatically speaks, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is regrettable that in renewing these statues, after the earthquake above men- tioned, to this statue of Christ was given something of the appearance of St. Mark. Before quitting this part of our subject, let us pass the eye up and down the centre of our Title-page, and notice the gradation observed in the presentation of the character and work of the Lord Jesus Christ ; how these are exhibited as a continuous whole, of which the parts rise one above another, step by step. As Christ is revealed in the pages of the Bible itself, so is He revealed here. First, on the lowest archi- volt, there is an epitome of the world wrecked and ruined by sin, but destined to be renovated and restored by Jesus Christ, who is revealed to us, in the next archivolt above, as our Creator and our Teacher, on the one above that again as our Saviour and Master, and lastly, who Stands on the topmost pinnacle of all, as the Photo by C. A'aj'rt IV.H. Harder Co. TABERXACLE OF ST. JOHN P- 56 Photo by C. Naya "'■ "■ "'"'"' ^-^ Co. TABERNACLE OF ST. MAITHEW p. 56a WHAT IT SAYS OF CHRIST 57 Lord of Glory, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, receiving the united adoration of angels and archangels, patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, and elders, who cast their crowns before the throne saying, " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." CHAPTER II WHAT THE TITLE-PAGE SAYS OF ST. MARK Of the Evangelist to whom our Bible is dedi- cated, the Title-page has much less to say than of the Master, but still it tells us not a little. It speaks of him (A) in the gilded figure of the Lion with the Bible in its paw, set under the feet of Christ against a blue star-spangled back- ground, in the ogee above the great central window ; and it speaks of him (B) in the mosaics of the lower tier of arches. (A) The Lion speaks of St. Mark.— The symbol of the Lion, used by Ezekiel in the first chapter of his book of prophecies, and again by St. John in the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse, when describing the four living creatures before the throne, has, since the earliest Christian time, been associated with the Evangelist St. Mark. Some have expressed Photo by C. jXaya ir. H. Ward &■ Co. THE LION OF ST. MARK WHAT IT SAYS OF ST. MARK 59 surprise that this should be so. Mr. Ruskin, in his " Stones of Venice," speaking of St. Mark's journey with St. Barnabas, says, " If . . . . the spirit of prophecy had entered into the heart of the weak disciple who had turned back when his hand was on the plough, and who had been judged by the chiefest of Christ's captains un- worthy thenceforward to go forth with him to the work, how wonderful would he have thought it that, by the Lion symbol, in future ages he was to be represented among men." But the anomaly disappears when it is considered that the symbol, primarily, does not represent the Evangelist, but the view he exhibits of Jesus Christ in his gospel. It is not, in the first place, St. Mark who is the Lion, but it is Christ as seen and exhibited by him. An examination of St. Mark's gospel shows this. In it he sets forth Christ's life in deeds, not in discourses, in works, not in words. Pass- ing over the genealogy and infancy, he begins by recording the public life of our Lord. And in his record he tells us little of what He said, but much of what He did. Omitting the Sermon on the Mount, and all the parables but four, he relates all the miracles the other Evan- gelists relate, filling them out with fresh particu- lars of his own, and he adds two miracles not 60 THE TITLE-PAGE recorded by them. He thus represents Christ as the " strong man armed," " the Lion of the tribe of Judah." In a secondary sense, however, the Lion symbol has reference to the Evangelist, and not inaptly when we consider that, though he failed at first with St. Paul, he afterwards re- gained that apostle's confidence, for he was with him at Colosse (Col. iv. lo), and writing to Timothy (2 Tim. iv, 11) from Rome, St. Paul says, " Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry." Again, he afterwards attached himself to St. Peter, becoming his secretary, or amanuensis, and travelling with him to Babylon and to Egypt, and, as we shall see, visiting even these Venetian shores on his missionary journeys, enduring hardships and encountering dangers. St. Peter calls him " my son," and some have thought that this expresses a natural as well as a spiritual relation- ship, because in love of the present, in a practical way of looking at things, in a warmth of nature, and in zeal and a somewhat presump- tuous courage, which sometimes led to con- spicuous failure, they had much in common. Then St. Mark was the very first to write the life of our Lord. Although it is not all likely that he ever saw Jesus — indeed John the Elder, who lived in the apostolic age, is reported, on WHAT IT SAYS OF ST. MARK 61 the testimony of Papias, to have said, " He neither heard the Lord nor followed Him " — he yet was the very first to write our Saviour's life. His gospel, founded on St. Peter's oral teaching and preaching, is considered to be the earliest we possess, both as to contents and composition, having been written after the deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, but before St. Matthew or St. Luke had put pen to paper. For all these reasons St. Mark may well be represented by the symbol of the Lion. At the same time it was probably not till the thirteenth century that his symbol was used by the Venetians on their banners, and not till the beginning of the fourteenth that it appeared on their coins. Pre- vious to these dates, he was always represented standing, holding in his right hand his labarum, and in his left his gospel. The present Lion of St. Mark was only put up in 1826, the ancient one having been destroyed at the fall of the Republic in 1797. On the pages of the Gospel in the paw or the Lion are the words. Pax tibi Marce Evangelista Metis (Peace to thee, O Mark, my Evangelist), which salutation tells us of an interesting traditional incident in the life of the Evangelist, which linked him prophetically with Venice. The story is that St. Mark, whilst 62 THE TITLE-PAGE evangelising in Egypt as the companion and amanuensis of St. Peter, was sent by the Apostle on a missionary journey round the eastern and northern coasts of the Adriatic. The Evange- list, accompanied by his friend and companion St. Hermagorus, reached Aquileia, then a flourishing maritime city and a favourite residence of the Roman emperors, where he must have spent some time, for there are to this day many traditions regarding him, one of which is that it was at the request of the Aquileians that he compiled his gospel. On leaving Roma Secunda^ as Aquileia was then called, the ship that carried the Evangelist was caught in a storm, and driven westward and southward amongst the islands of the lagoons, where it ran aground on the one on which now stands the church of San Francesco della Vigna (St. Francis of the Vineyard), which would be one of the first reached coming from the north-east. There, as he lay in the boat asleep, waiting for the rising tide to float it off^, he received a vision. An angel appeared and addressed to him the salutation that appears on the open pages of the book, " Peace to thee, O Mark, my Evangelist," adding, " A great city will arise here to thy honour." Four centuries passed, and the prophecy received a partial WHAT IT SAYS OF ST. MARK 63 fulfilment, when the Goths and Vandals, and finally the Huns, under Attila, by burning Aquileia, Altinum, Concordia, Padua, and other mainland towns, forced their inhabitants to fly for dear life to the lagoon islands, where, building for themselves new homes, they founded the great city of Venice. Another four centuries passed, and then the prophecy received a complete fulfilment in the dedication of the city to St. Mark. How that came about, and many other things regarding the Evangelist, we learn from the mosaics of the lower tier of arches. (B) The Mosaics of the Lower Tier of Arches speak of St. Mark. — These mosaics are eight in number. Three are in each of the two porches to the right of the main entrance (from the onlooker's point of view), and are supposed to have been executed in the latter half of the seventeenth century. The remaining two are in the porches to the left, of which one was made in the beginning of the eighteenth, and the other above the door of St. Alipius in the early thirteenth century, which .forms a part of our earliest Title-page. The subject of these mosaics is the bringing of the body of St. Mark to Venice, the setting him over the city in the place of St. Theodore, and 64 THE TITLE-PAGE the construction and dedication to him of our Bible. The story runs round the porches from right to left. The first mosaic, in tht farthest off porch to the rights opens the story by taking us to the Port of Alexandria, in the year 829, and show- ing us two good Venetian sea-captains, Buono of Malamocco and Rustico of Torcello, with very furtive looks, bearing away a dead body out of its sarcophagus. It is that of the Evangelist St. Mark, who is believed to have been the first Bishop of Alexandria, and there to have died a martyr's death. These Venetians, finding that the Mohammedans were destroy- ing the Christian church where St. Mark was buried, to carry off its columns and marbles to build their own mosques, and, remembering the prophecy about his future connection with their city, conceived the idea of possessing themselves of his body, and bearing it off to Venice. By the help of Theodorus, a priest, and Stauracius, a monk, the custodian of the church, they were enabled to begin their enterprise, as seen in this mosaic. There is some reason for thinking that the then reigning Doge, Giustiniano Partecipazio, was a party to the undertaking, because the monk Stauracius came to Venice with the sea-captains, and was received by him, WHAT IT SAYS OF ST. MARK 65 and afterwards was made primicerio of St. Mark's church. The chief difficulty Buono and Rustico had to face was the getting of their prize through the customs without detection, and the next mosaic shows how they accom- plished it. A Venetian is holding open the lid of a large basket, and a turbaned Mohammedan, who holds his nostrils, is looking at the contents, whilst another turns away in an attitude of disgust and contempt. The basket is heaped up with swine's flesh, but securely stowed away beneath it is St. Mark's body. In the third mosaic the mariners have the body safely on board their good ship, and, wrapped in a sail, it is being hoisted to the masthead for greater security. The inscription printed under these mosaics, although no longer legible, was the following : Tollitur ex arca^ Furtim Marcni Patriarca, ^uem sporio ponunt^ Games caulesque reponunty Canzir dicentes^ Marcum vitant referenteSy In barcam corpus^ Mittunt ex rupe deorsum. Passing to the next porch ^ that immediately to E 66 THE TITLE-PAGE the righl of the main entrance^ we see in its first mosaic the Venetian sailors, now that they are well out at sea, lowering St. Mark's body- on to the deck, that their ship may speed on its way homeward under full press of sail. In the second mosaic of this porch the ship is nearing Venice, and the Patriarch and clergy and a crowd of people are going down to the shore to meet it. In the third mosaic men are carrying the body of the Evangelist on their shoulders up the steps of the quay. The legend inscribed on this porch was as follows : De scapha sportam tollunt^ Velisque reponunt^ Presbyter has turbas Verens non Ipadit ad urnas Clam monacus Marcvm sequitur, Quern thure recondunt^ Tellus adest naute^ Die velum ponite caute. The mosaic which covers three sides of the third porch^ that immediately to the left of the main entrance^ a splendid work by Dal Pozzo, sets before us the state reception of St. Mark's body, and his installation as patron of the city. In the central part the body of the Evangelist is lying in state, draped with a blue pall, while WHAT IT SAYS OF ST. MARK 67 the Doge, Giustiniano Partecipazio, and the Senators of the Republic stand around it ; in that to the right are attendants, with banners and emblems of state, and in that to the left is the public, looking on with joyful interest. The prophecy made to the shipwrecked Evan- gelist had now received a complete fulfilment, for not only had a great city arisen, but it had arisen to his honour. Thenceforth the name St. Mark was almost synonymous with that of the Republic. The following inscription was written round the porch, and one-half of it is still legible : Corpore suscep^o, Gaudent modulamine recto^ Currentes latum, Venerantur honore locatum, Et T)ucis, et cleri, Topuli processio meri Ad theatrum cantuque Plausuque ferunt sibi sanctum. In the mosaic of the fourth porch over the door of St. Alipius, the body of St. Mark is being carried into the church that has been built expressly to receive it. The occasion is one of supreme importance to Venice, and she is observing it with a glad, though solemn and 68 THE TITLE-PAGE imposing, ceremonial. All the nobility of the city are gathered in the seven-fold porches of the building, as a guard of honour to escort the Evangelist's body to its resting-place in the crypt within. The coffin, open and with the pall thrown back, so as to show St. Mark's head, is being borne in procession across the threshold of the main portal of the church, on the shoulders of distinguished citizens. Two bishops, with their croziers, stand beside it, whilst immediately behind, heading the pro- cession, is the Doge in his rich robe, followed by senators and officials in authority. To the left are groups of ladies, wearing crowns, and clothed in blue and green dresses covered with golden stars. Around the arch of the porch are inscribed the words : Collocat hunc dignis plebs laudibus et colit hymnis^ Ut Venetos semper servet ab hoste suos. The Body of St. Mark has had, I may here say, five resting-places in Venice, one in the Ducal Palace, and four inside the church. It was deposited in the palace when first brought from Alexandria, and there it remained three years, till the church was ready to receive it. The place of its custody is said to have been a tower in the < 5 O • o Q o < a < ? I i WHAT IT SAYS OF ST. MARK 69 north-west angle of the building, part of which is still standing, having been utilised for the south and west walls of the Treasury. No doubt, as has been suggested by Raffaele Cattaneo, this was done to preserve a building associated with the Evangelist. The second resting-place was the crypt of the church newly erected by Partecipazio — the First or Ninth-century Edition of our Bible. There it remained a hundred and forty-four years, till the church was partly destroyed in the burning of the Ducal Palace in 976. When describing the basilica (see page 12), I said that this ancient crypt had been recently re-opened and cleared out. This took place in 18 90, and it was rendered accessible in 1892. It is a curious, three-chambered, perfectly dark construction. One chamber, the central, measures twenty-four feet by sixteen, and the others which are to right and left of it, and are entered by small doorways, measure respectively fourteen and eleven feet by six. All have vaulted roofs, the central one being sustained on two free columns, and eight pilasters built into the walls. In this one is the old garden well. The floor of the crypt is two feet eight inches below the average high-water of the canals, that is to say, it preserves the old level of the Piazza. The 70 THE TITLE-PAGE third resting-place of St. Mark's body, where it remained concealed from 976 to 1094, is uncertain. Two places in the church are said to have contained it. One is the large pilaster that sustains the south-east corner of the central cupola in the south transept. The south side of this pilaster bears a panel of rich mosaic decoration, with a lamp in its centre, which marks the spot from which, tradition says, the body was taken in 1094. When showing me this, however, the present architect of the church, Signor Saccardo, said that he had had the pilaster stripped of its incrustation, and that he found it had never been disturbed since the church was built. The other supposed hiding-place of the body is a column shown in a mosaic on the west wall of this same transept. The fourth resting-place of St. Mark's remains was the new crypt of Contarini's church, the present one, into which it was borne in 1094, that is, twenty-three years after the church was re-built. This crypt is under the chancel, and the two adjoining chapels to north and south of it. It measures ninety feet by seventy. Its roof is groined, and is supported by fifty-six columns of Greek marble with beautiful capitals. In the centre there is a square cell built up from floor to ceiling. Its upper part has carved and perforated stone walls, WHAT IT SAYS OF ST. MARK 71 like windows, one of which is reached by three steps worn by the feet of pilgrims. St. Mark's body was placed in this cell, or, to use its technical name, Confessione, which signifies a place, not where confessions were made, but which contained the remains of a Confessor — one who had " witnessed a good confession." In the Confessione there was placed a leaden plate stating that this sepulchre was made " in the year of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ 1094, in the 8 th day of the current month October, in the reign of the Doge Vital Falier." Here the body remained till 1 8 1 1 , that is, for the long period of seven hundred and seventeen years. The fifth resting-place of the body was under the high altar in the chancel of the present church, and there it still remains. In January 181 1, the massive stone work of the Confessione^ in the crypt below, was broken into and a wooden coffin disclosed. No inscription was outside, but there was one on an enclosing stone which unfortunately the workmen had cut into. Of this inscription there were clearly legible the letters S. MA. In May the coffin was opened by the permission of the Govern- ment, and in the presence of its representatives, when the chief parts of a human skeleton were found, bones, skull, and teeth, the plate of lead 72 THE TITLE-PAGE above referred to, an ornamented box of balsam, coins and relics. On September 30th all these things were once more sealed up in a new coffin, and deposited, as I have said, under the high altar. Before leaving the subject of the crypts, I may say that the great difficulty connected with them has been the keeping them free from water, a difficulty that increases constantly, owing to a general, though slow subsidence, that is always taking place. However, from the time of their construction till the third quarter of the sixteenth century they were tolerably free from water, and a Brotherhood, that of the Mascoli (Males), held their meetings in the newer one, from 1 21 2 till 1580. Since then they have been more or less under water until 1892, when Signor Saccardo, who had been concentrating his engineering skill upon the problem for many years, at last mastered it, and they are now, though necessarily chill and damp, completely free from water, and are maintained in perfect order. They are lighted by electricity, but only opened to the public once a year, on April i^\h.\ St. Mark's Day. Travellers may, however, obtain access to them at other times. Such is the slory our Title-page has to tell us of the Evangelist St. Mark. Part of it is WHAT IT SAYS OF ST. MARK 73 founded on historic fact, and part of it on tradition, but all together it tells us how it was that the Venetians came to build this church and dedicate it to him, how it was they came to print this Bible, and to write his name on it, how, in fact, it was that we to-day possess this glorious Bible of St. Mark. (I may here say that the story of St. Mark is inscribed again — twice over, indeed — within the walls of the church. These records, however, I have thought it best to give separately, in an Appendix, at the end of the book. See Notes A. and B.) CHAPTER III WHAT THE TITLE-PAGE SAYS OF THE VENETIANS As title-pages have always something to say of the makers of the books to which they are pre- fixed, so is it with this of St. Mark's Bible. It tells us something of the old Venetians to whom we owe the volume. Directly it says very little about them, for its makers were of those who Raised a church to God, and not to fame, Nor ever spoilt the marble with a name. Their spirit is seen in the law they passed that no monument should be raised to any Venetian in sight of the public, as all were equally worthy citizens. Latterly, monuments in the shape of "Stones of Infamy," were erected to criminals, and many of them are still to be seen affixed to the walls of the Doge's Palace, and of other public buildings. However, one name we do WHAT IT SAYS OF THE VENETIANS 75 find on the facade of the church, but only one. It is on one of the bronze doors to the left of the main entrance, and is as follows : + MCCC. Magister Bertucius Aurifex Venetus me fecit. There is also but one portrait, or what is sup- posed to be a portrait, of a Venetian on our Title- page. It is on the left hand basement-stone of the archivolt, over the central door, that records the trades of Venice. It is supposed to be that of the architect of the church. The story is that he had undertaken to construct a perfect building, and, as a special favour, the Republic ordered that this stone should remain uncarved until the church was finished, when it should receive his likeness. When that time came the church seemed perfect, but the architect in an unguarded moment confessed to a friend that in some points he had made mistakes, and that he had failed to realise his ideal. This coming to the ear of the Doge he ordered that his failure should be made manifest in his portrait. Accord- ingly it was done, and thus it exhibits wisdom and strength, for his head is noble, but also weakness and disappointment, for he is repre- sented as a cripple, with crutches under his arms, reclining weariedly in a chair, biting his finger with chagrin. But if, directly, our Title-page tells us little of 76 THE TITLE-PAGE the Venetians, indirectly it tells us much. The two archivolts over the central door that illus- trate (A) The Trades of Venice and (B) The Months of the Year, with Christ on their key-stones, throw a flood of light on the old Venetian character. Looking at them as a whole they show us that the Venetians dedicated their Work and their Time to Christ. They show us that they realized religion not to be a thing of isolated observances, not of intellectual assent to truth, nor of dreamy mysticism, but of something that entered into daily life, and hallowed all time and all labour. They show us that as the Venetians realized Christ to be the key-stone of their church, so they realized consecration to Him to be the key-note of their lives, obeying the injunction, "Whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." This assertion receives confirmation when we look at their coins, which bear on one side the image and superscription of the reigning Doge, but on the other those of Jesus Christ ; or, when we look at the inscription, carved so that all might read it, on the gable wall of the first church that was ever built in Venice (that of San Giacomo in the market-place of the Rialto), which is as legible to-day as when it was put up a thousand years ago, and which, Mr. Ruskin says, it was the WHAT IT SAYS OF THE VENETIANS 77 joy of his life to discover : " Around this temple let the merchant's laws be just, his balances true, and his covenants faithful." Looking at these archi volts in detail we learn not a little about the occupations, habits, and modes of life of these old Venetians. We shall read the Trades Archivolt first. (A) The Trades Archivolt speaks of the Venetians. — The rule that held amongst the Jews that every boy should be taught a trade, was in force also amongst the Venetians. Those who neglected it and grew up ignorant of a handi- craft, were calltd feccia (dross or dregs), but of such, happily, there never were many in the best days of the Republic. In Venice trades of all kinds were rapidly developed, and as early as the tenth century trade guilds were formed. Each guild, like the foreign colonists settled in Venice, had its scuola (chapter-house, or Guildhall), usually large and beautiful build- ings, and the greatest Venetian masters, Carpaccio, Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, the Palmas and others, painted pictures for their walls, for the guilds became extremely wealthy. It has been suggested, and the suggestion is probably correct, that these guilds had the representations of their trades on this archivolt, which we are about to examine, done at their 78 THE TITLE-PAGE own expense. The scuola buildings, for the most part are still standing, but only one retains its pictures — that of the Sclavonians, San Giorgio degU Schiavoni^ decorated by Carpaccio. The old guilds have all long since disappeared, but one has recently been re-formed, which meets in its old seat in the once famous scuola of San Giovanni Evangelista. In these scuole the guilds used to regulate the affairs of their trade ; to examine apprentices, who, having finished their terms of study and service, offered themselves for membership ; to dispense charity to the aged or sick, and to help the widows and orphans of members who had died. All these trans- actions were regulated by a code of statutes, made by each guild, and called the Mariegola — a word about whose derivation there has been much discussion, but clearly from madre-regola (mother-law), akin to matriculation. But all the transactions of the guilds were open to Government inspection, and their laws did not become valid until they had been approved by the Giustizieri Vecchii and the Proveditori di Comun. In St. Mark's Library there is a summary of the rules drawn up in 1182, by these State officials, for the regulation of the guilds. The term used in Venice for a handicraft, when WHAT IT SAYS OF THE VENETIANS 79 our Title-page was printed, was arte^ which tells us that the distinction between artist and artisan was then unknown. The baker who baked good bread, and the shoemaker who made good shoes, were artists (and they are still called so in Venice at the present day), and thus they came into the same category as Titian and Bellini. The beautifully carved and painted chests, in which brides carried their trousseaux^ used to be exposed for sale in the Piazza of St. Mark, and these great masters would go there to paint them. Architecture, sculpture, and stone cutting formed one arte^ and thus Pietro Lombardo and his sons associated with stone- masons in their guild. The architects Lombardo and, in later days, Canova, even had boteghi (shops), where they worked, and sold their goods. Altogether there are fourteen ard represented on our archivolt, seven on either side of Christ. These fourteen, however, represent double that number of trades or occupations, for, as there was not the subdivision of labour there is to-day, each ard really included many branches that are now considered separate handicrafts. Reading round the archivolt, from left to right, they occur in the following order. {a) Architecture. — This is the first arte of which it speaks, and it does so through the 80 THE TITLE-PAGE portrait of the architect to which I have already referred. It is an arte worthy of this place of honour, even if we have regard to its develop- ment in Venice alone ; and the architect of this facade, who is thought to have been one Filippo Calendario, was, in spite of his failings, not un- worthy to represent it. The inscription on Sir Christopher Wren's tomb in St. Paul's is equally applicable to Filippo Calendario, Si monu- mentum requ^ris circumspice. And the whole city of Venice — a city of palaces, built in the sea on shifting mud and sand, that have stood the wear and tear of centuries, and whose strength and symmetry and beauty are to-day the admira- tion of the world — is the proof of the knowledge and skill in architecture possessed by these old Venetians. {b) Boat-building. — This is represented by three men, squeraroli^ two of whom are on their knees under a boat working at it with hammer and wedges, whilst the third stands in it with an auger in his hand. There is also a female figure in the boat with a basket of food. The conditions of life of the Venetians, which constrained them to become great archi- tects, constrained them also to become great boat-builders. Their streets are canals, their carriages are gondolas and sandolos, and their Photo by C. J\iaya II .H. ira>d&-Cc TRADES ARCH 1 VOLT (Architecture, Boat-building, Wiue-selling, Baking) p. 80 WHAT IT SAYS OF THE VENETIANS 81 carts and barrows are burchii^ peate, and topi. The Grand Canal is a national highway, kept in order by the Italian Government. Many of the ancient boat-building yards, still called by the old Venetian name, squero, yet exist in various parts of the city, and are amongst the most picturesque and characteristic bits of Venice, so that the boat-building scene depicted on this archivolt can be seen in real life. But there must have been a very large number at one time, for many streets bear the name Calie dello Squero^ where no boat-yard exists. The squero has disappeared, the name remains, to mark where it once was. The fleets of Venice, for commerce and for warfare, filled the neighbouring seas, and a visit to the old Arsenal helps one to realize how the Republic could keep afloat six fleets of merchant ships, numbering five hundred sail each ; and how, after a disastrous battle, she could build a fleet of war-ships in less than a year's time. Venice took the place, in ship-building, that England takes to-day. (c) Wine-selling. — In the representation of this trade there are five figures arranged in two groups. In the lower one a magazzenier (wine-seller) is drawing wine into a jug from a barrel, evidently to the order of a woman, who F 82 THE TITLE-PAGE stands leaning against it, with a dish in her hand, whilst a man sits a few paces off drinking the wine he has already bought. The upper group consists of two men carrying a large tub of wine, by means of a stout bar of wood run through its handles, the ends of which rest on their shoulders. Because of the narrowness of the Venetian streets, or calli as they are called, this is the only way heavy loads can be carried along them. Both groups are as true to life to-day, as when carved long centuries ago. {d) Baking. — The representation of this trade is similar in conception to the former one. There are two groups of two persons each. In the lower one, which is the chief, a forner (baker) is selling bread. On a stool before him there stands a big basket heaped up with loaves, exactly like those baked in Venice to-day. Beside him a woman holds out her apron, and he is putting bread into it. She has evidently been marketing, for a bunch of fish dangles from her hand by her side. In the upper group two men are carrying bread in baskets, one having his on his head, and the other bearing his in his arms straight in front of him, a mode of carry- ing necessitated, as in the case of the wine-seller, by the narrowness of the streets. WHAT IT SAYS OF THE VENETIANS 83 (e) Trade of the Butcher. — This repre- sentation shows the killing of animals, and the selling of meat. In the lower part there is a beccher (butcher), with a knife in his hand raised above the head of an ox, whilst behind him is a ram, with great curling horns, that has been brought also to meet its fate. In the upper part stands an assistant with an axe chop- ping off meat for a woman, and above him another carries a large sheep entwined around his neck. (/) Milk and Cheese-selling. — Venice, like a well-equipped ship, has always had a few good milch kine on board, but still its main milk supply has ever to be drawn from the neighbouring islands in the lagoons, and from mainland villages. The milk is sold chiefly in the streets, being carried about from door to door in large glass bottles, that are set upright in wicker baskets. Here we have the scene before us. A man has just such a basket at his feet, and, having filled his measure from one of its glass bottles, is pouring the milk into a pignat (an earthenware pot) in a woman's hand. The upper group represents two lads cutting and weighing cheese. {g) Stone-masonry and Brick-laying. — In Venice these two trades, as here represented, 84 THE TITLE-PAGE form but one, for whilst there is no house ex- clusively built of brick, nor any exclusively of stone, both materials enter largely into their composition. The foundations, which are always the most expensive part of a building, are of massive blocks of stone, resting on piles of wood; and the walls are invariably built of brick, but are usually bound together here and there with pieces of stone, and often incrusted, at least on the front, with marble, in slabs, or, as the case with the Doge's Palace, in the form of large bricks. The difficulties to be overcome in raising palaces and churches on shifting mud and sand, amidst flowing water, necessitated good builders, and the guild of this craft took care that such its members should be. A boy could not be apprenticed before he was four- teen, and he had to serve a term of five years. Even after that he could not pursue his arte until he had built a window and a chimney to the satisfaction of the guild. This was not an easy task, as the latter, not less than the former, is a very decorative and characteristic feature of a Venetian house, often running up the out- side, overhanging the street, and developing into a miniature temple, castle, or palace on the top. The stability of Venetian houses is proved by the green old age of numbers of WHAT IT SAYS OF THE VENETIANS 85 them that have weathered the storms of cen- turies. The foundations rarely give way, and a good illustration of the solidity of the walls is afforded by Palazzo Foscari, on the Grand Canal. This was the largest private palace in Venice, with more windows than there are days in the year, and yet when the Commune bought it to turn it into a Commercial College, we are told they did not find that a pound of iron, or a pound of lead had been used to tie it to- gether. The lagoons of Venice furnished clay for the making of brick, and we find that in 1326 a decree was passed, authorising kilns to be erected, and offering a bounty to those who should make bricks according to a certain measurement. Venice, however, had no stone or wood, but very early in her history she obtained possession of Istria, across the Adriatic, which afforded her inexhaustible stores of both materials. All her foundations are of Istrian stone. The Dolomite Highlands, as well as Istria, gave her timber for the piles, to make which whole forests were used. In the repre- sentation of stone-masonry and brick-laying we see a house in course of erection. The massive stone foundations have been laid, and two builders, with plummets, trowels, and hammers, are engaged upon the walls, whilst, at the foot of 86 THE TITLE-PAGE an inclined plane, a labourer is preparing to ascend to them with a load of bricks on his shoulder. We have travelled up one half of the archi- volt to the key-stone, on which, as we have already seen, the figure of Jesus Christ as the Lamb (p. 42) is carved. Descending, then, the other half, there are the following trades : {h) Shoemaking. — Here there is a com- plete picture of a shoemaker's shop. One calegher (cobbler) sits sewing pieces of leather together on his knee, another fits a boot on a last, whilst, lying scattered about, or hanging on the walls, are lasts, awls, a heap of wax, and a pair of finished boots. {i) Barber- Surgery. — This is a repre- sentation of the old combination of barber and surgeon. But the ambition of the trade has led it to throw the less dignified branch of the business rather into the back-ground, and to give undue prominence to the other. The duties of the barber are only sug- gested by a pair of scissors, and a looking- glass hanging on the wall, whilst those of the surgeon are represented by two harbieri per- forming what were then important operations. One is applying leeches by means of a tube to a man's temples. The other has got a poor Photo by C. A'iiya *.,r //■. //. Ilar.i &■ Co. TRADES ARCH 1 VOLT (Wood-sawing, Blacksmith, Fishing) WHAT IT SAYS OF THE VENETIANS 87 patient's head firmly wedged under his left arm, whilst with, his right he pulls vigorously at a tooth, which is locked in the grasp of an enormous forceps, (k) Cooperage. — This ar^e is represented by three botteri (coopers), the most conspicuous of whom, apparently the master, in tightly- fitting clothes and wearing a large-brimmed hat, is fixing hoops on a barrel, by means of a chisel and a hammer ; the other two, presumably apprentices, are making hoops, one having a finished one in his hand, and another, on his shoulder, a coil of the withes with which the hoops are made. (/) Carpentry. — Here is a marangon (carpenter), and his gar zone (apprentice). The former is trimming the bough of a tree with an adze, and the latter is splitting a board or plank with an axe. Carpentry has always been, and still is, one of the chief industries of Venice, It takes the form to-day chiefly of furniture- making and wood-carving. {m) Wood-sawing. — The sawing of wood forms a distinct arte in Venice, and gives employment to very many people. The reason is that the thousands of trees which are felled annually in the great forests that clothe the slopes of the Dolomite mountains are cut into rafters 88 THE TITLE-PAGE and planks by the saw-mills on the Piave, and, formed into rafts, are floated down^this torrent- river to Venice, partly for home use, but mainly for exportation. The great quay that forms the north side of the Giudecca Canal is called the Zattere^ or the place of rafts. A wood-yard is called terreno (a piece of land), and the whole of the north-west side of Venice is filled with terreni. Titian's family were wood-merchants of Pieve di Cadore, and the great painter had always a share in the family saw-mill. The represen- tation of this arte connects the trade with Venice and the Dolomite Highlands. An axe fixed in a tree trunk, with the woodman's repast in a basket hanging on one of its branches, suggests the latter, whilst two segadori (sawyers), busily engaged sawing a piece of wood with a cross-cut saw, suggest the former. {n) Arte of the Smith. — Working in iron forms now, as it did when our Title-page was made, one of the chief industries of Venice. There is still the Calle dei Fahri (street of the Smiths) running out of the Piazza of St. Mark, and forges exist in every quarter of the city. As early as 1354 a law was passed prohibiting the importation of manufactured iron goods, as so many forges had been started on the main- land that the city trade was being hurt. The WHAT IT SAYS OF THE VENETIANS 89 arte of the smith included then, as now, copper- working, bell-casing, gun-manufacturing, tool- making, and commerce in iron. The Dolomite Tyrol that supplied Venice with wood, also furnished it with iron and copper ore, though now the mines are nearly all closed. The scene that represents this trade is a facsimile of what exists in Venice to-day. Two men, an elder one in a fur cap and big shoes, and a younger one, are working at an anvil. The former is holding with his left hand, by means of a huge pair of pincers, a piece of red-hot iron, whilst with the other arm he swings a hammer on it to the alternate stroke of his assistant. (o) Fishing. — This is the last but not the least important of the arti here represented ; indeed, if we look at it from a commercial point of view, it is one of the most important. The first settlers in the lagoons were fishermen, and a very large number of the inhabitants of Venice, and of the islands around, are fishermen still. And fish is for the Venetians both a staple article of food, and an important article of commerce. I may here say that the common notion that fish are caught in the canals, and that, as these receive the sewage of the city, they are consequently more or less unwholesome, is a wrong one. The canals are not generally 90 THE TITLE-PAGE fished in except by the very poor ; nor, indeed, would it be worth while doing so, as owing to the constant passage of boats, and probably also to the impurity at times of the water, there is little to be found in them. The fish are taken from the lagoons and from the Adriatic. In the lagoons artificial means are used for their reten- tion and propagation by the construction of what are called Valli. This term suggests to the mind the English valley^ and although valli really do form depressions or valleys in the bed of the lagoons, the word is not from vallis, a valley, but from vallus, a stake or palisade, because such places are staked or fenced around to prevent the escape of the fish. They are of very ancient origin, and in certain charts of the lagoons, dated 1 1 1 8 and 1 1 8 1 , they are called acqua chiuse (closed waters). There are some sixty of these valli existing now, and there were no fewer centuries ago. All kinds of fish are caught in sea and lagoon, some hundred and fifty varieties in all, almost all of which are eaten, for scarcely any fish comes wrong to a Venetian. One of the sights of the city is the frigipesce^ or fried-fish shops, at which thousands of the poorer people buy their daily food. At these places all kinds of small fish are cooked in boiling oil, and a handful of them, with an WHAT IT SAYS OF THE VENETIANS 91 added pinch of salt, can be bought for a penny. This, with a slice of yellow polenta (a sort of pease-pudding made of Indian corn), sold also at tho. frigipesce for a few centimes, forms a whole- some and nourishing diet. In the archivolt the fish are represented being caught by net and harpoon. The latter instrument is chiefly used now for catching eels, of which the take is enormous. Above this archivolt stand the famous horses referred to on page 28, .... the four steeds divine, That strike the ground, resounding with their feet, And from their nostrils snort etherial flame Over that very porch. And on the red marble edge of the apse imme- diately below it, there is an inscription giving the following facts regarding them. They were brought from Constantinople when that city was captured by the Venetians under Enrico Dandolo in 1204, they were first taken to the Arsenal, and then placed where they now stand ; they were carried by Napoleon to Paris in 1797, and they were finally restored to Venice by Francis I. in 1 8 1 5. Other facts regarding them are these. The copper of which they are made is almost pure, and they still bear the traces of gilding. They are supposed by some authorities to be from the 92 THE TITLE-PAGE hands of the famous Greek sculptor, Lysippus, who lived in the fourth century before Christ ; and to have been brought from Chios to Con- stantinople by the Emperor Theodosius II., who placed them in the Hippodrome of that city. Others, however, believe them to be of Roman workmanship, and to have adorned, at Rome, the triumphal arches of Nero and his successors until the time of Constantine, who carried them to Constantinople and assigned them their place on the Hippodrome. At any rate from Constantinople, as the inscription records, they were brought to Venice. They are, as I have already remarked, the only example extant of the horses of a Greek or Roman quadriga. Horses being placed in St. Mark's and in other churches, such as the Frari and S. Giovanni e Paolo are a reminiscence of the far-back time when they were common in Venice. That they were so we learn from various sources. There are laws on the old statute books for the regulation of their use in the narrow streets. Old pictures show the cavalcades that once traversed the city, and the tournaments held in the Piazza of St. Mark — a glowing description of which Petrarch has left us. The standard- bearer of Bajamonte Trepolo, the conspirator, was on horseback when killed near the church '-»t ii CO < h if) CHAPTER VI THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH THIRD CUPOLA What is true of many manuscripts is especially true of St. Mark's ; the material is precious and the space limited, and therefore contractions and even omissions of the text have to be made. It is not surprising, then, that our history makes a leap from Abraham to Joseph, simply linking the two together by mentioning Isaac in connection with the former, and Jacob with the latter. (i) Joseph's Dreams. — The history opens by showing us Joseph, then a lad of seventeen, lying on his couch, his head resting on his hand. Wrapped about him is his coat of many colours, which marks him out as Jacob's favourite son, the child of his old age, and of his well- beloved Rachel. His coat is not represented, 156 THE OLD TESTAMENT as it often is, as a piece of bright-coloured patchwork, but as a tunic of blending, changing, gold and red, over a robe of blue. Joseph is asleep, and dreams, and what he sees is here portrayed. First, there are twelve sheaves of golden grain. One — that nearest the sleeper to show that it is his — is erect, whilst the other eleven lie prostrate on the ground before it. Second, there is above Joseph's head a crescent of blue sky in which are set the sun, the moon, and eleven stars. The inscription is : Hie videt Joseph somnium manipulorum et soils, et lun^, et undecim stellarum (Gen. xxxvii. 1-12). (2) Joseph telling his first Dream to his Brethren. — The scene of the dream-tell- ing is the open field, where the sons of Jacob are feeding their sheep. The youthful Joseph stands before his eleven brethren, and, with his hand raised, simply and frankly tells them his dream of the sheaves. The brothers stand in a group, so that only three are entirely visible, whilst behind them appear the tops of the heads of the other eight. The appearance of these three is not prepossessing. If Joseph has not understood fully his own dream, they have. One extends his hand as if telling Joseph to cease such boasting, another has raised his to Photo by C. iXaya IK H. ]lard&- Co. SIDE ATRIUM p. 15ft THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH 157 his cheek in mocking laughter, whilst the angry- look of the third seems to say, "Wilt thou indeed reign over us ? " Their attitudes and expressions well bring out the envy with which they regarded their young brother. Hie Joseph narrat fratrihus suis somnium (Gen. xxxvii. 5-8). (3) Joseph telling his second Dream to his Father and Brethren. — On this occasion the aged Patriarch as well as Joseph's brethren are present. Jacob sits in a chair staid and dignified, whilst his sons stand behind behind him, only three of them being fully visible. He has listened to the dream, how sun, moon, and stars made obeisance to Joseph, and, catching at once its meaning, has raised his hand as if rebuking the speaker. All alike seem to realise the dreams to be supernatural com- munications, foretelling Joseph's pre-eminence and authority over them. Through this channel we know God often manifested His will to His children, " In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men . . . then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction." Whilst Jacob and his sons alike feel displeased with Joseph, their countenances have very different expressions. The father's shows thought and wonder — " he observed the 158 THE OLD TESTAMENT saying," the brothers reveal the ill-will they feel in their hearts. The inscription is, Hie pater ejus increpavit eum de narratione somnii (Gen. xxxvii. 9-1 1). (4) Joseph at Shechem seeking his Brethren. — Nothwithstanding the hatred and envy borne towards Joseph by his brethren, neither he nor his father suspected them of harbouring any intention of doing him harm and so Jacob sent him from his home in Mamre in Hebron to the plain of Shechem, a distance of forty miles, to see " whether it be well with his brethren and well with the flocks." The mosaic represents Joseph dressed as a youthful traveller, and wearing his coat of many colours, with a crook across his shoulder and a basket hanging at the end of it, talking to a shepherd. He has reached Shechem but cannot find his brethren. This shepherd informs him of their having gone to the grassy plain of Dothan (which means the two wells) some four- teen miles further north. Hie Joseph missus erravit in agro et vidit virum unum et inter- rogavit eum de fratribus suis (Gen. xxxvii. 12-17). (5) Joseph finding his Brethren at Dothan. — Joseph has reached Dothan and is nearing his brethren. The mosaic represents THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH 159 ten of them standing in a field with their flocks. They have descried their brother in the distance, and pointing towards him, are evidently con- spiring to slay him. Ecce somniator venit : occidamus eum (Gen. xxxvii. 18-20). (6) Joseph cast into a Pit. — Reuben, the firstborn, was not present when the resolu- tion to kill Joseph was taken, and so when he " heard it " he said, " Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness," his intention being to " rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again." Reuben's counsel is followed, and here we see the brethren stripping Joseph of his coat of many colours, the badge of his father's special love, and lower- ing him into a pit, or dry well. The mosaic- workers have here, as in the case of the Tower of Babel, introduced a piece of local colouring. They have put a Venetian well-head to the pit, thus making it like one of their own wells. The site of Dothan has been fixed in recent times, and the two wells which gave the place its name, have been identified. Hie Joseph mittitur in cisternum (Gen. xxxvii. 21-24). (7) Joseph's Brethren at Table see Ishmaelites coming. — With astonishment we see that the next act of the brethren in this 160 THE OLD TESTAMENT tragedy is quietly " to sit down to eat bread." The mosaic represents them reclining around a large table on which are bread and pottage. As the great highway from North Gilead to Egypt passed by Dothan, companies of Ishmaelites and Midianites, who were traders as well as shep- herds, were frequently travelling by it, bearing thither balm, myrrh, and other spices of that region and of Lebanon, as these drugs were in great demand for the embalming of the dead, and for the worship of the temples. One such company mounted on dromedaries is seen in the mosaic approaching from behind a hill, the riders sitting very erect, each with his long driving- stick. The words belonging to this mosaic are : Comedentibus fratribus, viderunt mercatores venire (Gen. xxxvii. 25). (8) Joseph drawn out of the Pit.— The approach of the Ishmaelites has suggested to Judah, the third eldest son, the idea of selling Joseph to them as a slave rather than to kill him. "His brethren," we read, "were content," and so here we see Judah and two others drawing Joseph out of the pit. Hie extraxerunt eum de ci sterna (Gen. xxxvii. 26-28). (9) Joseph being sold by his Brethren. — Here there is set before our eyes an Eastern slave-market on a small scale. Three of Joseph's < .3 w THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH 161 brethren are selling him to two Midianitish or Ishmaelitish merchants. The Arabs are tall and swarthy, and their calm, erect, and dignified appearance contrasts with the eager, excited, anxious look of the brethren. The former are engaged in an every-day transaction, the latter are committing a cruel, unnatural crime. As their desire was not to make gain of Joseph, but simply to get rid of him, the Ishmaelites were able to receive him at the nominal price of twenty pieces of silver, calculated to be about three pounds sterling. The text is, Hie vendiderunt Joseph Hi smae litis xx argenteis (Gen. xxxvii. 28). (10) Joseph on the Way to Egypt. — The Midianites have started for Egypt with their purchase. Joseph's brethren stripped him of his coat of many colours before putting him in the pit, for they wanted It in order to stain it with blood to make their father believe that a wild beast had killed him, so the Midianites have clothed Joseph in a long red tunic, and they are represented as treating him kindly, for they have set him on the back of a dromedary. What with the fatigue of the long journey from Mamre to Dothan, the cruel treatment he had received, and his " anguish of soul " in being so dealt with, he was probably unable to walk. 162 THE OLD TESTAMENT Besides it was in the interest of these merchants to comfort and strengthen him before present- ing him for sale in an Egyptian slave-market. The caravan is seen disappearing behind a hill. The mosaic-workers have written up : Hie ducitur Joseph in Mgyptum a mereatorihus (Gen. xxxvii. 28). (11) The Grief of Reuben.— After Reuben had seen his counsel taken as to putting Joseph into the pit instead of killing him, he appears again to have left his brethren, and so to have known nothing of their having sold him to the Ishmaelites. He is represented as first down in the pit and next, finding it empty, and realising his responsibility as the eldest of the family, crying out in grief and despair, " The child is not, and I, whither shall I go ? " Hie Ruben non invenit Joseph in ci sterna (Gen. xxxvii. 29-30). (12) The Grief of Jacob.— The last mosaic of this cupola, which closes this first portion of the life of Joseph, shows the grief of Jacob his father at his loss. The sons are holding up before the aged Patriarch Joseph's coat of many colours, stained with the blood of a kid of the goats. Their father at once falls into the trap they have laid for him, and exclaims, *' An evil beast hath devoured him, Joseph is without THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH 163 doubt rent in pieces." He is represented here throwing up his arms in grief, and weeping, re- fusing to be comforted. Hie est denunciatio mortis Joseph^ et Jacob pater ejus plorat (Gen. xxxvii. 31-35). In the spandrels of this cupola are the half- figures of four prophets, each bearing a scroll with an appropriate motto : Eli, with the words spoken to him by Samuel, " He that honoureth me I will honour, and they that despise me I will despise " (i Sam. ii. 30) ; Samuel, with his words to King Saul, " To obey is better than sacrifice ; the Lord has delight in goodness, and not in sacrifice" (i Sam. xv. 22) ; Nathan, with the words he spoke to David after the death of Uriah the Hittite, " Thus saith the Lord, the sword shall never depart from thine house. Behold I will raise' up evil against thee out of thine own house" (2 Sam. xii. lo-ii); and Habakkuk, with the words, "Thou hast ordained them for judgment, and established them for correction," ch. i. 12, which words were through ignorance substituted, when the mosaic was restored, for those of the fifth verse of the same chapter, " Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder, and be astonished, for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you." 164 THE OLD TESTAMENT In the lunette over the door of St. Aliplus, leading out of the atrium into the Piazza, are two mosaics, the one of two peacocks drinking out of a fountain, and the other of two herons pecking at the fruit of the Tree of Life, symboli- cally representative of eternal life through regeneration. The arch above this lunette, like all the others of the same kind, is beautifully decorated. Li the apse above the tomb of the Doge, Bartolomeo Gradenigo (1342), is a modern mosaic of the Judgment of Solomon, which is bad alike in conception and execution. It is by Vincenzo Bianchini (1538) from cartoons by Sansovino, or Salviati. On the apex of the narrow vault between this cupola and the next is a fine old mosaic of Charity, clothed as a sove- reign, holding in her right hand a palm branch, and in her left a lily. Below this figure are two large ones of St. Phocas and St. Christopher. The former is usually spoken of as the martyr gardener of Sinope in Pontus, but the Venetians here more correctly represent him as a sailor, carrying a rudder. The inscription on the edge of the vault referring to these mosaics is : Radix omnium bonorum charitas. Cristophori sancti speciem quicumque tuetur^ Illo namque die nullo languore tenetur. CHAPTER VII THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH {continued) FOURTH CUPOLA, SPANDRELS, LUNETTE, AND APSE Passing to the next cupola, we find portrayed in it, and on the lunettes under it, the next chapter of the Old Testament, which is a con- tinuation of the history of Joseph. (i) Joseph sold to Potiphar. — As Joseph was " a goodly person " a market was readily found for him in Egypt. Potiphar {pet-pa-ra, belonging to the sun), evidently a man of noble birth and of wealth, captain of King Pharaoh's body-guard, became his purchaser. The buying and selling is here shown. It takes place at the porch of Potiphar's house, a porch that, with its carved beams, fluted and spiral columns with sculptured bases and capitals, and with its double roof, suggests a lordly dwelling. Potiphar is robed in a blue tunic, and attended by two soldiers who carry long spears and broad shields and wear helmets. The youthful Joseph stands 166 THE OLD TESTAMENT before him, with a frank but perplexed counten- ance, stretching out his arms as if appeahng for help. Behind him stand the Ishmaelites, one of whom has his hands on Joseph as if holding him erect, and pushing him forward, eager to have him sold. Potiphar is about to lay his right hand on Joseph's shoulder, showing that he has not only consented to purchase him, but that he feels well disposed towards him. He doubtless saw that Joseph was no common slave. Above the mosaic are the words. Hie Hismaelit^ ven- dunt Joseph Putiphar eunucho Pharaonis in Mgypto (Gen. xxxvii. ^^^ and xxxix. i). (2) Joseph made Overseer in Poti- phar's House. — Illustrating the truth that no position, however obscure, and no duties, however humble, can hide true greatness and goodness, Joseph's character and ability soon attracted the attention of his master, and pro- cured him rapid advancement. He who " was separated from his brethren " and friends, was soon seen to have with him the best of all friends. Potiphar, like his sovereign, who was in all probability Apept, the last of the Shepherd kings {Hyksos, from Hyk^ a king, and sos, a nomadic people), worshipped, or at least had the knowledge of, Jehovah, and so we read that he " saw that Jehovah was with him, and that Photo by C. Naya ir. H. Hard &■ Co. JOSEPH AS POTIPHARS SERVANT (Atrium, Fourth Cupola) p. i66 THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH 167 the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand." He therefore made him overseer, or steward, of his house and estates. " Faithful over a few things," he made him " ruler over many things." This is the subject of this mosaic. Potiphar sits in a throne-like chair, with a gay cushion for a footstool. Before him stands Joseph, to whom he is giving a bunch of keys, thus committing everything to his care. Behind Potiphar, in the doorway of a curtained chamber, stands a young woman, handsomely dressed in a green robe, her hair flowing behind her. It is his wife, destined to play such a dishonourable part in Joseph's history. Hie Eunuchus tradit omnia bona sua in ■potestate Joseph (Gen. xxxix. 2-4). (3) Joseph tempted by Potiphar's Wife. — The wife of Potiphar, who has so much power in her hand either for Joseph's help or hurt, becomes his temptress. She is here represented talking to him in the porch of the house. Joseph, throwing all interest aside, has raised his hand as if determinately refusing her request. The words attached explain the situation : Hie dicit uxor Putiphar Joseph dormi meeum (Gen. xxxix. 7-9). (•4) Joseph flying from Potiphar's Wife. — This mosaic shows not the outer door 168 THE OLD TESTAMENT of the house, but the inner door of a chamber, out of which Joseph has just fled, pursued by Potiphar's wife. She, with a countenance expressive of disappointment and chagrin, has stopped on the threshold, beyond which she cannot go, as in her importunity she has thrown off her green dress. In her eagerness however to detain Joseph she has clutched in both hands his tunic. He, protesting with raised hand as before, escapes, leaving, we know, his garment in her hand. Hie Joseph, relicto pallio in manu mulieris, fugit (Gen, xxxix. 11-12). (5) Joseph falsely accused before his Fellow Servants. — Passion soon changes to hate. The disappointed temptress gathers round her the men-servants and maid-servants of the house, and holding up Joseph's garment, falsely accuses him before them of the very sin he refused at her solicitation to commit. Still further to lessen his authority over them, and to incite them against him, she maliciously brings forward his Jewish extraction. Hie muUer, videns se delusam, ostendii pallium Joseph omnibus de domo sua (Gen, xxxix. 13-15). (6) Joseph falsely accused before his Master and imprisoned. — Having accused Joseph before the servants, Potiphar's wife next accuses him to his master, producing in THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH 169 evidence the garment, which she had " laid up, until his lord came home." Potiphar, naturally believing his wife's story, has summoned Joseph into his presence, and taking from him his keys, and stripping him of his robe of office, has handed him over to two of his soldiers to convey him to the king's prison, which adjoined his own house. Joseph seems in vain to be protesting his innocence. Hie PuHphar ponit Joseph in car cere (Gen. xxxix. 16-20). (7) Pharaoh imprisons his chief Butler and chief Baker. — King Pharaoh, arrayed in gorgeous robes, is represented sitting on his throne with his crown on his head and his sceptre in his hand. Behind his throne stands Potiphar, awaiting his commands. Before him, in the charge of soldiers, are his chief butler and chief baker, or, more correctly, his cup-bearer and his master-cook. Pharaoh, personally, has charged them with misconduct towards him, and, having had them bound together, is consigning them to Potiphar that they may be put in prison. Previous to this the " keeper of the prison " had committed all the affairs of the prison into Joseph's hands, because he saw that " the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper," and so now we are told, in regard to 170 THE OLD TESTAMENT the butler and baker, that " the Captain of the Guard charged Joseph with them." Thus Joseph must have been reinstated in Potiphar's confidence. Hie Pharao juhet poni in carcere pincernam et pistorem (Gen. xl. 1-4). (8) The Butler and Baker dreaming. — Here two men are lying upon curious shell- shaped mattresses, asleep and dreaming. Their dreams naturally associate themselves with their callings. Beside the butler grows a vine with three branches, laden with ripe clusters of grapes. The preceding stages of budding and blossom- ing, which he saw in his dream, are also here indicated. The butler has pulled down the lowest branch towards him, and is pressing into Pharaoh's cup the juice of a large bunch of grapes. The baker is represented with three flat open baskets made of plaited rushes or palm-fibre on his head. They are full of small white bake-meats. A bird, like a raven, has alighted on the uppermost basket and is pecking at its contents. Another bird, hovering over the basket, does the same, whilst a third, perched on a branch of the vine, is eating the cakes in the second basket. Perhaps the dreams also give a clue to the nature of the charges for which these men suffer imprison- ment, namely, an attempt to poison Pharaoh. THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH 171 Hie pincerna et pis tor existentes in carcere vident somnia (Gen. xl. 5-1 1 and 16-17). (9) Joseph interprets their Dreams.— In the discharge of his prison duties Joseph, as here represented, visits in the morning the butler and the baker. Quick to notice any change in their appearance, because full of human sympathy, he asked them, " Wherefore look ye so sadly to-day } " They answered "We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it." Joseph, realising that the presence of God was with him, said, " Do not interpretations belong to God } Tell me them, I pray you." They comply, and Joseph gives them the interpretation, their faces as they listen expressing intense interest and amaze- ment. Hie Joseph interpretatus est pineerna et pistori somnia qu^e viderunt (Gen. xl. 6-19). (10) The Butler's Dream fulfilled. {T^his and the following three mosaics are in the spandrels of the cupola.^ — Joseph's interpretation of the butler's dream was a joyful one for the dreamer. He told him that the three branches of the vine signified three days, and that within that time he would be restored to his butlership again. The third day was Pharaoh's birthday, when he made a feast to all his servants. This was an occasion that naturally brought to his 172 THE OLD TESTAMENT mind the cases of his two servants, and for- giving his butler he sent for him out of prison, as Joseph had said. The mosaic represents the birthday feast, and the reinstated butler bearing on a tray a flagon of wine and a cup, which he is about to present to Pharaoh. Hie Pharao restituit pincernam in officium suum (Gen. xl. 20-21). (11) The Baker's Dream fulfilled.— Joseph told the chief baker that the same day that would see the butler once more " delivering Pharaoh's cup into his hand," would see him hanged on a tree, and the birds eating his flesh from off him. Here we have the fulfilment of his words. To a tree-cross the baker is affixed, by his arms being passed over the transverse beam, and being pinned behind him. The birds he saw in his dream are devouring him. Hie Pharao pistorem feeit suspendi in patibulo (Gen. xl. 22). (12) Pharaoh asleep and dreaming. — On a gorgeous canopied couch, Pharaoh is portrayed lying in a half reclining posture, with his head resting on his hand. He is asleep, and to him, as to his servants, in visions of the night, the veil that hides the future is drawn aside, and he sees in symbol what is shortly to come to pass. (Gen. xli. i.) THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH ITS (13) Pharaoh's Dream regarding the Kine. — Pharaoh's dreams connect themselves with the Nile, upon which depends the fertility of the land, and the prosperity of his kingdom. " For in thy title, and in nature's truth, Thou art, and makest Egypt." The river is represented by broad irregular white lines on a blue ground. It is full of fish, which are all shown, curiously enough, swim- ming across the stream. Out of the river have come seven fat, sleek, kine, which are feeding abreast on the green flowery bank. Behind them, half in the water and half out of it, are coming up seven others, ill-favoured and lean, with their ribs all sticking out, which, seizing on the flanks of the others, are eating them. Hie Pharao vidit per somnium sepem boves ■pingues et septem made confectas^ et macra devoraverunt pingues (Gen. xh. 2-4). (14) Pharaoh's Dream regarding the Ears of Corn. {T'his mosaic^ and Nos. 15 and 16, are in lunette to right hand.) — A second time we see the king asleep and dreaming. Before him are seven strong, full, golden- coloured ears of corn, not on one stalk, however, as they ought to have been, but each growing separately. Beside them are other seven, dwarfed, 174 THE OLD TESTAMENT blackened, and "blasted with the east wind," which, we read, " devoured the seven rank and full ears." Hie Pharao vidii per somnium septem spieas in eulmo uno plenas et formosas^ et alias septum spieas tenues et vacuas, qu: (> \) ^^/cr/?ct^ o/" CZnJf. I /dpKKSt&S. LJ L-J Appecrror/zces. Cupola. •7 crm tAc afoo/-') /?ev¥lex£u?n Vauli: Wcsr gallery. •^z \ O TfA/J^nfTjS^/forrAs 6v < ITS GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 205 New Testament, without stopping to read any particular part — Christ meets the eye in every place. Not such a Christ, however, as is com- monly exhibited throughout Italy — either a helpless babe in His mother's arms, or a dead man on a cross, neither of whom can help us — but the God-man Christ Jesus, in the plentitude of his power, " in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The words of Mr. Ruskin are almost literally true : " Every dome and hollow of its roof has the figure of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised in power, or coming in judgment " ; to which we may add that the same radiant figure dominates the build- ing, from apse and pilaster, from pillared porch and broad expanse of wall. Christus, Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat^ rings in the cupolas, and echoes round the vaults and galleries of the marble structure. Another im- pression, received when the church is regarded as a whole, is one akin to that produced when we begin to read the gospel according to St. Mark. The Evangelist plunges us right into the public life of our Lord, saying nothing about his birth and infancy. This is no omission, but is done in accordance with his intention to set forth in his gospel Christ as the " strong man armed," as " the lion of the tribe of Judah," and 206 THE NEW TESTAMENT in observance of the limits laid down by St. Peter (whose teaching, as we have seen, he pre- serves) as to the extent of the Apostolic testi- mony, which was to be " from the baptism of John unto the same day that he was taken up from us" (Acts i. 22). And so, whilst Christ's birth and infancy are recorded here, still they were deemed of such secondary importance that they are relegated to an obscure part of the church, and taken, to a large extent, from the Apocryphal Gospels. One other general im- pression which the book as a whole makes upon us is that it is not complete. We do not find the whole New Testament here, any more than we found the whole Old Testament in the atrium, because the space did not admit of it. But, as in the case of the latter, we saw that there was inscribed the historic part of Genesis, and that it was the foundation chapter of the Old Testament, the source and spring of every- thing to be found in the Jewish Scriptures, so here there is the Gospel, the facts of Christ's life, the things which the apostles saw and heard, which is the historic part of the New Testament, and the ground-work of everything else to be found in the Christian Scriptures. Lastly, these facts seem to lend themselves with peculiar appositeness to pictorial representation. ITS GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 207 One reason of this is that, though they are culled from the whole four gospels, they are taken mainly from that of St. Mark, which, though brief, is really broader than the others, being richer in minute and varied details, setting forth both the acts Christ did, and the effects they produced upon the people ; whilst his language is simple, forcible, terse, graphic, and glowing. Then, again, his gospel is in itself a series of life-like pictures, and there is, therefore, a special appropriateness in having it thus in- scribed in enduring colours that appeal to the imagination and the heart, through the eye, on the glowing pages of our book. If, too, it was written, as some think, for Gentile Christians, and primarily for those in Italy, its suitableness for representation here is still further enhanced. Whilst for a more particular examination or the mosaics it is well to go up to the galleries that run round the church, still it will be found more convenient, in the first place, to read them from below, whence all can be sufficiently well seen ; and for this purpose we will take our stand on the great marble flags, that cover the old eighth-century crypt, under the Central Cupola, in front of the Altar Screen, on which are set fourteen marble figures — those of the Apostles, and of St. Mark and Mary, which 208 THE NEW TESTAMENT were made in 1393 ; and a great copper and silver crucifix, with the symbols of the four Evangelists in its extremities, made the following year. In passing, however, up the nave to this place, let us glance to right and left, for, gleaming out of the darkness, between the columns that support the galleries, framed in gold on the marble walls, are single-figure mosaics of Old Testament prophets, holding scrolls with texts that foretell the incarnation of our Lord. On the wall to our right, with Mary in their midst, who is in the Byzantine attitude of prayer, but whose monogram has been altered in restoration, are Isaiah (ch. vii. 14). — Ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium et vocabitur Emmanuel. (Be- hold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.) David (Ps. cxxxii, 11). — De fructu ventris tut ponam super sedem meam. (Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.) Solomon (Cant. vi. 10). — Qiu ^ « >, M CHAPTER IV THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD We have just read the Sermon on the Mount in the north transept cupola, and now, if we look below at the Vaults sustaining it, we shall find the " word confirmed by signs following." All these vaults, with the exception of the western one, which, as we have seen, is devoted to our Lord's infancy, are inscribed with mosaics which set forth His miracles, and the series extends itself into the south transept as well. We shall, therefore, begin our study of them by remembering the words of Augustine : " All the acts of the Word are themselves words for us, they are not as pictures merely to look at and admire, but as letters which we must seek to read and understand." (i) The Turning of Water into Wine. {On south vault of north transept.) — The apostle St. John, discrediting all the meaningless 240 THE NEW TESTAMENT miracles attributed to the child Jesus in the Apocryphal gospels, tells us that the Turning of Water into Wine was the first miracle our Lord ever wrought, " This beginning of miracles did Jesus, and manifested forth his glory (glory possessed before, but concealed till now), and his disciples believed on him" (John ii. i-ii). Appropriately did a miracle that typified the whole transforming, regenerating, ennobling work of Jesus inaugurate " the birthday of His power," The mosaic, above which is inscribed, " Nuptide in Cana Gallic, '' shows a happy marriage festival. Christ is at the head of the table ; next Him is Mary, and then the bride and bridegroom. At the further end is seen a servant pouring out, from a large stone water- pot, the water turned into wine, and bearing it " to the governor of the feast." A conspicuous figure in the foreground is a man with a violin, no doubt put there by Tintoretto, from whose cartoon it was made (1568-1571), to emphasise the sanction our Lord gave by His presence to all natural and innocent enjoyments. This miracle was a favourite subject in Christian art ; and that the compilers of our New Testament realised its importance, and wished to draw special attention to it, is seen by their having written on the edge of the arch next the vault THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 241 the words : Hie aqua fit vinum, lex gratia fiamme mirum. (2) The Cleansing of the Leper. {On south vault of north transept.) — Above the former mosaic is this one representing Christ curing the loathsome, and, so far as human skill then availed, the incurable disease of leprosy. As it is a modern mosaic by Bozza, from a cartoon of Paolo Veronese (1566-68), no care has been taken to represent the lepers observing the Mosaic regulations regarding the disease, which however were more religious than sanitary, as leprosy was the symbol of the corruption and impurity of sin, and of the separation it brings between God and man. On either side of Christ stands a leper, one almost naked, with the disease showing white on his hand ; and the other clothed, with the leprosy visible on his leg. The mosaic represents the miracle recorded by St. Mark (ch. i. 40-45), as the words, Volo mundare^ above it show. (3) The Healing of the Syrophoeni- cian Woman's Daughter. {On south vault of north transept.) — The words of Scrip- ture, attached to this mosaic, show that the Venetian mind grasped the chief lesson of the miracle, namely, the triumphant faith of the woman that turned discouragements into Q 242 THE NEW TESTAxMENT encouragements, refusals and repulses into accept- ances, and made what seemed insuperable obstacles into stepping-stones to attainments. It was something of the spirit the Venetians themselves displayed in founding their city and republic. We learn from St. Mark's narrative (ch. vii, 24-30), that the woman's daughter, out of whom Christ cast the evil spirit, was not present when the miracle was performed. She is however represented here with her mother as witnessing to the reahtv of the cure. The inscription of this mosaic, already referred to, is : O mulier magna est fides iua. (4) The Raising of the Widow's Son. (On south vault of north transept.) — In this mosaic a young lad is standing with his mother before Christ. Behind them is an apostle. There is no trace of death in the presence of the Lord of Life, and only the words, Adolescens^ tibi dico surge^ reveal the tremendous miracle that has taken place, changing a scene of utter desolation and mourning for an only son, into one of quickening, and happy fellowship and joy. The scene however is to be interpreted as having special reference to the words : And he delivered him to his mother (Luke vii. 11-17). (5) The Healing of the Man sick of the Palsy. {On north vault of north THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 243 transept). — This mosaic records another of Christ's mighty works, wrought in answer to a faith that overcame all difficulties and hindrances. It shows our Lord {Vc X^C) sitting " in the house," or, as it is rendered in the revised version, "at home" in Capernaum, "his own city," His left hand holding a scroll and His right hand in the attitude of teaching (Mark ii. I- 1 2). Four men, bearing one sick of the palsy, unable to get near Christ because of the crowd, have ascended by outside steps to the housetop, and, having broken up the tiling, have, by means of ropes, "let down the bed whereon the sick of the palsy lay into the midst before Jesus." Jesus, pleased with this display of a conquering faith on the part of the paralytic and of those who carried him, and perceiving the sufferer to be burdened with a weight of sin as well as of sickness, first spoke to him the absolving declaration, " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee," and then, to show to the murmuring scribes sitting by that in claiming to exercise the divine prerogative of forgiveness He was guilty of no blasphemy, He said to the sick of the palsy, "Arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house." Ponunt languentem, Jit sanus, fertque ferentem. 244 THE NEW TESTAMENT (6) The Stilling of the Tempest. {On north vault of north transept.) — This mosaic displays another miracle precious to the heart of Venice, for it records an experience that must frequently have been that of its daring fishermen and seafaring merchantmen. Tossed in their little ships on the Adriatic Sea and in Oriental waters, as the disciples were on the Lake of Galilee, they must often have turned to Christ in their danger, and, awakening their sleeping faith in Him, have found safety and succour. Christ, whom "the winds and the sea obey," and who measures " the waters in the hollow of his hand " is twice depicted, first, calmly sleep- ing at one end of the boat on a cushion. His arm hanging over its side and almost drenched with the whirling waters, beside Him a disciple who in alarm has rushed to touch and awake Him ; and secondly, as calmly standing erect at the other end of the boat, rebuking the winds and the sea, and saying to them, " Peace, be still." Archbishop Trench says, " We must not miss the force of that word ' rebuke,' nor the direct address to the furious elements, * Peace, be still,' which only St, Mark (ch. iv. 35-41) records, for in these there is a distinct tracing up of all the discords and disharmonies in the outward world to their source in a person THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 245 . . . even as this person can be no other than Satan." In Scotland I have sometimes heard sailors discussing the likelihood of a storm arising, when there were clergymen on board their ship ; this being due to their belief in the hostility that " the prince of the power of the air " bears to Christ and His servants, and doubtless also to the narrative of Jonah. Somnus discessit ; vigilans mare^ flumina^ pressit. (7) The Healing of the Man with a Dropsy. {On north vault of north transept.) — This mosaic shows a very noble figure of Christ. His look is full of pity, not unmixed with sternness, approaching to anger, and its dignity is heightened by a wealth of loose flow- ing hair that falls almost to His shoulders. His right hand is raised, and behind Him stand two of His followers. Before Him is supported a poor man swollen with a dropsy, and appa- rently too weak to stand alone. Behind the man stand a number of self-righteous Pharisees, watching our Lord with suspicion. The mosaic well represents the incident. It is one of the seven cures reported by the Evangelists as having been wrought by. Christ on the Sabbath. He here has entered " the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath " (Luke xiv. 1-6), but the invitation 246 THE NEW TESTAMENT has been insincerely given, in order that His enemies might find matter of accusation against Him. Either by the arrangement of His enemies, or by the importunate faith of others, this sufferer is brought into Christ's presence. Our Lord, knowing that these cavillers are watching to accuse Him of Sabbath breaking, silences them, rebuking their formal- ism, teaching them what the true hallowing of the Sabbath means, and justifying His cure, by showing them that if they would save an ox or an ass from drowning in a well on the Sabbath day, He might well save a man from perishing by dropsy. The mosaic itself is com- paratively recent, having been made by Blan- chinus in 1557, though the motto, Hydropicum curat^ sua jam non sahbata servans, is an ancient one. (8) The First Miraculous Draught of Fishes. {On north vault of north transept.) — The Venetians must have felt that this was another of those miracles that had a peculiar fitness for them, as they lived on the water, and as so many of them pursued the calling ot fishermen ; and perhaps it was to not a few a source of inspiration as they thought of how Christ glorified for the Apostles their humble calling, and put matters of tremendous moment THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 247 touching the Church and the world, into their hands. The mosaic sets forth (^a) the occasion of the miracle, (if) the miracle itself, (<:) the result, (a) The occasion was Christ, making use of Simon's boat, from which the better to teach the people crowded on the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret. In the mosaic Christ is seen sitting addressing them, with outstretched arm, from the stern of the boat. (^) The miracle is suggested by two fishermen leaning over the gunwale of the boat, pulling hard at the ropes of the nets, that having enclosed a great multitude of fishes are on the point of breaking. (c) The result is shown in the astonishment expressed in the faces of all ; in James and John preferring the Gospel of Christ to their gains as is indicated by their holding books, and in Simon raising his hand in awe, as if saying, " Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord " (Luke v. i-io). Jussitpiscantur capiuntur vel numerantur. (9) The Cleansing of the Ten Lepers. {East vault of north transept.^ — Outcasts from society lepers naturally sought each other's company ; and, as in Elisha's day, so in Christ's, they seem to have congregated near the gates of cities. The mosaic shows ten such haggard creatures, amongst them a woman, 248 THE NEW TESTAMENT imploring Christ, with outstretched hands, to have mercy on them. Christ commanded them all to go and show themselves to the priests, and obeying in faith His command, they were cleansed. One only, a Samaritan stranger, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud (restored) voice, glorified God, and, thanking Jesus for one blessing, received another and a better. Grateful for bodily cleansing, he obtained spiritual cleansing as well. Probably the leper kneeling before Christ is meant to represent this Samaritan (Luke xvii. 12-19). Appended to this mosaic is the inscription : Ecce decern mundo, quia me colit huicque polumdo. (10) The Healing of the Centurion's Servant. (Norlh transepty east vault.) — This centurion, and others mentioned in Scripture, were amongst the first Gentile believers in Christ, and the forerunners of those many soldiers who went forth from Rome, to conquer lands for Caesar and men for Christ — the first missionaries of the cross. The character of the centurion here spoken of was particularly noble, as manifested in his love for his slave, in his munificence towards the Jews, and in his humility and faith. The mosaic represents him kneeling, a humble suppliant, before Christ, THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 249 with his soldiers and servants behind him. It is a modern work by Paolo Vecchia, (1641-1648), and does not do the scene justice. But the compilers of our New Testament seized on the central teaching of the miracle, the triumph of faith, and placed above the mosaic the centurion's words (Luke vii. i-io) : Tantum die verbo^ et sanahitur ergo. (11) The Healing of the Woman with an Issue of Blood. {North transept, east vault.') — The Jews were commanded, as we learn from the book of Numbers (chap. xv. 38), to wear fringes with a ribbon of blue on the borders of their garments, so as to separate them as holy unto the Lord, and it is St. Mark, so rich in details, who notices that those sick persons who touched, as it were, but the border of Christ's garment were made whole (Mark v. 25-34). The woman, the subject of this miracle, was one of that class. She probably thought that some magical influence emanated from Christ, and, indeed, " virtue did go out of him," though not without His volition. In this case He made the woman, probably ashamed of her uncleanness, witness a good confession before many witnesses, with the result that she, like the Samaritan leper, got a double blessing, for she was brought into a 250 THE NEW TESTAMENT spiritual relationship with Christ. The mosaic shows a crowd of people thronging around the Saviour, and this woman kneeling behind Him, touching "the hem of His garment." The verse appended to it is : Tangit curatur virtus exit nova fatur. (12) First Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. {South transept, east 'vault.) — This is the only miracle of our Lord recorded by all the four Evangelists (Matt. xiv. 15-21; Mark vi. 34-44; Luke ix. 12-17; and John vi. 5-14). Probably it is so because the people recognised in it an emphatic proof of His Messiahship, for they expected a Messiah who, like the prophet Moses, would " furnish a table " for them " in the wilderness," and " give them bread from heaven to eat," and make " an handful of corn in the earth " so productive that " the fruit thereof would shake like Lebanon." And probably, also, because the disciples themselves afterwards saw the con- nection between the earthly and the heavenly, realising Christ to be the Living Bread that satisfies the spiritual hunger of the whole world. The mosaic brings the miracle in its triple fulness before us. First, our Lord is seen blessing the five barley loaves and the two small fishes by gently touching them as they are held THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 251 up towards Him by two disciples, one of whom stands on His right hand, and the other on His left. Secondly, a group of about fifty persons, conspicuous amongst whom is a woman with a baby, suggests the orderly symmetrical arrange- ment in companies on the green grass, of the five thousand men besides women and children, that made the distribution of food by the disciples to such a vast multitude not only a possible but a simple feat. A disciple is seen approaching the group with a quantity of bread in the fold of his robe, slung over his arm. Lastly, eleven baskets, full of bread, are set in order on the ground, whilst a disciple with the twelfth on his arm, gathers up the last remain- ing fragments, attesting the reality of the miracle, and the bounteousness of the provision made. On this mosaic are inscribed the words : Panibus ut quinis, vos piscibus imples binis^ Sic cibo detectis^ vos psalmis^ lege^ prophetis. (13) The Walking on the Sea. {South transept^ east vault.') — The Venetians loved to depict the miracles of our Lord that reveal Him as He whom " the winds and waves obey," who " maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still," and which show His watchful care over those *' who go down to 252 THE NEW TESTAMENT the sea in ships, and do business in great waters," bringing them safely through storm and tempest " to their desired haven." In this mosaic we see Jesus, who the day before had miraculously fed five thousand in the wilder- ness, and had afterward spent the greater part of the night in prayer on a lone mountain, calmly treading on the waves of the sea of Galilee, " making his way in the sea and his path in the great waters." We then see the ship in which the disciples sailed being tossed in the middle of the lake. The disciples look wearied with their " toiling in rowing," and terrified, for like many of Christ's followers In every age, they mistake their Saviour who now draws near to them with blessings for some apparition of the night. Lastly, St. Peter is represented walking on the sea, or rather sink- ing in It, for, failing to keep " the beginning of his confidence firm unto the end," his foot slippeth in deep waters, but the Lord, coming to his rescue, holds him up, as He does all believing, though faltering, ones (Mark vi. 45 - 52). Inscription : Modica fidei quare dubitasti ? Cum mergi cepit Petrus, pia dextra recepit. (14) The Healing of the Impotent Man at Bethesda. {South transept, east vault.) — The mosaic workers In Inscribing this THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 253 miracle have had to accommodate themselves as best they could to the wall-space broken into by three small windows. It is another of those works wrought by our Lord on the Sabbath day which exasperated His enemies and gladdened His followers, as speaking to them of a fountain opened on all days for all people for sin and for uncleanness. To the right there is the pool of Bethesda (House of Compassion) by the sheep-gate of Jerusalem, in which lie "a great multitude of sick, blind, halt, withered," and over which hovers "the angel of the waters." To the left is Christ, with His disciples and many onlookers. Between them is the impotent man, first, lying helpless at the Saviour's feet, whose words awaken faith and hope in his despairing heart, and then, made whole at Christ's command, carrying away on his shoulders the pallet that for thirty-eight years had carried him (John vi. 1-16). The Latin inscription is : Scis te sanatum ^ Scio^ Surgito^ tolle grahatumT (15) The Opening the Eyes of the Blind Beggar. {South transept^ east vault.) — A peculiar interest attaches to this miracle. The subject of it, though only a poor blind beggar, seems to have been a remarkable man, and probably on that account, a well-known 254 THE NEW TESTAMENT man. No one who experienced Christ's healing power, of whom we have any record, showed more understanding, more wit, more courage, more geniahty. He was the only Jew, outside the circle of His disciples, to whom Christ made known His Messiahship. There was no dim- ness in his intellectual vision, and Christ gave him physical and spiritual eyesight as well. Then, the influence of the miracle, and of the blind man's words, on his parents, on the dis- ciples, on the people, and on the Scribes and Pharisees, was so great that it constrained our Saviour to sum up His mission to the world in the words, " For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind." The mosaic, which is a good fifteenth-century one, shows the miracle in two parts. First, we see our Lord anointing the eyes of the blind man with the dust of the ground, from which we were fashioned, made into clay with something from His own body, as when He breathed into Adam the breath of life, and man became a living soul. We are told that both clay and spittle, separately and united, were used as eye-salve in medical practice in the East, but in this case they were doubtless used, not for a material, but for a spiritual purpose, namely, to call out the THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 255 man's faith. In the second part of the mosaic the blind man is represented washing his eyes, in obedience to the Saviour's command, " Go, wash in the pool of Siloam " (John ix). The motto is : Tu linis incedo, lavo, cerno ; Deus, tibi credo. (i6) The Curing of the Demoniacs in the Country of the Gadarenes. {South transept, south vault.) — The mosaic of this miracle, which is recorded by three Evangelists (Matt. viii. 28-34, Mark v. 1-20, Luke viii. 26-39), shows the wild mountainous country of the Gadarenes in Peraea, which was the scene of the miracle. It is a country that, in its broken trees, rank herbage, and caverns " full of dead mens' bones and all uncleanness," seems a fitting outward expression in nature of man's sin, and that Satanic influence that culminated in demoni- acal possession. In the foreground is our Lord with His disciples, encountering the poor maniacs, the evil spirits in whom, recognising Christ, worshipped Him, making the strange request that he would not send them into the Abyss, but into a herd of swine, which in the mosaic is seen feeding in the distance on the • mountain side. The lake, with its steep shore, down which the herd of swine ran to destruc- tion, is not shown. It may have been at some 256 THE NEW TESTAMENT distance from the scene of the miracle. Motto : In grege porcorum, prurit grex damoniorum. (17) Second Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. {South transept^ south vault.) — As we learn from the narrative of the Evangelist St. Mark (ch. viii. 1-9), the circum- stances in which this second miraculous multi- plication of bread and fishes took place, do not differ materially from those of the first miracle. The country is the same — the desert, or wilder- ness, lying on the western side of the Sea of Galilee ; the orderly arrangement of the people is the same, they are made to sit down on the ground in companies, only the numbers fed on this occasion are fewer — four, instead of five, thousand, and the supply of provisions is slightly greater, seven loaves and a few small fishes, instead of five loaves and two fishes. But the representation of this second miracle, which is modern, is very inferior to that of the former. Whilst Christ is engaged in the solemn act of blessing, one disciple stoops before Him with a basket of bread in his hand, and with one of the fish on the ground at his feet, while the others stand, one here and one there, without observing any order. The people, too, are depicted stand- ing, instead of sitting in companies on the green grass. Some have thought that in this miracle THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 257 those who were fed were mainly Jews, whilst in the former one they were Gentiles, and that thus together they prefigure Christ as the Bread of Life for all peoples and nations. The inscrip- tion is : Pisiculis paucis et panibus hos cibo septem. (i8) The Healing of Peter's Wife's Mother. {South transept^ south vault?) — The mosaic represents Christ in the house of St. Peter, whose wife's mother lay sick of a fever. In this case it is not the narrative of St. Mark (ch. i. 29-3 1 ), generally so rich in details, but that of St. Luke, the physician, to which we are in- debted for the fact that it was a " great," as distinguished from a " small " fever. The phy- sician of physicians who " himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses " has ap- proached the sufferer, and with his healing touch and healing words, has not only caused the fever to leave her, but has restored her at once, without a period of convalescence, to perfect health and strength, so that " immediately she arose and ministered unto them." The inscrip- tion set over this mosaic is : Fetri socrus curatur, et servire paratur. (19) The Healing of the Woman with a Spirit of Infirmity. {South transept^ south vault. ^ — The compilers of our New Testament R 258 THE NEW TESTAMENT understood in a literal sense the words of our Lord in regard to this woman, " whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years," and therefore connect her healing with deliverance from the Adversary's power, assigning, and in all likelihood correctly assigning, her physical infirmity to a spiritual cause. And so, whilst the sufferer is represented bowed together, lean- ing on a staff, before Christ, who has placed His hand on her head, the casting out of Satan, who is seen flying away, is the sign of her cure. In justifying His conduct in effecting this cure on the Sabbath, our Lord, as on a former occa- sion (the healing of a man with a dropsy), refers his enemies to their own conduct when, on that day, the safety or even the comfort of an ox or an ass was imperilled (Luke xiii. 10-17). Above the mosaic is the motto : Curvatum morhis curas his exprobo turbis. CHAPTER V CLOSING SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN OUR LORD'S LIFE (i) The Transfiguration. {Apex of vault above the choir screen.^ — The scene of this mysterious spectacle is shown in the mosaic as the lofty, cone-shaped Mount Tabor. The time of it was night, but the breaking forth of our Lord's innate glory — His face as the sun, and His raiment white and glistering — lights up the scene. On His right hand is Moses, holding a book, the representative of the Law, which found its end in Christ ; and on His left Elias, the representative of the Prophets, whose prophecies were all fulfilled in Christ. At their feet are the three favoured witnesses, Peter, James, and John, who gaze upward from out of the deep shadow of the night, and of the cloud, at the excess of glory, " dark with excess 260 THE NEW TESTAMENT of light" (Mark Ix. 2-10). The text is : Et facta est nuhes obumhrans eos. (2) The Woman accused of Adultery. {North transept, east vault, left hand.) — This incident is found only in St. John's Gospel (chap. viii. i-ii), and as a doubt exists as to whether or not it should be there, so I am doubtful about its originally having had a place in our Bible of St. Mark. It is a modern mosaic, made by Pasterini (1642-92). The woman is being dragged by a crowd of men into the presence of Christ, who, stooping down, has written on the ground the words, dui sine peccato. Above the mosaic are the words : H^ec pietate Dei stat, frustrantur Pharisei. (3) The Triumphal Entry into Jeru- salem. {North vault of south transept.) — This incident in our Saviour's life is recorded by all the four Evangelists (Matt. xxi. i-ii, Mark xi. i-ii, Luke xix. 29-44, John xii. 12-19). T^^ central figure of the mosaic is our Lord riding in triumph into Jerusalem as a king. The " colt the foal of an ass " on which He rides is pure white, as were those on which rode princes and prophets. Behind Christ are the slopes of the Mount of Olives which He has traversed, and down which the disciples and CLOSING SCENES AND INCIDENTS 261 the people are following in His train. Before Him is the city gate, and out of it crowds are pouring to meet Him, waving palm branches. Men, women and children are paying Him the royal honour of spreading their garments in the way, whilst some, having climbed up into palms and other evergreen trees, are cutting down branches and strewing them in His path. Thus our Lord fulfils the Old Testament Scripture, "Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King Cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass," and thus He publicly proclaims His Messiahship. On the border of the vault are the words, Ecce venit tibi princeps^ and on that of the gallery arch that is cut into the vault, Laus decet ista Deum^ qui sumpsit in hoste tropheum. (4) The Cleansing of the Temple {ISIorth transept^ east vanity altar end.) — Our Lord, having entered Jerusalem in triumph proceeded to the temple, where the incident here recorded took place. The mosaic which represents it is a modern one, and is not well executed, so we may the less regret that a row of small windows has broken into the wall-space in which it is set. Christ is shown, with a whip of small cords, driving out of the temple those who were turning it into — what too often 262 THE NEW TESTAMENT ambitions and passions turn the temple of the heart — a house of merchandise and a den of thieves. Behind Christ are seen affrighted women, hasting away with their lambs and baskets of doves ; at His feet some traffickers, in their flight, have fallen amongst overturned tables, seats and bags of money ; whilst before Him others are scrambling for their gold, or are deprecating Christ's wrath as they make off with their goods. St. Luke (ch. xix. 45-46) intimately connects this incident with Christ's teaching, for he adds : " And he taught daily in the temple " thus cleansed. And so in human experience the two things often go together, the expulsion of evil from the heart, and the coming into it of Christ as a daily teacher (Matt. xxi. 12-13 ? Mark xi. 15-19). Qui sacra vendit^ entity pello de limine templi. (5) The Feet Washing. {North vault of south transept.) — This is a quaint, lovely and expressive mosaic. Our Lord and His disciples are in the " large upper room," where they are about to eat the Passover. The disciples are depicted as they might have been sitting at table, six behind six, but the faces of those behind show between those in front of them, so that the twelve really form one line. They are all gazing at Christ with a strange, rh,'lo!>y L. Xu U. H. lfa,d&-Co. THE FEET WASHIiXG and THE INSTITUTION OF THE LORDS SUPPER p. 262 CLOSING SCENES AND INCIDENTS 263 puzzled, wondering, half abashed look, all excepting one whose face wears a scowl, and whose short-cut black hair and beard, and general appearance, contrasts with the others. He is Judas, the traitor. No wonder the others look puzzled, for there had been " a strife among them, as to which of them should be accounted the greatest," and now they see their Master *' as he that serveth." He has risen from table, and having " laid aside His garment," throwing it over a rail from which He has just taken a towel wherewith He has " girded Him- self," He is beginning to wash the disciples' feet. Those in the front row have each one foot up on a level with their knees, and are in the act of untying their sandals, excepting the first, whose feet Christ is washing. He has washed one, and is now wiping it, the other is in the water. This disciple is evidently meant for Peter, although he was not the first to have his feet washed. He has just apparently said, " Thou shalt never wash my feet," and then — running from one extreme to another — in answer to our Saviour's words, " If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me," he has raised his hand to his forehead as if exclaiming, " Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." The inscription on the arch in 264 THE NEW TESTAMENT the vault is : Hisce pedes lavit Jesus^ quos ante cibavit (John xm. i-ii). (6) The Institution of the Lord's Supper. (^Immediately above the mosaic of the Feet Washing.) — We read that after the Feet Washing Christ took His garment, and again sat down at table to abolish the Passover, and to institute in its place the Holy Sacra- ment, for the interpretation and the com- memoration of His atoning death. The mosaic shows the supper-table, at which sit Jesus and His disciples. The look of wonder that their faces bore in the former mosaic is changed in this to one of deep sorrowfulness, for Christ has said to them, " Verily, verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me." John, the beloved disciple, sitting next to Jesus, is reclining his head on His breast. Judas, who has not yet " gone out," is sitting the fifth from Christ with the same hard scowl on his face. Near him is one of the supper bowls, suggesting our Lord's last gracious appeal to his better nature by giving him the sop when He had dipped it. The institution of the Last Supper is indicated by Christ holding the bread in His hands which He is about to bless, and break, and distribute amongst His disciples, saying : " Take, eat, this is my body broken for you. CLOSING SCENES AND INCIDENTS 265 this do in remembrance of me." On the edge of the vault, with reference to this mosaic and to the preceding one, are the words : Coena non sternatuVy cibus est caro, culpa lavatur (Mark xiv. 17-25). CHAPTER VI THE PASSION OF OUR LORD (i) The Agony in the Garden. {JVall- space of right aisle.) — Great prominence is given in our New Testament to the dread Agony of our Lord. The whole stretch of the wall-space of the right aisle forms the vast page on which it is portrayed. The reason of this is that the old Venetians regarded it as the soul and centre of Christ's sufferings. When that season of awful watching and prayer and conflict was over they deemed, and rightly deemed, that the agony of death was passed, and that victory was won. All the events that followed, the betrayal, the desertion, the cruel mocking and scourging, even the crucifixion itself, they considered to be in a manner subordinate, and they have there- fore given them a subordinate place in the church. The Agony is presented in its three stages, and so presented that both the letter and the spirit of the Gospel narrative are brought x:^^j^^^<:^^^f::^<^:i> THE PASSION OF OUR LORD 267 out. The figure of our Lord appears twice in each stage of the awful drama. (^) In the first He has fallen prostrate on the ground, praying, '* O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." His sweat, which was " as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground," is beautifully symbolised by golden flowers with red blossoms. He is about a stone's cast from His disciples, and after this first prayer He is depicted as having come to them to find them asleep. The whole eleven appear in the picture. Christ is shown awaking Peter, saying, " Simon, sleepest thou ? Couldst thou not watch one hour ? " (^) In the second scene He is again seen in prayer, but His position is changed. He is no longer prostrate as before. He is on His knees, and His body is less bent. For Him " light has arisen in the darkness." There is a little piece of blue starry sky, and there are no red flowers. The intensity of the Agony is over. Then He is seen a second time awaking the disciples, who are represented now by Peter alone, (c) In the third scene Christ is again in prayer, but the Agony is passed. He is on His knees, but His body is erect. Not only is there the blue sky, but a stream of heavenly light flows down upon Him, and an angel is 268 THE NEW TESTAMENT strengthening Him. Then a third time He is seen awakening Peter, but as He does so His arm is raised, as it was not before, and He blesses, whilst chiding him. The inscription is : Dummodo rex oral supplex sua turha soporat. Ad quos mox tendit et eos super hoc reprehendit. The Agony in the Garden finds a place in the three synoptic gospels. Matt. xxvi. 37-46 ; Mark xiv. 33-42 ; Luke xxii. 41-46 ; and is alluded to in John xviii. i. (2) The Betrayal of our Lord. {On vault between west and central cupolas.') — This mosaic shows the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, and His apprehension by His enemies. Judas and the band of men sent by the priests and Pharisees, with swords and halberts, torches and lanterns, stand at Jesus' right hand, and another band, composed mainly of Scribes and Pharisees, stand at His left. Judas has thrown his left arm round the Saviour's neck and is kissing His cheek, at which sign the foremost men of the two bands have laid hold of Him. In the fore- ground is Peter, cutting off the right ear of Malchus, the servant of the High priest (Matt, xxvi. 47-56 ; Mark xiv. 43-52 ; Luke xxii. 47-53 ; John xviii. 3-1 1). (3) On the Way to Calvary. {On the same vault.) — Christ has already undergone His n — THE PASSION OF OUR LORD 269 several mock trials. He has been tried ecclesiasti- cally by night, before Caiaphas the High Priest, and condemned ; but because the Church Courts in Jerusalem, like the Church Courts in Venice, had no executive power. He has been re-tried in the Civil Court of Pilate and acquitted, sent to Herod and acquitted, and sent back to Pilate, who, yielding to the clamour of the Jews, at last condemned Him, and allowed Him to be mocked and scourged by the Roman soldiers. The mosaic sets these scenes before us. Behind those who accompanied Judas at the betrayal are seen the heads of a company of priests, the foremost of whom bears a scroll with the word Crucifcatur. Facing him stands Pilate, also bearing a scroll with his derisive question in- scribed on it : Regem vostrum crucificam "i Christ is next represented coming forth from the Judgment Hall, arrayed in all the emblems of mock sovereignty — the robe of royal purple, the crown of thorns, the reed sceptre. In His left hand is a scroll with the words : Spinis Coronatus sum. Some in sportive ridicule are bowing the knee before Him, as if saying, " Hail ! King of the Jews." Behind Him Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, is bearing the cross — the first condition of that discipleship to which he afterwards 270 THE NEW TESTAMENT attained, for he became, in all probability, the first African Christian, the first-fruits of the Cross in that dark continent (Mark xv. 14-21). A further inscription is : Prodidit hie Christum turhis quasi -pace magistrum, Qui subiens mortem^ quasi rex emitque cohortem. (4) The Crucifixion. {On same vault.)— A small mound with a skull indicates Calvary, or Golgotha, and high over it, on a lofty cross, hangs our Lord, with the inscription which Pilate wrote, over His head : lesus Nazarenus Rex Judeorum. Beside the cross, at the right hand of Jesus, stand Mary His mother, Mary the wife ot Cleophas, Mary Magdalene, and another woman. And beside it, at His left hand is John, suggesting Christ's words spoken from the cross to Mary, " Woman, behold thy son," and to John, " Behold thy mother." Be- hind John stands a group of soldiers, casting lots for Christ's garments, and Scribes and Pharisees, members of the Sanhedrim, pointing the finger, and mocking, saying, " He saved others, him- self he cannot save." In front of John is seen the man answering Christ's cry, " I thirst," by giving Him vinegar to drink on a sponge at the end of a reed, and in front of the women is the soldier with the spear, piercing His side. At the foot of the cross is the centurion, with the THE PASSION OF OUR LORD 271 soldiers keeping guard, who, when they saw what was done, glorified God saying, " Truly this was the Son of God." Nor have the compilers of our New Testament forgotten the texts, " Which things the angels desire to look into," and " he gave his angels charge con- cerning him," for on the arms of the cross and around, and above Christ, are angels watching over Him, interested in the work of redemption, as He lays down His life for the sins of the world (Mark xv. 22-41 ; John xix. 17-37). (Another mosaic of the Crucifixion exists in the Baptistery, see Appendix, Note F.) (5) Christ in Hades. {On the same vault.) — This mosaic presents Christ in the common abode of departed spirits, and, although He entered this mysterious region as a Victor and a Deliverer, still, I think it well to consider the incident in connection with His Passion, for He was there in a state of personal incompleteness, as His body was still lying in Joseph's tomb, and separateness of body and soul is linked in our minds with the idea of death. Various passages of Scripture, such as Ps. xvi. 10, and I Peter iii. 19, are interpreted as referring to the visit our Lord paid to Hades, and, though Scripture does not lift the veil that hangs over that scene, the Apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus 272 THE NEW TESTAMENT gives many details about it, and the early Church was fond of dwelling upon Christ's deeds in that realm of disembodied spirits. The mosaic shows our Lord, whose presence lights up the darkness of Hades, standing on the body of the King of Terrors, whom He has conquered and bound with iron chains. Broken bars and gates, and the keys of Death and Hell, lying scattered at His feet, proclaim His conquering arm. He has rolled aside the stone doors of the prison- houses of the dead, and has delivered Adam, and King David, and Isaiah the prophet, and many other saints, " who came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many," as sharers in our Lord's triumph. Christ is represented in the act of delivering a captive whom the Adversary has seized by the foot. He has in His hands a cross, which, tradition tells us. He bore, as the symbol that Hades was henceforth a conquered territory — thus lightening the fear of death for His followers to all time. The cross has two transverse bars, and on the upper one are the letters, LN.R.L The inscription of this mosaic is : Mors et ero mortis, s urgent urn duxque cohortis, Morsus et inferno, vos regno dono superno. CHAPTER VII OUR LORD'S RESURRECTION AND APPEARANCES (i) The Resurrection. {On the apex of the vault between west and central cupolas.^ — In the representation of the Resurrection, as in that of other facts in Christ's life, the com- pilers of our New Testament not only show a full and accurate knowledge of Scripture, but a carefulness not to go beyond what is written. Thus, in this mosaic, the actual Resurrection of Jesus, which is nowhere described in the gospels, although often represented in late art, is not shown. What is set before us is the first announcement of it as an accomplished fact, which was made by the angel, at the empty tomb, to the women who went there to embalm the body, at daylight of that first day of the week. In the mosaic we see, then, first the sepulchre. Approaching it are Mary Magdalene, 274 THE NEW TESTAMENT Mary the mother of James, and Salome, each bearing in her hand a vase containing the sweet spices necessary for their intended last service of love. By the right side of the sepulchre sits the *' angel of the Lord," robed in raiment white as snow, and with rainbow-coloured wings, emblem- atical of purity and peace, who points the women to the empty tomb, and the linen clothes lying, as proofs that Christ was not there, but was risen as He had said. On the slope below the sepulchre are the Roman soldiers, who, in the presence of the angels, " became as dead men." The inscription is : Cum vacuum monstrat muli- eribus esse sepulchrum Angelus, isque simul dixit surrexisse sepultum (Matt, xxviii. i-6, Mark xvi. 1-6, Luke xxiv. i-8, John xx. i). (2) The First Appearance of Christ. {On the same vault.) — This mosaic shows the first manifestation of the risen Lord. It is set before us as being made, not to Mary Magdalene alone, but to her and another woman, the repre- sentatives of all the women who went to embalm the body. And when we harmonise the accounts of the four Evangelists (Matt, xxviii. 6-10, Mark xvi. 6-10, Luke xxiv. 9-1 1, and John XX. 11-18), I believe we shall find this view to be correct. These women, departing from the sepulchre, " with fear and great joy, to bring OUR LORD'S APPEARANCES 275 his disciples word " that Jesus was risen, were met in the garden by Christ Himself, bearing the marks of His crucifixion, who addressed them, saying, "All hail." Recognising Him, they fell down, as here shown, at His feet, and worshipped Him. Christ, who has still the scroll — the word of God — in His left hand, has raised His right, as if saying, " Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father," and as, laying upon them His first evangelic command, " Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me." The inscription is : Tangere me noli surgentem^ sicut et olim. (2) TheSecond Appearance of Christ. (0/2 east vault of north transept.) — As this mosaic contrasts with the others of this chapter in being modern in character (from a cartoon of Leandro Bassano, 16 17), we may the less regret that it also contrasts with them in being removed from their company, and rather hidden away. It represents the Second Appearance of Christ, made on Easter Day, to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. It is divided into three scenes : {a) First, Christ is seen walking with the two disciples, whom He has joined, as, on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, " they communed and questioned together " and were sad, just as He joins wayfarers still whose thoughts go out 276 THE NEW TESTAMENT to Him. All carry pilgrim's staffs, and one to whom Jesus is talking, probably Cleopas, is bare- headed, with his hat slung behind him. Their expressions are sad, but interested, for Jesus is evidently chiding their partial acceptance of the predictions of the Old Testament regarding His Messiahship ; and " expounding to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." ((^) The second scene shows Him sitting " at meat with them," and in the act of revealing Himself in the breaking and blessing of bread. (c) The third scene shows the two disciples returning to Jerusalem with elastic steps, and hopeful countenances, eager to tell the eleven " what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread" (Luke xxiv. 13,35). The following is the in- scription : Hie est Christus in forma pelegrini. Mane nobiscum^ Domine, quoniam advesperacit. Et cognoverunt eum in fractione panis. (4) Third and Fourth Appearances of Christ. (On vault between west and central cupolas.) — This mosaic combines, we may say, our Lord's appearance to the ten disciples on Easter Eve, and again to them with Thomas on its octave. The disciples, already realising the hostility of the world to those that are Christ's, are gathered together, with the doors shut, for OUR LORD'S APPEARANCES 277 fear of the Jews. Jesus, no longer subject to the laws of natural beings, has suddenly appeared in their midst with His comforting greeting of, " Peace be unto you," showing them at the same time the wounds of His crucifixion that they might recognise Him. As the latter manifesta- tion was granted especially for the incredulous Thomas, who wanted the test of sense, the inscription consists of Christ's invitation to him : Thomas quod quaeris, jam tacto vulnere credis, and of Thomas's response, who, gazing on Christ's wounds, has his faith confirmed in our Lord, both as Jesus of Nazareth and as the Son of God : Dominus mens et Deus mens (Mark xvi, 14 ; Luke xxiv. 36-43 ; John xx. 19-29). CHAPTER VIII THE ASCENSION CENTRAL CUPOLA This subject, the Ascension of our Lord, fills the great main central cupola of the church, and there it is depicted with a peculiar beauty and fulness. The important place thus given to it, and the thought and care expended on it, show that the Venetians regarded it as forming one of the most important chapters in our New Testament. They seem to have realised that it marked a transition period in the life of Christ, transforming it from one of humiliation into one of glory, rendering His presence, hitherto limited and local, henceforward spiritual and universal, accessible to all men, in all places, throughout all time. And they seem also to have realised it as marking an epoch in the history of the disciples and the Church, who were to know Him no longer after the flesh, but '* after the spirit " — seeing Him no more with the eye of sense, z o 2" if) "3 z w CJ u ■S) rt < u u U I u THE ASCENSION 279 and holding Him no more by the hand, but seeing Him by the eye of faith, and holding Him by the heart, and thus manifesting spi- ritual fellowship in a life devoted to His service and glory. Looking, then, up into the utmost height of the cupola, we see the Risen and Glorified Christ, surrounded by attendant angels, rising into the blue starry vault of the sky, " ascending up where he was before," far above all suns and worlds. He is seated on a rainbow — and there is a rainbow under His feet — now become the token of an " everlasting covenant between God and every living creature " of deeper significance than Noah ever knew. Mountains, that have been intimately associated with Christ's whole past life — with His teaching, with prayer to His Father, with His transfiguration — also figure on this occasion. And so, below Him, on " the mountain where Jesus had appointed them," and from which the Ascension was made, stand, amongst its olives and palm trees, the Apostles, the Evangelists, and Mary. The Evangelists have their books in their hands, and the Apostles, with two exceptions, their scrolls. Their faces are all turned upward in earnest gaze, and their arms and hands that are free are raised in token of amazement, or to shade their eyes from " the 280 THE NEW TESTAMENT excess of glory " that they may the better see their Lord. Christ, who is leaving the world as He entered it, a King, and who has just claimed before them universal sovereignty, " all power is given unto me in Heaven and on earth," and who in virtue of that, has laid upon them His royal mandate, " go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations," and has given them the promise of His perpetual presence — " Lo, I am with you all the days," now bends His eye down upon them, and raising and stretching His right hand over them (His left still holding the scroll of the written word), blesses them ; and in this con- tinued attitude and act of benediction, He is " parted from them and carried up into heaven." The two men in white apparel who appeared to them as they " looked steadfastly toward heaven," stand one on either side of Mary. They point upward to Christ, whilst the follow- ing words, which embody those spoken by them on the occasion, and show the sense in which the Venetians understood them, are written in a circle round the cupola above the heads of the Apostles : Dicile, quid slatis, Q,uid in athere consideratis ? Filius iste Dei, ChrisluSy cives Galilei, o .^ W 2 THE ASCENSION 281 Sumptus ut a vobis Abiity et sic arbiter orbis "Judicii cura Veni et dare debita jura. (Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Christ, the Son of God, as He goes away taken up from you, shall in like manner come, Arbiter of the world, invested with judgment, to give to men their just deserts.) In harmony with, and in extension of the thought expressed in these words, that the Christian life is to be one, not of contemplation, but of activity in carrying on " all that Jesus began both to do and teach" until He comes again, the Venetians have placed round the cupola under the Apostles' feet, in the wall- spaces between the little windows. Sixteen Figures, representing Sixteen Virtues. These Virtues are the same as those in the face of the second archivolt over the main door of the church (pages 36-40), although there the order is different, and there is one more than here. Excepting in the case of one virtue, all of them bear scrolls, as in the archivolt, with one or more texts of Scripture written on them. The texts, too, are almost identical, excepting in the case of Karitas (Love). Each virtue is thus recognised as the outcome of THE NEW TESTAMENT the word, and only through the knowledge of the word can it be acquired. And the text borne by each figure is a word of blessing. Every virtue brings its own blessing. Here the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount meet the Ascension benediction. The outcome of a life of virtue in Christ is blessing now, and leads to an ascension like His, and life with Him hereafter. And now, as we look eastward in order to begin to read these virtues and their legends — for, like all the other mosaics in the church, they begin where the sun rises, and follow it in its course across the heavens — we see two crosses in the soffit of the eastern window, and two peacocks drinking out of an overflowing fountain beneath it, reminding us that it is only by the cross, and by a new regenerated life through faith in Him who died on it, that these virtues can be possessed and manifested by us. Mr. Ruskin thinks they have a special adaptation " for sea life, and there is one for every wind that blows." (i) Temperantia (Temperance). — This virtue, unlike all the others in the cupola, has no scroll and no text, and, unfortunately, though it has a scroll in the archivolt series, the text has completely disappeared. There is only the name Temperantia inscribed to the left of the figure, by which we are to understand, not Temperance THE ASCENSION 283 in one thing, but in all things — temperateness, self-discipline, and self-government, " Reason's girdle, and passion's bridle" — one of the founda- tion-stones of a noble character. It is represented by a female figure pouring water from a vase into a bowl. (2) Prudentia (Understanding). — Text, Prov. iii. 19 : Stahilivit calos Prudentia (By understanding he established the heavens). This virtue, unlike the former, has scroll and text, but no name, although in the text the name is Prudentia. The translation that I have given of the word expresses its real meaning, namely, not prudence, but understanding, or intelligence, foreseeing, and practical judgment, the applica- tion of the highest wisdom to the highest ends. The figure holds in each hand a serpent erect, or rather a dragon, for they have short claws and wings. (3) Humilitas (Humility).— Text, Matt. V. 3 : Beati pauperes spiritu, quoniam ipsorum est regnum ccelorum (Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven). The Venetians evidently regarded the text as explanatory of the virtue, as referring to the absence of pride and conceit, of self-sufficiency, and self-complacency. The left hand of the figure holds the scroll, and the right points upward. " He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." 284 THE NEW TESTAMENT (4) Benignitas (Benignity).— Text, Matt. V. 5 : Beati mites, quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram (Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth). Here again the text explains, or supple- ments, the virtue. Benignity is the outcome of a spirit of meekness. And these virtues in the series hang together. Benignity is the conse- quence of, has as its foundation, humility. The figure representing the virtue has the left hand raised, and the right holds the scroll with its text. (5) Compulsio (Compunction). — Text, Matt. V. 4 : Beati qui lugent, quoniam ipsi consola- buntur (Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted). The text throws light upon the meaning of the name given to the virtue, which is not compulsion, or constraint, but repentance, compunction, sorrow ; not " the sorrow of the world which worketh death," but " godly sorrow that worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." The figure is mourning, with tears on her cheek and her left hand on her heart. In her right hand is the scroll. (6) Abstinentia (Abstinence). — Text, Matt. V. 6 : Beati qui esuriunt et sitiunt . . . quoniam ipsi saturabuntur (Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they tl Photo hy C. Xaya MERCY (Ascension Cupola) ly. H. llardGr Co. p. 284 THE ASCENSION 285 shall be filled). Here name and text seem to be in opposition, for the one speaks of longing after something, and the other of refraining, standing back, or holding oneself back from something. They may be united if we think of that enforced abstinence in a soul whose longings can only be satisfied when it " sees him as he is." The figure holds in its right hand a plate of bread, and in its left a vase of water. (7) Misericordia (Mercy). — Texts, Matt. V. 7 : Beati Misericordes^ quoniam ipsi misericor- diam consequentur (Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy) ; and Rom. xii. 8 : Q.ui miseretur in ilariiate (Show mercy with cheerful- ness). This virtue has these two texts, the former on its scroll in the right hand of the figure, the latter at its left side above. The old Venetians felt both were wanted. Mercy is kindness to the undeserving, and is usually manifested only by those who " hope in God's mercy," but even such are so apt to show mercy with a bad grace, to forgive with a grudge, that they need to be reminded of Him who " gives to all men liberally and upbraideth not," they need to be exhorted to " show mercy with cheer- fulness." (8) Patientia (Patience). — Text, Matt. V. 9 : Beati pacijici^ quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur 286 THE NEW TESTAMENT (Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God). The text is inti- mately connected with the virtue. Patience produces peace, as impatience is often the cause of dispeace. The patient man is the peace- maker, and is blessed as recognised to be the child of the God of peace. No word is more common on the lips of an Italian than pazienza (patience), only he uses it almost always in a wrong way, namely, to encourage an indolent resignation, and a do-nothing spirit, something very different from the virtue here spoken of. (9) Castitas (Chastity). — Text, Matt. v. 8 : Beati mundo corde^ quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt (Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God). The text shows that the Venetians traced virtue and vice to its source — the heart, and in this particular case, they traced chastity to its only source — a pure heart. The figure holds the scroll in its right hand, displaying the motto, whilst, with its left arm raised, and the fore- finger of the hand extended, the others being closed, it points straight upward. (10) Modestia (Moderation). — Text, Luke vi. 22 : Beati erttts cum vos oderint homines (Blessed are ye when men shall hate you). As the text shows the word Modestia (from modero, to restrain) is taken not in the sense of modesty, Photo by C. yaya n: H. Hard &■ Co. STEADFASTNESS (Ascension Cupola) p. 286 < u < < THE ASCENSION 287 but in its original sense of one keeping himself within due bounds, exercising self-restraint, moderation. This is a virtue very much wanted, and very frequently displayed by those who are hated, and " separated " from other men's company, and " cast out," as the text goes on to say, " for the Son of Man's sake." The figure is very straight, and its left hand is raised — the open palm turned outward in token of calm self-control. (ii) Constantia (Steadfastness). — Texts, Matt. V. 10 : Bead qui persecutionem ■patiuntur propter justitiam (Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness sake) ; and Matt. xxiv. 13 : Q,ui perseveraverit usque in finem salvus erit (He who endures unto the end shall be saved). When hatred becomes per- secution, then the virtue of steadfastness or endurance must be superadded to self-control, and moderation. Constantia^ as we saw, holds the place of honour amongst the archivolt virtues — the central one, appropriately placed on the key-stone of the arch. Its representation here is the same, only there is a fulness of detail that is lacking on the archivolt. Its arms are extended, and it holds in each hand vertically a disc or medallion. On that in the right hand is the head of Christ, on a blue ground with a 288 THE NEW TESTAMENT red aureole, and on that in the left is a female head, on a dark blue ground,, with a white aureole, whence proceed silver rays. As we have already seen, the symbolism of red is day- light, and here the dark blue with white signifies moonlight ; the figures are, therefore, those of the sun (the Sun of Righteousness) and of the moon. Besides sustaining these medallions, the hands hold suspended from them scrolls, on which are the texts above given, one from the earliest and one from the latest of our Lord's discourses. The symbolic teaching being, as we have seen, the supreme importance of Constantia in the Christian's life, which he has to maintain by day and by night, as long as the sun and the moon endure. (12) Karitas (Love). — Text, i Peter iv. 8 : Fratres^ karitas operii multitudinem ■peccatorum (Brethren, charity (love) covers a multitude of sins). The meaning of which is, that my love covers from mine own eyes a multitude of my neighbour's sins. Besides this text on the scroll there is inscribed on the left of the head of the figure, opposite the name Karitas^ the words, Mater Virtutum (Mother of Virtues), for all the law is fulfilled in love to God and love to man. And, again, in harmony with this, the figure of Charity itself is made regal, the virtue Photo by C. Nay a Ii: H. Hard &■ Co. LOVE (Ascension Cupola) p. 288 THE ASCENSION 289 is a Queen, with royal diadem and robe, and she bears in her left hand, besides her scroll, a globe, on which, and above which, is imprinted a cross — another symbol of sovereignty — and her right hand rests open upon her heart. Love is a specially Christian virtue, for whilst " God is love," no idol has ever been found either embodying love, or calling forth love from its worshipper, (13) Spes (Hope).— Text, Ps. Ixii. 8 (Ps. Ixi. 9, Vulgate) : Sperate in Deo omnis congregatio populi . , . Deus adjutor noster est (Hope in God all ye congregation of people, . . . God is our helper). Hope is made up of desire and expectancy, and the text gives both its object and ground in the case of the believer. The figure of Hope is straight, and its right hand is raised, " Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees." (14) Fides (Faith). — Texts, Rom. i. 17 : Justus ex fide vivit (The just shall live by faith); and James ii. 17 : Nam fides sine operibus vacua est (But faith without works is dead). The first text occurs also in Gal. iii. 1 1 and Heb. x. 38 and was originally spoken by Habakkuk (ch. ii. 4). The Venetians, fearing that the great Pauline doctrine of Justification by Faith might be misunderstood and abused, 290 THE NEW TESTAMENT explained and supplemented it by the second text, thus again showing us how they compared Scripture with Scripture. Here, also, they reconcile the teaching of St. Paul and St. James on the question of faith, which many have regarded as conflictive. (15) Justitia (Justice). — Text, Ps. xi. 7 (Ps. X. 8, Vulgate) : Justus Dominus, et justitiam dilexit, equitatem . . . (The Lord is righteous, and he loveth righteousness ; the upright . . .) No text could be found more full of the sanction of righteousness, and also of its reward, for the completion of the verse is — " shall behold his face." The figure is holding a pair of scales in the right hand, and a box of weights with the scroll in the left. There is no doubt this virtue lay at the foundation of Venice's greatness, for, as Mr. Ruskin reminds us, " the first words she ever spoke aloud " were those on the gable of the first church she ever built, that of San Giacomo in the market-place of the Rialto, words which are as legible to-day as when carved over ten centuries ago, " Around this temple let the merchant's laws be just, his balances true, and his covenants faithful." (16) Fortitudo (Fortitude). — Text, Ps. Iviii. 6 (Ps. Ivii. 7, Vulgate) : Molas leonum confringet 'Dominus (The Lord breaks the great teeth of Photo by C, Say a II'. IL llardSr Co. FAITH (Ascension Cupola) p. 290 Photo by C, A'aya ir. //. Ward &■ Co. FORTITUDE (Ascension Cupola) p. 290a THE ASCENSION 291 the lions). The figure has its left hand on a lion's neck, and with its right is tearing asunder its jaws. Fortitude, courage, intrepidity, hero- ism, is the last of our series of virtues, and most appropriately so, for Locke says, " Forti- tude is the guard and support of the other virtues." Yet it is a fortitude that lies not in the strength of man, but in that of the Lord — " I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me." In the spandrels below this circle of virtues, are the four Evangelists, writing their gospels. St. Matthew is sitting with his pen in his hand, and on the open pages of his book are the words. Liber generationis Jesu Christi filii David (The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David). St. Mark is depicted in an attitude of thought. He has paused in his writing, and, placing his elbow on the open page of his gospel, is resting his head on his hand which holds his quill. He has just begun his story thus, Initium Evangelii Jesu Christi Filii Dei (The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God). St. Luke has his book before him on a low green-covered writing-desk, and is occupied at his work. He has written the preface to his gospel, and on the open page we see the first words of the fifth 292 THE NEW TESTAMENT verse : Full in diebus Herodis^ regis Jud<£a^ sacerdos quidam nomine Zacharias (There was in the days of Herod, the King of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias). St. John, like St. Mark, is sitting as if he had paused in his writing and was deep in meditation. On the open page we read, In principio erat Verbum^ et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum (In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God). It is as if the Evangelists had laid to heart the advice of the angels and were no longer spending time in inactive contemplation, but were carrying out, by preaching and writing, their Sovereign's mandate, to preach the Gospel to every creature. And as their symbols remind us, each did this in his own way from his own standpoint, so that we have a four-fold, and therefore a full-orbed, image of Christ in their united work. Above the heads of the Evangel- ists are the following words : Sic actus Cristi, Describunt quatuor isti, Quod neque naturas Retinenty nee utrinque jiguras. (These four so describe the acts of Christ, THE ASCENSION 293 that they keep back neither substance, nor on the other hand figure.) Lastly, in this Ascension cupola, below the Evangelists in the angles of the vault, are the four rivers of Paradise ; Gyon under St. Matthew, Euphrates under St. Mark, Tigres under St. Luke, and Pison under St. John. They are represented here, as in the mosaic of Paradise in the atrium, by the figures of four men pouring out water from large vases poised on their shoulders, only that, whereas there they are sitting, here they are standing. The four rivers of Paradise have become the four streams of the Gospel, carrying new life and new fertility into the four quarters of the globe — undoing the curse of the fall, making the wilderness to be glad, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose — making all things new. The Ascension of Christ is thus shown to be a pledge of that of man and of nature — Paradise restored through Christ's Re- demptive Work. CHAPTER IX PENTECOST WEST CUPOLA The Descent of the Holy Spirit is closely connected with the fact we have just been considering — the Ascension of our Lord. In- deed, the one is the consequence of the other. He " ascended on high .... to receive gifts for men." " It is expedient for you that I go away, for, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I go I will send him unto you." It was not till the Descent of the Holy Spirit that the disciples were enabled to realise all the meaning of the Ascension as it regarded Christ — delivering Him from all the limitations of earth and time, and so enabling Him to be with them in all places, " all the days ; " and, as it regarded themselves — enduing them "with power from on high" to go forth to all nations, preaching a universal gospel. Photo by C. Xaya n: H. IVardC- Co. PENTECOST (West Cupola) p. 294 PENTECOST 295 And the Venetians seem to have grasped these truths, for they have treated the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the same noble lines they adopted for the Ascension ; and, by inscribing it in the adjoining west cupola, have assigned it an almost equally important position in the church. In the apex of the cupola is a pure white Dove, behind the head of which is a disc, or nimbus — not a ring or circle merely — of pure gold, thus bringing out the personality and the divinity of the Holy Ghost. The dove stands upon a golden-clasped Bible, as the " Spirit of Truth," who " guides into all truth, for he shall receive of mine," said Christ to His disciples, " and shall show it unto you." Lastly, this Bible is placed on a throne on which lie rich cushions and robes. In connection with the throne and its royal apparel, it is interesting to remember what Dr. Richel tells us in his " Cults of the God in pre-Hellenic Days," that wor- shippers were accustomed to set empty thrones, on which their gods, invisible to mortal eyes, might take their seats ; and that this is the ex- planation of the empty thrones found in graves in Tiryns, Mycenae, and other places. The whole arrangement in the cupola recalls the Ark of the Covenant with its " crown of gold," in which were the Tables of the Law, or the 296 THE NEW TESTAMENT Book of the Law, and over which hovered the Cherubim ; and in part, also, it resembles what the Greeks called v 'Eroindaia tov Qpovov (the Preparation of the Throne). Beneath the en- throned dove, so arranged as to form a circle round the cupola, sit the Twelve Apostles in the order in which they are named in Acts i, 12, Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the son of Alphasus, Simon Zelotes, Judas, the brother of James (called by the Evangelists Lebbasus, or Thaddasus), with whom is associated Matthias, who was elected to take the place of Judas Iscariot. As in the Ascension cupola, so here, four have books, and eight have scrolls— no messenger without his written message, and we believe that wherever the early disciples went, they translated their teaching into the language of the country, and left it with their converts. Issuing from the throne, and radiating down- wards till they connect themselves with the Apostles, are twelve white rays or channels — channels of grace — by which flowed into them the divine influences of the Holy Spirit, whilst the tongues " like as of fire," that appeared " distributing themselves amongst them," en- abling each to speak " as the Spirit gave them utterance," rest on their heads. Explanatory of PENTECOST 297 the nature and effects of this marvellous scene, the following beautiful and significant words girdle round the cupola : Spiritus in flammis^ Super hos distillat ut amnis ; Corda replens munit^ Et amoris nexibus unit ; Hinc varia gentes ; Miracula conspicientes^ Fiunt credentes Vim linguce percipientes. (The Spirit in flames distils upon them like a river ; filling the heart, it strengthens it, and unites it with the bands of love, hence various nations, beholding the miracles, are made believers, perceiving the strength of the tongues.) The Various Nations who became be- lievers from hearing the Galilean fishermen preach to them in their own tongues, " the wonderful works of God," are depicted beneath the Apostles, in the wall-spaces between the windows of the cupola. According to the text in Acts i. 9-1 1, these nations were sixteen in number, and as there happen to be exactly six- teen wall-spaces, there is one for each. The representation itself is simple, picturesque, and comprehensive. Two converts, dressed in their 298 THE NEW TESTAMENT native costume, stand for each nation, and of these, as the gospel equalises all, one is a man and the other a woman. In addition to the costume, which was apparently deemed insuffi- cient of itself to distinguish them, the name of the nation is inscribed above each group. The order followed is that given in Acts, which, it has been observed, is that " of the three great dispersions of the Jews, the Chaldean, Assyrian, and Egyptian." But it may carry our thoughts back to an earlier dispersion, even to that of Babel, and we may well see in this gift of tongues and common understanding of the Gospel, an undoing of the confusion of tongues that then took place. The names of the nations are, Parthi^ Medi^ Elamita^ Mesopotamia^ Judaa, Cappadociay Pontum, Asiatici^ Phrygiam^ Pam- philiam^ Mgiptum^ Libiam, Romania Judei, Cretes, and Arahes. Lastly, below these groups of figures, in the spandrels, or pendentifs of the cupola, are Four Angels, with their wings outstretched one toward another. Each bears a laharum in its hand. On those of the three first are inscribed the letters SCS. {Sanctus\ and on that of the fourth, DNS. (Dominus). Then, above them, round the cupola, the words continue, Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt cceli et terra gloria tua. PENTECOST 299 Hosanna in excehis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis. Thus the I'risagion {Tersanctus^ one of the oldest of the doxologies of the Greek Church, sung by the redeemed Church in thanksgiving for the out- pouring of the Holy Spirit, which brought in that new Dispensation of the Spirit under which we live, echoes round the cupola, filling the highest reaches of its dome — " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and Earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in the Highest. Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the Highest." CHAPTER X THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES This chapter of our New Testament is inscribed on the vaults and on the upper halves of the walls of the aisles. As all the twelve Apostles are severally spoken of, about some of whom little or nothing is told us in the Sacred Canon, the Venetians have gone for information to Apocryphal sources. These are a series of very ancient documents, which give the traditional beliefs as to the countries to which the Apostles travelled, the work they did, and the martyr deaths they died, when, in obedience to their Master's ascension-mandate, and after they had received the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, they went into all the world, preaching the gospel. The documents were originally in Greek, and were translated into Latin, it is supposed, as early as the sixth century. Some of them had a special interest for the Venetians — as, for example, those concerning Philip and Bartholomew — as Greek THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 301 MSS, of them came early into their hands, which are now preserved in the Library of St, Mark. Although our chapter tells us more of the martyr- doms of the Apostles than of their lives, I have called it "The Acts of the Apostles." not only because it is more biblical than any other, but also because it is the title of the Apocryphal collection so largely drawn upon. One half of it, namely, that which speaks of SS. John and James, Peter and Paul, Andrew and Thomas, is inscribed in the North Aisle of the church ; and the other half, which speaks of SS. James the Less, Philip, Simon Zelotes, Jude, Bartholomew and Matthew, is inscribed in the South Aisle. We will begin with the former, which unfortunately are all modern, and have little art interest. They were made between the years 1619 and 1624, by the mosaic workers Luigi and Girolomo Gaetano, uncle and nephew, and by Pasterini and Ceccato, from cartoons by Palma Vecchio, Padovanino, Aliense and Tizianello, Titian's cousin. (i) St. John. — The historian Tacitus, and the satirist Juvenal, both speak of the reign of terror and tyranny that disgraced the last years of theEmperorDominan(A.D. 81-96). Amongst other cruelties, he is said to have set on foot a persecution of Christians. Heaving heard of the 302 THE NEW TESTAMENT Apostle John's preaching and miracle-working in Ephesus, he sent a centurion with soldiers and had him brought to Rome. He then made him preach in his presence, and as John spoke of Christ's universal sovereignty, and his coming again to reign, the Emperor demanded to see signs, wrought in the name of this King, to con- firm the Apostle's statements. These signs form the subject of the mosaic : {a) Domitian poisoned a sacramental cup, and made John drink of it at the altar, as here shown. The Apostle, however, suffered no harm, and the poison is said to have come out of the cup in the form of a serpent. (^) John is put into a chaldron of boiling oil. The mosaic shows a man carrying a basket of fuel to feed the flames, another bearing a jar of oil on his shoulder, and others pushing down and holding the Apostle in the chaldron. Again he suffers no harm. Unable thus to kill him, the Emperor banished him to Patmos. The inscription is : Domitianus ; vivus subintrat iumulum. Further scenes in the life of St. John are recorded in the cupola of the north transept, but, owing to their bad state of repair, and the absence of light, they are barely decipherable. {c) St. John in Prayer. — The Evangelist is THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 303 standing alone, his hands raised in the attitude of prayer. Over his head are the words : S. Johannes, Evangelisia. {d) St. John AND Drusiana. — Returning to Ephesus after his banishment to Patmos, St. John met a company carrying to burial Drusiana, a holy woman, with whom he once lodged. Here he stands by the bier, on which she sits up, having been restored by him to life. The inscription is simply : Drusiana. (e) St. John and Stachys. — Stachys, who is associated more particularly with the ministry of Philip and Bartholomew, and who was ordained bishop by Bartholomew, is here healed by the Evangelist. As before, the inscription consists of but one word : Stacteus. (/) St. John and the Temple of Diana. — The Evangelist stands before the tower, repre- senting the temple of Diana at Ephesus, which he causes to fall by prayer. The inscription is : Templum Dian^e. (s) John drinking a poisoned Cup. — There are two versions of this tradition. One is that which we have already met with, namely, that it was given to him by Domitian, the other is what is here represented, that it was given to him by the high priest of Diana. Two men, to whom were given the dregs of the cup, are here seen 304 THE NEW TESTAMENT falling forward dead. The words are : Venenum bihit. {Ji) John Preaching. — Lastly, St, John is shown preaching to a crowd of people. Before him kneel two men, whom we may take to be the high priest of Diana, and the Roman pro- consul, who became his converts. The inscription is : Omnes crediderunt. (2) St. James the Greater.— There were two Apostles who bore the name James, distin- guished as James the Greater, and James the Less. James the Greater was the son of Zebebee, and the brother of St. John, and was one of the three favoured by our Lord to witness both His Transfiguration, and His Agony in the Garden, and it is he who is here spoken of. {a) He is represented preaching before king Herod Agrippa at the entrance of one of the gates of Jerusalem. The gateway is crowded with people, above whose heads is written the word : Judea. Conspicuously in front of them sit doctors of the law. Their faces express bitter hatred, and they have their books before them, ready to bring accusations against the Apostle. (^b) The scene is changed to Herod's castle ; the king is on his throne with his high priest beside him. Before him kneels St. James with a book in his hand, whilst a soldier is in the act of THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 305 beheading him with a sword, as we read in Acts xii. 1-2, This was about ii or 12 a.d. The inscription is : Sanctus Jacobus Apostolus occiditur jussu Herodis regis. (3 and 4) SS. Peter and Paul.— The mosaic that speaks of these Apostles covers the whole upper-wall space of the aisle. {a) The legend of their appearing with Simon Magus before the emperor Nero, in about the year 67 a.u., is portrayed. Simon Magus, the Sorcerer, of whom we read in Acts viii. 9-24, as desirous of purchasing " the gift of God with money " (whence our word simony), is said to have gone to Rome, where by his magical arts he ingratiated himself with the emperor. St. Peter was then in Rome, and soon after St. Paul arrived, when they denounced Simon Magus. Simon brought them before Nero as impostors, but they turned the tables on him, accusing him before the emperor as being a sorcerer, whilst they claimed to be honest men. Nero was at a loss what to believe, when Simon Magus undertook to prove that he was the Son of God, by ascending to heaven from a high tower. This the emperor built, and on the trial day Simon, crowned with laurels, ascended it, and began to fly from its summit, borne up by the Prince of the Power of the Air, whom he served. Nero believed him u 306 THE NEW TESTAMENT to be a god, when St. Paul knelt down and prayed, and besought St. Peter to adjure the demons in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to let him go. They did so, and the mosaic shows Simon's tremendous fall, whereby he was killed. Simon had once, however, pretended to have died and to have returned to life, and the emperor, thinking he might repeat this miracle, caused St. Peter and St. Paul to be put in irons to await events. As Simon did not revive, he accused them of murdering him, and ordered their execution. (^b) Their martyrdoms are next shown. St. Peter is being crucified with his head down, this form of crucifixion having been granted him at his own request, as he deemed himself unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as Christ ; and St. Paul is being beheaded, because as a Roman citizen he had the right to be spared the ignominy of crucifixion. Stones lie scattered about, but they are probably designed rather to suggest an open country than that they were used against the Apostles. Both are said to have gained the martyr's crown on the same day. The inscription : Nero Imperator utrisque Apostolis necem dari^ alterum crucifigi^ alterum vero gladio interfeci jussit. (5) St. Andrew. — Andrew, known because of his humility as Simon Peter's brother, was yet THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 307 " in Christ " before Peter, and was the means of leading him to Christ. He was indeed the first disciple, the first apostle, the first evangelist of our Lord. He is said to have preached the gospel in Scythia, Greece, Thracia, and Achaia. Tradition says that in this last-mentioned place, in the city of Patras, he boldly rebuked the pro- consul Aegeus for persecuting the Christians. He was an heroic man, and, in the book of " The Acts and Martyrdom of the Holy Apostle Andrew," a long account is given of his firm, courageous discourses with the pro-consul, whose threats of torture and death he defied. The mosaic represents first the scene before his cruci- fixion, when Aegeus, sitting on his throne, urges him to recant, and offer a libation to the gods, which the Apostle indignantly refuses to do. It then represents him being crucified on a Crux Decusata^ hence called after him a St. Andrew's cross. The legend says that he was not nailed, but tied to it, so that his agonies might be prolonged, but that this refinement of cruelty only helped on the cause of Christ, as he was able to preach to the people for hours from his cross, with the result that twenty thousand of them were moved, and turned against the tyrant Aegeus. The inscription is : Sanctus Andreas in cruce sic patitur. SOS THE NEW TESTAMENT (6) St. Thomas. — To this apostle, according to the book of" The Acts of Thomas," the work of evangelising in India fell by lot, and to that country he went as a carpenter with Abbanes, a merchant of King Gundaphoros. The king commissioned him to build him a palace in the country, and sent him money at regular intervals from Andrapolis, the royal city, for the work. All this money however St. Thomas gave to the poor. When the king discovered what he had done he put him in prison. On learning, however, in a vision, from his brother who had died, that the Apostle had built him a palace, a " building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," he liberated him, and became him- self a Christian. The first part of this mosaic represents St. Thomas preaching to the king, who sits on his throne, surrounded by his guards. Above his head is written : Rex Indorum Gunda- phorus. By-and-bye another king came to the throne of India, called Misdeus, whose wife and son became converts of St. Thomas. Angry at this, Misdeus accused him of scorcery, im- prisoned him, and finally ordered his soldiers to kill him by spear-thrusts. The second part of the mosaic sets before us his martyrdom. Angels above his head proffer him a celestial crown, and the palm of victory. As is well known, THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 309 Christians calling themelves the disciples of St. Thomas have existed since apostolic times, in the south-western part of Hindustan, on the Malabar Coast. A further inscription runs : Sanctus 'Thomas Apostolus. (j) St. James the Less. (This and the fve following are in south aisle. All are fine old mosaics.) — St. James, called the Less (Mark XV. 40) to distinguish him from St. James the Greater, was the son of Alphaeus (Mark iii. 18) and is often identified with James, the Lord's brother, spoken of by St. Paul (Gal. i. 19), and considered to be the author of the Epistle of James. He was probably the first bishop of Jerusalem, and, although having strong Judaical leanings, was hated by the Scribes and Pharisees, who ultimately procured his death, by thrusting him from a pinnacle of the temple. The mosaic sets forth his martyrdom. In the first portion he is being pushed off" the pinnacle, and then he is seen lying on the ground, where a man with a fuller's club is ending his life. On either side of the martyred Apostle stands a group of people, whose faces express pride and hate. Above the one is written the word Judei^ and above the other Farisei. The mosaic also shows a church, and the body of St. James being placed within a coffin, apparently for burial within it, 310 THE NEW TESTAMENT or close to its walls. The inscription is : Pelitur a tergo, percussus ohit^ sepelitur. (8) St. Philip. — St. Philip of Bethsaida is said to have evangelised in Phrygia, and to have died a martyr's death at Hierapohs. This city was also called Ophioryma, which signifies Serpents' Town, because the inhabitants wor- fihipped serpents and vipers, and especially a huge dragon, that was the personification of the god Mars. The mosaic represents St. Philip preaching against this idolatry, and causing the serpents and their temples to be destroyed. The great dragon, with its scaly body and fiery tongue, is seen flying away, whilst Stachys, the Apostle's host, pulls, by means of a rope, the idol Mars from the top of its column. The legend relates that Philip was subjected to various tortures, under which he displayed a spirit of revenge, for which he was punished by the Lord, although his act of cursing his enemies, and causing the earth to open and swallow them up, was overruled for the conver- sion of many people. When dying, nailed to a tree, he gave orders that his body should be wrapped in Syriac sheets of paper, " and not," he said, " in flaxen cloth, because the body of my Lord was wrapped in linen," and that it should be bound with papyrus reeds, and ■,'f^ PEL! T:' R ■ /TBRGO • \? C V i" s v S K fl ■■ $ £ I ' € ]. I ITR • Photo by C. Naya n\ H. Hard &■ Co. ST. JAMES THE LESS and ST. PHILIP THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 311 be buried in a church to be raised on the spot where he died. The mosaic shows the prepara- tion of the body for burial in this church. The inscription is : Mars ruii, angiiis abit^ surgunt^ gens Scitica credit. Sanctus Philippus Apostolus^ rediens a Scitis^ Hierapolim in pace quievit. (9 and 10) Simon Zelotes and Jude. — Simon Zelotes is also called the Canaanite, this latter word not being however a Gentile name but a Hebrew word, with the same signification as Zelotes, zeal. Jude is also called Judas, and Lebbasus, and Thaddaeus. Tradition says that Simon and Jude were brothers, and, probably, kinsmen of our Lord. It assigns to them the same sphere of labour, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia, and hence they are united here in one mosaic, which, like that of St. Peter and St. Paul, occupies the whole upper wall-space of the aisle, which however is broken into by three windows. First we see Simon, with his hands outstretched, directing the attention of the people to a statue on the top of a lofty ornate column. Above it are the words, Statua solis. It is a statue to the Sun, and Simon by prayer is making the solar chariot, with its horsemen and horses, to fall, in spite of the efforts of a demon to hold them up. On the other side of the column are some fierce looking men, one of 312 THE NEW TESTAMENT whom bears a drawn sword. Next we see a reproduction of this scene, only the statue is to the moon, Statua lun