Chapter II: 225 (2)

The change of the monogram into the cross was very gradual. First one stroke of the X became coincident with the vertical part of the P, and the other at right angles to it, as in No. 6, Fig. 57. At length the loop of the P disappears and the Greek cross results. In the other examples of Fig. 57 the cross, if cross it was at all, was neither in the Greek nor Latin form, but in that known as St. Andrew’s. Finally the lower arm was lengthened till it assumes the form shown in the accompanying engraving, which was found on the grave of a neophyte four years old. The first dated example of a simple undisguised cross in the Catacombs does not occur till A. D. 407;[451] but during the latter part of the fifth century it became quite common. It also became more ornate in form, and was frequently adorned with gems and wreathed with flowers, especially in the later bas reliefs. In the fourth century it had already become an object of such superstitious 271 veneration as to call forth the reproaches of Julian and the extravagant laudation of many of the Christian fathers.[452] In the time of Chrysostom the alleged discovery of the true cross by the Empress Helena was universally received, and “materialized at once,” says Milman, “the spiritual worship of Christianity.”[453] Its position was revealed in a vision and its genuineness proved by the miraculous cures which it performed, as recorded by St. Cyril, afterward bishop of Jerusalem, a reputed eye-witness of the event. The precious relic, distributed throughout Christendom[454] and in minute portions worn as sacred talismans, did much to cultivate a spirit of superstition which culminated in the Romish festivals of the Invention and Exaltation of the Cross, and in the hymns and offices of the church, often bordering, at least, upon idolatrous homage.[455] It also led to the conception of the marvelous legend of the cross in the 272 apocryphal gospels and ancient traditions.[456]

The cross thus gradually assumed the form in which it is now generally 273 represented; but it was a sign of joy and gladness, crowned with flowers, adorned with precious stones, “a pledge of the resurrection rather than a memorial of the passion.”[457] It was like the rainbow in the cloud to Noah after the flood--a promise of mercy, not a symbol of wrath. It was not the dead Christ but the glorified Redeemer that the primitive Church presented to the imagination. She lingered not by the empty sepulchre, but followed by faith the risen Lord. The persecuted saints shared the triumph of His victory over death and the grave, and felt that because He lived they should live also.

The early believers carefully avoided, as though prevented by a sacred interdict, any attempt to depict the awful scenes of Christ’s passion, the realistic treatment of which in Roman Catholic art so often shocks the sensibilities and harrows the soul. This solemn tragedy they felt to be the theme of devout and prayerful meditation rather than of portraiture in art. Hence we find no pictures of the agony and bloody sweat, the mocking and the shame, the death and burial of Our Lord. “The Catacombs of Rome,” says Milman, “faithful to their general character, offer no instance of a crucifixion, nor does any allusion to such a subject of art occur in any early writing.”[458] “The passion is not represented literally,” says Dr. Northcote, a strenuous 274 advocate of Roman Catholic views, “but under the veil of secresy. It is not our Beloved Lord, but some other who bears his cross. The crown which is placed on his head is of flowers rather than of thorns, and corresponds better with the mystical language of the Spouse in the Canticles[459] than would a literal treatment.”[460] With this agrees the assertion of the distinguished Prussian archæologist, Prof. Piper, of Berlin. Speaking of the series of art representations, belonging to the first five centuries, of scenes in the life of Our Lord, which extend from his nativity to his appearance before Pilate, he says, “Further, however, this series does not go: the death and resurrection of Christ have not at all been made the subject of representation in this period.”[461]

In the fifth century Paulinus of Nola speaks of Christ as represented by a snowy lamb standing at the foot of the cross.[462] Sometimes a lamb bore the cross, at others it was couchant in the midst of it; and, as if to bring the sacrificial emblem more vividly to mind, the 275 lamb was represented as wounded and bleeding, an innocent victim given to an unjust death.[463]

In A. D. 692 the Quinisextan Council decreed that the historic figure of Christ in human form should be substituted for paintings of the lamb[464]--an evidence that the earlier representations were purely allegorical. The lamb, however, still continued to be employed, and it required the reiterated injunction of Pope Adrian, in the eighth century, to enforce uniformity of usage; and even after that time a reversion to the former practice sometimes occurred.

The oldest extant representation of the crucifixion is a miniature in a Syrian evangelarium, of date A. D. 586, now in the Laurentian Library at Florence. The treatment of the subject is exceedingly rude, bordering on the grotesque. The figure of Our Lord is crowned with a nimbus and clothed with a long purple robe The soldiers on the ground are casting lots for his garments, and the sun and moon look down upon the scene. A companion picture represents the ascension of Christ and the effusion of the Holy Spirit. “These are the oldest pictorial representations,” says Prof. Piper, “of the earthly life of Jesus and of his exaltation.... At a somewhat later period,” he continues, “they appear also in the west.”[465]

Gregory of Tours, about the end of the sixth century, mentions, apparently as an unusual innovation, a picture in the church at 276 Narbonne which represented the crucifixion of Our Lord.[466] About the same time Venantius Fortunatus mentions what seems to have been a metallic cross bearing the image of Christ.[467]

The figure of Jesus first appeared standing at the foot of the cross, frequently with outstretched arms as if in prayer, which type was common in the eighth century. Sometimes the bust only was exhibited at the top of the cross, or even hovering over it, as in a reliquary presented to Theodelinda by Gregory the Great, the head being crowned with a nimbus, but without any expression of pain.

In the ninth century the form of Christ is raised to the centre of the cross; but he is still alive, with open eyes and head erect, as if to indicate that the divine nature was not subject to death. The hands are not nailed, but extended in prayer; the darkened sun and moon look down upon the awful tragedy; but still a feeling of reverence prevented the depicting of any expression of suffering on the countenance of the Redeemer. It was not till the eleventh century that art attempted to represent either the agony or death of the Son of God.[468] From this time he is exhibited lifeless upon the cross, his 277 hands and feet transpierced with nails and a spear wound in his side, from which the flowing blood sometimes falls on the head of the spectators, as if indicating the efficacy of the atonement; and in the thirteenth century the head drops heavily to one side.[469]

The arrangement of the drapery differs greatly in these paintings. In the tenth century the form of the divine victim is entirely clothed with a long robe with sleeves, the hands and feet alone being uncovered. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the robe becomes shorter and the sleeves disappear; in the thirteenth it is reduced to a short tunic; and in the fourteenth it is little more than a narrow girdle about the loins, at which stage it has since remained. The _suppedaneum_, or support for the feet, is generally represented. It is frequently in the form of a globe, or of a chalice. The support for the body is never shown in art. Sometimes the sepulchre, with the angel and the two Marys, is seen in the background. One example, in St. John’s Lateran, exhibits the gate of paradise and the tree of life.

The expression of the face also underwent a change--a dire eclipse of woe--no less painful to behold. In the earlier pictures of the crucifixion the countenance of the Redeemer is still gentle and benign, the type of tenderness and truth; but it gradually becomes more and more strongly marked with the expression of sorrow and physical anguish, till all the divine fades away, and only the human agony of the wan and furrowed face remains. The serene and joyous aspect which, as we shall see, the representations of Our Lord always 278 wore in the Catacombs, vanishes, and he is depicted as the “man of sorrows,” crushed with hopeless grief, crowned with thorns, transpierced with nails, and stained with dropping blood from the ghastly spear-wound in his side. Art exhausted its power in delineating the intensest forms of anguished suffering, sinking lower and lower in the depths of a brutal materiality and ferocity of treatment of this sacred theme. Even the genius of Michael Angelo only renders more painful the contrast between the tender and pitiful Good Shepherd of the Catacombs and the relentless Judge of the Sistine Chapel, menacing the guilty with the thunderbolts of wrath--a pagan Zeus rather than the Christian God of Mercy. This striking change but too faithfully represents the corresponding degradation and materialization of religious belief.

The crucified Christ was not only depicted in his dying agonies on earth, but this human anguish is even introduced into representations of heaven, bringing gloom upon its glory and sadness amid its joy. The Divine Father is frequently portrayed as sitting on the throne of his majesty, and holding in his hand a cross on which hangs the agonized body of his Son.[470]

In the East the development of image worship seems to have been earlier than in the West.[471] During the eighth century its corruptions provoked the iconoclastic zeal of the Isaurian Leo; and a general council condemned as idolatrous all symbols of Christ except the holy Eucharist.[472] Their destruction was rigorously prosecuted in the Eastern Empire; but Gregory II. became the champion of image 279 worship in the West, and Italy, adhering to her ancient pagan instincts, substituted this new idolatry for that which she had abandoned.

The development of the graven representation of the passion was more gradual than its treatment in graphic art. This was the work of the sculptors. At first the figure of Our Lord was merely painted on a flat surface of wood or metal. This was afterward incised in outline, and exhibited in low relief, as on an ivory diptych of date A. D. 888 in the Vatican Museum. In this the sun and moon, as genii, hold torches above the cross; and by a singular association of ideas, Romulus and Remus, suckled by the wolf, appear at its foot, probably in allusion to Christ’s spiritual subjugation of the Roman Empire.[473] The treatment of this sacred theme passed gradually through the stages of _basso_, _mezzo_, and _alto relievo_, becoming more and more detached, till, in the fourteenth century, the figure of Our Lord upon the cross stood out, the completed and portable crucifix.[474] From this, through rapid stages, we arrive at the gross and ghastly images which abound throughout Roman Catholic Christendom; in every church and at every shrine; in the homes alike of prince and peasant; at the street corners and by the way side; often in popular apprehension endowed with the power of weeping, motion, speech, and working miracles.[475] By such gradations between the soul of man and 280 the living Saviour came the image of the dead Christ, diverting the thoughts from the faith in a living Lord to an idolatrous veneration of a lifeless symbol.

Thus, as Dr. Maitland remarks, in painting sight superseded faith, and in sculpture touch superseded sight. But still another resource of sensuousness was to be discovered; and in the year 1223, “when the world was growing cold,”[476] as the Roman Church, with a deeper meaning than it knew, asserted, Saint Francis of Assis is feigned to have received the stigmata of the five wounds of Christ, and thenceforth to have borne about in his body--a living crucifix--the marks of the Lord Jesus. This miracle was afterwards frequently repeated; but the Church, seeking amid the growing darkness of the times to walk by sight and not by faith, wandered ever further and further from the central source of light and power, and lost all ability to communicate to a cold and dying world any spiritual life and warmth.

The sad lesson of the history we have been tracing is but too plain. In the early ages, and in the fervent glow of primitive faith, no outward symbol was necessary to reveal to the soul the presence of the Divine, or to interpret the profound meaning of the atonement. The Church required no sensuous image of Him, whom having not seen she loved, to prevent that love from growing cold. As the fervour of faith failed she relied more on the visible sign to quicken her languid devotion; but not till six centuries of gathering gloom had passed 281 over her head after her fatal alliance with imperial power did degenerate art dare to portray to the eye of sense the death pangs and throes of mortal agony of the suffering Son of God. In the church of the Catacombs these images of sadness and gloom have no place. All is bright, cheerful, and hope-inspiring. In the following chapter we shall see that these characteristics are strikingly manifested in all the representations of Our Lord that there occur.

NOTE.--We have made no reference in the foregoing remarks to the
pre-Christian crosses, of which so many examples occur. It is not
remarkable that this perhaps simplest of all geometrical figures
should have attracted the notice of many diverse and ancient
races, and even have been regarded as a sign of potent mystical
meaning. This subject has been treated with a good deal of
fantastic theory by S. Baring-Gould, M.A., (_Curious Myths of the
Middle Ages_, pp. 341, _et seq._;) more philosophically by
Creuzer, (_Symbolek_, pp. 168 _et seq._,) and by various
travellers and observers of ancient remains in many lands. Sir
Robert Ker Porter mentions the hieroglyph of a cross, accompanied
by cuneiform inscriptions, which he saw on a stone among the
ruins of Susa. (_Travels_, vol. ii, p. 414.) Prescott mentions
its occurrence among the objects of worship in the idol temples
of Anahuac, (_Conquest of Mexico_, vol. iii, pp. 338-340.) It was
found on the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, which fact was
urged by the pagan priests to induce Theodosius not to destroy
that building. (Socrates, _Eccl. Hist._, v, 17.) It was probably
a Nilometer, or perhaps the so-called “Key of the Nile,”
frequently held in the hand of Egyptian deities as the emblem of
life, or the symbol of Venus, probably of phallic significance.
(Tertul., _Apol._, c. 16.) It is found also on Babylonian
cylinders, on Phoenician and Etruscan remains, and among the
Brahminical and Buddhist antiquities of India and China.
(Medhurst’s _China_, p. 217.) It was also the sign of the Hammer
of Thor, by which he smote the great serpent of the Scandinavian
mythology. On rather slender evidence S. Baring-Gould attributes
its use to the pre-historic lake-dwellers of Switzerland. It was
also found, he asserts, combined with certain ichthyic
representations in a mosaic floor of pre-Christian date, near Pau
in France, in 1850. This example was probably post-Christian.

[357] When persecution ceased, this veil of mystery was thrown
off and a less esoteric art employed; but even when Christianity
came forth victorious from the Catacombs, symbolical paintings
celebrated its triumph upon the walls of the basilicas and
baptisteries which rose in the great centres of population.

[358] _Mémoire sur les antiquités Chrétiennes des Catacombes._
(_Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscr., XIII._)

[359] Sometimes this superzealous interpretation leads to absurd
mistakes. Aringhi devotes two folio pages to the explanation of
certain figures which occur in the inscriptions of the Catacombs,
which he calls representations of the human heart. He illustrates
the subject with much sacred and profane learning, and with many
quotations from the Scriptures, the Fathers, and classic authors.
Another archæologist, Boldoni, suggests that the figures signify
the bitterest sorrow of heart--_dolorem cordi intimum_; and
another believes them to be representations of a heart
transpierced with a thorn, the symbol of profoundest grief. These
mysterious figures, whose hidden meaning was sought with such
empty toil--_arcanam significationem inani labore
investigarint_, says De Rossi--were, however, nothing more
than the leaf-decorations employed in both pagan and Christian
inscriptions by way of punctuation! See the following example:

[360] See especially the church of S. Stefano Rotondo, where is a
chronological series of martyrdoms, represented in all their
direst horrors, from the crucifixion of Our Lord to the reign of
Julian. Among other _grotesqueries_ is a picture of St. Dionysius
walking in full episcopal robes at the head of a procession,
holding his head, streaming with blood, in his hands!

The desire to find martyrs has led over-zealous antiquarians to
discover instruments of torture in the implements of trade
commonly represented on the gravestones of the Catacombs. The adz
and saw of the carpenter are made to do duty in some sensational
tale of chopping and sawing of a Christian sufferer, and the
baker’s corn measure is transformed into a martyr’s fiery furnace.

[361] See Figs. 122 to 128, and context.

[362] _Sac. Art_, p. 43.

[363] Figs. 23, 24.

[364] Such symbols were not peculiar to Christian tombs. There
were many pagan examples of a similar character. Thus a
_cultrarius_, or cutler, has knives; a _pullarius_, or poulterer,
a cage or coop of chickens; a _tabellarius_, and postman, a
writing case; and a _marmorarius_, or mason, a mallet and chisel,
on his tomb. Sometimes a shop, with customers bargaining, is
shown. A bag or purse signifies an agent; money, a banker; and
the like. The _ascia_ or axe, so common on Roman tombs, probably
represents a sacrificial instrument. Analogous to these are the
sphere and cylinder engraven on the tomb of Archimedes, and the
square and compasses on modern masonic monuments. In the Armenian
cemeteries a hammer, trowel, last, scales, and shears, indicate
the grave of a carpenter, mason, shoemaker, grocer, or tailor. In
the Cemetery de l’Est, at Paris, animals acting mark the tomb of
the French fabulist, La Fontaine; masks, that of Molière; a
palette or brushes, that of a painter. See also the naval and
military trophies on the tombs of many distinguished sailors and
soldiers.

[365] Fig. 112. This symbol is designated by modern Italians La
Navicella di San Pietro--the Bark of St. Peter. From the fancied
resemblance of the body of the church to a ship, or from the
above allusion, the word _nave_, applied to that part, has been
derived as if from _navis_, a ship. May it not possibly be from
ναός, a temple?

[366] “Arbor quædam in navi,” says St. Ambrose, “est crux in
ecclesia.”

[367] Compare the following beautiful passage from Tertullian, in
which the metaphor is elaborately carried out: “Amid the reefs
and inlets, amid the shallows and straits of idolatry, Faith, her
sails filled with the Spirit of God, navigates; safe, if
cautious, secure, if intently watchful. But to such as are washed
overboard is a deep, whence is no outswimming; to such as run
aground is inextricable shipwreck; to such as are engulfed is a
whirlpool, where there is no breathing in idolatry. All its waves
suffocate; every eddy drags down to Hades.”--_De Idol._, c. 24.

[368] Compare 2 Esdras ii, 44, 45. See _ante_, Fig. 18. The
palm appears on the coins of Simon Barchocab.

[369] See also Figs. 15, 77, and 82. The figures are often very
conventional, and look more like geese or ducks than doves.

[370] See Psa. lxviii, 13. In Mediæval art the soul is
represented issuing from the mouth of the dying or flying through
the air in the form of a dove. One example bears the
inscription--_animæ interfectorum_--the souls of the slain.

[371] See the common epigraphic expression, ΠΙΕ ΕΝ ΘΕΩ--“Drink
in God,” and the language of Augustine concerning a deceased
friend--“Jam ponit spirituale os ad fontem tuum, Domine, et bibit
quantum potest.”--_Con._, ix, 3.

[372] See Figs. 60 and 106. “The doves which perch upon the
cross,” says Paulinus, “show that the kingdom of God is open to
the simple”--
Quæque super signum resident cæleste columbæ
Simplicibus produnt regna patere Dei.

[373] Per columbam Spiritus Sanctus fluit.--_Ep. ad Sever._

[374] _Contra Valentin._, c. iii. Sometimes a gold or silver
dove was placed over the altar, (Bing., viii, 6, § 19,) as is
still occasionally seen even in Protestant churches. In the
Middle Ages churches and abbeys were named from this symbol, as
_Santa Columba_ and Sainte Colombe, the church of the Holy
Dove. They were also dedicated to the Holy Ghost under the title
of Saint Paraclete, Santo Spirito, and Saint Esprit.

[375] According to an apocryphal Gospel, the Holy Ghost under the
form of a dove designated Joseph as the spouse of the Virgin Mary
by lighting on his head; and in the same manner, says Eusebius,
(vi. 29,) was Fabian indicated as the divinely appointed bishop
of Rome. According to a singular legend, the Holy Spirit in the
form of a dove was present at the Council of Nice, and _signed
the creed_ that was there framed. In the Arthurian legend a snowy
dove accompanied the apparition of the Holy Grail. In the
fifteenth century a pigeon which lighted on the tent of Edward
III., at Calais, was thought to be a manifestation of the Holy
Ghost. (_Mémoires de Phil. de Commines_, iv, 10.) Seven doves
hovering around the head of Our Lord or the Virgin Mary
symbolize, in Mediæval art, the seven-fold gifts of the Spirit.

[376] See Figs. 46, 89.

[377] _Ep. ad Corinth._, § 25.

[378] _De Phoenice._

[379] _De Resurrec. Carn._, c. 13.

[380] See Fig. 102.

[381] Psa. xlii, 1. See Fig. 132.

[382] See Fig. 115.

[383] In later art this figure is used as an emblem of the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, and is sometimes represented as opening
the apocalyptic book with seven seals. The four living creatures
of John’s vision, (chap. iv, 6, 7,) the lion, calf or ox, eagle,
and man or angel, and the tetramorph figure of that of Ezekiel,
(chap. i, ver. 10,) became symbols of the four evangelists, and
also of Christ.

In mediæval art uncouth and grotesque figures--“Gorgons and
hydras and chimeras dire”--took the place of the bright and
genial symbols of the Catacombs. To the terrified imagination of
the age all nature swarmed with malignant and demoniac beings,
which were bodied forth in the dragons and griffins, and
monstrous forms and faces that haunt the gothic minsters and
abbeys, especially in the northern countries of Europe, where the
savageness of nature is reflected in the weirdness of art. Yet
even in its distorted grotesqueness, this art proved its moral
superiority to the gay and joyous spirit of heathenism. The
intense consciousness of sin and evil, and of the mortal struggle
of the human soul with the powers of darkness which it
manifested, is essentially nobler than the frivolous sensualism
of ancient art and life, without hope or fear of the future.

[384] See Job xxx, 1; Psa. xxii, 16; Matt. vii, 6; Phil. iii, 2;
Rev. xxii, 15.

[385] Compare the prophecy of Belshazzar’s doom--Dan. v, 27. To
this the weighing of the fates of Achilles and Hector in the
Iliad is analogous. (McCaul, 49.) Several of these symbols are
often associated together. Thus, on a slab bearing date A. D.
400, are crowded the Constantinian monogram, the balance, mummy,
candelabrum with seven lights, a house, and fish. On a marble
ambo at Ravenna are six series, ten in each, of sheep, peacocks,
doves, stags, ducks, and fishes. Whether symbolical or not, the
selection is a remarkable parallel to many of the figures of the
Catacombs.

[386] Psa. xxiii.

[387] Psa. lxxx, 1.

[388] 1 Pet. ii, 25.

[389] See Fig. 105.

[390] Pausanias, lib. x.

[391] Tibullus, _Eleg._, ii, 11, 12; Calpurn., _Eclog._, v, 39.

[392] Isa. xl, 11.

[393] Patrocinabitur Pastor, quem in calice depingitis. A
parabolis licebit incipias, ubi est ovis perdita, a Domino
requisita et humeris ejus revecta.--_De Pudicit._, ii and x.

[394] The later Christian poets also celebrated this tender
theme. In lines whose lyric cadence charm the ear like a
shepherd’s pipe Thomas Aquinas sings:

Bone Pastor, panis vere,
Jesu, nostri miserere,
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere;
Tu nos bona fac videre,
In terra viventium.

Tu qui cuncta scis et vales,
Qui nos pascis hic mortales
Tuos ibi commensales
Cohæredes et sodales
Fac sanctorum civium.

Another Mediæval hymn runs sweetly thus:

Jesu dulcissime, e throno gloriæ
Ovem deperditam venisti quærere!
Jesu suavissime, pastor fidissime,
Ad te O trahe me, ut semper sequar te!

[395] In a distich accompanying an _Agnus Dei_ in the church
of St. Pudentiana at Rome, both characters are ascribed to Our
Lord:

Hic agnus mundum restaurat sanguine lapsum,
Mortuus et vivus idem sum, pastor et agnus.

“This Lamb restores the lost world with his blood. Dead and
living, I am but one; I am at once the Shepherd and the Lamb.”

Paulinus beautifully says: “The same Lamb and Shepherd rules us
in the world who from wolves has made us lambs. He is now the
Shepherd of those sheep for whom he was once the victim
Lamb.”--_Epis._ iii, _ad Florent_.

[396] Isa. liii, 7.

[397] John i, 19.

[398] Rev. v, 6.

[399] _Ibid._, v, 12.

[400] “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount
Sion.”--Rev. xiv, 1.

[401] Paulinus thus describes a mosaic of this subject at Fondi,
(_Epis._ xii, _ad Severum_:)

Petram superstat, ipse petra ecclesiæ,
Ex qua sonori quatuor fontes meant,
Evangelistæ, viva Christi flumina.

“Standing upon a rock is He who is himself the Rock of the
church, and from this go forth four voiceful streams,
evangelists, the living rivers of Christ.”

The _Agnus Dei_ is still often seen on altar cloths and
tombstones.

[402] Et quia celsa (crux) quasi judex de rupe superstat,
Bis geminæ pecudis discors agnis genus hædi
Circumstant solium; lævos avertitur hædos
Pastor et emeritos dextra complectitur agnos.
--_Epis._ xii, _ad Sulpic. Sever._

[403] A. D. 234. De Rossi, _Inscript. Christ._, No. 6. (See
Fig. 52.) Of course, there may have been many earlier whose
precise date we cannot determine.

[404] In later art, indeed, the figure sometimes occurs on
baptismal fonts, in mosaics, and in architecture, but probably as
a mere ornament, without any religious meaning. In Byzantine art
it is unknown except as a natural representation, for example, of
fish swimming in the water, or, in frescoes of the last judgment,
as restoring human limbs which they had devoured, illustrative of
the passage, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in
it.”--Rev. xx, 13.

[405] Piscis nomen, secundum appellationem Græcam, in uno nomine
per singulas literas turbam sanctorum nominum continet ‘ΙΧΘΥΣ,’
quod est Latinè, Jesus Christus, Dei Filius, Salvator.--Optat.,
_Cont. Parmen._, lib. iii.

[406] _Orat. Const. ad Coet. Sanct._, § 18.

[407] _De Civ. Dei_, xviii, 23.

[408] _Pædag._, lib. iii, cap. ii. The symbol also occurs in
a Christian Catacomb at Alexandria, and at Cyrene, in Upper Egypt.

[409] The Jewish Christians of that city would be already
familiar with this mode of coining significant titles, which is
illustrated in the name of their national heroes, the Maccabees,
said to be made up of the initial letters, מָכָבִּי, of their
battle cry, מִי־כָמֹכָה בָאֵלֹהים יְהֹוָה--“Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods?”

[410] Nos, pisciculi secundum ΙΧΘΥΝ nostrum Jesum Christum, in
aqua nascimur, nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi
sumus.--_De Baptismo_, cap. i.

[411] Hic (sc. Christus) est piscis qui in baptismate per
invocationem fontalibus undis inseritur ut quæ aqua fuerat a
pisce etiam piscina vocitetur.--_Epis. Milevitanus._ The
_piscina_ is now the basin in which the sacred vessels are
washed.

[412] See chaps. vi and xi.

[413] Est Christus piscis ille qui ad Tobiam ascendit de flumine
vivus, cujus jecore per passionem assato fugatus est diabolus.

[414] Dei Filius, Salvator, piscis in sua passione decoctus,
cujus ex interioribus remediis quotidie illuminamur et
pascimur.--_De Promis. et Prædic. Dei_, ii, 39.

[415] ΙΧΘΥΣ, in quo nomine mystice intelligitur Christus, eo
quod in hujus mortalitatis abysso, velut in aquarum profunditate
vivus.--_De Civ. Dei._

[416] Χριστὸς ὁ τροπικῶς λεγόμενος Ἰχθύς.--_Opp._ ed. Bened.,
tom. iii, p. 584.

[417] _Rom. Sott._, p. 210. Probably the aureole of Mediæval
art derived its name of _vesica piscis_ from this symbol.

[418] See Fig. 113.

[419] See Fig. 118.

[420] Piscis ... Christus tribulationis igne assatus. Compare the
phrase of Augustine--Piscis assus Christus passus.

[421] Plerique septiformis Spiritus gratiam in panibus definitam,
in piscibus quoque duplicis testamenti figuram intelligendam
putant.--Ambrose, _in Luc._ ix.

[422] This has been minutely examined by Cardinal Pitra--its
discoverer--Kirchoff, Garrucci, Le Blant, and other eminent
scholars. The monograph of Marriott, its latest editor, is a
masterpiece of epigraphical criticism.

[423] Cardinal Pitra places it about A. D. 250, but the elongated
form of the letters, of which there is no early example, forbids
the supposition.

[424] The epitaph of Abercius, a Phrygian bishop of the second
century, also contains an allusion to the heavenly Ichthus, and
probably to the eucharist, in the lines which we quote:

... Πίστις δὲ προσῆγε
Καὶ παρέθηκε τροφὴν, Ἰχθὺν θείας ἀπὸ πηγῆς,
Παμμεγέθη, καθαρὸν, ὃν ἐδράξατο παρθένος ἁγνή·
Καὶ τοῦτον ἐπέδωκε φίλοις ἔσθειν διὰ παντὸς,
Οἶνον χρηστὸν ἔχουσα, κέρασμα διδοῦσα μετ’ἄρτου.

“Faith brought to us and set before us food, a fish from a divine
fount, great and clean, which the holy maiden took in her hand
and gave it to her friends, that they should always eat thereof,
holding goodly wine, giving with bread a mingled drink.”

The “holy maiden” is evidently, from the context, as Marriott
remarks, Faith personified, although Padre Garrucci and Dr.
Northcote regard her as no other than the Virgin Mary.

[425] We have seen how Tertullian designates believers as little
fishes--_pisciculi_.

[426] Nomen ipsum crucis absit non modo a corpore civium
Romanorum, sed etiam a cogitatione, oculis, auribus.--Cicero,
_pro Rabirio_.

[427] Crudelissimum et teterrimum ... arbor infelix, infame
lignum.--Cic., _pro Rabirio_.

[428] Now in the Museum of the Collegio Romano.

[429] Τὸν ἀνεσκολοπισμένον ἐκεῖνον σοφιστήν.--_De Morte Peregr._

Tertullian mentions as a common heathen delusion the idea that
the God of the Christians had an ass’s head. He also speaks of a
heathen picture of a figure having the ears of an ass, hoofed in
one foot, carrying a book and wearing a toga, to which was
affixed the inscription, “The God of the Christians, born of an
ass.”--_Apol._, c. 16.

Probably such caricatures were common. On a slab recently
discovered in the Vigna Nussiner is a representation of an ass
with the inscription, “Hic est Deus Hadriani,” apparently a
satirical allusion to that emperor’s favourable disposition to
Christianity.

[430] Eph. iii, 18.

[431] Ipsa species crucis quid est nisi forma quadrata mundi?...
Aves quando volant in æthera, formam crucis assumunt; homo natans
per aquas, vel orans, forma crucis vehitur. Navis per maria
antenna cruci similata sufflatur.--Hieronym. _in Mark_ XV.

[432] _Apol._, i, 72. See also Minuc. Felix, cap. 29.

[433] Ego Christianus ... et vexillum crucis in mea fronte
portans.--Hieron., _Ep._ 113.

[434] Tolle crucem qui vis auferre coronam.

[435] Crucis religiosi.--Tertul., _Apol._, 16.

[436] Signum Christi, τὸ κυριακὸν σημεῖον.--Clem. Alex.,
_Strom._, vi, 11.

[437] Ad omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum et
exitum, ad vestitum, ad calceatum, ad lavacra, ad mensas, ad
lumina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, quæcunque nos conversatio
exercet, frontem crucis signaculo tenemus.--Tertul., _de Coron.
Mil._, c. iii.

[438] Crucis signum est, cum homo porrectis manibus Deum pura
mente veneratur.--Minuc., _Dial._, p. 90. Expansis manibus in
modum crucis orabat.--Paulin., _Vit. Ambros._, p. 12. Hic
habitus orantium est, ut manibus in coelum extensis
precemur.--Apuleius.--According to Eusebius, Constantine was thus
represented on the coins of the empire.--Ὡς ἄνω βλέπειν δοκεῖν
ἀνατεταμένος πρὸς Θεὸν, τρόπον εὐχομένου.--_Vit. Const._, l. iv,
c. 15.

[439] Chrys. in Psa. cxli, 2. Compare Paul’s expression about
“lifting up holy hands” in prayer.--1 Tim. ii, 8.

[440] Nos vero non attoleimus tantum, sed etiam expandimus,
et Dominica passione modulantes, et orantes Christo
confitemur.--Tertul., _de Orat._, c. 11. Τὸ τοῦ σταύρου πάθος
ἐν τῷ σχήματι ἐξεικονίζει.--Aster., _ap. Phot._, cod. 271. This
attitude of prayer was also common to the pagans in their
addresses to the _Dii Superi_, or celestial gods. Hence Virgil
represents Æneas as praying with his hands stretched out to
heaven--Duplices tendens ad sidera palmas.

[441] See an instance of this miracle recorded in
Eusebius.--_Hist. Eccles._, viii, 7.

[442] Fac cum vocante somno
Castum petes cubile,
Frontem locumque cordis,
Crucis figura signet.
Crux pellit omne noxium.--_Hymn_ VI.

[443] Endelechius, _De mortibus Bovium_. In later times the
sign of the cross was used in both Greek and Latin benedictions,
which were given with many puerile distinctions, and with much
supposed spiritual benefit.--See Didron, _Iconog. Chrét._,
pp. 406-410. The cross has also given the name to many famous
churches, which were frequently cruciform in shape. In France are
over a score of cathedrals or abbeys named Sainte Croix, and in
Italy many named Santa Croce. In Great Britain we have Saint
Cross at Winchester, and Holyrood in Edinburgh. The cross was
also used to mark boundaries, parishes, cross roads; hence the
phrase, “to beg like a cripple at a cross.” Of three hundred and
sixty wayside crosses once existing in Iona only one remains.
This sign was used to mark the beginning and end of books, and as
a mark of punctuation. It gave validity to legal documents, and
still accompanies the sign manual of ecclesiastical dignitaries.

Crucifixion was abolished by Constantine out of reverence for the
manner of Our Lord’s death.

The cross would scarcely have been publicly employed while this
shameful mode of punishment was practiced. The earlier examples
had probably a baptismal signification as a sign of the faith. Of
this character seem to have been those erected or inlaid by
Constantine in his baptisteries and elsewhere. Only by slow
degrees did it become the symbol of the sufferings of Christ.

[444] De Rossi, _Inscript. Christ._, No. 39.

[445] _Ibid._, No. 17.

[446] _Ibid._, No. 26. With true archæological enthusiasm, De
Rossi exclaims, “Scarcely any monument in this whole class is
worthy of such observation as this sepulchral fragment. For if
indeed this name is that of Gallus, the colleague of Faustus,
behold, what I have ever intensely desired, I have at length with
joy obtained--to see with my own eyes a certain dated monument
which exhibits the celebrated monogram ☧ before the year 312.
Would that I could find the part of the inscription that is
lost,” he adds, “which, if it bore the name of Faustus, I would
esteem more precious than gold and gems--auro contra et gemmis
cariorem æstimarem.” But he was not permitted to be so happy, and
it is probable that the Gallus referred to is another of much
later date.

[447] Rev. i, 8. Prudentius in his ninth hymn paraphrases the
same thought:
Alpha et Ω cognominatus; ipse fons et clausula
Omnium quæ sunt, fuerunt, quæque post futura sunt.

In Mediæval art the letters ὁ ὤν are often inscribed on the
cruciform nimbus indicating Our Lord, in allusion to the
scripture, ἐγὼ εἰμὶ ὁ ὤν--“I am that I am.”

[448] Christus purpureum gemmanti textus in auro,
Signabat labarum, clypeorum insignia Christus
Scripserat: ardebat summis crux addita cristis.
--_In Symmachum_, vv. 487-489.

[449] _Hist. of Christianity_, bk. iii, chap. i. From the
time of Constantine the monogram became common on the coins of
the Empire. Valentinian III. and his wife Eudoxia first wore it
on the imperial crown. In later Greek art the cross is generally
accompanied by the letters ΙϹ-ΧϹ ΝΙΚΑ, that is, “Jesus Christ is
conqueror.” Eusebius describes a statue of Constantine at Rome
bearing this monogram. (_Hist. Eccles._, ix, 9.)

[450] See Fig. 104, chap. iv. Paulinus refers to the bitter cross
surrounded by a flowery crown:
Ardua floriferæ Crux cingitur orbe coronæ.
--Epis. xii, _ad Severum_.

[451] De Rossi, _Inscrip. Christ._, No. 576. Of course there
may be earlier examples which are undated.

[452] In later art ingenuity was exhausted in multiplying
varieties of the form of the cross. Besides the ordinary Greek
and Latin types, there was the Resurrection cross, a reed-like
shaft with a small crosslet, generally bearing a banneret; the
Calvary cross, with steps at its foot; the _crux gammata_, or
fourfold repetition of the Greek letter Γ, the _crux
gemmata_, _stellata_, _florida_, etc. There were also innumerable
minor varieties for which distinguishing names are provided in
the jargon of heraldry.

[453] _Hist. Christianity_, iii, 3. Eusebius is silent
concerning this event.

[454] Helena calmed the Adriatic with one of the nails; of
another Constantine made a bit for his horse; a portion is
annually exhibited at Rome bearing the threefold title of Our
Lord in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the first undecipherable.

[455] Witness the following from the _Vexilla Regis_, addressed
to the material cross: “Hail, O cross, our only hope! give grace
to the pious, blot out the sins of the wicked”--

O crux, ave, spes unica!
Piis adauge gratiam;
Reisque dele crimina.

Compare also the following, from the Office of the Invention of
the Cross: “O cross, more splendid than all the stars,... which
alone wast worthy to bear the ransom of the world! sweet wood,
sacred nails, bearing so precious a burden, save this people
assembled to-day to sing thy praises.”--O Crux, splendidior
cunctis astris,... quæ sola fuisti digna portare talentum mundi!
dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulcia ferens pondera, salva
præsentem catervam in tuis hodie laudibus congregatam.

This sacred theme has also been the subject of some of the
noblest lyrics of the church, none of which, however, surpass the
impassioned devotion of the following lines of Savonarola, the
Luther of Italy, whose reform, alas! was quenched in his own
blood.

O croce, fammi loco!
E le mie membre prendi!
Che del tuo dolce foco
Il cor e l’alma accendi!
La croce e l’ crocifisso,
Sia nel mio cor scolpito,
Ed io sia sempre affisso
In gloria ov’egli è ito!

Cross of my Lord, give room! give room!
To thee my flesh be given!
Cleansed in thy fires of love and praise,
My soul, rise pure to heaven!
Ah! vanish each unworthy trace
Of earthly care or pride;
Leave only graven on my heart
The Cross, the Crucified.

[456] According to this legend Adam when sick sent Seth to the
gate of Eden to ask for the healing balm of the tree of life, but
the guarding angel replied that ages must pass before that boon
could be conferred on man. Seth received, however, three seeds,
which he planted by his father’s grave, situated on the site of
Golgotha. From these sprang the rod of Aaron, and the tree which
gave its mysterious virtue to the Pool of Bethesda, and rising to
the surface at the hour of the passion, became the instrument of
the crucifixion of Our Lord. After that momentous event it was
thrown into the town ditch with the crosses of the two thieves,
and covered with rubbish; but at the intercession of Helena the
earth opened, divine odours breathed forth, the three crosses
were discovered, and that of Our Lord was revealed by its curing
an inveterate disease and raising a dead man to life. See also
_Legenda Aurea, De Inventione et Exaltatione Sanctæ Crucis_.

The material of the cross is described in the following distich:

Pes crucis est cedrus, corpus tenet alta cupressus,
Palma manus retinet titulo lætabor oliva--

“The foot is cedar, a lofty cypress bears the body, the arms are
palm, the title olive bears.”

[457] Milman, _Hist. Christianity_, bk. iv, c. 4.

[458] _Hist. Christianity_, bk. iv, c. 4. One or two apparent
exceptions, as in the semi-subterranean chapel annexed to the
church of St. Sebastian, by their internal evidence--the drooping
head, severe expression, and degraded art--indicate their late
origin, Perret thinks of the twelfth or thirteenth century.
Bottari figures one (Tav. 190) which may possibly belong to the
seventh or eighth century.

[459] Cant. iii, 11.

[460] Northcote’s “_Catacombs_,” p. 130.

[461] Weiter aber geht diese Reihe nicht; Tod und Auferstehung
Christi sind in diesem Bereich gar nicht zur Darstellung
gekommen.--_Ueber den Christlichen Bilderkreis_, p. 7. Berlin,
1852. Bishop Münter, indeed, asserts that, although it is
impossible precisely to determine the first appearance of the
crucifix, before the end of the seventh century the church knew
nothing of them--Es ist unmöglich das alter der crucifixe genau
zu bestimmen. Vor dem Ende des siebenten Jahrhunderts kannte die
Kirche sie nicht.--_Sinnbilder_, etc., p. 77.

[462] Sub cruce sanguineâ niveo stat Christus in agno.--_Epis._
xxxii.

[463] Agnus ut innocua injusto datur hostia letho.--Paulin.,
_Epis._ xxxii.

[464] Christi Dei nostri humana forma characterem etiam in
imaginibus deinceps pro veteri agno erigi ac depingi
jubemus.--_Concilium Quinisextum_, Canon 82.

[465] Das sind die ältesten Bilder von dem Ende des irdischen
Lebens Jesu und seiner Erhöhung.... Bald darauf kommen sie hin
und wieder auch in Abendlande vor.--_Ueber den Christlichen
Bilderkreis_, pp. 26, 27.

[466] Est et apud Narbonensem urbem pictura quæ Dominum nostrum
quasi præcinctum linteo indicat crucifixum.--_De Glor. Mar._,
i, 23.

[467] Crux benedicta nitet Dominus qua carne pependit.--_Carm._,
lib. ii, 3.

[468] The earliest example of a dead Christ is in a MS. of date
A. D. 1059. The oldest mural picture of this awful theme, now so
common throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, and which was
prescribed as necessary for every altar by Benedict XIV, 1754, is
the Church of Urban at Rome, and bears the date A. X. R. I.
MXI.--Anno Christi 1011. Few of those in the Italian churches are
older than the fourteenth century.

[469] The inclination of the apse from the axial line in some
churches is said to represent this drooping of the head.

[470] Didron, _Iconog. Chrét._, pp. 226, 505.

[471] Die also dem Morgenlande entstammen, says Professor
Piper.--_Ueber den Christlichen Bilderkreis_, p. 27.

[472] The Council of Constantinople, A. D. 754.

[473] Hemans, _Sacred Art in Italy_, p. 534.

[474] See the reliefs upon the marble pulpits of Pisa and Sienna.

[475] See one at Lucca, ascribed by tradition to the workmanship
of Nicodemus, which was so famous as to be sworn by in the oath,
a favourite one with the Plantagenet kings, “by Saint Vult of
Lucca.” Hemans, _Sac. Art_, p. 534. Another at Naples is said to
have spoken in approval to St. Thomas Aquinas. Perhaps the most
revolting extant representation of Our Lord is one in the
Cathedral of Burgos, in Spain. It is a stuffed human skin, with a
wig of false hair and a crown of real thorns. Elsewhere are Ecce
Homos in wax with enamel eyes, and other puerile and unartistic
modes of treatment of this solemn theme.

[476] Refrigerante mundo, says the Roman office for St. Francis’
day.