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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM

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AN INTRODUCTION TO

EARLY

CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM

A SERIES OF COMPOSITIONS

FROM

FRESCO-PAINTINGS, GLASSES. AND SCULPTURED

SARCOPHAGI

SELECTED, ARRANGED, AND DESCRIBED BY THE LATE

WILLIAM ?ALMER, M.A.

SOMETIME FELLOW OP MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD

EDITED, WITH NOTES, BY THE REVV,

J. SPENCER NORTHCOTE, D.D.

PROVOST OF BIRMINGHAM
AND

W. R. BROWNLOW. M.A.

CANON OF PLYMOUTH

DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL NEWMAN

LONDON

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., i, P.\TERNOSTER SQUARE

1 88s

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3o|^n llenrg Carlitnal ^ctoman,

BY WHOSE KIND PERMISSION

THIS WORK

OF HIS “TRUE AND LOYAL FRIEND"

WILLIAM PALMER

HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THE PUBLIC,

IT IS NOW DEDICATED

WITH THE SINCEREST GRATITUDE AND LOVE

OF

THE EDITORS.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

Many English visitors to Rome, who enjoyed the privilege of an acquaintance
with the late Mr. William Palmer, will remember how he used to invite a party
of friends to his rooms, and arrange them round his table, and then place in the
centre of the table a pair of his pictures from the Catacombs, and explain them in
his own inimitable way. He had often been asked to publish these pictures, with the
explanations; in fact, in 1859, made arrangements for doing so, and brought
out a little volume, entitled, “ Early Christian Symbolism,” intended for the
explanation of the plates which were to follow. These were to have been done in
chromo-lithography ; but the expense of the process was so great, that Mr. Palmer
reluctantly abandoned the design. He afterwards had the pictures photographed,
but for some reason or other the work never came into the hands of the public.
This is hardly to be regretted, for photography gives a very inadequate idea of
coloured drawings, as may easily be seen by any one who will look at Mr. Parker’s
photographs of the Catacomb paintings.

At Mr. Palmer’s death, these drawings came, together with all his other literary
works, into the hands of Cardinal Newman, who consented to entrust them to us,
if we saw our way to give them to the public. There were several considerations
that made us hesitate. The expense of publishing coloured plates is necessarily
great, and too limited a portion of the public take sufficient interest in the Catacombs
to give us hopes of a large sale. Moreover, this work of Mr. Palmer’s was written
before the important researches of the Commendatore De Rossi had been given to
the world ; and it is, therefore, by no means so complete as it would have been,
had its accomplished author been able to re-write it himself. We have, in our own
English Roma Sotterranea, endeavoured to make De Rossi’s discoveries and con-
clusions known to the English public ; and we have, in the second part of that
work, drawn out the symbolical teaching of the paintings and sculptures of the
early Christians. Notwithstanding this, we still think there is room for a work
such as Mr. Palmer’s ; and we have undertaken its publication, not only as an act
of gratitude towards a departed friend, from whom we received much kindness and
instruction, but also, because we think that there are many who have not the
patience to search out for themselves in our larger work the doctrinal teaching of

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IV

AD VER TISEMENT.

the Catacombs, but who require to have the various links of doctrine, scattered and
hidden under paintings, sculptures, and glasses, brought all together and grouped
round different distinct heads of Christian doctrine. The archaeologist finds these
points of doctrine much more convincing when they meet him one by one in his
researches ; but it is not so with the ordinary reader ; and we offer this publication
— not to archaeologists, who will find in it nothing with which they are not previously
acquainted — but to those who, while they care little for merely antiquarian researches,
care a great deal to know what were the ideas and thoughts of the Christians of
the ages of persecution.

Mr. Palmer explains in his preface the principles which have guided him in his
work. He takes it for granted that the early Christians had the same ideas about
the different doctrines, whether they expressed those ideas in painting or sculpture ;
and, hence, he groups them together as best suits his purpose, quite irrespectively
of the places which the paintings or sculptures may have actually occupied in the
Catacombs. Indeed, he pushed this principle so far as, sometimes, to change a
sculpture into a painting, when such a change seemed to improve the effect of his
Composition. We have not followed him in this, as it appeared to us to take away
from the force of the argument, and raise a doubt in the mind of the reader as to
the bona fide character of the illustrations. Signor Bossi also seems to have allowed
himself more artistic liberty than we can endorse, and we have taken every pains
to render the plates as accurate as possible. Wherever De Rossi has published

t

chromo-lithographs of any of the paintings, we have had our plates taken from
them rather than from Mr. Palmer’s drawings ; and we have had several others
copied from Bosio’s plates directly, where Signor Bossi appeared to have improved
upon them. For the convenience of our readers, we have modified the arrange-
ment of the subjects in some of the plates forming the Compositions. In Com-
position A, we have left it as in Mr. Palmer’s drawings, and likewise in Composition
B. But as we found this arrangement, suitable enough for Mr. Palmer’s round
table, would necessitate an awkward turning round of the book, we have, in the
succeeding Compositions, arranged the subjects in such a way that the reader can
see them all at once. Our knowledge of Mr. Palmer assures us that he would
have given his hearty approval to these slight modifications of his work.

The plates have been engraved on copper by Mr. George M. Redaway, of
London ; and the colouring has been done by Miss Bellars, of Peterborough.

The Editors.

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AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

Of the fourteen Compositions described in the following pages, the first alone
occurs as a whole in the Catacombs (in the Cemetery of S. Callistus) : and it
was this which suggested to the Author the idea of putting together other Compo-
sitions in a somewhat similar form, like triptychs, with a systematic arrangement
of subjects.

The Paintings and Glasses of these fourteen Compositions exhibit to the eye the
Christianity of the third century, though possibly some one or other of them may
belong to the second, and several of them certainly belong to the fourth. Such as
belong to the fourth, if later than the accession of Constantine but still contemporary
with the tombs at which they occur, are distinguishable by the aureole round the
! heads of the figures, and sometimes by other signs, such as the presence of the
monogram, or the presence or vicinity of dates and names of Consuls, etc. But
paintings not contemporaneous, added in the fourth centuiy, or later, near tombs
which were specially honoured, after the Cemeteries had ceased to be in general
use, and even after they had been rifled by the barbarians, are easily known, both
by traces of alterations made in the crypts or galleries where they occur, and also
by a marked difference of style and costume in the paintings themselves.

The sculptures from Christian sarcophagi at Rome (and in two instances from
sarcophagi at Arles), which have also been used in these Compositions, represent
the symbolism of the fourth and fifth centuries. Such sculptures on sarcophagi
hold the same place in the crypts of the first Basilicas founded under Constantine
and his successors, as the fresco paintings and glasses hold in the Catacombs of
the first three centuries.

The symbolism of the paintings, glasses, and sculptures is absolutely the same,
though in the fourth century slight variations and additions become noticeable in
the treatment of details. A limited number of subjects, eighteen or twenty perhaps,
are repeated over and over again; so that when once the general principle running

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VI

AUTHORS PREFACE.

through all, and the Christian application of each subject is known, it is easy to
recognize them, however they may be varied or abbreviated.

After the sculptured sarcophagi there follow in order of time the mosaics of the
churches of Rome and Ravenna, beginning from the fifth century; but of these,
beyond one or two incidental allusions, no use has been made in the present work.

The reader will wish to know how far the parts of the Compositions described
are in themselves and in the style of their reproduction to be depended upon as
copies from the originals referred to. Care therefore has been taken in describing
each to give information on this head.

As regards the separate paintings and sculptures grouped together in each
Composition, the drawings of them have mostly been taken from the plates of
Bosio and Aringhi as reprinted by Bottari {Roma Sotferranea, three vols. fol.,
A.D. 1737-1754). The glasses may all be found in the complete Collection
recently published by the living antiquary P. Garucci. In a few cases, as for
parts of Compositions A, D, F, K, L, and M, it was necessary to have recourse
to the Catacombs ; but many of the other paintings selected were already familiar
to the artist. Signor Bossi, who had copied them for some one or other of the
living antiquaries of Rome, comparing the plates of the Roma Sotterranea with
the originals, and taking notes of the colouring. One or two are from fac-similes
of the originals in the Christian Museum of the Lateran. In some cases, again,
the published engravings have preserved representations the originals of which
have disappeared since the time of Bosio ; and wherever any one of these has
been inserted, the colours have been added from the analogy of other similar
paintings. In the case of sculptures and glasses there could be no need, for the
sake of colouring at least, of any re-examination of the originals.

As regards the idea on which the separate paintings, glasses, and sculptures
have been selected and grouped together, this belongs only to the writer, who is
far from wishing to suggest that the early Christians painted their doctrines
about the tombs of martyrs systematically, or for the purpose of teaching. The
truth is, that when they first made small chambers or crypts opening out of the
galleries of their cemeteries, and afterwards multiplied such crypts for those of
their dead that were likely to attract living visitors, it was natural for them to
f paint these chambers, and the arched tombs cut in them, in the same style
which was used by the heathens their contemporaries ; only instead of mytho-
logical or other heathenish subjects they substituted, in the compartments of their

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AUTHORS PREFACE.

VII

ceilings, and on the walls, and within the archings over their tombs, paintings of
their own, congenial to their own belief and feelings. Their souls being full of
certain ideas which had a true mutual relation one to another, and which altogether
formed one coherent system, it was likely enough that what they painted or
sculptured about the same tomb or sarcophagus, or in the same crypt, should
sometimes take the form of a composition. In point of fact, the first, the most
comprehensive, and the most complete of the series of Compositions about to
be described actually occurs as a whole in the Cemetery at S. Callistus ; and in

«

several other cases also, as in B i, C 3 c, F i, G 3 H i,.I i, and N i,
distinct compositions occur, though on a lesser scale. Still, speaking generally,
the arrangement of the Compositions in the present work is no more to be
ascribed to the early Christians, than thQ scientific classification of plants in an
herbarium, or of living creatures in a zoological work, is to be ascribed to nature.
Such arrangements, however, are useful ; and, far from giving any false or per-
verted notion of the separate parts, they teach at a glance, by the comparison
and juxtaposition of groups, what would not be seen at once, nor so clearly,
if each representation presented itself separately, as in a purely antiquarian
collection.

The Author returns his thanks to the Rev. Fathers Marchi and Garucci,
the Chevalier De Rossi, the Rev. Mr. Northcote, and others, from whose
kindness he has obtained assistance or information.

[Rome, 1859,]

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CONTENTS.

FAdE

I. Composition A. — Of the Dispensation ... ... ... ••• i

II. Composition B. — Of the Woman ... ... ... ... 5

III, Composition C. — Of the Rod ... ... ... ... ... 9

IV. Composition D. — Of the Two Apostles ... ... ... ... 14

V. Composition E, — Of the Scriptures ... ... ... ... 19

VI. Composition F. — Of the Eucharist ... ... ... ... 22

VII, Composition G. — Of the Sacraments ... ... ... ... 29

VIII. Composition H. — Of the Martyrs ... ... ... ... 35

IX. Composition I. — Of the Virgins ... ... ... ... ... 37

X. Composition K. — Of Susanna ... ... ... ... ... 41

XI. Composition L. — Of Nabuchodonosor and Herod ... ... ... 43

XII. Composition M. — Of the Ships ... ... ... ... ... 46

XIII. Composition N. — Of the Sign of the Prophet Jonas ... ... 49

XIV. Composition O. — Of Baptism and Burial ... ... ... ... 52

APPENDICES.

Appendix I. — A Blasphemous Crucifix found scratched on the Plaster

IN A Bath, from the Ruins of the Palace, of the C.esars 57

Appendix II. — Four Paintings from the Tomb of a Woman named Vibia,
in a Small Cemetery of Gnostic Heretics of the Third
Century ... ... ... ... ... ... 59

Appendix HI.— Four Paintings from a similar Tomb of a M.an n.\med

Caricus, in the same Cemetery ... ... ... 62

d

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AN INTRODUCTION

TO

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

I. Composition A. — Of tJie Dispensation.

These three paintings, A i, 2, and 3, all occur together in the Cemetery of
S. Callixtus ; A I on the end wall, A 2 and 3 on the two side walls, of one and
the same arcosolium, or arched tomb. The Rock, which is Christ, being visible in
all the three paintings, shows them at the first glance to be one composition, though
in the publication of M. Perfet the two lateral paintings only are given, and the
central one (which has been damaged by the cutting in of a later niche through the
breasts of the figures) is omitted. Owing to this omission it was necessary, in 1855,
to send the artist employed to copy this whole composition in the cemetery itself,
permission having been obtained through the kindness of P. Marchi.* Since then
a copy of the full size of the original, and showing exactly the damage done to it,
has been placed in the Christian Museum of the Lateran. The damage done to
the paintings of this and other tombs, in order to bury near the martyrs their
occupants, is a sign of the greater antiquity of the tombs and paintings so damaged.
For while the date of the niches cut in them is probably not later than some time in
the fourth century, before the underground cemeteries had ceased to be in general
use, it is also clear that when they were cut the arched tomb of the martyrs which
was damaged was already so old that nobody was likely to be annoyed by its
mutilation. Supposing, then, the later niche over and within this arched tomb to
have been cut in about the middle of the fourth century, we may probably refer the
original tomb, with its paintings, to the middle of the third.f Thus much premised,
we go on to describe the paintings.

• These paintings having been produced in |
chromo-lithograph by the Commendatore De
Rossi, Rom. Soft., T. ii. Tav. aggiunte A, B, we
have had our plates copied from these, as being
more accurate than Signor Bossi’s paintings.

f See description of these paintings in
English Rom. So//., pt. ii. pp. 178-182, where
De Rossi’s reasons for assigning them to the
beginning of the fourth century are given.

1:

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

In the middle of A i we see Christ as the Good Shepherd, with the lost sheep
of human nature on his shoulders. Hereby is signified the universal redemption,
in which even Judas himself is included. But in the two sheep which stand one
on either side of the Good Shepherd, at His feet, turning their heads towards Him,
we see the flock of His elect, all who shall belong to Christ by faith and good works,
and shall be found in Him at the end. The number two^ which here signifies all,
hints also those twofold divisions which are applicable, viz. those of the antediluvian
and the post-diluvian worlds ; of the patriarchal or Gentile covenant made with Noe,
and the covenant of circumcision made with Abraham. Again, the Mosaic and the
Christian dispensations ; and in the Christian, the double Church, of the circumcision,
represented by St Peter, and of the uncircumcision, represented by St. Paul ; the
two sexes, men and women ; those that persevere after baptism without falling, and
those that fall but are restored by repentance. And as, after the Ascension and the
day of Pentecost, Christ collects and feeds this flock of His elect, not personally
on earth, but through the ministry of His Apostles and of the hierarchy, we see two
men, who are the two Apostles Peter and Paul, representing the whole Apostolate
from the beginning to the end, hastening away from Christ, as sent by Him to
the world.* On either side, before each of the two, there rises a rock, which is
Christ Himself, the true Rock of the desert, pouring down spontaneously, as on the
day of Pentecost, after the Ascension, streams of living waters. These waters, which
He pours down from the Father, are the gifts of the Holy Ghost, including all the
sacraments and graces of Christianity.f The Apostles are seen joining their hands
together to catch this water, in order to turn it afterwards on to our heads, that is,
in order to communicate it to the world. The world to which they are sent is
represented by two sheep standing before each of them. On one side, to our right,
one of the two sheep is listening attentively, not quite understanding as yet, but
meditating, and seeking to understand ; the other turns his tail — it is an unwelcome
subject, and he will have nothing to do with it. On the other side, to our left,
one of the two sheep is drinking in all that he hears with simplicity and affection ;
the other is eating grass : he has something else to do ; he is occupied with the
cares and pleasures and riches of this world.

Then for the ways in which the apostles, both at first and afterwards, com-
municate to those good sheep which hear them the living waters from the Rock,
we have in the lateral painting, A 2, an allusion to Baptism, and in A 3 an
allusion to the Eucharist ; that is, allusions to the two sacraments of the new
or spiritual birth, and the new or spiritual food. But birth and food, beginning
and continuance, are our whole life.

In A 2, we again see the Rock, that is, Christ, now no longer, as on the day

* S. Matt, xxviii. 20. which makes [men to be Christ’s] sheep. ’’

f “ In the holy Church is the one water S. Cyprian, Epist. Ixxi.

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OF THE DISPENSATION.

of Pentecost and as in the central painting, pouring down its streams of water
spontaneously, but under the stroke of the rod of Moses held in the hand of
Peter ; * that is, through the ministry of the hierarchy which he represents. The
mark like an ffi on his robe is said, by antiquaries, to have come into fashion at
Rome, under Commodus, in the latter part of the second century. The proselyte,
too, from the Gentiles, whether Greek or Latin, is represented twice over; first
behind the Apostle, as Moses in the wilderness, taking off his sandal, that is,
preparing himself for initiation by reverence. For when Moses saw the burning
bush, which was a type of the Incarnation, and was moved by natural
curiosity to draw near, the voice of God, represented in the painting by a hand
reaching from above, warned him that if he would approach unhurt he must first
prepare himself by taking off the shoe. The Christians, therefore, transferring to
the New Testament this history (as they did also that of Mosqs striking the rock),
signified, by this younger Moses painted in the act of taking off his sandal, that
whoever would approach as a proselyte to the mysteries of the Incarnation, must
not come in a spirit of curiosity, but must first prepare himself by reverence : else
his soul would be only scorched instead of being benefited and saved. Having
thus prepared himself, the proselyte runs up to the rock and catches in his joined
hands, and for the first time in baptism, that living water for his own salvation
which, in the central painting, A i, the Apostles and the hierarchy catch in their
hands for the benefit of the world. The difference in age and dress between the
Moses striking the rock and the Moses taking off his sandal is of itself a hint that
neither the one figure nor the other is the historical Moses. The difference, too,
in dress between the proselyte preparing himself and the proselyte running up to
catch the water may have a meaning, the former being perhaps a Latin, the latter
a Greek, hinting the double language and race of the Gentile population at Rome;
while in many sculptures of the same subject the caps on the heads of those that
catch the water show them to be proselytes from the circumcision. And if any one
observe that the proselyte who in this painting is catching the water is not barefoot,
but has either never taken off his sandals, or has resumed them, the answer is
I easy — that the shoe to be taken off is not the bodily shoe of the foot, but the shoe
j of the heart : the indispensable preparation is that of the inward reverence, and this
being made it matters nothing whether the proselyte has shoes on his bodily feet or no.

After the new birth by Baptism there is need of a corresponding food. So in
the opposite lateral painting, A 3, in allusion to the Eucharist, we see once more
the Rock twice repeated, as in the central painting A i : and the two men — no longer
now with beards and full robes as teachers, but in a simple tunic, and youthful as
servants, bringing each of them, as if from the rock, a basket of bread to a central
figure which is Christ Himself ; and He touches the bread with the rod of His

• This will appear more clearly in Composition C, “ Of the Rod.”

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4

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

power (the same rod that He delegates to Moses and to Peter*) to change it from
natural to spiritual food. The rock itself, though the Apostles seem to be coming
and bringing the bread as if from it, has now no streams of water flowing down,
since the grace which comes from it is in this painting represented under the form
of bread. The baskets of bread in this picture, if we count them, are the seven
baskets of the miracle in the Gospel, with an eighth added— the sense of the eighth
being this, that we are not to think of the literal historical miracle, nor of the
mere multiplication, though miraculous, of ordinary bread, but of something spiritual
beyond, that is, of the Eucharistic change of natural into Divine food. The creation
of all things in the natural order having been completed in seven days, the eighth
day, the octave, is a repetition of the first, introducing the new and spiritual creation
by the resurrection of Christ the true Light from the dead, answering to the produc-
tion of the natural light on the first day in the old creation. This sense, which
is alluded to and explained by the Fathers, we shall frequently find recurring in the
paintings and sculptures of the Catacombs. So, too, the six water-pots of the miracle
of Cana are seen repeatedly with a seventh added, to show that it is not the change
of water into wine for the guests of any earthly marriage, but the change of natural
wine (which is as water by comparison) into that wdne which is spiritual and Divine,
and which is drunk at the marriage feast of the Lamb.

* See Composition C. The combination of we give a woodcut below, had become corroded
the two representative characters of Moses and and opaque, but has recently been cleaned and

Peter is well expressed in two gilded glasses in rendered transparent by Professor Tessieri.

the Vatican Library. One of these, of which

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II. Composition B. — Of the Woman.

The central painting, B i, represents an arched tomb in the Cemetery of SS. Mar-
cellinus and Peter, and is taken from vol. ii. pi. cxxiii. of Roma Sotterranea (the
references are always to the edition published by Bottari at Rome in three vols. fol.,
1737-1754).* In the arch over the tomb one sees, to the right of the spectator, the
fall of our first parents ; the tree of knowledge with its fruit ; the serpent coiled round
the tree ; on either side Adam and Eve already conscious of their shame ; while to the
woman is promised a son who in time shall bruise the head of the serpent. In the
middle, at the top of the arch, instead of seeing the fulfilment of this hope, the world
is drowned for sin by the Flood • and Noe in a box representing the Ark (a conven-
tional form borrowed from a pagan medal struck at Apamea in Syria) t receives a
renewal of the original promise in the olive-leaf brought to him by the dove. On the
left, answering to the Fall, we see Moses — here the historical Moses — striking the
rock, which S. Paul explains to be a figure of Christ the Saviour to come, the son
promised to the woman, the peace received in type by Noe. And in the midst of
these three representations, upon the end wall over the tomb, there are two men,
one on either side, with one hand concealed in their robes, and the other arm and
forefinger extended, pointing to a woman in the attitude of prayer.

In these two men (who are of very frequent recurrence, and on the Glasses are
often accompanied by their names) we recognize, without doubt, the two Apostles
Peter and Paul ; and when we come to Composition D, we shall see that they stand
not so much for the persons of the two Apostles as for the whole Apostolate and
hierarchy, and for the Church itself which they founded.^ Who, then, one may ask,
is that woman to whom the Apostles or the Church, or to whom any two men, not
aliens from Christ, may be conceived to point our attention, in the midst of paintings
allu^g_to^e promise made and repeated from the beginning? Manifestly what
they point to, must be the accomplishment of the promise, the Incarnation : and the
central figure of the woman praying must be she to whom the promise was made, and
in whom it is accomplished ; that is, abstractedly. Eve in her daughters, human
nature in its female aspect, the Church of the elect, the daughter of Sion, which,

* See Aringhi, ii. 45. tilla” is mentioned, “for which De Rossi un-

f In the time of Septimius Severus. See hesitatingly claims priority in point of time by
English Sott., ii. 107, where “ a painting of a century, more or less.”
the same subject in the Catacomb of Domi- J See English Rom. Sott., ii. 205, 312.

C

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6

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

after ages of travail and expectancy, at length bears the promised seed ; but literally
and personally the blessed Virgin, who is the Mother of the man-child Jesus Christ,
and herself the first and most glorious member and most perfect type of the Church.
The two senses are in reality but one ; nor is any inscription needed to assure us of
the sense of the paintings about this tomb, which are of themselves a Composition,

and the parts of which explain one another.

In B 2, from the end wall over a tomb in the Cemetery of S. Cyriaca or Domnica,
afterwards renamed from S. Lawrence, there is a painting copied by Bosio (see vol. ii.
pi. cxxx. of Rom. Sott), but now no longer extant.* In it we see again the same
group of the woman in the attitude of prayer, with the two men, one on either side,
who are the Apostles representing the Church ; but now no longer in the same attitude
of pointing our attention to the mother of the promised Saviour. Now they are
coming under her extended and uplifted hands, with which she prays, and joining
together their own hands exactly as we have seen them with their hands Joined
together under the water flowing from the rock, as if to seek and receive the benefit of
her prayers ; and she, instead of holding the palms of her hands in the simple attitude
of prayer, such as it is seen in numberless other paintings and sculptures, that is, either
horizontally or vertically, inclines them downwards a little, as if to let something run
(from them into the joined hands held below.t It is a painting, in fact, equivalent in
(sense to those first words of the Church in the Litany, “ Sub tuum praesidium con-
fugimus, sancta Dei Genitrix ; ” and it could hardly have been misunderstood, as it
has been, both by Bosio himself and by others who have followed him, had he not
overlooked and neglected in the Cemeteiy of S. Callistus the central painting of
Composition A, in which the two men hold their hands in precisely the same manner
under the water flowing from the rock. So close, indeed, is the resemblance, that
one may well think the two paintings, A i and B 2, to have been painted by the
same person. On one side in each the two hands are held a little apart, as if in
the act of joining ; on the other they are already joined. It is true, indeed, that this
same attitude of joining the hands to catch water occurs very frequently, as often
as Moses or Peter is represented striking the rock, so that it ought to have been
understood even without the help of the painting A i in the Cemetery of S. Cal-
listus. But Bosio having missed, from whatever cause, the sense of the attitude,
imagined this painting, B 2, to represent some female Saint, perhaps S. Cyriaca
herself from whom the Cemetery was named, in the act of prayer, while two men
(whoever they were) were holding up her hands as Aaron and Hur held up the hands

* See Aringhi, ii. 57.

■j- We must confess that we cannot see that
» she inclines ” her hands “ downwards.” They
seem somewhat turned over ; but the engravings
of Bosio are not sufficiently accurate in detail, to

allow of much stress being laid on such a point.
The hands of the Apostles are much more sig-
nificant, and it is upon their position that Mr.
Palmer really rests his argument. See English
Rom. Sott., ii., frontispiece, and pp. 246, 316.

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OF THE WOMAN.

7

of Moses. It is singular that he should have had recourse to an explanation so plainly
erroneous, when that very attitude which he sought to discover here occurred plainly
enough in another crypt in the same Cemetery of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, whence
it is given in vol. ii. pi. cxxvi. of Rom. Sott.* It was the discovery that Bosio and
others after him had fallen into this error that suggested to the author the idea of
grouping together the three paintings, B i, B 2, and B 3, into a Composition,
exhibiting the different attitudes in which the two men appear with the woman in
prayer. And with regard to the sense of the attitude in B 2, if any one catches
at the fact that Bosio (who was certainly in his time an honest and diligent explorer
of the Cemeteries) did not identify the woman with the Blessed Virgin, nor the two
men with the Apostles, it may be remarked that it matters nothing to the sense who
they are, so long as the attitude of the hands be acknowledged. For suppose the
central figure to be really S. Cyriaca, or any other Saint, and the two men to be
only, as M. Ferret calls them, “ two venerable elders,” if they or if any Christians
seek the benefit of the prayers of S. Cyriaca or any other, then certainly in the same
way and in a much higher degree do they and all other Christians seek the prayers
of the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of Christ ; so that by implication and indirectly
the Blessed Virgin would be contained in the painting even then, just as under
Mary the sister of Martha, who chose the good part, the Church sees also Mary
the Mother of Jesus, and reads that Gospel as equally applicable to her.f The
original of B 2 being no longer extant, the colouring has been added by the artist
from the analogy of other similar paintings.

In B 3 we have the attitude already alluded to, which Bosio improperly identi-
fied as that of B 2. The central figure of the woman in prayer has again the two
men on either side of her, as in the two preceding paintings ; but the men now
have each one arm wrapped in the folds of their clothing, while with the other hand
they hold up on either side the arms of the central figure at the elbows. The
woman, therefore, here is really represented as answering to Moses ; and the two
men answer to Aaron and Hur, who hold up the hands of Moses : and when
once this is perceived, it is also plain to what persons of the New Testament the
history is here transferred.

The attitudes of B 2 and B 3 exhibit two sides of one and the same doctrine;
and when they are combined, the one serves to correct certain misapprehensions
which may be raised in the minds of Protestants by the other. For one bred up
in Protestant ideas, on being shown the painting B 2, might object that this, in the

* See Aringhi, ii. 47. The painting appears
on one side of the door of a chamber, and
below it is a painting of the fall of our first
parents. On the opposite side of the door-
way is a painting of the Magi bringing their

offerings to the Infant Jesus in His mother's
arms, underneath which is Moses bringing
water from the rock.

f The Gospel for the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary.

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

sense attached to it, is even an exaggeration of Popery. If the two men are the
Church, and the woman praying is the Virgin, to whom the Church prays, then she
seems to be a separate mediatress between God and man, individual souls, and even
the Church, doing nothing for themselves, but seeking and obtaining all through her.
The other painting, B j, gives the explanation and correction. “ Quite true,” it
enables us to reply : — “ Her prayers are in a manner all-powerful and indispensable.
They are in the New Testament what the prayers of Moses were in the Old.
When she prays, Israel prevails ; when she ceases to pray, Amalec prevails. But
she cannot pray alone : she is not to be thought of as an independent mediatress
or goddess parallel with Christ, and even opposed to Christ. She needs Peter and
Paul, that is, all the congregation of the new Israel, whom they represent, to pray
with her, to support her arms, and help her to pray. She is not to be disjoined
even from the least or lowest of the members of Christ, but needs them all ; that
all together, and she only with all, and at the head of all, may prevail over the
enemy in and through her Son.”*

• Mr. Palmer is not to be understood as in
any way limiting the intercessory power of the
Blessed Virgin, as if she could not pray with-
out assistance from others, or as if she ever
grew weary like Moses on the mountain. But

her power in intercession springs from her
exalted position in the mystical body of Christ ;
and our co-operation with the grace that she
asks for us is necessary if her prayers are to be
effectual for our salvation.

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I I I

I I I

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III. Composition C. — Of the Rod.

The Rod, signifying Divine power, appears in the hand of three persons, and
three only, namely, Moses, Christ, and Peter : and these three are reducible
to one, that is, to Christ. “ The Lord,” it is said in the Psalm, " shall send the
rod of thy power out of Sion.”* The rod of Moses is the power of Christ, dele-
gated to His servant ; the rock struck by Moses is Christ Himself ; and what
Moses did in the wilderness for the old Israel, Peter does for the New ; so that
in the Christian paintings and sculptures Moses striking the rock commonly repre-
sents Peter.f

In C I, at the top, a {Rom. Soft., vol. ii. pi. Ixvi., and compare pi. cxiii.), we
,see Christ with the rod in His hand touching the baskets of natural bread to
change it to spiritual ; for though no eighth basket is here added, the spiritual
application of the miracle was of itself well known and familiar. This painting is
from the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles.

On either side are the bottoms of two glass calices or paterae, the upper parts
of which, being brittle, have been broken away. Many such have been found in
the Catacombs, often encrusted in the plaster at some tomb. They seem to have
been made for the charitable distributions called agapce, and, besides other
Christian representations, they often bear upon them allusions to this use. The
representations are made by placing a leaf of gold, cut in the form designed,
between two thin plates of glass, which were afterwards welded together. The
manufacture seems to have been introduced at Rome during the second century,
one Glass showing a heap of coins with the effigy of Heliogabalus ; and it is

* Ps. cix. 2. The Douay version translates
the word “ sceptre ; ” but the same expression
occurs elsewhere, e.g. “ Feed thy people with
thy rod, the flock of thine inheritance ”
(Micheas vii. 14).

f See frontispiece to English Rom. Sott., pt.
ii., and pp. 246, 313-319, where the whole
analogy between Peter and Moses is proved
by a variety of testimonies from Sculpture and
Glasses, bearing out the words of S. Macarius :

II.

“ Afterwards Moses was succeeded by Peter, to
whom is committed the new Church of Christ,
and the new Priesthood” (Horn. xxvi. 23). The
Glass represented in the next Composition, 03^,
makes the teaching complete ; and we gave, on
page 4, a woodcut of another Glass, which has
been cleaned and added to the collection in
the Vatican Library since Mr. Palmer’s work
was written.

D

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

said that no fragments of any such Glasses have been discovered elsewhere
than in the Christian cemeteries.* At the same time, some of those that have
been found certainly bear upon them representations (such as Hercules, Achilles,
etc.) which suggest heathen rather than Christian associations, though perhaps
hinting some Christian sense. That they were sometimes used also as chalices,
for the consecration or distribution of the Eucharist, has been supposed, but
without any sufficient proof. Still less does it follow from the fact that the use
of glass chalices in the Eucharist was forbidden at a certain date in the third
century, because they were found to be too fragile, that therefore all the Glasses
found in the Catacombs {none of them with the form of Eucharistic chalices) are
older than the date referred to. On the contrary, some of those found belong
plainly to the fourth century. For the two used in this Composition the author
is indebted to P. Garrucci, who has since published in one volume, with notes
and explanations, a complete collection of all that have been found.f

On the Glass b, to our right (for all Glasses the reader is referred to the
collection recently published by P. Garrucci), around the busts of a man and his
wife, the givers of the agape, we have a series of five representations : first, there
is the Fall, much as in the painting B i, already described, and the Lord stands
by with the rod of power in His hand, judging our first parents and the serpent.
Next follows the sacrifice of Abraham, hinting the atonement for sin. In this the
rod does not appear, but a knife is held aloft in the hand of the sacrificer, who
holds one hand on the head of Isaac, while the lamb to be substituted stands by.
Probably Christ Himself is intended by all the three figures, as being Himself at once
the Priest and the Victim. Then we have the type of Moses with the rod striking
the rock, Moses being the Christian hierarchy, unless, as is possible, Christ Himself
is here intended, twice over, both by the rock and by him that strikes it. And
after atonement has been made by sacrifice, we understand by the water flowing
from the rock the graces of the sacraments, especially Baptism and the cup of the
Eucharist. After these we see the paralytic carrying his bed, and Christ with the
rod of power standing by, enabling him. The order in which this occurs reminds
us that the restoration of strength followed upon a forgiveness of sins pronounced
first, and justifies us in seeing here an allusion to that sacrament in which grace
impaired by sin is restored by absolution. Lastly, there is Lazarus swathed like
a mummy, and Christ with the rod of power raising him from the dead ; so that
one cannot doubt that the five subjects are purposely grouped in order of sequence,
so as to form a Composition. The words “ Pie Zeses,” “ Drink ” and “ Live,” or

• See English Rom. Soil., pt. ii. bk. v. ch. ii.,
on “Gilded Glasses found in the Catacombs.”
Several good specimens of these Glasses, and
among them C i may be seen in the South

Kensington Museum, lent by Mr. Wilshere.

f Vetri, etc., da Raffaele Garrucci, D.C.D.G.,
Roma, 1858.

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OF THE ROD.

1 1

“ Life to you,” which are frequent on these Glasses, sometimes in Greek, some-
times in Latin letters, probably belong, the first to the giver of the agape, the
second to him that partakes of the distribution.

On the other Glass c, to our left, we see around the bust of the giver of the
agape a similar series of four representations. First (if we suppose them to be
arranged in order of sequence like the five of the preceding Glass), we must name
Tobias taking the inwards of the fish to anoint the blind eyes of his father, in
which there is an allusion to Baptism, the blind father being human nature or
the old Adam blinded by sin, and the fish being Christ. Next in order we see
Christ standing in the midst of the six water-pots, with the rod of power changing
the water to wine ; and a seventh water-pot is added for the same purpose for
which we have already found an eighth basket of bread to be sometimes added to
the seven, namely, to hint that we are not to think of the miracle wrought at
Cana in Galilee, but of the change of wine in the Eucharist and of a marriage
feast altogether divine, which was then foreshadowed. After these allusions to the
sacraments, the sufferings of the Christians from the persecutions of the heathens
are symbolized by the three children of the Hebrews, clad in caps and Eastern
dresses, standing amid flames, while the form of a fourth, who is the “ Son of
God,” stands by with the rod of power, preventing the flames from hurting them.
And lastly, in allusion to the restoration by penance and absolution of those who
had lapsed, we see again, as in the former Glass, the paralytic whom Christ had
first absolved, carrying his bed.

The small sculptures d, e, f, g, are from the rim of the sarcophagus of
Junius Bassus, one of the richest specimens of the style of the fourth century,
found in the crypts of the Vatican, and now preserved in S. Peters {Rom. Sott.,
1737, vol. i. pi. XV.). They represent Christ four times over as a lamb. In d,
the Lamb holds the rod in His paw and strikes the rock (where the reader may
notice that Christ is at once both the rock and the striker of the rock), while
another lamb comes up and drinks. In c, Christ as a lamb touches with the
rod the baskets of bread, the same thing that we have already seen Him do in a
as a man. In f the Lamb uses His own paw as a rod, laying it on the head
of another lamb, and so giving the Holy Ghost in Confirmation ; for a dove
signifying the Holy Ghost is perched above, and rays of grace from its beak
descend upon the head of the lamb which is being confirmed below. Lastly, in
g, the Lamb holding the rod in His paw touches with it the head of Lazarus, who
stands upright, swathed as a mummy, in a niche, to raise him from the dead.

In the sculpture h, which is also from a sarcophagus, probably of the fourth
century {Rmn. Sott., vol. iii. pi. cxcv.), Christ has already given the rod of power to
Peter, for we see him holding it in his hand. The cock at his feet shows him
to be Peter ; and Christ, with three fingers extended, is saying to him, “ Thou

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12

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

shalt deny Me thrice,” while Peter, with one finger to his lips, replies, ** No, not
once.” So in this whole plate C i we have the rod in the hand of Christ,
and the delegation of the same rod to Peter.

In the lateral groups, C 2 and C 3, we see the rod in the hands of Moses
and of Peter. First in C 3, d, from a sarcophagus, probably of the fourth
century (see Rom. Sott., vol. iii. pi. xciv.) there is Moses, (a beardless Moses, hintingf
perhaps Christ to come) standing with the rod in his hand on the shore of the
Red Sea ; and the Hebrews are going forth safe with their wives and children
on the one side, while the Egyptians with their chariots and horsemen are being
drowned on the other. Opposite to this, in C 7. a, in a painting from the
Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles {Rom. Sott., vol. ii, pi. Ixxi.), Moses is
seen with the rod in his hand striking the rock, while behind the rock are the
Virgin and Child.* This is a visible embodiment of the words of S. Paul, in
that place where, alluding to a Jewish fable that the rock struck by Moses had
followed the people’s wanderings, he says that they “drank of that spiritual Rock
which followed them,” that is, which was to come after them, “ and that Rock
was Christ.” t For the literal rock followed them not. In another similar painting
Moses is striking the rock, and behind the rock Christ is touching the bread
with the rod ; and again, in a third variety, Moses is striking the rock, and
behind the rock Christ is touching with the rod the head of Icarus, to raise
him from the dead.

In C s c, Peter with the rod in his hand is striking the rock, and a
proselyte of Gentile origin (for else he would have a cap on his head) is catching
the water in his joined hands, in al^sion to Baptism. This is part of an en-
graving given in Rom. Soft., vol. ii. pi. Ixxxiii. The colours have been added.
The whole original painting (which was in the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and
Achilles, but, as the writer believes, is no longer visible) was so much like a
consolidation of Composition A, from three paintings into one, as to suggest the
thought that they were both painted by one and the same hand. Opposite, in
C 2 from a sarcophagus {Rom. Soil., vol. ii. pi. Ixxxv.), Peter appears again
with the rod in his hand, while two Jews (shown to be such by their caps),
servants of Herod Agrippa, are seizing him to carry him to prison.

This representation occurs so frequently:}: as of itself to suggest the thought,
that something more must be meant by it than an allusion to the mere fact of

• Mr. Palmer, on the authority of one edi-
tion of Bosio, had placed a rod in the hand of
the Divine Infant. We have not been able
to find any warrant for this addition in other

representations of the same subject, and have
therefore omitted it.

f 1 Cor. X. 4.

After the representation of Jonas, the
smitten Rock and the apprehension of S. Peter
are the subjects most frequently found on the
sarcophagi.

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OF THE ROD.

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the imprisonment and miraculous deliverance of the chief Apostle at Jerusalem,
a fact paralleled by the imprisonment and deliverance of S. Paul at Philippi,
which yet is nowhere represented. And if we consider closely the history of the
first opening of the kingdom of God to the Gentile world, we shall see that
the position of the Italian volunteer cohort at Caesarea, the appointment of Herod
Agrippa, a Jew, by the Emperor Claudius on his accession to be king of Judaea,
and its consequences, namely, that both Herod should take a side against the
Christians, and that the Italians should evacuate Caesarea, were designed prepa-
rations towards an end ; while the imprisonment and deliverance of S. Peter,
making it natural that he should leave Judaea just as his Italian converts also
were returning to Italy, was the last of the series of preparations, the touch as
it were of the spring which sent him from the heart and capital of the Hebrew
to that of the Gentile world ; to Rome, that is, where we find him soon after,
according to the local Roman tradition, near the head of a street {Vicus Come-
liorum) named from the Cornelii, whose clients were extremely numerous, and in
the house of a Roman senator, one of the heads of the same most noble family,
to which Rome had been so largely indebted for the extension of her empire.*
J Sometimes on the sculptured sarcophagi we find a consolidation of those two
( representations of S. Peter, which in this Composition are exhibited separately.
He strikes the rock with the rod, and proselytes converted from among the
Jews run up to drink, while others are laying hands upon him to take him to
prison. The same gospel is life to those that receive it, while to others who
persecute it is a savour of death unto death.

* The relationship of the family of Pudens
with the gens Cornelia is proved by a bronze
diploma of the year 222, found in 1776 near
the Church of S. Prisca on the Aventine, to
one Caius Marius Pudens Cornelianus, of
senatorial rank. S. Prisca is the traditional
site of the first Christian Church in Rome, in
the house of Prisca and Aquila (Rom. xvi.
3-5). The Italian cohort, to which the first
Gentile convert belonged (Acts x. i), was com-

posed of volunteers from some of the noblest
families in Rome. It is styled in inscriptions :
Cohors Italica, Cohors Civium Romanorum
Voluntariorum, Cohors Ingenttorum Civium
Romanorum. If the full name of the convert
of S. Peter was Cornelius Pudens, the account
of the Apostle being the guest of Pudens on
the Viminal, as stated in the acts of the mar-
tyrdom of S. Praxedis, is fully explained.

II.

E

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OF THE ROD.

13

the imprisonment and miraculous deliverance of the chief Apostle at Jerusalem,
a fact paralleled by the imprisonment and deliverance of S. Paul at Philippi,
which yet is nowhere represented. And if we consider closely the history of the
first opening of the kingdom of God to the Gentile world, we shall see that
the position of the Italian volunteer cohort at Caesarea, the appointment of Herod
Agrippa, a Jew, by the Emperor Claudius on his accession to be king of Judaea,
and its consequences, namely, that both Herod should take a side against the
Christians, and that the Italians should evacuate Caesarea, were designed prepa-
rations towards an end ; while the imprisonment and deliverance of S. Peter,
making it natural that he should leave Judaea just as his Italian converts also
were returning to Italy, was the last of the series of preparations, the touch as
it were of the spring which sent him from the heart and capital of the Hebrew

1 to that of the Gentile world ; to Rome, that is, where we find him soon after,

according to the local Roman tradition, near the head of a street {Vicus Come-
liormn) named from the Cornelii, whose clients were extremely numerous, and in
the house of a Roman senator, one of the heads of the same most noble family,
to which Rome had been so largely indebted for the extension of her empire.*

j Sometimes on the sculptured sarcophagi we find a consolidation of those two

/ representations of S. Peter, which in this Composition are exhibited separately.
He strikes the rock with the rod, and proselytes converted from among the
Jews run up to drink, while others are laying hands upon him to take him to
prison. The same gospel is life to those that receive it, while to others who
persecute it is a savour of death unto death.

* The relationship of the family of Pudens
with the gens Cornelia is proved by a bronze
diploma of the year 222, found in 1776 near
the Church of S. Prisca on the Aventine, to
one Caius Marius Pudens Cornelianus, of
senatorial rank. S. Prisca is the traditional
site of the first Christian Church in Rome, in
the house of Prisca and Aquila (Rom. xvi.
3-5). The Italian cohort, to which the first
Gentile convert belonged (Acts x. i), was com-

posed of volunteers from some of the noblest
families in Rome. It is styled in inscriptions :
Cohors Italica, Cohors Civium Rontanorum
Voluntariorum, Cohors Ingenuorum Civium
Romanorum. If the full name of the convert
of S. Peter was Cornelius Pudens, the account
of the Apostle being the g^est of Pudens on
the Viminal, as stated in the acts of the mar-
tyrdom of S. Praxedis, is fully explained.

II.

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IV. Composition D. — Of the Two Apostles.

In the central painting, D i, which was copied by permission for the writer from
the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles (it is given in Rom. Soft., vol. ii. pi.
liv.), we see Christ seated in the midst as the Teacher of the world, with a box
containing the rolls of the Scriptures at His feet, and on either side of Him six
Apostles, of whom only one is seated while the other five stand. Thus it appears
at once to the eye that all the twelve are represented by the two chief Apostles
Peter and Paul, the distinct Apostolate of the Gentiles being here merged in that
earlier Apostolate of the Circumcision which S. Paul says was committed to
Peter. For the two courts of the spiritual temple, though in one sense distinct
as the inner court of the Jews and the outer court of the Gentiles, are not
separated ; nor is their double Apostolate so separate as to be incapable of
being represented as one. The outer court of the Gentiles is originally only an
expansion of the inner; and it is opened to them first in Cornelius by Peter;

and both Peter and the eleven continued afterwards to build up from the

Gentiles, as well as from the Jews, the unity of one Catholic Church, while

S. Paul in like manner, though the special Apostle of the Gentiles, laboured not
for them alone, but also, and first in every place, for the Circumcision. And
after his first imprisonment at Rome he wrote a general Epistle to the Hebrews.
So the Church being one, and originating from the sanctuary itself and from the
inner court, and SS. Peter and Paul being reckoned as the heads of the joint
Apostolate and hierarchy of the whole Church, one sometimes finds, as here, one
of the twelve Apostles of the inner court omitted to make room for S. Paul, so
that the number twelve may be preserved ; as if the city of God, the New

Jerusalem, even in its widest sense, had twelve foundations, which are “ the twelve
Apostles of the Lamb.” Sometimes, on the contrary, the twelve Apostles of the
Circumcision, with S. Peter at their head, are all represented together with S. Paul,
so as to show by the group of thirteen that there is a distinct Apostolate for
the outer court of the Gentiles.

In D 2 there are the bottoms of three Glasses, which, like all the rest used
in these Compositions, have been engraved and described in the work of P.
Garrucci.* The upper one, a, exhibits Christ in the air, that is, invisibly and

• See Eng. vol. ii. pp. 305-319, for and S. Paul, as described by S. Leo and

the ancient celebration of the feast of S. Peter Prudentius and others. De Rossi inclines to

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OF THE TWO APOSTLES.

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from heaven, crowning with two crowns of martyrdom the two Apostles, Peter
and Paul, who are seated as the joint founders and teachers of the Roman Church
and of the world. To these three figures the names are added, “ Christus,”
“ Petrus,” “ Paulus,” though some of the letters do not appear. Around these
runs an inscription, “ Semper vivas hilaris in pace Dei cum tuis," “ May you ever
live happy in the peace of God, with all belonging to you ; ” a good wish, seem-
ingly, from him who drinks to the giver of the agape (Boldetti, p. 514. 72, and
Garrucci, pi. xv.).

The Glass b, to our left, shows S. Agnes with her hands uplifted in prayer,
as if praying for the two Apostles Peter and Paul, who stand on either side,
without being in the same attitude of prayer themselves. The names are inscribed
over against each of the three figures, that of Agnes being colloquially corrupted
into “Annes.” But S. Agnes being a young girl who suffered martyrdom nearly
a century and a half after the Apostles, it is plain that she cannot be thought of
as interceding for them ; they, rather, as having been glorified “ with Christ ” long
before, were praying for her, and for all her contemporaries, when she suffered.
We may ask then. For whom does she really pray? and the Roman Christians
reply, “ For whom should she pray but for us, of whose Church she is so great
an ornament ? ” So we learn that the two Apostles Peter and Paul (the founders
of the Roman Church) are put as a symbol to represent the Roman Church,
and through it the Church at large, which they founded. If the Greek word
“ Zeses,” “ Live,” occurs here alone at the bottom of the Glass, this is perhaps
because the three other sides are occupied by the three names ; but in other
cases, as in C i b, it appears alone without any such reason. Sometimes the two
words, in Greek and Latin, “ Pie Bibe ” and “ Zeses Vivas,” occur together (see
Garrucci, pi. x. 8) ; and so the sense of “ Bibatis ” is determined. The Greek
word “ Pie,” too, occurs together with the Latin “Vivas.”

Having now learned, by the help of S. Agnes, that the two Apostles Peter and
Paul stand not for the two men themselves, but for the Church which they founded,
we shall not mistake, as we else might have mistaken, when we find in D 2 a female
figure with the name “ Maria ” praying for the same two Apostles, who stand again
with their names inscribed as dwarfs under her extended hands. The diminutive
stature of the Apostles has probably the same sense with their position, placing them
visibly under the prayer and protection of the woman who prays. In like manner, in
paintings of baptisms, the person baptized, though full grown, is represented some-
times with the stature of a boy ; and the paralytic carrying his bed, — the blind man
whose eyes Christ touches, — Lazarus whom Christ raises from the dead, — and the

the opinion that these Glasses served for such
festivals. See also, plate xxi., a chromolitho-
graph of the beautiful bronze medallion of the

two Apostles preserved in the Vatican Library,
and ascribed by De Rossi to the third, or even
second century.

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

sister of Lazarus at Christ’s feet,— are often sculptured as pigmies on the sarcophagi.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, then, here is not represented as accompanied or attended
upon by the Apostles, her contemporaries, nor as praying for them personally ; but,
like S. Agnes, S. Peregrina, and other saints on the Glasses, she is praying for the
Church which the two Apostles founded.

Having learned the use made of them as a symbol, we may return in thought to
the paintings of Composition B, and reflect that there also the two men who point
to the Incarnation, who seek the benefit of the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, who
pray with her, and help or enable her to pray, are not so much the two Apostles
personally, as the Church itself on earth which they founded.

Below these in D 2, we have two more Glasses, d and e (equally with the preceding
given and described by P. Garrucci), and a sculpture, f, from a sarcophagus {Rom.
SoR., vol. I. pi. xxi.).

On the Glass in the middle, d (Garrucci, pi. x.), a single crown of martyrdom unites
the two heads of the Apostles Peter and Paul (the names being attached), to show that
the two together are one joint foundation for the Roman and for the whole Church.

But lest any one should wrest the sense of this painting, and argue that, therefore,
the two Apostles are in all respects equal and co-ordinate, so that the Church began
from a dualism, and not from unity, a Glass, e, is added below, with the figure of
a man striking the rock, and the name “ Petrvs ” inscribed, showing plainly to all
such as doubt, that the Christians transferred the story of Moses striking the rock from
the Old Testament to the Gospel, and that for them Moses was Peter.* But if Peter
strikes the rock in the New Covenant as Moses struck it in the Old, then it is clear that

1

I he represents the unity of the whole hierarchy, and communicates the grace of the Gospel
to the whole of the spiritual Israel, S. Paul himself included. For when all were
athirst in the wilderness, all the congregation, from the first to the last, and Aaron
himself, however closely associated with his brother, depended on the rod of Moses.

* De Rossi {Bullettino, 1877, p. 79, etc.)
describes a large glass plate brought by M.

Basilewsky from Podogoritza in Dalmatia, on
which are scratched a rude series of Biblical
subjects : Abraham’s sacrifice, Daniel in the
lions’ den, the Three Children, Jonas, the
fall of our first parents, and the raising of
Lazarus. The remaining subject is that given
in the adjoining woodcut. De Rossi has
deciphered the cursive letters thus : “ Petrus
virga perquodset forties ciperunt quorereP that is,

"Petrus virga percussit, f antes coeperunt currere"

— “ Peter struck with the rod, the streams began
to flow." De Rossi adds : “ This testimony,
which comes to us from the east of Illyricum,

sets the seal with dazzling clearness to the truth
of the Moses-Peter, whom the Roman monu-

ments had first revealed to Padre March! of
illustrious memory.”

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OF THE TWO APOSTLES.

17

Wherefore by analogy, there is no room in the new Israel any more than in the
old for a dualism ; but the rod of Moses in the hand of Peter is the single source
of grace to the indivisible unity of the Catholic Church both of the circumcision
and of the uncircumcision. The Glass e is pre.served in the Vatican. It has been
published by Boldetti, p. 200 ; and by P. Garrucci, in his pi. x. 9.

Beneath this glass is a sculpture, f, which occurs repeatedly on sarcophagi of
the fourth century. The present example is taken from Rom. Soft., vol. i. pi xxi.
The sarcophagus is from the crypt of the Vatican. Here we see Peter receiving
from Christ the keys ; and the same inference may be drawn from this that we
have collected from the Glass e. For Peter receives the keys and unlocks the door
of grace to all the world, both Jews and Gentiles ; and that authority which is
given jointly and indifferently to all the Apostles, is given separately and primarily
to him : nor can any real and permanent discord result from this double gift ;
since the grace of Christ and of the Holy Ghost, which is to be with the Apostles
and the Church to the end, cannot be divided against itself. Whatever appearance,
therefore, there may be, whether in point of numbers or antiquity, in favour of any
minority, as if the Apostolic Church were divided, it must be disregarded by faith
and by right reason ; and the majority of the Apostolate or Episcopate, with Peter
at its head, must be followed as having the promise of Christ.*

• As a pendant to Mr. Palmer’s illustrations,
we give a woodcut of one of the finest speci-
mens of early Christian sculpture — a sarco-
phagus from the Crypt of S. Peter’s — now in
the Lateran Museum. On its front are repre-
sented, at one extremity Abraham’s sacrifice,
at the other our Lord before Pilate, who is
washing his hands. The central compartment
represents our Lord in glory, the vault of
heaven • beneath His feet being expressed by
the veil which a female figure holds above her
head. The two principal fig^ires among the

Apostles, who surround our Lord, are mani-
festly intended for SS. Peter and Paul. S.
Paul, distinguished by his baldness, is on the
right ; while S. Peter on the left receives, with
hands reverently veiled, the New Law from
the Mediator of the New Testament, just as
heathen magistrates were wont to receive from
the emperors the book of the Constitutions
whereby they were to govern the province com-
mitted to their charge. Here Peter appears
again as the Moses of the New Dispensation.
See English Rom. Sott., pt. ii. pp. 254-257.

II.

F

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V. Composition E. — Of the Scriptures.

In the middle of the principal group, E i, is a painting, a, copied from the roof of
a crypt in the Cemetery of S. Agnes. The engraving of the same will be found in
vol. iii. pi. cxl. of Roma Sotterranea. This painting represents Christ seated between
two boxes containing rolls, the Scriptures of the two Testaments, with His hands
raised, in the attitude of teaching.

On one side of Him, to our left, from a sarcophagus of the fourth century found in
the crypts of the Vatican, and given by Bottari {Rom. Sott., vol. i. pi. xxvii.), we see
Moses, b, receiving the written law of the Old Testament, which is held to him by
a hand from a cloud over the mountain.

On the opposite side, to our right, from another sarcophagus found in the Cemetery
of S. Lucina, t.e. near S. Paul’s Basilica, there is Moses, c, seated, reading the law,
which is held before him by an attendant (shown to be an Israelite by his cap), in
order to teach the people out of it afterwards.

In E 2, from another sarcophagus found at the Basilica of S. Paul, and
given in Rom. Sott., vol. i. pi. xxii. as from the Vatican Cemetery, one sees, (t, Christ
giving the new law of the Gospel as an open roll to His two Apostles, of whom
S. Peter holds a closed roll as if in place of the rod, standing on the right hand- of
Christ, and S. Paul on the left receives the open roll of the Gospel, to preach the
cross of Christ among the Gentiles. Christ Himself stands on a small eminence,
and is represented twice over, both as a man, and as a lamb with a cross rising from
his forehead, standing beside the man, while four streams of the mystical Jordan, by
some identified with the four Gospels, flow from the mount. On either side there is a
palm tree, and a turret and open door, from which are issuing other lambs. The whole
representation is of very frequent occurrence in the fourth century, and later, on the
sarcophagi ; and in the mosaics around the apses or tribunes of the. early Basilicas. In
these the two turrets are often amplified into two cities, and have the names Jerusalem
and Bethlehem added to them — Jerusalem to hint the Church of the Circumcision ;
Bethlehem, where the Magi found and worshipped Christ, to symbolize the Church of
the Gentiles. What is remarkable in our present sculpture is this, that S. Paul sqpms
to be associated with the narrow door of the Jews (unless there is any accidental
inaccuracy), and S. Peter with the broader door of the Gentiles; whereas usually
S. Paul, as the Apostle of the Gentiles, has Bethlehem and a broad door open behind
him, and S. Peter, as the Apostle of the Circumcision, has Jerusalem with a narrow
III. G

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20

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

door behind him ; and in some cases, as in a mosaic in the baptistery and tomb of
S. Constantia, adjoining the Church of S. Agnes, the narrow door behind S, Peter
is shut, to show that the Jews as a body would not receive the Gospel. Some
have thought that Christ in E 2, d, is giving the roll to Peter, the cross in his hand
signifying his death, as foretold, by crucifixion, while it is S. Paul who is on the right
hand of Christ, with the wider door behind him ; but on a sarcophagus at Saragossa
the Apostle to the right of Christ has the name “ Peter,” and on another at Arles the
cock, S. Paul bearing the cross on the left, as here. (See P. Garrucci, Hagiogl., p. 95.)

Plate Ea. I is a painting from the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles.* (It
is taken from Rom. Soft., vol. ii. pi. Ixi.) It exhibits the two Apostles seated,
Christ being now no longer visible to either of them, with two boxes containing
rolls of books placed on the ground between them. These indicate probably the
Gospel as preached by Peter and the eleven to the circumcision, and the same
Gospel separately revealed by Christ Himself to Paul. They are conferring together,
and S. Paul is communicating to S. Peter that Gospel which he has been preaching
among the Gentiles. It is understood that Christ, who has sent them both, is invisibly
with them both by His grace, and works mightily in them, both towards the circum-
cision and towards the uncircumcision, by His Spirit. Nothing therefore is added to
the sense, though we have added from a glass the figure of Christ in the air giving
His blessing to the two Apostles, who appear also on the same glass. (See Garrucci,
Vetri, etc.) With this addition the group E 3 ^ answers better to E 2 than it
would have done if the space between the two seated Apostles had been left vacant, or
if the figure of Daniel between the lions, which appears there in the original, had been
retained. And there is no danger of confusion or misapprehension, as if the figure of
Christ in the air belonged to the same painting with the two Apostles, since the colours
alone distinguish the fresco-paintings, the gold being peculiar to glasses. The fig^ire
of Christ in the air reminds us of that attitude in which He was taken up “ whilst He
blessed them,” and of His promise to be with them, in teaching and baptizing all
nations, even to the end of the world.

• In accordance with the principle avowed in
our introduction, we have had this plate copied
rather from Bottari and Aringhi than from Mr.

Palmer’s paintings. We have thus shown more
distinctly that the two figures of the Apostles
are from the same Arcosolium, by inserting the
borders, though we have followed Mr. Palmer
in omitting Daniel. We were not able to find
among Garrucci’s Vetri the figure of Christ in
the air, “ giving grace from His hands,” as Mr.

Palmer describes. We have therefore substi-
tuted another Glass {Vetri, xvi. 5), in which our

Lord is giving His blessing to the two Apostles.
In all the Glasses, where He is in the air. He is
holding out crowns, as in Composition D 2 a.
Mr. Palmer had also divided the four Evange-
lists, and placed each at a corner of the painting.
We have restored them to their original group-
ing, as given in Garrucci’s Staria dell' Arte
Cristiana, although we have left out the central
figure in order to make the Glass the centre
of both sets of paintings, according to our
author’s idea.

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OF THE SCRIPTURES.

21

Lastly, the figures /, g, h, i, are the four Evangelists, beginning from S. Matthew
who points up to the star. These are from a facsimile of a painting in the Cemetery
of Praetextatus, which has been placed in the Christian museum of the Lateran. In
the original, Christ is seated in the midst of the four, with a book, not a roll, open in
his hands,* and the open box (which should be the case for the same Scriptures) at his
feet. The book, and the glory round the head of Christ, show the date of this painrting
to be later than the third, probably towards the end of the fourth century. Judging
from the youthful appearance of the third figure among the Evangelists, one might
suppose he was S. John rather than the fourth, but the order in which they are
numbered is that of the original. In another representation of the same four Evange-
lists in an early cemetery at Albano, each of the four figures, the upper parts of which
have perished, has a round box, meant to contain the roll of his Gospel, standing on
the ground at his feet.

[It was found impossible to reproduce the portion of a sarcophagus, E, 2 d, on the
same plate with the rest of the composition ; and, in order to turn to the best account
the remaining space, we have had an engraving copied from De Rossi’s Bullettino
(1871. Tav., vii. i), representing a sculpture of our Lord guiding the bark of the Church,
with the Evangelists as the rowers. De Rossi found it built into a modem house
in Spoleto. He says : “ The sculpture is certainly of the fourth century . . . but no
monument surpasses the eloquence of this fragment from Spoleto in teaching that the
ship making for the haven is the mystic bark, the Church of Christ. Here our Lord
Himself sits as Master ; the Evangelists ply the oars, although Mark and Luke were
not of the number of the Galilean fishermen designated by Christ. These symbolize
the doctrine of the Gospel the foundation of the saving faith taught in the Church,
perhaps also the strength and guide of the faithful in difficult navigation. The gesture
of speaking and command made by our Saviour with His right hand is cleared up by
the Gospel itself, where it is written : ‘ And sitting. He taught the multitudes out of
the ship. Now when He had ceased to speak. He said to Simon : Launch out into
the deep, and let down your nets for a draught ' (S. Luke v. 3, 4). If the bas-
relief had been entire, we should probably have seen in the other end of the bark
Simon Peter casting the net into the sea.” L. C, p. 126.]

* Garrucci represents our Lord as simply M. Roller’s plate of this fresco corresponds

raising His hands in the act of blessing, but Mr. with the description given in the text

Palmer is probably correct, and we see that

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VI. Composition F. — Of the Rticharist.

The four parts, a, b, c, d, of the principal group, F i, occur all together as a com-
position in the Cemetery of S. Callixtus, and were copied thence by permission for
the author ; only, to suit the size of the paper, a and d have been transposed, d
being in the original painting on the roof of the crypt, above a, which holds the
central place on the wall below, with b adjoining it to the right of the spectator,
and c to his left.

a is the Mystical Supper of the Eucharist.* The seven figures seated at the
table represent all the disciples of Christ. The number seven, signifying univer-
sality, reminds us of the seven disciples to whom Christ, after His resurrection,
appeared on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and invited them to dine, giving them
bread and broiled fish (John xxi.). The two fishes on the table remind us of the
multiplication of the five loaves and the two fishes (Luke xi.). The seven baskets
of whole cakes of bread, not fragments, ranged below, allude to the similar miracle,
recorded by S. Mark, of the multiplication of seven loaves, after which they took up
seven baskets full of fragments ; while the addition here of an eighth basket hints,
as has been already explained, that we are not to think of the literal history of any
one of the three occurrences alluded to, but of that ulterior and spiritual sense to
which they all point, and in which they all unite, that is, the doctrine of the Blessed
Eucharist. This Mystical Supper being set forth in the midst, we see as accom-
paniments on either side of it; —

First, in b, to our right, the sacrifice of Abraham. Abraham and his son Isaac,
clad each in a single tunic, are praying with hands uplifted to God ; Isaac, and the
lamb to be offered instead of him, which stands near, both signifying the Lamb of
God, the Son of the Father, whose sacrifice is the propitiation for sin. The faggot
of the wood for the burnt-offering is also seen.

In c, to our left, there stands a small tripod table, as an altar, and upon it two

* The symbolical meaning of the paintings
in the Compositions F and G, have been treated
at considerable length in our English Jiom.
Soft., pt ii. pp. 66 — 8o, 86 — 103. Our author
pursues the symbolism into more minute details
than we should venture to do, but as in the
main he follows the same principles of interpre-

tation that we have followed, we do not think
it necessary to point out the minor points in
which we cannot agree with him, and we have
contented ourselves with supplying a few
patristic illustrations bearing out his explana-
tions. A sketch of the walls of this crypt is
given below with Composition G.

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OF THE EUCHARIST.

23

\

cakes of bread, one larger, the other smaller. On one side of this altar is a figure
half clothed in the e^w/xis, an abstract Melchisedec,* directing his hand as if to show
a purpose of consecration towards the lesser cake of bread, which is partly broken,
and shows in the midst of its dark substance something white, like a fish com-
pressed. About the larger cake of bread, towards which the hand is not directed,
which is not consecrated, there is nothing remarkable. On the opposite side of the
table (that is, in the place of the people, facing towards the consecrator), there is a
female figure, that is, the Church, the Blessed Virgin, or any Christian, praying
with uplifted hands before the oblation, believing, as says S. Cyril of Jerusalem,
that those prayers are most prevailing which are made with the consecrated gifts
lying in open view.f If any one will only propose to himself as a problem the
question, how to paint to the eye the power of consecration, he will appreciate
the ingenuity and simplicity of this design.

The fourth painting, d, the proper place of which is on the roof above a, adds
nothing to the sense already collected from the preceding three ; but as it is found
together with them in the original, it is reproduced here. As placed immediately
over a, the tripod table may indicate the altar of oblation as distinct from the
table of the Eucharistic Supper ; and the bread and fish laid upon it, one upon
another, hint the truth, that in the Eucharist the bread and the fish (the fish being
Christ) are one and the same thing. It is noticeable that on the supper-table a
the two fishes alone, which are Christ Himself in His two natures, are the whole
banquet, nothing else being placed on the table, though the bread, which is the
same thing as the fish, stands by. On the tripod table or altar above, where there

• A fragment of S. Hippolytus, a contem-
porary of S. Callixtus, states that those who
formerly offered sacrifice as Levites, and sacri-
ficing priests, and even high priests, now assist
at the sacrifice of a slave. In another fragment
he says : “ Daily is His precious and stainless
body and blood consecrated and offered on the
mystical and divine table, in commemoration
of that ever-memorable and first table of the
mystical divine supper.” (See Hippolytus and
Callistus, by Dr. Dollinger, p. 318, Eng. Trans.)

f S. Cyril’s account of the Mass at the begin-
ning of the fourth century runs thus : “ Then,
having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual
hymns, we call upon the merciful God to send
forth His Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before
Him ; that He may make the bread the Body
of Christ, and the wine the Blood of Christ ;
for whatsoever the Holy Ghost has touched
III.

is sanctified and changed. Then, after the
spiritual sacrifice is perfected, the unbloody
service upon that sacrifice of propitiation, we
entreat God for the common peace of the
Church, for the tranquillity of the world, for
kings, for soldiers and allies, for the sick, for
the afflicted ; and, in a word, for all who stand
in need of succour we all supplicate and offer
this sacrifice. Then we commemorate also
those who have fallen asleep before us ; first,
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, that at
their prayers and intervention God would
receive our petition. Afterwards also on behalf
of the holy fathers and bishops who have fallen
asleep before us, believing that it will be a very
great advantage to the souls for whom the
supplication is put up, while that holy and most
awful sacrifice is presented.” {Myst. V. Oxf.
Trans.)

H

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

Composition ; so the sculpture was preferred ; and it affords us an oppor-
tunity of pointing out an example of one of those slight changes in Christian
art which came in the fourth century. This is the river Jordan personified,
with his urn, an image borrowed from heathen art, and not found in the earlier
paintings.

Peter, having so received the power and Spirit of Christ for the priesthood,
in another sculpture, k, strikes the rock : but the waters flowing from the rock
represent all the graces given through the ministry of the clergy, and so con-
sequently also the cup of the Eucharist, of which two Jews, known to be Jews
by their caps, but now Christians, come up eagerly to drink. This sculpture is
from a sarcophagus found in the crypts of the Vatican, and is given in Roin.
Soft., vol. i. pi. xxxvi. ; xxxii. also being nearly alike.

On the other side of /, in /, a sculpture taken from the same sarcophagus as
/, there is a representation of the Christian Sacrifice, which for its clearness and
completeness the writer believes to be unique. The sacrifice of Abraham, applied
in a Christian sense and with allusion to the Eucharist, occurs, as we have seen
above, in the paintings of the Catacombs; and on the sculptured sarcophagi of
the fourth century it becomes extremely common.* In these sculptures sometimes
Isaac only, sometimes only the lamb, sometimes both Isaac and the lamb, with
or without an altar, are represented. But this is the only instance in which the
writer has seen the two altars, of the old Abraham and of the New Testament,
represented together. Here in the centre there stands the joint figure of Abraham
and Peter, that is, the Apostle Peter in the character of Abraham, representing
the Christian Priesthood. He stands between two altars, with the sacrificial knife
uplifted in his hand, turning round towards the voice of God represented by a
hand stretched from heaven. One altar, from which his feet are turned away, is
plainly the altar of the historical Abraham and of the Old Testament, being
built of rude unhewn stones, such as the Hebrews were commanded to use. On
it is the lamb sitting up like a rabbit, and a small bush, to which the lamb
is sometimes attached by the horns. On the other side is a small altar of hewn
stone or marble, such as the Greeks and Romans used, but the Hebrews never,

• De Rossi, referring to this passage of our
author, whom he couples with P. Garrucci, says :
“ Both have remarked the connection between
this mystical remembrance of the sacrifice of
Isaac with the representation over against them
of the Eucharistic supper-table. This connec-
tion is clear, especially when one attends, as we
have done, to the web and chain of the compo-
sition, and notices the positions assigned to

each group. In the Sarcophagi in Rome and
elsewhere there is very often represented the
celebrated sacrifice of Abraham prefiguring that
of Christ ; and often the scene is placed in
conditions of symbolic connection with other
Biblical histories typifying the sacrifice and the
priesthood of the New Covenant ” {Rom. Sott.,
tom. ii. 342, 3).

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OF THE EUCHAR/ST.

27

with a human victim kneeling on its top, and on the two sides which are visible
a small paten and a beaker, hinting the mola or sacrificial cake and the libation.
Towards this altar the sacrificer would have been turned, but for the voice of God,
which signifies at once that the old Abraham was not to sacrifice his son, but
instead of him that lamb provided by God, which is a figure of the true Isaac and
the true Lamb of God to come ; and likewise that the priesthood of Peter in the
New Testament is not to sacrifice literally a human victim,* but instead of any such,
and instead of the heathen mola and libation, that cake of bread and that chalice
which are mystically Christ.

The sarcophagus from which i and / are taken, is said to have stood in the
time of Bosio in a garden near to the small church of S. Martha, behind S. Peter’s ;
but so far are the Romans from always appreciating or preserving their own anti-
quities, that it has been broken up since the time of Bosio, and now only a part
of it remains in the Villa Pinciana. It is given in Rom. Soft., vol. i. pi. xxvii. ; and
pi. xxix. has a representation nearly the same, except that the altar of the old
Abraham is wanting.

• S. Cyprian, writing to Pope Cornelius
about the time when these paintings were exe-
cuted, says; “If Jesus Christ, our Lord and
God, is Himself the High Priest of God the
Father, and has first offered Himself a Sacrifice
to the Father, and has commanded this to be

done in commemoration of Himself, certainly
that priest truly discharges the office of Christ
who imitates that which Christ did ; and he
then offers a true and full sacrifice in the
Church to God the Father ” (Epist. Ixii.).

III.

I

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V. Composition E. — Of the Scnftures.

In the middle of the principal group, E i, is a painting, a, copied from the roof of
a crypt in the Cemetery of S. Agnes. The engraving of the same will be found in
vol. iii. pi. cxl. of Roma Sotterranea. This painting represents Christ seated between
two boxes containing rolls, the Scriptures of the two Testaments, with His hands
raised, in the attitude of teaching.

On one side of Him, to our left, from a sarcophagus of the fourth century found in
the crypts of the Vatican, and given by Bottari [Rom. Sott., vol. i. pi. xxvii.), we see
Moses, d, receiving the written law of the Old Testament, which is held to him by
a hand from a cloud over the mountain.

On the opposite side, to our right, from another sarcophagus found in the Cemetery
of S. Lucina, i.e. near S. Paul’s Basilica, there is Moses, seated, reading the law,
which is held before him by an attendant (shown to be an Israelite by his cap), in
order to teach the people out of it afterwards.

In E 2, from another sarcophagus found at the Basilica of S. Paul, and
given in Rofn. Sott., vol. i. pi. xxii. as from the Vatican Cemetery, one sees, d, Christ
giving the new law of the Gospel as an open roll to His two Apostles, of whom
S. Peter holds a closed roll as if in place of the rod, standing on the right hand- of
Christ, and S. Paul on the left receives the open roll of the Gospel, to preach the
cross of Christ among the Gentiles. Christ Himself stands on a small eminence,
and is represented twice over, both as a man, and as a lamb with a cross rising from
his forehead, standing beside the man, while four streams of the mystical Jordan, by
some identified with the four Gospels, flow from the mount. On either side there is a
palm tree, and a turret and open door, from which are issuing other lambs. The whole
representation is of very frequent occurrence in the fourth century, and later, on the
sarcophagi ; and in the mosaics around the apses or tribunes of the. early Basilicas. In
these the two turrets are often amplified into two cities, and have the names Jerusalem
and Bethlehem added to them — Jerusalem to hint the Church of the Circumcision ;
Bethlehem, where the Magi found and worshipped Christ, to symbolize the Church of
the Gentiles. What is remarkable in our present sculpture is this, that S. Paul sqpms
to be associated with the narrow door of the Jews (unless there is any accidental
inaccuracy), and S. Peter with the broader door of the Gentiles; whereas usually
S. Paul, as the Apostle of the Gentiles, has Bethlehem and a broad door open behind
him, and S. Peter, as the Apostle of the Circumcision, has Jerusalem with a narrow
III. G

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

door behind him ; and in some cases, as in a mosaic in the baptistery and tomb of
S. Constantia, adjoining the Church of S. Agnes, the narrow door behind S. Peter
is shut, to show that the Jews as a body would not receive the Gospel. Some
have thought that Christ in E 2, d, is giving the roll to Peter, the cross in his hand
signifying his death, as foretold, by crucifixion, while it is S. Paul who is on the right
hand of Christ, with the wider door behind him ; but on a sarcophagus at Saragossa
the Apostle to the right of Christ has the name “ Peter,” and on another at Arles the
cock, S. Paul bearing the cross on the left, as here. (See P. Garrucci, Hagiogl., p. 95.)

Plate E,. I is a painting from the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles.* (It
is taken from Rom. Sott., vol. ii. pi. Ixi.) It exhibits the two Apostles seated,
Christ being now no longer visible to either of them, with two boxes containing
rolls of books placed on the ground between them. These indicate probably the
Gospel as preached by Peter and the eleven to the circumcision, and the same
Gospel separately revealed by Christ Himself to Paul. They are conferring together,
and S. Paul is communicating to S. Peter that Gospel which he has been preaching
among the Gentiles. It is understood that Christ, who has sent them both, is invisibly
with them both by His grace, and works mightily in them, both towards the circum-
cision and towards the uncircumcision, by His Spirit. Nothing therefore is added to
the sense, though we have added from a glass the figure of Christ in the air giving
His blessing to the two Apostles, who appear also on the same glass. (See Garrucci,
Vetri, etc.) With this addition the group E 3 ^ answers better to E 2 d than it
would have done if the space between the two seated Apostles had been left vacant, or
if the figure of Daniel between the lions, which appears there in the original, had been
retained. And there is no danger of confusion or misapprehension, as if the figure of
Christ in the air belonged to the same painting with the two Apostles, since the colours
alone distinguish the fresco-paintings, the gold being peculiar to glasses. The figure
of Christ in the air reminds us of that attitude in which He was taken up “ whilst He
blessed them,” and of His promise to be with them, in teaching and baptizing all
nations, even to the end of the world.

• In accordance with the principle avowed in
our introduction, we have had this plate copied
rather from Bottari and Aringhi than from Mr.

Palmer’s paintings. We have thus shown more
distinctly that the two figures of the Apostles
are from the same Arcosolium, by inserting the
borders, though we have followed Mr. Palmer
in omitting Daniel. We were not able to find
among Garrucci’s Ve^ri the figure of Christ in
the air, “giving grace from His hands,” as Mr.

Palmer describes. We have therefore substi-
tuted another Glass ( Velri, xvi. 5), in which our

Lord is giving His blessing to the two Apostles.
In all the Glasses, where He is in the air. He is
holding out crowns, as in Composition D 2 a.
Mr. Palmer had also divided the four Evange-
lists, and placed each at a corner of the painting.
We have restored them to their original group-
ing, as given in Garrucci’s Storia delV Arte
Cristiana, although we have left out the central
figure in order to make the Glass the centre
of both sets of paintings, according to our
author’s idea.

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OF THE SCRIPTURES.

21

Lastly, the figures f, g, h, i, are the four Evangelists, beginning from S. Matthew
who points up to the star. These are from a facsimile of a painting in the Cemetery
of Praetextatus, which has been placed in the Christian museum of the Lateran. In
the original, Christ is seated in the midst of the four, with a book, not a roll, open in
his hands,* and the open box (which should be the case for the same Scriptures) at his
feet. The book, and the glory round the head of Christ, show the date of this painrting
to be later than the third, probably towards the end of the fourth century. Judging
from the youthful appearance of the third figure among the Evangelists, one might
suppose he was S. John rather than the fourth, but the order in which they are
numbered is that of the original. In another representation of the same four Evange-
lists in an early cemetery at Albano, each of the four figures, the upper parts of which
have perished, has a round box, meant to contain the roll of his Gospel, standing on
the ground at his feet.

[It was found impossible to reproduce the portion of a sarcophagus, E. 2 d, on the
same plate with the rest of the composition ; and, in order to turn to the best account
the remaining space, we have had an engraving copied from De Rossi’s Bullettino
(1871, Tav., vii. i), representing a sculpture of our Lord guiding the bark of the Church,
with the Evangelists as the rowers. De Rossi found it built into a modem house
in Spoleto. He says : “ The sculpture is certainly of the fourth century . . . but no
monument surpasses the eloquence of this fragment from Spoleto in teaching that the
ship making for the haven is the mystic bark, the Church of Christ. Here our Lord
Himself sits as Master ; the Evangelists ply the oars, although Mark and Luke were
not of the number of the Galilean fishermen designated by Christ. These symbolize
the doctrine of the Gospel the foundation of the saving faith taught in the Church,
perhaps also the strength and guide of the faithful in difficult navigation. The gesture
of speaking and command made by our Saviour with His right hand is cleared up by
the Gospel itself, where it is written : ‘ And sitting. He taught the multitudes out of
the ship. Now when He had ceased to speak. He said to Simon : Launch out into
the deep, and let down your nets for a draught ’ (S. Luke v. 3, 4). If the bas-
relief had been entire, we should probably have seen in the other end of the bark
Simon Peter casting the net into the sea.” L. C, p. 126.]

• Garrucci represents our Lord as simply M. Roller’s plate of this fresco corresponds

raising His hands in the act of blessing, but Mr. with the description given in the text

Palmer is probably correct, and we see that

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VI. Composition F. — Of the Ettcharisi.

The four parts, a, b, c, d, of the principal group, F i, occur all together as a com-
position in the Cemetery of S. Callixtus, and were copied thence by permission for
the author ; only, to suit the size of the paper, a and d have been transposed, d
being in the original painting on the roof of the crypt, above a, which holds the
central place on the wall below, with b adjoining it to the right of the spectator,
and c to his left.

a is the Mystical Supper of the Eucharist.* The seven figures seated at the
table represent all the disciples of Christ. The number seven, signifying univer-
sality, reminds us of the seven disciples to whom Christ, after His resurrection,
appeared on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and invited them to dine, giving them
bread and broiled fish (John xxi.). The two fishes on the table remind us of the
multiplication of the five loaves and the two fishes (Luke xi.). The seven baskets
of whole cakes of bread, not fragments, ranged below, allude to the similar miracle,
recorded by S. Mark, of the multiplication of seven loaves, after which they took up
seven baskets full of fragments ; while the addition here of an eighth basket hints,
as has been already explained, that we are not to think of the literal history of any
one of the three occurrences alluded to, but of that ulterior and spiritual sense to
which they all point, and in which they all unite, that is, the doctrine of the Blessed
Eucharist. This Mystical Supper being set forth in the midst, we see as accom-
paniments on either side of it; —

First, in b, to our right, the sacrifice of Abraham. Abraham and his son Isaac,
clad each in a single tunic, are praying with hands uplifted to God ; Isaac, and the
lamb to be offered instead of him, which stands near, both signifying the Lamb of
God, the Son of the Father, whose sacrifice is the propitiation for sin. The faggot
of the wood for the burnt-offering is also seen.

In c, to our left, there stands a small tripod table, as an altar, and upon it two

* The symbolical meaning of the paintings
in the Compositions F and G, have been treated
at considerable length in our English Rom.
Sott., pt ii. pp. 66 — 8o, 86 — 103. Our author
pursues the symbolism into more minute details
than we should venture to do, but as in the
main he follows the same principles of interpre-

tation that we have followed, we do not think
it necessary to point out the minor points in
which we cannot agree with him, and we have
contented ourselves with supplying a few
patristic illustrations bearing out his explana-
tions. A sketch of the walls of this crypt is
given below with Composition G.

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VII. Composition G. — Of the Sacraments.

The Christians of the first three centuries, as has been said already, did not
paint their doctrines systematically for any purpose of instruction; and even if
they had, no series of the seven Sacraments could have been painted by them,
as the present mode of numbering and defining the seven Sacraments was intro-
duced much later.* Still, as the present technical language and doctrine of the
Church on this subject is based on a true mutual relation between seven holy
acts, which have ever been in the Church, for spiritual birth, strength, and food, for
spiritual and bodily healing, and for natural and spiritual reproduction ; and by
these seven means of grace, as by “joints and bands,” the body of the Church is
perpetuated and increased, so that no one of the seven can be taken away, nor any
eighth added, it is possible to discover and put together the mediaeval group of the
seven Sacraments even from the paintings of the first three centuries ; and nothing
is really added or changed in sense by our doing so.

As the principal painting then, in G i, there is exhibited an Ordination copied
by Bosio from the Cemetery of S. Hermes, and given in vol. iii. pi. clxxx. of Roma
Sotterra7tea. It is put here in the principal place because it is by ordination that the
Church obtains Clergy, and through the Clergy we have the ministration of all the
other sacraments. A Bishop seated in a stone chair, raised by seven steps, is laying
his right hand on the head of a Clerk, whom two Presbyters, one on either side,
have been showing (as we collect from the expression of their eyes and hands) to
the people. One may suppose a small portable table to be set as an altar before
the Bishop, and beyond it the people to be standing, facing across it towards him.
They have already answered that the candidate for ordination shown to them is
“ worthy,” 'A^ios, as they still reply in the Eastern Churches. The candidate stands
with his hands uplifted, praying that the grace of the Holy Ghost may come upon
him as the Bishop touches his head ; and the Bishop himself would probably have
been stretching out his left hand in prayer, were it not for the open roll of the

• Mr. Palmer, in this passage, probably had
in mind a conversation that he had in 1840
with a Russian priest, M. Fortunatoff. “He
had at first contended that the septenary
number was from the beginning ; at length he
admitted that perhaps they had received it in

IV.

later times from the Latins. ‘ I see what you
mean,’ he said. ‘ They existed, and we had
them from the beginning, and at length the
Pope counted them for us. Well, that is no
great matter ; we may admit that ’ ” {Notes of
a Visit to the Russian Church, p. 324).

K

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

32 .

of Christ, and group it into a composition with any other painting of a Chris-
tian baptism ; so long as the separate sources from which the two things were taken
were distinguished to the mind and eye of the spectator. By such a composi-^

tion nothing is added in sense beyond what actually occurs in the paintings of

the Catacombs ; while in respect of arrangement and colouring this course suited
better than to insert for Confirmation a repetition of the sculpture already given
in C I y! The absence of the red border round the Dove shows that it is
taken from a separate painting.

\n G 2 c/, from the Cemetery of S. Priscilla, there is a painting copied by
Bosio, and given in vol. iii. pi. clviii. of Rom. Soft.* The subject is Holy Com-
munion, regarded probably as the support and strength and viaticum of the
martyrs ; for other paintings about the same tomb represent symbolically their
sufferings. In the same way, on the sculptured sarcophagi the hand of Habacuc
is seen offering bread to Daniel, who stands praying between the lions. Here

there are seven figures, representing all the disciples of Christ, clad in a peculiar

cape, as if for some special occasion, and kneeling, some of them with one hand
raised to their mouths. At their knees, on the ground, are seven cakes of bread,
one for each, reminding us of one of the two miraculous multiplications of bread ;
and two fishes, reminding us of the other similar miracle ; while seven baskets
are ranged below, filled, not with fragments, but with whole cakes of bread, the
number seven being here preserved throughout, though there can be no doubt that
neither the one nor the other of the two miracles, nor both of them together,
are intended, but the Eucharist, to which they both separately and together
pointed. The sense seems to be that after Christ in His two natures, the sole
or universal Bread of life, has fed all His disciples, instead of being consumed
or diminished, or divided into parts, the same Food remains whole, and super-
abounds, so as to continue to feed the universe. But what is most important

• This painting is given by Bosio, and
accepted by P. Garrucci ; but we think it fair
to state that De Rossi does not consider the
plate in Bosio sufficient proof that the figures
were actually kneeling in the original. On the
contrary, he says, “ I have good reasons for
thinking that in that picture the supper was
only represented as it is in the chambers of
S. Callixtus ” {Rom. Soil., tom. ii. p. 341).
We have good reason for thinking that, in con-
sequence of this unfavourable opinion of De
Rossi, Mr. Palmer intended to substitute for
this group another scene from the Cemetery

of S. Callixtus, very similar to that already
given in composition F 1 a, representing the
symbolical feast on the miraculously multiplied
loaves and fishes. This drawing has been
found among the rest ; but we thought it best
to copy the one which is described in the text
rather than substitute a description of our own
to correspond with the other picture. The
idea of adoration dwelt upon by Mr. Palmer,
is perhaps more fully represented by the Eucha-
ristic symbols on the tripod altar than by the
feast itself. See F i cl.

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OF THE EUCHARIST.

23

cakes of bread, one larger, the other smaller. On one side of this altar is a figure
half clothed in the an abstract Melchisedec,* directing his hand as if to show

a purpose of consecration towards the lesser cake of bread, which is partly broken,
and shows in the midst of its dark substance something white, like a fish com-
pressed. About the larger cake of bread, towards which the hand is not directed,
which is not consecrated, there is nothing remarkable. On the opposite side of the
table (that is, in the place of the people, facing towards the consecrator), there is a
female figure, that is, the Church, the Blessed Virgin, or any Christian, praying
with uplifted hands before the oblation, believing, as says S. Cyril of Jerusalem,
that those prayers are most prevailing which are made with the consecrated gifts
lying in open view.f If any one will only propose to himself as a problem the
question, how to paint to the eye the power of consecration, he will appreciate
the ingenuity and simplicity of this design.

The fourth painting, d, the proper place of which is on the roof above a., adds
nothing to the sense already collected from the preceding three ; but as it is found
together with them in the original, it is reproduced here. As placed immediately
over a, the tripod table may indicate the altar of oblation as distinct from the
table of the Eucharistic Supper ; and the bread and fish laid upon it, one upon
another, hint the truth, that in the Eucharist the bread and the fish (the fish being
Christ) are one and the same thing. It is noticeable that on the supper-table a
the two fishes alone, which are Christ Himself in His two natures, are the whole
banquet, nothing else being placed on the table, though the bread, which is the
same thing as the fish, stands by. On the tripod table or altar above, where there

is sanctified and changed. Then, after the
spiritual sacrifice is perfected, the unbloody
service upon that sacrifice of propitiation, we
entreat God for the common peace of the
Church, for the tranquillity of the world, for
kings, for soldiers and allies, for the sick, for
the afflicted ; and, in a word, for all who stand
in need of succour we all supplicate and offer
this sacrifice. Then we commemorate also
those who have fallen asleep before us ; first,
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, that at
their prayers and intervention God would
receive our petition. Afterwards also on behalf
of the holy fathers and bishops who have fallen
asleep before us, believing that it will be a very
great advantage to the souls for whom the
supplication is put up, while that holy and most
awful sacrifice is presented.” {Jlfyst V. Oxf.
Trans.)

H

• A fragment of S. Hippolytus, a contem-
porary of S. Callixtus, states that those who
formerly offered sacrifice as Levites, and sacri-
ficing priests, and even high priests, now assist
at the sacrifice of a slave. In another fragment
he says : “ Daily is His precious and stainless
body and blood consecrated and offered on the
mystical and divine table, in commemoration
of that ever-memorable and first table of the
mystical divine supper.” (See Hippolytus and
Callistus, by Dr. Dollinger, p. 318, Eng. Trans.)

f S. Cyril’s account of the Mass at the begin-
ning of the fourth century runs thus : “ Then,
having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual
hymns, we call upon the merciful God to send
forth His Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before
Him ; that He may make the bread the Body
of Christ, and the wine the Blood of Christ ;
for whatsoever the Holy Ghost has touched

III.

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24

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

are three cakes of bread identified with one fish, there may be an allusion to the
three Persons of the Trinity ; or again, it may be hinted that the three distinct
things, the bread, the wine, and the fish, are all one substance of the spiritual bread,
and in number one and the same mystical fish, which is Christ.

This whole group of paintings occurring in a cemetery of the third century at
Rome, should be compared with a composition on the same subject worked two
centuries later in mosaic, in the sanctuary of the Church of S. Vitalis at Ravenna,
and still in good preservation. There we see immediately above the altar, not only
the sacrifice of Abraham and the oblation of the abstract Melchisedec, but in addi-
tion to these two a third, the sacrifice of Abel ; so that there is a manifest and
complete allusion to those words in the canon of the Mass, by which, after conse-
cration, God is prayed to receive the Eucharistic oblation “ as [He] did vouchsafe
to receive the gifts of [His] righteous servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our fore-
father Abraham, and that offered to [Him by His] high priest Melchisedec.” So
that this part of the text of the canon of the Mass, at any rate, was the same in
the fifth and even in the third century as it is now.

In the lateral group, F 2, in the middle, e, from a sarcophagus at Arles, a
drawing of which was communicated to the author by P. Garrucci (comp. Rom. Sott.
i. pi. xix.), we see Christ Himself with the rod of divine power twice over, touching
on one side the baskets of bread, on the other the water-pots, both in allusion to
the bread and cup of the Eucharist, and to the change of natural into spiritual and
heavenly food.

Adjoining this, two of them on either side, are four paintings f g h, which
occur in a crypt in the Cemetery of S. Callixtus in the same relative positions one
to another as they hold here, except that the artist has inadvertently transposed g
and h. In f f we see twice over a basket of bread, with a glass of red wine in the
middle of it, placed upon the back of a fish, signifying that in the Eucharist the
bread, the wine, and the fish, which latter is Christ, are all one and the same
thing.* Opposite to these paintings of the spiritual food, on either side of the
doorway by which one enters into the crypt, are two others, g and h, the one
with a dove perched on a spray, the other with two lambs; both the dove and

• This painting, which occurs in one of the
most ancient chambers of the Crypt of Lucina,
is described by De Rossi {Rom. Sott., tom. i.
323, 350). He says : “ I have always described
it as the fish swimming carrying a basket,
while others have asserted that the fish lies
on the ground near the basket. . . . If the fish
is alive, and swims, and carries the basket of
the Eucharist, it is Qhnst, panis verus et aquae

vivae piscis, as S. Paulinus of Nola calls Him;
if it glides on the land out of the water and
near the basket of the loaves, it is still a
Eucharistic symbol, but has reference to the
miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and
fishes. I maintain the first opinion, after
having carefully examined the painting many
times with those skilled in the arts.”

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OF THE SACRAMENTS.

in this painting, though it might easily escape notice, is the attitude of kneeling,
a posture not used at Rome in those early times in the act of receiving the Holy
Communion any more than it is at this day used among the Orientals, who all
receive standing. (Indeed, according to the Roman use, though the people kneel,
the priest at the altar still receives standing.) So then in the painting before
us there must be some special sense and intention in the posture of kneeling, a.s
when a Greek or other Eastern Christian makes an occasional and passing pro-
stration ; and if so, it will be difficult even to think of any other purpose than
that of signifying the recognition and adoration of the Divine Food ; of that bread
which, being laid in the manger of Bethlehem, that is, of the Church, the “ House
of Bread,” is adored both by the shepherds and the flock, “ which no man eats,”
according to the words of St. Augustine, “but he first adores.”

In G 3 from another tomb in the Cemetery of S. Hermes {Rom. Soft.,
vol. iii. pi. clxxxvii.), we have three paintings, forming of themselves a composi-
tion relating to Penance and Absolution, a subject of itself not likely to occur in
the paintings of the Catacombs, but for a controversy which in the third century it
occasioned. Certain heretics, at Rome and elsewhere, denying the propriety of
restoring by penance and absolution such as had lapsed after baptism, the
Church was more indulgent, and used the power which she believed herself to have
received of remitting even the heaviest sins, granting penance even to such as in
time of persecution had denied Christ, and restoring them to communion. Thus it
became natural to paint about the tomb of one who had been so restored
the Sacrament of Penance, showing that, in spite of the harsh doctrine of the
heretics, he was in death a sharer in the hope and peace of the brethren, as having
been reincorporated into the unity of Christ and His Church. A bishop or priest
is seen here over the centre of the tomb, in the act of giving absolution by
imposition of his right hand (as the Orientals give it still) to a kneeling penitent,
the same, no doubt, as was buried in the tomb below. The absolver has a
double robe, the penitent is in the single tunic. On either side of this group,
in two lesser compartments, and manifestly designed to serve as pendants to the
same, there are two other paintings bearing upon the same subject. On one side,
to our right, Jonas, escaped from the jaws of hell, is giving thanks on dry land,
with his hands uplifted to God, for having been delivered by absolution from the
death of sin to the life of righteousness. On the other side, to our left, the
paralytic, whom Christ has absolved, saying, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee,"
is seen walking and carrying his bed. Alone, these two paintings would probably
have had a wider sense ; Jonas would have been a sign of the resurrection, and
the healing of the paralytic might have signified the general healing of human
nature from the paralysis caused by original as well as actual sin. But here.

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

Composition ; so the sculpture was preferred ; and it affords us an oppor-
tunity of pointing out an example of one of those slight changes in Christian
art which came in the fourth century. This is the river Jordan personified,
with his urn, an image borrowed from heathen art, and not found in the earlier
paintings.

Peter, having so received the power and Spirit of Christ for the priesthood,
in another sculpture, k, strikes the rock : but the waters flowing from the rock
represent all the graces given through the ministry of the clergy, and so con-
sequently also the cup of the Eucharist, of which two Jews, known to be Jews
by their caps, but now Christians, come up eagerly to drink. This sculpture is
from a sarcophagus found in the crypts of the Vatican, and is given in Rom.
Sott., vol. i. pi. xxxvi. ; xxxii. also being nearly alike.

On the other side of f, in /, a sculpture taken from the same sarcophagus as
f, there is a representation of the Christian Sacrifice, which for its clearness and
completeness the writer believes to be unique. The sacrifice of Abraham, applied
in a Christian sense and with allusion to the Eucharist, occurs, as we have seen
above, in the paintings of the Catacombs ; and on the sculptured sarcophagi of
the fourth century it becomes extremely common.* In these sculptures sometimes
Isaac only, sometimes only the lamb, sometimes both Isaac and the lamb, with
or without an altar, are represented. But this is the only instance in which the
writer has seen the two altars, of the old Abraham and of the New Testament,
represented together. Here in the centre there stands the joint figure of Abraham
and Peter, that is, the Apostle Peter in the character of Abraham, representing
the Christian Priesthood. He stands between two altars, with the sacrificial knife
uplifted in his hand, turning round towards the voice of God represented by a
hand stretched from heaven. One altar, from which his feet are turned away, is
plainly the altar of the historical Abraham and of the Old Testament, being
built of rude unhewn stones, such as the Hebrews were commanded to use. On
it is the lamb sitting up like a rabbit, and a small bush, to which the lamb
is sometimes attached by the horns. On the other side is a small altar of hewn
stone or marble, such as the Greeks and Romans used, but the Hebrews never,

* De Rossi, referring to this passage of our
author, whom he couples with P. Garrucci, says :
“ Both have remarked the connection between
this mystical remembrance of the sacrifice of
Isaac with the representation over against them
of the Eucharistic supper-table. This connec-
tion is clear, especially when one attends, as we
have done, to the web and chain of the compo-
sition, and notices the positions assigned to

each group. In the Sarcophagi in Rome and
elsewhere there is very often represented the
celebrated sacrifice of Abraham prefiguring that
of Christ ; and often the scene is placed in
conditions of symbolic connection with other
Biblical histories typifying the sacrifice and the
priesthood of the New Covenant” {Rom. Sott.,
tom. ii. 342, 3).

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VIII. Composition H. — Of the Martyrs.

The principal group, H i, copied for the author from a tomb in the Cemetery of
S. Agnes {Rom. Sott., vol. iii. pi. cxliii.) is a composition in itself. It exhibits in the
middle Christ, the Good Shepherd (the engraving also gives Him pipes in His hand)
with two sheep at His feet, between two lesser compartments containing symbolically
the sufferings of the Martyrs. For on one side there is Daniel praying between the
lions ; and on the other the three children of the Hebrews are praying in the midst of
the flames. Alone, the central figure of Christ would have been simply the Good
Shepherd ; and the two sheep at His feet would have been, generally, the flock of His
elect: but when placed, as He is here, in the midst of the sufferings of the Martyrs, He
appears as the Shepherd and King of Martyrs, Himself the chief of their army, who
has drunk deeper than all of the cup of suffering, and is able both to strengthen and
reward them that suffer; and the two sheep at His feet are the two Apostles as Martyrs,
and in them all others.*

The lateral paintings, H 2 and H 3, are from a tomb in the Cemetery of S. Pris-
cilla, which is fully described by Bosio, but is now no longer extant f {Rom. Sott.,
vol. iii. pi. clx.). It seems to have belonged to a soldier ; and the wings of the angels
seem to show that it is one of the latest of the tombs of the Martyrs. Besides the
emblem of a heathen triumph, or victory in the Circus, painted within the arch on
either side over the tomb, there are other representations in the same arch similarly
borrowed from heathen imagery, as winged Pegasi ; and others, again, as tessercc,
which seem to be taken from military life, and applied, like the triumph, in a Christian
sense. On the end wall over the tomb, within the arch, in the centre, was a medallion
containing the bust of the Martyr, naked, as that of an athlete ; and on either side of
this medallion, two men standing, with long scrolls unrolled and hanging down from
their hands. At the top of the arch was a small figure of Tobias carrying the inward
parts of the fish, and running, accompanied by his dog, to anoint the blind eyes of his

• We may add that underneath the painting
is the inscription — “abentius etmarciaabe.vtiae

FILIAE CARISSI.MAE IN PACE QVAE VIXIT AN. V.

M.vii.axviii.” The parents of Abentia pro-
bably wished to bury their daughter near to the
Martyrs.

f Our author had repeated the painting of
the triumphal car, as it is repeated on either
side of the arcosolium in Bosio’s plate, but we
thought it better to reproduce the painting once
in its full proportions, than to give two repre-
sentations of it on a reduced scale.

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OF THE EUCHARIST.

27

with a human victim kneeling on its top, and on the two sides which are visible
a small paten and a beaker, hinting the mola or sacrificial cake and the libation.
Towards this altar the sacrificer would have been turned, but for the voice of God,
which signifies at once that the old Abraham was not to sacrifice his son, but
instead of him that lamb provided by God, which is a figure of the true Isaac and
the true Lamb of God to come ; and likewise that the priesthood of Peter in the
New Testament is not to sacrifice literally a human victim,* but instead of any such,
and instead of the heathen mola and libation, that cake of bread and that chalice
which are mystically Christ.

The sarcophagus from which i and / are taken, is said to have stood in the
time of Bosio in a garden near to the small church of S. Martha, behind S. Peter’s ;
but so far are the Romans from always appreciating or preserving their own anti-
quities, that it has been broken up since the time of Bosio, and now only a part
of it remains in the Villa Pinciana. It is given in Rom. SoH., vol. i. pi. xxvii. ; and
pi. xxix. has a representation nearly the same, except that the altar of the old
Abraham is wanting.

* S. Cyprian, writing to Pope Cornelius
about the time when these paintings were exe-
cuted, says: “If Jesus Christ, our Lord and
God, is Himself the High Priest of God the
Father, and has first offered Himself a Sacrifice
to the Father, and has commanded this to be

done in commemoration of Himself, certainly
that priest truly discharges the office of Christ
who imitates that which Christ did ; and he
then offers a true and full sacrifice in the
Church to God the Father” {Epist. Ixii.).

III.

I

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VII. Composition G. — Of the Sacraments.

The Christians of the first three centuries, as has been said already, did not
paint their doctrines systematically for any purpose of instruction ; and even if
they had, no series of the seven Sacraments could have been painted by them,
as the present mode of numbering and defining the seven Sacraments was intro-
duced much later.* Still, as the present technical language and doctrine of the
Church on this subject is based on a true mutual relation between seven holy
acts, which have ever been in the Church, for spiritual birth, strength, and food, for
spiritual and bodily healing, and for natural and spiritual reproduction ; and by
these seven means of grace, as by “joints and bands,” the body of the Church is
perpetuated and increased, so that no one of the seven can be taken away, nor any
eighth added, it is possible to discover and put together the mediaeval group of the
seven Sacraments even from the paintings of the first three centuries ; and nothing
is really added or changed in sense by our doing so.

As the principal painting then, in G i, there is exhibited an Ordination copied
by Bosio from the Cemetery of S. Hermes, and given in vol. iii. pi. clxxx. of Roma
Sotterranea. It is put here in the principal place because it is by ordination that the
Church obtains Clergy, and through the Clergy we have the ministration of all the
other sacraments. A Bishop seated in a stone chair, raised by seven steps, is laying
his right hand on the head of a Clerk, whom two Presbyters, one on either side,
have been showing (as we collect from the expression of their eyes and hands) to
the people. One may suppose a small portable table to be set as an altar before
the Bishop, and beyond it the people to be standing, facing across it towards him.
They have already answered that the candidate for ordination shown to them is
“ worthy,” ’’A^ios, as they still reply in the Eastern Churches. The candidate stands
with his hands uplifted, praying that the grace of the Holy Ghost may come upon
him as the Bishop touches his head ; and the Bishop himself would probably have
been stretching out his left hand in prayer, were it not for the open roll of the

* Mr. Palmer, in this passage, probably had
in mind a conversation that he had in 1840
with a Russian priest, M. Fortunatoff. “ He
had at first contended that the septenary
number was from the beginning ; at length he
admitted that perhaps they had received it in

IV.

later times from the Latins. ‘ I see what you
mean,’ he said. ‘ They existed, and we had
them from the beginning, and at length the
Pope counted them for us. Well, that is no
great matter ; we may admit that ' ” {Notes of
a Visit to the Russian Church, p. 324).

K

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30

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

Gospel, containing the mission of the Clergy even to the end of the world, which he
is here made to hold in that hand. It is remarkable that this precise form of
Ordination, which no longer exists either in the Latin or in the Greek, or in any of
the Monophysite Rituals, is still preserved in that of the Nestorians, the most
ancient of all separated Churches. In their Ordinal it is appointed “that here the
Bishop ordaining shall lay his right hand on the head of the candidate” (as we see
him doing in this painting), “and shall stretch forth his left in prayer,”* which he
would probably be doing also, as has been said, but for the open roll, which makes
it awkward ; and the roll itself opening and extending forwards, may be taken as a
substitute for the extension of the hand. The reader may notice that in this and
other early paintings the Apostle, Bishop, Presbyter, and Teacher, are vested in a
double robe, while the Clerk to be ordained, the servant, and the penitent, as inferiors,
are clad for their outer garment in the single tunic only.

In G 2 and G 3 are arranged six other paintings, three on G 2, b, d, g, and
three on G 3, c, e, /, for the other six Sacraments ; though two of them are
rather equivalents than actual representations of the Sacraments alluded to.

G 2 ^ is a Baptism from the Cemetery of S. Callixtus, copied thence for the
author. There is a fac-simile of the same in the Christian Museum of the Lateran.
The figure of the person who is being baptized, standing in the water, is dwarfish
in comparison with that of the baptizer, probably in order to hint that he is the
disciple, and so the lesser ; while the other, as teacher and initiator, is the greater.f
The baptizer holds his right hand on the head of the catechumen, to plunge him

* Mr. Badger {The Nestorians and their
Rituals, vol. ii. p. 327) thus translates the
rubric : “ Then the Bishop shall lay his right
hand upon the heads of those to be ordained,
and extending his left in a supplicating posture,
he shall say in a low voice, etc.” The same
rubric occurs in the conferring of all the orders.

f We give in a woodcut a reduced sketch
of the walls of the chamber from which this
baptismal scene is taken. On the wall a, near
the door, is Moses, or Peter, striking the rock ;
then in b, on the middle, between two doves,
comes a fisherman drawing a fish out of the
water, and one baptizing a neophyte ; the para-
lytic carrying his bed. Next on c, between two
fossors, is the Eucharistic series described above.

The subject on the wall d is unfortunately de-
stroyed. This is the Capella dei Sacramenti.

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OF THE SACRAMENTS.

Sr-

in the water (Baptism in those early times being conferred, except in cases of neces-
sity, by immersion), and in his left hand he holds the roll of the Gospel, containing
the mission of the Apostles to “ baptize all nations.”

In Plate G 3 c, from the same Cemetery of S. Callixtus, we have another
Baptism, with only this difference, that the person baptized has been already plunged
at least once, for the green lines near his head are water falling from him. This,
and the fact that the Baptism G 2 ^ (which is preceded by Christ sitting as a
fisherman), and also a painting representing the Eucharist, occur in the same crypt,
have led some to think that the imposition of the hand in this painting, G 3 ^r,
denotes Confirmation, and that the original paintings of the crypt whence it is taken
were designed to allude to Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, and Penance in
order of sequence. Without denying that this may possibly be true, the writer
observes, that though the green lines show that the person baptized has already
been plunged, it by no means follows that he has been plunged for the third and
last time; and it may have been desired to represent Baptism in the very act of
being conferred. Confirmation no doubt was anciently joined with Baptism at
Rome, as it is still among the Easterns ; but the hand of the baptizer laid upon
the head of the baptized, being in place until after the three immersions are com-
pleted, is no sign by itself of Confirmation, when the person baptized is still standing
in the water, and there is no appearance of chrism, nor anything to show that the
baptizer is a Bishop or Apostle. Confirmation we have certainly had already in
Composition C, “ Of the Rod,” where Christ as a lamb was seen laying His paw on
the head of another lamb, on which rays of grace descend from the beak of a
dove seated above. And in the last of our Compositions, where there is a painting
of the Baptism of Christ in a baptistery of the fourth century, in the Cemetery
of S. Pontian, we see Christ standing in the water ; the hand of the Baptist
laid on His head to plunge Him; and the Holy Ghost, in the form of a dove,
with seven rays of grace issuing from its beak, descending from above. This
unction of the Holy Ghost, given “ not by measure ” to the man Christ Jesus,
the Head of the Church, being the same with the unction or chrism given to
each one of His members by measure after their baptism, it was allowable, on
the principle followed in these Compositions, to take the Dove from the Baptism*

* We give a woodcut of the other painting
in the Cemetery of S. Callixtus, where the
Dove is represented, so that our readers may
see the extent to which it has been borrowed
from one painting to complete another.

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OF THE SACRAMENTS.

3.^

in this painting, though it might easily escape notice, is the attitude of kneeling,
a posture not used at Rome in those early times in the act of receiving the Holy
Communion any more than it is at this day used among the Orientals, who all
receive standing. (Indeed, according to the Roman use, though the people kneel,
the priest at the altar still receives standing.) So then in the painting before
us there must be some special sense and intention in the posture of kneeling, as
when a Greek or other Eastern Christian makes an occasional and passing pro-
stration ; and if so, it will be difficult even to think of any other purpose than
that of signifying the recognition and adoration of the Divine Food ; of that bread
which, being laid in the manger of Bethlehem, that is, of the Church, the “ House
of Bread,” is adored both by the shepherds and the flock, “ which no man eats,”
according to the words of St. Augustine, “but he first adores.”

In G 3 from another tomb in the Cemetery of S. Hermes {Horn. Soft.,
vol. iii. pi. clxxxvii.), we have three paintings, forming of themselves a composi-
tion relating to Penance and Absolution, a subject of itself not likely to occur in
the paintings of the Catacombs, but for a controversy which in the third century it
occasioned. Certain heretics, at Rome and elsewhere, denying the propriety of
restoring by penance and absolution such as had lapsed after baptism, the
Church was more indulgent, and used the power which she believed herself to have
received of remitting even the heaviest sins, granting penance even to such as in
time of persecution had denied Christ, and restoring them to communion. Thus it
became natural to paint about the tomb of one who had been so restored
the Sacrament of Penance, showing that, in spite of the harsh doctrine of the
heretics, he was in death a sharer in the hope and peace of the brethren, as having
been reincorporated into the unity of Christ and His Church. A bishop or priest
is seen here over the centre of the tomb, in the act of giving absolution by
imposition of his right hand (as the Orientals give it still) to a kneeling penitent,
the same, no doubt, as was buried in the tomb below. The absolver has a
double robe, the penitent is in the single tunic. On either side of this group,
in two lesser compartments, and manifestly designed to serve as pendants to the
same, there are two other paintings bearing upon the same subject. On one side,
to our right, Jonas, escaped from the jaws of hell, is giving thanks on dry land,
with his hands uplifted to God, for having been delivered by absolution from the
death of sin to the life of righteousness. On the other side, to our left, the
paralytic, whom Christ has absolved, saying, “ Son, thy sins be forgiven thee,”
is seen walking and carrying his bed. Alone, these two paintings would probably
have had a wider sense ; Jonas would have been a sign of the resurrection, and
the healing of the paralytic might have signified the general healing of human
nature from the paralysis caused by original as well as actual sin. But here,

IV. L

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM,

grouped as they are with a painting of ecclesiastical absolution between them, they
suggest a more limited application.*

The Unction of the Sick, again, was not likely to occur, and the less as it
was used chiefly in the first ages to obtain healing, by prayer and faith, from the bodily
consequences of sin. So as a substitute for it we have taken one of the miracles of
Christ which symbolizes it in its source ; and which, in a somewhat wider sense and
application, occurs frequently on the sarcophagi of the fourth century. The sculpture
which we have selected, G 3/] is given in Rom. Soft., vol. i. pi. xxi. It represents
the woman with the issue of blood, who after many years, having spent all she had on
earthly physicians, and having been by them nothing benefited, but rather made worse,
sought at last to Christ ; and coming behind Him touched the hem of His garment,
when the virtue of spiritual Unction went out from Him and healed her. The same
may be applied to those who, after seeking in vain to earthly teachers as to phy-
sicians, turn at length to Christ; and touching the hem of His garment, that is. His
humanity and the unity of His Church, are so made whole of their plagues.

Lastly, on a Glass, G 2 published by P. Garrucci (see also Rom. Soft., vol. iii.
pi. cxcviii. bis), we have a representation of Marriage. A man and a woman, handsomely
dressed, are holding their hands united over a small altar, above which are a ring and
a crown ; while around are inscribed the words “Vivatis in Deo," “ May ye live
together in God ; ” the good wish, no doubt, of them that drink from the glass, and
partake of the agape, or charitable distribution, given on occasion of their wedding, by
the pair. The altar, like that in Composition F 2, is borrowed from the heathen in
form, and only indirectly hints that which answers to it in the Christian religion. The
crown is still prescribed as part of the ceremony by the rituals of all the Eastern
Churches, so that instead of marrying a couple, blessing a marriage, or being married,
the expression is “ to crown,” and “ to be crowned.” And in the West the crown is
still used in the metaphorical wedding of a nun. The ring needs no comment.

• See English Rom. Sott., pt. ii. p. 92, where
it is admitted that De Rossi does not think
that the paralytic is intended to symbolize
penance, but baptism ; nevertheless, reasons

are given for agreeing with P.P. Marchi and
Garrucci, that there is a special fitness for
penance being commemorated in these ceme-
teries of the third century.

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VIII. Composition H. — Of the Martyrs.

The principal group, H i, copied for the author from a tomb in the Cemeteiy of
S. Agnes {Rom. Sott., vol. iii. pi. cxliii.) is a composition in itself. It exhibits in the
middle Christ, the Good Shepherd (the engraving also gives Him pipes in His hand)
with two sheep at His feet, between two lesser compartments containing symbolically
the sufferings of the Martyrs. For on one' side there is Daniel praying between the
lions ; and on the other the three children of the Hebrews are praying in the midst of
the flames. Alone, the central figure of Christ would have been simply the Good
Shepherd ; and the two sheep at His feet would have been, generally, the flock of His
elect: but when placed, as He is here, in the midst of the sufferings of the Martyrs, He
appears as the Shepherd and King of Martyrs, Himself the chief of their army, who
has drunk deeper than all of the cup of suffering, and is able both to strengthen and
reward them that suffer; and the two sheep at His feet are the two Apostles as Martyrs,
and in them all others.*

The lateral paintings, H 2 and H 3, are from a tomb in the Cemetery of S. Pris-
cilla, which is fully described by Bosio, but is now no longer extant f [Rom. Sott.,
vol. iii. pi. clx.). It seems to have belonged to a soldier ; and the wings of the angels
seem to show that it is one of the latest of the tombs of the Martyrs. Besides the
emblem of a heathen triumph, or victory in the Circus, painted within the arch on
either side over the tomb, there are other representations in the same arch similarly
borrowed from heathen imagery, as winged Pegasi ; and others, again, as tesserce,
which seem to be taken from military life, and applied, like the triumph, in a Christian
sense. On the end wall over the tomb, within the arch, in the centre, was a medallion
containing the bust of the Martyr, naked, as that of an athlete ; and on either side of
this medallion, two men standing, with long scrolls unrolled and hanging down from
their hands. At the top of the arch was a small figure of Tobias carrying the inward
parts of the fish, and running, accompanied by his dog, to anoint the blind eyes of his

• We may add that underneath the painting
is the inscription — “abentius etmarciaabentiae

FILIAE CARISSIMAE IN PACE QVAE VIXIT AN. V.

M.vii.D.xviii.” The parents of Abentia pro-
bably wished to bury their daughter near to the
Martyrs.

t Our author had repeated the painting of
the triumphal car, as it is repeated on either
side of the arcosolium in Bosio’s plate, but we
thought it better to reproduce the painting once
in its full proportions, than to give two repre-
sentations of it on a reduced scale.

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{POSITION I. — Of the Virgins.

of the sufferings of the Martyrs, H i, is from a
d was copied for the author on the spot ; the
"e the time of Bosio, being restored from his
■»i.). The whole, like H i, forms a com-
^ which we see the Blessed Virgin, as
’'e attitude of prayer, as praying for
h (of which the Blessed Virgin
' espoused to Christ, is at her
♦hat is, to the right of the
•^heir torches (for torches,
he other hand vessels
• waiting, ready to
'tral figure, the

’ and with
■»ting on
wards
is

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IX. Composition I. — Of the Virgins.

The principal group, I i, like that of the sufferings of the Martyrs, H i, is from a
tomb in the Cemetery of S. Agnes, and was copied for the author on the spot ; the
central part, which has become effaced since the time of Bosio, being restored from his
engraving (see Rom. Sott., vol. iii. pi. cxlviii.). The whole, like H i, forms a com-
position of itself, in the middle compartment of which we see the Blessed Virgin, as
the Mother and Queen of Virgins, standing in the attitude of prayer, as praying for
her daughters. A dove, the emblem of the Church (of which the Blessed Virgin
herself is the most perfect type), and generally of the soul espoused to Christ, is at her
feet. In one of the two lesser compartments to her left, that is, to the right of the
spectator, we see the five prudent Virgins of the parable, with their torches (for torches,
not lamps, were carried at Rome at weddings) burning, and in the other hand vessels

of oil or grease, with which to feed them,
go in to the banquet.* On the opposite

• We may compare this painting with
another of the same subject, of which we give
a woodcut, from an A rcosolium discovered some
twenty years ago in the Catacomb of Cyriaca.
Here our Lord, with the nimbus round His

head, stands in the midst of the ten virgins,
with His right hand raised as though inviting
the five wise virgins, who come towards Him
with their torches burning. On His left are
V.

They stand all together, waiting, ready to
side, to the right of the central figure, the

the five foolish virgins, unnoticed, and with
their extinguished torches either resting on
their shoulders or turned downwards towards
the ground. Above the arch of this tomb is
a figure of an orante, probably the occupant
of the grave ; and there is reason to believe
that she was a virgin consecrated to God,
since there are a large number of epitaphs
in this particular Cemetery of “holy virgins,”
“ sacred virgins,” “ virgins devoted to God,”
or “the handmaids of God.” De Rossi says
that, from the middle of the fourth century, to
which this painting belongs, there were at
Rome houses, in which virgins and widows
consecrated to the religious life lived together
under rule, as in monasteries (see Bullettino,
1863, p. 78).

On the wall beneath the tomb, two young
men appear, drawing back the curtains of the
banquet-hall, and introducing the faithful virgin
to the heavenly feast. On the wall above is
seen one of the Magi, pointing, not to the star,
but to the sacred monogram.

M

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38

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

same five, now admitted to the marriage feast of the great King, are seen seated at
table, enjoying paradise.

It is interesting to compare this composition of the third century with another in
mosaic, on the same subject, over the porch on the principal facade of the church of
S. Maria in Trastevere — the first church ever dedicated by the name of the Blessed
Virgin ; indeed, the first ever built as a church at all at Rome. For before the date of
its first erection (which was in the third century, the mosaics spoken of being many
centuries later), there were at Rome only house-churches (so we may call them), as the
houses of Priscilla and Aquila, of Pudens, of Paul, and of Clement, and as the Cenacle
on Mount Sion, at Jerusalem. In the mosaic composition alluded to one sees in the
midst the Blessed Virgin seated on a throne, with our Saviour in her arms, both being
crowned and clad in imperial robes. To their right, that is, to the left of the spectator,
are the five prudent Virgins, as if approaching, in rich Byzantine dresses, with lighted
lamps in one hand, and vessels of oil in the other, and upon their heads crowns. On
the other side, to the left of the Blessed Virgin, are the five foolish Virgins — (this
representation, it is to be remembered, is on the outside of the Church) — scarcely
distinguishable, at first sight, from the five prudent ones ; but on looking more
attentively we perceive that the two foremost of them have no crowns, and that the
lamps in the hands of these two are unlighted. Thus the precise sense of the Latin
and Greek words in the parable is rendered, “ for our lamps are going out, extin-
guuntur^' are in the act of going out, the first two having already gone out while
the remaining three are still lighted ; this implies that the latter also are on the point
of going out. But to return to our own Composition :

In the lateral group I 2, in a, from the Cemetery of S. Priscilla {Rom. Soft.,
vOl. iii. pi. clxxvi.), we see a painting of the Annunciation,* the earliest probably
which exists — if, indeed, it does still exist ; for it is copied here only from Bosio, and
the colours added. The fact that the angel is without wings is a sufficient sign that
it is earlier than the fourth century.

In I 2 ^ is the Blessed Virgin, seated as a mother, with the Saviour in her arms.
It is the same painting which has been already given in Composition C 3 from the

* Some have considered the painting in
S. Callistus, of which a woodcut is here

given, to be a representation of the Annun-
ciation. But De Rossi suggests that the
seated figure is intended for our Lord, distin-
guished by the nimbus, who is welcoming a
happy soul into the courts of heaven. There
are difficulties in this interpretation, and he
confesses that its true meaning is not clear. It
belongs, by its style, to the end of the fourth
century (see De Rossi, Rom. Sott. iii. p. 251).

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OF THE VIRGINS.

39

Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles, where it occurs in connexion with Moses
striking the rock.

The stone chairs which appear four times over in the lateral groups I 2 and I 3 arc
exactly the same with those which are still seen cut in the native tufa, and undetached
from the side-walls of divers crypts in the Catacombs, especially in the Cemetery of
S. Agnes. They belong undoubtedly to the third century.*

The two paintings of the opposite lateral group, I 3, r and d, are from the Cemeteiy’
of S. Priscilla — (they are given in Rom. Sott., vol. iii. pi. clxxviii.). In r a Bishop,
seated in one of the stone chairs just mentioned, is giving the veil, as it seems, to a
Christian virgin (a Deacon also standing by) ; and he is pointing her attention to her
pattern and patroness, and mother, the Blessed Virgin, who sits at some distance, with
the infant Jesus in her arms, in another stone chair similar to that of the Bishop.
She is sitting in an awkward posture, half turned round, designed, no doubt, to make
it apparent that she is turning round on purpose to give the virgin who receives the
veil a look of encouragement and protection. This is the explanation which seems
most probable, and for which the author can quote the opinion of P. Garrucci ; though
it is to be observed, at the same time, that in the original painting there is in the
middle, between the stone chairs of the Bishop and the Blessed Virgin, another larger
female figure, not seated, but standing with hands uplifted, and praying. The whole
covers the end wall over an arched tomb ; and there is something needing further
illustration if the central standing figure is, as she probably is, the person who was
buried below. Nothing is more frequent than to see in the centre of the front of a
sarcophagus one or two busts of the person deceased, or of the pair, inclosed within,
these busts being separated by a circle or medallion from the sacred representations
sculptured on either side. But this is in the fourth and fifth centuries ; while in the
earlier paintings about arched tombs in the Catacombs it certainly is not common,
to say the least, to see the person buried in the tomb occupying the centre of the
end wall over it, especially when other persons of superior dignity are represented
in the same painting. Perhaps the most probable solution is, that in this case the

* Another example of the stone chairs is

I

' seen in this woodcut from the Catacomb of
! S. Domitilla. In the original, two Magi are
represented on each side of the Blessed Virgin,

' hastening with their gifts for the Divine Infant.

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40

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

two side pictures, c and d, are introduced only for the sake of the central standing’
fiy^ure to whom they refer, she being herself the maiden to whom the Bishop is seen
giving the veil, and the Virgin and Child opposite being there in connexion with the
same event ; while in the central and principal representation she is represented as
ha\ ing now happily accomplished that course of which c and d show the beginning.
It is further noticeable that the Child in the arms of the Blessed Virgin is naked,
a variety which becomes common in modern times, but is very rare in the early
paintings.*

• Such is, however, the case in the earliest second, or possibly to the first century, and of

known painting, viz. that in the Cemetery of which a woodcut is g^ven here.

S. Priscilla, which De Rossi ascribes to the

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X. Composition K. — Of Susanna,

In K I and K 2 vve see two paintings which occur on the walls of a crypt in the
Cemetery of SS. Thraso and Saturninus. The figures in this instance are copied
at second-hand from the magnificent but untrustworthy work of M. Ferret, with
some assistance from notes made on the spot. The crypt shows signs of having
been cut not earlier than at the beginning of the fourth century, or at the end of
the third; and were it not that the martyr Susanna, the niece of Pope Caius, is
related to have been buried in the Cemetery of S. Priscilla, a little nearer to the
walls, one might have been tempted to suppose, from the paintings of this crypt,
that it contained her tomb. The same subject, naturally suggested by her name,
is still painted on the walls of her church near the Baths of Diocletian ; and
though the present church is comparatively modern, its paintings may probably
have been derived from those of the church originally founded on the same spot.

Representations of the story of Susanna applied in a Christian sense are
not so frequent as many others ; they occur, however, both in paintings and
sculptures, as is shown in this Composition : and in the writings of the Fathers
the sense in which the story was applied by them and by the Christians, their
contemporaries, is in many places alluded to or explained at length.*

In K I the central draped figure is Susanna, not the literal Susanna of the
story, but the Church, which with hands uplifted prays to God to vindicate her

• Thus S. Hippolytus : “ Susanna pre-
fig^ured the Church, and Joakim, her husband,
Christ; and the garden, the calling of the
saints who are planted like fruitful trees in the
Church, and Babylon is the world ; and the two
elders are set forth as a figure of the two
peoples that plot against the Church — the one,
namely, of the circumcision, and the other of
the Gentiles. . .. For up to the present time
both the Gentiles and the Jews of the circum-
cision watch and busy themselves with the
dealings of the Church, desiring to suborn
false witnesses against us. . . . For when
the two peoples conspire to destroy any of
the saints, they watch for a fit time, and enter
V.

the house of God while all there are praying
and praising God, and seize some of them
and carry them off, and keep hold of them,
saying, ‘ Come, consent with us, and worship
our gods ; and if not, we will bear witness
against you.’ And when they refuse, they
drag them before the court, and accuse them
of acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, and
condemn them to death. . . . And to whom
did Susanna cry but unto God .? . . . F'or by
her tears she attracted the Word from heaven,
who was with tears to raise the dead Lazarus.

. . . For those who call upon Him from a
pure heart, God heareth.” (See Ante-Nic.
Libr., S. Hippo!., vol. i. pp. 478, 481.)

N

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

innocence. On one side of her, to the left of the spectator, are two men, not the
literal elders, for they are youthful in appearance, but elders as belonging to the
two elder dispensations of the Jews and the Gentiles. These two, then, with arms
extended, have been crying out and accusing her. The tree, which in the original
painting stands a little behind them, and which was omitted by M. Ferret, has
been restored. On the opposite side, to the left of the spectator, there is a house
door opening into the garden, and a man, the Emperor, that is, or the Prefect, or
any other in authority, coming out in an attitude of enquiry, as if asking, “What is
all this outcry that I hear? and what accusation bring ye against her?”

In K 2, which forms the suite to the above, the two men, that is, the old Jew
and the old Gentile, appear again with their hands placed on the head of Susanna,
the Church, giving their testimony against her to put her to death, while she
again prays, but now only mentally (for they keep down her hands), to God, who
alone is able to deliver her.

In K 3, from a sarcophagus of the fourth century seen in 1849 Arles by the
writer, who is now indebted for a copy of it to the kindness of P. Garrucci, we see
a variety of the same subject, the Church being again represented as Susanna
holding the scroll of the Scriptures, as the shield of her innocence, across her breast,
while the Jew and the Gentile of the elder dispensations, now both old and hard-
featured, are spying at her from behind two trees, as seeking accusation against
her, and finding it, as is written of Daniel, only concerning the law of her God.
On an ivory reliquary at Brescia, an account of which has been published, there
is a full and elaborate representation of the same subject.

Under Susanna, in the central painting K i, there is added a small painting
from the Cemetery of Praetextatus, now copied for the Lateran Museum, in which
a lamb stands in the midst, with two hyaenas or jackals with open mouth gaping
at her on either side. Over the lamb is inscribed the name “ Susanna,” and
over one of the two hyaenas, “Seniores.”

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XI. Composition L. Of Nabuchodonosor and Herod,

The purpose of this Composition is to exhibit the two ways in which kings and
emperors too commonly war upon the Church, either by open tyranny or by hypo-
crisy, while the true Christians prefer to obey God rather than man.

In L i a, the figure of Nabuchodonosor, in the dress of a Roman emperor,
with one of his guards standing by, is taken from a sarcophagus, probably of the
fourth century, given in /^om. So//., vol. i. pi. xxi., but with some alteration. In
the original it is a side view; the king being turned towards the image, and
looking on beyond it to where the three children of the Hebrews are seen in the
furnace. Here Nabuchodonosor is turned round, so as to face the spectator; and
further colours have been added ; so as to show in this one instance what extent
of liberty the plan of our work of itself admits, so long as notice is given to the
reader.*

In figure b are the three children of the Hebrews standing before the golden
image of the king, to which an officer is pointing, and commanding them to
worship. This painting is from the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles {Rom.
So//., vol. ii. pi. Ixxxii.), where, however, one of the three Hebrews appears as a
guard. If this is not an inaccuracy in the engraving, our painting has been altered

• We have thought it better to give the
representation of the sarcophagus as it is in
Bosio’s engraving, without the alterations
which Mr. Palmer made in its arrangement.

S. Cyprian, in his Exhortations to Martyr-
dom, brings forward the example of the three
children : “ Let us imitate the three children,
Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, who, neither
frightened by their youthful age, nor broken
down by the threats of captivity, overcame
the king in his own kingdom by the power
of faith ; who, when bidden to worship the
image which Nabuchodonosor the king had
made, stood forth stronger than the king’s
threats and the flames, calling out, and
attesting their faith by these words : ‘ O

VI.

King Nabuchodonosor, we have no occasion
to answer thee concerning this matter. For
behold, our God, whom we worship, is able
to save us from the furnace of burning fire,
and to deliver us out of thy hands, O king.
But if He will not, be it known to thee,
O king, that we will not worship thy gods,
nor adore the golden statue which thou hast
set up.’ They believed that they might escape
according to their faith, but they added, ‘ But
if not,’ that the king might know that they
could also die for the God they worshipped.

. . The uncorrupted and unconquered might
of the Holy Ghost broke forth by their mouth,
etc.” (Epist. 58).

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

so as to agree with other examples of the same subject.* In figure c, from a
painting in the Cemetery of S. Hermes {Rom. Sott., vol. iii. pi. clxxxvi.), are the
same three children of the Hebrews in the furnace, praying to God, who is able to
deliver them.

In the lateral painting, L 2, which is from the Cemetery of S. Agnes, and
copied from thence for the author — (it is also given in the great French publication
of M. Ferret) — we no longer see the open violence of secular tyranny, claiming to
itself that obedience and devotion which are due to Christ and His Church. In its
stead we see, under the person of Herod, the hypocrisy of such secular rulers as
profess themselves to be good Christians, defenders of the faith, or eldest sons of
the Church, when in truth the thought of their heart is to destroy Christ in His
cradle, as a rival to their own power ; that is, to subjugate His Church, and make
it the instrument of their own policy.f Herod holds his hand to his breast, and
sits with a look of reverential inquiry. The Magi, with their gifts in their hands,
and the star above their heads to show who they are, stand before him in an
attitude of respect, nqt knowing the wickedness of his heart.

Below, in L 3, in a painting which is from the same Cemetery of S. Agnes,
but from another tomb (comp. Ratn. Sott., vol. ii. pi. Ixxxii., Cemetery of SS. Nereus
and Achilles ; and vol. ii. pi. cxxvi., Cemetery of SS. Marcellinus and Peter), we
see the three Magi with their gifts coming to worship Christ in the arms of His
Mother. At the tomb referred to, in the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles,
there is an interesting peculiarity of design, combining the two subjects grouped
together in this Composition : the three children of the Hebrews are there seem-

• De Rossi {Rom. Soii., vol. iii. p. 74) notices
this discrepancy, but, on the strength of the
drawings of Ciacconio in addition to the other
engravings mentioned by Mr. Palmer, agrees
with him in omitting the axe from the third
figure, and thinks Bosio must have been
misled by some mark in the plaster, which
he thought was an axe. De Rossi places the
painting in the Catacomb of S. Callixtus near
to those in Composition A.

f S. Augustine seems to regard the King
of Babylon in this more modern aspect: “If
the things that took place in the past were
figures of things to come, in that king, who
is called Nabuchodonosor, is figured both the
time which the Church had under the apostles
and the time which she has now. And thus
in the times of the apostles and martyrs was
fulfilled that which was prefigured, when the

said king forced the good and the just to
adore the image, and when they refused sent
them into the flames. Now, however, is ful-
filled that which a little afterwards was figured
in the same king ; when converted to honour
the true God, he decreed in his kingdom,
that whosoever should blaspheme the God of
Sidrac, Misac, and Abdenago should undergo
due punishment. Therefore the former period
of that king signified the earlier times of the
unbelieving kings, when Christians suffered as
impious ; but the later period of that king
signified the times of later kings now become
believers, when the impious suffer instead of
Christians ” (Epist. 93, Ad Vincent. Rog.).
Our author has carried S. Augustine’s idea
a little further, into mediaeval and modern
times.

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OF NABUCHODONOSOR AND HEROD,

45

ingly identified with the three Magi, their features and dresses, and the colours
of their dresses, being alike ; and while on one side of the arch over the tomb
they are seen refusing to worship the ugly image of the earthly tyrant, who can
only threaten to kill the body, on the other they are running to worship the
“ Image of the Father,” the heir of the throne of David, the true King of heaven
and earth, in the arms of His Virgin Mother.*

• This identification of the Magi with the
three children thus described by Mr. Palmer,
is even more strikingly brought out in the
sarcophagus from which L i a is taken. On
one side of the inscription tablet we see the
three children as already described, while on
the other side are seen the Magi hastening
with their gifts to adore the new-born King in
the manger, with His Blessed Mother and
S. Joseph at His head, and the ox and the ass
at His feet. The representation of the three
children includes a representation of their
triumph over the impious Nabuchodonosor,
for we see the burning fiery furnace, from
which an attendant is calling the three children

to come forth. One has already come out, and
is assisting another to descend. Between this
second and the third of the three is another
figure, not clothed in a cap like the Hebrew
youths, for “ the form of the fourth is like the
Son of God.”

De Rossi {Rom. Sott., vol. iii. p. 8o)
describes some paintings in the Cemetery of
S. Soteris, one of which represents the same
subject of the three children in the furnace,
painted on a fiery red ground, while a ghost-
like figure in white represents “the Angel of
the Lord.” See English Rom. SoU., pt. ii.

p. 200.

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XII. Composition M. — Of the Ships,

The design of the central figure, M i f?, is taken from an onyx seal described by
P. Garrucci, the proportions being enlarged, and the colouring added. It is given also
in Rofn. Sott., vol. ii. p. 156. The vessel is the ship of the Church. The fish, on the
back of which the vessel is carried, is Christ. The same idea occurs in connexion
with the individual soul, which is represented on seals as a dove or as a lamb
with a branch of olive or of palm, standing on the back of a fish, which carries
it as a bark through the waves of this life. The steersman in the ship is also
Christ. The dove on the poop is the Holy Spirit, whose breath is to fill the sail.
The sail at that early period of the Church is only beginning to come down
and to fill. The dove aloft represents the Prophets and Apostles on “ the look-
out.”* The two figures in the fore-part of the ship are the Apostles Peter and Paul
as fishermen. Separately on the water we see Christ giving His hand to Peter
to support him, and the names “ Peter” and “ Jesus ” in Greek are added.

Of the four figures around, b and c have been published by P. Garrucci,
in his Hagioglypta, printed at Paris, a.d. 1856. (See for a, p. 237, for b, p. 7,
for c, p. 237.) These three all represent the ship of the Church, and all show
Christ seated as steersman. Figure b has in the fore-part S. Peter drawing in the
net with a great fish enclosed.f The third, c, shows the twelve Apostles seated as

* “The sea is the world, in which the Church
is set, like a ship tossed in the deep, but not
destroyed ; for she has with her the skilled pilot,
Christ. And she bears in her midst also the
trophy over death ; for she carries with her the
cross of the Lord. For her prow is the east,
and her stern is the west, and her hold is the
.south, and her tillers are the two testaments ;
and the ropes that stretch around her are the
love of Christ, which binds the Church ; and the
net which she bears with her is the laver of the
regeneration which renews the faithful, where
too are these glories. As the wind the spirit
from heaven is present by whom those who live
are sealed ; she has also anchors of iron accom-

panying her, viz. the holy commandments of
Christ Himself, which are as strong as iron.
She has also mariners on the right, and on the
left assessors like the holy angels, by whom
the Church is always governed and defended ;
the ladder in her leading up to the sailyard is
an emblem of the passion of Christ, which brings
the faithful to the ascent of heaven. And the
{psep/iari) top-sails aloft upon the yard are the
company of prophets, martyrs, and apostles, who
have entered into their rest in the kingdom of
heaven” (S. Hippol., De Antichristo, c. 59).

f This is the ivory finial described by
Buonarruoti. (See Bullettino, 1871, p. 126;
and Composition E 2, By Mr. Palmer

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OF THE SHIPS.

47

the rowers, six of them on either side. The fourth and last, d, represents the
bark of the individual soul, with its sails set and well filled, shooting into port ;
while a Pharos on one side shows the way, and secures it from running on the
rocks or missing the entrance. A number of varieties of this same design have
been collected by P. Garrucci, to whose kindness the author is indebted for the
specimen here inserted. (See also Boldetti, Osserv., etc.., pp. 372, 373.)

In the lateral paintings M 2 and M 3, both copied for the author from the
Cemetery of S. Callixtus, we see a very different ship, — the ship of the world.
In M 2 the mariners are casting out Jonas, that is, the Christian, into the open
jaws of the monster. Jonas, however, is not destroyed by what he suffers, but
comes out again by the resurrection ; and the corner of land on which he is about to
alight is Paradise, to which come the children of the resurrection.

In M 3 we have again the ship of the world, which now, instead of persecuting
others, is itself being wrecked and submerged by the waves.* The children of this
world are seen drowning without hope in the waters, while a hand reached from
above, that is, the Almighty mercy of God, catches, as it were, by the hair of the head
the elect, who trust in Him and pray to Him, and saves them that they should
not perish with the world.f

the word IHCVC had been copied from Garrucci,
instead of the correct word zhcaic, which may
be seen on one side of the boat, while eycebi
is on the other side. The ivory is in the
Vatican Library.

• So S. Augustine : “ Many suffered ship-
wreck with Paul : the lovers of this world
suffered shipwreck, and all went forth naked ;
they lost what they had of outward things, and
the house of their heart they found empty.

But Paul carried in his heart the patrimony of
his faith ; no waves, no storms could take it
from him : he went forth naked, and yet he
went out rich ” [in Ps. i. 23J

t These paintings, which are from the same
chamber with the frescoes of the Holy Eu-
charist, described above in Composition F i,
are explained by De Rossi {Rom. Soil., vol. ii.

PP- 346, 347)- “ In these frescoes of the history
of Jonas, two particulars are worthy of notice.

The first is the cross erected on ‘ the poop.

This representation is singfular, and it proves
that in the ship of Jonas, as well as in the ship
when alone, they wished to give a figure of the
Church. The mainmast with its yard was

taken by the ancients for the symbol of the
cross ; but here, by an instance hitlierto unique,
they wished to join with it a cross bare and
unveiled on the poop. Although the intention
of the Christian artist is clear, yet that cross in
that place is justified by nautical representation.
For sometimes they hoisted the standard on the
poop {^Prafixo in biremis puppi vexillo' Sueton.
in Calig., c. 15); and we have a rare example of
it [in M 3]. Hence the cross on the poop repre-
sents the flag-staff for the standard ; but the
cross is the tnie standard of the mystic ship,
the Church. That this is symbolized in the
ship of Jonas, is in my opinion confirmed by
the figure praying [with arms extended in the
form of a cross] at the prow in the painting in
another chamber (Tav. xvi. n. 8). In some
sarcophagi I have remarked the man praying
within the ship, whence the prophet is cast out.
This Orante may, no doubt, represent the
prayers which the sailors with Jonas offered
up at the raging of the tempest, each to his
own god, as the history expressly notes (Jon.
i. 5). The author of the Carmen de ^ona,
printed with the works of Tertullian, de.scribes

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EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

the attitude of this figure (v. 50) : ‘ Expandunt-
que mantis nullorum ad lumina Divum' But
the Orante in the Christian monuments is the
faithful of Christ who enters into the mystic
ship by Baptism, and, nourished by the Eu-
charist, despises the tempest and sails full of
confidence towards the haven of salvation. In
fact, in the chamber A 2, above the principal
wall, is drawn a ship ovenvhelmed by the storm.
A man swims in the foaming waves [see M 3]
and runs great risk of being lost ; while another
within the ship lifts up his arm in prayer, and
the Divine power, symbolized by the upper
part of a figure, inclosed within a cloud with

rays, stretches out from heaven His right hand,
imposes it on the man’s head, and protects him.
The allegory is so clear, that it does not require
any comment The scene described is, how-
ever, unique in the Cemetery paintings, and
recalls to my mind the words of Hippolytus, a
contemporary of these frescoes : ‘We who
trust in the Son of God, are persecuted by the
unbelievers . . . ; the world is the sea, in
which the Church, like the ship in the ocean,
is overwhelmed by the waves, but not sunk ’ ”
(De Antichrist, c. 59). Compare S. Paul : “We
are cast down, but we perish not” (2 Cor.
iv. 9).

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XIII. Composition N. — Of the Sign of the Prophet Jonas.

Having been put forward so emphatically by Christ as a sign, both of His own, and
through His own of the general resurrection, the history of Jonas is of very frequent
occurrence, both in the early paintings and Glasses and on the sculptured sarcophagi.*
And as it consists of several parts, each suggestive of a Christian application, it is
naturally and of itself a Composition, whether represented compendiously, as it
sometimes is, or at full. This only is to be noticed, that the order of the parts in their
Christian application is not the same as in the original history. In the original history
Jonas was first cast out of the ship and swallowed by the sea-monster : then he was
vomited out on dry land ; after this he was refreshed by the shade of the gourd ;
and lastly, he was scorched by the sun, and admonished against his selfish impatience.
But according to the application made of these passages in the paintings and sculptures
of the Catacombs, the Christian is first scorched by the fire of persecution ; and
refreshed, it may be, by a temporary intermission : at length he is cast out of the ship
by martyrdom : then his soul rests under the gourd in Paradise : t and lastly, he comes
out of the jaws of the monster by the resurrection.

The principal group of the present Composition, N i, is from a tomb in the
Cemetery of S. Priscilla {Rom. Soft., vol. iii. pi. clxxvii.), and has here been selected
in preference to other similar groups for the sake of this peculiarity, that it contains
at top a painting of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead ; another sign of the general
resurrection, reduplicating and interpreting that of Jonas issuing from the jaws of
the monster. For below we see in order first, to our right, the ship whence Jonas
is being cast out ; next, in the middle, a latticed arbour, thickly covered by the leaves
of the gourd, with Jonas under it, signifying the refreshment of the souls of the
just in Paradise. It is remarkable that, though death is so often and so naturally
spoken of as sleep, Jonas is scarcely ever so represented under the gourd that he

• “Now he that brought Jonas in the space
of three days, alive and unhurt, out of the belly
of the whale, and the three children out of the
furnace of Babylon, and Daniel out of the mouth
of the lions, does not want power to raise us up
also” {Apost. Const., v. 7).

f See the English Rom. Sott., pt. ii. pp. 109-

VII. o

III, where the interpretation in the text is
followed in the main, although it is acknow-
ledged that “No patristic testimony is at hand,
showing the particular intent with which this
second part of the history was so frequently set
before the eyes of the faithful.”

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50

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

can be supposed to be asleep : he is almost always “ refrigerans,” refreshing him-
self, or enjoying the refreshment, as one may translate the Latin expression. Lastly,
in the corner to our left, we see him issuing from the monster’s Jaws for the
resurrection. As regards the form of the monster, it was borrowed by the Christians
from the heathen house-painters of Rome ; and one sees exactly the same, with other
fanciful decorations, in their paintings and mouldings ; as, for instance, in the two
tombs recently discovered on the Via Latina. The idea is that of a sea-dragon ; as hell
and death are represented by the form of a dragon, with open jaws, from early ages
downwards : and in the hymns of the Greek ritual the fish of Jonas is called d^p,
^<£Xios 6^p, the wild beast or monster, the sea-monster.* Of any form at all resembling
that of a whale there is no trace.

Of the lateral paintings, N 2, which has been selected for its peculiarity, and
represents the Christian as Jonas under the scorching heat of persecution, is taken
from Rom. Sott., vol. ii. pi. xv. It is from the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles.

The opposite painting, N 3, which is from the same Cemetery of SS. Nereus and
Achilles, and from the same tomb (but in fact it is identical in many places), may be
taken here to represent some temporary refreshment by an intermission of persecution,
the leaves of the gourd on the conventional trellised arbour being only thinly scattered, .
and very different from the thick foliage of the arbour in N i, placed there between
death and the resurrection.

In general, when Jonas is represented twice over, as he is very often, once as
refreshed under the gourd, and once with the gourd withered, these two representa-
tions are made to match, and are set one over against the other ; the arbour being
the same, and the difference in the gourd itself being very slight ; its foliage, while
still flourishing, being scanty, and when withering being almost the same. Neither
is the sun to be seen. Whatever causes may have led to this type, the consequence
is, that the paintings of these two subjects, in point of expressiveness, often seem
rather defective ; more so than the sculptures, where the eye acquiesces readily in
a gourd that is merely conventional. But in some instances, as in N 2 of our present
Composition and its fellow-painting, the full contrast of the two states of Jonas is
exhibited. We see the sun darting down upon him fieiy rays, while the gourd is
completely withered, only the dry stem perhaps, which once curved over his head, or
the stem in the ground, remaining. In two points the picture before us is unique, and
by its very peculiarity is more expressive of the Christian application designed. The
recumbent figure which we have in it, bearded and clothed, hints of itself the Roman

* So Tertullian: “A certain bold prophet
had fled from the Lord, he had crossed over
from Joppa towards Tarsus, as if he could as
easily transport himself away from God; but
he found Him, I do not say in the sea and on

land, but even in the belly of a beast {bestiai),
in which he was confined for three days, unable
either to find death or even thus escape from
God ” {JDe Fuga in Persec., 1 1).

Ill

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OF THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAS.

51

Christian as living in the world, while a naked figure under the gourd suggests rather
the idea of the soul despoiled of its bodily clothing, and of the body in a state for
burial. And in the Christian order of events the fire of persecution comes first, of
itself, not through the withering of any preceding refreshment. So, strictly speaking,
the gourd has no place ; and in this painting it does not appear. Afterwards, on
some remission of persecution, the Christians, like Jonas, may be refreshed ; and
again, when the persecution is renewed, and the gourd which solaced them is burnt
up, they may be tempted with Jonas to be impatient, and to cry out, " O Lord, how
long dost Thou not avenge us ? How long dost Thou bear with this cruel and
idolatrous city, drunk with the blood of Thy saints ? ” * But they reply to their own
natural impatience in these their paintings from the story of Jonas, reflecting that
God has patience with this great city not without reason, and that they also themselves
have reason to be patient, that the example of their faith and patience may concur with
the long-suffering of God to bring many souls like those of the Ninevites to repentance.

* Compare Apoc. vi. 10, and xvii. 5, 6.

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XIV. Composition O. — Of Baptism and Burial.

These are the subjects of the two lateral groups O i and O 2, between which a variety
of small representations are arranged symmetrically, while the principal painting, O 3,
which should be seen in the centre, if the size of the paper admitted it, above the
other two, is a representation of the Virgin and Child, copied from a tomb in the
Cemetery of S. Agnes, and selected here to close the Collection.

The painting in the centre of O i, between the trees, is from a Baptistery in the
Cemetery of Pontianus (given in vol. i. pi. cxliv. of Rom. Sott)^, not far from the spot
where was once the Cemetery or Catacomb of the Jews of the Trastevere, the source
and pattern of all the underground cemeteries of the Christians. The crypt in which
this Baptistery occurs — for it is still perfect* — is known to have been made in the fourth
century for the reception of the relics of two noble Persians, Abdon and Sennen, who
had been martyred in the last persecution.f We descend by steps to the water, which
is still clear and abundant, and see opposite, painted on the wall, as if rising from the
water, a flowered and jewelled cross, with the two lights of the two natures of Christ
standing on its arms above, and the letters A and O, the Beginning and the End,
suspended from them below. Above the arch on the outer wall is a fresco painting of
the Baptism of Christ, who stands in the midst of the Jordan, John the Baptist, from
the bank to our right, holding one hand on the head of the Saviour to plunge Him,
while the Holy Ghost is descending upon Him as a dove, with seven rays from its
beak ; and on the opposite bank, to our left, an angel holds a tablet bearing inscribed
the baptismal name of Him who is being baptized. This Name, it is easy to see from
the remains of the square letters, was the Hebrew name of God. There is yet another
particular to be noticed, viz. a hart, representing the human soul, coming up to drink
of the waters now sanctified by the Baptism of Christ to the washing away of sins.
In this we see plainly an allusion to that verse of the Psalm, “ As the hart panteth

* See Mr. Parker’s photographs of these
frescoes, from which the form of the cross and
of the figures may be easily traced.

f Monsignor, now Cardinal Bartolini, when
Canon of the Basilica of S. Marco, discovered
the Celia Confessionts in which the bodies of
the two martyrs were deposited after their

translation by Pope Gregory IV., and in 1859
he published an edition of their Acts, with
all the information about this Cemetery of
Pontianus that he was able to collect. Cardinal
Patrizi issued a decree declaring the relics found
in S. Marco to be those of the two saints.

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OF BAPTISM AND BURIAL.

after the fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God I" We may
notice also in this same painting an allusion to the Arian controversy ; the Catholics
seeing both in the Baptism of Christ Himself, and in the formula of Baptism
prescribed by Him in one “ Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” an
argument for the consubstantiality of the Son.

On the wall to the left of the spectator, in the same crypt, is a painting of Christ
crowning with two crowns of martyrdom the two Persian martyrs Abdon and Sennen,
from whom the Catacomb itself in later times has come to be named.*

In the central group of subjects, the square e is from a painting in the Cemetery
of S. Callixtus, and there accompanies the two Baptisms already described above in
Composition G. Here we see Christ as a fisherman drawing with a line a fish,
which is the human soul, from the waters of its natural state, to live a new life as in
a new element. Below, Fig. i is from a Glass engraved and described in the work
of P. Garrucci. Here Tobias is taking the inwards from the fish, the fish being Christ,
to anoint the blind eyes of his father, that is, the blindness of the old Adam ;
wherefore Baptism is called illumination (Boldetti, Osserv., etc., p. 197).

The sense of the fish as a symbol may need a little further explanation.! Apart
from the use of the Greek word IX0TS, meaning fish, as an anagram (for it is spelt with
the first letters of ’ii^o-oCs Xpioros, 0eou t£o9, which are, “Jesus Christ,” “Son of God,”
and “Saviour”), the fish was viewed as a symbol of the human soul in the first or natural
creation, of the same soul as regenerate or created anew, and of Christ Himself as
uniting the two creations of nature and grace. In the first or natural creation life
began in the waters and from the waters, of which the fish is the inhabitant. In the
spiritual or new creation, also, all life begins from the waters of Baptism. Both orders
are united in Christ, who has truly taken upon Him our nature of the first Adam, and
truly quickens us, as the second Adam, through His divine nature, to become sons of
God. Christ, therefore, is the “ great Fish,” with the virtue of whose inward and secret
nature our blindness is anointed and enlightened, and in whom we become little fishes
in the pool of Baptism, in like manner as we become doves also and lambs. The
lamb and the dove are equally symbols of the soul, which becomes a lamb by union
with the Lamb of God, and a dove by the indwelling of the Divine Dove, which is the
Holy Ghost.

* We have omitted a description of palm
trees, olives, lambs, and doves, which Mr.

Palmer had arranged round this painting ; and
we have omitted similar descriptions of adjuncts
to O 2, having in both cases removed them
from the picture. In the smaller subjects we
have not restricted our illustrations to the
circular form, but have endeavoured to re-

VII. R

present the subjects in such a form as would
guard the reader against confounding paintings
or sculptures with glasses or seals.

t See English Rom. Sott., pt. ii. pp. 57-75,
where the whole evidence for this ancient
symbol is fully examined, and illustrated by
examples.

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54

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

Above Christ as the fisherman, is a dove, Fig. b, with a crown or wreath. This
dove, with its crown scratched in minium, is from a slab which once closed a niche in
the Catacombs, and which is now incrusted in the wall of the Gallery of Inscriptions
at the Vatican.

In Figs, c, d, on opposite sides of the fisherman, from two seals in the possession of
the writer, we see the soul represented as a lamb and as a dove standing on the back
of a fish, the fish being Christ, which carries it as a bark through the waves and
storms of the world. The olive-branch, which is added in the beak of the dove, is an
emblem of the peace promised to Noah, but actually given to the Christian soul in
Baptism. Fig.y, also from a seal in the possession of the writer, exhibits the dove, not
now with the olive-branch of peace, as given at the beginning in Baptism, but also
with the palm of victory, added now at the end. On the right. Fig. g, from a seal
the original of which was in possession of the author in 1856, an anchor inclosing
two fishes : one of these is going downwards to the depth by death, the other is
rising upwards to the surface for the resurrection.

Beneath the fisherman. Fig. k, we have the monogram of Christ, enriched by a
crown, from a Glass (Garrucci, Vetri, xiv. Fig. 8), with the letters A and n, the
Beginning and the End, on either side [while the group of subjects is surmounted
by a monogram from a sepulchral slab in S. Callixtus, Fig. d\.

We pass now to the end of the Christian course, and to the lateral Composition
O 2, the details grouped in which relate to death and burial. The central part,
corresponding to the Baptistery in O i, exhibits a portion of one side of a gallery in
the Catacombs, showing how the ordinary niches appear ranged one above another.
Most of them have been broken open by the barbarians in the fifth century, and it is
only here and there that one now sees either a tomb still closed, or any portion even
of bones in the open niches. The three niches here given, though copied from Boldetti
{Osserv., p. 213), have received some additions, so as to show more at once to the eye than
is to be found at any three contiguous tombs. The length of the inscription on the
lowest of the three, the form of the letters, and especially the monogram, show it to be
at least as late as the time of Constantine. The emblem of the dove with the olive-
branch in its beak is here a reduplication, as it were, of the words “ in pace,” alone, or
merely with the name, often forming the whole of the earliest inscriptions. The palm
below is no necessary sign of martyrdom, as is clear from the inscription in this case,
and from the monogram ; since every Christian who falls asleep in Christ is a
conqueror. The remaining emblems of the anchor and the fish are equivalent to the
words “ Spes in Christo." The loculus in the middle has been closed with three tiles
(the commonest method), one of which still remains ; the other two have been broken
away, so as to show the skeleton still perfect (a thing very rare in fact) in its place.
The uppermost tomb is still perfectly closed, and has all the three tiles in their places.

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OF BAPTISM AND BURIAL.

55

Here at one end may be seen a small glass ampulla incrusted in the plaster, held
to be alone the only certain sign of the tomb of a martyr ; though, of course, it is
not probable that of three niches really occurring thus one should be much earlier than
another. There is also a small lamp inserted into a hole made for it at this tomb ; and
some visitor in the fourth or fifth century, we may presume, has scratched upon the
plaster the words “ Pete pro nobis ” (Pray to God for us) ; the like to which is found
occasionally both in Greek and in Latin.

Above the three tombs is placed, from Rom. Sott., vol. iii. pi. clxiv., a painting
of Christ with the rod of Divine power touching Lazarus, to symbolize the general
resurrection.

In one of the two corners is set a Glass with the blood of a martyr. Fig. k, with some
of the plaster in which it was incrusted still adhering ; and on the plaster is scratched
a palm, and an abbreviation of the word Sanguis, “ Blood.” (This is copied from Rom.
Soft., ed. of 1651, p. 298.) In the opposite corner is a terra-cotta lamp. Fig. /, the
handle of which is formed by a cross with a dove perched upon it. It is copied
from Rom. Soft., vol. iii. pi. ccvii. ; and is intended to symbolize the lamp of the
.soul first lighted in Baptism, but burning on unextinguished through the night of
death to the morning of the resurrection.

Lastly, as the principal painting of this last set, and to conclude the whole series,
in O 3 there is given, from the Cemetery of S. Agnes, an interesting representation
of the Blessed Virgin and Child, the earliest probably existing, certainly the earliest
known to exist, of the type afterwards called Byzantine, and multiplied with many
varieties. In the first paintings of the Cemeteries in which the Blessed Virgin is
represented with her Son, she is occupied with Him as a mother and nurse, and
holds Him out to the Magi, who come to adore Him with their gifts. But here He is
already a good-sized boy, who appears, clothed and self-supported, on her breast merely
to show who she is, and what power she has in her prayers by being His mother ; for
she is praying with her arms expanded. The height of the crypt in which this painting
occurs, and other signs in its neighbourhood, point of themselves to the end of the third
or the beginning of the fourth century as its date ; but the painting itself enables us
to fix the date within closer limits than is commonly to be thought of, the absence of
the aureole from the head of the figures forbidding us to think them later than the
middle of the fourth century, while the presence of the monogram shows that
they were painted after the accession of Constantine ; at some time, then, between
A.D. 312 and 350. (The same is given also in Rom. Soft., vol. iii. pi. cliii.)

In the crypt in which this painting occurs, Mgr. Talbot some years ago was
permitted to celebrate Mass, for the first time perhaps since the disuse of the Cata-
combs as cemeteries, in the presence of a number of English converts, who all received
from his hands the Holy Communion on the spot. Since then P. Marchi, in taking

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56

EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.

strangers through the Catacomb of S. Agnes, has been often heard to call this crypt of
the Madonna “ the chapel of the English.” For Russian visitors, too, it is of no less
interest, as it enables them to trace their Byzantine type of the Virgin and Child,
and in particular that variety of it which they call Znamenskaia, to an antiquity as
remote, probably, as the cessation of the last persecution, and the first foundation of
Constantinople.*

* In order to insure accuracy we have had
this painting carefully copied from De Rossi’s
Chromo-lithograph in his “ Imagini Scelte della
B. Vergine Maria.” De Rossi says : “ The
fresco is all damaged by black stains, which

disfigure especially the face of the Virgin. I
have caused them to be very slightly indicated,
in order not to change by these accidental
marks the original lineaments of the venerated
picture ” {Op. cit., p. 1 3).

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APPENDIX I.

This exhibits a fac-simile of a blasphemous crucifix scratched on the wall of a bath in the palace
of the Caesars. It was found during some recent excavations on the slope of the Palatine towards
the Circus, and the plaster containing the scratch having been carefully detached, it is now
preserved in the Museum of the Roman College. A fac-simile, from which ours is taken, of the
size of the original, was published in the Civilta Cattolica, with an accompanying explanation.

The figure of a man clad in a dress not Roman, and with the head of an ass, is rudely
represented on a cross formed like the letter T (for a slanting line above seems to be owing
only to a slip of the pointed tool with which the scratch was made). A little below, to the

right of the figure on the cross, but to the left of the spectator, is another man, in the same sort
of dress, with an over-big head, and with his arms thrown apart in a mock attitude of prayer
and admiration. A Greek inscription is added, “ AAEKSAMENOS 2EBETE 6EON,” “ Here is
Alexamenus, worshipping his God ! ”

Tertullian, a writer of the second century, having mentioned that already, in his time, the
heathen had begun to mock the Christians by representing Christ as a man with an ass’s head, in a
gown, fixed to a cross, we are probably not wrong in ascribing this specimen of the same mockery
to the third century. Two points proved by it are worthy of notice : First, against the Arians and
other later impugners of our Lord’s divinity, it is here shown that the heathen themselves knew
perfectly, in the third century, that the Christians worshipped Christ as their God. Secondly,
against the Jews, the very heathen here proclaim that Christ, the Son of David, whom they had
vni. s

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APPENDIX /.

5S

given up to Pilate to crucify, was not only their King but their God ; the very same God that
had appeared to Abraham, and had dwelt in their Temple between the Cherubim. For it was a
long-established blasphemy and mockery among the heathen to pretend that the God of the Jews
was only an ass, or an ass’s head.* And as Pilate before had written that He whom the Jews
rejected was the King of the Jews, so the heathen of the third century testified, even by their
mockeries, that Christianity, which the Jews rejected, was nevertheless the true representation and
development of the faith of Abraham and Moses.

The thought occurred to present in juxtaposition, one upon the other, that view of their own
religion which the Christians of the third century have left painted at the tombs of their martyrs,
and the view of the same religion expressed at the same time by the blaspheming heathen in the
palace of the Caesars.f

• See English Rom. Soft., Ft. ii. Appcndi.x, Note A,
where other examples are given.

t The painting here described by Mr. Palmer seems to
have been destroyed, as it cannot be found among the
lK)rtfolios in the possession of Cardinal Newman. We have

not thought it necessary to have it reproduced from
memory, as the only archaeologically important portion of
it is given in our woodcut. But the description would not
be intelligible without the illustration, and we have there-
fore omitted it

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APPENDIX II.

These are four paintings copied for the author from the tomb of a woman named Vibia in a small
Cemetery or Catacomb of Gnostic heretics, at no great ‘distance from the Cemetery of S. Callixtus.
F our others, from a similar arched tomb in the same gallery, and immediately opposite to that of
Vibia, will form Appendix III. (Both sets have been published with notes by P. Garrucci.)

These Gnostic paintings are added to the Compositions from the Christian Cemeteries, as a
contrast which may be suggestive of useful reflections. The Cemetery in which they occur being
of no great extent, and containing no other traces of painting, it may be inferred that the sect was
far from numerous. The form of the galleries and niches is exactly the same with that of the
Christian Cemeteries, just as these, again, were reproductions of the earlier Jewish Catacomb, the
original mother and pattern of them all. At some of the ordinary niches one sees on the plaster
cabalistic marks peculiar to the Gnostics, and not occurring in the Christian Catacombs ; and in the
few inscriptions which have been found at the same spot, while there is nothing distinctly Christian,
there are some expressions clearly inconsistent with Christian faith and piety. It is noticeable
that the Christians (one of whose Cemeteries was very near) and these Gnostics seem to have
met in their excavations underground, and to have walled one another out. The wall still remains
in part, though it has been broken through, so that now one can pass from the Gnostic into the
Christian Cemetery, and observe that, while in the galleries on one side of the wall there are no
traces of Christianity, in those on the other there arc no traces of Gnosticism.*

A few words may be useful to explain how this and other similar sects of the Gnostics took their
origin from Christianity, and are reckoned among Christian heresies, while yet in details there are
comparatively few traces of any such connexion. When the Gospel was first preached in the
Roman empire, people of the higher classes, who spoke Latin and Greek, were mostly sceptics and
sensualists. The ideas of a continuance of the soul after death, and of distinct awards of happiness
or misery to the departed, were either absolutely forgotten, or but faintly remembered through the
Eleusinian Mysteries. In the East, on the contrary, among the Eg^’ptians and other peoples subject
to Rome, both these and other notions and practices connected with supranaturalism were still in
vogue ; and adventurers of all kinds, with all kinds of wares — astrology, magic, philosophy, and
religion included — were attracted to the great cities of the empire, and especially to Rome.

Now, to the eye of such adventurers there was doubtless something very striking and suggestive
in the power and success of Christianity. They saw a few teachers despising all the world as sunk
in ignorance, misery, and death, and offering to such as would listen to them some wonderful know-
ledge and happiness. They saw the followers of these teachers full of devotion and reverence
towards them, placing their services, their means, often their whole properties, at their disposal,
looking only for some future reward in another life. This new sect they saw rising up everywhere,

• The late Mr. J. H. Parker ignored these evidences of
the originally distinct character of the two Cemeteries, and
eagerly seized upon the fact of their present connection
with each other to support his novel theory of Cemeteries
having been common to both Clnistians and Pagans.

Bottari had fallen into the same mistake with regard to
these crypts of Vibia and Vincentius, but the plan of tlie
Cemetery of Prsetextatus had not then been accurately
mapped out as it has been since by Padre Marchi and the
brothers De RossL See BulUtHno, 1872, p. 6 1.

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APPENDIX IL

and disturbing from below the dead materialism of society ; and they thought, no doubt, that herein
there was something to be imitated, if it could be imitated without sharing those persecutions to
which the Christians were subjected. So some of these adventurers, professors originally perhaps
of Oriental dualism, who had picked up some knowledge of Judaism and Christianity, or who had
even been themselves Christians (for Simon Magus had been baptized), began to think that they,
too, like the Christians, might pretend to be the depositaries of a knowledge and hope unknown to
the outer world, and that they too might persuade disciples to honour them with their substance in
like manner as the Christians honoured their clergy. This radical idea being borrowed from
Christianity, it mattered little in what proportion the details of the system to be built upon it should
be also borrowed from Christianity or from other sources ; and, in fact, the proportions in which
Christianity and Judaism were mixed with heathen elements may have differed widely in different
Gnostic sects. We now return to the paintings before us.

On one of the two side-walls within the arch over the tomb of Vibia, that which is to the left
of the spectator as he stands in the gallery facing the tomb, is a painting, Y a, of Death, like Pluto,
with a chariot and four horses, carrying off Vibia, who is represented like Proserpine, her hair,
arms, and robe flying back in the wind, while Mercury, with his caduceus, is seen in front of the
chariot, trundling a sort of wheel downhill, to show the way to the Shades, The colours are
bright, much brighter than is usual in the Christian Cemeteries ; and above is an inscription,
A breptio Vibies et Deseensio," “The Carrying off of Vibia, and her Descent to the Shades.” In
the corners at the top are the five planets influencing the fates of men.

On the opposite side-wall is a corresponding painting, b, representing the funeral banquet, for
which Vibia, no doubt, has left money by her will. Seated at the table are seven men, five of them
with beards, two without. An inscription above with these words, “ Septem Pii Sacerdoles,”
"Seven Pious Priests,” informs us that all the seven are priests of the Gnostics; and over the chief
of them, who is one of the two without beards, is the Latin name “ Vmceniitis!' Three of the
others have Oriental caps on their heads. The cushions, the dishes, and the meats give one the
idea of a good supper. Possibly the number seven may have here a sense attached to it borrowed
from Christianity. The five planets are again seen in the corners above, and some lightly festooned
drapery overhangs the supper-table.

Against the end-wall, and upon the Voof of the arcosolium, there are two more paintings, of
which the first, Y c, represents the judgment of the souls of Vibia and Alcestis. In the midst, on a
tribunal, as the presiding deities of the Shades and judges of souls (answering to Osiris and Isis of
the Egyptians), we see seated Pluto and Proserpine, with their names over them, “ Dispaier,"
“ Father Dis,” and “ Abracura,” probably 'A^pa Koprj, Kopr) being a name of Proserpine as
daughter of Demeter or Ceres, To the right hand of Pluto, on the floor below, stand the three
Fates, "Fata Divina,” and opposite them, to the left of Proserpine, is “ Mercury the Messenger,”
“ Mercurius Nuntius," with the caduceus in his left hand, and a wand in his right, introducing the
souls of “ Vibia” and "Aleestis.” In an Egyptian tomb this Mercury would have been Anubis.
As Vibia and Alcestis were people of consideration, who besides had the benefit of knowledge, they
are, of course, judged favourably.

In the fourth and last painting, d, there is a portal at the end to our left, and within it, on the
threshold, a female figure, which is Vibia. Over the portal is the word “ Indnctio,” “The Intro-
duction,” and within it, “ Vibies,” “ of Vibia.” Another figure already within is holding Vibia by
the hand, and bringing her in. Over his head is the title " Angelus Bonus',' “ The Good Angel,”
a title borrowed from Judaism or Christianity. This “Good Angel ” is crowned with a wreath, as
if for some festivity, and he holds another wreath for Vibia in his hand. A little in advance of him,
again, there is an attendant bringing in a dish for the banquet ; for it is Elysium, and the Elysian
banquet to which Vibia is now being introduced. The foreground seems to be a flowery carpet,
or meadow, rising to a bank, and bounded as if it were a table by a cushion, behind which are

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seated seven figures, all crowned with wreaths, and over one of them, who is seated in the central
place, is the name of “ Vibia'' A little higher, over all the seven, runs an inscription, Bonorum
Judicio Judicatil' ‘‘These are they that have been judged with the judgment of the good,”
whence, again, one may collect that the number seven is here used in the Christian sense, to signify
all, or universality. Beyond the cushion, where the flowery bank swells up to it and supplies the
place of a table, there are two dishes (one of them containing a fish) already set, besides a third,
which the attendant already mentioned above is in the act of setting down. To the extreme right
of the painting there is a large amphora, set upright on a low stand ; and on the carpet of flowers
in the foreground there are two figures — one kneeling on both knees, and pointing down to the
flowers ; the other, with the sole of one foot on the ground, but still kneeling with the other knee,
holding one finger to his mouth, as if to say, “ Silence ; mystery. This is our wisdom ; this is our
Tpcjo-l^ ; this is the paradise in store for the initiated.”

On the flat wall of the gallery, immediately above this arcosolium, there is a rather long
inscription, beginning with some mention of ‘‘ Vincentius,” perhaps having written (?) ‘‘this,” but
the plaster has been damaged. After the break the inscription proceeds as follows, Vibia speak-
ing : — “ All whom you see at table with me, and more than they, have preceded me : all must join
me : eat, then, drink, play, and amuse yourself, and come to me ” [t.e. die after it]. “ As long as
you live do well [to yourself ?]. This you will carry away with you.” And then breaking into
hexameters she adds, “ This is Vincentius, pontiff of the deity Sabazis, who with pious mind
celebrated the sacred rites of the Gods.”* A much more impudent inscription, certainly, than
one would have expected ; and one that reminds us of the maxim imputed by S. Paul to the
heathen, “ Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.*' Such was the hope of them whose god
was their belly, whose religion was made, and held, and taught for gain, and whose mind was
set upon earthly things, while others were suffering martyrdom. It is instructive, certainly, to
compare the tombs of the martyrs with these.f

♦ “Vincenti hoc . . . quetes quot vides plures me anteces-
serunt omnes expecto

Manduca vibe lude beni at me cum vibes benefac hoc
tecum feres

Numinis antistes Sabazis Vincentius h . . [q]ui sacar
sancta

Deum mente pia [co]luit .

It appears from this that Vincentius was a priest of the
sect of the worshippers of Mithras or the Sun, called
Sabazis, or Sabadius, whom Macrobius {Saturn. ^ L i8)
informs us was in Thrace identified with Bacchus, and
worshipped with shameful rites mentioned by Amobius
{Advers. GenteSy v. 21). Origen says that Celsus “compares
inconsiderate believers to Metragyrtae, and soothsayers, and

Mithrae, and Sabbadians, and to anything else that one
may fall in with ” {Conir. Crls., I c 9).

f See English I^om. Sott.y Pt il. Appendix, Note B, for
this and the following Mithraic tomb.

De Rossi, in describing the Mithraic cave found by
Father Mullooly beneath San Clemente, gives an inscription
never before edited :

“ C Valeriys Heracles pater et antis

TeS DEI . IVBENIS INCONRVPTI SOLIS INVICTI MiTHRAE

Cryptam palati concessam sibi a M . Avrelio

COMMODO AnTONINO AUG ”

Found in a Mithraic cave in a palace at Ostia, discovered
in 1797. Other inscriptions to the same Valerius Heraclius
show that it must have been Commodus who sanctioned
the construction of the cave {BulUttinOy 1870, p. 156).

VIII.

I

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APPENDIX III.

The four paintings of the second Gnostic tomb add but little to the notions already collected
from the first ; but they are given for the sake of completeness, as there is nothing else of the
same kind. The tomb seems to be that of a soldier named Caricus.

In one of the two side paintings, Z, a, Caricus, or one of the men to whom the tomb
belongs, is seen in the garb of a soldier, with a spear and round shield, and a helmet on his
head, in that attitude of half-kneeling which is often gfiven to the worshippers of Mithras. In
front of him stands a man, probably the priest of his sect, Vincentius, who is lifting up or
offering for him to the five planets a hare, or some other similar animal. Under the planets is
a mountain, perhaps intended for Gebel Serbil, a mountain in the Sinaitic peninsula with five
tops, where the five planets were worshipped. In the corresponding painting, 6, on the opposite
side-wall, to our left, another soldier, with a helmet on his head, his shield held over his left
shoulder, and a drawn sword in his right hand, and in front of him a woman crowned with a
wreath, are represented, both of them in the same half-kneeling attitude common in Mithraic
sculptures.

A third painting, c, on the roof, has in a circle a female figure, a Venus, or Astarte, or Mylitta
perhaps, with her back turned to the spectator ; and again, within the four sides of a square
which incloses the circle, there are gay birds, and dolphins, a mask, and a cornucopiae.

The fourth painting, d, has two soldiers, and two winged boys, or genii, supporting from on
either side two blank tablets, intended for inscriptions, but never filled up. The flat wall in
front of the tomb below is painted in five compartments, and in the middle compartment of the
five there is a sun, which again reminds us of the worship of Mithras, and indirectly of the
Oriental dualism. Above the tomb there is an inscription, shorter than that over the tomb of
Vibia, but no less impudent. It is nearly as follows: — “To thq Dif MajiPS, M. Aur. S. D. S. I. M.,*
who gave or taught to his disciples pleasures and jokes, [made this tomb,] that [he might have
a place of burial here] for himself and his sons. Behold, this is the place of Caricus. [His]
surviving issue.” And the inscription is terminated by a palm-branch, such as the Christians
also often marked on their tombs.

* “ Sacerdos dei soils invicti Mithrse, qui basia (v)oluptatem jocum alumnis suis dedit.”

THE END.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.

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