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205 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Symbolism, Ecclesiastical

eval poets by A. F. Ozanam (Dante, p. 68, Paris, 1839), who calls, it " a very philosophic proceeding, since it is based upon the incontestable law of the association of ideas, and, moreover, one which is eminently poetic; for, while prose places the thought proposed immediately under the sign of the word, poetry sets there instead certain im,~ges which are themselves the signs of a more elevated thought."

This article considers only such symbolism as in the Christian Church has been deliberately introduced for the sake of the lesson conveyed, or sanctioned as a more or less officially accepted explanation of the inner meaning of such usages. The language of signs may be used either to instruct those whose understanding of words is limited, or to baffle those who are not supposed to understand them. Thus a crucifix may be as good as a sermon to an illiterate peasant; while the sign of the fish was used by the early Christians because it told their enemies nothing. This latter kind of symbolism, however, was in the nature of the case of but transitory importance, employed as it was only during the time of persecution, when it was necessary to conceal from the pagans some of the deepest truths of Christianity.

II. Christian Symbolism: In the earliest ages of the Christian Church one would look in vain for the detailed and minute symbolism of which the Middle

Ages are so full, because the conditions i. Sym- of divine worship had not yet allowed

bolism as so stately and developed a ritual; but a Religious the underlying principle was the same

Need. -the belief in a real affinity or corre spondence between the visible sign and the invisible truth. Adolf Harnack truly says (Dogma, ii. 144): " What we nowadays understand by `symbols' is a thing which is not that which it represents; at that time [in the second century], ` symbol' denoted a thing which, in some kind of way, is that which it signifies "; and again (iv. 289), " The symbol was never a mere type or sign, but always embodied a mystery." Thus the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper (qq.v.) are symbols in this sense of the word, taking it to imply something which, in being what it is, is a sign and vehicle of something higher and better. The need of sacraments rests ultimately upon the reluctance instinctive in our nature to allow any spiritual fact to remain without an external expres sion, as well as upon the principle enunciated by Augustine (Contra Faustum, xix. 11) that " there can be no religious society, whether the religion be true or false, without some sacrament or visible symbol to serve as a bond of union." Both of these rites are symbols of the mystical union between Christ and the believer, baptism symbolizing that union in its inception, the Eucharist in its organic life.

In harmony with its natural development, Christianity took over a multitude of the old symbolic interpretations, both those of the earlier revelation and those of various surrounding peoples. But it also carried the tendency further by attaching symbolic meanings to its own proper ceremonies and external acts. Thus, early in the development of Christian worship, the exact manner of perform-

ing the more important ceremonies tended by degrees to become fixed and prescribed, in order

that the same belief might be everya. Early where symbolized and the same lesson

Tendency taught by the action in question;

toward although so long as the advantage of Unification. absolute uniformity was not recog-

nized, it was possible for varying symbols to set forth different sides of the one truth. Thus in Spain in the sixth and seventh centuries, a single immersion or affusion was customary in baptism in order to assert against the Arians the single substance of the three divine Persons" one Lord, one faith, one baptism"-while usually it was threefold, setting forth the other side of the same doctrine and corresponding to the pronunciation of the three sacred names of the Trinity. The most interesting features of early Christian symbolism are to be found in the painted and sculptured representations of the Catacombs (see CEnu;TERIEs) and later of the most ancient churches, which were full of the fervent faith of the primitive Church. The art of Rome in the period just before the coming of Christianity had shown an increasing

tendency not to represent objects liter3. Early ally, but to employ visible forms for

Symbolism. the representation of abstract notions.

The fundamental difference, however, between classical art, as represented by the Greek, and Christian, as represented by the Gothic, is that the former dwelt contentedly on mere physical beauty, while the Christian artist, who has gained a conviction of his own spiritual nature, always tries to represent it. Clement of Alexandria (q.v.) suggested to the faithful of his day that instead of the pagan devices cut on stones and rings by Roman artists, they should have such things as a dove, symbolic of the Spirit of God within them, the palmbranch of victory, or the anchor, emblematic of their hope. Tertullian, in his De idololatria, though his zeal against pagan rites inclines him to object to all representations and to stigmatize the painter's art as unlawful, yet makes an exception in favor of these devices, and speaks of the Good Shepherd as depicted on chalices (De pudicitia, vii., x., Eng. transl. ANF, iv. 80, 84-85).

The sources of the early symbols are various. Those of a pictorial nature, owing to the prohibition of painted or plastic representations among the

Jews, usually either spring from primi4. Sources tive Christian consciousness, or are

and Figures, adaptations of forms already at hand Employed. in the work of pagan artists. A useful

illustration of the latter case is the frequently recurring figure of the Good Shepherd, which often resembles that of Hermes Kriophoros, the ram-bearer. Apart from the place which the shepherd occupies in the life and literature of ancient peoples, it is obviously unnecessary to conclude that the motive or spirit of the Christian symbol was derived from prevalent heathen thought. Not to mention the frequent references in the Old Testament to the pastoral relation of God to his people, the words of Christ himself (John x. 11-19) would naturally have been in the artist's mind; and confirmatory evidence is often present in the asso-