[Image]  [Hi-Res Image]

Page 206

ciation with the figure of distinctively Christian symbols-the fish, the Chi Rho monogram (see JESUS CHRIST, MONOGRAM OF), or the Alpha and Omega (q.v.). The palm-branch is found equally on pagan and Christian monuments, but in the latter bears its unmistakable reference to Rev. vii. 9. The vine, again, occurs on heathen monuments with manifest reference to the worship ofBacchus,while it would at once call up in Christian minds the parabolic teaching of John xv. 18. In the absence of authentic likenesses. of the Savior, his person, life, and office were set forth under symbols whose meaning was at once intelligible to all the initiated. Among the earliest and most frequently recurring is the lamb, which, with a variety of accompaniments, continued to be used until its representation was forbidden by canon 82 of the Trullan Synod in 692 (Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, iii. 340, Eng. transl. v. 234, Fr. traml., iii. 1, p. 573)-apparently because of mystical extravagances connected with it in some minds; the decision, however, was not accepted by the Western Church, in which the symbol of the lamb long remained an object of reverence. Of even deeper significance is the fish (Greek .ichthus), sometimes in its pictorial representation and sometimes indicated merely by the Greek letters of its name. Wherever the word or the figure was found, rudely scratched upon the fresh mortar of the Catacombs, or more elaborately chiseled in connection with other symbols or inscriptions, or engraved upon gems in signet rings, it spoke of the precious doctrine contained in the five words for which its Greek letters stand-" Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior." It connotes even more in some early mural paintings which bear distinct evidence,of the eucharistic character of the feast. in which the fish is the central figure. Still more permanently familiar are the cross, the Chi Rho or monogram composed of the first two Greek letters of the name of Christ, and the Alpha and Omega, referring to Rev. i. 11, xxi. 6, xxii. 13. The disciples appear also under the symbols of the dove and the fish, or as the sheep of the Good Shepherd's fold; the Church as a ship riding safely over the waves, or as the ark of Noah, to which a dove returns, bearing an olive-branch in its beak.

The other division into which the subject falls, the symbolism of ceremonial observances and accessories, is illustrated by a long series of liturgical treatises, becoming fuller and more 5. Develop- minute as the thirteenth century ap-

Liturgical those of the Alexandrian school, with Symbolism. its characteristic leaning toward symbolic or allegorical interpretation of Holy Scripture, contain the most frequent instances of such treatment; Cyril of Jerusalem's catechetical instructions are also full of mystical explanations of the Church ceremonies (see MYBTAOOGICAL THEOIr oaY), although when he approaches the chief of them all, the Eucharist, he is almost exclusively preoccupied with the dogmatic and devotional aspects of it. The works of the pseudo-Dionysius afforded much suggestion for the later development; and in the seventh century Bede and Isidore of

Seville qq.v.) lead along the path which was to be so much trodden. Symbolism was reduced to a speculative science by Hugo of St. Victor; by his pupil and successor Richard of St: Victor (q.v.); by Honorius of Autun (q.v.), who, after the fashion of the time, took all knowledge to be his province; by Sicardus, bishop of Cremona (d. 1215), renowned as a historian, canonist, and liturgiologist, especially in his Mitrale seu de ofeiis ecclesiasticis summa; by Vincent of Beauvais (q.v.), after Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas (qq.v.) the most distinguished Dominican theologian of the thirteenth century; by Jacobus de Varagine (q.v.), the Dominican archbishop of Genoa, in his " Golden Legend "; and most of all by Durandus (q.v.), bishop of Mende in Languedoc, the greatest of medieval liturgiqlogists, whose Rationale divinorum oiciorum, written about 1284, is said to have been oftener republished during the early days of printing than any other book except the Bible.

There was no limit to the range of medieval symbolism. Hugo of St. Victor (In hierarchiam ca?lestem, II., x. 1146) considered it possible that " in-

telligent minds might perhaps arrive 6. Examples at the union of everything in a besu-

of Litur- tiful harmony, visible and invisible gical Sym- things alike, so as to leave no single bolism. sensible object without demonstrating

that it has the mission of representing something immaterial." There was no detail about a church, however insignificant to the ordinary eye, in which the medieval imagination could not find a meaning, an analogy. Thus, in the very walls of the church building, where, of course, the foundation and other stones have their Scriptural interpretations (I Cor. iii. 11; 1 Pet. ii. 5), Durandus goes so far as to remember and interpret the cement. This, " without which there can be no stability of the walls, is made of lime, sand, and water. The lime is fervent charity; which joineth to itself the sand, that is, undertakings for the temporal welfare of our brethren; because true charity taketh care of the widow and the aged, and the infant, and the infirm; and they who have it study to work with their hands, that they may have wherewith to benefit them. Now the lime and the sand are bound together in the wall by an admixture of water. But water is an emblem of the Spirit; and as without cement the stones can not cohere, so neither can men be built up in the heavenly Jerusalem without charity, which the Holy Ghost worketh in them " (Symbolism of the Churches, p. 15, London, 1906). The above quotation is an instance of the pertinacity with which a meaning was sought for everything, however practical the reason for its presence. Of more importance and, for most people, of more interest are the significations attached to the essential and prominent ritual accessories of the chief act of worship in the Roman Catholic Church, medieval and modern. Candles (see LIGHTS, USE OF, IN WORSHIP) burn upon the altar, to typify the true Light of the world. Incense is used at certain portions of the mass, as.before the altar in heaven (Rev. viii. 3), and with the same general signification, that of prayer (Rev. v. 8). But, as in so many cases, there is no restriction to a single symbolic