I. The enlightened^ or in plainer terms, the sceptical

character of the present age. Unaccustomed to view
cvi Introductory Essay
any great examples of heroic devotion and self-sacrifice now, we naturally, though scarcely allowing it to our- selves, begin to doubt whether there ever were any such. In thinking of Patience, our forefathers would naturally have had S. Vincent presented to their mind : but we, who, some of us have scarcely heard of his name, and some, are totally ignorant of his character, have of course no such ideas suggested. So again, where our ancestors would have represented S. Lawrence, we content our- selves with a representation of Fidelity. And it is in accordance with this easy and self-indulgent age, rather to personify a thing, which as having never had real existence, cannot be brought into comparison with ourselves, than by representing a really existing person, to run the risk of a contrast between his virtues and our own.
2. This allegorising spirit is more in accordance with the general paganism of our architectural designs : though, be it observed, a feature of the very worst and most corrupt state of Paganism. It is worth noting that in heathen countries, evil qualities have always been personified before good. Paganism like every other false system, became worst at its close. In the early times of Grecian mythology the attributes of purity, and truth, and mercy, were so strongly felt to reside in the gods, that a separate personification of them was needless: whereas strife, and violence and fury, qualities which had no place in heaven, demanded, and obtained a separate existence. But in process of time, when the divinities themselves became invested with the attributes of sinful humanity, the qualities of goodness which were no longer supposed theirs, found separate embodiments and expressions.
3. We may assign as a reason for the difference we have noticed the far greater reality with which our
Examples of Syinbolisui cvii
ancestors looked on the connections subsisting between ourselves and the other world. Thus, tempests and hurricanes, which we coldly explain on philosophical principles, they considered as directly proceeding from the violence of evil spirits :* — earthquakes and volcanoes they regarded as outbreaks, so to speak, of that place of punishment, which they believed locally situated within the earth : — diseases and pestilences they held to be the immediate work of the devil : madness and lunacy were, in their view, synonymous with possession. Whether theirs, as it certainly was the most pious, were not also the most philosophical view, has been so ably discussed in the ' Church of the Fathers ' under the chapter S. AntJiony in Conflict^ that we need here only allude to it. But the same spirit led them to adopt the effigies of those saints who had been members of the same Church Militant with themselves, and who now were members of that Triumphant Church which they hoped hereafter to join : and its contrary leads us to adopt the cold, vague, dreamy unsubstantialities of allegorism.
The earliest kind of monumental symbolism is that which represents the trade or profession of the person commemorated. And these principally occur on Lom- bardic slabs and Dos d'Anes. The distaff represents
* A Master of Philosophy travelling with others on the way, when a fearful thunderstorm arose, checked the fear of his fellows, and discoursed to them of the natural reasons of that uproar in the clouds, and those sudden flashes wherewith they seemed (out of the ignorance of causes) to be too much affrighted ; in the midst of his philosophical discourse, he was struck dead with that dreadful eruption which he slighted. What could this be but the finger of that God Who will have His works rather entertained with wonder and trembling than with curious scanning ? Neither is it to be otherwise in those violent hurricanes, devouring earth- quakes, and more than ordinary tempests, and fiery apparitions which we have seen and heard of ; for however there be natural causes given of the usual events of this kind, yet nothing hinders but the Almighty, for the manifestations of His power and justice, may set spirits, whether good or evil, on work, to do the same things sometimes in more state and magni ficence of horror. — Bishop Hall, ' The Invisible World,' sect. vi.
cviii Introductory Essay
the mother of a family : ^ a pair of gloves a glover : 2 so we have a pair of shears : and the like. But the Cross constantly appears ; and in a highly floriated form : sometimes at its foot are three steps representing the Mount: sometimes a Holy Lamb.^ And so ecclesi- astical personages have their appropriate symbols : so the chalice or the ring* represents a priest : — another type is the hand raised in benediction^ over a chalice : brasses abound in symbolical imagery. The animal at the feet varies with the varying circumstances of the deceased : a married lady has the dog, the emblem of fidelity : with which we may compare the speech of Clytemnestra, of her absent Lord/
yVVOUKOt. 'TTtaTYlM 5' Iv 'h'ofJt.Oli lliflOt [ji.o'kuv
oUv vif ovv 'sXn-TTi AOMATflN KTNA.
There are, doubtless, instances (there is one in Bristol, S. Peter's) where the unmarried are so represented : but they are very rare, and quite in the decline of the art. The knight again has, generally, a terrier at his feet, as the emblem of courage : sometimes the greyhound,'^ the symbol of speed. Lord Beaumont^ has an elephant : it is a bearing in his coat-armour.
Early priests have a lion ^ also at their feet ; but this typified their trampling on the devil : as servants of Him concerning whom it is written, ' And the Devil shall go forth before 10 His feet' They have also a dragon for the same reason. And this position doubt- less also has reference to the verse, ' Thou shalt tread upon the lion ^^ and adder : the young lion and the
^ See on this subject an interesting article in the Church of England Quarterly^ for September, 1841. ^As in Fletching-, Sussex. ^ As in Lolworth, Cambridgeshire. * As in S. Mary, Castlegate, York. * As in Hedon, Yorkshire. *^ Agamemnon, 606. (Ed. Dindorf.) ^ As in Sir Grey de Groby, S. Alban's. ^ Engraved in the 5th number of the Cam- bridge Camden Society's Illustrations of Monumental Brasses. " As in Watton, Herts, and Cottingham, Yorkshire. '" Habaccuc III. v, Et egredietur diabolus ante pedes ejus. " Psalm xc. Qui habitat.
Examples of Symbolism cix
dragon shalt thou trample under feet.' In the decHne of the art, effigies have the crest of the departed at their feet. Whether those knights who are represented with crossed legs are to be considered as crusaders, or at least as having taken the vow, is a question which has been much discussed. The general belief seems now to be in the negative : — and Mr Bloxam in his work on Monumental Architecture gives it as his opinion that this posture was chosen by the artist, for the more graceful arrangement of the surcoat. And it is to be remarked that some illuminations, as in the Life of S. Edward the Confessor, in the Cambridge University Library, represent the knights as sitting cross legged. For our own part we must confess that we incline to the old belief: — as better supported by tradition, and more in accordance with the general principles of Catholic artists. The knight's hand is sometimes repre- sented as resting on the hilt of his sword : — or as it is called drawing it. We are astonished that a writer in the Quarterly Review should fall into this popular error: especially when the idea was completely opposed to the whole course of his argument. There can be no doubt that this typifies the accomplishment of the vow, the taking which was set forth by the crossed legs. The contrary — an act of war in the House of Peace — is not for a moment to be thought of As emblematical of deep humility, some effigies are represented naked : some in shrouds : some, as emaciated corpse : and sometimes, still more strikingly, the tomb will be divided into two partitions : and while the departed appears in rich vests, and with a gorgeous canopy above — below there is a skeleton, or a worm eaten figure. There is a remarkable instance at Tewkesbury, in the cenotaph of the last Lord Abbot : and we may refer to the monument of William Ashton, in S. John's College chapel, Cambridge.
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The symbolism of ecclesiastics, lying principally in their vestments, does not so much fall within the scope of this essay. The same may be said of the allusion to the Holy Trinity in the benedictory attitude of the bishop : and the distinction between the mitred abbot and the bishop in the former holding his pastoral staff with the crook inwards, as signifying his dominion to be i7itei'nal, i.e. within his own house ; — the latter outwards, to set forth his external dominion over his diocese.
The reception of the soul of the departed into Abraham's bosom is often represented. Sometimes angels are bearing it, in the likeness of a newborn child, (a figure symbolical of its having now returned into its baptismal state of purity) and presenting it before the throne. The founders or rebuilders of churches are known by the building which they hold in their hands.
The carving of the open seats is one of those parts of ecclesiastical symbolism, which it is very hard to explain. The monsters which constantly occur on them may be perhaps regarded as typical of the evil thoughts and bad passions which a life of ease and rest encourages, and it will be observed, that in the choir, a gentler class of ideas often is suggested : we have here flowers and fruit, and birds making their nests, and flocks feeding. There, are however, certain other types to be found here, and also in string courses, and corbel heads, of which we shall presently speak in terms of disapprobation.
Nothing, with this exception, shows the exuberance and beauty of ideas which distinguished the architects of the ages of Faith — and the depth and variety of the scriptural knowledge we are pleased to deny them — than their wood carvings.* There is perhaps hardly a scrip-
* The astonishing scriptural knowledge of Durandus may be judged of from the Index at the end of the volume of texts quoted by him.
Examples of Symbolism cxi
tural subject which they have not handled : and it requires no small degree of ecclesiastical knowledge to be able at all to comprehend many of their allusions : while probably many more are lost to us. The Annuncia- tion is one of the most favourite topics. The almond tree blossoming in the flower pot — the bud terminating in a cross or crucifix — the prayer desk at which the Blessed Virgin kneels — the temple seen in the distance — the Holy Dove descending on a ray of light — these are its general accompaniments. The descent of our Saviour into hell — the delivery of souls —
'Mao^naque ; de magna prseda petita domo :'
the visions of the Apocalypse : the final doom : the passions and triumphs of martyrs — all here find their expression.