21. Again, sometimes Paradise is painted in churches, that it may attract the beholders to a following after its rewards: sometimes hell, that it may terrify them by the fear of punishment.' [Footnote 293] Sometimes flowers [Footnote 294] are portrayed, and trees: to represent the fruits of good works springing from the roots of virtues.
[Footnote 293: A monk named Constantine set before the prince those judgments of God which are in all the world, and the retribution of the life to come: his discourse powerfully affected the heathen monarch (Vladimir, afterwards S. Vladimir); and this was particularly the case when the monk pointed out to him on an icon, which represented the Last Judgment, the different lot of the good and the wicked. "Good to those on the right hand—woe to those on the left," exclaimed Vladimir, deeply affected.'—Mouravieff's 'Hist, of the Russian Church,' p. 11, On which his translator, the Rev. R. W. Blackmore, sensibly remarks, 'Whatever may be the right view of the abstract question respecting icons, and the showing outward respect to them, the Russians at least cannot reasonably be blamed for revering a usage which was made the means, in part at least, of so blessed a result as the conversion of the great Prince Vladimir, the Constantine of their church and nation.']
[Footnote 294: This flower work is excessively common in Norman churches: that of S. Sepulchre's, at Cambridge, was a notable example of it. ]
22. Now the variety of pictures denoteth the diversity of virtues. For 'to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom: to another the word of knowledge,' etc. [Footnote 295] But virtues are represented under the forms of women: because they soothe and nourish. Again, by the ceilings or vaultings, which are for the beauty of the house, the more unlearned servants of Christ are set forth, who adorn the Church, not by their learning, but by their virtues alone.
[Footnote 295: I Corinth, xii, 8. ]
The carved images which project from the walls, appear as it were to be coming out of it: because when by reiterated custom virtues so pertain to the faithful, that they seem naturally implanted in them, they are exercised in all their various operations. How a synagogue is depicted, shall be said hereafter: as also how the pall of the Roman Pontiff: and the year [Footnote 296]and the zodiacal signs and its months. But the diverse histories of the Old and New Testaments may be represented after the fancy of the painter. For
Pictoribus atque poetis
Quod libet [Footnote 297] addendi semper fuit seque potestas.
[Footnote 296: These are often to be found round Norman doors: as in that of S. Laurence, at York, and Egleton, Rutland.]
[Footnote 297: A false reading, of course; yet not without its appropriate sense—the power of adding any ornamental circumstance to the main subject.]
23. Furthermore, the ornaments of the church consist of three things:—the ornaments of the nave, [Footnote 298]the choir, and the altar. The ornaments of the nave consist in dorsals, tapestry, mattings, and cushions of silk, purple, and the like. The ornaments of the choir consist in dorsals, tapestry, carpets, and cushions. Dorsals are hangings of cloth at the back of the clergy. Mattings, for their feet. Tapestry is likewise strewed under the feet, particularly under the feet of bishops, who ought to trample worldly things under their feet. Cushions are placed on the seats or benches of the choir.