Fig. 160.—Symbol of the Trinity, arranged vertically—the Son at the bottom, the Father at the top, and the Holy Ghost in the centre. The Holy Ghost descends from the mouth of the Father and settles on the head of the Son, and proceeds from both. Copied from a French Miniature by Count Horace de Vielcastel (Fourteenth Century).
Fig. 161.—The three faces of the Trinity on one head and body. At first sight is read—“The Father is not the Son; the Father is not the Holy Ghost; the Holy Ghost is not the Son.” But, from the angles to the centre, is also read—“The Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Ghost is God.” Printed by Simon Vostre in 1524.
The Church of Neo-Cesarea used from the first the liturgy of St. James, the earliest of the Eastern liturgies, until St. Basil, justly surnamed the great, for he was one of the most illustrious Fathers of the Greek Church in the fourth century, modified and shortened it. A little later it came to be known as the liturgy of St. Chrysostom, on account of the important changes introduced into it by that Father of the Church.
Fig. 162 to 171.—Monograms of Christ, belonging to the first centuries of the Church, except the last two. They are mostly composed of the letters X and P interlaced, letters which begin the word Christ (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ); one is accompanied by an N [Nazarenus); several have on either side the letters α and ω, in allusion to the text, “I am the beginning and the end.” Two of these monograms, from the Catacombs, recall the labarum of Constantine, especially the one bearing the famous inscription, “In hoc signo vinces;” but it is not certain whether they are rightly attributed. The last two are from the Churches of St. Martin de Lescas (Gironde) and of St. Exupère d’Arreau (Upper Pyrenees), edifices of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.
The canons of the Council of Laodicea, held in 364, contain many regulations for the recitation of the psalms and lessons, which, as early as the second century, according to Tertullian, were recited at Tierce, at Sexte, and at None, that is, at the third, sixth, and ninth hour of the day—at vespers or evening prayer, and at the prayers offered up by the bishops, whether at the ceremonies of baptism and the eucharist, or over catechumens and penitents. It was not until after the conversion of Constantine that public prayers became general in Constantinople even amongst the troops. Constantine built an oratory in his palace, where his whole court worshipped with him. He desired that his soldiers, whether Christians or pagans, should every Sunday repeat aloud certain prayers belonging to the religion of Jesus Christ. Eusebius is the historian who relates this fact. A record has been handed down of a prayer that the Emperor Maximinius declared he had received from the hands of an angel, and which he read out to his soldiers in 313, before he gave battle to Licinius, his rival for the imperial throne.
Fig. 172.—Heathen Caricature drawn on the wall of the Palatinate, in the Third Century, and preserved in the Kircher Museum, at Rome.—The object of veneration of the Christians is represented by a crucified figure with a donkey’s head, looking down on a small figure of a man: it is accompanied by a Greek inscription signifying, “Alexamenus worshipping his God.” Reduced to a quarter the size of the original.
In the fourth century, it was customary nearly everywhere, in the West as well as in the East, after having sung the praises of God, to put up prayers for the reigning sovereign and the leading potentates of the civilised world. For instance, when St. Athanasius cried out in the presence of the faithful, assembled in the splendid basilica of the Cæsars, “Let us pray for the safety of the very pious Emperor Constantine,” the whole assembly answered with one resounding voice, “Christe, auxiliare Constantio!” (“Help Constantine, O Christ!”) The preceding examples, and many others that it would be easy to gather from the history of early Christianity, prove that in the fourth century, in France, in Italy, in Spain, as well as in the churches of the East and of Africa, Christian worshippers were accustomed to recite either aloud or in a low tone, a set form of prayers, to chant, or rather slowly to intone psalms, and to sing hymns. Did not St. Pacôme order his monks to recite twice a day a psalmody which was composed of psalms interspersed with prayers? Did not St. Hilary of Poictiers lay the foundations of the Gallican liturgy, as St. Ambrose did those of the Lombard liturgy, at the time that St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine revised the liturgies of the Eastern and African Churches?