[413] Est Christus piscis ille qui ad Tobiam ascendit de flumine vivus, cujus jecore per passionem assato fugatus est diabolus.
[414] Dei Filius, Salvator, piscis in sua passione decoctus, cujus ex interioribus remediis quotidie illuminamur et pascimur.—De Promis. et Prædic. Dei, ii, 39.
[415] ΙΧΘΥΣ, in quo nomine mystice intelligitur Christus, eo quod in hujus mortalitatis abysso, velut in aquarum profunditate vivus.—De Civ. Dei.
[416] Χριστὸς ὁ τροπικῶς λεγόμενος Ἰχθύς.—Opp. ed. Bened., tom. iii, p. 584.
[417] Rom. Sott., p. 210. Probably the aureole of Mediæval art derived its name of vesica piscis from this symbol.
[418] See [Fig. 113].
[419] See [Fig. 118].
[420] Piscis ... Christus tribulationis igne assatus. Compare the phrase of Augustine—Piscis assus Christus passus.
[421] Plerique septiformis Spiritus gratiam in panibus definitam, in piscibus quoque duplicis testamenti figuram intelligendam putant.—Ambrose, in Luc. ix.
[422] This has been minutely examined by Cardinal Pitra—its discoverer—Kirchoff, Garrucci, Le Blant, and other eminent scholars. The monograph of Marriott, its latest editor, is a masterpiece of epigraphical criticism.