[486] 1 Cor. x, 4.
[487] Paulinus of Nola, in the beginning of the fifth century, describes in spirited lines certain paintings analogous to those of which we have been speaking, but including some subjects not treated in the Catacombs. Among these are the passage of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, Joshua and the ark of God, Samson bearing away the gates of Gaza, the Israelites crossing Jordan, and the pathetic episode of Ruth and her sister-in-law, the one following and the other forsaking the stricken Naomi, the emblem, as the worthy bishop remarks, of mankind, part deserting, part adhering to the true faith:
Ruth sequitur sanctam, quam deserit Orpa, parentem;
Perfidiam nurus una, fidem nurus altera monstrat.
Præfert una Deum patriæ, patriam altera vitæ.
[488] Job xix, 17. This subject is also fantastically treated in Mediæval art. In a Byzantine MS. of the ninth or tenth century Job is exhibited as sitting in lugubrious melancholy amid the ruins of his house, while Satan is dancing before him in fiendish joy over the desolation he has caused, and is torturing his victim with a red-hot goad. Didron, Iconog. Chrét., p. 158.
[489] Roma Sotterranea, i, 310. The newly elected pope receives the investiture with the words, “Receive the pallium, to wit, the fullness of the apostle’s office.” Pallia are sent to foreign bishops from the tomb of St. Peter, and those who receive them keep them “in obsequium Petri”—in obedience and devotion to Peter.
[490] Hom. ii. In Ascens. Dom.
[491] Several Romanist writers interpret, with doubtful propriety, a fresco in the cemetery of St. Priscilla as a representation of the Annunciation. True to its gentle genius, the art of the Catacombs passes over the tragical scenes of the Slaughter of the Innocents, whose horrors later art has delighted to portray.
[492] In the church of the Ara Cœli, at Rome, is a miraculous image of the infant Christ, carved, it is said, out of wood from the Mount of Olives, and painted by St. Luke. It is known as the Santissimo Bambino, or Most Holy Babe, and is taken in its state-coach to visit the sick. At one time it received more fees than any physician in Rome. Its fête is celebrated by theatrical representations of the scenes of the Advent. The apocryphal Gospel of the Infancy tends to popularize this feature of Romanism.