Curiosities of Christian History.
CURIOSITIES
OF
CHRISTIAN HISTORY
PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION
BY
CROAKE JAMES
Author of “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers”
Methuen & Co.
18, BURY STREET, LONDON, W.C.
1892
All rights reserved
Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
PREFACE.
History is often a dreary study except to a few experts; and yet the Christians of to-day naturally wish to know more about their predecessors in the old time before them. There is always much difficulty in separating what to them must be interesting from masses of detail which do not touch their sympathies.
From the time of Christ to the epoch of the Reformation there were no Dissenters—only traitors and heretics, who were deemed unworthy to live in the same world and to breathe the same air as Emperors, Popes, and Bishops. But the Christian temperament can be traced through all the centuries—whether the devout people of the period were martyrs or hermits, monks, nuns, or friars, pilgrims or crusaders, priests or warriors. The same aspirations, misgivings, trials, and difficulties existed then as now, though the trials and difficulties may now be less. The best people of to-day may be trusted to recognise a touch of their own kindred amid all the varieties of time and place and circumstance which make up the past.
I have here collected from many histories, annals, chronicles, and biographies, far and wide, some particulars of the interesting persons, episodes, and events from the Christian’s point of view during the first fourteen centuries. The literature of so many ages is vast, and the things now deemed of most interest are overlaid with heavy material. But I have left out all the miracles—most of the wordy war of doctrines—most of the atrocities of persecutors and inquisitors. I have only culled a few flowers; I have only tried to snatch from oblivion a few brief memorials which may suggest wholesome thoughts and inquiries to modern Christians of every denomination.
C. J.
TABLE OF MATTERS.
THE VIRGIN MARY, HOLY FAMILY, CHRIST, AND THE CRUCIFIXION.
Heathen Knowledge about the Virgin, [1]; Simeon’s Great Age, [2]; Portraits of the Virgin, [2]; Marriage of Joseph and Virgin Mary, [3]; Massacre of Innocents, [4]; Flight to Egypt, [5]; Holy Family Leaving Egypt, [6]; Assumption of Virgin Mary, [7]; Christ Learning Alphabet, [9]; Joseph and Jesus as Carpenters, [10]; Christ’s Baptism, [10]; Portraits of Christ, [11]; King Agbarus, [12]; Christ’s Preaching, [13]; Sentence on Christ, [14]; Christ Appearing to James, [14]; Forms of Crosses, [15]; The Holy Cross, [15]; Thieves at Crucifixion, [16]; Soldier who Pierced the Saviour’s Side, [17]; Legend of the Cross, [17]; Stations of Cross, [18]; Crown of Thorns, [19]; Apocryphal Gospels, [20]; False Christs, [21]; Septuagint Bible, [21]; English Versions of Bible, [22].
THE DISCIPLES AND APOSTLES OF OUR LORD.
Death of the Apostles, [23]; Apostles who were Married, [23]; St. Matthew and St. Mark, [24]; St. Luke and St. Bartholomew, [25]; St. Thomas and St. Simeon, [26]; St. Timothy and St. Barnabas, [27]; St. Titus, St. Philip, and St. Andrew, [28]; James and John, [29]; St. John the Apostle, [30]; St. John and his Partridge, [31]; St. John’s Last Days, [32]; St. John and Edward the Confessor, [33]; St. James the Less, [33]; St. James the Great, [34]; St. Peter and St. Paul, [36]; Deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, [37]; St. Peter when in Rome, [38]; Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome, [39]; If St. Paul in Great Britain, [40]; Judas Iscariot, [41].
CHRIST’S CONTEMPORARIES—CLIMATE AND SCENERY OF PALESTINE.
Sages of Greece and Rome on Christian Prodigies, [42]; Zacharias and John the Baptist, [44]; Pontius Pilate, [45]; Herod the Great, [46]; Mary Magdalene, [47]; St. Martha, [48]; St. Veronica, [48]; Hillel, [49]; Sanhedrim, [49]; Working Man in Christ’s Time, [50]; Pharisaic Niceties, [50]; Sieges of Jerusalem, [50]; Antioch, [51]; Palestine Explorations, [52]; Jordan to the Dead Sea, [53]; Sea of Galilee, [53]; Sources of Jordan, [54]; Waters of Merom, [55]; Rivers of Damascus, [55]; Populousness of Galilee, [56]; Climate of Palestine, [57]; Mount Hermon, [57]; Lilies of the Field, [58]; Wayside Fruits and Flowers, [58]; The Birds, [59]; Wild Beasts and Animals, [60]; Jerusalem, [60]; Nazareth, [61]; Capernaum, [62].
EARLY CHURCH CUSTOMS, FASTS, AND FESTIVALS.
Church History Divided into Ages and Periods, [63]; Apostolic Church, [64]; The Millennium, [64]; Community of Goods, [65]; Emblems of Christians, [66]; Christian Names, [66]; Auricular Confession, [67]; Religious Riots, [68]; Preaching much Applauded, [68]; Dress and Appearance of Clergy, [69]; Priests and Deacons, [69]; Early Bishops, [70]; The Pastoral Staff, [71]; Ancient Churches, [72]; Deaconess, [72]; Liturgy, [73]; Ritualism, [74]; The Mass, [74]; Ancient Church Service, [75]; Organs and Bells, [76]; Separation of Sexes, [77]; Praying for the Dead, [77]; Sin-eaters at Funerals, [78]; Praising the Lord Day and Night, [78]; Christmas Day and Easter Day, [79]; Festival of All Saints, [80]; Holidays and Feasts, [80]; Feast of the Ass, [81]; The Boy Bishop, [81]; Miracle Plays, [82]; Passion Plays, [82]; Festival of the Rose, [83]; The Millennium, [84]; Church Building Age, [84]; Round Towers, [85]; Worship of the Virgin, [85]; Truce of God, [86]; Number Seven in Scripture, [87]; A Jubilee Year, [87]; King’s Prayer for Rain, [89]; The Black Death, [90]; Dancing Mania, [91]; Monk Flagellants, [91]; Extravagant Dress, [92]; Telling Fortunes, [93].
DIFFICULTIES WITH PAGANS, JEWS, IMAGE WORSHIP, AND CIVIL POWERS.
The Name of Christian, [94]; Early Pagan Riot, [94]; Early Christians and Slavery, [95]; The First Persecution, [96]; How Christians Appeared to Pagans, [97]; Shows of Wild Beasts, [97]; Testing Fidelity of Christians, [98]; Constantine the Great, [99]; Standard of the Cross, [100]; Dream of Constantine, [100]; Constantine Preaching, [101]; Last Illness of Constantine, [102]; First Church Council, [102]; Silencing the Pagans, [103]; How to Refute a Heretic, [103]; Julian the Apostate, [105]; Theological Disputes, [105]; Controversy about the Trinity, [106]; Athanasius, [107]; Sermon on the Trinity, [108]; Against Demolishing Temples, [108]; First Demolishing of Temples, [110]; Image at the Palace, [111]; St. Martin of Tours, [112]; The King of the Goths, [112]; Attila, King of the Huns, [113]; Vandals Sacking Rome, [114]; Justinian, [115]; Mahomet’s Knowledge, [115]; Oak of Geismar, [116]; Pope Defending Rome, [117]; Forged Decretals, [118]; Separation of Greek and Latin Churches, [119]; Jew and Christian, [119]; Julian Inciting the Jews, [120]; Hating the Jews, [121]; Golden Age of Judaism, [121]; The Pope and the Jews. [122]; The Jews of York, [122]; Jews Crucifying English Boy, [124]; The Black Death, [124]; Jews Stealing the Host, [125]; Torquemada’s Zeal, [126]; Jewish Physicians, [127]; Converting a Jew, [128]; Controversy about Image Worship, [129]; The Iconoclasts, [130]; John of Damascus, [131]; Claudius of Turin, [133]; Trying to Convert Image Worshippers, [134]; Empress Irene, [135]; Empress Theodora, [135]; Image Worship in Spain, [136]; Pope Hildebrand, [137]; St. Thomas Aquinas, [137]; The Popes as Temporal Princes, [139]; Rienzi, [139]; Last Hours of the Roman Empire, [140]; Election to Holy Roman Empire, [141].
MARTYRS, HERMITS, ANCHORITES, AND RELICS.
Martyr Valeria, [142]; St. Thecla and Polycarp, [143]; St. Felicitas, [144]; The Martyrs of Lyons, [144]; St. Cecilia, [145]; Perpetua, [146]; St. Ursula, [146]; St. Barbara, [147]; Potamiana, [147]; St. Genes the Actor, [148]; Genesius, [148]; St. Alban, [149]; Didymus and Theodora, [149]; St. Cyprian and Justina, [150]; St. John Chrysostom, [150]; St. James Intercisus, [151]; Martyr for Image Worship, [151]; Huss the Bohemian, [152]; Joan of Arc a Modern Patriotic Martyr, [153]; Joan’s Mission, [153]; Joan taken Captive and Burnt, [159]; Outbreak of Hermit Zeal, [160]; First Monastic Life, [160]; St. Antony, [161]; Hermit Visiting, [161]; Hermit and Grapes, [162]; Hermit’s Courtesies, [162]; Hermits’ Quarrel, [163]; Political Economy of Hermits, [163]; The Wise Sayings of St. Pambo, [164]; A Hermit’s Olive Tree, [164]; Macarius, [165]; St. Martin of Tours, [165]; Dorotheus, the Architect, [166]; St. Pœmen, Prince of Hermits, [167]; St. Moyses, Water-carrier, [167]; Hermit’s New Austerities, [168]; St. Carileff, [169]; First Saxon Hermit, [169]; St. Guthlac, [170]; St. Simeon Stylites, [171]; A Pillar Monk, [171]; St. Herbert of Derwentwater, [171]; St. Ethelwald at Farne, [172]; English Queen Consulting Hermit, [174]; Conscientious Hermit, [174]; St. Bartholomew of Farne, [175]; French King sends for Hermit, [176]; Consecration of Hermits and Recluses, [177]; St. Methodius the Martyr, [177]; Miracles of Saints, [178]; Local and Patron Saints, [179]; St. Geneviève, [179]; Reverence for Relics, [180]; Secrecy in Removing Relics, [181]; Capturing Holy Relics, [181]; Stealing Relics, [182]; Defending his Relics, [183]; Forgery of Relics, [183]; How to Flatter a Relic Worshipper, [184]; Empress Begging for Relics, [185]; If Genuine Relics, [185]; The Crown of Thorns Pawned and Sold, [186]; King of France shows Holy Cross, [187]; Blood of Christ at Westminster, [188]; St. Stephen’s Relics, [188]; St. Dunstan, [189]; John Huss on Relics, [190]; Crucifix During the Plague, [190]; Purchasing the Head of St. Andrew, [191]; Pilgrimage to Walsingham, [191]; Pilgrimage in Switzerland, [192]; Pilgrims to Canterbury, [192].
THE FATHERS.
Origen, [194]; St. Ambrose, [194]; St. Jerome, [197]; St. Jerome’s Reflections, [198]; St. Jerome with Lion and Ass, [198]; Deathbed of St. Jerome, [199]; St. Jerome’s Epistles, [199]; St. Chrysostom’s Eloquence, [200]; St. Chrysostom on Monkery, [201]; St. Augustine Witnessing Miracles, [202]; Vision of St. Augustine, [203]; St. Augustine’s Faith in Dreams, [203]; St. Cyril of Alexandria, [204]; Some Notions of the Fathers, [204].
THE MONKS AND THEIR WAYS.
Origin of Monachism, [206]; Miracles of Monks, [207]; Philosophy of Monkery, [207]; Motives for Monks, [208]; Weak Side of, [208]; St. Benedict, [209]; The Reformers of Monkery, [209]; Early Difficulties, [210]; Advice to Monks, [211]; A Monk Denounces Ferocity, [211]; Making the Monks Work, [212]; Improvements, [212]; Monk at Court, [213]; Monks First Drinking Wine, [214]; Charlemagne about Monks, [214]; Leaving Court to be Monk, [215]; Monk going to Court, [215]; The Reason of so many Monasteries, [216]; Life in a Convent, [216]; A Day’s life in Monastery, [217]; Routine of English Monks, [218]; Arrangements of an Abbey, [218]; Monks and Friars, [219]; Friars and Priests, [220]; Enmity between Monks, [220]; Monks Disliked by Clergy, [220]; Monk who Wanted to be an Angel, [221]; Death of Abbess at Aries, [221]; Cædmon, Monk Poet, [222]; Monk Sleeping too long, [223]; Abbot lecturing his Monks, [223]; The War of the two Abbots, [224]; Monks and Gregorian Chant, [225]; Those who Pillage Monks, [225]; Monks to Live Frugally, [226]; Monk’s Burial, [227]; Sick Monks, [227]; Monks Honour Rich Men, [228]; Good Lessons of the Monks, [229]; Pope Inviting a Fellow Monk, [229]; Order of Friars, [230]; Cinderella of the Convent, [230]; Nuns at Sempringham, [231]; Compunctious Visitings of Monks, [232]; Monkery Worked Out, [232]; War of the Nuns of Basle, [233]; Stealing another Monk’s Food, [234]; Monks Deciding on Creeds, [234]; Monk Interceding for Prisoners, [235]; How Carthusians Acquired a Site, [235]; Luther at his Old Convent, [236]; Monks and Polite Letters, [236]; Literature about Saints, [237]; Scriptorium in St. Gall, [237]; Beautiful Manuscripts, [238]; Penmanship of Monks, [239]; Monasteries as Museums, [239]; Embroidery of Nuns, [240]; Monks at Missal Painting, [241]; Music and Illuminating, [241].
PROSELYTISING MONKS AND PREACHERS.
Nun Converts the Iberians, [243]; Fourth-century Missionary, [243]; Sermon by St. Patrick, [244]; Monk Warding Off Locusts, [244]; First Planting the Cross in England, [245]; Pope Gregory and England, [246]; Impression on Saxon King, [247]; Methodius Preaching, [247]; Apostle of Switzerland, [248]; St. Eligius, [248]; Anschar the Apostle, [249]; St. Neot, Cornish Saint, [250]; Conversion of Russia, [251]; Bishop Otto, [251]; Norbert and Clerical Vices, [252]; Fulk, [252]; St. Dominic’s Zeal, [253]; St. Francis of Assisium, [254]; St. Francis tending the Lepers, [254]; The Stigmata of St. Francis, [255]; Biography of St. Francis, [256]; St. Antony of Padua, [256]; English Friars Disdained Shoes, [257]; Raimund Lull, [258]; St. Ignatius of Loyola, [259]; St. Vincent de Paul, [260]; Mediæval Missionaries, [261]; Friar Startling Judges, [261]; The Schoolmen, [262]; Friars on Useless Ornaments, [262]; Friar on Fashionable Vices, [263]; Denouncing Female Headdresses, [263]; Savonarola, [264].
FAMOUS MONKS AND MONASTERIES.
A Monk with a Genius for Monkery, [266]; St. Ninian, the Scottish Saint, [267]; St. Mungo, [267]; Monk Absenting Himself from Prayers, [268]; Death of St. Benedict, [269]; St. Columba of Iona, [269]; Death of St. Columba, [270]; The Monk Columban, [271]; St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, [272]; St. Chad, [273]; St. Hilda, Abbess, [274]; The Abbey and Monks of St. Gall, [274]; The Venerable Bede, Monk and Historian, [275]; St. Cuthbert Admitted Monk, [275]; The Body of St. Cuthbert, [277]; Deathbed of Venerable Bede, [278]; A Warrior Duke becomes Monk, [280]; The Swiss Abbey of Einsiedeln, [281]; St. Meinrad, a Monk of the Alps, [282]; Croyland Abbey Burnt, [283]; Nuns of Coldingham, [283]; Monks of Cluny, [281]; St. Dunstan, Archbishop, [285]; Monks of St. Bernard, [285]; Chancellor becomes Monk, [286]; Deathbed of Abbot Turketel, [286]; Monk Nilus, [287]; Monastery of Bec, [289]; Fire at Crowland Abbey, [290]; Monks of Vallombrosa, [291]; A Monk Transcriber of Holy Books, [292]; A Monk Musician, [293]; Training of Monk Bishop, [293]; Monk Abelard and Nun Heloïse, [294]; Abelard and St. Bernard, [295]; Abelard’s Last Days, [295]; Order of Carthusians, [296]; Order of Cistercians, [297]; St. Bernard as a Young Monk, [297]; St. Bernard as Abbot, [298]; St. Bernard’s Miracles, [298]; Bernard and his Sister, [299]; Bernard and Peter the Venerable, [300]; Schoolmen of Middle Ages, [301]; Deathbed of Abbot, [302]; Visions of Sister Hildegard, [302]; Travelling to Rome, [303]; Portrait of Abbot Sampson of St. Edmundsbury, [304]; Monks Rebuilding their Altar, [305]; Abbot Harassed with Cares, [306]; Annoyed at Visit of the Legate, [307]; Deathbed of Princess, [308]; Stealing St. Antony’s Psalm Book, [308]; Monk for a King, [309]; Elizabeth of Hungary, [310]; Panic among Saracens, [310]; Fancies of the Starved Monk, [311]; Monasteries of Mount Athos, [312]; Monks of La Trappe, [312]; Certosa Monastery, [313]; Catherine of Siena, [314]; Monks of Lucca, [314]; Thomas à Kempis, [315]; Peter of Alcantara, [316]; Visions of St. Theresa, [317]; The Emperor Monk, [318]; Emperor Monk’s Dress, [319]; His Apartments, [319]; Detestation of Heretics, [320]; Interest in Clock-making, [321]; His Confessor, [321]; His Choir, [322]; At Dinner-time, [323]; He Celebrates his own Funeral, [323]; Funeral Sermon on Emperor Monk, [324].
SOME BISHOPS, KINGS, POPES, AND INQUISITORS.
Unity of the Clergy, [326]; Supremacy of Pope, [326]; Election of Popes, [328]; Dress of Cardinals, [328]; The Degraded Bishop, [329]; Emperor and the First Abdication, [330]; Bishop Building Workhouse, [330]; Bishops Striving for a Site, [331]; How Bishops were Made, [331]; Fifth-century Bishop, [332]; Putting Down Soothsayers, [338]; Bishop Releasing Prisoners, [334]; The King of the Gauls, [334]; Pope Getting Rid of Pestilence, [335]; Choosing Archbishop, [335]; Pope Gregory and the Emperor, [336]; John the Almsgiver, [337]; Giving a Bishop a Horse, [338]; A Christian’s Scruples, [339]; A Model Churchman, [339]; Why Pope’s Foot Kissed, [340]; Agobard of Lyons, [340]; St. Swithin, [341]; King Alfred, [341]; King Alfred’s Love of Reading, [342]; Bishop at Head of Troops, [343]; Two Scapegrace Popes, [344]; The Ugliest Archbishop, [345]; Bishop and Emperor’s Jokes, [345]; King Canute, [346]; Peasant Rebuking Bishop, [347]; St. Margaret of Scotland, [348]; Death of William the Conqueror, [348]; English King Marrying Nun, [350]; Awaking Bishop for Mass, [351]; Anselm, Archbishop, [351]; Saracen King by Divine Right, [352]; Archbishop Turstin, [353]; King John and the Bishop, [354]; St. Thomas à Becket, [355]; Monk Describes Papal Interdict, [356]; Pope Punishing Kings, [357]; Candid Friend to Pope, [358]; Excommunication of Emperor, [359]; Emperor Retaliating on Pope, [360]; Pope’s Clerks Extorting Money, [360]; Aerial Music at Bishop’s Death, [362]; Fool Posing Theologians, [362]; Hermit for Pope, [363]; Philip the Fair and the Pope, [364]; Pope of Fourteenth Century, [365]; Wicliff, the Reformer, [365]; The Popes at Avignon, [366]; The Rival Popes, [367]; Three Popes at one Time, [368]; Pope John XXIII., [370]; Owl Attending a Council, [370]; Sale of Indulgences, [371]; Bishop Inviting his Old Master, [372]; Sultan who Abdicated, [372]; Pope Nicholas V., [373]; Fop Elected Pope, [374]; Pope Leo X., [375]; Turning Pagan into Christian Monuments, [376]; The Inquisition, [377]; Spanish Inquisition at Work, [379]; Torquemada, [379]; An Auto-da-Fè in Spain, [380]; Assassination of Inquisitor, [380]; Cardinal Ximenes, [381]; Irrepressible Heretics, [382]; Waldenses, [382]; Lawyer for Pope, [383].
SACRED LEGENDS.
Lives of Saints, [385]; Christian Legends, [385]; How Legends Grow, [386]; Thundering Legion, [387]; The Theban Legion, [387]; The Divining Rod, [387]; St. George and the Dragon, [388]; St. Christina, [389]; St. Christopher, [389]; Hallelujah Victory, [391]; Prophecies of Merlin, [391]; Devil Showing a Book, [392]; Wandering Jew, [392]; St. Sabas, [393]; Theophilus and the Devil, [393]; Holy Grail, [394]; Seven Sleepers, [394]; Little Blind Herve, [395]; Supper of St. Gregory, [395]; St. Gregory Releasing Trajan, [395]; St. Bega, [397]; St. Fructuosus and the Doe, [397]; Pope Joan, [398]; Bishop Hatto, [398]; St. Conrad, [399]; The Piper of Hameln, [399]; Lady Godiva, [399]; Sacred Fire in Greek Church, [400]; Superstitions of the Greek Church, [401]; Prester John, [401]; Loretto, [401]; King Richard I.’s Story, [402]; St. Francis and his Love of Birds, [403]; Bonaventura, on St. Francis, [405]; St. Antony Preaching to the Fishes, [406]; St. Roch, [407].
THE CRUSADERS AND PILGRIMS.
Monk Historian on the Crusades, [408]; Crusades Beneficial, [408]; Practice of Pilgrimages, [409]; Early Travels in Palestine, [410]; Ways of Pilgrims, [410]; Peter the Hermit, [411]; Pope Urban II., [413]; Hunger for Earth of Palestine, [413]; Getting Rid of Spies, [414]; Discovering the Holy Lance, [415]; Testing a Doubtful Point, [417]; First Sight of Jerusalem, [417]; Assaulting Jerusalem, [418]; Capturing Jerusalem, [419]; First Visit to the Holy Places, [419]; A Second Crusade, [420]; French Queen as Crusader, [421]; St. Bernard on his Crusade, [422]; Bringing Relics, [422]; Another Crusade, [423]; Emperor’s Crusadership, [423]; Fulk of Neuilly, [424]; Death of Richard I., [424]; French Pillaging Constantinople, [425]; Crusaders against Heretics, [425]; The Albigenses, [427]; Children’s Crusade, [428]; Preaching of Crusade, [428]; Escaping the Crusader, [429]; Master of Hungary, [430]; Deathbed of St. Louis, [430]; Crusaders on their Way Home, [431]; Bequeathing a Heart as Crusader, [432]; Knights Templars, [433]; Faith in Providence, [434]; Columbus Crusader, [435]; Numbers of Crusaders, [436]; Greek Church, [437].
SOME GREAT CHURCHES AND CATHEDRALS.
Early Church Architecture, [438]; Coptic Church, [439]; Spires, Towers, and Dimensions of Cathedrals, [440]; Gothic Cathedrals, [440]; Altar, [441]; Incense and Holy Water, [442]; St. Peter’s at Rome, [442]; The Sistine Chapel, [443]; Genoa and Turin, [444]; Milan, [445]; Florence and Pisa, [446]; Naples, [447]; Santiago Compostella, [448]; Leon, [449]; Seville and Toledo, [450]; Cordova and Amalfi, [451]; Valencia and Oviedo, [452]; Paris, Marseilles, and Strasburg, [453]; Amiens, [454]; Rheims and Aix-la-Chapelle, [455]; Treves and Antwerp, [456]; Cologne and St. Petersburg, [457]; Vienna and Constantinople, [458]; Mosque of Omar and Jerusalem, [459]; Bethlehem, [460]; British Churches and St. Paul’s, [461]; Canterbury and York, [463]; Durham, [465]; Winchester and Oxford, [466]; Peterborough, [467]; Salisbury and Wells, [468]; Other English Cathedrals, [469]; Welsh Cathedrals, [471].
THE SACRED PAINTERS AND COMPOSERS.
Pictures in Churches, [472]; Monk Painter, [472]; Pictures in Monasteries, [473]; Sacro Monte, [473]; Images in Spain, [474]; Cimabue, [475]; Bishop’s Ape Takes to Painting, [475]; Painter’s Critics, [477]; Nuns Criticising Artist, [477]; Brother Artists Rivals, [478]; Painter Affronting Angel, [479]; Angelico, [479]; Bronzes for the Gates of Paradise, [480]; Old Painters’ Perspective, [481]; Monks Overfeeding Artist, [481]; A Clumsy Crucifix, [482]; Killed by a Sight of Gold, [482]; Artist Deceiving Birds and Beasts, [483]; Finding a Model, [483]; A Divine Artist, [484]; Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, [485]; Raphael’s Pictures, [487]; A Last Masterpiece, [489]; The Inquisition on Sacred Art, [490]; Painting Face of Christ, [491]; Assisting Artist with Prayers, [492]; Michael Angelo, [492]; Vargas’s Devotion to Sacred Art, [496]; Titian’s Head of Christ, [496]; Diffident Artist, [496]; Rubens’s Great Pictures, [497]; Monks Getting a Bargain of Picture, [498]; Velasquez’s Crucifixion, [498]; How Monks Got Pictures, [499]; The Divine Murillo, [499]; Cano’s Picture of the Virgin, [500]; A Painter Incautiously Watching Effects, [501]; Origin of Church Bells, [501]; Sanctity of Bells, [502]; Chimes on Church Bells, [502]; The Swiss Horns, [402]; Early Church Music, [503]; Singing in Church, [503]; Origin of Singing in Church Service, [504]; The Organ in Church Music, [504]; Augustine Converting the Britons with Music, [506]; The Earliest Hymns, [506]; Monk Musicians, [506]; Nicholas Peregrinus, [507]; Heresy Propagated by Music, [507]; The Pope Reforming Church Music, [508]; Singing the Miserere, [508]; Luther’s Church Music, [509]; Originator of Oratorios, [509]; The Heaven-born Composer of Anthems, [510]; First Impressions of Handel, [511].
FLOWERS OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
THE VIRGIN MARY, HOLY FAMILY, CHRIST, AND THE CRUCIFIXION.
HEATHEN KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE VIRGIN MARY.
According to an ancient legend, the Emperor Augustus Cæsar repaired to the sibyl Tiburtina to inquire whether he should consent to allow himself to be worshipped with Divine honours, which the Senate had decreed to him. The sibyl, after some days of meditation, took the Emperor apart, and showed him an altar; and above the altar, in the opening heavens, and in a glory of light, he beheld a beautiful Virgin, holding an Infant in her arms; and at the same time a voice was heard saying, “This is the altar of the Son of the Living God.” Whereupon Augustus caused an altar to be erected on the Capitoline Hill, with this inscription—“Ara primogeniti Dei”; and on the same spot in later times was built the church called the Ara-Cœli, well known, with its flight of one hundred and twenty-four marble steps, to all who have visited Rome.
This particular prophecy of the Tibertine sibyl to Augustus rests on some very antique traditions, Pagan as well as Christian. It is supposed to have suggested the “Pollio” of Virgil, which suggested the “Messiah” of Pope. It is mentioned by writers of the third and fourth centuries, and our own divines have not wholly rejected it; for Bishop Taylor mentions the sibyl’s prophecy among “the great and glorious accidents” happening about the birth of Jesus.
LEGEND ABOUT SIMEON’S GREAT AGE.
It is related that when Ptolemy Philadelphus, about two hundred and sixty years before Christ, resolved to have the Hebrew Scriptures translated into Greek, for the purpose of placing them in his far-famed library, he despatched messengers to Eleazar, the high priest of the Jews, requiring him to send scribes and interpreters learned in the Jewish law to his court at Alexandria.
Thereupon Eleazar selected six of the most learned rabbis from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, seventy-two persons in all, and sent them to Egypt, in obedience to the commands of King Ptolemy; and among these was Simeon, a priest and a man full of learning. And it fell to the lot of Simeon to translate the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. And when he came to that verse where it is written, “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son,” he began to misdoubt in his own mind how this could be possible; and after long meditation, fearing to give scandal and offence to the Greeks, he rendered the Hebrew word Virgin by a Greek word which signifies merely a young woman. But when he had written it down, behold, an angel effaced it, and substituted the right word. Thereupon he wrote it again and again; and the same thing happened three times; and he remained astonished and confounded. And while he wondered what this could mean, a ray of Divine light penetrated his soul. It was revealed to him that the miracle which in his human wisdom he had presumed to doubt was not only possible, but that he, Simeon, “should not see death till he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”
Therefore he tarried on earth by the Divine will for nearly three centuries, till that which he had disbelieved had come to pass. He was led by the Spirit to the Temple on the very day when Mary came there to present her Son and to make her offering; and immediately taking the Child in his arms, he exclaimed, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word.”
PORTRAITS OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
Nicephorus Callixtus says that the person of the Virgin Mary was described by Epiphanius, who lived in the fourth century, and who derived the particulars from his predecessors. He said: “She was of middle stature; her face oval; her eyes brilliant and of an olive tint; her eyebrows arched and black; her hair was of a pale brown; her complexion fair as wheat. She spoke little, but she spoke freely and affably; she was not troubled in her speech, but grave, courteous, tranquil. Her dress was without ornament, and in her deportment was nothing lax or feeble.”
Mrs. Jameson says that Raphael’s “Madonna di San Sista,” in the Dresden Gallery, comes nearest to her notion of the Virgin.
AN EXACT PORTRAIT OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
In the College of Jesuits at Valencia a picture of the Virgin by Juanes is looked upon with immense admiration. The tradition runs that Father Alberto was on the eve of the Assumption waited on by the Blessed Virgin herself, who required him to cause her portrait to be taken in the dress she then wore, which was a white frock or tunic, with a blue cloak; and Christ was to be represented also in the design as placing a crown on her head, while the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove hovered over the group. Alberto therefore gave the commission to Juanes, who, appreciating the honour, devoutly set himself to work, and put forth all his skill on the composition. The first sketch did not please Alberto; but the Father assisted the artist so effectually with his prayers, that at last the artist’s pencil seemed to succeed at every stroke; and in the end the Father, taking credit himself for much of the work, was highly pleased with the happy result. During the work Juanes was one day seated on his scaffold finishing the upper parts of the picture, when the structure gave way, and he was in the act of falling, when the Holy Virgin stepped suddenly out of the canvas, and, seizing his hand, preserved him from instant death. This being done, the Blessed Virgin returned to her canvas, and has continued there ever since, all the supplicants and worshippers who look on it devoutly believing in this being an exact counterpart of the original. This great artist died in 1579; and Valencia contains many of his masterpieces, for he ranks high in the school of Raphael.
THE MARRIAGE OF JOSEPH AND THE VIRGIN MARY.
The legend of the marriage of the Virgin Mary is thus given in the “Protevangelion” and the “History of Joseph the Carpenter”: “When Mary was fourteen years old, the priest Zacharias inquired of the Lord concerning her what was right to be done; and an angel came to him and said, ‘Go forth and call together all the widowers among the people, and let each bring his rod (or wand) in his hand; and he to whom the Lord shall show a sign, let him be the husband of Mary.’ And Zacharias did as the angel commanded, and made proclamation accordingly. And Joseph the carpenter, a righteous man, throwing down his axe and taking his staff in his hand, ran out with the rest. When he appeared before the priest and presented his rod, lo! a dove issued out of it—a dove dazzling white as the snow—and after settling on his head, flew towards heaven. Then the high priest said to him, ‘Thou art the person chosen to take the Virgin of the Lord and to keep her for Him.’ And Joseph was at first afraid, and drew back; but afterwards he took her home to his house, and said to her, ‘Behold, I have taken thee from the temple of the Lord, and now I will leave thee in my house, for I must go and follow my trade of building. I will return to thee, and meanwhile the Lord be with thee and watch over thee.’ So Joseph left her, and Mary remained in her house.”
THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS.
Milman says that the murder of the innocents by Herod’s orders is a curious instance of the reaction of legendary extravagance on the plain truth of the evangelic history. The Greek Church canonised the fourteen thousand innocents; and another notion, founded on a misinterpretation of Rev. xiv. 3, swelled the number to one hundred and forty-four thousand. The former, at least, was the common belief of the Church, though even in the English Liturgy the latter has in some degree been sanctioned by retaining the chapter of Revelation in the “epistle for the day.” Even Jeremy Taylor admits without scruple or thought the fourteen thousand. The error did not escape the notice of the acute adversaries of Christianity. Vossius was the first divine who pointed out the monstrous absurdity of supposing such a number of infant children under two years in so small a village.
THE ANGEL GUIDING THE VIRGIN TO EGYPT.
The journey of the Holy Family to Egypt, being about four hundred miles, must have occupied five or six weeks. It is related in the legend as follows: “We are told that, on descending from the mountains, they came upon a beautiful plain, enamelled with flowers, watered by murmuring streams, and shaded by fruit trees. In such a lovely landscape have painters delighted to place some of the scenes of the flight into Egypt. On another occasion, they entered a thick forest, a wilderness of trees, in which they must have lost their way had they not been guided by an angel. As the Holy Family entered this forest, all the trees bowed themselves down in reverence to the Infant God; only the aspen, in her exceeding pride and arrogance, refused to acknowledge Him, and stood upright. Then the Infant Saviour pronounced a curse against her, as He afterwards cursed the barren fig tree; and at the sound of His words the aspen began to tremble through all her leaves, and has not ceased to tremble even to this day.”
HEROD HEARING OF THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT.
Another legend about the journey of the Holy Family to Egypt is this: “When it was discovered that the Holy Family had fled from Bethlehem, Herod sent his officers in pursuit of them. And it happened that when the Holy Family had travelled some distance, they came to a field where a man was sowing wheat. And the Virgin said to the husbandman, ‘If any shall ask you whether we have passed this way, ye shall answer, “Such persons passed this way when I was sowing this corn.”’ For the Holy Virgin was too wise and too good to save her Son by instructing the man to tell a falsehood. But, behold, a miracle! For, by the power of the Infant Saviour, in the space of a single night the seed sprang up into stalk, blade, and ear, fit for the sickle. And next morning the officers of Herod came up, and inquired of the husbandman, saying, ‘Have you seen an old man with a woman and a Child travelling this way?’ And the man who was reaping the wheat replied, ‘Yes.’ And they asked him again, ‘How long is it since?’ And he answered, ‘When I was sowing this wheat.’ Then the officers of Herod turned back and left off pursuing the Holy Family.”
THE PALM TREE AND THE HOLY FAMILY.
One of the most popular legends concerning the flight into Egypt is that of the palm or date tree which at the command of Jesus bowed down its branches to shade and refresh His mother; hence, in the scene of the flight, a palm tree became a usual accessory. In a picture by Antonello Mellone, the Child stretches out His little hand and lays hold of the branch; sometimes the branch is bent down by angel hands.
Sozomen, the historian, relates that, when the Holy Family reached the term of their journey and approached the city of Heliopolis, in Egypt, a tree which grew before the gates of the city, and was regarded with great veneration as the seat of a god, bowed down its branches at the approach of the Infant Christ. Likewise it is related (not in legends merely, but by grave ecclesiastical authorities) that all the idols of the Egyptians fell with their faces to the earth.
THE HOLY FAMILY AND THE WILD BEASTS OF THE DESERT.
The “Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew” contains the following (chapter xix.): “In like manner lions and leopards adored the Child Jesus, and kept company with the Holy Family in the desert. Whithersoever Joseph and Blessed Mary went, they went before them, showing the way and bowing their heads; and showing subjection by wagging their tails, they adored Him with great reverence. Now, when Mary saw lions and leopards and various kinds of wild beasts coming round them, she was at first exceedingly afraid; and Jesus, with a glad countenance, looking into her face, said, ‘Fear not, mother, because they come not to thy hurt, but they hasten to come to thy service and Mine.’ By these sayings He removed fear from her heart. Now, the lions walked along with them, and with the oxen and asses and the beasts of burden which carried necessaries for them, and hurt no one, although they remained with them; but they were tame among the sheep and rams, which they had brought with them from Judæa, and had with them. They walked among wolves, and feared nothing, and no one was hurt by another. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet, ‘Wolves shall feed with lambs; lion and ox shall eat chaff together’ (Isa. xi. 6-9; lxv. 25). There were two oxen also with them, and a cart, wherein they carried necessaries; and the lions directed them in their way.”
THE HOLY FAMILY LEAVING EGYPT.
Jeremy Taylor says, as to the pagan idols, as follows: “The Holy Family, on their departure for Egypt, made, it is said, their first abode in Hermopolis, in the country of Thebais; whither, when they first arrived, the Child Jesus, being by design or providence carried into a temple, all the statues of the idol-gods fell down, like Dagon at the presence of the ark, and suffered their timely and just dissolution and dishonour, according to the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘Behold, the Lord shall come into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence.’ And in the life of the prophet Jeremy, written by Epiphanius, it is reported that ‘he told the Egyptian priests that then their idols should be broken in pieces when a Holy Virgin with her Child should enter into their country.’ Which prophecy possibly might be the cause that the Egyptians did, besides their vanities, worship also an infant in a manger and a virgin. From Hermopolis to Maturia went these pilgrims in pursuance of their safety and provisions, where it is reported they dwelt in a garden of balsam till Joseph ascertained by an angel the death of Herod.”
THE BOY CHRIST ON LEAVING EGYPT.
St. Bonaventure, a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, who died 1274, wrote a Life of Christ, which is or was much read by all good Catholics, and which contains the following: “The next morning, when the Holy Family are ready to set out on their journey from Egypt, imagine you see some of the most respectable matrons of the city and the wiser part of the men come to accompany them out of the gates. When they were out of the gates, the Holy Joseph dismissed the company, not suffering them to go on any farther, when one of the wealthiest of them called the Child Jesus, and in compassion to the poverty of His parents bestowed a few pence upon Him; and the rest of the company, after the example of the first, did the same. Compassionate here the confusion of the Divine Child, who, blushing, holds His little hands out to receive what the love of poverty has reduced Him to want. Pity likewise His holy parents, who share with Him His confusion; and think on the great lesson here set you when you see Him who made the earth and all that is in it make choice of so rigorous a poverty and so penurious a life for His blessed parents and Himself. What lustre does not the virtue of poverty receive from their practice! And how can we behold it in them without being charmed to the love and imitation of the like perfection! After returning thanks to their company and taking their leave, they proceeded on their journey.”
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
It was usually believed that the Virgin Mary lived to a great age, and her death is unknown. It was a tradition that she was assumed to glory without dying. The practice of praying to her has been traced as far back as the second century. In the fourth century a sect called the adversaries of Mary rose up and affirmed that she had, after the birth of Christ, several children by Joseph. On the other hand, a sect honoured her as a divinity and offered cates to her.
THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
The legend of the death and assumption of the Virgin Mary was to this effect. One day an angel appeared to the Virgin, bringing her a branch of palm gathered in Paradise, and saying that it was to be carried before her bier, for in three days her soul should leave her body. The Virgin then asked that the Apostles might be reunited before she died, so as to witness her death, and she asked that no evil angel should harass her soul. The angel agreed, and returned to heaven; and Mary lighted the lamps, and prepared her bed, and waited for the hour. At that instant, John, who was preaching at Ephesus, Peter, at Antioch, and all the other Apostles dispersed throughout the world, were suddenly caught up as by a miraculous power and came into her chamber. The palm branch was put in John’s hand, and he wept bitterly. At the third hour of the night a mighty sound filled the house, and a delicious perfume filled the chamber. And Jesus appeared Himself, accompanied by an innumerable company of angels, patriarchs, and prophets, all surrounding the bed of the Virgin and singing hymns of joy. Jesus presented a crown to His mother; and as the angels sang and rejoiced, her soul left her body, and was received into the arms of her Son, and they ascended into heaven. The Apostles looked up, beseeching her to remember them when she came to glory. The body of the Virgin remained on earth; and when three of the virgins washed and clothed it in a shroud, such a glory of light surrounded it that though they touched they could not see it, and no human eye beheld those sacred limbs unclothed. The Apostles took up the body reverently, and placed it on a bier. John carried the celestial palm before the procession, and Peter sang the 114th Psalm, in which the angels joined. Her soul then rejoined the body, and she ascended to heaven as the angels were blowing their silver trumpets, singing as they touched their golden lutes, and rejoicing as she rose. One disciple, Thomas, was absent; and when he arrived soon after, he would not believe in the resurrection of the Virgin, as he would not formerly believe in that of Christ. He desired that the Virgin’s tomb should be opened before him; and when it was opened, it was found to be full of lilies and roses. Then Thomas, looking up to heaven, beheld the Virgin bodily in a glory of light, slowly mounting towards heaven. And she, for the assurance of his faith, flung down to him her girdle, the same which is to this day preserved in the cathedral at Prato. And there were present at the death of the Virgin Mary, besides the twelve Apostles, Dionysius the Areopagite, Timotheus, and Hierotheus; and of the women, Mary Salome, Mary Cleophas, and a faithful handmaid whose name was Savia. When Thomas went as an apostle to the East, he entrusted the precious girdle to one of his disciples. After the lapse of a thousand years, one Michael, a crusader, fell in love with the daughter of a Greek priest, who had the custody of the girdle, and she got it as a dowry, and brought it with Michael, whom she married. It was thus that it came to be deposited in the cathedral at Prato, where it still remains.
CHRIST LEARNING THE LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET.
There is a legend in the “Gospel of the Infancy” to this effect. When the Holy Family had returned from Egypt, our Lord being then about seven or eight years old, Mary was exhorted to send her Son to school. And although she knew perfectly that He required no human teaching, she complied. She brought Him to a certain schoolmaster whose name was Zaccheus, and the schoolmaster wrote out the alphabet for Him, and began with the first Hebrew letter, saying, “Aleph.” And Jesus pronounced after him “Aleph.” Then the master went on to the second letter, saying, “Beth”; but Jesus said, “Tell me first what means this letter ‘Aleph,’ and then afterwards I will say ‘Beth.’” But the schoolmaster could not tell Him. And Jesus began to teach him and to explain the meaning and the use of all the letters—how they were distinguished, why some were crooked and some were straight—until Zaccheus the schoolmaster stood in astonishment, and exclaimed, “Was this Child born before Noah? for, behold, He is wiser than the wisest man, and needs no teaching.”
HOW JESUS RAISED A BOY TO LIFE.
The “Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas” has the following (chapter vii.): “One day, when Jesus went up on a certain housetop with some children, He began to play with them. But one of the boys fell through the back door, and immediately died. And when the children saw it, they all fled; but Jesus remained on the housetop. And when the parents of the boy that was dead had come, they said to Jesus, ‘Truly thou didst make him fall.’ And they laid wait for Him. But Jesus, going down from the housetop, stood over the dead child, and called with a loud voice the name of the child: ‘Sinoo, Sinoo! arise, and say if I made thee fall.’ And suddenly he arose and said, ‘No, Lord.’ Now, when his parents saw so great a miracle which Jesus did, they glorified God and adored Jesus.”
JOSEPH AND JESUS AS CARPENTERS.
The “Arabic Gospel of the Infancy” has the following (chapter xxxix.): “On a certain day the King of Jerusalem sent for him and said, ‘Joseph, I wish thee to make me a throne of the measure of the place where I have been used to sit.’ Joseph obeyed, and immediately after he put his hand to the work; he remained two years in the palace, until he had finished making the throne. But when he had it removed into its place, he perceived that on each side it was two spans shorter than the proper measure. On seeing this the king was angry with Joseph; and Joseph being greatly afraid of the king, passed the night supperless, and tasted nothing whatever. Then he was asked by the Lord Jesus why he was afraid. ‘Because,’ said Joseph, ‘I have lost all that I have done for two years.’ The Lord Jesus said to him, ‘Fear not, nor lose heart; but take thou one side of the throne, and I will take the other to set it right.’ And when Joseph had done as the Lord Jesus had said, and each had pulled on his own side, the throne was made right, and brought to the exact measure of the place. When this prodigy was seen, they who were present were amazed, and praised God. Now, the wood of the throne was of that kind which was celebrated in the time of Solomon the Son of David—that is, variegated and diversified.”
CHRIST’S PRAYER AT HIS BAPTISM.
The following is said by Jeremy Taylor to be a current version of this prayer: “O Father, according to the good pleasure of Thy will, I am made a man; and from the time in which I was born of a Virgin unto this day I have finished those things which are agreeable to the nature of man, and with due observance have performed all Thy commandments, the mysteries and types of the law; and now truly I am baptised; and so have I ordained baptism, that from thence, as from the place of spiritual birth, the regeneration of men may be accomplished. And as John was the last of the legal priests, so am I the first of the evangelical. Thou therefore, O Father, by the meditation of My prayer, open the heavens, and from thence send Thy Holy Spirit upon this womb of baptism; that as He did untie the womb of the Virgin and thence form Me, so also He would loose this baptismal womb, and so sanctify it unto men, that from thence new men may be begotten, who may become Thy sons, and My brethren, and heirs of Thy kingdom. And what the priests under the law, until John, could not do, grant unto the priests of the New Testament (whose chief I am in the oblation of this prayer), that whensoever they shall celebrate baptism, or pour forth prayers unto Thee, as the Holy Spirit is seen with Me in open vision, so also it may be made manifest, that the same Spirit will adjoin Himself to their society in a more secret way, and I will by them perform the ministries of the New Testament, for which I am made a man; and as the high priest I do offer these prayers in Thy sight.”
This prayer was transcribed out of the “Syriac Catena” upon the third chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, and is by the author of that Catena reported to have been made by our Blessed Saviour immediately before the opening of the heavens at His baptism, and that the Holy Spirit did descend upon Him while He was thus praying; and for it he cites the authority of St. Philoxenus.
PORTRAITS OF CHRIST.
It is singular that there are no authentic portraits of Christ in existence. The evangelists do not think it necessary to make any statements as to Christ’s personal appearance. Origen, born 186, seems the earliest writer who notices that subject, and he says the Saviour had no external beauty. But the Fathers and the artists have all insisted that His countenance must have corresponded to His character. A letter supposed to have been written by Lentulus, a friend of Pilate, to the Roman Senate, professes to describe the personal appearance, but some doubt its authenticity. It was preserved, and first came to light among the writings of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who lived in the eleventh century. Another description is contained in the writings of St. John of Damascus, who flourished in the eighth century, and he professes to have known from earlier writers that Jesus had “eyebrows that joined together, beautiful eyes, curly hair, black beard, a yellow complexion, and long fingers like His mother.” Others say that St. Luke was a painter, and Nicodemus was a sculptor, and thus that some portraits must have existed. It is also said that Pilate took secretly a portrait of Christ. There is also a legend that King Agbarus wrote a letter to Christ, asking for a visit to cure him of leprosy, and at all events for a portrait; and that Christ answered that He could not visit him, having other work to do, but He would send a disciple who would cure him. And St. Thomas did so. Others add that Christ sent His portrait on a handkerchief to Agbarus. Again, there is a legend about Veronica and her handkerchief, which had a portrait miraculously impressed, and which she preserved.
EARLY DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST’S PERSONAL APPEARANCE.
The letter purporting to be written by Publius Lentulus, a friend of Pilate, to the Roman Senate, and preserved in St. Anselm’s writings, if not genuine, is supposed to have been fabricated as early as the third century, and is as follows: “In this time appeared a man who lives till now—a man endowed with great powers. Men call Him a great prophet. His own disciples term Him the Son of God. His name is Jesus Christ. He restores the dead to life, and cures the sick of all manner of diseases. This man is of noble and well-proportioned stature, with a face full of kindness and yet firmness, so that the beholders both love Him and fear Him. His hair is the colour of wine, and golden at the root—straight and without lustre—but from the level of the ears curling and glossy, and divided down the centre, after the fashion of the Nazarites. His forehead is even and smooth; His face without blemish, and enhanced by a comely red; His countenance ingenuous and kind; nose and mouth in no way faulty. His beard is thick, of the same colour as his hair, and forked in form. His eyes are blue and extremely brilliant. In reproof and rebuke He is formidable; in exhortation and teaching, gentle and amiable of tongue. None have seen him to laugh; but many, on the contrary, to weep. His person is tall; His hands beautiful and straight. In speaking he is deliberate and grave, and little given to loquacity. In beauty surpassing most men.”
KING AGBARUS WRITING A LETTER TO CHRIST.
Eusebius, who died about 338, mentions the legend about King Agbarus, who sent to Christ by the hand of Ananias, his footman, a letter inviting Him to Edessa, saying that he had heard of the cures performed by Christ, and that he earnestly desired to be cured of a disease. Our Lord replied that He could not come, for His mission to the Jews must be fulfilled; but after His Ascension He would send one of His disciples, who would cure him and all that were with him. Nothing further is known, except that St. John of Damascus, writing in the eighth century, alluding to the story, says that Agbarus also requested Christ’s picture as a means of cure. Others say Agbarus sent a painter to take the likeness, but he found an insurmountable difficulty in the light which beamed from the Lord’s countenance. Christ, knowing the thoughts of the messenger, took His robe, and, pressing it to His countenance, a perfect portrait was left upon it; and this was sent to King Agbarus, who was cured thereby. Others add that Ananias, in conveying the portrait, had occasion to stop at Hierapolis, and, fearing to lose it, hid it among some bricks; but a supernatural light surrounded the place, and the image was also copied on a brick lying near the cloth, and this brick was also preserved. The original cloth afterwards found its way to Constantinople, another to Rome, and another to Genoa. The replica of the cloth is shown in St. Sylvester’s, in Rome.
CHRIST’S NOVEL STYLE OF PREACHING.
Dr. Jortin thus happily describes the novel, striking, and permanent beauty of Christ’s style of preaching: “In the spring our Saviour went into the fields and sat down on a mountain, and made that discourse which is recorded in St. Matthew, and which is full of observations arising from the things which offered themselves to His sight. For when He exhorted His disciples to trust in God, He bade them behold the fowls of the air, which were then flying about them, and were fed by Divine Providence, though they did not sow nor reap nor gather into barns. He bade them take notice of the lilies of the field, which were then blown, and were so beautifully clothed by the same power, and yet toiled not, like the husbandmen who were then at work. Being in a place where they had a wide prospect of cultivated land, He bade them observe how God caused the sun to shine and the rain to descend upon the fields and gardens, even of the wicked and ungrateful. And He continued to convey His doctrine to them under rural images, speaking of good trees and corrupt trees—of wolves in sheep’s clothing—of grapes not growing upon thorns, nor figs on thistles—of the folly of casting precious things to dogs and swine—of good measure pressed down, and shaken together and running over. Speaking at the same time to the people, many of whom were fishermen and lived upon fish, He says, ‘What man of you will give his son a serpent, if he ask a fish?’ Therefore, when He said in the same discourse to His disciples, ‘Ye are the light of the world: a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid,’ it is probable that He pointed to a city within their view, situated upon the brow of a hill. And when He called them the salt of the earth, He alluded perhaps to the husbandmen who were manuring the ground; and when He compared every person who observed His precepts to a man who built a house upon a rock, which stood firm; and every one who slighted His word to a man who built a house upon the sand, which was thrown down by the winds and floods,—when He used this comparison, it is not improbable that He had before His eyes houses standing upon high ground, and houses standing in the valley in a ruinous condition, which had been destroyed by inundations.”
THE SENTENCE ON CHRIST.
St. Basil affirms that the high priest caused the Holy Jesus to be led with a cord about His neck; and in memory of that the priests for many ages wore a stole about theirs. But the Jews did it, according to the custom of the nation, to signify He was condemned to death.
Jeremy Taylor says that it cannot be thought but the ministers of Jewish malice used all the circumstances of affliction which in any case were accustomed towards malefactors and persons to be crucified; and therefore it was in some old figures we see our Blessed Lord described with a table appendent to the fringe of His garment, set full of nails and pointed iron, for so sometimes they afflicted persons condemned to that kind of death. And St. Cyprian affirms that Christ did stick to the wood that He carried, being galled with the iron at His heels and nailed even before His execution.
CHRIST APPEARING TO JAMES.
Jeremy Taylor says that after the resurrection Christ appeared also unto James, but at what time is uncertain, save that there is something concerning it in the Gospel of St. Matthew which the Nazarenes of Berea used, and which it is likely themselves added out of report; for there is nothing of it in our Greek copies. The words are these: “When the Lord had given the linen in which He was wrapped to the servant of the high priest, He went and appeared unto James. For James had vowed, after he received the Lord’s Supper, that he would eat no bread till he saw the Lord risen from the grave. Then the Lord called for bread; He blessed it and brake it, and gave it to James the Just, and said, ‘My brother, eat bread, for the Son of man is risen from the sleep of death.’”
By this it would seem to be done upon the day of resurrection; but the relation of it by St. Paul puts it between the appearance which He made to the five hundred and that last to the Apostles, when He was to ascend into heaven.
THE VARIOUS FORMS OF CROSSES.
The early Christian writers even in the second century treated prominently the cross as a symbol of the faith, and it came to be held in high honour. The precise figure of the cross, however, is somewhat doubtful, and various forms have been accepted less simple than that now so familiar. There are modifications according to particular countries and places.
One cross resembles the Hebrew letter T, there being no upper limb above the horizontal line. The Greek Cross is a cross where the four limbs are of equal length. The Latin Cross is that commonly used by Christians, the lower perpendicular limb being at least twice the length of the upper limb. The Cross of the Resurrection has a small banner attached to the upper portion, and the lowest perpendicular limb is much longer than the other three. The Cross of the Baptist has also a smaller scroll attached in like manner. The Patriarchal Cross, or Cross of the Holy Sepulchre, was a Greek Cross brought from the East by the Crusaders, also called the Archbishop’s Cross and the Cross of Lorraine, and it has two transverse bars, one shorter and above the other. The Papal Cross is like the last, but has three transverse bars. The Greek Cross, known in mediæval times as St. Andrew’s Cross, consists of slanting bars, instead of perpendicular and horizontal. There are other fanciful forms of cross, called the Cross of Jerusalem, having a small lip at the end of four equal limbs. The Irish Cross, or Cross of Iona, has a circle placed over the upper part of the cross. There are pectoral crosses more or less fanciful, worn as relics and ornaments of dress.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE HOLY CROSS.
When Constantine triumphed over his enemies by the miraculous power of the cross, he resolved to build a magnificent church in Jerusalem. His mother, St. Helena, then resolved, though eighty years old, to go herself to discover the identical cross there. On her arrival none could tell where it was, as the heathens, it was thought, purposely concealed it from the Christians by burying it under heaps of rubbish, building over it a temple of Venus, and placing there a statue of Jupiter. But Helena persevered, and pulled down these pagan erections, and at a great depth discovered three crosses, and also the nails used and the label or superscription. A difficulty then arose as to which of the three was the cross on which the Saviour was hung. To solve this doubt, Bishop Macarius suggested that the three crosses should be carried and shown to a sick and dying lady. Two of the crosses having produced no effect, the third, on being touched by her, cured the patient at once. St. Helena on this was delighted, and built a church on the spot where the cross was found, and she carried part of the cross to Constantinople to her son Constantine: another part was sent to the church at Rome. St. Helena died the same year, in 326. The board on which Christ’s title was printed in red letters was about twelve inches long, and was sent to Rome. The main part of the cross was inclosed in a silver shrine, and given to be kept in Jerusalem by St. Macarius in the church which Helena and Constantine built there. St. Paulinus said that though chips were almost daily cut off from the cross and given to devout persons, yet the sacred wood suffered no diminution. And pieces were taken to all the ends of the earth. The church at Jerusalem was called the Basilica of the Holy Cross.
THE NAILS OF THE CROSS.
The nails of the cross were traced with great devotion. Calvin said there were fifteen. There was one at Rome, one at Sienna, one at Venice, one in the Church of the Carmelites in Paris, and some in other places. A practice arose of filing part of the nail and touching a true nail with other nails, and so giving a kind of sanctity to those. St. Gregory the Great and other popes sent raspings of the chains of St. Peter as relics in the same way. As to the true nails of the cross, it was said St. Helena threw one into the Adriatic Sea to allay a violent storm from which the ship was sinking, whereon the storm at once ceased. St. Ambrose said that Constantine the Great fixed one of the nails in a rude diadem of pearls to be worn on great occasions, and he put another in the costly bridle of his horse as a protection in time of battle.
THIEVES AT THE CRUCIFIXION.
There is an ancient tradition that, when the Holy Family, travelling through hidden paths and solitary defiles, had passed Jerusalem and were descending into the plains of Syria, they encountered certain thieves, who fell upon them; and one of these would have maltreated and plundered them, but his comrade interfered and said, “Suffer them, I beseech thee, to go in peace, and I will give thee forty groats, and likewise my girdle,” which offer being accepted, the merciful robber led the Holy Travellers to his stronghold on the rock, and gave them lodging for the night. And Mary said to him, “The Lord God will receive thee to His right hand, and grant the pardon of thy sins.”
And it was so: for in after-times these two thieves were crucified with Christ, one on the right hand and one on the left; and the merciful thief went with the Saviour into Paradise. The scene of this encounter with the robbers, near Ramla, is still pointed out to travellers, and still in evil repute as the haunt of banditti. The crusaders visited the spot as a place of pilgrimage; and the Abbé Orsini considers the first part of this story as authenticated, but the legend concerning the good thief he admits to be doubtful.
THE SOLDIER WHO PIERCED THE SAVIOUR’S SIDE.
There is a legend that the soldier who pierced the Saviour’s side, whose name was Longinus, was struck with wonder and remorse, and exclaimed, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” He was therefore the first of the Gentiles to be converted. As soon as he had lifted his blood-stained hands to his face, his eyesight, which for years had been weak, was healed. He repented, was baptised, and was for twenty-eight years an ardent missionary. He was then ordered to sacrifice to the false gods, and on refusal said he longed to become a martyr, and told the governor, who was blind, that he would recover his sight only after putting him to death. Accordingly, Longinus was beheaded, and the governor had his sight restored, and became himself also a Christian. St. Longinus, as the first-fruits of the Gentiles, is painted by the artists, and he became the patron saint of Mantua; and the spear with which he pierced the Saviour’s side is preserved among the treasures of St. Peter’s at Rome.
THE LEGEND OF THE CROSS.
A Life of Christ published in 1517 at Troyes told the following story. When Adam, after being banished from Paradise, in his old age felt the approach of death, he sent Seth to Paradise to ask the archangel who kept the gate to give him a balsam that would save him from death. Seth with difficulty traced the way, and on reaching it was transported with wonder and rapture at the dazzling beauty of the scene, and the music, and the glittering sword of the cherub. He had not courage to remember his message; but the angel read his thoughts, and told him that the time of pardon had not yet come, and that four thousand years must roll on before the Redeemer would open the gate to Adam. Nevertheless, as a token of future pardon, he allowed Seth a glimpse of the interior of Paradise, and of the mighty tree on which redemption was to be won. The cherub gave Seth three seeds of this tree, which were to be placed in the mouth of Adam when buried. This was done a few days after Seth’s return, when Adam died and was buried. Out of this grave rose a cedar, a cypress, and a pine. Moses had a rod of one of these trees. The cedar, after many ages, was that of which the Cross of Calvary was made. It was carried off on the plundering of Jerusalem to Persia, but was recovered by Heraclius on September 14th, 615, the day afterwards commemorated as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS.
The painters of sacred subjects for churches used to divide the stages of the Crucifixion into seven, and latterly into fourteen. The first importation of the stations into Europe was said to be by a citizen of Nuremberg, who returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy City in 1477, and soon after engaged Kraft, a friend of Albert Dürer, to execute seven sculptures for stone pillars to be erected in the city of Nuremberg. The fourteen stations afterwards came to be entitled as follows: (1) Jesus is condemned; (2) Jesus takes the cross; (3) Jesus falls for the first time; (4) Jesus meets His blessed mother; (5) Simon the Cyrenian appears; (6) Jesus meets St. Veronica; (7) Jesus falls for the second time; (8) the daughters of Jerusalem; (9) Jesus falls for the third time; (10) Jesus is stripped of His garments; (11) Jesus is nailed on the cross; (12) Jesus dies on the cross; (13) Jesus is laid in the arms of His blessed mother; (14) the entombment.
THE CROWN OF THORNS, THE SPONGE, AND THE BLOOD.
Not only the cross, but the crown of thorns, also had its history. The crown of thorns had been preserved for several centuries at Constantinople, and had been pledged to the Venetians for a large sum of money, as is stated afterwards in more detail. The crown of thorns was at last given by the Emperor Baldwin II. to St. Louis, King of France, in acknowledgment of the king’s contributions to defend the holy places, and he redeemed it from the Venetians. It was carried in a sealed case by holy religious men from Venice into France; and St. Louis and his family, and prelates and princes, met the holy treasure five leagues beyond Sens. The king and his brother were barefoot and in their shirts, and were bathed in tears, and a great procession followed them. It was ultimately lodged in La Sainte Chapelle, the exquisite Holy Chapel at Paris, built for the purpose of receiving it. A part of the cross was also afterwards received and added to the deposit there. The holy sponge used at the Crucifixion was shown at Rome in the church of St. John Lateran tinged with blood. The holy lance was kept at Jerusalem with the main part of the cross. It was afterwards buried at Antioch to preserve it from the Saracens. It was at a later date taken to Jerusalem, and then to Constantinople. It was said the Emperor Baldwin pawned the point of it to raise money, and it was redeemed by St. Louis of France and taken to the Holy Chapel in Paris. At a later date, in 1492, the Sultan sent the lance as a present to Pope Innocent VIII., stating that the point was in the possession of the King of France. The blood of Christ was also shown in some places, particularly at Mantua.
THE PAWNING OF THE CROWN OF THORNS (A.D. 1213).
This pawning was as follows. When Baldwin II., Emperor of Constantinople, was hard pressed in 1213, Gibbon relates that the crown of thorns had been preserved in the Imperial Chapel of Constantinople. In his absence the barons of Romania borrowed a sum of 13,134 pieces of gold (about £6,567) on the credit of the crown. They failed to repay the loan, and a rich Venetian, Nicholas Querini, undertook to satisfy the impatient creditors, on condition that the relic should be lodged at Venice, to become his absolute property if not redeemed within a short and definite period. The barons apprised their sovereign of the hard treaty and the impending loss; and as the empire could not redeem the crown, Baldwin was anxious to snatch the prize from the Venetians, and to vest it with more honour and emolument in the hands of the most Christian king, Louis IX. of France. The king’s ambassadors, two Dominicans, were despatched to Venice to redeem and receive the holy crown, which had escaped the dangers of the sea and the galleys of Vataces. On opening a wooden box, they recognised the seals of the Doge and barons, which were applied on a shrine of silver, and within this shrine the monument of the Passion was enclosed in a golden vase. The reluctant Venetians yielded to justice and power. The Emperor Frederick granted a free passage. The King of France and his court advanced as far as Troyes, in Champagne, to meet with devotion the inestimable relic. It was borne in triumph by the king himself, barefoot and in his shirt; and a free gift of 10,000 marks of silver reconciled Baldwin to his loss. The success of this transaction tempted Baldwin to offer, with the same generosity, the remaining furniture of his chapel. A large and authentic portion of the true cross, the baby linen of the Son of God, the lance, the sponge, and the chain of His Passion, the rod of Moses, and part of the skull of John the Baptist, were purchased by Louis IX. for 20,000 marks, and lodged in Sainte Chapelle in Paris.
THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS.
Certain books have been written and circulated in the early ages of Christianity which professed to recite events not mentioned in the Four Gospels or New Testament. Though all are spurious and of uncertain authorship, there is, nevertheless, great interest in some of the incidents; and as they were so extensively read by early Christians some account of these is acceptable to all readers of sacred subjects. Though in all ages treated with contempt by the authoritative teachers in the Church, it is easy to comprehend how they came to attract so much notice, for there is an air of simplicity and verisimilitude in some of the incidents, and of course no human being is in a position to affirm or deny the substance of the things thus recorded. Milman says these legends can still be traced in some of our Christmas carols. One of these apocryphal gospels is called the “Protevangelion, or Gospel of James,” who was one of the sons of Joseph the carpenter, and it records incidents of the childhood of Jesus. The existence of this gospel is traced to the fourth century. Another is the “Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, or of the Infancy of Mary and of Jesus,” supposed to be written in the fifth century. Another is the “Gospel of the Nativity of Mary.” This was fathered upon Jerome, and supposed to be written in the fifth century, and it was much read in the Middle Ages. Another is the “History of Joseph the Carpenter,” supposed to belong to the fourth century. Another is the “Gospel of Thomas, or Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus,” said to be written about the middle of the second century. Another is the “Arabic Gospel of the Infancy,” ascribed to the fifth or sixth century. There is also a professed correspondence between Jesus and King Agbarus, part of which is said to belong to the sixth century and part to the third century. There is also the “Gospel of Nicodemus, or Acts of Pilate,” supposed to be written in the second century. There are also Letters and Reports of Pilate and Herod about Christ, professing to narrate facts and incidents of that time. All these gospels or legends abound in miracles and prodigies, some of them very puerile. A translation was published of the above-mentioned legends by B. Harris Cowper in 1867.
FALSE CHRISTS IN DIFFERENT AGES.
False Christs began to appear early, as is mentioned in St. Luke and by Josephus: Jortin mentions other successors. In the reign of Adrian one Barcohab pretended to be Messias. In 434 one Moses Cretensis promised, like Moses, to divide the sea at Crete and deliver the Jews there; and some people, when commanded by him, actually cast themselves into the waves and perished. Again, about 420, the time of Socrates the historian, another impostor appeared. Again, in 520, one Dunaan; one Julian in 529; one Mohammed in 571; another, a Syrian, in 721. In 1138 another in France; in 1157 another in Spain; in 1167 another in Fez. In Arabia, in 1167, another appeared, and was brought before the king, who asked the pretender what sign or miracle he could show in attestation of his power. The man replied, “Cut off my head, and I will return to life again.” The king took him at his word, and the head was cut off, but it never was put on again nor life restored. Again, another appeared in Persia in 1174; another in Moravia in 1176; another, who was also an enchanter, in Persia in 1199; another in Spain in 1497; another in Austria in 1500; another in Cologne in 1509; another in Spain, burnt by the Emperor Charles V., in 1534; another in the East Indies in 1615; another in Holland in 1624; another in Smyrna in 1666, named Sabbatar Sevi, who raised great expectations; another in 1682, named Rabbi Mordecai, a German Jew.
THE SEPTUAGINT BIBLE AND NEW TESTAMENT.
Vast difficulties surround the settlement of the orthodox list of books of the New Testament. The Old Testament was not used as a name in the time of Christ; but the sacred books, or the Law and the Prophets, were the modes of reference, these being read regularly in the synagogues as part of the ceremonial of public worship. In the third century before the Christian era, the Old Testament was translated into Greek, or at least was begun to be so, in order to meet the wants of the Greek-speaking Jews. Ptolemy II. is said to have asked the high priest at Jerusalem to select skilful elders to make the translation, and a copy was to be deposited in the library at Alexandria. Some think the word “Septuagint” implied that there were seventy translators; others that it only meant that the work was approved by the Alexandrine Sanhedrim. The translation is said to be defective in several passages. The Septuagint came soon to be the standard version, as Hebrew had become almost an unknown language even to the Jews of Palestine. The dates and order of the Gospels have also given rise to interminable controversies. The Apostles all gave oral recollections of the facts of Christ’s life and sayings. The expression “New Testament” did not come into use until the latter part of the second century. A canon was at length settled, though the date is uncertain, expressing the authentic collection of Christian Scriptures. And yet the earliest known list of books of the New Testament was not discovered till the seventeenth century in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, and the original of it was said to be of the date of 150 A.D.
ENGLISH VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE.
Mr. Dore says that there is no English Bible known to be in existence earlier than the fourteenth century. But the Psalter and other portions of the Old and New Testament were translated from the Latin into English at various times between the seventh and fourteenth centuries. Three versions in English of the Psalter bear a date soon after 1300. The first entire Bible in English was the work of Nicholas de Hereford and John Wycliffe, about 1380. Tyndale’s New Testament was printed in English about 1525, and he died in 1537. Coverdale’s Bible in the English language was published in 1535. The Genevan Version, published in English at Geneva in 1560, by its singular rendering of Gen. iii. 7, is commonly known as the Breeches Bible. A Roman Catholic translation into English of the New Testament was published at Rheims in 1582, and later at Douai, on the removal of the Roman Catholic College to the latter place. King James I.’s new translation of the Bible, called the Authorised Version, was first published in 1611.
CHAPTER II.
THE DISCIPLES AND APOSTLES OF OUR LORD.
DEATHS OF THE APOSTLES.
St. Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia. St. Mark expired at Alexandria, after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city. St. Luke was hanged upon an olive tree in Greece. St. John was put into a caldron of boiling oil, but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was afterwards banished to Patmos. St. Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward. St. James the Great was beheaded at Jerusalem. St. James the Less was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the Temple, and then beaten to death with a fuller’s club. St. Philip was hanged against a pillar at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. St. Bartholomew was flayed alive. St. Andrew was bound to a cross, whence he preached to his persecutors till he died. St. Thomas was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel, in the East Indies. St. Jude was shot to death with arrows. St. Matthias was first stoned and then beheaded. St. Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned by the Jews at Salonica. St. Paul, after various tortures and persecutions, was at length beheaded at Rome by the Emperor Nero.
THE APOSTLES WHO WERE MARRIED.
Eusebius says that Clement, who lived in the first century, gave a statement of those Apostles who continued in the married state. Peter and Philip had children. Philip also gave his daughters in marriage to husbands. Others say that Philip had four virgin daughters who prophesied. Paul does not demur in a certain epistle to mention his own wife, whom he did not take about with him, in order that he might expedite his ministry the better. It is said that Peter, seeing his own wife led away to execution, was not displeased, and he called out to her in a comforting voice, addressing her by name, “Be sure to remember the Lord!”
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. MATTHEW THE APOSTLE.
Levi was the name of Matthew, who was of Jewish extraction, and was born in Galilee. He was a publican or tax-collector, which was a profession odious among the Jews, as it reminded them of their slavery to the Romans. After the Ascension he preached in Judæa and the neighbouring countries till the dispersion of the Apostles, and a little before the latter date he wrote his gospel, his object being to satisfy the converts of Palestine: while Mark wrote his for the Roman converts; Luke, to oppose the false histories; and John, to oppose the heresies of Cerinthus and Ebion. Matthew afterwards went as apostle to the East. He lived sparingly, ate no flesh, and was a vegetarian. He was in the south and east of Asia, ended in Parthia, and suffered martyrdom at Nadabar. He was said to be honourably interred at Hierapolis. His relics were brought to the West, and in 1080 Pope Gregory VII. said these were kept in a church which bore his name at Salerno. The Apostles each had some mystical animal as an emblem. John had the eagle; St. Luke had the calf; Mark had the lion; and Matthew had a man, to denote Christ’s human generation. The primitive Christians always stood up when the Gospel of Matthew was read, and in many places candles were lighted, though it was day. Thomas Aquinas always read the gospel on his knees.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. MARK.
St. Mark was born a Jew, and was said to be converted by the Apostles after the Resurrection. He became attached to St. Peter, and was called his disciple. He was sent by St. Peter to found the Church at Aquileia, and was afterwards appointed Bishop of Alexandria, then considered the second city of the world after Rome. He was afterwards a martyr there, having incurred suspicion of being a magician from the miracles he worked. He was tied and dragged about the streets, and thrown over rocks and precipices, and died in 68, three years after St. Peter and St. Paul. His body was afterwards conveyed by stealth to Venice in 815, and was deposited in a secret place in the Doge’s rich chapel of St. Mark, and he is deemed the patron saint of Venice.
THE HOUSE OF ST. MARK.
Jeremy Taylor says that “the house of John, surnamed Mark (as Alexander reports in the life of St. Barnabas), was consecrated by many actions of religion: by our Blessed Saviour’s eating the Passover; His institution of the Holy Eucharist; His farewell sermon; and the Apostles met there in the octaves of Easter, whither Christ came again, and hallowed it with His presence; and there, to make up the relative sanctification complete, the Holy Ghost descended upon their heads in ‘the Feast of Pentecost’; and this was erected into a fair fabric, and is mentioned as a famous church by St. Jerome and Venerable Bede; in which, as Andrichomius adds, ‘St. Peter preached that sermon which was miraculously prosperous in the conversion of three thousand; there St. James, brother of our Lord, was consecrated first Bishop of Jerusalem; St. Stephen and the other were there ordained deacons; there the Apostles kept their first council and compiled their Creed.’”
PARTICULARS OF ST. LUKE THE EVANGELIST.
St. Luke was a native of Antioch, was well educated, and studied and became eminent as a physician. Some think he was converted by St. Paul, and he attached himself to that apostle. He wrote the gospel in 57, four years before his final arrival at Rome. He attended St. Paul to Rome in 61. After the martyrdom of St. Paul, he preached in Italy, Gaul, and Macedonia. It is thought he was crucified at Elæa, in the Peloponnesus, on an olive tree, at the age of eighty-four. His bones were, by order of the Emperor Constantine, in 357 removed from Patras, in Achaia, and deposited in the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, together with those of St. Andrew and St. Timothy. Some of his relics went to Brescia, some to Nola, some to Findi, and some to Mount Athos. The head of St. Luke was brought to Rome, and laid in the church of the monastery of St. Andrew. Old manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke represent him as surrounded with instruments of writing.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
There have been differences of opinion as to the identity of St. Bartholomew, some being of opinion that he was the same Nathanael whose simplicity and guilelessness were commended. He was chosen one of the Twelve, and was a witness of the Resurrection. He went after the Ascension as an apostle to the Indies and Persia. He was afterwards in Phrygia, and Lycaonia, and Great Armenia, in which last place he was crucified. Some say he was first flayed alive. In 508 the Emperor Anastasius removed his relics to the city of Duras, in Mesopotamia. Soon after they were translated to the Isle of Lipari, near Sicily, in 809 to Benevento, and in 983 to Rome, and are deposited under the high altar in the Church of St. Bartholomew, in the Isle of Tiber. An arm of the apostle’s body was sent to Edward the Confessor by the Bishop of Benevento, and it was put in Canterbury Cathedral. A fine statue of the apostle is in the cathedral at Milan, representing him flayed alive. The characteristic quality of St. Bartholomew was zeal.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE.
St. Thomas was a Galilean fisherman, and was made an apostle in 31. He was rather slow in understanding, but of great simplicity and ardour. He offered to go to Jerusalem and die with Christ, when the priests and Pharisees were contriving His death. After the Crucifixion Thomas refused to believe the report of the Resurrection until he actually saw the prints of the nails and felt the very wound in Christ’s side; and Christ, in His condescension to this weakness, allowed him to satisfy himself, whereupon Thomas was prostrated with compunction. After the descent of the Holy Ghost, Thomas went to preach in Parthia, and laboured in Media, Persia, and Bactria, as well as India. He is said to have suffered martyrdom at Meliapor, or St. Thomas’s, on this side the Ganges, on the coast of Coromandel, where his body was discovered pierced with lances. The body was carried to the city of Edessa, and deposited under the great church there with veneration. St. Chrysostom said, in 402, that the sepulchres of only four of the Apostles were then known—namely, Peter, Paul, John, and Thomas. John III., of Portugal, ordered the body of St. Thomas to be searched for at Meliapolis, and when digging there in 1523 a deep vault was discovered, containing the bones of the saint, and part of the lance with which he was slain, and a vial tinged with his blood. The apostle’s body was put in a chest of porcelain adorned with silver. The Portuguese built a new town about this church, and called it St. Thomas’s.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. SIMEON.
St. Simeon, son of Cleophas or Alphæus and of Mary, sister of the Virgin, and cousin-german of Christ, was about nine years older than Christ. He succeeded his brother St. James the Less as Bishop of Jerusalem in 62. The Christians having been warned to leave Jerusalem, St. Simeon and they departed before Vespasian, general of the Romans, entered and burnt the city. Heresies grew up in the Church before the death of St. Simeon. He was crucified at the age of 120, having governed the Church at Jerusalem about forty-three years.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. TIMOTHY.
St. Timothy was early adopted as disciple by St. Paul, having been in his youth a great reader of pious books. He was made Bishop of Ephesus before St. John arrived there. Under the Emperor Nerva, in 97, while St. John was still in Patmos, Timothy was slain with stones and clubs by the heathen, owing to his opposing the idolatrous practices then current. His relics were conveyed to Constantinople in 356, in the reign of Constantius, and with those of St. Andrew and St. Luke were deposited under the altar in the Church of the Apostles.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. BARNABAS.
The Scriptures contain no mention of St. Barnabas after he separated from St. Paul and sailed for Cyprus. Some say he afterwards went to Milan, and became the first bishop there. In an apocryphal work of the fifth century, it is said he suffered martyrdom in Cyprus, being stoned by the Jews, who hated him on account of his unorthodox views. The apostle was buried in the island; but four centuries later his relics were removed to Constantinople, and a church erected and dedicated to him. It is said that at the discovery of the relics of St. Barnabas there was found lying on his breast a copy of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, written in the Hebrew tongue, and as was supposed in St. Barnabas’s own hand. The relics were translated in the seventh century to Milan. Still later, it was said that the body was taken to Toulouse, where also were the bodies of five other apostles: James, the son of Zebedee; Philip; James, son of Alphæus; Simon; and Jude. The head is now exhibited there apart from the body, which reposes in its own shrine. Another head of St. Barnabas is in Genoa, another at Naples, another in Bavaria; and legs and bones and jaw are dispersed in other places. There was extant in the second century an Epistle of St. Barnabas, but its authenticity has long been discredited.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. TITUS.
St. Titus was born a Gentile, and seems to have been converted by St. Paul. He was afterwards ordained by St. Paul to be Bishop of Crete. He lived to the age of ninety-four, and died in that island. His body was kept with great veneration in the cathedral of Gortyna, the ancient metropolis of the island, and six miles from Mount Ida. This city was destroyed by the Saracens in 823, and the relics could not be discovered. But the head of the saint was conveyed safely to Venice, and is venerated in the ducal basilica of St. Mark.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. PHILIP THE APOSTLE.
St. Philip, who lived at Bethsaida in Galilee, was, when called to his office, a married man with three daughters, two of whom lived virgins to a great age. It was Philip to whom Jesus proposed the problem how to feed the multitude of five thousand in the wilderness. After the Ascension Philip preached in Phrygia, and was known to Polycarp, and attained a great age. He was buried at Hierapolis, and his relics, it was believed, often saved the city. An arm of St. Philip was sent to Florence in 1204: the body was said to be in the Church of St. Philip and St. James in Rome.
PARTICULARS AS TO ST. ANDREW THE APOSTLE.
St. Andrew the Apostle was a native of Bethsaida, on the banks of Lake Gennesareth, and brother of Simon Peter. St. Andrew became a disciple of John the Baptist, and heard John hail Jesus as the Lamb of God. Believing there was some mysterious significance in this saying, he followed Christ wistfully, and asked where He dwelt, whereon Christ bade him come and see, and that night was spent in His company. The result was that Andrew was the first called of the Apostles; hence called by the Greeks Protoclete. Andrew could not rest till he had told Peter, and he was also called as a disciple. Jesus once lodged at the house of the two brothers, and healed their mother of a fever. Andrew was specially consulted as to the loaves and fishes available to feed the five thousand. After the Resurrection Andrew preached in Scythia, also in Greece, where he confounded all the philosophers. He went also to Muscovy. He was at last crucified at Patræ, in Achaia, and some say it was on an olive tree. His body was carried from Patræ to Constantinople in 357, along with those of Luke and Timothy, and deposited in the Church of the Apostles. Some of his relics were taken to Milan, Nola, and Brescia; and the French, in 1210, brought some of them to Amalphi. It is a common opinion that the cross of St. Andrew was in the form of the letter X, styled a cross decussate; and it is said his cross was brought from Achaia to the nunnery of Weaune, near Marseilles; then to the abbey of St. Victor, Marseilles, in 1250, and where it is still shown. Part of it was taken to Brussels by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who founded the Knights of the Golden Fleece, each of whom wears a St. Andrew’s Cross, or the Cross of Burgundy. An abbot of St. Andrew’s, Scotland, also, in 369, brought certain relics from Patræ, and deposited them in a monastery, now the site of St. Andrew’s, and many foreign pilgrims long visited that church. The order of knighthood in honour of St. Andrew was ascribed by the Scots to King Achaius in the eighth century, and James VII. revived it. The collar is of thistles and rue.
HOW ST. ANDREW BECAME PATRON SAINT OF SCOTLAND.
When Angus MacFergus succeeded in 731 to the throne of the Picts, he had several enemies to subdue, and carried his forces across the Firth of Forth to fight the Saxons of Northumbria. A monk, Regulus, at that time brought the relics of the apostle to Scotland. Previous to a great battle in Lothian, St. Andrew appeared to King Angus either in a dream or during the battle with the figure of the St. Andrew’s Cross in the air, and told the king that he (the saint) was defender of his kingdom, and that on the return of the king to his home he must devote one-tenth part of his kingdom in honour of St. Andrew. Angus gained a great victory over the Saxon general, named Athelstane, who fell at the place now called Athelstaneford. After this date St. Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland, up to which time, as Bede says, St. Peter had filled that office. The church at Hexham and the church of St. Andrew’s were both dedicated to St. Andrew, and both possessed relics of the apostle.
JAMES AND JOHN THE APOSTLES.
James and John, the sons of Salome, claimed the two first places in Christ’s kingdom. James was put to death by Herod. As to John, he alone of the Apostles attended the Crucifixion, and was harassed by the spectacle. In his old age, when he survived all the other Apostles and governed all the Churches of Asia, he was arrested at the instance of Domitian, and then taken prisoner to Rome in 95.
ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE.
St. John the Evangelist and Apostle was the son of Zebedee and Salome, a Galilean, and younger brother of St. James the Great. John was a disciple of John the Baptist, and is supposed to have been with Andrew, when the two left the Baptist to follow Christ. John was the youngest of all the Apostles, being about twenty-five when called, and he lived seventy years after the Crucifixion. He lived a bachelor. John went with Peter to the sepulchre on hearing the news from Mary Magdalene, and he outran Peter and had the first view. He and Peter returned to their fishing, and he first recognised Christ walking on the shore. After the meeting of the Apostles, John preached first in Jerusalem, then went to Parthia. He afterwards took charge of all the Churches of Asia. In the persecution of 95, John was apprehended in Asia, and sent to Rome, where he was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil; but he was not injured. He was afterwards banished by Domitian to the isle of Patmos, in the Archipelago, and there he wrote the Revelation. At the death of Domitian in 97, John returned to Ephesus, some months after the martyrdom of St. Timothy there. He was pressed to take charge of that Church. John wore a plate of gold on his forehead, as an ensign of his Christian priesthood. It was to confute the blasphemies of Ebion and Cerinthus, who denied the divinity of Christ, that John composed his gospel in 98, at the age of ninety-two. He also wrote the three epistles. He died in peace at Ephesus at ninety-four, though some ancients said he never died. He was buried on a mountain outside of Ephesus, and his dust was said to be famous for the miracles it wrought.
AS TO ST. JOHN’S GRAVE.
St. Augustine mentions and ridicules a tradition that St. John ordered his own grave to be made, lay down in it, and went to sleep,—still sleeping there, as is manifest by the heaving of the earth over him as he breathes. This was the tradition founded on John xxi. 22, 23, where Jesus said to Peter, “If I will that he [John] tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die.” Some afterwards explained this by saying that John died without pain or change, and immediately rose again in bodily form, and ascended into heaven to rejoin Christ and the Virgin.
ST. JOHN RECLAIMING A YOUNG ROBBER CHIEF.
It was related by Clement of Alexandria that, when St. John was at Ephesus, and before he was exiled to Patmos, he had taken under his care a young man of promising character, and whom he left in charge to a bishop during his own absence. But the youth took to evil courses, and went to the forest and headed a band of robbers and assassins. When John, on returning, asked for the youth and heard this account, he rent his garments, and wept with a loud voice at the faithless guardianship, and called for a horse and rode to the forest in search of the youth. When the latter as captain beheld his old master and instructor, he turned and would have fled from his presence. But St. John by the most fervent entreaties prevailed on him to stop and listen to his words. After some conference, the robber, utterly subdued, burst into tears of penitence, imploring forgiveness; and while he spoke he hid beneath his robe his right hand, which had been sullied with so many crimes. But St. John, falling on his knees before him, seized that blood-polluted hand, and kissed it and bathed it with his tears, and he remained with his reconverted brother till he had by prayers and encouraging words and affectionate exhortations reconciled him with Heaven and with himself. It was also related that two young men had sold all their possessions to follow St. John, and afterwards repented. He, perceiving their thoughts, sent them to gather pebbles and faggots, and on their return changed these into ingots of gold, and said, “Take back your riches and enjoy them on earth, since you regret having exchanged them for heaven!”
ST. JOHN AND HIS PARTRIDGE.
There is a tradition relating to St. John, and which is sometimes represented by the sacred artists—namely, that he had a tame partridge, of which he was fond, and he used to amuse himself with feeding and tending it. It is added that a certain huntsman, passing by with his bow and arrow, was astonished to see the great apostle, so venerable for age and sanctity, engaged in such an amusement. The apostle, however, answered him by asking whether he always kept his bow bent. The huntsman replied that that would be the way to render it useless. The apostle then rejoined, “If you unbend your bow to prevent its becoming useless, I do the same, and unbend my mind for the same reason.”
ST. JOHN’S LAST DAYS.
The Syrian legend as to the last days of St. John says that the apostle once fled in fear and indignation out of a bath that had been polluted by the presence of the heretic Cerinthus. It is also said that at last his whole sermon consisted in these words: “Little children, love one another.” And when the audience remonstrated at the wearisome iteration, he declared that in these words the whole substance of Christianity was found. Many reject the authority of Tertullian, who says that St. John was taken for trial before Domitian at Rome, and plunged into a boiling caldron of oil, from which he came forth unhurt.
TRADITIONS OF ST. JOHN’S TALK.
Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, in 177 had been a pupil of Polycarp, who in his youth had many conversations with St. John, who died about 100. Irenæus writes to a friend thus: “I can tell the very place in which the blessed Polycarp used to sit when he discoursed, and his goings out and his comings in, and his manner of life, and his personal appearance, and the discourses which he held before the people, and how he would describe his intercourse with John and with the rest of those who had seen the Lord, and how he would relate their words. And whatsoever things he had heard from them about the Lord, and about His miracles, and about His teaching, Polycarp, as having received them from eyewitnesses of the life of the Word, would relate altogether in accordance with the Scriptures. To these things I used to listen at the time with attention, by God’s mercy, which was bestowed upon me, noting them down, not on paper, but in my heart; and constantly, by the grace of God, I reflect upon them faithfully.” Irenæus says Polycarp told him the story of St. John and Cerinthus. Polycarp, at the age of eighty-six, was ordered to be burnt; but it is said that the fire would not consume his body, which shone like silver, and he was then despatched with a dagger. The Roman pro-consul had ordered him to forswear and revile Christ. But the answer was: “Eighty-and-six years have I served Him, and He hath done me no wrong. How, then, can I speak evil of my King, who saved me?”
A MIRACLE PERFORMED BY ST. JOHN AFTER DEATH.
A miracle attributed to St. John, and represented by some sacred artists, related to the Empress Galla Placidia. She was returning from Constantinople to Ravenna with her two children during a terrible storm. In her fear and anguish she vowed to St. John that if she landed safely she would dedicate to his honour a magnificent church. Both events happened; but still, owing to there being no relic to deposit in her church, she remained somewhat dissatisfied. John, however, took pity upon her; for one night, as she prayed earnestly, he appeared to her in a vision, and when she threw herself at his feet to embrace and kiss them he disappeared, but left one of his sandals in her hand, and this has been long preserved. The ancient church at Ravenna of Galla Placidia contained some mosaics, now vanished, but two bas-reliefs refer to the sandal.
ST. JOHN AND EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
The English monkish chroniclers have also a legend of St. John and King Edward the Confessor. One night a pilgrim accosted the Confessor as he was returning from mass at Westminster, and begged alms for the love of God and St. John. The king, who was merciful, immediately drew from his finger a ring, and delivered it privately to the beggar. Twenty-four years later, two Englishmen, returning from the Holy Land, after being asked questions about their country by a pilgrim, were entrusted with a message to thank their king for the ring he had bestowed, when that pilgrim begged of him many years before, and which he had preserved and now returned; and further to say this—that “the king shall quit the world and come and remain with me for ever.” The travellers, astounded, asked who the pilgrim was, and the answer was, “I am John the Evangelist. Go and deliver the message and ring, and I will pray for your safe arrival.” He then delivered the ring and vanished. The pilgrims praised and thanked God for this glorious vision, went on their journey, repaired to the king, delivered the ring and the message, and were received joyfully and feasted. Then the king prepared himself for his departure from the world. On the eve of the Nativity next following, being 1066, he died, and the ring was left to the Abbot of Westminster, to be for ever preserved among the relics. This legend is represented on the top of the screen of Edward the Confessor’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and also was once on one of the windows in Romford Church.
ST. JAMES THE LESS, APOSTLE.
St. James the Less was so called to distinguish him from the other apostle James, either from his smaller stature or his youth. He was also known as James the Just, from his eminent sanctity. He was the son of Alphæus and of Mary, sister of the Virgin Mary, and was some years older than the Saviour, his cousin. He had as brother St. Simeon and also Jude. Christ appeared separately to James and John and Peter after the Resurrection. The Apostles elected James the Less to be Bishop of Jerusalem, and it was said he wore a plate of gold on his head as an ensign of authority. He was unmarried, and never shaved nor cut his hair, and never drank any strong liquor, never ate flesh, nor wore sandals, and the skin of his knees and forehead was said to be hardened like a camel’s hoof from his frequent prayers. He wrote his epistle in Greek, some time after Paul’s epistles were written to the Galatians and to the Romans. He was afterwards, in 62, accused by the Jews of violating the laws, and was sentenced to be stoned to death; but he was first carried to the battlements, in the hope he would recant in public, and on his refusing this he was thrown over and dashed to the ground. He had life enough to rise again on his knees to pray for pardon for his murderers, and was then despatched with stones by the mob. His body was buried near the Temple in Jerusalem, and it was said the city was destroyed for the treatment he received. His relics were brought to Constantinople about 572.
ST. JAMES THE GREAT, APOSTLE.
St. James, the brother of St. John, son of Zebedee and Salome, was called the Great, to distinguish him from the other apostle called James the Less, probably from his small stature. St. James the Great was about ten years older than Christ, and was many years older than his brother John. St. James was a Galilean and a fisherman. He and John and Peter were distinguished by special favours, being admitted to the Transfiguration, and to the Agony in the Garden. Their mother, Salome, in her pride at their devotion, once asked if they were not to sit, one at Christ’s right hand and another at His left. After the Ascension James is said to have left Judæa and visited Spain. He was a bachelor, and very temperate, never eating fish or flesh, and wearing only a linen cloak. He was the first of the Apostles who suffered martyrdom, being beheaded at Jerusalem in 43 by order of Agrippa. His accuser was so struck with James’s courage and constancy that he repented and begged to be executed with James, who turned round and embraced him, saying, “Peace be with you,” and they were beheaded together. The apostle’s body was interred at Jerusalem, but carried by his disciples to Spain at Compostella, where many miracles were wrought and pilgrims flocked. His intercession, it was thought, often protected the Christians against the armies of the Moors.
ST. JAMES THE GREAT IN SPAIN.
The apostle James the Great, after Christ’s ascension, as already said, went to Spain. One day, as he stood on the banks of the Ebro with his disciples, it is said that the Blessed Virgin appeared to him seated on the top of a pillar of jasper, and surrounded by a choir of angels; and the apostle having thrown himself on his face, she commanded him to build on that spot a chapel for her worship, assuring him that all this province of Saragossa, though now in the darkness of paganism, would at a future time be distinguished by devotion to her. He did as the Holy Virgin had commanded, and this was the origin of a famous church, known as Our Lady of the Pillar.
ST. JAMES AT COMPOSTELLA.
Another legend relates that a German noble, with his wife and son, made a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella, and while lodging at an inn at Tolosa, where the host had a beautiful daughter, she fell in love with the youth, but he refused to listen to her. She then, out of revenge, hid her father’s silver cup in the youth’s wallet, and next morning, on discovering the loss, he was pursued, accused before a judge, and condemned to be hanged. The afflicted parents prayed at the altar of St. Jago or James, and thirty days after, on returning and seeing their son on the gibbet, he suddenly spoke to them, and said he had been very comfortable, for the blessed apostle James had been at his side. The parents at once hastened to the judge to inform him, and he was sitting at dinner. On hearing their report, however, he mocked them, and said their son was as much alive as the fowls in that dish on the table, pointing to the dish; but he had scarcely uttered the words when the fowls rose up full feathered in the dish, and the cock began to crow, to the great admiration of the judge and his officers. Then the judge rose and went to the gibbet, and released the youth and gave him up to his parents, and the fowls were placed under the protection of the church, in the precincts of which they lived, and a long line of progeny after them, as a standing testimony of the miracle then wrought.
MIRACLES OF ST. JAMES THE GREAT.
When the apostle James the Great had founded the faith in Spain, he returned to Judæa, and preached and worked miracles for many years. Once a sorcerer, named Hermogenes, set himself up against the apostle to compete with him, and sent his pupil Philetus to dispute with James. The pupil, on returning and confessing his defeat, was bound with spells by Hermogenes, who dared James to deliver him. James sent his cloak to Philetus’s servant, and this set him free. Hermogenes, being then enraged, caused both James and Philetus to be bound in fetters by demons and brought to him. But a company of angels seized on the demons, and punished them until they went and brought Hermogenes himself bound. On James declining to punish him, the sorcerer felt he was defeated, and cast his books into the sea, and became a disciple of James. At James’s death his body was privately carried away for fear of the Jews, and put on board a ship which was miraculously directed to Spain. During the journey they touched at Galicia; and Queen Lupa, coming to the shore, found that the body had become enclosed with wax. She brought some wild bulls, and harnessed them to the car to tear it asunder; but the bulls were docile as lambs, and drew the body straight into her palace, whereon she was confounded and became a Christian, and built a church to receive the body. St. James is the patron saint of Spain as well as of Galicia; and the church of Compostella, which is dedicated to him, is a shrine visited by pilgrims from all quarters. In some of the pictures St. James is represented sitting on a milk-white horse, encouraging the Spaniards to fight and defeat the Moors.
ST. JAMES OF COMPOSTELLA AND THE SCALLOP-SHELL.
The following is the origin of the emblem of the scallop-shell at Compostella. When the body of the saint was being miraculously conveyed in a ship without sails or oars from Joppa to Galicia, it passed the village of Bouzas, on the coast of Portugal, on the day that a marriage had been celebrated there. The bridegroom, along with his friends, was amusing himself on horseback on the sands, when suddenly his horse grew restless and plunged into the sea. Thereupon the miraculous ship stopped in its voyage, and presently the bridegroom emerged, horse and man, close beside it. The saint’s disciples on board informed the astonished rider who it was who saved him from a watery grave, and explained to him the Christian religion. He was converted and baptised forthwith. The ship then resumed its voyage, and the knight went galloping back over the sea to rejoin his astonished friends. He told what had happened, and they also were converted, and he baptised his bride with his own hands. It was noticed that when the knight emerged from the sea, both his dress and the trappings of his horse were covered with scallop-shells, and the Galicians ever afterwards took the scallop-shell as the sign of St. James. Those shells were forbidden by the Pope, under the pain of excommunication, to be sold to pilgrims at any other place than the city of Santiago.
PORTRAITS OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL.
Lord Lindsay, in his “Christian Art,” says that St. Peter was generally represented in ancient art as blessing and St. Paul as preaching,—the former with white hair and beard, the hair sometimes plaited in three distinct partitions; the latter with a lofty and partially bald brow and long, high nose, as characteristic of the man of genius and the thorough gentleman, as the former is of the warm-hearted, frank, impetuous manly fisherman. The likenesses may be correct; they were current at least in the days of Eusebius in the fourth century, who speaks of their portraits as then of some antiquity. A portrait of St. Paul was said to have come down by tradition from his own time, and to have existed in the days of St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom, a little later in the same century. The painter Giotto invariably adhered to these traditional types. After his time the heads of living models were often painted for the imaginary apostles.
DEATHS OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL.
There is some doubt as to the time and place of the death of St. Peter and St. Paul. The earliest writer, St. Clement, Bishop of Rome, near the end of the first century, alludes to both as suffering martyrdom nearly at the same time, but does not state when or where. A later writer, Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, who lived in the middle of the second century, says they died in Italy at the same period, and tradition of a later date specifies Rome as the place, and that Peter was crucified by Nero in Rome with his head downwards, and the year was 67 A.D.
ST. PETER AND HIS DAUGHTER PETRONILLA.
Though the precise spot at Rome where St. Peter was crucified or slain is not settled, the following legend obtained currency. In several churches at Florence and Rome the legend referred to was to this effect. The apostle Peter had a daughter named Petronilla, who accompanied him to Rome from the East. She there fell sick of a grievous infirmity, which deprived her of the use of her limbs. And it happened that, as the disciples were at meat with him in his house, one said to him, “Master, how is it that thou, who healest the infirmities of others, dost not heal thy daughter Petronilla?” And Peter answered, “It is good for her to remain sick.” But that they might see the power that was in the word of God, he commanded her to rise and serve them at table, which she at once did. Having done so, she lay down again, helpless as before. But many years afterwards, being perfected by long suffering, and praying fervently, she was healed. Petronilla was wonderfully fair; and Valerius Flaccus, a young Roman noble who was a heathen, became enamoured of her, and sought her in marriage. As he was very powerful, she feared to refuse him, but begged him to return in three days, and promised that he should then marry her. She prayed earnestly to be delivered from this peril; and when Flaccus returned in three days, prepared to celebrate the marriage with great pomp, he found her dead. The company of nobles thereupon carried her to the grave, in which they laid her, crowned with roses, and Flaccus lamented greatly.
ST. PETER WHEN IN ROME.
When St. Peter went to Rome, it is said that he lodged in the house of a rich patrician named Perdeus, whose wife and two daughters, Prasceles and Prudentiana, were converted. And during the first persecution these daughters devoted themselves to visiting and comforting the martyrs, braving every danger and suffering, and they escaped by a miracle. St. Peter was also said to lodge at Rome in the house of Aquila and Priscilla; and it was there that St. Prisca, a Roman virgin of great beauty, was baptised. She was afterwards thrown to the lions; but they refused to touch her, and she was at last beheaded. St. Peter, when in prison at Rome, was said to have promised to heal Paulina, the sick daughter of the jailer, named Artemius, if he would believe in the true God. But the jailer mocked him, and put him in the deepest dungeon, and told him to see if his God would deliver him from that depth. In the middle of the night Peter and Marcellinus, in shining garments, entered the chamber of Artemius as he lay asleep, who, being struck with awe, fell down and worshipped Christ.
STORY OF THE DEATH OF ST. PETER.
When the day appointed for the execution of St. Peter approached, it is recorded in the legend that the Christians of Rome urged him to escape. He resisted their importunities long, but at last got over the wall of the prison and fled. As, however, he approached the gate of the city, he met our Blessed Lord bearing His cross, just entering. The astonished apostle said, “Lord, whither goest Thou?” The answer was, “I go to Rome to be crucified afresh.” At this St. Peter was smitten to the heart, and with tears returned and delivered himself up to his keepers. The church of Domine quo Vadis is believed to stand on the very spot of this meeting. Peter was thereafter scourged and led to the top of the Vatican Mount to be executed. He entreated that he might not be crucified in the ordinary way, but might suffer with his head downwards and his feet towards heaven, affirming that he was unworthy to suffer in the same posture wherein his Lord had suffered before him. His body was embalmed and buried in the Vatican. The small church being demolished by Heliogabalus, Peter’s body was removed for a time two miles off, but was brought back before the time of Constantine, who enlarged and rebuilt the Vatican in honour of St. Peter. The Emperor is said to have dug the first spadefuls, and to have carried twelve baskets of rubbish with his own hands, as a beginning, in honour of the twelve Apostles. The relics of St. Peter are numerous. The chains are in the church Ad Vincula; the wooden chair is in the Vatican. The sword with which the ear of Malchus was cut off was anciently preserved at Constantinople, and is shown at Toledo. His cap is at Namur; part of his cloak is at Prague. The bodies of Peter and Paul are said to be both in St. Peter’s Church at Rome.
THE CHURCHES OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL AT ROME.
The body of St. Peter was buried immediately after his martyrdom on the Vatican Hill; afterwards it was removed to the cemetery of Calixtus, and brought back to the Vatican. The body of St. Paul was buried on the Ostian Way, where his church now stands. These tombs were visited from the first by crowds of pilgrims. Constantine the Great, after founding the Lateran Church, built seven others at Rome; one of these was the Church of St. Peter on the Vatican Hill, where he suffered martyrdom. Another was the Church of St. Paul, at the site of his tomb on the Ostian Road. A revenue was charged to maintain these churches out of the spices imported from Egypt and the East, and lands at Tyre and Alexandria and elsewhere were given as possessions for the same purpose. These churches were built in a magnificent style, so as to vie with the finest structures in the Empire. St. Peter’s was rebuilt in part in 1506 and 1626. The richest treasure consists of relics of St. Peter and St. Paul, which lie under a magnificent altar in a sumptuous vault, called the Confession of St. Peter on the Threshold of the Apostles. Raphael and Michael Angelo were in succession the architects. The area of St. Peter’s Church is 700 feet long by 509 feet wide.
WAS ST. PAUL EVER IN GREAT BRITAIN?
It was at one time believed that St. Paul had entered Great Britain as within his mission, and preached to the natives. But Thackeray, in his “Researches into the State of Ancient Britain” (1843), comes to a conclusion in the negative for the following reasons: (1) There is no mention nor even allusion to it in the New Testament; (2) the statement of his friend Clemens, Bishop of Rome, to the effect that Paul preached to the utmost bounds of the West, is far too vague to be available, and seems only a hyperbolic mode of expressing the magnitude of his labours; (3) there is no probable allusion to Paul’s journey to Britain to be found in the whole range of literature prior to Theodoret, early in the fifth century, and even he does not specify Britain; (4) there is no mention of any such mission to be found in our own historians prior to the Norman Conquest.
ST. PAUL ON AREOPAGUS, QUOTING A POET.
The fact that St. Paul, when addressing the Athenians on the summit of the Areopagus or Hill of Mars, quoted a Greek poet for the saying, “Ye are also his offspring,” has led scholars to search for the originals. And the saying is found in two poets who flourished before the Christian era—namely, Aratius and Cleanthes. There are two other quotations (Titus i. 12; 1 Cor. xv. 33), traced to Epimenides and Callimachus. Some have inferred from these quotations that St. Paul may have been familiar with the poets of Pagan antiquity. But the researches of scholars tend to show that the quotations were only common sayings of the period, and the inferences one way or another as to the Pagan learning of the apostle are mere speculations. The occasion also on which St. Paul spoke on Areopagus has been the subject of discussion, as to whether Paul was at the moment charged with some indictable offence against the sanctity of the gods, or whether there was some inquisition held by authority in order to include Jesus as one of the recognised divinities, or whether it was merely an address at the request of the keen-witted Epicurean and Stoic philosophers of the time. No certain conclusion can be arrived at on these moot points.
ST. PAUL AND PLAUTILLA.
A legend of the death of St. Paul relates that a certain Roman matron named Plautilla, one of the converts of St. Peter, placed herself on the road by which St. Paul passed to his martyrdom, in order to behold him for the last time; and when she saw him, she wept greatly and besought his blessing. The apostle then, seeing her faith, turned to her, and begged that she would give him her veil to bind his eyes when he should be beheaded, promising to return it to her after his death. The attendants mocked at such a promise; but Plautilla, with a woman’s faith and charity, taking off her veil, presented it to him. After his martyrdom, St. Paul appeared to her, and restored the veil stained with his blood. It is also related that, when he was decapitated, the severed head made three bounds upon the earth, and wherever it touched the ground a fountain sprang forth. This legend is sometimes represented in the pictures of the martyrdom of St. Paul. The church of San Paolo at Rome, where the body of St. Paul was interred, rich with mosaics, was consumed by fire in 1823.
ST. PAUL AND THE VIPER.
Not far from the old city of Valetta, in the island of Malta, there is a small church dedicated to St. Paul, and just by the church a miraculous statue of the saint with a viper on his hand, supposed to be placed on the very spot on which he was received after his shipwreck on this island, and where he shook the viper off his hand into the fire without being hurt by it. At that time the Maltese assure us the saint cursed all the venomous animals of the island and banished them for ever, just as St. Patrick banished those of Ireland. Whether this be the cause of it or not, it is said to be a fact that there are no venomous animals in Malta.
THE HISTORY OF JUDAS ISCARIOT.
The “Apocryphal Gospel,” called the “Arabic Gospel of the Infancy,” has the following (chapter xxxv.): “In the same place there dwelt another woman, whose son was vexed by Satan. He, Judas by name, whenever Satan seized him, bit all who approached him; and if he found no one near him, he bit his own hands and other members. Therefore the mother of this unfortunate youth, hearing the fame of Lady Mary and her Son Jesus, arose and took with her her son Judas to my Lady Mary. Meanwhile, James and Joses had taken away the Child Lord Jesus to play with other children; and after leaving home, they had sat down, and the Lord Jesus with them. Judas the demoniac came nigh, and sat down at the right of Jesus; and then, being assaulted by Satan as he was wont to be, he sought to bite the Lord Jesus, but he could not; yet he struck the right side of Jesus, who for this cause began to weep. Forthwith Satan went forth out of the boy in form like a mad dog. Now, this boy who struck Jesus, and from whom Satan went out in the form of a dog, was Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him to the Jews, and that side of Him on which Judas had smote Him the Jews pierced with a spear” (Matt. x. 4; John xix. 34).
CHAPTER III.
CHRIST’S CONTEMPORARIES—CLIMATE AND SCENERY OF PALESTINE.
THE SAGES OF GREECE AND ROME ON CHRISTIAN PRODIGIES.
Gibbon observes that during the age of Christ, of His Apostles and their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, demons were expelled, and the laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the Church. But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing their ordinary occupations, were unconscious of anything extraordinary. Under the reign of Tiberius, the whole earth, or at least a celebrated province of the Roman Empire, was involved in a preternatural darkness of three hours. Yet this miraculous event passed without notice in an age of science and history. It happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experienced the immediate effects or received the earliest intelligence of the prodigy. Each of these philosophers in a laborious work has recorded all the great phenomena of Nature—earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses—which his indefatigable curiosity could collect. Both the one and the other have omitted to mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witness since the creation of the globe. A distinct chapter of Pliny is designed for eclipses of an extraordinary nature and unusual duration, but he contents himself with describing the singular defect of light which followed the murder of Cæsar, when during the greatest part of the year the orb of the sun appeared pale and without splendour. This season of obscurity, which cannot surely be compared with the preternatural darkness of the Passion, had been already celebrated by most of the poets and historians of that memorable age.
DEATH OF ZACHARIAS.
Jeremy Taylor says that Herod slew Zacharias between the Temple and the altar “because he refused to betray his son to the fury of that rabid bear,—though some persons, very eminent amongst the stars of the primitive Church, report a tradition that, a place being separated in the Temple for virgins, Zacharias suffered the mother of our Lord to abide there after the birth of her Holy Son, affirming her still to be a virgin; and that for this reason, not Herod, but the scribes and Pharisees, did kill Zacharias. Tertullian reports that the blood of Zacharias had so besmeared the stones of the pavement, which was the altar on which the good old priest was sacrificed, that no art or industry could wash the tincture out, the dye and guilt being both indelible; as if, because God did intend to exact of that nation ‘all the blood of righteous persons, from Abel to Zacharias,’ who was the last of the martyrs of the synagogue, He would leave a character of their guilt in their eyes to upbraid their irreligion, cruelty, and infidelity. Some there are who affirm these words of our Saviour not to relate to any Zacharias who had been already slain, but to be a prophecy of the last of all the martyrs of the Jews who should be slain immediately before the destruction of the last Temple and the dissolution of the nation. Certain it is that such a Zacharias, the son of Baruch (if we may believe Josephus), was slain in the middle of the Temple a little before it was destroyed; and it is agreeable to the nature of the prophecy and reproof here made by our Saviour that ‘from Abel to Zacharias’ should take in ‘all the righteous blood’ from first to last till the iniquity was complete, and it is not imaginable that the blood of our Lord and of St. James their bishop (for whose death many of themselves thought God destroyed their city) should be left out of the account, which certainly would be if any other Zacharias should be meant. In reference to this, Cyprian de Valera expounds that which we read in the past tense to signify the future: ‘Ye slew’—i.e., shall slay.”
CHILDHOOD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.
Elizabeth fled with her son John the Baptist when he was about eighteen months old into the wilderness, where after forty days she died. His father Zacharias, at the time of his ministration, which happened about this time, was killed in the court of the Temple. According to the tradition of the Greeks, God deputed an angel to be his guardian and nourisher, as he had formerly done to Ishmael and Elias.
DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.
The Jews ascribed to the murder of John the Baptist the fate that befell Herod and Salome. Herod, in journeying to Rome four years after Christ’s death, was deprived of his tetrarchate and banished along with Herodias to Gaul, and they died in great misery at Lyons or in Spain. Salome in crossing the ice in winter fell into the water; and the ice, after parting, joined again, and decapitated her. John the Baptist’s disciples honourably buried his body. It was said the Pagans rifled the tomb and burned the body in the reign of Julian the Apostate; but some of the bones were sent to St. Athanasius at Alexandria. In 396 Theodosius built a great church in that city in honour of the Baptist, and there the holy relics were deposited. The head of the Baptist was discovered in 453, and in 800 it was conveyed to Constantinople; in 1203 the lower jaw was taken to France, and is preserved to this day. Part of the head is in St. Sylvester’s Church at Rome.
BURIAL OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.
Jeremy Taylor says that John was imprisoned in the castle of Macheruns, where Herod sent for him and caused him to be beheaded. His head Herodias buried in her own palace, thinking to secure it against a reunion, lest it should again disturb her unlawful lusts and disquiet Herod’s conscience. But the body the disciples of John gathered up, and carried it with honour and sorrow, and buried it in Sebaste, in the confines of Samaria, making his grave between the bodies of Elizeus and Abdias the prophets. And about this time was the Passover of the Jews.
CHURCHES DEDICATED TO THE BAPTIST.
Temples were dedicated to John the Baptist in the first ages of Christianity, the earliest and most celebrated being that known at Rome as St. John Lateran. The next most celebrated church dedicated to St. John is the Baptistery at Florence, dedicated by the Princess Theodolunda about 589. In this baptistery every child born in Florence of the Roman Catholic faith must by law be baptised. This renowned church is decorated both inside and without with miracles of art.
PONTIUS PILATE.
Pilate, after ten years of service, was disgraced and called to Rome. One of that cloud of false witnesses who sprang up every year told the people of Samaria that he knew where the sacred vessels lay hid, and fixed a day when they should meet him in thousands on Gerizim to dig them up. Hearing of this movement, Pilate sent troops into the highways and villages round Shechem; and these soldiers, setting upon the people, slew the innocent with the guilty, and put the whole body of Samaritans to flight. A great cry for vengeance arose in Samaria; the Senate sent an embassy to Antioch; and Vitellius, a man of craft and policy, wishing to stand well with the Jews, put the government of Samaria and Judæa into fresh hands, and commanded Pilate to report himself in Rome. Here we lose sight of him. Legends make him a suicide—some in a Roman prison, others in Gaul, and others again near the Lake of Lucerne, on the summit of the mountain which bears the name of Mount Pilatus.
THE DOINGS OF HEROD THE GREAT.
About sixty years B.C., Herod, misnamed the Great, had partly by bribery prevailed on Antony and Augustus to make him king of the Jews, and Josephus describes his visit to Rome on that appointment. Herod has always been a monster of cruelty. He married a beautiful woman named Mariamne, whom he put to death after being the mother of several of his children. Then he had a fit of remorse, and frantically called her by name, and ordered his servants to do so. Then he next slew the grandfather and brother of Mariamne, the latter being ordered to be suffocated while his servants were engaged in a bathing frolic. In his old age he was seized with a sudden suspicion against two sons, whom he accused of a plot against him, and after some wavering caused them to be strangled, and some three hundred who sympathised with them to be stoned to death. After these symptoms of madness, a year before his death, being alarmed by the reports of the visits of the Magi, and the prophecies of the birth of Christ, he ordered the massacre of the innocents. He died a year after, at the age of seventy-one, of a disgusting disease, accompanied with horrible tortures, having reigned thirty-five years. In order that he should not die without being lamented, he had ordered a large number of the chief inhabitants of Jerusalem, as soon as he was dead, to be slain by his soldiers. He died enormously rich, and even Horace refers to his vast palm groves. There was a lengthened litigation and appeal to Rome about the division of his estates and governments. The son who succeeded him so misconducted himself that after nine years he was banished by Augustus and his wealth confiscated.
MARY MAGDALENE.
There were three Marys—Mary of Bethania, Mary the sister of Lazarus, and Mary Magdalene; and some think they were all one person. Most of the early writers say that she and Lazarus and Martha left Galilee and settled at Bethany, and there Christ often visited them. The penitent woman and she are by some treated as the same person; but it is at best only a conjecture. It is a popular tradition that Mary and Lazarus, and Martha or Mary their sister, were expelled after the Ascension, and put to sea, and reached Marseilles, and founded a Church there, of which Lazarus was the first bishop. The relics of these saints were alleged to be discovered in Provence in the thirteenth century, and Mary Magdalene’s were at St. Maximius, near Marseilles, where a convent now stands. Her festival is kept July 22nd, and once was a holiday in England.
MARY MAGDALENE PREACHING.
A Provençal legend states that after the Ascension Lazarus, with his two sisters Martha and Mary, Maximius and seventy-two disciples, also Cedon the blind man whom our Saviour restored to sight, and Marcella the handmaiden were put by the heathen in a vessel and set adrift; but, guided by Providence, it landed at Marseilles in France. The people were then Pagans, and refused to give the pilgrims food or shelter, so that they were fain to take refuge under the porch of a temple. And Mary Magdalene preached to the people, reproaching them for their senseless worship of dumb idols. And though at first they refused to listen, yet they were after a time convinced by her eloquence, and by the miracles she and her sister performed; and they were all converted and baptised. These things being accomplished, Mary Magdalene retired to a desert near the city, where there were only rocks and caves, and she devoted herself to solitary penance for thirty years, weeping and bewailing for the past. She fasted rigorously, and must have perished, but the angels came down from heaven every day and carried her up in their arms into regions where her ears were ravished with the sounds of heavenly melody, and where she beheld the glory and the joy prepared for the penitent sinner. One day, a hermit, having wandered near the spot, beheld this wondrous vision of the angels carrying the Magdalene up to heaven in their arms, and singing songs of triumph; and after recovering from his amazement, he returned to the city of Marseilles and reported what he had seen. Fra Angelico has a most interesting picture of the Magdalene preaching from the steps of a building to an audience composed mostly of nuns, who are in rapt attention.
ACCOUNT OF ST. MARTHA.
St. Martha, the sister of Lazarus and Mary, was a favourite member of that family whom Christ often visited, staying a night on His visits. On the first visit, Martha attended to the practical details of hospitality, while Mary was intensely absorbed in the spiritual charm of the conversation, and did nothing but listen, and yet was commended for this, as if each was entitled to follow her own way of displaying her affection. The message sent at a later date to Christ by the two sisters was simply this—“He whom Thou lovest is sick”: they knew it was enough to say that one word. On the last visit of Christ, Mary poured costly ointment on Christ’s feet, which Judas Iscariot said was a shocking extravagance. St. Martha seems to have been present at the Crucifixion. After Christ’s ascension, she, as stated under the head of Mary Magdalene, went to Marseilles, and her body is deposited in a vault under the church at Tarascon. King Louis XI. gave a rich bust of gold, in which the saint’s head is kept.
ST. VERONICA AND HER HANDKERCHIEF.
St. Veronica was the woman who was healed by touching the hem of Christ’s garment. She greatly longed for a portrait of Christ, and brought a cloth to Luke, who was a painter, to make one. But he tried three times to make a good portrait and failed. And Veronica being distressed, Christ told her He would help her if she would go home and prepare a meal, which He would take with her. She prepared the meal, and Christ went at the time appointed; and on receiving from her a cloth to wipe His face after washing it, He pressed it to His face, and it received a miraculous portrait of His features. This He gave to her, and it performed afterwards many miracles. The Emperor hearing of these miracles, sent for Veronica to show him the portrait. She went to Rome with it, and was received with great honour, and showed it to the Emperor, who, on seeing it, was immediately cured. Others say that Veronica was a compassionate woman, who, seeing the drops of agony on the brow of Christ, as He was bearing the cross to Calvary, wiped His face with a napkin, or with her veil, and then she found His likeness miraculously stamped upon the cloth. She afterwards came to Europe in the same vessel with Lazarus and Mary Magdalene, and suffered martyrdom in Provence or Aquitaine.
HILLEL RELATED TO JESUS.
Of the Great College which inspired and guided Jewish thought, the chief luminary had been Hillel, surnamed the Great. Hillel was a Babylonian Jew by birth, though in blood (on his mother’s side at least) he belonged, like Joseph of Bethlehem, to the royal line. Hence he was of kin to Mary and Jesus. Like Joseph, too, he was a craftsman in one of the noble trades. When he left the Farther East for Syria, he was already forty years of age; when he came to Jerusalem and entered himself a student in the school of Menachem the Essene and Shammai the Pharisee, he had to labour for his college fees and daily bread. He sat under Sammias and Pollion. Each of these eminent scholars had risen by his virtues and learning to the high rank of rector of the Great College. Under him the college made a new start for fame. He invented the seven rules. A thousand pupils entered his classes: eighty are said to have become famous as men of letters, doctors, and scribes. He lived to the age of a hundred and twenty, and died when Jesus was fourteen years of age (in the tenth year of our era). He may have been one of the doctors with whom Christ talked in the Temple. Simeon succeeded his father in the rectorship, and was still alive when Jesus began to preach, and died two years after the Crucifixion.
THE SANHEDRIM AT JERUSALEM.
The Sanhedrim’s strength had been reduced first by Herod the Great, afterwards by the Roman governors of Judæa. Herod, on capturing Jerusalem, had seized the whole body of the Sanhedrim, thrown them into prison, and, with two illustrious exceptions, put them all to death. Around Hillel and Shammai, the men whom Herod had spared, a new council had been formed; but the prestige of the Sanhedrim could never be restored. Pilate abridged their rights, taking from them more particularly the power of life and death; yet even after they had lost the right to torture prisoners and stone offenders, they still exercised a vast authority in Jerusalem, and in every other Jewish city. Pilate could not dispute their jurisdiction over Jews, however, in whatever land they dwelt, so long as they did not encroach on the civil powers. The Sanhedrim comprised three classes—priests, Levites, and ordinary Jews. The priestly element was strong. Caiaphas, being the official high priest, had a right to preside. In his absence the chair was filled by Simeon, rector of the Great College. Whoever filled the chair was considered as sitting in the place of Moses.
THE WORKING MAN IN CHRIST’S TIME.
No handicraft could be followed by a slave, and none but a freeman could learn a trade. Some trades were indeed less eminent than others—to wit, the art of a tanner was condemned as noisome; the arts of a barber, a weaver, a fuller, a perfumer, were all considered mean; and no man following these crafts could be allowed on any pretence to serve in the sacred office. A tanner, like Jose of Sephoris, might become a rabbi; he could never be made high priest. Not so with the craft of carpenter—a craft which had a part of its functions in the synagogue and Temple, which was often adopted as a profession by men of noble birth, and which enjoyed the same sort of repute among the Jews that is given in England to the Church, the Army, and the Bar.
THE PHARISAIC NICETIES.
The Pharisees were so rigid that, according to Buxtorf (“Syn. Judaica”), if an ox or other animal fell into a pit, it was deemed lawful to draw it out only when leaving it till Sabbath would involve risk to life. When delay was not dangerous, the rule was to give the beast food sufficient for the day; and if there were water in the bottom of the pit, to place straw and bolsters below it that it might not be drowned. The same author states that it was a breach of the law to let a cock wear a piece of ribbon round its leg on Sabbath, for it was making it bear something. It was also forbidden to walk through a stream on stilts, because, though the stilts appear to bear you, you really carry the stilts. While scrupulously observing the law which prohibited the cooking of food on Sabbath, they did not by any means make the holy day a day of fasting.
THE SIEGES OF JERUSALEM.
From the time Pompey (63 B.C.) captured Jerusalem and subjected the country to the Roman yoke, the Jews were always on the verge of insurrection. In 65 A.D., when Florus the Roman procurator robbed the sacred treasury, and brought on an insurrection, Bernice, the wife of Agrippa, rushed with bare feet through the streets to intercede with Florus; but it was in vain. In 69 A.D. Titus approached and besieged the city, starved out the inhabitants, and destroyed the Temple. Many Jewish captives were afterwards carried to Rome to swell the triumph of Titus, and were thrown to the wild beasts or forced to kill one another. The triumphal arch of Titus, erected soon after his death, remains to this day in Rome. From that date the Jews ceased to be a nation, and were dispersed over the world. There are no clear accounts of what became of the Apostles after the fall of Jerusalem. Some say that they arranged to go into different regions, as Scythia, Asia, Parthia, India. Those writers who profess to give later accounts of the Apostles flourished only in the third or fourth century.
DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM IN 70.
Not long before the outbreak of the Jewish War, seven years before the siege of Jerusalem, a man, by name Jesus, came to the city at the Feast of Tabernacles, and in a fit of abstraction cried continually, “Woe to the city! woe to the Temple!” He alarmed the authorities, who ordered him to be scourged as a madman; but he continued these exclamations, and during the siege he was last seen sitting on the wall, still repeating the same cries, till a missile put an end to him. The Jews rebelled against the Romans in 66. The Christians, remembering our Lord’s admonition (Matt. xxiv. 15), forsook the city, and fled beyond the Jordan. In April 70, when the city was filled with strangers, the siege began, and history records no other instance of such obstinate resistance, such desperate bravery and contempt of death. The Castle of Antonia was surprised and taken by night. The famine was so severe that many swallowed their jewels; a mother even roasted her own child. Titus wished to spare the Temple. But in a fresh assault a soldier, unbidden, hurled a firebrand through the golden door. When the flame arose the Jews raised a hideous yell. The Roman legions vied with each other in feeding the flames. It was burnt on August 10th, 70, the same day of the year on which the first Temple was, according to tradition, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The sight was terrible. The mountain seemed enveloped in one sheet of flame; all was covered with corpses; over these heaps the soldiers pursued the fugitives. Josephus says the number of Jews slain was 1,100,000, and the number sold into slavery was 90,000. The Christian Church was by this event liberated from local influences, and took up an independent position in the world.
ANTIOCH THE FIRST GENTILE CHURCH.
The interest of Antioch consists in certain memorable events having occurred there in the first ages of Christianity. It was situated where the chain of the Lebanon, running north, and the chain of Taurus, running east, meet, and was partly on an island. It was here that the Christians, when dispersed from Jerusalem at the death of Stephen, preached the Gospel. Here was the first Gentile Church founded; here the disciples of Christ were first called Christians; here St. Paul first settled as a minister of the Church and started on his first mission; here St. Paul rebuked St. Peter for conduct into which he had been betrayed through the influence of emissaries from Jerusalem. Jews were from the first settled in Antioch in large numbers. The city was founded in 300 B.C., and became prosperous. The citizens were noted for scurrilous wit, and for the nicknames they gave, and perhaps the name of Christian had its origin in this disposition of theirs. The modern place known as Antioch is a small and insignificant town of 6,000 inhabitants, though the ancient city was supposed to have had a population of 200,000. An earthquake destroyed most of the city in 526, and again in 583. The Saracens captured it in 635; the Crusaders stormed it in 1089; and it fell under the Moslem rule in 1286, since which time it has dwindled into insignificance.
PALESTINE EXPLORATIONS.
In modern times the geography of Palestine was chiefly known through the works of Dr. Robinson, Burckhart, and Vande Velde; but in 1864 a society sprang up in England for the purpose of a more systematic exploration. Successive expeditions were sent there for that purpose. In 1868 the Moabite Stone was discovered by the Rev. F. Klein. It is a block of basalt about 3½ feet by 2 feet, and has on its face thirty-four lines of writing in the character known as Phœnician. If it had remained entire, there would have been no great difficulty in reading the inscription; but when the Arabs heard that the Europeans attached great value to its possession, they quarrelled about it and broke it up. About two-thirds of the fragments were afterwards collected and pieced together. And, fortunately, a “squeeze” of the whole had been taken before it was broken, and a translation has been arrived at. The restored monument was preserved in the Louvre at Paris, and a plaster cast is in the British Museum. The inscription is supposed to be a record by Media, King of Moab (nearly nine hundred years before Christ), of the victories and public works he had achieved. Besides the Moabite Stone, the explorers discovered numerous dolmens, being circular terraces 3 feet high, some of which were conjectured to be burial-places; also, dolmens being flat, table-like surfaces, probably used as altars by the Canaanite tribes.
THE COURSE OF THE JORDAN TO THE DEAD SEA.
Mr. Macgregor, of the Rob Roy canoe, traversed the upper part of the Jordan, and arrived at certain measurements, which have been corrected slightly by the Palestine Survey Commission. From the source to the Dead Sea it is 200 miles long. The source of the tributary of the Hasbany is 1,700 feet above the level of the sea. The Dead Sea is 1,292 feet below the level of the sea. The Lake of Tiberias is 682 feet below the level of the sea. The river at first runs 20 miles, then falls into the basin of Hooleh, 4 miles long; then runs 10 miles, and falls into the basin of Tiberias, or the Lake of Galilee, 12½ miles long and 8 miles wide; then runs 65 miles, and falls into the basin of the Dead Sea, 47 miles long and 10 miles wide. The Dead Sea is 1,278 feet deep at its greatest depth; the Sea of Galilee is 165 feet deep at the greatest; Hooleh about 15 feet deep. The Jordan ranks in size with the Dee of Aberdeenshire, but is rather less rapid. The Jordan has nearly the same rapidity as the Clyde and the Tweed. The Dead Sea, called in the Old Testament the Salt Sea, has no outlet to the south, but gets rid by evaporation from the surface of all the water poured into it. This is said to be the most remarkable depression of the kind on the face of the earth. There is no port, and there are no fish. The waters of lakes which have no outlet, such as the Caspian, the Sea of Aral, Lakes Balkash, Van, Uramiah, and the Dead Sea ultimately become more or less saline. The excessive saltness of the Dead Sea is represented as 24·57 lbs. of salt in 100 lbs. of water; while that of the Atlantic is only 6 lbs. of salt in the same quantity.
THE SEA OF GALILEE.