a quintuple tiara and robed in alb and tunic, supports a cross on which hangs the lifeless body of the Divine Son. INRI Fig. 108.-God the Father as Pope. The omnipotent Jehovah is sometimes portrayed as "the Ancient of Days," under the form of a feeble old man bowed down by the weight of years, and fain to seek support by leaning heavily on a staff, or reposing on a couch after the labours of creation.* The treat * As in an example at the Madeleine at Paris. ment becomes more and more rude, even to the borders of the grotesque,* and the conception becomes mean, coarse, and vulgar, till all the Divine departs and only human feebleness and imbecility remain, indicating at once the degradation of taste, decline of piety, and corruption of doctrine. But this grossness of treatment reaches its most offensive development in the impious attempt to symbolize the sublime mystery of the Holy Trinity by a grotesque figure with three heads, or a head with three faces joined together, somewhat after the manner of the three-headed image of Brahma in the Hindoo mythology. In other examples the Trinity is represented by three harsh stiff and aged figures, identified by the attributes of the tiara, cross, and dove, enveloped in one common mantle, and jointly crowning the Virgin Mary in heaven, whose flowing train the angels humbly bear. By this degradation of Deity and exaltation of Mary * We have seen a picture of the creation in which the Almighty was represented as a feeble old man dressed in ecclesiastical robes, with a lantern in his hand. See a fresco by Andrea del Sarto at St. Salvi, Florence, two of the fifteenth century at Perugia, and an engraving in a copy of Dante printed at Florence in A. D. 1491. In an example given in Ames' Typography, a triangular jewel is appended to the three-faced head, the inscription on which attempts to explain mathematically the mysterious doctrine of the unity in trinity. This mystery was also symbolized by the shape of some of the ancient monasteries, by the number of their cloistered inmates, by the genuflections of the service and the parts of the liturgy; and even the bell and "The rope with its twisted cordage three Sometimes the Holy Spirit is represented by a dove proceeding from the mouths of the Father and the Son, or even nailed to the cross with Christ. See on the carved stalls of the Amiens Cathedral, and at Vierrières in the Department de l'Aube, both of the sixteenth century. we may mark the infinite divergence in faith and practice of the modern church of Rome from the simplicity, purity, and orthodoxy of the ancient church of the Catacombs, as evidenced by that primitive art and symbolism whose priceless monuments we have been examining. CHAPTER IV. GILT GLASSES AND OTHER OBJECTS FOUND IN THE CATACOMBS. EVER since the re-discovery and exploration of the Catacombs in the sixteenth century they have been a vast treasury from which, as from an inexhaustible mine, have been derived innumerable relics of Christian antiquity, many of them of inestimable value. Among these are a number of gilt glasses of curious design and remarkable interest, lamps, vases, rings, seals, toys, trinkets, and various objects of domestic use or ornament. Collections of these relics are found in most of the great museums of Europe, especially in those of the city of Rome. An account of the more important of them will be given in the present chapter. Reference has already been made to the numerous fragments of gilt glass found in the Catacombs, which so remarkably illustrate Christian life in the primitive ages. In the last century, Buonarotti described all the specimens then known. The distinguished archæologist, Padre Garrucci, has recently exhaustively treated these remains of ancient art in his elaborate monograph on this subject.* They are also profusely illustrated in the magnificent pages of Perret.† These glasses are generally mutilated fragments, ap* Vetri ornati di figure in oro trovati nei cimiteri dei Cristiani primitivi di Roma raccolti e spiegati da Raffaele Garrucci.—Roma, 1858. † Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antichi di vetro ornati di figure trovati nei cimiteri di Roma.—Firenze, 1716. parently the bottoms of drinking-cups, and occasionally of the dish-like shape of the classic patera. They vary in size from about one to four or five inches in diameter The design is executed in gold leaf on the bottom of the cup, so as to appear through the glass on the inside, and is occasionally beautifully relieved by a dark purple background. It is protected by a plate of glass, fused upon the lower surface so as to become a solid mass, like the glass paper-weights with enclosed ornamental designs which are so common. The pictures thus hermetically sealed are indestructible so long as the glass is not fractured. These vessels were apparently affixed at the time of burial to the soft plaster of the grave; but the thinner portion, standing out from the cement, has almost invariably been broken, while the thick part, imbedded in the plaster, has been preserved. Sometimes even the solid bottoms of these vessels were fractured in the effort to detach them from the walls, and frequently impressions in the cement indicate where they were affixed. They are rarely found in situ, having been destroyed or carried off by successive generations of explorers or plunderers. The most important collection is in the Vatican Library. In the British Museum are some thirty specimens; in the museums of Paris, Florence, and Naples, a less number; and a few others in various private collections. The entire number extant is only three hundred and forty. In the course of a quarter of a century De Rossi discovered but two fragments of these glasses. This extreme rarity is doubtless owing to their excessive fragility, and probably also to their being destroyed in large quantities to procure the gold they contain. In some of the extant examples portions of this gold has been removed by inserting a knife between the plates of glass. Perhaps |