Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/430

 SYMBOLISM

374

SYMBOLISM

paganism even if one deliberately set to work to invent an entirely new ritual.

In any case the Old Testament, and more particu- larly the religious worship of the Old Testament, is full of symbolism. However literal may be our interpre- tation of the early chapters of Genesis, we cannot fail to recognize the symbolic element which pervades them. When we read for example how " God created man to his own image", or how He "formed man of the slime of the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life", we can hardly doubt that it was upon the underlying moral lesson rather than upon the material fact suggested by the words that the atten- tion of the writer was concentrated. Still more clearly the words "sitteth at the right hand of God the Fathei- Almighty", by which the Creed recalls the language of Psalm cix, 1, or the whole purport of such a writing as the Canticle of Canticles (q. v.), compels a symbolical interpretation. But it is in the details of worship that the tendency is most apparent. In prayer we constantly find the spreading out of the palms of the hands (see Ex., ix, 29, 33; III Kings, viii, 22, 38, 54; Job, xi, 13; etc.), clearly emphasizing the idea that the worshipper comes forward as a sup- pliant expectant of good gifts. In the act of blessing the hand is laid upon the head of the recipient or at least is stretched towards him (Gen., xlviii, 14; Lev., ix, 22; IV Kings, xiii, 16; etc.) with the suggestion that virtue passes out to the person so blessed. The rite of circumcision is to be performed in memory of the covenant between God and Abraham (Gen., xvii, 11), and all the Jewish festivals begmning with the Pasch are similarly commemorative of God's mercies to His people. So again of the loaves of proposition (Lev., xxiv, 5 sq.) we are told, "Thou shalt put upon them the clearest frankincense, that the bread may be for a memorial of the oblation of the Lord". Although nothing more is said as to the precise significance of this offering which was to re- main from sabbath day to sabbath day in the Holy of Holies, it is clear that it could have served no utilitarian purpose and that its object was purely symbolical. Again the same may be said of the whole sacrificial ritual of the Old Testament, and in the case of the incense the words of Ps. cxl, 2, "let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice" (cf. Apoc, v, 8; viii, 3), seem sufficiently to declare what was the spiritual meaning underlying the outward sign. In any case the atmosphere of mystery which surrounded the ark of the covenant and later on the Temple and all the adjuncts ot its imposmg worship must have been a fertile soil for the growth of a teaching rich in sym- bolic inteqjretations. These things clearly suggested inquiry mto their hidden significance and if the mean- ing were not in itself obvious, we may be assured from the genius of the people as manifested in the later Talmud that an explanation would readily be evolved to meet the case.

Coming now to Christian times the conditions of self-efTacement and frequently recurring persecution under which the faithful lived in the first ages of the Church must have helped much to dcvcloi) any ten- dencies towards a symbolistic treatment of religious truths which they had derived from .ludaism. In point of fact the life of the Catacombs and the Dis- cipline of the Secret (q. v.), which partly grew out of it, necessitated a veiling of Christian beliefs under types and figures. Mc^reover, sn far as regards any graphic presentment of tlic'se my.steries in sculpture and painting, it seems intrinsically probable that the faithful deliberately availed themselves of such sym- bols as would not attract ton much attention, and that consequently they gave the preference to repre- sentations which had some i)agan analogue. In the earlier i)eriod no representations of the Crucifixion are found, and hardly any of the cross, at least in a

large and conspicuous form; neither are the episodes of Christ's life commonly depicted realistically and historically, but only conventionally. But the type of the Good Shejjherd carrying the sheep on his shoulders occurs frequently, and this preference may well be due to its resemblance to the pagan figures of Hermes Kriophorus or Aristaeus, which at this period were much in vogue. The Christian understood clearly the reference to the loving self-sacrifice of Our Saviour, but pagan curiosity was not aroused by any- thing startling and unwonted. Again the banquet scenes with fish and bread (see Eucharist, Early Symbols op the), which spoke so eloquently to the faithful of Holy Communion and the marriage supper of the blessed in heaven, seemed to the Roman of the second and third century, who paid homage to the dead with banquets as well as sacrifices, a perfectly natural decoration for a funeral chamber. Even the fable of Orpheus was borrowed pictorially and re- ferred to Chri.st. Similarly the story of Eros and Psyche was revived and Christianized, serving to re- mind the believer of the resurrection of the body and the eternal beatitude of heaven. The group of the Twelve Apostles probably attracted the less attention because the twelve Dii Majores were often also grouped together. Again the figure of the Orans (q. v.), the woman with arms uplifted in prayer, was quite familiar to classical antiquity. Though the precise significance attached to it as it is found in the catacombs is in dispute, it was clearly designed to awaken some spiritual idea in the minds of the ini- tiated. Similarly the fish symbol (see Fish, Sy.mbol- TSM OF the), representing Christ, the anchor of hope, the palm of victory, were all sufficiently familiar as emblems among pagans to excite no particular at- tention. Hence even in the case of an inscription which breathes so unmi.stakably the atmosphere of early Christian symbolism as the epitaph of Abercius (q. V.) with its allu.sions to the Fish (Christ) in the Eucharist, the shining seal (baptism), the chaste shepherd (Christ), etc., it has been possible for writers like Ficker to deny its Christian significance though in defiance of all probability as Zahn, Duchesne, and many other writers have shown. From whatever cause it arose the strong symbolistic colouring of re- ligious practice during the first ages of Christianity is disputed by hardly anyone, and it was manifestly in harmony with the allegorical tone of the Apocalypse, of the Pastor of Hermas, and of other early apocry- phal writings. Further it is certain that the tradition thus created only deepened and spread throughout both the early anil the later Middle Ages. The ten- dency seems to have been particularly fostered by the allegorical exegesis of the theologians of Alexandria which the writings of St. Jerome and St. Gregory the Great helped to make familiar to western Europe. The works of Isidore of Seville and of St. Bede helped in the same direction. Neither must the so-called "Clavis" attributed to St. Melito of Sardis be left out of account. There is certainly no sufficient reason to identify it with the genuine work of St. Melito which bore a corresponding name, but the Clavis gathered up a variety of symbolical interpretations current in St. .Xugustine and the Fathers, and it seems to be of fairlv earlv date (cf., however, Hotmanner in "Thecil. Quart alschrift", 1896, Ixxviii, 614-29).

With rcfxard ti) the early ritual of the Church, the part that symbolism plays in all connected with the sacraments need not be insisted on. The outward sign of t he sacrament was itself .symbolical. But there was much more than this. In the case of baptism, for instance, nearly all the ceremonial is of very early date. The exorcism of Satan by blowing or breath- ing, the giving of salt (sal sapirnlia-), the rite of the Ephpheta, and the u.se of spittle, imitating the action of Our Lord in .some of His miracles, the ancient practice of turning to the West when renouncing