Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/58

BIBLE. familiar with the detailed system of Christian art, were glad to use for their guidance these illustrated texts executed at a few artistic centres under the instructions of the foremost thinkers. Hence the imiformity of treatment, hence the formation of a tradition: for these miniatures gave not only subject, but treatment, composition, colors, attitudes. There are even manuscripts where the places in the church that certain subjects should occupy are noted. Where symbolism descended to the colors of garments, to the emblems held, to the form of the nimbus, no detail could be neglected. So it came to be that the painter was merely the hand, and the churcluuan the brain behind it. After a while these traditions, it is true, became the property of the painters themselves, so that they required no promjjting. The period of lay artists was followed by that of monastic artists (Seventh to Eleventh Century), when the thought and the hand were one. Then such works as the Byzantine Guide to Painting came into exist- ence, which became the painter's vade mccutn, where every subject of Christian art was mi- nutely described as it should be painted. And the form of this guide, even now in use among Greek painters of Mount Athos and Thessaly, goes back as far as the Eleventh Century. Bible illustrations, besides continuously in- structing the people already converted, were used as instruments in missionary work. In order to convert the Anglo-Saxons, for instance, Benedict Biscop. who built the two greatest early monasteries in England, brought from Rome a series of small pictures illustrating the Old and New Testaments and had them reproduced on the church walls. For the conversion of the Saxons, Charlemagne's Capitularies insist, no new church was complete until it had its tale of instructive pictures. In the conversion of the Bulgarians, Methodius, the Apostle to the Slavs, is said to have brought about the cliange of heart of the King and his people mainly through the eft'eet of a painting of the Last Judgment. This period — roughly, the Carlovingian Era — was one of great activity in Bible illustrations, both in codices and in church walls. The element of fear began to be more emphasized than that of love and peace. The torments of hell were soon to replace the visions of the Heavenly Jerusalem, in the same way as in the Fifth Century the Heavenly Jerusalem had replaced the Garden of Paradise of the Catacombs ; but this transforma- tion progressed slowly, between the Eiglith and Thirteenth centuries, culminating in the Torcello mosaics and in poetry in Dante's Inferno.

Hitherto no distinction has been drawn be- tween the Bible illustrations in the East and these in the West, because in this part of Chris- tian art there was less chance for divergences than in other branches; still, even here. Eastern art showed far more poetry and imagination. The age of the iconoclasts there was a crucial epoch in Eastern Bible illustration, and in many ways revived antique traditions, which were kept much fresher in the East. The dull level of mediocrity which then ruled the West was not really broken until the approach of the Gothic Age, in the Twelfth Century. Then scholasti- cism came to the rescue of art. The eneyclo- picdic passion was vivified by religious fervor; the mysticism of a Saint Hernard, a Saint Vic- tor, and a Saint Bonaventura gave to the pic- torial image of the world's essence and history which was then attempted a value far transcend- ing the historic, liiblc ilhistration, as pure his- tory, was still faitlifiilly carried on, but it no longer occupied the old-time prominent place. There was a return to symbolism, but on a far higher, more imaginative, as well as more in- tellectual |)lane than that of the early Christian period. The ''Wi.se and Foolish Virgins," the "Tree of Jesse," were Bible illustrations, but not in the historic sense. There was a new life in the teaching of religion. But, while the purely historic series no longer were so prominent on church walls, the work of Bible illustration ccm- tinucd in codices unabated. In fact, there were — perhaps there had been before — .series of such illustrations bound together with descriptive in- scriptions and text; but without the Bible texts themselves. Such manuals continued in use un- til very late. When printing and block-engrav- ing were invented in the Fifteenth Century they could be multiplied in cheap form and circulated among the people. (See Biblia Paupervm.) From these sprang the really artistic series of prints by such artists as Albiecht Diirer, from whom our more modern Bible illustrators de- scend. But after the masses learned to read and write, and after the text of the Bible itself be- came accessible to the majority, such illustra- tions no longer played the really important role in the development' of Christianity which they had held for over twelve hunilred years.

BIBLE, Restrictions upon the Reading of, I!Y the Laitv. The Roman Catholic ami Prot- estant churches differ on this point, in that the former prints authorized translations and re- quests the faithful to restrict their reading to them, and makes all their translations from the Latin Vulgate text; whereas, the latter as such authorizes no version, adopts no standard text, but encourages every one to read translations which are made directly from the Hebrew and Greek originals. In the earliest times we find no evidence of any prohibition of Bible-reading by the laity. On the contrary, as the foundation im which the Cliuicli was built, and the sole source of religious knowledge, the reading of the Bible formed an essential part of the in- struction communicated by pastors to their con- gregations; and the greatest orators of the (Jhurcli — especially Chrysostom and Augustine — continually reminded their hearers that private reading and study of the Scriptures should fol- low attendance on publii' services. This great fact is by no means contradicted by the warn- ings found here and there in the Fathers against the abuse or mistake of the meaning of Scrip- ture; these warnings rather imply that Scrip- ture-reading was common among the laity. The gradual widening of the distinction, or ralher the separation, between the ilcig' and the laity, was the work of the Middle Ages; and, among other means of preserving traditions inviolate and maintaining the exclusive character and sacred aulliorlty of the hi<>rarcliy, the Bible was held in the background, even while there was no direct prohibition of its common use. In 1080 (iregory VII. ordained that Latin should be the universal language of Catholic worship, and consequently excluded all vernacular read- ings of Scripture in public assemblies. Again, with regard to the Waldenses, Innocent 111., in 1199, prohibited the private possession and read-