the soul to endure suffering. As a secondary meaning, it symbolizes the Church, the organ through which the Holy Spirit works on earth. When two doves appear the symbolism may represent, according to Macarius ("Hagioglypte," p. 220), the Church of the Circumcision and that of the Gentiles.

On a sarcophagus, or on other funeral monuments, the dove signifies the soul of a Christian indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Hence it tells of the peace of the departed soul, especially when, as is generally the case, it bears an olive branch in its beak. The reference here is, of course, to Noe and his departure from the ark, and hence it denotes faith in the resurrection. Occasionally funeral lamps were made in the form of a dove for this reason. Two doves on a funeral monument often denote the conjugal love and affection of those who were buried there.

The dove in flight is the symbol of the Ascension of Christ, and of the entry into glory of the Christian soul. Similarly, the caged dove denotes the soul detained in the body and held captive during the period of mortal life. Speaking generally, the dove as a Christian emblem signifies always the Holy Spirit, either personally or in His works. Hence if it denotes a Christian soul it contemplates that soul as indwelt by the Holy Spirit; and especially, therefore, as freed from the toils of the flesh and entered into the glory of everlasting happiness.

The Fish.

The fish is by far the most important and the most frequent of all Christian symbols. Its special attraction for the faithful is derived no doubt from the famous acrostic formed from the initial letters of the Greek word 'Ixus. This single word, thus interpreted, summed up the whole of Christian theology concerning

our Lord. It told of His name and office, of His Divine and human nature, of His priesthood, and of His work as Redeemer. Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υιός EwTnp-Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour. Every baptized Christian all over the whole civilized world knew and constantly made use of this famous symbol. It enabled them to recognize each other, for they wore fishes as ornaments or drew them in the dust when they wished to make themselves known to their fellow-believers. A little fish, made sometimes of precious materials, was given to the newly baptized as a tessera, to preserve as a memorial of the event and a token of the character he had newly adopted. All that the cross means to Christians of to-day was conveyed to the minds of the faithful of the earliest centuries by the symbol of the fish. For them the use of the cross was impossible, it would at once have betrayed them, but the fish was as full of meaning and at the same time free from all danger.

The fish is one of the most ancient of Christian symbols, and occurs continually both in the Fathers and on Christian monuments. It denotes, primarily, our Lord, and, secondarily, His followers who have become His members by Holy Baptism. Thus Origen speaks of our Lord as figuratively called the Fish, and Tertullian says we are by baptism as little fishes taken out of the water. St. Jerome says that the fish, in which was found the stater of the tribute money, represents Christ who saves all mankind with the price of His blood. Many Fathers comment in a similar strain on the fish of Tobias. Thus St. Prosper of Acquitaine says that "with the interior remedies of this fish we also are illuminated and nourished ".

The fish is often accompanied by some other symbol. Sometimes it swims by a ship, indicating Christ who cares for and watches over the destinies of His Church.

Sometimes it carries the ship on its back, as Christ also sustains His Church. Very frequently it is accompanied by the anchor, which denotes the cross, and then the allusion is to the Crucifixion, or to the sufferings of Christ or of his martyrs. Hence the anchor comes to have the secondary meaning of hope, and there is often an inscription which accompanies it, such as Spes in Christo-Hope in Christ. The combination of the fish with bread is of very special importance. The primary allusion is no doubt to the Gospel story, to the bread and fishes of the miracle of the four thousand, or to the broiled fish and bread of which our Lord partook after His Resurrection. But the early Christians saw much more in it than this. We shall have to return to the subject in connection with the symbolism of the Holy Eucharist. The allusion has only to be pointed out to commend itself to all. It speaks of the mystic food, which to our senses indeed seems to be but bread, but in reality is nothing less than Christ Himself.

The dolphin in particular was chosen as the fish to be thus represented. It owes its position in this respect to the tradition that it was always the friend and the saviour of men, and this rendered it particularly suitable for the purpose. Sometimes it is transfixed by a trident, and then it represents more particularly the Passion of our Saviour.

Other Symbols.

The other symbols are of far less importance and need not take up much of our space. The ship is always the Church, tossed on the stormy waters of persecution, or sailing calmly over brighter seas. The serpent has several meanings. Sometimes it represents the evil one, in allusion to the fall of man, sometimes the

Redeemer, in allusion to the Brazen Serpent lifted up in the wilderness. Sometimes again the allusion is to those words of our Lord, "Be ye wise as serpents". It is sometimes also, but rarely, used as a symbol of immortality, its habit of sloughing its skin, and emerging in new and brighter condition being probably the origin. The palm, then as now, was the symbol of martyrdom, but it does not invariably have that meaning. It would not be safe, for instance, to assume that a sepulchral monument which bears the palm upon it is necessarily the tomb of a martyr. Eggs again were a symbol of the Resurrection. Shells of real eggs have been found in early tombs. Here once more the symbolism has lasted on, in the form of Easter eggs, even down to the twentieth century.

We have said enough, without going into any full or scientific discussion of Christian symbolism in these early ages, to show how real and vivid was the language which they spoke. Now that we have mastered the main outlines of that language we are in a position to go on to interrogate the monuments, and to see whether they have any message for us of the faith and doctrine of the Church as held in those first ages when Christians were still so near to the time when our Lord Himself and His Apostles had been among us as teachers of the new and final dispensation.

shall find, if I am not mistaken, that in many details the witness of the monuments fills out and renders clearer than before the evidence of the literary remains of the Christian writers of the period.

CHAPTER II.

The Witness of the Monuments to the Primacy of the Roman See.

THE writings of the Fathers of the first centuries have been ransacked again and again for expressions which may serve to indicate the relations existing in those times between the See of Rome as the heir to the privilegium Petri and the rest of the Catholic world. Nor can it be said that the search has failed. Testimonies both clear and numerous have been forthcoming to prove the fact that from the earliest ages the Roman Church and its Bishop were regarded as being in a special way heirs of the commission given by our Lord to St. Peter, and therefore as being specially entitled to the reverence and obedience of Catholic Christendom. These testimonies begin within the Apostolic age, before yet St. John, the last of the Apostles, had passed to his reward, and the first of them is that letter which was written by St. Clement, as Bishop and representative of the Church of Rome, to the disordered and troubled Church of Corinth. This letter is so clear and definite in its statements on this subject that Protestant controversialists, unable to evade its force, have found themselves reduced to speak of it as an instance of the besetting sin of the Roman Church, in always desiring to force her rule upon others, breaking out thus early, in the very first