194 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Among the animals whicli took a leading part in mediseval 

 sculpture at this period was the fox, and a text of the Physiolo- 

 gus was widely translated into sculpture. This text ran as fol- 

 lows : " When the fox is hungry, it lies down in a furrow of the 

 field and covers itself partly with earth, as though it had been long 

 dead. Then the ravens and other rapacious birds come to devour 

 it, when it suddenly leaps up and tears them to pieces. Thus the 

 devil deceives those who love the corrupt things of this world 

 and obey the lusts of the flesh, and entices them to their own 

 destruction." Representations of this scene and others in which 

 the fox plays a leading part are very common in the later mediae- 

 val sculpture. In Worcester Cathedral is a carving showing 

 foxes running in and out of holes, while John the Evangelist 

 stands near with his gospel in his hand and an eagle at his feet. 

 Here the foxes are types of the devil, and John the Evangelist the 

 herald of divine truth. In Canterbury Cathedral are sculptures 

 representing a fox dressed like a monk and preaching to an as- 

 sembly of geese. 



Very severe at this later period were some of the caricatures 

 by devout Catholic sculptors upon the begging friars. In the 

 church of St. Victor at Xanten are carvings in which is repre- 

 sented a monster with the feet of a pig, the tail of a fox, and the 

 head of a monk.* 



The ass was also used for a similar purpose. Thus, on a col- 

 umn of St. Peter's Church at Aulnay an ass is represented as 

 standing on his hind legs and clothed in ecclesiastical costume. 

 Even in so devout a country as Spain, and in such a theological 

 center as the Cathedral of Toledo, we find striking examples of 

 this same satirical spirit ; and at the Cathedral of Burgos are 

 sculptured satires no less striking, against vice and folly. 



More and more frequently throughout Europe we have in 

 sculpture these figures of foxes preaching to fowls, with other 

 foxes lying in wait behind the pulpit to catch the congregation ; 

 of asses wearing rosaries, of donkeys playing upon the lyre, of 

 pigs playing upon the bagpi]3es, of foxes confessing birds, and of 

 wolves confessing sheep ; and these appear not only in sculpture, 

 but in other forms of art. In the collections at Cornell Univer- 

 sity are some very curious specimens. A very rare missal, ob- 

 tained by the writer of this article in Germany some years since, 

 is full of illustrations of this kind. 



Very interesting is the final chapter of Prof. Evans's work, 

 entitled Whimseys of Ecclesiology and Symbology, and among 

 these the reader will doubtless most rejoice in the extracts from 

 a paper on Vestiges of the Blessed Trinity in the Material Crea- 



* See work cited, p. 224. 



