Dec. 20. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



485 



tained, and by which the bishop's sole right to judge 

 of the qualifications of persons applying for institution 

 was unutterably confirmed, are such instances of your 

 magnanimity and public spirit as will remain in me- 

 mory while the church or the law of England lasts." 



E. H. A. 



Companion Ladder. — -Why are the stairs lead- 

 ing from the deck to the chief cabin of a ship 

 called "the companion bidder ? " 



A Constant Reader. 



[The companion in mercliant ships is a wooden porch 

 placed over the entrance or staircase of the cabin. 

 Hence the ladder by which officers ascend to and descend 

 from the quaiter-deck, is called the companion ladder.'\ 



Macaidcu/s Ballad of the Buttle of Nasehy. 

 — AVhere is Mr. Macaul'ay's ballad of the " Battle 

 of Naseby" to be found printed entire ? It is not 

 republished in the last edition of his Lays of 

 Ancient Rome. D. J3.J. 



[It has never, we believe, been printed since its first 

 publication in Knight's Magazine, about the year 1824. 

 From the omission pointed out by our correspondent, 

 it is obvious that the accomplished writer of it does not 

 himself regard this ballad as deserving of republication.] 



McijltriS. 



THE. CaUCIFIX AS USED BY TUB EAELT CHRISTIANS. 



(Vol. iv., p. 422.). 



A correspondent questions the accuracy of 

 ]Mr. Cukzon's statement, in his Monasteries of the 

 Levant, that — 



" The crucifix was not known before the fifth or 

 sixth century, though the cross was always the emblem 

 of the Christian faith," — 



and asks for information as to its tise, and the 

 dates of the earliest examples. Some twenty years 

 ago I devoted some care to this inquiry, and the 

 result will be found in a chapter on the decline of 

 the arts in Greece, in a History of Modern Greece, 

 which I published in 1830. To that essay, but 

 more especially to the authorities which it cites, I 

 would refer your correspondent ; and I think, after 

 an examinatif)n of tlie latter, he will be disposed 

 to concur with me, that Mr. Curzon's statement is 

 correct. It is in accordance with that of Gibbon, 

 and sustained by the same authorities as Basnage, 

 to the elfect that the first Christians, from their 

 association with the Jews, and their aversion to 

 the mythology of the Greeks, were hostile to the 

 use of images of any description in their primitive 

 temples, in which they reluctantly admitted the 

 figure of the ignominious cross, as a memorial of 

 the Redeemer's death. At a later period, how- 

 ever, the venei'alion for the relics of il(;parted 

 Baints led to the admission of tlieir j)uinted por- 

 traits, and eventually to the erection of their 



images and effigies in wood and marble. (Gibbon, 

 chap, xxiii. xlix.) Reiskius states that it was 

 not till the fourth century after Christ that the 

 latter innovation began : 



" licclesia vero Christiana tribus seculis prioribus ne 

 quidem imagines recepit aut inter sacra numeravit in- 

 strumenta. Sed demum sub finem quarti seculi ea 

 lege admisit ut in templis memorial ac ornatus causa, 

 haberentur." — -Reiskius, De Iinaginibus Jesu Christi. 

 Exercitationes Histor., Ex. i. c. i. sec. ii. p. 12. 



Lillio Giraldi concurs with Reiskius : 



" lUud certe non prsetermittam nos dico Christianos. 

 ut aliquando llomanos fuisse sine iinaginibus in primi- 

 tiva quae vocatur ecclesia." — Lillius Gregorius Giraldus, 

 Historic Deorum Syniage, v. i. p. 15. 



The earliest images of Christ were those men- 

 tioned as being placed, by Alexander Severus,, 

 along with those of Abraham, Jupiter, Pythagoras,. 

 Plato, and Aristotle. (Reiskius, ex. vii. c. i. sec. i. 

 p..l51.) Constantine placed two equestrian statues 

 of the Saviour in the Lateran Church. But 

 Molanus, who mentions the latter fact, insists 

 that there were existing about this period nume- 

 rous statues of the Saviour, which he would refer 

 to the time of Pontius Pilate. (De Historia SS.. 

 Imaginibus, ^c, lib. i. c. vi. p. 65.) 



The most ancient examples now remaining of 

 the decorations employed by the early Christians, 

 are doubtless those found in the catacombs at 

 Rome. I have not access to any recent copies of 

 these interesting antiquities ; but so far as my re- 

 collection serves, they contain no example of a 

 crucifix, or any literal delineation of the death of 

 the Savioiu'. In fact, even in these gloomy re- 

 treats, the vigilance of persecution compelled the 

 Christians to caution, and forced them to conceal, 

 under allegories and mystery, tho memorials of 

 their fitith; the figure of the Redeemer being 

 always veiled under an assumed character, most 

 generally tliat of a shepherd bearing in his arms a. 

 recovered lamb. This, which is the most comraoa 

 form of allegory of this period, occurs in the cata- 

 comb of the Via Latina, in that of Priscilla in 

 the Via Salaria, discovered in 1776, both of which, 

 according to Aringhi, are amongst the oldest 

 Christian monuments now remaining. (Roma 

 Siditerranea,. vol. ii. j). 25. 292.) In a sepulchral 

 chamber in the cemetery of St. Calixtus, Jesus is 

 represented as Orplieus with a lyre, as emblematic- 

 of the subduing influences of his life. But his 

 death is still more cautiously shadowed forth by 

 the types of Jonas, Isaac on the altar of Abraham,, 

 and Daniel in the den of lions, — examples of all 

 of which are nuiuerous ; and the cover of an ura 

 figtired by Agincourt ])resents them all three. 

 (Ilistoire de I' Art par les Monuiiieiis, vol. iv. ; 

 Dec. Sculp., pi. V. no. 10.) 



Art, after its decline in Rome, was later cherished 

 by the Greeks at Byzantum, aud allegory iu their 



