RELIGION, EDUCATION, FINE ARTS. 



547 



had been transferred, the northern summit of 

 which is termed Horeb ; and the southern, 

 Jebul-Musa, or Mount of Moses, continues to be 

 regarded by a majority of scholars as the true 

 Sinai. The famous monastery of Mount Sinai 

 stands at the eastern base of Jebul-Musa, in 

 solitary peace. There were numerous other 

 convents, chapels, and hermitages around the 

 mountain in earlier times. 



Jesuits, Society of, was founded by 

 Ignatius of Loyola, assisted by Peter Le Fevre, 

 a Savoyard ; James Lainez, Francis Xavier, 

 Nicholas Bobadilla, Spaniards, and a Portu- 

 guese named Rodriguez, in the year 1534. The 

 society, when first conceived, had for its ob- 

 ject a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and the 

 conversion of the infidels. This purpose, 

 however, was abandoned owing to the warfare 

 existing at that time between the Turks and 

 the Western powers, and Loyola and his as- 

 sociates turned their attention to an organiza- 

 tion designed to labor zealously in resisting 

 the spread of the Reformation. In 1539 the 

 rule of the proposed order ' " To the greater 

 glory of God " and the vow by which they 

 bound themselves to go as missionaries to any 

 country which the Pope might indicate was 

 submitted to Paul III. , and Loyola was made 

 the first general of the order. The Society of 

 Jesuits is one of the most celebrated religious 

 orders of the Roman Catholic Church, and its 

 history has been closely identified at times 

 with that o'f several of the leading countries of 

 Europe. By reason of legislative influences 

 the Jesuits were obliged to suspend operations 

 in France, Italy, Spain, and several other 

 countries. Notwithstanding that many good 

 Roman Catholics are not in sympathy with the 

 Jesuit order, yet it can be said that in their 

 pioneer missionary operations they undoubt- 

 edly accomplished a great deal of good. 



Mosaics. The origin of the art of pro- 

 ducing artistic designs by setting small square 

 pieces of stone or glass of different colors, so 

 as to give the effect of painting, is obscure, but 

 it was much practiced by the Romans, espe- 

 cially for ornamental pavements, specimens of 

 which are almost always found wherever the 

 remains of an old Roman villa are discovered. 

 Under the Byzantine empire it was also much 

 used for the ornamentation of churches, in 

 which it formed a large portion of the wall 

 decoration. Christian mosaics admit, says one 

 writer, of two general divisions, the later 

 Roman and the Byzantine styles, the material 

 in use being, in general, cubes of colored glass, 

 inlaid, in the Roman school, on a ground of 

 blue and white, although in the latter the tes- 

 serse are frequently irregular in size and the 

 workmanship coarse. The former style flour- 



ished in Italy chiefly in the fifth and sixth cen- 

 turies, the most splendid specimens being found 

 in the churches of Rome and Ravenna. The 

 Florentine mosaic dates from the time of the 

 Medici, and is made entirely of precious or 

 semi-precious stones, such as amethyst, agate, 

 jasper, onyx, and others, cut and inlaid in 

 forms or thin veneers best suited to produce 

 the effects desired. The objects represented 

 are most frequently birds, flowers, fruits, vases, 

 sometimes buildings, and, more rarely, por- 

 traits and landscapes. In reference to the pres- 

 ent Roman mosaics, it may be said that the 

 smalti or small cubes of colored glass which 

 compose the pictures are stuck into the cement- 

 ing paste, or mastic, in the same manner as 

 were the colored glass, stone, and marble sec- 

 tilia and tesserae of the ancients. Within 

 quite recent years mosaics of surpassing beauty, 

 both in design and material, have been pro- 

 duced by Russian artists in the Imperial Glass 

 Manufactory of Russia. 



Trajan's Column, a celebrated column 

 [ at Rome, which was reared A. D. 114, by the 

 Roman Senate and people, in honor of the Em- 

 peror Trajan. It is considered not only the 

 greatest work of its architect, Apollodorus, but 

 one of the noblest structures of its kind ever 

 erected. The pedestal is covered with bas- 

 reliefs of warlike instruments, shields, and 

 helmets ; and a very remarkable series of bas- 

 reliefs, forming a spiral around the shaft, 

 exhibits a continuous history of the military 

 achievements of Trajan. These are in excel- 

 lent preservation, and, independently of their 

 beauty as works of art, they are invaluable as 

 records of ancient costumes. A spiral staircase 

 in the interior of the column leads to its sum- 

 mit. The height of the entire column is 132 

 feet. It stands erect in all its ancient beauty 

 amid the ruins of Trajan's Forum. The sum- 

 mit was originally crowned by a colossal statue 

 of the emperor, which has been incongruously 

 replaced by one of St. Peter. 



Vulgate, The, the Latin translation of 

 the Bible, which is the received version in the 

 Roman Catholic Church. The original Vul- 

 gate was completed in A. D. 405 by Jerome, 

 and between that date and 1546, when it was 

 first declared the authorized version of the 

 Roman Church, it underwent several revisions 

 which completely changed the character of the 

 work. In the latter year the Tridentine Coun- 

 cil decreed the preparation of an authentic 

 edition, and the task was undertaken by the 

 Papal Chair; but it was not until 1590 that 

 Sixtus V. produced the work. This, however, 

 turned out to be so utterly incorrect and faulty 

 throughout that the copies were speedily sup- 

 pressed, and another edition, which appeared 



