THE CHURCH AND ART 



FROM the time the .Church emerged from the cata- 

 combs, she has sought to beautify her temples and her 

 worship. Even there, the rude frescoes and orna- 

 ments found by archaeologists amply testify that the perse- 

 cuted Christians found occasion to decorate and symbolize 

 their daily worship. Not only do these paintings and quaint 

 designs tell us the history of the Church's teaching, but they 

 bear eloquent witness to the use of artistic means employed by 

 the Church from the very beginning to impress the believer 

 with the fullness and glory of the City of God. 



After the age of persecution, when the Church became a 

 publicly recognized institution, then assisted and afterwards 

 often dominated by the State, she sought for the greater fruits 

 of artistic development. She took the Roman and Greek tem- 

 ples and law courts, adorned them in a manner befitting the 

 nobler Christian worship, and wrought for herself forms of 

 architecture and ornamentation peculiarly Christian. How 

 well she succeeded the vast multitude of examples of Christian 

 art throughout Europe amply testifies. 



The central point of all Christian worship was and is the 

 bloodless Sacrifice of the Altar. All Christian art leads up 

 to the contemplation of that. Even in the beginning Heaven 

 itself was described by St. John in the semblance of an altar 

 with the lamb enthroned thereon, and the saints and angels 

 ministering thereat, with golden censers, the smoke of incense, 

 and the prayers of the saints. The great writer of the Apoca- 

 lypse conceived no greater symbolism of Heaven than that of 

 the highest act of Christian worship. 



The development of Christian art may be said to have be- 

 gun with the adornment of the altar and sanctuary, and with 

 everything connected with the Holy Sacrifice. In the East 

 this development was different from that of the West. The 

 original altar was left untouched by the Oriental Church, but 

 the screen which separated the altar and sanctuary from the 



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