28 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



which from being the flower indicative of 

 heavenly bhss became the especial flower of 

 the Virgin, typifying her purity. Also the rose, 

 the flower of martyrdom, became the symbol 

 of divine love, and the palm tree and the acan- 

 thus dropped out of devotional representations 

 altogether. 



In the main, after the twelfth century, 

 symbolists were agreed. There were certain 

 fruits and flowers about which there never had 

 been any doubt. The vine had been the emblem 

 of Jesus Christ from the beginning of Christian 

 theology. The white lily, as a symbol of chastity, 

 came perhaps from the Hebrews, but all Christian 

 writers were agreed as to its fitness as a symbol 

 of purity and as an emblem or attribute of the 

 Virgin Mary. The violet was the symbol of 

 humility, and therefore, say Petrus of Capua 

 and Saint Mectilda, the emblem of Christ when 

 on earth. Saint Mectilda and Bishop Durandus, 

 for the same reason, consider it the emblem of 

 confessors. 



The rose was long in disgrace as the flower 

 of Venus. But even saints could not exclude 

 it from their lives, and gradually it crept into 



