EMBLEMS AND SYMBOLS 13 



as a teacher of religion required to be as con- 

 servative as the CathoHc Church with which 

 it was allied, and the symbolism of the four- 

 teenth century has remained with few additions 

 or modifications to our own day. When de- 

 votional pictures multiplied, emblems passed 

 into what may be termed the heraldry of the 

 Church. Though also used in decoration, their 

 primary use upon altar vessels and Church 

 furniture was to distinguish the object as sacred, 

 or as the property of the Church, in the same 

 way as the royal arms or a private crest indicated 

 the ownership of secular things. They appeared 

 on the banners used in processions of the Church 

 and on the badges and insignia of religious 

 orders, but were very seldom used in pictorial 

 art. Indeed, it is in the early Flemish school 

 alone that pictures similar to the van Eycks' 

 ' Adoration of the Mystic Lamb ' ' or to their 

 ' Fountain of Life ' ^ are found, where angels, 

 prophets, saints and patriarchs bow down 

 before the emblem, not the figure, of the 

 Saviour. 



During the first twelve centuries of Christi- 



' Ghent Cathedral. » The Prado, Madrid. 



