72 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



browned a little as Botticelli's roses always 

 are.' ' 



But the Church grudged Venus the flower. 

 Roses, said Wilfred Strabo, were the flower 

 of martyrdom. * Rosce martyr es, rubor e san- 

 guinis,' wrote Saint Melitus, Bishop of Sardes, 

 in the second century, and Saint Bernard of 

 Clairvaux found the rose to be a fitting symbol 

 of the Passion of our Lord. But though the 

 rose was red to the colour of blood, and fenced 

 around with cruellest thorns, it had been so 

 long associated with the joys of life that the 

 world refused to recognize it as the flower of 

 death. Only as the sign of the triumphant 

 entry of the departed soul to Heaven was the 

 symbol acceptable. Roses sprang from the 

 blood of those who fell for their faith at Ronce- 

 vaux (as indeed they sprang from the spilt 

 blood of Adonis), but they were also the sign 

 of victory over the pagan, and when the Virgin 

 Mary was laid within her tomb it was in re- 

 joicing that ' straightway there surrounded her 

 flowers of roses which are the blessed company 

 of martyrs.' " 



^ Walter Pater, ' Sandro Botticelli.' ^ Legenda Aurea. 



