THE PALM 135 



of God; now are they crowned and receive 

 palms.' ' 



Palms were therefore the meed of martyrdom, 

 the symbol of the martyrs' victory over death. 



' . . . The angel said 

 God liketh thy request, 

 And bothe with the palme of martirdome. 

 Ye shallen come unto His blissful rest.' ^ 



During the first three centuries of Chris- 

 tianity Christian art concerned itself almost 

 exclusively with the events recounted in the 

 Old and New Testaments and the Apocryphal 

 Gospels. ' But during the fourth century artists 

 began to represent the acts of the martyrs, at 

 the bidding of Saint Basil, who called to his aid 

 illustrious painters of athletic combats, to paint 

 with resplendent colours the martyr Barlaam, 

 the crowned athlete, whom he found himself 

 unable adequately to describe. ... A fresco 

 came to hght in 1887, under the Church of SS. 

 Giovanni e Paolo on the Celian Hill, which shows 

 three Christians being put to death beneath 



' 2 Esdras ii. 45. 



' Chaucer, The Second Nonnes Tale. 



