244 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



in the Christ-Child's hand. Northern theo- 

 logians, studying the Old Testament carefully, 

 and deeply interested in types and anti-types, 

 saw in Adam the type of Christ. The Bihlia 

 Pauperum, originally designed with the inten- 

 tion of teaching the faith to the unlettered, 

 served as a pattern-book for stained glass and 

 other ecclesiastical decoration from the ninth 

 century onwards. Each page is divided into 

 three sections. In the centre is a scene from 

 the life of Christ; in the sections on either side 

 is a scene from Old Testament History, showing 

 some incident in the lives of those men who are 

 considered to be types of Christ, which fore- 

 shadowed some act of the Redeemer. And 

 chief of these types is Adam. Therefore in the 

 Northern Church the idea of Jesus Christ as 

 the second Adam was familiar, and the fruit in 

 His hand was perfectly understood as a symbol. 

 Memling, who, if he did not originate the symbol- 

 ism of the apple of Eden, made it famous by 

 constant repetition on his magnificently exe- 

 cuted panels, usually treats it quite simply. 

 The apple is the symbol of the Fall, and there- 

 fore of the world's sin, which Christ accepts as 



