1 28 THE PAGAN-CHRISTIAN OVERLAP OF THE WISE BIRD. 



an attitude of prayer between two pigeons, not perhaps without a 

 reminiscence of Semiramis. They appear to stand also for pious 

 Christians, or for the souls of departed saints, since a dove is 

 depicted as resting on each arm of the cross; and Tertullian, 

 A.D. 198, calls the sanctuary colunibce domus. 



Neither had the significance of the dove in relation to maternity 

 altogether vanished from later times. The Immaculate Conception 

 was often symbolised by a pencil of light that, streaming from a 

 dove, as the Holy Ghost, fell upon the Virgin. And we read in 

 the Blickling Homilies, A.D. 979, that "the Holy Ghosi abode in 

 the holy womb nine months, and then the queen of all maidens 

 gave birth to the true Creator and Consoler of mankind, when the 

 gold-flower came into this world and received a human body from 

 S. Mary, the spotless virgin." 



During mediaeval times, in both Eastern and Western churches, 

 a vessel shaped like a dove and called a peristerion, was suspended 

 before the High Altar by a chain from the roof of the edifice. It 

 opened on the back, and in the body of it the Blessed Sacrament 

 was reserved. In the year 370 S. Basil the Great reserved the 

 Host in a dove made of gold ; and in the year 474 Perpetuus, 

 Bishop of Tours, left by will a silver dove to Amalarius, a priest. 

 In England this receptacle was called a culver. One, made of 

 "latyn," a sort of brass, is mentioned in the churchwardens' 

 accounts of S. Dunstan's, Canterbury, in 1500 ; and in 1596 a 

 culver was repaired of the church of Kirton, in Lindsey. 



In mediaeval Bestiaries a white dove denotes the Holy Ghost, 

 but one of a purple colour is declared to signify Jesus, the son of 

 Mary ; and the dragon is affirmed to be afraid of the doves upon 

 the "Arbor pereclixion," the Tree of Life that grew amidst water- 

 streams (irfpi/cXufw). 



The etymological association of its name gives the dove a special 

 significance as a symbol of baptism, and may have been one of 

 many reasons for its sculptured presence on dipstones or fonts. 



But the dove claims recognition also in its character of a wise 

 bird. It is recorded that every Good Friday a white dove 



