136 THE PAGAN-CHRISTIAN 4 OVfiRLAf OP TlIE WISE SlRD. 



mouth. The Dove thus proceeds from the Father. Demons thus 

 escape from the possessed. The soul thus leaves the body of 

 a dying man. On the tympanum of Moccas Church, already 

 referred to, the Vine issues from the mouth of the Lamb. 



The Holy Ghost is doubled. He appears both as a Man and as 

 a Dove. We see a reminiscence of a Divinity with His Wise 

 Fowl. As Man, He is enthroned on a chair of dignity, but as He 

 faces towards the Lamb we have a side view of the faldistory or 

 folding-stool. He holds in His left hand a closed book. The 

 secrets of the Gospel are to be revealed by the Spirit in the shape 

 of a Bird which He bears aloft in His hand, grasping It by the 

 feet, falcon-wise, even like that which was carried by the priest of 

 Aphrodite. And the Holy Dove, fluttering Its wings, turns with 

 divine intelligence to Him who holds It ; and they Two, together 

 with the Lamb, constitute a secondary group apart from the 

 Father, for They are intent on saving mankind from the terrors of 

 the Law. The Dove is without a nimbus, and if the First and 

 Third Persons have one it is indistinguishable from a head-dress. 

 It is impossible to say whether or not either of Them is bearded. 

 They are clad in monastic garb, but Their feet, by the cutting 

 away of the stone, have disappeared. 



The last abnormal group is from a sculpture on the west face of 

 the tower of Abbotsbury Church (fig. 8). Of this stone, also, it 

 may be said that it is, architecturally speaking, not in situ. It 

 may have been brought from the Abbey that once stood hard by. 



The Father, as omnipotent, is seated on a central canopied 

 throne. He is bearded and of imposing stature. He has a 

 cruciform nimbus and a frontlet. He wears a tippet fastened 

 across the chest by a brooch. His feet are bare. His right hand 

 is raised in the posture of the Latin Benediction, and with His 

 left He upholds the upper limb of the Cross, of which the lateral 

 limbs are excessive in length and thickness. 



The Son is crucified. He has a short beard and hair that falls 

 on either shoulder. His head is inclined to the right. He is 

 clad in a loin-cloth of moderate size. His legs are probably 



