NOVOGOROD. 
2(3 
CHAP. 
II. 
C. * ' 
Antient 
Greek 
Paintings. 
in front by a silver coat of mail ; leaving only 
the faces and hands of the images visible. 
A small attention to the history and character 
of the Russians will explain the cause. 
When the religion of the Greek Church was 
first introduced into Russia, its propagators, 
prohibited by the Second Commandment from 
the worship of carved images, brought with 
them the pictures of the Saints, of the Virgin, 
and the Messiah. Very antient sanctuaries in 
the Holy Land had paintings of this kind, which 
the early Christians worshipped ; as may be 
proved by the remains of them at this time in 
that country 1 . To protect these holy symbols 
of the new faith from the rude but zealous 
fingers and lips of its votaries, in a country 
where the arts of multiplying them by imitation 
were then unknown, they were covered by 
plates of the most precious metals, which left 
the features alone visible. As soon as the 
Messengers of the Gospel died, they became 
(1) In the first edition, it was erroneously written “ first Christians.’’ 
The earliest notice of the use of pictures is in the Censure of 
the Council of JllUcris, three hundred years after the Christian a-ra- 
Among the ruins of some of the most antient churches in Palestine, 
the author found several curious examples of encaustic painting, of 
a very early date. One of these, from SepphorU, near Nazareth, is 
now in the possession of the Principal Librarian of the University 
of Cambridge. 
