| Monumental Christianity; or, The art and symbolism of the primitive church. CHAPTER III - 4 |
Page 5 of 5 The pagan calumny, that the Christians worshipped the head of an ass, is noticed by Tertullian in these words, in his Apology to the Roman rulers; (i6;) ** Like some others, you are under the delusion that our god is an ass's head, Cor- nelius Tacitus first put this notion into people's minds, in the fifth book of his histories, where he speaks of a herd of wild asses guiding the Jews to water in the wilderness, who, in gratitude, consecrated the head of this animal. And as Christian- ity is nearly allied to Judaism, I suppose it was from this taken for granted that we, too, are devoted to the worship of the same image. . . But lately a new version of our god has been given to the public of Rome by a certain hireling convict of a bull-fighter, who put forth a picture with this inscription, '0N0K0IHTH2. (Ono- koites,- u e., an ass priest, or born of an ass.) He had the ears of an ass, was hoofed in one foot, carried a book, and wore a toga. Both the name and the figure gave us amusement." The idea intended to be conveyed was much the same as it is now, to deride a stupid and obstinate man with the name of a * Gnostics, &c., p. 90, and Plate I. Nos. i, 2. 3. and 8. Also p. 150, Plate X. No. X. Necessity and Art-Teaching of the Catacombs. 6i "jackass/' "The shadow of an ass/' was the old Greek and Roman prov- erb, as used by Menander. Apuleius uses it for something silly and fool- ish; and Celsus says: "The Chris- tians and Jews most stupidly contend with each other, and this contro- versy of theirs differs in nothing from the proverb about the conten- tion for the shadow of an ass." But the figure discovered on the wall of the Palatine is not such as TertuUian describes ; though in some of the old rude Gnostic gems, Anubis has somewhat the appear- ance of an ass, except that the ears are not so long.* Thoth or Mercury being the conductor and guardian of departed souls, and presiding at their trial, is a pagan type of Christ ; and when he appears at all in the genuine Christian monuments, it is not as this jackal-headed Gnostic figure of Anu- bis, but as the human figure of the Greek and Roman Mercury. He is thus repre- sented in connection with the ascent of Elijah in a fresco-painting of the Cemetery of St. Calixtus.' Law, calumny, ridicule. Gnosticism, Judaism, and constant danger, made it necessary, therefore, for early Christianity at Rome to form itself into a separate community, and hide from a world hostile to its purity and simplicity, its faith and charity. And so the Catacombs grew into the most stupendous testimony in its favour extant, save only the Christian Scriptures and the Christian Church itself, still surviving long ages of kindred opposition. |