| Monumental Christianity; or, The art and symbolism of the primitive church. CHAPTER VI - 5 |
Page 7 of 7 Encircled as usual to denote His Divine generation in the eternity and immen- sity of God the Father, the Good Shepherd has returned to the fold with our lost humanity on His shoulders ; and the whole flock of the Jewish and Gentile church is, perhaps, represented by the two sheep looking up in His face. The vine is full of rich clusters, upon which the happy immortals are feeding, as represented by the eight little naked genii. Here obviously the Vine and the Good Shepherd are identical in their application to Christ. He has recovered and restored the lost sheep ; they are in the Paradise of God ; the new wine of the Heavenly Father's Kingdom is theirs to drink. Just such little naked new-born children as flutter among these vine leaves, do we see on the dolphins and with the Nereids crossing the sea to the happy islands ; and even their smiling faces look forth from the rippling waters, as if just born in them by a fresh baptism to the new and endless life of blessedness. These same naked genii can be seen carved upon the lintel and sides of the great door of the temple of the sun at Baalbec, sporting among the vines and flowers ; many of which, alas ! have been knocked off by inconsiderate and selfish travellers. Christian art has from the first adopted them from Paganism as expressive of her belief in a pure, fresh, and blessed immortal- ity after death. As an illustration of our Lord's discourse about the vine and its branch(5S, look at the preceding plate from Bosio, (Fig. 56,) and see His very youthful face and figure — a mere boy, in fact; His disciples grouped round Him in attentive attitudes, and the vine, spread out all around them, loaded with its rich clusters, which the little naked children are gathering and upon which the doves are feeding. What a commentary ! This young face is meant to express tKe idea of Divinity that never grows old, just as in the repre- Fic. 58.— Apollo among Uie Motet. Agincourt*s Paintings pt. I. pi. 6, ^Rom, Sctt,^. 311. 144 Monumental Christianity. sentation of Apollo seated among the Muses, part of which is here given from Millin. (Fig. 58.) There is so striking a resemblance between the two young faces, the attitudes, the right hands extended, the rolls in the left hands, and in the whole treatment of both, that one looks very much like a copy of the other; or as Piper says, " Apollo was known as a type of Christ." * The Christian artist who painted this fresco of Christ and the vine in the cemetery chapel of St. Callixt'us,.niust have had this Pagan artistic model of ApoHo before him, or in his mind, in order to produce so close a likeness. But the artist also had St. John's Gospei before him, or its substance, or he could not have painted so faithful a counterpart of its. fifteenth chapter. The art might be the Pagan ideal of the sun-god, but the truth was the Christian con- ception of the real Sun of Righteousness. In one of the oldest cemeteries yet discovered, viz., that which is known by the name of St. Domatilla, and sometimes called after Sts. Nereus and Achilles, on the Via Ardeatina, about a mile and a half from Rome, we have some traces left of the Good Shepherd; the Love-feast or Agape; one fishing; Daniel in the den of lions ; and over the whole vaulted ceiling a vine spreading its branches everywhere in the most natural and graceful manner, filled with birds and winged genii ; and showing a higher order of art than the more stiff geometrical figures of the vine, in the next and succeeding centuries. It is almost a certainty that this cemetery be- longs to the first century ; for Domatilla was the wife of Flavins Clemens, the martyred consul, during the reign of Domitian, A. D. 81-93 ; she was related to the Emperor, and Nereus and Achilles v/ere her chamberlains. Her mother's name was also Flavia Domatilla, the sister of Domitian. The Flavian family had given to the empire, Vespasian and his son Titus, joint emperors; and some of its members were very early converted to Christianity, among whom was Flavius Clemens, the husband of Domatilla. Dio Cassius tells us, (67, 13,) that ** Domitian put to death several persons, and amongst them Flavius Clemens, the consul, although he was his nephew, and although he had Flavia Domatilla for his wife, who was also a relation of the Emperor. The charge of atheism was brought against them both, on which charge many others had been condemned, going after the manners and customs of the Jews ; and some of them were put to death, and others had their goods confiscated ; but Domatilla was only banished to Pandatereia," an island midway between Ponza and Ischia, now known by the name of Sta. Maria, The atheism and Judaism of Flavius Clemens and his wife were nothing else than the profession of Christianity. If we may rely on the Acts of the Martyrs, Sts. Nereus arid Achilles were beheaded » Mythologie dtr ChristHcken Kunst, pp. Q4-105. 8vo. Weimar, 1847. . Jesus Christ as Divine. 145 on account of their faith, and buried in a cemetery about a mile and a half from Rome, on a farm belonging to their mistress, on the Via Ardeatina, Among the inscriptions there found is this, Ex indulgent ia FlavuB Domatillce, neptis Vespas- iani, u e,^ that the ground and cemetery were " By the favour of Flavia Domatilla, the niece of Vespasian.*' And curiously enough there is also extant this inscrip- tion of the time of Domitian, Flavia Domatilla Filia Flavice Domatillce Imp, Ccesar- is. ... Ani Neptis Fecit Glycerce, I, et Libert is ^ Libertabusqu. Posterisque, Eorum, Curante ,T Flavio, Onesimo, Conjugi^ Benemer^ Both Gruter and Orellius give this inscription ; and Gruter says it is at the Church of St. Clement, Rome. It is simply another testimony that ** Flavia Domatilla, daughter of Flavia Domatilla, niece of imperial Caesar, Vespasian made a tomb for Glycera, and her freed men and freed women, and their children, by the care or interest of her well-deserving husband, Titus Flavius Onesimus." Has it anything to do with the other inscription? Was it borne to the Basilica of St. Clement with the remains of the other Flavius? And who was this other Flavia Domatilla, wife of T. Flavius Onesimus ? Or, if the same, had she married another husband after the martyrdom of the first ? However all this may be, we have in this oldest of all Christian monuments — this cemetery of Domatilla with its inscriptions, vine, Good Shepherd, &c., evidence of the existence of St. John's Gospel, in some form, during the latter years of the first century. De Rossi is of the opinion that this cemetery first received the remains of Flavius Clemens, and that they were afterwards transferred to the Church that bears his name at Rome, the oldest church there.' Other antiquarians who have examined it are of the same opinion, that it is the oldest of all the yet dis- covere'd remains of Christian antiquity. It becomes, therefore, the first and foremost of all Christian monuments in favour of our Lord's Divinity, and proof that this doctrine was held from the very beginning of the Christian Church and society at Rome. Some of the Christian fathers were fond of tracing a resemblance between the patriarch Noah and our Lord touching the vine; — a resemblance which to modern ideas and modes of thought seems fanciful enough, but which was made in all seriousness. Thus St. Cyprian has it : " When Christ says I am the true vine ; the blood of Christ is surely not water, but wine; neither can His blood by which we are redeemed and quickened appear to be in the cup, when there is no wine in the cup whereby the blood of Christ is shown forth, which is declared by the Sacrament and testimony of all the Scriptures. For we find in Genesis, also, with respect to * Grutcr*s Imc, p. 245, No. 5, Orelli Insc, I. p. 187. • See also Northcote's Rom. Sott, pp. 70-74. London, 1S69. 19 .J 146 Monumental Christianity, the Sacrament in Noe, this same thing was to them a precursor and figure of the Lord's passion ; that he drank wine ; that he was drunken ; that he was made naked in his household ; and that Noe, setting forth a type of the future truth, did not drink water, but wine ; and thus expressed the figure of the Lord's passion." ' St. Clement of Alexandria says that "The sacred Vine produced the prophetic cluster, and was a sign to the Hebrews respecting the Great Cluster, the Word, bruised for us. For the blood of the grape, that is, the Word, desired to be mixed with water, as his blood is mingled with salvation." • The reference here is to the mixed chalice of those early times signifying the mingled blood and water that flowed from our Lord's side when pierced by the spear. •* And," he continues, ** the blood of the Lord is twofold. For there is the blood of His flesh, by which we are redeemed from corruption ; and the spiritual, that by which we are anointed. And to drink the blood of Jesus, is to become partaker of the Lord's immortality ; the Spirit being the energetic principle of the Word, as blood is of the flesh. Accord- ingly, as wine is blended with water, so is the Spirit with man. And the one, the mixture of wine and water, nourishes to faith ; while the other, the Spirit, conducts to immortality. And the mixture of both — of the water and of the Word — is called Eucharist, renowned and glorious grace ; and they who by faith partake of it are satisfied both in body and soul." St. Augustine thrice refers to Noah's intoxication as a type of our Lord's pas- sion or suffering on the cross. Thus, in the City of God, he says: ** It is Christ Himself who planted the vine of which the prophet says, * The vine of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel ;' and He drinks of its wine, whether we thus under- stand that cup of which he says, ' Can ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of? ' and, * Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,' by which He obviously means His passion ; for the passion of Christ was signified by Noah's nakedness. Or, as wine is the fruit of the vine, we may prefer to understand that from this vine, that is to say, from the race of Israel, He assumed flesh and blood that He might suffer ; and * he was drunken,* that is, He suffered ; and * was naked,* that is, His weakness appeared in His suffering, as the apostle says, * though He was crucified through weakness.' Wherefore the same apostle says, * the weakness of God is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men.' And when to the expression * he was naked,' Scripture adds * in his house,' it well inti- mates that Jesus was to suffer the cross and death at the hands of His own house- hold, His own kith and kin, the Jews.** * Again, in his Reply to Faustus, the Manichoean, St. Augustine says, " The suffer- > EpisU ad CaeciL 63 » Paed., Lib. ii. c. 3. » De Civ, Dei, lib. xvi. c a. Jestis Christ as Divine. 147 ings of Christ from His own nation are evidently denoted by Noah's being drunk with the wine of the vineyard he planted, and his being uncovered in his tent. For the mortality of Christ's flesh was uncovered, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness ; but to them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, both Shem and Japhet, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Moreover, the two sons, the eldest and the youngest, carrying the garment backwards, are a figure of the two peoples, and the sacrament of the past and completed passion of the Lord. They do not see the nakedness of their father, because they do not consent to Christ's death ; and yet they honour it with a covering, as knowing whence they were born. The middle son is the Jewish people, for they neither held the first place with the Apostles, nor believed afterwards with the Gentiles. They saw the nakedness of their father, because they consented to Christ's death ; and they told it to their brethren outside, for what was hidden in the prophets was disclosed by the Jews. And thus they are the servants of their brethren. For what else is this nation now but a desk for the Christians, bearing the law and the prophets, and testifying to the doctrine of the Church, so that we honour in the sacraments what they disclose in the letter? " ' Now, we are told expressly that it was for the joy set before Him, that Jesus endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God ; (Heb. xii. 2 ;) that He was called a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners; (St. Luke, vii. 34;) and that He would drink new wine with His disciples in His Father's Kingdom, as emblematic of the joy to be had there forever. (St. Matt. xxvi. 29.) No wonder, then, the primitive Church, in the days of her oppression and sadness, rejoiced in the weekly celebration of the Agape and the Eucharist, and painted and carved the vine in her places of wprship. The wine of Christ's blood was medicine to her soul, which made her forget her poverty, and remember her misery no more. (Prov. xxxi 4-8.) Christ her Lord had been trod- den in the wine-press of wrath, like the newly-gathered clusters of the vintage, in order that His love might fill the cup of salvation for her and our dry and parched lips. Every time the Sacramental cup is tasted we remember the words, *' I am the vine, ye are the branches ; I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman ; " as not only a reminder, but also the pledge of all future joy and gladness, when earth shall be exchanged for heaven, and all its waters turned into wine : and when the whole Church redeemed out of mankind as the Bride of Christ shall lift up her ** beaming chalice brimming over with bliss," and say to the Bridegroom, " Thou hast kept the good wine until now." * (St. Jno. ii. 11.) ' Lib. xii. c. 23. • See Macmillan's Triu Vimt, pp. 67-70. 148 Montimental Christianity. t OQ The illustration of this whole perfect humanity of Christ, or His Incarnation as a means and source of joy to mankind, is given in the annexed plate. It is copied from Bosio, as usual, (p. 75.) It is Christ, not now seated as a youthful Divinity among His disciples, as we have just seen in the fresco painting of St. Callixtus ; but a noble, majestic, bearded man, standing on the mystic mount of the four holy Gospels, with His Apostles grouped on either side, Peter and Paul as usual next Him, who are all holding up their hands in adoration. The Great Vine is Christ Himself, with a branch rising up behind each Apostle to denote his close union with Him and with one another. The sheep below, and the one Great Sheep, are still Christ and His Apostles, as Lambs among wolves. The kneeling figures are types of all suffering and sorrowful ones seeking peace and joy. Christ is pointing to the Dove or Pigeon as if assuring His disciples of the coming Paraclete or Comforter, He has completed the earthly part of His work of salvation, and is about to ascend up on high to prepare places in His. Father's House for all troubled souls that love Him. The little kneeling cherubs at the base of the arch over Christ's head may indicate this. It is Christ, our Elder Brother, touched with a feeling of our infirmity, having been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, q^o'ng away with \ yesus Christ as Divine, 149 our nature to His home and kindred in Heaven to make ready the way for our approach — to prepare the Marriage feast that we may drink with Him the new wine of His and our Father's Kingdom. '' 9ou; a$ ho walked by the sea ol ^alUee, He saw $iman, and Unixfi^ hie biiotbett, oaeting a net into the eea ; f aq ibeu wetie fiehetie. Jtnd Xeeue e^id unto ibemi $ome ye af teti 9le| and X will mabe you Ux become fiebet[e of men," St, Mark, i. i6, 17. '' X am tbe vine, ye aqe the bi{anobee : He thai abideib in fUz^ and X in bim, ibe eame btiingeib f ot[tb moob lipii, loq wiibooi fH^ ye can do notbing/' St. Tckn, XV. 5. ?50 Monumental Christianity. |