apostles, come the martyrs; and we find that in all works of art which may be cited as authorities a certain order is maintained. The first place is usually given to St. Stephen, the second to St. Laurence: when the Innocents are introduced, their proper place is under the throne, or immediately at the feet of Christ. Next to these, the most conspicuous figures are usually St. George and St. Maurice as warriors; St. Ignatius and St. Clement as bishops; St. Christopher with his staff, and St. Sebastian with his arrows. The martyrs venerated in the particular locality for which the picture was painted will also have a conspicuous place for example, in the German pictures we shall probably find St. Boniface and St. Florian; in the Brescian pictures, St. Faustinus and St. Jovita; while, in pictures painted for the Dominicans, Peter, the famous martyr of their order, is conspicuous with his bleeding head and his monk's habit. The female martyrs are generally placed together, forming a beautiful group. St. Catherine, in general, takes the first place; next to her St. Barbara with her tower; St. Agnes with her lamb; St. Lucia with her lamp (or her eyes); St. Cecilia crowned with roses; and behind them a crowd of figures, with palms and glories, not otherwise individualised. In such representations the leading idea is obviously borrowed from that magnificent passage in the 7th chapter of Revelations: "Lo! a great multitude, which no man could number, clothed with white robes, and with palms in their hands."-" These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God; and he shall feed them, and shall lead them to living fountains of waters, and shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

THE INNOCENTS.

Ital. Gli Innocenti Fanciulli Martiri. I Santi Bambini Martiri. Fr. Les Innocents. Ger. Die Unschuldigen Kindlein. Dec. 28.

THE "Massacre of the Innocents," as an action or event, belongs to the history of our Saviour, and I shall say nothing of it here. But the Innocents themselves, as personages, as the first-fruits of martyrdom,

have been regarded with an especial homage from the earliest ages of the Church. Not the least divine trait in the character of the Saviour was the love, the reverence, He inculcated for "little children;" and is there not something most natural, most touching, in the early belief that He would regard with peculiar favour, with a more compassionate tenderness, the souls of those Innocents who perished, if not in his cause, at least because of Him? In their character of martyrs they find an appropriate place in devotional and ecclesiastical Art; and some of these representations are of peculiar interest and beauty. I shall give one or two examples.

In the mosaics of the old Basilica of St. Paul, at Rome, the Innocents are represented by a group of small figures holding palms, and placed immediately beneath the altar or throne, sustaining the Gospel, the cross, and the instruments of the passion of our Lord. Over these figures was the inscription HI. S. INNOCENTES.1

I saw in one of the old French cathedrals, I think at Aix, a picture, not good nor agreeable as a work of art, but striking from the peculiar conception. In the midst an altar, and on it the cross, and the lamb without blemish: around, on the earth, lay the martyred Innocents bleeding, dead; a little higher up, their spirits were seen ascending with palms in their hands; and above all, the Infant Christ, enthroned, received them into heaven with outstretched arms.

In a "Flight into Egypt," by F. Vanni, three or four martyred Innocents lie in the foreground.2

But the most beautiful devotional representation of the martyred Innocents, the most appropriate, the most significant in sentiment, I could cite, is the altar-piece in the church of the Foundling Hospital at Florence (which I may observe, en passant, preceded by two hundred years the first institution of that kind in France, by more than three hundred the first in England). This altar-piece represents the Virgin and the Infant Christ enthroned in glory; around the throne the elect; and among them, the most conspicuous are the Innocents, lovely Since the great fire of 1823 these mosaics have been restored.

1 A.D. 450.

2 Etruria Pittrice.

I speak of the present magnificent foundation at Florence, dating from 1448.

So early

as 1193 there was an hospital there for poor forsaken children: the first, in all probability, that ever existed.

children, with every variety of sweet infantine faces, who look up to the Saviour as in supplication, and point to their wounds, which yet are not rendered too obtrusive. The sentiment conveyed is this: "Behold us, who have suffered because of thee, O Saviour! and, for our sake, have mercy and have pity on the forsaken little ones who are brought hither and laid down at thy feet!"

There is a picture in the Louvre by Rubens, known as "La Vierge aux Anges." It represents the Virgin and Child, surrounded by a host. of children, for they are beatified children, not winged angels; many bear palms: they are exquisite for infantine beauty, and I have sometimes thought that Rubens must have intended them for the souls of the Innocents, and not for angels; but I have no authority for this supposition, and can only say that such was the impression conveyed to my mind.

ST. STEPHEN, DEACON AND PROTO-MARTYR.

Lat. S. Stephanus. Ital. San Stefano. Fr. St. Etienne. Ger. Der Heilige Stefan. Dec. 26.

THE brief and simple account of Stephen as given in the sixth and seventh chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, I presume to be familiar to the reader. Little has been added by the fancy or the veneration of his votaries. He is held in the highest honour as the first who shed his blood in testimony to Christ, and described as a man full of faith and power and of the Holy Ghost. Having been chosen deacon during the first ministry of Peter, and before the conversion of Paul, and after performing "great wonders and miracles among the people,” he was, upon the evidence of false witnesses, accused of speaking blasphemous words against the Temple and against the Jewish law that temple which is now destroyed, that law which has been superseded by a diviner, a more

On a farther examination of this picture, I came to the conclusion that Rubens had not intended to represent either the Innocents or Cherubim, but the Spirits (angels) of beatified children, in allusion to the text, Matt. xviii. 10.

universal, law of "peace on earth, and good-will towards men:” whereupon he was condemned to death, and stoned by the infuriated people outside the gates of the city.

So far the Scripture record. The legend, which accounts for the discovery of his relics, and their present resting-place in the Basilica of San Lorenzo at Rome, is thus given:

"No one knew what had become of the body of the saint till about four hundred years afterwards; when Lucian, a priest of Carsagamala in Palestine, was visited in a dream by Gamaliel, the doctor of the law at whose feet Paul was brought up in all the learning of the Jews; and Gamaliel revealed to him that after the death of Stephen he had carried away the body of the martyred saint, and had buried it in his own sepulchre, and had also deposited near to it the body of Nicodemus and other saints; and this dream having been repeated three times, Lucian went with others deputed by the bishop, and dug with mattocks and spades in the spot which had been indicated, — a sepulchre in a garden, and found what they supposed to be the remains of St. Stephen, their peculiar sanctity being proved by many miracles. These relics were first deposited in Jerusalem, in the church of Sion, and afterwards by the younger Theodosius carried to Constantinople, and thence by Pope Pelagius conveyed to Rome, and placed in the same tomb with St. Laurence. It is related, that when they opened the sarcophagus and lowered into it the body of St. Stephen, St. Laurence moved on one side, giving the place of honour on the right hand to St. Stephen: hence the common people of Rome have conferred on St. Laurence the title of Il cortese Spagnuolo,'--the courteous Spaniard.'" 1

In devotional pictures, the figure of St. Stephen, which is of constant recurrence, seldom varies in character, though it does so in the choice. and arrangement of the attributes. He is generally represented young, of a mild and beautiful aspect, habited in the rich dress of a deacon, the Dalmatica being generally of crimson, covered with embroidery; it is square and straight at the bottom, with loose sleeves and heavy gold

St. Stephen is not so popular as many saints less accredited. There are only forty churches in England dedicated to him.

tassels hanging down from the shoulders before and behind. He bears the palm almost invariably, as proto-martyr. The stones, which are his peculiar attribute, are either in his hand or in his drapery, or on his head and shoulders, or lying at his feet; or sometimes on the Scriptures, which he holds in his hand, showing the manner of death he suffered for the Gospel, and in allusion also to his preaching before his death. In such figures, when imperfectly executed, it

is necessary to distinguish the three balls of St. Nicholas from the stones of St. Stephen. When the stones are introduced, and are palpably and indubitably stones, then it is impossible to mistake Stephen for any other saint: but they are often omitted; it then becomes difficult to distinguish St. Stephen from St. Vincent, who also bears the palm and the deacon's habit. In the Scripture story there is no allusion to the age of Stephen at the time he suffered; but in Italian Art he is always young and beardless, perhaps in allusion to the description of his appearance when accused: "They saw his face as it had been the face of an angel," which of course could not well apply to an old or bearded man; and he has always a meek expression, being not only protomartyr, but also considered as the type, next to Christ, of forgiveness of injuries: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!"

This is the conception in Italian and German Art, but in Spanish Art I have seen. St. Stephen bearded, and with the lineaments of a man of thirty.

I will give a few examples in which St. Stephen figures as protomartyr or as deacon: