diameter of 116 feet, and its pear-shaped dome towers 160 feet high, supported by most costly columns and arches. It was commenced A. D. 1153, and its cost was so great that it long remained unfinished, until the citizens levied a rate upon themselves for its completion. Its walls are eight feet thick, it has a basement, a main and an attic story. The font is described by Webb as an octagonal bath for adult baptism.' The building was begun by Diotisalvi, but the work was not prosecuted until 1278, nor completed till about the opening of the fourteenth century. Credu

lous people of the nineteenth century would have us be

lieve that all this taste, toil and cost was had for the purpose of pouring a handful of water upon the head! The accompanying cut of the interior as it stands today gives the ancient ideal of Gospel order: 1. The pulpit, from which the candidate for baptism is exhorted to faith on Christ. 2. The basin or font in which he is immersed. It is octagonal, being 14 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep, and is supplied with water by a tube. 3. The Lord's Table, where he took the Supper after his immersion.

The largest baptistery ever built was that of St. Sophia at Constantinople. At one time it served as the residence of the Emperor Basiliscus, and a great ecclesiastical council was held within its walls. Three thousand people once assembled in the baptistery at Antioch at one time, to be baptized; but the baptistery of St. Sophia was greater even than that at Antioch.

Mention may be made of the great baptistery at Aix, which was constructed A. D. 1101; of that of Verona, A. D. 1116; and of that of Parma, with its three inatchless gates, said to have been pronounced by Angelo as worthy of being the gates of Paradise. The same praise is claimed for those of Florence, and yet it is questionable whether he said this of either of them. The Parma baptistery was-begun A.D. 1196, and completed 1281. Its great marble font, 8 feet wide and 4 feet deep, is cut out of one yellowish-red block and stands in the middle of the floor, bearing date A. D. 1299. The records of the Church at Parma contain an official report of its uses, sent to the pope and bearing date November 21, 1578, saying that this sacred font was consecrated to baptism

'per immersionem.' 12 The baptistery at Verona contains a basin of marble 28 feet in circumference, hewn out of a single block of porphyry, and is four and one half feet deep. The baptistery of Pistoia is especially interesting, and differs from most of those described. It was built A. D. 1337. The font is of white marble and is square. Standing near to the western entrance is a beautiful black and white marble pulpit, from which sermons were preached, to show that the people must hear and believe before they could pass into its waters. Its square pool is 10 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep. The baptistery at Milan is peculiar, and differs from all others. As if to convey the Scriptural idea of burial, it is in the shape of the ancient sarcophagus. Its material is porphyry, being 6 feet 8 inches long and 24 inches deep. Dean Stanley refers to this baptistery in the words: With the two exceptions of the cathedral of Milan and the sect of the Baptists, a few drops of water are now the Western substitute for the threefold plunge into the rushing rivers or the wide baptisteries of the East.' 13

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Great Britain furnishes a beautiful example of a natural but historic baptistery which must be noted here. Dr. Cathcart presents it in this graphic description:

About eleven miles from the Cheviot Hills, which separate England from Scotland, and about the same distance from Alnwick Castle-the well-known residence of the Dukes of Northumberland-and two miles from the village of Harbottle, there is a remarkable fountain. It issues forth from the top of a slight elevation, or little hill. It has at present as its basin a cavity about 34 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 2 feet deep. By placing a board over a small opening at one end its depth can be considerably increased. A stream flows from it, which forms a little creek. . . . The spring is a place of public resort for the population for many miles around, and for numerous strangers, on account of its early baptismal associations. . . . An ancient statue, as large as life, lay prostrate in the fountain for ages, probably from the period when the monasteries were destroyed, in the time of Henry VIII. This statue, when the writer saw it, was leaning against a tree at the fountain. It was, most likely, the statue of Paulinus. It was called "the bishop." Its drapery, the action of the atmosphere upon the stone of which it is made, and its general appearance, show that it was set up at a very remote period, perhaps two or three centuries after Paulinus baptized the Northum brian multitude in the fountain.' 14

This fountain is commonly known as 'Our Lady's Well,' after the Virgin, and is one of the natural baptisteries where Paulinus administered Christian immersion. The Vicar of Harbottle has caused a crucifix to be erected in the center, with the following inscription: 'In this place Paulinus the bishop baptized three thousand Northumbrians, Easter, 627.' This accords exactly with the statement of Camden, who describes Harbottle as 'on the Coquet River, near to which is Holystone, where it is said that Paulinus, when the Church of the English was first planted, baptized many thousands of men.' A convent lies in ruins at Holystone, close by, which was probably raised as a monument to the holy spot and its waters. Camden lived in the last half of the sixteenth century, when the tradition was all aglow; and the clerical son of Oxford reared this cross as late as 1869.

THE BAPTISTERY OF PAULINUS.

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As to the Supper, the doctrine of transubstantiation crystallized in those centuries, and apparently in an incidental way. In 787 the Council of Nice alleged that the bread and wine of the Supper were not images of Christ, but his very body and blood. This brought the great controversy to a head, and giants on both sides drew their swords. Amongst these Ratram wrote a powerful treatise against transubstantiation, 863, which centuries afterward convinced Ridley of his error on

the subject; then Ridley lent it to Cranmer, in whom it wrought a similar change. John Scotus, the Roger Bacon of his day, wrote a stronger work, 875, which lived for about two centuries. Many Councils denounced, and that of Rome, 1059, condemned it to be burnt. Berengarius, 998-1088, followed with heavy blows. Bigotry Wrecked itself upon these men in every shape, but their doctrines spread through Germany, Italy, France and Britain; for as fires never burn out controversies, more than winds blow out stars, the dispute went on to the Reformation and is as firm and fresh to-day as ever.

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CHAPTER VIII.

ANCIENT BAPTISMAL PICTURES.

'HESE have come down to us chiefly in frescoes, mosaics and bass-reliefs. Baptism itself symbolizes thought as it lies in the divine mind, so that the human eye catches the truth of which it is the symbol. Art in these pictures marks the ordinance as it existed in the life-time of the artist, and only to this extent are they of historical value. The co-existing literature of his times, however, must show the purpose of his treatment, and interpret its forms in his absence. In fact we are so dependent on this literature, that where a separate history of the picture is not preserved, only the contemporary writings of its day can give us its age. The pictures, therefore, even in the rudest state of the art are in no case purely realistic, but symbolical also. Dean Stanley pronounces those of the Catacombs, 'mis-shapen, rude and stiff,' which is seen at a glance. Most of them have been restored several times and also altered; so that, as Parker remarks, to this extent they have lost their historic value, especially by changes of shape and color, though the general design is unchanged. He says: A work which has been restored becomes the work of the hands that restore it.' Their age and damp situation has rendered their restoration necessary, and in the case of the Callixtine frescoes he ascribes this work to Leo III., 795; and that of Ponziano to Nicholas I., 858-867. Even the great fresco of the Supper by Da Vinci, at Milan, though upon a perfectly dry wall and scarcely four hundred years old, is fast fading out. Parker states that the St. Ponziano has not been restored over carefully,' and that 'The rather rash outline of the Baptist's right arm and shoulder are drawn over a far more careful and correct figure.' Also: 'The stiffness of the restoration, white eyes and heavy, incorrect outline, point to a late date.'

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Early Christian art at the best was deficient in all respects, and its broad, symbolic ideal must ever be remembered in seeking its historic bearings. The earlier companion pictures on the Supper made by the same hands in the same places The table is spread, a company is gathered around it, but with strongly attest this. There is a small supply of bread in some one exception no wine is on the table. cases, in others abundance, but in all there is much fish! A fresco in the Crypt of St. Cornelius presents a mysterious fish swimming in water, with a basket on its back containing the bread and wine of the Supper. Yet this strange conceit is Chrisin keeping with the ancient play upon the Greek letters of our Lord's technical name IXOTE, that is, 'The Fish.' This is a very ancient anagram amongst

SYMBOLIC PICTURES.

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tians. Almost all the fathers, Greek and Latin, call him 'The Fish,' the 'Heavenly Ichthus;' and so they made the fish an emblem of both Baptism and the Supper, to set forth the truths which these express. This figure was early engraved upon the rings of Christians by the advice of Clement of Alexandria, 194, possibly because the heathen could not detect its meaning. He says: 'Let the dove and the fish. . . be

wwwwwwwwwwwwww wwwww

NO. 1.-THE SYMBOLIC SUPPER.

signs unto you;' and Augustine calls Christ the Fish, 'Because he descended alive into the depths of this mortal life as into the abyss of waters.' An inscription of the fourth or fifth century found at Autun, France, exhorts the baptized to 'Eat, drink, holding Ichthus in thy hand. Faith brought to us and set before us food, a Fish from a divine font, great and pure, which she took in her hands and gave to her friends, that they should always eat thereof, bolding goodly wine, giving with bread a mingled drink. Yet the ancient Christians never celebrated the Supper by the use of fish. Here, then, while we have the realistic table, we have the mystic symbol of fish thereon-possibly intended by the painter to keep before the mind Christ's presence with his disciples, when he broke bread and ate fish with them on the evening after his resurrection. A more No. 2.-THE CHURCH AS A SHIP ON CHRIST singular use of a fish is found in the Catacombs,

THE FISH.

where a ship is carried on its back through the water-evidently intended to represent the Church being carried through the stormy sea of life by firmly resting on Christ, The Fish. The helmsman also is Christ, the Dove on the poop is the

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