According to a tradition, there was once before this niche a great baptismal basin, deeply embedded in the earth, so that one could look on this place as the baptistery of a subterranean Church.' P. 81. It seems that the cross was a baptismal one, like that which we see in the Pontian Cemetery. The inscription is remarkable. Rev. St. John Tyrwhitt in his work on Christian Art and Symbolism' says: The earliest crosses, as that called the Lateran, are baptismal crosses. . . . The cross is in its first use the symbol of baptism into the Lord's death, or death with him.' P. 124. No. 10 presents the same symbolic style. It is the noted Ursian Mosaic, taken from the Baptistery of St. John at Ravenna, supposed to have been built by Ursus, A. D. 390-396, but the mosaic which adorns its high dome is referred to 450. Its three

JORD

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NO. 10.-MOSAIC, FROM BAPTISTERY OF ST. JOHN, RAVENNA.

most striking symbols are

the lettering at the left of Christ's shoulder; the anointing of Jesus by John with oil or myrrh from a vessel; and the river-god. Our Lord stands up to the waist in the waters of the Jordan, with the nimbus and Holy Dove over his head. John's right hand holds the 'ampulla,' or anointing cup, over Christ's head, but his left hand grasps a jeweled cross. His left knee is bent forward and sustains what looks like a cruet or flask, in shape much like the Oriental bottle made of skin. This object partly obscuring John's knee, the

cross and Christ's right arm, suggest the source from whence he has drawn the oil for the anointing. This however, only provided it is not a defect in the mosaic, which is possible. Garruci names no blemish here in his description of the picture, while he speaks of one in the lettering Iord,' which was originally 'Iordann.' This medallion realistically confines the subject to the immersion of Jesus in the sacred river; but the artist adds the symbols in harmony with the practice of baptism in his own times. Lundy's comment is, that John applies the unction with a small shell.' 4

At what time the custom of anointing the baptized with oil originated is not known. Jortin thinks that it was unknown to Justin Martyr, A. D. 103–168, as he does not hint at it in describing the rite of baptism. But Justin refers to it in

another place, saying: 'If Mary anointed the Lord with myrrh before his burial, and we celebrate the symbols of his sufferings and resurrection in baptism, how is it that we first, indeed, anoint with oil, and then celebrating the aforesaid symbols in the pool, afterward anoint with myrrh?'5 The general custom of anointing in baptism probably came in a little later, when the wealthy began to embrace Christianity, for Tertullian says much of this unction. We may see the reason for its adoption, for every-where in the Roman Empire the free use of oil was deemed necessary to the completion of a common bath. The Christians found many fanciful reasons for the introduction of this practice in baptism. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit at his baptism-the very name 'Christ' signifies the anointed; Mary anointed his body before his burial, with much more in that line; and so according to the best authorities they gave many reasons for this chrism,' as they called it, both before and after baptism. Anointing betokened prosperity and happiness, and so they likened the Spirit to oil and his grace to unction; and after baptism they poured olive oil upon the head, thus, as they said, anointing their converts with the oil of gladness above their fellows,' in token of their consecration to a holy life. Tertullian writes:

'We are, acccording to ancient custom, thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction, as the priests were wont to be anointed with oil from a horn. And the unction running down our flesh profits us spiritually in the same way as the act of baptism, itself carnal, because we are plunged in water, has a spiritual effect in delivering us from our sins. Then the hand is laid on us, inviting the Holy Spirit, through the words of benediction, and over our cleansed and blessed bodies, freely descends from the Father that most Holy Spirit.' 6

They found many other reasons for this practice. In the Grecian games, the wrestlers and runners anointed themselves plentifully before they began their contests. When their frame and joints were pervaded with oil, it was supposed to give them a quick agility of action and an easy grace of movement, and so added to their chances of success. As Paul referred to the laws of these contests, 'so run I, so fight I,' they borrowed a figure from the same, and applied it to the Christian athlete, when beginning his race and combat in baptism. Ambrose, of Cahors, the supposed author of De Sacramentis,' says to the immersed: Thou didst enter. . . . Thou was anointed as the athlete of Christ.' Dr. Cave, quoting Cyril, remarks:

They were cut off from the wild olive and were engrafted into Christ, the true olive-tree, and made partakers of his fruits and benefits, or else to show that now they were become champions for Christ and had entered upon a state of conflict, wherein they must strive and contend with all the snares of the world, as the athlete of old were anointed against their solemn games, that they might be more expedite, and that their antagonists might take less hold upon them. Or rather, probably, to denote their being admitted to the great privileges of Christianity, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (as the Apostle styles Christians), offices of which anointing was an ancient symbol, both of being designated to them and inter

ested in them; and this account Tertullian favors, he tells us 'tis derived from the ancient, that is, Jewish discipline, where the priests were wont to be anointed for the priesthood: for some such purpose they thought it fit that a Christian should be anointed as a spiritual king and priest, and that no time was more proper for it than at his baptism, when the name of Christ was confessed upon him.”s

This unction figured largely in the ecclesiastical controversies and legislation of after centuries; and as early as the fourth, a contest arose whether it should precede or follow baptism. Tertullian's statements show that it followed baptism, and most of the Fathers contended lustily for the same order, Augustine being amongst the most earnest. Bunsen says that The unction followed immediately after the immersion.' This question fanned the love for anointing into a mania, until Rabanus, Archbishop of Mentz, A. D. 788-856, actually exalted it into a separate sacrament.' He did this by doubling each ordinance; and so he called the bread and wine two, and the chrisma' another, apart from the immersion; four in all. Dr. Cave, citing Cyril again, says (p. 324) that the person baptized:

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6

""Was anointed the second time, as S. Cyril tells us; and, indeed, whatever becomes of the unction that was before, 'tis certain that that which Tertullian speaks of as a part of the ancient discipline, was after the person was baptized." The anointing took place both before and after the immersion; and the whole service was finished by binding a white linen cloth, called the "chrismale," around the head of the immersed, to retain the oil upon the head for a week afterward.' 10

The author of the Ursian Mosaic evidently wished to portray the anointing of Jesus in connection with his baptism; but unable to depict the invisible unction of the Holy Spirit, he meets the necessity by putting the ordinary baptismal unction into the hand of John. It entered not his mind to emit a stream from the beak of a dove, so the best agent that his art could supply was the anointing cup in John's hand. Hence he is pouring on the oil above the nimbus and beneath the head of the Dove, to indicate his authority from God to place his hand between the second and the third persons in the Trinity, to the honor of God's anointed Son. This act directly connects the artist's conception of the river-god with the effect of the anointing. When he did this work the universal teaching was that great virtue lodged in the baptismal oil, in fact, that it was miracle-working in its effects. Cyril, of Jerusalem, tells us that the holy oil in baptism destroyed all traces of sin and drove out the evil one; and Pacian insists that the baptismal water washes away sin, the chrism gives the Holy Spirit, and so the regeneration is complete.'" Not the least of these effects is seen in expelling all demons and evil spirits from the water by the oil. In conformity with this idea, the artist has introduced the emblematic figure of the river-god, according to the ancient form. He has ascended from the stream, with a leafy calamus or reed in his hand and a wreath on his brow, in token of dominion over that river. He is alarmed, is looking away from the holy anointing and bends forward, as if making for the shore to depart from a scene of such sanctity. No. 11 gives us an ancient Roman bath, as is seen by the elegant heathen bass-relief upon

BAPTISTERY OF CONSTANTINE.

269

it, which had been consecrated to Christian use by placing upon the oil pedestal an image of John the Baptist, who is invoked to serve as its patron saint.

In the baptistery known as that of Constantine, adjoining the Church of St. John of Lateran, at Rome, special provision was made for this service of unction. The circular basin of this build

ing is three feet deep and twenty-five in diameter. Both Anastasius and Damasus, in their lives of Sylvester, say that in their time it was lined within and without by 3,008 pounds weight of silver; and in the middle of the basin stood a column of porphyry, bearing on its top a golden phial full of ointment,' to be poured upon the heads of the newly-immersed ones. Hence the mosaic under consideration steps forth to confirm the literature of many centuries, which in its turn reflects light back upon Christian archæology. The attempt, then, to force this picture into the service of modern affusion does the greatest possible violence to all the circumstances of the case, and to the unbroken testimony of the ages. In the absence of color in a piece of sculpture or painting where liquid is poured forth, the circumstances and positive testimony taken together must determine what that liquid is. And in all these cases these pictures unite in showing it to be oil and not water. Common sense alone suggests, nay, even common decency, that no one would take another to a stream of water, strip him naked and lead him down into it up to the waist, for the purpose of pouring water on the head from the hand or a shell or a vessel, either before or after the honest immersion of that head in the same element, much less without such immersion at all. At any rate, those who pour water on the head now and call it baptism are extremely careful not to go through such a series of useless acts to reach that end. If the primitive Christians did, they were not so wise as the moderns. But when they tell us that oil was poured upon the head in baptism, 'as the priests were wont to be anointed with oil from a horn,' as Tertullian expresses it, we cannot only see the reason for all these steps, but for their full expression in ancient Christian art.

NO. 11.-OLD BAPTISMAL FONT, ST JOHN ON THE PEDESTAL.

This absurd claim renders itself simply ridiculous, in the attempt to show that because clinics or sick persons in bed had water poured upon them, which act passed for baptism, any example of this can establish a universal rule. Jesus was not a clinic at any time, much less when John baptized him; nor were clinics taken to the Jordan and placed in its waters up to the waist, that a cup of water might

270

ARIAN BAPTISTERY AT RAVENNA.

be poured upon their heads. This picture treats of the baptism of Jesus; and it was just as natural that the painter should invoke the use of oil, the universal custom of his day amongst Christians in baptism, to represent the anointing of the Holy Spirit, as that he should use the cross, the flask and the river-god. But what sane artist would think of making John lead our Redeemer nude into the Jordan to pour a cup of water on his head? He would be deemed as fit for the lunatic. asylum as the coming painter who shall represent a current infant baptism in this year of grace 1886 by drawing John in the Jordan with a naked babe in his arms, dropping a particle of water on its brow from a cup, with a flask of water on his shoulder.

No. 12 is found in the dome of the Arian baptistery at Ravenna, and is known as St. Maria in Cosmedin. It is given by Father Garrucci and bears date a century later than

figure 10, namely, A. D. 553. Here again, our Redeemer is presented above the loins in the waters of the Jordan; which river is made a winding trench, with a typical resemblance to the actual course of that sacred stream, as if the artist had visited the spot. The Holy Dove has descended directly above the head of Christ and hovers there, emitting a stream of unction from his beak which actually unites him with the person of our Lord. The Baptist is clothed in a camel's skin, holding a bent reed in his left hand, while his right rests upon Christ's head.

At the right of Jesus is the river-god again, a seated figure with long hair and horns; instead of the wreath on his head we have the leafy calamus in his hand to indicate his royalty; his lower limbs are wrapped in an ample robe and an urn stands at his side. Abbé Crossnier points to the horns and urn as emblems of his deity; and his left hand raised in astonishment seems to express wonder and alarm for the holiness of the scene, but especially has the heavenly unction startled him. Here we see what a century had done for the mosaic art. By this time the later artist had devised a better method of symbolical representation, so that he disposes entirely of John's intervening cup between the Spirit and the Son, to express the anointing; and brings the Dove and the Lord into immediate union by a realistic flood from the mouth of the Dove, to set forth the divine unction. This is in exact accord with what