CHAPTER XV.

_THE SACRED PAINTERS AND COMPOSERS._

IMAGES AND PICTURES IN CHURCHES.

The Romish Church has from the beginning looked favourably on the practice of adorning churches with images and pictures of sacred persons. At Nola, in 460, the cathedral of St. Felix had wall paintings of stories taken from the Old Testament. In 752 a council of the Church required images to be erected in churches, and worship of these was inculcated as a remembrance of the holy lives and conversation of the dead. The Iconoclast movement (see _ante_, p. 129) shook faith in the practice for about a century; but the Council of Nicæa, in 787, closed the controversy by approving the practice, and the opposition died out in 842. There seems no limit to the number or subjects of the wall paintings, and the Popes greatly encouraged them. In England at the Reformation images were directed to be taken down and destroyed. Very few wall paintings are found in any English churches, and they are of small value or importance.

THE RUNAGATE MONK PAINTERS.

"I learned," says Hugo of St. Victor, "from a certain prudent and religious man that there are some kinds of people who can scarcely ever be retained with order in the religious life. These are painters, physicians, and buffoons, who are accustomed to travel in different countries. Men of this description can hardly ever be stable. The art of painting is very delightful; for when a painter has painted a church, a chapter-room, a refectory, or any cabinets, if leave be granted to him, on being invited he goes soon to another monastery for the sake of painting. He paints the works of Christ upon a wall, but it never occurs to him to imitate the works in his own life and manners. So with the medical art; it needs an abundance of aromatic plants and medicines. When any one near the church falls sick, he is asked to go to see the patient, and the abbot can hardly refuse permission. Then he is always making experiments on things uncertain and making fallacious statements. Whereas a true monk should never speak out on anything. So it is with buffoons and jesters, who are always bent on rambling. The Fathers of the Council in the eighth century well decreed that monasteries should be the habitations of men labouring to serve God in silence and peace, and not mere receptacles of arts which minister to pleasure--not places for poets, minstrels, and musicians, but for men praying, reading, and praising God."

THE PICTURES IN MONASTERIES.

The monasteries were the nurseries of the arts of painting, sculpture, and music. Many of them contained exquisite frescoes of sacred subjects. Ghiberti, the most ancient historian of art in Italy, spoke with enthusiasm of a great composition with which Ambrose de Lorenzo had covered the walls of a cloister, in which he represented the life of a Christian missionary. First a young man taking the habit of a monk; then entreating to be sent to convert the Saracens; then the departure and arrival before the Sultan, who orders him to be scourged; then condemning him to die; the decapitation; then a horrible tempest, during which vast trees are torn up by the roots and the people fly in terror. In the refectory of the convent of San Salvi, near Florence, Andrea del Sarto painted four figures of saints and the Last Supper; and during the siege in 1529, when the Florentines were compelled to demolish all buildings and reached this great fresco, they were struck dumb and motionless with admiration. One holy brother, lately in the Escurial monastery, guiding from cell to cell and room to room a British painter (Wilkie), pointed out that glorious work of Titian the Lord's Last Supper, beautiful as when it first graced the refectory. As both stood with eyes transfixed at that masterpiece, the holy father said to the stranger: "Here daily do we sit, thanks given to God for daily bread; and here pondering the mischiefs of these restless times, and thinking of my brethren dead and gone, I not seldom gaze upon this solemn company unmoved by shock of circumstance or lapse of years, until I cannot but believe that they, these pictures, are in truth the substance and we the shadows."

THE SACRO MONTE DE VARALLO.

On the road from Anna to Varallo, in North Italy, the Sacro Monte, an eminence of great beauty, is seen and is resorted to by pilgrims from all quarters. At the foot is the church of St. Francis, where the wall dividing the nave from the choir is painted in fresco in nineteen compartments, representing the chief events in the life of the Saviour. The hill of the Sacro Monte is covered with a series of fifty chapels or oratories, containing groups of figures of characters executed in terra-cotta, painted and clothed. They are grouped so as to represent passages in Christ's history. The structures are never entered, being merely frames or cases to contain the respective subjects, which are viewed from two or three peepholes in front. Some of the figures are very indifferent works of art; others are of great merit. The oratories are richly decorated with façades, porticoes, and domes, and the figures are the size of life. The walls are all painted, and painters, sculptors, and architects have vied in producing their highest arts of embellishment. Much effect is produced by the situation of some of the groups. The access to the place where Christ is laid in the sepulchre is by a vault where little light is admitted; and as it is difficult on entering from the open day to distinguish at first any object, the result is very impressive. Many of the figures are clothed in real drapery, and some have real hair. The executioners conducting the Saviour to Calvary are made as hideous and repulsive as possible, and are represented with goitres appended to their throats. This Sacro Monte originated in the piety of the blessed St. Bernardino Caimo, or Coloto, a Milanese noble.

MIRACULOUS IMAGES IN SPAIN.

In Spain all classes were devout believers in miraculous images and effigies of all kinds. Holy kerchiefs were preserved at Alicante, stamped with the Saviour's face; and winding-sheets revealing the same print were adored at Oviedo. In his "History of Painting" Palomino relates how a Christian and Jew labouring in a vineyard disputed about the Messiah, until the Jew, losing patience, exclaimed he would believe in Christ if He would emerge from that vine stock, and which thereupon forthwith became a crucifix. He also tells how at Valencia, on the death of a devout lady, the wax dropping from a taper that burned before her coffin shaped itself into a crucifix, and was treasured as a relic. Once an artist was employed by St. Theresa to paint our Lord at the column as she had beheld Him in a vision; and after failing to express the lady abbess's ideas, he at last found his unsatisfactory picture had been finished to perfection by an angel artist. And at a later time, when this same picture was restored, the nuns were told by the two artists employed that they saw the very finger of the angel as it traced the outlines. And when a pilgrim was engaged at Calatayud to paint St. Ignatius Loyola, he did it so well that he was supposed to be an angel in disguise. And by the same Divine influences the portrait of St. Jerome and the lion was found traced in the mottlings of a jasper.

CIMABUE'S PICTURE OF THE MADONNA (1302).

Cimabue, an Italian painter, who died in 1302, painted for a church in Florence a picture of the Madonna, which excited great enthusiasm in the public. Charles of Anjou, King of Naples, passing through Florence while the artist was at work, was taken to see it at the artist's studio in a garden. It had been till then only known to confidants; but when the rumour spread, all Florence crowded to have a glimpse. Nothing before that period had been seen in Tuscany like this picture. When finished, it was carried in solemn procession to the church, followed by the whole population, and with such triumph and rejoicing that the quarter where the painter lived took its name from this event. The figure of the Virgin, as now judged by critics, is neither beautiful nor graceful, but there is a dignity and a majesty in her mien and an expression of inward ponderings and sad anticipations rising from her heart to her eyes which rivet the memory. The Child, too, blessing with His right hand is full of deity; and the attendant angels, though like each other as twins, have much grace and sweetness. The picture still hangs in the church of the Dominicans in Santa Maria Novella. Cimabue was one of those conscientious painters who, on noticing the least blemish in his work, would destroy it without compunction, however much trouble it had caused him.

THE BISHOP'S APE TAKES TO PAINTING (1302).

In 1302 Buonamico Buffalmacco, the painter, was passing through Arezzo, when Bishop Guido, hearing of his being a cheerful companion as well as great artist, requested him to stay with him and paint the chapel where the baptistery now is, the subject being "the Crucifixion." The painter set to work and completed a large part of it. It happened that the bishop had a large ape of extraordinary cunning and full of mischief, and which sometimes stood on the scaffold watching the work with great interest, particularly the mode of mixing the colours and pouring out from the various flasks, and beating up the eggs. One Sunday morning the ape contrived, in the absence of the painter, to get on the scaffold and see if he could not do that work too. It then fell upon the brushes and pots and pencils; and having mimicked the artist's ways, poured all the colours into one basin, and with a large brush proceeded shortly to cover the whole canvas with artistic flourishes. On Monday morning the artist, on returning, was horrified at the result, and at once attributed it to some envious person, whom he named to the bishop as the suspected culprit. The bishop was greatly annoyed, but, nevertheless, prevailed on the artist to return to his work, and he said he would provide six soldiers with drawn swords to remain concealed and on the watch, to cut down the intruder without mercy, in case a repetition of the nefarious deed should occur. The figures were again painted by the artist, and after several days the soldiers took the alarm on hearing some strange sound of stealthy steps and movements, and then a figure clambering up to the scaffold and seizing the brushes. They noticed soon that this figure, after mixing the colours, painted with unseemly haste all the fine heads of saints which had been so carefully elaborated by the artist. They then summoned the artist himself to witness it, whereupon they all were unable to contain themselves for laughter at the grotesque handiwork of the amateur ape, which was the real culprit. The artist betook himself at once to the bishop, and said, "My lord, you desire to have your chapel painted in one fashion, but your ape chooses to have it done in another fashion." Then he told the story of what he had seen, and added: "There's no need for your lordship to send to foreign parts for a painter since you have a master of colour already in your house. Perhaps he did not at first fully understand how to mix the colours, but he is now evidently well acquainted with the whole secret, and can proceed without further help. I am no longer required here since we have discovered his talents, and I will ask no other reward for my labours except permission to return home." The bishop made suitable apologies and begged the artist once more to resume his work, and he would for its crimes shut up the ape in a strong wooden cage, and have it fastened on the scaffold, where it might spend its jealousy and rage in witnessing without having the power of further marring the work. The artist afterwards went to Pisa and covered the roofs and walls of the abbey of St. Paul with pictures from Old Testament subjects, which greatly pleased the people frequenting that place. And many other admirable sacred works were finished in Florence and other places by the same pencil.

THE PAINTER'S CRITICS AND BAD DEBTS (1342).

The same Buffalmacco was engaged by the town of Perugia to paint their patron saint Herculanus for their market-place, and the price was agreed on. The painter erected scaffolds and also enclosed himself with boards, so as to keep the people from overlooking him in his labours. After ten days had passed, the people passing used to stop and wonder how long he was going to take to finish his picture, as they seemed to think such work could be turned out by the yard from a mould, so that the artist became worried and pestered with their importunities. The people became day by day more impatient, until the artist determined he would serve them out. So after some days' preparation he admitted them to look at the work when near its completion, and they were greatly pleased, and all they next wanted was that he would remove the scaffolding entirely. He said this could not be done for two days longer, as he wished to retouch part of the picture when thoroughly dried. This was allowed. The artist had originally intended the saint's head to have a great diadem in relievo of richly gilt plaster, as was then the custom. He now, remounting his scaffold, substituted for the original another coronet or garland surrounded with gudgeons. Next morning he went off to Florence, and when the people had to take down the scaffold and saw the affront put on them, they proposed to send horsemen in pursuit; but in the end they had to get another artist to set the diadem right and erase the silly gudgeons. The same artist was employed to paint a fresco for a country church at Calcindia, a picture of the Virgin holding the Infant Christ in her arms. He found the employer dilatory in payment, so he went and changed the Infant Christ into a bear, using water-colours only. The employer thereupon was in despair, and implored him to restore the Holy Child, and if so he would pay at once all demands. The money being forthcoming, the painter with a wet sponge easily removed the bear and restored the work.

THE NUNS CRITICISING THEIR ARTIST'S WORKS (1342).

The same great Florentine painter, Buffalmacco, about 1340 was employed by the nuns of Faenza to paint a sacred historical picture for them, and they were greatly pleased with every part of the details, except only that they thought the faces rather too pale and wan. Buonamico, hearing this, and knowing that the abbess had the very best Vernaccia wine that could be found in Florence, and which was indeed reserved by them for the use of the Mass, declared to the nuns that this defect could be remedied only by mixing the colours with good Vernaccia, and that when the cheeks were touched with colours thus tempered, they would become rosy and lifelike enough. The good sisters, who believed all he said, on hearing of this kept him amply supplied with the very best Vernaccia during all the time that his labours lasted, and while cheerfully swallowing this nectar he found on his palette colour enough to give as much rosiness as the ladies desired. It was related, however, that the painter was once surprised by the nuns while drinking the wine; but when he heard one of them saying to another, "See now, he is drinking it himself," he instantly took care adroitly to throw part of the contents out of his mouth on the picture, whereby the nuns were fully assured as to their mistake.

BROTHER ARTISTS RIVALLING EACH OTHER (1400).

Filippo Brunelleschi and Donato were both sculptors at Florence about the year 1400. Donato had completed a crucifix for the church of Santa Croce in Florence, to be placed beneath the picture of Taddeo Gaddi, which represented the girl restored to life by St. Francis. Filippo, on being shown the crucifix, and being asked by his friend what he thought of it, replied that Donato had placed a clown on the cross, and not a Christ, whose form was of perfect beauty. Donato testily replied, "Take wood then and make one yourself." Filippo, who did not allow himself to be irritated, felt that there was some truth in the retort, and resolved to set about the making of a crucifix himself, such as he thought ought to have been produced. He did this secretly, and it was (as may now be seen in the chapel of Count Bardi) an admirable work. Some time afterwards Donato was engaged to come and dine with him, and they had bought a lot of eggs and delicacies, which Donato was carrying homeward in an apron, when he was told to go forward to the house with these, and his friend would follow. On entering, Donato's eye caught sight of Filippo's crucifix, of which he had never heard anything, and was so amazed and ravished with it that all the eggs and dainties fell at once to the ground, as his eyes became riveted on beauties such as he himself could never attain to in the disposition of the legs, body, and arms. He at once confessed it was a miracle of art. And the two rivals were good friends for ever after. Filippo was also a skilful and ingenious architect and engineer, and was recommended to the Pope by Cosmo de Medici as a man of such immense capacity that he would have confidence enough to turn the world back on its axis, a compliment which made the Pope stare at Filippo, who was small and insignificant in appearance. Count Sforza said that if every state had a man like Filippo, they might all live in peace without the use of arms.

A PAINTER AFFRONTING A FALLEN ANGEL (1408).

The painter Spinello Aretino was in 1408 engaged by the monks of St. Agnolo, in Arezzo, to paint the wall of their church near the high altar, and the subject was to be the "Fall of the Angels." In the air appeared St. Michael in combat with the old serpent of seven heads and ten horns, while beneath and in the centre of the picture was Lucifer, already changed into a most hideous and devilish form. So anxious was the artist to make Lucifer frightful and horrible, that one night in his sleep Lucifer appeared to him and demanded to know where the painter had ever seen him look so ugly as that, and why he permitted his pencil to put so mortifying an affront as this upon him. The artist awoke in such extremity of horror that he was unable to speak, and he shook and trembled so violently that his wife thought he was dying. The shock proved to be so great that he never recovered the effects of it, remaining in a most desponding mood, and he gradually sank till he died in a very short time thereafter. It is also related of Lodovico Caracci, that when he had taken down the scaffold on which he had painted the arch above the altar of Bologna Cathedral, he noticed the foot of an angel bending before the Virgin crooked. He wanted to set up the scaffold again, and died of grief at this mischance.

ANGELICO'S DEVOTION TO SACRED ART (1455).

Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole, usually called Angelico, who died in 1455, was both a painter and a devoted Churchman. Though born to plenty, and having a strong turn for art, he entered the order of preaching friars at the age of twenty, and began painting the Virgin and Christ and saints. Cosmo de Medici saw his merits, and engaged him to paint the Crucifixion for the church of San Marco at Florence, and he filled the lower ground with all the saints who were founders of religious bodies. Vasari said his picture of Gabriel making the Annunciation to the Virgin was considered so beautiful that the spectator could scarcely believe it to be the work of man, but that it must have been executed in Paradise. But his masterpiece was thought to be the coronation of the Virgin, surrounded by angels, saints, and holy personages. Vasari said the heads and figures were so varied in expression and attitude that people had infinite pleasure in looking on them, and all admitted that even the saints themselves in heaven could not look otherwise than in this picture, and that no other than the angels themselves could produce such figures of elevated beauty, dignity, and devotion. The Pope invited him to execute various works at Rome, and was so charmed with the simplicity and modesty of the artist that he offered him a high appointment in the Church, as he was a friar and qualified; but the artist declined it and recommended a poor friend, to whom this office was kindly given. Angelico, in the estimation of his contemporaries, lived a life of pure holiness. He laboured continually at his paintings, but would do nothing that was not connected with things holy. He despised riches and had no anger in his composition. He used to say that the only true riches was contentment with little. He said he sought no dignity, and all he cared for was to escape hell and draw near to Paradise. He said that he who practised the art of painting should live without cares or anxious thoughts, and he who would do the work of Christ should perpetually remain with Christ. His pictures of saints excelled those of all other artists. He said he never took up his pencil without first offering a prayer. He never painted a crucifix without tears streaming from his eyes. Some friendly hand painted his own portrait on the outside of his tomb in the church of the Minerva at Rome.

BRONZES FOR THE GATES OF PARADISE (GHIBERTI, 1455).

Lorenzo Ghiberti, a famous Florentine sculptor, who excelled in casting his sculpture in metals, had acquired so great a reputation that the city authorities gave him a commission about 1439 to decorate the chief door of San Giovanni with bronzes representing scenes or histories from the Old Testament. The door when finished met with unbounded praise from all quarters. When Michael Angelo was asked what he thought of it he said, "They are so beautiful that they might fittingly stand at the gates of Paradise!" This artist put his own portrait as well as that of his father on one part of the decorations of the border of the door. Lorenzo had shown his genius at the age of twenty, when he won the prize for which the first artists competed--namely, a bronze representing the sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham. Other bronzes representing separate subjects followed. For this great work he was liberally paid, and its admirable execution led to many lucrative commissions of a like kind.

THE OLDEST PAINTERS AND THEIR PERSPECTIVE (UCCELLO, 1472).

The older class of mediæval painters of sacred subjects often showed great ignorance of perspective. One memorable instance was that of Paolo Uccello, who died in 1472, and who had acquired great reputation for his pictures. His last great commission was one to paint St. Thomas searching for the wound in the side of Christ; and the painting was to be above the door of the church in the Mercato Veichio in Florence, dedicated to that saint. Paolo was proud of this commission, and told his friends that he would lay out all his strength on this picture, and display the fruit of his experience and insight in its design. His first step was to erect a close inclosure of planks all round the wall, so as to keep off the prying and curious. He had been working some time in secret when another artist, Donato, met him in the street and asked what sort of work this was that he was so closely engaged upon. Paolo said, with some self-satisfaction, that Donato would see it in due time. Some time later the same Donato accidentally passed and saw Paolo Uccello uncovering this masterpiece, and after a courteous salutation Paolo was eager to know what his brother artist would say to it. Donato looked very minutely at it, and then said, "Why, Paolo, you are uncovering your picture just at the time you should be shutting it up from the public view." These words stabbed the painter to the heart; for on certain things being pointed out by the critic, he saw he had made a grievous mistake, and that the public would cover him with derision instead of applause. This fate he could not face, and from that time he shut himself up in his house so as to study once more the laws of perspective. And Vasari says this picture killed him, for the faults in it weighed on his spirits, which he never recovered. The painting has disappeared in modern times.

THE MONKS OVER-FEEDING THEIR ARTIST WITH CHEESE (UCCELLO, 1472).

The painter Paolo Uccello was engaged by the monks of San Miniato, near Florence, to paint the lives of the Holy Fathers in one of their cloisters. The work was to be partly coloured and principally in terra verde, and it is said he rather misplaced his colours, making his fields blue, his cities red, and the buildings all colours. While he was engaged in this work the abbot gave him scarcely anything to eat but cheese, of which the painter grew so speedily sick, that, being of a timid nature, he went off clandestinely and did not return, and he gave no explanation. The abbot and the monks sent to him, to ask why he did not return; but he gave no answer, and if he met them in the street he made off as fast as he could in another direction. At last one of the monks determined to solve the mystery, waylaid him, got speech of him, and put the same unanswered question. Paolo replied, "You have so murdered me, that I not only run away from you, but dare not stop near the shop of a carpenter or even pass by one. And all this comes of your abbot's mismanagement; for, what with his cheese pies and his cheese soup, he has made me swallow such a mountain of cheese that I am all turned into cheese myself, and I tremble lest the carpenters rush out, seize, and put me into their glue-pot. I am quite sure that if I had stayed with you longer I should have been no more Paolo, but mere cheese." When the monk told the other monks this story, they roared with laughter and begged their abbot to persuade the painter to return, and then to feed him well on other delicacies.

A CLUMSY CRUCIFIX BEFORE THE DYING ARTIST (GROSSO, 1488).

Nanni Grosso was a sculptor at Florence about 1488. One of his invariable rules was, that he would never execute any work in a convent unless the monks left the door of the wine cellar open, so that he could go in and take a drink when he pleased without asking their leave. When Nanni was on his deathbed in the hospital of Santa Marina Nuova, the nurses placed a wooden crucifix before him which was clumsy and ill executed. He implored them to take it out of his sight and bring him one by Donato, declaring that if they did not take that one from before him he should die in despair, so greatly did the sight of ill-executed works of art excite him.

A POOR ARTIST KILLED BY A SIGHT OF GOLD (1513).

Pinturicchio, a painter of Perugia, who had painted and decorated many churches, but without ever securing great profit to himself, was in his old days engaged to paint a picture of the Virgin at the convent of San Francesco, in Siena, and a room was appropriated to his use by the monks and given up to him entirely. They took away all the furniture so as to give him space, leaving nothing but a very massive old chest which was too heavy to be removed. The painter being arbitrary and domineering, soon made such a clamour about this chest being in his way, and he so worried the poor monks, that in their desperation they resolved to remove it rather than be any longer abused. So they dragged it out a little with immense difficulty, but in straining it one of its sides gave way and a sum of five hundred golden ducats tumbled out, which seemed so vast a collection of valuable material to our artist, and he was so transfixed with horror and remorse as he thought of his inconceivable folly in having thrown all this fortune, as it were, away, that he took to his bed and never rallied, dying shortly afterwards of a broken heart.

AN ARTIST DECEIVING THE BIRDS AND BEASTS (MONSIGNORI, 1519).

Francesco Monsignori of Verona had attained the highest reputation as a painter. In one picture he had to paint a beautiful dog as part of a group; and one day a friend calling with a living dog, the latter rushed furiously to the painting to attack the painted dog. In another work of the same artist, a picture of the Virgin and the Infant Christ, the Divine Child was represented as visible from the shoulder upwards only, and having one arm extended in the act of caressing the Virgin mother. One day Count Ludovico, having heard of this painting and being anxious to see it, brought his wife and son with him, and the boy had a green bird, called in Verona a terrazzani, perched on his wrist like a falcon. The moment they entered the room the bird, seeing the extended arm of the Infant Christ in the picture, flew towards it, intending to perch upon it. The bird fell to the ground, but immediately rose again, and tried to perch exactly as if it were a child on whose wrist such a bird is accustomed thus to sit. The nobles, amazed at this, were inclined to offer any price for such a picture, but the artist could not be prevailed upon to part with it. A pupil of the same painter, named Girolamo, painted a Madonna sitting underneath a tree, which was put in a church near Verona, and the wild birds that sometimes found their way inside used often to fly against the picture, intending to alight on the branches of this tree. And this circumstance made the picture famous to all the neighbourhood.

FINDING A MODEL FOR A MARTYRED SAINT (MONSIGNORI, 1519).

Francesco Monsignori of Verona had painted many sacred subjects with the highest success before he was engaged to paint St. Sebastian for the Church of the Madonna, outside Mantua. The saint was shot to death with arrows. While the painter was at work on the picture the Marquis of Mantua called and asked him whether he had got a good model for this difficult picture. The painter said he had selected a very beautiful person who was a porter, and who would no doubt allow himself to be tied to the stake and assume the proper attitudes. "That won't do," said the Marquis; "you will not be able to represent the proper fear and horror and resistance of the person who is to be murdered. Just inform me when your model is to sit again, and I will show you the right thing to do." The following day, when the painter had fastened the porter to the stake, and had given secret notice of it to the Marquis, the latter suddenly burst into the room with a cross-bow and arrows in a state of great excitement, and with a loud voice he rushed to the porter, exclaiming, "Traitor! you are a dead man! I have caught you at last, and I will make an end of you," with other horrible exclamations of rage and revenge. The poor unlucky porter, believing that his doom was near, made the most desperate efforts to release himself, and the excitement and agitation of his countenance and limbs, as he was struggling against his fate, supplied the painter with the very attitudes and expression he most desired. "Now," said the Marquis, "he is just in the right position, I will leave you to do the rest." This timely assistance enabled the painter to make an admirable picture of the martyrdom of the saint.

A DIVINE ARTIST DISCOVERING ONE STILL MORE DIVINE (FRANCIA, 1520).

Francesco Francia, born in 1450, began as a goldsmith and designer at Bologna, but felt he could be a painter, and his pictures when he attempted them soon brought him wealth and fame, for his Madonnas and Christs and angels and saints were exquisite. When he was at the height of fame, he had been constantly told of the glories of Raphael, who was then working at Rome, so that he longed to see some of these much-applauded masterpieces. It happened that Raphael had been commissioned to execute a picture of St. Cecilia, which was to be forwarded to Bologna on its way to the chapel of San Giovanni in Monte. Raphael, on forwarding it, sent a polite and friendly letter, asking Francia to look after it, and remove any scratches it might have received, and make any alterations which his skill might suggest. This pleased Francia, who had the picture at once taken out of its case and put in a clear light, that he might critically examine it. He was instantaneously confounded and overwhelmed with the beauty and masterly execution of the work. He at once felt conscious of his own foolish presumption in thinking he could improve it. He was struck dumb with terror, and went about distracted and overweighted with grief at his own shortcomings. He sent the picture on to its destination, but its extreme and unparalleled beauty smote him to the heart. He took to his bed, never recovered his former spirits, and soon died of grief and vexation to think how far short he had been of such excellence. Such is the account given by Vasari, but it is thought by some authorities to have been exaggerated.

LEONARDO DA VINCI'S PICTURE OF THE LAST SUPPER (1520).

When Leonardo da Vinci painted the Last Supper about 1497, one of the greatest pictures of the world, the subject had been little attempted before, and he gave the greatest care to the details. He used to remain at his easel on the scaffold absorbed in thought for whole days, often forgetful of his meals. One great difficulty was to satisfy himself about the proper head for his Christ. He used to say that, when he attempted it, his hand trembled under the excitement of discovering the most appropriate face and expression. A friend, whom he consulted about the difficulty, comforted him by saying that, after his heads of James the Great and James the Less, it was beyond the power of man to give greater divinity and beauty to any human figures, and therefore he should leave the head of Christ imperfect. He never could satisfy himself about leaving out or finishing this cardinal point. At last he accepted a good deal of the form which the Byzantine painters had previously adopted, though he also improved upon it. Leonardo is said to have spent an inordinate time over this picture, and the prior of the monastery at Florence for whom it was painted in fresco could never understand why the painter seemed for so many days and weeks to be brooding and contemplating, and criticising, undoing, and altering, without finishing his work. The prior thought that, like the day-labourers, the great painter ought to have the brush constantly in his hand, spreading his colours and making visible progress in covering the wall. And he grievously complained again and again, not only to the painter himself, but to the duke, of all this delay; and the worry and importunity of this prior vexed and annoyed the painter, who, when alluding to it, explained to the duke how artists are sometimes producing most when they seem to be labouring least, their minds being elaborating the conceptions which it is so difficult to realise. He also informed the duke that there were still wanting to him two heads, one of which, that of the Saviour, he could not hope to find on earth, and had not yet attained the power of presenting to himself even in imagination, with all that perfection of beauty and celestial grace which appeared to him to be demanded. The second head still wanting was that of Judas Iscariot, which also caused him some anxiety, since he did not think it possible to imagine fitting features for a man who, after so many benefits received from his Master, had possessed a heart so depraved as to be capable of betraying that Master, the Lord and Creator of the world. With regard to the second, however, he said he would still pursue his search, and after all, if the worst came to the worst, and if he could find no better, then he would never be at any great loss so long as he had that troublesome and impertinent prior's face before him. The duke laughed heartily, and the poor prior when informed was so utterly confounded at the appalling destiny awaiting him that he kept his peace for ever after. This magnificent masterpiece of the Last Supper unfortunately rapidly deteriorated in its colouring, owing to its being painted in oils instead of fresco; and it has often since been retouched and repaired, till it is doubtful how much of the original now remains, except the composition, design, and grouping, which make the picture imperishable. The refectory of the convent in which the picture was painted in fresco was more than once inundated with water, and ill usage did the rest. In 1796, when Napoleon's troops entered Italy, they turned the refectory into a stable, and the men even amused themselves with throwing bricks at the painted heads of the Apostles. Fortunately the original work in its beauty was well copied in 1510, and this copy, after changing hands, came into the possession of the Royal Academy in London, who now possess it. Other copies were painted by the same artist about the same time. This picture is the best known and most famous in Christian art. We find it alike in rich men's palaces and poor men's cottages, in splendid mosaic and in coarse woodcut, on altarpieces and in all kinds of collections. On Christ's right hand are in their order John, Judas, Peter, Andrew, James the Less, and Bartholomew. On Christ's left hand in their order are James the Great (who sits next to Christ), Thomas, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus, and Simon. Leonardo's other sacred pieces, his Virgins and Holy Families, are all of exquisite beauty. A noble statue was erected to the memory of this great painter at Milan in 1872. The painter had a peculiarity of writing his chief documents backwards from right to left, so that they required to be read by the aid of a looking-glass. He is supposed to have done this to prevent the curious too easily acquiring knowledge of his studies for pictures.

RAPHAEL'S PICTURE OF THE PROCESSION TO CALVARY (1520).

Raphael painted his famous picture of the Procession to Calvary, called "Lo Spasimo di Sicilia," for a Sicilian church at Palermo. In 1217, on its being finished, it was packed and taken on board a ship at Ostia bound for Palermo. A storm arose, the vessel foundered at sea, and all was lost except the package containing this picture, which was floated by the currents into the Bay of Genoa, and on being landed the wondrous masterpiece of art was taken out unhurt. The Genoese at first refused to give it up, insisting that it had been preserved and floated to their shores by the miraculous interposition of the Blessed Virgin herself, and it required a positive mandate from the Pope to represent it as a work done by contract.

THE DIVINE RAPHAEL'S MADONNA DI SAN SISTO.

The Benedictines of St. Sixtus at Placentia asked Raphael to paint the Madonna with the Child, St. Sixtus and St. Barbara. It was the last Madonna he painted; and, as if he had foreseen his approaching end, he made the picture one of surpassing beauty. In the midst of an immense and profound glory filled with cherubim heads, says Passavant, the Virgin is standing holding in her arms the Infant Jesus. Her feet scarcely touch the cloud which bears her; she stands out from the mystery of the heavens, and appears in her sweet and majestic grandeur. Beneath her St. Sixtus on the left and St. Barbara on the right are kneeling in adoration. Two little angels of celestial beauty lean on a cornice at the bottom, with a charming look of intelligence. The features of the Virgin, whose triumphant majesty is unequalled, wear an expression of nobleness, innocence, sweetness, and modesty; her Son, whose attitude is simple and childlike, bears in His whole countenance a Divine character, and His penetrating glance goes straight to the heart. It is no longer the graceful, smiling Child of the other Madonnas, but the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, who at the last day will become the Sovereign Judge. Wonderful power of art! In that little head, so calm, so sweet, and yet so severe, reside both the flame of the purest poetry and all the depth of Christian faith. The Madonna di San Sisto is indeed rendered Divine by the genius of the most ideal artist that God has ever created; and it is the work that contributed most to procure Raphael the surname of "the Divine." Even in its technical part it does not resemble any of the other works of Raphael; although its execution is of extreme simplicity, it has none of that art which is only formed for delighting the eye. All in it is seen by the light of enthusiasm, and but for the little angels at the bottom painted as an after-thought on the clouds, we should scarcely see a trace of human hands in the picture. The picture is now in Dresden, and has excited admiration and the greatest veneration for three centuries.

RAPHAEL'S CARTOONS.

Raphael was commissioned by the Pope to paint cartoons for certain pieces of tapestry to be made in Flanders. The artist was fired with a desire to rival Michael Angelo's, and he looked forward to these compositions being copied in fabrics of wool or silk and gold, which might be hung up before the wainscoting on high festivals, according to the customs of the Byzantines and Romans. The ten pieces of tapestry were afterwards made with great magnificence and perfection, and arrived from Flanders at Rome in 1519, only a few months before Raphael's death, and hung up in St. Peter's. He had the satisfaction of seeing this work crowned with complete success. Vasari says that these tapestries seem rather to have been performed by miracle than by the aid of man. The choice of subjects was prescribed to Raphael. The cartoons were sent to Arras and copied in tapestry. After being hung up in the Sistine chapel, the tapestries were pillaged by the troops of Charles V. in 1527, and carried off as spoils of war, and were sold at Lyons. In 1555 they were restored to the Pope. They were again stolen in the Revolution of 1789, and passed into the hands of the Jews, who at one time thought of burning them for the sake of the gold worked up in the fabric. In 1808, however, the Pope again possessed them, and they are now in the Vatican. As to the cartoons from which the tapestries were copied, these lay neglected in the manufactory at Arras till 1630. Rubens, having seen them there, described them to Charles I., who bought them for Whitehall Palace. At his death they were sold by auction, and Cromwell bought them for £300 for the nation. Charles II. was once on the point of selling them, but was persuaded not to do so. The cartoons were all riddled with needle prickings, and intersected by narrow bands, but William III. had them cleaned and put up at Hampton Court Palace. They are now kept at South Kensington Museum. They are drawn with chalk and coloured in distemper.

A DIVINE MASTER'S LAST MASTERPIECE.

Vasari, a contemporary and biographer of Raphael, says that the painter worked indefatigably at his picture of the Transfiguration of the Saviour which was destined for France. The Saviour is depicted on Mount Tabor, with eleven disciples awaiting Him at the foot. Meanwhile, a youth possessed of a spirit is brought to be healed, and he is shown writhing with contortions caused by the malignant spirit. An old man, with a face of apprehension and open eyes, watches the Apostles, as if anxious to know if there was hope. One woman, a principal figure, kneeling and pointing to these two, shows their misery. The Apostles look on full of compassion. In this work the master has produced figures and heads of unrivalled beauty, which has stamped him as the most excellent and Divine of all artists. Whoever shall desire to see in what manner Christ, transformed into the Godhead, should be represented, let him go and behold it in this picture. The Saviour is shown floating over the mount in clear air; the figure, foreshortened, is between those of Moses and Elias, who, illumined by His radiance, awaken into life beneath the splendour of the light. Prostrate on the earth are Peter, James, and John, in attitudes of great and varied beauty: one has his head bent entirely to the ground; another defends himself with his hands from the brightness of that immense light which proceeds from the splendour of Christ, who is clothed in vestments of snowy whiteness, His arms thrown open and the head raised towards heaven, while the essence and Godhead of all the three persons united in Himself are made apparent in their utmost perfection by the Divine art of Raphael. But as if that sublime genius had gathered all the force of his powers into one effort, whereby the glory and the majesty of art should be made manifest in the countenance of Christ, having completed that as one who had finished the great work which he had to accomplish, he touched the pencils no more, being shortly afterwards overtaken with death from a fever in 1520, at the age of thirty-seven.

RAPHAEL'S PICTURE OF ST. CECILIA.

A noble lady in 1513 built a chapel near Bologna to St. Cecilia, and Raphael was asked to paint an altarpiece. Passavant thus describes the work: "It was in one of his inspired moments that the master composed this exquisite painting. Everything in it speaks of faith and zeal. All the noble countenances bear the Divine stamp, and yet whatever may be the exultation of their souls, their attitudes are full of the calmest majesty. St. Paul leaning on a naked sword represents knowledge and wisdom, whilst on the other side St. John shows the full blessing of Divine love. Mary Magdalene, holding a vase of perfumes, is opposite to St. Paul, as if to indicate that, if the repentance of the apostle and his unwearied activity in the Church obtained forgiveness for him for his former sins, she also had been forgiven much because she had loved much. And as St. Paul, converted through a vision, is by the side of the living St. John, so St. Augustine, also converted to the faith of Christ, is by the side of the Magdalene. Surrounded by these great and touching figures St. Cecilia is standing, radiant with ecstasy, listening to the Divine harmonies sung by the angels in heaven. The earthly organ falls from her hands, she trembles with holy enthusiasm, and her soul seems longing to fly away to the heavenly country. The beauty of the style and the depth of expression are not the only things that render this a masterpiece, but the combination of these with harmony, richness, and powerful colouring. The colouring responds to the poetry of the subject; it carries us into an ethereal and mysterious atmosphere. No colourist has ever equalled this splendour, which we call almost Divine. Titian's 'Assumption' excites feelings of joyfulness, Correggio's 'St. Jerome' a gentle emotion, but Raphael's 'St. Cecilia' brings us nearer to heaven." It was this picture that killed Francia with mortification and self-humiliation. All Bologna was enthusiastic at the sight of so Divine a work. The picture still remains at Bologna.

THE INQUISITION ON SACRED ART (1522).

In 1522 Torrigiano, a Florentine sculptor, the same who, when a student and rival, had an altercation with Michael Angelo and broke his nose, received an order from a Spanish grandee, the Duke of Arcos, to carve a Madonna and Child of the natural size, for which he was told he would be well paid. The artist thereupon put forth all his skill, which was admitted to be great, and completed a matchless sculpture, which the purchaser was delighted with, and sent two servants carrying large bags of money wherewith to pay the sculptor and fetch away the gem. The latter, well pleased at the liberal payment, was equally delighted in turn; but on opening the bags, to his intense disgust he found that they were full of copper farthings, which amounted only to a beggarly total of thirty ducats (£13). Enraged at this meanness, he snatched a mallet, and regardless of the sacred character of the image, he followed to the spot where the sculpture stood, and with one blow he shivered it to atoms, and then told the lacqueys to take back their load of farthings to their master. This sacrilegious act the enraged grandee represented at once to the Holy Inquisition, before which tribunal the irascible artist was cited for heresy. He urged that he was entitled, as an author, to do what he liked with his own creation. But not so thought the demon judges, who with little hesitation decreed death with torture. The culprit died in prison before the day of sentence arrived, whether from excitement or refusing his food was never ascertained.

PAINTING THE LUMINOUS FACE OF CHRIST (CORREGGIO, 1534).

Vasari says that there was in his time (1540), in the city of Reggio (and now it is a gem in the gallery at Dresden), a picture by Correggio of the "Birth of Christ." In this work the light proceeding from the presence of the Divine Child throws its splendour on the shepherds, and around all the figures who are contemplating the Infant. Many other beautiful effects are made manifest by the artist in this picture. Among others is one expressed by the figure of a woman, who, desiring to look fixedly at the Saviour, is not able with her mortal sight to endure the glory of His Divinity, which appears to cast its rays full on the figure. She is therefore shading her eyes with her hand. All this is admirably and wonderfully expressed. Over the cabin where the Divine Child is laid there hovers a choir of angels singing, and so exquisitely painted that they seem to have come direct from heaven, rather than from the hand of the painter. In the same city (now in the Palace at Madrid) there was a small picture, also by Correggio, not more than a foot high, and one of the most extraordinary and beautiful of all his works. The figures are small, the subject "Christ in the Garden," the time night; and the angel appearing to the Saviour illumines His person with the splendour of his coming, an effect unapproachable for beauty. (Other critics say the disposition of the light in this picture is poetical and Divine.) On a plain at the foot of the mountain are seen the three apostles lying asleep. The shadow of the eminence on which the Saviour is in prayer falls over those figures, imparting to them a degree of force not to be described in words. In the farther distance is a tract of country over which the day is just breaking, and from one side approaches Judas with soldiers. Vasari says that for beauty, depth of thought, and execution no work can equal this. It is said that Correggio gave this gem to pay an apothecary's bill of thirty shillings then due.

THE MONKS ASSISTING ARTISTS WITH THEIR PRAYERS (1560).

Queen Isabella of the Peace, about 1560, in order to please the Franciscans, to which order her confessor belonged, ordered a statue of the Virgin to be executed for a gift to them, and the best sculptor in Spain was to receive the commission. Becerra was chosen; but after a year's work the Queen was not pleased, and the image was rejected. The next attempt was better, and it pleased the friars, who said it was worthy of Michael Angelo; but the Queen again rejected it. The Franciscans thereupon betook themselves to redoubled Masses and fasting, and the poor artist racked his memory and imagination for ideas of angelic grace and Divine beauty. Sitting one night in his studio, after much anxious thought, he fell into a slumber, and was aroused by an unknown voice saying to him, "Awake and arise, and out of that log of wood blazing on the hearth shape the thought within thee, and thou shalt obtain the desired image." He immediately arose, plucked the log from the fire and fell to work upon it, and it proved to be an excellent piece of timber, and in time it grew under his hands into a miracle of art, and became the portentous image of Our Lady of Solitude, which is to this day had in reverence, and in which are expressed beauty, grief, love, tenderness, constancy, and resignation. The Queen at last acknowledged the carving was to her mind. The Virgin was dressed in sable garb and placed in the convent of the Minim Fathers at Madrid, and became renowned for her miraculous powers. Another artist, named Joannes, was engaged by the friars to paint the Virgin, and his first sketches were unsuccessful; but he and his employers betook themselves to religious exercises, and many holy men joined them in their prayers. Every day the artist confessed and communicated before commencing his labours. At last his piety and perseverance overcame all difficulties. It was acknowledged to be of great excellence, and amongst the friars it was soon famous for its miraculous powers.

MICHAEL ANGELO, PAINTER AND SCULPTOR (1564).

Michael Angelo, who was equally celebrated as a painter and sculptor of the first class, as well as architect, was born in 1475. His Madonnas and Holy Families and Christs are all admirable. In 1507 he began frescoes, and afterwards paintings for the Sistine Chapel and Pauline Chapel at Rome. In 1547 he was appointed architect to St. Peter's at Rome, and at his death in 1564 was succeeded in the latter office by Raphael. Michael Angelo was a man of spare figure and extraordinary activity. When he was at work he was satisfied with a scrap of bread and a drop of wine, which he took without breaking off the business in hand. He lived in this frugal way up to the time when he began his last pictures in the Sistine Chapel at Rome. He was then old, and allowed himself only a simple meal at the end of the day. He used sometimes to remain for whole months absorbed in meditation, without touching a brush or chisel; then, when he had elaborated his composition, he set to work as if inspired by a fury. Vasari says his imagination was so lofty that his hands could not express his sublime thoughts. Generally he used to put an idea hurriedly on paper, then take up each detail, and finish it as he proceeded. He would sometimes draw the same head ten or twelve times over before he was satisfied with it. He took very little sleep, and used often to get up in the night to work out a sudden fancy. He used to wear a sort of cardboard helmet, which he contrived so as to hold a light, and thus the part on which he worked was illumined without his hands being encumbered. He had a round head, high temples, a broad, square forehead, with seven lines straight across it, and a nose disfigured by a blow from the fist of Torrigiano, who, being jealous of him as a student, picked a quarrel with him, and thereby left this mark.

THE GREAT SCULPTOR'S MASTERPIECES (MICHAEL ANGELO, 1564).

Vasari, a contemporary of Michael Angelo, says of his Pieta, a marble figure of the Virgin (now in the chapel of Santa Maria della Febbre at Rome), that no sculptor, however distinguished an artist, could add a single grace or improve it by whatever pains he might take, whether in elegance and delicacy, or force, or careful execution, nor could any surpass the art which the sculptor has here exhibited. In like manner the marble figure of his dead Christ exhibits the very perfection of faithful execution in every muscle, vein, and nerve. There was besides a most exquisite expression in the countenance, and the limbs and veins and pulses are admirably arranged. The love and care which the sculptor had given to this group were such that he there left his name--a thing he never did again for any work--on the cincture which girdles the robe of Our Lady. The reason of this was, that one day he entered the chapel and heard a group of strangers praising it highly, and when one asked the other who was the artist, it was attributed at once to a person called the Hunchback of Milan. The real artist remained silent, but one night soon after he repaired to the chapel with a light and chisel, and engraved his name on the figure of the Madonna, whose "beauty and goodness, piety and grief, dead in the living marble," are so well spoken of by the poet. This work brought Michael Angelo great fame. Certain stupid people did indeed affirm at the time that he has made Our Lady too young, but that is because they fail to perceive the fact that unspotted maidens long preserve the youthfulness of their aspect, while persons afflicted, as Christ was, do the contrary. The youth of the Madonna therefore did but add to the credit of the master.

SATISFYING A CRITIC OF THE FAULTLESS (MICHAEL ANGELO, 1564).

Vasari, the biographer and pupil, says that when Michael Angelo had set up his colossal marble statue of David, it chanced that Soderini, whom it greatly pleased, came to look at it while the artist was giving a few last touches, and told him that he thought the nose too short. Michael Angelo perceived that Soderini was in such a position beneath the figure that he could not see it conveniently, yet to satisfy him he mounted the scaffold with his chisel and a little powder which he had picked up from the floor. He then struck the nose a few times very gently, but without altering anything, and took care to let some of the powder fall down at the same time, and told the critic to look at it now. "I like it better now," replied Soderini; "you have given it life." The sculptor then came down, not without compassion for that class of people who desire to appear good judges of what they do not understand. Vasari says he may truly affirm that this surpasses all others, whether ancient or modern, Greek or Latin; neither the Marforio at Rome, the Tiber and the Nile in the Belvedere, nor the giants of Monte Cavallo can be compared to such a model of beauty and excellence. The outline of the lower limbs is most exquisite. The connection of each limb with the body is faultless, and the spirit of the whole form is divine. Never since has there been produced so fine an attitude, so perfect a grace, such beauty of head, feet, and hands; every part is replete with excellence; nor is so much harmony and admirable art to be found in any other work. He that has seen this, therefore, need not care to see any production else, whether of that age or of any preceding it.

MICHAEL ANGELO'S LAST JUDGMENT (1564).

Michael Angelo when commissioned by the Pope to finish the paintings of the Sistine Chapel executed two vast frescoes for the ends of the chapel, one on "The Last Judgment," and the other "The Fall of the Angels." "The Last Judgment" was begun in 1533, but was not finished till 1541. Though containing some groups powerfully painted, there were many adverse critics as to the general style and some of the details of this performance. The Pope's master of the ceremonies, Biagio, was very severe in his comments, and when asked by the Pope what he thought of this painting, the former replied that he thought it was a shameless exhibition of naked figures, more fit for a bathing-house or a beershop than a church. Michael Angelo heard of this criticism, and one day when alone he put in a likeness of the unfortunate master of ceremonies among the damned under a representation of Minos. The resemblance was so striking that all Rome went to see it. Biagio being furious went and complained to the Pope, who asked where Michael Angelo had put him in the picture. "In hell," he replied. "Alas!" rejoined Pope Paul, with a smile, "if he had only put you in purgatory, I could have got you out; but as you are in hell, I can do nothing for you. My power does not reach so far as that."

VARGAS'S DEVOTION TO SACRED ART (1568).

Vargas of Seville painted for the cathedral in 1555 a picture of the Nativity, which still forms the altarpiece of the little chapel dedicated to that event. The Virgin Mother might have been sketched by the pure pencil of Raphael. The peasant who kneels at her feet with his offering of a basket of doves is a study from Nature, painted with much of the force and freedom of the later masters of Seville; and many of the accessories, such as the head of the goat dragged in by the shepherd and the sheaf of corn and pack-saddle, are finished with Flemish accuracy. He also painted "Christ going to Calvary," and many saints and martyrs and female heads of much purity and grace. Vargas died in 1568, having been distinguished for his modesty, kindness, and devotion to religion. After his death there were found in his chamber the scourges with which he practised self-flagellation, and a coffin wherein he was wont to lie down in the hours of solitude and repose and consider his latter end. He had much wit and humour; and once, when asked by a brother painter his opinion of a very badly painted Saviour on the cross, Vargas said, "Methinks He is saying, 'Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.'"

TITIAN'S HEAD OF CHRIST (1576).

Titian painted his great picture of "The Tribute Money," now in the Dresden Gallery, in answer to a taunt that Venetian art had no finish. This picture has commanded the admiration of four centuries for the Godlike beauty and calm majesty of Christ's countenance. His lips seem to be parting with the question, "Whose is this image and superscription?" while the fingers point gracefully to the coin in the rough hand of his cunning tempter, whose face shows the low self-satisfaction with which he thinks he has outwitted the Master. Vasari says this head of Christ is "stupendous and miraculous"; its conscious sublimity of expressive attitude and movement are well set off by the sharp and cunning profile of the rough and weather-beaten questioner, who is so keen to foil a higher nature. This is thought to be the most perfect picture from the hand of Titian. He painted another great picture in his old age of "Christ at Emmaus," gorgeous in colour and masterly in its attitudes and expression.

TITIAN'S PAINTING OF THE TRIBUTE MONEY (1576).

Scanelli tells the condition under which this renowned picture by Titian was produced. Titian was visited on a certain occasion by a company of German travellers, who were allowed to look at the pictures in his studio. On being asked what impression these works conveyed, these gentlemen declared that they knew of one master only who was capable of finishing as they thought paintings ought to be finished, and that was Durer. Their impression was, that Venetian compositions invariably fell below the promise which they had given at the first. To these observations Titian smilingly replied that, if he had thought extreme finish to be the end and aim of art, he too would have fallen into the excesses of Durer. But though long experience had taught him to prefer a broad and even track to a narrow and intricate path, yet he would still take occasion to show that the subtlest detail might be compassed without sacrifice of breadth, and so produced the Christ of the tribute money. All the artists of his time thought this the most perfect work of Titian. The contrast is sublime between the majestic calm and elevation, the Godlike beauty, of Christ and the low cunning and crafty, coarse air of the Pharisee who questions Him. The marble smoothness and fair complexion of Christ's skin is contrasted with the rough, tanned, and weather-beaten skin of the other.

A DIFFIDENT ARTIST OF SACRED PICTURES REASSURED (ADRIANO, 1630).

At Cordova, in Spain, Adriano, a lay brother of the barefooted Carmelites, and who died in 1630, excelled in sacred art, and executed a great picture of the Crucifixion in which the Virgin and Mary Magdalene were leading figures; and this work is preserved in the convent there. This artist was so diffident of himself that he used to deface or destroy his pictures as soon as he had executed them. And so uniform was this practice with him that his friends took occasion to intercede with him for the preservation of his many valuable productions in the name of the souls in purgatory, knowing his attachment to the holy offices in their behalf. By this mode of exorcism the destroying spirit, which his self-dissatisfaction and fastidiousness conjured up, was happily kept in check; and the above and other valuable pictures were, thanks to the souls in purgatory, saved and preserved for the consolation of the living.

RUBENS'S GREAT PICTURES (1577-1640).

The cathedral of Notre Dame at Antwerp contains the masterpiece of Rubens, "The Descent from the Cross," hung in the south transept. The picture is now somewhat misty and has been retouched in some places. The greatest peculiarity is the white sheet on which the body of Jesus lies, and which enhances the colouring. The Christ is said to be one of the finest figures ever invented, and the hanging of the head is exquisitely rendered. Two of the three Marys have more beauty than Rubens usually gives to female figures. The principal light comes from the white sheet. It was said that this picture was given in exchange for a piece of ground on which Rubens built his house; the original agreement was for one picture of St. Christopher, but Rubens gave them five, including that subject. Another picture of Rubens's in the north transept is "The Elevation of the Cross," which is full of life and interesting attitudes, and the horses are spirited. A third picture is the "Assumption of the Virgin," which was painted in sixteen days. A fourth picture is the "Resurrection of the Saviour," where Christ is represented coming out of the tomb in great splendour, the soldiers terrified and falling over each other in their confusion. In the museum at Antwerp is "The Crucifixion of Christ between the two Thieves," by Rubens, where the figures are drawn and grouped with consummate art. The Magdalene is a leading character, and the good centurion is also represented. This is one of the first pictures of the world for composition, colouring, and correctness of drawing. Other sacred pictures of Rubens are to be seen in this collection.

THE MONKS GETTING A BARGAIN OF A PICTURE (TRISTAN, 1469).

The monks of La Sislo, near Toledo in Spain, were anxious to have a picture of the Last Supper painted for their refectory, like that painted by Titian for the monastery of Lorenzo, and applied to Dominico to execute the work. Dominico, on the ground of indisposition, declined it, but recommended his pupil Luis Tristan, who was accepted. The picture was finished, and the monks were highly pleased with it, but they thought the artist's demand of two hundred ducats (£90) exorbitant. In their perplexity they referred to Dominico, who, though ill of the gout, drove to see the picture and assess its value. He looked at it, and then, turning with a threatening and angry countenance to his pupil, told him he had utterly disgraced himself and his profession by asking such a sum as two hundred ducats for such a picture as that. The monks were delighted and triumphant at this deliverance. Dominico, still looking fiercely, told his pupil at once to roll up his picture and take it away to Toledo, for he was certain to get five hundred ducats for it, and he then began to state reasons, and spoke in raptures of it as a masterly performance. At this turn of affairs the monks looked at each other with astonishment and vexation; and after a slight pause said, that upon the whole they thought they would keep to their bargain, and they then and there found the money and paid the sum agreed. Since then the Fathers had good reason to be well pleased; for all the critics of Europe, on seeing it, offered them far more than the price if they would part with it. Tristan died at Toledo in 1469.

VELASQUEZ'S "CRUCIFIXION" (1660)

In 1639 Velasquez produced one of his noblest pictures, "The Crucifixion," painted for the nunnery of San Placido at Madrid. Unrelieved by the usual dim landscape or lowering clouds, the cross in this picture has no footing upon earth, but is placed on a plain, dark ground, like an ivory carving on a velvet pall. Never was that great agony more powerfully depicted. The head of our Lord droops on His right shoulder, over which falls a mass of dark hair, while drops of blood trickle from His thorn-pierced brows. The anatomy of the body and limbs is executed with as much precision as in Cellini's marble, and the linen cloth wrapped about the body, and even the firwood of the cross, display his accurate attention to details. Our Lord's feet are held each by a separate nail; at the foot of the cross are the usual skull and bones, and a serpent twines itself round the accursed tree. The sisterhood of San Placido placed this picture in their sacristy in a badly lighted cell, where it remained until the French came to Madrid and sold it in Paris, whence it was redeemed at a large price, and presented to the Royal Gallery of Spain.

HOW THE MONKS GOT THEIR FINE PICTURES (1671).

At the beatification of St. Benozzi in 1671, the monks of the order of Servi were anxious to have their church of the Annunziata at Florence suitably decorated. The sacristan of the convent wished to get the work done well and cheaply, and stimulated the vanity of rival artists by representing how their works would have the advantage of being exhibited in a church where such numbers of the devout constantly attended. He would not hold out the hope of large pay, but he promised abundance of prayers; and, above all, he dwelt on the favour which their performances would no doubt obtain from the Blessed Virgin herself, to whose especial honour they were to be consecrated. Andrea del Sarto yielded to these representations, and put forth all his strength. He painted on one side of the cortile two scenes from the life of the Madonna--"The Birth of the Virgin" and "The Adoration of the Magi"; and on the other side scenes from the life of San Filippo Benozzi. Every figure in those sublime groups is now familiar to the lovers of art. Other masterpieces were added by Andrea to that glorious church.

THE DIVINE MURILLO (1682).

Murillo, the Spanish painter, according to Sir D. Wilkie, adapted the higher subjects of art to the commonest understanding, and seems of all the painters the universal favourite. His paintings of "St. Elizabeth" and "The Healing of the Paralytic" are rich in colour and of singular beauty. He himself thought "The Charity of St. Thomas" was his best picture. His picture of "The Virgin of the Napkin," though executed hastily, as a present to a cook who begged some memorial of him, shows a face in which thought is happily blended with maidenly innocence, and the Divine Child, with His deep, earnest eyes, leans forward in her arms, struggling, as it were, almost out of the frame, as if to welcome the saintly carpenter home from his daily toil. The picture is executed with a brilliancy of touch never excelled; it glows with a golden light, as if the sun were also shining on the canvas. Another picture, "The Guardian Angel," shows the chief figure in a rich yellow robe and purple mantle, pointing as he goes with the right hand to heaven, and with the other leading a lovely child--the emblem of the soul passing through the pilgrimage of this world. Never was an allegory more sweetly told than in this picture, which is painted with great lightness of touch, and the transparent texture of the child's garment is finely rendered. In his pictures of the Virgin Murillo's celestial attendants are among the loveliest cherubs that ever bloomed on canvas. Hovering in the sunny air, reposing on clouds, or sporting amongst their silvery folds, these ministering shapes give life and movement to the picture, and relieve the Virgin's statue-like repose. Some of them bear the large white lilies, others roses, sprays of olive and palm boughs, like those which are still annually blessed in churches, and hung as charms on balconies and portals. As a painter of children Murillo has caught with matchless insight all the nameless ways and graces of the bright-eyed Andalusian boys and girls he loved to depict.

CANO'S PICTURE OF THE VIRGIN (1690).

The most beautiful of Cano's pictures is that of "Our Lady of Belem," or Bethlehem, painted at Malaga for the cathedral of Seville. In serene celestial beauty this Madonna is excelled by no image of the Blessed Mary to be found in Spain. Her glorious countenance lends credit to the legends of the older art, and is such as might have been revealed in answer to the prayers of the saintly Vargas or of Joanes. The drapery is a crimson robe, with a dark blue mantle drawn over the head. The head of the Divine Child is perhaps not childlike; but there is much infantine simplicity and grace in the attitude, as He sits with His tiny hand resting on that of His mother. These hands are as usual admirably painted; and the whole picture is finished with exceeding care, as if the painter had determined to crown his labours and honour Seville with a masterpiece. Cano was the artist who was once engaged to model a statue of St. Antony for an accountant, and after it was finished and the price spoken of was deemed large, the accountant asked how many days' labour it had cost. The answer being that it took twenty-five days, the patron at once rather indignantly observed, that at the rate charged it would be four doubloons a day--a most extravagant sum. To this Cano rejoined, "Yes, and I have been fifty years learning to make such a statue as that in twenty-five days."

A PAINTER INCAUTIOUSLY WATCHING EFFECTS (1734).

When Sir James Thornhill was painting the cupola of St. Paul's and adorning it, as he supposed, with masterpieces of sacred art, he was, like all great painters, absorbed in thought, and was frequently changing and improving his details. One day, when mounted on his lofty scaffold, he moved backwards step by step to view the effect of some of his touches, and had reached the very edge apparently without knowing his danger, for a fall there would have been instant destruction. The artist's servant, having observed the danger, with great presence of mind instantly threw the contents of a pot of paint over his master. This happy thought had the effect of recalling the absent-minded artist to real life, for he immediately rushed forward to resent the outrage. On the attendant's object, however, being explained, his wrath was with equal suddenness changed into lively gratitude.

ORIGIN OF CHURCH BELLS.

The Romans used bells in their baths. The Hebrew high priests also wore small bells. When Porsena, King of Etruria, was buried, and a magnificent monument with pyramids at each end was erected, small bells were suspended so delicately that the least breath of wind would sound them. Pope Sabinianus, about 604, in imitation of the bells of Porsena's tomb, introduced the same in the charnel-houses, for the sound of bells was then supposed to frighten away evil spirits. Hence the bells came to be sounded at funerals, and passing bells have since been common. The goddess of Syria was anciently worshipped with the sound of bells, from which custom it is supposed the Christian Churches took the hint of hanging them in their steeples. The use of bells, however, was not coeval with the Church, for it was a considerable time before the Christians dare openly avow their profession or could venture on the publicity of such a mode of summoning their worshippers. Turkey and Greece are the only countries where the use of large bells has almost been abolished. Greece in this particular has degenerated, and Turkey has at length opposed their reception. The Dutch long excelled in the construction and management of their bells. The large bells of the Netherlands are so well tuned and hung, that any slow melody may be performed upon them with the greatest facility and as perfectly as on a church organ. The church bells were formerly regularly baptised, anointed, exorcised, and blessed by the bishop. The priest sprinkled the bell with holy water, while all the gossips laid hold of the rope, bestowing a name on it.

SANCTITY OF BELLS.

In Spain all the church bells are marked with a crucifix; the devil, it is believed, cannot come within hearing of the consecrated peal. On the hearing of the Ave Maria bell, the Spaniards who happen to be in the theatre, and even the actors on the stage, fall down on their knees, and then rise again and carry on their diversion as before. A French gentleman who happened to be present on one of those occasions was so surprised and diverted that he somewhat irreverently called out, "Encore! encore!" The religious of Rome had great contests about ringing the Ave Maria bell. At length it was adjudged that "they who were first up should first knoll."

CHIMES ON CHURCH BELLS.

Chimes or carillons were invented in the Low Countries, and were brought to the greatest perfection there. They are of two kinds: one is attached to a cylinder like the back of an organ, which always repeats the same tunes, and is moved by machinery; the other is of a superior kind, played by a musician with a set of keys. In all the great towns there are amateurs or a salaried professor, usually the organist of a church, who performs with great skill upon this gigantic instrument placed high in the church steeple. So fond are the Dutch and Belgians of this kind of music, that in some places the chimes appear scarcely to be at rest for ten minutes either by day or night. The tunes are usually changed once a year. Chimes were in existence at Bruges in 1300. The most eminent performer was Matthias van der Gheyn, who died in 1785. The finest chimes are at Antwerp, composed of sixty-five bells; Mechlin, forty-four bells; Bruges, forty bells; Tournay, forty bells; Ghent, thirty-nine bells; Louvain, forty bells.

THE SWISS HORNS PRAISING THE LORD.

It was a custom at one time among the Swiss shepherds to watch the setting sun. When he had already left the valleys, and was visible only on the tops of the snow-capped mountains, the inhabitants of the cottages which were in the most elevated situations would seize their horns, and, turning towards their next neighbours beneath them, sing out through the instruments the words, "Praise the Lord!" The sounds were then taken up in the same manner by those to whom they were addressed, and again by those lower down, and thus were repeated from Alp to Alp. And the name of the Lord was re-echoed and proclaimed in song, till the music reached the valleys below. A deep and solemn silence then ensued, until the last trace of the sun, when the herdsmen on the mountain tops sang out "Good-night," which was repeated and re-echoed as the other words had been, till every one retired to rest.

EARLY CHURCH MUSIC.

Over and above the preaching of sermons, which were deemed an important part of the public Christian service, and which shorthand writers employed themselves in taking down for circulation, there was much care given to sacred music and singing of hymns. A choir was often formed. The Psalms, as well as hymns and doxologies, were chanted. Some spiritual songs were composed by Ambrose of Milan and Hilary of Poitiers. But there were always objectors to anything being used in Church music which was not taken from the Sacred Scriptures. In the fourth century the Egyptian abbot Pambo inveighed against the introduction of heathen melodies as too apparent, while the abbot Isidore of Pelusium complained of a style of singing too theatrical, especially among the women. Jerome, in his comments on St. Paul's Epistles, said that Christians should not be like the comedians, who smoothed their throats with sweet drinks in order to render their theatrical melodies more impressive, but that it was the heart alone which could properly make melody to the Lord.

SINGING IN CHURCH.

It was said that St. Ambrose introduced the method of alternate singing in churches. The whole service in the primitive Church seems to have been of a very irregular kind till the time of Pope Gregory the Great, for the people sang each as his inclination led him, with hardly any other restriction than that what they sang should be to the praise of God. Indeed, some special offices, such as the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, had been used in the Church service almost from the first establishment of Christianity; but these were too few to prevent the introduction of hymns and spiritual songs. The evil increased, and the Emperor Theodosius requested the then Pope, Damasus, to frame such a service as should be consistent with the solemnity and decency of Divine worship. The Pope readily assented, and employed for this purpose a presbyter named Hieronymus, a man of learning, gravity, and discretion, who formed a new ritual, into which he introduced the Epistles, Gospels, and the Psalms, with the _Gloria Patri_ and Hallelujah. And these, together with certain hymns which he thought proper to retain, made up the whole of the service.

ORIGIN OF SINGING IN CHURCH SERVICES.

The first change in the manner of singing was the substitution of singers (who became a separate order in the Church) for the mingled voices of all ranks, ages, and sexes, which was compared by Ambrose, the great reformer of Church music, to the glad sound of many waters. The antiphonal singing, in which the different sides of the choir answered to each other in responsive verses, was first introduced at Antioch by Flavianus Diodorus. Milman observes that it is not improbable that this system of alternate chanting may have prevailed in the Temple service at Jerusalem. The antiphonal chanting was introduced into the West by Ambrose; and if it inspired or even accompanied the _Te Deum_ usually ascribed to that prelate, we cannot calculate too highly its effect on the Christian mind. So beautiful was the music in the Ambrosian service that the sensitive conscience of the young Augustine took alarm, lest when he wept at the solemn music he should be yielding to the luxury of sweet sounds rather than imbibing the devotional spirit of the hymn. Though alive to the perilous pleasure, he inclined to the wisdom of awakening weaker minds to piety by this enchantment of their hearing. The Ambrosian chant, with its more simple and masculine tones, is still preserved in the church of Milan; in the rest of Italy it was superseded by the richer Roman chant which was introduced by Gregory the Great. The cathedral chanting of England has almost alone preserved the ancient antiphonal system, now discarded by the Roman Catholic Church for its greater variety of instruments.

THE ORGAN IN CHURCH MUSIC.

No instrument, as an accompaniment to human voices in Church music, has been discovered equal to the organ for the power and grandeur of its effects; but being of a great mechanical complexity, it has taken many centuries to bring it to perfection. Rudimentary instruments of the same kind, worked by wind and some by water, are mentioned by the ancients. The hydraulic organ was used for some centuries in preference to the pneumatic organ, but it ceased altogether in the fourteenth century. It is not precisely known at what period the organ was first used for religious purposes, but it seems to have been in common use in Spain about 450. Pope Vitalianus, in 666, saw its advantages in assisting the human voice. In the eighth century both the Anglo-Saxon and French artists began to exert their ingenuity in improving the instrument. Charlemagne first introduced it in Germany, and he sent one as a present to the Caliph. In the ninth century organs came into general use in England, and St. Dunstan showed his ingenuity in improvements. One was made in 951 for Winchester Cathedral. A monk named Theophilus in the eleventh century published a treatise on the art of making the organ. Organs, whether hydraulic or pneumatic, were nearly the only instruments used in churches in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, all others being rejected, in consequence of abuse and their theatrical effect. There were usually, however, opponents and defenders of the extent to which this accompaniment was resorted to. Peter the Venerable, of Cluny, defended them. St. Augustine had lamented the blindness of the Manicheans in rejecting sacred music. The first organ which appeared in Europe was sent as a present by Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, King of France, in 757, and he placed it in the church of St. Corneille at Compiégne. The secret of these steam organs is now entirely lost. The first organ on the present principle seen in the West was that which Louis Debonnaire placed in the church of Aix-la-Chapelle. It is related of this organ that a woman expired through rapture and surprise at the sweetness of its sound. One of the same kind was mentioned in the annals of Fulda in 828. At the close of the ninth century many skilful organ-builders were drawn to Rome by Pope John VIII. In the tenth century an organ of this kind was placed in Westminster Abbey. So delicious and astonishing was the music of organs and flutes at the consecration of the monastic church of Cava, near Salerno, and such was the harmony of sound and pleasant odours, that the Serene Duke Roger and all the people present thought themselves on the very borders of heaven. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was the custom to place the organ in the choir, but in the fifteenth century a custom arose to remove it to the western extremity of the nave. It was thought before the Council of Trent, in 1545, that the Church music had been carried to an excess, and the council once thought of prohibiting all music except the Gregorian.

AUGUSTINE CONVERTING THE BRITONS WITH MUSIC.

When Augustine came from Italy to England, about the year 596, for the purpose of converting the inhabitants of Britain to Christianity, he and his accompanying missionaries adopted in aid of their devotions a musical service. For some time the people were delighted with so agreeable a novelty, but after a while it gradually ceased to please, and at length met with such violent opposition that it was entirely laid aside. During the papacy of Vitalianus, in 657, one of the principal vocalists in Rome was sent to instruct the Britons in the Italian method of chanting and singing, and the cathedral of Canterbury is entitled to the honour of having been the first church in England in which a regular choral service was performed.

THE EARLIEST HYMNS OF THE CHURCH.

There was always some trace of hymns, as distinguished from the Psalms, being used by Christians. There is some dispute as to the hymn sung by our Lord and His Apostles on the occasion of the Last Supper. Some think it must have been the Hallel or paschal hymn, consisting of Psalms cxiii.-cxviii., which was chanted. In the gaol at Philippi Paul and Silas sang their hymns so loudly that the fellow-prisoners heard them. The Greeks seem to have had only eight tunes of Church music, and the Syrians had two hundred and seventy-five. The earliest known Christian hymn is given by Clemens Alexandrinus, the historian. The learned have disputed whether the Christian Greek hymns were founded on the old Pagan hymns used in the heathen worship. Ambrose, about 360, is thought to have been the first to introduce hymns into the Latin Church, though it is more likely that he merely gave greater impetus to the use of these in the Church services.

MONK MUSICIANS (A.D. 945).

It is related that the use of musical notes was found first in the abbey of Corby, in Saxony, about 945. Alfanus, a monk of Mount Cassino, was also considered eminent in the art. In the abbey of St. Gall three great musicians were found at the same time. One of them, Tutilo, seemed to excel in every work of art. He had a clear voice, was an admirable painter, an architect and a preacher, and also could play on flutes and pipes, and taught the children of the nobles how to play on the flute. He was most effective in the choir, and expert at composing verses and melodies. During the ninth and tenth centuries, the monks of St. Gall were famed for their musical compositions. Once a composition sung by a monk of St. Gall on Easter Day before King Conrad I. was rendered with such power that all the audience were roused to ecstasy. The King, the Queen, and the King's sister called the performer before them, took off their rings, and put them on his fingers, to signify their intense admiration. It used to be said that the beginning of this excellence at St. Gall was owing to a Roman musician who had fallen sick there while on a journey to Germany, and he was so hospitably treated that, out of gratitude, he instructed the monks in his art. The St. Gall scores were copied in many other monasteries, and musical science was carried to a high pitch of excellence by the modern composer Zingarelli, who used to prepare himself for his finest work by reading some treatise of the Fathers.

NICHOLAS PEREGRINUS, WHO SANG "LORD, HAVE PITY" (A.D. 1094).

About 1094 Nicholas became famous in Apulia, when he was eight years old tending his mother's sheep, for he had an irrepressible tendency to sing aloud incessantly, "Kyrie eleïson" ("Lord, have mercy"), and he never left off this all his life long. His mother sent him to a monastery to have him imprisoned and chastised till he gave up singing his song. But he took his punishment patiently, and went on singing as zealously as before. He made himself a hut, living by himself, but praising God aloud continually. He went to Lepanto, where another monk joined him. He fasted every day till evening; his food was a little bread and water, and yet he did not grow lean. He wore a short vest, his head, legs, and feet being naked. He carried a light wooden cross, a scrip at his side to receive alms, and the alms he converted into fruit to distribute among the boys who willingly joined him in his excursions and in singing his favourite hymn. His oddities provoked some contumely, in which bishops did not scruple to join. But he performed various miracles and had a large following, exhorting the people to repentance. At his death great multitudes joined in his funeral, and many miracles were said to be wrought at his tomb in the cathedral.

HERESY PROPAGATED BY MUSIC (A.D. 1150).

Harmonius, son of the famous heretic Bardesanes, a Syrian who lived in the twelfth century, contributed greatly to the propagation of heresy by the fascinating sweetness of the melodies which he composed and applied to odes and canticles written against the religion of Christ. So struck was St. Ephraim with their mellifluousness, and so persuaded that they were qualified by their beauty to recommend and spread any doctrine in support of which they might be employed, that he set the same tunes to different words, and ordered them to be publicly sung, so as to bring back the people to orthodoxy, which at that time was identified with the doctrine of the Trinity.

THE POPE REFORMING CHURCH MUSIC (A.D. 1545).

The introduction of instrumental music into the Church services once greatly perplexed the Pope and the councils of the clergy. Music had become so artificial and so wasted in frivolous and intricate airs, that the Council of Trent expressed its protest against using such profane aids. Pius IV. thereon appointed a commission to inquire whether music should be tolerated at all in churches. Fortunately at that time a great composer named Palestrina appeared at Rome. He was a priest, but had been expelled from the Church for marrying, and he still clung to his favourite art. He composed sacred airs for the services in the Sistine Chapel, and he seemed to comprehend with an original genius the kind of music appropriate to the Mass. He devoted his whole soul to this work. His first two efforts were thought to be failures, but at last in a happy moment he completed a masterly work known by the name of "The Mass of Pope Marcellus." It had passages of blended grandeur and self-prostration, with rich and varied melodies interspersed, which delighted the Pope, who said the airs were such as the Apostle John may have heard in his ecstatic vision. The success of Palestrina set at rest the vexed question of Church music. It showed that music was capable of being made to subserve and enhance the most fervid devotion and religious enthusiasm. The soul was elevated by the exulting bursts of jubilee and the adoring strains of lowly reverence. The art then came to be firmly wedded to the service of the Church, and every grade of elevated feeling found its appropriate expression, and piety was quickened into rapture and a diviner ecstasy by the masterpieces of a succession of great composers.

SINGING OF THE MISERERE IN THE POPE'S CHAPEL.

One of the most impressive performances of sacred music is the singing of the _Miserere_ or fifty-first Psalm in the Sistine Chapel at Rome, and the musical score is kept secret and no copy allowed to be given to strangers under pain of excommunication. There are thirty-two voices employed in the singing, without any organ or other instrument to accompany it. The performance was supposed to be at its greatest height of excellence about 1780, before the growing practice of opera withdrew the choicest voices from the service of the Church. This celebrated piece is sung twice during Passion Week, and was composed about 1627. When it begins, the Pope and cardinals prostrate themselves on their knees. The grand picture by Michael Angelo of the Last Judgment which is over the altar is then discovered to be brilliantly illuminated by tapers. These are gradually extinguished till the pale light scarcely reveals the forms of the miserable creatures as they listen to the slow and dirgelike wail of the voices. It sounds as if the sinner, confounded before the majesty of God and prostrate with fear, awaited in silence some awful doom. The sublimity of the music is heightened by the peculiar manner of repeating the same melody in every verse of the psalm, and yet by retarding the tune and swelling or diminishing the sound according to the sense, never allowing the ear to feel the least tediousness. The music score is said to be no correct record of the peculiarity of the melody, and the mode of managing the voices is said to be a secret kept by the chapel-master alone, who hands down the tradition to his successor. It is performed only in the Sistine Chapel, and those who have heard it never forget the grand and solemn impression it produces.

LUTHER'S VIEW OF CHURCH MUSIC.

Luther, who was an excellent musician, received into his church a collection of anthems and hymns which so pleased him that he exultingly exclaimed, "We all know that such music is hateful and unbearable to the devil." Dr. Wetenhall said the music of his church was such that no devil could stand against it.

ORIGINATOR OF ORATORIOS.

What is called the _cantata spirituale_ or oratorio is generally believed to have been indebted for its origin to San Filippo Neri, a Florentine priest, who, about the middle of the sixteenth century, was accustomed after the sermons to assemble such of his congregation as had musical voices in the oratory of his chapel for the purpose of singing various pieces of devotional and other sacred music. Regularly composed oratorios were not, however, in use till nearly a century afterwards. These, at their commencement, consisted of a mixture of dramatic and narrative parts, in which neither change of place nor unity of time was observed. They consisted of monologues, dialogues, duets, trios, and recitatives of four voices. The subject of one of them was the conversation of Christ with the Samaritan woman; of another, the prodigal son received into his father's house; of a third, Tobias with the angel, his father and wife; and of a fourth, the angel Gabriel with the Virgin Mary.

THE HEAVEN-BORN COMPOSER OF ANTHEMS.

Purcell, a famous English composer of anthems, was a born musician, and as a boy produced some of his best. At eighteen he was appointed organist at Westminster Abbey, in 1676. He excelled in every species of composition. Nothing can transcend the grand effect of his _Te Deum_, which soars to the highest elevation of holy fervour. He died prematurely at the age of thirty-seven of consumption. On a tablet fixed to a pillar in Westminster Abbey, where he is buried, the following inscription is to be seen: "Here lies Henry Purcell, Esq., who left this life, and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded. He died in 1695." There is also a Latin epitaph, of which four lines are thus translated:--

"Applaud so great a guest, celestial powers, Who now resides with you, but once was ours. Not dead, he lives while yonder organ's sound And sacred echoes to the choir rebound."

Purcell's _Te Deum_ was constantly performed at the annual festivals of the sons of the clergy, till Handel's noble production of the _Te Deum_ was produced in 1743, and then the two versions were used alternately. Dryden, not less than Pope, celebrates Purcell's merit thus:--

"Sometimes a hero in an age appears, But scarce a Purcell in a thousand years."

Again he said:--

"The heavenly choir who heard his notes from high Let down the scale of music from the sky: They handed him along, And all the way he taught, and all the way they sung."

It is true that, after Purcell, Handel soon appeared and claimed even superior praise.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HANDEL.

When Handel, dissatisfied with the reception of his oratorio of the _Messiah_ in London, went to Dublin to test his work with a more impartial audience, he procured the best choristers from St. Patrick's and Christ's cathedrals. The chief singers were Mrs. Cibber and Mrs. Avolio. It is related that after Mrs. Cibber had sung "He was despised" with great pathos, a clergyman in one of the boxes was so excited and transported that he called out with a loud voice to her, "Woman, for this be all thy sins forgiven." It was also a remarkable incident that, in compliance with a request that the ladies who honoured the performance would be pleased to come without their hoops, they actually made the great self-sacrifice requested, and left their hoops behind, thereby allowing of a great deal of additional space for the rest of the audience. Such music had never before been heard in England. When Handel's oratorio was first performed in Ireland, it was heard with admiration. The expressive force and pathos of the recitatives and melodies, and the superlative grandeur of the choral parts, were equally appreciated, and the whole was hailed as a wonderful effort of the art of harmony. Taught by the better criticism of the sister kingdom, England at his return discovered the excellence to which she had been so unaccountably deaf, and lavished her praises on what she had before dismissed with disgrace or without approbation. In 1742 Handel gave a performance of the _Messiah_ in the Foundling Hospital Chapel with great success, and the proceeds were presented by him to that institution, then recently established.

FIRST PERFORMANCE OF HANDEL'S "MESSIAH."

It is related by Dr. Beattie, the poet, that when Handel's _Messiah_ was first performed the audience were greatly struck and affected by the music. But when the chorus reached the part beginning "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth," the audience, including the King (George II.), were so transported that they all instinctively started to their feet and remained standing till the conclusion of the passage. Hence it became a fashion in England for the audience to stand during that part of that magnificent hymn.

HANDEL COMMEMORATIONS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Except the dedication of the Temple, at which, according to Josephus, 200,000 musicians were engaged, the commemoration of Handel in Westminster Abbey in 1784 was considered at that time the greatest performance that ever was heard. The band contained 482 instrumentalists. The vocal performers included 22 cantos, 51 altos, 66 tenors, 69 basses. The receipts for the five commemorations amounted to £12,736. At this performance on so unprecedented a scale, the audience was melted and enraptured by the exquisite sweetness of the solos, the powerful execution of the choruses affected some to tears, and many fainted with the excitement. When the whole chorus, from each side of the stupendous orchestra, joined in by all the instruments, burst out "He is the King of glory," the effect was so overpowering that the performers could scarcely proceed. Though Pope had no ear for music, he was aware of the triumphs of his contemporary, the great composer, and in "The Dunciad" thus describes him:--

"Strong in new arras, lo! giant Handel stands, Like bold Briareus, with a hundred hands; To stir, to rouse, to shake the soul he comes, And Jove's own thunders follow Mars's drums."

INDEX.

Abbess of Arles, deathbed, 221.

Abbey, officials of, 218.

Abbots, power over monastery, 217; lecturing his monks, 223; war of two, 224; harassed with care, 306.

Abdication of Emperor, 330; of Pope, 363; of Sultan, 372.

Actor, the martyr, 148.

Adriano, painter, 496.

Agbarus writing to Christ, 12.

Agnus Dei, 75.

Agobard of Lyons, 340.

Aidan, St., of Lindisfarne, 272; death of, 276.

Aix-la-Chapelle cathedral, 455.

Alaric respects churches, 112.

Alban, St., martyr, 149; cathedral, 467, 469.

Albigenses, 426.

Alfred, King, 341, 343.

All Saints' Day, 80.

Altar in churches, 441.

Amalfi cathedral, 451.

Ambrose, St., 194; asleep at Mass, 195; sayings of, 196; on relics, 196.

Amiens cathedral, 454.

Ammerghau plays, 82.

Andrew, St., 28; patron saint, 29; head of, purchased by Pope, 191.

Angel, monk wanting to be, 221.

Angelico, painter, 479.

Anschar, apostle to the North, 249.

Anselm, Archbishop, 351.

Antioch church, 51.

Antony, St., temptations of, 161; visits Paul, 197.

Antony of Padua, 257; psalm-book stolen, 308; preaching to the fishes, 406.

Antwerp cathedral, 456.

Ape of bishop painting, 475.

Apocryphal gospels, 9, 20.

Apostles, deaths and marriages of, 23.

Apostolic Church, 64.

Aquinas, Thomas, 137.

Archbishop, choosing, 335; John the Almsgiver, 337; the ugliest, 345; Anselm, 351; Turstin, 353.

Architecture, church, 438.

Aretino, painter, 479.

Arsenius, monk, 266.

Ass, feast of the, 81.

Athos, Mount, its monasteries, 312.

Attila, impressed by the Pope, 113.

Augustine, St., of Hippo, vision of, 203; faith in dreams, 203; on miracles, 207.

Augustine in England, 245.

Auricular confession, 67.

Auto-da-fè, 380.

Avignon, Popes at, 366.

Barbara, martyr, 147.

Barnabas, St., 27.

Barnadatus, an austere hermit, 168.

Bartholomew, St., 25.

Bartholomew of Farne, hermit, 175.

Basle, nuns of, 233.

Bec monastery, 289.

Becerra, sculptor, 492.

Becket, St. Thomas, pilgrims to, 191; murder of, 355.

Bede, Venerable, on Farne hermits, 173, 275; deathbed, 278.

Bega, St., 397.

Bells in church, 76, 501.

Benedict, St., at Monte Cassino, 209, 268; death of, 269.

Benedict of Aniane, 212.

Bernard, St., monks of, 285.

Bernard, St., begging for robber's life, 208; against Abelard, 295; sister of, 299; second crusade, 420.

Bethlehem church, 460.

Bible, Septuagint, 21; English, 22; telling fortunes by, 93, 248.

Birds and St. Francis, 402, 404; and St. Guthlac, 170.

Bishops, early, 70; first degraded, 329; building workhouse, 330; seeking a site, 331; of fifth century, 332; putting down soothsayers, 333; releasing prisoners, 334; giving a horse to, 338; of Hexham, 339; at head of troops, 343; jokes of, 346; pompous, 347; at early Mass, 351; aerial music at death of, 362; inviting old master, 372; ape of, painter, 475.

Black death, 90, 124.

Blandina, martyr, 144.

Bonaventura, St., life of Christ, 7; honouring the rich, 228.

Bonfires of gaudy dresses, 262, 264.

Boniface, St., missionary, 116.

Boy bishop, feast of, 81.

Bristol cathedral, 471.

Bronzes for gates of Paradise, 480.

Bruce, Robert, a crusader, 432.

Buffalmacco, painter, 475, 477.

Buffoons, feast of the, 81.

Burial of monks, 227.

Bury St. Edmunds monastery, 304, 306, 307.

Cædmon, monk poet, 222.

Cano, painter, 500.

Canterbury, monks of, 189; pilgrims to, 192; cathedral, 463.

Canute, visiting Rome, 346; rebuking the sea, 346.

Capernaum, 54, 62.

Cardinals, origin of, 328.

Carileff, St., the hermit, 169.

Carlisle cathedral, 469.

Carthusians, 296, 300.

Cassino, Monte, monastery, 209.

Cassiodorus, his library, 236.

Cathedrals, spires and dimensions, 440; Gothic, 441; St. Peter's, 442; Genoa, 444; Turin, 444; Milan, 445; Florence, 446; Pisa, 446; San Gennaro, 447; Santiago, 448; Leon, 449; Seville, 450; Toledo, 450; Cordova, 451; Amalfi, 451; Oviedo, 452; Paris, Notre Dame, 453; Marseilles, 454; Chartres, 454; Amiens, 454; Rheims, 455; Aix-la-Chapelle, 455; Treves, 456; Antwerp, 456; Cologne, 457; St. Petersburg, 457; Vienna, 458; St. Paul's, 461; Canterbury, 463; York, 463; Durham, 465; Winchester, 466; Oxford, 466; Peterborough, 467; Salisbury, 468; Wells, 468; English and Welsh, 469, 470.

Catherine of Siena, 314.

Cecilia, St., martyr, 144.

Chad, St., 275.

Chanting of monks, 225; of Charles V. as monk, 322.

Charlemagne, doubts as to monks, 214; leaving his court to be monk, 215; monk at his court, 215.

Charles V., Emperor, as monk, 318; his dress, 319; apartments, 319; detestation of heretics, 320.

Chartres cathedral, 454.

Cheese, painter fed on, 461.

Chichester cathedral, 470.

Children's crusade, 428.

Chimes on bells, 502.

Christian, name of, 94; viewed by Pagans, 97; oppose wild beasts, 97.

Christmas Day, 79.

Christ in Egypt, 7; as a boy, 9; portraits of, 11, 12; false, 21; sentence on, 44; blood of, 188; painted by Micael, 190.

Christina and the millstone, 389.

Christopher, St., 389.

Chrysostom, St., as hermit, 150; as preacher, 201; on monkery, 201; on speaking in church, 201.

Church, building age, 84; spires of, 440; dimensions, 440; altars in, 441; bells, 501; chimes, 502; music, 503.

Church, apostolic, 64; early, 64; ancient buildings, 72; service, 75; organs and bells, 76; sexes in, 77; praying for dead, 77; festivals, 80.

Cimabue, painter, 475.

Cinderella of the convent, 230.

Cistercians, 297, 300.

Clara, St., and the Saracens, 310.

Claudius of Turin, 133.

Clergy, dress, 69; foppish, 69; unity of, 326.

Clovis, conversion of, 334.

Cluny, monks of, 284.

Coldingham, nuns of, 283.

Cologne, archbishop, 345; cathedral, 457.

Columba, St., of Iona, 269, 270.

Columban, monk, 210, 271.

Columbus, crusader, 435.

Community of goods, 65.

Compostella and St. James, 35, 36, 448.

Conecte, Thomas, the monk, 263.

Conrad, St., 399.

Constantine, 99; standard of cross, 100; dream, 100; preaching, 101; last illness, 102.

Constantinople, French pillaging, 425; cathedrals, 458.

Constantius testing Christians, 98.

Convent, life in a, 217.

Coptic church, 439.

Cordova cathedral, 451.

Correggio, painter, 491.

Cosmas, the monk tutor, 131.

Council, of Nice, 102; owl attending, 370.

Creeds, monks deciding on, 234.

Cross, forms of, 15; discovery of, 15; nails of, 16; legend of, 17; dividing into parts, 183.

Crown of thorns pawned, 19.

Croyland, St. Guthlac at, 169, 170; monks of, 283; burning of abbey, 283, 290; Turketul as abbot, 286.

Crucifix during plague, 190; clumsy, 482.

Crucifixion, thieves at, 16.

Crusaders, beginnings of, 408; Peter the hermit on, 411; and the earth of Palestine, 413; how they treated spies, 414; and the holy lance, 415; testing a doubtful point, 417; first sight of Jerusalem, 417; capturing Jerusalem, 419; first visit to holy places, 419; Bernard's second crusade, 420; French Queen at, 421; bringing home relics, 422; Fulk of Neuilly, 424; death of Richard I., 424; pillaging Constantinople, 425; attacking heretics, 425; Albigenses, 427; children's, 428; more preaching for, 428; paying money for, 429; master of Hungary, 430; deathbed of Louis of France, 431; entertained, 431; dying king as, 432; Knights Templars, 433; faith in Providence, 434; Columbus as, 435; numbers of, 436; Greek Church and pilgrims, 437.

Customs, early church, 65.

Cuthbert, St., 275, 278; his body carried, 277; his shrine at Durham, 465.

Cyprian, St., and Justina, martyrs, 150.

Cyril, St., of Alexandria, 204.

Damascus and rivers, 54; John of, 131, 132.

Damiani, Peter, 85.

Dancing mania, 91.

Deaconess, 72.

Dead, prayers for, 77.

Dead Sea, measurements, 53.

Deathbed of Constantine, 102; of abbess, 221, 274; of monk, 227; of Bede, 278; of abbot, 302.

Decretals, false, 117.

Derwentwater, monk at, 171.

Devil and St. Christopher, 391; showing a book, 392; and Theophilus, 393.

Didymus and Theodora, martyrs, 149.

Divine right, king by, 352.

Divining-rod, 387.

Doctors of the Middle Ages, 302.

Dominic, St., 86; preaching, 253.

Dominico, painter, 498.

Donato, sculptor, 478.

Dorotheus, architect to hermits, 166.

Douglas, the, as crusader, 432.

Dream, of Constantine, 100; St. Augustine's faith in, 203.

Dress of clergy, 69, 92.

Dunstan, St., relics, 189; as monk, 285.

Durham cathedral, 465.

Easter Day, 79.

Edward the Confessor and St. John, 33.

Egypt, Holy Family in, 5.

Einsiedeln monastery, 281.

Eleanor, Queen, as crusader, 421.

Eligius, bishop, 339.

Elizabeth of Hungary, 310.

Ely monks capturing relics, 182; cathedral, 469.

Emblems of Christians, 66.

Emperor as monk, 320; abdication of, 330; excommunication of, 359; retaliating on Pope, 360; as crusader, 423.

Empire, Roman, 140, 141.

Empress begging for relics, 185.

England, St. Augustine landing in, 245, 246.

Ethelbert receiving St. Augustine, 246.

Ethelwald, hermit of Farne, 172.

Eton montem, 82.

Exeter cathedral, 469.

Extortioners of Pope, 361.

Farne, hermits of, 172, 175; Aidan at, 272; Cuthbert at, 275, 276.

Fathers, the, 194; Origen, 194; Ambrose, 195, 196; Jerome, 197; Chrysostom, 200; Augustine, 202; Cyril, 204; notions of, 205.

Felicitas, martyr, 144.

Festivals in church, 80, 83.

Fishes, St. Antony preaching to, 406.

Flagellants, 91.

Florence cathedral, 446.

Fly killed by monk, 232.

Foppish clergy, 69; Pope, 374.

Fortunes, telling by Bible, 93; Eligius on, 248.

Foundlings in Paris, 260.

France receiving crown of thorns, 186.

Francia, painter, 484.

Francis, St., of Assisi, 254; dexterity, 255; stigmata, 255; biographer of, 256; and the birds, 403; and the wolf, 404.

Friars and monks, 219; the order of, 230; wearing shoes, 257; startling the judges, 261; burning ornaments, 262, 264.

Frogs rebuked by monk, 232.

Fructuosus and the doe, 397.

Fulk of Neuilly, 252, 424.

Fuller on relics, 183; on monks, 214, 219.

Galilee, sea of, 53, 54; population, 56.

Gall, St., monks of, 274.

Geismar, oak of, 116.

Genes, St., martyr, 148.

Genesius, martyr, 148.

Geneviève, St., patron saint, 179.

Genoa cathedral, 444.

Gervasius, relics of, 196.

Ghiberti, sculptor, 480.

Gibbon on monks, 207.

Glasgow, St. Mungo at, 268.

Glastonbury, monks of, 189; chanting, 225.

Gloucester cathedral, 470.

Gnat stinging hermit, 165.

Godiva, lady, 399.

Gold, painter at sight of, 482.

Gothic cathedrals, 440.

Goths sacking Rome, 113.

Greek Church, 400, 437.

Greek philosophers driven out, 115; Church and Latin, 119.

Gregorian chant, dispute about, 225.

Gregory the Great sending missionaries to England, 246; a hard case put, 336; supper of, 395; releasing Trajan, 396.

Gregory, St., on relics, 185.

Gregory VII., 137.

Grosso, sculptor, 482.

Guizot on power of Popes, 138.

Guthlac, St., the hermit, 169.

Hallelujah victory, 391.

Hameln, piper of, 399.

Handel, 511.

Hatto, Bishop, and the rats, 398.

Heloïse, nun, 294.

Herbert, St., monk of Derwentwater, 171.

Hereford cathedral, 471.

Heretic refuted, 103; Huss as, 377; pleasure of burning, 378; of Middle Ages, 382; crusaders against, 425.

Hermits, outbreak of zeal, 160; Antony, 161; visit to another, 162; bunch of grapes to, 162; courtesies of, 162; trying to quarrel, 163; political economy of, 163; St. Pambo, 164; olive tree of, 164; stung by gnat, 165; Martin of Tours, 165; Dorotheus, 166; St. Poemen, 167; St. Moyses, 167; Barnadatus, 168; St. Carileff, 169; Saxon hermits, 169; St. Guthlac, 170; Simeon Stylites, 171; St. Herbert, 171; Ethelwald, 172; Queen consulting, 174; a conscientious, 174; St. Bartholomew of Farne, 175; French King sending for, 176; consecration of, 177; invited by the Pope, 229; made Pope, 363.

Hermon, Mount, 57.

Herod and Holy Family, 5, 46.

Henry II., King, at Becket's tomb, 355.

Hervé, little blind, 395.

Hilda, St., deathbed, 274.

Hildebrand, Pope, 137.

Hillel, relationship, 49.

History, church, how divided, 63.

Holidays in Church, 80.

Holy Family in Egypt, 5, 6.

Holy Grail, 394.

Holy water, 442.

Host, the, 75.

Huss, martyr, 152; on indulgences, 371; burnt as heretic, 377.

Hymns, church, 506.

Iconoclasts, 129, 130, 136.

Ignatius Loyola, 259.

Illuminating by monks, 241.

Image, demolishing, 112, 121; worship, 129, 136; converting, 134; in churches, 472.

Incense in churches, 442.

Indulgences, sale of, 371.

Innocents, massacre of, 4.

Inquisition, 377; assassination of inquisitor, 380; auto-da-fè, 380.

Interdict, papal, 356.

Irene, Empress, 135.

Isabella, Queen, 381.

Isidore forging decretals, 118.

James, intercisus, martyr, 151.

James, St., 29, 34.

Jerome, St., life of Paul, 197; the lion and ass, 198; deathbed of, 199; epistles of, 199.

Jerusalem, sieges, 50; situation, 60; crusaders at, 417; churches of, 459.

Jews, sacred vessels, 114; and Christians, 119, 128; incited by Julian, 120; golden age of, 121; and Pope, 122; of York, 122; crucifying boys, 123, 125; stealing Host, 125; banquets of, 126; in Spain, 126; physicians, 127; conversion of, 128; the wandering, 392.

Joan of Arc, 153, 159.

Joan, Pope, 398.

Joanna made a nun, 308.

Jocelyn of Edmondsbury, 304, 307.

John, St., 30, 33.

John Baptist, St., 45.

John, King of England, 354.

John of Damascus, 131, 132.

John of Salisbury, 358.

John of Peckham, 362.

John the Almsgiver, 337.

Johnson, Dr., on monks, 207.

Jordan, measurements of, 53, 54.

Juanes, painter of Virgin, 3.

Jubilee year, 87.

Judas Iscariot, 41.

Julian the Apostate, 104.

Justinian and Theodora, 115.

Kempis, Thomas à, 315.

King, dying, sends for hermit, 176.

La Trappe monks, 312.

Lance, the holy, 415.

Lauder, St. Cuthbert, 275.

Legate of Pope visiting monastery, 307.

Legends, sacred, 385; Thundering legion, 387; Theban legion, 387; divining-rod, 387; St. George and dragon, 388; Christina, 389; Christopher, 389; Hallelujah victory, 391; Merlin's prophecies, 391; devil showing a book, 392; Wandering Jew, 392; St. Sabas, 393; Theophilus's compact, 393; Holy Grail, 394; Seven Sleepers, 394; little blind Hervé, 395; supper of St. Gregory, 395; Gregory releasing Trajan, 396; St. Bega, 397; Fructuosus, 397; Pope Joan, 398; Bishop Hatto, 398; St. Conrad, 399; Piper of Hameln, 399; Lady Godiva, 399; sacred fire, 400; Prester John, 401; Loretto, 401; St. Francis and the birds, 403; St. Antony and the fishes, 406; St. Roch, 407.

Legion, Thundering, 387; Theban, 387.

Leo the Isaurian, 129.

Leo X., Pope, 375.

Leon cathedral, 449.

Leonardo da Vinci, 485.

Lepers tended by St. Francis, 254.

Lilies of the field, 58.

Lincoln cathedral, 470.

Lindisfarne, saints of, 272.

Lion and St. Jerome, 198; and Saracen king, 352; and St. Sabas, 393.

Liturgy, ancient, 73, 74.

Lives of the saints, 237.

Locusts warded off by monks, 244.

Loretto and holy cottage, 401.

Louis, St., of France, crown of thorns, 186; a monk, 309; deathbed of, 430.

Louis VII., 421.

Luke, St., 25.

Lull, Raimund, and Saracens, 258.

Luther revisiting old convent, 236; on music, 509.

Lyons, martyrs of, 144.

Macarius, hermit, 162, 165.

Mahomet and Christianity, 115.

Manuscripts of monks, 238; of nuns, 240.

Margaret of Scotland, 348.

Mark, St., 24.

Marseilles church, 453.

Martha, St., 48.

Martin of Tours, 112, 164.

Martyrs, early, 142; Valeria, 142; Thecla, 143; Polycarp, 143; Felicitas, 144; of Lyons, 144; Cecilia, 145; Ursula, 146; Perpetua, 146; Barbara, 147; Potamiana, 147; St. Genes, 148; Genesius, 149; St. Alban, 149; Didymus, 149; Cyprian, 150; Chrysostom, 150; James, intercisus, 151; Stephen, 151; for images, 151, 177; Huss, 152; Joan of Arc, 153.

Mary Magdalene, 47.

Mary (Virgin), heathen knowledge of, 1; portraits, 3; marriage, 3; in Egypt, 4; assumption, 7; death, 7.

Mass, 74.

Master of Hungary, 430.

Matilda of Flanders consulting hermit, 174.

Matthew, St., 24.

Medard, St., 83.

Meinrad, monk, 281.

Merlin's prophecies, 391.

Merom, Waters of, 55.

Methodius in Moravia, 247.

Micael painting a crucifix, 190.

Michael Angelo, 494.

Milan cathedral, 445.

Millennium in early times, 64, 84.

Miracles of St. Bernard, 298.

Miserere at Valencia, 452; in Sistine Chapel, 508.

Missal painting of monks, 241.

Missionary of fourth century, 243; mediæval, 261.

Model for painter, 483.

Moleme, Robert of, 226.

Monastery, life in, 216, 218; how a site acquired, 235; scriptorium, 237; of Einsiedeln, 281; Croyland, 283; Cluny, 284; of St. Bernard, 285; fire at Croyland, 286, 290; of Bec, 289; St. Evroult, 292; of Vallombrosa, 293; Carthusians, 296; Cistercians, 297; Edmundsbury, 304; rebuilding altar, 305; of Mount Athos, 312; Certosa, 313; Yuste and Charles V., 318; pictures in, 473.

Monks, Chrysostom on, 201; origin of, 206; Gibbon on, 207; Dr. Johnson on, 207; motives for becoming, 208; weak side of, 208; reformed by St. Benedict, 209; Columban, 210; settling in forest, 211; denouncing king's ferocity, 211; making them work, 212; Benedict of Aniane, 212; monk at court writing home, 213; drinking wine in England, 214; Charlemagne's doubts as to, 214; Duke William, 215; going to live at court, 215; reasons for so many, 216; life of, 216; routine of English, 218; officials in monastery, 218; and friars, 219; brawls with friars, 220; orders of, 220; wanting to be angels, 221; abbess of Arles, deathbed, 221; Cædmon, monk poet, 223; sleeping too long, 223; lecturing against idleness, 223; war of two abbots, 224; chanting, 225; pillaging, 225; living frugally, 226; burial of, 227; sick, 227; honouring the rich, 228; good lessons of, 229; invited by Pope, 229; at Sempringham, 231; compunctions of, 232; killing a fly, 232; stealing food, 234; deciding on creeds, 234; interceding for prisoners, 235; acquiring a site, 235; Luther at grave of, 236; and polite letters, 236; of St. Gall, 237; manuscripts of, 238; missal painting, 239; illuminating, 241; proselytising, 243; warding off locusts, 244; Severinus, 244; Fulk of Neuilly, 252; Dominic, 253; Francis, 254; Thomas Conecte, 263; Arsenius, 266; Ninian, 267; Mungo, 267; Columba, 269; Columban, 271; Aidan, 272; Chad, 273; Bede, 275, 278; Cuthbert, 275; Duke William, 280; Meinrad, 282; of Croyland, 283, 290; Dunstan, 285; of St. Bernard, 285; Turketul, 286; Nilus, 287; of Bec, 289; Abelard, 295; Cluny, 295, 300; St. Bernard, 297, 299; Peter the Venerable, 300; Edmundsbury, 304, 307; stealing a psalm-book, 308; for a king, 309; the starved, 311; Athos, 312; of La Trappe, 312; Lucca, 314; Peter of Alcantara, 316; the Emperor Charles V. as, 318; on the crusades, 408; painters, 473; feeding the painter, 481; bargaining for pictures, 498; musicians, 506.

Monsignori, painter, 483.

Moravia, missionaries in, 247.

More, Sir T., on relics, 183.

Moyses, St., water-carrier to hermits, 167.

Mungo, Scottish saint, 267.

Murillo, painter, 499.

Music of monks, 238, 241; church, 503.

Names, Christian, 66.

Naples, chapel at, 447.

Nazareth, 61.

Neander on monks, 209.

Neot, the Cornish saint, 250.

Nero's persecution, 96.

Nice, council of, 102.

Nicholas Peregrinus, 507.

Nicholas V., Pope, 372.

Nicolas, monk, starved, 311.

Nicolas, Pope, 118.

Nilus, monk, 287, 289.

Ninian, Scottish saint, 267.

Norbert on clerical vices, 252.

Norwich cathedral, 469.

Notre Dame, Paris, 453.

Nuns at Sempringham, 231; of Basle, wars of, 233; embroidery of, 240; converting the Iberians, 243; of Coldingham, 283; St. Catherine of Siena, 314; marrying a king, 350; criticising their artist, 477.

Olive tree of hermit, 164.

Olives, Mount of, 60.

Omar, mosque of, 459.

Oratorios, 509.

Organs in church, 76, 504.

Origen, one of the Fathers, 194.

Orleans, siege, and Joan of Arc, 156.

Otto, Bishop in Pomerania, 251.

Oviedo cathedral, 452.

Owl at church council, 370.

Oxford cathedral, 466.

Pagans, difficulties with, 96, 118; silenced, 103; temples demolished, 109.

Painters, sacred, 472; Cimabue, 475; Buffalmacco, 475, 477; Donato, 478; Aretino, 479; Angelico, 479; Ghiberti, 480; Uccello, 481; Grosso, 482; Pinturicchio, 482; Monsignori, 483; Francia, 484; Leonardo da Vinci, 485; Raphael, 487; Torrigiano, 490; Correggio, 491; Becerra, 492; Michael Angelo, 492; Vargas, 495; Titian, 495; Adriano, 496; Rubens, 497; Dominico, 498; Velasquez, 498; Murillo, 499; Cano, 500; Thornhill, 501.

Palestine explorations, 52; climate, 57; fruits, flowers, birds, 58, 60; pilgrimages to, 409.

Palm tree and Holy Family, 5.

Pambo, St., the hermit, 164.

Paradise, sculptures fit for, 480.

Paris, patron saint, 179; cathedral, 453.

Passion plays, 82.

Pastoral staff, 71.

Patrick, St., sermon, 244.

Patron saints, 179.

Paul, St., 37, 40.

Paul Diaconus writing home, 213.

Paul, the hermit, 162; life by St. Jerome, 197; visited by Antony, 197, 198.

Penmanship of monks, 239.

Perpetua, martyr, 146.

Perspective of old painters, 481.

Peter of Alcantara, 316.

Peter, St., 37, 39.

Peter the Hermit, 411.

Peter the Venerable, 300.

Peterborough cathedral, 467.

Petersburg cathedral, 457.

Pharisaism, 50.

Philip, St., 28.

Philip the Fair and Pope, 364.

Pilate, Pontius, 45.

Pilgrims to Compostella, 35; to Walsingham, 191; in Switzerland, 192; to Canterbury, 192; to Palestine, 409; ways of pilgrims, 410; Peter the Hermit, 411; Greek Church, 437.

Pillar monks, 171.

Pinturicchio, painter, 482.

Pisa cathedral, 446.

Plague, crucifix during, 190.

Plays, miracle and passion, 82.

Pliny on Christians, 97.

Poemen, the hermit, 167.

Polycarp, martyr, 143.

Pope defending Rome, 117; and Jews, 122; ambitious, 137, 138; supremacy of, 326; election of, 328; and the pestilence, 335; kissing the foot, 340; two scapegrace, 344; interdict of, 357; candid friend of, 358; extortioners of, 361; hermit made, 363; Philip the Fair and, 364; Boniface VIII., 365; the rival, 367, 368; deposed, 370; a fop, 374; Leo X., 375; Sixtus V., 376; lawyer as, 383; Joan, 398; Urban II. on Crusades, 413.

Potamiana, martyr, 147.

Praising day and night, 78.

Preachers, ancient, 68.

Prester John, 401.

Prisoners monk interceding for, 235.

Prodigies, the sages on, 43.

Psalm-book stolen by monk, 308.

Purcell, 510.

Pyx, the, 75.

Queen visiting hermit, 169, 174.

Rain, prayer for, 89.

Raphael, painter, 487.

Raven of the monks, 281.

Relics, reverence for, 180; secrecy in removing, 181; capturing, 181; stealing, 182; defending, 183; forgery of, 183; flattering worshipper of, 184; empress begging for, 185; deciding on genuine, 185; crown of thorns, 186; received in France, 187; discovery of St. Stephen's, 188; St. Dunstan's, 189; Huss on, 190; St. Andrew's head, 191; St. Gervasius, 196. _See also_ "Cathedrals."

Rheims cathedral, 455.

Richard I., story of an ingrate, 402; death of, 424.

Rienzi, tribune, 139.

Riots, religious, 68.

Ritualism, rise of, 74.

Rob Roy on the Jordan, 55.

Roch, St., 407.

Roman Empire, last hours, 140; Holy Roman Empire, 141.

Rome sacked by Goths, 112; by Huns, 112; by Vandals, 114; Lombards at, 117; St. Peter's, 442; Sistine Chapel, 443.

Rosary, festival, 83.

Rose, festival of, 83.

Round towers, 85.

Rubens, painter, 497.

Russia, conversion of, 251.

Sabas and the lion, 393.

Sacro monte, 473.

St. Bernard, Great, pilgrims at, 192.

St. Gall monastery, 224, 237, 248.

St. Paul's cathedral, 464.

St. Peter's, Rome, 442.

Saints, miracles of, 178; patron, 179; lives of, 237.

Salisbury cathedral, 468.

Sampson of Edmundsbury, 303, 306, 307.

Sanhedrim, 49.

Santiago cathedral, 35, 448.

Saracens converted by Raimund Lull, 258; a king of, 352.

Sarto, Andrea del, 473, 499.

Savonarola, 264.

Schetzelo, conscientious hermit, 174.

Schoolmen, the, 302.

Scotsman travelling to Rome, 303.

Sempringham, nuns of, 231.

Septuagint, 20.

Serapis, temple of, 110.

Seven, number, 87.

Seville cathedral, 450.

Shoes of friars, 257.

Sibyl prophecy of Christ, 1.

Simeon, St., 27.

Simeon Stylites, 171.

Simeon's great age, 2.

Sin-eaters at funerals, 78.

Singing in church, 504.

Sistine Chapel, Rome, 443.

Sixtus V., Pope, 376.

Slavery and early Christians, 95.

Sleepers, the Seven, 394.

Soldier piercing Christ, 17.

Spanish Jews, 126; image worship, 136; Inquisition, 379; auto-da-fè, 380; miraculous images, 474.

Stations of cross, 18.

Stealing of relics, 182; of monk's food, 234.

Stephen, martyr for images, 151.

Stephen, St., first martyr, relics, 188.

Strasburg cathedral, 454.

Sultan and the lion, 352.

Sunday, Palm, 80.

Superstitions, Eligius denouncing, 248.

Sweating sickness, 91.

Swiss horns, 502.

Swithin, St., 341.

Symmachus defending Pagans, 108.

Telemachus and wild beasts, 98.

Templars, Knight, 433.

Temple, Jews rebuilding, 120.

Theban legion, 387.

Thecla, St., martyr, 143.

Theodora, empress, 135.

Theodore's image of Christ, 111.

Theodosius and the Pagans, 109, 111.

Theological disputes, 105.

Theophilus and the devil, 393.

Theresa, St., and her visions, 317.

Thomas, St., 26.

Thornhill, painter, 501.

Thorns, crown of, 19, 186.

Thundering legion, 387.

Tiberias, sea of, 53, 54.

Timothy, St., 27.

Titian, 495.

Titus, St., 28.

Toledo cathedral, 450.

Torquemada and Jews, 126; as inquisitor, 379.

Torrigiano, sculptor, 490.

Trading, monks on, 229.

Treves cathedral, 456.

Trinitarian controversy, 106; sermon on, 108.

Trisagion riots, 68.

Truce of God, 86.

Turin cathedral, 444.

Turketul at Croyland, 286.

Turstin, archbishop, 353.

Uccello, painter, 481.

Ugliest of men archbishop, 345.

Ursula, St., martyr, 146.

Valencia, Miserere at, 452.

Valeria, martyr, 142.

Vandals sacking Rome, 114.

Vargas, painter, 495.

Velasquez, painter, 498.

Veronica, St., 48.

Vienna cathedral, 458.

Villani, account of jubilee, 87.

Vincent de Paul, 260.

Virgin, portraits of, 3; worship of 85; holy cottage, 401.

Viviers monastery, 236.

Waldenses, 382.

Walsingham, pilgrims to, 191.

Wells cathedral, 468.

Welsh cathedrals, 471.

Whitby abbey, Cædmon at, 222; St. Hilda at, 274.

Wicliff, the reformer, 365.

Wild-beast shows, 97.

William, Duke, becomes monk, 215, 280.

William the Conqueror's death, 348.

Winchester cathedral, 466.

Worcester cathedral, 471.

Working man, 50.

Wulfstan of Worcester, 293.

Ximenes, cardinal, 381.

York Minster, 463.

Yuste monastery and Charles V., 318.

Zacharias, 44.

Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

End of Project Gutenberg's Curiosities of Christian History, by Croake James