The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-23

or fishes, as many suppose. The almond /
Towering in nOwer-pot, the lid terminating
in CROSS or oruciHx, is one of the most gene
raj accompaniments of the Annunciation,
always such favorite subject with Romanist
artists. ~. .r.r. ...
Again quoting from Mason Neale's and
Webb's translation Of Durandus, will give a
grand bit of general symbolism, which If fan
ciful is eloquent, and, perhaps, not wholly
untrue:-
'In England, rom the time that Edward
vi directed the execution of Archbishop
Scrope when the State interfered, it was
with strong arm, cramping and combining,
obliging the Church to oon6ne herself to
ritual observances, and forbidding her to ex-
patiate ON the grand objects for which she was
ordained. Now would there he more fitting
expression of this than in the Perpendicular
stylei Does not its stiffness, its failure in
harmony, its want of power and adaptation,
its continual introduction of heraldry its
monotony, its breaking up by hard continued
lines, its shallowness, its meretriciousness
its display, set forth what we know to have
been the character of the contemporary
Church. Above all, do not the reintroduc-
ton of horizontality, the Tudor arch, the
depressed pier, speak of the want of spiritu-
| atty If so in the Anglican, the Gallican was
worse off. The State gradually interfered
| with it, embraced it with its dangerous friend
ship, made its observanoes meaningless while
sustaining their splendor; secularized its
abbeys, by appropriating them to political
ends made statesmen OF its bishops; gave it
outside show while eating out its heart. Does
not Flamboyant express this A vast colec-
! ton of elegant forms, meaninglessly strung
together; richness of ornament, actually
weakening construction, vagaries of tracery,
as if the hand possessed of church art were
suddenly deprived of church feelings; nothing
plain simple, intelligfble holy; parts neglected,
| parts ostentatious; the west front of Abbeville
to a choir that would disgrace hamlet. In
Spain again, where Christianity unfolded itself
later, so also was church art later in its de-
velopment. San Miguel, at Seville, which
! was actually built in 1905, would in Eng
land be set down to the date of 11S0. In
Italy, when there was no State to in
terfere with the Church, paganism, which
| had always been more or less at work,
sprung up at once at the time of the great
schism, and has ever since prevailed. In
England, the symbolism which fingered
longest was that of the chancel and the nave
| Nor was this destroyed summarily; the i'm
portance of the chancel had been gradually,
all through the Perpendicular era,
weakened by chancel, aisles, and the omission
of the chancel arch; it was but to omit the
rood-screen and parclose, and the mystical
division vanished, as at Hawkshead, 1864"
have put this article together from various
books treating of the subject, offering it for
what it is worth, as an explanation to some,
and collection of details interesting to some
but by no means as an incentive to the
worship of Symbolism to any. The time fol
all these dark illusions and hidden secrets
has, happily, gone by, never to return; anC
with the destruction of the rood. screen has
gone, surely forever, that mystical separation
of the clergy from the laity which gave the
former such an awful power over the souls o
the people, which bound the conscience o
the world in helpless darkness at thei
feet. The full and free participation of the
laity in all the knowledge, if not in the offices
of the clergy, has been the real cause of the
destruction of the rood-screen We have NJ
need of queer monsters on the subselle Of oul
stalls to remind US that we are to put fraud
deceit, lying, and impurity far below US
Education and free press, unchecked speech
and unfettered thought, have done more for ui
than the obscure symbols of church archi
lecture and ornamentation; and it is well tha
each man should feel that on himself lies tn,
burden of his own well doing. and that, hence
, forth, no priest can make or unmake the Law
by which a sinners soul is to be saved or al
evil life purified and made acceptable to tn
, Highest. The Romish priesthood had it
: work to do in the world, and it did it, in spit
] of some shortcomings inseparable from human
f action, WELL faithfully and truly. 1t was tn
) great guardian of holy secrets, and it KEEP
them faithfully; the ruler and guide of men
, minds, and it ruled them WELL but now i
there no need of those great class and ofica
separations; and the roOd-screen is abolished
as the veil of the Temple was formerly rent
Ecclesiastical symbolism, like so much else il
life, is of the past; let it gather its shroud de
f Gently about its shoulders, and die with tn
grace of thing knowing its last hour to hav
come, ...r. ...... ..