Volume 1

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

1000/1096 (page 980)

$the counts and prefects, as well as bishops, who had met there to confirm what a former synod had passed. 2. The heading says it was celebrated under Carloman, and makes no mention of Boni- face. 3. Hincmar and others, who are supposed to refer to it, affirm that a legate from Rome, named George, presided at it jointly with St. Boniface. But George was not sent into France by Zachariah, but by Stephen II.; nor before Feb. 755 {Cod. Carol. Ep. viii. ed, Migne), by when St. Boniface had been dead eight months. Hence some have supposed a second council of Liptines in that year. The question is rather, - whether the first has been truly described as a .council. (Mansi, xii. 370-5 and 589. Comp. Hartzheim’s Cone. Germ. i. 50, et seq.) [E. S. Ff.] LETTERS COMMENDATORY [Commen- ! DiijORY Letters]. LETTERS DIMISSORY [Dimissory Let- ■; TERS]. LETTERS, FORMS OF [Liber Diurnus; : Superscription]. LETTEES, PASCHAL [Paschal Let- ( ters]. LETTEES, PASTORAL [Pastoral Let- ters]. LETTERS ON VESTMENTS. In the examples of early Christian art to be seen in the frescoes of the catacombs, and the mosaics of the basilicas, the dresses of the persons depicted are, in innumerable instances, marked by one or more letters or monograms on the border or outer fold. The letters thus employed are very various, and usually, if not always, belong to the Greek alpha- bet, and it must be acknowledged that hitherto . no satisfactory explanation of their occurrence has been given. Those most frequently met with are I, H, X, T, T, T. The last letter, the capital gamma, was of such frequent use on the . ecclesiastical robes of the Greek church, that it gave its name to a class of vestments [Gam- MADIa]. Arbitrary symbols are also found, to which no meaning can be assigned, such as [ ], X, J, II, UD, I (p- The earlier school of ^ Christian archaeologists which was resolved to . find a sacred meaning in every detail of the pic- ture or bas-relief under consideration, had no , difficulty in deciding that T and X represented the cross in different forms, while both I and H stood for Jesus, and r invariably denoted an . apostle (Bosio, 7,o)n. E-ott. lib. iv. c. 3, p. 592; Aringhi, Eom. Su'd. ii. lib. vi. c. 28; Mellini apud Ciampini, Vet. Mo7t. tom. i. c. xiii. p. 98). This supposed law, hastily deduced from in- -1 sufficient evidence, has been entirely refuted by wider examination. Ciampini (/. c.) proves it to be quite baseless. The theory however pro- pounded by him, and supported by Buonarroti . ( Vetri, p. 89), that those letters and monograms on the dresses were the weavers* marks is . equally destitute of a .solid foundation, and is • ridiculed by Ferrario (Cosiome antico e moderno: Europa, vol. iii. p. 149; M(jnumenti di SauV Arn- hrogio in Milano, p. 176), since the same marks appear in mosaics most widely separated both by time and place. Other theories, e.g., that the >, letters indicate the name of the individual repre- . sented, or of the mosaic-wui'kers, or even of the tailors who made the clothes, prove equally un- tenable, and the hopelessness of discoveiing any principle that would satisfactorily account at the same time for the variety and the identity of the marks has led some to assert that they were used capriciously {e.g., Suarez, bishop of Vaison, de Vestihus literatis, p. 7), without any fixed law simply in imitation of an already e.stablished custom. The existence of this custom of weaving, or embroidering letters in the fabric, or sewing them on to the stuff, is proved by classical authorities. Pliny speaks of the ostentation of Zeuxis the painter, in having his name woven in golden letters on the border of his pallium at; Olympia {Hist. Nat. lib. XXXV. c. 36, § 2'. Apuleius speaks of “ lacinias auro literatas ” {De Asin. aur. lib. 6, ad init.). Vopiscus de- scribes Carinus as adopting the same custom (Vopisc. in Carin.'). Suidas (s.u.) defines rpijSw- po(p6pos as “ one wearing a robe, having on it signs like small letters ” {anp-eia as ypappdna). The purple clavi sewn on the senatorial robes, which gave its designation to the laticlavium, are considered by Rubenius to have been “ letters, not mere stripes,” “literas laciniis palliorum insertas ” {De Re vestiaria, lib. iii. c. 12). In the well-known vision of Boethius, the ascent from practical to theoretical wisdom is symbolised by the letter IT woven into the bottom of the boi'- der of the robe of Philosophy, and 0 at the top, the intervening space being occupied with letters arranged like the steps of a* ladder {De Consolat. lib. i. pros. 1). Although it is impossible to believe that the selection of the letters in the Christian representations was entirely capricious, it must be confessed that no satisfactory expla- nation of them has yet been given, and that the subject requires further elucidation. [E. V.] LETJCIUS (1) Bishop of Brindisi, or Leon- tius, or Laurentius (Greg. Ep. vi. 62 (ii. 73), cf. De Rossi, Rom. Soft. ii. 228), is commemorated Jan. 11. {Mart. Hieron.') (2) Companion martyr of Thyrsus, at Nico- media, under Decius, Dec. 14 {Cal. Byz. and Men. Basil.)] but Jan. 18 and 20 Mart. Hieron. which on the latter day refers them to Nijon in Switzerland, whither their relics had been trans- ferred ; and at Apollonia Jan. 28. {Mart. Rom. Pai'v. etc.) [E. B. B.] LEUDOMARUS, bishop of Chalons, f Oct. 2, before a.d. 589. {Acta SS. Oct. i. 335.) [E. B. B.] LEUGATHUS, martvr, Oct. 22. {Acta SS. Oct. ix. 536.) [E. B. B.] LEUTFREDUS, a confessor who by his prayers caused a fountain to well forth in Meer near Montfort-l’Amaury. June 21, Usuard. [E. B. B.] LEVITE. (AevtTTjs, Afveirgs, Levita.) Pro- fessor Lightfoot has remarked {on PhUippians, p. 187, 2nd ed.) that “ the Levite, whose function it was to keep the beasts for slaughter, to cleanse away the blood and offal of the sacrifices, to serve as porter at the temple gates, and to swell the chorus of sacred psalmody, bears no strong re- semblance to the Christian deacon, whoso minis- trations lay among the widows and orphans, and whose time was almost wholly spent in works of charity.” Nevertheless, when the three orders$