Volume 2

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?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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.

    1001/1016 (page 2053)
    abbat beoaiae stricter in the regulation of his monastery (Greg. Turon. iv. 33). Compare, as of similar signirication, an hermit’s vision of Theodoric the Ostrogoth being cast into the crater of a volcano (Greg. M. Dial. iv. 30). Visions of heaven were accorded amongst others to St. Furseius (Fleury, xxxviii. 28) and to Salvius, bishop of the Albigenses, as a place paved with gold and silver and illuminated by a cloud shining beyond the light of sun or moon (Greg. Turon. vii. 1). 3. Apparitions of Ci’osses. (1) In the air ; (2) On the garments of men ; (3) On animals. (1) Constantine, when marching against Maxentius, A.D. 311, and in doubt to what deity he should apply for succour against an enemy whose forces outnumbered his own, saw in company with his whole army a luminous cross in the sky above the mid-day sun with this inscription, “ In this conquer.” The same night our Lord appeared to Constantine in a vision, shewed him a cross, and bade him fashion a standard after the pattern of it as a means of victory in his contest against Maxentius. Such is the account Eusebius gives in his Life of Con- stantine (i. 28-32), but not till twenty-six years after the occurrence, and which he professes to have heard from the emperor himself, who' affirmed his statement with an oath. Socrates, Philostorgius, Gelasius, and Nicephorus speak of the phenomenon as seen in the sky ; Sozomen and Rufinus in a .dream, although on the authority of Eusebius they also mention the apparition in the sky. In a panegyric delivered immediately after the victory the speaker, who is a pagan, refers to “ the omen ” (Bar. Ann. aim. 312, 14), and ten years after another orator, Kazarius, also a pagan, alludes to “ the common talk of all the Gallic provinces that hosts were seen Avho bore on them the character of divine messengers ” (ap. Bar. Anw. 312, 11). Gibbon alludes tc a medal extant in the last century bear- ing the figure of the labarum with the inscription, “ In this sign thou shalt conquer ” (Newman, on Mir. cxxxiii.; Gibbon, xx.). On the feast of Pentecost, May 7, a.d. 351, a cross appeared in the sky at Jerusalem, stretching from Mount Calvary to Mount Olivet, and shining with a brilliancy equal to that of the sun’s rays. The apparition lasted for several hours ; the whole city beheld it, and all, i-esidents and visitors, Christians and unbelievers, alike joined in the acknowledgment that “ the faith of the Christians did not rest upon the persuasive discourses of human wisdom, but upon the sensible proofs of divine intervention ” (Cyril, Ep. ad Cond. Imp.'). Of this phenomenon Cyril, then patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote an account to the emperor Constantins, who at the time was fighting against Maxentius in Pannonia, where also, according to Philostorgius (^Hlst. Eccles. iii. 26), it was seen by the contending armies to the confusion of the pagan and the encouragement of the Christian host (Theoph. 62, 63 ; Migne, Diet, des Mir. tom. i. 247). To other appearances of the cross in the sky we may thus briefly refer. Gretser mentions two towards the beginning of the 4th century—one as seen by Gregory, bishop of Ai-menia, and the other by Tiridates, king of that country, and by his fellow-converts on the occasion of their baptism. Cedrefius another, to which Gregory Nazianzen alludes (^Orat. v. 7), at Jerusalem on the occasion of Julian’s attempt to rebuild the temple, as surpassing in point of brilliancy that recorded by Cyril (Hist. Cornpend. i. p. 537). The same writer mentions two appear- ances of a cross, which he terms aniieia, at Constantinople, one in the second, the other in the third year of the reign of Constantine Copronymus (ibid. ii. p. 5), while another was vouchsafed to St. Euphemia shortly before her martyrdom, which took place at Chalcedon in the Diocletian persecution (Martyr. Rom. 16 Sept.), “a symbol,” writes Asterius, bishop of Amasea, “of the punishment she was to undergo.” (2) As examples of crosses appearing on the garments of men, we read that when the emperor Julian was entering Illyricum the vines appeared laden with unripe grapes, although the vintage had taken place, and that dew falling from them upon the garments of the emperor and his companions left upon them the imi)riut of crosses; a phenomenon which by some was suj)- posed to portend that the emperor should jterish prematurely like unripe grapes (Sozomen, H. E. i. 5). The appearance of the luminous cross in the sky on the occasion of Julian’s attem})t to rebuild the temple, was accompanied by the appearance on the bodies and garments of men of crosses which were luminous at night (Ruf. i. 37), in some instances of a dark colour (Theodor, iii. 20) and would not wash out (Socr. iii. 20). Nor was the phenomenon confined to Jerusalem, being seen in Antioch and other cities likewise (Theoph. 81; Cedren. Hist. Com- pend. i. 537). See Newman on Mir. clxxvi.; Migne, Diet, des Mir. t. ii. 1117. Crosses “as of oil” (aravpla eAaiwSrj) appeared in Constanti- nople in the sixth year of the reign of Constan- tine Copronymus on the garments of men as they walked in the streets, and on the altar- cloths of churches. Those whose clothes were thus marked were attacked with mortal illness. The pestilence which prevailed was such as to turn the capital into a desert. The Catholic party attributed both it and the portents to the iconoclasm of the emperor (Cedrenus, Hid. Corn- pend. ii. -8; Migne, Diet, des Mir. i. 248). (3) Of crosses appearing on animals we find the following instances. When the emperor Julian was inspecting the entrails of an animal he was offering in sacrifice, he beheld in them the figure of a cross encircled by a crown (Sozom. V. 2); <ppiK)]v Trapeax^ Koiayojviav, writes Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iv. 54). St. Placidas, when hunting a stag, beheld amidst its horns a luminous cross and the figure of the Cruci- fied, and heard a voice saying: “ Quid me persequeris, Placida ? Ecce propter te adsum : ego sum Christus quern ignorans veneraris ” (Niceph. iii. 19). St. Meinulphus also saw a cross amidst a stag’s horns (Gobenus in Vita S. Meinnlphi). The above classification of apparitions and visions, according to the form of the one and the subject of the other, has placed in less promi- nence the notion, but not precluded a passing notice of their object and purpose. The use of apparitions and visions has been exemplified under other sections of our subject—for their use in admonishing the guilty, see section II. under miracles of power wrought by relics. For their use in animating the courage of the faith- ful we may I'efer to the visions by whick