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.

1012/1096 (page 992)

$de Doctr. Christ. St. Eloy, bishop of Noyon, A.D. 640: “ Let no Christian presume to hang ligamina on the necks of man or any animal whatsoever, even though it be done by clerks, and it be said that it is a holy thing and con- tains divine lections ” (^De Red. Cath. Convers. § 5). In 742, Boniface, writing to Zacharias of Rome on the difficulties put in his way by the leport of scandals tolerated in that city, says that his informants declared that they saw there among other relics of paganism, “ women with phylacteries and ligaturae, bound, in pagan fashion, on their arms and legs, and publicly oflPering them for sale to others” (Epit. 49). The pope, in reply, says that he has already endeavoured to suppress these superstitions (Epist. i. 9). Boniface himself, the next year at the council of Liptines, sanctioned a decree for the abolition of all pagan practices. A list of them was appended to it, and in this we find, “ Phylacteries and Ligaturae ” (n. 10). In the 6th book of the Carolingian Capitularies is the following law: “ That phylacteries or false writings, or ligaturae, which the ignorant think good for fevers and other diseases, be on no account made by clerks or laymen, or by any Christian, for they are the insignia of magic art ” (cap. 72). Instead of such means, prayer and the unction prescribed by St. James are to be used. By the 42nd canon of the council of Tours (813) priests are directed to admonish the people that “ ligaturae of bones or herbs applied to any mortal thing (man or beast) are of no avail, but are snares and deceits of the old enemy ” (Sim. Add. iii. Capit. Reg. Franc, cap. 93). When the Bulgarians, A.D. 866, asked Nicholas I. if they might retain their custom of “ hanging a ligatura under the throat of the sick,” he replied, “ ligaturae of this kind are phylacteries invented by the craft of the devil, and are proved to be bonds for men’s souls ” (Epist. 97, § 79). Pi-obably we shall not be wrong in inferring from the foregoing testi- monies that the practice prevailed at one time or another in every part of Christendom. It is also probable that it suggested the manner of many attempts to cure by those who looked solely for divine aid. E.g. St. Cuthbert (a.d. 685) sent a linen belt to the abbess Elfled, who was sick. “ She girded herself with it,” and was healed. The same belt “ bound round ” the head of a nun cured her of headache (Baeda, Vita S. Cuthb. c. 23). In the 8th century we find a name of profes- sion applied to those who offered to cure by means of ligaturae : “ We decree that none be- come cauculatores and enchanters, nor storm- raisers, nor obligatores.” (See Cone. Aquisgr. (a.d. 789), can. 63 (Labbe, 64); Capit. Car. M.et Lud. P. i. 62 ; vi. 374.) Similarly in a later law of Charlemagne (c. 40; Capit. Reg. Fr. i. 518). [W. E. S.] LIGHTHOUSE {Pharos). The lighthouse, as a symbol of the happy termination of the voyage of life, is of frequent occurrence in the cemeteries of the early Christians. Sometimes a ship in full sail appears to be steering towards it (Boldetti, Osservazioni, p. 372, but it is often found without the ship, as in the monumental slab of Firmia Victoria (Fabretti, Inscript. Ant. p. 566), in which, appearing with the crown and palm branch, and in conjunction with the name Victoria, it plainly typifies the trium- phant close of a Christian career. A kind of tower in four stories, crowned with flame, bearing an exact resemblance to a funeral pyre, is found on some imperial medals, par- ticularly on those of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus (Mionnet, 7)^ la ranti et du prix des Medailles Romains, t. i. pp. 218, 226, 241). This symbol, however, though it misled Fabretti, does not appear ‘ to have any Christian significance (Martigny, Diet, des Antiq. Chret. s. V. Phare). [C.] LIGHTNING, PRAYER AGAINST. Among the prayers for special occasions which follow the genei'al form of office for a Lite in the Greek church, to be embodied in it as occasion shall serve [z;. Litk], is one to be used in the time of danger from thunder and lightning. The prayer is too long to quote; it contains a con- fession of sin, an appeal to God’s mercy, and an earnest supplication that he would assuage the fury of the elements. In the Roman Ritual, under the head de Pro- cessionibus, we find “ Preces ad repellendam tem- pestatem.” The order is as follows : The bells are rung, and those who are able to attend assemble in the church, and the ordinary litanies are said, in which the clause “ a fulgure et tempestate, R. Libera nos Domine,” is said twice : and after the litany and the Lord’s prayer, Ps. 147 (147, V. 12, E. V. Lauda Jerusalem). Then follow some preces or versicles, said by the priest and people alternately, and the office con- cludes with five collects, and aspersion. Of the collects, the first is of an ordinary penitential character. The last four are these: “ A domo tua, quaesumus Domine spiritales nequitiae repellantur, et aeriarum discedat malig- nitas tempestatum.” “ Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, parce metuen- tibus, propitiare supplicibus: ut post noxios ignes nubium, et vim procellarum, in miseri- cordiam transeat laudis comminatio tempes- tatum.“ “ Domine Jesu, qui imperasti ventis et mari, et facta fuit tranquillitas magna, exaudi preces familiae tuae, ut hoc signo sanctae crucis -p omnis discedat saevitia tempestatum.” “ Omnipotens et misericors Deus, quo nos et castigando sanas, et ignoscendo conserves: praesta supplicibus tuis ut et tranquillitatibus optatae** consolationis laetemur, et dono tuae pietatis semper utamur. Per.” The Roman missal contains a mass “ contra tempestates ” in which the collect is the first of these four collects, and the post-communion the last. ' In the Ambrosian ritual there is a “ Benedictio contra aeris tempestatem,” of the saiue type as that in the Roman. The clergy and people kneel before the high altar, where the tabernacle of the sacrament is opened, and after Deus in adjutorium^ &c., these Psalms are said: 1, 14 [E. V. 15]; 53 [E. V. 54]; 69 [E. V. 70]; 86 [E. V. 87]; 92 [E. V. 93]. Then follow the Litanies^ Pater noster, some « This collect is quoted by Martene (il. 302) from an old MS. of cir. a.d. 500. t> hujus opt. In missal.$