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.

1019/1096 (page 999)

$Its green signifies humility; its whiteness, chastity; its golden hue, charity. It is the holy church ; it is the glory of Immortality ; it is the Holy Scriptures, with reference to Cant, iv. 5; and a variety of impertinences of .symbo- lism, which have been its weak side, and the bane of religious art, from a distressingly early date in the history of religion and art alike. [R. St. J. T.] LIMINIUS, mai-tyr, in Auvergne, circ. A.D. 255; commemoi’ated Mai'. 29'(Ac^a SS. Mar. iii. 769). [C. H.] LINENTIUS, confessor near Tours, 6th centui'y; commemorated Jan. 25 (^Acta SS. Jan. ii. 628). [C. H.] LINUS (1) Bishop and martyr at Tyre; commemorated Feb. 20 (^Mart. Usuard.). (2) Bishop of Rome, martyr; commemorated Sept. 23 (Usuard. Auct.; Ado, Mart. Append.; Acta SS. Sept. vi. 539), and Nov. 26 \Mart. Usuard. ; Vet. Rom. Mart.). One of the saints of the Gregorian canon. [C. H.] LIOBA (Leobgytha, Truthgeba), abbess, circ. A.D. 780; commemorated Sept. 28 {Mart. Ado, Append.^ Usuard. Auct.; Acta SS. Sept. vii. 748). [C. H.] LION. It is difficult, as Ciampini admits {Vet. Mon. tab. 17), to attach specially Chris- tian meaning to the form of an animal which has been an ethnic or universally human sym- bol of strength and courage from the earliest records of Egypt and Assyria. As part of a composite form, the shape of the lion is con- nected with the cherubic symbol. [See Cherub in Smith’s Diet, of the Bible.'] The twelve lions of Solomon’s throne (1 Kings x. 19, 20), to which Ciampini alludes, were intended of course as emblematic sentinels, after the fashion of Assy- rian imagery ; and h« also notices that the eagle is used in the same mannei', often in company with the lion, apparently for state and ornament alone. It is pretty certain, however, that the ideas of \yatchfulness and vigour, or authority in the faith, were connected with the leonine form, as it not unfrequently occurred in Christian churches, especially under Lombard rule. It is placed at the doors, very frequently as a solid base to small pillars in the porch, or tympanum ; and also at the foot of ambons or pulpits; as a symbol no doubt of watchfulness, or even of wakefulness, according to the tradition of the lion’s sleeping with open eyes. The lions of the gate of Mycenae may be an instance of ancient Greek use of the form in this sense. To this effect Martigny quotes Alciati’s Emblems {Delicide Ital. Boetarum, p. 20, Francof. 1558): “ Est leo, sed custos, oculis qui dorniit apertis; Templorum idcirco ponitur ante fores.” It is natural, of course, that archaeologists of all dates should wish to attach a specially Christian symbolism to the lion-form. But, as Ciampini shews, the principal sculptures of the subject are of early pre-Christian date ; he gives two, in particular, from ancient Egypt ( Vet. Mon. i. tab. 17), and the same associations have attended the image of the king of beasts from the first records of ideas. By the early church, it was adopted, like the originally ethnic images of the shephei'd, the vine, or the fish ; though not sanctioned, like them, by the Lord’s use of the image. Lions are sometimes represented as grasping the “ hystrix ” or porcupine, or holding a small human figure in their claws, app.a- rently with tenderness, in the latter case (see Ciampini). The hystrix will in this case repre- sent the power of evil, the human form the race of mankind. The Veronese griffin, mentioned by Prof. Ruskin {Modern Painters, vol. iii. ch. viii. p. 106), holds a dragon in his claws to typify victory over evil by the angelic powers. On a gem figured vol. i. p. 715, the lion and serpent are represented on each side of a dove, which is placed on a wheatsheaf, bears the olive branch, and evidently represents the church. This Mr. King considei's an illustration of the precept to be wise as serpents and harm- less as doves ; though it seems possible that the idea of contest with the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon, may be connected with it. This subject, though rare, occurs in a Vatican ivory from the abbey of Lorch, part of the binding of its ancient Evangeliary: and again in Gori {Thes. Diptychorum, vol. iii. iv.). For the lions as attendant on Daniel, on sarco- phagi and elsewhere, see Bottari, passim. [R. St. J. T.l LIPHAEDUS (1) (Lietphardus), bishop of archbishop of Canterbury and martyr, circ. A.D. 640; commemorated Feb. 4 (Bede, Mart., Auct.: Acta SS. Feb. ii. 492). [Lifardus.] Bede has Liphard under both days. (2) (Lifardus), of Magdunum (Meun) ; com- memorated June 3 {Mart. Hieron.; Bede, Auct. ; Usuard. Auct.; Acta SS. June, i. 298). [C. H.] LIPPIENSE CONCILIUM. [Paderborn, Council of.] LIPSTADT, COUNCIL OF. [Pader- born.] LIPTINENSE CONCILIUM. [Lestines, Council of.] LITANY {\iTaveia, Litania v. Letania). A litany is strictly any united prayer and suppli- cation in the churches or assemblies of the faithful. “ Litania, quae Latine Rogatio dicitur, inde et Rogationes.” Ordo Romanus. By the word, however, is usually understood a form of alternative prayer, intercessorv or deprecatory,$