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.

1089/1096 (page 1069)

$LYRE LYONS, COUNCIL OJb cftnon passed at Epaone respecting incestuous m.iinages, was roaifirmed with special application to Stcjihon, an olhcial of king Sigismund, whose jiossihle disjdeasuie may have dictated the second and third. St. Avitus is also thought to hav<! taken part in this council, but he is not named among those who subscnlied to it. The title given to it of the first council of Lyons is mis- leading; and several canons are cited by Bur- chard and others as of this council, for which there would .seem to be no foundation (Mansi, viii. 567-74). 6. Held A.D. 567, by command of king Gun- tram, and called the second council of Lyons, in which two bishops, named Salonius and Sagit- tarius, were condemned ; eight bishops and six reiiresentatives of absent bishops subscribed to its canons, six in number; the bishop of Vienne subscribing first, and of Lyons second. Canon 2 decrees that the wills of the departed should be religiously maintained and carried out, even when they ran, or seemed to_run, counter to the civil law. Canon 4 decrees that persons sus- jiended from communion are to be restored only by him who suspended them. Canon 6 is of a piece with the second and third of Gerona. (Mansi, ix. 785-90, comp. Cone. Gerund.) 7. Held A.D. 589, under king Guntram, and called the third council of Lyons. Here the bishop of Lyons subscribed first, and of Vienne second, of eight present bishops, and twelve who subscribed through their representatives. Once 1069 more the number of canons passed was six; in most cases for giving effect to former canons. By the sixth lepers are to be sufficiently fed and clothed by the bishop of the diocese to which they belong, and not allowed to be wanderei-s (Mansi, ix. 941-4). [E. S. Ff.] LYRE. The lyre is borne by the mystic Orpheus (see Aringhi, vol. i. pp. 547, 563, both pictures from vaultings of the Callixtine cata- comb, and Fresco, I. 696), and is held to repre- sent the attractive power of the Lord. Aringhi quotes St. John xi.: “ And 1, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to Me,” and proceeds to reflect on the lyre of Orpheus, “qui dulcisonis et concin- natis ad plectrum vocibus feras pertrahebat.” Eusebius makes ingenious use of the simile in his oration ch Lmidib is Condantini Imp,, where he speaks of the Lord’s saving all, “ by the instru- ment of the human body with which He invested Him.self; not otherwise than Orpheus the singer, who makes known his skill in art by his lyre, so that, as it is said in the Greek tales, he could tame all kinds of beasts with his singing; and by touching the strings of his instrument with the plectrum, could soften the wrath of merciless wild beasts.” Clemens Alexandrinus {Paedag. iii. 11, p. 246 d) includes the lyre among the symbols permitted to be used as signets. [Gems, I. 712, 716.] For a curious illustration of the symbolic lyre of the passions or bodily nature, see Calf, 1.258. [R. St. J. T.] I Wellcome Library j for the History I and \$