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St Mary
230 visits
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Indian Gods—Krishna, Kali, Ganesa
201 visits
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Justin Martyr was a native of Neapolis, in Samaria, and was born A.D. 103. Died in the year 139
Being commanded as usual to deny their faith, and sacrifice to the pagan idols, they absolutely refused to do eeither. On their refusal, they were condemned to be first scourged and then beheaded; which sentence was executed with all imagined severity.
754 visits
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Ignatius (died in the year 111)
Trajan commanded the martyrdom of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch. He boldly vindicated the faith of Christ before the emperor. for which, being cast into prison, he was tormented in a most cruel manner; for after being dreadfully scourged, he was compelled to hold fire in his hands, and at the same time, papers dipped in oil were putto his sides, and set on light. His flesh was then torn with red hot pincers, and at last he was despatched, being torn to pieces by wild beasts.
742 visits
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Polycarpus, died in the year 170
Polycarpus, hearing that he was sought after, escaped, but was dicovered by a child. From this circumstance, and having dreamed that his bed suddenly became on fire, and was consumed in a moment, he concluded that it was God's will that he should seal his faith with martyrdom.
824 visits
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The first persecution, in the primitive ages if the church, was begun by that cruel tyrant Nero Domitius, the sixth emperor of Rome. This monarch reigned , for the space of five years, with tolerable credit to himself, but then gave way to the greatest extravagane of temper, and to the most atrocious barbarities. Among other diabolical outrages, he ordered that the city of Rome should be set on fire, which was done by his officers, guards, and servants.
687 visits
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Cypran, bishop of Carthage, was an eminent prelate, and a pious ornament of the church. The brightness of his genius was tempered by the solidarity of his judgement; and with all the accomplishmments of the gentleman he blended the virtues of the Christian.yprian
833 visits
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Durga, and other deities
451 visits
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Agni
431 visits
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Surya
417 visits
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The Parasurama Avatara
429 visits
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The Rama Chandra Avatara
550 visits
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The Vamana Avatara
515 visits
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Varuna
520 visits
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Vayu
631 visits
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Vishnu
584 visits
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Yama
479 visits
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Annapurna
491 visits
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Arjuna shooting at the fish
493 visits
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Balarama
501 visits
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Battle of the Kurus and Pandavas
527 visits
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Brahma
516 visits
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Buddha
542 visits
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Buddha
611 visits
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Buddhist Temple and Dagosa at Kelaniva, Ceylon
635 visits
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Daksha
615 visits
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Dasabhuja
628 visits
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Ganesa
609 visits
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Ganga
628 visits
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Garuda
653 visits
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Hanuman
659 visits
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Har-Hari
631 visits
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Indra
618 visits
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Jagaddhatri
570 visits
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Jagannath
616 visits
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Kali dancing on Siva
639 visits
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Kali
585 visits
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Kalki
578 visits
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Kamadeva
610 visits
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Kartikeya
560 visits
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Krishna holding up Mount Govardhana
551 visits
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Krishna slaying Bakasura
555 visits
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Lakhsmi
581 visits
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Manasa
542 visits
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Monkeys constructing the bridge at Lanka
588 visits
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Panchanana
583 visits
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Parvati worhipping the Linga
590 visits
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Radha worshipping Krishna as Kali
585 visits
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Ravana
563 visits
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Sarasvati
584 visits
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Shitala
570 visits
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Sasti
604 visits
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Siva and Parvati
579 visits
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Siva slaying an Asura
585 visits
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Siva temple at Benares
607 visits
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Siva
597 visits
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Sugriva
607 visits
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The Banyan Tree
587 visits
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The Bel
573 visits
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The Fig Tree
592 visits
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The Krishna Avatara
617 visits
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The Kurma Avatara
575 visits
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The Lotus
633 visits
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The Matsva Avatara
636 visits
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The Nrisingha Avatara
670 visits
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Luke 17
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.
16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
639 visits
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The four figures in the Vignette are intended to represent the chief protestant reformers; Luther in the centre, Cranmer on his right hand, Knox on his left, and Calvin on his extreme right; each holding in his hand a manuscript or printed copy of the Word of God.
the Rock on which they are standing, is intended to denote the Truth of the doctrine of the Divine Oracle, on which, as on an immutable Rock, the Reformers rested all their claims, in labouring to restore pure Christianity.
Around the Rock of Truth, the waves of Error and Superstition are seen dashing.
799 visits
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The Egg of Creation, encompassed with the Agathodaimon, or Good Genius
582 visits
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Sculptures and medals abound in the East, containing hieroglyphic symbols of the creation. The most remarkable, however, of these symbolic devices is that erected, and at this day to be seen, in one of the temples of Japan. The temple itself, in which this fine monument of Oriental genius is elevated, is called Daibod, and stands in Meaco, a great and flourishing city of Japan.
The principal image in this design displays itself in the form of a vast bull, the emblem of prolific heat and the generative energy by which creation was formed, butting with its horns against the egg, which floated on the waters of the abyss. The status of the bull itself is formed of massy gold, with a great knob on its back, and a golden collar about its neck, embossed with precious stones.
760 visits
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The convent is the name especially appropriate to the body of individuals who composed a religious community.
The whole convent was under the government of the abbot, who, however, was bound to govern according to the rule of the order. Sometimes he was elected by the convent; sometimes the king or some patron had a share in the election. Frequently there were estates attached to the office, distinct from those of the convent; sometimes the abbot had only an allowance out of the convent estates; but always he had great power over the property of the convent, and bad abbots are frequently accused of wasting the property of the house, and enriching their relatives and friends out of it.
557 visits
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The Carmelite Friars had their origin, as their name indicates, in the East. According to their own traditions, ever since the days of Elijah, whom they claim as their founder, the rocks of Carmel have been inhabited by a succession of hermits, who have lived after the pattern of the great prophet. Their institution as an order of friars, however, dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century, when Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, gave them a rule, founded upon, but more severe than, that of St. Basil; and gave them a habit of white and red stripes, which, according to tradition, was the fashion of the wonder-working mantle of their prophet-founder.
745 visits
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The word clericus—clerk—was one of very wide and rather vague significance, and included not only the various grades of clerks in orders, of whom we have spoken, but also all men who followed any kind of occupation which involved the use of reading and writing; finally, every man who could read might claim the “benefit of clergy,” i.e., the legal immunities of a clerk.
851 visits
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Dominic gave to his order the name of Preaching Friars; more commonly they were styled Dominicans, or, from the colour of their habits, Black Friars—their habit consisting of a white tunic, fastened with a white girdle, over that a white scapulary, and over all a black mantle and hood, and shoes; the lay brethren wore a black scapulary.
626 visits
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The Franciscans were styled by their founder Fratri Minori—lesser brothers, Friars Minors; they were more usually called Grey Friars, from the colour of their habits, or Cordeliers, from the knotted cord which formed their characteristic girdle. Their habit was originally a grey tunic with long loose sleeves (but not quite so loose as those of the Benedictines), a knotted cord for a girdle, and a black hood; the feet always bare, or only protected by sandals.
819 visits
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The picture represents a priest confessing a lady in a church. The characters in the scene are allegorical; the priest is Genius, and the lady is Dame Nature; but it is not the less an accurate picture of a confessional scene of the latter part of the fourteenth century.
905 visits
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The Cellarer was in fact the steward of the house; his modern representative is the bursar of a college. He had the care of everything relating to the provision of the food and vessels of the convent. He was exempt from the observance of some of the services in church; he had the use of horses and servants for the fulfilment of his duties, and sometimes he appears to have had separate apartments. The cellarer, as we have said, wore no distinctive dress or badge; but in the Catalogus Benefactorum of St. Alban’s there occurs a portrait of one “Adam Cellarius,” who for his distinguished merit had been buried among the abbots in the chapter-house, and had his name and effigy recorded in the Catalogus; he is holding two keys in one hand and a purse in the other, the symbols of his office; and in his quaint features—so different from those of the dignified abbot whom we have given from the same book—the limner seems to have given us the type of a business-like and not ungenial cellarer.
650 visits
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Bedesmen - In time of Henry VII
The group represents the abbot and some of the monks, and behind them some of the bedesmen, each of whom has the royal badge—the rose and crown—on the shoulder of his habit, and holds in his hand his rosary, the symbol of his prayers.
911 visits
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The Nuns of Fontevraud was another female order of Augustinians, of which little is known. It was founded at Fontevraud in France, and three houses of the order were established in England in the time of Henry II.; they had monks and nuns within the same enclosure, and all subject to the rule of an abbess.
951 visits
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In the year 529 a.d., St. Benedict, an Italian of noble birth and great reputation, introduced into his new monastery on Monte Cassino—a hill between Rome and Naples—a new monastic rule. To the three vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, which formed the foundation of most of the old rules, he added another, that of manual labour (for seven hours a day), not only for self-support, but also as a duty to God and man.
751 visits
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The Augustinians claim the great St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, as their founder, and relate that he established the monastic communities in Africa, and gave them a rule. That he did patronise monachism in Africa we gather from his writings, but it is not clear that he founded any distinct order; nor was any order called after his name until the middle of the ninth century.
1091 visits
