- Erasmus
This great man, who was the boast and glory of his country, distinguished himself as a reformer of religion, and restorer of learning. His religion was as remote from the bigotry and persecuting spirit of the age in which he lived, as his learning was from the pedantry and barbarism of the schools. - Hand holding a small cross
- Lady keeling and praying
Lady keeling and praying - St. Bridget, from an old cut in the possession of Earl Spencer
The figure writing is that of St. Bridget of Sweden, who was born in 1302 and died in 1373. From the representation of the Virgin with the infant Christ in her arms we may suppose that the artist intended to show the pious widow writing an account of her visions or revelations, in which she was often favoured with the blessed Virgin’s appearance. The pilgrim’s hat, staff, and scrip may allude to her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which she was induced to make in consequence of a vision. The letters S. P. Q. R. in a shield, are no doubt intended to denote the place, Rome, where she saw the vision, and where she died. The lion, the arms of Sweden, and the crown at her feet, are most likely intended to denote that she was a princess of the blood royal of that kingdom. The words above the figure of the saint are a brief invocation in the German language, “O Brigita bit Got für uns!” “O Bridget, pray to God for us!” At the foot of the desk at which St. Bridget is writing are the letters M. I. Chrs., an abbreviation probably of Mater Jesu Christi, or if German, Mutter Iesus Christus. - St. Christopher, with the date 1423, from a cut in the possession of Earl Spencer
This cut is much better designed than the generality of those which we find in books typographically executed from 1462, the date of the Bamberg Fables, to 1493, when the often-cited Nuremberg Chronicle was printed. Amongst the many coarse cuts which “illustrate” the latter, and which are announced in the book itselfII.11 as having been “got up” under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth, Albert Durer’s master, and William Pleydenwurff, both “most skilful in the art of painting,” I cannot find a single subject which either for spirit or feeling can be compared to the St. Christopher. In fact, the figure of the saint, and that of the youthful Christ whom he bears on his shoulders, are, with the exception of the extremities, designed in such a style, that they would scarcely discredit Albert Durer himself. To the left of the engraving the artist has introduced, with a noble disregard of perspective what Bewick would have called a “bit of Nature.” In the foreground a figure is seen driving an ass loaded with 48a sack towards a water-mill; while by a steep path a figure, perhaps intended for the miller, is seen carrying a full sack from the back-door of the mill towards a cottage. To the right is seen a hermit—known by the bell over the entrance of his dwelling—holding a large lantern to direct St. Christopher as he crosses the stream. The two verses at the foot of the cut, Cristofori faciem die quacunque tueris, Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris, may be translated as follows: Each day that thou the likeness of St. Christopher shalt see, That day no frightful form of death shall make an end of thee. - Evolution Cartoon
Another Great Image that will soon be smitten! - Evolution Cartoon
In the beginning God created heaven and earth - Evolution Cartoon
- A House built on the Rock
Matthew 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. - Master of the Year 1446. Christ Nailed to the Cross
Size of the original engraving, 4⅛ × 3¼ inches In the Royal Print Room, Berlin Chief among the engravers who show most clearly the influence of the Master of the Playing Cards is the Master of the Year 1446, so named from the date which appears in the Flagellation. His prints present a more or less primitive appearance, and were it not for this date, one might be tempted, on internal evidence, to assign them to an earlier period. In the Passion series, in particular, many of the figures are more gnome-like than human. Such creatures as the man blowing a horn, in Christ Nailed to the Cross, and the man pulling upon a rope, in the same print, recall to our minds, by an association of ideas, the old German fairy tales. - Master of the Playing Cards. Man of Sorrows
To his [Master of the Playing Cards.] latest and most mature period must be assigned the Man of Sorrows—in some ways his finest, and certainly his most moving, plate. Not only has he differentiated between the textures of the linen loin-cloth and the coarser material of the cloak; but the column, the cross with its beautiful and truthful indication of the grain of the wood, and the ground itself, all are treated with a knowledge and a sensitiveness that is surprising. The engraver’s greatest triumph, however, is in the figure of Christ. There is a feeling for form and structure, sadly lacking in the work of his successors, and his suggestion of the strained and pulsing veins, which throb through the Redeemer’s tortured limbs, is of a compelling truth. - Dr. Martin Luther
Dr. Martin Luther - Christmas Eve - Christmas Day
Christmas Eve - Christmas Day - 14 - Jesus is laid in the tomb
14 - Jesus is laid in the tomb - 13 - Jesus is taken down from the Cross
13 - Jesus is taken down from the Cross - 12 - Jesus dies on the Cross
12 - Jesus dies on the Cross - 11 - Jesus is nailed to the Cross
- 10 - Jesus is stripped of his garments
- 09 - Jesus falls under the cross
- 08 - Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
- 07 - Jesus falls second time
- 06 - Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
- 05 = Simon forced to carry the cross
- 04 - Jesus finds his mother
- 03 - Jesus falls first time
- 02 - they carry the cross
- 01- Jesus is sentenced to death
- 15 - Resurrected
15 - Resurrected - An Abbot
The different kinds of religious men have already been mentioned from archbishops and abbots to the scurrilous impostors who used a religious exterior to rob poor people, at whose expense they lived well a wandering, loose, hypocritical life. In York, there were monks and friars, cathedral, parochial, and chantry priests, and clerks. The monastic life was a recognised profession. - Administering holy communion with the Housel cloth
From a 14th century manuscript - Carthusian Brothers in the Kitchen
Carthusian Brothers in the Kitchen of The Grand Chartreuse - A Monks Cell
A Monks Cell in Carthusian monastery The Grand Chartreuse - Chapel of St. Bruno
Before leaving the neighbourhood I paid a visit to the Chapelle de St. Bruno, which is within half an hour's walk of the monastery. It is erected in a very wild spot, said to be the site of the saint's original hermitage. There is nothing particularly interesting in the chapel, which is in a state of dilapidation. But it is curious to speculate that here dwelt, in what was little more than a cavern, the man who, by the austerity of his life and his gloomy views, was able to found a religious Order which has endured for many ages, and is one of the few that escaped destruction during the revolutions and upheavals of the last century. The situation of the Chapelle is one of singular loneliness and desolation, and for eight months of the year at least it is buried in snow. - Carthusian Fathers singing
In the Chapel at daybreak - Carthusian Father going to midnight office
This strange community of Carthusians is divided into categories of "Fathers" and "Brothers." The former wear robes of white wool, cinctured with a girdle of white leather. Their heads and faces are closely shaven, and the head is generally enveloped in a cowl, which is attached to the robe. They are all ordained priests, and it is to them the rule of silence, solitude, and fasting, more particularly applies. The fasting is represented by the daily bill of fare I have given, and it never varies all the year round, except on Fridays and certain days in Lent, when, poor as it is, it is still further reduced. The solitude consists of many hours spent in prayer in the loneliness of the cell, and the silence imposed is only broken by monosyllabic answers to questions addressed to them. Sustained conversation is a fault, and would be severely punished. Aspirants for the Fatherhood have to submit to a most trying novitiate, which lasts for five full years. After that they are ordained, and from that moment they renounce the world, with all its luring temptations and its sin. Their lives henceforth must be strictly holy in accordance with the tenets of their religion. The Brothers are the manual labourers, the hewers of wood and drawers of water. They do everything that is required in the way of domestic service. They wear sandals on their bare feet, and their bodies are clothed in a long, loose, brown robe, fastened at the waist by a rope girdle. On both branches of the Order the same severe régime is compulsory, but on Fridays the Brothers only get a morsel of black bread and a cup of cold water. The attention to spiritual duties is all-absorbing, and under no circumstances must it be relaxed. Matins commence in the chapel at twelve o'clock at night, and continue until about two o'clock. - Jesus
Jesus - Christ
Christ - John Wesley
John Wesley, Methodist minister - Christ on the Mount of Olives
Trial proof of the key block of Christ on the Mount of Olives, after Bassano. National Gallery of Art - Jesus Christ
- XP
Constantine the Great, founder of Constantinople, had the monogram of Christ placed on the labarum, or imperial stamdard; It was the Greek letter X (chi) with a P (rbo) placed perpendicularly though it, forming the first two letters of the name Christ, in Greek - Jesus on Cross
Jesus on Cross - Crucifixion
Crucifixion of Christ - Crucifixion of Christ
Trial proof of the key block of center sheet of The Crucifixion, after Tintoretto. National Gallery of Art (Rosenwald Collection). - Ignatius de Loyola
Ignatius de Loyola, 1491-1556 A.D. Inigo Lopez de Recalde, or Loyola, as he is commonly known, was born at Guipuzcoa, in Spain, in 1491. He was educated as a page in the court of Ferdinand the Catholic. He afterwards became a soldier and led a very wild life until his twenty-ninth year. During the siege of Pamplona, in 1521, he was severely wounded, and while convalescing he was given lives of Christ and of the saints to read. His perusal of these stories of spiritual combat inspired a determination to imitate the glorious achievements of the saints. - Saint Dominic
Dominic de Guzman, 1170-1221 A.D. Half-way between Osma and Aranda in Old Castile, Spain, is a little village known as "the fortunate Calahorra." Here was the castle of the Guzmans, where Dominic was born. His family was of high `rank` and character, a noble house of warriors, statesmen and saints. If we accept the legends, his greatness was foreshadowed. Before his birth, his mother dreamed she saw her son under the figure of a black-and-white dog, with a torch in his mouth. "A true dream," says Milman, "for he will scent out heresy and apply the torch to the faggots;" but, as will be seen later, this observation does not rest on undisputed evidence. - Saint Bernard
When about twenty years of age he entered the monastery at Citeaux with five of his brothers. His genius might have secured ecclesiastical preferment, but he chose to dig ditches, plant fields and govern a monastery. He entered the cloister at Citeaux because the monks were few and poor, and when it became crowded because of his fame, and its rule became lax because of the crowds, he left the cloister to found a home of his own. The abbot selected twelve monks, following the number of apostles, and at their head placed young Bernard. He led the twelve to the valley of Wormwood, and there, in a cheerless forest, he established the monastery of Clairvaux, or Clear Valley. His rule was fiercely severe because he himself loved hardships and rough fare. "It in no way befits religion," he writes, "to seek remedies for the body, nor is it good for health either. You may now and then take some cheap herb,--such as poor men may,--and this is done sometimes. But to buy drugs, to hunt up doctors, to take doses, is unbecoming to religion and hostile to purity." His success in winning men to the monastic life was almost phenomenal. It was said that "mothers hid their sons, wives their husbands, and companions their friends, lest they be persuaded by his eloquent message to enter the cloister." "He was avoided like a plague," says one. - Three Angels
Three Angels - Thirteenth Century Pilgrims (the two Disciples at Emmaus)
The most usual foreign pilgrimages were to the Holy Land, the scene of our Lord’s earthly life; to Rome, the centre of western Christianity; and to the shrine of St. James at Compostella. The number of pilgrims to these places must have been comparatively limited; for a man who had any regular business or profession could not[Pg 160] well undertake so long an absence from home. The rich of no occupation could afford the leisure and the cost; and the poor who chose to abandon their lawful occupation could make these pilgrimages at the cost of others; for the pilgrim was sure of entertainment at every hospital, or monastery, or priory, probably at every parish priest’s rectory and every gentleman’s hall, on his way; and there were not a few poor men and women who indulged a vagabond humour in a pilgrim’s life. The poor pilgrim repaid his entertainer’s hospitality by bringing the news of the countries through which he had passed, and by amusing the household after supper with marvelous saintly legends, and traveler’s tales. - The Parish Clerk sprinkling the Knight and Lady
Picture shows the costume and the holy water-pot and aspersoir, and to indicate how he went into all the rooms of the house now into the hall sprinkling the lord and lady who are at breakfast. - The Parish Clerk sprinkling the Cook
The Parish Clerk sprinkling the Cook The picture will shows the costume and the holy water-pot and aspersoir, and to indicate how he went into all the rooms of the house—now into the kitchen sprinkling the cook. - St. Paula
The picture which we here give of an anchoress, is taken from a figure of St. Paula, one of the anchorite saints of the desert. - St. Damasus, Hermit
The best and clearest illustration which we have been able to find of the usual costume in which the hermits are represented, we here give to the reader. It is from the figure of St. Damasus, one of the group in the fine picture of “St. Jerome,” by Cosimo Roselli (who lived from 1439 to 1506), now in the National Gallery. The hermit-saint wears a light-brown frock, and scapular, with no girdle, and, over all, a cloak and hood of the same colour, and his naked feet are protected by wooden clogs. - Saint Dominic and Saint Francis
The Dominicans and Franciscans arose simultaneously at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Dominic, an Augustinian canon, a Spaniard of noble birth, was seized with a zeal for converting heretics, and having gradually associated a few ecclesiastics with himself, he at length conceived the idea of founding an order of men who should spend their lives in preaching. Simultaneously, Francis, the son of a rich Italian merchant, was inspired with a design to establish a new order of men, who should spend their lives in preaching the Gospel and doing works of charity among the people. These two men met in Rome in the year 1216 a.d. - Pope, Cardinal, and Bishop
A woodcut of the fifteenth century, from a manuscript life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in the British Museum; the subject is the presentation of the pilgrim earl to the pope, and it enables us to bring into one view the costumes of pope, cardinal, and bishop. - Pilgrim on Horseback
Pilgrim on Horseback - Pilgrim Monk
Pilgrim Monk - Pilgrim in Hair Shirt and Cloak
Pilgrim in Hair Shirt and Cloak - Monk in Scriptorium
The Scriptorium is said to have been usually over the chapter-house. It was therefore a large apartment, capable of containing many persons, and, in fact, many persons did work together in it in a very business-like manner at the transcription of books. - Lydgate’s Pilgrim
Sometimes a little below the lower knob there is a hook, or a staple, to which we occasionally find a water-bottle or a small bundle attached. The hook is seen on the staff of Lydgate’s pilgrim.