Section: 2E6 - Signs and Myths.
Number of quotes: 130
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
Pierre Chuvin
Book ID: 4 Page: 116
Section: 2E3,2E6
Procopius himself applied his pen to celebrate the beauties of their little homeland. As for the outcome of his teaching, one can understand why in the tenth century the patriarch Photius grumbled on reading what one of Procopius’ disciples wrote: “He is devoted to the true religion; he respects the rites and sacred places of Christians. Nonetheless, for whatever reason of negligence or thoughtlessness, he mixes into his writings ill-suited pagan fables and stories, at times even when treating sacred subjects.”{27}
Quote ID: 53
Time Periods: 67
Age of Bede, The
Translated by: J.F. Webb
Book ID: 318 Page: 47
Section: 2E6
He mounted and rode off. Cuthbert did as he was bidden and within a few days was well again. Then he knew that it was an angel that had given him the remedy, sent by the same power who had deigned to send the Archangel Raphael to cure Tobias’s eyes.
Quote ID: 7701
Time Periods: 7
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
John Henry Newman
Book ID: 324 Page: 243
Section: 2E6
In like manner the Sign of the Cross was one of the earliest means of grace; then holy seasons, and holy places, and pilgrimage to them; holy water; prescribed prayers, or other observances; garments, as the scapular, or coronation robes; the rosary; the crucifix.….
in accordance with the Divine Promise, true developments, and not corruptions of the Revelation.
….
Hence they who assert that the modern Roman system is the corruption of primitive theology are forced to discover some difference of principle between the one and the other….
Quote ID: 7776
Time Periods: 34
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 170
Section: 2E6,3C
The emperor at one time or another took to identifying himself with various gods - Apollo, Hercules, and Helios, deity of the sun - and coins were struck depicting him with a radiating crown.Emperor Constantine?
Quote ID: 283
Time Periods: 1
Ante-Pacem Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine
Graydon F. Snyder
Book ID: 25 Page: 2
Section: 2E6,4B
The next critical point comes about 180 C.E. A Christian faith with a suspended view of culture began to be visible as a new culture. It began to produce symbols and language that could be designated Christian. This is not to say there was no Christian culture prior to 180 C.E. It is only to say that the nascent Christian culture either was not yet distinguishable from society in general, or the first Christians lacked sufficient self identity to establish or itself symbols, language, art and architecture. From the beginning there had to have been social practices peculiar to the life of the first Christians.
Quote ID: 444
Time Periods: 2
Ante-Pacem Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine
Graydon F. Snyder
Book ID: 25 Page: 3
Section: 2D3B,2E6
The scarcity of data prior to Constantine can be explained in several ways. Christian people of the first two centuries did indeed leave us material remains, and archaeologists have likely unearthed them. They simply cannot be distinguished from the non-Christian culture. Christians were indeed acting sociologically and economically, but not recording that activity in ways we can recognize it. As we indicated, that began to alter about 180 C.E. We can find material remains from that time—symbols, art, letters, funerary practices and some built forms. It took about 130 years after Paul universalized Judaism for a distinctly Christian culture to appear. However, not all scholars assume chronological development was the major factor in the appearance of Christian culture. Rodney Stark assumes a much smaller number of Christians than others. The Christian community was simply too few in number to produce a visible culture. In quite a different way, Finney argues that it took that time to establish artisans who could express symbols and pictures different from what they were accustomed. {i}
Quote ID: 445
Time Periods: 2
Ante-Pacem Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine
Graydon F. Snyder
Book ID: 25 Page: 31
Section: 2E6
Without using Clement as a final interpreter, his famous statement should be obvious at this point:Let our seals be the dove, or the fish, or a ship sailing before a fair wind, or the lyre for music, which seal Polycrates used, or a ship’s anchor, which Seleucus carved on his device, and if there be a fisherman, he will recall an apostle and children drawn from the water (paed. 3, 11).
Quote ID: 449
Time Periods: 2
Ante-Pacem Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine
Graydon F. Snyder
Book ID: 25 Page: 62
Section: 2E6
One ought not deny the existence of these common cross signs in the Mediterranean area, nor reference to them by early Christian writers, but they have no demonstrable connection with the crucifixion of Jesus. Tzaferis finds no Christian crosses in Palestine before mid-fourth century. As for Roman-style Christian art that implication first appears at the earliest in the late fourth and certainly by the fifth.
Quote ID: 451
Time Periods: 45
Ante-Pacem Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine
Graydon F. Snyder
Book ID: 25 Page: 215
Section: 2E6
It is striking that, like art and architecture, the first Christian inscriptions in Rome occur at the beginning of the third century. Dated inscriptions 1-4 could be Christian, but, like second century art, are not distinguishable from their non-Christian counterparts. It could be that only a few people in 217 could have seen that the sarcophagus of Prosenes was “different.” One must reflect seriously on the tentative Christian nature of this early third-century inscription, because several decades earlier Phrygian inscriptions were quite explicit in their Christianity.
Quote ID: 460
Time Periods: 0123
Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, The
Hippolytus, translated by Burton Scott Easton
Book ID: 437 Page: 56/57
Section: 2E6
37. But imitate him always, by signing thy forehead sincerely; for this is the sign of his Passion, manifest and approved against the devil if so thou makest it from faith….
Quote ID: 8794
Time Periods: 2
Apostolic Tradition Of St. Hippolytus of Rome, The
Edited by Gregory Dix and Henry Chadwick
Book ID: 274 Page: 59
Section: 2E6
III.xxxii.3. For having blessed the cup in the Name of God thou didst receive it as the antitype of the Blood of Christ.4. Wherefore spill not from it, that no alien spirit lick it up, because thou didst despise it, [and become] guilty of the Blood [of Christ] as one who despises the price with which he has been bought.
Quote ID: 6936
Time Periods: 23
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 61
Section: 2E6
The further step, to a demand for a show of spiritual power, was a short one. Faced by a nest of angry wasps, the harvesters of Besne, near Nantes, turned to Friardus, a devout peasant, half in jest and half in earnest: ‘Let the religious fellow come, the one who is always praying, who makes the sign of the Cross on his eyes and ears, who crosses himself whenever he goes out of the house.’ 7
Quote ID: 713
Time Periods: 6
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 66
Section: 2E6
A polytheist village in the mountains of Lebanon was told that if they followed his commands, by placing stones carved with the sign of the cross, or blessed by portions of his holy dust, on the four corners of their fields, and if they destroyed their shrines and household idols, they would enjoy protection from creatures of the wild – from werewolves and from ravenous field mice. 21
Quote ID: 715
Time Periods: 4
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 71
Section: 2E6
The demons were the lords of illusion. In dreams the demons might even take the form of holy figures, Barsanuphius [a Christian hermit and writer of the sixth century] told a worried layman: only the sign of the cross was reliable; for the demons could not bring themselves to imitate it.34
Quote ID: 720
Time Periods: 6
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 74
Section: 2E6
Many Egyptian Christians seem to have assumed that the martyrs, as ‘unconquered’ heroes who had overcome the demons of the lower air by their heroic deaths, could now by prevailed upon, by the prayers of believers, to torture the demons yet further (in a long Egyptian tradition, by which higher gods bullied and threatened their subordinates) to reveal their own, unearthly knowledge of the future.
Quote ID: 724
Time Periods: 7
Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World
Peter Brown
Book ID: 35 Page: 76
Section: 2E6
The clutter of stuffed deer, lions and snakes, that lay as ex-votos at the foot of Symeon’s column, spoke of notable breaches in the boundary between the animal and the human world healed in the name of the saint.47
Quote ID: 725
Time Periods: 56
Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization
Will Durant
Book ID: 43 Page: 651
Section: 2E6,3B
Galerius, however, saw in Christianity the last obstacle to absolute rule, and urged his chief to complete the Roman restoration by restoring the Roman gods. Diocletian hesitated; he was averse to needless risks, and estimated more truly than Galerius the magnitude of the task. But one day, at an imperial sacrifice, the Christians made the sign of the cross to ward off evil demons. When the augurs failed to find on the livers of the sacrificed animals the marks that they had hoped to interpret, they blamed the presences of profane and unbelieving persons. Diocletian ordered that all in attendance should offer sacrifice to the gods or be flogged, and that all soldiers in the army should similarly conform or be dismissed (302).
Quote ID: 934
Time Periods: 34
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 167
Section: 2E6
Gallerius, one of his successful generals, wanted the army purged of Christians. Powerful friends encouraged Diocletian to agree. He had done well for 20 years without such persecution and saw no need for it. His wife and daughter were Christians. Finally, under much pressure, he decided to leave it up to an oracle of Apollo. Guess what.So, Diocletian agreed--if there would be no blood shed. After all, hadn’t Christians nullified the effectiveness of a recent sacrifice by making the sign of the cross on their breasts during the ceremony? Christians were outlawed.
Quote ID: 1034
Time Periods: 4
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 174/175
Section: 2E6
Eusebius claims that the emperor told him personally of the vision he had. The soon-to-be emperor was praying fervently for divine aid in the coming battle for dominion over the western empire, wrote Eusebius, when a sign appeared in the sky. “He said that about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and an inscription, conquer by this, attached to it.” Eusebius says the emperor told him the army saw it, too. Later, as he lay sleeping, “the Christ of God appeared to him with the sign which he had seen in the heavens, and commanded him to make a likeness of that sign which he had seen in the heavens, and to use it as a safeguard in all engagements with his enemies.”
Quote ID: 1041
Time Periods: 34
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 175
Section: 2E6
Another account of this experience (written by Lactantius within six years of the event), or as some would have it, an additional experience, says that near the Milvian bridge “Constantine was directed in a dream to mark the heavenly sign of God on the shields of his soldiers and thus to join battle. He did this as he was ordered, and with the cross-shaped letter X, with its top bent over, he marked Christ on the shields.”
Quote ID: 1042
Time Periods: 4
Christian History Magazine: When Religions Collide, pp. 26-27, Issue 63 Vol. XVIII No. 3
Terje I. Leiren
Book ID: 392 Page: 27
Section: 2E6
Scandinavians believed church bells cleansed the air, purging it of evil spirits.….
Christians throughout Europe believed bells frightened demons, which heathen gods were often thought to be.
Quote ID: 8390
Time Periods: 67
Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical
Frank C. Senn
Book ID: 54 Page: 5
Section: 2E6
The Christian liturgy, like the Bible on which it is largely based, makes ample use of symbolic and metaphorical language simply because sacred reality can only be expressed in images and symbols. This is why we must be on our guard against the Western demotion of symbolic language, as when it is said, “This is only a symbol.” Western thought has sometimes driven a wedge between “symbol” and “reality.” But the language of liturgy, like the language of the Bible, does not know of such a differentiation. Reality is expressed in symbolic language.
Quote ID: 1206
Time Periods: 27
Christian Symbol and Ritual
Bernard Cooke
Book ID: 56 Page: 7
Section: 2E,2E6
However, it seems that one can go even further and say that the root of all symbolism in human experience and expression is the fact that we humans, because we have physical bodies, necessarily exist symbolically.There is nothing we know that we do not know through our bodily powers of perception.
Quote ID: 1244
Time Periods: 27
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 91
Section: 2A3,2E6
Satanic agents were to be seen as the cause not only of wars and rebellions, persecution and heresy, storms at sea and earthquakes on land, but of a host of minor or major personal afflictions. So, in consequence, Christians were forever crossing themselves, whatever new action they set about, and painted crosses on their foreheads, too, from Tertullian’s day forward, responding to their leaders’ urging them to do so. It would protect them against all evil, so said Lactantius.{43}
Quote ID: 1296
Time Periods: 234
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 93
Section: 2E6
Still another church historian, Theodoret (bishop of Cyrrhus 427-449), writes of the saving of Nisibis from Persian armies by the prayers of its bishop from the battlements, bringing down a plague of gnats upon the enemy; and he mentions with less detail the dragon reduced to dust by the signing of the cross in its face by a holy man.{48} Dragon-encounters by church officials and holy men are often recorded in the eastern regions as well as in the west.
Quote ID: 1297
Time Periods: 5
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 95
Section: 2E6
In medieval France, as we must call it post-400, what the elite thought about the operations of the divine can be read first in Sulpicius Severus, whose hero Martin could raise the dead to life, among his other supernatural acts and powers; Bishop Germanus (d. 448) doing the same; and there is the priest of Caesarius of Arles telling how that bishop’s staff, planted on a hilltop overlooking a farmer’s fields, protected them from bad weather and guaranteed their rich crops; also Nicetus of Trier impressing a Lombard monarch with scenes from around the shrines of various saints in France, dramatic with healings, where “the afflicted (those having demons) are suspended and whirled around in the air and confess the power of the Lords i.e., the saints that I have named to you.”{56}Pastor John notes: John’s Note: look up
Quote ID: 1301
Time Periods: 456
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 96
Section: 2E6
No encomiast of wonders is more familiar than Gregory of Tours (ca. 538-593). His Saint Stephen from the tomb flies to the rescue of distressed mariners and, returning dripping wet, wets the floor of the shrine.{58} Everyone could see the fact, in support of the subsequent testimony of one of the men he saved. Gregory’s Saint Caluppa, ascetic in a cave, is visited by dragons which, when he makes the sign of the cross at them, decamp; and the account is confirmed by the detail that as they left they farted monstrously.
Quote ID: 1302
Time Periods: 67
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 96
Section: 2E6
In Italy, the land of Livy’s birth, various literary figures in the later empire write about and evidently credit such wonders as the apotropaic powers of the sign of the cross, protecting flocks and herds; dramatic exits of demons from the possessed; and the riveting of a sinner in his place, unable to move, paralyzed, until carried to the tomb of the saint he had dishonored where he confesses and is freed.{63} The writer is Paulinus of Nola.
Quote ID: 1303
Time Periods: 45
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 96
Section: 2E6
Another Paulinus, biographer of Ambrose, describes the bishop’s relics able to drive out spirits from those who were brought to him in his church; and “there the throngs of demons shouted aloud how they were tormented by him, so that you couldn’t stand their howls.”{64} (look up) Like other writers, Ambrose himself bestowed the term “patron” on the saints of Milan Protasius and Gervasius, as Paulinus of Nola did on Felix, seeing in them a force to shape the history of their homes.{65}
Quote ID: 1304
Time Periods: 4
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 96
Section: 2E6
And another Gregory, the Great, credits the bishop of Todi with exorcisms, restoration of sight to the blind, even restoration of life to the dead; credits Benedict with many wonders, too, and the bishop of Placentia likewise, able to control the flooding of the Po by dropping a letter of command into its waters.{66}
Quote ID: 1305
Time Periods: 56
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 97
Section: 2E6
He describes Severinus’ mission to Noricum some generations earlier in which a chief instrument were the bishop’s demonstrations of divine power, to resuscitate the dead and banish blight from the wheat fields; even, by marking boundary posts with the cross, toward off floods.{68}
Quote ID: 1306
Time Periods: 5
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 62
Section: 2E2,2E6
Occasionally the bargain was explicit: acknowledge God or be punished. So an ascetic of Hermoupolis in Egypt reduces a procession of non-Christian worshipers to frozen immobility, right in the middle of the road, through spells; and they cannot regain the use of their limbs until they “renounce their error.”
Quote ID: 1461
Time Periods: 234
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 63
Section: 2E6,3C
In Alexandria in A.D. 391, by whose instigation we are not told, but in any case in the wake of the great antipagan riots, “busts of Sarapis which stood in the walls, vestibules, doorways and windows of every house were all torn out and annihilated..., and in their place the sign of the Lord’s cross was painted in the doorways, vestibules, windows and walls, and on pillars.”
Quote ID: 1462
Time Periods: 4
Christianizing the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 58 Page: 88
Section: 2E6
On another occasion, the sign of the cross expels a daimon . . .“A number of idolaters see this miracle and straightway believe in our Lord Jesus Christ; and so, converted from superstition, they accompanied us to church and were baptized”.
Quote ID: 1476
Time Periods: 234
Clement of Alexandria, LCL 092
Loeb Classical Library
Book ID: 140 Page: 5
Section: 2E6
Exhortation to the Greeks - Chpt. IHow in the world is it that you have given credence to worthless legends, imagining brute beasts to be enchanted by music, while the bright face of truth seems alone to strike you as deceptive, and is regarded with unbelieving eyes?
Quote ID: 3013
Time Periods: 23
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 176/177
Section: 3B,2B,2E6
In this atmosphere, designs on imperial coinage show advances upon their customary conservatism. {67} In particular the boy Geta, son of the Unconquerable and Pious Septimius, not only appears as Sol himself, portrayed in a novel half-length representation with radiate crown, but his right hand is raised in the Sun’s magic gesture of benediction (c. AD 200). This gesture, which warded off evil influences as well as conferring blessing, was very ancient, and had reappeared in statues of Roman orators. {68}. Court-poets wrote of the holy or divine hand of their emperor, and Sol’s arm is similarly lifted on Alexandrian coins of Trajan. This symbol, still the sign of Episcopal blessing today, was to become frequent on sarcophagus reliefs and in the catacombs of Christians, where Jesus outstretches his hand in the most popular of all Christian themes, the Raising of Lazarus from the dead (p.214).
Quote ID: 4734
Time Periods: 3
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 392
Section: 2E6
The evidence for Peter’s presence in Rome is flimsy, but no other city (outside Antioch, where by tradition he was the first bishop, and, of course, Jerusalem) lays claim to his presence, and so most scholars are prepared to accept that he did travel to Rome.
Quote ID: 5010
Time Periods: 13
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 392
Section: 2E6
The legend that he was bishop of Rome (if that was the position he held when in the city) for twenty-five years seems to have been a third-century invention.
Quote ID: 5011
Time Periods: 13
Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance
H.A. Drake
Book ID: 65 Page: 10/11
Section: 2E6,3C
It was this victory in 312, according to Eusebius, which led Constantine to adopt “the salutary sign” and attach himself with all the fervor of a new convert to the faith of the apostles.….
Within a year, he was working with the bishop of Rome to settle a church dispute, the Donatist controversy, and little more than a decade later he would take the unprecedented step of calling a worldwide assembly of bishops, the historic Council of Nicaea.
Quote ID: 1668
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 127
Section: 2E6
Two events triggered the persecutions. First, the emperors’ ceremonies on behalf of the army were allegedly rendered null and void by Christians making the sign of the cross. This happened in Syria in 299, when Diocletian and Galerius were engaged in a military rite of sacrifice and divination. It was during this ceremonial that certain Christians of the imperial household made the sign of the cross, in order to keep demons away. Thereupon the official pagan diviners (haruspices) announced that they had failed to identify the necessary marks on the innards of the animals which had been sacrificed, so that the required and expected divination could not take place. The leader of the haruspices pointed to the cause of this failure: profane persons, notably Christians, were impeding the sacrifices. Diocletian and Galerius, sharing the universal contemporary belief in incantations and magic, were infuriated, and directed that every member of the imperial court should sacrifice to the pagan gods. And in addition they sent letters to every military commander, ordering that all soldiers under their commands should perform a similar sacrifice, or else leave the army.
Quote ID: 1706
Time Periods: 34
Cults of the Roman Empire, The
Robert Turcan
Book ID: 209 Page: 124
Section: 2B2,2E6
Until the second century AD, Egyptian zoolatry remained an inexhaustible topic of mockery or indignation among Rome’s pagans. With even greater reason there was astonishment at the cult of plants! ‘Egypt invokes garlic and onions among the gods in its oaths’, lamented Pliny the Elder (Natural History, II, 101). ‘It is sacrilege to insult the leek and the onion by sinking your teeth into them. What devout populations, whose deities grow in vegetable gardens!’ Continued Juvenal (Satires, XV, 9-10).
Quote ID: 5160
Time Periods: 01
Cyril of Jerusalem, NPNF2 Vol. 7, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 667 Page: 22
Section: 2E6
“Let us, therefore, not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ; but though another hide it, do thou openly seal it upon thy forehead, that the devils may behold the royal sign and flee trembling far away. Make then this sign at eating and drinking, at sitting, at lying down, at rising up, at speaking, at walking: in a word, at every act.PJ footnote reference: Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, Lecture IV.14.
Quote ID: 9508
Time Periods: 4
Cyril of Jerusalem, NPNF2 Vol. 7, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 667 Page: 92
Section: 2E6
“Let us not then be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the Cross our seal made with boldness by our fingers on our brow, and on everything; over the bread we eat, and the cups we drink; in our comings in, and goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we rise up; when we are in the way, and when we are still.”PJ footnote reference: Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, Lecture XIII.36.
Quote ID: 9510
Time Periods: 4
Druids, The
Peter Berresford Ellis
Book ID: 212 Page: 177
Section: 2E6
What is interesting is that Virgil (Publius Verilius Maro - 70 - 19 BC) in his Aeneid presents some ideas about a life after death which bear a strong resemblance to the Celtic belief. This is put into perspective when we realize that Virgil was born at Andes, near Mantua, in Cisalpine Gaul, and was of a Celtic family. His works show his intense love of his native land and Dr. Rankin has commented: ‘We need not deny Celtic influences in the background of Virgil’s life.’ Therefore Virgil grew up with a knowledge of the Celtic culture which still existed all around him.
Quote ID: 5228
Time Periods: 0
Early Church on Killing: A Comprehensive Sourcebook on War, Abortion, and Capital Punishment, The
Ronald J. Sider
Book ID: 347 Page: 111/112
Section: 2E6
On the Death of the Persecutors….
10. Diocletian, as being of a timorous disposition, was a searcher into futurity, and during his abode in the East he began to slay victims, that from their livers he might obtain a prognostic of events; and while he sacrificed, some attendants of his, who were Christians, stood by and they put the immortal sign on their foreheads. At this the demons were chased away and the holy rites interrupted.
….
Then Diocletian, in furious passion, ordered not only all who were assisting at the holy ceremonies, but also all who resided within the palace, to sacrifice, and, in case of their refusal, to be scourged. And further, by letters to the commanding officers, he enjoined that all soldiers should be forced to the like impiety, under pain of being dismissed from the service.{172}
Quote ID: 8015
Time Periods: 34
Early Church on Killing: A Comprehensive Sourcebook on War, Abortion, and Capital Punishment, The
Ronald J. Sider
Book ID: 347 Page: 129/130/131
Section: 2E6
The Infancy Gospel of ThomasPastor John notes: John’s note: Crass Mythology
By the end of the fourth century, it was known in Cyprus, Egypt, and Italy. The numerous translations suggest, according to Hennecke-Schneemelcher (Apocrypha, 1:392) that it “enjoyed a wide popularity.”
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Ha!
….
3:2. Seeing what had happened, Jesus said to him: “Your fruit (shall be) without root and your shoot dried up like a branch carried out by a strong wind.”
3. And immediately that child withered.
4:1 While he was going from there with his father Joseph, someone running bumped into his shoulder. And Jesus said to him: “Cursed be your ruling faculty.” And immediately he died.
….
13:1 And Joseph seeing his way of thinking and sensible mind was unwilling for him to be unacquainted with letters. And he handed him over to another teacher. And the teacher, writing for him the alphabet, would say: “Say, alpha.”
….
2. But the boy said: “First you say to me what is the beta and I will tell you what is the alpha.” And the teacher became irritated and hit him. And Jesus cursed him and the teacher fell and died.{2}
Quote ID: 8023
Time Periods: 4
Enemy Within, The
John Demos
Book ID: 220 Page: 90
Section: 2E6
A cross should be cut into a broom to prevent witches from riding on it.Pastor John notes: John’s note: from a late 1600’s handbook brought to America by a Swedish immigrants.
Quote ID: 5457
Time Periods: 7
Europe after Rome: A New Cultural History 500-1000
Julia M. H. Smith
Book ID: 83 Page: 223
Section: 2E6
As Julian, bishop of Toledo (680-90), affirmed, ‘everyone who is truly a Christian should in no way doubt that the flesh will be resurrected of all persons who have been born or will be born and who have died or will die’.{6} On this point, there was indeed agreement.
Quote ID: 2182
Time Periods: 7
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 491
Section: 2E6
Both Socrates (5. 17) and Sozomen (7. 15) relate that symbols of the cross found in a temple of Serapis, on its destruction by Theodosius, were explained by the Christians of the time as symbols of immortality.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: NPNF2, Vol.1, 444. The Life of Constantine, I.xxxii, footnote 1.
Quote ID: 9559
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 493
Section: 2E6
Of the Statue of Constantine holding a Cross, and its Inscription.
Moreover, by loud proclamation and monumental inscriptions he made known to all men the salutary symbol, setting up this great trophy of victory over his enemies in the midst of the imperial city, and expressly causing it to be engraven in indelible characters that the salutary symbol was the safeguard of the Roman government and of the entire empire.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, I.xl.
Quote ID: 9560
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 502
Section: 2E6
For as soon as the armies were ready to engage, he who had broken through the ties of friendly alliance was the first to commence the battle; on which Constantine, calling on the name of “God the Supreme Saviour,” and giving this as the watchword to his soldiers, overcame him in this first conflict; and not long after in a second battle he gained a still more important and decisive victory, the salutary trophy preceding the ranks of his army.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.vi.
Quote ID: 9563
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 502
Section: 2E6
That Victory everywhere followed the Presence of the Standard of the Cross in Battle.
Indeed, wherever this appeared, the enemy soon fled before his victorious troops. And the emperor perceiving this, whenever he saw any part of his forces hard pressed, have orders that the salutary trophy should be moved in that direction, like some triumphant charm against direction, like some triumphant charm against disasters: at which the combatants were divinely inspired, as it were, with fresh strength and courage, and immediate victory was the result.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.vii.
Quote ID: 9564
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 502
Section: 2E6
That Fifty Men were selected to carry the Cross.
Accordingly, he selected those of his bodyguard who were most distinguished for personal strength, valor, and piety, and entrusted them with the sole care and defense of the standard. There were thus no less than fifty men whose only duty was to surround and vigilantly defend the standard, which they carried each in turn on their shoulders. These circumstances were related to the writer of this narrative by the emperor himself in his leisure moments, long after the occurrence of the events; and he added another incident well worthy of being recorded.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.viii.
Quote ID: 9565
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 502
Section: 2E6
That One of the Cross-bearers, who fled from his Post, was slain: while Another, who faithfully stood his Ground, was preserved.
For he said that once, during the very heat of an engagement, a sudden tumult and panic attacked his army, which threw the soldier who then bore the standard into an agony of fear, so that he handed it over to another, in order to secure his own escape from the battle. As soon, however, as his comrade had received it, and he had withdrawn, and resigned all charge of the standard, he was struck in the belly by a dart, which took his life. Thus he paid the penalty of his cowardice and unfaithfulness, and lay dead on the spot: but the other, who had taken his place as the bearer of the salutary standard, found it to be the safeguard of his life.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.ix.
Quote ID: 9566
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 503
Section: 2E6
How Constantine, after praying in his Tabernacle, obtained the Victory.
But while Licinius, giving himself up to these impieties, rushed blindly towards the gulf of destruction, the emperor on the other hand, when he saw that he must meet his enemies in a second battle, devoted the intervening time to his Saviour. He pitched the tabernacle of the cross outside and at a distance from his camp, and there passed his time in a pure and holy manner, offering up prayers to God;
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.xii.
Quote ID: 9567
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 513
Section: 2E6
Constantine gives Glory to God, makes Grateful Acknowledgment of the Sign of the Cross, and prays for the Churches and People.f
“And now I beseech thee, most mighty God, to be merciful and gracious to thine Eastern nations, to thy people in these provinces, worn as they are by protracted miseries; and grant them healing through thy servant. Not without cause, O holy God, do I prefer this prayer to thee, the Lord of all. Under thy guidance have I devised and accomplished measures fraught with blessings; preceded by the sacred sign I have led thy armies to victory: and still, on each occasion of public danger, I follow the same symbol of thy perfections while advancing to meet the foe.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, II.lv.
Quote ID: 9572
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 520
Section: 2E6
Of his Picture surmounted by a Cross and having beneath it a Dragon.
And besides this, he caused to be painted on a lofty tablet, and set up in the front of the portico of his palace, so as to be visible to all, a representation of the salutary sign placed above his head, and below it that hateful and savage adversary of mankind, who by means of the tyranny of the ungodly had wasted the Church of God, falling headlong, under the form of a dragon, to the abyss of destruction.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine, III.iii.
Quote ID: 9586
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 545
Section: 2E6
He orders the Sign of the Saviour’s Cross to be engraven on his Soldiers’ Shields.
And not only so, but he also caused the sign of the salutary trophy to be impressed on the very shields of his soldiers; and commanded that his embattled forces should be preceded in their march, not by golden images, as heretofore, but only by the standard of the cross.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine the Great, IV.xxi.
Quote ID: 9602
Time Periods: 4
Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, The
Peter Heather
Book ID: 223 Page: 411/412
Section: 1B,2E6
The Life includes a much quoted but nonetheless fantastic vignette of the last moments of one particular unit of frontier garrison troops.At the time when the Roman Empire was still in existence, the soldiers of many towns were supported by public money for their watch along the wall [the Danube frontier]. When this arrangement ceased, the military formations were dissolved and, at the same time, the wall was allowed to break down. The garrison of Batavis, however, still held out. Some of these had gone to Italy to fetch for their comrades the last payment, but on their way they had been routed by the barbarians, and nobody knew. One day when St. Severinus [PJ: died 482] was reading in his cell, he suddenly closed the book and began to sigh heavily and to shed tears. He told those who were present to go speedily to the river [the Inn], which, as he declared was at that hour red with human blood. And at that moment, the news arrived that the bodies of the said soldiers had been washed ashore by the current of the river.
As with all the episodes in the Life, this is impossible to date precisely. But when central funds began to run out, the surviving garrison troops just disbanded themselves.
Pastor John’s note: But who were these “barbarians”?
Quote ID: 5600
Time Periods: 5
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 9
Section: 2E6
As he explains to us in his preface, Geoffrey’s purpose in writing the book was to trace the history of the Britons through a long sweep of nineteen hundred years, stretching from the mythical Brutus, great-grandson of the Trojan Aeneas, whom he supposed to have given his name to the island after he had landed there in the twelfth century before Christ.
Quote ID: 5840
Time Periods: 07
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 65
Section: 2E6
It was then about the third hour of the night, when mortal beings succumb to the sweetest rest. It seemed to him that the goddess stood before him and spoke these words to him: ‘Brutus, beyond the setting of the sun, past the realms of Gaul, there lies an island in the sea, once occupied by giants. Now it is empty and ready for your folk. Down the years this will prove an abode suited to you and to your people; and for your descendants it will be a second Troy. A race of kings will be born there from your stock and the round circle of the whole earth will be subject to them.’
Quote ID: 5843
Time Periods: 07
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 72
Section: 2E6
Brutus then called the island Britain from his own name, and his companions he called Britons. His intention was that his memory should be perpetuated by the derivation of the name. A little later the language of the people, which had up to then been known as Trojan or Crooked Greek, was called British, for the same reason.
Quote ID: 5844
Time Periods: 07
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 73
Section: 2E6
One he had divided up his kingdom, Brutus decided to build a capital. In pursuit of this plan, he visited every part of the land in search of a suitable spot. He came at length to the River Thames, walked up and down its banks and so chose a site suited to his purpose. There then he built his city and called it Troia Nova.
Quote ID: 5845
Time Periods: 07
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 122
Section: 2E6
At that time Peter the Apostle founded the church at Antioch. Later he came to Rome and held the bishopric there, sending Mark the Evangelist to Egypt to preach the Gospel which he had written.Pastor John notes: John’s note: What
Quote ID: 5846
Time Periods: 1
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 132
Section: 2E6
After Coel’s death Constantius himself seized the royal crown and married Cole’s daughter. Her name was Helen and her beauty was greater than that of any other young woman in the kingdom. For that matter, no more lovely girl could be discovered anywhere. Her father had no other child to inherit the throne, and he had therefore done all in his power to give Helen the kind of training which would enable her to rule the country more efficiently after his death. After her marriage with Constantius she had by him a son called Constantine.
Quote ID: 5850
Time Periods: 34
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 137
Section: 2E6
As he went forward to meet Conanus, they held olive-branches in their right hands. When the Britons saw these men of venerable years who bore the olive as a sign of peace, they stood up respectfully to meet them and made way so that the envoys could approach the British general more freely.
Quote ID: 5851
Time Periods: 7
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 167/168
Section: 2E6
Then he began to ask her by what man she had conceived the lad. ‘By my living soul, Lord King,’ she said, ‘and by your living soul, too, I did not have relations with any man to make me bear this child. I know only this: that, when I was in our private apartments with my sister nuns, someone used to come to me in the form of a most handsome young man. He would often hold me tightly in his arms and kiss me. When he had been some little time with me he would disappear, so that I could no longer see him.
Quote ID: 5852
Time Periods: 7
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 168
Section: 2E6
I have discovered that quite a number of men have been born in this way. As Apuleius asserts in the De deo Socratis, between the moon and the earth lives spirits which we call incubus demons. These have partly the nature of men and partly that of angels, and when they wish they assume mortal shapes and have intercourse with women. It is possible that one of these appeared to this woman and begot the lad in her.’
Quote ID: 5853
Time Periods: 2
God’s Bestseller
Brian Moynahan
Book ID: 98 Page: 34
Section: 2E6
The word ‘purgatory’ appeared nowhere in it; it was a twelfth-century invention.
Quote ID: 2511
Time Periods: 7
God’s Bestseller
Brian Moynahan
Book ID: 98 Page: 289
Section: 2E6
On 20 June, Frith appeared in front of Stokesley, Gardiner and Longland in St Paul’s Cathedral. He again refused to abjure. ‘The cause why I die is this,’ he said, ‘for I cannot agree . . . that we should believe under pain of damnation, the substance of the bread and wine to be changed into the body and blood of our Saviour.’
Quote ID: 2517
Time Periods: 7
Gospel of Nicodemus, The, ANF Vol. 8, The Twelve Patriarchs
Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson
Book ID: 509 Page: 435
Section: 2E6
“Then rose up the chief priests Annas and Caiaphas, and Joseph, and Nicodemus, and Gamaliel, and others with them, and went away to Arimathæa, and found those whom Joseph spoke of. They made prayer, therefore, and saluted each other. Then they came with them to Jerusalem, and brought them into the synagogue, and secured the doors, and placed in the midst the old covenant of the Jews; and the chief priests said to them: We wish you to swear by the God of Israel and Adonai, and so that you tell the truth, how you have risen, and who has raised you from the dead.The men who had risen [from the dead after Christ’s resurrection] having heard this, made upon their faces the sign of the cross, and said to the chief priests…”
*John’s Note: The work cannot be dated with certainty. This is a silly Christian myth.*
Quote ID: 9113
Time Periods: 45
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: 11
Section: 2E6
Canto I lines 6-8---
Help me escape this evil that I face,
And worse. Lead me to witness what you have said,
Saint Peter’s gate, and the multitude of woes-”
Quote ID: 5862
Time Periods: 07
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: 15
Section: 2E6
Canto II lines 16-19---
Such favor on him befits him, chosen for glory
By highest heaven to be the father of Rome
And of Rome’s empire-later established Holy,
Seat of great Peter’s heir.
Pastor John’s note: Aeneas
Quote ID: 5864
Time Periods: 07
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: xi
Section: 2E6
The moral system of Hell owes more to ancient philosophy than it does to medieval classifications of virtues and vices, while the landscape of the underworld derives from Virgil more than from the poetically impoverished visions of the Middle Ages.
Quote ID: 5858
Time Periods: 07
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: 241
Section: 2E6
Canto XXIII lines 105-118For as I spoke my eye was caught by one
Upon the ground, where he was crucified
By three stakes. When he saw me there he squirmed
All over, and puffing in his beard, he sighed;
Fra Catalano, observing this, explained:
“The one impaled there you are looking at
Is he who counseled the Pharisees to bend
The expedient way, by letting one man be put
To torture for the people. You see him stretch
Naked across the path to feel the weight
Of everyone who passes; and in this ditch,
Trussed the same way, are racked his father-in-law
And others of that council which was such
A seed of evil for the Jews.”
Pastor John’s note: Caiaphas the high priest
Quote ID: 5881
Time Periods: 017
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: 253
Section: 2E6
Canto XXIV lines 104-106Resumed on the ground, the dust spontaneously
The Phoenix in is flames, great sages agree,
To be born again every five hundred years;
Quote ID: 5882
Time Periods: 07
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: 333
Section: 2E6
Canto XXXI lines 87-89“This proud one had a wish to test his power
Against supreme Jove: this is how he is paid,”
My guide said. “Ephialtes is his name;
Quote ID: 5885
Time Periods: 0
Irenaeus of Lyons: On the Apostolic Preaching
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
Book ID: 163 Page: 49
Section: 2E6
This commandment the man did not keep, but disobeyed God, being mislead by the angel who, because of the many gifts of God which He gave to the man, became jealous and looked on him with envy.Pastor John’s note: the angel= Satan
Quote ID: 3428
Time Periods: 2
Irenaeus of Lyons: On the Apostolic Preaching
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
Book ID: 163 Page: 66
Section: 2E6
Cleansing their souls and bodies by the baptism of water and the Holy Spirit, distributing and dispensing the Holy Spirit, which they received from the Lord, to the faithful and in this way they established the churches.
Quote ID: 3429
Time Periods: 2
Julian’s Against the Galileans
R. Joseph Hoffmann
Book ID: 123 Page: 114
Section: 2E6
You whoadore the wood of the cross, trace its figure on your foreheads, draw it on your house-fronts?
Quote ID: 2842
Time Periods: 4
Koran, The
N. J. Dawood (translated with notes)
Book ID: 240 Page: 314
Section: 2E6
Is this not a better welcome than the Zaqqūm tree? We have made this tree a scourge for the unjust. It grows in the nethermost part of Hell, bearing fruit like devils’ heads: on it they shall feed, and with it they shall cram their bellies, together with draughts of scalding water. Then to Hell they shall return.
Quote ID: 6023
Time Periods: 7
Lives of the Twelve Caesars, The
Suetonius
Book ID: 246 Page: 55
Section: 2E3,2E6
Laetorius further urged upon the Senators that he was the possessor and as it were the warden of the spot which the Deified Augustus first touched at his birth, and begged that he be pardoned for the sake of what might be called his own special God. Whereupon it was decreed that that part of his house should be consecrated.A small room like a pantry is shown to this day as the Emperor’s nursery in his grandfather’s country-house near Velitrae, and the opinion prevails in the neighborhood that he was also born there. No one ventures to enter this room except of necessity and after purification, since there is a conviction of long standing that those who approach it without ceremony are seized with shuddering and terror; and what is more, this has recently been shown to be true.
Quote ID: 6202
Time Periods: 0
Lollards of the Chiltern Hills: Glimpses of English Dissent in the Middle Ages, The
W. H. Summers
Book ID: 248 Page: 4
Section: 2E6
… the Puritan dislike to the sign of the cross...page 9 in new book.
Quote ID: 6224
Time Periods: 7
Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament
Bart D. Ehrman
Book ID: 427 Page: 117
Section: 2E6
Making the shape of the cross she went up onto the wood. And they lit it.
Quote ID: 8690
Time Periods: 2
Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament
Bart D. Ehrman
Book ID: 427 Page: 123
Section: 2E6
At that time we apostles were all in Jerusalem—Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the taxgatherer, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Cananaean, and Judas the son{1} of James—and we portioned out the regions of the world, in order that each one of us might go into the region that fell to him by lot, and to the nation to which the Lord had sent him. By lot India fell to Judas Thomas, also called Didymus.
Quote ID: 8692
Time Periods: 3
Lucretius, On The Nature Of Things, LCL 181: Lucretius
Lucretius
Book ID: 162 Page: 8
Section: 2E6
Fear holds dominion over mortalityOnly because, seeing in land and sky
So much the cause whereof no wise they know,
Men think Divinities are working there.
Pastor John’s note: men invent gods
Quote ID: 3420
Time Periods: 0
Mary Through the Centuries
Jaroslav Pelikan
Book ID: 148 Page: 156
Section: 2E6
Luther asserted, “The legends or accounts of the saints which we had under the papacy were not written according to the pattern of Holy Scripture.” And elsewhere he expressed the wish: “Would to God that I had the time to cleanse the legends and examples, or that somebody else with a higher spirit would venture to do it; they are full, full of lies and deception.” Particularly deceptive, of course, were legends about biblical saints, and above all about Mary, for they crowded out the testimony of Scripture about the very qualities that had made them saints in the first place.
Quote ID: 3230
Time Periods: 7
Minor Latin Poets, LCL 484: Minor Latin Poets II
Minor Latin Poets
Book ID: 153 Page: 643
Section: 2E6
Introduction to PhoenixThe earliest reference traceable is one in Hesiod to the bird’s longevity. Herodotus’ contact with Egypt impelled him to mention the story of its re-emergence at Heliopolis every 500 years - . . .
Quote ID: 3268
Time Periods: 0
Minor Latin Poets, LCL 484: Minor Latin Poets II
Minor Latin Poets
Book ID: 153 Page: 644
Section: 2E6
Introduction to PhoenixOvid fitted the description of the nest into the last book of his Metamorphases: . . .
. . .
Pliny in his Natural History touches with considerable minuteness upon the bird’s nest of spices, its habits, and the growth of its offspring.
. . .
Claudian, not only in an elaborate simile of half a dozen lines in his De Consulatus Stilichonis, but also in the 110 hexameters which he almost certainly modelled upon our extant elegiac Phoenix. This is most commonly ascribed to Lactantius, the pupil of Arnobius in oratory, who was professor of rhetoric at Nicomedia early in the fourth century and who later in the West became the instructor of Prince Crispus by the invitation of Constantine. As his conversion from paganism did not divorce him from ancient culture, Lactantius attained distinction among early Christian authors for the beauty and eloquence of his Latin style.
Quote ID: 3269
Time Periods: 014
Monumental Christianity, Or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church
John P. Lundy
Book ID: 155 Page: 4
Section: 2E6
If the mathematician can not do without his signs and formulae, or the merchant without his figures and secret marks, so the religion of all antiquity could not do without symbols. And it is difficult to know how any religion can be preserved in its purity and integrity without symbols, or exact and uniform expressions of truth, from which there shall be no variation...But how is it possible to have a religion and worship for a people at large, without some kind of external form and expression, or how it is possible to preserve and transmit such religion and worship without symbols and records, it is impossible to say.Pastor John notes: John’s notes: wow
Quote ID: 3293
Time Periods: 7
Monumental Christianity, Or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church
John P. Lundy
Book ID: 155 Page: 26
Section: 2E6
Guigniaut, after speaking of the various symbols used by the pagan religionist and philosophers in their mysteries, says that their names and significations passed into the newly-born Christianity.
Quote ID: 3294
Time Periods: 7
Monumental Christianity, Or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church
John P. Lundy
Book ID: 155 Page: 27
Section: 2E6
This learned editor of Crcuzer goes on to say that there is a great diversity of opinion as to origin of the name of symbols as applied to the creeds and the sacraments of Christianity. But their origin, without doubt, must be traced to paganism.
Quote ID: 3295
Time Periods: 7
Monumental Christianity, Or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church
John P. Lundy
Book ID: 155 Page: 27
Section: 2E6
Again, other learned men claim that the term symbol passed from the ancient mysteries into the new liturgy of Christianity, under a higher acceptation, to express certain acts and words of a profound meaning and pithy conciseness, by which the initiated could recognize one another. For my part, I am inclined to think that all the symbols of Christianity were ordained primarily to teach pure doctrine, and that they were necessarily used to distinguish Christianity from paganism, and as signs and watchwords to discriminate between friend and foe, true and false, hypocrites and genuine Christians.
Quote ID: 3296
Time Periods: 7
Monumental Christianity, Or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church
John P. Lundy
Book ID: 155 Page: 127
Section: 2E6
The Greek monogram, therefore, was the prevailing symbol of Christ as the First and the Last, during the first three centuries of the Christian era.
Quote ID: 3309
Time Periods: 123
Monumental Christianity, Or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church
John P. Lundy
Book ID: 155 Page: 129
Section: 2E6
Constantine, indeed, adopted the sacred monogram which was already in use; he did not invent it.
Quote ID: 3310
Time Periods: 47
Natural Symbols
Mary Douglas
Book ID: 157 Page: 168
Section: 2E6
Plato’s image of the cave on whose wall are cast the shadows we mistake for real is a popular one today. There is a heady promise in various intellectual fields of escape from the conditions of knowledge. With this promise an impossible kind of freedom is being proposed, freedom from necessity of any kind. It is preached particularly in artistic and literary circles. These are the people who have shouldered the clergy’s old responsibility to care for the symbols of society.
Quote ID: 3329
Time Periods: 7
Origen: Contra Celsum
Henry Chadwick
Book ID: 164 Page: 398
Section: 2E6,4B
5. Moreover, not only Christians and Jews, but also many other Greeks and barbarians have believed that the human soul lives and exists after separation from the body, and show this by the doctrine that the pure soul, which is not weighed down by the leaden weights of evil, is carried on high to the regions of the purer and ethereal bodies, forsaking the gross bodies on earth and the pollutions attaching to them; whereas the bad soul, that is dragged down to earth by its sins and has not even the power to make a recovery, is carried here and roams about, in some cases at tombs where also apparitions of shadowy souls have been seen, in other cases simply round about the earth. What sort of spirits must we think them to be which for whole ages, so to speak, are bound to buildings and places, whether by some magical incantations or even because of their own wickedness? Reason demands that we should think such spirits to be wicked, for they use their power to know the future, which is morally neither good nor bad, to deceive men and to distract them from God and pure piety towards Him. That this is the character of the daemons is also made clear by the fact that their bodies, nourished by the smoke from sacrifices and by the portions taken from the blood and burnt-offerings in which they delight, find in this, as it were, their heart’s desire, like vicious men who do not welcome the prospect of living a pure life without their bodies, but only enjoy life in the earthly body because of its physical pleasures.
Quote ID: 3457
Time Periods: 23
Pagan Rome and the Early Christians
Stephen Benko
Book ID: 169 Page: 113
Section: 2E6
Lactantius (c. 240-c 320) also blamed the Christian disruption of pagan ceremonies as the initial cause of the persecution under Diocletian, which began in 303. While Diocletian was in the East, he sacrificed animals and had their livers examined. In the midst of these sacrifices, some of his attendants put the sign of the cross on their foreheads.
At this the demons were cleared away, and the holy rites interrupted. The soothsayers trembled, unable to investigate the wanted marks on the entrails of the victims. They frequently repeated the sacrifices, as if the former had been unpropitious; but the victims, slain from time to time, afforded no tokens for divination. At length Tages, the chief of the soothsayers, either from guess or from his own observation, said, ‘There are profane persons here, who obstruct the rites . . . .’ At this Diocletian became angry and ordered all those in the palace to sacrifice. {34}
Quote ID: 3660
Time Periods: 34
Pagan Rome and the Early Christians
Stephen Benko
Book ID: 169 Page: 118
Section: 2E6
In addition to the name of Jesus, Christians also used the sign of the cross in their exorcisms. Justin Martyr wrote about the power of the cross, and found symbols of it in the sail of a ship, the shape of the plough, mechanical tools, the human form, and even the Roman vexilla, (the banner). {63} Tertullian mentioned the crossing of oneself as an established custom among Christians: “At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign.” {64} Tertullian’s contemporary, Hippolytus of Rome wrote: “And when tempted always reverently seal thy forehead (with the sign of the cross). For this sign of the Passion is displayed and made manifest against the devil if thou makest it in faith, not in order that thou mayest be seen of man, but by thy knowledge putting it forward as a shield.” {65}
Quote ID: 3663
Time Periods: 23
Pagan Rome and the Early Christians
Stephen Benko
Book ID: 169 Page: 119
Section: 2E6
Lactantius wrote in a similar vein. Those who have marked on the highest part of their body the sign of the cross (“the sign of the true and divine blood”) will be safe, he asserted. {66} Lactantius also confirmed that the sign of the cross was widely thought to be a great terror to demons. “When adjured by Christ, they flee from the bodies, which they have beseiged.” Just as Christ, when he was living among men, cast out demons by his word, so now his followers “in the name of their Master, and by the sign of His passion, banish the same polluted spirits from men.”. . . .
In pagan sacrifices, if someone stands by with the mark of the cross on his forehead, the sacrifices are not favorable and the diviner can give no answer. {67} “But of what great weight this sign is, and what power it has, is evident, since all the host of demons is expelled and put to flight by this sign.”
Quote ID: 3664
Time Periods: 34
Paganism and Christianity 100-425 C.E. a Sourcebook
Ramsay MacMullen and Eugene N. Lane
Book ID: 170 Page: 5
Section: 2E6
She crossed herself in Christ’s name, for she was a Christian.
Quote ID: 3674
Time Periods: 4
Paganism and Christianity 100-425 C.E. a Sourcebook
Ramsay MacMullen and Eugene N. Lane
Book ID: 170 Page: 23
Section: 2E6
some invoking the Greek Nemesis, for which purpose there is at Rome an image of the goddess on the Capitol, although she has no Latin name?
Quote ID: 3677
Time Periods: 01
Paradiso, The
John Ciardi
Book ID: 260 Page: 55
Section: 2E6
Canto IV: THE PLACE OF THE BLESSEDSo Holy Church shows you in mortal guise
the images of Gabriel and Michael,
and of the other who gave back Tobit’s eyes. 48
Quote ID: 6524
Time Periods: 07
Paradiso, The
John Ciardi
Book ID: 260 Page: 217
Section: 2E6
Canto XIX: THE JUST RULERS THE EAGLE SPEAKSAnd this explains why the first Prideful Power, [*John’s note: the devil*]
highest of creatures, because he would not wait
the power of the ripening sun, fell green and sour. 48
Quote ID: 6529
Time Periods: 07
Purgatorio
Dante Alighieri (A New Verse Translation by W. S. Merwin)
Book ID: 185 Page: 47
Section: 2E6
as a courtesy to me beg them inFano to say such orisons for me
that I may be purged of my heavy sins.
Quote ID: 4102
Time Periods: 7
Purgatorio
Dante Alighieri (A New Verse Translation by W. S. Merwin)
Book ID: 185 Page: 53
Section: 2E6
When I was free of the last of thosewho prayed only for the prayers of others
to bring them sooner to their blessedness
Quote ID: 4103
Time Periods: 7
Rise of Western Christendom, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 265 Page: 267
Section: 2E6
In 591, a party of Turks form eastern central Asia arrived at Constantinople. They bore the sign of the Cross on their foreheads.“They declared that they had been assigned this by their mothers; for when a fierce plague was endemic among them, some Christians advised them that the foreheads of their young be tattooed with that sign.”
These Turks had come from what is now Kirgizstan, some 2,300 miles east of Constantinople, close to the borders of modern China. They had learned about the sign of the Cross from the Christian communities which were established along the entire length of the Silk Route, which lead from Antioch, through Persia, to China.
Quote ID: 6722
Time Periods: 6
Rome 1300: On The Path of the Pilgrim
Herbert L. Kessler and Johanna Zacharias
Book ID: 189 Page: 21
Section: 2E6
According to the Donation of Constantine, the white horse he rides on such occasions follows a custom begun with Constantine’s conferring of imperial power and properties upon Pope Sylvester (although, in fact, it is only a medieval custom introduced to assert the pope’s status as secular ruler).
Quote ID: 4179
Time Periods: 4
Rome in the Dark Ages
Peter Llewellyn
Book ID: 191 Page: 113
Section: 2E6
As the mappula was the especial insignia of the papal service in its closer sense, so the tonsure was the mark that set a man apart for a purely ecclesiastical career. Here there was a distinction to be made since the Roman style was to wear hair short, in contrast to the Merovingian Franks or the Lombards - Gregory I refers to tenants of the Roman Church in Sicily as tonsoratores. In the eighth century when the inhabitants of the Lombard duchy of Spoleto commended themselves in loyalty to Pope Hadrian I, they symbolized this by cutting their hair off, in the Roman mode. But the tonsure proper, a patch completely shaven, was the mark of the clergy distinct from the laity or the military.
Quote ID: 4325
Time Periods: 67
Rome in the Dark Ages
Peter Llewellyn
Book ID: 191 Page: 129
Section: 2E1,2E6
The synod of 721, for example, besides condemning Hadrian, son of Exhiliratus, who had eloped with the deaconess Epiphania, laid down that the clergy were not to go out of doors without wearing the opitergum, a great all-enveloping mantle; while the distinctive mark of clerical status was not to be abandoned in the dictates of fashion: ’If any cleric allows his hair to grow, let him be condemned.’
Quote ID: 4330
Time Periods: 7
Secret Archives of the Vatican, The
Maria Luisa Ambrosini & With Mary Willis
Book ID: 269 Page: 69
Section: 2E6
Gregory the lawyer, the administrator, the ruler, seems to have seen the injustice of condemning a soul to eternal torment for temporal sin, and elaborated Augustine’s idea of purgatory. But hell he pictured in all its medieval horror. With Gregory the North African light leaves the Church and the European winter begins.
Quote ID: 6799
Time Periods: 7
Sentences of Sextus, The by Richard Edwards
Translated by Richard A. Edwards and Robert A. Wild, S.J.
Book ID: 271 Page: 21
Section: 2E6
(Line 39) After he is released from his body, the evil person will be called to account by an evil demon until the last penny is paid up.
Quote ID: 6820
Time Periods: 3
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 14
Section: 2E6
The centaur frequently appears in paintings of the life of St. Anthony Abbot because, according to legend, this fabulous animal pointed out to the saint the way to reach St. Paul the Hermit in the desert.
Quote ID: 4456
Time Periods: 347
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 16
Section: 2E6
The dragon is the attribute of St. Margaret, and of St. Martha, both of whom are said to have fought, and vanquished, a dragon. It is also the attribute of a number of other saints, including St. George of Cappadocia, who slew the dragon ‘through the power of Jesus Christ.’
Quote ID: 4457
Time Periods: 7
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 18
Section: 2E6
In Renaissance imagery, the fish is given as an attribute to Tobias because the gall of a fish restored the sight of his father Tobit; it is also given as an attribute to St. Peter, an allusion to his being a fisherman; and to St. Anthony of Padua, who preached to the fish.
Quote ID: 4458
Time Periods: 7
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 23
Section: 2E6
The phoenix was a mythical bird of great beauty which lived in the Arabian wilderness. Its life span was said to be between three hundred and five hundred years. Periodically, it burned itself upon a funeral pyre; whereupon, it would rise from its own ashes, restored to all the freshness of youth, and would enter upon another cycle of life. The phoenix was introduced into Christian symbolism as early as the first century, when the legend of this bird was related by St. Clement in his first Epistle to the Corinthians.
Quote ID: 4459
Time Periods: 6
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 26
Section: 2E6
The unicorn, according to the myth, was a small animal, similar in size to a kid, but surprisingly fierce and swift, with a very sharp, single horn in the center of its forehead. Supposedly no hunter could capture the animal by force, but it could be taken by means of a trick. The hunter was required to lead a virgin to the spot frequented by the unicorn and to leave her alone there. The unicorn, sensing the purity of the maiden, would run to her, lay its head in her lap, and fall asleep. Thus its capture would be effected.. . . .
Thus, the unicorn is usually an attribute of the Virgin Mary, but also of St. Justina of Padua and of St. Justina of Antioch, who retained their purity under great temptation.
Quote ID: 4460
Time Periods: 347
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 27
Section: 2E6
In Latin, the word for apple and the word for evil, malum are identical.
Quote ID: 4461
Time Periods: 07
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 34
Section: 2E6
The fleur-de-lis, a variety of lily, is the emblem of royalty. The fleur-de-lis was chosen by King Clovis as an emblem of his purification through baptism, and this flower has since become the emblem of the kings of France. For this reason, the flower is an attribute of St. Louis of France and St. Louis of Toulouse, both of them members of the royal house of France.
Quote ID: 4462
Time Periods: 567
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 35
Section: 2E6
Long before the Christian era, the ancient Celtic cult of the Druids worshiped the oak. As was often the case with pagan superstitions, the veneration of the oak tree was absorbed into Christian symbolism and its meaning changed into a symbol of Christ or the Virgin Mary. The oak was one of the several species of trees that were looked upon as the tree from which the Cross was made. (See Ilex, Aspen)
Quote ID: 4463
Time Periods: 4
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 97
Section: 2E6
The most common accepted division and order of the angelic host is that established by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, as follows:First Hierarchy: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones.
Second Hierarchy: Dominations, Virtues, Powers.
Third Hierarchy: Princedoms, Archangels, Angels
Quote ID: 4464
Time Periods: 45
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 102
Section: 2E6
About a year after her death, the city of Catania was threatened with destruction by a stream of molten lava which poured down from Mt. Etna. The people of the city rushed to the tomb of St. Agatha and, taking her silken veil, carried it upon a lance to meet the advancing river of fire. When the stream of lave met the sacred relic it turned aside, and the town was saved.
Quote ID: 4465
Time Periods: 3
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 104/105
Section: 2E6
St. Anthony the Great or Anthony Abbot - At the age of ninety, he believed that no man had lived so long as he in solitude and self-denial. But he heard a voice saying, ‘There is one holier than thou, for Paul the Hermit has served God in solitude and penance for ninety years.’ Anthony, therefore, went in search of the Hermit Paul.On his way he met many wonders and temptations. A centaur and a satyr pointed out the way to him, while an ingot of gold was placed on his path by the Devil to stop him. But the saint dispelled all temptations with the sign of the Cross, and finally reached the cave where Paul was living. When they met, Paul told how each day for sixty years a raven had brought him half a loaf of bread. The two old men started to live together in the desert, and the raven thereafter brought, every day, a whole loaf of bread. After Paul’s death, Anthony returned to his own dwelling, where he remained for fourteen years, until his own death at the age of one hundred and five.
Quote ID: 4467
Time Periods: 4
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 106
Section: 2E6
Many Christians left the city to avoid death, but Apollonia, a deaconess of the Church, remained in the city to comfort the few who were left there. She awaited her martyrdom with joy, preaching the Christian faith and making many converts. For this she was arrested by the authorities and ordered to sacrifice to the gods of the city. The saint, however, made the sign of the Cross before the idols she was ordered to worship, and the statues broke into a thousand fragments. As punishment she was bound to a column and her teeth were pulled out by pincers. She was then taken outside the city, where a great fire had been prepared for her death. But Apollonia, far from being afraid, cast herself into the fire and offered her body to Christ. Her attributes are the palm of martyrdom and a pair of pincers holding a tooth. She is the patron saint of dentists.
Quote ID: 4468
Time Periods: 3
Signs & Symbols in Christian Art
George Ferguson
Book ID: 195 Page: 107
Section: 2E6
St. Barbara (third century) was born either at Heliopolis in Egypt or at Nicomedia in Asia Minor. She was brought up by her father, a rich heathen, who loved her very much and was fearful some man would marry her and take her away.. . . .
Finally, at his own request, her father was permitted to strike off her head. As he returned home after committing this awful deed, the father was killed by a bolt of lightning, which struck him down in the midst of a great crash of thunder. Because of this thunderous punishment, St. Barbara has become the patron saint of artillery and hence of soldiers, gunsmiths, and fire fighters. She is invoked against accidents and sudden death.
Quote ID: 4469
Time Periods: 3
Tacitus, Histories, LCL 249: Tacitus III, Histories, Books 4-5
Tacitus (Translated by A.J. Church)
Book ID: 197 Page: 135
Section: 2E6
{45} The legend of the phoenix seems to have spread from Egypt over a wide area. Herodotus (II, 73) describes it in connection with Heliopolis; but it is mentioned in a poem ascribed to Hesiod, and is perhaps as old as the seventh century B.C.
Quote ID: 7522
Time Periods: 0
Talmud Unmasked, The: The Secret of Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians
I. B. Pranaitis
Book ID: 558 Page: 43/44
Section: 2E6
Rabbi Aben Ezra, when he speaks about the Emperor Constantine who changed his religion and placed the image of him who was hanged on his banner, adds: “Rome therefore is called the Kingdom of the Edomites.” And Rabbi Bechai, in his Kad Hakkemach (on Isaiah 66:17] “They are called Edomites who move their fingers ‘here and here’” (who make the sign of the cross).
Quote ID: 9225
Time Periods: 47
Tertullian, ANF Vol. 3, Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian
Edited by Philip Schaff and Alan Menzies
Book ID: 678 Page: 94
Section: 2E6
At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign {I}.PJ footnote reference: Tertullian, The Chaplet, or De Corona, III
Quote ID: 9724
Time Periods: 2
Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards, The
The Geoffrey Chaucer Page
Book ID: 275 Page: 4
Section: 2E6
The Seventh Conclusion: Prayers for the DeadThe seventh conclusion that we mightily affirm is: that special prayers for dead men’s souls made in our church, preferring one by name more than another, this is the false ground of alms deeds, on the which all alms houses in England be wickedly grounded.
Quote ID: 6945
Time Periods: 7
Vigilantius and His Times
William Stephen Gilly
Book ID: 284 Page: 139
Section: 2E6
footnote * The letter of Paulinus, from which this extract is taken, contains a curious passage relating to the number 300. I transcribe it as a sample of the superstitions of the fourth century.‘It was not with a great number of soldiers, nor with armed legions, that this holy man (Abraham) triumphed over the princes, his enemies, but with only three hundred of his servants, that is to say, by the power of the cross, represented by the Greek letter T, which, in the arithmetic of the language, signified three hundred, and we may add that it was by the same power that the ark or Noah, floating on the waters, a type of Church in the world, was raised three hundred cubits above the earth’
This fanciful and mystic interpretation is ascribed originally to Barnabas. Tertullian, Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great, and several others, indulged in the same extravagant opinions of the hidden meaning of the Number 300, as represented by the Greek letter T. - See Rosweyd, Notes on the second Epistle of Paulinus.
Quote ID: 7201
Time Periods: 4
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