th the
seal of Divine approbation, and that the Son never fulfilled any
injunction of His earthly Mother which was not ratified by His Eternal
Father in heaven.

Such is the beautiful portrait which the Church holds up to the
contemplation of her children, that studying it they may admire the
original, admiring they may love, loving they may imitate, and thus become
more dear to God by being made "conformable to the image of His Son,"(273)
of whom Mary is the most perfect mirror.

Chapter XV.

SACRED IMAGES.

The veneration of the images of Christ and His Saints is a cherished
devotion in the Catholic Church, and this practice will be vindicated in
the following lines.

It is true, indeed, that the making of holy images was not so general
among the Jews as it is among us, because the Hebrews themselves were
prone to idolatry, and because they were surrounded by idolatrous people,
who might misconstrue the purpose for which the images were intended. For
the same prudential reasons the primitive Christians were very cautious in
making images, and very circumspect in exposing them to the gaze of the
heathen among whom they lived, lest Christian images should be confounded
with Pagan idols.

The catacombs of Rome, to which the faithful alone were admitted,
abounded, however, in sacred emblems and pious representations, which are
preserved even to this day and attest the practice of the early Christian
Church. We see there painted on the walls or on vases of glass the Dove,
the emblem of the Holy Ghost, Christ carrying His cross, or bearing on His
shoulders the lost sheep. We meet also the Lamb, an anchor and a
ship--appropriate types of our Lord, of hope and of the Church.

The first crusade against images was waged in the eighth century by Leo
the Isaurian, Emperor of Constantinople. He commanded the paintings of our
Lord and His Saints to be torn down from the church walls and burned. He
even invaded the sanctuary of home, and snatched thence the sacred emblems
which adorned private residences. He caused statues of bronze, silver and
gold to be melted down and conveniently converted them into coins, upon
which his own image was stamped. Like Henry VIII. and Cromwell, this royal
Iconoclast affected to be moved by a zeal for purity of worship, while
avarice was the real motive of his action.

The Emperor commanded the learned librarians of his imperial library to
give pub