ought Him
forth, nurtured and loved Him. That it should be considered a point
of faith with Protestants to treat such memorials with incredulity
and even derision, appears to me most inconsistent and unaccountable,
though I confess that between these simple primitive memorials and the
sumptuous tasteless column and image recently erected at Rome there is
a very wide margin of disputable ground, of which I shall say no more
in this place. But to return to the antique conception of the "Donna
orante" or so-called Virgin Mother, I will mention here only the moat
remarkable examples; for to enter fully into the subject would occupy
a volume in itself.

There is a figure often met with in the Catacombs and on the
sarcophagi of a majestic woman standing with outspread arms (the
ancient attitude of prayer), or holding a book or scroll in her hand.
When this figure stands alone and unaccompanied by any attribute, I
think the signification doubtful: but in the Catacomb of St. Ciriaco
there is a painted figure of a woman, with arms outspread and
sustained on each aide by figures, evidently St. Peter and St. Paul;
on the sarcophagi the same figure frequently occurs; and there are
other examples certainly not later than the third and fourth century.
That these represent Mary the Mother of Christ I have not the least
doubt; I think it has been fully demonstrated that no other Christian
woman could have been so represented, considering the manners and
habits of the Christian community at that period. Then the attitude
and type are precisely similar to those of the ancient Byzantine
Madonnas and the Italian mosaics of Eastern workmanship, proving, as
I think, that there existed a common traditional original for this
figure, the idea of which has been preserved and transmitted in these
early copies.

Further:--there exist in the Roman museums many fragments of ancient
glass found in the Christian tombs, on which are rudely pictured in
colours figures exactly similar, and having the name MARIA inscribed
above them. On one of these fragments I found the same female figure
between two male figures, with the names inscribed over them, MARIA.
PETRVS. PAVLVS., generally in the rudest and most imperfect style, as
if issuing from some coarse manufacture; but showing that they have
had a common origin with those far superior figures in the Catacombs
and on the sarcophagi, while the inscribed names leave no doubt as to
the significance.

On