erome firmly believed in their existence. Into _The City
of God_ Saint Augustine introduces the Erythrean Sibyl, who, he says,
faithfully foretold the Life of the Saviour. As early as the
thirteenth century, these virgins of old had their places in
cathedrals by the side of patriarchs and prophets. But it was not
until the fifteenth century that multitudes of them were represented;
sculptured on church porches, carved on choir stalls, painted on
chapel walls or glass windows. Each one has her distinctive attribute.
The Persian holds the lantern and the Libyan the torch, which
illuminated the darkness of the Gentiles. The Agrippine, the European,
and Erythrean are armed with the sword; the Phrygian bears the Paschal
cross; the Hellespontine presents a rose tree in flower; the others
display the visible signs of the mystery they foretell: the Cumaean a
manger; the Delphian, the Samian, the Tiburtine, the Cimmerian a crown
of thorns, a sceptre of reeds, scourges, a cross.[775]

[Footnote 775: Jean Philippe de Lignan, Rome, 1481 (not paginated),
leaf 10 and the following. For the comparison of Jeanne d'Arc to the
ancient Sibyl, see the Clerk of Spire, _Sibylla Francica_, in the
_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 422. Christine de Pisano in the _Trial_, vol. v,
p. 12. Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations en faveur de Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 8-10. Barbier de Montault, _Iconographie des Sibylles_, in
the _Revue de l'art chretien_, xiii-xiv (1869-1870). Barraud, _Notice
sur les attributs avec lesquelles on represente les Sibylles aux
XV'e et XVI'e siecles_, in the _Bulletin archeologique de la
Commission historique des arts mon._, vol. iv (1848). Cf. Morosini,
vol. iv, supplement xiv, p. 319.]

The very economy of the Christian religion--the ordering of its
mysteries, wherein humanity is represented as ruined by a woman and
saved by a virgin, and all flesh is involved in Eve's curse--led to
the triumph of virginity and the exaltation of a condition which, in
the words of a Father of the Church, is in the flesh, yet not of the
flesh.

"It is because of virginity," says Saint Gregory of Nyssa, "that God
vouchsafes to dwell with men. It is virginity which gives men wings to
soar towards heaven." Celibacy raises the Apostle John above the
Prince of the Apostles himself. At the funeral of the Virgin Mary,
Peter gave John a palm branch, saying: "It becometh one who is
celibate to bear the Virgin's palm."[776]

[Footnote 776: Voragine, _La leg