ing; She may be symbolized
by any chaste and gentle creature. The Anonymous Englishman in his
_Monastic Distinctions_, compares Her to the bee, which we have seen so
vilified by the Archbishop of Mayence, but the Virgin was most
especially represented by the dove, the bird of all others whose Church
functions are most onerous.

"All authorities agree in taking the dove as the image at once of the
Virgin and of the Paraclete. According to Saint Mechtildis, it is the
simplicity of the heart of Jesus; with others it signifies the
preachers, the active religious life, as contrasted with the turtle
dove, which personifies the contemplative life, since the ring-dove
flies and coos in company, whereas the turtle dove rejoices apart and
alone.

"To Bruno of Asti the dove is also an image of patience, a figure of the
prophets.

"As to the beasts symbolizing Hell and evil, they are almost without
number; the whole creation of monsters is to be found there. Then among
real animals we find: the serpent--the aspic of Scripture, the scorpion,
the wolf as mentioned by Jesus Himself, the leopard noted by Saint
Melito as being allied to Antichrist, the she-tiger representing the
sins of arrogance, the hyena, the jackal, the bear, the wild-boar,
which, in the Psalms, is said to destroy the vineyard of the Lord, the
fox, described as a hypocritical persecutor by Peter of Capua and as a
promoter of heresy by Raban Maur. All beasts of prey; and the hog, the
toad--the instrument of witchcraft, the he-goat--the image of Satan
himself, the dog, the cat, the ass--under whose form the Devil is seen
in trials for witchcraft in the Middle Ages, the leech, on which the
anonymous writer of Clairvaux casts contumely; the raven that went forth
from the ark and did not return--it represents malice, and the dove
which came back is virtue, Saint Ambrose tells us; and the partridge
which, according to the same writer, steals and hatches eggs she did not
lay.

"If we may believe Saint Theobald, the Devil is also symbolized by the
spider, for it dreads the sun as much as the Evil One dreads the Church,
and is more apt to weave its net by night than by day, thus imitating
Satan, who attacks man when he knows him to be sleeping and powerless to
defend himself.

"The Prince of Darkness is also to be seen as the lion and the eagle
interpreted in an evil sense.

"This," reflected Durtal, "is the same fact as we find in the expressive
symbolism of colour