st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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52 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
to be seen the images of Christ and of His Mother,
images of the saints, emblems of divine grace or
operation, the dove for the Holy Spirit, the ark for
the Church, the fish, as the letters of its name in
Greek formed the initial letters of the name and title
of Christ, the anchor of Christian hope, and so on.
Such effigies were engraved on their signets, and
drinking-cups, and tombs; and by-and-by were found
on the walls of their churches as well. To trace the
growth of this practice through successive generations
would be beyond our limits it may be sufficient to
:
remark that it
developed more slowly in the Western
than in the Eastern branch of the Church. Coming
at once to a time approaching that of John of
Damascus, we find Gregory the Great (590-604)
writing to a hermit who had applied to him on the
subject, that he was well aware that his correspondent
desired not the image of his Saviour, to worship it as
God, but to kindle in him the love of Him whose
image he beheld. "Neither do we,"
he added,
1
prostrate ourselves before the image
as before a
Deity ;
but we adore Him, whom the symbol repre
sents to our memory as born, or suffering, or seated
on the throne."
There could have been small cause for dissension,
if all who found comfort in a crucifix or a painting
had kept themselves within these bounds. But even
in the Western Church, and still more widely and
rapidly in the Eastern, the actual practice, unless all
testimony is to be discredited, went far beyond this.
1
Neander, v., p. 275.