The legend which supposes St. John reserved alive has not been generally received in the Church, and as a subject of painting it is very uncommon. It occurs in the Menologium Græcum', where the grave into which St. John descends is, according to the legend, "fossa in crucis figuram" (in the form of a cross). In a series of the deaths of the apostles 2, St. John is ascending from the grave; for, according to the Greek legend, St. John died without pain or change, and immediately rose again in bodily form, and ascended into heaven to rejoin Christ and the Virgin.

In a small and very curious picture which I saw at Rome 3, forming part of a Predella, there is a tomb something like the Xanthian tombs. in form: one end is open; St. John, with a long grey beard, is scen issuing from it, and, as he ascends, he is met by Christ, the Virgin, St. Peter, and St. Paul, who are descending from above; while figures below look up with astonishment. On the ancient doors of San Paolo he is lying in an open grave or sarcophagus.

Of the miracles performed by John after his death, two are singularly interesting in the history of art; both have been treated in sculpture. 9. When the Empress Galla Placidia was returning from Constantinople to Ravenna with her two children (A. D. 425), she encountered a terrible storm. In her fear and anguish she vowed a vow to St. John the Evangelist, and, being landed in safety, she dedicated to his honour a magnificent church. When the edifice was finished, she was extremely desirous of procuring some relics of the evangelist, wherewith to consecrate his sanctuary; but as it was not the manner of those days to exhume, and buy and sell, still less to steal, the bodies of holy men and martyrs, the desire of the pious empress remained unsatisfied. However, as it is related, St. John himself took pity upon her; for one night, as she prayed earnestly, he appeared to her in a vision; and when she threw herself at his feet to embrace and kiss them, he disappeared, leaving one of his slippers or sandals in her hand, which sandal was long preserved.

Vatican MSS., tenth century. 3 Vatican, Christian Museum. VOL. I.

2 MSS., ninth century. Paris Nat. Library.

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The antique church of Galla Placidia still exists at Ravenna, to keep alive, after the lapse of fourteen centuries, the memory of her dream, and of the condescension of the blessed apostle. Not much of the original building is left; the superb mosaics have all disappeared, except a few fragments, in which may be traced the storm at sea, and Galla Placidia making her vow. Over the principal porch, which is of white marble, in the Lombard style, and richly and elegantly ornamented, the miracle of the slipper is represented in two bas-reliefs, one above the other. The lower compartment, or lunette, represents a tabernacle, and within it an altar: St. John the evangelist is seen offering incense; on the other side is Barbation, the confessor of the empress; she, prostrate at the feet of the apostle, seems to take off his sandal: on each side are six hovering angels bearing the implements of the mass. In the upper compartment, Galla Placidia is seen kneeling at the feet of Christ, and offering to him the sacred sandal, while the evangelist stands on one side, and Barbation on the other. These basreliefs are not older than the twelfth century, and are in excellent preservation: I should suppose, from the style of the grouping, that they were copied, or imitated, from the older mosaics, once in the interior of the church.

10. The other miracle has the rare interest of being English in its origin and in its representation. "King Edward the Confessor had, after Christ and the Virgin Mary, a special veneration for St. John the Evangelist. One day, returning from his church at Westminster, where he had been hearing mass in honour of the evangelist, he was accosted by a pilgrim, who asked of him an alms for the love of God and St. John. The king, who was ever merciful to the poor, immediately drew from his finger a ring, and, unknown to any one, delivered it to the beggar. When the king had reigned twenty-four years, it came to pass that two Englishmen, pilgrims, returning from the Holy Land to their own country, were met by one in the habit of a pilgrim, who asked of them concerning their country; and being told they were of England, he said to them, When ye shall have arrived in your own and salute him in my name: say to him,

country, go to King Edward,

that I thank him for the alms which he bestowed on me in a certain

street in Westminster; for there, on a certain day, as I begged of him an alms, he bestowed on me this ring, which till now I have preserved, and ye shall carry it back to him, saying that in six months from this time he shall quit the world, and come and remain with me for ever.' And the pilgrims, being astounded, said, Who art thou, and where is thy dwelling-place?' And he answered, saying, I am John the Evangelist. Edward your king, is my friend, and for the sanctity of his life I hold him dear. Go now, therefore, deliver to him this message and this ring, and I will pray to God that ye may arrive safely in your own country.' When St. John had spoken thus, he delivered to them the ring, and vanished out of their sight. The pilgrims, praising and thanking the Lord for this glorious vision, went on their journey; and being arrived in England, they repaired to King Edward, and saluted him, and delivered the ring and the message, relating all truly. And the king received the news joyfully, and feasted the messengers royally. Then he set himself to prepare for his departure from this world. On the eve of the Nativity, in the year of our Lord 1066, he fell sick, and on the eve of the Epiphany following he died. The ring he gave to the Abbot of Westminster, to be for ever preserved among the relics there."1

According to one account 2, the pilgrims met the king near his palace at Waltham, at a place since called Havering. The writer adds, "In allusion to this story, King Edward II. offered at his coronation a pound of gold made in the figure of a king holding a ring, and a mark of gold (8 oz.) made like to a pilgrim putting forth his hand to receive the ring." These must have been two little statuettes of gold.

The legend of King Edward and St. John the evangelist is represented, with other legends of the same monarch, along the top of the screen of Edward the Confessor's chapel. It is in three compartments. The first represents King Edward bestowing the ring on St. John in the disguise of a pilgrim; Westminster Abbey is seen behind. The second shows us the meeting of the pilgrims and St. John in Palestine; he holds what seems a palm. In the third the pilgrims deliver the ring to

Johannis Brompton Cronicon, 955.

2 Dart's Hist. of Westminster.

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King Edward, who is seated at table. The sculpture is very rude; the figures disproportioned and ungraceful. They are supposed to be of the time of Henry VI.

The same legend was painted on one of the windows of Romford church, in Essex, but whether it still exists there I know not. 1

Before I quit the subject of the Evangelists, it is worth while to observe that, in Greek Art, not only the Four Evangelists, but the six writers of the Acts and Epistles, are considered as a sacred series. In an ancient and beautiful MS. of the Epistolæ Canoniche, presented by the Queen of Cyprus to Pope Innocent VIII., they are thus represented, two and two together:

St. Luke, with a very thoughtful, earnest, countenance, holds a scroll, on which is written in Greek the commencement of the Acts, 66 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus," &c.; and St. James, with a long, very earnest, and refined face, holds a single roll.

St. Peter, with a broad, coarse, powerful physiognomy, strongly characterised, holds two rolls; and St. John, with a long and very refined face, grey hair and beard, holds three rolls.

St. Jude, with a long white beard and very aquiline nose, holds one roll. St. Paul, bald in front, with long brown hair and beard, and a refined face, bears many rolls tied up together.

All the figures are on a gold ground, about six inches in height, very finely conceived, though, as is usual in Byzantine art, formal and mechanical in execution. They look like small copies of very grand originals. The draperies are all classical; a pale violet or brown tunic and a white mantle, as in the old mosaics; the rolls in their hands corresponding with the number of their writings.

1

v. Legend of St. Edward the Confessor in the "Legends of the Monastic Orders," p. 99.

The Twelve Apostles.

NEXT to those who recorded the word of God, were those called by Christ to the task of diffusing his doctrine, and sent to preach the kingdom of heaven "through all nations."

The earliest representations of the Twelve Apostles appear to have been, like those of the Four Evangelists, purely emblematical: they were figured as twelve sheep, with Christ in the midst, as the Good Shepherd bearing a lamb in his arms; or, much more frequently, Christ is himself the Lamb of God, raised on an eminence and crowned with a cruciform nimbus, and the apostles were ranged on each side as sheep. Instances are to be met with in the old Christian bas-reliefs. In the old Roman churches we find this representation but little varied, and the situation is always the same. In the centre is the lamb standing

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on an eminence, from which flow the four rivers of Paradise; on one side six sheep issuing from the city of Jerusalem, on the other six sheep. issuing from the city of Bethlehem, the whole disposed in a line forming a sort of frieze, just below the decoration of the vault of the apsis. The church of S. M. Maggiore exhibits the only exception I have met with; there we find a group of sheep, entering, not issuing from, the gates of Jerusalem and Bethlehem: in this case, however, the sheep may represent believers, or disciples in general, not the twelve apostles. Upon the great crucifix in the apsis of San Clemente, at Rome, are twelve doves, which appear to signify the twelve apostles.

The next step was to represent the apostles as twelve men all alike, each with a sheep, and Christ in the middle, also with a sheep, some

Rome. S.M. in Trastevere. S. Prassede. S. Clemente. S. Cecilia.