The winged living figures, symbols of the evangelists, which are most
frequently met with, and which have ever been most in favour with Early
Christian artists, appear to have been used at a very early date. They are
taken from the vision of Ezekiel and the Revelation of St. John. "The
writings of St. Jerome," says Audsley, "in the beginning of the fifth
century gave to artists authority for the appropriation of the four
creatures to the evangelists," and for reasons which are there given at
length.
ST. MATTHEW: _Winged Man_, Incarnation.--To St. Matthew was given the
creature in human likeness, because he commences his gospel with the human
generation of Christ, and because in his writings the human nature of Our
Lord is more dwelt upon than the divine.
ST. MARK: _Winged Lion_, The Resurrection.--_The Lion_ was the symbol of
St. Mark, who opens his gospel with the mission of John the Baptist, "the
voice of one crying in the wilderness." He also sets forth the royal
dignity of Christ and dwells upon His power manifested in the resurrection
from the dead. The lion was accepted in early times as a symbol of the
resurrection because the young lion was believed always to be born dead,
but was awakened to vitality by the breath, the tongue, and roaring of its
sire.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
ST. LUKE: _Winged Ox_, Passion.--The form of the ox, the beast of
sacrifice, fitly sets forth the sacred office, and also the atonement for
sin by blood, on which, in his gospel, he particularly dwells.
ST. JOHN: _The Eagle_, Ascension.--The eagle was allotted to St. John
because, as the eagle soars towards heaven, he soared in spirit upwards to
the heaven of heavens to bring back to earth revelation of sublime and
awful mysteries.
Independently of their reference to the four evangelists these figures
sometimes refer to _the Incarnation_, _the Passion_, _the Resurrection_,
and _the Ascension_.
Sedulius, a priest and poet of the fifth century, says much the same in
the following verse:
Hoc Matthæus agens, Hominem generaliter implet:
Marcus ut alta fremit vox per deserta Leonis:
Jura sacerdotis Lucas tenet ore Juvenci:
More volens Aquilæ verbo petit astra Johannes.
THE LION OF ST. MARK.--In the ninth century the rapidly rising State of
Venice was dignified by the reception of the relics of St. Mark,
transported thither from Alexandria. "Few patron saints," says Theodore A.
Buckley, "enjoy a greater popularity, whether socially or locally
exemplified. His lion was emblazoned on the standard of the Republic, and
stamped on the current coins, while his name was identified with the
pride, the power, and glory of all Venice."[5]
Emblems of the evangelists do not often appear in heraldry.
Walter Reynolds, Archbishop of Canterbury, according to a manuscript at
Lambeth (executed for Archbishop Laud), bore _azure on a cross or, between
the symbols of the evangelists of the last, four lions rampant gules_.
The Freemasons appear to use a similar coat of arms upon their seal, viz.,
_a cross between the emblems of the four evangelists, and for supporters
two cherubims, all proper_.
[Illustration: The Lion of St. Mark, Venice.]