by hiding himself under the bedstead. In the background of the picture are figures of God the Father,

FIG. 16.-The "Ars Moriendi."-The triumph over vain-glory,
from the British Museum block-book (about 1460).

Jesus Christ, a dove (representing the Holy Ghost), and St. Anthony the Hermit (as a type of humility). The block-book illustration of the third temptation, the

H

temptation by impatience, represents the dying man discontented with his attendants and his doctor. He has already upset the table with the food and medicine on it, and is unceremoniously pushing the doctor away with his foot, whilst a lady (his wife?) expostulates or

FIG. 17.-The "Ars Moriendi."-The temptation
by impatience, by the Master E.S.

(according to the words of the label) excuses him on account of his suffering. A demon with bat's wings, by the bed, is (as the attached label tells us) rejoicing at having successfully deceived the sufferer (see Fig. 17, from the similar Master E.S. series). The last scene of the series represents the final triumph over all temptations

at the hour of death. The dying man, lying in bed, holds a lighted taper, which is placed in his hand by a monk.77 His soul, issuing from his mouth in the form of a naked child, is being received by a company of angels above his head. On one side of the bed are the discomfited demons with scrolls attached to them, bearing such inscriptions as: "Spes nobis nulla." On the other side are the crucified Christ, the Virgin Mary, St. John the Evangelist, and other saints (see Fig. 18, from the similar Master E.S. series).

This last scene may be compared to that of the "Sinner's death," from the Hortus Deliciarum, by the Abbess Herrade von Landsberg, a twelfth-century manuscript destroyed during the siege of Strassburg in 1870 (fol. 123, Pl. xxxiii. of the reproductions by the Society for the Preservation of the Historical Monuments of Alsace). By the death-bed stand two hideous devils, one of whom grasps the soul as it escapes, in the form of a little naked human figure, from the mouth of the dying man. Another representation of death from the Christian religious point of view, from a fourteenth-century manuscript in the British Museum, shows a bony figure of Death spearing a man on his deathbed. An angel stands at the head of the bed ready to receive the dying man's soul, which is escaping from his mouth in the form of a minute nude human figure (in the attitude of an orans). At the foot of the bed a devil likewise waits to seize the soul.

78

With the admonitory significance of the illustrations of the Ars Moriendi may be compared the memento mori purpose of the designs

"The original significance of lighted tapers, candles, torches, and candelabra in connexion with death-scenes, laying out of the body, tombs and sepulchral monuments, both in Christian (cf. the lighted tapers used in connexion with the Viaticum of the Roman Catholic Church) and pre-Christian times, was doubtless in part the idea of keeping away evil spirits and the powers of darkness, that were supposed to be afraid of light. But cf. the paper on the subject, by G. McN. Rushforth, "Funeral Lights in Roman Sepulchral Monuments," Journal of Roman Studies, London, 1915, vol. 5, p. 149. Mrs. Arthur Strong and others contributed to the discussion on Rushforth's paper. In regard to the uses of torches and lights at funerals in Great Britain, see Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, revised by Sir Henry Ellis, edition of 1849, vol. ii. pp. 276-279.

78 See L. Twining, Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, London, new edition, 1885, Pl. 68, Fig. 3.

(skeletons, admonitory verses, &c.) frequently introduced in illuminated Books of Hours, and in old printed calendars (cf. the original of the "Shepherds' Calendar," Le compost et kalendrier des bergiers, printed by Guiot Marchant, at Paris, in 1493) and other works intended for frequent reference.

In some respects the Ars Moriendi, as a kind of handbook or guide to holy dying, reminds one of the Ancient Egyptian guide-books to the

other world. In an account of the Egyptian collections in the British Museum we read: "An important section of the Religious Literature of Egypt is formed by works which were intended to be used as Guides to the Other World. The oldest of these is a work in which pictures are given of portions of Restau, in the kingdom of the god Seker, and of several parts of the Sekhethetep, or Elysian Fields, and their positions in respect of the celestial Nile are shown."

C.

Sepulchral Monuments and Sepulchral Inscriptions of Admonitory Character. The "Gisant" Type of Monument of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. The Horror-inspiring Aspect of " Memento Mori" Religious

Art.

IT is quite natural that advantage should have been taken of the opportunities afforded (more frequented formerly than now), by tombs and monuments and other works of art in cloisters, burial-places, churches, and cathedrals, for purposes of religious teaching, especially of the admonitory and memento mori kind.

In the so-called gisant type of sepulchral monument of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the deceased is usually sculptured with all the attributes of worldly wealth and power and high social standing, and on a lower slab or compartment a skeleton or corpse or emaciated or decaying body (the so-called gisant) is represented-often being "eaten by worms"-to warn the rich and great, and comfort the poor and unfortunate, of this world, by reminding them of the vanity of wealth and earthly titles in the presence of Death, the leveller of all distinctions of social rank, personal beauty, and bodily strength. J. Guiart quotes a poet of the epoch

"Et dans ces grands tombeaux, où leurs âmes hautaines Font encore les vaines

Ils sont mangés des vers."

(In regard to these lines compare also the poem by Peter Patrix, entitled, "A Dream," which is quoted further on, in Part II., viii. Patrix satirically represents the corpse of a rich man as resenting the burial of a beggar by his side.)