PORT-ROYAL
295
PORT-ROYAI,
Paul's figure entire. A third fresco of particular in-
terest, in the cemetery of Priscilla, exhibits a subject
frequently represented on sculptured sarcophagi,
namely, Christ giving the law to St. Peter. Christ is
standing on the globe. His right hand raised and ex-
tended, while, with His left, He is handing to St.
Peter a roll which the .-Vpostle receives with veiled
hands. The author of this scene, which dates from
about the middle of the fourth century, evidently re-
garded the Prince of the Apostles as holding an office
under the New Law the counterpart of that of Moses
under the Old. A fresco of the cemetery Ad duas
lauros, dating from the middle of the third century,
appears to have been inspired by the same idea: St.
Peter is represented, seated on a low chair, with an
open roll which he is carefully studying.
Such are the earliest painted representations of the Apostles still in existence. With the exception of St. Peter and St. Paul, according to Wilpert, the Apostles show no specially indi\-idualistic traits, some are por- trayed with beard, some without, but merely for the sake of variety. The two chief Apostles, on the other hand, are alwaj'S easily recognized and are of marked indiN-iduality. St. Peter appears as a man of great energj", ■nith a short, thick beard, and close cut, curly hair, which in the earlier frescoes is parti}', in the later wholly, gray. St. Paul is represented as the Apostle of intellect, bald, and with long, pointed beard, dark brown in colour. With slight changes this type of the two Apostles was always represented in cemeterial frescoes, mosaics and sculptured sarcophagi, and in fact persists to the present day. Indeed so familiar were Roman Christians with the conventional appear- ances of their favourite Apostles that, save in a few cases, the artists never thought it necessary to in- scribe their names underneath their pictures, even when represented with other saints whose names are given. From this persistence of t>-pe Wilpert regards it as probable that, if the Romans did not actually possess portraits of Sts. Peter and Paul, at least a tradition existed as to their general appearance, and that catacomb representations of them conform to this tradition. The historian Eusebius informs us that he has heard of "likenes.ses of the Apostles Peter and Paul" as well as of Our Lord, being preserved in paintings (Hist, eccl., VII, xvi).
The most perfect of the ancient representations of St. Peter and St. Paul are those of the well-known bronze medal, dating from the second century, dis- covered by Boldetti in the catacomb of Domitilla and now in the Christian museum of the Vatican. The types of the catacomb frescoes are here readily recog- nized: the close cut, curly hair and short beard of St. Peter, and the longer beard and fine head of St. Paul. Portraits of St. Peter and St. Paul exist also on a num- ber of the gold glasses found in the catacombs; on these the familiar tj-pe is reproduced, but the work- manship is of inferior order. Allusions to the office of St. Peter as head of the Church, besides the traditio legis pictures mentioned above, are seen in those monuments in which Peter takes the place of Moses as the miracle-worker striking the rock in the wilder- ness, and also in several parallel scenes on sarcophagi contrasting Moses with Peter. In catacomb frescoes of the third and fourth centuries Christ is frequently represented performing miracles by means of a wand. Peter is the only Apostle, in early Christian monu- ments, who is .shown with a staff or wand, apparently as a sjinbol of his superior po.sition. The keys are seen for the first time on sarcophagi of the fifth cen- tur)'; from this date on these attributes of St. Peter appear with increasing frequency on the monuments, until, from the end of the sixth century, they become the rule. The oldest fresco of the giving of the keys to the Prince of the .\postles is in the crypt of Sts. Felix and Adauctus; it is attributed to the beginning of the sixth century.
The famous bronze statue of St. Peter in the basilica
of this Apostle in Rome is by some regarded as a work
of the fifth or sixth century, by others as pertaining
to the thirteenth. The latter date is adopted by
Kraus and Kaufmann among others; Lowrie, however,
maintains that "no statue of the Renaissance can be
compared with this for genuine understanding of the
classic dress", and, therefore, this writer holds for the
more ancient date. The marble statue of St. Peter
taken from the old basiUca, now in the crj-pt of the
Vatican, was originally, in all probability, an ancient
consular statue which was transformed into a repre-
sentation of the Prince of Apostles. The now familiar
sjTnbol of St. Paul, the sword, made its first appear-
ance in Christian art in the tenth century. St. Peter
and St. Paul quite naturally appear much more fre-
quently in Roman and western monuments than the
other .\postles; as founders of the Roman Church, and
one of them as head of the universal church, their
memorj- was revered in the centre of Christianity. In
all representations also they occupy the place of
honour, to the right and left of Christ. Curiously
enough, St. Paul is generally, though not invariably,
on the right and St. Peter on the left. De Rossi,
however, regards this arrangement as a matter of no
particular moment, and points out that in some classic
representations Juno, the wife of Jui)iter and queen
of the gods, appears on the left of her spouse, while
Minerva occupies the right.
Wilpert, Malereien der Katacomben Roms (Freiburg, 1903) ; Kraus in Reulencyklopddie f. Christl. AUerlhumer a. v. Petrus u. Pauiiw (Freiburg. 1896); KutLh. ibid., s.\: Apostel: K.iufm.\nn, Hatidbuch der christlichen Archdologie (Paderborn, 1905) ; Lowrie, Monuments of the Early Church (New York, 1901).
M.'i.uRicE M. Hassett. Port-Royal, a celebrated Benedictine abbey which profoundly influenced the religious and literary life of France during the seventeenth century. It was founded in 1204 by Mathilde de Garlande, wife of Mathieu de Montmorency, in the valley of Chevreuse, six leagues (between sixteen and seventeen miles) from Paris, where the village of Magny-les-Hameaux, in Seine-et-Oise, now stands. Subject first to the Rule of St. Benedict and then to that of Citeaux, it suffered greatly during the English invasions and the wars of rehgion. At the beginning of the seventeenth century its discipline was completely relaxed, but in 1608 it was reformed by Mere Angelique Arnauld, aided by the advice and encouragement of St. Francis de Sales. Xuns trained at Port-Royal then .spread all over France, working for the reform of t he other monasteries. In 1626 Port-Royal, besides being very unhealthful, no longer afforded adequate accommodation, and the community migrated to Paris, settling in the Fau- bourg St-Jacques. Renouncing the ancient privileges granted by the popes, the new abbey placed itself under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Paris; the nuns, devoted henceforth to the worship of the Holy Euchari-st, took the name of Daughters of the Blessed Sacrament. In 1636 the Abbe de St-Cyran became the spiritual director of the monastery, which he soon made a hotbed of Jansenism. He gathered around him the Abbe Singlin, the two brothers of Mere Angelique, .\rnauld d'.\ndilly and .\ntoine, the great .\rnauld, their three nephews, Antoine Lemaitre, Lemaitre de Lacy, and Lemaitre de Si5ricourt, Nicole, Lancelot, Hamon, Le Nain de Tillemont, and others, who, urged by a desire for solitude and study, with- drew to the "monastery "of the fields". — There was then a Port -Royal of Paris, and a Port-Royal "of the fields".— In 1638 they opened what they called the pelites ecoles, in which Lancelot, Nicole, Guyot, and M. de Selles taught the nephews of St-C\Tan and some other children. They were transferred to Paris in 1647, then brought "back to the country to Les Granges, near Port-Royal, to Trous, at the home of M. de Bagnols, to Le Chesnay, at the residence of M. de Bunieres.
