as adviser to the ordinary when the process is referred to the episcopal court. By the reorganization of the Roman Curia, 29 June, 1908, the Holy Office continues to retain its exclusive competency in all cases of heresy and kindred crimes. The office of fiscalis to this Congregation therefore remains un- changed.
Joseph Laurentis.
Fish, Symbolism of the.—Among the symbols employed by the primitive Christians that of the fish ranks probably first in importance. While the use of the fish in pagan art as a purely decorative sign is ancient and constant, the earliest literary reference to the symbolic fish is made by Clement of Alexandria, born about 150, who recommends his readers (Pædagogus, III, xi) to have their seals engraved with a dove or a fish. Clement did not consider it necessary to give any reason for this recommendation, from which it may safely be inferred that the meaning of both symbols was so well known to Christians that explanation was unnecessary. Indeed, from monumental sources we know that the symbolic fish was familiar to Christians long before the famous Alexandrian was
Crypt of Lucina, Catacomb of St. Callistus
born; in such Roman monuments as the Capella
Greca and the Sacrament Chapels of the catacomb of
St. Callistus, the fish was depicted as a symbol in the
first decades of the second century. The symbol itself
may have been suggested by the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes or the repast of the
seven Disciples, after the Resurrection, on the shore of
the Sea of Galilee (John, xxi, 9), but its popularity
among Christians was due principally, it would seem,
to the famous acrostic consisting of the initial letters
of five Greek words forming the word for fish ((
Greek characters)),
which words briefly but clearly described the character
of Christ and His claim to the worship of believers:
(Greek characters), i. e. Jesus Christ,
Son of God, Saviour. (See the discourse of Emperor
Constantine, "Ad cœtum Sanctorum" c. xviii.) It is
not improbable that this Christian formula originated
in Alexandria, and was intended as a protest against
the pagan apotheosis of the emperors; on a coin from
Alexandria of the reign of Domitian (81-96) this em-
peror is styled (Greek characters) (son of God).
The word (Greek characters), then, as well as the representation
of a fish, held for Christians a meaning of the highest
significance; it was a brief profession of faith in the
divinity of Christ, the Redeemer of mankind. Believers in this mystic (Greek characters) were themselves "little
fishes according to the well-known passage of Tertullian (De baptismo, c. 1): "we, little fishes, after the
image of our (Greek characters), Jesus Christ, are born in the
water". The association of the (Greek characters) with the
Eucharist is strongly emphasized in the epitaph of
Abercius, the second-century Bishop of Hieropolis in
Phrygia (see ABERCIUS, INSCRIPTION OF), and in the
somewhat later epitaph of Pectorius of Autun. Abercius tells us on the aforesaid monument that in his
journey from his Asiatic home to Rome, everywhere on
the way he received as food "the Fish from the
spring, the great, the pure", as well as "wine mixed
with water, together with bread". Pectorius also
speaks of the Fish as a delicious spiritual nurture supplied by the "Saviour of the Saints". In the Eucharistic monuments this idea is expressed repeatedly in
pictorial form; the food before the banqueters is invariably bread and fish on two separate dishes. The
peculiar significance attached to the fish in this relation is well brought out in such early frescoes as the
Fractio Panis scene in the cemetery of St. Priscilla,
and the fishes on the grass, in closest proximity to the
baskets containing bread and wine, in the crypt of
Lucina. (See EUCHARIST, SYMBOLISM OF THE.) The
fish symbol was not, however, represented exclusively
with symbols of the Eucharist; quite frequently it is
found associated with such other symbols as the dove,
the anchor, and the monogram of Christ. The monuments, too, on which it appears, from the first to the
fourth century, include frescoes, sculptured representations, rings, seals, gilded glasses, as well as
enkolpia of various materials. The type of fish depicted calls for no special observation, save that, from
the second century, the form of the dolphin was frequently employed. The reason for this particular
selection is presumed to be the fact that, in popular
esteem, the dolphin was regarded as friendly to man.
Besides the Eucharistic frescoes of the catacombs a
considerable number of objects containing the fish-symbol are preserved in various European museums,
one of the most interesting, because of the grouping of
the fish with several other symbols, being a carved
gem in the Kircherian Museum in Rome. On the left
is a T-form anchor, with two fishes beneath the cross-bar, while next in order are a T-form cross with a dove
on the crossbar and a sheep at the foot, another T-cross
as the mast of a ship, and the Good Shepherd carrying
on His shoulders the strayed sheep. In addition to
these symbols the five letters of the word (Greek characters)
are distributed round the border. Another ancient
carved gem represents a ship supported by a fish, with
doves perched on the mast and stern, and Christ on
the waters rescuing St. Peter. After the fourth century the symbolism of the fish gradually disappeared;
representations of fishes on baptismal fonts and on
bronze baptismal cups like those found at Rome and
Trier, now in the Kircherian Museum, are merely of an
ornamental character, suggested, probably by the
water used in baptism.
Heuser in Kraus, Real-Encyk. der christlichen Alterthümer (Freiburg, 1882); Wilpert, Le pitture delle catacombe romane (Rome, 1903), for accurate representations; Idem, Principien-fragen (Freiburg, 1889); Tyrwhitt and Cheetam in Dict. Christ. Antiq., s. v. Important archæologico-literary studies
on the subject are the dissertations of G. B. De Rossi, De christianis monumentis (Greek characters) exhibentibus in Spicileg. Solesm. (1855), III, 548-84, and Pitra, De pisce allegorico et symbolico, ibid., 499-543, 627-29. See also Leclerq, Manuel d' archéol. chrét. (Paris, 1907), II. 379-81; Kaufmann, Manuale di archeol. crist., tr. It. (Rome, 1908); particularly R. Mowat in
Société nat. des antiquaires de France (Paris, 1898), 21 and Atti del II. Congr. Internazionale (Rome, 1902), 1–8.
Maurice M. Hassett.
Fisher, John. See John Fisher, Blessed.
Fisher, Philip (an alias, real name {{sc|Thomas Copley), missionary, b. in Madrid, 1595-6; d. in Maryland, U. S., 1652. He was the eldest son of William Copley of Gatton, England, of a Catholic family of distinction who suffered exile in the reign of Elizabeth. He arrived in Maryland in 1637, and, being a man of great executive ability, took over the care of the mission, "a charge which at that time required rather business men than missionaries". In 1645, Father Fisher was wantonly seized and carried in chains to England, with Father Andrew White, the founder of
