But this grossness of treatment reaches its most offensive development in the impious attempt to symbolize the sublime mystery of the Holy Trinity by a grotesque figure with three heads, or a head with three faces joined together, somewhat after the manner of the three-headed image of Brahma in the Hindoo mythology.[612] In other examples the Trinity is represented by three harsh stiff and aged figures,[613] identified by the attributes of the tiara, cross, and dove, enveloped in one common mantle, and jointly crowning the Virgin Mary in heaven, whose flowing train the angels humbly bear. By this degradation of Deity and exaltation of Mary we may mark the infinite divergence in 361 faith and practice of the modern church of Rome from the simplicity, purity, and orthodoxy of the ancient church of the Catacombs, as evidenced by that primitive art and symbolism whose priceless monuments we have been examining. [477] In the bas reliefs of Chartres Cathedral and in other mediæval churches, a biblical cycle somewhat analogous in character to that of the Catacombs is represented. In the former case the whole drama of time from the creation of the world to the last judgment is set forth in a series of pictures in stone comprising 1,800 figures, often with a touching _naiveté_ and simple grace. [478] _Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte._ [479] _History of Christian Art_, vol. i, p. 47. [480] In an ivory diptych, probably of the fourth century, which is figured in Marriott’s _Testimony of the Catacombs_, is a very spirited bas relief of Adam in the garden giving the beasts their names. [481] Is there any allusion here to Noah as a “preacher of righteousness?” [482] 1 Pet. iii, 20, 21. The dove is the symbol, says Tertullian, of the Holy Spirit bringing the peace of God after the mystical lustration of the soul in baptism.--_De Baptismo_, vii. [483] It is difficult to conceive how such a wide departure from historic truth took place in these representations. It has been suggested that they were copied from some pre-existing type, upon which this form was imposed by the conditions of space in which it was executed. Such a type occurs in the celebrated Apamean medals, of date A. D. 193-211. See Fig. 67. It probably commemorated the Deucalion deluge; and the design was apparently modified by the Christian artists to represent the preservation of Noah. [484] Hostia viva Deo tanquam puer offerar Isaac, Et mea ligna gerens, sequar almum sub cruce patrem. [485] _E. g._, Greg. Nazianz., _Orat._ 42. [486] 1 Cor. x, 4.