CHAP. XVI.
Of the picture of S. Christopher.
THe picture of St. Christopher, that is a man of a Giant like sta••ure, bearing upon his shoulders our Saviour Christ, and with a staffe in his hand, wading thorow the water, is known unto children, common over all Europe, not onely as a signe unto houses, but is described in many Churches, and stands Colossus like in the entrance of Nostre Dame in Paris.
Now from hence, common eyes conceive an history sutable unto this description, that he carried our Saviour in his Minority over some river or water, which notwithstanding wee cannot at all make out; for wee read not thus much in any good Author, nor of any remarkable Christopher, before the reigne of Decius, who lived 250. yeares after Christ; this man indeed according unto History suffered as a Martyr in the second yeare of that Emperour, and in the Roman Calender takes up the 21. of Iuly.
The ground that begat or promo••ed this opinion was, first the fabu∣lous adjections of succeeding ages, unto the veritable acts of this Mar∣tyr, who in the most probable accounts was remarkable for his staffe, and a man of a goodly stature.
The second was a mistake or misapprehension of the picture; most men conceiving that an History which was contrived at first but as an Emblem or Symbolicall fancy, as from the Annotations of Baronius upon the Roman Martyrology, Lipellous in the life of St Christopher hath observed in these words; Acta S. Christophori à multis deprava∣ta inveniuntur; quod quidem non al••unde originem sumpsisse certum est, quam quod Symbolicas figur as imperiti ad veritatem successu temporis transtulerint ita{que} cuncta illa de Sancto Christophero pingi consueta, Sym bola potius quam historiae alicujus existimandum est, esse expressam imagi∣nem: Now what Emblem this was, or what its signification con∣jectures