DOCUMENTS

Alienating Ecclesiastical Property, The Power of, granted to Ordinaries in

the New Code is further Defined by the Congregation of the Council

Apostolic Letter of Benedict XV on the Propagation of the Faith through-

out the World

.

to his Eminence Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris

to Most Rev. Dr. Patrick J. O'Connor, Bishop of Armidale,

offering Congratulations on Erection and Consecration of a new

Cathedral

to the Bishops of Switzerland assembled at Sion

to their Eminences Cardinals Gibbons and O'Connell and the

other Bishops of the United States

to the Rector and Doctors of the University of Louvain

Application of the Decree 'Redeuntibus'

PAGE

337

510

429

523

524

62

331

82

159

65, 345

ticular Church, Doubt regarding the Extent of a

Custody and use of a Confirmation Book, Dispute regarding the, settled

520

by the Congregation of the Council

156

68

Australian Apostolic Delegate, Extension of the Jurisdiction of the
Blessed Joan of Arc, Decrees regarding the Canonization of
Bishop's Power to Alienate the Votive Offerings of the Faithful to a par-

Constitution of certain Ecclesiastical Tribunals, Doubts regarding the
Election of Bishops in Canada, Decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congre-

Encyclical Letter of the Holy Father making Appeal for the Starving
Children of Central Europe

Erection and Constitution of Quasi-Parishes or Missions of certain Dioceses
in accordance with the New Code, Declaration regarding the

Feast of St. Patrick is retained as a Holiday of Obligation, and the Law
of Fast and Abstinence on that day is dispensed by the Holy See
Foundation of certain Ecclesiastical Benefices, Doubts regarding the
Fulfilment of Conditions prescribed in the

•

Indult of the Congregation of Rites empowering Ordinaries to Permit

the Celebration of a Requiem Mass on Sunday, November 2, and

on One of Five specified Sundays in the Months of October and

November, 1919

.

Innocent a Bertio, Priest of the Order of Cappucins Minor, Decree intro-

ducing the Cause of Beatification and Canonizaion of the Servant

of God

'Inter reliquas,' How far the Decree (referring to Religious attached to
Military Service), is affected by the Promulgation of the New Code
Irish Bishops, Statement of the, adopted at the June Meeting, 1919

Statement of the Standing Committee of the, on the pro-
posed Education Bill for Ireland

Irish Capuchin Martyrs, The-Introduction of the Cause of Fr. Fiacre
Tobin, O.S.F.C., of Kilkenny, of Fr. John Baptist Dowdall,
O.S.F.C., of Ulster

.

Letter of His Holiness Pope Benedict XV to the Prioress and Community
at St. Mary's, Cabra, on the Occasion of the Bicentenary of their
Foundation in the Archdiocese of Dublin

Letter of the Holy Father to the German Bishops urging the Restoration
of the Work of the Church in Germany after the Sanction of the
Peace Treaty

72

507

332

62

75

431

79

172

328

504

242

153

167

PAGE

Louisa de Marillac, Co-Foundress of the Society of the Sisters of Charity,

Decree for the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of

God

257

Marital Consent, a Plea of Defect of, procures a Declaration of Nullity of

Marriage

Matrimonial Case, Re-examination of a Decision in a, by the Holy Apos-
tolic Signatura

341

163

Ordination, Incardination, and Absolution from Reservations, Replies to
Queries regarding, submitted by his Eminence Cardinal Logue
Parish Priests on their Translation from one Parish to another, There
is no Concursus or Examination prescribed by the New Code of
Canon Law for

330

169

Paula Elizabeth, Foundress of the Institute of the Sisters of the Holy

Family, Decree for the Beatification and Canonization of the

Servant of God

160

Philomena Joanna Genovese, of the Third Order of St. Francis, Decree

concerning the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of

God

432

t

'Pious Clerical Missionary Union 'is granted certain Privileges
Power of attaching Indulgences to Rosaries, Crosses, etc., Doubt regard-

ing the, solved by the Sacred Penitentiary

82

259

Profession of Lay-Religious in Regular Orders, Doubt regarding the

Profession of Nuns according to the New Code, The Rite to be observed

525

in the

256

Theosophism is not reconcilable with Catholic Doctrine, and its Teaching

and Publications are Proscribed for Catholics

169

The Society for Procuring the Unity of Christianity,' Decree regarding

the participation of Catholics in

249

333

Vicar-General, The Right of a, to precedence in a Cathedral Chapter

THE IRISH

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD

LEONARDO DA VINCI'S 'LAST SUPPER' (AN APPRECIATION)

BY REV. P. A. BEECHER, M.A., D.D.

As this year marks the fourth centenary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci (he died on 2nd May, 1519), it may not be out of place to make a few remarks about his 'Last Supper,' which is known wherever the Catholic faith has penetrated. When Da Vinci painted this picture on the wall of the Dominican convent in Milan, he inaugurated a new era in painting, an era in which it reached a higher perfection than during the 150 'golden years of Greek painting. Doubtless, the Greeks, in that technique which aimed at painting nature to the point of illusion, still remained unrivalled; but, after all, such illusion was not a high motive, and could not for a moment be compared with the lofty aim-soaring even to the Godheadof Da Vinci and his contemporaries. Here, too, as a background, is a something which the Greeks never attempted in their golden period-they did later, with only partial success-a genuine piece of landscape. In order to realize what this painting did for that art of which the Church has ever been the patroness and highest inspiration, it is necessary to take a retrospective view. I shall try, however, to be as brief as possible. The early Church was completely dependent for its art on the Romans; and the Romans were largely dependent on Greek artists who came to their shores, they themselves being too utilitarian to have any firm grasp of its secret. We can understand, then, how, with the decay of the Roman Empire, the hand lost its cunning (as we can see in the catacombs, in which the older paintings are the better) and how, after a time, the

FIFTH SERIES, VOL. XIV-JULY, 1919.

laws of linear and aerial perspective, with their corollary fore-shortening, were completely lost; and, without these laws, painting, as we see amongst the Egyptians, must remain primitive and crude indeed. All through the Middle Ages, even at the time when architecture attained its highest perfection, these laws were hidden in obscurity, and the Church had to be satisfied with a mere symbol, or with the crude conventionalities of the Byzantine style. Cimabue, in the 13th century, made the first great effort to break from this latter,1 and on the day when his enthroned Madonna was unveiled, the picture was carried in triumphal procession through the streets of Florence to the altar prepared for it; and so great was the joy that a square was named Borgo dei Allegri. His pupil Giotto so far surpassed him that he and not Cimabue is commonly named the Father of Modern Painting; but even he had a long way to go.

Over a hundred years elapsed, during which there were many efficient painters, such as Masolino and Masaccio, but none could be said to have so improved on Giotto's work as to constitute a distinct epoch until we come to Fra Filippo Lippi, his pupil Botticelli, and his (Filippo's) son, Filippino Lippi. They succeeded, indeed, in giving us beautiful, idyllic Madonnas, and each name, in turn, stands for marked progress; but the laws they were striving for were not yet fully mastered; so that, in this sense, it is true to say that painting is the youngest of the fine arts. At last, Da Vinci's 'Last Supper,' which not only put everything up to that time in the shade, but established a new era in painting, an era as marked, in its own way, as that which saw the leap of Greek architecture from its inchoation in Assyrian and Egyptian. Filippino Lippi, the greatest of the three afore-mentioned, acknowledged the supremacy of the master, and later, at Florence,