Wolves and Dogs in Christian Symbolism By Frederick Edward Hulme 1892
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Probably one great reason why the dog, "the friend of man," as we call him, is so seldom introduced in religious art is that it is an animal that is but rarely mentioned in the Bible, and when referred to at all it is in an evil sense. The only indication of their possessing any value is in a passage in Job, where the dogs of the flock are referred to, though even here the reference is somewhat contemptuous. Elsewhere the children of Israel are told not to bring the price of a dog into the house of the Lord for any vow. The thankless people of God are compared by Isaiah to dumb dogs, elsewhere to greedy dogs; and in the last chapter of the whole Bible we read that dogs, sorcerers, murderers, and idolaters shall be excluded from the paradise of God. It will be naturally objected to this latter passage that it cannot be taken in any literal sense; but if the animal be introduced in a symbolic sense, it only strengthens our assertion that all the associations connected with the dog in the Bible are unfavourable to its introduction in any art under religious influence. If our readers will take the trouble to look up some of the passages, and there are over thirty of them where the animal is expressly named, they will find that our statement is fully borne out by the facts. The dog even to the present day throughout the East occupies a very inferior position. He is tolerated as a public scavenger, but he calls no man master, and, prowling as he does with his fellows in large packs, goes far to become a public nuisance. In medieval art he is generally intended as a symbol of fidelity. He is placed at the feet of SS. Bernard, Wendelin, Sira, and Roch; while St. Parthenius is represented as slaying a mad dog by the sign of the cross.
[In the apocryphal book of Tobit the dog figures fully as a companion. Ver. 16 of chap. v. is a pleasant picture: "And when his son had prepared all things for the journey, his father said, Go thou with this man, and God, which dwelleth in heaven, prosper your journey, and the angel of God keep you company. So they went forth both, and the young man's dog with them."]
The pig is intended in a good sense as the symbol of St. Anthony; in an evil sense, as one of the forms in which Satan has from time to time appeared. St. Anthony was said to have been originally a swineherd, and is therefore ordinarily represented as accompanied by a hog; and pigs were in some cases dedicated to him. In Pisano's picture in the National Gallery of "St. Anthony and St. George," the two saints confront each other, and at the feet of one is the pig, and of the other the vanquished dragon. Amongst the figures carved in Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster will be found St. Anthony, a bearded figure in frock and scapular, and at his side a gaunt pig is standing.
The use of the pig in an evil sense has probably been a good deal influenced by the Biblical story of the possession of the herd of swine by the evil spirits cast out from the demoniacs, and by its being included amongst the unclean beasts forbidden to the chosen people. Such texts again as that in Proverbs, "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion," or that in Matthew against casting pearls before swine, show a tendency towards depreciation of the animal.
"Gregory relateth in a dialogue in his third book that when a certain church of the Arians having been restored to the Orthodox was being consecrated, and reliques of St. Sebastian and the blessed Agatha had been conveyed thither, the people there assembled of a sudden perceived a swine to be running to and fro among their feet: the which regaining the doors of the Church could be seen of none, and moved all to marvel. Which sign the Lord showed for this cause, that it might be manifest to all that the unclean inhabitant had gone forth from that place. But in the following night a great noise was made on the roof of the same church, as if some one were running confusedly about. The second night the uproar was much greater. On the third night also so vast a noise was heard as if the whole church had been overthrown from its foundations, but it immediately ceased, and no further inquietude of the old Enemy hath appeared in it." [Durandus]
The goat, wolf, fox, and ape were ordinarily employed by the old writers and sculptors in an evil sense as symbols of lust, cruelty, and fraud. St. Anthony, for instance, is represented as tempted by Satan in the form of a goat.
"The Wolfe indeede signifieth craft, subtiltie, greedinesse of mind, inordinate desire of that which appertaineth to another, to some discord and sedition: for it is saide how that the Wolfe procureth all other beasts to fight and contend. He seeketh to devour the sheepe, that beast which of all other is the most hurtlesse and simple and void of guile, thirsting continually after their blood: yea, nature hath implanted so inveterate a hatred atweene the wolfe and the sheepe, that being dead, yet in the secret operation of Nature appeareth there a sufficient trial of their discording natures, so that the enmitie betweene them seemeth not to dye with their bodies: for if there be put vpon a harpe, or any such like instrument, strings made of the intrailles of a sheepe, and amongst them but only one made of the intrailles of a wolfe, be the musician never so cunning in his skil yet can he not reconcile them to an vnity and concord of sounds, so discording always is that string of the wolfe. It may well likewise denote the seditious persons, of which sort if there be but one in a whole commonwealth yet he is able to disturb the quiet concord and agreement of many thousands of good subjects, even as one string of that beast is able to confound the harmony of many other well tuned strings."
In Scandinavian mythology the wolf is the bringer of victory, and amongst the Romans, from its association with Romulus and Remus, it was held in honour; but the extract we have just given from Ferne, a mediaeval writer on heraldry, very fairly reflects the feeling of the Middle Ages, and helps to account for its evil repute.
Though every allusion to the wolf in the Bible is of an unfavourable nature, the creature is often in the legendary history of the saints represented in a favourable light, doubtless with the idea of making the miracle still more miraculous. He is in the Bible the "grievous wolf," "the ravening wolf," the "fierce evening wolf"; while to St. Vedast he brings a goose in his mouth, and to St. Mark a ram's skin (in each case, we fear, making the saint a receiver of stolen goods). He guards the dead body of St. Carpophorus and that of our own St. Edmund until they receive fit interment and the last rites of the Church.
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