The pictures on the walls and on the altars are not
mere adornment for the pleasure of the eye, but for
the heart a book full of instruction, a sermon full of
truth. And hereby art is raised to be an instrument
of edification to the believer, it becomes a profound

175



MUSIC IN THE WESTERN CHURCH

expositor for tiiousands, a transmitter and preserver
of great ideas for all the centimes.''^ The Catholic
Church in her art would subject the literal to the
ideal, the particular to the general^ the definitive to the
symbolic. ^^The phrase ^emancipation of the individ-
ual,' " says Jakob again, ^^ is not heard in the Church.
Art history teaches that the Church does not oppose
the individual conception, but simply restrains that
&lse freedom which would make art the servant of
personal caprice or of fashion.''

The truth of this principle as a fundamental canon
of ecclesiastical art is not essentially affected by the
fact that it is only in certain periods and und^ fa-
vorable conditions that it has been strictijr enforced.
