once prevalent. The printers' emblems are reproduced in facsimile from books mostly in my possession. The outline drawings are half-size reproductions of water-marks, some from my own collection, but mainly from Mons. Briquet's monumental Les Filigranes: Dictionnaire historique des Marques du Papier dés leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600; avec 39 figures dans le texte et 16,112 facsimiles de filigranes (4 vols., folio, Bernard Quaritch, 1907).

CHAPTER II

THE PARABLE OF THE PILGRIM

"Give me my scallop shell of quiet,

My staff of faith to walk upon,

My scrip of joy, immortal diet,

My bottle of salvation,

My gown of glory, hope's true gage;
And thus I'll take my pilgrimage."

SIR WALTER Raleigh.

THE notion that Life is a pilgrimage and Everyman a pilgrim is common to most peoples and climes, and Allegories on this subject are well-nigh universal. In 1631 one of them was written in BOHEMIA under the title of The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart. Its author was John Amos Komensky (1592-1670), a leader of Comenius the sectarians known among themselves as the "Unity" or "Brethren," and to history as the "Bohemian Brethren" or the "Moravian Brothers." These long-suffering enthusiasts were obviously a manifestation of that spirit of mysticism which, either active or somnolent, is traceable from the dawn of History, and will be found noted under such epithets as Essenes, Therapeutics, Gnostics, Montanists, Paulicians, Manichees, Cathari, Vaudois, Albigeois, Patarini, Lollards, Friends of God, Spirituals, Arnoldists, Fratricelli, Anabaptists, Quakers, and many others.

The Labyrinth of the World was condemned as heretical, and, until 1820, was included among the lists of dangerous

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and forbidden books. COUNT LUTZow-to whom English readers are indebted for an admirable translation-states that so congenial was its mysticism, that the many Bohemian. exiles who were driven on account of their faith from their beloved country carried the Labyrinth with them, and that it was often practically their sole possession. In BOHEMIA itself, the book being prohibited, the few copies that escaped destruction passed from hand to hand secretly, and were safely hidden in the cottages of the peasants.1

The author of The Pilgrim's Progress was a persecuted Baptist tinker, and among the pathetic records of Continental Anabaptism will be found the continually expressed conviction: "We must in this world suffer, for Paul has said that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. We must completely conquer the world, sin, death, and the devil, not with material swords and spears, but with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and with the shield of faith, wherewith we must quench all sharp and fiery darts, and place on our heads the helmet of salvation, with the armour of righteousness, and our feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel. Being thus strengthened with these weapons, we shall, with Israel, get through the wilderness, oppose and overcome all our enemies." In 1550 another obscure Anabaptist under sentence of death for heresy exclaimed: "It is not for the sake of party, or for conspiracy, that we suffer: we seek not to contest with any sword but that of the Spirit—that is, the Word of God."

These pious convictions are to be seen expressed in the

1 The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart, edited and Englished by Count Lutzow (The Temple Classics), p. 266.

2 A Martyrology of the Churches of Christ commonly called Baptists, translated from the Dutch by T. J. Van Braaght, and edited for the Hanserd Knollys Society by E. B. Underhill, vol. i. p. 376. London, 1850.

3 Ibid.

trade-mark emblems herewith, representing the sword of the Spirit and the helmet of salvation.

Almost equally familiar are the pilgrim symbols here below. Fig. 6 is the scourge of discipline, fig. 7 the girdle of righteousness,1 fig. 8 the staff of faith, fig. 10 the scallop shell, figs. 12 and 13 the bottle of salvation, and fig. 14 the well of salvation, wherefrom " with joy shall ye draw water."

1 "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."-Isaiah xi. 5.

2 Isaiah xii. 3.