Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/693

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IDAHO


627


IDAHO


usually painted in the stiff Byzantine manner, al- though in many Russian churelies they have begun to use modern art; the Temple of the Saviour, in Mos- cow, is a notable example. The iconostasis in the Greek (Hellenic) churches have never been so lofty and as full of paintings as those in Russia and other countries. A curious form of adornment of the icons or pictures has grown up in Russia and is also found in other parts of the East. Since the Orthodox Church would not admit sculptured figures on the inside of churches (although they often have nu- merous statues upon the outside) they imitated an effect of sculpture in the pictures placed upon the iconostasis which produces an incongruous effect upon the Western mind. The icon, which is generally painted upon wood, is covered except as to the face and hands with a raised relief of silver, gold, or seed pearls showing all the details and curves of the dra- pery, clothing and halo; thus giving a crude cameo- like effect around the flat painted face and hands of the icon.

The iconostasis is really an Oriental development in adorning the holy place about the Christian altar. Originally the altar stood out plain and severe in both the Oriental and Latin Rites. But in the Western European churches and cathedrals the Gothic church builrlers put a magnificent wall, the reredos, imme- diately behind the altar and heaped ornamentation, figures and carvings upon it until it became resplend- ent with beauty. In the East, however, the tireeks turned their attention to the barrier or partition di- viding the altar and sanctuary from the rest of the church and commenced to adorn and beautify that, and thus gradually made it higher and covered it widi pictures of the Apostles, Prophets, and saints. Thus the Greek Church put its ornamentation of the holy place in front of the altar instead of Ijehind it as in the Latin churches. In its present form in the churches of the Byzantine (and also the Coptic) Rite the icono- stasis is comparatively modern, not older than the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. It was never used in the Roman churches or any of the Latin churches of the West, and was unknown to the early Church. The modern chancel rail of the I-atin Rite correctly represents the primitive barrier separating the altar from the people. In the great Gothic cathe- drals the choir screen or rood screen may be said in a manner to be the analogue of the iconostasis, but that is the nearest approach to it in the Western Church. None of the historians or liturgical writers of the early or middle Greek Church ever mention the iconostasis. Indeed the name to-day is chiefly in Russian usage, for the meaning of the Greek word is not restricted merely to the altar screen, but is applied to any ol> ject supporting a picture. The word is first mentioned in Ru.ssian annals in 152S when one was built by Macarius, Metropolitan of Novgorod.

In the early Greek churches there was a slight barrier aljout waist high, or even lower, dividing the altar from the people. This was variously known as KiyK\ls, grating, Spi<f>aKTa, fence, SidcrTuXa, a bar- rier made of columns, according to the manner in which it was constructed. Very often pictures of the saints were aflSxed to the tops of the columns. When Justinian constructed the "great " church, St. Sophia, in Constantinople, he adorned it with twelve high columns (in memory of the twelve Apostles) in order to make the barrier or chancel, and over the tops of these columns he placed an architrave which ran the entire width of the sanctuary. On this architrave or cross-beam large disks or shields were placed con- taining the pictures of the saints, and this arrange- ment was called TiixirXov (Icmplum), either from its fancied resemblance to the front of the old temples or as expressing the Christian idea of the shrine where God was worshipped. Every church of the Byzan- tine Rite eventually imitated the " great " church and


so this open r4fnr\ov form of iconostasis began to be adopted among the churches of the East, and the name itself was used to designate what is now the iconostasis.

Many centuries elapsed before there was any ap- proach towards making the solid partition which we find in the Greek churches of to-day. But gradually the demand for greater adornment grew, and to satisfy it pictures were placed over the entire iconostasis, and so it began to assume somewhat the present form. After the Council of Florence (14.38) when the last conciliar attempt at reunion of the Churches failed, the Cireek clergy took great pleasure in building and adorning their churches as little like the Latin ones as possible, and from then on the icono- stasis assumed the form of the wall-like barrier which it has at present. As its present form is merely a. matter of development of Church architecture suit- able and adapted to the Greek Rite, the iconostasis: was continuously used by the Catholics as well as by the Orthodox.

Clugnet. Dictionnaire des Noms Liturgiques (Paris, 1895)',, 41; FoRTESCUE, Orthodox Eastern Church (London. 1906), 403; The Messenger, XLII (New York, Oct., 1904), 4.33-5; Bjeh- niNG, Offices of the Oriental Church (New York, 1SS4), p. vii;, Hapgood. Service Book of the Orthodox Church (New York,. 1906), p. xx.\i: SoKoLOFF. The Orthodox Church (New York and! .\lbany, 1899), 17-19: De Meesteh, La Divina Liturgia di S. Giovanni Crisostomo (Rome, 1907), p. xii; Pravoslavnaya En- ct/clopedia. V (St. Petersburg, 1904), 833-S. The complete histor>' in detail of the iconostasis is given (in Russian) in GoLUBlNSKl, Istoria Russkoi Tserkvi, I (Moscow, 1904), pt. ii.


192-216.


Andrew J. Shipman.


Idaho (probably an Araphoe Indian word, "Gem of the Mountains"), the name first suggested for the Territory of Colorado, one of the Pacific Slope States, lying like a roughly shaped rudder and stretching 4S5 miles south from the boundary separating the United States from Can- ada, with its base extending east from Oregon to Wyoming. It is bounded on the south by Utah and Nevada, on the west by Oregon and Washington, on the east by Wyoming and Montana, on the north by British Columbia. Its area is 83,779 square miles, of ^^'^^ °^ Idaho

which over one-third is set apart as United States Ciovernment forest reserves.

Physical Features, Climate, etc. — Central Idaho is a vast mountainous section, containing the Salmon River, Lost River, Saw Tooth, Boise, Seven Devils, and other ranges, which are in general well-timbered. The mean elevation of the state is about 4700 feet, its altitude varying between the extremes of 760 feet and over 12,000 feet. The Bitter Root range, a part of the great Continental Divide, forms the greater portion of the eastern boundary line of the state. In the extreme southern portion of the state are high forestless mountain ranges, the Owyhee, Goose Creek, Bear River, Portneuf, and Bannock ranges. In the great valley between these central and southern mountain ranges flows the Snake River, the largest river of Idaho and the main tributary of the Co- lumbia River, draining over three-fourths of the area of the state. It rises in the Yellowstone National Park, flows westerly in an archlike course through the southern end of Idaho, then turning north it forms the western boundary line of the state for .300 miles. The drainage waters of a vast area of the