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The faith of the primitive Church as to the Divine Being, her Founder and Head, is clear, as in letters of light, on these monumental pages: we read it (to cite one remarkable example) conveyed in the strangely confused Latin and Greek not unfrequently found among Christian epitaphs, with the following distinct utterance,

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century; and the year of the emperor, vidua Dei," of one among whom we read on which was enjoined for the dating of all her epitaph that she "never burdened the public acts by Justinian, A.D. 537, scarcely Church;" here also do we find proof of the in any instance occurs before that period. dedication of females, the " ancilla Dei," or We follow with interest in those chiselled "virgo Dei,”- - first type of the consecrated lines the last traces of the existence, and the nun, sometimes, it seems, so set apart by gradual dying out, of that proud institution, the vows of their parents from infancy. Inthe Roman consulate; the unostentatious teresting is it to trace the growth of a feellanguage of these Christian epitaphs here ing which, from the utterance of prayer for supplying the last monumental evidence to the dead, passed to the invoking of their inthis once great historic reality. The con- tercessions for the living, as "Vivas in sulate proper to Rome expired in the year Deo et roga;" and the recommending of 531, after being held in the last instance by their spirits to some specially revered saint, De ius Paulinus; in the following year, rather as a formula of pious valediction however, reappearing when assumed by than the expression of anything like dogma Belisarius after his Italian victories. From in regard to human intercessors, as, In 534 to 544, only one consul (for the Eastern nomine Petri, in pace Christi." Empire) is on record; and in that last year the office was suppressed by Justinian, though once more assumed, in his own person, by an emperor, namely Justin in 566: up to which date the computation, since the act of suppression, had been according to the years (as we see in these epitaphs) 66 post Consulatum Basilii" (after the consu late of Basilius), who had last held that office at Constantinople. Curious in this lapidary | ΖΗΣΗΣ ΙΝ ΔΕΟ ΧΡΙΣΤΟ ΥΛΗ IN HAKE style is the use of the epithet "divus," long given to defunct emperors without scruple, i. e., Mayest thou live in God Christ, as a mere civil honour, by their Christian Sylva, in peace;" we read it in the formusubjects. Together with characteristics of las where this holy Name is otherwise acbrevity and simplicity, we notice, in these companied with what declares belief—as, epitaphs, a serene spirit of resignation that "in Christo Deo," or "in D. Christo; " or in never allows vent to passionate utterance; the Greek - - εν θεω Κυρειω Χειστω (sic). the word "dolens" is the strongest expres Again, alike distinctly expressed in other sion of sorrow, and this but rarely occur- formulas, at the epitaph's close, as " in pace ring. As the colder formalities of the classic et in "with the monogram XP, implying lapidary style were gradually laid aisde, the obvious sequel, "Christo;" also in the ecstatic ejaculations of prayer and hope rudely traced line with which one inscripwere admitted -"Vivas in Deo," most tion finishes: "Nutricatus Deo Cristo ancient in such use; "Vive in æterno;" marturibus;" in one curious example of "Pax spiritu tuo;" "In pace Domini dor- the Latin language's decline: "Regina vimias," frequently introduced before the pe- bas in Domino zesu;" and in the Greek riod of Constantine's conversion, but later xvs, sometimes at the beginning, evifalling into disuse; In pace continu- dently intended as dedication in the name ing to be the established Christian formula of God. Alike clearly, though less fre-though also found in the epitaphs of quently, enounced is the worship of a DiJews; while the "Vixit in pace," very vine Spirit, as an aspect, or in more strict rare in Roman inscriptions, appears com- theologic phrase, Person of the Deity, e. g., monly among those of Africa and of several "in pace cum spiritu sancta" (sic) "vibas French cities, otherwise, that distinctive in Spiritu sanc." And indeed no moral phrase of the pagan epitaph, "Vixit" (as if truth could be more convincingly established even in the records of the grave to present by monumental proof than the unanimous life rather than death to the mental eye), belief with which the Church, at this first does not pertain to Christian terminology. and purest phase in her history, directed Various usages of the primitive Church, im- adoring regards to the "Logos," the perfect portant to her history, are attested by these Image of the Father, as true and essential epigraphs as the classification of the cler- Deity. gy into bishops, priests, deacons, acolytes, exorcists; and the recognition of another revered class, the pious widows, "matrona

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Below the surface of the Roman Campagna, it is supposed that from 800 to 900 miles of excavated corridors, interspersed

with chambers in various forms, extend their | late as between 418-22, passing some time marvellous ramifications; and between six in a similar retreat, to withdraw from the and seven millions is the assumed number of faction that supported his rival Eulalius; the Christian dead here deposited during primitive ages. In much the greater part it is certain that these hypogees were formed for Christian worship, instruction, and interment, before the period of the first converted emperor but it is also indisputably proved that they continued in use for devotional purposes, and received many pictorial decorations, long afterwards; likewise that works of excavating were in progress till so late as the beginning of the fifth century. The idea that they ever served for the habitation of numbers, during persecution, is erroneous, assuming indeed what is materially impossible, owing to the formation of their far-stretching labyrinths, small chapels, and story above story of narrow passages. We read, it is true, of the martyrdom of saintly bishops while in the very act of officiating at their humble altars; of several among the earliest Roman pontiffs, who, during extreme peril, took refuge in such retreats- as did Alexander I. (A.D. 109-19), Stephen I. (253-7), and Sixtus II., who was put to death in one of these subterranean sanctuaries (A.D. 258); and Pope Cajus (283-96) is said to have actually lived for eight years in catacombs, from which he only came out to suffer martyrdom (296). With Mr. Northcote (whose work is a vade mecum for this range of antiquities) we may conclude that not the multitude of the faithful, but the pontiffs alone, or others especially sought after by myrmidons of power, were at any time resident for long periods in these retreats, in no part of which do we see anything like preparation for dwelling, or for any other purposes save worship and interment; though indeed an epitaph by St. Damasus, in the Callixtan Catacombs, implies the fact that at some period those cemeteries were inhabited:

considering which facts, we cannot deny that the evidence as to the occasional habitation of catacombs is too conclusive to be set aside without rejecting much that claims belief in "Acts of Martyrs," and other received authorities. Of St. Urban we read ("Acts of St. Cecilia "), "latebat in sacrorum martyrum monimentis;" of St. Hippolytus ("Acts of St. Stephen," A. p. 259), "vitam solitariam agebat in cryptis." Baronius states that the same Pope Urban "used to celebrate masses and hold councils in the crypts of the martyrs;" and an epitaph to St. Alexander, in the Callixtan Catacombs, contains the sentence, "O tempora infausta, quibus inter sacra et vota ne in cavernis quidem salvari possumus!" In one terrific persecution a multitude of the faithful suffered death in catacombs on the Salarian Way, by order of the Emperor Numerianus; sand and stones being heaped up against the entrance, so as to leave buried alive those victims, of whose fate was found affecting proof long afterwards, not only in the bones of the dead, but in several silver cruets that had served for the eucharistic celebration. An impressive circumstance accompanied the martyrdom of Pope Stephen: the ministers of death rushed into the subterranean chapel, where they found him officiating, and, as if struck with sudden awe, waited till the rite was over before they slew him in his episcopal chair. As catacomb sepulchres became gradually filled, those sections or corridors no longer serviceable used to be blocked up with soil, in order thus both to separate the living from the dead, and to avoid the necessity of leaving accumulations outside. Granular tufa, which, with lithoid tufa and pozzolana, forms the material of the volcanic strata around Rome, is the substance (easily worked, but quite unsuitable for building) in which all Roman catacombs are exca

"Hic habitasse prius sanctos cognoscere vated, except those of St. Pontianus, outdebes."

But that saint (elected to the papacy 366) cannot be cited as a contemporary witness to ages of persecution; at periods subsequent to which, however, we read of Pope Liberius taking refuge (352), in the cemetery called after St. Agnes, from the outrages and insolence of the then ascendant Arian sect; of Pope Boniface I., so

Father Marchi, who makes this conjecture, considers it to fall short of, rather than exceed, the truth.

side the Porta Portese, and of St. Valentine, on the Flaminian Way, which are in a soil of marine and fluvial deposits, shells, fossils, &c.

From the ninth century till a comparatively late period most of these catacombs were left unexplored, perhaps entirely inaccessible, and forgotten. Medieval writers usually ignored their existence. That strange compilation, so curious in its fantastic suggestions and blindness to historic fact, the "Mirabilia Urbis Roma" (written, some critics assume, in the tenth, others in the

twelfth century; first published about of the Saviour, with marked characteristics 1471), enumerates, indeed, twenty-one cata- of the Byzantine school, suggest origin combs. Flavio Biondo, writing in the fif- certainly not earlier than the sixth or sevteenth century, mentions those of St. Cal- enth, if not so late as the eight century. lixtus alone; Onofrio Panvinio, in the six- The practice of frequenting these cemeteenth century, reckons thirty-nine; Baro- teries for prayer, or for visiting the tombs nius, at date not much later, raises the num- of martyrs, continued common till the ninth, ber to forty-three. Those of St. Priscilla, nor had entirely ceased even in the thirentered below the Salarian Way, belonging teenth century, being certainly more or less to that mother of the Christian Senator Pu- in prevalence under Honorius III. (1217dens, who received St. Peter; also those of 27). Yet the process of transporting the SS. Nereus and Achilleus, near the Appian bodies of martyrs from these resting-places Way, have been referred to an antiquity to the city, for safer and more honoured correspondent with the apostolic age; and interment, had begun under Pope Paul I. if those called after St. Callixtus were (757-67), who took such precaution against indeed formed long anterior to that Pope's the pious frauds practised by the Longoelection, A.D. 210, we may place them second bards, whilst investing Rome, led by Astolin chronologic order. That several continued phus, - a king particularly bent upon relicin use as cemeteries long after the first impe- stealing: so devout in this respect were the rial conversion, is evident from the fact that fierce invaders of papal territory. At later Constantine's daughter ordered the embel- medieval periods the Catacombs fell into lishment and enlargement of those called af- oblivion, till their ingresses became, for the ter St. Agnes, which became in consequence most part, unknown even to the clergy; and more than ever frequented so to say, fash- one of the earliest records of their being ionable — as a place of interment during the visited in later ages is found in the names of fourth century: a circumstance manifest in Raynuzio Farnese (father of Paul III.) and the superior regularity and spaciousness of the companions who descended with him, still corridors; in the more laboured execution, read, beside the date 1490, in the Callixtan but inferior style, of paintings seen in those Catacombs. Not till late in the next cencatacombs. Other facts relevant to the tury was the attention of savans directed by story of later vicissitudes may be cited: new lights from science, and through the Pope Damasus (v. Baronius, anno 384) or- revived study of antiquity, towards this dered a platonia (pavement of inlaid mar- field of research; subsequently to which bles) for that part of the Callixtan Cata- movement, excavations were carried on at combs in which for a certain time had lain intervals from 1592 to 1693; the most imthe bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul. Pope portant and fruitful in results being the John III. (560-78), who abode for a time labours of the indefatigable Bosio, who, (v. Anastasius) in the Catacombs of SS. after patient toils, pursued enthusiastically Tiburtius and Valerian, ordered all such hy- for thirty-three years, died (1600) without pogees as had suffered from barbarian spol- completing the work projected for transiation to be repaired; also provided that a mitting their profits to posterity. Its first regular supply of bread, wine, and lights publication was in 1632, under the title, should be furnished from the Lateran Basil- "Roma Sotterranea," compiled from Bosio's ica for the celebration still kept up on MSS. by Severano (an Oratorian priest); Sundays at the altars of these subterraneans. and a few years subsequently another OraTowards the end of the sixth century, torian, Arringhi, brought out, with additions, St. Gregory the Great indicated, among the same work translated into Latin. Next places of assemblage for the faithful on the followed (1702) the "inscriptiones Andays of the Lenten " Stations," organized tiquæ" of Fabretti, official custode to the by him with much solemnity and concourse, Catacombs; and the learned work, “ Cimisome of the cemeteries as well as principal teri dei Santi Martiri" (1720), by Boldetti, churches of Rome. The evidences of art the fruit of thirty years' labours, surpassed may be here cited, to prove comparative all hitherto contributions on this subject modernness in decorative details: the nim- alike in vivacity of description, extensive ibus, for instance, around the heads of saintly knowledge, and well-sustained argument. figures, indicates date subsequent to the Only next in merit and authority is the fourth century; and in the Callixtan Cata-" Sculture e Pitture Sacre" ("Sacred combs the figure of St Cecilia, attired in Sculptures and Paintings from the Cemecumbrous finery, jewelled head-dress, and teries of Rome"), by Bottari (1737-54), necklace, as also those of SS. Urban and an illustrated work evincing thorough acCornelius, besides a sternly expressive headquaintance with its theme. The "Manners

ent tasks; Cupid and Pysche (no doubt "In the hidden chambers of the dead, admitted in appreciation of the profound Our guiding lamp with fire immortal fed.” meanings that illumine that beautiful fable); Achilles and the Three Graces, here intro- We may, perhaps, descend into these duced with some sense not so intelligible. abysses from some lonely spot, whence This choice of a comparatively gay and the Vatican cupola is distinctly visible; mundane class of subjects seems to confirm and certainly nothing could be more gloriwhat is conjectured by Garrucci, as to cer- ous, from the Roman Catholic point of tain among these tazze being appropriated view, than the confronting of such a monunot to the sacramental solemnity, but to va- ment to triumphant religion, with the dark rious occasions in domestic life, the nup- and rudely adorned subterraneans once tials, the name-giving, the baptism, and serving as sanctuaries of the Church subfuneral, besides the Agape, that primitive sequently raised, at this same centre, to blending of the fraternal feast with the eu- such proud supremacy. Another thought charistic rite and communion, so frequently that may spring from this range of antirepresented in catacomb paintings, that quarian study, and invest its objects with show the symbolic viands, the lamp, or the still deeper interest, is that of promise for fish, and loaves marked with a cross, spread something higher than either Catholicism or before companies of the faithful, seated Protestantism, in the Christianity of the round a sigma (semicircular table). future.

As to the literature illustrative of Rome's Catacombs, the last and most precious addition a yet incipient work, which may be expected in its completeness to supply the fullest investigation of its subject is De Rossi's "Subterranean and Christian Rome," executed with all the ability and erudition to be looked for in a writer of such eminence. We find here the fullest history of researches carried out in catacombs from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century; the learned author assigning four epochs to the story of these cemeteries, commencing from apostolic times, and successively extending over the third century, over the period of the newly-attained freedom and peace guaranteed to the Church through Constantine (A.D. 312), and over the fifth century, whence dates the gradual abandonment and decay of all such sanctuaries, owing to their then condition, impaired by shocks of barbarian invasion, devastated by Goths and Lombards, till at last, towards the close of the ninth century, they fell into neglect or oblivion.

As to the primitive mode of interment, the early Church may be said to have taken as model the Redeemer's sepulchre — a cavern, with entrance closed by a stone, in which but One Body lay; and in the especially honoured tombs of martyrs, or other illustrious dead, the form called arcosolium, like an excavated sarcophagus with arched niche above, supplied the norma for the later adopted altar of solid stone (instead of the plain wooden table in earliest use), with relics inserted in a cavity under the mensa; the practice of consecrating the Eucharist over such martyr-tombs having passed into the universal discipline of the Latin Church, through a decree of Pope Felix (269--75,) ordering that henceforth the mass should ever be celebrated over such burial-places of the holy dead:

"Altar quietem debitam Præstat beatis ossibus,"

as Prudentius testifies to this ancient usage. From the same poet ("Hymn on St. Hippolytus") we learn that these subterraneans The first impression on descending into were not originally, as now, in total darkcatacombs, when the light of day is sud- ness, but lighted, however dimly, by those denly lost, and the eye follows the dim per- shafts (luminaria) still seen at intervals spective of corridors lined with tier above piercing the soil above our heads, though tier of funereal niches, partially shown by no longer in every instance serving for such torchlight, is one that chills and repels. purpose. The circumstances under which Imagination calls up what reason rejects, they have been rediscovered within modern and sports, as if fascinated, with ideas of times, form a singular detail in their vicisdanger-mysterious, indefinable correct-situdes; and it is remarkable that the period ed, indeed, by the higher associations and of greatest religious conflict among Chrisreminiscences that take possession of the mind in any degree acquainted with that past so replete with noble examples from the story of those who here,

tian nations was that which witnessed the revival of this long-forgotten testimony, conveyed in monumental language, to the faith and practice of the primitive Church.