reference to their use as assembling-places than as mere burial-places. The earliest catacombs were most likely of private origin. Wealthy Christians could easily be constrained to offer the family sepulchres upon their own grounds for the burial of distinguished martyrs, as also of the poor. Thus burial centres were established, about which catacombs, of greater or less extent, were formed in process of time. It is hardly to be doubted, also, that the Christians soon formed burial associations. among themselves. Great tolerance was awarded to this kind of association. Preserved documents show that a great number of burial societies, representing different trades and professions, existed at Rome. An assessment upon the members of these provided for the necessary expenses. There are indications that the very extensive Catacomb of St. Callistus was under the charge of the Roman Church, and was recognized by the government as the cemetery of a burial association.1 The largest and most noteworthy of the catacombs are found near the great roads leading from Rome, and within three miles of the walls.2 Their entrance at present, when not through the crypt of an ancient church, is by a descending stairway through an aperture or archway. They consist essentially of narrow corridors, with an occasional addition of a small chamber, built in a friable, volcanic formation, the tufa granolare. The corridors range from two to five feet in width, 1 Hippolytus, Philos., ix. 7. 2 Catacombs are found in many other places, those at Naples being among the most important. Victor Schultze gives a list of thirteen places in the Orient, and thirty-three in the West, that have catacombs (Die Katakomben, p. 25.) intersect each other for the most part nearly at right angles, are usually vaulted and naked, but are occasionally plastered or supported by masonry. Graves, cut into the sides and sealed up with slabs of marble or other material, thickly line these narrow ways, which are themselves very numerous, and arranged in line would extend hundreds of miles. Michele de Rossi1 estimates that those of St. Callistus, the largest catacomb, would extend about the whole length of Italy. The same author computes that the Roman Catacombs, with the compact style of burial employed, contain room enough for nearly four millions of bodies. Το economize space more perfectly, the galleries were sometimes arranged upon different planes, one below the other. In individual instances, there are as many as five stories in a catacomb. The chambers are small, vaulted rooms, often not more than eight or ten feet square. These, if not simply burial chambers, may have been used for the celebration of funeral services, and for the administration of the eucharist near the graves of the martyrs. The accession of Constantine, with its addition of security and enlarged resources to the Church, lessened the motive for the use of underground cemeteries. Still, for a considerable interval, burials in these continued to be in the majority. After the year 373, however, the inclination toward this kind of interment rapidly decreased; and, according to Kraus, the year 454 marks the last instance in which a body was consigned to a catacomb.2 Thereafter these resting-places of the dead 1 Brother of the chief investigator, Giovanni Battista de Rossi. were used as chapels and pilgrim resorts. Meanwhile, a work of spoliation or depletion was begun, first at the hands of barbarian invaders, and then at the hands of the authorities of the Church, who sought to secure. relics by depositing them within the walls of the city. A great number of bodies were transferred; an inscription records the translation, by Pope Paschal I., of twenty-three hundred on a single day of the year 817. During the Middle Ages, the Catacombs fell into neglect, and became largely lost to knowledge. In the sixteenth and the following centuries some progress was made toward rediscovery and description; but it was reserved for De Rossi and his co-laborers, in the last few decades, to bring the crowning investigations to the subject. Among the objects of interest in the Catacombs, are symbols and symbolical paintings; various works of art, including gilt glasses, different styles of lamps, terra-cotta vases, children's toys, occasional specimens of sculpture; sepulchral inscriptions. The principal symbols are the anchor, the ship, the palm, the crown, the dove, the olive-branch, the peacock, and the phoenix as significant of immortality, the shepherd, the lamb, the fish, and the cross. Dear as was this last symbol to the hearts of Christians, it is not of frequent occurrence in the Catacombs, and, moreover, appears usually in some disguised form, inasmuch as it was peculiarly exposed to heathen scorn. The fish is an oft-recurring symbol, and seems to have had a very full import to the early Christians. It is highly probable that it embraced the meaning of the letters in the Greek word for fish, these letters being used as initials of the following titles of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. It may also have had some connection with baptism, or with the vocation of Christ's ambassadors as "fishers of men." Sometimes it appears in conjunction with bread and wine, in which case it has reference to the heavenly food which Christ supplies, or to the eucharist. The pictures in the Catacombs show considerable dependence upon classic art, but also exhibit abundant traces of the marked influence of the new religion. A noticeable feature is the absence of sorrowful representations. The crucifixion of Christ nowhere appears among the pictures of the first three centuries. Within the same period, only a single portrayal of Christian martyrdom has been identified with a good degree of probability; and this enters into no incidents of torture and suffering, simply representing two confessors standing before their judge, and the retreating form of the heathen priest who served as their accuser.1 Many of the inscriptions are very brief expressions of domestic affection or of Christian hope and confidence. The following may serve as examples: "To Libera Maximilla, a most loving wife. She lived in peace.” "To the well-deserving Silvana, who sleeps here in peace." "Aurelia, our very sweet daughter, who retired from the world, Severus and Quintus being consuls." "To the highly venerable, most devout, and very sweet father, Secundus. His wife and sons, in expression of their dutifulness, have placed this slab." "Laurentius was born into eternity in the twentieth year of his age. He sleeps in peace." The evidence supplied by the inscriptions and repre 1 Kraus, Buch IV., kap. v. sentations in the Catacombs is somewhat qualified by the paucity of dates. The proportion of dated inscriptions is quite small. The characteristics of these, however, furnish a basis for an approximate determination of the age of many others. Allowing a sufficient margin for the element of chronological uncertainty, we may still derive important information as respects the life and belief of the early Christians. No doubt the theological literature of the period abounds much more in explicit statements upon doctrinal points than do these monumental remains; nevertheless, the latter make a valuable supplement to the former, and have the special advantage of being unstudied expressions of what was commonly in the hearts of Christians. "The voice we hear is not that of a bishop or doctor speaking ex cathedra, but the voice of Martha and Mary by the grave of Lazarus, pouring forth at once their sorrow and their hope." 1 1. The Catacombs bespeak a genuine recognition of the principles of Christian brotherhood and equality. Not only are titles of nobility wanting: there is scarcely a record of the distinction between master and slave. 2. The Catacombs, as a whole, testify to a very high appreciation of the gospel virtues on the part of the early Church. Such graces as humility, gentleness, sympathy, and self-renunciation are here commended as highest ornaments of character. 3. The Catacombs testify to the joyful faith of the Church, its living and inspiring belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. "The glorious doctrine of the resurrection was everywhere 1 Pressensé, Christian Life, Book III., chap. vii. |