tends it besides to merely servile attrition, known to be such; that is to say, to what is not thought by the penitent to be true contrition.

As soon as Melchior Canus' opinion was in existence it pervaded all the schools, and was received with such applause that it found a great many patrons, and those of great reputation, and especially Francis Suarez and Gabriel Vasquez, whom INNUMERABLE theologians followed. Those, however, of them who were esteemed the most learned and the wisest, subscribed to that recent opinion with fear and apprehension, and with great caution.

But what they affirmed with the exercise of so much circumspection, later doctors, emboldened by the INCREASED NUMBER OF ASSENTIENTS, not only asserted without any doubt and limitation, but did not hesitate to find fault with and censure the contrary opinion, as altogether improbable, dangerous, and in some degree implicitly and virtually proscribed by the Council of

Trent.

REFORMATION MISSIONARY MEETINGS

IN SOMERSETSHIRE.

TRULY useful and crowded meetings have recently been held in Bridgwater, Taunton, Torquay, Plymouth, and Devonport.

The Priests who interrupted last year, and challenged discussion at three successive meetings, in three successive places, were silent this year, and even their friends, the Socinian Ministers, were quiet. We trust it is the consciousness that their cause is untenable. We have received valuable testimonies to the usefulness of these meetings. At Torquay, a number of Tractarians attended both meetings, and at Plymouth, the Romish priest and Socinian minister were both present.

At the present day, such statements as were submitted at these meetings, and to audiences so mixed, and so unlikely to meet on any other occasion, must prove of inestimable importance.

THE BRITISH

PROTESTANT.

No. XXIII. NOVEMBER, 1846.

THE CHURCH IN THE CATACOMBS.

BY CHARLES MAITLAND, M.D.

THIS is an extremely interesting work. The Christian will duly appreciate its importance when he perceives that it affords evidence of the simplicity and purity of the faith of the primitive Church of Rome, and by the silence of the ancient monuments, presents to us a strong presumptive testimony against the superstitions and idolatry of the modern Church of Rome. Dr. Maitland remarks, that "the subterranean galleries which penetrate the soil surrounding the city of Rome, after having, for four centuries, served as a refuge and a sanctuary to the ancient church, were nearly lost sight of during the disorder occasioned. by barbarous invasions. In the sixteenth century the whole range of catacombs was re-opened, and the entire contents, which had remained absolutely untouched during more than a thousand years, were restored to the world at a time when the recent revival of letters enabled the world to profit by the discovery. From that time to the present Romanist writers have been suffered to claim identity in discipline and doctrine with the Church that occupied

the Catacombs; while an attempt has scarcely been made to shew, from these remains, the more striking resemblance existing between our reformed Church and that of primitive Rome."

It seems that the Catacombs contain the tombs of Pagan Romans, and Christian Romans. The former were "glorified by innumerable altars, where the epithets 'unconquered,' 'greatest,' 'best,' are lavished upon the worthless shadows that peopled Olympus with fabulous deities; whilst the first glance at the opposite wall (where the primitive Christians were buried) is enough to shew that, as St. Paul himself expressed it, 'not many mighty, not many noble,' were numbered amongst those whose epitaphs are here displayed; some few indeed are scarcely to be distinguished from those of the pagans opposite, but the greater part betray, by their execution, haste and ignorance. There is also a simplicity in many of these slight records not without its charm; as in the annexed, Virginius remained but a short time with us.""

"The slabs of stone used for closing Christian graves average from one to three feet in length. In this they differ remarkably from the sepulchral tablets of the pagans, who being accustomed to burn their dead, required a much smaller covering for the cenerary urn. The letters on Christian monuments are from half an inch to four inches in height, and coloured in the incision with a pigment resembling Venetian red."

After some intervening observations, Dr. Maitland proceeds as follows. "The merely classical student, unless in search of the vernacular language of ancient Rome, will find little in these inscriptions to repay the

trouble of perusing them. A few obsolete and barbarous expressions, &c. are not the most interesting points of investigation suggested by these monuments. Better purposes are served by their examination, inasmuch as they express the feelings of a body of Christians, whose leaders alone are known to us in history. The Fathers of the Church (as they were miscalled, being rather many of them the pioneers of the great apostacy) live in their voluminous works; the lower orders (the disciples of Paul, the dear children of God) are only represented by these simple records, from which, with scarcely an exception, sorrow and complaint are banished the boast of suffering, or an appeal to the revengeful passions, is nowhere to be found. One expresses faith, another hope, a third charity. The genius of primitive Christianity, 'to believe, to love and to suffer,' has never been better illustrated. These 'sermons in stones,' are addressed to the heart, and not to the head-to the feelings rather than the taste; and possess additional value from being the work of the purest and most influential portion of the Catholic and apostolic Church' then in existence."

:

"The student of Christian antiquity must never lose sight of the distinction between the actual relics of a persecuted Church and the subsequent labours of a superstitious age. When Christianity, on the cessation of its troubles, emerged from these recesses, and walked boldly on the soil beneath which it had been glad to seek concealment, the humble cradle of its infancy became a principal object of veneration-almost of worship. . . . It may not be amiss to premise generally, that in these inscriptions there are no prayers for the

dead, no addresses to the Virgin Mary, nor to the apostles, or earlier saints; and with the exception of eternal sleep,'' eternal home,' no expressions contrary to the plain sense of Scripture. . . . The distinctive character of these remains is essentially Christian. The name of Christ is repeated in an endless variety of forms, and the actions of his life are figured in every degree of rudeness of execution.... On stones innumerable appears the good shepherd bearing on his shoulders the recovered sheep, by which many an illiterate believer expressed his sense of personal salvation. One, according to his epitaph, sleeps in Christ;' another is buried with a prayer that she may live in the Lord Jesus;' but most of all, the cross in its simplest form is employed to testify the faith of the deceased." "Other inscriptions are as follows:

'The sleeping place of Elpis.'

'Victorina sleeps.'

'Gemella sleeps in peace.""

Our space does not permit us to make further extracts from Dr. Maitland's truly valuable and Christian work. It will be perceived, from these extracts which we have made, that the primitive voice from the tombs of the ancient Christians, utters the words of Christian simplicity and purity; and that, whilst there is no idolatrous homage given to Mary, as "the Queen of heaven', and 'the great mediatrix between Christ and sinners,' or to Peter and Paul, and while no mention is made of masses or purgatory, the name of Him, who to every true Christian is the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely,' is frequently mentioned, as the Good Shepherd, &c. And is it not delightful to the true Chris.