Three of the instruments contained in this drawing, though not very like those of Adeodatus, agree with them in every important particular: how much more naturally may they be explained as above, than by having recourse to the supposition that they were used for scraping, clipping, and dividing the limbs of a martyr. It would be easy to adduce other instances of this employment of symbols; but those already quoted will, it is hoped, satisfy the reader as to their relation to the trade of the deceased. The remaining symbolic figures used by the Christians of ancient Rome, with a few exceptions, were employed to distinguish the tomb of a friend or relation. The phonetic intention of these figures is expressed in the well-known epitaph of Navira : NABIRA IN PACE ANIMA DVLCIS ANIMA MELEIEA TITVLV FACTV APARENTES SIGNVM NABE Navira, in peace a sweet soul, who lived sixteen years a soul sweet as honey: this epitaph was made by her parents the sign, a ship. and five months The tomb of Dracontius exhibits a dragon; that of Onager, an ass.*. The author has great pleasure in being able to contribute, to the small number of phonetics already published, the annexed, from the Lapidarian Gallery. A fragment only has been copied, the entire inscription being long. * Boldetti, Bottari, &c. while living, bought this tomb. Their sons set up this. Two well-known instances are those of Doliens and Porcella: the first is not decisive, as the cask occasionally appears elsewhere: IVLIO FILIO PATER DOLIENS Dolium is the Latin for cask; Porcella signifies a little pig, as in the next: PORCELLA HIC DORMIT IN P⚫QVIXIT ANN III M.X D XIII. Here sleeps Porcella in peace. She lived three years, ten months, and thirteen days. The animals here represented must have considerably embarrassed the older writers: by them Leo would have been invested with the honours of martyrdom; and the means of his death assumed to be the lions of the Coliseum. But the pig and cask, the ass and the dragon, must have puzzled all but writers like Gallonius, whose love of the horrible would doubtless have invented unheard-of tortures to explain the symbols, and embodied them in engravings of fearful aspect. Besides the signs employed by the orthodox, there were others, of Gnostic origin: some of these, by their glaring inconsistency with the pure spirit of Christianity, exemplify the doctrines condemned by the apostles, as introduced by depraved teachers. If it be true that the ancient Christians, with the intention of disguising their religion from the Pagans, adapted to the new creed many of the symbols belonging to the old, — if, as asserted by Hope,* they sought out such signs as should seem Gentile to the Gentiles, though evidently Christian to their fellow-believers,—then, it must be confessed they so far fulfilled this end as to have completely deceived many antiquarians of after times. By being "all things to all men" in this respect, they have furnished to the Protestant, as well as to the infidel, a strong argument against the Christian character of their places of worship, dwellings, and sepulchres. Who would expect, in the Bacchanalian scenery of a sculptured sarcophagus, to find an allusion to the vineyard of the Lord, or to the wine consecrated to sacramental purposes? The same spirit of accommodation is elsewhere visible. "Diana's Stag," says Hope, "became the Christian soul thirsting for the living waters: Juno's Peacock, under the name of Essay on Architecture. 184 THE SYMBOLS USED IN THE CATACOMBS. the Phoenix, that soul after the resurrection." It may be that disguise did not furnish the principal motive for choosing those equivocal emblems: perhaps more may be attributed to poverty of invention. This fact, however, is certain, that the symbols became more and more tangible, we may say more adapted to a gross conception, in proportion as Christianity became more established and secure from insult. The horrible desecration of an altar and its appendages, attributed to Julian the apostate, justifies the caution of the earlier believers in the concealment of their sacred rites. POST CRVCEM CORONA 185 CHAPTER VI. THE OFFICES AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. The THE highest office in the primitive Church of Rome was that of bishop-the episcopus, or papa. last title, literally signifying Father, though since become limited in its use, was originally applied to bishops in general. In all the epistles addressed to Cyprian by the Roman clergy, the bishop of Carthage is styled "the blessed pope Cyprian." The form is preserved by our Church in the words. "Most Reverend Father in God." Jerome also applies the word Papa to the head of a monastery. The title is found in an epitaph in the Lapidarian Gallery. PERPETVAM SEDEM NVTRITOR POSSIDES IPSE HIC MERITVS FINEM MAGNIS DEFVNCTE PERICLIS HIC REQVIEM FELIX SVMIS COGENTIBUS ANNIS HIC POSITVS PAPA SANTIMIOO VIXIT ANNIS LXX DEPOSITVS DOMINO NOSTRO ARCADIO II ET FL RVFINO VVCCSS NONAS NOBEMB. You, our nursing-father, occupy a perpetual seat, being dead, and deserving an end of your great dangers. Here happy, you find rest, bowed down with years. Here lies the most holy Pope, who lived 70 years. Buried on the nones of November, our Lords Arcadius for the second time, and Flavius Rufinus, being Consuls. The date of this consulate is fixed at 392, in which year no bishop of Rome died. Siricius was Yet the re made pope in 385, and lived to 396. |