entrance left open to general inspection, we are no longer able to share the feelings of those who beheld the cemeteries and chapels of a past age, completely furnished with their proper contents. "St. Jerome has left us a lively picture of their state during the early part of his lifetime, that is, about the middle of the fourth century. When I was at Rome,' says the monk of Palestine, still a youth, and employed in literary pursuits, I was accustomed, in company with others of my own age, and actuated by the same feelings, to visit on Sundays the sepulchres of the apostles and martyrs; and often to go down into the crypts dug in the heart of the earth, where the walls on either side are lined with the dead; and so intense is the darkness, that we almost realize the words of the prophet, "They go down alive into hell" (or Hades), and here and there a scanty aperture, ill deserving the name of window, admits scarcely light enough to mitigate the gloom which reigns below: and as we advance through the shades with cautious steps, we are forcibly reminded of the words of Virgil," Horror on all sides; even the silence terrifies the mind."' (Hieronymus in Ezechiel, c. xl.) "The history of the catacombs, since their recovery from the oblivion in which they had remained during the dark ages, consists principally in a succession of controversies, provoked by the indiscriminate veneration paid to every object found in them. During the reign of Sixtus the Fifth, who ascended the pontifical throne in 1585, some discussions having occurred respecting relics, the attention of antiquarians was strongly directed to the subject, and a diligent examination of the catacombs, then recently discovered, was undertaken. Foremost in this investigation was Bosio, whose posthumous works were edited by Severano, in the year 1632, under the title of Roma Sotteranea, including an original chapter by the editor. The same work translated into Latin, and still further enlarged, was republished by Arringhi. "A number of epitaphs were published by Fabretti, who was invested with the office of Curator of the Catacombs, and eighteen years afterwards another folio issued from the hands of his successor, Boldetti, entitled 'Osservazioni sopra i cimiterii del Santi Martiri.' This work abounds in theological and antiquarian information, while the next that appeared, the Sculture e Pitture' of Bottari, was devoted more especially to the Christian arts. The subject now became exhausted, not from the completeness of the knowledge obtained, but from the condition of the catacombs themselves, which by that time had been robbed of their contents to adorn the museums of the learned. "But another line of research, not less interesting, was still prosecuted with continued success. The extensive stores of information relating to early church history, were now brought to bear upon the surviving monuments of ancient times: and an increased knowledge of pagan manners allowed a finer distinction to be drawn between what was purely Christian and what was merely adapted from Gentilism: the result has become apparent, in the disappearance of the angry controversial spirit which marked the discussions of the two last centuries. The Roman antiquarians, better informed in the history of their city, and less alarmed by bold attempts to deprive their martyrs and saints of the honours to which they had been thought entitled, no longer felt a pious horror at those who would have taken away their gods: while Protestant travellers, perhaps softened by the confessions of their adversaries, began in a more catholic spirit to honour the ground consecrated by the death or burial of those who had died for the common faith: so that the subject of debate is now not so much the Christianity or Heathenism of monuments and customs, as the age to which they belonged. Caution is still requisite, in order to steer a safe course between the superstitious credulity of the Romanist, who would see a saint or martyr in every skeleton, and consecrate every cemetery by a miracle; and the scepticism of another school, who, under the mask of candid inquiry, would reject all evidence short of absolute demonstration, in favour of the sufferings and acts of the primitive believers. "The principal controversy concerning the Christian cemetries arose from the zeal of two travellers, Burnet and Misson, who wished to prove that there was no real distinction between the burial-place of Pagans and Christians at the time referred to. The arguments of Burnet are ingenious, but founded upon data so incorrect and imperfect that they are entirely without weight. He reasons, that the Christians, never averaging above forty-five thousand at one time in Rome, were quite inadequate to the execution of such works that they would have been observed and molested by their enemies and that the catacombs themselves would have been insupportable as a residence, from the putrefying bodies contained in them. That the Pagans buried as well as burned their dead: that the Christian cemetries contain no dates older than the fourth and fifth centuries: in short, that a few monks, finding the trade in relics growing profitable, forged some tens of thousands of marble inscriptions, placed them in Pagan cemetries below ground, and being driven away by persecution, were forced to abandon these fictitious monuments, which remained undiscovered till after the dark ages.-(Letters from Switzerland, Italy, &c.) "Happily, a remarkable agreement on this point prevails among all modern writers; and while it is stedfastly maintained by them that the Christian cemeteries are free from all admixture of Pagan bodies, it is allowed that the excavation of the catacombs was not begun by the Christians, but that they appropriated to their own use the subterranean galleries, originally dug to provide the materials for building Rome. The complete occu pation of them by Christian sepulchres, the absence of Pagan monuments, and the entire concurrence of all the contemporary writers on the subject, speak so decisively in favour of their exclusively Christian character, that it is difficult to imagine how any further evidence could be adduced concerning a question never agitated till the seventeenth century. The testimony of Prudentius, a writer of the fourth century, is of great weight: he alludes to the catacombs continually, without seeming to conceive the possibility of their having been defiled by a single Pagan corpse. "The chief sources of information regarding the catacombs, lie in the various collections in and near Rome. A few interesting Christian epitaphs are to be found on the walls of the Capitoline Museum, in the entrance to the catacombs of St. Sebastian, and in some private houses and villas. But all these collections are insignificant, when compared with the treasures of the Vatican, of which a short description must be given, as frequent reference will be made to them throughout this volume. First, there is the Christian Museum properly so called, containing a number of sarcophagi, bas-reliefs, inscriptions, and medals, most of them published in the works of Roman antiquarians. Through the kindness of a friend, the author was allowed to copy some of the epitaphs lately added. Besides this, at the entrance to the Vatican Museum is a long corridor, the sides of which are completely lined with inscriptions plastered into the wall. On the right hand are arranged the epitaphs of Pagans, votive tablets, dedications of altars, fragments of edicts and public documents, collected from the neighbourhood of the city; and opposite to them, classed under the heads of Greek, Latin, and Consular monuments, appear the inscriptions of the ancient Christians. These have been collected indiscriminately from the catacombs round Rome, and have hitherto remained unpublished. To this gallery, from the circumstance of its containing little more than sepulchral stones, the name of Lapidarian, or delle Lapidi, has been given. The inscriptions, amounting to more than three thousand, were arranged in their present order by Gaetano Marini. "Notwithstanding the indifference manifested by the hundreds of visitors who daily traverse this corridor, there needs but a little attention to invest its walls with a degree of interest scarcely to be exceeded by any other remains of past ages. 'I have spent,' says Raoul Rochette, many entire days in this sanctuary of antiquity, where the sacred and profane stand facing each other, in the written monuments preserved to us, as in the days when Paganism and Christianity, striving with all their powers, were engaged in mortal conflict. ***** And were it only the treasure of impressions which we receive from this immense collection of Christian epitaphs, taken from the graves of the catacombs, and now attached to the walls of the Vatican, this alone would be an inexhaustible fund of recollections and enjoyment for a whole life.'”—(Tableau des Catacombes, p. x.)—(pp. 1–9.) This Lapidarian Gallery will, we trust, be not without its attractions to our readers, however little it may be to the taste of the butterflies from England, who flutter gay and gaudy over the graceful trophies of a fallen idolatry in Rome, and the bedizened symbols of a rampant one; equally regardless of the appalling insults to the majesty of heaven, that arise, hour by hour, from "the eternal city;" of the denunciations of vengeance upon those insults, which are written, " as with a sunbeam," upon the page of inspiration; and of the penal fires that heave and smoulder beneath their feet, and wait but their appointed hour to burst the bounds of their prison, and fully to execute that vengeance. The following extract from the introductory chapter, will also, we anticipate, be found deeply interesting. "The Consular Monuments, principally comprised in a compartment at the further end of the corridor, are those containing the names of the consuls who governed during the years in which they were erected. Their value as chronological data is obvious; and their authenticity is the more to be relied upon, from their rude execution and imperfect orthography, often leaving us in doubt as to the very name of the consuls intended to be expressed. It would appear that the better class of Christians, especially those of the third and fourth centuries, were more in the habit of adding dates to their epitaphs, than those of lower condition, or an earlier period. "On the walls thus loaded with inscriptions belonging to professors of the rival religions, we may trace a contrast between the state of Pagan and that of Christian society in the ancient metropolis. The funeral lamentation, expressed in neatly-engraved hexameters, the tersely worded sentiments of stoicism, and the proud titles of Roman citizenship, attest the security and resources of the old religion. Further on, the whole heaven of Paganism is glorified by innumerable altars, where the epithets, unconquered, greatest, and best, are lavished upon the worthless shadows that peopled Olympus. Here and there are traces of complicated political orders; tablets containing the names of individuals composing a legion or cohort; legal documents relating to property, and whatever belong to a state, such as the Roman empire in its best times is known to have been. The first glance at the opposite wall is enough to show, that, as St. Paul himself expressed it, not many mighty, not many noble,' were numbered among those whose epitaphs are there 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. An incoherent sentence, or a straggling mis-spelt scrawl, such as TOTO C⋅ 01) HMONIC 'The place of Philemon,' inscribed upon a rough slab destined to close a niche in caverns where daylight could never penetrate, tells of a persecuted, or at least, oppressed community. There is also a simplicity in many of these slight records not without its charm; as in the annexed, BIRGINIVS PARVM "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 cinerary 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. Whether this pigment originally belonged to all the letters, is uncertain many are now found without it. The custom of cutting in the stone is alluded to by Prudentius in his hymn in honour of the eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa; in which he calls upon his fellow Christians to wash with pious tears, the furrows in the marble tablets erected to them. : "Nos pio fletu, date, perluamus. The orthography of these epitaphs is generally faulty, the letters irregular, and the sense not always obvious. These characteristics the author has been anxious to preserve, and has therefore spared no pains in executing copies in exact fac-simile, though much reduced in size. "Another difference between the inscriptions belonging to the Pagans and Christians of the early centuries, is too remarkable to be passed by unnoticed. While the heathen name consisted of several essential parts, all of which were necessary to distinguish its owner, the Christians in general confined themselves to that which they had received in baptism. Thus the names of Felix, Sevus, Philemon, and Agape, are found on tombs, unaccompanied by any of the other designations which belonged to those individuals as members of a Roman family. Occasionally we meet with two, and perhaps even three names on their monuments, as Aurelia Agapetilla, Largia Agape; but these are not common. The first believers, when not forced, by the multiplicity of persons christened alike, to add a further distinction, appear to have regarded their Christian name as the only one worthy of preservation on their sepulchres. "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, the gradual origin of the cursive character, and the uncertain pronunciation of some consonants, indicated by the varied modes of writing the same word, 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 live in their voluminous works; the lower orders 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 headto 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 archæology 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 those 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. To decorate the chapels, adorn by monuments the labyrinths of sepulchres, and pay an excessive regard to all that belonged to martyrs and martyrdom, was the constant labour of succeeding centuries. Hence arises a chronological confusion, which calls for caution in deciding upon the value of any inference that may be drawn from these sources, respecting points of doctrine. Yet it may not be amiss to premise generally, that in the inscriptions contained in the Lapidarian Gallery, selected and arranged under Papal superintendance, there are no prayers for the dead (unless the forms, May you live,'' May God refresh you,' be so construed); no addresses to the Virgin Mary, nor to the Apostles or earlier Saints; and, with the exception of 'eternal sleep,' eternal home,' &c., no expressions contrary to the plain sense of Scripture. And if the bones of the martyrs were more honoured, and the privilege of being interred near them more valued, than the simplicity of our religion would warrant, there is, in this outbreak of enthusiastic feeling towards the heroic defenders of the faith, no precedent for the adoration paid to them by a corrupt age. "Perhaps it may safely be asserted, that the ancient Church appears in the Lapidarian Gallery in a somewhat more favourable light than in the writings of the fathers and historians. It may be that the sepulchral tablet is more congenial to the display of pious feeling than the controversial epistle, or even the much-needed episcopal rebuke. Besides the gentle and amiable spirit everywhere breathed, 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. The second Person of the Trinity is neither viewed in the Jewish light of a temporal Messiah, nor degraded to the Socinian estimate of a mere example, but is invested with all the honours of a Redeemer. On this subject there is no reserve, no heathenish suppression of the distinguishing feature of our religion: 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: and whatever ignorance may have prevailed regarding the letter of Holy Writ, or the more mysterious doctrines contained in it, there seems to have been no want of apprehension of that sacrifice, whereby alone we obtain remission of our sins, and are made partakers of the kingdom of heaven.'"-(pp. 9-15.) The next chapter of Dr. Maitland's work is devoted to the discussion of the origin of the catacombs. This is soon explained. They are the quarries from which were taken the materials for the building of ancient Rome. They were used in the times of the republic as burial-places for criminals and others who, having died infamous deaths, were not entitled to the rite of burning on the pile. The poorer classes also (as the present author shows) who were precluded by the expence from the honours of cremation, buried their dead in the catacombs. Somewhat later, the costly ceremonial of the funeral pile went gradually into desuetude with the higher classes at Rome also: probably in consequence of the favour with which the Egyptian mythology was received by the |