monarchs, and by what that of the English government would have been, had the affair of 1848 in Ireland been like that of the Hungarians, the Venetians, or the Sicilians; or had an Irish Secretary of State been shot in the Castle of Dublin, and Lord Clarendon been compelled to fly across the Channel to England for personal safety: test it by such a standard, and then the clemency of Pius IX. will shine the brighter by the contrast.

"But while clemency is a noble virtue, especially in sovereigns, weakness is a folly, and may be as ruinous as a vice; and thus, though one would ardently desire that every native of the Papal States now in exile, on account of the part which he took in the revolution of 1848, should be permitted to return to his home and kindred, provided he did not come back in the spirit of a revolutionist and an avenger, no rational person could expect that the Pope would be so insensible to the promptings of ordinary caution and foresight, as to allow men to return to his States who have been openly declaring their determination to accomplish his overthrow, or have been known to be parties and promoters of conspiracies towards the same end. If he did so, he would be more or less than mortal, and would act as no other sovereign has acted, or is ever likely to act, under similar circumstances."

THE CATACOMBS.

(From Cardinal Wiseman's " Fabiola."

THE history of the early Christian cemeteries, the Catacombs, as they are commonly called, may be divided into three portions: from their beginning to the period of our narrative, or a few years later; from this term to the eighth century; then down to our own time, when we have reason to hope that a new epoch is being commenced.

"We have generally avoided using the name of catacombs, because it might mislead our readers into an idea that this was either the original or a generic name of those early Christian crypts. It is not so, however: Rome might be said to be surrounded by a circumvallation of cemeteries, sixty or thereabouts in number, each of which was generally known by the name of some saint or saints, whose bodies reposed there. Thus we have the cemeteries of SS. Nereus and Achilleus, of St. Agnes, of St. Pancratius, of Prætextatus, Priscilla, Hermes, &c. Sometimes these cemeteries were known by the names of the places where they existed,* The cemetery of St. Sebastian, which was called some

* As Ad Nymphas, Ad Ursum pileatum, Inter duas lauros, Ad Sextum Philippi, &c.

times C'œmeteriam ad Sanctam Cæciliam,* and by other names, had among them that of Ad Catacumbas. The meaning of this word is completely unknown; though it may be attributed to the circumstance of the relics of SS. Peter and Paul having been for a time buried there, in a crypt still existing near the cemetery. This term became the name of that particular cemetery, then was generalized, till we familiarly call the whole system of these underground excavations-the Catacombs,

"Their origin was, in the last century, a subject of controversy. Following two or three vague and equivocal passages, some learned writers pronounced the catacombs to have been originally heathen excavations, made to extract sand, for the building of the city. These sandpits were called arenaria, and so occasionally are the Christian cemeteries. But a more scientific and minute examination, particularly made by the accurate F. Marchi, has completely confuted this theory. The entrance to the catacombs was often, as can yet be seen, from these sandpits, which are themselves underground, and no doubt were a convenient cover for the cemetery; but several circumstances prove that they were never used for Christian burial, nor converted into Christian cemeteries.

"The man who wishes to get the sand out of the ground will keep his excavation as near as may be to the surface; will have it of easiest possible access, for drawing out materials; and will make it as ample as is consistent with the safety of the roof, and the supply of what he is seeking. And all this we find in the arenaria still abounding round Rome. But the Catacombs are constructed on principles exactly contrary to all these.

"The catacomb dives at once, generally by a steep flight of steps, below the stratum of loose and friable sand, into that where it is indurated to the hardness of a tender but consistent rock; on the surface of which every stroke of the pickaxe is yet distinctly traceable. When you have reached this depth you are in the first story of the cemetery, for you descend again, by stairs, to the second and third below, all constructed on the same principle.

"A catacomb may be divided into three parts, its passages or streets, its chambers or squares, and its churches. The passages are long, narrow galleries, cut with tolerable regularity, so that the roof and floor are at right angles with the sides, often so narrow as scarcely to allow two persons to go abreast. They sometimes run quite straight to a great length; but they are crossed by others, and these again by others, so as to form a complete labyrinth, or network, of subterranean corridors. To be lost among them would easily be fatal.

"But these passages are not constructed, as the name would imply, merely to lead to something else. They are themselves the catacomb or cemetery. Their walls, as well as the sides of the staircases, are honeycombed with graves, that is, with rows of excavations, large and small, of sufficient length to admit a human body, from a child to a

*The cemetery at St. Cæcilia's tomb.

Formed apparently of a Greek preposition and a Latin verb.

That is, the red volcanic sand called puzzolana, so much prized for making Roman cement.

full-grown man, laid with its side to the gallery. Sometimes there are as many as fourteen, sometimes as few as three or four, of these rows, one above the other. They are evidently so made to measure, that it is probable the body was lying by the side of the grave while this was being dug.

"When the corpse, wrapped up, as we heard from Diogenes, was laid in its narrow cell, the front was hermetically closed, either by a marble slab, or more frequently, by several broad tiles, put edgeways in a groove or mortice, cut for them in the rock, and cemented all round. The inscription was cut upon the marble, or scratched in the wet mortar. Thousands of the former sort have been collected, and may be seen in museums and churches; many of the latter have been copied and published; but by far the greater number of the tombs are anonymous, and have no record upon them. And now the reader may reasonably ask, Through what period does the interment in the catacombs range, and how are its limits determined? We will try to content him as briefly as possible.

"There is no evidence of the Christians having ever buried anywhere, anteriorly to the construction of catacombs. Two principles as old as Christianity regulate this mode of burial. The first is, the manner of Christ's entombment. He was laid in a grave in a cavern, wrapped up in linen, embalmed with spices; and a stone, sealed up, closed His sepulchre. As St. Paul so often proposes Him for the model of our resurrection, and speaks of our being buried with Him in baptism, it was natural for His disciples to wish to be buried after His example, so to be ready to rise with Him.

"This lying in wait for resurrection was the second thought that guided the formation of these cemeteries. Every expression connected with them alluded to the rising again. The word to bury is unknown in Christian inscriptions. Deposited in peace,' 'the deposition of-,' are the expressions used: that is, the dead are but left there for a time, till called for again, as a pledge, or precious thing, entrusted to faithful, but temporary keeping. The very name of cemetery suggests that it is only a place where many lie, as in a dormitory, slumbering for a while; till dawn come, and the trumpet's sound awake them. Hence the grave is only called the place,' or, more technically, 'the small home,'* of the dead in Christ.

"These two ideas, which are combined in the planning of the Catacombs, were not later insertions into the Christian system, but must have been more vivid in its earlier times. They inspired abhorrence of the pagan custom of burning the dead; nor have we a hint that this mode was, at any time, adopted by Christians.

"But ample proof is to be found in the catacombs themselves, of their early origin. The style of paintings, yet remaining, belongs to a period of still flourishing art. Their symbols, and the symbolical taste. itself, are characteristic of a very ancient period. For this peculiar taste declined, as time went on. Although inscriptions with dates are rare, yet out of ten thousand collected, and about to be published, by the learned and sagacious Cavalier de Rossi, about three hundred are found bearing consular dates, through every period, from the early

* Locus, loculus.

emperors to the middle of the fourth century (A.D. 350). Another curious and interesting custom furnishes us with dates on tombs. At the closing of the grave, the relations or friends, to mark it, would press into its wet plaster, and leave there, a coin, a cameo, or engraved gem, sometimes even a shell or pebble; probably that they might find the sepulchre again, especially where no inscription was left. Many_of these objects continue to be found, many have been long collected. But it is not uncommon, where the coin, or, to speak scientifically, the medal, has fallen from its place, to find a mould of it left, distinct and clear in the cement, which equally gives its date. This is sometimes of Domitian, or other early emperors.

"It may be asked, wherefore this anxiety to rediscover with certainty the tomb? Besides motives of natural piety, there is one constantly recorded on sepulchral inscriptions. In England, if want of space prevented the full date of a person's death being given, we should prefer chronicling the year, to the day of the month, when it occurred. It is more historical. No one cares about remembering the day on which a person died, without the year; but the year, without the day, is an important recollection. Yet while so few ancient Christian inscriptions supply the year of people's deaths, thousands give us the very day of it, on which they died, whether in the hopefulness of believers, or in the assurance of martyrs. This is easily explained. Of both classes annual commemoration had to be made, on the very day of their departure; and accurate knowledge of this was necessary. Therefore it alone was recorded.

"In a cemetery close to the one in which we have left our three youths, with Diogenes and his sons*, were lately found inscriptions mingled together, belonging to both orders of the dead. One in Greek, after mentioning the Deposition of Augenda on the 13th day before the Calends, or 1st of June,' adds this simple address,

VICTORIA. REFRIGERER [ET]
ISSPIRITVS. TVS IN BONO

"Victoria, be refreshed, and may thy spirit be in enjoyment'

(good).

"This last reminds us of a most peculiar inscription found scratched in the mortar beside a grave in the cemetery of Prætextatus, not many

*That of SS. Nereus and Achilleus.

yards from that of Callistus. It is remarkable, first, for being in Latin written with Greek letters; then, for containing a testimony of the Divinity of our Lord; lastly, for expressing a prayer for the refreshment of the departed. We fill up the portion of words wanting, from the falling out of part of the plaster.

"To the well-deserving sister Bon . . . The eighth day before the calends of Nov. Christ God Almighty refresh thy spirit in Christ.'

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In spite of this digression on prayers inscribed over tombs, the reader will not, we trust, have forgotten, that we were establishing the fact, that the Christian cemeteries of Rome owe their origin to the earliest ages. We have now to state down to what period they were used. After peace was restored to the Church, the devotion of Christians prompted them to desire burial near the martyrs and holy people of an earlier age. But, generally speaking, they were satisfied to lie under the pavement. Hence the sepulchral stones which are often found in the rubbish of the catacombs, and sometimes in their places, bearing consular dates of the fourth century, are thicker, larger, better carved, and in a less simple style, than those of an earlier period, placed upon the walls. But before the end of that century, these monuments become rarer; and interment in the catacombs ceased in the following, at latest. Pope Damasus, who died in 384, reverently shrunk, as he tells us, in his own epitaph, from intruding into the company of the saints.

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Restitutus, therefore, whose sepulchral tablet we gave for a title to our chapter, may well be considered as speaking in the name of the early Christians, and claiming as their own exclusive work and property, the thousand miles of subterranean city, with their six millions of slumbering inhabitants, who trust in the Lord, and await His resurrection.*

"When peace and liberty were restored to the Church, these cemeteries became places of devotion, and of great resort. Each of them was associated with the name of one, or the names of several, of the more eminent martyrs buried in it; and, on their aniversaries, crowds of citizens and of pilgrims thronged to their tombs, where the Divine

* So F. Marchi calculates them, after diligent examination. We may mention here that, in the construction of these cemeteries, the sand extracted from one gallery was removed into another already excavated. Hence many are now found completely filled up.