[1] The word "cat" is applied to various objects, in all cases an
application of the name of the animal. In medieval siegecraft the
"cat" (Med. Lat. _chattus_ or _gattus_, _chatta_ or _gatta_, in Fr.
_chat_ or _chat-chasteil_) was a movable pent-house used to protect
besiegers when approaching a wall or gateway, for the purpose of
sapping, mining or direct attack, or to cover a ram or other
battering-engine. The word is also sometimes applied to a heavy
timber fitted with iron spikes or projections to be thrown down upon
besiegers, and to the large work known as a "cavalier." "Cat" or
"cat-head," in nautical usage, is the projecting beam on the bows of
a ship used to clear the anchor from the sides of the vessel when
weighed. The stock of the anchor rests on the cat-head when hung
outside the ship. The name is also used of a type of a vessel, now
obsolete, and formerly used in the coal and timber trade on the
north-east coast of England; it had a deep waist and narrow stem; it
is still applied to a small rig of sailing boats, with a single mast
stepped far forward, with a fore and aft sail. Among other objects
also known by the name of "cat" is the small piece of wood pointed at
either end used in the game of tip-cat, and the instrument of
punishment, generally known as the "cat o' nine tails." This consists
of a handle of wood or rope, about 18 in. long, with nine knotted
cords or thongs. The multiplication of thongs for purposes of
flogging is found in the old Roman _flagellum_, a scourge, which had
sometimes three thongs with bone or bronze knots fastened to them.
The "cat" was the regular instrument with which floggings were
performed in the British army and navy. Since the abolition of
flogging in the services, the use of the cat is now restricted to
certain classes of offenders in military prisons (Army Act 1881, S
133). In the English criminal law, where corporal punishment is
ordered by the court for certain criminal offences, the "cat" is used
only where the prisoner is over sixteen years of age. It may not be
used except when actually ordered in the sentence, and must be of a
pattern approved by a secretary of state. Further floggings are
inflicted with the "cat" upon convicted prisoners for breaches of
discipline in prison. They must be ordered by the visitors of the
prison and confirmed by the home secretary.
CATABOLISM, or KATABOLISM (Gr. [Greek: kata], down, [Greek: Bole], a
throw), the biological term for the reverse of anabolism, namely the
breaking down of complex into simpler substances, destructive metabolism
(see PHYSIOLOGY).
CATACLYSM (Gr. [Greek: kataklusmos], a deluge), a great flood or deluge
(q.v.). The term is used in geology to denote an overwhelming
catastrophe which has produced sudden changes in the earth's surface;
and also, figuratively, of any great and violent change which sweeps
away the existing social or political order.
CATACOMB, a subterranean excavation for the interment of the dead or
burial-vault. In this sense the word "catacomb" has gained universal
acceptance, and has found a place in most modern languages. The original
term, _catacumbae_, however, had no connexion with sepulture, but was
simply the name of a particular locality in the environs of Rome. It was
derived from the Greek [Greek: kata] and [Greek: kumbe], "a hollow," and
had reference to the natural configuration of the ground. In the
district that bore this designation, lying close to the Appian Way, the
basilica of San Sebastiano was erected, and the extensive burial-vaults
beneath that church--in which, according to tradition, the bodies of the
apostles St Peter and St Paul rested for a year and seven months
previous to their removal to the basilicas which bear their names--were,
in very early times, called from it _coemeterium ad catacumbas_, or
_catacumbas_ alone. From the celebrity of this cemetery as an object of
pilgrimage its name became extensively known, and in entire
forgetfulness of the origin of the word, _catacumbae_ came to be
regarded as a generic appellation for all burial-places of the same
kind. This extension of the term to Christian burial-vaults generally
dates from the 9th century, and obtained gradual currency through the
Christian world. The original designation of these places of sepulture
is _crypta_ or _coemeterium_.
The largest number of Christian catacombs belong to the 3rd and the
early part of the 4th centuries. The custom of subterranean interment
gradually died out, and entirely ceased with the sack of Rome by Alaric,
A.D. 410. "The end of the catacomb graves," writes Mommsen (_Cont.
Rev._, May 1871), "is intimately connected with the end of the powerful
city itself.... Poverty took the place of wealth, ... the traditions of
the Christian tomb-architects sank into utter insignificance, and the
expanse of the wasted Campagna now offered room enough to bury the few
bodies, without having to descend as once far down below the surface of
the earth." The earliest account of the catacombs, that of St Jerome
narrating his visits to them when a schoolboy at Rome, about A.D. 354,
shows that interment in them was even then rare if it had not been
altogether discontinued; and the poet Prudentius's description of the
tomb of the Christian martyr Hippolytus, and the cemetery in which it
stood, leads us to the same conclusion. With the latter part of the 4th
century a new epoch in the history of the catacombs arose--that of
religious reverence. In the time of Pope Damasus, A.D. 366-384, the
catacombs had begun to be regarded with special devotion, and had become
the resort of large bands of pilgrims, for whose guidance catalogues of
the chief burial-places and the holy men buried in them were drawn up.
Some of these lists are still extant.[1] Pope Damasus himself displayed
great zeal in adapting the catacombs to their new purpose, restoring the
works of art on the walls, and renewing the epitaphs over the graves of
the martyrs. In this latter work he employed an engraver named Furius
Philocalus, the exquisite beauty of whose characters enables the
smallest fragment of his work to be recognized at a glance. This gave
rise to extensive alterations in their construction and decoration,
which has much lessened their value as authentic memorials of the
religious art of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Subsequent popes manifested
equal ardour, with the same damaging results, in the repair and
adornment of the catacombs, and many of the paintings covering their
walls, which have been assigned to the period of their original
construction, are really the work of these later times. The catacombs
shared in the devastation of Rome by the Goths under Vitiges in the 6th
century and by the Lombards at a later period; and partly through the
spoliation of these barbarian invaders, partly through the neglect of
those who should have been their guardians, they sank into such a state
of decay and pollution that, as the only means of preserving the holy
remains they enshrined from further desecration, Pope Paul I., in the
latter part of the 8th century, and Pope Paschal, at the beginning of
the 9th, entered upon the work of the translation of the relics, which
was vigorously carried on by successive pontiffs until the crypts were
almost entirely despoiled of their dead. The relics having been removed,
the visits of pilgrims naturally ceased, and by degrees the very
existence of those wonderful subterranean cemeteries was forgotten. Six
centuries elapsed before the accidental discovery of a sepulchral
chamber by some labourers digging for _pozzolana_ earth (May 31, 1578)
revealed to the amazed inhabitants of Rome "the existence," to quote a
contemporary record, "of other cities concealed beneath their own
suburbs." Baronius, the ecclesiastical historian, was one of the first
to visit the new discovery, and his _Annals_ in more than one place
evidence his just appreciation of its importance. The true "Columbus of
this subterranean world," as he has been aptly designated, was the
indefatigable Antonio Bosio (d. 1629), who devoted his life to the
personal investigation of the catacombs, the results of which were given
to the world in 1632 in a huge folio, entitled _Roma sotterranea_,
profusely illustrated with rude but faithful plans and engravings. This
was republished in a Latin translation with considerable alterations and
omissions by Paolo Aringhi in 1651; and a century after its first
appearance the plates were reproduced by Giovanni Bottari in 1737, and
illustrated with great care and learning. Some additional discoveries
were described by Marc Antonio Boldetti in his _Osservazioni_, published
in 1720; but, writing in the interests of the Roman Church with an
apologetic, not a scientific object, truth was made to bend to polemics,
and little addition to our knowledge of the catacombs is to be gained
from his otherwise important work. The French historian of art, Seroux
d'Agincourt, 1825, by his copious illustrations, greatly facilitated the
study of the architecture of the catacombs and the works of art
contained in them. The works of Raoul Rochette display a comprehensive
knowledge of the whole subject, extensive reading, and a thorough
acquaintance with early Christian art so far as it could be gathered
from books, but he was not an original investigator. The great pioneer
in the path of independent research, which, with the intelligent use of
documentary and historical evidence, has led to so vast an increase in
our acquaintance with the Roman Catacombs, was Padre Marchi of the
Society of Jesus. His work, _Monumenti delle arti christiane primitive_,
is the first in which the strange misconception, received with
unquestioning faith by earlier writers, that the catacombs were
exhausted sand-pits adapted by the Christians to the purpose of
interment, was dispelled, and the true history of their formation
demonstrated. Marchi's line of investigation was followed by the
Commendatore De Rossi, and his brother Michele, the former of whom was
Marchi's fellow-labourer during the latter part of his explorations; and
it is to them that we owe the most exhaustive scientific examination of
the whole subject. The Catacombs of Rome are the most extensive with
which we are acquainted, and, as might be expected in the centre of the
Christian world, are in many respects the most remarkable. No others
have been so thoroughly examined and illustrated. These may, therefore,
be most appropriately selected for description as typical examples.
Catacombs of Rome.
Our description of the Roman Catacombs cannot be more appropriately
introduced than by St Jerome's account of his visits to them in his
youth, already referred to, which, after the lapse of above fifteen
centuries, presents a most accurate picture of these wonderful
subterranean labyrinths. "When I was a boy," he writes, "receiving my
education in Rome, I and my schoolfellows used, on Sundays, to make the
circuit of the sepulchres of the apostles and martyrs. Many a time did
we go down into the catacombs. These are excavated deep in the earth,
and contain, on either hand as you enter, the bodies of the dead buried
in the wall. It is all so dark there that the language of the prophet
(Ps. lv. 15) seems to be fulfilled, 'Let them go down quick into hell.'
Only occasionally is light let in to mitigate the horror of the gloom,
and then not so much through a window as through a hole. You take each
step with caution, as, surrounded by deep night, you recall the words of
Virgil--
"Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent."[2]
[Illustration FIG. 1.--Plan of part of the Cemetery of Sant' Agnese.
(From Martigny.)
A. Entrance from the Basilica of St Agnes.
1, 2. Ancient staircases leading to the first storey.
3. Corridors from the staircases.
4. Two ruined staircases leading to the lower storey.
5. Steps of the rock.
6. Air-shafts, or luminaria.
7. Ruined vault.
8. Blind ways.
9. Passages built up or ruined.
10. Passages obstructed by landslips.
11. Unfinished passage.
12. Passages destitute of tombs.
13. Narrow apertures between adjoining galleries.
14-17. Arcosolia.
18-32. Cubicula.
33. Chapel with vestibule and apse, and two chairs.
34. Double chapel with three chairs.
35. Large chapel in five divisions.]
In complete agreement with Jerome's vivid picture the visitor to the
Roman Catacombs finds himself in a vast labyrinth of narrow galleries,
usually from 3 to 4 ft. in width, interspersed with small chambers, all
excavated at successive levels, in the strata of volcanic rock subjacent
to the city and its environs, and constructed originally for the
interment of the Christian dead. The galleries are not the way of access
to the cemeteries, but are themselves the cemeteries, the dead being
buried in long low horizontal recesses, excavated in the vertical walls
of the passages, rising tier above tier like the berths in a ship, from
a few inches above the floor to the springing of the arched ceiling, to
the number of five, six or even sometimes twelve ranges. These galleries
are not arranged on any definite plan, but, as will be seen from the
plan (fig. 1), they intersect one another at different angles, producing
an intricate network which it is almost impossible to reduce to any
system. They generally run in straight lines, and as a rule preserve the
same level. The different storeys of galleries lie one below the other
(fig. 2) to the number of four or five (in one part of the cemetery of
St Calixtus they reach seven storeys), and communicate with one another
by stairs cut out of the living rock. Light and air are introduced by
means of vertical shafts (_luminaria_) running up to the outer air, and
often serving for several storeys. The drawing (fig. 3) from Northcote
gives a very correct idea of these galleries, with the tiers of graves
pierced in the walls. The doorways which are seen interrupting the lines
of graves are those of the family sepulchral chambers, or _cubicula_, of
which we shall speak more particularly hereafter.
The graves, or _loculi_, as they are commonly designated, were, in the
Christian cemeteries, with only a few exceptions (Padre Marchi produces
some from the cemetery of St Ciriaca, _Monum. primitiv._ tav. xiv.
xliii. xliv.), parallel with the length of the gallery. In the pagan
cemeteries, on the other hand, the sepulchral recess as a rule entered
the rock like an oven at right angles to the corridor, the body being
introduced endways. The plan adopted by the Christians saved labour,
economized space, and consulted reverence in the deposition of the
corpse. These _loculi_ were usually constructed for a single body only.
Some, however, were formed to contain two, three, or four, or even more
corpses. Such recesses were known respectively as _bisomi, trisomi,
quadrisomi_, &c., terms which often appear in the sepulchral
inscriptions. After the introduction of the body the _loculi_ were
closed with the greatest care, either with slabs of marble the whole
length of the aperture, or with huge tiles, three being generally
employed, cemented together with great exactness so as to prevent the
escape of the products of decomposition (fig. 4). Where any epitaph was
set up--an immense number are destitute of any inscription at all--it is
always painted or engraved on these slabs or tiles. In the earlier
interments the epitaph is usually daubed on the slab in red or black
paint. In later examples it is incised in the marbles, the letters being
rendered clearer by being coloured with vermilion. The enclosing slab
very often bears one or more Christian symbols, such as the dove, the
anchor, the olive-branch, or the monogram of Christ (figs. 5, 6). The
palm branch, which is also of frequent occurrence, is not an
indisputable mark of the last resting-place of a martyr, being found in
connexion with epitaphs of persons dying natural deaths, or those
prepared by persons in their lifetime, as well as in those of little
children, and even of pagans. Another frequent concomitant of these
catacomb interments, a small glass vessel containing traces of the
sediment of a red fluid, embedded in the cement of the _loculus_ (fig.
7), has no better claim. The red matter proves to be the remains of
wine, not of blood; and the conclusion of the ablest archaeologists is
that the vessels were placed where they are found, after the eucharistic
celebration or _agape_ on the day of the funeral or its anniversary, and
contained remains of the consecrated elements as a kind of religious
charm. Not a few of the slabs, it is discovered, have done double duty,
bearing a pagan inscription on one side and a Christian one on the
other. These are known as _opisthographs_. The bodies were interred
wrapped in linen cloths, or swathed in bands, and were frequently
preserved by embalming. In the case of poorer interments the destruction
of the body was, on the contrary, often accelerated by the use of
quicklime.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Section of Galleries at different levels. (From
Seroux d'Agincourt)]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--View of a Gallery.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Loculi. (From de Rossi.)]
[Illustration: FIGS. 5 and 6.--Loculi. (From de Rossi.)]
Interment in the wall-recess or _loculus_, though infinitely the most
common, was not the only mode employed in the catacombs. Other forms of
very frequent recurrence are the _table tomb_ and _arched tomb_, or
_arcosolium_. From the annexed woodcuts it will be seen that these only
differ in the form of the surmounting recess. In each case the arched
tomb was formed by an oblong chest, either hollowed out of the rock, or
built of masonry, and closed with a horizontal slab. But in the
table-tomb (fig. 8) the recess above, essential for the introduction of
the corpse, is square, while in the arcosolium (fig. 9), a form of later
date, it is semicircular. Sarcophagi are also found in the catacombs,
but are of rare occurrence. They chiefly occur in the earlier
cemeteries, and the costliness of their construction confined their use
to the wealthiest classes--e.g. in the cemetery of St Domitilla, herself
a member of the imperial house. Another unfrequent mode of interment was
in graves like those of modern times, dug in the floor of the galleries
(Marchi, _u.s._, tav. xxi. xxvi.). Table-tombs and arcosolia are by no
means rare in the corridors of the catacombs, but they belong more
generally to the _cubicula_, or family vaults, of which we now proceed
to speak.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Glass Bottles. (From Bosio.)]
These _cubicula_ are small apartments, seldom more than 12 ft. square,
usually rectangular, though sometimes circular or polygonal, opening out
of the main corridors. They are not unfrequently ranged regularly along
the sides of the galleries, the doors of entrance, as may be seen in a
previous illustration (fig. 3), following one another in as orderly
succession as the bedchamber doors in the passage of a modern house. The
roof is sometimes flat, but is more usually vaulted, and sometimes
rises into a cupola. Both the roof and the walls are almost universally
coated with stucco and covered with fresco paintings--in the earlier
works merely decorative, in the later always symbolical or historical.
Each side of the cubiculum, except that of the entrance, usually
contains a recessed tomb, either a table-tomb or an arcosolium. That
facing the entrance was the place of greatest honour, where in many
instances the remains of a martyr were deposited, whose tomb, according
to primitive usage, served as an altar for the celebration of the
eucharist. This was sometimes, as in the Papal crypt of St Calixtus
(fig. 10), protected from irreverence by lattice work (_transennae_) of
marble. The cubiculum was originally designed for the reception of a
very limited number of dead. But the natural desire to be buried near
one's relatives caused new tombs to be cut in the walls, above and
around and behind the original tombs, the walls being thus completely
honeycombed with _loculi_, sometimes as many as seventy, utterly
regardless of the paintings originally depicted on the walls. Another
motive for multiplying the number of graves operated when the cubiculum
contained the remains of any noted saint or martyr. The Christian
antiquary has cause continually to lament the destruction of works of
art due to this craving. One of the most perfect examples of early
Christian pictorial decoration, the so-called "Dispute with the
Doctors," in the catacomb of Calixtus, the "antique style of beauty" of
which is noticed by Kugler, has thus suffered irreparable mutilation,
the whole of the lower part of the picture having been destroyed by the
excavation of a fresh grave-recess (Bottari, vol. ii. tav. 15). The
plates of De Rossi, Ferret, and, indeed, all illustrations of the
catacombs, exhibit frequent examples of the same destructive
superstition. The illustrations (figs. 11 and 12), taken from De Rossi's
great work, representing two of the cubicula in the cemetery of St
Calixtus, show the general arrangement of the loculi and the character
of the frescoes which ornament the walls and roof. These paintings, it
will be seen, are simply decorative, of the same style as the
wall-paintings of the baths, and those of Pompeii.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Table-tomb.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Arcosolia. (From Bosio.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Restoration of the Papal Crypt, Cemetery of St
Calixtus. (From de Rossi.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Cubiculum in Cemetery of St Calixtus. (From de
Rossi.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Cubiculum in the Cemetery of St Calixtus. (From
de Rossi.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Plan of a supposed Church, Catacomb of Sant'
Agnese. (From Marchi.)]
Each _cubiculum_ was usually the burying-place of some one family, all
the members of which were interred in it, just as in the chantry-chapels
connected with medieval churches. In them was celebrated the
funeral-feast on the day of burial and on its anniversary, as well as
the eucharist, which was the invariable accompaniment of funerals in the
primitive church (Bingham, _Orig. Eccl._ bk. xxiii. c. iii. 12). The
funeral-banquet descended to the Christian church from pagan times, and
was too often profaned by heathen licence. St Augustine, in several
passages, inveighs against those who thus by "gluttony and insobriety
buried themselves over the buried," and "made themselves drunk in the
chapels of the martyrs, placing their excesses to the score of religious
reverence for the dead." (August., _De Mor. Eccl. Cathol._, c. 34,
_Contr. Faust_, lib. xx. c. 21, _Confess._, lib vi. c. 2) Some curious
frescoes representing these funeral-feasts, found in the _cubicula_
which were the scene of them, are reproduced by Bosio (pp. 355, 391)
and others. A romantic air has been thrown over these burial chapels by
the notion that they were the places of worship used by the Christians
in times of persecution. This to a certain extent is doubtless true, as
in the case of the chapel of Santa Priscilla, where the altar or stone
coffin of a martyr remains, with a small platform behind it for the
priest or bishop to stand upon. But that they can have been so used to
any large extent is rendered impossible by their limited dimensions, as
none of them could hold more than fifty or sixty persons. In some of the
catacombs, however, there are larger halls and connected suites of
chapels which may possibly have been constructed for the purpose of
congregational worship during the dark periods when the public exercise
of the Christian religion was made penal. The most remarkable of these
is in the cemetery of Sant' Agnese (see plan, fig. 13). It consists of
five rectangular compartments, three on one side of the corridor and two
on the other, connected by a passage intersecting the gallery at right
angles. Two of the five compartments are supposed to have been assigned
to male, and two to female worshippers, the fifth, at the extremity of
the whole, being reserved for the altar and its ministers. In the centre
of the end-wall stands a stone chair (fig. 14), considered to have been
the episcopal cathedra, with a bench for the clergy on each side. There
is no trace of an altar, which may, Marchi thinks, have been portable.
The walls of the compartments are occupied by arched sepulchral
recesses, above and below which are tiers of ordinary graves or
_loculi_. The arrangements are certainly such as indicate a
congregational purpose, but the extreme narrowness of the suite, and
still more of the passage which connects the two divisions, must have
rendered it difficult for any but a small number to take any intelligent
part in the services at the same time. Although the idea of the use of
the catacombs for religious worship may have been pressed too far, there
can be no doubt that the sacred rites of the church were celebrated
within them. We have already spoken of the eucharistic celebrations of
which the _cubicula_ were the scene; and still existing baptisteries
prove that the other sacrament was also administered there. The most
remarkable of these baptisteries is that in the catacomb of San
Pontianus (fig. 15). Ten steps lead down to a basin of sufficient depth
for immersion, supplied by a spring. Some of the subterranean chambers
contain armed seats and benches cut out of the tufa rock. These are
supposed by Marchi and others to indicate schoolrooms, where the
catechumens were instructed by the bishop or presbyters. But this theory
wants verification. It is impossible not to be struck with the
remarkable analogy between these rock-hewn chairs and those discovered
in the Etruscan tombs, of the purpose of which no satisfactory
explanation has been given.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Bishop's Chair. Catacomb of Sant' Agnese.]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Baptistery of San Pontianus. (From Perret.)]
Theories of the use of the catacombs.
Very exaggerated statements have been made as to the employment of the
catacombs as dwelling-places by the Christians in times of persecution.
We have, however, sufficient evidence that they were used as places of
refuge from the fury of the heathen, in which the believers--especially
the bishops and clergy, who would naturally be the first objects of
attack--might secrete themselves until the storm had blown over. This
was a purpose for which they were admirably adapted both by the
intricacy of their labyrinthine passages, in which any one not
possessing the clue would be inevitably lost, and the numerous small
chambers and hiding-places at different levels which might be passed
unperceived in the dark by the pursuers. As a rule also the catacombs
had more than one entrance, and frequently communicated with an
_arenaria_ or sand-quarry; so that while one entrance was carefully
watched, the pursued might escape in a totally different direction by
another. But, to quote J.H. Parker, "the catacombs were never intended,
nor fit for, dwelling-places, and the stories of persons living in them
for months are probably fabulous. According to modern physicians it is
impossible to live many days in the caves of _pozzolana_ in which many
of the catacombs are excavated." Equally exaggerated are the statements
as to the linear and lateral extent of the catacombs, and their
intercommunication with one another. Without resorting to this
exaggeration, Mommsen can speak with perfect truth of the "enormous
space occupied by the burial vaults of Christian Rome, not surpassed
even by the _cloacae_ or sewers of Republican Rome," but the data are
too vague to warrant any attempt to define their dimensions. Marchi has
estimated the united length of the galleries at from 800 to 900 m., and
the number of interments at between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000; Martigny's
estimate is 587 m.; and Northcote's, lower still, at "not less than 350
m." The idea of general intercommunication is negatived by the fact that
the chief cemeteries are separated by low ground or valleys, where any
subterranean galleries would be at once filled with water.
It now remains to speak of the history of these subterranean
burial-places, together with the reasons for, and mode of, their
construction. From the period of the rediscovery of the catacombs in the
16th century till comparatively recent times a gigantic fallacy
prevailed, repeated by writer after writer, identifying the Christian
burial-places with disused sand-pits. It was accepted as an
unquestionable fact by every one who undertook to describe the
catacombs, that the Christians of Rome, finding in the labyrinthine
mazes of the exhausted _arenariae_, which abounded in the environs of
the city, whence the sand used in building had been extracted, a
suitable place for the interment of their martyred brethren, where also
the sacred rites accompanying the interment might be celebrated without
fear of interruption, took possession of them and used them as
cemeteries. It only needed a comparison of the theory with the visible
facts to refute it at once, but nearly three centuries elapsed before
the independence of the _arenariae_ and the catacombs was established.
The discovery of this independence is due to Marchi. Starting with the
firmest belief in the old traditional view, his own researches by
degrees opened his eyes to the truth, now universally recognized, that
the catacombs were exclusively the work of the Christians, and were
constructed for the interment of the dead. It is true that a catacomb is
often connected with the earlier sand-quarry, and starts from it as a
commencement, but the two are excavated in different strata, suitable to
their respective purposes, and their plan and construction are so
completely unlike as to render any confusion between them impossible.
The igneous formation of which the greater part of the Roman Campagna
is, in its superior portion, composed, contains three strata known under
the common name of _tufa_,--the "stony," "granular," and "sandy"
tufa,--the last being commonly known as _pozzolana_.[3] The _pozzolana_
is the material required for building purposes, for admixture with
mortar; and the sandpits are naturally excavated in the stratum which
supplies it. The stony tufa (_tufa litoide_) is quarried as
building-stone. The granular tufa is useless for either purpose,
containing too much earth to be employed in making mortar, and being far
too soft to be used as stone for building. Yet it is in this stratum,
and in this alone, that the catacombs are constructed; their engineers
avoiding with equal care the solid stone of the _tufa litoide_ and the
friable _pozzolana_, and selecting the stratum of medium hardness, which
enabled them to form the vertical walls of their galleries, and to
excavate the _loculi_ and _cubicula_ without severe labour and also
without fear of their falling in. The annexed illustration (fig. 16)
from Marchi's work, when compared with that of the catacomb of Sant'
Agnese already given, presents to the eye the contrast between the wide
winding irregular passages of the sand-pit, calculated for the admission
of a horse and cart, and the narrow rectilinear accurately-defined
galleries of the catacomb. The distinction between the two is also
plainly exhibited when for some local or private reasons an ancient
_arenaria_ has been transformed into a cemetery. The modifications
required to strengthen the crumbling walls to support the roof and to
facilitate the excavation of _loculi_, involved so much labour that, as
a rule, after a few attempts, the idea of utilizing an old quarry for
burial purposes was abandoned.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Arenaria beneath the Cemetery of Calixtus.]
Another equally erroneous idea was that these vast burial-places of the
early Christians remained entirely concealed from the eyes of their
pagan neighbours, and were constructed not only without the permission
of the municipal authorities but without their cognizance. Nothing can
be farther from the truth. Such an idea is justly stigmatized by Mommsen
as ridiculous, and reflecting a discredit as unfounded as it is unjust
on the imperial police of the capital. That such vast excavations should
have been made without attracting attention, and that such an immense
number of corpses could have been carried to burial in perfect secrecy
is utterly impossible. Nor was there any reason why secrecy should have
been desired. The decent burial of the dead was a matter especially
provided for by the Roman laws. No particular mode was prescribed.
Interment was just as legal as cremation, and had, in fact, been
universally practised by the Romans until the later days of the
republic.[4] The bodies of the Scipios and Nasos were buried in still
existing catacombs; and if the Christians preferred to adopt that which
Minucius Felix calls "the better, and more ancient custom of inhumation"
(_Octavius_, c. 2), there was absolutely nothing, to quote the words of
Northcote (_Roma sotterran_. pp. 56, 61), "either in their social or
religious position to interfere with their freedom of action. The law
left them entire liberty,... and the faithful did but use their liberty
in the way that suited them best, burying their dead according to a
fashion to which many of them had been long accustomed, and which
enabled them at the same time to follow in death the example of him who
was also their model in life." Interment in rock-hewn tombs, "as the
manner of the Jews is to bury," had been practised in Rome by the Jewish
settlers for a considerable period anterior to the rise of the Christian
Church. A Jewish catacomb, now lost, was discovered and described by
Bosio (_Rom. sott._ p. 141), and others are still accessible. They are
to be distinguished from Christian catacombs only by the character of
their decorations, the absence of Christian symbols and the language of
their inscriptions. There would, therefore, be nothing extraordinary in
the fact that a community, always identified in the popular heathen mind
with the Jewish faith, should adopt the mode of interment belonging to
that religion. Nor have we the slightest trace of any official
interference with Christian burials, such as would render secrecy
necessary or desirable. Their funerals were as much under the protection
of the law, which not only invested the tomb itself with a sacred
character, but included in its protection the area in which it stood,
and the _cella memoriae_ or chapel connected with it, as those of their
heathen fellow-citizens, while the same shield would be thrown over the
burial-clubs, which, as we learn from Tertullian (_Apolog._ c. 39),
were common among the early Christians, as over those existing among the
heathen population of Rome.
Mode of formation.
We may then completely dismiss the notion of there being any studied
secrecy in connexion with the early Christian cemeteries, and proceed to
inquire into the mode of their formation. Almost without exception, they
had their origin in small burial areas, the property of private persons
or of families, gradually ramifying and receiving additions of one
subterranean storey after another as each was required for interments.
The first step would be the acquisition of a plot of ground either by
gift or purchase for the formation of a tomb, Christians were not beyond
the pale of the law, and their faith presented no hindrance to the
property being secured to them in perpetuity. To adapt the ground for
its purpose as a cemetery, a gallery was run all round the area in the
tufa rock at a convenient depth below the surface, reached by staircases
at the corners. In the upright walls of these galleries _loculi_ were
cut as needed to receive the dead. When these first four galleries were
full others were mined on the same level at right angles to them, thus
gradually converting the whole area into a net-work of corridors. If a
family vault was required, or a burial chapel for a martyr or person of
distinction, a small square room was excavated by the side of the
gallery and communicating with it. When the original area had been mined
in this way as far as was consistent with stability, a second storey of
galleries was begun at a lower level, reached by a new staircase. This
was succeeded by a third, or a fourth, and sometimes even by a fifth.
When adjacent burial areas belonged to members of the same Christian
confraternity, or by gift or purchase fell into the same hands,
communications were opened between the respective cemeteries, which thus
spread laterally, and gradually acquired that enormous extent which,
"even when their fabulous dimensions are reduced to their right measure,
form an immense work."[5] This could only be executed by a large and
powerful Christian community unimpeded by legal enactments or police
regulations, "a living witness of its immense development corresponding
to the importance of the capital." But although, as we have said, in
ordinary times there was no necessity for secrecy, yet when the peace of
the Church was broken by the fierce and often protracted persecutions of
the heathen emperors, it became essential to adopt precautions to
conceal the entrance to the cemeteries, which became the temporary
hiding-places of the Christian fugitives, and to baffle the search of
their pursuers. To these stormy periods we may safely assign the
alterations which may be traced in the staircases, which are sometimes
abruptly cut off, leaving a gap requiring a ladder, and the formation of
secret passages communicating with the _arenariae_, and through them
with the open country.
When the storms of persecution ceased and Christianity had become the
imperial faith, the evil fruits of prosperity were not slow to appear.
Cemetery interment became a regular trade in the hands of the
_fossores_, or grave-diggers, who appear to have established a kind of
property in the catacombs, and whose greed of gain led to that
destruction of the religious paintings with which the walls were
decorated, for the quarrying of fresh _loculi_, to which we have already
alluded. Monumental epitaphs record the purchase of a grave from the
fossores, in many cases during the lifetime of the individual, not
unfrequently stating the price. A very curious fresco, found in the
cemetery of Calixtus, preserved by the engravings of the earlier
investigators (Bottari, tom. ii. p. 126, tav. 99), represents a "fossor"
with his lamp in his hand and his pick over his shoulder, and his tools
lying about him. Above is the inscription, "Diogenes Fossor in Pace
depositus."
Decoration.
It is unnecessary to enter on any detailed description of the frescoes
which cover the walls and ceilings of the burial-chapels in the richest
abundance. It must suffice to say that the earliest examples are only to
be distinguished from the mural decorations employed by their pagan
contemporaries (as seen at Pompeii and elsewhere) by the absence of all
that was immoral or idolatrous, and that it was only very slowly and
timidly that any distinctly religious representations were introduced.
These were at first purely symbolical, meaningless to any but a
Christian eye, such as the Vine, the Good Shepherd, the Sheep, the
Fisherman, the Fish, &c. Even the personages of ancient mythology were
pressed into the service of early Christian art, and Orpheus, taming the
wild beasts with his lyre, symbolized the peaceful sway of Christ; and
Ulysses, deaf to the Siren's song, represented the Believer triumphing
over the allurements of sensual pleasure. The person of Christ appeared
but rarely, and then commonly simply as the chief personage in an
historical picture. The events depicted from the life of Christ are but
few, and always conform rigidly to the same traditional type. The most
frequent are the miracle at Cana, the multiplication of the loaves and
fishes, the paralytic carrying his bed, the healing of the woman with
the issue of blood, the raising of Lazarus, Zacchaeus, and the triumphal
entry into Jerusalem. The Crucifixion, and subjects from the Passion,
are never represented. The cycle of Old Testament subjects is equally
limited. The most common are the history of Jonah as a type of the
Resurrection, the Fall, Noah receiving the dove with the olive branch,
Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, Moses taking off his shoes, David with the
sling, Daniel in the lions' den, and the Three Children in the fiery
furnace. The mode of representation is always conventional, the
treatment of the subject no less than its choice being dictated by an
authority to which the artist was compelled to bow. All the more
valuable of these paintings have been produced in J.H. Parker's series
of photographs taken in the catacombs by the magnesium light.[6]
Wilpert's great work, in which these frescoes are reproduced in colours,
now enables the student even better to distinguish the styles of
different centuries and follow the course of artistic development or
decay.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Fresco Ceiling. (From Bosio.)