A VISIT TO THE ROMAN CATACOMBS.
A VISIT
TO THE
ROMAN CATACOMBS.
BY
REV. J. SPENCER NORTHCOTE, D.D.
PROVOST OF BIRMINGHAM.
LONDON: S. ANSELM’S SOCIETY,
9 AGAR STREET, CHARING CROSS.
1891.
[_All rights reserved._]
PREFACE.
My study of the Roman Catacombs began in 1846. Two years later I
published a series of letters upon the subject in the _Rambler_, and the
substance of these, with some additions and corrections, was collected
into a small volume in 1856. This was translated both into French and
German, and a second English edition was published in 1859.
But in 1864 and 1867 the first two volumes of De Rossi’s great work
appeared; and these not only added indefinitely to our knowledge of
particulars about the Catacombs, but also effected a complete revolution
in the view to be taken of their history, and laid a new basis for the
future study of them. Formerly, it had been taken for granted that the
Christians had had recourse to this mode of burying their dead, only for
the sake of the opportunities of secrecy which it afforded, and it was a
difficult question for Christian archæologists to solve how it had been
possible to carry on a work of such magnitude, under the very eyes (as it
were) of the Pagan authorities, without detection. De Rossi set aside
these speculations, and proved that there was no necessity for the early
Christians to take exceptional precautions with reference to the burial
of their dead, since many of the customs of their Pagan neighbours in
this matter were such as they might themselves make use of, and, under
ordinary circumstances, their cemeteries were adequately protected by the
law.
Henceforward, the manual of 1859 was not only incomplete, it had also
been demonstrated to be incorrect. In 1869, therefore, a much larger
volume was published by Rev. W. R. Brownlow and myself, founded upon the
new discoveries. This also was favourably received by the public; the
first English edition was soon exhausted, and translations were made both
in France and Germany. A second and enlarged edition is now in course of
preparation, which will embody the most interesting and important parts
of De Rossi’s third volume, which has only just appeared. Meanwhile,
however, there is need of a short manual, which shall be a safe guide to
those who only desire to become acquainted with the leading features of
the subject, according to the present condition of our knowledge of it;
and with this view I have compiled the following pages, at a time when
ill health has necessitated the suspension of more arduous labours. They
do not pretend to give a complete account either of the past history or
present condition of the Catacombs, but merely a correct outline of the
whole, so that those who would pursue the study further shall, at least,
have nothing to unlearn.
I have called the volume “A visit to the Roman Catacombs,” because it
describes the principal objects of interest which are to be seen in the
visit now usually paid by educated travellers to the Catacomb of St.
Callixtus. To this, however, I have prefixed half a dozen chapters, which
make, in fact, three-fourths of the whole work, and in which I have
condensed the information which every visitor ought to have before he
descends into these subterranean crypts. Unless he has some general idea
of what the Catacombs really are, how they came to be made, when and how
they were used, and what they contain, he will derive but little pleasure
or profit from what he sees in them. I hope, therefore, that this volume
will not only be a valuable guide to those who are able to visit the
Catacombs, but also a useful introduction to the whole subject for all
classes. Those who desire to study it more profoundly must have recourse
to De Rossi’s learned volumes, or to the English abridgment of them.
ST. DOMINIC’S, STONE, _September 1877_.
_P.S._—Any profits derived from the sale of this book will be sent to
Commendatore de Rossi to promote the work of excavation, which languishes
for want of funds. At more than one spot in the Catacombs, the Commission
of Sacred Archæology, of which De Rossi is Secretary, has the strongest
reason for believing in the existence of historic monuments of great
value, and it is most desirable that these monuments should be recovered,
whilst we have amongst us so competent an interpreter of them. But
funds are wanting. The late Monsignor de Merode was a most munificent
benefactor to this work, and his death has been an irreparable loss.
Smaller contributions, however, will be thankfully received; and through
the kindness of friends, or by means of my own public lectures, I have
been able to send two or three hundred pounds within the last few years.
Any further sums that may be intrusted to me for the same purpose will be
at once forwarded to Rome.
J. S. N.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Part I.
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN OF THE CATACOMBS.
St. Jerome’s description of the Catacombs—More detailed
description of their galleries, chambers, and tombs; their
depth, extent, and number—They were not deserted sandpits
or quarries, but made expressly to be places of burial for
Christians—This shown to have been rendered easy by the
Roman laws and practice about burial—Pagan burial-clubs in
Rome—Perfect freedom and safety of the Christian cemeteries in
the beginning 1
CHAPTER II.
THEIR HISTORY DURING THE AGES OF PERSECUTION.
Earliest places of Christian worship in Rome—Their position
before the law—Edict of Valerian against assemblies in
the Catacombs—Disobedience and consequent martyrdom of
St. Sixtus—Extension of the Catacombs—Changes in their
architectural forms—The _fossors_ and their clerical
character—Stories of martyrs belonging to this period—St.
Hippolytus and others—SS. Chrysanthus and Daria—St.
Tharsicius—St. Agnes and St. Emerentiana 26
CHAPTER III.
THEIR HISTORY FROM A.D. 310 TO A.D. 850.
Gradual disuse of burial in the Catacombs—Other cemeteries not
subterranean—Purchase of graves, especially near the tombs
of saints—Basilicas built over some of these—Work of Pope
Damasus and of Furius Dionysius Filocalus—Burials ceased in the
Catacombs in 410—Injuries inflicted by the Goths—Restorations
by subsequent Popes—Fresh injuries by the Lombards—Consequent
translations of the bodies of the Saints, and gradual neglect
of the Catacombs—Those only were visited to which churches
or monasteries were attached, especially the cemetery _ad
Catacumbas_, which has now given its name to the rest 41
CHAPTER IV.
THEIR LOSS AND RECOVERY.
Catacombs lost sight of for 700 years, accidentally recovered
in 1578—Labours and scientific method of Bosio imperfectly
followed by his successors—Revival of interest in the subject
through Father Marchi, S.J.—Commendatore G. B. de Rossi 51
CHAPTER V.
THEIR PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE.
Primitive Christian art almost a new subject of Christian
archæology—Most of the paintings in the Catacombs, and the
best of them, belong to the first four centuries—Resemblance
between the most ancient specimens and cotemporary works
of Pagan art—Pagan forms of ornamentation freely used, but
Christian subjects—The Good Shepherd—Peculiarities in the
mode of treatment—Symbolical character of early Christian
art; examples, the anchor, lamb, dove, fish—Typical
representations of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, followed
by the Resurrection, in the Sacramental chapels of St.
Callixtus—Biblical subjects, Noe, Jonas, &c.—Representations
of Christ and His Apostles, and of His Holy Mother—Three
successive periods in the development of Christian painting
before the age of Constantine—Characteristics of each—Sculpture
not so freely used by Christians at first—Subjects carved on
sarcophagi 61
CHAPTER VI.
THEIR INSCRIPTIONS.
Number and importance of ancient Christian
inscriptions—Destruction of very many of them—Preservation
of others by the Popes—Points of resemblance to Pagan
epitaphs—Points of difference—Absence of any token of
social distinctions—Birth of Christian epigraphy—Active
love its chief characteristic—Prayer for the dead—Prayer
to the Saints—Examples—Other characteristics of later
epitaphs—Age—Date of death—Unmeaning titles of praise—Words
used to denote death, _in pace_, _contra votum_, &c. 108
Part II.
CHAPTER I.
THE PAPAL CRYPT.
Entrance to the Cemetery of St. Callixtus—Cemetery
above ground—_Graffiti_ at entrance of the Papal
Crypt—Original epitaphs of several of the Popes of the third
century—Inscription by Pope Damasus explained 125
CHAPTER II.
THE CRYPT OF ST. CECILIA.
Ancient notices of burial of St. Cecilia near the
Popes—Discovery of the crypt—Description of its
ornamentation—Refutation of the claim of the Catacomb at St.
Sebastian’s to be considered the burial-place of St. Cecilia 139
CHAPTER III.
THE CRYPT OF ST. EUSEBIUS.
Precautions taken by Pope Damasus and others to guide pilgrims
to the particular tomb they wished to visit—Copy of the epitaph
in honour of St. Eusebius—Fragments of the original set up by
Damasus—Important historical revelation to be gathered from
it—Discipline of the Church in regard to the _lapsi_—Title of
martyr given to Eusebius—Translation of his body 150
CHAPTER IV.
THE TOMB OF ST. CORNELIUS.
St. Cornelius buried in another Catacomb—Objects of interest
to be seen _en route_—The family vault of the Deacon Severus
at end of third century—Paintings of the Good Shepherd,
accompanied by two of His Apostles and several sheep—Of Moses
taking off his shoe, striking the rock, &c.—Tomb of St.
Cornelius, and its epitaph—Inscriptions above and below it
of Popes Damasus and Siricius—Figures of SS. Cornelius and
Cyprian; of SS. Sixtus II. and Optatus—Very ancient paintings
in two adjacent chambers—Conclusion 157
_ROMA SOTTERRANEA._
Part First.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN OF THE CATACOMBS.
The great St. Jerome, writing about 1500 years ago, tells us that when
he was a schoolboy in Rome, he used to go every Sunday, in company with
other boys of his own age and tastes, to visit the tombs of the apostles
and martyrs, and to go down into the crypts excavated there in the bowels
of the earth. “As you enter,” he says, “you find the walls on either side
full of the bodies of the dead, and the whole place is so dark, that one
seems almost to realise the fulfilment of those words of the prophet,
‘Let them go down alive into Hades.’ Here and there a little light
admitted from above suffices to give a momentary relief to the horror of
the darkness; but, as you go forward, you find yourself again plunged
into the utter blackness of night, and the words of the poet come
unbidden to your mind, ‘The very silence fills the soul with dread.’”
Anybody who has frequented the Roman Catacombs will recognise the justice
of this description; and if he is as familiar with Virgil and with the
Psalms of David as St. Jerome was, he may have used something like the
same language to describe his own impressions. But we are writing for
those who have never seen the Catacombs at all, and we must therefore
enter into more minute particulars.
Let us first try to get a general idea of what the Catacombs are. And
for this purpose let us transport ourselves in imagination to the city
of Rome, and having been led out some two or three miles (more or less)
almost on any of the fourteen great consular roads which went forth from
the old centre of the world to its most distant provinces, let us go
down, either by some modern staircase or through some accidental fissure
in the soil, into the bowels of the earth. At the depth of fifteen or
twenty feet we shall probably find ourselves landed in a dark narrow
gallery, something like what is here represented—a gallery about three
feet wide, and perhaps seven or eight feet high, cut out of the living
rock, and its walls on either side pierced with a number of horizontal
shelves, one above the other, like the shelves of a bookcase. We need
hardly be told that each of these shelves once contained a dead body, and
had then been shut up by long tiles or slabs of marble, securely fastened
by cement, and inscribed perhaps with the name of the deceased or with
some Christian emblem. Probably some grave still uninjured may lie within
our sight, or we may see bones and ashes in some of the graves that are
open.
[Illustration: _Gallery with Tombs._]
If we step forward and enter one of the doorways to be found on either
side, it will introduce us to a small chamber, twelve or fourteen feet
square perhaps. If there is nothing but graves cut in the walls of this
chamber, just as in the galleries, we may safely conjecture that it
was only a family vault. But if we find a bench hewn out of the rock
all round the room, together with a chair (or perhaps two) similarly
excavated, we can hardly be wrong in supposing that the room was once
used as a place of assembly, whether for purposes of public psalmody or
of religious instruction. Or, if the principal tomb in the chamber be
shaped like an altar, if two or three chambers open out of one another,
and if one of these have an absidal termination, with a chair at the end
and a low seat running round the sides, such as may still be seen in some
of the old basilicas above ground for the accommodation of the bishop and
clergy, no one can justly accuse us of rashness if we suspect that we
stand in a place that was provided for the celebration of the Christian
mysteries in days of persecution.
[Illustration: _Arcosolium, or altar-shaped tomb._]
[Illustration: _Part of Catacomb of St. Agnes._]
If we were sufficiently bold to leave the gallery which we first entered,
and to pursue our way further into the interior, we should soon lose
ourselves in some such labyrinth as is here represented. This diagram is
a true map of a small portion (perhaps not more than an eighth) of a
catacomb on the Via Nomentana, commonly known by the name of St. Agnes.
It is about 230 yards long by 180 in width; yet if all the galleries in
this small section of a catacomb were stretched out in one continuous
line, they would make very nearly two English miles in length. And then
we must remember that in almost all these subterranean cemeteries the
same thing is repeated on two or three different levels—in some of them
even on five levels. In the Catacomb of St. Callixtus, on the Via Appia,
we can descend by a succession of staircases to five different _stories_,
so to speak; and perhaps the excavators might have made even a sixth and
a seventh had they not by this time come to the level of water, where any
galleries they might dig would soon have become mere subterranean canals.
[Illustration: _Section of the Cemetery of St. Callixtus._]
But we have not even yet finished our tale of wonder. One such
excavation as this would have been a remarkable work, and its history
would have deserved examination. But in the hills round Rome there are
forty or fifty such, of various sizes indeed, and each having its own
name and history, but all evidently inspired by the same idea and forming
part of the same general plan. What was this plan? For what purpose
were these labyrinths of long narrow galleries and small chambers so
laboriously excavated?
To this question their very form seems to supply the only possible
answer. They were made to bury the dead. This is undeniably the first
and principal use to which they were put. It is no less certain that
this was also the object for which they were designed. Time was, indeed,
when learned men shrank from this conclusion, and suggested, that though
unquestionably they were used as burial-places, yet perhaps this was
only an afterthought, and that they may have been originally designed
for something else. The building of Rome, it was said, must have
required vast quantities of stone and of sand to make cement; perhaps,
therefore, in the Roman Catacombs we have only lit upon a certain number
of exhausted, or rather deserted, sandpits and quarries, which later
generations availed themselves of, for economy’s sake, as places of
burial.
[Illustration: _Plan of Arenaria at St. Agnes’._]
This theory sounds very plausible at a distance from the places
themselves; but on closer examination on the spot there are found
fatal objections to it. One is, that they happen not to be excavated
either in sand or in stone, but precisely in a rock of intermediate
consistency, too solid to be used as sand, too soft and friable to be
used as building-stone; and perhaps this might be allowed to stand as a
peremptory refutation of the theory in question. But we will add another
argument, not less simple or less conclusive, drawn from the different
forms of the two kinds of excavation. Compare the subjoined plan with
that which has been give before on page 5. These two excavations occur in
the same place. They overlie one another on the Via Nomentana, and they
are here drawn on precisely the same scale. Could they be mistaken one
for the other? Do they look like parts of the same plan? One represents
the long, narrow, straight streets or galleries and occasional chambers
of a catacomb; the other, the broad, tortuous, and irregular excavations
of a sandpit. The makers of both had each a definite object in their
work, but these objects were distinct from, and even opposed to, one
another; and hence the two systems have distinct, and even contrary,
characteristics. The only point in common between them is, that both
were carried on underground, and both wished to disturb as little as
possible the superficial soil. But the quarryman aimed at taking out
as much of the material as he could, and with the least trouble; whilst
the Christian _fossor_ desired to extract as little of the material as
was consistent with his object of providing hundreds or thousands of
graves. Hence we find in the sandpit broad roads, admitting the use of
horses or carts, and these roads well rounded off at the corners for the
facility of passing to and fro; whereas the paths of the cemetery cross
one another at right angles, that so every part of their walls may be
available for purposes of sepulture, whilst they are so narrow that two
men can scarcely walk abreast in them. Moreover, in the sandpits the
roof is arched, and the vault of the arch springs from the very ground;
whereas in the catacombs the walls of the galleries are made strictly
perpendicular, in order that horizontal shelves, capable of supporting
the bodies of the dead, might be safely cut in them, and the tiles that
shut them in might have adequate support. In a word, the two kinds of
excavation could hardly be mistaken for one another. A catacomb could
only be made to look like a sandpit or quarry by first destroying all
the graves, widening the paths, and rounding their angles; in a word,
by destroying every characteristic of a catacomb; and a sandpit could
be turned into a cemetery resembling the Catacombs, only by setting up
such a quantity of masonry as must needs remain to tell its own tale.
There are actual examples of this metamorphose to be found in three or
four places of the Catacombs; and here is the representation of one of
them, from the Catacomb of St. Hermes, on the Via Salara. What an amount
of labour and expense was necessary to effect the change, and, after
all, with a result how clumsy and unsatisfactory as compared with those
places which were excavated directly and primarily for the purpose of
burial!—so unsatisfactory, indeed, that presently the Christians left off
prosecuting the work even here where they had begun it. Though immense
spaces of the sandpit still remained unoccupied, they chose rather
to excavate after their own fashion in the virgin rock below. We may
conclude, then, without a shadow of doubt, that those excavations which
we call the Roman Catacombs were made solely for the sake of burying the
dead.
[Illustration: _Sections of Gallery in St. Hermes._]
But by whom? and to bury what dead? We answer, and again without
hesitation—By Christians, and only to bury Christians. And if it is
asked on what authority this statement is made, we might point to the
thousands of Christian inscriptions that have been found in them, and to
the utter absence of evidence in favour of any other account of them. Our
readers, however, would probably insist that it was impossible for the
early Christians, a small and persecuted body, going about stealthily and
in disguise, as it were, among the Pagan multitude, to have executed so
vast a work.
First, let me say—though the remark hardly comes here in its proper
place, yet, as it may help to dissipate a prejudice, let me anticipate
a little and say—that the work in its full magnitude, such as we have
been describing it, was the work (to speak roughly) of three centuries
of labour. There is evidence that the Catacombs were used as Christian
cemeteries even before the end of the first century, and they certainly
continued to be so used, more or less, up to the first decade of the
fifth. Among the inscriptions found in them is one of the year of our
Lord 72; there are others of 107, 110, and so on, down to 410; so that
the whole period of their use includes almost a century of the Church’s
peace, as well as all the time of her persecution.
However, here as elsewhere the difficulty is not about the end of the
work, but about its beginning. How was it possible that the Christians
in the first and second centuries could have executed any part of the
great work we have described? How could they have made a beginning? how
carried it on? Was it a work done in violation of the law, and therefore
in secret? or was it public and notorious, and such as their Pagan
neighbours, enemies though they were, could not legitimately interfere
with? The answers to these questions are to be sought in learned volumes
of old Roman law, and in hundreds of Latin Pagan inscriptions, which,
however, cannot be transferred to these pages. For our present purpose
their contents may be thus briefly summarised.
It was the common practice of Roman gentlemen and ladies of wealth to
make in their wills very minute provisions for their tombs, and for
certain rites and ceremonies to be performed at their tombs after death.
They ordinarily set apart some portion of a field or garden near the high
road, accurately measured off with so many feet of frontage and so many
feet into the field behind; and in the middle of this plot they ordered a
monument to be erected—often a chamber of considerable dimensions, with
an altar of stone or of fine marble in which their bones or ashes should
be laid, and benches of the same material, with cushions and all else
that was necessary for the convenience of guests, whom they invited to
come and partake here of a feast in their memory, both on the anniversary
of their death and on several other occasions. The cost of the tomb
was often specified in the will, and recorded on the epitaph; and the
expenses of the feasts were met partly by contributions from dependants
of the deceased who were intended to partake of it, partly by the rent
of certain houses or gardens, or by the interest of moneys bequeathed
by the deceased himself or by others for this purpose. The execution of
this part of the will was commonly intrusted to some one or more faithful
freedmen, who had a direct interest in its fulfilment; and heavy fines
were inflicted on the heirs in case of neglect.
The motive of these testamentary dispositions is obvious; they were
made in the vain hope that by these means the name and memory of the
deceased might not utterly perish. And the Roman law did all that it
could to secure the realisation of so natural a wish; it fenced every
place of burial round about with divers safeguards, and punished its
violation with the severest penalties. First of all, the burial of a
single corpse (or the deposit of the little urn of ashes if the body had
been burnt) sufficed to impart a sort of religious character to the spot
where these remains had been laid for their last resting-place, provided
the burial had been made with the consent of the owner of the soil.
Henceforth that place no longer belonged to the category of ordinary
landed property, but became subject to new and peculiar laws of its own.
It did not pass by will as part of the inheritance; no prescriptive right
had any power to alienate it; if at any time some undutiful descendant
should secretly obliterate all visible tokens of its use as a place
of burial, and fraudulently effect a sale of the property as though
it were common land, the law would interfere to annul the contract as
soon as it was discovered, no matter after what lapse of time; it would
oblige the purchaser to surrender his purchase, and the vendor or his
heirs to make restitution of the purchase-money, together with interest
at a very high rate; and the money thus forfeited was devoted to some
public use of beneficence. Even this penalty, severe as it is, fell
short of what the law prescribed in the case of those who had themselves
violated a sepulchre. This was accounted so heinous a crime, that it was
punished by banishment or perpetual labour in the mines, according to the
condition in life of the offender; and the acts of violation subject to
this penalty were such as these:—the breaking open of a sepulchre, the
intrusion into it of a stranger’s corpse, _i.e._, of one not belonging to
the family, or not included in the list of those to whom the concession
was made by the original testator, the carrying away of any stone,
pillar, or statue, or even the erasure of an epitaph.
This was the common law of the land in Imperial Rome; and the most
remarkable thing about it is this, that, except in times of civil war
and great public commotion, it protected the tombs, not only of the rich
and noble, but of those whom the law despised or even execrated, such as
slaves and criminals. It was specially enacted that the bodies of public
malefactors, who had suffered death at the hands of the executioner,
were to be given up on the petition of their friends, to be buried where
they pleased; and when once this had been done, the tomb fell under the
guardianship of the Pontifices as effectually as any other tomb. Of
course, there was occasionally exceptional legislation on this subject,
as, for instance, with reference to some of the Christian martyrs; but
these exceptions were rare, and prompted by special reasons; they do not
invalidate the general truth of the statements which have been made, nor
of the conclusion which may legitimately be drawn from them; viz., that
at the very time when the Roman law was most severe against Christianity
as a religion, aiming at nothing short of its extinction, this same
law would, nevertheless, have extended its protection to Christian
cemeteries, if there were any.
And how should there not have been? For Christians died like other folk,
and had need to be buried; and what was to hinder some wealthy “brother”
from giving up some portion of a field of his, in as public a situation
as he pleased—indeed, the nearer to the high road, the more closely
would it be in accordance with the practice of his Pagan neighbours—and
allowing his Christian brethren to be buried there? He might confine the
use of it, if he would, to members of his own family, or he might make
it common to all the faithful, or he might fix whatever other limits he
pleased to its use. He might also build on the ground some house or
chamber, or conspicuous monument; he might assign as much land as he
chose all round it for its support; and underneath this house and land
the work of excavation might proceed without let or hindrance; there
was no need of concealment, and there is no proof that at the first
commencement of the Church any concealment was attempted.
On the contrary, the tendency of all modern discoveries has been in the
opposite direction. Now that we have learnt to distinguish one part
of a cemetery from another, and to trace the several periods of their
excavation in chronological order, it has been made clear that each
several part was originally a separate _area_ as well defined as that
of any Pagan monument, and its limits, like theirs, were determined by
the course of the adjacent road, and walls of enclosure built for the
purpose. We find, for example, that what is now called the Catacomb of
St. Callixtus, is made up of eight or ten such _areæ_, each with its own
staircase, and its own system of excavation, conducted with order and
economy. The _area_ that was first used here for purposes of Christian
burial measured 250 Roman feet by 100, and its galleries were reached by
two staircases, entering boldly from the surface, within sight of all
passers-by along the Appian Way, and going straight to their point. By
and by, a second _area_ was added of the same dimensions; and in process
of time, a third, 150 feet by 125; a fourth, of the same dimensions, and
so on.
[Illustration: _Entrance to a most Ancient Christian Sepulchre at Tor
Marancia._]
The internal arrangements of some of these _areæ_ have undergone so much
change in the course of centuries, that it is no longer possible to
recover the precise form of their original entrances. But what is not
found in one place is found in another; and one of the recent discoveries
has been the entrance to a famous catacomb on the Via Ardeatina, not
far from the cemetery of which we have just been speaking It is cut in
the side of a hill close to the highway and has a front of very fine
brickwork, with a cornice of terra-cotta, and the usual space for an
inscription, which has now unfortunately perished. The sepulchre to
which it introduces us is ornamented with Christian paintings of a
very classical character; and it may be considered as proved that it
once belonged to the Flavian family,—that imperial family which gave
Vespasian to the throne, and (as we learn even from Pagan authors) gave
a martyr and several confessors to the Christian Church. The cemetery
was begun in the days of Domitian, _i.e._, towards the end of the first
century, and it is known by the name of his relative, St. Domitilla,
on whose property (there is good reason to believe) it was excavated.
The entrance is flanked on either side by a chamber, built of brick
subsequently to the excavation of the subterranean sepulchre. The larger
of these chambers, with the bench running all the way round it, was
evidently the place of meeting for those whose duty or privilege it was
to assemble here on the appointed anniversaries to do honour to the
deceased; the smaller space, on the left, with its well and cistern,
and fragments of a staircase, was no less obviously occupied by the
dwelling-house of the _custode_, or guardian of the monument.
We have said that the inscription has perished, but we can see where
it once was, and we can supply a specimen of such an inscription from
other catacombs; _e.g._, it might have been simply SEPULCRUM FLAVIORUM,
like the EUTYCHIORUM lately discovered in the Catacomb of St. Callixtus,
or it might have been longer and more explicit, like the inscription
found in the cemetery of St. Nicomedes, found a few years ago on the
other side of Rome. Not far from the entrance of this cemetery there
lay a stone which declared to whom the monument belonged, viz., to one
Valerius Mercurius and Julitta (who was probably his wife); then another
gentleman is named, and one or two ladies, and finally their freedmen
and freedwomen; but this important condition is added, AD RELIGIONEM
PERTINENTES MEAM,—“if they belong to my religion.” It is true there is
no Christian emblem on this stone to declare the faith of the writer,
but the cemetery in which it is found is undeniably Christian; and among
the thousands or tens of thousands of Pagan inscriptions that have come
down to us, we do not find one that contains the remarkable expression I
have quoted. Indeed, it is doubtful whether it would have had any meaning
to Pagan ears; but a Christian or a Jew would have understood it well.
And it reminds us of another very ancient inscription which may yet be
seen in the Catacomb of St. Domitilla, where it served to appropriate a
particular chamber as the family vault of its owner. The inscription runs
in this wise:—“M. Aurelius Restutus made this subterranean chamber for
himself and those of his family who believe in the Lord.”
Our limited space will not allow us to produce further evidence of the
liberty and publicity of the Christian cemeteries in their beginning;
but further evidence ought not to be required, since there is really
none whatever on the other side. It cannot be shown that the Roman
Government ever interfered with the Catacombs before the middle of the
third century, and not even then with reference to their original and
more ordinary use as places of burial, but rather to a later but very
important use to which they were then being put—as places of assembly and
religious worship.
There is one objection, however, to our argument which cannot be passed
over in silence—it will doubtless have already suggested itself to some
of our readers. They will have called to mind the testimony of St. Paul,
that not many mighty, not many noble, were among the first disciples of
the faith, and therefore that what was possible for a Flavius Clemens,
a Domitilla, or a Cecilia, was nevertheless quite beyond the reach of
the humbler and more numerous part of the Christian community. Most
true; but there is abundant evidence to show that burial of the dead was
considered one of the highest works of Christian charity, in which the
rich accounted it a duty and a pleasure to aid the poor. Moreover, where
the work was not done by wealthy individuals, it might easily have been
done by means of an association of numbers, and this too would have been
protected by the law.
Under the laws of the old Roman Republic, there was scarcely any limit
to the exercise of the right of association among its citizens; but from
the days of Julius Cæsar private clubs or corporations (_collegia_)
were looked upon with grave suspicion, and the right of meeting was
but sparingly granted by the Senate or the Emperor. We have a notable
example of this suspicion in the refusal by the Emperor Trajan of a
petition from his friend and trusted official, Pliny. Pliny had asked
for leave to form in one of the towns of his province a body of firemen,
150 in number, and assured his imperial master that he would be careful
in his selection of men, and vigilant over their conduct. But Trajan
peremptorily refused, on the plea of political mischief, which (he
said) experience showed to be the ordinary fruit even of associations
apparently most harmless. One important exception, however, was made
to this policy of stern repression. It was permitted to the poorer
classes to form clubs for the purpose of providing for the expenses of
their burial, and they were allowed to meet once a month to pay their
contributions, and to make the necessary regulations for the management
of their affairs with a view to the attainment of this object. An immense
number of most curious and interesting monuments still survive, showing
how largely the Roman poor availed themselves of this privilege in the
second and third centuries of our era, and what sound practical sense
they exhibited in establishing the laws and conditions of membership in
these burial-clubs. It is a most tempting field, upon which, however, we
must not dwell at any length. We can only call attention to the language
of Tertullian in a work especially addressed to the Roman Government, and
in which, using almost the very words of the law on the subject of these
clubs, he explains how Christians on a certain day of the month make
voluntary contributions for certain benevolent purposes, of which he
specifies the burial of the dead as one.
We cannot doubt, therefore, that as some of the Roman Catacombs may
have been the private work, and even remained the private property, of
individuals or families, so others, possibly from the first, certainly
as early as the end of the second century, belonged to the Christian
community collectively, and were administered for the general good
by duly-appointed officers. The earliest instance of this, of which
any written evidence has come down to us, is the cemetery of which we
have already spoken on the Via Appia, and which was intrusted by Pope
Zephyrinus to the care of his archdeacon, Callixtus, whose name it has
ever since retained. A monument may yet be seen in it showing how, a
century later, this same cemetery still remained under the immediate
jurisdiction of the Pope, and was administered by his deacon; for
this was the arrangement made. The bishops were the legal possessors
of the cemeteries, churches, and other religious places; but it was
well understood, and the very language of the imperial decrees often
acknowledges, that they really belonged to the whole body of the
Christians, and not to any private individual; and the deacons acted as
the _quæstores_, or representatives and agents of the body.
It was not necessary that the Christians should obtain any special leave
to form a _collegium_, nor seek for any special privileges. The ordinary
liberties of every Roman citizen were sufficient for their purpose. Most
of the Pagan burial-clubs indeed had, or pretended to have, a certain
religious character, being usually placed under the invocation of some
one or other of the gods. But this was not an essential condition of
their existence. It was not necessary, therefore, that the Christians
should put forward any religious profession at all, nor even take the
name of a _collegium_. They might have retained, and probably did
retain, their own favourite and characteristic name of _Fratres_; and,
provided the ostensible motive of their association was to provide the
means of burial for their members, they might have held meetings and
possessed property with impunity. In this way a sort of practical _modus
vivendi_ was established for them under the reign of the more just and
merciful Emperors. The religious character of their meetings, though
well known, might yet be winked at, so that they were tolerated, just as
many Egyptian, Greek, and Asiatic religious confraternities (_erani_,
or _thiasi_), were not interfered with so long as they gave no umbrage
to the Government; and the laws which forbade the profession of the
Christian religion were at those times restricted in their application to
individual cases of accusation as they arose, just as we know that Trajan
at least had enjoined. Nevertheless, those laws still remained; and
when the hour of persecution came, the charge of practising a _religio
illicita_ could be insisted upon, and all Christian meetings forbidden.
Let us now briefly sum up what has been said, and see what light it
throws on the origin of the Roman Catacombs. It has been shown that
the habits of Pagan Rome about burials and burial-grounds, during
the first centuries of the Christian era, unconsciously, yet most
effectively, shielded the work of the infant Church. The extensive _area_
so frequently attached to the monuments of the wealthy; the house or
chamber built upon it; the assignment of property for its support to
chosen friends, with the infliction of fines in case of neglect; the
inalienability of any land which had once been used for purposes of
burial; the power of admitting friends and excluding strangers by the
mere will of the testator; the right of combination, or making clubs to
secure and maintain such burial-places by means of monthly contributions;
the habit of visiting the monument, and of eating and drinking there in
solemn memory of the departed;—all these facts or principles, guaranteed
by Roman law and practice as the privilege of every citizen, were of
admirable convenience to the makers and frequenters of the Christian
Catacombs. They furnished a real legal screen for the protection of
the Christian Society in a matter that was very near their hearts. If
a number of Christians were seen wending their way to this or that
cemetery, and entering its adjacent _cella_, they would be to Pagan
eyes only the members of a burial-club, or the relations, friends,
and dependants of some great family going out to the appointed place
to celebrate the birthday or some other anniversary of a deceased
benefactor; and if disposed to give evasive answers to inconvenient
questions, some perhaps might have even dared to say that such was
indeed their errand. It would be noticed, of course, that they did not
use the funeral pile; but they could not be molested on this account,
since custom only, and not law, prescribed its use. To these objectors
they might answer boldly with Minucius Felix, “We follow the better and
more ancient custom of burial!” Again, the Pagans might grumble, but
they could hardly punish, for neglecting to sprinkle roses or violets
on the sepulchres of the dead. But as to the main external features of
the case, we repeat that what the Pagans ordinarily did in the way of
providing burial-places for their dead was very much the same as what the
Christians desired to do; and under the screen of this resemblance the
Roman Catacombs began.