THE ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS.
It is highly probable that the first Roman Catacombs were excavated by
the Jews.[31] Many Hebrew captives graced the triumph of Pompey after
his Syrian conquests, B. C. 62. The Jewish population increased by
further voluntary accessions. They soon swarmed in that Trans-Tiberine
region which formed the ancient Ghetto of Rome. They made many
proselytes from paganism to the worship of the true God, and thus, to
use the language of Seneca, “The conquered gave laws to their
conquerors.”[32]
All the national customs and prejudices of the Jews were opposed to
the Roman practice of burning the dead, which Tacitus asserts they
never observed;[33] and they clung with tenacity to their hereditary
mode of sepulture. Wherever they have dwelt they have left traces of
subterranean burial. The hills of Judea are honeycombed with 50
sepulchral caves and galleries. Similar excavations have been found in
the Jewish settlements of Asia Minor, the Ægean Isles, Sicily, and
Southern Italy.[34] So also in Rome they sought to be separated in
death, as in life, from the Gentiles among whom they dwelt. They had
their Catacombs apart, in which not a single Christian or pagan
inscription has been found. Bosio describes one such Catacomb, which
he discovered on Monte Verde, which was much more ancient than the
Christian Catacomb of St. Pontianus in the same vicinity. It was of
very rude construction, and contained not a single Christian monument,
but numerous slabs bearing the seven-branched Jewish candlestick, and
one inscription on which the word ϹΥΝΑΓΩΓ--Synagogue--was legible.[35]
It was situated near that Trans-Tiberine quarter of the city inhabited
at the period of the Christian era by the numerous Jewish population
of Rome. It cannot now, however, be identified, having been
obliterated or concealed by the changes of the last two centuries.
Maitland gives the following Jewish inscription from a MS. collection
in Rome. The figure to the left may be a horn for replenishing the
lamp with oil. The letters at the right are probably intended for the
Hebrew word שָׁלוֹם _Shalom_, or Peace, so common in its classical equivalent
upon Christian tombs. The palm branch is a Pagan as well as Jewish and
Christian symbol of victory. The central figure is a rude
representation of the seven-branched candlestick which appears also in 51
bass-relief on the Arch of Titus at Rome.
[Illustration: “Here lies Faustina. In Peace.”
Fig. 18.--Slab from Jewish Catacomb.]
In the year 1859 another Jewish Catacomb was discovered in the Vigna
Randanini, on the Appian Way, about two miles from Rome. It has been
minutely described by Padre Garrucci.[36] In this the graves and
sarcophagi are sunk in the floor as well as in the walls. They are
closed with terra cotta or marble slabs, and are otherwise similar to
those of the Christian Catacombs. It contains several vaulted
chambers, one of which has some very remarkable paintings of the
seven-branched candlestick on the roof and walls. The same figure is
frequently scratched on the mortar with which the graves are closed.
The dove and olive branch and the palm are also frequently repeated.
Although nearly two hundred inscriptions have been discovered, not one
of either pagan or Christian character has been met with.
The names are sometimes strikingly Jewish in form, and where the
epitaphs refer to the station of the deceased it is always to officers 52
of the synagogue, as ΑΡΚΟΝΤΕϹ, rulers, ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΕΙϹ, scribes. The
following examples are from the Kircherian Museum:
ΩΔΕ ΚΕΙΤΕ ϹΑΛΩ[ΜΗ] ΘΥΓΑΤΗΡ ΓΑΔΙΑ ΠΑΤΡΟϹ ϹΥΝΑΓΩΓΗ ΑΙΒΡΕΩΝ ΕΒΙΩϹΕΝ
ΜΑ ΕΝ ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΚΟΙΜΗϹΙϹ ΑΥΤΗϹ. Here lies Salome, daughter
of Gadia, Father of the Synagogue of the Hebrews. She lived
forty-one years. Her sleep is in peace. ΕΝΘΑΔΕ ΚΕΙΤΕ ΚΥΝΤΙΑΝΟϹ
ΓΕΡΟΥϹΙΑΡΧΗϹ ϹΥΝΑΓΩΓΗϹ ΤΗϹ ΑΥΓΥϹΤΗϹΙΩΝ. Here lies Quintianus,
Gerousiarch (that is, Chief Elder) of the Synagogue of the
Augustenses. ΕΝΘΑΔΕ ΚΕΙΤΑΙ ΝΕΙΚΟΔΗΜΟϹ HΟ ΑΡΧΩΝ ϹΙΒΟΥΡΗϹΙΩΝ ΚΑΙ
ΠΑϹΙ ΦΕΙΛΗΤΟϹ ΑΙΤΩΝ Λ ΗΜΕΡ ΜΒ ΘΑΡΙ ΑΒΛΑΒΙ ΝΕΩΤΕΡΕ ΟΥΔΕΙϹ
ΑΘΑΝΑΤΟϹ. Here lies Nicodemus, ruler of the Severenses, and
beloved of all; (aged) thirty years, forty-two days. Be of good
cheer, O inoffensive young man! no one is exempt from death.
This inscription will recall another “ruler of the Synagogue” of the
same name. Many of the sleepers in this Jewish Cemetery were
evidently, from their names,[37] Greek or Latin proselytes. Sometimes,
indeed, this is expressly asserted, as in the following:
MANNACIVS SORORI CRYSIDI DVLCISSIME PROSELYTE.--Mannacius to his
sweetest sister Chrysis, a proselyte.
It may be assumed that this Catacomb was exclusively Jewish, and we
know, from the testimony of Juvenal[38] and others, that numbers of
the Jews inhabited the adjacent part of Rome, about the Porta Capena
and the valley of Egeria. It is not, however, certain whether it is
the original type, or a later imitation, of the Christian cemetery.
But the Jewish population must have had extra-mural places of
sepulture before the Christian era; and it is probable that the early
Jewish converts to Christianity may have merely continued a mode of 53
burial already in vogue, substituting the emblems of their newly
adopted faith for those which they had forsaken; or, rather--for we
find that they frequently retained certain Jewish symbols, as the
dove, olive branch, and palm--supplementing them with the emblems of
Christianity. De Rossi has expressed the opinion that the earliest
mode of Christian burial was in sarcophagi, as in the Jewish cemetery
above described.
The date of the planting of Christianity in Rome is uncertain.
Probably some of the “strangers of Rome” who witnessed the miracle of
the Pentecost, or, perhaps, the Gentile converts of the “Italian band”
of Cornelius, brought the new evangel to their native city.[39] But
certain it is that as early as A. D. 58 the faith of the Roman Church 54
was “spoken of throughout the whole world.” “Christianity,” says
Tertullian, “grew up under the shadow of the Jewish religion, to which
it was regarded as akin, and about the lawfulness of which there was
no question;”[40] and it doubtless adopted the burial usages of
Judaism.
But even without the example of the Jews the Roman Christians would
naturally revolt from the pagan custom of burning the dead, with its
accompanying idolatrous usages,[41] and would prefer burial, after the
manner of their Lord. They showed a tender care for the remains of the
dead, under a vivid impression of the communion of saints and the
resurrection of the body. They seemed to regard the sepulchre as
“God’s cabinet or shrine, where he pleases to lay up the precious
relics of his dear saints until the jubilee of glory.”[42] Even the
Jews designated the grave as _Beth-ha-haim_, the “house of the
living,” rather than the house of the dead. It is probable, therefore,
that the origin of the Christian Catacombs dates from the death of the
first Roman believer in Christ.
Many of the Catacombs were probably begun as private sepulchres for 55
single families; indeed, some such tombs have been discovered in the
vicinity of Rome, which never extended beyond a single chamber. They
were excavated in the gardens or vineyards of the wealthy converts to
Christianity, in imitation of that rock-hewn sepulchre consecrated by
the body of Christ. The following inscription, which may still be seen
in the most ancient part of the Catacombs of Sts. Nereus and Achilles,
seem to refer to such a family tomb. Another inscription, found in
the Catacomb of St. Nicomedes, restricts the use of the sepulchre to
the original owner, and those of his dependents who belong to his
religion--AT [AD] RELIGIONEM PERTINENTES MEAM.
[Illustration:
M · ANTONI
VS · RESTVTV
S · ECIT · VPO
GEV · SIBI · ET
SVIS · FIDENTI
BVS · IN · DOMINO.
M. Antonius Res[ti]tutus made [this] hypogeum for himself and his
[relatives] who believe in the Lord.[43]]
The names of many of the burial crypts commemorate these original
owners. Among others those of Lucina, Priscilla, and Domitilla are
considered to belong to the First Century, and the two former to the
times of the Apostles. Some of these may have been originally
designed, or afterwards opened, for the reception of the poor
belonging to the Church; and thus the Catacombs would be indefinitely
extended till they attained their present dimensions. Tertullian
expressly declares that the provision made for the poor included 56
that for their burial--_egenis humandis_.[44]
There is reason to believe that, even from the very first, the
Christian Church at Rome contained not a few who were of noble blood
and of high rank. In one of the apostolic epistles Paul conveys the
salutation of Pudens, a Roman Senator, of Linus, reputed the first
Roman bishop, and of Claudia, daughter of a British king;[45] and we
know that even in the Golden House of Nero, the scene of that colossal
orgy whose record pollutes the pages of Suetonius and Tacitus, were
disciples of the crucified Nazarene. In remarkable confirmation of
this fact is the discovery in the recent explorations of the ruins of
the Imperial Palace of several Christian memorials, including one of
those lamps adorned with evangelical symbols, so common in the
Catacombs. Much of the evidence on this subject has been lost by the
zealous destruction of ecclesiastical records during the terrible
Diocletian persecution; but from inscriptions in the Catacombs, and
from the incidental allusions of early writers, we learn that persons 57
of the highest position, and even members of the Imperial family, were
associated with the Christians in life and in death. Some of the
noblest names of Rome occur in funeral epitaphs in some of the most
ancient galleries of the Catacombs. There is evidence that even during
the first century some who stood near the throne became converts to
Christianity, and even died as martyrs for the faith.[46]
But doubtless the preservation and advancement of true religion was
better secured amid the dark recesses of the Catacombs, during the
fiery persecutions that befel the Church, than it would have been in
the sunshine of imperial favour, in an age and court unparalleled for
their corruptions. The sad decline of Christianity after the accession
of Constantine makes it a matter of congratulation that in the earlier
ages it was kept pure by the wholesome breezes of adversity.
The new religion, notwithstanding all the efforts that were made for
its suppression, rapidly spread, even in the high places of the earth.
“We are but of yesterday,” writes Tertullian at the close of the
second century, “yet we fill every city, town, and island of the
empire. We abound in the very camps and castles, in the council
chamber and the palace, in the senate and the forum; only your 58
temples and theatres are left.”[47]
It is evident from an examination of the earliest Catacombs that they
were not the offspring of fear on the part of the Christians. There
was no attempt at secrecy in their construction. They were, like the
pagan tombs, situated on the high roads entering the city. Their
entrances were frequently protected and adorned by elegant structures
of masonry, such as that which is still visible at the Catacomb of St.
Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina;[48] and their internal decorations and
frescoes, which in the most ancient examples are of classic taste and
beauty, were manifestly not executed by stealth and in haste, but in
security and at leisure.
There was, in classic times, a sacred character attached to _all_
places set apart for the purposes of sepulture. They enjoyed the
especial protection of the law, and were invested with a sort of
religious sanctity.[49] This protection was asserted in many
successive edicts, and the heaviest penalties were inflicted on the
violators of tombs, as guilty of sacrilege.[50] Reverence for the
sepulchres of the dead was regarded by the ancient mind as a religious
virtue; and the neglect of the ancestral tomb even involved disability
for municipal office.[51]
Being situated along the public highway, these pagan tombs were liable 59
to various pollutions, to which numerous inscriptions refer. Hence the
frequent CAVE VIATOR--“Traveller, beware!”--so common in classic
epitaphs. The SCRIPTOR PARCE HOC OPVS--“Writer, spare this
work”--sometimes met with, is, as Kenrick well remarks,[52] not the
address of an author to a critic, but of a relative of the deceased,
entreating the wall-scribbler not to disfigure a tomb. Electioneering
notices were sometimes written upon these wayside monuments--a
practice which is deprecated in the following: CANDIDATVS FIAT
HONORATVS ET TV FELIX SCRIPTOR SI HIC NON SCRIPSERIS--“May your
candidate be honoured and yourself happy, O writer, if you write not
on this tomb!” INSCRIPTOR, ROGO TE VT TRANSEAS MONVMENTVM--“Inscriber,
I pray you pass by this monument.”
As these sepulchral areas, often of considerable extent, were taken
from the fields in the vicinity of a great city, where the land was
very valuable for the purpose of tillage, they were in continual
danger of invasion from the cupidity of the heirs or of adjacent
land-owners, but for this legal protection. On many of the
_cippi_, or funereal monuments, which line the public roads in
the vicinity of Rome, the extent of these areas is set forth. Some of
them are quite small, as is indicated in the following inscription:
TERRENVM SACRATVM LONGVM P[EDES] · X · LAT · P[EDES] · X · FODERE
NOLI · NE SACRILEGIVM COMMITTAS[52a]--“A consecrated plot of earth, ten
feet long and ten feet broad. Do not dig here, lest you commit
sacrilege.”
More generally the size of the area is expressed, as in the following:
IN FRONTE P[EDES] · IX IN AGRO P[EDES] · X; that is, “Frontage on the 60
road, nine feet; depth in the field, ten feet.” This area, small as it
is, was designed for several families. The limited space occupied by
the cinerary urns rendered this quite possible. Frequently, however,
the size was much larger. An area one hundred and twenty-five feet
square would be of very moderate extent. Horace mentions one one
thousand feet by three hundred,[53] and sometimes they greatly exceed
this, as one on the Via Labicana, five hundred by eighteen hundred
feet, or over twenty English acres. There were also frequently
_exhedræ_, or seats by the wayside, for passers-by, who were sometimes
exhorted to pause and read the inscription, or to pour a libation for
the dead, as in the following: SISTE VIATOR TV QVI VIA FLAMINIA
TRANSIS, RESTA AC RELEGE--“Stop, traveller, who passest by on the
Flaminian Way; pause and read, and read again!” MISCE BIBE DA
MIHI--“Mix, drink, and give to me.” VIATORES SALVETE ET
VALETE--“Travellers, hail and farewell.”
These burial plots were incapable of alienation or transfer from the
families for whom they were originally set apart; who are sometimes
enumerated in the inscription, or more generally expressed by the
formulæ, SIBI SVISQVE FECIT, SIBI ET POSTERIS SVIS, or with the
addition, LIBERTIS LIBERTABVSQVE POSTERISQVE, that is, “He made this
for himself and his family,” or “for himself and his descendants;”
also “for his freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants.”
Sometimes this limitation is plainly asserted to be, VT NE VNQVAM DE
NOMINE FAMILIAE NOSTRAE HOC MONVMENTVM EXEAT--“That this monument 61
may not go out of the name of our family.” The cupidity of the
inheritor of the estate is especially guarded against by the
ever-recurring formula, H · M · H · N · S ·, that is, _Hoc monumentum
hæredem non sequitur_--“This monument descends not to the heir.”
Sometimes within a stately mausoleum reposed in solitary magnificence
the dust of a single individual, who in sullen exclusiveness declares
in his epitaph that he has no associate even in the grave, or that he
made his tomb for himself alone--IN HOC MONVMENTO SOCIVM HABEO NVLLVM,
or, HOC SOLO SIBI FECIT.
The violation of the monument is earnestly deprecated in numerous
inscriptions in some such terms as these: ROGO PER DEOS SVPEROS
INFEROSQVE NE VELITIS OSSA MEA VIOLARE--“I beseech you, by the
supernal and infernal gods, that you do not violate my bones.”
Sometimes this petition is accompanied by an imprecation of divine
vengeance if it should be neglected, as, QVI VIOLAVERIT DEOS
SENTIAT IRATOS--“May he feel the wrath of the gods[54] who
shall have violated [this tomb.]” Another invokes the fearful
curse, QVISQVIS HOC SVSTVLERIT AVT LAESERIT VLTIMVS SVORVM
MORIATVR[55]--“Whoever shall take away or injure this [tomb] let
him die the last of his race.”
From a distrust of posterity many erected their monuments during their
life-time, and wrote their own epitaphs, leaving only a space for the
age. This is sometimes expressed by the words, SIBI VIVVS FECIT, or,
SE VIVO, SE VIVIS, or even by such solecisms as ME VIVVS, or SE VIVVS.
The following records the strange fact of the erection of a funereal
monument by one living person to another: SEMIRAMIAE LICINIAE QVAM 62
LOCO FILIAE DILIGO OB MERITA EIVS VIVVS VIVAE FECI--“To Semiramia
Licinia, whom I love in place of my daughter: on account of her
merits, alive, I made this to her alive.”
These classic usages have been thus detailed because traces of their
influence may be observed in many practices adopted by the primitive
Christians, and because they furnish an explanation of those
remarkable immunities and privileges which the Catacombs so long
enjoyed. These latter were constructed in separate and limited areas,
in like manner as the pagan sepulchres. De Rossi has given a map of
the Catacomb of Callixtus, in which these areas are accurately
defined. They vary in size and shape, that of the crypt of St. Lucina
being one hundred feet _in fronte_ and one hundred and eighty
_in agro_, that of St. Cecilia two hundred and fifty feet _in
fronte_ and one hundred _in agro_, and others still larger. By
the very tenor of the law these areas enjoyed the same protection as
those of the pagan sepulchres, of which protection it required a
special edict to deprive them. Even when Christianity fell under the
ban of persecution that freedom of sepulture was not at first
interfered with. Having wreaked his cruel rage upon the living body,
the pagan magistrate at least did not deny right of burial to the
martyr’s mutilated remains. A beneficent Roman law declared that the
bodies even of those who died by the hand of the public executioner
might be given up to any who asked for them.[56] So that even the
sentence of outlawry against the Christians did not affect the bodies
of the dead. Indeed, we know from ecclesiastical history that
frequently the faithful received the remains of the martyrs and gave 63
them Christian burial. It was not till the third century, when the
pagan opposition to Christianity became intense and bitter, that the
persecutors waged war upon the dead. Although both Diocletian and
Maximian confirmed the decree just cited, it often happened that, in
order that the Christians might not have even the melancholy
consolation of gathering up the martyrs’ bones, and honouring the
remains of their fallen heroes, those sacred relics were denied the
rites of sepulture which were freely accorded to the body of the
vilest malefactor.
These areas, Christian as well as pagan, were under the guardianship
of the Roman _Pontifices_, who, although pagans, were actually
confirmed in their authority by the Christian Emperor Constans. In
consequence of this protection the Christians were enabled to conduct
their worship and celebrate their _agapæ_ in the oratories or
other buildings erected over the Catacombs, the ruins of which are
still to be seen at the Catacombs of St. Domitilla and Sts. Nereus and
Achilles, and which to the popular apprehension would seem to
correspond to the pagan structures for the celebration of funeral
banquets. Even when oppressed and persecuted above ground, they found
a sanctuary beneath its surface, and were permitted by the ignorance
or indifference of their foes to worship God among the holy dead. So
long as their sepulchral areas were uninvaded the Christians
scrupulously abstained from extending their excavations beyond their
respective limits, digging lower _piani_ instead, when insatiate
death demanded room for still more graves. But when the ruthless
persecutor pursued them even beneath the earth, they felt at liberty
to transcend those limits and burrow in any direction for safety or
escape.
The Christian inscriptions often strongly deprecate the violation of 64
the graves to which they are attached, in like manner as we have seen
in pagan epitaphs, and against this crime the Fathers intensely
inveigh. Sometimes the petition assumes a most solemn character, as
this: [ADIVRO] VOS PER C[H]RISTVM, NE MIHI AB ALIQVO VIOLENTIAM
[_sic_] FIAT ET NE SEPVLCRVM MEVM VIOLETVR--“[I conjure] you by Christ
that no violence be offered me by any one, and that my sepulchre may
not be violated.” Still more awful in its adjuration is the following:
CONIVRO VOS PER TREMENDVM DIEM IVDICII VT HANC SEPVLTVRAM NVLLI
VIOLENT[57]--“I conjure you by the dreadful day of judgment that no
one violate this sepulchre.”
Sometimes a most terrible imprecation is expressed, as in the
following:
MALE · PEREAT · INSEPVLTVS
IACEAT · NON · RESVRGAT
CVM · IVDA · PARTEM · HABEAT
SI · QVIS · SEPVLCHRVM · HVNC · VIOLAVERIT--
If any one shall violate this sepulchre,
Let him perish miserably and remain unburied;
Let him lie down and not rise again,
Let him have his portion with Judas.[58]
....[EMI]GRAVIT AD XPM
....SEPVLCRVM VIOLARE
....SIT ALIENVS A REGNO DEI.
... Has departed to Christ. [If any one dare] to violate
this sepulchre, let him ... and be far from the kingdom of
God.[59]
It is probable that this dread of the violation of the grave arose, in 65
part at least, from the fear that the dispersion of the remains might
impede the resurrection of the body; and also from that natural
aversion to the disturbance of the slumbering dust, so passionately
expressed on the tombstone of England’s greatest dramatist.[60]
We sometimes find also the announcement upon Christian as well as upon
pagan tombs, that they have been prepared while the tenants were yet
alive, as in the following: LOCVS BASILIONIS SE BIBO FECIT--“The place
of Basilio, he made it when alive;” SABINI BISOMVM SE BIBVM FECIT SIBI
IN CEMETERIVM BALBINAE IN CRYPTA NOBA [_sic_]--“The bisomus of
Sabinus, he made it for himself during his life-time, in the cemetery
of Balbina, in the new crypt.” As Sabinus could only occupy one half
of this, the other half was probably intended for his wife. Observe in
the following the beautiful euphemism for the grave. It is calmly
chosen as the last long home, as the “house appointed for all 66
living.” (Fig. 19.[61])
[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Epitaph from Lapidarian Gallery.[61]]
But there was another and still more remarkable resemblance between
the funeral usages of the pagans and Christians than any yet
mentioned, and one which greatly contributed to the freedom of action
and security of the latter. There is abundant monumental and other
evidence of the existence in Rome, in the time of the later Republic
and of the Empire, of certain funeral confraternities--_collegia_, as
they were called--much like the modern burial clubs. A remarkable
inscription of the time of Hadrian, A. D. 103, found at Lavigna,
nineteen miles from Rome, on the Appian Way, gives an insight into
their constitution and objects. With much legal tautology it sets
forth the privilege of this _collegium_ of the worshippers of Diana
and the new divinity Antinous appointed by a decree of the Roman
Senate and people, to assemble, convene, and have an association for
the burial of the dead.[62] The members of this confraternity were to 67
pay for that purpose a hundred _sesterces_ at entrance, besides an
_amphora_ of good wine, and five _ases_ a month thereafter,[63] all of
which was forfeited by the non-payment of the monthly dues. Three
hundred _sesterces_ were expended on the funeral, fifty of which were
to be distributed at the cremation of the body. If a member died at a
distance from Rome three of the confraternity were sent to fetch the
body. Even if they failed to obtain it the funeral rites were duly
paid to an effigy of the deceased. There was also provision made for
the members dining together on anniversary and other occasions
according to rules duly prescribed by the _collegium_.
The names of very many of these _collegia_ have been preserved, each
of which consisted of the members of a similar profession or
handicraft. Thus we have the _Collegium Medicorum_, the association of
the physicians; _Aurificum_, of the gold-workers; _Tignariorum_, of
the carpenters; _Dendrophororum_, of the wood-fellers; _Pellionariorum_,
of the furriers; _Nautarum_, of the sailors; _Pabulariorum_, of the
forage merchants; _Aurigariorum_, of the charioteers; and
_Utriculariorum_, of the bargemen.[64]
They were frequently also connected by the bond of nationality or of
common religious observance, as _Collegium Germanorum_, the
association of the Germans; _Pastophororum_, of the priests of Isis;
_Serapidis et Isidis_, of Serapis and Isis; _Æsculapii et Hygeiæ_, of
Æsculapius and Hygeia.[65] Sometimes they were _Cultores Veneris_,
_Jovis_, _Herculis_, worshippers of Venus, Jupiter, Hercules, or, as
we have seen, of Diana and Antinous.
These associations were often favoured with especial privileges, 68
immunities, and rights, like those of incorporation, such as the
holding of territorial property. De Rossi has shown, by ample
citations, that the emperors, who were always opposed to associations
among the citizens, made a special exemption in favour of these
funeral clubs.[66]
By conformity to the constitution of these corporations the Christian
church had peculiar facilities for the burial of its dead, and even
for the celebration of religious worship. Indeed, it has been
suggested, and is highly probable, that it was under the cover of
these funeral associations that toleration was conceded, first to the
sepulchres, then to the churches. Tertullian describes the practice of
the Christian community in the second century as follows: “Every one
offers a small contribution on a certain day of the month, or when he
chooses, and as he is able, for no one is compelled; it is a voluntary
offering. This is our common fund for piety; for it is not expended in
feasting and drinking and in wanton excesses, but in feeding and
_burying the poor_, in supporting orphans, aged persons, and such as
are shipwrecked, or such as languish in mines, in exile, or in
prison.”[67] Thus the _Ecclesia Fratrum_, the “Congregation of the
Brethren,” who restored the funeral monument described on page
fifty-six,[68] suggests the pagan college of the _Fratres Arvales_; 69
and the _Cultor Verbi_, or worshipper of the Divine Word, in the same
inscription, would seem to the heathen magistrate analogous to the
_Cultores Jovis_ or _Cultores Dianæ_ of the pagan _collegia_. Indeed,
it is difficult to decide from the names of some of these associations
whether they were Christian or pagan. Thus we read of the _Collegium
convictorum qui una epulo vesci solent_--“The fraternity of
table-companions who are accustomed to feast together.” De Rossi
suggests that there may be here a covert reference to a Christian
community, and probably to the celebration of the Agape or of the
Eucharist.[69] Another is the _Collegium quod est in domo Sergiæ
Paulinæ_--“The association which is in the house of Sergia Paulina.”
This possibly may have been a Christian community, like “the church
which was in the house” of Priscilla and Aquila.[70]
That the primitive Christians availed themselves of the privileges
granted to the funeral associations, is confirmed by a discovery made
by De Rossi in the Cemetery of St. Domitilla in the year 1865, and
already referred to. At the entrance was found a chamber, with stone
seats like the _schola_, or place of meeting of the pagan tombs where
the religious confraternity celebrated the funeral banquet of the
deceased. Here the Christians celebrated instead the _Agape_, or Feast
of Charity, and the _Natalitia_, or anniversary of the martyrs who
were buried there, just as the pagan associations commemorated the
anniversaries of their deceased patrons.
The ancient privileges of these _collegia_ were confirmed by an edict
of Septimius Severus about the year A. D. 200. It is a curious
coincidence that precisely at this time Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome,
appointed Callixtus to be “guardian of the cemetery,” as well as 70
head of the clergy.[71] In order to secure to the funeral association
the protection of the law it was necessary that one of its members
should be appointed agent or “syndic,” by whom its business should be
transacted, and in whose name its property should be held.[72] Thus
Callixtus became the syndic of the public cemetery of the church,
which still bears his name. De Rossi conjectures that this was the
first cemetery set apart for the use of the whole Christian community.
Hence it was taken under the care of the ecclesiastical authorities,
and became, as we shall see hereafter, the burying-place of the Roman
bishops, and the especial property of the church.[73]
We will now trace briefly the history of those persecutions which
glutted the Catacombs with victims, and at times drove the church for
sanctuary to their deepest recesses. We have seen that Christianity
grew up under the protection accorded to Judaism as one of the
tolerated religions of Rome. But this toleration did not long
continue. In Rome as well as elsewhere the new creed was doomed to a
baptism of blood. The causes of this persecution are not far to seek.
The Christian doctrine spread rapidly, and early excited the jealousy
of the Roman authorities by its numerous converts from the national
faith, many of whom were of exalted rank. These carefully refrained
from the idolatrous adulation by which the servile mob were wont to 71
express their loyalty to the imperial monster who aspired to be a god.
Hence they were accused of disaffection, of treason.[74] They were the
enemies of Cæsar, and of the Roman people.[75] They were supposed to
exert a malign influence on the course of nature. If it did not rain
the Christians were to blame.[76] “If the Tiber overflows its banks,”
says Tertullian, “or the Nile does not; if there be drought or
earthquakes, famine or pestilence, the cry is raised, ‘_The Christians
to the lions!_’”[77] If the pecking of the sacred chickens or the
entrails of the sacrificial victims gave unfavourable omens, it was
attributed to the counter spell of “the atheists.” At Rome, as well as
at Ephesus and Philippi, the selfish fears of the shrine and image
makers, whose “craft was in danger,” and the hostility of the priests
and dependents on the idol-worship, inspired or intensified the
opposition to Christianity, as did also the jealousy of the Jews, who
regarded with especial hostility the believers in the lowly Nazarene,
whom their fathers with wicked hands had crucified and slain.[78]
The terrible conflagration which destroyed the greater part of the
city during the reign of Nero was made the excuse for the first
outburst of persecution against the Christian community. By public
rumour this deed was attributed to Nero himself. “To put an end to 72
to this report,” says Tacitus, “he laid the guilt, and inflicted the
most cruel punishment, upon these men, who, already branded with
infamy, were called by the vulgar, Christians.... Their sufferings at
their executions,” he adds, “were aggravated by insult and mockery;
for some were sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and worried to
death by dogs; some were crucified, and some, wrapped in garments of
pitch, were burned as torches to illumine the night.”[79]
During this persecution St. Paul fell a victim, A. D. 64. He was
beheaded “without the gate,” on the Ostian Way, and weeping friends
took up his bleeding corpse and laid it, according to tradition, in
one of the most ancient crypts of an adjoining Catacomb, where
Eusebius asserts that his tomb could be seen in his day.[80]
From this time Christianity was exposed to outbursts of heathen rage,
and express decrees were published against it.[81] No longer sharing
the protection of Judaism, it fell under the ban of the empire. At
times the rage of persecution slumbered, and again it burst forth with
inextinguishable fury. But, like the typical bush that “flourished
unconsumed in fire,” the Christian faith but grew and spread the more.
Yet the sword ever impended over the church. Sometimes its stroke 73
was for a time deferred, when the little flock took courage and
rejoiced; but often it fell with crushing weight, smiting the
shepherds and scattering the sheep. One of these periods of rest
extended from the time of the Neronian persecution till near the end
of the century, when Domitian, “a second Nero,”[82] stretched forth
his hand again to vex the saints. During the short reign of the
“justice-loving Nerva” the Christians again enjoyed repose, so that
Lactantius even asserts that they were restored to all their former
privileges.
To the first century De Rossi refers the construction of at least
three or four of the Catacombs. These are, (1) the Cemetery of
Priscilla, excavated, according to an ancient tradition, in the
property of the Roman Senator Pudens, mentioned by St. Paul, and in
which, it is said, were interred his daughters Pudentiana and
Praxides; (2) the Catacomb of Domitilla, the grandniece of the Emperor
Domitian, in which she herself was buried, together with her
chamberlains Nereus and Achilles, who were beheaded for their
steadfastness in the Christian faith; (3) the Crypt of Lucina,
afterwards part of the Catacomb of Callixtus, in which some of the
most ancient inscriptions have been found. De Rossi conjectures that
this lady is the same as the Pomponia Græcina before mentioned, the
wife of Plautius, the conqueror of Britain. (4) De Rossi is also of
the opinion that he has discovered another, and the oldest of all the
Catacombs, dating from the very times of the apostles themselves, in
that known as the Fons Petri, or the Cemetery of the Font of Peter, in
which tradition asserts that he himself baptized. The classical style
of the architecture, frescoes, and graceful stucco wreaths and
garlands, and the character of the inscriptions, all point to a very 74
ancient period, before art had degenerated, and before long-continued
persecution had banished Christianity into seclusion and poverty.
The law of Trajan against secret assemblies, synchronous with the
opening of the second century, gave a new occasion of persecuting the
Church. With such severity was this done that, according to Pliny, the
deserted temples became again frequented, and their neglected rites
revived.[83]
The Emperor Hadrian is described by his contemporaries as diligently
practising the Roman rites, and despising all foreign religions.[84]
Although he restrained the tumultuous attacks of the populace upon the
Christians, he nevertheless favoured their legal prosecution.[85]
The following epitaph given by Maitland commemorates a martyrdom of
this reign. The last sentence seems to imply that it was erected in a
time of actual persecution; but no dated example of the monogram which
accompanies it appears before the time of Constantine. The inscription
was probably written long after the death of Marius, or the monogram 75
may have been added by a later hand:
[Illustration:
TEMPORE ADRIANI IMPERATORIS MARIVS
ADOLESCENS DVX MILITVM QVI SATIS VIXIT
[leafed DVM VITAM PRO |CHO| CVM SANGVINE CON ☧
branch] SVNSIT IN PACE TANDEM QVIEVIT BENE
MERENTES CVM LACRIMIS ET METV POSVE
RVNT I. D. VI.
In Christ. In the time of the Emperor Hadrian, Marius, a young
military officer, who had lived long enough, when, with his
blood, he gave up his life for Christ. At length he rested in
peace. The well-deserving set up this with tears and in fear, on
the 6th, Ides of December.]
In this reign also suffered Alexander, bishop of Rome, whose tomb has
been found on the Nomentan Way, together with Eventius and Theodulus,
a presbyter and deacon.
Under the humane and equitable Antoninus Pius,[86] Christianity seems
to have enjoyed a partial toleration, although the edict of Trajan was
still unrevoked. Yet several outbreaks of popular fury against the
Christians took place, and in the very first year of his reign
Telesphorus, the bishop of the church at Rome, suffered martyrdom.[87]
One of the strangest phenomena in history is the persecution of the
primitive church by the philosophical emperor Marcus Aurelius,[88]
whose “Meditations” seem almost like the writings of an apostle in
their praise of virtue, yearning for abstract perfection, and contempt
of pomp and pleasure. Nevertheless, he was one of the most systematic
and heartless of all the oppressors of the Christian faith--a faith so
much loftier than even his high philosophy, and yet having so much 76
akin. With the cool acerbity of a stoic, he resolved to exterminate
the obnoxious doctrines. An active inquisition for the Christians was
set on foot, and the odious system of domestic espionage, which even
Trajan had forbidden, was encouraged. Shameless informers, greedy for
gain, fed their rapacity on the confiscated spoils of the believers,
whom they plundered, says Melito, by day and by night. Though gentle
to other classes of offenders, and even to rebels, Aurelius exceeded
in barbarity the most ruthless of his predecessors in the refinements
of torture, by rack and scourge, by fire and stake, employed to
enforce the recantation of the Christians; and every year of his long
reign was polluted with innocent blood.
From Gaul to Asia Minor raged the storm of persecution. The
earthquakes, floods, and famine, the wars and pestilence, that wasted
the empire, were visited upon the hapless Christians, who were
immolated in hecatombs as the causes of these dire calamities. From
the crowded amphitheatre of Smyrna ascended, as in a chariot of fire,
the soul of the apostolic bishop Polycarp. The arrowy Rhone ran red
with martyrs’ blood. The names of the venerable Pothinus, of the
youthful Blandina and Ponticus, and of the valiant Symphorianus, will
be memories of thrilling power and pathos to the end of time. At Rome
the persecution selected some of its noblest victims. Justin, the
Christian philosopher, finding in the Gospels a loftier lore than in
the teachings of Zeno or Aristotle, of Pythagoras or Plato, became the
foremost of the goodly phalanx of apologists and defenders of the
faith, and sealed his testimony with his blood. With six of his
companions he was brought before the prefect for refusing obedience to
the imperial decree. “We are Christians,” they said, “and sacrifice 77
not to idols.” They were forthwith scourged and beheaded, and devout
men bore them to their burial, doubtless in these very Catacombs,
where their undiscovered remains may yet lie. In this reign also
suffered the seven sons of St. Felicitas--the tomb of one of whom De
Rossi believes he has found--and St. Cecilia and her companions, to be
hereafter mentioned.[89]
The legend of the Thundering Legion, supported as it is by the medals 78
and the column of Antoninus, commemorates, indeed, the deliverance of
the Roman army by a timely shower; but the Emperor ascribed that
deliverance not to the prayers of the Christians, but to his own
appeal to the heathen gods,[90] and there is no evidence that he ever
relaxed the severity of the persecution.
The ferocity of the brutal Commodus[91] was tempered by the influence
of his concubine, Marcia, and Christianity spread among the highest
ranks; but persecution did not entirely cease. Apollonius, a senator 79
of the empire, was put to death at Rome, and we read of numerous
martyrdoms elsewhere. A Christian inscription commemorates an officer
of Commodus, and Procurator of the Imperial household, who was
“received to God”--RECEPTVS AD DEVM--A. D. 217.[92]
On the death of this emperor the persecution raged with such violence
that, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, many martyrs were burned,
crucified, and beheaded every day.[93] _Non licet esse vos_--“It
is not lawful for you to exist”--was the stern edict of extermination
pronounced against the saints.
Christianity had little favour to expect from a military despot like
Septimius Severus, whose dying counsel to his successor expressed the
principle of his government--“Be generous to the soldiers and trample
on all besides.”
The revived accusations against the new faith called forth the bold
defence, or rather defiance, of Tertullian, one of the noblest
monuments of the primitive ages. In this reign the sanctity of the
Christian cemeteries was first violated, and that not at Rome but in
Africa, where the persecution was most virulent. “The mob assails us
with stones and flames with the frenzy of bacchanals,” says
Tertullian; “They do not even spare the Christian dead, but tear them
from the rest of the tomb, from the asylum of death, cut them in
pieces, and rend them asunder.”[94]
After the cessation of this persecution the Church enjoyed a period of 80
unwonted rest. Although under the ignoble Heliogabalus the sensual
Asiatic worship of Baal was introduced to Rome, and human sacrifice
was even offered to this Eastern Moloch,[95] yet the religion of peace
and purity shared the toleration accorded to the most obscene and
cruel rites. The just and amiable Alexander Severus inaugurated a new
era for Christianity,[96] to which he was favourably disposed,
probably through the influence of his mother, Mammæa, who had enjoyed
at Antioch the instruction of Origen.[97] He used frequently to quote
with approval the Golden Rule of Our Lord, and caused it to be
inscribed on his palace walls, and also ceded to the Christians a
piece of public ground for the erection of a church.[98] But Alexander
was only a religious eclectic, honouring what he thought best in the
current systems of belief. Of this reign is the epitaph of Urban,
bishop of Rome, which has been found in the so-called “Papal Crypt,” 81
bearing his name and the initial letter of his title--ΟΥΡΒΑΝΟϹ Ε....
The accession of the Thracian savage, Maximin, A. D. 235, was the
signal for a fresh outburst of persecution. To have been favoured by
Severus was sufficient to incur the hate of his murderer. His rage was
especially directed against the chief pastors of the flock of Christ.
Pontianus, the Roman bishop, was exiled to Sardinia, and there slain.
Antherus, his successor in this dangerous dignity, for his zeal in
preserving the records of the martyrs himself suffered martyrdom a few
weeks after his accession, and was laid in that narrow chamber
destined to receive so many of Rome’s early bishops, where a slab
bearing his name and title--ΑΝΤΕΡΩϹ · ΕΠΙ--has been found. In this
reign also suffered the celebrated Hippolytus, bishop of Pontus, and
author of the “Philosophoumena.”
Under Gordian and Philip a respite was again granted to the persecuted
church. The latter, indeed, is claimed by Eusebius as a Christian; but
his character and conduct are inconsistent with such a supposition.
A violent reaction took place on the accession of Decius, whose name
became an object of execration to mankind.[99] He resolved to entirely
crush and extirpate Christianity, whose bishops and churches began to
rival the pontiffs and temples of the gods of Rome. At his instigation
a persecution of unprecedented virulence raged like an epidemic
throughout the empire. The imperial edicts enforced conformity to the
pagan ritual under penalty of the most horrible tortures. This unwonted
severity produced the first great apostasy of the primitive church; 82
and many of the less stable converts procured exemption from martyrdom
by sacrificing to the gods, burning incense on their altars, or
purchasing certificates of indulgence from the heathen magistrate.[100]
“Pale and trembling, and more like sacrificial victims than those
about to sacrifice,” says an eye-witness, “some approached the heathen
shrines; but others, firm and blessed pillars of the Lord, witnessed a
good confession unto death.”[101] The bishops of the church, who, as
the leaders of Christ’s sacramental host, bore gallantly the battle’s
brunt, were naturally the earliest victims of the tyrant’s rage.
Accordingly, at the very outbreak of the Decian slaughter, the
venerable Fabian, head of the Roman church, perished by decapitation;
and the Catacombs were glutted with a host of unknown martyrs. In the
very chamber in the Cemetery of Callixtus to which his mutilated
corpse was borne, may still be seen the Bishop’s epitaph--ΦΑΒΙΑΝΟϹ ·
ΕΠΙ--with the monogram of his martyrdom, the conjoined letters ΜΤΡ,
added probably by a later hand. The church seemed paralyzed with fear, 83
and for sixteen months no successor was elected. But, undismayed by
the tragic fate of Fabian, Cornelius, allied with some of the noblest
families of Rome, became the leader of the forlorn hope of
Christianity against all the power of the empire. After a year’s
episcopate he was first banished and then beheaded under Gallus, a
worthy successor in persecution of Decius. Through the archæological
researches of De Rossi have been recovered, first his epitaph--CORNELIVS
· MARTYR · EP--and then his tomb, with a Damasine inscription, in one
of the most interesting crypts of the Catacombs. Lucius, his
successor, in six months shared his fate, and was buried in the
chamber consecrated by the dust of so many martyr-bishops, where his
brief epitaph--ΛΟΥΚΙϹ--is still legible.
Valerian,[102] who revived in his own person the ancient office of
Censor, was at first so favourable toward the Christians that his
house, says Dionysius of Alexandria, was filled with pious persons,
and was, indeed, a congregation[103] of the Lord. This favour was
doubtless the result of the Censor’s approval of Christian influence
on public morals.[104] In the latter part of his reign, however, the
Emperor passed under the dominion of the most abject superstition.
Through the influence of Macrianus, a pagan bigot learned in the dark
lore of Egypt, he became addicted to magic arts, and is said to have
sought the auguries of the empire in the entrails of human
victims.[105] The most relentless decrees were launched against the
Christian church. The bishops, priests, and deacons were forthwith to
be put to the sword; all others were to share the same fate, or to be
punished by exile and fetters.[106] The holding of assemblies, or even 84
entering the Christian cemeteries, was strictly prohibited A. D.
257.[107] By this unwonted invasion of the immemorial sanctity of the
sepulchre the Christians were forbidden even these last refuges from
persecution.
Among the most illustrious victims of Valerian whose bodies lie in the
lowly Catacombs, but whose names live for evermore, were Stephen I.
and Sixtus II., bishops of the persecuted church, and a number of
distinguished ecclesiastics, as well as many laymen of noble rank.[108]
Stephen, as the head of the Christian community, was especially
obnoxious to heathen rage. According to the Acts of his martyrdom he
sought concealment in these sepulchral crypts,[109] where he was
secretly visited by the faithful, and where he administered the
sacraments. He was traced by the Roman soldiers to his subterranean
chapel, but, awed by the mysterious rites, they allowed him to
conclude the service in which he was engaged. He was then beheaded,
with several of his adherents,[110] and buried in the Catacomb.
Sixtus, the successor of Stephen, within a year received the martyr’s 85
crown. Like another Daniel setting at defiance the emperor’s decree,
he was leading the devotions of the persecuted flock in the Catacomb
of Prætextatus, probably because it was less known than the public
cemetery of Callixtus, when he was apprehended by the fierce soldiery,
who had tracked his footsteps thither. He was hurried away to summary
judgment, brought back to the place of his offence, and there
beheaded, sprinkling with his blood the walls of the chamber. With him
were also executed four of his deacons,[111] the monuments of two of
whom, Agapetus and Felicissimus, De Rossi discovered in the very
Catacomb in which they suffered. Sixtus himself was buried in the
“Bishops’ Tomb” in the Callixtan Cemetery, where the following
inscription, fragments of which have been found in the _débris_,
was afterward set up by Damasus:
TEMPORE QVO GLADIVS SECVIT PIA VISCERA MATRIS
HIC POSITVS RECTOR COELESTIA IVSSA DOCEBAM
ADVENIVNT SVBITO RAPIVNT QVI FORTE SEDENTEM
MILITIBVS MISSIS POPVLI TVNC COLLA DEDERE
MOX SIBI COGNOVIT SENIOR QVIS TOLLERE VELLET
PALMAM SEQVE SVVMQVE CAPVT PRIOR OBTVLIT IPSE
IMPATIENS FERITAS POSSET NE LAEDERE QVEMQVAM
OSTENDIT CHRISTVS REDDIT QVI PRAEMIA VITAE
PASTORIS MERITVM NVMERVM GREGIS IPSE TVETVR
At the time when the sword pierced the tender heart of the Mother 86
[church,] I, the ruler buried here, was teaching the laws of
heaven. Suddenly came [the enemy,] who seized me sitting as I
was. Then the people presented their necks to the soldiers sent
against me. Soon the old man saw who sought to bear away the
palm, and was the first to offer himself and his own head, that
impatient rage might injure no one else. Christ who bestows the
rewards of life, manifests the merit of the pastor: he himself
defends the flock.[112]
Thus seven bishops of the church at Rome fell in succession by the
hand of the headsman, five of them in the space of eight years--heroic
athletes of Christ who, at the very seat of paganism, as in a mighty
theatre of God, bore the brunt of persecution, and, conquering even in
death, received the martyr’s crown and palm.
The accession of Gallienus[113] restored peace to the church. His
decree granting complete religious toleration, the restoration of
confiscated ecclesiastical property, and permission to “recover what
they called their cemeteries,”[114] won the gratitude of his Christian
subjects. His character, however, by no means justified the epithet of
“holy and pious emperor” bestowed by Dionysius of Alexandria.[115]
This was the first formal recognition of Christianity as a _religio
licita_, or legalized faith, and for forty years the church enjoyed
comparative repose; at least such repose as was possible while twenty 87
rival emperors--fantastic things “that likeness of a kingly crown had
on”--struggled for the supremacy, and harried the land with their
mutual devastations. During this period, Felix, the bishop of the
Roman church, who, according to the _Liber Pontificalis_, was
exceedingly diligent in honouring the martyrs of the Catacombs, became
himself a conscript of that noble army, and was beheaded, in
accordance with an imperial decree, as was also Agapetus, a Christian
of noble rank.
The mild and amiable Tacitus[116] ruled over a turbulent people only
six months. His brother Florian retained the purple only half that
time. Probus, “the just,” whose name, says his epitaph, expressed his
character,[117] fell by the hands of his own tumultuous legionaries.
The sensual and abominable Carinus displayed the extravagancies of
Heliogabalus, aggravated by the cruelty of Domitian. In his reign died
Eutychianus, whose epitaph and title--ΕΥΤΥΧΙΑΝΟϹ ΕΠΙϹ--have been
found in the “Papal Crypt” of Callixtus.[118]
Christianity was destined to undergo a final ordeal before it should 88
ascend the throne of the Cæsars. The church must pass once more
through the purifying flames of persecution before it was fit to be
entrusted with the reins of empire. The long peace and temporal
prosperity had fostered pride and luxury, and relaxed the morals of
the Christian community. Schisms and feuds destroyed the unity of the
faith, and the bishops had begun to aspire to temporal power, and to
assert an unwarranted authority. “Prelates inveighed against
prelates,” says Eusebius, “and people rose against people, assailing
each other with words as with darts and spears.”[119] The blasts of
adversity were necessary to winnow the spurious and false away, and to
leave the tried and true behind. From the fatal slumber of religious
apathy into which the church was falling it was to be rudely awakened.
Its former afflictions sank into insignificance compared with this
great tribulation, which was pre-eminently called _The_ Persecution by
the historian of the times.[120]
The close of the third century witnessed the strange spectacle of the
government of the Roman world by a group of men who had climbed to the
giddy height of power from the lowest stations in life. Diocletian,
originally a slave, or at least the son of a slave, reduced the
haughty aristocracy of Rome to a condition of oriental servility.
Maximian, a Pannonian peasant, betrayed the savageness of his nature
by his bloodthirsty cruelty. Galerius, an Illyrian herdsman, but
exhibited more conspicuously upon the throne of empire the native
barbarity of his character. Constantius was of nobler birth than any
of his colleagues, and he alone adorned his lofty station by dignity,
justice, and clemency. The world groaned under the oppression of its
cruel masters. So exhausting were their exactions that none remained 89
to tax, says Lactantius,[121] but the beggars.
The early years of the reign of Diocletian were characterized for the
most part by principles of religious toleration. Indeed, his wife and
daughter, the empresses Prisca and Valeria, favoured, if they did not
adopt, the Christian faith, and some of the first officers of the
imperial household belonged to the now powerful sect.[122] But even
during this period the Christians were not free from danger. Caius,
the Roman bishop, is said to have lived for eight years in the
Catacombs on account of the persecution, and at last underwent
martyrdom in the year A. D. 296.[123] Marcus and Marcelianus, two
Roman Christians of noble rank, who have given their name to one of
the Catacombs, suffered about this time. Others, especially in the
army, where the ancient faith had firmest hold, and where, indeed,
Eusebius says, the persecution began,[124] endured martyrdom as the
valiant soldiers of Christ. The storm, of which these events were the
precursors, at length burst with fury on the Christians in the year
303. A series of cruel edicts, written, says Eusebius, with a dagger’s
point,[125] were fulminated for the extirpation of the Christian
name.[126] They were framed with malignant ingenuity, so as to leave 90
no chance of escape save in open apostasy. All ecclesiastical property
was confiscated. The churches were razed to the ground, and the sacred
scriptures burned with fire.[127] All assemblies for worship were
prohibited on pain of death. The clergy of every order were zealously
sought out, and thrust into dungeons designed for the worst of
felons.[128] The whole Christian community was outlawed, degraded from
every secular office, deprived of the rights of citizenship, and
exposed to the punishment of the vilest slaves. With intensifying
violence edict followed edict, like successive strokes of thunder in a
raging storm. A universal and relentless proscription of the Christian
name took place. The truculent monster Galerius, of whom his Christian
subjects said, that he never supped without human blood,[129] proposed
that all who refused to sacrifice to the gods should be burned alive;
and the fiendish ingenuity of the persecutors was exhausted in
devising fresh tortures for their victims.
In Italy, and especially at Rome, the work of destruction was eagerly
carried on by Maximian, an implacable enemy of the Christians; and
after his death by the abominable voluptuary Maxentius, in whom the
twin passions of cruelty and lust struggled for the mastery. These 91
monsters of iniquity revelled in a carnival of blood, and glutted the
Catacombs with victims, some of the most illustrious of whom will
shortly be mentioned. On the retirement of Diocletian, satiated with
slaughter and weary with the cares of state, to his retreat at
Salonica, Galerius continued the persecution with increased zeal. It
was the expiring effort of paganism, the death throes of its mortal
agony. But the Christian religion, like the trodden grass that ranker
grows, flourished still in spite of the oppression it endured. Like
the rosemary and thyme, which the more they are bruised give out the
richer perfume, it breathed forth the odours of sanctity which are
fragrant in the world to-day. Though the frail and the fickle fell off
in the blast of adversity, the staunch and true remained; and from the
martyr’s blood, more prolific than the fabled dragon’s teeth, a new
host of Christian heroes rose, contending for the martyr’s starry and
unwithering crown.
But the period of deliverance was at hand. Smitten by the power of
that God whose titles and attributes he had usurped, the wretched
Galerius, amid the agonies of a loathsome disease, implored the
intercessions of the Christians whom he had so ruthlessly proscribed.
With sublimest magnanimity the church exhibited the nobility of a
Gospel revenge, and obeyed the injunction of its divine Master to pray
for those who persecuted and despitefully used it. From the dying
couch of the remorseful monarch came an abject apology for his cruel
deeds; and, in late atonement for his crime, a decree of amplest
recognition of Christianity, and restoration of the right to worship
God. Like the trump of jubilee, the edict of deliverance pealed
through the land. It penetrated the gloomy dungeon, the darksome mine,
the catacomb’s dim labyrinth; and from their sombre depths vast 92
processions of the “noble wrestlers of religion”[130] thronged to the
long forsaken churches with grateful songs of praise to God.
But this treacherous calm was soon to be again broken. The
superstitious tyrant Maximin endeavoured to revive the dying paganism,
and to renew the persecution. He paid Christianity the high compliment
of attempting a complete organization of the heathen priesthood on the
model of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and restored the ancient
worship with unwonted pomp. He prohibited the assemblies in the
cemeteries, and reiterated the edict of extermination against the
Christians.[131] But the loathsome death of this brutal voluptuary
soon delivered the church from the most implacable of its foes. From
the distant island of Britain--that ultimate far Thule of the
empire--had arrived the Cæsar who should enthrone the new faith on the
seat of its persecutors, and establish it as the religion of the
state,[132] an event more perilous to its purity and spiritual power
than the direst oppression it had ever endured. Constantine having
overcome the enemies of Christianity, who were also his own, became
its protector, more, it is easy to believe, either from conviction of
its truth or from policy than on account of the alleged miraculous
vision of the cross of Christ, the presage of a bloody victory.[133]
He issued at Milan, A. D. 313, that decree of full and unlimited 93
toleration[134] which became thenceforth the charter of the church’s
liberties.[135]
The sufferings of the more illustrious victims of persecution are 94
alone recorded in history, which is silent concerning the great army
of unknown martyrs, whose names are recorded only in the Book of Life.
The bishops of the church were ever the first to feel the tyrants’
rage. The episcopal chair was often but the stepping-stone to the
scaffold. Yet faithful shepherds were not wanting to lead the flock of
Christ, and to testify their devotion to their trust by the sacrifice
of their lives. We have seen how Caius suffered even before the final
outbreak of persecution. Marcellinus, his successor, incurred the
resentment of the tyrant Maxentius, was degraded to the office of
groom of the public stables, where the horses of the circus were kept,
and soon sank beneath the weight of his miseries and those of the
church.[136] Marcellus, sometimes confounded with Marcellinus, paid
the penalty of exile for his firmness in maintaining the
ecclesiastical discipline against those who apostatized from the faith
in those times of fiery trial. This event is recorded in the Damasine
inscription:
VERIDICVS RECTOR LAPSOS QVIA CRIMINA FLERE
PRAEDIXIT MISERIS FVIT OMNIBVS HOSTIS AMARVS
HINC FVROR HINC ODIVM SEQVITVR DISCORDIA LITES
SEDITIO CAEDES SOLVVNTVR FOEDERA PACIS
CRIMEN OB ALTERIVS CHRISTVM QVI IN PACE NEGAVIT
FINIBVS EXPVLSVS PATRIAE EST FERITATE TYRANNI
HAEC BREVITER DAMASVS VOLVIT COMPERTA REFERRE
MARCELLI VT POPVLVS MERITVM COGNOSCERE POSSET.[137]
The truth-speaking ruler, because he preached that the lapsed 95
should weep for their crimes, was bitterly hated by all those
unhappy ones. Hence fury, hence hatred followed, discord,
contentions, sedition, and slaughter; and the bonds of peace were
ruptured. For the crime of another, who in a time of peace had
denied Christ, he was expelled the shores of his country by the
cruelty of the tyrant. These things Damasus having learned, was
desirous to relate briefly, that the people might recognize the
merit of Marcellus.
Neither Marcellus nor Marcellinus was buried in the Catacomb of
Callixtus--which, as Diocletian had confiscated all the public
cemeteries, was inaccessible to the Christians--but in the private
crypt of the Christian matron Priscilla, on the Salarian Way.
Eusebius, the successor of Marcellus, was also banished on account of
the controversy concerning the “lapsed.” New light has recently been
thrown on this subject by De Rossi’s discovery, in the tomb of the
bishop, of the following Damasine inscription in a fragmentary
condition:
HERACLIVS VETVIT LABSOS [_sic_] PECCATA DOLERE
EVSEBIVS MISEROS DOCVIT SVA CRIMINA FLERE
SCINDITVR [IN] PARTES POPVLOS GLISCENTE FVRORE
SEDITIO CAEDES BELLVM DISCORDIA LITES
EXTEMPLO PARITER PVLSI FERITATE TYRANNI
INTEGRA CVM RECTOR SERVARET FOEDERA PACIS
PERTVLIT EXILIVM DOMINO SVB IVDICE LAETVS
LITORE TRINACRIO MVNDVM VITAMQ · RELIQUIT.
Heraclius forbade the lapsed to grieve for their sins. Eusebius
taught those unhappy ones to weep for their crimes. The people
were rent in parties, and with increasing fury began sedition,
slaughter, fighting, discord, and strife. Straightway both were
banished by the cruelty of the tyrant, although the ruler was
preserving the bonds of peace inviolate. He bore his exile with
joy, looking to the Lord as his Judge, and on the Trinacrian
shore gave up the world and his life.
The Heraclius mentioned in the inscription is probably the heretical
leader referred to in the epitaph of Marcellus, previously given. No
reference to this event occurs in any of the ecclesiastical writers,
and this inscription, says Dr. Northcote, is the recovery of a lost 96
chapter in the history of the church.[138] The remains of Eusebius
were brought from Sicily, the place of his exile, by his successor,
Melchiades, and interred in the Catacomb of Callixtus, but not with
the other bishops, the approaches to whose tomb were blocked up with
earth, probably to prevent its violation by the enemies of the faith.
Melchiades, with whom the long succession of Rome’s martyr bishops
comes to a close, was the last of his order who was buried in the
Catacombs, and De Rossi conjectures that he has discovered in the
Cemetery of Callixtus his tomb, and the very sarcophagus in which he
lay.[139]
One of the most illustrious of the lay martyrs of the Diocletian
persecution was the gallant young soldier Sebastian, who has given his
name to one of the most ancient basilicas of Rome and to the adjacent
Catacomb, and Adauctus, a treasurer of the imperial palace. In the
Damasine epitaph of the latter occur the fine lines:
INTEMERATA FIDE CONTEMPTO PRINCIPE MVNDI
CONFESSVS |XRM| CAELESTIA REGNA PETISTI.[140]
With unfaltering faith, despising the lord of the world, having
confessed Christ, thou didst seek the celestial realms.
Several of the Christian cemeteries receive their designation from the 97
martyrs of this period, among others those of Saints Agnes, Peter, and
Marcellinus, of Pancratius, Generosa, Zeno, Soteris, and _Quattro
Incoronati_, notice of whom will be more appropriate in the accounts
of their respective sepulchres. History has also preserved the names
of many other valiant confessors, who proved faithful even unto death
amid the fiery trials and cruel mockings and scourgings to which they
were exposed. Among these may be mentioned Cosmo and Damian, two holy
brothers of Cilicia, who practised in Rome with great skill the
healing art, from pure love to God and to their fellow-men, refusing
to receive aught for their services;[141] Simplicius and Faustinus,
who were drowned in the Tiber by the tyrant’s orders, and their
martyred sister Beatrice, whose tombs and epitaphs De Rossi believes
he has recovered.[142] Most of the legends, however, of what may be
called the Romish mythology are disfigured by absurd and superstitious
additions; and the martyrs themselves have become the objects of
idolatrous veneration far alien from the spirit of that primitive
Christianity for which they died.[143]
The following inscriptions from the Catacombs are the only records of 98
the victims of persecution whose names they bear.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Lannus, the martyr of Christ, rests here.
He suffered under Diocletian. For his successors also.]
[Illustration: ☧] PRIMITIVS IN PACE QVI POST
MVLTAS ANGVSTIAS FORTISSIMVS MARTYR
ET VIXIT ANNOS P · M · XXXVIII CONIVG · SVO
PERDVLCISSIMO BENEMERENTI FECIT.
Primitius in peace, after many torments, a most valiant martyr.
He lived thirty-eight years, more or less. [His wife] raised this
to her dearest husband, the well-deserving.
HIC GORDIANVS GALLIAE NVNCIVS
IVGVLATVS PRO FIDE CVM FAMILIA TOTA
QVIESCVNT IN PACE
THEOPHILA ANCILLA FECIT.
Here lies Gordianus, deputy of Gaul, who was executed for the
faith, with all his family: they rest in peace. Theophila, a
handmaid, set up this.[144]
The history of the Catacombs is inextricably interwoven with that of 99
Christianity. Their very structure reflects the character of the times
in which they were made. The absence of constraint or concealment, and
the superior construction and ornamentation of those belonging to the
earliest times, indicate the comparative security of the church before
it had awakened the jealousy or fear of the Roman emperors. Their
immense extension and crowded galleries testify to the rapid increase
of the Christian community. The altered character which they gradually
assumed, the obstructed passages, the masked entrances, devious
windings, and devices for concealment or escape, and the rudely
scratched inscriptions and uncouth paintings, betray the sense of fear
and the kindling rage of persecution which pursued the hunted
Christians to these subterraneous sanctuaries of the faith. Their
greater magnificence and more ornate structure, the costly mosaics,
the marble stairways, and richly carved sarcophagi of the later ages,
tell of the enthronement of Christianity on the seat of the Cæsars,
and of the homage paid to the relics and shrines of the saints and
martyrs. And their debased architecture, barbarous paintings, and
progressive ruin during the later years of their history indicate the
gradual eclipse of art, and their final abandonment. We must therefore
carefully determine at least the proximate date of any particular
feature if we would correctly interpret its significance.
The last and most terrible persecution of the church before its final 100
triumph left abundant evidence of its violence and lengthened duration
in the changes which contemporaneously took place in the Catacombs.
God prepared a place for his saints, and hid them in the clefts of the
rock as in the hollow of his hand. When the public observance of
Christianity was proscribed by law the believers withdrew from the
light of day, and in the inmost and darkest recesses of these
subterranean crypts, by the graves of their martyred dead, enjoyed the
consolation of religious worship, and broke the bread and drank the
wine in memory of their dying Lord.[145]
But after the decree of Valerian which forbade the entering or holding
any assemblies in the Christian cemeteries, even these retreats were
not safe, and the last sanctuaries of the faith were unscrupulously
invaded. Persecution relentlessly followed the Christians through the
labyrinthine windings of the Catacombs, and violated the sepulchres of
the sainted dead by sacrilegious tumult and bloodshed. Sometimes the
heathen soldiery, fearing to pursue their victims into these unknown
passages, blocked up the entrance to prevent their escape; and many
were thus buried alive and perished of hunger in these chambers of
gloom.[146]
An entire change in the construction of the Catacombs now took place.
They became obviously designed for purposes of safety and concealment.
The new galleries were less wide and lofty, and the _loculi_ more
crowded on account of the greater difficulty of removing the excavated 101
material. At this time, too, many of the lower _piani_ were made
for additional graves and greater secrecy. The main entrances were
blocked up and the stairways demolished. Sometimes entire galleries
were filled with earth, the removal of which is the chief obstacle to
modern exploration, or were built up with masonry to obstruct pursuit;
and means of escape were provided, in case of forcible invasion of
these retreats. A striking example of this occurs in the Catacomb of
Callixtus. The ancient stairway was partially destroyed, the entrance
completely obstructed, and some of the galleries walled up. Narrow
passages for escape were made connecting with an adjacent
_arenarium_, and a very narrow secret stairway constructed from
the roof of the latter to the surface of the ground, as shown in the
section above [Transcriber’s Note: Fig. 22, below], which stairway
could only be reached by a movable ladder connecting it with the
floor.[147]
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Secret stairway into Arenarium.]
It is impossible that the mass of the Christian community, or even any 102
considerable proportion of it, could ever have taken refuge in these
subterraneous crypts. Their vast extent and the number of chambers
would indeed permit a great multitude to remain concealed for a time
in their depths; but the difficulty of procuring a regular supply of
food, the confined atmosphere, and the probable exhalation of noxious
gases from the graves--especially on the opening of a _bisomus_, or
double tomb, for its second inmate--seem insuperable obstacles. As
it was the religious leaders of the Christian community who were
especially obnoxious to those in power, they would be the most likely
to seek concealment in the Catacombs, not from inferiority of courage,
but, like the afterward martyred Cyprian, that they might the better
guide and govern the persecuted church. Hence the examples before
given of bishops and other ecclesiastics lying hidden, some for years,
in these depths, and visited by the faithful for instruction or for
the celebration of worship.[148] There is evidence, however, that
during the exacerbations of persecution private Christians sought
safety in these recesses, and, burrowing in their depths, evaded the
pursuit of their enemies. Tertullian speaks of “a lady, unaccustomed
to privation, trembling in a vault, apprehensive of the capture of her
maid, upon whom she depends for her daily food.” The heads of
Christian families, and those most obnoxious to the pagan authorities,
would be especially likely to leave the fellowship of the living in
order to live in security among the dead. Father Marchi conjectures
that supplies of grain were laid up for the maintenance of the hidden 103
fugitives, and De Rossi describes certain crypts in the Catacomb of
Callixtus which were probably employed for storing corn or wine in
time of persecution. Frequent wells occur, amply sufficient for the
supply of water; and the multitude of lamps which have been found
would dispel the darkness, while their sudden extinction would prove
the best concealment from attack by their enemies.[149] Hence the
Christians were stigmatized as a skulking, darkness-loving race,[150]
who fled the light of day to burrow like moles in the earth.