CHAPTER V. 164

THE PRINCIPAL CATACOMBS OF ROME.

Before leaving this division of our subject we will take a rapid

survey of the more remarkable of that vast system of Christian

cemeteries that engirdles the city of Rome. It will be more convenient

to notice them in topographical order, beginning with those on the

Appian Way, and sweeping around the city to the north-west, over the

great roads on the borders of which the Catacombs are chiefly

situated. The ground near these roads is honeycombed with sepulchral

excavations, to which there are said to be six hundred entrances

scattered over the Campagna. Bosio found them in almost every vineyard

near the Salarian Way. In some of these the peasants keep their wine,

although their fears prevent them from venturing far from the mouth;

and sometimes villas fall in through the subsidence of the soil.

The various groups of crypts have been known by different names at

different periods, or even at the same period; and it is sometimes

difficult or impossible to disentangle the conflicting accounts, and

to identify the cemeteries to which the ancient names were

applied. The original records--the martyrologies and the _Liber

Pontificalis_[291]--are sometimes utterly unreliable, and the

very existence of the saints and martyrs whose lives are recorded is 165

often exceedingly apocryphal; and even if their traditions are in the

main correct, it is in many cases doubtful if they are buried in the

Catacombs which bear their names. Frequently, however, these

traditions are confirmed by inscriptions and other monumental

evidence, which establish beyond doubt the identity of the Catacomb,

as in the case of that of Callixtus and others which we shall notice.

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Tombs on Appian Way.]

Southeastward from the ancient Porta Capena of the city of Rome

stretches the celebrated Appian Way, the most remarkable of those vast

arteries of commerce along which flowed to the most distant provinces

the vital currents from the great heart of the empire. This “Queen of

Roads,”[292] as it was proudly called, was lined on either side by the

stately tombs in which reposed the ashes of the mighty dead.[293] “The 166

history of Christian Rome,” says Padre Marchi,[294] “gives to this

same road titles of glory incomparably more solid, just, and

indisputable. We are forced to acknowledge it as the queen of

Christian roads by reason of the greater number and extent of its

cemeteries, and still more by the greater number and celebrity of its

martyrs.” Under the present pontiff this historic highway has been

excavated and opened for travel as far as Albano; and one may now

traverse that avenue of tombs on the very causeway on which Horace and

Virgil, Augustus and Mæcenas, Cicero and Seneca, must often have

entered Rome. But it is invested with a profounder interest as the way

by which the great Apostle of the Gentiles approached the city, “an

ambassador in bonds,” to preach the gospel in Rome also, and to finish

his testimony by a glorious martyrdom. By this very road also,

according to an ancient tradition, his body was stealthily conveyed by

night and deposited in an adjacent Catacomb; and here wended many a

mourning procession bearing to those lowly crypts the remains of Rome’s 167

early bishops, martyrs, and confessors.

The ancient Porta Capena, with the dripping aqueduct above it,[295]

have disappeared, and the fountain of Egeria, trampled by cattle, is

no longer the haunt of nymph or naiad. Passing through the modern

Sebastian gate and crossing the classic Almo, the traveller reaches at

a short distance the little church of _Domine quo vadis_, with which

is connected one of the most beautiful legends of the martyrology.[296]

About a mile and three quarters from the city he comes to Vigna

Animendola, on the doorway leading to which is a marble tablet with

the words COEMETERIVM S. CALLIXTI. Beneath this vineyard lies the

celebrated Catacomb of Callixtus, of which we propose to enter into a

somewhat detailed description, as it will give greater definiteness 168

to the general conceptions already received, and will serve as

typical example of the origin and history of the Catacombs in general.

In the year 1849 De Rossi found in a cellar in this vineyard a broken

marble slab with the mutilated inscription ELIVS · MARTYR, and at the

beginning the upper part of the letters RN. He immediately conjectured

that this was a fragment of the tombstone of Cornelius, a Roman bishop

of the third century, whose sepulchre would probably be found not far

off. At his persuasion the pope purchased the vineyard, and the

archæological commission began the work of excavation. They were

rewarded by some of the most remarkable discoveries which have yet

been made.

The cemetery is situated between the Via Appia and the Via Ardeatina,

which are connected by narrow cross-roads. De Rossi has prepared a map

of the principal part of it, divided into fifteen rectilinear and

generally rectangular areas. The dimensions of these areas are not

fractional but round numbers, as 100, 125, 150, and 250 feet, which

cannot be the result of accident, and, with other evidences, indicate

that they were, like similar pagan sepulchral areas, originally so

many separate places of burial. When brought under the ecclesiastical

control of Callixtus, about A. D. 200, they probably received one

common name, became structurally united, and were used as a public

cemetery of the church.

The first of these areas which we reach on entering the vineyard is

that known as the crypt of St. Lucina. It has a frontage of one

hundred feet on the Via Appia, and an extension _in agro_ of two

hundred and thirty feet. The limits of this area are exactly defined

by the presence of a small pagan _hypogæum_ on each side, which

the Christians dared not undermine. In the centre, near the road, is 169

a massive monument, shown in the section of this crypt, Fig. 14, which

De Rossi conjectures to have been a Christian mausoleum,[297] quoting

Tertullian[298] as a witness that they had _monumenta et mausolea_ at

a very early period.[299] This is more probable from the fact that the

property belonged to the noble Roman family of the Cæcilii, with which

Cicero was connected, many of whose tombs were found in the

neighbourhood. This probably explains its vicinity to the stately

mausoleum of Cæcilia Metella. The names of many Cæcilii and other

noble Roman families are also found on epitaphs in this crypt. This

was unquestionably one of the most ancient areas of the Catacombs.

In this area, in 1852, the remaining portion of the epitaph of

Cornelius was found at the foot of the tomb to which it evidently

belonged, in a gallery of unusual width.

This tomb is flanked by pilasters covered with fine white stucco, and

a mutilated inscription in the well-known manner of Damasus

commemorates its adornment by that pontiff. Numerous _graffiti_

indicate that this was a favourite shrine. Faded frescoes of

Cornelius, Cyprian, and two other bishops, wearing the stole, tonsure,

and nimbus, are attributed by De Rossi to the ninth century. Beside

the tomb is a short column of masonry, covered with stucco, which

probably sustained an altar or the vase of oil in which tapers were

anciently burned before the shrines of the martyrs;[300] indeed, the

fragments of such a vase have been found among the rubbish of the 170

tomb. Among the relics sent by Gregory the Great to Queen Theodelinda,

according to the list still extant in the cathedral of Monza, said to

be in the handwriting of that pope, is one _ex oleo S. Cornelii_,

which must have come from this spot.

When the area of Lucina became crowded with tombs another of the same

size was opened about a hundred yards off. It contains the celebrated

“Papal Crypt,” the tomb of St. Cecilia, and other monuments of the

greatest interest. We will give a somewhat detailed account of the

construction and successive changes of this area, following the

skilful analysis of De Rossi, who has given accurate plans, sections,

and measurements of the whole. It extended, as is shown by the dotted

lines in the accompanying plan, two hundred and fifty feet along the

narrow cross-road marked M N, and one hundred feet _in agro_.

This would, in the first place, be secured as a burial-ground by the

Christian owner with the proper legal forms, which, we have seen,

protected the places of sepulture from invasion or disturbance till

the times of the later persecution. Openings were then made from the

surface at A and B, and stairways constructed reaching to a depth of

thirty-nine feet. These stairways were partly lined with brick-work,

but were chiefly cut in the solid tufa. The walls were coated with

fine stucco, white and firm--an evidence of antiquity--and ornamented

with bands of a bright red pigment. The original steps were covered

with marble, but they were afterwards restored with masonry. The upper

part, indicated by dotted lines, is destroyed to the depth of ten

feet, and there is evidence of the complete obstruction of the

passage, doubtless during time of persecution. The stairway B has been

used as a wine store, and is obstructed by a wall and a smaller 171

transverse stairway.

[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Part of Cemetery of Callixtus.]

An _ambulacrum_ or gallery was first excavated around the sides of the

area, and several cross passages, as D, E, F, G, H, I, constructed.

The walls are thickly lined with graves, and in places the floor has

been lowered to give room for still more _loculi_. At D, C, the

fossors finding the wall to crumble, had to strengthen it with

masonry, and to desist from lowering the floor of the gallery. Hence 172

the latter is not level, but has, in places, steps which have been

worn to an inclined plane. The increasing demand for graves led to the

formation of the _cubicula_ A1 to A6, as well as others in the

interior of the area. Many of these are decorated with frescoes, and

A3 is known as the _Capella dei Sacramenti_, or Chapel of the

Sacrament, on account of its so-called liturgical paintings. A4 has a

coloured marble floor of symmetrical design, and A6 has a large

_sepolcro a mensa_ lined with marble and flanked with marble

pilasters. The iron bars which supported the table tomb may still be

seen. There are many Greek as well as Latin inscriptions in these

galleries, and some of the tiles which close the _loculi_ bear the

stamp of the emperors M. Aurelius and Commodus, which fixes the date

of this area. Some of the passages are entirely paved with such tiles.

Numerous niches for lamps also occur. At F a well was excavated which

still contains water. It is furnished with foot-holes, that a man

might descend in order to clean it out. This is common in other wells

in the Catacombs.

The ever-pressing necessity for graves compelled the fossors at length

to attempt the construction of galleries on a lower level. Accordingly

we find a stairway, H, H2, of thirty-four steps leading down from the

gallery H. The rock, however, through which this stairway descends is

no longer the firm _tufa granolare_ of the upper level, but a very

friable stratum of _pozzolana_, which made it necessary to protect the

walls with brick-work. Finding this stratum of great depth, they

excavated a horizontal passage, and a still further narrow

experimental cleft, as it were, in search of firmer rock, but soon

abandoned the attempt, failing to find any suitable for sepulture. The

few graves they made had to be built of brick-work; and in one of 173

these was found a little terra cotta sarcophagus, containing the body

of an infant. This shows the utter unfitness of the _pozzolana_ beds

in which the _arenaria_ are excavated for the construction of the

Catacombs. We have seen that about A. D. 200 Callixtus became the

guardian of this cemetery, which seems to have then become the

burial-place of the bishops of Rome instead of the crypts of the

Vatican as previously. According to the _Liber Pontificalis_, out of

eighteen bishops from Zephyrinus to Sylvester, that is, from A. D. 197

to A. D. 314, no less than thirteen were buried in this cemetery. This

Callixtus was originally a slave, afterwards elevated to the highest

ecclesiastical dignities, including the episcopate itself--a proof of

the superiority of the church to all social distinctions. According to

Hippolytus, the undoubted author of the recently discovered

_Philosophoumena_, he reached that dignity by dishonourable means, by

fraud and guile. He was at one time banished by the emperor to the

mines of Sardinia for embezzling moneys intrusted to his care, and on

his return lapsed into heresy bordering on pantheism, or at least was

charged with that offence. But although the character of Callixtus

shows the nascent corruptions of the church of Rome even early in the

third century, it should not prejudice us against the cemetery called

by his name. He himself is interred elsewhere,[301] and the holy

confessors and martyrs who slumbered here have consecrated the place

forever with their hallowed dust.

Toward the middle of the third century, as we have seen, even the 174

cemeteries themselves were not secure from invasion by the persecuting

tyrants. When the protection of the law was withdrawn, the public

stairways A and B, Fig. 26, were blocked up and partially destroyed,

new passages, B2 and B3, were opened into the adjacent _arenarium_ for

the entrance and escape of the Christians, and a very narrow and steep

secret stairway, X4, was constructed from the roof of the latter to

the open air, requiring a ladder, which might be removed to cut off

pursuit, or the assistance of friends for entrance or departure.[302]

We have here an affecting instance of the perils to which the

persecuted Christians were exposed when hunted through these gloomy

crypts by their cruel pagan foes. The difference between the straight

and narrow galleries of the Catacombs and the wide and unsymmetrical

windings of the _arenarium_ will be remarked. Connexions were also

formed with adjacent areas at S, C1, C2, and B1, sometimes breaking

directly through the _loculi_ and _cubicula_. The utmost economy of

space was now observed, every available foot of wall being occupied;

the inscriptions become more rude, indicating poverty and oppression;

and the stucco or marble ornaments give place to rude carvings of the

tufa itself into cornices, columns, and capitals. Some of the

_cubicula_ are made of larger size, as if for worship, sometimes six

or eight-sided, and occasionally with apsidal recesses.

During the terrible period of the Diocletian persecution, when the

cemeteries were confiscated by the heathen government, the Christians,

in order to prevent the profanation of the more sacred sepulchres, and

especially that of the bishops, filled up the principal galleries with

earth at immense expense and labour. Much of this still encumbers the 175

passages and forms the chief obstacle to their exploration. On the

cessation of the persecution some of these galleries leading to the

principal crypts were cleared out by means of cylindrical shafts made

for the purpose; and sometimes new galleries were excavated in the

tufa above the old ones, the floor of which was formed of the

consolidated earth in the former gallery. Where this earth has been

removed the height of the two galleries is, in places, twenty feet,

filled with graves to the top, the upper part being much narrower than

the lower. The obstructions in the stairways A and B were also removed

and the stairs renewed.

We have seen that Damasus was indefatigable in his restoration of the

Catacombs. It might, therefore, be expected that this important area

would give evidence of his labours. Such evidence is found in a broad

stairway of fine masonry, not shown in Fig. 26, made to accommodate

the crowds of pilgrims who thronged to those sacred shrines, the

“Papal Crypt” and tomb of St. Cecilia. This stairway was discovered by

De Rossi in 1854, entirely blocked up with an immense mass of earth

and rubbish, as were also the chambers to which it led. The removal of

this was a work of great expense and labour. The vestibule, L, which

we first enter, is constructed entirely of masonry, and is lighted by

a large _luminare_. Its plastered walls are covered with _graffiti_,

an indication that we are approaching a spot held in especial sanctity

by the ancient church.[303]

These casual records of the generations of pilgrims who have visited

the tombs of the primitive bishops, martyrs, and confessors, have

proved in many cases of great importance, and are, in the words of De 176

Rossi, “the faithful echoes of history, and infallible guides through

these subterranean labyrinths.” But they are sometimes also, as we

shall see hereafter, indications of the corruption of doctrine, and of

the nascent belief in human mediation between man and God.

It is somewhat of a disappointment to find, on entering this

celebrated sanctuary, (L1 in the plan,) that instead of being a

veritable relic of the third or fourth century, most of the masonry is

only a few years old. When an entrance was effected into it in 1854,

which could only be done through the _luminare_, it was found in a

ruinous condition, filled with earth, broken brick-work, and rubbish of

every sort. When this was removed the vault gave way, and had to be

almost entirely rebuilt and lined with masonry. The chamber itself is

comparatively small, being only about eleven by fourteen feet. It has

a barrel roof, and is lighted by a large _luminare_. The pavement was

of marble, and covered graves made beneath it. On each side are eight

large _loculi_, the lower row of which has spaces to contain

sarcophagi. The walls were formerly lined with marble, and had

semi-detached marble pillars, the bases of which still remain. At the

end opposite the entrance is a large _sepolcro a mensa_, in front of

which is a dais elevated two steps. In this dais are four sockets to

receive the bases of as many short pillars which supported a marble

table standing out from the wall, as unlike as possible to a modern

Roman altar. The whole was surrounded by a low parapet of marble

lattice work, fragments of which have been disinterred from the

_débris_ that encumbered the spot.

In this little chamber no less than eleven Roman bishops of the third 177

century are recorded to have been buried, and others in its immediate

vicinity, when persecution or other reasons prevented their being laid

in its sacred inclosure. As we have already seen,[304] De Rossi has

recovered in the rubbish of this chamber what he conceives to be the

original epitaphs of five of these bishops, and presumptive evidence

of the presence of others. St. Sixtus, indeed, is frequently mentioned

in the _graffiti_ as he to whom especial reverence was here paid,

and De Rossi found in this crypt fragments of his epitaph which we

have previously given.[305] The following Damasine inscription was

discovered by De Rossi among the _débris_ of this chamber in one

hundred and twenty fragments, and with great skill and learning

reconstructed and restored to the wall.

HIC CONGESTA IACET QVAERIS SI TVRBA PIORVM

CORPORA SANCTORVM RETINENT VENERANDA SEPVLCHRA

SVBLIMES ANIMAS RAPVIT SIBI REGIA CAELI

HIC COMITES XYSTI PORTANT QVI EX HOSTE TROPAEA

HIC NVMERVS PROCERVM SERVAT QVI ALTARIA CHRISTI

HIC POSITVS LONGA VIXIT QVI IN PACE SACERDOS

HIC CONFESSORES SANCTI QVOS GRAECIA MISIT

HIC IVVENES PVERIQVE SENES CASTIQVE NEPOTES

QVIS MAGE VIRGINEVM PLACVIT RETINERE PVDOREM

HIC FATEOR DAMASVS VOLVI MEA CONDERE MEMBRA

SED CINERES TIMVI SANCTOS VEXARE PIORVM.

“Here, if you would know, lie heaped together a whole crowd of

holy ones.

These honoured sepulchres inclose the bodies of the saints,

Their noble souls the palace of Heaven has taken to itself.

Here lie the companions of Xystus, who bear away the trophies

from the enemy;

Here a number of elders, who guard the altars of Christ;

Here is buried the priest, who long lived in peace;

Here the holy confessors whom Greece sent us;

Here lie youths and boys, old men and their chaste offspring, 178

Who chose, as the better part, to keep their virgin chastity.

Here I, Damasus, confess I wished to lay my limbs,

But I feared to disturb the holy ashes of the saints.”[306]

An ancient itinerary states that eighty, or, according to one account,

eight hundred, martyrs are buried in this part of the Catacomb; and in

the corner of this very crypt is a pit of remarkable depth, probably

the _polyandria_, in which were “heaped together a whole crowd” of the

victims of persecution.

Besides these restorations of Damasus, there is evidence of successive

decorations of this celebrated shrine down to the period of Leo III.,

at the end of the eighth century. So great have been the changes thus

caused that De Rossi confesses that it is impossible to say what was

the original character of the chamber.

Adjoining the “Papal Crypt” is that of St. Cecilia, (O, Fig. 26,) to

which we pass from the former through a narrow doorway in the rock.

This is one of the largest _cubicula_ in the Catacombs, being nearly

twenty feet square, and is flooded with light by a large _luminare_.

The chamber, which gives evidence of having been greatly enlarged from

its original dimensions, was once lined with marble and mosaic, as

were also the sides of the doorway and the arch above. It has also

been frequently adorned with paintings, a sure indication of its

especial sanctity. Among these are a large head of Our Lord, of the

Byzantine type, with a Greek nimbus, in a semicircular niche, and a

full-length figure of St. Urban in pontifical robes, with his name 179

inscribed. Both of these, De Rossi thinks, belong to the tenth or

eleventh century. Another picture, probably of the seventh century, of

a richly attired Roman lady with jeweled bracelets and necklace, is

conjectured to represent St. Cecilia. A large recess in the wall next

to the “Papal Crypt” is thought to have held her sarcophagus. De Rossi

and his English editors seem to accept substantially the Romish legend

of this celebrated martyr. Protestant readers, however, will take the

liberty of rejecting the miraculous part of the story as an invention

of the fifth century, when the legend first appears.

St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr, according to her rather apocryphal

Acts, was a maiden of noble rank--_ingenua, nobilis, clarissima_.

She sang so sweetly that the angels descended to listen to her voice;

and to her is ascribed the invention of the organ, which is therefore

her attribute in art. She was betrothed to Valerian, a pagan of

patrician rank, yet had vowed to be the spouse of Christ alone. She

confessed her vow to Valerian on her marriage-day, and assured him

that she was ever guarded by an angel of God, who would avenge its

violation. He promised to respect her vow if he might behold her

celestial visitant. She told him that his eyes must be first illumed

by faith and purged with spiritual euphrasy by baptism, and sent him

to St. Urban, then hiding in the Catacomb of Callixtus, who instructed

and baptized him. On his return he found Cecilia praying, with an

angel by her side who crowned her with immortal flowers--the lilies of

purity and the roses of martyrdom. His brother Tiburtius came in, and,

struck with the heavenly fragrance, for it was not the time of

flowers, he also was converted and baptized. Refusing to sacrifice to 180

to the pagan gods, the brothers both received the crown of

martyrdom.[307]

Cecilia herself was reserved for a more glorious testimony. By order

of the Roman prefect she was shut up in the _caldarium_, or chamber of

the bath, in her own palace, which was heated to the point of

suffocation. After a whole day and a night she was found unharmed. No

sweat stood upon her brow, no lassitude oppressed her limbs. A lictor

was sent to strike off her head. Three times the axe fell upon her

tender neck, but, as the law forbade the infliction of more than three

strokes, she was left alive though bathed in blood. For three days she

lingered, testifying of the grace of God and turning many to the

faith; and then, giving her goods to the poor and her house for a

church forever, she sweetly fell asleep. Her body was placed in a

cypress coffin--very unusual in the Catacombs, it is doubtful if a

single example was ever discovered--and buried in the cemetery of

Callixtus, “near the chapel of the popes.”

But miracles ceased not with her death. In the translation of the

martyrs from the Catacombs by Pascal I., in 817, the remains of

Cecilia were overlooked. The saint appeared to the pope in a vision

and revealed the place of her burial.[308] He sought the spot, and

found her body as fresh and perfect as when laid in the tomb five

centuries before! He placed it in a marble sarcophagus under the high

altar of the church of St. Cecilia, which he rebuilt upon the site of

her palace.

In the year 1599, or nearly eight centuries later, Cardinal Sfondrati, 181

while restoring the church, discovered this ancient sarcophagus. It

was opened in the presence of trustworthy witnesses, and there, say

the ecclesiastical records of the time, vested in golden tissue, with

linen clothes steeped with blood at the feet, besides remnants of

silken drapery, lay the incorrupt and virgin form of St. Cecilia in

the very attitude in which she died.[309]

It is difficult to know what proportion of truth this legend contains;

but, like many other of the Romish traditions, the large admixture of

fiction invalidates the claims of the whole. Its sweet and tender

mysticism, however, lifts it out of the region of fact into that of

poetry, and almost disarms hostile criticism.[310] The excessive

praise of virginity indicates a comparatively late origin. On the

festival of St. Cecilia, the 22d of November, her tomb is adorned with

flowers and illumined with lamps, and mass is celebrated in her

subterranean chapel by a richly appareled priest--strange contrast to

the primitive worship with which alone she was acquainted. In a

sarcophagus discovered near her tomb were found the remains, it is 182

assumed, of her husband Valerian and his brother Tiburtius, who had

manifestly been beheaded; and also those of the prefect Maximus, who

was converted by their martyrdom and was himself beaten to death by

_plumbatæ_. The skull of the latter was found broken, as if by such a

weapon, and its abundant hair matted with blood!

Other definite areas of this Catacomb have been recognized and their

outlines defined. Indeed, Father Marchi asserts that this is “the

colossal region of _Roma Sotterranea_, all the rest being only small

or middling provinces.”[311] About a hundred yards from the “Papal

Crypt” is the tomb of another celebrated martyr and bishop, St.

Eusebius; the _graffiti_ on the walls, the stairway, and the

decorations of which attest the reverence in which it was held. While

digging here in 1856, De Rossi found the important epitaph of Eusebius

before given.[312]

Intimately connected with this are also the adjacent cemeteries of St.

Soteris, a virgin martyr of the same family from which Ambrose was

descended; and that of St. Balbina, of vast extent, in several

_piani_, and on a scale of unusual grandeur. These are as yet only

partially explored, and promise the richest results to future

examination. That of St. Balbina has many double, and even quadruple,

_cubicula_, and the largest and most regular group of subterranean

chambers that have yet been discovered, all lighted by one large

hexagonal shaft. They were evidently excavated for worship, not for

sepulture. This Catacomb was enlarged and beautified by Mark, bishop

of Rome, in A. D. 330, who was buried in a basilica erected over these

tombs.

These several areas were at first all distinct properties, and as

carefully restricted within their respective limits as would be 183

buildings above ground. When, however, the sepulchres of the

Christians, no longer protected by law, were invaded by the

persecutors, the different areas were connected by a vast and

bewildering labyrinth of cross passages for the purpose of

facilitating escape and of furnishing additional space for interment.

As the areas, even when contiguous, were often at different levels, a

good deal of ingenuity was exercised by the fossors in effecting a

junction of the different galleries; though often they had to break

through _loculi_ and _cubicula_ for that purpose. Thus the area we

have described so fully is five feet lower than that which is adjacent

on one side, which enables us to determine its exact limit.

We will now take a more rapid survey of the other principal Catacombs

of Rome.

Nearly opposite the cemetery of Callixtus, on the Appian Way, is that

of Prætextatus. One of the entrances, situated in the Vigna Molinari,

is represented in Fig. 2. A well-worn stairway, trodden by the feet of

pious generations, leads to subterranean galleries of considerable

extent. It is celebrated as the scene of the martyrdom of St. Sixtus

and his deacons, A. D. 259; and as the burial-place of two of them,

Felicitas and Agapetus, commemorative epitaphs of whom have been

found. Their tomb, accidentally discovered by some labourers in 1857,

presents the unique example of a large square crypt, not hewn out of

the rock but built of solid masonry, and formerly lined with marble.

This is explained by the ancient record that the Christian matron

Marmenia constructed their tomb immediately beneath her own house. A

Damasine epitaph of Januarius, who suffered under Aurelius, A. D. 162,

has also been found here. In this cemetery, too, occurs that _suite_

of chambers, with a hexagonal apartment, known as the chapel with two 184

halls, represented in section and perspective in Figs. 10 and 11.

Especial interest attaches to the Catacomb of St. Sebastian from the

fact of its being the only one of which any knowledge was retained

during the darkness of the Middle Ages. During that obscure period it

was known in all the ancient documents as the _Coemeterium ad

catacumbas_, and has given their generic name to this vast system

of subterranean sepulchres. Lying beneath the property of the

Augustinian monks, it enjoyed religious protection in the rudest ages,

and was open to the occasional pilgrims to the sacred places of the

Eternal City. It is also that which is most frequently visited by

modern travellers, being accessible without the special permission

which must be obtained for exploring the other Catacombs. It is

situated on the Appian Way, about two miles from the Sebastian gate. A

stately basilica was erected over the entrance to the Catacomb, it is

said in the time of Constantine. A part of the original building which

yet remains is claimed to be still older, dating from the first

century. With this possible exception, few traces of the ancient

structure now exist, the present building having been erected in 1611

by Cardinal Scipio Borghese. The church is very rich in paintings,

sculptures, and relics, among which are the reputed head of Callixtus,

arm of St. Andrew, and body of St. Sebastian, the impressions of the

Saviour’s feet in the stone from the Appian Way, and the very chair in

which St. Stephen received the crown of martyrdom, and which was

sprinkled with his blood!

This Catacomb takes its name from the Christian martyr Sebastian, who

suffered during the Diocletian persecution. The story of his martyrdom

is one of great beauty; but, as is the case with most of these 185

legends, its historic value is invalidated by the miraculous episodes

of his history. According to the “Acts of St. Sebastian,” this young

and gallant officer was a native of Narbonne, in Gaul, who held the

high rank of commander of the prætorian guard of Diocletian and

Maximian. His access to the emperors enabled him to offer a powerful

protection to the persecuted Christians, which he did not fail to

extend. Two of his fellow-soldiers, Marcus and Marcellinus, were about

to recant their profession, when Sebastian exhorted them to

steadfastness with such fervour as to nerve them for martyrdom and

convert the judges and all present. For his own fidelity to the

Christian faith he was transpierced with arrows and left for dead. He

recovered, however, either through the pious care of the Christian

matron Irene, or through the special grace of the Virgin. Undeterred

by his recent experience, he presented himself before the emperor,

upbraided him for his persecution of the Christians, and foretold his

death. He was immediately seized by the command of the tyrant and

beaten to death with clubs in the hippodrome of the palace, A. D. 286.

His body was ignominiously thrown into the Cloaca Maxima, or main

sewer of Rome, in order to deprive it of Christian burial. But the

place where it lay being revealed in a dream, his remains were rescued

from their loathsome and unconsecrated grave, and piously interred in

the Catacomb which bears his name.

The indignities that he suffered have been more than compensated by

the honours paid his relics. Over his tomb the high altar of the

church blazes with lights and jewels, and a marble effigy of the saint

pierced with arrows commemorates his martyrdom. The genius of Berini,

Guido, and the Caracci, has glorified his memory in deathless painting 186

and in “animated bust.”[313]

Connected with the church is an irregular semi-subterranean building,

where, tradition asserts, the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul for a

time reposed. It would appear, according to the legend, that upon the

martyrdom of these “princes of the apostles” the oriental Christians

sent for their hallowed remains as belonging of right to them as their

fellow-countrymen. Their bodies were conveyed thus far from their

original sepulchres when a violent storm prevented the accomplishment

of the sacrilegious act, and the Roman Christians re-interred the

sacred relics in this chamber, where they remained, according to one

account, a year and seven months, or, according to another, forty

years.[314]

The present structure dates probably from the time of Liberius, in the

middle of the fourth century. The indefatigable Damasus made a marble

pavement--_fecit platoniam_--and seems to refer to the legend in the

following rather unclassical metrical inscription:

HIC HABITASSE PRIVS SANCTOS COGNOSCERE DEBES

NOMINA QVISQVE PETRI PARITER PAVLIQVE REQVIRIS

DISCIPVLOS ORIENS MISIT QVOD SPONTE FATEMVR

SANGVINIS OB MERITVM CHRISTVMQVE PER ASTRA SEQVVTI

AETHERIOS PETIERE SINVS ET REGNA PIORVM

ROMA SVOS POTIVS MERVIT DEFENDERE CIVES

HAEC DAMASVS VESTRAS REFERAT NOVA SIDERA LAVDES.

“Here, you must know, that saints once dwelt. If you ask their

names, they were Peter and Paul. The East sent disciples, as we 187

willingly acknowledge. The saints themselves had, by the merit of

their bloodshedding, followed Christ to the stars, and sought the

home of heaven and the kingdoms of the blest. Rome, however,

obtained to defend her own citizens. These things may Damasus be

allowed to record for your praise, O new stars of the heavenly

host.”

[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Plan of Crypt of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.]

Figs. 27 and 28 show the plan and perspective of the crypt. D is the

chamber and E the subterranean vault. Around the wall are twelve

_arcosolia_, in front of which runs a low stone seat. In the centre is

an opening in the floor widening into a vaulted and frescoed marble

tomb about six feet square and as many deep. Here, according to

tradition, the two great apostles lay side by side in death; and to

this spot was especially given for many centuries the name _Catacumbæ_.

A door out of the left aisle of the church leads to the Catacomb

proper. This, having been so long open, has been despoiled of every

object of interest, and nearly all the monuments and inscriptions have

been removed to the museums of the city. Though of considerable 188

extent, it is not nearly as large as some others. Previous to De

Rossi’s exploration of the Catacomb of Callixtus in 1854 it was

confounded with that cemetery, but he has shown that opinion to be

erroneous.

[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Crypt of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.]

Nearly opposite the church of St. Sebastian is situated the Jewish

Catacomb discovered in 1859 in the Vigna Randanini, and already in

part described. The principal entrance is an open chamber, originally

vaulted, with a floor of black and white mosaic and walls of masonry.

A peculiarity in this cemetery is the number of deep graves in the

floor capable of containing several bodies, and the number of

sarcophagi, some of which are finely carved and gilt. The

seven-branched candlestick frequently occurs on the walls and tombs.

This Catacomb has been often rifled, and the galleries are strewn with

marble fragments of its monuments. Most of the inscriptions have been 189

dug out of this _débris_ and affixed to the adjacent walls. At the

other entrance, on the Appian Way, are raised stone seats, intended,

it is thought, as resting-places for the bearers of the dead.

Not far from this cemetery, but fronting on the Via Ardeatina, is one

which De Rossi concludes upon very good evidence to be that of

Domitilla, grand niece of the emperor Domitian, of whose banishment

and probable martyrdom for the Christian faith we have already spoken.

The entrance is an elegant structure of fine brickwork with a cornice

of terra cotta, built in the slope of a rising ground and close by the

roadside. Connected with the entrance are external chambers, in one of

which is a well, which were designed, it is conjectured, for the

custodian of the Catacomb, and for the holding of the religious

services connected with the burial of the dead and the anniversaries

of the martyrs. A spacious vestibule within contains recesses once

occupied by several large sarcophagi, fragments of which still remain.

The entire roof and walls are covered with the most exquisite

arabesques and graceful landscapes, as well as biblical paintings, in

the style of the best classic period. It is evidently the monument of

a family of wealth and distinction.

Connected with this Catacomb is that of Nereus and Achilles, the

chamberlains of Domitilla, who suffered martyrdom in the second

century. A broad and handsome stairway leads down to the supposed

tombs of the martyrs in the lower level of the Catacomb. To facilitate

the visits of pilgrims to these shrines the galleries have been

widened and lined with masonry, probably by John I., A. D. 523. There

are two principal _piani_, in the lower of which is a large

chamber paved with marble and lighted by a _luminare_ of unusual size, 190

reaching to the surface of the ground. A large proportion of the

inscriptions are Greek, or Latin in Greek characters, which

circumstance refers the date of this Catacomb to a period when Greek

was still regarded as a sort of sacred and official language of the

church.

On the Via Labicana are several interesting Catacombs. About a mile

and a half from the city is that of Peter and Marcellinus, the former

a priest and the latter an exorcist of the time of Diocletian, who

with other martyrs are said to be buried here. The entrance to the

Catacomb is from a church built in the ruins of the ancient structure

traditionally called the mausoleum of Helena.

This tradition has given its name to the interesting Catacomb of

Helena discovered in 1838 in the Vigna del Grande, about a quarter of

a mile further along the Via Labicana. It was evidently constructed

after the peace of the church. The marble stairway, mosaic pavements,

and elegant stucco ornaments betray an imperial magnificence

impossible during the age of persecution, and which is found in no

other Catacomb. The similarity of style and material to that of the

contiguous tomb of Constantia, the sister of Helena, indicates a

synchronous construction. The entrance to the Catacomb is by one of

those _brevissimæ ecclesiæ_, or oratories for meditation and prayer,

which were early erected near most of the cemeteries, now generally in

ruins. As shown in the illustration, the descent is by an easy

stairway and an inclined plane to a vaulted gallery with mosaic

pavement, in which are _arcosolia_ with brick arches. The galleries

are of great width, and the _luminari_ will be observed to be

cylindrical in shape. One of these, it will be seen, is choked with 191

rubbish. The double entrance indicated is in accordance with the

ancient usage, especially in subterranean assemblies, of separating

the sexes. The same purpose is effected within the crypt by

balustrades, and even by parallel galleries to the same chamber. This

Catacomb is remarkable for the number of its _luminari_, _arcosolia_,

_cubicula_, and mosaics. A variety of marble, glass, and terra cotta

vases have also been found, as well as numerous coins and medals of

the Constantinian period.

[Illustration: Fig. 29.--Section of Catacomb of Helena.]

About three miles from Rome on this road, in the Vigna del Fiscale, is

the Catacomb of _i Santi Quatro_, or _Quatuor Coronati_, the Four

Crowned Ones, as they are called. They are said to have been Christian

sculptors, who, for refusing to exercise their art in the service of

idolatry, suffered martyrdom under Diocletian. Iron crowns, set with

spikes, were forced upon their heads, and they were then scourged to

death with _plumbatæ_. Ten miles from Rome in this same road is the

Catacomb of St. Zoticus, also honoured as one of the primitive martyrs.

On the Via Tiburtina, about ten minutes’ walk from the Porta di San

Lorenzo, is the Catacomb of St. Cyriaca, named after a Christian

matron of noble family, who founded it in her own land in the year

A. D. 258. During the thirty-two years of her widowhood she employed 192

her vast wealth in ministering to the necessities of the saints, and

finally herself received the crown of martyrdom. Here it is said the

body of St. Lawrence was first interred, and afterward removed to the

neighbouring church, where it is still revered with devout

superstition. The excavations made to insulate the ancient basilica of

San Lorenzo, and to enlarge the cemetery at present in use, have laid

open a number of galleries of this Catacomb, exposing the long hidden

_loculi_ and paintings to the light of day. The style of the ancient

inscriptions and those of the modern necropolis, which, in accordance

with a decree of the pope, are all in Latin, may be compared; not

greatly to the advantage of the latter, notwithstanding the rigorous

censorship they must first undergo. This Catacomb, with others, was

explored and described by Bosio two centuries and a half ago. On the

opposite side of the road is the cemetery of Hippolytus, commemorated

in the verses of Prudentius in the fourth century.

About a mile and a quarter from the Porta Pia, on the Via Nomentana,

is situated the Catacomb of St. Agnes. The legend of this saint is one

of the most beautiful in the martyrology, and has been preserved with

peculiar fulness of detail by St. Ambrose in his treatise _de

Virginibus_. The youthful martyr was the daughter of rich and noble

Roman parents, and is described in the Acts that bear her name as

being of a sweet and tender beauty. Being sought in marriage by the

son of the prefect of the city, she rejected his suit; declaring in a

strain of impassioned eloquence her espousals to a bridegroom nobler,

richer, and more beautiful far than any of earth, who had betrothed

her by the ring of his faith, and would crown her with jewels to which

earthly gifts were dross--a bridegroom so fair that the sun and moon 193

were ravished by his beauty, and so mighty that the angels were his

servants.[315] She thus betrayed her attachment to the cause of

Christ, and was forthwith put to the torture in order to compel her

recantation of the faith. With touching _naiveté_ the Acts relate that

no fetters could be found small enough for her wrists. As the crowning

ignominy to which her maiden modesty could be exposed, she was sent to

the place of shame--_ad locum turpitudinis_; but her unshorn hair

flowed in golden waves to her feet, forming a perfect veil, and the

eyes of the gazers on her degradation were smitten with blindness.

Having been first cast into the flames, which, it is said, played

harmlessly about her, she was publicly beheaded in the amphitheatre,

and overcoming the feebleness of her age and sex, thus received the

crown of martyrdom at the tender age of thirteen, A. D. 303.[316]

She is frequently represented in art; sometimes, in allusion to her 194

name, with a lamb as her attribute. Indeed, after Christ and the

Apostles, no figure is more common.[317] The den of infamy in which

she was exposed to shame became changed to the Christian sanctuary of

_S. Agnese in Piazza Navone_, one of the most beautiful churches in

Rome. A subterranean cell of peculiar sanctity is said to have been

the scene of her degradation and deliverance. She was buried in a

garden a mile from the city, and Constantia, the daughter of

Constantine, having been healed at her tomb of a dangerous malady,

that prince erected over her body the church of _S. Agnese fuori le

Mura_, which is one of the least altered and most beautiful examples

of the imperial basilicas. A long flight of stairs, whose walls are

covered with inscriptions from the adjacent Catacombs, leads down to

the church, which was constructed on a level with the reputed tomb of

the saint.[318]

Many noble Roman families chose the place of their sepulture near the

tomb of so illustrious a martyr. Constantia herself was there interred, 195

and soon after two other daughters of Constantine, Helena, the wife of

Julian, and Constantina, the wife of Gallus. Having died, the former

at Vienne in Gaul, the latter at the extremity of Bithynia, they were

brought from the west and the east to rejoin their sister sleeping

near this celebrated saint. This region became, in fact, the

fashionable cemetery of the great during the fourth century; as is

still evident from the superior regularity and spaciousness of the

corridors, and the more laboured execution although inferior style of

the paintings. Thus was formed in course of time the vast Catacomb of

St. Agnes.

[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Entrance to the Catacomb of St. Agnes.]

The entrance to the cemetery is situated in a delicious valley about a

quarter of a mile from the church, in view of the storied hills which

have been celebrated by Martial and Pliny, and near the ruins of a

pagan temple. Behind are the gray walls and towers of Rome, and on

every side spreads the solemn expanse of the Campagna. All is graceful 196

and picturesque in the landscape, “and it is not,” says Perret,

“without a pious tenderness[319] that the charm of the place blends in

the soul of the pilgrim to the shrine of the Christian heroine.” The

stairs by which the descent is made date probably from the time of

Constantine. The graves on either side of the somewhat spacious

gallery have long been rifled of their contents. Several of these from

their size were evidently designed for _bisomi_. The consular date, A.

D. 336, on a tomb attests the age of this part of the Catacomb. One

_suite_ of chambers near the entrance, but in the lower and therefore

more recently constructed _piano_, has received the title of the

Basilica. The larger _cubiculum_ has two tufa seats at the side, and

one more elevated for the presiding presbyter. The altar, probably a

small movable one of wood, if any at all, must have stood before the

presbyter. On the opposite side of the gallery is a chamber, divided

by columns and an arch, supposed to have been for the females of the

assembly, or perhaps for the catechumens not yet admitted to the

celebration of the eucharist. A connected series of five chambers has

been found, and one _cubiculum_, called the _scuole grande_, will

contain seventy or eighty persons. Much of the architecture, however,

is debased, indicating the decline and eclipse of art in the fifth or

sixth century. Another chamber is known as the Lady Chapel, or Crypt

of the Virgin, on account of the so-called picture of the Madonna

which it contains;[320] and a third as the Baptistery, from the

presence of a spring of water, supposed to have been used in baptismal

rites.

One feature of especial interest associated with this cemetery is its 197

connexion with an adjacent _arenarium_, or sand pit. This is situated

near the basilica of St. Agnes, and overlies part of the Catacomb. It

consists of a series of large and gloomy caverns utterly unlike the

sepulchral crypts below. A stairway leads down to the Catacomb, and

also a deep shaft with foot-holes cut in the rock for climbing.

Probably this was the only way of escape in time of persecution. There

is also apparent evidence of the existence of a windlass, by which the

excavated tufa was raised, and either deposited in the _arenarium_ or

carted away. This cemetery has been carefully examined by Padre

Marchi, who has published a plan of an area of about seven hundred by

five hundred and fifty feet. The united length of the passages in this

part is about two English miles. Yet Father Marchi says this area is

only about one eighth of the whole Catacomb, the aggregate extent of

whose streets would, therefore, be fifteen or sixteen miles.

Just without the Porta Pia on this Nomentan Way, is the little

Catacomb of Nicodemus. At the third mile, we read in ancient records,

was that of Ostrianus or Fons Petri, as it was called, from a

tradition that Peter once baptized there. It has not, however, been

satisfactorily identified. Nearly six miles from the city is the

so-called Catacomb of Alexander, bishop of Rome A. D. 117-120, who,

according to the _Liber Pontificalis_, suffered martyrdom by

decapitation on this spot under the emperor Hadrian, together with the

presbyter Eventius and the deacon Theodulus. Here were discovered in

1853, below the level of the Campagna, the ruins of an ancient

basilica erected in honour of these martyrs. In the roofless structure

was found a sarcophagus bearing the name of Alexander, and probably

once containing his ashes. The graves here are less disturbed than

in the Catacombs nearer Rome. This cemetery was used for sepulture 198

comparatively late, as the language of some of the inscriptions

indicates a decided approximation to modern Italian. In 1857 the

foundations of a large church, designed to include the whole of the

ancient structure, were laid with great pomp by the present pontiff.

The Salarian Way is exceedingly rich in Christian cemeteries.

Prominent among these is the Catacomb of St. Priscilla, one of the

noblest monuments of the primitive church. It is of interest also as

that whose accidental discovery in 1578 led to the unveiling of these

vast treasuries of Christian antiquity. The entrance is beautifully

situated amid embowering verdure, in the vineyard of the Irish

college, about two miles from the Porta Salara.[321] Tradition asserts

that this cemetery was dug in the property of the senator Pudens,

mentioned by St. Paul; and a crypt called, from the language of its

inscriptions, the _Cappella Greca_, is alleged to be the sepulchre of

his daughters Pudentiana and Praxedes, and other members of that

distinguished Christian family. If so, this is the most ancient

Catacomb yet discovered. The classical style of the architecture,

frescoes, graceful stucco reliefs, and garlands, and the character of

the inscriptions, all point to a period before art became degraded and

the church oppressed. Some of the galleries are exceedingly long and

straight, and one is the most extensive yet discovered. Its principal

crypt is remarkable as being regularly built of masonry, and without

the usual _loculi_ in the walls, being evidently designed for the

reception of sarcophagi--another proof of its high antiquity. A

portion of this cemetery has been constructed with great labour in an

ancient _arenarium_, and shows how unsuited these excavations were for 199

the purposes of Christian sepulture. Long walls of solid masonry and

numerous pillars of brick work have been built for supporting the roof

and giving space for _loculi_. A large shaft for removing _pozzolana_

has been transformed into a _luminare_ by being bricked up to about

half its original dimensions. Only one of the four _piani_ in which

the Catacomb is constructed being easily accessible, it has been but

partially explored. The ancient records assert that Marcellinus and

Marcellus, martyr-bishops of the church in the time of Diocletian, are

buried here; also Crescentianus and Silvester; and we have already

seen the memorial inscription of three thousand other martyrs, whose

remains are said to hallow these sacred crypts.

On this same road are the Catacomb of St. Felicitas, with three

_piani_ of galleries much dilapidated; that of Thraso and Saturninus,

of considerable extent but difficult of access; and the crypt of

Chrysanthus and Daria, in which these martyrs were blocked up alive by

command of the Emperor Numerian. On the old Salarian Way is the

Catacomb of Hermes, who is said to have suffered in the time of

Hadrian. It is partially constructed, as we have seen, in an

_arenarium_, and contains the largest subterranean church yet found,

with remarkable mosaics of Daniel and of the resurrection of Lazarus

in the vaulting of the roof.

There are comparatively few Catacombs of interest on the northwest

bank of the Tiber, owing to the smaller population of that part of

Rome in ancient times. We shall briefly enumerate the more important.

On the Flaminian Way is the cemetery of St. Valentinus. On the

Aurelian Way are those of Agatha, Pancratius, and Calepodius. The

latter, the reputed burial place of Callixtus and of many martyrs, 200

is beneath the church dedicated to Pancratius--the English

Pancras--and on the supposed scene of his sufferings. On the Via

Portuensis, near the city, is the Catacomb of Pontianus, a patrician

Roman of the third century. It is remarkable for the very perfect

subterranean baptistery to be hereafter described. On the Ostian Way,

near the basilica of _S. Paolo fuori le Mura_, is the ancient cemetery

of Commodilla, or Lucina, in which tradition asserts that the body of

the apostle Paul was laid after his martyrdom. It is in a very ruinous

condition, most of the galleries being choked up and impassable; but

here Boldetti found the two oldest extant inscriptions. On this road

also is the Catacomb of St. Zeno, in which were said to be buried

twelve thousand Christians employed in building the Baths of

Diocletian.

On the Vatican Hill, now crowned with the grandest temple in

Christendom, is said to have existed the oldest Christian cemetery of

Rome. Tradition asserts that the remains of St. Peter were interred on

this spot, on the site of an ancient temple of Apollo, and near the

alleged scene of the apostle’s martyrdom in the circus of Nero, and

that hither they were restored after their removal to the crypt of

Sebastian.[322] Here also ancient ecclesiastical documents record the

burial of ten of the Roman bishops of the first and second

centuries;[323] after which, we have seen, the Catacomb of Callixtus

became their chief place of burial. The series of papal interments in 201

this place again begins with that of Leo the Great, A. D. 461. In the

dim crypts beneath the high altar of St. Peter’s are shown the tombs

of most of his successors, many of them far removed in life and

character from the lowly Galilean fisherman.[324]

We cannot better conclude this necessarily imperfect survey of these

ancient Christian cemeteries than by quoting the following passage,

though characterized by a somewhat fervid rhetoric, from “Les Trois

Romes” of the Abbé Gaume: “Here is the glorious monument,” he

exclaims, “of the faith and charity of our forefathers! This work of

giants was completed by a community of poor men, destitute of

resources, without talent as without fortune, incessantly persecuted

and frequently decimated. What, then, was the secret of their power?

This is the problem suggested by the sight of the Catacombs in

general, and of the Catacombs on the Appian Way in particular. The

solution is in one word--FAITH. This power--unknown to the

ancient world, and too little recognized in the modern world--this 202

faith, was the lever by which the early Christians could remove

mountains, and turn and change the universe. With one hand they

constructed in the bowels of the earth a city more astonishing than

Babylon or the Rome of the Cæsars; and with the other, seizing on the

pagan world in the abyss of degradation into which it was plunged,

they raised it to the virtue of angels, and suspended it to the cross.”

[291] This book, so often referred to, has been ascribed to

Damasus but much of it is unquestionably of much later origin.

While much of its information is valuable, more of it is quite

unauthentic.

[292] “Qua limite noto

Appia longarum teritur _Regina Viarum_.”--_Stat. Syl._, II, 2.

[293] Often mere vulgar wealth exhibited its ostentation even in

death by the magnitude and magnificence of these tombs designed

to perpetuate the memory of their occupants forever. But, as if

to rebuke that posthumous pride, they are now mere crumbling

ruins, often devoted to ignoble uses, the very names of whose

tenants are forgotten. Many of them, during the stormy period of

the Middle Ages, were occupied as fortresses. More recently that

of Augustus, on the Campus Martius, was used as an arena for

bull-fights, and as a summer theatre, where Harlequin played his

pranks upon an emperor’s grave. Some of the tombs have been

converted into stables, pig-styes, or charcoal cellars. The

cinerary urn of Agrippina, wife of Germanicus, was long used as a

measure for corn. In many a _vignarolo’s_ hovel in the Campagna

swine may be seen eating out of sculptured sarcophagi, and in the

imperial halls where banqueted the masters of the world they hold

their unclean revels. “Expende Hannibalem,” says the Roman

satirist, “quot libras in duce summo invenies?”

[294] _Monumenti delle Arti Cristiane Primitive_, p. 73.

[295] Substitit ad veteres arcus, madidamque Capenam.

--Juv., _Sat._, iii.

[296] The legend asserts that as the Apostle Peter was leaving

Rome in the early dawn, in order to escape martyrdom, he met Our

Lord bearing his cross, and, throwing himself at his feet,

exclaimed, _Domine quo vadis_--“Lord, whither goest thou?” In

accents of tender rebuke the Master answered, _Venio Romam iterum

crucifigi_--“I am going to Rome to be crucified again.” Stung

with contrition and remorse, the disciple, according to the

tradition, returned to the city, and there was crucified--by his

own request with his head downwards, as unworthy to share the

same mode of death as the Lord whom he had denied. In the

neighbouring church of St. Sebastian is a white marble slab

bearing impressions _said_ to have been made by the feet of Our

Lord. The story is first mentioned by Origen, who applies it to

St. Paul. St. Ambrose substitutes St. Peter, but the precise spot

was not fixed till the fifteenth century; and Aringhi, in the

seventeenth century, is the first who mentions the impression of

the feet in “that stone most worthy, more valuable than any

precious jewel.” This white marble slab is certainly very unlike

the dark gray porphyry of the Appian pavement, and the irregular

depression in its surface bears slight resemblance to human feet.

But no historical difficulties are too great for the devout

credulity of Rome.

[297] _Rom. Sott._, ii, 367.

[298] _De Resurrect. Carnis._, c. 27.

[299] _Rom. Sott._, i, 210.

[300] The Council of Elvira, A. D. 305, forbade the burning of

wax tapers by day in the cemeteries of the dead--Cereos per diem

placuit in coemeterio non incendi. _Conc. Elib._, can. 34.

[301] He was killed by being thrown out of the window of his

house in a popular tumult in Rome. His body was cast into a well,

and afterwards secretly conveyed to the cemetery of Calepodius,

on the Via Aurelia, in the immediate vicinity.

[302] See section of this stairway in Fig. 22.

[303] Here were also found a number of polygonal basalt

paving-stones, evidently from the roadway above.

[304] Pp. 81-83.

[305] Pp. 85, 86.

[306] The old brick building with three apsides and a vaulted

roof, near the entrance to this crypt, long used as a gardener’s

storehouse, has been claimed as the basilica which Damasus

provided for the burial of himself, his mother, and sister; but

it was more probably the _fabricia_ for worship or the

celebration of the agape, or simply for the guardian of the

Catacomb.

[307] About A. D. 230, say the Acts, although the Christians then

enjoyed profound peace.

[308] An antique fresco at St. Cecilia represents the apparition

of the martyr to the pontiff as he slept in his throne on St.

Peter’s day.

[309] In an arched recess under the high altar of St. Cecilia is

a beautiful marble statue of the saint in a recumbent posture, by

Stefano Maderna, accompanied by the following inscription:

EN TIBI SANCTISSIMAE VIRGINIS CAECILIAE IMAGINEM QVAM IPSE

INTEGRAM IN SEPVLCHRO IACENTEM VIDI EADEM TIBI PRORSVS EODEM

CORPORIS SITV HOC MARMORE EXPRESSI.

“Behold the image of the most holy Virgin Cecilia, whom I myself

saw lying incorrupt in her tomb. I have in this marble expressed

for thee the same saint in the very same posture of body.”

[310] The modern additions have less claim on our reverence. The

skeptical will see no reason why the remains of Cecilia should

defy the laws of nature for fourteen centuries, when after only

two those of Charles Borromeo, also a saint, which are exhibited

at Milan arrayed in costly gold-embroidered robes and sparkling

with gems, reveal only a black and decaying head and eyeless

sockets, the skin shriveled and ruptured and the shrunken lips

parting in a ghastly smile.

[311] _Monumen. Art. Crist. Prim._, p. 172.

[312] Page 95.

[313] This striking object of Christian art has been known, says

Mrs. Jameson, to cause in Italian women a devotion leading to

hopeless passion, madness, and death. (“Sacred and Legendary

Art,” _in loco_.) The soldier saint is regarded as a sort of

Christian Apollo, banishing disease and pestilence.

[314] Pope Gregory I. first mentions the story, _circ._ A. D. 600,

as a reason for refusing to send the head of St. Paul to the

Empress Constantina.

[315] Discede a me fomes peccati ... quia jam ab alio amatore

præventa sum, qui mihi satis meliora obtulit ornamenta, et annulo

fidei suæ subarravit me, longe te nobilior, et genere et

dignitate.--Ambros., _Epis._ 34.

[316] Damasus at the end of the fourth century thus commemorates

the event in one of his metrical inscriptions, now in a lateral

aisle of the basilica of _S. Agnese fuori le Mura_:

FAMA REFERT SANCTOS DVDVM RETVLISSE PARENTES

AGNEN CVM LVGVBRES CANTVS TVBA CONCREPVISSET

NVTRICIS GREMIVM SVBITO LIQVISSE PVELLAM

SPONTE TRVCIS CALCASSE MINAS RABIEMQVE TYRANNI

VRERE CVM FLAMMIS VOLVISSET NOBILE CORPVS

VIRABVS IMMENSVM PARVIS SVPERASSE TIMOREM

NVDAQVE PROFVSVM CRINEM PER MEMBRA DEDISSE

NE DOMINI TEMPLVM FACIES PERITVRA VIDERET

O VENERANDA MIHI SANCTVM DECVS ALMA PVDORIS

VT DAMASI PRECIBVS FAVEAS PRECOR INCLYTA MARTYR.

“Fame reports that the pious parents formerly brought back Agnes

when the trumpet had resounded the funeral chants; that suddenly

the maiden left the bosom of her nurse, and willingly spurned the

threats and rage of the cruel tyrant, when he resolved to burn

her noble body in the flames; that she overcame her intense fear

with her feeble strength, and spread her luxuriant hair over her

naked limbs, lest the face of a perishing man might behold the

temple of the Lord. O holy one, ever to be honoured by me, sacred

ornament of modesty, illustrious martyr, I entreat that you aid

the prayers of Damasus.”

[317] Jameson, _Sac. and Leg. Art._, p. 381. According to

St. Jerome, in the fourth century her fame was in all lands.

[318] Here on the Festival of St. Agnes, January 21, is performed

the ceremony of blessing two lambs, the emblems of the innocence

and of the name--_Agnus_, a lamb--of the child-martyr. From

the wool of these lambs are woven the _pallia_, which, after

lying on the so-called tomb of St. Peter, are distributed by the

pope to the great church dignitaries as emblems of office.

[319] “Attendrissement.”--_Les Catacombes de Rome_, tom. ii,

p. 52.

[320] See Fig. 90.

[321] See Fig. 1.

[322] This is probably “the trophy on the Vatican,” mentioned by

the Roman presbyter Caius, quoted by Eusebius, _Hist. Eccles._,

ii, 25. When Heliogabalus made his circus on the Vatican the body

was said to have been again transferred to St. Sebastian; but it

is impossible to unravel the tangled accounts of the ancient

documents.

[323] On this spot De Rossi says was discovered in the seventeenth

century the sepulchre of the very first bishop after Peter, (?)

bearing simply the name LINVS.

[324] Of especial interest to English-speaking visitors to this

shrine of departed greatness will be three urns containing the

ashes of “James III.,” “Charles III.,” and “Henry IX.,” as they

are designated, the last princes of the unfortunate house of

Stewart. The third of these, Henry Benedict Maria Clement, second

son of James the Pretender, took orders at Rome, was advanced to

the purple, and during the life-time of his brother, Charles

Edward, was known as Cardinal York. On the death of his brother

he assumed the regal style of Henry IX., King of England. The

usurpation of Bonaparte caused his flight to Venice, where, aged

and infirm, the descendant of a line of kings sank into absolute

poverty. His successful rival for the British throne, George

III., learning his deplorable situation, generously settled on

him an annuity of £4,000, which he enjoyed till his death in

1807, at the age of eighty-two. With the worn old man, dying upon

a foreign shore, passed away the last survivor of the ill-starred

dynasty which has contributed through successive generations so

many tragic and romantic episodes to the drama of history.

BOOK SECOND. 203

THE ART AND SYMBOLISM OF THE CATACOMBS.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY CHRISTIAN ART.

The conditions under which Christian art was cultivated in the early

centuries were eminently unfavourable to its highest development. It

was not, like pagan art, the æsthetic exponent of a dominant religion,

enjoying the patronage of the great and the wealthy, adorning the

numerous temples of the gods and the palaces and banquet chambers of

the emperors and senators, commemorating the virtues of patriots and

heroes, and bodying forth the conceptions of poets and seers. There

was no place in the Christian system for such representations as the

glorious sun-god, Apollo, or the lovely Aphrodite, or the sublime

majesty of Jove, which are still the unapproached _chefs d’oeuvre_ of

the sculptor’s skill. The beautiful myths of Homer and Hesiod were

regarded with abhorrence, and the Christians were expressly forbidden

to make any representation of the supreme object of their worship, a

prohibition which in the early and purer days of Christianity they

never transgressed.

Nevertheless, the testimony of the Catacombs gives evidence that art

was not, as has been frequently asserted, entirely abjured by the

primitive Christians on account of its idolatrous employment by the

pagans. They rather adopted and purified it for Christian purposes, 204

just as they did the diverse elements of ancient civilization. It was

not till increasing wealth and the growing corruptions of the church

led to the more lavish employment of art and its perversion to

superstitious uses that it called forth the condemnation of the

Fathers of the early centuries.

The art of any people is an outgrowth and efflorescence of an internal

living principle: and as is the tree so is its fruit. An adequate

representation of its art being given, we may estimate, at least

proximately, the moral condition of any age or community. It is the

perennial expression of the phenomena of humanity. The iconography of

the early centuries of Christianity is, therefore, a pictorial history

of its development and of the successive changes it has undergone.[325]

The corruptions of doctrine, the rise of dogmas, the strifes of

heresiarchs and schismatics, are all reflected therein.[326]

The frescoes of the Catacombs are illustrations, inestimable in value,

of the pure and lofty character of that primitive Christian life of

which they were the offspring. They were the exponent of a mighty

spiritual force, “seeking,” as Kugler remarks, “to typify in the

earthly and perishing the abiding and eternal.”[327] The very intensity

of that old Christian life under repression and persecution created a

more imperious necessity for a religious symbolism as an expression of

its deepest feelings and as a common sign of the faith. Early Christian

art, therefore, was not realistic and sensuous, but ideal and 205

spiritual. It sought to express the inner essence, not the outer form.

Christianity has nothing to fear from the comparison of these remains

of its primitive art with those of the pre-existing art of paganism.

As little has Protestantism to fear their comparison with the

monuments of that debased form of Christianity into which the early

church so soon, alas! degenerated. On the one hand may be seen the

infinite contrast between the abominable condition of society under

the empire and the purity of life of the early Christians; and on the

other, the gradual corruption of doctrine and practice as we approach

the Byzantine age. The exhumation of Pompeii and the recent

exploration of the Catacombs bring into sharp contrast Christian and

pagan art. While traversing the deserted chambers of the former “two

thousand years roll backward,” and we stand among the objects familiar

to the gaze of the maids and matrons of the palmy days of Rome. But

what a tale of the prevailing sensuality, what a practical commentary

on the scathing sarcasms of Juvenal, the denunciations of the Fathers,

and the awful portraiture of St. Paul, do we read in the polluting

pictures on every side. Nothing gives a more vivid conception of the

appalling degradation of pagan society in the first century of the

Christian era than the disinterred art of that Roman Sodom. Amid the

silence and gloom of the Catacombs we are transported to an entirely

different world; we breathe a purer moral atmosphere; we are

surrounded by the evidences of an infinitely nobler social life; we

are struck with the immeasurable superiority in all the elements of

true dignity and grandeur of the lowly and persecuted Christians to

the highest development of ancient civilization.

The decoration of these subterranean crypts is the first employment of 206

art by the early Christians of which we have any remains. A universal

instinct leads us to beautify the sepulchres of the departed. This is

seen alike in the rude funeral totem of the American savage, in the

massive mausolea of the Appian Way, and in the magnificent Moorish

tombs of the Alhambra.[328] It is not, therefore, remarkable that the

primitive Christians adorned with religious paintings, expressive of

their faith and hope, the graves of the dead, or in times of

persecution traced upon the martyr’s tomb the crown and palm, emblems

of victory, or the dove and olive branch, the beautiful symbol of

peace. It must not, however, be supposed that the first beginnings of

Christian art were rude and formless essays, such as we see among

barbarous tribes. The primitive believers had not so much to create

the principles of art as to adapt an art already fully developed to

the expression of Christian thought. Like the neophyte converts from

heathenism, pagan art had to be baptized into the service of

Christianity. “The germs of a new life,” says Dr. Lübke, “were in

embryo in the dying antique world. Ancient art was the garment in

which the young and world-agitating ideas of Christianity were

compelled to veil themselves.”[329] Hence the earlier paintings are

the superior in execution, and manifest a richness, a vigour and 207

freedom like that of the best specimens of the classic period. Their

design is more correct, their ornamentation more chaste and elegant,

and the accessories more graceful than in the later examples. These

shared the gradual decline which characterized the art of the dying

empire, becoming more impoverished in conception, stiff in manner, and

conventional and hieratic in type, till they sink into the barbarism

of the Byzantine period.

This is contrary to the opinion which has till recently been

entertained. Lord Lindsay asserts of the paintings of the Catacombs

that, “considered as works of art, they are but poor productions--the

meagreness of invention only equalled by the feebleness of

execution--inferior, generally speaking, to the worst specimens of

contemporary heathen art.”[330] But this characterization was the

result of imperfect acquaintance with the subject. Indeed, he speaks

of the Catacombs as “for the most part closed up and inaccessible, and

the frescoes obliterated by time and destroyed.” But recent

discoveries have brought to light many important examples which

completely disprove his depreciatory estimate. In many of the newly

opened crypts the colours are as fresh as if applied yesterday; and,

as regards style and execution, the frescoes of the Catacombs

“approach,” says the eminent art critic, Kugler, “very near to the

wall paintings of the best period of the empire.”[331] No one can look

through the magnificent volumes of Perret without being struck with

the grace, vigour, and classic beauty of many of the paintings there

reproduced. It is admitted that the French artists have “touched up”

the faded colours, and some of the pictures may be better termed 208

restorations than accurate copies; but they are nowhere accused of

being false to the general character and spirit of the originals.

The antiquity of these better specimens of Christian art is still

further confirmed by their being found in the oldest crypts of the

Catacombs; and, like the architectural character of these more ancient

chambers, they indicate the publicity of their construction and their

legal protection. In the later excavations, on the contrary, the

paintings are few in number, and inferior in type and execution--an

evidence of the persecution and impoverishment of the Christians as

well as of the decline of art. The more celebrated shrines, it is

true, were repeatedly decorated at successive periods down to the

ninth century;[332] but the times of these decorations may be

approximately estimated by internal evidence, as the presence of the

Constantinian monogram, of the nimbus,[333] and other characteristic

signs testify.

[Illustration: ☧]

Early Christian art thus sprang out of that which was pre-existing,

selecting and adapting what was consistent with its spirit, and

rigorously rejecting whatever savoured of idolatry or of the sensual

character of ancient heathen life. It stripped off, to use the figure

of Dr. Lübke, what was unsuitable to the new ideas, and retained the 209

healthy germ from which the tree of Christian art was to unfold in

grand magnificence. As Christianity was the very antithesis of

paganism in spirit, so its art was singularly free from pagan error.

There are no wanton dances of nude figures like those upon the walls

of Pompeii, but chaste pictures with figures clothed from head to

foot; or, where historical accuracy required the representation of the

undraped form, as in pictures of our first parents in the garden of

Eden, or of the story of Jonah, they are instinct with modesty and

innocence. Pagan art, a genius with drooping wing and torch reversed,

stood at the door of death, but cast no light upon the world beyond.

Christian art, inspired with lofty faith, pierced through the veil of

sense, beyond the shadows of time, and beheld the pure spirit soaring

above the grave, like essence rising from an alembic in which all the

grosser qualities of matter are left behind. Hence only images of hope

and tender joy were employed. There is no symptom of the despair of

paganism; scarce even of natural sorrow.

Independent statues were in the first ages rarely if ever used.[334]

There seemed to be greater danger of falling into idolatry in the

imitation of these, in which form were most of the representations of

the heathen deities, than in the employment of painting; and it was

against the making of graven images that the prohibition of Scripture

was especially directed.[335] Their fabrication, therefore, was

especially avoided. Indeed, sculpture never became truly Christian,

and even in the hands of an Angelo or a Thorwaldsen failed to produce

triumphs of skill like those of Phidias or Praxiteles. Christian 210

graphic art, however, in its noblest development far surpassed even

the grandest achievements of which we have any account of the schools

of Apelles and Zeuxis. Christianity is the embodiment of the gentler

graces; paganism, in its purest form, that of the sterner virtues. The

former finds its best expression in painting, the latter in sculpture.

The first Christian paintings were light and graceful sketches, after

the manner of the older classic art; and but for the substitution of a

Christian for a heathen conception--a biblical scene or character, as

Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah, or the Good Shepherd, or some

striking Christian symbol--it would be difficult to distinguish them

from contemporary pagan pictures.[336] While the principal figure gave

an unquestionably Christian character to the whole, the accessories,

divisions of space, colouring, and general treatment were quite in the

manner of the antique. Garlands, festoons of flowers and vases of

fruits; graceful arabesques, luxuriant vines, grapes, birds and genii;

ideal heads, masks, and fabulous animals; hunting, vintage and harvest

scenes, and pastoral groups; personifications of the hours, seasons,

rivers, and the like, made up the _entourage_, or formed part of

the picture. Thus the roof of a crypt in the most ancient part

(probably of the first century) of the cemetery of Domitilla is

completely covered with branches trailing in graceful curves with

exquisite naturalness, and entirely free from the conventional 211

restraint and geometrical symmetry which indicate the subsequent

decline of art. Among the branches flit birds, and winged genii like

little cupids. Another specimen of great beauty, of the second

century, in the Catacomb of Prætextatus, exhibits a well drawn harvest

scene, with wreaths of roses, vine, and laurel, and with birds

flitting about their nests. A fresco of the Good Shepherd and an

inscription attest its Christian character. The drapery and drawing of

the figures in the earlier examples are also exceptionally good.

Several of the Christian symbols were common also to pagan art; as the

palm, the crown, the ship, and others to be hereafter mentioned. They

acquired, however, under Christian treatment a profounder and nobler

significance than they ever possessed before. But there are other and

more striking examples of the adoption, when appropriate to Christian

themes, of subjects from pagan art. Orpheus charming the wild beasts

with his lyre is a frequently recurring figure in the Catacombs, and

is referred to by the Christian Fathers as a type of Him who drew all

men to himself by the sweet persuasive power of his divine word. The

victory of Our Lord over death and hell, and probably an ancient

interpretation of his preaching to the spirits in prison,[337] may

have found a sort of parallel in the beautiful legend of the faithful

lover seeking in the under-world the lost Eurydice bitten by a deadly

serpent; while, at the sound of his wondrous harp, gloomy Dis was

soothed, Ixion’s wheel stood still, Tantalus forgot his thirst, and

the stone of Sisyphus hung poised in air.[338] The Orphic verses were 212

also said by the Fathers to have contained many true prophecies

concerning Our Lord. These, however, like the testimony of the Sibyls,

were pious forgeries of post-Christian date.

Another fable of the pagan mythology reproduced in early Christian art

is that of Ulysses and the Sirens. A sarcophagus in the crypt of

Lucina represents the “much-planning” wanderer of Ithaca, bound to the

mast, deaf to the blandishments of the rather harpy-like daughters of

the sea, and so sailing safely by. Maximus of Turin, in the fifth

century, explained the ship of Ulysses to be “a type of the church,

the mast being the cross, by which the faithful are to be kept from

the seductions of the senses. Thus,” he says, “shall we be neither

held back by the pernicious hearing of the world’s voice, nor swerve

from our course to the better life, and fall upon the rocks of

voluptuousness.”[339]

These reminiscences of pagan art are more frequent in the sculptures

of the sarcophagi, in which the classic type seems more persistent

than in the paintings. Thus, in a bas-relief, in the Lateran Museum,

of the ascent of Elijah in the fiery chariot to heaven, by a strange

solecism Mercury is represented standing at the horses’ heads. This

was probably the result of an unconscious imitation of some heathen

design. On a sarcophagus from the Catacomb of Callixtus, in a harvest

scene, is what seems to be a representation of Cupid and Pysche. This,

however, was found buried beneath the floor, and bore indications of

having been coated with plaster, as if in concealment of the heathen

figures. On others have been observed bas-reliefs of Bacchus attended 213

by cupids, fawns and satyrs, the unfortunate Marsyas, the desertion of

Ariadne, and the return of Ulysses. It is probable that some of these

incongruities resulted from the sarcophagus having been carved by a

pagan artist, inasmuch as sculpture was less likely to be practised by

the Christians than painting. Indeed, some of these subjects,

offensive to Christian feeling, have been carefully defaced with a

chisel, or turned to the wall; as one in the crypt of Lucina, on which

is a bacchanalian scene, while on the rough side, exposed to view, is

inscribed the Christian epitaph. The sarcophagi of Constantia and

Helena, daughters of Constantine, now in the Vatican Museum, bear

vintage and battle scenes and Bacchic masks; and on that in which the

Emperor Charlemagne was buried, probably of pagan origin, is

represented the rape of Proserpine. On the gilded glasses of the

Catacombs, some of which were evidently employed for festive purposes,

pagan influence also appears in such representations as Achilles,

Hercules, Dædalus, Minerva, the Graces, Cupid and Psyche, Neptune with

his trident, and a river-god as the symbol of the Jordan.

Even in distinctively Christian subjects it is sometimes apparent that

the artist had not freed himself from the influence of pagan types.

Thus the Good Shepherd is represented with the short tunic and buskins

of the Roman peasant, and often with the classic syrinx or rustic

pipes, probably from some reminiscence of the popular rural deity, the

god Pan. In the Lateran Museum is a manifest example--the sarcophagus

of Paulina--of a pagan sculpture having been adapted as a Christian

Good Shepherd. In a bas-relief of Jonah, in the Vatican Library, the

classic influence is seen in the Triton blowing his horn, and Iris

floating over the vessel with her fluttering scarf, to indicate the 214

subsidence of the storm. The ship is like the barges that navigate the

Tiber, and the sea-monster that swallows the recreant prophet is like

that which menaced Andromeda.

Christianity thus preserved amid the wreck of ancient civilization

some germs of classic art, over which she brooded till they quickened

under the more genial influences of later times. She became thus, as

Dr. Lübke remarks, the mediator between the antique heathen life and

the art of modern Christendom. That distinguished critic,

Raoul-Rochette, has, however, attributed to pagan types too great an

influence on the art of the Catacombs, and almost denies the latter

all originality or distinctiveness of treatment; and he is certainly

quite in error in speaking of the almost pagan physiognomy of the

decorations of the Catacombs.[340] He was misled in forming these

opinions in part by certain monuments in the Catacomb of Prætextatus,

discovered and described by Bottari, and at first supposed to be of

Christian origin.[341] This opinion, however, has been since refuted

in an able monograph on the subject by Padre Garrucci.[342]

The exceptional and unique character of these monuments deserves a

somewhat detailed examination. They occur in a gallery of the

Catacomb, not far from the Appian Way. In the vault of an

_arcosolium_ is a representation of Venus--a subject never found

in early Christian art--accompanied by two genii as infants. Near these 215

are the following epitaphs of a pagan priest and his wife:

NVMENIS ANTISTES SEBASIS VINCENTIVS HIC [EST]

QVI SACRA SANCTA DEVM PIA MENTE CO[LVIT].

Here lies Vincentius, a priest of the deity Sebasis, who with

pious mind has observed the sacred rites of the gods.

VINCENTI HOC OLIM FREQVENTES QVOD VIDES[343]

PLVRES ME ANTECESSERVNT OMNES EXPECTO

MANDVCA BIBE LVDE ET VENI AD ME

CVM VIVES BENEFAC HOC TECVM FERES.

O Vincentius, many formerly in crowds, as you here see, have gone

before me; I await all. Eat, drink, play, and come to me. While

thou livest act well: this thou shalt bear with thee.

The _arcosolium_ to which this is attached contains the remarkable

paintings represented in the accompanying engraving.[344] The first

picture to the left represents the death of Vibia, wife of Vincentius,

and is labeled ABREPTIO · VIBIES · ET · DESCENSIO. She is depicted as

being borne off by Pluto, to indicate that her death was premature.

The god is standing upright in his _quadriga_, conducted by Mercury

and holding in his arms the form of Vibia. In the original picture,

issuing from an urn at the foot of Mercury, is seen the river Acheron,

by which Pluto is about to descend to the infernal regions, as

indicated by the word DESCENSIO.

[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Perspective of Interior of Vault, with 216

Pagan Paintings.]

At the top of the vault is represented the judgment of Vibia at the

tribunal of Pluto. The god is seated on his throne, with his wife

Proserpine, and over their heads are written the words DISPATER and

ABRACVRA--titles of the deities. To the right of the throne we see 217

three fates--FATA · DIVINA--and to the left Vibia preceded by

Mercury--MERCVRIVS · NVNTIVS--and accompanied by Alcestis, the heroine

of conjugal love. The figures all have their names written above their

heads.

The principal painting of the series, that in the tympanum of the

arch, represents the introduction of Vibia to the banquet of the

blessed. This is shown in the left hand corner of the picture, and is

designated INDVCTIO · VIBIES. She is introduced by a youthful figure

crowned with flowers, and holding in his hand a floral wreath. His

name--ANGELVS · BONVS--the good messenger--is perhaps less an

indication of Christian influence than of the Greek and Oriental ideas

which have presided over the whole of these scenes. Vibia next appears

seated at the banquet in the midst of those who have been judged

worthy of the recompense of the good--BONORVM · IVDICIO · IVDICATI.

They are ranged around a crescent-shaped table formed of cushions, and

wear festive crowns upon their heads. In the foreground are seen the

servants.

The fourth scene, to the extreme right of the vault, represents the

funeral banquet in honor of Vibia. It is given by her husband

Vincentius, who is designated by name, to the priests of Sebasis, over

whose heads are written the words, SEPTE · PII · SACERDOTES. All these

paintings, not only by their inscriptions, but by their conception and

treatment, demonstrate their pagan origin. They are not in any sense

or degree Christian; nor is there any reason to infer, as has been

asserted, that they are of Gnostic execution, but decidedly the

reverse.

But how are we to account for the presence of this pagan monument

within the limits of a Christian cemetery? There are two things to be 218

observed, says M. Perret, in explanation of this circumstance. First,

the _arcosolium_ is not exclusively Christian in character. M. de

Saulcy has given examples of several Jewish and pagan tombs in the

form of _arcosolia_.[345] In the second place, there is nothing

strange in a family practising an oriental rite, like the worship of

Mithras--which with the Phrygian and Isiac mysteries were widely

prevalent in Rome in the early Christian centuries--having a private

place of sepulture, as this seems to have been. It is situated near

the Appian Way, from which there was probably a separate entrance.

Near by is a pagan _columbarium_ which now forms one of the

entrances of the Catacomb, of which it seems part equally with the

gallery containing this tomb. This space may possibly have been

originally usurped from the Christian cemetery; but it is more

probable that the gallery and tomb were independently constructed, and

that the fossors came unexpectedly upon it in their excavations. This

conjecture is confirmed by the indications of its having been

subsequently shut off, but the obstructions have long since been

removed. It is impossible to admit that the Christians, in contempt of

the sacred usages of the primitive ages, have commingled their

sepulchres with those of the pagans.[346]

But Christian art, though affected by pagan influence, did not

servilely follow pagan types. It introduced new forms to express new

ideas, or employed existing forms with a new significance; just as

Christianity itself introduced new words, or gave new meanings to old

ones, not only in the classic tongues but in every language which it

has adopted as the vehicle of its sublime truths. It created a cycle

of symbolical types of especial Christian significance; and became 219

more enriched and enlarged in its scope by allegorical representations

of religious doctrine, and by illustrations of Old and New Testament

history and miracles. But Christian art soon lost that freedom of

treatment which it inherited from its classic parentage, and fell into

fixed and conventional forms, which were endlessly reiterated. “Before

many years,” says Maitland, “the empire of imagination passed away,

and the genius of art, with ‘torch extinct and swimming eye,’ had to

mourn over the introduction of the hieratic style which, wherever it

has appeared throughout the world, has cramped and almost annihilated

the inventive faculty.” Like the hieroglyphs of Egypt and of India, or

like the picture-writing of the lost races of Central America, though

in a less degree, the objects of Christian art became not so much

representative as symbolic. Individual genius can only struggle

hopelessly with the shackles of a conventional system. From the

freedom of nature it sinks into a servile copyism which can hardly be

called art at all.

Yet the symbols of the Catacombs, though often rude and uncouth, must

not provoke our contempt. They fulfilled their purpose no less fully

than the triumphs of art in the _Camera Raphaele_ or the Sistine

Chapel. They were addressed not to the external sense, nor to the

critical taste, but to the inner eye of the soul and to the sublime

faculty of faith. They were not mere representations of the outward

semblances of things, but suggestions of eternal verities which

transcend the limits of time and space. The rudely scratched anchor

told of a hope that reached forward beyond this world and laid hold on

the great realities of the world to come; the dove spoke of the

brooding peace of God, which kept the heart and the mind amid

persecution and affliction with the power of an everlasting life; and 220

the palm was the symbol of the final victory over death and hell.

When the age of persecution passed away, this childlike and touching

simplicity of Christian art gave place to a more ornate character.

Called from the gloomy vaults of the Catacombs to adorn the churches

erected by Constantine and his successors, it gradually developed into

the many-coloured splendour of the magnificent frescoes and mosaics of

the basilicas. It became now more personal and historical, and less

abstract and doctrinal. The technical manipulation became less

understood, and the artistic conception of form more and more feeble,

till it gradually stiffened into the immobile and rigid types which

characterize Byzantine painting. It exhibited the weakness not of

infancy but of decrepitude, and might almost be called the last sigh

of art till its revival after the long slumber of the Middle Ages. It

is of importance, however, as enabling us to trace the development of

religious error, and the introduction of unorthodox additions to

Christian belief, and as showing the slow progress toward image

worship. It demonstrates the non-apostolicity of certain Romish

doctrines, the beginning of which can be here detected. It utters its

voiceless protest against certain others which are sought for in vain

in the places where, according to the Roman theory, they should

certainly be found. Where still employed in the Catacombs, art shared

the corruption and degradation above described.

It is to this period that most of the condemnations of art, or rather

of its abuse, in the writings of the primitive Fathers must be

referred. Toward the close of the fourth century Augustine inveighs

against the superstitious reverence for pictures, as well as the

growing devotion to the sepulchres, which he says the church condemned

and endeavoured to correct.[347] His contemporary, Epiphanius, 221

stigmatizes the employment of painting as contrary to the authority of

Scripture.[348] About the same time Paulinus of Nola made use of

biblical pictures for the instruction of the rude and illiterate

multitude who visited the shrine of Felix. “Perhaps it may be asked,”

he says, “for what reason, contrary to the common usage, I have

painted this sacred dwelling with personal representations?... Here is

a crowd of rustics of imperfect faith, who cannot read, who before

they were converted to Christ used profane rites, and obeyed their

senses as gods. I have, therefore, thought it expedient to enliven

with paintings the whole habitation of the saint. Pictures thus traced

with colours will perhaps inspire those rude minds with astonishment.

Inscriptions are placed above the paintings in order that the letter

may explain what the hand has depicted.”[349]

The feeblest intelligence might rise through the material to the

conception of spiritual truth.[350] But this ecclesiastical employment 222

of art speedily became the source of religious corruption and the

object of superstitious worship. At length it provoked the stern

iconoclasm of the Isaurian Leo and his successors, and was formally

prohibited by the general Council of Constantinople in the eighth

century. Even early in the fourth century the Council of Elvira, as if

with a prescience of the dire result that would follow, prohibited the

use of pictures in the churches, “lest that which was worshipped and

adored should be painted on the walls.”[351]

The iconoclastic spirit, however, was principally directed against

_graven_ images, which were regarded as the special objects of

idolatry. The earliest examples of these have been attributed to the

Gnostics, who so strangely blended the doctrines of Christianity with

pagan superstition. They claimed to possess contemporary images of

Christ from the collection of Pontius Pilate! But doubtless, like 223

the alleged statue of Christ at Cæsarea Philippi, mentioned by

Eusebius,[352] even if they had any reference to Our Lord at all, they

were of much later date. According to Augustine,[353] the Carpocratian

heretics had similar images; and Marcellina, who belonged to that

sect, exhibited in the Gnostic church at Rome figures of Christ, Paul,

Homer, and Pythagoras. In a similarly eclectic spirit the emperor

Alexander Severus placed among his lares the images of Our Lord and

Abraham, with those of Orpheus and Apollonius.[354]

Mosaic, which in classic times was used only for the decoration of

floors, was employed in Christian art in the more honourable task of

adorning the walls of the stately basilicas and churches. This

intractable material was not adapted for the delineation of objects

requiring delicacy of expression, but was admirably suited for

representing strongly pronounced types and solemn figures of Christ

and the saints, analogous to those in the stained-glass windows of

gothic cathedrals and minsters. Hence the mosaics, and gradually all

Byzantine art, stiffened into an expression of severity and gloom,

filling the mind of the beholder with solemnity and awe.[355] This

character is still strikingly seen in the art of the Greek church,

especially in Russia, where there is an intense and superstitious 224

reverence for pictures, known nowhere else. Many of the churches are

completely covered with paintings, which are valued, not for their

execution, for they are often hideously ugly, but as a sort of

talismans on account of their supposed religious sanctity.[356] Thus

art, which is the daughter of paganism, relapsing into the service of

superstition, has corrupted, and often paganized, Christianity, as

Solomon’s heathen wives turned his heart from the worship of the true

God to the practice of idolatry. Lecky attributes this degradation of

style to the latent Manicheism of the dark ages, to the monkish fear

of beauty as a deadly temptation, and to the terrible pictures of

Dante, which opened up such an abyss of horrors to the imagination.

But by means of this mediæval art, imperfect, and even grotesque as it

often was, would be brought vividly before the minds of the people of

a rude and barbarous age an intense conception of the scenes of

Christ’s passion, and a realistic sense of the punishment of the lost.

It will be convenient to treat the art of the Catacombs under the two

heads of symbolical and biblical paintings, and to discuss separately

the gilt glasses and other objects of interest found in these crypts.

De Rossi divides the subject into symbolical, allegorical, biblical,

and liturgical paintings; but some of these divisions, as for

instance, the last, assumes the whole question of the purport and

interpretation of these pictures.

[325] M. Didron’s _Iconographie Chrétienne_ is a valuable

contribution on this important subject.

[326] In the beautiful figure of Pressensé, all art is an Æolian

harp, shivering with the breezes that pass over it.

[327] _Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte_, p. xii.

[328] One of the earliest indications of human existence on the

planet is a sepulchral cave in the post-pliocene drift at

Aurignac, in France, in which are evidences of the celebration of

the funeral banquet and other sepulchral rites. “The artificially

closed Catacomb,” says Dr. Wilson, “the sepulchred dead, the

gifts within, the ashes and _débris_ of the last funeral feast

without, ... all tell the ever-recurring story of reverent piety,

unavailing sorrow, and the instinctive faith in a future life

which dwells in the breast of the rudest savage.”--“Prehistoric

Man,” by Daniel Wilson, LL.D., Toronto University, p. 84.

[329] “History of Art,” by Dr. Wilhelm Lübke, vol. i, p. 275.

[330] “History of Christian Art,” vol. i, p. 39.

[331] _Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte_, p. 14.

[332] Mr. J. H. Parker refers to the fifth or sixth century many

paintings which De Rossi ascribes to the second or third. These

eminent authorities represent two extremes of opinion. Probably

the truth lies between them.

[333] No example of the former is known before A. D. 312. The

nimbus is given to Our Lord in the fourth century, to angels in

the fifth, but did not reach its widest application till the

seventh. (Martigny, _Dict. des Antiqs. Chrét._) It was employed

in ante-Christian pagan art, both Egyptian and classical. In

Byzantine art it is a symbol of power and of office, and was

therefore given alike to Pharaoh, Saul, Herod, Constantine,

Judas, the apocalyptic Dragon, and Satan. Sometimes that of Judas

is _black_. (Didron, _Iconog. Chrét._ in _loco_.)

[334] Certain Gnostic images will be hereafter mentioned.

[335] Ex. xx, 4. פֶּסֶל is a _carved_ image, from the

root פָּסַל, to cut, or carve.

[336] These pictures were generally on smooth white plaster, and

in beautiful bright colours, for the most part in spaces limited

by lines of vivid blue, yellow, or red, or by bands of

Egyptian-like lotus or lily pattern. If on the ceiling, they were

in _lunettes_ similarly divided. These bands frequently run

around the _loculi_ and _arcosolia_, and divide the walls into

panels. Occasionally the latter are covered with a reticulated or

lattice-like pattern in bright opaque colors. The paintings are

now often much faded and defaced.

[337] 1 Pet. iii, 19.

[338] The Mediæval conception of Christ’s “Harrowing of Hell” and

delivery of our first parents, ruined through the guile of the

serpent, is a striking analogue of this myth. Compare also

Bacon’s rather fantastic explanation of this legend by the

principles of natural and moral philosophy. See his “Wisdom of

the Ancients,” chap. xi.

[339] Hom. i, _De Cruce Domini_.

[340] “La physionomie presque payenne qui offre le décoration des

Catacombes de Rome.”--_Discours Sur l’origine des types imitatifs

de l’Art du Christianisme._ Paris, 1834, p. 96.

[341] _Sculture e pitture sagre_, etc., t. iii, pp. 193, 218.

[342] _Le Mystère de Syncrétisme Phrygien dans les Catacombes

Roman de Prétextat._ (_Nouvelle Interprétation._) Paris, 1854.

[343] Another reading is:

HIC ORO NE INQVETES QVOT VIDES.

[344] Fig. 31, from Perret, tom. i, planche lx. The description

in the text is translated from his account, founded on Garrucci.

See also _Tre sepolcri con pitture ed iscrizioni appartenenti

alle superstizioni pagane del Bacco Sabazio e del Persidico

Mitra_. Napoli, 1852.

[345] _Voyage dans les terres bibliques_, pl. 5.

[346] _Perret_, i, p. 44.

[347] Novi multos esse sepulchrorum et picturarum adoratores ...

quos et ipsa ecclesia condemnat, et tanquam malos filios

corrigere studet.--Aug., _de Morib. Eccl. Cathol._, lib. i,

c. 34.

[348] Contra auetoritatem Scripturarum.--Epiphan., _ad Johan.

Hierosol._

[349] Forte requiratur, quanam ratione gerendi

Sederit hæc nobis sententia, pingere sanctas

_Raro more_ domos animantibus adsimulatis.

Turba frequentia his est

Rusticitas non casta fide, neque docta legendi.

Hæc adsueta diu sacris servire profanis,

Ventre Deo, tandem convertitur advena Christo.

Propterea visum nobis opus utile, totis

Felicis domibus picturâ illudere sanctâ:

Si forte attonitas hæc per spectacula mentes

Agrestes caperet fucata coloribus umbra,

Quæ super exprimitur titulis, ut litera monstret

Quod manus explicuit.

--Paulin., _De Felice Natal. Carm._, ix, vv, 541,

_et seq._

[350] Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem

Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.

--Hor., _de Arte Poeticâ_.

Mens hebes ad verum per materialia surgit

Et, demersa prius, hac visa luce resurgit.

--_On doorway of St. Denis, Paris._

During the Middle Ages much religious truth was doubtless

conveyed by these storied basilicas or “gospels in stone.” Of St.

Mark’s, Venice, Dr. Guthrie says, “It is not more remarkable for

its oriental splendour than for the flood of gospel truth set

forth to all eyes in the mosaics that cover and adorn its domes

and walls.... Here the grand central, saving doctrine, the glory

of Paul and hope of sinners, ‘Jesus Christ, and him crucified,’

is exhibited with wonderful fulness and fidelity.” In A. D. 483,

Pope Sixtus dedicated to the people of God--_plebi Dei_--the

mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore at Rome, executed for their

instruction.

[351] Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod

colitur aut adoratur in parietibus depingatur.--_Concil.

Eliber._, A. D. 305, c. 36.

[352] Τοῦτον δὲ τὸν ἀνδιάντα εἰκόνα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ

φέρειν ἔλεγον.--_Hist. Eccles._, vii, 18.

[353] Sectae ipsius (Carpocratis) fuisse traditur socia quædam

Marcellina, quæ colebat imagines Jesu et Pauli, et Homeri et

Pythagoræ, adorando incensumque ponendo.--Aug., _de Hæresib._, c.

vii; cf. Iren., _advers Hæres._, i, c. xxv, § 6. Rochette figures

one of these Gnostic tessaræ or amulets with a head of Christ and

the word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, accompanied by the symbolic fish.

[354] In larario suo ... Christum, Abraham et Orpheum, et

hujusmodi ceteros, habebat ac majorum effigies, rem divinam

faciebat.--Lamprid., _in Alex. Sever._, c. xxix.

[355] Lübke, vol. i, p. 316.

[356] Stanley’s _Eastern Churches_, _passim_.

CHAPTER II. 225

THE SYMBOLISM OF THE CATACOMBS.

Primitive Christianity was eminently congenial to religious symbolism.

Born in the East, and in the bosom of Judaism, which had long been

familiar with this universal oriental language, it adopted types and

figures as its natural mode of expression. These formed the warp and

woof of the symbolic drapery of the tabernacle and temple service,

prefiguring the great truths of the Gospel. The Old Testament sparkles

with mysterious imagery. In the sublime visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel,

and Daniel, move strange creatures of wondrous form and prophetic

significance. In the New Testament the Divine Teacher conveys the

loftiest lessons in parables of inimitable beauty. In the apocalyptic

visions of St. John the language of imagery is exhausted to represent

the overthrow of Satan, the triumph of Christ, and the glories of the

New Jerusalem.

The primitive Christians, therefore, naturally adopted a similar mode

of art expression for conveying religious instruction. They also, as a

necessary precaution in times of persecution, concealed from the

profane gaze of their enemies the mysteries of the faith under a veil

of symbolism, which yet revealed their profoundest truths to the

hearts of the initiated. That such disguise was not superfluous is

shown by the recent discovery of a pagan caricature of the Crucifixion

on a wall beneath the Palatine, and by the recorded desecration of the

eucharistic vessels by the Apostate Julian.[357] To those who 226

possessed the key to the “Christian hieroglyphs,” as Raoul-Rochette

has called them,[358] they spoke a language that the most unlettered

as well as the learned could understand. What to the haughty heathen

was an unmeaning scrawl, to the lowly believer was eloquent of

loftiest truths and tenderest consolation.

Although occasionally fantastic and far-fetched, this symbolism is

generally of a profoundly religious significance, and often of extreme

poetic beauty. In perpetual canticle of love it finds resemblances of

the Divine Object of its devotion throughout all nature. It beholds

beyond the shadows of time the eternal verities of the world to come.

It is not of the earth earthy, but is entirely supersensual in its

character, and employs material forms only as suggestions of the

unseen and spiritual. It addresses the inner vision of the soul, and

not the mere outer sense. Its merit consists, therefore, not in

artistic beauty of execution, but in appositeness of religious

significance--a test lying far too deep for the apprehension of the

uninitiate. It is perhaps also influenced, as Kugler remarks, in the

avoidance of realistic representation, by the fear which pervaded the

primitive church of the least approach to idolatry.

Great care must be observed, however, in the interpretation of this

religious symbolism, not to strain it beyond its capacity or

intention. It should be withdrawn from the sphere of theological

controversy, too often the battleground of religious rancour and 227

bitterness, and relegated to that of scientific archæology and

dispassionate criticism. An allegorizing mind, if it has any

theological dogma to maintain, will discover symbolical evidence in

its support where it can be detected by no one else.[359]

One of the most striking circumstances which impresses an observer in

traversing these silent chambers of the dead is the complete avoidance

of all images of suffering and woe, or of tragic awfulness, such as

abound in sacred art above ground. There are no representations of the

sevenfold sorrows of the _Mater Dolorosa_, nor cadaverous Magdalens

accompanied by eyeless skulls as a perpetual _memento mori_. There are

no pictures of Christ’s agony and bloody sweat, of his cross and

passion, his death and burial; nor of flagellations, tortures, and 228

fiery pangs of martyrdom, such as those that harrow the soul in many

of the churches and picture-galleries of Rome.[360] Only images of joy

and peace abound on every side. These gloomy crypts are a school of

Christian love and gentle charity, of ennobling thoughts and elevating

impulses. The primitive believers, in the midst of their manifold

persecutions, rejoiced even in tribulation. “There is no sign of

mourning,” says d’Agincourt, “no token of resentment, no expression of

vengeance; all breathes of gentleness, benevolence, and love.” “To

look at the Catacombs alone,” says Rochette, “it might be supposed

that persecution had no victims, since Christianity has made no

allusion to suffering.” There are no symbols of sorrow, no appeals to

the morbid sympathies of the soul, nothing that could cause vindictive

feelings even toward the persecutors of the church; only sweet

pastoral scenes, fruits, flowers, palm branches and laurel crowns,

lambs and doves; nothing but what suggests a feeling of joyous

innocence, as of the world’s golden age.

The use of pictorial representations appears often to have been a

matter of necessity. Many of the Christians could understand no other

written language. Numerous inscriptions, by the extreme ignorance

manifested--the wretched execution, grammar, and spelling--show the 229

lowly and unlettered condition of those who affixed them to the

walls.[361] The relatives of the deceased would naturally desire some

token by which they might recognize, in that vast and monotonous

labyrinth of graves, the tomb of their departed friend. To those

ignorant of letters an inscription would but ill subserve this

purpose. Hence we often find some pictorial representation, either

with or without an accompanying inscription, on the tomb. These were

sometimes rude figures having a phonetic correspondence to the name of

the deceased, and sometimes the emblems of his trade. Of the former

kind are the following examples copied from the walls of the

Lapidarian Gallery:

[Illustration:

PONTIVS · LEO · SE · BIVO · FECIT · SIBI

ET PONTIA · MAZA · COZVS · VZVS. (_sic._)

FECERVNT · FILIO · SVO · APOLLINARI · BENE

MERENTI ·

“Pontius Leo made this for himself while living. He and his wife

Pontia Maxima made this for their well-deserving son,

Apollinaris.”

Fig. 33.--Phonetic Symbol.]

The friends of Leo were probably unable to read this inscription,

whose atrocious latinity betrays the ignorance of the mason by whom it

was executed, and therefore had engraved upon the stone the rude

outline of a lion, the symbol of his proper name.

Another slab bears the outline of a little pig, the pictorial

translation of the somewhat singular name Porcella. It was, perhaps,

a term of endearment, like the obsolete English “Pigsney.” 230

[Illustration:

PORCELLA HIC DORMIT IN P ·

Q · VIXIT ANN · III · M · X · D · XIII ·

“Here sleeps Porcella in peace. She lived three years, ten

months, and thirteen days.”

Fig. 34.--Phonetic Symbol.]

In like manner the tombs of Dracontius, Vitulus, and Onager, bear

respectively a dragon, a steer, and an ass, the phonetic synonymes of

these names. These figures may in some cases be a mere pictorial

paronomasia, but the explanation above suggested is the more probable

one. In the following example this is almost asserted:

[Illustration:

NABIRA IN PACE ANIMA DVLCIS

QVI VIXIT ANOS XVI · M · V ·

ANIMA MELEIEA

TITVLV FACTV [Transcriber’s Note: sailboat]

APARENTES SIGNVM NABE. [_sic._]

“Navira in peace; a sweet soul, who lived sixteen years and five

months; a soul sweet as honey; this epitaph was made by her

parents. The sign, a ship.”

Fig. 35.--Phonetic Symbol.]

More frequently the figures had reference to the trade or occupation

of the deceased, as in the following epitaph, probably of a

wool-comber, found by Dr. Maitland built into the wall of the Piazzo

di Spagna, in Rome. Many important funeral tablets, both Christian and

pagan, have been thus employed for the commonest purposes. The objects 231

in the engraving are probably the shears, comb, ladle, and an unknown

instrument used for cleansing wool.

[Illustration:

“To Veneria, in peace.”

Fig. 36.--Wool-Comber’s Implements.]

The following, from the Lapidarian Gallery, indicates the trade of a

carpenter. The saw and adz are very like those now employed:

BAVTO ET MAXIMA SE VIVI

FECERVNT.

[Illustration: [Transcriber’s Note: carpenter’s tools]

“To Bautus and Maxima. They made this during their lifetime.”

Fig. 37.--Carpenter’s Tools.]

On another slab is a figure, probably of a vine-dresser, in a short 232

Roman tunic, standing near a wine cask, the symbol of his occupation.

He appears to be starting to the field with his mattock on his

shoulder, and in his hand is a wallet containing, perhaps, the

provision for the day.

GAVDENTIO FECERVM FRATRI

QVI VICSIC ANNIS XXVIII · M · VIII · D · XVII

[Illustration:

“To Gaudentius. His brothers made this. He lived twenty-eight

years, eight months, seventeen days.”

Fig. 38.--A Vine-Dresser’s Tomb.]

In the Catacomb of St. Agnes is a fresco of husbandmen carrying a wine

butt on their shoulders, the meaning of which is probably the same.

Mr. Hemans rather fantastically interprets this symbol as implying

concord, or the union of the faithful bound together by sacred ties,

as the staves of the cask are by its hoops.[362] Maitland translates

it as standing for a proper name. We have seen examples representing

fossors at work,[363] and Fabretti figures the slab of a sculptor,

exhibiting the manufacture of sarcophagi. Other examples occur, in

which the fuller’s tomb is indicated by mallets, the shoemaker’s by 233

shoes or lasts, the baker’s by loaves, the wood-feller’s by an axe,

the grocer’s by scales, and the like, although the meaning of some of

these figures is questioned. Didron, however, presses this

interpretation of these symbols much too far, making the dove, fish,

anchor, and sheep, only the emblems of the occupation of the fowler,

fisherman, sailor, and shepherd, respectively, thus doing violence to

the acknowledged canons of epigraphic criticism to be presently

indicated.[364]

But by far the larger proportion of these symbols have a religious

significance, and refer to the peace and joy of the Christian, and to

the holy hopes of a life beyond the grave; and many of them were

derived directly from the language of Scripture. They were often of a

very simple and rudimentary character, such as could be easily

scratched with a trowel on the moist plaster, or traced upon the

stone. They were sometimes, however, elaborately represented in

excellent frescoes or sculpture.

The beautiful allusion of St. Paul to the Christian’s hope as the 234

anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, is frequently represented

in the Catacombs by the outline of an anchor, often rudely drawn, but

eloquent with profoundest meaning to the mind of the believer. It

assured the storm-tossed voyager on life’s rough sea that, while the

anchor of his hope was cast “within the veil,” his life-bark would

outride the fiercest blasts and wildest waves of persecution, and at

last glide safely into the haven of everlasting rest. This allusion is

made more apparent when it is observed how often it is found on the

tombstones of those who bear the name Hope, in its Greek or Latin

form, as ΕΛΠΙϹ, ΕΛΠΙΔΙΟϹ, SPES, etc. In the accompanying example it is

displayed on a Christian patera. This symbol is not unknown in classic

art. It occurs on a ring from Pompeii, in the Museum of Naples, with

the word ΕΛΠΙϹ, Hope.

[Illustration: Fig. 39.--Symbolical Anchor.]

Of kindred significance with this is the symbol of a ship, which may

also refer to the soul seeking a country out of sight, as the ship

steers to a land beyond the horizon. Sometimes it may be regarded as a

type of the church; and in later times it is represented as steered by

St. Peter and St. Paul.[365] The symbol of “the heaven-bound

ship”--ἡ ναῦς οὐραοδραμοῦσα--is mentioned by Clement of Alexandria 235

as being in vogue in the second century. This figure was used also in

pagan art as an emblem of the close of life, and may still be seen

carved on a tomb near the Neapolitan Gate of Pompeii. In the Catacombs

the execution of the symbol is often exceedingly rude, the design

being apparently copied from the clumsy barges of the Tiber. The mast

and yard sometimes present a vague imitation of the cross.[366] The

accompanying figure is from the Lapidarian Gallery of the Vatican.[367]

[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Symbolical Ship.]

The palm and crown are symbols that frequently occur, often in a very

rude form. Although common also to Jewish[368] and pagan art, they

have received in Christian symbolism a loftier significance than they

ever possessed before. They call to mind that great multitude whom no

man can number, with whom Faith sees the dear departed walk in white, 236

bearing palms in their hands. The crown is not the wreath of ivy or of

laurel, of parsley or of bay, the coveted reward of the ancient games;

nor the chaplet of earthly revelry, which, placed upon the heated

brow, soon fell in withered garlands to the feet; but the crown of

life, starry and unwithering, the immortal wreath of glory which the

saints shall wear forever at the marriage supper of the Lamb. They are

the emblems of victory over the latest foe, the assurance that

The struggle and grief are all past;

The glory and worth live on.

The palm and crown conjoined, the latter encircling the sacred

monogram, are represented in the accompanying example from a slab in

the Vatican Library.

[Illustration: Fig. 41.--Symbolical Palm and Crown.]

The palm has also been claimed, but, as we shall see, without any

warrant whatever, as the emblem of the martyrs and the designation of

their tombs.

One of the most beautiful symbols of the Catacombs is the dove, the

perpetual synonym of peace. Indeed, that word is frequently annexed to

the figure as if to show more distinctly its meaning, as in Figs. 42

and 43.[369] The innocence and purity of the dove make it an

appropriate emblem of the souls of departed Christians, soaring beyond

the defilements of earth to the peaceful blessedness of heaven.[370] 237

It is, therefore, in allusion to this thought sometimes accompanied by

the words, _anima innocens_, _anima simplex_--“innocent soul,” “simple

soul.” Perhaps there may be also a reference to the admonition of Our

Lord, “Be ye, therefore, ... harmless as doves.” The gentleness and

tender affection of these beautiful birds make them an emblem of

endearment in every age, as is strikingly seen in the frequent

allusions of the matchless Song of Songs. It may, therefore, be often

employed in the Catacombs with reference to the domestic virtues of

the deceased, and to the mutual constancy of husband and wife. The

expression, _palumbus sine felle_--“a dove without gall”--is often

applied in Christian epitaphs to the departed, especially in its

diminutive form--_palumbulus sine felle_--on the tombs of little

children, as if the bereaved parents presented their babes to the

Lord, like the turtle-doves and young pigeons of the ancient Jewish

offering of infant consecration.

[Illustration:

“In the Peace of God.”

Fig. 42.--Symbolical Doves.]

The dove generally bears in its beak or claws an olive branch, the

sign of the assuaging of the waters of Divine vengeance from the face

of the earth. (See Fig. 43.) It is, then, as Tertullian expresses it, 238

“the herald of the peace of God.”

[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Symbolical Dove.]

[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Doves and Vase.]

[Illustration:

“The place of Primus.”

Fig. 45.--Dove Eating Olive Berries.]

Sometimes it is seen drinking out of a vase, or pecking at grapes or

olive berries, a symbol of the soul’s enjoyment of the fruits and

refreshing draughts of paradise.[371] (See Figs. 44 and 45.) As seen

sitting on the arms of the cross,[372] the dove is an appropriate

symbol of the peace with God purchased by the death of Our Lord Jesus

Christ. The dove in a cage may imply the faithful under persecution, 239

or the soul imprisoned in the body.

The dove was also used in the Catacombs as the symbol of the Holy

Spirit in representations of the baptism of Our Lord, and is described

by Paulinus as similarly employed in the church of Nola.[373]

Tertullian[374] applies toward the ecclesiastical edifice the

expression, _columbæ domus_--“house of the dove”--possibly, however,

with reference to the dove-like religion and character of the

Christians. In Mediæval art the Holy Spirit, under the form of a dove

wearing a cruciform nimbus, the symbol of divinity, is represented

brooding over the face of the waters of primeval chaos, inspiring the

prophets and saints, and even nailed to the cross above the crucified

body of Our Lord. This sacred emblem of the Paraclete, the Divine

Comforter, by a monstrous violation of propriety was emblazoned upon

battle-flags, and the Holy Name given to a military order and to ships

of war.[375]

This emblem was also used in pagan art. The light-winged coursers who 240

drew the airy chariot of Venus were doves. From the oaks of Dodona

doves uttered oracles of the future. A dove was also the celestial

messenger of Mahomet. The olive, too, was sacred to Minerva, and as

the symbol of peace was woven into the victor’s crown.

[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Symbolical Peacock.]

Other pagan types were employed, but with a new and nobler Christian

significance. Thus the peacock, the proud bird of Juno, frequently

appears in the Catacombs, not as the symbol of the all-seeing eye of

God, in imitation of the pagan myth of the hundred eyes of Argus, but

as the emblem of immortality.[376] Associated in meaning and

frequently confounded in form with the peacock was the phoenix, the

marvellous story of whose rejuvenescence from the ashes of its funeral

pyre Clement of Rome recounts with unfaltering faith.[377] Lactantius

makes it the theme of an elaborate poem,[378] and Tertullian cites it

as a striking illustration of the resurrection of the dead.[379] It

was also considered a type of the new birth and of eternal felicity.

The cock, generally associated with St. Peter,[380] is interpreted as

the symbol of unsleeping vigilance; it is, perhaps, also an emblem or 241

suggestion of the remorse of the apostle for his denial of his Lord.