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tions and symbols, and what the lessons have seen and often explored the cemeof these ancient cemeteries?

We propose, in answering these questions, to present a summary of the whole subject.

It will not be necessary, we trust, to ask the reader to excuse the roughness of our cuts; they would hardly be compatible with the subject and scenes of our remarks were they finer; they are used only as "illustrations," and we may be allowed to insert them, in addition to the more elegant engravings, given in other col

umns.

The ground-plan, already presented, may afford some idea of this subterranean city of the dead, and yet a very inadequate one, for it is an outline (from Arringhi's "Roma Subterranea") of only a portion of the immense labyrinth—that known as the Cemetery of St. Calixtus. At least fifty different cemeteries have been enumerated, and how far these may be connected by crypts and galleries is unknown; it is absolutely impossible to explore them thoroughly; the passages are exceedingly intricate, and many of them have been rendered impassable by rubbish, and then the peril from the caving in of the walls, rendering all return hopeless, haunts the explorer amidst their dark and endless mazes. Professor Silliman says that they extend twenty miles to Ostia, the port of Rome, in one direction, and twelve miles to Albano in another. Bishop Kip says: "It is certain that many miles from the church of St. Sebastian," where he entered them, "there are openings into the Catacombs; but whether they communicate with those which are entered at that place, it is impossible to determine. The probability is, that all this section of country without the gates of Rome is excavated so as to form a perfect labyrinth of passages. They resemble a subterranean city with its streets and alleys, and so encircle the walls, that they have been called the encampment of the Christian host besieging pagan Rome, and driving inward its mines and trenches with an assurance of final victory.' Old Baronius describes them as they appeared in his day, when they were but partially explored. They were," he says, "not only used for the purpose of burying the dead, (whence they derive their name,) but likewise in time of persecution as a hiding-place for Christians. Wonderful places are these! We

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tery of Priscilla, lately discovered and cleared on the Salarian Way, at the third mile-stone from the city. This, from its extent, and its many various paths, I call by no more appropriate name than a subterranean city. From the entrance onward opens out a principal street, wider than the rest. Others diverge from it at frequent intervals; these again are separated off into narrower ways and blind alleys. Moreover, as is the case in cities, broader spaces open out in particular spots, each like a kind of forum, for holding the sacred assemblies; these are adorned with images of the saints. Apertures have likewise been pierced (though now blocked up) for receiving the light from above. The city was amazed at discovering that she had in her suburbs long-concealed towns, now filled only with sepulchers, but once Christian colonies in days of persecution."

Our countryman Cole, the artist, visited them during a sojourn at Rome: "I have seen that to-day," he says, "which will be a lasting subject of thought-which has made an impression on my mind that can never be effaced-the Catacombs of St. Agnes. The entrance, about two miles out of the Porta Pia, is by a flight of steps, partly antique, I believe. At the bottom, we found ourselves in a narrow passage cut in the tufa rock. On either hand were excavations in the walls, of various dimensions, which contain the bones of the early Christians. For two hours we wandered in these gloomy regions. Now and then we came to a chapel. The passages were, in general, about six feet wide, and from five to twelve high, arched, and sometimes plastered. The cells are in tiers, one above another. Many of them were open, and disclosed the moldering bones of those who flourished in the first centuries of the Christian Church. Others were closed by tiles, or slabs of marble with cement, which appeared with the impressions of the trowel as fresh as yesterday. Here were the remains of the early martyrs of Christianity. You know them by the small lamp, and the little phial or vase which once contained some of their blood. These vessels were inserted in the cement that sealed up their graves. Impressions of coins and medals, and the date of the interment, are also to be seen in the cement, with in

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scriptions marked with the point of the trowel, usually the name of the individual, with the words, in pace,' or 'dormit in pace.' What pictures cannot the imagination paint here! Yet nothing is so impressive as the reality; scenes where Christian hope triumphed over affliction; where the ceremonies of their holy religion were performed far from the light of day. The chapels are generally ornamented with pictures, some of which are in good preservation. They are rudely executed, but with some spirit."

We insert a rough engraving of the opening of one of the larger galleries. The light is seen at the entrance; on the right and left are examples of the graves, in three tiers; there is also a lateral passage blocked up to prevent the visitor from losing himself in its windings. Not far

from it, between two graves, is a small square hole, designed probably to contain the vial or cup mentioned by Cole, of which more hereafter.

Bishop Kip describes minutely the areas or chapels referred to in our quotation from Baronius. They are mostly mere expansions of the passages. The earliest are extremely rude, with the graves of the martyrs cut into the soft stone of the wall on every side. Here the first Christians of Rome held their simple worship, sheltered from the pursuit of the persecutor. It is not improbable, as Bishop Kip intimates, that men who had seen our blessed Lord, worshiped him here with the earliest Christians of the eternal city. In time these "chapels" were improved in their architectural style. Their stone roofs were elevated,

CHAPEL IN THE CATACOMBS-NO. I.

and holes excavated in them for the admission of light. These openings are yet frequently seen in the Campagna; they are mentioned often in the "Acts of the Martyrs." It is recorded, for instance, that a Christian maiden named Candida was martyred by being thrown through one of these light openings into the crypt and overwhelmed with stones.

Subsequently, when the Church had triumphed in the city, and fallen, alas, as well as triumphed, these refuges of her first heroes became the resorts of superstition and the scenes of votive honors. Some of the chapels were highly ornamented. As early as

A. D. 400, the tomb of Hippolytus was decorated with "Parian marble and precious metals. The roof was extended and vaulted, and the skill of the artist exhausted in representing sacred subjects on the walls."

The above engraving of one of the later and improved chapels contrasts with the rude outline presented in our last cut.

It presents a noble architectural effect,"An instance," says Bishop Kip, "of the 'arched monument,'a grave cut like a sarcophagus from the rock, and an arch constructed above it."

In the cut, which we give below, the recess for the body, at the extremity of the chapel, is partitioned by a cancellated slab of marble, which is now partly shattered. The largest of these chapels will admit about eighty persons.

We have already described the graves as inserted in the walls of the galleries. They were inclosed by a thin marble slab, sometimes by terra-cotta, fastened to the walls by cement. We give, on the opposite page, an engraving of two graves, one of which is open, exposing to view the skeleton remains; the other being yet sealed with three slabs of cotta. The reader will notice the cup and palm, rudely cut, perhaps scratched upon the stone by the trowel of the untutored mason, probably a poor member of the persecuted brotherhood. "It was thus," says Bishop Kip, "that on these slabs were cut the Christian emblems which the early followers of our Lord so much delighted to use, and there too they scrawled the brief epitaphs by which, in that age of fear and persecution, they marked the resting place of the brethren. While everything around speaks of suffering, it tells also of the simple earnest faith of men, with whom the glories of the next world had swallowed up all the pains of their brief mortal pilgrimage."

The bishop entered the Catacombs, as

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CHAPEL IN THE CATACOMBS-NO. II.

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resting there they expected a share in the glory of the resurrection. Very many of the graves are those of children, and sometimes a whole family are interred together. The cavities were cut into the soft stone, just large enough for the body, with a semi-circular excavation for the head, and the opening was closed with a thin slab of marble. It was, indeed, a most interesting scene, as we followed the old monk with his trailing garments and noiseless tread through these dark and silent passages. On each side of us were the yawning graves. For a moment they seemed to open, as the taper we carried brought them into the little circle of light, and then, as we passed, they closed again in the darkness. We were wandering among the dead in Christ, who more than sixteen centuries ago were borne to their rest.

we have said, at the Church of St. Sebas- | above, merely to show that for the body tian; this section is considered by antiquarians to have been the earliest occupied by the Christians, and is therefore the most interesting to the Christian visitor. We may add Bishop Kip's description, to those already given from Baronius and Cole; he felt the inspiration of the place: "The intricate passages cross and recross, often not more than three feet wide, and so low that we were obliged to stoop. The difficulty of following them is greater from the fact, that they are generally constructed in three stories, so that you constantly meet with steps which ascend or descend. At times, however, they expand into apartments arched overhead, and large enough to contain a small company. On each side are cavities in which were placed the bodies of the dead, and small apertures where lamps were found. But few sarcophagi were discovered here, and these probably date from the fourth century, when persecution had ceased, and more of the higher classes had begun to hand in their adherence to the faith. Before this, no pomp or ceremony attended the burial of the Christians, when their friends hastily laid them in these dark vaults. They sought not the sculptured marble to inclose their remains, but were contented with the rude emblems which were carved

Around us were the remains of some, who, perhaps, had listened to the voices of apostles, and who lived while men were still upon the earth who had seen Jesus of Nazareth, as he went on his pilgrimage through the length and breadth of Judea. It was a scene, however, to be felt more than to be described -a place in which to gather materials for thought for all our coming days, carrying us back, as it did, to the earliest ages of our faith-ages when the only strife was,

as to who should be foremost in that contest through which their Lord was to 'inherit the earth' The holy spirit of the place the genius loci-seemed to impress itself upon all. They were hushed into a reverential silence; or, if they spoke, it was in low and subdued tones. Yet we were glad to ascend the worn steps, and find ourselves once more in the church above. We noticed, indeed, that the corners we turned in these intricate passages were marked with white paint to guide us, yet a sudden current of air extinguishing our lights would make these signs useless, and from the crumbling nature of the rock there is always danger of the caving in of a gallery, or some other accident, which might involve a party in one common fate. We were told, indeed, that no longer ago than 1837, a school of nearly thirty youth, with their teacher, descended into these Catacombs on a visit, and never reappeared. The passage through which they entered, and which has since been walled up, was pointed out to us. Every search was made, but in vain; and somewhere in these labyrinths they are moldering by the side of the early disciples of our faith. The scene which then was exhibited in these dark passages, and the chill which gradually crept over their young spirits as hope yielded to despair, could be described only by Dante, in terms in which he has portrayed the death of Ugolina and his sons in the Tower of Famine, at Pisa."

Such is a rapid glance at this terrasancta-these vast subterranean regions. Before referring more fully to their inscriptions and the deductions to be drawn from them, let us cast our glance back a little over their history. Their origin is lost in the obscurity of the distant vista. They are the remains of a period anterior to the founding of Rome. Under the name of Etruscans, historians speak of a people who, like the Aztecs of our own Continent, preceded all authentic history on the Italian peninsula. Ruins, massive ruins, which would have required these stupendous quarries, remain to attest their greatness; but their language is undeciphered as unintelligible as that on the marvelous monuments of Central America. museums of Italy are crowded with monuments of their art; but these reflect no revelation of their epoch. These amazing excavations about Rome are attributed to

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them, and we doubt not most correctly; but when they were wrought no one can even conjecture. Similar evidences of a mighty primeval race are traced, not only throughout the southern part of Italy, but in Sicily, the Isles of the Mediterranean, in Greece and Asia Minor-Cyclopean and Pelasgian monuments and the quarries whence they were derived.

The rocky earth about Rome is easily worked; it consists of puzzolana, “a volcanic or sandy rock, well adapted for the excavation of long galleries." At the advent of Christianity the disciples in the eternal city found in them at once asylums from persecution, sanctuaries for worship, and graves for their dead. They became, as we have quoted from an eloquent writer, "the encampment of the Christian host besieging pagan Rome, and driving inward its mines and trenches, with an assurance of final victory." It is probable that the Arenarii, or sand-diggers and quarrymen |—the lowest class of the people-became the first Christians of Rome; they knew the labyrinthine passages of the subterranean city; and thus was provided a refuge for the Church in the "fiery trials" of its early persecutions. Bishop Kip, whose fervid and devout spirit seems always congenial with his theme, asks-" May we not trace in this the hand of a protecting Providence? The Church was about to enter the furnace of affliction, and to be encircled by the rage of the adversaries; here, then, had previously been provided a sure refuge, where it could abide until the storm was overpast. This was the cradle of the infant community. And, perhaps, we may go a step further, and assert, that while the Church in Rome owed much of the rapidity of its triumph to the protection afforded by the Catacombs, by furnishing a place of refuge where the faithful generally had a secure retreat, in later times the lessons taught by these ancient sepulchers must have long served to arrest the progress of innovation, as the Roman Christians beheld recorded, before their eyes, evidences of the faith held in their fathers' day, and in the old time before them.' That the Catacombs were, throughout, well known to the early Christians, is evident; for all parts bear trace of their occupancy. We meet on every side with tombs and chapels, paintings and inscriptions, and for three hundred years the entire Christian population

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