The Catacombs of Rome

Chapter IV The Ministry, Rites, and Institutions of the Primitive Church

We gain from the testimony of the Catacombs most important information as to the organization of the church during the early Christian centuries. We see on every side records of an efficient ministry of different grades and dignities, yet wholly unlike that vast hierarchical system which claims to be its lineal descendant. We discern also evidences of a well-ordered administration of the sacraments and ordinances of religion, simple and unadorned, yet instinct with spiritual life and power, compared with which the gorgeous ritual and lifeless pomp of Romanism are more akin, in outward form at least, to the pagan homage of the Bona Dea, or to the mysteries of Mithras, than to Christian worship. So complete is this testimony as to the ministry and rites of the primitive church, that Dr. Northcote remarks that, “even if all the writings of the Fathers had altogether perished, we might almost reconstruct the whole fabric of the ecclesiastical polity from the scattered notices of these sepulchral inscriptions.”822

The somewhat complex ecclesiastical organization which we discover was probably a gradual development with the growth of the church, and not in its entirety the creation of the earliest times; the inscriptions referring to the subject, it must be remembered, being all or chiefly of post-Constantinian origin. The earlier books of the Apostolical Constitutions, which are probably of the second century, say almost nothing about the different grades of the ministry; but in the later ones, probably of the fifth century, a full blown sacerdotalism appears. Cornelius, bishop of Rome in the middle of the third century, records the existence of a graduated clergy like that indicated in the inscriptions of the Catacombs,823 whose gradations Clement of Alexandria compares to the different ranks of the hierarchy of heaven.824

The highest office in the church of the Catacombs was that of the bishop—the chief pastor825 or overseer of the flock of Christ. But this position was rather a preeminence of toil and peril than of dignity and honour. The supreme head of the Roman hierarchy, who lays claim to the attributes of deity himself, and sits in the seat of God as his vicegerent and infallible representative on earth, finds no precedent for his lofty assumptions in his humble predecessors of the primitive ages. These were in reality what he is only in name—servi servorum Dei. Even the title of bishop occurred but seldom. Neither Bosio, Fabretti, Boldetti, nor any other of the early explorers of the Catacombs, found a single example of it. The tomb of the first Roman bishop bore simply the name LINVS. In the so-called “papal crypt” the title first appears, but in the contracted form, ΕΠΙ and ΕΠΙϹ, and without any symbol of superior dignity whatever. The name of a bishop was first made a note of time in the latter part of the fourth century, as in the epigraphic formulæ Sub Liberio Episcopo—Sub Damaso Episcopo—During the episcopate of Liberius, (A. D. 350-366,) of Damasus, (A. D. 366-384.) But this distinction was also conferred on other bishops than those of Rome. Thus, in the year A. D. 397, we find the expression Pascasio Episcopo. Now, as there was no Roman bishop of that name, Pascasius must have presided over some of the adjacent sees, of which we know that there were many independent of Rome.826

The word papa, or pope, does not occur in the Catacombs till at least the latter part of the fourth century. It appears first spelled pappas, and applied to Damasus, in the margin of an inscription by that bishop, in honour of Eusebius.827 But De Rossi admits that this is a badly executed reproduction, of the sixth or seventh century, of a previous inscription; so this title may very well belong to that late period. This is all the more probable from the phraseology of the very first line of this inscription: DAMASVS EPISCOPVS FECIT EVSEBIO EPISCOPO ET MARTYRI—“Damasus, bishop, (not pope,) to Eusebius, bishop and martyr.” Hilary (461-467) calls himself bishop and servant of Christ—“Episcopus et famulus Christi.” In an epitaph of A. D. 523, Hormisdas is called merely DOMINVS PAPA—that is, “honoured father,” or “pope,” which is probably the first application of this phrase in Christian epigraphy. In another, of date A. D. 563, John III. is designated as the “most blessed father John”—Beatissimus papa Joannes.828

But even this title, invested with such awful dignity and supreme authority in later days, was at first only an expression of familiar and affectionate respect, not peculiar to the bishop of Rome, nor indeed first applied to him. Its earliest use is attributed to Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, in the latter part of the third century.829 The Roman clergy address the bishop of Carthage in their letters as “the blessed pope Cyprian.”830 Tertullian applies the name to any Christian bishop.831 Jerome addresses Augustine, bishop of the little African diocese of Hippo, as the Beatissimus papa Augustinus,832 and applies the same phrase to the superior of a monastery.833

The rapid extension of Christianity in the metropolis of the empire enhanced the influence and dignity of the Roman bishops.834 With the increase of wealth and decay of piety these dignitaries became ambitious and worldly, arrogant and aspiring, and laid the foundations of that vast system of spiritual despotism which for centuries crushed the civil and religious liberties of Europe. Nevertheless, as late as the end of the sixth century, Gregory the Great, although zealous for the episcopal dignity, resents the claim of John of Constantinople to the title of œcumenical bishop in the striking words: “This I declare with confidence, that whoso designates himself universal priest, or, in the pride of his heart, consents to be so named, he is the forerunner of Antichrist.”835 His successors of Rome have not shrunk from this malediction, but, in assumption of this universal supremacy, have placed their feet on the neck of kings, parcelled out empires, and conferred crowns at their pleasure.836

The next rank in ecclesiastical dignity was that of the Presbyters.837 There was not that distinction in the primitive ages between their office and that of the bishops that afterward arose. Bishop Pearson represents their power and dignity as greater the nearer we ascend to the apostolic times. Their principal functions were the administration, in association with the bishops, of the sacraments, the enforcement of discipline, the preaching of the word, and the pastorate of the church. Their epitaphs in the Catacombs and basilicas are frequently very brief, as the following: LOCVS GERONTI PRESB—“The place of Gerontus, a presbyter;” POSITVS EST HIC LEONTIVS PRESBITER (sic)—“Here is placed Leontius, a presbyter.” Sometimes the title is expressed in a contracted form, thus: HIC QVIESCIT ROMANVS PBB. QVI SEDIT PBB · ANN · XXVIII · M · X.—“Here reposes Romanus, a presbyter, who sat a presbyter twenty-eight years ten months.”838 Boldetti gives the epitaph of ACATIVS PASTOR, who was probably a presbyter, his title expressing his pastoral office. The following, of date A. D. 471, which is more elaborate than usual, is of some historical interest:839

PRESBYTER HIC POSITVS FELIX IN PACE QVIESCIT

CVIVS PVRA FIDES PROBITAS VIGILANTIA SOLLERS

PONTIFICVM CLARO PLACVIT SIC NOTA LEONI

POST LABSVM VT REPARANS VENERANDI CVLMINA PAVLI

HVIC OPERIS TANTI RENOVANDAM CREDERET AVLAM.

Felix, the presbyter, placed here, reposes in peace, whose pure faith, probity, sagacious vigilance, when known, so pleased the illustrious Leo of the pontiffs,840 that, repairing the roof of the venerable St. Paul’s after its fall, he trusted to him the renewal of the hall of so great a work.

It appears that sometimes the primitive presbyters engaged in secular callings. Thus, an inscription from the Catacomb of Callixtus reads, ΔΙΟΝΥϹΙΟϹ ΠΡΕϹΒΥΤΕΡΟϹ ΙΑΤΡΟϹ—“Dionysius, presbyter and physician.” Another, of date A. D. 533, commemorates a deacon, who was also, perhaps before ordination, a senator and soldier. One found in Galatia mentions ΘΕΟΔΩΡΟϹ ΠΡΕϹΒΥΤΕΡΟϹ ΚΑΙ ΑΡΓΥΡΟΚΟΠΟϹ—“Theodorus, a presbyter and silversmith.” Hyacinthus, a Roman presbyter of the third century, was also an officer of the imperial household. Tertullian complains that some engaged in idolatrous trades were promoted to ecclesiastical offices.841 Eusebius mentions a presbyter of Antioch who was head-master of one of the principal schools of the city.842 Sozomen tells of bishops Zeno and Spiridion, who continued, the one to weave linen, the other to keep sheep, after elevation to the episcopal office.843 Indeed, the fourth council of Carthage (A. D. 398) decreed that the clergy might devote their leisure to trade or husbandry, that the church might have greater resources for charity.844

The next grade in ecclesiastical rank was that of the deacons. They acted generally as assistants of the bishops and presbyters, especially in the distribution of the charities of the church.845 They also took part in the administration of the eucharist, but not in its consecration. Before the appointment of lectors they read, and occasionally expounded, the Scriptures to the congregation, like the modern lay preachers. They also acted as instructors or catechists of the catechumens of the church. They are frequently designated Levitæ,846 from the fancied analogy of their functions to those of the Levitical order among the Jews. In the church at Rome there were only seven deacons, in accordance with the number originally appointed in the church at Jerusalem; but in other cities the number was not thus limited.847 Of inferior dignity were the ὑποδιάκονοι, or sub-deacons, who assisted the deacons in the discharge of their lower functions, as the care of the sacramental vessels, and the like.

Several epitaphs of both these classes have been found among the early Christian inscriptions. They are generally very brief, as the following: IVL DIACONVS—“Julius, the deacon;” DEPS · FELIX · DIAC—“Felix, the deacon, buried (Mar. 11, A. D. 435);” LOCVS EXVPERANTI DIACON—“The place of Exuperantus, the deacon.” Beneath the church of Sts. Cosmo and Damien was found the following: HIC REQVIESCIT SCVS HABVNDANTIVS DIAC ET MARTYR—“Here reposes holy Abundantius, deacon and martyr.”848

The following are characteristic epitaphs of sub-deacons: HIC QVIESCIT APPIANVS SVBDIACONVS QVI VIXIT ANNVS XXXII DIES XXVIIII—“Here rests Appianus, a sub-deacon, who lived thirty-two years, twenty-nine days;” LOCVS MARCELLI SVBD · REG · SEXTAE CONCESSVM (sic) SIBI ET POSTERIS EIVS A BEATISSIMO PAPA IOANNE QVI VIXIT ANN · PLM · LXVIII—“The place of Marcellus, a sub-deacon of the sixth district,849 conceded to him and his posterity by the most blessed Father John,850 who lived sixty-eight years, more or less.” (A. D. 564.)

The first rank of the inferior officers of the church was that of the lectors or readers. It was their duty to read in the congregations the appointed lessons from the Holy Scriptures.851 The office was held in peculiar honour, young men of noble family, especially, aspiring to its dignity. Thus the Emperor Julian, in his youth, was a reader of the church at Nicomedia, as was also his brother Gallus.852 Candidates for the office were ordained by the ceremony of delivering the Gospels into their hands. According to one of the Novels of Justinian,853 they were required to be not less than eighteen years of age, but examples occur of their appointment as early as seven or eight years old.854 Probably the latter were dedicated by their parents, like Samuel, to the service of God from their infancy,855 and graduated through the inferior offices to those of greater dignity and influence. In the Western church they soon ceased as a distinct rank, but they lingered in the conventual orders till a comparatively late period.

The following are epitaphs of lectors from the Catacombs and basilicas: EQ HERACLIVS QVI FVIT IN SAECVLVM ANN · XVIIII · M · VII · D · XX · LECTOR R · SEC · FECERVNT · SIBI ET FILIO SVO BENEMERENTI · INP—“Equitius Heraclius, who was in this world nineteen years, seven months, twenty days, a reader of the second district. (His parents) made this for themselves and their well-deserving son, in peace;” CINNAMIVS OPAS LECTOR TITVLI FACIOLI AMICVS PAVPERVM—“Cinnamius Opas, a reader of the church of Faciolus, a friend of the poor;” MIRAE INNOCENTIAE ADQ · EXIMIAE BONITATIS HIC REQVIESCIT LEOPARDVS LECTOR DE PVDENTIANA QVI VIXIT ANN. XXIIII—“Here rests Leopardus, of wonderful innocence and remarkable goodness, a reader of the church of Pudentiana, who lived twenty-four years;” HIC REQVIESCIT IN SOMNO PACIS CAELIVS LAVRENTIVS LECTOR SANCTAE ECCLESIAE AECLANENSIS QVI VIXIT ANNOS PLM · XLVIII—“Here rests, in the sleep of peace, Cælius Laurentius, a reader of the holy church of Æclanum, who lived forty-eight years, more or less.”

The acolytes were another class which is discontinued in the protestant communion. As the name implies,856 they were the servitors of the church, and had charge of the lamps and other ecclesiastical furniture. They were probably the offspring of the increasing pomp and dignity of the bishops, to whom they acted as personal attendants, especially in public processions and religious festivals. The only dated epitaphs of acolytes extant are of a comparatively late period. De Rossi thinks the following of the sixth or seventh century.857 The simplicity of the primitive church had long since passed away. (P)ACE ABVNDANTIVS ACOL · REG · QVARTAE TT VESTINAE QVI VIXIT ANN · XXXIII DEP · INP · D NAT · SCI MARCI—“In peace, Abundantius, an acolyte of the fourth district, of the church of Vestina, who lived thirty-three years. Buried in peace on the birthday of St. Mark.”

The office of exorcist, from the occult and mysterious nature of its functions, was one that from the first was liable to abuse. It appears to have been known in the synagogue, and even there to have been usurped for base and venal purposes.858 A battle between supernal and infernal powers seems to have been coincident with the conflict between Christianity and paganism. The Christians believed the oracles and idols of the gods to be animated by dæmons, who frequently usurped possession also of human beings. Tertullian,859 Origen,860 and others of the Fathers, claim that any private Christian could exorcise these dæmons by faith and prayer. It was probably a spiritual gift like that of “tongues,” which was granted for a special purpose and afterward withdrawn, perhaps on account of its abuse. This mysterious function did not become a distinct office till the latter part of the third century, when the exorcists were set apart by special ordination, and furnished with special forms of adjuration. This rite was then generally performed with solemn ceremonial before the baptism of converts from paganism. It was accompanied by prayer, insufflation, imposition of hands, and the sign of the cross, in order to deliver the subject from the dominion of the Prince of Darkness, and to consecrate him to the service of God. In later days this office became subject to frightful abuse, and all the grotesque and horrible adjuncts of exorcism of the Roman church—the charms, conjurations, wearing of scapulars and relics, incensings and sprinklings, were introduced—rites which find their analogues only in the magical incantations of the medicine-men of the Caffre Kraal or the Indian lodge.861 “The best exorcism,” says Tertullian, “is by watchfulness and prayer to resist the devil, and cast out evil thoughts.” The following are epitaphs of exorcists: IANVARIVS EXORCISTA—“Januarius the exorcist;” HIC REQVIESCIT · IN · SOMNO · PACIS · CAELIVS · IOHANNIS EXHORCISTA (sic)—“Here rests, in the sleep of peace, Cælius John, an exorcist.”

The energumens, or possessed persons, were committed to the especial care of the exorcists, who employed them in the secular service of the sanctuary, as sweeping and cleaning the church, “lest idleness should become a temptation for Satan to molest them.” There is no indication of the existence of this unhappy class of persons in the church of the Catacombs, at least so far as monumental evidence is concerned.

A very numerous class in the economy of the primitive church was that of the fossors, or grave-diggers, by whose labours these vast labyrinths were excavated. They seem to have had especial charge of the subterranean cemeteries, and we have had numerous examples of the transfer and sale of graves under their authority.862 They had also a quasi-ecclesiastical rank, and were subject to ecclesiastical discipline. “The first order of the clergy,” says Jerome, “is that of the fossors, who, after the manner of holy Tobit, are employed in burying the dead.”863 They probably also assisted the regular clergy in the celebration of the funeral rites. The melancholy office of this pious confraternity, always a sad necessity of humanity, was particularly so to the persecuted church of the Catacombs.

The excavations were evidently under one directorate, so symmetrical and uniform is their character. A considerable degree of architectural skill is exhibited in the construction and adornment of the subterranean chapels, many of which are of quite ornamental design, and in the excavation of the multitude of galleries and different levels of this vast city of the dead, proving that the fossors were no mean civil engineers. They were also probably the artists of the rude inscriptions. The office seems sometimes to have been hereditary, as we find as many as three generations of fossors in the same family. We have seen examples of the numerous frescoes representing these lowly diggers at work, often like miners, by the light of a lamp, or surrounded by the implements of their calling.864 The following are characteristic epitaphs of this class: MAIO FOSSORI—“To Maius, the fossor;” FELIX FOSSOR VIXIT ANNIS LXII—“Felix, the fossor. He lived seventy-two years;” DIOGENES · FOSSOR · IN · PACE · DEPOSITVS—“Diogenes, the fossor, buried in peace.”

With these were probably confounded in the earlier ages the ostiarii, or door-keepers. Their office was one of great trust and responsibility in times of persecution, when the Christian worship had often to be celebrated in secret, and protected from the intrusion of spies or of the profanely curious heathen. It was their duty to distinguish between the faithful and scoffers and traitors, and to give private notice of the secret assemblies of the Christians. The following inscription of the sixth century, as restored by De Rossi, commemorates a similar office in the basilica: LOC · DECI · CVBICVLARI · HVIVS · BASILICAE—“The place of Decius, custodian of this basilica.” We have also the epitaph of a mansionarius, a similar officer.865

An exaggerated commendation of the supposed superior sanctity of single life has long been a prominent characteristic of Romanism. A natural corollary of this notion was the enforced celibacy of the clergy.866 Upon the Procrustean bed of this iron rule Rome has not scrupled to bind the tenderest and most sacred affections of the human soul. This cherished, but, as all history proves, most pernicious practice, has been the secret of much of the marvellous power of the priesthood and of the religious orders. The suppression of the domestic affections but intensified their devotion to the cause of the church, which took the place of both wife and child, and engrossed all their thoughts and all their energies. They became a priestly caste, animated by a strong esprit de corps superior to the claims of kindred or of country. But, as might have been anticipated, this anti-natural system led to frightful abuses and corruptions, and to the most flagrant innovations.

The notion of the greater sanctity of celibacy was derived, not from the teachings of our Lord or the apostles, who recognized the essential purity of marriage; but probably, as Milman suggests, from the early heresy of the Gnostics, of which this doctrine was a prominent characteristic.867 “There was no enforced celibacy during the first three centuries,” says the judicious Bingham.868 Indeed, marriage was regarded as enjoined on bishops, elders, and deacons, by the counsel of St. Paul.869 The occasional passages of Scripture, in which for temporary and special reasons a single life is recommended, were in course of time wrested from their obvious meaning to a more general application; and in the writings of some of the Fathers, marriage was regarded as a necessary evil, only to be tolerated for the perpetuation of the race, and on account of the infirmity of the weak. It was not till the fourth century that the church adopted the doctrine of devils spoken of by St. Paul as “forbidding to marry.” The earliest ecclesiastical legislation on the subject was at the Spanish council of Elvira, A. D. 305, which commanded ecclesiastics who were married to separate from their wives—abstinere se a conjugibus suis—thus ruthlessly putting asunder those whom God had joined. The synods of Ancyra and Neo Cæsarea, held ten years later, and also one of the so-called apostolic canons of the same date, reversed this decree, and forbade any ecclesiastic to put away his wife on the plea of religion, under penalty of excommunication, which action was confirmed by the great council of Nice.870 Successive attempts to extirpate the tenderest human instincts only led to their illicit gratification, and to the scandals arising from the admission of mulieres subintroductæ, or, in other words, of concubines. So demoralized did the clergy thereby become, that during the Middle Ages, as Mr. Lea remarks, “though, the ancient canons were still theoretically in force, they were practically obsolete every-where.”871 At length Luther led the great emancipation of the clergy from this burden, so unutterably grievous to many a tender conscience; and removed the stigma of disgrace from those domestic relations which God, who setteth the solitary in families, so signally blesses.

There is no trace of the ascetic spirit or celibate clergy of the Church of Rome in the inscriptions of the Catacombs. On the contrary, numerous epitaphs commemorate the honourable marriage of members of every ecclesiastical grade. Thus, in the highest rank, Gruter872 gives the following, which is thought to be that of Liberius, bishop of Rome, who died A. D. 366, and who was sometimes known by the name of Leo:

HVNC MIHI COMPOSVIT TVMVLVM LAVRENTIA CONIVX

MORIBVS APTA MEIS SEMPER VENERANDA FIDELIS

INVIDIA INFELIX TANDEM COMPRESSA QVIESCIT

OCTOGINTA LEO TRANSCENDIT EPISCOPVS ANNOS.

My wife Laurentia made me this tomb; she was ever suited to my disposition, venerable and faithful. At length disappointed envy lies crushed; the bishop Leo survived his eightieth year.

De Rossi gives the following, of a bishop’s son, of date A. D. 404. The relationship is boldly acknowledged, and not yet disguised under the phrase nepos or nephew: VICTOR IN PACE FILIVS EPISCOPI VICTORIS CIVITATIS VCRENSIVM—“Victor, in peace, son of Bishop Victor, of the city of the Ucrenses.” The following, of date A. D. 445, was found at Narbonne: RVSTICVS · EPIS · EPI · BONOSI · FILIVS.... “Bishop Rusticus, son of Bishop Bonosus.”

There are also numerous inscriptions in which presbyters and deacons lament the death of their wives, “chaste, just, and holy.” “Would to God,” exclaims a writer in the Revue Chrétienne, “that all their successors had such.” The following are examples: GAVDENTIVS · PRESBYTER · SIBI ET CONIVGI SVAE SEVERAE CASTAE HAC (sic) SANCTISSIMAE FEMINAE—“Gaudentius the presbyter, for himself and his wife Severa, a chaste and most holy woman;” LOCVS BASILI PRESB ET FELICITATI EIVS.... “The place of Basil the presbyter, and of Felicitas, his (wife).” Observe also the tender recognition of family ties in the following: OLIM PRESBYTERI GABINI FILIA FELIX HIC SVSANNA IACET IN PACE PATRI SOCIATA—“Once the happy daughter of the presbyter Gabinus, here lies Susanna, joined to her father in peace.”

We have already seen the epitaph of “Petronia, the wife of a deacon, the type of modesty,” with whom were buried two of her children.873 The following, of similar character, is accompanied by the epitaph of a deacon on the same stone, probably the husband who so tenderly lamented the loss of his faithful consort.

LEVITAE CONIVX SEMPER MIHI GRATA MARIA

EXITVS ISTE TVVS PROSTRAVIT CORDA TVORVM

PERPETVAS NOBIS LACRIMAS LVCTVMQVE RELINQVENS

CASTA GRAVIS SAPIENS SIMPLEX VENERANDA FIDELIS

COMPLEVIT TVA VOTA DEVS TE NAMQVE MARITVS

TE NATI DEFLENT NEC MORS TIBI SVSTVLIT VLLVM.

Maria, the wife of a deacon, ever well-pleasing to me. That departure of thine prostrated the hearts of thy friends, leaving perpetual tears and grief to us. Chaste, grave, wise, simple, venerable, faithful. God fulfilled thy wishes; for thee thy husband, thee thy children bewail, nor did death bear any away from thee. (A. D. 451.)

Epitaphs are also found indicating the prevalence of marriage in the inferior ecclesiastical ranks, as in the following examples: CLAVDIVS ATTICANVS LECTOR ET CLAVDIA FELICISSIMA CONIVX—“Claudius Atticanus, the reader, and Claudia Felicissima, his wife;”874 IANVARIVS EXORCISTA · SIBI · ET · CONIVGI · FECIT—“Januarius, the exorcist, made this for himself and his wife;” TERENTIVS · FOSOR · (sic) · PRIMITIVE (sic) · CONIVGI · ET · SIBI ·—“Terentius, the fossor, for Primitiva, his wife and himself.”

The primitive church early availed itself of the services of godly women, a sort of female diaconate, for the administration of charity, the care of the sick, the instruction of the young, and of their own sex, and to carry the light and consolations of the gospel into the most private and delicate relations of life, for which these gentle ministrants possessed facilities denied to the other sex. They are frequently mentioned in the writings of the Fathers under the names of διάκονοι,875 deaconesses, viduæ, widows, or ancillæ Dei, handmaids of God. In apostolic times they were required to be of the mature age of sixty years;876 but widows, and even the unmarried, were subsequently admitted into this class as early as forty,877 or even twenty,878 years of age. The unmarried, however, assumed no vow of perpetual celibacy,879 nor of conventual life, but lived privately in their own homes, employed in offices of piety and mercy. The growing esteem of celibacy, however, in the fourth and fifth centuries, invoked ecclesiastical censure for the abandonment of the lofty vantage ground of virginhood;880 but the Imperial law granted liberty of marriage, if the order had been entered before the age of forty. How different the practice of Rome in binding young girls, in the first outburst of religious enthusiasm, or the first bitterness of disappointed hope, by irrevocable vows to a death-in-life, and indissolubly riveting those bonds, no matter how the chafed soul may repudiate the rash vow, and writhe beneath the galling yoke. The consecrated virgin of the early church, instead of the ghastly robings, like the cerements of the grave, in which the youthful nun is swathed, the symbol of her social death, wore a sacrum velamen, or veil, differing but little from that of Christian matrons, and a fillet of gold around her hair. The custom, now part of the Romish ritual, of despoiling the head of its natural adorning, was especially denounced by some of the ancient councils.

There are several of the early Christian inscriptions illustrative of these various classes of consecrated women, of which the following are examples: OC · TA · VI · AE · MA · TRO · NAE · VI · DV · AE · DE · I.—“To the matron Octavia, a widow of God;” HIC QVIESCIT GAVDIOSA CF ANCILLA DEI QVAE VIXIT ANNOS XL ET MEN V—“Here rests Gaudiosa, a most distinguished woman, a handmaid of God, who lived forty years and five months,” (A. D. 447); IN HOC SEPVLCHRO REQVIESCIT PVELLA VIRGO SACRA B · M · ALEXANDRA—“In this tomb rests a girl, a sacred virgin, Alexandra, well deserving;” HOC EST SEPVLCRVM SANCTAE LVCINAE VIRGINIS—“This is the sepulchre of the holy virgin Lucina”—this, however, may not indicate a special class. AESTONIA VIRGO PEREGRINA QVAE VIXIT ANNOS XLI; ET · DS · VIII (sic)—”Æstonia, a travelling virgin, who lived forty-one years and eight days”—she was probably a member of a distant church, received on a letter of recommendation, FVRIA HELPHIS (sic) VIRGO DEVOTA—“Furia Elpis, a consecrated virgin.” In the fifth century this consecration sometimes took place at an early age, as the following example, of date A. D. 401: PRIE (sic) IVNIAS PAVSABET (sic) PRAETIOSA ANNORVM PVLLA (sic) VIRGO XII TANTVM ANCILLA DEI ET CHRISTI—“On the day before (the Calends of) June Prætiosa went to her rest, a young maiden of only twelve years of age, a handmaid of God and of Christ.”881

There is no trace in the inscriptions of the Catacombs of that ascetic spirit from which, in the fourth and following centuries, sprang the strange phenomena of monachism, with its important influence for blended good and evil on the future of Christendom. That was rather the result of the decay and corruption of primitive Christianity, and of the despair of mankind as to its regenerative power upon the world. Hence, multitudes fled from the immedicable evils of society to the solitude of the desert or the mountain.882 Primitive Christianity, on the contrary, was eminently cheerful and social in its character. It consecrated the family life, and developed, to a degree before unknown, the domestic virtues.

The care of the primitive church for the religious teaching of the young and of heathen converts is abundantly exemplified in the inscriptions of the Catacombs. The catechumens, or learners, as the word signifies—the “Cadets of Christianity”—were a distinctly recognized class for whose instruction especial provision was made. It consisted of the children of believers born in the church, and therefore peculiarly under its care; and also of converts from paganism, who needed to be weaned from their errors, and taught the doctrines of Christianity before admission to the sacraments of baptism and the holy eucharist. For the latter, as a safeguard against the rash assumption of the Christian vows and the danger of subsequent apostacy, a certain probation was prescribed.883 The candidates were taught the Holy Scriptures, and a formal confession of faith, probably similar to the ancient creed in which the Christian belief of the church has for so many centuries been expressed. These instructions were given by the bishop himself as chief catechist; and also by the presbyters, deacons, lectors, and other members of the inferior ministry. Deaconesses and aged women acted as instructresses of their own sex; and one of these was always present during the questioning of the female catechumens by the male catechists.

The following engraving represents a chamber in the Catacomb of St. Agnes, which, it is conjectured, was employed for the instruction of the female catechumens. On either side of the doorway are seats or chairs hewn out of the solid tufa, which were probably occupied by the catechist and the presiding deaconess. The low stone bench running around the remaining walls of the chamber would conveniently accommodate the audientes, or hearers, as they were called.

Some Roman Catholic writers have asserted that these chambers were confessionals: but the chairs are too far apart if one was for the confessor and the other for the penitent, especially with an open door between; and too near, from the liability of the confessions being overheard, if each was a confessional; and in either case the necessity for the stone bench cannot be conceived. In some chambers, probably for the male catechumens, there is only one tufa chair, no deaconess being present.

Another curious chamber in the Catacomb of St. Agnes communicates with the one adjacent to it by a circular opening cut through the tufa wall about breast-high. It is conjectured that this was for the purpose of allowing the catechumens to hear the public instructions of the faithful without witnessing the celebration of the sacraments. The zeal of the candidates would thus be the more inflamed,884 that they might be found worthy of admission to the fulness of Christian privilege and to the sacred mysteries hidden from the uninitiate and the unworthy. The following epitaph from the Lapidarian Gallery commemorates a youthful catechumen: VCILIANVS BACIO VALERIO QVE BISET ·(sic) ANN VIIII · MEN · VIII · DIES XXII CATECVM—“Ucilianus to Bacius Valerius, a catechumen, who lived nine years, eight months and twenty-two days.”

The ordinance of baptism receives several illustrations from the monumental evidences of the Catacombs. There are numerous epitaphs of neophytes—a term applied only to newly baptized persons—which indicate that this Christian rite was administered at all ages from tender infancy to adult years; in the latter case the subjects being probably recent converts from heathenism. The following are examples of this class: TEG · CANDIDIS NEOF Q · VXT · M · XXI—“The tile of Candidus, a neophyte, who lived twenty-one months;” FL · IOVINA · QVAE · VIX · ANNIS · TRIBVS · D · XXX · NEOFITA · IN PACE—“Flavia Jovina, who lived three years and thirty days, a neophyte, in peace;” MIRAE INDVSTRIAE ADQVE BONITATIS... INNOCENTIA PREDITVS FL · AVR · LEONI. NEOFITO QVI VIXIT ANN VI · MENS · VIII DIES XI....—“Innocentia Preditus to Flavius Aurelius Leo, a neophyte of wonderful industry and goodness, who lived six years, eight months, eleven days;” ROMANO NEOFITO BENE MERENTI QVI VIXIT · ANNOS · VIII · D · XV · REQVIESCIT IN PACE—“To the well-deserving neophyte Romanus, who lived eight years and fifteen days; he rests in peace.” We have already seen the epitaph of Junius Bassus, who died a neophyte at the age of forty-one, and shall presently observe other instances of adult baptism.885 We find also the epitaph of “two innocent brothers, one a neophyte, the other, one of the faithful.”

In course of time the rite of baptism degenerated into a superstitious charm, and was regarded as a mystical lustration which washed away all sin and was essential to salvation.886 This change probably resulted from a reaction against the Pelagian heresy, which denied the necessity of baptism, and from the rhetorical exaggeration by the Fathers of the spiritual efficacy of this sacrament.887 The church of the Catacombs, while duly administering the rite of baptism, did not, after the manner of the Church of Rome and other modern extreme sacramentalists, invest it with regenerative power, nor regard its involuntary omission as excluding the body from consecrated ground and the soul from heaven.888

Sometimes, by a beautiful metonyme derived from its spiritual significance, baptism is indicated as the palingenesis, or new birth, of which it is the appropriate symbol. The following is a characteristic example of this usage:... CAELESTE RENATVS AQVA (sic)—... “Born again of heavenly water,” (A. D. 377.)889 We read also of a certain Mercurius, who is described as a boy born and dying in the same year, aged twenty-four. The allusion is to the spiritual regeneration symbolized by baptism. With reference to this he was but a boy—puer—at the time of his death.890 This rite was also called illumination, and we find in the Catacombs the epitaphs of persons said to be thus “newly illuminated.”

The testimony of the Catacombs respecting the mode of baptism, as far as it extends, is strongly in favour of aspersion or affusion. All their pictured representations of the rite indicate this mode, for which alone the early fonts seem adapted; nor is there any early art evidence of baptismal immersion. It seems incredible, if the latter were the original and exclusive mode, of apostolic and even Divine authority, that it should have left no trace in the earliest and most unconscious art-record, and have been supplanted therein by a new, unscriptural, and unhistoric method. It is apparent, indeed, from the writings of the fourth and fifth century, that many corrupt and unwarranted usages were introduced in connection with this Christian ordinance that greatly marred its beauty and simplicity. It is unquestionable that at that time baptism by immersion was practised with many superstitious and unseemly rites. The subjects, both men and women, were divested of their clothing, to represent the putting off the body of sin; which, notwithstanding the greatest efforts to avoid it, inevitably provoked scandal. They then received trien immersion, to imitate, says Gregory Nyssen,891 the three days’ burial of Christ; or, according to others, as a symbol of the Trinity. The rite was accompanied by exorcism, insufflation, unction, confirmation, the gift of milk and honey, the administration of the eucharist even to infants, the clothing in white garments, and carrying of lighted tapers, to all of which a mystical meaning was attached.

But in the evidences of the Catacombs, which are the testimony of an earlier and purer period, there is no indication of this mode of baptism, nor of these dramatic accompaniments.892 The marble font represented in the accompanying engraving, now in the crypts of St. Prisca within the walls, is said to have come from the Catacombs, and to have been used for baptismal purposes by St. Peter, himself; in corroboration of which legend it bears the somewhat apocryphal inscription—SCI · PET · BAPTISMV · (sic.) The tradition at least attests its extreme antiquity; and its basin is quite too small for even infant immersion. Other fonts have been found in several of the subterranean chapels, among which is one in the Catacomb of Pontianus, hewn out of the solid tufa and fed by a living stream. It is 1·45 metres long, ·92 metres wide, and 1·11 metres deep, but is seldom near full of water. It is obviously too small for immersion, and was evidently designed for administering the rite as shown in the fresco which accompanies it. (See Fig. 132.) The following inscription, from the Lapidarian Gallery, seems to have come from some such font, and perhaps contains a reference to the scripture, “Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins:” CORPORIS ET CORDIS MACVLAS VITALIS PVRGAT ET OMNE SIMVL ABLVIT VNDA—“The living stream cleanses the spots of the body as well as the heart, and at the same time washes away all (sins).”893

Immediately over the font in the Catacomb of Pontianus is the elaborate fresco of the baptism of Our Lord, figured above. He is represented standing in the river Jordan, while John pours water upon his head, and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove. An angel stands by as witness of the rite, and in the foreground a stag, the emblem of a fervent Christian, is drinking at the pure stream.894

In a very ancient crypt of St. Lucina is another partially defaced baptism of Christ, attributed to the second century, in which St. John stands on the shore and our Saviour in a shallow stream, while the Holy Spirit descends as a dove. On the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus Christ is also symbolically represented as baptized by affusion. The annexed rude example from the Catacomb of Callixtus, probably of the third century, also clearly exhibits the administration of the rite by pouring.895 It is accompanied by a representation of Peter striking water from the rock, an emblem, according to De Rossi, of the waters of baptism sprinkling the sinful souls that come thereto. A similar example also occurs in the cemetery of St. Prætextatus.

In ancient sarcophagal reliefs in the Vatican are representations of small detached baptisteries of circular form, crowned with the Constantinian monogram. These were necessarily of sufficient size to accommodate the number of persons who were baptized at one time, generally at Easter,896 and were placed outside of the basilica to indicate the initiatory character of baptism as the entrance to the church of Christ.897 In the early mosaics representing baptismal scenes, the rite is invariably administered by affusion, as in the baptistery of San Giovanni at Ravenna, in the beginning of the fifth century, in Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, at Ravenna, in the beginning, and in the ivory relief on the episcopal chair of Maximinus, at the end, of the sixth century.898 So, also, a later example in the Lateran basilica represents Constantine kneeling naked in a laver, and Sylvester pouring water on his head.899 This is also the method indicated in several medals, bas reliefs, frescoes, and mosaics, in almost every century from the fourth, through the Middle Ages, indicating a continuous tradition, even when immersion may have been practised, of a different mode of baptism.

The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was the most sacred and consoling rite of the primitive church. It was at once the emblem of the Christian’s highest hopes, and the sublime commemoration of the ineffable sacrifice on which those hopes depend. It was the focus in which concentrated all their holiest thoughts, kindling the whole soul into a flame of adoring love.900 It was the central act of worship, around which all their solemn devotions gathered, and to which they all looked. The sublime thought of the atonement of Christ and of salvation through his death, shone ever star-like over their souls, illumining even the sepulchral gloom of these subterranean crypts. Daily,901 or as often as the vigilance of their foes in times of persecution would permit, the faithful met in the silent halls of death, far from the “madding crowd’s ignoble strife,” to nourish and strengthen their souls for fiery trial, and often for the red baptism of martyrdom, by meditation on the passion of their Lord and partaking of the emblems of his death.

Therefore, in ever-recurring and appropriate symbolism, was this holy rite set forth upon the walls of the Catacombs. Its direct representation, however, was carefully avoided; and its sacred meaning was hidden from the profane gaze of the heathen under a veil of allegory and emblem, which was, nevertheless, instinct with profoundest significance to the initiated. Thus, we find representations of seven men eating bread and fish, which are interpreted as the repast of the disciples by the sea-shore when Our Lord manifested himself in the breaking of bread, and, indirectly, as symbols of the holy eucharist.902 They are not at all analogous to the pictures of pagan funeral banquets, to which they have been compared, but which are entirely foreign to Christian thought. The miracles of turning water into wine, and of the multiplication of the loaves, were also regarded as types of the eucharist, which was, doubtless, frequently symbolized under these figures. We have seen a copy of the remarkable fresco, twice repeated in the Catacomb of St. Lucina, of a fish bearing a basket of bread on its back, and in the midst what seems to be a chalice of wine.903 This is considered one of the most ancient emblems of this sacred rite. This view derives singular corroboration from a passage in Jerome, which speaks of carrying the body of Christ in a basket made of twigs, and his blood in a chalice of glass.904 The eucharist is also evidently symbolized in the representations of fish and sheep carrying small loaves of bread in their mouths. These are sometimes marked with a decussate cross, as was done to facilitate fracture during administration.

The first Christian altars were tables of wood, which, in times of persecution, could be easily removed from house to house in which worship was celebrated. The entire absence of any thing corresponding to the pagan sacrificial altar was made the subject of heathen reproach.905 In a painting found in the Catacomb of Callixtus, which Dr. Northcote describes as “the sacrifice of the Mass, symbolically depicted,” a man stands with hands outstretched, as if in act of consecration, over a three-legged table, on which are bread and a fish, while opposite stands a female figure in the attitude of prayer. In an adjoining chamber a precisely similar table is represented, but without the accompanying figures.906 These tables were placed, not against the wall like a Romish altar, but set out from it, so that the ministrant could stand behind it looking toward the congregation. In the “papal crypt” of the Callixtan Catacomb the sockets for the four feet of the table thus set out from the wall are distinctly visible, and Bosio and Boldetti both found examples of altars standing in the middle of the cubicula. This was also their position in the oldest basilicas of Rome.

In the sixth century a general council decreed that the altars should be of stone. This transition had already taken place in the Catacombs, and arose from the employment of the slab covering the grave in an arcosolium for the administration of the eucharist. This practice led to an increased veneration for the relics of the saints; and soon the presence of these relics became essential to the idea of an altar.907 To this custom Prudentius refers in his hymn for Hippolytus’ day.

“Illa sacramenti donatrix mensa, eademque
Custos fida sui martyris apposita:
Servat ad æterni spem Judicis ossa sepulchro
Pascit item sanctis Tibricolas dapibus.
Mira loci pietas, et prompta precantibus ara.”

“That slab gives the sacrament, and at the same time faithfully guards the martyr’s remains; it preserves his bones in the sepulchre in hope of the Eternal Judge, and feeds the dwellers by the Tiber with sacred food. Great is the sanctity of the place, and it offers a ready altar for those who pray.”

After the consecration of the elements by the presbyter or bishop, the communion in both kinds was administered to the faithful by the deacons in the formula of its institution which we still use.908 The consecrated elements909 were sent to any who were sick, by the hands of deacons or acolytes, as is still the practice in the Greek and Armenian churches. In the Acts of St. Stephen, we read of a young martyr who chose to be beaten to death by a Roman mob, rather than disclose the sacred treasure entrusted to his care. This practice in time degenerated into the superstitious administration of the viaticum as a preparation for the soul’s journey to the spirit-world. Some of the gilt glasses, before described, are thought to have been used as patens and chalices for the celebration of the eucharist. With the increasing wealth and more gorgeous ritual of the church, gold and silver vessels, adorned with costly gems and rarest workmanship, took the place of the humbler material of the primitive ages.910

Another beautiful institution generally associated with the celebration of the eucharist in primitive times is that of the agape, or love-feast. In a subterranean chapel in the Catacomb of Marcellinus and Peter is an exceedingly interesting representation of the observance of this custom, shown in the following engraving.

Three guests, it will be perceived, sit at the semicircular table, at the ends of which preside two matrons personifying peace and love, with their names written above their heads. An attendant supplies them with food from a small table in front, on which are a cup, platters, and a lamb. The inscriptions, according to Dr. Maitland, should be expanded thus: IRENE DA CALDA[M AQVAM]—“Peace, give hot water;” and AGAPE MISCE MI [VINVM CVM AQVA]—“Love, mix me wine with water;” the allusion being to the ancient custom of tempering wine with water, hot or cold.

Numerous other representations of this devout feast at which Love and Peace preside attest its general observance. It would be a touching symbol of Christian unity to the persecuted saints, and would unite still closer hearts bound together by common dangers and a common hope. All the distinctions of rank were then forgotten. Gathering by stealth in these subterranean crypts from the imperial palace and the lowly abode of poverty, they break bread together in the solemn presence of the dead in token of their common brotherhood in Christ. The slave of a Roman master, but the freedman of Christ, and the patrician convert, the intellectual Greek and the once bigoted Jew, together

Celebrate the feast of love,
Antedate the joys above.

This beautiful institution, first mentioned by Jude as the “feasts of charity,”911 was usually observed in connexion with the eucharist, though not necessarily a part of it. It dates from the earliest period of the church,912 and its corruptions among the Corinthians called forth the sharp rebuke of the Apostle Paul.913

Tertullian thus describes its character in the second century: “Our supper, which you accuse of luxury, shows its reason by its very name; for it is called agape, which, among the Greeks, signifies love. It admits of nothing vile or immodest. We eat and drink only as much as hunger and thirst demand, mindful that the evening is to be spent in the worship of God. We so speak as knowing that God hears. After washing our hands and bringing lights, each is asked to sing to God according to his ability, either from Scripture or from his own mind. Prayer also concludes the feast.”914 He calls it also a supper of philosophy and discipline, rather than a corporeal feast. At the close collections were made for widows and orphans and for the poor, many of whom would be thrown out of employment by their renunciation of idolatrous trades; also for prisoners and for persons who had suffered shipwreck.915 It is doubtless the agape which Pliny describes as “the common and harmless meal”916 of the Christians, and at which, according to Lucian, their “sacred conversations”917 were held. Clement of Alexandria calls the agape “the banquet of reason, a celestial food, and the supper of love; the pledge and proof of mutual affection.”918

The primitive church carefully guarded the celebration of the eucharist and agape from the pryings of idle curiosity or the perfidy of heathen malevolence, lest the name of God should be blasphemed, or the goodly pearls of salvation be trampled beneath swinish feet. But this very secresy and mystery became the occasion of the vilest slanders and aspersions. The Christians were accused of celebrating these rites with the most abominable orgies—feasting on human flesh and infants’ blood, and committing nameless crimes of still deeper dye. “They charge us,” say the martyrs of Lyons, “with feasts of Thyestes, and the crimes of Œdipus, and such abominations as are neither lawful for us to speak nor think.” The blameless believers were denounced as the very dregs of society, a skulking and darkness-loving race, meeting by night for profane conjuration and unhallowed banquets, as despisers of the gods, haters of mankind, and mockers at holy things,919 and were confounded with pestilent sorcerers who in midnight caves practiced their foul incantations against human life.920 These accusations arose partly, it is probable, from distorted accounts of the holy communion of the body and the blood of Christ, interpreted as a literal partaking of the corporeal substance; partly from the vile practices of the Carpocratians and other heretics; but chiefly from the malice of the heathen themselves, judging the character of the Christian mysteries from the obscene orgies of Venus and Bacchus.

Tertullian indignantly resents the vile calumnies, and shows them to be monstrous and absurd. “We are daily beset by foes,” he exclaims, “we are daily betrayed, we are often surprised in our secret congregations; yet who ever came upon a half-consumed corpse among us, or any other corroborations of the accusations against us?”921 He retorts upon the heathen the charge of infanticide, human sacrifice, and unnatural crimes, and contrasts therewith the purity of the Christian character. Minucius Felix also attests the modest and sober character of the Christian feasts, which they celebrated with chaste discourse and chaster bodies.922

In course of time the agapæ lost in great measure their religious character, and were employed for the anniversaries of the martyrs, and for marriage and funeral occasions.923 They were still further desecrated by their substitution for pagan festivals, in order, as St. Augustine remarks, “that the heathen might feast with their former luxury, though without their former sacrilege.”924 These “pious hilarities” thus degenerated, in the fourth and fifth centuries, into convivial banquets and wanton revelry—a scandal and disgrace to Christendom, and provoked the indignant censure of the Fathers. “It is absurd,” says St. Jerome, “to honour with feasting the saints who pleased God with their fasts.” St. Augustine vehemently condemns those “who inebriate themselves in honour of the martyrs, and place even their gluttony and drunkenness to the account of religion.”925 “These drunkards persecute the saints as much with their cups,” he says, “as the furious pagans did with stones.”926 The good bishop of Nola, greatly scandalized at these semi-pagan revelries, painted with holy pictures the church of St. Felix, that as the ignorant peasants gazed more they might drink the less. It has been suggested that probably the pious figures in the gilt glasses of the Catacombs were designed for the same purpose; but many of their mottoes were of a highly convivial character, calculated rather to promote the revelry in which they were doubtlessly employed. Both the natalitia and the agapæ at length became so obnoxious in character as to excite the taunts of the pagans and the condemnation of the more devout and thoughtful Christians. The abuse of the latter beautiful institution became so intolerable that it became the object of repressive decrees of successive councils till it was finally abolished. The council of Elvira (A. D. 305) prudently forbade the presence of females at these nocturnal meetings in the Catacombs.927 That of Laodicea (A. D. 361) enacted that the agapæ should not be celebrated in churches. The council of Carthage (A. D. 397) forbade the clergy attending them, and the council of Trullo (A. D. 706) prohibited their celebration at all, under penalty of excommunication.

This beautiful symbol of Christian unity was revived in spirit by the founder of Methodism; but, to guard against the corruptions into which it had previously fallen, the elements of its celebration were restricted to bread and water. A similar custom is also observed among the Moravian brethren, from whom, probably, Wesley borrowed it. It has also been transmitted from primitive times by the Nestorian Christians of the Malabar coast.928

We have thus endeavoured to give a faithful transcript of the testimony of the Catacombs relative to primitive Christianity. We have seen how consonant it is with the teachings of Holy Scripture, how opposed to all the institutions and dogmas of Rome. We have only to compare the buried relics of the past with the living present above ground to see at a glance the infinite contrast between the church of Christ and that of Antichrist. Could the simple bishops of the primitive ages behold the more than regal state and oriental pomp in which, surrounded by armed halberdiers, amid the blare of martial music and thunder of the guns of St. Angelo, their successor of to-day rides in his golden chariot from his stately palace to the majestic fane of St. Peter—the grandest temple in the world—they would feel it difficult to perceive therein any resemblance to their own humble and often persecuted estate, or to the pure and spiritual religion of the meek and lowly Nazarene. Could they witness the almost idolatrous homage which he receives, throned in state, tiaraed with a triple crown, presenting his foot for the humiliating osculation of bishops, cardinals, ambassadors, and pilgrims from every land; could they behold him summoning from the ends of the earth the prelates of Roman Catholic Christendom to record a decree of his personal infallibility and freedom from human error; they would regard as blasphemous these unhallowed assumptions, and denounce, as the prophetic Antichrist, him who laid claim to these awful attributes.929

Above the lowly sleepers in the crypts of the Vatican swells the mighty dome which Michael Angelo hung high in air; lofty chant and pealing anthem thrill through the vast expanse; polished shafts of porphyry, jasper, and costliest marble gleam around; priceless paintings and rarest sculpture by the hand of genius afford a still richer adorning; at an altar blazing with gold and gems a human priest in many-coloured vestments daily repeats, as he dares assert, the ineffable sacrifice of Christ; from four hundred cross-crowned campaniles baptized and consecrated bells ring forth the hours of prayer; at a thousand shrines the multitude adore, they vainly think, the real presence of the Redeemer; and perfumed incense evermore ascends, not to the many gods of the Pantheon, but to the still more numerous saints of the Roman calendar. But we feel that all the kingdoms of the world, and all the glory of them, were a poor compensation for the loss of the primitive simplicity, purity, and spiritual power of the humble service of the Catacombs. We turn away from the gorgeous ritual and hollow pomp to those lowly crypts where the Christian hymn of a persecuted remnant of the saints ascended from beside the martyr’s grave, as the truer type of Christ’s spiritual temple upon earth. In these chambers of silence and gloom we find the evidences of that undying life of Christianity which we seek in vain amid the living death of that city of churches and of priests—the Apostolic See of Christendom—the vaunted seat of Christ’s vicegerent upon earth. With a deeper significance than that with which it was first uttered, we adopt the language of Tertullian, and exclaim, ID ESSE VERUM, QUODCUNQUE PRIMUM; ID ESSE ADULTERUM, QUODCUNQUE POSTERIUS.930

Dr. McCaul notes a striking analogy to Christian forms of expression in an epitaph describing pagan initiation: ARCANIS PERFVSIONIBVS IN AETERNVM RENATVS—“Born eternally by secret sprinklings.” The sprinkling was that of the blood of a bull or ram, dripping on the bodies of the recipients of the lustration through perforations in a platform beneath which they stood.—Christian Epitaphs, p. 57.

Notes

822 Northcote’s Catacombs, p. 140.

823 Euseb., Hist. Eccles., vi, 43. The hierarchical subdivisions in the Greek church are vastly more elaborate. Thus we have the patriarch, metropolitan, archbishop, bishop, proto-presbyter, super-dean, dean, presbyter, proto-deacon, deacon, sub-deacon, and common priest, besides a host of inferior grades.

824 Strom., vi, 13. “The succession of the early Roman bishops,” says Stillingfleet, “is as muddy as the Tiber itself.”—Irenicum, ii, 7. It is an historical riddle of which it is difficult or impossible to find the solution.

825 Eusebius gives this very title, ποιμήν, to Cyprian, (vii, 3.) They were also called πρόεδροι, προεστώς, and præsides, or presidents.

826 Hippolytus, bishop of Portus, only fifteen miles from Rome, and a saint of the Roman calendar, strongly opposed both Zephyrinus and Callixtus, bishops of Rome. In the fifth century Milan took precedence of Rome, and many other places were of equal dignity. The episcopal office was very different from what is now implied by the name, and its functions varied little from those of the presbyter, save in the general oversight of a comparatively limited diocese. Thus in Northern Africa alone were four hundred and sixty-six bishops, beside sixty-six vacant sees. Clement, bishop of Rome, (Ep. ad Cor., 74,) Justin Martyr, and other early writers, seem to imply that the terms bishop and presbyter were at first permutable. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, addresses his clergy as his co-presbyters—compresbyteros. Jerome, jealous for his order, asserts the original identity of the offices (idem est presbyter qui et episcopus) and the gradual development of episcopal dignity, from custom rather than from primitive appointment, (Comment. in Titum.) Chrysostom asserts the original convertibility of the titles of bishop and presbyter—οἱ πρεσβύτεροι τὸ παλαιὸν ἐκαλοῦντο ἐπίσκοποι, καὶ οἱ ἐπίσκοποι πρεσβύτεροι.—Homil. i, in Phil., i. Lord King compares the two to the offices of rector and curate, (Prim. Ch., c. 4,) but Bingham’s High Church notions led him to magnify the essential difference between the two, (Orig. Eccl., ii, 3.) The bishops were elected by the presbyters and the laity jointly. Eusebius states that Fabian was indicated for the office by the divine portent of a dove descending upon him, (H. E., vi, 29.) They generally attained this dignity not per saltum, but having passed through the inferior grades. Cyprian, however, was but a neophyte, Eusebius a catechumen, and Ambrose a layman, when appointed to the office of bishop. In the course of time, in the East the emperors, in the West the kings, usurped the power of appointment, a relic of which is seen in the royal congé d’élire in Great Britain, so strongly satirized by Carlyle, (Latter-day Pamphlets.)

827 See ante, p. 95.

828 We have already seen that the inscription of date A. D. 392, regarded as the epitaph of a “most holy Pope Felix,” was in reality that of a foster-father. See ante, p. 471. The phrase “Apostolic See,” now restricted to Rome, was originally applied to every bishop’s seat.—Bingham, ii, 2, § 3.

829 He speaks of his predecessor in office as “our father, (πάπα,) the blessed Hereclas.”—Eu., H. E., vii, 7. In like manner an epitaph of an African bishop, of date A. D. 475, designates him “our father of holy memory”—Sanctæ memoriæ pater noster.

830 Ep. 8. Cler. Rom. ad Cler. Carth.

831 De Pudicit., c. 13.

832 Ep. 17, 18, 30, etc.

833 The synonymous title of abbot is still used in this sense. It was applied to the hermit monks of the Orkneys and Iceland, and gave the name Papa Strona and Papa Westra to islands of the Orkney group.

834 Optatus says there were forty churches in Rome in the third century. Ammianus describes the almost regal pomp of the bishops in the latter part of the fourth century, and records the sanguinary struggle for the episcopal dignity between Damasus and Ursicinus. The streets were strewn with the slain, and one hundred and thirty-seven corpses polluted the sacred precincts of a Christian basilica. The primitive church stigmatized simony as χριστεμπορείαν, or “selling Christ.”

835 Ego autem fidenter dico quia quisque se universalem sacerdotem vocat, vel vocari desiderat, in elatione suâ Antichristum præcurrit.—Greg. Max., Epis. vii, 7-33.

836 Gregory III. (731-741) styles himself “the most holy and blessed Apostolic Pope”—Sanctissimus ac Beatissimus Apostolicus Papa. Boniface VIII. adopted the triple-crowned tiara, to indicate the Pope’s dominion over heaven, earth, and hell.
Dante represents the pope as an all-powerful griffin, symbolical of his spiritual and temporal functions, drawing the triumphal car of the church.—Purgatorio, Can. xxix. Yet in a fresco of the seventh or eighth century, of Cornelius, bishop of Rome, he is in no way distinguished by costume, insignia, or title from Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who stands beside him.

837 The name was not always indicative of age, but of office, like the Jewish זְקֻנִים or elders, the Latin senatores, and the Saxon aldermen.
Rheinwal, Geisler, Neander, and other eminent German scholars, agree that the term bishop originally was merely the official title of the presbyter who was chosen to rule or oversee the church; and that the latter sat in consistory with the bishop, forming the ecclesiastical senate, in which the bishop was simply the presiding officer—primus inter pares.
It is worthy of note that the word ἱερεύς, “priest,” that is, one who offers sacrifice, is nowhere applied to any ecclesiastical rank in the Catacombs, or in the writings of the primitive Fathers. It has been left for Romanism, and a Romanizing sacerdotalism, to apply to the Christian minister this phrase, so opposed to the genius of the New Testament.

838 The letters Pbb., according to De Rossi, stand for Presbyter benedictus.

839 Felix was probably presbyter of the basilica of St. Paul, founded by Constantine A. D. 324, rebuilt by Theodosius and Honorius, A. D. 388-395, restored by Leo I., A. D. 440, and again by the present Pope, in its ancient dimensions, (four hundred and eleven feet by two hundred and seventy-nine.) It is one of the noblest basilicas of Rome.

840 According to Bingham, Pontifex maximus was a title common to all bishops in primitive times.—Orig. Eccl., ii, § 6.
There is here possibly a paronomasia on the word “Leo,” lion of the pontiffs. There were sometimes several presbyters attached to one church. See De Rossi, Inscr. Christ., No. 975.

841 Adleguntur in ordinem ecclesiasticum artifices idolorum.—De Idol., vii.

842 Hist. Eccles., c. vii, 29.

843 Sozomen, i, 27, and vii, 28.

844 Clericus quantumlibet verbo Dei eruditus, artificio victum quærat.—Conc. Carth., 4, can. 51. The example of Paul, the tentmaker, who, though asserting the right of the ministry to a support, yet “wrought with labour and travail night and day,” that he might not be chargeable to the church, will occur to the reader. Chrysostom, speaking of the rural bishops of Antioch, says: “These men you may see sometimes yoking the oxen and driving the plough, and again ascending the pulpit and cultivating the souls under their care; now uprooting the thorns from the earth with a hook, and now purging out the sins of the soul by the word.”—Hom. ad Pop. Antioch., xix. “How glorious to see the gray-haired pastor approach, like Abraham, his loins girt, digging the ground and working with his own hands.”—Hom. in Act., xviii.

845 A similar office obtained in the Jewish synagogue, the פַרְנַסִים.

846 This was especially the case in verse, as the word diaconus was unsuitable for hexameters.

847 In Constantinople there were more than one hundred deacons, and more than ninety sub-deacons.—Justin., Nov., iii, 1.

848 This was probably a memorial of a later period than the times of persecution. The epithet sanctus was not applied till comparatively late. The office of deacon, however, was particularly obnoxious to persecuting greed. Witness the martyrdom of Lawrence the deacon, antea.

849 Rome was divided into seven ecclesiastical districts corresponding to its seven deacons.

850 John III., bishop of Rome.

851 They are mentioned by Tertullian (De Præscrip., c. 41) and Cyprian, (Ep., 24, 33,) and by many later writers. The office was possibly derived from the Synagogue.

852 Socrat., iii, 1. Sozom., v. 2.

853 cxxiii, c. 54.

854 Leo X. was a priest at seven and a cardinal at ten. Among the five hundred clergy destroyed by the Vandal persecution in Carthage were many infant readers—quam plurimi erant lectores infantuli.—Victor de Persec. Vandal., lib. iii.

855 On the tomb of a youth of fourteen occurs the words, VOTVS DEO, “Dedicated to God.”

856 Ἀκόλουθος, “A servant.”

857 Cornelius, bishop of Rome in the third century, says there were in that church forty-two acolytes, (Euseb., H.E., vi, 43;) and, according to Eusebius, a great number attended the bishops at the council of Nice.

858 See the vagabond Jew exorcists of Acts xix, 13. They were probably also magicians and soothsayers. Exorcism was common also among the pagan soothsayers, with whom the Christians were sometimes confounded. It is probable against them that a law of Ulpian was directed, condemning those who used incantations, imprecations, or, to use the common word of impostors, exorcisms—Si incantavit, si imprecatus est, si (ut vulgari verbo impostorum utar) exorcisavit.

859 Apol., 23.

860 Cont. Cels., vii. Gregory Thaumaturgus, the Wonder-worker, won especial fame by his exploits of this nature.—Socrates, iv, 27. Antony, of Egypt, could detect dæmons by the sense of smell!

861 A somewhat analogous practice to the ancient exorcism was that of touching for king’s evil, for which there was a recognized form in the prayer-book of the time of George II.—De Strumosis Attrectandis. Charles II. “touched” one hundred thousand persons.

862 See ante, p. 132.

863 Primus in clericis fossariorum ordo est, etc.—De Sept. Ord. Eccles. They were also called lecticarii, from their carrying the corpse on a lectica or bier, and copiatæ, a word of uncertain origin. Constantine organized the copiatæ into a corporation at Constantinople, where they numbered four hundred. Compare the Parabolani of Alexandria.

864 See Figs. 23, ²⁴.

865 With the increase of wealth and the progress of learning in the Christian community, the number and variety of clerical offices was greatly multiplied, and all the paraphernalia of pomp and gorgeous ritual were added. A multitude of inferior ecclesiastical dependants hung upon the church, absorbing its strength, corrupting its virtue, and degrading its character. The knowledge of their very names and offices has become a difficult task. Thus we have sacristarii, or keepers of the sacred vestments and vessels; cappellani, or attendants on the altar; matricularii, or marshals of the public processions; staurophori, or cross bearers; ceroferarii and thuriferarii, the bearers of tapers and incense; and parafrenarii, or coachmen of the higher ecclesiastics—the latter, according to Mabillon, being themselves reckoned among the clergy. There were also œconomi, or stewards of church lands; thesaurii, or treasurers of ecclesiastical funds; notarii, or secretaries; apocrisiarii, or legates; cancellarii, or chancellors; syndici, or syndics; and hermeneutai, or interpreters, chiefly in the Syrian and African churches, where the congregation used different languages—speaking to the people in an unknown tongue is a Romish innovation. Even the offices of highest dignity were indefinitely multiplied. There were several orders of bishops:—metropolitans, archbishops, patriarchs, primates, and exarchs; bishops diocesan, bishops quiescentes, that is, without charges, and titular bishops with charges in partibus infidelium; suffragan bishops and chorepiscopi; cardinals and vicars general; and many other officers of lordly titles, princely wealth, and vast political power. But of these we find no examples, no prototypes in the epitaphs of the Catacombs, nor in the lowly pastors of the persecuted flock of Christ in the primitive ages of the church. The application of the title of pope with its present signification to the early bishops is a ludicrous anachronism and misnomer, as nothing could be further from the reality than the idea which it now suggests.
Like the vine, which, twining round some noble elm, seems to enhance its beauty, but in time completely stifles its strength in its strangling embrace, so the rank growth of human institutions has strangled the life of the goodly tree of Roman Christianity, and blighted the promise of its early years. Forms of ritual should be but the trellis for the support of a spiritual worship; else, better that, like the brazen serpent, they be broken in pieces, and, like the body of Moses, buried in an unknown sepulchre, than become the objects of idolatrous homage or of superstitious veneration.

866 It was a primitive and probably correct opinion that all the apostles were married except Paul and John—Omnes apostoli, exceptis Johanne et Paulo, uxores habuerunt.—Ambros., ad Hilar.; Clem. Alex., Strom., iii; Euseb., H. E., iii, 30; Orig., Com. in Rom.

867 It was probably derived by them from the Essenes and other ascetic communities of the East.

868 Orig. Eccles., iv, 4.

869 1 Tim. ii, 2, 12; Titus i, 6. So the Greek Church still understands him, requiring the marriage of its clergy. Tertullian, Cyprian, Gregory of Nyssa, Hilary of Poitiers, Spyridon, Synesius, and many other distinguished ecclesiastics of early times, are recorded to have been married.

870 Socrat., i, 11; Sozom., i, 23. “Marriage is the true chastity,” exclaimed the aged bishop Paphnutius.

871 Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 162. The satirical songs, tales, and scandalous anecdotes concerning the celibate clergy, and the denunciations of their vice by successive councils, attest the social depravity caused by this system. The ascetic depreciation of woman led also inevitably to her moral degradation. She was described by some of the monkish writers, who thus slandered the memory of their own mothers, as a noxious animal, the very essence of evil and gate of hell, whose beauty was a lure of the devil and perpetual temptation to sin, and her very presence a contamination. The tenderest family ties were severed at the fancied call of duty. In Roman Catholic countries woman is still immured with almost oriental jealousy, and is denied the intellectual emancipation her sex elsewhere enjoys. She may not enter the most sacred places of Rome, nor visit the pope, except in mourning. There is no music for the female voice in the service of the papal chapel.

872 Inscrip. Antiq., p. 1173.

873 See ante, p. 428. The following is from Salonæ: FL · IVLIVS DIACONVS ET AVRELIA MERIA CONIVX EIVS HOC SARCOFAGVM (sic) SIBI VIVI POSVERVNT—“Flavius Julius, a deacon, and Aurelia Meria, his wife, while living, erected this sarcophagus for themselves.” See, also, the epitaph of Tettius Felicissimus, p. 474.

874 The following is from the island of Salamis: Οἶκος αἰώνιος Ἀγάθωνος ἀναγνώστου καὶ Εὐφημίας.... “The everlasting dwelling of Agatho, a reader, and Euphemia....” She was probably his wife.

875 Thus, St. Paul calls Phœbe a διάκονος, translated “servant,” of the church at Cenchria.—Rom., xvi, 1. The Christian ancillæ quæ ministræ dicebantur, whom Pliny tortured, were probably of this class.

876 1 Tim. v, 9.

877 Concil. Chalcedon, c. 14.

878 Tertul., de Veland. Virgin., c, 9. Olympias, a Christian matron of Constantinople, of noble rank, widowed at eighteen, became a deaconess, and devoted her immense fortune to charity. She was long the devoted patroness of the persecuted Chrysostom.

879 Cypr., Ep., 62.

880 The Fathers are enthusiastic in the praise of perpetual virginity. “It has the higher dignity, as vessels of gold and silver compared to earthenware,” says Jerome.—Adv. Jovin. “The thirty-fold increase of Scripture,” he asserts, “refers to marriage, the sixty-fold to widowhood, but the hundred-fold to virginity.”—Ad Ageruchiam. “Marriage replenishes earth,” he adds; “but virginity, heaven”—Nuptiæ terram replent, virginitas paradisum. “These sacred virgins are the necklace of the church,” says Prudentius, “and with these gems she is adorned”—Hoc est monile ecclesiæ! His illa gemmis comitur!—Peristeph., H., 3. They became in a mystical sense the spouses of Christ, and Jerome blasphemously addresses the mother of Eustochium as the mother-in-law of God—Socrus Dei esse cœpisti—Ad Eustoch. Both Jerome and Chrysostom, however, acknowledged, and unsparingly lashed, the evils to which the celibate system in their time had led. “She is the true virgin,” says the latter, “who careth for the things that belong to the Lord.”

881 In one example, of date A. D. 525, we find the phrase NONNAE ANCILLAE DEI, in which we see, perhaps, the origin of our word nun. Jerome had previously applied the word nonnæ to either widows or virgins professing chastity.—Ad Eustoch., c. 6.

882 See article on “The Rise of Monachism,” by the present writer, in London Quarterly Review, October, 1873.

883 This was not of uniform duration. The Council of Elvira, (c. 24,) indeed, prescribed two years, but the length of the period varied in different places.

884 “Tanto ardentius concupiscantur, quanto honorabilius occultantur,” says Augustine, of this very practice.—In Johan., 96.

885 The following resumé of the principal patristic evidence on the practice of infant baptism is corroborated by the testimony of the Catacombs. We omit the passages from Clement and Hermes Pastor, which imply its prevalence in the first century, as being rather vague. Justin Martyr, about A. D. 148, speaks of persons sixty and seventy years old who had been made disciples of Christ (ἐμαθητεύθησαν, the very word employed in Matt. xxviii, 19,) in their infancy, (Apol., 2,) and compares the rite of baptism to that of circumcision.—Dial. c. Tryph. Irenæus expressly speaks of “infants, little ones, children, youth, and the aged, as regenerated unto God,” which phrase he elsewhere applies to baptism—Infantes et parvulos, et pueros, et juvenes, et seniores.—Lib. ii, c. 39. Tertullian, indeed, in the third century, recommends the delay of baptism, especially in the case of infants—Cunctatio baptismi utilior est, præcipue tamen circa parvulos—an indication of the Montanist heresy, into which he fell, which regarded post-baptismal sins as inexpiable.—De Baptis., c. 18. The practice, however, continued, and Origen expressly asserts that little children were baptized for the remission of sins (Parvuli baptizantur in remissionem peccatorum—Hom., 14, in Luc.,) which custom, he says, the church handed down from the apostles—Ecclesia ab apostolis traditionem suscepit.—Id., in Rom., v. 6. When the question arose, in the third century, not whether baptism should be administered to infants, but whether it should be administered before the eighth day, Cyprian and a council of sixty-six African bishops unanimously decreed that the rite should be denied to none, even in earliest infancy—Universi potius judicavimus, nulli hominum nato misericordiam Dei et gratiam denegandam.—Cypr. Ep. 59, ad Fidum. “And this,” says Augustine, “is no new doctrine, but of apostolic authority”—Nec omnino credenda, nisi apostolica esse traditio.—De Genesi ad Literam., x. The later Fathers abound in similar testimonies. The infant children of heathen converts were baptized immediately, and the older ones when instructed.—Cod. Justin., i, 11, Leg. 10. Orphans, foundlings, and even the children of heathens, received this sacred rite. At an early period the eucharist was administered to infants, which was of necessity preceded by baptism.

886 Hence, when a person died unbaptized, a living substitute sometimes received the rite in his stead. Fulgentius indeed asserts, that unbaptized children, even if they die “in uteris matrum,” are punished with everlasting punishment in eternal fire—ignis æterni sempiterno supplicio puniendos.—De Fide ad Petr., 27. But he alone of the Fathers expresses this abominable opinion. Augustine and Ambrose, though insisting on the importance of baptism, admit that the faith and repentance—fidem conversionemque cordis—of those who die while piously preparing therefor may suffice in its stead.—Aug., de Bap., iv, 22.

887 In bold and unwarrantable metaphor some of the Fathers speak of the waters of baptism as changed in mystical transubstantiation into the very cleansing blood of Christ.
The prevalence of the Montanist heresy, which regarded as inexpiable all sins committed after baptism, led many to postpone its reception, although this practice was strongly censured by the church. Thus, Constantine remained a catechumen till his sixty-fifth year, and received baptism—”ἐμυήθη,” says Sozomen, (ii, 34,) literally, “was initiated,”—just before his death. An inscription at St. John’s Lateran asserts his baptism by Sylvester many years previously: CONSTANTINVS PER CRVCEM VICTOR A S. SILVESTRO BAPTIZATVS CRVCIS GLORIAM PROPAGAVIT: but Dr. Döllinger has shown the entirely mythical character of the legend.—Fables respecting the Popes, etc., by Jn. G. Ign. von Döllinger. 1872.

888 See the epitaph of an unbaptized catechumen already given.

889 In a Christian epitaph from Aquileia, of date A. D. 734, we find the scriptural formula—ex aqua et Spu renatus—“born again of water and the Spirit.”—Muratori, Nov. Thesaur., p. 1849.

890 See McCaul, Christian Epitaphs, p. 64.

891 De Bapt. Christ.

892 Cyprian argues for the validity of baptism by sprinkling, when immersion is inconvenient, as in the case of the sick, prisoners, etc., as follows: “In baptism the spots of sin are otherwise washed away than is the filth of the body in a secular and carnal washing, in which is need of a bath, soap, and the like. The heart of the believer is otherwise washed; the mind of man is cleansed by the merit of faith”—Neque enim sic in sacramento salutari delictorum contagia, ut in lavacro carnali et seculari sordes cutis et corporis abluuntur, etc.—Ep. ad Magnum.
Thus, we read that St. Lawrence baptized with only a pitcher of water—urceum afferens cum aqua—and by pouring water on the head of the subject—fundit aquam super caput.—Acta Laurentii. Tertullian also speaks of the “aspersion of water” in baptism—asperginem aquae.—De Pœnitent., 6.

893 The so-called benitiers, or holy water vessels of the Catacombs, were, it is likely, in some cases at least, baptismal vases. The Romish “holy water” is probably copied from the aqua lustralis of the pagans, which stood at the door of the temples, and into which the worshipper on entering and leaving dipped his fingers. In striking analogy to Romish usage, the pagan priest sprinkled the multitude with the holy dew by means of an aspergillum, or light brush—
Idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda
Spargens rore levi.

894 The nimbus and other characteristics indicate the comparatively late date of this picture. De Rossi thinks it not earlier than the seventh or eighth century. The ravages of time since the above was copied by Bosio have defaced part of the angel figure. In a similar group in a Latin MS., of the ninth century, the river Jordan flows from two vessels held by two boys. In another group at Monza, of the seventh century, the baptismal water pours from a vase held in the beak of the divine dove upon the head of Christ.

895 The figures are a light umber, the falling water a pale blue.

896 The neophytes laid aside their white baptismal robes, or albs, on the Sunday after Easter, hence called Dominica in albis. In the following inscription Pascasius, a neophyte of six years, is said to have received baptism on Easter eve, and to have laid aside his albs one week thereafter in the tomb: PERCEPIT XI KAL. MAIAS ET ALBAS SVAS OCTABAS (sic) PASCAE (sic) AD SEPVLCHRVM DEPOSVIT. (A. D. 463.)

897 Although these in after times became vast buildings, with ample provision for baptismal immersion, in the earlier ages they were quite small; and, according to Smith’s Classical Dictionary, the baptisterium was “not a bath sufficiently large to immerse the whole body, but a vessel or labrum containing cold water for pouring on the head.”—Art., Baths. Eusebius speaks of baptisteries without the church “for those who require yet the purification and the sprinklings (περιῤῥαντήριον) of water and the Holy Spirit.”—E. H., x, 4.

898 I am indebted for these references to the Rev. Prof. Bennett, D.D., of Syracuse University, late of Berlin, Prussia.

899 Ciampini, Tab. ii, Figs. 3, 4.

900 In later times the devout Bernard of Clairvaux thus eulogizes the eucharist: “It is,” he exclaims, “the medicine of the sick, the way of the wandering; it comforts the feeble and delights the strong; it cures disease and preserves health; it makes man more submissive to correction, stronger to labour, more ardent to love, wiser in foresight, prompter in obedience, more devout in thanksgiving. It absolves from sin, destroys the power of Satan, gives strength for martyrdom, and, in fine, brings every good.”—Costeri. Institut. Chr., lib. i, c. 6. It was also described as “the bread of angels, spiritual food, the life of the soul, the perpetual health of the mind, the antidote of sin, and pledge of future glory.”

901 Alicubi quotidie alicubi certis intervallis dierum.—Aug., Tr., 26, in Johan. It was, in a special sense, the “daily bread of the soul.”

902 “Christ who suffered is the fish which was broiled,” says St. Augustine—Piscis assus, Christus passus.

903 See Fig. 54.

904 Nihil illo ditius, qui corpus Domini canistro vimineo, sanguinem portat in vitro.—Ep. 4, ad Rustic. The communion was thus conveyed to those who through sickness were absent from its public celebration.

905 Cur nullas aras habent?—Minuc., Octav. Non altaria fabricemus, non aras.—Arnob., Contr. Gentes. The Christian altars were called indifferently, Altare, ara Dei, mensa Domini.

906 In the Lateran basilica, which is claimed as the head and mother of all the churches of Rome—caput et mater omnium ecclesiarum—is an altar which tradition asserts St. Peter made with his own hands, and employed for the administration of the Holy Sacrament. The legend attests at least an ancient opinion as to primitive usage. Originally only one altar was permissible in a church, but under Romish influence the number increased to as many as twenty-five, as at St. Peter’s.

907 In three or four instances bronze rings are attached to the slab, as if to allow its removal for a second interment, or perhaps to give a view of the relics of the saint.

908 Tertullian carefully guards against the literal interpretation of the words of Christ, “This is my body,” by the addition, “that is, a figure of my body”—figura corporis mei.—Adv. Marc., iv, 40. Augustine and others of the Fathers also discriminate between Christ’s spiritual and corporeal presence.

909 They were called eulogia, that is, blessing or benediction. In the Jewish cemetery is a representation of sacred loaves, probably passover cakes, marked ΕΥΛΟΓΙΑ. The Christian representation of a cup doubtless frequently refers to the “cup of blessing”—Τὸ ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας—mentioned by St. Paul.—1 Cor. x, 16.

910 There is not in the whole range of early Christian epigraphy the slightest indication of the Romish doctrine of Transubstantiation; which, indeed, as Dr. Maitland remarks, “was not distinctly broached till the ninth century.” Some of the earlier poets, however, and the more rhetorical of the Fathers, allude to a mystical presence of Christ in the eucharist, bordering on the modern Romish conception.
The council of Elvira forbade the acceptance of any gift for the administration of the sacraments. How different from Rome’s mercenary tariff for the celebration of masses for the dead!

911 Ταῖς ἀγάπαις.—Jude, 12.

912 Acts ii, 46; vi, 2.

913 1 Cor. xi, 16-34.

914 Ita saturantur, ut qui meminerunt etiam per noctem adorandum sibi esse; ita fabulantur, ut qui sciunt Dominum audire.—Apol., 39.

915 Jus. Mar., Apol., ii; Socrat., Eccl. Hist., v, 22; Orig., in Ep. ad Rom., xvi, 16.

916 Cibum promiscuum et innoxium.—Ep., lib. x, ad Traj.

917 ἱεροὶ λόγοι.—Peregrinus.

918 Pædag., ii.

919 Qui de ultima fæce collectis imperitioribus et mulieribus credulis sexus sui facilitate labentibus, plebem profanæ conjurationis instituunt: quæ nocturnis congregationibus et jejuniis solennibus et inhumanis cibis non sacro quodam sed piaculo fœderantur, latebrosa et lucifugax natio... deos despuunt, rident sacra.—Minuc. Felix, Octav. Odio humani generis convicti sunt.—Tac., Ann., xv. 44.

920 Malifica superstitio.—Suet., Neron., 16. Comp. Hor., Sat., i, 8.

921 Quotidie obsidemur, quotidie prodimur, in ipsis plurimum cœtibus congregationibus nostris opprimimur. Quis unquam taliter vagienti infanti supervenit?—Apol., c. 7; comp. ad Nat., i, 10-15.

922 Casto sermone, corpore castiore.—Minuc., Octav.; comp. Orig. Cont. Cels., vi., Jus. Mar., Apol., i, 2.

923 Agapæ natalitiæ, agapæ connubiales, and agapæ funerales. The pagans, not unnaturally, regarded the latter, like their own funeral banquets, as designed to appease the manes of the dead. They would doubtless think the same of the modern mortuary masses.

924 Non simili sacrilegio, quamvis simili luxu celebrarentur.—Aug., Ep., 29.

925 Qui se in memoriis martyrum inebriant.—Aug., Cont. Faust., xx, 21. Voracitates ebrietatesque suas deputant religioni.—De Morib. Eccl., i, 34.

926 Enarr., in Psa. lix.

927 Placuit prohiberi, ne fœminæ in cœmeteriis pervigilent, eo quod sæpè sub obtentu religionis latenter scelera committunt.

928 Among other traces of primitive Christianity among the latter are their married clergy and abhorrence of images. “We are Christians, not idolaters,” they said to the Jesuit missionaries, who presented for their homage images of the Virgin Mary.

929 The name of Pius is substituted for Deus in one well-known Latin hymn. Another pentecostal hymn to the Holy Spirit is addressed directly to the present pontiff. The growth of this dogma of infallibility, the distinguished French ecclesiastic, Père Gratry, asserts, “was utterly gangrened with imposture.” The stultification of the human intellect was never more strikingly exemplified than in the dictum of Bellarmine: Vera sunt vera et falsa sunt falsa; sed si ecclesia dixit vera esse falsa et falsa esse vera, falsa sunt vera et vera sunt falsa.

930 Adv. Praxean.