THE CATACOMBS AT ROME.

Ir is very interesting to observe how different means may conduce to the same end, and to watch the way in which similar results are attained by persons situated at great distances, and surrounded by very different circumstances. Oneness with diversity is a stamp which the Creator has put on the works of His hands; and it is a sign that man is made in His image, when we see him able to use various means for the accomplishment of the same final purpose. One interesting form, under which to trace this modifying and applying power, is found in examining the buildings of distant ages, and those of different countries at the present time; in noticing the forms under which most races of men, except uncivilized nations and wandering tribes, have reared habitations for themselves, and larger buildings for religious and public purposes. It would be curious to have a complete history of the various materials which have been employed; and to see how, while man has made them serve his great purpose, they, in their turn, have made modifications necessary which have given a peculiar stamp to the buildings of one nation or age, and have led to the existence of circumstances which did VOL. VII.-Second Series.-FEBRUARY, 1861.

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not enter into the calculations of the man who first used them. Where no rock sufficiently hard for the purpose was to be found, some artificial mixture has been used. Thus, of the first city of which we have any details, we read, "Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." Those millions of earth-made bricks have crumbled to earth, forming vast hills of ruins which look like natural elevations from the "plain" on which they rise. There is a great contrast to this in that mighty city, Rome, in the substance of which its massive and most remarkable buildings are composed; and, from that as much as from anything, it derives, perhaps, its title to the name "eternal." Time would have left much more than yet remains, had not the hand of man been diligent, during many years, in pulling down, and using for comparatively modern buildings, the great remains of antiquity. Yet, even now, the Coliseum stands with its massive blocks of travertine fitted together, unaided by cement, which time seems only to harden. It is to its buildings that it owes its catacombs; at least, to the cement used in them.* The soil around the city is peculiar, being of volcanic formation; consisting of a compact tufa, with beds overlying it of more recent formation, formed of ashes and cinders, with currents of compact lava intermixed. Among the volcanic ashes, a peculiar kind is found, called "pozzolana :" it is unequally distributed, more in patches than in veins, or continuous beds. This, mixed with lime, formed the cement which has so greatly contributed to the durability of Rome. When a deposit of pozzolana was discovered, it was dug out by means of subterranean galleries, much in the same way as our coal-mines; and then abandoned. Thus, as Rome increased in size, there were formed around it, chiefly outside the walls, not large caves and caverns, but here and there galleries and passages, unequal in height and width; perhaps, on an average, nine feet high, and five feet wide; sometimes swelling out almost into small underground chambers, with one or two ways branching from them; again narrowing so as to allow barely a way through, rising and ascending according as the material had been found out; not at a very great depth below the surface, but sufficiently so to be dark and obscure.

Most likely, at first, these catacombs were isolated; but after they began to be used for refuge and a place of burial, communications were formed between them, and many miles might be traversed without ascending to the light of day. That it would be difficult to find the right road in such a labyrinth may easily be imagined. Stories are told of those who, taking a lamp and a piece of cord, have sallied forth to explore, and have been unfortunate enough to find their light extinguished, and at the same moment to lose the precious cord which was to reconduct them to the outer world. It would not be easy to over-colour the intense anxiety with which groping search would be made for the missing guide, or the feeling of despair experienced in case it were found impossible to recover it. Owing to the great danger of getting lost among these various

*Murray's Hand-Book.

THE CATACOMBS AT ROME.

35

windings, most of the entrances to the catacombs are now closed. On going over many of the Roman churches, it is a common thing to hear the guide say, "And there was an entrance to the catacombs, but it is now closed." Only one is freely opened to visiters, that of San Sebastiano: others may be seen on Friday, by a little trouble, on obtaining an introduction to Padre Marchi, who takes much interest in them. This is the origin and present state of the Roman catacombs, and were this all, other cities might boast of much the same thing, similar excavations being found at Naples, Palermo, Syracuse, and Malta. In Egypt, something of the same kind is known, and in the more modern city of Paris.

It is the use which has been made of the catacombs at Rome which has given so great an interest to them, and caused them to be the subject of such long and eager controversy. Though, no doubt, too much has, in many cases, been made of a little; and Romanism, ever inclined to fabricate marvellous tales, has often supplied striking histories to unknown remains; still, there is enough resting upon good evidence to give a feeling of confidence in looking at the testimony which these dark retreats have furnished to the faith of the early church, and to afford a stronger sympathy with those who, sometimes in life, as well as in death, were compelled to take refuge "in dens, and in caves of the earth."

At the time of the birth of Christ, it was usually the custom among the Romans to burn the bodies of the dead; and though there is much in this repugnant to the ideas of the present day, it, too, has connected with it, its associations of interest, and its sacred memories. The remains of the departed were not guarded with less care because they were reduced to a shapeless mass; and two very remarkable remains now existing in Rome, the Mausoleum of Augustus, and the yet better-known fortress of St. Angelo, built by Hadrian as the resting-place of his ashes, bear witness to the anxiety which was shown to preserve what was mortal. The tombs lining the Via Appia, stretching across the desolate Campagna, show that man's natural desire for immortality would fain have bestowed it on his body, if possible. And the Columbaria prove that, as far as the preservation of the body goes, the very burning, which seems so destructive, can yet guard the precious dust as well as the earth in which we fondly lay our dead. These buildings seem frequently to have been intended for one family or tribe of people, sometimes the slaves and freedmen of an Emperor. They are square buildings, occasionally met with in the gardens of the larger villas, descending into the ground some depth, the bottom reached by a flight of steps on one side. Round the walls are niches, from about one to two feet square, each containing an earthen vessel called "olla," in the shape of a saucer with a cover to it; they are even now full of ashes, among which pieces of bone may be distinguished. Frequently there is an inscription on the "olla," or over the niche. A model of one of these may be seen in room X of the British Museum.

The Christians, thinking much of the resurrection, and probably supposing it to be near at hand, were anxious to preserve the form of their

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departed friends as long as possible. To them had been given the promise that the "body also itself shall be delivered from corruption;" and they perhaps wished to imitate, as far as they could, the external circumstances of the death of their Saviour: they had no power to burst the bonds of the grave, but at least those dear to them, should lie down as He had done, in the hope that His voice would be heard bidding the dead live, before what was once so precious had again returned to dust. Besides, their first teachers were Jews, men who naturally carried with them their cherished ideas of the way in which it was most suitable to dispose of the bodies of their departed friends. Thus it came to pass that the Roman Christians were not long before they had recourse to the winding paths and recesses of the catacombs, as the most suitable and secure resting-place for their dead. The lowest order of the people, not able to obtain the honour of a funeral pile, seem usually to have practised burying, and employed for that purpose the excavations left on the Esquiline Hill. "The sand-diggers were of the lowest grade: there is reason to suppose that Christianity spread very early among them;" and that, from their thorough acquaintance with the underground passages, they were able to shelter themselves and their fellow-Christians in time of persecution; while, in using them as a burying-place, they carried out an idea which was familiar to them, from having before seen many bodies deposited there. The rage of enemies must have been intense indeed, to have made men wander about these gloomy abodes merely to wreak vengeance on dead bodies; and the place would be generally shunned from the association connected with it. Be the beginning what it may, it is certain, from the inscriptions, that as early as the second century the catacombs came to be used as the general burying-place of the Christians.* About the year 314 they were formally made over to the Christians, as churchproperty; and they are called the burial-place of the martyrs. It is the inscriptions which form the chief interest attaching to what now remains ; and they have almost all been removed from the places where they were first discovered, and are placed with much care in the Vatican and in the Lateran Museums. The slabs containing inscriptions are usually let into the wall; and other remains, in the form of sarcophagi and bas-reliefs, are ranged by the side: for in later times these were sculptured by far abler hands than those which traced many of the first rude inscriptions. Yet these perhaps possess a deeper interest: they place before us the circumstances of the church in its early ages before it was corrupted by wealth, while it was comparatively free from superstition. They show that it was at first chiefly among the poor that the Gospel prevailed; that the noblest hopes and strongest faith were possessed by those who had little of this world's good. It is in the gallery of inscriptions in the Vatican, containing more than three thousand, that those found in the catacombs have chiefly been placed; though many are now being arranged round the gallery of the Lateran, where what is called a Christian Museum is

* Maitland.

formed, in which are the more elaborate sarcophagi. Among them is one of great beauty, with bas-reliefs of the Good Shepherd surrounded with angels gathering grapes. The gallery of the Vatican derives increased interest from having not only Christian inscriptions, which are ranged on one side, but also Pagan ones, on the other; which latter are classified according to ranks and professions, from nobles to slaves. Thus it is easy to compare and contrast the ideas of death possessed by the Christians, with those of the Pagans. Take the following in illustration :

The letters on the Christian monuments are from half an inch to four inches high, generally coloured red: they are often very roughly done, and not unfrequently badly spelt. Many are in Greek; and sometimes Latin inscriptions are in Greck letters, and Greek ones in Latin.

(To be continued.)

FOREIGN MISSIONS.

BY JOHN S. MAYSON, ESQ.

THE great object of Christian Missions is so familiar to us that, on that account even, it is possible that while it engages our attention in raising funds for its support, we may neglect sufficiently to sustain the true Missionary spirit, first enkindled in a mortal's breast when he has found a long-sought Saviour, and then manifesting itself in a thousand loving. ways.

Embracing first all within its immediate influence, it soon seeks and finds extended action. It is but natural that the good man's personal labours of love commence with those nearest and dearest to him; and well if they most abound amid the misery which surrounds his home. Yet, while retaining these in its embrace, his charity will ever take a widening range. Kindred, country, home, never neglected, he is not, or cannot remain, unmindful of those millions of his fellows dwelling in darkness on which no single ray of Gospel light has ever dawned; where sin and sorrow reign supreme. To these he must needs extend the high privileges of his happiness; privileges how much enhanced by his

church-communion!

Feeble if isolated but a giant when roused to exertion by contact with