LIBEAEY I 1 1 E Theological Seminary. PRINCETON.. N. J. BR 874 .H3 1866 Hemans, Charles Isidore, 1817-1876. A history of ancient B H Vi -v -i g -h i -ar> ,fw ° v^/q e- o /-« >- <=n^ *av4 A HISTORY ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY AND SACRED ART * ITALY BY CHARLES I. HEMANS FLORENCE PRINTED Hi' M. CKLL1NI AKD C. 1866 I. The primitive Pontiffs. Christian Rome presents no solemnities so interesting, from the historic point of view, as those for the Festival of SS. Peter and Paul, which, if somewhat two much gilded with the pomp of courts, are still a splendid symbol of the most wondrous devel- opment the world has ever beheld ; and the contrast suggested by local association , at the great basilica , is in a scene once enacted on the same site, when the imperial circus with its long arcades , spina , and obelisk , rose dim-defined in darkness luridly dispelled by fires consuming human victims — how enduring their pangs we known not, though we know for what they suffered , some clad in beasts' skins and thus ex- posed to be torn by dogs , others crucified naked, others made to light up by their death-fires the arena in which, among a pleasure-seeking crowd , Nero drove round in his chariot to enjoy the spectacle he had ordered as well for amuse- ment as for policy, desiring thus to divert against an obscure sect the popular suspicions awakened by recent disaster. Such the first appearance of Christianity in Rome, after the origin of that See whose High Priest is enthroned at St. Peter's, to commemorate its foundation , on the 29th of June ! Scarce less magnificent are the next day's observances, in honour of St. Paul , at the basilica over his tomb ; and what a con- trast between his sacred mausoleum and all that remains in formless ruin of the Caesars' sepulchres ! Nor less interesting, in their quiet character, are that day's devotions at the three lone churches remote on the Campagna, which now attract worshippers to otherwise almost deserted altars on the site 2 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS of that Apostle's martyrdom ; and where many now come to drink of the three springs ( built up within San Paolo alle tre Fontane) , said to have miraculously gushed forth on the spots severally touched by the Apostle's head , rebounding as it fell. No more striking example is there of inconsistency in the care and appreciation for monuments, than that pre- sented by, on one hand, the chill and dismal decay to which is abandoned such venerable though rude architecture, almost unique among local antiquities, as SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio, one of those three churches, founded in the VII century, and, on the other hand, the splendidly renovated St. Paul's, long such a drowning gulf of expenses to an impoverished ex- chequer. On the successive days within the octave of this festival its affecting celebrations take place on other sites where we may trace the footsteps of the two Apostles in the imperial City. At S. Pudenziana we may picture to ourselves the private life of. St. Peter as guest of the Christian Senator Pudens in the mansion where the Apostle- assembled a faithful few to worship, and where Pope Pius T, about A. D. 141 , consecrated what may be considered the original cathedral of Rome, -memorable nucleus to that church on the Viminal hill. In the dim subterranean vault of antique stonework under S. Maria in Via Lata, on the Corso, we may imagine St. Luke writing the « Act of the Apostles », and St. Paul dictating his Epistles to the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Philippians, and the Hebrews. At S. Pietro in Vincoli we may touch the two- fold chains, whose links are said to have been preternaturally united , worn at Rome and Jerusalem by him to whom that basilica is dedicated. In the Mamertine prisons we may taste of the fountain believed to have miraculously supplied water for the baptism of i7 fellow-prisoners converted by St. Peter and St. Paul ; and, instead of the silent darkness in which those consecrated dungeons are at other times left, save at the occa- sional early Mass, we may there attend a series of rites now attracting crowds from sunrise to sunset. At S. Pietro in Mon- torio we may turn from the glorious panorama of Rome spread beneath that Janiculan height, to admire the graceful cha- PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 6 pel built by Bramante within the Franciscan cloisters , and secure as a relic the fine red sand of that soil, beneath its circular pery style , into which is said to have been fixed the cross of St. Peter. Lastly , at the Lateran Basilica , we may obtain a distant view of the jewelled silver busts, enshrined in the superb Gothic tabernacle over the high altar , said to contain the skulls of the two chief Apostles ; and late thai evening ( 6th July ) , in the same church , may witness one of those strange pageants in which the Senate of Rome plays rather a theatrical than a dignified part , in a state visit to this shrine with much hollow pomp of gold brocade, laced li- beries, and military reception, in order to venerate those be- lieved - in , but not visible , relics. It is not merely the splendours of worship or beauty of sacred buildings , but the train of reflections suggested by these observances that renders them interesting. In witnes- sing the great ritual expression of the supremacy ascribed to St. Peter and his Successors, commemorative of the estab- lishlment of his episcopal throne at this centre , we are led to inquire into the origin and bounds of that time-honoured Power, and the probabilities of its future influence , its fu- ture relationships and accepted claims amid the Christian world. The time is past when mere precedent or antiqui- ty can be accepted as the foundation that alone suffices to legitimatize power ; and the beneficent action of authority , its harmonious accord with man's highest interests must be required as sole title for whatever ascendancy deserves to endure. Many may see the ideal of a Christian Church in the unity through faith and worship directed to the Divine and invisible Head, as a nobler and more intimate bond than that of enforced obedience to any chief upon earth ; and this seems the ideal that shines forth in pure and holy lustre from the panes of the Apostolic writings. On the other hand we have the great historic fact of the Papacy with its large claims to gratitude and reverence , its merits in fulfilment of 4 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS a high destiny, its manifest adaptation to all the requirements of the times in which its influences were most felt ; the lu- minous \irtues of so many who have tilled its chair: the efficacy of its encouragements to mental movement over so many walks in which Science, Letters, and Arts progressed under its fostering care : Realm there is none , that, if controlled or swayed By her commands , partakes not in degree Of good o'er manners , arts , and arms diffused— as is justly observed by Wordsworth. But the powers suf- fered to develop into ascendancy for agencies of good in one phase of History , may not be called upon to sustain in" that great drama— whether it be directed by Providence or \eft to its own natural evolutions under laws accomplishing not the less a providential Will — the same rank at all times , or exercise the same prerogatives in all periods alike; and as we have seen the epoch of mediaeval Christianity pass away with its distinguishing features, we may be justified in anticipation of a Christianity still more unlike that now belonging to past realities than is any existing form of this Divine Religion. My object is to consider the history of the Church at Rome as reflected in her monuments ; and the celebrations above- noticed induce inquiries into the origin and titles of se- veral traditionally associated with the observances ordained to honour the two Apostles , co-founders of this Catholic See. The claims of S. Pictro in Montorio (a church built by Fer- dinand and Isabella of Spain in 1500} as the site of St* Pe ter's Crucifixion , are supported by Baronius , but rejected by the best modern authorities (v. Platner and Urlichs), and eertainly militated against by details given in the earliest written tradition of the event. Anastasius says the Apostle was buried near the place of his martyrdom . in the temple PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 0 of Apollo, near the palace of Nero on the Vatican () ; and though he moreover adds that this sepulchre was on the Aur- elian Way [which would have passed near the church on the Janiculum), this mention of the a palace » (a mistake for the Circus) of Nero, corresponds with other testimony in the « Acts » of his martyrdom ascribed to Linus, where is mentioned the obelisk of Nero (2) - i e. that on the spina ol the Circus - as near the spot where St. Peter suffered ; though the same document , indeed , mentions the naumachia formed by Augustus in the transtiberine quarter , in farther particu- larizing that site. As to such inconsistencies , it is quite pos- sible that writers regardless of archaeologie correctness should have confounded either a naumachia with a circus , or one of the ancient roads on the Janiculum with another on the Vatican Hill. It is well known that criminals were never executed within, but beyond, the walls of cities, according to ancient Roman usage ; and as that church on the former hill stands in the place of the antique arx , on the steep sum- mit comprised within the Servian walls, just at the apex of the triangle formed by those Janiculan fortifications, the inad- missibility of the tradition associating the Apostle's death with this scene is apparent. The real spot of his crucifixion we must rather look for within the same walls that now contain his magificent tomb. Almost alike baseless are the claims of those subterranean structures in travertine , now consecrated for worship , below S. Maria in Via Lata ; the antique edifice to which these must be ascribed being in tact the Septa Julia, built for the assemblies and votation of the Comitia , in the year 26 B. C, by Julius Caesar ; divided into numerous chambers for the several votings to take place (1) « Sepultusest in via Aurelia, in templo Apollinis, juxta locum ubi crucifixus est , juxta territorium triumphale » (i. e. the Trium- phal Way). (2) « Pervenit denique uno cum Apostolo populus infinitus ad lo- cum qui appellatur naumachia , juxta obeliseum Neronis in ni 6 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS apart, and in its aggregate buildings of such \ast extent as to cover the eniire space from the Piazza di Venezia to 5. Ignazio ; therefore absorbing the site of S. Maria and the southern end of the Corso on which it stands. At the ut- most, and on the credit of but a vague legend , the anti- quity of this church does not ascend beyond the latter years of the VII, or beginning of the Vill century - its foundation as- cribed to Pope Sergius I, at which period no reliance can be pla- ced on popular traditions as to classic buildings in Rome. Other pseudo— records of the two Apostles can only be notice:! in order to deplore the sanction of things that exemplify such fatal mistake as the attempt to support truth by out- works of falsehood. The reputed impress left by the head of vSt. Peter on the wall abo\e the stair-case in the Mamertine prisons, is condemned by the known fact that originally no stairs were here for descent from the higher into the lower dungeon. The impression of that Apostle's knees in the church of St Franeesca Romana (or 5. Maria Nuova) , said to have remained where he knelt to defeat by his prayers the sor- ceries of Simon Magus , would indicate a giant's stature had any human knees thus marked the stone; and the other impress on stone, assumed to be that of the Saviour's feet, where. He appeared to St. Peter on the Apostle's flight along the Appian Way - the original at S. Sebastiano, the copy on the site of the apparition at the chapel called Domine quo vadis ('!) - is an awkward attempt quite unsuccessful m art, and ofTensive in reference to so sublime a subject. But [i) The Saviour .'according to this legend; met St. Peter on his flight to escape from the death awaiting him at Rome. « Lord whi- ther goest thou?« was the Apostle's demand. — « I am going to iiome to he again crucified », the answer, which Peter took as a reprimand for his pusillanimity, and as intimation that, unless he remained to suffer, the Divine Being would assume his aspect, Himself to endure the martyrdom consequently chosen with cor- dial acquiescence- by Ills representative. PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 7 we may look with unquestioning belief on those two holy shrines - the tombs of the chief Apostles, whose relics are said to have been divided between the churches on theOstian Way and on the Vatican Hill. There is one observance at the great Basilica (on the festival of St. Peter's Chair , 1 8th January , also at Pen- tecost) when, at Vespers, the capitular clergy pass in pro- cession from the choir-chapel to the « confessional » , for the incensing of that shrine , which impresses more than almost any other among the celebrations of St. Peter's; and in the hour of twilight, with torch, and cross and stole, revealing « through incense-mists their sainted pageantry », seems in its solemn silence the grandest expression of the religio loci that could be conceived. Monuments of Christian architecture, or other art , we cannot look for in the Church's earliest ages, save amid the labyrinthine mazes of catacombs ; but we may associate the memory of those who died for truth with other edifices be- sides the Colosseum — with the subterranean cells where St. Agnes was exposed to outrage, andmiraculously protected, under the church dedicate to her on the 'piazza Navona: with the bath-chamber of St. Cecilia, where she was expos- ed for a day and night to suffer suffocation, but reserved to die a lingering death after receiving three wounds from the headsman in the same chamber, now a consecrated cha- pel of the temple called by her name. A Roman lady of no- ble birth, she was martyred, A. D. 232, in the house of her husband Valerian , who , with his brother Tiburtius, both converted through her meanls, suffered by decapitation short- ly before her own death. Agnes suffered also by the axe, after being thrown into the flames, which (it is said) proved innocuous to her, A. D. 303. There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the sites connected with the beautiful stories of those Virgin Martyrs ; and in their legends it is remark- ablo that , even if the supernatural be entirely rejected , still remain the elements of moral grandeur, the realities of holy triumph that misht have been attained by moral powers . 8 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS (he bridegroom who respected the chaste vows of Cecilia may have been won by her eloquence to appreciate her high vocation without the intervention of an angel ; and the angelic guardian , the power that struck the persecutor dead in defence of the purity of Agnes , may represent the might of virtue emanating from its own sanctified shrine in the soul, to subdue or even convert licentiousness - as later legends assume that the lion, or other savage beasts , became innocuous and submissive before the martyrs exposed to be their prey ! One architectural monument there is of a primitive Chris- tian age, complete in itself — a miniature Basilica retaining the essential features of that class of architecture , and still serving for worship , though now reduced to a crypt, under S. Maria in Cosmeclin ; long left inaccessible in consequence of an inundation of the Tiber, till cleared out , early in the last century , and restored for sacred use by the care of the learned Crescimbeni , Canon and historian of that ancient church. In a temple whose ruins seem those of a spacious and majestic edifice, Pope Dionysius (261-72) consecrated a place of Christian worship , in all probability that we still see, as to most of its details unchanged, below the tribune of the present basilica , which absorbs several marble re- mains of that temple : the later church having been founded by Hadrian I in the VIII, and rebuilt by Calixtus II in the XII century. This growth of a Christian within a Pagan sanctuary, so long before the conversion of Emperors, is, indeed, a singu- lar fact, that must have been prepared for by circumstances not yet brought into full light through historic research. We here descend into a dark subterranean , which is only lit up and officiated on the day of Lenten Stations, and find ourselves in a low crypt, 34 palms in length, 17 in width, under a flat stone roof immediately resting on the capitals of columns, the whole having an architectural character of severest simplicity, remarkable as the nucleus of so much PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 0 more than it actually presents. In the narrow nave and aisles stand six columns of granite and marble, fitted to capitals displaying the rudest form of imitative Corinthian - evidently not made for their shafts ; the altar , which is modern , standing under a tiny cupola , on which are some painted heads, now nearly obliterated, though of but recent origin. On one side, at the end of an aisle , we see the stone scdilia ; on the other, an oblong recess that ma\ have served for a credence table; on one column, near- est the altar, to the left , the remnant of an iron rod for drawing curtains before the sacred table, according to the early usage that removed from public gaze all save parti- cular passages in the Eucharistic sacrifice. Around the walls are sixteen arched niches, originallv serving (as Crescimbeni explains) for prayer or meditation . and in fact the height of each recess from the pavement is just sufficient to allow of kneeling with the face turned to the wall- a pious usage thus provided for in the arrange- ments of the sacred building , which one might wish to see retained — for the heart-devotion that naturally prefers silence and retirement. Behind the altar of this miniature basilica, Crescimbeni discovered a small chamber, now closed, with an aperture in its roof, which he concludes to have served for letting down veils or handkerchiefs , to touch the body of some martyr, whose interment here would have completed the analogy between this primitive Christian temple and the Basilicas of later origin. A communication with the Cata- combs of St. Sebastian from hence is asserted , but doubtful. On Ash- Wednesday, the sole occasion of public rites here , when holy tapers dispel the darkness, and relics are dis- played in those niches, a scene singular and impressive is presented in this olden oratory ; but tasteless ornaments mar its gravely simple character; and the visitor had lest inspect it on some quiet day by the sole light of the custo- de's torch. iO PRIMITIVE POMIFFS Under SS. Cosmo e Damiano, on the Forum, is another crypt belonging to a Pagan temple, used as an Oratory, about A. D. 360, by Pope Felix !I-aPope the legitimacy of whose claims in office are questionable - during his banishment under the Emperor Constans. Descending into the lower story of that church, now reduced to a subterranean in consequence of alterations made in the XVII century, we reach the ground-floor both of the Christian and the Pagan temple - the later once supposed to be a fane of Romulus and Remus , but shown by reliable antiquarians to have been dedicated to the Penates. This fane became a species of atrium to the sacred building founded by Felix IV, about A. D. 527; and from its ground-floor story we descend into a nar- row low-roofed cell, like a sepulcre, where Felix II is said to have celebrated Mass and baptized, about thirty years before any public church had arisen above this vault; and where the body of Felix IV was found in 1582. We may suppose the Pena- tes temple to have been shut and neglected, as were other Pagan fanes in this City, long before they fell into ruin. The crypt below it has a vaulting of stuccoed brick, wa'ls part- ly of travertine, but in the grea'er part brickwork ; on one side, a fragment of marble architec'ure, like a socle or base- ment with mouldings , said to have been used as an altar by that Pope; above which, in a recess, is a much-faded fresco of the Virgin and Child, apparently a work of the later Byzantine school ; the actual floor being raised so high that this altar stands imbedded deep below its level. On one side is a well of spring-water with an antique marble pu- teal , said to have gushed miraculously, in order that Felix might here administer Baptism. Many are the sacred wells in Roman churches, whose waters the devout are eager to drink on particular festivals; and we may trace this feel ing to its origin in the high idea of the baptismal rite , pre disposing to ascribe mysterious efficacy to the pure element. Both the reputed prisons of St. Peter and St. Paul contain such wells ; ano'her, at S. Maria in Via, derives its sacred- PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS '1 I ness from a Madonna - picture found floating on it in the year 1253. In the Benedictine church ofS.Callhto we see, through a door beside an abar, a well of great depth and widih, quite unlike those of modern formation, in which Pope Calixtus I suffered martyrdom ( 222 ) , being thrown from a window of the house where he had been confined and had convert- ed a soldier, his Keeper (1). Above this spot arose a primitive basilica, that had fallen into ruin prior to the VIII century, when it was restored by Gregory 111. The present is a small and insignificant modern building; but the festival of St. Calixtus is interesting as here celebrated with splendour by the Benedictines. Attending it on the last occasion, 1 heard most beautiful music at the Vespers, after which was exposed, at the altar above that well, a relic of the Martyr Pope, offered to the kisses of those who presented themselves kneeling, thus (o honour it. One other church in Rome to which attach the memories of apostolic times, is S. Prisca on the Avenline ; the house of the Aquila and Prisca ( or Priscilla ) who are mentioned with affection by St Paul ( Rom. XVI. 3 ) as his fellow-labour- ers in Christ, and who worked with him as tent-makers. Pope Eutychianus is said to have consecrated their dwelling (4) In the adjacent church, S. Maria in Trastevere, is kept the stone said to have been fastened to the neck of St. Calixtus when he was drowned. Many large black stones of the species called \k- ira del para gone , rounded, but flattened at two sides, are to be seen in Roman churches, preserved as records of martyrs ; and such they may be deemed, for weights of stone used to be hung to the neck, the hands, or feet, when scourging was to be indicted. It is supposed that for this purpose were employed either weights origin- ally serving for trade, or those some times marked with numbers to indicate what the law allowed for securing the persons of debtors. Such objects, when for trading purposes, used to be dedicated to Hercules as the God of Traffic (Boldetti, Cimiterii dei SS. Martin). «2 PRIMITIVE E0NTIFFS into a church,. A. D. 280, after it had teen revealed to him where the body of St Prisca lay ; and this church, first de- dicated to St. Aquila, was called by her name because con- fining those relics transferred hither by Eutychianus. It s'ands near tlie supposed si'e of the celehraied temple of Diana : and also ( though this is but the conjecture of legend) near a grotto where Fannus and Picus delivered oracles to Numa. Restored at different periods- in the last instance by Clement XII, -- it has now lost all characteristics of an- tiquity ; but the crypt below the tribune is probably of an- cient date : and here we are shewn the reputed baptismal font, formed of a large Doric capital , from which St. Peter is said to have baptized AquiJaj Prisca, and other converts. The beauty of landscape and ruins, in the view enjoyed from the height where it stands, would alone be sufticiei'.! attraction to this solitary church. Beyond the city-walis ; we find another example, but much plainer in descriplion , of the Christian oratory, beneath a Pagan edifice, at S. Urbano , the reputed temple of Bac- chus, picturesquely standing on a knoll above the valley oi the Almo , and near the Egerian grot'o. Instead of a classic temple, this interesting antique should be described as a heroum, or mausoleum of some patrician family, which was consecrated for worship in the IX century by Pope Paschal I, on account of the tradition that St. Urban I (226) used to pray and baptize in the narrow dark cell, descended into by stairs, which still contains a rude altar formed by a s!al of stone laid across two supporters in masonry ; within a recess over which are paintings of the Virgin and Child . St John the Evangelist and St Urban, in a style indicating !h lowest stage, the absolute eclipse of Art-- the XI century (date of other paintings in the building above) 1 eing per- haps their period. Though restored by Urban VIII, in 1(33*. this church is now deprived of sacred rites, and left deso late amidst solitude, only cared for by a poor peasanl-fam- ilv . whose humble residence is within the same classic PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS '13 wails. It is probable that the above-named crypt was not built, but merely appropriated for sacred uses by Urban, who, we knowr, remained long concealed in the neighbour- ing catacombs of St. Calixtus on the Appian way (1). We are here reminded of those retreats of the persecuted church ; and the austere devotedness of a martyr-age seems to lin- ger amid the gloom of that subterranean cell. St. Peter is said to have transferred his Apostolic See from Antioch to Rome, A. D. 42 , and to have governed the Church in the latter City for 25 years, till his martyrdom under Nero-, which period in the pontificate never having been attained by any one among his 25S successors , the idea has passed into popular superstition that no Pope can occupy the Holy See for so long as twenty-five years. From the beginning the election to this office did not pertain to the Clergy alone , but also to the Nobility, the Army, and representatives of the Roman People, associated with the local ecclesiastical body. This system was maintained till the time of Felix II ( or « third , » according to one computation), at whose election (A. D. 482) Odoacer in some manner interfered ; and from this date till the time of Nicholas I (858), the Emperors of the East , the Gothic Kings , and the successors of Charlemagne severally continued to exercise a certain control over this elective procedure , though in principle such claims were set aside, in the time of Theodoric, by a Council held at Home under Pope Symmachus (502) , which annulled an ordinance issued in 483 by the Pretorian Prefect prohibit- ing the consecration of the Roman Bishop before reference made either to that officer , or to the Gothic Kings. An equitable judgment of Theodoric had determined , on occa- sion of the opposition raised by an Antipope against Sym- (I) Gournerie ( Rome Chretlenne) conjectures that it was in this :;rypt St. Urban gave instructien and bapt sin to Valerian, the hus- hand of St. Cecilia; but the catacombs were more prohably the scene of such rites. li PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS machus , that he should be deemed legitimately elected who was the first chosen by a majority. From the time of Hadrian II (946) the Roman Clergy , Magnates, and People exercised the elective right independent of all interference. From the time of John XII (9o6) , the German Emperors interposed in a direct and absolute sense , rendering the Papacy as it were a creature of their power , till the time of Stephen IX, who, though elected unanimously by the Roman voters, deemed it necesary to refer to the Empress Agnes ( during the mi- nitory of Henry IV , her son ), the two immediate predeces- sors of this Pope, Leo IX and Victor II, having owed their elevation absolutely to the Emperor Henry III. Under the ascendant influence of Hildebrand ( afterwards Gregory VII) was instituted the reform in this electoral system that event- ually limited it within the strict circle of ecclesiastic pre- rogatives, totally excluding both the aristocratic and popular element^ a movement commencing with the decree of Nicho- las II , in a Council held 1039 , providing far the future as follows. - « On the death of the Pope , the Cardinal Bishops ^hall first form themselves into a council, to which the other Cardinals shall then be aggregated ; they shall pay regard to the wishes of the rest of the Clergy, and of the Pioman people. If the Roman Clergy should not comprise any subject suitable, then only will it be necessary to elect a stranger; which should in no manner preclude the respect and honour due to the future Emperor, or the confirming of the Pon- iific Election by him who has obtained such right of the Apos- tolic See «. It is certain that, till the XI century, the Roman people took active part in this election , whatever the manner in which their suffrages were given: and though it is question- naire indeed whether they ever actually voted (Moroni, Dizio- nario di Erudizione, Eccles.). Odoacer required by a decree . in 476, that the King, or the Pretorian Prefect in his place, should be referred to for the legal confirmation. Teodo- ric , 526. directly appointed Felix III to the vacant See, b) PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 15 a stetch of regal power which the Roman Clergy and Senate protested against ; but the other Gothic Kings , and the Greek Emperors after them , continued to interpose in like man- ner during 130 years. Constantine Pogonatus (684) with- drew the right of confirmation from the Exarchs, who had long exercised it in the Emperor's name ; and John V was the first to ascend the Papal throne (685) without waiting lor higher civil sanction; but Justinian M revived the form- er claims ; and the tribute of 3000 gold solidi continued for ages to be paid into the Byzantine treasury by each Roman Bishop. The Conclave was first established under definite rules by Gregory X at the Council of Lyons, 1274, when it was prescribed that, during the first three days of reclusion , the Cardinals should only have one dishat meals, and , after five days , be dieted on bread and water alone till they had agreed in their votes ; yet , notwithstanding such enactments, during the period from 1277 to 1294 five Topes were elected without Conclave ; after the death of Nicholas IV (1299) the Cardinals would not submit to reclu- sion , and the See remained vacant for two years ; on a la- ter occasion for almost 29 months , after the death of Cle- ment V, 1314. Clement VI (1351) prescribed that « none of the sacred electors , under pain of excummunicalion, should in any way promise ( among themselves ), address , or soli- cit other Cardinals in order to bend them to their own purposes». Celestine V (1294) revived all the rigorous pre- scriptions of Gregory X; and Julius II pronounced by bull (1505) that a simoniac election was invalid; a Pope raised up by such means , to be held for a heresiarch , and reus- ed obedience by the Clergy and people. Certainly we must ghe the Roman Church credit for the utmost efforts to exclude the intrusions of worldline^s, and elevate into a higher sphere this transaction so impor- tant to her honour and interests. But alas for the oppositions between principle and practice ! We need only consult an able recent work (the spirit of which I cannot commend; 16 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS Hisloire diplomatique des Conclaves, by Petruccelii della Gat- tina, to learn from unquestionable evidence how far below the high standard proposed has been , in instances especial- ly of the XV and XVI centuries , the actual character of these ecclesiastic comitia ! At present the expenses of Con- clave . for local arrangements and the maintenance of the Cardinals, are about 70,000 scudi - more or less, of course, according to the time it lasts. It was in the XI century that the parish priests and regionary deacons of Rome , with the suffragan Bishops of the same province, acquired those privileges and legal or- ganization as an aggregate , finally developed into the College of Cardinals , a species of ecclesiastical Senate. But it was not till the year 1179 that the special prerogative of this body as Papal Electors was conferred , and for ever assured to them , by a General Council held at the Lateran under Alexander III , when was also prescribed the requisite of two-thirds as majority for a canonical election. This limita- tion of the procedure to the agency of the « Sacred College » dates, indeed , from a period earlier than that Council , and was instanced at the election of Celestinus II (4443); but it was not till 1276 (time of Innocent V), that the strict orga- nization of the Conclave, in secrecy and seclusion , came in- to practice as retained ever since (Cantu, Storia Universale). Under the Byzantine Emperors the above-named sum in gold had been exacted, first by Justinian, as price of their ratiiica- tion from each new Pope; but in G8J2 this claim was withdrawn by Constantine IV, with reserve, however, of the right ci sanction vested in the imperial crown , and requisite before the Roman Pontiff could be consecrated. At present the veto exercised by France , Spain , and Austria , through the mouth of a Cardinal , the subject of the sovereign thus in- terposing, is the sole check on the freedon of Papal Election. Of the Pontiffs occupying the char of St. Peter during the tirst two centuries , we know comparatively little, save what re'ates to their sufferings and martvrdom , or their PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 4 7 zeal for sacred discipline. Thirty-two , previous to the dale of Constantiue's conversion , including Melchiades , contempora- ry with that Emperor, are classed among saints, and thirty among canonized martyrs, if not all entitled to that name by voluntary death , yet all so at least through trials and afllictions sustained for faith. Linus , the first after St. Peter , of patri- cian family , was put to death under Vespasian , by order of the Consul Saturninus , whose daughter he is said to have liberated from demoniac possession; legends also ascribing to him such miraculons powers as to cast down idols from their pedestals by the sole breath of his mouth ! Gletus, next in order, first instituted the Stations in Rome's principal churches , afterwards developed with great- er solemnity by St. Gregory the Great , and to this day kept up during Advent and Lent. St Clement , the personal disciple of the Apostles, mentioned by St. Paul as among those « whose names are in the book of life », (Philippians c. IV, 3) was exiled under Trajan , for refusing to otfer idolatrous sa- crifice, to Pontus ; there condemned to work in the metal mines with other Christian victims ; and in that province so many converts were made by him that the Pagan temples became deserted , and it is said nearly seventy Christian oratories arose in the same territory ; irritated at which missionary successes, the Emperor charged a Prefect to destroy that new- born church ; and Clement suffered , with many others, Leing cast into the sea , with an anchor hung to his neck. Beau- tiful and significant legends mention a fountain, indicated by the apparition of a lamb , in miraculons answer to his prayer for relieving his fellow-captives in extremity of thirst during their toils in the mine (or quarry); also describing a marble temple which arose in the midst of the sea to re- ceive his body , the waters retiring annually at the com- memoration of his death, so as to allow- the faithful to visit those remains, till their final transport to Rome , where they still lie in the Basilica , founded at least as early as the fourth ■century, over this Pont IT s house on the Coelian Hill. Thedis- 8 18 PRIMITIVE POMJFFS covery . within late years , of the primitive , at a depth below the more modern , church of St. Clement lias proved most interesting to sacred archaeology ; and among the many paintings that still adorn those ancient, walls, 'S one group in which St. Peter appears in act of placing St. Clement on the episcopal chair , and investing him with the pallium (symbol of jurisdiction ) , Linus and Cletus (or Anacletus ) standing near , as in different relation to the Apostle — a composition which seems to justify the inference that Clement, not Linus, was the mmediate successor of St. Peter; though the best authorities on ecclesiastical history agree in deter- mining otherwise. Clement was the first Roman Bishop , after St. Peter, who bequeathed writings that still hold their deserved place in sacred literature A schism among the Christians at Corinth induced him to add ess to that community two letters, in the name of the Roman Church , the first of which is extant entire , the second only in a fragment ; and at one time these epistles, both written in Greek, were by some com- munities admitted among the canonical Scriptures. Valuable, indeed , would e their contents did they throw any light on the claims of the Papacy , and the sense in which the primitive Christian world understood its rank among other episcopal Sees. They contain no such indications, nor any more than ■. Gregory Vil severely reproved the French prelates who had neglected this duty; and Sixtus V, in a bull of 1585 , revived its enforcement in the strictest terms , though with some mo lificalions of practice : all bishops of the nearer dioceses being required to vi it Rome once in three years . those more remote , every four , five , or ten years, according to distances. Benedict XIV confirmed this bull under penalties of suspension , prescribing the visit every third year to Italians , every fifth to ultramontanes ; also ( what is still observed) that, during the sojourn, all should draw up full reports of the state of their dioceses to be submitted to the « Congregation of Council » : those holding more than one diocese , to make a separate visit and report for each . the Prefects of Missions also to send account to Rome of all religious interests within their spheres of labour even year, or every fifth year, according to the distance — and thus has originated the valuable , indeed instructive compilation known as ct Anna's of the Propagation of the Faith ». At present the visit «ad limina» is obligatory upon all Bishops , Vicars Apostolic, and Abbots with episcopal jurisdiction , in European countries south of the German Ocean and Ba'tic , every fifth year: upon those of Asia, America, and the other European Sees , every tenth year. An at- testation is c nsigned by each at the wo « patriarchal basilicas » , the Vatican and Ostian, of his presence at those chief sanctuaries — the visit to the sacred « thresholds » being still maintained in form while developed into a system of such vast organisation and responsibilities, tO PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS ship , or the distinctness of expressed doctrine in formula* and ritual, may be considered a leading feature in this stage of history , manifesting not only the sense of the primitive Church, but that of their own vocation and destinies enter- tained by these hierarchs , perhaps with presentiment of the future beyond anything implied in their known edicts or actions. Cletus required that all admitted to the Eucharistic rite should receive the Communion. Evaristus (elected A. 0. 100) appointed seven deacons to assist himself and his successors when preaching, as witnesses to the soundness of doctrine ; and ordered that matrimony should be celebrated in public with the benediction of the Church. Alexander, de- capitated (119), on the Nomentan Way (where a long - interred Basilica over his tomb was restored to light in 1851). prescribed the use of unleavened bread for the Eucharist , also the mixing of water with wine , both to signify the union of Christ with his Church , and the blood mingled With water that flowed from His side on the Cross. Almost all the ritual practices ordered by Popes during these ages lend , indeed , in the same direction — to increase the so- lemnity or express the mystery of the Eucharistic sacrifice. By the same Alexander I was introduced the holy water, now placed inside ( at first outside ) of every church for use before worship. Sixtus I (132) ordered that none should touch the sacred vessels save priests and deacons. Iginius (15 i made it a rule that no oratory should be consecrated without the Eucharistic celebration; also that sponsors, at least one of each sex , should assist at every baptism. Zephyrinus ( 203 ) prescribed that henceforth the sacramental chalice should Le of no other material than gold or silver ; and we read that sacred vessels of gold, and lamps in silver, were bestowed on various churches by Urban 1 .227) — accordant with the statement of Baronius that, even in times of perse - cution , silver lamps of various form, with many lights set in circlets, used to illuminate Christian ceremonies. Eusebius Ordered (he « corporals » (for the Eucharist;: to be hence- PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS %\ forth neither of woollen nor silk, but fine linen, emblematic of the grave - clothes in which the Divine Body was laid. Melchiades introduced the practice of distributing blessed bread , from the oblations made at the altar, among all those at worship who did not communicate , that at least such symbolic pledge might imply unity in faith. Callixtus , (ano- ther example of patrician birth in the elect to this See , he being of the Domitian family ) founded the first public church in Rome, dedicate to the Blessed Virgin (now S. Maria in Traslevsre), and once known by the title « Fons olei » , from the legend that a fountain of oil had suddenly gushed on this spot, and flowed to the Tiber during a single day , shortly before the Saviour's birth , — a phenomenon natu- rally interpreted in the sense of Christian prophecy ; and the well-known fact of the decision in favour of the Christians against the popinarii (tavern-keepers) by the Emperor Alexander, shows that in granting th s site to the former for their worship, that prince admitted their legalized posi- tion among citizens. The erection of other public temples , and the admission of a certain degree of pomp in Christian worship may be dated from this period (219-22). To Callixtus has been ascribed the first decree recmiring celibacy from priests ( Moroni , Dizionario di Erudizione Eccles. ); but good authorities wave all attempt to support this ; and it is observ- able that « the law of celibacy was not written on paper till it had begun to be effaced from the hearts of the Clergy ». ( Alzog , Histoire universelle de VEglise, cap. IV, § 85). The « Apostolic Canons » , admissible at least as evidence to ec- clesiastical discipline during the second and third centuries, imply the obligation of the higher Clergy to remain single. The Councils of Elvira (300 or 305) and Ancyra (314) desired that those wedded before ordination should live as the un- wedded ; and that of Neocesarea (31 4) pronounced the deposi- tion of the priest who should marry after entering the holy slate Callixtus was put to death, as above-mentioned, '226, in the. house where he had been imprisoned , scourged , and \${\ 22 PRIMITIVE" PONTIFFS to endure the pangs of hunger. Urban I, also of patrician family, is said to have made many converts among the higher Classes, of which number were St. Cecilia, her husband Valerian , and his two brothers, all martyred His decree providing that ecclesiastical revenues and the o'. lations of the faithful should only be employed for pious ana charitable uses , leads us to infer the now continually increasing amount of the Church's wealth. The use of Chrism in Baptism , and the administration of Subdeacons at the altar, are also ascrib- ed to St. Urban ; and it is said that from this period the episcopal chair, now become like a regal throne, used to be called tribunal, as the seat of authority Divine in origin The last-named Pontiff has become associated in art with St Ce- cilia, near whom he was interred - having suffered martyr- dom, i'33 in the Catacombs, where she also had the honours of sepulture from his own hand The importance of the po- sition held by the Roman Bishopric in the III century ap- pears on occasion of the Council held by Cornelius, 254, with assistance of sixty other bishops, for the condemnation of schism and heresy At that Pope's election, sixteen prelates had been present , beside the Clergy and people of Rome. But his epoch is signalised by the ominous appearance of the first Antipope— the rivalship eventually such a scourge to the Church and scandal to Christian nations. A Roman priest, named Novatianus , supported by an African priest, who seems to have been the more energetic spirit in the move- ment , obtained illegal consecration in a private house from three rustic bishops of obscure dioceses, probably ignorant of the question at issue Hence arose the Novatiau schism,, represented by a series o' pretenders who kept up their claims to the Roman pontificate , with a ceriian factious sup- port, for more than a century and a half-as Panvinio says, (notes to Piatina) till the pontificate of Celestinus I , A. D. 422. During the persecution under Decius, Pope Cornelius is said to have caused the bodies of St. I'eter and St Paul to be hemeved from the Catacombs, their original resting place; PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 23 the former to be re-interred near the place of his martyrdom on the Vatican , the latter in an estate of a Christian matron, Lucina, on the Ostian Way, where the great Basilica now stands over that tomb. Platina, who gives other particulars, does not mention the oratory raised by Anacletus over St. Peter's original sepulchre— its first consecration . The per- secution begun under Hecius numbered Cornelius among its victims, though it was under the Emperor Gallus he suffer- ed , either in the temple of Mars on the Appian Way , whither he had been taken to sacrifice, or at Centumcellae, now Civitavecchia. Lucius suffered martyrdom after a pontif- icate of a few months ; and his successor , Stephen I., was beheaded on hi- episcopal throne beside the altar, in the Catacombs of St. Sebastian 260 , where that marble chair remained till its removal to Pisa in 1700. being described (by a writer who speaks as an eye-witness with stains of blood for ages left visible Sixtus II exercised his ministry wiih apostolic heroism during the time of the persecution under Valerian , and suffered , with several other ecclesiastics, after refusing to sacrifice in the temple of Mars on the Ap- pian Way It was when on his way to death that the memorable scene occurred between this Pontiff and the deacon Laurence, whose fate he prophesied ; the latter following him in mar- tyrdom, amid terrific pangs, after three days hionysius, who had led the life of an eremite till his election to this See, distributed Rome into parishes, and assigned to the elergy their several po ts both in the churches and cemeteries; also determining the limits of dioceses in different parts of Italy. It is said that the Emperor Aurelian referred to his decision the contest against the heretical bishop, Paul of Somosata. who had been deposed by a Synod at Antioch, hut had refused to yield his >ee to the successor chosen Felix I ordered thai the Eucharist should tie celebrated over the tombs of martyrs as was already the practice , though not matter of discipline, in the Roman Church — hence the usage of insert = 24 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS ling relics in altars before their consecration. To the same Pope is ascribed the origin of anniversary festivals in honour of .Martyrs, and the order that sacramental rites, save in rases of necessity, should be celebrated in sacred places alone I Platina ). Cajus (related to the Emperor Diocletian) prescrib- ed that none should be raised to episcopal rank without Laving passed through all the seven orders into which the Clergy were already divided. The last in this succession of martyr Popes, Marcellinus , was contemporary with the last and fiercest of Pagan persecutions against the Church . that tmuer Diocletian, which broke out 293 ; and after this victim had suffered with three others, his body was left on the highway till interred by the faithful in the Catacombs of St. Prisca (4). Modern historians refute the statement of Pla- tina, and other writers, that Marcellinus so far yielded to (4) The language of Suetonius indicates the error so long obtaining among Romans who could not distinguish Christians from Jews, and saw in the former merely one among the seels of the latter : — Iudeos , iwpulsore Chris'o assidue tumultuantcs , Roma txpulit — re- ferring to the Emperor Claudius. — Tacitus thus narrates the first persecution suffered by the Church at Rome under Nero. « Quaesitis- simis poenis affecit (Nero) quos per flagitia invisos, vulgus Christianos uppellabat. Auctor nominis ejus Christus, qui, Tiberio imperitante, per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat. Repres- saque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat , non modo per Iudaeam . originem ejus mali, sed per urbam etiam, quo cunc- ta undique atrocia aut pudenda coufluunt celebranturque. Igitur primo correpti qui fatcbantur , deinde indicio eorum , multitudo ingens , haud perinde in crimine incendii , 'quam odio humani generis convicti sunt. Et pereuntibus addita hidibria, ut ferarum tergis contecli , laniatu canum interirent , aut crucibns affixi , aut ilammandi; atque ubi defecissit dies, in usum nocturni luminis ure- i.ntur ». And the mysteriously disseminated anticipation of a Ruler to proceed from Palestine for dominion over a new world, is attested by both those historians (Tacit. Hist. V. 43, Sueton, Vita Vespas. IV ; as the same idea is expressed , with magnificent imagery, in the of Virsil. PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 2& the threats of the Emperor Maximianus as to throw incense on the flames of a Heathen altar. It has been said that in the sole City of Rome 4 7.000 Christians were put to death in the course of one month during this persecution ( Forest i , Vita de' Papi ) — which report may well be questioned ; for local tradition exaggerates the number of martyrs beyond all belief, telling of 174,000 whose remains rest in the Catacombs of S. Sebastiano ; of more than 3000 whose relics were depo- sited by the pious daughters of the Senator Pudens in a well at S. Pudenziana; and of more than 10,000 buried in the Cata- combs of SS. Zeno and Anastasius below S. Maria Scala Cocli, one of the churches near the site of St. Paul's martyrdom. Piazza ( Emerologio Sacro } says that 285 were put to death and interred in Catacombs near the Salarian Way, in the course of but two days , under Claudius II ; and affirms that more than 2000 suffered for refusing to sacrifice before the image of the Sun. On the other hand we have the statement of Gibbon-the opposite in two extremes between which it seenu- just to strike the balance — that during the ten years'persecu- t ion under Diocletian, Galerius, and Maximin, the number of those put to death for the faith throughout the Empire was probably somewhat less than 2000, among whom about 4500 met with that fate in Palestine alone. That historian assumes that the Christians of Rome , about the middle of the third century, may have numbered about 50,000 amidst a population of at least a million, after a peace of thirty-eight years ac- corded to the Church under Pagan rulers ; and at this pe- riod ( he observes ) the Roman magistrates were well aware that the Christians of this City possessed considerable wealth : u that vessels of gold and silver were used in their religious worship ; and that many among their proselytes had sold their houses and lands , to increase the public riches of the sect » - as , in the previous century, the Roman Church had received, in a single donation, 200,000 sesterces from a con- vert of Pontus who had come to reside in this capital. Tillemont refers the first construction of public churches for Christian worship to the period of the peace under Alex- 49 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS ander Feverus ; other writers, to the peace under Gallienus. There is sufficient reason to believe that before the reign of Diocletian the Faith had been preached in e^ery pro\ince, and in all principal cities of the Empire ; that episcopal gov- ernment had been adopted by all the Churches scattered over ihe Roman world, and the institution of Synods 1 ecome alike universal, long before Christianity was the religion of the Stale ( « D dim and Fall », c. xv ). It would be, indeed, erroneous to picture to ourselves Ihe primitive Church as perpe ually under a cloud of persecution and sorrow cele- brating her rites in private chambers or subterranean cha- pels, calumniated and assailed, or forgotten and despised. Rather have we to trace the interesting signs of her pro- gressive credit and official recognition ; the proofs that many authorities, who were far indeed from her faith, gradually opened heir minds to the conviction hat she had claims to respect as a lirmly organized society with powers, vir- tues, and guarantees of enduring life The earliest expressions of the Pagan notion respecting Christ anity in I acitus and Suetoniu , are the most hostile — a pernicious supers ition inspiring with ha red against the human race, was the He igion of the Cross in Tie then idea of the Roman mind. Great must have been the change in those dispositions towards it, before Alexander Severus granted he ground for a church in the Transtibe ine quar er, and himself l ow- ed before he statue of Christ, erected, with those of Abra- ham and Apollonius, of deilied emperors and philosophers, in the private chapel where he daily offered his devotions Lampridius lia c. 429 ). Chns^innon esse pa*sus est, says Lanii ridius of the tole a ion accorded to 'he Church by this voung prince , to whom the same writer ascribes a more acti e and declared friendliness towards Christian Truth, stating how he had desired o erect a temple to Christ and have Uim received among the Gods, as Ha rian also is said to ha e designed; but was pre en ed by those who, consult- sou'ees, obtained assurance that all would be- PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 2 2 come Christians, and that all other temples would be desert- ed, if -uch wish shoud be fultilled » [vita 43 . Yet the root- ed Pagan prejudice again appears in the Emperor Aurelian , who , writing to the senate at a time oi anticipated warfare, reproe- them for delaying to consult the Sibylline books » as if they were engaged in a church of the Christians, instead of in the temple of all the Gods ( \ opiscus , V t,i 20). And to the time of Septimius Severus is referred ihe blasphe- mous caricature , found, a few years ago, -cratched on the wall of a chamber below the Palatine, representing a cruci- fixion with an ass's head to the figure of the sufferer, and another figure standing by in act of saluting by kissing the hand (Adoration strictly so called) :" the words rudely traced below in Greek, a Alexamenos worships <»od ». Marcus Aurelius, in sad inconsistency with his high prin- ciples , allowed the Church to be persecuted and blames, in his writings, the constancy of the fai hful in meeting death for what he deemed an obstinate opinion ! His predecessor had taken a juster view, as appears from a letter ->f Antoninus Pius to the provinces of Asia, re pro ing those who had per- secuted the Christians, and injoining that no e of this faith should be molested unless convicted of transgression against law (Justin Mar. Apo1. 69). Eusebius , followed by several other writers, states that the Emperor I hilippus (2*4-9 ) was a Chri tian ; and that he abstained from ascending he Capitol to offer sacrifice at solemn anni ersaries, « through the grace and for the honour of Christ and His Church , <• is what the Christian historian, Orosius, records We possess fortunately reliable report as to what Christian rites were in these primitive ages Ihe very first fa ourable evidence from a Pagan attests their pure and beauti'ul simplicity ; and those remarkable words of the younger Pliny, addressed to Trajan, are at he same time witness to a trascendently important point of( hristian t elief: the faith ul, -he had bee.) informed by those so unhappy as to ha\e severed themsehes from that number, and become 28 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS apostate under the terror of persecution, in Asia Minor-were accustomed « to assemble on determined days at dawn of morning , to recite alternately hymns to Christ as to God , binding themselves by oath not to commit crimes; not to defile themselves by frauds or adulteries: not to violate trust, or deny deposits confided to them: after which they separate to convene again, in order to partake of pomis- cuous and innocent food ». Much more detailed and com- plete is the description given by Justin Martyr ; and if his picture of Christian worship in the second century be in- deed unlike that of the Latin Church at the present day, we must remember the inevitable law of progress ; and that a religion characterised by absolute immutability in its mode of acting and appealing, would be in fact a barbaric one: « On the day of the Sun all those who inhabited townsor villages used to assemble in one place, where first were read the comment- aries of the holy Apostles, or the books of the Prophets. Then, the reader having finished hU task, he who presided would exhort the people with suitable words to imitate the illustrious act- of the Saints, and to follow the precepts and counsels contained in those sacred volumes. This discourse being finished , ail rose at the same time , and , according to usage . prayed as well for themselves, and for those who had been just baptised, as for all others in whatsoever country, that, having acquired the knowledge of the truth, they might also attain the grace of leading a life sanctified by good works, observing the commandments of the Lord, and finally arriv- ing at the glory which has no end. They then saluted eacli other with a kiss , the sign of brotherly afTetion. Afterwards were offered to him who presided bread and wine with water . having received which things, he gave glory and praise to the Father through the Son and through the Holy Spirit. ynd continued for some time in the rendering of thanks for these gifts from Him received. These prayers being finish- ed, the people who assisted would answer amen, and after, the supplications and acclamations of the faithful . the deacons PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 89 took the bread and wine and water, over which had teen rendered thanks to the Lord , and distributed them to those present , reserving a part for those who had not been able to intervene at the celebration. Now, this divine food was at that time called the Eucharist, of which assuredly none could partake save those who believed that the doctrines of our religion were most true ; who had been baptised , and who had lived in such manner as was commanded by the Re- deemer ; for indeed all were persuaded, as we are likewise , that that nourishment ought not to be taken as one eats of bread and drinks of wine commonly , but as most sacred food , seeing that it had been revealed to us that such nourish- ment is indeed the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus. For the Apostles, in their commentaries, which are called Gospels, have written that thus it was commanded to them by the Redeemer , at the time when , having taken bread , after rendering thanks, he said, do this in remembrance of mv\ this is my body ; and having taken the cup and given thanks, added also, - this is my blood. It was on the Sunday that they assemlled , both because this day was the first in the creation of the world , and because on the same had risen from the dead the Son of God , our Saviour, Christ Jesus ». As to the personality of the Roman Bishops, it would be vain to look for even a nucleus of the pomp of circum- stance that eventually surrounded them , in these earliest ages ; even the great fact of the gradually-attained supremacy over the Catholic world, as held by Rome, scarcely yet appears in its incipient stage. We may picture to ourselves these saintly Pas'ors , so many of whom shed their blood for the faith , officiating at plain wooden altars , or over the tombs of Martyrs in Catacombs, undistinguished in garb or ceremo- nial from their clergy , clad in 'the usual digniiied costume of the Roman citizen , which had not yet received adjuncts of symbolic ornament , except perhaps a fillet ( infula j round the heid ( origin of the later mitre \ and the staff, emblem '.y,0 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS of the pastoral office, in the hand J). Not many of these ancient Pontiffs have become conspicuous figures in Art. except St. Clement, whose symbol is the anchor fastened to his neck when he suffered ly drowning!, and sometimes the mitre, or a triple cross; St < allixlus , with a great stone tied to his neck, or springs of water near him ; and St. Cornelius. with a horn of unction and a triple cross. St. Anacletus is introduced by Ha hael in the « Disputa », or « Theology » as his grand picture should rather be called , with the palm in his hand ; and St. Urban is seen scourged at a stake, or beheaded , whilst an idol falls from a broken column near (Hu-enbeth, « Emblems of Saints ») St. Alexander, in a statue by Amadori lately erected in a niche of the Porta Pia , holds a stylus in one hand . and in the other a scroll with 'he words qii pri He quam pakaretitr, a vase being at his feet, on which is inscrit ed aspergcs mc, allusive to his addi- tions to the liturgy and he use of holy water origina ed by him. One important feature of this period is that tran- sition from the primitive to the more developed church-gov- ernment, which of course was gradual, though early ac- complished, admitting more and more the princii le of sub- ordination , but still retaining much of the democratic element , and allowing the interposition of the people in religious interests — a curious evidence to which is found in the Pagan biographer above cited : Alexander Severus [he Jells us) desired that provincial magistrates, or procurators, (1) Cardinal Wiseman (Fabio'a c. X) states that, when officiating, a. distinctive vestment of pure white was worn over those in common use by Prelates; and tiie ample >hawbl has succeeded to this in the ecclesiastic costume of the present day. On the same high authority I rest the detail of the infula, worn like a diadem round the head ; but may add that the absence of everything like this in ponlific costume , represented so often , and from different periods, among the earliest Christian mosaics at Rome, seems almost conclusive against this particular. PRIMITIVE POMIFFS 31 should be liable to censure by popular accusation , in case any bad to charge them with crimes, and that proof sh uld be brought against them ly the accuser; deemmg it grievous that what was done by Christians an I Jews, in publishing ( predicandis the names of priests to be or lained , should not be done in regard to he rulers of provinces, to whom the fortunes and lives of men were entrusted. Lampridius, vita , 4o . In these three centuries of religious struggle the silent triumphs effected by Truth against all the might of worldly interests prejudice , corruption , and violence, afford an impressive spectacle of principles gradually overmastering, by innate virtues , the entire moral world beneath their divine influence. If still but an under-current , the Christian idea is found diffusing itself over regions of intellect , giving birth to aspirations or sentiments, which (in I utterance in a new philosophy . and stamp their character on works of thought and imagination Hence appears a new era both in Latin and Greek lit rature ; a vague restless speculation directed to the invisible world , a consciousness of Deity, a craving for reli- gious knowledge, a more distinct conviction of immortality begin to express themselves. In such writers as Apuleius , Maerobius, Marcus Aurelius, and, among the Greeks , Epicte- tus and Aristides, we recognise this new movement; but a hove all in Seneca do we find the accordance with Chris- tian ethics and ideas, apart from the acceptance of doctrine: the elevating sense of an omniscient Power , the conviction that man's true liberty and only real happiness are to be attained through virtue and the knowledge of God This phase in the s ory of mind has been well illustrated in such works as Champigny's « Les Antonins », and Dr. Newman's « Development of Christian Doctrine ; also in another , perhaps less known to English readers, by a living Italian writer of much thought and learning, Count Tullio Dandolo , from whose remarks in regard to the epoch here considered I translate the following with reference to the state of Empire under Hadrian and his immediate successors. — « The vasj 32 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS and speculative mind of Hadrian was sufficiently informed fo comprehend all the importance of the religious novelties now diffusing themselves ; nevertheless he either could not or would not suspect the reality , and by the apotheosis of Antinous dissipated the last illusions 'of popular veneration for a worship irreparably fallen into the mire. Certainly the progress of Christianity could not have failed to strike that deeply-investigating spirit : he had not refused to exam- ine apologies for it, addressed to him by Ouadratus and Axistides ; and the rescript he directed to the proconsul of Asia jlinor accorded to the Christians, for protection against outbursts of popular fury , the same guarentees as those Trajan desired to concede to them against informants. Nor did the mild disposition of the first Antoninus cause any change to the auspicious circumstances in which the Chris- tians were placed under the successor of Hadrian ; rather did their religion now acquire a still more public character, whilst the apologies, from time to time appearing, began boldly to assail the immorality and absurdities of polytheism. 3Iarcus Aurelius may be considered as the last effort of Pa- ganism , or, we should rather say, of Pagan philosophy . t;> place a worthy opponent in the ranks against the invasion of Christianity. That imperial Stoic rivalled the austerity of the Christians m his contempt for pomps and pleasures. How came it then that the Gospel found in him an intoler- ant and violent persecutor ? Three causes unitedly availed to make him so dissimilar in this to what he was by nature in other undertakings: firstly, the change in the relative position of Christianity and Polytheism ; secondly, the special circumstances of the times; thirdly, certain personal, and. we may say, exceptional qualities in his individuality; and yet in this Emperor's character we observe a progress extra- neous to the Stoic virtue, to be explained by an influence of which he could not render account to himself, but which reveals itself to our eyes with splendid distinctness. The evange- lic dogmas were at that age combated, but ill comprehended ; PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 3:> the prejudices of Roman pride and philosophic vanity did not consent even to give time to the examining of a religion founded by a Hebrew , who had perished on the cross , and promulgated by men of abject condition ; yet , thanks to such promulgation, the virtues properly Christian had com- menced an efficacious and ever increasing, although tacit and imperceptible , action. Strange aberrations of the worthies! intellects ! Marcus Aurelins reproached the Christians for their eagerness to die : judge and victims professing similar doctrines ! Glancing over the writings of this Emperor , we might suppose we were reading Christian meditations , so great the love of virtue , so profound the contempt for plea- sure there manifest ! On the shores of the Tiber , in that palace of marble and gold , reared by Nero and purified by Aurelius, is a solitary chamber where, far from the courtier throng , did the arbiter over the destiny of a hundred mil- lions reflect and write concerning his individual duties — his hand tracing the same maxims which an obscure Christian was preaching in the Catacombs , or in prison. Through political prejudice and the tyranny of fanaticism, truths from opposite extremities of the world encountered, without recognising , each other : in fact , enbghtened Pagans of the third century were infinitely removed , as to points of belief, from the Greeks and Romans of five centuries anterior ; and if ceremonies were still performed after the fashion of their aucestors , and with scarce dissimilar apparatus, they were now but intended to adumbrate a species of speculative deism. A new and reawakening piety, generating in its delusions an offspring of aberrations hitherto unknown, co-operated with the transformed philosophy to extinguish the ancient arid create a new religion. — Nfoplaionism , transmuted from a philosophic sect into a religious system since the day when it had begun appropriating to itself those theurgic elements contained in the Oriental doctrines deemed har- monious with its system It was a compound of extravagance and good faith , of rashness and seriousness , of shadows and 3 34 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS lights : but presently was created by it a literature all its own . the Apollonius of Philostratus being its Odyssey ; the Pythagoras of Jamblichus its Cyropoedia , and the Enneadis of Plotinus its universal manual » — (II Cristiancsimo Nascenle). Besides the sacred buildings above-described , there is one other in Rome, which, though it cannot indeed be called a monument of these early ages , is yet connected with their history : S. Pudenziuna on the Viminal Hill , beneath whose aisles are remains of a residence where the worship of the primitive Church was celebrated , being identified as the house of that Senator Pudens , who entertained St. Peter , and to whose daughter this church is dedicate. Researches undertaken here in the winter of i860 by Mr J. II. Parker (a gentleman well known for archaeologic learning^ rendered accessible the subterraneans known to exist , but long left unexplored , where we recognise the antique structure of the Imperial period. Public baths , called after Novatus . that senator's son, within this mansion, are supposed to have con- tinued in use for some centuries later ; and we read in Ba- ronius that , in his time , considerable ruins stood on this spot ; mentioned also by Piazza ( Sacre Stazioni ) as still conspicuous when he wrote, towards the end of the XVII century. It is probable that a chamber in these baths was the one consecrated by Pius I, about A. D. 145. in deference to the request of Praxedis , another daughter of Pudens, who survived till that date ; and anciently two churches , known as Titulus Pudentis and Titulus Pastoris , the latter dedicated to Pastor , a brother of the same Pope Pius , are said to have occupied this site. These oratories ( as they might be called in respect to >i>:e ) were subsequently thrown together into a single basi- lica, rebuilt first by Adrian I, in the eighth century , after- wards by Gregory VII , and by Innocent II. In its present Mate, as tastelessly modernized in 1597, little of the ancient architecture remains except columns of bigio marble, built up into heavy square pilasters along the nave, and flanking PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 35 the portal ; besides some plain mosaic pavement. But we recognise an early Christian period in the low reliefs on the lintel of the doorway , representing in bust SS. Pudentiana , Praxedis , and two others , probably SS. Pudens and Pastor ; the divine Lamb , with a cross , in the centre , and a grace- ful foliate ornament along the interstices. The square cam - panile of brickwork (date probably about 1 1 30) presents one of the finest specimens of its description in Rome , with sto- ries of triple arcades , bands of terracotta cornice-moulding , inlaid disks and crosses in coloured stone. Reduced as the actual church is , by modern works , to a level with other uninteresting structures of the sixteenth century , we may still trace the original plan dividing it into two sanctuaries ; the larger corresponding to the present chancel , and per- haps also to the nave ; the smaller represented by a lateral chapel and narrow aisle , once the titulis Pudsntis , in which a council was held under Pope Symmachus , and where we see pavement of primitive mosaic , white and gray marble intermixed with porphyry and serpentine. In the same cha- pel is kept the most revered relic , said to be a part of the wooden altar on which St. Peter here celebrated (I); and a tablet here records the local primitive memories, as more ful- ly given in another very curious inscription, Latin and Italian, to be read in the nave (2). One artistic treasure, of high (1) The greater part of this is enclosed within the high altar of the Lateran. It is said that , till the time of St. Sylvester, all the Popes used to celebrate on this sacred table. (2) « In this church, more ancient than any other in Rome, for- merly the house of Pudens, a senator, father of SS. Novatus, Timo- theus, and the virgin saints Pudentiana and Praxedis , was the first residence of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Here those who became Christians assembled to attend mass and receive holy com- munion : here are buried the bodies of 3000 martyrs, and an im^ mense quantity of martyrs' blood is collected. Those who visit this church everv dav obtain an indulgence of 3000 years, with remis- dp PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS antiquity , still fortunately left in its place, is the mosaic of the apse, referred by Italian writers to the year 884, by Germans (v. Beschrcibung Rorns). supposed to be that ordered by Adrian I in the eighth century ; — at all events, a work of such merit that Poussin esteemed it the first among ancient Christian mosaics; and De Rossi, in his « Romi Cristiana » . agrees as to its high claims. Leaving this church , to observe its external structure, we ree, from a narrow court on one side , the most curious por- tion , perhaps of the second century of our era , recognisable in a lateral wall of Roman brickwork , pierced by high arched windows [now built up\ and supported by construct- ive arches , the square stone blocks here set into the brickwork, a method practised under Constantine, indicating the period of that emperor. Near one angle of these wails, we may enter through a gap to descend into the subterraneans, now in great part filled with soil, over different le-els of which we must pursue an uneasy path ; first , through a long hall with stucco-covered vault , probably the nave of the primi- tive church ; thence into vaulted chambers with walls and roof alike stuccoed , in some parts painted in plain red bands that follow the lines of archways ; elsewhere in more dece- ptive style, with architectural subjects, reminding us of the ian. In one chamber is a fireplace with aperture now closed; in another, same pavement in black and white mosaic . sion of the third part of their sins ». Cardinal Wiseman (good authority as to the church from which he took his title in the Sacred ge), assumes (Faliola, ch. x) that S. Pudenziana was the principal place of Christian worship in Home from the apostolic age: and that Pius I only added another oratory, but did not fird con- secrate the house of that Pudens m ntioned by St. Paul in his ^Se- cond Epistle to Timothy, and said to have suffered a martyr's death under Nero. His two daughters are represented, in the reliefs over 'lie portal, with large vases in their hands , significant of their care hi collecting the blood of such witnesses to faith. PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS 37 without design , laid bare by the removal of soil. It seems probable that these interiors belong to the baths, in which , perhaps without sacrifice of antique buildings, was formed that primitive church long left to oblivion ; and these subterraneas were once profaned for evil purposes . as in the time of Raifaelle, when they were ordered to be filled up with soil, on account of their having beconae a haunt of brigands ! This , the supposed primitive cathedral of the Papal metropolis, now affords a striking example of the negligence, amidst much ostentatious church-restoration , to be charged against Rome's authorities in respect to the less noted , however venerable , monuments of Christian antiquity (!). (4) For the lives bf the primitive Popes, see Anastasius , with his commentators, edition published at Rome under Benedict XIV ; Platina, Ciaconius, the Art de verifier les Dates, the Per/eUo Lccjgen- dario, the Diziomrio of Moroni , the Roma Sotlerranea of De Rossi ; and Petrarch's work on this subject , of no authority indeed , but cu- rious as showing the ideas] of his time. For the development of doctrine and its definitions in these ages, — Dupin, Au'eurs Eccleslas- tiques , Atzog , Dollinger : De BrogKe \ L'Eglise el I' Empire Rom. mi fVme siec}e. II. The Church in the Catacombs NO phase of Christian Antiquity speaks so little to the eye , and yet none is so full of significance for the mind . nor so important to high interests, as the Art found in Rome's Catacombs — the pictorial and sculptured evidence to the life of the primitive Church, supplying illustrations of ines- timable value , and pleading with silent eloquence for much that has been laid aside , while opposed to much that has been adopted in ecclesiastical usage. Here is indeed manifest, to the thoughtful observer, an ideal far from consistently conformed to , at the present day , by any religious system , Catholic or Protestant; for the conviction that the true mani- festation of the perfectly Evangelic Church is yet to be look- ed for as future , and that all Institutions hitherto pretend- ing to that character are destined eventually to give place to a reality nobler and purer, as the morning star fades before the lustre of the risen sun , — this is what forces itself most strongly upon minds capable of bringing impar- tial judgment and independent reason to the study of such monuments. Lately exerted activity in the research and illustration of the records of ancient Christianity at Rome — fresh impulses given to learning and speculation in this sphere, arnd favoured by the liberal patronage of Pius IX — tend . perhaps without the consciousness of those immediate- ly concerned, to prepare for a new era in Faith and Devotion, whose spirit will probably prove adverse, in various respects. IN THE CATACOMBS 39 to the teaching or practice , if not irreconcileable with the now admitted claims of Rome in the hierarchic order. That all which is holy , useful , morally beautiful, and adapted to Humanity's requirements in that ably-organized system of Church — government, whose triumphant successes are due to the talents and zeal exerted at this centre , and long as- suredly favoured by Providence , with ever-renewed proof how invariably —the way is smooth For Power that travels with the human heart- that all this may, as to essence at least, be retained in the final developments of Divine Religion, none can more earnestly desire or hope than those who look with full confidence for a more perfect acceptance and embodiment in the future of the Truth taught by the World's Redeemer. We have to observe the deeper significance attaching to this term Catacomb than to any by which places of sepulture were known to Paganism, from the Greek to lull or fall asleep ; also to the phrase common to epitaphs above Christian graves, depositus (« interred » ), implying consignment, the tempo- rary trust of a treasure to the tomb , in hope of another life — with sense utterly wanting to the funereal terms conclilus, compositus , and others of Pagan use. The records these cemeteries contain cannot be appreciated from any sectarian point of view ; but alike command interest from all Christians by their luminous and paramount testimony to those Divine Truths in respect to which the followers of Christ are. universally agreed , - here far more strikingly ma- nifest than is aught that bears evidence to dogmas or practices around which discords have arisen for results of disunion among those who acknowledge the same Divine Author of their Faith. It is a noble presentment of one momentous phase in the story of Humanity that these sacred Antiquities afford to us. — Amidst circumstances of unexampled trial . amidst all the provocations of calumny , persecution , the 40 THE CHURCH liabilities to degrading punishment and torturing death, while the Christians were accused of atheism , considered to be , (as Tacitus savs), convicted of hatred against the human race, not one expression of .bitter or vindictive feeling, not one utterance of the sorrow that is without hope can be ■-id upon these monumental pages — but, on the contrary, the intelligible language of an elevated spirit and calmly cheerful temper , hope whose flame never burns dim , faith -erenely stedfast, a devotional practice fraught with sublime mysticism , yet distinguished by simplicity and repose-alto- gether a moral picture evincing what is truly Godlike in Man ! At a glance we may go through the entire range of scriptural , and almost as rapidly through that of symbolic subjects in this artistic sphere , both circles obviously determ- ined by traditions from which the imaginative faculty was -low to emancipate itself. From the Old Testament : — the 'all of Adam and Eve, and the judgment pronounced on them before their expulsion from Faradise ; Noah in the ark : the Sacrifice of Abraham ; Moses receiving the tables of the Law on Sinai ; Moses striking the Rock ; the story of Jonas in different stages; Daniel in the Lions' Den; the three Israelites in the fiery Furnace ; the Ascent of Elias to Heaven, and a few others less common — from the New Testament : the Nativitv ; the Adoration of the Magi ; the Change of Water into Wine ; the Multiplication of loaves ; the restoring of sight to the Blind; the healing of the Cripple, and of the Woman afflicted with a bloody flux ; the Raising of Lazarus ; Christ entering Jerusalem , seated on an ass; St. Peter de- nying Christ, between two Jews ; the arrest of St. Peter; Pi- ite washing his hands: in one instance (on a sarcophagus) the soldiers crowning Our Lord in mockery, but (remarkable lor the sentiment - the preference for the triumphant rather than mournful aspect ) a garland of flowers being (substituted for that thorny crown mentioned in the Gospel narrative ; hi another instance, the Roman soldiers striking the Divine -M'tlerer on the head with a reed ; but no nearer approach IN THE CATACOMBS 41 to the dread consummation being ever attempted -a reserve imposed no doubt by reverential tenderness, or the fear of betraying to scorn the great object of faith respecting that supreme sacrifice accomplished on Calvary. Among other subjects, prominent in the IV century, (though not for the first time then seen), are two persons whose high position in devotional regards henceforth becomes more and more conspicuous with the lapse of ages — the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter. The mother of Christ , as first introduced to us by Art , is only seen in her historic relation to her Divine Son, nor in any other than the two scenes of the Nativity and Adoration of the Wise Men — later she appears like other of those oranies , or figures in the attitude of prayer, and some- times between the Apostles Peter and Paul— occasionally , indeed , with naive expression of reverence , on larger scale than these latter — an honour , however , not exclusively hers, but also given to certain other Virgin Saints, especially Si. Agnes. The first example of the « Madonna and Child » pic- ture destined for such endless reproduction and extraordinary honours , is seen over a tomb in the Catacombs of St. Agnes — Mary with veiled head, arms extended in prayer, and the Child, not apparently seated, but standing before her, on each side being the monogram of the Holy Name, XP — which symbol ( rarely in use before the conversion of Constan- tine) suffices to show that this picture cannot be of earlier date than the IV century — as the absence of the nimbus, to the heads both of Mother and Child, indicates origin not later than the earlier years of the next century , before which that attribute scarcely appears in Christian Art, An event in ecclesiastical History explains how this pictorial subject, the Madonna and Child , attained its high importance and popularity — became in fact a symbol of orthodoxy, displayed in private houses, painted on furniture , and embroidered on garments. It was in the year 431 that the Council of Ephesus, in denouncing the adverse opinions of Nestorius , defined that Mary was not merely the Mother of Humanity, but to it THE CHUnCfl be revered in a more exalted sense as the Mother of Deity in Christ. Turning to the purely symbolic , we find most frequently introduced — the Lamb (later appearing with the nimbus round its head j and the various other forms in which Faith con- templated the Redeemer— namely, the Good Shepherd, Orpheus charming wild animals with his lyre ; the Vine ; the Olive ; the Rock ; a Light ; a Column ; a Fountain ; a Lion ; and we may read seven poetic lines by St. Damasus enumerating all the titles or symbols referring to the same Divine Personality —comprising, besides the above, a King, a Giant, a Gem, a Gate , a Rod , a Hand , a House , a Net , a Vineyard. But . among all others, the symbol most frequently seen is the fish , with a meaning perhaps generally known , but too im- portant to be here omitted-its corresponding term in Greek, being formed of the initial letters of the holy name and title. « Jesus Christ; Son of God , Saviour ». We find also the Dove for the Holy Spirit , or for beatified spirits generally ; the Stag , for the desire after Baptism and heavenly truth ; Can- delabra for illumination through the Gospel ; a Ship for the Church , sometimes represented sailing near a lighthouse, to signify the Church guided by the source of all light and truth: a Fish swimming with a basket of bread on its back, for the Eucharistic Sacrament ; the Horse for eagerness, or speed, in embracing Divine doctrine : the Lion , for martyr-fortitude, or vigilance against the snares of sin ( as well as with that higher allusion above noticed ) ; the Peacock , for immortality ; the Phoenix , for the Resurrection ; the Hare for persecution . or the perils to which the faithful must be exposed ; the Cock for vigilance — the Fox being taken in negative sense of warn- ing against astuteness and pride , as the Dove ( besides its other meanings) reminded of the simplicity becoming to believers. Certain trees also appear in the same mystic order: the Cypress and the Pine for death : the Palm for victory ; the Olive for the fruit of good works, the lustre of virtue , mercy, purity, or peace ; the Vine, not only for the Eucharist IN THE CATACOMBS 43 and the Person of the Lord , but also for tile ineffable union of the faithful in and with Kis Divinity ; the lamp in the sepulchre implies both the righteous man and the true Light of the world ; the House represents either the sepulchre , or the mortal tenement we inhabit in life ; and the Anchor is taken not only in the sense understood by Paganism , but also for constancy and fortitude^ or as indicating the Cross. Another less intelligible object , the wine-barrel , is supposed to imply concord, or the union of the faithful, bound together by sacred ties, as that vessel's staves are by its hoops. The lyre , sometimes in the hand of its master , Orpheus , is a beautiful symbol for the harmony and mansuetude produced by the subjection of evil passions through the divinely potent action of Truth. The Four Seasons appear with higher allusioii than could be apprehended by the Gentiles— Winter repre- senting the present life of storms and troubles ; Spring, the renovation of the soul and resuscitation of the body; Sum- mer, the glow of love towards God; and Autumn , the death by Martyrdom , or life's glorious close after conflict , in anti- cipation of « the bright spring-dawn of Heaven's eternal year ». In order to understand such a subject as the Eucharist , in its supreme place as presented by this primitive Art , we must endeavour to realize what this ordinance was to the early Christians — the centre , and (it seems) daily recurring transaction of their worship — the keystone of the mystic arch on which their whole devotional system may be said to ha\e rested. On every side appears evident the desire at once to convey its meanings through symbolism to the faithful, and to conceal both its dogma and celebration from the know- ledge of unbelievers : never introduced with direct representa- tion either of its institution or ritual , but repeatedly in pre- sentment for the enlightened eye through a peculiar selection of types — as by the fish placed, together with loaves marked with a cross, on a table — or (still more significant) the fish floating in water with a basket containing bread and a small vessel of wine on its back — thus representing at once what *i THE CHl'RCH I might describe in the words of the Anglican Catechism . & the outward and visible , sign » and « the inward part or thing signified » — the Elements of the Eucharist with the very person of the Redeemer. Another naively expressive symbol, less intelligible at first sight . is the pail of milk, designed to signify the celestial food prepared by the Good Shepherd for his flock : this mystic sense sometimes made more clear by the nimbus wiihin which the pail is seen ; or by its being placed on a rude altar, beside which is the pastoral staff, without the figure of the Shepherd, who is elsewhere seen carrying this vessel; the Lamb also being sometimes represented with the pail on its back. A symbolic picture of the Eucharist in the form of fish and bread , at the Gallixtan Catacombs , is referrible beyond doubt to antiquity as early as the first half of the third century ; and a similar one in those of S. Lucira is assumed to be not more modern than the second century — perhaps of even earlier date. Another subject , m the same reference , though less directly conveyed , is the Agape , that fraternal (and once sacred) banquet , for whose practice in the Apostolic Age we must refer to a remarkable passage in one of St. Paul's Epistles , that at once explains , and is explained by , this ancient usage so often pictorially treated in Catacombs ; and a mournful testimony indeed are the Apostle's words to the rapid deterioration of the holiest ordi- nance through the perversness of men : — « When ye come together into one place , this is not to eat the Lord's supper : for in eating every one takes before other his own supper; and one is hungry and another drunken. Wherefore , my brethren , when ye come together to eat, tarry one for anoth- er. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation ». This feast with which, throughout the first century , the Eucharistic celebration was incorporated , is represented in the Art here before us with- out any sign of religious purpose , — a company either sealed or reclining at a lunette-formed table . partaking of food, bread and fish, sometimes with wine: the onlv svm- IN THE CATACOMBS \.j bolic detail being the cross marked on loaves , but not of a kind peculiar to Christians — such bread, called parris dccussatus , thus divided by incisions into four parts , being of common use among the Romans. As to the very complex indications of date, no era proper io Christians is found for our guidance in the earlier Cata- comb-monuments ; but about the end of the IV century ap- pears the year of the Roman Bishop , e. g. Salvo Siricio Epis- ccpi , or, temporibas Sancli Innocentii , the last formula, no doubt, adopted after the death of the Pope named ; or (proof of the comparative equality in episcopal rank according to primitive ideas) the date by the years of other Bishops also , in incriptions belonging to their several dioceses; and fro n the beginning of the VI century are indicated the years not only of Bishops , but priests , deacons , or even the matrons presiding over female communities. Date by Consulates was rarely adopted in these epigraphs before the III , but com- mon in the two next centuries — again falling into disuse after the middle of the VI century; and the year of the Em- peror, which was enjoined for the dating of all public acts by Justinian , A. D. 537 , scarcely in any instance occurs before that period. We follow with interest in these chiselled lines the last traces of the existence , and the gradual dying out ol that proud institution, the Roman Consulate; the unostentatious language of these Christian epitaphs here supplying the last mo numental evidence to this once great historic reality. The Con- sulate proper to Rome expired in the year 534, after being held in the last instance by Decius Paulinus ; in the following year, however, reappearing when assumed by Belisarius after his Italian victories. From 534 to 514, only one Consul ( for the E istern Empire) is on record; and in that last year tie office was suppressed by Justinian , though once more assum- ed , in his own person, by an Emperor, namely Justin, in 566 — up to which date the computation , since the act of suppression , had been according to the years (as we see in these epitaphs^ post Comulatum Basihi , « after the Consulate 46 THE CHURCH of Basilius a — who had last held that office at Constantinople. Curious in this lapidary style is the use of the epithet divus. long given to defunct Emperors without scruple , as a mere civil honour , by their Christian subjects. Together with characteristics of brevity and simplicity, we notice, in these epitaphs , a serene spirit of resignation that never allows vent to passionate utterance ; the word dolens is the strongest expression of sorrow , and this but rarely occurring. As the colder formalities of the classic lapidary style were gradually laid aside , extatic ejaculations of prayer and hope were ad- mitted— Vivas in Deo (most ancient in such use) - Vive in rpterno, - Pax spiritu luo , - In pace Domini dormias - fre- quently introduced before the period of Conslantine's conver- sion , but later falling into disuse — In pace continuing to be the established Christian formula— though also found in the epitaphs of Jews; while the Vtxit in pace, very rare in Roman inscriptions, appears commonly among those of Africa and of severarFrench cities— otherwise that distinctive phrase of the Pagan epitaph , vixit (as if even in the records of the grave to present life rather than death to the mental eye) does not pertain to Christian terminology. Various usages of the primitive Church , important to her history, are attested by these epigraphs— as the classification of the Clergy into Bishops, priests, deacons, acolytes, exorcists— and the re- cognition of another revered class , the pious widows , ma- tiona vidua Dei — of one among whom we read on her epitaph that she « never burdened the Church »,— Here also do we find proof of the dedication of females , the ancilla Dei , or Virgo Dei — first type of the consecrated nun— sometimes it seems, so set apart by the vows of their parents from infancy. Interesting is it to trace the growth of a feeling which , from the utterance of prayer for the dead , passed to the invoking of their intercessions for the living— as vivas in Deo et roga; and the recommending of their spirits to some specially revered saint , rather as a formula of pious yalediption than the expression of anything like dogma in IX THE CATACOMDS 47 regard to human intercessors , as — in nomine Petri , in pace Christi. The faith of the primitive Church as to the Divine Being , her Founder and Head , is clear , as in letters of light , on these monumental pages: we read it (to cite one remarkable example) conveyed in the strangely— confused Latin and Greek not unfrequenlly found among Christian epitaphs, with the following distinct utterance — ZHSH2 LX AEO XPI2T0 TAH IX flAKE i. e. « Mayest thou live in God Christ , Sylva , in peace » , we read it in the formulas where this holy name is otherwise accompanied with what declares belief— as, in Chrislo Deo. or in D. Christo ; or in the Greek — ev 0su Kups'.u XetoTu (sic). Again , alike distinctly expressed in other formulas , at the epitaph's close, as in pace et in — with the monogram XP , implying the obvious sequel, « Christo » ; also in the rudely- traced line with which one inscription finishes: Nutricatus Deo Crislo mariuribus ; in one curious example of the Latin language's decline : Regina vibas in Domino zesu ; and in the Greek --xOu;, sometimes at the beginning, evidently intended as dedication in the name of God. Alike clearly , though less frequently , enounced is the worship of a Divine Spirit , as an aspect , or in more strict theologic phrase , Person of the Deity , e. g. in pace cum spiritu sancta (sic) — vibas in Spirilu sane. And indeed no moral truth could be more convincingly established hy monumental proof than the un- animous belief with which the Church, at this first and pur- est phase in her history , directed adoring regards to the « Logos », the perfect Image of the Father, as true and essen- tial Deity. Below the surface of the Roman Campagna it is supposed that from 800 to 900 miles of excavated corridors, interspers- ed with chambers in various forms, extend their marvel- lous ramifications ; and between six and se* en millions is 4S THE CIIUKCH tiie assumed number of the Chrislian dead here deposited during primitive ages (I). In much the greater part it is cer- tain that these hypogees were formed for Christian worship, instruction, and interment, before the period of the first converted emperor : but it is also indisputably proved that they continued in use for devotional purposes , and received many pictorial decorations long afterwards; likewise that works of excavating were in progress till so late as the beginning of tiie fifth century. The idea that they ever served for the ha- bitation of numbers, during persecution, is erroneous, assum- ing indeed what is materially impossible , owing to the formation of their far-stretching labyrinths , small chapels . and story above story of narrow passages. We read, it is true, of the martyrdom of saintly bishops while in the very act of officiating at their humble altars ; of several among the earliest Roman pontiffs, who, during extreme peril, took re- fuge in such retreats — as did Alexander I ( A. D. 109-49), Stephen I (253-57), and Sixtus II , who was put to death in one of these subterranean sanctuaries (A. D. 258) ; and Pope Cajus (283-96) is said to have actually lived for eight years in ca- tacombs, from which he only came out to suffer martyrdom (u2%\ With Mr. Northcole (whose work is a vide mecurn for this range of antiquities) we may conclude that not the mul- titude of the faithful , but the pontiffs alone . or others espe- cially sought after by myrmidors of power, were at any time resident for long periods in these retreats, in no par! of which do we see anything like preparation for dwelling or for any other purposes save worship and interment; though indeed an epitaph, by St. Datmasus, in the Callixtan Cata- combs , implies the fact that at some period those cemeteries were inhabited : — « Hie habttasse priiH sanctos cognosce e debes ». I Father Marchi, who makes this conjecture, considers it tolall short of, rather than exceed, the truth, IN TilE CATACOMBS 49 but that Saint ( elected to the Papacy 366 ), cannot be ci- ted as a contemporary witness to ages of persecution ; at periods subsequent to which , however , we read of Pope Liberius taking refuge (352) , in the cemetery called after St. Agnes , from the outrages and insolence of the then ascendant Arian sect; of Pope Boniface I, so late as between 418-422, passing some time in a similar retreat, to withdraw from the faction that supported his rival Eulalius; considering which facts , we cannot deny that the evidence as to the occasional habitation of Catacombs is too conclusive to be set aside without rejecting much that claims belief in « Acts of Mar- tyrs)), and oilier received authorities. Of St. Urban we read («Acts of St. Cecilia »), latebat in sacrorum marlyrum moni- mentis; of St. Hippolytus ( «Acts of St. Stephen", A. D. 259), a vitam solitariam agebat in cryptis>. Baronius states thai the same pope Urban « used to celebrate masses and hold coun- cils in the crypts of the martyrs »; and an epitaph to St. Alexander, in the Callixtan catacombs, contains the sentence - « 0 tempora infausta quibus inter sacra et vota ne in cavernis qui- dam salvari possumus! » In one terrific persecution a multitude of the faithful suffered death in catacombs on the Salarian Way, by order of the Emperor Numerianus , sand and stones being heaped up against the entrance, so as to leave buried alive those victims, of whose fate was found affecting proof long afterwards, not only in the bones of the dead , but in several silver cruets that had served for the Eucharistic celebration. An impressive circumstance accompanied the martyrdom of Pope Stephen : the ministers of death rushed into the subterranean chapel where they found him officiating , and , as if struck with sudden awe , waited till the rite was over before they slew him in his episcopal chair 1 As catacomb-sepulchres became gradually filled, those sections, or corridors, no longer service- able , used to be blocked up with soil, in order thus botli to separate the living from the dead , and to avoid the ne- cessity of leaving accumulations outside. Granular tufa, which, with lithoid tufa and pozzolana , forms the material of the 4 50 THE CHURCH volcanic strata around Rome, is the substance (easily worked, but quite unsuitable for building), in which all Roman cata- combs are excavated , except those of St. Pontianus , outside the Porta Porlese , and of St. Valentine , on the Flaminian Way , which are in a soil of marine and fluvial deposits , shells , fossils ec. From the ninth century till a comparatively late period most of these Catacombs were left unexplored , perhaps en- tirely inaccessible, and forgotten. Mediaeval writers usually ignored their existence. That strange compilation , so curious in its fantastic suggestions and blindness to historic fact , the « Mirabilia Urbis Romae % (written, some critics as>ume , in the X — others, in the XII century, first published about 1471) enumerates, indeed, twenty-one catacombs. Flavio Biondo. writing in the fif tenth century, mentions those of St. Callixtus alone ; Onofrio Panvinio , in the sixteenth century , reckons thirty-nine ; Baronius , at date not much later , raises the number to forty-three. Those of St. Priscilla, entered below the Salarian Way, belonging to that mother of the Christian Senator Pudens (who received St. Peter); also those of SS. Ne- reus and Achilleus, near the Appian Way , have been referred to an antiquity correspondent with the apostolic age ; and if those called after St. Callixtus were indeed formed long anterior to that Pope's election , A. D. 210, we may place them second in chronologic order. That several continued in use as cemeteries long after the first imperial conversion , is evi- dent from the fact that Constantine's daughter ordered the embellishment and enlargement of those called after St Agnes, which became in consequence more than ever frequented , — so to say, fashionable, — as a place of interment during the fourth century ; a circumstance manifest in the superior regularity and spaciousness of corridors , in the more laboured execution, but inferior style, of paintings seen in those cata- combs. Other facts relevant to the story of later vicissitudes may be cited : Pope Damasus (v. Baronius, anno 384) order- ed a plalonia (pavement of inlaid marbles) for that part of IN THE CATACOMDS 51 the Callixtan catacombs ill which , for a certain time , had lain the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul. Pope John III (560- 73), who abode for a time v. Anastasius) , in the catacombs of SS. Tiburtius and Valerian, ordered all such hypogees as had suffered from barbarian spolation to be repaired ; also provided that a regular supply of bread , wine , and lights should be furnished from the Lateran Basilica for the cele- brations still kept up on Sundays at the altars of these subterraneans. Towards the end ot the sixth century, St. (ire- gory the Great indicated , among places of assemblage for the faithful on the days of the Lenten « Stations » , organized by him with much solemnity and concourse, some of the ceme- teries as well as principal churches of Rome. The evidences of art may be here cited, to pro^e comparative modernness in decorative details: the nimbus, for instance, around the heads of saintly figures, indicates date subsequent to the fourth centu- ry; and in the Callixtan catacombs the figure of St. Cecilia attir- ed in cumbrous finery, jewelled head-dress, and necklaces . as also those of St. Urban and Cornelius , besides a sternly- expressive head of the Saviour, with marked characteristics of the Byzantine school , suggest origin certainly not earlier than the sixth or seventh, if not so late as the eighth, century. The practice of frequenting these cemeteries, for prayer or for visiting the tombs of martyrs, continued common till the ninth, nor had entirely ceased even in the thirteenth cen- tury , being certainly more or less in prevalence under Honorius III (12I7-271. Yet the process of transporting the bo- dies of martyrs from these resting-places to the City, for safer and more honoured interment , had begun under Pope Paul I (757-67) , who took such precaution against the pious frauds practised by the Longobards, whilst investing Rome , led by Astolphus, — a king particularly bent upon relic-steal- ing ; so devout in this respect were the fierce invaders of Papal territory I At later Mediaeval periods the catacombs fell into oblivion , till their ingresses became , for the most part , unknown even to the clergy ; and one of the earliest 62 THE CHURCH records of their being visited in later ages is found in the names of Raynuzio Farnese (father of Paul III) and the companions who descended with him, still read, beside the date 1490, in the Callixian catacombs. Not till late in the next century, was the attention of savansdirec'edby new lights from science, and through the revived study of antiquity, to- wards this field of research; subsequently to which movement exca\ations were carried on at intervals from 1592 to 1693 ; most important and fruitful in results being the labours of I he indefatigable Bosio , who, after patient toils pursued enthusiastically for thirty-three years , died (1600) without completing the work projected for transmitting their profits to posterity. Its first publication was in 1632, under the title , « Roma Sotterranea » , compiled from Bosio's Mss. by Severa- no (an Oratorian priest) ; and a few years subsequently ano- ther Oratorian, Arringhi, brought out, with additions, the same work translated into Latin. Next followed (1102) the « Inscriptiones Antiquae » of Fabretti , official custode to the catacombs; and the learned work, « Cimiteri dei Santi Martiri », (1720) by Boldetti, the fruit of thirty years' labours, surpas- sed all hitherto contributions on this subject alike in vivacity of description, extensive knowledge, and well-sustained ar- gument. Only next in merit and authority is the « Sculture e Pitture Sacre » (Sacred Sculptures and Paintings from the Cemeteries of Rome, byBottari,