MAITLAND S CHURCH IN THE CATACOMBS.
Fos four centuries the oppressed and despised Christians of the early Church of Rome possessed bentath the soil of the Eternal City another city exclusively their own. Here they found an asylum—not always inviolate—from the wrath of the heathen ; and in the dark, narrow gal- leries, lined with the tombs of their martyred brethren, they met, not as conspirators thirsting for vengeance, but to celebrate their feasts of love and peace, ac:1_ to confirm their faith in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. When the triumphant Church no longer needed the shelter of the Catacombs, the secret of their windings was gradually lost; many of the entrances became blocked up by rubbish; and it was not until the sixteenth century that the vast necropolis was reopened, and its storied walls were made legible to the investigators of Christian his- tory. So abundant were the records then brought to view, and such was the enthusiasm they excited in the minds of the first explorets, that two of the earliest writers on the Catacombs of Rome, Bosio and Boldetti, occupied thirty years each in collecting materials for their works; and left them after all to be completed by their survivors. The galleries have now been stripped of all their sculptures, paintings, and inscriptions ; which have been carefully transferred to public and private museums in Rome, and there they have been fully studied by scholars, and illustrated in several elaborate works. They have also afforded food for polemics, and have been made the subject of some curious historical scepticism, now entirely set at rest. The authenticity of these remains is incontro- vertible, and universally admitted; and Doctor Maitland is justified in appealing to the indications they give of the notions and usages of the primitive Church, as to testimony of the most trustworthy kind, since it is indirect and perfectly unintentional. The origin of the Catacombs was as follows.
"The great increase which took place in the extent and magnificence of an- cient Rome during the latter times of the republic, led to the formation of quar- ries in the immediate neighbourhood, from which were obtained the materials necessary for building. In this respect, the city of the Caesars resembles many others: of which it is sufficient to name Paris, Naples, Syracuse, and Alexandria, all more or less surrounded or undermined by long, tortuous excavations. Their aista,and shape differ according to the firmness of the substratum: those of Na- ples being large and lofty; while those round Roble, from the crumbling nature of the soil, are narrow and low. • • "These subterranean works first attracted general notice during the time of Augustue, when their extent rendered them dangerous. They then obtained celebrity as the scene of a domestic tragedy referred to by Cicero in his oration for Cluentius. The riches of Asinius, a young Roman citizen, had excited the avarice of Oppianiens; who employed an accomplice to personate Asinius, and to execute a will in his name. The pretended Asinius having bequeathed the pro- perty. to Oppianicus, and obtained the signatures of some strangers the true Asiruus was inveigled to the gardens of the Esquiline, and precipitated into one of the sand-pits, (in arenarlas quasdam extra Portam Esquilinam). It was in similar caverns that Nero was afterwards advised to conceal himself when terrified by the sentence of an enraged Senate; on which occasion he made answer to his freedman Phaon, that he would not go under ground while living. The circum- stance is related by Snetonius."
The height of the galleries is generally eight or ten feet, and their width from four to six. The walls are of puzzolana; a volcanic sandy rock, which being much used for making cement, the whole subsoil on one side of Rome came in course of time to be perforated by a network of excava- tions, spreading ultimately to a distance of fifteen miles. The arenarii or sand-diggers were persons of the lowest grade, and probably formed a distinct class. Happily, they were among the earliest converts to Chris- tianity; and they put the Church in exclusive possession of these other- wise inaccessible retreats. It appears certain that no Pagan ever found sepulture in the Catacombs ; the exhausted quarries of the Esquiline hill were the common receptacles for the dishonoured dead who had no friends to defray the cost of burning their bodies. "The fact that the Catacombs were employed as a refuge from persecution rests upon good evidence, notwithstanding objections that have been made, founded upon the narrowness of the passages, the difficulty of supporting life, and the risk of discovery incurred by seeking concealmect in an asylum so well known to their enemies. 'These objections scarcely apply to a temporary residence below ground in times of danger; and it is not pretended that the Catacombs were inhabited tinder other circumstances. In the excavations at Quesnel, not only persons, but cattle, contrived to support existence: added to which we have, as will be seen presently, the direct testimony of several writers. Had the intricacies of the Ca tacombs been well known to the heathen authorities, or the entrances limited in number to two or three, they would doubtless have afforded an insecure asylum. But the entrances were numberless, scattered over the Caunpagna for miles; and the labyrinth below so occupied by the Christians, and so blocked up in various places by them, that pursuit must have been almost useless. The Acts of the Martyrs relate some attempts made to overwhelm the galleries with mounds of earth, in order to destroy those who were concealed within: but setting aside these legends, we are credibly informed that not only did the Christians take refuge there, but that they were also occasionally overtaken by their pursuers. The Catacombs have become illustrious by the actual martyrdom of some noble wit- nesses to the truth. Xystus' Bishop of Rome, together with Quartus, one of his clergy, suffered below ground in the time of Cyprian. Stephen the First, another Bishop of Rome, was traced by heathen soldiers to his subterranean chapel: on the conclusion of divine service, be was thrust back into his episcopal chair, and beheaded. The letters of Christians then living refer o such scenes with a sim- plicity that dispels all idea of exaggeration; while their expectation of sharing the same fate affords a vivid pictuie ot those dreadful times.- • * "In the time of Diocletian, the Christian Cams is sad to have lived eight years in the Catacombs, and to have terminated this long period of confession by undergoing martyrdom.Even as late as the year 352, Iliberms, Blahop of Rome, took up his abode n the cemetery of St. Agnes during the Arian per- SeCution.
"The discovery of wells and springs in various parts of the corridors assists us in understanding how life could be supported in those dismal regions; although there is no evidence to prove that the wells were sunk for that purpose. One of them has been named the Font of St. Peter; and however apocryphal may be the traditiou which refers it to apostolic times, the fact of its having been long used for baptism is not to be disputed. Some of the wells are supposed to have been
dug with the intention of draining parts of the Catacombs. • • •
" These circumstances prove sufficiently the general habit of taking refuge in the cemeteries on any sudden emergeuey; sod it is not difficult to understand how the concealment became practicable. On the outbreak of a persecution, the elders of the Church, heads of families, and others particularly obnoxious to the Pagans, would be the first to suffer; perhaps the only individuals whose death or exile was intended by the imperial officers. Aware ot their danger, and probably well ver- sed in the signs of Impending persecution, they might easily betake themselves to the Catacoanbs, where they could be supported by those whose obscure condition left them at liberty.
" The importance of the Catacombs as a retreat was not unknown to the hea- then: every effort was made at the beginning of a persecution to prevent the Christians from escaping by a subterranean flight; and several edicts begin with a prohibition against entering the cemeteries. Valerian and Gullienus decreed death as the punishment of disobedience; a sentence which was carried into exe- cution in the ease of Cyprian. (Procons. Acts.)"
Dr. Maitland has a very curious chapter on the early efforts of Chris- tian art, and its unwilling and unconscious entanglements in the snares of Pagan tradition. He elucidates the offices and rites of the Church during the first four centuries, and derives from the atones taken out of the Cata- combs many proofs condemnatory of doctrines and practices with which Rome has overlaid the simplicity of primitive Christianity. Ms work is therefore in some degree controversial; but is is quite free from theologi- cal acrimony, as well as from the dryness and dulness of which the gene- ral reader is apt to accuse archteological treatises. The matter is full of interest for all classes of readers, and the style is worthy of the matter.
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