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oe (oe ligature) διορθῶσαι or ϹΥΝΑΓΩΓ (Greek) שָׁלוֹם (Hebrew)
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Additional notes are at the end of the book.]
THE CATACOMBS OF ROME.
THE
CATACOMBS OF ROME,
AND
Their Testimony Relative to Primitive Christianity.
BY THE REV.
W. H. WITHROW, M.A.
_WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS._
London:
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXXXVIII.
Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Ld. Printers, London and Aylesbury.
The present work, it is hoped, will supply a want long felt in the literature of the Catacombs. That literature, it is true, is very voluminous; but it is for the most part locked up in rare and costly folios in foreign languages, and inaccessible to the general reader. Recent discoveries have refuted some of the theories and corrected many of the statements of previous books in English on this subject; and the present volume is the only one in which the latest results of exploration are fully given, and interpreted from a Protestant point of view.
The writer has endeavored to illustrate the subject by frequent pagan sepulchral inscriptions, and by citations from the writings of the Fathers, which often throw much light on the condition of early Christian society. The value of the work is greatly enhanced, it is thought, by the addition of many hundreds of early Christian inscriptions carefully translated, a very large proportion of which have never before appeared in English. Those only who have given some attention to epigraphical studies can conceive the difficulty of this part of the work. The defacements of time, and frequently the original imperfection of the inscriptions and the ignorance of their writers, demand the utmost carefulness to avoid errors of interpretation. The 6 writer has been fortunate in being assisted by the veteran scholarship of the Rev. Dr. McCaul, well known in both Europe and America as one of the highest living authorities in epigraphical science, under whose critical revision most of the translations have passed. Through the enterprise of the publishers this work is more copiously illustrated, from original and other sources, than any other work on the subject in the language; thus giving more correct and vivid impressions of the unfamiliar scenes and objects delineated than is possible by any mere verbal description. References are given, in the foot-notes, to the principal authorities quoted, but specific acknowledgment should here be made of the author’s indebtedness to the Cavaliere De Rossi’s _Roma Sotterranea_ and _Inscriptiones Christianae_, by far the most important works on this fascinating but difficult subject.
Believing that the testimony of the Catacombs exhibits, more strikingly than any other evidence, the immense contrast between primitive Christianity and modern Romanism, the author thinks no apology necessary for the somewhat polemical character of portions of this book which illustrate that fact. He trusts that it will be found a contribution of some value to the historical defense of the truth against the corruptions and innovations of Popish error.
Book First.
THE STRUCTURE AND HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS.
CHAPTER PAGE
Book Second.
THE ART AND SYMBOLISM OF THE CATACOMBS.
Book Third.
THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CATACOMBS.
III. EARLY CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER AS READ IN
IV. MINISTRY, RITES, AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE PRIMITIVE
Fig. Page
1. Entrance to Catacomb of St. Priscilla 12
2. Entrance to Catacomb of St. Praetextatus 16
3. Part of Callixtan Catacomb 17
4. Gallery with Tombs 18
5. Interior of Corridor 20
6. Loculi--Open and Closed 23
7. Tomb of Valeria 24
8. Arcosolium with Perforated Slab 25
9. Plan of Double Chamber 26
10. Section of Gallery and Cubicula 27
11. Suite of Chambers 28
12. Vaulted Chamber with Columns 29
13. Cubiculum with Arcosolia 30
14. Section of Catacomb of Callixtus 32
15. Cubicula with Luminare 35
16. Gallery in St. Hermes 42
17. Part of Wall of Gallery in St. Hermes 42
18. Slab in Jewish Catacomb 51
19. Epitaph of Martyrus 66
20. Reputed Martyr Symbol 77
21. Epitaph of Lannus, a Martyr 98
22. Secret Stairway in Catacomb of Callixtus 101
23. Diogenes the Fossor 133
24. Fossor at Work 134
25. Tombs on Appian Way 165
26. Plan of Area in Callixtan Catacomb 171
27. Plan of Crypt of St. Peter and St. Paul 187
28. Crypt of St. Peter and St. Paul 188
29. Section of Catacomb of Helena 191
30. Entrance to Catacomb of St. Agnes 195
31. Mithraic Painting 216
32. Leaf Point 227
33. Phonetic Symbol--Leo 229
34. Phonetic Symbol--Porcella 230
35. Phonetic Symbol--Nabira 230
36. Wool-comber’s Implements 231
37. Carpenter’s Implements 231
38. Vine Dresser’s Tomb 232
39. Symbolical Anchor 234
40. Symbolical Ship 235
41. Symbolical Palm and Crown 236
42. Symbolical Doves 237
43. Symbolical Dove 238
44. Doves and Vase 238
45. Locus Primi 238
46. Symbolical Peacock 240
47. The Good Shepherd 245
48. Good Shepherd with Syrinx 246
49. Symbolical Lamb 249
50. Symbolical Fish 255 9
51. Symbolical Fish 256
52. Fish and Anchor 256
53. Fish and Dove 256
54. Eucharistic Symbol 256
55. Constantinian Monogram 265
56. Early Christian Seal 266
57. Various Forms of Monogram 267
58. Epitaph of Tasaris 267
59. Opisthographae 268
60. Early Christian Seal 270
61. Monogram and Cross 270
62. The Temptation and Fall 284
63. Adam and Eve Receiving their Sentence 285
64. Noah in the Ark 286
65. Noah in the Ark 287
66. Noah in the Ark, from Sarcophagus 287
67. Apamean Medal 288
68. Sacrifice of Isaac 289
69. Sacrifice of Isaac 289
70. Moses on Horeb 290
71. Moses Receiving the Law 290
72. Moses and the Baskets of Manna 291
73. Moses Striking the Rock 291
74. Moses Striking the Rock 291
75. The Sufferings of Job 293
76. Ascension of Elijah 295
77. The Three Hebrew Children 296
78. The Three Hebrew Children 297
79. The Three Hebrew Children 298
80. Daniel in the Lions’ Den 299
81. The Story of Jonah 300
82. Jonah, Moses, and Oranti 301
83. Jonah and the Great Fish 302
84. Noah and Jonah 302
85. Jonah’s Gourd 304
86. Adoration of Magi 305
87. Adoration of Magi 306
88. Orante 309
89. Supposed Madonna 311
90. Earliest Madonna 312
91. Christ with the Doctors 324
92. Christ and the Woman of Samaria 325
93. Paralytic Carrying Bed 325
94. Woman with Issue of Blood 326
95. Miracle of Loaves and Fishes 327
96. Opening the Eyes of the Blind 327
97. Christ Blessing a Little Child 328
98. Lazarus (rude) 330
99. Lazarus (in fresco) 330
100. Lazarus (in relief) 331
101. Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem 331
102. Peter’s Denial of Christ 332
103. Pilate Washing his Hands 333
104. Sculptured Sarcophagus 334
105. Painted Chamber 339
106. Oldest Extant Head of Christ (mosaic) 347
107. God Symbolized by a Hand 356
108. God as Pope 359
109. Domestic Group in Gilt Glass 366
110. Reputed Martyr Relic 371
111. Reputed Martyr Symbol 371
112. Symbolical Lamp 377
113. Symbolical Lamp 378
114. Vases from the Catacombs 381
115. Amphora from the Catacombs 382 10
116. Earthen and Metal Vessels 383
117. Early Christian Ring 385
118. Early Christian Seal 385
119. Impressions of Seals 386
120. Children’s Toys 387
121. Statue of Good Shepherd 390
122. Epitaph of Gemella 401
123. Epitaph of Ligurius Successus 402
124. Epitaph of Domitius 402
125. Epitaph Inverted 404
126. Epitaph Reversed 404
127. Epitaph of Cassta 405
128. Triple Epitaph 405
129. Belicia 500
130. Chamber with Catechumens’ Seats 531
131. Baptismal Font 537
132. Baptism of Our Lord 538
133. Baptismal Scene 539
134. Fresco of Early Christian Agape 546
STRUCTURE AND HISTORY OF THE CATACOMBS.
CHAPTER I.
STRUCTURE OF THE CATACOMBS.
“Among the cultivated grounds not far from the city of Rome,” says the Christian poet Prudentius, “lies a deep crypt, with dark recesses. A descending path, with winding steps, leads through the dim turnings, and the daylight, entering by the mouth of the cavern, somewhat illumines the first part of the way. But the darkness grows deeper as we advance, till we meet with openings, cut in the roof of the passages, admitting light from above. On all sides spreads the densely-woven labyrinth of paths, branching into caverned chapels and sepulchral halls; and throughout the subterranean maze, through frequent openings, penetrates the light.”[1]
This description of the Catacombs in the fourth century is equally applicable to their general appearance in the nineteenth. Their main features are unchanged, although time and decay have greatly impaired their structure and defaced their beauty. These Christian cemeteries are situated chiefly near the great roads leading from the city, and, for the most part, within a circle of three miles from the walls. From this circumstance they have been compared to the “encampment of a Christian host besieging Pagan Rome, and driving inward its mines and trenches with an assurance of final victory.” The openings of the 13 Catacombs are scattered over the Campagna, whose mournful desolation surrounds the city; often among the mouldering mausolea that rise, like stranded wrecks, above the rolling sea of verdure of the tomb-abounding plain. On every side are tombs--tombs above and tombs below--the graves of contending races, the sepulchres of vanished generations: “_Piena di sepoltura è la Campagna_.”[3]
How marvelous that beneath the remains of a proud pagan civilization exist the early monuments of that power before which the myths of paganism faded away as the spectres of darkness before the rising sun, and by which the religion and institutions of Rome were entirely changed. Beneath the ruined palaces and temples, the crumbling tombs and dismantled villas, of the august mistress of the world, we find the most interesting relics of early Christianity on the face of the earth. In traversing these tangled labyrinths we are brought face to face with the primitive ages; we are present at the worship of the infant Church; we observe its rites; we study its institutions; we witness the deep emotions of the first believers as they commit their dead, often their martyred dead, to their last long resting-place; we decipher the touching record of their sorrow, of the holy hopes by 14 which they were sustained, of “their faith triumphant o’er their fears,” and of their assurance of the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting. We read in the testimony of the Catacombs the confession of faith of the early Christians, sometimes accompanied by the records of their persecution, the symbols of their martyrdom, and even the very instruments of their torture. For in these halls of silence and gloom slumbers the dust of many of the martyrs and confessors, who sealed their testimony with their blood during the sanguinary ages of persecution; of many of the early bishops and pastors of the Church, who shepherded the flock of Christ amid the dangers of those troublous times; of many who heard the words of life from teachers who lived in or near the apostolic age, perhaps from the lips of the apostles themselves. Indeed, if we would accept ancient tradition, we would even believe that the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul were laid to rest in those hallowed crypts--a true _terra sancta_, inferior in sacred interest only to that rock-hewn sepulchre consecrated evermore by the body of Our Lord. These reflections will lend to the study of the Catacombs an interest of the highest and intensest character.
It is impossible to discover with exactness the extent of this vast necropolis on account of the number and intricacy of its tangled passages. That extent has been greatly exaggerated, however, by the monkish _ciceroni_, who guide visitors through these subterranean labyrinths. There are some forty-two of these cemeteries in all now known, many of which are only partially accessible. Signor Michele De 15 Rossi, from an accurate survey of the Catacomb of Callixtus, computes the entire length of all the passages to be eight hundred and seventy-six thousand _mètres_, or five hundred and eighty-seven geographical miles, equal to the entire length of Italy, from AEtna’s fires to the Alpine snows.
The entrance to the abandoned Catacomb is sometimes a low-browed aperture like a fox’s burrow, almost concealed by long and tangled grass, and overshadowed by the melancholy cypress or gray-leaved ilex. Sometimes an ancient arch can be discerned, as at the Catacomb of St. Priscilla, or the remains of the chamber for the celebration of the festivals of the martyrs, as at the entrance of the Cemetery of St. Domitilla. In a few instances it is through the crypts of an ancient basilica, as at St. Sebastian, and sometimes a little shrine or oratory covers the descent, as at St. Agnes, St. Helena, and St. Cyriaca. In all cases there is a stairway, often long and steep, crumbling with time and worn with the feet of pious generations. The following illustration shows the entrance to the Catacomb of St. Praetextatus on the Appian Way, trodden in the primitive ages by the early martyrs and confessors, or perhaps by the armed soldiery of the oppressors, hunting to earth the persecuted flock of Christ. Here, too, in mediaeval times, the martial clang of the armed knight may have awaked unwonted echoes among the hollow arches, or the gliding 16 footstep of the sandaled monk scarce disturbed the silence as he passed. In later times pilgrims from every land have visited, with pious reverence or idle curiosity, this early shrine of the Christian faith.
The Catacombs are excavated in the volcanic rock which abounds in the neighborhood of Rome. It is a granulated, grayish _breccia_, or _tufa_, as it is called, of a coarse, loose texture, easily cut with a knife, and bearing still the marks of the mattocks with which it was dug. In the firmer volcanic rock of Naples the excavations are larger and loftier than those of Rome; but the latter, although they have less of apparent majesty, have more of funereal mystery. The Catacombs consist essentially of two parts--corridors and chambers, or _cubicula_. The corridors are long, narrow and intricate passages, forming a complete underground net-work. They are for the most part 17 straight, and intersect each other at approximate right angles. The accompanying map of part of the Catacomb of Callixtus will indicate the general plan of these subterranean galleries.
The main corridors vary from three to five feet in width, but the lateral passages are much narrower, often affording room for but one person to pass. They will average about eight feet in height, 18 though in some places as low as five or six, and in others, under peculiar circumstances, reaching to twelve or fifteen feet. The ceiling is generally vaulted, though sometimes flat; and the floor, though for the most part level, has occasionally a slight incline, or even a few steps, caused by the junction of areas of different levels, as hereafter explained. The walls are generally of the naked _tufa_, though sometimes plastered; and where they have given way are occasionally strengthened with masonry. At the corners of these passages there are frequently niches, in which lamps were placed, 19 without which, indeed, the Catacombs must have been an impenetrable labyrinth. Cardinal Wiseman recounts a touching legend of a young girl who was employed as a guide to the places of worship in the Catacombs because, on account of her blindness, their sombre avenues were as familiar to her accustomed feet as the streets of Rome to others.
Both sides of the corridors are thickly lined with _loculi_ or graves, which have somewhat the appearance of berths in a ship, or of the shelves in a grocer’s shop; but the contents are the bones and ashes of the dead, and for labels we have their epitaphs. Figure 4 will illustrate the general character of these galleries and _loculi_.
The following engraving, after a sketch by Maitland, shows a gallery wider and more rudely excavated. On the right hand is seen a passage blocked up with stones, as was frequently done, to prevent accident. The daylight is seen pouring in at the further end of the gallery, as described by Prudentius, and rendering visible the rifled graves.
It is evident that the principle followed in the formation of these galleries and _loculi_ was the securing of the greatest amount of space for graves with the least excavation. Hence the passages are made as narrow as possible. The graves are also as close together as the friable nature of the _tufa_ will permit, and are made to suit the shape of the body, narrow at the feet, broader at the shoulders, and often with a semi-circular excavation for the head, so as to avoid any superfluous removal of _tufa_. Sometimes the _loculi_ were made large enough to hold two, three, or even four bodies, which were often placed with the head of one toward the feet of the other, in order to 20 economize space. These were called _bisomi_, _trisomi_, and _quadrisomi_, respectively. The graves were apparently made as required, probably with the corpse lying beside them, as some unexcavated spaces have been observed traced in outline with chalk or paint upon the walls. Almost every inch of available space is occupied, and sometimes, though rarely, graves are dug in the floor. 21 The _loculi_ are of all sizes, from that of the infant of an hour to that of an adult man. But here, as in every place of burial, the vast preponderance of children’s graves is striking. How many blighted buds there are for every full-blown flower or ripened fruit!
Sometimes the _loculi_ were excavated with mathematical precision. An example occurs in the Cemetery of St. Cyriaca, where at one end of a gallery is a tier of eight small graves for infants, then eight, somewhat larger, for children from about seven to twelve, then seven more, apparently for adult females, and lastly, a tier of six for full-grown men, occupying the entire height of the wall. Generally, however, a less regular arrangement was observed, and the graves of the young and old were intermixed, without any definite order.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to compute the number of graves in these vast cemeteries. Some seventy thousand have been counted, but they are a mere fraction of the whole, as only a small part of this great necropolis has been explored. From lengthened observation Father Marchi estimates the average number of graves to be ten, five on each side, for every seven feet of gallery. Upon this basis he computed the entire number in the Catacombs to be seven millions! The more accurate estimate of their extent made by Sig. Michele De Rossi would allow room for nearly four millions of graves, or, more exactly, about three million eight hundred and thirty-one thousand. This seems almost incredible; but we know that for at least three hundred years, or for 22 ten generations, the entire Christian population of Rome was buried here. And that population, as we shall see, was, even at an early period, of considerable size. In the time of persecution, too, the Christians were hurried to the tomb in crowds. In this silent city of the dead we are surrounded by a “mighty cloud of witnesses,” “a multitude which no man can number,” whose names, unrecorded on earth, are written in the Book of Life. For every one who walks the streets of Rome to-day are hundreds of its former inhabitants calmly sleeping in this vast encampment of death around its walls--“each in his narrow cell forever laid.”[11] Till the archangel awake them they slumber. “It is scarcely known,” says Prudentius, “how full Rome is of buried saints--how richly her soil abounds in holy sepulchres.”
These graves were once all hermetically sealed by slabs of marble, or tiles of _terra cotta_. The former were generally of one piece, which fitted into a groove or mortice cut in the rock at the grave’s mouth, and were securely cemented to their places, as, indeed, was absolutely necessary, from the open character of the galleries in which the graves were placed. Sometimes fragments of heathen tombstones or altars were used for this purpose. The tiles were generally smaller, two or three being required for an adult grave. They were arranged in panels, and were cemented with plaster, on which a name or symbol was often rudely scratched with a trowel while soft, as in the following illustration. Most of these slabs and tiles have 23 disappeared, and many of the graves have long been rifled of their contents. In others may still be seen the mouldering skeleton of what was once man in his strength, woman in her beauty, or a child in its innocence and glee. The annexed engraving exhibits two graves, one of which is partially open, exposing the skeleton which has reposed on its rocky bed for probably over fifteen centuries.
If these bones be touched they will generally crumble into a white, flaky powder. D’Agincourt copied a tomb (Fig. 7) in which this “dry dust of death” still retained the outline of a human skeleton. Verily, “_Pulvis et umbra sumus._” Sometimes, however, possibly from some constitutional peculiarity, the bones remain quite firm notwithstanding the lapse of so many centuries. De Rossi states that he has assisted 24 at the removal of a body from the Catacombs to a church two miles distant without the displacement of a single bone. The age of the deceased and the nature of the ground also affect the condition in which the remains are found. Of the bodies of children nothing but dust remains. Where the _pozzolana_ is damp, the bones are often well preserved; and where water has infiltrated, a partial petrifaction sometimes occurs. Campana describes the opening of a hermetically sealed sarcophagus, which revealed the undisturbed body clad in funeral robes, and wearing the ornaments of life; but while he gazed it suddenly dissolved to dust before his eyes. Sometimes the sarcophagus was placed behind a perforated slab of marble, as shown in the following example, given by Maitland. The lower part of the slab is broken.
The other essential constituent of the Catacombs, besides the galleries already described, consists of the _cubicula_. These are chambers excavated in the _tufa_ on either side of the galleries, with 25 which they communicate by doors, as seen in Fig. 4. These often bear the character of family vaults, and are lined with graves, like the corridors without. They are generally square or rectangular, but sometimes octagonal or circular. They were probably used as mortuary chapels, for the celebration of funeral service, and for the administration of the eucharist near the tombs of the martyrs on the anniversaries of their death. They were too small to be used for regular worship, except perhaps in time of persecution. They are often not more than eight or ten feet square. Even the so-called “Papal Crypt,” a chamber of peculiar sanctity, is only eleven by fourteen feet; and that of St. Cecilia adjoining it, one of a large size, is 26 less than twenty feet square. Even the largest would not accommodate more than a few dozen persons. These chambers are generally facing one another on opposite sides of a gallery, as in the annexed plan of two _cubicula_ in the Catacomb of Callixtus.
It is thought that in the celebration of worship one of these chambers was designed for men and the other for women. Sometimes separate passages to the chapels and distinct entrances to the Catacombs seem intended to facilitate this separation of the sexes. Sometimes three, or even as many as five, _cubicula_, as in one example in the Catacomb of St. Agnes, were placed on the same axial line, and formed 27 one continuous _suite_ of chambers. The accompanying section of what is known as “The Chapel of Two Halls,” in the Catacomb of St. Praetextatus, illustrates this: A is the main gallery, D a large _cubiculum_ known as “The Women’s Hall,” to the right, and to the left B, a hexagonal vaulted room with a smaller chamber, C, opening from it. The length of the entire range from G to F, according to the accurate measurement of M. Perret, is twenty-three and a half _mètres_, or nearly seventy-seven feet. The larger engraving (Fig. 11) gives a perspective view looking toward the left of the hexagonal chamber, (D. Fig. 10,) and the smaller one, C, opening from it. By means of these connected chambers the Christians were enabled in times of persecution to assemble for worship in these “dens and caves of the earth,” surrounded by the slumbering bodies of the holy dead.
The _cubicula_ had vaulted roofs, and were sometimes plastered or cased with marble and paved with tiles, or, though rarely, with mosaic. These, however, were generally additions of later date than the original construction, as were also the semi-detached columns in the angles, with stucco capitals and bases, as indicated in Fig. 9, and shown more clearly in the following engraving, which is a perspective view of the lower chamber in Fig. 9. The walls and ceiling 29 were often covered with fresco paintings, frequently of elegant design, to be hereafter described. Sometimes, as in some examples in the Catacomb of St. Agnes, _tufa_ or marble seats are ranged around the chamber, and chairs are hewn out of the solid rock. These chambers were used probably for the instruction of catechumens. Occasionally the _cubiculum_ terminates in a semicircular recess, as in the upper chamber in Fig. 9. These probably gave rise to the _apse_ in early Christian architecture, of which a good example is found in the Church of St. Clement, one of the most ancient Christian edifices in Rome. Niches and shelves for lamps, an absolute necessity in the perpetual darkness that there reigns, frequently occur, such as may be seen in Italian houses to-day. Without the least authority, some Roman Catholic writers have described these as closets for priestly 30 vestments and shelves for pictures.