We have not promised to conduct the visitor to everything that is worth seeing in this cemetery, but only to enumerate and explain the principal monuments of historical importance which every stranger usually sees. And the only specimen of this class which remains to be spoken of is the tomb of St. Cornelius, which lies some way off. In order to reach it we must traverse a vast network of galleries, narrow and irregular, connecting what were once independent cemeteries, or at least were areæ added at various times to the Cemetery of Callixtus. If our guide is not in too great haste, he may allow us to step aside into two or three chambers by the way, in which are certain objects of interest worth looking at. The first is a long inscription belonging to the last decade of the third century, in which the Deacon Severus records that he has obtained leave from the Pope Marcellinus to make a double chamber, with arcosolia and a luminare, in which himself and his family may have quiet graves (mansionem in pace quietam). This is in the third area of the cemetery, next to the area in which we visited the crypt of St. Eusebius.
In the adjoining area, and belonging probably to the same date, is a very curious fresco, much damaged by having been cut through for the sake of making a grave behind it, yet still easily distinguishable in all its main features. The Good Shepherd occupies the centre of the painting. On either side is an apostle, probably SS. Peter and Paul, hastening away from Christ, Who has sent them to go and teach all nations. These are represented by two sheep standing before each of the apostles; and over their heads hangs a rock, whence pour down streams of water, which the apostles are receiving in their hands and turning on the heads of the sheep. We need no special explanation of this; we have already learnt that the Rock is Christ, and that the waters represent all Christian graces and sacraments. But what is worth noticing in this picture is the various attitudes of the sheep, and the corresponding distribution of the water. A perfect torrent is falling on the animal that stands with outstretched neck and head uplifted, drinking in all he hears with simplicity and eagerness; whilst another, which has turned its back upon the apostle, is left without any water at all. Of the other two, one is standing with head downcast, as if in doubt and perplexity, and upon him too grace is still being poured out more abundantly than upon the fourth, which is eating grass, i.e., occupied with the affairs of this world.
On the right hand side of this arcosolium are two representations of Moses; in the one he is striking the rock, and one of the Jews is catching some of the water which gushes forth; in the other he is taking off his shoes, preparing to obey the summons of God, who is represented by a hand coming forth from the cloud. The painting on the other side of the arcosolium is even more defaced than that in the centre. A large semi-circular recess has been cut through it, and then the smoke of the lamp which burnt in this recess during the fourth and fifth centuries has almost obliterated the little that remained of the figure of our Lord. He stood between two of His apostles, who are offering Him bread and fish, and six baskets of loaves stand on the ground before them.
And now we will not linger any more upon the road, but follow our guide, who hurries forward along the intricate passages until he lands us at last in an irregularly shaped space, illuminated by a luminare, decorated with paintings, and bearing manifest tokens of having been once a great centre of devotion. There is the pillar to support the usual vessel of oil or more precious unguents to be burnt before the tomb of the martyr; and hard by is a gravestone let into the wall with the words Cornelius Martyr, Ep.
The stone does not close one of the common graves such as are seen in the walls of the galleries or of the cubicula, neither is the grave an ordinary arcosolium. The lower part of it, indeed, resembles an arcosolium inasmuch as it is large enough to contain three or four bodies, but there is no arch over it. The opening is rectangular, not circular, and yet there is no trace of any slab having been let into the wall to cover the top of the grave. It is probable, therefore, that a sarcophagus once filled the vacant space, and that the top of this sarcophagus served as the mensa or altar, an arrangement of which other examples have been found.
But how came Pope Cornelius to be buried here, and not with his predecessors in the Papal Crypt? He was Pope, A.D. 250, between Fabian and Lucius, both of whom were buried, as we have seen, in that crypt. It is to be observed, however, that Cornelius is the only Pope, during the first three centuries, who bore the name of a noble Roman family; and many ancient epitaphs have been found in the area round this tomb, of persons who belonged to the same family. It is obvious, therefore, to conjecture that this sepulchre was the private property of some branch of the Gens Cornelia. The public Cemetery of St. Callixtus may have been closed at this time by order of the Government; but even without such a reason, it may have been the wish of the family that the Pope should not be separated in burial from the rest of his race. The same circumstance would account for the epitaph being written in Latin, not in Greek, for many of the old patrician families clung to the language of their forefathers long after the use of Greek had come into fashion; and this departure from the official language of the Church (for such, in fact, Greek really was at that time) is quite of a piece with the preference of the domestic to the official burial-place.
But whatever may be the true explanation of these circumstances, the fact is at least certain that Cornelius was buried here; and above and below the opening of his tomb are fragments, still adhering to the wall, of large slabs of marble, containing a few letters of what were once important inscriptions. The upper inscription was unquestionably the work of Damasus. The letters of the lower, though closely resembling the Damasine type, yet present a few points of difference—sufficient to warrant the conjecture of De Rossi that they were executed by the same hand, but with slight variations, in order to mark that it belonged to another series of monuments. We subjoin a copy of both inscriptions, in the form in which De Rossi believes them to have been originally written. In the first inscription the difference of type will distinguish the earlier half of each line, which is a conjectural restoration, from the latter half which still remains in situ; and in estimating the degree of probability of the restorations, the reader should bear in mind two things: first, that the Damasine inscriptions were engraved with such mathematical precision that no emendations are admissible which would materially increase or diminish the number of letters in each line; and secondly, that whereas Damasus was in the habit of repeating himself very frequently in his epitaphs, several of De Rossi’s restorations are mere literal reproductions of some of his favourite forms of speech. Had the following epitaph been found in some ancient MS., and there attributed to Pope Damasus, we are confident that no critic would have seen reason to doubt its genuineness:—
The second inscription De Rossi would restore as follows:—
SIRICIUS PERFECIT OPUS,
CONCLUSIT ET ARCAM
MARMORE, CORNELI QUONIAM
PIA MEMBRA RETENTAT
—that is to say, he supposes that, Damasus having died, his successor Siricius completed the work that had been begun, and, furthermore, strengthened the wall which enclosed the tomb of St. Cornelius with this very thick slab of marble—a work which may have been rendered necessary by the alterations already made by Damasus. Of course, these restorations of the mutilated inscriptions must always remain more or less doubtful, for we fear there is no chance of any other fragments of the original ever coming to light. We publish them under the same reserve with which he himself proposes them, as at least approximations to the truth. He says that, without daring to affirm their literal correctness, there are certainly strong reasons for believing that they exactly reproduce the sense of the original.
This same tomb of St. Cornelius will supply us with an example of De Rossi’s power of happy conjecture, confirmed with absolute certainty by subsequent discoveries. He had often publicly expressed his confident expectation of finding at this tomb of St. Cornelius some memorial of his cotemporary, St. Cyprian. These two saints were martyred on the same day, though in different years; and their feasts were, therefore, always celebrated together, just as they are now, on the 16th of September, all the liturgical prayers for the day being common to both. Now, De Rossi had found in one of the old Itineraries, to whose accuracy of detail he had been greatly indebted, an extraordinary misstatement, viz., that the bodies of both these saints rested together in the same catacomb, whereas everybody knows that St. Cyprian was buried in Africa. He conjectured, therefore, that the pilgrim had been led into this blunder by something he had seen at the tomb of St. Cornelius. On its rediscovery, the cause of the error stands at once revealed. Immediately on the right hand side of the grave are two large figures of bishops painted on the wall, with a legend by the side of each, declaring them to be St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian.
On the other side of the tomb is another painting, executed in the same style, on the wall at the end of the gallery: two figures of bishops, again designated by their proper names and titles. Only one of these can now be deciphered, S̅C̅S̅ XUSTUS P̅P̅ R̅O̅M̅, i.e., Pope Sixtus II., of whose connection with this cemetery we have already heard so often. The other name began with an O, and was probably St. Optatus, an African bishop and martyr, whose body had been brought to Rome and buried in this cemetery.
These paintings are manifestly a late work: perhaps they were executed in the days of Leo III., A.D. 795-815, of whom it is recorded in the Liber Pontificalis, that “he renewed the Cemetery of Sts. Sixtus and Cornelius on the Appian Way;” and the legend which runs round them would have a special significance as the motto of one who had been almost miraculously delivered out of the hands of his enemies by the Emperor Charlemagne. It is taken from the 17th verse of the 58th Psalm: “Ego autem cantabo virtutem Tuam et exaltabo misericordiam Tuam quia factus es et susceptor meus.”... “I will sing Thy strength, and will extol Thy mercy, for Thou art become my support.” Of course, this had not been the earliest ornamentation of these walls. Even now, we can detect traces of a more ancient painting, and of graffiti upon it, underlying this later work. The graffiti are only the names of priests and deacons, who either came here to offer the holy sacrifice, or perhaps to take part in the translation of the relics: “Leo prb., Theodorus prb., Kiprianus Diaconus,” &c.
We are drawing very near to the end of our subterranean walk: indeed, the staircase which is to restore us to the upper air close to the very entrance of the vineyard is immediately behind us, as we stand contemplating the tomb of St. Cornelius. Nevertheless, if we are not too weary, nor our guide too impatient, we should do well to resist the temptation to escape, until we have first visited two small chambers which are in the immediate neighbourhood. They contain some of the most ancient specimens of painting to be found in the whole range of the Catacombs. The ceilings are divided into circles and other geometrical figures, and then the spaces are filled up with graceful arabesques, birds, and flowers, peacocks, and dancing genii. It was the sight of such paintings as these which led the Protestant writer quoted in a former chapter to express an opinion that, on first entering some of the decorated chambers in the Catacombs, it is not easy to determine whether the work is Christian or Pagan. Here, indeed, the Good Shepherd in one centre and Daniel between two lions in the other soon solve the doubt; but all the other details and the excellence of their execution may well have suggested it. No one can doubt that the paintings belong to the very earliest period of Christian art, when the forms and traditions of the classical age had not yet died away.
In the first of the two chambers we are speaking of, there is nothing special to be seen besides the ceiling; but the second and more distant is more richly decorated. Here, two sepulchral chambers open one into the other: over the doorway which admits to the inner vault is represented the Baptism of our Lord by St. John: He is coming up out of the water and the dove is descending upon Him. On the wall opposite to the entrance is that fish carrying the basket of bread and wine that has been already described (page 81). On the wall to the left is a pail of milk standing on a kind of altar between two sheep, and we know from St. Irenæus and from some of the earliest and most authentic acts of the martyrs that milk was an accepted symbol of the Holy Eucharist. Opposite to this are doves and trees, which are often used as types of the souls of the blessed in Paradise. Thus, on one side we have the faithful on earth standing around the Divine food which prepares for heaven; and on the other, souls released from the prison of the body have flown away and are at rest, reposing amid the joys of another world; so that it would almost seem as though the same sequence of ideas presided over the decoration of these chambers, as was certainly present to the minds of those who designed the ornamentation of the sacramental chambers in the Cemetery of St. Callixtus (page 84).
And now at length we must conclude our visit to St. Callixtus. We fear that we have already enumerated more than can be seen with advantage during the course of a single visit; yet it is worth an effort to see it all, because it includes monuments which illustrate nearly every century of the period during which the Catacombs were used. It is for this reason that a visit to St. Callixtus is so singularly valuable, whether it be intended to take this cemetery as a sample of all, or only to use it as an introduction to others. Those who propose to pursue the subject further would do well to visit next the Catacomb of SS. Nereus and Achilles, which lies at no great distance, off the Via Ardeatina; then the Cemetery of Pretextatus on the other side of the Via Appia; and finally, the Cœmeterium Ostrianum on the Via Nomentana. When these have been carefully examined, there will still remain many interesting monuments, of considerable historical importance, in other less famous cemeteries; but enough will have been seen to give an excellent general acquaintance with the main characteristics of Roma Sotterranea.
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