I, Petronia, the wife of a deacon, the type of modesty, lay down my bones in this resting place. Refrain from tears, my sweet daughters and husband, and believe that it is forbidden to weep for one who lives in God.

The early Christians confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth, and that they desired a better country, even a heavenly. They felt that, in the language of Cyprian, the soul’s true Fatherland is on high. This sentiment is expressed as follows, in an epitaph of date A. D. 493, MIGRAVIT DE HOC SAECVLO—“He migrated from this world.” Similar is the idea in the following: FELIX VITA FVIT FELIX ET TRANSITVS IPSE—“Happy was the life, and happy also the death,” literally, “the transit;” HIC REQIESCIT .. QVAE A DEO INTER EXORDIA VIVENDI DE HAC LVCE SVBLATA EST VT IN MELIORE LVMINE VIVERE MERERETVR—“Here rests ... who was snatched away by God in the very beginning of life from the light of earth, that she might be worthy to live in the more glorious light (of heaven).”

We find also such expressions as follow: DEPOSTVS (sic) IN PACE FIDEI CATHOLICE, (sic)—“Buried in the peace of the Catholic faith,” A. D. 462; HIC. REQ. IN PACE DEVS, (sic)—“Here rests in the peace of God,” A. D. 500; IN PACE ECCLESIAE—“In the peace of the church,” A. D. 523; IN PACE ET BENEDICTIONE—“In peace and benediction;” SEMPER FIDELIS MANEBIT APVD DEVM—“Ever faithful, he shall remain with God,” (circ. 590); FATVM FECIT—“She fulfilled her destiny;”[702] REDDIDI NVNC DIVO RERVM DEBITVM COMMVNE OMNIBVS—“I have rendered now to the Lord of the universe the debt common to all,” A. D. 483; ZOTICVS HIC AD DORMIENDVM—“Zoticus here laid to sleep;” DORMITIO ELPIDIS—“The sleeping place of Elpis;” DORMIVIT ET REQVIESCIT—“He has slept and is at rest;” DORMIT SED VIVIT—“He sleeps but lives;” QVIESCIT IN DOMINO IESV—“He reposes in the Lord Jesus;” IVIT AD DEVM—“He went to God;” EVOCATVS A DOMINO—“Called by God;” ACCEPTA APVD DEVM—“Accepted with God;” ΕΤΕΛΕΙΩΘΗ—“He finished his life;” ΕΚΟΙΜΗΘΗ—“He fell asleep;” DAMALIS HIC SIC · V · D—“Here lies Damalis, for so God wills.”

Macus, innocent boy, thou hast already begun to be among the innocent. Unto thee how sure is thy present life. Thee how gladly thy mother, the church, (on high,) received returning from this world. Hushed be this bosom’s groaning, dried be these weeping eyes.[703]

Of similar character are also the following: SALONICE ISPIRITVS TVVS IN BONIS—“Salonice, thy spirit is among the good;” REFRIGERAS SPIRITVS TVVS IN BONIS—“Thou refreshest thy spirit among the good;” ΠΡΩΤΟϹ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΩ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙ ΘΕΟΥ ΕΝΘΑΔΕ ΚΕΙΤΑΙ—“Here in the Holy Spirit of God lieth Protus;” CORPVS HABET TELLVS ANIMAM CAELESTIA REGNA—“The earth has the body, celestial realms the soul;” ΓΛΥΚΕΡΟΝ ΦΑΟϹ ΟΥ ΚΑΤΕΔΕΨΑΣ (sic) ΕΣΧΕΣ ΓΑΡ ΜΕΤΑ ϹΟΥ ΠΑΝΑΘΑΝΑΤΟΝ—“Thou didst not leave the sweet light, for thou hadst with thee Him who knows not death,” literally, “the all-deathless one;” AGAPE VIBIS IN ETERNVM—“Agape, thou livest forever;” DORMIT ET VIVIT IN PACE XO, (sic)—“He sleeps and lives in the peace of Christ;” MENS NESCIA MORTIS VIVIT ET ASPECTV FRVITVR BENE CONSCIA CHRISTI—“The soul lives unknowing of death, and consciously rejoices in the vision of Christ;” PRIMA VIVIS IN GLORIA DEI ET IN PACE DOMINI NOSTRI XR.—“Prima, thou livest in the glory of God, and in the peace of Christ, Our Lord.”[704]

The glorious doctrine of the resurrection, which is peculiarly the characteristic of our holy religion as distinguished from all the faiths of antiquity, was everywhere recorded throughout the Catacombs. It was symbolized in the ever-recurring representations of the story of Jonah and of the raising of Lazarus, and was strongly asserted in numerous inscriptions. As the early Christians laid the remains of the departed saint in their last long rest, the sacred words of the Gospel, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” must have echoed with a strange power through the long corridors of that silent city of the dead, and have filled the hearts of the believers, though surrounded by the evidences of their mortality, with an exultant thrill of triumph over death and the grave. This was a recompense for all their pains. Of this not even the malignant ingenuity of persecution could deprive them. Although the body were consumed and its ashes strewn upon the waters, or sown upon the wandering winds, still, still the Lord knoweth them that are his, and keeps the dust of his chosen. Tertullian ridicules the heathen for believing the doctrine of metempsychosis and rejecting that of the resurrection.[705] “God forbid that he should abandon to everlasting destruction,” he exclaims, “the labour of his hands, the care of his own thoughts, the receptacle of his own Spirit!”[706]

The hope of the resurrection is often strongly expressed, as in the following examples:

Here rests my flesh; but at the last day, through Christ, I believe it will be raised from the dead.

You, well-deserving one, having left your (relations), lie asleep in peace—you will arise—a temporary rest is granted you.

In an epitaph of the year 449 we read, RECEPTA CAELO MERVIT OCCVRRERE XPO AD RESVRRECTIONEM PRAEMIVM AETERNVM SVSCIPERE DIGNA—“Received into heaven, she deserved to meet Christ at the resurrection, worthy to receive an everlasting reward.” In the following example from the Catacomb of Naples, Christian confidence adopts the sublime language of Job:

I believe, because that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day shall raise me from the earth, that in my flesh I shall see the Lord.

More briefly is this cardinal doctrine asserted in the following: IVSTVS CVM SCIS XPO MEDIANTE RESVRGET—“Justus, who will arise with the saints through Christ.” HIC IN PACE REQVIESCIT LAVRENTIA QVAE CREDIDIT RESVRRECTIONEM—“Here reposes in peace Laurentia, who believed in the resurrection.”[707]

The very idea of death seems to have been repudiated by the primitive Christians. “Non mortua sed data somno,” sings Prudentius in paraphrase of the words of Our Lord, “She is not dead but sleepeth.”[708] Hence the Catacomb was designated the cœmeterium,[709] or place of sleeping, and the funeral vault the cubiculum, or sleeping chamber. The dead were not “buried,” as the pagan expressions conditus, compositus, situs, indicate; but depositus, “laid down” in their lowly beds till the everlasting morn should come, and the angel’s trump awake them; consigned as a precious trust to the tender keeping of mother earth, and “lying in wait for the resurrection.”[710] The saints were “fallen asleep” in Jesus, and on the bridal morning of the soul they should awake with his likeness and be satisfied. The primitive Christians believed that the power which called a Lazarus from the tomb could wake to life again the slumbering millions of this valley of dry bones, vaster far than that of Ezekiel’s vision, till they should stand up upon their feet an exceeding great army.

What a striking contrast to these holy hopes is the pagans’ blankness of despair concerning the future. Compared with this assurance of a blissful immortality, how cold and cheerless is their shadowy elysium, their unsubstantial visions of the spirit-world; how terrible the gloomy Acherontian lake, dark Lethe’s stream, and Styx, and fiery Phlegethon. Like a gleam of heaven’s sunshine in a benighted age are these rude inscriptions of the early Christians. Sublimer is their lofty hope, reaching forward beyond this world, and laying hands of faith upon the eternal verities of the world to come, than the imperishable renown of classic sages, or the Roman poet’s vaunting boast of earthly immortality—Non omnis moriar.

Even the high philosophy of Greece and the noble stoicism of the Roman mind afford no consolation to the soul brought face to face with the solemn mystery of death. A forced and sullen submission to the inevitable is all that they can teach. They shed no light upon the world beyond the grave, DOMVS AETERNA—“An eternal home,”[711] and SOMNO AETERNALI—“In eternal sleep,” are written on their tombs, frequently accompanied by an inverted torch, the emblem of despair. To them death is an unsolved and insoluble problem. Their loftiest reasonings lack authority to satisfy the mind. It is the gospel of Christ alone which dispels the awful shadows of the tomb, plants the flower of hope in the very ashes of the grave, and brings life and immortality to light; which appeases the soul-hunger of mankind, and meets the yearning cry of the human heart.

Even the thoughtful mind of Pliny could extract no comfort from the various theories concerning the future state, but looked forward to annihilation as the universal doom. “To all,” he says, “from the last day of life is there the same lot that there was before the first; nor is there any more consciousness after death than there was before birth.”[712] Of Agricola, the wise and good, the philosophic Tacitus could only say with an incredulous sigh, “Doubtless if there be a place for the departed spirits of the just, if great souls perish not with the body, thou dost calmly repose.”[713] “That the manes are any thing,” says Juvenal, “or that the nether world is any thing, not even boys believe, unless those still in the nursery.”[714] In sullen submission to fate, the pagan submits to the inevitable doom. When the name has issued from the fatal urn he leaves forever his woods, his villa, his pleasant home, and enters the bark which is to bear him into eternal exile.[715] The wisest sages can only fan the embers of their hopes into a flickering flame, and cry, “Ha! we have seen the fire.”

The following are examples of the melancholy and despairing spirit often breathed by pagan epitaphs:

Of similar character is the following recalling the complaint of Job, “He cometh forth as a flower and is cut down:” VIVE LAETVS QVICVNQVE VIVIS VITA PARVVM MVNVS EST MOX EXORTA EST SENSIM VIGESCIT DEINDE SENSIM DEFICIT—“Live joyful who ever thou art that livest. Life is a small gift. It is scarcely sprung up when it imperceptibly flourishes and then imperceptibly declines.” The succeeding example is remarkable for its misanthropy: ANIMAL INGRATIVS HOMINE NVLLVM EST—“No animal is more ungrateful than man.” The inspired apothegm, “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out,” is illustrated in the following: EX OMNIBVS BONIS SVIS HOC SIBI SVMPSERVNT—“Of all their wealth they possess only this tomb.” We find also the expression, MATER GENVIT ME MATER RECIPIT—“Mother (earth) nourished me, she receives me again,” analogous to the declaration of Scripture, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Spon gives also the following example: VIXI VT VIVIS MORIERIS VT SVM MORTVVS—“I have lived as thou livest, thou shalt die as I have died.” Sometimes the cold consolation is offered that others are also the subjects of sorrow and death, as DOLOR TALIS NON TIBI CONTIGIT VNI—“Such grief affects not thee alone;” NEC TIBI NEC NOBIS AETERNVM VIVERE CESSIT—“Neither to you nor to us was it granted to live forever.” Similar to this is a Christian inscription, ΕΥΨΥΧΕΙ ϹΕΚΟΥΝΔΕ ΟΥΔΕΙϹ ΑΘΑΝΟΤΟϹ—“Be of good cheer, Secundus; no one is immortal.”

While I lived, I lived well. My play is now ended, soon yours will be. Farewell and applaud me.[716]

In the succeeding example the sentiment is still more Anacreontic. It breathes the true pagan spirit, Carpe diem—“Seize the day. Pluck each flower of pleasure as you pass. Press all life’s nectar into one frenzied draught and drain it to the dregs. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” Even in the solemn presence of death, the soul, unawed by the dread shadow of the future, turns regretfully to the vanished pleasures of earth, and finds its only consolation in the thought of their enjoyment.

To the Divine Manes of Tiberius Claudius Secundus. Here he enjoys every thing. Baths, wine, and lust ruin our constitutions, but—they make life what it is. Farewell, farewell.[717]

The following expresses the very essence of coarse sensualism: QVOD EDI ET BIBI MECVM HABEO QVOD RELIQVI PERDIDI—“What I ate and drank I have with me; what I left I have lost.” Compare the moral antithesis of the sentiment expressed by John Wesley: “What I gave away I have still; what I kept I have lost.”

Frequently the pagan epitaphs contain an outburst of scorn or defiance of the unjust gods that sit aloft and make their sport of human woe, as is seen in the accompanying examples:

PROCOPE · MANVS · LEBO · CONTRA · DEVM
QVI · ME · INNOCENTEM · SVSTVLIT.

I, Procope, lift up my hands against the god who snatched away me innocent.

In an epitaph in the Lapidarian Gallery a bereaved mother in the bitterness of her soul cries out:

But the holy teachings of Christianity revealed to the weary and heavy laden souls of men, aching with a sense of orphanage, the loving Fatherhood of God,[718] and produced a spirit of meekness and resignation altogether foreign to the pagan mind. Of pathetic interest, as illustrating this fact, is a Christian fragment of date circ. A. D. 600, on which we may still read the inscription

QVI · DEDIT · ET · ABSTVLIT
.... OMINI · BENEDIC ....

The familiar words suggest the imperishable thought, which has been a source of consolation to bereaved ones in every age. “Like a voice from among the graves,” says Dr. Maitland, “broken by sobs, yet distinctly intelligible, fall these words on the listening ear, ‘who gave, and hath taken away—blessed [be the name] of the Lord.’”

We occasionally find pagan inscriptions breathing a sense of spiritual existence and hope of future life.[719] The yearning of the human heart that

Longs for the touch of a vanished hand
 And the sound of a voice that is still,

and the hunger of the soul for communion with the dear departed in the loving tryst of the silent land are pathetically expressed in the following prayer of Furia Spes: PETO VOS MANES SANCTISSIMAE (sic) ... MEVM CONIVGEM HORIS NOCTVRNIS VT VIDEAM ET ETIAM VT EGO DVLCIVS ET CELERIVS APVD EVM PERVENIRE POSSIM—“I beseech you, most holy spirits, that I may behold my husband in the midnight hours; and also that I may more sweetly and swiftly go to him.”

There occur in the Catacombs frequent examples of acclamations addressed to the departed, expressive of a desire for their happiness and peace. These acclamations have been quoted by Romanist writers as indicating a belief in the doctrine of purgatory, and in the efficacy of prayers on behalf of the dead. The importance of this subject will justify its careful examination. Many of the examples quoted by Roman controversialists are not precatory at all, but simply declarative.[720] But there are others in which the expression assumes a distinctively optative form. Some of these may be of comparatively late date, as the graffiti, or inscriptions of pilgrims near the more celebrated shrines, of which we have seen examples at the so-called “papal crypt.” But others are unquestionably part of the original epitaphs. We find, for instance, such expressions as VIVAS—“May you live;” VIVAS IN DEO, ΖΗϹ ΕΝ ΘΕΩ—“May you live in God;” VIVAS IN ETERNVM—“May you live forever;” ETERNA TIBI LVX—“Eternal light to thee;” ESTOTE IN PACE—“Be in peace;” VIVAS INTER SANCTOS—“May you live among the holy ones;” VIVAS IN NOMINE XTI—“May you live, in the name of Christ;” ΖΗϹΗϹ (sic) ΙΝ ΔΕΟ ΧΡΙϹΤΟ—“May you live in God Christ;” VIVAS IN DOMINO ZEZV—“May you live in the Lord Jesus;” VIVAS VINCAS—“May you live, may you conquer;” DORMITIO TVA INTER DICAEIS, (ΔΙΚΑΙΟΙϹ)—“May your sleep be among the just;” DEVS TIBI REFRIGERET—SPIRITVM TVVM REFRIGERET—“God refresh thee, refresh thy spirit;” ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ϹΟΙ—“Peace to thee;” ΕΝ ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΣΟΥ ΤΟ ΠΝΕΥΜΑ—“In peace be thy spirit;” Ο ΘΕΟϹ ΑΝΑΠΑΥϹΗ ΤΗΝ ΨΥΧΗΝ ΕΝ ϹΚΗΝΑΙϹ ΑΓΙΩΝ—“God give thy soul rest in the tents of the holy.” These, it will be perceived, are not intercessions for the dead, but mere apostrophes addressed to them, as is apparent in the following: ΖΩΤΙΚΕ ΖΗϹΑΙϹΕΝ (sic) ΚΥΡΙΩ ΘΑΡΡΙ, (sic)—“Zoticus, mayest thou live in the Lord. Be of good cheer.” They were no more prayers for the souls of the departed than is Byron’s verse, “Bright be the place of thy rest.”

But the wish sometimes takes the form of a prayer for the beloved one, as ΜΝΗϹΘΗϹ ΙΗϹΟΥϹ Ο ΚΥΡΙΟϹ ΤΕΚΝΟΝ ΕΜ ...—“Remember, O Lord Jesus, our child;” ΔΕΟΥϹ ΧΡΙϹΤΟΥϹ ΟΜΝΙΠΟΤΕϹ ϹΠΙΡΙΤ ... ΤΟΥ ΡΕΦ.ΙΓΕΡΕ ΙΝ ☧, (Latin in Greek characters,)—“May the Almighty God Christ refresh thy spirit in Christ.” ΝΗΜΝΗΘΗ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ Ω ΘΕΟϹ ΙϹΤΟΥϹ ΑΓΝΑϹ (sic)—“Remember him, O God, among thy lambs;” ΜΝΗϹΘΗΤΙ ΚΥΡΙΕ ΤΗϹ ΚΟΙΜΗϹΕΩϹ ΤΗϹ ΔΟΥΛΗϹ ϹΟΥ ΑΝΑΠΑΥϹΟΝ ΤΗΝ ΨΥΧΗΝ ΤΟΥ ΔΟΥΛΟΥ ϹΟΥ ΕΝ ΤΟ ΦΩΤΙΝΩ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΑΝΑΨΥΞΕΩϹ ΕΙϹ ΚΟΛΠΟΝ ΑΒΡΑΑΜ,—“Remember, O God, the sleep of thy servant; give rest to the soul of thy servant in the light, in the refreshment in Abraham’s bosom:” DOMINE NE ADVMBRETVR SPIRITVS—“O Lord! let not (this) soul be brought into darkness;” ΜΝΗϹΘΗ ΑΥΤΟΥ Ο ΘΕΟϹ ΕΙϹ ΤΟΥϹ ΑΙΩΝΑϹ—“May God remember him forever.”[721]

These intense expressions of affection of the ardent Italian nature[722] that would fain follow the loved object—“though lost to sight to memory dear”—beyond the barrier of the tomb, are surely a slight foundation on which to build the vast system of mercenary masses for the dead. And yet they are the only evidences that keen Roman controversialists can adduce from these Christian inscriptions of the first six centuries.[723] And, be it remembered, these inscriptions were not a formulated and authoritative creed framed by learned theologians, but the untutored utterances of humble peasants, many of whom were recent converts from paganism or Judaism, in which religions such expressions were a customary sepulchral formula. The accompanying examples indicate the prevalence of this practice in pagan epigraphy: AVE or HAVE VALE—“Hail, farewell;” DI TIBI BENEFACIANT—“May the gods be good to thee;” OSSA TVA BENE QVIESCANT—“May thy bones rest well;” SIT TIBI TERRA LEVIS—“May the earth be light upon thee;” ΧΑΙΡΕ ΕΥΠΛΟΕΙ—ΕΥΔΡΟΜΕΙ—“Rejoice, a safe voyage, a prosperous journey;” ΕΥΨΥΧΕΙ ΚΥΡΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΔΩΗ ϹΟΙ ΟϹΙΡΙϹ ΤΟ ΨΥΧΡΟΝ ΥΔΩΡ—“Be of good cheer, O lady, and to thee Osiris give to quaff the cooling water;”[724] ΕΝ ΜΥΡΟΙϹ ϹΟΙ ΤΕΚΝΟΝ Η ΨΥΧΗ—“In precious odours be thy soul, my child;” HIC MANES PLACIDA NOCTE QVIESCANT ET SVPER IN NIDO MARATHONIA CANTET AEDON—“Here may the manes rest throughout the placid night, and above thee in her nest may the Marathonian nightingale sing;” BENE VALEAS MATER ROGAT TE VT ME AD TE RECIPIAS VALE—“Farewell, thy mother prays, O take me to thyself again, farewell.”[725] In the Jewish epitaphs these acclamations are much more common than in the Christian inscriptions. The following is an example: MARCIA BONA IVDEA DORMITIO IN BONIS—“Marcia, a good Jewess, thy sleep be among the good.” On many modern Hebrew tombstones are the words, “Let his soul be bound up in the bundle of life.”

Small wonder, therefore, that those Christian converts who had been brought up in pagan or Jewish superstition should retain traces of this ancient custom so congenial to the sympathies of the human heart, unprescient as they were of the baneful results to which it would lead. Their freedom of language had not yet been restricted, as Bishop Kip remarks, to the cold rules of ordinary logic by the fear of deadly heresy. We know, indeed, from the testimony of the Fathers, that mention of the dead was frequently made in the prayers of the church. These prayers, however, were often thanksgivings—εὐχὴ εὐχαριστήριος—for those who were asleep in Christ, or commemorations of their virtues for the improvement of the living.[726] Many of the Fathers vigorously protest against the idea that the dead can be benefitted by any prayers on their behalf, and strongly assert their changeless state in the other world.[727] The notion, however, of the efficacy of these prayers gradually crept into the church; but that they were not conceived to procure remission from purgatorial flames is evident from the fact that, even at a comparatively late period, they were offered on behalf of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and saints, and even of the Virgin Mary herself, who were all believed to be in the immediate presence of God. At length even this tremendous error found entrance into the church, and gave into the hands of a mercenary hierarchy the keys of heaven and hell.

But in the testimony of the Catacombs is no trace of that torturing doctrine which hangs the heart on tenter-hooks of dread suspense, and wrings from the lacerated affections a dole to a hireling priesthood for the exercise of their ghostly functions in delivering the souls of the departed from burning flame. There is no hint in their cheerful art and pious epitaphs of the Dantean horrors, the worse than Sisyphean toil, and torments more dire than those of Tantalus, under the intense conception of which for centuries the heart of Christendom was wrung. No; the early church believed the pious dead already to enjoy the ampler life, the more ethereal air, and sweet beatitude of paradise.[728]

Associated with the Romish practice of praying for the dead is that of praying to them. For this there is still less authority in the testimony of the Catacombs than for the former. There are, indeed, indications that this custom was not unknown, but they are very rare and exceptional. In all the dated inscriptions of the first six centuries, thirteen hundred and seventy four in number, there is only one invocation of the departed. It is that of the year 380, already given, in which from the heart of an orphaned and ignorant[729] girl, in the hour of her bitter sorrow and bereavement, is wrung the cry, PRO HVNC VNVM ORA SVBOLEM—“O pray for this, thine only child.” The few undated inscriptions of a similar character are probably of as late, or it may be of a much later, date than this; and the invocation is almost invariably uttered by some relative of the deceased, as if prompted by natural affection rather than by religious feeling. Thus we have such examples as the following: PETE PRO FILIIS TVIS—“Pray for thy children; "PETE ET ROGA PRO FRATRES ET SOBOLES TVOS, (sic)—“Entreat and pray for your brothers and children;” ORA PRO PARENTIBVS TVIS—“Pray for thy parents;” VIBAS IN PACE ET PETE PRO NOBIS—“May you live in peace and pray for us;” VIBAS IN DEO ET ROGA—“May you live in God and pray;” IN ORATIONIBVS TVIS ROGES PRO NOBIS QVIA SCIMVS TE IN ☧—“In your prayers, pray for us, for we know you (to be) in Christ.” ΔΙΟΝΥϹΙΟϹ ΝΗΠΙΟϹ ΑΚΑΚΟϹ ΕΝΘΑΔΕ ΚΕΙΤΕ ΜΕΤΑ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΝΗϹΚΕϹΘΕ ΔΕ ΚΑΙ ΗΜΩΝ ΕΝ ΤΑΙϹ ΑΓΙΑΙϹ ΥΜΩΝ ΠΡΕΥΧΑϹ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΥ ΓΛΥΨΑΤΟϹ ΚΑΙ ΓΡΑΨΑΝΤΟϹ—“Dionysius a spotless infant, lies here with the saints. O remember us also in thy holy prayers; aye, and the sculptor and writer as well.” The last clause is in smaller characters as if an afterthought.[730]

These few examples among eleven thousand inscriptions, of which the greater number are of post-Constantinian date, are a slight foundation for the vast Roman system of the invocation of saints. “If this doctrine,” says Bishop Kip, “so much in unison with many of the deepest feelings of our nature, had been held by the primitive church, we should have found it written broadly and clearly every-where through these epitaphs. Its proof would not be left to half a dozen inscriptions among thousands which plainly declare the reverse.” How different from these lowly crypts is a modern Romish sepulchral chapel, with its ceaseless appeals by the dead for the prayers of the living, and by the living for the prayers of the dead; with its ever-recurring Orate pro anima, and Maria sanctissima, ora pro nobis. We search in vain through all the corridors of those ancient sanctuaries of the Christian faith for a single example of these now universal Romish formulæ.

Thus was developed in course of time a vast celestial hierarchy endowed with the attributes of Deity,[731] usurping the intercessory office of Christ, and rivalling the polytheism of paganism. The primitive Fathers repudiated the worship of any saint or angel, or the intervention of any mediator with God but Christ. “We worship the Son of God,” write the elders of Smyrna, “but the martyrs we only love.”[732] “We sacrifice not to martyrs,” says Augustine, “but to the one God, both theirs and ours;”[733] “nor is our religion,” he indignantly adds, “the worship of dead men.”[734] “It is the devil who has introduced this homage of angels,” says Chrysostom;[735] and the Council of Laodicea, (A. D. 361,) forbade their invocation as idolatrous and a forsaking of Christ.[736]

We now turn from these polemical subjects to the consideration of the doctrines, common to Christendom, of the trinity of the Godhead and the divinity of Jesus Christ. We know from ecclesiastical history that numerous heresies sprang up in the early centuries with reference to these august themes; but no evidence accuses the church in the Catacombs of departure from the primitive and orthodox faith in these important respects. Frequently, indeed, the belief in these cardinal doctrines is so strongly asserted as to suggest, that it is in designed and vigorous protest against the contemporary heretical notions.

The doctrine of the essential divinity of the Son of God is repeatedly and strikingly affirmed. Not only are the symbolical letters Alpha and Omega often associated with the sacred monogram, in allusion to the sublime passage in the Revelation descriptive of the eternity of Christ, but his name and Messianic title are variously combined with that of the Deity so as to indicate their identity. Thus we have the expressions ΖΗϹΗϹ ΙΝ DEO ΧΡΙϹΤΟ, (sic)—ΕΝ ΤΗΕΩ ΚΥΡΕΙΩ ΧΕΙϹΤΩ, (sic)—VIBAS IN CHRISTO DEO—IN DOMINO IESV—“May you live in God Christ—in God, the Lord Christ—in Christ God—in the Lord Jesus.” Or the divine attributes are still more strongly expressed as follows: ΔΕΟΥϹ ΧΡΙϹΤΟΥϹ ΟΜΝΙΠΟΤΕϹ, (sic)—“God Christ Almighty;” DEO SANC XRO VN LVC, (sic)—“God, holy Christ, only light;” DEO SANC ☧ VNI, (sic)—“To Christ, the one holy God.” We have seen the impression in the plaster of a grave whereby some orthodox believer, probably in protest against the Arian heresy, has “set to his seal” that “Christ is God.” Fig. 119, page 386.[737]

Mention is made of the three persons of the Trinity separately in several epitaphs in which the deceased is said to sleep IN DEO—IN CHRISTO—IN SPIRITV SANCTO, and collectively in the following of date 403, QVINTILIANVS HOMO DEI CONFIRMANS TRINITATEM AMANS CASTITATEM RESPVENS MVNDVM—“Quintilianus, a man of God, holding fast the doctrine of the Trinity, loving chastity, contemning the world.” In later examples from Aqueilia and other places we find the formulæ, IN NOMINE SANCTAE TRINITATIS—PATRIS ET FILII ET SPIRITVS SANCTI—“In the name of the Holy Trinity—of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”[738]

Patristic evidence informs us that both these doctrines were firmly held by the primitive Christians. The doxologies, benedictions, and baptismal formulæ, of the ancient liturgies are all in the name of the triune God. The divinity of the three persons and at the same time the unity of the Godhead are distinctly and often asserted. This is also affirmed in frequent Christian inscriptions “to the one God”—DEO VNO. (sic.)

  Not like the quarry slave, at night
Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approached his grave,
Like one who wrapped the drapery of his couch
About him, and lay down to pleasant dreams.[739]

[693] Eastern Churches.

[694] Tertullian says they destroy the soul as fevers do the body.—De Præscrip. Hæreticorum, c. 2.

[695] The Gnostic Marcion sought admission to the Roman presbytery and Valentine even aspired to the episcopal chair. “Speraverat episcopatum Valentinus.”—Tertull., Adv. Valent., c. iv.

[696] Inscriptiones Christianæ Urbis Romæ Septimo Sæculo Antiquiores.

[697] The earlier inscriptions express merely the consular dates, and in one instance only, the name and age of the deceased.

[698] Dr. McCaul remarks the occurrence of a similar expression in a pagan inscription given by Muratori, (978, 979,) as follows: D.M. in hoc tumulo jacet corpus exanimis (sic) cujus spiritus inter deos receptus est; sic enim meruit,—“In this tomb lies a lifeless body whose spirit is received among the gods, for so it deserved.”

[699] The use of recedo in the sense of “to die” is classical; but in the above form it is unknown in pagan epigraphy.

[700] Compare Wesley—

“There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers.”

[701] De Rossi thinks Ancilla Dei a proper name.

[702] The following is the brief biography of some unknown saint at Naples: SERVVS DEI ... ET AD VITA (sic) PERBENIT (sic,)—“A servant of God ... and attained unto life.”

[703] Burgon.

[704] Of the Antiochene Christians Chrysostom writes: “They say not of the departed ‘he is dead,’ but, ‘he is perfected.’”—Hom. in Matt., 68.

[705] Apol., c. 48.

[706] De Resur. Carn., c. 9. He mentions the long duration of the bones and teeth, and quotes the story of the phœnix as an argument in favour of the doctrine, c. 13.

[707] A spurious epitaph of the fourteenth century, given by Maitland, p. 82, as genuine, thus fantastically refers to this august theme: QVI INQVIETVS VIXI NVNC TANDEM MORTVVS NON LVBENS QVIESCO, SOLVS CVR SIM QVAESERIS (sic) VT IN DIE CENSORIO SINE IMPEDIMENTO FACILIVS RESVRGAM—“I who lived restless, being now at length dead, rest unwillingly. Do you ask why I am alone? That in the day of Judgment I may more readily rise without impediment.”

[708] See also the epitaph given in Book I, chap. iii.—ALEXANDER MORTVVS NON EST SED VIVIT SVPER ASTRA—“Alexander is not dead but lives above the stars.”

[709] Similarly the African Christians called their burial places accubitoria—“sleeping places.”

[710] Wiseman, Fabiola, p. 145. Dr. McCaul, however, regards the expression as simply equivalent to buried.

[711] This phrase is sometimes, though very rarely, inadvertently used in Christian epitaphs, as also the expression, Τὸν ἀγρήγορον ὕπνον καθεύδει—“Sleeps the sleep that knows no waking.” Of somewhat pagan form is the following epitaph of Cardinal Porto-Carero at Toledo, Hic jacet pulvis cinis et nihil—“Here lies dust and ashes, and nothing more.”

[712] Omnibus a suprema die eadem quæ ante primum, nec magis a morte sensus ullus aut corporis aut animæ, quam ante natalem.

[713] Si quis piorum manibus locus, si non cum corpore extinguuntur magnæ animæ, placide quiescas.—Vit. Agric.

[714]

Esse aliquid manes et subterranea regna,

Nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum ære lavantur.—Sat., ii, 149.

[715] See that saddest but most beautiful of the odes of Horace—To Delium, II, 3.

... Et nos in æternum
Exilium impositura cymbæ.

[716] In a similar spirit the dying emperor Augustus inquired if he had played his part well in the farce of life, and asked the applause of his courtiers.

Δότε κρότον
Καὶ πάντες ὑμεῖς μετὰ χαρᾶς κτυπήσατε.

[717] The Swedish poet Georg St. Jernhjelm ordered to be written on his tomb the pagan sentiment, VIXIT DVM VIXIT LAETVS—“While he lived he lived merrily.”

[718] “God counts even the bristles of the swine,” says Tertullian, “much more the hairs of his children.”

[719] The following proposes a practical test of the existence of spirits: TV LEGIS ET DVBITAS MANES ESSE SPONSIONE FACTA INVOCA NOS ET INTELLIGES—“You who read this epitaph and doubt whether spirits exist, invoke us, and by our answer you will know.”

[720] Thus in Rock’s Hierurgia, a standard Romanist authority, such expressions as REQ IN PACE are explained sometimes in defiance of the grammatical construction of the context, as signifying “Mayest thou rest,” as if REQVIESCAS, instead of, in analogy with numerous other examples, “he rests,”—REQVIESCIT. Sometimes the cardinal word is entirely omitted, as in the expression, IN PACE ET BENEDICTIONE, which is quite unwarrantably translated, “May you rest in peace and benediction.”

[721] Sometimes the modernized form of the language indicates the late origin of graffiti found on ancient monuments, as in the following, PREGA ILA PER SILVINA, VIVI ILA NEL DIO CRISTO.

[722] The adoring love of Cicero for his daughter found expression in the building of a temple to her memory.

[723] Rock quotes them as “proof” that the primitive Christians believed that the soul of the deceased might be in an intermediate state, where the efficacy of such aspirations could reach him, and his spirit could be refreshed and benefitted by the supplications of his surviving brethren.—Hierurgia, p. 322. He gives several examples similar to the above; but no accumulation of such evidence affords the slightest warrant for the corrupt practice of the Church of Rome.

[724] Burgon.

[725] Ibid.

[726] Ut ex recordatione eorum proficiamus.—Orig. in Rom., xii. These commemorations of the departed were generally celebrated on the anniversaries of their death—their birthday as it was called—Oblationes pro defunctis pro natalitiis, annua die facimus—Tertul., De Coron. Mil., c. 3; cf. De Monogam., c. 10.

[727] Quando isthinc excessum fuerit, nullus jam locus pœnitentiæ est, nullus satisfactionis effectus.—Cypr. ad Demet., § 16; cf. Greg. Naz., de Rebus suis, and Hieron. in Galat., c. 6. The modern Greek church offers prayers for the dead without believing in the doctrine of purgatory.

[728] The doctrine of purgatory was first preached by Gregory the Great; and this fiery realm, so rich in revenue of tears and blood, was afterward formally annexed to the papal dominions by a bull.

[729] See the barbarous Latinity of the inscription, p. 426.

[730] Some of the examples of alleged invocation of saints given by Romanist writers are altogether gratuitous assumptions. Thus the letters P. T. PR. N. S. have been, without the slightest warrant, expanded thus, Pete pro nobis, “Pray for us.” Others are merely requests to be remembered by the dear departed, as ΔΙΟΝΥϹΙΝ ΕΙϹ ΜΝΙΑΝ ΕΧΕΤΕ—“Have ye in remembrance Dionysius.” The graffiti of the pilgrims at the shrines of the more celebrated martyrs, in which are occasional invocations of the dead, are no criteria of primitive belief and practice, for these are of every age down to comparatively late mediæval times. The example in the text is from Burgon.

[731]

Qui lumine Christi
Cuncta et operta vides, longeque absentia cernis.

—Paulin., Nat. vi.

See also the Litany of the Saints in Romish Missal.

[732] Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ προσκυνοῦμεν τοὺς δὲ μάρτυρας ἀγαπῶμεν.—Euseb., iv, 35.

[733] Nec ... sacrificemus martyribus, sed uni Deo et martyrum et nostro.—De Civ. Dei, 22, 10.

[734] Non sit nobis religio cultus hominum mortuorum.—De Ver. Relig., c. 55.

[735] Ὁ διάβολος τὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἐπεισήγαγε.—Hom., 9.

[736] Οὐ δεῖ Χριστιανοὺς ἀγγέλους ὀνομάζειν.—Can., 35. The “saints” of the primitive church, says Schaff, were the whole body of believers, and not a narrow spiritual aristocracy, as in the Romish church. The Council of Constantinople, A. D. 712, decreed that “Whosoever will not avail himself of the intercession of the Virgin Mary, let him be accursed.” “May God Almighty forgive your sin by the merits of Our Lady,” said Gregory VII. to Beatrice and Matilda.—Harduin vi, 1235.

[737] We have frequent evidence of the zeal of the early Christians in the study of the Scriptures. The Bible was not the sealed book that it is in modern Rome. Jerome counsels that it be frequently read and scarcely ever laid aside, that it be studied not as a task but for delight and instruction, and that some of it be learned by heart every day.—Divinas Scripturas sæpius lege, imo nunquam de manibus tuis sacra lectio deponatur.—Ep. ad Nepotian., 7. Non ad laborem, sed ad delectationem et instructionem animæ.—Ep. ad Demetriad., 15. Nec licebat cuiquam sororum ignorare psalmos, et non de Scripturis sanctis quotidie aliquid discere.—Ep. ad Eustoch., 19.

We find no traces in the early period of the church of the fierce intolerance and dreadful anathemas that mark modern Romanism. Tertullian in golden words asserts that liberty of conscience which a Dominic and Torquemada afterward so ruthlessly trampled under foot. “It is a fundamental human right,” he exclaims, “that every man should worship according to his own conviction. It is no part of religion to compel religion.”—Ad Scap., 2. Compare also the wise words of Cassiodorus: “Cum divinitas patiatur multas religiones esse, nos unam non audemus imponere. Retinemus enim legisse, voluntarie sacrificandum esse domino, non cujusquam cogentis imperio.”

[738] The pagan Lucian satirizes the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, “one in three and three in one”—Ἓν ἐκ τριῶν, καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς τρία.—Philopatr., ad fine. Pliny mentions the Christian worship of Christ as God, “Carmenque Christo quasi Deo.”—Ep. ad Had. In response to the heathen accusation of worshipping a mere man, a crucified impostor—ἀνεσκολοπισμένον σοφιστὴν, (Luc., de Mort. Pereg.,) the Christians reply that he is also God: Υἱος καὶ πατὴρ εἷς ἄμφω κύριος—Clem., Paed., iii, 12; “Deus est et Dei Filius, et unus ambo.”—Tertul., Apol., 30. In contrast to Christian monotheism, Tertullian ridicules the polytheism of the heathen, and compares the contests of the gods in Homer to those of gladiators.—Ad. Nat., 10. Imitating the keen irony of Isaiah, he exclaims, “You make a cooking pot of Saturn, a frying pan of Minerva. Even the mice gnaw, the spiders defoul your gods.”—Ibid., ii, 12. The trinity of Plato and the Hindoo sages was a mere speculative subtlety. Tertullian spurned the fusion of philosophy and Christian doctrine. “Away with such mottled Christianity,” he exclaims.—De Præscrip. Hæret., c. 7. Compare his noble confession of faith in God, the eternal Spirit, an incorporeal essence, the true Prometheus who gave order to the world, concluding with the noble words, “We say, and before all men we say, and torn and bleeding under your tortures we cry out, ‘We worship God through Christ.’”—Apol., 17-22.

[739] Bryant’s Thanatopsis.