[781] Under Trajan, renowned for his clemency, ten thousand men fought in the games which lasted one hundred and twenty-three days. To stimulate the jaded minds of the spectators men were impaled, crucified, and burned to death.

[782] The De Spectaculis of Tertullian is an elaborate argument concerning the idolatrous origin and character of the theatre. He describes, in language applicable to much of the “sport” of modern times, the human wild beasts, passion-blind, agitated by bets, and out of themselves with excitement. “You have nobler joys,” he says to the Christians. “Be startled at God’s signal, roused at the angel’s trump, glory in the palms of martyrdom. Would you have blood too? There is Christ’s,” (sec. 29.) “He expatiates on the grandeur of the spectacle when the world, hoary with age, shall be consumed; contrasts with the theatre the sight of poets, players, philosophers, and kings in agonies and flames; and exults in the triumph of Christ,” (sec. 30.)

[783] Tertul., De Spectac., sec. 26.

[784] De Idol., c. 19.

[785] Navigamus ... et militamus, et rusticamus, et mercamur.—Apol. c. 42.

[786] Implevimus ... castra ipsa.—Ibid., c. 37. The story of the Thundering Legion, composed entirely of Christians, is unable to withstand the destructive criticism of modern times. The following is the epitaph of a military commander: VITALIANVS MAGISTER MILITVM, QVIESCIT IN DOMINO. We have already seen that of an officer—DVX MILITVM—who suffered martyrdom under Adrian.

[787] Euseb., H. E., viii, 4. No one in either the civil or military service of the emperor was eligible for ordination even as a deacon.—Bingham, Orig. Eccl., iv, 3, sec. 1.

[788] Hostes Cæsarum, hostes populi Romani.—Celsus, lib. viii.

[789] Christianus nullius est hostis, nedum imperatoris.—Ad Scapulum, i.

[790] Nec ulla res aliena magis quam publica.—Apol., c. 38.

[791] Honores et purpuras despiciunt ipsi seminudi.—In Munic. Felix, viii.

[792] Infructuosi in negotiis dicimur.—Tert., Apol., 42.

[793] Ibid.

[794] Sat., vi, 20.

[795] Epig., vii, 6.

[796] Epist., cxi.

[797] The names of Penelope, Andromache, Alcestis, and Antigone will be forever illustrious types of the domestic virtues.

[798] The Fathers frequently contrasted the few heathen vestal virgins with the multitude of Christian celibates. The Christian emperors and the early councils resolutely repressed harlotry, drunkenness, wanton dancing, and immodest plays and books.

[799] Conc. Nic., 8; Ancyra, 19; Laodic., 1; Neo Caes., 3.

[800] Tertul., Contr. Marc., iv, 34, etc.

[801] Tertullian wrote a special treatise on the subject—De Monogamia. The injunction that a bishop should be the husband of one wife was regarded as a prohibition of a second marriage. Some of the Fathers, however, dissented from this view, as Hermes, (Pastor, ii, 4); Augustine, (De Bono Viduitatis, 12). On many pagan tombs occurs the word univiræ—“Once married.” There are several examples of wives in the prime of their youth and beauty devoting themselves to retirement on the death of their husbands, as the wives of Pompey, of Drusus, and of Lucan.

[802] The beauty and dignity of Christian wedlock are nobly expressed by Tertullian in the following passage, addressed to his own wife: “How can I paint the happiness,” he exclaims, “of a marriage which the church ratifies, the sacrament confirms, the benediction seals, angels announce, and our heavenly Father declares valid! What a union of two believers—one hope, one vow, one discipline, one worship! They are brother and sister, two fellow-servants, one spirit and one flesh. They pray together, fast together, exhort and support one another. They go together to the house of God, and to the table of the Lord. They share each other’s trials, persecutions, and joys. Neither avoids nor hides any thing from the other. They delight to visit the sick, succour the needy, and daily to lay their offerings before the altar without scruple or constraint. They do not need to keep the sign of the cross hidden, nor to express secretly their Christian joy, nor receive by stealth the eucharist. They join in psalms and hymns, and strive who best can praise God. Christ rejoices at the sight, and sends his peace upon them. Where two are in his name he also is; and where he is, their evil cannot come”—Ad Uxorem, ii, 8. He thus describes the difficulties which a Christian woman married to an idolater must encounter in her religious life: “At the time for worship the husband will appoint the use of the bath; when a fast is to be observed he will invite company to a feast. When she would bestow alms, both safe and cellar are closed against her. What heathen will suffer his wife to attend the nightly meetings of the church, the slandered supper of the Lord, to visit the sick even in the poorest hovels, to kiss the martyr’s chains in prison, to rise in the night for prayer, to show hospitality to stranger brethren?”—Ibid.

[803] Jungere cum infidelibus vinculum matrimonii prostituere gentilibus membra Christi.

[804] Ad Ux., ii, 2-9. Jerome says that women married to heathen become part of that body whose ribs they are.—Cont. Jovin., i, 5.

[805] Secret marriages were forbidden, nor might this union take place without the approbation of the earthly as well as of the heavenly parent.—Tert., Ad. Ux., ii, 9.

[806] “Guard against drunkenness as against hemlock,” says Clement of Alexandria, “for both drag down to death.”—Pædag., i, 7.

[807] De Cultu Feminarum, ii, 3-13: “The wife should weave her own apparel,” says Clement of Alexandria, referring to Prov. xxxi, 10-31. This is also the etymological meaning of the English word wife.

[808] Pædag., ii, 8.

[809] Ep. 54: “Polire faciem purpurisso" he exclaims, “et cerusa ora depingere, ornare crinem, et alienis capillis turritam verticem struere.” Cyprian suggests that the Almighty might not recognize them at the resurrection. They should not dye their hair or clothes, as violating the saying that “thou canst not make one hair white or black;” and God had not made sheep scarlet or purple.—De habitu Virginum, 14-16. “Nevertheless,” says Clement, “they cannot with their bought and painted beauty avoid wrinkles or evade death.” Tertullian denounces their flame-coloured heads, “built up with pads and rolls, the slough perhaps of some guilty wretch now in hell.”—De Velendis Virginibus, ii, 17. “One delicate neck,” he says, “carries about it forests and islands”—saltus et insulæ; that is, their price.—Ibid., i, 9. At the court of the Eastern Empire, effeminacy and oriental luxury still further degraded the Christian character. Clement of Alexandria denounces with indignation the extravagance and vice of the so-called Christian community of that city. The wealth that should have been devoted to the poor was expended in gilded litters and chariots, splendid banquets and baths, in costly jewelry and dresses. Wealthy ladies, instead of maintaining widows and orphans, wasted their sympathies on monkeys, peacocks, and Maltese dogs.—Pæd., iii, 4. “Riches,” he adds, “is like a serpent which will bite unless we know how to take it by the tail.”—Ibid., 6. He compares the Alexandrian women to “an Egyptian temple, gorgeous without, but enshrining only a cat or crocodile: so beneath their meretricious adorning were concealed vile and loathsome passions.” The sumptuary laws of the Theodosian code prohibited the use of gold brocade or silken tissue, (x, tit. 20; xlv, 10.)

[810] See Fig. 90. See also oranti in Fig. 82.

[811] This lapidary extravagance was censured, as seeming to imply that the sepulchres were the receptacles of the souls rather than of the bodies.—Ambr., De Bono Mortis.

[812] Cypr., De Mortal., 20. See also Augustine’s pathetic account of the death of his mother, Monica—Premebam oculos ejus et confluebat in præcordia mœstitudo ingens, etc.—Conf., ix, 12.

[813] Father Marchi found, along with some charred bones, supposed to be relics of St. Hyacinth, some threads of gold tissue, as if the martyr’s remains had been wrapped in this costly material. He also perceived an aromatic odour on opening some graves. Occasionally large lumps of lime have been found bearing the marks of the linen in which they were wrapped. Its caustic nature would hasten the destruction of animal tissue.

[814] An cadavera divitum nisi in serico putrescere nesciunt.—Vit. Pauli. Arringhi has a chapter on the subject, (lib. i, c. 23,) Cadavera unguentis et aromatibus condiuntur.

[815] Non corpus odoribus honestatis.—Ap., Minuc., p. 35. Jerome urges the substitution of the balsam of alms-deeds and charity.

[816] Thura plane non emimus, etc.—Apol., 42. “You expect your women will bury your body with ointments and spices,” said the heathen judge to the martyr Tarachus; to prevent which he condemned him to be burned.

[817] In later times similar rites were paid to the tomb. “We will adorn the hidden bones,” sings Prudentius, “with violets and many a bough; and on the epitaphs and the cold stones we will sprinkle liquid odours.”—Cathem., x.

[818] See Euseb., H. E., vii, 16 and 22. They were often denied the privilege.—Ibid., v, 1. Eutychianus, a Roman Christian, is said to have buried three hundred and forty-two martyrs with his own hands.

[819] Ψάλλοντες προπέμπετε αὐτοὺς, κ. τ. λ.—Constit. Apos., vi, 30. Hymnos et Psalmos decantans, etc.—Hieron., Vit. Pauli.

[820] Chrys., Hom., 4, in Hebr. The following inscription indicates that the corpse was sometimes brought to the Catacombs some time before burial; probably immediately after death, as in Italy it is now taken to the church. Pecora dulcis anima benit in cimitero Marturorum, vii, idus Jul. Dp. Postera die—“Pecora, a sweet soul, came (was brought) to the cemetery of the martyrs on the 9th of July; was buried the following day.”

[821] The Christian emperors prohibited the branding of felons on the forehead on the ground “that the human countenance, formed after the image of heavenly beauty, should not be defaced.” They also exempted widows and orphans from taxation, and contributed to their support.

We gain from the testimony of the Catacombs most important information as to the organization of the church during the early Christian centuries. We see on every side records of an efficient ministry of different grades and dignities, yet wholly unlike that vast hierarchical system which claims to be its lineal descendant. We discern also evidences of a well-ordered administration of the sacraments and ordinances of religion, simple and unadorned, yet instinct with spiritual life and power, compared with which the gorgeous ritual and lifeless pomp of Romanism are more akin, in outward form at least, to the pagan homage of the Bona Dea, or to the mysteries of Mithras, than to Christian worship. So complete is this testimony as to the ministry and rites of the primitive church, that Dr. Northcote remarks that, “even if all the writings of the Fathers had altogether perished, we might almost reconstruct the whole fabric of the ecclesiastical polity from the scattered notices of these sepulchral inscriptions.”[822]

The somewhat complex ecclesiastical organization which we discover was probably a gradual development with the growth of the church, and not in its entirety the creation of the earliest times; the inscriptions referring to the subject, it must be remembered, being all or chiefly of post-Constantinian origin. The earlier books of the Apostolical Constitutions, which are probably of the second century, say almost nothing about the different grades of the ministry; but in the later ones, probably of the fifth century, a full blown sacerdotalism appears. Cornelius, bishop of Rome in the middle of the third century, records the existence of a graduated clergy like that indicated in the inscriptions of the Catacombs,[823] whose gradations Clement of Alexandria compares to the different ranks of the hierarchy of heaven.[824]

The highest office in the church of the Catacombs was that of the bishop—the chief pastor[825] or overseer of the flock of Christ. But this position was rather a preeminence of toil and peril than of dignity and honour. The supreme head of the Roman hierarchy, who lays claim to the attributes of deity himself, and sits in the seat of God as his vicegerent and infallible representative on earth, finds no precedent for his lofty assumptions in his humble predecessors of the primitive ages. These were in reality what he is only in name—servi servorum Dei. Even the title of bishop occurred but seldom. Neither Bosio, Fabretti, Boldetti, nor any other of the early explorers of the Catacombs, found a single example of it. The tomb of the first Roman bishop bore simply the name LINVS. In the so-called “papal crypt” the title first appears, but in the contracted form, ΕΠΙ and ΕΠΙϹ, and without any symbol of superior dignity whatever. The name of a bishop was first made a note of time in the latter part of the fourth century, as in the epigraphic formulæ Sub Liberio Episcopo—Sub Damaso Episcopo—During the episcopate of Liberius, (A. D. 350-366,) of Damasus, (A. D. 366-384.) But this distinction was also conferred on other bishops than those of Rome. Thus, in the year A. D. 397, we find the expression Pascasio Episcopo. Now, as there was no Roman bishop of that name, Pascasius must have presided over some of the adjacent sees, of which we know that there were many independent of Rome.[826]

The word papa, or pope, does not occur in the Catacombs till at least the latter part of the fourth century. It appears first spelled pappas, and applied to Damasus, in the margin of an inscription by that bishop, in honour of Eusebius.[827] But De Rossi admits that this is a badly executed reproduction, of the sixth or seventh century, of a previous inscription; so this title may very well belong to that late period. This is all the more probable from the phraseology of the very first line of this inscription: DAMASVS EPISCOPVS FECIT EVSEBIO EPISCOPO ET MARTYRI—“Damasus, bishop, (not pope,) to Eusebius, bishop and martyr.” Hilary (461-467) calls himself bishop and servant of Christ—“Episcopus et famulus Christi.” In an epitaph of A. D. 523, Hormisdas is called merely DOMINVS PAPA—that is, “honoured father,” or “pope,” which is probably the first application of this phrase in Christian epigraphy. In another, of date A. D. 563, John III. is designated as the “most blessed father John”—Beatissimus papa Joannes.[828]

But even this title, invested with such awful dignity and supreme authority in later days, was at first only an expression of familiar and affectionate respect, not peculiar to the bishop of Rome, nor indeed first applied to him. Its earliest use is attributed to Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, in the latter part of the third century.[829] The Roman clergy address the bishop of Carthage in their letters as “the blessed pope Cyprian.”[830] Tertullian applies the name to any Christian bishop.[831] Jerome addresses Augustine, bishop of the little African diocese of Hippo, as the Beatissimus papa Augustinus,[832] and applies the same phrase to the superior of a monastery.[833]

The rapid extension of Christianity in the metropolis of the empire enhanced the influence and dignity of the Roman bishops.[834] With the increase of wealth and decay of piety these dignitaries became ambitious and worldly, arrogant and aspiring, and laid the foundations of that vast system of spiritual despotism which for centuries crushed the civil and religious liberties of Europe. Nevertheless, as late as the end of the sixth century, Gregory the Great, although zealous for the episcopal dignity, resents the claim of John of Constantinople to the title of œcumenical bishop in the striking words: “This I declare with confidence, that whoso designates himself universal priest, or, in the pride of his heart, consents to be so named, he is the forerunner of Antichrist.”[835] His successors of Rome have not shrunk from this malediction, but, in assumption of this universal supremacy, have placed their feet on the neck of kings, parcelled out empires, and conferred crowns at their pleasure.[836]

The next rank in ecclesiastical dignity was that of the Presbyters.[837] There was not that distinction in the primitive ages between their office and that of the bishops that afterward arose. Bishop Pearson represents their power and dignity as greater the nearer we ascend to the apostolic times. Their principal functions were the administration, in association with the bishops, of the sacraments, the enforcement of discipline, the preaching of the word, and the pastorate of the church. Their epitaphs in the Catacombs and basilicas are frequently very brief, as the following: LOCVS GERONTI PRESB—“The place of Gerontus, a presbyter;” POSITVS EST HIC LEONTIVS PRESBITER (sic)—“Here is placed Leontius, a presbyter.” Sometimes the title is expressed in a contracted form, thus: HIC QVIESCIT ROMANVS PBB. QVI SEDIT PBB · ANN · XXVIII · M · X.—“Here reposes Romanus, a presbyter, who sat a presbyter twenty-eight years ten months.”[838] Boldetti gives the epitaph of ACATIVS PASTOR, who was probably a presbyter, his title expressing his pastoral office. The following, of date A. D. 471, which is more elaborate than usual, is of some historical interest:[839]

Felix, the presbyter, placed here, reposes in peace, whose pure faith, probity, sagacious vigilance, when known, so pleased the illustrious Leo of the pontiffs,[840] that, repairing the roof of the venerable St. Paul’s after its fall, he trusted to him the renewal of the hall of so great a work.

It appears that sometimes the primitive presbyters engaged in secular callings. Thus, an inscription from the Catacomb of Callixtus reads, ΔΙΟΝΥϹΙΟϹ ΠΡΕϹΒΥΤΕΡΟϹ ΙΑΤΡΟϹ—“Dionysius, presbyter and physician.” Another, of date A. D. 533, commemorates a deacon, who was also, perhaps before ordination, a senator and soldier. One found in Galatia mentions ΘΕΟΔΩΡΟϹ ΠΡΕϹΒΥΤΕΡΟϹ ΚΑΙ ΑΡΓΥΡΟΚΟΠΟϹ—“Theodorus, a presbyter and silversmith.” Hyacinthus, a Roman presbyter of the third century, was also an officer of the imperial household. Tertullian complains that some engaged in idolatrous trades were promoted to ecclesiastical offices.[841] Eusebius mentions a presbyter of Antioch who was head-master of one of the principal schools of the city.[842] Sozomen tells of bishops Zeno and Spiridion, who continued, the one to weave linen, the other to keep sheep, after elevation to the episcopal office.[843] Indeed, the fourth council of Carthage (A. D. 398) decreed that the clergy might devote their leisure to trade or husbandry, that the church might have greater resources for charity.[844]

The next grade in ecclesiastical rank was that of the deacons. They acted generally as assistants of the bishops and presbyters, especially in the distribution of the charities of the church.[845] They also took part in the administration of the eucharist, but not in its consecration. Before the appointment of lectors they read, and occasionally expounded, the Scriptures to the congregation, like the modern lay preachers. They also acted as instructors or catechists of the catechumens of the church. They are frequently designated Levitæ,[846] from the fancied analogy of their functions to those of the Levitical order among the Jews. In the church at Rome there were only seven deacons, in accordance with the number originally appointed in the church at Jerusalem; but in other cities the number was not thus limited.[847] Of inferior dignity were the ὑποδιάκονοι, or sub-deacons, who assisted the deacons in the discharge of their lower functions, as the care of the sacramental vessels, and the like.

Several epitaphs of both these classes have been found among the early Christian inscriptions. They are generally very brief, as the following: IVL DIACONVS—“Julius, the deacon;” DEPS · FELIX · DIAC—“Felix, the deacon, buried (Mar. 11, A. D. 435);” LOCVS EXVPERANTI DIACON—“The place of Exuperantus, the deacon.” Beneath the church of Sts. Cosmo and Damien was found the following: HIC REQVIESCIT SCVS HABVNDANTIVS DIAC ET MARTYR—“Here reposes holy Abundantius, deacon and martyr.”[848]

The following are characteristic epitaphs of sub-deacons: HIC QVIESCIT APPIANVS SVBDIACONVS QVI VIXIT ANNVS XXXII DIES XXVIIII—“Here rests Appianus, a sub-deacon, who lived thirty-two years, twenty-nine days;” LOCVS MARCELLI SVBD · REG · SEXTAE CONCESSVM (sic) SIBI ET POSTERIS EIVS A BEATISSIMO PAPA IOANNE QVI VIXIT ANN · PLM · LXVIII—“The place of Marcellus, a sub-deacon of the sixth district,[849] conceded to him and his posterity by the most blessed Father John,[850] who lived sixty-eight years, more or less.” (A. D. 564.)

The first rank of the inferior officers of the church was that of the lectors or readers. It was their duty to read in the congregations the appointed lessons from the Holy Scriptures.[851] The office was held in peculiar honour, young men of noble family, especially, aspiring to its dignity. Thus the Emperor Julian, in his youth, was a reader of the church at Nicomedia, as was also his brother Gallus.[852] Candidates for the office were ordained by the ceremony of delivering the Gospels into their hands. According to one of the Novels of Justinian,[853] they were required to be not less than eighteen years of age, but examples occur of their appointment as early as seven or eight years old.[854] Probably the latter were dedicated by their parents, like Samuel, to the service of God from their infancy,[855] and graduated through the inferior offices to those of greater dignity and influence. In the Western church they soon ceased as a distinct rank, but they lingered in the conventual orders till a comparatively late period.

The following are epitaphs of lectors from the Catacombs and basilicas: EQ HERACLIVS QVI FVIT IN SAECVLVM ANN · XVIIII · M · VII · D · XX · LECTOR R · SEC · FECERVNT · SIBI ET FILIO SVO BENEMERENTI · INP—“Equitius Heraclius, who was in this world nineteen years, seven months, twenty days, a reader of the second district. (His parents) made this for themselves and their well-deserving son, in peace;” CINNAMIVS OPAS LECTOR TITVLI FACIOLI AMICVS PAVPERVM—“Cinnamius Opas, a reader of the church of Faciolus, a friend of the poor;” MIRAE INNOCENTIAE ADQ · EXIMIAE BONITATIS HIC REQVIESCIT LEOPARDVS LECTOR DE PVDENTIANA QVI VIXIT ANN. XXIIII—“Here rests Leopardus, of wonderful innocence and remarkable goodness, a reader of the church of Pudentiana, who lived twenty-four years;” HIC REQVIESCIT IN SOMNO PACIS CAELIVS LAVRENTIVS LECTOR SANCTAE ECCLESIAE AECLANENSIS QVI VIXIT ANNOS PLM · XLVIII—“Here rests, in the sleep of peace, Cælius Laurentius, a reader of the holy church of Æclanum, who lived forty-eight years, more or less.”

The acolytes were another class which is discontinued in the protestant communion. As the name implies,[856] they were the servitors of the church, and had charge of the lamps and other ecclesiastical furniture. They were probably the offspring of the increasing pomp and dignity of the bishops, to whom they acted as personal attendants, especially in public processions and religious festivals. The only dated epitaphs of acolytes extant are of a comparatively late period. De Rossi thinks the following of the sixth or seventh century.[857] The simplicity of the primitive church had long since passed away. (P)ACE ABVNDANTIVS ACOL · REG · QVARTAE TT VESTINAE QVI VIXIT ANN · XXXIII DEP · INP · D NAT · SCI MARCI—“In peace, Abundantius, an acolyte of the fourth district, of the church of Vestina, who lived thirty-three years. Buried in peace on the birthday of St. Mark.”

The office of exorcist, from the occult and mysterious nature of its functions, was one that from the first was liable to abuse. It appears to have been known in the synagogue, and even there to have been usurped for base and venal purposes.[858] A battle between supernal and infernal powers seems to have been coincident with the conflict between Christianity and paganism. The Christians believed the oracles and idols of the gods to be animated by dæmons, who frequently usurped possession also of human beings. Tertullian,[859] Origen,[860] and others of the Fathers, claim that any private Christian could exorcise these dæmons by faith and prayer. It was probably a spiritual gift like that of “tongues,” which was granted for a special purpose and afterward withdrawn, perhaps on account of its abuse. This mysterious function did not become a distinct office till the latter part of the third century, when the exorcists were set apart by special ordination, and furnished with special forms of adjuration. This rite was then generally performed with solemn ceremonial before the baptism of converts from paganism. It was accompanied by prayer, insufflation, imposition of hands, and the sign of the cross, in order to deliver the subject from the dominion of the Prince of Darkness, and to consecrate him to the service of God. In later days this office became subject to frightful abuse, and all the grotesque and horrible adjuncts of exorcism of the Roman church—the charms, conjurations, wearing of scapulars and relics, incensings and sprinklings, were introduced—rites which find their analogues only in the magical incantations of the medicine-men of the Caffre Kraal or the Indian lodge.[861] “The best exorcism,” says Tertullian, “is by watchfulness and prayer to resist the devil, and cast out evil thoughts.” The following are epitaphs of exorcists: IANVARIVS EXORCISTA—“Januarius the exorcist;” HIC REQVIESCIT · IN · SOMNO · PACIS · CAELIVS · IOHANNIS EXHORCISTA (sic)—“Here rests, in the sleep of peace, Cælius John, an exorcist.”

The energumens, or possessed persons, were committed to the especial care of the exorcists, who employed them in the secular service of the sanctuary, as sweeping and cleaning the church, “lest idleness should become a temptation for Satan to molest them.” There is no indication of the existence of this unhappy class of persons in the church of the Catacombs, at least so far as monumental evidence is concerned.

A very numerous class in the economy of the primitive church was that of the fossors, or grave-diggers, by whose labours these vast labyrinths were excavated. They seem to have had especial charge of the subterranean cemeteries, and we have had numerous examples of the transfer and sale of graves under their authority.[862] They had also a quasi-ecclesiastical rank, and were subject to ecclesiastical discipline. “The first order of the clergy,” says Jerome, “is that of the fossors, who, after the manner of holy Tobit, are employed in burying the dead.”[863] They probably also assisted the regular clergy in the celebration of the funeral rites. The melancholy office of this pious confraternity, always a sad necessity of humanity, was particularly so to the persecuted church of the Catacombs.

The excavations were evidently under one directorate, so symmetrical and uniform is their character. A considerable degree of architectural skill is exhibited in the construction and adornment of the subterranean chapels, many of which are of quite ornamental design, and in the excavation of the multitude of galleries and different levels of this vast city of the dead, proving that the fossors were no mean civil engineers. They were also probably the artists of the rude inscriptions. The office seems sometimes to have been hereditary, as we find as many as three generations of fossors in the same family. We have seen examples of the numerous frescoes representing these lowly diggers at work, often like miners, by the light of a lamp, or surrounded by the implements of their calling.[864] The following are characteristic epitaphs of this class: MAIO FOSSORI—“To Maius, the fossor;” FELIX FOSSOR VIXIT ANNIS LXII—“Felix, the fossor. He lived seventy-two years;” DIOGENES · FOSSOR · IN · PACE · DEPOSITVS—“Diogenes, the fossor, buried in peace.”

With these were probably confounded in the earlier ages the ostiarii, or door-keepers. Their office was one of great trust and responsibility in times of persecution, when the Christian worship had often to be celebrated in secret, and protected from the intrusion of spies or of the profanely curious heathen. It was their duty to distinguish between the faithful and scoffers and traitors, and to give private notice of the secret assemblies of the Christians. The following inscription of the sixth century, as restored by De Rossi, commemorates a similar office in the basilica: LOC · DECI · CVBICVLARI · HVIVS · BASILICAE—“The place of Decius, custodian of this basilica.” We have also the epitaph of a mansionarius, a similar officer.[865]

An exaggerated commendation of the supposed superior sanctity of single life has long been a prominent characteristic of Romanism. A natural corollary of this notion was the enforced celibacy of the clergy.[866] Upon the Procrustean bed of this iron rule Rome has not scrupled to bind the tenderest and most sacred affections of the human soul. This cherished, but, as all history proves, most pernicious practice, has been the secret of much of the marvellous power of the priesthood and of the religious orders. The suppression of the domestic affections but intensified their devotion to the cause of the church, which took the place of both wife and child, and engrossed all their thoughts and all their energies. They became a priestly caste, animated by a strong esprit de corps superior to the claims of kindred or of country. But, as might have been anticipated, this anti-natural system led to frightful abuses and corruptions, and to the most flagrant innovations.

The notion of the greater sanctity of celibacy was derived, not from the teachings of our Lord or the apostles, who recognized the essential purity of marriage; but probably, as Milman suggests, from the early heresy of the Gnostics, of which this doctrine was a prominent characteristic.[867] “There was no enforced celibacy during the first three centuries,” says the judicious Bingham.[868] Indeed, marriage was regarded as enjoined on bishops, elders, and deacons, by the counsel of St. Paul.[869] The occasional passages of Scripture, in which for temporary and special reasons a single life is recommended, were in course of time wrested from their obvious meaning to a more general application; and in the writings of some of the Fathers, marriage was regarded as a necessary evil, only to be tolerated for the perpetuation of the race, and on account of the infirmity of the weak. It was not till the fourth century that the church adopted the doctrine of devils spoken of by St. Paul as “forbidding to marry.” The earliest ecclesiastical legislation on the subject was at the Spanish council of Elvira, A. D. 305, which commanded ecclesiastics who were married to separate from their wives—abstinere se a conjugibus suis—thus ruthlessly putting asunder those whom God had joined. The synods of Ancyra and Neo Cæsarea, held ten years later, and also one of the so-called apostolic canons of the same date, reversed this decree, and forbade any ecclesiastic to put away his wife on the plea of religion, under penalty of excommunication, which action was confirmed by the great council of Nice.[870] Successive attempts to extirpate the tenderest human instincts only led to their illicit gratification, and to the scandals arising from the admission of mulieres subintroductæ, or, in other words, of concubines. So demoralized did the clergy thereby become, that during the Middle Ages, as Mr. Lea remarks, “though, the ancient canons were still theoretically in force, they were practically obsolete every-where.”[871] At length Luther led the great emancipation of the clergy from this burden, so unutterably grievous to many a tender conscience; and removed the stigma of disgrace from those domestic relations which God, who setteth the solitary in families, so signally blesses.

There is no trace of the ascetic spirit or celibate clergy of the Church of Rome in the inscriptions of the Catacombs. On the contrary, numerous epitaphs commemorate the honourable marriage of members of every ecclesiastical grade. Thus, in the highest rank, Gruter[872] gives the following, which is thought to be that of Liberius, bishop of Rome, who died A. D. 366, and who was sometimes known by the name of Leo: