CHAPTER II. 415

THE DOCTRINAL TEACHINGS OF THE CATACOMBS.

“What insight into the familiar feelings and thoughts of the primitive ages of the church,” remarks the learned and eloquent Dean Stanley,[693] “can be compared with that afforded by the Roman Catacombs! Hardly noticed by Gibbon or Mosheim, they yet give us a likeness of those early times beyond that derived from any of the written authorities on which Gibbon and Mosheim repose.... The subjects of the painting and sculpture place before us the exact ideas with which the first Christians were familiar; they remind us, by what they do not contain, of the ideas with which the first Christians were not familiar.... He who is thoroughly steeped in the imagery of the Catacombs will be nearer to the thought of the early church than he who has learned by heart the most elaborate treatise even of Tertullian or of Origen.”

By the study of the inscriptions, paintings, and sculpture of this subterranean city of the dead, we may follow the development of Christian thought from century to century; we may trace the successive changes of doctrine and discipline; we may read the irrefragable testimony, written with a pen of iron in the rock forever, of the purity of the primitive faith, and of the gradual corruption which it has undergone.

In this era of critical investigation of the very foundations of the faith it will be well to examine this vast body of Christian evidences 416 as to the doctrinal teachings of the primitive times, which has been handed down from the believers living in or near the apostolic age, and thus providentially preserved in these subterranean excavations, as a perpetual memorial of the faith and practice of the golden prime of Christianity.

While we should not expect to find in these inscriptions a complete system of theology, we would certainly look for some definite expression regarding the religious belief of those who wrote these memorials of the dead. We would expect some reference to the lives of the departed, to the virtues of their character, and to the hopes of the survivors as to their future condition in the spirit-world. In this expectation we are not disappointed. We find in these epitaphs a body of evidence on the doctrines and discipline of the primitive church, whose value it is scarcely possible to overestimate. We are struck with the infinite contrast of their sentiment to that of the pagan sepulchral monuments, and also by the conspicuous absence, in those of the early centuries and purer period of Christianity, of the doctrines by which the church of Rome is characterized. We shall also find references to some of the heresies, which, like plague spots, alas! so soon began to infect the church,[694] and some of which even found distinguished ecclesiastical patronage.[695]

The Church of Rome lays especial claim to the traditions of the early ages and the antiquities of the Catacombs as proofs of the apostolic character of her peculiar dogmas and usages. But these ancient records 417 are a palimpsest which she has written all over with her own glosses and interpretations; and when the ordeal of modern criticism revives the real documents and removes the accumulation of error, the testimony of the past is strikingly opposed to the pretensions of the Roman See and the teachings of Romish doctrine. The distinguished scholarship, laborious research, and archæological skill of such eminent authorities as De Rossi, Pitra, Garrucci, and other Roman _savants_, only furnish the weapons for the refutation of many of Rome’s most cherished beliefs. There are those, indeed, who carry to these investigations the faculty of seeing what they wish to see, and what no others can perceive. It not unfrequently happens, also, that extreme credulity and superstition are found united with great learning and high scientific attainments. The effect, however, of the honest examination of this testimony by a candid mind is seen in the case of Mr. Hemans, the learned author of “Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art in Italy.” This gentleman, although a pervert from the Anglican communion to that of Rome, and in strong sympathy with many of its institutions, as is apparent from his interesting volume, felt compelled by the historical and monumental testimony of the Catacombs, and of early Christian art and literature, to retrace his steps, and, however reluctantly to condemn and abandon the faith he had espoused.

Protestantism, therefore, has nothing to fear from the closest investigation of these evidences of primitive Christianity. They offer no warrant whatever for the characteristic doctrines and practice of the modern Church of Rome. There is not a single inscription, nor painting, nor sculpture, before the middle of the fourth century, that lends the least countenance to her arrogant assumptions and erroneous 418 dogmas. All previous to this date are remarkable for their evangelical character; and it is only after that period that the distinctive peculiarities of Romanism begin to appear. The wholesome breath of persecution and the “sweet uses of adversity” in the early ages tended to preserve the moral purity of the church; but the enervating influence of imperial favour and the influx of wealth and luxury, led to corruptions of practice and errors of doctrine. Her trappings of worldly pomp and power were a Nessus garment which empoisoned her spiritual life. Hence the Catacombs, the rude cradle of the early faith, became also the grave of much of its simplicity and purity.

In the investigation of early Christian epigraphy, therefore, the determination of dates is of the utmost importance, as it is only inscriptions of the earlier and acknowledged purer period of the church which can bear authoritative testimony as to primitive doctrine. We shall, therefore, first examine in chronological order _all_ those bearing dates earlier than the fourth century which have any doctrinal significance, and then glean the evidence of later examples as to the antiquity of Romanist teachings. We will take the inscriptions as given in his great work,[696] by De Rossi, the most eminent authority on this subject; but while accepting his facts, and acknowledging his candour and honesty of research, which qualities we will seek to imitate, we cannot in all cases accept his conclusions.

The first dated inscription possessing any doctrinal character occurs in the year 217.[697] It is taken from a large sarcophagus found in the _Via Labicana_, and is of great interest as indicating the lofty 419 social position and honourable offices of the deceased as a member of the imperial household, as well as the devout confidence of his pious freedmen in his spiritual beatification. The upper portion of the following inscription, that in larger type, is engraved on the front of the sarcophagus, and that in smaller characters on the back. The use of a sarcophagus is an indication of the wealth of the deceased.

M · AVRELIO · AVGG · LIB · PROSENETI A C V B I C V L O · A V G · P R O C · T H E S A V R O R V M P R O C · P A T R I M O N I · P R O C · M V N E R V M · P R O C · V I N O R V M O R D I N A T O A D I V O C O M M O D O I N KASTRENSE P A T R O N O PIISSIMO L I B E R T I · B E N E M E R E N T I S A R C O P H A G V M D E S V O · A D O R N A V E R V N T ·

PROSENES RECEPTVS ADDEVM · V · NON ····· SSA ········ NIA PRAESENTE · [ET · EXTRICATO · II REGREDIENS IN VRBE AB EXPEDITI ONIBVS SCRIPSIT AMPELIVS LIB. --_Inscrip. Christ._, No. 5.

To Marcus Aurelius Prosenes, freedman of the two Augusti, of the bed-chamber of Augustus, Procurator of the Treasures, Procurator of the Patrimony, Procurator of the Presents, Procurator of the Wines, appointed by the deified Commodus to duty in the camp, a most affectionate Patron. For him, well-deserving, his freedmen provided (this) sarcophagus at their own cost.

Prosenes received to God, on the fifth day before the Nones of-- Præsens and Extricatus (being consuls) for the second time.

Ampelius his freedman, returning to the city from the wars, wrote (this inscription.)

We have here the earliest indication of doctrinal belief as to the 420 condition of the departed. It is not, however, a dark and gloomy apprehension of purgatorial fires, but, on the contrary, the joyous confidence of immediate reception into the presence of God.[698] The retention of the pagan title of the emperor, “the deified Commodus,” is an anomalous feature in a Christian monument, although doubtless it is merely the unthinking imitation of a common epigraphic formula.

Accompanying an inscription of date A. D. 234, is the first example of the symbols, afterward so common, the fish and the anchor, but no other distinctively Christian feature. In the next year, A. D. 235, occurs the following epitaph, in which there is possibly an intimation of immortality in the expression _de sæculo recessit_--“retired from the world,” or “from the age.”[699] AVRELIA DVLCISSIMA FILIA QVAE DE SAECVLO RECESSIT VIXIT ANN · XV · M · IIII · SEVERO ET QVINTIN COSS,--“Aurelia, our very sweet daughter, who retired from the world, Severus and Quintinus being consuls. She lived fifteen years and four months.” The epithet “very sweet daughter” is peculiarly appropriate to the Christian character, although common also on pagan tombs.

In the year A. D. 238, on a sarcophagus which bears the first dated representation of the Good Shepherd, we find the following touching inscription. It conveys nothing doctrinal beyond the phrase “most devout,” or “God-loving,” expressive of the youthful piety of the deceased. ΗΡΑΚΛΙΤΟϹ Ο ΘΕΟΦΙΛΕϹΤΑΤΟϹ ΕΖΗϹΕΝ ΕΤ(η) Η ΠΑΡΑ Η(μέρας) 421 ΙΓ ΕΝΟϹΗϹΕΝ ΗΜ(ε)Ρ(ας) ΙΒ.... ΞΑΝΘΙΑϹ ΠΑΤΗΡ ΤΕΚΝΩ ΓΛΥΚΥΤΕΡΩ ΦΩΤΟϹ ΚΑΙ ΖΩΗϹ--“The very devout Heraclitus lived eight years and thirteen days. He was ill twelve days.... Xanthias his father, to his son, sweeter than light and life.” The mention of the duration of the illness is very rare in these epitaphs. The yearning affection of the bereaved father is beautifully expressed in the last clause.

The next example merely gives the consular date, A. D. 249, and the assurance that the deceased sleeps, DORMIT--a distinctively Christian synonym for death. In the year A. D. 268 occurs a fragment on which one may with difficulty decipher the inscription by the parents “to their well-deserving son, who lived twelve years and eleven months.” The chief interest attaches to the last line: VIBAS INTER SANCTIS (_sic_) IHA--“May you live among the holy ones.”

The meaning of the last three letters is unknown. They have been interpreted as standing for _in pace_ or _et have_; but the last rarely, if ever, occurs in Christian epigraphy. Dr. McCaul ingeniously conjectures that the last word is intended for _sanctissimas_, or “most holy ones,” the H being an ill cut M. This natural ejaculation of the sorrowing friends, of which we shall find occasional examples, is certainly no indication of the later Romish practice of prayers for the dead, or of the intercession of the saints. On this slab are also the first known examples of the dove, olive branch, and vase.

The next dated inscription, of the year 269, A. D., is of a very barbarous character--Latin words in Greek letters, not engraved, but merely painted on the slab. It is evidently, as is indicated by its wretched grammar and orthography, the production of extreme ignorance. 422 It requires a strong dogmatic prepossession to detect in its incoherent language any meaning beyond the attestation of the sanctity of character of the deceased. After giving the date, it reads thus: ΛΕΥΚΕϹ · ΦΙΛΕΙΕ ϹΕΒΗΡΕ · ΚΑΡΕϹϹΕΜΕ · ΠΟϹΟΥΕΤΕ · ΕΔ · ΕΙϹΠΕΙΡΕΙΤΩ · ϹΑΝΚΤΩ · ΤΟΥΩ · Read, _Leuces filiæ Severæ carissimæ posuit et spiritui sancto tuo_,--“Leuces erected this (memorial) to her very dear daughter, and to thy (_sic_) holy spirit.”

Nothing further of a doctrinal character occurs till the year 291, when we find the following barbarous example. The grammar and spelling are atrocious, and the division of the words quite arbitrary: EX VIRGINEO TVO BENE MECO VIXISTI LIB ENIC ONIVGA INNOCENTISSE MACERVONIA SILVANA REFRIGERA CVM SPIRITA SANCTA. Read, _Ex virginio tuo bene mecum vixisti libens in conjuga innocentissima Macervonia Silvana. Refrigera cum spiritis sanctis_--“Macervonia Silvana, thou didst live well with me from thy maidenhood, rejoicing in most innocent wedlock. Refresh (thyself) among the holy spirits.”

No candid interpretation can discover in the closing acclamation any thing beyond the natural expression of a desire for the happiness of the departed among the sanctified.

There is nothing, therefore, in any of the inscriptions of the first three centuries--the ages of the purity of the faith--which can in the least degree support the assumptions of Roman controversialists as to the antiquity of Romish dogmas. Nor is there any indication of those dogmas till the latter part of the fourth century, as will be evident from a brief examination of the principal inscriptions having any reference to doctrine before that period. In the year A. D. 302 we 423 find the following beautiful tribute of conjugal and filial affection, which only, however, attests the high Christian character of the deceased: DOMINO PATRI PIISSIMO AC DVLCISSIMO SECVNDO VXOR ET FILII PRO PIETATE POSVERVNT--“To the highly venerable, most devout, and very sweet father, Secundus. His wife and sons in expression of their dutifulness have placed this slab.”

In the year A. D. 310, in the epitaph of a youth twenty-two years of age, we find the beautiful euphemism for death, ACCERSITVS AB ANGELIS--“Called away (literally, sent for) by angels.” There is no doctrine of purgatory here. The Christian soul, like Lazarus, is borne by angels to Abraham’s bosom, and not, like Dives, to tormenting flames, albeit called of purgatorial efficacy to supplement the work of Christ. In A. D. 329 occurs the still nobler expression, NATVS EST LAVRENTIVS IN ETERNVM ANN XX · DORMIT IN PACE--“Laurentius was born into eternity in the twentieth year of his age. He sleeps in peace.”

Sometimes the word _natus_ refers to the new birth of spiritual regeneration, and admission to the church by the rite of baptism. Thus, in an example of date A. D. 338, a youth of twenty-four years of age is said to have been born and died in the same year, though at the interval of a few months. In A. D. 377 we find the expression COELESTI RENATVS AQVA--“Born again of heavenly water.”

In the year A. D. 335 the chaste and modest character of a Christian matron is commended, without any suggestion of the Romish notion of the superior merit of virginity, as follows:

B · M · CVBICVLVM · AVRELIAE · MARTINAE · CASTISSIMAE · ADQVE. PVDICISSIMAE · FEMINAE · QVI · FECIT · IN · CONIVGIO · ANN · XXIII · D · XIIII--“To one well-deserving. The 424 sleeping-place of Aurelia Martina, a most chaste and modest woman, who passed in wedlock twenty-three years, fourteen days.”

The primitive Christians had no doubt of the immediate happiness of those who died in the faith. They were incapable of the blasphemous thought that the atoning blood of Christ was insufficient to wash away their guilt and that therefore they were doomed to penal fires,

Till the foul crimes done in their days of nature Were burned and purged away.

All the expressions applied to the death of the righteous indicate the assurance of their spirits’ peace and happiness. Thus, in addition to the examples already given, we have, A. D. 339, BENE QVESQVENTI (_sic_) IN PACE--“Resting well in peace;” A. D. 339, IN PACE DECESSIT, A. D. 349, and A. D. 360, IBIT and EXIBIT IN PACE--“Departed in peace;” A. D. 348, REQVIEVIT--“Entered into rest;” A. D. 353, PAVSABIT--“Will repose;” A. D. 355, QVIESCIT--“He rests,” not REQVIESCAT--“May he rest,” as the Romanists write, but the joyful assurance of present repose in the peace of God; A. D. 359, IVIT AD DEVM--“He went to God;” A. D. 363, SEMPER QVIESCIS SECVRA--“Thou dost repose forever free from care;” A. D. 368, QVIENCIS (_sic_) IN PACE CONIVX INCOMPARABILIS--“Thou restest in peace, incomparable wife;” A. D. 369, VOCITVS (_sic_) IIT IN PACE--“Called away, he went in peace;” in A. D. 380, we find AETERNA REQVIES FELICITATIS--“Everlasting rest of happiness.” The Christians, as is asserted in the following, sorrowed not as those without hope: IVLIAE INNOCENTISSIMAE ET DVLCISSIMAE, MATER SVA SPERANS--“To the most sweet and innocent Julia, her mother hoping.” The loved ones were “not lost, but gone before:” PRAECESSIT NOS IN PACE--“He went before us in peace;” ΠΡΟΑΠΕΛΘΩΝ ΤΟΥ 425 ΚΑΘ ΗΜΑϹ ΒΙΟΥ--“Having gone before from our life.” Sometimes the body seems to be regarded as the clog and fetter of the soul, binding it to earth, as in the following: ABSOLVTVS DE CORPORE--“Set free from the body;” CORPOREOS RVMPENS NEXVS GAVDET IN ASTRIS--“Breaking the bonds of the body, he rejoices in the stars,” that is, in heaven.

The entire inscriptions from which extracts are thus given may be found in De Rossi’s _Inscriptiones Christianæ_, under the respective dates.

The following, of date A. D. 381, rises to loftier poetical flights, though ignoring the metrical divisions, which are indicated in the copy by parallels:

THEODORA QVAE VIXIT ANNOS XXI M. VII D. XXIII IN PACE.... AMPLIFICAM SEQVITVR VITAM DVM CASTA AFRODITE || FECIT AD ASTRA VIAM CHRISTI MODO GAVDET IN AVLA || RESTITIT HAEC MVNDO SEMPER CAELESTIA QVAERENS || OPTIMA SERVATRIX LEGIS FIDEIQVE MAGISTRA || DEDIT EGREGIAM SANCTIS PER SECVLA MENTEM || INDE EXIMIOS PARADISI REGNAT ODORES || TEMPORE CONTINVO VERNANT VBI GRAMINA RIVIS || EXPECTATQVE DEVM SVPERAS QVO SVRGAT AD AVRAS || HOC POSVIT CORPVS TVMVLO MORTALIA LINQVENS || FVNDAVITQVE LOCVM CONIVNX EVACRIVS INSTANS.

Theodora, who lived twenty-one years, seven months, twenty-three days. In peace. Whilst following an exalted life, a chaste Venus, she pursued her way to the stars. Now she rejoices in the court of Christ. She resisted the world, ever following heavenly things. A devout observer of the law, and mistress of honour, she applied an illustrious mind to holy things while here in this world. Hence she reigns (amid) the choice odours of paradise, where the herbage is forever green beside the streams of heaven,[700] and awaits God, in order that she may rise to the upper air. She laid her body in this tomb, forsaking mortal things, and Evacrius, her husband, built the monument, superintending the work.

The first inscription at all favourable to Romish doctrine is the following barbarous example, (A. D. 380:)

HIC QVIESCIT ANCILLA DEI OVEDE 426 SVA OMNIA PEPENDIT DOMVM ISTA QVVM AMICI DEFLENT SOLACIVM Q. REQVIRVNT PRO HVNC VNVM ORA SVBOLEM QVEM SVPERIS TITEM REQVESTI ETERNA REQVIEM FELICITAS CAVSA MANEBIS.

Read: _Hic quiescit ancilla Dei quæ de suis omnibus pependit domum istam, quam amicæ deflent solaciumque requirunt. Pro hac una ora subole quam superstitem reliquisti. Eterna requie felicitatis causa manebis._

Here rests a handmaid of God[701] who, of all her riches, possesses but this one house: whom her friends bewail, and seek for consolation. O pray for this thine only child whom thou hast left behind. Thou wilt remain in the eternal repose of happiness.

The yearning cry of an orphaned heart for the prayers of a departed mother is, however, a slight foundation for the Romish practice of the invocation of the saints.

Previous to this date we have found not the slightest indication of Romish doctrine; and if those doctrines have been transmitted, as their advocates assert, from the very earliest ages, it is incredible that they should have left no trace in the dated inscriptions for nearly four centuries. After this time, it is true, we find occasional epitaphs which, rigidly interpreted according to the canons of theological criticism, contain sentiments unwarranted by Scripture; but these may be the result of carelessness of expression, or of the corruptions of doctrine which had already taken place in the church.

If then those inscriptions which apparently favour Romish dogmas, of which we know the date, are all of a late period, we may assume that those of a similar character which are undated are of the same relative age, and therefore valueless as evidence of the antiquity of such dogmas. Dr. Northcote admits the fact, but objects to this conclusion as founded upon negative evidence; yet he himself adopts 427 the same line of argument concerning the absence of military rank among the primitive Christians. But we are not left to negative evidence. We have the amplest testimony of a positive character, which we shall proceed to examine, showing that even in the fifth and sixth century the vast proportion of the inscriptions are of a highly evangelical character, and are entirely antagonistic to the most cherished doctrines of the Church of Rome.

The Christian’s view of death is always, in striking contrast to the sullen resignation or blank despair of paganism, full of cheerfulness and hope. Its rugged front is veiled under softest synonyms. The grave was considered merely as the temporary resting place of the body, while the freed spirit was regarded as already rejoicing in the presence of God in a broader day, and brighter light, and fairer fields than those of earth. The following examples will illustrate the pious orthodoxy of these early Christian epitaphs.

ABIIT ETHERIAM CVPIENS CAELI CONSCENDERE LVCEM. (A. D. 383.)

She departed, desiring to ascend to the ethereal light of heaven.

LIMINA MORTIS ADIIT EVTVCHIVS SAPIENS PIVS ADQ BENIGNVS IN CHRISTVM CREDENS PREMIA LVCIS ABET. (_sic._) A. D. 393.

Eutuchius, wise, pious, and kind, believing in Christ, entered the portals of death, (and) has the rewards of the light (of heaven).

DVLCIS ET INNOCES (_sic_) HIC DORMIT SEVERIANVS SOMNO PACIS... CVIVS SPIRITVS IN LVCE DOMINI SVSCEPTVS EST. (A. D. 393.)

Here sleeps in the sleep of peace the sweet and innocent Severianus, whose spirit is received into the light of the Lord.

HIC IACET VRBICA SVABIS (_sic_) SEMPERQ. PVDICA VIXIT VERBORVM VERA LOQVVTA (_sic_) IN SEMPITERNALE AEVVM QVIESCIT SECVRA. (A. D. 397.)

Here lies Urbica, agreeable and ever modest. She lived a speaker of truth. She rests free from care throughout endless time.

NEC REOR HVNC LACRIMIS FAS SIT DEFLERE 428 CORPORIS EXVTVS VINCLIS QVI GAVDET IN ASTRIS NEC MALA TERRENI SENTIT CONTAGIA SENSVS. (A. D. 399.)

Nor do I think it right to lament with tears him, who, freed from the fetters of the body, rejoices among the stars, nor feels the evil contagion of earthly sense.

PAVSABET (_sic_) PRAETIOSA ANNORVM PVLLA (_sic_) VIRGO XII. TANTVM ANCILLA DEI ET XPI.

Pretiosa went to her rest, a maiden of only twelve years of age, a handmaid of God and of Christ. (A. D. 401.)

NON TAMEN HAEC TRISTES HABITAT POST LIMINA SEDES PROXIMA SED CHRISTO SIDERA CELSA TENET. (A. D. 406.)

Nevertheless she occupies not the doleful seats behind the threshold, but inhabits the lofty stars, next to Christ.

HIC REQVIESCET (_sic_) IN SOMNO PACIS MALA.... ACCEPTA APVT (_sic_) DEVM. (A. D. 432.)

Here rests in the sleep of peace Mala ... Received into the presence of God.

REDDITVR HAEC MERITIS QUAE SINE FINE MANET.

This (life) without end which remains is bestowed for his pious desert.

In the following epitaph of date A. D. 472, the departed is represented as comforting the survivors with the thought of the felicity of the blest:

LEVITAE CONIVNX PETRONIA FORMA PVDORIS HIS MEA DEPONENS SEDIBVS OSSA LOCO PARCITE VOS LACRIMIS DVLCES CVM CONIVGE NATAE VIVENTEMQVE DEO CREDITE FLERE NEFAS.

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 429 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).”

The following is a striking protest against the heathen notions of the future state.

SI MENTIS VIRTVS LVCISQVE SERENIOR VSVS DEFVNCTO IN XPO REVENIT NON TARTARA SENTIT CYMERIOSQVE LACOS MERITIS POST FATA SVPERSTES FVNERIS ET LEGEM PERIMENS TERRAEQVE SEPVLCRIS ASTRA TENET NESCITQVE MORI SIC LVCE RELICTA.

Since vigour of mind and more serene enjoyment of the light return to the dead in Christ, she feels not (the pains of) Tartarus, nor the Cimmerian lakes, by her deserts surviving after death and destroying that law of the grave, (which is) imposed on the sepulchres of earth, she occupies the stars, and knows not death, having in this manner left the light.

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 430 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.”

Many of these undated inscriptions are full of Christian thought, and breathe the strongest assurance of the happiness of the departed, as the following from the Lateran Museum:

MACVS PVER INNOCENS ESSE IAM INTER INNOCENTES COEPISTI QVAM STAVILIS TIBI HAEC VITA EST QVAM TE LAETVM EXCIPET MATER ECCLESIA MVNDO REVERTENTEM COMPREMATVR PECTORVM GEMITUS STRVATVR FLETVS OCVLORVM.

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 431 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. 432 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:

HIC REQVIESCIT CARO MEA NOVISSIMO VERO DIE PER |XPM| CREDO RESVSCITABITVR A MORTVIS. (A. D. 544.)

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

RELICTIS TVIS IACES IN PACE SOPORE MERITA RESVRGES TEMPORALIS TIBI DATA REQVIETIO.

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:

CREDO QVIA REDEMPTOR MEVS BIBIT (_sic_) ET NOBISSIMO DIE DE TERRA SVSCITABIT ME IN CARNE MEA VIDEBO |DOM|.

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 433 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 _coemeterium_,[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 434 of Ezekiel’s vision, till they should stand up upon their feet an exceeding great army.

But this sleep was a sleep of the body only, not of the soul. The ancient Christians were assured, as we have seen, of the immediate happiness of those that died in the faith. They believed that being absent from the body they were present with the Lord; that as soon as they passed from earth’s living death they entered into the undying life and unfading bliss of heaven. Though surrounded by the mouldering bodies of the saints in Christ, the eye of faith beheld their glorified spirits, starry-crowned and palm-bearing, among the white-robed multitude before the throne of God. They admitted no thought of a long and dreary period of forgetfulness, nor probation of purgatorial fires, before the soul could enter into joy and peace.

The sublime reflections with which Cyprian concludes his treatise _De Mortalitate_ nobly express the grand consoling thoughts which sustained the primitive Christians, and which sustain God’s saints in every age. “We are but pilgrims and strangers here below,” he exclaims, “let us then welcome the day that gives to us the joys of heaven. What exile longs not for his native land? Our true native land is paradise. A large and loving company expects us there. O the bliss of those celestial realms where no fear of dying enters! There the glorious choir of the apostles, the exulting company of the prophets, the countless army of the martyrs, await us. To them let us eagerly hasten. Let us long to be with them the sooner, that we may the sooner be with CHRIST.”

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, 435 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 436 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:

PRAEVENERE DIEM VITAE CRVDELIA FATA ET RAPTAM INFERNA ME POSVERE RATE HOC LECTO ELOGIO IVVENIS MISERERE IACENTIS ET DIC DISCEDENS SIT TIBI TERRA LEVIS.

The cruel fates have anticipated the term of life, and placed me, 437 snatched away, in the infernal bark. Having read this elegy pity the fallen youth and say departing, May the earth be light upon thee.

INFANTI DVLCISSIMO QVEM DII IRATI AETERNO SOMNO DEDERVNT--“To a very sweet child, whom the angry gods gave to eternal sleep.” SVSCIPE NVNC CONIVNX SI QVIS POST FVNERA SENSVS DEBITA MANIBVS OFFICIA--“Receive now, O husband, if after death is any consciousness, the rites due to departed spirits.” The hopeless parting of a dying wife is thus expressed: CARE MARITE MIHI DVLCISSIMA NATA VALETE--“O husband, dear to me, and dearest daughter, farewell.” Or more briefly we read, AVE ATQVE VALE--“Hail and farewell.”

Sometimes the desponding view of life is like the bitter experience of the Hebrew moralist, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” One such example reads thus:

DECIPIMVR VOTIS ET TEMPORE FALLIMVR ET MORS DERIDET CVRAS ANXIA VITA NIHIL.

We are deceived by our vows, misled by time, and death derides our cares; anxious life is naught.

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 438 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.”

More painful even than the gloomy stoicism of many pagan inscriptions is the light Epicurean tone which frequently occurs, as in the instance which follows, where life is compared to a play:

VIXI · DVM · VIXI · BENE · IAM · MEA PERACTA · MOX · VESTRA · AGETVR FABVLA · VALETE · ET · PLAVDITE ·

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, 439 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.

D · M · TI : CLAVDI · SECVNDI HIC · SECVM · HABET · OMNIA BALNEA · VINVM · VENVS · CORRVMPVNT · CORPORA NOSTRA · SED · VITAM · FACIVNT B · V · V ·

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:

ATROX O FORTVNA TRVCI QVAE FVNERE GAVDES QVID MIHI TAM SVBITO MAXIMVS ERIPITVR QVI MODO IVCVNDVS GREMIO SVPERESSE SOLEBAT HIC LAPIS IN TVMVLO NVNC IACET ECCE MATER.

O relentless Fortune, who delightest in cruel death, 440 Why is Maximus so suddenly snatched from me? He who lately used to be joyful in my bosom, This stone now marks his tomb.--Behold his mother.

Compare also the following: INVIDA LIBITINA FILIIS ABSTVLIT PATREM--“Envious Libitina snatched away a father from his children;” VICTA EST IVSTICIA NON AEQVO IVDICE FATO--“Justice is overcome by that unjust judge, Fate;” DIIS INIQVIS ANIMVLAM TVAM RAPVERVNT--“To the unjust gods, (who) snatched away thy soul.”

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 441 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.”

More common, however, is the feeling of hopeless severance expressed by the frequent valediction, VALE VALE LONGVM VALE--“Farewell, farewell, a long farewell;” or, sadder still, VALE AETERNVM--“Farewell forever.”

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 442 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;” EN 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 443 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 444 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 445 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 446 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 447 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 448 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.

The invocation of saints probably sprang from the superstitious reverence paid to the martyrs after the age of persecution had passed. _Miserere nostrarum precum_, “Pitying, hear our prayer,” sings Prudentius at the close of the fourth century in his hymn to St. Vincent. VT DAMASI PRECIBVS FAVEAS PRECOR INCLYTA MARTYR--“Illustrious martyr, I beseech thee to aid my prayers,” writes Damasus about the same period in his epitaph on St. Agnes; and in an epitaph on his sister Irene he exclaims, NOSTRI REMINISCERE VIRGO VT TVA PER DOMINVM PRAESTET MIHI FACVLA LVMEN--“Remember me, O virgin, that by God’s help your torch may give me light.”

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 449 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 450 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 451 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 452 affirmed in frequent Christian inscriptions “to the one God”--DEO VNO. (_sic_.)

Such, then, is the testimony of the Catacombs concerning the doctrines of the early believers--a testimony more favourable to the general character of ancient Christianity than the writings of the Fathers and ecclesiastical historians of the times; probably, as Dr. Maitland remarks, because “the sepulchral tablet is more congenial to the expression of pious feeling than the controversial epistle, or even the much needed episcopal rebuke.” We know, indeed, from these latter sources, that heresy, strife, recrimination, and mutual anathemas early disgraced the religion of peace and love. But no sounds of this profane controversy disturbed those quiet resting-places of the Christian dead. The expression of faith and hope and joy and peace--the peace of God that passeth all understanding--every-where appears. The stricken and sorrowing believer burst not forth like the heathen in passionate complainings and impotent rage against the gods, but bowed in meek submission to _His_ will who doeth all things well. With devout and chastened spirit he bore the ills of life, and with calm confidence and holy joy he met the doom of death,

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 phoenix 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._,