sisted of tablets of ivory, wood, or metal, folded together, and bore the names of the bishops, officers, or distinguished patrons of the church, and memorials of the martyrs and holy dead. These memorials were assemblies of the primi frequently read in the religious tive church, especially on the anniversaries of the martyrs' death. This practice led in course of time to the invocation of their aid in the Litany of the Saints, and to other errors of Romanism. The diptychs had also frequently elaborate bas reliefs of scenes from the biblical cycle, and in the age of image-worship bore the figures of the saints to whom a corrupt Christianity had begun to pay an idolatrous veneration. They became thus the prototype of the illuminated missal of the Middle Ages. *Whence the name, from diлTUXоν, twofold; when several tablets were used they were called Tоλúñтνɣоν, or manifold. BOOK THIRD. THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE CATACOMBS. CHAPTER I. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INSCRIPTIONS. FEW places in Rome are more attractive to the student of Christian archæology than the Lapidarian Gallery in the palace of the Vatican. In this long corridor* are preserved a multitude of epigraphic remains of the venerable past, shattered wrecks of antiquity, which have floated down the stream of time, and have here, as in a quiet haven, at length found shelter. The walls on either side are completely covered with inscribed slabs affixed to their surface. On the right hand are arranged the pagan monuments collected from the neighbourhood of the city-sepulchral and votive tablets, altar dedications, fragments of imperial rescripts and edicts, and other evidences of the power and splendour of the palmy days of Rome. On the left are the humble epitaphs of the early Christians, rudely carved in stone or scratched in plaster, and brought hither chiefly from the crypts of the Catacombs. Of greater interest to him who would rehabilitate the early ages of the church, and To the sessions of sweet silent thought Would summon up remembrance of things past,† *It is eight hundred feet in extent, and contains about three thousand inscriptions. Shakspeare's Sonnets, No. XXX. is this long corridor of inscriptions than any of the four thousand apartments of that vast palace of the popes, with their priceless bronzes, marbles, gems, frescoes, and other remains of classic art. He will turn away from the noble galleries where the Laocoon forever writhes in stone, and Apollo-lord of the unerring bow-watches his arrow hurtling toward its mark, to the plain marble slabs that line these walls. In the rude inscriptions here recorded he will discover some of the strongest evidences of revealed religion and most striking proofs of the purity of the faith, simplicity of worship, and uncorrupted doctrines of the early church. Thus primitive Christianity lifts its solemn protest in these halls of wealth and power, in the very palace of the popes, against the anti-Christian system of which they are the representatives. Here the monuments of pagan and of Christian Rome confront each other. The spectator stands between two worlds of widest divergence, and cannot but be struck with the immense contrast between them. "I have spent," says M. Rochette, "many entire days in this sanctuary of antiquity, where the sacred and profane stand face to face in the written monuments preserved to us, as in the days when paganism and Christianity, striving with all their powers, were engaged in mortal conflict,' On the one side are recorded the pride and pomp of worldly rank, the lofty titles and manifold distinctions of every class, from divinities to slaves. The undying historic names of Rome's mighty conquerors, the leaders of her cohorts and legions, mingle with those of the proud patrician citizens, and alike display on their sepulchral slabs the august array of prænomen, nomen, and cognomen, which attest their *Tableau des Catacombes, p. x. " * lofty social position or civil power. The costly carving and elaborate bas reliefs of many of these monuments indicate the wealth of him whom they commemorate. The elegantly turned classic epitaph-with its elegiac hexameters breathing the stern and cold philosophy of the Stoa, or an utter blankness of despair concerning the future, or, perchance, a querulous and passionate complaining against the gods-shows how the races without the knowledge of the true God met the awful mystery of death. The numerous altars to all the fabled deities of the Partheon, the vaunting inscriptions. and lofty attributes ascribed to the shadowy brood of Olympus-" unconquered, greatest, and best "—read, by the light of to-day, like an unconscious satire on the high pretensions of those vanished powers. fragmentary edicts of the emperors, the numerous military trophies, and the records of complicated political orders, indicate the might and majesty of the Empire in the days of its utmost power and splendour. The On the other side of the corridor are the humble epitaphs of the despised and persecuted Christians, many of which, by their rudeness, their brevity, and often their marks of ignorance and haste, confirm the truth of the Scripture, that "not many mighty, not many noble, are called." Yet these "short and simple annals of the poor" speak to the heart with a power and pathos compared with which the loftiest classic eloquence seems cold and empty. It is a fascinating task to spell out the sculptured legends of the Catacombs-the vast graveyard of the primitive church, which seems to give up its dead at our questioning, to bear witness concerning the faith and hope of the Golden Age of Christian* Cf. Juv., "Gaudent prænomine molles auriculæ." very rare in Christian inscriptions. See postea. These are ity. As we muse upon these half-effaced inscriptions Rudely written, but each letter Full of hope, and yet of heart-break, Of the Here and the Hereafter we are brought face to face with the church of the early centuries, and are enabled to comprehend its spirit better than by means of any other evidence extant. These simple epitaphs speak no conventional language like the edicts of the emperors, the monuments of the mighty, or even the writings of the Fathers; they utter the cry of the human heart in the hours of its deepest emotion; they bridge the gulf of time, and make us feel ourselves akin with the suffering, sorrowing, yet triumphant Christians of the primitive ages. These inscriptions were found in situ in the explorations of the Catacombs, or were dug up in vineyards in the vicinity of the city. They have been diligently collected by antiquarians for the last three hundred years. Before the year 1578 there were not a thousand Christian inscriptions extant in all Italy. Of these not one was derived from the Catacombs, and the earliest date was the year 533. With all its boasted veneration for the past, and professed devotion to the antiquities of primitive Christianity, the Church of Rome allowed the memory of the Catacombs, the shrine and sanctuary of the faith in the early centuries, to be as completely forgotten as the site of Troy; and even after their rediscovery many of their principal records of the past were wantonly destroyed or recklessly lost through the ignorance or carelessness of their self-constituted guardians and preservers. Numerous invaluable inscriptions have perished from the effects of time; |