Page:A Letter from Mr John Monro to the Publisher, concerning the Catacombs of Rome and Naples (IA paper-doi-10 1098 rstl 1700 0043).pdf/3

 knowing whither and how far they were carry'd. To this 't may be justly excepted, that allowing the Catacombs to be proper for the end for which they are presum'd to be made, and that the Christians of that age were in a capacity of making that convenience, for themselves to live and assemble in below ground, at a time when 'twas so very unsafe to appear above it; yet to suppose that a work of that vastness and importance cou'd be carry'd on without the knowledge of the Government, is to suppose the Government asleep, and that that was aually done under its nose, that must necessarily have alarm'd it, had it been attempted on the frontiers of the Empire.

The other sort of Authors give indeed a mighty Idea of the Catacombs, represent them as a work of that vastness, that the Christians in the persecuting times had not number enough to carry it on; but then most undevisedly with the same breath they confound them with the Puticuli in Festus Pempeius, where, at the same time that the Anicent Romans us'd to burn the Bodies of their dead, the custom was, to avoid expence, to throw those of the Slaves to rot.

This is not all, the Roman Christians, say they, observing at length the great veneration that certain places gain'd by the presence of Relis, resolv'd to provice a stock for themselves; entring therefore the Catacombs, they made in some of them what Cyphers, what Inscriptions, what Painting they thought fit, and then shut them up, intending to open them again upon a Dream or some other important incident. The few that were in the secret of this Artifice either dying, or as the Monks, who were the only men that seem to have Heads adapted to a thought of this quality, were subje to so many removes, being transported to other places, the contrivance came to be forgot, and those Galleries contnu'd shut, till Chance, the Parent, often Rh