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/8

 to have found them; 'tis not to be imagin'd they cou'd have made any use of them, at a time when 'twas the daily praice to lay up even the depositions of the Slaves in them; so that either the Christians made no use of them at all, or they never were the burying Place of the Slaves. Now as these are suppositions that naturally destroy one another, one would count it more safe to follow the faint light of a glimmering tradition, than abandon ones self to the condun of an Ignis fatuns, that for ought a man knows is aually misleading him, so I beg leave to call the Testimony of Festus Pompeius, that may rather be applyed to any other thing than to the Galleries of the Catacombs, carry'd under ground, they say 20 miles from the City in some places, and no body knows how far in others, and to that vast number of Chambers that go off them. Thus therefore the Christians finding them in a state of negle laid up the Bodies of their Dead in them; and perhaps when the persecution was hot, conceal'd themselves and kept little separable Assembles in their Chambers. At last the Empire turning Christians, they fell again in the old state of negle, in which they continu'd till upon the reading of, I have forgot what Author that makes mention of them, they came to be look'd into and search'd. What I have writ relates to the Catacombs of Rome, those of Naples are a quite other thing, of which per next. I am, Sir, Your most humble Servant, Marseilles, Aug. 22. 1700.