Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/223

Rh of those remains of ancient genius, which still continued, notwithstanding the destruction of the people who had given them birth, to govern the imaginations of succeeding ages.

The examples to which I would chiefly call attention are taken from sarcophagi in the crypt of St. Peter's at Rome, and are evidently applications of profane compositions to Christian purposes. In regard to these, as well as the adoption of profane symbols, frequently found on old Christian monuments, it may not be irrelevant to observe, that the early Christians, to avoid the persecution directed against them, symbolized their religious rites, borrowing for that purpose such of the usages of the pagan mysteries, with which many of them were acquainted, as they found suitable.

When St. Austin was sent to convert the Saxons, A.D. 596, the Pope, Gregory I., instructed him to accommodate the Christian forms of worship as well as he could to the previous customs of his disciples, to convert the heathen temples into churches, and to establish Christian, in the place of pagan, rites. This fact may serve to account for the preservation of many pagan symbols which are found in this country.