Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/225

Rh CATACOMBS 213 The annexed woodcut (fig. 16) from Marchi s work, when compared with that of the Catacomb of St Agnes already given, presents to the eye the contrast between the wide winding irregular passages of the sand-pit, calculated for FIG. 16. Arenaria beneath the Cemetery of Callistus. the admission of a horse and cart, and the narrow rectili near accurately-defined galleries of the Catacomb. The distinction between the two is also plainly exhibited when for some local or private reasons an ancient arenaria has been transformed into a cemetery. The modifications required to strengthen the crumbling walls to support the roof and to facilitate the excavation of locnli, involved so much labour that, as a rule, after a few attempts, the idea of utilizing an old quarry for burial purposes was aban doned. Another equally erroneous idea has only slowly retired be fore the increased historical research and scientific investiga tion which have been brought to bear on the construction of the Catacombs, This is, that these vast burial-places of the early Christians remained entirely concealed from the eyes of their pagan neighbours, and were constructed not only without the permission of the municipal authorities but without their cognizance. Nothing can be further from the truth. Such an idea is justly stigmatized by Mommsen as ridiculous, and reflecting a discredit as unfounded as it is unjust on the imperial police of the capital. That such vast excavations should have been made without attracting attention, and that such an immense number of corpses could have been carried to burial in perfect secrecy is utterly impossible. Nor was there any reason why secrecy should have been desired. The decent burial of the dead was a matter especially provided for by the Roman laws. No particular mode was prescribed. Interment was just as legal as cremation, and had, in fact, been universally practised by the Romans until the later days of the republic. 1 The bodies of the Scipios and Nasos were buried in still existing catacombs ; and if motives of reverence for that which had been the temple of the Holy Ghost led the Christians to adopt that which Minucius Felix calls &quot; the better, and more ancient cus tom of inhumation &quot; (Octavius, c. 2), there was absolutely nothing, to quote the words of Dr Northcote (Roma Sotteiran., pp. 56, 61), &quot; either in their social or religious position to interfere with their freedom of action. The law left them entire liberty,. . . and the faithful did but use their liberty in the way that suited them best, burying their dead according to a fashion to which many of them had been long accustomed, and which enabled them at the same time to follow in death the example of him who was also their model in life.&quot; Interment in rock-hewn tombs, &quot; as the manner of the Jews is to bur} 7 ,&quot; had been practised in Rome by the Jewish settlers for a considerable period anterior to the rise of the Christian Church. A 1 Cicero is our authority for the burial of Marius, and for Sulla s being the first member of the Gens Cornelia whose dead body was burnt. De Lfffff., ii. 22. Jewish catacomb, now lost, was discovered and described by Bosio (Rom. Soft., p. 141), and others are still accessible. They are only to be distinguished from Christian catacombs by the character of their decorations, the absence of Chris tian symbols, and the language of their inscriptions. There would, therefore, be nothing extraordinary, or calling for notice in the fact that a community, always identified in the popular heathen mind with the Jewish faith, should adopt the mode of interment belonging to that religion. Nor have we the slightest trace of any official interference with Christian burials, such as would render secrecy necessary or desirable. Their funerals were as much under the protection of the law, which not only invested the tomb itself with a sacred character, but included in its protection the area in which it stood, and the cella memoriae or chapel connected with it, as those of their heathen fellow-citizens, while the same shield would be thrown over the burial-clubs, which, as we learn from Tertullian (Apolog., c. 39), were common among the early Christians, as over those existing among the heathen population of Rome. We may then completely dismiss the notion of there being any studied secrecy in connec tion with the early Christian cemeteries, and proceed to inquire into the mode of their formation. The investiga tions of De Rossi, confirmed by the independent researches of Mr J. H. Parker, show that, almost without exception, they had their origin in small burial areas, the property of private persons or of families, gradually spreading and ramifying and receiving additions of one subterranean story after another as each was required for interments. The first step would be the acquisition of a plot of ground either by gift or purchase for the formation of a tomb. Chris tians were not beyond the pale of the law, and their faith presented no hindrance to the property being secured to them in perpetuity. To adapt the ground for its purpose as a cemetery, a gallery was run all round the area in the tufa rock at a convenient depth below the surface, reached by staircases at the corners. In the upright walls of these galleries locuLi were cut as needed to receive the dead. When these first four galleries were full others were mined on the same level at right angles to them, thus gradually converting the whole area into a net-work of corridors. If a family vault was required, or a burial chapel for a martyr or person of distinction, a small square room was excavated by the side of the gallery and com municating with it. When the original area had been mined in this way as far as was consistent with stability, a second story of galleries was begun at a lower level, reached by a new staircase. This was succeeded by a third, or a fourth, and sometimes even by a fifth. When adjacent burial areas belonged to members of the same Christian confraternity, or by gift or purchase fell into the same hands, communications were opened between the respective cemeteries, which thus spread laterally, and gradually acquired that enormous extent which, &quot; even when their fabulous dimensions are reduced to their right measure, form an immense work.&quot; 2 This could only be executed by a large and powerful Christian community unimpeded by legal enactments or police regulations, &quot;a living witness of its immense development corresponding to the importance of the capital.&quot; But although, as we have said, in ordinary times there was no necessity for secrecy, yet when the peace of the church was broken by the fierce and often protracted persecutions of the heathen emperors, it became essential to 2 Mommsen s chosen example of an ancient burial-chamber, extend ing itself into a catacomb, or gathering subterranean additions round it till a catacomb was established, is that of the Cemetery of St Domitilla, traditionally identified with a granddaughter of Vespasian, and the catacomb of S3. Nereus and Achilleus on the Appian and Ardeatine way.