Page:The early Christians in Rome (1911).djvu/297

 Theodosius' son, was reigning over the Western Empire, it is evident that the fame and reputation of Hippolytus, scholar and martyr, were among the popular histories of Christendom, and his tomb one of the chief objects of pilgrimage.

The lines of Prudentius, written in the closing years of the fourth century, are quoted as giving a picture of a famous catacomb as it appeared to a scholar and poet in the days of Theodosius and Honorius. They also give some idea of the estimation and reverential regard with which the martyrs and confessors of the first age of Christianity were held in the century which immediately followed the Peace of the Church:

"Hard by the City walls—amid the orchards—there is a Crypt Into its secret cells there is a steep path with winding stairs As you advance, the darkness as of night grows more dense At intervals, however, there are contrived openings cut in the roof above, which bring the bright rays of the sun into the crypt. Although the recesses twisting this way and that form narrow chambers, with galleries in deep gloom, yet some light finds its way through the pierced vaulting down into the hollow recesses And thus throughout the subterranean crypt it is possible still to revel in the brightness of the absent sun.

"To such secret recesses was the body of Hippolytus borne, quite near to the spot where now stands the altar dedicated to God.

"That same altar-slab provides the sacrament, and is the trusty guardian of its martyr's bones, which it guards there in the waiting for the Eternal Life, while it feeds the dwellers by the River Tiber with holy food.

"Marvellous is the sanctity of the place. The altar is close by for those who pray, and it assists the hopes of such by mercifully giving what they require. Here, too, have I when sick with ills of soul and body, often knelt in prayer and found help Early in the morning men come to salute (Hippolytus); all the youth of the place worship here; they come—they go—until the setting of the sun. Love