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 PART III

EPITAPHS AND INSCRIPTIONS FOUND IN THE CATACOMBS

I

In this section we will give at some length what these (same) catacombs tell us of the thoughts of the early Christian congregations on some of the more important problems dealing with death and with the life beyond the grave, and incidentally with the early Christian view on the question of the communion of saints.

The scanty remains of the literature of this early period, as we have already hinted, valuable though they are, partake rather of the nature of scholars' researches and conclusions. What we find painted and graved on the million graves of this vast subterranean God's Acre tells us in simple popular language exactly what the Christian folk, who lived and worked and suffered in the two centuries which followed the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, thought and felt on these momentous points.

The graves in this silent city, perhaps numbering some three, four, or even five millions, belong to all ages, to every rank and order. There are crypts containing the remains of members of the Imperial family, of men and women of senatorial and of the most exalted rank among the proud patrician houses. There are graves of merchants and traders, of the very rich, of the very poor; there are innumerable graves of freedmen, of the vast class too of the sad-eyed slave.

Here, too, are not a few tombs of men and women who gave up all, even dear life, for the Name's sake, and who, because they professed unswerving faith in the divine Son of