testimony from the tombs. Hippolytus tells us {PJniosophvuMnay lib. ix) that, during the episcopate of Zephyrinus, Callistus was * set over the cemetery.* This was probably considered a highly important trust, as, in those perilous times, the safety of the Christians very much depended on the prudence, activity, and courage of the individual who had the charge of their subterranean refuge. The new curator seems to have signalized himsielf by the ability with which he dis- charged the duties of his appointment; he probably embellished and enlaiged some of these dr^try caves ; and hence a portion of the Catacombs was designated *the cemetery of Callistus.' Hippolytus, led astray by the ascetic spirit beginning so strongly to prevail in the commencement of the third century, was op- posed to all second marriages, so that he was sadly scandalized by th» exceedingly liberal views of his Roman brotiier on the subject of matrimony ; and ho was so ill-informed as to pronoance them novel. * In his time,' says he indlgnantiy, * bishops, presbyters, and deacons, though they had been two or three times married, began to be recognised as God's ministers; and if any one of the clergy married, it was deter- mined that such a person should remain among the clergy as not having sinned' (PhUosophumena, lib. ix. TertuUian corroborates the charge of Hippol3rtu8, De Pudicitiaj cap. 1). We cannot tell how many of the ancient bishops of the great city were husbands. We know, however, that, long after this period, married bishops were to be found almost everywhere. One of the most eminent martyrs in the Diocletian persecution was a bishop who had a wife and children (Eusebius, lib. viii, c. 9). Clemens Romanus speaks as a married man {Ep,ad Cor, § 21). But the inscriptions in the Catacombs show that the primitive Church of Rome did not impose celibacy on her ministers. There is, for instance, a monument * To Basilus, the presbyter, and Felidtas, his wife ;' and on another tombstone, erected about A.D. 472, or -duly four years before the fall of the Western Empire, there is the following singular record : ' Petro- nia, a deacon's wife, the type of modesty. In this place I lay my bones : spare your tears, dear husband and daughters, and believe that it is forbidden to weep for one who lives in God' (Maitland, p. 191-198 ; Arin- ghi, i, 421, 419). * Here, ' says another epitaph, * Susan- na, the happy daughter of the late presb}'ter Gabinus, lies in peace along with her father' (Aringhi, ii, 228 ; Rome, 1661). In the Lapidarian Gallery of the Yatican there are other epitaphs to the same effect."
The doctrinal lessons to be drawn Arom the Cata^ combs are also treated in two articles in the Retme Chrkienne (15 Mai, 1864 ; 16 Jum, 1864), by RoUer, who, after a careful study of the conformation, etc. of the Catacombs, and of their tombs, chapels, etc. ; of the inscriptions, of the peuntings, and, finally, of the sar- cophagi, with their sculptures, arrives at the following conclusions: The use of the Catacombs as places of worship dates from the 8d century; the substitution of the altar fbr the communion-table dates fh>m the 4th. The Episcopal Cathedra appears at about the be- ginning of the 6th century. No specifically Romanist doctrine finds any support in inscriptions datmg before the 4th century. We be^n to trace signs of saint- worship in the 6th century. The first idea of the transmission of power from Christ to Peter dates from the latter part of the 6th to the beginnbg of the 6th, and even then Peter's figure does not appear armed with the keys, as in the later symbolism. Finally, Protestantism has every thing to gain, and nothing to lose, firom the most thorough study of the renuJns gathered with so much care from the Catacombs by tiie authorities of the Church of Rome.
YI. Later History and Lk€raiure.—1. Middle Aye.— After the 6th century no additions seem to have been made to the Catacombs. After a corridor or passage was filled, it appears to have been blocked up with stone. The irruption of the barbarians seems to coin-
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dde with the disuse of the ancient cemeteries as bnrial- plaoes, and they fell into neglect and niin. Pope Paul I (t 767) removed the bones of many martyrs and so- called saints fh>m the Catacombs, and distributed them among churches and monasteries. But the tombs of the martyrs continued to be objects of reverence, and pilgrimages were made to them, especially to those of St. Sebastian, over which a church had been built, and which remained accessible. The Crusaders thronged the subterranean corridors, and carried off bones of the dead in such numbers that the popes denounced the act as a crime for which the penalty should be excom- munication. With these exceptions, the Catacombs may be said to have been almost entirely forgotten for several centuries. Their ingresses became, for the most part, unknown even to the clergy ; and one of the earliest records of their being .visited in later ages is found in the names of Raynuzio Famese (father of Paul III) and others, marked by an inscription in the Catacombs of St Callistus, of date 1490.