Contemporary Review.

THE CHURCH IN THE CATACOMBS.

No phase of Christian antiquity speaks so little to the eye, and yet none is so full of significance for the mind, nor so important to high interests, as the Art found in Rome's Catacombs-the pictorial and sculptured evidence to the life of the primitive Church, supplying illustrations of inestimable value, and pleading with silent eloquence for much that has been laid aside, while opposed to much that has been adopted, in ecclesiastical usage. Here is indeed manifest to the thoughtful observer an ideal far from consistently conformed to at the present day by any religious system, Catholic or Protestant; for the conviction that the true manifestation of the perfectly evangelic Church is yet to be looked for as future, and that all institutions hitherto pretending to that character are destined eventually to give place to a reality nobler and purer, as the morning star fades before the lustre of the

Old Series Com

ing impartial judgment and independent reason to the study of such monuments. Lately exerted activity in the research and illustration of the records of ancient Christianity at Rome-fresh impulses given to learning and speculation in this sphere, and favored by the liberal patronage of Pius IX.-tend, perhaps without the consciousness of those immediately concerned, to prepare for a new era in faith and devotion, whose spirit will probably prove adverse, in various respects, to the teaching or practice of Rome, if not irreconcilable with her now admitted claims for the hierarchic order. That all which is holy, useful, morally beautiful, and adapted to humanity's requirements in that ably organized system of church government, whose triumphant successes are due to the talents and zeal exerted at this centre, and long assuredly favored by Providence with ever-renewed proof how invariably

For power that

heart"

"The way is smooth travels with the human

10

be retained in the final developments of divine religion, none can more earnestly desire or hope than those who look with full confidence for a more perfect acceptance and embodiment in the future of the truth taught by the world's Redeemer.

We have to observe the deeper significance attaching to this term Catacomb, than to any by which places of sepulture were known to paganism from the Greek to lull or fall asleep; also to the phrase common to epitaphs above Christian graves, depositus (interred), implying consignment, the temporary trust of a treasure to the tomb, in hope of another life-with sense utterly wanting to the funereal terms conditus, compositus, and others of pagan use. The records these cemeteries contain cannot be appreciated from any sectarian point of view; but alike command interest from all Christians by their luminous and paramount testimony to those divine truths in respect to which the followers of Christ are universally agreed-here far more strikingly manifest than is aught that bears evidence to dogmas or practices around which discords have risen among those who acknowledge the same Divine Author of their faith. It is a noble presentment of one momentous phase in the story of humanity that these sacred antiquities afford to us. Amid circumstances of unexampled trial, amid all the provocations of calumny, persecution, the liabilities to degrading punishment and torturing death; while the Christians were accused of atheism, considered to be, as Tacitus says, convicted of hatred against the human race-not one expression of bitter or vindictive feeling, not one utterance of the sorrow that is without hope can be read upon these monumental pages, but, on the contrary, the intelligible language of an elevated spirit and calmly cheerful temper, hope whose flame never burns dim, faith serenely steadfast, a devotional practice fraught with sublime mysticism, yet distinguished by simplicity and repose altogether a moral picture, evincing what is truly godlike in man!

At a glance we may go through the entire range of scriptural, and almost as rapidly through that of symbolic subjects in this artistic sphere, both circles obviously determined by traditions from

which the imaginative faculty was slow to emancipate itself. From the Old Testament-the fall of Adam and Eve, and the judgment pronounced on them before their expulsion from Paradise; Noah in the Ark; the sacrifice of Abraham ; Moses receiving the tables of the Law on Sinai; Moses striking the rock; the story of Jonas in different stages; Daniel in the lion's den; the three Israelites in the fiery furnace; the ascent of Elias to Heaven, and a few others less common. From the New Testament-the Nativity; the adoration of the Magi; the change of water into wine; the multiplication of loaves; the restoring of sight to the blind; the healing of the cripple, and of the woman afflicted with a bloody flux; the rising of Lazarus; Christ entering Jerusalem seated on an ass; St. Peter denying Christ, between two Jews; the arrest of St. Peter; Pilate washing his hands; in one instance (on a sarcophagus) the soldiers crowning our Lord in mockery, but (remarkable for the sentimentthe preference for the triumphant rather than mournful aspect) a garland of flowers being substituted for that thorny crown mentioned in the Gospel narrative; in another instance, the Roman soldiers striking the Divine Sufferer on the head with a reed; but no nearer approach to the dread consummation being ever attempted-a reserve imposed, no doubt, by reverential tenderness, or the fear of betraying to scorn the great object of faith respecting that supreme sacrifice accomplished on Calvary. Among other subjects prominent in the fourth century (though not for the first time seen) are two persons whose high position in devotional regards henceforth becomes more and more conspicuous with the lapse of ages-the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter. The mother of Christ, as first introduced to us by art, is only seen in her historic relation to her Divine Son, nor in any other than the two scenes of the Nativity, and Adoration of the Wise Men-later she appears like other of those orantes, or figures in the attitude of prayer, and sometimes between the apostles Peter and Paul occasionally, indeed, with naïve expression of reverence, on larger scale than these latter-an honor not ex clusively hers, but also given to certain other virgin saints, especially St. Agues.

The first example of the "Madonna and Child" picture, destined for such endless reproduction and extraordinary honors, is seen over a tomb in the Catacombs of St. Agnes; Mary with veiled head, arms extended in prayer, and the Child, not apparently seated, but standing before her, on each side being the monogram of the holy name, XP, which symbol (rarely in use before the conversion of Constantine) suffices to show that this picture cannot be of earlier date than the fourth century, as the absence of the nimbus to the heads both of Mother and Child indicates origin not later than the carlier years of the next century, before which that attribute scarcely appears in Christian art. An event in ecclesiastical history explains how this pictorial subject, the Madonna and Child, attained its high importance and popularity; became, in fact, a symbol of orthodoxy, displayed in private houses, painted on furniture, and embroidered on garments. It was in the year 431 that the Council of Ephesus, in denouncing the adverse opinions of Nestorius, defined that Mary was not merely the mother of humanity, but to be revered in a more exalted sense as the mother of Deity in Christ.

Turning to the purely symbolic, we find most frequently introduced the lamb (later appearing with the nimbus round its head), and the various other forms in which faith contemplated the Redeemer namely, the good shepherd; Orpheus charming wild animals with his lyre; the vine; the olive; the rock; a light; a column; a fountain; a lion; and we may read seven poetic lines by St. Damascus, enumerating all the titles or symbols referring to the same Divine Personality, comprising, besides the above, a king; a giant; a gem; a gate; a rod; a hand; a house; a net; a vineyard. But among all others, the symbol most frequently seen is the fish, with a meaning perhaps generally known but too important to be here omittedits corresponding term in Greek being formed of the initial letters of the holy name and title, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour." We find also the dove for the holy spirit or for beatified spirits generally, the stag, for the desire after baptism and heavenly truth; candelabra, for illumination through the Gospel; a

ship, for the Church-sometimes represented sailing near a lighthouse, to signify the Church guided by the Source of all light and Truth; a fish; swimming with a basket of bread on its back, for the eucharistic sacrament; the horse, for eagerness or speed in embracing divine doctrine; the lion, for martyr fortitude, or vigilance against the snares of sin (as well as with that higher allusion above noticed); the peacock, for immortality; the phoenix, for the resurrection; the hare, for persecution, or the perils to which the faithful must be exposed; the cock, for vigilance-the fox being taken in a negative sense of warning against astuteness and pride, as the dove (beside its other meanings) reminded of the simplicity becoming to believers. Certain trees also appear in the same mystic order; the cypress and the pine, for death; the palm, for victory; the olive, for the fruit of good works, the lustre of virtue, mercy, purity, or peace; the vine, not only for the Eucharist and the Person of the Lord, but also for the ineffable union of the faithful in and with his Divinity. The lamp in the sepulchre implies both the righteous man and the true Light of the World; the house represents either the sepulchre or the mortal tenement we inhabit in life; and the anchor is taken not only in the sense understood by paganism, but also for constancy and fortitude, or as indicating the cross. Another less intelligible object, the wine barrel, is supposed to imply concord, or the union of the faithful, bound together by sacred ties, as that vessel's staves are by its hoops. The lyre, sometimes in the hands of its master Orpheus, is a beautiful symbol for the harmony and mansuetude produced by the subjection of evil passions through the divinely potent action of truth. The four seasons appear with higher allusion than could be apprehended by the Gentiles-winter representing the present life of storms and troubles; spring, the renovation of the soul and resuscitation of the body; summer, the glow of love towards God; and autumn, the death by martyrdom, or life's glorious close after conflict, in anticipation of "the bright spring dawn of heaven's eternal year."

In order to understand such a subject as the Eucharist, in its supreme place as presented by this primitive