Chapter III: 453 (1)

CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER AS READ IN THE CATACOMBS.

The inscriptions of the Catacombs give us many interesting indications of the social position, domestic relations, and general character of the primitive Christians, as well as of their religious belief. They lift the veil of ages from the buried past and cause it to live again, lit up with a thousand natural touches which we seek in vain from books. They bridge the gulf of time, and make us in a sense contemporaries of the early church. They give us an insight into the daily life and occupations of the ancient believers, of which no mention is made in the crowded page of history. The winding Catacombs are the whispering gallery of the bygone ages. Their humble epitaphs are echoes thrilling with a deep and tender meaning, too low and gentle to be heard across the strife of intervening years. In their touching pathos we seem to hear the sob of natural sorrow for the loved and lost, “the fall of kisses on unanswering clay,” the throbbings of the human heart in the hour of its deepest emotion, when the parting pang unseals the founts of feeling in the soul. We read of the yearnings of an affection that reaches beyond the grave, and hungers for reunion with the dear departed above the skies; the expression of an inextinguishable love that death itself cannot destroy. We see the emblematic palm and crown rudely scratched upon the grave wherein the Christian athlete, having fought the fight and kept the faith, has entered into dreamless rest. We read, too, the 454 records of the worldly rank of the deceased--sometimes exalted, more often lowly and obscure--frequently accompanied by the emblems of their humble toil.

The very names written on these marble slabs are often beautifully and designedly expressive of Christian sentiment or character. Sometimes the correspondence of name and character is indicated, as in the following: ΣΙΜΠΛΙΚΙΑ Η ΚΑΙ ΚΑΛΩΝΥΜΟΣ--“Simplicia who was also rightly so-called;” HIC VERVS QVI SEMPER VERA LOCVTVS--“Here lies Verus, who ever spoke verity.” These names were frequently assumed in adult age, when the convert from paganism laid aside his former designation, often of an idolatrous meaning, in order to adopt one more consistent with the Christian profession. Thus we have such beautifully significant names as INNOCENTIA, “Innocence;” CONSTANTIA, “Constancy;” PRVDENTIA, “Prudence;” DIGNITAS, “Dignity;” DECENTIA, “Comeliness;” PEREGRINVS, “A pilgrim;” SABBATA, “Rest;” ANASTASIA, “The resurrection;” ΠΙΣΤΙΣ, “Faith;” ΕΛΠΙΣ and SPES, “Hope;” ΑΓΑΠΗ, “Love;” ΕΙΡΗΝΗ, “Peace;” ΑΓΑΘΗ, “Good;” ΕΥΣΕΒΙΟΣ, “Pious;” ΕΥΚΑΡΠΙΑ, “Good fruit;” PROBVS, “Just;” FELIX, “Happy;” FIDELIS, “Faithful;” FORTVNATA, “Fortunate;” VERVS, “True;” DIGNVS, “Worthy;” CASTA, “Pure;” BENIGNVS, “Kind;” NOBILIS, “Noble;” AMABILIS, “Amiable;” INGENVA, “Sincere;” VENEROSA, “Venerable;” GAVDIOSA, “Rejoicing,” GRATA, “Pleasing;” CANDIDVS, “Frank;” DVLCIS and ΓΛΥΚΥΣ, “Sweet;” SEVERA, “grave;” with the comparatives, FELICIOR, NOBILIOR, etc., and the superlatives, FELICISSIMA, “most happy;” NOBILISSIMA, “most noble;” FIDELISSIMA, “most faithful;” DIGNISSIMA, “Most worthy;” DVLCISSIMA, “Most sweet;” and the like.[740] 455

Sometimes, too, a pious word or phrase was used as a proper name, as among the ancient Hebrews and the English Puritans. Thus we have such examples as, QVOD VVLT DEVS, “What God wills;” DEVS DEDIT, “God gave;” ADEODATVS[741] and ADEODATA, “Given by God;” ΘΕΟΤΟΚΟΣ, “God-born;” ΘΕΟΔΩΡΑ, “God-given;” DEO GRATIA, “Thanks to God;” ΘΕΟΦΙΛΟΣ, “God-beloved;”[742] RENATVS, “Born again;” REDEMPTVS, “Redeemed;” ACCEPTISSIMA, “Very well pleasing;” BONIFACIVS, “Well-doer;” ΕΥΠΡΟΣΔΕΚΤΟΣ, “Accepted” or “Acceptable;” and ΣΩΖΟΜΕΝΗ, “Saved.”[743] De Rossi thinks that the expressions, ANCILLA DEI, “Handmaid of God;” and SERVVS DEI, “Servant of God,” are sometimes proper names.

Some of the names in these inscriptions were probably given by the heathen in reproach and contempt, and were afterward adopted by the Christians in humility and self-abasement. It is difficult to account otherwise for such names as, CONTVMELIOSVS, “Injurious;” CALAMITOSA, “Destructive;” PROIECTVS, “Cast out;” SERVILIS, “Servile;” and 456 especially such opprobrious epithets as FIMUS and STERCORIA, “Dung” and “Filth.” In the last there may be an allusion to the words of St. Paul, (1 Cor. iv, 13,) “We are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.” Thus the primitive believers bound persecution as a wreath about their brows, exulted in the glorious infamy, and made the brand of shame the badge of honour.

A few Scripture names occur, and have a strangely foreign look amid those of Greek or Latin origin by which they are surrounded. Thus we have Petrus, Joannes, Paulus, Stephanus, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Susanna, and Maria. The extreme rarity of the last, however, since so popular throughout Christendom, is an indication that the homage of the Virgin Mary is the growth of later times.

The names of animals were often applied to both Christians and pagans, as Aper, Leo, Leopardus, Porcella, Muscula, Tigris, Ursus, and Ursa; and some of these we have seen pictorially represented on the tombs.[744] Other names were derived from the months, as Januarius, Aprilis, December, etc.; and even from the appellations of the pagan deities, as Mercurius, Apollinaris, etc. Sometimes the pet name by which the deceased was familiarly known in life is recorded, as Agnella, “Little Lamb;” Lepusculus and Leporilla, “Little Hare;” Rosula, “Little Rose;” Jocundilla, “Merry Little Thing,” etc.[745]

Most of the names, as might be expected, were of classic origin, 457 sometimes indicating alliance with families of senatorial, consular, or even imperial rank. We find also indications of the custom of adopting the names of the reigning dynasty. The modern Victorias and Alberts find their analogues in the Aurelias and Constantias of the Aurelian and Constantinian periods. The lofty prænomen, nomen, and cognomen of the pagan epitaphs rarely appear in this Christian series. Only two or three examples of these triple names occur. Even two names become uncommon, and persons undoubtedly entitled to these distinctions of rank were recorded only by a single name. Having renounced the pride of birth, and place, and power, they laid aside their worldly titles for the new name given in Christian baptism. Sometimes the names of the deceased are not recorded in the epitaphs at all, perhaps, as Fabretti suggests, because they wish them to be written only in the Book of Life.[746] For the same reason probably, or from poverty or ignorance, most of the funeral tiles and slabs bear no inscription whatever.

These inscriptions frequently give intimations of the social rank and occupations of the deceased. Sometimes the enumeration of titles indicates exalted position and the holding of important offices of 458 trust. Especially was this the case after the public establishment of Christianity. Many of the later inscriptions recount in pompous and inflated terms, strongly contrasting with the brevity and simplicity of the earlier examples, the civil dignities and distinctions of the departed. We have already seen the epitaph of an Imperial Procurator.[747] The following are examples of later date.

IVN BASSVS · |V| · C · QVI VIXIT ANNIS · XLII MEN · II IN IPSA
PRAEFECTVRA VRBI NEOFITVS IIT AD DEVM--“Junius Bassus, a most
distinguished man, who lived forty-two years, two months. Whilst
holding the office of Præfect of the City, he, a neophyte, went
to God.” (A. D. 359.) ADVENIT HOSPES ROMANVS PRINCEPS IN VRBEM
CVI FVIT HIC PRIMVM IVRISCONSVLTOR AMICVS--“The Roman Emperor
(Constantine) came a stranger to the City, whose first friend was
this lawyer.” HIC REQVIESCINT (_sic_) IN PACE PRAETEXTATVS |VI| ·
EX QVESTOR |SCP| ET FILIA EIVS PRAETEXTATA CF--“Here rest in
peace Prætextatus, an illustrious man, ex-quaestor of the Sacred
Palace, and his daughter Prætextata, a most distinguished woman.”
(A. D. 486.) IVLIVS FELIX VALENTINIANVS · VC · ET (SP ·) EX
SILENTIARIO SACRI PALATII EX COM · CONSISTORII · COM ·
DOM--“Julius Felix Valentinianus, a man of the highest
distinction and consideration,[748] ex-Silentiary of the Sacred
Palace, ex-Count of the Consistory, Count of the Household
Troops.” (A. D. 519.)

MAIORVM LONGA VENIENS DE STIRPE SENATOR
AVXISTI MENTIS NOBILITATE GENVS
IVDICIS IMPERIVM SERVANS BONITATE MAGISTRA
CVM TIBI SVBIECTIS TV QVOQVE MILES ERAS
VRBANOS FASCES GAVDENS TIBI ROMA PARABAT. (A. D. 533.)

A Senator, coming from a long line of ancestors, thou didst
dignify thy family by nobility of mind, preserving the authority
of the judge by the power of goodness. Thou wast also a soldier
with those subject to thee, and Rome rejoicing, was preparing for
thee the fasces of the city.

We have also such examples as SCRINARIVS PATRICIAE SEDIS, “Secretary 459 of the Patrician order;” PRIMICERIVS MONETARIORVM, “Chief of the bankers;” ARGENTARIVS, “A money dealer;” VIATOR AD AERARIVM, “Sergeant to the Exchequer;” PRAEFECTVS ANNONAE, “Prefect of the market;” VESTITOR IMPERATORIS, “Master of the imperial wardrobe;” MAGISTER SCOLAE TERTIAE, “Master of the Third School;” MEDICVS, “A physician,” etc.

The great body of the Christians, however, were of lowly rank, many of them probably slaves, as most of the arts of life were carried on by that oppressed class. It was the sneer of Celsus that “wool-workers, leather-dressers, cobblers, the most illiterate of mankind, were zealous preachers of the Gospel;” but Tertullian retorts that every Christian craftsman can teach truths loftier than Plato ever knew.[749] The inscriptions of the Catacombs indicate that not many wise, not many mighty, joined that phalanx of heroic souls; but they teach, too, that the lowliest toil may be dignified and ennobled by being done to the glory of God. We have seen represented on the tombs emblems of the occupation of the carpenter, mason, currier, wool-comber, shoemaker, vine-dresser, and fossor. We find also such records of trade as PISTOR REGIONIS XII, “A baker of the Twelfth District;” ORTVLANVS, for _hortulanus_, “A gardener;” PATRONVS CORPORIS PASTILLARIORVM, “Patron of the Corporation of Confectioners;” PRIMICERIVS CENARIORVM, “Chief of the cooks;” HORREARIVS, “A 460 granary-keeper;” CARBONARIVS, “A charcoal seller;” POPINARIVS, “A victualler;” BVBVLARIVS DE MACELLO, “A flesher from the shambles;” CAPSARARIVS (_sic_) DE ANTONINIA, “A keeper of clothes at the Antonine Baths;” QVADRATARIVS, “A stone-dresser;” POLLICLA QVI (H)ORDEVM BENDIT (_sic_) DE BIA NOBA (_sic_,) “Pollicla, who sells barley in the New Street;” IOHANNES VH. OLOGRAFVS (_sic_) PROPINE ISIDORI, “John, a respectable man, a book-keeper in the tavern of Isidorus;” also, less reputable still, VRBANVS VH. TABERNARIVS, “Urban, a respectable man, a tavern keeper.” This, however, was in the year A. D. 584, when purity of faith and practice had greatly degenerated. These lowly records are preserved and studied with interest, when many of Rome’s proudest monuments have crumbled away.[750]

Very often some phrase expressive of the Christian character or 461 distinguished virtues of the deceased is recorded in loving remembrance by his sorrowing friends. These testimonies are calculated to inspire a very high opinion of the purity, blamelessness, and nobility of life of the primitive believers; all the more striking from its contrast with the abominable corruptions of the pagan society by which they were surrounded. With many points of external resemblance to heathen inscriptions there is in these Christian epitaphs a world-wide difference of informing spirit. Instead of the pomp and pride of pagan panegyric, we have the celebration of the modest virtues, of lowliness, gentleness, and truth. The Christian ideal of excellence, as indicated by the nature of the praises bestowed on the departed, is shown to be utterly foreign to that of heathen sentiment. The following are characteristic examples:

FELIX SANCTAE FIDEI VOCITVS (_sic_) IIT IN PACE
CVIVS TANTVS AMOR ET CARITAS RETENETVR AB AMICIS IN AEVO
QVI CVM ESSET FVIT SOLACIVS MISERICORS OMNIBVS NOTVS.

Felix of sacred honour, when called away went in peace, whose
love and affection are so warmly cherished by his friends; who,
when he was in life was known to all for sympathy with the 462
afflicted and compassion toward the distressed.

IN SIMPLICITATE VIXIT AMICVS PAVPERVM INNOCENTIVM MISERICORS SPECTABILIS ET PENITENS--“He lived in simplicity, a friend of the poor, compassionate to the innocent, a man of consideration and penitent.” INFANTIAE AETAS VIRGINITATIS INTEGRITAS MORVM GRAVITAS FIDEI ET REVERENTIAE DISCIPLINA--“Of youthful age, of spotless maidenhood, of grave manners, well disciplined in faith and reverence.”

More frequent than any other expression was the phrase, common also to pagan epitaphs, BENE MERENTI,--“To the well-deserving,” generally indicated by the letters B. M. But many others of a more distinctively Christian character occur, as, SERVVS DEI, FAMVLVS DEI, “Servant of God;” ΔΟΥΛΟϹ ΠΙϹΤΟϹ ΘΕΟΥ, “Faithful Servant of God;” ΑΓΙΟϹ · ΘΕΟϹΕΒΕϹ, “A holy worshipper of God;” ΓΛΥΚΕΡΑΝ ΑΓΙΑΝ, “An amiable and holy person;” SANCTISSIMVS, “A most holy person;” ANIMA DVLCIS ET INNOCENS, “Sweet and innocent soul;” AMICVS OMNIVM, “Friend of all men;” ΠΑϹΙΦΙΛΟϹ ΚΑΙ ΟΥΔΕΝΙ ΕΧΘΡΟϹ, “Friend of all and enemy of none;” SEMPER SINE CVLPA, “Ever without fault;” AMATOR PAVPERVM, “A lover of the poor;” HOMO BONVS, “A good man;” STVDIOSVS, “Zealous;” SPIRITO SANCTO, “To a holy soul;” INNOCENTISSIMVS, “A most innocent person;” and the like. Others are of a more general character, as HONESTES RECORDATIONES (_sic_) VIR, “A man worthy to be remembered with honour;” ΑΕΙΜΝΗϹΤΟϹ, “Ever to be remembered;” ΘΕΟΦΙΛΕϹΤΑΤΟϹ, “The most devout or God-loving;” MIRE (_sic_) SAPIENTIAE, “Of wonderful wisdom;” LAVDABILIS FEMINA, “A praiseworthy woman;” CONIVX DIGNISSIMA, “A most worthy wife;” CASTISSIMAE ADQVE PVDICISSIMAE 463 FEMINAE, “To a most chaste and modest woman;” MIRAE PVLCHRITVDINIS ATQVE IDONEITATIS, “Of wonderful beauty and ability;” MIRAE INTEGRITATIS ET FIDEI ATQVE CONSTANTIAE, “Of wonderful integrity, faith, and steadfastness;” SAPIENS PIVS ATQVE BENIGNVS, “Wise, pious, and kind;” HOMO FIDEI ET INTEGRITATIS OPINIONIS BONAE MENTIS INTEGRAE AMICVS AMICORVM, “A man of sound faith and integrity, of good judgment, of a sound mind, a friend of his friends;” SVABIS (_sic_) SEMPERQVE PVDICA VERA LOQVENS, “Agreeable and ever modest, speaking the truth;” BONITATIS EXIMIAE ET MIRAE VERECVNDIAE ET VLTRA AETATEM SAPIENTIAE, “Of remarkable goodness and wonderful modesty, and wise beyond her years;” ANIMA DVLCIS, INNOCVA (_sic_) SAPIENS ET PVLCHRA, “A sweet spirit, guileless, wise, beautiful;” AMATRIX PAVPERORVM (_sic_) ET OPERARIA, “A lover of the poor, and attentive to her work;” FIDELIS IN |XPO| EIVS MANDATA SERVANS MARTYRVM OBSEQVIIS DEVOTA, “Faithful in Christ, keeping his commands, devoted in attention to the martyrs;” PVRVS AMICITIAE CVLTOR SERVATOR HONESTI ELOQVIO MISEROS PIETATE IVVANS, “A guileless preserver of friendship and observer of honour, helping the wretched by words and by affectionate care;” TE CARVM SVVOLES TE FIXVM SENSIT AMICVS TE LEVITAS TORVVM DVLCEM COGNOVIT HONESTVS, “Thee thy son felt beloved, thy friend attached, thee the frivolous found stern, but the upright knew to be gentle;” ΕΥΤΕΡΠΕ Η ΤΩΝ ΜΟΥϹΩΝ ϹΥΝΤΡΟΦΟϹ ΒΙΩϹΑϹΑ ΑΠΛΟϹ ΟϹΙΩϹ ΚΑΙ ΑΜΕΜΠΤΩϹ, “Euterpe, a companion of the Muses, having lived simply, piously, and irreproachably.” The last is from Sicily, the others are from Rome. Other examples will be given in treating the domestic and 464 ecclesiastical relations of the primitive Christians.

In these memorials of the departed we have a striking portraiture of the Christian graces and domestic virtues of the early believers. The existence of such a pure and blameless community in a base and sensual age is one of the noblest chapters in the history of the race. It was also an eloquent protest, a living testimony against the abominations of pagan society and the manifold corruptions which were in the world through lust. From these the Christian community recoiled with utter abhorrence, and, in the early centuries, lived unspotted amid surrounding pollution.[751]

Although some of the pagan epitaphs betray a light and sportive epicurean vein even in the solemn presence of death, yet others indicate an appreciation of the domestic and civic virtues, as in the following example: MIRAE BONITATIS ADQVE INIMITABILIS SANCTITATIS TOTIVS CASTITATIS RARI EXEMPLI FEMINA CASTE BONE BITE ET PIETOSE (_sic_) IN OMNIBVS ... VIXIT SINE LESIONE ANIMI MEI MECVM ANNOS XV. FILIOS AVTEM PROCREAVIT VII--“Of wonderful goodness and inimitable piety, of entire modesty, a woman of rare example, of a chaste, virtuous, and pious life in all things. She lived with me without any annoyance of my mind fifteen years, and bore me seven children.”

Often they are expressed with admirable brevity, as, TANTIS VIRTVTIBVS NVLLVM PAR ELOGIVM, “Of so great virtue there is no equal praise;” MORIBVS PARITER ET DISCIPLINA CAETERIS FEMINIS EXEMPLVM, “She was 465 equally in manners and education an example to other women;” DE CVIVS PVDORE NEMO DICERE POTVIT, “Against whose modesty no one could say aught;”[752] and this noble testimony to a magistrate, QVID ESSET MALEDICERE NESCHT NON TANQVAM, “What it was to speak evil he did not even know.”

But it is especially in the domestic relations that the tender and pure affections of the Christians are most beautifully exhibited. His heart must be callous indeed, who can read without emotion these humble records of love and sorrow, which have survived so many of the proudest monuments of antiquity. In the hour of tearful parting from the dearly loved, the richest affections of the soul are breathed forth, as the flower when crushed exhales its sweetest fragrance. These rude inscriptions speak to our hearts with a power and pathos all their own. Their mute eloquence sweeps down the centuries, and touches chords in every soul that thrill with keenest sympathy. The far severed ages are linked together by the tale of death and sorrow--old as humanity yet ever new. The bleaching skeletons in their stony beds seem clothed again with human flesh and warm with living love. The beauty and tenderness of Christian family life is vividly exhibited--the hallowing influence of religion making earthly love the type of love eternal in the skies. The tie that knits fond hearts together becomes the stronger as death smites at it in vain. The language of affection becomes more fervent as the barrier of the grave is interposed.

Especially is this the case when sorrowing parents mingle their tears 466 at the tiny _loculus_ of their babe, consigned to earth’s cold keeping from their loving arms--their bud of promise blighted, and hope’s blossom withered to bloom only in the skies. The warmest expressions of endearment are lavished on the tombs of little children. Thus we have such tender epithets as DVLCIOR MELLE, “Sweeter than honey;” ΓΛΥΚΥΤΕΡΟϹ ΦΩΤΟϹ ΚΑΙ ΖΩΗϹ, “Sweeter than light and life;” AGNELLVS DEI, “God’s little lamb;” PALVMBVLVS SINE FELLE, “Little dove without gall;” PARVVLVS INNOCENS, “Little innocent;” MEAE DELICIAE, “My delight;” DVLCISSIMVS CARISSIMVS, “Most sweet, most dear;” ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΣΟΙ ΦΟΡΤΟΥΝΑΤΗ ΘΥΓΑΤΡΙ ΓΛΥΚΥΤΑΤΗ, “Peace to thee, O Fortunata, our very sweet child;” INNOCENTISSIMO PAVLO QVI · VIX · M · X · D · XIIII, “To the most innocent Paul, who lived ten months, fourteen days;” ANIMA DVLCIS INNOCVA SAPIENS ET PVLCHRA, “A sweet spirit, guileless, wise, and beautiful,” (a child aged three years); MIRAE INNOCENTIAE AC SAPIENTIAE PVERO, “A boy of wonderful innocence and intelligence,” (aged four years.) Sometimes a reference is made to the brief sojourn of the little pilgrim to life’s shores, as PARVM STETIT APVD NOS, “He stayed but a short time with us.”

The following is from Sicily: ΕΝΘΑΔΕ ΚΙΤΕ (_sic_) ΕΝ ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΜΑΡΙΑ ΕΖΗϹΕΝ ΕΤΗ ΜΙΚΡΟΝ ΠΡΟϹ Β (ΚΑΙ) ΕΤΕΛΕΙΩΘΗ, “Here lies Mary in peace: she lived a little more than two years (and) finished her course.” Of another it is said, that she died INTER MANVS PARENTVM, “In the arms of her parents.” In an epitaph at Naples is the exquisite utterance of a sorrowing heart: IN SOLIS TV MIHI TVRBA LOCIS, “In lonely places thou art crowds to me.” Generally, however, the grief of the parents is speechless, and we read merely, PARENTES FECERVNT FILIAE, “The 467 parents made (this tomb) for their child,” or perhaps, MATER INCOMPARABILI FILIAE PECIT, “The mother made this for her incomparable daughter.”

Sometimes the praise of the deceased is more elaborate, as in the following, which is probably of late date; DALMATIO FILIO DVLCISSIMO TOTIVS INGENIOSITATIS AC SAPIENTIAE PVERO QVEM PLENIS SEPTEM ANNIS PERFRVI PATRI INFELICI NON LICVIT QVI STVDENS LITTERAS GRAECAS NON · MONSTRATAS SIBI LATINAS--“To Dalmatius, a very sweet son, of the utmost genius and wisdom, whose unhappy father was not permitted to enjoy him for seven full years, who, while studying the Greek language, acquired Latin without being taught.”[753]

Sometimes a natural expression of sorrow occurs, as PARENTES DOLENTES, “The parents grieving;” PATER INFELIX, “The unhappy father;” CONTRA VOTVM, “Regretfully;” PARENTES MISERI FVNEBRIS ACERVITATE (_sic_) PERCVSSI TITVLVM ERIGI IVSSERVNT, “The wretched parents, smitten by the bitterness of her death, commanded this tablet to be set up,” (A. D. 464;) EREPTA EX OCVLIS GENITORIS, “Snatched from the eyes of her parent;” QVIS NON DOLVIT AETATI TVAE PIASQVE LACRIMAS FVDIT IN TE SPES FVTVRA EXPECTABATVR PER TE PER TE GLORIA PERENNIS CELERINE FILI, FIDELIS QVIESCIS IN PACE QVI VIXIT ANN. I. M. VIII--“Who did not grieve for thy (immature) age and pour affectionate tears? In thee was future hope. Through thee, through thee, O son Celerinus, perennial glory was expected. Faithful one, thou restest in peace, who lived one year eight months,” (A. D. 381).

In the following, of later date, the expressions of grief are more elaborate and artificial, and indicate the influence of pagan thought 468 and diction, especially in the last line:

QVOD DVLCES NATI QVOD CARA PIGNORA PRAESTANT
ABSTVLIT ATRA DIES ET FVNERE MERSIT ACERVO
HAEC MATER ET GENITOR CONSCRIBVNT CARMINA BVSTO
QVO LEGENTI SIMVL REDEAT SVB CORDE FIGVRA
ET SICCATA SAEPE MADESCANT LVMINA FLETV
SIC MEDICATVR AMOR NEC CVRANT CARMINA MANES.

“What sweet children, what dear pledges promise, a dire day has
borne away, and plunged in bitter death. The father and mother,
together, write these verses on the tomb, in order that to any
one reading, the image may at once return to the soul, and the
eyes, long dry, may moisten with tears. Thus love administers
relief, nor do the spirits care for songs.”

No less fervent expressions of affection are employed toward their adult offspring by surviving parents. Indeed they are, if possible, still more intense, as if wrung from the bleeding heart by grief for the fallen column of the house--the broken staff of their declining years. In the following, from the Lapidarian gallery, the epithets of endearment are lavishly heaped upon the beloved object: ADSERTORI FILIO KARO DVLCI INNOCO ET INCOMPARABILI QVI VIXIT ANNIS XVII · M · VII · DIEBVS VIII · PATER ET MATER FECER(VNT)--“To Adsertor, our dear, sweet, guileless, and incomparable son, who lived seventeen years, seven months, eight days. His father and mother made this.”

Of similar character are the following: PAVLA CLARISSIMA FAEMINA DVLCIS BENIGNA GRATIOSA FILIA--“Paula, an illustrious woman, a sweet, kind, and gracious daughter;” NIMIVM CITO DECIDISTI CONSTANTIA MIRVM PVLCHRITVDINIS ATQVE IDONEITATIS--“Too soon hast thou fallen, Constantia, wonderful (example) of beauty and ability.”

Similar evidences of parental affection and grief occur in pagan inscriptions, though often overshadowed by a deep and dark despair. 469 Thus we read such tender epithets of little children as FILIAE DVLCISSIMAE IAM GARRVLAE BIMVLAE NONDVM--“To a very sweet daughter now prattling, not yet two little years of age;” OBSEQVENTISSIMAE FILIAE--“To a most obedient daughter;” MATER MOERENS FILIO EX QVO NIHIL VNQVAM DOLVIT NISI CVM IS NON FVIT--“The grieving mother to her son, from whom she never received any pain but when he was not,”--that is, when he died; PARVAE BVSTA PVELLAE THREPTVS PATER FECIT QVIS NON VVLTVM RIGAT LACRIMIS MAERORE COACTVS QVIS NON TRISTITIAM PECTORE CONCIPIT--“Her foster-father made this tomb of a little girl. Who does not moisten his face with tears, compelled by grief? Who does not cherish sorrow in his bosom?” ADOLESCENTVLAE DVLCISSIMAE PATER PIISSIMVS ET INFELICISSIMVS FECIT--“To a most sweet young maiden, her most affectionate and unhappy father gave this tomb;” FLEVIT ET ASSIDVO MAESTVS VTERQVE PARENS--“Both the sorrowful parents wept incessantly.”

We have also such examples as, MATER AD LVCTVM ET GEMITVM RELICTA EVM LACRIMIS ET OPOBALSAMO VDVM HOC SEPVLCHRO CONDIDIT--“His mother, left to sorrow and groaning, buried him, moist with tears and balsam, in this tomb;” QVAE OB DESIDERIVM FILI SVI PIISSIMI VIVERE ABOMINAVIT ET POST DIES XV FATI EIVS ANIMO DESPONDIT--“Who, on account of her yearning for her most affectionate son, hated life, and, fifteen days after his death, also died.”

Sometimes in their passionate grief the heathen parents reproach themselves for surviving their children, as in the following.

CRVDELIS IMPIA MATER CARIS SVIS DVLCISSIMIS ... INFELICISSIMA
MATER QVI (_sic_) VIDIT FVNVS SVVM CRVDELISSIMVM QVAE SI DEVM
PROPITIVM HABVISSET HOC DEBVERA (_sic_) EOS PATI.

The cruel, impious mother, to her dear, most sweet children. The 470
most unhappy mother, who saw (in theirs) her _own_ most
cruel death, who, if she had had a propitious deity, ought to
have suffered this for them--(that is, have died in their stead.)

HIC IACET EXTINCTVS CRVDELI FVNERE NATVS
VLTIMA VIVENDI QVI MIHI CAVSA FVIT.

Here lies, destroyed by cruel fate, a son, who was my only reason
for living.

Often the expressions in Christian epitaphs of filial affection to deceased parents are exceedingly tender and beautiful, as for example: PATRI DVLCISSIMO BENEMERENTI IN PACE--“To our sweetest father, well-deserving, in peace,” (A. D. 356); TIGRITI BENEMERENTI.... FILIVS FECI MATRI--“To the well-deserving Tigris.... I, her son, made this for my mother,” (A. D. 393;) HOC TVMVLVM PATRIS FILIVS FIERI VOLVIT CAVSA AMORIS PATERNI RECORDATIONIS--“This tomb of his father the son wished to be made on account of his remembrance of paternal affection;” TE PARENS SOBOLES CONIVNXQVE FIDELIS TE MIXTIS LACRIMIS LVGET AMATA DOMVS--“Thee thy parent, thy offspring, thy faithful consort, thee a loved home, with mingled tears, lament,” (A. D. 533.)

HEV MEMORANDE PATER LONGI MIHI CAVSA DOLORIS
OPTASTI IN MANIBVS FILIORVM SAEPE TVORVM
SVMERE ET AMPLEXV DVLCI TENVARE NEPOTVM.
ADFVIT HIS VOTIS EXCELSI GRATIA CHRISTI
FELIX VITA FVIT FELIX ET TRANSITVS IPSE. (A. D. 534.)

Alas, O father, ever to be remembered, cause of long grief to me,
thou didst often desire to die in the arms of thy children, to
gently pass away in the sweet embrace of thy offspring. These
wishes the grace of the exalted Christ fulfilled. Happy was thy
life, and happy also thy passing away.

We find also the epitaphs of foster-parents and adopted children, showing the exercise, under the influence of Christian sentiment, of 471 the beautiful charity of rescuing foundlings and orphans[754] from poverty, infamy, or death. The following example is of date A. D. 392:

PERPETVAM SEDEM NVTRITOR POSSIDES IPSE
HIC MERITVS FINEM MAGNIS DEFVNCTE PERICLIS
HIC REQVIEM FELIX SVMIS COGENTIBVS ANNIS
HIC POSITVS PAPASANTIMIO QVI VIXIT ANNIS LXX.

“You yourself who reared (us) now occupy a lasting resting-place.
Here you have reached the end that you deserved, of a course
fraught with great perils. Here, in happiness, you take the
repose that age compels. Here is laid foster-father Antimio, who
lived seventy years.”[755]

The conjugal affections especially have their beautiful and tender commemoration. The mutual love of husband and wife finds in these inscriptions affecting record, which attests the happiness of the marriage relation among the primitive Christians. Frequently the bereaved husband recounts with grateful recollection the fact that his wedded life was one of perfect harmony, unmarred by a single jar or 472 discord--SEMPER CONCORDES SINE VLLA QVERELA.

The posthumous praise of these Christian matrons recalls the inspired portraiture of the virtuous woman of Scripture. The intensity of conjugal grief is shown by the expressions, MALE FRACTVS CONIVX--“The sore broken husband;” and GEMITV TRISTI LACRIMIS DEFLET--“He bewails in tears with bitter lamentation.” Often occurs the phrase INCOMPARABILIS CONIVX--“Incomparable wife,” frequently with the addition, OPTIMAE MEMORIAE--“Of most excellent memory.” Sometimes we find the tender expression, with such depth of meaning in its simple words, QVI AMAVIT ME--“Who loved me;” also the phrase, CARVS SVIS--“Dear to his friends;” or, PERDVLCISSIMO CONIVGI SVO--inadequately rendered, “To her most dearest husband.” The utterance of a grief into the secret of which none can enter but those who have known its bitterness, is often extremely pathetic.

The spirit of these inscriptions will be best seen in the concrete. The following are characteristic examples: DEO FIDELIS DVLCIS MARITO NVTRIX FAMILIAE HVMILIS CVNCTIS AMATRIX PAVPERVM--“Faithful to God, endeared to her husband, the nurse of her family, humble to all, a lover of the poor;” BIXIT MECVM ANNIS XXII · MENS · IX · DIES V IN QVIBVS SEMPER MIHI BENE FVIT CVM ILLA--“She lived with me for twenty-two years, nine months, five days, during which time it ever went well with me in her society;” CONIVGE VENERANDE BONE INNOCVA FLORENTIA DIGNA PIA AMABILIS PVDICA (_sic_)--“To my wife Florentia, deserving of honour, good, guileless, worthy, pious, amiable, modest.”

HIC REQVIESCIT IN PACE TERTVRA CF DVLCIS PETRONII CONIVX
DEO SERVIENS VNICAE FIDEI AMICA PACIS CASTIS MORIBVS ORNATA 473
COMMVNIS FIDELIBVS AMICIS FAMILIAE GRATA NVTRIX NATORVM
ET NVMQVAM AMARA MARITO.

“Here reposes in peace Tertura, an illustrious woman, the sweet
wife of Petronius, serving God, of matchless faith, a friend of
peace, adorned with modest manners, affable toward the faithful
friends of her family, a loving nurse of her children, and never
bitter to her husband.”

HIC MIHI SEMPER DOLOR ERIT IN AEVO
ET TVVM BENERABILEM VVLTVM FVAT VIDERE SOPORE
CONIVNX ALBANAQVE MIHI SEMPER CASTA PVDICA
RELICTVM ME TVO GREMIO QVEROR
QVOD MIHI SANCTVM TE DEDERAT DIVINITVS AVCTOR.

“This grief will always weigh upon me. May it be granted me to
behold in sleep your revered countenance. My wife Albana, always
chaste and modest. I grieve over the loss of your support, whom
our divine author had given to me as a sacred (boon.)”

In the following a disconsolate husband mourns the wife of his youth with the pleasing illusion that such love as theirs the world had never known before: DOMNINAE INNOCENTISSIMAE ET DVLCISSIMAE CONIVGI QVAE VIXIT ANN · XVI · M · IIII · ET FVIT MARITATA · ANN DVOBVS · M · IIII · D · VIIII CVM QVA NON LICVIT FVISSE PROPTER CAVSAS PEREGRINATIONIS NISI · MENSIB · VI · QVO · TEMPORE · VT EGO SENSI ET EXHIBVI AMOREM MEVM MVLLIS VALII (_sic_) SIC DELIXERVNT--“To Domnina, my most guileless and sweet wife, who lived sixteen years and four months, and was married two years, four months, and nine days; with whom I was not able to live on account of my travelling more than six months: during this period as I felt and showed my affection no others ever loved.”[756]

Similar expressions of affection are applied by bereaved wives to 474 their deceased husbands. In the following a widowed heart dwells with fond complacency on the thought that no rankling recollection of estranged regard embitters her remembrance of the lost: AGRIPPINA FECIT · DVLCISSIMO SVO MARITO CVM QVEM VIXIT SINE LESIONE ANIMI · ANNOS III ET M · X.--“Agrippina made this to her very sweet husband, with whom she lived, without jarring, three years and ten months.” Of similar import is this also: DIGNO MERITOQVE IVGALI MEO TETTIO FILICISSIMO DIACONO · MARCIA DECENTIA DVLCISSIMO MIHI DIEM DEPOSITIONIS LAPIDEMQVE DESCRIPSI · MERITO VIXIT ANNVS NON MINVS LXX--“To my husband, Tettius Felicissimus, worthy and deserving, a deacon. I, Marcia Decentia, inscribed this stone to him (who was) most sweet to me, on the day of his burial. He lived in honour not less than seventy years.”

Similar language of mingled love and grief occurs in pagan 475 inscriptions, but without the chastening influence of Christian resignation. The domestic life of the Romans, especially in the days of republican simplicity, seems to have been remarkably free from discord or strife. Thus we find frequent record of over half a century passed in marriage, SINE IVRGIO, SINE AEMVLATIONE, SINE DISSIDIO, SINE QVERELA--“Without contention, without emulation, without dissension, without strife.” With ceaseless iteration the virtues of the deceased are lovingly recorded, as in the examples which follow: CONIVGEM FIDELISSIMAM--“Most faithful wife;” OPTIMA DOMINA SANCTISSIMA--“Best and most revered lady;” MARITAE PIISSIMAE DVLCISSIMAE RARISSIMAE--“To a most pious and sweet wife of rarest excellence;” OPTIMA ET PVLCHERRIMA LANIFICA PIA PVDICA CASTA DOMESEDA--“Best and most beautiful, a spinner of wool, pious, modest, chaste, home-abiding;” VXORI OBSEQVENTISSIMAE--“To a most obedient (or obsequious) wife;” T. FL. CAPITO CONIVGI CASTISSIMAE PIISSIMAE ET DE SE OPTIME MERITAE DE QVA NVLLVM DOLOREM NISI ACERBISSIMAE MORTIS EIVS ACCEPERAT--“Titus Flavius Capito, to his most chaste and pious wife, deserving well of him, from whom he received no cause of grief, except that of her most bitter death;” TEMPIVS HERMEROS CONIVGI CARISSIMAE ... CVIVS DESIDERIO IVRATVS EST SE POST EAM VXOREM NON HABITVRVM--“Tempius Hermeros, to his most dear spouse, on account of his love for whom he swore that he would have no other wife.” Once we meet the strange remark by a husband of his wife, CVIVS IN DIE MORTIS GRATIAS MAXIMAS EGI APVD DEOS ET APVD HOMINES--“On the day of whose death I gave the greatest thanks to gods and men.” It was probably on account of her release from suffering.

In the accompanying epitaph a bereaved widow laments her irreparable 476 loss: CONIVGI DESIDERATISSIMO ... NVNC NEQVE TE VIDEO NEC AMOR SATIATVR AMANTIS ET CONIVX MISERA FINEM DEPOSCO DOLORI--“To my most deeply regretted husband.... For neither do I now see thee, nor is the affection of thy loving spouse satisfied; and I, a miserable wife, implore an end of my sorrow.”

Such examples of conjugal affection recall to mind the immortal love of Alcestis in the Greek myth, dying for her bosom’s lord; and of Arria, in Roman story, refusing to survive her husband, and having plunged the dagger into her own breast, with dying smile exclaiming, _Pæte, non dolet_--“It hurts not, my Pætus.”[757]

Another interesting class of Christian inscriptions are those commemorating fraternal affection. The following are typical examples: IOVIANO KARISSIMO FECIT (_sic_) FRATRES PIENTISSIMAE (_sic_)--“To dearest Jovianus, his most affectionate brothers made this;” ΤΩ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΩ ΠΑΥΛΩ ΗΔΥΛΑΛΟϹ ΑΔΕΛΦΟΣ--“To the blessed Paul, his brother Hedulalos.”

In the accompanying poetical tribute to a sister the melancholy consolation of mourning the lost is beautifully referred to:

SVME SOROR CARMEN SOLATIA TRISTA (_sic_) FRATRIS
QVI SOLVS GEMITV HEC (_sic_) TIBI VERBA DEDIT
QUAE TEGITVR TVMVLO SI VIS COGNOSCERE LECTOR
SVBLIMES GESSIT SANGVINIS HAEC TITVLOS
MORIBVS HEC CRISTVM SEMPER COMITATA SVPERSTES
QVEM POST FATA SIBI CREDIDIT ESSE DVCEM.

Sister, take these verses, the sad comfort of your brother, who,
in lonely lamentation, has given these words to you. Reader, if
you desire to know who is covered by this tomb, she bore names 477
which told her high descent. She, when alive, always followed, in
her conduct, Christ, who she believed would be her guide after
death.

Frequently members of the same family were buried in the same grave--lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death not divided. Thus we read of a brother and sister who died in one day, and were buried together--VNA DIE MORTVI ET PARITER TVMVLATI SVNT; of a certain Antigonus who occupied the same tomb with his sister--LOCVM HABET CVM SORE (_sic_) SVA; and of a mother who shared her daughter’s grave--FELICIA CVM FILIA IN PACE; also of Claudia and Julia, who had secured their places by the side of their sweet friend Calpurnia. The same custom sometimes obtains in pagan sepulture, as indicated by the following epitaph of a husband and wife who, not to be divorced even in death, mingled their ashes in one urn:

PARATO HOSPITIO CARA IVNGVNT CORPORA
HAEC RVRSVM NOSTRAE SED PERPETVAE NVPTIAE.

In a prepared rest they join their dear bodies. These are our
second but our perpetual nuptials.[758]

Sometimes the funeral tablet was erected by the hand of friendship, probably when there were none of kin to pay this last sad tribute of 478 affection. De Rossi thinks that which follows one of the most ancient in Rome: DORMITIONI T. FLA. EVTYCHIO. HVNC LOCVM DONABIT M. ORBIVS AMICVS KARISSIMVS KARE BALE--“As a resting place for Titus Flavius Eutychius, his dearest friend, Marcus Orbius, gave this spot. Farewell, beloved.” One fair friend thus commemorates the loss of another: AELIA VICTORINA POSVIT AVRELIAE PROBAE--“Ælia Victorina erected this stone to Aurelia Proba.” We find also such expressions as, “Best friend,” “Dear and faithful companion,” “Constant in love and truth.” Sometimes a lowly servant or freedman records a master’s virtues, as in the epitaph of Gordianus, erected by his handmaid Theophila--ΥΘΦΗΛΑ ΑΝCΗΛΛΑ ΦΕCΙΤ (_sic_); and that of Prosenes, which Ampelius, his freedman, wrote--SCRIPSIT AMPELIVS LIB. Another was buried by her sweet and holy nurse in Christ--ΘΡΕΠΤΕΙΡΑΝ ΓΛΥΚΕΡΗΝ ΑΓΙΑΝ ΕΝ |XPÔ|.

The duration of sickness, or cause of death, is sometimes, though very rarely, mentioned in Christian inscriptions. Thus we have such particulars as PERIT IN DIES V--“He died in five days;” ΕΝΟϹΗϹΕΝ ΗΜΕΡΑϹ ΙΒ--“He was ill twelve days.” A pagan epitaph complains of the death of the deceased by magical incantations: CARMINIBVS DEFIXA IACVIT PER TEMPORA MVTA VT EIVS SPIRITVS VI EXTORQVERETVR QVAM NATVRAE REDDERETVR--“Overcome by charms she lay at times dumb, so that her spirit was torn from her by force rather than given back to nature.” Another was snatched away while she too sedulously nursed a sick husband--DVM FOVIT NIMIA SEDVLITATE VIRVM. Another died of internal burnings, which medical skill was powerless to cope with--ARDENTES INTVS VINCERE QVOS MEDICAE NON POTVERE MANVS. Of another we read that 479 after long and various infirmities she is freed from human things--POST LONGAS ET VARIAS INFIRMITATES HVMANIS REBVS EXEMPTA EST.[759] Like this is the expression in a Christian epitaph--POST VARIAS CVRAS POST LONGAE MVNERA VITAE--“After various cares, after the duties of a long life.”

The same spirit which thus commemorated the departed would lead also to the decoration of their sepulchres with pious frescoes or elaborate sculpture, limned or carved often as a last offering of love by the hand of affection or of friendship--now for fifteen centuries kindred dust with that whose resting-place it so fondly sought to beautify.

We should do scant justice, however, to the blameless character, simple dignity, and moral purity of the primitive Christians, as indicated in these posthumous remains, if we forgot the thoroughly effete and corrupt society by which they were surrounded. It would seem almost impossible for the Christian graces to grow in such a fetid atmosphere. Like the snow-white lily springing in virgin purity from the muddy ooze, they are more lovely by contrast with the surrounding pollutions. Like flowers that deck a sepulchre, breathing their fragrance amid scenes of corruption and death, are these holy characters, fragrant with the breath of heaven amid the social rottenness and moral death of their foul environment.

It is difficult to imagine, and impossible to portray, the abominable pollutions of the times. “Society,” says Gibbon, “was a rotting, aimless chaos of sensuality.” It was a boiling Acheron of seething passions, unhallowed lusts, and tiger thirst for blood, such as never provoked the wrath of heaven since God drowned the world with water, 480 or destroyed the Cities of the Plain by fire. Only those who have visited the secret museum of Naples, or that house which no woman may enter at Pompeii, and whose paintings no pen may describe; or who are familiar with the scathing denunciations of popular vices by the Roman satirists and moralists and by the Christian Fathers, can conceive the appalling depravity of the age and nation. St. Paul, in his epistle to the church among this very people, hints at some features of their exceeding wickedness. It was a shame even to speak of the things which were done by them, but which gifted poets employed their wit to celebrate. A brutalized monster was deified as God, received divine homage,[760] and beheld all the world at his feet and the nations tremble at his nod, while the multitude wallowed in a sty of sensuality.[761]

Christianity was to be the new Hercules to cleanse this worse than Augean pollution. The pure morals and holy lives of the believers were a perpetual testimony against abounding iniquity, and a living proof of the regenerating power and transforming grace of God. For they themselves, as one of their apologists asserts, “had been reclaimed from ten thousand vices.”[762] And the Apostle, describing some of the vilest characters, exclaims, “Such were some of you, but ye are washed, ye are sanctified.” They recoiled with the utmost abhorrence from the pollutions of the age, and became indeed “the salt of the 481 earth,” the sole moral antiseptic to prevent the total disintegration of society.

The Christians were daily exposed to contact with idolatry. The whole public and private life of the heathen was pervaded with the spirit of polytheism. Idolatrous usages were interwoven with almost every act. The courts of justice, the marts of trade, the highways and gardens, the fountains and rivers, the domestic hearth, and the very doors and hinges, were under the protection of their respective deities. The implements of labour, the household utensils, the military ensigns, the achievements of art, the adornments of beauty, were all consecrated to idol worship. The daily meals and rites of hospitality, the social banquets and public amusements, the common language and salutations of friendship, had all a religious significance.

The Christians were therefore especially exhorted to “keep themselves from idols.” They believed that their images were the abodes of dæmons who delighted in the reek of blood and the fetid odour of sacrificial flesh.[763] Against image-makers the severest ecclesiastical censures were denounced. They were the foster fathers of devils,[764] to whom they offered not the sacrifice of a beast, but immolated their mind, poured the libation of their sweat, kindled the torch of their thought, and slew the richer and more precious victim of their salvation.[765] The believers might not wreath their gates, nor illuminate their houses, nor attend the public festivals, nor witness a sacrifice, nor accept a heathen salutation, nor sell incense, nor eat meat polluted with idolatrous lustration.[766] Thus amid pagan 482 usages and unspeakable moral degradation the Christians lived: a holy nation, a peculiar people. “We alone are without crime,” says Tertullian; “no Christian suffers but for his religion.” “Your prisons are full,” says Minutius Felix, “but they contain not one Christian.” And these holy lives were an argument which even the heathen could not gainsay. The ethics of paganism were the speculations of the cultivated few who aspired to the character of philosophers. The ethics of Christianity were a system of practical duty affecting the daily life of the most lowly and unlettered. “Philosophy,” says Lecky, “may dignify, but is impotent to regenerate man; it may cultivate virtue, but cannot restrain vice.”[767] But Christianity introduced a new sense of sin and of holiness, of everlasting reward, and of endless condemnation. It planted a sublime, impassioned love of Christ in the heart, inflaming all its affections. It transformed the character from icy stoicism or epicurean selfishness to a boundless and uncalculating self-abnegation and devotion.[768]

This divine principle developed a new instinct of philanthropy in the soul. A feeling of common brotherhood knit the hearts of the believers together. To love a slave, to love an enemy! was accounted the impossible among the heathen; yet this incredible virtue they beheld every day among the Christians. “This surprised them beyond measure,” says Tertullian, “that one man should die for another.”[769] Hence, in 483 the Christian inscriptions no word of bitterness even toward their persecutors is to be found. Sweet peace, the peace of God that passeth all understanding, breathes on every side.

One of the most striking results of the new spirit of philanthropy which Christianity introduced is seen in the copious charity of the primitive church. Amid the ruins of ancient palaces and temples, theatres and baths, there are none of any house of mercy. Charity among the pagans was, at best, a fitful and capricious fancy. Among the Christians it was a vast and vigorous organization, and was cultivated with noble enthusiasm. And the great and wicked city of Rome, with its fierce oppressions and inhuman wrongs, afforded amplest opportunity for the Christ-like ministrations of love and pity. There were Christian slaves to succour, exposed to unutterable indignities and cruel punishment, even unto crucifixion for conscience’ sake. There were often martyrs’ pangs to assuage, the aching wounds inflicted by the rack or by the nameless tortures of the heathen to bind up, and their bruised and broken hearts to cheer with heavenly consolation. There were outcast babes to pluck from death. There were a thousand forms of suffering and sorrow to relieve, and the ever-present thought of Him who came, not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many, was an inspiration to heroic sacrifice and self-denial. And doubtless the religion of love won its way to many a stony pagan heart by the winsome spell of the saintly charities and heavenly benedictions of the persecuted Christians. This sublime principle has since covered the earth with its institutions of mercy, and with a passionate zeal has sought out 484 the woes of man in every land, in order to their relief. In the primitive church voluntary collections[770] were regularly made for the poor, the aged, the sick, the brethren in bonds, and for the burial of the dead. All fraud and deceit was abhorred, and all usury forbidden. Many gave all their goods to feed the poor. “Our charity dispenses more in the streets,” says Tertullian to the heathen, “than your religion in all the temples.”[771] He upbraids them for offering to the gods only the worn-out and useless, such as is given to dogs.[772] “How monstrous is it,” exclaims the Alexandrian Clement, “to live in luxury while so many are in want.”[773] “As you would receive, show mercy,” says Chrysostom; “make God your debtor that you may receive again with usury.”[774] The church at Antioch, he tells us, maintained three thousand widows and virgins, besides the sick and poor. Under the persecuting Decius the widows and infirm under the care of the church at Rome were fifteen hundred. “Behold the treasures of the church,” said St. Lawrence, pointing to the aged and poor, when the heathen prefect came to confiscate its wealth. The church in Carthage sent a sum equal to four thousand dollars to ransom Christian captives in Numidia. St. Ambrose sold the sacred vessels of the church of Milan to rescue prisoners from the Goths, esteeming it their truest consecration to the service of God. “Better clothe the living temples of Christ,” says Jerome, “than adorn the temples of stone.”[775] “God has no need of plates and dishes,” said Acacius, bishop of Amida, and he ransomed therewith a number of poor captives. For a similar purpose Paulinus of Nola sold the treasures of his beautiful church, and it is 485 said even sold himself into African slavery.[776] The Christian traveller was hospitably entertained by the faithful; and before the close of the fourth century asylums were provided for the sick, aged, and infirm. During the Decian persecution, when the streets of Carthage were strewn with the dying and the dead, the Christians, with the scars of recent torture and imprisonment upon them, exhibited the nobility of a gospel revenge in their care for their fever-smitten persecutors, and seemed to seek the martyrdom of Christian charity, even more glorious than that they had escaped.[777] In the plague of Alexandria six hundred Christian _parabolani_ periled their lives to succour the dying and bury the dead.[778] Julian urged the pagan priests to imitate the virtues of the lowly Christians.

Christianity also gave a new sanctity to human life, and even denounced as murder the heathen custom of destroying the unborn child. The exposure of infants was a fearfully prevalent pagan practice, which even Plato and Aristotle permitted. We have had evidences of the tender charity of the Christians in rescuing these foundlings from death, or from a fate more dreadful still--a life of infamy. Christianity also emphatically affirmed the Almighty’s “canon ’gainst self-slaughter,” which crime the pagans had even exalted into a virtue. It taught that a patient endurance of suffering, like Job’s, exhibited a loftier courage than Cato’s renunciation of life.

Out of eleven thousand Christian inscriptions of the first six centuries, scarce half a dozen make any reference to a condition of servitude, and of these, as Dr. Northcote remarks, two or three are 486 doubtful. Yet of pagan epitaphs at least three fourths are those of slaves or freedmen. The conspicuous absence of recognition of this unhappy social distinction is no mere accident. We know that the Christians were largely drawn from the servile classes, but in the church of God there was no respect of persons. The gospel of liberty smote the gyves at once from the bodies and the souls of men. In Christ Jesus there was neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. The wretched slave, in the intervals of toil or torture, caught with joy the emancipating message, and sprang up enfranchised by an immortalizing hope. Then “trampled manhood heard and claimed his crown.” The victim of human oppression exulted in a new-found liberty in Christ which no wealth could purchase, no chains of slavery fetter, nor even death itself destroy. To him earth’s loftiest palace was but a gilded prison of the soul, his lowly cot became the antechamber of the skies, and his emancipated spirit passed from his pallet of straw to the repose of Abraham’s bosom.

In the Christian church the distinctions of worldly rank were abolished.[779] The highest spiritual dignities were open to the lowliest slave. In the ecclesiastical hierarchy were no rights of birth, and no privileges of blood. In the inscriptions of the Catacombs no badges of servitude, no titles of honour appear. The wealthy noble--the lord of many acres--recognized in his lowly servant a fellow-heir of glory. They bowed together at the same table of the Lord, saluted each other with the mutual kiss of charity, and side by side in their narrow graves at length returned to indistinguishable dust. The story of Onesimus may have often been repeated, and the 487 patrician master have received his returning slave, “not now as a servant, but above a servant--a brother beloved.” Nay, he may have bowed to him as his ecclesiastical superior, and received from his plebeian hands the emblems of their common Lord. The lowly arenarii and fossors, the rude Campagnian husbandmen and shepherds, and they “of Cæsar’s household,” met in common brotherhood, knit together by stronger ties than those of kinship or of worldly rank, as heirs of glory and of everlasting life.

The condition of the slave population of Rome was one of inconceivable wretchedness. Colossal piles built by their blood and sweat attest the bitterness of their bondage. The lash of the taskmaster was heard in the fields, and crosses bearing aloft their quivering victims polluted the public highways. Vidius Pollio fed his lampreys with the bodies of his slaves. Four hundred of these wretched beings deluged with their blood the funeral pyre of Pedanius Secundus. A single freedman possessed over four thousand of these human chattels. They had no rights of marriage nor any claim to their children. This dumb, weltering mass of humanity, crushed by power, led by their lusts, and fed by public dole, became a hot-bed of vice in which every evil passion grew apace. The institution of slavery cast a stigma of disgrace on labour, and prevented the formation of that intelligent middle class which is the true safeguard of liberty. Christianity, on the contrary, dignified, ennobled, and in a sense hallowed labour by the example of its Divine Founder. It consecrated the lowly virtues of humility, obedience, gentleness, patience, and long-suffering, which paganism contemned. It did not, indeed, at once subvert the political institution of slavery, but it mitigated its evils, and gradually led 488 to its abolition.

One of the noblest triumphs of Christianity was its suppression of the bloody spectacles of the amphitheatre. The early Christians had good reason to regard with shuddering aversion those accursed scenes within that vast Coliseum which rears to-day its mighty walls, a perpetual monument of the cruelty of Rome’s Christless creed. Many of their number had been mangled to death by savage beasts or still more savage men, surrounded by a sea of pitiless faces, twice eighty thousand hungry eyes gloating on the mortal agony of the confessor of Christ, while not a single thumb was reversed to make the sign of mercy.[780] There the maids and matrons, the patricians and the “vile plebs” of Rome, enjoyed the grateful spectacle of cruelty and blood. Even woman’s pitiful nature forgot its tenderness, and the honour was reserved for the vestal virgin to give the signal for the mortal stroke that crowned the martyr’s brow with fadeless amaranth. These hateful scenes, in which the spectacle of human agony and death became the impassioned delight of all classes, created a ferocious thirst for blood and torture throughout society.[781] They overthrew the altar of pity, and impelled to every excess and refinement of barbarity. Even children imitated the cruel sport in their games, schools of gladiators were trained for the work of slaughter, and women fought in the arena, or lay dead and trampled in the sand.

From the very first Christianity relentlessly opposed this horrid 489 practice, as well as all theatrical exhibitions. The mingled cruelty, idolatry, and indecency of the performances were obnoxious alike to the humanity, the piety, and the modesty of the Christians.[782] They were especially included in the pomps of Satan which the believer abjured at his baptism. Hence their abandonment was often regarded as a proof of conversion to Christianity. The theatre was the devil’s house, and he had a right to all found therein.[783] Christianity, soon after it ascended the throne of the Cæsars, suppressed the gladiatorial combats. The Christian city of Constantinople was never polluted by the atrocious exhibition. A Christian poet eloquently denounced the bloody spectacle, and a Christian monk, at the cost of his life, protested, amid the very frenzy of the conflict, against its cruelty. His heroic martyrdom produced a moral revulsion against the practice, and the laws of Honorius, to use the language of Gibbon, “abolished forever the human sacrifices of the amphitheatre.”