Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

lower orders are only represented by those simple records, from which, with scarcely an exception, sorrow and complaint are banished; the boast of suffering, or an appeal to the revengeful passions, is nowhere to be found. One expresses faith, another hope, a third charity. The genius of primitive Christianity,-To believe, to love, and to suffer,'has never been better illustrated. These sermons in stones' are addressed to the heart and not to the head,-to the feelings rather than to the taste; and possess additional value from being the work of the purest and most influential portion of the Catholic and Apostolic Church' then in existence." (p. 13.)

This passage does the author great credit; but one is annoyed to find immediately following it, such an insinuation as this:

"It may not be amiss to premise generally, that in the inscriptions contained in the Lapidarian Gallery, selected and arranged under Papal superintendence, there are no prayers for the dead (unless the forms 'May you live;' 'May God refresh you,' be so construed); no addresses to the Virgin Mary nor to the Apostles or earlier Saints; and with the exception of eternal sleep,' 'eternal home,' &c., no expressions contrary to the plain sense of Scripture." (p. 14.)

[ocr errors]

On which we would remark: 1. That the forms he quotes are undoubtedly prayers for the departed. 2. That modern Roman Catholic epitaphs by no means generally contain addresses to the Blessed Virgin or Saints; and, 3. That we cannot imagine how the beautiful phrase 'eternal home' can be an unscriptural term for the better country to which the Christian pilgrim is hastening. Of all tempers, that of the mere Protestant appears to us the most narrow and sour. It is always on the look-out for something unscriptural; it is always pharisaically vaunting its own purity of doctrine. It cannot stand among the gravestones of the earliest Christians without trying to scent out something 'Popish.' Let us however hear the testimony which Dr. Maitland bears to the general impression conveyed by this collection.

་་

The gentle and amiable spirit every where breathed, the distinctive character of these remains, is essentially Christian: the name of CHRIST is repeated in an endless variety of forms, and the actions of His life are figured in every degree of rudeness of execution. The second Person of the Trinity is neither viewed in the Jewish light of a temporal Messiah, nor degraded to the Socinian estimate of a mere example, but is invested with all the honours of a Redeemer. On this subject there is no reserve, no heathenish suppression of the distinguishing feature of our religion; and on stones innumerable appears the Good Shepherd, bearing on his shoulders the recovered sheep, by which many an illiterate believer expressed his sense of personal salvation. One, according to his epitaph, sleeps in CHRIST'; another is buried with a prayer that she may live in the LORD JESUS.'"-[which is surely very like a prayer for the departed.] But most of all, the cross in its simplest form is employed to testify the faith of the deceased; and whatever ignorance may have prevailed regarding the letter of Holy Writ, or

[ocr errors]

་་

the more mysterious doctrines contained in it, there seems to have been no want of apprehension of that sacrifice whereby alone we obtain remission of our sins, and are made partakers of the Kingdom of Heaven." (p. 15.)

*

Now observe how controversially all these interesting facts are given; and observe also how the author's real sentiments peep out as to this ancient Church in the Catacombs. He believes it all the while to be very dark and a little superstitious, and in no respect to be compared with Protestant religion: indeed he would not have much cared to illustrate it except that he thought he could show that, when compared with our own Reformed Church, it was more pure than modern Roman Catholicism. This is our great complaint against Dr. Maitland. Why did he not give us his interesting descriptions, many of which are very well executed, without these spiteful reflections and this constant desire to find a ground for abuse or inuendo?

We propose now to pass briefly through the book, noticing a few points that may strike us most. After an interesting chapter on the origin of the catacombs, Dr. Maitland comes to "The Catacombs as a Christian Cemetery." Here he shows, after comparing the Patriarchal, Egyptian, and Roman ideas of family burial, that "it was reserved for Christianity first to deposit, side by side, the bodies of persons unconnected with each other" (p. 40,); a beautiful incidental proof of the strength of the Christian feeling that the Church is one great family.*

Dr. Maitland believes that the word Martyr does not occur in epitaphs until after the Diocletian persecution. Our readers will find a host of interesting facts and discussions, and many epitaphs of great beauty and feeling in this chapter, which will repay their perusal. In the chapter on "The Martyrs of the Catacombs," with much that is painful, the author acquits himself in the very difficult and delicate task of discriminating between early and late, true and false, histories of martyrdoms, more reverently than might have been expected, and certainly adduces much matter for grave thought and doubt. Passing by this we will quote the first inscription of an undoubted martyr which he gives us. (p. 127.)

LANNVS XPI MARTIR HIC REQUIESCIT SUB DIOCLITIANO PASSUS. E(t) P (osteris) S (uis).

In discussing the vexata quæstio of the symbols of martyrdom, and the legend of the Veronica, &c., Dr. Maitland might well have spared a scoffing tone, whatever be his belief on those subjects. Dr. Maitland states that the antiquaries now generally consider no emblem a sign of martyrdom, except the small vessel of blood. Other symbols, which used to be regarded as instruments of torture,

*This view was taken, we remember, in our contemporary, the Ecclesiologist, when arguing against Family Vaults.

such as combs and hooks, and tongs, are now supposed to indicate the trade of the deceased. Two engravings of these ampolle or vessels of blood, are given in pages 142 and 143. The Congregation of Relics decided in 1668, that the palm and vessel of blood were certain marks of martyrdom. But the palm is now quite given up, and many already doubt of the ampolla. MM. Roestell and Raoul-Rochette suppose that these cups-which we should observe are often inscribed with the word Sanguis-were sacramental cups. Dr. Maitland suggests on this, simply it seems in order to avoid any supposed reference to the Holy Eucharist, that they might have to do with "the agape held over the grave of a newly buried person." But it has always been common to bury a chalice with the body of a priest, for example: Dr. Maitland's own explanation is singularly unsatisfactory.

"The author is inclined to dissent from the general opinion of antiquarians, and to give a different account of the vases, and the names which they bear. A number of vessels found in the Catacombs are inscribed with the name of St. Agnes; a glass has also been discovered with the letters Vito..ivas in nomine Laurcti- Victoria, may you live. In the name of Lawrence.' Now, Saturninus, Agnes, and Lawrence, have all given their names to cemeteries; and either for this reason, or to claim protection from them as tributary saints, their names have been inscribed on these vessels. As those martyrs suffered in the last persecution, the vessels so inscribed must be considered as of still later date: a circumstance almost fatal to their supposed connection with martyrs' remains. Between the heathen lachrymatory and the socalled martyr-vase there exists no well-defined difference; and not knowing the exact intention of the vessel in either case, beyond the probability that it was a depository for aromatic gums, we may suppose the Christians to have borrowed it from the Pagans, with such modification of its use as time and circumstances suggested." (p. 146.)

Of

As we really wish our readers to read the Church in the Catacombs, we shall not discuss at length the Fifth chapter, which treats of symbols. The volume contains engravings of various forms of the Cross, of the monogram of our LORD's Name, of the fish, the dove, and olive-branch, the anchor, the ship, the attitude of prayer with out-stretched arms, and the palm and crown. the emblems of trade there are the knife, and mallet, and saw, and adze, and shears and comb. Of other symbols there are given a lion for Pontius Leo; a cask (dolium) for Julius, the son of Doliens; and a pig for Porcella, very remarkable examples of punning epitaphs. The chapter on "The Offices and Customs of the Ancient Church," is interesting, but not particularly well executed. We find here epitaphs telling of a priest, a lector, a deacon, an exorcist, and a fossor, all married. The third of these, beginning Levitæ conjux, is wrongly translated by Dr. Maitland "a priest's wife," (p. 192). Levita is a well-known synonym of Deacon. The author discusses

at great length the questions of compulsory celibacy, the abuses of the Agapæ, and the use of candles in public worship, quite in the spirit of Vigilantius, whom he highly approves of for his "premature protestantism."

We cannot forbear from quoting the very beautiful epitaph of a young wife given in p. 233; taking the liberty of slightly altering Dr. Maitland's translation:

"To Domnina, my most innocent and sweet wife, who lived sixteen years and four months, and was married two years four months and nine days; with whom it was not allowed me to live, by reason of my journeyings, more than six months; during which time, as I felt, so I showed her my love. None else so loved each other. Buried the 15th Kal. Jun.”

The subject of "The Origin of Christian Art" is, in our judgment, rather above our author, who does very little to illustrate it. The chapter is chiefly valuable for its woodcuts of ancient reliefs of the subjects of Jonah, Noah, the Three Children, Daniel, Abraham, Moses, other Old Testament subjects, and above all the Good Shepherd. There is also an engraving of the "earliest professed portrait of our LORD extant": this is from a chapel in the catacombs of S. Callistus, and is said to belong to the end of the fourth century. After this, the subject of Christian architecture is somewhat unsatisfactorily discussed, and the book ends with a sketch of the rapid corruption of Christianity, as evidenced even in the catacombs, and a strong protest against Roman error, a contrast being drawn between the Rome of the present day and the Rome of "the humble and pious Gregory; whose acts are,' or ought to be written in the chronicles of' a grateful nation."

We must again repeat our regret, that a book on so new and interesting a subject, and in many respects so well and agreeably compiled, should be disfigured by the continual soreness of party feeling. The author might, had he the heart to do so, have devoted a chapter to show how little foundation many modern practices and doctrines appear to have in primitive Christianity, or might have made a temperate protest against things he disapproved of in the Church of the Catacombs itself: but those who can take a Catholic interest in the actual memorials of the Church of the first centuries, must be shocked to find that even among them their first thought is to be of modern differences. But perhaps we cannot wonder at this, when the Holy Sepulchre itself is defiled by the quarrels and jealousies of divided Christendom. Yet after all the Catacombs can often inspire a better feeling even into the controversialist: and we have quoted more than one passage, where Dr. Maitland does justice to those primitive ages with a momentary forgetfulness of his party object. We will do him the justice to quote another passage :

"The noble army of martyrs praise Thee: the Holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee.' In accordance

with the spirit of these words, the Church has ever shown a disposition to distinguish in a peculiar manner those who have shed their blood in defence of the faith.... What gratitude do we not owe to those who fought such fearful battles, to leave us in unhoped-for liberty and ease! The merits of the martyrs can be appreciated by all mankind. The natural love of life, and the instinctive shrinking from pain belonging to our species, stamp a plain and intelligible value upon their tried valour. The consentient voice of the whole Church, registered in the canons of an œcumenical council, may be consigned to comparative oblivion: the arguments employed or the ground of controversy itself, may be beyond the understanding of nine-tenths of the world; but torture and death speak a language universally understood.” (p. 81.)

We have no wish to be uncharitable. It would ill become us, whose dearest wish it is to see some prospect of a better understanding among the divided members of the Universal Church, to exaggerate our differences with those of our own Communion who have adopted Protestant prejudices. We have no desire to censure Dr. Maitland for the fact of his acute perception of numerous errors in the modern Papal Church: but we complain that such a subject as he has chosen should be made the vehicle, not merely for a contrast between ancient and modern Rome-for that would be more allowable, but for a contrast between the modern Roman Church and our own. For his whole mode of comparing the two is fallacious, and (though we believe unintentionally) dishonest. He has instituted no rigid inquiry into the system of either Church, viewed as a whole, and then compared each with the system of the primitive Church, digested by a similar process: but, particular details being found in which a difference between the ancient and modern Roman Church may be detected, our attention is loudly called to mark the discrepancy; while very often the difference between our own and the primitive practice is just as great, if not greater. It does not follow because modern Rome is unlike ancient Rome, that we are more like it. This ought to have been proved: but Dr. Maitland scarcely attempts to do so. It is true that you may find the epitaphs of married clergy in the catacombs: and that the modern Roman clergy are celibate, while ours are permitted to marry. But observe that there are also epitaphs of dedicated virgins in the catacombs: in this point then our likeness to the first ages disappears; and a modern Roman Catholic might re-write Dr. Maitland's book against our branch of the Church, mutatis mutandis. There no doubt is, and in some respects ought to be, a difference between the exhibition of primitive and modern Christianity; and we may all doubtless look with benefit to the early model from which we have wandered in different directions or degrees. But it never enters Dr. Maitland's head to imagine that we too might be greatly improved if our practice were in more close conformity with that of the Church in the Catacombs.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »