171 BECBln' CATAOOIIB R181URCIL [J-. and &da's writings touchiug the courses of sun, moon, and planets; taught U8 the constellations, the zodiac, the C8U8e1 of eclipses, the use of the astrolabe and horoscope, the SUD­ dial) and the tube (tubus). He also made us draw figuree. At night, when the stars came out clear, he observed them himself with us, and summoned all the students to watch, both at their rising and setting, the oblique paths of the stan in the different regions of the firmament. ARTICLE VII. SOlIE NOTES ON RECENT CATACOMB RESEARCH AIm ITS LITERATURE. BY JlBV. PROFBIIOB IOOTT, OBlo.t.GO TIROLOGI04L ...I.AllY. MODERN Cat&comb research maybe eaidtohavegonethroughthree ItIIgeI of development: the first, ending about thirty years ago, was 11IlICIeo­ tific and dogmatic i the second, still BUrViviog, is scientific and dogma&ic i the third, just making itself heard, claims to be scientific and historic. The uoscientific period though dead is not wholly buried, and quiie a Dumber of traditional errors still encumber the path of archaeological studies. The Catacombs - as Marchi showed - were not ancient 1&Dd­ pits which the Christians occupied for burial purposes. This mode of sepulture was not an invention of the early church, for it was perfecdJ familiar to the heathen, and Jewish catacombs have been lately inveMi­ gated in Rome. These underground cemeteries were not places of retreat concealed and remote. A solitary inscription refers to takiDg refuge in such caves: "0 tempora infauata quibus inter sacra et vo&a ne in cavern is quidem salvari poIIIIimus." On &he contrary the ea. combs were often entered from the public highway, and their portals were at times imposing works of art (c£Schultze, " Die Kirchliche Archiiologie,· 1879, 1880, in the Ztil$chrift fUr Kirchenguchichtf., p. 444, note 2, 1882- an article which has been of great use in preparing these notes - where a number of inaccuracies in Merz's article " Katakomben .. in the new edi­ tion of Herzog's Enc!JlcwptJdie, 1880, are corrected). Th_ homee of the dead were not usual places of worship i hence the theory of Kraaa (article" Altar" in his Real-tneyldopiJd~) that the church altar an.e from the so called 'tpoicro a menlO and presupposes communion aenicea in the Catacombs is imaginary. The Pl'eIIeIlt stone altar is of heatheD origiD. The carl1 church had 0011 a aimple table. OD the other haod, Digitized by GoogIe 1888.] BKCDT CATACOMB RESEARCH. 178 the fact that burial clubs were oolkgiG licita enabled the Christians to tnmact church bUlinetll and conduct worabip at their funerals under the II&DCtion of law. The great acientific-dogmatic authority, the store-house of Catacomb infOrmation, is De Boeai. His home in Rome, papal favor, and full lit­ erarr and experimental qualifications have conspired to make his well­ mown work (" La Roma sotterranea criatiana," the third volume of which appeared 1877), an indispensable prerequisite to a thorough Imowl­ edge of the subject. Based upon it-in fact, just an abbreviation of it -is the" Roma Sotterranea" of Northcote and Brownlow, the second edition of which appeared t819. London. The German work of Kraus bearing the same title, which reached a second edition 1879, is a trana­ Jation of the F..nglish work. A similar IUDlmary ls the book of Armellini (" I.e Catacomhe &mane," Rom&, 1880), the only valuable part of which is the description of 81. Agnese - a full account of which he has published in a separate work (" n Cimiterio di S. Agnese," Roma, 1880). The dogmatic premmption with which De Rossi and hill school set out u, &bat the pictures, statues, and .n1cles of domestic use which fill the Catacombs were intended to teach symbolically the great doctrines of religiou and morality, and are to be explained accordingly. Strictly in this spirit is written the great work of Garrucci, (" Storia dell' arts cris­ daDa nei primi otto seculi della Chiesa," 1879-80). Preceding volumes embraced the painting on early monuments i the present includes the Christian scwptures of the first eight centuries. The text is of minor importance, but the series of plates, growing in beauty and value, mU:eI the work one of the very best for getting a good view of the whole field of early Christian art. A very valuable contribution to this ~bject has just heen published by T. Roller (" Les Catacombes de Rome, histoire de l'art et des croye aDCe8 religieUB88 pendant les premiers siecles du Christianisme." 2 vola. Paris, 1881, Fr. 250). The writer, a French Protestant, belongs eMeU­ tia1ly to the school of De Rossi, though lese inclined to find intentional apologetics or dogmatic ideas nnderlying every picture and carving. The views of inscriptiODll, sarcophagus reliefil, etc., are heliographic, and the (oar hODdred illustrations form a .plendid gallery of early church art. The dogmatic theory of Roman Catholic scholars, and, with some modiD­ catioos, of moet Protestants, is represented in Germany by F. X. Kraus. lit his lecture "Ueber Begri1I', Umfang, Ge!chichte der christlichen Archi­ oIogie ODd die Bedeutung der monumentalen Studien fUr die historiache Theologie," and in his "BeaHncyklopiidie der christl. Altenthiimer," (1880), he and hi. fellow writers (Roman Catholic) regard earlyworkl of Christian art as petrified or painted doctrines, symbola of deep moral tellclUng. In fact, the fantastic, allegorizing spirit that pervades the BMyklopiidie aoes far beyoad aaythiDg De Rolli would think of. '!'be Digitized by GoogIe 174 RECENT CATACOHB RESEARCH. [Jan. work is based upon Martigny'8 "Dictionnaire des antiquites CbreIi­ ennes," and is now publiAhed as far as the letter K. The same nnlristmic mode of inrerpretation is followed in the excellent work of Kraus, "Synchronistischen Tabellen znr christlichen Kunstgeschichte," 1880. Le Blant, in the introduction to his "Lea Sarcopba."aes ChretiaIt d'Arles," discusses the symbolism of early Christian art in a more h'beral • spirit. He is willing to admit that very often the inscriptions and JIIOIl~ mental symbols have merely a sepulchral meaning; but the cnrrent of hiI exegesis is traditional. Victor Schultze, a yonng lecturer in Leipzig, has recently come forward lUI the representative of a thoroughly objective, historic presentatioD fl monumental information. In his essays, -" Die Bedeutung der altehrla&­ lichen Monumente fUr die theologische Fonrchnng," in the enpplemeat to the Lutherische Kirchenzeitung (No. 16, 1819), and "Die Symbolik del altchristlichen Bilderkreises." - in his work "Archiologiscbe Studiea· (Wien. 1880), he condemns the arbitrary and fanciful method of ~ preting Christian art. and lays down the principles of a natural. historic explanation. Instead of the grand contribntions to the history ofdoctriDe, morals, and church government which the old exegesis gave and promiaed, we are now taught that the thonght of the Catacombs moves witbia tile narrow circle of grief for the dead and hope of victory through the PeInJI'o reetion. Early art is an endless resnrrection-bI088Ollling, whOM rooea draw nourishment from the very grave. Later art scenes from biblical history grew naturally out of the earlier expressions which eet forth limply the feelings of mourners. An example or two will show the new aod old way of looking at the same things. In a burial chamber of pre-Cooetaa­ tine times, opened in 1879, occurs an nnique mural painting, represen~ a suppliant, the Good Shepherd, and a naked gladiator in aD atUtude of combat. Marucchi. in a treatise (" Di un ipogeo recentemente ecoperto," etc., 1879), considers the picture an allegorical representation of the ooane of the Christian martyr, as in 1 Cor. ix. 24. Schultze says simply: "n it the picture of a Christian gladiator, who is buried here." In a female ron. on a sarcophagus in ArIes, with the right hand extended, the left holdiDr the palla, Le Blant sees "l'eglise triomphante accueillant Ie defuM.· Schultze finds nothing in it but the deceased in an attitude of 'It'OJ"IIIdp. On the other hand, in his lateet and largest work (U Die KatakombeD," Leipzig. 1882), Schultze lays perhapt! too great 8tress upon the in6ueoee of the antique in Christian art. It certainly sonnda strange to hear that" there was a time when art in the church was that of the heathen unchanged.· We could not have guessed, if we had not been told, that the,...,.. symbol of the fish in an had its origin in Matt. vii. 9 £ And it is a clew exaggeration to think that church history is to reap as much from die field of monumental theology as pro6me history has done from the 11ft fIl Greece aDd Rome. But the work, OD the whole, is the belt ~_ Digitized by GoogIe 1883.] PCERT CAUCOJlB RESEARCH. 175 of the DIOIt recent iDf'ormatioD OIl the subject, - gathered by pel'lOnal iaYeltigation of the Catacombe of Rome, Naples, and Sicily, -and is oonfidently recommended u a calm, well-balanced treatm<mt of a mOlt interesting period of church lire. The burial customs of the early Christiana ddfered little from those of the world about them. Schultze shows that IDOIt of the trinkets, tools, etc., found with the dead, far L'"Om having a deep spiritual meaning, are simply an illustration of heathen usage con­ tinued by the Christiana. The life beyond wu regarded asa continuation of the life here ; and the amulets, toys, food, lamps, etc., pnt in the grave, were just the outfit which love provided for those who had gone to another ..,here of action. There wu Yery little symbolism about them. In the cue of the well-known blood-bottles affixed to many tombs, certainty has DOt yP.t been reached. Other signs of martyrs' graves have been given lIP by the papacy, after thousands of supposed martyred bones had been eold to all the world; bot the blood-bottles have been declared by the Coagregation of Bites - in 1668, in 1868, and finally in 1872, after chemical aDd micl"Ol!COpic analysis - really to contain blood, and infallibly indicate &he graves of martyrs.