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CATACOMB

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 492 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CATACOMB , a subterranean excavation for the interment of the dead or See also:

burial-vault. In this sense the word " catacomb " has gained universal See also:acceptance, and has found a See also:place in most See also:modern See also:languages. The See also:original See also:term, catacumbae, however, had no connexion with sepulture, but was simply the name of a particular locality in the environs of See also:Rome. It was derived from the See also:Greek Kara and id 4bt, " a hollow," and had reference to the natural configuration of the ground. In the See also:district that See also:bore this designation, lying See also:close to the See also:Appian Way, the See also:basilica of See also:San Sebastiano was erected, and the extensive burial-vaults beneath that church—in which, according to tradition, the bodies of the apostles St See also:Peter and St See also:Paul rested for a See also:year and seven months previous to their removal to the basilicas which See also:bear their names—were, in very See also:early times, called from it coemeterium ad catacumbas, or catacumbas alone. From the celebrity of this See also:cemetery as an See also:object of See also:pilgrimage its name became extensively known, and in entire forgetfulness of the origin of the word, catacumbae came to be regarded as a generic appellation for all burial-places of the same See also:kind. This See also:extension of the term to See also:Christian burial-vaults generally See also:dates from the 9th See also:century, and obtained See also:gradual currency through the Christian See also:world. The original designation of these places of sepulture is crypta or coemeterium. The largest number of Christian catacombs belong to the 3rd and the early See also:part of the 4th centuries. The See also:custom of subterranean interment gradually died out, and entirely ceased with the See also:sack of Rome by See also:Alaric, A.D. 410. " The end of the catacomb See also:graves," writes See also:Mommsen (Cont.

Rev., 1bIay 1871), " is intimately connected with the end of the powerful See also:

city itself. . . . Poverty took the place of See also:wealth, . . . the traditions of the Christian See also:tomb-architects sank into utter insignificance, and the. expanse of the wasted Campagna now offered See also:room enough to See also:bury the few bodies, without having to descend as once far down below the' See also:surface of the See also:earth." The earliest See also:account of the catacombs, that of St See also:Jerome narrating his visits to them when a schoolboy at Rome, about A.D. 354, shows that interment in them was even then rare if it had not been altogether discontinued; and the poet See also:Prudentius's description of the tomb of the Christian See also:martyr See also:Hippolytus, and the cemetery in which it stood, leads us to. the same conclusion. With the latter part of the 4th century a new See also:epoch in the See also:history of the catacombs arose—that of religious reverence. In the See also:time of See also:Pope See also:Damasus, A.D. 366-384, the catacombs had begun to be regarded with See also:special devotion, and had become the resort of large bands of pilgrims, for whose guidance catalogues of the See also:chief burial-places and the See also:holy men buried in them were See also:drawn up. Some of these lists are still extant.' Pope Damasus himself displayed See also:great zeal in adapting the catacombs to their new purpose, restoring the See also:works of See also:art on the walls, and renewing the epitaphs over the graves of the martyrs. In this latter See also:work he employed an engraver named Furius Philocalus, the exquisite beauty of whose characters enables the smallest fragment of his work to be recognized at a glance. This gave rise to extensive alterations in their construction and decoration, which has much lessened their value as See also:authentic memorials of the religious art of the and and 3rd centuries. Subsequent popes manifested equal ardour, with the same damaging results, in the repair and adornment of the catacombs, and many of the paintings covering their walls, which have been assigned to the See also:period of their original construction, are really the work of these later times.

The catacombs ' The most important of these lists are the two Itineraries belonging to the first See also:

half of the 7th century, in the See also:Salzburg library. One still earlier, but less See also:complete, appears in the Notitia Urbis Romae, under the See also:title See also:Index Coemeteriorum. Another Itinerary, preserved at See also:Einsiedeln, printed by See also:Mabillon, dates from the latter half of the same century. That found in the works of See also:William of See also:Malmesbury (See also:Hardy's ed. vol. ii. pp. 539-544) appears to be copied from it, or both may be from the same source. De See also:Rossi gives a See also:comparative table of these Itineraries and other similar lists.shared in the devastation of Rome by the Goths under Vitiges' in the 6th century and by the See also:Lombards at a later period; and partly through the spoliation of these See also:barbarian invaders, partly through the neglect of those who should have been their guardians, they sank into such a See also:state of decay and pollution that, as the only means of preserving the holy remains they enshrined from further desecration, Pope Paul I., in the latter part of the 8th century, and Pope See also:Paschal, at the beginning of the 9th, entered upon the . work of the See also:translation of the See also:relics, which was vigorously carried on by successive pontiffs until the crypts were almost entirely despoiled of their dead. The relics having been removed, the visits of pilgrims naturally ceased, and by degrees the very existence of those wonderful subterranean cemeteries was forgotten. Six centuries elapsed before the accidental See also:discovery of a sepulchral chamber by some labourers digging for pozzolana earth (May 31, 1578) revealed to the amazed inhabitants of Rome " the existence," to quote a contemporary See also:record, " of other cities concealed beneath their own suburbs." See also:Baronius, the ecclesiastical historian, was one of the first to visit the new discovery, and his See also:Annals in more than one place See also:evidence his just appreciation of its importance. The true " See also:Columbus of this subterranean world," as he has been aptly designated, was the indefatigable See also:Antonio Bosio (d. 1629), who devoted his See also:life to the See also:personal investigation of the catacombs, the results of which were given to the world in 1632 in a huge See also:folio, entitled See also:Roma sotterranea, profusely illustrated with See also:rude but faithful plans and engravings. This was republished in a Latin translation with considerable alterations and omissions by See also:Paolo Aringhi in 1651; and a century after its first See also:appearance the plates were reproduced by Giovanni Bottari in 1737, and illustrated with great care and learning. Some additional discoveries were described by Marc Antonio Boldetti in his Osservazioni, published in 1720; but, See also:writing in the interests of the See also:Roman See also:Church with an apologetic, not a scientific object, truth was made to See also:bend to polemics, and little addition to our knowledge of the catacombs is to be gained from his other-See also:wise important work.

The See also:

French historian of art, See also:Seroux d'See also:Agincourt, 1825, by his copious illustrations, greatly facilitated the study of the See also:architecture of the catacombs and the works of art contained in them. The works of Raoul Rochette display a comprehensive knowledge of the whole subject, extensive See also:reading, and a thorough acquaintance with early Christian art so far as it could be gathered from books, but he was not an original investigator. The great See also:pioneer in the path of See also:independent See also:research, which, with the intelligent use of documentary and See also:historical evidence, has led to so vast an increase in our acquaintance with the Roman Catacombs, was Padre Marchi of the Society of Jesus. His work, Monumenti delle aril christiane See also:primitive, is the first in which the See also:strange misconception, received with unquestioning faith by earlier writers, that the catacombs were exhausted See also:sand-pits adapted by the Christians to the purpose of interment, was dispelled, and the true history of their formation demonstrated. Marchi's See also:line of investigation was followed by the Commendatore De Rossi, and his See also:brother Michele, the former of whom was Marchi's See also:fellow-labourer during the latter part of his explorations; and it is to them that we owe the most exhaustive scientific examination of the whole subject. The Catacombs of Rome are the most extensive with which we are acquainted, and, as might be expected in the centre of the Christian world, are in many respects the most remarkable. No others have been so thoroughly examined and illustrated. These may, therefore, be most appropriately selected for description as typical examples. Our description of the Roman Catacombs cannot be more appropriately introduced than by St Jerome's account of his visits to them in his youth, already referred to, which, after the See also:lapse of above fifteen centuries, presents acatacombs of Rome. . most accurate picture of these wonderful subterranean . labyrinths. " When I was a boy," he writes, " receiving my See also:education in Rome, I and my schoolfellows used, on Sundays, to make the See also:circuit of the sepulchres of the apostles and martyrs. Many a time did we go down into the catacombs.

These are excavated deep in the earth, and contain, on either See also:

hand as you enter, the bodies of the dead buried in the See also:wall. It is all so dark there that the See also:language of the See also:prophet (Ps. 1v. 15) seems to be fulfilled, ` Let them go down See also:quick into See also:hell.' Only occasionally is See also:light let in to mitigate the horror of the gloom, and then not so much through a window as through a hole. You take each step with caution, as, surrounded by deep See also:night, you recall the words of See also:Virgil "Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent." In complete agreement with Jerome's vivid picture the visitor to the Roman Catacombs finds himself in a vast See also:labyrinth of narrow galleries, usually from 3 to 4 ft. in width, interspersed with small See also:chambers, all excavated at successive levels, in thethey reach seven storeys), and communicate with one another by stairs cut out of the living See also:rock. Light and See also:air are introduced by means of See also:vertical shafts (luminaria) See also:running up to the See also:outer air, and often serving for several storeys. The See also:drawing (fig. 3) from See also:Northcote gives a very correct See also:idea of these galleries, with the tiers of graves pierced in the walls. The doorways which are seen interrupting the lines of graves are those of the See also:family sepulchral chambers, or cubicula, of which we shall speak more particularly hereafter. The graves, or loculi, as they are commonly designated, were, in the Christian cemeteries, with only a few exceptions (Padre Marchi produces some from the cemetery of St Ciriaca, Monum. primitiv. See also:tay. xiv. xliii. xliv.), parallel with the length of the A. Entrance from the Basilica of St See also:Agnes. t, 2. See also:Ancient staircases leading to the first See also:storey.

3. Corridors from the staircases. 4. Two ruined staircases leading to the See also:

lower storey. 5. Steps of the rock. 6. Air-shafts, or luminaria. 7. Ruined vault. 8. See also:Blind ways.

9. Passages built up or ruined. 10. Passages obstructed by landslips. 11. Unfinished passage. 12. Passages destitute of tombs. of the Cemetery of Sant' Agnese. (From Martigny.) 13. Narrow apertures between adjoining galleries. 14-17.

Arcosolia. 18-32. Cubicula. [two chairs. 33. See also:

Chapel with See also:vestibule and See also:apse, and 34. See also:Double chapel with three chairs. 35. Large chapel in five divisions. strata of volcanic rock subjacent to the city and its environs, and constructed originally for the interment of the Christian dead. The galleries are not the way of See also:access to the cemeteries, but are themselves the cemeteries, the dead being buried in See also:long See also:low See also:horizontal recesses, excavated in the vertical walls of the passages, rising tier above tier like the berths in a See also:ship, from a few inches above the See also:floor to the springing of the arched See also:ceiling, to the number of five, six or even sometimes twelve ranges. These galleries are not arranged on any definite See also:plan, but, as will be seen from the plan (fig.

1), they intersect one another at different angles, producing an intricate network which it is almost impossible to reduce to any See also:

system. They generally run in straight lines, and as a See also:rule preserve the same level. The different storeys of galleries See also:lie one below the other (fig. 2) to the number of four or five (in one part of the cemetery of St See also:Calixtus 1 Hieron., Comment. in Ezech. See also:lib. xx. c. 4o. The translation is See also:Dean See also:Burgon's.See also:gallery. In the See also:pagan cemeteries, on the other hand, the sepulchral See also:recess as a rule entered the rock like an See also:oven at right angles to the See also:corridor, the See also:body being introduced endways. The plan adopted by the Christians saved labour, economized space, and consulted reverence in the deposition of the See also:corpse. These loculi were usually constructed for a single body only. Some, however, were formed to contain two, three, or four, or even more corpses. Such recesses were known respectively as bisomi, trisomi, quadrisomi, &c., terms which often appear in the sepulchral See also:inscriptions. After the introduction of the body the loculi were closed with the greatest care, either with slabs of See also:marble the whole length of the See also:aperture, or with huge tiles, three being generally employed, cemented together with great exactness so as to prevent the See also:escape of the products of decomposition (fig.

4). Where any See also:

epitaph was set up—an immense number are destitute cf any inscription at all—it is always painted or engraved on these slabs or tiles. In the earlier interments the 492 epitaph is usually daubed on the slab in red or See also:black paint. In later examples it is incised in the See also:marbles, the letters being rendered clearer by being coloured with See also:vermilion. The enclosing slab very often bears one or more Christian symbols, such as the d'Agincourt.) See also:dove, the See also:anchor, the See also:olive-See also:branch, or the See also:monogram of See also:Christ (See also:figs. 5, 6). The See also:palm branch, which is also of frequent occurrence, is not an indisputable See also:mark of the last resting-place of a martyr, being found in connexion with epitaphs of persons dying natural deaths, or those prepared by persons in their lifetime, as well as in those of little See also:children, and even of pagans. Another frequent concomitant of these catacomb interments, a small See also:glass See also:vessel containing traces of the sediment of a red fluid, embedded in the See also:cement of the loculus (fig. 7), has no better claim. The red See also:matter proves to be the remains of See also:wine, not of See also:blood; and the conclusion of the ablest archaeologists is that the vessels were placed where they are found, after the eucharistic celebration or See also:agape on the See also:day of the funeral or its anniversary, and contained remains of the consecrated elements as a kind of religious See also:charm. Not a few of the slabs, it is discovered, have done double See also:duty, bearing a pagan inscription on one See also:side and a Christian one on the other. These are known as opisthographs.

The bodies were interred wrapped in See also:

linen cloths, or swathed in bands, and were frequently preserved by See also:embalming. In the See also:case of poorer interments the destruction of the body was, on the contrary, often accelerated by the use of quicklime. Interment in the wall-recess or loculus, though infinitely the most See also:common, was not the only mode employed in the catacombs. Other forms of very frequent recurrence are the table-tomb and arched tomb, or See also:arcosolium. From the annexed woodcuts it will be seen that these only differ in the See also:form of the surmounting recess. In each case the arched tomb was formed by an oblong See also:chest, either hollowed out of the rock, or built of See also:masonry, and closed with a horizontal slab. But in the table-tomb (fig. 8) the recess above, essential for the introduction of the corpse, is square, while in the arcosolium (fig. 9), a form of later date, it is semicircular.

End of Article: CATACOMB

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