[628] The Third Council of Carthage in the year 397 forbade this practice, because Christ said, “Take and eat,” whereas a dead body can neither take nor eat—Placuit ut corporibus defunctorum eucharistia non detur. Dictum est enim a Domino Accipite et edite: cadavera autem nec accipere possunt, nec edere.—Conc. Cath., 3, can. 6. Chrysostom also denounces the practice because the words were spoken to the living and not to the dead.—Hom., 40, in 1 Cor. Gregory the Great speaks of the burial of the Eucharist with the dead, “Jussit communionem Dominici corporis in pectus defuncti reponi atque sic tumulari.”—Greg. Dial., lib. ii, c. 24. Maitland thinks that these cups were probably depositories for aromatic gums much used in the interment of the dead.
[629] “Ergo palma indicium minime Martyri fuit.”—The inscription, which bears two palms, reads thus—LEOPARDVS SE BIBV FECIT.
[630] Il n’a rencontré lui même dans ces souterrains aucun trace de nul autre tableau représentant une martyre.—Hist. de l’Art.
[631] A fresco of the martyrdom of Felicitas and her seven sons, in an ancient chapel within the Baths of Titus, is not later, according to M. Rochette, (Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscr., tom. xiii, p. 165,) than the seventh century.
[632] Aringhi has given an entire chapter on this subject, entitled “Martyriorum instrumenta unà cum martyrum corporibus tumulo reponuntur.”—Rom. Sott., i, 29.
[633] Catacombs of Rome, pp. 111, 112.
[634] Ibid., p. 187.
[635] “Flagellum quoddam ad corpus excruciandum,” is the phrase of Aringhi.
[636] Rom. Sott., p. 387.
[637] Perret, tom. iv, planche 2. The ship was a favourite type of the church during the Middle Ages. In the church of St. Etienne-du-Mont, at Paris, is a representation of a vessel crowded with passengers, among whom the portrait of Francis I. has been recognized. In an ancient Merovingian MS. missal the same idea is repeated, only the Holy Spirit is substituted as pilot—Bene gubernatus est Spiritus Sanctus.