[706] De Resur. Carn., c. 9. He mentions the long duration of the bones and teeth, and quotes the story of the phœnix as an argument in favour of the doctrine, c. 13.
[707] A spurious epitaph of the fourteenth century, given by Maitland, p. 82, as genuine, thus fantastically refers to this august theme: QVI INQVIETVS VIXI NVNC TANDEM MORTVVS NON LVBENS QVIESCO, SOLVS CVR SIM QVAESERIS (sic) VT IN DIE CENSORIO SINE IMPEDIMENTO FACILIVS RESVRGAM—“I who lived restless, being now at length dead, rest unwillingly. Do you ask why I am alone? That in the day of Judgment I may more readily rise without impediment.”
[708] See also the epitaph given in [Book I, chap. iii.]—ALEXANDER MORTVVS NON EST SED VIVIT SVPER ASTRA—“Alexander is not dead but lives above the stars.”
[709] Similarly the African Christians called their burial places accubitoria—“sleeping places.”
[710] Wiseman, Fabiola, p. 145. Dr. McCaul, however, regards the expression as simply equivalent to buried.
[711] This phrase is sometimes, though very rarely, inadvertently used in Christian epitaphs, as also the expression, Τὸν ἀγρήγορον ὕπνον καθεύδει—“Sleeps the sleep that knows no waking.” Of somewhat pagan form is the following epitaph of Cardinal Porto-Carero at Toledo, Hic jacet pulvis cinis et nihil—“Here lies dust and ashes, and nothing more.”
[712] Omnibus a suprema die eadem quæ ante primum, nec magis a morte sensus ullus aut corporis aut animæ, quam ante natalem.
[713] Si quis piorum manibus locus, si non cum corpore extinguuntur magnæ animæ, placide quiescas.—Vit. Agric.
Esse aliquid manes et subterranea regna,