[816] Thura plane non emimus, etc.—Apol., 42. “You expect your women will bury your body with ointments and spices,” said the heathen judge to the martyr Tarachus; to prevent which he condemned him to be burned.
[817] In later times similar rites were paid to the tomb. “We will adorn the hidden bones,” sings Prudentius, “with violets and many a bough; and on the epitaphs and the cold stones we will sprinkle liquid odours.”—Cathem., x.
[818] See Euseb., H. E., vii, 16 and 22. They were often denied the privilege.—Ibid., v, 1. Eutychianus, a Roman Christian, is said to have buried three hundred and forty-two martyrs with his own hands.
[819] Ψάλλοντες προπέμπετε αὐτοὺς, κ. τ. λ.—Constit. Apos., vi, 30. Hymnos et Psalmos decantans, etc.—Hieron., Vit. Pauli.
[820] Chrys., Hom., 4, in Hebr. The following inscription indicates that the corpse was sometimes brought to the Catacombs some time before burial; probably immediately after death, as in Italy it is now taken to the church. Pecora dulcis anima benit in cimitero Marturorum, vii, idus Jul. Dp. Postera die—“Pecora, a sweet soul, came (was brought) to the cemetery of the martyrs on the 9th of July; was buried the following day.”
[821] The Christian emperors prohibited the branding of felons on the forehead on the ground “that the human countenance, formed after the image of heavenly beauty, should not be defaced.” They also exempted widows and orphans from taxation, and contributed to their support.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MINISTRY, RITES, AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
We gain from the testimony of the Catacombs most important information as to the organization of the church during the early Christian centuries. We see on every side records of an efficient ministry of different grades and dignities, yet wholly unlike that vast hierarchical system which claims to be its lineal descendant. We discern also evidences of a well-ordered administration of the sacraments and ordinances of religion, simple and unadorned, yet instinct with spiritual life and power, compared with which the gorgeous ritual and lifeless pomp of Romanism are more akin, in outward form at least, to the pagan homage of the Bona Dea, or to the mysteries of Mithras, than to Christian worship. So complete is this testimony as to the ministry and rites of the primitive church, that Dr. Northcote remarks that, “even if all the writings of the Fathers had altogether perished, we might almost reconstruct the whole fabric of the ecclesiastical polity from the scattered notices of these sepulchral inscriptions.”[822]