these gentle ministrants possessed facilities denied to the other sex. They are frequently mentioned in the writings of the Fathers under the names of διάκονοι,[875] deaconesses, viduæ, widows, or ancillæ Dei, handmaids of God. In apostolic times they were required to be of the mature age of sixty years;[876] but widows, and even the unmarried, were subsequently admitted into this class as early as forty,[877] or even twenty,[878] years of age. The unmarried, however, assumed no vow of perpetual celibacy,[879] nor of conventual life, but lived privately in their own homes, employed in offices of piety and mercy. The growing esteem of celibacy, however, in the fourth and fifth centuries, invoked ecclesiastical censure for the abandonment of the lofty vantage ground of virginhood;[880] but the Imperial law granted liberty of marriage,
if the order had been entered before the age of forty. How different the practice of Rome in binding young girls, in the first outburst of religious enthusiasm, or the first bitterness of disappointed hope, by irrevocable vows to a death-in-life, and indissolubly riveting those bonds, no matter how the chafed soul may repudiate the rash vow, and writhe beneath the galling yoke. The consecrated virgin of the early church, instead of the ghastly robings, like the cerements of the grave, in which the youthful nun is swathed, the symbol of her social death, wore a sacrum velamen, or veil, differing but little from that of Christian matrons, and a fillet of gold around her hair. The custom, now part of the Romish ritual, of despoiling the head of its natural adorning, was especially denounced by some of the ancient councils.
There are several of the early Christian inscriptions illustrative of these various classes of consecrated women, of which the following are examples: OC · TA · VI · AE · MA · TRO · NAE · VI · DV · AE · DE · I.—“To the matron Octavia, a widow of God;” HIC QVIESCIT GAVDIOSA CF ANCILLA DEI QVAE VIXIT ANNOS XL ET MEN V—“Here rests Gaudiosa, a most distinguished woman, a handmaid of God, who lived forty years and five months,” (A. D. 447); IN HOC SEPVLCHRO REQVIESCIT PVELLA VIRGO SACRA B · M · ALEXANDRA—“In this tomb rests a girl, a sacred virgin, Alexandra, well deserving;” HOC EST SEPVLCRVM SANCTAE LVCINAE VIRGINIS—“This is the sepulchre of the holy virgin Lucina”—this, however, may not indicate a special class. AESTONIA VIRGO PEREGRINA QVAE VIXIT ANNOS XLI; ET · DS · VIII
(sic)—”Æstonia, a travelling virgin, who lived forty-one years and eight days”—she was probably a member of a distant church, received on a letter of recommendation, FVRIA HELPHIS (sic) VIRGO DEVOTA—“Furia Elpis, a consecrated virgin.” In the fifth century this consecration sometimes took place at an early age, as the following example, of date A. D. 401: PRIE (sic) IVNIAS PAVSABET (sic) PRAETIOSA ANNORVM PVLLA (sic) VIRGO XII TANTVM ANCILLA DEI ET CHRISTI—“On the day before (the Calends of) June Prætiosa went to her rest, a young maiden of only twelve years of age, a handmaid of God and of Christ.”[881]
There is no trace in the inscriptions of the Catacombs of that ascetic spirit from which, in the fourth and following centuries, sprang the strange phenomena of monachism, with its important influence for blended good and evil on the future of Christendom. That was rather the result of the decay and corruption of primitive Christianity, and of the despair of mankind as to its regenerative power upon the world. Hence, multitudes fled from the immedicable evils of society to the solitude of the desert or the mountain.[882] Primitive Christianity, on the contrary, was eminently cheerful and social in its character. It consecrated the family life, and developed, to a degree before unknown, the domestic virtues.
The care of the primitive church for the religious teaching of the young and of heathen converts is
abundantly exemplified in the inscriptions of the Catacombs. The catechumens, or learners, as the word signifies—the “Cadets of Christianity”—were a distinctly recognized class for whose instruction especial provision was made. It consisted of the children of believers born in the church, and therefore peculiarly under its care; and also of converts from paganism, who needed to be weaned from their errors, and taught the doctrines of Christianity before admission to the sacraments of baptism and the holy eucharist. For the latter, as a safeguard against the rash assumption of the Christian vows and the danger of subsequent apostacy, a certain probation was prescribed.[883] The candidates were taught the Holy Scriptures, and a formal confession of faith, probably similar to the ancient creed in which the Christian belief of the church has for so many centuries been expressed. These instructions were given by the bishop himself as chief catechist; and also by the presbyters, deacons, lectors, and other members of the inferior ministry. Deaconesses and aged women acted as instructresses of their own sex; and one of these was always present during the questioning of the female catechumens by the male catechists.
The following engraving represents a chamber in the Catacomb of St. Agnes, which, it is conjectured, was employed for the instruction of the female catechumens. On either side of the doorway are seats or chairs hewn out of the solid tufa, which were probably occupied by the catechist and the presiding deaconess. The low stone bench running around the remaining walls
of the chamber would conveniently accommodate the audientes, or hearers, as they were called.