John Monro

“ The other sort of Authors give indeed a mighty Idea of the Catacombs, represent them as a work of that vastness, that the Christians in the persecuting times had not number enough to carry it on; but then most undevisedly with the same breath they confound them with the Puticuli in Festus Pempeius, where, at the same time that the Anicent Romans us'd to burn the Bodies of their dead, the custom was, to avoid expence, to throw those of the Slaves to rot. ”

“ They take their names from the Churches in their neighborhood, and seem to divide the circumference of the City without the Walls between them, extending their Galleries every where under, and a vast way from it, so that all the ground under, and for many miles about it, is said to be hollow. Now there are two sorts of Authors that run into extravagance on this subject; the one will have them made by the Primitive Christians, adding, that in the times of Persecution they liv'd, held their Assemblies, and laid up the Bodies of their Martyrs and Confessors in them. ”

“ Upon the same maxims, in foreign expeditions, when a Hero dy'd or was kill'd, as the Body was liable to a quick corruption, and for that reason unfit to be transported entire, they fell on the expedient of Burning, in order to bring home the Ashes, to oblige the Manes to follow, that so the Country might not be depriv'd of the benefit of its tutelage. ”

“ All they into whose way they come, think they do nothing if they do not exhaust them before they leave them; they take all their dimensions, measure their height, their breadth and their length; they survey all the little rooms, search every hole and corner, criticize nicely on the quality, and calculate the age of the poor Painting and Inscriptions, and make excursions into other arguments, to find out the end for which they were made. ”

“ After the Labourers have survey'd a Gallery, they do up the entry that leads into it; thus most of them are shut; nor are more left open than what is necessary to keep up the trade of shewing them to Strangers, which they say is done to prevent what has open happen'd, I mean peoples losng themselves in these subterraneous Labyrynths ”

“ The few that were in the secret of this Artifice either dying, or as the Monks, who were the only men that seem to have Heads adapted to a thought of this quality, were subje to so many removes, being transported to other places, the contrivance came to be forgot, and those Galleries contnu'd shut, till Chance, the Parent, often of great discoveries, open'd them at last. Thus they conclude, the remains of the vilest part of Mankind are trump'd up in the Church for the Bodies of the most eminent Confessors and Martyrs. ”

“ As the Authors are pleas'd to adopt them for their Children, one wou'd wonder greater care is not taken not to entail visisble occasions of complaint on them; nay, one wou'd wonder more, to see these Gentlemen so little ambitions of a future reputation, when they may infallibly assure it themselves, without resigning the present, by transmitting the knowledge of things, the knowledge of which may in a small series of years become otherwise irretrievable ”

“ This is the account that prevails at Rome, and consequent to it there are men kept constantly at work in them. As soon as these Labourers discover a Repository, with any of the marks of a Saint about it, intimation is given to the Cardinal Treasurer, who immediately sends men of probity and reputation to the place, where they find a Palm painted or ingraven, or the Cypher Χρ, which is commonly read pro Christo, or a small round projeion in the side of the Gallery, a little below the Repository ”

“ I think 'twill not be deny'd, that laying up the Bodies in Caves was the original way of disposing of the dead; this was that of the Phænicians, and as they were the men that with their Colonies peopled the Western parts of the World, 'tis more than probable they carry'd it along with them whither soever they went. Afterwards, as men grew great and powerful, they ereed noble and magnificent monuments for themselves above ground ”