official document of the first decade of the fourth century, where they follow immediately after the bishop, priests, deacons, and sub-deacons. In the list furnished to St. Cyprian, it is probable that they are included among the _ostiarii_, with whose duties their own must have been in part identical as long as the Christians continued to worship in the Catacombs. However, be this as it may, there can be no doubt that during the earliest ages of the Church the _fossors_ were supported, like the rest of her ministers, by the voluntary gifts of the faithful; and the whole work of the Catacombs was carried on by means of the mutual spontaneous liberality of the whole body of Christians, not by any fixed tax exacted for each grave that was required. We have now completed our sketch of the outward history of the Catacombs during the ages of persecution. We have noted the vicissitudes of their fortunes at various times, traced the gradual process of their architectural development, and paid our tribute of admiration to the men who made them. Would that it were also possible to add a faithful abstract of the chronicles of these venerable sanctuaries during those eventful years! Many must have been the tender and stirring scenes of which they were the witnesses; but, alas! of most of these all written memorial has perished. Even of those which have reached us, the narrative has generally been corrupted by later embellishments, so that there are very few which rest on sufficiently authentic evidence to justify their introduction in this place. The following, however, are exceptions to this remark, and are too precious to be omitted.