Their meetings were early and late; during the day he was left free, lest he should lose his value, through being suspected by Christians. Corvinus had determined to make a tremendous dash at them, so soon as the Edict should have come out. He therefore exacted from Torquatus, as his share of the compact, that the spy should study the principal cemetery where the pontiff intended to officiate. This Torquatus soon ascertained; and his visit to the cemetery of Callistus was in fulfilment of his engagement. When that struggle between grace and sin took place in his soul, which Severus noticed, it was the image of Catulus and his hundred plagues, with that of Fulvius and his hundred bonds, that turned the scale in favor of perdition. Corvinus, after receiving his report, and making from it a rough chart of the cemetery, determined to assail it, early, the very day after the publication of the Decree. Fulvius took another course. He determined to become acquainted, by sight, with the principal clergy, and leading Christians, of Rome. Once possessed of this knowledge, he was sure no disguise would conceal them from his piercing eyes; and he would easily pick them up, one by one. He therefore insisted upon Torquatus’s taking him as his companion, to the first great function that should collect many priests and deacons round the Pope. He overruled [Illustration: Christ and His Apostles, from a picture in the Catacombs.] every remonstrance, dispelled every fear; and assured Torquatus, that once in, by his password, he should behave perfectly like any Christian. Torquatus soon informed him, that there would be an excellent opportunity at the coming ordination, in that very month of December. CHAPTER X. THE ORDINATION IN DECEMBER. Whoever has read the history of the early Popes, will have become familiar with the fact, recorded almost invariably of each, that he held certain ordinations in the month of December, wherein he created so many priests, and deacons, and so many bishops for different places. The first two orders were conferred to supply clergy for the city; the third was evidently to furnish pastors for other dioceses. In later times, the ember-days in December, regulated by the festival of St. Lucy, were those on which the Supreme Pontiff held his consistories, in which he named his cardinal priests and deacons, and preconized, as it is called, the bishops of all parts of the world. And, though this function is not now coincident with the periods of ordination, still it is continued essentially for the same purpose. Marcellinus, under whose pontificate our narrative is placed, is stated to have held two ordinations in this month, that is, of course, in different years. It was to one of these that we have alluded, as about to take place.