Square stone troughs, about twelve or fourteen inches in length by from eight to ten inches in breadth, are also to be met with in considerable numbers; and they were employed to receive the bones that had fallen from disused burial-places, and from the vaults beneath churches when, in the course of repairs, unknown or forgotten graves were disturbed. When these repairs led to the disinterment of the coffins appertaining to some personages of note buried in the church of which they had been the parishioners and the benefactors, it sometimes happened that in moving them they were burst open, and, in this case, the remnants of the broken coffins were placed in these small troughs, which took up less room. The tombs, that is to say the visible monuments of burial, were of nearly the same shape as the coffins, from the earliest ages down to the close of the ninth century, the only distinction being that they were made of choicer materials and decorated with more or less magnificence. Thus, all the coffins which contained the bodies of martyrs, nobles, prelates, or kings, were exposed to the view of the faithful, and served for tombs, so that these illustrious persons were not, in the true sense of the term, interred. The stone chest in which the body was placed being both a coffin and a funeral monument, was not hidden beneath a tombstone, but remained visible in a church--not in a sepulchral cave, but above ground, often, indeed, raised upon columns. The early Christians of Gaul, those at least who were distinguished for their achievements or their virtues, were interred in this fashion in sarcophagi ornamented with allegorical subjects, very like those in which pagans were buried. A case in point is the sarcophagus at Rheims of Jovinus the patrician, master of the cavalry under Julian, and, it is said, founder of the Church of St. Agricole, since called St. Nicaise. This monument, removed from this ancient church to the cathedral and afterwards to the museum, is of white marble, sculptured upon three sides. The front represents various hunting scenes, in which Jovinus is taking part, with a spear in his hand, accompanied by a spirit which has the attributes of Minerva. It is very probable that this sarcophagus, which had been previously used for the burial of some pagan, was used for its fresh occupant without any change being made in its artistic features. An exactly similar one was made for the King of Austrasia, Carloman, the brother of Charlemagne; an analogous subject was also sculptured upon it, and it was elevated upon four columns near the tomb of St. Remigius.