The Catacombs of Rome, and Their Testimony Relative to Primitive ChristianityWithrow, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The Catacombs of Rome, and Their Testimony Relative to Primitive Christianity
Withrow, W. H. (William Henry)
Catacombs -- Italy -- Rome; Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
The next name of distinction that we meet in connection with this
subject is that of Bottari, equally versed in profane and sacred
antiquities. His great work on the sculpture and paintings of the 157
Catacombs[271] was issued from the Vatican press, under the patronage
of Clement XII., during the years 1737-1754. Other archæologists,
among whom we may enumerate Buonarrotti, Mamachi,[272] Marini, Lupi,
Zaccaria,[273] Danzetta,[274] Olivieri, Borgia, and others,
illustrated the subject in various works during the eighteenth
century. The establishment of the Christian Museum in the Vatican by
Benedict XIV. greatly facilitated the study of these antiquities. The
taste for archæological research, however, even among ecclesiastics,
was principally confined to the remains of pagan antiquity; and amid
the many museums of Rome only one was devoted to the Christian
monuments of the primitive ages, of which such vast treasures lay
buried in the earth.
During the present century important contributions have been made to
the literature of the Catacombs by D’Agincourt,[275] Röstell,[276]
Raoul-Rochette,[277] the Abbés Gaume[278] and Gerbet,[279] Bishop 158
Munter,[280] Cardinal Mai,[281] and especially Padres Marchi[282] and
Garrucci.
Cardinal Wiseman, in his beautiful tale of Fabiola,[283] attempts to
rehabilitate the primitive ages in the garb of modern Romanism. He
brings together from widely different periods the legends and
traditions, often based on very scanty evidence, which are most
favourable to the claims of ultramontanism, and thus completely
destroys the historic value of the work, rendering it in essence, as
it is in form, a mere romance.
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