representations in a mosaic floor of pre-Christian date, near Pau in France, in 1850. This example was probably post-Christian. [357] When persecution ceased, this veil of mystery was thrown off and a less esoteric art employed; but even when Christianity came forth victorious from the Catacombs, symbolical paintings celebrated its triumph upon the walls of the basilicas and baptisteries which rose in the great centres of population. [358] _Mémoire sur les antiquités Chrétiennes des Catacombes._ (_Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscr., XIII._) [359] Sometimes this superzealous interpretation leads to absurd mistakes. Aringhi devotes two folio pages to the explanation of certain figures which occur in the inscriptions of the Catacombs, which he calls representations of the human heart. He illustrates the subject with much sacred and profane learning, and with many quotations from the Scriptures, the Fathers, and classic authors. Another archæologist, Boldoni, suggests that the figures signify the bitterest sorrow of heart--_dolorem cordi intimum_; and another believes them to be representations of a heart transpierced with a thorn, the symbol of profoundest grief. These mysterious figures, whose hidden meaning was sought with such empty toil--_arcanam significationem inani labore investigarint_, says De Rossi--were, however, nothing more than the leaf-decorations employed in both pagan and Christian inscriptions by way of punctuation! See the following example: [Illustration: Fig. 32.--To Berpius, (or Verpius,) in Peace.] [360] See especially the church of S. Stefano Rotondo, where is a chronological series of martyrdoms, represented in all their direst horrors, from the crucifixion of Our Lord to the reign of Julian. Among other _grotesqueries_ is a picture of St. Dionysius walking in full episcopal robes at the head of a procession, holding his head, streaming with blood, in his hands! The desire to find martyrs has led over-zealous antiquarians to discover instruments of torture in the implements of trade commonly represented on the gravestones of the Catacombs. The adz and saw of the carpenter are made to do duty in some sensational tale of chopping and sawing of a Christian sufferer, and the baker’s corn measure is transformed into a martyr’s fiery furnace. [361] See Figs. 122 to 128, and context. [362] _Sac. Art_, p. 43. [363] Figs. 23, 24.