[620] “Unde dignationem sumeret.”--_Conf._, vi, 2. Compare with the expression DIGNITAS in the previous inscription. [621] Pastor quem in calice depingis.--_De Pudicit._, c. 7. Ipsæ picturæ calicum vestrorum, si vel in illis _perlucebit_ interpretatio,... et ego ejus pastoris scripturam haurio _qui non potest frangi_.--_Ibid._, 10. [622] Glass chalices are common, indeed it is said universal, at the present day in the Coptic churches of Egypt. The _San Greal_, or reputed vessel of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, preserved in the Cathedral of Genoa, is, curiously enough, of glass, of a hexagonal form. [623] P. 16, first foot note. Both Christ and Mary have the nimbus. The legend _Christus et Istafanus_ on one example, indicating a transition into modern Italian, implies a late date. [624] Rock’s _Hierurgia_, p. 269. [625] See the epitaphs of Lannus and Gordianus, p. 98. [626] Muratori gives the epitaph of a girl of the age of two years and twenty days, on whose tombstone this cup was found, and feeling the absurdity of this theory, but unwilling to controvert the decree of the Congregation of Relics, he adds ironically, “In these sacred cemeteries you especially wonder at two things, namely, that when so many glass or figured vases occur no mention is made in the inscriptions of martyrdom; and especially that _infants_ suffered death on account of faith in Christ”--In sacris iis coemeteriis duo potissimum mireris, Nempe quum tot Vasa vitrea aut figulina occurrant, nullam tamen in ipsis inscriptionibus mortis pro Christo toleratæ mentionem haberi, et praeterea Infantes ob Fidem Christi morti datos fuisse.--_Nov. Thesaur. Vet. Inscrip._, p. 1958, No. 8. [627] _Mornings with the Jesuits_, p. 222. [628] The Third Council of Carthage in the year 397 forbade this practice, because Christ said, “Take and eat,” whereas a dead body can neither take nor eat--Placuit ut corporibus defunctorum eucharistia non detur. Dictum est enim a Domino Accipite et edite: cadavera autem nec accipere possunt, nec edere.--_Conc. Cath._, 3, can. 6. Chrysostom also denounces the practice because the words were spoken to the living and not to the dead.--_Hom._, 40, in 1 Cor. Gregory the Great speaks of the burial of the Eucharist with the dead, “Jussit communionem Dominici corporis in pectus defuncti reponi atque sic tumulari.”--_Greg. Dial._, lib. ii, c. 24. Maitland thinks that these cups were probably depositories for aromatic gums much used in the interment of the dead. [629] “Ergo palma indicium minime Martyri fuit.”--The inscription, which bears two palms, reads thus--LEOPARDVS SE BIBV FECIT.