[646] Nam utique et altare portarent et vasa ejus, et aquam in manus funderent sarcerdoti, sicut videmus per omnes ecclesias.--Aug., _Quæst. Vet. et Nov. Test._, qu. 101. See also Cyril, _Catech. Myst._, 5, n. 1. [647] “_Renfermer le Saint-chrême._” Tom. i, p. 266. [648] Cum aurum nulla norat præter unico digito, quem sponsus oppignerasset annulo pronubo.--_Apol._, c. 6. [649] Et annulo fidei suæ subarravit me.--In Ambr. _Ep._ 31. [650] Clem. Alex., _Pædagog._, iii, 2. [651] _Ibid._ [652] See the example of Pharaoh, Gen. xli, 42; and Ahasuerus, Esther iii, 10, and viii, 2. [653] Pitra, _Spicil. Solesm._, tom. iii, tab. iii, n. 4. [654] When the tomb of the Empress Maria, wife of Honorius, was opened in 1544, a profusion of ornaments and trinkets were found, from which, it is said, not less than thirty-six pounds of gold were taken. The Empress Placidia was also interred in similar gorgeous funeral pomp, which was, however, consumed in 1577 by the accidental ignition of her gold-embroidered robes. [655] Iren., lib. ii, c. 57. Aug., tract 7, _in Joan._; serm. 215, _de Tempore_. Chrysos., hom. vi, _Contr. Judæos_. Conc. Laodic., can. 36. [656] Il y avait là une notion confuse et grossière sans doute de l’immortalité de l’âme, mais il s’y trouvait aussi la preuve sensible et palpable de cet instinct de l’homme, qui repugne à l’idée de la destruction de son être.--_Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscr._, tom. xiii, p. 689. [657] Rochette says that this practice continued down to the time of Thomas Aquinas, who wrote against it. [658] “Gold may justly be taken from the sepulture which no longer contains its original owner,” says the minister of Theodoric to a provincial governor; “indeed, it is a sort of fault to leave idly hidden with the dead that which might support the living.”--Aurum enim justè sepulcro detrahitur, ubi dominus non habetur; imo culpæ genus est inutiliter abdita relinquere mortuorum, unde se vita potest sustentare viventium.--Cassiod., _Var._, iv, 34. [659] _Italienische Forschungen_, vol. i, p. 168.--The subject of early Christian sculpture is fully treated in a recent work by Dr. Wilhelm Lübke, entitled _Geschichte der Plastik_. Two vols. Leipzig: Seeman, 1870. [660] Qua constantia exorcizabit _alumnos suos_, quibus domum suam cellariam præstat ... quid aliud quam procurator idolorum demonstraris?--_De Idol._, c. 11. [661] Fabri deorum, vel parentes numinum.--_Peristeph._, x, 293. [662] _Constit. Apostol._, lib. viii, c. 32.