THEODORA QVAE VIXIT ANNOS XXI M. VII D. XXIII IN PACE.... AMPLIFICAM SEQVITVR VITAM DVM CASTA AFRODITE || FECIT AD ASTRA VIAM CHRISTI MODO GAVDET IN AVLA || RESTITIT HAEC MVNDO SEMPER CAELESTIA QVAERENS || OPTIMA SERVATRIX LEGIS FIDEIQVE MAGISTRA || DEDIT EGREGIAM SANCTIS PER SECVLA MENTEM || INDE EXIMIOS PARADISI REGNAT ODORES || TEMPORE CONTINVO VERNANT VBI GRAMINA RIVIS || EXPECTATQVE DEVM SVPERAS QVO SVRGAT AD AVRAS || HOC POSVIT CORPVS TVMVLO MORTALIA LINQVENS || FVNDAVITQVE LOCVM CONIVNX EVACRIVS INSTANS. Theodora, who lived twenty-one years, seven months, twenty-three days. In peace. Whilst following an exalted life, a chaste Venus, she pursued her way to the stars. Now she rejoices in the court of Christ. She resisted the world, ever following heavenly things. A devout observer of the law, and mistress of honour, she applied an illustrious mind to holy things while here in this world. Hence she reigns (amid) the choice odours of paradise, where the herbage is forever green beside the streams of heaven,[700] and awaits God, in order that she may rise to the upper air. She laid her body in this tomb, forsaking mortal things, and Evacrius, her husband, built the monument, superintending the work. The first inscription at all favourable to Romish doctrine is the following barbarous example, (A. D. 380:) HIC QVIESCIT ANCILLA DEI OVEDE 426 SVA OMNIA PEPENDIT DOMVM ISTA QVVM AMICI DEFLENT SOLACIVM Q. REQVIRVNT PRO HVNC VNVM ORA SVBOLEM QVEM SVPERIS TITEM REQVESTI ETERNA REQVIEM FELICITAS CAVSA MANEBIS. Read: _Hic quiescit ancilla Dei quæ de suis omnibus pependit domum istam, quam amicæ deflent solaciumque requirunt. Pro hac una ora subole quam superstitem reliquisti. Eterna requie felicitatis causa manebis._ Here rests a handmaid of God[701] who, of all her riches, possesses but this one house: whom her friends bewail, and seek for consolation. O pray for this thine only child whom thou hast left behind. Thou wilt remain in the eternal repose of happiness. The yearning cry of an orphaned heart for the prayers of a departed mother is, however, a slight foundation for the Romish practice of the invocation of the saints.