invariable,1 and we recall the words of St. Augustine : "Naked are we born into the world, naked also we come to the font; so that naked and unburdened we may hasten to the gate of heaven. How foolish is it and incongruous that one whom his mother bore naked, whom the Church again received naked, should desire to enter heaven possessing riches" ("Serm.," xx.).

Ceremonies connected with Baptism.

In the earliest times on the third day of the Scrutiny, but later on immediately before the actual baptism, came the initiation of the catechumen into a further

knowledge of Christian doctrine. Not even yet was the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist communicated, but a further step forward was made. Certain pages from the Gospels were read, the Creed was recited for the first time, and, most important of all, the Paternoster, the prayer of the faithful, which might not be said by any but the initiated, was now pronounced and taught. Mgr. Duchesne in his "Origines du Culte Chrétien," thinks that we have a representation of this initiation in the well-known scene of the giving of the law to Moses, here again represented generally with the features and sometimes with the name of Peter, which is so frequent in Christian paintings and sculptures of the period. "Christ is there depicted as seated on a splendid throne placed on the summit of a mountain from whence flow the four rivers of Paradise. Around him are assembled the Apostles. St. Peter, their chief, receives from the hands of the Saviour a book-emblem of the Christian Law-on which is inscribed DOMINVS LEGEM DAT or some similar device. Above this group there appear in the azure of the sky the

1" Const, Ap,," iii. 15, 16.

four symbolical animals with the four books of the Gospel. I would not take upon myself to say that this scene was expressly depicted from the ritual of the Traditio Legis Christi,' but there is such a striking resemblance between the two things, that the likeness could not fail to have been remarked. Many of the faithful when casting their eyes upon the paintings which decorated the apses of their churches, must have had thus brought before them one of the most beautiful ceremonies of their initiation." 1

Infant Baptism.

Actual infants were, of course, baptized from the first years of Christianity. We know this from the Fathers, but the monuments are equally decisive on the point. Thus Marini ("Arvali,” p. 171) has preserved for us an inscription which commemorates the burial of a child not yet two years of age whose grandmother asked and obtained for it ut fidelis de sæculo recederet that it might die a Christian. But all candidates for baptism, as about to be born again to Christ, were spoken of as children and infants. Thus St. Augustine, speaking of the great orator Victorinus says, senex non erubuit esse puer Christi et infans fontis Dei-" Old as he was, he was not ashamed to be the child of Christ, and an infant at the font of God". They were spoken of in these terms for eight days after they had received baptism, and during this period they continued to wear the white garments, symbolic of innocence, which had been put upon them as they came from the font. The laying aside of these white garments on the octave of Easter gave rise to the name by which we still know the day, Dominica in albis. Here again we find proof of the custom from the monuments, for we have not

1 Duchesne, "Origines du Culte Chrétien ".

1

only an inscription in the cemetery of St. Callixtus which speaks of the baptismal robe which was buried with a woman who died within the octave of her baptism, but another of the year 463,1 which records the same thing.

1 De Rossi," Roma Sott.," iii. p. 406.

CHAPTER IV.

The Witness of the Monuments to the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist.

WE are by no means without testimonies of the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, drawn from the writings of the Fathers and from other Christian documents. They are not always absolutely clear, especially in the earliest years, and this was often due to the Disciplina arcani, the rule which forbad any explicit mention of these Holy Mysteries in any writing which could get into heathen hands.

The most ancient of these testimonies is to be found in the "Didache," a document of the second century at latest, long lost, but recovered in 1883 in a manuscript of the eleventh century at Constantinople. Perhaps because of the discipline of which we have spoken it says nothing of the consecration, though it mentions the breaking of the bread. The Eucharistic prayers are to be recited after the Agape, or common meal. This is a proof of its great antiquity, for already by the beginning of the second century the change had been made which placed the Agape after instead of before the Eucharistic celebration.

A far more detailed description of the Eucharist is given to us in the "Apology" of St. Justin Martyr. It was written in a moment of comparative freedom from persecution, and so the discipline of secrecy was

for the time a little relaxed, He speaks of lections from the Scriptures, of a homily or sermon, of the prayer of consecration and of the Communion. In another place he mentions the kiss of peace, which, he says, immediately preceded the actual reception by the faithful.

These passages, with the exception of a long liturgical prayer in the Epistle of St. Clement of Rome, and of a number of scattered allusions in the writings of St. Cyprian and other fathers, are almost the only ones during the age of persecution which have come down to us. The earliest actual liturgies do not go so far back. The writings of the Fathers after the peace of the Church have, possibly, to do with a more developed worship. The witness, therefore, of the monuments is thus of exceptional interest and importance as furnishing irrefragable proof that the belief of the faithful, in the days when active persecution made it impossible for them to set down their belief in clear terms in writing, was identical with that which is taught us by the works of the great Fathers of the Church at a later period.

Pictures in the Catacombs.

According to De Rossi the most ancient of the pictures of the catacombs which are concerned with the Holy Eucharist is that of the Crypts of Lucina. Here we have two paintings very much resembling one another, and placed symmetrically. In each is depicted a fish on a green background, carrying on his back, or as Mgr. Wilpert thinks, placed side by side with, a basket which contains bread, and in addition to the bread glasses filled with red wine. The allusion is, no doubt, to the miracles of the loaves and fishes, but the introduction of the wine emphasizes and renders neces