TOMBS ON THE VATICAN AND VIA OSTIENSIS 5 portion of ground in this area was already in Christian hands, even before St. Peter's death, and it was here that the remains of the martyrs in the great persecution of A.D. 64 had been deposited. More than 1600 years afterwards, when the excavations were being made for the great baldacchino over the tomb, these remains were discovered close to the tomb of the Apostle himself. He was laid, therefore, as that discovery clearly proved, in ground that was already Christian, and already rendered holy in Christian eyes by being the resting-place of so many who had given their lives for the faith.1 The body of St. Paul is said in like manner to have been buried by a matron called Lucina in her own ground on the Ostian Way, a little beyond the first milestone. In neither case were the Apostles laid in one of those subterranean cemeteries which we know by the name of the Catacombs. The time for these had not yet come. Each of these two apostolic tombs was on the surface of the ground, in vaults dug down near the road, and approached by a staircase on that side. Similar graves of the same period may still be seen on the Via Appia and Via Latina. In the case of St. Peter's tomb, but not in that of St. Paul, an addition was made later on to this primitive vault. An upper chamber was added before the end of the first century by Pope St. Anacletus.2 The building, although to some extent it still exists, is hidden from our eyes by the decorations of the High Altar at St. Peter's. For a moment, however, it was uncovered, during the excavations of 1626, and although the excavators did not altogether realize what it was that they had found, a description of it has been 1 Barnes, "St. Peter in Rome," pp. 91, 331. 2" Lib. Pont.," i. p. 125, ed. Duchesne. left on record by one of their number. It had the appearance to his eyes of a small heathen temple, and was covered, as to its upper part only (which showed that the greater part of the fabric had always been underground), with ornamental work in stucco.1 Round this memoria of St. Peter were buried, surrounding him like bishops at a synod, the first twelve of his successors. Their bodies were found in 1626, "clothed with long robes down to the heels, dark and almost black with age, and swathed with bandages like infants; the bandages passing also over the head".2 All crumbled into dust as soon as the air reached them. In this state the tombs remained till the peace of the Church, and then Constantine caused the great basilicas to be built above them. But before we come to that date we have to speak of a translation of the relics of each of these two Apostles which was rendered necessary by the edict of 258, an edict which deprived the Christian body of the protection which had till then been enjoyed by its graves and monuments. For the first time the relics of the Apostles were in real danger of profanation. The Platonia ad Catacumbas. There is a good deal of confusion about the translation of the relics which took place at this time, and yet as to the reality of the fact there can be no doubt whatever. The greater part of the confusion seems to have resulted from a projection backwards of the story, which really belongs to 258, to the original time of the burial of the Apostles. Consequently the opinion grew up that there were really two separate occasions on which the bodies had been taken to the Catacombs 1 Barnes, "St. Peter at Rome," pp. 334, 340. at S. Sebastiano. There is a long literature on the point, and there is no object in our going into the question now. The only point we need dwell upon, one which is more or less historically certain, is the fact of the translation and hiding of the relics, to save +2 them from possible danger of profanation, in the year 258. a In an ancient manuscript, which contains Hieronynian Martyrology and is preserved at Berne, we read : III. Kal Julias. Romæ Via Aurelia S.S. Apostolorum Petri et That is to say, that on the 29th June there were three feasts kept at Rome: of St. Peter on the Vatican, of St. Paul on the Ostian Way, and of both at the Catacombs. The consular date, which is A.D. 258, cannot be connected with the martyrdoms, since both suffered under Nero, but must have to do with the third locality mentioned, that of the Catacombs. The probable solution is the one we have already mentioned. In the year 258 the right to a quiet possession of the cemeteries was taken away from the Christians. All those cemeteries at any rate which were in the possession of the Church herself became State property; and among these would be included the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. Hence the relics were taken away by night and hidden in another cemetery, that which we now know as S. Sebastiano. Here they were comparatively safe, for not only would the persecutors, even if they wished to desecrate them, have had no clue where they might be hidden, but they would also be protected by the right of private property, since this particular cemetery had not yet passed into the hands of the Church as such, but was still, before the law, the property of a private individual. The hiding-place in which the bodies were laid may yet be seen. It is under the altar in the crypt which is called the Platonia, and is a square chamber measuring about 8 feet each way, and covered with barrel vaulting, the highest part of which is 8 feet 3 inches from the floor. The vaulting is of later date than the tomb. The floor is composed of two slabs of marble, separated the one from the other by a third slab set vertically, thus forming a large double tomb in which the sarcophagi of the Apostles could be laid side by side. Whether or not the relics of the Saints would have been in real danger had they remained in their original resting-places we cannot tell. It would have been unlike Romans to make war on the remains of the dead long after the event. In any case, they were safe at S. Sebastiano, and there they remained until the persecution was passed and it was safe to bring them back again to their own proper tombs. The local tradition says that they remained at the Catacombs for forty years, but such periods always tend to grow, and it seems more likely that the period given in the apocryphal Acts in connexion with an imaginary earlier translation has preserved the truth as to the real one, and that they were brought back after a year and seven months, when Gallienus gave back the cemeteries to the Church. But, in any case, the ancient testimonies are much confused, and it is very difficult to get at the real truth of the facts. The Chair of St. Peter. Two feasts of the Church, on 18 January and 22 February respectively, are celebrated in com memoration of the Chair of St. Peter. By a misunderstanding of comparatively late date the second of these feasts has come to be regarded as his Chair at Antioch, but originally each of the two had reference to Rome, and commemorated two different chairs or localities in which he sat as bishop and ruled the Church. It is recorded in the Acts of Pope Liberius that on one occasion, being driven from the Lateran and unable to administer baptism at Easter in his own cathedral, he followed the advice of his deacon, St. Damasus, and betook himself for the purpose to a spot close to the Cœmeterium Ostrianum on the Via Nomentana, because that was the place where St. Peter had been in the habit of baptizing. Formerly a baptistery underground in the Cometerium Ostrianum was identified by De Rossi as the scene of this action, but it is now generally admitted that this identification cannot be sustained, but that the true spot must have been somewhere above ground on the Via Salaria, in an oratory connected with the Villa of the Acilii Glabriones. There is now no trace of an oratory in this spot, but the foundations of the villa can still be seen. The whole matter is still far from having received its final solution, but we may state the present opinion of those who are best qualified to judge, somewhat as follows: St. Peter came first to Rome in the year 42. For seven years he remained in Rome, not, however, in the city itself, but rather outside of it in the Villa of the Acilii, and here he exercised his ministry, baptizing and preaching. This first coming to Rome, and stay of seven years, are commemorated on the feast of 18 January. The seven years' stay was terminated by a decree of Claudius ordering all Jews to leave Rome, |