e date of the coffins, all of
which belong to a time later than that of the Emperor Constantine. The
wealthier members of the community constructed small chapels in the
catacombs for the reception of the bodies of their relations and
friends. These chapels are for the most part situated at the crossing of
passages or at the end of them, in which latter case the chapel forms
the termination of one particular passage. They are most important as
indices to the development of art. Besides the curious character and
beauty of the architecture, they afford specimens of the most ancient
grave paintings that we know of. Their walls and ceilings are covered
with a thin crust of gypsum, upon which the colours were laid. Not
unfrequently we find ornaments of stucco and marble. Altars and stone
seats, too, are found in these chapels. An astonishing number of
skeletons have been discovered in the passages by which the chapels are
connected: it was not the custom, as now, to bury the dead beneath the
floor and to cover the grave with a stone slab. The bodies were placed
in niches of from three to six feet in length. Sometimes four and six
together, one above the other. The corpse of a departed brother was
thrust into one of these niches; a lamp and some tool, explanatory of
the trade he had followed in life, were placed beside him, and then the
aperture was walled up, and lastly covered with a thin marble slab,
bearing an inscription and the particulars of the life and death of the
departed.

Church service was frequently performed in the catacombs, yet not in the
days of persecution. It was after Constantine that these tombs were used
for such a purpose. On Sabbath days they were open to the public and
were much visited. Devotion, love for departed relatives, and mere
curiosity, carried vast numbers to these silent halls. Saint Jerome,
tells us of his having often explored them with his comrades whilst he
was still a student in Rome; and he lived some three hundred and fifty
years after the death of Christ. The catacombs were but badly lighted at
first, light being admitted by a few apertures only in the roofs of the
chapels. At a later period, great care was taken to prevent visitors
losing their way amidst the labyrinth of passages. The guardianship of
the catacombs was confided to a certain body of the clergy, who went
under the name of _fossores_, or grave-diggers. It was their office to
inspect the chapels and passages, to point