nown except to those who had
embraced the Christian faith, which, placed here among the symbols
of paganism, as if in testimony of gratitude, informed the faithful,
that the truth had here found an asylum with a poor man, under the
safeguard of all the popular superstitions". So far Mazois, whose
opinion is embraced by the author of the interesting work on Pompeii
published by the society for promoting useful knowledge: but is it not
probable, I may ask, or rather is it not certain that, at that early
period, while some members of the same family were pagans, others were
Christians? it is not then surprising if in the same house we find
both Christian and Pagan emblems: we may suppose, that some such
persons may have been inmates of the same house as Mr. Bulwer's
pagan gladiator Lydon and his Christian father Medon. Pompeii was
overwhelmed by ashes in the year of Christ 79: and if Vesuvius still
occasionally lay waste the surrounding country, we are indebted to it
for the preservation not only of a thousand classical monuments, but
also of a representation of the cross of Christ, which cannot be of a
much later date than the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.]

[Footnote 89: St. Helen discovered the cross on which Christ suffered,
and erected a church in Jerusalem, in which it was deposited.
"The bishop of that city every year, at the season of the paschal
solemnity, exhibits it to be _adored_ by the people, after he himself
has first performed his act of profound veneration". S. Paulinus
of Nola, A.D. 430, ep. 11 ad Sever. "In the middle of Lent, the
life-giving wood of the venerable cross is usually exposed for
_adoration_". S. Sophronius patriarch of Jerusalem in 639. (Orat. in
Exalt. Crucis). From this custom of the church of Jerusalem probably
arose that of the Roman church, in which a crucifix, containing a
particle of the true cross, was publicly venerated on good Friday. In
the Sacramentary of pope Gelasius (A.D. 402) we read in an account
of the ceremonies of this day "The priest comes before the altar,
adoring the Lord's cross and kissing it--all adore the holy cross and
communicate". This ceremony is mentioned also in the Antiphonary of
S. Gregory the great and the ancient _Ordo Romanus_. Flecte genu,
lignumque crucis venerabile adora, says Lactantius. See bishop
Poynter's Christianity p. 151. Of the Greeks Leo Allatius relates that
"on good-friday, while they accompany as it were Christ himself to the
to