, and Ecclesia Pudentiana) have almost fallen into oblivion.

I shall select from each of the six classes such specimens as I
believe will convey an impression of its type to the mind of the
reader.

I. PRIVATE ORATORIES. "In the familiar record of the first days of the
Christian church we read how the men of Galilee, who returned to
Jerusalem after the ascension, 'went up into the upper chamber,' which
was at once their dwelling-place and their house of prayer and of
assembly. There, at the first common meal, the bread was broken and
the cup passed around in remembrance of the last occasion on which
they had sat at table with Christ. There too they assembled for their
first act of church government, the election of a successor to the
apostate Judas. All is simple and domestic, yet we have here the
beginnings of what became in time the most wide-reaching and highly
organized of human systems. An elaborate hierarchy, a complicated
theology were to arise out of the informal conclave, the memorial
meal; and in like manner, out of the homely meeting-place of the
disciples would be developed the costly and beautiful forms of the
Christian temple."[61]

Rome possesses authentic remains of the "houses of prayer" in which
the gospel was first announced in apostolic times. Five names are
mentioned in connection with the visit of Peter and Paul to the
capital of the empire, and two houses are mentioned as those in which
they found hospitality, and were able to preach the new doctrine. One
of these, belonging to Pudens and his daughters Pudentiana and
Praxedes, stands halfway up the Vicus Patricius (Via del Bambin Gesu)
on the southern slope of the Viminal; the other, belonging to Aquila
and Prisca (or Priscilla), on the spur of the Aventine which overlooks
the Circus Maximus. Both have been represented through the course of
centuries, and are represented now, by a church, named from the owner
the _Titulus Pudentis_, and the _Titulus Priscae_. Archaeologists have
tried to trace the genealogy of Pudens, the friend of the apostles;
but, although it seems probable that he belonged to the noble race of
the Cornelii AEmilii, the fact has not yet been clearly proved. Equally
doubtful are the origin and social condition of Aquila and his wife
Prisca, whose names appear both in the Acts and in the Epistles. We
know from these documents that, in consequence of the decree of
banishment which was issued against the Jews by the emperor C