tes to consider
them as lamps, filled with scented oil or nard, on the surface of
which wicks, secured to a piece of papyrus, floated like a
_veilleuse_, to guide the footsteps of pilgrims in the darkness.

A papyrus in the archives or treasury of the cathedral at Monza
contains a list of oils collected by John, abbot of Monza, in the
cemeteries of Rome, and offered by him to Theodolinda, Queen of the
Lombards. Special mention is made in the document of the oil from the
tomb of S. Cornelius; and de Rossi asserts that the fragments of a
diaphanous oil-basin found in the exploration of this crypt were
soaked with an oleaginous substance.[107]

[Illustration: CRYPT OF POPE CORNELIUS]

One cannot help being impressed by the coexistence on this same road,
and within a mile of each other, of two family vaults of the Cornelii:
one in the aristocratic burial-grounds between the viae Appia and
Latina, the other in the subterranean haunts of a despised and
persecuted race. One need not be a deep thinker or a religious
enthusiast to appreciate that each is worthy of the other; and that
the Cornelius of the third century who chose to die the death of a
criminal rather than betray his conscience, is a worthy descendant of
the Scipios, the heroes of republican Rome. Whenever I happen to pay a
visit to the hypogaeum of the Cornelii Scipiones,[108] I try to finish
my walk by way of that of their noble representative, the victim of
the persecution of Decius.

[Illustration: Portrait of Pope Cornelius; from a fresco near his
grave.]

THE PONTIFICAL CRYPT. I have just mentioned the vault of the Popes as
belonging to the same Cemetery of Callixtus. It was discovered in
1854. Its approaches were inscribed with a great number of _graffiti_,
which marked the place as the most celebrated in the cemetery, if not
in the whole of underground Rome. A pious hand had written near the
entrance door: GERVSALE[M] CIVITAS ET ORNAMENTVM MARTYRVM DNI
[_Domini_]: "This is the Jerusalem of the martyrs of the Lord." The
debris which obstructed the chamber was removed as quickly as the
narrowness of the space would permit, and as it passed under the eyes
of de Rossi, he was able to detect the names of Anteros, Fabianus,
Lucius, and Eutychianus on the broken marbles. There were, besides,
one hundred and twenty-five fragments of a metric inscription by
Damasus, which gave the desired information, in the following words:--

"Here lie together in great