all the necessaries, from the table-service to the
festal garments, were kept on the spot, in cabinets entrusted to the
care of a watchman. This practice--save the expiatory offerings--was
adopted by the Christians. The _agapai_, or love-feasts, before
degenerating into those excesses and superstitions so strongly
denounced by the Fathers of the Church, were celebrated over or near
the tombs of martyrs and confessors, the treasury of the local
congregation supplying food and drink, as well as the banqueting
robes. In the inventory of the property confiscated during the
persecution of Diocletian, in a house at Cirta (Constantine, Algeria),
which was used by the faithful as a church, we find registered,
chalices of gold and silver, lamps and candelabras, eighty-two female
tunics, sixteen male tunics, thirteen pairs of men's boots,
forty-seven pairs of women's shoes, and so on.[29] A remarkable
discovery, illustrating the subject, has been lately made in the
Catacombs of Priscilla; that of a _graffito_ containing this sentence:
"February 5, 375, we, Florentinus, Fortunatus, and Felix, came here AD
CALICE[M] (for the cup)." To understand the meaning of this sentence,
we must compare it with others engraved on pagan tombs. In one, No.
25,861 of the "Corpus," the deceased says to the passer-by: "Come on,
bring with you a flask of wine, a glass, and all that is needed for a
libation!" In another, No. 19,007, the same invitation is worded: "Oh,
friends (_convivae_), drink now to my memory, and wish that the earth
may be light on me." We are told by S. Augustine[30] that when his
mother, Monica, visited Milan in 384, the practice of eating and
drinking in honor of the martyrs had been stopped by S. Ambrose,
although it was still flourishing in other regions, where crowds of
pilgrims were still going from tomb to tomb with baskets of provisions
and flasks of wine, drinking heavily at each station. Paulinus of Nola
and Augustine himself strongly stigmatized the abuse. The faithful
were advised either to distribute their provisions to the poor, who
crowded the entrances to the crypts, or to leave them on the tombs,
that the local clergy might give them to the needy. There is no doubt
that the record _ad calicem venimus_, scratched by Florentinus,
Fortunatus, and Felix on the walls of the Cemetery of Priscilla,
refers to these deplorable libations.

[Illustration: Sample of a Drinking-cup.]

Many drinking-cups used on these occasi