. A dictionary of religious knowledge [electronic resource]: for popular and professional use, comprising full information on Biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical subjects . did not per-mit or justify with some such ingenious butbaseless pleas as those here hinted at. Catacombs, subterraneous chambers andpassages, excavated generally in easily-work-ed rock, and used as places of are to be found in almost every coun- galleries, very much like those of a mine,and about eight feet high by five feet wide,expanding at irregular intervals into wideand lofty vaulted chambers. The
. A dictionary of religious knowledge [electronic resource]: for popular and professional use, comprising full information on Biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical subjects . did not per-mit or justify with some such ingenious butbaseless pleas as those here hinted at. Catacombs, subterraneous chambers andpassages, excavated generally in easily-work-ed rock, and used as places of are to be found in almost every coun- galleries, very much like those of a mine,and about eight feet high by five feet wide,expanding at irregular intervals into wideand lofty vaulted chambers. The walls ofboth galleries and chambers are pierced withseveral rows of niches which served as graves,and were rilled with coffins. The entrancesto these niches were built up with stones,on which usually were inscribed the —the initials of the Latin phrase, signi-fying to the great God—or in monogram,, the first two letters of the Greek nameof Christ. Other inscriptions and marks ofornament are also found, the latter consist-ing chiefly of palm-branches, or olive-branch-es, or the figure of the cross rudely scratchedon the stone. Art found its way into the. Ground-plan. try in which such soft rock exists. For aresting-place for their dead, the early Chris-tians, like their Master, were frequently in-debted to some kind and compassionatestranger, who supplied them with some un-occupied ground where they might be safefrom the indignities of their heathen in days of outward tranquillity theremains of converts to the Christian faithwere buried in lonely and sequestered spots,and by far the greater number of the primi-tive Christians were entombed in catacombsor underground sepulchres. The most cele-brated catacombs in existence, and thosewhich pre-eminently bear the name, are onthe Via Appia, at a short distance from consist of long, narrow, and tortuous catacombs at an early period, and many re-mains of frescoes are still fouud in them. Inthese u
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