Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 40:157 (Jan 1883)
Article: Some Notes On Recent Catacomb Research And Its Literature
Author: Hugh Macdonald Scott

BSac 40:157 (Jan 1883) p. 172

Some Notes On Recent Catacomb Research And
Its Literature

Professor Hugh M. Scott

Modern Catacomb research may be said to have gone through three stages of development: the first, ending about thirty years ago, was unscientific and dogmatic; the second, still surviving, is scientific and dogmatic; the third, just making itself heard, claims to be scientific and historic.

The unscientific period though dead is not wholly buried, and quite a number of traditional errors still encumber the path of archaeological studies. The Catacombs — as Marchi showed — were not ancient sandpits which the Christians occupied for burial purposes. This mode of sepulture was not an invention of the early church, for it was perfectly familiar to the heathen, and Jewish catacombs have been lately investigated in Rome. These underground cemeteries were not places of retreat concealed and remote. A solitary inscription refers to taking refuge in such caves: “O tempora infausta quibus inter sacra et vota ne in cavernis quidem salvari possimus.” On the contrary the Catacombs were often entered from the public highway, and their portals were at times imposing works of art (cf.Schultze, “Die Eirchliche Arehaologie,” 1879, 1880, in the Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, p. 444, note 2, 1882 — an article which has been of great use in preparing these notes — where a number of inaccuracies in Merz’s article “Katakomben” in the new edition of Herzog’s Encyklopädie, 1880, are corrected). These homes of the dead were not usual places of worship; hence the theory of Kraus (article “Altar” in his Real-encyklopädie) that the church altar arose from the so called sepolcro a mensa and presupposes communion services in the Catacombs is imaginary. The present stone altar is of heathen origin. The early church had only a simple table. On the other hand,

BSac 40:157 (Jan 1883) p. 173

the fact that burial clubs were collegia licita enabled the Christians to transact church business and conduct worship at their funerals under the sanction of law.

The great scientific-dogmatic authority, the store-house of Catacomb information, is De Kossi. His home in Rome, papal favor, and full literary and experimental qualifications have conspired to make his well-known work (“La Roma sotterranea cristiana,” the third volume of which appeared 1877), an indispensable prerequisite to a thorough knowledge of the subject. Based upon it — in fact, just an abbreviation of it — is the “Roma Sotterranea” of Northcote and Brownlow, the second edition of which appeared 1879, London. The German work of Kraus bearing the same title, which reached a second edition 1879, is a translation of the English work. A...