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Some Authors will have them made by the Primitive Christians ; adding,That in the times of Persecution, they Lived, held their Assemblies, and laidup the Bodies of their Martyrs and Confessors m them. This is the Ac-count that prevails at Rome, and conlequent to it there are Men kept con-stantly at Work in them. As Coon as thole Labourers discover a Repository ,with any of the Marks of a Saint about it, Intimatio» is given to the Car-dinal Treasurer , who immediately scnds Men of Probity and Reputation tothe Place j whtre they find a Palm Painted orEngraven, or the Cypncr Xp.which iscommonly read pro Chrißo , oraSmall Round Projecti >nm the sideof the Galltry % a little below the Reposttory , what is within it is carry’dto the Palace. Many of thele Projectioris we have leen Open, wich piecesoftheVials in them j the Glafs indeed was Tinctured, and ’tis pretendedthat in these Vials was conserved the Blood of the Martyrs , which was thuslaid up nigh their Bodies, towards their Head, to distinguilh them fromthole of the Others thatwcre notcall’dto the Honour of laying down theirLives for the Faith of the Gofpel. Aster the Labourers have Survey’d aGallery , they do up the Entry that leads into it; thus most of them areshut; nor are more lest open than what is necelfary to keep up the Trade ofIhewing them to Strangcrs. But to this Opinion it may bejustly Excepted,that allowing the Catacombs to be proper for the End for which they areprelum’d to be made, and that the Cbrißians of that Age were in a Ca-pacity of making that Convenience, for themfelves to Live and Affemblein Below Ground, at a Time when ’twas so very unlafe to Appear Aboveit; yet to luppose that a Work of that Vastness and Importance could be car-ry’d on without the knowledge of the Government, is to fuppole the Go-vernment Asleep, and that that was actually done under its Nole, that mulineceflärily have Alarm’d it, had it been attemptcd on the Frontiers of theEmpire.

Another lortof Authors Rcpresent them as a Work ofthat Vastnesi, thatthe Christians in the Perlecuting Times had not Number cnough to Car-ry it on j but then most unadviscdly confound them with the Puticuli inFestus Pompeius , where at the fame time that the Ancient Romans uled toBum the Bodies of their Dead, theCustomwas, to avoid expence, to throwthole ofth e.Slaves to Rot, The Roman Christians (fay they ) Obsirving atlength the great Veneration that certain Places gain’d by the prescnce ofReltäs, refolv’d to provide a Stock for themfelves; entering therefore theCatacombs , they made in forne of them what Cyfbers, what Injcriptions , whatPaintmg, they thought fit, and then Shut them up; intending to Open themagain upon a Dream or some other important Incident. The Few thatwere in the Secretos this Artifice eitherDying, or as the Monks, who werethe only Men that leern to have Heads adapted to a thought ot this Qua-lity, weresobject to many Removes, beingTranfportedto other Places, theContrivance came to be forgot, and thole Galleries continu’d shut, tillChance, the Parent osten of great Difcoveries, Open’d them at last. Thusthey conclude, the Remains of the Vilest part of Mankind areTrump’d upin the Churcb for the Bodies of the most Eminent Confestors and Martyrs.Vol. III. M m m But