that they had received a particular commission from God, to whip themselves without mercy. Nay, such was the madness of the times, that even children, encouraged by their parents, entered themselves into societies, some to whip themselves, and some to whip each other.

To what has been already advanced concerning the whippers or disciplinants, we must add the high respect they are held in by all ranks of people in Spain, Good-friday is appropriated for their honour, and so much are they esteemed, that even the king and great officers of state, and in a word, all those who are most respectable in the metropolis think it an honour to attend them. The king's guards march with their arms covered with crape as a sign of mourning, and the musicians play upon their different instruments the most dismal tunes that can be imagined. All the drums are covered with black, and they beat a most doleful march, in order to point out to the populace the death of our Saviour. The dismal sound of the trumpets animates and stirs up the contrition of the penitents, and the banners and crosses all covered with black, have the same influence upon the devotees.

As there are many societies of these disciplinants, or whippers, in Spain, so they are generally all present at Madrid, on Good-friday, and they are dressed in such a manner as to distinguish them from all others. They wear a long cap covered with cambric, about three feet high, from whence hangs a piece of linen, which falls down before and serves them for a veil. On their hands they wear white gloves, with shoes of the same colour on their feet, and a waistcoat with sleeves tied with a black ribbon, if they are not in love with any particular young lady; but if they are, then they have ribbons of such a colour as they imagine their mistresses will approve of. He who whips himself with the greatest dexterity, is esteemed far superior to those who are fearful and timid; and whenever they meet a young beautiful lady in the course of the procession, they are so artful, that, by a few strokes of the whip, they can make the blood flow in the most copious manner, and this act of heroism is so much esteemed by the lady, that if not engaged, she is generally ready to

offer her hand.

When any of them happen to come before the windows of their mistresses apartments, they redouble their blows upon their backs and shoulders, and the ladies, who view the whole of the procession, considering it as done in honour to themselves, take care to return the compliment with all the marks of unfeigned love. The procession being over, and the yoluntary penitents returned to the

No. 11.

place from whence they set out, they find an elegant entertainment provided for them; for although Gool-friday is one of the most solemn fasts in the whole of the Roman calender, yet the pope dispenses with the obligation. Previous to his sitting down at table, the patient or rather penitent, has his back and shoulders rubbed with wine and vinegar, in order to cure his wounds and remove the congealed blood.

Another society among the Roman Catholics, is that which pretends to shew the utmost respect to the relics of departed saints, such as their legs, arms, hands, feet, bones, hair, teeth, and even the clothes. they wore when they died. This society is extremely industrious; for they send out from time to time, missionaries to collect together some of the relics of the faithful. The missionaries are generally very successful, and sometimes they bring home more bones belonging to a saint than ever he had while he was alive. If any dispute arises concerning the authenticity of these bones, it is referred to the bishop, who considers of it in the most mature manner, and then sends an account of the whole to Rome, where his holiness re-considers the whole matter, and his decree is final with respect to the matter in dispute between the contending parties.

It has been often asked by very sensible Protes tants, why those who made a profession of Christianity, could so far forget the duty they owed to their Divine Redeemer, as to worship the bones of a man or woman who had been long deposited in the grave, while, at the same time, they believed that the dead were to rise again when Christ comes to judge the world? To this we would answer, that the Christians, or at least those in the middle ages, who assumed that name, borrowed this from the heathens. The Egyptians made it a rule to preserve the bodies of their departed ancestors, which in time became objects of idolatrous worship; and to prevent the Israelites ftom falling into the same snare, Moses was commanded to depart from his beloved. people, and yield up his spirit to God upon mount Nebo. The Jews did not know the place where their great legislator died, or at least they could never discover where he was buried, so we find, that although they were often guilty of the grossest practices of idolatry, yet they never worshipped the body of Moses, which they certainly would have done, had they known in what place he was interred. At present, great respect is paid to the bones and ashes taken out of what is commonly called the catacombs at Rome, and Naples; and of these ancient places of burial, we shall give the following

3 T

faithful

faithful account from the judicious bishop Burnet, who visited Italy in the year 1685.

but I saw no marks of any wall that shut in such places, though I am apt to think these might be burying places appropriated to particular families. There is in some places on the walls and arch, old mosaic work, and some painting, the colours are fresh, and the manner and characters are gothic, which made me conclude that this might have been done by the Normans about six hundred years ago, after they drove out the Saracens. In some places there are palm-trees painted, and vines in other places. The freshness of the colours shew these could not have been done while this place was em

The bishop says, "they are vast and long galleries cut out of the rock: there are three stories of them one above another. I was in two of them, but the rock is fallen in the lowest, so that one cannot go in to it, but I saw the passage to it: These galleries are about twenty feet broad, and about fifteen feet high, so that they are noble and spacious places, and not little and narrow as the catacombs at Rome, which are only three or four feet broad, and five or six feet high. I was made believe that these catacombs of Naples, went into the rock nine miles long, but for that I have it only by report; yet if that be true, they may perhaps run towards Puzzolo, and so they may have been the burial places of the towns on that bay, but of this I have no certainty. I walked indeed a great way, and found galleries going off in all hands without end, and where, as in the Roman Catacombs, that are not above three or four rows of niches that are cut out in the rock one over another, into which the dead bodies were laid; here there are generally six or seven rows of those niches, and they are both larger and higher: some niches are for children's bodies, and in many places there are in the floors, as it were great chests hewn out of the rock, to lay the bones of the dead, as they dried, in them; but I could see no marks either of a cover for these holes, that looked like the bellies of chests, or of a facing to shut up the niches when a dead body was laid in them, so that it seems they were monstrous unwholesome, and stinking places, where some thousands of bodies lay rotting, without any thing to shut in so loathsome a sight, and so odious a smell; for the niches shew plainly that the bodies were laid in them, only wrapt in the dead cloaths, they being too low for coffins. In some places of the rock, there is as it were a little chapel hewn out in the rock, that goes out from the common gallery, and there are niches all round about;

the air, occasioned by so much corruption, must have dissolved both plasters and colours. In one place there is a man painted with a little beard, and Paulus is written by his head: there is another reaching him a garland, and by his head Laud is written, and this is repeated in another place, right over against it. In another place I found a cross painted, and about the upper part of it these letters J. C. X. O. and in the lower part M JK A are painted; A learned antiquary that went we me, agreed with me that the manner of the painting and characters did not seem to be above six hundred years old; but neither of us knew what to make of these letters: The lower seemed to relate to the last word of the vision which it is said Constantine saw, with the cross that appeared to him: But though the first two letters might be for Jesus, it being ordinary in old coins and inscriptions, to put a C for an S and X stands for Christ, yet we knew not what to make of the O, unless it were for the Greek Theta, and that the little line in the bosom of the Theta was worn out, and then it stands for Theos: and thus the whole inscription is Jesus Christ God overcometh. Another picture in the wall, had written over it S. Johannes, which was a clear sign of a barbarous age. In another place there is a picture, high in the wall, and three pictures under it; that at the top had no inscription; those below it had these inscriptions, S. Katherina, S. Agape, and S. Margarita, these letter are clearly modern, besides that Margaret and Catherine are modern names: and the addition of ta a little above the S. were manifest evidences, that the highest antiquity that can be ascribed, is six hundred years. I saw no more painting, and I began to grow weary of the darkness and the thick air of the place, so I stood not above an hour in the Catacombs. This made me reflect more particularly on the Catacombs of Rome than I had done. I could imagine no reason why so little mention is made of those of Naples, when there is so much said concerning those of Rome; and could

give myself no other account of the matter, but that its being a maxim to keep up the reputation of the Roman Catacombs, as the repositories of the relics of the primitive Christians, it would have much lessened their credit, if it had been thought that there were Catacombs far beyond them in all respects, that yet cannot be supposed to have been the work of the primitive Christians, and indeed nothing seems more evident than that these were the common burying places of the ancient Heathens. One enters into them without the walls of the towns, according to the laws of the twelve tables, and such are the catacombs of Rome that I saw, which were those of St. Sebastian, the entry into them being without the town: this answers the law, though in effect they run under it, for in those days when they had not the use of the needle, they could not know which way they carried on those works when they were once so far engaged under ground as to lose themselves. It is a vain imagination to think that the Christains, in the primitive times, were able to carry on such a work; for as this prodigious digging into such rocks, must have been a very visible thing, by the mountains of rubbish that must have been brought out, and by the vast number of hands that must have been employed in it; so it is absurd to think that they could hold their assemblies amidst the annoyance of so much corruption. I found the steams so strong, that though I am as little subject to vapours as most men, yet I had all the day long after I was in them, which was not near an hour, a confusion, and as it were a boiling in my head, that disordered me extremely: and if there is now so much stagnating air there, this must have been sensible in a more eminent and insufferable manner while there were vast numbers of bodies rotting in

those niches.

But besides this improbability that presents itself from the nature of the thing, I called to mind a passage of a letter of Cornelius, that was bishop of Rome, after the middle of the third century, which is preserved by Eusebius in his sixth book, chapter 43, in which we have the state of the church of Rome at that time set forth. There were forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, as many sub-deacons,

among them: there were also fifteen hundred wi

charities.

e

hundred years; so after this ti there was such a succession of persecution, that came so thick one upon another, after short intervals of quiet, that we cannot think the number of the Christians, increased much beyond what they were at this time. Now there are two particulars in this state of the clergy, upon which one may make a probable estimate of the number of the Christians: the one is their poor, which were but fifteen hundred, now upon an exact survey, it will be found, that where the poor are well looked to, their number rises generally to be the thirtieth or fortieth part of mankind; and this may be well believed to be the proportion of the poor among the Christians of that age: For as their charity was vigorous and tender, so we find Celsus, Julian, Lucian, Prophyry, and others, ob. ject this to the Chtistians of that time, that their charities to the poor drew vast numbers of the lower sort among them, who made themselves christians that they might be supplied by their brethren: So that this being the state of the Christians, then we may reckon the poor the thirtieth part, and so fifteen hundred multiplied by thirty, produce five and forty thousand: And I am the more inclined to think that this rises up near the full sum of their numbers, by the other character of the numbers of the clergy, for as there were forty-six presbyters, so there were ninety-four of the inferior orders, who were by two, more than double the number of the priests: and this was at a time in which the care of souls was more exactly looked after, than it has been in the more corrupted ages, the clergy having then really more work on their hands, the instructing their catechumens, the visiting their sick, and the supporting and comforting the weak, being tasks that icquired so much application, that in so vast a city as Rome was in those days, in which it is probable the Christains were scattered over the city, and mixe.l in all the parts of it, we make a conjecture that is not ill grounded, when we reckon that every presbyter had perhaps a thousand souls committed to his care, so this rises to six and forty thousand: which comes very near the sum that may be gathered from the other hint, taken from the number of their poor. So that about fifty thousand is the highest account to which we can reasonably raise the numbers of the

e

Christians at Rome in that time; and of so many

persons, the old, the young, and the women, made

more than three fourth parts, to that men that were. in a condition to work, were not above twelve thou

sand; and by consequence they were in no condition to undertake and carry on so vast a work.

of the Christians in excessive terms, and if Tertu

lian in his apologetic hath also set out the numbers of the Christians of his time, in a very high strain, that is only to be ascribed to a pompous eloquence, which disposeth people to magnify their own party, and we must allow a good deal to a hyperbole that is very natural to all that set forth their forces in general terms. It is true, it is not so clear when those vast cavities were dug out of the rocks. We know that when the laws of the twelve tables were made, sepulture was then in use, and Rome being then grown to a vast bigness, no doubt they had repositories for their dead, so that since none of the Roman authors mention any such work, it may not be unreasonable to suppose, that these vaults had been wrought and cut out from the first beginning of the city, and so that the latter authors had no occasion to take notice of it. It is also certain, that though burying came to be in use among the Romans, yet they returned back to their first custom of burying bodies long before Constantine's time; so that it was not the Christian religion that produced this change. All our modern writers take it for granted, that the change was made in the time of the Antonins, yet there being no law made concerning it, and no mention being made in an age full of writers, of any orders that were given for burying places, Vesseru's opinion seems more probable, that the custom of burning wore out by degrees, and since we are sure that they once buried, it is more natural to think that the slaves, and the meaner sort of the people were still buried, that being a less expensive and a more simple way of bestowing their dead bodies than burning, which was both pompous and chargeable, and if there were already burying places prepared, it is much easier to imagine how the custom of burying grew universal without any law made concerning it.

I could not, for some time, find out upon what grounds the modern critics take it for granted, that burying began in the times of the Antonins: till I had the happiness to talk of this matter with the learned Gronovius, who seems to be such a master of all the ancient learning, as if he had the authors lying always open before him: he told me that it was certain the change from burning to burying was not made by the Christian emperors; for Macrobius (lib. 7. cap. 7.) says in plain terms, that the custom of burning the bodies of the dead was quite worn out in that age, which is a clear intimation that it was not laid aside so late as by Constantine, and as there was no law made by him on that head, so he and the succeeding emperors gave such an entire toleration to paganism, admitting those of that religion to the greatest employments, that it is not

to be supposed that there was any orders given against burning; so that it is clear the heathens had changed it of their own accord, otherwise we should have found that amongst the complaints that they made of the grievances under which they lay from the Christians. But it is more difficult to fix the time when this change was made. Gronovius shewed me a passage of Phlegons that mentions the bodies that were laid in the ground, yet he did not build on that, for it may have relation to the custom of burying that might be elsewhere. And so Petronius gives the account of the Ephesian matron's husband, but he made it apparent to me, that burying was commonly practised in Commodus's time, for Xiphilinus tells us, that in Pertinax's time, the friends of those whom Commodus had ordered to be put to death had dug up their bodies, some bringing out only some parts of them, and others raising their entire bodies. The same author tells us that Pertinax buried Commodus's body, and so saved it from the rage of the people, and here is a positive evidence that burying was the common practice of that time. It is true, it is very probable, that as we see some of the Roman families continued to bury their dead, even when burning was the more common custom, so perhaps others continued after this to burn their dead, the thing being indifferent, and no law being made about it, and therefore it was particularly objected to the Christians after this time, that they abhorred the custom of burning the bodies of the dead, which is mentioned by Minutius Felix: but this or any other evidences, that may be brought from medals of consecrations after this time, will only prove that some were still burnt, and that the Christians practised burying universally, as expressing their belief of the resurrection, whereas the heathens held the thing indifferent. It is also clear from the many genuine inscriptions that have been found in the Catacombs, which bear the dates of the consuls, that these were the common burial places of all the Christians of the fourth and fifthh century; for I do not remember that there is any one date that is ancienter, and yet not one of the writers of those ages speak of them as the work of the primitive Christians. They speak indeed of the burial places of the martyrs, but that will prove no more but that the Christians might have had their quarters, and their walks in those common burial places where they laid their dead, and which might have been' known among them, though it is not likely that they would in times of persecutions make such inscriptions as might have exposed the bodies of their dead friends to the rage of their enemies and the spurious acts of saints and martyrs are of too littlė