Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1915 — Labyrinthine of Catacombs ROME [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Labyrinthine of Catacombs ROME

THE world has heard many strange accounts of the exploits of German army spies in all parts of Europe, but surely the strangest of all is that they have concealed themselves in the Catacombs of Rome in order to spy on the operations of the Italian army, says a writer in the New York American. Where the earliest Christians constructed these wonderful secret hiding places in the rock to escape the, bloodthirsty tyranny of the Roman emperors, these efficient moderns have concealed themselves for the purposes of war. Where the earliest Christians sought refuge to conduct their sacred services in safety, the modern militarists have made a stronghold for the most subtle and deadly objects "of the gospel of war. The Catacombs furnish an almost impregnable hiding place, for there are about sixty of them in all, with uncounted entrances, and the winding passages within them are perhaps two hundred miles in length. Their exact length has never been measured, but as they wind about one under the other until there are often five or six of them in depth, it will, be easily understood that they may have at least that length. They are Just outside the ancient city walls and are excavated In a kind of rock called Tufa, which, though soft, holds its form when excavated. Endless Maze of Galleries. The Catacombs now consist of an endless maze of galleries. This was not the original condition, but the result of the gradual evolution through centuries, during which one generation after another added to their complications. During the first and second centuries some of the Roman Chrißtians built small catacombs for the burial of themselves, their family and friends. These usually consisted of a square chamber, in which a single gallery ran around the sides, about eight feet high by three feet wide, in whose sides were cut recesses called “loculi,” one above the other, to receive the bodies. Persons of distinction were buried in special chambers, or cubicula, which opened out of these galleries, and for these burials carved sarcophagi were often used, placed in arched niches or “arcosolia." These recesses it appears, have been used as hiding places for the food, fuel and papers of the German spies. Usually some early Christian martyr was buried in such chambers and his tomb served as an altar at which /religious services were afterward celebrated.' As the number of Roman Christians increased in early -tlmeß and consequently the number of -burials, the originally small catacoifihs. vfere honeycombed with galleries and, veitensions. When one story of them was no longer sufficient, stairways were made, and another system of galleries excavated beneath. This was followed, if necessary, by a third, fourth, fifth or even sixth story of galleries. The catacomb of St Calixtus occupied a leading position, and here the bishops of Rome of the third century were buried in a special crypt. It is said that this catacomb concealed the principal headquarters of the German spy organization. During this ancient period passages were gradually cut to connect the neighboring catacombs, thus joining the whole of them together into an endless labyrinth, through which nobody but an experienced person, such as one of the monks dr church officials, put in charge of these places, ■was likely to find his way. Indeed, there are gruesome stories of curious Americans in modem times who have tried to explore these catacombs alone and have lost themselves and starved to death. A trained “tracker," however, with proper lights and gome method of marking his track, would have no great difficulty in finding his way out again after a trip to the deeper recesses. History of the Catacombs. r The catacombs reached their highest development in the middle of the

third century, when Roman persecution of the Christians was carried to extreme violence. Persecuting officials and mobs, refusing to recognize the sanctity of the Christian places of burial, entered the Catacombs and began to deface the chapels, tombs and sacred decorations. Christians then destroyed the entrances with their oratories, their open stairways and their halls for the “agapemone,” or Christian lovefeasts, filled up the galleries and made other.and secret entrances from neighboring sand pits, called “arenarias.” Thus they completed the inconceivably intricate and confusing character of the passages, which has so strangely furnished a basis of operations for military spies in our day. During the terrible persecution of the Christians under Emperor Diocletian, hundreds of martyrs were buried in secret here, and the enlargements necessary were carried on with the same secrecy. Even after persecution had ceased under the Emperor Constantine, burials were commonly made here because the place had been rendered sacred by the bones of the martyrs. At laßt these reasons ceased to appeal to the people, and the Catacombs were no longer used for burials or religious services. For several centuries in the early middle ages they were the objects of pilgrimages by pious Christians from all over Europe. Then came the disastrous Invasion of Italy by Gothß and other Teutonic barbarians, and by Vandals, Lombards and Saracens. Once more the catacombs served a vital purpose to Rome. The treasures of the city were in many cases carried here to save them from the barbarians. The entrances were once more closed up, and in many cases parts of the galleries were filled, in order that the barbarians might not lay hands on their sagred relics and treasures and deface their sacred decorations. From the invasion of the Saracens In the tenth century down to the fifteenth century the Catacombs were more or less forgotten by civilization, but there is no doubt that they served as a refuge for many Brigands, rebels and other turbulent characters, who preyed upon travelers or fought against the authorities during the stormy medieval history of Rome. During the great Italian Renaissance they were reopened, and since then they have been more and more explored, with wonderfully interesting results, but even today their full extent is not known, and the art treasures which they contained have not all been studied. Perhaps at this moment some German spy, with his little electric pocket lamp, his mind divided between espionage and archeology, is gazing with interest upon the earliest pictures of the holy apostles which have not yet been seen by the eyes of the modem ecclesiastic or archeologist.

IN THE CATACOMBS