CHRISTIAN ARCHIEOLOGY, that de partment of archaeological science which, through the study of inscriptions, monuments, frescoes, household and ecclesiastical utensils, seeks to throw light upon the ideas, customs and events of the early Christian communities. It may be said to have a beginning in the days of peace following the Diocletian persecutions. The Acts of the Martyrs were collected and critically examined, but in the 5th century the reading of some of these Acts was forbidden in the Roman Church by Pope Gelasius because of the mixture of legend and fact they con tained. The Acts written between the 8th and 10th centuries have very little critical value, although they contain an element of truth, as the name of the martyr, the date of his death, the name of the judge of the trial, above all his place of burial, for the Catacombs were still visited. Le Blant, in his (Supplement to the Acta Sincera Martyrum of Ruinart,' has shown how it is possible to separate the facts in these Acts from their setting of rhetoric and legend.
From very early times it was the custom to mark in the local calendar the Church feasts celebrated each year. Each church had its own calendar. The most ancient that have tome down to us' are those' of Rothe, Tours and Carthage. Later, talehdars of the ,principal churches were united and called martyrologies. The
In addition to the martyrologies there is also the
The 'Book of the CLiber Pond& talis' )' is a collection of biographies of the Popes from Saint Peter to Stephen VI (891). Until recent years its authorship was assigned to Anastasius, the librarian, who lived in the 9th century. • Duchesne and Mommsen both agree that the collettion as we haVe it is a second editio* and that it is an 'expansion of certain primitive cat alogues of the Popes, some of which date as far back as the '2d century.
In the opinion of DuChesne, the biographies of the Popes front the 6th to the 9th centuries were written by contemporaries. The
1886-92). • Of great importance in determining the to pography of the Catacombs and the churches and shrines of the early Church are the guide books written by the pilgrims of the Middle Ages. The earliest of these is the ltinera rium) of John the Priest, which belongs to the end of the 6th century. John was sent by Theodelinda, queen' of the Lombards, to. Greg ory the Great to obtain relics of the martyrs. These he did not obtain, but he brought back with him oil from the lamps that burned be fore their tombs. On each phial he inscribed the name of the martyr and the place of his burial. The original catalogue written by John is still preserved in the treasury in Monza.
The best known guidebook is that of Wil liam of Malinesbury, compiled fn the 12th cen tury, perhaps for the use of the Crusaders. Other guidebooks are those preserved in the monasteries at Einsiedeln and Salzburg. They throw much light on the topography of the Catacombs. To these same pilgrims and to the monks of the 8th century we owe many collec tions of inscriptions, that have since perished. The 'Codex Palatinus> of Heidelberg contains More than it httadred, some of them in metre, taken from the papal tombs of the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries. Other collections of inscriptions from' Rome, Ravenna, Milan, Prance and Switzerland are preserved in Saint Gall, in Switzerland, in Verdun and Wiirzburg.
_Puring the Middle Ages the study of an de'ht Christian monuments Was neglected, the Catacombs were well nigh forgotten, but inter est in them was revived at the time of the Re haissance and rediscoveries in the 16th century made possible scientific examination. Anthony Bosio, charge'd'affaires of the Order of Malta, spent 30 years in the Roman Catacombs, re producing mural paintings, deciphering and copying inscriptions. He has been called the °Founder of Christian Archaeology,' but this title belongs by better right to John Baptist de Rossi, who by his explorations and writings has given to the study the character of an exact science. He was a Roman, who, at the age of 24, began the study in 1842 under the direction of Padre Marchi, and his 50 years' labor ac complished much in' reconstructing the artistic, doctrinal and family life of the Chrittian com munity of early Rome: He died in 1899, leaving his work to be tarried on by Armellini, Marucchi, Wilpert and Stevenson. His classic
Armellini,