g one
or two bodies, which were dressed like mummies, with bands of darkish
linen wound about the body and head. This statement is corroborated by
other evidence. In 1615, when Paul V. built the stairs leading to the
Confession and the crypts, "several bodies were found lying in
coffins, tied with linen bands, as we read of Lazarus in the Gospel:
_ligatus pedibus et manibus institis._ One body only was attired in a
sort of pontifical robe. Notwithstanding the absence of written
indications we thought they were the graves of the ten bishops of Rome
buried _in Vaticano_." So speaks Giovanni Severano on page 20 of his
book "Memorie sacre delle sette chiese di Roma," which was printed in
1629. Francesco Maria Torrigio, who witnessed the exhumations with
cardinal Evangelista Pallotta, adds that the linen bands were from two
to three inches wide, and that they must have been soaked in
aromatics. One of the coffins bore, however, the name LINVS.[74] Let
us now refer to the "Liber Pontificalis," the authority of which as an
historical text-book cannot be doubted, since the critical publication
of Louis Duchesne.[75] After describing the "deposition of S. Peter in
the Vatican, near the circus of Nero, between the Via Aurelia and the
Via Triumphalis, _iuxta locum ubi crucifixus est_ (near the place of
his crucifixion)," it proceeds to say that Linus "was buried side by
side with the remains of the blessed Peter, in the Vatican, October
24." Even if we were disposed to doubt Torrigio's correctness in
copying the name of the second bishop of Rome,[76] the fact of his
burial in this place seems to be certain, because Hrabanus Maurus, a
poet of the ninth century, speaks of Linus's tomb as visible and
accessible, in the year 822. Another man was present at the
discoveries enumerated by Torrigio and Severano; the master-mason
Benedetto Drei, whose drawing, printed in 1635, has become very rare.

The reader will remark how perfectly Drei's sketch fits the written
accounts of the other eye-witnesses, even in the detail of the child's
grave--"_sepoltura di un bambino_,"--which is distinctly mentioned by
them.

* * * * *

The privileges which the Roman law allowed to sepulchres, even of
criminals, made it possible for the Christians to keep these graves in
good order, with impunity. However, they ran a great risk under
Elagabalus. Among the many extravagances in which this youth indulged
in connection wit