stretched hands, like an assembly of patriarchs intrusted with the
guardianship of their church. He devoted many hours to the study of
this class of monuments, so strikingly Roman, "for in Rome, more than
in any other city of the world, does investigation lead one in the
footsteps of Death." His volume,[106] however, seems to me more like
an essay written in hours of depression than an exhaustive and
satisfying treatise. The _materia prima_ has greatly increased since
he wrote, owing to the discoveries made in the catacombs, in libraries
and archives, and to the reproduction by photography of the fragments
collected in the sacred grottos of the Vatican. If any of our younger
colleagues are willing and prepared to go over the work in a critical
spirit, let them divide the subject into three periods. During the
first, which begins with the entombment of S. Peter, June 29, A. D.
67, and ends with that of Melchiades, A. D. 314, the bishops of Rome
were interred in the depths of the suburban cemeteries, and their
loculi marked with a simple name. During the second period, which
begins with the peace of Constantine and ends with the destruction of
the Vatican basilica in 1506-1606, the pontifical graves were mostly
ancient sarcophagi or bathing basins from the thermae, accompanied by
an inscription in verse, and, as the Renaissance was approached, by
canopies of Gothic or Romanesque style. In the third period, which
ends with our time, the new church of S. Peter is transformed into a
papal mausoleum which is worthy of being compared in refinement of
art, in splendor of decoration, in richness of material, in historical
interest, with the Pantheons of ancient Rome. I shall select from each
of the three periods a few representative specimens.

THE TOMB OF CORNELIUS, ON THE APPIAN WAY. In 1849, while de Rossi was
exploring the Vigna Molinari between the Via Appia and the Ardeatina,
in his attempt to define the site and extent of the various cemeteries
which undermine that region, he found a fragment of a marble slab with
the letters .... ELIVS MARTYR.

[Illustration: Tombstone of Cornelius.]

Excited by a discovery the capital importance of which he was able to
foresee at once, he asked an audience of the Pope, Pius IX., and
begged him to purchase the Vigna Molinari, and grant the funds
necessary to discover the crypt to which this fragment of a tombstone
belonged. After listening quietly to the arguments by which the young