1899.] on Epitaphs. 21 



dogmatic devotion as : " In Pace," or " Vivas in Deo," or " Vivas in 

 pace et pete pro nobis " ; or in Greek, " Mayest thou live in the Lord, 

 and Pray for us." 



Dean Stanley, in his excellent ' Christian Institutions,' remarks — 

 " In a well-kuown work of Strauss, entitled ' The Old and New Belief,' 

 there is an elaborate attack on what the writer calls ' The Old Belief.' 

 Of the various articles of that 'Old Belief which he enumerates, 

 hardly one appears conspicuously in the Catacombs. Of the special 

 forms of belief which appear in the Catacombs, hardly one is men- 

 tioned in the catalogue of doctrines so vehemently assailed in that 

 work." 



We may be permitted then to feel ourselves, if we so please, in 

 full communion with the Christians of at least the first two centuries 

 — with the " Church in Caecilia's House " as it is described in an ex- 

 quisite chapter of Mr. Pater's book, ' Marius the Epicurean,' and 

 nevertheless fully to admit that Strauss was a very great man. We may 

 agree, without receding from our position, that he did a notable piece 

 of work for the world, although that work was diametrically opposite 

 in its tendency to the equally valuable work for England which began 

 at Oxford, just about the time when he first appeared upon the scene. 



I would almost venture to assert that more really fine epitaphs 

 have been produced in Latin since it became the language only of the 

 Church and of the learned than was the case while it was still the 

 language of the civilised Western World. 



Assuredly in modern times Latin has been constantly used as the 

 language of epitaphs with the most brilliant success in every part of 

 Europe, and in commemoration of the most diverse characters. I may 

 cite first the epitaph of St. Benedict and his sister Santa Scholastica 

 at Monte Cassino. 



Benedictum et Scholasticam 



Uno in terris partu editos, 



Una, in Deum pietate coelo redditos 



Unus hie excipit tumulus 



Mortalis depositi pro hninortalitate custos ! 



Benedict and Scholastica 



Born into this world at the same birth 



Bestored to Heaven by the same piety towards God 



This same tomb receives 



The Guardian for immortality of a mortal deposit. 



Then we may take one from Southern Spain which has a certain 

 family resemblance to the last, though in honour of a very different 

 personage — Gonzalez of Cordova, the Great Captain. 



Gonzali Fernandez de Cordova, qui propria virtute Magni Ducis nomen pro- 

 prium sibi fecit, ossa perpetuse tandem luci restituenda huicinterea loculo credita 

 sunt, gloria minime consepulta. 



The bones of Fernandez of Cordova, who by his valour won for himself the 

 distinctive name of the Great Captain, bones to be one day restored to perpetual 

 light, are in the meantime entrusted to this little niche— his glory being by no 

 means buried with them. 



