486 M E M O I R S 0/ the 
fbon as thefe labourers difcover a repofitory, with any of the 
marks of a faint about it, intimation is given to the cardinal trea- 
furer, who in:imediately lends men of probity and reputation to 
the place ; where they find a palm painted or engraved, or the 
cypher X p (which is commonly read pro Chrtfto) or a fmall 
round projection in the fide of the gallery, a little below the re- 
pofitory, what is found within it is carried to the palace j Mr. 
Monro law feveral of thefe proje£lions open, with pieces of vials 
therein; the glals indeed was tinflured, and it is pretended, that in 
thefe vials was preferved the blood of the martyrs, which was 
thus laid up near their bodies towards the head, to diftinguifh 
them from thofe of others, who were not called to the honour of 
laying down their lives for the faith of the gofpel ; after the la- 
bourers have furveyed a gallery, they clofe up the entry that leads 
thereto 5 {o that moft of them are fhut ; and there are not more 
left open, than what is necc{fary to keep up the trade of fhewing 
them to ftrangers; but to this opinion it may be juftly excepted, 
that allowing the catacombs to be proper for the end for which 
they areprefumed to be made, and that the Chriftians of that 
age were in a capacity of making that conveniency for themlelves 
to live, and affemble in under ground, at a time when it was fo 
very unfafe to appear above it 5 yet to fuppofe that a work of 
that vaflnefs and importance could be carried on without the 
knowledge of the government, is fuppofing the government afleep, 
and that that was actually done under its nofe, which mud ne- 
ceflarily have alarmed it, had it been attempted even on the fron- 
tiers of the empire : Other authors reprefent them as a work of 
that vaftnefs, that the Chriftians in the times of perfecution had 
not numbers enough to carry it on; but they moft unadvifedly 
confound them with the TutkuU in Feftus ^orapeiui ; where, at 
the fame time the ancient Romans ufed to^tmr4i their dead bodies, 
the cuftom was, to avoid expence, to throw thofe of the flaves to 
rot; the Roman chriftians, fay they, obferving at length the great 
veneration, that certain places gained by the prefence of reliques, 
rcfolved to provide a ftock for themfelves ; therefore entering the 
catacombs, they made in fome of them what cyphers, inicriptions, 
and painting tHey thought fit, and then fliut them up ; intending 
to open them again upon a dream, or fome other important inci- 
dent ; the few that were in the fecret of this artifice either dying, 
or as the monks, who were the only men, that feem to have 
heads adapted to a thought of this nature, were liibjeft to feveral 
removes, being tranfported to other places, the contrivance came 
to be forgotten 5 and thofe galleries continued ihut, till chance 
the 
