488 M E M O I R S ?/^ //&(? 
others of inferior rank imitated them, leaving room enough 
and excluding the light- but then interring, as now pra».^ifed 
in the open air and in temples, was never the manner 'till 
chriftianity introduced it^ of the whole we have many inftan- 
ces, and 7/ Signor Abbate 'Bencini^ Sibliotbecary of the 'JPro- 
pagmulay afTured Mr. Monro in the converiation he had with 
him on this argument, that on the great roads in mofi: parts of 
Italy little catacombs have been, and are ftill found under 
ground; and that it was. the culfom to build little houfes over 
them 5 and as to the marks of a martyr, he added that they do 
not conclude much, and that the fo much famed cypher XP 
was in ufe amongft the ancients long before Chrilf ianity, and that 
it was the two Greek letters XP, under which fomethmg myf- 
tical was comprehended; but that he met with no author that 
gave any account what the myflery was : This thought feems 
to be very natural, as arifing from the iole theory of the place, 
and falls in fo appofirely with the religion and pradice of the 
ancients, among whom the iJii Manes were the tutelary gods of 
the country ; and D. M. at the head of an infcription argues that 
the moles, the fepulchre, the monument, ^c. was in the pri- 
mary intention made for and dedicated to the foul ; upon the 
fame maxims, when a hero died or was killed in foreign expe- 
ditions, as the body was liable to a quick corruption, and for 
that reafon unfit to be tranfported entire, they fell on the ex- 
pedient of burning, in order to bring home the afhes, to 
oblige the Manes to follow, that fo the country might not be 
deprived of the benefit of its tutelage ; this Mr. Monro thinks 
was the original of burning, which by degrees became more 
and more univerfal, till at laft the pomp and magnificence of 
it reconciled it to all that were able to go the length of the 
expence : As for the prejudice of the filence of ancient authors 
in this matter, it is eafily removed, and to be regretted at the 
fame rime that the authors of all ages too much negle6t the 
cuftoms of their own times; by thefe means the ancient cuf- 
toms, with the time and realons of their difufc are entirely 
loft. 
Upon the whole, Mr. Afonro thinks, that the catacombs were 
the b^arying-places of the ancient Romans ^ at length the man- 
ner of burning, which they received from the Grecians, com'w.g 
by degrees to' prevail univerfally, they fell under a total neg- 
lect; this is the flare in which the primitive Chridians muft be 
fuppofed to have found them; and therefore they laid up the 
bodies of their dead here; and perhaps when the perfecution 
was 
