4od Mifcellama Curiofd. Vol. Tlli 



ground ; at length others of inferiour degree 

 imitated them, all leaving room enough and 

 excluding the light : But then interring as 

 we do now in the open Air, or in Temples, 

 was never the manner till Chriftianity brought 

 it in. Of the Whole we have many Inftances, 

 and // Signior Ahhate Bencini^ Bibliothecary 

 of the Prdpagdnda^ a Gentleman of good An- 

 cient Learning, afTured me in the converfa^ 

 tion I hdd with him on this Argument, that 

 on the great Roads in nloft parts of Italy lit- 

 tle Catacombs have been and are ftill found 

 underground, and that 'twas the Cuftom to 

 build little Houfes over them; This, arid 

 the teftimony of the Labourers whom I con- 

 fulted on the matter, made me abandon an 

 opinion of which I was once fond, that the 

 Catacombs are of the Nature bf our Gravel- 

 pits, as old as the City itfelf, and yet out 

 of them was taken the Puz^z^olafja^ the famous 

 Lagredient in the Roman Mortan The fame 

 learned Gentleman added, relating to the 

 marks of a Martyr, that they don't conclude 

 much •, that the fo fam'd Cypher Xp was in 

 ufe among the Ancients long before Chrifti- 

 anity begun : And when I ask'd him what 

 the meaning of it might be among them? 

 returned, that 'twas composed of the two 

 Greek. Letters X P, under which fomething 

 myftical was comprehended, but that he met 

 with no Author that gave account what the 

 myftery was. 



Thus, after a multitude of thoughts about 

 the Catacombs, I'm forced to take up with 

 this \ fo natural it is,arifing from the fole The- 

 ory of the Place, and falls in fo oppolltely 



with 



