of great difcoyeries, open U them at laft. Thus they 
conclude, the remains: of the vilefl: part of Mankind are 
trumped up in the Church, for the Bodies of the moft 
eminent Confeflbrs and Martyrs* 
To leave the latter part of this tale to (hift for itfelf 
as well as it can, either the Catacombs are not that 
great work they are reprefented to be, nor to be found 
every where about the City, or 'twas very improper in 
Fejins Pompems to call them by the little name of Puti^ 
culi^ and fo confine them to one place only, that I 
mean unknown now without the E/qmlin-GsitQ. In-^ 
deed the charafters of the places are fo yery unlike, 
that one wou d wonder how a common Burying- place, 
where in holes Bodies were thrown together to rot, 
came to be confounded with Repofitories cut in the 
face of a long Gallery, one over another, fometimes to 
tlie number of feven, in which Bodies were finglylaid, 
and handfomely. done up again, fo that nothing cou'd 
offend the view of thofe that went in , iefpecially 
with the little rooms of the fafliionof Chappels, that 
have all the appearances of being the Sepulchres of 
people of diftinftion. 
The Remark, Putieulds Antiquijjimum fepnltHr^ ge/zus 
appelUtoSj quod ibi in puteis fepirentur homines^ is that 
of au Etymologift, that would be now thought to 
ipeakagainft all the property of Language, . if he ap- 
ply'd. the name to our Graves or Vaults, to which it 
may with more juftice . and reafon be apply'd, than to 
the Galleries of the. Catacombs, and the rooms that go 
off them. What the.particulars were^isnot difficult to 
define, after what we have feen fo often. When the 
Perfccutors fpilt the Blood of fo many Martyrs, they 
us'd to dig holes perpendicularly in the ground, and to 
throw their Bodies promifcuouOy - in them ^ . of this the 
memory is ftill confer v'd. Churches being built in the 
places 
