he may forgive me my offences and sins, and may receive
from my feeble and sinful hands this sacrifice, which
in my weakness I offer on this altar, through thy intercession
for me, O holy Mother”. (From the ancient liturgy
used by the Nestorians called the liturgy of the holy
apostles. Renaudot, t. II. See bishop
Poynter’s Christianity, Note E: and ancient
inscriptions in Rock’s Hierurgia, p. 347 and
foll.) Though we have the
innumerable ancient
passages above-mentioned in favour of the Catholic
doctrine, yet shall we call Mr. Palmer’s attention
to the following passage of his own work. Speaking
of secrecy, he says: “this primitive discipline
is sufficient to account for the fact, that very few
allusions to the liturgy or eucharistic service are
found in the writings of the Fathers”.
I, p. 14. His fears of
heresy and blasphemy
arising from the invocation of Saints may be calmed
by the simple perusal of the doctrine of the church
taught by the Council of Trent, sess. 25. “The
holy synod commands all bishops and other teachers—
diligently
to instruct the faithful, teaching them that the
Saints reigning with Christ offer to God their prayers
for men; that it is
good and useful to invoke
them with supplication, and to have recourse to their
prayers, help, and assistance, in order to obtain benefits
from God through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who alone is our Redeemer and Saviour”.
Accordingly we say in the litany “Lord, have
mercy on us: holy Mary
pray for us”
etc.]
[Footnote 123: We shall say nothing of sculptured
figures taken from the catacombs, such as the statues
of the good shepherd and S. Hippolitus now in the
Vatican, or the numerous bas reliefs on Christian
sarcophagi (on which see Raoul-Rochette, Tableau des
Catacombes, c. IV. Beschreibung der Stadt
Rom. B. 2, in the description of the Christian
Museum in the Vatican Library). On another class
of Christian representations the reader may consult
Buonarruoti’s Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti
di vetro, ornati di figure. We shall rather
call the attention of the Christian antiquarian to
the numerous frescoes painted in the chapels of the
catacombs, and illustrated by Bosio, Bottari, d’Agincourt
etc., the latter of whom attributes some of them
to the second century on account of the similarity
of their style to that of frescoes in the tomb of
the Nasones, which is situated on the Flaminian way
at a short distance from Rome; his opinion is confirmed
by the fact that some of them have been broken through,
with the view of preparing a place of burial for the
bodies of martyrs slain in subsequent persecutions.
A list of their subjects which are generally
taken from the old and new Testaments may be seen
in Raoul-Rochette (c. 3, p. 157 foll. ed. de Brusselles).
Of these we may briefly notice in particular some of
the representations of Christ, of the B. Virgin, of
the apostles and martyrs. In them Christ sometimes