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