Samuel Pepys' last diary entry / Roman catacombs rediscovered - May 31

On this day in 1669, English naval administrator Samuel Pepys wrote his last diary entry. / On this day in 1578, the Roman catacombs were rediscovered by accident.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everyone, technically you're getting two days in History today
because we're running two episodes from the History Vault. I
hope you enjoy. Hi. I'm Eves, and welcome to this
Day in History Class, a show that uncovers a little
bit more about history every day. The day was made

(00:23):
thirty one, sixteen sixty nine, English naval administrator Samuel Peeps
wrote his last diary entry. His diary entries documented key
events in English history, and Peeps has become known for
his writings on these events, as well as his commentary
on life in mid seventeenth century London and his own life.

(00:47):
Samuel was born in London on February six thirty three
and to a family of modest means. He attended Cambridge
University on a scholarship, and he graduated with a bachelors
degree in sixteen fifty three. Two years later, when he
was twenty two, he married Elizabeth St. Michel, who was

(01:08):
fourteen years old at the time. Through his father's cousin,
Edward Montague, Peeps had gotten a job as a secretary,
and over the years he worked his way up through
governmental post in the Navy, reaching the position of Chief
Secretary of the Admiralty. Samuel and Elizabeth had a turbulent relationship.

(01:29):
Both were dealing with health issues. Peeps showed jealousy about
the attention she got from other men, and he had
many affairs. Peeps had bladderstones removed in a surgery in
March of sixteen fifty eight, and in his first diary
entry on January first, sixteen sixty he wrote about his recovery.

(01:50):
Blessed be God. At the end of the last year,
I was in very good health, without any sense of
my old pain. But upon taking of cold I lived
of an axe yard, having my wife and servant Jane,
and no more in the family than us three. Some
of his most notable diary entries are about the Great

(02:10):
Plague and the Great Fire of London. On September three,
six sixty five, he wrote the following up and put
on my colored silk suit, very fine, and my new
perry wig bought a good while since. But durst not where,
because the plague was in Westminster when I bought it.
And it is a wonder what will be the fashion

(02:31):
after the plague is done as to perry wigs, For
nobody will dare to buy any hair for fear of
the infection that it had been cut off the heads
of people dead of the plague. He chronicled the death
tolls in the plague, and on the second of September
and sixteen sixty six, he wrote about Londoner's terror and
the fire that began tearing through the city that day.

(02:54):
Samuel also wrote about the restoration, the Second Anglo Dutch War,
the navy, his affairs, and other details of his personal
life and his diary. Peeps beat his servants, and he
wrote about his sexual advances that would today be considered
sexual abuse. But by sixteen sixty nine he feared his

(03:15):
eyesight was getting much worse and decided to stop writing
his entries. On May thirty one, almost a decade after
his first diary entry, Peeps wrote his last entry. It said,
in part, and thus ends all that I doubt I
shall ever be able to do with my own eyes
and the keeping of my journal, I being not able

(03:36):
to do it any longer, having done now so long
as to undo my eyes almost every time that I
take a pit in my hand, and therefore whatever comes
of it, I must forbear, and therefore resolve from this
time forward to have it kept by my people in Longhand,
and must therefore be contented to sit down no more

(03:56):
than is fit for them in all the world to know.
Peepe's wife, Elizabeth, died later that year of some sort
of fever. After the couple went on a trip to
France and the Low Countries. Peeps went on to become
a member of Parliament. He also helped build up the
strength of the Royal Navy. Accusations that he was secretly

(04:18):
Catholic abounded, and he resigned from his work with the Admiralty.
He continued to travel, worked as a secretary, and eventually
was elected president of the Royal Society, an institution that
promotes science. Peep's died in May of seventeen oh three.
His diary entries were written in Shorthand, and the diary

(04:39):
contains more than a million words. Parts of the diary
were first published in eighteen Early versions of the diary
were censored for profanity and content deemed inappropriate, though uncensored
editions are available today. I'm each Deathcote, and hopefully you
know a little more about history today than you did

(04:59):
yes your day. If you like to learn more about
Samuel Peeps, you can listen to the episode of stuff
you missed in History class called Samuel Peeps Beyond the Diary.
And if you love listening to stories about people in history,
there's a good chance you'd enjoy Unpopular, a new podcast
I host about people who took a stand against the

(05:22):
status quo to create meaningful change. You can listen and
subscribe on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or
wherever you listen to This Day in History Class. Thanks
for joining me on this trip through history. See you
here same place tomorrow. Hey, y'all, I'm Eves and welcome

(05:50):
to This Day in History Class, a podcast that uncovers
history one day at a time. The day was made
thirty one fifty eight. The Roman catacombs were rediscovered by accident.
The origin of the term catacomb is unclear. It was

(06:13):
previously thought that the Roman catacombs were sandpits or stone quarries.
It was also once thought that Christians used them as
secret meeting places for worship, but this was most likely
not the case. The Roman catacombs date back to the
first century CE. Back then, Jewish people in Rome used
them as cemeteries, but by the next century Christians were

(06:35):
also using catacombs as burial tunnels. In ancient Rome, bodies
could not be buried within city limits. Pagans cremated corpses,
but Christians and Jewish people buried the dead. At the time,
Christians in Jewish people faced persecution in Rome, where people
worshiped an increasing number of deities, and Rome was overpopulated.

(06:56):
In Land was expensive, so they decided to take their
cemeteries under ground. The catacombs were built into tufo, which
is a type of rock made from volcanic ash. Because
the tufoe was soft, the catacombs were relatively easy to build. Laculi,
or burial niches, were carved into walls to accommodate bodies.
During the second and third centuries, the use of catacombs

(07:18):
in Rome expanded. Some catacombs can be traced back to
individuals or private families, while others belonged to churches. The
Edict of Milan, passed in three thirteen under Emperor Constantine
the First and Emperor Licinius, granted religious tolerance to Christians
in the Roman Empire. It also established that everybody had
the right to worship the deities of their choice, and

(07:41):
in three eight Christianity became a state religion. Some people
still buried corpses in the underground chambers, but burials eventually
moved above ground, and by the fifth century the use
of catacombs as burial grounds had declined, but they were
still used as sites where people could go for martyrs
memorial services. Over the years, the catacombs were subject to

(08:04):
many lootings. The relics of Christian martyrs and saints that
remained were moved from the catacombs to city churches. By
the Middle Ages, the catacombs have been abandoned and largely forgotten,
but on May thirty one, fift seventy eight, laborers digging
on the Via Salaria discovered an underground cemetery. Some people
recognized the importance of the find, but many dismissed the discovery.

(08:28):
Scholar Antonio Bosio realized the importance of the discovery and
in fifteen ninety three began exploring the catacombs. Bosio's book
Describing the Catacombs Roma, was published in sixteen thirty two.
After his death. After the book's publication, valuable items were
stolen out of the catacombs. Some of the catacombs Bosio

(08:50):
described have since been destroyed. Archaeologists Giovanni Battista de Rossi
did further research on the catacombs in the nineteenth century
and helped develop the field of Christian archaeology. Since the
catacombs are home to early Christian frescoes, they are considered
important in the study of art history. Some of the

(09:10):
catacombs in Rome are open to the public. I'm Eve
step Coote and hopefully you know a little more about
history today than you did yesterday. And if you have
any kind words you'd like to send us or any
suggestions for future episodes, you can send them to us
at this day at I heeart media dot com. You
can also hit us up on social media where at

(09:31):
t d I h C podcast. Thanks so much for
listening to the show and we'll see you tomorrow. For
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