area of Saints Gaius and Eusebius, might indicate the tomb of Pope Caius and Eusebius; in another area, there is a tomb attributed to Pope Cornelius, which bears the inscription "cornelivs martyr." The catacomb was abandoned in the 9th century, being rediscovered in 1854 by the Italian archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi. Some popes were buried in other Roman catacombs, such as the Catacomb of Priscilla in the Via Salaria (Pope Marcellinus and Marcellus I), and of Calepodius in the Via Aurelia (Callixtus I, who was not buried in the cemetery that bears his name.) Pope Felix I, according to legend, was buried in the "Catacomb of the Two Felixes," which has never been located. History The first document provided by a pope is from Clement I in the late 1st century, in which he wrote an epistle to the church in Corinth, Greece, intervening in an important dispute, and apologizing for not having taken earlier action. Clement was the first Church Father, thus founding the patristic ecclesiastical period, which would last until the 8th century. A few years later in the early second century, St. Ignatius praises the purity of Rome's faith. In the second century, Roman bishops erected monuments to the apostles Peter and Paul and gave alms to poor churches. Pope Pius I later condemns and excommunicates the heretics Valentinus and Marcion, who had visited Rome to consult him, beginning the struggle against Gnostics and Montanists in Anatolia. Later in the same century, the popes became involved in the Quartodeciman controversy, in which the Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna visited Pope Anicetus around 155 AD, and they argued over the divergence in customs. The meeting was ineffective and ended peacefully, the difference became in fact an ecclesiastical controversy when Pope Victor I attempted to declare the practice of excommunicating all who followed Nisan 14 (considered by him heresy). However, the excommunication of Asians by Victor was revoked and the two sides reconciled as a result of the interventions of other bishops. In the 3rd century, the other prelates commonly appealed to the bishop of Rome for problems they could not solve. Between 199 and 217, Zeferinus was appointed pope, but was unable to condemn the heresies of his day. After his death, Callixtus I was elected pope, the Roman cleric Hippolytus judged him incompetent like his predecessor, causing a schism, and over ten years, Hippolytus commanded a separate