CHAPTER XIII.
THE BASILICAS OF THE LATERAN, SANTA CROCE, AND S. LORENZO.
Via S. Giovanni--The Obelisk and Baptistery--Basilica and Cloisters--Mosaic of the Triclinium--Santa Scala--Palace of the Lateran--Villa Massimo Arsole--SS. Pietro e Marcellino--Villa Wolkonski--(Porta Furba--Tombs of the Via Latina--Basilica of S. Stefano)--Santa Croce in Gerusalemme--Amphitheatrum Castrense--Porta Maggiore--(Tomb of Sta. Helena--Torre dei Schiavi--Cervaletto--Cerbara)--Porta and Basilica of S. Lorenzo--Catacomb of S. Hippolytus.
Behind the Coliseum the Via S. Giovanni ascends the slope of the Esquiline. In mediæval times this road was always avoided by the popes, on account (as most authorities state) of the scandal attaching to the more than doubtful legend of Joan, the famous papessa, who is said to have horrified her attendants by giving birth to a child on this spot, during a procession from the Lateran, and to have died of shame and terror immediately afterwards. Joan is stated to have been educated at Athens, to have skilfully obtained her election to the papal throne, disguised as a man, between the reign of Leo IV. and that of Benedict III. (855), and to have taken the name of John VIII. In the cathedral of Siena the heads of all the popes in terra-cotta (down to Alexander III.) decorate the frieze above the arches of the nave, and among them was that of Pope Joan, inscribed "Johannes VIII. Femina de Anglia," till 1600, when it was changed into a head of Pope Zacharias by the Grand Duke, at the request of Pope Clement VIII.
On the left of this street is S. Clemente (described Ch. VII.). On the right, a long wall flooded by a cascade of Banksia roses in spring, and a villa inlaid with terra-cotta ornaments, are those of the favourite residence of the well-known Marchese Campana, the learned archæologist of Etruria, and the chief benefactor of the Etruscan museum at the Vatican, cruelly imprisoned and exiled by the papal government in 1858, upon an accusation of having tampered with the revenues of Monte di Pietà.
Beyond the turn of the road leading to S. Stefano Rotondo (Ch. VII.), bas-reliefs of Our Saviour's Head (from the Acheirotopeton in the Sancta Sanctorum) between two candelabra--upon the different buildings, announce the property of the Lateran chapter.
The _Piazza di San Giovanni_ is surrounded by a remarkable group of buildings. In front are the Baptistery and Basilica of the Lateran. On the right is a Hospital for women, capable of containing 600 patients; on the left, beyond the modern palace, are seen the buildings which enclose the Santa Scala, and some broken arches of the Aqua Marcia. In the centre of the piazza is the _Obelisk of the Lateran_, 150 feet high, the oldest object in Rome, being referred by translators of hieroglyphics to the year 1740 B.C., when it was raised in memory of the Pharaoh Thothmes IV. It was brought, from the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, to Alexandria by Constantine, and removed thence by his son Constantius to Rome, where it was used, together with the obelisk now in the Piazza del Popolo, to ornament the Circus Maximus. Hence it was moved to its present site in 1588, by Fontana, for Sixtus V. The obelisk was then broken into three pieces, and in order to piece them together, some part had to be cut off, but it is still the tallest in the city. One of the inscriptions on the basement is false, as it narrates that Constantine received at the Lateran the baptism which he did not receive till he was dying at Nicomedia.
An octagon building of mean and miserable exterior is that of the _Baptistery of the Lateran_, sometimes called S. Giovanni in Fonte, built, not by Constantine, to whom it is falsely ascribed, but by Sixtus III. (430-40). Of his time are the two porphyry columns at the entrance on the side nearest the church, and the eight which form a colonnade round the interior, supporting a cornice from which rise the eight small columns of white marble, which sustain the dome. In the centre is the font of green basalt in which Rienzi bathed on the night of August 1, 1347, before his public appearance as a knight, when he summoned Clement VI. and other sovereigns of Europe to appear before him for judgment. The cupola is decorated with scenes from the life of John the Baptist by _Andrea Sacchi_. On the walls are frescoes pourtraying the life of Constantine by _Gimignano_, _Carlo Maratta_, and _Andrea Camassei_.
On the right is the _Chapel of St. John the Baptist_, built by Pope Hilary (461-67). Between two serpentine columns is a figure of St. John Baptist by _L. Valadico_ after Donatello.
On the left is the _Chapel of St. John the Evangelist_, also built by Hilary, who presented its bronze doors (said to have once belonged to the Baths of Caracalla) in remembrance of his delivery from the fury of fanatical monks at the Second Council of Ephesus, where he appeared as the legate of Leo I.,--a fact commemorated by the inscription: "Liberatori suo B. Joanni Evangelistæ Hilarius Episcopus famulus Christi." The vault is covered with mosaics representing the Spotless Lamb in Paradise. Here is a statue of St. John by _Landini_.
Close by is the entrance to the _Oratory of S. Venanzio_,[277] built in 640 by John IV., and dedicated to St. Venantius, from a filial feeling to his father, who bore the same name. Nothing, however, remains of this time but the mosaics. Those in the apse represent the Saviour in the act of benediction with angels, and below him the Virgin (an aged woman) in adoration,[278] with St. Peter and St. John Baptist, St. Paul and St. John the Evangelist, St. Venantius and St. Domnus--and another figure unnamed, probably John IV., holding the model of a church. Outside the chancel arch are eight saints, with their names (Palmianus, Julius, Asterius, Anastasius, Maurus, Septimius, Antiochianus, Cajanus), the symbols of the evangelists, and the cities Bethlehem and Jerusalem; also the verses:--
"Martyribus Christi Domini pia vota Johannes Reddidit antistes sanctificante Deo. Ac sacri fontis simile fulgente metallo, Providus instanter hoc copulavit opus: Quo quisque gradiens et Christum pronus adorans, Effusasque preces impetrat ille suas."
The next chapel, called the _Capella Borgia_, and used as the burial-place of that family, was once an open portico, but this character was destroyed by the building up of the intercolumniations. On its façade are a number of fragments of ancient friezes, &c. Over the inner door is a bas-relief of the Crucifixion, of 1494.
The piteous modernization of this ancient group of chapels is chiefly due to the folly of Urban VIII. The baptistery is used on Easter Eve for the ceremony of adult baptism, the recipients being called Jews.
The _Lateran_ derives its name from a rich patrician family, whose estates were confiscated by Nero, when their head, Plautius Lateranus, was put to death for taking part in the conspiracy of Piso.[279] It afterwards became an imperial residence, and a portion of it being given by Maximianus to his daughter Fausta, second wife of Constantine, received the name of "Domus Faustæ." It was this which was given by Constantine to Pope Melchiades in 312,--a donation which was confirmed to St. Sylvester, in whose reign the first basilica was built here, and consecrated on November 9, 324, Constantine having laboured with his own hands at the work. This basilica was overthrown by an earthquake in 896, but was rebuilt by Sergius III. (904--11), being then dedicated to St. John the Baptist. This second basilica, whose glories are alluded to by Dante,--
----"Quando Laterano Alle cose mortale andò di sopra."
_Paradiso_, xxxi.
was of the greatest interest, but was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1308. It was rebuilt, only to be again burnt down in 1360, when it remained for four years in utter ruin, in which state it was seen and mourned over by Petrarch. The fourth restoration of the basilica was due to Urban V. (1362-70), but it has since undergone a series of mutilations and modernizations, which have deplorably injured it. The west front still retains the inscription "Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia, Omnium urbis et orbis Ecclesiarum Mater et Caput;" the Chapter of the Lateran still takes precedence even over that of St. Peter's; and every newly elected pope comes hither for his coronation.
"St. J. Lateran est regardé comme le siége du patriarchal romain. À St. Pierre le pape est souverain pontife. À St. J. Lateran il est évêque de Rome. Quand le pape est élu, il vient à St. J. Lateran prendre possession de son siége comme évêque de Rome."--_A. Du Pays._
The west end of the basilica is in part a remnant of the building of the tenth century, and has two quaint towers (rebuilt by Sixtus IV.) at the end of the transept, and a rich frieze of terra-cotta. The church is entered from the transept by a portico, ending in a gloomy chapel which contains a statue of Henry IV., by _Niccolo Cordieri_. The _transept_--rich in colour from its basement of varied marbles, and its upper frescoes of the legendary history of Constantine--is by far the finest part of the basilica, which, as a whole, is infinitely inferior to Sta. Maria Maggiore. The nave, consisting of five aisles, is of grand proportions, but has been hideously modernized under _Borromini_, who has enclosed all its ancient columns, except two near the tribune, in tawdry plaster piers, in front of which are huge statues of the apostles; the roof is gilt and gaudy, the tabernacle ugly and ill-proportioned,--only the ancient pavement of opus-alexandrinum is fine. Confessionals for different languages are placed here as in St. Peter's. The _Tabernacle_ was erected by Urban V. in the fourteenth century. Four granite columns support a gothic canopy, decorated at its angles with canopied statuettes. Between these, on either side, are three much restored frescoes by _Berni da Siena_, those in central panels representing the Annunciation, the Crucifixion, the Coronation of the Virgin, and the Saviour as a shepherd (very beautifully treated) feeding his flock with corn. The skulls of SS. Peter and Paul are said to be preserved here. The altar encloses the greater part of the famous wooden table, saved at great risk of life from the conflagration of 1308, upon which St. Peter is supposed to have celebrated mass in the house of Pudens.[280] The steps of the altar (at the top of which the pope is installed) have an allegorical enamelled border with emblems of an asp, a dragon, a lion, and basilisk, in allusion to Psalm xci.
In the confession, in front of the altar, is the bronze tomb of Martin V., Oddone Colonna (1417--24), the wise and just pope who was elected at the Council of Constance to put an end to the schism which had long divided the papacy, and which had almost reduced the capital of the Church to ruins. A bronze slab bears his figure, in low-relief, and is a fine work of _Antonio Filarete_, author of the bronze doors at St. Peter's. It bears the appropriate surname which was given to this justly-loved pope--"Temporum suorum felicitas."
The tribune is of the time of Nicholas IV. (1287--1292). Above the arch is a grand mosaic head of the Saviour, attributed to the time of Constantine, and evidently of the fourth century,--of great interest on this spot, as commemorating the vision of the Redeemer, who is said to have appeared here on the day of the consecration of the church by Sylvester and Constantine, looking down upon the people, and solemnly hallowing the work with his visible presence. The head, which is grand and sad in expression, is surrounded by six-winged seraphim. Below is an ornamented cross, above which hovers a dove--from whose beak, running down the cross, flow the waters which supply the four rivers of Paradise. The disciples, as harts (panting for the water-brooks) and sheep, flock to drink of the waters of life. In the distance is the New Jerusalem, within which the Phœnix, the bird of eternity, is seated upon the tree of Life, guarded by an angel with a two-edged sword. Beside the cross stand, on the left, the Virgin with her hand resting on the head of the kneeling pope, Nicholas IV.; St. Peter with a scroll inscribed, "Tu es Christus filius Dei vivi;" St. Paul with a scroll inscribed, "Salvatorem expectamus Dominum Jesum." On the right St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, St. Andrew (all with their names). Between the first and second of these figures are others, on a smaller scale, of St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua. All these persons are represented as walking in a flowery Paradise, in which the souls of the blessed are besporting, and in front of which flows the Jordan. Below, between the windows, are figures of prophets, and (very small) of two Franciscans, who were the artists of the lower portion of the mosaic, as is shown by the inscriptions, "Jacobus Turriti, pictor, hoc opus fecit;"--"Fra Jacobus de Camerino socius magistri."
Behind the tribune, is all that remains internally of the architecture of the tenth century, in the vaulted passage called "Portico Leonino," from its founder, Leo I. It is supported on low marble and granite columns with Ionic and Corinthian capitals. Here are collected a variety of relics of the ancient basilica. On either side of the entrance are mosaic tablets, which relate to the building of the church. Then, on the right, is a curious kneeling statue of Pope Nicholas IV., Masci (1287--92). On the left, in the centre, is an altar, above which is an ancient crucifix, and on either side tenth century statues of SS. Peter and Paul.
On the right is the entrance to the sacristy (whose inner bronze doors date from 1196), which contains an Annunciation by _Sebastian del Piombo_, and a sketch by _Raphael_ for the Madonna, called "Della Casa d'Alba," now at St. Petersburg; also an ancient bas-relief, which represents the old and humble basilica of Pope Sergius. On the left, at the end of the passage, is a very handsome cinquecento ciborium, and near it the "Tabula Magna Lateranensis," containing the list of relics belonging to the church.
Near this, opening from the transept, is the _Capella del Coro_, with handsome wooden stallwork. It contains a portrait of Martin V., by _Scipione Gaetani_.
The altar of the Sacrament, which closes the transept, has four fluted bronze columns, said to have been brought from Jerusalem by Titus, and to be hollow and filled with earth from Palestine.[281] The last chapel in the left aisle is the _Corsini Chapel_, erected in 1729 in honour of St. Andrea Corsini, from designs of Alessandro Galilei. It is in the form of a Greek cross, and ranks next to the Borghese Chapel in the richness of its marble decoration. The mosaic altar-piece, representing S. Andrea Corsini, is a copy from _Guido_. The founder of the chapel, Clement XII., Lorenzo Corsini (1730--40), is buried in a splendid porphyry sarcophagus which he plundered from the Pantheon. Above it is a bronze statue of the pope.[282] Opposite is the tomb of Cardinal Neri Corsini, with a number of statues of the Bernini school.
Beneath the chapel is a vault lined with sarcophagi of the Corsini. Its altar is surmounted by a magnificent Pietà--in whose beautiful and impressive figures it is difficult to recognise a work of the usually coarse and theatrical artist _Bernini_.
Of the many tombs of mediæval popes which formerly existed in this basilica,[283] none remain, except the memorial slab and epitaph of Sylvester II., Gerbert (999--1003). This pope is said (by the chronicler Martin Polonus de Corenza) to have been a kind of magician, who obtained first the archbishopric of Rheims, then that of Ravenna, and then the papacy, by the aid of the devil, to whom, in return, he promised to belong after death. When he ascended the throne, he asked the devil how long he could reign, and the devil, as is his custom, answered by a double-entendre, "If you never enter Jerusalem, you will reign a long time." He occupied the throne for four years, one month, and ten days, when, one day, as he was officiating in the basilica of Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme, he saw that he had passed the fatal threshold, and that his death was impending. Overwhelmed with repentance, he confessed his backslidings before the people, and exhorted them to lay aside pride, to resist the temptations of the devil, and to lead a good life. After this he begged of his attendants to cut his body in pieces after he was dead, as he deserved, and to place it on a common cart, and bury it wherever the horses stopped of their own accord. Then was manifested the will of the Divine Providence, that repentant sinners should learn that their God preserves for them a place of pardon even in this life,--for the horses went of their own accord to St. John Lateran, where he was buried. "Since then," says Platina, "the rattling of his bones, and the sweat, or rather the damp, with which his tomb becomes covered, has always been the infallible sign and forerunner of the death of a pope"!
Against the second pillar of the right aisle, counting from the west door, is a very interesting fresco of _Giotto_, originally one of many paintings executed by him for the loggia of the adjoining papal palace, whence the benediction and "plenary indulgence" were given in the jubilee year. It represents Boniface VIII. (Benedetto Gaetani, 1294--1303), the founder of the jubilee, between two priests.
"On y voit Boniface annonçant au peuple le jubilé. Le portrait du pape doit être ressemblant. J'ai reconnu dans cette physiognomie, où il y a plus de finesse que de force, la statue que j'avais vue couchée sur le tombeau de ce pape, dans les souterrains du Vatican."--_Ampère, Voyage Dantesque._
Opening from this aisle are several chapels. The second is that of the newly established and rich family of Torlonia, which contains a marble Pietà, by Tenerani, and some handsome modern monuments. The third is that of the Massimi (designed by Giacomo della Porta), which has, as an altar-piece, the Crucifixion by _Sermoneta_. Beyond this, in the right aisle, are several remarkable tombs of cardinals, among which is the tomb of Cardinal Guissano, who died in 1287. The painters Cav. d'Arpino and Andrea Sacchi are buried in this church.
Entered from the last chapel in the left aisle (by a door which the sacristan will open) is the beautiful twelfth century _Cloister of the Monastery_, surrounded by low arches supported on exquisite inlaid and twisted columns, above which is a lovely frieze of coloured marbles. The court thus enclosed is a garden of roses; in the centre is a well (adorned with crosses) of the tenth century, called the "Well of the Woman of Samaria." In the cloister is a collection of architectural and traditional relics, including a beautiful old white marble throne, inlaid with mosaics, a candelabrum resting on a lion, and several other exquisitely wrought details from the old basilica; also a porphyry slab upon which the soldiers are said to have cast lots for the seamless robe; columns which were rent by the earthquake of the Crucifixion; a slab, resting on pillars, shown as a measure of the height of Our Saviour,[284] and a smaller slab, also on pillars, of which it is said that it was once an altar, at which the officiating priest doubted of the Real Presence, when the wafer fell from his hand through the stone, leaving a round hole which still remains.
Five General Councils have been held at the Lateran, viz.:--
I.--March 19, 1123, under Calixtus II., with regard to the Investiture.
II.--April 18, 1139, under Innocent II., to condemn the doctrines of Arnold of Brescia and Peter de Bruys, and to oppose the anti-pope Anacletus II.
III.--March 5, 1179, under Alexander III., to condemn the doctrines of Waldenses and Albigenses, and to end the schism caused by Frederick Barbarossa.
IV.--Nov. 11, 1215, at which 400 bishops assembled under Innocent III., to condemn the Albigenses, and the heresies of the Abbot Joachim.
V.--May 3, 1512, under Julius II. and Leo X., at which the Pragmatic Sanction was abolished, and a Concordat concluded between the Pope and Francis I. for the destruction of the liberties of the Gallican Church.
It is in the basilica of the Lateran that the Church places the first meeting between St. Francis and St Dominic.
"Une nuit, pendant que Dominique dormait, il lui sembla voir Jésus-Christ se préparant à exterminer les superbes, les voluptueux, les avares, lorsque tout-à-coup la Vierge l'apaisa en lui présentant deux hommes: l'un d'eux lui-même; quant à l'autre, il ne le connaissait pas; mais le lendemain, la première personne qu'il aperçut, en entrant au Latran, fut l'inconnu qui lui était apparu en songe. Il était couvert de haillons et priait avec ferveur. Dominique se précipita dans ses bras, et l'embrassant avec effusion: 'Tu es mon compagnon,' lui dit-il; 'nous courons la même carrière, demeurons ensemble, et aucun ennemi ne prévaudra contre nous.' Et, à partir de ce moment, dit la légende, ils n'eurent plus qu'un cœur et qu'une âme dans le Seigneur. Ce pauvre, ce mendiant, était saint François d'Assise."--_Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne._
Issuing from the west door of the basilica, we find ourselves in a wide portico, one of whose five doors is a Porta Santa. At the end, is appropriately placed an ancient marble statue of Constantine, who is in the dress of a Roman warrior, bearing the _labarum_, or standard of the cross, which is here represented as a lance surmounted by the monogram of Christ. From this portico we look down upon one of the most beautiful and characteristic views in Rome. On one side are the Alban Hills, blue in morning, or purple in evening light, sprinkled with white villages of historic interest--Albano, Rocca di Papa, Marino, Frescati, Colonna; on the other side are the Sabine Mountains, tipped with snow; in the middle distance the long, golden-hued lines of aqueducts stretch away over the plain, till they are lost in the pink haze, and nearer still are the desolate basilica of Santa Croce, the fruit gardens of the Villa Wolkonski, interspersed with rugged fragments of massive brickwork, and the glorious old walls of the city itself. The road at our feet is the Via Appia Nuova, which leads to Naples, and which immediately passes through the modern gate of Rome, known as the Porta _San Giovanni_ (built in the sixteenth century by Gregory XIII.). Nearer to us, on the right, is an ancient gateway, the finest on the Aurelian wall, bricked up by Ladislaus, king of Naples, in 1408. By this gate, known as the _Porta Asinaria_, from the family of the Asinarii, Belisarius entered Rome in 505, and Totila, through the treachery of the Isaurian Guard, in 546. Here also, in 1084, Henry IV. entered Rome against Hildebrand with his anti-pope Guibert; and, a few years after, the name of the gate itself was changed to Porta Perusta, in consequence of the injuries it received from Robert Guiscard, who came to the rescue of the lawful pontiff.
The broad open space which we see beneath the steps was the favourite walk of the mediæval popes.
"The splendid palace of the Lateran reflected the rays of the evening sun, as Francis of Assisi with two or three of his disciples approached it to obtain the papal sanction for the rules of his new Order. A group of churchmen in sumptuous apparel were traversing with slow and measured steps its lofty terrace, then called 'the Mirror,' as if afraid to overtake him who preceded them, in a dress studiously simple, and with a countenance wrapped in earnest meditation. Unruffled by passion, and yet elate with conscious power, that eagle eye, and those capacious brows, announced him the lord of a dominion which might have satisfied the pride of Diogenes, and the ambition of Alexander. Since the Tugurium was built on the Capitoline, no greater monarch had ever called the seven hills his own. But, in his pontificate, no era had occurred more arduous than that in which Innocent III. saw the mendicants of Assisi prostrate at his feet. The interruption was as unwelcome as it was abrupt; as he gazed at the squalid dress and faces of his suitors, and observed their bare and unwashed feet, his lip curled with disdain, and sternly commanding them to withdraw, he seemed again to retire from the outer world into some of the deep recesses of that capacious mind. Francis and his companions betook themselves to prayer; Innocent to his couch. There (says the legend) he dreamed that a palm-tree sprouted up from the ground beneath his feet, and, swiftly shooting up into the heavens, cast her boughs on every side, a shelter from the heat, and a refreshment to the weary. The vision of the night dictated the policy of the morning, and assured Innocent that, under his fostering care, the Franciscan palm would strike deep her roots, and expand her foliage on every side, in the vineyard of the Church."--_Stephens' St. Francis of Assisi._
The western façade of the basilica, built by Alessandro Galilei in 1734, has a fine effect at a distance, but the statues of Christ and the apostles which line its parapet are too large for its proportions.
_The ancient Palace of the Lateran_ was the residence of the popes for nearly 1000 years. Almost all the events affecting the private lives of a vast line of ecclesiastical sovereigns happened within its walls. Plundered in each successive invasion, stricken with malaria during the autumn months, and often partially burnt, it was finally destroyed by the great enemy of Roman antiquities, Sixtus V. Among the scenes which occurred within its walls, perhaps the most terrible was that when John X., the completer of the Lateran basilica, was invaded here by Marozia, who was beginning to seize the chief power in Rome, and who carried the pope off prisoner to St. Angelo, after he had seen his brother Peter murdered before his eyes in the hall of the pontifical palace.
The only remnants preserved of this famous building are the private chapel of the popes, and the end wall of their dining-hall, known as the _Triclinium_, which contains a copy, erected by Benedict XIV., of the ancient mosaic of the time of Leo III. which formerly existed here, and the remains of which are preserved in the Vatican.
"In this mosaic, Hallam (Middle Ages) sees proof that the authority of the Greek Emperor was not entirely abrogated at Rome till long after the period of papal aggrandisement by Pepin and his son, but he is warranted by no probabilities in concluding that Constantine V., whose reign began A.D. 780, is intended by the emperor kneeling with St. Peter or Pope Sylvester."--_Hemans' Ancient Christian Art._
Professor Bryce finds two paintings in which the theory of the mediæval empire is unmistakeably set forth; one of them in Rome, the other in Florence, (a fresco in the chapter-house of S. M. Novella).
"The first of these is the famous mosaic of the Lateran triclinium, constructed by Pope Leo III., about A.D. 800, and an exact copy of which, made by the order of Sixtus V., may still be seen over against the facade of St. John Lateran. Originally meant to adorn the state banqueting-hall of the popes, it is now placed in the open air, in the finest situation in Rome, looking from the brow of a hill across the green ridges of the Campagna to the olive groves of Tivoli and the glistering crags and snow-capped summits of the Umbrian and Sabine Apennine. It represents in the centre Christ surrounded by the apostles, whom He is sending forth to preach the gospel; one hand is extended to bless, the other holds a book with the words 'Pax vobis.' Below and to the right Christ is depicted again, and this time sitting: on His right hand kneels Pope Sylvester, on His left the Emperor Constantine; to the one He gives the keys of heaven and hell, to the other a banner surmounted by a cross. In the group on the opposite, that is, on the left side of the arch, we see the Apostle Peter seated, before whom in like manner kneel Pope Leo III. and Charles the Emperor; the latter wearing, like Constantine, his crown. Peter, himself grasping the keys, gives to Leo the pallium of an archbishop, to Charles the banner of the Christian army. The inscription is 'Beatus Petrus dona vitam Leoni P. Pet victoriam Carulo regi dona;' while round the arch is written, 'Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax omnibus bonæ voluntatis.'
"The order and nature of the ideas here symbolized is sufficiently clear. First comes the revelation of the gospel, and the divine commission to gather all men into its fold. Next, the institution, at the memorable era of Constantine's conversion, of the two powers by which the Christian people is to be respectively taught and governed. Thirdly, we are shown the permanent Vicar of God, the apostle who keeps the keys of heaven and hell, re-establishing these same powers on a new and firmer basis. The badge of ecclesiastical supremacy he gives to Leo as the spiritual head of the faithful on earth, the banner of the Church militant to Charles, who is to maintain her cause against heretics and infidels."--_J. Bryce_, _Holy Roman Empire_, ch. vii. pp. 117, 118, 3rd ed., 1871.
In the building behind the Triclinium, attached to a convent of Passionist monks, and erected by Fontana for Sixtus V., is preserved _the Santa Scala_. This famous staircase, supposed to be that of the house of Pilate, ascended and descended by our Saviour, is said to have been brought from Jerusalem by Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, and has been regarded with especial reverence by the Roman Church for 1500 years. In 897 it was injured and partially thrown down by an earthquake, but was re-erected in the old Lateran palace, whence it was removed to its present site on the demolition of that venerable building. Clement XII. caused the steps to be covered by a wooden casing, which has since been repeatedly worn out by the knees of ascending pilgrims. Apertures are left, through which the marble steps can be seen; two of them are said to be stained with the blood of the Saviour!
At the foot of the stairs, within the atrium, are fine sculptures of _Giacometti_, representing the "Ecce Homo,"--and the "Kiss of Judas," purchased and placed here by Pius IX.
Between these statues the pilgrims kneel to commence the ascent of the Santa Scala. The effect of the staircase (especially on Fridays in Lent, and most of all on Good Friday), with the figures ascending on their knees in the dim light, and the dark vaulted ceiling covered with faded frescoes, is exceedingly picturesque.
"Reason may condemn, but feeling cannot resist the claim to reverential sympathy in the spectacle daily presented by the Santa Scala. Numerous indulgences have been granted by different popes to those who ascend it with prayer at each step. Whilst kneeling upon these stairs public penance used to be performed in the days of the Church's more rigorous discipline; as the saintly matron Fabiola there appeared a penitent before the public gaze, in sackcloth and ashes, A.D. 390.... There is no day on which worshippers may not be seen slowly ascending those stairs; but it is during Holy Week the concourse is at its height; and on Good Friday I have seen this structure completely covered by the multitude, like a swarm of bees settling on flowers!"--_Hemans' Ancient Sacred Art._
"Brother Martin Luther went to accomplish the ascent of the Santa Scala--the Holy Staircase--which once, they say, formed part of Pilate's house. He slowly mounted step after step of the hard stone, worn into hollows by the knees of penitents and pilgrims. An indulgence for a thousand years--indulgence from penance--is attached to this act of devotion. Patiently he crept half-way up the staircase, when he suddenly stood erect, lifted his face heavenward, and, in another moment, turned and walked slowly down again.
"He said that, as he was toiling up, a voice as if from heaven, seemed to whisper to him the old, well-known words, which had been his battle-cry in so many a victorious combat,--'The just shall live by faith.'
"He seemed awakened, as if from a nightmare, and restored to himself. He dared not creep up another step; but, rising from his knees, he stood upright, like a man suddenly loosed from bonds and fetters, and with the firm step of a freeman, he descended the staircase, and walked from the place."--_Schönberg-Cotta Chronicles._
"Did the feet of the Saviour actually tread these steps? Are these reliques really portions of his cross, crown of thorns, &c., or is all this fictitious? To me it is all one.
"'He is not here, he is risen!' said the angel at the tomb. The worship of the bodily covering which the spirit has cast off belongs to the soul still in the larva condition; and the ascending of the Scala Santa on the knees is too convenient a mode for obtaining the forgiveness of sins, and at the same time a hindrance upon the only true way."--_Frederika Bremer._
Ascending one of the lateral staircases--no _foot_ must touch the Santa Scala--we reach the outside of the _Sancta Sanctorum_, a chapel held so intensely sacred that none but the pope can officiate at its altar, and that it is _never_ open to others, except on the morning before Palm Sunday, when the canons of the Lateran come hither to worship, in solemn procession, with torches and a veiled crucifix, and, even then, none but the clergy are allowed to pass its threshold. The origin of the sanctuary is lost in antiquity, but it was the private chapel of the mediæval popes in the old palace, and is known to have existed already, dedicated to St. Laurence, in the time of Pelagius I. (578--590), who deposited here some relics of St. Andrew and St. Luke. It was restored by Honorius III. in 1216, and almost rebuilt by Nicholas III. in 1277.
It is permitted to gaze through a grating upon the picturesque glories of the interior, which are chiefly of the thirteenth century. The altar is in a recess, supported by two porphyry columns. Above it a beautiful silver tabernacle, presented by Innocent III. (1198-1216), to contain the great relic, which invests the chapel with its peculiar sanctity,--a portrait of our Saviour (placed here by Stephen III. in 752), held by the Roman Church as authentic,--to have been begun by St. Luke and finished by an angel, whence the name by which it is known, "Acheirotopeton," or, the "picture made without hands."
"The different theories as to the acheirotopeton picture, and the manner in which it reached this city, are stated with naïveté by Maroni--_i.e._, that the apostles and the Madonna, meeting after the ascension, resolved to order a portrait of the Crucified, for satisfying the desire of the faithful, and commissioned St. Luke to execute the task; that after three days' prayer and fasting, such a portrait was drawn in outline by that artist, but, before he had begun to colour, the tints were found to have been filled in by invisible hands; that this picture was brought from Jerusalem to Rome, either by St. Peter, or by Titus (together with the sacred spoils of the temple); or else expedited hither in a miraculous voyage of only twenty-four hours by S. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, who desired thus to save such a treasure from the outrages of the Iconoclasts; and that, about A.D. 726, Pope Gregory II., apprised of its arrival at the mouth of the Tiber by revelation, proceeded to carry it thence, with due escort, to Rome; since which advent it has remained in the Sancta Sanctorum."--_Hemans' Mediæval Christian Art._
Above the altar is, in gilt letters, the inscription, "non est in tota sanctior urbe locus." Higher up, under gothic arches, and between twisted columns, are pictures of sainted popes and martyrs, but these have been so much retouched as to have lost their interest. The gratings here are those of the relic chamber, which contains the reputed sandals of Our Saviour, fragments of the true cross, &c. On the ceiling is a grand mosaic,--a head of Our Saviour within a nimbus, sustained by six-winged seraphim--ascribed to the eighth century. The sill in front of the screen is covered with money, thrown in as offerings by the pilgrims.
The chapel was once much larger. Its architect was probably Deodatus Cosmati. An inscription near the door tells us, "Magister Cosmatus fecit hoc opus."
Here, in the time when the Lateran palace was inhabited, the feet of twelve sub-deacons were annually washed by the pope on Holy Thursday. On the Feast of the Assumption the sacred picture used to be borne in triumph through the city, halting in the Forum, where the feet of the pope were washed in perfumed waters on the steps of Sta. Maria Nuova, and the "Kyrie Eleison" was chaunted a hundred times. This custom was abolished by Pius V. in 1566.
The _Modern Palace of the Lateran_ was built from designs of Fontana by Sixtus V. In 1693 Innocent XII. turned it into a hospital,--in 1438 Gregory XVI. appropriated it as a museum. The entrance faces the obelisk in the Piazza di San Giovanni. The palace is always shown, but the terrible cold which pervades it makes it a dangerous place except in the late spring months, and a visit to it is often productive of fever.
The ground floor is the principal receptacle for antiquities, found at Rome within the last few years. It contains a number of very beautiful sarcophagi and bas-reliefs.
Entering under the corridor on the right, the most remarkable objects are:--
_1st Room._--
LEFT WALL:
Relief of the Abduction of Helen.
RIGHT WALL:
High relief of two pugilists, 'Dares and Entellus.'
Grand relief of Trajan followed by senators, from the Forum of Trajan.
The sacred oak of Jupiter, with figures.
Bust of Marcus Aurelius.
_2nd Room._--
Beautiful architectural fragments, chiefly from the Forum of Trajan.
_3rd Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Statue of Æsculapius.
RIGHT WALL:
Statue of Antinous, called the Braschi, found at Palestrina.
Bought from the Braschi family by Gregory XVI for 12,000 scudi.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Sarcophagus of a child, with a relief representing pugilists.
_4th Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Greek relief of Medea and the daughters of Peleus.
Above (one of a number of busts), 762. Beautiful head of a Dryad.
Statue of Germanicus.
RIGHT WALL:
Statue of Mars.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Copy of the Faun of Praxiteles.
IN THE CENTRE:
A fine vase of Lumachella.
A passage is crossed to the
_5th Room._--
IN THE CENTRE:
1. Sacrifice of Mithras. 2. A stag of basalt. 3. A cow.
RIGHT WALL:
Sepulchral urn, with a curious relief representing children and cock-fighting.
_6th Room._--
An interesting collection of statues, from Cervetri (Cære), including those of Tiberius and Claudius; between them Agrippina, sixth wife of Claudius,--and others less certain.
BETWEEN THE WINDOWS:
Drusilla, sister of Claudius, and, on the wall, part of her epitaph.
_7th Room._--
RIGHT WALL:
Faun dancing,--found near Sta. Lucia in Selce.
FACING THE ENTRANCE:
_A grand statue of Sophocles_ (the gem of the collection), found at Terracina, 1838. Given by the Antonelli family.
"Sophocle, dans une pose aisée et fière, un pied en avant, un bras enveloppé dans son manteau qu'il serre contre son corps, contemple avec une majestueuse sérénité la nature humaine et la domine d'un regard sûr et tranquille."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 573.
_8th Room._--
Statue of Neptune, from Porto--the legs and arms restored.
_9th Room._--
Architectural fragments from the Via Appia and Forum.
_10th Room._--
A series of interesting reliefs, found 1848, at the tomb of the Aterii at Centocellæ, representing the preparations for the funeral solemnities of a great Roman lady.
ENTRANCE WALL:
The building of the sepulchre. A curious machine for raising heavy stones is introduced.
RIGHT WALL:
The body of the dead surrounded by burning torches, the mourners tearing their hair and beating their breasts.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Showing several Roman buildings which the funeral procession would pass,--among them the Coliseum and the Arch of Titus--inscribed, "Arcus in sacra via summa."
Signor Rosa has considered this last relief of great importance, as indicating by the different monuments the route which a well-ordered funeral procession ought to pursue.
A second passage is crossed to the
_11th Room._--
Containing several fine sarcophagi.
_12th Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Sarcophagus, with the story of Orestes.
RIGHT WALL:
Sarcophagus decorated with Cupids bearing garlands, and supporting a head of Augustus.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Sarcophagus representing the destruction of the children of Niobe.
_13th Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Statue of C. Lælius Saturninus.
IN THE CENTRE:
Sarcophagus of P. Cæcilius Vallianus, representing a funeral banquet.
LEFT WALL:
Unfinished statue of a captive barbarian, with sculptor's marks remaining, to guide the workman's chisel.
_15th Room._--
This and the next room are devoted to objects recently found in the excavations at Ostia.
LEFT WALL:
Mosaic in a niche.
_16th Room._--
IN THE CENTRE:
Reclining statue of Atys.
RIGHT WALL:
Frescoes of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, from a tomb at Ostia.
The _Christian Museum_, founded by Pius IX., and arranged by Padre Marchi and the Cavaliere Rossi, is of great interest. In the first hall is a statue of Christ by _Sosnowsky_, and in the wall behind it three mosaics,--two from the catacombs, that in the centre--of Christ with SS. Peter and Paul--from the old St. Peter's. Hence we ascend a staircase lined with Christian sarcophagi. At the foot are two statues of the Good Shepherd.
"Une des compositions de Calamis ne doit pas être oubliée à Rome, car ce sujet païen a été adopté par l'art chrétien des premiers temps. Les représentations du _Bon Pasteur rapportant la brebis_, expressions touchante de la miséricorde divine, ont leur origine dans le _Mercure porte-bélier_ (Criophore). Quelquefois c'est un _berger_ qui porte un bélier, une brebis ou un agneau; l'on se rapproche ainsi a l'idée du _bon pasteur_. En général, le bon pasteur, dans les monuments chrétiens, porte une _brebis_, la brebis égarée de l'Évangile; mais quelquefois aussi il porte _un bélier_; et alors le souvenir de l'original païen dans la composition chrétienne est manifeste."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 256.
The sarcophagus on the left, which tells the story of Jonah, is especially fine. The corridor above is also lined with sarcophagi. The best are on the left; of these the most remarkable are, the 1st, the marriage at Cana; 4th, the Good Shepherd repeated several times among vines, with cherubs gathering the grapes; 7th, a sarcophagus with a canopy supported by two pavonazzetto columns, and on the wall behind, frescoes of the Good Shepherd, &c. At the raised end of the corridor is the seated statue of Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto in the third century (the upper part a restoration), found in the Catacomb of Sta. Cyriaca, and moved hither from the Vatican Library; upon the chair is engraved the celebrated Paschal Calendar, which is supposed to settle the unorthodoxy of those early Christians who kept Easter at the same time as the Jews.
Hence, three rooms lined with drawings from the paintings in the different catacombs, lead to,--
THE PICTURE GALLERY.
_1st Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Cartoon of stoning of Stephen: _Giulio Romano_.
Below this is the celebrated mosaic called _Asarotos_, representing an unswept floor after a banquet. It is inscribed with the name of its artist, _Heraclitus_, but is a copy from one of the two famous mosaics of Sosus of Pergamus (the other is "Pliny's Doves"). It was found on the Aventine in 1833 in the gardens of Servilius, and "probably adorned a dining-room where Cæsar may have supped with Servilia, the sister of Cato, and mother of Brutus." A similar pavement is alluded to by Statius:--
"Varias ubi picta per artes Gaudet humus superare novis asarota figuris."
_Sylv._ i. 3, 55.
LEFT WALL:
Christ and St Thomas--a cartoon: _Camuccini_.
WINDOW WALL:
The first sketch for the famous fresco of the Descent from the Cross at the Trinità de' Monti: _Daniele da Volterra_.
On the right is the entrance of the
_2nd Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Annunciation: _Cav. d' Arpino_.
RIGHT WALL:
George IV. of England (most strangely out of place): _Lawrence_.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Assumption of the Virgin: _After Guercino_.
From the corner of this room, on the right, a staircase leads to a gallery, whence one may look down upon the huge and hideous mosaic pavement--with portraits of twenty-eight athletes--found in the Baths of Caracalla in 1822.
"Les gladiateurs de la mosaïque de Saint Jean de Latran ont reçu la forte alimentation qu'on donnait à leurs pareils; ils ont bien cet air de résolution brutale que devaient avoir ceux qui prononçaient ce féroce serment que nous a conservé Pétrone: 'Nous jurons d'obéir à nôtre maître Eumolpe, qu'il nous ordonne de nous laisser brûler, enchaîner, frapper, tuer par le fer ou autrement; et comme vrais gladiateurs, nous dévouons à notre maître nos corps et nos vies.'"--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iv. 33.
On the left of 1st room is the
_3rd Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Madonna with SS. Peter, Dominic, and Anthony on the right, and SS. John Baptist, Laurence, and Francis on the left: _Marco Palmezzano di Forli_, 1537.
IN THE LEFT CORNER:
Madonna and Saints: _Carlo Crivelli_, 1482.
LEFT WALL:
St. Thomas receiving the girdle of the Virgin (the Sacra Cintola of Prato)--with a predella: _Benozzo Gozzoli_.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Madonna with St. John Baptist and St. Jerome: _Palmezzano_.
_4th Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Sixtus V. as Cardinal: _Sassoferrato_.
Madonna: _Carlo Crivelli_, 1482--very highly finished.
LEFT WALL:
Sixtus V. as Pope: _Domenichino_(?).
Two Gobelins from pictures of Fra Bartolommeo at the Quirinal.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Christ with the Tribute Money: _Caravaggio_.
_5th Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Entombment: _Venetian School_.
LEFT WALL:
Greek Baptism: _Pietro Nocchi_, 1840.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Holy Family: _Andrea del Sarto_.
_6th Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Baptism of Christ: _Cesare da Sesto_.
LEFT WALL:
SS. Agnes and Emerentiana: _Luca Signorelli_; Annunciation: _F. Francia_; SS. Laurence and Benedict (very peculiar, as scarcely showing their faces at all, but magnificent in colour): _Luca Signorelli_.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Coronation of the Virgin, with wings, of saints, angels, and doves: _F. Filippo Lippi_.
BETWEEN THE WINDOWS: S. Jerome, in tempera: _Giovanni Sanzio, father of Raphael_.
_7th Room._--
ENTRANCE WALL:
Pagan sacrifice: _Caravaggio_ (?).
LEFT WALL:
_Altar-piece by Antonio da Murano_, 1464.
WALL OF EGRESS:
Christ at Emmaus: _Caravaggio_.
_8th Room._--
An oil copy of the fresco of the Flagellation of St. Andrew by Domenichino, at S. Gregorio.
_9th Room._--
A set of beautiful terracotta busts and reliefs by _Pettrich_, illustrative of North American Indian life. This room is called the Hall of Council, and is surrounded by fresco portraits of popes, and pictures allegorical of their arms, &c.
The walls of the open galleries on this floor of the palace have been covered with early Christian inscriptions from the catacombs, which have been thus arranged in arches:--
1--3. Epitaphs of martyrs and others of temp. Damasus I. (366 to 384). 4--7. Dated inscriptions from 238 to 557. 8--9. Inscriptions relating to doctrine. 10.--Inscriptions relating to popes, presbyters, and deacons. 11--12. Inscriptions relating to simple ecclesiastics. 13.--Inscriptions of affection to relations and friends. 14--16. Symbolical. 17.--Simple epitaphs from different catacombs.
On the third floor of the palace are casts from the bas-reliefs on the column of Trajan.
Before leaving the Lateran altogether, we must notice amongst its early institutions, the famous school of music which existed here throughout the middle ages.
"Gregory the Great, whose object it seems to have been to render religion a thing of the senses, was the founder of the music of the Church. He instituted the school for it in the Lateran, whence the Carlovingian monarchs obtained teachers of singing and organ-playing. The Frankish monks were sent thither for instruction."--_Dyer's Hist. of the City of Rome._
Opposite the palace is the entrance of the _Villa Massimo Arsoli_, to which admission may be obtained by a permesso given at the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne. There is little to see here, however, except a casino beautifully decorated with scenes taken from the great Italian poets by the modern German artists, Schnorr, Kock, Ph. Veit, Overbeck, and Führich.
"Les sujets sont tirés de Dante, de l'Arioste, et du Tasse. Dante a été confide à Cornélius, l'Arioste à Schnorr, le Tasse à Overbeck, les trois plus célèbres noms de cette école qui croit pouvoir remonter par une imitation savante à la naïveté du XVe. siècle."--_Ampère, Voyage Dantesque._
Leading from the Piazza di San Giovanni to Sta. Maria Maggiore is the Via Immerulana, where, in the hollow, is the strange-looking _Church of SS. Pietro e Marcellino_, in which is preserved a miraculous painting of the Crucifixion; the figure upon the cross is supposed to move the eyes, when regarded by the faithful. This picture, a small replica of the magnificent Guido at S. Lorenzo in Lucina, is shown, behind a grille, by a nun of Sta. Theresa, veiled from head to foot in blue, like an immovable pillar of blue drapery.
"SS. Pietro e Marcellino stands in the valley behind the Esquiline, in the long, lonely road between Sta. Maria Maggiore and the Lateran. SS. Peter Exorcista and Marcellinus are always represented together in priestly habits, bearing their palms. Their legend relates, that in the persecution under Diocletian they were cast into prison. Artemius, keeper of the dungeon, had a daughter named Paulina, and she fell sick; and St. Peter offered to restore her to health, if her father would believe in the true God. And the jailer mocked him, saying, 'If I put thee into the deepest dungeon, and load thee with heavier chains, will thy God deliver thee? If he doth, I will believe in him.' And Peter answered, 'Be it so, not out of regard to thee; for it matters little to our God whether such an one as thou believe in him or not, but that the name of Christ may be glorified, and thyself confounded.'
"And in the middle of the night Peter and Marcellinus, in white shining garments, entered the chamber of Artemius as he lay asleep, who, being struck with awe, fell down and worshipped the name of Christ; and he, his wife, daughter, and three hundred others, were baptized. After this the two holy men were condemned to die for the faith, and the executioner was ordered to lead them to a forest three miles from Rome, that the Christians might not discover their place of sepulture. And when he had brought them to a solitary thicket overgrown with brambles and thorns, he declared to them that they were to die, upon which they cheerfully fell to work and cleared away a space fit for the purpose, and dug the grave in which they were to be laid. Then they were beheaded (June 2), and died encouraging each other.
"The fame of SS. Pietro e Marcellino is not confined to Rome. In the reign of Charlemagne they were venerated as martyrs throughout Italy and Gaul; and Eginhard, the secretary of Charlemagne who married his daughter Emma, is said to have held them in particular honour. Every one, I believe, knows the beautiful story of Eginhard and Emma,--and the connection of these saints with them, as their chosen protectors, lends an interest to their solitary deserted church. In the Roma Sotterranea of Bosio, p. 126, there is an ancient fragment found in the catacombs, which represents St. Peter Exorcista, St. Marcellinus, and Paulina, standing together."--_Mrs. Jameson._
Behind the Santa Scala, a narrow lane leads to the _Villa Wolkonski_ (a "permesso" may be obtained through your banker), a most beautiful garden, running along the edge of the hill, intersected by the broken arches of the Aqua Claudia, and possessing exquisite views over the Campagna, with its lines of aqueducts to the Alban and Sabine mountains. _No one should omit to visit this villa._
"Where the aqueducts, just about to enter the city, most nearly converge, and looking across the Campagna--which their arches only seem able to span--towards Albano and the hills, stands the Villa. Embosomed in olive and in ilex trees, it is rich in hoar cypresses, in urns, and in those pathetic fragments of old workmanship which an undergrowth of violets and acanthus half hides, and half reveals."--_Vera._
* * * * *
About a mile beyond the Porta S. Giovanni, a road branches off on the left to the _Porta Furba_, an arch of the Aqua Felice, founded on the line of the Claudian and Marcian aqueducts. Artists may find a picturesque subject here in a pretty fountain, with a portion of the decaying aqueduct. Beyond the arch is the mound called _Monte del Grano_, which has been imagined to be the burial-place of Alexander Severus. Beyond this, the road (to Frescati) passes on the left the vast ruins, called _Sette Bassi_.
The direct road--which leads to Albano--reaches, about two miles from the gate, a queer building, called the Casa del Diavolo, on the outside of which some rude frescoes testify to the popular belief as to its owner. Just beyond this a field track on the left leads to the _Via Latina_, of which a certain portion, paved with huge polygonal blocks of lava, is now laid bare. Here are some exceedingly interesting and well-preserved tombs, richly ornamented with painting and stucco. The view, looking back upon Rome, or forward to the long line of broken arches of the Claudian aqueduct, seen between these ruined sepulchres, is most striking and beautiful.
Close by have been discovered remains of a villa of the Servilii, which afterwards belonged to the Asinarii. Here also, in 1858 (on the left of the Via Latina), Signor Fortunati discovered the long buried and forgotten _Basilica of S. Stefano_. It is recorded by Anastasius that this basilica was founded in the time of Leo I. (440--461) by Demetria, a lady who escaped from the siege by the Goths, with her mother, to Carthage, where she became a nun. It was restored by Leo III. at the end of the eighth century. The remains are interesting, though they do little more than show perfectly the substruction and plan of the ancient building. An inscription relating to the foundation of the church by Demetria has been found among the ruins.
Not far from this is the _Catacomb of the Santi-Quattro_.
Three and a half miles from Rome is the Osteria of _Tavolato_, near which is one of the most striking and picturesque portions of the Claudian Aqueduct. It is on the rising ground between this aqueduct and the road, that the _Temple of Fortuna Muliebris_ is believed to have stood. This was the temple which Valeria, the sister of Publicola, and Volumnia, the mother of Coriolanus, claimed to erect at their own expense, when the senate asked them to choose their recompense for having preserved Rome by their entreaties.
"As Valeria, sister of Publicola, was sitting in the temple, as a suppliant before the image of Jupiter, Jupiter himself seemed to inspire her with a sudden thought, and she immediately rose, and called upon all the other noble ladies who were with her, to arise also, and she led them to the house of Volumnia, the mother of Caius (Coriolanus). There she found Virgilia, the wife of Caius, with his mother, and also his little children. Valeria then addressed Volumnia and Virgilia, and said, 'Our coming here to you is our own doing; neither the senate nor any mortal man have sent us; but the god in whose temple we were sitting as suppliants put it into our hearts, that we should come and ask you to join with us, women with women, without any aid of men, to win for our country a great deliverance, and for ourselves a name, glorious above all women, even above those Sabine wives in the old time, who stopped the battle between their husbands and their fathers. Come, then, with us to the camp of Caius, and let us pray to him to show us mercy.' Volumnia said, 'We will go with you:' and Virgilia took her young children with her, and they all went to the camp of the enemy.
"It was a sad and solemn sight to see this train of noble ladies, and the very Volscian soldiers stood in silence as they passed by, and pitied them and honoured them. They found Caius sitting on the general's seat, in the midst of the camp, and the Volscian chiefs were standing round him. When he first saw them he wondered what it could be; but presently he knew his mother, who was walking at the head of the train, and then he could not contain himself, but leapt down from his seat, and ran to meet her, and was going to kiss her. But she stopped him, and said, 'Ere thou kiss me, let me know whether I am speaking to an enemy or to my son; whether I stand in thy camp as thy prisoner or thy mother?' Caius could not answer her; and then she went on and said, 'Must it be, then, that had I never borne a son, Rome never would have seen the camp of an enemy; that had I remained childless, I should have died a free woman in a free city? But I am too old to bear much longer either thy shame or my misery. Rather look to thy wife and children, whom, if thou persistest, thou art dooming to an untimely death, or a long life of bondage.' Then Virgilia and his children came up to him and kissed him, and all the noble ladies wept, and bemoaned their own fate and the fate of their country. At last Caius cried out, 'O mother, what hast thou done to me?' and he wrung her hand vehemently, and said, 'Mother, thine is the victory; a happy victory for thee and for Rome, but shame and ruin to thy son.' Then he fell on her neck and embraced her, and he embraced his wife and his children, and sent them back to Rome; and led away the army of the Volscians, and never afterwards attacked Rome any more. The Romans, as was right, honoured Volumnia and Valeria for their deed, and a temple was built and dedicated to 'Woman's Fortune' just on the spot where Caius had yielded to his mother's words; and the first priestess of the temple was Valeria, into whose heart Jupiter had first put the thought to go to Volumnia, and to call upon her to go out to the enemy's camp and entreat her son."--_Arnold's Hist. of Rome_, vol. i.
"Il y a peu de scènes dans l'histoire plus émouvantes que celle-là, et elle ne perd rien à la décoration du théâtre; en se plaçant sur un tertre à quatre milles de Rome, près de la voie Latine, dans un lieu où il n'y a aujourd'hui que des tombeaux et des ruines, on peut se figurer le camp des Volsques, dont les armes et les tentes étincellent au soleil. Les montagnes s'élèvent à l'horizon. A travers la plaine ardente et poudreuse défile une foule voilée dont les gémissements retentissent dans le silence de la campagne romaine. Bientôt Coriolan est entouré de cette multitude suppliante dont les plaintes, les cris, devaient avoir la vivacité des démonstrations passionées des Romaines de nos jours. Coriolan eût ré sisté à tout ce bruit, il eût peut-être résisté aux larmes de sa femme et aux caresses de ses enfants; il ne résista pas à la sévérité de sa mère.
"Le soir, par un glorieux coucher du soleil de Rome qui éclaire leur joie, la procession triomphante s'éloigne en adressant un chant de reconnaissance aux dieux, et lui se retire dans sa tente, étonné d'avoir pu céder."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ ii. 402.
The return drive to Rome may be varied by turning to the right about a mile beyond this, into a lane which leads past the so-called temple of Bacchus to the Via Appia Vecchia.
* * * * *
We may now follow the lines of white mulberry-trees across the open space in front of St. John Lateran, which is a continuation of the ancient papal promenade of "the Mirror," to Sta. Croce. The sister basilicas look at each other, and at Sta. Maria Maggiore, down avenues of trees. On the left are the walls of Rome, upon which run the arches of the Aqua Marcia.
"Few Roman churches are set within so impressive a picture as Santa Croce, approached on every side through these solitudes of vineyards and gardens, quiet roads, and long avenues of trees, that occupy such immense extent within the walls of Rome. The scene from the Lateran, looking towards this basilica across the level common, between lines of trees, with the distance of Campagna and mountains, the castellated walls, the arcades of the Claudian aqueduct, amid gardens and groves, is more than beautiful, full of memory and association. The other approach, by the unfrequented Via di Sta. Croce, presents the finest distances, seen through a foliage beyond the dusky towers of the Honorian walls, and a wide extent of slopes covered with vineyards, amid which stand at intervals some of those forlorn cottage farms, grey and dilapidated, that form characteristic features in Roman scenery. The majestic ruins of Minerva-Medica, the so-called temple of Venus and Cupid, the fragments of the Baths of St. Helena, the Castrense Amphitheatre, the arches of the aqueduct, half concealed in cypress and ivy, are objects which must increase the attractions of a walk to this sanctuary of the cross. But the exterior of the church is disappointing and inappropriate, retaining nothing antique except the square Lombardic tower of the twelfth century, in storeys of narrow-arched windows, its brickwork ornamented with disks of coloured marble, and a canopy, with columns, near the summit, for a statue no longer in its place."--_Hemans' Catholic Italy_, vol. i.
The site of the _Basilica of Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme_ was once occupied by the garden of Heliogabalus, and afterwards by the palace of the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, whose residence here was known as the Palatium Sessorianum, whence the name of Sessorian, sometimes given to the basilica.
The church was probably once a hall in the palace of Helena, to which an apse was added by Constantine, in whose reign it was consecrated by Pope Sylvester. It was repaired by Gregory II. early in the eighth century; the monastery was added by Benedict VII. about 975, and the whole was rebuilt by Lucius II. in 1144. The church was completely modernized by Benedict XIV. in the last century, and scarcely anything, except the tower, now remains externally, which is even as old as the twelfth century. The fine columns of granite and bigio-lumachellato, which now adorn the façade, were plundered from the neighbouring temple in 1744.
The interior of the church is devoid of beauty, owing to modernizations. Four out of twelve fine granite columns, which divided its nave and aisles, are boxed up in senseless plaster piers. The high altar is adorned with an urn of green basalt, sculptured with lions' heads, which contains the bodies of SS. Anastasius and Cæsarius. Two of the pillars of the baldacchino are of breccia-corallina. The fine frescoes of the tribune by _Pinturicchio_ have been much retouched. They were executed under Alexander VI., on a commission from Cardinal Carvajal, who is himself represented as kneeling before the cross, which is held by the Empress Helena.
"The very important frescoes of the choir apsis of Sta. Croce (now much over-painted) are of Pinturicchio's better time. They represent the finding of the Cross, with a colossal Christ in a nimbus among angels above,--a figure full of wild grandeur."--_Kugler._
"Near the entrance of the church is a valuable monument of the papal history of the tenth century, in a metrical epitaph to Benedict VII., recording his foundation of the adjoining monastery for monks, who were to sing day and night the praises of the Deity; his charities to the poor; and the deeds of the anti-pope Franco, called by Baronius (with play upon his assumed name Boniface) Malefacius, who usurped the Holy See, imprisoned and strangled the lawful pope, Benedict VI., and pillaged the treasury of St. Peter's, but in one month was turned out and excommunicated, when he fled to Constantinople. The chronology of this epitaph is by the ancient system of Indictions, the death of the pope dated XII. Indiction, corresponding to the year 984: and the Latin style of the tenth century is curiously exemplified in lines relating to the anti-pope:
'Hic primus repulit Franconis spurca superbi Culmina qui invasit sedis apostolicæ Qui dominumque suum captum in castro habebat Carceris interea auctis constrictus in uno Strangulatus ubi exuerat hominem.'"
_Hemans' Catholic Italy._
The consecration of the Golden Rose, formerly sent to foreign princes, used to take place in this church. The principal observances here now are connected with the exhibition of the relics, of which the principal is the Title of the True Cross.
"In 1492, when some repairs were ordered by Cardinal Mendoza, a niche was discovered near the summit of the apse, enclosed by a brick front, inscribed 'Titulus Crucis.' In it was a leaden coffer, containing an imperfect plank of wood, 2 inches thick, 1½ palm long, 1 palm broad. On this, in letters more or less perfect, was the inscription in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, _Jesus Nazarene King_. It was venerated by Innocent VIII., with the college of cardinals, and enclosed by Mendoza in the silver shrine, where it is exposed three times a year from the balcony. The relics are exposed on the 4th Sunday in Lent. On Good Friday the rites are more impressive here than in any other church, the procession of white-robed monks, and the deep toll of the bell announcing the display of the relics by the mitred abbot, are very solemn, and it is surprising, that while crowds of strangers submit to be crushed in the Sistine, scarcely one visits this ancient basilica on that day."--_Hemans' Catholic Italy._
"The list of relics on the right of the apsis of Sta. Croce includes, the finger of St. Thomas Apostle, with which he touched the most holy side of our Lord Jesus Christ; one of the pieces of money with which the Jews paid the treachery of Judas; great part of the veil and of the hair of the most blessed Virgin; a mass of cinders and charcoal, united in the form of a loaf, with the fat of St. Lawrence, martyr; one bottle of the most precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; another of the milk of the most blessed Virgin; a little piece of the stone where Christ was born; a little piece of the stone where our Lord sate when he pardoned Mary Magdalen; of the stone where our Lord wrote the law, given to Moses on Mount Sinai; of the stone where reposed SS. Peter and Paul; of the cotton which collected the blood of Christ; of the manna which fed the Israelites; of the rod of Aaron, which flourished in the desert; of the relics of the eleven prophets!"--_Percy's Romanism._
Two staircases near the tribune lead to the subterranean church, which has an altar with a pietà, and statues of SS. Peter and Paul of the twelfth century. Hence opens the chapel of Sta. Helena,[285] which women (by a perversion especially strange in this case) are never allowed to enter except on the festival of the saint, August 18. It is built upon a soil composed of earth brought by the empress from Palestine. Her statue is over the altar. The vault has mosaics (originally erected under Valentinian III., but restored by _Zucchi_ in 1593) representing, in ovals, a half-length figure of the Saviour; the Evangelists and their symbols; the Finding of the True Cross; SS. Peter and Paul; St. Sylvester, the conservator of the church; and Sta. Helena, with Cardinal Carvajal kneeling before her.
Here the feast of the "Invention of the True Cross" (May 3) is celebrated with great solemnity, when the hymns "Pange Lingua" and "Vexilla Regis" are sung, and the antiphon:--
"O Cross, more glorious than the stars, world famous, beauteous of aspect, holiest of things, which alone wast worthy to sustain the weight of the world: dear wood, dear nails, dear burden, bearing; save those present assembled in thy praise to-day. Alleluia."
And the collect:--
"O God, who by the glorious uplifting of the salvation-bearing cross, hast displayed the miracles of thy passion, grant that by the merit of that life-giving wood, we may attain the suffrages of eternal life, &c."
The adjoining _Monastery_ belongs to the Cistercians. Only part of one wing is ancient. The library formerly contained many curious MSS., but most of these were lost to the basilica, when the collection was removed to the Vatican during the French occupation and the exile of Pius VII.
The garden of the monastery contains the ruin generally known as the _Temple of Venus and Cupid_, but considered by Dr. Braun to be the Sessorian Basilica or law-court, where the causes of slaves (who were allowed to appeal to no other court) were wont to be heard. Behind the monastery is the _Amphitheatrum Castrense_, attributed to the time of Nero, when it is supposed to have been erected for the games of two cohorts of soldiers, quartered near here. It is ingrafted into the line of the Honorian walls, and is best seen from the outside of the city. Its arches and pillars, with Corinthian capitals, are all of brick.
(On the left of the Via Sta. Croce, which leads hence to Sta. Maria Maggiore, is the gate of the _Villa Altieri_, chiefly remarkable for its grand umbrella pine, the finest in the city. Further, on the right, is a tomb of unknown origin, now used as a farm-house and a wine-shop.)
Turning to the right from the basilica, we follow a lane which leads beneath some fine brick arches of an aqueduct of the time of Nero, cited by Ampère,[286] as exemplifying the perfection to which architecture attained in the reign of this emperor, "by the quality of the bricks, and the excellence and small quantity of the cement." These ruins are popularly called the Baths of Sta. Helena.
Passing these arches we find ourselves facing the _Porta Maggiore_, formed by two arches of the Claudian Aqueduct, formerly known as the Porta Labicana, and Porta Prenestina, of which the former was closed in the time of Honorius, and has never been re-opened. Three inscriptions remain, the first relating to the building of the aqueduct by the Emperor Tiberius Claudius;--the second and third to its restoration by Vespasian and Titus. Above the Aqua Claudia flowed a second stream, the Anio Novus.
Outside the gate, only lately disclosed, upon the removal of constructions of the time of Honorius (the fragments of those worth preserving are placed on the opposite wall), is the _Tomb of the Baker Eurysaces_, who was also one of the inspectors of aqueducts. The tomb is attributed to the early years of the Empire. Its first storey is surmounted by the inscription: "EST HOC MONUMENTUM MARCEI VERGILEI EVRYSACES PISTORIS REDEMPTORIS APPARET." Its second storey is composed of rows of the mortars used in baking, placed sideways, and supporting a frieze with bas-reliefs telling the story of a baker's work, from the bringing of the corn into the mill to its distribution as bread. In the front of the tomb was formerly a relief of the baker and his wife, with a sarcophagus, and the inscription: "FUIT ATISTIA UXOR MIHEI--FEMINA OPTVMA VEIXSIT--QUOIVS CORPORIS RELIQUIÆ--QUOD SUPERANT SUNT IN--HOC PANARIO." This has been foolishly removed, and is now to be seen upon the opposite wall.
* * * * *
From this gate many pleasant excursions may be taken. The direct road leads to Palestrina by Zagarolo, and at 1½ mile from the gate passes, on the left, _Torre Pignatarra_, the tomb of Sta. Helena, whence the magnificent porphyry sarcophagus, now in the Vatican, was removed. The name is derived from the _pignatte_, or earthen pots, used in the building. Beneath it is a catacomb, now closed. The adjoining _Catacomb of SS. Pietro e Marcellino_ contains some well preserved paintings; the most interesting is that of the Divine Lamb on a mound (from which four rivers flow as in the mosaics of the ancient basilicas), with figures of Petrus, Gorgonius, Marcellinus, and Tiburtius. At three miles from the gate the road reaches _Centocellæ_, whence, near the desolate tower called _Torre Pernice_, there is a most picturesque view of the aqueduct _Aqua Alexandrina_, built by Alexander Severus, with a double line of arches crossing the hollow. At five miles, on the right, is the Borghese farm of Torre Nuova, with a fine group of old stone pines.
The road which turns left from the gate leads by the _Aqua Bollicante_, where the Arvales sang their hymn, to the picturesque ruins of the _Torre dei Schiavi_, the palace of the Emperors Gordian (A.D. 238), adjoining which are the remains of a round temple of Apollo. This is, perhaps, one of the most striking scenes in the Campagna and--backed by the violet mountains above Tivoli--is a favourite subject with artists.
"Les Gordiens, très-grands personnages, furent de très-petits empereurs. Ils montrent ce qu'était devenu l'aristocratie romaine dégénérée. Le premier, honnête et pusillanime, comme le prouvent son élection et sa mort, était un peu replet et avait dans l'air du visage quelque chose de solennel et de théâtral (_pompali vultu_). Il aimait et cultivait les lettres. Son fils également se fit quelque réputation en ce genre, grâce surtout à sa bibliothèque de soixante mille volumes; mais il avait d'autres goûts encore que celui des livres: on lui donne jusqu'à vingt-deux concubines en titre, et de chacune d'elles, il eut trois ou quatre enfants. Il menait une vie épicurienne dans ses jardins et sous des ombrages délicieux: c'étaient les jardins et les ombrages d'une villa magnifique que les Gordiens avaient sur la voie Prénestine, et dont Capitolin, au temps duquel elle existait encore, nous a laissé une description détaillée. Le péristyle était formé de deux cents colonnes des marbres les plus précieux, le cipollin, le pavonazetto, le jaune et le rouge antiques. La villa renfermait trois basiliques et les thermes que ceux de Rome surpassaient à peine. Telle était l'opulence d'une habitation privée vers le milieu du troisième siècle de l'empire."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 328.
The road which continues in a straight line from hence passes, on the left, the Torre Tre Teste. The eighth mile-stone is of historic interest, being described by Livy (v. 49) as the spot where the dictator Camillus overtook and exterminated the army of Gauls who were retreating from Rome with the spoils of the Capitol.
At the ninth mile is the _Ponte di Nono_, a magnificent old bridge with seven lofty arches of lapis-gabinus. This leads (twelve miles from Rome) to the dried-up lake and the ruins of Gabii (Castiglione), including that of the temple of Juno Gabina.
"Quique arva Gabinæ Junonis, gelidumque Anienem, et roscida rivis Hernica saxa colunt."
_Virgil, Æn._ vii. 682.
The road which branches off on the left leads (twelve miles from Rome) to _Lunghezza_, the fine old castle of the Strozzi family, situated on the little river Osa. Hence a beautiful walk through a wood leads to Castello del Osa, the ruins of the ancient _Collatia_, so celebrated from the tragedy of Lucretia. Two miles beyond the Torre dei Schiavi, on the left, is the fine castellated farm of _Cervaletto_, a property of the Borghese. A field road of a mile and half, passing in front of this (practicable for carriages), leads to another fine old castellated farm (five miles from Rome), close to which are the extraordinary _Grottoes of Cerbara_,--a succession of romantic caves of great size, in the tufa rocks, from which the material of the Coliseum was excavated. Here the "Festa degli Artisti" is held in May, which is well worth seeing,--the artists in costume riding in procession, and holding games, amid these miniature Petra-like ravines. Beyond Cerbara are remains of a villa of Lucius Verus, and, on the bank of the Anio, the romantically-situated castle of _Rustica_.
From the Porta Maggiore we may follow a lane along the inside of the wall, crossing the railway--whence there is a picturesque view of the temple of Minerva Medica--to _The Porta S. Lorenzo_, anciently called the Porta Tiburtina (the road to Tivoli passes through it), built in 402, by the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, on the advice of Stilicho, as we learn from an inscription over the archway of the Marcian, Tepulan, and Julian Aqueducts, now half buried within the later brick gateway.
The road just beyond the gate is connected with the story of the favourite saint of the Roman people.
"When Sta. Francesca Romana had no resource but to beg for the sick under her care, she went to the basilica of _S. Lorenzo fuori_ Mura, where was the station of the day, and seated herself amongst the crowd of beggars, who, according to custom, were there assembled. From the rising of the sun to the ringing of the vesper-bell, she sate there, side by side with the lame, the deformed, and the blind. She held out her hand as they did, gladly enduring, not the semblance, but the reality, of that deep humiliation. When she had received enough wherewith to feed the poor at home, she rose, and entering the old basilica, adored the Blessed Sacrament, and then walked back the long and weary way, blessing God all the while."--_Lady G. Fullerton._
A quarter of a mile beyond the gate we come in sight of the church and monastery, but the effect is much spoilt by the hideous modern cemetery, formed since the following description was written:--
"S. Lorenzo is as perfect a picture of a basilica externally, as S. Clemente is internally. Viewing it from a little distance, the whole pile--in its grey reverend dignity--the row of stones indicating the atrium, with an ancient cross in the centre--the portico overshadowing faded frescoes--the shelving roof, the body-wall bulging out and lapping over, like an Egyptian temple--the detached Lombard steeple--with the magic of sun and shadow, and the background of the Campagna, bounded by the blue mountains of Tivoli--together with the stillness, the repose, interrupted only by the chirp of the grasshopper, and the distant intermitted song of the Contadino--it forms altogether such a scene as painters love to sketch, and poets to re-people with the shadows of past ages; and I open a wider heaven for either fraternity to fly their fancies in, when I add that it was there the ill-fated Peter de Courtenay was crowned Emperor of the East."--_Lord Lindsay, Christian Art._
"To St. Laurence was given a crown of glory in heaven, and upon earth eternal and universal praise and fame; for there is scarcely a city or town in all Christendom which does not contain a church or altar dedicated to his honour. The first of these was built by Constantine outside the gates of Rome, on the spot where he was buried; and another was built on the summit of the hill, where he was martyred; besides these, there are at Rome four others; and in Spain the Escurial, and at Genoa the Cathedral."--_Mrs. Jameson._
We have already followed St. Laurence to the various spots in Rome connected with his story,--to the green space at the Navicella, where he distributed his alms before the house of St. Cyriaca (in whose catacomb he was first buried); to the basilica in the Palace of the Cæsars, where he was tried and condemned; to S. Lorenzo in Fonte, where he was imprisoned; to S. Lorenzo Pane e Perna, where he died; to S. Lorenzo in Lucina, where his supposed gridiron is preserved; and now we come to his grave, where a grand basilica has arisen around the little oratory, erected by Constantine, which marked his first burial-place in the Catacombs.
The first basilica erected here was built in the end of the sixth century, by Pope Pelagius II., but this was repeatedly enlarged and beautified by succeeding popes, and at length was so much altered in 1216, by Honorius III., that the old basilica became merely the choir or tribune of a larger and more important church. So many other changes have since taken place, that Bunsen remarks upon S. Lorenzo as more difficult of explanation than any other of the Roman churches.
In front of the basilica stands a bronze statue of St. Laurence, upon a tall granite pillar.
The portico is supported by six Ionic columns, four of them spiral. Above these is a mosaic frieze of the thirteenth century. In the centre is the Spotless Lamb, having, on the right, St. Laurence, Honorius III., and another figure; and on the left three heads, two of whom are supposed to be the virgin martyr Sta. Cyriaca, and her mother Tryphœna, buried in the adjoining cemetery. Above this is a very richly decorated marble frieze, boldly relieved with lions' heads. The gable of the church is faced with modern mosaics of saints. Within the portico are four splendid sarcophagi; that on the left of the entrance is adorned with reliefs representing a vintage, with cupids as the vine-gatherers, and contains the remains of Pope Damasus II., who died in 1049, after a reign of only twenty-three days. At the sides of the door are two marble lions. The walls of the portico are covered with a very curious series of frescoes, lately repainted. They represent four consecutive stories.
On the right:--
A holy hermit, living a life of solitude and prayer, heard a rushing noise, and, looking out of his window, saw a troop of demons, who told him that the Emperor Henry II. had just expired, and that they were hurrying to lay claim to his soul. The hermit trembled, and besought them to let him know as they returned how they had succeeded. Some days after, they came back and narrated that when the Archangel was weighing the good and evil deeds of the emperor in his balance, the weight was falling in their favour--when suddenly the roasted St. Laurence appeared, bearing a golden chalice, which the emperor, shortly before his death, had bestowed upon the Church, and cast it into the scale of good deeds, and so turned the balance the other way, but that in revenge they had broken off one of the golden handles of the chalice. And when the hermit heard these things he rejoiced greatly; and the soul of the emperor was saved and he became a canonized saint,--and the devils departed blaspheming.
The order of the frescoes representing this legend is:--
1, 2. Scenes in the life of Henry II. 3. The Emperor offers the golden chalice. 4. A banquet scene. 5. The hermit discourses with the devils. 6. The death of Henry II.--1024. 7. The dispute for the soul of the Emperor. 8. It is saved by St. Laurence.
The second series represents the whole story of the acts, trial, martyrdom, and burial of St. Laurence; one or two frescoes in this were entirely effaced, and have been added by the restorer. Of the old series were:--
1. The investiture of St. Laurence as deacon. 2. St. Laurence washes the feet of poor Christians. 3. He heals Sta. Cyriaca. 4. He distributes alms on the Cœlian. 5. He meets St. Sixtus led to death, and receives his blessing. 6. He is led before the prefect. 7. He restores sight to Lucillus. 8. He is scourged. 9. He baptizes St. Hippolytus. 11. He refuses to give up the treasures of the Church. 13, 14, 15. His burial by St. Hippolytus.
The third series represents the story of St. Stephen, followed by that of the translation of his relics to this basilica.
The relics of St. Stephen were preserved at Constantinople, whither they had been transported from Jerusalem by the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Theodosius II. Hearing that her daughter Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian II., Emperor of the West, was afflicted with a devil, she begged her to come to Constantinople that her demon might be driven out by the touch of the relics. The younger Eudoxia wished to comply,--but the devil refused to leave her, unless St. Stephen was brought to Rome. An agreement was therefore made that the relics of St. Stephen should be exchanged for those of St. Laurence. St. Stephen arrived, and the empress was immediately relieved of her devil, but when the persons who had brought the relics of St. Stephen from Constantinople were about to take those of St. Laurence back with them, they all fell down dead! Pope Pelagius prayed for their restoration to life, which was granted for a short time, to prove the efficacy of prayer, but they all died again ten days after! Thus the Romans knew that it would be criminal to fulfil their promise, and part with the relics of St. Laurence, and the bodies of the two martyrs were laid in the same sarcophagus.
The frescoes in the left wall represent a separate story:--
A holy sacristan arose before the dawn to enjoy solitary prayers before the altars of this church. Once when he was thus employed, he found that he was not alone, and beheld three persons, a priest, a deacon, and sub-deacon, officiating at the altar, and the church around him filled with worshippers, whose faces bore no mortal impress. Tremblingly he drew near to him whom he dreaded the least, and inquired of the deacon, who this company might be. 'The priest whom thou seest is the blessed apostle Peter,' answered the spirit, 'and I am Laurence who suffered cruel torments for the love of my master Christ, upon a Wednesday, which was the day of his betrayal; and in remembrance of my martyrdom we are come to-day to celebrate here the mysteries of the Church; and the sub-deacon who is with us is the first martyr, St. Stephen,--and the worshippers are the apostles, the martyrs, and virgins who have passed with me into Paradise, and have come back hither to do me honour; and of this solemn service thou art chosen as the witness. When it is day, therefore, go to the pope and tell what thou hast seen, and bid him, in my name, to come hither and to celebrate a solemn mass with all his clergy, and to grant indulgences to the faithful.' But the sacristan trembled and said, 'If I go to the pope he will not believe me: give me some visible sign, then, which will show what I have seen.' And St. Laurence ungirt his robe, and giving his girdle to the sacristan, bade him show it in proof of what he told. In the morning the old man related what he had seen to the abbot of the monastery, who bore the girdle to the then pope, Alexander II. The pope accompanied him back to the basilica,--and on their way they were met by a funeral procession, when, to test the powers of the girdle, the pope laid it on the bier, and at once the dead arose and walked. Then all men knew that the sacristan had told what was true, and the pope celebrated mass as he had been bidden, and promised an indulgence of forty years to all who should visit on a Wednesday any church dedicated to St. Laurence.
This story is told in eight pictures:--
1. The sacristan sees the holy ones.
2. The Phantom Mass.
3. The sacristan tells the abbot.
4. The abbot tells the pope.
5. The pope consults his cardinals.
6. The dead is raised by the girdle.
7. Mass is celebrated at St. Lorenzo, and souls are freed from purgatory by the intercession of the saint.
8. Prayer is made at the shrine of St. Laurence.
The nave--which is the basilica of Honorius III.--is divided from its side aisles by twenty-two Ionic columns of granite and cipollino. The sixth column on the right has a lizard and a frog amongst the decorations of its capital, which led Winckelmann to the supposition that these columns were brought hither from the Portico of Octavia, because Pliny describes that the architects of the Portico of Metellus, which formerly occupied that site, were two Spartans, named Sauros and Batrachus, who implored permission to carve their names upon their work; and that when leave was refused, they introduced them under this form,--Batrachus signifying a frog, and Sauros a lizard.
Above the architrave are frescoes by _Fracassini_, of the lives and martyrdoms of SS. Stephen and Laurence. Higher up are saints connected with the history of the basilica. The roof is painted in patterns. The splendid opus-alexandrinum pavement is of the tenth century. On the left of the entrance is a baptismal font, above which are more frescoes relating to the story of St. Laurence. On the right, beneath a mediæval canopy, is a very fine sarcophagus, sculptured with a wedding scene,--adapted as the tomb of Cardinal Fieschi, nephew of Innocent IV., who died in 1256. Inside the canopy, is a fresco of Christ throned, to whom St. Laurence presents the cardinal, and St. Stephen Innocent IV. Behind stand St. Eustace and St. Hippolytus. The west end of the church is closed by the inscription, "Hi sunt qui venerunt de tribulatione magna, et laverunt stolas suas in sanguine agni."
The splendid ambones in the nave, inlaid with serpentine and porphyry, are of the twelfth century. That on the right, with a candelabrum for the Easter candle, was for the gospel; that on the left for the epistle.
At the end of the left aisle, a passage leads down to a subterranean chapel, used for prayer for the souls in purgatory. Here is the entrance to the _Catacombs of Sta. Ciriaca_, which are said to extend as far as Sant' Agnese, but which have been much and wantonly injured in the works for the new cemetery. Here the body of St. Laurence is related to have been found. Over the entrance is inscribed:--
"Hæc est tumba illa toto orbe terrarum celeberrima ex cimeterio S. Cyriacæ Matronæ ubi sacrum si quis fecerit pro defunctis eorum animas e purgatorii pœnis divi Laurentii meritis evocabit."[287]
Passing the triumphal arch, we enter the early basilica of Pope Pelagius II. (572--590), which is on a lower level than that of the nave. Here are twelve splendid columns of pavonazzetto, of which the two first bear trophies carved above the acanthus leaves of their capitals. These support an entablature formed from various antique fragments, put together without uniformity,--and a triforium, divided by twelve small columns.
On the inside, which was formerly the outside, of the triumphal arch, is a restored mosaic of the time of Pelagius, representing the Saviour seated upon the world, having on the right St. Peter, St. Laurence, and St. Pelagius, and on the left St. Paul and St. Stephen, and with them, in a warrior's dress, St. Hippolytus, the soldier who was appointed to guard St. Laurence in prison, and who, being converted by him, was dragged to death by wild horses, after seeing nineteen of his family suffer before his eyes. He is the patron saint of horses. Here also are the mystic cities, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
A long poetical inscription is known to have once existed here; only two lines remain round the arch:--
"Martyrium flaminis olim Levita subisti Jure tuis templis lux veneranda redit."
The high altar, with a baldacchino, supported by four porphyry columns, covers the remains of SS. Laurence and Stephen, enclosed in a silver shrine by Pelagius II., a pope so munificent that he had given up his own house as a hospital for aged poor. St. Justin is also buried here.
"No one knew what had become of the body of St. Stephen for 400 years, when Lucian, a priest of Carsamagala, in Palestine, was visited in a dream by Gamaliel, the doctor of the law at whose feet Paul was brought up in all the learning of the Jews; and Gamaliel revealed to him that after the death of Stephen he had carried away the body of the saint, and had buried it in his own sepulchre, and had also deposited near it the body of Nicodemus and other saints; and this dream having been repeated three times, Lucian went with others deputed by the bishop, and dug with mattocks and spades in the spot which had been indicated,--a sepulchre in a garden,--and found what they supposed to be the remains of St. Stephen, their peculiar sanctity being proved by many miracles. These relics were first deposited in Jerusalem, in the church of Sion, and afterwards by the younger Theodosius carried to Constantinople, whence they were taken to Rome, and placed by Pope Pelagius in the same tomb with St. Laurence. It is related that when they opened the sarcophagus, and lowered into it the body of St. Stephen, St. Laurence moved on one side, giving the place of honour on the right hand to St. Stephen: hence the common people of Rome have conferred on St. Laurence the title of 'Il cortese Spagnuolo'--the courteous Spaniard."--_Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art._
Behind the altar is a mosaic screen, with panels of porphyry and serpentine, and an ancient episcopal throne.
The lower church was filled up with soil till 1864, when restorations were ordered here. These were entrusted to Count Vespignani, and have been better carried out than most church alterations in Rome; but an interesting portico, with mosaics by one of the famous Cosmati family, has been destroyed to make room for some miserable arrangements connected with the modern cemetery.
It was in this basilica that Peter Courtenay, Count of Auxerre, with Yolande his wife, received the imperial crown of Constantinople from Honorius III. in 1217.
Adjoining the church is the very picturesque _Cloister of the Monastery_, built in 1190, for Cistercian monks, but assigned as a residence for any Patriarchs of Jerusalem who might visit Rome. Here are preserved many ancient inscriptions, and other fragments from the neighbouring catacombs.
The basilica is now almost engulfed in the Cemetery of S. Lorenzo, the great modern burial-ground of Rome. It was opened in 1837, but has been much enlarged in the last ten years. Hither wend the numerous funerals which are seen passing through the streets after Ave-Maria, with a procession of monks bearing candles. A frightful gate, with a laudatory inscription to Pius IX., and a hideous modern chapel, have been erected. There are very few fine monuments. The best are those in imitation of the cinque-cento tombs of which there are so many in the Roman churches. That by Podesti, the painter, to his wife, in the right corridor of the cloister, is touching. The higher ground to the left, behind the church, is occupied by the tombs of the rich. Those of the poor are indiscriminately scattered over a wide plain. A range of cliffs on the left were perforated by the catacombs of Sta. Cyriaca, which, with the bad taste so constantly displayed in Rome, have been wantonly and shamefully broken up. Those who do not wish to descend into a catacomb, may here see (from without) all their arrangements--in the passages lined with sepulchres, and even some small chapels, lined with rude frescoes, laid open to the air, where the cliff has been cut away.
A Roman funeral is a most sad sight, and strikes one with an unutterable sense of desolation.
"After a death the body is entirely abandoned to the priests, who take possession of it, watch over it, and prepare it for burial; while the family, if they can find refuge anywhere else, abandon the house and remain away a week.... The body is not ordinarily allowed to remain in the house more than twelve hours, except on condition that it is sealed up in lead or zinc. At nightfall a sad procession of _becchini_ and _frati_ may be seen coming down the street, and stopping before the house of the dead. The _becchini_ are taken from the lowest classes of the people, and hired to carry the corpse on the bier and to accompany it to the church and cemetery. They are dressed in shabby black _cappe_, covering their head and face as well as their body, and having two large holes cut in front of the eyes to enable them to see. These _cappe_ are girdled round the waist, and the dirty trousers and worn-out shoes are miserably manifest under the skirts of their dress--showing plainly that their duty is occasional. All the _frati_ and _becchini_, except the four who carry the bier, are furnished with wax candles, for no one is buried in Rome without a candle. You may know the rank of the person to be buried by the lateness of the hour and the number of the _frati_. If it be the funeral of a person of wealth or a noble, it takes place at a late hour, the procession of _frati_ is long, and the bier elegant. If it be a state-funeral, as of a prince, carriages accompany it in mourning, the coachman and lackeys are bedizened in their richest liveries, and the state hammer-cloths are spread on the boxes, with the family arms embossed on them in gold. But if it be a pauper's funeral, there are only _becchini_ enough to carry the bier to the grave, and two _frati_, each with a little candle; and the sunshine is yet on the streets when they come to take away the corpse.
"You will see this procession stop before the house where the corpse is lying. Some of the _becchini_ go up-stairs, and some keep guard below. Scores of shabby men and boys are gathered round the _frati_; some attracted simply by curiosity, and some for the purpose of catching the wax, which gutters down from the candles as they are blown by the wind. The latter may be known by the great horns of paper which they carry in their hands. While this crowd waits for the corpse, the _frati_ light their candles, and talk, laugh, and take snuff together. Finally comes the body, borne down by four of the _becchini_. It is in a common rough deal coffin, more like an ill-made packing-case than anything else. No care or expense has been laid out upon it to make it elegant, for it is only to be seen for a moment. Then it is slid upon the bier, and over it is drawn the black velvet pall with golden trimmings, on which a cross, death's head, and bones are embroidered. Four of the _becchini_ hoist it on their shoulders, the _frati_ break forth into their hoarse chaunt, and the procession sets out for the church. Little and big boys and shabby men follow along, holding up their paper horns against the sloping candles to catch the dripping wax. Every one takes off his hat, or makes the sign of the cross, or mutters a prayer, as the body passes; and with a dull, sad, monotonous chaunt, the candles gleaming and flaring, and casting around them a yellow flickering glow, the funeral winds along through the narrow streets, and under the sombre palaces and buildings, where the shadows of night are deepening every moment. The spectacle seen from a distance, and especially when looked down upon from a window, is very effective; but it loses much of its solemnity as you approach it; for the _frati_ are so vulgar, dirty, and stupid, and seem so utterly indifferent and heartless, as they mechanically croak out their psalms, that all other emotions yield to a feeling of disgust."--_Story's Roba di Roma._
"Ces rapprochements soudains de l'antiquité et des temps modernes, provoqués par la vue d'un monument dont la destinée se lie à l'une et aux autres, sont très-fréquents à Rome. L'histoire poétique d'Énée aurait pu m'en fournir plusieurs. Ainsi dans l'Énéide, aux funérailles de Pallas, une longue procession s'avance, portant des flambeaux funèbres, suivant l'usage antique, dit Virgile. En effet, on se souvient que l'usage des cierges remontait à l'abolition des sacrifices humains, accompli dans les temps héroïques par le dieu pélasgique Hercule. La description que fait Virgile des funérailles de Pallas pourrait convenir à un de ces enterrements romains où l'on voit de longues files de capucins marchant processionnellement en portant des cierges.
... 'Lucet via longo Ordine flammarum.'"
_Æn._ xi. 143.
--_Ampère_, i. 217.
On the other side of the road from S. Lorenzo is the _Catacomb of St. Hippolytus_, interesting as described by the Christian poet Prudentius, who wrote at the end of the fourth century.
"Not far from the city walls, among the well-trimmed orchards, there lies a crypt buried in darksome pits. Into its secret recesses a steep path in the winding stairs directs one, even though the turnings shut out the light. The light of day, indeed, comes in through the doorway, as far as the surface of the opening, and illuminates the threshold of the portico; and when, as you advance further, the darkness as of night seems to get more and more obscure throughout the mazes of the cavern, there occur at intervals apertures cut in the roof which convey the bright rays of the sun upon the cave. Although the recesses, twisting at random this way and that, form narrow chambers with darksome galleries, yet a considerable quantity of light finds its way through the pierced vaulting down into the hollow bowels of the mountain. And thus throughout the subterranean crypt it is possible to perceive the brightness and enjoy the light of the absent sun. To such secret places is the body of Hippolytus conveyed, near to the spot where now stands the altar dedicated to God. That same altar-slab (mensa) gives the sacrament, and is the faithful guardian of its martyrs' bones, which it keeps laid up there in expectation of the Eternal Judge, while it feeds the dwellers by the Tiber with holy food. Wondrous is the sanctity of the place! The altar is at hand for those who pray, and it assists the hopes of men by mercifully granting what they need. Here have I, when sick with ills both of soul and body, oftentimes prostrated myself in prayer and found relief.... Early in the morning men come to salute (Hippolytus): all the youth of the place worship here: they come and go until the setting of the sun. Love of religion collects together into one dense crowd both Latins and foreigners; they imprint their kisses on the shining silver; they pour out their sweet balsams; they bedew their faces with tears."--See _Roma Sotterranea_, p. 98.