[315] That part of the ancient Campus Martius which contains the Theatre of Marcellus and Portico of Octavia, is described in Chapter V.; that which belongs to the Via Flaminia in Chapter II.
[316] Vasari, v.
[317] A scholar of Bronzino.
[318] See Vasari, vol. vii.
[319] It is interesting to observe that the same vision was seen under the same circumstances in other periods of history.
"So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it ... and David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem."—1 Chron. xxi. 14—16.
"Before the plague of London had begun (otherwise than in St. Giles's), seeing a crowd of people in the street, I joined them to satisfy my curiosity, and found them all staring up into the air, to see what a woman told them appeared plain to her. This was an angel clothed in white, with a fiery sword in his hand, waving it, or brandishing it over his head: she described every part of the figure to the life, and showed them the motion and the form."—Defoe, Hist. of the Plague.
[320] The pictures at Ara Cœli and Sta. Maria Maggiore both claim to be that carried by St. Gregory in this procession. The song of the angels is annually commemorated on St. Mark's Day, when the clergy pass by in procession to St. Peter's; and the Franciscans of Ara Cœli and the canons of Sta. Maria Maggiore, halting here, chaunt the antiphon, Regina cœli, lætare.
[321] Hemans' Story of Monuments in Rome.
[322] "Deus, qui apostolo tuo Petro collatis clavibus regni celestis ligandi et solvendi pontificium tradidisti; concede ut intercessionis ejus auxilio, a peccatorum nostrorum legibus liberemur: et hanc civitatem, quam te adjuvante fundavimus, fac ab ira tua in perpetuum permanere securam, et de hostibus, quorum causa constructa est, novos et multiplicatos habere triumphos, per Dominum nostrum," &c.
[323] The same whom Alexander VI. had intended to poison, when he poisoned himself instead.
[324] At the time of its erection Sixtus V. conceded an indulgence of ten years to all who, passing beneath the obelisk, should adore the cross on its summit, repeating a pater-noster.
[325] The inscription is from Isaiah iv. 6, "A tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain."
[326] It may not be uninteresting to give the actual words of the benediction:—
"May the holy apostles Peter and Paul, in whose power and dominion we trust, pray for us to the Lord! Amen.
"Through the prayers and merits of the blessed, eternal Virgin Mary, of the blessed archangel Michael, the blessed John the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and all saints—may the Almighty God have mercy upon you, may your sins be forgiven you, and may Jesus Christ lead you to eternal life. Amen.
"Indulgence, absolution, and forgiveness of all sins—time for true repentance, a continual penitent heart and amendment of life,—may the Almighty and merciful God grant you these! Amen.
"And may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, descend upon you, and remain with you for ever. Amen."
[327] "Exuens se chlamyde, et accipiens bidentem, ipse primus terram aperuit ad fundamenta basilicæ Sancti Petri continendam; deinde in numero duodecim apostolorum duodecim cophinos plenos in humeris superimpositos bajulano, de eo loco ubi fundamenta Basilicæ Apostoli erant jacenda."—Cod. Vat. 7. Sancta Cæcil. 2.
[328] The façade of the old basilica is seen in Raphael's fresco of the Incendio del Borgo, and its interior in that of the Coronation of Charlemagne.
[329] See Fergusson's Handbook of Architecture, vol. ii.
[330] As in the portico of the temple of Mars were preserved the verses of the poet Attius upon Junius Brutus.
[331] These letters are in real mosaic. Those in the nave and transepts are in paper—to complete them in mosaic would have been too expensive.
[332] Innocent sent two bishops to receive it at Ancona, two cardinals to receive it at Narni, and went himself, with all his court, to meet it at the Porto del Popolo.
[333] Eaton's Rome.
[334] Gregorovius, Grabmäler der Päpste.
[335] There is a fine portrait of Urban VIII. by Pietro da Cortona, in the Capitol gallery.
[336] See Vasari, vi. 265.
[337] This mosaic occupied ten men constantly for nine years, and cost 60,000 francs.
[338] Gregorovius.
[339] He had been bishop of St. Alban's, and a missionary for the conversion of Norway.
[340] The principal authorities for the fact of St. Peter's being at Rome—so often denied by ultra-protestants—are: St. Jerome, Catalogus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum, in Petro; Tertullian, de Prescriptionibus, c. xxxvi.; and Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. ii. cap. xxiv.
[341] See Hemans' Catholic Italy, vol. i.
[342] See Dyer's Hist. of the City of Rome, p. 358.
[343] Pliny, xxxv. 15.
[344] Tac. Ann. xv. 44.
[345] In the Campo-Santo of Pisa.
[346] Fifteen Psalms are sung before the Miserere begins, and one light is extinguished for each—the Psalms being represented by fifteen candles.
[347] See the account of the "Tombs of the Scipios" in Chapter IX.
[348] Who is buried by the altar of S. Pietro in Vincoli.
[349] Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne, ii. 62.
[350] For a detailed account of this collection, see Dennis' "Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria," whence many of the quotations above are taken; also Mrs. Hamilton Gray's "Sepulchres of Etruria."
[351] Vasari calls it Palazzo nel Bosco del Belvedere.
[352] "This is perhaps the grandest of the whole series. Here the Almighty is seen rending like a thunderbolt the thick shroud of fiery clouds, letting in that light under which his works were to spring into life."—Lady Eastlake.
[353] The candle is ingeniously made crooked in the socket, not to interfere with the lines of the architecture, while the flame is straight.
[354] "According to the 'Spiritual Meadow' of John Moschus, who died A.D. 620, the lion is said to have pined away after Jerome's death, and to have died at last on his grave."
[355] See Stefano Infessura, Rev. Ital. Script, tom. iii.
[356] Corio, 1st mil. p. 876.
[357] Ampère, i. 436.
[358] See Hemans' Monuments in Rome.
[359] Piranesi's engraving shows that a hundred years ago there existed, in addition, a colossal bust, and a hand holding the serpent-twined rod of Æsculapius.
[360] Wordsworth.
[361] Hemans' Monuments in Rome.
[362] See the Acts of the Martyrs St. Hippolytus and St. Adrian, and the Acts of St. Calepodius, quoted by Canina, R. Aut. p. 584.
[363] Plautus, Capt. i. I, 22.
[364] See the Epistle of St Denis, the Areopagite, to Timothy.
[365] The accounts of the apostle's death vary greatly: "St. Prudentius says that both St. Peter and St. Paul suffered together in the same field, near a swampy ground, on the banks of the Tiber. Some say St. Peter suffered on the same day of the month, but a year before St. Paul. But Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, and most others, affirm that they suffered the same year, and on the 29th of June."—Alban Butler.
[366] It is under the shadow of S. Paolo that Cervantes ("Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda") places the scene of the death of Periander.
[367] Mrs. Jameson.
[368] Among the most interesting of the objects lost in the fire were the bronze gates ordered by Hildebrand (afterwards Gregory VII.) when legate at Constantinople, for Pantaleone Castelli, in 1070, and adorned with fifty-four scriptural compositions, wrought in silver thread.
[369] This picture is now called the Nuptials of Vertumnus and Pomona.
[370] Turrigeræ Antemnæ.—Virg. Æn. vii. 631.
[372] The other two were Cæcina and Crustumium.
[373] See Dyer's Hist. of the City of Rome.
[374] Masses of reddish rock of volcanic tufa are still to be seen here, breaking through the soil of the Campagna.
[375] Built by Mario Mellini in the fifteenth century.
[376] Martial, Ep. x. 45, 5.
[377] Martial, Ep. vi. 92, 3.
[378] Fast. i. 246.
[379] Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 227.
[380] Niebuhr, i. 240.
[381] Arnold, Hist. vol. i.
[382] Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 389.
[383] Niebuhr, i. 353.
[384] Hemans.
[385] See Thiers' History of the French Revolution.
[386] It has been supposed that the beautiful silver vase which is shown in the Corsini Palace, and which was picked up in the Tiber, belonged to this plate.