9^U V^T in the ®ity jcrf glenr ^x>rk ^xhXKXVi. ^>. \ A HISTORY OF ANCIENT CHEISTIANITY AND SACRED ART IN ITALY, BY CHARLES I. HEMANS. WILLIAMS AND NOEGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. GOODBAN, FLORENCE :-PI ALE, ROME. 1866. CONTENTS I. Primitive Pontiffs Pag. 4 II. The Church in the Catacombs » 38 III. The First Christian Emperors . » 80 r . Christian Rome in the Fourth Century » 436 V. The Fall of Empire » 474 YI. The Church in the Fifth Century » 491 VII. Epoch of the Gothic and Greek Wars » 226 VIII. Origin of the Monastic Orders « 267 IX. Saint Gregory the Great » 3<0 X. The Monuments of Ravenna » 342 XI. The Seventh Century » 378 XII. The Eighth Century » 433 XIII. The Ninth Century » 498 XIV. Retrospect of Roman Catacombs » 570 Appendix • • • • " ^^'^ w* r ^ lB5t)94 The primitive Pontiffs. Christian Rome presents no solemnities so interesting, from the historic point of view, as those for the Festival of SS. Peter and Paul, which, if somewhat two much gilded with the pomp of courts, are still a splendid symbol of the most wondrous devel- opment the world has ever beheld ; and the contrast suggested by local association , at the great basilica , is in a scene once enacted on the same site, when the imperial circus with its long arcades, spina, and obelisk, rose dim-defined in darkness luridly dispelled by fires consuming human victims — how enduring their pangs we known not, though we know for what they suffered , some clad in beasts' skins and thus ex- posed to be torn by dogs , others crucified naked, others made to light up by their death-fires the arena in which, among a pleasure-seeking crowd , Nero drove round in his chariot to enjoy the spectacle he had ordered as well for amuse- ment as for policy, desiring thus to divert against an obscure sect the popular suspicions awakened by recent disaster. Such the first appearance of Christianity in Rome, after the origin of that See whose High Priest is enthroned at St. Peter's, to commemorate its foundation , on the 29th of June 1 Scarce less magnificent are the next day's observances, in honour of St. Paul, at the basilica over his tomb; and what a con- trast between his sacred mausoleum and all that remains in formless ruin of the Caesars' sepulchres ! Nor less interesting, in their quiet character, are that day's devotions at the three lone churches remote on the Campagna, which now attract worshippers to otherwise almost deserted altars on the site 2 PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS of that Apostle's martyrdom ; and where many now come to drink of the three springs ( built up within San Paolo alle tre Fontane) , said to have miraculously gushed forth on the spots severally touched by the Apostle's head , rebounding as it fell. No more striking example is there of inconsistency in the care and appreciation for monuments, than that pre- sented by, on one hand, the chill and dismal decay to which is abandoned such venerable though rude architecture, almost unique among local antiquities, as SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio, one of those three churches, founded in the VII century, and, on the other hand, the splendidly renovated St. Paul's, long such a drowning gulf of expenses to an impoverished ex- chequer. On the successive days within the octave of this festival its affecting celebrations take place on other sites where we may trace the footsteps of the two Apostles in the imperial City. At S. Pudenziana we may picture to ourselves the private life of. St. Peter as guest of the Christian Senator Pudens in the mansion where the Apostl • assembled a faithful few to worship, and where Pope Pius I, about A. D. 141 , consecrated what may be considered the original cathedral of Rome, -memorable nucleus to that church on the Viminal hill. In the dim subterranean vault of antique stonework under S. Maria in Via Lata, on the Gorso, we may imagine St. Luke writing the « Act of the Apostles », and St. Paul dictating his Epistles to the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Philippians, and the Hebrews. At S. Pietro in Vincoli we may touch the two- fold chains, whose links are said to have been prelernaturally united , worn at Rome and Jerusalem by him to whom that basilica is dedicated. In the Mamertine prisons we may taste of the fountain believed to have miraculously supplied water for the baptism of 47 fellow-prisoners converted by St. Peter and St. Paul ; and, instead of the silent darkness in which those consecrated dungeons are at other times left, save at the occa- sional early Mass, we may there attend a series of rites now attracting crowds from sunrise to sunset. At S. Pietro in Mon- torio we may turn from the glorious panorama of Rome spread beneath that Janiculan height, to admire the graceful cha- PRIMITIVE POMIFFS 3 pel built by Bramanto within the Franciscan cloisters , and secure as a relic the fine red sand of that soil, beneath its circular perystyle , into which is said to have been fixed the cross of St. Peter. Lastly , at the Lateran Basilica , we may obtain a distant view of the jewelled silver busts, enshrined in the superb Gothic tabernacle over the high altar , said to contain the skulls of the two chief Apostles ; and late that evening ( 6th July ) , in the same church , may witness one of those strange pageants in which the Senate of Rome plays rather a theatrical than a dignified part , in a state visit to this shrine with much hollow pomp of gold brocade, laced li- veries, and military reception, in order to venerate those te- lieved - in , but not visible , relics. It is not merely the splendours of worship or beauty of sacred buildings , but the train of reflections suggested by these observances that renders them interesting. In witnes- sing the great ritual expression of the supremacy ascribed to St. Peter and his Successors, commemorative of the estab- lishlment of his episcopal throne at this centre , we are led to inquire into the origin and bounds of that time-honoured Power, and the probabilities of its future influence , its fu- ture relationships and accepted claims amid the Christian world. The time is past when mere precedent or antiqui- ty can be accepted as the foundation that alone suffices to legitimatize power ; and the beneficent action of authority , its harmonious accord with man's highest interests must be required as sole title for whatever ascendancy deserves to endure. Many may see the ideal of a Christian Church in the unity through faith and worship directed to the Divine and invisible Head, as a nobler and more intimate bond than that of enforced obedience to any chief upon earth ; and this seems the ideal that shines forth in pure and holy lustre from the pa-es of the Apostolic writings. On the other hand we have the great historic fact of the Papacy with its large claims to gratitude and reverence, its merits in fuliilnient of 4 PP.lMlTiVS PONtlFFS a high destiny, its manifest atlaptalion to all the requirements of the times in which its influences were most felt ; the lu- minous virtues of so many who have filled its chair ; the efficacy of its encouragements to mental movement over so many walks in which Science , Letters, and Arts progressed Realm there is none , that, if controlled or swayed By her commands , partakes not in degree Of good o'er manners , arts , and arms diffused— as is justly observed by Wordsworth. But the powers suf- fered to develop into ascendancy for agencies of good in one phase of History , may not be called upon to sustain in that great drama— whether it be directed by Providence or left to its own natural evolutions under laws accomplishing not the less a providential Will— the same rank at all times , or exercise the same prerogatives in all periods alike ; and as we have seen the epoch of mediaeval Christianity pass away with its distinguishing features , we may be justified in anticipation of a Christianity still more unlike that now belonging to past realities than is any existing form of this Divine Religion. My object is to consider the history of the Church at Rome as reflected in her monuments ; and the celebrations above- noticed induce inquiries into the origin and titles of se- veral traditionally associated with the observances ordained to honour the two Apostles , co-founders of this Catholic See. The claims of 5. Pietro in Montorio (a church built by Fer- dinand and Isabella of Spain in 1500) as the site of St* Pe ter's Crucifixion , are supported by Baronius , but rejected by the best modern authorities (v. Platner and Urlichs), and certainly mihtated against by details given in the earliest written tradition of the event. Anastasius says the Apostle was buried near the place of his martyrdom . in the temple PRIMITIVE PONTIFI'S O of Apollo, near the palace of Nero on the Vatican (1); and tliough he moreover adds that this sepulchre was on the Aur- elian Way (which would have passed near the church on the Janiculura), this mention of the « palace » (a mistake for the Circus) of Nero, corresponds with other testimony in the « Acts » of his martyrdom ascribed to Linus , where is mentioned the obelisk of Nero (2) - i e. that on the spina of the Circus - as near the spot where St. Peter sulfered ; though the same document , indeed , mentions the naumachia formed by Augustus in the transtiberine (juarter , in further particu- larizing that site. As to such inconsistencies , it is quite pos- sible that writers regardless of archaeologie correctness should have confounded either a naumachia with a circus , or one of the ancient roads on the Janiculum with another on the Vatican Hill. It is well known that criminals were never executed within, but beyond, the walls of cities, according to ancient Roman usage ; and as that church on the former hill stands in the place of the antique arx , on the steep sum- mit comprised within the Servian walls, just at the apex oi' the triangle formed by those Janiculan fortifications, the inad- missibility of the tradition associating the Apostle's death with this scene is apparent. The real spot of his crucifixion we must rather look for within the same wahs that now contain his ma>giricent tomb. Almost alike baseless are the claims of those subterranean structures in travertine , now consecrated for worship , below S. Maria in Via Lata ; the antique edifice to which these must be ascribed being in fact the Septa Julia, built for the assemblies and votation of the Comitia , in the year 26 B. C, by Julius Caesar ; divided into numerous chambers for the several votings to take place (1) « Sepultus est in via Aiirelia, in temple Apollinis, juxta locum ubi crucifixus est , juxta territorium trlumphale » (i. e. the Trium- phal Way). (2) « Pervenit denique uno cum Apostolo populus infinitus ad lo^ cum qui appellatur naumachia , juxta obcliscum Neropis in ro?, seems in its solemn silence the grandest expression of the religio loci that could be conceived. Monuments of Christian architecture, or other art, we cannot look for in the Church's earliest ages, save amid the labyrinthine mazes of catacombs ; but we may associate the memory of those who died for truth with other edifices be- sides the Colosseum — with the subterranean cells where St. Agnes was exposed to outrage, andmiraculously protected, under the church dedicate to her on the piazza Navona: witli the bath-chamber of St. Cecilia, where she was expos- ed for a day and night to suffer suffocation, but reserved to die a lingering death after receiving three wounds from the headsman in the same chamber, now a consecrated cha- pel of the temple called by her name. A Roman lady of no- ble birth, she was martyred, A. D. 232, in the house of her husband Valerian , wiio , with his brother Tiburtius, both converted through her meanls, suffered by decapitation short- ly before her own death. Agnes suffered also by the axe, after being thrown into the flames , which (it is said ) proved innocuous to her, A.D. 303. There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the sites connected with the beautiful stories of those Virgin Martyrs ; and in their legends it is remark- able that , even if the supernatural be entirely rejected , still remain the elements of moral grandeur, the realities of holy triumph that might have been attained by moral powers- v S PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS the bridegroom who respected the chaste vows of Cecilia may have been won by her eloquence to appreciate her high vocation without the intervention of an angel ; and the angelic guardian , the power that struck the persecutor dead in defence of the purity of Agnes , may represent the might of virtue emanating from its own sanctified shrine in the soul, to subdue or even convert licentiousness - as later legends assume that the lion, or other savage beasts, became innocuous and submissive before the martyrs exposed to be their prey I One architectural monument there is of a primitive Chris- tian age , complete in itself — a miniature Basilica retaining tije essential features of that class of architecture , and still serving for worship , though now reduced to a crypt, under vS. Maria in Cosmedin; long left inaccessible in consequence of an inundation of the Tiber, till cleared out , early in the last century , and restored for sacred use by the care of the learned Crescimbeni , Canon and historian of that ancient church. In a temple whose ruins seem those of a spacious and majestic edifice, Pope Dionysius (261-72) consecrated a place of Christian worship, in all probability that. we still see, as to most of its details unchanged , below the tribune of the present basilica , which absorbs several marble re- mains of that temple ; the later church having been founded by Hadrian I in the VIII, and rebuilt by Calixtus II in the Xil century. This growth of a Christian within a Pagan sanctuary, so long before the conversion of Emperors , is, indeed, a singu- lar fact, that must have been prepared for by circumstances not yet brought into full light through historic research. We here descend into a dark subterranean , which is only lit up and officiated on the day of Lenten Stations, and find ourselves in a low crypt, 34 palms in length, 17 in width, under a flat stone roof immediately resting on the capitals of columns, the whole having an architectural character of severest simplicity , remarkable as the nucleus of so much PniMlIIVE PCNTIFFS 9 more than it actually presents. In the narrow nave and aisles stand six columns of granite and marble, tilted to capitals displaying the rudest form of imitative Corinthian - evidently not made for their shafts ; the altar , which is modern , standing under a tiny cupola , on which are some painted heads , now nearly obliterated, though of but recent origin. On one side, at the end of an aisle , we see the stone sedilia ; on the other, an oblong recess that may have served for a credence table ; on one column , near- est the altar , to the left , the remnant of an iron rod for drawing curtains before the sacred table, according to the early usage that removed from public gaze all save parti- cular passages in the Eucharistic sacrifice. Around the walls are sixteen arched niches, originally serving (as Grescimbeni explains) for prayer or meditation , and in fact the height of each recess from the pavement is just sufficient to allow of kneeling with the face turned to the wall- a pious usage thus provided for in the arrange- ments of the sacred building , which one might w ish to see retained — for the heart-devotion that naturally prefers silence and retirem.ent. Behind the altar of this miniature basilica, Grescimbeni discovered a small chamber, now closed, with an aperture in its roof, which he concludes to have served for letting down veils or handkerchiefs , to touch the body of some martyr, whose interment here would have completed the analogy between this primitive Christian temple and the Basilicas of later origin. A communication with the Cata- combs of St. Sebastian from hence is asserted , but doubtful. On Ash - Wednesday , the sole occasion of public rites here , when holy tapers dispel the darkness , and relics are dis- played in those niches, a scene singular and impressive is presented in this olden oratory ; but tasteless ornaments mar its gravely simple character ; and the visitor had best inspect it on some quiet day by the sole light of the custo- de's torch. 10 PRIMITIVC PO.NTIFFS Under SS. Cosmo e Damiano, on the Forum, is another crypt belonging to a Pagan temple , used as an Oratory , about A. D. 360, by Pope Felix II -a Pope the legitimacy of whose claims in oflice are questionable - during his banishment under the Emperor Constans. Descending into the lower story of that church, now reduced to a subterranean in consequence of alterations made in the XVII century, we reach the ground-floor both of the Christian and the Pagan temple - the later once supposed to be a fane of Romulus and Remus , but shown by reliable antiquarians to have been dedicated to the Penates. This fane became a species of atrium to the sacred building founded by Fehx IV, about A. D. 527; and from its ground-floor story we descend into a nar- row low-roofed cell, like a sepulcre, where Felix II is said to have celebrated Mass and baptized, about thirty years before any public church had arisen above this vault; and where the body of Felix IV was found in 1582. We may suppose the Pena- tes temple to have been shut and neglected, as ^^ere other Pagan fanes in this City, long before they fell into ruin. The crypt below it has a vaulting of stuccoed brick, walls part- ly of travertine, but in the greater part brickwork ; on one side, a fragment of marble architeciure, like a socle or base- ment with mouldings , said to have been used as an altar by that Pope ; above which, in a recess, is a much-faded fresco of the Virgin and Child, apparently a work of the later Byzantine school ; the actual floor being raised so high that this altar stands imbedded deep below its level. On one side is a well of spring-water with an antique marble pu- teal , said to have gushed miraculously, in order that Felix might here administer Baptism. Many are the sacred wells in Roman churches, whose waters the devout are eager to drink on particular festivals; and we may trace this feel ing to its origin in the high idea of the baptismal rite , pre disposing to ascribe mysterious efficacy to the pure element. Both the reputed prisons of St. Peter and St. Paul contain such wells ; ano'her, at S. .^aria in Via, derives its sacred- PRIMITIVE PONTIFFS rr ness from a Madonna - picture found floating on it in tlie year 12o3. In the Benedictine church o(S.CaUisto we see, through a door beside an aliar, a well of great depth and wid'.h, quite unlike those of modern formation, in which Pope Cahxlus I suffered martyrdom ( 222 ) , being thrown from a window of the house where he had been confined and had convert- ed a soldier , his Keeper (Ij. Above this spot arose a primitive basihca, that had fallen into ruin prior to the VIII century, when it was restored by Gregory ill. The present is a small and insignificant modern building ; but the festival of St. Calixtus is interesting as here celebrated with splendour by the Benedictines. Attending it on the last occasion, 1 heard most beautiful music at the Vespers, after which was exposed, at the altar above that well, a relic of the Martyr Pope, offered to the kisses of those who presented themselves kneeling, thus lo honour it. One other church in Rome to which attach the memories of apostolic times, is S. Prisca on the Avenline ; the house of the Aquila and Prisca ( or Priscilla ) who are mentioned with aCfection by St Paul ( Rom. XVI. 3 ) as his fellow-labour- ers in Christ, and who worked with him as tent-makers. Pope Eutychianus is said to have consecrated their dwelling (■f) In the adjacent church, S. M'lria in Trasfcvere , is kept the stone said to have been fastened to the neck of St. Calixtus when he was drowned. Many large black stones of the species called pk- tra del paragonc , rounded, but llatlened at two sides, are to he seen in Roman churches, preserved as records of martyrs ; and such they may he deemed, for weights of stone used to be hung to the neck, the hands, or feet, when scourging was to he inflicted. It is supposed that for tliis purpose were employed either weights origin- ally serving for trade, or those some times marked with numbers to indicate what the law allowed for securing the persons of debtors. Such objects, when for trading purposes, used to be dedicated to. Hercules as the God of Traffic (Boldettl, Cimiteru dei SS. Mariiri). 4 2 PRIMITlVi: rO.NTirFS into a churcli, A. D. 280, after it had been revealed to him where the body of St Prisca lay ; and this church , first de- -. Gregory V.I severely reproved the French prelates who had neglected this duty; and Sixtns V, in a Iml! of 1585, revived its enforcement in the strictest terms, though with some mollifications of practice: all bis'iops of the nearer dioceses being required to vi it Rome once in three years . those more remote , every four , five , or ten years, according to di-tances. Benedict XIV confirmed this bull luuli^r penalties of su^pen-ion , prescribing the visit every Ihirrl year to Italians, every tifth lo ultramontanes ; also ( what is still observe 1) that, during the sojourn, all sboukl draw up full reports of the state of their dioce-es to be submitted to the « Congregation of Council » ; those holding more than one diocese , lo make a separate visit and report for each . the Prefects of Missions also to send account to Home of all re'i-ious interests within their spheres of labour every vcar, or every fifth year, acconiing to the distance — and thus has originated the valuab'e , indeed inslrucfive compilation known as « Annals of the Propagation of the Faith ». At present the visit « ad .limina» is obligatory upon all Bishops, Vicars Apostolic, and Abbots with episcopal jurisdiction , in European countries south of the German Ocean and Ba'tlc, every fifth year: u[mn those of Asia, America, and the other European Sees . every tenth year. An at- testation is c nsipned by each at the wo « patriarchal basilicas » , the Vatican and Ostian, of his presoaco at those chief sanctuaries — the visit to the sacred « thresholds »> being still maintained irj form while developed into a .system of sucU vast organisation and responsibilities. ^0 nniMlTlVE PONTIFFS ship, or the distinctness of expressed doctrine iii forinutas and ritual , may be considered a leading feature in this stage of history , manifesting not only the sense of the primitive Church , but that of their own vocation and destinies enter- tained by these hierarchs , perhaps with presentiment of the future beyond anything implied in their known edicts or actions. Cletus required that all admitted to the Eucharistic rite should receive the Communion. Evaristus (elected A. D. !00) appointed seven deacons to assist himself and \u> successors when preaching, as witnesses to the soundness of doctrine ; and ordered that matrimony should be celebrated in public with the benediction of the Church. Alexander, de- capitated (119), on the Komentan Way (where a long - interred Basilica over his tomb was restored to light in l8oi), prescribed the use of unleavened bread for the Eucharist , also the mixing of water with wine, both to signify the union of Christ with his Church , and the blood mingled with water that flowed from His side on the Cross. Almost all the ritual practices ordered by Popes during these ages tend , indeed , in th6 sam.e direction — to increase the so- lemnity or express the mystery of the Eucharistic sacrifice. By the same Alexander I v, as introduced the holy water , now placed inside ( at first outside ) of every church for use before worship. Six'.us I (132) ordered that none should touch the sacred vessels save priests and deacons. Iginius (1o4) made it a rule that no oratory should be consecrated without tlie Eucharistic celebration ; also that sponsors , at least one of each sex , should assist at every baptism. Zephyrinns ( 203 ) prescribed that henceforth the sacramental chalice should Le of no other material than gold or silver ; and we read that sacred vessels of gold, and lamps in silver , were bestowed on various churches by Urban I ,;227) — accordant with the statement of Baronius that, even in times of perse- cution , silver lamps of various form , with many lights set in circlets, used to illuminate Christian ceremonies. Eusebius ordered the « cori orals a ( for the Eucharist ) to he hence- PRIMITIVE POMIFFS 21 forlh neither of woollen nor silk, but line linen, emblematic of the grave - clothes in which the Divine Body was laid. -Melchiades introduced the practice of distributing blessed bread , from the oblations made at the altar, among all those at worship who did not communicate , that at least such symbolic pledge might imply unity in faith. Gallixtus , (ano- ther example of patrician birth in the elect to this See , he being of the Domitian family ) founded the first ;hi Mi c church in Rome, dedicate to the Blessed Virgin (now S. Maria in Trasicvsre), and once known by the title « Fons olei » , from tlie legend th it a fountain of oil had suddenly gushed on this spot, and flowed to the Tiber during a single day , shortly before the Saviour's birth , — a phenomenon natu- rally interpreted in the sense of Christian prophecy ; and the well-known fact of the decisio.i in favour of the Christians against the popinarii (tavern-keepers) by the Emperor Alexander , shows that in granting th s site to the former for their worship , that prince admitted their legalized posi- tion among citizens. The erection of other public temples, and the admission of a certain degree of pomp in Christian worship may be dated from this period (219-22). To Gallixtus has been ascribed the first decree requiring celibacy from ])riests ( Moroni , Dizionario di Erudizione Eccles. ); but good authorities wave all attempt to support this ; and it is observ- able that « the law of celibacy was not written on paper till it had begun to be elfaced from the hearts of the Clergy ». ( Alzog , Hisfoire univcrseUe de I' Eglise, cap. IV, § 80). The '< Apostolic Canons » , admissible at least as evidence to ec- clesiastical disciphne during the second and third centuries, imply the obligation of the higher Clergy to remain single. The Councils of Elvira (300 or o05) and Ancyra (314) desired that those wedded before ordination should live as the un- wedded ; and that of Neocesarea (31 i) pronounced the deposi- tion of the priest who should marry after entering the holy slate Callixtus was put to death, as above-mentioned, 226, in the house where he had been imprisoned , scourged . and lefi it PRIMITIVE P^MIFfS to Endure the pangs of hunger. Urban I , also of patrician family, is said lo have made many conver's among the higher classes, of which number were St. Cecilia, her hus'and Valerian , and his two brothers, all martyred His decree jiroviding that ecclesiastical revenues and the ol lations of the failhful should only be employed for pious ana charitable uses , leads us to infer the now continually increasing amount of the Church's wealth. Tlie use of Chrism in Baptism , and the administration of Subdeacons at the altar, are also ascrib- ed to St Urban ; and it is said that from this period the episcopal chair, now become like a regal throne, used to be called >rnl , as the seat of authority Divine in origin The last-named Tontitf has become associated Im art with St Ce- cilia, near whom he was interred - having sudered martyr- dom, ';;33 in the Catacombs, where she also had the honours of sepulture from his own hand The im, orlance of the po- sition held by the Koman Bishopric in the III century ap- pears on occasion of the Council held by Cornelius, 2oi, with assistance of sixty other bishops, for the condemnation of schism and heresy At that i'ope's election . sixteen prelates had been present , beside the Clergy and people of Rome. But his epoch is signalised by the ominous appearance of the first Antipope — the livalship eventually such a scourge to the Church and scandal to Christian nations. A Roman priest, named .Novatianus , supported by an African priest, who seems to have been the more energetic spirit in the move- ment , obtained illegal consecration in a private house from three rustic bishops of obscure dioceses, probably ignorant of the question at issue Hence arose the Novatiau schism . represented by a series o' pretenders who kept up their claims to the Roman pontificate , with a certian factious sup- port , for more than a century and a half-as Panvinio says, ( notes to Platina) till the pontificate of Celestinus I , A. D, 422. During the persecution under Decius, I'opc Cornelius is said lo have cau.^ed the bodies of St. I'eter and St Paul lo be i-p.iBOved from the Catacombs , their original resting place ; PRIMITIVE PONTiFFS 23 the former to be re-interred near the place of his martyrdom on the Vatican , the latter in an estate of a Christian matron, Lucina, on the Ostian Way, where the great Basilica now stands over that tomb. Platina , who gi^ es other particulars, does not mention the oratory raised by Anacletus over St. Peter's original sepulchre— its first consecration . The per- secution begun under Hecius numbered Cornelius among its victims, though it was under the Emperor Gallus he suffer- ed , either in the temple of Mars on the Appian Way , whither he had been taken to sacrifice, or at Centumcellae, now Civitavecchia. Lucius sufTered martyrdom after a pontif- icate of a few months ; and his successor , Stephen I., was beheaded on hi> episcopal throne beside the abar, in the Catacombs of St. Sebastian 2G0 , where that marble chair remained till its removal to Pisa in 1700, being described (by a writer who speaks as an eye-witness with stains of blood for ages left visible Sixtus II exercised his ministry wi;h apostolic heroism during the time of the persecution under Valerian , and suffered , with several other ecclesiastics, after refusing to sacrifice in the temple of Mars on the x\p- pian Way It was when on his way to death that the memorable scene occurred between this Pontifl" and the deacon Laurence, whose fate he prophesied ; the latter following him *in mar- tyrdom, amid lerritic pangs, after three days hionysius, who had led the life of an eremite till bis election to this See, distributed Rome into parishes, and cssigned to the elergy their several po ts both in the churches and cemeteries: also determining the limits of dioceses in different parts of Italy. It is said that the Emperor Aurelian referred to his decision tlie contest against the heretical bishop , Paul of Somosata , who had been deposed by a >ynod at Antioch, i ut had refused to yield his >ee to the successor chosen Felix I ordered that the Eucharist should l)e celebrated over the tombs of jnartyrs as was already the practice , though not matter of discipline, in the Roman Church— hence the usage of insert- 24 PUIMITIVE PONTIFFS ling relics in altars before their consecration. To the same Pope is ascribed the origin of anniversary festivals in honour of Martyrs, and the order that sacramental riles, save in cases of necessity, should be celebrated in sacred places alone (Platina). Cajus (re-lated to the Emperor Diocletian) prescrib- ed that none should be raised to episcopal rank without having passed through all the seven orders into which the Clergy were already divided. The last in this succession of martyr Popes , Marcellinus , was contemporary with the last and fiercest of Pagan persecutions against the Church , that under Dioclelian , which broke out 298 ; and after this victim liad suffered with three others, his body was left on the iiighway till interred by the faithful in the Catacombs of St. Prisca (1). Modern historians refute the statement of Pla- tina, and other writers, that Marcellinus so far yielded to (4) The language of Suetonius indicatas the error so long obtaining among Romans who could not distinguish Christians from Jews, and saw in the former merely one anions; the sects of the latter : — Itideos , impulsore Chris'o assidiie tumuliuantes , Roraa txpulit — re- ferring to the Emperor Claudius. — Tacitus thus narrates the first persecution sutTered by the Church at Rome under Nero. « Quaesitls- simis poenls affecit (Nero) quos per flagltla invisos, vulgus Christianos appellabat. Auctor nomlnis ejus Christus, qui, Tiherio imperitante. per procuratorem Pentium Pllatum supplicio affectus erat. Repres- saque in preesens exltiabilis superstitio rursus erumpebat , non modo per ludffiam . orlglnem ejus mall, sed per urbam etiam, quo cunc- ta undique alrocla aut pudenda couduunt celebranturque. Igitur ])rimo correpti qui fatehantur , delnde indlclo eorum , multltudo ingens , baud perinde in crimine incendll , 'quam odio human! generis convicti sunt. Et pereuntibus addlta ludibria , ut ferarum tcrgis contecti , laniatu canum interirent , aut cruclbus affixi , aut tlammandi; atque ubl defeclssit dies, in usura nocturni lumlnis ure- rentur ». And the mysteriously disseminated anticipation of a Ruler to proceed from Palestine for dominion over a new world, is attested by hoth those historians (Tacit. Hist. V. 13, Sueton, Vita Vespas. IVi; as the same idea is expressed , with magnificent imagery, in the Vollh of Virgil PRIMITIVE PO.NTlFrS 25 the [hrents of the Emperor Maximianus as to thrONV incense on the names of a Hea'hen altar. It has been said that in the sole City of Rome ^,000 Christians were put to death in the course of one month during this persecution ( Forest i. Vite de' Pnpi ) — which report may well be questioned : for local traililion exaggerates the number of martyrs beyond ali belief, telling of 174,000 whose remains rest in the Catacombs of S. Sebastiano ; of more than 3000 whose relics were depo- sited 15y the pious daughters of the Senatar Pudens in a well at S. Pudenziana; and of more than 10,000 buried in the Cata- combs of SS. Zeno and Anastasius below S. Maria Scala Coeli, one of the churches near the site of St. Paul's martyrdom. Piazza ( EmeroJogio Sacro ] says that 285 were put to death and interred in Catacombs near the Salarian Way, in the course of but two days , under Claudius 11 ; and affirms that more than 2000 suffered for refusing to sacrifice before the image of the Sun. On the other hand we have the statement of Gibbon-the opposite in two extremes between which it seems just to strike the balance — that during the ten years'persecu- tion under Diocletian, Galerius, and Maximin, the number of those put to death for the faith throughout the Empire was protabhj somewhat less than 2000, among whom about loOO met with that fate in Palestine alone. That historian assume.-. that the Christians of Rome , about the middle of the third century, may have numbered about 50,000 amidst a population of at least a million, after a peace of thirty-eight years ac- corded to the Church under Pagan rulers ; and at this pe- riod ( he observes ) the Roman magistrates were well aware that the Christians of this City possessed considerable wealth; u that vessels of gold and silver were used in their religious worship ; and that many among their proselytes had sold their houses and lands , to increase the public riches of the sect ^) - as , in the previous century, the Roman Church had received, in a single donation, 200,000 sesterces from a con- vert of Pontus who had come to reside in this capital. Tillemont refers the first construction of public churches for Christian worship to the period of the peace under Alex- 26 pnniiTivE pontiffs ander J^evenis ; other writers, to the peace under Gallienus. There is sufficient reason to l:elie\e that before the reign of Diocletian tie Faith had been preached in e^ery province ^ and in all principal cities of the Empire ; that episcopal gov- ernment had been adopted by all the Churches scattered over ihe Homan world, and the institution of Synods lecome alike universal, long before Christianity was tlic religion of the Stale ( « D dine and Fall », c. xv ). It would be, indeed, erroneous lo picture to ourselves Ihe primitive Church as perpe uaily under a cloud of persecution and sorrow , cele- brating her rites in private chambers or subterranean cha- pels , calumniated and assailed, or forgotten and despised. Rather have we to trace the interesting signs of her pro- gressive credit and ofiicial recognition ; the proofs tliat many authorities, who were far indeed from her faith, gradually opened heir minds to the conviction hat she had claims to respect as a firmly organized society with powers, vir- tues, and guarantees of enduring life. The earliest expressions of the Pagan notion respecting Christ anity in lacitus and Suetoniu , are the most hostile— a pernicious supers ition inspiring with ha red against the human race, was the He igion of the Cross in he then idea of the Roman mind. Great must have been the change in those dispositions towards it , before Alexander Severus granled he ground for a church in the Transtibeihie quarier, and himself low- ed before he statue of Christ, erected, with those of Abra- ham and Apollonius, of deified emperors and philosophers, in the private chapel where he daily ottered his devotions (Lampridius ^io c. 29 ). ChnsrinriO"- e>isi> pn-sus est, says Lanipridius of the tole a ion accorded to ihe Church by this young prince , to whom the same writer ascribes a more acti>e and declared friendliness towards Christian Truth, stating how he had desired lO erect a temple to (hrist and have llirn received among the Gods, as Ha rian also is said to ha e designed; but was pre^en ed by those who, consult- Ins. sacred sou'ces, obtained assurance that all would be- PKIMITIVE PONTIFFS 27 come Christians, and that all other temples would be desert- od, if -uch wish should be fultilled » (vitn 43 . Yet the root- ed Pagan prejudice again appears in the F^mperor Aurelian, who , writing to the senate at a time oi anticipated warfare, reprO'e-. them for delaying to consult the Sibylline books » as if they were engaged in a church of the (.hristians, instead of in the temple of all the Gods ■ (Vopiscus, Vti 20). And to the time of ^eptimius Severus is referred ihe blasphe- mous caricature , found, a few years ago, ^crat€hed on the wall of a chamber below ihe Palatine, representing a cruci- tixion with an ass's head to the figure of the suderer , and another figure standing by in act of saluting by kissing the hand [Adomtmn strictly so called ) :"the words rudely traced below in Greek, « Aiexamenos worshiis <'0d ». iVarcus Aurelius, in sad inconsistency with his high prin- ciples , allowed the Church to be persecuted and blames, 1 n his waitings, the constancy of the fai hful in meeting death for what he deemed an obstinate opinion 1 His predecessor had takfen a juster view, as appears from a letter .>f Antoninus I'ius to the provinces of Asia, repro ing those who had per- secuted the (Christians, and injoining that no ^e o' this faith should be molested unless convicted of transgression against law (Justin Mar A}io>. 69). Euseblus, followed by several other WM'lters, states that the Emperor i hilippus (2 54-9) was a Chrl tian ; and that he abstained from asce ding he Capitol to oiler sacilice at solemn anni ersarles, <■ through the grace and for the honour of Christ and His Church , - is what the Christian historian, Orosius, records We possess fortunately reliable report as to what Christian rites were in these primitive ages Ihe very lirst fa ourable evidence from a Pagan attests their pure and beauti'ul sim[)liclty ; and those remarkable words of the youi'ger Pliny, addressed to Trajan, are at he same time witness to a trascendently important point of ( hristian i elief: the faith ul, -he had been informed by those so unhappy as to ha^ e severed them^ehes from that number, and become 28 PanilTIVE PONTIFFS xipostale under the terror of persecution, in Asia Minor-wt-re accustomed « to assemble on determined days at dawn of morning, to recite nllernately hymns to Christ as to God, binding themselves by oath not to commit crimes ; not to defile themseh'es by frauds or adulteries; not to violate trust , or deny deposits confided to them ; after which they separate to convene again , in order to partake of pomis- cuous and innocent food ». iMuch more detailed and com- plete is the description given by Justin Martyr ; and if his picture of Christian worship in the second century be in- deed unlike that of the Latin Church at the present day, we must remember the inevitable law of progress ] and that a religion characterised by absolute immutability in its mode of acting and appealing, would be m fact a barbaric one: « On the day of the Sun all those who inhabited townsor villages used to assemble in one place, where first were read the comment- aries of the holy Apostles, or the books of the Prophets. Then, thereaderhavingfinithed hi >; task, he who presided wouidexhort the people with suitable words to imitate the illustrious acts of (he Saints , and to follow the precepts and counsels contained in those sacred volumes. This discourse being finished , all rose at the same time , and , according to usage , prayed as well for themselves, and for those who had been just baptised, as for all others in whatsoever country, that, having acquired the knowledge of the truth, they might also attain the grace of leading a life sanctified by good works, observing the commandments of the Lord , and finally arriv- ing at the glory which has no end. They then saluted each other with a kiss , the sign of brotherly afietion. Aflerwards v.ere oQ'ered to him who presided bread and wine with water , having received which things, he gave glcry and praise to the Father through the Son and through the Holy Spirit, and continued for some time in the rendering of thanks for these gifts from Him received. These prayers being finish- ed, the people who assisted w^ould answer amen; and after^the supplications and acclamations of the faithful , the deacons PUiJimVE PO.MIFFS 29 look the bread and wine and water, over which had Icen rendered thanks to the Lord , and distributed them to those present , reserving a part for those who had not been able to intervene at the celebration. Now% this divine food was at that time caUed the Eucharist, of which assuredly none could partake save those who believed that the doctrines of our religion were most true ; who had been baptised , and who had lived in such manner as was commanded by the Re- deemer ; for indeed all were persuaded, as we are likewise , that that nourishment ought not to be taken as one eats of bread and drinks of wine commonly , but as most sacre I food , seeing that it had been revealed to us that such nourish- ment is indeed the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus. For the Apostles, in their commentaries, which are calied Gospels, have written that thus it w^as commanded to them by the Redeemer, at the time when, having taken bread , after rendering thanks, he said, do this m remembrance of ma; thin is my body ; and having taken the cup and given thanks, added also , - this is my blood. It was on the Sunday that they asseml led , both because this day was the tirst in the creation of the world , and because on the same had risen from the dead the Son of God , our Saviour, Christ Jesus ». As to the personality of the Roman Bishops, ii would be vain to look for even a nucleus of the pomp of circum- stance that eventually surrounded them , in these earliest ages ; even the great fact of the gradually-attained supremacy over the Catholic world, as held by Rome, scarcely yet appears in its incipient stage. We may picture to ourselves these saintly Pas'ors , so many of whom shed their blood for the faith , officiating at plain wooden altars , or over Vae tombs of Martyrs in Catacombs, undistinguished in garb or ceremo- nial from their clergy, clad in 'the usual dignified costume of the Boman citizen ,. which had not yet received adjuncts 01 symbolic ornament , except perhaps a fillet ( infuia] round the heul f origin of the later mitre \ and the stall. emblen> 30 Pr.IMITIVE PONTIFFS of the pastoral office, in the hand 1 ^. Not many of these ancient Ponlilfs have become conspicuous figures in Art. except St. Clement, whose symbol is the anchor ( fastened to his neck when he suffered ly drowning), and s.^metimes Ihe mitre, or a triple cross: St , we read it in the formulas where this holy name is otherwise accompanied with what declares belief — as, in Christo Deo, or in D. Christo ; or in the Greek — vj ©ju Kuos-u Xei^to (sic). Again , alike distinctly expressed in other formulas , at the epitaph's close, as in pnce el in — with the monogram XP , implying the obvious sequel, « Christo » ; also in the rudely- traced line with which one inscription finishes : Nutricatus Deo Crista moriuribus ; in one curious example of the Latin language's decline : Rcgina vibas in Domino zesu ; and in the Greek '-x^yj;, sometimes at the beginning, evidently intended as dedication in the name of God. Alike clearly , though less frequency , enounced is the worship of a Divine Spirit , as an aspect, or in more strict theologic phrase, Person of the Deity , e. g. in pace cum spiritu sancta (sic) — vibas in Spirilu sane. And indeed no moral truth could be more convincingly established hy monumental proof than the un- animous belief with which the Church, at this first and pur- est phase in her history , directed adoring regards to the " Logos », the perfect Image of the Father, as true and essen- tial Deity. Below the surface of the Roman Campagna it is supposed that from 800 to 900 miles of excavated corridors, interspers- ed with chambers in various forms, extend their marvel- lous ramifications; and between six and se en millions is 48 THE CHLRCH the assumed number of ilie Christian dead here deposited during primitive ages (I). In much the greater part it is cer- tain that these hypogees were formed for Christian worship, instruction, and interment, before the period of the first converted emperor : but it is also indisputably proved that they continued in use for devotional purposes , and received many pictorial decorations long afterwards: likewise that works of excavating were in progress till so late as the beginning of the fifth century. The idea that they ever served for the ha- bitaiwn of numbers, during persecution, is erroneous, assum- ing indeed what is materially impossible, owing to the formation of their far-slreiching labyrinths, small chapels, and story above story of narrow passages. We read, it is true, of the martyrdom of saintly bishops while in the very act of officiating at their humble altars ; of several among the earliest Roman pontiffs, who, during extreme peril, took re- fuge in such retreats — as did Alexander I ( A. D. 109-19), Stephen I (2o3-o7), and Sixtus II , who was put to death in one of these subterranean sanctuaries (A. D. 238) ; and Pope Cajus (283-96) is said to have actually lived for e.'ght years in ca- tacombs, from which he only came out to suffer martyrdom (296;. With Mr. Nortlxole (whose work is a vade mccwn for this range of antiquities) we may conclude that not the mul- titude of the faithful , but the pontiffs alone , or others espe- cially soiight after by myrmidors of power , were at any time resident for long periods in these retreats, in no part of which do we see a. ly thing like preparation for dwelling or for any other purposes save worship and interment; though indeed an epitaph, by St. Damasus, in the Callixtan Cata? combs , implies the fact that at som.e period those cemeteries were inhabited : — « Hie habitasse prlus sanctos cognosce e debes ». (1) Father Marchi, vsho makes this conjecture, considers it to fall short of, rather than exceed, the truth. IN THE CATACOMBS 49 But that Saint { elected to the Papacy 366 ), cannot be ci- ted as a contemporary witness to ages of persecution; at periods subsequent to which , however , we read of Pope Liberius taking refuge (352) , in the cemetery called after St. Agnes . from the outrages and insolence of the then ascendant Arian sect; of Pope Boniface I, so late as between 418-422, passing some time in a similar retreat, to withdraw from the faction that sup|)orled his rival Eulalius ; considering which facts , we cannot deny that the evidence as to the occasional habitation of Catacombs is too conclusive to be set aside without rejecting much that claims belief in « Acts of Mar- tyrs)), and her received authorities. Of St. Urban we read («Acts of St. Cecilia »), latebat in sacrorum mariyrum moni- mentis; of St. Hippolytus ( «Acts of St. Stephen", A. D, 259), « vitam solitariam agebat in cryptis". Baronius states thai the same pope Urban « used to celebrate masses and hold coun- cils in the crypts of the martyrs)); and an epitaph to St. Alexander, in the Callixtan catacombs, contains the sentence - a tempora infausta quibus inter sacra et vota ne in cavernis qui- dam salvari possumusl » In one terrific persecution a multitude of the faithful suffered death in catacombs on the Salarian Way, by order of the Emperor Numerianus , sand and stones being heaped up against the entrance, so as to leave buried alive those victims, of whose fate was found afTecling proof long afterwards, not only in the bones of the dead , but in several silver cruets that had served for the Eucharistic celebration. An impressive circumstance accompanied the martyrdom of Pope Stephen : the ministers of death rushed into the subterranean chapel where they found him officiating , and , as if struck with sudden awe , waited till the rite was over before they slew him in his episcopal chair 1 As catacomb-sepulchres became gradually filled, those sections, or corridors, no longer service- able , used to be blocked up with soil , in order thus both to separate tlie living from the dead, and to avoid the ne- cessity of leaving accumulations outside. Granulai* tufa, which, with lithoid tufa and pozzolana , forms the material of the 4 50 THE CHURCH volcanic strata around Rome, is the substance (easily worked, but quite unsuitable for building), in which all Roman cata^ combs are excavated , except those of St. Pontianus , outside the Porta Porlese , and of St. Valentine , on the Flaminian Way , which are in a soil of marine and fluvial deposits , shells , fossils ec. From the ninth century till a comparatively late period most of these Catacombs were left unexplored , perhaps en- tirely inaccessible, and forgotten. Mediaeval writers usually ignored their existence. That strange compilation , so curious in its fantastic suggestions and blindness to historic fact , the « Mirabilia Urbis Romae », (written, some critics as-^ume, in the X — others, in the XII century, first pubhshed about 1471] enumerates , indeed , twenty-one catacombs. Flavio Biondo, writing in the (iftenth century, mentions those of St. CaUixtus alone ; Onofrio Panvinio , in the sixteenth century , reckons thirty-nine; Baronius, at date not much later, raises the number to forty-three. Those of St. Priscilla, entered below the Salarian Way, belonging to that mother of the Christian Senator Pudens (who received St. Peter); also those of SS. Ne- reus and Achilleus, near the Appian Way , have been referred to an antiquity correspondent with the apostolic age ; and if those called after St. Callixtus were indeed formed long anterior to that Pope's election , A. D. 210, we may place them second in chronologic order. That several continued in use as cemeteries long after the first imperial conversion , is evi- dent from the fact that Constantine's daughter ordered the embellishment and enlargement of those called after St Agnes, which became in consequence more than ever frequented , — so to say , fashionable , — as a place of interment during the fourth century ; a circumstance manifest in the superior regularity and spaciousness of corridors , in the more laboured execution, but inferior style , of paintings seen in those cata- combs. Other facts relevant to the story of later vicissitudes may be cited : Pope Damasus (v. Baronius, anno 3S4 ) order- ed a f)lalonia ( pavement of inlaid marbles ) for that part of IN THE CATACOMBS 51 tiie Callixtan catacombs in which , for a certain time , had lain the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul. Pope John III (560- 73), who abode for a time v. Anastasius) , in the catacombs of SS. Tiburtius and Valerian, ordered all such hypogees as had suffered from barbarian spolation to be repaired ; also provided that a regular supply of bread , wine , and lights should be furnished from ihe Lateran Basilica for the cele- bra'ions still kept up on Sundays at the altars of these subterraneans. Towards the end bt tho sixth century, St. (ire- iiory the Great indicated, among places of assemblage for the faithful on the days of the Lenten « Stations », organized by him with much solemnity and concourse, some of the ceme- teries as well as principal churches of Rome. The evidences of art may be here cited, to prove comparative modernnes&in decorative details: the nimhwt, for instance, around the heads ofsaintly figures, indicates date subsequent to the fourth centu- ry; and in the Callixtan catacombs the figure of St. ( ecilia attir- ed in cumbrous finery, jewelled head-dress, and necklaces!, as also those of St. Urban and Cornelius , besides a sternly- expressive head of the Saviour, with marked characteristics of the Byzantine school , suggest origin certainly not earlier than the sixth or seventh, if not so late as the eighth, century. The practice of frequenting these cemeteries, for prayer or for visiting the tombs of martyrs, continued common till the ninlh, nor had entirely ceased even in the thirteenth cen- tury , being certainly more or less in prevalence under Honorius III (l2l7-^7\ Yet the process of transporting the bo- dies of martyrs from these resting-places to the City, for safer and more honoured interment , had begun under Pope Paul I (757-67) , who took such precaution against the pious frauds practised by the Longobards, whilst investing Rome , led by Astolphus, — a king particularly bent upon relic-steal- ing ; so devout in this respect were the fierce invaders of Papal territory ! At later Mediaeval periods the catacombs fell into oblivion , till their ingresses became , for the most part , unknown even to the clergy ; and une of the earliest 52 THE CHURCH records of Iheir b^ing visited in later ages is found in the names of Raynuzio Famese (father of Paul 111) and the companions who descended with him, still read, beside the date 1490, in the Gallixtan catacombs. Not till late in the next century, was the attention of savans directed by new lights from science, and through the revived study of antiquity, to- wards this field of research; subsequently to which movement excavations were carried on at intervals from 1592 to 1693 ; most important and fruitful in results being the labours of Ihe indefatigable Bosio , who , after patient toils pursued enthusiastically for thirty-three years , died (1600) without completing the work projected for transmitting their profits to posterity. Us first publication was in 1632, under the title , « Roma Sotterranea » , compiled from Bosio's Mss. by Severa- no (an Oratorian priest) ; and a few years subsequently ano- ther Oratorian, Arringhi, brought out, with additions, the same w^ork translated into Latin. Next followed (n02j the « Inscriptiones Antiquae » of Fabretti , ofiicial custode to the catacombs; and the learned work, « Gimiteri dei Santi Martiri », (4720) by Boldetti , the fruit of thirty years' labours, surpas- sed all hitherto contributions on this subject alike in vivacity of descripiion. extensive knowledge, and well-sustained ar- gument. Only next in merit and authority is the « Sculture e Pitture Sacre « (Sacred Sculptures and Paintings from the Cemeteries of Rome, byBottari, 1737-54, an illustrated work evincing thorough acquaintance with its theme. The « Man- ners of the Primitive Christians •> by the Dominican Mamachi, one of the most valuable archaeologic publications from the Roman press (1752 , comprises, though not dedicated to this l)articular range , a general review of catacomb-monuments, together with others that throw^ light on the usages or ideas of the early Church. Interesting , though incomplete , is the contribution of the Jesuit father, Marchi , « Archiletlura delta Roma Sotterranea Gristiana», or <« Monuments of Primitive Christian Art in the Metropolis of Christianity (1854) » which the writer only lived to carry to the close of one volume , IN THE CATACOMBS 53 exclusively dedicated to the constructive and topographic as- pects of his subject — this publication having been suspend- ed, long before his death, owing to the defection of subscrib- ers after that year' 4S , so fatal to the int'^rests of his reli- gious order. The merit of his argument, in throNving light on its theme , is , that it entirely sets at rest the question of supposed connexion between the Christian catacombs and I*agan aienaria; and establishes that in no one instance were the former a mere cont: nuance or enlargement of the latter, as neither could the quality of soil in\yhich these cemeteries were opened have served for building , nor their plan and dimensions have permitte I the extracting of material for such purposes. One could not, indeed, desire clearer refutation of the theory respecting the identity of the two formations than that which meets the eye in the St. Agnes catacombs, — as- cending in which from the lower story, that originally formed for Christian purposes, we enter the Pagan armaria above those corridors sacred to the dead, this higher part being totally dis- tinct in plan and in the dimensions of winding pa-sages, as requisite for extracting the fine pozzolana sand. Another va- luable illustration to the same range of sacred antiquites , is the work by Padre Garrucin, Vetri omati (« Glasses adorned with figures in gold , from the cemeteries of the primitive Chris- tians •), with engravings of 318 tazze , all presenting groups or heads, gilt by a peculiar proce-s on glass. As to the use of these , Garrucci dilfers from Buonarotti and others , who as- sume all such vessels to have served for sacramental purposes ; his view referring many of them to remoter periods — to the second and third , instead of exclusively to the fourth century, as was the conclusion of previous writers. Among the figured designs on these glasses are several o' great sig- nificance ; and of their subjects one of the most frequently repeat- ed is the group of SS. Peter and Paul side by side, usually as busts , and with not the slightest indication of superiority in one over the other Apostle , — rather , indeed , a perfect Si THE CHURCH parity in honours and deserts, as implied in the single crowri suspended, in some instances , over the heads of both ; or in Iheir simultaneous crowning by the Saviour, whose figure is hovering above the pair alike thus honoured at the Divine Master's hand. Betw^een these two Apostles is often placed the Virgin , or some other female saint, especially Agnes, admit- ted to like honour ; and in certain examples , either Mary or another female , in attitude of prayer , appears on larger scale than the Apostles, such naive treatment being intended to convey idea of relative , not . of course , absolute honour , and very probably (as, indeed, is Garucci's inference) ex- pressing the still loftier ideal of the Church, personified in the prayerful Mother as the great earthly Intercessor, support- ed by the chief \vitnesses to Divine doctrine. It may be as- sumed that the origin in art of that supreme dignity assigned to the Virgin Mother (a source of such anti-evangelic super- stition in practice) may be referrei simply to this tendency of idealizing , not so much her person as her position , amidst the hierarchic grouping, — thus to personify the interces- sory office, the link formed by prayer Letween simple-minded faith and theologic infallibility. Mary also appears on other tazze , standing between two trees, or between two columns, on which are perching birds , symbols of the beatified spirit, or of the resurrection ; and in one instance only do we see the nimbus round her head — proof that this representation at least must be of comparatively late origin (I). Among other (1) The nimbus was originally given, in Christian Art, to sov-^ ereigns and allegoric personages generally , as the symbol of power , distinction ; but with this difference , that round the bends of saintiy and orthodox kings or emperors , it is luminous or gilded ; round those of (ientile potentates, coloured, red, green, or blue. About the middle of the third century it beings to appear , and earliest on these glasses, as special attribute of Christ; later being given to the heads of Angels , to the Evangelists , to the other Apostles ; and llnally to the Blessed Virgin and all Saints, but not as their inva- riable attribute till the VII century (v. Buonarroti, Vast antichi). I.N THE CATACOMBS 35 lincommon subjects we see, Daniel giving a cake to the Dragon, from the book, « Bel and the Dragon «, considered by Pro- testants apocryphal (found also among reliefs on Christian sarcophagi) ; and- striking evidence to the influence from that Pagan art still overshadowing the new faith in its at- tempts at similar modes of expression I — Daedalus and Minerva superintending groups of labourers al different tasks ; Cupid and Psyche (no doubt admitted in appreciation of the profound meanings that illumine that beautiful fable); Achilles, and the three Graces , here introduced with some sense not so intelligible. This choice of a comparatively gay and mundane class of subjects seems to confirm what is conjectured by Gar- rucci, as to certain among these tazze being appropriated not to the sacramental solemnity, but to various occasions in domes- tic life,— the nuptials, the names-giving, the baptism, and funeral, besides the Agape, that primitive blending of the fraternal feast with the Eucharistic rite and communion , so fiequently represented in catacomb-paimings, that show the symbolic viands , the lamp , or the fish , and loaves marked with a cross , spread before companies of the faithful seated round a sigma , (semi-circular table). As to the literature illustrative of Rome's Catacombs , the last and most precious addition,— a yet incipient work, which may be expected, in its completeness, to supply the fullest investigation of its subject , - is De Rossi's « Subter- ranean and Christian Rome », executed with all the ability and erudition to be looked for in a writer of such eminence. We find here the fullest history of researches carried out in catacombs from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century; the learned author assigning four epochs to the story of these cemeteries, commencing from apostolic times, and successively extending over the third century; over the pe- riod of the newly-attained freedom and peace guarantied to the Church through Constantino (A. D. 312); and over the fifth century, whence dates the gradual abandonment and decay of all such sanctuaries, owing to their then conditions, impaired 56 THE cuuncH by shocks of barbarian invasion , devastated by Goths and Lombards , till at last , towards the close of the ninth century, they fell into neglect or oblivion. The first impression on descending into catacombs , when the light of day is suddenly lost , and the eye follows the dim perspective of corridors lined with tier above tier of funereal niches , partially shown by torch-light , is one that chills and repels. Imagination calls up what Reason rejects , and sports , as if fascinated , with ideas of danger — mysterious, indefinable— corrected , indeed, by the higher associations and reminiscences that take possession of the mind in any degree acquainted with that past so replete with noble exam- ples from the story of those who here — « .... in the hidden chambers of the dead , Our guiding lamp with fire immortal fed ». We may , perhaps, descend into these abysses from some lonely spot , whence the Vatican cupola is distinctly visible ; and certainly nothing could be more glorious , from the Ro- man Catholic point of view, than the confronting of such a monu- ment to triumphant religion with the dark and rudely-adorned subterraneans once serving as sanctuaries of the Church subsequently raised, at this same centre, to such proud suprem- acy I Another thought, that may spring from this range of anti- quarian study , and invest its objects with still deeper interest, is that of promise for something higher than either Catholi- cism or Protestantism , in the Christianity of the future. As to the primitive mode of interment, the early Church may be said to have taken as model the Redeemer's sepul- chre—a cavern , with entrance closed by a stone , in which but one body lay ; and in the especially honoured tombs of martyrs , or other illustrious dead , the form called arcoaoHum, like an excavated sarcophagus with arched niche above, supplied the norma for the later-adopted altar of solid stone ( instead of the plain wooden table in earliest use ) , with relics inserted in a cavity under the mensa ; the practice IN THE CATACOMBS S7 of consecrating the Eucharist over such marlyr-tombs having passed into the univeral discipline of the Latin Church , through a decree of Pope Felix (2G9— 275) , ordering that lienceforth the mass should ever be celebrated over such burial-places of the holy dead: « Altar quietam debitam Pr»stat beatis ossibus » , as Prudentius testifies to this ancient usage. From the same poet ( « Hymn on St. Hippolytus » ) we learn that these sub- terraneans were not originally , as now , in total darkness , but lighted , however dimly , by those shafts ( luminana ) still seen at intervals piercing the soil above our heads, though no longer in every instance serving for such purpose. The circumstances under which they have been rediscovered , within modern times, form a singular detail in their vicis- situdes ; and it is remarkable that the period of greatest religious conflict among Christian nations was that which witnessed the revival of this long-forgotten testimony , con- veyed in monumental language, to the faith and practice of the primitive Church. Energetically as these hypogees were explored in the XVI and XVII centuries, little was accom- plished , in comparison with results quite recent , by any earlier ufidertakings ; and much of the wealth secured was lost through Vandalic spoliation or inexcusable neglect. It was in December , i 593, that the first exploration was com- menced by Bosio , in company with Pompeo Ugonio and others; and subsequently, between that year and 1600, were explored by the former all subterraneans into which he could find access along the Appian , Salarian , Flaminian , Ostian , Latin , and Portuense Ways. In the library of the Oratorian fathers at Rome are four large folio volumes of MS., entirely written by Bosio , comprising the vast material for the wort he did not live to produce ; and another example of industry , frustrated by fatal accident , was the compilation intended to comprise all the art-objects, epigraphs, ec. from cata- §8 THfi CHUnCH combs, on which Marangoni and Boldetii had been occupied fur seventeen years , when the whole fell a prey to the flames in 4 720 ; the few fragments saved being, however, turned to account by the former , and brought out as an appendix to his « Acta S. Victorini » , 1740. Bosio , in the course of his long labours , discovered only one group of sepulchres historically noted (in 1619 ) ; another such was found by Boldetti in 1720 ; and in 1845 Father Marchi accomplished like discovery in the tombs of the martyrs Protus and Hyacinthus. The catacombs called after the Christian matron Lucina , were re-opened by the acci- dental sinking of the soil in 1688; and access to those of St. TertuUianus , on the Latin Way , was alike due to mere accident. In 1849, the Cavalier de Rossi began his task of directing excavations, for the costs of which a monthly sub- vention had been assigned by the Pope. Soon afterwards Pius IX appointed an « apostolic visitation » , for ascertaining the condition of all Roman catacombs; and a more practically important ste[), that soon followed, was the creation of a « Committee of sacred antiquities », with charge and super- intendence over all works and objects within that sphere , under whose direction the first excavations were commenced in 1851; by this arrangement being now superseded the ordi- nance of Pope Clement X, dated 1672, intrusting the care of all these hypogees to the Cardinal-vicar, under the authority of whom, and that of the papal sacristan (a prelate), sub- terranean works used to be directed by custoii , as offi- cial deputies. Even whilst that earlier organization continued , the loss and destruction of monuments from catacombs reflects most unfavourably on those responsible. Marangoni (after long ex- perience as assistant custode with Boldetti) tells us that thousands of epigraphs were taken from these cemeteries to the church of S. Maria in Trastevere ; seven cartfuls to S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini ; two cartfuls to another church of S. Giovanni in Rome ; yet, at the present day, only about IN TUE CATACOMBS o9 a score of epitaphs remain in the portico of the formet-, not one in either of the two latter churches. MaZzolari(« Vie Sacre » , 1779), describes what he had himself seen, — the deliberate destruction of a corridor and cuhiculum (sepulchral chapel) in the catacombs of St. Lawrence, almost immediate- ly after they had been reopened in the long - inaccessible cemetery on the Tiburtine Way. The works carried on within recent years have led to most interesting results. First of all may be classed , for im- portance , the discovery of the vast hypogee which took its name from St. Callixtus , though of origin still earlier ; not founded, but enlarged, by that Pope; and in which all the Roman Bishops were interred during the third century ; the first mention of this , as a cemetery whose possession was legally guaranteed to the Church, occurring under the reign of Septimius Severus. About two miles beyond the Appian Gateway stands, on elevated ground, an old brick edilice with apse and vaulted roof, long used as a gardener's store- house , now identilied as the chapel raised for his own se- pulture by Pope St. Damasus. Near this were begun , in 1 845, the researches that led to the opening of those long unexplor- ed catacombs, at a short distance from the basilica of St. Sebastian, below which extend other subterraneans long supposed to be the real Callixtan. Some years previously had been found, near this spot, a broken marble slab with the letters of an inscription — NELIUS MARTYR ; and the discovery of the tomb of St. Cornelius soon rewarded the labours here undertaken; the missing fragment, with the letters COR . . . . EP (iscopus), within a cuhiculum dimly lighted from above , being soon found near a tomb , beside which are the painted figures of St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian of Carthage, near the figures of two other saints ; one designated by the written name « Sixtus », another martyred pope ; the two first thus associated, because commemorated by the Church on the same day, having both sulTered on the 16th of September , and in life-time held frequent correspondence. These four fig^ CO THE ciiuncu ures have all the nimbus; also the same characteristics of style ; and a period not later than the sixth or seventh century can l>e assigned to these , as to other paintings in the same sub- terranean. In considering the selection to which this primitive Art was so strictly confined, we are struck by two predo- minant features , — the avoidance of those subjects in- vested with most awful sacredness , as the Crucifixion , Resurrection , Ascension , the institution of the Eucharist ; also the pervaJing mysticism , which ever led to prefer such themes , in miracle , type , or historic incident , as snggest more than they represent; for, in fact, the more Irequently-recurring scenes , as here treated , always imply a truth or principle addressed to the moral sense of the believ- er, lying far too deep for the apprehension of the uninitiate. In sculpture this is more strikingly carried out ; and in this walk of early sacred Art we have the finest example in the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus , prefect of Rome , who died a neophyte , A. D. 359, and was buried at St. Peter's , where his beautifully-chiselled tomb was rediscovered , after ages of oblivion , during the works for the new basilica— still being left near its original place , in the crypt. In freedom of design , in conception as well as execution, these reliefs surpass all others of the same epoch : ten groups are ranged along two files , divided by pilasters , the low er under canopies alternately circular and pointed ; the subjects historic : the principal and central figure that of the Saviour , in form a beautiful youth, seated between tw o Apostles , w ith His feet upon the earth , personified as an old man just emerging from the ground ami holding over his head a ca- nopy of draperies. The Sacrifice of Abraham ; the sufferings of Job ; the Fall of Adam and Eve ; Daniel in the Lions' Den ; Christ entering Jerusalem seated on an ass; again seen be- fore Pilate , who is washing his hands ; the Denial of St. Pe- ter, and the Arrest of that Apostle, are the representations ranged around ; but more curious still are the groups of IM TtlE CATACOJIIJS 6t sheep , minutely sculptured between the arches , serving ti> attest both the simplicity and earnestness of minds to which such art-treatment could be addressed — these animals being here seen to perform acts mystically selected from both the Old and New Testaments, and thus naively admitted lo personify, in type, Moses, John the Baptist, and the Redeemer Himself. A sheep strikes water from the rock ; another performs the miracle of multiplying loaves ; another gives baptism to a similarly typical creature of its kind ; a sheep touches a mummy-like figure with a wand, to represent the raising of Lazarus ; and a sheep receives the tablets of the Law on the mount. Turning to the collection in the Lateran Museum, we observe the most interesting sculptured series on a large sarcophagus brought from Si. Paul's, where it was probably placed at the time of the building of that basilica in the fourth century; the groups in relief on its front presenting a valuable record of religious ideas ; but we are shocked to find here the traditional reverence of earlier days so soon departed from in the admission , among the now larger art-range, of such a subject as the Supreme Being, manifest alike in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit under the aspect of humanity, with identity of type, strongly marked and severe, indicating middle age, in each of the co-equal Three. First in or- der is the creation of E^e out of Adam's side, by God the Son, in presence of the Father and Spirit; the former scaled, and in act of blessing the new born woman; the latter standing behind the Father's throne. Next appears the Son awarding to Adam and Eve the symbols of labour , which was part of their punishment , — a wheatsheaf to the man, a lamb (for spinning wool ' to the woman; and it is remarkable that in this instance the second Divine Person wears dilferent aspect, more youthful and beautiful than when associated with the Father— thus to announce the mystery of His Incarnation. Successively follow ihe miracles operated by our Lord uix)n water, bread, and wine; the Adoration of the Magi (the Vir- gin of a somewhat severe matronly type ) , with the Holy W TUE CHLRCn Spirit (again in human aspect', standing beside the chair of the Mother and Child ; the restoring of Sight to the BUnd ; the Raising of Lazarus: St. Peer denying Christ ; St. Peter between two Jews ; his arrest probably intended ' ; Moses striking the Rock : the Story of Jonas : Christ entering Jeru- salem ; Daniel between the Lions — and this last of very ori- ginal treatment, for, besides the personages essential to the sto- ry, another is also introduced, on each side of Daniel, meant as inferable^ for the third Divine Person , holding by the hair of his head the prophet Habakkuc , who brings the l)read ( here an admitted type of the Eucharist ) for Daniel's -ustenance - see the book, « Rel and the Dragon ». As to the selection from the miracles of our Lord (constantly repeated in others as in these reliefs), their deeper signiticance is ad- mitted in the following instances: the healing of the paralytic iraphes absolution from sin; the giving of sight to the blind, illu- mination th )Ugh faith ; the multiplication of loaves and fishes, as well as the change of water into wine, the Eucharist; Moses striking water from the rock, implies baptism; the adoration of the. wise men, the calling of the Gentiles to Christ. Job is intro- duced as a witness to the resurrection of the body ; and espe- cially conspicuous is the type of the Saviour's resurrection in the story of Jonas. Elias, carried up to Heaven, signifies the ascension of Him whose last sufferings and triumphs on earth are re- verently shown under veils of symbolism. On two sarcopha- gi in the Lateran museum is seen the Labarum, guarded by soldiers , with birds { symbols of the Apostles , or of beatifievi spirits) on the arms of the cross supporting the holy n^ono- gram ; and on another such sculptured tomb here , are details of architecture where we recognise a Christian basilica and a baptistery of circular form , no doubt correct representa- tions of such sacred buildings in the fourth or fifth century. Turning from this Museum, we find another remarkable example of funereal sculpture in a small, almost dark chapel ( no longer used for worship ) at St. Peter's— the tomb of an illustrious wedded pair, Probus Anicius , praetorian prefect, IS THE CATAC0UB5 63 who (lied A. D. 395, and of his wife ProbajFalconia. whose \ ir- tues are commemorated, with those of her husband, in several poetic tributes still extant : on their sarcophagus here we .>ee the Saviour , youthful and beardless .. with the book of the Gospels, standing on a rock from which issue the four rivers of Paradise ( a type of the Evangelists) : beside Him SS. Peter and Paul ; and . divided by colonnettes . the other Apostles , in that attitude . with one uphfted hand , under- stood to express assent or reverential attention. Elsewhere, at St Peter's , St. Maria Maggiore. S. Prassede, are to be seen ancient Christian sarcophagi in Rome, adorned by observable sculptures. But the Museum founded by Pius IX at the Lateran contains so rich an abstract from this primitive art-range , that it is to that centre we should turn, rather than any other, in order to study and appreciate. Here are the fac-similes of paihtings that have been judiciously selected for their mystic interest ; besides the most complete series of sculptured sarco- phagi , in the greater number, no doubt , of the IV century, though some may be supposed earlier — of the third , or even the second. Agincourt points out merits of treatment in soii.e of these sacred reliefs — e. g. the Ascent of Elias to Heaven ( in this Museum ^ the Crossing of the Red Sea, the bestowal of the Keys on St Peter , — that led him to assume for them origin within the tirst two centuries of our era ; and in the sarcophagi that stand ^st and 7th, left, in this gallery, one with vintage-scenes divided into compartments by figures of the Good Shepherd in higher relief: also in one of the statues here, the « Pastor Bonus », are artistic qualities that seem to indicate date anterior to the IV century ^ Perkins , « Tuscan Sculptors » ) The Christian Museum at the Vatican is rich in lamps, with sacred emblems, from Catacombs; also in bronzes of early periods , and in terriOc instruments of torture , that impress us with the reality of what has been sulVered for our Faith. Here too is the most complete series of Christian glasses with gilt Ggures, the very specimens .so well explained 64 TUB CHIRCH by Padre (jarrucci,— objects rarely to be seen elsewhere, though a few are in the Uffizi gallefy at Florence, and another set, from a Sicilian Museum, were recently purchased by the British Government at Rome. The Museum at the CoUegio Romano contains, among antiques of various classes, some interesting art-relics of the primitive and mediaeval Church— among the earliest , a marble vase with the Adoration of the Magi in relief. In the Propaganda Museum are a few of those gilt glasses from Catacombs , one with the group of the Vir- gin Mother between the two Apostles; and objects of various description from the same subterraneans , as well as copies from paintings in their chapels , are to be seen at the « Cu- stodia » of Relics in the Apollinare College, made public for the Lenten Stations on the Thursday before Holy Week. Besides those above named , there is another remarkable range of subjects serving to illustrate doctrine or religious usages ; and the judgment of competent critics , who assign to certain paintings antiquity so high as the first or second century, enhances the interest we naturally feel in such examples. Among these may be noticed the group of two men, one kneling, supposed to record the story of some person lapsed during the period of persecution , or other notorious sinner publicly reconciled to the Church before death. The Five Wise Virgins ( Catacombs of St. Agnes ) are represented with torches instead of lamps , conformably to Roman practice , but each carrying aUo a vessel for oil. A group of the Saviour in the midst of the Twelve Apostles ( Catacomb of SS. Nereus and Achilleus) , — two only, SS. Pe- ter and Paul , being seated , whilst the others stand — seems evidence to the idea of superiority alike shared by those co-founders of the Church in Rome. A banquet at which are seated guests waited upon by iwo allegoric personages , Peace and Love (Irene and Agape,. , whose names are written near , is supposed to represent the joys of Paradise. A group re- presenting tv/o persons , male and female , the latter with arms extended in prayer, beside a tripod-table on which are IN THE CATACOMBS 6o iaid a fish and loaves marked with the cross (Catacomb of St. Calhxtus^, is a strikingly-expressive illustration of the Eucharistic doctrine, with not only the proper substance of that sacrament in one kind, but also the mystic emblem of our Lords person— the Divine Presence— associated with it ; another sacramental subject , in the same catacomb , a man pouring water over the head of a boy while both stand in a river, conveying proof that infant, or at least, pedo-baptism was the practice of the ancient Church. It is, indeed, in the aggregate, a grand and affecting ideal of primitive Chris- tianity that this monumental series , painted , sculptured , and chiselled, presents to us— a moral picuire of purity and peace , earnestness without fanaticism , — mystic ordi- nances undegraded by superstition , true devotion manifest in the supreme sacrilice of the heart, the mind, and life. The varied and mystic illustration of sacraments , the select re- presentation of such miracles as convey lessons of Divine goodness and love , or confirm belief in immortal life , may be said to revolve around one subject, that dominates like a star whose hallowed light illumes the entire sphere — namely , the i>erson and office of the Redeemer, towards whom all hope and faith tend , from whom proceed all power , all strengthening and consoling virtue. The idea of a headship vested in St. Peter appears oc- casionally, with decided expression, though indeed tempered by other proofs of an admission to spiritual equality for those co-founders , Saints Peter and Paul. In the sculptures ( the greater number referred to the fourth and fifth centuries) this idea of St. Peter's supremacy becomes more manifest , as natural at periods when the Roman bishopric was rapidly advancing in power and grandeur. Moses and the Apostle con- stantly ai)pear m juxta-position , the one striking the rock . tlie other standing between two Jews; the aspect of both absolutely idntic'il ; and the wand , symbolic of authority , a^ often held by the Apostle as by the Lawgiver. In an enamel on ^lass this becomes an absolute interchange of offices , — Ob Tun: cnuucH St. Peter (designated by name ) striking water from the rock in place of Moses. In regard to another vast range of monu- ments, the epigraphy of the catacombs, we must turn for the best of authorities to. De' Rossi's « Inscripliones Christinae Urbis Romae », an immense compilation , intended to com- prise nearly 11,000 epigraphs, all collected by the writer during twenty-one years of assiduous research , and to be eventually classified , under the same gentleman's direction , in the Christian Museum at the Lateran. De Rossi infers that numerous decorative details hitherto ascribed to ihe third century, are really of much higher anti- quity, approaching even the Apostolic age ; proof of which he sees in the classic style of various frescoes and decorations on stucco ; also in the constructed (not merely excavated) cham- bers and corridors prO' ided with ample recesses for sarcopha- gi , instead of the usual sepulchral niches ; lastly , in various epitaphs wanting the known Christian formulas, and with no- menclature quite classic — found in certain hypogees. Till the latter years of the third century no spoliation had im- paired these cemeteries , no intolerant edict had driven the faithful from their limits ; but during the Diocletian persecu- tion all places of Christian assemblage were burnt down or devastated , all ecclesiastical books given to the flames ; the Roman see being left vacant for more than six (if not seven) years. That tempest was stilled by the relenting policy of Maxentius, A. D. 306 ; but the restitution of what the Church had lost did not ensue before 311. The legalized possession of cemeteries and that of their churches likewise , by the Christians under Pagan govern- ment, is one historic point clearly established by De Rossi's arguments and proofs. Valerian forbid to the faithful even access into these sacred retreats ; but Gallienus restored such sites to the bishops , implying the recognition of an aggregate claim ; and during the third century, at latest, that possession was generally guaranteed. The Christians of Antioch applied to Aurelian , in order to compel a bishop deposed in council, I.\ TllR CATACOMHS 67 the heretical Paul of Sainosata , to quit « the liouse of the Church » ; and in the sequel the decree of a CalhoUc synod was enforced by a Pagan magistrate. An ingenious suggest- ion in the " Roma Cristiana » is that originally, perliaps , it was under colour of associations for mutual aid and charita- ble interment that the Cliristians detained the first conceded tolerance, gradually extending to their places of worship, as well as those of sepulture. The chronology of primitive Christian art , cannot , of course, ])e brought within bounds of distinct definition ; and has been subject of various conjectures. Its earliest forms were purely symbolism : sacred emblems , the Lamb , the dove, the ship, the lyre, worn on rings or bracelets, or embroidered on vestments ( vide Clement of Alexandria , se- cond century ) ; if any human figures were represented , no other save the Good Shepherd, mentioned by Tertullian early in the third century) as sometimes seen, probably enamelled, on chalices ; but it seems certain all attempt at portraiture were prohibited till after (he time of Constantino ; and Mabillon concludes that ten centuries had passed before images were permit ed to appear abo^e Ib.e altar. The beauty of the social picture presented by those ages of faith could indeed be little appreciated . were we only »o regard ritual and aesthetic aspects apart from life's daily re- alities and practical duties. It is well known how the eco- nomies and charities of the primitive Church wore regulated: one-third of ecclesiastical revenues going to the relief of the poor; another to the bishops and clergy; another to pullic worship and sacred edifices. Before the end of the fourth century existed hospitals for the i)oor and aged , foundling asylums , and xen dchia for travellers , all supported by the several comunities, and mostly founded by bishops wdio were their local superiors. The Christian stranger was always at home among his fellow-worshippers , and maintained gra- tuitously , if he brought letters of recommendation ( epistoloe formatae] from the bishop of his diocese. In each city now rose, beside the episconla residence, an anr'j edifice open to all 68 THE cnincfl strangers , with separate wings for the sick for infants , arid the aged , each under its proper administration « There (says St. Gregory of Nazianzen disease is endured with cahnness; adversity becomes happiness ! ;) In the observance of fast-days it was enjoined that the economies of the table should be set aside for the relief of widows , ophans , or others in want (y. the « Pastor » of Hermas). The religious insti-uction of children wa-; from an early period provided for on system. Proof how promptly was condemned by the Church , and . to the extent of her means , put down , that great social e>il of Paganism, slavery, is supplied with striking force in Chris- tian epigraphs; among the entire number, about 11,000, be- longing to the first six centuries, scarcely six and, as Mr. Nortlicote shows, two or three among tliese doubtful contain- ing allusion, in their brief and simple language, to this funda- mental division of ancient Roman society ; whilst alumni (ad- opted foundlings^ are named in a greater number of Christian inscript ons than in the entire range of those from Pagan mo- numents. — a further proof of the prevailing beneficence , the new-born domestic viriues, to which so many outcast child- ren owed their maintenance , and even life , as members of the Christian community. Before the nineteenth year of Diocletian, date of the persecut- ing edict , which enforced the destruction of all Christian churches , the new worship is said to have been celebrated in forty buildings publicly dedicate to sacred use in Rome. The clergy ^till the end of this primitive period) continu- ed to officiate attired in the classic white vestments com- mon to Roman citizens , but distinguished by the long hair and beard of philosophers; and not till the Gonstantinian pe- riod did the bishops begin to wear purple ; not till the ninth century was that primitive white co-tume (which sometimes was slightly adorned in purple or gold, laid aside by the priesthood generally. An example of superiority in the constructive character of a Catacomb, conveying proof of comparatively late origin, ig seen in that of S5. Peter and Marcellinus , which com- IN THE CATACOMBS 69 iiuiiiicates with llie mausoleum of St. Helena . but can now be only entered , and to slight extent penetrated , in the villa of Signor Grande , about two miles from Rome . on the Via Labicana ; the portion of this cemetery here accessible having been re-opened in >S38j as described by Marchi Entering, we are struck by the unusual width and loftiness of the corridors, and the ample arched recesses, evidently destined lor sarcophagi , instead of the narrow sepulchral deposits elsew here seen ; but most remarkable is an ornamental detail ; not found in any other Catacomb , of rich mosaic pavement, for the greater part in diamond-shaped cubes of black and white stone . one compartment adorned with a dove holding an olive-branch, well designed in coloured marbles. Diverging from this principal corridor, are others now entirely tilled with soil ; one permeable to some extent , but becoming narrower and lower as we advance , till further progress is impeded. Above one of the two entrances, from each of which is a descent by marble stairs, are the ruins of an oratory in antique Roman brickwork with some traces of architec- tural ornament , cornices, mouldings, fragments of sculptured frieze . broken colums of marble and peperino. Another instance of superior constructive style is seen in the Cata- combs , reopened 1852, of Domitilla entered from the estate of Flavia Domitilla, a Christian Matron, where a facade and vestibule present characteristics of the best imperial period : and arabesque paintings here — birds and winged children - are distinguished by heauty and truthfulness entitling them to rank beside the most graceful fresco adornments in the columbaria of the Augustan age, or tho-e recently discovered in the \illa of Livia at Prima Porta ( See De Rossi's report in his Bul- letlino di Arrhfol. Crisliana , .May"G3). — The Catacombs of S. Priscilla, referred to the highest antquity, are also remark- able for details of their plan ami art-works. Entered from a vineyard of the Irish College on the Salarian Way, these N\ere found permeable in only one of the four stories into which they are divided : and in some parts their interiors 70 The ciilucii are supported by walls in firm brickwork that appears of the JV century. Admirable , among ornamental features here, are various graceful stucco-reliefs, garlands, and designs of the (juUlnche character, reminding of the finest similar details in classic art. The largest oratory, in form a Latin cross, is called the « Greek Chapel " from the inscriptions in that l^inguage there read. Among the most interesting paintings is a group where a \eiled fermale is seen in act of being crowned by two others ; and again in prayer , amidst other figures, one of whom seems inviting her to enter a specie.s of tabernacle , — conjectured to represent the entrance of the Soul, received by the Saviour, into eternal bliss ; another group being formed of the Blessed Virgin and Child with St. Joseph , who is bearded but not aged-looking , perhaps here for the first time introduced in sacred art 'see De Rossi on the earliest representations of St. Joseph, BuHefiino for April 65'. Another is interpreted by Bosio ( the first to explore these Catacombs ) as the ceremony of giving the veil to a conse- crated virgin — namely , the daughter of St. Priscilla , by Pope Pius I, who is sealed on a massive episcopal throne; St. Hermes, his brother, and Priscilla herself attending ; and opposite these persons , the Madonna seated , with the Divine Child , as if manifest in order to give highest sanction to that religious act. Conjecture has assumed antiquity so high as the first century for some paintings in these Catacombs ; and in their treatment both composition and costume awaken classic reminiscences. In the Winter of 1854 were discovered both the long-buried basilica and Catacombs of Pope St. Alex- ander on the Nomentan VV^ay — the hypogee in this instance extending on ihe same level with the ruined Church from which we enter it; less in cresting than others, as no monu- ments of artistic character are found here ; but still well worthy of being visited. There seems reason to conclude that both pictures and sculptures had begun to appear, though not in very common use , among the ornaments of sacred buildings, prior to the IN THE CATACOMBS 1\ last Pagan persecution ; and that it was in consequence of the oulrage inflicted on such art-objects under Diocletian , that the Council of Elvira, A. D. 3J3 , passed the variously-inter- preted decree : « Ne quod colUur et aloratur in parietbus de- pinf)atur ». The actual number of catacombs has been very diflferent- ly reported. Aringhi , followed by other writers , first raised it so hidi as sixty; but without proof adduced from personal experience. De Rossi sets the question at rest by supplying a list in which are reckoned forty-two ; not more than twen- ty-six being of vast extent, and hve shown to be of origin subsequent to the peace secured for the Church under Gon- stantine ,— all within a circle three miles distant from the walls of Servius Tullius ; though, indeed, other such hypo- uees are known to have been formed beyond that radius. The name nd catncambas was originally given exclusively to that of St. Sebastian on the Appian al Way ; and catacumbac was the title proper to a small oratory behind the extramu- ral basilica of that saint , still extant , built about the middle of the fourth century, for consecration of the spot wdiere laccording to legend, the bodies of SS. Peter and Paul repos- ed for a time after the attempt to remove those revered relics to the East ; a sacrilege thwarted .as the legend nar- rates; by a violent thunderstorm , which detained the emis- saries from the East till certain Roman Christians arrived who rescued the bodies, and here gave them interment. To the same spot, it is said, the relics of St. Peter were a second time transported, in the fear of profanation, when a new circus, on the Vatican hill above the Christian cemetery, had been projected by Heliogabalus. This ancient chapel, circular in form, and very inferior in masonry, has a plain al- tar ill its centre, above the deposit in which the Aj-ostles bofhes are said to have lain for a year and seven months, according to some writers [ I); for not less than forty years, as (i) Tho sepulchre, now covered up, is a square aperture uicas-^ iirini; between 6 and 7 feet on each side , and the same in depth ; lined in the lowjr part with nnarble , and divided into two equal 72 THE CHURCH one chronicler states. Round the walls are several arcosoUa, apparently made to receive sarcophagi,and once adorned with painted stucco in style of an early mediaeval period , but now barbarously covered with whitewash. Another oratory, at high- er level , in form and costruction similar , still retains fresco- pictures on a low vaulted roof, evidently of very remote origin, described by Nibby as Greek works: the Saviour in act of blessing ; Saints Peter and Paul ; the Divine Master , represented in a large head , of solemn expression , within a nimbus ; a Crucifixion , not without merit in design , though indeed rude in execution. The Roman authorities allow all applicants 'with the con- dition of obtaining tickets from the Secretariate of the Car- dinal Vicar) to visit such Catacombs as are most interesting , and have hitherto been most worked : S. CalHsto, S. Agnese, SS. Nereo ed Achilleo, and S. AUssondro. Those of St. Sebas- tian and St. Pancrace maybe entered, without orders, on application at the convents below whose churches they severally extend. On one day in the year , St. Cecilia's fes- tival, the Callixtan Catacombs are opened to the public , and illuminated for the masses now celebrated in three of their chapels, particularly in that where the Virgin Martyr was interred by St. Urban ; and where her sepulchre is now adorn- ed with flowers, garlands , palms, and wreaths of evergreen , lit up with lamps under the over-arching vault. In the adja- compartments by a marble partition. This crypt-chapel is supposed to have been founded by Pope Liberius, and completed under Pope Damasus. The legend ( f the attempted theft of those Apostolic Re- lics in the time of St. Cornelius, is given by Petrarch ( Lives of the ancient Pontiffs), with all its romantic embellishments: the sacrile- gious r, reeks had succeeded in bringing their stolen treasure from the Vatican to this stage on the Via Appia, when voices were heard orving from the penetralia of all the Pagan fanes in the City , « Has- ten , Romans , your Gods are being carried away ! » both Chris- tians and Heathens took the alarm ( an anticipalive idea of saint- worship as to the former); rushed in multitudes, overtook the spoil- ers on this road, and found the bodies thrown into the Catacombs, IN THE CATACOMDS 73 cent chapel of Ibe Pontific tombs (where Roman bislioj)s were buried during the HI century) an altar like those of ba- silicas, place J so that the celebrant faces the worshippers, is, this day, in use; and on the altar of St. Cecilia lies a magnificent Missal with a silver relief copied from the antique picture of her in this same chapel— a present expressly for this appro- priation from certain dioceses of France. On the last occasion I attended those subterranean rites, the 22nd of November; and received an impression of a pathos and solemnity une- ([ualled by any other religious services in Rome — this- conmiemoration being indeed a genuine link between the Catholicism of the Present and remotest Past What other system of worship could so touchingly assert its alliance with primitive ages , or the perpetuity of the Faith ? Here I saw a priest, just arrived from North America, who, without cre- dentials or introduction, had only to be vested , and succeed to another from France iu officiating — example of the truly Catholic in practice. Viewed from an outer oratory , that more si)acious cliapel of St. Cecilia, illumined by a pendant chan- delier as well as by tapers, whilst worshippers knelt in silence , and the richly-robed priest consecrated at a plain altar below those antique pictures dimly traceable on the tufa-walls, was a scene concentering all the memories and sanctities of Christianity. Communion was here given amidst wrapt devotion on the part of the worshippers ; and I saw one lady, in deep mourning , prostrate on her face at the holiest passages. The other chapels, besides those of the day 's celebrations , were alike accessible withmjt guide , and lit up , but so dimly as only just to allow the subjects of their mystic paintings to be distinguished ; under which effect it seemed that such sym- bolic Art gained , rather than losing , the idea being thus intelligible whilst technical deficiencies were thrown into the shade. Generally speaking, the moral effect of visits to these subterraneans , however fraught with edification , is deeply melancholy ; for when we contrast the promise of the glorious 74 THE CHURCH prime , so pure and noble, though announcing itself amid an atmosphere so dark and troublous , with the fulfilment of our own day, with the realities of the religious life around us , how much cause have we to mourn the incurable perversity of man in receiving but to alter and mould to his own pur- poses, the Truth from Heaven ! The persecutions suffered by Christianity under the Pagan Empire, ten in number, must be considered as entering into the history of the Church in the Catacombs ; their periods being thus determinable: F/rs/-begun under Nero, continuing from A. D. 64 till A. D. 70, date of the destruction of Jeru- salem by Titus ; and from this epoch the edict of proscription remained unrepealed , whatever intervals of peace were left to the faithful. Sccow! — under Domition , begun A. D. 99, and contiimed till 100, with more or less violence, under Nerva. Third — under Trajan, from 100 to 116, with a few inter- vals of repose. Fourth — under Hadrian, from 118 to 138; continued till 165, but much less violent, under Antoninus Pius. Fifth — Under Marcus Aurelius , from 165 to 181, and continued under Commodus , but with considerable abatement in subsequent years, till 201. Sixih — under Septimius Severus, from 201 to 2i1 ; con- tinued , but at intervals only, and with far less violence , till 257, under Macrinus, Heliogabalus , and Alexander Severus. Scvenih — begun under Maximinus , 236, and continued at intervals tdl 250. Eighth — under Decius, from 2o0 to 252; continued till 257 under Gallus and Volusianus. Ninth — under Valerian, Aurelian , Tacitus, Probus , Numerianus, and Carinus, 253-8 i; under Diocletian, and Maxi- mianus, Maximin,Maxentius and Licinius co-reigning), 303-325 — resumed (though under very different ciicumstances and with other modes of procedure) under Julian, 361-362. Different writers, however, have drawn up those statistics of the Church's sulTerings with other chronologic order, dividing IN THE CATACOMBS To tlie persecutions into twelve , at periods thus determined : Under Nero, A. D. 6i-68 : under Domitian , 9J-96 ; under Hadrian, 1 1 8- 1 '29-1 3G ; under Antoninus Pius, 138-153; under M. Aurelius, 16l-17i; under Septimius Severus , 199-211; under Maximin, 23^-238; under Decius, 249-251 ; under Trajan , 97-1 16; under Valerian and Gallienus, 257-260 ; under Aurelian, 273-275; under Diocletian and Maxiniianus, 303-310. That these hostile movements were subject to fluctuations, and at times con- siderably mitigated, though still legally urged, is evident from the notices of historians, especially those in the Historiae Au- f/ustae ; and among other illustrative documents may be cited the Law of Decius forbidding the torture of the young , not on grounds of l)umanity , but out of regard for corporeal beauty I The question as to the number of Martyrs has given rise (as I have observed to many and contradictory theories. If we may look with rational scepticism on the reputed relics, at S. Sebastian© on the Appian Way , of 170,000, ail said to be buried iu the catacombs below that Church ; we cannot but admit the proofs, which, without enabling us to arrive at anything like exact computation , at least suffice for the con- clusion that the ranks of that noble army were filled by in- creasing thousands, as age after age summoned the soldiers of the Cross to the combat. No record tells of the names or numbers of those who suffered under Nero, Domitian, or Tra- jan (save in few illustrious instances) ; and the total destruc- tion of sacred books and all other documents found in church- es, during the persecution under Diocletian, must have thrown back into shades of oblivion all hitherto compiled no- tices of the suiferers for Faith— as is regretted in pathetic language by Prudentius ( Peristeph. 1,74 ). The first step taken by the Church for the preservation of such memorials was the ordinance of St. Clement, third successor to St Peter, appointing seven Notaries , one for each of the regions into which Rome was divided , for the task of compiling these « Acts )-i ; and Pope Fabianus (23G-oO) attached to this body 76 THE cnuncH seven subdeacons, cliarged to superintend and direct their increasingly onerous duties. From a primitive period ( as the writings of St, Cyprian show) were the registers of Martyrs kept in all the churches of the several dioceses where they liad suffered ; but it seems that , after the most violent per- secutions , the acts only of bishops , and others among such victims who had given more than common examples of for- titude or Divine grace, were drawn up in wriling; nor were these even published till after approval by the prelates of the dioceses severally ( Ruinart, Preface to v. I ). To other general proofs may now be added those drawn from Cata- comb-monuments ; the epitaphs distinguished by numeral signs , at first supposed to be merely the numbers of tombs in their order ; two such , given by Boldetti , of the dates 107 and 204, having the ciphers XXX and XL ; and another, which Fabretti gives, with the cipher X. A passage in the « Peri- stephanon » of Prudenlius : Sunt et multa tamen tacitas claudentia tumbas Marmora quae solum significant numerum led a Roman antiquarian , Pietro Visconti , to discover the key of this mystery , interpreting here the undoubted indi- cation of the numbers interred in one grave ; and the same poet confirms his own evidence by stating that he had heard of the interment of sixty , whose names were known only to Christ , in the same sepulchre : Sexaginta illic defossa mole sub una Relliquias memini me didicisse hominum Quorum solus habet comperta vocabula Christus. While . if any doubt could remain on this subject, it is dis- pelled by the still clearer testimony found in other epitaphs, where the term « martyres » immediately precedes or follows the inscribed number— as in one striking example from the Callixtan catacombs ( Boldetti, 233], Marcella et Ciiristi Mar- tyres CCCCL. IN THE CATACOJIIiS 77 The words of Eusebius , a conlemporary, and, in part , an eye-witness of the last great persecutiou , must be admitted as authentic evidence important in a high degree : « Not merely for a short period, but for several years were these tyrannies carried on continually; and sometimes 10, some- times 20. 30, 60, or 100 Chri>tians , men, women, and chil- dren, were put to death in one day, various tortures being successively used , and renewed , in making them suffer. We ourselves , being at that time in those regions , saw lieaps of bodies of persons slain , some beheaded , others burned alive, in a single day '5. The range of Christian Catacombs is not confined exclu- sively to the Roman neighbourhood. Those at Naples , named after St. Januarius , and formed alike in tufa-stratificatious , are of great extent , but have hitherto been littte w^orked or illustrated , though their corridors , and especially one large chapel here , contain many sacred paintings and symbolic ornaments , engravings from some of which are given by Agincourt , who ascribes the more remarkable among these pictures to Greek artists of periods earlier thou the IX cen- tury — not undertaking farther to determine dale. More exten- sive, and still less known or illustrated, are the Catacombs of Syracuse , which communicate with , or diverge from , se- veral Churches both in the city and extramural : the most spacious and easily permeable under S. Giovanni beyond the walls. In their aggregate these have never yet lieen explor- ed ; and among their more valuable contents, the antique vases, found here from time to time, have been mostly re- moved , many to pass into the possession of the Duke Bonanni, as he tells us in his work, Antichc Siraciise (1717). Here also have I een discovered numerous coins, and Greek inscrip- tions ; but not ( that I can ascertain ) any Christian paintings of remarkable character. The-e are probably the vastest in extent among all subterraneans ever applied to sacred pur- poses by the Church : and are excavated entirely in the living rock , at different periods, and , as assumed, during the mort^ 78 TiiK cnus^cii lloiuishing epodis of Ibc once areat Sicilian capital — not there- fore of Christian origin , as is indeed apparent from the i\igan subjects of some designs , representing funeral cere- monies, rudely scratched on their walls. Throughout Iheir whole extent , these hypogees show characteristics totally different from the Roman ; and are described as resembling a complete subterranean city, with streets, rectilinear or curv- ing , several of which converge at open spaces . whence is de- scent to lower stories; or at spacious circular chambers, some 24 feet in diameter , under domical roofs pierced by orifices for giving light. The corridors are lined with arched recesses, divided into parallel tombs by stone partitions; but many of the deposits are sarcophagi, placed isolate on the ground, or at different heights along the rock-walls. Though generally, no doubt , formed anterior to Christianity, characteristics of the first centuries of our era are apparent in the barbaric at- tempts at arch tectural detail in some chambers ( perhaps used for worship ) ; and still more clearly in the sacred sym- bols on certain tombs. But , in other aspects, the singularities of formation are such as to have led antiquarians to conjee, ture different races as the authors, and different epochs for the date of these extraordinary works. The artist traveller, Houel, who explored to considerable extent, and gives the fullest report I have met with , tells that he found the cor^ ridors throughout lighted by shafts communicating with the open air ; but that at many points progress was impeded by the falling-in of the scaly rock. When at Syracuse , before the late political changes, I could find no Cicerone capable of acting, as guide to any 'extent , or giving any desirable information, in these mysterious subterraneans. That such retreats were early required amid the perils of the primitive local Church , we may infer from the religious history of this Island. We know that martyrs suffered under Nero ; that the Decian persecution raged with utmost violence, giving occa- sion to the self-sac ri lice of many heroic witnesses, in Sicily ; and the tradition seems credible that it was in that range of IS THE CATACOMBS 79 more spacious corridors below the S. Giovanni church tlie faithful of Syracuse useelf to the worship of the Cross, and the powers enlisted in that service, begin to be more strikingly represented by such men as St. Augustine , St. Jerome , St. Ambrose , St. Basil , St. Athanasius , the l)hilosopher Lactantius, and the poet Prudentius. Most of those great memories are associated in some manner with sites in Rome : thus the Benedictine church of S. Ambrogio, near • he Octavian Portico, recalls to as that saintly Bishop of -Mi- lan j whose earliest years were Fpent at his father's house THE F1U>T CHRISTIAN EMPEi'.ORS S! on this 5pot : the church of the orthodox Greeks ( Via Bab- buino ) bears the name of Atbanasius , who twice visited this City during his long vehement contest with the Arian heretics, and pfcbably resided where that temple now standi. S. Maria in Cosmedin is traditionally connected with the name of Augustine, who, before his conversion and baptism, is said ( but by vague legend indeed ; to have taught Rhetoric at a public academy among the vast ruins of the Pagan fane where this basilica eveulually arose : and S. Girolanu» lie la Carita is dedicated to that ascetic theologian-one of the Four Doctors of the Latin Church — who , whilst engaged as secretary to Pope Damasus 3S4-*) , resided in the house of a pious widow, Paula , which finally became a spacious church, rebuilt, as it now stands, in \6fiO, al present served by Oratorians , and once enriched by Domenichiuos master- piece , the u Last Communion » of that Saint. u Besides a trmmphal arch adori^d with spoils from ano- ther of a far superior art-epoch . little remains among Rome's antiquities of the numerous edifices Ifcat owed their found- ation to Constautine ; and the mighty events of this period must be read rather on the page of history , than on archi- tectural or sculptured surfaces. Vet the few extant monuments at Rome associated with the hrst Christian Emperors, are interesting, and in their present state picturesque. At Santa Croce in Grrusnlenime we may observe the ancient masonry, Willi wide arches now built up in lateral walls, that displays the characteristics of the IV century, though its cornice with marble brackets must have been added in the XII; and the conjecture ihat this basilica was formed in the Praeiorium . or Judgment-hall of (he Sessorian palace, seems admissible. In the pleasant gardens of the adjacent Cistercian monastery, stands the conspicuous ruin of a vast hall terminating in an apse, and supported in the rear by large buttresses— the sub- ject of much antiquarian dispute, aiid | opularly known to this day as the a Temple o; Venus and Cupid » , but on bet- ter grounds assumed to he a hall of stale, or basilica (in the G 82 THE FinST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS non-ecclesiastic sense), belonging to the same imperial palace, the favourite residence of Heliogabalus and Alexander Seve- rus ; in that picturesquely isolated ruin one detail at least , the massive brick buttresses with squared block-; of traver- tine set at intervals into their masonry, having quite the character of the Constantinian period. The German theory assumes this edifice to be the Nymphaeum , referred in the Notitiae to Alexander Severus, and built near the Castrense aanphi theatre , whose ruins are on the same moi.astic pre- mises; and the stone-work of the former building having been in part removed for the tasteless fagade of S. Croce, in the last century, its decay has become more absolute through fault of its owners. Where a boundary is formed to these gardens by the walls of Honorius , a series of vaulted cham- bers in two stories , against which those fortifications have been raised , may be traced in ruins to considerable extent , and referred to the same palace — whose name, Sessorian, probably derives from « sedere »> in the sense of residence. An atlecting and impressive scene is that monastic garden with its records of eventful ages I The church dedicate to the brother Martyrs , John and Paul , stands on the site of their own house on the Coelian Hill, where they suffered by decapitation, and were secretly buried within the same walls under the apostate Fmperor Julian. To these two brothers, loth eunuchs attached to the court of Conslantine , a church was raised in the IV centu- ry by Pammachius , a patrician who had become a monk ; and the same building was restored , first by Pope Symma- chus in the V century, afterwards , at different periods , by Cardinals who tookjheir title in the sacre J College from it — among others, the Cardinal who added the present portico in the time of the Engl sh Pope, Adrian W. It is probable that tlie house in which those brothers suffered was no other than the imperial palace on the Coelian, wliere Commodus resided ; and in fact , on the side of the church overlooking the ascent to the height occupied by the adjacent convent , TUE FIRST Cnr.lSTIA.N EMPERORS 83 we distinguish both tlie fine Roman brickwork of the first cen- tury, and that of the IV'— the latter very inferior— in which the main body of this building is formed. The nuiFierous con- struct ve arches . built of the usual large Roman tiles , and the arched windows, alike closed, afford proof how diderent was the structure of the JVand V centuries from the SS Gio- vanni e Paolo of the present time ; but it is interesting to trace even through disfigurements the epoch of Constantine at Rome. The rotunda on the Xoraentan Way, known as S. Cofifanza. was perhaps a Baptistery as well as the sepulchral chapel of the daughters of Constantine, Constantia and Helen, men- tioned by Marcellinus; and the inferior style of this building confirms the assumi)tion as to its period. The Mausoleum was dedicated for worship by Alexander IV^ in the latter half of the XIII century ; and , in the XVII, reduced to its present more modern form by much ina[)propriate alteration. This edifice forms a rotunda , 73 feet in diameter , surrounded by a vaulted aisle, or corridor, with arcades supported by 51 coupled columns of granite , their capitals of the comi)Osite Roman order; with attic, cupola, and laterally, three tribunes, or apses, I)robably an addition made when the tomb was converted into a church. On its aisle-xaults is a series of mosaics , all unfortunately painted over in a pseudo-restoration, 18.36, but still interesting as examples of early Christian art: the sub- jects dilTerent in the several compartments: some of regular geometric design, like a pattern for carpetwork ; otliers of arabesque, v.ith foliage and fruit, birds, animals, ornamental tracery, and w inged children, like those genii of the Sea-ons seen both in Pagan and early Christian art; also groups en- gaged in the vintage, treading the grapes, driving waggons of fruit, drawn by oxen, to the wine— press. Of larger scale are a few head-;, the character of which is Bacchic; the figures of animals and birds— oxen, geese, peacocks, doves, etc. being generally true to nature , and in details gr.iceful. Within one compartment is introduced, recurring repeatedly 84 TKE FIRST GiirJSTlAN EMPEUOliS in an ornamental pattern , the ligure of the Cross , \vhic'h alone suffices refute the idea once admitted by antiquarians, concluding from the subjects of other mosaics on these vaults, that the edifice had been originally a temple of Bacchus. The mosaics that once adorned that cupola , of the same date with those on the aisle— vaulting , are now only known through engravings of the last extant remnant (v. Ciampini's work) — their sui)jects exclusively and obviously Pagan : winged Genii rovvinj; boats and fishing in a river, Cariatides , fig- ures of Satyrs and Bacchantes , panthers , and ideal groups difTc-rently occupied, one being assembled before a temple avHI) the statue of its deity — showing the influences of that classic art w^hich had not yet given place to a more exalted range of creations even in edifices of sacred character. Similar in masonry, bnt less spared by time , and now reduced to a picturesque ruin, is the building on the Labican Way, about f,wo miles from the Porta Mwiniore , destined by Constantine for the twofold purpose of a Mausoleum to his mother Helena, and a church dedicate to the Martyrs SS. 3iarcellinus and Peter , — a priest an 1 an exorcist who suffered under Dio- cletian ; which structure, restored by Honorius I in 625, had fallen into such a state of decay before the IX century, that it was with difficulty a second restoration, ordered by Ni- cholas I, in 868, could be effected, it is a rotunda, in the brickwork masonry of which we observe the curious use of i?arlhen vessels .an expedient peculiar to the worst period of ancient Roman architecture' ; and hence its modern name. Tor rUinaltara ; once roofed over by a depressed cupola , having a portico with a Greek ]>ediment in front , the whole eleva- ted rose on a stylobate, with ascent by steps. Within late years- it has been repaired by the Lateran Chapter , wiio own the parish church [SS. Piciro e Marc^'lino) built in the XVII cen- tury within its ancient walls- an addition injurious to the venerable aspect of this ruin, that rises like a great shattered tower conspicuous on the Campagna. Around this Mausoleum sprung up, even so early as the latter half of tlie IV century^ THE FJnST CIIRlSriAN E5IPER0US 8o lirst a village , and evontually a tOM'i) , wiiich became a bi- shopric , Ibe first mentioned Prelate of whose See was among those assembled in a Roman Council, A. D. 365 ; Siibawjusla, fas was named this city) being long a place of pilgrimage Avhere the devout flocked to the tomb of the sainted Em- press ; but Nvitli the lapse of ages this site became so deserted that Innocent II bought it, in 1195, to bestow what \\ as then probably a mere tenantless demesne on the Lateran Chapter. St. Helena's body was transferred by Anastasius III, about 1 153, to an altar under a marble cupola at Aracoeli , on the Ca- pitol ; and solitude now extend^ , with that solemn tone cha- racteristic of Rome's Campagna, round the ruined Mausoleum.. Together with these sepulchral chapels of Helena and Con- stantia , we may consider two examples of the sculpture of the same period , that alike exhibit the marks of deep decline and the influence of classic ideas over an art just pressed into the service of Christianity. The porphyry sarcophagi of the mother and daughter, both transferred in the last cen- tury to the Vatican Museum, are almost the only specimens of Roman sculpture in that most unyielding material. That of St. Helena displays figures, in high relief, of mounted warriors and chained captives, the latter wearing the Phrygian cap and trousers ; also busts , in similar relief , of the Empress wearing a tiara, and the Emperor with a laurel crown. That of Constantia is adorned with low reliefs even inferior to the former, representing children engaged in the vintage, peacocks, lambs, and Bacchic masks— except which subjects these sculp- tures may indeed bear interpretation in Christian sense, like other vintage-scenes so often represented, though by no means obviously Christian in signilicance. Turning to other monuments of this century, in Rome , we find litt'e indeed to notice save the characteristics of rapid decay— poverty in /dea and coarseness in execution ; such as alike distinguish the statues of Constantino and his eldest son , now on the balustrade above the stairs ascending the Capitol; the other colossal figure of the same Emperor in the atrium of the Lateran 86 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS (all found among the ruins of the Constantinian Tliermae on the Quirinal ) ; also the busts of Diocletian , Constantius Chlo- rus , Julian, and the usurper Magnus Decentius; in the Capi- toline Museum— the first of some merit , t)ie last of these four presenting the very lowest stage, the second childhood of fallen Art. Well known is the history of* that beautiful arch, adorn- ed witli borrowed wealth, and on which the reliefs execu- ted in honour of Constantine s victories so deplorably contrast with those noble sculptures illustrative of Trajan's caiupaigi-s, public works , and private life. This monument has been lately made the subject of minute inspection by De Rossi, who, after closely examining its remarkable epigraph, so different from the lapidary style of Paganism , was led to the rejection of a favourite theory as to one of the phrases introduced ^ allusive to the triumph over Maxentius and the restoration of public peace — Insttnctu Divinitatis — obviously Christian, or at least monotheistic in sense , and long assumed to have been substiiuted for some other words, Pagan in import, after the Emperor had declared , more distinctly and ofTi- cially, his adherence to C-hristian faith. Such was the con- jecture of Venuti , Nardini, and Nibby ; and Cardinal Mai {Script. Vet,t. V) supposes the original may have been , Dii faventibus , dictated by a Pagan i^enate , but immcdiatclif afterwards altered by the Emperor's desire. The German Archaeologic Institute at Home has published the report of an experienced epigraphist, who, after close examination , inferred from the traces of nails for fastening the bronze letters , that the original words may have been , A'w^w Jovis Optmi Maximi. But De Rossi has refuted this, sta- ting his conviction , based alike on investigation , that the marble surface bears no marks of erasure, or of cavities not corresponding with the actual letters ; his inference being that the formula, Instinctu Divinitalis, was that originally dic- tated by the Senate , not with intent to recognize any Chris- tian principle, but in an idea, natural however unsanctioned , of transaction between the new and old Relieion. This entire THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS 87 arch ( says De Rossi ) « is an accumulation of spoils from earlier monuments, not only in its bas-reliefs and statues, but the Nery stones of wiiicli it is constructed » — singular example of the incapacity and sterility into which the Roman genius had now fallen ! As to the date of its erection — 315, 316, and 326 A. D. have been severally conjectured; by Tille- mont and otiier authorities , tlie tirst , the year, namely, that coincided with the decennalia , or festival for the first decade of the reigii of Co'^stantine. hi 16o(j was reupened , beneath the Carmelite church, SS Martino e Silvcslro , on the Esquiline Hill , the long-for- gotten oratory formed ',according to Anastasius) by Syh ester I among the halls of Trajan's Thermae— or , more probably, in an antique palace adjacent to those imperial baths— and cal- led by Oiristian writers « Tilulus Equitii », fro.ii the name of a lloman priest ti en proprietor of the ground. Nuw a gloomy, time-worn , and sepulchral subterrai.ean , this structure is in iorm Hi) extensive quadrangle, under a I'igh-hung vault, divided into four aisles by massive square piers; the cen- tral bay of o.i.e aisle adon-ed with a large red cross, painted as if studded with gems ; and ranged around this, four books, each wilhin a nimbus, earliest synd^olism to represent the Evgajgelists. Among the few much-faded and dim-seen fres- coes on. Ihe^e dusky walls, are figures of the Saviour be- tween SS. Peter and Paul, besides other Saints, each crown- ed by a large nimbus. About A. D. 500 was built a more importajit church by Pope Symmachus , above this primitive one ; and the later edifice , first renewed in the IX century by Sergius II and Leo IV, gradually lost its antique character through successive modernizing works, — the last in 1650. It is impossible lo assign any exact date to such an event as the public profession of Christiainty by Constantine — the imperial neoi)hyte who presided at the Nicene Council, and interposed in the gravest transactions of the Church whilst himself unbaptized ; and it seems just to infer, with the learned Beugnot {flisloiredc la Daitruclion du Paganisme], that S8 THE riRST CHRISTIAN E5IPER0P.S the phik)sophic deism imbibed by this Emperor from Ills father , continued to be liis only individual religion for years after his triumph over the last Pagan Avho ruled at Rame. Zosimus fixes the date of his defection from the national wor- ship at A. D. 326 , shortly after the mysterious deaths of his eldest son Crispus and perhaps calumniated wife , Fausta (a dark story of domestic crime, like that of Phoedra and Hip- polytus , or the Parisina of Ferrara^ : and it seems not im- probable that the powerful motives of remorse may have immediately led him to seek consolation, or absolution, from the Christian priesihood. after having burdened his conscience not only with the violent deaths of his wife and child , but also with the political murder of his colleague and bro- ther-in-law , Licinius (to whom he had promised life on the submission of that defeated rivaP, and of Licinius's inno- cent child , his own nephew. But though the very equivocal procedure of this unscrupulous convert is rendered more inexplicable by the contradictory reports of historians, pane- gyrist and opponent , there can be no doubt that he finally became a sincere Christian, long before the Baptism delayed, with pernicious example, till he found himself on his deathbed. Constantine crossed the Alps for that memorable campaign against the fierce and licentious tyrant, Maxentius, in *the Spring of the year 312; and in rapid succession of brilliant victories, took the town of Susa , defeated the opposing forces at Turin , Brescia , Verona ; and on the 28th October fought that eventful battle on the Tiber-shores , at the Saxa Rubra height miles distant from Rome), which decided, so far as human means can be said to have done so , the contest be- tNveen Pagan and Christian Empire. It was while traversing Gaul on this march that he is said to have seen , shortly after mid-day. the appearance of a luminous cross in air inscrib- ed with the words: In hoc signo vinres • — his whole army being alike witness of this portent , as to which we have the au- thority of Eusebius, who states himself to have received the iiarration from Constantine in person : but neither time, nor THE FIP.ST CHRISTIAN ESIPERORS 89 place can Le cxaclK- determined for this v.sion : and in tlie middle ages a church arose on Monte Mario, intended to commemorate the fact that there Constantino had stood wlien the fiery cross shone upon his gaze (I). On the ensuing night he his said to have a seen a vision of the Saviour bearing the same symbol, and commanding him to adopt it henceforth as the standard of the Roman armies. Consequently apjx^ared a new and sacred sign , in place of the Imperial Eagle: the Labarum ' earUeyt representations (rf which are seen on Christian sarcophagi, now at the Lateran Museimi), consisting of a gilt pole ' hasfa i, wiih a transverse beam ( anfenna ] at the upper part , thus to present the form of the cross ; and on the summit , a leafy crown of gold and gems , encircling the monogram formed by the first two letters of the holy name, X. P. ; beneath, su^- pended to the antenna , a banner of purple tissue , studded vs-ith gems, and embroklered with the heads of the Emperor and his sons in gold. A guard , consisting of oO soldiers dis- tinguished in arms, and called draconarii from the Dragon, one of the Pagan symbols on Rome's standards), was appoinied for the cus'ody of this vexillum : and rumour adds that no '!) Impartial historians can no longer admit the miraculous in this incident; and even Eusebius, the only authority of weisht, is silent on the subject in his Ecclesiastical History. De Broglie cites all the witnesses in its favour: and Fabricius ^« Bibliolheca Graeca, V, 6 » has treated it ^ith exhaustive iuvestigation : the latter adopting the theory in w hich Xeander, Manso, Milman, and many others concur, namely, that some meteoric phaenomenon was presented to the view, and exaggerated by the imagination of Constanline. Prudentius tells us th t not only the resplendent Labarum, but the shields and helms of the Roman army were thenceforth signed -^ilh the ho!y mono- gram — as still seen on those accoutrements in Byzantine coinage : Christus purpureum, gemmanti textus in auro , Signabat labarum, clypeorum insignia Cliristus Scripserat : ardebat sumrais crux addita cri-'tis. (In Symraach. v. 482 . 90 THE FIRST CHIUSTIAN EMPERORS one bearing it in liatlle was ever slain I Henceforlh the Laba- rum appears on the coinage of the Emperors of the East,' though not always with the same details , sometimes the monogram being on the banner instead of within the golden wreath , or tjie Greek words , « Throiii:ii this conquer », sub- stituted for the imperial effigy. The identical standard of Constantine is said to have been kept in the palace at Con- stantinople till the iX century. We are told by Eusebius that, soon after his triumphal entrance into Rome, this Em- peror caused his statue to be erected on a public place, hold- ing a cross formed by two spears, with an epigraph to the eflect that « with this life-giving sign he had freed Rome from the yoke of tyranny, restored liberty to the Senate and People, and re-established the City in her ancient splendour » — but such a statement from a Greek writer, who elsewhere shows himself little acquainted with Roman localities , seems insufficient against the aggregate evidence that shows Con- ' stantine's policy towards the Christian Religion in a light irreconcilable with the intent of such a monumental trophy; for it is obvious this Empcor's aim was not the overthrow of the national worship, but mere'y the emancipation of the Christian Church , whilst he himself was satisfied to remain aloof from any positive religious engagement. Criticism alike rejects the story of his baptism in Rome by the hand of St. Sylvester, and the claims of the octagonal edifice at the La- teran to be the actual Baptistery raised by Constantine for .that rite , though such error is perpetuated to this day in the inscription on the basement of the obelisk tliat stands before the same basilica : — Consfnjilinus per Crucem Victor a S. Silvestro Hie Baptizatus Crucis Gloriam Propagavit (1). Shortly (1) Baronius argues in support of the statement in this legend as to the Baptism of Constantine , and his miraculous healing from leprosy through means of the rite, in the year 324 ; hut Eusebius. Bishop of Cesarea , a contemporary and eye witness , describes that Baptism as taking place when the Emperor lay on his deathbed, at a castle near Nicomedia in Bithynia, 337 ; Constantine being therefore THE FIRST CimiSTlAN EMPEUOHS 91 after the victory over Maxeotius Avere issued two edicts by Ihe joinlly-rcigiiing Emperors, Constantine and Licinius, that first prepared Llie way for the great changes in tlie Church's life ; one of these documents being now lost ; the other (pub- hshed at Milan ,313) importing a full concession of freedom and toleration to the Christians , but without any implied assurance that either of those rulers had embraced their faith: — « Hac ordinanda esse credidimus, ut daremus et « Christianis et omnibus liberam potestatem s^^quendi religio- « nem quam quisque voluisset, quod quidem Divinitas in se- « de coelesti nobis alque omnibus qui sub poteslate nostra « sunt conslituti placata ac propitia possit existere ». In the same year Constantine, addressing the Proconsul of Africa , ordered that the Christian priests should be exempt from all municipal duties , lest ( he adds ) « they might thus be withdrawn from the service of the Divinity, which would be a species of sacrilege ». — In 319 he passed law^s of ex- treme severity against the practices of divination, prohibiting the hnruspex, on pain of lieing burned alive, from officiating in the private house of any citizen; threatening with confis- cation and exile all who should have recourse in private to such impostors. In 330 he ordered three temples, two of Ve- pus , and one of Esculapius , in Syria and Cilicia , to be shut on account of their having become notorious haunts of lega- lized vice ; but it is certain that two of those fanes were soon re-opened— if ever closed according to this edict. Meantime this reforming Emperor, though he abstained from offering sacrifice, and refused ceremonially to ascend the Capitol on solemn days for rendering homage to Jupiter amidst his army and Senate , did not .'•cruple to assume the robes and the title of « Pontifex Maxinius »; and thoudi in 314 he offend- sixty-three years of age when formally received into the Church, aft 31- the lapse of 23 years since he had first extended favours to Christianity. Not the less was his memory deified ])y the Roman Senate; and the title divus , the formula devolus nnmi'ii ejus were alike bestowed on him as on his Pagan predecessors. ^ THE FinST CIiniSTIAN EMPF.ROUS ed the public feeling at Rome by suppressing the Secular. Games (deemed essential to the welfare of Empire) , never- theless sanctioned the public consultation of Haruspices ; and gave assurance to his subjects, in emphatic terms, of his intention to leave full liberty for the belief and observances of Paganism (I) A law of 321 enforced on all citizens, on judges , corporations , and the inhabitants of towns general- ly, the duty of abstaining from all business on Sundays, the acts of emancipation and enfranchisement of slaves excepted. It does not appear indeed that in this rescript was aimed the observance of a Christian festival , no reference in this sense being included ; it was as the Day of the Sun that the first in the week was declared sacred , and the solar worship , a peculiar feature of the new Paganism , might have been cele- brated without any Christian idea attaching to it. As to slav- ery, the new legislation recognized the bread line of demarca- tion between the two classes , bond and free , however it benefited the condition of the former : it deprived the master of arbitrary power over life and death ; it punished as ho- micide the death of a slave under torture , or any excessive- ly severe castigation , but not if the victim died under moderate chastisement. The marriage of a free woman with a slave was punished with death ; seduction by ihe slave in his master's family, with burning alive ; and for the crime of child-stealing in order to sell into slavery, the penalty, retain- ing all the barbarism of old Roman manners , was exposure in the amphitheatre, either to be devoured by wild beasts or for the gladiatorial combat \ But the laws that affected domestic morality were animated by a worthier spirit : the sanctity of marriage was rehabilitated in so far that infidelity was made a capital crime , and legal separation allowed on the suit of the wife for three offences alone in the husband— (1) 111 a decree of 3i9 he addresses the Roman people in such terms as these : « Adite aras pnblicas atque dehibra , et consuetur « dials vestrae celebrate solemnia : nee enim prohibemus praeterit2| « usurpationis officia libera luce tractari ». Tini rir.ST ciiristia:^ e^ipeuors 93 homicide, poisoning, and violation of sepulchres. The ancient statutes against celibacy were removed , hut not those that deprived the childless married man of the full right to inher- itances : and all who had taken the religious vow of celi- bacy were now privileged, alike with the Vestal virgins, to make their wills even before the legal age— a law leading us to infer the frequency of such engagements at this epoch. It is, indeed, in the numerous edicts of Constantine , provid- ing for public charities and the relief of sutlering , that his cordial adherence to the ethics, at least, of the Gospel, stands out most clearly ; and the infusion of new principles into social life , natural result of the ascendancy secured to the religion of the Cross, becomes most luminously evident: the lielpless poor were to be nourished out of the public grana- ries ; the children of destitute parents were to be supported at the exjjense of the State ; those left exposed , and conse- ffuenlly sold into slavery, to be ransomed and set free : cre- ditors were no longer allowed to deprive debtors of their servants , or of such cattle as were required for agricultural febours ; all aggrieved persons were invited to appeal to the sovereign against abuses on the part of his ministers or court- iers ; the cruel usage of b-anding with hot iron those cri- minals condemned to work in mines or combat as ;:ladiators. was abolished ; so also the punishment of death by the cross (a deeply signiticant measure ; but other severe penalties were retained ; and (strange to say; the murderous sj)eclacles of the amphitheatre were not hnally put down till well-nigh another century had passed I Owners of slaves were empowered to emancipate them by a simple , unconditional act , performed in any church in presence of the bishop , or other local Clergy ; var.ous humane regulations were adopted for the relief of prisoners, and expeditious prpcedure of tribunals; and among decrees immediately atfecting the ecclesiastical body, were those granting the privilege to clerics for accept- ing donations and bequests; to (he bishops generally for. arbitrating in judicial causes. If, on one hand, Costantines 94 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEliORS policy ill reliiiious interests may appear eqaivocal or vacil- lating, an, I liis i-rivate life unworthy ol" liis profession, he gave at least the example of magnanimous princi['lj and h.igli appreciation tf the faith e\cntually eniijraced by luni, in as- signing to lite Church a sphere of freedom Liuarantied for her action !y purely I'ural means on human intelhgence ; while keeping strictly aloof from the i nnstrous pretension, so fa- tally maintained hy many among his successors, of forcing religious compliance 1 y penal law ; and it is an impressive, lesson that the s ory of Christianity under Consfantine pre- j-enls : the ( hurch jassing through the pliase of toleration in [)rogress towar«]s attaining lier greatest triumphs. It appears that the tirst place of Christian worship founded by Coiistanline was the Cluircli in the imperial palace , sub- sequently amplilied into the patriarchal basilica called Late- ran , from the name of that residence : and his bestow^al of that palace itself upon tlie Fope was certainly a signal proof iiow he esteemed the dignified character of the Roman Bish- op. The magnilicent mansion of the Lateran family, confis- cated W'ilh all their estates by Nero , after Plautius Latera- nus had been put to death for imputed conspiracy against that tyrant , l;ad thenceforth become an imperial residence ; and a portion of its vast liuildings had been given by 3Iaxi- Kiiaiuis to his daughter Fausta , the second wife of Constan- (ine. This part, donnis Fuiis/oe, the Emperor is said to have presented to Pope Melchiados on occasion of the Cnuncil con- voked, in 3! 3. against the schism of the Donatists ; and tra- dition adds that, in 324, after his supposed baptism in a chamber of this palaoe , subsequer.tly converted into the Baptistery still extant, the Empen^r conferred the entire edi- fice , w ith its Basilica , upon St. Sylvester , — a report , however , rejected I y critical historians , though Baronius , witli his usual readiness to admit mere legend , does not he- sitate to accept it. Die consecration of tliat pripiitive cathe- dral , first dedicate to the ^aviour, and probably of much smaller dimensions than the actual church , look place on THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS 93 the 9tli NoveiTjl)or , 324 , a day tlience passed into General oijservance among Catholic feslivais (1). It was at this solemni- ty, while Sylvester oflicialed before Constantino, that a vision of the Redeemer Himself, looking dow^n upon the multitude, hecaraeimanifest in the apse beyond the high altar , according to the poetic legend of that Pope. And there still looks forth from the apse a colossal mosaic head of the Divine Being, like a mysterious Presence dominating over the sacred scene, with strongly marked features, large dark eyes, the hair and beard also dark, the expression stern and mournfully earnest— a work referrible , vvilhout doubt , to the IV cen- tury, having been rescued from the conflagrations and other vicissitudes this church has so often suflered from , and even- tually associated with the large mosaic group of the XIII century] that lilU ihe lower part of the apsidal vaulting. Crescimbeni ;see his history of this Basilica points out the difference of material in this earlier, as comi)ared with the later specimens of mosaic art ; and the legend of the pre- ternatural appearance is represented , with all other acts in that poetic story of Constantine and St. Sylvester, in seve- ral modern frescoes on the attic of this Church's transepts ,2. It is not quite certain whether it was in the same year 324, or 319, that this Emperor complied with th.e suggestion of (1) The Lateran Basilica of Constantine is reprcsonlcd in a small rude bas-relief, now seen in a corridr;r of this church's sacristy, found (1751) below a neighbouring couvent-church, SS. PietroeMar- ce'lino ; this sculpture showing the facade as seen from beyond the adjacent city-walls, with the Porta Asinaria (now closed' in front; conveying . indeed , no idea of the majestic or characteristic in the architecture of the long flat-roofed temple, with colonnacle-portico, and apse, lit by round-arched windows, placed on one side, instead of being , as probably was the real plan , at one extremity. No church in Rome has been spoilt more deplorably by modern dis- figurements than this pre-eminent Caliiedral. (2) The following is the bona fide statement of a living Pxoman writer: « Tlie Pontiff solemnly consecrated it » (the Lataran) « on 96 niE riiiST chuistian emperous the Pope by laying the foundations for Rome's great(^st basi- lica ; assisting at the works with his own hands on that occasion ; divested of diadem and miperial matitle, and, clad (as the legend states; in the white robes of a newly-baptized neophyte , spade in hand , turning up the earth as he traced the plan upon the Vatican declivity, and carried away on his shoulders twelve loads of soil , intending , in this number , to do honour to the Apostles. It has been inferred (Bunsen, Beschrcibung) thit the original tomb of St I'eter was not where that high altar and splendid < confessional » now stand above the Apostle's relics, but at some short distance hence, under the oratory raised by Anacletus , and (as is unques- tionably more probable) beyond instead of w> thin the limits of that Nerouian Circus , site of so many terrific martyrdoms. Anastasius tells us , indeed , that the Apostle's body was ex- liumed by (lonstantine's order to be reinterred under the altar, laid in a shrine of silver, within an outer sarcophagus of gilt bronze , measuring five feet in breadth and length , on which was set a golden cross 130 lbs in weight. Above this arose the high altar plated lir-st with silver , afterwards with gold , and a choir whose pavement was silver ; golden stat- ues of the Saviour and several Apostles guarding the entrance into that most gorgeous sanctuary, wiiere silver and gold lamps were perpetua ly burning. The naveandfour aisles were div ided by eighty-six marble. pillars, supporting architraves; an atrium, and jaradisus , or quadrangular portico , extending in front ■ — the measurements of this church's interior, 313 by "210 feet. Though with its pomps , art-adornments , and so many sacred associations entitling it to supreme reverence , the whole edilice has passed away, save the mere pavement of what has now become one section only in a crypt , w^e may still feel cur sense for the rcligio loci enhanced by the assur- IheOlh November, in honour of the Saviour, whose image, similar to that in mosaic preserved intact through so many conflagrations, was on this occasion seen miraculously to appear before the Roman people ». Moroni, Di::ionaiio d'crudizionc ecclcsi'.'SlicA. THE FIUST CimiSTlAN EMPEROflS JTT nnce tliat there, amidst the dazzling splendours of the « con- fessional)) due to Paul V, exists to this day unaltered the identi- cal tomb of the Apostle , where his relics were enshrined in silver and bronze by Gonstantine. The usage long prevailed of letting down handkerchiefs or mantles to touch the sa- cred sarcaphagus ; and around the altar above it was a gra- ting (iransenna), opened at one side by a small window (jugu- lum) , through which the pallia , or brandca , were passed , being first carefully weighed; then, after an interval spent in fasting and prayer by the supplicant, withdrawn from the tomb, to be again weighed, in the belief that the Divine favour was infallibly signified through the increased heavi- ness of the garment left in such contact ! And another practice , mentioned by St. Gregory of Tours , was the offer- ing of golden keys for the grated door of this sepulchre , and taking away, instead , those previously in use , to the touch of which were ascribed miraculously healing virtues I The other churches founded by Gonstantine in Rome are all referred by tradition to the same year o%\. St. Paul's on the Ostian Way was consecrated by St. Sylvester , and enriched by the Emperor ( besides many other donations j with the silver sarcophagus surmounted by a golden cross, loO lbs in weight, where the body of that Apostle was laid — or , according to other tradition , the half of the relics of both the chief Apostles deposited, the ether half of each boby being at St. Peter's It is probable the original church on the Ostian Way was comparatively small , and far surpassed in scale by that founded by Theodosius , which , begun in 386 under superintendence of the Roman Prefect , was completed under Honorius, about 393, as we read in the verses over its chancel-arch : Theodosius coepit , perfccit nonorius aulam Doctoris mundl sacralam corpore Paul!. The other basilicas, - that of St. Laurence on the Tiburtine Way, St. Agnes on the Nomentan Way, S. Crocc in Geruai- 7 98 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN E51PEf\0I\S lemme , and SS. Peter and Marcellinus on the Labican Way ( also the mausoleum of St. Helen ) may without doubt be ascribed to the same imperial founder ; though not so that of SS. Apostoli, erroneously associate J with his nam« , which was built by Pope Pelagius in the YI century. The revenues and wealth of precious offerings , sacred vessels , metallic sculptures etc., bestowed on these new churches by Constan- tine is truly astonishing as reported in the catalogue given by Anastasius; hut we may ask whether that chronicler of the IX century had himself any other than the basis of tra- dition to rely upon ?- remembering that , prior to his day, al- most the whole aggregate of this wealth , in moveables at least , had been stolen from the principal basilicas by the Saracens. According to that writer the gold and silver objects bestowed on the Lateran alone would have been equivalent to 68,000 sterling ; and the properly settled on the same church would have yielded more than L. 10,000 per annum. Agin- court calculates that the entire value of these donations , during the pontificate of St. Sylvester alone , must have ex- ceeded what Solomon bestowed on the Jerusalem Temple. Among those for ceremonial use were all the perfumes named in the Scriptures , — balsam , cinnamon , spikenard , saffron etc., for burning in the sanctuary ; and a tribute of 120 lbs of frankincense annually, was among possensions secured to the Lateran. Among sacred buildings interestingly associated with the legends and religious ideas of the IV century, are that Basihca « of the Cross », and the portico containing the Scala Santa. Helena , the daughter of a Briti-h prince and the mo- ther of Constantino , who , as Eusebius tells us , became a Christian soon after the victory of her son , undertook , when past her eightieth year , a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the ob- ject of discovering the true Cross , after having communica- ted to the bishop , Macarius , her desire to erect a church on the site of the Redeemer's sufferings. After the temple of Venus and the statue of Jupiter , raised by the Romans on Calvary, had been overthrown , the excavations, carried out THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS 99 under her superintendence , led to the finding of even more than the pious princess had sought : the Holy Sepulchre , the other Instruments of the Passion , and three crosses , among whicli latter the identity of the one sought was prov- ed , on the suggestion of Macarius , by miracle : a female , who lay at the point of death , being brought to the spot , touched by it, and immediately restored to health! A portion of this most precious Relic was sent at once to Constantino- ple ; another to Rome ; but the greater part was consigned by Helen to ^facarius , this becoming the principal treasure of the new church founded by her over the Holy Sepulchre. It is said that the inhabitants of Jerusalem , whom she had consulted before instituting the research , informed her of the ancient Jewish usage of burying near the spot where criminals had been interred , whatever implements had been used to inflict death ; and as to details of that discovery , now commemorated by the Church as the « Invention of the Cross », we have the full narrative given by St. Cyril , an eye - wit- ness , who became bi>hop of Jerusalem twenty-five years subsequently. The Roman Rasilica said to have been founded expressly as the shrine for that relic , has been known by the name « Heleniana » , as well as by that of « Sessorian » ; and the chapel of St. Helena, at a lower level than the church itself, is built over soil brought from Calvary, together with those other treasures. In the vault of the terminating apse was discovered, in 1 492, a leaden coffer with three seals, and an inscription near , containing a portion of the title of the Cross, with the imperfect letters of the words: Jesus Naza- RENE King , — since that year annually exposed on the festival of the « Invention » , on the fourth Sunday in Lent , and on Good Friday; a mitred Abbot displaying this and other Relics from a balcony in the transept, the description of each object being chanted by an assistant ; and when the bell sounds to announce that deemed holiest , while all the mul- titude kneel in silence , a supernatural awe seems the spit rit of the thrilling scene. fOO lllE FIRST CimiSTIAN EMPEHOr.S Reason may condemn, but feeling cannot resist the claim to reverential sympathy in the spectacle daily presented in that building that now contains the Scala /San^a— regarded as the staircase of thirty steps from the palace of Pilate , several times ascended and descended by the Saviour; and said to have been found by St. Helena , together with three columns and two gales of the same building , sent by her to Rome, and placed by St. Sylvester in the portico of the La- teran palace. 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 disci- pline ; as the saintly matron Fabiola there appeared a penitent before the public gaze, in sackcloth and ashes (A. D. 390). The staircase was ruined by earthquake in 897 ; but soon restor- ed , and re-erected near the gates of the Lateran church ; and when Sixtus V ordered the demolition of the ancient Papal palace , it was again removed to the place now occu- pied , a separate building that comprises also the Sancta Sanctorum, or antique private chapel of the Popes, adjoined to a Convent founded by Pius IX for Passionist friars , whose community here have the guardianship of those holy stairs. Not more than 28 steps now remain -the rest probably want- ing since the earthquake in the IX century— their material being veined Tyrian marble , since the last century covered with wood , said to have been thrice renewed , beneath which that marble is seen, through grating, at spots where it is .be- lieved stains of the Redeemer's blood are visible ! There is no day on which worshippers may not be seen in act of 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 ! WTien we call to mind the circumstances of the siege of Jerusalem , the im- possibility of genuineness in such a relic forces itself upon conviction ; and the here manifest effects produced on the THE FmST CIUUSTIAN EMPERORS 401 popular mind afford example of unreasoning acceptance accord- ed to baseless legend ; yet when we consider such expres- sion of faith and earnestness in the « Worship of Sorrow » , surely whatever be the error in judgment , it is wiser to re- vere than condemn , remembering that — Free service from the heart is all in all to Heaven. To return to the events of history : Gonstantine , arriving in Rome for his last sojourn there in 326, was received, we are told , with maledictions : one contemporary says the Ro- mans employed against him the weapons of ridicule; and three years afterwards he effected that great step , the transfer of the seat of Empire to an eastern Capital , urged by motives , among which is one that gives to this event an import asso- ciating it with the story of Religion— the alienation naturally excited in his mind against a people whose temper and feeling were still essentially Pagan. Feeble indeed is the argument it has been attempted to build on these utterly inapt foun- dations for the favourite theory (one might rather say, fable) of Rome's abandonment by Gonstantine in a spirit of enthu- siastic devotedness to the Papacy, in order that thenceforth St. Peter's successor might hold undivided sway over the Seven Hills I It seems that the first rejection of this long-admitted le- end , which assumed Gonstantine to have made an uncon- ditional gift of Rome to St. Sylvester, was expressed, early in the XV century, by Lorenzo Valla , a native of this city. Accused before Eugenius IV of having advanced such sceptical views in a treatise De Donatione Constantini , that Pope order- ed the charge to be inquired into , and Valla , if he were the author of the anonymous work , to be punished. He fled to Naples , and thence addressed an apology for his writings to the Pope , but without mentioning that in question. Ni- cholas V invited him to return to Rome , where he held a school of oratory, and was afterwards made Ganon [of the Lateran ( see Tiraboschi ). In the « Hall of Gonstantine » at 4021 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEiiORS the Vatican, the act of the Donation is represented as a re- ligious ceremonial at St Peter's , and , with expressive sym- bolism, the Emperor kneeling before the throne of the Popcj whilst he hands over to the latter a golden image of the City resigned I Tliat Art should be made to perpetuate falsehood , is surely to degrade it. Some writers ascribe the invention of this fable to John , a Roman deacon of the X century ; but Dupin shows that it should rather be attributed to the author of the pseudo-decretals of Isidore. The MS. versions are different, but all condemned by internal proofs. Petrarch naively relates — that Constantino gave to Sylvester, and his succes- sors for ever , the entire Western Empire ; crowned him with the imperial crown , and himself led the horse ridden by the Ahi Costantin , di quanto mal fu madre , ec.— seems to express the same idea of historic fact in what he deprecates. The worthless sons of Con-tanline reigned (Constanline II in Gaul, Spain, and Britain; Constantius in Asia and Egypt; Conslans in Italy, lllyria , and Affrica) , to little purpose for the interests of Religion or Civilization. Constantius, who ob- tained sole dominion over the whole Empire after the deaths of his brothers in battle , and the overthrow of the usurper Magnentius in Gaul , never saw Rome except on occasion of a brief visit, A. D. 356 , when her yet unimpaired mag- nificence , and especially the splendid aggregate of monu- ments in Trajan's forum, made the impression described by Ammianus Warcellinus, who mentions the witty rejoinder of a Persian prince, Hormisdas, to the young Emperor's ignorant boast that he would soon erect his own equestrian statue , equal in merit as an art— work (!) to that of Trajan which had elicited his admiration : • — « You must first have a stable built for your horse equal to the one we see here 1 » JThat imperial ingress may have enabled Rome to understand THE FinST CUniSTlAN EMPERORS J 03 what new elements were infused into the court and life of her rulers on the Bosphorus. Alone in a gilded chariot ( an etiquette introduced by this young Prince for his progresses) did Constantius make his entry, in attire literally covered with jewels , while above his head floated purple standards , like bal- loons, taking the form of serpents when inflated by the wind ; the escort by which he had been accompanied from Otricoli (about 35 miles' distance) formed of « Protectores » , a guard of young nobles in rich armour with golden helms and banners stiflf with gold embroidery, and « Cataphractes » , another new company in armour of Persian fashion , made to fit close and yield to all movements of the body. The cum- brous etiquette and complex gradations of office introdu- ced by Constant ine , seem more in accordance with the old Oriental despotisms than with Christian civilization ; and the high functionaries were now divided into three classes of the first , two of the second order , under the titles , illustris spectahilis , clarissimus , perfeclissimus, ec. May we not see in the corruj)tion of Religion and degradation of Art under Byzantine influences , the not unnatural result of haughty pomp without refinement, excessive splendour without intel- lectual elevation? It is evident that neither in consequence of this sojourn at Rome , nor of any policy pursued by the sons of Constantine throughout the r reigns (338 — 61) , was the position of the Church or that of Paganism essentially effected ; and that the latter remained still the established Religion of the Slate , while Constantius occupied himself with Arian speculations, and persecuted those adhering to the Coun- cil of Nice — himself an Arian in conviction , according to Oro- sius , though others give him credit for orthodox views re- specting the Holy Trinity ; and St. Gregory Nazienzen credits the report that Angels had been heard singing while his body was borne across the passes of Mount Taurus to Constanti- nople I « He did not » ( says a Heathen contemporary ) « de- prive the sacred Virgins of any of their privileges ; he bestow- ed the priesthood on patricians ; and never refused to the 104 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS Romans the sums requisite for their religious ceremonies: he visiteti the regions of the Eternal City, followed by a con- tented Senate, contemplating all the temples with interest, reading the names of the Gods inscribed on their fronts ; inquiring as to the origin of these edifices, he praised the piety of their founders ; and although himself of a different religion , provided for the preservation of such buildings in all the Empire , that each might observe his own customs , his own rites » { Symmachus, Relation lo Valentinian II). Some of the laws passed under the reigns of the three brothers illus- trate the relation in which the two religious parties now stood. In 340 Constans decreed that any person found in the act of demolishing an antique sepulchre (an offence against the sanctities of the grave become common— on the part of Christians not taught , by any instilled reverence for their ow n , to respect the resting place of other dead ) should be condemned to labour in the mines , if acting without per- mission from the proprietors of such monuments ; and even m the opposite case , punished by deportation. Against the same offence death was threatened by one decree (349) ; but afterwards commuted into a pecuniary mulct. A law inserted in the Code of Theodosius , under date 353 , orders the closing of all temples, the abstaining from all sacrifices; and adds the penalty of death for transgressions ; but so fully is this contradicted by fact, as well as by inscriptions that prove the free access into temples, the undisturbed practice of sacrifi- cing in Rome, indeed throughout Italy, and the whole Western Empire under Constans , that we can only suppose the text lo have been copied into the later code from some minute found among state-papers under Theodosius II (Beugnot, vol. I , lib. II, cap. I). It does not appear that the apostasy of Julian caused any essential alteration in the circumstances of the Church, though , uotwitbstanding his professions of philosophic toler- ation , the public acts of his short reign make known to us a considerable number of martyrs put to death by governors THE FinST CHRISTIAN EMI'F.nORS 105 of provinces with the Emperor's consent ; and the testimony of two Pagans, Marcellinus and Eutropius , is sufficient in regard to the injustice of his laws against the Christians. They were interdicted (362) from the faculty of teaching Rhetoric or Belles LeUres; and Orosius states (lib. YII, cap. 30) that Julian had projected a vast persecution against Christia- nity, in case of his victorious return from that Persian Campaign in which lie met with the death ao idealized by legends that invent the story of the arrow shot by an avenging Angel , and the exclamation from the dying Emperor , as he cast his own blood into the air , — « Galileian , thou hast con- quered I » (1). Neither Julian nor Jovianus ever visited Rome as Emperors ; and A'akntinian (364-75), by assigning the go- vernment of the East to his brother Valens , while retaining the Western provinces for himself, returned to the policy of separation between the two Empires ; Milan becoming now the capital of the West. Though cruel and violent in temper, the former of those princes passed many excellent laws in a spirit conformable with Christian morality : he renewed the prohibition against the exposure of infants ; appointed physicians to attend the sick in each of the fourteen regions of Rome ; ordered that Grammar and Rhetoric should he taught in all chief towns of provinces. Under his reign a persecuiion was set on foot against the practices of illegal divination , with such intensity and violence as remind of the sufferings once endured by the Church ; but it is evident the Christians stood entirely aloof from this movement, which neither altered their own position towards the State, nor swept away any guarantied privileges of the old Religion. The increasing wealth and influence of the Catholic Clergy (0 The Virgin Mary is said to have enjoin 'd St. Mercurius and St. Artemius to revisit the earth for the punishmen' of Julian; and an arrow from one of these to have slain him on a Heathen altar - a legend more Paganish than Christi >» , represented in a fresco by Baglioni on the vault of the Borghese chapel at St, Maria Maggiore. 106 THE FIRST CHIilSTlAN EMPEIIORS may be inferred frome one of this Emperor's edicts addres- sed to Pope Damasus , and publicly read in churches , ad- monishing priests and monks no longer to frequent the houses of widows or virgins ; and forbidding those who acted as spiritual directors to receive gifts , legacies , or inheritances from their penitents. If certain privileges were, in this reign, granted to Pagan priests, - as exemption from particular duties or punishments , and the admission of the provincial pontiffs to a social level with Counts of the Empire , — the Christians also became exempt from irksome liabilites: thus, by an act in 36o, were they freed from the obligation of the periodical guardianship o\er Pagan temples and their rites , a duty all citizens had hitherto been required to fulfil when called upon, as occasion occurred. Yet the condition of the Christians under this reign is described as one of depression : the Clergy , Anastasius tells us , could no longer frequent the public Baths or go in safety to the churches; the faithful (says that an- cient writer), were again persecuted; on the other hand we have the testimony of St. Jerome to the wealth of the Church at this period. Speaking of the law that prohibited ecclesiastics from receiving bequests, he says : « 1 do not complain of this law, but I lament that we have rendered it necessary; and it does not sub- due avarice , for we contrive to elude it by fiiiei commissa ». Gratian , the son of Valentinian , who associated Theodosius in the again divided Empire (379), took steps tending towards, but far from accomplishing, the final overthrow of Paganism. In 382 he removed , for the second time , from the vestibule of the Senate House , the altar and statue of Victory, to which each Senator, at the commencement of each session, offer- ed incense, and before which all took the oath of allegiance to the Emperor ; which, same altar, first displaced by Gonstan- tius (357) , had been restored by Julian. This last act of ejection was felt as one of the deadliest blows against the ancient system ; for the majestic winged figure familiarly seen on Roman coins and triumphal arches in act of crown- ing victorious Emperors, was, to the Pagan mind, the Tile FiaST CHRISTIAN EMPEROKS 407 deified symbol of omnipotent Empire , as Claudian's verse implies : AfTuit ipsa suis alis Victoria templis ROmanae tatela togae ; quae divite pompa Patricii vcncranda fovet sacraria coetus. ( VI Cons. Honor. 597). And able representatives of the old religion made eflForts for repeal of this mandate , speaking in the name of a Senate still in the great major;ty Pagan. After Valentinian had be- came Emperor of the West , a deputation , headed by Symma- chus, Prefect of Rome, waited on him at Milan, with an address written by that illustrious Senator, which, as advised of St. Ambrose, was given up before the day appointed for hearing it read in the consistory, so that the saintly bishop might become acquainted with its contents and prepare his answer. The well-known « Relation » of Symmachus has taken its place in Latin hterature beside the two answers of St. Ambrose , one produced before , the other after , the Emperor's decision ; and vigour, with high— toned eloquence, here disguise so well the feebleness of his cause , that the address of Symmachus continued in such esteem as, twenty years afterwards, to elicit the poetic refutation by Prudentius, in the « Contra Symma- chum » , one of his most elaborate works. The imperial de- cision was, of course , negative, being subscribed even by two Pagan Counts , who sat in the consistory. Another simi- lar attempt made in the same cause under Theodosius was repulsed in the abrupt answer to the deputies, again probably accompanied by Symmachus: « You do not represent the Senate » ; and when that orator, in addressing the consistory, insinuated a last faint recommendation for the altar of Vic- tory , Theodosius ordered him to be seized and transported in a common vehicle to one hundred miles' distance from Rome. For a brief period , indeed , after some fruitless depu- tations to four Emperors , the statue of Victory was restored to its ancient place by the usurper Eugenius , during his 108 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN FSPEROr.S sojourn at Rome : but after his overthrow , the transient re- vival of Paganism passed away together with its symbol in the Senate House. When we look on that noble ruin of the Curia at the foot of the Palatine, reduced, as it is, to but the remnant of a Co- rinthian peristyle with its rich entablature, no more interest- ing memory becomes associated with its graceful decay than the contest so momentous, though referring immediately to a mere form of classic symbolism . respecting that altar and statue. Gratian aimed a greater blow at the system by sup- preying all the revenues of the Pagan Priesthood and Vestal Virsins , and transferring the funds hitherto appropriated for their support to a savings-bank. He also laid aside the title of Pont'fex Maximus , and refused the insignia of that office , which seven of his Christian predecessors had not hesitated to accept : but that title is still read affixed to this Emperors name, as well as to those of Valentinian and Valens, on one of tbe few public works of this period left in Rome — the re- stored Cestian bridge between the Island and the Transti- berine quarter 1 . Valentinian U died at Vienne , in Gaul , a victim to trea- son and assassination 39? , before receiving the baptism SL Ambrose was to have administered after his abjuration of the Arian Heresy he had been brought up in by his mother Justina , but had renounced. Theodosius the Great . Emperor of the East, and eventually ^394 sole ruler of the Roman world now (or the last time united under one sceptre , opens a new and most important epoch for the story of Christianity : and must be considered the true founder of the Catholic Church as a State Religion. With his reign terminates the official supremacy of Paganism : the Christian Hierarchy rises in renovated power and splendour ; Heresy becomes an ille- (4 if?]. Gratianus, Pius, Felix, Max., Victor, Ac. Triumf., Sem- per Aug. Pontif. Maximus , Germanic. Max. Alaraann. Max. Gothic. Max. Trib. Pot. HI , Imp. 11. ec. ». TBE FiP.ST CHRISTiA> ESPEROES 109 i^al defection from the prescribed Dorma ; yet the inner life of niythologic belief, with all its subtle influences over miod and morals , certainly endured . if but an under-current . yet still productive of its olden fruit . long sub&eqnently to this energetic Prince's reign . and perhaps most of all in the Ita- lian nation. The extirpation of idolatry is a manifest aim in the laws of Theodosius — an object nor*e of his Christian predec*essors appear to have proposed to themselves, at least for accom- plishment through compulsory nieans ; though , indeed , dur- ing the first years of his reign . it is attested by four Pagan writers Zosimus. Libanius. Eunapus and Symmachus that the ancient worship w as left in full liberty. About three years after he had becon>e the associate in Empire with Gratian. he decreed that those who had apostatized from Christianity to Paganism, could not dispose of or inherit properly by will, unless from a father, mother, or brother. We must infer that such scandal did not altogether cease in consequence of this measure . seeing that the same law had to be renewed, two years later, with extension of its penalties to simple catechumens ; that Gratian applied its provisions to the Western provinces : and another law of Thei»dc>sius declared apostates infamous- In 38o the latter Emperor threatened death for the attempt to read into the future by consulting the entrails of victims . or by ether magical and idolatrous contrivances. In 391 appeared the edict . hitherto most important of ail as a crushing blow to antique superstition : < Let no one p<^ate himself by offering sacrifice. u«.)r immolate innocent victims, nor enter into temples , nor pn;»lect images made by the hand of man, for fear of becoming guilty in the eyes of law both human and divine ». This was published in both Empires; and a similar edict , addressed, a few- mouths afterwards, to authorities in Egypt , condemned the governors of provin- ces to a tane of I51bs in god 600 sterling for the offence of mereiy entering a Pagan temple , and their officials to the same payment , unless they had cpposed the will of their 110 THE FinST CHRISTIAN F.MPEUORS superior in so acting. Next followed the proiiibition of all private sacrifices , whether within temples or elsewhere — u form of Pagan worship now apparently common , though de- clared illegal long before this period ; and finally, in 392, the absolute prohibition of bloody sacrifice under pain of death ; also that of all other idolatrous ceremonies under pain of confiscation of the houses or estates where such had been performed. Within eight years was effected such extraordi- nary transition , productive of total change to the religious conditions under this Emperor , that what had been legal worship when he ascended the throne became an offence punishable with death! (1) Eugenius, an obscure Senator, once a teacher of belles lettres at Rome , was as it were for- ced to accept the purple by Arbogastes , the General of Va- lentinian , who had assassinated that young Emperor to avenge the loss of his military rank ; and this transient usurpation (392-4), ending in the defeat of Eugenius by Theodosius , and his decapitation on the battle-field , secured a brief revival to the cause of Paganism , which that phantom-emperor protect- ed , though not openly professing it as his own religion. Throughout Italy temples were now reopened ; sacrifices again oftered to the gods ; crowds of fanatics assembled at the an- cient rites ; and at Rome especially was this restoration hailed with popular sympathy : the Pretorian Prefect Flavins, and the eloquent Symmachus exerting themselves to stimulate idola- trous zeal and support the usurper. The historian Zosimus and the poet Prudentius describe the visit of Theodosius to Rome , after his victory over that feeble rival ; and the latter writer imagines the Senate, at his invitation, deliberating on the greatest of all subjects , the choice of a national Religion — (4) Referring probably to the interval from 383 to 391 , Zosimus describes how the inhabitants of towns continued to supplicate the Gods for deliverance from the calamities of such a reign : « As they enjoyed still the liberty of frequenting temples and appeasing the Gods bv national rites ». THE FinST CHRISTIAN EMPEHOR^ Ml deciding , for the true one ; a report even Gibbon adopts, ad- ding that the Senate voted against Jupiter by a majority ! But the Emperor's presence in Rome at this date cannot he proved, as is shown by Beugnot. Notwithstanding all his hos- tih'ties to their cause , the Pagans hastened to deify Theodo- sius after his death; and their sympathizing poet, Claudian , to celebrate his apotheosis. The most important of this Emperor's decrees (A. D. 380) in religious interest.^ may be said to have altered the entire position of the Church, and infused a new (indeed merely human ) element into her life amidst the world. « We , the three Emperors (Theodosius , Gratian , and Valentinian II) will that our subjects follow the Religion taught by St. Pe er to the Romans , professed by those saintly prelates , Dama- sus Pontiff of Rome and Peter Bishop of Alexandria. Accord- ing to apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, Me believe in the one Divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit , of majesty co-equal in the Holy Trinity. We iV'H that those who embrace this creed be called Catholic Chris- tians; we brand all the sensless followers of other religions with the infamous name of Heretics, and forbid their con- venticles to bear the ti-tle of churches; we reserve their punishment to the vengeance of Heaven , and to such mea- sures as divine inspiration shall dictate to us ». — Thu*, ob- serves Miiman , « was the religion of the whole Roman world enacted by two feeble boys and a rude Spanish soldier 1 » Not less memorable is the story of Theodosius's repentance after the massacre at Thessalonica , in which town a sedition , excited by trivial dispute about a favaurite charioteer of the circus, had caused loss of life, and the murder of slate-ofTi- cers who had interposed. In a paroxysm of rage, the I{m- peror (three years after his high profession of orthodoxy!) ordered an indiscriminale massacre, in which 7000 perislied , of all ages and sexes, in the amphitheatre whither they had been decoyed for slaughter. St. Ambrose, apprised of this 112 THE FIIIST CHRISTIAN EMPEKORS prohibited Theodosius from entering the cathedral of Milan , w hen he returned to that city soon after the event ; and retiring into the country, the Prelate addressed a letter to him elo- quent in reproaches : « Your subjects , Emperor (he remind- ed him) are of the same nature as yourself; and not only so, but likewise your fellow-servants. For there is one Lord and Ruler of all , and He is the Maker of all creatures , wheth- er princes or people. — How could you lift up in prayer hands steeped in the blood of unjust massacre ? How could yon with such hands presume to receive the most sacred Body of our Lord ? » For eight months did Theodosius submit to the interdict which severed him from the communion of the faithful ; and even at the end of that period , when , at the Christmas-festival, he hoped to receive absolution and had set out on his way to the Church , a message brought the intimation that he, being still excommunicate, could not yet en- ter the holy place ; that the Bishop of Milan was ready to recei- ve death from his hands , but not to admit unreconciled guilt into the sanctuary I To this also he yielded , and , instead of going to the cathedral , went to the house of Ambrose , listen- ed to his severe reproaches submissively, and to the condi- tions he imposed — first , the public performance of penance ; secondly, the passing of an edict to order that thenceforth thirty days should elapse before the carrying out of any sen- tence of death or proscription , and that , after that respite , all cases should he finally brought before the Emperor for the last decision. Such a law was immediately drawn up ; and after signing it, Theodosius appeared in the public church ; « prayed neither in a standing nor kneeling posture, but throwing himself on the ground— tore his hair , struck his forehead , and shed torrents of tears as he implored forgive- ness of God >■>. (Theodoret, L. V, c. 18)— Such was the spec- tacle presented by the Ruler of that Empire, which, only about a century and a half previous to this, had submitted to the reigns of Antoninus Caracalla and the Syrian Helio- TUE FIRST CllRlSriAN EMPERORS \\o gaibalus ! What an example of the profound action of Christian- ity over the whole moral world , and over the motive prin- ciples by which it is governed 1 Under Theodosius occurs the first ominous instance (385) of the judicial shedding of blood for religious opinion , not indeed by act of this wiser Emperor, but by that of Maximus, a usurping rival in Gaul: the victims, Manichean heretics, against whom and their leader Priscillian , a patrician Spa- niard , persecution had bem fiercely waged by cectain bishops of that country. But the fatal precedent was disowned , the sentence reprobated by all the other great Prelates , as by the general voice of Christianity ; and Ambrose nobly refus- ed to communicate with the bishops who had so forgotten their responsibilities as Vicars of Christ. Honorius, declared Emperor of the West at the age of eleven years (395) , was , as Gibbon describes , « without ta- lents or passions — the son of Theodosius, engaged in the occu- pation of feeding his poultry, was content to slumber through life; and during an eventful reign of twenty-eight years, it is scarcely necessary to mention his name ». Having fixed his court first at 3Iilan , then for a short interval at Asti . and eventually at Ravenna (the henceforth Capital of declin- ing Empire), this insignificant Prince made a pompous visit to Rome on occasion of his triumph there celebrated (404; for the victory won over the Goths by the able and valient Stilicho, without the slightest concurrence or responsibility on the part of Honorius himself. Disastrous as was his reign , the laws issued during its continuance through means of power- ful ministers, especially Olympias, the « Master of Offices »,, were adapted to promote the interests of Christianity, and humane in their character. It may be assumed that it was in 39S appeared a new edict for the general abolition of Pagan sacrifices, the text of which is not indeed preserved, but two other decrees of the next year allude to a previous one as publicly known : one beginning, Skut sacrificia prohi- huimus ; the other selling forth; c We have already suppressed 8 414 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS profane rites by a salutary law » ; and this new phase in Ihrt circumstances of Paganism is the more remarkable , seeing that up to this time no general inhibition against the ancient worship had appeared , and if its rites had been suspended at Rome, the want of means, after the treasury had ceased to defray costs , can alone have been the cause. Shortly before these new measures , there had circulated throughout the Empire a prediction , probably inspiring fresh courage and hope to the Pagan party : an oracle was said to have declared that St. Peter had succeeded by magical arts in establishing the worship of Christ for 365 years , after the lapse of which tmie the new Religion would perish ! and the year 398 was to witness this prophecy's fulfilment preparatory to the renovated life of Paganism 1 Gratian had deprived the idolatrous priest- hood of all their property, and Theodosius had withdra\Mi all funds for the support of the public sacrifices : but certain assignments for the benefit of the ancient worship, annonae templorum , still remained , serving to pay for the sacred ban- quets [epulae sacrae) and games , these more genial rites having been expressly sanctioned by Ilonorius ; but another law , A. D. 408, decreed the withdrawal of all this revenue: — templorum, detrahebantnr annonae ; and henceforth , if the gayer rites or feasts of olden superstition were kept up , their costs must have been defrayed by voluntary ofTerings : « Non liceat « omnino in honorem sacrilegi ritus funestioribus locis exer- ^ cere convivia vel quidquam solemnitatis agitare ». Beugnct observes that « in the provinces, such ofTerings sufficed a long time for the requirement ». The same law provided that images , if still left in temples or fanes , and still the objects of superstitious regard , should be overthrown — suis sedibiis f.vellantur ; but the edifices of the proscribed w orship were now declared the property of the state , to be appropriated to public uses, conformably with the orders addressed to certain magistrates of provinces, in 399, that such buildings,' if conspicuous as public ornaments, should be respected — a judicious opposition to that iconoclast zeal which might have THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS 1 1 O deprived Rome of her Pantheon alike with the classic sta- tuary once under its dome. The merit of abolishing the cruel shows of the amphitheatre pertains to the legislation , if not to the personal etTorts , of Honorius. It was among the various and splendid spectacles given for that hollow triumph describ- ed by Claud ian, that the last engagement of gladiators for amusement of an applauding people took place on the arena of the Colosseum , while the Christian was , nominally, the established faith at Rome. The first edict against homicidal shovvs was passed by Constantine (A. D. 325) , addressed from Berytus to the Ro- man Prefect, forbidding both the combats and the exposure of convicts to die on the arena. But the popular avidity for blood- shed not being easily repressed, this law was perhaps never fully applied in the m estern provinces , and certainly had become a dead letter at Rome before 357, when it was revived by Constans and Julian, but again to be set aside, till re-enacted in 397. Theodosius had prohibited all' public spectacles on Sundays ; but it was not till 425 such were forbidden , by Theodosius II, on all religious festivals and throughout Lent. The continuance of the bloody spectacles in the Flavian amphi- theatre is attested by St. Augustine in his « Confessions » , and by Prudentius , Conlra Symmachum , who thus denoun- ces them in the latter years of the fourth century, addressing a Christian Emperor : Arripe dilatam tua dux in tempora famam. In mortes miserorum hominum prohibete litari ; Nullus in urbe cadat , cujus sit psena voluptas. Jam solis contenta feris infamis arena , Nulla cruentis homicidia ludat in armis. Their suppression however was not final till an event occured which afforded occasion for more rigorous enact- ments. An oriental monk, named Telemachus, made a pilgrim- a;:e from the East to Rome , expressly for an object attend- ed with the almost certain condition of martvrdom. During \\6 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS tlie sanguinary shows at tlie Colosseum in honour of Honorius's* triumph, he rushed between the combatants, and, fallinii on his knees , entreated the spectators to have mercy on the victims, to renounce for ever those cruel spectacles. Over- whelmed by showers of stones , he fell a martyr on the spot ; but not shedding his blood in vain ; for to this obscure suf- ferer Humanity is indebted for the cessation of the most odious, because purely voluptuous, outrage against her sacred laws. Ecclesiastical annals are otherwise silent as to that Martyr of the Colosseum — the « Asiatic monk , whose death was nijore useful to the human race than had been his life » , as Gibbon observes , not sparing his sarcasm even in refer- ence to this high example of Christian heroism. But the memory of ihat self-sacrifice adds a solemn interest to Rome's most majestic ruin ; and when the light of a selting-sun gilds the warm-tinted stonework of those gigantic arcades and still proudly towering walls , his story becomes interwov- en with all those sublimest meanings now attached to the structure itself the most expressive monument of the triumph of the Gross. A consecrating glory for ever rests on that are- na where suffered the noble army of Martyrs, whose ranks are closed by Telemachus , here dying under showers of stones amon;^ infamous gladiators (ij. (1) Salvian , Bishop of Marseilles (born'390) , who cerlaiiily wrote after the time of Ilonorius , has been cited to prove that even thi.;> talking about the maladies to ^vhich tbeir cattle are subject: one , himself a Christian , assuring his hearers that the best way to protect those animals against disease is to place be- tween their horns « the sign of the cross of that God who alone is worshipped in great towns » : Signum quod perhibent esse crucis Dei Magnis qui colitur solus in urbibus. — Impossible as it is to determine date for such an event as the fall of a religion in the moral sense , it may be assum- ed , that about the year 408 was accomplished the final overthrow of Paganism in the Western Empire by the de- struction, or else consecration to Ghri-tian worship, of its tem- ples (Beugnot, 1. IX, c. 10). A law of Honorius, published in 415, may be said to have given the last blow to its priest- hood, and to all still surviving representatives of a condemned system ; this edict immediately applying to Africa , but after- wards made to extend over the entire states under that Em- peror. « We command that compulsion be used against the ministers of the Pagan superstition who shall not have quitted Carthage , and returned to their native towns , before the calends of November. — We ordain , conformably to the de- crees of the divine Gratian , that all the property which the error of the ancients formerly appropriated for sacred things , be united to our demesnes , so that the usurpers of such pro- perty shall be obliged to make restitution of its fruits , dating from the day it was prohibited to place the costs of that exe- crable superstition on the list of public charges. — These orders shall be executed , not only in Africa , but in all re- gions of our Empire. The Christian Religion shall be placed , without obstacle , in possession of all the property we have assigned, by numerous constitutions, to the venerable Church. Error having been abolished , it is right to exonerate our finances from the expenses of the superstition so justly pro- scribed , and to absorb therein the fruit of the properties once \a THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS belonging to the several corporations of Heathenism, whatever their title , and which formerly served for the payment of re- ligious festivals or for other costs of worship ». This law may be considered a compendium of all the policy hitherto adopt- ed by Christian Emperors against the Gentile Religion ; and the final sentence of ruin against its olden institutions. The reigns of the first Christian Emperors were sterile as to monuments , save in that one range of sacred edifices where so much was accomplished , but so little is left for our own time. — The obelisk now on the Lateran piazza , the loftiest and most ancient among such monoliths in Rome , was erected by Gonstantius , A. D. 337, on the spina of the (Circus Maximus, and finally removed from the site where it was found buried deep under earth , in 1 587, to be placed where we now see it. Its original pedestal bore long inscriptions im each side , injudiciously sacrificed in order to use the material for repairing the shaft ; and from one of these (pre- served by Gruter) we learn that Constantino had caused it to be removed from Thebes to adorn his new metropolis , but Gonstantius had determined to bestow it , instead , upon Rome, whither it was transferred from Alexandria, having been brought no further than that city before Constantino's death. The inscription states that it had arrived whilst Rome was suffering under the tyranny of Magnentius , the usurper , here called in derision « Taporus ». An object surpassing in anti- quity every other even in this City, dating from a period before Moses, and anterior to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, was well added to the range of Rome's monuments before she finally lost her character as capital of the Western Em- pire ; and the link is thus completed that unites her Christian- ity with the oldest memories of the ancient world. This obelisk was dedicated by Gonstantius during his brief visit to Rome ; the inauguration of the Diocletian Thermae being another ofhis official acts at that period. Among other local anti- quities, however, we find several epigraphs of the IV cen- tury, curious for their inflated style and bad Latinity — to be THE FJUST CHRISTIAN EMPEROUS 12;) read amidst the ruins of Trajan's Forum , and in the Gapi- toHne Museum. Deceased emperors still receive the title « di- vus » ; to Yalentinian is a dedication styling him « Rerum humanarum Domino » ; and the following inscriptions ( Ca- pitol ) are characteristic : « Piissimo Fortissimo Fundatori « Pacis et Restitutori Publicae Libertafis Victoriosissimo D. N. « F. Val. Constantino Pio Felici Aug. etc. etc. — Magno et « Invicto Imp. Caes. C. Val. Aurel. Constantino Pio Fel. In- « victo Aug. Pontif. Max. etc. etc. ». One remarkable feature in the primitive Church's history is the alternation of hostilities and favours from Emperors alike alien to her. It is evident that, long before the conver- sion of Constantine , the policy towards the new Religion had become a great question of State; that Christianity had begun to weigh m the balance of public nffairs ; and, whether acting as fierce persecutors or gracious protectors , the imperial Rulers could no longer consider the worshippers of Christ mere insignificant sectarians. Constantius Chlorus, reigning over Rritain , Gaul, and Spain , belonged to that class of en- lightened Romans ( perhaps not few ) who , rejecting the olden fables, acknowledged one God , without ceasing to pay official respect to the dominant system. Bishops were familiarly en- tertained at his palace ; and all molestation against Christians was forbidden througliout his stales ; though , after the per- secuting edicts of Diocletian , their public worship was sup- pressed alike in these as in other provinces. Philosophic to- lerance seems the salient trait in Constantius's character ; but his colleague Maxentius, reigning in Italy and Africa, went farther, in semblance at least, and actually aCfecled to em- brace Christianity, with some pretentions t ) pious zeal , after the overthrow of Severus,who had been raised to the rank of Caesar by Maximianus, and had endeavoured to subject Max- ontius's portion of the Empire to himself; which pretenders policy towards the Church being hostile , Maxentius adopted the opposite course purely from political motives. Most me- morable among all acts of the Pagan Emperors towards their •5t) THE FinST CnniSTlAN EMPERORS Christian subjects , was the edict of Galerius , tb e instigator of Diocletian's persecution, who, when become a prey to dread- ful disease, and feeling the term of his life to be near, issued the proclamation of tolerance from Nicoraedia, in April 311 : n document valuable as evidence to the constancy of the faithful under their late severe trials , and to the mysterious power of conscience , here evinced no less strikingly than on those Roman monuments where we still traced the remorse of the fratricide Antoninus Caracalla for the murder of Geta : « As we have perceived » (referring to the Christians) that the greater part persist in their obstinacy, refusing to render to the Gods the worship due , no longer even adoring the God of the Christians ; through an impulse of our extreme clemency, and according to our custom of bestowing marks of our benevolence on all men , we have determined to extend to them also the effects of our indulgence ; to per- mit them to resume the observances of Christianity, and to iiold their assemblies , under condition that nothing shall there take place contrary to good order. We prescribe to the ma- gistrates, by other letters, the course they are to pursue. The Christians, in recognition of the benevolence we entertain for them , will regard it as a duty to invoke their God for our preservation, for the State'sand their own salvation, that the Empire may in every part enjoy safety, and that they themselves may live without peril or fear ». — The clause above given in italics is indeed most singular, coming from such a source : and some erroneous idea respecting the Di- vine Trinity may here be conjectured as perhaps the best explanation— unless it can be deemed possible that the exagger- ation of saint-worship had already become apparent even to the Heathen? The oracle , though still consulted at certain famous shrines, may be regarded as now in its last phase, before total eclipse ; this once awfully-revered form of Pagan practice being already discredited by the sarcastic exposures of Lu- cian Csee his « Pseudomantis )^ and « JuDiter Tres-aedus' . and THE IinST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS 127 by the avowals , from various Heathen sources , that its efli- cacy had ceased. Even from the time of Augustus the oracle of Jupiter Amnion had been abandoned to the solitude of its Libyan desert ; and Juvenal laments the silence of the most illustrious among all, the Delphic, on the sacred steep of Par- nassus : — Quoniam Delphis oracula cessant, Et genus humanum damnat caligo futuri. Still more clear and detailed is the testimony of the de- vout Pagan , Symmachus , to the general cessation of such fatidic responses in the \\ century : ^< Dost thou not know that the oracles , which formerly spoke , have become silent ? One reads no more the letters in the cavern of Guma; Dodo- na confides no more her secrets to the trees ; nor any more do the verified oracles proceed from the abyss of Delphi >- fEpis. 33, lib. lY). Whatever the degree of imposture and illu- sion , priestcraft or phantasm , mixed up with such agencies of olden idolatry, the idea of some supernatural element in the Oracle-system scarcely deserves the contemptuous rejec- tion it has often met with , but may be conjecturally admit- ted when w'e consider how little we know of the spirit- world that surrounds us, and how unfathomable the mystery of the realities perhaps removed but by a dim veil from our cogni- sance I We have the authority of Milton for that higher view which supposes the delusive Powers to have deserted each haunted cave or shrine in compulsory flight before the Dayspring from on high, and dates from the dawn of Chri - tianity the memorable event in question • The Oracles are dumb ; No voice nor hideous hum Runs thro' the arched roof with sounds deceiving ; Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine , With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving I No nightly trance or breathed spell Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell ' ^?8 THE FIRST CIIRlSTlAiN EMI'EIIORS The Christian Basilica was the chief artistic offspring of inventive genius under the Emperors of this period , and as such is entitled to a place in the story both of the Church and of intellect. Its primitive type has been found by some (Ricci, Storia delV Architetiura in Italia) in those vaulted ora- tories , still accessible , amidst the labyrinthine corridors of catacombs; by others (and with better-sustained proof) in the public edifices known by the same name among the Greeks and Romans, the first of which seen in Rome was the Portian Basilica , founded by Marcus Fortius Cato, 231 B. C. Constantine, in his eagerness to create splendid buildings and attach his name to a great moral movement , proved himself a despotic benefactor with little judgment or discre- tion ; and was in the habit of exacting (as we learn from the Theodosian Code) that his new churches should be com- pleted within a given period , sometimes but little later than their first appearance above the foundation-walls : the natu- ral consequence of which was , what we are told by the historian Zosimus , that almost all those structures « fell into ruin shortly after his life -time; as it was impossible they could long endure after being erected with so much haste ». And , in fact, at the present day, the only one of this Emper- or's sacred buildings extant at Rome in anything hke its original integrity, is the Mausoleum of his daughter on the Nomentan Way. The ancient St. Peter's must have been , (judging from authentic representations) but a barbaric attempt, though indeed imposing and venerable , in which was mani- fest rather the ruin of an ancient than the birth of a new style : the whole structure , except the brickwork of its walls ( six to eight palms in thickness ) , being pieced to- gether from the spoils of classic antiquity, without general harmony of design , and with incongruous blending of horizontal and rounded forms in the flat architraves of the nave and narrow arches above colonnades in the four aisles. Among the 148 columns, that presented a grand perspective as seen from the eastern entrance , some were from the TUE FIRST CHRIStlAN EMPERORS 129 septizionum, or southern facade of the Caesars' Palace, rais- ed by Septimius Severus. Agincourt supposes the same architect to have been engaged for the three great basilicas , the Lateran , the Vati- can , and Ostian. The last , above the sepulchre of St. Paul , was probably the least noticeable for scale or beauty, and had briefest existence; for the year 386 saw its demolition, when destined to give place to the much larger and nobler church ordered by the co-reigning Emperors, Valentinian , Theodosius, and Arcadius , who, in their rescript to the Pre- fect of Rome, desiring him to undertake this erection, require that its dimensions should be extended so far as the level ground on the Tiber-shore \vould here admit. Its new plan was in fact the reversal of that adopted for the earlier church : where once stood the high altar and tribune now rose the nave and four aisles , with front immediately on the river- side ; and where once had opened the chief portal now stood the choir with its terminating apse ; so that, instead of from East to West, the aspect was from West to East, and the celebrant at the high altar had to look westward , contrary to the general precedent, as exemplified at St. Peter s and the Lateran. In this building's design the leading idea seems taken from the antique basilicas, with the adjunct of a transverse nave , giving to the whole a form like the letter T ; central to which compartment was the « confessional », or Apostolic shrine ; the nave and four aisles being divided by columns , twenty in each file , in part the spoils from classic monu- ments—perhaps ( though this is uncertain ) from Hadrian's Mausoleum— but , for the rest , different in scale , material , and in the orders of their capitals and basements; the ar- chitectonic plan so strangely defective that even the inter- vening spaces were unequal 1 Instead of the architrave was preferred the surmounting arch— one step of progress since the building of St. Peter's ; and above this arcade rose a very lofty attic , quite bare , till at a later period adorned with fresco-portraits of the Popes in chronologic order. The edifice f30 THE FIRST CimiSTIAN EMPEROUS suflFered much from earthquake in 816 and 1 347, after whicli jt was, in each instance, strengthened by buttresses. At anoth- er mediaeval period , an arcade with columns of quite dis- jiroportionate height was carried along the transepts, dividing it into two transverse aisles ; an insignificant portico wa* built ageinst the facade in 1725 ; but, these alterations except- ed , the basilica of Theodosius remained standing in its olden integrity till the night of its destruction by fire , 1823. The buildings and sites dedicated to Pagan worship were classified as templum, aedes, fanum, delubrum , aeJiciila, tesca , sacellum, and lucw?. From none of these did the Christians take any suggestion for the architecture or disposal of their sacred edifices ; but in another , the Basilica (a name assign- ed to the royal palace, the tribunal of Justice and the Exchange of Commerce), they found a type better adapted to their pur- poses , and applicable , with little modification , to the uses of a sacramental , intellectual , symbolic , and eminently social worship (1). (1) The Templum was not invariably a building, but sometimes a walled enclosure, either consecrated for worship, or merely inau- gurated for some public usage -thus were the Curia Hostilia , the Curia Julia , and even the Rostra , classed among templa ; the JEde^ was , in the exclusive sense , a sacred edifice , the « church » of Pagan worship , always consecrated , whilst the former might be without such dedication, though inaugurated. The Fanum also might be merely a space marked out by the Pontiff for sacred uses , and the Delubrum (as to which terra grammarians differ) was probably an edifice where , under one roof , the images and worship of differ- ent deities had their centre. The Mdicula was a small isolated shrine , or niche , usually within a temple , raised by private piety, without formal consecration by the priesthood ; the Tesca , a shrine or taber- nacle apart from other buildings ; the Saccllum , a chapel containing an image of som.e deity, without portico , and sometimes without roof ; the lucus being the sacred grove , dedicated to a particular deity, as were several in the Roman neighbourhood— one to Picus and Faunus (between Ostia and Ardea) ; another, near Aricia, to Egeria ; to Mercury on the Appian Way; to the Bona Dea , (or Fauna), near THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEUORS 131 In the new sacred buildings the general plan was taken, with all leading features, from those Roman courts of justice, whose title they retain. The principal Christian Basilicas had an outer porch called « Propylon » , or , more commonly , the « first Narthex », appropriated for sepulture after it had been permitted , by a Council in the VII century, to inter within the limits of churches. Here alone was access allowed to those severed from Christian communion; and probably at the smal- ler Basilicas, which had no atrium (or cloister), the penitents of one class remained in this outer Karthex. From hence was entered the atrium , a court surrounded by four porti- coes , with iiitercolumnations closed by a net-work of grat- ings , in the centre of which gushed a fountain , where the faithful, before entering the church, used to wash both hands and face — the original practice afterwards reduced to the simple signing of the Cross with holy water inside the sacred edifice, around this fountain being usually inscribed in Latin or Greek : — a Wash your sins and not your faces only » ; and its waters were blessed, on the festival of the Epiphany, with the formula still preserved in Greek liturgies. The outer Court, called also « Paradisus », was sometimes planted with trees and flowers. Under its porticoes stood the first class of penitents; whilst those guilty of the more grievous sins could only frequent the central open space — as Tertullian tells us that such oflfenders were not only forbidden from entering the Church, but from remaining under any roof that belonged to the sacred premises. The interior Narthex, or that side of the portico corresponding with the church-front (to which modern use applies the term alr'mm exclusively) , whence was admission by three or five portals into the nave and Aibano ; also the well-known grove of the Camoenae ( Muses ) near the Porta Capena. One sole example of the Pagan aedicula still extant in Rome , is a small brick rotunda , with niches , on the Appian Way, between S. Sisto and the Porta S. Se'>asliano. In the conntless Ma- donna-shrines of this City's streets , we see the antique (esca faith- fully reproduced. 132 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS aisles , was tlie place assigned to the Catechumens , the Ener- gumenes , and those Penitents styled « audientes )), because allowed to listen to the psalms , hymns, and preaching, till a signal for them to retire. It was also permitted to Heathens, Jews , Heretics, or Schismatics to enter the Narlhex and listen to the instructions , in order that they might have opportun- ity for conversion. In her system of regulated penance and ascetic perpara- tion, the life of the primitive Church most strikingly displays itself; and in no other aspect do we see more manifest the power that transmuted the whole social state in accordance with spiritual requirements, conformably to an ideal com- pletely new for the Roman world. In detail that discipline was as follows : audientes were admitted to the outer narthex or portico alone ; to which same place the excommunicate also were limited by law so late as the reign of Justinian. The Catechumens , or class under instruction , were allowed to enter the inner narthex , or atrium , there to listen to the scriptures ^ the hymns , and sermon ; the prostrati ( ranking as the third class ) might enter the sacred aisles , and , after attending certain parts of the service , receive imposition of hands , with a form of prayer , as they knelt before the bish- op ; the fourth class, consistentes , being allowed to remain duri-ng the entire rite, but not to make oblation or commun- icate , because yet deprived of the highest privileges. Towards the close of the IV century the system of public penance fell into disuse at Constantinople , though retained much longer in the Latin than in the Greek Church, over which an atmo- sphere of despotism more immediately extended its baleful influence. To return to our survey of the sacred building : From the portals the worshipper entered the nave (naos) , flank- ed by two aisles, that on the left for males, that on the right for females , the centre being kept free for processions. Near the end was the Presbyterium, an elevated space divided by parapet-walls, with pulpits [amhones) for the Gospel and THE niiST CHRISTIAN F.MPEROnS 133 Epistle , a desk for tlie lessons and ofTice , and a candelabrum for the Paschal taper. Beyond , and below the span of the friurnphal arch , rose the sanctuary {cclla or hieration) ascend- ed by steps , and comprising tl)e « Confessional » or crypt , where reposed the remains of some Martyr , or other saint : above this being the high altar over-canopied by a baldacchino with pillars ( ciborium or propitiaforium ) , and surrounded by candelabra (I). Within its canopy used to hang a vessel in form of a dove , containing the consecrated Eucharist ; and during the rites painted or embroidered veils were extended around , to be drawn aside at certain passages — similar to the usage at this day preserved in the Greek and Armen- ian Churches (2). Beyond the altar was a semicircular recess (■r The Christian altar was originally a mere table of wood (unless some Martyr's tomb, as in the catacombs , were so used) ; not till the VI century was stone required for its proper material , by decree of a Council , that of Epaonis , 509. It has been maintained, nor al- together incorrectly, that in early churches only one altar had place ; but Anastasius tells that seven were seen in,the ancient Late- ran ; the ancient St. Peter's is said to have contained three ; and St. Gregory of Tours mentions a church in which were thirteen. Yet the principal Sicilian basilicas , as local antiquarians show , had hut one altar each. Neither lights , nor reliquaries , nor images , stood on the primitive altar ; but the beautiful decoration in flowers, appropriate everysvhere , became common in the IV century; whe- ther applied to pavements, thresholds and pillars alone, as the verso by St. PauUnus seems to convey: - Spargite flore solam , praetexito limina sertis — or to the sacred -tabie itself, as appears ; from pas- sages in St. Augustine and St. Jerome. The same poet of this cen- tury mentions a very precious gold cross, inscribed with the holy monogram, in the basilica at Nola — the Crucifix being yet un- known. (2) Veils, with representations of sacred subjects in embroidery, were much used for various purposes in Roman churches , during the first nine centuries (See Anastasius , who enumerates and dc- scrihes ih£m). f34 THE FIRST CIIUISTIAN EMPEUORS ( absis ) , with a throne for the Bishop and stone benches for the Clergy; the whole of this part commonly called tribunal, because answering to that where , in the Pagan Basilica , the chief magistrate presided. At each side, forming the extrem- ities of the aisles, were divisions called Sciiatorium and Matroneum , the former for patricians or other distinguished persons , the latter for noble ladies , or (according to some writers) those women who , though not confined to the clois- ter, had been consecrated to religious life. Besides these di- visions some churches had a gallery running round the aisles, above the colonnades , for consecrated virgins and w idows — probably for all female w'orshippers — as still seen at the SS. Quatlro Martiri and at S. Agnese on the Nomentan Way. Thus w^as , for the first time , introduced into architecture by Christianity a new language of mystic meanings , a re- presentation of religious society itself, opening completely novel sources of interest within this domain of art, and ad- iuirably adapted to promote that teaching for whose objects neither books nor other educational means were at hand in early ages. Once more to refer to that liberality of the first converted Emperor , which so permanently affected the position of the Church at Rome: Ciaconius computes (from Anastasius) the revenues bestowed by him on all his basilicas here at 235,527 gold coronate { crowns ) per annum , out of which 60,000, be- sides other emoluments , went to the income of the Popes. Agincourt, enumerating the ornamental and sacred objects given for the sanctuary, reports the aggregate in w^eight as 1 880 lbs of gold , 19,313 of silver, 7,420 of bronze. And the character of certain among these serves to illustrate the details of wor- ship in the Constantinian Church: e. g. 11 altars of silver; 234 gold and silver chalices ; 53 gold and silver vessels {amae, amulae) for wine at the offertory ; 9 coronae , or pendant chan- deliers ; 7 silver stags ( allusive to Baptism ) ; 327 silver^ can- delabra , called phara canihara ; and 192 others of the kind THE riPxST CUniSTIAN EMPERORS •;.!lo(l phara ; 4 censers; and 2 gold crosses, each 150 lbs in weight (I). {\ ) Ffeiiry (lib. IX) admits the historic fact of the Vision of the Cross seenby Constantine. Eusebius [Vila ConHantini\ narrating it in Greek, gives the luminous inscription in the two words alone, toutco vixa - am- plified in the Latin rendering. See also De Broglie , L'Eglise et VEm- pire ; Thierry, Tableau de i'Emp. Rom.; Hope, « History of Archi- tecture » ; Ricci , Stnria ec. ; Martigny, DirAionnaire ; Champagny, L?s An'onius; Rheinwald, Kirchliche Archaeologie. IV. Christian Borne in the Fourth Century. From the reign of Conslantine to that of Justinian the local churches ( or dioceses ) in the entire Empire attained the number of 1800 ; and the income of their Prelates (no doubt varying in proportion to the dignity or opulence of the sever- al cities) has been estimated at an average of 600 pounds per annum (a Decline and Fall », c. XX). It seems impossible to ascertain with anything like exactness the Christian popula- tion of the Empire at the period of Constantine's incipient conversion. Different writers have conjectured it at amounts varying between one fifth and one twentieth in the entire census; whilst some assume that, among thirty millions, the supposed population of the provinces under that Emperor's immediate government , the Christians , within those limits , formed about one fifth. At Rome the wealth of the Bishopric probably surpassed by far that of all other sees ; the whole clerical body there consisting of forty-six priests (or pres- byters , their more proper designation), seven deacons , seven subdeacons , forty-two acolytes , fifty-two exorcists , readers . and ostiarii (door-keepers), engaged in the serving of at least forty churches, exclusive of those under the same Prelate in suburban districts ; and in her regular charities this local Church supported fifteen hundred widows or other poor. The primacy so early obtained by the Roman Bishop seems ^n great part due to the prestige of position and the high claims IN THE FOURTH CENTURY 4 37 of that City — the « urbs » par excellence — in which his chair was placed ; also to the generally assumed superiority of St. Peter and St. Paul, co-founders of that See, among other Apostles ; and we find remarkable expression of the idea of ecclesiastic pre-eminence deriving simply from local advan- tages in a canon of the second General Council at Constan- tinople , determining a rank second only to the Roman Pon- tificate, for the See of that eastern metropolis — « because it was the new Rome ». No peculiar title distinguished the suc- cessors of St. Peter from other Prelates till the XI century , when Gregory VII claimed for them exclusively that of « Papa » — previously given to other bishops, as they were addressed in familiar letters (see Sidonius ApoUinaris), besides the still more venerable names , long as generally shared , of « Supreme Pontifi" » , « Apostolicas » , or even « Vicar of Christ ». Till the IX century, « Vicar of St. Peter » was the sole title proper to the Roman Bishop alone among church- dignitaries. That the two sees founded by the same Apostle , Rome and Antioch, with that of Alexandria, founded by St. Mark, were about equal in the regard of primitive Christianity, seems the obvious sense intended in a canon of the Nicene Council (the sixth among twenty considered anthentic) : « We ordain that the ancient usage which concedes authority to the Bishop of Alexandria over the provinces of Egypt, Libya, and the Pen- tapoUs, should be retained; forasmuch as the Bishop of Rome has similar jurisdiction over the suburbican provinces. We likewise desire that the rights and privileges of the Church of Antioch, as of other Churches, should be preserv- ed , but not with any prejudice to those of the Metropo- litans ». A typical presentment of the supreme powers bequeathed by our Lord to St. Peter has been divined in the sculpture of Elias ascending to Heaven and leaving his mantle to Elisha, among the reliefs, of very early date, now at the Lateran Mu- 138 CHRISTIAN ROME seum (see Xortlicote , « Roman Catacombs « ). But different is the application, and more nobly enlarged the sense given to this type by St. Chrysostom : « Elias, in ascending to Heaven, let his mantle fall on Elisha : Jesus, when He too ascended thither , left the gift of His graces to His disciples ; graces which constitute not merely a single prophet , but an infi- nite number of Elishas , much greater and more illustrious than that one » (Homil. 11 in Ascens. Dom.). That idea of parity between the two founders of the Church in Rome so frequent- ly manifest in primitive art, seems still to have prevailed in the IV century, if we may judge from the words of St. Ambrose : « It is indeed uncertain which of these (Apostles) can be prefer- red to the other ; and I must deem them equal in merits as they were equal in martyrdom ». Dupin says, respecting the ecclesias- tical polity of these ages , that , while the churches of three great cities, Rome, Alexandria and Antioch , were considered pre-eminent , the first had the primacy even among these ; and her Pontiff « w^as esteemed first among all bishops on earth, though not indeed believed infallible; for, though often consulted , and though his opinion was allow^ed special weight, that opinion was not always blindly received ; every bishop being convinced that he had himself the right to judge in ecclesiastical interests » {Autcurs Eccles. v. I). Yet even if we may refer to extraordinary combinations of favourable circumstance the origin of a spiritual power destined to be- come the greatest ever beheld in the civilized world , for ages inseparably associated with all primordial interests of Christendom , itself the animating principle and ruling will upon earth in the immortal life of Christ's Church , not the less assuredly are we constrained to admire and revere the ways of Providence in the wonderful story of this hierarchic dominion. Whilst Emperors nominally Roman ruled over the East and West , whether from Constantinople , Milan , or Ravenna, eccle- siastical polity seems to have become naturally cast into the mould IN TUIi FOLTiTII CENTURY 130 prepared for it by the civil power. The governative partition- ment of the Empire into « Vicariates » resembles lliat ultimately adopted for spiritual jurisdiction: and perhaps first suggested the constitution of great Patriarchates, or Metropolitan Sees, with- in boundaries similarly defined : thus as the civil Vicariate of Rome comprised all the provinces of Etruria , Umbria , Pi- cenum , Naples , Sicily, Sardinia , Corsica , that City's Pontiff was by consequence (in so far as outward and human cir- cumstances reacted on him ) invested wnth a rank , as Me- tropolitan, supreme in spiritual things over all churches situate in those districts ; and where , within those states , any see became vacant, the Clergy and people elected, with deference to Rome for confirmation and for the ordaining of the nom- inee. Analogous was the authority of the Milanese Bishopric over all churches in the « Vicariate of Italy », to which that city was the capital (Giannone, Sloria civile del Begno di Napoli , 1. II . c. 8 ). The democratic element still, in fact, pre- vailed in the episcopal election. Either the people proposed the candidate , whom the Clergy accepted , or else the people and Clergy together chose one among three candidates pro- posed by the aggregate bishops of the province ; or, as some- times the case , several candidates were proposed to the Me- tropolitan , who accepted and ordained the one he deemed worthiest ; his ratification being in each case final. In this important mater of discipline the Nicene Council laid down a clear and admirable norma : « A Bishop should be ordained by all the other Bishops of his province, if this be possible ; if they cannot te assembled , he should be ordained by three bishops, provided those absent give their suffrages and con- sent by letter ; but the validity of all effected in the province must be dependant on the Metropolitan ». To this principle of free election , and still more to the almost invariable inter- vention of the people in the choice of their chief pastors , seems mainly due the character of patriarchal benignity that throws such a holy light around those ancient prelates , and '140 CHRISTIAN ROME the genuine tenderness , the divine sanctities of the relation- ship maintained between pastors and their flocks (1). The Bishop of these ages was not only the teacher of Truth , but the guardian of the poor and protector of the oppressed. It was among his attributes to interpose in the enforcement of {i) The evidence to the fact of this popular intervention, as es- sentially legal and recognised by the Church , is supplied with the most convincing force. We find the principle laid down in emphatic terms by two Popes of the V century : « Let no bishop be given to those unwilling to receive him : the consent and desire of the Clergy and people are requisite » (Celestin. I, ep. II, 5). « When the election of a chief priest has to be decided, he who is demanded by the concordant consent of the Clergy and people , should be preferred to all others » (Leo. I, ad Anostas. ). The election of St. Ambrose, A. D. 374, is a well-known and striking €xample: for it is apparent that the popular voice aloiie raised that holy man to the See of Mi- lan : the synod of bishops had , courtier-like, deferred the nomination absolutely to the Emperor Valentinian, which he refused , leaving it to their own more suitably exerted control ; a multitude assembled , not without tumult, to discuss the subject ; Ambrose , then governor of the province , and not only a layman but as yet unbaptized, ap- peared in tbe intent of preserving order ; when at once all disputes ceased : « the contending parties declared with one voice that they chose Ambrose as their bishop ; — the Emperor , being informed of this election by the people , ordered that the object of their choice should be immediately baptized and ordained » ( Theodoret. 1. IV, c.7). About the same period a Bishop of Alexandria, Peter, denoun- ced the illegal intrusion of an Arian predecessor into that See, ob- jecting that a he had not been elected by a synod of bishops , by the votes of the Clergy, or by the request of the people , according to the regulatious of the Church » (ibid. I. IV, c. 22). When w^e consider how triumphantly an opposite system has been raised above the ruins of the Constitution proper to the primitive Church, and to what perilous straits religion in Italy has been at last reduced under that later form of church-government, we may be led to an- ticipate a happier future through the now-desirable conditions of a return to the Past. IX THE FOURTH CENTURY Hi law , and exhort judges to humanity in the treatment even of the guilty. Twice every week he visited all prisoners in the jails. Elected to his sacred office by general acclamation, or at least with the sufifrages of his clergy and flock, he be- came « the supreme arbiter in such civil matters as occurred among members of the body, and thus the conservator of peace ;> ( Milman , B. \Y, c. I ). To each church was secured , by the Theodosian code , the right of asylum , finally extending not only to all sacred buildings, but to their outer gates; though no fugitive was permitted to profane the holy place by eating or sleeping there , and the strongest prohibitions forbade the introducing of arms into the sanctuary (1). Whilst the ancient Capital was ruled by Byzantine Caesars through their delegated officers , no sooner did each new Au- tocrat ascend his throne at Constantinople than he sent his portrait to Rome, there to be received with a sort of courtier- idolatry, as prescribed by etiquette , the Pope , the Clergy, the Magnates and Army vying to pay it all due honours, after which, according to customary ceremonial, it was placed by pontific hands in a chapel of the Lateran palace. One prerogative, that of coinage, was yet exercised by the Senate, till about the end of the VIII century, when it naturally passed among the Papal privileges; but not more than two coins of Popes of earlier date than 800 , can be produced (v. »Muratori). As for the attributions of that august senatorial body , they be- came limited to nothing more than the range of municipal and judicial affairs , at least from the time of the Greek conquest over the Goths under Justinian. At the head of their « Curia », as restored in the YI century, stood the Prcfectus Urbis, nom- inated by the Emperor, and supreme in his character of judge. After the Exarchs had become viceroys of Empire in Italy, they also , whilst resident at Ravenna , were represented (-1) The right of asylum having been much and early abused, Justinian inhibited it to certain heinous offenders: murderers, adul- terers , and the debtors of the State. At present it is guarantied by law under the Papal Government alone. 112 CHRISTIAN ROME at Rome by the Magistcr Militum . invested with both politi- cal and military authority. But the unrivalled energies and ever self-developing life of the Church constitute the principle that dominates over the entire historic scene ; and a phase of hierarchic government is now attained, which precedes the gradual disappearance of the democratic before the aristocratic element, itself des- tined at last to give place to the absolute monarchic princi- ple successfully asserted by the Papacy. The opening scenes of the historic drama in this century have still a tragic cha- racter—persecution, conflict, martyrdom— though on the very eve of a new day to be signalised by religious triumphs. Pope Marcellinus (296-304) became the victim of the implacable rage excited in the tyrant Maxentius , mainly, it seems , owing to the fact that the Christian matron Lucina (whose name is ])erpetuated in ecclesiastical annals), had bequeathed to the Roman Bishopric all her considerable wealth for pious uses. That aged Pastor was condemned to labour as a common groom in the public stables where horses were kept for the Circus, till, the faithful having succeeded in rescuing him, he became for a time the guest of Lucina, continuing to administer the Sacraments, and address those who flocked to worship , within her house on the Via Lata; hearing of which, Maxen- tius ordered the oratory in that mansion to be converted into a stable ; and the Pontiff, again forced to the same menial offices on the spot where he had acted in his most august capacity, soon sunk under the weight of miseries. The church of S. Mareello (first named in the acts of a Council held under Symmachus), rebuilt, as it now stands, in 1519, with the architecture of Sansavino and a facade by Carlo Fontana , still marks the site of his sacred ministration as well as suf- ferings. Some circumstances of a contest against heresy, fol- lowed by persecution and exile , in the story of Pope Euse- bius , were brought to light through one of those interesting discoveries in Catacombs due to the zeal of Padre Marchi and De Rossi — namely, a metrical composition found in the IN THE FOrHTH CENTURY 1 iS Callixtan cemetery, giving as follows the account of this Pon- tiir's troubles, owing to some factious teacher named Hera- clius. and of his subsequent exile to Sicily, where he died : — Heraclius \etiiit lapses pecoatn dolere, Kusebius docuit miseros sua crimina flere; Scinditur in paries populus, giiscente furore, Seditio , belium , ca^des , discordia , lites. Exlemplo pariter puisi feritate tyranni , Integra cum rector servaret foedera pacis , Pertulit exilium Domino sub judice lajtus , Littore Trinacrio mundum vitamque reliquit. Melchiades, who witnessed the overthrow of the la^ Pa- gan , and the triumpli of the tirst Christian Emperor , ha? not left a name in any intimate manner associated with the great events enacted during his short pontificate , save in being lecipient of the favour which conceded a portion of the imperial palace as the pontific residence. Of St. Sylvester (legends apart) little is known save his efforts for the interest of discipline and doctrine, the church- es he consecrated , and the splendid donations he received for their maintenance : — a holy and zealous man , one of whose first steps was to send legates to a synod convoked by the Emperor at Aries, to decide in the question of the Donatist schism ; soon after which he held a Council in the church among the halls of Trajan's Thermae, where was de- termined an economic arrangement indeed commendable for prudence and Catholic charities: that henceforth ecclesiastical property should be divided into four equal portions : — for the episcopal body ; for the Clergy in general ; for the poor ; for the building and maintenance of places of worship — or (as some writers state) into three equal parts — for the Clergy, the sacred edifices, and the poor. Anastasius tells us that Sylvester prescribed the ages requisite for holy orders : 30 for a simple Lector , ;]'> for a Subdeacon ; 37 for a Deacon ; 10 for a priest; also requiring that the candidate should pre- 1 i4 CHRISTIAN ROME sent good testimonials both from those within and those with- out the Church, and that the « presbyter » shouhl be the liusband of one wife , blessed by a priest ( or married with sacred rites) — « unius uxoris virum , uxorem a sacerdote benedictam ». The great ecclesiastical event of this period, the first General Council, held at Nicaea in Bithynia, A. D. 325, with assistance of 318, (or, according to Eusebius , 250), Bishops , many of whom bore trophies of martyrdom on their mutilated bodies — this only pertains to the subject before me in so far as it enters into the story of Christian Rome. Anastasius says the Council was held with the consent of Sylvester; and most Catholic historians represent his two legates as presiding , together with Hosius . Bishop of Cordova ; Con- stantino himself attending in all the splendour of the purple, but leaving the throne to be occupied by the volume of the Gospels, — henceforth an established precedent for like oc- casions; that sacred book being ever after enthroned in sta!e at such parliaments of the Church, u That at Nicaea » ( says Doellinger), « it was Hosius , Bishop of Cordova , who held pre- sidency in quality of Pontific Legate , together with the priests Vitus and Vincentius, cannot be for a moment doubted when we observe the order in which Socrates enumerates the pre- lates who assisted at that Council ». Dupin and Fleury speak with less certainty on this subject ; and Eusebius , assur- edly the most reliable authority, as both a witness and actor in the proceedings he describes, leads us to the inference that Constantino himself was honorary president: simply stat- ing, in respect to the part taken by St. Syh ester: « The Bishop of the royal City was absent , on account of his ad- vanced age ; but his presbyters attended , who represented him ». So also speaks Theodoret : « The Bishop of Rome- was necessarily absent , but he sent two presbyters to the Council, for the purpose of taking part in all the transactions » (Eccles. Hist. lib. I, cap. Yll). To him and other prelates who had been absent w^as addressed the same letter by Constantine, given by Eusebius , without distinction of any one among their IN THE FOURTH CENTURY Uo number ; and indeed the spirit of this age witliin the Church so reveals itself to us historically that we can scarce suppose the Fathers at Nicaea would have submitted to a presidentship ol dictation or control in the name of whatever dignitary. That they acknowledged the imperial as the sole power by which, and under whose protection , they were assembled , is mani- fest in their own words : « The great and holy Council of Nicaea having been convened by the grace of God, and by theappointmentof the most religious Emperor, Constantine »; ec. ( Theodoret , lib. 1 , cap. IX ). The great transaction of this assemblage was the drawing up of that formula , afterwards developed into the sublime profession of faith called « Nicene « , and to this day said or sung in the Latin Mass, by usage speedily adopted at Rome. The Council only declared the already-accepted doctrine ; and through its definition of the nature of the Godhead, immediately directed against that Arian Heresy by which the Church was now rent and agitated , secured one great benefit to intellect as well as to faith , in that it held up to apprehension a definite idea , instead of leaving the e.«sentials of Christian belief in the sphere of conjecture or speculation ; and the character- istic action of the Church, tending to ensure repose and serenity in return for believing acquiescence , is thus early manifest in the loftiest hitherto attempt of the human mind to explain the incomprehensible Infinite (1). One result of the impression made by the Nicene definitions is strikingly apparent in the art of this period; for to about this date must be referred those sculptures on Christian sarcophagi, where, forgetting the precedents of primitive antiquity. Art takes so (-I) Stanley, in the vivid and impressive picture drawn by him of this Council ( « Lectures on the Eastern Church » \ leaves the reader under the idea that the legates of Pope .Sylvester only held the same rank as those sent by all other prelates who could not personally attend ; that the presidency, in fact , was not conceied to the Roman Bishopric, but exercised by several leading prelates ; and Milman's view accords with this. 40 ^146 CHRISTIAN ROME high a flight as to introduce the Three Persons of tlie Tri- nity ahke under human form , and with ahnost identical type — a mode of representation soon condemned by the juster feeling of the Church , and presently to disappear from her monuments in every class. Throughout the series of sacred mosaics at Rome, between the IV and XIV centuries, the Supreme Being is never represented save symbolically, as by a hand, usually with a crown held over some venerable head, the Saviour's or the Blessed Virgin's ; but later was attempt- ed a mostrous and offensive personification of the Triune Deity in a single human figure with three heads or faces— in such representations as are seen at Perugia among other frescoes , probably of the XV century, in two deserted Ora- tories. The sole instance I- am aware of, in whicli really high art has so disregarded the decorum of treatment , is a fresco by Andrea Del Sarto on the archway above his admirable Cenacolo at S. Salvi (Florence), representing the Supreme Being in a single head with three beautiful faces ! It was well that at last authority interfered to cheek such abuse : Urban VIII decreed that all images so presenting the ineffable Mystery of the Godhead should be burnt ; and Benedict XIV, in a brief addressed to the Bishop of Augsburgh , forbid the depicting of the Holy Spirit , as in certain pictures at that time scattered over Germany, under the aspect of a young man. But notwithstanding these prohibitions , we see to this day an anthropomorphism in the treatment of the most sublime sub- ject by Itahan Art , perhaps more offensively conspicuous at Rome than any where else , and constituting one of the glar- ing oppositions between the usage of the primitive and mo- dern Church at that centre. The short Pontilicate of St. Mark left its chief trace in the addition of the Nicene creed to the liturgy, henceforth chant- ed after the Gospel. Julius I devoted his energies mainly to opposing Arianism through means of two Councils , one at Rome , the other at Sardica , against which measures those heretics opposed a rival « conciliahulum » , which set the first IN THE FOURTH CENTURY 147 example of the pretence to excomunicate the Roman Bishop. Julius had the. merit also of initiating a method for the re- ^'ular compilation of ecclesiastical acts , now undertaken by the « primicerius « of the notaries attached to the Papal service, and in scope admitting all Documents that concern church- interests — ((donations, investments, commutations, testa- ments , traditions , manumissions)) ( see Anastasius). Under this Pontihcate was first introduced the monastic system at Rome, through the influence of St. Athanasius, whose life of St. Anthony the Hermit now became most popular ; and during whose sojourn in this City many of both sexes devot- ed themselves to an ascetic religious retirement, though not, as yet, to the disciplined life of the cloister. The first care of Liberius was to summon a Council , in- tended to have been held at Rome , for further measures against the Arians, and for deciding in the case of the persecu- ted Athanaiiius , twice banished from his See at Alexandria, and twice restored. That Council actually met at Milan : but , instead of proving by any means a triumph for tlie Catholic cause, was domineered over by Arian interests, un- der protection of the Emperor Constantius, who himself presid- ed, and ordered the Legates of the Pope to be expelled. The great object of the Arians now was to get possession of, or depose, the Roman Pontiff; and Constantius charged his chief eunuch with the task of laying snares, through bribes and menaces, against his religious fidelity; all which proving vain, it was at last determined to carry olT Liberius by force, in the night- time, from Rome. The narrative of this fact by a Heathen writer, Ammianus Marcellinus , remarkably shows how high the cre- dit of the Pontiff with the popular mind ; it being necessary, he states, to remove Liberius by night, in order not to ir- ritate the people. That Pope being violently transported to Milan, the Emperor and his Arian party did their utmost to shake his constancy and extort from him the condemna- tion of St. Athanasius, but in vain; and finally Constantius resolved to depose and banish Inm. Thus for the first time 418 CimiSTFAN ROME was beheld such outrage against the lioly See and its apostol- ic Pastor, ordered by a nominally Christian Potentate I Liberius, loaded with chains , was sent to Beraea in Thrace ; and Fe- lix, a Roman deacon, raised up to succeed him in the Chair of St. Peter. Soon however, Constantius, visiting Rome to cele- brate his triuniph over the usurper Magnentius , was indu- ced by the voice of public entreaty to restore the legitimate Pontiff; but his orders were that Liberius should be brought back , and continue to govern the Church conjointhj with Felix , which decree being published in the Circus Maximus, the people, guided by their just instincts, exclaimed with one voice : Unus Deus, unus Christus, units Episcopus I Liberius had spent two years in exile, suffering every species of humiliation, and perhaps torture, till at last, yielding to transient weak- ness, he signed the condemnation of Athanasius and the for- mula of faith insidiously drawn up by the Arians , which , while it owned the Divinity of the Second Person, omitted the term consubstaiitial in defining the nature of the Holy Trinity. Having paciiled his persecutors by this apparent con- cession, Liberius was at last sent back with honour to Rome ; and the imperial letters required the citizens to receive him again as their Pontiff. But many revolted, and , interpreting too severely tlie concession of Liberius, continued to recognise Felix as his legitimitate successor, as now, though at first an intruder , invested with the character of an orthodox Pontiff through an act which had forfeited other claims, leaving the See vacant. Baronius shows that Liberius was not heret- ical , because the formula he had signed might bear a Catholic sense , though drawn up by adversaries ; and Doel linger con- siders the Roman clergy were forced to raise up Felix, but I)erhaps only as an administrator, not absolutely ruler of the Church. It is certain that , on the return of Liberius , that perhaps blameless usurper retired into the country, and thence- forth led an edifying life , closed , according to one account , by martyrdom , which he suffered by order of Constantius for daring to excommunicate that prince. The reinstated Pon- IN THE FOURTH CENTURY 119 tilT, repentant of his past weakness, displayed zeal and energy ; and when a majority among 400 bishops, at the Council of Rimini (359), were prevailed on by the Arian prelates to sub- scribe a formula containing the disguised principle of their error , he solemnly condemned the proceeding and symbol , in consequence of which step he was again driven from his See by a heretic Bishop , the creature of Conslantius ; and once more did the Roman Church now behold her chief Pastor taking refuge in the Catacombs, where Liberius is said to have remained in concealment till the Emperor's death. One of the five patriarchal Basilicas, called the « Liberian», was founded by this Pontiff, though in the existing edifice ( Santa Maria Maggiore] remains no portion of the probably much smaller one built in the lY century. The beautiful legend is well known which to this day is commemorated in solemn rites on the .jth of August, when , during High Mass in that splendid Liberian Basilica , showers of white rose-leaves de- scend from the richly-fretted ceiling, to remind us of the miraculous fall of snow found , on that same day, covering the height of the Esquiline, as indicated in a vision on the pre- vious night both to the Pope and to a patrician named Johan- nes, the Holy Virgin appearing with injunctions that on that spot should be erected a temple dedicate to her name (I). As to Felix , neither Baronius nor Muratori place him even on the list of Popes; and some writers suppose him to have been appointed merely Vicar or Coadjutor of the exiled Pon- (1) Joannes, having no children, prayed to the Blessed Virgin for divine guidance in his purpose of applying his wealth most accept- ably to herself, and for the benefit of his soul. The whole story of the vision , the snow-storm , and the founding of this church , is represented in the mosaics, of the 1 3th century, still on its facade, though much concealed by the modern portico ; and the Pope tra- cing tlie foundations on the snow , Is the subject elsewhere repre- sented , in a gilt and silvered relief, over the altar of the magnifi- cent Borghese Chapel in the same hasllica , which once bore the name , derived from this legend , « S. Maria della Xeve «. 150 CHRISTIAN ROME tiff; but the almanack brought out annually at Rome admits his name in the Papal succession , as « St. Felix 11 , who exercised the Pontific power, during the exile of Liberius, for more than two years , either as Vicar of the latter , or because created Pontiff with his consent , perhaps illegiti- mately, as some learned men suppose », etc. Under Grego- ry XIII the congregation for the reform of the Roman mar- tyrology deliberated whether his name should be cancelled , or left without the title of « martyr » among those commemo- rated ; and Baronius, who assisted, gave his vote in that latter sense; but just then occurred an interesting discovery to rehabilitate the memory of Felix. Under the altar of SN. Cosmo e Damiano , on the Forum , some labourers , whost^ object was robbery, found a marble sarcophagus with the relics of three martyrs , and in another compartment , sepa- rately, the skeleton of this strangely-destined child of For- tune , with the inscription near : Corpus S. Felicis Papae ef Martiri qui clamnavit Constantium (1). On the vigil of the next festival (29th July), still held in honour of « S. Felix II, Pope and Martyr », at that Franciscan church , those relics were exhumed for more magnificent interment within the same building. Damasus (revered as a Saint) ascended the papal chair amidst portentous agitations, showing how, even thus early, spiritual power had deflected from its sphere of serene grand- eur through association with mundane honours and interests. The election Mas contested by a deacon , named Ursicinus (or Ursinus), who obtained his illegitimate consecration , a few days after that of Damasus , at the hands of a bishop of Ti- voli , and for a time was supported by a faction usmg armed force ; the two parties repeatedly encountering for battle in the streets: and one conflict in a basilica (probably S. Maria (-I) II is true this epigraph has been considered spurious ; and in the « Art de verifier les dates », is pointed out the absence of proofs that Felix either condemned Gonstantius or suffered a Martyr's death. IN Tlir. FOLRTIl CENTUI.Y
    this tumult, was obliged to save his life by escaping to some \ illage on the Campagna. The Antipope was at last banished ; but the next year (367; contrived to return and resume the (•ontest , till again exiled , after two mouths , into Gaul. Not even through such legal interposition were the enemies o! namasu> put down ; and they next attempted a war of ca- lumny, attacking his moral character in charges from which he cleared himself by an exculpatory oath before an eccle- siastical synod. United in bonds of friendship and correspond- ence with St. Jerome , who acted as his secretary for some years, the e.-teem and reverence entertained for Damasus by that Doctor of the Latin Church imply a tribute to his vir- tues, perhaps the best refutation against his calumniators. Jerome's Latin translation of the Bible was approved and recommended for general use in the Latin Church by this Pope; and thus became popular that « Vulgate .. , still tht* authorized version in Catholic acceptation , and the study of which the Papacy cannot be accused of discouraging, however adverse to the use of versions in any vulgar tongue , unless provided with notes and comments. The office of Vicars ol the Holy See, for distant countries, had origin under this Pontificate. Damasus left a reputation as a writer of merit in [irose and vesse ; but it is through his compositions of the latter class that he is now best known — brief essays , mostly of elegiac character, designed to honour the saintly dead, oi- the memories attaching to sacred places, these poems are 152 ciiniSTiAN no?iE devotional without being dogmatic , the greater part com- posed for lapidary inscriptions in churches, or for those subterranean cemeteries whose chapels and sepulchres Da- masus had been active in restoring. De Rossi, (« Roma Sot- terranea »), reports the traces of this Pontiffs undertaking , recoiinized by him in many Catacombs; and mentions the significant fact, ascertained in his researches , that, during two years '^370-1; of Damasus's pontificate, almost all Chris- tian interments at Rome were in those hypogees , though from 364 to 369 the use of subterranean and above-ground sepulchres had continued in about equal proportions. Another of this Pontiffs public works is now represented by the mo- dernized S. Lorenzo in Damaso , a basilica rebuilt by him . and enriched with many costly gifts, but whose original structure was destroyed to give place to the actual church attached to the Cancelleria palace , both buildings the archi- tecture of Bramante : this demolition , ordered by a Cardinal Vice-chancellor , Riario , in I486, depriving Rome of a sacred monument among the stateliest here preserved from Christian antiquity. The stonework and columns having been taken , as supposed , from the adjacent ruins of Pompey's theatre, its interior was divided into a nave with four aisles. Sixty-three parishes were affiliated to it : and near it rose buildings ap- propriated by Damasus as a hospice for pilgrims of the higher class , where it is probable that St. Jerome , St. Brigida of Sweden , and several Oriental monks were lodged during their stay in Rome. One tradition is that St. Jerome was the first Cardinal Titular of this basilica ; but the office held by that Saint at the Papal court had little analogy with any -ittribute of the modern Cardinalate. The palace and church of S. Lorenzo being confiscated from Cardinal Riario , the Apo- stolic Chancery was located here, by Leo X, after the reveal- ing of a conspiracy in which that Cardinal had been com- promised : and this sacred edifice was again modernized , to the prejudice of Bramante's work , in 1377. Its original found- l.\ THE FOURTH CENTURY 153 er commenced his pontificate \vitl) a historic tragedy; and one of the most tragically-momentous events in modern Ro- man history, the murder of Count Rossi, prime minister under Pius IX, in Novemler 1848, has attached another gloomy as- sociation to S. Lorenzo in Damaso. To the period of this poniificate refers a most curious tes- timony from a Pagan respecting the manners and externals of the Papacy. In such reference the report of an adversary might perhaps be set aside, if his tone were altogether hos- tile; but when an intelligent witness, external to the Church, dejx)ses both in her favour and disfavour as a calm specta- tor, we must allow his document to possess authority. Allud- ing to the Roman Bishopric , Ammianus Marcellinus says (1. XXVll, c. 2 ) : — « As for me, considering the modern pomp with which those who hold that dignity live at Rome, I am not at all surprised that they who aspire to it should use every art and effort in order to its attainment. For, hav- ing once secured this rank , they are certain to become en- riched in the extreme through the oblations of devout Roman matrons ; and to be enabled , at their pleasure, to drive about the City in chariots, magnificently vested; also to keep an excellent table , where they may give banquets «o sumptuous as to leave those of kings and emperors behind. Meanwhile they do not consider that they might be truly happy if, in- stead of availing themselves of the pretext that grandeur and magnificence are requisite at Rome , by way of excuse for these excesses, they were to determine on reforming their lives , therein following the example of several bishops in the provinces, who, by wise frugality in food and drink, by going about in poor raiment , with eyes cast down humbly to earth, render the purity of their morals, the modesty of their deportment venerable and acceptable not less to the eternjjl G/>d than to His true worshippers ». — Accordant with this testimony is the anecdote given by St. Jerome ( Ejnst. 61 ) of the Prefect, and once Proconsul, Praetextatus, who, on beine exhorted bv Damasus to embrace the true 4o4 cnniSTiAN rome religion , jestingly answered : « Make me Bishop of Rome and I will become a Christian at once 1 « On the election of Sirius (or Siricius) , 385 , the restless spirit of Ursinus again conceived hopes of winning the envied prize ; and returning from exile, he again strove in vain to oc- cupy the Holy See. Sirius is said to have been first to adopt the title « Papa » in a decretal, the earliest papal document of this description extant. To him also is attributed the first positive decree , requiring the celibacy of ecclesiastics , a di- scipline which , it is evident , had long been demanded by moral feeling as the decorous condition , before being strictly enforced as the obligation of the Clergy ; and so early as A. D. 30o the Spanish Council of Elvira had anticipated the Papal enactment by ordering that those ecclesiastics who were married should live as the unmarried — abstinere se a conjugibus suis. In the East the celibate life seems, from the testimony of Eusebius , Jerome , Chrysostom, etc., to have been almost universally that of the priesthood during the IV cen- tury ; and at the Mcene Council the urgencies of an austere bishop , Paphnutius , induced the fathers to restore a disci- plinary law (therefore, we must suppose, previously enacted, but already fallen into neglect), which required those who had not married before ordination as deacons , priests , or bishops, to remain single, but did not oblige those who had married whilst in the laic state, to separate from their wives after ordination — nothing else, in fact, than the observance at this day carried out in the Greek , herein opposed to the Latin Church (Alzog. v. I, c. 3, 127 ; Oilman, B. IV, c. I) (1). (1) The « Apostolic Canons » contain the following (L) : « If any Bishop , Priest , Deacon , or any other person in the sacred cate- gory abstain from marriage , from meat, or wine , not for the sake of ascetism but because abominating these things , forgetting that they are all very good, and that God created man male and female, he thereby blasphemously calumniating the Divine creation , let him be corrected or deposed ; so likewise any layman ». Of the eighty- four Canons in this collection , Baronius and Bellarmine ascribe the I.N THE FOURTH CF.NTIJIIY I') The successor of Sirius, Anastasius, is eulogized by St. Jerome as an « illustrious man », whom Rome did not deserve to possess, and who, after four years, was, happily for him- self, removed by death before witnessing the tremendous di- saster brought on the ancient Capital by Alaric. Full of meaning and moral is the record of this eventful epoch, conveyed in the w^ell-known Legend of St. Syh ester, that later supplied many subjects for art ; and in such exam- ples we must acknowledge the high value of the Christian Legend , as illustrating the story of thought. The one in ques- tion has been treated by mediaeval and modern painting ; and its earliest artistic presentment , at Rome , is in the ve- ry curious frescoes , probably of the Xill century, in the cha- pel of St. Sylvester entered from the atrium of S8. Quattro Coromti. In later and less interesting works , it is the subject of frescoes by Nogari , Roncalli and Baglioni (XVI century t on the attic of the transept at the Lateran; and an indifferent modern picture represents the romantic episode of the Dragon driven by the saintly Pope , through virtue of the Cross, into the infernal abyss, thence never to return, at St. Marin Liberatrice, a church on the Forum, whose title has reference to the tradition that the den into wiiich Sylvester drove back that monaster , after many victims had been struck dead by its pestilential breath , yawned nearly opposite the entrance to the present building , beneath those beautiful columns, sole remnant of the Curia-Julia, or Senate House. Hence has the chained Dragon become the companion to the figure of this Pope in art ; as a similar symbolism is given to St. George and St. Margaret. Baronius ingeniously maintains that some basis of fact may be found for this story; that a ser- pent fed and revered in the temple of Jlsculapius , on the island of the Tiber, was actually imprisoned, to perish in first fifty to the Apostles. Dupin concludes that their contents arc generally accordant with the discipline, at least in several churches, of the 2nd and 3rd centuries ; and certainly, as evidence to primi- tive usage , they may be allowed weight. 156 CHRISTIAN HOME some cavern, by Sylvester , in order thus to strike at the root of one among the many idolatries still popular at Rome. So late as the IX century a similar legend appears , connected with Pope Leo IV, who is said to have driven away for ever by holy charms a horrible serpent , whose poisonous breath slew all approaching, after it had issued from a profound cavern near St. Lucia on the Esquiline Hill (v. Anastasius and Ba- ronius, amw 324}. The Dragon typihes Pagan Superstition ; its power to kill by its breath , the moral ruin caused by an impure idolatry ; and the chains and cross are intelligible emblems of the means by which such foes were vanquished. A more thrilling episode in the « Acts of St. Sylvester » is that which describes the oration of Constantine, enjoining the Roman people to embrace Christianity , and the enthusiasti- cally acquiescent response of his auditors- — a multitude con- voked in the Ulpian Basilica, to consider the most momentous interest that ever occupied the Roman mind. After the Em- peror s address , pointing out the follies of Paganism and the Divine superiority of the new Religion , the people burst into fervent applause with acclamations kept up for two hours : « Perish all who deny the Christ ! Other God is there none save that of the Christians! They who adore not Christ are the enemies of the Caesar ! Let the priests of the temples be expelled ; let temples be shut and churches opened 1 He who has saved our Augustus — he is the true God ! Long live the worshippers of Christ ! » To which Constantine rejoined, that the service of God should be voluntary ; that even those who resisted the truth should not forfeit his favour, though his most ardent desire was to find all his subjects deserve his affection by following his religious example. In returning to his palace after that magnificent scene . he was accompan- ied by a multitude with torches ; and the whole City bla- zed that night with an illumination for the purest triumph ever won by Roman Emperor. Although this legend is without claim to a place in the historic narration — is indeed con- tradictory to an accumulation of evidence from writings and IN Tj5K rOlUTH CENTUIW 157 monuments ; so that we can only regard it as offspring of the certain consciousness of permanent triumph attained much hiter by the Church in Rome — still , when we bear in mind that belief is the soul of fact ^ that the predominence of an idea is among those high realities entitled to every historian's, regard , we cannot but feel a deeper interest reflected from this impressive scene, lingering with a light of moral splen- dour , upon those ruins of Trajan's Forum yet so imperfectly disinterred. Before we turn away from the records of the IV century, we may consider one curious and rude evidence of the deej) decline of art , in the reputed mitre of St. Sylvester, with the group , on a tissue of silk and gold , of the Blessed Virgin and Child , between six Angels clad in dalmatics ; the 3Iother holding an olive-branch ; the head of the Child with a nim- bus of hexagonal form ; seven stars around , and the words below : Ave Rcgina Cceli. So barbaric, indeed ludicrous, is the design , that one might more safely refer it to the darkest period of the Middle Ages — whatever be the credit due to the tradition that St. Sylvester was the first Latin Bishop to assume the mitre , although that episcopal symbol is known not to have become common till some centuries later. Amid the pomps of Easter at St. Peter's , after the exulting music of the Vespers on Monday in that week, we obtain a distant view of another art-object , also referred by tradition to the time of Constantine , now exposed, with countless relics, from a balcony under the cupola , and announced , in reson- ant chant by an officiating Canon , as the portraits of SS. Pe- ter and Paul possessed by Pope Sylvester— a display reminding of the circumstances in this Pope's legend immediately con- !)ected with the legend of the Emperor's conversion. Constanti- ne, while yet in the darkness of Paganism, and even a persecu- tor of the Church , was struck with leprosy in judgment for Ills sins ; consulting his augurs, he received the answer that lie coulc) only be cured by a bath in the blood of infants ; but the nuitlxe^'^, whose children were to be sacrificed, so mov- de his heart that he revoked the sanguinary order, and* 158 CimiSTlAN ROME sent them to their homes laden with presents. On the I'ol- lowing night the two chief Apostles appeared to him inti- mating that the real cure for his malady would be another species of bath to be administered by the man of God, Sylvester, then concealed in a cavern on Mount Soracte , whither he had fled from persecution. Immediately were sent emissaries to find that holy man; and Sylvester, concluding they had come to inflict death , said to the clergy who had fled to that mountain with him : « Behold now is the accepted time : now is the day of salvation ». Brought to the imperial palace. Constantifie asked him, who were those gods, named Peter and Paul, thus gracious in their promises on h^s behalf? ' They are no gods (answered Sylvester), but servants and Apostles of Jesus Christ » ; learning which the Emperor de- sired to see their portraits , and the Pontiff sent a deacon to bring the authentic effigies of the two Apostles, then in his pos-^ession. Looking at that picture , Constantine marvelled greatly, for he there recognized the persons beheld in his vision ; and by this means being enlightened to see heavenly truth, he listened to Sylvester's instructions; prepared him- self for baptism ; and in receiving that sacrament was not only cleansed of his sins, but miraculously cured of his lep- rr)sy 1 As to those likenesses of the Apostles, Baronius says ihat « the images shown on that occasion by St. Sylvester to Constantine , are preserved to this day, with much vene- ration , in the Vatican » (1). Legends, an index to the conditions of the inner life, should not be forgotten in our studies of any momentous epoch. Those relating to the Nicene Council strikingly ex- (i) Such legends as refer to the Volto Smto (exposed in Holy Week at St. Peter's), the Crucifix of Mcodemus at Lucca), and the image sent to king Abgarus at Edessa , are too slight to be worthy of refutation ; and not less baseless than the reputed Madonna-pic- lures of St. Luke. That the primitive Christians were well aware no portrait existed with claims to he the genuine likeness of their Di- vine Lord is evident from the words of St. Augustine : Qua fuerii CImstus facie nos peaiius ignoramus [De TriniL lib. VII, cap. V. IN THE FOrUTIl CENllRY 159 press the popular feelings that grew in reverence around the idea of that august assemblage. Among the bishops con- vened were two who died during the sessions. When the day- came for all to sign the orthodox symbol , places were left for the names wanting : the document being sealed , the dead were invoked , and the survivors kept vigil all night around that sacred scroll : the next morning the two signatures were found in their place . beside the attestation : « We fully ac- cord with the holy oecumenic Council , and , although re- moved from earth , have signed the symbol with our own hands ». A Coptic MS. narrative of the event gives the state- ment that, after 318 bishops had been seated to deliberate, when they rose to vole their number proved to be 319 : which seemed unaccountable till, at last, it became apparent that the Holy Spirit had visibly intervened to aid in the solemn definition of Catholic Truth 1 Acquaintance with the developements and meanings of things external avails for the understanding of details that henceforth become frequent in sacred art. Primitive worship was , as we have been , simple , pure , intelligible. With the leports of its character in earlier times we may now confront what authorities state respecting its more majestic and com- plex celebration in the IV century. St. Cyril of Jerusalem sup- plies the fullest details [M]jstago(j. \) as to the sacramental rite which had already been called « Missa ;), (hence « Mass ^ — the Latin term being first used in that sense by St. Am- brose , Ep. LIV, date 385) ; mentioning in due order — the pre- ])aratory ablutions at the altar ( significant of the purification of the soul for holiest ministry ) , the kiss of peace , the chant- ed preface beginning with the exhortation, « Lift up your hearts » ; the sanctus; the consecration, followed by prayers for the universal Church, for Rulers, the sick and alllicted, and the faithful departed ; finally, the general communion in both kinds, all receiving the Host in the right, laid across the left, hand ; all present being invited to the altar in words sung to heavenly music, « Taste and see that Christ is the 160 CimiSTlAN HOME Lord » (I). Much analogy with the Latin High Mass of the present day is here apparent ; and yet the discrepencies are also marked ; though the doctrine of the Real Presence is emphatically enounced by St. Cyril , no mention is made of the elevation or adoration of the Eucharist ; and the Com- munion of all present in both kinds appears to have been invariable , indeed obligatory. The Clergy officiated in long white vestments (see the ancient mosaics in Rome's churches), over which a pallium (or woollen band studded with biack crosses) was worn by the bishop , not otherwise distinguished as yet either by mitre or crozier (2). Incense sent up its fra- grant cloud , emblem of the sentiment that adores and the rite that consecrates ; precious balsams burned in the sanc- tuary ; and a profusion of lights from candelabra or pendant lamps ( around and above , but not upon , the altar ) illumined the sacred scene. The consecration was usually in unleavened bread , and wine with a little water , set apart out of the oblations made by the faithful for such use, and for the sup- port of their ministers ; offerings which were in various kinds, ('I) St. Augustine (« Confessions »j is the first to mention the exqui- site beauty of the vocal music now introduced in public worship : « How many tears have I shed in listening to the hymns and sacred chants that swelled forth with touching fervour in Thy temple, Lord ! and , whilst they sweetly entered the ear , caused the truth of the words thus sung to insinuate itself into my heart )).It was in the Milanese Church that the chant had been thus perfected by St. Ambrose , who first adapted it to notes of different quantities in a method afterwards superseded by that of St. Gregory, the « Gre- gorian » , which eventually prevailed wherever the Latin rite extended. (2> A plain wooden staff is believed (see Baronius) to have been thus early in use , representing the crozier , in the hand of the of- ficiating bishop. About the beginning of the VI century that object began to be adorned with gold ; and at last the precious crozier in mediaeval use was entirely of ivory, gold, silver, or metal gilt. Be- cause considered a symbol of delegated authority, the crozier is no^ held by the Pope , who owns no superior on earth. IN THE FOUftTH CENTURY ICl corn and oil, birds, fruit, legumes, milk, honey, besides bread, \rine, and incense ; sometimes also in money; these offerings not being brought into the church , but into the oblationarium or gazophylacium), where the deacons examined them to ascer- tain whether they were worthy — that is, presented by worthy subjects. The Eucharist, in one kind , was reserved either in a silver tabernacle , or pendant dove of some precious mater- ial ( as above noticed ) , thus to be ready , as required , for the communion of the sick or captives \ travellers also being allowed to carry it with them on long journies for a parti- cipation which , of course , was private ; and the Hermits of the desert had the frequent privilege of retaining it in their solitude. iHow ancient the practice of reserving the holy Eucharist, and sending it to those unable to communicate in public worship , appears from the affecting story of the young martyr , an acolyte (see « Acts of Pope St. Stephen »), who was beaten to death in a Roman street for refusing to dis- cover that sacred object he had been entrusted to convey , and wi)ich his persecutors sought for in vain on his person ! The communion in one kind, that of the cup, seems to have been early adopted for children ; in other cases but rarely, and within a few dioceses alone; indeed reprobated by high authority, as even by a Pope, Paschal IT, so late as the year 1 1 10, who commands that, except to infants and the sick , the Eucharist should be given in both kinds, condemn- ing the opposite practice because a a human and novel invention » ( humana et novella institutio ). Liturgies, it is evident, were, for the first three cen- turies , handed down to use in the several churches , ditfer- ent though all formed on a common type , without being ever drawn up in writing ; in this respect Hberty being Uie rule , the large constitution of the primitive Chu-rch allowing each bishop to compose a new or alter an ancient liturgy for his diocese without reference to other arbitration. Thus was the formula of the Milanese church amplified , though not originally written , by St. Ambrose, who^e name it still 4 62 CHRISTIAN ROME bears; that of Poitier by St. Hilary ; and at Rome was used the sacramentarium in part composed by Pope Gelasius , but in its nucleus of still earlier origin ; the passage in the actual Latin Mass from « te igitur quaesumus » to the Pater Noster , being entirely ascribed to that venerable author. The Agajioe , with which the celebration of the Eucharist had been blended in primitive times , was for ever separated from that holier ordinance, owing to abuses become scandalous even in the second century ; but the fraternal banquet was much longer kept up as a species of hospitality bestowed by bishops or pious benefactors on the poorer brethren. Such a banquet is vividly described in a carmen of St. Paulinus, who himself gave one to his flock at Nola, for the festival of St. Fe- lix. St. Augustine and St. Ambrose severely denounce the abuses that had crept into the Agapae before or during the IV century ; but it is certain that till the VI century such banquets were frequently given in the porticoes of churches or in cemeteries. A Council at Carthage (397) forbade the Clergy to attend them ; two other Councils (in 372 and 393) prohib- ited their celebration at least within the sacred building ; and so late as the beginning of the YlII century, the council of Trulla (at Constantinople) reprobated the still existing prac- tice of spreading tables for the feast in churches. It appears that the banquet once associated with the most solemn Chris- tian ordinance , gradually lost all sacred character , and be- came an occasion for fairs , markets , gatherings of traders and idlers. At Antioch dancing was introduced even into the church, as still kept up in the cathedral of Seville for the Corpus Domini Festival. The Eucharistic Rite was not from earliest times of daily recurrence ; but in the second century certainly held thrice a week , and always on the Sunday ; and in the IV century the eastern Church added another , the Saturday's celebration, not long afterwards adopting the quotidian. In the West the practice long continued different in the several dioceses, some having the daily, others the weekly, or bi-weekly celebration IN THE FOCUTH CENTURY 463 (St. Augustine , Epist. LIV). The African and Spanish church- es first followed the example of the East ; till at last , in the VI century, the « daily sacrifice » become the universal observance of Christian worship. That this most sacred solem- nization was from the first the supreme object and leading transaction , the very focus around which all public devotion centered in the primitive Church, the only public rite indeed on which attendance was of universal obligation, this is one of the points most luminously conspicuous. That sacrament having been the hohest link in the spiritual chain , the dis- tinguishing symbol and tie among the worshippers of the crucified God , to allow its retirement into a subordinate place , where it ceases to be the constantly recurring memo- rial rite, is the farthest possible departure both from the mind and practice of ancient Christianity. Not only did the distinc- tion of those services at the altar into Missa Fidelium and Missa Catechumenorum , but also the public confession of sins still prevail in the IV century, whether or not the private confession (as certain writers assume) always preceded ; or that it was only after the scandal had been public that the act of penitence was required to be so ahke. « If the sin have been secret (says St. Augustine , Sermo 83), correct it in se- cret ; if public and open , correct it publicly, that he ( the offender) may be reformed, and that others may fear » (J). (I) The evidence for the practice of confession from the IV cen- tury becomes quite conclusive, and cannot be rejected by any impar- tial inquirer. What is open to question, and scarcely to be establish- ed on testimony alike distinct , is the penitential system of earlier ages. That in the second and third centuries the act , then called exomologesis , was sometimes private , addressed to a priest , though more commonly public before the assembled faithful, seems certain- ly implied by Tertuliian [de Poenilent) , by Origon {Homil. i7i psalm. 37) , and by St. Cyril {de lupsis). It is supposed that private confes- sors were first appointed during the Decian persecution (249-oi) ; and the public confessing before the Church, longer retained in the West than in the East , was in the first instance abolished at Con- stantinople , A. D. 390, owing to some scandal given by such a re- 164 CHRISTIAN R03IE Baptism became also invested with new symbols and for- mulas : the use of exorcised chrism for anointing the forehead, ears, eyes, and breast, also of salt to be placed on the tongue; the clothing of the neophyte in white robes , and , after the triple immersion of the whole person ( the indispensable form in which alone this sacrament could be administered ), the feeding with a mixture of milk and honey, or , as in some Churches observed , the usage of giving a gold coin {denarius] to each newly-baptized. The anointing of those in dangerous illness is attested in the practice of the western Church by St. Augustine ; of the eastern , by St Chrysostom. And the Christian funeral now also acquired increasing solemnity : the Bishop and his Clergy going to the house of mourning to pray over, and pour oil on, the dead; the mourners keeping vigil, either in the house or in the cemetery ; and if the interment took place in the forenoon , sacramental rites accompanying it ; as also on the anniversaries of decease, when what is known in modern phrase as the Requiem Mass would be celebrated. Prayer for the dead certainly prevailed , and took established form , at a very ancient period — attested in the words of Ter- tullian ( De Corona ) : « We make oblations for the dead on velation there openly made. After the peace secured to the Church, 312, the usage began to be regulated by disciphne , instead of being left to individual conscience. It became customary to confess on the first Sunday in Lent ; but not till ancient fervour had ^axcd cold did ecclesiastical dictation interpose : in the IX century the bishops required either tw ^ or three confessions during the year ; and at Inst the single annual confession, still obligatory, was enjoined by the Lateran Council under Innocent FI , in 1215. The Confessional lias been , and is liable to be , grievously abused. In Italy, at the present day, many ( not without cause ) are alienated from it ; for, in well— known instances , it has been perverted to serve political en Is ; but its total suppression, instead uf the modified practice in- tended by certain reformers , has involved the abandonment of the most potent agency ever wielded over the human conscience, of func- tions essentially sacerdotal , and of what is to thousands a source of consolation and strenglhonine; inHuence. IN THE FOURTH CEMURY 1 6 j the days of their anniversary ». At solemn Mass their names, together with those of all the living entitled to the Church'^ prayers, used to be read from the « diptych » by some subor- dinate minister. The venerating and exposition of Relics in churches , and the habit of keeping such objects about the person , seems to have become quite common about this pe- riod. St. Paulinus [Ep. XI) sends to Sulpicius Severus a relic of the true Cross in a golden case ; and hazards the assertion that the principal portion of that holy tree , kept at Jerusalem since St. Helena's discovery, had the property of never dimin- ishing , though fragments were often distributed by the dio- cesan to pious applicants ! At that city, we learn from the same distinguished writer, it was now the practice to expose this most revered of Relics during worship on Good Friday — ear- 4i est example perhaps of the « Adoration of the Cross » , now accompanied with the sublime chant of the Jmproperia, to Palestrina's setting , in the deeply^pathetic observances of that day. The discovery of the Cross , no doubt , confirmed this direction of devout regards to material objects, preparing the way for so much of abuse and folly; if it did not (as Milman concludes) « at once materialise the spiritual worship of Chris- stianity ». The emblem of Redemption was not truly honoured in being made the standard of battle ; and Constantino only revived the Pagan superstition of charms and spells by con- verting one of the nails supposed to have pierced the sacred Body into a bit for his war-horse! Small caskets [encolpiae] sometimes of gold , and cruciform , containing either a Relic, or (with juster piety) a copy of the Gospels, used to be worn round the neck (I). And the oil from lamps at the sanctua- ries of Jerusalem , or from those that ever burned at the tombs of Apostles, ^especially from the « confessional » of St. Peter, was now eagerly sought, and sent to the remotest {^) A Leautiful encolpia of gold , in form of a cross, was lately found in a tomb at S. Lorenzo on the Tiburtine Way, and is DO\r at the Christian Museum of the Valican. !6(> CHRISTIAN ROME countries. Not only in every altar, but in the portals of churcli- es were relics now inserted , there to be kissed by the de- vout before entering. And so early did abuses arise from the dishonest practising upon this natural , indeed blameless feeling , that a law of Theodosius (386) was directed against the sale of Martyrs' relics by itinerant monks— perhaps little better than vagabond impostors , — who had already found such trade lucrative ! The veneration for Saints , another form of piety now acquiring distinctness and prevalence , is strik- ingly evident in the poems and letters of St. Paulinus, who describes [Ep. 36) how a pilot was saved from shipwreck by the protection of St. Felix , visibly intervening , together with the Saviour Himself in palpable presence! And in that Prelate-poet's regard the same saint appears exalted to the rank of a guardian-angel over the diocese ofNola; at jwhich cathedral he describes [Carm. in S. Felicem) the brilliant ob- servances in his honour , the votive offerings , tapers of paint- ed wax , ointments , silver tablets , embroidered hangings , and above all , the festive Agapae , in a manner that almost foreshadows the devotions of modern Naples to St. Januarius. Yet, in these earlier aspirations, we recognise a far more pure and rational feeling than in the saint-worship of later days : for there is a perpetual reference to the Eternal King of all saints in the affectionate regard for His Martyrs or Con- fessors. A new festival introduced in the Y century, probably by Pope Gelasius, the « Purification )),or « Candlemas », with the blessing and processional carrying of tapers, to commemorate the progress of Mary and Joseph with the Divine Child to the Temple, was appointed in the immediate intent of supersed- ing the Lupercals ( held on the same day) by substitution of another, a spectacular and attractive, whilst edifying solemnity; but not with the desired result of at once driving from the field those spasmodic efforts of^the now-morlally-wounded Pagan- ism. In consequence of the signal privileges and wealth con- ferred upon the Clergy, their profession became naturally so I.N THE FOURTH CENTIT.Y \bi esteemed as to be the favourile among all careers, and their numbers rose to excess ; civil offices were deserted ; the townspeople reclaimed against a growing evil ; and so early as A. D. 320 it was decreed that the priesthood of each city should not exceed a fixed number, that only the places- va- cant by death should be open to new candidates, and that none of the wealthier citizens should be admitted into the ecclesiastical ranks (Code Theodos. XVI, tit. 2). Superficial indeed would be the view that accounted for their increasing prerogatives as the result of ambitious effort or intrigue on the part of the Clergy themselves. It w^as the growing sense of the awful importance of their functions , the profound re- ligious feeling now centered around the sacramental system , the public conscience , in fact , that forced such honours upon the ministers of the sanctuary, and required that those who stood between man and his Maker, to reconcile and propi- tiate, should stand apart, distinguished in all things from other mortals. The law^ for the observance of the Sunday (321) permrt- ted necessary labour in the fields, and certainly did not derive from any sense of Judaic obligations; for the Mosaic « Sabbath » was utterly remote from the sphere of religious duties and ideas in the ancient Church , — perhaps never even thought of before its revival by modern Protestantism. Another judicious and tolerant law , of about the same date . was that regulating the devotions of those in the Army who had not become Christians : on the first day in the week they were to be led into some plain near the city, and there taught to repeat, with uplifted arms, a Latin form of prayer to the Supreme God , author of victories and bestower of prosperity on the Emperor. It would be quite beyond my limits to attempt, even in reference to a single century, the analysis of that Christian Literature now become so opulent and splendid ; but I may permit myself to dwell , in passing , on the imaginative and poetic sphere of intellectual produce , which left an impress 168 CHRISTIAN ROME on the artistic monuments I have undertaken to descr/be. The ancient lives of the Hermits of the Orienlal deserts , many written within this period , abound in striking and marvellous incident , and portraiture of ascetic devotion lit by moral beauty, as well as diversified by glimpses of Nature in wildly picturesque foreground. The desert of Nitria ,'during this cen- tury, was peopled by 5000 cenobites ; and the entire numbers of those following that rule or the austerer anchorite Hfe , in Egypt alone , amounted to 76,000 males , 27,700 females— almost equalled by the ascetic populations in Syria, Cappa- docia , and provinces bordering on Persia. In the records of such lives we are reminded , from time to time , that in fol- lowing an artificial, self chosen standard , devotedly accepted as it might be with purest intentions, those anchorites some- times fell below the nobler ideal of humanity, or exposed themselves to worse dangers than any they had fled from, A redundant source of poetic and pictorial suggestion is found in the Apocryphal Gospels, some of which were cited with reliance by fathers of the III century ; and one , the « Gospel according to the Hebrews )>, was translated by St. Jerome both into Greek and Latin. Among the number of these de- vout fictions , some were ascribed to St. Peter , St. James , and other Apostles ; and many are supposed the forgeries of he- retical writers, who sought thus to support favourite theories. One of the few still extant is the « Proto-Evangelium » , as- cribed to St. James, the source of all those legends about Joachim and Anna , and the early life of Mary, that have supplied such happy subjects for Art from the dawn of the Italian schools, and have perhaps their finest illustration in the frescoes by Ghirlandaio at S. Maria Novella (Florence). Here we become acquainted with those beautiful scenes added to the historic life of the blessed Virgin : her presen- tation , received by the High Priest , while yet an infant , at the Temple , to be there dedicated to a religious life , like a mm, serving in the sacred courts, and daily nurtured by ^ngeb ! her consignment to Joseph , not for mariage , but IN THE FOIRTII CE.NTLUY 169 for a responsible guardianship , the holy maiden to remain ^till a creature set apart from all wordly ties or obhgalions; tlie rivalship of the suitors before her espousals , and the preternatural sign on Joseph's rod— not the budding of the with- ered stem ( as Art usually makes it ) , but the appearance of a dove, flying from its top to the head of the chosen spouse! The « Gospel of the Passion and Resurrection » , attributed to Ki- codemus, possesses a more awful, an intensely tragic interest, and fills up the genuine narrative of those mysterious sutler- ings with many thrilling details , in their completeness a drama most solemnly impressive. Here we recognise another highly suggestive subject , of which Art has availed itself with great eflfect: the Descent into Limbo, the discomfit- ure of Salan , and liberation of the captive-spirits, Patriarchs and Saints of the. Old Testament, whose jubilant welcome to the Divine Deliverer, and mystic dialogues in anticipa- tion of His advent , are examples of the bold venture of ima- gination into domains left by Christianity under veils impen- etrable to human knowledge. One of the earliest Christian Poems in Latin is the « Evangeli-cae Historiae », in four books, by Juvencus , a paraphrase of the Gospels with full but far from imaginative presentment of all incidents and discourses in the Saviour's life upon earth ; almost timid in scrupulous adherence to the sacred text ; though the sublime narrative often becomes frigid in such trammels of classic metre , and occasional expressions such as, « proles veneranda Tonantis », startle us in \erse otherwise free from all Pagan admixture. This poem of the IV century serves at least to prove the fa- miliarity with, the Scriptures that must have prevailed among those to whom it was addressed. Not only ideas deriving from the sacred books and the belief, Lut also from the ritual of the Church pervade the pages of these earliest Christian poets. The hymns soon adapted, and in many instances still retained, for the worship of Latin Catholicism, are admirable for con- densed expression of devotional meaning , that often rises into lyric grandeur; and primordial doctrines of Christianity are supported by the testimony found in these metrical effu- 170 CHRISTIAN ROME sions.Tbus from Juvencus, as well as from the far more resplen- dent verse of Prudentius , and the amiable Paulinus , may we select numerous tokens of faith respecting the Supreme Being in Three Persons, and the Incarnation of the Saviour; and an anonymous writer of the III century refers to hymns then popular as testifying to the belief in the truly Divine and truly human Nature of Christ. It was with this sense of their theologic importance that certain Councils (as that of Toledo, in 633) formally sanctioned the introduction of hymns at wor- ship ; though others indeed (at Landicea about 372 ; at Bra- ga, 501) decided in opposite sense, allowing only the canonical Psalms to be sung. Among the earliest Greek Christian hymns extant are those by Synesius (bishop of Ptolemais, 410), which breathe a spirit of Platonic piety, vigorous and vibrat- ing in utterance , but reconciled with the acceptance of Cath- olic doctrine. Be it remembered that their genial independant- minded author , when induced reluctantly to accept a bishop- ric , would submit to no separation from a much-loved wife; and that he gave one of the worthiest examples of the exercise of high functions in laying under sentence of excom- munication , with all the Church's most awful penalties , a cruel provincial Prefect, whom he solemnly inhibited all other prelates (not excepting either Roman or Alexandrian) from receiving again into communion ! The hymns of St. Ambrose were soon and widely admitted into congregational use; many of these beautiful lyrics being still found in the Roman Bre- viary, and still heard in the rich chant of the Latin Vespers — e. g. Lucis Creator optime; Te lucis ante terminum; Conditor alme siderum. And , if unequal , the merits of all from his pen entitle them to rank among the finest effusions of purely Christian inspiration yet given birth to. A symbolisation of the works of nature , supplying quite a new element for poetry, appears in their verse : — the visible world becomes as the mirror of Deity, its forms consecrated into types of the eternal architect. The sentiment of one spiritual presence pervading all things, towards which all converge, is here the dominating principle , that naturally proceeds from and an- IN TIIF. FOUnTIl CENTLI.Y 171 nounces a Religion monotheistic. No poet could be called more strictly theological than Prudentius. The idea of Deity is the very source of his inspiration ; and his muse , setting aside all associations of Paganism , finds in the contemplation of the Infinite the treasurehouse of thought, feeling, and imagery. Immortal hope and life , existence glorified amid the company of Angels , in the light and presence of God , these were the objects on which his mind habitually dwelt, drawing thence themes to elevate , to move or delight. The earthly beautiful is only referred to as consecrated to the expression of divine truth ; amid the splendours of the Christian temple , the mag- nificence of nature is only remembered because affording types of creative Might and Love. His Poem on the Passion of St. Agnes presents vivid pictures of beatified existence ; that on the Martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul well reflects the beauties lavished on the ceremonial and sanctuaries of the Church : that on St. Laurence associates the sentiment of Roman patriotism with the idea that the Imperial City was still to be Empress of the World by faith , as once by conquest ; in that on St. Romanus , Paganism is contrasted in its darkest, most revolting colours with Christianity. The series called « Cathemerion » , breathe exalted piety without fanaticism , and sensibilities for innocent enjoyment tempered by the constant reference of acts and intentions to Deity. The <( Contra Symmachum » , last elaborate refutation , as I be- lieve , of that Paganism now scarce worth such effort from its foes , is still interesting in so far as it illustrates a moment- ous epoch of transition , though referring to a contest almost at an end ; and here we find one of the first utterances of an idea since admitted by general consent into the philosophy of History : that the triumphs and dominion of Rome were appointed by Divine guidance in order to prepare the world for the reign of the Religion destined to become universal : — Christo jam tunc venienti Crede , parata via est , quam dudum publica nostrae Paci amicitia struxit moderamine Roma. 172 CHRISTIAN I\OME Paulinus , bishop of Nola , gives startling precedent for the direction of devout regards to human objects, but is, not the less , a true poet ; universal in sympathies , oi:en to all im- pressions of beauty, joy, and sorrow; in style either elevated or pleasingly simple as his theme requires. His enthusiasm at times lifts him on wings of seraphic extasy ; but he does not exclusively dwell within sacred precints , introducij'g us likewise to his domestic life , his friendships , journeys , and j>ersonal in!erests. In his poetic epistles to Ausonius he shows that friendship and mutual esteem could exist between a Christian and a Pagan , both ahke superior in gifts and cul- ture ; and in one of these letters [tertia] the conviction that io^e may survi\e death, immortal as the soul itself, announ- ces the new and nobler impress given to human affection by Christianity. Comparing this school of Poetry in general with that so splendidly distinguished under the ancient Em- pire , we are struck net alone by novelty in themes and images, but by the new standing-point where Intellect as- serts its higher place. It is as though another day had dawn- ed upon the moral world , reversing views and interests , suffusing earth's scenes with purer light than that known to the past , illumining where all had once been gloom , or doubt and sadness : the life-giving Truth is that which chastens desires and enobles sentiments ; the Cross is the sign that now begins to guide the thought while it solemnizes the feelings — To cast o'er hope and memory, O'er life and death , its awful charm. In following the development of public charities at Home it is interesting to remember that the first hospital was found- ed there by the patrician matron Fabiola (the heroine of a well-known historic romance) , who opened an asylum at her expense for the sick and homeless paupers , the wretched wanderers of the streets (St. Jerome , letter 77). Those 71050- comia , which sprung up in many cities under Constantine , I.N THE FOURTH CEXTLRY 173 were invariably administered by the bishops , and usually stood beside their residences ; not like our modern hospitals in presenting the character of architectural unity, butnothine else than an aggregate of small independant buildings , where each immate lived apart. Such was the asylum Saint Basil founded outside the walls of Caesarea , his episcopal see , '< like another town » , as St. Gregory Nazianzen describes. Some bishops converted their own houses into such places of refuge ; and St. Augustine used to sit at table with the patients and paupers under his fatherlv care (I). Chronology of Mo.numents. Basilica of the Saviour ( the Lateran), of St. Peter ( the Va- tican), of St. Paul (the Ostian) , of the Cross (the Sessorian) ; of St. Agnes , St. Laurence , SS. Peter and Marceliinus, found- ed 3 14-330 Oratory in the Thermae of Trajan (below San Martino ai Monti) ; St. Paul's rebuilt , 386. In latter half of the century — SS. John and Paul ( Coelian Kill) ; St. Eusebius (site of that Pope's house ) ; St. Clement ; S. Maria ad Nives ( S. Maria Maggiore ), and ( probably) St. Alexander (Nomen- tan Way) ; Cathedral and Baptistery of Ravenna, about 380 ; Cathedral and Baptistery of Novara; S. Tommaso in Limine, Bergamo. il) St. Paulinus, Letters and Foems; St. Jerome, Letters, Life of St. Paul the Hermit; Sulpicius Severus , Lives of the Fathers of t!ie Desert -for the legends of St. Sylvester and St. Helena, v. « Le- genda aurea » (where, in the story of the finding of the Cro^s , the miracle that attests the true relic is the raising of a dead man to life); Villemain , « Eloquence Ciirdlienne au IVme sie-le » ; Stan- ley , « Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church » ; Canlii , « St.>r:a Universale » : for Ritual , iMartenc , « de Antiq. Eccles. Rili- bus », Alzog, Martigny ; Maringola, « Antiq. Christ. Institutiones • — a recent work of much value, fin these notes I mention writings of suc- cissive ages, not with a view to giving complete lists, but merely with selection of such as throw particular light on manners or reli- gious upag had made the impression at last embodied in the grim legend^ ol. their descent from the union of Demons with witches in nortbcrr-j Asia. \8% THE FALL OF EMPIRE Mincio , when he was met by the Pontiff and two^ Senators charged with the embassy so important. Here took place that momentous interview , so ideahzed by tradition and Art , which , whatever its actual tenor , certainly resulted in a total change of the invader's plans , and in the deliverance of Rome from terrific disaster. We are told that St. Leo as- sumed his pontific vestments for the occasion ; and the ma- jesty of his person, his tall figure and flowing whiteboard, may have contributed to awe a barbarian mind. His contem- porary, St. Prosper of Aquitaine, who assisted this Pontiff as se- cretary or collaborer in some of his writings, leaves the details under mystery, giving no other report than that : cape , but was stoned in the streets by the populace , who threw his body into the Tiber — his fate in this resembling that of Heliogabalus. The Vandals entered the City on the 12 th June , 455 ; and to the same holy pontiff who had saved her from Attila was Rome now indebted for whatever mercy gleamed amidst the dark- ness of horror and crime ensuing. She was abandoned dur- ing fourteen days and nights to indiscriminate massacre gold— a verified instance of the mitre's appearance among episcopal ornaments, though here, indeed, not earlier than the X century, when that body was re-cntombecl. tSi TBE FALL- OF EMPIRE and pillage ; the three principal basilicas alone, with the lives of those who could reach their sanctuaries , being spar- od , thanks to the influence of St. Leo. This proved the most terrible chastisment yet sent to humble her <( that was al- mighty named ». Whatever had been spared, by Goths of her treasures and monuments , artistic objects , sacred vessels , everything of intrinsic value , now become the prey of Van- dals. The consecrated vessels brought by Titus from Jeru- salem (seen in the beautiful sculptures on that Emperor's triumphal arch) ; the gilt bronze that roofed the splendid temple of Jupiter on the Capitol; the colossal bronze statue of Nero , afterwards transformed into an Apollo; the furni- ture and ornaments of the imperial palace — all now disap- l>eared, broken up for the sake of the material, or swept into the common heap of booty. The present condition of the \^aguely definable but imposing ruins (in great part recently brought to light) on the Palatine Hill , still bears witness to the desolating onset of those invaders , in remembrance of whose outrages against monuments and art, the term « Van- dalism » has become a byword among nations. Eudoxia , cause of all this ruin , was robbed of the jewels on her person., when on her way to meet the savage delivever she had hoped for ; with her two daughters she was led away captive , un- distinguished among the throug, saidi to have numbered about 60,000, who. w&re embarked for Carthage together with incalculable spoils , that probably comprised almost the entire moveable wealth of Rome. This century had not elapsed before the doomed City was again besieged by Ricimir , a chief of the Suevi race , who elevated and cast down emperor after emperor, bestow- ing on the creatures of his arbitrary will that sceptre once the most potent on earth. In its dying agony of twenty years tihe western Empire was subject to nine successive rulers, alike po>Y,erless to avert the catastrophe. Avitus, deposed by Ricimir, 436, was forced to accept the bishopric of Piacenza- THE FALL OF FJIPHIE 485 — ^ for a novel source of corfuption now begun to profane the sacred sphere in the compulsory acceptance of orders, or retirement into the cloister. Majorianus , the next raised up , was a brave and enlightened man , worthy of better fate , who was murdered in his camp by his own troops. Some of the laws he had little time to enact display a reforming spi- rit : as the prohibition of religious vows by females under the age of forty ; the severe enactment against, the offence ( then perhaps common) of demolishing public buildings, to be punished by scourging and amputation of hands , if the culprit were an inferior magistrate. After the death of Severus (465) Rici- mir held the government in his own hands , with an abso- lute dictatorship, for two years. Anthemius, a Greek, whom, h© raised up in accord with the Byzantine emperor , he de- sired to depose after five years, in order to give the throne to Ohbrius. Rome was again besieged (for the fifth time be- tween 408 and 472) ; taken after a resistance of three months, and given up to pillage without mercy, except in those quar- ters where Ricimir's. countrymen were lodged. Anthemius was put to death ; and Olibrius survived to reign only three months. Ricimir being soon afterwards cut off also by natur- al death , he was succeeded in the same barbarian dictatorship by his nephew Gundebaud , an exiled Burgundian King , from whom the anomalous power was seized by a- former soldier of Attila , Orestes. By him the Emperor Nepos was deposed (474) in order to proclaim his own son , Romulus Augustus— a singular coincidence of names , turned by popu- lar derision into « Momillus Augustulus ». But the authority of Orestes fell before the dominant fortunes of a new ruler , elected king by different tribes of auxiliars , the Rugian , or Herulian , Odoacer , who, almost without resistance , became master of Italy ; seized the person of Orestes , and put him to death, at Pavia ; after this , marched upon Rome , entered without opposition , and deposed the boy-emperor (476), who was , however , treated mercifully, even generously, allowed 186 THE FALL OF EMPIRE to spend the rest of his days , on a liberal pension , at a de- hcious villa near Naples (I). On Odoacer the servile Senate now conferred the rank of Patrician ; and , guided by liis will , addressed a letter to the Greek emperor , Zeno , repre- senting the inutility of a farther succession in the West , and their desire to place Rome under the immediate sway of Con- stantinople. The suppression of the imperial dignity being proclaimed , a new order of polity was founded under the nominal sovereignty of the Byzantine Caesar and the imme- diate dictatorship of Orestes. This lasted but few years , being violently overthrown by the shock of invasion when the the Ostrogoths descended upon Italy (489), led by Theodoric, their king or duke , who had been educated , as a hostage , at the Greek court. From that centre of prerogatives this new favourite of Fortune received a formal concession of Italy — act characteristic of the feeble and ignoble government now seated at Constantinople. Odoacer was totally defeated in two battles by the Ostrogoths ; and being excluded from Rome , whose gates where shut on his approach , retreated to Raven- na , his last strong-hold , where he sustained a gallant resist- ance against the besieging invaders for three years. After' (1) The home assigned to the ex-emperor was the palace built by Marius on the cape of Misenum, which by purchase became that of Lucullus , and had been stained by the crimes of many earlier emperors, here, for intervals, resident. In 496 it was con- verted into a monastery, and made sacred by the relics of St. Se- verinus ; but in 840 very differently appropriated by Sicilian Mos- lems , who fortified it with great streugth , profiting by its fine si- tuation. To dislodge such occupants for ever the Neapolitans decid- ed on a demolition ; and in 902 laboured for five days in this object ; at last discovering in the forgotten shrine those sacred relics, at sight of which all present burst into tears. Next day the remains of the saint were brought with pomp into Naples , met by all the Clergy and Magistrates with chant of psalms both Greek and Latin; and S. Severino, the extant church, finally received that deposit THE FALL 01- LMI'lliE 187 capitulation had become a necessity, Theodoric entered as a conqueror (i93) , to form a new Italian kingdom whose me- tropohs was that city on the Adriatic. Odoacer, tempted by treacherous promises to remain , was, a few days afterwards, assassinated at a banquet by the hand of the king who had invited his victim for this murderous violation of hospitality — the last historic tragedy of a fatally-eventful epoch. There is a spot within the walls , though far from the po- pulous quarters , of Rome , where a forlorn picturesqueness , an almost wild solitude harmonize with , and dispose us to dwell upon, the thoughts suggested by great world-catastrophes, — here especially by those of her own marvellous story. I al- lude to that Salarian Gate on whose double archway we still see , in broken travertine stonework , the traces of that fatal night (24th August 410) , when the Goths entered through this towered structure in the then recently-built walls of Honorius. A constant tradition , said to be derived from the Sibylline books , had assumed that the term of Rome's dominion would coincide with her twelfth century ; and that date had arrived when the young Augustulus was deposed in the year 1229 since the historically-known origin of the City. That domin- ion had not been founded in justice ; and even the adoption of Christianity had done little towards the cuie of its organic defects; little to elevate or humanize the character of Rome's despotic rulers ( with a few honoured exceptious ) , still less for the general morality of her populace. To say that the moral purpose of her whole history was the education of Mankind for a new and higher civilization, is but to an- nounce in other terms that her great world-task was to pre- , Amari , Musulmani in Sicilia). In the magnificent scene where his- toric and tragic memories haunt almost every distinguishable spot in view from the Cape of Miseno , the fate of the young Augustus , who is said to have been singularly beautiful , may blend with other remembrances to increase the spells of that fascinating landscape immortalized in the improvisation of Corinne. 188 THE FALL OF EMPIRE pare for the final ascendancy of true Religion. Included among. Uie many advantages won through her. fall , was the change, in the order of ideas as to the origin of power, and rights of nations ; the rise of theories accordant with Christian teach ■. ing in regard to political interests, and which may be said to culminate in what is become especially the conviction of the present day— that government , to be essentially legiti- mate , must be the expression of the national mind and will , must rest on intellectual assent and popular attachment. We might write an epitaph over fallen Rome in the words of Byron : She should have known what fruit \n'ouI(1 spring from such as el. The Christian and Pagan mind were perhaps alike pro- foundly agitated by the fate of Empire ; and St. Augustine tells, us ( Civ. Dei lib. I , cap. 33) of the general sorrow that thrill-, ed the whole world for that great misfortune. When intel- ligence of the capture and sackage by Alaric reached a large assembly of prelates then in council, at Carthage , it was re- ceived with religious awe rather than grief, ihose venerable men recognizing a Divine visitation. in the chastisement of the, second Babylon-^the scarlet—robed sorceress of the Apocalypse. And it is probable that the Christian community soon felt, what theologians afterwards agreed in interpreting , a ful- filment in the dread catastrophe so wondrously correspondent to th.Q details of prophetic utterance , as to present irrefraga- ble proof of inspired authority in the Revelations of « the rapt Seer of Patmos » , whilst at the same time reflecting a- light of solemn awfulness on the historic reality. The most, eloquent comment and religious interpretation of these events was soon in part made public in a work surpassing in scope and power almost all hitherto produced in Christian literature, St. Augustine's « City of God » — « the funeral oration of the Roman Empire pronounced from a cloister », as Yillemain says. H^re is completely refuted the low and materialistic idea, which runs through many Christian writings of earlier tHE FALLOF EV.PIItE f89 date, that success was the test of truth, tliat victory was certain to be on the same side with orthodox belief , by main- taining which, indeed, the Christians had supplied weapons •for the hands of the Pagans now to wield appropriately against them. The saintly bishop of Hippo brought into clear light the distinction between the kingdom of Heaven and the ivingdoms of earthly power, the absolute independence of the (Hiurch in respect to all organisations of secular polity. He argues that Rome had been allowed a universal dominion only because the ReHgion of Christ was to become universal ; that, as the old Law had been a preparation for the new , so (lid all things in the ancient world converge towards that central power, and at the same time towards the Advent of Christ, subsequently to which event all had combined to ijring about the final and complete triumph of the Faith in ilim. The Civitas Dei so abounds with notices relevant to (he character of the period, that its perusal is indispensable for the full understanding of the historic picture ; and this celebrated work may be said to have laid the foundation for a genuine philosophy of History from the Christian point of view. In the monumental range also the sum of results from (lie fall of Empire must be pronounced rather good than ovel. Henceforth arises the new life of an art gradually eman- cipating itself from the Past, deriving ideas and types from Christian sources instead of classic reminiscences ; and though for ages yielding but an inferior product , yet now reaching a phase necessarily to be passed through before the highest attainment in accordance with the demands of a spiritual faith. In Mosaic especially, the form that soon becomes most con- spicuous for sacred representation, do these new tendencies l)egin , even during the Y century, to appear , manifi3St in the works that decorate ancient basilicas both at Rome and Ra- venna. Great is the difference between the leading figures of sacred groups on apse or chancel-arch in those churches (as at St. Paul's and S. Maria Maggiore), and in the reliefs on 190 THE FALL OF EMPIRE sarcophagi , or in the dimly-traced paintings of Catacombs ; though the classic influence continues, indeed, apparent in art-produce till a much later period than that here consid- ered {]). (1) Orosius, Historia , lib. Vll ; St. Augustine, Cic. Dei, lib. I, cap. 4, 7, iO, ^6, 47, 34, lib. II, H, lib. V, 23; Hist. Miscel. , in Muratori, Her. Hal. Script. Tom. I, p. II ; St. Jerome, ep. XI ad Principi- am ; Sozomen, IX, X; Thierry, Tableau del' Empire Rom., Histoire d'Atli- la; Eanien, S tor iad'Ilalia dal V al IK secolo ; COinixi, Storia universale , epoca VII; Bollandists, vita S. Leonis; Miley, History of the Papal States. In the wild funeral dirge sung by his soldiers over the bier of Attila ( V. Thierry ) is the following allusion to the Roman episode : « appeased by prayers , he accepted an annual tribute ». In Graevius , Thesaurus Anliq. Rom., T m. Ill, is a report on the buildings and regions of Rome in the V century, with some dif- ferent and additional details besides those in the Noliliae: 424 streets ; 46,002 private houses ; 1780 palaces ; 36 marble arches ; 268 magazines of victuals (besides the bakeries) ; 424 temples, and 14 sacred groves. VI The Church in the Fifth Century. At the great crisis of the Western Empire the Church proved nobly equal to the demands of the disastrous time ; and the beneficence of saintly Prelates — — Servants of God , who not a thought would share With the vain world — shone forth like gleams of pure sunlight amidst the tempest- clouds of this dark horizon. More than sufficient does Histo- ry preserve to show us , throughout this period's ordeal , what the undying hfe of Christian charity, the immortal vir- tues informing an Institution divine in origin and principles. Pope Innocent unfortunately lost the occasion of exercis- ing the highest attributes of his apostolic ministry during the siege and sack by the Goths (410), being then absent, engaged in negotiations , at Ravenna. But other great pre- lates , like St. Leo , succeeded in saving their cities and flocks trom the exterminating invasion of Attila : thus was Raven- na delivered through the interposition of her bishop , St. John Angeloples ; and Troyes through means of St. Lupus At Car- thage, on the arrival of the countless captives led from Rome by the Vandals , the bishop Deogratias sold all the precious vessels of the altars to redeem from bondage as many as those riches sufficed for ; converted two churches into hospitals for the suffering; at his own cost supplied food and medi- 'I'92 fN THE FIFTH CENTUR'^'' cilies, and waitfed upon those patients day and night, till his old age sunk under the exertion. For like charitable purpo- ses did St. Paulinus part with all the treasures of the splen- did basilica at Nola which his verse describes. It is narrated of that prelate by St. Gregory (Dialogues, lib. Ill) that he actually sold himself into slavery to redeem the son of a poor widow, and spent same years in Africa , serving the son of the Vandal king in capacity of gardener , till at last recognised , and sent back with all the other captives from his diocese emancipated at his request — a beautiful legend that cannot be considered historic (for the writings of Paulinus bear ho evidence to such fact, nor is there proof that he was ever absent from Nola at this crisis), but which may still be admitted as a representation of the reality in the exhaust- less charities and heroic zeal on the part of the episcopal body in general , and of the profound gratitude with which their services were remembered in the public mind. Among other important consequences of the overthrow of Empire M as the freedom thereby secured to future devel- opments in the life of a hierarchic system which could scarce- ly have become what it proved to be at the zenith of its wondrous ascendancy, had Emperors continued to reside be- side Pontiffs on the seven hills, as they did, without any dangerous antagonism, from the year 452 to 476. The tempo- ral sovereignty that still agitates so may minds and presents grave questions to European diplomatists, is one of the re- sults to this day felt from the abolition of that power beneath which St. Peter's successors were subject. St. Boniface I (418) had to struggle against an Antipope , Eulalius, who through violence became master of the Late- ran till forced to resign by imperial edict; both candidates being cited to Ravenna , and both apparently satisfied to sub- mit to the arbitration of Honorius in this contest. St. Ceies- tine (428) witnessed the rise of the Nestorian sect, adding a- twenty-second to the number of heresies that now disturbed the Church's peace , and against whose followers no fewer THE CHURCH 19:^ than sixly-slx enactments are included in the Theodosian code, besides the laws against apostates , magicians, and Jews. Celestine condemned the Nestorian doctrines from their ori- gin ; and suggested to the Greek Emperor the expediency of convoking a general Council, which in the sequel (431) met at Ephesus to define the questions at issue , and to pass the memorable decree declaring the Blessed Virgin in strict ortho- dox sense « Mother of God » — Qzoroy.oc, This Pontiff proved a most zealous opponent of heresies; deprived the Novatians of the churches they had obtained at Rome , and caused the Pelagians to be driven out of Italy — an instance of control over the civil power, now secured to the Roman Bishopric, similar to that in the case of St. Leo, who, having discovered some Wanichaeans in concealment at Rome, denounced them to the magistrates , thus attaining the object of their expul- sion. The burning of heretical books (precursory to the mo- dern Index) now became a frequent expedient of Catholic authorities. Thus were the WTitings of Arius consumed by imperial command after the Nicene Council ; those of Euno- mius by order of Arcadius ; those of Nestorius and Eutyches severally after the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. And thus did St. Leo burn, with his own hand (it seems), certain Manichaean books- imitated in this act by Gelasius, whose figure, with those of three other sainted Popes, was intro- duced among the frescoes of the splendid Borghese chapel at S. Maria Maggiore , commemorative of the circumstance that it was in the atrium of that church he rendered such service to the cause of orthodoxy. From this century acts of incipient or modified persecu- tion begin to appear with increasing frequency and porten- tous import in ecclesiastical annals. The principle once ad- mitted that men ought to be punished , or subjected to any sort of disabilities , on account of dogmatic error , the tran- sition is neither unnatural nor altogether illogical from the code of Theodosius to the Auto da fe of Philip 11 1 43 194 lis THE FIFTH CENTURY Sixtus III (432) is principally known for liis liberal dona- tions to cliurches , and for the rebuilding , with superior scale and splendour , of the Liberian basilica , intended as a mo- numental tribute to the Blessed Virgin, whose divine honours had just been so emphatically sanctioned. And it is probable that he also rebuilt the extramural S. Lorenzo, raising that basilica from the ruin in which it had been left after its pil- lage by the Goths. Sixtus being accused by an ex-consul of a scandalous outrage , the Emperor ordered his cause to be judged by a synod ; he submitted , and lifty-six bishops, after investigation , declared him innocent ; the calumniator was cut ofl' from communion till he should be reduced to seek that privilege on his deathbed , and by imperial decree all his property was confiscated to the Church' — an episode in M^hich , as in that of the contest between Boniface and Eu- lahus , it is manifest that even orthodox emperors still assumed a headship over the Church, save in regard to purely doctri- nal interests. St. Leo was distinguished not only for his high services in a patriotic cause , but for his munificent public works , his restoration of the two great basilicas , the Ostian and Vatican , beside the latter of which he founded a monas- tery ; likewise for his writings , he being the first Pope to bequeath a body of literature , consisting of 96 sermons and -141 Letters, entitled by their merits to enduring reputation, and justly praised for style. After the Vandal sackage he ex- erted himself to repair the loss suffered by the several church- es , and had melted down six large silver vessels, gifts from Constantino to basilicas, each 100 lbs in weight, for supply of the indispensable altar-plate in different parishes. Pope Hilary (46 1) — whose life , when he had been sent as legate by his predecessor to another Council held at Ephesus, 449, was exposed to actual danger through the furious contests of the Oriental monks — proved a worthy successor to Saint Leo , and had the signal merit of founding the first Papal Library (tvro libraries . as Ciaconius states) at the Lateran. THE CHURCH 't9o He boldly resisted the Emperor Anthemius when the surpris- ingly liberal measure had been resolved upon of granting toleration to all religious sects in Rome ; and the PontitT car- ried his point in inducing the abandonment of a policy quite in advance of the age, sure to have been reprobated by all prejudices then dominant. St. Simplicius (468) showed how far the Papacy could now exercise magisterial control by suppressing , on the Sundays , all spectacles in the theatre and circus, litigations in the courts, combats of wild beasts ec. — No doubt public entertainments , at this period , deserv- ed all censure ; but the Popes of modern time , in this respect liberal , have allowed the theatre to become , as it now is at Rome , more especially the favourite amusement of all clas- ses on the Sunday than on any other nights in the week — wisely judging that to deprive the populace of innocent pleasure whilst ordinary occupation must be suspended , is not the way to sanctify, but rather to desecrate by vice the day set apart as sacred. Another well-counselled act of Simpli- cius was to revive the ancient economic practice , dividing ecclesiastical revenues in the several dioceses into four equal parts — for the Bishop , for the sacred edifice , for the Clergy, and for the poor. When this Pope desired to eject an intruder, uncanonically elected , from the see of Alexandria , he did not assume authority to himself with immediate interference in a cause so delicate , but wrote to the Emperor Zeno , requesting him to take legal steps for the deposition. St. Fe- lix II (i83) was elected in presence of a Prefect appointed to represent Odoacer, on a claim, now advanced by a barba- rian conqueror , to interpose in the great transactions of the Church. He resisted the attempts of the Greek Emperor to dictate in dogmatic questions by a Henoticon (as the novel species of rescript was entitled) ; but was the first Pope to adopt the paternal style towards that sovereign, acfdressing him as « my son » — a formula not without significance. St. Gelasius (492) left many traces of his influence and zeal in the purely ecclesiastic sphere; and to this pontificate re- 106 IN THE FIFTH CENTLRY fers an extant list of the clerical body and tituU ( urban churches ) to which its members were attached : 24 Cardinal Archpriests, 27 Cardinal Priests, 10 minor Presbyters, and 7 Cardinal Deacons — not that the Cardinalate as yet implies anything like the attributes or splendours now pertaining to it. Within this period also occurs the memorable event, fraught with great and beneficial consequences, of the founding of the celebrated monastic order by St. Benedict , who, in 491, then a youth of only fourteen, retired to a cavern among the mountains of Subiaco to dedicate himself to eremite soli- tude and austerities , perhaps little imagining how great , in- fluential, and intellectually-dominant was to prove the insti- tution taking its rise from a source so piously humble, ascetic, and obscure. A Council held at Rome by Gelasius put forth one of the first assertions of primacy in that See , whilst al- lowing the second place in hierarchic rank to Alexandria , the third to Antioch , — had which announcement proceeded from any other centre, such testimony to accordance in a prin- ciple of ecclesiastical centralization would be indeed impor- tant ; but though the Papal power was gaining at every step in spiritual and temporal advantages , the theory of theocratic monarchy was not yet adopted' by the universal Church. The immediate successor to Innocent I, Zosimus (417), created the office of Vicariate to the Holy See in Gaul , invested almost with the powers of a Wolsey ; but such a novel procedure « excited great controversies » {Art de verifier les Dates); and when the same Pope admitted to communion a priest who iiad been degraded for crimes by his bishop in Mauritania , the African Episcopy protested against this as a violation of the sacred canons; and Zosimus sent three emissaries to jus- tify his act by adducing certain canons of a council at Sardis, confirmatory of others alleged to have been drawn up at Nicaea. A Council assembled at Carthage (418) pledged itself to admit the claim advanced by Rome -if any Nicene canon could be authenticated in a sense favourable ; a genuine tran- script of the acts passed at Nicaea was procured from the THE CilLIlCII I^J" Greok Cluircb , but no such canons as the legates had cited were found amongst them; and the Council justified its ne- iiative decision by sending this transcript to Boniface I , who had now succeeded to Zosimus. Again was the guilty priest received to comuiunion by Pope Celestinus, to whom the African bishops addressed another remonstrance , in which document they begged him not to send any more legates to pass judgment in their provinces , lest he should seem to introduce into the Church the pomps and vanities peculiar to the potentates of the world ; using also the remarkable terms : « Would it not be a temerity in any of us to assume that God would inspire a single individual with the spirit of justice , yet deny it to a large number of bishops assembled in Council? » ■ — thus implying that Councils were the solo legitimate organs for declaring the mind of the Church (Du- pin, Aufeurs Ecda. vol. III). After the brief pontificate of Anastasius II , that of Sym- machus (498) opened with a sanguinary and obstinate contest excited by an Antipope fthe fiflhj , raised up by the Patrician Festus. who acted in the Byzantine interest, aiming at the election of a Pope who would subscribe the henoticon of the dogmatizing Emperor Zeno. The usurper made himself master of the Lateran by armed force ; and after the struggle had led to extremes of violence, outrage, and bloodshed, the ques- stion was referred to the arbitration of Theodoric : both claim- ants being cited to Ravenna, the strange spectacle was now- presented of an appointment to the chief Catholic See in Eu- rope determined by the judgment of an Arian King — a lost reprobate from the mGdern ; a barbarian from the ancient point of view! His equitable decision confirmed at once the rights of Symmachus , and rejected the pretensions of Laurentius , the opponent ; and the former was recognised legitimate Pope by a synod of 172 bishops, before whom he exculpated him- self from criminal charges brought against him by foes, now- trying another mode of attack. But not even these measures sufficed to [ut down the Antipope or restore peace to Home ; 198 IN THE FIFTH CENTURY and in the last year of this troubled century the City's streets were , day and night, a theatre of rapine and slaughter ; the Senate siding with one or the other claimant ; the Patrician heading the faction of Laurentius against the forces led by Faustus, an ex-consul, in the legitimate interest; priests being publicly put to death, nuns dragged from their retreats, to be stripped and scourged in the streets: crimes (it seems) which were perpetrated by the Antipope's faction alone ; for thus did an Institution by nature peaceful, founded in humility and righteousness, become indirectly the means of bringing down an additional weight of calamities amidst all that Rome had to endure in the V century I The highest task of Christian Rome , the extension of the faith among yet unconverted nations , was not suspended during this stormy period. Celestine sent a deacon , Paladius , into Scotland , and the celebrated Patricius (St. Patrick) into Ireland, for the sacred mission; also two other sainted pastors, Germanus and Lupus, into Britain with the immediate object of opposing the Pelagian heresy now prevalent in that land. From both Britain and Scotland had been finally withdrawn the Roman armies, and discontinued the long occupation under imperial government , in 420 ; — Rome , « awed by her own knell » , having now to provide for nearer interests. In the story of Ritual and Discipline this epoch presents much to claim attention : the Ordinations at the four Seasons , and several festivals were now introduced, especially the Roga- tions, first systematized , though not first practised, by Saint Mamert , bishop of Yienne. Zosimus introduced for ail parish- churches , what is said to have been already observed in the chief Roman basilicas , the blessing of the « Paschal Candle » on Holy Saturday, thenceforth to be lit at solemnities till As- cension-day, as appropriate symbol of that Light of the World still remaining on earth after issuing triumphant from the grave. This usage is supposed at least as ancient as the IV cen- tury : the « Exultet », the chanted formula of blessing, ascrib- ed both to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine , being an example THE cniRCii 199 of poetic prose , — its subject , the Fall and Redemption of Man — certainly among the most sublime ever inspired by religious feeling; and this symbolic observance adds to the com- pleteness and mystic beauty of the Holy Week celebrations, contributing to their ellect as a soul-moving embodiment of Christian devotion in form and utterance, invested with every highest quality of sacred aesthetics. The Pascal Candelabrum soon became a distinguished feature in the Romanesque ba- silica , where it is still seen above the marble screen-work , gracefully chiselled in many-tinted marbles , or inlaid with rich mosaic ; and in earlier ages the waxen column bore the inscribed year of the Nativity, the Indiction , and number of the Epacts. The Roman Church did not cease to exercise her largely- dealt charities, notwithstanding all she had suffered from barbarian rapine , in this period. Symmachus used to send regular supplies of money and clothing to 220 exiled bishops in Africa and Sardinia ; and the same Pope founded asylums for the poor beside the Vatican , the Ostian , and the St. Lau- rence basilicas ; also caused baths to be opened near the churches of SS. Martin and Sylvester and the extramural St. Pancrace — a practical proof that one salubrious habit of antique times had not yet departed from the social state of Christian Rome. But more remarkable is the wealth in do- nations bestowed by Popes on churches or oratories within this age ; and when we remember how Rapine and Pillage had followed the steps of the Invader through the length and breadth of the land from the first appearance of the Goths till the exit of the last emperor, the example of exhaustless resources in the Papacy is indeed striking. The Church proved herself the heiress to whom was the promise of inheriting the earth ; for all material riches seemed ready at the touch of her magic wand. We might conclude that the donations made by Hilary alone nearly sufficed to replace all that had been torn from Rome's sanctuaries by the soldiery of Alaric and Genseric; and their value is estimated by Ciaconius at 102,98;^ 200 IN THE FIFTH CENTURY gold scudi ; some of their qualities and forms being notice- able — a golden arch resting on onyx columns and surmounted by a golden lamb , for the confessional of S. Croce ; and for the same church a gold cross set with gems , weight 20 lbs; a golden lamp for ten lights , and three silver stags pouring water for the Lateran Baptistery ; a silver confessional for ft. John's altar ; a silver tower (or tabernacle) with support- ing, or otherwise ornanamenting , dolphins (an emb'em of love , or of devout zeal — velocity in doing good), also a golden dove , for the reserved Eucharist. To the Lateran church Symmachus adjoined a chapel encrusted with silver of the v/eight of 300 lbs (1); and in the chancel of St. Peter's he })Iaced silver statues of the Saviour and the twelve Apostles; in front of which church now rose the quadriporticus (or paradisus] , with a fountain in the centre ; and at each side, an episcopium , the first pontific residence mentioned as in this place , nucleus of the Vatican Palace. Superstition and abuse serve to display tlie bias of the popular mind , as the feather shows the way of the wind. The Council of Carthage had to condemn the strange profan- ity of giving the Eucharist to the dead ! to prohibit bishops and priests from seeking a livelihood by any sordid trade ; also the ordaining of deacons, or consecrating of virgins as nuns , under the age of twenty-five. DiCferent Popes exerted themselves to put down the hazardous irregularity of raising laymen at once to episcopal rank , without the antecedents of an ecclesiastical career; and the above-named Council forbade any bishop to be consecrated without the consent of his metropolitan — not, therefore, recognising the principle of centralisation uj held by Rome. In the earlier years of this century appeared that phenomenon of morbid enthusiasm, the « Stylites », or Pillar Saints, the utmost departure (com- patible with purity of intention) from the genuine norma of (1) As to all these treasures , Ciaconius tells us that not ono remained in Rome's churches in his lime ! TTIE CHURCH 201 Christian life. Simeon , the first among these fakirs of Chris- tianity, spent thirty-seven years on the summit of his column in Asia Minor, after for a time exhibiting strange austerities within a circle of stones on a mountain ; in that more ele- vated solitude visited by admiring crowds of all classes and from all lands , even Persia , Ethiopia, and Scythia ; revered and consulted in grave interests by Emperors , working mi- racles of healing , — as Theodoret , who had seen him , de- scribes. Few, at most only six on seven, followed the grim example ; but Evagrius ( Hist. lib. VI , cap. 23 ) , mentions one, who lived till near the end of the VI century, and sur- passed his model by persisting for sixty-eight years in like stern isolation. A bishop of Hadrianople renounced his sacred duties to mount a column, where he spent sixty years, at- tended by choirs of monks and nuns, who, from below, joined I heir voices with his in psalmody day and night; but only- one such example is on record in the hagiography of the West, a deacon of Longobardic birth, who spent some time on a pillar near Treves, till, in obedience to his more sensi- ble bishop, he consented to quit it ( Gregory of Tours , //I's^ Franc, lib. VIII, 13). Simeon w^as called the « ambassador between earth and Heaven » ; an altar was raised at his column's base ; and in Rome he became the object of such veneration that not an artisan was without the little statuette of him commonly sold, and set up in the workshops, as the Madonna with the burning lamp is at the present day. What a change in popular ideas at the « Eternal City » since the bust of Marcus Aurelius, held in like favour , used to have its place in almost every house and shop , illumined as the Madonna is now , for several years after that philosophic Emperor's reign 1 (i). (1) Inversion strange, tiiat unto one who lives For self, and struggles with himself alone, The amplest share of heavenly favour gives ! That to a monk allots . in the esteem 202 IN THE FIFTH CEML'IW Apparitions of St. Michael bei^ari, in this period also, to be reported and eagerly beheved — not unnatural in the midst of frequently-recurring calamities, of the panic and constantanxi- ity attendant on the remembrance or apprehension of desolat- ing warfare. The most celebrated of these visions appeared on 3Iount Garganus in Apulia ; and a famous sanctuary rose in consequence , to become one of the chief centres for me- diaeval pilgrimage ( still devoutly frequented ) on that height. And henceforth churches began to be dedicated , in different countries , to the Archangel , who is called by mystic writers : the Prince of Seraphim , the Leader of the Angelic Hosts , the Prefect of Paradise, the Guardian and Defender of Holy Church and of the Supreme Pontiff! The definition of Ephesus respecting the Blessed Virgin was attended and followed by profound effects; in that city celebrat- ed by illuminations, by exulting crowds who , after the votation of the Council , led the fathers to their homes in triumph. Soon was added to the Angelic salutation , already, it seems, in devo- tional use) the clause, « Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us », remarkable inasmuch as it converts a simple memorial of the Annunciation into a prayer addressing the highly-favoured One. In the range of Catacomb-art, the figure of Mary indeed appears from early date , but exclusively in historic relation to the Divine Child ; as in two pictures of the Adoration of the Magi , where it may referred to the second century, or, in one of these, to no later date than the beginning of the third ( De Rossi , Ijjiagin. select. Virgin.); and the earliest « Madonna and Child » , apart from all historic grouping, in the S. Agnese Catacombs, to which Marchi ascribes highest antiquity, is regarded by Martigny as a first essay of that art-subject , raised into uni- versal popularity through the decree of Ephesus , but later Of God and man , place higher than to him Who on the good of others builds his own I — Which lines by Wordsworth, justly applicable to the Styllte, could not be with fairness cited asainst all the communities of cloistral life. THE cnuncii 203 than the event of that Council. Mary often appears herself in act of prayer among these primitive representations ; never with any attribute or circumstance that implies the directing of devotional regards towards herself. Even the earlier Christian poets are reserved in the honour they pay her : Prudentius refuses to ascribe to her absolute sinlessness: Solus labe caret peccati conditor orbis , Ingenitus genilusque Dcus, Pater et Fatre natus. Apotheosis , 894. And Juvencus , undertaking to versify the entire Gospel His- tory, omits her in some scenes where she ought to appear , as in the narrative of the Crucifixion. Dupin allows that the fathers of the first centuries « spoke of her with much re- spect, but always with much reserve: St. Clement affirmed that she had remained a virgin — but TertuUian , Origin and some others expressed themselves in different sense; that « we find nothing in the first three centuries either for or against her as- sumption ; and there is a passage of St. Irenaeus unfavourable to the idea of her immaculate conception » {Auteurs Eccles. : abrege dc la discipline). At a date owned to be quite uncer- tain , but by some writers placed in the VI century , was introduced the festival of her Assumption, based on the poetic legend of her bodily ascent to Heaven within three days after her interment, the earliest authority for which is St. Gregory of Tours [de Gloria Mart. lib. 1 , 4) ; the next in date , St. John Damascene , whose account is given in the breviary for the 1 oth of August. But the most full and picturesquely sugges- tive compilation of all that relates to her death and glorified transit is in the Legenda Aiirea, that repertory of the visions and memories cherished by the mediaeval mind ; where, how- ever, the date of Mary's death is marked as uncertain; and the narrative begins with the self-disqualifying avowal that it is taken from « a certain apocryphal book ascribed to St. John the Evangelist ». Thus much , however, we have from Greek ?0i IN THE FIFTH CENTURY history : The princess Pulcheria having founded a church at Constantinople , the Emperor Arcadius inquired from Juven- al, bishop of Jerusalem , as to the site of Mary's tomb; learn- ing that it stood near the garden of Gethsemane , he ordered it to be transferred in toto for the consecrating of that church, called « in Blacharnis » ; when that sepulchre was opened , previous to its removal , nothing was found inside except the winding sheet , and this also , together with the rest , reached Constantinople — Thus far Nicephorus ; though other writers state that the bier alone , by touch of which miracles were caused, had its final resting-place in the Byzantine temple ( « Life of the Blessed Virgin », by Mgr. Romualdo Gentilucci ). That last glorious scene in the story, the Assumption , became a prominent subject for art from the XIV century; the only treatment of it ascribable beyond doubt to much earlier date f that 1 know of) being in the crypt-church of St. Clement at Rome. But in many instances Art was satisfied to adopt the more rational , whilst still mystic treatment of the theme , not as a resurrection in the body, but the transit of the Soul , in form of a new-born infant , received by the Saviour , whose benignant figure stands over the bier amidst the mourn- ing Apostles. Sometimes both subjects , the transit of the Soul received into the Redeemer's arms, and the ascent of the reanimated bcdy, appear in the same composition — as in the magnificent tabernacle by Orcagna at Or San Michele , where we see also another beautiful episode from the same legend , the Angel announcing her death to Mary, with a luminous palm , brought from Paradise to be borne before her bier (1). A devotion which has become so absorbing and (1) Martin {Haghglujjt.) gives a drawing from a rude relief on a tomb in the crypt of Ste Madelaine at Saint-Maximin , representing Marya'one, with outspread arms in prayer, and the inscription above her head : Maria Virgo minesier de lempulo Gerosale — a proof (seeing how primitive the artistic style) of the early belief in her dedication to a religious life at the temple. In the Christian Museum of the Vatican , the death of Mary and the reception of her THE CHURCH 205 deep-rooted , must have place in the story both of Mind and Art. In Italy it has led to abuses that are , 1 believe , one source of the vague incredulity and apathetic feeling towards Religion now prevalent among the many who doubt, but care not to inquire. As such a worship rests on sentiment rather than truth , it does not naturally ally itself with any ideas of high responsibility, eternal law, or judgment to come; and hence its manifest inability to guide or control ; hence the strange blendings of devotion and profligacy ; exemplified in llie Italian brigand who perpetually wears the Virgin's scapular round his neck ; the lost woman who cherishes her picture in the liaunt of vice ; the gross-minded artisan who blasphemes against the Madonna of one altar , but vows to his confessor that he never has , nor ever could , so offend against her who is seen in effigy elsewhere ! To omit alto- gether the idea of the Virgin Mother from devotional respects would be to err in the opposite extreme ; and the earnest his- torian , or student , who will prefer dwelling on the brighter aspect in all moral movements, cannot forget what she has been to the feeling of ages, to learned and holy men, to inspired soul, in form of an infant, by the Saviour, without the bodily as- sumption , is seen in a picture evidently of an ancient, and suppos- ed to be of the Russian school. Perhaps one of the latest examples of this presentment, the transit of the soul without the assum tion of the body, is in a relief on the tomb of the French Cardinal , Phiiip d'Alengon (deceased 1397) at S. Maria in Trasievere , where above the bier of Mary stands the Saviour with an infant in Kis arms. We may remember that not only to the Rlessed Virgin , but also to St. John the Evangelist and the Magdalene has been ascribed the exemption from the lot of mortality ; and the ascent of both in the body been at one period favourite subjects for art. Titian's master- piece might alone sufTice to claim respect for a legend so gloriously illustrated. In the details of treatment , we observe that earlier art always represents Mary as a mature and dignified matron , simply attired, with veiled head ; but later, as the school declines, she becomes showy and vulgar ; the crown takes the place of the veil, and jewels bedizen her person. S06 ly THE FIFTH CENTURY Poets, to glorious Artists ; how lier gentle virtues and lovely form have appealed to what is purest in the heart , influenced to elevate the rank of woman , to reflect new honour on maternity, to soften manners, to refine and humanise. Anoth- er interest ng question now invites thought , as to the place that this idea and image ought to occupy in the universal Church of the Future ? It was between 432 and 440 that Sixtus III rebuilt the Liberian basilica, dedicating it as S. Maria Mater Dei, in honour of that divine maternity proclaimed at Ephesus — the most ancient church in Rome ( perhaps in the whole world ) dedi- cate to the Mother of Christ; one of the seven principal, and one of the four patriarchal basilicas , and therefore provided with its j^orta sancta, to be opened by the Pope with solemn ceremonial in the Holy Year, four times in each century. On this the munificent pontiff bestowed gifts of great price ; among others a silver altar weighing 400 lbs , besides revenues, from houses and lands , amounting to 729 aurei , or gold pieces , per annum. Though the alterations of .the last th.^ee centu- ries have made -S. Maria Maggiore very different , externally indeed as remote in style as could be , from the church of the V century, it still contains much interesting detail and art of that period. Especially valuable are its mosaics , the most ancient specimens in Rome , save a very few of the time of Constantine (at the Lateran and S. Costanza), of such art in Christian application. And the series here still occu- pying its original place along the attics, is unique in character and importance , though no longer before us in its integrity as executed by order of Sixtus III; of its several compart- ments, that form a complete historic illustration , — two above the chief portals , and five others along the lateral walls being entirely new ; six others having been destroyed for the opening of the great archways external to the splendid later- al chapels. The subjects of the Ihirty-one smaller compo- sitions , carried in a double row along the attics , are from the histories of the Patriarchs , Moses , and Joshua ; and in THE cniT.cii 207 their style they present analogy with classic reliefs which has suggested comparison with those on the Column of Trajan ; the new sources of inspiring ideas not having yet elicited characteristics of originality in treatment. Far too minute to be appreciated at the height where they are placed , these mosaics should be studied at the earliest hours of sunny days, when that beautiful basilica itself, still so impressive in its olden features , is seen to finest eflect. Above the chancel-arch are the other series , far more valuable for the illustration of Christian doctrine : the throne of the Lamb as described in the Apocalypse , SS. Peter and Paul beside it ; and the four symbols of the Evangelists above ; the Annunciation ; the Angel appearing to Zachariah ; the Massacre of Innocents ; the Presentation in the Temple ; the Adoration of the Magi ; Herod receiving the head of St. John the Baptist ; and ,, below these groups , a flock of sheep , type of the faithful , issu- ing from the mystic cities , Bethlehem and Jerusalem. We see here one curious example of the nimbus , round the head of Herod , as symbol of power , apart from sanctity. Id certain details these mosaics have been altered, with a view to adapting them to modern devotional bias, in a manner that deserves reprobation : — but Ciampini [Monumenta vetcra' shows us in engraving what the originals Mere before this alteration , effected under Benedict XIV. In the group of the Adoration the Child alone occupied the throne , while opposite in the original work was seated , on another chair , an elderly person in a long blue mantle veiling the head — concluded by Ciampini to be the senior among the Magi ; the two others, younger , and both in the usual Oriental dress with trousers and Phrygian cap , being seen to approach at the same side, whilst the Mother stood beside the throne of the Child , — her figure recognisable from its resemblance to others in scenes where she appears in the same series. As this group is now before us, the erect figure is left out ; the seated one is converted into that of Mary, m itli a halo round the head , 208 IN THE riFTII CF-NTinY although in /hat original even such attribute (ahke given to the Saviour and to all the Angels introduced; is not assigned to her! In the subjects from the Old Testament the nimbus is given to the Deity and to Angels alone. These mosaics present the earliest examples of the Angelic figure in art — here , indeed , nobly conceived ; for those winged Genii seen among the paintings in Catacomb chapels , have rather the allegoric than strictly religious character. And in the groups over the chan- cel-arch before us, it is especially the idea of the « Guardian Angel » that is manifest: in this character we see izi;o of the majestic, white-robed and winged figures attending Mary at the Annunciation , besides the one who brings to her the celestial message ; three accompanying Mary and Joseph to the temple for the Presentation ; and , besides the one who announces to Zachariah the birlh of St. John , another attending him near the altar of incense. The most interesting of the now solitary churches on the Aventine Hill , S. Sabina , was built , as is set forth in a mosaic epigraph over the chief entrance , by Peter , a Roman priest of Ulyrian birth, in the time of Celestinus I (about 418); though Anastasius assigns it to the succeeding pontificate of Sixtus Hi ; and under date 499 it is named , in the acts of a council held by Symmachus, as among the parochial church- es of Rome. Most of its venerable features were altered or effaced by that zealous destroyer and renovator , Sixtus Y ; and even the antique atrium , with columns of marble and granite , gave way to modern arrangement when a lateral was substituted to the chief entrance, for communication from v/ithout. The fine Corinthian colonnades of Parian marble between nave and aisles , still intact , present one of the very few examples to be seen in Rome of shafts and capitals cor- respondent in dimensions and style, among such antiques trans- ferred from classic to Christian architecture. And one sin- £rular decorative detail , on a frieze carried above the arcades, riu: CHURCH 20£ IS the series of disks surmounted by crosses, inlaid in coloured marble, intended to represent the fans [rosta] , that used to be hung between columns, amidst the folds of richly embroider- ed draperies with \Yhich the church was profusely adorned at the high festivals of olden time. Over the chief portals, above the long mosaic epigraph , are the figures , also mosaic , of two majestic females in flowing robes , whose allegoric cha- racter is expressed in the names here read : Ecclesia ei circiimcissione (sic ) , and Ecclesia ex gentibits — almost unique examples of such personification of the Old and Kew Law^ at least in this artistic form. Higher on the same wall-surface were once seen the fig- ures of SS. Peter and Paul, besides the four symbolic repre- sentations of the Evangelists, all sacrificed, with incredible barbarism , for the sake of some modern alteration in the building. There is an impressive character in this solitary church ; a purity and sacred repose in its sombre yet graceful interior; and visits to it are pleasingly associated with the remembrance of summer-evening walks to the almost deserted Aventine , of quiet contemplation and solemnized eflfect in the long-drawn aisle or pillared cloister seen by fading light. The Ostian basilica (St. Paul's), restored, after injuries through lightning, by Leo I, received at the same time new embellishments , especially in the mosaics then executed above the chancel-arch , which were fortunately saved from the flames in 1823; having been added to this interior's decora- tion at the cost of Galla Placidia , daughter of Theodosius , A. D. 440. The large mosaic composition here represents the Saviour's colossal figure with a wand , symbol of authority, in one hand ; the other raised to bless ; the four established sym- bols of the Evangelists; the four-and-twenty Elders offering crowns in adoration to Ilim ; two Angels with wands , and SS. Peter and Paul within the spandrils below-the latter fig- ures , as restored, having also wands in their hands , though (as Ciampini shows) they were without such implements in the original, each holding a scroll with the inscription: 14 210 IN THE FIFTH CENTURY Theodosius ccepit , perfecit Honorius aulam Docioris mundi sa- cratam corpore Pauli. That head of the Saviour ( the first ex- ample where He appears neither youthful nor beautiful , but mature in years and stern in aspect ] , arresting the attention before any other object as we enter the vast Basihca by the western portals , dominates above the wiiole splendid interior with effect repulsive and startling ; nor can we help seeing in this strangely unworthy conception the evidence of dete- rioration in the religious ideal , even more than of decline in the technical treatment peculiar to the age : it is the Son of God withdrawn from human sympathies , invested with attributes that only excite terror ; the Judge and incompre- hensible Deity effacing the Atoner and Redeemer — as in fact we are led to conclude, from certain ecclesiastical records of this period , that theological subtleties, by distancing from the reason and affection that transcendently Divine Object, prepared the way for the gloomiest fanaticism , the abject will-worship of the creature rather than the Creator. The stern and sullen character of this head also calls to mind the significant change effected in Christian ideas respecting the personality of Our Lord: the primitive Church, in a spirit of extreme reaction against the sensualism and worship of form in Paganism, assuming absolutely plain and mean cha- racteristics in His exterior ; the later Christian ages, after sacred Art had began more boldly to strike into its new ca- reer , tending to admission of types from classic antiquity, recognisable in the youth fulness and beauty of the Divine iigure as seen among reliefs on sarcophagi ; the ages subse- quent , when ascetic principles and subtle theologic distinc- tions had cast a different hue over the whole inner life of the (ihurch, gradually departing from that more genial image, till the expression given to the Incarnate Deity became only calculated to excite a fanatical awe or depressingly super- stitious fear. Justin, Tertullian , Clement of Alexandria sup- port that less attractive view : nee humanae honestatis corpus fuit , nediim cclestis clarifafis , says Tertullian ; a the body of THE CHURCH 211 Jesus was without comeliness » — to 'It.^ou oc^iiy. 5\)?£i^> — says Origen [ad Cels.). But in the IV century appears the higher and poetic conception , vindicated by Chrysostom and Jerome ; « Certe fulgor iste et majestas divinitatis occultae , quae efiam in hiimana facie relucebat , ex jwimo ad se videnfes trahere poterat aspectu o (Hieronim. ep. 65, cap, 8 ad Princip. Virg.) (1). It is not till late in the XIII century that we find this wor- thier ideal again beginning to assert itself in art-treatment , accordant, in such nobler conception, witli the rapture of Glory to God, and to the Power who came In filial duty clothed with Love Divine, That made His human tabernacle shine Like Ocean burning with purpureal tlame ! or, in another utterance — — was it not a thing to rise on death With its remembered light, that face of thine, Redeemer , dimned by this world's misty breath. Yet mournfully, mysteriously divine I Oh 1 that calm , sorrowful , prophetic eye , Wilh its dark depths of grief , love , majesty, And the pale glory of the brow ! — But from such higher ideal the asceticism of the Middle Ages , and especially the Greek school to which the work before us probably belongs , became at last totally alienated. It is with interest one reads over the chancel-arch here the sole contemporary epigraph extant with the name of the Pontitr who saved Rome fromAttila: Placidiae pia mens operis decus homne ^sic) p)aterni gaudet pontifJcis studio splendere Leo- nis. In that mosaic the mystic animals , like the Apostles , (1) « Assuredly that ctfulgence and majesty of the occult divinity, which shone forth even from the human countenance , might at the first aspect have attracted all beholders towards Him ». 212 IN THE FIFTH CENTIIW have the large nimbus ; and the twenty-four Elders offering crowns to the Saviour were originally distinguished, twelve by the veiled and twelve by the unveiled head , as representa- tives/the former of Saiiits under the Law, the latter of those under the Gospel; but renovating touches have made the costumes all alike. As well as the mosaics at S. Maria Mag- i^iore , these are cited by Pope Adrian I in his letter to Charle- magne written for refutation of the iconoclast theories. Another art-work erected by St. Leo is that sternly- expressive bronze of St. Peter , in the great Basilica , where is kept up the annual usage of clothing and crowning , with cumbrous iinery and most unpleasant effect, the Apostle's figure on his festival, it is supposed this seated statue was ordered to commemorate the deliverance of Rome from Attila — perhaps in intent to express a sentiment referring such providential escape to St Peter's intercession. But this tradition, reflecting so much interest on that image , object of the veneration of ages, (whose proof we see impressed on the foot worn away by kisses) , can only be admitted wiih reserve , as other ori- gin — probably from the Byzantine school — is inferrible from the Greek inscription (v. Mabillon) once read on the base of its ancient marble chair — the actual one being not olderlhantheXV century — apparently referring to some gilt representation of the Saviour on its front : « Behold here God the Word in gold , the divinely hewn rock, treading upon which I do not totter » — allusive evidently to St. Peters walking on the sea. The Baptistery of the Lateran , erroneously abscribed to Constantine , is an essentially-unaltered example of the ar- chitecture of this period ; for though its frescoes and decora- tions were added by various Popes within modern date, the architectonic plan , the graceful colonnade of porphyry and white marble within the octagon, the cupola and formation of the font for Baptism by immersion , remain still in their original integrity. Its foundation may be ascribed to Celes- tine I ; its completion to Sixtus III , as to whom Anastasius ■iells us that those porphyry columns were among donations THE CUCIICH 213. from him to this beautiful building ; its two lateral chapels , being additions by Pope Hilary ; the epigraph over an entrance to one of which })reserves , though renewed , the words in- scribed "by order of that Pope : Liberatori suo B. Jounni Evan- gelistae Hilarius Episcopus famulus Christi , in allusion to his escape from the absolute danger to life encountered vyhilst, acting as legate of Leo I, at the second Council of Ephesus — such the fury of fanatic monks in the differences dividing that assemblage — sad example of the decUne of practical Chris- tianity through the encroachment of theologic zeal ! — • the worship of Dogma to the exclusion of Love! The chapel dedicated to the Baptist contains a beautiful mosaic decoration, of this period, on a golden ground occupy- ing the entire vault : in the centre , the Divine Lamb with radiated nimbus; and on the spaces around, birds beside vases full of fruit, in graceful symbolism of the joys of Paradise. When this interior was renovated, in the last century, its rich inlaid pa\ement and the marble incrustation of its walls, all of the original architecture, were allowed to disappear! but the spirally fluted columns of serpentine, over its altar, are among its antique adornments still preserved , and indeed rare examples Another chapel was built by Pope Hilary in connection with this Baptistery, and dedicated to the Cross; but this either fell into ruin, or was demolished, in the time of Sixtus V. The complex ceremonial of the Baptism of Adults on Holy Saturday, as performed in the octagonal build- ing , affords the best occasion for observing all the mystic symbolism of that rite , developed , as we have seen) , into its present form soon after the Church had passed from the state of conflict into that of triumph. We should quit Rome's walls by the Lateran Gate to visit another example, in ruin, of the sacred architecture dating from the time of the first Pope Leo — that lately-disinterred basilica on the Latin Way, amidst impressive solitude, near the painted mausolea upon the track where the ancient road crossed an extent of table land , now abandoned to pasturage. 2ti IN THE FiFTn CENTll'.Y It is on record that this church , dedicate to St. Steplien , was built at the expense and by the desire of a pious Roman lady, Demetria , who escaped from the Capital with her moth- er during the Gothic siege , passed to Carthage , and there soon took the veil as a consecrated nun. This building is known to have been restored by Leo ill at the end of the VIII, or early in the IX century. Brought to light once more by ex- cavation (1858), after having been, through unaccountable vicissitudes in the level of the Campagna-soil , buried and forgotten during many nges , it now presents , in low ruins of substructions , a still intelligible example of the arrange- ments and economic disposal proper to the primitive Basi- lica — the outer portico (or narthex ; the cantharus [ for wash- ing the hands and face ) ; nave and aisles , divided once by forty columns ; crypt chapel at the end of the nave ( in two compartments with an apsidal termination ; , supposed the se- pulchre of some distinguished family, being an example of the so-called basilkhetta ; an elevated choir enclosed by pa- rapet-walls ; an isolated high altar , with the confessional (or sacred tomb) opening below, descended into by steps , and visible from above through a fenestrella, so that the faithful might ha\e lowered kerchiefs or mantles to touch the sepul- chre ; beyond the altar, the semicircular apse for the bishop's throne and seats of the clergy ; and at the extremity of one aisle , a baptistery, distinct from the church , with entrance at each of its four sides. Referring to this long-buried edi- fice , the BoUandists inform us that St. Leo , after the Vandal invasion, a induced Demetria to found a basilica, dedicate to St. Stephen , on her estate » ; and we are told of that pious lady's undertaking by Anastasius also. Whether the other disinterred basilica of St. Alexander on the Nomentan Way, whose vicissitudes have been so simi- lar , be ascribable to the IV, or V century , its actual condi- tions and details present such analogies with that on the Latin Way, that the two may be classed together, and visited in Uie course of the same studies. That Pontiff suffered \. D. 1 19, THE CUURCIl 215 and was buried, together with his companions in martyrdom, Eventius and Theodulus , near the site of his death, (cat the seventh mile-stone on the Nomentan Way » , as Anastasius tells us ; funeral honours being paid to the three by a Chris- tian matron , Severina ; and soon , we may suppose , rose over the tomb erected by her pious care , an oratory , which be- came , in a later age, enclosed within the walls of a basilica, whence the relics of tlie three martyrs were removed, early in the V century, by Celestine I , to the new church of Saint iSabina , beneath whose high altar they still remain. The excavation in search of this buried temple was un- dertaken by Signer Guidi , a well-known archaeologist and explorer in the sphere of Roman antiquities. In their present state the ruins , completely rootless, occupy an area surround- ed by low substructures against the shelving banks that enclose them , and into which we descend by an ancient marble staircase ; this disposal making it apparent that from the first the church was partially below the level of the ('ampagna. At the south-western end are the tribune and high altar; the latter magnificent even as it was found in ruin, with raensa of fine porphyry , rich incrustations of alabaster and veined Phrygian marble , columns oi gkdlo antico support- ing its canopy, or ciborium ; the feuestrella on both fronts, now restored with its marble grating ( transennae ) , the frag- ments of which were strewn around, and through which is visible the sepulchre of St. Alexander and Eventius , his com- ponion in martyrdom. Of the inscription above the transen- nae remain the words: et Alexandro Delicatus voto posuit dcdi- cante Aepiscop. — singular in this respect , that the Roman Bishop is named second, after his fellow-sufTerer , the « Deli- catus » , whose name follows , being no doubt the ecclesiastic who was appointed to officiate here and daily celebrate Mass in honour of the Martyrs. Beyond the altar is the apsidal tribune , with its antique marble throne still preserved : in front, the ambones , opening, like mere niches, in the para- 216 IN THE FIFTH CE.WTL'HY pet wall that encloses the choir. From one side of the nave, is entered a spacious chapel, the decoration of which was splendid, containing a tomb under an arched vauU like the ar- cJwsolia in Catacombs, once also provided with its marble grat- ing , and indicated as that of a martyr by the extant epigraph in a single word : Martyri — no other ( as confidenlly assum- ed ) than the resting place of the presbyter Theodulas, to w^hom this chapel would have been dedicated. The « Acts » of the Martyrs Alexander , Eventius , and Theodulus, tell us that Severina laid the bodies of the first two in one mouumeut ; that of the third elsewhere , without farther particularising — Theodulum vera alibi sepelivit. It is in the same document w^e learn that a bishop was ordisined by Pope Sixtus I, on the request of Severina, for officiat- ing at this church ; but the statement follows that « up to the present day the place has its own j^^icst » for such ser- vice. From one end of the nave is entered a small baptistery , here also distinct from the church , with marble font , found broken; and contiguous, another compartment in which appear to have been seats , this being recognised as the Consignatorium Ablutorum , where neophytes used to assemble after Baptism to receive the chrism , or confirmation , from the bishop. Ne^r this, at the en'rance of the buildings from the highway , are two columns of grey marble with capitals of the debased Corinthian order, again erect on their high pe- destals. A singular feature in this church's plan is that the high altar is so placed as to be unsymmetric in relation to the rest , corresponding neither to the bearings nor perspective lines of the interior — only to be accounted for on the con- jecture that this was purposely preferred in order to satisfy the faithful as to the original site of the Martyrs tomb, and the fact that no alteration had been made for adapting that sacred centre to any architectural arrangement. Among epi- taphs on the pavement we notice one to a youih of fourteen years, named Apollo , with the qualification votus Deo , attest- ing the practice of dedicating to the preisthood at an age THE CHLIICII 217 SO far from mature for Ihe momentous decision ; and another nameless , with the words , like memory's sigh over hfe's long sorrow^s : post varias ciiras , post longae monia (sic) vitae. The Catacombs , entered from this church , and excavated at the same level , were known to antiquity as the cemetery ad Nymphas , opened in the estate of the matron Severina , where it is traditional that St. Peter was her guest, and that converts were baptized by the Apostle's hand. It is probable that here , as at St. Stephen's on the Latin Way, a village [pagus) extended around the sacred centre, and had its burial-place in these subterraneans , ascertained to have been us-ed for interment under Consulates so late as i28 and 457. The following , rudely traced on the mortar outside of a tomb , might be cited for controversial purposes, as it attests both faith in the Saviour's Divinity, and the idea of elEcacious prayer oCfered by those in Heaven for those on earth : Vivi Ila nel Dio Crista in pace. Prega Ila per Silvina. Prega cum Alessandro — but the language does not indicate remote antiquity. These hypogees are generally lower than other catacombs [though in some places rising to considerable height , and on ground uneven , with abrupt acclivities and descents. Winding in various directions, they are , at many places , lighted from above , so that the visitor is seldom left. in rayless gloom ; but the feeble gleam admitted only serves to make « darkness visible », revealing dismal depths, receding vibtas , and files of narrow sepulchres. One deposit, of unusual width, contains bones, besides iron instruments assumed to have been for torture; among others, a long narrow iron ladle, used for pouring molten lead down the victim's throat. Not far from this is the inscription, partly in Greek letters — Saviniane sjnritus in bono; and remains of painting, wreaths and foliage, much obscured, in emblem of the paradisaic garden. Not a few marble slabs , covering sepulchral niches yet unopened , liave Pagan inscriptions of the best orthography (usually re- versed) , commencing with the initial formula , D. M. Most of 218 IN THE FIFTH CENTUIW the locidi , which rise in several tiers, are covered witli brick , and have no inscriptions. Terra cotta lamps and smalt glass vases , embedded in the soil , were found placed on the outside of several deposits ; and the accepted tests were not wanting to indicate martyrdom in regard to the dead repos- ing in some of these tombs. The dusky red stains on broken vases have indeed the appearance of blood ; which , beyond doubt, justifies the conclusion that here we see the original resting places of martyrs. After the interesting discoveries on this site , Pius IX or- dered that the festival of St. Alexander ;3rd May) should thence- forth be religiously solemnized in his basilica , now a roofless ruin. The Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda annually celebrates, at the restored altar , a Mass followed by the Te Deum , at which all the students of that college assist. 1 attended on one recurrence when even the early morning of a May-day was clouded and threatening; but a gloomy sky harmonised with the utter sohlude and mournful character of the Cam- pagna hence in view. Crimson and gold hangings , gorgeous vestments , and taper-light seemed in strange contrast with the dull tints and desolation of the scene ; and the simple but solemn chant of the Ambrosian Hymn burst impressively upon the silence after the communion. Such a service exem- plified the self-adapting virtue of the Latin Rite, and the picturesque dignity with which it enters into whatever cir- cumstances amid which it may rear its altars — in this in- stance indeed suggestive of profounder meaning , for it seemed like a symbol of triumphant Religion luminous amidst the clouds of our dark horizon on earth ! Tradition ascribes to the time of the same St. Alexander the church that first received the sacred deposit of St. Peter's chains, borne in the Mamertine prisons; the supposed found- ress being Theodora, sister of Hermes, Prefect of Rome, who, like her brother, had been converted by that holy bishop; and legend, taking bolder flight, assumes that St. Peter himself founded the original oratory, dedicating it to the Saviour. TiJfi cnur.cH 21*) Historically, however, the actual u St Peter in Vinculis » per- tains to the period here considered, having been raised by the Empress Eudoxia , from whom it takes the title, « Eudos- sian Basilica ». And soon after that origin did it receive the precious relic suggestive of its other more popular name — the chains borne by the Apostle both at Jerusalem and Rome , one of which , obtained at the former city by Eudocia , wife of Theodosius II , was sent as a present to her daughter , the wife of Valentinian III , so notorious in the annals of this century. Soon afterwards as legend states either Sixtus III or Leo I witnessed within this new church the miraculous uni- ting, to be for riveted together , of the two chains, by which the Apostle had been bound in the two cities : and the day of this occurence, the Ist of August, was therefore appoint- ed to be kept sacred by the Latin Church ; the festival of St Peter's Chains taking the place , as did several others , of a Pagan observance , that , namely, for which the same day was marked in the ancient calendar as sacred to Caesar Au- gustus. Several Popes , from the IX to the XV century, renew- ed or embellished this church on the Esquiline Hill ; and perhaps the most Uiorough alteration was that, with the archi- tecture of Baccio Pintelli , ordered by the Cardinal Titular , Delia Rovere ; afterwards Julius II \ At present , propably , nothing of the original remains as in old time , save the beautiful colonnades of Greek marble , whose capitals indeed are new ; and here , instead of the horizontal architrave pre- ferred at S. Maria Maggiore , we see the round-headed arch , of narrow span , a feature that marks the second phase in the Romanesque Basilica. The present atrium is the building of Pintelli; the vaulting, in bad taste, by an architect enga- ged in I70o. There is still , however, a character of majestic harmony in this spacious temple-interior. As to the detail of roofing , it seems certain that the early basilicas had rafters without ceiling, left exposed but highly ornamented, some- times .as at St. Paul's , plated with gilt metal , and the intervening spaces filled with similarly adorned ar painted 220 IN THE FIFTH CENTIRY woodwork ; the naked roof and beams , such as now seen at S. Sabina , being a later expedient resulting from poverty ; and the flat coffered ceiling , now so gorgeous with carving and gilding in many Roman churches, an inappropriate, comparatively modern accessory. The earliest form of window- was the round-arched, and (for fagades) the circular, or « ox-eye » ; and before glass became common , this was filled, as still the case at SS. Vinrenzo ed Anastasio and S. Giovanni a Porta Latina, with marble plates pierced with small round holes for light ; or, more rarely, with diaphanous, marble , as at S. Miniato (Florence) {!). The purity and repose, of the primitive Basilica-type seem to convey silent evidence in favour of the worship to which it was consecrate. May we not infer that a quiet dignity, so- lemn and subdued , while rich in mystic symbolism and meaning , must have distinguished the rites for which such sanctuaries were created ? In order to finish our study of this epoch's monuments , we must return to the City, and visit a church of very different character, the first example of a style yet new in the Chris- tian architecture of Rome and the West. To this century belongs the architecture , though not the mosaic-decoration, of one of the most interesting and curious Roman edifices , 8. S^e/'ano Rotondo. Solitary and neglected , scarce visited by worshippers save on the days of stations , this quiet sanctuary, amidst an untenanted region on the Coelian Hill, impresses by a certain gracefulness, and by an air of venerable antiquity , that seems to render it a con- necting link between the Pagan and the Christian Past. It is the largest circular building of its description that exists; (1) The Doric colonnade at 5. Pietro in VnicoH , evidently antique, and probfably from the Thermae of Trajan, over part of which tliis church is built , well exemplifies the Roman modification of that order .• here the Doric shaft has the height of 7 diameters and three- fourths ; while at the temple of Theseus , Athens, it has about 6,, and at Paestum ouly four 4 [5 diameters. THE CHURCH 221 and after having been long regarded by Italian antiquarians as a Pagan temple, either of Faunus , Jupiter, Bacchus, or the Emperor Claudius, the Germans (see ^unsen , Beschreih- unj ) have clearly shewn , arguing from its very inferior ma- sonry of the period of deep decline, that it wa. not merely converted from Heathen to Christian uses in the V century, but built from its foundations between 4G7-483, though not embellished with its richer ornaments till between 523-530. when marble incrustations and mosaics were added by Popes John I and Felix IV. As it stood in the year 1410, abandoned ■M\(\ roofless , but still bearing traces of past magnificence , Fiavio Biondo describes it ; that writer inferring that it must have been one of the most splendid churches in Rome. Us ruin had commenced probably before the transfer of the Papal residence to Avignon. Nicholas V ordered the restoration which was, in fact, a sacrifice of antique beauty with dimi- nution of scale ; one entire aisle being cut ofT, and the ar- cades dividing this from the inner one walled up in order to narrow the circular area. A portico was added with a new entrance , whore had been no doorway in the original plan , the principal entrance having formerly opened on the Via Metronis (or Metronia ) , which traversed this height of the Coelian, leading to that now closed gateway of the same name. The interior is still beautiful , though every modern detail is in false taste. Fifty-eight columns (all granite , except one of Parian , two of Carystian marble ) with Ionic capitals , divide the circular aisle from the centre , as they once divided the exislmg from the lost compartment ; two loftier slia'ts , with two pilasters, supporting an attic that traverses the rotunda in its diameter; the cupola being now replaced by a plain flat ceiling ef woodwork. In the windows of the attic , under this roof, we see rude attempts at tracery, and some slight re- mains of glass painting. The tribune, opposite to which was the ancient entrance, contained no altar prior to the year 650, not having originally served as choir , the high altar being in the centre ; and this section ( now the choir ; was probably 225 IN THE FIFTH CE.NTLRY built by Pope Theodore after the discovery (said to have been through revelation ) , of the bodies of SS. Primus and Feli- cianus , two brothers of patrician birth , who suffered together on the Nomentan Way, and were buried in the Catacombs near, A. D. 295. The mosaics on its low apse represent those Martyrs standing beside a large cross , studded with jewels , over which hovers the Divine Dove ; each with a book in liis hand, each dressed alike in long white garments, with broad purple laticlave folded over one arm : both in treatment and costume these figures displaying the influences of a school still classic , — the composition not without a certain reli- gious dignity. One can only notice to condemn the works of modern art in this church— as well the toy-like , elaborate tabernacle (the ingenious manufacture of a German baker) over the altar in the midst, and the repulsive frescoes by Tempesla and Pomeranci ( XVI century ) that cover the walls of the aisle with ghastly scenes of martyrdom , in which the merely physical horror predominates, exemplifying that false direction given to modern piety which arrests attention on man rather than on Deity, and would make emotion do the work of principle. In order to form a correct idea of this church's original plan, we should visit the pleasant vineyard, which extends beyond the rotunda of old walls along the Ccelian slopes , commanding one of those impressive views . where ruin , landscape , city and solitude are combined , so peculiar to Rome. Here we see the antique constructions of the outer aisle , and its now built-up arcades , with five co- lumns at each point of the compass ( the four original in- gresses) , mullioned aTid circular windows with tracery; and other fragments of marble decoration , the portions less ruin- ous being now used as granaries ; the space between the limits of the now reduced and the originally much ampler edifice, measuring 3^ feet. Close to S. Sfefano once stood a more an- cient church dedicated to St. Erasmus , with a monastery of which St. Benedict was founder , Pope Deodatus ( about A. D. 672) the restorer; and of which considerable ruins, THE ciuiicn 223 even the paintings on inner wall-surfaces, remained till about the end of the XVI century: some vaguely defined but pic- turesque piles of brickwork , near the gateway leading to the porch of S. Stefano from the road, being no doubt a remnant of the same cloisters, once known to History. The letters of St. Jerome and St. Paulinus, together with the C'ivUas Dei, present to us the picture of this age in truth- ful colouring; and another work of great importance in the same bearing is the Treatise by Salvian on the Divine Govern- ment, that strikingly displays the darker aspects, the deep- seated moral disease preying on the life of society under the Empire now in decline ; the general corruption among nom- inal Christians , the infatuate passion for amusements in the midst of public calamities, and the profanities in the holy l)lace , such as above noticed with reference to Rome ; though it is especially of the transalpine provinces that the Marseil- lese presbyter speaks. Whenever it was rumoured in the church that the spectacles of the arena were about to begin, the people used to desist from worship and rush to the am- ])hiteatre — spernitur templum Dei, ut curralur ad theatrum ! Venus was still worshipped in the theatre, Minerva in the gymnasium ; Neptune in the circus ; Mars in the arena : 3rercury in the palaestra — but perhaps such statements are metaphorical. « The City of Rome is besieged and captured ; jiave the Romans therefore ceased to blaspheme and to rage I » Salvian seems to open his mind to the conviction that the cause of the ancient Empire was not llie cause of Christian civilization; that her chastisement and humiliation might be subservient to higher interests in the Future. He takes a large and liberal view of the terms of Christian Communion , im- plying nothing less than the admission of all baptized believers into the Catholic Church: « What are the treasures bestowed by Deity upon Christians! — the Law, the Prophets, the Gospel, the Apostolic writings, the blessing of regeneration, the grace of Baptism , the unction of sacred chrism , by which we become a peculiar people , and truly that of God. o. The 224 IN THE FIFTH CENTURY Sermons of St. Leo illustrate the progress of ideas respecting the Christian vocation of Rome; and while claiming a distinct supremacy for St. Peter, the eloquent pontiff seems to under- stand the faith of that Apostle , in his confession of the Divine Messiah , to be the true foundation-rock. In regard to legends of the Blessed Virgin , I should add that the earliest ascertain- able date of the represention of her assumption in Art , is about 123o , when the subject was introduced by Giunta Pisano among his frescoes at the great Franciscan Church , Assisi ; Mary there appearing to ascend together with the Saviour, while her empty tomb is seen below — see Agincourt [Peinture, PI. 102;; and in the same w^ork (PI. 83) is given theGre- co-ruthenic picture, of the XI century, representing the transit of her soul, like an infant, received into the Saviour's arms, without the assumption of the body. The narrative of that mi- raculous event by St. Gregory of Tours dates about the year 390 ; and I believe the earliest recorded instance of direct invo- cation to 3Iary is in the life of St Justina, martyr under Dio- cletian , as written in the 17 century by Gregory Nazianzen — that legend wrought up so finely into the mystic tragedy , « El Magico Prodigioso » , by Calderon [\). (1) Salvianus , de GuhGrnitimi' Dei, 1. Ill, 2, 9, VI, 2, 3, 4, M, 42, VII, 46,48; St. Leo, Sermones on anniversary of his election; Be- schrdhiing der Stio.t Rom, by Bunsen and other (--erman archaeologists (for Roman churches the very best authority ) ; Moroni, Dizionario , ( for ecclesiastical details ) ; Mozzoni , Tavole crondo'jiche di Storia E - cleiiast'ca ; Okeley, « Christian Architecture in Italy » ; Ricci, Storia ec ; Mrs Jameson, « Legends of the Madonna »; end « History of Our Lord in Art w, edited by Lady Eastlake. St. Jerome mentions (Ep. ad Nepc.tian.) the gilded ceilings in churches - auro splendent laquearin ; and as to the bronze statue of St. Peter, erected by St, Leo, the assertion that it was formed from that of Jupiter Tonans in the Capitoline Temple, melted down and recast, is found in M^twyri? storiche illv.strat; ds'MMf.ri, Rome, 48G5. THE CHURCH 22S CHRONOLOGY OF MONUMENTS. Rome: St. Vitalis (modernized 1395), St. Alexius (restor- ation of church of St. Boniface , founded 30o , modernized 1724-30) — between iO\ and 417; St. Sabina , about 428: Lateran Baptistery, 433-40 ; S. Maria Maggiore rebuilt , 434 ; restorations and mosaics at St. Paul's , about 440 ; S. Stefano de' Mori (behind St. Peter's, renewed 4706, the sculptured portal alone antique ) 440 ; St. Peter in Yinculis , about 442 ; St. Stephen on the Latin Way, about 435 : chapels at the Lateran Baptistery, 462-68 ; S. Stefano Rotondo , and St. Bi- biana ( modernized in the XVII century ) , 468-83. Ravenna: S. Agata Maggiore, about 400; St. John the Evangelist, 423; Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, 440; mosaics in Baptistery, 4ol; CoMO : SS. Peter and Paul , (once the cathedral, now St. Abondio ) 469. vn. Ejiot'li off the Gothic ond fercck ^'ars. L\ ihe object of studying Chrislian Monuments of the VI cen- tury, we will commence at the church of SS. Cosmo and Damian , on the Forum , founded by Pope Felix IV between 526-530, in connection with the circular domed temple long popularly called that of Romulus, but determined by the German antiquarians to be in reality that of the Penates. A modernization of the XVII century has much altered the character of this church , and reduced its height through the raising of the pavement so as to form a crypt out of the lower portion. Still, however, are left in their integrity, though not without modern touches, the finely conceived mosaics in an apse , unfortunately ill-lighted and in part concealed by a cumbrous high altar , representing the Saviour between groups consisting of the martyred physicians to whom this church is dedicate , SS. Peter and Paul , St. Theodore , and Pope Felix , the founder ; but the last-named figure entirely modern as restored in the time of Alexander VII , and said to be , in its actual aspect , a portrait of Gregory XIII. The Sa- viour's figure here is one of the last examples found, before the total decline in sacred Art , of a truly noble and poetic ideal , instead of the sternly-ascetic and repulsive , in the present- ment of this sublime subject: majestically standing on bright clouds , clad in long garments (the Roman pallium and toga) of golden cloth embroidered with the mystic Tau , a scroll held in the left hand , wliilst the rieht arm is extended in AND GREEli WARS 227 dCtion that seems both to command and bless — ^the counten- ance distinguished by solemnity and a benign graciousness ; the long liair , of dark auburn , falling in massive curls down the face and neck; the draperies and extremities designed with a freedom subsequently lost in declining Art. SS. Cosmo and Damian are offering crowns ( the Martyr's s\Tnbol and trophy ) of laurel-leaves set with a large gem in front ; St. i'eter and Paul are here treated conformably to the long- prevaihng traditionary types of those two Apostles in artistic presentment: the Pope, who carries a model of the church, wears the pontific vestments , stole , and shoes embroidered with the Cross , by which Prelates were now distinguished among their Clergy — though neither mitre nor crozier had yet appeared. As to costume , its character , in all the other figures here, is classico-Roman , without anything symbolic, except the Tim on the garments of the Apostles , as well as on the Saviour's , which letter , regarded by the Heathens as a sign of life , felicity, or safety , becaine one form of the hidden Cross for the Christians , and is first introduced in their ear- lier art-efforts within the range of Catacombs (!). Other sym- bols aj)art from the figures introduced in this fine mosaic are the Star , the Phenix , the Palm , the mystic cities , Jerusalem and Bethlehem , the Jordan flowing across the foreground ; while below , along a frieze , are twelve sheep representing the Apostles , all turning towards a Lamb in the centre , that « slain from the foundations of the world » , whose head is crowned by the nimbus , and whose feet rest on a mount whence are gushing the four rivers of Paradise , understood, among different senses, as typical of the Evangehsts. Above, on the triumphal arch, is another representation of the Di- vine Lamb, illustrating the Apocalyptic vision, seated on a throne , with the seven-sealed book and seven candelabra : beside it, the four established symbols of the Evangelists (two of which , however , have been lost through the alterations effected in the XVII century), and two figures offering crowns — sole remnant of a group of the four-and-twenty El- 2 28 EPOCH OF THE GOTHIC (lers, alike sacrificed by that Vandalism so frequently and unpardonably carried out in works of pseudo-restoration at Rome. Leaving this spot , we may pursue our walk beyond the City's walls, and, quitting by the Tiburtine Gate, visit the fine old Basilica of St. Laurence, lately restored witli some- what better taste (though not without destruction of mediaeval details entitled to highest respect) than has been shown in other similar enterprises by Roman architects. Pope Pela- gius II (572 — 90) made use of copious spoils from antique edifices in constructing the church here founded by him over the tomb of St. Laurence, already comprised within an ora- tory erected by Gonstantine, afterwards enlarged or embel- lished by Theodosius, as implied in the epigraph placed here by Galla Placidia {operis de^us omne paterni); later restored by Sixtus III and Leo I ; and this basilica of Pelagius even- tually became the choir only of a much ampler church , v/hen S. Lorenzo rose into new importance, rebuilt, and in plan much altered, by Ilonorius III, about 1216. It has leen assumed (v. Gregorius, Gesch. der SfadtRom.) that Pelagius himself added a fore-church , reducing the more antique edifice to a choir, elevated above the original level, and ascended by steps from the nave , which Ilonorius III pro- longed in the form and to the extent of the actual structure. And the distich still seen under the mosaic group pe.^haps alludes to that twofold building under the earlier pontificate: Martijrium faminls olim Lerita suhisti Jure iiiis (emfVs lux lenerancla redil. Italian writers ascribe the entire building of the inner church to Pelagius ; and some suppose that the beautiful colonnade of fluted pillars— with Victories and trophies on their finely chiselled capitals — stood here before that Pope's time ; also that the upper tier of smaller columns, above their an- cient architrave , was his addition to those details obviouslv A.ND GIlEKi; WARS 229 accumulated from llie rich spoils of some classic temple. The mosaics, executed under Pelagius, adorn what, in conse- quence of those changes , has become the inner instead of the outer side of the triumphal arch ; no longer visible from the nave , but from the tribune , whose position towards the chief portal and main edifice has been reversed. These art-works iiave suffered injury through the opening of two windows ; since walled up) , and through re5toration in painting instead of in the same material originally used. At the centre of the group is the Saviour, of youthful but severe aspect, seat- ed on a globe , with a long cross or crux Jiastata) in one hand, the other being raised to bless ; beside Him are SS. Peter and Paul, the former also holding a wand (the well-known sym- bol of authority, assigned to this Apostle from the period orf Catacomb Art); SS. Stephen, Laurence, Hippolytus , and Pope Pelagius (in white vestments) presenting the model of his basilica — a mode of distinguishing the founders of church- es peculiar to, and continued throughout, the period of the mediaeval Mosaic School; (he attributes here given to St. Laurence being the long wand and book of the Gospels . proper to a deacon, while Hyppolytus , as a martyr without other special attribute, offers a leafy crown set with gems; and St. Paul, without any symbol, is distinguished by the phi- losophic type of his head ; in ecclesiastical costume this mo- saic serving to show how far prevailed , even up to this pe- riod , the simplicity recommended by St. Jerome, who goes so far as even to prohibit pure white to the cleric's garments {vestes pullas aequo devita , at Candidas, Ep. ad Nepot. ). The two mystic cities are also introduced ; and here also we per- ceive the same classic characteristics, as elsewhere, in ge- neral treatment. Hitherto, indeed, we have seen in Rome's Christian Mosaics much rather the influence of the Past than the rise of any new ideas, or artistic manner peculiar to more modern Ages. From the ruins of decayed Empire the new birth of vivifying Genius, informed by the virtue of Di- 230 EPOCH OF THE GOTHIC vine Religion, was yet unaccomplished', or but in the tirst stage of travaf'il. The VI century opens in Rome with an event of poli- tical importance — the festive ingress of Theodoric , who had assumed the yet novel title, « King of Italy » — a Christian , but repudiating the doctrine deemed most essential to orlho- dox faith; he was received in the Imperial City with pomps that might have reminded of the triumphs of Caesars; welcomed , even before passing the gates , by the Pope with his clergy in solemn procession. Proceeding at once to the Curia (or Se- nate-house) this^ Arian conqueror made an allocution to the people « in the place called Palma » , ( « probably » , adds aiuratori , « some great hall of Ihe Imperial Palace » ). He is said to have been struck with admiration at the majesty , decorum , and scrupulously-observed etiquette of the assem- bled Senate, still affecting all its ancient dignities. Desiring popularity, he revived the largesses of old , assigning an an- nual allowance of 20,000 bushels of grain lo the populace ; and (with intelligent purpose) an annual subvention to be raised from the wine-tax for restoring the Caesars' Palace , the City's walls , and other public buildings. Gibbon tells us that « a professed architect , the annual sum of 200 lbs in gold , 23,000 tiles , and the receipt of cus- toms from the Lucnne lake » were the means assigned for these well-ordered restorations. And the edicts passed by the Golhic King at Rome were framed to prevent the maltreat- ment, neglect, or spoliation of classic monuments by the City's own- inhabitants ; also , with similar care rendered ne- cessary by the barbaric propensities of a degenerate people , to protect against outrage all antique statues in public places ( « Decline and Fall » , ch. XXXIX ;. Games, like those ever the delight of Pagan multitudes , were now given in the Cir- cus Maximus , whose buildings we may suppose to have stood at this period in their antique integrity. The Mausoleum of iladrian, now fortified (though not for the first time) be- AND GREEK WARS 23( Came the « Castrum Theodorici ». A Pretorian Prefect and a Patrician were created ; the political promises made by the Gothic King to the Roman people were engraved on a bronze: tablet to be left exposed on the Forum , near the Curia , for future ages. It is evident that, at this period, no substantial power was exercised or efficient government carried on in Rome by the Greek Emperor, though civic authorities still acted in his name , and the Popes acknowledged his sover- eignty. The designs of ambition and tempests of passion that now began to surge around the envied Chair of St. Peter , seem a fatal earnest of the contests fraught with disaster, that have proceeded from , or been fostered by , this sacerdotal sovereignty in less distant ages. In the year 503 the struggle between Symmachus and the Antipope Laurence was still continuing , — had indeed attained the most formidable pro- portions , with bloodshed , massacre , outrages, assault of de- fenceless ecclesiastics in the streets. The turbulent ex-Consul , Festus , still carried on civil war against the Senate and the Pope; priests and laymen, who had sided with Symmachus, were assassinated daily. That Pontiff with his Clergy, on their way to attend a Council convened for his justification before the adverse party, were attacked and driven from the ground by showers of stones ! During four years subsequent the Antipope persisted in his violent assertion of claims, occupying several churches , converting the house of God into a fortress of lawless power I This fierce contest lasted even long after the above-mentioned interposition of the Gothic King, who de- creed that all the cliurches held by^Laurence should be restored to Symmachus, and that whoever had been elected first by the due majority should be henceforth held legitimate in the succession to the Roman See. Proof of the rapidly-extending power attached lo this Pontificate is found in the nomination , made by Symmachus (as by Zosimus) of a Vicar in Gaul, with fa- culty for the convoking of Councils; St. Cesarius, Bishop of Aries, being so appointed with bestowal of the pallium, which li*^ 532 EPOCH OF THE GOTHIC was the first prelate in the West to receive , assign of office conferred , from Rome. During nearly sixteen year's occupa- tion 01 St. Peter's chair, Symmachus proved one of the most active and munificent Popes in such public works as the restoration and adornment of churches , on which he besto.w- , ed a wealth of offerings in gold and silver , that excites iiSiOnishment when we read the catalogue given by Anasta- sius. Among basilicas founded by him were those of Saint Andrew (near St. Peter's), St. Pancrace on the Via Vitellia, St. Agatha on the Aurehan Way, SS. Silvester and Martin , among the ruins of Trajan's Therma ; among other new works and repairs, were the staircase before St. Peter's, and two episcopia ( Papal residences ) lateral to that church; the en- largement of the basilica of St. Michael ; the entire renovation of St. Agnes on the Nomentan Way, and of the tribune of St. Paul's; the erection of oratories at several other churches, also that of a staircase external to the tribune at SS. Giovan- ni e Paolo — some trace of which is still visible on the hemi- cycle in brickwork. We read, among his gifts, oi confessionals altars, to contain revered relics, for crypt— chapels) wrought in silver , for the churches of St. Andrew, St Thomas , Saint .Cassianus , SS. Protus and Hyacinthus , St. ApoUinaris , Saint Sophius; of images in silver of the Saviour and the twelve Apostles (altogether weighing 120 lbs) for the Oslian Basilica; and, for the Vatican, a golden Cross set with gems to con- tain a relic of the true wood on which the Saviour suffered. Baths built for the use of monks, and perhaps also for pil- grims, at the same basilica on the Ostian Way, and at that of St. Pancrace , attest the practical sense that guided this energetic Pope ; as his charitable zeal is also shown , with still ^lore honour to his memory, in his erection of hospices for the poor adjacent to the great basilicas , then alike extramur- al , of St. Peter , St. Paul , and St. Laurence. Besides these public works, other charities were exercised by Symmachus with expenditure still more surprising when we consider .the then depressed conditions of Rome , in the redemption AND GREER WARS 233 of citizens sold into slavery, and the maintenance of several exil- ed African Bishops driven to Sardinia through the persecu- tini^ tyranny of the Vandals. A circumstance observable in the election of the successor to Symmachus , was the presence of the celebrated Cassiodor- us, as Consul, and Deputy of Theodoric , empowered to give the sanction of a heretic King to this most important transaction of the Roman Church! The new Pope, Hormisdas, was, however, an active promoter of orthodox interests, charitable towards the poor, and severe towards heretics. He condemn- ed certain monks for sustaining the ofTensive proposition : One of the Holy Trinity suffered ; and the most ancient privileges accorded by the Roman See to the monastic bodies of the West, are said to date from this pontificale (314-23;. Hormis- das also sent three legations to Constantinople in the object of restoring ecclesiastical union between that City and the H.oly See; and again do we find the Papacy, in the person of the same Pontitt , condemning books [ those by one Faustus upon questions of Grace and Free Will); ordering general reforms among the Clergy, and vigorously eGTecting the ex- l)ulsion from Rome of the Manichaeans , the most unpopular and immoral of all sects. Magnificent offerings found their way into the City's lately devastated sanctuaries in the time of Hormisdas; and pro- bably all trace of Gothic and Vandal pillage had disappeared from the holy places before this century was at end. The convert King of the Francs , Clovis , sent a jewelled crown of gold , and a golden paten 20 lbs in weight. Hderic king of the Vandals, another convert, having renounced the national Arianism , sent from Africa gold and silver sacramental ves- sels , and a volume of the Gospels in golden jewelled binding. Even the heretical Theodoric contributed his quota in a sil- ver architrave, or cornice (weight liOO lbs;, and silver can- delabra for St. Peter's. Among the acts of the next Pope, John, was the restoration or enlargement of several catacombs, parti- cularly those of SS. Nereus and Achilleus — whence is inferrible 23i EPOCH OF THE GOTHIC tlie continued frequenting of such subterraneans for devotion- al purposes. A singular proceeding was tlie mission with which this Pope, called St. John I , elected 523 , was charged by Theodo- ric, to obtain from the Emperor Justinus the restitution to the Arians of the churches taken from them at Constantinople ; and because of his failure in which object , that Pontiff was thrown into prison at Ravenna, where he languished out the rest of his days — honoured by the church, on account of those suflferings , as a martyr : but this story of tyrannic wrong conveys significant evidence in the mere fact of a Pope having undertaken so inappropriate an embassy at the behest of a Heretic King, leading us to infer how utterly was wanted, to the then successors of St. Peter , even the sentiment of that secular dignity enjoyed , or that august power wielded by them in later ages. It should be remembered , indeed, for the honour of this ill-used Pontiff, that there are grounds for supposing he exerted himself to influence the Emperor for objects directly the reverse of those he had been charged to promote, or at least confined himself to counselling some modification alone of the laws against the Arians. Anastasius describes the honours of his reception at Con- stantinople — the Clergy and citizens meeting him , with cros- ses and torches, at the distance of twelve miles from the gates ; the Emperor kneehng at his feet; universal jubilee manifest around his progress — details that evince how, even thus early, the wrangling and ever schismatically-inclined Greeks had learnt to revere the religious superiority of Rome , and own, perhaps half-unconseiously , the claims of her Pontiffs. This was the first instance of a visit to the new by the ecclesias- tical head of the c^ncient metropolis ; and by the desire of Justinus now ensued an act , later invested with such high political importance , the coronation of an Emperor (also the first) by Papal hands. The successor of the mstrtyred John^I, Felix IV, was imposed upon the Romans (o26) by Theodoric, but very unwillingly accepted — « not (according to the A.ND GREEK WARS 2'3'y Art de verifier les dates) till after the Senate and Clergy had vigorously resisted the demands made » by that King. Agapilus (o35) distinguished himself by his bold opposi- tion to the pride of Justinian, who urged him to communi- cate wiih Anthimus, a patriarch of Constantinople condemne;! as heretical ; to the threats used by that Prince, he replied : « 1 thought I was speaking with a Catholic Emperor, but now perceive that I have to do with another Diocletian ». Justin- ian eventually yielded: and in a Council, held in the Eas- tern metropolis, the Roman Pontiff was able to make such high assertion of his now supreme dignity as implied through pronouncing with his own lips the sentence of deposition against the chief Prelate in the Byzantine Church, the favour- ite and nominee of an Emperor — or, rather that of the Em- press Theodora. Agapitus having died at Constantinople, his successor, Sylverius. ,336;, was appointed by another inter- position of a Gothic King, Theodatus; but that favour of the Arian proved fatal to its unfortunate object , who, during the siege of Rome by Vitiges, was calumniously accused , on evi- dence of letters forged in his name, as having encouraged the Romans to surrenderto the Goths while the City was defend- ed by Belisarius: which General took it upon himself to depose, and send him into exile ,1;. Vigilius was elected in his place by the same arbitrary interference ; and though Justinian even- [i] It is traditionary that the small church, S. Marii in Trivio , r/ear the magnificent Trevi fountain , was built by Belisarius as ex- piation of his crime, in remorse either for tliis treatment of the Pope, or for the pillage after the taking of Naples. Though quite modern- ized in -1573, it still exhibits on its front the inscription to this ellcct, formerly in the interior: Haec vir patricius Vih'sarius, urhis amicus, Ob culpac veniam condidit ecclcsiam , llanc hie circo pedem sacram qui ponis in aedcni, Saepe prccare Dcum ut misorcatur eum. lanua hacc est templi Domino dcfensa polcnti. 236 EPOCH OF THE GOTHIC tually ordered the recall and re-establislimeiit of Sylveriiis on the Papal throne , the intriguing Empress contrived to thwart the accomplishment of that just act, and drew down still more cruel wrongs on the innocent Pontiff, who was now a second time banished to the island of Palmaria, where he died, probably of hunger, two years after his inauspicious eleva- tion. During his disastrous pontificate the principalevent of local history was that siege of Rome by Vitiges , so graphically de- scribed by Procopius. The progress of the Greek conquests under the Generals of Justinian had aroused the Goths to a concentrated effort ; and after defeat sustained by the latter under the walls of Perugia, their King put himself at the head of the forces which marched against Rome , A. D. 537, not less than 150,000 strong, if w^e may credit the report of the contemporary historian. The assailants formed their lines from seven camps , directing their attacks especially again.^t the northern walls between the Flaminian and Salarian gales. Vigorous , and in the event successful , was the defence con- ducted by Belisarius, w^hose head quarters were at that domus Pindana { supposed on or near the site of the present Tri- nita de' Monti church } first mentioned in the letters of Cassio- dorus, and deriving from some patrician family the name which eventually superseded that of Collis Hortorum for the plea- sant hill now laid out in public gardens , the favourite resort of the modern Romans. In his preparations to meet this emer- gency, Belisarius caused the Honorian walls to be strength- ened or repaired, wherever necessary; but the il/wro Torto, which forms so singular a buttress against the declivities of the Pincian , and is described by Procopius as leaning out of the perpendicular, precisely in the same state more than 1300 years ago as at this day, — this wall, though obviously indefen- sible and unavailing against assault , was left untouched by the prudent General, rather than act counter to the popular superstition w hich opposed his intent to restore it , on the plea that the infallible protection of St. Peter was divinely secured to that point in the fortifications — an idea indeed A\D GUEEK WARS 537 justified Ly the result, for the Gotbs, we are told by Pro- copius , never directed any assault against those leaning walls (luring the siege. The battering-ram and all other kno^vn instruments of such aggressive war were used by this enemy. File principal aqueducts were reduced to ruin : thus the sup- ply of water being cut off, the mills for grinding corn could no longer be worked; and the Thermae, kept up hitherto in all their ancient magnificence, and perhaps not less the cen- tre of entertainment than in the time of the Caesars, became in consequence unavailing for the purposes of the bath, and were for the most part (if not yet in every instance) de- serted. Famine ensued ; but more extreme sufferings were averted by the timely precaution of sending out of the City women, children, and all incapable of co-operating in the defence , to the migration of which helpless classes , whilst they sailed down the Tiber for Naples or Sicily, the Goths of- fered no resistance. The repealed sallies from the walls in almost every case resulted in the discomfiture of the enemy: and at last Viliges , alarmed by the rumoured approach of {towerful reinforcements by sea and land, made the lirst proposals of truce , speedily followed by the raising of a siege continued from March o37 till March 538, memorable for the resistance of a small garrison (but 5 or 6000 men: against a beleaguering army of about 'Io0,000 — disastrous to the inter- ests of art through the destruction of irreplaceable master- pieces, statues and friezes by Praxiteles and Lysippus, thrown down (and by Greeks!) as mere missiles of war in the de- fence of the fortified Mausoleum of Ilndrian. Viliges had been immediately induced to make terms v/ith Belisarius by that report of the strong reinforcements , from Constantinople, said to be approaching by sea and land ; and convoys of provisions in the event arrived , but with only an insignificant contingent of troops. The Goth, not .ibandoning his system of aggressive warfare , now marched upon Rimini , besieged and took it; placed garrisons in Orvie- to , Chiusi , Urbino, aud other towns: invited the Francs to 238 EPOCH OF Tin: gothic descend the Alps, the Persians to attack the Oriental fron- tiers; in compliance with which summons to northern allies, 10,000 Burgundians, led by Uraja, the nephew of Vitiges , entered Italy, joined by the Goths in their first vigorous ef- fort, attended with the most complete and cruelly abused success, the siege of Milan, then the most populous and flourishing city of the West, whose bishop had injudiciously endeavoured to excite revolt against the Gothic authorities, and gone to Rome to obtain Belisarius's support in this object. Terrible and disgraceful w^ere the consequences : after the citizens had endured extremities of famine , the two Greek commandants capitulated on the sole condition that their own lives should be saved; all the male inhabitants (Procopius makes the number , probably with exaggeration , 300,000 ) were slain, not even children excepted; all the females were reduced to slavery ; in the churches priests were massacred upon the very altars ; and the city was left a heap of ruins, as nearly as possible annihilated ! The ecclesiastical revolution at Rome , brought about by Belisarius, was one among many examples of the wrong and humiliation suffered by the Papacy under Byzantine despo- tism. Of Sylverius we know little ; but one act recorded to his honour is his reprobation of the pillage and massacre by the Greeks at the capture of Naples , and it is said their Gener- al was thereby induced to return for the endeavour to give new life to the desolate city. But the offence for wiiich this pontiff lost rank and liberty, was his refusal to recognise the schismatic ( or heretic ) Anthimus , who had been law- fully deposed from the see of Constantinople , and whom the ever-intriguing Empress Theodora was bent on reinstating : his answer on which subject to the imperial lady is a model of epistolary laconism : « Domlna Augusta, never can I do j^uch a thing as to call back a heretic condemned in his ini- quity ! » But the accusation now officially made against this doomed victim , was that he had sought to persuade the Ro- mans to capitulate in the siege. From the church of S. Sabina, AND GRF.EK WARS 239 where he had taken refuge, he was led to the Pincian Palace, and there upbraided by Anlonina , the haughty and worth- less wife of Belisarius. who received him reclining on a touch , whilst her submissive husband sat at her feet , and the other clerics brought with Sylverius were left waiting between the inner and outer veils (I . After listening to ac- cusations of treason, he was then and there stripped of his [)ontific vestments, clothed in the habit of a monk, thus shown in derision to the people , and im«iediately sent into his long eyile, first to Pateras, a city of Lycia , finally to the island of Palmaria , where he died either of starvation , or by the hand of an assassin hired by Antonina. The next day Beli- sarius convoked all the Roman Clergy, and commanded them to elect Vigilius (537), whonow^ became Pope, giving the first evil example of elevation to that office tlirough simoniac means, having purchased the imperial favour and that of An- tonina by the promised bribe of 200 lbs of gold , the pledge to communicate with a heretic bishop of Alexandria, and to condemn the Council of Chalcedon. Muratori questions the report of a solemn anathema having been launched by the exiled Pope against the usurper; as also that of the aMica- tion of the latter, touched by revisitings of conscience; but it seems certain that, after the death of Sylverius (o37), Vigi- lius was re-elected with concurrence of all the Roman Clergy; and that thenceforth he seemed animated by a new spirit of zeal for truth and justice , as if the legitimate conferring of such high office brought with it certain mysterious virtues, even in the case of one hitherto unworthy. Belisarius left Rome for the brief interval of peace and security she had to enjoy after that long siege ; and , marching northwards , quickly became master of Ancona, Osimo, Fiesole; at last (after greater r/Tort; of Ravenna, which he had the humanity to provision (I) A detail of ancient manners — curtains being then iji use, instead of doors , to veil the entrances of palaces , like the porliere still common in Italian churches. 240 EPOCH OF TUB GOTHIC before entering after the capitulation. He had feigned to accept, but eventually refused, the crown of Italy offered him by the Gothic chiefs even while Vitiges was still maintaining the defen- sive in that city. The women of Ravenna reviled their husbands when they saw what a puny force were those now entering to oc- cupy the Gothic capital ; but the inhabitants had nothing to suf- fer ; only Yitiges was made prisoner, to be sent to Constantino- ple , and there finish his days in captivity; while the royal palace, untouched since the time of Theodoric, was ransack- ed of all its treasures, that Justinian might become their possessor. Belisarius being soon afterwards recalled , in order tn undertake the Persian war, Italy was consigned to the authority of eleven Greek dukes, who now divided her cities under military government, feeble against the Goths , oppres- sive and exacting towards the Italians. One of their ministers obtained the cognomen , « the scissors » , from his skill in clipping coin before it passed into circulation. The Gothic race were still possessed of Verona, Pavia , and probably the whole Ligurian province , then comprising the entire north-western coast. Their leaders had made repeated instance to Belisarius, but in vain , to induce him to become king of the country he might thus have forever detached from the Greek Empire ; and their policy was now to elect in rapid succession three native princes, two of whom being cut off by violent death, the third, Baduilla, — known in History asTotila, or « the Victorious » — survived to enjoy a more long and illustrious reign. This new king at once resumed the hereditary task of aggression ; marched from Verona at the head of but 5,000 men ; met and discomfited the Greek dukes at Faenza ; took the principal cities of Emilia , and traversed Tuscany on his way to Naples, of which he became master after alongseige, there using his victory with the most humane moderation; though ordering the walls to be levelled , he allowed no wrong to the inhabitants , but took care to have them pro- vided with food , first in small , then in larger quantities , thus to save them from the danger of excess after privation. AND GREEt WARS 241 The Byzantine government now charged Belisarius to com- mand another campaign in Italy , but , with inconceivable hltleness, required him to equip the expedition at his own cost ! and the first Greek General of the age had never , dur- ing this war, more than 8000 soldiers under his orders. To- tila presently appeared within sight of Rome ; where , on his approach, was taken by the Greek commandant within its walls the step (characteristic of that ever-theologizin£i go- vernment ; of expelling all the Arian priests there found — as if to propitiate Heaven by the efforts of bigotry! Belisarius. who had fortified himself first, with quite insufficient means, at Ravenna, sailed thence to Durazzo ; and having obtained some reinforcement, afforded what aid was w^ithinhis power to Rome by sending as many as he could spare to garrison the castle of f'orlo, near the Tiber's mouth: but all soon fell into an am- bush, and were put to the sword. Totila now became master of Tivoli, aided by treason from within its walls; and several were slaughtered , including the bishop , on the taking of that town. Having encamped on the heights near , those olive-clothed slopes at present so fascinating to the tourist and artist), Totila thence addressed an appeal to the Romans , reminding them of all they had suffered under Greek misrule , of the cruel wrong inflicted on their pontiff ( singularly urged by an Arian invader against an orthodox Emperor !), promising peace and pardon on condition of an amicable reception within their gales. And this foe gave practical proof of his humanity: sparing the defenceless , protecting woman from violence , and sending back to their husbands , without ransom , the wives of Senators made captive at the siege of the castle of Curaa. Early in the year 545, he returned , after having taken Osimo but abandoned his unsuccessful effort against Perugia, to direct these more important operations. The Romans were now without their pontiff; for Yigilius , (little to his credit at such a crisis ' had escaped to Sicily, where he indeed en- deavoured to be of a.ssistance. An energetic Deacon , Pelagius, seems to have been the most esteemed and conspicuous among 16 242 EPOCH OF THE GOTHIC the clergy at their post ; and him the citizens now delegated to treat with Totila for an armistice of however brief dura- tion. He was honourably received ; but anticipated in his pleadings with the intimation that three requests could not be even listened to: — the extending of favour to the Sicilians, the sparing of the Roman w alls ( chief impediment to the open contest with his foes desired by the Goth ) ; and the restitution of the captives, who now served among his troops. The beleaguered City was at this emergency without any leader of high abilities to conduct the defence. Belisarius was at a distance ; and the Greek dukes who had been entreated to give their aid , answered by vain promises , but had the baseness to remain inert whilst the ancient capital was on the verge of ruin. Famine began to rage with all its horrors among the miserable people, and those who had means contriv- ed to escape by purchasing (i from Greek officials the licence to emigrate , but numbers died upon the road , or on the ves- sels they had embarked in , from the exhaustion of hunger. A vigorous effort made by Belisarius to bring succour in boats, one of which he himself mounted , after sailing up the Mediterranean from Otranto , was thwarted through the de- feat sustained by his troops on the sea-shore, which induced him , under the idea that the sole place of retreat now^ held by his forces near Rome . the castle of Porto , had fallen into the hands of the foe , to abandon his attempt after he had already burnt down one of two towers, raised by Totila, guarding a bridge of beams that had been thrown across the Tiber. Nigiit hung over the doomed City when , at the centre still most ennobled by her classic monuments and memories , an incident occurrea that strikingly shows how the Paganism of feeling had survived , even till this day, the official sup- pression of the ancient worship. That celebrated temple of Janus (nothing more, in fact, than a bronze aedicula with portals on both sides) still rose overlooking the Forum, near the Arch of Severus, on the Capitoline hill ,. its forip grouping to- AND GREEK WARS 243 gether with the lofty arcades of the Tabularium , the Corin- thian peristyle of Saturn's Temple , and the Ionic colonnade of that of Vespasian , neither as yet in ruin , and both still beautiful in the wreck of their magnificence. Amidst the panic and agitation of the public mind, there were those who now thought of having recourse to the forgotten god, and reopening the fane where his two-faced image still stood, re- membering the Heathen practice that required it to be shut in peace only, always open during war ; but the bronze gates, grown rusty, could not be made to move on their hinges ; and thus was the furtive attempt thwarted. Its obscure au- thors might have seen , beyond the arch of Titus , the arcade stories of the Flavian Amphitheatre, then perhaps lit by the full moon , that gives the most appropriate illumination to its warm-tinted masses of stupendous architecture , solemnizing and softening. The splendid temple of Venus and Rome still rose in its completeness, as did the Julian and Gonstantinian Basilicas , in sight from the Capitoline slope ; only one Chris- tian church ( that over the fane of ihe Penates ) was then visible from this spot; but the record of a condemned wor- ship was impressively evident in those deserted and long- closed sanctuaries; the associations of the arena stained with martyrs' blood added to the solemn lessons of the scene ; and one might have thought that here , above all other places , the most frivolous mind would have been fortified against the danger of relapse , even in thought , to the fallen super- stition. It was through the treason of the Isaurian Guard that Rome was at last given up to the invader ; and those foreig n sentinels having admitted a few Goths by the Ostian gate, assisted them in breaking open the valves so that the whole army presently passed in, on the night of the 1 7th of De. cember , 546 ; and Totila ordered the trumpets to sound for that whole night , not only to announce the great event , but in the humane object of warning the citizens to take re. fuge in churches , which were , and remained , inviolate. That 2ii EPOCH OF TilE COTIliC leader himself at once repaired to St. Peter's, to worship at the shrine , and was there met by Pelagius , nobly represent- ing the benign and heroic character of the priesthood , with the Gospel in his hands , and the words on his lips : Tuis parce , domine ! — « Spare , my lord , those now your sub- jects ». Nor was the appeal in vain, for Totila forbade every act of outrage; though pillage indeed took place; some build- ings were fired in the Transtiberine quarter ; and in the lirst flush of victory sixty of the populace, twenty-six of the Greek soldiers were slain. The widow of the illustrious Boetius, who had reduced herself to extreme poverty by her charities during the siege, was protected from the fury roused against her by the known fact of her causing a statue of Theodoric, her husband's murderer, to be overthrown. In order to ren- der another defence of the City more difficult . Totila com- manded the demolition of the Honorian walls in about one- third of their extent, from the Nomentan to the Asinarian !, had been reduced, even be- 284 Or.lGiN OF THE MONASTIC OKDERS fore the late change of government , from 85,000 to an average of 28 000 ducats per annum. In the IX century arose, first in the Frankish Empire , the al^use of bestowing abbacies in commendam , by royal let'ers patent , upon seculars , usually feudal lords , who assumed the title of « Count Abbots », and, as may be imagined , did their utmost to enslave and victim- ise the unfortunate monks ; often contriving to render he- reditary their possession in ihe first instance granted but for life. The prerogatives of Abbesses were such that they might be called queens in spiritual government : often women of abil- ities, they received large tribute and obedience, extending au- thority over various monasteries , sometimes (though this was eventually condemned ; over communities of both sexes , so that monks as well as nuns might be governed by a female ! Powers were arrogated by some high-placed Lady Abbesses which the Church never could sanction or admit, as, in cer- tain Spanish cloisters , the right to hear confessions and pro- nounce sacramental absolution over their subject nuns! The story of charitable is identical with that of monastic institutions. For many ages the hospice of the cloister was the only inn where rich and poor , travellers and pilgrims , found shelter ; the sole asylum , in rural districts at least , where the sick and infirm were ever received. At the No- nantola monastery, built about 732, near Modena , the saintly founder , Anselm , took care to provide an ample hospice and xenodochia for strangers and pilgrims, this Saint « being diligently occupied day and night in his cares for such , an- xious that none should go away without refreshment » ( Rer. Ital. Script. T. I, p. II). It was no doubt from regard to the indispensable usefulness of such establishments that Louis II, in Boo, appointed commissaries to inspect all the cloisters and hospices in Italy, and report whether repairs were needed. Muratori gives, from an old code, the bill of fare for the pil- grim's meal at one of these cloistral hotels : (f Scaphilum » (a certain measure) « gi^ani, unde fiat panis coctus, et duo ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 285 « cangia vini , et duo cangia pulmentarii ex faba et panico (( mixto bene spisso , et condito de uncto vel de oleo ». But one of the greatest merits of the Rehgious Orders was their promotion , by precept and example , of the cause of emancipation from slavery. Not that they on principle con- demned that institution from the first ; on the contrary, it is evident that for a long period the lands of most monasteries were cultivated by serfs , attached to the soil, who had passed into their property with the ground testowed by liberal don- ers. It was rather by their humane practice that they so ameliorated the condition and recognised the rights of the serf as to prepare for his ultimate freedom , to which result the decrees of Councils, the exhortations of prelates , as well as the laws of beneficent princes concurred. The Church in respect to this, as to other great evils, accepted the conditions of society as she found them ; aimed at no organized assault or sudden subversion ; but perseveringly combated with moral weapons, holding up truth and justice in order to destroy error and wrong. The cultivators of the conventual , as well as other estates , were , indeed , engaged under the common yoke of serfdom — but the Poet correctly bids us — Mark how gladly, through their own domains , The monks relax or break those iron chains. (Wordsworth, Eccles. Sonnets, P. II, IV). Monastic lieges were divided into different classes, and stood in different relations to the Abbot ; sometimes feudal , with obligation of attending him on solemn occasions and taking arms to defend his possessions from aggressors. Many were at- tached as serfs to lands of these masters from whom they might receive freedom , finding , almost invariably, protectors during infirmity or sickness in their cowled superiors ; though some indeed remained hereditary bondsmen , and could only inter- marry with families of like condition, leaving their childen in the same state. It often happened that sufferers from 286 ORIGIN OF THE 5I0NASTIC ORDERS the misery entailed on multitudes by cruel wars and de-' vastaling invasion , gave themselves up voluntarily to serfdom, in return for protection and maintenance ; these last were called ohnoxii. Superior both to the infeodated serfs and above- named dependents , were the tributaries voluntarily attached to religious Establishments, compensating by payment for the protection they received. It was not so often in money as in kind , that this census was paid ; and one form , in which certain liegemen made their simple offering, was that of wax for the altar ; in which case they were called cerocensuales. All such dependents were liable to serfdom , if failing to dis- chage their debt for a long period — as, for instance, three years — though mniors and the aged were often pardoned , sometimes inded on the antecedent stipulation of leniency to those in embarrassment (I). The cloisters rose from the verd- ant law^n , or against the background of luxuriant woods , surrounded by orchards or vineyards , while the monks , in their white or black habits , Benedictine, Carthusian, or Cis- tercian , moved among multitudes of busy retainers , cheered and civilized under their superintendance. Well was it for the future interests of Europe that not in cities, but in wild solitudes were .Monasteries , for the most part , founded , and that to manual more than to spiritual labour was dedicated the time of a majority among their inmates. Benedictines were the best of agriculturists , the best farmers and landlords. From some countries the culture of the vine disappeared (1) It was natural, in limes when slavery was the inevitable lot of multiludes, that many should prefer placing themselves in the dependence of regular rather than secular proprietors , because in the administration of property the religious communities ever fol- lowed a fixed principle , while the layman was guided by caprice. Among rural slaves a broad distinction existed between those hound to every species of service, and those who, residing on a particular estate , were pledged only to a certain labour , and a certain rent or tribute , — which last seems to have been generally the condi- tion of the monastic dependents (Biot, Abolition de I' Esclavage). ORIGIN OF THE MONAST.C Or.DERS 387 witli llie suppressed Monasteries; and to this day the choicest ^vines of Germany are produced from vineyards originally planted by monks ; the wh.ole cultivation of thai generous plant on the hanks of the Rhine being directly or indirectly due to their initiative. It was in the agricultural and rural as- pects that those institutions began, from the XI century, to assert social importance with the kindliest and most far spread- ing agency ; and the difTerent bodies into which the Bene- dictine Order was divided , may from that epoch be consid- ered in the fulness of their admirable development , the beauty and vitality of their picturesque centres , become the focus of so many talents and influences. For evoking before mental sight the whole pleasant picture of the mediaeval monastery^ we have the requisite material at hand in an interesting document given by Mabillon Annal. T. IV, 1. LIII ] , from among the Vatican codes — a norma for all buildings and arrangements of such sacred premises, drawn up by a monk Johannes at Cluny, in, or shortly before, the year 1009, and brought from that great Cistercian centre, in the same year, to Farfa by Hugo, abbot of that Benedictine establishment. Not only all appropriations , but al'. measure- ments are here marked out for the builders' guidance, so that the record has its value from the architect's point of view : for the church , inner length 1 iO feet , that of nave 63, height iS feet; length of whole , comprising porticoes , atrium , 280 ; the interior lighted by 1 60 windows, two towers flanking the front ; — a plan in which we observe how large the space for as- semblage of laics outside the portals, and how great the pro- portion of the choir (for the monks alone) compared with the nave. Sacristy, length 38 feet; dormitory, 160 by 2i, lighted by 97 windows; hall for conference or recreation, 43 by 3i feet; parlour for reception of visitors, length 30 feet; refec- tory, 90 by 23, height 23 feet, with eight windows at each of the four sides ; calidarium (furnace , 23 feet both in length and height ; kitchen , 30 by 23 ; pantry, 70 by GO ; corridor for alms-giving rcUa ekcmosynarum) 60 feet long; novitiate, a 288 ORIGIN' OF THE JIONASTIG ORDERS quadrangle including refectory and dormitory, 125 by 25 feet. The infirmary was to include six bed-rooms , and one room for feet-washing; and near the refectory were to be twelve cellars ( cryptae ) , where at staled times baths might be pre- pared for the brethren. Contiguous to the church , a great quadrangle (palathim) , '135 by 30 feet, was to be opened for guests, answering to the forestefia in Italian convents; along one side (probably under porticoes or otherwise divided off) forty beds with straw mattresses , for men; along the other, thirty beds ( perhaps more confortable ] for « Countesses and other respectable women » (comitissae et aliae honestae mulier- es ) ; in the centre , moveable tables where both sexes would sit at meat; but only the visitors who came on horse-back {cum equitatu) to be received here; those of humbler class in rooms above the stables, an ample structure, 280 by 25 feet, where also wxre lodged the lay servants. Opposite the mo- nastic front another wide building, 125 by 25 feet, was for the different artisans, goldsmiths, glaziers, marble-cutters ec, whose industry found continual employ in the service of the great cloisters. A cemetery for laics completed the well-planned aggregate ; and that spacious guest-house was, on high festivals, to be made gay with curtains and rich hangings — for what scenes of picturesque and genial merriment we may imagine. Mab- illon tells us how the dependent used to offer himself, and sometimes his posterity with him , to the service of the mo- nastery : w ith a rope or a bell hung round his neck, or with four coins ( denarii ) on his head , he would present himself to the Abbot and make his declaration ; or else lay his head upon the altar , and in that attitude pronounce the formula of engagement. Fleury observes that in monasteries we see reproduced the arrangements of the antique Roman mansion , as Yitruvius describes it : « The Church , which stands foremost so as to allow free access to seculars, occupies the place of that outer hall the ancients designated atrium , from which was entered ORIGIN OF THE MONASirC ORDERS 289 a court surrounded by covered galleries, known as the peristyle, precisely corresponding to the cloisters we enter from our churches ; whence we pass into other compartments, the chapter-house answering to the exhedra, th« refectory to the tricUnhim of the ancients; and the garden, usually at the back of the edifice , is placed also like that of the antique residence ». A Roman Council, in«26, ordered that, attached to the church , should be built « cloisters in which the clergy may dedicate themselves to ecclesiastical pursuits, where there must be one refectory and one dormitory common to all » — a plan apparently intended for those of the capitular bodies who lived together under a rule. The priaiitive mo- nastic homes of Italy were almost all destroyed by Huns or Saracens, and rebuilt in the X century, for the greater par\ by German monks then esteemed as architects ; some , it is supposed (v. Ricci , c. X), by an Irish monk who had attain* ed renown in this art, Dungallo, as his name is Italianized, Those ancient cloisters were , no doubt , plain and Tud(* constructions ; but one excellently useful adjunct , the Bath , is mentioned in several monastic coustilutions. The use o: this, in primitive times, was not only advised but enforced, Uturgic indeed ; prescribed to the catechumen before Baptism, to the priest on the vigil of festivals. The balhs we read of, as built beside basilicas by energetic Popes, were especially for the Clergy, if also for the pilgrim ; and Theodosius extend- ed to these the same right of asylum as to the sacred premises. A bishop of Ravenna, in the VI century, restored some Ther- mae, and adorned them with mosaics, for the use of hi- priests. A bishop of Naples obliged his clergy by decree to bathe on certain days. In such particulars, contrasting them with the present, we see what has been lost by the modern from the type in practice of ancient Catholicism. Among the earliest monasteries founded in the IV centur\ by difciples or followers of St. Antony, Pachomius , Macariu^ . llilarion , in Syria and Egypt, that at Tabenna in Palestine was the first example of such an establishment in complele- 49 290 ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS ness, with residences for several monks, instead of mere huts or caves for a single person. Here , on the slopes of the same mountain , dwelt about 7000 « religious » , all under the same superior, in companies of about forty inmates to each of the several mansions. Most of the larger Oriental monasteries were thus divided over thirty or forty separate dwellings , and, for better discipline , into companies of a hun- dred, directed by a ceutemrim , or of ten under a decanus , but all in subjection to one chief authority, the Abbas, or Hegemonus. All supported themselves , providing both food and clothing by the labour of their hands, and used to spend six days of the week in such occupation alternated with sacred studies ; meeting only on the Sunday for worship in one great church , the solo temple built for that numerous family. None of these monks, not even their Abbots, were in the priesthood ;U this phase of their existence ; and the departure from the earlier system, in the Y century, is supposed to have led to general decline from that primitive observance. About a century afler their origin did this ciiange supervene , when the Abbas become a priest , — among the Greeks an Archi- mandrite, — and his monks began to fill different offices among the Clergy, till at last, through means of Pope Gregory I, the monastic institution was raised to its definite place in the ecclesiastical sphere , and monks generally received holy ord- ers, sometimes even without passing through minor ones. Those ancient communities were governed by traditional , orally transmitted laws, never drawn up in writing, and in principle founded on the precepts of the New Testament — their standard in all things. St. Basil was the first to draw up a Rule for his monks in the East ; and not before the sixth century were written Rules known in the West ; in- troduced first in Italy by St. Benedict, in Gaul by St. Co- lumban , in Spain by St. Isidore of Seville. The Gospel and the Psalter formed the main studies of those laborious and simple-minded coenobites of the East ; thrice a week they listened to expositions of Christian doctrine : and on Sundays OniGlN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 291 St. Pachomius explained the New Testament to the peasants of the surrounding mountains. From the mode of life de- scribed as that of the Tabenna monks , it appears that , even thus early, the librnry was not wanting to any monastic establishment ; and for the use of its contents a most careful method was enforced. Higher developments soon claim atten- tion in this province; as at the retreat prepared for himse!.' and his followers by Cassiodorus, where a wide range of literary and scientific studies might be pursued, for, besides the holy Scriptures and principal Fathers of the Church, its library contained works by Grammarians, ecclesiastical History, Geography , Rhetoric , and Medicine. Thus , long before the high intellectual attainments of the mediaeval cloister, had the monastery ripened into its character as the secured home of learning both in East and West. Its architectural grandeurs do not belong to the age we are now considering. The Benedictines have been called (see Mrs Jameson] the « Fathers of Gothic Architecture » — earliest extant specimen of which, south of the Alps, is to be seen at their Subiaco cloisters , — but not there dating anterior to the X century ; nor was it till two hundred years had passed since the Saint's death , that the cavern in which he used to pray on that mountain-side was enclosed within an oratory; the earlier Benedictine residence at Subiaco being situate lower on the same mountain , where now stand the S. Scolastira cloi ters , originally dedicated to SS. Cosmo and Damian. We find no monastic architecture of the very time of St. Benedict; but a small church in Rome of olden cha- racter , associated with the story of the Saint's earlier life , .S. Benedetto in Piscinula , near the bridge of the Tiber Is- land, may be considered in reference to his celebrated Order: this interesting little building , known by its present name (derived from some piscina in this neighbourhood) since the XII century, being, according to tradition , on the site of the mansion inhabited by St. Benedict before his retirement to Subiaco. A small campanile with a spire is its only med- 5921 ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS laeval feature of the exterior ; an atrium , of antique columns, communicating with a chapel , in architecture resembling that of the « Holy Column » at S. Prassede — the same peculiarly vaulted ceiling, with shafts at the angles. Over the altar here is a picture of the Virgin and Child, said to be that before winch St. Benedict used to pray; but referred by critics to an epoch of more advanced Art. Oflthis chapel, through alowdooj*. is entered a dark narrow cell , w ith vaulted roof and walls of unhewn stones, said to have been the Saint's chamber; a small recess in the wall being the spot where, we are told, he used to lay his head. The church consists of nave and aisles, divided by columns evidently antique, of marble and granite different in proportions and style , wllh attic , and flat ceiling carved and gilt. Over the high altar is a picture full- length of St. Benedict, which Mabillon (« Iter Itaiicum ») considers a genuine contemporary portrait — though Nibby and other critics suppose it less ancient — the figure on gold back- ground , seated on a chair with Gothic carvings, such as were in mediaeval use ; the hlack cowl drawn over the head the hair and beard white; the aspect serious and thoughtful ; in one hand a crozier , in the other the book of Rules drawn up by the Saint, displaying the words with which they begin; Ausculta ftli preccpta mogistri. The wild simplicity of the primitive convent is well ex- emplified in one of the most singular and picturesque among such homes in Italy — S. Cosimafo at Vicovaro, between Ti- voli and Subiaco , where the wicked monks attempted the life of St. Benedict, and where ultimately was settled one of his ow^n communities. The actual building is quite modern, and pertains to Franciscans. Not till seen from the rear is it perceived to be a rock-built eyrie on a cliff overhanging the Anio , which flows placid througli a deep gorge below. De- scending from the little terrace-garden by a steep path cut in the rocks, we reach the antique convent, now deserted, cons'sting of a series of partly artificial caverns ; one , much larger than the rest, having been the refectory, where the OniGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 293 poisoned cup was given to the Saint, a scene here represented in a rude painting; another, now fitted up as a rustic ora- tory, St. Benedict's cell. Here we see what the ancients im- agined should be the cloistral type, a sort of connecting link between the solitary dens of the Thebaid and the later more civilized homes of coenobites in the West. Yet the presence of God in Nature was no check upon the evil life of men here assembled together for the avowed purpose of worship- ping Ilim ! The wealth of the Italian monasteries prior to the general suppression, 1803-8, was considerable, but perhaps rather below what has been vaguely assumed. Monte Cassino , when at its zenith, extended dominion over 2 principalities, 20 coun- ties, 4i0 villages, 250 castles, 336 manors, 23 sea-ports, and 1662 churches; and the stone lions its lieraldic device) may still, at some ruined fortress or romantic little town, greet us at the dilapidated gateway with a remembrance of that abbatial grandeur. At the time its property was confis- cated in 1805 (all save the cloistral premises and a single farm, left for the support of fifty monks in what now become an efablissementj this monastery w^as still supreme among thirty-nine Benedictine houses in Italy and Sicily; their total capital of 573, 3ii ducats, burdened with dues to the Apos- tolica Camera at Rome in the amount of 9,318 ducats yearly. Camaldoli then owned 130 farms and houses . besides 29 large vineyards; the Certosa , near Florence, had 83 farms and estates, estimated by the French commissaries, in 1808, at 2,600,000 francs; the Benedictines of Arezzo owned 29 es- tates, with capital estimated at 957,0 10 lire; one Vallombrosan Abbey, also Tuscan, was in the receipt of 10,070 ducats per annum (F. The revenues of Subiaco are reported to have been , in 1837, 6,612 scudi per annum. The Camaldulese of Monte Co- (i) At present there are twenty-nine Cassincsc monasteries in Italy and Sicily ; two in Piedmont , the once celebrated Novalesc near Susa, and anotlie •, having been suppressed by royal decree J 8oq. 294 ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS rona in Umbria, suppressed, and most harshly ejected from their cloisters , in the Winter of '62, then held property val- ued at 1,200,000 francs. When, in the Italian kingdom under French Empire , the monastic lands were , fur the greater part , sold Ly auction , they brought the ^total price of 400 million francs , out of which two millions were spared for the works at the cathedral of Milan. In the XVII century, theTrinita monastery had dominion over forty-eight churches and villages (but a remnant), all which are spread to view in a curious geographic plate given by Mabillon. The Sicilian Benedictines are believed to be, up to this day, wealthiest among all , thanks to the exceptional fortunes of the Church in an Island exempt from all the tempests born of French Revolution ; yet even Monreale, whose revenues in the XVII century were 50,000 ducats , has now , it is said , not more than the equivalent of 2000 pounds sterling a year. At the same period of the past, San Martino , near Palermo, was in the receipt of 20,000 ducats; and San Xiccolo , Catania , had 13,000 gold scudi about 26,000 ducats; per annum. The libraries still found in Italian cloisters are, for the most part, but remnants of wealth long since dispersed by revolution or by French domination ; though fortunate excep- tions are found at the great Benedictine centres. Monte Cas- sino possesses more than 20,000 volumes , besides its celebrat- ed and priceless MS. codes; Trinita di Cava has also, besides the printed volumes, its inestimable archives containing more than 60,000 deeds of donation , and about 1600 bulls and diplomas — Moureale , San Martino , S. Xiccolo of Catania are also abundantly provided. Vallombrosa has merely a col- lection made, with few excepted volumes , by purchase since -1814 ; and of its once valuable store of MSS. but one illum- inated choir-book. Camaldoli possesses 5000 volumes; the Franciscan Laverna , 7000. Official returns show that the no- ticeable libraries in the whole Italian kingdom at present are 210, of which 164 are public; and that the greater number are found in Tuscany, AEmilia , and Sicily; the fact, also Hated, that out of the aggregate of volumes, 4J 40,287, more ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 2Sa than one quarter are stored in the AEmilian provinces alone, being perhaps explainable from the circumstance that those parts, till recently under Pontific government, were the spe- cial and favoured centre of cloistered families. Amidst the present trials to which the Regular Orders are exposed in Italy, more generally unpopular ( I believe ) than is the case in any centre of established Protestantism, the mark of attack to journalism , of ridicule to periodic caricature , and sinking under the force of legislative measures that now threaten their existence even in the entire aggregate , a compassionate interest may be felt for them in the spirit of generosity , and in just reverence for their past , whetever one may think of their present merits. Statistics lately drawn up serve to illus- strate a subject that has become conspicuous among nation- al questions affecting this country's religious life. With a clerical body reported as of 161,123 members under 229 Bish- ops , throughout Italy (1), the Regulars are stated to be 74,251 ; the mendicant Orders to be , 19,960 friars in 'lo06 con- vents ; in 876 nunneries, 23,869 nuns; of the Monastic Ord- ers , both sexes included, 28,422 ; the latter living on capital that yields annually 16,216,552 francs; the property of the rest (such as u:ay be held consistent with their rules) yield- ing 17.407 per annum [Archivio Politico Italiano for '66). How decidedly the mendicant Orders and others of more recent birth have outrun the ancient and properly-called monastic bodies, is evident from the ecclesiastical statistics of Rome, where , of course , every circumstance has been favourable to such associations. In i862 the regular communities refer- rible to the same parent stem, in that City, were in the fol- lowing numbers: Benedictines proper, 21 ; Camaldulese , 20; Carthusians 17; Cistercians, 39; Olivetans,7; Sylvestrines, 13; Vallombrosans , 8 ; while those owning St. Francis as their common Founder (distributed in five societies) numbered (1) The total ecclesiastical revenue is reported as 67,444,656'; that of the bishoprics, 7,737,214 francs. 296 ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC OBDERS G74 ; the Dominicans , 172 ; the all-powerful Jesuits , 289, the aggregate of inmates in Roman cloisters being 2,474 males , 2032 females ( Barbier de Montault, Annee Liturg. a Rome). If conscientious forethought and discipline could have pro- vided against the consequences of human frailty , the mode of electing to highest ofTice in the Benedictine Order might have been a safeguard for perpetually just administration , unswerving fidelity to ancient observance. When the Abbacy of Monte Cassino became vacant , the entire community, lay as well as ecclesiastic, concurred in appointing three esteemed monks for the responsibilities of the choice. After these had agreed together , the senior among them , kneeling at the ab- batial throne in the chapter-house , proclaimed the indivi- dual chosen ; the Prior then , with solemn adjuration in the name of laws Divine and human , of their saintly Founder , their faith and baptism , enjoined that if any had cause to object to that choice , he should declare it ; and if none spoke to this, asked in loud voice, « You accept him? » to w^hich all answ ered : « Yes , we accept him : this is the Abbot that suits us )). The elect then entoned the Te Deum , and passed , with all the rest , from the chapter-house into the church , where, kneeling at the altar of St. Benedict, he received from the Prior the crozier and book of rules ( laid on that altar during the vacancy — in after times also the mitre) ; and was led to the throne by the same assistant , who knelt be- fore him , then rose , to demand the kiss of peace , which afterwards all the rest came up, according to station, to re- ceive from him. Thus saluted, the Prior girt their new Su- perior with a cinctur e serving to contain the money for dis- pensing in alms, consigned to him the keys of the church, the library, and other principal compartments on the premises. These forms being observed , a letter , signed by all who had taken part in the election , was sent to the Pope ; and after receiving the official answer, the Abbot, with an attendance of monastic priests and deacons, repaired to Rome, where, jreceiving him to state-audience , the PontifT addressed certain OUIGlN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 297 questions to himself and to his monks , respecting the elective procedure, the intentions and principles of the new superior, to whom he then made an exhortation as to his high duties; after this, leading him to the altar, commenced Mass. Afler the Epistle, the celebration \vas suspended while the Abbot vowed before God and His Saints to maintain the strict observance of the Rule , and faithfully administer the patrimonies , of his Order; on which, the Pope, ^vith imposition of hands, gave him in sign of investiture the crozier , ring , and that Rule long preserved in St. Benedict's autograph; led him to an elevated seat , and there installed him amidst the attendant monks. The Mass being finished , the Abbot made his oflfering to the Pope in two crowns and two lighted tapers— the sense of these forms certainly implying that the Papal confirmation was requisite to this principal monastic election. Most of these ecclesiastical lords proved worthy of their high trust, men of character , virtue, and enlightenment. How absolutely regal the extent of their influences appears in the fact that at the first Crusade , when Monte Cassino became to the cross-bearing troops that passed through Italy a second halting-place after Rome , its Abbot gave recommendatory letters to the French army for the Greek Emperor Alexis ; and in Muratori {Antiquit. Ital. diss. LXV ) we read three auswers from that prince , addressing the Abbot as « your Holiness » , and with one missive sending him a present of twenty-five books and several sacred vestments. A revival of studies and intellectual vigour at Monte Cassino was effected by the Abbot Theobald, about the beginning of the X cen- tury ; but with more brilliant results in the latter years of the XI , by the efforts of the distinguished Desiderius, who became Pope as Victor II , and under whose abbatial gov- ernment this monastery became the great school of revived learning , the great centre of Fine Art. In the library , now built beside a beautiful new church , to adorn which mo- saicists were invited from Constantinople , the monks might study Virgil, Horace, and Cicero, besides all the Latin chron- 298 ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS iclers yet known in Europe : theologic and classic lore, Poetry and Science had their home and cultivation in the calm clois- ters on that consecrated vaountain. The exemption from episcopal control which contributed so much to the power, but naturally led to the abuses of the cloister , is said to have had origin even while St Bene- dict was still living ; in the first instance conceded to a fe- male community, founded by St. Cesarius bishop of Aries , on the prayer of that Saint , by Pope Horraisdas. In 393 Gre- gory I granted to the monastery of St. Medard , at Soissons , the headship over all others in France , with complete exemp- tion from external jurisdiction •, and in a Council held by him at Rome, 601, the same Pope published constitutions in favour of the monks , prohibiting bishops to interfere in any manner with their regulations for religious life. Eventually almost all monasteries became in every respect indepeudent of the Episcopacy, and subject to no superior , beyond the limits of their several congregations, except the Roman Pon tiff, who found in their inmates a generally faithful as well as potent alliance. If the ulterior abuses of the cloister became too flagrant to be forgotten , and such as to deserve the chas- tisement provoked , it is but just to remember the energetic efforts of the Church , guided by that genius of discipline never failing to Latin Catholicism , to suppress or to prevent the evil ; and the repeated measures of Councils and Popes, for this object , redound to their honour. Celestinus III , in M9I, eliminated that dangerous principle according to which children , once offered to the monastery, could never withdraw or choose th.iir after career; a wise innovation confirmed by the Council of Trent , which pre- scribed that such « oblates » should be at full liberty, on at- taining adult age , to decide as to their future. The General Council of Lateran (1215) ordered that, once in three years, all Abbots and Priors should hold chapters to order reforms or maintain the standard of religious observance , and that deputies from the bishops should attend on such occasions ; ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 299 should also be invested with faculties for visiting and reform- ing the cloister, and even for deposing superiors, salvo the episcopal consent. By that Council it was also forbidden to Abbots to hold pluralities by governing different cloisters to- gether. In 1332, Innocent Yi annulled the system of the com- menda granted to laics, so inevitably abusive and tyrannically weighing on the monks who were its victims; and the scan- dal of other description springing from the junction of mo- nasteries of males and females in actually contiguous build- ings, and under the same superior, was denounced repeatedly before it could be in all instances put down. Finally the Tri- dentine Council completed what others had begun by sub- jecting all monasteries to the visitation of their diocesans. The law of the Italian Kingdom , passed in May , 4 835 , for suppressing all corporations of secular and Regular Clergy , as well as all female religious communities , those dedicated to special offices of charity or public instruction alone ex- cepted , has been in some instances carried out with great harshness , and too often in a manner exceeding the terms legally laid down. According to what was guarantied, all com- munities should be left at peace in their convents, main- tained by allowance from the state , until gradually removed by death (1;. One may reprobate such measures, and sympa- thise with many innocent victims ; yet w^e must distinguish that which is local , and the result of an extraordinary na- tional excitation , from that which is a sign and consequence of change in moral tendencies. Opposition to the monastic system had begun before the periods of Italian or French [i] The Roman Gazette slated (I think about a year after the change of government ) that up to that time the Regulars in the Anconitan Marches had received no indemnity for their support; and that the nuns , but for aid from private benefactors , would have been left utterly destitute. In many o'hcr provinces of this kingdom, as the Tuscan , .^^milian, Neapolitan , and Sicilian , no monastic pro- perty has been confiscated from entire Orders , though several con- vents have been occupied. 300 OUIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS revolution, and lias been carried out by governments of dif- ferent principles, both conservative and radical. Under Jo- seph IT no fewer than 18i monasteries were suppressed , and more than two million florins, their property, was confiscated throughout the Empire. In the Tuscan States those establish- ments were reduced from 32! to 213, and the number of their inmates from 6030 to 4060, under Peter Leopold; in the Neapolitan States the « religious » of both sexes were re- duced from the proportion of 10 too in 1000 of the entire po- pulation, and 88 monasteries in Sicily alone suppressed, under the administration of Tanucci , besides the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767; and in the brief recent interval from 1830 to 1833, it is reported that 3000 monasteries, throughout Eu- rope , have had like fate; 187 in Poland alone during the year 1841. In Spain and Portugal the adversities that have visited the cloisters in modern time are well known. Beck- ford was ( I believe ) the last English writer to see and re- cord the palatial splendours, now all extinct, of the great Spanish monasteries; yet late report assures us that at this day the number of communities (not individuals) of Friars, still in favour , amounts to 1683 in that kingdom ! The terrific scenes enacted by a godless French soldiery in the last year of the past century at Monte Cassino — with furious pillage and every species of detestable profanation, when", wnth all other movable wealth the Holy Eucharist was stolen for the sake of the vessel containing it — these were indeed a fear- ful omen for the spirit of the age about to dawn on Europe. Yet, remembering the vitality shown by Religious Orders after so many shocks and tempests of the Past, we may doubt whether they can be totally and for ever abolished on any other condition than the unimaginable one of extinguishing Roman Catholic Christianity. Their system had its source in principles deeply rooted within minds swayed by religious sentiment , in that it not only held out a hope and offered a haven to the sorrowing and heart-sick, to cureless melan- choly and haunting remorse, but promised the means of re- ORIGIN OF THE SiONASTIC Or.DERS 301 conciliation between the transitory present and the eternal future, of rescue from that empire of Vanity , which often seems to bear as along, whether we wiil or no , on a resist- less stream to the ocean of nullities. Von dem Gewalt , der alien Wesen bindet , Befreit der Mensch sich der sich ueberwindet. (Goethe). Tlie Religious Orders soon became conspicuous among the subjects of Art ; and one naturally desires to recognise the figures of their Founders by symbolism ; of their followers . more easily known , by the common costume. St. Benedict ot-escribed to his monks uniformity and economy, but no par- ticular colour in dress. 3Iabillon tells us they wore , from the irst, the tunic white , the cowl and scapular black, but since the X century , black alone — hence their popular name in England , « black monks ». From the origin Art introduced (lieir Founder in black monastic dress, sometimes WMth mitre •"'J crozier, or, in one hand, a bundle of rods (to signify ifie discipline he enforced , or simply the aspergiUiim of holy svater for driving away evil spirits), or else a broken cup, allusive to the story of the poison ; sometimes w-ith a raven by his side, holding a loaf in its beak (see his statne af St. Peter's', allusive to the other murderous attempt by the wicked I)riest , who sent him poisoned bread , given by the Saint to a tame raven, first rejected, but then, after his blessing, carried away by the bird to be hidden beyond reach. In the majestic statue by Tenerani ' at St. PauTs ), one of those ex- amples where sculpture seems to present the image of a Soul, he is seated with the crozier in his hand , but no other sym- l)ol. In the pictures in churches belonging to Orders branch- ing off from the Benedictine, that have adopted white costume , the common Founder appears also in white. And beside him we often see the dignified figure of a nun, in black with white veil, — his sister St. Scholastica, who certainly be- 302 ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS came dedicate to the religious life (almost the sole fact ascer- tainable respecting her); and whose symbol is the Dove, in which form St. Benedict is said to have seen her soul as- cending on the day of her death. As to the vicissitudes of fashion , it is a noticeable fact of the VI century that the bar- barian invasions caused a general abandonment of classic costume in the West , and the adoption instead of dress like that worn by northern races , more curt and tight-fitting, much less dignified. The habitus religionis , or private dress of ecclesiastics, begins to be mentioned in the V century; for the clergy, in all things conservative , continued faithful to old style , regardless of the capricious goddess ; and the \on% robe [vestis talaris) was deemed requisite to the decencies of their calling ; all the details of costume appearing at the altar to this day being , in fact , nothing else than ornament- ed copies of wiiat w\is once in every-day w^ear. The monks and ascetics of old often assumed the classic pallium. The liermits of the desert had, of course, no particular dress, but seem to have preferred the cloak of sheep-skins or goat- skins , called melote ; hence, naturally enough, were some- times mistaken for wild beasts by the simple shepherd who suddenly came upon them in their solitude — which impres- sion of their strange aspect may supply a key to the mystery of St. Antony's encounter with the man-goat , who declared himself to be one of those by Gentile error called Fauns and Satyrs , as so naively narrated by St. Jerome. The first nuns wore a peculiar head-dress, mitra or mitella ; and the cere- monial veiling for consecration to their state, is at least as ancient as the time of St. Gregory I, whose works contain a Mass to be celebrated on such occasion, w ith the proper prayer, siqier ancillas velandas. Those subjects in which Art has extended the fame of monastic Founders far beyond the limits of their cloisters , and even of church-history , acquire a high interest when memories and associations are familiar to us; and such personifications of pure thought and heroic charily are more important , more affecting , in the moral OUIGIN OF THE SIONASTIC ORDERS 303 light that surrounds them than in respect to any merely ar- tistic purpose they may serve— as is urged for them wlih such eloquence by the authoress of « Legends of Monastic Orders ». In painting they may be recognized either by action or symbolism : St. Romuald, deceased 1027, founder of the Camuldulese Hermits , an aged men with long beard , in ample white ha- bit, leaning on a crutch. St. Giovan.m Gualberto , d. 1073, Vallombrosans , dark brown habit , sometimes the embroidered cope over it , with a carved cross and crutch ; or, as a secular, in act of for- iiiving his brother's murderer on the ascent from Florence to S. Miniato. St. Bruno, d, MOI, Carthusians, white habit, shaven crown, in attitude of prayer or meditation; guiding his followers to the height of the Grande Chartreuse; or, in the scene of the funeral , witnessing the reanimation of the dead professor. St. Bernard, d. 1153, Cistercians (whose founders , how- ever , in 1098, were St. Robert de Molesme , St. Stephen Har- ding , and five other religious ) — white habit , shaven crown , with book or writing implements; sometimes three mitres ' the bishoprics he refused ) on book , or with mitre and cro- zier, as Abbot of Clairvaux; beside him a fettered dragon Heresy ; ; or in act of kneeling before a vision of the Blessed Virgin. St. Norbert , d. 1!3i, Premonstratensians , (from j^re montre , site indicated for their settlement by a vision] , with mitre and crozier as Archbishop of .Alagdeburg; holding a cha- lice above which is a spider , allusive to the story of his drink- ing without injury from the sacramental cup, though a ve- nomous insect was inside. St. Alberic . Patriarch of Jerusalem , d. 1212, has been con- sidered the founder of the Carmelites, and is represented in episcopal robes with a palm; his death by assassination at Acre, when on his way to attend the Lateran Council , being re- earded as martvrdom. But historic evidence refers this Order 304 ORIGIN OP THE MONASTIC ORDEHS to another originator, Bertoldo of Calabria, a crusader , who, in 1156, raised for himself and his companions a cluster of cells on Mount Carmel , where for some centuries previous had abode solitaries desirous to tread in the footsteps of El- ijah. At the request of their Abbot, Alberic , in 1209, gave them a Rule imposing extreme austerities : but to this day , the Carmelites persist in claiming Elijah as their true Found- er, in which capacity the Prophet appears among the colos- sal statues raised by Religious Orders to their Patriarchs, at St. Peter's. They have substituted the coenobite to the anclio- rite life, and are known by the white mantle over a brown habit. St. John de Matiia , d. 1213 , Trinitarians , founded for the lledemption of Christian captives ; white habit with red and blue cross on breast (black mantle worn above white by «orn branches of Order) ; fetters in his hand or at his feet. A romantic subject, sometimes seen in art, associated either with St. John de Matha or with St. Felix de Yalois , his companion in the hermit-life led by both before the found- ing of his Order , is the appearance , to one or both , of a stag with a crucifix between its horns, in a forest-solitude; the legend being that such a portent, ( a blue and red cross, not a crucifix , seen between a stag's horns) , confirmed th-e Saint in his intent of going to Rome to found a religious Or- der , as first suggested by another vision in which an Angel appeared to him , whilst celebrating his first Mass, in white garments with that sign on the breast. St. FRA^cls, d. 1226, Friars Minor ( Franciscans, Conven- tuals, Capuchins; , dark brown with cord for girdle; a lily, or crucifix , sometimes a lamb ; ki?eeiing before a crucifix and skull ; in act of receiving the stigmata on Monte Laverna. St. Clara d. 1253 , Franciscan , or Clarisse Nuns, same habit with veil; cross or li-Sy ; crozier and book; the ostensorium with the Holy Sacrameiit , allusive to her expelling the Sa- racens from her convent at Assisi by displaying that sacred object. ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 305 St. Dominic, d. 1228, Dominicans or Order of Preachers, white with black mantle; a lily, crucifix, or book, a star over his head ; beside him a dog holding a torch , allusive (0 the dream of his mother before his birth. St. Peter Nolasco, d. '1256, Order of Mercy [La Merci — Mcrccde ) , a reform of the Trinitarian, for the redemption of captives ; an aged man , white habit , with the armorial shield of Aragon, whose king, James « el conquistador w , as- sumed the headship of this Order, 1258. St. Philip Benizzi , d. 1285, is revered as the chief Saint, though not the Founder, of the Servants of Mary, Servites, w^hose Order was originated by five Florentine noblemen fourteen years before he joined them in 1247: their Rule similar to the Augustinian ; but it is only in Florence , within the cloisters of their splendid church , the Annunziata , that any remarkable art-illustration presents to us their story. A symbol that often accompanies the figure of Filippo Benizzi is the triple crown , sometimes offered by a cherub , alluding to his having actually refused the Papacy when the votes of the Conclave , after the death of Clement IV, 1268, had accord- ed in electing him. At the Annunziata the lives of the sev- en Founders form the series in the inner, that of St, Phihp in the outer cloister. S. Bernardo de' Tolojiei , d. 1348, Olivetans (from their first settlement on Monte Oliveto, near Siena) , while, hold- ing , or receiving from the Blessed Virgin , an olive-branch. St. Augustine and St. Jerome do not appear in Art as Found- ers of the Orders called by their names , but are familiar in the group of the Four Latin Doctors , there associated with SS. Gregory and Ambrose ; St. Augustine only distinguished from St. Ambrose by the black habit under his episcopal vestments. The several hermits and communities hitherto under no particular rule, were rc(iuired to accept the Augus- tinian, Willi addition of stricter cicuisos, by Innocent IV and Alexander IV, 1244-56. 20 30G ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS St. Francesca Romana (dei Ponziani) , d. 1448, foundress of the Benedictine Oblates , a sisterhood not strictly cloistered nor bound by vows; an elderly female in nun's dress with white veil , accompanied by a youthful Angel , according to the beautiful legend that , for some years , her Guardian An- gel was perpetually and visibly present to her— see her Life by Lady G. Fullerton. The Orders of the XVI century , — Je- suits (St. Ignatius, d. I066) ; Hospitalers (St. Juan Calabita, called « John of God », d. 4 550); Oratorians (St. Philip Neri, d. 1595); Theatines (St. Gaetano , d. 1547); Infermieri, or Agonizanti, Ministers of the Infirm (St. Camillo de Lellis, d. \ 604 ) , known by the red cross on their black habit , — have less prominence in Art , though the first named Foun- der may be recognised by a fine type of head , being usually seen as vested for Mass , with the holy monogram near, amid a glory or on a scroll , and an open book with the first words of his Rule , Ad majorem Dei gloriam. St. John of God has a pomegranate surmounted by a cross , symbol for Granada , where he founded his first hospital and died; or a kneeling beggar beside him. St. Francis de Paola , d. 1 507, founder of the Friars Minim , whose intercourse with the dying tyrant Louis Xr forms such an impressive episode, is known by a habit like the Franciscan , but the cowl different , usually drawn over the head , and « Gharitas », his appropriate motto, in a glory or on a scroll. St. Theresa, d. 4582 (Reformed Carmelites) is most conspicuous in Art among saints of this age , known by the Dove that breathes inspiration ( which she never claimed), a heart with the holy monogram, or an attendant Angel who aims an arrow at her breast. Some ancient Orders — Grand mont monks, Celestines , Humiliati — have passed away leaving no monumental trace of their existence. The Sylvestrines , still extant , though now much reduced in number , known by their dark blue habit , have scarcely appeared in art-creations as an Order , nor as represented by their founder, the Hermit St. Silvestro ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 307 Gozzolino of Osimo, d. 1267. The angelic Sisters of Charity are beginning to appear in illustrated scenes of the battle and campaign. Other more modern Orders — Scolopians (found- ed by St. Joseph Calasanzio, d. 1648], Redemptorists (by St. Alfonso Liguori , d. 1787 ) , Passionists (by Blessed Paul of the Cross, d. 1773), — have yet scarce supplied subjects for pencil or chisel. Yet these too have obtained more or less extension and influence. The fluctuations of social and moral life have caused continual vicissitude to these Religious Bo- dies ; and in the adverse as well as the favourable move- ment we may discover impulses not altogether alien to Chris- tianity (I). [i] For historic correctness it must be stated that, contrary to the opinion of Helyot, derived from Eusebius and other ancient writers, the sohtaries called Therapeuts cannot be classed among Christians, but as a Jewish sect , whose mortified life is described by Philo in terras quite conclusive , and who settled on that very mountain of Nitria afterwards peopled by Christian hermits. The three great Be- nedictine Aljbeys of the Neapolitan States were deprived of all ter- ritories and feudal privileges Ijy Joseph Buonaparte in 1805; after the restoration of 1814 were reintegrated in their spiritual, but not in their temporal rights ; and subsequently to that period Monte Cassino received from the State 4 4,000 ducats per annum in lieu of its lost property— even which subvention has been withdrawn by the new Government. In 1842 was established in those cloisters a printing press, from which the works of Padre Tosti, and others of enduring value have been given to publicity; but after the revo- lutions of '48-9, these activities were put a stop to by Ferdinand II, with the natural instinct of despotism. In '61, the gifted P. Tosti addressed an eloquent appeal , on behalf of his Order and his Ab- ])ey, to the Italian Parliament , aimed at the averting of a blow that would deprive Italy of one of the most beneficent and revered among Institutions fostered by Christian civilization ; and we may hope that this illustrious centre of learning and piety will at least be exempted from the fate of so many others , as was the distinct pro- mise made in regard to Monte Cassino by the Minister of Grace and 308 ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC OBDERS Justice , Slgnor Cassinis , to the Parliament at Turin ; as was also the sense in which a private appeal was answered by Count Cavour shortly before his death. The celebrated Archivio of that Abbey now contains 800 codes ; but how greatly it has been despoiled is evident from an interesting fact supplied by M, Dantier , who discovered in the Vatican Library one of the many parchments from that store- house bearing the Cassinese number -1900 1 The other Benedictine monastery in the south , Monte Yergine , near Avellino , founded 4419, has an Archivio said to contain 24000 documents relating to its annals and possessions. It is a curious fact in the story of the decline of monasteries prior to the Reformation , that Monte Cassino had to suffer the insult of being comprised among the sixteen rich Abbacies bestowed , like so many toys , upon the Medici child who afterwards became Pope Leo X I In Montalembert's pages of fervid eloquence we lerirn -^hat the present fate of the magnificent clois- ters of northern Europe : Clairvaux converted into a female peni- tentiary ; Fontevrault , Mont St. Michel also wa?so??s de detention; Cluny transformed into a haras , where stallions are kept on the site of the high altar ; Le Bee ( the retreat of Lanfranc and St. An- selm ) , and eight other ancient abbeys in France sharing the same fate ; the Chartreuse of Seville has become a factory of earthenware; swine are fed under the sculptured cloisters of the Cistercians in Peregord; whilst the Abbeys that now serve for stables « are in- numerable ». See Helyot , « Hist. d. Ordres Religieux » ; Mobillon , Annal. Ord. S. Benedict , and « Etudes Monastiques » , (fascinating and genial); Muratori , Antiquit. Ital. Diss. LXV and LXVI ; Bonanni , « Catalogo d. Ordini Religiosi » ( at once complete and compendious , with no fewer than 328 engravings of religious costumes) ; Hurter, « Tableau d. Instit. du Moyen Age » ; Cibrario , « Econoraia Politica del Medio Evo » ; Digby, « Mores Catholici » v. X; Montalembert , « Moines de r Occident », Dandolo, « Monachismo e Leggende » ; Dantier, « Slonast^res Ken^dictins d' Italic » { a recent work presenting much knowledge with great charms of style) ; Moroni, Dizionario; Mrs Jameson , « Legends of Monastic Orders ». Italian cloisters have produced a literature serving for their own illustration , of great abundance and value , sometimes throwing light on general and on artistic interests. Among the best specimens may be cited the stories of Monte Cassino by P. Tosti , of S. Marco (Flo- ORIGIN OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 309 rence) by P. Marchese, of the Ostian Basilica by Mgr. Nicolai, of S. Prassede (Rome) by P. Davanzati; of S. Croce (Rome) by P. Be- sozzi; of S. Benedetto (Subiaco) by P. Bini; of the Franciscan Con- vents in the Papal States by P. Casimiro; and the truly monument- al work by the Jesuit P. Richa, « Cbiese Fiorentine w. For another aspect which , as part of the truth , ought also to be considered , see the Signora Caracciolo's « Misted del Chiostro Napolitano ». IX. St. Gregory the Great. Gregory the First , not less justly revered as a Saint than honoured as « the Great » , was the son of Gordianus , a Senator , and Sylvia , a pious matron of the historic Anician family from whom the once powerful Conti , of mediaeval renown , were proud to claim descent. At the age of thirty he was appointed to the high office of Prefect , or ( according to some writers — v. Ai^t de verifier les Dates) Praetor of Rome ; but, after the death of his father, renounced all worldly advantages to take religious vows in the monastery founded by him in his own paternal mansion on the Clivus Scauri ( Coelian Hill ) , dedicated to St. Andrew, and , as most of his biographers suppose , aggregated to the Benedictine Order. After being raised to the rank of Cardinal Deacon by Pope Pelagius, Gregory still continued to inhabit those cloisters, and for some time under the authority of another , not de- siring even the abbatial office for himself; and he soon found- ed six other monasteries on his large estates in Sicily , all endowed out of his property, and all placed under the rule of St. Benedict. Being sent by the Pope on an embassy to Constantinople , about the year 579, and there resident till 584 , he composed his « Morals », on the book of Job, within that interval, being still in the company of his faithful monks, a certain number of whom , at least , had left his monastery with him in order to remain beside their beloved superior — for it seems that , before this time , he had become Abbot ST. GREGORY THE GREAT 311 of the St. Andrew community. On his return , Pelagius ap- pointed him to the already high post of Secretary at the Papal Curia. That pontiff having fallen a victim to the terrible pesti- lence in 590, the suffrages of the Clergy and People at once, and unanimously, declared for the election of Gregory as his successor. But he resisted long and earnestly; took all possible means to withdraw himself from the honourable burden ; and even wrote to the Greek Emperor , Mauritius , requesting that the sovereign veto (now efficacious on such occasions) might be given against his appointment ; but all in vain ; the letter was intercepted , and another sent instead , with the usual announcement of the event, in the name of all concerned, and demand for the imperial sanction. The unwilling nominee had then recourse to flight , and left his cloisters to conceal himself in the church of SS. Cosmo and Damian on the Forum ( probably in that dark narrow crypt still to be seen below it) ; where, the significant legend adds, he was soon miracu- lously discovered by either a column of fire or a Dove , that hovered over the sacred walls shedding rays of light from its wings ; and at last, after a sede vacante of seven months , Gregory was led with triumph and jubilee to St. Peter's, there to be consecrated Pope , on the 3rd September , 390 — even legend ascribing to this election a character essentially popular : Gregorium , licet totis viribiis renitentem , j)/e&s omrds elegit, says the Legenda Aurea. A miserable spectacle was that presented by Italy at this period ; and perhaps the city that bore the most fearful traces of long-endured calamities was Rome, where was still raging the plague brought on in the sequel to a tremendous in- undation of the Tiber , when the many carcases of drowned serpents so infected the air as , it was believed , to have been the cause of this new affliction. The capital of Empire might now , indeed , be considered absolutely fallen. On one hand were the barbarian invaders who had repeatedly assail- ed and despoiled her ; and on the other , a corrupt and ef- feminate native population , towards whom the foreign occu- 3i2 ST. GREGORY THE CHEAT pants actually applied the name « Roman » , as an epithet of contempt and ignominy ! Together with Ravenna , Padua ^ Cremona , Genoa , and Naples , the ancient Capital was sub- ject to the Byzantine Emperor, who governed through an Exarch; and it is for the first time , under the pontificate of Gregory, that we read of a visit made by that official , frorii Ravenna , to the discrowned metropolis. Romanus , the then Exarch , was met by the people formed into companies , and Ly the army with banners waving , at some distance outside the gates ; by the Pontiff and clergy was received with ho- nour at the Lateran , whence he proceeded , with escort of the multitude, to take up his residence on the Palatine, in the long-deserted halls of the Caesars ; but this representative of a feeble and perfidious Power came to Rome empty-hand- ed, only to extort gold from the stores so carefully accu- mulated and well-spent by the Church ; and, regardless of the dangers then besetting her , to withdraw all the Greek troops then m garrison , for distributing their forces over other Italian towns. The two highest Byzantine ofiicials in the City at this period were the Magister Militum and the Prefect [iwaefectus urbis ] ; to which former were referred all military, to the latter all civil affairs as chief arbiter ; the Praefect being invested with a jurisdiction that extended in a radius of one hundred miles round the walls , though indeed but a shadow of the power wielded by his predecessors under ancient Emperors, and retained at least as late as the days of Gratian and Valentinian. The Magister Militum held rank somewhat analogous to that of Duke , but , it seems , was only from time to time appointed for local administration , either in Rome or in other cities, especially Naples. It may be concluded that the Senate had by this time either totally passed away, or sunk into a mere corporation of Decurions , similar to those existing in other Italian towns not yet under subjection to the Longobards. Some writers , indeed , have endeavoured to establish the fact of this august body's pro- longed existence in the YI century ; but the total silence of ST. GnEGOTxY THE GUEAT 313 earlier historians is significant ; still more so is the entire absence of allusion to such a body in the writings of Gre- gory himself; and the fact that when the Longobard Agilulph sent an embassy to treat for peace with Rome, he desired the signature of the Pontiff alone for ratification of the instru- ment drawn up, speaks most clearly. Arianism was now almost exclusively the creed of Goths and Visigoths in the North, of Longobards in Italy, whilst the Nestorian and Donatist schisms prevailed in Greece and Africa. Society seemed in a stale of dissolution among the Italian races ; and such incredible corruption of manners had penetrated even into the Church that there were in those days Bishops who spent their time and revenues in luxurious feasting, or who still more profligate) ferociously assailed their enemies or rivals on the high ways ; nuns who abandoned their convents to become the infamous associates of robbers, assisting to pillage the religious houses that had fostered them, or even to murder their former superiors ! The Basilica of St. Peter had become more like a hall of public-amusements than a sanctuary; and hence the secular power, naturally losing respect for the sacred profession, now began to condemn priests and bishops to imprisonment , to scourging , or death. « No hope » , says an Italian historian , « existed for the resurrection of the Roman world , still less for that of the barbarian— the first tended to a suffocating centraliza- tion , the second to an exterminating decay ; but Deity , through the action of the Church , saved Humanity. — And for this great work, the regeneration of social life, appeared the instrument , raised up with suitable qualifications by Provi- dence , in Gregory ». Unlimited in charities, unwearied in discharge of duties, this saint exemplified truly the principle that he who is chief over all should be servant of all ; and it was in opposition to the Patriarch of Constantinople, who claimed the title of « universal Bishop » , that he adopted that, since taken by all Popes , « Servant of the servants of God ». His ecclesiastical activity, his political exertions and boundless 31 4 ST. Gr.EGORY THE GREAT charities would require many pages to record. He treated for peace with the Longobards, administered the vast patrimonies of the Holy See in Sicily ; continually instructed the people by his discourses ; enlarged and beautified the liturgy, redu- ced to the form since preserved the simple yet majestic chant known as the Gregorian » ; founded a school for sacred music ; and , whilst thus occupied , attended to the ecclesias- tical affairs of the whole Western world. One of the under- takings most illustrating his pontificate , was the mission to England, and founding of the Metropolitan sees of York and Canterbury, A. D. o9T. Among the points of discipline enfor- ced by him , though by no means of his introduction , was the celibacy in the deaconal as well as higher orders of the Clergy. His benevolence was not limited to Christian spheres alone : hearing that certain Jews had been baptized by force, he expressly forbade such abuse ; and when a synagogue had been violently taken from that people, wrote to the Bishop responsible, desiring it should be restored. Various are the observances of the Church still maintained as he originated: the sprinkling of ashes on the head on the first day of Lent, the commemoration of the five Virgin Martyrs in the Mass , the procession and litany of the Rogations . (2oth April) , the blessing and processional carrying of palms on the Sunday before Easter, the lavanda (or symbolic washing of the feet of pilgrims by bishops officiating on Holy Thursday ) , the united festivals of St. Peter and Paul with their more splen- did observance at the Vatican , the organised « Stations » for Lent and Advent at principal churches in Rome : also , among his services to sacred literature , the compilation of the Bre- viary, in the nucleus at least of that body of offices for ec- clesiastical devotions, either in private or in the cathedral- choir. Neither infirm health nor overwhelming occupations caused Gregory to desist from those literary labours which have left to us their fruit in so many moral and theological treatises— on the Book of Job and the Psalms , an Antijihona- riwn and Sacramentanum , a Pastoralis on the duties of pastors ST. GRF.GOUY THE GREAT 315 (translated into English by Alfred the Great ec.l, besides letters that fill XIV books. The temporal power of the Pontificate became, beyond doubt , a high magistracy, though not yet a political principality under his tenure; and its possessions, greatly inereased by the estates added from his inheritance, were now of such wealth that a modern writer affirms, « the civil list of St. Gregory to have by far exceeded that of Pius IX ». Besides the Sicilian demesnes , others of great ex- tent in Africa, a district in Gaul administered by a patrician, and several Italian territories were now owned by the Papacy sufficient for a princedom ; while judges and other officials acted under its authority in almost all parts of the peniusula, in Liguria , Calabria , xVpulia , the district of the Cottian Alps, as well as in the islands , Sicily , Sardinia , Corsica , and also in Dalmatia. The use made by Gregory of these ample means was indeed noble ; for him it was the perpetual laying up of treasures greater in Heaven than on earth. The poor of Rome and its environs were entirely supported hy him. Every day the necessitous in each street were relieved by officers expressly appointed ; on the first of every mouth an abun- dant largess in food, corn, wine, legumes, fish ec, was dis- tributed to all in want. At each Easter-festival was beheld the spectacle , — not of the secular pomps with which the High Priest now officiates amid files of bayonets and cordons of troops, that profane instead of honouring the sacred occa- sion—but of the benignant Father of his people celebrating at the altar without any array of court-magnificence , and despensing his bounties, in golden coin, to all of the many entitled to receive from him the kiss of peace at Mass. Every day did this holy man wait upon twelve poor guests, fed at his table; and before sitting down to his own meal, it was his practice to send dishes , with his blessing , from the fare prepared for himself to several of the sufl'ering class just rais- ed above the condition of mendicancy. So sensitive was his conscience that on hearing of a pauper being found dead , as it seemed, from hunger, he did penance by abstaining for some 316 ST. GREGOIIY THE GREAT days from sacramental rites, as though himself responsible for this misfortune. Far beyond the Italian limits did that royal beneficence extend its cares. At Jerusalem a large hos- pice for pilgrims was maintained by Gregory. On Mount Sinai another such place of refuge was founded , and a com- munity of monks in all their wants supported by him. The captives who had been reduced to slavery by Longobard in- vaders were , from time to time , ransomed by him ; and one of his most assiduous cares w^as for the rescue of those nu- merous victims whom long-continued wars had depressed into the lowest of social ranks. A magistrate in some provin- cial town having ordered a free citizen to be scourged , he wrote to remonstrate earnestly against such unjust and de- grading punishment. We find him , an other occasions , pro- viding for his aged nurse ; for blind paupers ; for a condem- ned criminal , to whom he sent food and clothing , no less carefully than for an indigent bishop whom he supplied with a winter-dress ; yet, amidst these occupations and other higher duties , he found time to attend to agriculture , the rearing of cattle , the prices of grain , the transport of materials for building, ec. There is no doubt that the Papacy, exalted through the acts and example of such a representative , now commanded the highest respects, exercised the highest in- fluences, and shone forth in the most radiant light ever en- joyed by it; and this long before it had assumed a place among the governments of Europe , before it had begun to enrol armies , to surround itself with mercenary troops , to be served by diplomatic ministers , by public or secret police. The first public transaction of Gregory's Pontificate was cal- led for by the awful calamities amidst which it opened ; and is one that shows how completely the Roman populace was now under control of the Church , how potent within its sphere the authority vested in their bishop. A general peni- tential procession, to deprecate the Divine wrath, and implore deliverance from the pestilence , was ordered on such system that all classes , clergy and laity , males and females , paupers ST. Gr.EGORY THE GREAT 317 and children , could take part , divided into seven companies, who were severally to assemble in as many churches , and thence proceed to the basilica chosen for the final solemni- zation, S. Maria Maggiore. As the mournful train passed through the streets, thousands of monks and nuns, women vested and veiled entirely in b'ack, men in a peculiar habit with a cowl ( perhaps like that in which pious confraternities ap- pear muflled in their processional devotions at the present day ) , all carrying tapers , and joining in the chant of lita- nies, hymns, and the Kyrie eleison , it must have presented a scene illustrating the complete transformation of classic Rome under Christian and sacerdotal influences. Nor did the occa- sion pass without tragic — legends add , miraculous incident : no fewer than eighty persons fell dead , struck by the mortal endemic, m the very ranks of that pilgrimage ; and when the company of priests, with Gregory at their head, reached the bridge below- the mole of Hadrian , an Archangel was seen hovering above that pile , in act of sheathing his sword to indicate the cessation of the Divine chastisement, in memory of wdiich vision was that Mausoleum , already known as the « Castle of Theodoric » , and afterwards as that of Crescen- tius, eventually called by the name which has passed also to the bridge below its battlements. It is stated that the iden- tical Madonna-picture, attributed by baseless tradition to St. Luke , which now hangs in resplendent setting of agate, jasper, and lapis lazuli, in the Borghese chapel at S. Maria Maggiore , was carried by the Pope in this procession — if so , a circumstance that enhances not merely the contrast but the opposition between the worship of the primitive and later Church. But the colouring of the marvellous lent to this story fades away before critical research, like mists before sunrise. No historic evidence is at hand in respect to those superna- tural details ; indeed the silence of John the Deacon , an eye- witness, is conclusive against it; while, on the other hand, the historic proof is fouud ( see Maimbourg) to show that the 318 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT pestilence did not, according to tradition, instantly cease, but gradually diminished, after those solemn intercessions, to break out again with fresh violence at a date not far remov- ed (1). The monumental traces of this event in Gregory's pontificate are not the less interesting. Over the high altar of the Franciscan church, Aracoeli, on the Capitol , hangs one of those ancient Madonna pictures still ascribed by tradition to St. Luke , of which seven are said to be extant by the same Apostle-artist. A Vatican code cited by Padre Casimiro ( « History of Franciscan Con- vents » ) refers to this as follows , in Latin : « It is com- monly said that seven images of the Mother of God w^ere painted by the Blessed Luke , of which four are believed to be in Rome — the third being seen in the temple called Ara- coeli, and one which the Roman people have recourse to with great devotion ». This image , evidently of Byzantine art , from the Greek cross embroidered on the dark purple mantle over the breast, disputes with two others, alike accredited, the claim to be the identical Madonna carried by St. Gregory in that procession. But the writings of the Saint, as also those of Gregory of Tours, and the life given by the Bollandists, contain no mention of an image on this occasion ; and we may entertain the doubt whether such superstitious usage receives any support from the example of that holy pontiff. Baronius , Durandus , and other authorities are indeed on the apposite side ; and accord- ing to some , it was the picture now at 5S. Domenico e Sisto, on the Quirinal , (where is a memorial to that effect on a tablet) which St. Gregory made choice of for such religious honours. In order to reconcile contradictory claims, it has been ingeniously suggested that all the Madonna-pictures (1) Similar devotions were ordered in Rome at the first visita- tion of cholera, 4837; the same image was solemnly expo ed and carried in procession, a genera! illumination ensuing; after which, as was natural , the malady rose to its greatest height. ST. GREGORY THE GREAT 319 most prized in Rome were then brought forward , or that , as the procession was repeated on three successive days , a different one appeared each time. A record of the event on parchment is in the archives of the Ara CoeU Convent , and is pubUshed by Wadding {Annal. Minor/. During the progress of those worshippers, we are told not only that 80 fell dead in the streets, struck by the pestilence; but that before the holy Image the skies, elsewhere clouded and tempestuous, became serene and ra- diant, the storm dispersing before the semblance of the hea- venly Queen : Whereso' er she moves, the clouds anon Disperse, or, under a divine constraint, Rellect some portion of her glorious light. Having reached the bridge, the whole company, it is said , beheld that angelic vision , whilst a chorus of harmo- nious voices was heard in air, singing the anthem (since ad- opted by the Church for vesper-services during a period after Easter ) Regina coeli laetare — quia quern meruisti j)ortare , re- surrexit sicut dixit. Alleluia ! — to w^hich Gregory chanted in response : Ora pro nobis Deum. Alleluia ! A chapel at the summit of the castle , dedicated by Nicholas III to the Arch- angel Michael , contained , as the M.S. states , a paint- ing of this incident , with the words under the Madonna image : Haecest vera Imago ecclesiae Aracceli, testifying in favour of this against the claims of the rival pictures ; and still has this legend its annual commemoration on St. Mark's Day, when, in the procession of the parochial Clergy to St. Peter's, on arriving at the bridge, the Friars of Aracoeli , together with the Chapter of St. Maria Maggiore, chant the Antiphon, Regina Coeli laetare. Again was this image carried through Home during a visitation of plague, A. D. 1348, and, when in sight of the castle, the Angel's statue on the summit bow- ed its head several times before the Virgin Mother, as more 320 ST. GRr.GORY THE GREAT than sixty persons swore to have seen — but under such in- fluences of panic and excitement , how easily may all similar illusions be accounted for ! (1) On the inner side of the valves, usually closed, over that picture at Aracoeli, we see represent- ed in silver reliefs, referred to the XIII century, the figure of St. Gregory kneeling before the mole of Hadrian , and an Angel hovering above. Otherwise this striking subject has been neglected by art , save in the indiflferent statuary , — the colossal bronze Angel now on the castle's summit , by Ver- schafTelt ( last century ) . and the inferior marble statue that preceded it , now on the landing-place of a staircase in the interior , — ordered by Popes to commemorate the assumed vision. The political events of this pe,riod came in rapid succes- sion , and to Rome brought disaster. Gregory, however , had the consolation of welcoming into the pale of Catholicism a royal convert, and , shortly afterwards, almost a whole nation led by his example ; for, about the year 603, Agilulph, Duke of Turin, who had been raised to the Longobardic throne through his marriage with Theodelinda , widow of Autharis , king of that people in Italy , was induced by the influence of that pious princess to abandon Arianism , followed in this step by the great majority of the Longobards, who now joined the orthodox Church. But this conversion in no way modified the hostile designs of those conquerors , whose dominion extend- ed over much the greater part of Italy, and whose capital was Pavia. The siege of Rome was carried on by Ariuiph , Duke of Spoleto , whose forces continued to beleaguer the (1) On that occasion the stimulant given to devout feeling and gratitude , after the cessation of the plague , brought such a wealth of offerings to the JJadonna's shrine at Aracoeli, that the amount suf- ficed for erecting the lofty marble staircase at w^hose summit that church's front looks down from the Capitol. For the extraordinary delusions prevailing , and more or less possessing the public mind even in nriore enlightened ages, during visitations of pestilence, see Mackay, « Story of Popular Delusions ». ST. GREGORY THE GREAT 321 City and devastate its environs both before and after the election of St. Gregory. It was in vain the Pontiff sought aid from the Exarch of Ravenna, to whom he represented the extreme peril of the emergency , and how the City was left with no other garrison than a detachment of the Greek bat- talion called « Tlieodosian », who could scarce be persuaded to keep guard on the walls at night , because for some time their pay had been wanting. At last that siege was raised , not through any valorous effort, but purely through the liber- al expenditure from ecclesiastical funds determined on by the pontiff, who thus saved Rome by becoming, « the pay- master of the Longobards » , as he styles himself with mourn- ful irony in a letter to the Empress Constantina, wife of Mauritius. A tragic picture of public calamities is drawn by him in that same epistle: '( In this City (he says) we have teen living , for the last twenty-seven years , encompassed by the swords of the Longobards ». — « We are continually pierced (ronfodimur) by the swords of the enemy, but still worse harassed by the frequent dangers that threaten us from the sedition of the troops » ( lib. I , ep. 3 ). After release from these evils, he exerted himself to provision the City, and generous- ly to procure stores of grain from his patrimonies. At this time there were 3000 nuns in the convents of Rome , and all reduced to destitution by the Longobardic invasion , their lands , now laid waste , no more yielding sustenance. Gregory undertook to provide for them all, assigning the annual amount of 80 lbs of gold from the church-treasury for these poor women , to whose pious and sanctified life he bears witness ■ lib. VI , cp. 23 ). The peace secured through his ef- forts was broken , after but a brief interval , and through the fault of the Exarch, who seized Perugia , besides other towns now under Longobardic government , thus violating the engage- ments made by treaty. Agilulph , notwithstanding his Catholic profession, now marched against Rome; and the dismal scenes of devastation and outrage were again enacted on the Cam- pagna , where , as he looked down from the walls , the bene- 21 322 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT volent pontiff could see the miseries of the defenceless pea- santry led away captives and slaves with hands bound behind their backs. But the Longobard , more reasonable and loyal than Exarch or Emperor , at last offered to make a separate peace with Rome, under the sole ratification of the pontiff; and Gresory , to save a people now reduced almost to the extremities of famine , consented to sign the treaty without waiting for sanction either from Ravenna or Constantinople — a transaction that strikingly shows how far a virtual sover- eignty was now exercised by , forced indeed , through public gratitude and respect , upon the Papacy. Still, however, acting like a loyal subject, Gregory applied to the Emperor for re- trospective approval to this important step ; and the charac- teristic answer of Mauritius , not only condemning , but ac- tually insulting the venerable Pastor on account of what he had done . showed at once his narrowness of mind and ignor- ance of Italian circumstances. The little man in the trap- pings of royalty disliked , perhaps feared , the great man in the simple garb of the monastic bishop. As to the latter, Ills apostolic zeal is affectingly evident at this juncture. He had commenced a series of sermons on Ezechiel, when in- telligence came of the approach of the invading army, and , though all care for the pubh'c welfare now devolved on him, would not discontinue till, after delivering the 22nd of those extant homilies, he found it materially impossible to give his time to preaching amidst the many claims urged by immi- nent dangers. At this crisis the holy man proved a true pa- triot — and well is it observed , in reference to his conduct , by Tommaseo , that no Saint ever co-operated for the betray- al of his country , nor ever was in league against a nation's freedom ! Writing to the bishops of those Italian cities still under Greek rule , he enjoined them to see that none should be exempt from the duty of keeping guard on the walls (a- midst present dangers); that priests and monks, as w^ell as laymen , should in this lend their services as required by the civic magistrates for the common cause. ST. GREGORY THE GREAT 3113 The disastrous circumstances amidst which Gregory oc- cupied the See did not allow him to prove a founder, or restorer, in the range of pubh'c works. A baldacchino, with columns of solid silver , for the high altar of St. Peter's , is the only donation fram him to any church of which we find mention in the various catalogues supplied. The contemporary writer cited by the Bollandists mentions indeed a similar gift of a silver baldacchino to St. Paul's, lamps, and other objects presented to different churches ; and , every year of this pontificate, was some restoration of roofs (no doubt woodwork } to the basilicas. In the atrium of his mo- nastery Gregory caused his own portrait to be painted in full length, together with the figures of his father and his saintly mother , and St. Peter at the centre of this group , long since destroyed but preserved in engraving byBaronius, and des- cribed in the life of this Pontiff by Johannes Deaconus. One public improvement desired, but (it seems] not accomplish- ed , nor possible within the means at his disposal, was a restoration of tho Aqueducts , for whicli. object he repeatedly wrote to his Nuncio at Ravenna , and directed him to inter- cede with the « Praefect of Italy ». It appears indeed that a « Count of the Aqueducts » , reviving the title and office of the ancient superinlendance over such works, was nomin- ated by the Exarch for carrying out such undertaking as the Pontiff urged , but without any noticeable result ; and Gre- gory describes (A. D. 602) the condition of Rome's imperial aqueducts , threatened with total and speedy decay unless saved by the care of those responsible: nisi major sollicitudo fuerit inter jiaucum tempus omnia depereanf. No Pope has left such numerous writings as St. Gregory, whose extant letters number 8i0 ; whose Cura Pastoralis was long the especial norma of instructions on the duties of the priesthood; and many of whose hymns, breathing fervent and appropriately-expressed piety , are still in use — as those be- ginning with the lines: Primo dicrum omnium, - Node sur- gentes vigilemus omncs - Eccc jam nodis tenuatur umbra - 324 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT Clarum decus jejunii ~ Audi berdgne Conditor - Magno salutis gaudio - Rex Christe factor omnium - Jam Chrisius astra as- cenderat. But in wide-spread popularity his « Dialogues » have surpassed all his other works ; their renown soon extending over Eastern as well as Western Christendom , translated into many languages , into Arabic about the end of the VIII century , into Saxon by our King Alfred. Benedictine editors have ascribed to them the conversion of the Longobardic na- tion. Of contents chiefly anecdotal , in the greater part they revolve on miracles ascribed to illustrious Saints, especially St. Benedict , whose praises one of the four books this work is divided into , exclusively sets forth. With much that is edi- fying and beautiful , much that is terrific or picturesquely marvellous — as the demon-haunted house at Corinth, the phantom-council of Apollo and the evil Spirits in the ruined temple at Fondi , the vision of the punishment of Theodoric, hurled into the infernal regions through the volcano's mouth at Lipari , as seen by a holy hermit , — there are in this volume not few details to excite a smile ; and others that seem intended for no purpose hut to exalt the honours of the monastic state. When we call to mind the high and pure character of the writer, the saintly example of constant ener- getic self-devotion in his life , these Dialogues seem below that standard of moral greatness; and we cannot read them without painful consciousness of decline from that sublime re- flex of Christian faith and practice presented in the earlier literature of the Church, between whose best products and these discourses of St. Gregory there is , indeed , a wide in- terval. The amazing catalogue of miracles is advanced without anything like inquiry or proof; and the startling prominence of Demonology-the belief in direct and visible diabolic agency; the eager trust in saintly intercession , and profound vene- ration for Relics (1) ; the readiness to believe in such appa- (1) The usage of sending as a precious gift to the highly favour- ed of Rome filings from the chains of St. Peter set in golden keys, had ST. GREGOnV THE GREAT 325 ritions as serve to make manifest tlie state of the dead ; also the rehance on prayer and on the Eucharistic sacrifice for the relief of souls in Purgatory, are details that here serve to evince the dominant religious feeling of the VI century. St. Gregory has been well defended from the gratuitous im- putation ( advanced in his praise by John of Salisbury, a writer of the XII century) of having destroyed by fire the Palat.ne library from fear of the corrupting influence of Heathen liter- ature. That he forbade the study of that literature to eccle- siastics, is certain. His own ignorance of the Greek language, notwithstanding long residence at Constantinople , is avowed by him ( Ep. 29, lib. YI ] ; and a curious evidence of the low state of culture at that city is the assertion, in one of his letters, that not a single person could there be found capable of translating from Greek into Latin, or vice versa. One of the legends relating to this pontiff, and full of significance , is given in the « Legenda Aurea » : — Whilst walking one day in the Forum of Trajan, he was meditating on an anecdote of that Emperor having turned back, when at the head of his legions on his way to battle , to render justice to a poor widow , who flung herself at his horse's feet , de- manding vengeance for the innocent blood of her child , slain by the Emperor's own son. It seemed to Gregory that the soul of a prince so good could not be for ever lost , Pagan though he was ; and he prayed for him , till a voice declared Trajan to have been saved through his intercession. This story of Imperial justice is introduced by Dante in the Purgatorio; and the Poet's belief is evinced by his placing the soul of Trajan , between David and Hezekiah , among the blessed ( Paradiso XX ). The feeling of the later Church is illustraled by this idea of the salvation of a Pagan through intercession already become prevalent, and was often practised by St. Gregory, who , in a letter written to one recipient of such a donation , extols the miraculous virtues of the consecrated key: « super aegros multis solet miraculis coruscare ». 326 ST. GUEGORY THE GREAT at the altar, which Art as well as Poetry has turned to ac- count, but grave authorities unite in totally rejecting — St. John Damascene , and, after him , John « Deaconus » , being the unreliable chroniclers who first circulated it, Some of the other legends related by Gregory himself are illustrated among the ancient paintings recently found in the subterra- nean church of St. Clement at Rome. How the mission for the converting of Britain was sug- gested to Gregory, is a well-known tale; it was whilst yet but a Deacon that his interest was excited in the fair young Saxons exposed to sale on the Forum , asking as to whose country , and learning they were « Angli » , he rejoined , « Not Angli but Angels, if they were Christians » {Non Angli sed Angeli , si fuerint Christiani]- or, according to other ver- sion : « Well are they so named , for they have angelic sem- blance , and such should be co-heirs with the Angels in Hea- ven)) (I). Like the man of practical benevolence , he determined (t) St. Gregory's benevolent play on words may be best remem- bered as paraphrased in Wordsworth's sonnet , among that series where the story of the Anglo Saxon conversion is enijjolined in im- mortal verse : Angli by name; and not an Angel waves His wing who could seem loveher in man's eye Than they appear to holy Gregory ; Who , having learnt that name , salvation craves For Them and for their Land. The earnest Sire, His questions urging , feels , in slender ties Of chiming sound , commanding sympathies ; De-irians — he would save them from God's Ire ; Subjects of Saxon .^lla — they shall sing Glad Halle-lujahs to the eternal King ! And I m.ay take the opportunity to offer merited praise to the fine treatment of this scene on the Forum, with a background of classic monuments in the supposable state of their Incipient ruin , in a picture by M. Plainer , executed at Rome, 1865, and purchased by Mr. Monteith of Carstairs. ST. GREGORY THE GREAT ' 327 at once to act on the resolution now formed , and to do the good work himself : liaving obtained the reluctant consent of tlie Pope , he set out with some monks of the St. Andrew cloisters, but was soon overtaken and obliged to return, in consequence of a demonstration which had been yielded to. On his way to officiate at St. Peter's , the Pope ( it is not certain whether Benedict or Pelagius ) was met by crowds of citizens who cried out : « What hast thou done , Apostolic Father? Thou hast offended St. Peter, and ruined Rome! The blessed Gregory has been banished, not sent away by thee 1 » So did the Romans of those days remonstrate and make their wishes known to their spiritual chief! nor, in this case , in vain ; for the fatherly pontiff at once sent messen- gers to bring back their much-loved Deacon , who was found reposing at noon-day in a field , and reading to his monks from one of the sacred books , on which a locust had just alighted , suggesting to Gregory an omen from its name « lo- custa » — loco sta — in the sense that there the journey was to be arrested ! — so ready a wit had the Saint ! Not many years afterwards, Gregory, now become Pope , charged Au- gustine, with other monks of St. Andrew's, to undertake what he had been thwarted in accomplishing, but had never for- gotten ; and the historic results are sufficiently known. « The King of the Saxons ( says Lingard ) received them (the monks; nnder an oak in an open field , at the suggestion of his priests, who had told him that in such a situation the spells of for- eign magicians would lo-e their influence. At the appointed lime Augustine was introduced to the King. Before him was borne a silver cross, and a banner representing the Redeemer; behind him his companions walked in procession; and the air resounded with the anthems they sung in alternate choirs ». Not at this epoch was it that Christianity had first reached those shores. The original British Church is said to have been founded in the second century ; as we are told by venerable Bede that « Lucius , king of the Britons , sent a letter to the 328 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT Pope ( Eleutherius , 177-94) entreating him to give orders that instruction might be supplied for teaching and convert- ing him to the Christian faith ; which request was soon sa- tisfied ; and the Britons preserved incorrupt and entire the faith they had received, in peace and concord , till the time of the Emperor Diocletian » ■ — from which words we may conclude that the Diocletian persecution almost swept away that heavenly plant from British ground. Ethelbert, the king to whom the new missionaries first addressed themselves , could not have been altogether ignorant of their doctrines, his wife Bertha , daughter of the Prankish king Gharibert , being already a Christian , openly practising her religion , and attended by her chaplain who officiated at the court — one of the many instances of royal conversion on the female prior to that on the male side. Before the opening of the VI century the Scots as well as Irish had become Christians ; and the first bishop of the Caledonian church, Palladius, was sent to that nation by Celestinus I ; the Picts, then settled in the southern part of their country, having been converted partially by Ninias, a missioner from Rome, and for the rest by St. Columban, from Ireland. The primitive British Church had been driven by persecution to the Cambrian mountains, its last refuge, whilst the Saxon conquerors were yet in the night of Pagan- ism. St. Augustine's mission was undertaken in 596, but not till a year later did his company of about forty persons , se- veral French priests having joined the Italian monks on their journey , arrive at their destination. The King of Kent listened favourably to their preaching, and gave them full liberty in their sacred enterprise , long before his own con- version, which took place in the year 600 ; and on the first Christmas after the Cross had been borne with holy symbol- ism and chanted prayer into Canterbury, more than 10,000 Saxons were baptized. After Augustine had become Primate and Archbishop of the new Church , Gregory sent him the ST. GnEGOP.Y THK GUEAT 329 pallium, with ample store of sacred vessels and vestments, tapestries, altar-hangings, missals with musical notes, and other religious books , hesides holy Relics. He did not require the Pagan temples in that island to he destroyed , but dedicated to the true worship ; and had the prudent liberality to allow even the ancient feasts to be retained , in the banquets for which the people assembled under tents of green boughs round those temples ; now to be purilied from all association with idolatry , and connected henceforth with the anniversaries of Martyrs or of church- dedications. This FontifiTs apostolic estimate of his own pre- rogatives might be recommended to the consideration of those who maintain certain theories now^ in vogue respecting the Papacy. In answer to the demand of Augustine as to the ri- tual observances of the Anglo Saxon church , he enjoined that , without exclusively following the example of Rome, he should pass in review the practice of all churches , and choose for himself what he deemed appropriate or suited to edify the new-born Christian flock of that island ! A rigorous reformer, or rather restorer, of discipline did Gregory prove; and his efforts with such aim serve to indicate the then disordered conditions of the Church , naturally deteriorated by the shocks of public vicissitude. There were then vagabond monks who roamed about , probably trading on popular credulity , all of whom he ordered to be brought back and confined to their cloisters. There were nuns who used to leave their convents, to liti- gate before public tribunals ; and he reproved an Archbishop for permitting such things. It is evident from his interposition in monastic affairs that he neither contemplated , nor would have sanctioned , the system of Mendicant Orders, seeing he prescribed that no new monastery should be opened without secured means for its permanent support. In his resolute op- position to Simony he prohibited all payment for such spe- cial religious services as giving the veil to nuns , consecrating bishops, the bestowal of the pallium upon archbishops ( there- 330 ST.GRF.GOnY THE GREAT fore cutting off a source of revenue to himself and his suc- cessors) ; for the rites of sepulture, and even for burial ground. In the cloister also he required that the novice should he received gratuitously; and that the monk, once admitted to any higher office in the Church, should have no farther rights or influence in the monastery he had quitted. Benignant as was his temper , he allowed the infliction of public penance (not yet in disuse), even by the scourge, and on one occa- sion commanded it, in the case of a Neapolitan deacon, who had grossly calumniated another cleric of his own church. As to his own political position , it is evident that this Pontiflf thoroughly and loyally accepted the character of a subject to the Greek Emperor, and acted on the view that the reign- ing power must be acknowledged and obeyed in all tem- poral matters by the Church , without reference to the title on which that power may rest , or the means by which it may have attained its supreme place. His procedure in this respect indeed implies the simple acceptance of the accom- plished fact, in the political world, as the sole line marked out for ecclesiastic action; and hence does he address the blood-stained usurper Phocas , who obtained the Byzantine crown by treason and regicide , with the same unhesitating loyalty as his predecessor and victim, Mauritius, who had long kept up amicable correspondence with the Roman See and with Gregory himself. The style adopted by this Pontiff in dating documents speaks for itself: Imperante Domine Nos- Iro — jnissimo Augusto , — post Consulatum ejusdem Domini A^ostri , ec. It remainns to be decided whether his expressions do , or do not , bear the deeper meaning that, by implication, reprobates even the principle which allows the unitedly-as- sumed powers , temporal and spiritual , in the same chief. Most remarkable in the writings of St. Gregory are his utterances in respect to the powers with which was inves- ted the office held by himself, and to the claims of absolute supremacy by any prelate whomsoever in the Church. He not only disclaimed the title of Oecumenical (or universal) Bisli- ST. GREGOUY THE CHEAT 331 op, and condemned the Byzantine patriarch for assuming it , but protested strongly against the attempt to secure such pre-eminent rank on the part of any other. It is evident indeed that his denunciation is directed rather against a prin- ciple than a fact in this question ; and though he lemenbers that tlie offensive title had been given to St. Leo I by the Council of Chalcedon, he declares that neither that Pope nor any other of his predecessors had ever accepted , or pretend- ed to it. There seems indeed a kind of foreboding , an idea repellent of some threatened danger to the Apostolic consti- tution of the Church in his frequent recurrence to this topic, and reiterated protest against what seemed to his humble and truly pious mind a species of apostasy , a fruit of dia- bolic temptation , to which whosoever should yield , that person, misled by unholy ambition , might be considered the fore-runner of Antichrist ! — in isfo solo vocabulo consentire est fidem perdere ( lib. lY, ep. 39 ] ; quisquis se universalem Sa- cerdotem vocat, vel vocari desiderat , in eletione sua Antichristum praecurrit , quia superbietido se aliis anteponit ( lib. YII , ep. 33). He considered that the arrogating of such rank by any one among the Hierarchy , would involve the usurpation from the rest of powers shared alike by all the successors of the Apostles ; and enjoins the patriarchs of Anlioch and Alexan- dria never to give that name, « Universal Bishop » to him, lest they should detract from the honours held by them- selves in Sees so illustrious ( V, 43 ). Yet , on the other hand , we find this Saint acting from the point of view of a primacy vested in his own office , and justifying his interposition in the alfairs of other bishoprics where questions of principle or sacred obligation were at stake. He addresses to all the Italian bishops the command that they should exert themselves by every persuasive means to induce the Arian Longobards to allow the Catholic bap- tism of their children , at least when in danger of death ; and even the Byzantine Prelate submits tohis requirement in a case where he had evidently right on his side. The doctrine of 332 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT St. Peter's supremacy is laid down in the distinclest terms by Gregory , with adducing of all the texts it is common to hear at this day cited in its support. How are we to recon- cile this apparent discordance between the theory and prac- tice of one so pure , so superior to worldliness of spirit? Per- haps the best solution of the problem is to be found in his own words , where , addressing at the same time the two great Prelates of the East , he defines that those Sees, Anlioch and Alexandria, being, alike with the Roman, of foundation due to St. Peter, alike inherited the prerogatives of the chief Apostle; implying, in fact, that the Catholic Church was under a triple supremacy, shared by three Pontiffs , the equal successors of St. Peter (1). In another significant passage he observes : « Where is question of offence by a Bishop , then all should be subject to it^(the Roman See) ; when no offence exists, then all bishops, according to the law of humility, are equal ». The freedom of episcopal election — that great palladium of religious liberties and bond of concord between pastors and flocks , in regard to which the Church's primitive consti- tution has been so widely departed from — was respected by Gregory with conscientious earnestness; and even those Italian and Sicilian Sees more iii:mediately dependant on Borne were left to perfectly free action when the choice of (1) « Itaque cum multi sint Apostoli , pro ipso tamen principatu sola Apostolorum principis sedes in auctorilate convaluit, quae in tribus locis unius est. Ipse enim sublimavit Sedem in quaetiam qui- escere et praesentem vitam finire dignalus est. Ipse decoravit Se- dem in qua Evangelistam discipulum misit (i. e. Alexandria). Ipse firmavit Sedem in qua septem annis , quamvis discessurus , sedit (Antioch). Cum ergo unius atque una est Sedes, cui ex auctoritate divina tres nunc Episcopi praesident, quidque ego de vobis boni audio, lioc mihi imputo » (1. VII, ep. 40). Writing to these Pre- lates, the Bishop of Rome styles them « Your Holiness », or « Your Beatitude » , whilst « Your Fraternity » is his common phrase for other bishops. ST. GREGORY THE GREAT 3^3 Iheir bishops had to be determined. Writing to the people of Milan , this genuine successor of the Apostles congratulates them for the unanimity with which they had elected and published a new pastor lo their metropolitan Se3. And to those of Rimini he recommends that they should seek speed- ily to agree among themselves for the nomination to a simi- lar vacancy. The See of Syracuse having become vacant, he wrote to a deacon of that city (V, 17) , and , after mention- ing that he was aw-are the majority of votes had already almost determined in favour of a certain presbyter , adds that, if it were desidered to consult his own wishes , he might privately intimate his persuasion that the archdeacon of Ca- tania was the worthiest subject on whom the Syracusans could fix their choice , and , if it were possible that his elec- tion might take place [si fieri potest ut eligatur) , the result, he was sure , would perfectly satisfy them. In such manner did the Papacy then interpose in the election of bishops ! It is interesting to pass through the cycle of the ritual year under the guidance of St. Gregory, and observe how far the majestic and splendid temple of Latin worship owes its forms , its enchantments and beauties to his creative mind. By him were the Holy Week and the Christmas cele- brations developed into nearly their present completeness; and the imagery of symbolism had , before this time , assum- ed its place in the sanctuary with language of silent elo- quence almost as to this day addressing the worshipper. On Holy Thursday (to cite examples) was the blessing of the sacred oils, the communion of priests and laity (in but one kind; at the hand of the officiating bishop , and the reservation of the Eucharist for the next day, when was to be no con- secration ; on Good Friday, the adoration of the Cross to the thrilling chant, Ecce lignum crucis , and the « Mass of the Presanctified » ; on Easter-eve, the blessing of the Font, and Baptism, not as now of adults, but of infants , the illumina- ting of the church during the chant of the Litanies, and the first Mass of the Resurrection , contemplated as taking place 334 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT at midnight. What we miss is the solemn procession of the Host , on the Thursday and Friday , to and from the illumin- ed « Sepulchre » ; in its essentials indeed observed at this early period, but in form quite simple, the Sacramentarium ordering that the holy Eucharist, reserved in one kind, should be brought to the altar from the sacristy, or other suitable place, by two priests and two subdeacons , without indication of that processional pomp which , as now present- ed, seems so strikingly to blend the triumphal with the funereal character— all the majesty of the Church's sorrow for her crucified Lord ! Also is the beautiful formula for the blessing of the Paschal Candle wanting to this ancient ritual ; for though the observance had been earliar introduced in the Roman and other churches, it had fallen into desuetude , from what date is uncertain , till restored by Pope Theodore in the VII century. Except that « Litany of all Saints » still heard (but here much briefer) on Holy Saturday, I find no in- vocations in this office-book that are not directly addressed to Deity; no worship of the creature; though the idea of effectual intercession by the saints is frequently apparent. The Benedictine editors acknowledge that the office for the Assumption cannot be ascribed to Gregory, though they as- sume it to be stiU more ancient. That for SS. Peter and Paul implies the view that both alike were Vicars of Christ, — co- equal rulers in the Church ■ — quos operis tui Vicarios eidem contulisti praeesse Pastores. It is directed that the communon and anointing of the sick should be repeated, if the emer.:;ency required , on seven days successively. Some of the forms of blessing throw light on singular usages of the time, as, for instance , that for the first shaving of the adolescent beard — probably in the case of young clerics , on whom the ope- ration might have been performed in sacristies or cloisters? St. Gregory passed to his immortal reward after less than fourteen years in the pontificate (I2th March 604 ; after overwhelming cares, superadded to contmual bodily infir- mities, had made him feel and often complain of the burden ST. GREGOPiY THE GREAT 33^ of purely mundane duties now devolving on St. Peter's successor. If tired of life , he was never certainly tired of work ; and the epitaph once on his tomb well records , in quaintly conceived verse , his pre-eminent services : Impkbatque actu qiiidque scrnione docebat : Esset ut exemplum , mystica verba loquens. Anglos ad Christum convertit mente beuigna, Sic fidei acquirens agnima geniis nova. Hisqiie Dei consul factus laetare triumphis , Nunc raercedem operum jam sine fine tones. Who would not regard with veneration the relics of siich a man as St. Gregory? And the church dedicate to him, on the site of his house and monastery , now left in possession of so little belonging to its antique original , contains memo- rials whose authenticity cannot be questioned. A lateral cha- pel (gilt and decorated in bad taste' marks the spot where the Saint frequently spent the night on no other couch than a slab of marble, still seen behind a grating. Here also is the marble chair , his episcopal throne , now so worn that the figures of fabulous animals, carved on it, can scarcely be traced. In the contiguous aisle is an altar, below a modern picture of St. Gregory , with marble reliefs of the XY centu- ry , iluslraling his story, or rather legend , in fliree groups ; the central representing a vision above the altar whilst he is celebrating , vouchsafed to dispel the scepticism of one who had doubted the Real Presence ; the lateral reliefs represent- ing the liberation of souls from i'urgatory through his inter- cessions at an altar, here like a narrow reading-desk rather than the magnificent elevations in modern churches: the soul being seen below in the flames of Purgatory, and above as- cending to Beatitude — the allusion, no doubt, to the legend of the salvation of Trajan. Oir the left aisle of the same church is entered a chapel, modernized in 1600 by the architect Maderno , where in a deep niche, within the thickness of the walls, is seen an 336 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT ancient fresco of the Virgin and Child , said to have spoken to St. Gregory, — one of those favourite traditions attaching to so many paintings and Crucifixes in Rome ! In one of three chapels quite apart from the church (in iheir present state rebuilt by order of Cardinal Baronius, completed 1608) is a seated statue of the Pontiff, in full Papal robes and tiara , by Cordieri , directed in this work by Buonarotti , evidently con- forming to the tradition of the Saint's actual appearance — tall, robust, inch'ned to corpulence, of full face and dark hair, without beard (1). In the midst stands the identical table at which he used to feed twelve poor men every day; and around the walls are several mediocre frescoes, illustrating acts in his life ; one being the banquet given to those pauper guests, at which appears a thirteenth, who proved to be an Angel — or , according to one version of the legend , the Re- deemer Himself I « I am the poor man thou didst formerly relieve ; but by name is the Wonderful , and through me thou shalt obtain whatever thon askest from God » — this announcment, in which the mysterious being is said to have addressed him , alluding to the beggar , who had thrice ap- plied for alms , and as the charitable Saint had at last no- thing left to bestow, received from him a silver porringer his mother used every day to send with a mess of food to her son in his monastery. Another of these chapels contains a statue , by the same Cordieri , of that pious matron , an ex- (1) « St. Gregory presented to this Monastery his own portrait with those of his father and mother, which were still in existence 300 years after his death ; and the portrait of himself probably fur- nished that peculiar type of physiognomy we trace in all the best representations of him ». ( Mrs. Jameson , « Sacred and L'-gendary Art ))). Since the XIV century the figure of this Pontiff has become one of the grouping obligatory, so to say, in paintings for the church, that of the Four Latin Doctors , where he is known by his Papal vestments, usually with the tiara (never worn by him), and the Dove pt his ear , implying the inspiration he certainly would never have claimed. ST. GREGORY THE GREAT 337 pressive and venerable figure, said lobe taken from tlie ge- nuine likeness of her once in the St. Andrew cloisters. Close to the ill-modernized church on the Coelian is a ruin we may regard as the identical monastery founded in his paternal mansion by this Pontiff, which fell into decay after the lapse of but one century from his death; was soon afterwards restored by Gregory II, but again destined to ruin and oblivion, since what precise period is unknown. Its ex- tant portion consists of the apse-like termination of a hall in brickwork ( perhaps the chapter-house ) - connected with a line of more vaguely-marked ruins along the ascent of the quiet road (CUvus Scauri) between S. Gregorio and SS. Gio- vanni e Paolo. The couch on which the good Pope used to recline , as his infirmities obliged him to do , whilst giving lessons in vocal music to the young clerics, was reveren- tially preserved at the Lateran till the time of Johannes Di- aconus. We have to regret its disappearance. At SS. Nereo ed Achilleo the whole of one of his homilies is chiselled on the back of the same marble throne from which he delivered it—so brief were those earnest but quiet , unostentatious ser- mons in which a Pope addressed his people , at least once a week, during those times when Apostolic practice still pre- vailed—in this province how unlike the obligatory spun-out rhetoric of the modern Italian pulpit! St. Gregory's are the sermons of the priest who thinks nothing about self, absorbed in his subject. The apparition above the Castle of S. Angelo ( disproved by the silence of all writers nearest to the period who men- tion the pestilence and procession of the litanies) was not perhaps even imagined till somewhat later than this ponti- ficate. But in the Story of Legend , this first supposed vision of the Archangel Michael with even any pretence to historic or palpable character , deserves notice. That which gave rise to the sanctuary and place of pilgrimage on Mount Gargano, rests merely on a dream, except in details that can be ac- counted for without supernaturalism. A proprietor of Siponte 22 338 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT (now Manfredonia), near that mountain, found that one of his oxen had strayed from the herd to the entrance of a cavern near the summit. He ordered a servant to shoot the poor beast; but the arrow rebounded, so as to slay the man in- stead of the ox. The cavern was explored , and in it three altars, with a spring of pure water gushing near, astonished the beholders ; inferring some sacred mystery from which , the proprietor made report to the Bishop of Siponte , who , in order to obtain divine light, fasted and prayed for three days, at the end of which time he beheld in a dream the Archan- gel Michael , and learnt that that cavern was consecrated to him , and ought ever to be revered by the faithful in its as- sociation with their angelic Guardian (1). Perhaps the similar legends attaching to other high mountains had origin in the natural awe, in the sense of a Pre ence and a Power, felt amid the solitudes of majestic Nature. At the present religious crisis of Italy, amidst the too evi- dent alienation from the Church and deep-seated animosi- ties against the Papacy , the example of St. Gregory seems more than ever entitled to regard. It is scarcely more striking as a personification of the virtues suitable to such high dig- nity, than as a witness to the pure ideal of what that dig- nity ought to be. Such a spectacle of energies tempered by humility, simple-minded devoted ness, detachment from world- ly ambition , and rational claims for ecclesiastic preroga- tive , shows to us the Papacy in its best aspect , and suggests the hope of what it may again become by return to its wor- thier antecedents— an issue devoutly to be desired by those convinced of the deep injury to religious interests which has resulted, among Italians at least, from the discredit and comparative impotency into which Catholicism has fallen. Within this period that comprises the evening and morn- ing of two stormy centuries, we cannot expect to find many (1) Represented in an indifferent and much faded fresco , referred to the school of Giotto , at S. Croce , Florence. ST. GREGORY THE GREAT 339 traces of Man's history on monuments or in art-forms. It is indeed the great cataclysm, the final ruin of antique Civili- zation we have now to contemplate — a leading fact of the time to which St. Gregory is a principal witness. No writer has left such mournful notices of the decay and desolation into which Rome and Italy had fallen. « No longer (he says) do we find inhabitants in the country, and scarce any popu- lation even in the towns j). Alluding to the prediction he himself recorded as uttered by St. Benedict, that Rome should be ruined , not by foreign invaders , but by the shocks of Nature, he observes; « the mysteries of this prophecy are now brought into clear light before us; for in this City we have seen walls overthrown , houses levelled, churches des- troyed by the whirlwind , and the edifices worn out by old age fall into final decay under accumulating ruins » ( Dialog. lib. II ). His contemporary biographer describes the inunda- tion , shortly before he became Pope, when the Tiber's tur- bid waters flowed over the greater part of the civic regions, <( so that many walls of antique edifices were thrown down ». It is certain that St. Gregory neither burnt libraries nor de- molished ancient buildings — acts beyond the competency of Popes subject to the Greek Emperors; but he discouraged the pursuits of classic literature , and no doubt confirmed the increasing estrangement of the Christian mind from all that pertained to the Pagan Past. Such a line of policy had its reasons in the then circumstances of the western world , and can scarcely be blamed in an ecclesiastical chief. The Church had still to fight against lingering Paganism, if not in cities, yet among rustics and villagers, or in remote islands. Even at Terracina , a short day's journey from Rome, superstition was so far rampant that, in writing to its bish- op , Gregory had to express his horror at learning that idol- atrous worship was paid in that diocese to trees ( lib. VIII, ep. 18). In Sardinia, as he reports (lib. V, ep. 41) , those who still sacrificed to idols were very numerous; and the judge ap- 340 ST. GREGORY THE GREAT pointed by the Exarch was in the habit of granting for money the hcense to such practices ! happily, however , to a degree put down by the efforts of an Italian bishop whom Gregory- had sent on that mission to a nominally Christian island. The total neglect for classic monuments may be considered to have set in, at Rome , to continue its long-unimpeded course from this period ; and henceforth no antique temple had a chance of being respected or left intact save when dedication to Christian worship was its lot. Fabricius (in Graev. Antiq. Rom. T. Ill ) enumerates fifty-eiglit churches at Rome occupying the sites of Pagan fanes. Even private proprietors were now at liberty to lake down and dispose of such among ancient ruins as stood in their demesnes; as we read was done by a Roman lady, who made a present to Justinian of several columns in her gardens on the Quirinal Hill , des- tining them for the adornment of the new St. Sophia Basilica. We may date the opening of the Mediaeval period in History from this pontificate : and amidst the tumults and shocks , necessary perhaps for the final overthrow of Heathenism with all its influences , rises the life of a higher principle , like heavenly harmonies above jarring discords (I). (1) The Bollandists give the sole contemporary records of St. Gre- gory, which, besides his own writings and the « Historia Francorum » of Gregory of Tours , can be relied on. See also Maimbourg, « Pon- tificat de St. Gregoire le Grand » ; Denina , « Eivoluzioni d' Italia », Gregorovius « Geschichte d. Stadt Rom. » (a writer my obligations to whom cannot be too emphatically acknowledged ) ; Dyer « History of the City of Rome » ; and , for just estimate of St. Gregory and his services , Canlii , « Sloria Universale » ; Tommaseo , « Rome et le Monde ». The startling examples of scandal and outrage in sacred places , on record to the disgrace of this period , are given by Gre- gory of Tours, (« Hist. Franc. » lib. IX, -15, 40), but cannot, I believe, be charged against the Italian Church or cloisters. ST. GREGORY THE GREAT 341 CHRONOLOGY OF MONUMENTS. Ravenna : St. Theodore , a vast monastery founded by a private citizen contiguous to a church of the same name, after- wards called S. Spirito , 590. Naples: 3Ionasteries and'churches of St. Pantaleo and St. Festus, S96: St. Fortunata , called also Stefania , built by Bishop Stephen , 596 : church and monastery of St. Martin , extramural , 599. Earlier in this century, churches of St. Ste- phen , St. Euphemia , S. Laurence ; and , in 566 , St. John Baptist, all of the Roman type, but no longer extant, or so altered that the antique can no longer be traced. First church at Naples , a basilica founded by Constantine ; later cathe- dral , St. Restitula , founded 362, but no trace of its original architecture left ; most ancient extant church , according to legend , S. Pietro ad Aram , with a chapel in which St. Peter is said to have baptized St. Asprenus, first Bishop of this See. X. The Monuments of Ravenna. The history of Ravenna , the la^t stronghold of declining Empire , the capital of the Italo-Gothic Kingdom , the seat of the feeble but tyrannic Exarchate, long favonred by the munificence of Justinian and his orthodox successors, and eventually handed over to the Papacy to become one of the most precious jewels in the Tiara , is fraught with roman- tic incident, and eventful vicissitude. Her ecclesiastical an- nals alone suffice for an interesting chapter in Italian story; and her religious munuments are, of their description, un- ique, less impaired by modern interferences than those of Rome ; whilst supplying the fullest illustration of the ideas and genius that animated sacred art in the fifth and sixth cen- turies. Christianity was introduced here by S. ApoUinaris, who is represented by legend as the personal friend and disciple of St. Peter , sent by that Apostle from Rome to found this illustrious Church on the Adriatic ; and surviving through an ordeal of multiform persecutions to govern his missionary diocese for twenty-nine years, after which period he sutTered martyrdom , a. d. 74 , under Vespasian. An old chronicle describes him as baptizing his converts in the sea , and ce- lebrating mass in a cottage on the shore , the first place of Christian worship here provided; and, descending to a date so much later as the beginning of the fifth century, we read, in the Lives of the Ravenna Archbishops by Agnellus , that THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA 343 till S. Ursus (elected about 400) built the first regular church de- dicated under the name " Anastasis », their flock had no other temples than cottages, worshipping « in tuguriis », as the writer says (I). Whilst Ravenna was the imperial residence, during the period most disastrous for the Western Empire, Konorius , Va- lentinian III , and Galla Placidia did much for this city in the way of religious foundations and embellishments. The Arian Theodoric w^as also a benefactor to his capital, and, judged by the light of his time, an intelligent autocrat, who promoted civilization at this centre. After tbe government of the Greek Exarchs had existed 185 years (2;, the last of those viceregal ofTicers was driven from hence (ad. 7oi) by Astolphus, the Longobard king; and Ravenna became, for but a short period indeed , the new^ capital of that foreign peo- ple. Soon occurred those events so important to the tem- poral interests of the Papacy; the donation of Pepin, com- prising, in liberal concession to Rome (755), the whole of the province which now began to be designated « Romagna » ; after which changes the government of Ravenna was admin- istered by her prelates in the name of, and in subjection to, the Popes (though some of them indeed were loath to submit to such yoke); (3) but about the time that other Italian cities (1) In this respect art-historians differ from the chronicler, as- signing about the date 380 to the origin of the first architectonic cathedral at Ravenna. ( P.icci , Sforia dcirArchiteltura in Italia). (2) According to some histo ians , 199 years. (3) Long after the Greek Exarchate had ceased as a political ad- ministration , the Romagna province retained the sani". name , and the Ravenna bishopric affected the right to succeed to the Byzantine government over this city and territory. Her prelates, inspired per- haps by the recent example of the Popes, made some attempt to obtain temporal power from Charlemagne over the Marches of An- cona. But it was by the solo authority of a Pope , appealed to witli success , that the Prankish king could carry away marbles and art-\\orks from Ravenna for enriching his new residence and basilica at Aix-la-ChapcIlc— a fatal precedent : 344 THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA freed themselves from aristocratic or imperial dominion , Ra- venna also cast off the authority of her mitred rulers, and constituted her new government on republican principles , with a general council of 250 , and a special council of 70 citizens. In 1218 one of the powerful Traversari family dis- turbed this order of things by raising himself to the rank of Duke of Ravenna, but without otherwise setting aside the institu- tions of his native city, which, in 1240, fell under the power of the Emperor Frederick II , who did not scruple to sacrifice her liberties by consigning her, eight years a terwards , to the troops of Pope Innocent IV, thenceforth to be governed by a Papal officer with the title Count, or Rector, of Roma- gna. But this new political phase was brought to a term, about 1300, by the ascendant Polenta family, who made themselves lords of Ravenna, as they contained to be till 1440, when , having become odious to the citizens , their usurpa- tion was overthrown . and the Romagna province spontan- eously placed itself under Venice. Till 1oU9 that Republic com- prised this acquisition within lis territories; then ceded it to the Papacy ; and , though in 1 527 the Venetians again occupied Ravenna in order to make efficient stand against the mercenary armies of Charles V. , three years later they once more handed her over to Rome by the treaty of Bolo- gna. We must infer that Ravenna rapidly declined under Papal sway; for her depressed condition in the XI century is described as well nigh to that of ruin in the Comment on Dante by Benvenuto da Imola : « now so languid and exhausted, that in her decrepitude, near to her fall, she has lost all her vital forces ». In that same century, however, a. d. 1096, was made one addition to her sacred monuments in the extramural church S. Maria Portafuori , built in fulfilment of a vow , made in peril at sea , by the Beato Pietro degli Oiiesti, styled « il peccatore ». The annexation of this city and province to the Italian kingdom is an event of recent histo- ry well known , and accomplished with scarce a shadow of resistance on behalf of the government overthrown. THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA 345 The chronicle by Agnellus (in Muratori , Her. Hal. Script.) extends from a.d 30 to 841, finished by the writer, himself prelate of this see , about 880 ; being indeed a precious do- cument of those ages; minute, careful in detail, and distin- guished by the earnestness of a fresh and simple nature. Not only deeds and virtues suitable to their station , but the out- ward looks of the holy men are reported : one , we are told, having been speciosus forma, another hilaris vultu ; one magnus praedicator , another pater pauperum; while others are recorded to have preached every day, or given a daily ban- quet , like S. Gregory I, to poor pilgrims, etc. We read no- thing of interposition from Rome in the appointment of these prelates till the time of John Angeloptes (so called from the vision of angels vouclisafed to him) . who , occupying this see from 403 to 439, first received the pallium from a Pope— the chronicle indeed says, from Valentinian HI , though we must infer that it was through the imperial influence at Rome that the archiepiscopal symbol was actually obtain- ed ; and Muratori concludes that the next in succession, Peter Chrysologus, was first to exercise the authority of Metropoli- tan , and to receive consecration in person from the Pope. The episode of the meeting between the same John Angelop- tes and Atlila , and the spiritual appeals by which the fury of the Huns was averted fi om this city, their troops being indu- ced to traverse it without damage to life or property, presents one of the noblest instances of the righteous ascendancy won by sacerdotal dignitaries, and forms a worthy counterpart to the still more memorable incident of Pope Leo's appearance in the camp of the same barbarian invader. Seventeen bish- ops of this see appeared in the mosaics of the ancient cathedral ^executed 1112, but now unfortunately lost), all distinguished by the dove hovering near the head, — in allu- sion to the lei:end that, after the election of Severus (about 346), that bird invariably appeared in the assemblage to guide the human choice according to Divine will 1 Now, the election of Severus was in this wise; the clergy and people having 346 THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA been convened to nominate to the vacant see, an honest weaver, a husband and father, left his loom , not without a little matrimonial altercation previous, urged by curiosity to at- tend the momentous votalion ; ashamed of his mean attire, he hid himself behind the church-door ; but presently all eyes turned towards him , for a dove had flown in , and at once alighted on his head ! One version makes this occur three times, after the poor man had been turned out of the church, because too shabby for admission, and had reap- peared on successive days, to be alike signalised by the Di- vine portent. At all events that weaver, Severus, was made bishop ; and till the twelfth century the tradition prevailed , however kept up . that all his successors were alike pointed out by such visiMe token of the Holy Spirit present! And one moral meaning at least may be profitably derived from this legend , inasmuch as it attests the original freedom in the Church's constitution, the legal intervention of tiie popu- lar element, and the independence of all external authority in the manner of providing for spiritual needs within each dioct-se, or, we should rather say, within each of the provin- ces subject to their respective metropolitans. In snch exam- ples the poetry of superstition may be the record of truth. We are told much by Agnellus of the sp'endours distin- guishing the sacred edifices at Ravenna . the munificent dona- tions of emperors andarchbishops, — the mosaics on gold ground, the silver tabernacles, the paintings illustrative of Evangelic history round church walls, etc. It was, no doubt, the early-attained ex ellence of art at this centre that gave rise to another beautiful legend referring to a picture of the Saviour in the basilica of S. Peter , built here under Valen- tinian III. A holy hermit , in some Oriental desert , had pray- ed earnestly to be permitted to behold the Divine Person as made manifest in the garb of mortality ; and it was at last in- timated to him in a vision ihat he should travel to Ravenna, where the actual semblance worn by the Son of Man might be contemplated. He arrived here , attended by two faithful THE MOMMENTS OF RAVENNA 347 lions, tame as housedogs, and after observing all the pictures on sacred walls came before one which an innervoice assured him to be no other than the genuine likeness of the Loud. Kneel- ing in rapture , he poured out his soul in gazing upon the heavenly beauty of that form; and in such overwhelming emotion was his life brought to blissful close, ebbing away with the tide of devout joy. The citizens give honourable in- terment to his remains ; and the faithful beasts who, couching one at the head , one at the foot of his grave , soon grieved away their lives also, were buried beside their master. One would give much to be assured which , among the pictures or mosaics in Ravenna's churches, were the one indicated in this story. Christian Art in general, but specially the Mosaic, seems to have attained high excellence at Ravenna even earlier than at Rome ; and indeed the various works in such artistic form of the fifth and sixth centuries that ^till adorn this city's churches , are more interesting , and bolder in composition than the contemporary examples of the same art in the Papal metropolis. Vitreous mosaic [crustae vermiciilatae), substituted for that in coloured marbles or terra cotta more anciently in use, was first applied, under the Empire, to the adorn- ment of walls and ceilings in private chambers ; sometimes also for pavements in temples , or in the banquet hall. In this latter material, more capable of brilliant effect, mosaic was early adopted by the Church for representation of sacred subjects; its enduring nature, its suitability for majestic and colossal figures or groups , being sufficient recommendation. Banished by antique artists to a subordinate and merely de- corative place , where it seldom attempted even the higher range of mythologic subjects (though we find exceptions in- deed in the finest specimens from Pompeii and Praeneste) , mosaic , as fostered by the Church , soon rose into a nobler sphere , and began to claim attention by characteristics of progressive vitality, — advancement in technical skill, and superiority in the themes undertaken. When at Rome, lin- 348 THE monlme:nTS of ravExNna gering in old churches at evening hours, I have frequently observed how the majestic mosaic forms that look down from vaulted apse or storied chancel-arch, gain enhanced effect, more solemnly expressive, whilst other coloured representa- tions become obscure in the dim light ; and it is undeniable that many of those early Christian art-works have power to impress and interest quite apart from claims of the beau- tiful , and even when their characteristics are actually rude or grotesque. The Mosaic is pre-eminently a religious art in its higher capabilities. Turning to the examples of this form at Ravenna , we find the mosaic adornment of churches become cospicuous in the fifth century, through the care of Archbishops, of Honorius , and Galla Piacidia ; and in the latter part o! the sixth centu- ry, after the fall of the Gothic kingdom , the churches rebuilt, or reconsecrated for Catho'ic instead of Arian worship, receiv- ed new embellishments, though it is in some instances uncertain whether attributable to heretical or orthodox donors. The beautiful and varied mosaic series in the chapel of the ar- chiepiscopal palace, are still intact. Those in the basilica of S. John, founded 423, have perished, save a few insignificant fragments ; another church , raised in 438, was almost rebuilt, and entirely modernized, in 1683. The mosaics of the sixth century in the now ruinous S. Michele have been sold, and left to find their way to Berlin. When the cathedral was re- built in 1735, with almost total loss of its ancient artistic wealth . and without regard for the norma of the original in the new architecture, among other contents that perished were all the mosaics of the tribune and chancel, ordered by an arch- bishop in 1112 , representing the Resurrection and Ascen- sion , the martyrdom of S. Apollinaris , and the seventeen sainted prelates of this see. When Ravenna was an important naval station, and the sea (now nearly four miles distant) only divided from her walls by the waters of a vast lagune, Augustus turned these local advantages to account by constructing a harbour capable THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA 349 of sheltering 250 ships, calleJ Portus Classis , between wliich and the city soon sprang up a populous suburb, or rather additional town , known as Caesarea ; the basilica of S. Apol- linare in Classe , about two miles from the actual city, being the sole mouument that retains, merely in its name, the re- cord of that populous quarter , never restored after having been laid waste by the Longobards in 728. In the story of architecture this once splendid church fills a conspicuous place , and is described by Agincourt as « a new example in the blending of the form of the temple with that of the antique basilica , in order to its adaptation for the rites and usages of the Church in early Christian periods '>. Considered the most perfect model of its class in Italy, it has, notwith- standing such claims, been subjected to many and grievous outrages; and when I visited Ravenna, ^before the change of government}, nothing so surprised me as the woeful ne- glect and dilapidation in which I found this, magnificent edifice. It seemed like a mournfully impressive type of the decline of that ancient Christianity , that pure and apostolic constitution of the earlier Church, over whose ruins the po- tent system of the Papacy has been constructed. This basi- lica of Caesarea rose complete by the year 549, after rapid- ly executed works under the direction of Julianu? , the treasurer [argentarius), who represented the Government of Justinian, and who bad already founded the splendid church of S. Vitalis within the city. An atrium with porticoes extends in front; the nave (130 feet in length) being divided from the aisles by massive columns of Hymeltian marble with Corinthian capitals and arcades, above which is a high attic with round-arched windows; the roof resting on rafters concealed by no woodwork ; beyond the nave, a flight of steps above a crypt leading into the sanctuary, which ter- minates in a vaulted apse, adorned with mosaics still entire in their olden beauty. A monastery, adjoining the church, was built in 59G ; restorations were effected in the ninth century by Pope Leo 111 ; but in later times began the work 350 THE MONUMENTS OF llAVENNA of spoliation ; many valiiable mosaics perished ; of more than fifty windows the greater number wera blocked up ; tne pn- lared atrium was taken down; the interior walls were stripped of the fine marble, once completely clothing them , by Sigis- mvmd Malatesta , lord of Rimini, to which city those spoils were transferred (in I4oOj; the monastery was suppressed, its buildings left desolate, from a period not, I believe, cer- tain: and a dreary old farmhouse now represents, or rather effaces the remains of, that cloistral retreat. Never shall I forget the first impression received from this still noble , though now forlorn , monument of the sixth century, which stands close to the road in the midst of a vast marshy plain ; set in a mournful landscape, bounded west- ward by distant Apennines, in low but gracefully varied outHnes, to the east by the historic pine-forest, which extend- ing far as the eye can reach, divides the level maremma from the sea with its dense growth , presenting the apparent regularity in form of another mountain-chain. It was the sunset-hour of a fine May day ; yet even that joyous season did not dispel the monotonous melancholy of the scene,— accordant indeed with the character of that lone church ; and as I stood at its portal to observe the last gleam of golden light on the ^Vpennines, the continual croaking of frogs in the marsh was the sole sound to disturb the silence. Not a human being did I see in or near the sacred premises , except the invariable custode , though at this period the de- solate-looking farm was tenanted , one wing being the habi- tation of the priest here on duty for the celebration of a daily mass, but obliged to leave at night, on account of mal- aria , in the. sultrier months. The basilica exterior, plain and venerably simple , has no very remarkable feature left , save the high cylindrical campanile that rises near one angle of a facade partly concealed by those farm-buildings. But the effect, as one enters, is at once aerial and majestic; nor has the character of splendour been altogether obliterated by the sad vicissitudes this building has passed through. The THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA 3o| meflallion portraits of Archbishops still look down , a solemn company, from above the arcades. Not more than three al- tars 'probably the usual number in basilicas of the same period are seen, each surmounted by a richly moulded marble canopy, in the perspective beyond long files ofpillars, — except indeed one other, isolated in the nave, and evidently more modern , of cubic form , bearing an inscription that tells how S. ApoUinaris twice appeared on this spot, and thence proceeded to incense the holy place , visible during his vigils to the young S. Romuald , whom he enjoined to devote himself to the religious life , before that step had yet been taken by the founder of the Camaldulese Order. Eight marble sarcophagi, the tombs of archbishops, in the aisles, present early examples of Christian symbolism in their relief ornaments; and the mitred portraits, — those in the nave of mosaic , in the aisles of fresco — have been completed in suc- cession down to the last , Cardinal Falconieri , 126th occupant of this Metropolitan See. But the mosaics of the tribune, probably ordered by the Archbishop Agnellus .(oo3-66\ are the most precious among art-works still preserved here. The principal subject, on the apsidal vault, is the Trans- figuration, the earliest example of its appearance in Art, except in another mosaic , of the IV century, at the St. Ca- therine convent on Mount Sinai , and a sculpture , supposed of the same period , given by Agincourt. But here the treat- ment is purely mystic and quite unhistoric: above a verdant plain planted with trees hangs a large Cross in a nimbus studded with stars and surrounded by a jewelled border; the head of the Saviour, very beautiful, being seen in the cen- tre , at the juncture of the arms; above, is a hand issuing from clouds; laterally, are Moses and Elias, half-figures, with names written , also rising out of clouds ; below, the three Apostles , represented by sheep standing under trees ; on the arms of the Cross being inscribed the A and Q ; and at the summit, letters read by some critics as ixQu; , but by Ciam- pini as IMDTC, and by him interpreted: Immolatio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi. In the centre of a flowery plain , immedi- 332 THE BIOMMENTS OF RAVENNA ately underneath, stands St. Apollinaris, in altitude of prayer, with nimbed head , and vested in an ample chasuble, perhips first example of such costume in art; and twelve other sheep, at the basement of the composition, stand for the Apostolic company. Between the four windows of this apse are the figures, each in act of blessing , of Ursinus , Ursus, Severus, and Ecclesius, sainted Prelates of this See. On the walls round the choir are other subjects on smaller scale : the sa- crifices of Abel and Melchizedek, both at the same altar, where Abel is oflTering a lamb ; Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac ; the consecr.ition of this church by the bishop Maxim- ianus in presence of three Emperors, the jointly reigning Constantino , Ileraclius , and Tiberius , whose names are here restored in a modern inscription. Besides these is another mosaic group, as to which have been proposed various, and some vague explanations, but which Ciampini interprets in convincing manner as the presentment of a sceneunique among art-subjects, but naturally admitted among historic memo- rials here : — the young Justinian , when fourteen years of age , received by Theodoric as a hostage , sent to Ravenna in that capacity by his uncle, the Emperor Justinus, in 497; the Gothic king being here seated at table , and the young prince, with his tutor, introduced into his presence by the Greek envoy. Over and around the arch of the tribune is a continuation of this mosaic-series : a medallion bust of the Saviour holding a book and in act of blessing : the symbols of the Four Evangelists; twelve sheep (for the Apostles) ap- pearing to issue from the mystic cities , Jerusalem and Beth- lehem ; the Archangels Michael and Gabriel ; St. Matthew and St. Luke. Much damage has been sufiered by, and much modern work applied to, these mosaics, several parts being new, restored either in similar material or merely in painting ; and this at different periods, in the last instance by an ar- tist named Ricci , !8I6. In the forlorn decay of a life truly belonging to the past, Ravenna is especially distinguished by the isolation and gran- deur of its sacred monuments, which stand like sculptures THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA 353 against a dark background, in effect undifelarbed by other objects ; and here , where « the last Caesarian fortress stood », the terrific shocks that accompanied the fall of Empire be- come present to tlie mind with more vividness than even in the pages of Gibbon. The far-extending sohtude of flat marshy environs girt by the solemn gloom of pine forest, the wide, grass-grown streets, the ruinous fortifications veiled with ivy or creeping plants, the silent palaces of faded aristocracy, and cottage-like dwellings of the poorer classes, may excite regret as to the social state indicated, but in their aggregate form a fit framework for the impressive monumental picture. The Middle Ages have passed over this fallen capital of the Gothic kingdom , almost without leaving one trace behind ; and in the Ravenna of the Papal States the actualities of the present were alike uninteresting and insignificant. It is in the mosaic that Christian art is most conspicuous at this centre , and that the religious idea of the ages of Ho- norius , of Theodoric , and the Exarchs appears most intelli- gibly manifest. That Greek school , whose w^orks w^e have here before us , may be said to have been mainly occupied , dur- ing the fifth and sixth centuries, in illustrating those devo- tional tendencies, then continually gaining strength, for the veneration of saints , the exaltation of the Blessed Virgin to Christian regards, the more clearly-developing ideas of angel- ic guardianship, and of the honours due to thrones, domi- nations, princedoms , powers, In the celestial hierarchy; more- over in celebrating , beside these higher themes , and strangely associated with them , the admitted presence of Caesarism in the sanctuary, of the Emperor with his body-guard, the Empress with her court-ladies amidst sainted prelates and holy symbols on the storied w*alls or dome of apse and chancel ; while the absence of the Papacy from Art-treatment , and (as we may infer) from thought alike , is singularly noticeable. Nothing Is more evident, indeed, in the ecclesiastical story of Ravenna , than the fact that this city was slow to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome , at least in the sense 23 354 THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA now claimed; and in many instances the recorded adminis- tration of her church-affairs seems to attest a principle of local independence quite unchecked. We read in the chro- nicle given by Muratori ( Rer. Ital. Script, t. i, p. 11 ), of an unworihy intruder, John X, being deposed from this see, in the ninth century, « by all the people », with no note of re- ference to an external judgment-seat , or requisite sanction from any higher tribunal; and in the most valuable of local records extant, the prelate-historian Agnellus seems to own, with a sigh of submissive regret, the fact of Rome's headship, not as resting on a primordial principle of revealed religion , but (as he naively expresses his theory) on the mere privilege of possessing such an inestimable treasure as the great Apos- tle's tomb I — an accidental and material advantage in lieu of an inalienable and divinely-conferred right ! It is true that a letter (given by Muratori) of S. Peter Ghrysologus (Arch- bishop , 139 — 50) acknowledges a principality proper to that see a in which the blessed Apostle is still living » ( beatus Petrus Apostolus vivus sit) ; but can we discover a sense con- firmatory of the assumed dependence on Rome in Agnellus's narrative of the circumstances that led to that prelate's elec- tion, as follows? « The general multitude of the people as- sembled with the clergy, according to the discipline of the Church , and elected for themselves a pastor , with whom they repaired to Rome , and appeared before the holy Pope of the ApobNA seeing that Agnellus , unquestionably the best authority, con- fines himself to the simple narration of those credible facts without any note of the vision , the sandal , or its bestowal and immuring. Probably the amplified version , embel ished with such marvels , dates not higher than the age to which are referred by good critics, namely, the twelfth century, those reliefs still seen above the portal, that represent the several acts in this story (v. Cicognara , Storia della Scultura italiana) : the apparition of the apostle attended by angels at the altar , while Placidia kneels to touch his foot ; the ofi'er- ing or enshrining of the holy sandal by the princess, the emperor and a mitred prelate introduced in the scene; and above , a half-length figure of the SAvmuR looking down upon the group below from a species of tabernacle. That very detail of the concealment shakes the credit of this truly pic- turesque story, because adverse to the practice , which , from the time relics were first kept in churches, required the periodical exposure for veneration , not the withdrawal from regard and knowledge of such sacred objects. Noblest among specimens of fifth-century art at Ravenna are the mosaics in the chapel built by S. Peter Chrysologus, about A. D. 440 , in the archiepiscopal palace , the interior of this oratory being one field of sacred representations, which impressed me as one of the most grandly conceived series in all such artistic produce. This palace is itself a curiosity; and one of its great halls contains a valuable museum of local antiqui- ties , Christian and Pagan, mostly monumental; among the former series a fine Apostle's head in mosaic , and some rich inlaid pavement from the now, alas, vanished cathedral. It is from this antiquarian treasury that we pass into the beautiful chapel, of plan like the letter T; and as we first distinguish by dim light the solemn figures and sternly expres- sive heads, the large-winged angels and sacred symbols on the golden groundwork of storied walls and vaults, the mind is possessed by a sense of the majesty of the ancient Church and her sacramental mysteries. We seem to have left behind the THE MOiNLMEMS OF RAVE.XNA 361 glare and follies of the world in crossini^ this threshold. Above a marble incrustation round the lower part, expands that field of mosaics in brilliant hues unfaded , as the quaint and massive architecture is alike intact, since the days when the emperors of a ruined state trifled away their fear-stricken lives at Ravenna. Not yet is any subordinate personage allow- ed prominence in the sacred grouping; iiot yet has the worship of the Saviolu been disputod hy that of the Madonna or saints His form is everywhere conspicuous and central here , represented as at different ages , but ahvays at once recognisable. We see Him as a young boy, with the twelve Apostles in a series of medallion heads; w^e see Him again as a youth of about eighteen years, with the same benignly beautiful features more developed ; and again as a fully ma- tured man , still mild and noble-looking , in costume like that of a Greek Emperor , with tunic of gold tissue , purple chlamys with jewelled clasp at the right shoulder, in one hand a long red cross , in the other a volume open at the words of most blessed assurance : Ego sum Via , Veritas , et Vita. His head alone among all here before us is crowned by the nimbus ; and striking indeed is the superiority, the ma- jestic benignity that distinguishes the Divine subject as here conceived by art, compared with the repulsive aspect given to its form in another mosaic-treatment of the same year , 440 , at the Ostian Basilica , near Rome. On the vault of ^lis venerable chapel are the usual winged symbols of the Evan- gelists, each with a jewelled book; and at the centre the holy mo- nogram in a disc, supported on th.e uplifted arms of four angels, majestic creatures in long while vestmente , whose solemn countenances express a kind of awful joy. The numerous other tigures and heads of Apostles and saints are character- ized liy general samenessof type, with, eyes large and staring, forehead low and flat, lips full ; the femaie heads all veiled, but with rich coiHure and braided hair in sight, except S. Felicitas , who has the head-dress of a nun. SS. Peter and Paul display the well-known types with which one is fami- 362 ' THE MOXLMENTS OF RAVENNA liar even from the period of catacomb-art. Over the altar is the only mosaic here of later date than the rest , one from the lost cathedral (twelfth century), representing the bles- sed Virgin in act of prayer, with outspread arras , the head closely veiled , the fiure in long purple robes , the aspect that of matron maturity, modest, severe — the unmistakable character here intended, that of the interceding mother, or rather the personified Church, not that of the heavenly queen who herself demands worship. A few other churches in Ravenna are desolate and ne- glected monuments of the fifth century. Among these is S.Agata Mag g lore , a fine example, built by the Bishop Exupe- rantius, about 400, the mosaics in which are described by Ciampini ; but I regretterl to see its actual state of forlorn decay, its marble and granite columns apparently in danger of sinking beneath the superincumbent weight. S. Francesco, ascribed to S. F^eter Chrysologus , has been restored without loss of much that is essential to the early basilica style , and has a spacious imposing interior, three apses correspond- ing to nave and aisles, colonnades of white marble with Corinthian capitals and uniform shafts, high attics and vault- ing , probably a modern substitute for the wooden roof with rafters decorated in colour or gilding , assumed to be the primitive form of this detail in basilicas. This church is ce- lebrated for mediaeval tombs, especially that with a recum- bent figure , (relief vested as a mendicant friar , of Ostasio da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, deceased 1386; but greater renown once attached to it as the resting place of Dante , whose remains now lie in an external mausoleum leaning against the church's lateral wall, though quite distinct, origin- ally built in 1482, and restored, in the poorest style, 1692. We now pass to the Ostro-golhic epoch. In 493 Theodoric, king of that nation , after obtaining from the feeble and sui- cidal Greek Empire a formal concession of Italy, became mas- ter of Ravenna , and inconsequence of the whole peninsula, establishing his court at this city, which he had taken after THE 3I0MME.NTS CF RAVLN.NA 363 a long siege sustained by Ihe Herulian Odoacer , once dictator and patrician of Rome. This kingdom , of which Ravenna became the capital , destined to endure but sixty years, com- prised { from about A. D. 520 ) the whole of Spain as well as Italy, western Illyria , and soulhern Gaul, being bounded by the Danube, the Rhone, the Garonne, the Theiss , the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. Thedoric's own reign (489 — 5:26) , on the whole glorious and prosperous , gave the first example of enlightened , and for a time popular foreign do- mination in Italy : but unlimited power, and, perhaps more than anything else , the irritable feeling of the sectarian aware that his faith was reprobated and himself considered an alien by the highest and most influential of his subjects and neigh- bouring powers , by the Greek Caesars as well as by the Roman pontiff and senate, seem to have embittered and cor- rupted his declining life, to have brought on a species of moral decay in this prince's character, who , after burdening his conscience with guilt through the unjust deaths of Pope John I, of the esteemed senator Symmachus, and the illus- trious Roetius, left his sceptre in the hands of a feeble boy, directed indeed by an able and high-minded woman, Ama- lasunta , Theodoric's widowed dai^ghter , who was ungrate- fully betrayed and condemned to die by her cousin Theo- datus . called by herself to the throne left vacant after the premature death of her son, Athalaric (534). A short time before his decease Theodoric had issued a decree , provoked by the severe measures of the Greek court against the Arians, for depriving his Catholic subjects of their churches, to be oc- cupied by his own sect ; but before the day fixed for fuliil- ment he died amidst pangs of remorse and the hatred of the populace ; legend soon devising the horrific tale of his spirit having been seen hurled into the crater of Lipari. To the worthless and pusillanimous Theodatus , who shrank from even the attempt to defend his states against the Greek in- vasion now undertaken by Justinian, and who was assassina- ted, succeeded the valiant Vitiges (536 — 40) ; lldebaldus and 364 THE MONLMEMS OF RAVENNA Eraricus, both cut off by violence , 541 ; Totila , so heroically conspicuous in the Italo-Greek wars , (o41-o2) ; and lastly , Teja, with whose death in battle, 553, closes the period of Ostro-Gothic rule in this Peninsula. Ravenna was besieged and taken by Belisarius, (539), after whose ingress her royal palace was ransacked of all its treasures , those spoils to be sent as trophies to Constantinople. A visit to this city may suffice to convince how absolute a misnomer is the term « Gothic » , applied to architecture ; not one feature , no hint or presentiment of the Pointed Style, ( more properly called Germanic , though not strictly refera- Jble to any national limitation) , being seen among the few ed fices that remain here or elsewhere on thi^ side the Alps of Theodoric's or his successors' foundation. The able historian, Troya , assumes that the Arian Goths in all probability avoid- ed the triangular form in architectural design , and thus created for themselves a barrier against adoption of that style, because the triangle was to the Catholics an emblem of the Divine Unity in Trinity (I). I am not aware that any distinc- tive features in Arian ritual were such as to affect the build- ing of their temples , or induce essential difference in in- ternal arrangements from those of Catholics ; but assuredly that sect must have been far from admitting the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Eucharist , or the deeper meaning of types and symbols referring to the Person of our Lord. Many churches were built at Ravenna by Theodoric : .S. Martin , ( now S. ApoUinare Nuovo ) , raised as the cathedral (2) Troya's argument , though ingenious , seems to involve con- tradiction. He assumes that the acute arch did prevail at Ravenna under the Goths , early in the VI century ; and that those Arians first regarded the ogive form as a symbol of sense adverse to the Catholic Church , which it eventually ceased to be in their eyes when known to all in its orthodox import; hut he elsewhere con- cludes that , in the V and VI centuries , the acute arch was not in favour for any long time , nor owing to any avowed principle, among those invaders (« Codice Diplomalico Longobardo »). THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA 36') of Arian worship ; S. Theodore { according to one report much more ancient ) , reconsecrated as S. Sjnrito ; and others that have perislied , severally dedicated to S. George in Tauro , (built by the Arian bishop Unimundus), S. Eusehhis , (des- troyed by an archbishop in the time of Charlemagne ) : two others, in and near the suburb of Classis , afterwards dedi- cated by the Catholics to the Beati Sergius and Zeno ; and another to 5. Eusehius , which stood till 1457, when it was de- molished by the Venetians in order to raise a fortress on the spot. S. Spirito is a small edifice of sombre aspect , but in- teresting for the architectural character of its interior, its rich marbles, and sculptured pulpit of the sixth century. The Arian baptistery, built also by Theodoric , now Santa Maria in Cosmedin , is a small octagonal chapel of gloomy interior , the mosaics on whose vault are said to have been ordered in the sixth century after the catholic reconsecration. Similar in subject and motif to those in the more ancient baptistery, these works are in style so inferior that we might^refer them to a later school and different phase of civilization; and the omission of the emblem of the OEcumenic council , the en- throned Gospel , whilst other details appear alike in both com- positions , might confirm the idea of an Arian origin (I). In the scene of the baptism here the personified Jordan seems the principal personage ; the other figures are grotesque , and the S. John is in attitude so uncouth as to suggest the notion of a barbaric dance. The Apostles , occupying a circular com- partment below, are in classic (ancient Roman) costume, each carrying in his hands a crown set with gems, except SS. Peter and Paul , the former of whom holds his keys , the latter two scrolls , implying his importance among authors of sacred books : all these figures seeming to approach a throne where , (i) One historian of Ravenna, Fabri, indeed maintains this, instead of tlie later origin ; and it is but local tradition that assigns these ^ mosaics to the date -353, and to the archbishop S. Agnellus. 366 , THE MOMJIEMS OF UAYF.NNA erect upon cushions, stands a large cross studded with blue gems, a sacerdotal stole being hung across its arms (1). The mausoleum of Theodoric, raised during his lifetime, (not, as conjectured , by Amalasunta under the reign of his grandson) , is a marvel of construction , though by no means admirable in decorative details. Sharing the fate of those of S. Helena and S. Constantia near Rome , it was at some me- diaeval period dedicated as a church, S. Maria Rot onda , hxit is now again left to silent solitude, having been long since robbed of the sarcophagus in which Greek bigotry would not grant the repose of the tomb to an Arian sovereign. A deca- gonal structure of marble , it rises with an upper story on a high basement , at each oX whose ten sides opens a deep recess under a semicircular arch ; the interior, reached by two outer staircases added in 1780, is circular, and quite plain, lighted by small windows opening , near the summit , between a sim- ple band and a cornice , and roofed by a stupendous cupola, one solid mass of Istrian stone, measuring in diameter 10,4 metres; from the base to the summit 4,5 ; in thickness 1,14; the weight estimated at more than two hundred tons, and by Ricci at four million Roman pounds, about equivalent to that of eighteen or twenty thousand men in the scale togeth- er! Not indeed a beautiful, but a striking object, this extra- ordinary tomb rises among woods at a short distance from the city, where a sylvan scene of quiet loveliness surrounds the monument of eventful story and perished nationality. It is popular belief that a huge porphyry urn, like an antique balh , found near the outside of this building , and now stand- ing below the ruins of Theodoric's palace in a street , is the (1) The fruit-hearing palm, emblem of celestial rewards , is here also seen between each pair of apostolic figures ; and the curious detail of horns like crabs' claws, given to the Jordan, is explained by Ciampini as typical of the overflow of that river, each Summer, when the sun enters the sign of Cancer. THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA 367 violated tomb of that prince; but authorities decide against this local tradition , as also against the idea that the lost sar- cophagus had stood on the summit of that massive cupola — the interior being its suitable place. Those ruins , called the Palace of Theodoric , are conject- ured by Hope to belong more probably to that of the Greek Exarchs; and the pris'ine character of the edifice is still dis- tinctly presented to us among the fine mosaics in the basilica founded by the Gothic king. S. Ajwllinare Xuovo , built as an Arian cathedral, and first dedicated to S. Martin, was reconsecrated for Catholic worship by S. Agnellus , and enriched with its mosaic decorations, pro- nounced the finest examples of the Christian school in Italy, about 570. It was not till about 836 that this church was re-dedicated to St. Apollinaris by an Archbishop (afterwards Pope as John IX) , who transferred hither that Saint's body from the extramural basilica, in order to secure it from the rap- ine of the Saracens. The groups of those mosaic art-works cover two high at.ics above colonnades. On one side, as if issuing from the gales of the seaport Classis (represented with its harbour and ships) , we see a stately procession of twenty-two female saints, all with names and the prefix Sea, all attired alike, with braided and gem-wreathed hair , veil, robe and mantle richly embroidered in gold, each holding a jewelled diadem; the whole company advancing towards the Mother and Child, but preceded by the three Magi , who wear fantastically gay oriental costumes, and have crowns on their heads, being apparently in utmost haste to present their ofTerings — one of them a negro , perhaps earliest example of such distinction among the three. The Divine Child and the mother are at- tended by four majestic angels in long vestments with wands. Mary, seated on a magnificent throne , wears a long veil and robe of purple bordered with gold ; the Child is fully clad in white and gold , and has the nimbus with cruciform rays; all the other saintly personages, (except the Magi) , having also the nimbus, though not like His with rays; and here 368 THE NONU?.!E\TS OF nWENNA we notice one indication of increasing devotional regards for the Virgin Mother, inasmuch as slie , like the Child, holds up a hand to give benediction in the same action as He also blesses; thus being taken a part by Mary scarce instanced (that I am aware) in other treatments, modern or ancient, of this scene. On the opposite attic , less favourably displayed owing to the windows that open on the same side , and un- fortunately in part concealed by modern obstructions , is the group, indeed more important, consisting of twenty-three male saints , alike holding jewelled crowns , and advancing towards the Saviour; Who sits enthroned between four angels similar to those in attendance on the Mother and Child; those worshippers also issuing from an edifice, no other than the palace of Theodoric , designated in large letters as palatium, where we observe the antique Roman arrangement of closing the arched portals with curtains instead of valves. All the saintly figures on these walls have the nimbus and are dis- tinguished by names above their heads ; the first in the male group being incomplete « — tinus » ( Martinus ) ; the next , S. Clement ; and in the rest of this series one other Pope , S. Cornelius, appearing, but nothing in character or attribute to mark out these Roman bishops among their companions (1). Among the female saints, besides the familiarly known Ce- cilia, Agnes, and Agatha, are others more rarely seen in art — Victoria, Anatolia , Eugenia, Valeria. On higher compart- ments are figures of smaller scale, prophets or apostles (with- out name; , and miracles or other acts of our Lord , alter- nating with an emblematic design presenting the inner view of a cupola with a pendent lamp like a diadem; a cross and two doves on the extrados ; the lamp (corona) being here probably borrowed from the ceremonial of the Byzantine (i) The figure of St. Stephen, originally at the head of the pro- cession, i> lost; and the first, as now seen, is St. Martin. The Sa- viour's figure is restored with a s eptre in the left hand instead of a book , as formerly, showing the words , « Ego sum Rex gloriae ». TFIE MO.NUMF.NTS OF RAVENNA 360 court , where two sucli objects used to be cnrried or suspend- ed before the emperor to signify his care over things tem- poral and things spiritual: as it was, in fact, with such a diadem serving as a lamp above the high altar of S. Sophia that those potentates were crowned , after which solemnity the same corona was restored to its former place and service for lighting the sanctuary. Another valuable mosaic in this church is the half-length figure, in diadem and chlamys, of Justinian, an authentic portrait* we may conclude , which has , with strange neglect , been left I know not how long concealed behind an organ-loft — in outline engraving given both by Agincourt and Ciampini. The chapel which contains the body of S. Apollinaris , laid in an altar under a ponderous marble canopy with porphyry columns , is an interesting example of sixth-century architecture , not ( I believe ) in any respect deprived of its pristine character or olden magnificence. This reconsecrated cathedral brings us to the epoch of Justinian , the most beneficial for Ravenna , and that w^hich has left to her the most splendid , indeed all the more conspic- uous of her extant monuments. That Emperor might be taken as the best representative of the virtues and influences , the religious and intellectual dispositions seated on the Byzan- tine throne. Pious and austere, munificent towards the Church, while pitiless towards heretics , a theologian by profession , a persecutor on system , aflfable in manners and easily forgiv- ing , though suspicious; e.iger for military renown, though parsimonious towards the generals who won it for him ; am- bitious to shine not only as the greatest Christian legislator, but as poet, musician , architect, but above all as theologian, and implacable towards those who contested his dogmatic theories ; in the course of a reign of almost thirty-seven years he not only bestowed all his private property upon eccle- siastics , but founded twenty-six , and supplied means for the founding in all of ninety-six churches, providing them with sacred vessels and vestments , litiirgic books and Bibles. No city in his Stales but received some addition to its public 24 3'/0 THE MOMMl-NTS OF RAVE.NNA buildings; no province in which some town or fortress was not restored by him. The great compilation he ordered of tlie Institutes comprises in twelve books, under 77G titles, the constitutions of fifty-four emperors from the time of Hadrian ; and subsequently lo this famous achievement , were issued 168 additional laws, later compiled as the Novellae of Justinian. Such singular blending of ascetic piety and energies, intellect and zeal , no doubt qualified him as a great instrument for the furtherance of Providential designs and for the civilising of the Eastern Empire, — one result of whose agency appears in the fact that under this reign 70,000 idol- aters were baptized in the provinces of Asia 3Iinor alone. The most sumptuous church raised , or at least comple- ted and decorated , by this Emperor at Ravenna , is the Basilica of S. Yitalis , a soldier-martyr who suffered by being buried alive on the spot where a small oratory, built at some primitive period, eventually gave place to the magnificent structure before us, which Ciampini supposes may have been founded towards the end of the fifth century, though not fin- ished till this reign. The account by Agnellus is that the Arch- bishop Ecclesius, on his return from Constantinople, gave com- mission, of course in the Emperor's name , a. d. 534, to Julian, the Argentarius then in office , to order the demolition of that earlier building and erect in its stead the basilica who.se origin was recorded in a now lost inscription once in the portico; « -Mandato Ecclesii Episcopi Julianus Argentarius aedificavit, ornavit , atque dedicavit , consecrante vero reverendissimo Maximiano Episcopo sub die Kal. xiii. 3Iai. sexies P(ost; C(on- sulatum) Basilii lun. V. G. Indictione x »; and the same ancient chronicler tells us that « no other church in Italy is like this either in architecture or mechanic construction ». Its plan is octagonal, with an oblong chancel advancing from the nave, and a portico , which instead of being, parallel to one side , is perpendicular to one angle. The exterior is so plain that we are thereby perhaps rendered more sensible to the Oriental splendours that amaze and take us by surprise on THE MONLMiLiNTS OF HAVEN.NA 371 entering. The sanctities of a thousand years ^eem to have left their trace on these storied walls ; and yet such mag- nificence as liiat of Justinian's basilica appears suited ra- ther to the mystic pomps of the Greek, than to the more in- telligible and artistic ritual of the Latin Church. Around that dim-lit octagon rise massive semi-circular arcades supporting a cupola, whose compass corresponds to the entire area below ; and within the eight major archways , resting on piers , are two stories of small arcades with light columns of (jreek marble ; the upper arches communicating with a gallery, the lower with an octagonal ais!e. On the smaller capitals (Corinthian,) are sculptured anchors, that have sug- gested the tradition referring them to a temple of Neptune ; on the larger, in style Gothic, are relief monograms, in all twenty-eight, one of which has been read as Xarses , but by Muratori as Nepos , probably the name of the architect ; the others being more intelligible , as Ecdesius and Julianus. The whole interior is encrusted with fine marbles , except the cupola and the choir with its apse and vaulting , where we see one of the most brilliant historic series of mosaic com- positions — in some respects unique among all in Italian chur- ches. On the apsidal vault is the Saviour seated on a globe, of noble and youthful aspect , with classically chiselled fea- tures and dark curling hair, vested in purple robes bor- dered with gold, and in act of giving a diadem to S. Yitalis^ who receives it reverentially with hands muffled [the Orien- tal form of showing respect^ in his mantle ; on the other side , stand S. Ecclesius , holding a model of this church , and a white-robed angel, a figure similar to which also introduces S. A'italis. Over the chancel-arch are fifteen heads in medal- lions, and the Sav:ouu in the midst; the Apostles with SS. Gervasius and Prolasius (the sons of Yitalis) ranged laterally to Him. On the choir-walls, nearest the high altar, are various subjects from the Old Testament : the sacrifices of Abel and Melchisedek, singularly treated, without regard for 372 THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA chronology, both approaching from opposite side.^, with uplift- ed hands , towards an altar on which are laid a chalice and loaves like the Eucharistic bread ; Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac ; the three angels entertained by the same patriarch ; Isaiah and Jeremiah, the latter standing; beside a tower, on whose summit is a crown — supposed an emblem of Jeru- salem, and as such, I believe, unique in this art-form; also the Evangelists with their symbols and a writing-table before each ; in this instance also the treatment being remarkable — as of those Four Creatures attending the inspired historians , only one, the Angel, has the nimbus, while the Lion and Ox stand on mountain-tops . above and quite distant from the S. Mark and S. Luke. But most curious are the larger mosaic groups on oppo- site walls, affording expressive illustration of the place now- assumed by Imperial power in the sanctuary — and that both in a moral and material sense. We are told that at Constan- tinople the Emperor had his throne within the sacred pene- tralia , even inside the curtains that enveloped the high altar , where , according to western usage , no layman could at any time set his foot ; and the scene here pictorially pre- sented is in keeping with such Byzantine claims of preroga- tive. Its subject might be described as the consecration of this basilica, in the year 547, by the Archbishop Maximianus, with assistance of Justinian , his officers and guard , of Theodora and her court-ladies. The Emperor , of haughty and somewhat bloated aspect , dark complexion and beard- less face , wears a purple chlamys fastened at the right shoulder with a great jewelled clasp, a long tunic embroider- ed in gold , a jewelled diadem round his brow , and jewel- led sandals on his feet ; three courtiers standing near, who also wear the antique chlamys ; beyond these , the Archbishop and two other ecclesiastics , all in white vestments and bare- headed , one with a censer ; the prelate only distinguishei^ by his pallium , and by the jewelled cross of gold (not crucifix] in THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA 373 his hand , also by the ifame in large letters above ; and at the extremity of this group stand the body-guard , one among whom holds a shield with the hoiy monogram, gem-set, at the centre. Opposite is the group of ladies advancing towards a portal overhung by curtains, and outside of which is a foun- tain gushing from an urn on a high pedestal— accessories of a church-entrance according to Roman system. The Em- press's attire is most gorgeous, flowing purple mantle , white robe heavy with gold embroidery; the head , neck , and bosom covered with jewels , strings of pearls falling like cascades from her diadem ; her court-ladies also richly clad in simi- lar fashion , but at due distance from the distinguishing splendours of their mistress. And most curious is it to trace in the strongly-individualized countenance of Theodora , in the large melting eyes, small mouth, delicate but sharpened outlines, a wanton expression but too accordant with her antecedents , and here unetraced" by the hand of time after more than thirteen centuries! Still do we see before us the pantomime actress transformed, by the infatuate fondness of a great sovereign , into the intriguing Empress. Both of this imperial pair have the large nimbus, an attribute not given to any other figures in tliese groups, though the archbishop here before us ranks am.ong calendared saints ! And e!se- wiiere , in these mosaics , do we observe the nimbus on the heads of personages both of the Old and New Testament— as on that of Melchisedek , but not on those of Abel or Abraham. The Emperor and Empress carry vases , like bowls , supposed to contain their offerings for the new church ; though Ciam- pini sees here an action still more significant, assuming that both are charged with the relics (probably tlio.se of ."^S. Ger- vasius and Protasius) which the Roman Pontifical prescribes .should be borne hy 'priests , with tapers and incense, in pro- cession round the church's exterior , as part of the consecra- ting rite. Yet Justinian, we know, was not present at the consecration of S. Vitalis ; and in that same year, ^47, Theo- dora died. 374 THE MONUMENTS OF RA>EXNA Remembering the notorieties of that lady , we are struck by this glaring proof of the Erastianism , here mani- fest in art , which could introduce such a figure among Evangelists , saints , and venerated bishops, within the sanc- tuary ! Theodora , had she been a pagan , would probably have left no other reputation than that of a Messalina ; that she did not is due to those influences of Christianity which raised opinion into a moral power and dictated the decorum of station. For , whatever might have been said of this wo- man in her earlier career, as the wife of Justinian her con- duct 5 however mischievous when she intrigued in Church or State affairs, was above suspicion, and never impugn- ed ; nor was she insensible to the higher obligations of a Christian princess : she made efTorts to rescue others from the infamy she herself had passed through, and le't her name in the story of charitable institutions by becoming the foundress of the first Magdalene Asylum , where five hundred unfortunates had refuge from misery and shame. Kor was the heroic temper wanting to her at great crises ; for it ^was owing to her remonstrance that Justinian aban- doned the intent of flying with all his treasures and court on occasion of the terrible revolt , fatal to 30,000 lives in one day, that long desolated Constantinople after beginning in the frivolous contests of the circus. We may trust that this Em- press, before being removed by the painful disease (cancer) of which she died at an age comparatively young, became sincerely penitent for a past that has so darkened her memory. i\gnellu"s states that the costs of the S. Vilalis Basilica were 26,00 aurei fgold-sohdi). It was the first and last church erected after such Oriental type in Italy; and the same trea- surer , Julian, when, a few years afterwards , he undertook the building of the extramural S. Apolhnaris, adopted a design essentially different. Not till Charlemagne raised his cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle did S. Vitalis become in its turn a model for imitation , as S- Sophia of Constantinople had been to the Ravenna architects. As to what is modern in the former THE MOMMENTS OF RVVEiNNA 375 ciiurcii, the second-rate theatrical frescoes on the cupola, pe-petrateil in 1782, may excile astonishment at the fallen couditions of art . but still more at the toleration of such disfigurements, nnci that under ecclesiastic government, in a temple so nobly and historically conspicuous. The cathedral , rebuilt in uninteresting modern Italian style, relains nothing of its original structure save a lofty cylin- drical campanile , like those of Oriental churches. Pursuing our studies of ancient art, we need only linger here to observe a few antiques, of the sixth century, saved from the general wreck: the ivory throne of S. Maxiraianus, with the monogram of his name and title , « Episcopus »; besides various sacred reliefs, rude in design but beautifully executed — in front, being the Saviour, of aged and severe aspect, giving benediction , while one hand holds a disk with the Lamb in relief upon it an uncommon symbol); beside Him, the Evan- gelists , each figure under an archway; at the sides and back of the seat, scenes from Evangelic history and the life of the patriarch Joseph : — also the silver processional cross , ascribed to S. Agnellus (Archbishop 533 — G6', in the Greek form , measuring six palms at each length , and adorned with forty heads of saints in medallion reliefs; on one side, at the juncture of the arms, a larger relief of the Resurrection, strange and quaint in design , the figure rising with one foot out of a deep tomb, and holding a banner marked with the cross ; on the other side , similarly placed , the Madonna, a veiled matronly personage in act of prayer — here without the nimbus, which is given to the other saints. Among the latter are introduced prelates of this see — the form of the pallium worn by whom led Ciam|)ini to infer a somewhat later origin for this cross than the time of S. Agnellus. The last of the lives by that saint's namesake acquaints us with Georgius, forty-seventh occupant of this see. here described as rather a wolf than a shepherd to his flock; who , setting out on an expedition to visit the Emperor Lo- 376 THE MONUMENTS OF RAVENNA thaire (in 841), carried away the principal treasures from his metropolitan churches, gold and silver vessels, gems from crosses which he had broken to despoil , etc., intending by such bribes to win that prince's favour to his suit for ob- taining the exemption of Ravenna from dependency upon Rome.The pompous prelate travelled with a train of 300 horses; but met only with discomfiture and humiliation. After Lo- thaire had been worsted in battle by his younger brother, Charles , that Archbishop , who had followed the camp of the patron he relied upon , was made prisoner ; and on at- tempting to plead his cause before the victor , displayed the document, « through means of which «, says Agnellus, « he trusted to be able to withdraw himself from the obedience of the Roman Pontiff ». But that deed or record (whatever its purport) was, there and then, thrown into the mire, and torn to pieces [comminutd] at the point of a lance ; thus being caused the irreparable loss of written evidence that might perhaps have confirmed the claim of this illustrious See to an ecclesiastical independence now invoked by many as the most desirable benefit for the Italian Church. I was struck by the dignity and beauty of religious servi- ces at Ravenna ; and one occasion here of daily recurrence was yet new to my experiences of devotional usage in Italian cities. When the jive Maria chimes in the approach of night, and summons all to pray, a scene was presented in the principal piazza , that blended the official and military with a religious character. The guard was mounted with joyous fanfaronnade of music before the seat of the then legatine government , while on the balcony of the Communal palace opposite, large tapers were lit, to remain burning as long as those holy bells were ringing. Then ensued twilight and silence, only disturbed by the movement of the throng now quilting their city's gayest centre for their homes. It would be more difficult to describe than distinctly to call to mind the sub- tiil; mommI'Nts of iiavenna 377 duiiig , solemnized calm that made that hour and scene so fascinating among my memories of Kavenna (I). (-1) Originally puhlished in the Ecdesiologist. See Beltrami , « Descrizione di Ravenna » ; Spreli on Mosaics (and especially those here); Furietti, « De Masivis »; Pavirani, « Me- morie di Galla Placidia » , and « Storia del Regno Gotico » ; Hope , « History of Architecture »; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, « History of Painting in Itnly »; Troya « Storia del Medio Evo d'ltaiia », v. HI; and, above all, the works above cited of Ricci , Ciampini, and Agin- court. XI. The Scvttatli tesitupy. When the sunset-light gilds the ruins of the Roman Forum, the eye is arrested by that lone column that stands isolate amidst statelier relics , and the classic style of whose shaft and capital strangely contrasts with the rudeness of the plinth and basement raised on a quadrangular staircase ; this being the monument that had so puzzled archaeologists before the dis- encumbering , 1813, of its lower part from the soil in which it had been deeply imbedded , brought to light the mutilated inscription on its plinth that records its dedication to a Greek Emperor, not by Senate and People , but by Smaragdus , Ex- arch of Ravenna , Patrician of Rome, and Praepositus (or major-domo) of the Imperial Palace, who erected this col- umn , A. D. 608 , in honour of the despot Phocas , whose gilt bronze statue stood at its summit. That usurper had opened his way to the throne by the deliberate murder of Mauritius, his unfortunate predecessor, who was actually slain, m his joresence , on the mangled bodies of his five sons , one an in- fant, put to death before their father's eyes! To this wretch is ascribed every imaginable virtue in the eulogistic epigraph; but , for the honour of humanity, it is satisfactory to know that not only was his statue cast down from this column, after his death , but the epithets of adulation — optimo , cle- mentissimo, jnissimo ec. — were partially erased, and the men- tion of that bronze image entirely so , from the inscription ; so that, but for the name of Smarugdus , and the date by the TIIF. 5EVK.NTII CENTI'.'tV 379 year of indiction still to be read . this monument would be without any mark serving for historic identification. Phocas lost his throne and his life by revolution and assassination not long after his last detestable crime in ordering the widow and three daughters of Mauritius to be put to death , though he had given promise to the Byzantine patriarch to leave them unmolested in the convent where they had taken refuge. The memorial to such a ruler serves not only to perpetuate his guilt , but to attest the moral degradation of the age a-ul social state in which it could he erected. It is painful to associate a character so pure and exalted as that of Pope Gregory I with the story of this blood-stained usurper; but the saintly PontitT accepted the position of a loyal subject to the legitimate sovereign of Rome, no doubt from worthiest motives. According to ceremonial usage on sucli occasions, the images of the new Emperor and Empress were received with pomp and acclamations in the ancient capital: the Clergy and Nobility assembled at the Lateran palace in a great hall known as the « basilica Julia », and when the pic- tures were introduced, the invocation arose from multitudi- nous voices: ExaucU , Chrisfe , Phocae Augusti et Leontiae Au- rjustae vita; after which these imperial likenesses were deposited with honour by the Pontiff's own hand in the oratory of St. Caesarius within the same palace. We may commence our studies of the monuments of this age at the chapel adjoining the Lateran Baptistery , erected by John lY, in 6i0, and dedicated to St. Venantius , a bishop of Dalmatia , the native-land of that Pope , whose father had borne the same name — a circumstance that perhaps induced, him , in filial feeling , to obtain the relics of this Saint togeth- er with those of Domnus, another Dalmatian bishop, and six soldier-martyrs of Sclavonia, all brought from the East to enrich this chapel, which was linished by Theodorus , the successor to John IV. But modern deformations have left little of its olden architecture unaltered; and a tastelessly obtru- sive altar-piece now obstructs the view of its most interesting 380 THE Sr-VKNTH CENTURY art-adornment, the mosaics occupying both the apse and the entire field above the chancel arch. While it betrays decline this work still evinces the prevalence of classic traditions ; distinguished by a noble simplicity of treatment , and religious earnestness in expression : central to the apse is the half figure of the Saviour in act of blessing , represented as ma- ture in age , with long dark hair , and somewhat stern majesty of aspect — an ideal far superior to that of the same Divine subject in Roman mosaics of the V century. At each side ap- pears a colossal Angel with fair and florid countenance and party-coloured wings, hovering amidst bright clouds: below, full-length and with arms extended in prayer , is the Virgin Mother, here an aged personage with white hair ; her dress a purple mantle , long veil , and stole marked with the cross; a Greek cross also embroidered on her bosom : lateral- ly to her stand two groups of several figures : St. Peter and St John the Baptist (each holding a cross-headed wand) , St. Paul with a richly bound book, St. John the Evan- gelist (also with a book in jewelled cover), St. Yenantius, St. Domnus, both in episcopal vestments — all these figures with names above; — one other wanting the name, w^ho is introduced last among the group to the left , in the same ec- clesiastical costume , and holding the model of a church, being, HO doubt , intended for Pope John lY, here seen in his capa- city as founder of the sacred building with the usual distinc- tion given to such pontilic benefactors in mosaic grouping. At the sides of the archway, external to the apse, stand eight other Saints, all with names inscribed— Palmianus, Julius, Asterius , Anaslasius , Maurus , Septimius , Anticchianus , Ca- janus; five being in long white vestments with purple bor- ders, each holding a folial crown — one only (Anastasius) dis- tinguished by a classic mantle in cloth-of-gold ; two , Asterius and Maurus , by the sacerdotal chasuble , alb , and stole — one with a scroll , the other with a jewelled book in the hand; 110 mitre distinguishing the bishop from the lower clergy; nor any special ornaments marking out the Pope among the other THE SEVENTH CENTURY 381 Prelates. Above, also lateral to the arch, are the four symbols of the Evangelists, not indeed the floating majeslic creatures elsewhere seen, but small half-lengths, each within a quad- rate gilt border: and at the angles, the mystic cities, Jeru- salem and Bethlehem. Below are the following verses in mosaic letters : Mirtjir'tbus ChrisU Domini pii tola lohannes Reddidit antisles smciifican'.e Deo. Ac sacri fontis simile fidgcntc me!all), Providus instanter hoc cnpuhiil opus : Quo quisque gradiens et Christum pronus adoaus , EfTusasque preccs impetrat illo Suos. Anil we may notice a religious peculiarity in this mosaic, that it is the first , in any Roman church , where the Virgin Mother appears as central, and therefore principal personage in a group of Apostles and Saints - not indeed as the crowned Queen of Heaven, or herself the object of devotional regard, but the motherly intercessor , or ideal personification of the Church. Much has the feeling towards her to be developed, before ,as we see in later ages) , a potent mediatorial office, nothing less than co-participant in the glories of the Redeemer, became ascribed by imaginative faith to her who w^as hence- forth scarce less than a goddess to mediaeval devotion. The chapel adjoining that of S. Venanzio was originally the atrium of this Baptistery , converted into its new cha- racter by Pope Anastasius IV, about 11 o3; still retaining on its fagade a rich variety of marble and porphyry details, cor- nices, columns, and finely chiselled friezes, the spoils from some classic antique , here fiited together in absolutely barbaric confusion. This whole construction was once an open portico, now tastelessly deprived of that character by the building up of the inlercolumnations ; and from a garden on one side we perceive how awkwardly adjoined to the more ancient is this later edifice — how rude the masonry in which it is built. 382 TUE SEVENTH CENTUKY Anollier curious example of tlie ai-jlii'iocture oi" lliis ijcriod, is the church SS. Quattro Coronatl on ihe CoeUan llWl , rebuilt by lioiiorius I ; though scarcely (as it now exists) to be considered a work of that Pope : referred by some writers to still earlier origen ( by Onofrio Panvinio to the IV century j, it was successively restored by several Popes in the Vll^ Ylll, and IX centuries ; and Anally rose again from ruin about the year IlII , under Pascal 11 , after being almost , if ivA totally, destroyed in the fire caused by the Xormans, 1084. The church of S Adriano , the second in order of time raised on the lloman Forum , is another building of llonorius I , long mistaken by antiquarians for some remmant of classic architecture , but much too inferior to be referred to any other than an epoch of decline like this we are considering. The mosaics of this century form its principal record among Rome's sacred monuments; and to visit that next in interest after the example above noticed , we may take one of the pleasanlest w^alks in this City's immediate environs , following the Xomentan Way beyond the Porta Pia till we arrive at S. Agnese , so often restored , yet still so perfect a type of the ancient Basilica. This is now the scene of a mag- niiicent annual celebration, on the 1 5th of April, m honour of the return of Pius IX from Gaeta, 18o0 , and also of the pre- servation of his life, 185G, from a dangerous accident within the decaying monastery, since that period restored, as has been the church itself, and again become the home of a religious community (Lateran Canons;. The Basilica was erected, about A. D. 324, by Constantina, supposed the daugh- ter of the Emperor Constantme ; restored ( perhaps in its totality I by Pope Symmachus, about the beginning of the Vl century; and again renewed ( about A. D. 6'2G ) by Honorius 1, among whose donations and adornments the mosaic of the apse is especially noticed by Anastasius -fecit aulam et absi- dwn basilicae ex musico uhi multa alia dona ohtulit. This compo- sition contains only three figures: the Virgin Martyr, in splendid costume^ with a diadem and broad collar of jewels, THE SEVEMII CL.NTUUY 383 a kind of stole flowing in front of her purple robe ; one band holding a scroll ; beside her , two Popes ( Symmachus and Ilonorius) , the latter holding the model of this church, the former a jewelled book, both vested alike in purple chasuble, alb , and stole embroidered with crosses ; the tonsure con- spicuous on the heads , the beard short and curly ; but no mitre yet introduced. A hand , the symbol of Deity , holds a jewelled crown above St. Agnes's head ; and at her feet are flames, lambent round a low platform on w^hich she stands. The face of this central figure is utterly insipid and doll-like ; the others have character somewhat more like nature. The costume of St Agnes reminds of St. Jerome's denunciations against the toilet-luxuries of Roman ladies in the IV cen- tury, who pencilled their eyebrows with black lead, painted their faces with ceruse and purple, piled up artificial curls on their heads, and loaded brow, neck , bosom with gold and pearls ( « polire faciem purpurisso, et cerussa ora depingere, ornare crinem, et alienis capillis turritam verticem struere »); though the intention , in sacred Art , was thus to present the saintly female not in mundane pomp , but as adorned for ce- lestial triumph, to appear as befits the chaste Bride of Heaven. Another walk , in difl'erent direction , leads us to a church that has almost [ through transforming modern works) ceased to be in any sense a monument of the age in which it was restored, and endowed, by Honorius I — the basilica of S. Pancrazio, founded by Symmachus about A. D. 500, and to which St. Gregory annexed a Benedictine monastery. The tomb of St. Pancratius, an orphan boy of Phrygian birth, who was beheaded on the Aurelian Way at the age of I i , and interred in the Catacombs below this church , had become a favourite place of pilgrimage long before this basilica was founded. Gregory of Tours mentions the usage, in his time, of taking solemn oaths at the altar here , in the idea that if any perjured himself instant death would follow through the avenging power of that Saint. We have to regret the loss of the mosaic , as well as the other precious gifts with which 384 THE SEVENTH CENTURY Ilonorius enricbed this edifice, whose recent fate was to be outrageously desecrated during the siege of Rome — again re- stored after those vicissitudes of the year '49. Hitherto had stood with its architecture mainly intact (however despoiled by Gothic and Vandal invaders) that superb Temple of Venus and Rome, designed by its imperial founder , Hadrian. Honorius had no scruple in depriving it of the whole roofing of gilt bronze tiles ( with the requisite permission from the Emperor Heraclius), in order to use such material for covering the Vatican Basilica ; and after this spo- liation the natural process of decay could not have failed soon to reduce the doubly-dedicated fane t» the state in which we now see it — a mere brickwork remnant of two celiac, on the spacious platform , strewn with broken columns , over- looking the Colosseum, where part of this ruin is now enclosed within the garden of an Olivetan monastery. The consecra- tion of the Pantheon to Christian worship leads us to pause before that noblest of Rome's classic edifices , thus collaterally associated with the events of the seventh century ; though as superior to all this age was capable of producing as is the poetry of Virgil to the early attempts of monkish rhyme. The Christian dedication of Agrippa's Temple was effected A. D. 608 (or 610) by Pope Boniface IV, with permission, requisite even to the already powerful Roman bishop , from the Emperor Phocas. Since the year 399 it had remained shut, in consequence of the decree of Honorius, requiring all fanes of Pagan worship to be closed ; another decree , of the same year, enjoining that such public buildings, in cities at least , should still be preserved entire , having saved this noble monument from irreparable ruin. The Christianized Pantheon was first consecrated to the Supreme Being , to the Virgin Mary, and all Martyrs; but in 834 was dedicated anew , by Gregory IV , to all Saints , on which occasion , it is said , was instituted the festival for universal observance on the 1st November, which for centuries continued to at- tract multitudes of pilgrims to its celebrations in S. Maria ad THE SEVENTH CENTUIW 385 Martyres , where the pontilTs used to hold n solemn cappella at Pentecost; when, during a sermon preached here before them on the mystery of that day's commemoration, showers of ro- ses rained down from the cupola upon the antique pavement of marble, porphyry, and granite , still extant. It is said that the original festival of that dedication, the iSth May, was changed on account of the difficulty in sup- plying food for the vast concourse of strangers then assem- bled to worship at this church, led by the, no doubt, increasing devotion towards Martyrs and Saints that characterized the age; and therefore was determined the transfer to the istof November, the period when harvest and vintage have brought in their supplies sufficient for residents as well as visitors at Rome. But the tide of devotion has taken other direction; the Pantheon is now one of the least-frequented churches; and even the celebration of All Saints collect no large as- semblage under this majestic dome. I have seen here the in- stallation of the Cardinal Titular (an impressive ceremonial peculiar to Rome ) ; and on such occasion the vicissitudes of the noble edifice naturally occurred to the mind in all their wondrous realities. The fiery cross that burns within its pil- lared atrium in the illuminations for the 12th April (the an- niversary above noticed '■, is a sublime symbolism most hap- pily devised by the Roman pyrotechnics. A spectacle yet novel was beheld at the new dedication of this edifice— the transfer of Martyrs' relics, filling no less than twenty-eight cars, brought from catacombs by order of the Pope ( perhaps the earliest instance of such « transla- tion » ) , as an extraordinary means for consecrating the fane rescued from « Demon-worship ». The epitaph of Boniface IV, one of the most ancient extant on Papal tombs , now in the crypt of St. Peter's , records in somewhat barbaric verse this memorable proceeding : Tempore qui Phocac cernens templa fore Romae Delubra cunclorum fucranl quae dcmonorum (sic) Hie expurgavit Sanctis cunclisque dicavit. 386 THE SEVENTH CENTURY The rolunda-form had already been adopted for churches in Rome , and certainly with fine effect, as not only in the beau- tiful S. Sttfduo Rotondo on the Goelian Hill , but in another, at the foot of the Palatine , long supposed a Pagan temple, either of Romulus or Vesta, in its Christian character dedicated to St. Theodore , an Asiatic , who suffered martyrdom in Pon- tus. Antiquarian science has established , beyond doubt, that this building is not of Pagan origin , but referrible to the Vll, or perhaps the latter years of the VI century, being first mentioned among deaconal churches under the pontificate of St. Gregory ; and restored in 77i , to which date belong the mosaics still on its apse, Here do Roman mothers still bring sick children to be touched by the priests, and cured by St. Theodore, as was the ancient usage , in hope of simi- lar benefit from the gods, in the temple of Romulus. In no example of Rome's Christian architecture is the style of this period is well preserved as in the now most forlorn and neglected basilica of SS. Vincent and Anastasius, at the tre fontane, {ad Aquas Salvias), on the site of St. Pauls mar- tyrdom, and about a mile and a half beyond his magnifi- cently consecrated tomb. Founded by Honorius I , this once- renowned church was so far decayed as to require restoration in the XIII century, when it was consecrated anew by Ho- norius III, 1221 ; and some details pertaking of the Gothic — as the groined vaulting of the aisles , — may be fairly ascribed to the later constructions. But the severe simplicity, the massive and sombre style still predominant bespeak the ideas and worship of the VII century. Such is the expression of the plain and rude , yet interesting features of its architecture, the heavy square piers , low-browed arches , dim-lit apse under a low vaulting, disproportionately high attic , and nar- row arched windows with marble plates pierced by round cavilies, the antique contrivance for giving light without glass and partially excluding the outer air; these orifices having l)een , probably much later , provided with the glass that jiow fills them. Neglect, damp, and mildew have added to THE SEYE.NTU CENTURY 387 the mournfulness of the interior; the naked rafters of the ceil- ing are almost black from age ; the pavement of the floor which has lost its ecjunl level, is covered with dark stains; and except the indillereiitly-executed frescoes of Apc-tles , colos- sal figures on the pilasters along the nave (said to be from designs by Raphael), no modern adornment interferes with the stern and simple characler of antiquity. The exterior pre- sents curious details in style and masonry: a rude irregular mixture of ^tone and brickwork, plain cornice mouldings with small marble brackets, numerous narrow windows with- out framework, and atrium with pent-house roof, rafter ceiling, and heavy Ionic columns supporting an architrave. The monastery attached to it accords with this church in its gloomy decay and partly Gothic style; and a cloister, with arcades supported by marble colonnettes , exhibits an early mediaeval character. Deserted during four months, from the end of June , every Summer, by the Franciscan community to whom it belongs , this place looks like the deso- late retreat of a fever-stricken region, a home for the dead rather than the living: and we may imagine the wild solitude of the life led here during eight months of the year by friars dependent on alms ! It is not merely the unique aspect of an architecture quite untouched by modern alteration that gives interest to this old edifice, but, much rather, the evidence it afifords to the spirit of a worship so different from that of the Italian Church at this day, at least if the sacred building itself can be admitted as voice and witness from the F^ast. One of the striking objects on the Roman Campagna , that cluster of churches and monastic buildings in the midst of their quiet valley, girded by undulating slopes rather than hills — a desolate, yet a green and pleasant place in the Spring season — suddenly presents itself to our view from an as- cent in the road t eyond St. Paul's — a forlorn retreat indeed , yet one that still reminds us of those sanctities and hospitalities wh»>n a Paradise was opened in the wild » thanks to such cloistral homes. 388 THE SEVENTH CENTURY The close of the pontificate of the preat and good S.Gregory I forms a point of lime at which we may pause to consider the now developed action and aspects of Christianity at Rome. Of that PcnlifF Gibbon says that « he defined the model of the Roman Liturgy, the distribution of the parishes, the calen- dar of festivals , the order of processions , the service of the priests and deacons, the variety and change of sacerdotal garments »; adding (what is certainly exaggeration) that the Canon of the Mass, in which he daily officiated, was more than three hours in length ! The traditional nucleus of that noble and aflfecting Liturgy is referred to Apostolic antiquity, even in some imasiined degree to St. Peter himself; and from of old was handed down (long unwritten) till the time of Pope Gelasius (A. D. 492' , who was not the author but ampli- fier of the Canon thenceforth known by his name, and in con- stant use till a third compilation had been prepared by St. Gre- gory , who, however, did not set aside, but remoulded, with condensation and improvement that earlier form of worship, so that he may be regarded as, rather than any other, enti- tled to credit for the authorship of the Mass now celebrated at every altar of the Latin Church (Maringola, Antiq. Christ. Institutiones, v. 1). By him was introduced the kyrie eleison , that supplication lifted heavenward by divine music on such strains of adoring rapture: and the words « diesque nostros in lua pace disponas » , added by him during the Longobard siege, are the enduring record of a tragic crisis to Christian Rome. The two schools for ecclesiastical music founded by him, one at the Lateran , the other at St. Peter's, con- tinued permanent institutions, and no doubt contributed much to the dignity of public worship, which had now acquired a character of splendour perhaps scarcely e\ er sur- passed , at least in old^n time. Dazzling illuminations dis- tinguished the more solemn days in the sanctuary , where countless lights , sometimes 365 in a single candelabrum, used to be kindled, and might have reminded of the beautiful lines that describe such lustre in the holy place, by St. Paulinus [Nat S. Fel. V.) : THE SEVENTH CENTURY 389 Ast alii picti acccndant lumina ceris , MultifcTos cavis lychnos laquearibus aptent , Ut vibrent treraulas funalia pendula flammas. The religious use and veneration of images, firmly established before the end of the VI century ( see Gibbon ch. XLIX ) , now supplied to Rome's worship one of its conspicuous ele- ments ; though indeed , as above observed , there is no relia- ble proof whatever that the usage of carrying St. 3Iary's picture in procession has precedent or sanction in example given by St. Gregory. In regard to this startling novelty , which opened the gates to such endless scandals , to so many childish and mischievous superstitions , hut at the same time prepared the way for the redeeming influences and noblest agency of Art, we should remember, for the honour of the Clergy , that opposition to image-worship came from not few ecclesiastical sources , even before the great iconoclast con- flict in the East. Gregory himself had occasion to remonstrate with a bishop of Marseilles, A\ho had determined to destroy certain pictures of Saints in his cathedral ; and whilst com- mending whose zeal for purity of worship, the Pontiff advises (but does not command) that those saced paintings should he left , because such art-abjects served as the books of the ignorant — frangere easdem imagines non debuisse judicamns. It is evident that many enlightened pastors had by this time been constrained , through the novel tendencies of Chris- tian practice , to ask themselves the question , whether what was soul-destroying idolatry in the Pagan could be laudable piety in the true believer ? The ever ready answer seems to ha^e been, that what man had beheld man might represent ; nor is there any reason to suppose that those oflfensive re- presentations of the Supreme Being , the Invisible, later ad- mitted in Italian art, were at'empted or would have been endured at this period. The gradual, and on the part of the ecclesiastical body itself, perhaps unconscious transmutation of Christian worship from a sublime spirituality, abhorrent 390 THE SF-VENTH CENTURY of every contaminating shadow , suspicious of every symbol derived from Paganism , into a mystic pomp , still indeed retaining its original and purer elements, but enveloping them in a mantle of forms, partly borrowed from Judaic, partly from mythologic usage — this is , indeed , among signs of the times full of deep significance , and portentous for the future , in the eventful period here considered. Within little more than two centuries after the death of Gregory I , the honours since so often paid to relics of the canonized were bestowed on his remain- , now removed from their original place of sepulture in the atrium of St. Pe- ter's to an altar within that church by Gregory lY ; and those rehcs were, for the last time, beheld in the year IGOj, when, that altar being demolished , they were taken thence to ano- ther more splendid tomb in the new basilica , in the chapel dedicated to him by Clement YIII. The practice in regard to Relics during that Saint's own time was extremely different from what it afterwards became; for the reverential feeling of that age shrunk from the idea of dividing, distributing , or sending to distant places the remains of the holy dead ; and it was usually but a hand- kerchief or veil that had been laid on the sacred tomb , or flowers so consecrated, or even the dust gathered from such spots, or (more frequently) the oil that had burned in lamps ] efore Martyrs' shrines, that used to be seijt as a gift from prelates , or carried away by devout visitors. Filings from chains, instruments of torture, and even the collected blood of Martyrs , were indeed admitted in the same category ; and the enshrining of entire bodies in altars was certainly per- mitted at this period. Gregory himself sent the bones of a Saint to Britain, for the consecrating of one of the first church- es founded by Augustine ; but there are passages in his wri- tings where he reprobates the « dividing » of revered remains; the custom of swearing upon which is exemplified in his injunction to the chief citizens of Ravenna that , in order to decide a question respecting the right of their Arcbbishop to THE SEVENTH CENTIRY 391 wear the pallium on all occasions, Ihey should assemble round the tomb of St. Apollinaris, and make solemn oath, each laying one hand on that shrine , whether or not such privilege had of old been exercised. In the year GOO the principal Clergy of Rome were tliir- leen Cardinal Archpriests, and twenty-five Cardinal Priests. The pontine couit (if such term can yet be applied) now con- sisted exclusively of ecclesiastics, according to the reform car- ried out in its organisation by Gregory, who created the seven principal offices of « Curia » : Primicerius, Secundicerius , Arcarius , Sacellarius , Adminiculator , Primicerius Defensor , Protoscrinarius. Before turning away frem a period of Papal story so interesting, I may cite the anecdote given by an old chronicler that well illustrates the manners of the pontificate at its highest phase : A Persian Abbot had come to Rome , eager to see and revere the Pope whose praises had sounded throughout Christendom. Waiting in a street where Gregory was to pass , he knelt on his approach , but the Holy Father, so soon as he perceived this, knelt also, embraced the Abbot, and declared he would not rise till the other had also risen When both stood up, other greetings ensued, and the Pope gave money to the stranger , gave orders to his attendants that he should be confortably lodged so long as he remained in Rome. St. Gregory must have been taking exercise on foot in those wretched and ruin-encumbered streets , such as we may picture to ourselves in the Rome of this age ; and the scene is indeed in striking contrast to what a Papal cortege presents in those streets at present ! Sabinianus, the successor to Gregory, was not recognised by the Emperor, and therefore not consecrated, till six months after his election ; and this dependance on the Bygantine go- vernment shows how far svas the Roman See from any self-supporting political position, even after having been so advanced in credit by its last occupant. This pontificate con- trasted unfavourably with the preceding. Instead of the unbounded and unconditional charities , systematically exer- 392 TUE SEVEiNTH CENTURY cised during fourteen years, the granaries of the Church were now opened to the poor, only when required by urgent necessities, for the sale of their stores. When the suO'ering citizens tumultuously demanded that those whose lives had been so often preserved by Gregory , should not be left to perish for want , the Pope answered , from a window of the Laleran : « Cease your clamours : — if Gregory gave yon bread in order to gain your praises, I am not in condition to satisfy you at the same price ». Sabinianus is, of all Popes sketched in character by His- tory , the first in whom we find absolute baseness and ma- lignity. Instead of emulating the virtues of his predecessor, he sought to blacken his memory , to misrepresent his actions; and even went so far as to determine on the destroying of all his writings ; only deterred from this , as is said , by the interposition of a deacon , who swore that he had seen a dove hovering at the ear of St. Gregory whilst he wrote ! Legend soon invented the vengeance deserved , representing how this Pope met with his death in consequence of a stroke on the head given him by the Saint in a vision , after thrice thus appea.-ing, but in vain, to admonish him to desist from his ignoble calumnies 1 We read that, at his funeral, the procession, instead of passing direct from the Lateran to St. Peter's, left the City by the Asinarian gate and made the circuit of the walls , so as to cross the Tiber by the Milvian bridge before reaching its destination — how else to be accounted for save by the fear of some outburst of popular ill-feeling against Sabinianus €ven at this solemn moment? One good thing to be noted of him, though in no moral sense, is that he introduced the use of bells in churches — that happy device whereby (as Chateau- briand observes) a blow upon metal awakens one and the same feeling in a thousand hearts , and the winds and clouds are charged to be the bearers of human thought! Boniface III, who occupied the See but for eight months, ob- tained what Pelagi us II and Gregory had desired in vain — anim- THE SEVENTH CEMUUY ' 393 perial decree that for ever set aside the claims of the Patriarch of Constantinople to the title « Oecumenical Bishop »; and it is remarkable how purely in the light of political arrangement is the supremacy of the Roman See now presented by this act of Phocas. the Byzantine despot, prescribing that the Head- ship of the Christian Church should be held to be attached to the chair of St. Peter — a transaction thus narrated by Anasta- sius: Hie obtinuit apud Phocam Principem ut sedes Apostolica bead Petri Apostoli caput esset omnium Ecdesiarum, id est Eccle- sia Romana. Deusdedi.t is another of the Popes enrolled among Saints, out of regard for the distinctions of eminent piety. Boniface V, also a most virtuous Pontiff, confirmed, or restored , the right of sanctuary, an ancient privilege, securing inviolate asylum in the place of worship (v. Platina ) ; also decreed that the pu- nishment of sacrilege should be excommunication, and forbade the relics of martyrs to be touched even by any in holy orders lower than the subdeaconate. The work begun by St. Gre- gory for the conversion of England was promoted by him through a mission to Edwin , king of Northumbria; addressing letters to whom , Boniface used his best arguments to per- suade that still Pagan prince to become Christian, and at the same time congratulated his wife, Edelburg, for having set that exaii pie to her lord ; these letters accompanied by presents for each — to the king a mantle and tunic embroid- ered in gold ; to the queen , a silver mirror and an ivory comb wilh golden ornaments. The munificent Honorius I left a memory subjected to the {for a Pope) extraordinary humiliation of being condemned by sentence of a General Council in the East (that called in Trullo), more than forty years after his death, — « not indeed as a heretic » (says Pagi ) « but as a favourer of heretics ». Ser- gius , Patriarch of Constantinople, had written to him in de- fence of the monolheliie doctrine that ascribed only one will and one operation, united with two natures , to Christ : (f it were better, he advised the Pope ( honest, perhaps, in adopting 394 THE SEVENTH CENTCRY the point of view of plain good sense ), to impose silence on this disputation in regard to questions alike abstract and pro- fitless , as thus may be facilitated the return of schismatics into the bosom of the Church ». Honorius sent an answer that concludes: — « As for us, we confess one sole will in Chuist Jesus ; and we ought to reject these novel terms that scan- dalise the Church , for fear that the simple-minded , struck by such a term as that of two operations , may imagine us to be Nestorians or Eutychians, unless we acknowledge one sole operation ». Muratori is satisfied that « Baronius, Bellar- raino , Natalis Alexander, Pagi , and other esteemed writers have so well defended the innocence and orthodox belief of this Pope , that it would be superfluous to dispute further on the subject » ( Annali , ann. 634 ). But while we accept that full justiricalioM of the estimable Honorius , we may observe in the procedure of the Council a significance far indeed from being reconcilable with the startling theory of personal infal- libility later advanced by Papal champions. It is to be added, Iiowever , that even the authenticity of the act of the Coun- cil that condemned this Pope has been called in question ( V. Onofrio Panvinio, Annotations to Platina \ The authors of the « Art de verifier les Dates », are indeed disposed to at- tribute to the letter of Honorius , addressing the Patriarch , the character of a decretal : and own that « it won for him an anathema from the sixth General Council »— the very words of which sentence convey distinct reproof against « the late Bishop of ancient Rome , because , in his letter to Sergius, he is found to have followed the error and justified the doctrine of the latter » (v. Cantu, Storia Universale, ch. XII) (1;. (1) Still stronger are the terms in which, before the close of the same century, another Pope reprobates this act of his predecessor: — the unfortunate Pontiff was soon afterwards carried away by night with six attendants, and (as a chro- nicler add) one drinking glass. Embarked in a Greek ship, these captives spent three months at sea and in sojourns at different ports ; aftar several weeks passed in the isle of Naxos, the voyage was resumed for Constantinople , where the prin- cipal victim was left in prison for three months without being seen or spoken to : at last brought before the tribunal of the Fisc , or Treasurer, a high official, he was first in- sulted by absurd and utterly groundless accusations ; then , by order of the Emperor, carried in his infirm state (unable to stand or walk] to a public place , and there in presence of the populace stripped of his pontific vestments by the guards ; THE SEVEMH CEMLRY 399^ an iron halter was fastened round his neck , and in this ph'ght was the Patriarch of the Latin Church dragged through the streets like a criminal under sentence of death , thrown into a dungeon , ami left without fire or water— in an unusually severe Winter season — though for a time his sufferings were relieveJ by the pitying cares of women , those of the jailor's family, true to the best instinct and vocation of their sex. After he had spent 178 days in diflferent prisons at Constan- tinople , into one of which he was thrown with such vio- lence that his thighs were broken and his limbs left bleed- ing , this pontiir was finally conveyed to his last place of exile , the Tauric Chersonese , where , after languishing for some months in the utmost misery, he was released by death, the year after his successor, Eugenius, had been installed by imperial command ; an election long delayed by the Ro- mans, but at last consented to in the fear lest some heter- odox bishop should be by compulsion intruded : the unfor- tunate Martin having acquiesced in this exceptional procedure , and given proof of his humility by praying for the Pastor raised to the See by right his own. It seems that Constans had determined to have his victim put to death at once , but been deterred by the prayer of a conscience-stricken Pa- triarch , Paul of Constantinople , himself the enemy of the Pope , who lay on his deathbed whilst Martin was prison- er. Eugenius I (655-7) , also enrolled among Saints, had a brief pontificate , one of whose few known acts is an in- stance of those comprehensive charities in form of largess jecorded of so many Popes in these ages : on his death-day this bountiful Pastor ordered a distribution of alms to all the Clergy, and to all those of his own liousehold. A still nobler manifestation of true liberality occurs in the life of a prede- cessor , John IV (640-2), who, through a trustworthy Abbot, sent large sums into Dalmatia for the redemption of captives taken by Slavonian hordes recently seen as invaders in that country. 400 THE SEVEMI! CENTURY The visit of tlie Emperor Constins II lo Rome, 663, forms a fatal epoch in the story of this City's monuments , as well as the proof how powerless was the Papacy up to this period for any resistance to oppression from its temporal masters. Pur- sued by remorse for the murder of his brother , whom he had first compelled to receive deacon's orders , and then with- out provocation caused to be put to death , this prince , the staunch supporter of the monothelite sect, and persecutor of its opponents , having resolved to quit his capital and country , began the .wanderings in which his presence only brought evil to others , while restless discontent was still his own lot. — Exul quis patria Se ipsum fagit? — might he have asked with Horace. After a baffled attempt to wrest Beneventum from the Longobards , he arrived in Rome , met by Pope Vitalianus , the Clergy , and deputies of the people , with customary pomps, crosses, banners, and torches, at the sixth mile from the walls ; and on the Appian Way , where that rencounter took place one July evening , the spirits of the noble Romans whose majestic mansolea line that road — the regina viarum- might have looked down with indignation on the approaching despoiler. - Careful to observe all externals of imperial devo- tion , Gonstans repaired first to St. Peter's to offer his oblation to the Apostle , and on the Sunday following , a pallium , or altar-front , of interwoven silk and gold , was laid by him on the high altar in the same church , after he had attended so- lemn Mass and been received with ail possible honours by the Pope and Chapter. Twelve days did this Emperor's visit last , and during that time was fully accomplished his object of removing every artistic ornament and sculpture that could easily be carried away , from public places and monuments. Then was the cupola of the Pantheon deprived of its entire THE SEVENTH CENTURY 401 covering in gilt bronze ; the statue of Trajan, and, as we may infer , ( v. Nibby , Roma antica e moderna ) many others of the same material , were removed from their ancient places. It is not mentioned what other works of art or valuables were comprised in this wholesale spoliation; but Anaslasius says all such objects were seized and shipped for Constantino- ple: omnia quae erant in aere — in regiam urbem cum aliis diversis quae deposnerat , direxit— and it seems not impossible that (as is the conjecture of Gregovorius ] those remnants of the clas- sic libraries still preserved, of imperial foundation, were at the same time carried off by the Greeks. We read of no slightest effort at resistance on the part of Pope Yitaalianus , who lacked the spirit of a St. Ambrose in receiving, as he did with courtlike homage , the fratricide by whom his own saintly predecessor had been persecuted unto death. Constans Avas assassinated at Syracuse in the year 668; and all his ill-gotlen wealth, the spoils of ancient Rome and other cities, "was lost by shipwreck; or (as good authorities conclude) destined after a short interval to become the prey of Sara- cens on their first invasion of Sicily. It may be noticed that Pope Deodatus , 672-6 , of whom little is otherwise known , -was the first to use the now-established formula— sa/u^e7?i et apostoUcam henedictionem, and to date by the years of the Pon- tificate instead of the Emperor's — a significant change in style ! Under Pope Domnus ( or Donus ) , 676-8, was accomplished one of the triumphs of the Roman See over an antagonism by no means uncommon hitherto ; though it is indeed an extra- ordinary fact that the Papacy met with so little obstacle from similar sources, was enabled to attain its supreme ascendancy with so few oppositions— an evolving of its potent ecclesias- tical system indeed so marvellous, and favoured by such combinations of circumstance, political, popular, intelle- ctual , that we cannot wonder at the impression eventually made on the Christian mind in general of an absolute Divine origin, an imprescriptible and ever-enduring right in this great Institution. 402 THE SEVENTH CENTURY The Archbishops of Ravenna long represented that spirit of independance in the Church's high places , which naturally flowed from the inquiring action of mind as to the origin and title of such supremacy. From the Emperor Constans II had been obtained an edict declaring the See of Ravenna inde- pendent of the jurisdiction of Rome; but in 677 Pope Domnus secured the revocation of this from the more amicable Constan- tine Pogonatus. The offending Archbishopric , « after having se- vered itself from the Roman Church in order to become self-sub- sistent, again subjected to itself to the ancient Apostolic See », says Anastasius ; and the schism (so styled ) of Ravenna was thus brought to a term , thongh we shall again hear of the recalcitrant conduct of her once-powerful Prelates at later periods. The next Pope , Agathon ( 678-82 ), effected a much more important reform in obtaining legal exemption from the burden o^ a heavy tax (1), imposed on the Roman See for payment to the Emperor , as price of his sanction to the election. But Constantino Pogonatus, in making this large con- cession , still reserved the imperial right to confirm before the final seal of legality could be set on the appointment to St. Peter's Chair by consecration. During the few months that the See was occupied by Leo II ( 682-3 ), a learned , pious, and charitable Pastor, ap- plication came from Constantinople that a permanent repre- sentative of the Pope , invested with full powers , should be henceforth appointed as resident at that capital ; but Leo , acting with the cautious reserve ever a characteristic of Pa- pal policy , complied in part only with this demand by send- ding a subdeacon in the usual capacity of Apocrisarius , — not bearing that higher "character of Legate a Latere, but restriot- ed to the functions of suggesting and counselling whatever might be deemed conducive to religious interests ; the Pontiff reserv- ing to himself all final decisions according to the reports (I) According to the Art de verifier les Dates , 3000 gold solidi , about 61,000 francs. THE SEVEMH CENTURY 403 made by this minister , or « Nuncio ». During a short Ponti- ficate ( G83-0 ] , Benedict II witnessed another forward move- ment for the interest of the Roman See in the constitution granted by Constanline Pogonatus to authorize henceforth the consecrating of each Pope so soon as elected , without the delay of waiting for imperial sanction — a concession , how- ever, which seems to have been revoked by that Emperor's son and successor , Justinian II. The eventful pontificate of the energetic Sergius I, 687-701, brings us to the close of this century. On the death of Conon (a saintly old man who sat on that throne but eleven months ) a turbulent schism ensued , one among other disastrous results of the envied and enviable grandeur by which St. Peter's chair was now surrounded : two rivals were supported by their several parties , — the archpriest Theodore, who ob- tained possession of the Lateran Palace , and the archdeacon Paschal, who installed himself in the outw^orks of that same post. At this scandalous crisis the conduct of the citizens, led by their chief magistrates, and other officials both of the Church and Army , evinced good sense and judgment as well as promptness. Both pretenders were set aside , and another election was commenced according to the established and indeed quasi democratic forms , resulting with unanimous votes in favour of Sergius , a Palermitan , then in office among the Roman parish-priests. Theodore , at once submitting , did homage to the new Pope ; but Paschal applied secretly to the Exarch with the enticement of a promised bribe for his support. That dignitary deemed it worth his while to undertake an expedition to Rome in the pretender's cause ; arriving here , he soon found how vain the attempt to set aside a legitimate election acceptable to all honest citizens , and abandoned his client , but had nevertheless the unblushing baseness to insist that his promised bribe, of 100 lbs in gold, should be paid, Sergius resisted the claim founded on a disgraceful transac- tion ; but at last yielded , finding it impossible to get rid by any other means of this noble Greek, who took his money 4(^4 THE SEVENTH CENTURY and marched off— the Pope being obhged to pledge the can- delabra and coronae 'pendant lamps ), that burnt before St. Pe- ter's shrine , in order to this payment. But a greater trial as well as triumph soon followed. Sergius had exasperated .Justi- nian II by refusing not only to subscribe but even to peruse the Canons of the Council « in Trullo , » sent expressly for his sanction ; and that Emperor now concerted his measures for vengeance , hoping ( it seems ) to renew the story of the victim Pope Martin. In 694, his Protospafarius, Zacharias, re- ceived commission to sieze the person of Sergius , and bring him captive to Constantinople. The minister of tyranny set out for Rome from Ravenna.; but to his utter discomfiture found himself followed by the army in garrison at the latter city, and by all the other troops from the towns of the Pentapolis , now leagned together not for support of the imperial conspiracy , but for protection of the Pontiff against insult or violence — such the moral revolution by this time accomplished against a perfidious gouvernment , and in favour of the sacred authority vested in Prelates who had indeed often acted like true fathers of their people ! The Protospa- tarius arrived previous to the approach of this loyal army, on whose appearance before the City he ordered the gates (o be closed, and in helpless panic fled to the Lateran palace, beseech- ing the protection of the Pope he had intended to arrest and lead away in bondage. Those friendly forces having soon en- tered by the Transtiberine quarter, and crossed the bridge of Hadrian , marched to the Lateran and demanded to see the Pontiff that his safety might be made manifest. The trembling Greek officer, invested with full powers, but now beside him- self from terror, crept under the Pope's bed , though assured of his protection and means for escape. Sergius showed him- self to the troops and people , amidst whose applause he took his seat on a chair called that « sub Apostolis » , in front of the palace , and there addressed them with thanks and exhortations. The Lateran was not left unguarded by those loyal soldiers till the departure of the abject Zacha- THE SEVENTH CENTURY ^ 405 rias , driven away amid the insults of the populace , had closed this historic episode, so full of significance in regard both to the Greek Empire and the Roman Pontificate. Ser- gius I continued the work so signally forwarded by Gregory tlie Great in the developing of ritual and sacred celebrations, that probably attained considerable encrease of splendour before the close of this century. Introducing the Ag?ius Dei, to be sung by both Clergy and people at the communion, he added one more feature to the Latin Mass, a composition so truly monumental m its charac- ter and history; and Processions with litanies were ordered by him , to proceed from the church of St. Adrian on the Forum to S. Maria Moggiore , for the festivals of the Annun- ciation , the Nativity, and the Transit ( dormitio ) of thd Virgin. The accidental discovery of a relic of the True Cross , found wrapt in silk and studded with precious gems , in a silver coflfer long concealed at St. Peter's, induced Sergius to in- stitute the ceremony of adoring this relic on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross as held at the Lateran (I). A restorer and founder of Churches , this Pope bestowed precious gifts , for their sanctuaries, vessels of gold and silver, hangings of silk, etc., whose catalogue in Anastasius assists us in estimating the immense wealth now at the disposal of the Papacy. Among his restorations we read of two basilicas, which, before this period , had fallen into ruin and been left roofless — S. Eu- phemia , and S. Aurea at Ostia — whose decay indeed does ('I) The principal relic of the True Cross, carried away from Jerusalem by the Persians under Cosroes, after the capture of that city, was restored , A. D. 620, by the Emperor Heraclius , who him- self bore it into the walls and deposited it within the cathedral where St. Helena had first enshrined it. Hence a new festival , the « Exal- tation of the Cross » , to this day observed on the Uth of Septem- ber ; and hence also a new subject for religious Art , most interest- ingly treated in the paintings at the two Santa Croce churches at Rome and Florence , by Pinturicchio and Angiolo Gaddi - the com- position of the former (at Rome) indeed a masterpiece. 406 THE SEVENTH CENTURY not speak well for the durability of such buildings as had been raised by Roman masons in the earlier centuries of Christian civilization. Another noticeable proceeding of Ser- gius was the removal of the body of Leo the Great from the atrium of St. Peter's, in order to its being entombed in a stately marble monument inside that church, within a cha- pel near the Apostle's shrine — the first instance at Rome of admission to sepulture in the interior , instead of, as formerly, in the atrium of the sacred edifice. All the Pontifis had been hitherto buried under the same atrium since that church's origin (I). Glancing over the general aspects now acquired by the externals of worship in Rome , we have to notice one im- portant novelty,, fraught with results adding power and charm to the effects of that grandly varied system by w4iich Cathol- icism has so well succeeded in acting upon the heart and imagination. Hitherto the music of the Church had been ex- clusively vocal ; and even after the complete reform of the ecclesiastical chant by Gregory, no instrument had been heard in her worship , till Pope Vifalianus introduced what is described by chroniclers as organa ( adhibitis insfrtimentis quae vulgari nomine organa dicuntur , as stated in the notice of this pontificate) — not probably an instrument similar to the organ of modern use , but (as St. Augustine understands that term) some other species of mechanism suited for sustaining, or alternating with , vocal performance. The beautiful legend of St. Cecilia, whe nee derives the idea still current respecting her, has no admissible claim in regard to her musical skill; and the origin of this instrumental per- formance in churches has been contested even to Pope Vi- talianus. A Council at Cologne , in the year 536, passed a decree with respect to instrumental music in churches , (-1) The earliest extant epitaph to any Pope is that of Celestine I. (422-32) ; all such inscriptions being in verse , and to be found in the works of Baronius, Gruter , and others (Gregorovius , « Tombs of the Popes »). THE SEVENTH CENTURY 407 prescribing that it should be such as to excite devotion , and not any feelings of profane gaiety — a regulation whose enforcement is most desirable in the Italian Church at this day. Tertullian describes by the name « organa » an instru- ment with tubes , of which Archimedes was the supposed inventor ; - this being the hydraulic organ, long in use before any wind instrument with keys had become known. Of that improved organ the Greeks were the most skilful fabricators; and the first seen in France was brought from Constantino- ple by the ambassadors of Constantine lY, who presented it to King Pepin, about A. D. 766. Such hydraulic organs seem to have been still in use in the X. century, if we may infer from w hat William of Malmesbury says respecting an instru- ment fashioned under direction of the learned Gerbert, who became Pope as Sylvester II. In the year 872 Pope John YlII wrote to a German bishop, requesting him to send to Rome an organ of the best quality with an artist capable both of constructing and playing on such instruments. Superstition and legend continue to assume a character more and more wildy romantic. In the year 680 a pestilence broke out in Rome , raging unabated during the whole suaamer-season ; and it was said that many had beheld one of those appalling apparitions belief in which has so often possessed the popular mind under similar calamities : at dead of night had been seen passing though the streets an Angel and a Demon, whilst, at the behest of the former, the latter struck with a spear the door of each house where the pestilence was next day to enter, the number of blows indicating that of the foredoomed victims. At last a more consolatory vision appeared to a pious citizen , intimating that if the relics of St. Sebastian were brought into the City and an altar dedi- cated to that martyr , the plague would immediately cease. This being communicated to the Pope , Agathon , the transfer of those relics from the catacombs was speedily elfected ; brought to the basilica of S^. Pietro in Vincnlis , they were pla- ced under an altar dedicated to St. Sebastian as Expulsor 408 THE SEVENTH CENTCRY Pestilifafis; which act of piety had no sooner been accomph'shed than the destroying angel departed! the promise was fulfilled. Baronius states that, in consequence of these events, was given a new direction to Christian devotions; and that the Soldier Martyr became henceforth the special object of hope and trust during visitation of endemic maladies ; new altars being raised , new churches erected in his honour. The idea of St. Sebastian in this character of deliverer corresponds to that of Apollo (f Alexikakos » ; as indeed the conception of the Saint's form, in later art, often reminds us by its youth- ful grace and heroic beauty of the same Pagan god in classic sculpture. This history of a new devotion, suggested by- extraordinary circumstances , has stdl its interesting record in artistic form at that basilica of St. Peter's Chains , near the chief entrance to which the whole story is represented in a spirited fresco by Antonio Pollajolo — its several acts all brought within the compass of the same wall-picture: in the back ground we see the vision appearing to the citizen, whilst at prayer in a solitary spot at the base of a mountain ; at a nearer level, the Pope and Cardinals seated in a kind of exe- dra, on the stairs before whose open front the same citizen is kneeling while he narrates his vision; in the foreground is the Pope , with attendance of Cardinals and Clergy , officiating among the dead or dying at the transfer of those relics ; the desolation and panic well indicated by the numerous dead bodies left neglected in the street; and beyond appears the mysterious group of the Angel and Demon , the latter striking a house-door with a spear — the mediaeval notion of the horrific horn -and-hoof fiend being here strictly followed by the artist. The earlier historian's narrative (1) is given in substance in f1) The words of Paiilus Diaconus are as follows ; — « Tumque visibililcr multis apparuit, quia bonus et malus Angelas noctu per civitatem pergerent , et ex jussu boni Angeli , malus Angeius , qui videbatur venabulum in manu ferre , quoliens venabulu ostium per- cussissit, tot de eadem domo die sequenti homines interirent ». THE SEVENTH CEMUBY 409 an old inscription still to be read beside the altar of St. Se- bastian, in the left aisle of that church, where is seen the mosaic figure Df that Saint, forming an altar-piece, a most interesting specimen of the art of the VI! century, executed probably within a short time after the events above narrated (v. Kugler ^. Totally unlike the ideal of this Martyr as a beau- tiful and heroic-looking youth , who suffers without betraying any sense of pain, as so much more familiar to us, the St. Se- bastian is here represented as an aged warrior with white hair and beard , in the gorgeous costume of a Byzantine prince- close-fitting vest, richly embroidered , with sleeves and hose, above this a long-flowing chlamys , white and purple, fasten- ed with a precious clasp at the right shoulder , a large jewel- led diadem held in both hands ; the name being vertically in- scribed in gold letters on a blue ground : Scs. Sebastianus {]]. The demolition of classic antiquities is instanced, during this century , in the procedure of other Popes besides Hono- (l) The now insignificant church of S. Sehosti:}no on the Palatine, once attached to a Benedictine Abbey, is said to mark the site of his martyrdom in the portico called after Adonis ; and is of early me- diaeval ori.sin , having been at one time dedicated to St. Andrew, and in mS the scene of the Conclave where fifty Cardinals elected Pope Gelasius II. The « Acts of St. Sebastian », who was a distinguish- ed soldier, and held the high rank of commander of the first Pre- torian cohort under Diocletian , narrate that he did not die in con- sequence of the wounds from arrows by which he had been condemned to suffer; but recovered through the pious cares of Irene , the widow of anotlier martyr , who nursed him at her own house on the Pa- latine Hill. Soon after his convalescence, however, he presented himself suddenly before the two Emperors, Diocletian and Maximia- nus , upbraiding them for their cruelty to the Christians; on which he was immediately ordered to be put to death in the Hippodrome of the palace, there being bealen with clubs till he expired, A. D. 286. The art-tradition assuming him to have been quite a young man does not consist with the fact of his military rank , nor by any means with what is said in his « Acts » : « him the soldiers revered as a father » - qifasi patrem. 410 THE SEVENTH CENTURY rius I. Till A. D. 687 had stood , near one extremity of the portico of St. Peter's , a majestic mausoleum , called popu- larly the « Sepulchre of Romulus », and described by Cencio Camerarius as incrusled with marble , in two stories , not less lofty than the mole of Hadrian. Of its marbles it was en- tirely despoiled by Pope Domnus in order to supply material for a new pavement to the court (Paradisus) of the basilica , and for restoring the staircase in front. (Seveuano , Memorie sacre delle Sette Chiese). The foundations of this monument w^ere discovered in the course of works for building the cor- ridors and majestic colonnades of Bernini , 1667. In the writings of St. Gregory we find no sanction to the superstition of miraculous images , nor allusion to those Ma- donna-pictures ignorantly ascribed to St. Luke , which ( as Agincourt shows ) are recognisable as of the declining Greek school in the Yll or YIII century, and maybe supposed to have found their way into Italy, for the most part , during the epoch of the Crusades , or after the Latin siege of Con- stantinople. One of these ancient and very ugly pictures, over the high altar at .SS. Cosmo e Damiano , is associated with that Pontiff by a legend given in the following w^ords: cf Behind the altar is an image of our Lady , which, it is said , spoke to St. Gregory, and asked him why, when he passed before it, he no more saluted her as he had been wont to do? Moved by which words, the Holy Pontiff is said to have conceived greater devotion than ever towards that sacred image; and in the sequel granted to whomsoever celebrated mass at the altar before it , the power of liberating a soul from purgatory » (Ugonio, Stazioni di Roma). A po- pular practice to this day kept up , is said to have had ori- gin from the counsel of St Gregory during the visitation of pestilence in 590 , that , as sneezing was one symptom of incipient disease , it should be followed by the ejaculatory prayer from all by-standers , « God save thee » — hence the « salute » , after any one has sneezed, in Rome's social usage still prevailing. THE SEVENTH CENTURY 411 Another of tliose ghastly legends that make the burning volcano represent the infernal abyss, is mentioned by Platina and other biographers of Popes. In the time of Domnus some holy man saw the soul of the Prankish king, Dagobert (deceas- ed 647 therefore many years before this pontificate) sus- pended in air by Demons above the crater of Lipari , but , after mysterious conflict , rescued by the saints Denis , Mar- tin , and Maurice , whom that prince had revered as his pa- trons , and whose churches he had embellished or restored. Whoever has contemplated the sublime terrors of the vol- cano may enter into the mediaeval idea respecting these awful phenomena ; and it struck me , when I was so fortu- nate as to witness the fiery outbursts both of Etna and Ve- suvius in all their dreadful grandeur , that the theory long so ascendant over the Christian mind , and so often rendered by art, which ascribes a material nature to the punishments of the invisible world , has borrowed much in pictorial de- tail from these physical realities. More instructive are the legends mentioned by Mabillon, in the Benedictine annals of this century , respecting the election of bishops by direct revelation : thus at Lyons, where it was the custom, whenever the see became vacant, to observe a fast of three day in the hope of divine guidance ; after one of which intervals during that church's widowhood an Angel appeared to a child, intimating that a holy man, named Eucherius, should be the chosen one, as he according- ly was; and thus at Orleans was St. Anianus raised to the see in obedience to the proclamation made by an infant not yet possessed of natural speech 1 — stories that at least convey a truth respecting the apostolic liberty and independant action still enjoyed hy the great prelacies, and conformable with ancient discipline. The intellectual standard of this age seems to have been very low — ais but the natural result of long raging war and repeated invasion. It is probable that the great majority of citizens were quite ignorant of literature ; that few even -412 THE SF.VENTH CENTURY among the clergy were in any sense educated. In the synod held by Pope Agatho , 680 , one hundred and twenty-five Italian bishops drew^ up a letter to the emperor in whch they lament the prevailing ignorance , and the utter failure of in- dividuals who could be said to have attained the summit of science; testimony similar to which is given by that Pope, who, writing to the same sovereign , regrets that even the envoys he was sending to Constantinople scarce possessed the learning adequate to the charge he had given them. Pope Leo 11, a Sicilian, who occupied the see for less than a year, (682j, was, indeed, one eminent exception, distinguished not only by virtues and piety, but by eloquence , mastery of the Greek as well as Latin language, and skill in music. He composed a psalmody with new adaptations of hymns, and introduced improvements in the ecclesiastical chant. Though by this period the Popes had , no doubt , attained great se- cular power as well as riches, it does not appear that any among them had shown the spirit of worldliness ; and of the good Agatho (also a Sicilian) it is said : « he was of such mild- ness and benevolence that no one ever was sent from his presence in sadness » ( Giaconiiis). We must turn back to the preceding century in order to consider the story of a new conquest and a new kingdom in Italy, founded by invaders who alone, among all foreign mas- ters in this land , have left an enduring name that attaches to one of her most fertile and prosperous regions. In 565 the Emperor Justinus had recalled Narses from the government of the Exarchate, and sentLonginus to succeed to him, probab- ly because that veteran General, the conqueror of the Ostro- goths , had not extorted from his provinces as much as the Byzantine court coveted ; and the insolent message from the Empress Sophia added to the provocation : « Tell Narses (she said) that it is time for him , Eunuch as he is, to come back and spin wool in the women's apartment » ; to which he answered : a I will spin such a web for her as she shall never be able to unravel ! )■> Complaints against the government of THE SEVEMH CENTURY 413 Tsarses had indeed been often made , and especially from the patricians of Rome. These wrongs urged him, as is said, to the treasonable vengeance of inviting the invasion, which cost to the Greek Empire the greater part of those Italian provinces where its sway was hateful, its administration sys- tematically oppressive (v. S. Greg. lib. IV, ep. 33, 3o). The Longobards ( « Longobardi » as latinized by Paulus Diaconus \ so called either from their long beards or long battle-axes ( German roots , Bart , beard — Barte , axe ) were a Scandinavian race , known by another name as Wendels , Avho , after crossing the Baltic, had settled first in the isle of Hugen , afterwards in Pannonia, where they became allies of the Huns and Avars, and soon subdued the Gepidi , a nation now doomed to disappear from the historic page , an- nihilated by these more powerful northerners. It is said that Narses sent to their chiefs , as he might have done to greedy children, specimens of all the fruits that grew in fair Italy; and whatever the inducement, the invasion w^as promptly undertaken. The whole population, with women and children, and a heterogeneous force swollen out by 20,000 Saxons , be- sides Bavarian , Sarmatian , Bulgarian and subject Gepidi al- lies, — the amount reported as 62,000, probably thatofcom- batents alone, — led by their valiant king, Alboin, crossed the Julian Alps in the Spring of 568 by the same pass from Car- iiiola by w^hich Alaric and Theodoric had first descended upon upper Italy. Soon was occupied a city, the first thus reached, Forum Julii ( Cividal di Friuli ), where the nephew of Alboin remained with a garrison , and the title Duke of Friuli , to govern the district as a Longobard province. Within five months after these invaders had (juitted Pannonia they were masters of Milan and Verona ; and within a short interval subsequent had founded ttie Duchies of Spoleto and Beneven- tum ; but it cost them a seige of thirty-nine months to take the gallantly defendcfJ Pavia , where, when Alboin at last en- tered , he was deterred from carrying out his vows of exter- minating vengeance by the stumbling of his horse as he rode 414 THE SEVENTH CENTURY through the gates — an omen that impressed his superstitious ignorance. Other towns offered feebler resistance : and the rural populations fled to rocky mountains , islands in lakes , or sea-ports. Gloom and desolation, left in their track by wars, famine and pestilence , had overspread the sorrowing land before these new conquerors came. Presentiments and por- tents, seen, heard, or imagined, struck men's minds with fear in their anticipations of what may have been vaguely reported across the Alps long before any foe appeared. No voice was now heard in the fields ; no shepherd piping to his flocks ; no mower or reaper was seen at work , while the yellow corn ripened in the sun , and the grape grew purple on the gadding vines v/ithout hands to gather or owners to enjoy. Primaeval silence had resumed her reign ( « videres saeculum in antiquum reductum silentium » , says Paulus Diaconus) ; but sounds of awful omen were heard both by day and night, like the mustering or march of mighty armies in the distance, or the blast of trumpets wakening terrific echoes in the fields of air! (Paul. Diac. lib. I, 4). Many- historic tragedies mark this age. Alboin established his court at Pavia in the palace of Theodoric; but after a few years (584) perished by the fate his ferocity had brought upon himself — like other tyrants, the author of his own ruin. At a banquet he had sent round a goblet to his wife Rosmunda , inviting her to « drink with her father » , that goblet being made out of the skull of one of the two Gepidi kings, her father (the other her uncle), whom he had slain with his own hand. Rosmunda drank , and had her re- venge , for which she did not scruple to degrade herself, hiring the assassin who slew her husband after she had fas- tened his sword beyond his reach at his bedside. This heroine of atrocity then fled with two accomplices and many follow- ers , carrying away all the treasures of the royal palace , to Ravenna , where a fate awaited her that surpasses the ima- gined horrors of romance. Longinus desired to wed her for her riches , and persuaded her to rid herself of the paramour THE SEVENTH CENTURY 415 who had murdered his k'ng at her bidding; to him she of- fered, as he left the bath, a poisoned cup; he drank, but, either feeling its effects, or seeing the truth in her wicked eyes, drew his sword and compelled her to drink the rest; and thus did those partners in guilt die together, each other's victims! The Greek dominions in Italy were now reduced within the limits of the Exarchate, henceforth called Romagna (I), the Duchies of Rome and Naples, which latter soon won in- dependence, and the extreme southern coast, part of the « Ma- gna Graecia » as known to antiquity. After the flight from Pavia, the magnates in that ci.y elect- ed to the throne Clefis , who prosecuted the conquests begun , and led his armies almost to the gates both of Rome and Ra- venna ; but was also cut off by assassination within eighteen months. To his reign succeeded an anarchic and feeble go- vernment of thirty-six Dukes, who now divided the subject provinces, and whose total want of unity, of common pur- pose in action , proved a check to the progress of this con- quest in Italy. Whilst the invader seemed thus weakened the Roman Se- nate invited a Prankish sovereign, Childibert of Austrasia, to whom they sent a bribe of 50,000 pieces (sohdi?), to in- vade Italy for her deliverance from foreign oppression— a fatal precedent ! A Prankish army under that king's standard crossed the Alps; but the Longobard magnates, alarmed at this emergency, now united for their common interest, bribed off the enemy about to attack, and restored the kingly authority they had set aside. Now was elected the son of Clefis , Au- tliaris, a warlike prince, who traversed the peninsula as far as (<) The cities of the Exarchate were: Rnvenna , Bologna, Imola , Faenza, Ferrara, Adria , Forh , Cesena , Comacchio , Ancona, Ri- mini , Pesaro , Fano, Sinigaglia — all , within a single century, con- ferred upon the Papacy, and all , within the space of a few weeks , lost by it in 1859. 416 THE SEVENTH CENTURY Reggio , and there spurred his horse into the sea, exclaiming (c Thus far reaches our Kingdom ». The Longobards , but re- cently converted from idolatry and the worship of Odin , had been led to adopt the Arian heresy ; but their new king wed- ded a Catholic princess , the virtuous and much-loved Theo- deUnda, daughter of Garibald , Duke of Bavaria , who added to the many examples of female influence in the religious his- tory of nations by eflfecting the conversion of her second husband . and through him of the great majority of the Lon- gobard people. Left a young widow by the premature death of Autharis (under suspicions of poison), she received such proof of chivalrous loyalty from the magnates as to be allowed to bestow the crown on whomsoever she might choose to share it with. Agilulph, Duke of Turin, \vas the fortunate man to find favour in the gentle lady's sight, and reigned with her prosperously for twenty-five years (590-615]. It was pro- bably before his conversion that this prince laid siege to Rome (594), and reduced the City to that dire stress of which the mournful picture is drawn by St. Gregory. To him suc- ceeded his son Adeloald , under the regency of Theodelinda , a reign unfortunate for both , as the frantic and cruel con- duct of the young prince ( imputed to insanity brought on by poison ) excited a rebellion which drove both him and his mother from the throne ; and the widow of two kings closed in sorrow (627) a life wiiose morning and noon had been of such unbroken sunshine. Next succeeded Rodoald, with whom Theodolinda's daughter shared the throne , and after whose death she also was invited , as had been her mother , to be- stow the crown according to her choice. Rothar, who thus became king , was the last of the dynasty to return to ( if he had ever renounced ) Arianism; but won a certain lustre for his name by the compilation of the code of national Laws, for the first time drawn up in writing , though not indeed new, by his command (643). Another relative of Theodelinda , her nephew Aribert , raised to this throne by election , the usual procedure , set the first unwise example of dividing the Lon- THE SEVENTH CENTURY 417 gobard kingdom, bequeathing it (661) to the joint govern- ment of his two sons, one of whom reigned at Milan, the other at Pavia. The discords that might have been foreseen ensuing, one brother invited an intervention to support him against the other ; and Grimoald, Duke of Beneventum ( now an in- dependent Longobard State), came not only to fight in this cause , but to raise himself to the throne of northern Italy , after one of the contentious brothers had been cut oflf by assassination , the other driven into exile. The usurpation of Grimoald lasted till his death, after which Bertarid , the prince he had driven away , returned from long exile to re- possess himself of the crown. A peaceful reign ensued , and till its close (688' this king proved himself benevolent, pious, a benefactor to the Church, and a great founder of monas- teries. I need not anticipate the events of another century. This alien sway, founded by unjust invasion, maintained itself in Italy for 206 years : and the most remarkable circumstance in its fate is the manner in which ruin at last overtook it, crushed beneath the ascendant power of the Papacy, whose temporal interests it had done much to promote, the very first stone of wiiose political sovereignty had been laid by Longobard kings. Opposing that consecrated throne , as they did after first supporting it, they drew down the tempest |[that annihilated their own. The victim was requisite for the realisation of an important fact in mediaeval Christendom, and for the strengthening of a fabric once mightiest upon earth. Thus, in the great world-drama, does each group of actors contribute to bring about the momentous issues often neither aimed at nor desired by those mainly instrumental! It is not certain at what precise date, Muratori supposes about 603, ensued the second, the orthodox, after the first con- version of the Longobards to a heterodox Christianity, Arian- ism had been received by them about the period of the birth of Alboin, and was , if not introduced , at least efficient- ly fostered among them by his mother, Queen Rodehnda, 27 418 THE SEVENTH CEMURY niece of the Italo-golhic king, Theotlatus. But many gentile practices , and perhaps still more gentile ideas , lingered in this dim sort of Christianity ; it is evident that among the most ignorant of this people were still not a few idolaters , even after the establishment of the Italian kingdom, who of- fered sacrifice and paid barbaric worship to brutes ; as St. Gre- gory tells {Dialog. Ill , 28) of some unfortunate peasants , cap- tured by them near Rome, who were maltreated for refusing to adore the skull of a goat slain in their sacrifices. The Ostro-goths had been instrumental in diffusing Arianism over Pannonia [Hungary), whilst the Longobards hold those districts, and their priests were invited by Alboin to officiate in chur- ches re-opened or built under his reign. As the Ostro-gothic Arians used neither the Greek nor the Latin in their rites , we must suppose that their language — which Troya calls « Gotico Ulfilano » — was that in which the Longobards learned to pray and their priests to celebrate. Devout Arians liiey probably were. The Easter of 568 was duly celebrated by their king and his attendants on the very eve of the in- vasion of Italy ; and a sort of respect was shewn to the Ita- lian clergy even in the first flush of triumph ; as in the case of Felix, bishop of Trevigi, who boldly presented himself in the camp to petition for the confirmation of the privileges of his church and see , by Alboin at once granted , and or- dered to be drawn up in legal form. Their first-adopted policy was indeed intolerant: all the Catholic prelates were driven from their sees to give place to Arian intruders ; but after a time was tried the dangerous ex- periment of dividing each see between a catholic and a hetero- dox occupant — inevitably to prove a source of troubles, though certainly a fact that shows the freedom from bigotry among good qualities of the Longobards. Autharis indeed prohibited the administering of Catholic baptism to their children. St. Gregory mentions the miraculous punishment of one of those Arian intruders , struck with blindness when in the act of taking possession by force of the cathedral at Spoleto. There THE SEVEKTH CEMLRY 419 is another legend of the time that shows a degree of liberal- ism in these once heretical conquerors, even after their Ca- tholic conversion, The last of their Arian kings, Rolhar , had teen buried in a basilica dedicate to St. John the Baptist, with weapons and treasures laid , according to custom , in his tomb. Tempted by this deposit, a robber violated that tomb to despoil it. St. John appeared to him in a vision, and told him, with severe upbraiduigs, that the deceased king, nothwithstanding his errors in faith, had been dear to him- self, the Baptist, revered as special patron of the Longob&rds : and that, in sign of divine wrath, he, the culprit, should ne- ver again be able to enter the church he had profaned — which Paulus Diaconus vows to have been literally fulfilled , as he had himself been witness to: for whenever that robber tried to pass the threshold of the same church, he was driven back as by a blow from a fist in his throat 1 - a credible exam- ple of the workings of remorse on imagination. The eager- ness of the Longobards to obtain relics led them to that spo- liation of the Roman catacombs which roused the intense indignation of Popes, and contributed to cause the final de- sertion of those hypogees by local worshippers ; and one service to claim the gratitude of the Italian church, — in its results to Art, one of whose most beautiful mediaeval crea- tion it called forth , the gratitude no less of the civilized world — was the transfer of the body of St. Augustine , ob- tained at great price by king Liutprand from Sardinia , whith- er it had been brought from Hippo , the see auffragan to Carthage held by that Saint, by the Catholic priests driven from Africa during the Arian persecution under the Vandal king, Thrasimund. It was probably in the year 725 that these revered relics were laid in the church at Pavia, S. Pietro in Coelo Aureo , now ruinous, where, their silver shrine being opened in 1090, the bones were found wrapped in a silk veil together with parts of the episcopal vestments: removed finally to the cathedral of the same city , they received all honours that art could bestow in the magnificent mausoleum 420 THE SEVENTH CENTURY wrought by two sculptors (I), and adorned by 290 figures, which was raised under the Visconti government in 1362. The Longobardic Laws certainly do not exhibit this peo- ple in a character of barbarism or degradation : founded main- ly on the weregeld , or pecuniary-compensation principle , they acknowledge slavery, but also admit claims of personal liberty, personal honour, and the inviolability of each man's home; they do not suppose the existence or possibility of witch- craft , but allow^ of ordeals in the trial by combat , through means of which it was that Theodelinda' s daughter was vindicated from calumny, and restored to queenly honours after the victory won for her by a faithful servant. The honour and safety of woman was otherwise well provided for ; and whilst the weregeld (or price of life) for man w^as only 900 solidi, it was 1200 (2) for the other sex. This people were , in all probability, quite without liter- ature , science , or skill in any arts , at the time of their first establishment in southern provinces. Yet there eventually arose under their dominion an architecture to which they gave their name , and which is stamped with a character singularly original; though we must remember that what now classes as « Lombardic » among Italian monuments is, in great part , the work af ages subsequent to their epoch in Italian story; and it is rather the genius of northern races in general than that peculiar to the Longobards which ap- pears in edifices ascribable to them. In their laws we find mention of those masons of Como , Magistri Comacenses , distingushed as a guild in the story of Italian architecture, who were hired on conlract for the pub- lic works undertaken by these foreigners. In the course of the VIII century this new style of building began to be dis- tinguished by an imaginative and fantastic symbolism ut- terly unlike anything yet seen , but not carried to its ex- (1) According to Cicognara , Pietro Paolo and Jacobello of Venice. (2) The gold solidus equivalent to francs 20, 38. THE SEVENTH CENTURY 421 treme development till between the XI and XIII centuries, when it was, in Italy at least, in the phase of imitation, after its originators had disappeared. Its peculiar feature is the in- troduction of sculptures on internal or external surfaces, or inlaid work on pavements, sometimes illustrating scenes from the Old and New-Testament, but especially revelling in gro- tesque fantasies quite without religious import, — Syrens, Dragons, Grilfins , nondescript creatures, or the Signs of the Zodiac , later admitted conspicuously among details in sacred building. One writer, Hammer (« Fundgruben des Orients ») refers these fantasies to an Oriental and Gnostic source , as- suming that they were first introduced into Christian archi- tecture , but in sense adverse to sound doctrine , by degen- erate Templars in the East, who had derived them from the fanatical sect of Ismaelians, or Assassins. But a cogent objection to this theory, well urged by Ricci , is that the Tem- plars , whose Order arose in 1 1 28 , had been long preceded by the Longobards in such architectural originalities; and that no intercourse with the East, anterior to the Crusades, can be supposed to have imported anything of the kind into a school of northern Italy. By the XII century this strange sym- bolism had encroached into painting as well as sculpture, and become so prominent in churches as to excite the reprobation of St. Bernard. That eloquent saint may have been right in opposing it; and yet such a marked novelty in the develop- ment of sacred architecture has a value and import of its own: it shows us the northern imagination, wild, sombre, grotesque, undergoing the Christian influence, yet still retain- ing its peculiar tendences , which now find place in the service of that Religion that appropriates while it illumines what it touches , is alike at home amidst the brilliancy and splendour of the modern Italian basilica and the dim-lit aisles of the Gothic minster ; and in its large comprehensiveness embraces all forms of Genius, all energies and biases of na- tionality. We may remember how , from early ages , Chris- 422 THE SEVENTH CENTURY tian Legend bad peopled earth and air, the desert and the ocean, with mysterious beings , ever foes to man : Viewless , and deathless , and wondrous Powers , Whose voices he heard in his lonely hours — from familiarity with the idea of which demon-intelligen- ces , hideous when manifest, infernally evil in operations , it is not unnatural that uncultured minds should return scared and horror-stricken into the walks of reality, thus disposed to translate their visions or fears into such Art as practitioners schooled by classic teaching had hitherto never thought of, as the Clergy under the immediate guidance of Rome would not probably have sanctioned (J). The happy idea of enlisting animals into Christian service for the expression of sentiment and truth, had, indeed, its origm in the Art of the Catacombs ; and as it developed itself, the place of such creatures in the sanctuary became more distinctly marked, their meaning more definite. Most conspicuous among all is the Lion , which even in Greek architecture had the assigned task of guardian to the temple , owiug to the popular notion that that creature sleeps with eyes open ; hence is it also placed beside the throne and the sepulchre : and the Griffin , because supposed the faithful guardian of buried treasures, has had its recognised place both in Pagan and Christian symbolism. When , as so often seen at sacred portals, the Lion or Lioness is preying upon some smaller animal , it implies the severity of the Church towards the unbelieving and perverse; but when , as frequent, such animal is sporting with a child , or sometimes with a lamb , is signified her mansuetude and patience towards neo- phytes and the docile-minded. Often, in the rude sculpturing, these mystic creatur-es look rather like dreams than realities of brute life. The characteristics of Longobard Architecture on (4) See the lives of St. Paul the first Hermit , St. Anthony of Egypt , St. Hilarion of Palestine , in the Lcggende del secolo XIV. THE SEVENTH CENTURY 423 the exterior, as seen in many churches of northern Italy, are: columns, or half-columns, with clustering shafts, that rise from the base to the summit without cornice or archi- trave to mark Ihe several stories; round -arched portals and windows, the former with pilasters and profuse mouldings; arcade galleries with slight shafts carried around towers, along facades, and at the highest story following the terminal lines of building above. It was probably after the second conver- sion of the Longobards that their piety took its special direc- tion in honour of One now their chosen Patron , St. John the Baptist, to whom they dedicated churches, usually the cathedrals, in every city. When the Emperor Gonstans II was preparing to assail their dominion in the southern provinces, he enquired of a holy hermit ( no doubt expecting infallible response ) whether he could hope to see the Longobard king- dom overthrown ; and was answered : « That people cannot yet be overcome , because a queen from a far country (The- odelinda) has raised on the confines of their territory a basil- ica to St. John the Baptist ( at Monza ) , and thenceforth the blessed John has constantly interceded for them : but the time will come when his Oracle shall he held in contempt; and then shall that nation perish » — all which ( says Paul the Deacon) « we have experienced to be true ; for, before the ruin of the Longobards , we have seen the basilica at Mofiza officiated in by base men , and this sanctuary given up to worthless persons and adulterers , conferred no longer with regard to merit , but for the sake of payment in money ». (lib. V, 6). To that celestial patron was dedicated one of the best preserved among Lombardic monuments, the cathedral, now Baptistery, of Florence, as to whose origin antiquarians have so much disputed ; Villani and other Tuscan historians as- suming it to be the identical temp'e of Mars , the ancient city's deity; others ascribing it to Justinian, to Theodolinda, to Gundeberga , her daughter; while Lami (chief among lo- cal authorities] determines for its date about the year 662 , 424 TBE SEVE.NTH CENirRY and gives to the Longodard mapnales the credit of haying built it . in honour of their guardian saint , at their own expense. Externally the « mio bel S. Giovanni » of Dante must have been very unlike what we now see, when encrusted with plain stonework between its blind arches, entered by a single j)ortal, lighted by an orifice open in itiE. Pantheon dedicated as S. Maria ad Martyres , 608 10 ; SS. Vincentius and Anastasius at the tre fontane, S. Adriano , on the Forum, and SS. Quattro Coronati, 623-638 ; the last re- stored 847-35, and again, 1111, by Paschal II; SS. Vitus and {^) Paulus Diaconus , « Hist. Longobard. », in Muratori , « Rer. Ital. Script. » Tom. I , pag. i (in which volume are engraved the bas-rclief.s, the Iron Crown, and olher noticeable treasures of Monza); Sigonius , « De Regno Italiae » ; Troya , v. Ill; Kingsley, « The Ro- man and the Teuton » (giving a finished and vivid sketch of legisla- tion and manners among the Longobards) ; Larai , « Anlichita To- scane »; Richa, « Chiese Florentine ». 432 THE SEVENTH CENTURY Modestus (at the arch of Gallienus), rebuilt 1477, S. Theodore, S. Martina on the Forum, restored 1235; again by Pietro da Cortona, and the church of St. Luke built over it, in the XVII century; paintings in chapel of S. Cecilia, Callixtan Catacombs. Florence. Cathedral , now Baptistery , of St. John , built under king Grimoald, 662-71 ; by some writers ascribed to period of Thoodoric and Justinian ; S. Reparata , the later cathedral , probably built towards the close of this , though ascribed by tradition to the V centary ; not totally destroyed till 1373, seventy-seven years after commencement of the new « Duomo ». Milan. Mosaics in lateral chapel of S. Lorenzo, the Saviour amidst the Apostles, under arcades , and the sacrifice of Abra- ham (of this or preceding century) — ancient church fell into ruin 1573. Genoa. S. Tommaso, details mostly of Longobard period. Pavia. S Pietro in Cielo d'oro , built by Agilulph about 604, ruinous, partly used as a store-house; details on fagade (be- longing to seminary) and two capitals only^ antique; con- tained the tombs of St. Augustine and Boetius. Lucca. S. Frediano , 686-90, ascribed to the Longobard kings , but by Ricci to a private citizen ; originally with four aisles ; facade altered , and lateral chapels added , about 1112. Spoleto. Cathedral, ascribed to Longobard dukes, but re- built in XIII century , the tower alone remaining , though altered and with modern spire, of the antique; the church again almost rebuilt by Bernini, 1644 ; Aqueduct and bridge ( height about 266 feet ) built by the duke Theodelapius about 604 ; acute arches added in restoration by Cardinal Albornoz , XIV century ; substructures and nine piers pro- bably all that remains of antique ; S. Cipriano on the Cli- tumnus, almost in ruin since 1829 (see an interesting de- scription in Ricci , c. VII, p. 203), MoNZA. Basreliefs on front of basilica , about the period 623-36. XII. The Eighth Century. We now arrive at the most eventful epoch in the tem- poral, and through ulterior reaction in the ecclesiastical in- terests also of Rome — an epoch in which the saintly Pastors whose care was for heavenly things alone are succeeded by Royal Priests, occupied with the intrigues, and impelled of- ten by the ambition of secular sovereignty ; an epoch in which the Papacy passes into a new phase, becoming expo- sed to the same enmities , perils , and tempestuous shocks as other thrones whose occupants have had so often to prove how « uneasy lies the head that wears a crown ». The grey hairs of St. Peter's venerable successors have hitherto been duly revered , albeit with some exceptions of brutal and sacrilegious wrong ; but the head encircled with the diadem of sacerdotal kingship will be seen dragged in the dust amidst the vicissitudes we have henceforth to consider; and lamentable , indeed, in its moral darkness, is the eclipse of that holy light once irradiating the great Patriarchal see of the West , through the results of the transition that caus- ed it to deflect from its purer sphere , to descend into atmo- sphere clouded by earth-born mists of worldly care and am- bition. The office deemed the vicariate of Christ henceforth becomes inevitably an object for the striving of those to whom secular power is sweeter than heavenly hopes , or the joy of consecrated duties ; and the unspiritual character result- ing — though indeed often in abeyance, redeemed by the vir- 28 ^34 THE EIGHTH CENTURY tues of pure minded and illustrious Pastors — may well qua- lify our surprise at the spectacle of this sacred throne basely dishonoured , or proudly profaned, by such occupants as brought discredit to it in the X, the XI, and XY centuries. But there is another as])ect not to be lost sight of, another lesson enforced by tlie contemplation of the historic drama , leading us to own, in the high position of the papacy through ages marked by barbarism and outrage against every right social or human, a mighty conservative power, a centre and rallying point for resistance to evil and advocacy of justice ; and that a great providential fact is manifest even in the temporal princedom of St. Peter 's successors , will hardly be contested by those to whom all their eventful his- tory is familiar. Turning to seek for traces of this epoch on monuments, we find them less numerous than are the records of previous centuries in Rome; though, indeed, in some instances, full of sigijiQcance. Towards the close of this period a remarka- ble resuscitation of the arts in different walks , with an almost complete renewal of sacred architecture, was accomplished under such Popes as John VII , Adrian I , and Leo III. Scarcely a church in this City but was either restored or em- bellished by the last-named Pontiff, under whom the mosaic art , that of the illuminating of MS. codes , and to some de- gree also glass-painting (never indeed carried to perfection in any stage of art-history here) were liberally encouraged. The general renovation of architecture coincides with the Carlovingian period; the more characteristic features of the new- style , such as the square brick-built campanile, with stories of narrow arcades and terra cotta cornices , or string- courses , being scarce found in any example earlier than the IX century. In splendour and costliness, church-adornment now^ seems at its apogee. Golden statuary, silver canopies , silk, hangings embroidered with groups of sacred subjects had taken their place among usual decorations of Rome's basilicas. All the silver images bestowed by earlier Popes on THE EIGUTH CEMURY 435 St. Peter's were replaced by others, the donation of Adrian I, in solid gold, representing the Saviour , the Blessed Virgin, the Apostles SS. Peter , Paul , and Andrew; whilst at the same time were introduced, to adorn the intercolumnalions, sixty-five vela, or hangings of purple and gold tissue, and in the same church, a luminous cross {2)haros], lit with 1370 flames, to pour radiance through nave and aisles , was hung from the silver-plated arch before tlie chancel on the three chief festivals, Christmas, Easter, and St. Peter's day. On each of the City's Titular churches, this generous Pope bestowed twenty Tyriari hangings of purple — in all 440 , if at this period the number of such churches were (as reported by Anastasius) twenty two — though other accounts reckon twenty-eight. Hundreds of artists were employed at Rome under Adrian I in the Avorkmanship of gold , silver , smalt , and precious stones , lapis lazuli being now in request among these; and the pictorial adorning of sacred buildings is mentioned in differ- ent instances; among others, the portico of the Lateran, rebuilt, painted, and flanked by a tower during Adrian's pontificate. With the old St- Peter's was demolished one interesting mo- nument of the age's genius, in that chapel of «S Maria ad Praesepe » , raised by John VII , and one of the most magni- ficently enriched of all in the great basilica ; its walls one field of mosaics, representing principal events in the life of Mary : the Annunciation , the Visitation , the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi , and Presentation in the Temple (not indeed her a Transit », afterwards so prominent in Christian art — still less that « Assumption » which earlier art ignored altogether ) : besides events from the life of St. Peter : his preaching at Jerusalem , Antioch , and Rome ; his contest with Simon Magnus; the discomfiture and death of the latter (an early-admitted legend); also, from the Evangelic histo- ry, the Baptism, Last Supper, and Crucifixion; and, as accessorial , the figure of Pope John himself presenting a mo- del of his chapel to the Virgin. Two only of these mosaic figures are still seen in the crypt of St. Peter's, detached 436 THE EIGHTH CENTURY frem the groups they once belonged to : the Pope holriing the model in his hand, with a square nimbus round his liead , which is venerable and expressive in character ; also S. Peter in altitude of exhorting , his features regular and aspect be- nign , not old in looks, though with while hair; and below, in large letters — Johannis Servi Sanctae MdHae. Another detached fragment of the same composition is iiow in the sacristy of S. Maria in Cosmedin , its subject, the Virgin and Child receiving offerings from the Magi , the same Pontiff standing behind Mary's throne, and an Archangel with a scep- tre in front ; not more than one arm of the figure offering gifts to the Child, being preserved. Though rude in execu- tion and very deficient in drawing, these works shew feeling and earnestness; and if enfeebled, their art is not that of a school yet corrupted; the Christian ideas they illustrate are in harmony with ancient tradition and primitive feeling. We must turn from Rome to Florence for the inspection of another, the most conspicuous remnant of these mosaics ordered by Pope John : a colossal figure of the Blessed Vir- gin , which found its way from the ancient St Peter's to the Tuscan capital in 1609, and is now seen over an altar at the Dominican church there, S. Marco. This is not an exalted treatment of its subject, but indeed a striking proof of de- cadence, both in feeling and art. 11 represents Mary standing on a platform in the attitude of prayer : a matured matron of heavy and clumsy figure, with countenance that show some remains of beauty long faded , and in the gorgeous cos- tume of a Byzantine empress , all embroidery, jewellery, and gold ornaments ; her head not only crowned but loaded with cascades of gems , as also the breast and arms — the first example , I believe , of that d^^generation in artistic concepton, which, instead of the charm deriving from moral loveliness, was satisfied with the parade of female finery in its poor attempt to give lustre by what only vulgarises. We find one of the most significant testimonies to the si- tuation of the Papacy at this epoch in another mosaic-work, THE EIGHTH CENTURY 437 now only preserved in llie copy from a drawing of the lost original — in the modern tribune built to represent the ancient banquet-liall (triclinium) in the Lateran palace; the original of this very curious composition having been placed in the apsidal recess of that hall, built by Leo 111, as is sup- posed , shortly after the coronation of Charlemagne at Saint Peter's — not therefore al date within the century we are considering , but so soon after its close that we may regard the work in question as belonging to the art-school, no less than illustrating the political circumstances, of the time. That banquet-hall in the Lateran palace built by Leo III, is dejcribed as a scene in which was long centered all the magniflcence of an ecclesiastical court assuredly more truly dignified , because in its ceremonial more full of sym- bolism and of deeper meanings, than any other. Painting, mo- saic, porphyry columns, and marble incrustai ions adorned this scene of festivity , in the midst gushed a fountain, and around were twelve tribunes, or niches, one containing the marble throne of the Pope; the others, seats for Cardinals or other distinguished guests. Here at Christmas and Easter were held state banquets enlivened (if we may use such term) by sa- cred music , the singing of the pontiflc choristers to the or- gan ; besides which a homily used to be read, and at Easter the Paschal lamb served and partaken of with certain mystic ceremonies. In the mosaics adorning this triclinium, Pope Leo, it is said, desired to commemorate both the coronatioa of Charlemagne, and his own restoration to the pontific throne, after having been obliged to fly from the fierce hostilities of a lawless faction , to take refuge at the court of the royal protector who did so much for his cause. Wiihin an apsidal vault was represented the risen Saviour, amidst the Apostles, holding an open book with the words Pax vobis ; St. Peter here carrying not only his keys, but also a long cross with four arms; round the archivolt above being read the words of the angelic hymn Gloria in excelsis , the very utterance with which the fugitive Pontiff greeted the Prankish king on his '*► 438 THE EIGHTH CENTURY arrival at the court in Paderborn (799). Laterally to the apse were groups fraught with historic significance ; on one side , the Saviour enthroned be'ween two kneeling figures, St. Pe- ter, and an Emperor designated by name as R. Constantinus, and distinguished by the square nimbus round his head — therefore assuredly meant for a living sovereign, no other than Constantine V, contemporary of Leo III ; the St. Peter here receiving three keys, Constantine receiving a banner, the sign of dominion, from the Saviour. On the other side, St. Peter enthroned between a kneeling Emperor and Pope; giving to the former (Leo III) a pallium , to the latter (Char- lemagne) a siailar banner, each of these two figures with name inscribed after the prefix D. N. (domimis noster), and below this group being also read the vords : Bcate Petre dona bitam Leoni P. P. et hictoriam Carulo Begi dona. The triple keys are interpreted by Alemanni {De Laleranensis Pariet. as implying the power to bind and loose with the superadded authority over secular as well as spiritual interests; also, with ulterior significance , that prerogative so memorably exerci- sed by Pope Leo in the bestowal of the Western Empire on Charlemagne ; and the pallium is regarded as here the spe- cial symbol of supremacy in St. Peter, for which sense Ale- manni supplies proof in the curious monastic usage , found in certain ancient rules for the cloister, of silently indica- ting that Apostle's name by passing the right hand from the shoulder to the breast so as to describe the form of such gar- ment. In the copy of the mosaic before us is read the frag- mentary, inscription, near that Apostle's figure: scimus ( san- ctissimus) D. N. Leo P. P, D. N. Carulo Begi. In the original the entire group of the Saviour and two kneeling figures bad been destroyed by fire, or gradual decay, long before the rest perished, as it unfortunately did in 1737, on the attempt being made to remove this whole mosaic-work , whilst the then extant remnant of the ancient banquet-hall was being taken down. A coloured drawing, preserved in the Vatican library , was at hand to allow of the reproduction now be- THF EIGHTH CENTURY 439 fore us, raised to its place in a building designed to repre- sent the original triclinium , with its mosaics thus supplied, by order of Benedict XIV (1743;. In the detail of the banner bestowed upon the Greek as well as upon the Prankish Emperor, Ilallam sees i)roof that the Byzantine rule was not eflectually abrogated at Rome till long after the famous donations of Pepin and Charlemagne; and inleed the significance of this symbol, as conferred on whatever potentate by the Papacy from Rome, seems to point at nothing else than an acknowledged right of superinten- dence in temporal affairs even at this centre of sacerdotal government — how else can we under-tand the coincidental acts, the distinction between the symbolic gifts — the keys and pallium for the spiritual, the martial banner for the regal office':* Both Adrian I and Leo III had actually sent a banner to Charlemagne; the latter with the request that he, then king, would depute an envoy to receive the oaths of allegiance to himself from the Roman people. Nor was this offering of the vexillum confined to the complimentary intercourse of the Popes with sovereigns. A patriarch of Jerusalem sent a ban- ner , with the keys of the holy sepulchre, to the same king, afterwards Emperor; and a similar symbol of armed defence, invoked from the powerful, used to be given by monasteries to the patrons relied on for protection. In thi> mosaic of the Lateran Triclinium we can scarce reject the proof that, at the close of the VIll century, no unlimited political rule over their metropolis had yet become either the theory or claim of the Pontiffs. In another mosaic, ordered by Leo III, was for the first time introdu^^ed royalty by the side of sanctity — the image of a king associated with Apostles , — curious evidence to that new position now formed for the Papacy among secular potentates — Charlemagne with diadem, jewelled mantle, and sword , together with the Pope in sacred vestments, and the chief Aposlles, now appearing in the church of S. Susanna, where, through the Vandalism of modern restorers, this his- toric art-work was destroyed in the year 1600. 440 TUE EIGHTH CENTURY At -SS. Nereo ed Achilleo on the Appian Way is a mosaic referreci to the same pontificate, but now, unfortunately, in great part covered by modern painting; the subjects of its groups on small scale, ranged over the arch of the tribune, being , in the centre, the Transfiguration ; laterally , the An- nunciation , and the Madonna and Child attended by Angels. In the first-named composition Christ appears within a ra- diated elliptical nimbus; the three Apostles kneeling awe- struck below ; Moses and Elias being here utterly unlike all types assigned to such personages in later Art; the Angels, majestic figures in white robes ; the Blessed Virgin , twice represented, and in each example seated an a throne , being of matronly and severe aspect: the general treatment, and particularly the costumes, of classic character; and it is no- ticeable that the principal subject, the Transfiguration , here appears for the first time in Roman art. To the above-named interesting little church we may turn for a specimen of this century's architecture, though the SS. Nereo ed Achilleo, which was not only rebuilt but trans- ferred to a diflferent locality from, that of the more aticient edifice , by Leo III , has no doubt lost far more than it retains of its original features, owing first to the repairs of date 1475 (after the decay into which it had fallen during the Avignon exile), and secondly to the restoration , ordered by the Car- dinal who took his title from this church , the celebrated Ba- ronius — who, however , desired that in these works the pri- mitive basilica-type should be strictly followed. The beauti- fully inlaid marble screens of the chancel , and the spiral columns with mosaic ornamentation that rise above their cor- nice, together with the rich pavement of the elevated choir, the marble encrustation and the graceful canopy of the high altar, are all, we may believe , antique, (the latter , howev- er, but partly so), referrible to the time of Leo III; but the reading desks, of quite plain description , for the Gospel and Epistle, are modern, inappropriately substituted for the am- hones of ancient use. We have here one of the earliest exam- THE EIGHTH CENTURY 441 pies of that beautiful inlaid work in coloured stone, on the chancel-screens that became a distinguishing feature in the Romanesque basilica, adding a bloom of loveliness to its other- wise severe and simple asijecis, like the flower clustering on the rock. The high altar here has still its transennae, or marble grating, through which the sacred tomb may be descried; and through which it was the ancient practice to pass hand- kerchiefs , or other objects, ''or touching the shrine. I know of no more beaulilul specimen of early Christian decoration than the front of that same altar, designed in architectonic style, wiih inlaid porphyry and mosaic, and compartments divided by tiny colonneltes on who^e capitals are eagles and griflins. A noticeable example of the ancient episcopal throne is that in the hom'cycle beyond , with supporting lions, and a Gothic head-piece, the latter a mediaeval addition; and we may here read the whole of a sermon by St. Gregory, pronoun- ced from this seat, on the back of which it is chiselled. Oth- erwise this solitary church presents but too evident marks of a mo(!ern period : though still , indeed , distinguished by venerable antiquity and a devotional character far more im- pressive than that sumptuous modern architecture, least reli- gious, least expressive of any high Catholic feeling , so much more prevalent in Rome. Turn, for instance , from the over- charged pomps of the Gesii to this almost deserted sanctuary on tliC Appian Way 1 The mosaics at S. Teodoro are, probably, though not cer- tainly, of the art-decorations bestowed on so many of Rome's churches by Adrian 1. Imperfectly seen in a low dim-lit apse, they represent, and in style almost classic , with much dig- nity of forms , the Saviour seated on a globe , giving bene- diction , between SS. Peter and Paul , who present to Him Theodore and another Saint, each with his offering of a leafy crown; a hand, e\l(>nded from bright clouds above , indica- ting the Eternal One, who holds a diadem over the head of the Divine Son. The beautiful and perfect examples of the sacred interior at S. Ckmentc , where the elevated choir, ambones, marble 442 THE EIGHTH CENTURY chancel screens and richly inlaid Paschal candelabrum , form a complete monument of this period , claim special at- tention from all students of church-architecture. It seems beyond doubt that these interesting details were raised from the lower , the now subterranean , basilica , to serve for their proper purpose in the building erected above, and probably within the first years of the Xll century, on account of the injury done to that older church by the Norman conflagra- tion. That venerable choir and its ambones are still used, an high occasions , as S. Clemente is officiated in by the Irish Dominicans; but one may regret the general abandonment in Rome of this ritual observance , that both enhances the dig- nity and gives distinctness to the intent of Cntholic worship. There is one other noticeable , though now obscured, rem- nant of this age's architecture, in the tribuiie of a church ascribed (though but by doubtful authority — see Grego- rovius^ to Charlemagne, and to the date 797: S. Salvatore in Tor- ■none, or in Ma'-ello , raised against the walls of the Leonine city i:ear the modern Porta Cavallejgieri; in tlie later mediae- val period left ruinous, and in part destroyed for the object of enlarging the prisons of the Inquisition. Built up in the back premises of that gloomy palace the extant portion may still be seen, and is remarkaMe for some good details of terra cotta moulding Severano (see his Sette Chiese) supposes that the Prankish nation had here their schola , or special centre for worship and assemblage. On the whole , we have but little . in the monumental sphere, to tell of the genius manifest in Rome during a cen- tury so fraught with events of enduring result. Splendour and profuse decoration seem to have been at this period greatly developed in the sanctuary: but that technical skill or judg- ment kept pace with such external progress is not inferable from evidences before us. From the superstition so decidedly betrayed in Rome's later art-works, this age seems exempt, at least so far as material testimonies can be relied on. A new class of art-subjects , now introduced into churches, was the General Councils and Synods, first mentioned as THE EIGHTH CENTURY 443 represented in painting in connection with tbe condemnation of the theologic opinions put forth by the Emperor Philip Bar- danes, who mounted the throne of Constantinople in 711, and, according to the usual Byzantine practice, sent his profession of faith to the Pope, Constantine, then occupyng the see, which the hitter , with the whole body of Roman Clergy ejected as erroneous. It is a noticeable proof how much theological interests were now ascendant over all others among a com- paratively matter-of-fact and practical- minded people, in this respect different from the subtly argumentative and ever- wrangling Greeks , that the Romans now got up a subscrip- tion in order to have all the six General Councils yet on historic record rei relented on the walls of St. Peter's — jyanrarea being the Greek name by which such pictures were henceforth known. In the first years of this century was effected a restora- tion that deserves its place amoni; events of local story : the Palatine , no more a royal residence since the visit of Theoderic , but where, till at least the end of the VI! cent- ury, had abode a magistrate whose office was known by the name, Cum Palatii Urbis Romce , o curring in two epigraphs given in the collection of De Rossi. The covering of the Pantheon s cupola with leaden tiles , to replace the more precious incrustation of which it had been lately despoiled , also deserves notice among the public works of Gregory 111. In the official sphere now becomes prominent , though not now for the first time known , the dignitary with title « Duke of Rome », appointe.l by the Greek Emperor, but original- ly one among several compeers who acquired both military and civil power in Italian c lies dur iig the VI century, for the most part within the period 527-55 — Joannes at this City, Cyprian at Perugia, Bessa at Spoleto and Piacenza (1). At Rome this dukei55 for religious interests — beatissimis Apostolis Petro et Paulo restituit atque donavit , says Anaslasius of this donation. At this period the Longobards, no longer Arians but orthodox believers, were devoted friends of the papacy; and amidst the imminent dangers, even to life, that now threatened Gre- gory II from the perfidious plots of Leo the Isaurian , this nation entered into a species of league with the Romans for the Pontiflf's defense, protesting they should deem it glorious to shed their blood for such a lioly cause; Gregory 11 being mean- time occupied in alms-giving, fasting, prayer, and religious pro- cessions, in a manner that at once conformed with the high ideal of his mission on earth, and stimulated the enthusiasm of those eager to add new honours to his throne. An Italian power now beginning to rank high , and to arm fleets for conquest, was Venice, whose Doge, Orso, intervened in the interest of the declining Greek Empire against the Longo- bards ; and there is an extant letter from Gregory II to that po- tentate, urging him to lay siege to Ravenna in order to restore that city to its former rulers - though the authenticity of this document is indeed questioned by Muratori [Annali ann. 729). Neither Anastasius nor Paulus Diaconus , the writers best entitled to credit, mention such interposition of the Pontiff on behalf of the Greek Empire; and even the year of that siege that resulted in the expulsion of the Longobards and re-establishment of the Exarchate at Ravenna , is left in uncertainty. What is beyond doubt is the fact of this restor- ation not long after the iconoclast movement had commen- ced , and the subsequent recovery by the Greeks of the Pen- tapolis also , i. e. the cities of Rimini , Pesaro , Fano, Ancona, and Umana. A league ensued between the Exarch and Liut- prand ; and the union of their forces was agreed upon in the double object of subjecting the Dukes of Spoleto and Benevento to the latter ( their rightful but scarce recognized king), and of compelling the Romans to submit to the By- zantine sceptre. After Trasimond, duke of Spoleto , had yield- ed without resistance , the Greeks and Longobards marched 456 THE EIGHTH CENTURY to the siege of Rome, before whose walls they encamped in the field of Xero. Gregory IT, wisely trusting to spiritual arms alone , took a step at once the most politic and most becoming to his sacred character : presented himself at the royal tent, and by his eloquence so subdued the devout and suscepti- ble king as to persuade him to give up his hostile purpose, and retire without shedding a drop of blood. In return, the monarch only desired that the Pontiff should receive into favour and release from excommunication the Exarch Eutichius, who was forgiven , notwithstanding the knowledge of his compli- city in the plot directed against Gregory's life by Leo. The Longobard king was then led by the Pope into St. Peter's, where he made offering at the Apostle's shrine of arms and ornaments; his sword and dagger, his regal mantle, armlet, girdle , and golden crown , together with a silver cross, while the clergy sang halleluias and Te Deum to celebrate a peace- ful triumph like that of St. Leo over Attila. The pure and saint- ly renown of Gregory 11 is enhanced by the few other details, that it may be sufficient here to notice, of his long pontifi- cate : his liberahty towards various churches; his learning in the midst of a darkened age; his zeal in founding monas- teries, and restoring those fallen into decay. Lofty energies, piety, and blameless conduct were indeed rewarded by bril- iant success in the pontificate of the second Gregory. The first noticeable proceeding of Gregory 111 (731-'41; was to convoke that Council at which the Roman Clergy and Nobility , also (see Muratori , anno 732 , for this democratic element in the assemblage) the jieople of that City intervened, and the excommunication , subscribed by all , w^as fulmina- ted against the Iconoclasts. All the cities of Italy, in the sequel, added their prayers to the denunciations of the Church, and petitioned the Emperor , but in vain , to desist from his onset against sacred images. Presently appeared another foe , more formidable than the distant Emperor , in that same Longobard King who had hitherto proved the friend of the Papacy, but was now exasperated at the protection given THE EIGHTH CENTURY 4^7 in Rome to Trasimond, Duke of Spoleto , who had provoked the hostility of his suzerain, but was befriended by the Pope and the Roman Patricians, supported by an army, now, it seems, under tlie immediate command of the pontiff. Four cities of the Roman Duchy were taken and garrisoned by the Longo- bards ; but after the withdrawal of those invaders, Trasimond, in league with the Duke of Benevento as well as with Rome, entered the Spoleto territories at the head of an army recruited in the same province, and without any severe contest succeeded in recovering the city and entire Duchy he had been expelled from. It was either in 739 or 741 that a memorable mission set out from Rome for France. Gregory III, alarmed at the Longo- bardic invasion and the dangers to which the Roman State was now exposed , sent two envoys to Charles Martel , now in absolute power as Prince of the Franks , to entreat his armed intervention , and offer him in recompense a certain authority over Rome , with title either of Consul or Pa- trician; the Pope promising, on his own behalf and in the name of the citizens, to withdraw entirely from the obed- ience of the Emperor in return for such good offices. Thus early did a Pontitfnot only act as himself master over Rome, but as entitled to dispose of her to a foreign power, though not indeed without consent of her people I Thus early did the Papacy adopt that policy of calling in the stranger, and throwing itself upon that foreign protection against the danizers threat- ening at home, which eventually brought such disastrous re- sults to Italy, and forced upon the national mind the con- viction of an antagonism between the ecclesiastical govern- ment and the cause of Italian independence. Such a precedent as that of Gregory III at this crisis, is now , says Balbo, « universally condemned by History and in Italian opinion ; nor without reason , if we consider the prolonged evil of its effects; nevertheless, it would be diflicult to say whether it were not lawful, even the duty of one placed at the head of a nation , to defend his own and that nation's indepen- dence , to protect moreover a recent and yet uncertain ac- 458 THE EIGHTH CENTURY quisitiori by summoning against oppressive strangers other strangers apparently less dangerous » — considerations that certainly may be urged in this Pontiff's case. Charles Martel received with great honour the envoys of Gregory III ; but did not accept the offered dignity, confining his response to a promise of interposition for the benefit of Rome with the Longobardic king. Zacharias, a Greek, (741-52), was consecrated Pope after a vacancy of not more than three days — proof that the ratifica- tion by the Exarch was no long required or waited for after the Papal election. This energetic Pontiff interposed in per- son, and in character of peace-maker , between the latter and Liutprand, after that Greek viceroy had entreated his good offices for the rescue of his states from another threatened invasion by the Longobards. The reception of Zacharias at Ravenna was such as might have welcomed an Angel from Heaven ; the Exarch met him at a church forty miles distant ; and outside the gates the population , of both sexes , came forth towards him with blessings and acclamations. At Pavia the Pope's visit was far from agreeable to Liutprand, who nevertheless attended his Mass on the feast of St. Peter , and entertained him in the royal palace; furthermore, though this King was obstinate in his hostility against the Exarch , he at last yielded to the eloquence of the Pontiff, and consented to restore a part of the Greek territories he had seized , in the Ravenna and Cesena provinces. The truly evangelic office of peace-maker and umpire between contending princes was thus early sustained, and with successful issue, by the Pon- tificate ! Momentous for its temporal interests was another meeting between Zacharias and Liutprand, at Terni ^ in 7-i2, on occasion of that King's march through the Roman Duchy after a military expedition to Benevento , when the Pope de- termined to appeal to him in person for obtaining restitution of the four cities, within that latter province^ already occcupied by him during two years. Before arriving at Narni, Zacharias was received by the Dukes and first officers of the Longo- TUE EIGHTH CENTURY 459 bards, witli a detachment of troops, under whose escort he was conducted to Terni (a city then within the Spoleto Duchy) , and received by Liutprand , amidst his officers , at the gates of a basilica beyond the walls. Next day ensued a conference in which the eloquence of llie Pope so acted upon the pious feeling of the Ring , that all the captured cities, - namely: Ame- lia, Orta, Polimarzo (or Bomarzo), and Blera (or Bleda) — were handed overto the immediate Pontific dominion; besides which, the Longobard's generosity went so for as to restore those properties not yet held by the Papacy as sovereign , the farms and manors scattered over Italy, at Ancona , Osimo , Narni ec, besides the nearer « j)atrimonies of St. Peter » in the Sabi- na, wrested , thirty years previously, from their rightful ow^n- er ; and all the prisoners hitherto taken in the Roman Du- chy, or from among the troops of Ravenna , were uncondi- tionally consigned to the Pontiff. On the Sunday following, Liutprand , after hearing the solemn Pontific Mass, -sat down at the banquet-table of Zacharias ; and it was perhaps the cheerfulness of his self-approviog conscience which spoke in the words of the benevolent old king , after that repast ; « that he had never in his life eaten with so much gusto ». But the richest banquet was that he had himself provided I On his return to Rome the Pontiff had all the honours of public triumph accorded hmi by a people who were, at least up to this period , not only loyal but enthusiastic in their at- tachment to their almost regal high priests : after all had assembled at the Pantheon , from thence moved a vast pro- cession to St. Peter's for a solemn thanksgiving , officiated by the Pope at the head of his Clergy. From Ratcnis, who, two years after these events, mounted the Longobardic throne, Zacharias obtained a treaty of peace, for the benefit of all the Italian states , and pledged for 30 years duration , but which was broken , it is not apparent thrugh whose fault, after the lapse of a much shorter inter- val. Ratchis, , roused by some provocation, again appeared in arms , menacing all the cities of the Pentapolis, some of which 460 THE EIGHTH CENTURY were probably occupied by him ; and soon commenced a vigorous siege of Perugia, hearing of which the energetic Pope hastened from Rome with a company of ecclesiastics, and several citizens of the highest class. This illustrious de- putation having arrived in the camp before Perugia, Zacha- rias employed both eloquence and gifts to move the mind of Ratchis, and with such success that the pacified King was in- duced at once to raise the siege; besides which, with still great- er triumph, the holy father enforced the lesson of contempt for earthly things with effect that finally led his royal disciple to give up all , crown, conquest, and family ties, and retire for the rest of his days into a cloister ! With Tasia, his queen, and Ratruda his daughter , he proceeded to Rome , and there did all three receive from Zacharias's hands the monastic habit ; Ratchis thence repairing to his chosen retreat of Monte Cassino; his wife and daughter to the same district, where Tasia founded a monastery not far from the great Benedictine establishment. Among the many memories of war and vicis- situde associated with that fine old c ty, Perugia, few are so fraught with moral interest as that eventful interview between Zacharias and Ratchis on the acclivity of those heights where stands, like a majestie eyrie proudly conspic- uous , that former Etruscan capita! , recently lost to the Papal government in inevitable result of the odium excited by the siege and sackage , 1859, in which alT antecedents of its mild and wiser policy were transgressed, and ferocious mer- cenaries became, in this case, instruments of ruin to the Tiara they served. That remarkable episode of 774 confirms the per- suasion that the secret of successes on the part of Zacharias must be sought for not only in his intellectual qualities , but in the subduing influences of a genuine sanctity. The other most memorable step taken by this Pope , was the decision on the subject referred to him by the Prankish Prince , now Sovereign in all but name , Pepin , who sent a bishop and an abbot to consult on the delicate question whether a dynasty fallen into hereditary feebleness and contempt might THE EIGHTH CENTURY 461 not be set aside , to give place to a worthier claimant who already possessed the realities of power? The PontilT's recorded answer implies that it was lawful for the Magnates and People of France to recognise as their true King the Prince, or pfalzgraf, Pepin, and to depose from the throne Ghilperic , then King but in name. Accordingly was effected the pacific revolution long prepared for : Ghil- peric was forced to quit crown and palace, and receive the tonsure, thenceforth to remain in a convent for the rest of his days; and Pepin was proclaimed King, receiving the holy unction from St. Boniface, the venerable Archbishop of Mayence. So far as the Papacy became responsible for this transaction, its importance, in the history we are here stud- ying , was of the highest order ; therein being conveyed in distinct meaning the avowal from the Church, that revolution in a just cause may be the legitimate exercise of right ante- rior to, and more sacred than, dynastic claims; that rulers are made for their people, not people for rulers; moreover, that the national will is the reasonably decisive and ultimate source of political dominion. A strange spectacle is presented at this stage of the papal annals. A Roman priest being duly elected successor to Za- charias , as Stephen II, is at once duly installed in the Lateran palace ; but on the morning of the third day after, this new Pontiff, taking his seat among prelates and courtiers for the despatch of affairs, suddenly changes countenance, becomes speechless , and after a few hours is a corpse , - leaving one more example : How brief the cloudy space that parts the grave and throne. During a pontificate of little more than five years , Ste- phen 111, 7;j2-'o7 , witnessed, and contributed to bring about, the greatest and most brilliant augmentation of honours yet won for the Papacy. Astolphus, who had succeeded his brother Ratchis on the Longobardic throne , invaded the Exarchate 462 THE EIGHTH CENTCRY territories; possessed himself as well of the Pentapolis as of Ravenna; from whence he first issued a decree in the July of 751 ; and thus , after nearly 200 years' duration , was the feeble throne of the Greek Exarchs overthrown with a facil- ity reminding us of the fate that overtook the Lorraine dy- nasty at a recent period in Italian story. The invader next turned his attention towards the Roman Duchy ; and, his meditated hostilities being soon made known at Rome, Pope Stephen ordered a penitential procession^ fasts, and extraordinary devotions, to avert the danger; with his own hands did he carry through the streets the Achiro- typon Image of the Saviour , regarded as an authentic portrait made by angelic hands, and for the first time mentioned on this occasion (1). (-l) The legend connected with this picture is that, begun by St. Luke shortly after the Ascension , it was left unfinished till the last touches had been added by an Angel — therefore « made with- out ( human ) hands » , as the Greek epithet implies ; that it was transported miraculously across the sea from Constantinople to Italy^ and washed to land near Rome; or, according to another version, brought hither by Titus among the spoils from Jerusalem. Certain it is that it was deposited by Stephen III, about A. D. 732, in the Sanctj Sanctorum, or chapel of St. Laurence, within the Lateran Palace , where it still remains, though that Papal residence has been swept away to give place to modern buildings. The practice of car- rying it through the streets on certain festivals was kept up for several centuries; and, on being brought back to its shrine, the feet of the full-length figure used to be washed with a mixture of rose- water and other fragrant essences ; but finally this observance was abolished by Pius V, on account of the disorders sometimes super- vening in the procession held late on the Vigil of the Assumption. As now seen in the ancient chapel, at the summit of the Scala Santa, only the head, hands, and feet are visible, the rest being covered with silver laminae adorned with reliefs of sacred subjects , a gift from Innocent III. The picture may be regarded as a work of early Byzantine Art ; the countenance being of the conventional ascetic type, by no means beautiful or pleasing, and almost blackened by THE EIGHTH CENTURY 463 His embassies and rich presents having at last obtained a truce promised for forty years , Stephen had then recourse to the Emperor Constantino IV, who had inherited his father's pre- judices in the Iconoclast cause ; but, as usual, fair words were the utmost favours procurable from Byzantine sources. After this failure, the Pontiff applied to Pepin , and was invited by ambassadors to repair in person , and confide himself to the protection of the Prankish King. For the first time did a Pope set out on the journey northward, and cross the Alps to become the guest of foreigners. Stephen was met by Pepin and his sons at the distance of a league from the city of Pontyon in Pertois : the king dismounting to prostrate before the Pope and accompany him on foot , serving him as groom, till they reached the gates ; but on the next day, the Pontiff and his clerical attendants knelt, in sackcloth and ashes, before Pepin, adjuring him by all that is most sacred to liberate the Roman people and Clergy from their foes; and in a time ; but we are informed that it is not even the original, only an exact copy stretched over the surface , probably of the time of In- nocent III, that now meets our gaze on the few occasions this object can be seen — namely, the Saturday before Palm Sunday, the Octave of Corpus Domini, and the Vigil of the Assumption, when the La- teran capitular Clergy pass in solemn procession to the Sancta San- ctorum, and throw open the folding doors of the shrine above the altar, to exhibit this sacred treasure. Lately (1862) we have seen revived those mediaeval devotions : the Achirotypon having been removed to the Lateran church , thence to S. Maria Maggiore , and exposed , amid most picturesque magnificence, for several days, over the high altars of those two basilicas. The coldest heart might have been touched by those devout solemnities — the stately accessories and chanting throngs that accompanied the processions ; the fervour of worshippers amid resplendent morning and evening rites. And as to the aim of these devotions, how could any Christian be offend- ed? — As to their form, indeed, grave objections might be urged; as also against the attempt made at the lime to revive the credit of all that legendary fancy once devised in regard to this picture, and its origin. 464 THE EIGHTH CENTURY secret conference which ensued , it is said that Pepin not only promised protection to the utmost extent of his means, but also pledged himself, after having conquered the Exarchate and Pentapolis, to bestow those provinces and cities upon the successors of St. Peter , instead of making restitution to the Greek Emperor. Soon afterwards Stephen repeated at Paris the coronation of Pepin, and also of his sons, Charles and Carlo- mannus, on both of whom he at thesame time conferred the title of Roman Patrician. The king then hastened to cross the Alps and descend into the plains of northern Italy ; laying siege to Pavia, he soon extorted from the rash but feeble-minded Astolphus a submissive treaty, backed by solemn oaths , to make ces- sion to Rome of all the cities occupied through conquest. The Prankish forces returned northwards', victorious'almost with- out bloodshed ; and the Pope left Paris , so as to arrive at Rome before the close of the year 754. In the January follow- ing, Astolphus, regardless of all oaths, appeared as an invader before Rome and commenced a siege , during which the Campagna was devastated , and these pious foes showed themselves particularly eager to carry away the bones of Mar- tyrs from the Catacombs, now ransacked and systematically despoiled ! It was during this siege of three months duration, carried on with every circumstance of outrage , that Pope Stephen adopted the expedient , much blamed by some his- torians, of addressing a letter to the Prankish king and na- tion in the name of, and as actually proceeding from, the Apostle Peter — enjoining him to liberate his own tomb and his successor's person , under threat of chastisements tempo- ral and eternal 1 Absurd as it would be to impute to this document the character of forgery, one may nevertheless agree with the strictures of Fleury that it is « full of equivocations ; that the Church is there made to signify, not the assembly of the faithful , but the temporal possessions consecrated to God ; the flock of Christ are understood as the bodies, not the souls, of men : the temporal promises of the ancient Law are mixed THE EIGHTH CENTURY 465 up with the spiritual ones of the Gospel; and the most sacred motives of religion employed for an affair of state ». It seems, in fact, to imply a transfer of the claims of Catholicism from the order of spiritual to that of secular things ; a dangerous sanction to the idea of winning celestial favour by the be- stowal of wealth or power on the clerical body ; as also to the doctrine that the accumulating of mundane advantages is among the essential objects set before the Institution found- ed by Christ in His Church. It is nevertheless possible that the Pontiffs motives may have been quite pure ; and his expedient w^as at once success- ful ; for Pepin again crossed the Alps at the head of an army, defeated the Longobards in the pass of Susa (or Chiuse) , and laid siege anew to Pavia. Astolphus , who at this intelligence had hastened to withdraw from the w^alls of Rome , finding himself at the last extremity , submitted to a heavy tribute , and to the abandonment of the twenty-two cities he had taken by arms. Then it was , within the walls of Pavia , that Pepin made , in written formula , the celebrated Act of Donation to the Ho!y See , comprising (as we learn from Anastasius, who declares he had seen the original) Ravenna, Rimini , Fano , Cesena , Sinigaglia , lesi , Forlimpopoli , Forli, Montefeltro , Urbino , Cagli , Gubbio , Comacchio , and Nar- ni (1) 5 besides seven other tow^ns of less note. The Abbot of St. Denis was sent , with deputies named by Astolphus, to pass through all those cities hitherto under the Exarchate, collect their keys, and receive hostages from among their principal inhabitants ; subsequently to repair to Rome , and lay those teys together with the document of donation on the high al- tar of St Peter's. That original deed , drawn up at Pavia , is no longer ex- tant. Within late years we have seen all , every town and village it comprised, in such bounteous liberality towords the (I) The last a town in the Roman Duchy, but wrested f cm tliat state, many years before these events , by the Duke of Spoleto. 30 466 TUE EIGHTH CENTURY Holy See, wrested from that government almost without au effort at resistance; in certain instances with the manifest acquiescence and satisfaction of all citizens; and this dream- like evanescence seems to evince how unsubstantial the na- ture of those arbitrary, however at the time admissible, foun- dations on which the validity of Pepin's gift reposes. Paul I (757-'67), who (a rare occurrence in these annals) succeeded to his own brother in the Papacy, presents an exam- ple of apostolic virtues on which it is good to dwell at this epoch when the Spirit of the world is beginning to make in- road within the charmed circle. This holy man used to pass through the streets at night, with a few intimate attendants , to visit the suffering and poor, the captive, the widow and orphan , leaving abundant alms, and often opening the prison doors to deliver from bondage or peril to life ; paying the debts of those oppressed by usurers , and otherwise showing that the Roman Pontiff must, at this date, have enjo}ed at least the full prerogative of mercy, if not other royal attributions. Still, however, were pontific letters dated by the year of the Greek Emperor ; and we have another proof of the now vague- ly defined and indeed transitory state of Rome's government in the epistle addressed by the « Senate and People » to King Pepin, « Patrician of the Romans » , acknowledging a gracious missive from that Prince to their aggregate body, thanking him for his protection extended to the true Faith and to the Roman People , beseeching him completely to liberate them from their hostile neighbours the Longobards, while protesting their fidelity towards Holy Church and their Pontiff, whose virtues they justly extoll, and to whom they give the title dominus noster — this , with other evidence of the times , serving to confirm the conclusion that Rome was still under a species of Republican Constitution, at the head of which stood the Pontiff (Muratori, Annali ann. 763). The now oc- cupant of the Longobardic throne, Desiderius, had ascended it maiiily through the aid of Stephen HI, who had exerted himself in his cause against the rival pretender, Ratchis , the THE EIGHTH CENTURY 467 !at(er having quitted liis monastery, to struggle once more for the worhl's ])rizes, on the death of Astolphus without heirs direct. In the hope of the Pontiff's support, this King had promised every thing that justice could demand ; — the sur- render of the towns yet occupied , though comprised in Pe- pin's gift, and other additions to those newly founded Papal states. All these promises were set aside so soon as his object had been obtained ; and Paul I. wrote a letter of complaints to Pepin, from which we learn that the Dukes of Spoleto and Cenevento had , during the siege of Pavia or after the death of Astolphus , again cast oflf the vassalage to their King, placing themselves under the new Prankish Sovereignty. After a war carried on against those Duchies, and a cruel devas- tation of the lands round the recently annexed cities of the Pentapolis, Desiderius visited Rome, where the Pope solemnly urged him to restore Imola, Bologna, Osimo, and Ancona « to St. Peter », according to promises long since made, but, if now renewed , again in the event broken. Desiderius had deman- ded as condition the liberation of the Longobard hostages led away by Pepin ; and we are sorry to find the example of political disingenuousness , the « paltering in a double sense » , on the part of such a virtuous ruler as Paul I , who sent two letters to that King , one begging him to li- berate the hostages and keep peace with the Longobards, the other in a sense directly opposite ! One of the objects for which this Pontiff exerted himself was the visitation of Catacombs, and removal of the bodies of Martyrs from thence in precaution against the risks of further spoliation , such as that perseveringly carried on with pious fraud by Astolphus. The proceeding now adopted was one that contributed to the final suppression of devotional obser- vance and assemblage in those now^ rifled cemeteries. With chanted psalms and hymns the precious relics were trans- ferred in processional pomp to different churches within the City ; and it seems that this example gave impulse to the general usage of such translation, whenever it was desired 468 THE EIGHTH CENTURY to supply churches and altars with skeletons or divided bo- dies from sacred tombs , Singular that the Christian feeling should have imagined the highest honour in what, to Paga- ism, was sacrilegious outrage against the Dead! We read (v. Fleury) of the usage , at this period prevailing in Ger- many, of carrying relics on the campaign and into the battle- field. In later ages we shall see them immured at the sum- mit of towers or cupolas as safeguard against lightning '. The paternal mansion of Paul I was consecrated by him as a monastery, dedicate to the Popes St. Stephen and St. Syl- vester, enriched with several martyrs' bodies from Catacombs, as well as by donations of farms and lands. In this monastic cliurch was introduced the Greek psalmody to be kept up day and night; whence it appears that its cloisters became one of the several asylums opened in Rome to the multitude of monks driven from the East by Iconoclast persecution. No- thing save the square brick tower with stories of arcades, and three columns of the atrium built into a modern front- wall, now remains of its ancient structure in the church, known, since the XIII century, as S. Silvestro in Capite, a cognomen deriving from its most revered relic , the head of St. John the Baptist, said to be enshrined here — exposed we cannot say, for it is merely the outside |of a precious reli- quary that is seen above the high altar on St. John's festival. Stephen IV (768-'72) was consecrated after a vacancy of more than a year, during which the Papal See was occupied by an in- truder in whose tragic story we see how much of worldly ambition and other unholy passion had begun to gather round that sacred throne. So soon as Paul I had expired, a pow- erful family, at wiiose head was the Duke Toto, governor of Nepi , raised a company of troops in Tuscany and enrolled the peasants of the Campagna, at the head of which force he entered Rome by the Porta S. Pancrazio, and in his own house caused to be elected to the pontificate Constantine, one of his brothers, stdl a layman, whom this faction com- pelled the Bishop of Palestrina first to ordain priest and af- THE EIGHTH CENTURY 469 terwards, with assistance of two other prelates, to consecrate as Pope. After that aristocalic usurpation had lasted for a year, Christophorus , the Primicerius , with his son Sergius, obtained an armed force from the Longobardic King and from different towns in the Spoleto Duchy, and took posses- sion first of the Salarian bridge over the Anio and the S. Pan- crazio gale, thence marching into the City, where their cause had supporters. A contest now ensued , in which Toto him- self was slain ; Constantine and his other brother took refuge at the Laferan, and remained locked up in one of the chapels adjoining the Baptistery, whilst another faction, now suddenly formed, raised up another Antipope, one Philip, a priest from the monastery of S. Vitus on the Esquiline Hill, who held his shadowy state just long enongh to give benediction to the people from the Lateran palace, and entertain at the customary inaugural banquet the chief personages of the Clergy and Army. Deposed and driven back to his cloister the next day, this usurper vanished for ever from the histo- ric scene; and through the influence of Christophorus was ac- complished another election wiih the requisite concurrence of Clergy, Magnates, Military and People ; Stephen , priest of the S. Cecilia church , being now unanimously chosen. A tu- mult eusued in the popular rage against the fallen usurper, no longer allowed to remain in peace at the monastery, S. Saba, where he had been confined, and from whose walls Constantine , his brother, a bishop and two other per- sons, his real or supposed accomplices, w-ere dragged through the streets to be publicly blinded. Soon afierwards was held a numerous Council, attended by the Italian Bishops, at the La- teran, with the principal object of anathematizing the Icono- clasts , and also providing against the repetition of such a scandal as the intrusion of laymen, or of any candidate sup- ported by violent means , into the episcopacy. The misera- ble Constantine was introduced before this assembly , and asked how lie had presumed, being a layman, to usurp the Papal throne ? Entreating for mercy, he alleged in his defence the 470 THE EIGHTH CENTUnY example of an Archbishop of Ravenna and a Bishop of Na- ples, alike raised to their dignity from the laic slate ; on which priests and prelates had the barbarity to strike that face made sacred by suflering, fiercely driving him away from their presence in this synod presided by Pope Stephen, wit- ness of the revolting scene 1 Another civic revolution disturb- ed this pontificate. King Pepin being deceased, Desiderius professed himself ready to satisfy the just claims of the Pope in respect to the much-disputed donation, and repaired to Rome to hold an interview with him at St. Peter's. The King had already formed a parly in his interest within the City, aiming at the alienation of Stephen IV from the sons of Pepin, who now jointly reigned; but Christophorusand Sergius, adverse to the Longobardic interest, collected an irregular army from the Campagna , from the towns of Tuscany and Perugia, with which force they attempted to oppose the en- trance of Desiderius, causing all the gates to be shut and one walled up; but in the meantime another party appeared, headed by a Chamberlain of the Pope, who entered into treaty with Desiderius, whilst those em oiled by Christophorus and Sergius began to fall off from their cau3e. Stephen IV invited those leaders to submit to his arbitalion at the Va- tican, whither they repaired; but were there at once aban- doned to their enemies, those powerful ecclesiastics to whom the Pope had owed his election. Not contented with their downfall, the party of the Chamberlain induced the King to give them up into their hands, and both falher and son were dragged away to be publicly blindcLl, near the bridge of S. Angelo, in the same manner as Ihe Anlipope, overthrown by their agency, had suffered such atrocious outrage. Chris- tophorus survived only three days ; but Sergius was left to linger out the rest of his life in the dungeons of the Lateran , which palace had then its subterraneans, perhai)S as horrific as other mediaeval prisons. Pope Stephen endeavoured to dis- suade the joinlly-reigning Prankish kings from a projected double marriage of the eldest son and daughter of Pepin with THE EIGHTH CENTURY 471 the daughter and son of Desiderius; and his epistle written in this object, distinguished by a coarse malignity, was laid on the shrine of St. Peter, actually under the sacramental vessels, at the pontific Communion, by way of sanctifying — lamentable instance of the now prevailing disposition to use sacred things for profane and selfish purposes ! The appeal had no eCTect, in regard to one of those marriages at least; and Charlemagne wedded the unhappy princess, soon to be put away without regard for right or innocence, whose story claims heart-felt compassion , and in the Adelchi of 3Ianzoni IS wrought into some of the most pathetic scenes in the Ita- lian Drama. We turn with pleasure from the dark and confused inci- dents, unredeemed by any light of sanctity, which the historian has to unravel in the pontificate of Stephen IV, to pass to that of Adrian I (772-'9o), who, alike energetic and estimable, contributed by talents as well as virtues to confirm for the Papacy that high political position now legally secured. The dawn of a brighter day begins to illumine the historic scene with one of those manifestations of Providence we cannot fail to recognise in the ascendancy of great Genius; for from this period it is Charlemagne who becomes the chief actor in the eventful drama. Adrian I had not occupied the Papal chair two months before Desiderius seized Faenza , Comac- chio , and the entire Duchy ofFerrara, all comprised in the donation of Pepin. To remonstrances from Rome he replied that these slates should be ceiled after a personal interview had been granted; after the Pope had anointed, and recognised as kings the two sons of Charlemagne's lately deceased brother, both fugitives, with their mother!, after being denied the rights of succession by their uncle, at the court in Pavia. Adrian refused liie interview uiWess under condition of the previous restitution Desiderius, with his son Adclchis (or Adeigisus) , and the nephews of Charlemagne , now set out at the head of an army for Rome ; but the energetic Pope speedily collected a garrison from among the troops of Campania, Tuscany, 472 THE EIGHTH CEMCRY Perugia , and the Pentapolis ; transported to places of safely all the treasures in the two chief basilicas ; and made all arrangements towards preparing his capital for vigorous defence. The invader advanced as far as Viterbo, was there met by four bishops, who intimated the penalties of excom- munication should he presume to cross the frontiers of the Roman Duchy. That dread weapon , not yet vulgarized by constant use for worldy ends, had then all its mysterious efficacy over subject minds ; and the King , overawed and stricken powerless with an army under his command , at once drew back, abandoning his hostile projects. Charlemagne, after repeated communications with Rome , and after being invited by Adrian to employ armed force in his cause, first tried pacific means for securing the newly conferred states, and offered payment to Desiderius , 14,000 gold solidi (about 280,000 francs) for the cession of all those cities bestowed on Rome — nominally on St. Peter. This proving fruitless , the invasion was resolved upon which affords the most striking example yet beheld of the ability in the Church to direct and profit by the antagonisms of the world (1). The (1) Agnellus states that Charlemagne was incited not only by the Pope, but by the Archbishop of Ravenna to intervene for the deliv- erance of Italy, and that by that Prelate was sent the deacon Mar- tin , ( whose adventures form so fine an episode in Manzoni's tra- gedy ) , to guide the invading army from their camp in the valley of Susa across a yet untraversed Alpine passage — conjectured to be that which descends into the valley of Aosta ; and thus was se- cured victory to the Franks, who surprised their foe either at the rear, or at the flank, where no assault had been apprehended. The forti- fications called « Chiuse » were a line of walls and towers, strength- ened by Desiderius, which effectually guarded the outlets of the Susa valley, and some ruins of which were seen by the Monk of Novalesa ( the picturesque Benedictine Monastery, lately suppressed, in that Alpine ravine), whose chronicle of these events, given by Muratori {Rcr. U. Tom. II, part 2), was written about the middle of the Xi century. It appears that the Prankish army, \\hile en- camped on the northern side of those .'^ortifications , were quite una- TUE EIGHTH CENTURY 473 whole army of the Franks was led into Italy across two of the Alpine passes (773) ; the Longobards suflfered defeat , not indeed without a gallant struggle, in the valley of Susa; and Desiderius was pursued in his flight to Pavia. Several Longobardic cities submitted to the invader without resistance, whilst those that held out, Verona and Pavia, the retreats of the King and his son, were simultaneously besieged. During the prolonged blockaiie of Pavia , Charlemagne made his first visit to Rome , there received with all the honours formerly accorded to Exarchs: met on his arrival, at a mile's distance^ by all the troops and by a peaceful array of children carry- ing palms and olive-branches, greeting him with songs and acclamations; nearer to the walls , by eccles>:astics with cros- ses and sacred standards , at the sight of which he dismounted from his horse, thence to proceed on foot, with a train of princes and officers, to St. Peter's, where the Pope with all the Clergy and a multitude of citizens were awaiting the king. As he ascended the stairs exterior to the basilica , he knelt and kissed each step — a pious usage long afterwards kept up ; and at the summit the two Potentates ( for as such ble (o overcome the defence sustained by the Longobards. A learn- ed investigation into this epoch of Italian History, and the circum- stances attending the fall of the Longobard dominion, is found in the appendix to Manzoni's Adclchi; and the pathetic interest there investing the beautifully-drawn character of Ermengarda is enhan- ced by the proof how unmerited were her wrongs. To oppose and brand with infamy the lawless divorces desired so often by licen- tious kings, ^^as among the honourable offices bravely sustained by Popes in Ihc Middle Ages; but the tacit approval of Charlemagne's cruelty towards his blameless wife, on the part of Stephen IV, ex- emplifies the effect of mundane amLilion upon what ought to be the especial attribute and glory of sacerdotal power. Muratori supplies the interesting fact of one protest against this wrong, on the part of St. Adelard , the cousin of Charlemagne, who quitted his court to became a monk, rather tlian sanction even by his presence such a procedure as that divorce and the illegal mar- riage that ensued. 474 THE EIGHTH CENTURY maybe now classed the Pontiff also) cordially embraced ; then passing into the church , made vows of friendship , personal and national , at the high altar, aiter which the Prankish king made progress through the City, visited all the churches, and left some rich offering for each. It is remarkable that Charlemagne had , before this entry, requested the permission of the Pope to visit the different churches in Rome for his devotions at Easter, the festival now recurring. After three days given to the observances of that sacred season , Ad- rian urged his request for the formal ratifying of Pepin's donation, when at once ensued that memorably renewed en- dowment of the Papacy, now drawn up in a deed of confir- mation laid on the altar of St Peter, and which comprised so great an extent of territory, according to the report of Anastasius and Leo Ostiensis, that Muratori supposes error must have crept into those writers' text in this reference. What, we may ask, could avail, or how were effectuated such territorial gifts as that of Tstria? and as to the Duchy of Spoleto , though a species of right seems to have been conceded to the Pope , such was probably no more than the claim to some annual tribute; that province in fact, till long after these proceedings, remaining incorporated with the King- dom of Italy under Dukes, the feudal vassals of the Emperor. The Sabina district, whose mountains form a beautiful feature in the landscape Pope Adrian might have enjoyed from the windows of his Palace, was not comprised in the territories under his sway, but in those of Spoleto, as evident from a letter to Charlemagne in which he desires restitution « to St. Peter » of Rome's patrimonies within that province, be- stowed on the Church about a hundred years before, de- stined both for the maintenance of lights at St Peter's, and for alms (probably in kind ) to the poor of Rome. Sabina became completely incorporated with the Papal stales , A. D. 939, being then severed from the Spoleto Duchy and pla- ced under the government of a Marquis, or Comes. For a ge- neral view of the territorial aggrandizement now secured THE EIGHTH CENTURY 475 to the Holy See , we may cite from the Art de verifier Ics dates, where its limits are defined; — the Exarchate and Pentapolis between the Adriatic and the Apennines ; an extent of maritime Tuscany from the Cecena to the 3Iarta river, including Grosseto, Orbetello, and the Ombrone, an in- significant portion of which district, south of Monta'to and the Fiora river , still remains to the Papal States ; also the in- land district advancing from the Marta to the source of the Tiber, including Perugia and its Duchy, along the right bank of that river. After having subjcted Beneventun in a war against its Duke, Adelgisus, Charlemagne added Aquino, Teano, and other cities of that territory, which its ruler w^as forced to concede to Rome; and ultimately six other towns of Tus- cany, the most important being Viterbo , still retained by the Papacy , after a brief alienation , through the successful arms of Italian invaders, in 1860. As to the donation of Mo- dena, Reggio, Parma, Piacenza, and Mantua, included by the biographer of Adrian , Anastasius, the evidence is extremely vague; and the idea that all those cities were compsised in the gift of the Prankish Kuig has been rejected (v. Muratori, ann. 777). It is inferrible indeed that a species of moral su- perintendence over the whole of Italy was entrusted by Char- lemagne to Pope Adrian, so high the confidence inspired by the virtues and abilities of that Pontiff. In answer to a letter of the king complaining that the Romans had been practising traffic in Christian slaves with the Saracens, Adrian showed that such had not been car- ried on in the Roman Duchy, but only along those Mediler- ranean shores under the direct dominion of Charlemagne , where slaves had been sold in considerable number to the Greek traders; that he himself had in consequence sent letters, but in vain, to the Duke of Tuscany , AUone , re- quiring him to equip as many vessels as possible in order to capture and burn those Greek trading sh ps ; that he had likewise caused certain of those ships to be burned in the lurbour of Cenlumcelkie , and their crews to be detained 476 THE EIGHTH CENTURY in prison on account of the crime committed in such hateful commerce — 'this being one of the first among many instances of the persistent and righteous war against slavery by the Pontiffs. We cannot equally admire another proceeding of Adrian I, that displays, indeed, vigorous activity, but also a restless ambition. After the withdrawal of the Prankish armies from Italy, the Neapolitan Greeks had entered into treaty with the Duke of Beneventum, Arigisus , then in cor- respondence with, and cognizant of, the designs of Adel- chis, now known by the title « Patrician of Sicily »; an armed occupation of Terracina, counselled by that Duke , was the sequel ; and that frontier town , probably included in the donation of Charlemagne, after being wrested from the Greeks , w- as offered by Adrian to the Neapolitans in exchange- for certain forfeited patrimonies of the Church within their Duchy. In the Pope's epistolary style the Nea- politans were nefandissimi , and the Greeks « hated of God », whilst, backed by such epithets, the request was preferred to Charlemagne that he would hasten not only to recover Ter- racina , but also to besiege Naples and Gaeta , in order , if possible , to subject those cities alike to the co-participant dominion of the Papacy and the Frankisk King — sub vestra atque nostra dltione. No such attempt was made by that wise monarch ; and the projected invasion of Italy by Adel- chis, planned in correspondence with the Beneventan Duke from Sicily , was frustrated by the death of the lat- ter , 787. We may observe how striking the proof supplied in this passage as to the deteriorating effects cf political power on the higher and spiritual attributes once so lumi- nous in the Papacy ! — the more remarkable , indeed , in as much as it is one of St. Peter's successors entitled to rank among the most estimable , who presents this example of a Christian Bishop eager to stir up warfare, to bring down the invader upon the states of a legally established government, in the hope of territorial aggrandizement to himself ! For the honour of the Papacy , however , is the THE EIGHTFI CENTURY 477 fact that , even before the defeat of the Longobards, several citizens of Spoleto and Rieti repaired to Rome for the act of voluntary suhmission to i(s sway , and , in sign of the self-chosen subjection, had their long hair and beards shaved according to Roman fashion! A still larger deputation from the Spoleto Diichy arrived soon , with the request of being admitted « into the service of St. Peter », whilst adopting the Roman fashion as to hair and beard! Such a demand of course could not be denied; and those citizens having in the sequel elected a duke, Ilildebrand , their choice was confirmed by the Pope. The inhabitants of Fermo , those of Ancona, Osimo and Castel di Felicita soon followed this example of voluntary- submission to the Papal sceptre. After a siege of eight months , Pavia surrendered to the youthful conqueror (774). Desiderius and his wife were carried captive into France, there allowed an honourable retreat, both to spend their last days in the cloister, where the depo- sed King won reputation for eminent sanctity. Adelchis fled for refuge to Constantinople; and thus ended the Longobar- dic kingdom in Italy, ruined by its rash hostilities against that sacerdotal power whose rapidly rising ascendancy was due to such combinationsof favourable circumstance, or rather to the prevailing tendencies of mind and religious idea. At Charlemagne's second visit to Rome (781) the Pope anointed his two sons, Pepin and Louis, as kings of Italy and Aqui- taine , the former having been baptized by his hand the day previously — and in thus consenting to raise a child to the throne of the Italian kingdom, the Pontiff certainly seemed to recognise at least a theoretic sovereignty superior to, and valid within the limits of, his own. Among the many noticeable events of this long pontificate, the close of the Iconoclast struggle, and ultimate triumph of the principles maintained in this question by Rome , are im- portant. Promoted through the piety or zeal of a convert Em- press , the accord between the Greek and Oriental prelates in favour of sacred images, was celebrated in the seventh 478 THE EIGHTH CENTURY general Council held at Nicaea, 787, ^vith assistance of two Legates sent by the Pope , ^vhom ecclesiastical historians re- present as proper presidents of the assemblage, and of other legates from the Patriarchs of Alexandria , Antioch , and Je- rusalem , besides 350 bishops. An attempt to hold this Coun- cil in the previous year at Constantinople, on invitation of the Empress Irene , Avas bafHed by a characteristic outburst of Greek fanaticism — an armed interference, urged on by certain dissentient bishops , and led by some officers of the garrison , who, at the head of the military under their com- mand , rushed with drawn swords into the assembly, and drove away prelates and legates by violence ! The new Pa- triarch of Constantinople sent his profession of Catholic faith to the Pope; and for an interval the Eastern and Western churches became reunited. Great services were rendered by Adrian I to the interests of Art and public monuments. Among various works for repair and embellishment of churches, was the restoring of the roof of St. Peter's, for which a magister (master mason) was desired from, and sent by, Charlemagne, first to explore the Spoleto district for obtaining the suitable timber, not to be found within Roman territories; — the fortifying walls were rebuilt ; and the restoration of antique aqueducts was actively carried on, that of Trajan , one hun- dred of whose arches were in ruin, being now made to supply water to the fountains before St. Peter's, and to the pilgrims' hospital near , (where took place the ceremony of the lavanda on Holy Thursday) : the Transtiberine quarter being thus also provided for. Agrippa's aqueduct , ruinous and supplying but a slight stream , became again an abundant channel sufficient for almost the whole City ; and alike was restored the Mar- cian Aqueduct, now known by the barbaric name Acqua lo- lia, probably from Jovius , a cognomen assumed by Diocle- tian, to whom some portion of its arcades has been ascribed; also that most magnificent of all such structures , the Clau- dian , slightly repaired under some earlier pontificate , but not fully so till the time of Adrian , who employed a multi- TOE EIGUTU CENTURY 479 litude of Campagna peasants on this task. Slill more to his ho- nour are this Pope's systematic charities, ■ — as the daily feed- ing of 100 poor under the portico of the Lateran, where each received lib of bread , a cup of wine (about the modern foglietta) , with a porringer of soup and meat — which elee- mosinary banquet was represented in a picture on that same portico's walls ; all these bounties being provided out of the produce of a single estate [domus cw/fa ), Capracorum, in the Veil district, inherited by Adrian from his parents, improved and enlarged under his care, whence ample store of corn, legumes , and wine used annually to be brought to the ma- gazines of the Lateran. A comparatively flourishing slate of letters and of musical practice at Rome, in this period, is in- ferrible from the desire of Charlemagne to conduct with him thence into France some of the best singers from the pon- tific college , in order to teach the canto fermo to the Clergy of his Kingdom ; and likewise some professors of Grammar (1), for diffusing liberal studies in the same country. Leo III, (79o-8!6), eiected by the Clergy, Nobility, and People, was consecrated at once without reference to any foreign poten- tate ; but almost his first act was to send an embassy to Charlemagne with those significant gifts, the Keys of the Con- fessional or shrine^ of St. Peter ,'2' , and the sacred vexillum, as represented in the above-mentioned mosaic of the Lateran triclinium: objecis to be proffered to the king with the request that he would depute some magnate to receive the oaths of fealty and subjection {fedem atque subjectionem , says Egin- (1) Under the designation Grammatica , we should remember, were then comprised the studies of the Latin language , Oratory, Poetry, classic literature; in short, what we now understand as a liberal education within limits allowed by the then intellectual conditions of Europe. ^2) A quaint richly decorated key, with gilding and enamel , still to be seen in the Guardaroba of St. Peter's , is probably the sole extant example of such a consecrated object. 480 THE EIGHTH CENTURY hard ) towards himself — words that accord with the higher sense attaching to those gifts , as symbols of conceded sove- reignty. That the banner implies dominion seems conveyed as distinctly as symbolism can speak , in that Remarkable mosaic; and on the coins of the Venetian Doges it appears with like significance. A sense somewhat similar, attaching to the sacred key, is conveyed in the words of Gregory III , ad- dressed to Charles Martel : — Claves confessionis beati Petri, quos vobis ad regnum direximus (Muratori, ann. 789) ; as such was unmistakeably intended in both symbols when the Keys of the Holy Sepulchre and of Calvary, with a banner, were sent to Charlemagne by the Patriarch of Jerusalem after the Caliph Haroun had paid him the homage of conceding an hono- rary protectorate over the holy City, as slated by Eginhard , and alluded to by a contemporary Saxon poet ( Du Chesne , Tom. 2 , Rer. Franc.) : Adscrlbique locum sanctum Hierosolymorum Concessit propriae Caroli semper dilioni. Vain , therefore , are the arguments ingeniously sustained to establish that no sort of sovereign power was exercised , or theoretically claimed , at Rome by the Carlovingian Emper- ors. That the feeling of the age tended to admit rather a limited jurisdiction in the Papacy , subordinate in temporal things at least to a higher foreign tribunal , seems indeed supported by various testimonies. An atrocious and mysterious conspiracy overclouded the pontificate of Leo III — its leaders, scandalous to relate, being ecclesiastics of high position. Whilst walking in the procession on St. Mark's day Avith all the Roman Clergy, fol- lowed by a devout multitude , an armed company, led by Paschal the Primicerius , and Campulo the Sacellarkis ( both nephews of Adrian I ), rushed from an obscure street oppo- site the church of St. Sylvester , seized and threw the Pope on the ground, stripped off his vestments, beat him with clubs, and THE EIGHTH CENTUttY 481 after attempting to tear out his eyes and cut out his tongue , left him bleeding and speechless on the pavement. All the spectators fled ; and after the unfortunate Pontiff had been abandoned in this state, without one to pity or succour , the assassins returned to drag him into the church, and renew their murderous outrages before the altar! Left as it were between life and death in the monastery of St. Sylvester , the victim was afterwards taken to that of St. Erasmus on the Coelian Hill ; but thence rescued , and conducted to the Vati- can by a chamberlain, with a few other faithful followers, who alone among Rome's citizens made any effort to oppose this atrocious revolt against their spiritual and temporal sover- eign ! A Longobard prince set the example of generous inter- position — Guinegisus, Duke of Spoleto , who now appeared before St. Peter's with an armed force , and escorted the Pontiff, with every mark of honour, to that city. The recovery of sight and speech by Leo was interpreted as miraculous; but eccclesiastical writers have admitted the idea of a na- tural healing, due to failure in the atrocious attempt to inflict such bodily injury as designed ( v. Catalani , notes to Mu- ratori , ann. 799 ). Guinegisus having hastened to inform Charlemagne of these events , that King invited Leo to repair to meet him at Paderborn, where a most honourable recep- tion awaited the revered sufferer ; all the troops being drawn up, and made to prostrate on his approach , while Charlema- gne alighted from his horse, bowed low before him, and embraced him — this scene presenting, indeed, an appro- priate abstract of the contrast between the triumphs of the Papacy abroad and its frequent humiliations , through vio- lence or revolutionary impetus, at homel After some weeks of friendly intercourse and festivities shared by the King and Pon- tiff amid all pomp and homage of royalty , was undertaken the journey back to Rome, in which the Archbishops of Cologne and Salzburg, other prelates, and two counts formed the escort of the Pope , now received at all the towns passed through 31 482 THE EIGHTH CENTURY with highest honours, and on his approach to his own City met at the Milvian bridge by the local Clergy and Military, the scholae ,or universities) of foreign nations — Franks, Sax- ons, Longobards ec, the Nuns, and noble matrons , besides a multitude with banners and standards, singing hymns and shouting welcome. In the midst of such ovations did Leo pass to St. Peter's , there to celebrate solemn Mass , and give Com- munion, in both kinds, to all present. On the following day the Prankish magnates held a high court of justice in the Lateran trichnium, and cited the conspirators, whose cause continued on trial during more than a week , but as yet without re- sult in any definitive sentence. A list of accusations against the Pope had been forwarded to Charlemagne — and several ecclesiastical estates on the Campagna had been devastated by his enemies. The crime of the latter sufficiently condemns their cause ; but we possess only obscure and partial evidence as to this whole episode. The report of the event by Anastasius gives but one side of the question ; and we are left to conjecture what the accusations against Leo III really were, whether refer- ring to his character or government? ■ — Scarcely to the for- mer , we may conclude , seeing that all we know of this PonlifT presents him in the light of sanctiOed manners, as a pastor zealous for doctrine and discipline ■ — if to the latter, this revolt would be the more remarkable , because first in the long series of antagonisms, proceeding from the higher classes in Rome, to the temporal power. The penetrating mind of Charlemagne might have been convinced that in surrounding the Papal throne with new honours he had exposed it to new dangers ; that , rather than raising it to the height, he had reduced it to the level of earthly monarchies. Consider- ation for the perilous position in which the Head of the Church still remained was one motive that induced the king to under- take another Italian expedition (799), at the head of his army, after explaining his purpose and reporting the circumstances of the Pontiff to the diet at Mayence, Arriving with his THE EIGHTH CENTURY 483 court , he was first received by Leo at Nomentum (now re- presented by the miserable Htlle lown of Lamentana) twelve miles distant from Rome , where the two dined together , the Pope afterwards returning to prepare a state-reception in the City for the morrow. After the usual solemnities, and devotions for seven days, an assemblage, convoked by Char- lemagne , of all the Prelates and Abbots, all the Roman and French nobility, was held at St. Peter's: the king and Pope having taken their seats in the midst, the former intimated on investigation into the charges against the latter, on which the Bishops and Abbots present made unanimous protest that none could presume to call the supreme Pontiff to judg- ment, seeing that the Apostolic See, chief among all churches, was itself judge in all ecclesiastical causes, nor to be judged by any. Leo responded to this, that he desired to follow the usage of his predecessors; and then ensued en extraordinary scene, displaying the unrivalled height in moral power, the inviolable rank and credit now enjoyed by the Papacy, as it were beyond the shocks of all earthly accident! Ascending the am- bon , and placing on his head the Gospel and the Cross, Leo in a loud voice and in solemn terms protested his perfect innocence as to every charge advanced by his persecutors, adding that he in this manner justified himself without being judged or constrained by any, nor by any law required so to proceed , but simply through spontaneous resolve. Ail the Prelates and priests then began to chant litanies and the thanksgiving Te Deum ; this exculpation being accepted, and, in moral effect, complete, through procedure that pre- supposes a certain generous and enthusiastic feeling, for whose predominance at this period the Papacy itself deserves the cre- dit. After some days, ensued another legal process against the conspirators , who were examined and finally sentenced to death before Charlemagne's tribunal; their punishment being commuted, however , into the lenient one of exile to France , without bodily injury, through the merciful interposition of the Pontiff. 484 THE EIGHTH CENTURY The Christraas-day of 799 (1) having arrived, Charlemagne attended the Papal High Mass at St. Peter's , and was still pro- strate before the Apostle's shrine , when , at the close of those rites, the PontiCf approached and set on his head a golden diadem ; all the vast multitude present repeating three times the acclamations probably first dictated by the Clergy : Life and victory to Charles, most joious and august, crowned bij God, the great and pacific Emperor ! After this Leo proceeded to an- oint with the holy oil both Charlemagne and his son Pepin. This eventful drama seems to have been presented to the popular mind as brought about through act of the Pope with- out participation or fore-knowledge on the part of the elect Emperor , who fas Eginhard states) declared that he would not have entered the church if aware of what was to ensue. Such professions might be made for the sake of decorum, but scarcely believed ; and the letters between successive Popes and the Prankish Ring contain indications of gradually matured design , concerted on both sides , for this re-estab- lishment of the Western Empire, which may be considered as the final rupture with the old civilization represented by the corrupt Church and degenerate autocrats of Constanti- nople , for substitution of a new principle, infusing life and vigour into reconstituted nationalities. The Papacy thus be- came the founder of a new Civilization , that revolved round the centre formed by two Chiefs, henceforth sharing supreme power in the spiritual and temporal order ; the Pontifical na- turally allowed precedence in idea; the Imperial regarded as its delegate, deputed to the headship of Christendom, in regard to mundane interests, by consent of Christ's Vicar, source and representative of all legitimate authority upon earth. How im- mensely the Roman See was to gain in credit through this new order of things, is apparent ; nor could any measure (1) The year 800 is the better-known date here in question , but according to the ancient computation , which dated the new year from Christmas. THE EIGHTH CENTURY 485 have more confirmed the ascendancy of lliis sacerdatal sway, or more elevated the character or that ideal attaching to St. Peter's throne, than did this courageous step of Leo HI, in which he himself appears not less conspicuous than the monarch crowned by his hands (1). Anaslasius gives a daz- ling catalogue of the ofiTerings made by Charlemagne to Rome's chief basilicas after this coronation : an altar-table of silver, vessels of gold , and a golden corona studded with gems, presented to St. Peter's immediately after the ceremony; to the Lateran, a jewelled processional Cross, a silver cibo- riunr (or baldacchino) with columns, a Gospel in gold and jewelled binding; to St Paul's, a silver altar, and « diverse vessels of marvellous size » for sacred use. With the event of that Christmas-day at St. Peter's closes an epoch pregnant of great results for the Papacy and for Christendom. As to the conduct of those mainly^ instrumental in creating the new position for the Holy See , we observe an apparent purity of intention, and the consistency evin- cing consciousness of right. In the implied satisfaction and tacit acquiescence of so many populations handed over, with- out the slightest reference to their wishes , from secular to ecclesiastical Dominion, we find ground for the inference that throughout these, and indeed much later ages, the tem- poral sway of the Popes was gladly submitted to, and felt to be more mild and enlightened than that of secular princes. In what precise sense the titles of sacerdotal sovereignty were understood by those who conferred, or those who first exercised it, seems scarce definable. Certain it is that Char- lemagne claimed the privileges of the Roman Patriciate in (i) « Thus was accomplished the greatest among' events that have taken place during more than a thousand years in European story, that -which once dominated over its entire course in fact , and has continued to do so in name till our own times; an event which, most fortunate as, without doubt, it seemed in those days, even- tually , as is alike certain , proved a misfortune to many nations , and most especially such to the Itahans ». Balbo. 486 THE EIGHTH CENTURY the highest acceptation, exercising supreme jnrisdiction, with power of life and death, from his tribunal, in the Papal City ; as , in his absence , like powers were wielded by his repre- sentatives (Miisi) in the Roman Duchy and former Exarchate. Evidence shows also that the Popes were slow to cast off the theoretic dominion of the Greek emperors; and that they long continued to admit that vested in their new protectors of the Western Empire , as extending over Italy and Rome. Adrian I dated many briefs by the years of the Byzantine x( Augustus »; others by that of the reign or patriciate of Char- lemagne ; others hy his own pontificate. From A. D. 800 all legal instruments drawn up in Rome continued, and for ages, to be dated by the year of the Western Emperor ; and the usage of swearing a by his safety » was throughout the same period prevalent. The successors of Charlemagne never failed, after the ceremonies of their coronation at St. Peter's, to take their seat either in that church or in the contiguous palace for administering justice at a supreme tribunal , the Pope and other high dignitaries , temporal and spiritual , Italian and Frankish , or German , usually assisting at the proceedings as imperial assessors. The highest authority injudi- cial causes resident at Rome, the Praefectus Urbis, continued to be appointed by the Emperor , and to display the eagle in his arms ; such , at least the system of civic administration till the XII century , when Alexander III took to himself the right of appointing that chief magistrate , who thence became a Papal minister. At Ravenna the Archbishop Sergius (de- ceased 860) , as well as his successor Leo , are said by Agnellus to have ruled over the Exarchate and Pentapolis , as did the vice-regal Greek officers before their time. On the other hand we find unequivocal proofs that, before the end of this century, the Popes assumed the style and acted upon the right of independent princes , deputing judges and other functionaries to officiate in subject cities ; using such phra- ses in their briefs ps « our Roman City — our Roman Peo- ple » — nostra Romana Civitas , etc. In regard to the exact THE EIGHTH CENTURY 487 date when tlieir civil princedom had origin , historians have differed widely. Orsi, Cenni , and Bianchi determine it, in respect to the Roman Duchy at least , as A. D. 726 , year of the revolt against the Iconoclast Emperor; Pagi and others place it in the time of Stephen II, 754, year in which Pepin signed the treaty of Pavia, after having subdued Aslolphus ; others, in 774, the year of Charlemagne's confirmatory donation; others determine its period so late as 796, assuming that till that date the Greek Emperors were still nominally sovereign at Rome ; but a recent writer ( Brunengo , Origine delta So- vranitd temporale dei Papi) sustains, with much mastery of his subject, that A. D. 754 must be determined as precise date of this monarchy's origin , assuming that, anterior to that year, the Popes had v held the sovereignty over Rome de facto , together with supreme authority in the Exarchate , alike exercised by them rather as Vicars of the Empire , and guardians of its rights, than in their own name ». Gi:egorovius observes that if, by the end of the year 755, the Pope had actually attained dominion over Rome, « it was without the declaration of the City's final emancipation from the Greek Empire in the name of any among the con- tracting parties ». So late as 767, Pope Stephen IV, immediate- ly after his election , caused the Romans to swear fealty to the Emperor , and throughout the Carlovingian period trib- ute was paid by Rome to those new potentates, forwarded to their palace at Pavia in the amount of 10 lbs of gold (400 ster- ling), 100 lbs of silver, and 10 j^allia in some rich material, besides the half of all fines imposed by judicial sentence ; w^hilst the imperial Missus, or resident ambassador at the Papal Court, had to be maintained by the Apostolic Camera. We have other evidence in the coinage from the latter years of this century: the extant money of Leo III has on the obverse .S, Petrus , with the monogram Leo Pa; on the re- verse , Carlus Ira; in the next century that of Paschal I has , with the monogram of his name , Scs. Petrus and Ludovicus Imp. ; that of Leo IV has Hlotharis (Lothaire) Imp. , the mo- 488 THE EIGHTH CENTURY nogram of Leo Papa, and Scs. Petrus ; a coin of Nicholas 1 (the first Pope to wear a crown) has his own monogram with Ludowuicus Imp. and Roma in cruciform writing; one of Formosus has that Pope's effigy with Formosus P., and on the reverse, Vvido Guido; Imp.; and one of Sergius III (X century; gives the first example of the Papal effigy , here mitred, with omission of the reigning Emperor's name — except indeed in one other instance , and that perhaps the earh'est extant , a coin of Adrian I , with the Pope's and the Apostles name, but not that of the Emperor, though allu- sion to his authority seems intended in the legend, around a cross , Victoria D. NX — records that are important in as much as showing that the theory of imperial dominion over Rome was still maintained ; as with like significance did the claims of Charlemagne appear indicated on the coins of Be- neventum, where his name was read together with that of its Duke , his acknowledged vassal. And in another class of testi- monies , the documentary , nothing could better express the idea of dominion held by the Emperor together with the Pope in the same States, than the formula, of date 800, given by Muratori : Regnante Domno nostro Piissimo perpetuo et a Deo coronato Karolo Magno Imperatore , Anno Imperii ejus Prirno, sen et Domno nostro Leone summo Ponlifice , et univer- sali Papa, Regarding the effect of this new position on other spheres, one must own that it has contributed variety of themes and some imposing details to Art; yet the noblest subjets in sculpture and painting, supplied by Papal story, are from periods anterior to this great political change. Holy PontiCTs do not appear more venerable through the trappings of re- gal state; nor has Raphael enhanced the moral grandeur of the scene between the first Leo and Attila by introducing the court-pomposities of Leo X. And ritual, in which Catholicism has so profoundly understood how to move the heart and exalt the religious sentiment, her unrivalled agency for affecting soul through sense — what has this really gained THE EIGHTH CENTURY 489 in proportion to what it loses through the sceptred state of her nii:h Priest? Magniticer ce , in so far as it serves to en- hance the expression of spiritual realities , and to shadow forth the Infinite , cannot indeed be carried too far in a re- ligious worship nobly and justly organized; but the etiquette of the Court and parade of the Army, with serried weapons and glittering uniforms , jar against the sanctities of the altar, intruding the lowest instead of the highest attributes of power thus served . The Papal High 3Iass is a gorgeous representation that ^ except indeed at one moment , the Ele- vation , beyond description sublime ) fails of touching the heart, and is notoriously less attended by devotion, on the part of the multitude , than all the other more solemn cele- brations at Rome ; in its splendid grouping and stately but cumbrous ceremonial , suited indeed to awaken curiosity, to dazzle and astonish; but altogether too like a triumphal pro- cession , where Heavenly Truth is chained to the car of an earthly potentate, most venerable, indeed, as St. Peters Successor , but , as king of Rome , himself the creature of earthly circumstance. A pageai t of Hierarchic Supremacy, rather than a homage to the Eternal Founder of the Church, is what the highest act of Christian worship in the great Catholic Cathedral might certainly seem if intent were judged by externals. But thai final act , the Beneiliction , raises itself above all censure , while appealing to the immost religious sense of every heart ; and the phrase « urbi et orbi » , though not now heard in th«i chanteJ formula , answers to the world- wide import , the height of sanctified authority implied in that blessing well-called « apostolic ». Imagine any other ec- clesiastical dignitary taking it upon himself to officiate thus I Would there not be a fpecies of presumption in any to attempt that , the perfect propriety of which on the part of the Roman Pontiff must Le felt, and surely revered by, every one among the thousands who gaze upwards, from the dense throng and serried troups that fill all space between the majestically- 490 THE EIGHTH CENTURY curving colonnades, to that splendid group on the balcony of St Peter's ? Yet how many are there in that multitude who, from Rome's point of view being heretics or schismatics , have no part in the paternal blessing ! whereas , had the Papacy been satisfied with the rational acknowledgment of a high representation and fullest development of episcopal pow- ers in itself, instead of claiming a supremacy that intro- duces another doctrine into the Christian creed, all believers might have been admitted into its spiritual embrace, and all heads'might have bowed with equal reverence to its blessing. Much progress was effected in religious and charitable institutions during this century. The monastic system , alrea- dy in many instances on the decline , received fresh impulse and encouragement. An interesting account of the restoration of the long-ru- ined and deserted Monte Cassino cloisters (718), is given by Mabillon, in the life of St. Petronax, a citizen of Brescia, who was urged by Gregory II to carry out his pious inten- tion of re-assembling a Benedictine brotherhood on that site, and raising again the monastery laid prostrate by the Lon- gobards, in which ol'jecl Gregory himself, and afterwards Za- charias, supplied sacred books, the Scriptures, and other artic'es requisite, as well as the original Bule in St. Bene- dict's writing, with the measures for bread and wine he had adopted to regulate the daily allowance to his monks. The same Pope Gregory, after the death of his virtuous mother (well-named Honesta), converted his forefathers' mansion , in the Trastevere, into a monastery, with its church of St. Agatha. The St. Paul's cloisters, now so deserted that one writer , Pa- latius , describes them as ad solitudinem reducta , he repaired and repeopled with monks ; St. Pancrace, and another con- vent , St. Andrew, where was found only one religious left resident, he alike recalled to vitality. At the Lateran he placed a community to keep up worship in that basilica , day and night, with the same devotions as had been earlier appoint- ed at St. Peter's. In munificence towards the sanctuary the THE EIGHTH CENTURY 49< Popes of this epoch showed a truly royal spirit; and among their gifts, metallurgy , statues in gold or silver, besides em- broidered and jewelled hangings, seem now the favourite forms of precious oCfering : thus did Adrian I alone bestow upon churches the total amount, in weight, of 1384 lbs of gold, and 1773 of silver. Carlomann, the brother of Pepin, resign- ed the sovereignty of Thuringia (747) to receive the ) monas- tic habit from Pope Zacharias, and retire to a mountain- solitude near the summit of that majestic Soracte that so nobly rises above the Roman Gampagna, where he built an oratory and cell, now represented by a picturesque Franciscan convent on the same commanding height. Anselm [ revered as a Saint) resigned the Longobard dukedom of Friuli, to make religious vows before Stephen III; and, about the year 755 , founded the monastery that became illustrious among such centres of learning and charities, Nonantola, near Mo- dena , where he built two ample hospices for strangers and pilgrims — 200 to be accomodated in each; and here lived to see 1 144 monks (besides novices) assembled under his rule. Other charitable institutions now received large improvement, es- pecially al Rome, where two hospitals for pilgrims, in the vicinity of St. Peter's, were founded by Stephen III ; and four other similar xenodochia , fallen into decline, were restored by Stephen IV, in a single one of which 100 poor used to be fed daily ; while to the dependent strangers, lodged near the great basilica , as well as to the sick and poor among citizens, Za- charias ordered a daily distribution of food from the Lateran palace. In the earlier years of this century the Anglo-Saxon king , Ina , founded at Rome the church and hospice for his subjects, supported by a slight tax upon every house in his kingdom, which, annually forwarded for delivery on St. Pe- ter's day, became known as the contribution of « Peter- pence » from England : and the immense hospital of S. Spi- rito in Sassia, created by Innocent III, now represents the establishment whose nucleus is due to the pious king Ina. It was not here, as has been slated, that the first Foundling 492 THE EIGHTH CENTURY Hospital had its origin , a system maintained to this day with- in the walls of S. Spirito , but at 3Iilan , and also in this century — originated and endowed in 785 by a priest of that diocese, who set the first example in Europe of such an asylum for exposed infants ( Muratori , Antiq. Med. Aev. diss. 31 j. Altogether, it must be owned that, with the acquisition of the good things of this world , the Popes of the period we are considering showed a noble purpose of using those enlarged means for sacred and beneficent objects. Some of the most remarkable Longobardic monuments arose within the last period of that people's dominion in Italy — as S. Scdvatore of Brescia, and S. Michele of Lucca, the latter built on the Latin-cross plan , in style partaking of the Oriental , with columns resembling the composite in order , and the whole constructed without any use of antique fragments. Beautiful and most characteristic are the leafy cornices and frieze of fantastic animals between the arcades of its front. At Bologna is seen a most curious cluster of seven churches , united and communicating , known in the aggre- gate as Santo Stefano ; one, SS. Pietro e Paolo , being the former cathedral , with Ionic columns partly buried in the pavement, small round windows, and some resemblance to the old Norman architecture; another, the Longobard Baptistery, dodecagon, descended into by steps, with columns of veined marble supporting ponderous round arches, an open gallery above, and in the midst a marble shrine, said to be intended for a copy of the Holy Sepulchre , or (as otherwise stated) a mausoleum for the body of St. Petronius. A triangular mar- ble pulpit here is adorned with curiously quaint reliefs of the Evangelic Symbols, the Eagle holding a hook open at the text, « in principio erat Yerbum ». Here, and in other of these interiors, the shafts of fine marble are relics from a temple of Isis on this site, itself (according to local tradition) converted into the original cathedral. Some Greek paintings on the walls, sadly damaged, are of an ancient school; and a THE EIGHTH CENTURY 493 Madonna is said to be that placed here by the bishop Jo- cundus in 188. It is probable that no extant portion of these clustering churches is older than the YllI century, of which re- mains one distinct record in an epigraph, among the few at hand with the names of any Longobard kings, on a large marble vase : Umilibus vota suscipe Domine dominorum noslrorum, Liutpranfe Ilprante regibus — uncle hunc vas impleatur in cenam Domine salcatoris — the allusion in the last part , as it seems, to a practice of depositing offerings , probably in coin , on Holy Thursday. Another of these churches has a double-storied colonnade , the upper of antique shafts from the Isiac tem- ple, coupled by capitals fantastically chiselled into forms of monsters supporting narrow arches ; and here the English visitor may look with interest on an ex-voto Madonna pre- sented by some pilgrims from our conutry , about 1400. There is a certain romantic gloom in [this labyrinth of dim old churches ; and we feel that the people who could build thus must have been possessed by a sense of the aw^fulness of eter- nal things. The dedications of the several interiors — Santo Sepolcro, Atrio di Pilato , Crocifisso ec. — were probably adopt- ed soon after the Crusades, when prevailed a desire, sprung from the enthusiasm of those conflicts, to reproduce in imaginary imitation the holy places of Jerusalem , as if to compensate for their actual loss to Christendom — an aim most pictu- resquely carried out in the mountain-sanctuaries , amidst the loveliest Italian Alpine scenery, of Orta , Yarallo , and Varese. Among the beautiful churches of Bologna, the S. Stefano group stands alone , like a monument to a distinct epoch in this grand old city's religious annals , which indeed ascend to very remote Christian sources ; for the first church here is said to have been built A. D. 260 , and ruined in the persecution under Diocletian ; the next, dedicate to SS. Peter and Paul , in 364; and the third, a more stately cathedral, in 432, founded by St. Petronius, the lOlh bishop and still-revered Patron of this See. 494 THE EIGHTH CENTURY After the Longobard kingdom had fallen a change super- vened in Italian Architecture, brought on by northern influen- ces , that now began to be generally felt and evident; but the Longobardic continued long to blend with the Gothic , some- times predominating in such union , as seen in Ihe cathedrals ofFerrara, Modena , Cremona , Borgo S. Donnino. S. Michele of Pavia , founded in the Vll century, has been cited as a genuine example of the Longobardic style ; but the present church was built in the last years of the X , or first of the XI century, the former having been destroyed when the city was burned down by the Hungarians, 924 ; not but that the second may be a faithful copy of the first edifice. The victory over the Iconoclasts no doubt gave fresh impulse to, if it did not serve to elevate, religious art; and there is valuable evi- dence as well to the antiquity as to the public esteem for art-works still extant in Roman churches, in the letter of Adrian I to Charlemagne, where , arguing against the image- breakers, that Pope cites proof of time-honoured usage, opposed to their ideas, in the mosaics and paintings of sacred subjects at S. Maria Maggiore, St. Paul's, St. Mark's — also at SS. Apo- stoli , S. Lorenzo in Damaso , and another basilica , where they no longer exist ; the paintings here referred to having all perished. We must not turn away from the story of Art at this period without noticing another product of special value among the mosaics in Rome's churches : that on the apsidal vault at S. Pudenziana , formerly referred to the time of Adrian I. but now by general cousent classed among antiquities of much earlier date ; by the German archaeologists (« Bescreib- ung » ) assigned to the VIII century, by De Rossi ( « Roma Cristiana » ) pronounced the first in merit among all Chris- tian mosaics of the ancient school ; and by the authors of a new Art History ( Crowe and Cavalcaselle ) ascribed to so early an origin as the IV century. In conception and treat- ment this work is indeed classic : seated an a rich throne THE EIGHTH CENTURY 495 in the centre, is the Saviour with one arm extended, and in the other hand holding a book open at the words, Con- servator Ecclesiae Pudcntianae; hiterally stand the daughters of the Senator Pudens , SS. Praxedis and Pudenliana , with leafy crowns in their hands; and at lower level, but more in front , SS. Peter and Paul with eight other male figures , all in the amply-flowing costume of ancient Romans ; while in the background are seen, beyond a portico with arcades, various stately buildings, one a rotunda, another a parallel- ogram with gable-headed front , recognisable as a baptistery and basilica, here, we may believe, in authentic copy from the earliest types of the period of the first Christian Emperors. Above the group, and hovering in air , a large cross, studded with gems, surmounts the head of the Saviour , between the four symbols of the Evangelists, of which one has been en- tirely, and another in the greater part', sacrificed to some wretched accessories in woodwork actually allowed to conceal portions of this most interesting mosaic! As to expression, a severe solemnity is that prevailing , especially in the principal head , which alone is crowned with the nimbus — one among other proofs, if but negative , of high antiquity. (Entire group right of the Saviour, restored; His head much altered by modern touches; the figure of Pudentiana best preserved of all). The only writer in Italy of this age whom fame has mucli honoured , Paul Warnefried , alias Paulus Diaconus . was a foreigner, of that Longobard people whose « Historia » is his chief work. Different indeed from what we now admit as de- serving the name of history is his compilation of legend, my- thology, anecdote, portents and marvels in the physical order, interspersed with prosaic attempts at poetry , and all put together without any sort of system or critical discernment ; but still most valuable as showing how history began to be written , and the problems in the life of nations to be solved from a Christian point of view. Amidst confusion and credu- lity we recognise here , as indeed in the old chroniclers gen- erally, the earnestness of a religious mind that strives to 496 THE EIGHTH CENTUHY apprehend the connexion of earthly things with the spiritual and infinite. The learned Deacon, called to the court of Charle- magne , became a preceptor and favourile of that monarch ; wrote also the Historia Miscella, homilies, hymns — among others that for St. .John's day : Ut queant laxis resonare fibris — from whose syllables was formed , by Guido of Arezzo , the solfeggio musical system : he died , a monk , at Monte Cas- sino, 799 f1). CHRONOLOGY OF MONUMENTS. Rome. S. Maria in Via Lata, 700 (?) rebuilt, in 1491 , facade of i7th century; S. Agata ( Trastevere ) 715-31, S. Angelo in Pescaria (modernized 1611) 755 ; S. Silvestro in Capite , 755-67 ; S. Giovanni a Porta Latina (origin uncertain) restor- ed, S. Maria in Cosmedin, 772-95 ; SS. Nereus and Achilleus, 795-800; S. Salvatore inTorrione, about 797; S. Maria in Campo Marzo, tower only antique, founded in previous century. Mo- saics at S. Teodoro, at S. Maria in Cosmedin (sacristy), on vault of Sancta Sanctorum chapel ; remnant of those of Lateran Triclinium (two heads) in Vatican Christian Museum. (As to this mosaic it should be observed that in the inscription in situ, referring to a restoration ordered by Cardinal Bar- berini , the words utraque Imperii Romani Translatio imply the theory that the figure with name, « R. Constantinu-, » is the first Christian Emperor ; the general intention , to repre- sent the Papacy in like relation towards that monarch as to- wards Charlemagne ). (1) Einhard, « Vita Karoli » ; Anastasiiis, Paulus Diac, Muratori,- Fleury, Maimbourg , « Histoire des Iconoclastes ». THE EIGHTH CENTORY 497 FLonI•^XF. Mosaic at S. Marco, from ancient St. Peter's. Bo!OGN.\. S. Stefaiio , once llie cathedral, with baptistery, both extramural. PiijTOiA. S. Paolo, fagade renewed in 1263; Cathedral foun- ded , but mostly rebuilt in 1166. Llcca. S. Michele in Foro , about 764; facade added to- wards end of XII century. C»RsciA. S. Salvalore , about 761. CiviDALE. Baptistery, about 700, restored , with facjade and symbolic sculptures, about end of same century; Monument to Pemmone, duke of Friuli , at S. Martino. Nepi. Benedictine church of S. Elia , with wall-paintings by three Roman artists ( between this town and Civita Castellana ). 82 XIIl. The ]¥in(h Century. Leo ITI continued to occupy the Papal throne for sixteen years after the opening of a new century ; and though the Ec- clesiastical Stales were now politically recognized , the pro- blem still left for the historian to solve is the exact relationship, sometimes so faintly-traced in its lines of demarcation, be- tween pontitic and imperial power even at Rome, and in the provinces now under a sacerdotal sceptre. There is no doubt (says Doellinger) « that the Pope and Emperor had entered into a relationship of reciprocal dependence , each tendering to the other an oath of allegiance, or rather of attachrrent and re- spect, the Emperor receiving his rank solely by means of the coronation and anointing from the hands of the Pope , whilst the latter had need of the Emperor as a defender, in the same manner as he had formerly needed the support of the Patrician ; becoming therefore a temporal regent , as it were, under the universal imperial dominion ». Leo's suc- cessor, Stephen V (816-''17), had no sooner been elected than he required from the Roman citizens the now-customary oath of allegiance to Louis the Debonmire , or « Pious » , ^vhom he soon hastened to crown at Rheims ; and subsequently the same Pope obliged his successors , by a synodal decree , to wait for the assent conveyed by imperial commissioners be- fore proceeding to receive consecration; notwithstanding which measure Paschal I, (817-'24) - elected after the short pontificate of Stephen — was consecrated before the arrival of the emis- THE MNTII CEMIUY 499 saries sent by the Emperor Louis, though anxious to excuse this irregularity, in his first communication with that sover- eign , on the plea of force having been used by his loo eager partisans. Still was that Emperor's name seen on Papal coins, as in the above-noticed examples; and even down to the middle of the XI cenlury is the same usage attested in the sole extant denarius of Leo IX, with « Henricus Imp. Romano- rum » , on one side ; « Scs Petrus , Leo P » on the other. The first mention of a Roman Mint, under the Papacy, occurs in Ihe acts of a synod held at Ravenna by John VIII, in 877; and among earlier pontific coins extant, the first in which the title dominus is given to a Pope is one of Leo III , with the legend D. N. Leoni Pope. Though Paschal 1 is honoured as a Saint, though he prov- ed a liberal benefactor, a Maecenas towards Art, a restorer of churches and friend to the poor, he was exposed during life-time to grave accusations, from which he deemed it neces- sary to exculpate himself by oath , confirmed through like attestation from Ihirly-four bishops, before the imperial com- missaries. On the Easter-day of 823 he crowned at St. Peter's the young Lothaire, now associated by his father Louis in the Empire; the object of that Prince's visit to Rome having been not only to obtain the now requisite sanction of power by re- ceiving Ihe crown, but to quell seditions among the citizens. After Lolhaire's departure the peace for a time secured through his presence was again disturbed ; two ecclesiastics in high oflice at the Papal court, the Piimicerius and Nomenclator, having made themselves conspicuous by their zeal for the imperial interest, even thus early opposed with great violence by one party in Rome, those partisans of Louis were seized , subjected to the horrid process of blinding, far from uncommon in this age; and afterwards beheaded, without form of trial, in the very palace of the pontiff! Such compromising outrage against humanity in the sacred premises naturally excited unfavourable reports against the Pope , never indeed justified by proofs , and from which his oath was considered to have 500 TUE NINTH CENTURY cleared his reputation fully. We read , however, of one signi- ficant fact, showing how soon the kingly power had begun to alienate popular affection from St. Peter s successors- that at the funeral of Paschal I it was necessary to convey the corpse from the Lateran gate round the walls, and along the Flaminian Way, returning by the Milvian bridge (about four miles) to the Vatican, instead of passing through the City. The election of Eugenius 11, a learned and holy man, (824-7), was disturbed by the appearance of an Antipope , Zinzinius , supported by an aristocratic faction — Rome's nobility thus early signalizing themselves as the antagonists or disturbers of her sacerdotal government. Lothaire interposed a second time in the object of putting down this new schism , as well as providing against such for the future; and duiing his stay at Rome, Eugenius passed a decree to the effect that in future Papal consecrations should take place in presence of the Emperor's emissaries; a solemn promise to observe which was exacted by the Pope from the local Clergy, togeth- er with the oath of allegiance to the now co-regnant Louis and Lothaire. The latter soon afterwards desired to investi- gate certain charges advanced, it saems , both against the pontific and magisterial authorities at Rome ; and as in the result of this inquiry it appeared that several estates had been unjustly confiscated for the profit of the local Church, with the consent of the Popes and through means of corrupt judges, Lothaire enjoined the restitution, in which Eugenius, greatly to his honour, acquiesced, at once ordering its ac- complishment. Another act creditable to this virtuous pontiff was his decree (82G) that in all dioceses and parishes should be appointed school-masters to teach sciences, « liberal arts », and religious doctrines, or « catechism », which studies, howev- er, at least the former, seem to have soon afterwards fallen into neglect, as, in 853, Leo IV deenred it necessary to revive this enactment with special provision for tuition in the Holy Scrip- tures and Ritual. Another just decree passed in the same Ruman Council by Eugenius, was to forbid the detention of THE NIMH CENTURY 501 any person by force in the cloistc, except such as had been condemned by tribunals to continement in those retreats, a now common sentence. Gregory IV, (827-44), who was taken by force from the church of SS. Cosmo and Damian (1) to be enthroned , reluctant, in the Papal chair, soon made a journey to France in the object of conciliating the Emperor Louis with his sons; but without any important result, except, indeed, the establishing more firmly, by this intervention, the noblest claims of the Pontificate as peace-maker and corrective influence among temporal princes. The precious donal.ons of (jregory IV to Rome's basilicas form a brilliant ca- talogue as given by Anastasius, with particulars that serve to throw light on the church-arran.ements and ritual usa- ges of the lime. Having restored S. Maria in Trasfevere, beside which church he also built a monastery for Regular Canons, he enriched its altars ec. with ornaments of silver and gold, jewels, precious vestments, and \essels, among which are enumerated four hampers of silver ( probably for oflTer- ings ) weighing 113 lbs. Among his donations to Saint lilark's basilica are mentioned veils, called de fundato minores, for placing on the allar , othe s described as de rodino for banging round the holy place, according to the ancient practice of concealing the riles, save at certain passages; others, de fundato et linea , for suspending from the arcades; and three « Alexandrine)) curtains, worked with figures of lions and horses, for the principal portals. Gregory a so restored the architecture of St. Peter's, and added on its premises a chamber adorned with paintings for the Popes to repose in (f) There has been perhaps some confusion in the accounts of this and of the retreat , urged by similar motives and at a similar crisis, in the case of St. Grej^ory I. The latter, as seems probable, fled , not to a church , but to some remote so'ituilo among mountiilns, proving his earnestness in refusing by his pains to escape from intended honours. 502 THE MNTH CENTURY after the fatigues of Matins and Mass: he also built two pa- laces for pontific residence near the same basilica, and repair- ed and enlarged the Lateran palace , still the chief abode of the Popes. Other public works carried out by this Pope were the for- tifications of the now desolate Oslia , or rather, indeed, the founding of a new city upon or near the site of the ancient one , wilh name also new , Grejoriopolis — a wise precaution against the apprehended attacks of Saracens, who, after their conquest in Sicily, were beginning to infest the maritime regions of several Italian States; and with the same precau- tionary purpose, were now laid the foundations for a cinc- ture of walls for tiie defence of the Vatican, ultimately de- veloped into the new quarter of Rome which took its name from its finisher, Leo IV. The election of Sergius IT (844-5) is naYvely narrated by Anastasius with particulars in total contrast to the present solemn procedure of Conclave , and showing to what degree, up to this period , still prevailed the democratic element in the constitution of the Roman Church : « The principal per- sonages among the Clergy of Rome, with all the people, hav- ing assembled in the church for the election of the Pope, and, as usual in such cases, some demanding one, others crying out for another, on a sudden , and through a singular divine disposal, all began to discourse about the piety of the arch- priest Sergius, all crying out in loud voice that he was worthy of the pontificate; and the question being at last settled in regard to him, the multitude returned to their homes » (1) (i) Confronted with such testimony, the following passage , in a late pub'icationat Rome, can hardly be read without astonishment, when one remembers that it is under cer.sjrsh-p that every printed page , every adverlisement and play hill can alone be marie public in "that Cily : « The desire to find !.. the Divine organic constitution of the Church , and slill more the desire to insinuate into other TUE NINTH CENTURY 503 — a proceeding not , however, brought to close without op- posing efforts, as a faction (it seems of the lowest chjss) de- clared in favour of another candidate, who was carried tumul- luously to the Lateran palace, but soon to be ejected tlience with violence by the aristocratic party, and thrown into pri- son , only saved from being cut into pieces by the humane exercise of the new Pope's authority. Sergius's short pontifi- cate was overclouded by the tremendous disaster which burst over Rome in the Saracen invasion , that led to such spoliation of her two chief sanctuaries as perhaps yielded the richest booty ever secured to any marauders. The shores of the Tiber and suburbs of the City w-ere over-run ; the basil- licas of St. Peter and St. Paul (then alike extramural) , despoil- ed of all their moveable wealth in gold and silver, gems, and vestments; even the silver plating torn from gales , the gold incrustations from altars. In the August of 84(5 was it that the Saracens forced their way into the Borgo , quarter of the Vatican, but not without gallant resislence from the differ- ent northern settlers who had establishments in that suburb. Baronius ventures the conlident assurance that these invaders did not break open the tombs of the Apostles or rifle any other graves of martyrs ; and that they abstained from setting fire to either of the great basilicas we may believe on that historian's testimony to the absence of any trace showing action of flame in the olden architecture he saw still erect-— as well in the quadruple coloiniades of the St. Peter's of Con- stanline , as in those, stdl in their place , rais-d under Valenti- nian II, at St. Paul's [Annal. an. 846). But another annalist, who enters more fully into particulars, would lead us to infer that mind«; , any modern ideas of popular votalion , of democracy, liberty, or equality, of representative) Chambers, and constitutional govern- ment, whiclj certain ciiarlatans of our time endeavour to win belief for, Ihcse arc biasphemons absurdilies an^l, we may say a!so, nothing else than an impious prostituting of the Religion of Christ ». Mcmo- rie slorichc-illnslrate dei Maiiiri , pag. 28. 504 THE NINTH CENTURY still more sacrilegious outrage was perpetrated ; that every the most revered of shrines , St. Peter's tomb , was emptied; that, though they could not carry away the great bronze sar- cophagus, what they found in that coffin was undoubtedly thrown out and annihilated ; besides which it is stated : — « The images of Christ and the Apostles in mosaic were pier- ced by weapons, and an Emir's lance that struck the face of that holiest form in the mosaic-group on the apse, is said to have drawn blood from it >■>. Painful indeed would be the admission , whilst we contemplate that superb « confessional » amidst its crown of even burning lamps, under the high al- tar, that not even the dust of the Aprstle can be supposed to remain at this day entombed under that pyramid of splen- dours ! The election of Leo IV was precipitous, owing (o the fear of renewed invasion ; and one of the chief objects of this energetic Pope was to replace the incalculable losses suffered through those despoilers in holy places ; another, the defence of Rome and her churches against recurrence of such outrage. The amazing wealth of his donations to the two basilicas may enable us to estimate the then resources of the Papacy , and appreciate the capacities of a power that at every emergency can find means for evoking the riches of earth to spread their stores around its throne , as if at the bidding of enchantment; -- the 35 million francs oCTered to Pius IX, in form of « Peter pence », within the lapse of but a few years, supplying re- cent example of such magical virtue. Replacing the objects plundered at St. Peter's, Leo ordered the Vatican high altar to be covered with laminae of gold, displaying figures (pro- bably in enamel) of the Saviour, SS. Peter, Paul, and An- drew, these laminae in all weighing 216 lbs. On that altar's mensa he placed a silver-gilt Crucifix, set with jacinths and diamonds; and above it raised a ciborium resting on columns, the whole of silver, weighing 1603 lbs. The Confessional he restored to its former magnificence, nOvV entirely plated with silver, on which surface appeared (probably in high relief) the Saviour sealed on a throne with a crown of gems, Che- THE MMIl CENTl'RY 505 rubim, the (wo chief Apoi^lles in bust, and figures of Angels. The church's portals were again covered with silver plating, storied with sacred representations in relief; a god Cross, ^000 lbs in weight, set with pearls and emeralds, countless chalices, Vd further than to detach Guaifer, Prince of Salerno , from the league; war ensued between that prince and Sergius; and a lew days after the excommunication had been published, the Salerni- tans made prisoners of twenty-two Neapolitans sohliers , all beheaded by the express order of the Pope I — « mililes ap- prehensos decollnii fecit; sic enim monuerat Papa » , as the chronicler Erchempert Sf?ys. The Bishop recently raised by John VIII to the ^ee of Naples, Athanasius, formed a con- spiracy against the Duke, his own brother, which resulted in the overthrow of Sergius, succeeded by that mitred usur- per who, now occupying his place , ordered him to be first blinded and then led prisoner to Rome, where he was left to die in captivity. And this fratr cidal proceeding received not only the approval of the Pope, but reward from his trea- sury in the amount of 1400 mancosi — a boon requ'ted, at last, as might be expected from such iniquitous allies, the mitred Duke renewing the league with the Saracens, and inviting their chief to repair from Sicily to Naples, near which 620 THE NINTH CENTURY city a quarter for seltlemenl was assigned to his people. To still more flagrant outrage against Christian duties, Atlia- nasius participated in the spoils, if he did not actually co- operate in the marauding expeditions of those Infidels against the Papal Stales, for which he was deservedly excommuni- cated Ly the Pontiir he had betrayed; and Naples ilselfwas soon laid under interdict, as disgraced by its ferocious pre- late (881). In this episode of the history of John VIII we find, indeed , some discrepancy among narrators: Giannone repre- sents liis conduct^in the light most discredilabie to his dignity; but Muratori supposes that it was not as a combatant , or at the head of troops, but simply as a political intervenient that he enleied the Neapolitan Stales. At ihe best, the example of a Po^je who could counsel Ihe deliberate slaughter of in- nocent men , who had no scruple to slain his sacerdotal robes with blocd for a mere interest of worldly alliance, leads us to a?k whether any advantages secured to the Holy See by political endowment have counterbalanced the scandal against humanity, the abdication of sanctity, in a single one among those who have worn the tiara? Stephen V (885-9!) suc- ceedeJ after th« brief pontificates of Marinus and Adrian III; the latter of whom is said (though not with certainty) to have passed an edict against the interposition of the Emperor in the Papal election ; and is known to have set the first ex- ample of assuming a new name on his elevation to the throne, not indeed followed by his immediate, though it has been so invariably by his later, successors — the sole exception, Marcellus 11 (1555), who conlinued to call himself as from his baptism. The new Pope, chosen, it is said, against his will, found the Lateran treasury quite emptied , owing to the law- less and now usually-recurring pillage of the palace (perhaps in the last more furious than in other instances ) during the inlerregrium ; and this trail of Roman manners in the IX cen- tury is indeed relevant; for it appears ihat net only the re- sidence of their Sovereign and high priest , but the whole City, as well as its suburbs, were exposed to such outrages^ THE NINTH CENTURY 521 apparently quite beyond the power of law, and at every in- terval tliat the throne was vacant — a contingency occurring nineteen limes Lelvveen 816 and 898. Later was made the eCbrt to check tliis periodical onset by authority of a Coun- cil he d under John X , in 90 i, which forbade such « sceles- tissiiiia consueludo », alluding to its perpetration not only at the Papal palace, but throughout the City and suburbs! Under tb.e circumstances in which Stephen V was placed, most com- mei.d^ib'e were the large charities dispensed by him, for the greater part of which he drew upon his private property, in relieving the citizens during a severe famine ; and that he was « a Pontiff of rate virtue » is the just eulogium on him by Muralori. It is worthy of note that the Emperor Louis refused to admit the validity of his election, because accomplished with- out the as--enl from imperial power; and that, in order to over- come objections, the Pope sent the act with signatures of all who had concurred in raising him to the throne, — namely, thirty bishops, all the Cardinal piiesls and deacons of Rome, the lower Clergy, an 1 all the Magistracy — thus was a Roman Pon- tiff elected at the period we are considering. Formosus (891-6) is the first example of a bishop being transferred from one to another and that the highest, See, having formerly held the See of Portus (now Porto and Oslia), from which he had been deposed by John YllI , on accusa- tions against him aflei wards disproved, subsequently to be reinstated by Marinus. Mabillon regards this pontificate as origin, or at least occasion, of all tlie evils by which the Roman Church was afflicted, and her influences enfeebled, during the remainder of this and the next disastrous century. The election is said to have been the work of a faction Formo- sus had induced to espouse his interests some time previous- ly. Luitprand (who spoke ill of so many Popes) gives him credit for leligious zeal and superior attainments in theology; and certainly both wisdom and sagacity were shown by him in interposing between Charles the Simple and Eudes, rival claim- 522 THE NINTH CENTURY ants for the crown of France ; but his ill-counselled policy in inviting the German intervention and giving the imperial crown to Arnulph , king of that people (896) , marks a fatal epoch in the relations of the Papacy to tlie ital an nation and to Europe. Guido, Duke of Spolrto , had been elected King of Italy by the bishops subject to him in 889, and, after sus- taining armed opposition from his competitor Eerengarius, alike elected King in the previous year , had been crowned by Stephen V, as Emperor of the Romans, in 891. Almost the first public act of Formosus was to crown Lambert, the youihful son of Guido, now raided by his father to partici- pation in sovereignty. But in the same year this Pope invited Arnulph elected King of Germany in 887) to descend the Alps with an army in order to deliver the Italian states from ty- rants — namely Guido and Berangarius , who>e civil \\arshad brought tiesolalion to the land , and threatened the safety of Rome. The conquests of Arnulph rapidly succeeded each other in his Italian campaign; after the capture of Brescia and the horrific example of license and ♦"erocity given by the Germans in the treatment of the citizens of Bergamo , also taken by storm, the principal Lombardic towns and the Jlarquises who governed them submitted without resistence to the in- vader (894). Arnulph did not march upon Rome till again invited by the Pope , a year later , and there encountered .what he had not foreseen) a vigorous opposition to his en- trance directed by a heroic woman , widow o' the recently- deceased Guido, Ageltruda , who maintained by arms the rights of her son, Lambert, and urged the defence loth of the Leonine fortifications and the entire City, wh Isl the Pon- tiff was held in a species of durance by Sergius, chief of the part lengued with her. On occasion of this siege a scene took place in the extra- mural church of St. Pancrace chr>racteristie of the age's spi- rit, and of its devotion ever dominant even amidst crime and violence. When , contrary to expectation , it was found that resistance would be offered . Arnulph convened his officers THE NINTH CENTLRY 523 and soldiery in that church for counsel : all with tears pro- mised to prove faithful and energetic in his cause ; then pro- ceeded puLlicly to confess their sins to the chaplains accom- panying them on the march, and finally determined t3 observe a fast-day in preparation for the attack on Rome ! How unlike anything that those walls witnessed when S. Pancrazio became a I arrack and strategic point during the siege of '49! After the Leonine bastions had been taken by storm, the now fruit- less resistance ceased , and the customary solemnities of an imperial ingress ensued : the Senate , the schola of the Greeks, the Clergy and guilds, with banners and crosses , all chanting hymns, went to meet the German at the Milvian bridge; and on the steps of St. Peter's the Pope received and em- braced him , thence conducted him to the high altar, where ensued the coronation, Arnulph being now proclaimed « Im- perator Augustus » by the Pontiff, who, four years previo- usly, had given the same crown and title to Lambert A few days after this ceremony Arnulph went in state to St. Paul's, and there received from the citizens, through their repre- sentatives, the oath of allegiance concluded in the following terms ■ — I give the last words of its formula — « salvo ho- ((. nore et lege mea atque fidelitate Formosi Papae , fidelis sum '-( et ero omnibus diebus vitae meae Arnolfo Imperatori » — distinctly speaking for the fact that, up to this period, the Papal sovereignly, even within its ovmi metropolis, was, in a manner, subordinate to the Imperial. Arnulph took severe measures against those adver-e to his cause, and certain prin- cipal citizens were beheaded, others exiled — th.ough irideed, in regard to this occupation of Rome and the siege previous, contradictions are found in historians ; some asserting (with Luilprand; that the citizens puiillanimously admitted those strangers without resistance; others, the contrary, and also that a cruel butchery ensued, w ith « a thousand horrible disordt.-rs >♦ committed by the Germans. (^laimbourgj The election of Ar- nuli)h wasdec'ared illegal by a synod held under Pope John IX; and the successor of Formosus dated his briefs: « imi.erante 524 THE NINTH CENTURY « domino nostro Landeberto piissirao Augusto ». The latter pontiff's reign was disturbed by a phantasm Antipope, calling himself Sergius III, maintained by his faction fjr but a few days — the fourteenth of such schisms on record. After a somewhat disreputable pontificate , which lasted but fifteen days, — that of Boniface VI, whom a Council at Ravenna (898) declared to have been no legitimate occupant of the See , but an intruder raised up by faction , — ensued the election of Stephen VII (896), whose disgraceful career was brought to its close by violence within fourteen months, and whose memory has become infamous through a tran- saction that seems to mark decline and deterioration in the sacerdotal sovereignty itself. From the first he had belonged to the parly hostile to Formosus ; and , eight months after that Pope's death, was ordered by him a ghastly mockery of legal procedu e yet unheard of and unknown. The body of Formosus was exhumed , vested in ponlific robes , carried to the Lateran palace, and set on a throne in the Council- hall, opposite to which Stephen took his seat in the midst of all the Cardinals, the Bishops of the Roman province, and regionary deacons. The living then addressed the dead Pope in accusing terms : « Why hast thou, out of ambition, usurp- ed the Apostolic See of Rome , when thou wast already bish- op of Portus?» An advocate, standing beside the corpse, answered , going through a show of defence , after which Formosus was condemned by sentence signed by all the Sy- nod , one clause importing that no.ie of those ordained by him could be admitted to sacred functions without re-ordi- nation. The Papal robes were then torn off that insulted body; three of its lingers were amputated ; and , to close the hideouj> farce, those poor remains vvere dragged by the feet through the City to the Tiber, into whose waters they were thrown. After the death of Stephen VII, however, that corpse was hrought to land by some fi&hermen , to be interred with due honours at St. Peter's ; legend adding that the images of Saints, in the chafjel where a funeral then took place , bowed TUE NINTH CENTURY 525 down tD greet it, attesting the sanctity of this calumniated man. Before the close of the same year an insurrection broke out at Rome, the result of which was the overthrow and imprisonment of Stephen VII , who was cast , loaded with chains, into a dungeon, and there put lo death by strangling, at what precise date is not known ; and if. as seems the case, this movement were excited by abhorrence of the scandalous procedure against the dead , it may class among revolutions honourable to Rome's people fl). Within less than five months ensuing, were elected three Popes, one of whom , Theodore, reversed the sentence against Formosus; and the last of whom, John IX, a Benedictine monk, showed vigour and character. This estimable pontiff (898-900^ , finding Rome and the Holy See as he states in an appeal for succour to the Emperor) without revenues for support of the local Clergy or continuing the customary charities, nevertheless desired to rebuild the (1) About ten years after his death, Sergius III. placed an epitaph over the tomb of this Pope , his tragic, fate being there stated after a faint attempt at praise for his unblessed memory : Cumque Pater multum ccrfaret dogmate sancto Captus et a sede pulsus ad ima fuit ; Carceris interea vinculis constriclus et uno Strangulatus nervo exuit et hominem. In the synod of Ravenna his acts were reprobated and those of Formosus recognised. Ciaconius , in his brief notice of Stephen VII, is so disingenuous as to pass over both that scandalous proces> and the revolution by which he lost his throne and life ; though in a note that writer makes attempt to call into question the fact so dis- creditable, the judgment against the dead. He does indeed mention, leaving unaccounted for , that sentence of reprobation passed at Ra- venna. The whole revolting story is found in the « Annales Bertinia- ni » , which Muratori supplies from a chronicler of this century («Rerum Hal. Script. T. II, P. I»); and in this instance Ciaconius, publishing at Rome, shows what we may expect from historic liter- ature « under a censorship ». 52b TBE NINTH CENTURY Lateran basilica, which had fallen into ruin under Stephen VIT ; but the workmen sent to cut timber (probably in the Appenine forests) were slopped by brigands, and had to re- turn emiity-handed. The Pontiffand the Emperor Lambert met soon at Ravenna , where the two presided over a Council of seventy-four bi^hops , and where, among other edicts, was passed one, by the imperial authority, that threatened severe punishment for those who should impede or molest any Ro- man citizen, of whatever class, desirous of appealing to the Emperor, or on his way to that supreme tribunal, a law show- ing how singularly blended were the two sovereignties at this period. The moral sense of this Council was expressed in another decree, reprobating and providing against such scan- dal as had been given in the prosecution against Formosus — that henceforth no defunct person could be cited in judg- ment, « seeing that the corpse of the dead cannot either answer or give satisfaction for itself! » — singular clause of enactment! Though it is evident that clouds were gathering over Eu- rope , and the darkest period for the Church and civilization was lowering over the social horizon, in the IX century, it may still be concluded that Rome was the centre of light and intelligence ; the example set by her Clergy, and the re- ligious practice around the throne of her Pontiff, the best in the then conditions of Christendom. Illustrious virtues w^ere not wanting to this age ; and we have seen what efforts pro- ceeded from the Holy See, though perhaps with far from cor- respondent success, through means of Eugenius II and Leo IV, for the interests of education. At this time the two impulses of devotional feeling that reached about their utmost height, and found vent in the most extravagant forms , were the rage for collecting Relics and that for undertaking Pilgrimages- the latter often a species of reckless adventure, or imposture profitable to vice, prejudicial to social interests. So early as the year 74i, a saintly Archbishop (St. Boniface) had written to Cuthbert , Archbishop of Canterbury, advising that a provin- THE NIMH CEMl.UY oit cial SynO'i should forbid females , especially nuns , from selling out on pilgrimnge to Rome , seeing Ihe peril incurred to their honour — « many he states) being ruined ; few re- maming pure . inte'iris) » ; and a law of Charlemagne forbids the wandering through the land of pedlars [marvjones) , and naked men girt with iron— probably rings or chains , assumed to act the part of sinners enduring penance and converted from guilt. In the strange excess to which was now carried tlie worship of the creature, relics of favourite Saints became to the popular mind the veritable palladia of cities possessing them. When Tours was besieged by the Danes 8ioj, the body of St. Martin was borne out of the gates to meet those foes, and said to have answered the purpose in repelling them I Gregorovius concludes that the sale of dead men's bones and holy images, formed , wMth an occasional traffic in MS. codes, the sole commerce at this period know^n or undertaken among the Romans. At Constantinople image-worship was restored, mainly through influence of the Empress , mother of Micha- el III, with the full blaze of pomp and demonstration; a thanks- giving hymn being sung by the bishop, its author, at the inau- gural rites in St. Sophia. Such notices as are at hand showing Avhat there was of efficient and wiser agency, of aiscipline or high purpose in religious usages, are interesting. In a pastoral of Theodulph, bishop of Orleans, 83o\ it is ordered that Confes- sion should be made once a year : that the Clergy should preach the Scriptures, if they knew their contents ! : that 110 law-suits or contests should be carried on during peni- tential seasons ; that sepulture should no longer be allowed inside churches ; that Masses should not be celebrated in private , but in presence of congregations. The pastoral in- structions of Leo IV' (Baronius , ann. 800 ]. addressed to bishops for publication among their Clergy, alike forbid private Mas- ses; order that no priest should celebrate before day-light ( except at Christmas^ ; none use chalices of wood , lead, or glass, but only silver or gold ; that no other object should be placed ou the altar save holy Relics, the book of Gospels^ 528 THE NINTH CENTURY or the pyx wilh the holy Eucharist in it; that, every Sun- day and festival , the parochial Clergy should expound to their flocks the (jospel or Epistle lor the day ; that they should preach the Word of God, and not fables ; should exer- cise true hospitality, inviting the pilgrim , the orphan , the poor; that at Christmas, Holy Thursday, Easter and Pente- cost they should admonish the people to receive Communion (the requirement of the Easter-c-mmunion, as alone obliga- tory, not being yet in force) ; and in the last week before Lent should enjoin the duty of confession. In the symbolism of the Church at this period , we find the usage of sending blessed palms and blessed bread to princes, the former to convey the auguries of victory in a just cause ; the latter , the token of brotherhood in faith — as in primitive practice, and to this day in that of the Greek Church. There is affecting evidence of the recognition of the soul's immortal dignity, of the love that « hopeth all things » , in the decree of a Council, held A. D. 895 (at Tribur), as to the reconciliation of a murderer, and the terms of his re-ad- mission to communion : for forty days he was to be severed from all human intercourse , fasting on bread, salt and water, bare-footed .wearing no linen {nise tantum femoralihus) , car- rying no arms , never entering a church ; for the three years following, he was to observe perpetual abstinence, still without the right to bear weapons; during each of the next four years he was to fast for the space of three Lents; finally, in the seventh year, might be absolved. Among a barbarous , newly -converted people, we may imagine the effect, both on the guilty and on other miods, of such discipline! In the ritual observance of these times we read of things remote indeed from what is now permitted , as the repeated celebrations at the altar by the same priest on the same day: for, besides the three Masses of Christmas, there were several festivals when each parochial priest had to officiate three times, whilst — still more opposed to present usage — it was even left to individual feeling how often in the course of the day THE NINTH CENTURY 529 the mystic sacrifice and communion might be repeated by the same celebrant. Leo III used, in the fervour of his piety, to celebrate seven or eight times within twelve hours 1 Not till the latter years of the XI century was it forbidden (by Alexander lli; for the same priest to say Mass more thaa once in the same day — Christmas excepted; and perhaps some abuse that had lingered till the Reformation in England, might avail to account for what seems a strange mistake of Shakespeare in making Juliet go to « an evening Mass! » Baronius describes a stately ceremonial in the monastery on the island of Werden on the Rhine , where , in presence of Charlemagne and many grandees, Leo III performed the first solemn canonization by Papal authority, bestowing such honours, A. D. 804, at the Emperor's request, upon Swidbert, an Anglo Saxon Abbot who had had been missionary and bishop in Friesland — deceased 713, The celebration was far from resembling what the amazingly gorgeous canonization- rite has now become : after high mass by the Archbishop of Cologne , the life of Swidbert was read from the altar ; the Pope then pronounced him a true Saint ; and his remains (he had died in that monastery) were at once exhumed, a delicious perfume exhaling from them ; the Pope and Em- peror made rich oflferings; and all present contributed for the costs of a splendid shrine in which to deposit those relics. But ages were to pass before the Papacy could appropriate as its exclusive right what had once pertained to the prerogatives of the Episcopacy in general ; as , in the primitive Church , all bishops might, with consent of their metropolitans, thus propose to veneration of the faithful the martyrs who had suf- fered within their several dioceses, having first approved the a Acts », which used to be drawn up in form , and submitted to the episcopal sanction , after which the names of those witnesses to Truth would be inscribed on the diptychs to be read , and recommended to veneration , at public worship — such the simple primitive process of canonization , as detail- ed by St. Augustine, and, till the X century, retained still 34 530 THE NINTH CENTURY among the attributes of the entire Episropacy 1 The last re- corded instance of this procedure by other authority than the Roman Pontiff's, was in the case of St. Guallier of Pointoise, raised to the honours of the altar by an Archbishop of Rou- en , 1153. And this gradual absorbing to itself by the Papacy of what was once deemed to enter into the apostolic functions of every bishop , is one of many notable landmarks in its career to absolute spiritual dominion. An enlightenment superior to the spirit of the age ap- pears in the acts of some Popes in this otherwise darkening period. Stephen V reprobated the trial by ordeal of hot iron or water, which, notwithstanding, ultimately obtained at Rom3 , and is said to have been practised in the basilica of St. Pancrace ; for the Clergy were at last obliged to follow the stream , and by taking the ordeal under their control perhaps rendered it, generally speaking, more humane and less dangerous. Nicholas I , writing to the newly-converted Bulgarians , « commands » them to abolish the torture hitherto allowed by their laws : « Abandon and reprobate such prac- tices (says the enlightened pontiff) — If any should confess himself guilty without being so in truth , because unable to endure torture , whose is the impiety but his who forces to a mendacious confession?)) — What a lesson for after ages! Points of discipline enforced by John YIII speak favour- ably for a Pope otherwise far from ranking among the more estimable : he ordered that all the Cardinals should convene at least twice every month in some Roman church for the reform or renovated activities of their own body, as well as that of the lower Clergy, and also for decision of causes on the part both of 'clerical and'lay litigants; moreover that, twice every week, they should meet in the Lateran palace to consult on ecclesiastical affairs and adjudicate in causes where priests and laymen had to plead together — regulations that evince the truly Christian sense of duty to the poor, to the people, then pervading the action of high authority at THE NINTH CENTURY 531 Rome; a spirit such as, to cite one individual instance , was justly eulogized iu the epitaph written by Charlemagne for Adrian I , now to be read over one of the doors of S. Peter's : Pauperibus largus , nulli pietate secundu- , Et pro p ebe sacris pervigil in precibus. Tlie successors of Charlemagne were little worthy of such an aiicestor , but they also conferred benefits on the people as well as on the Church in Italy : and an edict of Lothaire, A. D. 833, instituted nine public schools, at Florence, Ve- rona, Turin, Pavia, ec. besides the several others previously in existence. The Latin Church never sanctioned such infatuate follies in image-worship as were in full career at Constant- inople , where parents used actually to take the images of Saints as sponsors to their children at baptism 1 Mabillon tells us , indeed , of strange observances even in the West , that began to prevail in the YIl century : after a church liad been desecrated by robbery or other crime , it was the practice to veil its altars in sackcloth, extinguish the lights, and then remove both relics and images to lay them on the ground in some place overgrown by thorns and brambles — but this the General Council of Lyons, in 1274, condemned as reprehensible. Wooden figures of Saints were probably first introduced into churches in the IX century ; and about the same time , at least not later than the century following, began the practice of painting and dressing them for festi- vals — a manifest revival of the shows of Paganism, in which, as well as in the ex-votos hung beside such figures or above altars to this day, the usuges of Italian Catholicism are the exact reflection of those described in Horace's Odes or Ovid's « Fasti ». More interesting is the appearance of the Crucifix, that perfected and most affecting form of Christian symbolism , whose first introduction has been referred to the VII century ; its more general admission into the sanctu- ary, to the time of Leo III. The sole example of this subject 532 THE NINTH CENTURY lound in the Catacombs, a painting (Bottari , Tav. 192), can- not be supposed earlier than about the close of the VII cen- tury ; and the first mention of a painted Crucifix seen in a church (at Narbonne ) is by Gregory of Tours , writing ab- out A. D. 593 ; a representation of the subject in relief, pro- bably metallic, being also alluded to in the verse of Venan- tius Fortunatus (about 360) : Crux benedicta nitet Dominus qua came pependit. (Carm. lib. 11, 3) The art-treatment of this subject advanced by slow gra- dation ; and not from earlier date than the beginning of the VI century. At first appeared , in place of the simple cross , the Lamb carrying that instrument of death; next, the lamb couchant at the midst of a cross ; next , the bust of the Re- deemer, with radiant head , without any expression of pain, at the summit and at the foot of a cross ; or ( as in tho mo- saic at S. Stefano Rotondo , and on a reliquary at Monza ) ho- vering above a cross that is either gemmed or flowery ; in that reliquary, presented to Theodolinda by St. Gregory , being also seen the two thieves crucified , the Sun and Moon personified, and the Sepulchre, with the Angel and the two Maries. Later appeared the cross of metal with the figure incised in outline ; or that of wood with the figure painted on its flat surface. The earliest extant painting of the subject is a miniature in a Syrian Evangelarium , date 586 , in the Laurentian Library at Florence, — the treatment rude almost to the extent of the grotesque ; the figure on the Cross clad in a purple tunic , the thieves also seen on their crosses , nearly naked ; the mother and the soldiers , the latter casting lots for the garment , among the several other figures introduced. The earliest mosaic treatment on record — no longer extant — is that ordered, with other such art-works, by John VII for St. Peters , 706. For ages after the general admission of this THE ISIMH CEMIRY 533 most sacred among symbols , reverential feeling prescribed the absolute avoidance of every indication of suffering , and , till the XI century, neither death nor agony was represent- ed in the form of the Divine Victim ; the earliest example where He is seen dead on the cross being in another MS. code, date about 1039. I believe that the most ancient Crucifixion — as a scene in painting— in any Italian church , is that in the series of frescoes around the walls of St. Urbano , the con- secrated mausoleum, classic in origin, above the valley of Egeria — those art-works dating 1011 , according to the in- scription , /?o/u'30 fct A. X. R. I. (anno Christi ) i1L\7. The oldest extant specimens in bronze, of which there are several at the Vatican and in the Mediaeval Museum of Florence, be- tray the lowest degradation , — an art whose incapacity al- most caricatures this awful subject, — perhaps in no instan- ces referrible to origin higher than the X century. Xo exact dale can be determined for the general use of this symbol in the sanctuary ; but we may conclude that, after the Byzan- tine Council of A. D. 692 had enjoined historic instead of sym- bolic treatment of sacred subjects in art, the images of the Crucified began to multiply, till fit last considered the indis- pensable accessory of every Catholic altar, as prescribed, not indeed before modern time, by Benedict XIV , 1754. The earlier familiarity with this symbol in the Greek Church is evident from the fact that it was the public destruction of a Crucifix, hung over the gate of the imperial palace at Constantinople , which led to the first popular outbreak and shedding of blood in the Iconoc'ast movement. Few of the Crucifixes still seen in Italian churches can be supposed more ancient than the XIV century, except in some rare and cu- rious examples , as that which is said to have bowed its head to St. Giovanni Gualberto, (about 1020), at the abbey- church of S. Miniato , — painted on cloth stretched upon a wooden cross , and now over the high altar of S. Trinita, the church of the Vallombrosans in Florence ; that in the Domini- 5i and Andrew, each with a scroll ; on the keystone of the arch is the holy monogram ; and within the vaulting, an early ex- ample of that rich fan-like pattern that eventually became a favourite in mosaic-decoration for churches , here with the rare detail of a cross, between two palms, seen as reversed, on a globe ; and from the border a hand issuing , wilh a gem- med folial crown held over the head of Mary — the indica- tion of the Divine presence wilh honour such as, in the earlier mosaics, is given to the Saviour alone. In this we have striking evidence to the growth of Madonna-worship; for Mary appears noio as indeed nothing less than she is imagined in popular devotion at this day — the Re!]ina Coeli ; and if Horace could return to life, once more to walk along the Via Sacra , should he rcliie from the Summer-heat into this church , he might suppose that here, under some (to him) strangely novel art- treatment, the intent were t) display before the worshipper Juno with the infant Mars, or Isis with Horus on her lap. Another valuable specimen of the art of this period — By- zantine, not Roman, in origin, and referred to the time of Leo III , cr at least to the IX century - is the Dalmatic at St. Peter's, said to be the identical vestment which Emperors used to assume, when, among the rites of their coronation, they were created Canons of this Basilica. Of blue silk, em- broidered with silver and gold as well as with* silk thread of different colours, it presents one of the earliest examples of Christian Art under the Western Empire , and one of the last in which classic influence is still apparent; its embroidered groups displaying a degree of freedom and dignity of motive scarce approached in later mediaeval art. On the front appears the Saviour, a majestic figure in long white roles, wilh cru- ciform nimbus, seated on a semicircle, probably meant for the firmanient, wilh feet resting on Iwo winged globes — or (as those obj els might be considered) two serpents, in annular coils, symbolic of Eternity ; an ample halo surround- ing Him , within whose circle , near His head and feet, are the winged symbols of the Evangelists, each in half- length, and 552 THE NINTH CENTURY holding a book; besides these (alike within the nimbus), a/ numerous company of Angels and Saints. On the upper part is the Transliguration , designated in the Greek, on one side, as 'H MsT3({xop!j)wa:« ; the Saviour being here seen within a wide star- ry-formed nimbus; beside Him, Moses and Elias hovering in air, the former with the tablets of Ihe Law, the latter wilh a book; below, tile three Apostles, crouching on the ground and avert- ing their faces from the glory now revealed to them. Interme- diate between these groups is again seen the Saviour, addressing Apostles or Disciples, but on what recorded occasion there is nothing to indicate. On the sleeves of the vestment are two other groups referring to the Institution of the Eucharist; in one of which the Saviour is giving the bread ; in the other, the cup to not more than three Apostles. A tree with branch- es interwoven through the entire composition on one side; and , on both the inner and outer, embroidered gold crosses ^ in the Greek form ) till up the interstices ; the tints in the se- veral groups being discernible, though, indeed , much faded; the general outlines, traits of countenances and folds of dra- peries almost exempt from such injuries as lime inflicts. In the chief figure it is remarkable how much the benign and gracious predominate rather than the ascetic severity that disliiiguishes other Byzantine conceptions ; and considering . the long eclipse about to ensue after the epoch to which this work is ascribed, we might call it, as in other reference has been called the bust of Caracalla at the Capitol, the « last sigh of Art ». Not only the diaconal vestment, but the cope, sandals, and even the mitre were assumed by the Eihperor in those elaborately symbolic rites ; and after the crown , the ring, and the sword had been put on him by the Pontiff, he officiated as subdeacon at the solemn Mass ensuing; then rode Ifirough the streets to the Laleran , his chamberlains scattering coin among the people, the Clergy and scholae receiving him at several stations with chants of gratulation ; the day's festi- vities concluding with a banquet at the Papal palace. Till-: NINTH CENTIRY 553 Another species of coronation, earlier conferred by Popes, was that with which they createiJ the Patrician of Rome, a rank formerly considered to emanate from the imperial power alone; and in transferring which to the sphere of their pre- rogatives, the successors of ^t. Peter archieved a step towards iV.cir cwii indei)endent sovereignly. Wliat Byzantine Emperors had granted as the highest honour to Merovmgian kings,', ne Popes now gave, in their own name, to princes of the race of Pepin , and with it a right of protectorate over Rome — the primitive idea in the conference of all princely powers by the Pontificate. The Patrician elect was invested with the mantle (or chlamys) and ring, a gold diadem was set on his head , and a diploma given him in the Pope's autograph to the effect : « We accord to thee such honour , that thou mayest administer justice to the Church of God and to the poor, and render account to the Supreme Judge ». The Ro- man i^eople swore fidelity, not indeed allegiance , to him , ac- cepting him as a protector subordinate to their spiritual and temporal chief. But the dynasty for whom the honours of coronation at Rome were first devised , had brief existence ; and the reigns of Charlemagne's successors v/ere agitated by civil wars enfee- bled by the vices or incapacities of princes whose historic part was almost utterly inglorious, Jtnd who caused impediment rath- er than impulse to Christian civilization. Pepin, the son of Char- limage , reigned in Italy, 805-'IO, during his father's life- time. As to him , alike as to Louis II and Lothaire I , it may be said that this country had some cause for gratitude to its Pran- kish rulers ; and the unfortunate young Bernhard, son of Pepin — who died in consequence of the horrid punishment of blind- ing inflicted for his ofrence in waging war against his uncle, and by order of that uncle , Louis , the so-called « pious » , — seems to have been beloved (see the chronicle of Andrea}. Lothaire I, Emperor and king of Italy after the death of that Louis (840), divided the throne with his son, Louis 11 (844-75), who, as Balbo observes, was more Italian than any other of S54 THE NINTH CENTURY these princes, but had continually to struggle for his states with the Dukes of Capua, Benevento, and Salerno, besides the invading Saracens — the scourge of this land during the IX century. Charles « the Bald », his son, was crowned king at Pavia , and Emperor at Rome ; but had soon (877) to fly before the successful usurpation of his nephew Carlomann , who associated with himself on the throne his brother Charles « the Fat » , 879. The latter , from 880 , became sole king of Italy , and from 884 resumed the imperial dignity left in abeyance during three years, uniling once more, but for the last time , the whole Empire under the same sceptre. Pepin held his court at Verona; Louis II, at, or near, Pavia, the principal seat of the Frankish, as once of the Longo- bard k ngs. After the death of Charles the Fat , 888 , the race of Charlemagne, in direct descent on the male side, became extinct; and between that year and 924, six kmgs held or struggled for the Italian crown. At one period Guido of Spo- lelo , served by Frankish troops , held the western , while Berengarius of Friuli ruled in the eastern provinces. The son of the former, Lambert, shared and inherited the imperial title (894) while yet a child , and while his party contended to secure for him the Italian kingdom against two competi- tors, both more or less supported — the German Arnulph and Berengarius , the latter of whom became sole king in 899 ; but had soon to yield to a more seccessful rival . Louis king of Provence, invited to ascend the much-disputed throne by the Marquis of Tuscany and other Italian princes adverse to Berengarius — in this following the very same line of policy so much blamed in the Popes, and certainly with less ex- cuse for it. The new claimant , thus introduced , was accepted as kini? at Pavia in the year 900 , and crowned as Emperor at Rome in 901 ; the bestowal of the imperial title being now considerel to pertain exclusively to the Papacy. In the successive amplifications and renewals of Charle- magne's donation, w^e can hardly suppose , at least in regard to some of the states included, that the Frankish Emperors THE MNTII CENTIRY 555 conteniplalcd nnylhing more tlion a protectorate, or honorary president.>iiip, for the Papacy. Louis I, besides confirming all that his predecessor had bestowed , nominally gave to Pope Paschal the City and Duchy of Rome, Perugia, Todi, Anagni, and Alatri ; in the Neapolitan states several « patrimonies » , besides the cities of Arpino, Benevento , and Capua; also the entire islands of Corsica , Sardinia, and Sicily, which last nei- ther he nor his successors of the same dynasty ever owned (1). The testament of Charlemagne divides a certain portion of his personal property o er iwenty-two cities, all designated as metropolises of his Empire: the first three, Rome, Ra- venna, and Milan; his bequest to Rome (or rather to the shrine of St. Peter where it was to be placed ) beina a silver table with an incised map of Constantinople; to Ravenna, a similar map of Rome on silver ; and the Emperor's idea of his sovereign rights over all those cities alike is certainly implied in that document, no less clearly than his adherence to the spiritual power of the Pope is expressed in his deed of privileges to the city of Aix la-Chapelle, cited by Eginhard. The Lreat Church of Milan sustained an illustrious part both in civil and religious ii.teresls; and now begins to ap- pear in art-history also, with magnificence equal to herself. Her Archbishops claimed the exclusive right of crowning, and, in some cases, even electing the kings of Italy. With revenues of 80,000 sequins (or gold florins) per aruium , they extend- ed jurisdiction over eighteen sufTragan bishoprics, and over fourteen territories with authority temporal as well as spiri- tual. That original division of Italy, under the first Christian Emperors, into two chief dioceses, the Urbicarian (or Roman), and Italic (or Milane.-e^, seems to assign equnl honours to the pontiffs of both metropolises: and it is certain that, till the latter years of the XI century, the Milanese was in no man- [i] As to this extraordinary, and indeed fruitless donation of the three i;- binds , Ccnni affirms that it was certainly made , hut at what date is not to be determined. 556 THE NINTH CENTURY Tier subject to the Roman See ; its Prelates being elected ori- ginally by popular suffrage, and afterwards dependent on the Emperors for investiture: their sufTragons receiving con- secration directly from themselves, without occasion to refer to any other ecclesiastical superior. Even the historians whose sympathies are avowedly on the Papal side — Ughelli and Cesare Cantu — acknowiedge that, up to the X century at least, « the Milanese Clergy claim- ed for the Church of St. Ambrose a rank not inferior to that of St. Peter's » ( Canlii , Storia d. Italiani). And its rite , the Ambrosian, called after, but older than the time of, that saint, was more widely-extended , in the Carlovingian period, than the Roman itself; being now retained only in this one archdiocese, though perhaps the most ancient type of Christian liturgy extant. One is sorry lo find that this conspicuous Church had already begun to decline from its worthier antecedent'. The prelate nineteenth in succession from St. Ambro-e obtain- ed his rank by simoniac means ; and the traffic in holy or-- ders had here become a scandal that called for the reprc ba- tion of Pope Paschal in 820. An anonymous memoir of this Archbishopric, re'erred by .Muratori to either the IX orX cen- tury, allows to it rank only second to the See of Rome — a significant avowal if from a recognised spokesman ; but the testimony, for about a thousand years, to the primitive auto- nomy held by all Christian bishops seems the special historic part of the Milanese See. The first cathedral of note at Milan, S. Tecla , with an octagonal baptistery adjacent , but apart, remained erect, long after it had lo.st that character, till io40, when it was demol shed by the Spanish government. The next, that became more conspicuous, was founded by St. Ambrose, A D. 387, and dedicated to SS. Gervasius and Protasius , the martyrs wliose bodies Mere discovered and laid under its altar by himself. About A. D. 868 , that church, now known as S. Am- brogio, was rebuilt, and a quadrangular portico raised in front, by the Archbishop Anspertus, who also restored the THE KlNin CEMl.RY 557 fortifying ^valIs, and did much to renovate this city after the shocks suffered during the Gothic wars. Bat in after time it became necessary to restore this later building, as was effected by the Archbishop Galdinus in 1169, when, in the greater part, the architecture of the IX century disappeared , except indeed its noblest accessory, that quadrangle of porticoes, besides one of the lofty belfry-towers that flank the facjade , the sculptured bronze portals , the apse with its mosaics, and confessional, the columns with Tuscan capitals (the latter, however, supposed more modern', and the circular arches supporting the vault , below which were thrown up the acute arches in the later works. 5. Ambrogio is the finest example of the early basilica-type in northern Italy, the region w^here, after the fall of Empire, sacred architecture first acquired a complete and intelligently organized style , partaking both of the Roman and Byzantine , whilst in certain features dif- fering from both; the style which, in fact, continued domi- nant in the West from the V to the XI century , co-exten- sively with the Latin Church herself. And the example here before us shows that, up to this period at least, sacred archi- tecture continued true to its high arid proper aim, that seeks to embody in the material building a type of the spiritual Church, her discipline and mysteries, without which the essential cha- racter proper to the Christian temple is lost, and we have only to look forward to the last degradation either in Paganish renaissance , or iri those chapels of modern sectaries , where the altar with all its sanctities and heaven-lit fires is lost behind an unsightly pulpit, the central and engrossing object. The system of symbolism in early Art , developed under the Longobards, and henceforth obtaining more and more in the sacred edifice , is presented in a very curious series among the outer details at S. Ambrogio (the portal and columns of the atrium) ; and here we see, besides the figures familiar in such mystic acceptation , birds and animals, — al^o Adam and Eve — the Centaur, emblematic either of the lower pas- sions or the swift course of man's life ; the Syren , of Sin and S38 THE KINTH CEMUUY its dangers; also the pomegranaie (perhaps its first appear- ance in symbolic sense), to imply, by its numerous seeds, the abundant charity of the saints (v. Allegranza , « Sacri Monumenti di Milano » ). The mosaics on the apse are interest- ing ( often , I believe , restored, but still as to design of the IX century ) : their principal subjects being the Saviour enthroned between SS. Gervasius and Protasius ; ^t. Ambrose celebrat- ing Mass at a small cylindrical altar , the only ornament upon which is a plain cross; St. Martin (another Milanese Saint) at the ambon near, in act of chanting the Gospel, Other mo- saics in a lateral chapel, where we see the figure of St. Victor holding a cross with a singularly formed monogram of the holy name , have been referred to the IV century ; and lately Lave been discovered some remarkable arabesques, with the fish in several examples. But the great art-treasure here is the shrine or altar for St. Ambrose's Relics, presented by the Archbishop Angilbertus, A. D. 833, at cost reported by Ughelli as 30,000 gold solidi , or 80,000 gold florins— the first magnificent and elaborate example of metallurgy we have yet had to notice in Christian Art (I) : the front of pure gold, the sides and back of silver partly encrusted with enamel ; the entire surface profusely studded with gems. The numer- ous reliefs in compartments , by an artist whose name , « Wolfinus « (apparently Teutonic) , is fortunately preserved in an inscription, with the title be gives himself, « magister faber » — represent, on the front, recognisable subjects from (1) Not that such works were at this period new in the art-range. Shrines incrusted with silver or gold , set with gems, and surround- ed by reliefs of scriptural or legendary subjects , were numerous in France , and no doubt had been wrought in Italy, from the VlII century. That of St. Martin of Tours was a master-piece of orfevre- rie ; and other saintly tombs used to be adorned with laminae of sil~ ver or gold. As to the shrine of St. Ambrose , Cicognara concludes that the arfist was certainly Italian ; and Lanzi observes that in style it may be placed on a par with the most beautiful of the ivory dip- tychs that enrich sacred museums. TUE MNTO CENT LAY 539 the New Testament, laterally to the figures of Our Lord , the XII Apostles, and emblems of the Evangelists; on the sides , Archangels , Angels with phials , and the principal Saints and Martyrs of .Milan; on the back , XII scenes from the life of St. Ambrose, as follows: the Saint, as a sleeping child, with bees ( presage of his eloquence) swarming around his cradle; assuming the command of the Ligurian and eastern provinces of Italy ; elected Archbishop by popular suffrage, and attempt- ing to escape ; his baptism after that election ; his conse- cration ; his presence in spirit at the funeral of St. .Martin of Tours; his preaching, prompted by Angels; healing the lame; beholding a vision of the Saviour; an Angel calling St. Honoratus, bishop of Yercelli , to administer the Viaticum to him on his deathbed; his death, Angels attending to re- ceive his soul. X metrical inscription in nine liiies is carried through these reliefs, beginning: Emicat alma foris rutiloqiie decore vennsta Area raetallorum , gemmisque compta coruscat. The Neapolitan Church now begins to be conspicuous un- der its ducal government. Its ancient cathedral, called, from the episcopal founder , Stephania , was burned down by fire caught from the Paschal candle on the night of Easter , dur- ing which it was the local usage to leave it unextinguished; but soon afterwards (790) rose again, rebuilt with splendour by another bishop Stephen, aided by all the citizens. To that new edifice bishop John ; ob. 847 ; transferred all the tombs of his predecessors, causing their portraits to be painted on the walls above their monuments here. The same liberal prelate founded schools for Grammar and for vocal music; opened a hospice for the poor and the stranger, within the atrium (a not un- common arrangement) of his cathedral; himself an adept in the copying of books, he appointed persons to be employed continually in that task. Athanasius (ob. 872) rebuilt the church of St. Januarius, founded by bishop Agnellus about 675 ; en- 560 THE NINTH CENTURY gaged artists to paint the figures of sainted Doctors on its wails; and, besides other precious gifts, bestowed on it an allar-paiiium with the martyrdom of that Pairon Saint re- presented in needle-work. The library of this See was not forgotten in the donations from its prelates. Some paintings in the Neapolitan Catacombs are referred by good judges to the IX century — if so, a proof that those retreats were yet fre- quented for devotional purposes. Religion in the Neapolitan pro- vince (see the life of St. Antoninus, abbot of Sorrento, in Mabillon , « Acta ») gave early indication of the character to this day distinguishing its population , most devout among Italians, yet least exemplifying the influence of faith upon morals or intellect ■ — not indeed that this character , where uncorrupted , is altogether devoid of interesting and amiable traits. That people are praised, in the IX century, for their zeal in renovating and adorning altars and oratories, keeping lights perpetually kindled before shrines, making offerings, each to the best of his means, to the Church; and their to this day proverbial worship of Saints is anticipated by the Sor- rentines of that distant time, who were eager to increase the devotion to their five holy Patrons ; as to one of whom , St. Antoninus, they believed that none could swear « by his Relics » falsely without the certain sequel of Divine chastise- ment! Striking is the story, also in credit among them, of the ap- parition of that Saint, with the other holy ones of Sorrento, on board a Saracen ship, in order to terrify those marauders from an intended descent upon the divinely-protected coast! Already had been introduced in that province the barba- rism , ominous for the dignity of Art, of nailing gilt crowns to sacred pictures, an outrage against sense and taste persist- ed in to this day , with incredible want of judgment, by the Italian Church (I). (1) The Chapter of St. Peter's own a fund appropriated to the sole object of « crowning » , from year to year , the most noted images of the Madonna ! THE NINTH CENTURY 561 In regard to the cathedral of Verona antiquarians have much disputed. It was certainly completed by A. D. 806 ; and the epitaph to an archdeacon , Pacificus (who founded sev- en churches in this city , and was himself a skilful artist in wood, stone, and metal) tells that he ordered repairs thirty years after the death of Charlemagne, namely, 844. The apse and lateral walls near the chancel may be of the original structure; otherwise this grand and characteristic building cannot be referred , in any part, to date earlier than the XII century. A genuine and still intact speci- men of the IX century is the crypt of St. Zeno , founded to contain the tomb of that saintly bishop of Verona , by Pepin , king of Italy : with low semicircular vault supported by forty columns irregular in their shafts and capitals, this sole rem- nant of the original church embodies an idea yet new in Ital- ian architecture; and a mysterious gloom, a brooding pre- sence of antiquity, give most impressive effect to those dim- aisles and crowded pillars under its low-arched roof. As to the architects of this period little is known , except that the Comasque builders still retained the pre-eminence and privileges they had enjoyed under the Longobard kings, confirmed to them by Charlemagne , with exemption from all local statutes and burdens ; and, like favour being extended towards them by the Popes , they were allowed to fix their own wages, while practitioners not of their society were forbidden to enter into rivalship against them. In form , symbolism , costume, public worship had become almost what it is at the present day in the Latin Church , though perhaps with less of the theatrical or superfluous than is often seen in the Italian « festa » (ji. Decoration had (1) Except indeed in the simplicily of the altar itself. In the nu- merous representations of sacred rites by pencil or chisel , prior to the XVI century, we see nolliing like the overloaded finery or image- displays of modern Italian churches. Altars are of dimensions much smaller than at present, either without ornament, or simply with the 36 562 THE NFNTH CENTURY developed into the utmost splendour, indeed with more cost- liness of material than is now at all common. On festivals the sanctuary was in a blaze of light ; draperies embroider- ed with sacred figures, and sometimes glistening with gems, were suspended between the columns; groups in fine nee- dlework adorned the altar cloths ; metallurgy, gold or silver reliefs, shone in the sanctuary or on the bindings of the Gos- pel. In a once wealthy monastery, Casaur a, dedicate to the Trii nity, founded (866) by Louis li on a river-island in the Abruz- zo, that Emperor, besides revenues liberally conferred, nume- rous gold and silver vessels ec, bestowed draperies « radiant with gold and gems » , not only for suspending round the walls, but sufficient for the vestments of the monks on high Cross , much more frequently than the Crucifix , upon the mensa. In the XIII century we see altars with neilher Cross, tapers, nor any ornament whatsoever ( shrine by Giovanni da Pisa , Arezzo Cathedral, iSSB) ; or else with the Cross alone (Cimabue, Florence Uffizi ) ; in the XIV we see it , even at such a solemnity as a Co- ronation , without any kind of ornament , either Cross or tapers (tomb of Guido Tarlati , Arezzo Cathedral, 4320-30), or with the Cross alone, as in Giotto's illustrations of the life of St. Francis (Flo- rence Acad.) In a painting of the XI century, Italian School, the altar, at Mass , supports merely two tapers and a small Cross ( v. Agincourt ); in the miniature groups on a superb Gothic reliquary, at Orvieto, a Bishop in one subject , and priests in two others officiate at altars on which are tapers and the Cross ; in the frescoes by Fra Angelico , at the Vatican chapel of St. Laurence , is seen a celebra- tion at an altar on which stands a plain Cross without any other object. The first instance I can find in which graven images appear is in the above-named rehquary at Orvieto ( XIV^ century), one group being the Pope and Cardinals seated before an altar , on the predella of which stand statuettes of the Virgin and Child and two Saints. The paintings lately discovered at S. Clemente alike show the simplicity of altar-furniture in earlier ages; and for the IX century the mosaic at S. Ambrogio is sufiBcient evidence. Even as represented by Raphael and Andrea Del Sarto , the decoration of the altar is sim- ple compared with its actual profuseness. THE NINTH CENTURY 063 days (1,^ Other now common adornment of the sacred walls, was their complete covering with groups and decorative patterns in fresco-paitjting , so far required by prevalent feeling as to be prescribed by a law of Charlemagne, and probably in use , as thus enforced , till about the end of the X cent- ury ; afterwards neglected , but revived in the XIV century. And late discoveries in the now subterranean S. Clemente at Rome , and S. Ambrogio at Milan , have supplied most valuable proof in extant art of this ancient system. The celebrations , now becoming frequent , of private Masses , and the discontinuance of the Communion once participated in, as the sense of primitive faith required , by all allowed to be present, Clergy and laity, are signs of change, wide-spread and integral, that announce the transition into a new phase greatly different from the Church's earlier life. The idea of the holiest Christian ordinance as a sacerdotal sacrifice now tends to efface every other in the acceptance of its character; and ever increasingly prominent is the bias that at last completely withdraws from all perception and operating influ- ence of principles involved in the primordial truth at the heart of Christianity — that not the Clergy alone , but the entire body of believers constitute the Catholic Church. We have advanced far into the period commonly known as that of the « dark ages » ; yet when we consider the pro- duce and movement of mind , we see even in these troub- lous times the fulfilment of earlier promises. No such thing as absolute a renaissance » is in fact possible , because no ab- solute death supervenes under Christian civilization. In the (1) The Emperor obtained by special favour, from Pope Adrian II, the body of St. Cleraent , not long previously brought from the Crimea to Rome, and now transferred with great honours to this monastery, henceforth dedicated also to that Saint. Muratori gives engravings of the antique reliefs on its church front, representing the whole story of this « translation » of the relics from Rome to the Abruzzo — an art-work whose date I cannot ascertain. 564 THE NINTH CENTURY IX century, and still more in that which follows , the light becomes dimmed, but never is extinguished ; and progress , the indelible characteristic of this civilization at all times , may have been won more efficiently than we can explain through the sad experiences of error and the dispelling of illusion. The desire for , and the efforts to disseminate , know- ledge, are still vigorous. Education is mainly, though not, it seems, exclusively, entrusted to the Clergy; and the decree of Lothaire for founding schools in the chiet Italian cities, with a preamble setting forth that « in every part of Italy learning was totally extinct » , designates , for Ivrea , the bishop of the diocese; for Padua, a monk, either Scottish or Irish , named Dungall , as public teachers. A bishop of Modena obliged his priests to keep schools lor all children brought to them ; at Lucca the portico of the cathedral serv- ed as class-room. An archbishop of Milan (in the VII cent- ury ) surrounded himself with pupils to whom he personally gave instruction in the « seven liberal Arts » , that encyclo- pedia of mediaeval learnmg , which comprised Grammar, Dialectics , Rhetoric , Geometry, Arithmetic , Astronomy, Mu- sic. At Rome the schools founded by St. Gregory for the speciality of musical tuition , had become colleges for per- haps the complete « cursus » of ecclesiastical studies , where Anastasius tells that many of the Popes, whose lives he was compiling , had been educated. Of libraries now in existence we have not unfavourable notice. That at Novalese is said to have contained 6666 codes (a round number perhaps exaggerated ), which, together with their church-treasures , the monks carried to Turin in their flight under apprehension of a Saracenic incursion , and which in great part perished , when that city was visit- ed by those invaders from Sicilian shores. The archdeacon Pacificus ( said in his epitaph to have been the first glossa- tor of the Scriptures) bequeathed 218 books to the chapter of Verona. Pope Stephen V presented several to the Saint Paul's basilica : and the then wealth of the Lateran library THE MNTH CENTURY 565 may be inferred from the request of a French abbot to Be- nedict III (in 855) for the loan , or gift, of St. Jerome's Com- ments on Ihe Prophet Jeremiah , the -. De Oratore » of Cicero, Quintilian's Institutes , and the Comment on Terence by Donatus. Communion with other radiant minds of antiquity had by no means ceased — at times indeed discountenanced, but. in her better mood, encouraged by the Church. The monk might become enthusiastic over Virgil, Uke Alcuin , of whom it is said : « Virgilii amplius quam Psahnorum amator » ; and a special favourite was Marlianus Capella , the Grst classic trans- lated into a modern (the German) tongue so early as the XI century. Among Italian writers of this age Joannes Diaconus, of Naples , stands among the first , as the biographer of the bishops of that city and of St. Gregory the Great. Andrea , a priest of Brescia, wrote the compendious history of Italy from 068 to 87 4 ; but above all valuable in its literary walk is the chronicle by Agnellus , the lives, namely, of the prelates of his own see , Ravenna. Theodulph, an Italian, invited into France and appointed bishop of Orleans, by Charlemagne, produced not only theological works but six books of poems on sacred and other themes; among his hymns being that, ((Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit Rex Christ » , still heard, exultant in vocal melody, during the magnificent procession from the altar to the closed portals on Palm Sunday ; and an affecting story tells that he won his liberty, when imprisoned at Angers, by singing that hymn as the Emperor Louis I passed within hearing ; the preate having been confined in a cloister, with several other ecclesiastics, because compromised in the cause of the young king Bernhard against his uncle ; but provoking investigators will not allow us the belief in that tale of the might of poesy over wrong. Valuable indeed are the monastic chronicles, those lirst essays of European history, now beginning to be indited by obedie[]t and diligent monks; but the moral light shines most beautifully in individual portraiture — preserved to us by such giants of learning and industry as Muratori , Ma- billon , the Bollandists — as in the « Acta « of Benedictine 566 THE NINTH CENTURY Saints , and in the above-mentioned lives of the great Italian prelates. The conscientious , pious , ever energetic Pastor of these times presents a type and an office utterly unlike any- thing produced , or that could have arisen , out of Heathen society : a representative of the spiritual principle amidst worldly conflicts , humble yet sublime ; standing between the highest and the lowest; the associate, sometimes the reprover, of princes , and the friend of publicans and sinners. Were other proof wanting , the phenomenon of such a sanctified and ever-efficient agency as this would be enough to con- vince that in Christianity alone is the secret of man's high- est good and attainable happiness, even in the present life. Several' Popes of this period may be classed with the eminent for learning not less than virtue. A pleasant pic- ture , preserved by Ozanam , allows us a glimpse into the more intimate life of the Roman a Curia » , not at all shad- ed by ascetic gloom , or betraying intellectual decline : the occasion , Easter ; the scene , that portico before the chapel of St. Venanzio in the Laleran baptistery whose intercolumna- tions are now walled up, so as to convert it into a super- fluous oratory fronting « San Giovanni » — Here , after the grand Vespers in the basilica , the Pope , with his Cardinals and others of his court , used to repair to listen to a Greek anthem sung by the pontific choristers — and , we may infer, understood by the reverend audience, whilst the Kwine of honour)), no doubt the best from the Campagna vintage , was served to his Holiness , afterwards to be sent round , as interchange of the good wishes — the buona Pasqua in modern phrase — for the sacred season. Through superior organization , through higher aims and theories of ecclesiastical duty than elsewhere had root, did Rome succeed in establishing the most perfect and endur- ing system of spiritual government the world has ever seen. The persuasion that, under whatever modifications, the cause of Christianity is one , the jewel the same though set in diflferent caskets, and that all the phases this Religion has THE NINTH CENTURY 567 passed through have been subordinate to its ulterior advan- tages , and therefore to those of Humanity, — this , I believe , will be confirmee! by the study of the Papal History , if en- tered into with calm impartial spirit. From that pursuit many may rise convinced that the ascendant so wonderfully at- tained and ably held by those crowned High Priests, was, from the first and throughout , proportionate to their de- serts , not as men but as an inst tution ; was more or less a potent reality in the degree required for the general good ; and that its endurance in the future is guarantied for so long as the Church shall derive benefit or piety support from it (1. CHRONOLOGY OF MONUMENTS. Rome S, Prassede , S. Maria in Domnica, 817; S. Ceci- lia, 821 ; S. Marco rebuilt, 833 (facade of loth century, in- terior modern) ; S. Martino ai Monti , rebuilt 834 (moderniz- ed 1650); S. Maria Nova, (or S. Francesca Romana) — fagadeof 17th century, SS. Qualtro Coronati , and S. Michele in Sassia (modernized in 18th century), 817-55; tower of S. Maria in Cosmedin , about 860 ; choir of S. Clemente [raised from lower yi) For the original literature and all requisite material towards the history of this age , see Muratori , « Rer. Ital. Script. » tt. I, II; Mabillon, « Annales Ord. S. Bened. ». and « Acta SS. Ord. S. Bened. »; for the entire corre.'^pondence between the Popes and the Prankish Princes , Cenni , « Monumenta Dominationis Pontif. sive Codex Ca- roiinus » ; for the history of the ancient Sees, Ughellius , « Italia Sacra ». The best and most interesting modern illustration of these last two centuries is supplied by Ozanam, « Civilization Chr^tienne chez les Francs » ; Capefigue . « Charlemagne » ; Gregorovius, and Papencordt, « Geschicltte d. Stadt. Rom. im Mitteialter » ; Cantii , (( Storia d. Italiani » : sec also Orsi , « Origine del Dominio dei Rom. PonteBci ». 568 THE NINTH CENTURY to upper church) , 872; chapel of S. Benedetto in Piscinula? Porphyry statuettes of two Emperors embraciug (Greek), in the Vatican library. Miniature Art : Latin Bible , at monastery of St. Paul's, presented either by Charlemagne or Charles the Bald , with portrait of the Emperor , and biblical scenes: Greek 3Ienologium , or illustrated lives of Saints for each day in six months^ Vatican; Greek Topography of Cosmas , and Greek Isaiah, Vatican; Pontifical ofLandulph, bishop of Ca- pua , and Formula for blessing font and holy water, Minerva Library ( rite of Baptism by immersion represented among illustrations in the latter) — v. Agincourt for engravings of all these miniatures. For earlier specimens of sacred art in this walk, see the « Joshua » , with 21 illustrations, VII or Vlll century, Vatican. Flore.nce. SS. Apostoli ( erroneously ascribed to Charle- magne and to date 786 ] , in type similar to , and probably by same architect as, S. Michele in Sassia , Rome. Naples. S. Januarius restored about 870 ; paintings in Ca- tacombs, figures of SS. Curtius and Desiderius. MiLA.x. Basilica of SS. Gervasius and Protasius rebuilt . dedicated to S. Ambrose (restored 1169); atrium, apse, confessional , and perhaps portal, of 868-'81 ; mosaics of 832 ; shrine of S. Ambrose, 835. Vero.na. Cathedral , finished 806 ; restored 844 ; apse an- tique , remainder of actual building of the 12th century ; ba- silica of S. Zenone , 806- 10, crypt only antique, church rebuilt, 1138-78; S Lorenzo, Romanesque basilica-type. Brescia. Cathedral [duomo vecchio) , rotunda with insulated peristyle , round headed arches, and dome ; founded by count Villerado and completed by count Raimone (lords of Brescia), before 838. Pisa. S. Paolo in Ripa d'Arno. (served as cathedral till 1118), Romanesque basilica-type, fagade probably later (Ricci calls this church « one of the most perfect examples of ninth- century architecture in Italy ») ; S. Pietro in Grado, near Pisa, Romanesque basilica , 805. THE NINTH CENTURY 569 AscoLi. Baptistery, exterior quadrate, interior octagonal from cornice upwards. Capua. Cathedral rebuilt , 856 , after restoration of city, the ancient one having heen destroyed under the Longobard Dukes, 8iO ; mosaics in apse (the Madonna and Child, SS. Peter , Paul , Stephen , and Agatha ) of about 900 (referred by some writers to XI century); church restored in 14th century. Spoleto. S. Pietro, extramural ^cathedral till XI century), fagade with symbolic sculptures of XI century; S. Ansano , crypt with wall-paintings. Sa.n Germano. Collegiate church of S. Germano , built by Gisu'phus Abbot of 3Ionte Cassino; S. Salvatore, with atrium, marble colonnades , entablature of cypress-wood , and wall- paintings. SuBiAco. Chapel of S. Benedict, afterwards of S. Sylvester, at the sacro speco, about 847 ; its groined vaulting one of ear- liest examples in such style. Tuscany. Priory of Monte Asinario , on model of earliest style , and still perfect ; S. Agata ( pieve of Mugello ) : abbey of S, Antimo near Montalcino; abbey of Passignano. XIV. Retrospect of Boman Catacombs. It is scarcely possible to overrate the value of such testi- mony as is supplied in the Catacombs of Rome. At this pe- riod when Italy has reached a religious crisis nothing less than portentous , when the very life of her ancient Church seems imperilled, or at least threatened with some tremen- dous shock, whilst on one hand we have to note the pro- gress of desolating infidelity , and on the other the uncom- promising, indeed defiant, maintenance of all that constitutes the excess of ultramontanism , — that at this transitionary epoch such evidence to primitive Christianity should be brought forward with a completeness and fulness of illustra- tion hitherto unattained , and this through means and under the influence of the Spiritual Power whose vital interests are most concerned , whose credit might be most fatally injured if conclusions hostile to its claims should result from this unfolding of the documents of the Past, this appears one of the combinations in which we see the guidance of an over- ruling and divine will in the world's religious life. The language that speaks with silent eloquence in those dim subterranean labyrinths now explored, with indefatigable activity, for the purpose of bringing to light and interpreting all they contain, has indeed been listened to more or less intelligently for ages , and has been often more or less aptly explained by those its originality has impressed ; but perhaps the day is vet to come when , more clear and solemn , and addressed RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS 671 to wider comprehension, it may attain its fullest force, may sound like a trumpet to awaken the sleeping and the dead. Such an appeal seems wanted amidst the religious decay, the indifTerentism now diffused over Italy. Valuable as is the literature already at hand for the student of tliese monu- ments, much is still wanting for bringing into relief their im- portance in reference to present realities and requirements. The interesting question is not merely whether certain local prac- tices or popular teaching be , or be not, in accordance with the spirit of what their evidence tells as to the Past , but whether all Christian communities have not to learn much , to listen to notes of warning, and be admonished of many things « violently destroyed or silently gone out of mind » in and through these silent revelations. In the art that pertains lo their sphere one is struck, at a general view, by the absence of system and pre-arrangement. It was a natural consequence of depression and persecution that the illustration of doctrine in artistic forms should be limited within a nar- row range, almost exclusively referring to one Personality, the Divjne Master , His miracles and Sacraments, or the more familiar types of that Personality from the Old Testament ; but as we descend the stream of time the field expands; while it is still observable that , in such progress , develope- raent, not innovation, supervenes; and it is not the less to the person and office of the Saviour that all ultimately tends^ that all types and symbols , as well as hope and faith, have constant reference. An art-illustration of Christianity that altogether omits subjects so conspicuous, indeed obligatory, in the sacred painting and sculpture of the present day, as the Annuncia- tion , the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, tne Entombment, the Resurrection , and Ascension ; which assigns to Mary but a subordinate historic place in a few scenes from the Evangelic narrative, or as one of the many <( Oranles , » in attitude of prayer with outspread arms, like the numerous other figures (mostly, no doubt, intended for portraits of the dead; repre- 572 RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS sented above tombs — such an illustration is indeed remote from the whole theory of the calling of Art in the service of the sanctuary, as now conceived by Latin Catholicism ; but when we observe the not less distinct proof how essen- tially the worship of the primitive Church was sacramental in scope and ritual in character, prone to admit an opulent and poetic symbolism as the legitimate clothing of truth, to convey doctrine through the eloquence of imagery and solem- nities rather than through other appeals; when we see that, in outward form at least, the worship of ultra-Protest- antism is at present the most remote from that of ancient Catholicism in its pristine puritv, must we not abandon the idea of using this aggregate evidence from catacombs for any sectarian purpose of attack or vindication I Must we not rather acknowledge in it a lesson addressed, for warning or reproof, to all Churches, with presentment of a higher norma than any one can be said at this day to realize in practice? There is another leading feature that also strikes us in this monumental range : the familiarity with the sacred books presupposed in those to whom it addresses itself. Both the Old and New Testaments are evidently understood to be the mental companions and habitual guides of the faithful who contemplated those simple — often rude — illustrations of their contents on the tufa-walls of the dim chapel or sepul- chral corridor; or, in bolder treatment, on the fronts of sculptur- ed sarcophagi And here we find perfect coincidence with the testimony in ancient writers, — at the same time a severe reproof against the all but universal, and tacitly approved , ignorance of the Scriptures in which the Italian clergy allow the Italian laity at this day to remain, never (that I am aware) recommending or suggesting the private study of the New Testament, whilst hitherto even the authorized version with notes is left, so to say, locked up from the possession of the people by the high price of all editions; and in Rome, I believe, is less circulated than anywhere else on this side of the Alps. How different the teaching and usages of old, when RETROSPFXT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS 573 S. Jerome extolled the pious matron Paula for knowing the Scriptures memoriter , and counselled, for the attainment of perfection iu the religious life, the habit of learning some portion of llieni by heart every day! (I) It can no more be doubted from the evidence in this antiqua- rian sphere than from that so abundant in patristic literature to the same effect, that the Eucharistic Rite was the leading act of worship, the mystic centre round which the faithful assembled for every occasion of their more solemn devotions , except those of evening or night-vigils , both before and after the age of the first Christian Emperor. The congregational wor- ship of old may be said to have had no existence severed from this sublimely commemorative and holiest of mysteries. Besides the constantly recurring symbolism , and studied choice of illustrations in obvious reference to that sacred Ordinance , besides such more familiar subjects as the Multiplication of Loaves, the Changing of Water into Wine, the Agapae , and the symbols of the fish laid beside, or else carrying , bread marked with a cross, another striking presentment has lately been found , in a picture (Catacombs of Gyriaca), where the shower of manna is seen in thick descent, gathered in the (1) « Divinas Scnpturas saepius lege, imo nunquam de manibus tuis sacra lectio deponatur » (Ep. ad Nepotian. 7). « Statue quot horis sanctam ^cripturam ediscere debeas , quanto tempore legere , non ad laborem, sed ad delectationem et instructionem animae » (Ep. ad Demetriad. -IS). « Nee licebat cuiquam sororum ignorare psalmos, et n n de Scripturis Sanctis quotldie aliquid discere » (Ep. ad Eustoch. 19). Most frequently do we see in catacombs the intelligible scroll, sometimes several such objects, in a clslus , held in the hand or placed at the feet of the Apostles, or Master of Apostles ; and where two scrolls are laid before a figure above a tomb, may be implied the orthodox acceptance by the deceased of both Old and New Testaments. Small caskets, of gold or other metal, in whic^ a portion of the Gos' els , usually, as supposed, the first pages fr^ that of S. John, was enclosed to be worn round the neck, h/ been found in several subterranean tombs. ^74 RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS folds of vestments by four Israelites, males and females; and I believe we may adopt the interpretation of Martigny, that a fresco in the Callixtan catacombs, where a figure is seen standing above seven baskets filled with what seems a small species of fruit rather than bread , should not be taken for the Multiplication of Loaves, but Moses with the manna gathered in the wilderness ; another figure near this, holding six cross-marked loaves in the folds of a mantle, being recog- nizable from type as meant for the Redeemer; and on ano- ther wall-surface in the same chapel, a woman drawing water from a well is no doubt intended for the Samaritan, in allu- sion to that announcement of the Fountain of Life, not inaptly classed with the series of sacramental subjects. Intelligible symbols designed to signify the union of Three Persons in the Godhead did not become common till com- paratively later periods; but not less than eight examples are given by De Rossi from the range of primitive, though not exclusively Roman, monuments, where that symbolism is at once recognised ; and in seven of which the monogram of the Holy Name is combined with the well-known triangle. But if the faith in a Triune Deity was, for a long period, but rarely shadowed forth , as may be well accounted for by the traditional reserve of dogmatic teaching and awe-struck modesty of earlier Art, the expression of belief in the absolute Divinity of the Redeemer is most luminous , indeed all-per- vading. Though the Divine Master is more frequently repre- sented in historic action, — or enthroned among Apostles, or standing on the mystic mount , from whose base issue four rives, or symbolically as the Good Shepherd or the Lamb with a cross, — there is one interesting exception to this treat- ment among the figures gilt on glass, and referred to about the end of the fourth century, where He appears in myste- rious vision amid fulness of glory, with radiated head , and holding the globe of sovereignty, alarge scroll (theGospels)being placed in a cistus at His feet; while opposite stands a figure dressed in tunic and mantle, extending one arm, as if to point RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS o75 out the vision, interpreted by Padre Garrucci, who published this Christian antique in the « Givillii Cattolica », as meant for Isaiah in utterance of prophecy as to the advent of the Light of the World. Among types, Moses is usually considered, and often obviously intended, to prefigure S. Peter, to represent the office of headship over the Old in analogy with that of the Apostle over the New Covenant [unquestionably a leading idea in catacomb-art, though modified by the numerous exam- ples of equal honour and dignity ascribed to S. Peter and S. Paul as joint founders and primates of the Church); but there are instances in which the Lawgiver is evidently regarded as the type of the Redeemer, as where in sculptured reliefs we see at one extremity of the grouping the Raising of Lazarus, effected by the touch of a wand on the head of the corpse placed upright, and at the other , the striking of water from the rock : Moses in this act using a similar wand to indicate such idea. In the sacrifice of Abraham this intent is sometimes still more ajjparent from resemblance in the type of the pa- triarch's figure to that recognizable as our Lord's in this artr- treatmenl. And the ascent of Elijah in the fiery chariot, ex- emplified in but few instances within this sphere (a relief at the Lateran Museum , and a sarcophagus at S. Ambrogio, Milan) undoubtedly prefigures the Ascension, a subject deemed too awful for direct presentment by art; the bestowal of the mantle upon Elisha, an episode conspicuous in this scene, being intended ( conformably with a passage in S. Chryso- stom , Hom. ii. in Ascens. ) to- signify the last solemn injunc- tion to the Apostles, or the powers conferred upon them by the Divine Master before He left the earth. Here too we find the first intimation of those emblems of the Evangelists that later became indispensable in the mystic grouping for sacred walls: on a terra cotta lamp being seen the Lamb,with nimbus and cross, beside anAngel and a winged Ox, the figures understood to signify St. Mathew and St. Luke. By the V century the Four Creatures were generally admit- de twith definite acceptation in art ( mosaics at S. Maria Mag- 576 RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS giore, at St. Paul's, and in the archiepiscopal chapel at Ra- venna ) : the source , that description of their appearance around the form of Deity in the Vision of Ezeckiel ; the re- ference, to St Mathew in the Angel, because the human nature and descent of Christ are particularly set forth in his Gospel; to St. Mark in the Lion, because the 3rd verse in his Ist chapter begins , « The voice of one crying in the wilderness » ; to St. Luke in the Ox , because the Sacrifice of the Atoner is more especially dwelt on by him ; to St. John in the Eagle, on account of the sublimity of the truths he contemplates , as that bird gazes on the Sun , and which in majestic language he declares. But some writers (as Durandus) see still higher meaning, in al- lusion to the four historic aspects of Redemption through (Christ — the Incarnation , Passion, Resurrection , and Ascen- sion , conformably with which sense an old poet interprets these emblems : Quatuor haec Dominum signant animalia Christum : Est Homo nascendo , Vitulusque sacer moriendo , Et Leo surgendo , coelos Aquilaque petendo. And perhaps this idea led to a treatment, in later Art , of bar- baric effect, that gives to all the human figure, with the animal heads to three in the mysterious company. St. Basil (epistle to Julian) states that the practice of paint- ing Apostles and Martyrs « dated from apostolic times » ; and St. Ambrose mentions an authentic portrait of St. Paul (?) In the Vatican Museum are two bronze medallions with the heads of SS. Peter and Paul facing each-other , both found in the Callixtan catacombs , one with the very best example of that early type , certainly derived from remotest antiquity, trans- mitted through ages for these two Apostles' figures in art. In the most ancient representations the two seem often placed on a par , co-equal , and as such distingui?hed from other Apostles. Later , in sculptures , the long cross is given to St. Peter ; and in two art-works, supposed of the IV century, a RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS 577 sarcophagus from the Vatican cemetery, and a fresco (Perret, Catacombes , v. I , pi. Vir, is seen the now well-known sub- ject of the bestowal of the keys. That object, sometimes a single key , became the attribute of St. Peter from the V cen- tury, as in the mosaics at St. Paul's, and those (of about A. D. 472] once at S. Agata in Suburra ; though , in later works, we still at times see him without that mystic sign , as in the mosaics at S. Lorenzo, where both he and St. Laurence carry similar cross-headed wands, crux hastata ; at S Maria Nuova, where he and other Apostles alike carry scrolls ; at S. Pras- sede ( lateral chapel ) , where his mosaic-figure tvas without any symbol. The wand of authority, given to him , (as to the Saviour), alone among Apostles, in sculptures perhaps all of the IV century, is indeed significant; and finely expressive is the symbolism on a bronze lamp (at Florence) representing a ship steered by St. Peter. The crowned and vested statue, as now displayed for his festival at the great Papal basilica, is the climax of those gradually-increasing honours that invest his person in art. St. Paul's original attribute was the scroll ; not till a comparatively late period , the sword ( first example in the mosaic , X century , once over the tomb of Otho II , in the Vatican crypt ) ; and earlier he is sometimes associated with a symbol of sublimer meaning, the Phoenix on a palm- tree , allusive to his teaching of the resurrection. The fish , and the initial letters comprised in the ixOOr, are well known ; in paintmg and chiselling , on the terra cotta lamp and funereal stone , that object appears more frequent- ly than any other in the symbolic range ; but less common, though found in many tombs , is its form , of bronze or glass, pierced at one end in order to be hung by a cord round the neck as a tessera , given to the neophyte at baptism , and worn to remind of the privileges conferred through that sa- crament. The egg, a symbol both of the Resurrection and Regeneration , in which former meaning it has passed into the popular acceptance of so many countries , familiarly seen at Easter, and often on sale dyed purple and set in a crown 37 / S78 RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS Of pastry, as at Rome , — this also received its sanction from the primitive Church , and used to be laid , in marble imi- tation , beside the dead ; another symbol . of more recondite meaning , the nut , being also placed in the grave , and taken to signify in its three substances , shell , rind , and kernel , either the consummate virtues of the true Christian , or the Personality of Our Lord, composed of the reasonable soul , the flesh, and bones — or the bitterness of His Passion , the be- nignity of His Divinity , and the wood of the Cross. ( See a curious passage to this effect in S. Augustine , Serm. de temp. Bom. ant. Nativ.; also S. Paulinus, In Nat. ix. S. Felicis). Though the symbolism of this art may sometimes seem fantastic and far-fetched , it never wants an element of the truly poetic , being the expression of Love that seeks in all na- ture for the emblem or shadow of its Divine Object. Such does it appear especially in the multifarious forms chosen to signify the hopes of an immortal future, the reward of life's noblest victory ; as the dove with the olive-branch in its beak, signifying the happy issue of a virtuous career ; the same bird , or (though less frequent) the hare , feeding on grapes, placed near the holy monogram (this latter usually within a disk), signifying the freed soul rejoicing in the presence of the Saviour : the vase filled with flowers , or sometimes bread (in form like the sacramental) chiselled on the tombstone, as emblem of beatitude , alike with that agapae-banquet, or love-feast , so often seen painted and sculptured , whose ul- terior meaning may be intended to comprise both the Eucha- ristic Sacrament and the joys of Paradise , the believer's su- preme privileges in this world and the next; while the bird, either the dove or other species, confined in a cage, implies the faithful under persecution , or the righteous soul impris- oned in the body , — a subject seen in later mosaics as well as in catacomb-art. Trees also , as well as flowers , are fre- quently brought within this mystic circle, especially the palm, the cypress, the vine , and sometimes the gourd ; and when the last-named is seen beside the cypress, with a female — RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS 579 in many instances., Mary — standing in prayer between , Ihe latter tree (emblem of incorruptibility and endurance, as the cy- press was also considered by Paganism ) represents the New Testament , whilst the gourd , of frail and transitory growth, stands for the Old, or the law given to perish. Though the persecuted Church is no doubt implied , with still deeper meaning, in such personification as Daniel in the lions' den, type also of the Resurrection, also the three Israelites in the fur- nace , and Susanna among the elders (a rarer subject ) , the systematic exclusion of martyrdom, indeed of all death-scenes, is most significant : the few exceptions sufficing only to prove the rule — as a martyrdom of S. Sebastian in small terra cotta relief, found before the time of Bosio , and referred by critics, from evidence of style, to a date not more ancient than the sixth century ; also (probably of the fourth ceutury) the death of Isaiah , sawn asunder by two executioners , repre- sented on a glass cup, which Padre Garrucci first edited. What are we to understand in this scrupulous avoidance of all that could fix attention on human merit , in the themes of sacred art, but the implied condemnation of every attempt to dispute the divine pre-eminence of the Man of Sorrows to religious regard ? It is true that the reverential feeling entertained for mar- tyrs by the primitive Church is conveyed in many monumental records, and in tone accordant with the subdued tenderness and hope in regard to the dead also manifest in this epigraphic range — as , under date 483 , the eulogium on a pious female, (( fidelis in Christo ejus mandata reservans martyrum obsequiis devota » ; and , with stronger expression , but referable to so much later date , (o30 or 533 ) , as may account for the difTer- ence (v. De Rossi, Inscript. Christ.), the following, found in the lately disinterred basilica of S. Stephen , on the Latin Way , « coelestia munera carpis (gratias agamus) beato mar- tyri qui vos suscepit (in pace) » (1). (-1) As restored by De Rossi ; the words supplied between brackets. 580 RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS The immense collection of Christian epigraphs edited and commented with so much learning by the above-named gen- tleman , is not yet completed ; but its first volume comprises no fewer than 1374 specimens, (besides several added in an ap- pendix), the great majority from Roman catacombs , some from other places of sepulture, or collections, public or private, in dififerent Italian cities. In this series the first century is repre- sented by but one, recognised by the indication of Vespa- sian's Consulate , as of A. D. 71 ; the second century by two; the third by twenty-three inscriptions ; while the age distin- guished by De Rossi as the « Constantinian », from 310 to 360, supplies ninety-two ; and for the short reign of Julian are twenty such records. Till the early years of the fifth century we continue to find many epigraphs undistinguished by sym- bol or phrase of religious import , and only known as Chris- tian from the place of deposit : though the holy monogram , often with A and Q at the head of the chiselled lines , begins to appear and to become frequent from the middle of the IV cen- tury. It is not till the V century that symbolism, elsewhere so opulent before this period , becomes conspicuous on the tomb- stone ; and henceforth we begin to see, more or less frequent- ly as years advance , such emblems , touchingly appropriate in reference to the lost ones , as the dove or other birds be- side the monogram , the palm or w^reath , the vine , the lamb with a palm-branch in its mouth , the vase ; and also, of much rarer occurrence , the phoenix with a nimbus, and the dove with a cross over its head. In one singular example , a tombstone (date 400) is literally crowded with emblems : the usual monogram , a pair of scales , the fish , the cande- labrum of seven lights , and Lazarus in his sepulchre ; the symbol that eventually becomes paramount above all others, the Cross, appearing for the first time distinct and isolated beside an epitaph dated 438. The first instance of phraseology altogether foreign to that of Paganism, occurs in the year 217, « Receptus ad Deum » — beautiful in its profound simplicity! And in 234 occurs first that symbohsm where the fish and RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS 581 anchor are seen logelher; the first example of the holy mo- nogram wilh Greek letters being of 291 — proof how long that sign had become familiar to Christians before being seen emblazoned in gems on the purple of the labarum ; though a rude approach to it , like the first two letters in the holy name, is indeed found earlier, either of 268 or 279, on the tomb- stone of a child , with an epitaph of deep religious meaning: « In X D N (Chrislo Domino Noslro) vivas inter Sanctis Ihu », (for Jesu). Under date 331 occurs the monogram together with a palm branch , preceded by the words « in signo », i. e. « in the sign of Christ ». Testimonies to doctrines assailed by notorious heresies are not numerous , save in respect to that central object of faith and trust, the Divinity of Ilim who for us became human; but we find one striking example of avowed faith in the Al- mighty Trinity in an epitaph , date 403, from the Station of the Swiss Praetorians, on the Vatican hill: « Quintilianus homo Dei, Confirmans Trinitatem, Amans Castitatem, Respuens Mundum. Many are the notices as to the hierarchic gradations of the clergy, from the rank of bishop to that of lector ; and we learn something also as to that discipline of celibacy, whose origin and progressive enforcement are much too complex ques- tions to be here discussed. If, as I believe is admitted on all hands the obligatioii of the celibate state on subdeacons , alike with those higher in orders , was first enforced by S. Gre- gory, it is the more interesting to find at a period so near to that saintly pontiff as the end of the V and earlier years of the VI century the proof that « Levites » (whether we are here to understand the diaconal or subdiaconal order) were still at liberty to choose that state which an apostle pro- nounces '( honourable to all » ; two clear testimonies in this sense being as follows, the first (found at S. Paul's on the Ostian Way, date 472) : <• Levitaj conjunx Petronia forma pudoris His mca deponcns sedibus ossa loco. Parcite vos lacrimis dulces cum conjuge natse » — 582 RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS the second , where , contrary to the above , the h'ving address the dead, instead of the dead consoling the survivor, being of date 533 : « Te Levita parens soboles conjunxque fidelis Te mixtis lachrlmis lueet amata domus ». And with these simple records as to the social life of the clergy we may compare the counsels of S. Ambrose (De Of- ficiis Minist. 1. i. 248,9) to such deacons as were in wedlock; the restraints to which ministers of the altar so situated should submit themselves, as prescribed by that saint. The gradually attained pre-eminence of the Roman See is traceable , though not in any striking distinctness, upon these monumental pages; and such evidence as we find serves to refute the unchari- table and utterly superficial theory that pride or cunning were at all concerned in laying the foundations of Papal supremacy. Such base agencies have no power to create enduring and energetic realities; and the impossibility of noi recognizing a grand vocation for human and religious interests in the Pa- pacy, of not seeing the cause of Heaven on earth sustained by such men as S. Leo , S. Gregory, Innocent III, Gregory VII, Nicholas V, must be felt by all possessed of mental gaze that can perceive the genuine progress of Christianity under va- rious influences, and as promoted by diverse instrumentalities. Among these epigraphs, the date by the year of the Roman bishop begins to be used in the time of Liberius , and some- what more commonly under his successor Damasus, from 366 or 367, as in the formula, « Sub Damaso Episcopo » ; but it is evident that like distinction was allowed to other prelates, and even those of the least important sees ; as , in one in- stance , « Pascasio episcopo » , dated 397, which formula being on a tombstone found in Rome , must , as De Rossi concludes, refer to one of those long vanished bishoprics within the im- mediate environs of that capital — certainly not to the prin- cipal See itself, never occupied by either Pope or antipope RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS 583 of the name Pascasius. So late as the VI century the high position of the Roman PontifT was to that degree recognised and prescribed that we need not be surprised to find its dis- tinct announcement in the beautiful epitaph of Pope Boni- face I 'ob. 532) : « Sedis Apostolicge primajvis miles ab annis Post etiam toto Prajsul in orbe sacer. Quis te sancte Pater cum Christo nesciat esse Splendida quem tecum vita fuisse probat? » — only four or five words of which are now left in its place in the S. Peter's crypt ; but the whole is fortunately preserved, copied from the original , by Gruter and Mabillon. No well-read person could question the antiquity of prayer for the dead , founded on Hebrew precedent, harmonious with the practice of almost all ancient religions, and adopted by the Church at a period when her apostolic system yet shone forth in pure resplendence ; and perhaps if the clergy had never accepted payment for such services , nor lowered an office of sublime charity to the vulgar business-level where things done stand in one score, emolument in another, no serious objection to such intercessory devotions would have arisen or been justified. But too apparent is it that excessive confidence in their efficacy, and reliance on the benefits obtain- able through the Requiem Masses , have proved a source of scandalous abuse and unspiritual superstition , oflfering temp- tation to that avarice, which at last filled to overflowing the cup of provocations against reason , justly vindicated , in this respect at least, by Luther. After looking over the 1374 epi- tai)hs in De Rossi's compiliation , I must own that I fail to find any example of prayer referring to the state of the dead in the invisible life, in this whole series. Wherever the cus- tomary formula « in pace » is allied with a verb, and that verb is not (as indeed is often the case) mutilated at the end. 584 RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS the sense is not optative , but past or future ; the past being the tense of the verb in the great majority, the indicative the mood in all instances , with obvious allusion to the religious calm of life or blessed serenity in death ; as where the else- where isolated formula is explained by the context : « In pace qui vixit » — « in pace recessit » ■ — « dormit , requievit , in pace » — « hie jacet, requiescit, in pace » — (f in pace vixit » — « depo>itus, dif(functus) in pace » — « dormit in pace » ; and in one curious example of Latinity, « in somno palcis ». In regard , however, to such controverted questions as Prayer for the Dead and Invocation of Saints, it would be disingen- uous to pass over the other set of evidences from the same monumental range, which certainly show us the nucleus, or originating sentiment , out of which those observances rose into their august solemnity. From the epigraphic series might be culled some of striking import, not supplied by De Rossi in the first volume of his great work , but found in Boldetti , or Muratori , and reproduced in the valuable « Dictionnaire » of Martigny : « In orationibus tuis roges pro nobis qui scimus te in (followed by the monogram for « Christo »] — vivas in Deo et roga, — pete pro filiis tuis, — pete et roga pro fratres et soboles tuos (sic) »; also the following, that remarkably combines both the religious ideas in question : « Domina Bas- silia commendamus tibi Crescentinus et Micina filia nostra Crescens que vixit men. x et dies », (Lateran Museum), — the touching invocation to a saint Bassilia , from a father and mother, on behalf of their lost infant. Other important testi- mony to the idea and feeling in regard to the dead , is that which implies general belief that all those for whom there was reason to entertain hope had passed immediately into beatitude; and whatever maybe urged in justification of the doctrine of Purgatory, however soothing , and accordant with attributes of Divine mercy belief in such expiatorial state may be , this voice from the primitive Church should not the less excite our reverent al attention to its calm utterance re- specting such solemn interests. A few, out of many examples RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS 585 to the purpose, are as follows: « Dum casta Afrodita fecit ad astra viam — Christi modo gaudet in aula. — Restitit haec mundo semper coeleslia quaerens ;to a female of twenty-one years, date 38 1 ) — « Tuus spiritus a carne recedens est sociatus Sanctis pro meritis. — Corporeos rumpens nexus qui gaudet in astris. — Cujus spiritus in luce Domini receptus est » ; also the metrical epitaph to a wife and mother , aged thirty-eight, A. D. 392 : « Non tamen hsec tristes habitat post liraina sedes Proxima sed Christo sidera celsa tenet ». And to this series I may add one that derives interest from connection with the most beautiful early Christian sculptures extant, on the sarcophagus (in the Vatican crypt) of Junius Bassus, Prefect of Rome, who died a neophyte, at the age of forty -two , A. D. 339, « Neofitus iit ad Deum viii. Kal. Sept. » Generally we find a character of modest reserve , spon- taneous and simple utterance in these epitaphs. Before the phra- se <(in pace» had become an established formula, and indeed after its common adoption , no other expression — scarcely can we say, any style — marks the composition ; and but for the chiselled symbol, many tombstones from catacombs might have answered for the Pagan dead. Ideas distinguishingly Christian appear indeed in many tributes to virtue or piety, where we recognize an informing principle foreign to all hea- then panegyric, e. g. : « In simplicitate vixit; amicus pau- perum,innocentium raisericors; spectabilis et penitens ». And there is touching significance in the use of the term « natus » referring to the day of baptism ; of « puer », often applied to persons of quite mature age, but youthful in the life of faith. Names also grarluully indicate the novel direction of mind — as those met with in the fourth century : Adeodatus, Rederap- tus, Decentia. « Maria », following the name Livia, occurs first in the year 381, and again do we find the former repeated twice between 536 — 538 ; but remembering how that sweet name 586 RETROSPECT OF ROMAN CATACOMBS has since, in most natural Christian preference, been given in many countries to males as well as females, must we not here perceive a tacit evidence — slight in itself, but sig- nificant in association with other clearer tokens — to dissent, inferable in such comparative neglect, from those absorbing devotional regards now encouraged towards her the most blessed of women ever so called upon earth ! It would perhaps be scarce possible for any mind so to cast aside bias and prepossession as to form for itself the ideal of a Christian Church founded exclusively upon the records from the past that meet us in catacombs. But I believe the impartial and calmly adopted conviction would assume that in the worship of such a Church all should revolve round a mystic centre of sacramental ordinances , to which teach- ing and ceremonial should be secondary and auxiliary ; that in her discipline should be combined the hierarchic w ith the democratic , apostolic authority with apostolic equality among the rulers of this Israel , popular co-operation with deference to sacred prescription; that her ritual should be such as to correspond to the demands of our aesthetic nature , to admit all the beautiful that may serve as index or foreshadowing of the True, to be a noble presentment to the eye as well as appeal to the heart and mind ; and that her doctrine , worthily em- bodied in her rites, should, above all, direct religious regards to our one Mediator and perfect Intercessor, without rejecting the idea of saints who for ever adore, and the incense of whose prayer may ascend for the whole company of believers in that invisible world where we have no authority for devotional address to them in our supplications ; — should especially centre all hope as well as faith upon Him , the Way , the Truth, and the Life, our absolute dependence upon Whom seems the great leading lesson conveyed by this aggregate of Christian Monuments (1]. [\ ) Originally published in the Ecclesiologisl. APPENDIX SUPPBESSIOX OF BELIGIOIS OBOERm. On the 4 9th of June 66 , the Bill for the total suppression of monasteries and convents was passed by the Chamber of Deputies, at Florence, after long debate; 179 voting for, 45 against it. Accord- ing to its provisions the cloistral buildings are to be appropriated as schools , hospitals , poor-houses , or infant asylums ; but if not so utilized within a year , to be aggregated to the property forming the fund for expenses of public worship , the cassa ecclesiastica ; the members of the several communities to be pensioned at rates va- rying , according to age and station , between 96 and 600 francs per annum. In the course of the debate exemption was proposed , but in vain , for the Tuscan Camaldoli , and for the entire orders of Hos- pitallers , founded by St. John Calabita, and sisters of Charity ; yet, .strange to say, not one voice arose to assert the claims, deserving respect by so many titles from the past , of Monto Cassino , Val- lombrosa , La Cava , Monrealc. The Sicilian deputies were strongest in opposition , and with particular reference to the conditions of that island , where the suppression , they represented, would be unpop- ular and prejudicial. The first article of this law , gazetted with 588 APPENDIX the royal signature, under date 7th July '66, is as follows: — « Re- ligious orders , corporations , and congregations , regular or secul- ar, as also conservatories and asylums which maintain the com- munity-life , and have the ecclesiastical character , are no longer recognised in the State ; the houses and establishments pertaining to such orders, corporations ec. , are suppressed ». Then follow the terms of the provision made for individuals quitting the cloisters. All the staple property of the suppressed bodies devolves to the State ; but places of worship, together with works of art, vestments, and sacred furniture therein contained, will be left to be applied to the same uses as formerly. Books, MSS., scientific documents, archives, all objects valuable for artistic or antiquarian character, not pertain- ing to their churches , will be transferred to the public libraries or museums in the several provinces by decree of the Ministry of Worship in accord with that of Public Instruction. A clause, hu- mane in purport, allows such females as so desire to spend the remainder of life in their cloisters, provided they apply for express permission ; and those who have brought dowries into the cloister to receive pensions at 6 to 28 per cent , according to age, upon the capital paid in by them. Another clause that refers to renowned establishments in whose fate interest may be felt , and has lately been expressed, in distant countries, is as follows: « Government ViiW provide for preservation of the ed fices , with their premises , libraries, archives , objects of art, scientific and all similar instru- ments, of the Monte Cassino Abbey, of La Cava, of San Martino della Scala , of Monreale, and the Certosa near Pavia ; also of other similar ecclesiastical establishments distinguished for monumental im- portance or for any aggregate of artistic and literary wealth ». For the rest, the vacated buildings will be conceded to the magistracies of the several provinces, if demand be made before the end of a year, to be appropriated as above particularized ; those premises already destined for the care of the infirm , or for public tuition , to be as- APPENDIX 589 signed to the communes in whose territories they stand. Under these enactments, therefore , will a much honoured ancient system, with its venerable institutions of piety and charily, so many of which had birth in this land, be swept away throughout the Italian king- dom before the end of the year 1866 I The iRonr Cnownr of Italy. This object, with all the others in the sacred treasury of Monza, was recovered by the chapter of the basilica in 1344, after having been long in possession of the Popes at Avignon ; and the archbish- op of Milan afterwards engaged a sculptor, Braccioforte of Piacenza, to restore these precious things , many of which had been broken or otherwise injured (See Tiraboschi). The restitution of the Crown, has been stipulated in the negotiations for peace between Italy and Austria subsequent to the late war. Canoivizatioiv. Modern historians agree in concluding that the first regular canonization by a Pope was not that of Swidbert, as Baronius nar- rates , but that of Ulrich , Archbishop of Augsburg , so honoured by Pope John XV, in January 993 ; and it was through effect of ^is act on the part of the Roman Pontiff that individuals were proposed to the cultus of the whole Church , instead of , as in earlier cases , after like sentence from other prelates , to honours limited within a .single diocese. INDEX Abbots and Abbesses, 283. — of Monte Cassino, 296, 536. Achiropiton , or miraculous im- age, 462. Adrian I , Pope , Mi . — 11,536. Agapae , 44 , 162. Aeapitus (P.) , 235. Agathon (P.) , 403. Agriculture, promoted by monks, 286. — on the Roman Cam- pagna , 479. Alaric'at Rome , 1"9. Alboin , king of the Longobards, 413. Alexander I S. P.) 20. Altar of Victory, 100. Altars , in ancient churches, 35, 433, 56i. Ambrogio ( S. , basilica, Milan, 556." Ambrose (S.), 107, 112, 170. Anastasius , his biography of Popes ,515. Anslo Saxons , their conversion, 326. Antipopes, 150, 192 , 197 , 231 , 403, 468. Apollinaris (S.), 342. ApoUinare (S.), basilica , Raven- na , 349. — Nuovo, Ravenna, 369. Aqueducts , restored bv Popes , 478. Arator , his poetry, 2'7. Arch of Constantine, 86. Archbishops of Ravenna , 345 , 402, 512. — of Milan, 5-55. Archiepi-copal Palace, Ravenna, 360. Architecture of ancient Basilicas, 128, 131, 219. — of Longobards. 420. — of Carlovini;ian pe- riod , 420, 561 . of Northern Italv , 557. Astolphus, king of Longobards, 461 . Asvlum , privilege of, 142, 393. Attiia in Italy. 182. Augustine (S.), his « Citv of God )), 188. Aucustulus, last Emperor of the West , 185. 38 594 INDEX Baptism , ritual of, 16i. Baptislerv of Lateran , 212. — ' of Ravenna, 35o, 365. — of Florence , 423. — of Boloena , 492. Basilian Order . 272. Belisariiis at Rome. 23C, 239. Bells in cliurciies, 196, 273. Benedict I (P.) , 253. Benedict IIi (P.), 508. Benedict (SJ, 196. _ hisfiiiurein Art, 30!. Bible, the LatinVulgate , 15i. Bishops of primitive Church, 139. Boetius, his wrilings and death, 260. Boniface I fS. P.\ 192. — Ill, 392. — IV, 384. _ Y, 393. Bulgarians , converted by a pic- ture , oil. Cajus (S. P.) , 48. Canonization 529, 589. Callixtus I ;S. P.\ 2i. Cardinals , the Sacred College , 14, 16, 196, 530. Cassiodorus , his writings. 259. Catacombs of Rome, 47, 256, 570. — sepulture in , 152. — restored in YI centu- ry, 233, 256. — despoiled by Longo- bards, 41'^. — of Naples and Syra- cuse, 77, 560. Catholic Church , established by law, 111. Celibacy, 21, 93, 154, 581. Chapel of St. Peler Chrysologus, Ravenna , 379. — S. Maria ad Praesepe , in St. Peter's , 435 — of the Holy Column , 544. Charities of the Church, ^2 , 191, 232, 284, 559. — of Popes, 315, 466,479, 514. Charlemagne at Rome, 473. 477, 484. Charlemagne, his successors, 531 , 553. " Clement I (S. P.), 17. Coins of Popes , 487, 499. Column .;f Phocas, 378. .Conclave. 15, 16. Vionfession, 163, 527, 528. Consfans II, at Rome, 400. Consfantine, the Great, his con- version , 87. — his victory over Maxenlius , 88. — his edict of toleration , 91. — transfers the seat of Empire , 101. Constantine , Pope, 446. — An ti pope , 460. Constantius, Emperor, at Rome, 102. Consuls of Rome , 444. Consulate, abolition of, 45, 255. Coronati-nof Emperors by Popes, 234, 507, 522, 552. — of Charlemagne, 484. — of Alfred the Great , 507. of Popes , 515. — of Images . 560. Costume, laic , .302, 547. Council of Ephesus, 41, 193. — of Carthage , 200. — in Trullo , 394. — of Ravenna , 526. Councils of Nicaea , !14l, 453, 479. — painted in churches , 442. Cornelius (S. P.) , 22. Cross, the True, discovery of, 99.. — recovered by Reraclius , 405. Crown the Iron, of Italy, 426,589. — of Agilulph , 429. Croziers , 160. Crucifix , introduced in worship, and Art , 531 • — caricatured by Pagans,. 27. Curia , or Pontific Court , 391 , 444. > .N I) E X 595 Dalmatic at St, Peter's for coru- nalions , ool. Damasus (S. P), 450. Decretals of Isidore, 514. Desiclerius , king of Longobards, 466. Dialogues of S. Gregory, 324, 430. Diplycti of .\.^iltru(la , 534. Discipline of primitive Church , 132 , 581. — in Vll century, 431. — in IX century, 527, 550. Domnus (P.), 401. Donation of Liutprand to the Pope , 454. — of Pepin , 465. — of Charlemagne , 475. — of Louis ttie Pious, 555. Donations to churches , 98, -134, 199, 232. 429, 501, 504. Dukes of Home , 443, 447. — of xNapIes, 519. Ecclesiastical Polity, '1 39. Election of Popes ,"'13, 396, 402, 479, 502, 521. — ofl}ishops, 140,232, 333, 411. — of Abbots, 296, 536. Elias , represented in Art, 43, 351 . Kpiirraphs, Christian, 45, 68, m, 580. Eucharist, t e Holy Sacrament, represented in Art, 43, 573. — its reservation and ce- lebration , 161 , ''63. Eugenius I (P.), 399. Eugeuius 1 . 500. Evanjielists , their Emblems in Art , 87, 575. Eulvchiiiiuis (S. V:^ , i\. Evarislus (S. P.) , 20. lixarchale of Uavenna, 249, 343, 402. I'lxconimunication , 170, 472. Felix II (P), 10. 148. IV P.), 234 Festival of SS. Peter and Paul, 1 — of S. Cecilia, 72. Fe.slival of Candlemas , 466. — of S Alexander, 218. _ of All Sainl^, 384. — of Pentecost 385. Fleet, the Pontine , 518. Formosus (P.) , 521. Forum of Trajan , 102, 156. Funerals, 164. Galerius , his edict in favour of Christians , 126. fialla Placidia , her character , 3n6. Gates of Rome, restored by Be- lisarius , 248. GolasiusI (S. P.); 195. Gladiators, their combats prohib- iteil, 115, 11 '. Gospels, the apocryphal. 468. Gregory S ) of Tours, his writ- ings, 265. Gregory 1 (S. P. , the Great, 310. 388, 391. — II 448. — Ill, 448, 4^)6. — IV, 501. Heretics, their punishment, 111. Hermits, 168. Holy Week , 198, 3 '3. Honorius Emperor, at Rome, 113. Honorius I, (P ), 393. Hormisdas, (P.), 233. Hymns, 170, 323, 565. Iconoclast Schism , 447. — suppression of 527. Images, honour paid to them, 3S9, 4*'>3, 531. — of I lie Blessed Virgin , 318, 3 6, 4 0, 453. Innocent I S. P.), 191. Invasions of Ilalv, 176, 181 , 186 249, 254, 413. Joannes DiaconushiswritiuLis, 565. Joan, the fahulous /^i;>-vn^;, 508. John (S.) /he i;nvang(.'lisl, basil- ica, Ravenna . 360. John (S. P.) I. 234. _ 111, 2")3. — IV, 399. 598 1 NPEX John (S P.) VI, 44G. — MI. 455, 44G. — VIII, 516 ^ IX 525. Julian the Apostate, 401. Julius I, (S. P.), 'IW. Justinian, his cliaracter, 369. JuvencAis, his poetry, ■109. Keys and Banner, presented by Popes to Princes, 437. Kings of Italy, 479. Labarum, tlie sacred standard, 89. Lars'f'sses to populace in Rome , 475. Lateran Palace, 94, 520. — Triclinium 437. Laws of Christian Emperors, 91, 92, 104, -109, 185. — of Longobards, 420- Legends of S. Peter, G. — of S Cecilia, 7, 548. — of S. Agnes 7. — of S, Cement, 17. — of the death of Julian , 105. — of the Libenan Basilica (S. Maria Mageiore), 149. — of S Sylvester, ^55. — of Constantine, 157. — of the Nicene Council , 159. — of S. Paulinus, 192. — of the Blessed Virgin , 168 203, 224, 266. — of the punishment of Theodoric, 263, 324. — of the Seven Sleepers , 263. — of SS. Cosmo and Da- mian, 2C4. — of the Relics of S. Ste- phen, 264' — of the Castle of S. An- gelo, 317. — of the salvation of Tra- jan, 32 >. — of the banquet of Sa nt Gregory, 330. — of the portraits of Ibe Sav;our , 3i5, 453, 462. Legends of S. John and Galla Pla- cidia, 358. — of the Salvation of Dago- bert, 411. — of the Destroying Angel at Rome, 408. — of the Holy Column, 544. — of S. Antoninus of Sor- rento, 560. Leo V, the Iconoclast Emperor, 447. Leo 1 (S. P.), the Great, 181. — II, 402. — HI, 479. — IV 504. Leonine City, 504. Libraries in^talv, '^9'i, 401,864. Lights in churches, 160, '98, 388. Literature in the IV century, 167. ~ in the V century, 257. — in the VI century, 257. — in tiie Vllcentury,411. — in the Mil and IX centuries, 565 Liturgies, the ancient, 161, 333. — theAmbrosian, 159. .556. Longobards, invade Italy. 294. — fall of their kingdom 477. Lucca, churches, 492. Lupercal', Pagan festival of, 120. Mamertine Prisons, 6- Marce linus (S. P.), 142. Marcus Aurelius, 33. Martin I (S. P.), 397. Martin S.) of Tours, 270 Martyr of the Colosseum, 115. Martyrs, their numbers, 25, 75. Mary , the Blessi^d Virgin , in pVimitive art, 41, 204. — lier worship established , 122, 202, 353. Mass, its composition and author- ship, 159 388. — frequency of celebrations, 162, 529. — celebrated by the Pope. 488 Mausoleum of Constantia, 83. — of S. Helena, 84. — of Hadrian, 230, 237. _ of Galla Placidia, 257. I iN D E X o97 Mausoleuiii of Theoloric, 366. — of Uoimilus so-called) 410. Metallurizy, 370, oo8. Milan, destroyed in the VI cen- tury, 2^8;' ils churches, 556. Mitresi Victor III 314 (I. ^3; » diaconal i) subdiaconal 386 (1. 47) » is » so 402 (1. 40) dele to 428 (1. 48) » lamina read laminae 442 n Stephen 11 » Stephen III 448 » A. D. 631 » 73 f 504 (1. 41) » even J) e^er 520 » Stephen V » Stephen VI 530 (1. . 3) » Pointoise » Pontoise iVB. In note to page 415 , add, after enumeration of cities, « all (except Ancona ) ». COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 0035518243 T'' r r^ o m vO m ro