Walks in Rome

maso in Formis-Villa Mattei-Sta. Maria della Navicella-S

ain of Egeria to the Convent of S. Gregorio. It is now entirely uninhabited, except by monks of th

received its name of C?lius from C?lius Vibenna, an Etruscan Lucumo of Ardea, who is said to have come to the assistance of Romulus in his war against the Sabine king Tatius, and to have after

and which had been already burnt by Clodius, in order to destroy the records of his falsehoods and debts which it contained.[156] Some small remains in the garden of the Passionist convent are attributed to the temple which Agrippina raised to her husband the Emperor Claudius, and in S. Stefano Rotondo some antiquaries recognize the Macellum of Nero. There are

nearness to one another, brings them pleasantly within the limits of a single day's excursion. Many of those who are not mere passing visitors at Rome, will probably find that their chi

brings forward from many well-remembered nooks, every local inscription, every lovely monument of art, the characteristic feature of each, or the great names with which it is associated. The Liberian speaks to you of Bethlehem and its treasured mysteries; the Sessorian of Calvary and its touching relics. Baronius gives you his injunctions on Christian architecture inscribed, as a legacy, in his title of Fasciola; St. Dominic lives in the fresh paintings of a faithful disciple, on the walls of the opposite church of St. Xystus; there stands the chair and there hangs

f porphyry,-the old frescoes dropping from the walls,-the everlasting colossal mosaics looking down so solemn, so dim, so spectral;-these grow upon us, until at each succeeding visit they themselves, and the associations by which they are surrounded, become a part of our daily life, and may be said to hallow that daily life when considered in a right spirit. True, what is most sacred, what is most poetical, is often desecrated to the fancy by the intrusion of those

co di San Gregorio,-planted by the French during their first occupation of Rome, but which may

ome, for it was at the head of these steps that St. Augustine took his last farewell of Gregory the Great, and, kneeling on this green-sward below, the first missionaries of England received the p

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e s'élève le mont Palatin, berceau de Rome pa?enne, encore couvert des vastes débris du palais des Césars.... Où est donc l'Anglais digne de ce nom qui, en portant son regard du Palatin au Colisée, pourrait contempler sans émotion ce coin de terre d'où lui sont venus la foi, le nom chrétien et la Bible dont il est si fier. Voilà où les enfants esclaves de ses a?eux étaient recueillis et sauvés! Sur ces pierres s'ag

swer him in person from her picture before which he knelt. "To this monastery he presented his own portrait, with those of his father and mother, which were probably in existence 300 years after his death; and this portrait of himself probably furnished that peculiar type of physiognomy which we trace in all the best representations of him."[160] During the life of penance and poverty which was led here by St. Gregory, he sold all his goods for the benefit of the poor, re

es hommes avec le Pape Léon Ier qui ait re?u à la fois, du consentement universel, le double surnom de Saint et de Grand, sera l'eternel honneur de l'Ordre bénédictin comme de la papauté. Par son génie, mais surtout par le charme et l'ascendant de sa vertu, il organisera le domaine temporel des papes, il développera et régularisera

specting the divorce of Henry VIII. from Catherine of Arragon, ambassador to Charles V., and afterwards to the court of Rome. He was recalled when the embassy was suppressed by Elizabeth, but was kep

cum patriam suam a fede catholica deficientem adspicere sine summo dolore non posset, relictis omnibus qu? in hac vita carissima esse so

jects, who was abbot of the adjoining convent. It was a curious characteristic of the laxity of morals in the time of Julius II. (1503-13), that her friends did not hesitate to bury the famous Aspasia of that age in this chu

lder, and whispering into his ear. This is commemorative of the impression that every word and act of the saint was directly inspired by the Holy Ghost; a belief first engendered by the happy promptitude of Peter, his arch-deacon, who invented the story to save the beloved library of his master which was about to be destroyed after his death by the people, in a p

cell of St. Gregory, containing his marble ch

vigil longo hi

dica membra

minute relics of saints are exposed

of Annibale Caracci's picture of St. Gregory, which once existed here, but is now in England. On the right is the picture of the Madonna, "which spoke to St. Gr

to the Garden of Sta. Silvia, whence there

ith the rush of thoughts. There, before us, the Palatine Hill-pagan Rome in the dust; here, the little cell, a few feet square, where slept in sackcloth

statues of saints in Rome. The second chapel, of St. Andrew, contains the two famous rival frescoes of Guido and Domenichino. Guido has represented St. Andrew kneeling in reverent thankfulness at first sight of the cross on which he was to suffer; Domenichino-a more painful subject-the flagellation of the saint. Of these pa

. It is added that when Annibale Caracci heard of this, it seemed to him in itself a sufficient reason for giving the preference to the former work. It is also said that when Domenichino was painting one of the executioners, he worked himself up into a fury with threat

character of beauty. Thus, in the scourging of St. Andrew, a group of women thrust back by the executioners is of the highest beauty. Guido's fresco is of high merit-St. Andrew

le at which he daily fed twelve poor pilgrims after washing their feet. The Roman breviary tells how on one occasion an angel appeared at the feast as the thirt

e of St. Gregory it belonged to the Benedictines. In its situation it is beautiful and quiet, and must have

toujours nouveau par sa croissance quotidienne. Ma pauvre ame se rappelle ce qu'elle était autrefois, dans notre monastère, quand elle planait sur tout ce qui passe, sur tout ce qui change; quand elle ne songeait qu'au ciel; quand elle franchissait par la contemplation le clo?tre de ce corps qui l'enserre; quand elle aimait d'avance la mort comme l'entrée de la vie. Et maintenant il lui faut, à cause de ma charge pastorale, supporter les mille affaires des hommes du siècle et se souiller dans cet

words to his cardinals, who were imploring him, for political purposes, to conceal his danger, were singularly expressive of this-"Per Dio lasciatemi!-voglio morire da frate, non da sovrano." The la

bring them to public martyrdom, lest their popularity should cause a rebellion and the example of their well-known fortitude be an encouragement to others, sent off soldiers to behead them privately in their own house. Hence the inscription on the spot, "Locus martyrii SS. Joannis et Paoli in ?dibus propriis." The church was built by Pammachus, the friend of St. Jerome, on the site of the house of the saints. It is entered by a portico adorned with eight ancient granite columns, interesting as having been erected by the English pope, Nicholas Breakspear, A.D. 1158. The interior, in the basilica form, has sixteen ancient columns and a beau

ath the altar on the left of the tribune is preserved the embalmed body of St. Paul of the Cross (who died 1776), founder of the Order of Passionists, w

built by Agrippina (c. A.D. 57), daughter of Germanicus, to the honour of her deified husband (and uncle) Claudius, after she had sent him to Olympus by feeding him with poisonous mushrooms. This temple was pulled down by Nero, who wished to efface the memory of his predecessor, on the pretext t

ime of Pope Gregory the Great, that the eve of their festival was an obligatory fast. Their fête (June 26) is still kept with great solemnities on the C?li

A.D. 10, by the consuls P. Cornelius Dolabella and Caius Julius Silanus. Nero, building his aqueduct to

e came to reside here he had been miraculously brought from Tunis (whither he had gone on a mission) to Ostia, in a

s, and which contains an isolated fragment of the aqueduct of Nero, dear to artists from its colour. Behind this, under the trees, is the little marble Navicella, which is supposed to hav

other words, of the Church, which is saved by the wood on which hung the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.' The same interpretation was recognised in the Latin Church in the days of Tertullian and St. Cyprian, &c. The bark of St. Peter is similarly represented on a Greek gem, found in the Catacombs, as sailing on a fish, probably Leviathan or Satan, while doves, emblematical of the faithful, perch on the ma

black man. The bishop of Paris sent him to Rome to seek explanation from Innocent III., who was celebrated as an interpreter of dreams,-his foundation of the Franciscan order having resulted from one which befell him. S. Giovanni was accompanied to the pope by another hermit, Felix de Valois. They found that Innocent had himself seen the same vision of the angel b

the Redemptorists. (The villa is now the property of Baron Richard Hoffmann

a terrace whence there is a most beautiful view towards the aqueducts and the Alban Hills, with a noble sarcophagus and a quantity of fine aloes and prickly-pears in the foreground. There is an obelisk, of which only the top is Egyptian. It

ilt by Leo X. from designs of Raphael) is solemn and striking. It is in the basilica form, the nave separated from the aisles by eighteen columns of granite and one (smaller, near the tribune) of porphyry. The frieze, in chiaroscuro, was painted by Giulio Romano and Pierino del Vaga. Beneath the confessiona

bus, surrounded with two angels and the twelve apostles, and further below, on a much larger scale, two prophets, who appear to point towards him. The most remarkable thing here is the rich foliage decoration. Besides the wreaths of flowers (otherwise not a rare feature) w

marble monument that stands on the grass before its portal, a remnant of bygone days, to which neither history nor tradition has given a

martyr, daily distributed alms to the poor in front of this chur

r 26), but visitors are admitted through a little cloister, in which stands a well of beautiful proportions, of temp. Leo X.-attributed to Michael Angelo. The interior is exceedingly curious architecturally. It is one hundred and thirty-three feet in diameter, with a double circle of granite columns, thirty-six in the outer and twen

them is represented lying on each side of the cross. Next comes the stoning of St. Stephen, and the frescoes continue to pourtray every phase of human agony in th

St. Peter,

ul, be

le, buri

a, tossed

se, beate

ocessus, and Mart

othed in skins of beasts a

boiled in oil (which he su

s, Pope,

eaded (and car

illa, roa

and Achille

, Bishop of Antioch, eaten

ied to an anchor and

hop of Jerusal

ista, and his children Agapita and Theophista

der, Pope,

lius- St. Sinforosa, drowned, and he

, Pope,

er seven sons marty

tus, be

on a rack, and torn to

rus- St. Blandina, tos

roasted on

and others,

la- SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, tor

hyrinus, Leonida a

a, covered wit

alixtus, Pope, thrown into a w

rough Rome by wild horses,

, torn with

be suffocated with hot wate

ibertius, Valerianus,

lienus- St. Pontianus, P

, her brea

s, Popes, and St. Cypri

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d Sennen, to

t, after all her te

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ha, torn

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us, torn by

Semula, drown

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hree hundred Christia

an, burnt wi

esius,

Olympius, and

with a huge weight

children, martyred

and Justin

e, killed wi

urning charcoal. Inscribed above are these words from Wisdom, 'Properavit ut educeret illu

lumba,

us and Daria,

anus- St. Agnes, bound to a

s, Pope,

tia, stone

ation of Nicomedia mar

coffin, into which bo

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, burnt wit

is companions, martyr

, burnt on

d Felicianus,

rock? SS. Quattro Incoronat

d Marcellinu

ed in a dungeon fu

up in a well f

run through

us, and Crescenti

ot with arrows (w

Saturninus, Susanna, Gornius, Adr

rine of Alexandria, and ot

firius, burnt with a

ope, died worn o

ius- St. Simon and 1600 c

nd forty soldiers, left to die, u

postate-o SS. John

crushed betw

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death, and thrown for fo

Church includes English sufferers under Elizabeth), and above is inscribed this

vie pour racheter la péché, il verra une postérité sans fin.' Et quelle postérité! Hommes, femmes, vieillards,

a vie, les chrétiens divinisèr

s gospel. Neither do I think that we consider the excellence of this martyr-spirit half enough. I do not think pleasure is a sin: the stoics of old, and the ascetic Christians since, who have said so (see the answers of that excellent man, Pope Gregory the Great, to Augustine's questions, as given at length by Bede), have, in saying so, outstepped the simplicity and wisdom of Christian truth. But, though pleasure is not a sin, yet surely the contemplation of suffering for Christ's sake is a thing most needful to us in our days, from whom, in our daily life, suffering seems so far removed. And, as God's grace enabled rich and delicate persons, women, and even children, to endure all extremities of pain and reproach in times past, so there is the same grace no less mighty now, and if we do not close ourselves against it, it might in us be no less glorifi

lum Augusti. S'il en est ainsi, les supplices des martyrs, hideusement représentés s

ated to SS. Primus and Felicianus,

d between two standing figures of St. Primus and St. Felicianus. On the upper end of the cross (very tastefully introdu

iful tomb of Bernardino Capella, C

ood among the gardens in this neigh

ce créatrice de l'homme. Le désir des Pères du concile lui ayant été manifesté, il prit aussit?t une plume, écrivit en tête de son cahier, 'Mon Dieu, éclairez-moi,' et se mit à l'?uvre avec un saint enthousiasme. Ses premiers efforts ne répondirent pas à l'idéal que son génie s'était formé; mais peu à peu ses pensées s'éclaircirent, et les flots de poésie qui

i Quattro Incoronati crowned by a stumpy campanile of 1112. The full title of this church is "I Santi quattro Pittori Incoronati e i cinque Scultori Martiri," the names which the Church attributes to the painters being Severus, S

rch itself was once of larger size, and that the pillars which now form its atrium were once included in the nave. The interior is arranged on the English plan with a triforium and a clerestory, the triforium being occupied by the nuns of the adjoining convent. The aisles are groined, but the nave has a wooden ceiling. Behind the tribune is a vault

vides veteri

s, ederis, dum

little Chapel of S. Sylvestro, built by Innocent II.

certain dignity in some of the figures, constitutes their sole attraction. They are indeed little better than Chinese paintings; the last of the series, representing Constantine leading Pope

cte; we see that saint before the emperor, exhibiting to him the authentic portraits of the two apostles (said to be still preserved at St. Peter's), pictures in which Constantine at once recognises the forms seen in his vision, assuming them to be gods entitled to his worship; we see the imperial baptism, with a background of fantastic architecture, the rite administered both by immersion (the neophyte standing in an ample font) and affusion; we see the pope on a throne, before which the emperor is kneeling, to offer him a tiara-no doubt the artist intended thus to imply the immediate bestowal of temporal sovereignty (very generally believed the act of Constantine in the first flush of his gratitude and neophyte zeal) upon the papacy; lastly, we see the pon

s represented taking off the crown of thorns and putting o

church, and was used as a papal palace while the Lateran was in ruins, hence its defensive asp

leading from the Coliseum to the Lateran, is the Church of S. Clemen

ourer of St Paul, and the third bishop of Rome, upon the site of his family house. It was already important in the time of Gregory the Great, who here read his thirty-third and thirty-eighth homilies. It was altered by Adrian I. in A.D. 772, and by Jo

is the entrance to the nave, separated from its aisles by sixteen columns evidently plundered from pagan buildings. Raised above t

e portico, the cancellum, the ambones, paschal candlestick, crypt, and ciborium-virgin and intact; the wooden roof has unfortunately disappeared, and a small chapel, dedicated to St. Catherine, has been added, yet even this is atoned for by

scoes of Masaccio, which, though restored, are very beautiful-over the altar is

therine is still most striking in the gra

of the Emperor Constantine

window seated inside a prison, and the empress is seated outsid

ed, and her soul is carri

fair and girlish, dressed with great simplicity in a tunic and girdle,-no crown, nor any other attribute. The sages are ranged on each side, some lost in thought, others in astonishment,

ed from the wheels, whic

gels lay her in a sarcophagus on the summit of

to his renown, that he painted, in the Church of San Clemente-the chapel which now so usually disappoints the expectations of the traveller, on account of the successive restorations by which his work has been disfigured.... The heavy brush wh

of St. John the Baptist is by Simone, brother of Donatello. Beneath the altar repose the relic

are in dust, y

uth; as if the

seeds of life b

struggling till

learn with rev

ouses, though th

ge his cunning

th;-but they are

Newman

vives douleurs qu'il endurait. Chaque fidèle lui donnait, et le paralytique distribuait à son tour, aux malheureux ce qu'il avait re?u de la compassion publique. Lorsqu'il mourut, son corps fut

tribune are well

en and birds, introduced amidst the mazy vine-foliage; and at the basement, the four mystic rivers, with stags and peacocks drinking at their streams. The figure of St. Dominic is a modern addition. It seems evident, from characteristics of style, that the other mosaics here, above the apsidal arch, and at the spandrils, are more ancient, perhaps by about a century; these latter representing the Saviour in benediction, the four Evangelic emblems, St. Peter and St. Clement, St. Paul and St. Laurence seated; t

e Virgin," because the figure of the Virgin is elevated above the other apostles, though she is evidently intent on watching the retreating figure of her divine Son-in this fresco the figure of a pope is introduced (with the square nimbus, showing that it was painted in his lifetime), and the inscription "Sanctissimus dominus, Leo Papa Romanus," probably Leo III. or Leo IV.; the Maries at the sepulchre; the descent into Hades; the Marriage of Cana; the Funeral of St. Cyril with Pope Nicholas I. (858-67) walking in the procession; and, the most interesting of all-probably

of the people, who cried with one voice, "What evil has he done, or rather what good has he not done?" Clement was then condemned to exile in the Chersonese,

of the Son of God. The enthusiasm which these marvels excited led Trajan to send executioners, by whom he was tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea. But his disciples, kneeling on the shore, prayed that his relics might be given up to them, when the wave