"La petite chambre de S. Stanislas Kostka, est un de ces lieux où la prière naît spontanément dans le cœur, et s'en échappe comme par un cours naturel."—Veuillot, Parfum de Rome.[233]
In the convent garden is shown the fountain where "the angels used to bathe the breast of S. Stanislas burning with the love of Christ."
Passing the Benedictine convent, with a courtyard containing an old sarcophagus as a fountain, and a humble church decorated with rude frescoes of St. Benedict and Sta. Scholastica, we reach a small and popular church, rich in marbles, belonging to the Perpetua Adoratrice del Divin Sacramento del Altare, founded by sister Maddalena of the Incarnation, who died 1829, and is buried on the right of the entrance. Here the low monotonous chant of the perpetual adoration may be constantly heard.
The Piazza of the Monte Cavallo has in its centre the red granite obelisk (ninety-five feet high with its base) erected here by Antinori in 1781, for Pius VI. It was originally brought from Egypt by Claudius, A.D. 57, together with the obelisk now in front of Sta. Maria Maggiore, and they were both first placed at the entrance of the mausoleum of Augustus. At its base are the colossal statues found in the baths of Constantine, of the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux reining in their horses. These statues give a name to the district. Their bases bear the names of Phidias and Praxiteles, and though their claim to be the work of such distinguished sculptors is doubtful, they are certainly of Greek origin. Copies of these statues at Berlin have received the nicknames of Gehemmter Fortschritt, and Beförderter Rückschritt,—Progress checked and Retrogression encouraged.
"At the time when the Mirabilia Romæ were published, that is, about the thirteenth century, these statues were believed to represent the young philosophers, Praxiteles and Phidias, who came to Rome during the reign of Tiberius, and promised to tell him his most secret words and actions provided he would honour them with a monument. Having performed their promise, they obtained these statues, which represent them naked, because all human science was naked and open to their eyes. From this fable, wild and absurd as it is, we may nevertheless draw the inference that the statues had been handed down from time immemorial as the works of Phidias and Praxiteles, though those artists had in the lapse of ages been metamorphosed into philosophers. May we not also assume the existence of a tradition that the statues were brought to Rome in the reign of Tiberius? In the middle ages the group appears to have been accompanied by a statue of Medusa, sitting at their feet, and having before her a shell. According to the text of the Mirabilia, as given by Montfaucon in his Diarium Italicum, this figure represented the Church. The snakes which surrounded her typified the volumes of Scripture, which nobody could approach unless he had first been washed—that is, baptized—in the water of the shell. But the Prague MS. of the Mirabilia interprets the female figure to represent Science, and the serpents to typify the disputed questions with which she is concerned."—Dyer's Hist. of the City of Rome.
"L'imitation du grand style de Phidias est visible dans plusieurs sculptures qu'il a inspirées, et surtout dans les colosses de Castor et Pollux, domptant des chevaux, qui ont fait donner à une partie du mont Quirinal le nom de Monte Cavallo.
"Il ne faut faire aucune attention aux inscriptions qui attribuent un des deux colosses à Phidias et l'autre à Praxitèle, Praxitèle dont le style n'a rien à faire ici; son nom a été inscrit sur la base de l'une des deux statues, comme Phèdre le reprochait déjà à des faussaires du temps d'Auguste, qui croyaient augmenter le mérite d'un nouvel ouvrage en y mettant le nom de Praxitèle. Quelle que soit l'époque où les colosses de Monte Cavallo ont été exécutés, malgré quelques différences, on doit affirmer que les deux originaux étaient de la même école, de l'école de Phidias."—Ampère, Hist. Romaine, iii. 252.
"Chacun des deux héros dompte d'une seule main un cheval fougueux qui se cabre. Ces formes colossales, cette lutte de l'homme avec les animaux, donnent, comme tous les ouvrages des anciens, une admirable idée de la puissance physique de la nature humaine."—Mad. de Staël.
"Before me were the two Monte Cavallo statues, towering gigantically above the pygmies of the present day, and looking like Titans in the act of threatening heaven. Over my head the stars were just beginning to look out, and might have been taken for guardian angels keeping watch over the temples below. Behind, and on my left, were palaces; on my right, gardens, and hills beyond, with the orange tints of sunset over them still glowing in the distance. Within a stone's throw of me, in the midst of objects thus glorious in themselves, and thus in harmony with each other, was stuck an unplaned post, on which glimmered a paper lantern. Such is Rome."—Guesses at Truth.
Close by is a fountain playing into a fine bason of Egyptian granite, brought hither by Pius VII. from the Forum, where it had long been used for watering cattle.
On the left, is the Palace of the Consulta, built in 1730 by Clement XII. (Corsini), from designs of Fuga. Before its gates, under the old regime, some of the Papal Guardia Nobile were always to be seen sunning themselves in a uniform so resplendent that it could scarcely be believed that the pay of this "noble guard" of the Pope amounted only to £5 6s. 3d. a month!
On the right, is the immense Palace of the Quirinal, which also extends along one whole side of the street we have been pursuing.
"That palace-building, ruin-destroying pope, Paul IV., began to erect the enormous palace on the Quirinal Hill; and the prolongation of his labours, by a long series of successive pontiffs, has made it one of the largest and ugliest buildings extant."—Eaton's Rome.
The chief, indeed almost the only, interest of this palace arises from its having been the favourite residence of Pius VII. (Chiaramonte). It was here that he was taken prisoner by the French. General Radet forced his way into the pope's room on the night of June 6, 1809, and, while excusing himself for being the messenger, hastily intimated to the pontiff, in the name of the emperor, that he must at once abdicate his temporal sovereignty. Pius absolutely refused, upon which he was forced to descend the staircase, and found a coach waiting at the entrance of the palace. Here the pope paused, his face streaming with tears, and, standing in the starlit piazza, solemnly extended his arms in benediction over his sleeping people. Then he entered the carriage, followed by Cardinal Pacca, and was hurried away to exile.... "Whirled away through the heat and dust of an Italian summer's day, without an attendant, without linen, without his spectacles—fevered and wearied, he never for a moment lost his serenity. Cardinal Pacca tells us, that when they had just started on this most dismal of journeys, the pope asked him if he had any money. The secretary of state replied that he had had no opportunity of providing himself. 'We then drew forth our purses,' continues the cardinal, 'and notwithstanding the state of affliction we were in at being thus torn away from Rome, and all that was dear to us, we could hardly compose our countenances, on finding the contents of each purse to consist—of the pope's, of a papetto (10d.), and of mine, of three grossi (7½d.). We had precisely thirty-five baiocchi between us. The pope, extending his hand, showed his papetto to General Radet, saying, at the same time, 'Look here—this is all I possess.'"[234].... Six years after, Napoleon was sent to St. Helena, and Pius VII. returned in triumph to Rome!
It was from this same palace that Pius IX.—who has never inhabited it since—made his escape to Gaeta during the revolution of 1848, when the siege of the Quirinal by the insurgents had succeeded in extorting the appointment of a democratic ministry.
"On the afternoon of the 24th of November, the Duc d'Harcourt had arrived at the Quirinal in his coach as ambassador of France, and craved an audience of the sovereign. The guards wondered that he stayed so long; but they knew not that he sat reading the newspapers in the papal study, while the pope had retired to his bed-room to change his dress. Here his major-domo, Filippani, had laid out the black cassock and dress of an ordinary priest. The pontiff took off his purple stole and white pontifical robe, and came forth in the simple garb he had worn in his quiet youth. The Duc d'Harcourt threw himself on his knees exclaiming, 'Go forth, holy Father; divine wisdom inspires this counsel, divine power will lead it to a happy end.' By secret passages and narrow staircases, Pius IX. and his trusty servant passed unseen to a little door, used only occasionally for the Swiss guards, and by which they were to leave the palace. They reached it, and bethought them that the key had been forgotten! Filippani hastened back to the papal apartment to fetch it; and returning unquestioned to the wicket, found the pontiff on his knees, and quite absorbed in prayer. The wards were rusty, and the key turned with difficulty; but the door was opened at last, and the holy fugitive and his servant quickly entered a poor hackney coach that was waiting for them outside. Here, again, they ran risk of being discovered through the thoughtless adherence to old etiquette of the other servant, who stood by the coach, and who, having let down the steps, knelt, as usual, before he shut the door.
"The pope wore a dark great coat over his priest's cassock, a low-crowned round hat, and a broad brown woollen neckcloth outside his straight Roman collar. Filippani had on his usual loose cloak; but under this he carried the three-cornered hat of the pope, a bundle of the most private and secret papers, the papal seals, the breviary, the cross-embroidered slippers, a small quantity of linen, and a little box full of gold medals stamped with the likeness of his Holiness. From the inside of the carriage, he directed the coachman to follow many winding and diverging streets, in the hope of misleading the spies, who were known to swarm at every corner. Beside the Church of SS. Pietro e Marcellino, in the deserted quarter beyond the Coliseum, they found the Bavarian minister, Count Spaur, waiting in his own private carriage, and imagining every danger which could have detained them so long. The sovereign pressed the hand of his faithful Filippani, and entered the Count's carriage. Silently they drove on through the old gate of Rome,—Count Spaur having there shown the passport of the Bavarian minister going to Naples on affairs of state.
"Meanwhile the Duc d'Harcourt grew tired of reading the newspapers in the pope's study; and when he thought that his Holiness must be far beyond the walls of Rome, he left the palace, and taking post-horses, hastened with all speed to overtake the fugitive on the road to Civita Vecchia, whither he believed him to be flying. As he left the study in the Quirinal, a prelate entered with a large bundle of ecclesiastical papers, on which, he said, he had to confer with the pope; then his chamberlain went in to read to him his breviary, and the office of the day. The rooms were lighted up, and the supper taken in as usual; and at length it was stated that his Holiness, feeling somewhat unwell, had retired to rest; and his attendants, and the guard of honour, were dismissed for the night. It is true that a certain prelate, who chanced to see the little door by which the fugitive had escaped into the street left open, began to cry out, 'The pope has escaped! the pope has escaped!' But Prince Gabrielli was beside him; and, clapping his hand upon the mouth of the alarmist, silenced him in time, by whispering, 'Be quiet, Monsignore; be quiet, or we shall be cut to pieces!'
"Near La Riccia, the fugitives found Countess Spaur (who had arranged the whole plan of the escape) waiting with a coach and six horses—in which they pursued their journey to Gaeta, reaching the Neapolitan frontier between five and six in the morning. The pope throughout carried with him the sacrament in the pyx which Pius the Seventh carried when he was taken prisoner to France, and which, as if with prescience of what would happen, had been lately sent to him as a memorial by the Bishop of Avignon."—Beste.
It is in the Quirinal Palace that the later conclaves have always met for the election of the popes.
"In the afternoon of the last day of the novendiali, as they are called, after the death of a pope, the cardinals assemble (at S. Sylvestro a Monte Cavallo), and walk in procession, accompanied by their conclavisti, a secretary, a chaplain, and a servant or two, to the great gate of the royal residence, in which one will remain as master and supreme lord. Of course the hill is crowded by persons, lining the avenue kept open for the procession. Cardinals never before seen by them, or not for many years, pass before them; eager eyes scan and measure them, and try to conjecture, from fancied omens in eye, in figure, or in expression, who will be shortly the sovereign of their fair city; and, what is much more, the head of the Catholic Church, from the rising to the setting sun. They all enter equal over the threshold of that gate: they share together the supreme rule, spiritual and temporal: there is still embosomed in them all, the voice yet silent, that will soon sound from one tongue over all the world, and the dormant germ of that authority which will soon again be concentrated in one man alone. To-day they are all equal; perhaps to-morrow one will sit enthroned, and all the rest will kiss his feet; one will be sovereign, and others his subjects; one the shepherd, and the others his flock.
* * * * * * * *
"From the Quirinal Palace stretches out, the length of a whole street, an immense wing, divided in its two upper floors into a great number of small but complete suites of apartments, occupied permanently, or occasionally, by persons attached to the Court. During conclave these are allotted, literally so, to the cardinals, each of whom lives apart with his own attendants. His food is brought daily from his own house, and is overhauled, and delivered to him in the shape of 'broken victuals,' by the watchful guardians of the turns and lattices, through which alone anything, even conversation, can penetrate into the seclusion of that sacred retreat. For a few hours, the first evening, the doors are left open, and the nobility, the diplomatic body, and, in fact, all presentable persons, may roam from cell to cell, paying a brief compliment to its occupant, perhaps speaking the same good wishes to fifty, which they know can only be accomplished in one. After that, all is closed; a wicket is left accessible for any cardinal to enter, who is not yet arrived; but every aperture is jealously guarded by faithful janitors, judges and prelates of various tribunals, who relieve one another. Every letter even is opened and read, that no communications may be held with the outer world. The very street on which the wing of the conclave looks is barricaded and guarded by a picquet at each end; and as, fortunately, opposite there are no private residences, and all the buildings have access from the back, no inconvenience is thereby created.... In the mean time, within, and unseen from without, fervet opus.
"Twice a day the cardinals meet in the chapel belonging to the palace, included in the enclosure, and there, on tickets so arranged that the voter's name cannot be seen, write the name of him for whom they give their suffrage. These papers are examined in their presence, and if the number of votes given to any one do not constitute the majority, they are burnt in such a manner that the smoke, issuing through a flue, is visible to the crowd usually assembled in the square outside. Some day, instead of this usual signal to disperse, the sound of pick and hammer is heard, a small opening is seen in the wall which had temporarily blocked up the great window over the palace gateway. At last the masons of the conclave have opened a rude door, through which steps out on the balcony the first Cardinal Deacon, and proclaims to the many, or to the few, who may happen to be in waiting, that they again possess a sovereign and a pontiff."—Cardinal Wiseman.
"Sais-tu ce que c'est qu'un conclave? Une réunion de vieillards, moins occupés du ciel que de la terre, et dont quelques-uns se font plus maladifs, plus goutteux, et plus cacochymes qu'ils ne le sont encore, dans l'espérance d'inspirer un vif interêt à leurs partisans. Grand nombre d'éminences ne renonçant jamais à la possibilité d'une élection, le rival le plus près de la tombe excite toujours le moins de répugnance. Un rhumatisme est ici un titre à la confiance; l'hydropisie a ses partisans: car l'ambition et la mort comptent sur les mêmes chances. Le cercueil sert comme de marchepied au trône; et il y a tel pieux candidat qui négocierait avec son concurrent, si la durée du nouveau règne pouvait avoir son terme obligatoire comme celui d'un effet de commerce. Eh! ne sais-tu pas toi-même que le pâtre d'Ancône brûla gaiement ses béquilles dès qu'il eut ceint la tiare; et que Léon X., élu à trente-huit ans, avait eu grand soin de ne guérir d'un mal mortel que le lendemain de son couronnement?"—Lorenzo Ganganelli (Clement XIV.) à Carlo Bertinazzi, Avril 16, 1769.
Under the rule of the Popes the palace was shown from 12 A.M. to 4 P.M. on presentation of a ticket, which could easily be obtained through a banker. It was stripped of all historical memorials and contained very few fine pictures, so was little worth visiting. Since the winter of 1870—71 the palace has been appropriated as the residence of the Sardinian Royal Family.
On the landing of the principal staircase, in a bad light, is a very important fresco by Melozzo da Forli, a rare master of the Paduan school.[235]
"On the vaulted ceiling of a chapel in the Church of the SS. Apostoli at Rome, Melozzo executed a work (1472) which, in those times, can have admitted of comparison with few. When the chapel was rebuilt in the eighteenth century some fragments were saved. That comprehending the Creator between angels was removed to a staircase in the Quirinal palace, while single figures of angels were placed in the sacristy of St. Peter's. These detached portions suffice to show a beauty and fulness of form, and a combination of earthly and spiritual grandeur, comparable in their way to the noblest productions of Titian, although in mode of execution rather recalling Coreggio. Here, as in the cupola frescoes of Coreggio himself, half a century later, we trace that constant effort at true perspective of the figure, hardly in character, perhaps, with high ecclesiastical art; the drapery, also, is of a somewhat formless description; but the grandeur of the principal figure, the grace and freshness of the little adoring cherubs, and the elevated beauty of the angels are expressed with an easy naïveté, to which only the best works of Mantegna and Signorelli can compare."—Kugler.
Passing through a great hall, one hundred and ninety feet long, we are shown a number of rooms fitted up by Pius VII. and Gregory XVI. for the papal summer residence. They contain few objects of interest. In one chamber is a Last Supper by Baroccio;—in the next a fine tapestry representing the marriage of Louis XIV. The following rooms contain some good Gobelin tapestries.
Several apartments have mosaic pavements, brought hither from pagan edifices. The chamber is shown in which Pius VII. died,—the bed has been changed. In the next room—an audience chamber—he was taken prisoner. Here is a curious ancient pietra-dura of the Annunciation,—the ceiling is painted by Overbeck. In one of the following rooms are some pictures, including—
S. Giorgio: Pordenone.
"One picture especially attracted me at the Quirinal; a St. George, the conqueror of the dragon, and deliverer of the maiden. No one could tell me the name of the master, till a modest little man stepped forward, and told me the picture was by Pordenone the Venetian, one of his best works, showing all his merits. This quite explained my liking for it; the picture had struck me, because being best acquainted with the Venetian school, I could best appreciate the merits of one of its masters."—Goethe, Romische Briefe.
Marriage of S. Catherine: Battoni.
St. Peter and St. Paul: Fra Bartolomeo.
"The two standing figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, as large as life, were executed during a short residence in Rome. The first was completed by Raphael after Fra Bartolomeo's departure."—Kugler.
The room which is decorated with a fine modern tapestry of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, has a plaster frieze, being the original cast of the Triumph of Alexander the Great, modelled for Napoleon by Thorwaldsen. One of the last rooms shown is a kind of picture gallery. Among the best works here are:—
Saul and David: Guercino.
Ecce Homo: Domenichino.
St. Jerome: Spagnoletto.
The Flight into Egypt: Baroccio.
Here also is a worthless picture of the Battle of Mentana, presented to Pius IX. by the English Catholic ladies.
The Private Chapel of the Pope, opening from this gallery, contains a magnificent picture of the Annunciation by Guido, and frescoes of the life of the Virgin by Albani. The great hall of the Consistory, a bare room with benches, has a fresco of the Virgin and Child by Carlo Maratta, over an altar.
The Gardens of the Quirinal can be visited with an order from 8 to 12 A.M. They are in the stiff style of box hedges and clipped avenues, which seems to belong especially to Rome, and which we know to have been popular here even in imperial times. Pliny, in his account of his Tusculan villa, describes his gardens decorated with "figures of different animals, cut in box: evergreens clipped into a thousand different shapes; sometimes into letters forming different names; walls and hedges of cut box, and trees twisted into a variety of forms." But the Quirinal gardens are also worth visiting, on account of the many pretty glimpses they afford of St. Peter's and other distant buildings, and the oddity of some of the devices—an organ played by water, &c. The Casino, built by Fuga, has frescoes by Orizonti, Pompeo Battoni, and Pannini.
If we turn to the left on issuing from the palace, we reach—on the left—the entrance to the courtyard of the vast Palazzo Rospigliosi, built by Flaminio Ponzio, in 1603, for Cardinal Scipio Borghese, on a portion of the site of the Baths of Constantine. It was inhabited by Cardinal Bentivoglio, and sold by him to Cardinal Mazarin, who enlarged it from designs of Carlo Maderno. From his time to 1704 it was inhabited by French ambassadors, and it then passed to the Rospigliosi family. The present Prince Rospigliosi inhabits the second floor, his brother, Prince Pallavicini, the first.
The palace itself (well known from its hospitalities) is not shown, but the Casino is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It is situated at the end of a very small but pretty garden planted with magnolias, and consists of three chambers. On the roof of the central room is the famous Aurora of Guido.
"Guido's Aurora is the very type of haste and impetus; for surely no man ever imagined such hurry and tumult, such sounding and clashing. Painters maintain that it is lighted from two sides,—they have my full permission to light theirs from three if it will improve them, but the difference lies elsewhere."—Mendelssohn's Letters, p. 91.
"This is the noblest work of Guido. It is embodied poetry. The Hours, that hand in hand encircle the car of Phœbus, advance with rapid pace. The paler, milder forms of those gentle sisters who rule over declining day, and the glowing glance of those who bask in the meridian blaze, resplendent in the hues of heaven,—are of no mortal grace and beauty; but they are eclipsed by Aurora herself, who sails on the golden clouds before them, shedding 'showers of shadowing roses' on the rejoicing earth; her celestial presence diffusing gladness, and light, and beauty around. Above the heads of the heavenly coursers, hovers the morning star, in the form of a youthful cherub, bearing his flaming torch. Nothing is more admirable in this beautiful composition than the motion given to the whole. The smooth and rapid step of the circling Hours as they tread on the fleecy clouds; the fiery steeds; the whirling wheels of the car; the torch of Lucifer, blown back by the velocity of his advance; and the form of Aurora, borne through the ambient air, till you almost fear she should float from your sight."—Eaton's Rome.
"The work of Guido is more poetic than that of Guercino, and luminous, and soft, and harmonious. Cupid, Aurora, Phœbus, form a climax of beauty, and the Hours seem as light as the clouds on which they dance."—Forsyth.
Lanzi points out that Guido always took the Venus de Medici and the Niobe as his favourite models, and that there is scarcely one of his large pictures in which the Niobe or one of her sons is not introduced, yet with such dexterity, that the theft is scarcely perceptible.
The frescoes of the frieze are by Tempesta; the landscapes by Paul Brill. In the hall are busts, statues, and a bronze horse found in the ruins of the Baths.
There is a small collection of pictures—the only work of real importance being the beautiful Daniele di Volterra of our Saviour bearing his cross, in the room on the left. In the same room are two large pictures, David triumphing with the head of Goliath, Domenichino; and Perseus rescuing Andromeda, Guido. In the room on the right are, Adam gathering fig-leaves for Eve, in a Paradise which is crowded with animals like a menagerie, Domenichino; and Samson pulling down the pillars upon the Philistines, Ludovico Caracci.
A second small garden belonging to this palace is well worth seeing in May from the wealth of camellias, azaleas, and roses, with which it is filled.
Opposite the Rospigliosi Palace, by ringing at a gate in the wall, we gain admission to the Colonna Gardens (connected with the palace in the Piazza SS. Apostoli, by a series of bridges across the intervening street). Here, on a lofty terrace which has a fine view towards the Capitol, and overshadowed by grand cypresses, are the colossal remains of the Temple of the Sun (huge fragments of cornice) built by Aurelian (A.D. 270—75). At the other end of the terrace, looking down through two barns into a kind of pit, we can see some remains of the Baths of Constantine—built A.D. 326—and of the great staircase which led up to them from the valley below. The portico of these baths remained erect till the time of Clement XII. (1730—40), and was adorned with four marble statues, of which two—those of the two Constantines—may now be seen on the terrace of the Capitol.
Beneath the magnificent cypress-trees on the slope of the hill are several fine sarcophagi. Only the stem is preserved of the grand historical pine-tree, which was planted on the day on which Cola di Rienzi died, and which was one of the great ornaments of the city till 1848, when it was broken in a storm.
Just beyond the end of the garden, are the great Convent and Church of S. Silvestro a Monte Cavallo—belonging to the Missionaries of St. Vincent de Paul—in which the Cardinals meet before going in procession to the Conclave. It contains a few rather good pictures. The cupola of the second chapel has frescoes by Domenichino, of David dancing before the Ark,—the Queen of Sheba and Solomon,—Judith with the head of Holofernes,—and Esther fainting before Ahasueras. These are considered by Lanzi as some of the finest frescoes of the master. In the left transept is a chapel containing a picture of the Assumption, painted on slate, considered the masterpiece of Scipione Gaetani. The last chapel but one on the left has a ceiling by Cav. d'Arpino, and frescoes on the walls by Polidoro da Caravaggio. The picture over the altar, representing St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena, is by Mariotto Albertinelli. Cardinal Bentivoglio—who wrote the history of the wars in Flanders, and lived in the Rospigliosi Palace—is buried here.
We now reach the height of Maganaopoli, from which the isthmus which joined the Quirinal to the Capitoline was cut away by Trajan. Here is a cross-ways. On the right is a descent to the Forum of Trajan, at the side of which is the villa of Cardinal Antonelli, and beyond it, the handsome modern palace of Count Trapani, cousin to the King of Naples.
Opposite, is the Church of Sta. Caterina di Siena, possessing some frescoes attributed, on doubtful grounds, to the rare master Timoteo della Vite. Adjoining, is a large convent, enclosed within the precincts of which is the tall brick mediæval tower, sometimes called the Tower of Nero, but generally known as the Torre delle Milizie, i.e. the Roman Militia. It was erected by the sons of Peter Alexius, a baron attached to the party of the Senator Pandolfo de Suburra. The lower part is said to have been built in 1210, the upper in 1294 and 1330.
"People pass through two regular courses of study at Rome,—the first in learning, and the second in unlearning.
"'This is the tower of Nero, from which he saw the city in flames,—and this is the temple of Concord,—and this is the temple of Castor and Pollux,—and this is the temple of Vesta,—and these are the baths of Paulus-Æmilius,'—and so on, says your lacquey.
"'This is not the tower of Nero,—nor that the temple of Castor and Pollux,—nor the other the temple of Concord,—nor are any of these things what they are called,' says your antiquary."—Eaton's Rome.
The Convent of Sta. Caterina was built by the celebrated Vittoria Colonna, who requested the advice of Michael Angelo on the subject, and was told that she had better make the ancient "Torre" into a belfry. A very curious account of the interview in which this subject was discussed, and which took place in the Church of S. Silvestro a Monte Cavallo, is left us in the memoirs of Francesco d'Olanda, a Portuguese painter, who was himself present at the conversation.
Near this point are two other fine mediæval towers. One is to the right of the descent to the Forum of Trajan, being that of the Colonnas, now called Tor di Babele, ornamented with three beautiful fragments of sculptured frieze, one of them bearing the device of the Colonna, a crowned column rising from a wreath. The other tower, immediately facing us, is called Torre del Grillo, from the ancient family of that name.
Opposite Sta. Caterina is the handsome Church of SS. Domenico e Sisto, approached by a good double twisted staircase. Over the second altar on the left is a picture of the marriage of St. Catherine by Allegrani, and, on the anniversary of her (visionary) marriage (July 19), the dried hand of the saint is exhibited here to the unspeakable comfort of the faithful.
Turning by this church into the Via Maganaopoli (formerly Baganaopoli, a corruption of Balnea Pauli—Baths of Emilius Paulus), we pass on the left the Palazzo Aldobrandini, with a bright pleasant-looking court and handsome fountain. The present Prince Aldobrandini is brother of Prince Borghese. Of this family was S. Pietro Aldobrandini, generally known as S. Pietro Igneo, who was canonized because, in 1067, he walked unhurt, crucifix in hand, through a burning fiery furnace ten feet long before the church door of Settimo, near Florence, to prove an accusation of simony which he had brought against Pietro di Pavia, bishop of that city.
In the Via di Mazzarini, in the hollow between the Quirinal and Viminal, is the Convent of Sta. Agata in Suburra, through the courtyard of which we enter the Church of Sta. Agata dei Goti. A tradition declares that this (like S. Sabba on the Aventine) is on the site of a house of Sta. Silvia, mother of St. Gregory the Great, who consecrated the church after it had been plundered by the Goths, and dedicated it to Sta. Agata. It was rebuilt by Ricimer, the king-maker, in A.D. 472. Twelve ancient granite columns and a handsome opus-alexandrinum pavement are its only signs of antiquity. The church now belongs to the Irish Seminary. In the left aisle is the monument of Daniel O'Connell, with bas-reliefs by Benzoni, inscribed:—
"This monument contains the heart of O'Connell, who dying at Genoa on his way to the Eternal City, bequeathed his soul to God, his body to Ireland, and his heart to Rome. He is represented at the bar of the British House of Commons in MDCCCXXIII., when he refused to take the anti-catholic declaration, in these remarkable words—'I at once reject this declaration; part of it I believe to be untrue, and the rest I know to be false.' He was born vi. Aug. MDCCLXXVI., and died xv. May, MDCCCXLVIII. Erected by Charles Bianconi, the faithful friend of the immortal liberator, and of Ireland the land of his adoption."
At the end of the left aisle is a chapel, which Cardinal Antonelli (who has his palace near this) decorated, 1863, with frescoes and arabesques as a burial-place for his family. In the opposite chapel is a gilt figure of Sta. Agata carrying her breasts—showing the manner in which she suffered.
"Agatha was a maiden of Catania, in Sicily, whither Decius the emperor sent Quintianus as governor. He, inflamed by the beauty of Agatha, tempted her with rich gifts and promises, but she repulsed him with disdain. Then Quintianus ordered her to be bound and beaten with rods, and sent two of his slaves to tear her bosom with iron shears, and as her blood flowed forth, she said to him, 'O thou cruel tyrant! art thou not ashamed to treat me thus—hast thou not thyself been fed at thy mother's breasts?' Thus only did she murmur. And in the night a venerable man came to her, bearing a vase of ointment, and before him walked a youth bearing a torch. It was the holy apostle Peter, and the youth was an angel; but Agatha knew it not; though such a glorious light filled the prison, that the guards fled in terror.... Then St. Peter made himself known and ministered to her, restoring with heavenly balm her wounded breasts.
"Quintianus, infuriated, demanded who had healed her. She replied, 'He whom I confess and adore with heart and lips, he hath sent his apostle who hath healed me.' Then Quintianus caused her to be thrown bound upon a great fire, but instantly an earthquake arose, and the people in terror cried, 'This visitation is sent because of the sufferings of the maiden Agatha.' So he caused her to be taken from the fire, and carried back to prison, where she prayed aloud that having now proved her faith, she might be freed from pain and see the glory of God;—and her prayer was answered and her spirit instantly departed into eternal glory, Feb. 5, A.D. 251."—From the "Legende delle SS. Vergini."
Agatha (patroness of Catania) is one of the saints most reverenced by the Roman people. On the 5th of February her vespers are sung here, which contain the antiphons:—
"Who art thou that art come to heal my wounds?—I am an apostle of Christ, doubt not concerning me, my daughter.
"Medicine for the body have I never used; but I have the Lord Jesus Christ, who with his word alone restoreth all things.
"I render thanks to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, for that thou hast been mindful of me, and hast sent thine apostle to heal my wounds.
"I bless thee, O Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, because through thine apostle thou hast restored my breasts to me.
"Him who hath vouchsafed to heal me of every wound, and to restore to me my breasts, him do I invoke, even the living God.
* * * * * * *
"Blessed Agatha, standing in her prison, stretched forth her hands and prayed unto the Lord, saying, 'O Lord Jesus Christ, my good master, I thank thee because thou hast given me strength to overcome the tortures of the executioners; and now, Lord, speak the word, that I may depart hence to thy glory which fadeth not away."
The tomb of John Lascaris (a refugee from Constantinople when taken by the Turks) has—in Greek—the inscription:—
"Lascaris lies here in a foreign grave; but, stranger, that does not disturb him, rather does he rejoice; yet he is not without sorrow, as a Grecian, that his fatherland will not bestow upon him the freedom of a grave."
Passing the great Convent of S. Bernardino Senensis, we reach the Via dei Serpenti, interesting as occupying the supposed site of the Vallis Quirinalis, where Julius Proculus, returning from Alba Longa, encountered the ghost of Romulus:
Turning to the right down the Via dei Serpenti, we reach the Piazza Sta. Maria in Monti, containing a fountain, and a church dedicated to SS. Sergius and Bacchus, two martyrs who suffered under Maximian at Rasapha in Syria.
One side of this piazza is occupied by the Church of Sta. Maria in Monti, in which is deposited a figure of the beggar Labre (canonized by Pius IX. in 1860), dressed in the gown of a mendicant-pilgrim, which he wore when living. Over the altar is a picture of him in the Coliseum, distributing to his fellow-beggars the alms which he had obtained. His fête is observed here on April 16. (At No. 3 Via dei Serpenti, one may visit the chamber in which Labre died—and in the Via dei Crociferi, near the fountain of Trevi, a chapel containing many of his relics,—the bed on which he died, the crucifix which he wore in his bosom, &c.)
"Benoît Joseph Labre naquit en 1748 dans le diocèse de Boulogne (France) de parents chrétiens et jouissant d'une modeste aisance. D'une piété vive et tendre, il voulut d'abord se faire religieux; mais sa santé ne put résister, ni aux règles des Chartreux, ni à celles des Trappistes, chez lesquels il entra successivement. Il fut alors sollicité intérieurement, est il dit dans la notice sur sa vie, de mener une vie de pénitence et de charité au milieu du siècle. Pendant sept années, il parcourut en pèlerin-mendiant, les sanctuaires de la Vierge les plus vénérés de toute l'Europe; on a calculé qu'il fit, à pied, plus de cinq mille lieues, pendant ces sept années.
"En 1777, il revint en Italie, pour ne plus en sortir. Il habitait Rome, faisant seulement une fois chaque année, le pèlerinage de Lorète. Il passait une grande partie de ses journées dans les églises, mendiait, et faisait des œuvres de charité. Il couchait quelquefois sous le portique des églises, et le plus souvent au Colysée derrière la petite chapelle de la cinquième station du chemin de la croix. L'église qu'il fréquentait le plus, était celle de Ste. Marie des Monts; le 16 Avril, 1783, après y avoir prié fort longtemps, en sortant, il tomba, comme évanoui, sur les marches du péristyle de l'église. On le transporta dans une maison voisine, où il mourut le soir."—Une Année à Rome.
Almost opposite this church, a narrow alley, which appears to be a cul-de-sac ending in a picture of the Crucifixion, is in reality the approach to the carefully concealed Convent of the Farnesiani Nuns, generally known as the Sepolte Vive. The only means of communicating with them is by rapping on a barrel which projects from a wall on a platform above the roofs of the houses,—when a muffled voice is heard from the interior,—and if your references are satisfactory, the barrel turns round and eventually discloses a key by which the initiated can admit themselves to a small chamber in the interior of the convent. Over its door is an inscription, bidding those who enter that chamber to leave all worldly thoughts behind them. Round the walls are inscribed,—"Qui non diligit, manet in morti."—"Militia est vita hominis super terram."—"Alter alterius onera portate"; and, on the other side, opposite the door,
In one of the walls is an opening with a double grille, beyond which is a metal plate, pierced with holes like the rose of a watering-pot. It is beyond this grille and behind this plate, that the abbess of the Sepolte Vive receives her visitors, but she is even then veiled from head to foot in heavy folds of thick bure. Gregory XVI., who of course could penetrate within the convent and who wished to try her, said, "Sorella mia, levate il velo." "No, mio padre," she replied, "E vietato dalla nostra regola."
The nuns of the Sepolte Vive are never seen again after they once assume the black veil, though they are allowed double the ordinary noviciate. They never hear anything of the outer world, even of the deaths of their nearest relations. Daily, they are said to dig their own graves and lie down in them, and their remaining hours are occupied in perpetual and monotonous adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Returning as far as the Via Pane e Perna (a continuation of the Via Maganaopoli) we ascend the slope of the Viminal Hill, now with difficulty to be distinguished from the Quirinal. It derives its name from vimina, osiers, and was once probably covered with woods, since a temple of Sylvanus or Pan was one of several which adorned its principal street—the Vicus Longus—the site of which is now marked by the countrified lane called Via S. Vitale. This end of the hill is crowned by the Church of S. Lorenzo Pane e Perna, built on the site of the martyrdom of the deacon St. Laurence, who suffered under Claudius II., in A.D. 264, for refusing to give up the goods of the Church. Over the altar is a huge fresco, representing the saint extended upon a red-hot gridiron, and below—entered from the exterior of the church—a crypt is shown as the scene of his cruel sufferings.[236]
"Blessed Laurentius, as he lay stretched and burning on the gridiron, said to the impious tyrant, 'The meat is done, make haste hither and eat. As for the treasures of the Church which you seek, the hands of the poor have carried them to a heavenly treasury.'"—Antiphon of St. Laurence.
The funeral of St. Bridget of Sweden took place in this church, July 1373, but after resting here for a year, her body was removed by her son to the monastery of Wastein in Sweden.
Under the second altar on the right are shown the relics of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian, "two holy brothers, who departed from Rome with St. Denis to preach the Gospel in France, where, after the example of St. Paul, they laboured with their hands, being by trade shoemakers. And these good saints made shoes for the poor without fee or reward (for which the angels supplied them with leather), until, denounced as Christians, they suffered martyrdom at Soissons, being, after many tortures, beheaded by the sword (A.D. 300)."[237] The festival of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian is held on October 25, the anniversary of the battle of Agincourt.
Throughout the middle ages the statues of Posidippus and Menander, now in the gallery of statues at the Vatican, were kissed and worshipped in this church under the impression that they represented saints (see Ch. XV.). They were found on this site, which was once occupied by the baths of Olympias, daughter-in-law of Constantine.
The strange name of the church, Pane e Perna, is supposed to have had its origin in a dole of bread and ham once given at the door of the adjacent convent. In the garden belonging to the convent is a mediæval house of c. 1200. The campanile is of 1450.
The small neighbouring Church of S. Lorenzo in Fonte covers the site of the prison of St. Lawrence, and a fountain is shown there as that in which he baptized Vicus Patricius and his daughter Lucilla, whom he miraculously raised from the dead.
Descending the hill below the church—in the valley between the Esquiline and Viminal—we reach at the corner of the street a spot of preëminent historical interest, as that where Servius Tullius was killed, and where Tullia (B.C. 535) drove in her chariot over the dead body of her father. The Vicus Urbius by which the old king had reached the spot is now represented by the Via Urbana; the Vicus Cyprius, by which he was about to ascend to the palace on the hill Cispius, by the Via di Sta. Maria Maggiore.