y^' THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS IN EOME. BY THE RIGHT REV. WM. INGRAHAM KIP, D. D., BISHOP OF CALIFORNIA. ■ rcrum pulcherrima, Roma. ViRG. Georg. ii. 534. E. P. DUTTON AND CO]MPANY. BOSTON: 135 WASHINGTON STREET. NEW YORK: 762 BRO.\DWAV. 1860. Kntered accordiug to Act of Congress, iu the year 1868, by E. P. DUITOX AND COMPANr, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Alassachusetts RITERSIDE. CAMBETDGE : STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY K. 0. HOCGIITON ASD COMPAXT. To ^ THE COMPANION OF THESE WANDEKINGS, ^ HER HUSBAND ■<3: az cex Zj inscribes this volumr " Why, wedded to the Lord, still yearna my heart Upon these scenes of ancient heathen fame? Yet legend hoar, and voice of bard that came Fixing my restless youth with its sweet art, And shades of power, and those who bore their part In the mad deeds that set the world in flame, To fret my memory here— ah I is it blame That from my eye the tear is fain to start? Nay, from no fount impure these drops arise; 'Tis but the sympathy with Adam's race, Which in each brother's history reads its own." — Ltjra ApostoUca. PREFACE To have seen Rome is a great fiict in an individ- al's life. So it appeared to the writer of these pages, when wandering among her mighty ruins, finding everywhere the bright pictures of youthful imagina- tion surpassed. Cicero in his day declared, — " We are surrounded by the vestiges of history." How then should we feel when, standing on the same spot, we realize that eighteen centuiies have since added their relics ! The title of this volume does not perhaps, give an adequate idea of its contents. The writer was led to adopt it, because his primary object in visit- ing Rome at that season, was to witness the Christ- mas services. His residence there was, however, prolonged through the greater part of the winter, all of which time was occupied in diligent study of the inexhaustible objects around him. To attempt a de- scription of one half, in a work of this size, would be in vain ; he has therefore only selected from his notes written on the spot, some of those things which excited the greatest interest in his own mind. vi PREFACE. It will be seen that while he has paid some atten- tion to the antiquities of the eity and the classical associations connected with them, he has dwelt par- ticularly upon Ecclesiastical matters relating to the Church of Rome. And in this respect, he thinks the work will dilfer from most of those on the same sub- ject. Travellers seem generally to have given only a one-sided view of the Papal Church. Some were ready to commend everythmg, and others, on the contrary, saw nothing good in the whole system, — no rite or service which did not shock some violent prejudice. Now in this, as in everything else, there is a proper medium. The Church of Rome is indeed deformed by many fearfol errors, which often strike at the very cardinal doctrines of our faith, but she has also retained much that is Catholic. Were it not so, that mighty Hierarchy could not have subsisted for so many centuries, through every change and convul- sion ; winning to its spiritual sway, the crowds of northern barbarians which swept over the city ; and even at the present day, drawing to itself pros- elytes in lands, where intellectual and spiritual free- dom give every opportunity for the thorough discus- sion of this subject. These are the veiy things which render the system so dangerous, enabling it to charm the imagination and retain its hold upon the human mind, Avhile its influence is withering to the best interests of our race. The writer has, therefore, endeavored to look at the Church of Rome without PREFACE. vii prejudice, and while his investigation strengthened tlie unfavorable view he before had of the practical working of that system, he still has not withheld his tribute of ])raise from anything he saw which was truly Catholic. He has been obliged to write this volume entirely durino; the last three months, amidst those engross- ing cares of parish duty which necessarily gathered around him after the absence of nearly a year from his field of labor. He mentions this, not to depre- cate criticism, but to account for mistakes which may exist. To him, however, the labor has been a pleasant one, reviving associations which he would always wish to cherish. Beautiful Italy ! thy old traditions lingering around each crumbling fane, and consecrating each fountain and grove, are inspiration to the mind ! thy very language is melody to the ear ! Thy bright and sunny clime ; thy land so richly dowered with loveliness ; thy antique and solemn ruins ; how will the recollections they fur- nish mingle with the stern realities of coming days, and soften the carking cares of this working world ! They will return to us like the glorious visions which ever after floated before the eyes of the Ara- bian shepherd, when — as Eastern fable tells us, — while wandering in the wilderness, he had caug-ht a single glimpse of the gardens of Irim, and then lost them again forever. Ai.!-.AN-, Cliri.itm'is, 1845. PREFACE TO PRESENT EDITION. More than twenty years ago, after a winter spent in Rome with the enthusiasm of early days, the author published this volume. It was shortly after reprinted in London, edited by the Rev. Wm. Sew- all, of Exeter College, Oxford, and in successive editions has retained its place, -with the reading pub- lic in England, to this day. In this country, how- ever, it has been long out of print, and the author has, therefore, yielded to the requests of friends to have a new edition issued. In revising it, after another visit to Rome and with the wider experience which these years have given, he finds no necessity to modify a single opin- ion or alter any conclusion which he then expressed. Rome sits unchanged upon her Seven Hills. Greo-- ory XVI. indeed sleeps with his predecessors, and Pius IX. reigns in his stead, but the system is un- changed. All things there continue as they were. Even the outward features of the city are un- changed. A score of years has left no impress on her hoary ruins. The Railway indeed now winds X PREFACE TO PRESENT EDITION. across the desolate Campagna, fi'om Civita Veccliia to the city, but it stops without the walls. With- in them no innovations of the nineteenth century are allowed. When the author was asked, — " Do you see changes in anything here since your last visit ? " — he was obliged to answer, — " In nothing but myself! " October, 1868. CONTENTS. I. PAOE CiVITA VeCCHIA. — JOUKNEY TO KoME. — ThE " EtKKNAL Cll Y " BY Moonlight 1 II. View fkom the Tower of the Senatok 8 III. St. Peter's Church 21 IV. The Christmas Services 41 V. The Capitoline Hill 53 VI. The Vatican .07 VII. Presentation at the Papal Court. — The Poi-kdom . . 81 VIII. A Day's Kamklk in Rome 90 IX. The Ei'ii'hany Services 10.5 X. The Tomus of the last Stuarts 115 xii CONTENTS. XI. P AGE The Coliseum. —Palace of the C/Ksars. — Baths . . . 122 XII. Dramatic Cilvracteu of the Church Servicks. — Sermon by A Vicar-General. — Capuchin Cemetery .... 140 XIII. jCheistian Art. — Oveebeck 151 XIV. ^Excursion on the Appian Way^ 159 XV. Cardinals. — Mezzofan'ii 179 XVI. The Protestant Buriai^ground 188 XVII. The Palaces of Rome 199 XVIII. Excursion to Tivoli 223 XIX. The Churches of Rome 2-36 XX. . Exhibition at the Propaganda. — Funerals. — Vespers at the Convent of Santa Trinita 258 XXI. The Roman People. — The Civil Government of the Papal Court 270 XXII. The Papal Church 281 XXIII. Farewell to Rome 301 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. CHAPTER I. CIVITA VECCHIA. JOURNEY TO ROME. THE " ETER- NAL CITY " BY MOONLIGHT. T was in one of the most lovely nights ever seen under an Italian sky, that the steamer in which we had embarked from Genoa came within siglit of the coast of the Papal domin- ions. The moon had risen in her queen-like beauty, and as she rode high above us in the heavens, every wave of the Mediterranean seemed tinged with her radiance. Felucca, polacre, xebec, and other strange looking craft, were floating lazily on the sea, while our own vessel, as she glided through the blue waters, left a track of molten silver to mark her way. The cool, fresh breeze which came sweeping over the sea was far more grateful than the heated air of the cabin, and we remained long on deck, seeing as we passed, on the one hand. Napoleon's miniature kingdom of Elba, and on the other, the long line of the main-land, which owes submission to his Holiness Gregory XVI. At sunrise the next mornino- we entered the harbor of Civita Vecchia, the nearest approacli which can be 1 2 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. made by sea to the city of Rome. The remaining distance, fifty-two miles, must be travelled by land. Ostia, the ancient port in which, during the days of the republic, her galleys rode, where Scipio Africanus embarked for Spain, and Claudius for Britain, is indeed but sixteen miles from the city, and was formerly much nearer, but tlie gradual accumulation of sand lias entirely destroyed its harbor. After it was sacked by the Saracens in the fifth centur)^, no attempt was made to restore it. The salt marshes, which Livy mentions as existing in the days of Ancus Martins, gradually encroached on the one side, and the sand was drifted over it from the sea on the other, until this city, Avhich once contained eighty thousand inhab- itants, now has otAj about fifty souls living in wretch- edness among its ruins. We passed it in the steamer some months afterwards on our way up from Naples ; but the site is only marked by the remains of a temjile and theatre almost concealed by brambles, and a pictur- esque old fortress erected during the Middle Ages, with two solitary pine-trees standing in front of it. And yet, this place was once a suburb of imperial Rome : from thence the old consuls Avent forth to \ac- tory, and tliere they landed to commence their tri- umphs as tliey entered the city. Civita Vecchia, with its fortress erected fi'om plans furnished by Michael Angelo, and its long ramparts, presents a striking view irom the sea, which you find, on landing, the reaHty by no means justifies. It has, however, some traces of antiquity, for the massive stone-work of its port was built under the direction of Trajan (the younger Pliny describes it as the " Trajani Portus ") ; and here, as at Terracina, the bronze rings THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 3 by which the Roman galleys were made fast to the quays still remain. The immense prisons lining the basin have a bright appearance, which contrasts strange- ly with the gloomy object to which they are devoted. When we came on deck at dawn, the galley-slaves, in their parti-colored dresses, were just marching out to work, attended by a strong guard of soldiers. Their number is said to be neai*ly twelve hundred, and the clanking of their chains as they walked was the first sound which greeted us from the States of the Church. The manner in which we were fleeced on all sides at this port of his Holiness was a foretaste of what we were to expect in Italy. You first pay sundry pauls^ for being rowed ashore from the steamer ; several porters Qfac- chini) seize your baggage, and, unless you can squabble in Italian, you must bestow some more pauls on each for carrying it to the custom-house — more pauls to the officials there, for weighing it, to see whether or not it is beyond the allowable weight for the carriage — more for plumbing it (that is, cording it up, and fastening it with a lead seal, whicli is not to be taken off till you reach Rome) — more for the printed permit to pass it through the sates Avhen vou leave — more for hoistino; it up on C? V -—'1. the toj) of the carriage ; and so you go on, paying away on the right and on the left, until your small change and patience are both exhausted. In this little catalogue is not included the fee to the custom-house officer, whose inspection was a mere pro formd business. He lifted the covers of our trunks, made a great flourish about the examination, in the course of wliich lie opened a book (happening to be a controversial one on the Romish Church), and looked into it as curiously as if there was 1 Xpaul orpaulo is about eleven cents. 4 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. any probability of his understanding what it was, and then closed the trunks again. He next whispered to us, that " he should be happy to receive something, as we had been well served," turned his back, put his open hand behind him with a great affectation of secrecy, closed it as the expected pauls dropped in, and the farce was over. Add to this about a dollar for the vise of each passport, and you have the history of the black- mail levied on us at Civita Vecchia in about two hours. At noon we set out in a carriage drawn by three horses. " And so we went toAvards Rome." The road for one half of the distance skirts the Mediterranean, through a region dreary and often vmcultivated, though the last part, where it turns eastward into the country, becomes more hilly. One who looked only to the present, would pronounce it a ride without interest, ex- cept where his curiosity was, at times, excited by some massive ruins near the road, or a lonely tower hanging over the sea, reminding him of days of feudal strife. But, as Walpole says, " our memory sees more than our eyes in this country." The classical scholar, therefore, looks upon it as a land seamed and furrowed by the footsteps of past ages. He is in the midst of places of which Strabo and Pliny wrote. He crosses the Vac- cina, the Amnis Coeretantis of his old school days. He passes through Cervetere, once one of the most impor- tant cities of ancient Etruria, where Virgil tells us Mezentius reigned when Eneas entered Italy ; and the paintings in whose tombs, Pliny says, existed long be- fore the foundation of Rome. It is supposed, indeed, that the Romans were first initiated in the mysteries of the Etruscan worship by the pi'iests of Ctere ; and, when Rome was invaded by the Gauls, it was here that the THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 5 vestal virgins found an asylum, and were sent for safety with the sacred fire. Every scene, indeed, has its sep- arate story ; and old memories of the past are crowding back on the traveller's mind, as he hears names which are associated with all he knows of classical interest. It is something, too, to be riding along the shores of the Mediterranean. Its waves are haunted by the spirit of the past. We see them sparkling at our feet, or stretching out to the horizon, blue and beautiful in the sunlight, and we remember what countries they lave. Opposite to us is Africa, where St. Augustine once ruled, and hundreds of temples reared the Cross on high ; then comes Egypt with its hoary antiquity, by the side of which Italy is young and childlike ; then that holy land which our Lord " environed with his blessed feet," and where Paradise was Lost and was Regained. On we pass to old Tyre, where, as prophecy foretold, the nets are drying on the rocks ; and onward again, till we behold the waters breaking in the many bays of Greece. There was the last foothold of the " faded hierarchy " of Olympus ; and now, though songs are hushed and dances stilled in that land, yet beauty has everywhere left the Avonderful tokens of her presence. And to the shores, too, where we are, the waves of this sea have borne one race after another from the far East, and seen the feeble colonies expand into gi'eatness, until their children went forth to inherit the earth. What wonderftil memories then linger around this mighty " valley of waters ! " ^ The last few miles were over the silent and desolate 1 " The valley of waters, widest next to that Which doth the earth engarland." Dante. II Paradho, c. ix. 1. 80. 6 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. Campagna — low stunted trees only at times were seen, and not a habitation gave notice that we were drawing ni'di to a mighty city. Far as the eye can reach is an unbroken waste, and the mistress of the world stands encii'cled by a melancholy solitude. Yet is it not ap- propriate that it should be so ? About fair Naples are lovely vineyards, lining the road with the rich festoons they have hung from tree to tree ; and from whichever side you approach beautiful Florence, whether from the smiling fields of Tuscany, or " leafy Valombrosa," or the woody heights of Fiesole, where Milton mused and wrote, there is still the same rich and lively scenery. All things are in unison with the gay and poetical char- acter of these cities. Should not Rome, then, the fallen metropolis of the earth, majestic even in ruins, be sur- rounded only by barrenness and decay ? Every object should inspire thoughts of awe and melancholy, as we approach this " Niobe of nations," standing thus — "Childless and crownless in her voiceless woe." It was late at night when we reached the neighbor- hood of " the Eternal City ; " but the moon was up, shedding its light over the whole landscape, and we waited with eager impatience for our first view of the mistress of the world. At length it came. "Roma ! " shouted the postilion, and at once all heads were thrust through the carriage windows. Towers and turrets, columns and cupolas, rose before us, and high above all, the majestic dome of St. Peter's mounting in the air. We were approaching the Porta Cavalliggeri, immedi- ately in the rear of that miracle of architecture. A few moments more and we reached it — our passports were inspected by the guard — we entered, and were within THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 1 the walls of Rome. Our carriage drove round close to the mighty colonnades of St. Peter's, stretched out far on both sides as if embracing the vast arena they in- close ; then rose before us, with its massive towers, the Castle of St. Angelo, once the mighty tomb — • " which Hadrian rear'd on high, Imperial mimic of old Egj'pt's piles." We crossed the Tiber, as it sluggishly wound along in the calm moonlight, by the ancient Pons ^lius, and around us on every side was the magnificence of which we had heard from our earliest years, — a magnificence which still survives the wrecks of wars and violence, and fapine and earthquake, and conflagrations and floods. All Avas the more grand and solemn because not seen in the glare of day. The delusive visionary light and deep, broad shadows enlarged every portico, increased the height of every dome and tower, and left the im- agination to fill up the gigantic outline they revealed. And thus, we felt, should Rome be seen for the first time ! 2^'^-^> CHAPTER 11. VIEW FROM THE TOWER OF THE SENATOR. T takes some time for one to become accus- tomed to the thought that he is in Rome. To be actually living within its walls — to be treacling on the same spot where the old consiJs walked — where the Scipios and Caesars played that mighty game which bequeathed their names to all posterity — this is the fulfillment of our early dreams, which it is difficult for a long while to realize. We find ourselves insensibly exclaiming, " This is Rome ! " as if these little words contained a meaning we were unable fully to grasp, and which we were endeavoring, therefore, to impress upon our minds. And these feel- ings are natural. Servius Sulpicius, " the Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind," could be won from a remembrance of his own griefs, by a sight of the time-worn ruins of ancient days. As he gazed upon Megara and ^gina, Corinth and the Pirseus, he forgot his private sorrows, merging all other feelings in his sympathy for fallen greatness.^ May not we then, wanderers from a distant continent, of whose very existence the old Roman was ignorant, when we stand for the first time in the home of his ancient glory, feel as if haunted by a memory of the mighty deeds which have been there achieved ? 1 Middleton's Cicero, v. ii. p. 371. THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 9 Our first object was to gain a clear knowledge of the situation of Rome and the localities of the surrounding country. This morning, therefore, we took our way through the Corso (or Via Lata), passing the beautiful columns of Trajan and Antoninus, witli the spiral line of sculpture winding from the base to the capital of each. They are perfect, except that the statues of the emper- ors have been removed, and those of St. Peter and St. Paul substituted in their place. At the distance of a hundred and twenty feet from the ground, it is of course impossible to distinguish an apostle from an emperor, althougli the former seems very much out of place above these sculptured representations of Eastern wars and heathen sacrifices. We ascended to the Capitol, and, from the lofty tower of the Palace of the Senator, beheld the country spread out around us like a pano- rama. It was a clear and beautiful day, so that in the transparency of an Itahan atmosphere, the most distant points were easily visible. But where on the wide earth can a single spot be selected, which will command a view of so much historical interest ! The Capitoline Hill stands between the ruins which remain of old Rome and the new city which has sprung into being on the other side — between the ancient Capitol of the Republic and the Empire, and the modern city of the Popes, which has grown up in the last few centuries. It seems, there- fore, to look down, as it were, upon the living and the dead. On the one hand, stand lonely and grand those majestic ruins — the Forum, with the lofty pillars of its temples — the Coliseum — the trium))lial arches of the emperors — all, indeed, which eighteen centuries of war and rapine have left us. Their venerabK' forms bear not alone the furrows of age, but are marked also 10 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. by the traces of destruction and Gothic violence. We turn from tliem, and on the other hand are the narrow, crowded streets, and faintly there ascend to us the tumult and noise of busy life among the thousands who have inherited the name of Roman, without being heirs to any of the stern virtues which distinguished their ancestors. Let us then place ourselves for an hour on this hill, and " begetting the time again " out of the recollec- tions of history, summon back the two thousand years which have gone. On this spot stood the humble cot- tage of Romulus, long preserved with pious care as a relic of their rude forefathers. Here and on the neigh- borino- Palatine Mount were gathered his little band of colonists, while the surrounding hills were yet tangled wildernesses of trees, and the low grounds were marshes formed by the overflow of the Tiber. About their habitations they had erected a wall, which, if we credit the traditionary stories of Livy, could have offered but little resistance to the many enemies who lived almost at their gates. Years went by, and one hostile nation after another was conquered, and sometimes, as in the case of Alba, the population removed and incorporated among the victors. Thus the city grew, and extended over " the Seven Hills," whose outhne we can yet easily trace, though the accumulation of soil in the val- leys has much diminished their height. It was not, however, till the days of Aurelian that it attained its extent, and by him the walls were erected the same in circumference that they are at this day. Then too the ancient Campus Martins was taken in, which from the time of Servius Tullius had been without the city. Where the Roman youth had been for ages accustomed THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDA YS IN ROME. 11 to practice their martial exercises, Augustus commenced the erection of magnificent buildings. The population has since travelled northward, and gradually encroached upon it, until now it is the most thickly settled district. Thus it is that the old landinax^ks connect the past with the present, and ancient Rome was the same in the circuit of its vast and antique walls that the city is now. Yet within them how different does everything appear ! The population has gradually diminished, until it has become thinly scattered over this wide space. Look over it, and you behold wild fields mingled with its habitations, and here and there grassy lanes winding among ruins, or some hill-top rising up lonely and bare, apparently deserted by the foot of man. The " yellow Tiber" sweeps onward, among hoary monuments which bend over its waters. Heathen temples and the domes of Christian churches — the stately palaces of her ancient nobility, with around them garden terraces rising one above the other, glittering with pillars and statues, on whose snowy whiteness the climate produces no change : smiling 'orange groves, their rich green and gold gleaming in the sunshine ; the tall cypresses, with their dark foliage ; the stone pines, with their broad flat tops, so oriental in appearance ; and, diffused over all, the many tinted, colored atmosphere of this delicious clime ; such is Rome as we gaze upon it to-day. We said in the last chapter that the Campagna en- circled the city, and from the elevated place on which we stood, wc saw its flat, unbroken surface stretching out, until it was bounded, like the frame of some mighty picture, by the Sabine hills, about sixteen miles distant. It is a waste of fern, with here and there a withered 12 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. pine-tree breaking the dull uniformity ; yet generally treeless, and often shrubless. The roads of ancient Rome — such, for example, as the Appian Way — pass over it, lined with the remains of tombs, which, though now in ruins, are so beautifully picturesque that they are the admiration of the painter, and form always the finest feature in his landscape. At a distance, too, may be seen the long line of arches of the Claudian Aque- duct, the most massive ruin without the walls. But from the surface of the ground, the noxious malaria is constantly rising, and malignant sickness cuts down the shepherds who have made their home in the old ruined tombs. And yet it is evident that this dreary waste must once have been covered with cities, and inhabited by a busy population. Among the fifty nations enumer- ated by Pliny as belonging to Latium in an early day, and which had entirely disappeared, he places no less than thirty- three towns within the compass of what are now the Pontine Marshes.^ The Fiden^e were only five, and the Gabii ten miles from Rome, and yet so few vestiges of their existence remained, that when Horace wishes to convey an idea of perfect deso- lation, he says^ — " Gabiis desertior atque, Fidenis vicus." Ancient writers tell us, indeed, that from Rome to Ostia, a space of sixteen miles, the whole road was lined with buildings ; and Florus calls Tibur, which is about the same distance over the Campagna, a suburb of Rome. " Whoever," -says Dionysius, " wishes to ascertain the size of Rome, will be led into error, 1 HUt. Nat. iii. 5. 2 £^;^. j. xi. 7. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 13 and have no certain mark to decide how far the city reaches, or where it begins not to be city ; the country is so connected with tiie town, and gives those who see it an idea of a city infinitely extended."^ This certainly presents a very different picture from Rome as it is at the present day, hemmed in by its walls, and all with- out them a desolate solitude. Tacitus, however, states that in the reign of Claudius the inhabitants amounted to nearly six millions ; ^ a population w^hich could not have been contained within the walls, and must have been widely spread over the Campagna itself. The causes of this change, however, are obvious. As long ago as the days of Strabo, the marshes on the coast rendered that i)art of the country unhealthy. These must gradually have encroached on the interior, their poisonous exhalations been borne farther and farther by the sea-breeze, and the evil of course gone on more rapidly, when a place became uninhabited. Now the Campagna was wasted by successive hordes of invaders to the very walls of Rome. We can see to this day the traces of their progress. The northern side of the city, from which direction they came, is more ruin- ous than the rest, while the antiquities on the southern part are in the best preservation. When, therefore, the population was driven within the walls, and the open country became deserted, a few seasons would transform all without into a desolate wilderness, and then the rank herbage would gradually conceal the ruins. And so it has remained for centuries, becoming each age more dreary, and, except the tombs, and here and there a mound of loose stones, there are no traces of the 1 Lib. iv. 2 An. lib. xi. c. 25. 14 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. nations wlilch once inhabited those extensive tracts. In winter, you may see upon it thousands of the large oray Tuscan oxen, with their mild eyes and long horns ; the descendants of the white cattle of whom Virgil speaks. At intervals, a herdsman, one of the gaunt massari^ is watching them, and in his picturesque costume — a broad hat flapped over the eyes, sheep- skin cloak, and carrying a long lance, while the gun is sluns at his side — he seems wilder even than the fiery horse on which he dashes about. Vast herds of buffaloes, too, of a dingy color, introduced fr'om foreign lands into Tuscany by Lorenzo de Medici, but since naturalized all over Italy, roam on the Campagna, and Avith their wild, red eye, bent neck, and lowering aspect, they seem to warn the passer-by not to approach too near their short curved horns. But when the summer comes, the cattle are driven to the pastures of the Sabine hills, or even the more dis- tant mountains of the Abruzzi. Then each day the heat increases, until the air seems like a sea of fire. Even the shade of night brings no relief, and the only breeze which blows through the sultry atmosphere is the hot sirocco. The grass is burnt up, the stagnant water in- fects the air, and even the Tiber seems to have shrunk from its banks to half its usual breadth. No cloud, no rain, no cooling wind ; nothing but the hot rays of the sun beating dowm on the parched ground. Every breath from the sulphurous atmosphere seems to kindle a scorching fever in the blood, and the wild buflfaloes are roused to madness by the myriads of stinging in- sects which swarm the heated air. Thus for months on the wide Campagna, life seems almost insupportable. But even at this season, when the heats are so terrific THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 15 and the malaria is most deadly, there are materials there from which death can reap his harvest. About once in four years certain portions of this desolate tract are planted, and the summer is the time of harvest. " The peasants from the Volscian hills, and from be- yond the frontier, come down into the plain to earn a few crowns for the ensuing winter ; they work in the harvest-field all day under a scorching sun, and at night sleep on the damp earth, from which the low, heavy vapor of the pestilent malaria begins to rise at sunset. Even the strongest and healthiest are -often struck down in a single week : before the harvest is gathered in, hundreds of hardy mountaineers have per- ished on the plain, and those who survive either die on their return home or bear the mark of the pestilence for life." Such is the Campagna, which has usurped the place where the busy thousands of Imperial Rome once dwelt. How invaluable to us would be a view of the city as it was in those its palmy days ! Charle- magne, we are told, had " faire silver tables " made, on "* which were engravings of Constantinople and Rome. The one which contained the plan of Rome was given by him to the Church of Ravenna. If this could be recovered, what a treasure would it be to the historical student ! But let us resume the map and continue our view. Beyond the Campagna rises the chain of richly wooded mountains of which we have already spoken. But of what changing scenes have those heights been the mute observers, since first the land around them lay silent and untenanted, when the waters of the cleluge had gone ! They 1)eheld one race after another come from the East, and strange rites and sacrifices per- 16 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. formed on those Seven Hills, and the wide plain be- tween. The Etruscans laid deep their massive archi- tecture, and then passed away so entirely that even their language has perished, and the inscriptions they recorded on the solid rock, later generations cannot in- terpret. Then came a wilder race, which gradually rose to power, until the Roman name filled the earth. One by one their enemies fell before them. On that long ridge once stood Alba Longa, whose ruin Livy has immortalized. There dwelt the Samnites, and that little stream, the Anio, which still goes murmuring on its way to join the Tiber on the plain, then separated their country from Latium. The Gauls came, and on that crest of rocks is the Arx Libana of Livy, to which they were di'iven back when attacking the city. The Carthaginians, too, entered the arena of conflict ; and there, to the left of the Alban Mount, is still pointed out the small, open plain, on which they were encamped while they besieged Rome. What con- sternation must have been felt around the Capitoline Hill, while these events were going on ! What noise and busy note of preparation were heard, as the armed legions of Rome marched down its sides, and went forth to fight for their homes and altars ! How dif- ferent from the stillness which now rests upon this spot, where nothing is seen but these old and hoary ruins. But all these nations were crushed beneath the iron tread of the conquerors. Then the whole landscape became crowded with works of art. The inhabitants of the city crossed the wide Campagna, and even the Sabine hills were transformed into the seats of Roman luxury. Every valley and peak was consecrated by THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 17 Roman genius. That lofty mountain in the dim dis- tance, now covered with snow and so dazzhng white as the sunbeams play upon it, Horace celebrated as the " gelidus Algidus." Tliat height he speaks of as " Lu- cretilis ; " and that opening of the plain between the hills is his " frigidum Pra^neste." How often, too, in his lyrics, does he sing the beauties of the ancient Tibur ; that little place which you can just perceive almost buried in its woods and olive st'oves ! Cicero has also left his name associated with those hills, for there was the site of his far-famed Tusculum. He purchased the villa, whicli had once belonged to Sylla the Dictator, filled it with all the magnificence wdiich art in that age of luxury could devise, and to its library — adorned, we are told, with statues of the Muses — or to the cool groves which surrounded it, he retired from the strife of the busy city. From its noble portico he could look over the wide landscape, initil the view was terminated by the splendors of Rome itself; and here he has laid the scene of some of his philosophical works, the " De Divinatione," and the " Tusculan Questions." Beyond his retreat, on the highest ])oint in the chain of hills, was the sacred grove of the Alban Mount ; and towering above it, in sight not only of the surrounding country but of Rome itself, stood the magnificent Temple of Jupiter Latiaris. How often must the patriot and consul have turned to it with the deepest reverence I There, once in each year, the Latin tribes assembled to hold their sacred festival, and together they oftercd common sacrifice to the tutelar deity of the nation.^ Tlie Roman generals 1 Eustace, Clnss. Tour. vii. p. 9-1. 2 18 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. repaired thitlier in the hour of their triumph, to return thanks for victory ; and on one occasion, when Cicero himself was pleading for Milo, he turned his eyes to that temple, in full view from where he stood in the Forum, and burst forth with the eloquent apostrophe, " Tuque ex tuo edito monte, Latiaris Sancte Jupiter, cujus ille lacus nemora finesque," etc. From that mount, too, Virgil represents the Queen of Heaven as watchincr the chano;ino; fortunes of the battle, when the Latin and Trojan forces were arrayed on the plain beneath. With new interest, indeed, we read the last books of the ^neid, when we have before us the hills, the groves, the winding Tiber ; the veiy scenes which the poet has there described. Thus it is that the spirit of the past broods over every portion of this haunted land. Men may change, one race after another pass away, the very monuments they have left perish ; yet still the features of nature remain the same. The mountains are there, and the streams, and the Seven Hills, and the wide plains, into whose bosom, through the silent lapse of centuries, the ancient cities have gradually been sinking, until now the Spring, with her flowery veil, conceals their ruins en- tirely from our eyes. The valleys are unaltered, and the cliffs look down upon them as of old, except that the long ages as they went b}^ have written there the chronicles of their flight. These pass not away, and, therefore, every old historic association can find its home. And so it is in CA'ery part of this land, which Poetry has consecrated and made her own. The very forms of vegetable life, the trees and fragile flowers, carry us back two thousand years into the THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 19 bosom of the past. The ilex yet waves upon the heights of Mount Alburnus, as wlien Viriiil wrote his Georgics ; about the site of Tuscukim. the plane-tree blooms as luxuriantly as it did when Cicero, in his introduction to " De Oratore," speaks of its " over- shadowing the spot with its spreading boughs ; " and twice in each year, when May and December come round, " the roses with their double Spring " (liferi rosaria Pcesti) still blossom among the ruined temples of Passtum, with that renewing sweetness which at- tracted the attention of Ovid, and furnished a beauti- ful simile to grace the writings of Propertius. The last few pages have scarcely enumerated the objects of interest which crowd upon us, as we gaze this morning from the lofty tower of the Palace of the Senator, To the reader they may, perchance, present only a dull catalogue of names ; but to us, with the scenes themselves before our eyes, there is a life and a reality in everything. From the cloudy past, twenty- five centuries rise up to meet us, as we look upon those places which are "familiar in oiu' mouths as household words." It is at such times, too, that the spirit of our own early days returns, and passages of Virgil and Horace, which we studied at the school-desk, call up again the friendships of our boyhood. The present is forgotten. The weary cares of manhood fade away, and " the heat and burden " beneath which we are now laboring, is unfelt. The Spring of life returns in all its freshness. Friends, whose faces we can never more see in the flesh, gather about ; familiar voices fall upon the ear with a startling distinctness ; and scarcely real- izing that all this is only of the imagination, wt bless 20 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. the associations which can produce the change. For a brief and sunny interval we even doubt the truth of that melancholy song of the German students, — — " the gladness of our youthful prime, — It Cometh not again, — that golden time ! " CHAPTER III. ST. Peter's church. I HE first thoufrlit in Rome is of St. Peter's. ii"^ We have, of course, often been there, for ^J^\ when there is nothing else immediately to occupy our attention, we can repair to this mighty temple, and find a subject for study which is in- exhaustible. Instead, however, of vainl}^ attempting a description — for every effort of this kind for centuries has proved that no words can give any idea of this un- rivaled edifice — we would rather note do^\^l a few of the impressions left upon the mind. The way which led to it was through a series of narrow, winding streets, crowded with a miserable population, deeply demoralized, and crushed to the earth by indigence. At length we reached the Castle of St. Angelo, and from this spot a broad avenue opened before us to the massive colonnades of St. Peter's. Our first view of the exterior by daylight disappointed us, for when seen from this point it is certainly not imposing. The fagade is allowed to be disproportioned to the building, and too much conceals the dome. We have since examined, in the library of the Vatican, a copy of Michael Angelo's original plan, in Avhich this defect is avoided, and the whole front appears more grand and striking. His drawing of the fa9ade closely resembles the portico of the Pantheon. 22 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. In the open square in front, stands an ancient obelisk, which points up to heaven, tapering away as if it seemed to lose itself in the air. Caligula brought it from " old hushed Egypt " to adorn his baths, and a Pope placed it in front of St. Peter's. On each side of it is a fountain, which flings up its column of water, as if into the clouds, where it seems to pause for a moment, reflecting back the changing colors of the sky, and then falling into its porphyry basin, the thousand hues are lost in one dazzling sheet of foam. But who pauses to dwell on these when the temple itself is before them ! We ascend the broad marble steps, put aside the heavy curtain which veils the entrance, and the sen- sations of tlie next few minutes are worth a year of commonplace life. The first effect on every one must be bewildering. He sees o-athered before him treasures of art of which before he could scarcely have conceived, and all en- shrined in a building which mocks any comparison with the gorgeous Temple of Jerusalem, or those magnificent fanes which the worshippers of the old mythology raised to their fabled deities. For more than three centuries, the energies and wealth of thirty-five Pontiffs were devoted to this work, and the aid of the whole Chris- tian world was invoked to render it a temple worthy of the Most High. Eustace estimates that the build- ing itself cost twelve millions sterling. Everywhere, indeed, we see marbles, bronzes, and precious materials, which were gathered in Rome during the luxurious days of the Empire, but are nowhere else to be found in such profusion. We realize, indeed, that here man has exhausted the treasures of his genius and his worldly wealth. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 23 Almost every traveller states that his first impres- sions were those of disappointment. The interior did not appear as vast as he expected. The reason of this, undoubtedly, is, because we have no received expe- rience by which to judge its proportions. The eyes are " fools of the senses ; " and here occurs a case in which they have not been trained to convey a correct estimate.^ Bat with me, I confess, this was not tlie .case. Having been told so often that I should be dis- appointed, I was prepared for it, and, therefore, ex- pected too little. Slowly we passed up the nave, until we found ourselves opposite to the High Altar. Above it rises a canopy, more than a hundred and thirty feet in height, its twisted columns of Corinthian brass covered with golden foliage, while beneath rests the body of St. Peter, around whose tomb a hundred lamps are burnino; day and nio-ht. We stand under the dome and look up, when an abyss seems to open above us. We can scarcely believe that its top is four hundred feet from the marble pavement. The inscription on the frieze does not seem very large, yet each letter is six feet high, and the pen in the hand of St. Mark is of the same length, although ft'om where we stand the whole figure of the saint does not appear to be much beyond the ordinary stature. The mighty dome ex- 1 "Our outward sense Is but of gradual grasp — and as it is That what we have of feeling most intense Outstrips our faint expression; even so this Outsiiining and o'crwhelniing edifice Fools our fond gaze, and greatest of the great, Defies at first our nature's littleness, Till growing with its growth, we thus dilate Our spirits to tlie size of that they contemplate." ChiUe Harold. 24 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. pands above us like the firmament, and within are pictured in rich mosaic the saints and celestial spirits looking upward and Avorshipping towards the throne of the Eternal, wliich, encircled with radiance, crowns this dizzy height. At our first visit we spent almost the whole day going over each part in detail, and every little while stopping, and vainly endeavoi'ing by one effort of the mind to grasp tlie mighty proportions of the building.. The figures which occasionally moved across the mar- ble pavement seemed dwarfed into pigmies, and we could scarcely realize that this vast structure, with its gorgeous profusion of paintings, and marbles, and gild- ing, could have been erected by those wdio, in com- parison, appeared so insignificant. This Church has, indeed, a spirit within it, which is possessed by none other that we have ever entered. It is sufficient to preserve a faith in existence centuries after its life has gone. The very temperature of the building is remarkable, being always uniform ; mild and pleasant in winter, and cool in simimer, when the heat of the sun is so intense above as almost to melt the lead. Professor Playfair accounts for it on the supposition, that the immense edifice absorbs so much heat during the sum- mer, that it never wholly discharges it throughout the winter. HoAvever this may be, the atmosphere is always delightful ; no damp air is perceived ; nothing but the slight perfume of the incense which is wafted from some side chapel where service is performing. We passed around, and wandered from aisle to aisle, and from chapel to chapel, finding on all sides the same lavish magnificence. Everything is in perfect keep- THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 25 ing, the statues themselves being gigantic to harmo- nize with the building. Around us were the gorgeous monuments of the Popes, on which the ablest sculptors of the last three centuries had exhausted theu' skill : t^ie masterpiece of Canova, erected to the memorj of Clement XIII., with its Genius of Death, holding the inverted torch, and the sleeping lion below, the finest efforts of the modern chisel ; and the marble group of the Virgin supporting " The Dead Christ," a most touch- ing work, which first established the fame of JNIichael Angelo. There was one before which we particularly paused, because it bore, sculptured on the enduring marble, so plain a record of the high-handed oppression of the Papal power during the Middle Ages. It was the tomb of the celebrated Countess Matilda, who, in the days of Hildebrand, was the powerful ally of the Church, bequeathing to it also at her death her valu- able patrimony in Tuscany, a portion of Avhich is still held by the Papal See. Living in the very crisis of that conflict between the feudal system and the power of the Church, so well did she aid the latter in gaining its triumph, that she deserved her burial-place in its noblest temple. Five centuries after her death. Urban VIII. removed her body from the Benedictine Monas- tery, near Mantua, and deposited it beneath this stately monument. Does that statue, which Bernini has placed above her tomb, represent her as she was in her living day ? We may believe so, for it embodies our own idea of that stern woman, as she sits there frowning in the marble, holding in her hands the keys and the Papal tiara. But it is on the sides of the sarcophagus below, that we see portrayed the scene she aided to bring about, and which she considered her chief glory. 26 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. When Henry, the young Emperor of Germany, had been excommunicated by Gregory VII., to obtain an interview with his rival and rescue himself from the anathema, he was obliged to cross the Alps in the depth of winter, over -fields and precipices of ice which could only be traversed on foot. His object was, to throw himself at the Pontiff's feet and obtain absolu- tion ; but he found this spiritual autocrat in Matilda's strong mountain fortress of Canossa in the Apennines, and for a time every avenue was barred agamst him. At length Gregory consented that the Emperor should enter the fortress in the garb of a penitent, to receive his sentence. Then was witnessed, what we may well consider the most extraordinary scene in the annals of the Papacy. It was on a morning in January, 1077, when the cold was intense, the mountain streams frozen, and the ground white with snow, that earth's greatest monarch of that day was seen, barefooted, and clothed only in a thin linen penitential garment, toiling mournfully and alone up to the rocky castle of Canossa. He passed two gateways, but found the third closed against him. It was at sunrise that he appeared in this humiliating state, and there he remained hour after hour, cold and faint, the object of wonder to the crowds which had gathered to the spectacle. But the gates opened not, and at sunset he was foi'ced to retire, the object of his bitter penance still unaccomplished. Again the dawning day found him at his post, humbled and dispirited, while Avithin the castle the proud Pontiff who was trampling him to the ground, held his regal court with princes gathered around him. Yet the second day passed like the first, and the third followed it, while the wretched king was suing in vain for ad- THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDA YS IN ROME. 27 mittance, and Gregory was prolonging, what has been well termed, " this profane and hollow parody on the real workings of the broken and contrite heart." But human endurance could bear it no longer, and the monarch rushed from this scene of suffering to a neighboring chapel, to beseech on his knees the in- tercession of his kinswoman Matilda, and the venerable Abbot of Cluni. For several days all within the castle, even with tears, had entreated the Pope to end this painful scene, and reproaches of wanton tyranny were heard from his own adherents ; but he remained inex- orable. At length, when Henry had reached the fourth day of his penance, Gregory consented that, still barefooted and in his penitential garment, he should be brought into his presence. This is the point of time which the artist has chosen. The youthful King — for he was only twenty-six — re- duced at last to vassalage to the Chui'ch — his fiery spirit utterly crushed by the misery of the last three days, and the shame that weighed him down — crouches abjectly at the feet of his oppressor, as if submitting his neck to be trodden on. The Italian Court are around, the witnesses of his degradation, while above him stands Gregory, proud and haughty in his mien, — the very incarnation of mitred tyranny. Matilda is there, rejoicing in her kinsman's indignities ; and Hugh, the Abbot of Cluni, who had administered to Henry in his infancy the rite of baptism ; and Azzo, Marquis of Este ; and Adelaide of Susa, and her son, Amadeus, all calmly beholding these acts of spiritual despotism and relentless severity, performed by one claiming to be the Vicar of Him who was " meek and lowly of heart." 28 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. Is this a scene which it is well to perpetuate in the unchanging marble ? On one occasion at least it would have been better for the Papal power if this record of its triumph had not been quite so prominent. We are told, that on the visit of the Emperor Joseph II. to St. Peter's, when he came to this monument, he regarded it for a moment with fixed attention, and then turned away with a blush of indignation and a bitter smile. We all know the Kaiser's future course ; but might •not the remembrance of that hour in St. Peter's have strengthened his purpose of a philosophical reforma- tion, to depress and curb, in his own dominions, a power which could become so tyrannous ? " There is but one painting in St. Peter's : see if you can find it ! " said a friend to me the day before our first visit. As we looked round the Church, his words recurred to us, and we wondered what he could have meant. There was an immense picture over every altar, and in every chapel, and we recognized copies of the noblest masterpieces on sacred subjects. It was not until we had been there some hours, that we ■ discovered, with one exception, they were mosiacs, — the colors, and lights, and shades being all so admirably imitated, that they rival the choicest works of the pen- cil. And probably centuries after the hues on the canvas have faded, these brilliant copies will preserve to the world a true record of the artist's o;enius. Time has alreadv wrouirht its changes in the " Transfio-ura- tion" of Raphael ; yet here is a duplicate in the un- changing stone, which even now begins to convey a truer idea of that great painter's conception, than the much cherished original in the Vatican. How deeply is it to be regretted, that among them we have not Da THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 29 Vinci's " Last Supper," which exists now only as a fresco at Milan, the damp fast obliterating its colors, so that to the next generation its beauty will be entirely gone ! " How long will that picture last ? " Napoleon once asked, as he was looking at a beautiful painting. " Per- haps five hundred years," was the answer. " And such," said the Emperor, with a smile of scorn, " is a painter's immortality ! " The builders of this magnifi- cent pile seem to have shared these feelings, and to have determined that nothing should be here which, in the lapse of time, might perish. But in the wide transepts is a sight which cannot but arrest the attention of every one who is sighing for Catholic Unity, and remind him of those days when every nation acknowledged the same faith, and with one voice professed the same creed. There are ar- ranged the boxes for the confessional, in every lan- guage. Not only are those of Europe to be seen inscribed over these places, but also its various dialects, and the strange tongues of the East. Thus, the wan- derer from every land, who worships in these rites, be- holds provision made for his spiritual wants. " There is one spot where the pilgrim always finds his home. We are all one people when we come before the Altar of the Lord." ^ Such are represented as the words of Marco Polo, in the thirteenth century, and here, to the member of the Church of Rome, they are realized. He comes to what he regards as the Mother Church of Christendom, and learns that he is not a stranger or an alien. He can unburden himself to a priest of his own land, and the consolations of his faith are doubly sweet, when conveyed to him in the familiar words of 1 Sir Francis Palgrave's Merchant and Friar, p. 138. 30 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. "his own tongue, wlierein he was born." With the errors of Rome, we have no sympathy ; we feel and reahze liow much she has fallen from the simplicity of the faith ; yet Catholic traits like this, none but the most prejudiced can refuse to admire. They show the far-reaching wisdom of that Church ; that overlooking the distinctions of climate and country, and recognizing lier field of labor to extend wherever there is a de- m'aded beino; to listen to her message, she is resolute to " inherit the earth." But this vast edifice is never filled, not even, we are told, upon the coronation of a Pope. It is only, in- deed, on a few great festivals that service is performed in the body of the Church, for ordinarily one of the side chapels is used, and the High Altar stands lonely and deserted. Even Eustace, though a priest of the Church, inquires why " the Pontiff, surrounded by his clergy, does not himself perform every Sunday the solemn duties of his station, presiding in person over the assembly, instructing his flock, like the Leos and .Gregorys of ancient times, with his own voice, and with his own hands administering to them ' the bread of life,' and ' the cup of salvation ? ' " Such a sight would indeed be one both affecting and sublime. There is much, however, to detract from our pleasure in the survey of this unrivaled temple. The very in- scription on the front, instead of dedicating it to Him who alone should be worshipped here, states that it is consecrated by Paul V., In honorem principis apos- TOLORUM. We pause to inspect the bas-reliefs on the magnificent bronze doors, and are transported back to the days of heathenism. The artist drew his inspira- tion fi'om no source more hallowed than the " Metamor- THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 31 phoses " of Ovid ; and Ganymede and the Eagle, with Leda and the Swan — the latter group more spirited than chaste — figure on the doors of this CJiristian temple. Advance to the High Altar, and near it, on a pedestal about four feet high, stands an old bronze statue, which the skeptical antiquary will tell you was once a Jupiter, by a slight change transformed into an undoubted St. Peter. However this may be, it is now a mere instrument of superstition, and through the whole day crowds may be seen kneeling before it in earnest prayer. Their devotions ended, they approach, kiss the extended foot, — which is almost worn off by this constant friction, — press their foreheads to it, and the process is ended. Has the Romanist any reason to laugh at the poor Mussulman, who performs a pilgrim- age to Mecca, to kiss the black stone of the Caaba ? On St. Peter's day this image is clothed in magnificent robes ; the gemmed tiara placed upon its head ; the jeweled collar around its neck ; soldiers are stationed by its side, and lighted candles burning about it. A clergyman of the Church of England, who was present on this occasion last year, told me that the effect of the black image thus arrayed was perfectly ludicrous ; and with the people all kneeling before it, had he not known he was in a Christian Church, he should have supposed himself in a heathen temple, and that, the idol. In the massive columns which support the dome, are preserved some holy relics, whicli are only shown with much ceremony from a high balcony, during Passion Week. A portion of the true Cross, the head of St. Andrew, tlie lance of St. Longinus (with which our Saviour was pierced), and the Sudarlum^ or handker- 32 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME, chief, containing the impression of our Lord's features, form a part of this sacred treasury. Unfortunately, there are divers other lances of similar pretensions, — one at Nuremberg, and another in Armenia. With the Sudarium it is still worse, there being six rival ones shown in different places, namely, Turin, Milan, Cadoin in Perigort, Besan^on, Compi^gne, and Aix-la-Chapelle ; while that at Cadoin has fourteen bulls to declare it genuine, and that at Turin four. The learned, how- ever, solve the difficulty by saying, that the handker- chief applied to our Lord's face consisted of several folds, consequently the impression of the countenance went through them all, and they are all genuine ! ^ One more item, and I have done with this disagi'ee- able portion of the subject. Pass the High Altar, and at the farther extremity of the Church is a magnificent throne of bronze and gilt, surmounted by a canopy, and supported by four colossal gilt figures of St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, and St. Athanasius. Within is a chair, which tradition tells us is the identical one in which St. Peter sat when he offici- ated as Bishop of Rome. Some twenty years ago. Lady Morgan gave to the world another story of this wonderful relic. She states that when the French held Rome, their sacrilegious curiosity induced them to break through the splendid casket for the purpose of seeing the sacred chair. Upon its mouldering and dusty sui'face were traced carvings, Avhich bore the appearance of letters. The chair was quickly brought into a better light, the dust and cobwebs removed, and the inscription faithfully copied. The writing is in Arabic characters, and is the well known confession of 1 Burton's Rome, vol. ii. p. 156. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 33 Mahometan faith, — " There is but one God, and Ma- homet is his prophet." The story, she adds, has since been hushed up, the chair replaced, and none but the unhallowed remember the fact, and none but the audacious repeat it.^ Dr. Wiseman takes miladi to task with great severity, and asserts that it is an ancient curule chair, evidently of Roman workmanship, and may therefore reasonably be supposed to have been used as an Episcopal throne when St. Peter was re- ceived into the house of the Senator Pudens at Rome. The truth probably is, that it was brought from the East among the spoils of the Crusaders ; presented to St. Peter's at a time when antiquarian research was not much in fashion ; and now, its origin has been for- gotten. But to continue the account of our visit. The hours Avent by, and we could not leave this spot which had been thought and dreamed of for so many years. We realized the feelings of the imaginative author of Vathek, when he wrote, " I wish his Holiness would allow me to erect a little tabernacle within tliis glorious temple. I should desire no other prospect during the winter ; no other sky than the vast arches glowing with golden ornaments, so lofty as to lose all glitter or gaudiness. We would take our evening walks on the field of marble ; for is not the pavement vast enough for the extravagance of this appellation ? Sometimes, instead of climbing a mountain, we should ascend the cupola, and look do\vn on our little encampment below. At night I should wish for a constellation of lamps dis- persed about in clusters, and so contrived as to diffuse a mild and equal light. Music should not be wanted : 1 Italy, vol. ii. p. 227. 34 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. at one time to breathe in the subterranean chapels, at another to echo through the dome." But the melody which Beckford desired, we were soon to hear. A side door opened ; forth came a pro- cession, — a Cardinal and long array of priests, — and we followed them to see what service was at hand. They swept across the Church, paused for a moment in the centre, and sunk upon their knees, with their faces turned to the High Altar, and then entered the chapel called the Capella del Coro. It was the hour for Ves- pers, which at once commenced. There were perhaps twenty in the chou', by whom the principal part of the service was performed, while nearly two hundred more — prebendaries, canons, clerks, and choristers — were seated in the chapel, and joined in the responsive parts. It was the first time we had heard the Pope's choir, so celebrated throughout the world, and yet our expecta- tions were more than realized. They still use those old austere chants of surpassing beauty, which have been handed down to them through centuries, — the Lydian and Phrygian tunes, first introduced into the Western churches by St. Ambrose. St. Augustine listened to them in the Church of Milan, when he re- presents himself as being melted to tears, and even expressed the fear lest such harmonious airs might be too tender for the manly spirit of Christian devotion.^ 1 " Sometimes, from over jealousy, I would entirely put from me and from the Church the melodies of the sweet chants which we use in the Psalter, lest our ears seduce us; and the way of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, seems the safer; who, as I have often heard, made the reader chant with so slight a change of note, that it was more like speaking than singing. And yet, when I call to mind the tears I shed when I heard the chants of Thy Church in the infancy of my recovered faith, and reflect that at this time I am affected, not by the mere music, but bj' the subject, brought out, as it is, by clear voices and appropriate tune ; then, in turn, I confess how useful is the practice." — Cfessions,-s.. 50. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 35 Mingled with these were the richer Roman chants which were collected by Gregory the Great, and bear his name. They sang the Psalms for the evening, and I rejoiced that I knew they were uttering inspired words ; for the music, as it swept by us in a perfect flood of harmony, seemed too sweet and heavenly to be addressed to any but God alone. The organ mingled its rich, mellow tones with the voices which were thus pouring out their melody ; sweet incense filled the chapel as they flung high their golden censers ; and we remained listening- to the delicious sounds, until the whole was over, and the procession once more took its way through the Church. As we followed them out, we found the sun was set- ting, and we stayed to watch the effect of the gathering darkness. The Church was untenanted, save by some solitary worshipper kneeling apart, and no sound was heard except now and then the light tread of a sacris- tan as he crossed the marble pavement. Gradually the shadows deepened ; the building appeared more vast and solemn ; the hundred lights which are ever burn- ing around the tomb of St. Peter seemed like distant, twinkling stars ; the statues on the monuments grew more wan and phantom-like ; and we departed, repeat- ing to ourselves those striking lines of the pilgrim poet : — " But thou, of temples old, or altnrs new, Standest alone — with nothing like to thee — Worliiiest of God, the holy and the true; Since Zion's desolation, when that lie Forpoolc His former city, what could be. Of earthly structures, in His himor piled, Of a subliuier as{)ect? Majesty, Power, glory, strength, and heauf}' — all are aisled In this eternal ark of worship undefiled." 36 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. Yesterday it rained, and the sun this morning rose with that cloudless beauty which is so often seen when tlie atmosphere has just been cleared by a storm. The air was perfectly still and clear, and we determined to avail ourselves of the opportunity to ascend the dome of the Church. Having procured the necessary permit from the Cardinal Secretary of State, we were admitted, and commenced the ascent by a broad stone staircase, so slightly inclined that mules walk up it with their loads. After a time it narrows, and winds around be- tween the inner and outer domes, until passing through a door, we find ourselves on a light gallery in the in- terior, more than three hundred feet above the pave- ment. The brain becomes dizzy as we look down, and see men appearing hke insects crawling far below. The mosaic pictures which line the dome, and from the pavement looked so fair and beautifully shaded, here seem coarse, and the figures are gigantic. No- where else can we realize the unparalleled vastness of this edifice, and for a time we stood and looked do^^^l in silence, w^iile from one of the side chapels there came faintly and fitfully the swell of voices and the music of the organ, as some priests were performing there the morning service. From thence we ascended to the exterior gallery on the top of the dome. Here was spread out before us the same glorious prospect which we had already seen from the Senator's Tower on the Capitoline Hill. The morning sun was pouring down its beams, flooding the whole landscape with brightness. White, fleecy clouds still lingered about the distant Apennines, while a line of mist stretching far over the Campagna, showed the course of the Tiber. There, everj'-thing spoke of re- THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 37 pose and desolation, and the country spread out like a prairie with none to occupy it. We felt, as did Rogers, when he asked, — " Have none appeared as tillers of the ground, None since ihty went — as the' it still were theirs, And they might come and claim their own again ? Was the last plough a Roman's? " Below US were the formal gardens of the Pope, with their sparkling fountains, and orange groves loaded with fruit; while a palm-tree growing near, and the stony pines, with their flat, dark tops dispersed about, seemed to increase the oriental illusion of the scene. We walked over the stone roof of this mighty building, which covers an extent of several acres. How strange it seems to find at this dizzy height the habitations of human beings ! Yet here are the houses of the work- men who are always employed in the repairs of the edifice, so that we. seem to be in the midst of a little village. A fountain, too, is playing by our side, throw- ing its water into a marble basin ; and while the lofty parapet cuts off all view beyond, we can scarcely realize that we are not treading on the ground. About us were traces of countless jjilgrims, who during the last two centuries had climbed to the same lofty elevation, and left there their names and the dates of their visits. Among them was an Italian name carved deeply into one of the bronze balls of the railing around the gal- lery, with the date 1627. Perhaps this is the only trace the individual has left of his existence on the earth. From this highest gallery at the foot of the stem which supports the ball and cross, a small iron ladder enables visitors to ascend into the ball itself. It is of 38 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. bronze gilt, seven and a half feet in diameter, and will accommodate a small party. There is something, how- ever, in the idea of being inclosed in a ball four hun- dred and thirty feet from the ground, which gives the visitor an uneasy feeling. It seems to vibrate and tremble ; he remembers how small is the metal stem which sustains it ; and being, in addition, almost roasted by the rays of the sun on the thin copper, he is gener- ally contented with a very short sojourn at this aerial height. Instead of a cross, the ball was once sur- mounted by a large pine of bronze, which had before ornamented the top of the tomb of Hadrian. Being thrown from St. Peter's by lightning, it was transferred to the gardens of the Vatican, where it now stands by the side of the great Corridor of Belvidere. It was here in the days of Dante, for when describing one of the monsters in the Inferno, he says, — " His visage seem'd In length and bulk, as doth the pine that tops St. Peter's Roman fane." We descended again to the church, and finding one of the sacristans, proceeded to visit the cr^^q^ts beneath it. He conducted us down a stairs under one of the side altars, and at its foot, fixed in the wall, is a marble slab, the inscription on which states that females are not permitted to descend into these vaults except on Whit- sunday, — on which day men are excluded, — and if any infringe this regulation, they are anathematized. The reason of this absurd rule we could not discover. We have here below us, probably, the most ancient church pavement in existence ; for when the present sumptuous temple was erected over the first church, the pavement was left untouched. This spot, indeed, was THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 39 chosen by Constantine for the first rehgious edifice he erected, because it was a part of the Circus of Nero, and consecrated by the blood of numberless martyrs who were slaughtered in the arena. Immediately below the High Altar is what is called the tomb of St. Peter. As we stood beside it, we thought what would be the feelings of the humble fisherman of Galilee, could he rise from his martyr- grave, wherever it may be, and behold the gorgeous ceremonies of the temple which is called by his name. The purity of the faith for which he died, perverted ; the simplicity of ancient worship deformed by countless rites, partaking of the " pride and pomp and circum- stance " of Pagan rituals ; the gospel mingled up with strange legends from the old mythology ; his own name, which he only wished to be " written in heaven," now exalted above all human fame, and made an argument for blinding superstition, — how would his lofty rebuke startle the thousands kneeling here, and echo even through the halls of the Vatican, as he sum- moned all away from the " cuimingly-devised fables " which are taught in this glorious shrine, to those changeless and immutable truths which are to last while " eternity grows gray ! " As we passed around, we beheld on all sides small chapels where lights are kept ever burning, and which are regai'ded as places of peculiar sanctity. Wherever we turned, we saw the tombs of those who for their ser- vices in the cause of the Church, or their extraordinary holiness, had been thought worthy of a resting-place in this unequaled temple. Here, covered with bass-reliefs, to illustrate Scripture history, is the rich sarct)i)liagus of Junius Bassus, Prefect of Rome, who died a. d. 359. 40 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. Here lie buried, Otho II. of Germany ; Charlotte, Queen of Jerusalem and Cyprus ; the last members of the royal family of Stuart, and many of the Popes. Unlike most vaults of the kind, there is no dampness in the atmosphere, nor that chilliness which speaks so plainly of the grave ; and it seemed as if the very balmuiess of the air took from us all thoughts of the tomb. When we again ascended, and dropped the fee into the hand of the smiling young priest, we found it difficult to realize that we had been treading on a spot where, for fifteen centuries, the great and noble had found their burial-place. CHAPTEK IV. CHRISTMAS EVE AT THE SISTINE CHAPEL. THE SER- VICES IN ST. Peter's on Christmas day. — the BRITISH CHAPEL. HE Christmas Holydays are at hand, and on every side we hear the note of preparation. The shops are decorated with flowers, while the ahars of the churches are arrayed in their most splendid ornaments. The images of the Virgin in particular are seen in their gayest dress, and all the jewelry which the treasury can furnish is brought out to give them an elegant and fashionable appearance. At this time, too, in addition to the varied population of the city, — its priests, soldiers, and beggars, who to- gether form the great proportion, — a new accession is pouring in from the surrounding country. The peas- ants who live in the deserted tombs on the Campagna ; the natives of the Alban mountains, fierce, banditti- looking fellows, who gather their cloaks about them with a scowling air which Avould not be at all pleasant to encounter among their own hills ; and the Trastev- erini, in their picturesque costumes, boasting themselves to be the only true descendants of the ancient Romans, and as proud and haughty in their bearing as if they had also inherited the heroic virtues of their ancestors, — these are to be met roaming about every street, and in the churches, gazing in wonder at their magnificence. 42 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. The most singular, however, are the Calabrian min- strels, the pifferari. Their dress is wild and striking, consisting of a loose sheep- skin coat, with the wool left on it, and a high peaked cap, decked with gay ribbons and sprigs of heather, while the huge zampogne of goat- skin is formed like the bagpipes of Scotland, and resem- bles them too in its shrill music. These interestincj characters arrive during the last days of Advent, and consider themselves the representatives of the shep- herds of Judea, who were the first to announce the news of the Nativity. Their usual gathering-place is on the steps of the Piazza di Spagna, where they lounge and sleep in the Avarm sun. Every little while a party sets out on a tour through the city, blowing away with the most desperate energy. At the next corner is one of the shrines of the Madonna, and this is their first stopping-place, to salute the Mother and Child. Lady Morgan says, it is done " under the traditional notion of charming her laboi'-pains on the approaching Christmas." They turn down the Via Frattina, and a short distance further come to a car- penter's shop, which must also be favored with a tune, — " per politezza al messer San Giuseppe," — " out of compliment to St. Joseph." The owner hands them out a baj'occho, and they continue their march until the circuit is completed. At sundown, on Christmas Eve, the cannon sounded from the castle of St. Angelo, to give notice that the Holy Season had begun. We were advised to attend service in the Sistine Chapel, and accordingly at an early hour repaired to the Vatican, in which it is situ- ated. Gentlemen are only admitted in full dress, and ladies are also compelled to appear in black, then* heads THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 43 covered only with a veil. The entrance was guarded by the Pope's harlequin-looking guards, in the ridiculous uniform said to have been designed by Michael Angelo ; and the company all gathered round them until the doors were opened, when they pushed in as best they could, jostling and being jostled. Half way up the chapel there is a grating, beyond which the ladies are not permitted to go, so that for once the gentlemen were best accommodated. At the upper end of the large area above is the altar, while on the sides are raised seats for the Cardinals, and to these we strug- gled up, until all further advance was cut off by the halberds of the guards. Here we took our stand, and waited with the most exemplary patience for the sendee to begin. Nearly an hour passed while the Cardinals were col- lecting. One by one they came into the area, their long, red trains supported by two priests in purple dresses, and after kneeling for a moment on the floor, facing the altar, ascended to their scats. Their breth- ren, already there, rose and greeted them with a stately bow, and the attendants placed themselves humbly at their feet. At length the music began, but I confess I was disappointed. It was too loud for the size of the chapel, and we missed the sweet sounds of the organ, which formed so noble an accompaniment at Vespers in St. Peter's. In the middle of the chapel stood a lec- tern, and to this at different parts of the service, a priest would be escorted, who, after going through his portion in a kind of recitative manner, was again in form es- corted back to the door. These modulations, we are told by Roman Catholic writers, were first introduced to raise and support the voice, to extend its reach and 44 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. soften its cadences, because its common tones cannot adequately be heard when the service is performed in a large church. They vary, however, in number and solemnity in the different parts of the service. " In the lessons and epistles, the interrogations, exclamations, and periods only are marked by a corresponding rise or fall : the Gospel had its variations more numerous and more dignified : the Preface is rich in full melodies and solemn swells, borroAved, as it is supposed, from the stately accents of Roman tragedy. The Psalms, or to use an expression more appropriate, the anthems that commence the service, precede the Gospel, usher in the Offertory, and follow the Communion, together with the Grloria in excelsis and Creed, were set to more compli- cated and more labored notes." ^ The priests who officiated this evening seemed to have been selected for their voices, and we certainly never heard anything superior to them in compass and richness of tone. As with their faces turned to heaven, they sang from the large, golden-clasped volumes, it seemed to be the very perfection of the human voice. There could, however, be no devotion except for those well acquainted with the service, and as there was great sameness in the singing, the audience evidently soon began to grow weary. For a time, therefore, I scrutinized the Car- dinals, some of whom have magnificent heads — keen, intellectual looking men, well worthy to be pillars of the Vatican. Then I tried to make out the frescos on the ceiling, and the great painting of the " Last Judg- ment " by Michael Angelo, which occupies the end of the chapel, and is more than sixty feet high. But the paintings were too far off to be seen even by the bril- 1 Eustace, vol. ii. p. 81. THE CHRISTMAS HO L YD AYS IN ROME. 45 liant lights around us, and the brightness of their colors has been sadly dimmed by the smoke of the candles and incense durinsi; the last two centuries. The audience seemed to be almost entirely English, and I suppose were Protestants. Such at least is the complaint of the Italians, that they can never gain ad- mittance to the services of their own Church, but every place is occupied by foreigners. This formed the sub- ject of one of the satirical witticisms of Pasquin. One night the question was affixed to his statue, " How shall I, being a true son of the Holy Church, obtain admittance to her services ? " The next night the answer which appeared was, " Declare that you are an Englishman, and swear that you are a heretic." After a while, the rumor began to spread round among the spectators, that the Pope was not to be present this evening, and therefore there would be no High Mass after Vespers. The news apparently made them more restless, and they began to thin out. One party after another passed dowm the line of guards, as they stood like statues, and departed. Many went to the Church of St. Maria Maggiore, to see at midnight the true cra- dle in which our Lord tvas rocked carried in procession. Having, however, little taste for such exhibitions, we did not join them. I found indeed, from the account of a friend who witnessed it, that we did not lose much. After standing for some hours in a dense crowd, listen- ing to the singing of the choir, a procession of priests carried the Holy Relic across the Church from the sac- risty to the altar. It was inclosed in a splendid cofter of silver, with a canopy of gold cloth elevated over it. Banners waved ; the lighted tapers Averc held up ; in- cense rose in clouds about it ; the guard of soldiers, and 46 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. the ci'owd which filled the Church, dropped ou their knees ; it passed, and the whole show was over. Near midnight we took our course homeward, be- neath as splendid a moon as ever shone, even through the transparency of an Italian sky. In the square be- fore St. Peter's, the obelisk raised its tapering point up to heaven, and the fountain on each side flung high its waters, which fell in silver spray as they reflected back the clear light of the moon. We stood for a while on the bridge of St. Angelo, looking at its beams play upon the Tiber. That mighty fortress — Hadrian's massive tomb — was frowning darkly above us, and the statues which lined the bridge looked pale and wan in the clear night, till they appeared like pallid phantoms, stead- fastly watching the current of time, by which they could be influenced no more. ^ Christmas morning fulfilled in its beauty the promise of the nisht before. It is the great festival of the win- ter. The Papal banners are displayed from the Castle, and the streets are filled with crowds thronging up to St. Peter's. The guards, in their strange white and red costumes, were stationed around the body of the Church, while at the lower end a body of troops were drawn up, who remained there on duty during the whole service. With the audience the same formality of dress was required as the evening before. At the upper end of the Church was the magnificent throne of the Pope, raised quite as high as the altar which it 1 " Les rayons de la lune faisoient des statues comme des ombres blanches regardant fix^ment couler les flots et le temps qui ne les concernent plus." — Coiinne. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 47 fronted, and decked out most splendidly with its cloth of crimson and gold, and the gilded mitre suspended above. Next to it on the sides were the seats for the Cardinals ; then the boxes for ambassadors and their suites ; and then high platforms covered with crimson cloth, to afford seats for the ladies. The altar has no chancel around it, and the great area between its steps and the Papal throne was left vacant for the perform- ance of the services. As my stand happened to be close to the ambassadors' boxes, I had an excellent view of everything which took place. After waiting for at least an hour, suddenly there came a burst of music from the lower end of the Church. It was a loud chant, which, softened by the distance, floated sweetly through the building. Every eye was strained towards the spot from which it pro- ceeded, and there, raised high on the shoulders of men clothed in violet-colored robes, we beheld the Pope borne above the heads of the kneeling multitude in his crimson chair, the falling drapery from which half con- cealed those who carried him. The gemmed tiara was on his head, and his robes sparkled with jewels. On each side of him were carried high, fan-like banners of ostrich feathers, such as we see in pictures of the pro- cessions of an eastern rajah. Before him marched a guard of honor, consisting of some sixty Roman noble- men, who always form his escort on great festivals. Around him was his brilliant court : the Cardinals ; the Bishops of the Greek, Armenian, and other eastern churches, in their most gorgeous array ; the heads of different religious brotherhoods, in ash-colored gar- ments ; ])riests in purple and white, some bearing the Great Cross and lighted tapers, and some flinging in the 48 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. air their golden censers, — thus the procession came slowly on to the sound of anthems, — the most gor- geous show which probably ever entered a Christian church. The Pope passed within six feet of where I stood. His eyes were closed ; his whole countenance seemed dull and lifeless ; and the constant nodding of his head, as the bearers walked with unsteady step, gave him the appearance of a mere image, splendidly decked out to form part of a pageant. At length, amid his kneehng train he was deposited on the pavement in front of the altar, and the guard of nobles ranged themselves on each side of the area up to the throne. He knelt for a few moments ; parts of his dress were changed, the tiara being put upon the altar and a mitre substituted in its place ; he joined in the psalms and prayers which precede the solemn service, and was escorted in state to his lofty seat, while the choir sang the Introitus, or Psalm of Entrance. Then one by one the Cardinals swept across the Church, their long, scarlet trains borne up behind them as they walked, and spread out so as to cover a surface of yards in extent when they stopped, and ascending the steps they kissed the PontifTs hand and the hem of his gar- ment. The service of High Mass now began, in which he at times took part. He read the Collect ; gave his bene- diction to the two deacons kneeling at his feet with the Book of the Gospels ; commenced the Nicene Creed, which the choir continued in music ; and returning to the altar, fumed it with incense from a golden censer, offered the usual oblations, and washed his hands, in token of purity of mind. When the elements were con- secrated, two deacons brought the Sacrament to the THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 49 Pope, who is seated. He first revei'ed it on his knees, and then received it sitting. But it would be impossible for me to describe the long and complicated service. A Cardinal officiated at the altar ; rich and solemn music swelled out from the choir, and filled the mighty building in which we were ; sweet incense floated through the air ; thousands and thousands were gathered under that golden dome ; and no single thing was omitted which could add to the magnificence of the pageant. In this respect it is prob- ably unequaled in the world. Yet to most who were jjresent it could have been nothing but an emptv show. The priests crossed and recrossed ; censers waved ; candles were lighted and put out ; dresses were changed and rechanged ; the Cardinals walked back and forth, Titntil the mind became utterly bewildered. All things about us indeed — the vastness of the edifice, the works of art, the rich dresses, the splendid music — contrib- uted to heighten the effect ; yet, with all this, the seri- ousness of devotion seemed to be wanting. Had I known nothing of Christianity, I should have supposed the Pope to be the object of their worship. His throne was far more gorgeous than the altar ; where they kneeled before the latter once, they kneeled before the former five times ; ^ and the amount of in- cense offered before each was about in the same pro- portion. He was evidently the central point of attrac- tion. The entrance of the old man, so gorgeously at- tired, among kneeling thousands, and the splendor of 1 " Never, I ween, In anybody's recollection, Was such a party seen For genuflection." 4 60 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. the whole service, showed more fully than ever before how far the Church of Rome had wandered from the simplicity of the faith, and how much of ceremony it had substituted for the pure worship of the early Chris- tians. The day before I had gone over the service for Christmas with an ecclesiastic of the Romish Church, received from him every explanation, and I now fol- lowed it through with tlie Missal in my hand. I wished to form an opinion for myself, and after investigating as far as possible the meaning of the many ceremonies we have witnessed, I could not but feel the truth of the remark I have somewhere seen, that " the Romanist has been the Pagan's heir." The most interesting part to me was, to hear the Nicene (or rather, Constantinopoli- tan) Creed chanted in Greek immediately after it had been chanted in Latin. " It is to show the union of the two Churches," a priest most gravely told me. I thought that whereas the Latin Church has for cen- :turies anathematized the Greek, and the Greek in turn repudiated the Latin, this service had about as much ; meaning as the title " King of Jerusalem," which the King of Naples still uses. At length the service ended. The Pope was once more raised on his lofty seat and carried down the Church; the Roman nobles formed around him; his body-guards shouldered their halberds ; the Cardinals, with their train-bearers, fell into their places, and the gay procession went as it came. While it passed down, the Pope gently waved his hand from side to side to dispense his blessing ; the immense multitude sunk upon their knees as he went by, until the train disap- peared through the door, and the successor of St. Peter departed to his dwelling in the Vatican. The released THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 51 ecclesiastics proceeded to pay their respects to the ladies ; violet and scarlet stockings appeared in the crowd among the brilliant uniforms ; " nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles " were visible on all sides ; com- pliments in French and Italian mingled into one chaos of sound, — and the whole broke up like a gay pleasure party. For some time I lingered under the colonnades to see the immense multitude pour out and disperse. As they passed down the steps and by the massive pillars, they seemed pigmies in size. Before the Church, the whole square was alive. The crimson and gold car- riages of the Cardinals, with their three liveried foot- men hanging on behind, were dashing away ; the troops were pouring out ; military music was sounding, — and I went home with scarcely a feeling to remind me that I had been at church. From this gorgeous and unsatisfactory show I was glad, at a later hour of the day, to repair to the pure worship of our own Church, for I felt that thus far I had been doing nothing to keep the solemn festival of the Nativity- The Papal power, which in our own land talks so loudly of toleration, here will not allow the worship of a Protestant within the bounds of " the Eternal City," and almost supported as its people are by the money which the thousands of English scatter among them, it does not permit them even to erect a church in which to meet. Without the walls of the city, just beyond the Porta Del Popolo, a large " upper room" has been fitted up for the British Chapel, and there on sufferance they gather each week. Tliere is 52 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. no organ, no singing ; everything is as plain and simple as possible. Yet never did I so much enjoy the ser- vices of the Church as on this occasion. Never did I feel so grateful to the Reformers of the Church of Eng- land, that at the cost of their own lives they had be- queathed to us primitive purity. I thought of the time when, eighteen centuries ago, while the magnificence of a Heathen Ritual was going on in old Rome, perhaps some little band of Christians had met beyond its walls, in seclusion to offer up their simple worship. How great must have been the contrast between the two scenes — the splendor of those forms and ceremonies with which thousands bowed around the altars of the Capitoline Jupiter, and the simplicity and purity with which a few disciples of Christ prayed to their crucified Maater ! " Did you receive much spiritual benefit from the services at St. Peter's this morning ? " said a fi-iend to me as we were leaving the British Chapel. " Yes," I answered, " indirectly, I received much ; for it taught me to realize the value of our own services as I never did before, and I trust therefore to use them for the rest of my life with greater benefit. It is the contrast be- tween the Church in the days of Leo X. and in the time of Constantine." CHAPTER V. THE CAPITOLINE HILL. E have devoted this morning to antiquities ; and as strano-ers in winter all congregate about the Piazza di Spagyia, — which, by the way, is the site of the old Circus of Do- mitian, — we were obliged to pass through the whole extent of the city to reach the Capitoline Hill, which was our first point. We went through the Corso, and by the old Venetian Palace, and then threaded our way among the labyrinth of narrow, filthy streets, until we found ovirselves at the base of the Hill. On its top once stood the pride of Rome, the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which was filled with the offerings of princes and kings, and the treasures of a conquered world. The whole earth was ransacked to add to its glory, and even the columns of Pentelic marble, which adorned its front, were brought from the distant plains of the Ilissus, where Grecian genius had placed them to form the portico of one of its own beautiful temples. But it has passed away so completely, that its very site is a subject of antiquarian dispute. A magnificent flight of marble steps, broad enough for an army to mount. with its ranks unbroken, leads up to the Hill. At its base stand two basalt lions — old Egyptian monuments, brought from some ancient tern- 64 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. pie whose faith has long since perished, and bearing the impress of everything which comes from that mysteri- ous land. Colossal and frowning, with that strange, unearthly expression of countenance which Egyptian sculptors seem always to give, conveying the idea of something mystic and awful, these solemn antique figures remain, age after age, gazing fixedly and se- verely forward, as if the silent witnesses of all the deeds of darkness and fear which are going on in the chang- ing city below them. They are fit guardians of " the Staircase of the Lion," at the head of which so miich noble blood had been shed, when it was the spot on which for ages state criminals paid the forfeit of their lives. The broad platform at the summit — " the Place of the Lion " — where these tragedies were enacted in the view of all Rome, while the bell from the Capitol above tolled mournfully and slow to show that a soul was passing away, is now filled with antique statuary, the colossal forms which have been preserved from the wreck of the Republic and the Empire. In its centre once stood a gigantic image of Jupiter Capitolinus, made fi-om the armor taken from the Samnites in the fifth century from the building of the city, and so lofty that it could be seen from the Mons Latialis, near Al- bano, a distance of twenty miles.^ Its site is now occu- pied by the magnificent equestrian figure of Marcus Aurelius, the finest in existence. In the fourteenth century the place of the statue was in front of the Lateran, and it bore a prominent part in that gorgeous show, when Rienzi the Tribune cited to appear person- ally before him the kings of Bavaria and Bohemia, to plead their own cause and prove their claim to the title 1 Pliny, lib. xxxiv. c. 18. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 55 of Emperor of Rome — a proud challenge in behalf of the liberties of Italy, which his opposers have always ridiculed as the splendid folly of an enthusiastic mind, while his friends have lauded it as the sublime daring of a noble nature. When the historians of the day de- scribe that royal banqueting, they cite, in proof of its lavish profusion, that from morn till eve, wine poured out like a fountain from the nostrils of this horse. The summit of the Hill, around the three sides of " the Place of the Lion," is occupied by palaces, built by Paul III., from the designs of Michael Angelo. The centre is the Palace of the Senator, Avhich we have be- fore mentioned, — a vast, unoccupied building, where some inferior courts of justice at times are held, and whose o-reat bell hangs silent in the tower above, beins never rung except on the death of a Pope, or to pro- claim that the Carnival has begun. The proud ini- tials, S. P. Q. R., are placed over the entrance and still carried in processions, recalling as if by a sort of mock- ery the palmy days of the Republic. The Senator, too, — for that august body has dwindled down to one man, — is still appointed, and the Romans say, " the Senator represents the people." His office, however, is a mere shadow ; its most weighty duty being that of carrying the sacramental vessels between the High Altar and the Pope on the great festivals of the Church, and its high- est privilege that of standing in a picturesque dress on the second step of the Papal throne during some great ceremony. The palaces on the other two sides of the square are used as museums, principally for the works of antique art. It is places hke these, indeed, which enable Rome to preserve her supremacy over the world, ruling now 66 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. in the realms of taste as she once did in those of arms and religion. Within her walls are gathered most that the wreck of time has left of beauty, from the creations of Greece or ancient Rome, or the still older attempts of Egypt and Etruria. And all these are freely opened to the pilgrim to this land. The labors of Art are be- fore him, from its achievements in far distant ages, when men dimly imagined a grace which they were not able to embody, down to its perfect triumph in crea- tions which more than realize his brightest dreams. Here are forms steeped in an atmosphere of beauty, and he can dwell upon them until his own taste has grown into faultless purity. Let us enter then these palaces, and at once we have the realization of what we have just written. Sculp- ture has preserved the heroes of all times and coun- tries, and they are before us with the life which charac- terized them, when the artist so admirably arrested and fixed, in enduring marble, the passing expression. These halls are crowded with their busts and statues, and now there is gathered on this Hill a nobler assem- blage of Consuls, and Princes, and Dictators, than ever trod its temples in their living day.^ When the sun- light plays on them, you are dazzled by the reflection of the white marbles, as the animated figures seem 1 It is curious to mark bow faithfully the marble has transmitted to us the difference between the early Romans and the late Emperors. The for- mer have s(mietliing noble and elevated in their looks; while those who, in the last ages of the Empire, were called to the throne from the seraglio, or the ranks of a barbarian army, show in every lineament their mixed blood and vicious habits. A similar change may be seen in the busts of the Medici in the vestibule of the Gnleria Imperiate at Florence. In every gen- eration you can mark the deterioration. There is a regular series of stages, from the stern countenance of Cosmo I. and the magnificent head of Lo- renzo, down to the silly face of Gaston, the profligate buffoon, with whom the family expired in 1737. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 51 often starting from their pedestals. But nobler even than these life-like copies of " men of like passions with ourselves," are the forms of beauty which the artist created when he gave himself up to his worship of the Ideal. We meet with group after group, which realizes the dreams we had over the studies of our boy- hood, and calls up again the bright legends of the Gre- cian faith. Here is the heroic beauty of the " Apollo," while the shrinking loveliness of many a fabled goddess contrasts with the austere and majestic lineaments of " the -cloud-compelling Zeus." And mingled with them is that antique sacerdotal sculpture, the only memorial of the vanished faith which once prevailed on the banks of the Nile. Thus the spoils of art have been widely gathered, from the Temples of old Egypt, from the Por- ticoes of Athens, and the Forum of ancient Rome. We passed a morning among these treasures, which the past has bequeathed to us ; but when we now look back upon them, all seem dimly remembered, or rather almost effaced by the vivid recollection of one single statue — the " Dying Gladiator." Standing in the centre of a hall to which it gives the name, it is the gem of the whole collection. We had often seen casts of it, but they are utterly j\'anting in the effect pro- duced by the gi'cat original. They fail entirely in con- veying any distinct idea of its excellence. The figure is a little larger than nature, and repre- sents him as wounded in the fight, with life just ebbing away. He is reclining on his sword and shield, which have fallen beneath him, and has raised himself lan- guidly on one arm, as if to try how much strength re- mains. The limbs seem to be gently yielding from languor, as weakness creeps over him, and he is gradu- 58 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. ally falling to the ground. He is evidently insensible to all that is passing around, and absorbed with his own situation. The countenance is deeply sorrowful and expressive of agony, but we see that it is more than mere physical suffering. There seems to be a conflict going on within, which is shown in the despair of the eye, the bitter writhing of the lip, the wrinkled brow, and the abstracted air of the whole visage. Melancholy emotions insensibly creep over us as we look upon him ; and herein was shown the artist's skill, that he should excite these feelings by the mere touching display of a fellow-being in conflict with death. Its power, indeed, rests on nothing but an appeal to our common interests in humanity, for there are no adventitious circumstances to call forth our sympathies. Thei'e is no heroic in- terest about the Gladiator. It is not the fall of one whose name is written in history, or whose fate can at all affect the world. It is nothing but the deatli of a slave, as the cord round his neck proves him to be ; yet we are forced to gaze with sympathies which can be awakened by no other statue in existence. The Glad- iator's last fight is over ; the sweat is yet upon his brow, clotting together the thick locks of hair ; his ex- hausted strength is just suffering him to sink to the earth ; and it seems as if in a few moments more he Avould pass away, and be at once forgotten among the thousands who thus fall in the arena. Yet he is a man, in the solemn hour of death, and so well has the artist told this fact, that he appeals at once to every kindly feeling in our common nature. And as genius has always an affinity with genius, we find that one of the noblest passages in " Childe Harold" is the embodiment, in the language of poetry, of what this ancient and un- known sculptor has so well expressed in marble : — THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 59 " I see before lue the gladiator lie : He leans upon his hand ; his manly brow Consents to death, but conquers agony, And his droop'd head sinks gradually low — And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow From the red gash, fall heavily, one by one, Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now The arena swims around him: he is gone, Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hail'd the wretch who won. " He heard it, but he heeded not: his eyes Were with his heart, and that was far away; He reck'd not of the life he lost, nor prize, But where his rude hut by the Danube lay, There were his young barbarians all at play, There was their Dacian mother — he their sire, Butcher'd to make a Roman holyday. All this rush'd with his blood. Shall he expire. And unavenged V Arise, ye Goths, and glut your ire ! " Was this the idea which the artist intended to de- velop ? We know not, nor does it matter. We are satisfied with the interpretation of the pilgrim-poet. But after examining most of the noblest masterpieces of antiquity which remain, Ave find none on which the memory dwells with the interest it does on this single statue, which, as we gaze, calls back eighteen centuries, and transports us to the arena of Roman sports. The " Apollo," noble as it is, appeals only to the imagin- ation. Even the "Venus de Medici," the glory of fair Florence, touches not the deepest feelings. You seem indeed, as you stand at its pedestal, to inhale an atmos- phere of beauty, until you are forced to confess the power of antique art, and realize that the old poetical mythology must have furnished in.spiration to genius. You turn away at last, " dazzled and drunk with beauty ; " but this is all. There is no appeal to the heart, and thei'efore we give the pi-eference to the " Dying Gladiator," and remember it as the very per- fection of what can be wroutrht bv the chis(>l. 60 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. Leaving the Museum, we passed around the base of the Hill, and came to the side which formerly over- looked the ancient city. But where all this magnifi- cence once stood, nothing is now to be seen but ruins. One tide of desolation after another swept over it, until finally, what remained was ravaged by the Normans under Robert Guiscard, when the Capitol, the Coliseum, and all the surrounding antiquities, seem to have been hopelessly shattered. He had been summoned to the relief of his ally, Gregory VII., besieged by the Em- peror Henry in the Castle of St. Angelo. The Ger- man army having been forced to retire, the Pope was led in triumph to his ancient Palace of the Lateran. It was, however, a rescue dearly purchased by the Ro- man Pontiff. On the thud day the people rushed to arms, and commenced the indiscriminate massacre of their invaders. Overpowered by numbers, Guiscard at last gave the order to fire the city ; and when the sun set behind the Tuscan hills, Gregory looked out from his windows on a scene of woe, of which Rome was for centuries to bear the traces. The whole sky was red- dened by flames, while the fierce Saracens — who com- posed a part of the Norman army — gratified their hatred of Christianity by plundering every church and altar. The fires swept on until two thirds of the city were destroyed, and the noblest monuments of Medias- val Rome had perished. Then, at last, Guiscard reigned unopposed amidst the smoking ruins of this ancient splendor ; but Gregory — fearful of a popula- tion more hostile to him than ever — fled from the city, shortly after to die in exile. The whole of the Esquiline seems at that time to have been laid waste, and no attempt has since been THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 61 made to restore its monuments. The modern city grew up on the other side of the Hill, and the site of Ancient Rome was abandoned to desolation, as if a spell rested over it. As we gazed down upon its hoary ruins, all seemed silent and lonely ; not a living crea- ture visible but a solitary artist, who, sitting on the base of a fallen column, was sketching some of the time-worn monuments. Here was the site of the old Forum, " the field " in which — Lord Byron tells us — "a thousand years of silenced factions sleep." It was evidently once sur- rounded by a colonnade, which must have given it somewhat the form and appearance of the Palais Royal in Paris, or the Piazza San Marco in Venice. We stood within it, where Cicero had pleaded, and count- less schemes of ambition run their wild career. Above our heads towered high on the one side eight granite columns, which once foi'med the portico to the Temple of Vespasian ; Avhile on the other side stand three lofty fluted Corinthian columns, the sole remains of the Tem- ple of Saturn. How strange they look as they are seen in contrast with the deep blue of the Italian sky, so tall and solitary, supported by no wall and with no roof above, nothing near but the ivy which wreathes itself around and falls in gi'aceful festoons from their sculp- tured capitals ! Round and round the ruined Forum pass their lonely shadows, as if this was Time's dial, and he had ])laced them there to mark his ages as they went by. Before us was the magnificent triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, its statues still remaining, and its inscriptions uneftaced ; while at the lower end of the Forum, near the Portico of Vespasian, rises in lonely grandeur that solitary pillar to which Byron refers in the line, — 62 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. " The nameless column with a buried base." It would have been well, perhaps, for our interest in this monument, if its origin had always remained thus mysteriously concealed. Later excavations, however, have proved that it was erected in honor of the Em- peror Phocas, one of the most despicable of mortals. He was a sanguinary usurper, whom his own people ha-^ang abandoned to the Persians — whose envoy he had burned alive — he was taken by them and put to death. And yet the base of this column bears the in- scription, — " To the most clement and felicitous Prince Phocas, Emperor, the adored and crowned conquei'or, always august," &c. Leaving the Forum, we stood beneath the Arch of Titus. More than fifty generations have passed away since this monument was reared to commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem ; yet on its worn and broken compartments we can still trace the story it recorded. In the distance are imagined in relief, the fearful ac- companiments of a city taken by assault, — old men and women and children gathered into groups, and around them an enraged and brutal soldiery. On one side are seen the Temple walls riven by fire, and just tottering to their fall, while in the foreground is the triumphal procession of the victors as once it swept over this very spot, and, amidst the shoutings of the Roman populace, ascended to the Capitol. Slowly and sadly walk the captive Jews, bearing in their hands the spoils of their holy worship. The tables of shew-bread, the seven- branched golden candlestick, the Jubilee trumpets, and the incense vessels, are there, copied from the originals.^ 1 It is interesting to inquire what became of these sacred relics. Josephus saj-s (De Bella Jvd. lib. vii. c. v.) that the veil and books of the law were THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 63 On the opposite side of the Arch is seen the triumphal chariot of Titus, drawn by four horses. He is standing within it, while Victory is crowning him with laurel, and around arc the crowds of his rejoicing army, lie- tors carrying the fasces, and the captives dragged in chains. Even to this day, the crushed and stricken Jew will not walk under this monument of his coun- try's fall, but passes round it, and winds his way by the ruins of the Temple of Peace, or else among the crumblincr relics of the Palatine Mount. Yet time has brought its retribution, and now the persecuted Israel- ite, as he stands by this monument of Hebrew desola- tion, may see the palaces of the Imperial family one mountain of ruins. It is from this spot, indeed, that we have the noblest view of these ancient remains. Here, all around are the monuments of the past. Behind us is the Forum and the scene we have described ; before us, the Arch of Constantine, and the Cohseum, the noblest relic of old Rome ; on the one side are the massive ruins of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, that of Venus and Rome, and the Basilica of Constantine ; on the other side is the Palace of the Caesars, covering the Avhole Palatine Mount like the wreck of a mighty city, — walls, and arches, and porticoes, mingled with the vineyards, placed in the palace at Rome, and the candlestick and other spoils in the Templo of Peace. Tiie golden fillet is mentioned as late as the time of Hadrian. When Gonscric entered Rome, among other spoils which he car- ried to Africa wore the Hebrew vessels. On the conquest of the Vandals \i\ ndisarius, A. n. 520, they were recovered and taken to Constantinople. Procopiiis states, that a .Tew advised the I'^mperor not to put them in his palace, as they could not remain anywhere else but where Solomon had placed them; and this was the reason why the palace in Rome had been taken, and afterwards the Vandals conquered. The Emperor therefore, alarmed, sent them to the Christian churches at Jerusalem. (Burton, vol. i. p. 236.) From that time all trace of tbcni is lost. 64 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. and massive columns peeping up through the long grass, or dimly seen among the ivy which hangs in thick festoons about them. On our return we came to the entrance of the old Mamertine prisons, which are built under the base of the Capitoline Hill. Livy tells us they were begun by Ancus Martius : and we know that in these gloomy chambers, Jugurtha was starved to death ; the accom- plices of Catiline were strangled by order of Cicero ; and Sejanus, the minister of Tiberius, was executed. Sal- lust, in describing it, says, — "The appearance of it from the filth, the darkness, and the smell, is. terrific ; " and such, we can well believe, must in that day have been the case. Tradition has consecrated this prison as the one in which St. Peter Avas confined, and in the six- teenth century a chapel was therefore erected over it, the walls of which are now covered with votive offer- ings from those who ascribe their cure to prayers offered at its altars. Here we procured a guide with lighted tapers, and commenced our descent into the dungeons. A flight of twenty-eight stone steps led us into the upper cell. It is about twenty-seven feet by twenty, constructed of large masses of peperino, without cement, and sho^Nang by its very construction its high antiquity and Etruscan origin. From the first chamber a still farther descent brought us into the loAver one, which is only about nine feet wide, and six high. The massive stones of the roof, instead of being formed on the principle of an arch, point horizontally to a centre. There was for- merly no entrance to either, except by a circular aper- ture above, through which the prisoners were lowered, and a corresponding aperture in the floor of the upper THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 65 cell to lead into the lower. A more horrible dungeon could not well be imagined. There is a stone pillar on one side, which our guide — a young priest — pointed out to us as the one to which St. Peter was chained, and in the centre, welling up through an opening in the stone floor, is a fountain, which is said to have miraculously sprung up, to enable him to baptize his jailers, Processus and Martinian. The story is, of course, intended to be an improvement on the baptism at Philippi. Our guide also pointed out to us in the hard rock, the impression of a man's face. His story was, that when the soldiers thrust St. Peter into this gloomy dungeon, it was done with such violence that he fell against the wall. The hard stone immediately yielded, as if it had been soft, received the impression of the Apostle's face, and there it is to this day. It may have been a freak of nature, but we should think it was artificial. We asked the young priest if he be- lieved the legend, but could get no definite answer. He only laughed and evaded the question. It Avas Q\\- dent to us that, like the ancient philosophers, he had an esoteric and an exoteric doctrine. From this spot commenced the Via S«n 200 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. running round the four sides of a square, with the quad- rangle in the centre surrounded by a marble colonnade. Entering the large arched gateway, some old servitors are lounging about, bearing in their appearance evi- dences of their master's dilapidated fortunes. One of them takes you in charge and commences the ordinary routine of sight-seeing. You first enter an immense hall, often hung round with the largest and worst pic- tures of the palace, and on one side a throne with a high velvet canopy, covered with the armorial bearings of the family. From this elevated seat, until feudal privileges were abolished, the prince was accustomed to administer justice. You follow your guide on, up marble staircases, and over mosaic floors, till you come to long suites of rooms, the walls covered with paint- ings while here and there antique statues are dispersed about, and richly inlaid cabinets stand against the sides. Through these you wander, gazing on the works of art, until you have gone round the square, and find yourself in the hall from which you set out. It would be useless to attempt describing many of these collections, for while a catalogue of paintings might recall to my mind the beautiful forms on which I have gazed hour after hour, it could awaken no cor- responding feeling in the mind of the reader. Some of them are celebrated for one or two remarkable pictures, while the rest of the collection is made up of inferior ones and old family portraits. Such is the Palazzo Rospigliosi, where in the cassino of the garden is the far-famed " Aurora " by Guide, so many copies of which have been brought to our own country. It is a large fresco on the ceiling. Around the chai'iot of the Sun are seen female figures advancing most THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 201 graceftilly hand in hand, to typify the Hours. They are decked in gay and flowing drai)ei'y, — " pictis incinctse vestibus Horse," — while before them is Aurora, scatter- ing flowers. It is called Guido's most brilhant perfor- mance, and certainly nothing could exceed the glory he has spread around the chariot of the God of Day, combining in one matchless performance all the beau- tiful features in which the poets have arrayed the Morning. In the Villa Lodovisi, which is without the city walls, occupying a part of Sallust's gardens, is the rival picture, the " Aurora " of Guercino. The god- dess is in her car drawn by fiery horses, while the shades of Night appear to be vanishing at her approach. Tithon, whose couch she had just quitted, is seen half- awake, while the Morning Star, as a winged Genius bearing a torch, is following her course, The Hours, unlike those of Guido, are represented as infants, fluttering before her and extinguishing the stars — an idea perhaps borrowed from Statins, who describes Aurora as chasing the stars before her with her whip, — " Moto leviter fugat astra flagello." In the other compartments are Daybreak, represented as a youth with a torch in one hand and flowers in the other ; Evening, a young female sleeping ; and Night, personified as an aged woman ])oring over a book. The first rays of light seem just penetrating into her gloomy abode, scaring her companions, the owl and the bat, who are shrinking from the unwelcome intrusion. In the Palazzo Spada., the great attraction is the colossal statue of Pompey, nine feet high. For three centuries it has been asserted to be the one " at whose base great Caesar fell," and notwithstanding the dis- 202 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. cussion of critics, has retained its name and authority. It was certainly found buried on the spot where we are told Augustus had it placed, before the Theatre of Pompey. The statue holds a globe in its hand, an emblem of power, which seems hardly in republican taste, and rather brings it down to the days of the Empire. The answer to this is, that it was only a well-merited compliment to him who found Asia Minor the boundary, and left it the centre of the Roman Empire. Coidd we believe this view, it would cer- tainly be with no ordinary interest that w^e stand at its pedestal. We should call back eighteen centuries as we gaze upon the lineaments of him, who was second to Rome's great Master, in fortune only, remembering that tragedy in the Senate House, when m the retribu- tions of Nemesis, that rival was prostrated at the base of this stern looking statue, bathing it with his blood. Gibbon describes the manner in which this relic of antiquity was found in digging the foundations of a house. When first discovered, the head was under one building and the body under another. The two owners therefore quarreled, and were on the point of dividing the statue, — thus rivaling the judgment of Solomon, — when Julius III. interposed, and gave them five hundred crowns which they thankftdly re- ceived, as being susceptible of a more easy partition. This antique figure has since then made one appear- ance in public. When the French held Rome, they determined to have Voltaire's tragedy of Brutus per- formed in the Coliseum, and to give it greater effect decided that their Caesar, like the original Dictator, should fall at the base of this statue. It was accord- ingly transported to the place of exhibition, although THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 203 in so doing they were obliged temporarily to deprive it of the right arm, One of the largest collections of paintings is found in the Palazzo Borghese. Among them is the " Cumajan Sibyl " of Domenichino, so familiar throngh co})ies dispersed everywhere, though no copy can give the beauty of the original. Nameless and by an unknown artist, this picture would anywhei'e arrest attention. We look upon it however with a new association of interest, since Bulwer has adopted it as the portrait of the high-souled Nina di Raselli, and in his own fasci- nating language, thus added the description, — " Why this is called the Cumaean Sibyl I know not, save that it has something strange and unearthly in the dark beauty of the eyes. I beseech thee, mistake not this sibyl for another, for Roman galleries abound in sibyls. The sibyl I speak of is dark, and the face has an east- ern cast : the robe and turban, gorgeous though they be, grow dim before the rich but transparent roses of the cheek ; the hair would be black, save for that golden glow which mellows it to a hue and lustre never seen but in the South, and even in tlie South most rare ; the features, not Grecian, are yet faultless ; the moutli, the brow, the ripe and exquisite contour, all are human and voluptuous ; the expression, the aspect, is something more ; the form is perhaps too ftill for the ideal of loveliness, for the proportions of sculpture, for the delicacy of Athenian models ; but the luxuriant fault has a majesty. Gaze long upon that ])icture : it charms, yet commands the eye." There is another portrait in this gallery on which too we may gaze with interest, for it gives us the linea- ments of one who in his day was the troubler of It;ily, 204 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. shrinking from no means to gain his end, using the dag- ger and the poison with perfect recklessness to remove a rival, and without compunction throwing aside his priestly office and Cardinal's rank to become the leader of armies, when a temporal principality was within his reach. It is the picture of a young man, but with no flush of youth upon his countenance. The face is pale and sallow, the lips compressed, and the look keenly intellectual. You would decide that every line and feature revealed the character of an accomplished, yet unprincipled intriguer. The judg- ment would be right, for that is Raphael's portrait of Caesar Borgia. Look at one more picture, which is founded on a legend of the Church of Rome. It is " St. Anthony preaching to the Fishes," by Paul Veronese. The ser- mon which he delivered on that occasion can be pur- chased in any of the bookstores in this city. It com- mences with the salutation, " Cari et amati pesci " (deai'ly beloved fish), and at its conclusion, the legend tells us, the fish bowed to him, " Congesti di profonda umilta e con reverente sembiante di religione " (with profound humility, and a grave and religious counte- nance). The artist seems to have endeavored to exhibit this happy close of the Saint's lecture, and the upturned eyes of the fish are certainly very edifying. After the discourse was over, and this flattering testimonial in its behalf had been received, the Saint gave them his blessing, and the congregation dispersed. The Borghese family is one of the most wealthy of the Roman nobility, and distinguished also for its public liberality. Just beyond the city is the Villa Borghese^ occupying a portion of the Pincian Hill, and, with its THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 205 gardens and pleasure grounds, covering a circuit of more than three miles in extent. And yet its walks are open to all who choose to enter, prince or peasant ; and there they may wander about or ride, with a per- fect wilderness of statues around them, while at every turn graceful temples arrest the attention, and the eye is refreshed by the sight of water, spread out into lakes, or flung high into the air by sparkling fountains. Here and there are Latin inscriptions declaring the wish of the noble owner that all should unite in the enjoyment which these splendid gardens offer. One of them states, that " all these things are prepared for strangers rather than for the master." The last Prince Borghese married Napoleon's beauti- ful sister Pauline. Of the reality of her beauty in- deed the present generation have a good opportunity of judging, for her statue, almost in a state of nudity, was executed by Canova, and is esteemed one of his most finished works. She is taken in the character of Venus, reclining gracefully on a couch, and holding in one hand the apple which Paris had just awarded her in the contest of beauty with the other goddesses. The present Prince married a lady as Avidely different in character from the Princess Pauline as is possible. She was a daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and died about two years ago, leaving behind her a character for sanctity, which seems to have been gained by a life of earnest devotion and ceaseless charity seldom wit- nessed in her elevated rank. She would steal away from the magnificence of their villa, where everything was ai'ound her to win the affections to earth, and in the dress of one of the Sisterhood of Charity, go through the city seeking everywhere distress and mis- 206 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. ery to which she might minister. I read her funeral sermon while in Rome, and if half is true which is there related, or which I heard mentioned in conversation as illustrating her spirit of self-denial, she deserves to be canonized more than nine tenths of those who now figm'e in the Romish calendar. Her sister, the Lady Catherine Talbot, likewise mar- ried one of the first noblemen in Italy — the Prince Doria. Their palace, we have already said, is one of the most s])lendid in Rome, and kept in a degree of style and elegance befitting such a place. More than one thousand pictures are arranged in its long galleries, where the magnificence of everything around is in admirable harmony. The great charm of this collec- tion consists in its Claudes. As we walk on, we are arrested every little while by one of those bright glow- ing pictures, generally a sunset, whose radiance is thrown over the whole landscape, until it forms a scene of fairy enchantment on which poets love to muse, and which Claude alone could embody and spread upon the canvas. We never however passed the Palazzo Doria in the Corso, Avithout thinking that its owner was out of place. The Dorias seem to belong to Genoa, where the name of Andrea Doria Avill always remain the noblest on the page of her history. His immense wealth enabled him to support a fleet of twenty-two galleys, and with this he turned the scale and freed his country from the yoke of France. He declined the offer of the ducal coronet for life, and, had he wished, there is no doubt but that he might haA^e acquired the absolute sovereignty. But a few weeks before, we had been through his palace in Genoa. On its front is a long Latin mscription, in which THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 207 the stately old Admiral, " II Principe," — to use the title which Charles V. granted him, — informs us that he erected this residence for himself and his suc- cessors, " CEdes sibi et successoribus instauravit, MDXXViii." Arovmd the palace are extensive gardens which descend to the shore of the Mediterranean, and thus their walls are washed by the waves of that sea on which he won immortal glory. You wander on through walks of cypress and orange, while statues and fountains and vases placed around, all seem in perfect harmony with the beauty of the grounds. The palace can lay no claim to the magnificence of that in Rome, but its historical associations invest it with far greater interest. The absence of the family, how- ever, has suffered it to fall somewhat into decay, and unless care is taken, a few years more will efface en- tirely the splendid frescoes with which Perino deco- rated it in the days of the Great Admiral. As a whole, however, no palace interested us so much as the Colonna. There is something, to be sure, in the association of the name, for through all the Mid- dle Ages it was the noblest family in Rome. Their lineage runs back to some remote source on the banks of the Rhine, where the wildest legends mingle with the truth. It was even maintained, in support of their old Roman origin, that they were descended from a cousin of Nero, who escaped from the city, and founded Mentz in Germany ; and Gibbon tells us, that " the sovereigns of Germany were not ashamed of a real or fabulous affinity with a noble race, which in the rc\olutions of seven hundred years has been often illustrated by merit, and always by fortune." They are supposed to have descended from the ancient 208 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. Counts of Tusculum, but the first historical mention of* them is in the middle of the eleventh century, when the Countess Emelia of Palestrina married a baron de- scribed as De Columna. Thus Palestrina, which is about twelve miles from Colonna, passed into their hands, and for centuries after it was their mountain fastness, and celebrated in all their struggles with the Popes. To the student of ecclesiastical history this place i.s particularly associated with the contest of the family with Boniface VIII. He was one of the Gaetani family, and the two Cardinals Giacamo and Pietro Colonna, having vainly opposed his election, retired with their kinsman Sciarra to this castle, and there openly disclaimed his authority. He at once excom- municated them, offered plenary indulgence to all who would take up arms against the family, and was thus enabled, after a gallant resistance, to take their stronghold. Their power broken, the Cardinals agreed to come to Anagni, where the Pope was resid- ing, and make their submission. Then was witnessed one of those acts of treachery, not unusual in the Papal history. Boniface was advised to " promise much and perform little," and he fully acted up to the counsel ; for which Dante in his " Inferno " has con- demned him to immortal infamy. He nominally granted them pardon, but at the same time took measures to have Palestrina razed to the ground, and the whole Colonna family hunted out of Italy. But the hour of retribution came. Sciarra Co- lonna, after a series of most romantic adventures, re- turned to Rome just as the King of France, Philippe le Bel, had dispatched William de Nogaret to seize THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 209 the Pope, and with this party he alhed himself. It was in 1303 that Boniface was residino- at Anao-ni, some fifty miles from Rome, and believing all his ene- mies crushed, he had prepared a Bull, in which he maintained " that, as Vicar of Jesus Christ, he had the power to govern kings with a rod of iron, and to dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." The eighth of September, the anniversary of the Nativity of the Virgin, was the time selected for its publication, but the very day preceding, his dream of dominion was most rudelv broken. Shouts were heard along; the streets of Anagni, — " Long life to the King of France ! Death to Boniface ! " and looking from his palace win- dow, the Pope beheld a band of three hundred horse- men headed by his old enemy, just surrounding the Pontifical residence. Boniface was now in his eighty-seventh year, but age had not broken the courage of one of whom it was written, " Regnabit ut Leo," — he shall reign as a lion, — and he prepared with firmness to meet his foes. He clothed himself in his official robes, placed the crown of Constantino on his head, and with the keys and cross in his hands, seated himself in the Pontifical Chair. Sciarra Colonna ruslied first into his presence, but struck by the dignified composure of his enemy, he went no further than verbal insults. Nogaret followed, but feeling less reverence, he dragged the Pope forth, and committed him to close imprisonment. Tlu'ee days afterwards the people rose, expelled the intruders, and rescued Boniface, but they could not soothe his wounded spirit, and he shortly died from the violence of his passions and the disgrace which he felt had been inflicted on him. 14 210 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. His successor, Benedict XI., absolved the Colonnas from excommunication, and they shortly after began to rebuild Palestrina, which in 1-311 was ready to receive Henry of Luxembourg, Emperor of Germany, when he came to Rome to be crowned. Louis of Bavaria resided tliere at his coronation in 1328; and twice Stephen Colonna repulsed Rienzi from its walls, when he was vainly attempting to seize it. It is this Stephen Colonna who stands preeminent among the heroes of the Middle Ages, and whose name, in the mind of every Italian scholar, is so inti- mately associated with that of Petrarch. It is worth while learning Italian to read the letters which the poet addressed to him. styling him " a phoenix sprang from the ashes of the ancient Romans." Nor was this praise undeserved. In every change of fortune, and even in exile, Stephen Colonna sustained his dignity. When driven fi-om his country, and an attendant asked him, " Where is now your fortress ? " he laid his hand on his heart, and answered, "Here." Amidst the feuds of Rome, or at the Court of Avignon, he commanded no feeling but tliat of reverence. But these historical recollections have led us fi'om our subject. At Avignon we had seen the deserted • Colonna palace standing directly opposite to that of the Popes, and which was occupied by some of the family during the residence there of the Papal Coui't — " the Babylonish captivity," as Petrarch calls it ; but it cannot compare in splendor with this one at Rome. The latter was commenced in 1-117 by Pope Martin V. (Oddone Colonna). Here also afterwards lived Cardinal Borromeo and Pope Julius II. ; and in the fifteenth century, when Andi'ew Paleologus, the Em- THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 211 peror of the East, visited Rome, it was here that lie made his home. The palace seems to preserve its dis- tinctive character as the peculiar residence of the family, and in all parts of it we learn something of their past history, until the Avhole building becomes, as it were, one record of their deeds. Everywhere we see their armorial bearings — the column, surmounted by the crown — the latter emblem being added by Louis of Bavaria at his coronation, out of gratitude to the fam- ily for their assistance ; while on the walls are portraits of Cardinals and Popes, and the leaders of armies, — men whose names were celebrated in their day, — all claiming descent from the Colonna. These are mostly arranged in the great gallery, more than two hundred feet in length, the noblest hall in Rome, and not surpassed by any in Europe. Its ceiling is painted in fresco with a representation of the battle of Lepanto, wliere the Roman galleys Avere led by a prince of this family. It was on Sunday, the seventh of October, a. d. 1571, that the Crescent and the Cross were thus arrayed against each other ; and it added to the courage of the Christian sol- diers to know, that on that day all their brethren through Christendom were offering up prayers for the success of the arms they wielded. It is an additional circumstance of interest, tha the galleys of Genoa were led by John Andrew Doria, a descendant of the great admiral. After a conflict of four hours victory declared for the Cross. Upwards of fifteen thousand Turks fell in the battle, sixty-two ships were sunk and a hundred and twenty taken, while more than twelve thousand Christian slaves found in the Ot- toman vessels were set at liberty. Tiie arrival of the 212 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. news in Rome, we are told, revived the memory of her ancient glory, and it was determined to bestow upon Prince Colonna the honor of a modern triumph. He was received with all possible splendor by the Senator and Magistrates of the city, and, like the old Consuls, escorted with pomp and acclamations to the Capitol. His portrait hangs upon the wall, showing in all his bearing, the chivalrous soldier. Yet near it is one which interests us more. It is the picture of Vittoria Colonna, the sweet poetess, whose sonnets will live as long as the language in which they are written, and who well deserved the title her countrymen bestowed upon her, — " The most beautiful and glorious lady." She was the wife of the Marquis of Pescara, and when efforts were made to turn him from his fidelity to the Spanish cause, she wrote to him these noble admonitions, — " Remember your virtue, which raises you above fortune and above kings. By that alone, and not by the splendor of titles, is glory acquired, that glory which it will be your happiness and pride to transmit unspotted to your posterity." Her husband was killed at the battle of Pavia, and thenceforth she retired fi'om the world. Most beautiful in mind and person, she had no lack of suitors, but she remained constant to the memory of the lost, and when she celebrates his praises, the deep and true tenderness of her lines shows the earnestness of her affection. But she was also a priestess of religion, and conse- crated her lyre to the mysteries and graces of our faith, leaning indeed so much to the purer doctrines which then began to spread, heralding the Reformation, that she often drew upon herself reproach and satire. But her purity of song was so well acknowledged, that THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 213 even in life she gained the title of Divine, which was granted to Dante and Ariosto only after death. Her fame indeed spread widel}', so that Ariosto dedicated to her a number of his immortal verses. But she has another claim to our interest. It was to her that Michael Angelo Buonarotti devoted his muse, when turning from Sculpture and Painting he sought the inspiration of their sister Poetry. He wor- shipped her with that Platonic love which at this period had begun to imbue the minds of Italian poets, redeem- ing the passion from all that was earthly, shoAving it purified by the loftiest virtue, and raising its object almost to the confines of Divinity. His love, therefore, was not like that of Dante for his Beatrice, or of Pe- trarch for his Laura, for they shared too deeply in the feelings of mere mostals. But while every line of Buonarotti glows with tenderness, we perceive that it is something sacred, partaking of the love which he might have had for an object purely ideal, the sort of abstract devotion with which he would have worshipped the beautiful in art. And did she, who had refused the hand of princes, return this affection ? There is no evidence that she did. She admired him as an al- most inspired artist, and often wrote to him with wann regard, yet no tinge of earthly passion appears in any of the lines of Vittoria Colonna. Her life glided quietly away in the convent near Rome in which she resided, yet without taking the vows, and there she died in old age, a few years before her impassioned admirer. With all these associations, is it to be wondered that we gazed long upon her picture ? How sweet and calm appears her coimtenance seen thus among the 214 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. warlike princes of her race ; as strange as the contrast furnished by the soft and melodious verses she could weave, while they were engaged in wild forays and deeds of blood 1 As we stand before it, we forget the last three centuries, and remember only that age so glorious for Italy, when at once she exchanged the darkness which had shrouded her, for all that was no- ble in the arts or elevated in poetry. The most beautiful woman we have seen in Italy is a princess of the Colonna family. It was in the lofty halls of one of these old feudal palaces, when the radi- ance of an hundred lamps flashing back fi'om the gilded ceilings and marble columns, presented a scene of elegance, for the display of which no place is better adapted than the palace of a Roman prince. The sa- loons were filled with the noblest of these sunny climes, whose names recalled associations which stretched back to the mediseval times. Rich music feU on the ear ; jewels flashed before the eye ; and the beauty of Eng- land was seen by the side of the more impassioned loveliness of Southern Europe. Around the Princess Doria, a circle of her countrymen had gathered, claim- ing her to themselves, as a descendant of the old he- roic Talbots. But among aU present, "the observed of all observers," was this member of the princely house of Colonna, of whom we have spoken. As the light flashed from the diamond tiara on her head, she seemed worthy to be a queen, even in this land where beauty is an inheritance and where the classical fea- tures of the lowest peasantry are often those from which Raphael might have drawn his inspiration. But the fortunes of this noble house seem now to be wanino;, for the age of chivalry is gone, and that of i lllitarianism has taken its place. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IISI ROME. 215 " And noble name, and cultured land, Palace and park, and vassal band, Are powerless to the notes of hand Of Rothschild, or the Barings." The present prince is seldom in Rome. Having married a lady of Naples, he generally resides in that city. In the last century the family even sold to the Ludovisi the estate of Colonna, thus alienating a place from which they derive their name ; and in the seven- teenth century they parted with Palestrina, their old feudal stronghold. It was purchased by Carlo Bar- bei'ini, brother to Urban VIII., for the sum of seven hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. And to show how much interest is often felt by these Ro- man nobles in historical recollections, it is related that the last Prince Barberini, whose family had not seen Palestrina for three generations, being asked, why he did not visit so interesting a spot, a short day's jour- ney from his palace in Rome, replied, " Why, my father never visited it ; besides, it is too long a journey for my own horses, and not worth the expense of post- ing."i We will refer to but one more of these palaces ; that of the Barberini. The family was formerly one of the most powerful in Rome, being built up by Pope Urban 1 Lady Morgan, twenty years ago, related a story equally good of the Borghese family. Their library had not been opened for many years before the revolution. Some time after tliat event, and the young prince had married into the Bonaparte family, a visit to it was proposed as a frolic after dinner. After a long search for keys, the party proceeded thither with liglits, when, on opening the door, the singular spectacle pre- sented itself of the whole room in a blaze. This sudden conflagration was caused b}' the cobwebs which covered the walls taking lire the moment the candles were brought in. The flame ran rapidly round, and was extin- guished as rapidly. Stores of gold, silver, and ivory work of the most beautiful description were found in the Guarda-roba of the palace, where they had been long forgotten. 216 THE CHPdSTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. VIII. (Mateo Barberini), whose reign was noted for its nepotism. Their crest — the bee — is seen on buildings in every part of the city, and is sculptured even in the interior of St. Peter's, and on the canopy over the High Altar, which was also erected by the same Pope. The librar}^ is celebrated for its manuscripts, contain- ing all the correspondence of Urban VIII. Some of them are of great historical value ; such as the official reports on the state of the Church of Rome in England during the reign of Charles I. They must contain much matter for a history of the Stuart family, which would throw light upon many hitherto disputed points. Mabillon, who in 1686 came into Italy with a com- mission from the King of France to collect manuscripts, had an opportunity of examining those in the Barberini library, and gives a pleasant account of some original papers he found there. ^ They contain a negotiation between the Spaniards and Urban VIII. It seems there was a samt held in great reverence in some parts of Spain, of the name of Viar. The more to encour- age his worship, they petitioned the Pope to grant some special indulgences to his altars. He naturally, in reply, inquired into the proofs of his sanctity, when they produced a monumental stone which had been dug up, and on which the whole claim rested, having on it the letters, S. VIAR. Unfortunately, however, the antiquarians of the day immediately perceived it to be a fragment of some old Roman inscription, in memory of one who had been " PrrefectuS. VIARura," or " Overseer of the Highways." This palace once contained a fine gallery of paint- 1 Mabil. Iter. Ital, p 144. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 217 ings, but as the fortune of the family was reduced, many of them were scattered, and now form the prin- cipal attraction of other collections in the city. And yet there is one remaining in the gallery, which ren- ders it in some respects the favorite collection in Rome. It is the portrait of Beatrice Cenci. The custode carried us through the different rooms, and pointed out one picture after another, but we hastily turned from them all in our impatience to see the gem of the col- lection. At length he drew aside a curtain, and there we saw the original with which copies had so long made us familiar. They have been multiplied all over the world, and the engravings too have been widely circulated, but not one that we had ever seen conveyed an idea of that touching expression which gives such a charm to the portrait by Guido. The history of Beatrice Cenci is one of those strange tales which seem more like the wildest fiction than anything which could have happened in real life. Shelley has made it the foundation of his tragedy of " The Cenci," where the darker features are hinted at, while in the development of the plot, historical truth seems as far as possible to have been observed. Her father was of a noble Roman family, and in the sixteenth century one of the most powerful barons of Italy. He was leagued Avith all the restless evil spirits in the land, and indeed one of those demons in human form who seem to leave us in doubt whether or not ho can be of the same nature with his fellow-men. In the tragedy, he thus descril)es his own fiend-like tastes and pursuits in language which history tells us is but too strictlv true : — 218 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. " When I was young, I thought of nothing else But pleasure; and I fed on honey-sweets; Men, by St. Thomas ! cannot live like bees, And I grew tired; yet, till I kiil'd a foe. And heard his groans, and heard his children's groans, Knew I not what delight was else on earth. Which now delights me little. I the rather Look on such pangs as terror ill conceals: The dry fix'd eyeball ; the pale quivering lip. Which tells me that the spirit weeps within Tears bitterer than the bloody sweat of Christ. I rarely kill the body, which preserves. Like a strong prison, the soul within my power, Wherein I feed it with the breath of fear For hourly pain." Although his wealth was almost countless, yet his children were kept in poverty. Two of liis sons sent into Spain, died in want, and his daughter, with her stepmother, were treated with the most shocking bini- tality. Yet none dared to interfere, for Count Cenci was an enemy who struck without giving any warning, and whose blow was never in vain. Shelley repre- sents Cardinal Camillo remonstrating with him on his daughter's " strange and uncomplaining wrongs," when he receives this characteristic answer, — " Cardinal, One thing I pray 3'ou, recollect henceforth. And so we shall converse with less restraint. A man you knew, spoke of my wife and daughter: He was accustom'd to frequent my house; So the next day his wife and daughter came And ask'd if I had seen him; and I srail'd: I think they never saw him any more." But the secret of his immunity was his enormous wealth. ^Tiatever deed of wickedness was detected, he could always purchase his pardon from the Pope. A grant was made of one of his fiefs to a nephew of THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 219 the Pontiff, and all was hushed up. Count Cenci had therefore reason to say, — " No doubt Pope Clement, And his most charitable nephews, pray That the Apostle Peter and tlie saints Will grant for their sakes that I IcMii,' enjoy ' Strength, wealth, and pride, and lust, and length of days Wherein to act the deeds which are the stewards Of their revenue." At length his iniquity reached its climax, and he at- tempted an outrage upon the person of his daughter, Beatrice. Shortly afterwards he was found strangled in his bed, at the Castle of Petrella, among the Apulian Apennines. Whether or not Beatrice was guilty of plotting his death cannot be determined, yet it is evi- dent she was at this time suffering from an almost total alienation of reason. She was arrested, with her step- mother and brother, and put to torture, but nothing could be extorted from her. Shelley states, that the murderers employed by her confessed when put to the rack ; but another version of the story is, that seeing her younger brother, Bernardo, exposed to torture, she assumed the guilt of the deed to herself, for the sake of saving him. The true account it is difficult to pro- cure, as it exists only in the records of the Court, and the government does not permit it to be made public. Every effort was made to save Beatrice, but the Pope would not commute her sentence of death, for the treasury needed replenishing, and he wished to con- fiscate the Cenci estates. The night before her exe- cution, she made for herself a robe of white sackcloth, with a loose, winding head-dress of the same material, and it was finished but an lumr before she left her prison. Guido, says the fjimily tradition, saw her 220 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. mount the scaffold, and, struck with her exquisite beauty, painted her portrait from memory. The pic- ture originally belonged to the Colonna family, and still has the column and crown painted in one corner. With so romantic a history attached to it, no one can wonder that this is the favorite picture in Rome. We gaze upon it, and Beatrice seems before us, showing a face of childUke loveliness, utterly unlike that of one who could ever have been an actor in such a terrible tragedy. The head is turned on one side, as if slie was leaving you, yet looking back. From the folds of the white drapery, her golden hair escapes and falls about her neck. The large, full eyes look mournfully from the canvas, and the delicate features are all swollen with weeping. The whole expression is one deeply pathetic — the countenance of a gentle being who had been stricken with despair, yet from whose every linea- ment there beams forth an exquisite loveliness. " Bea- trice Cenci," says Shelley, " appears to have been one of those rare persons in whom energy and gentleness dwell together, without destroying one another : her nature was simple and profound. The crimes and miseries, in which she was an actor and a sufferer, are as the mask, and the mantle, m which circum- stances clothed her for her impersonation on the scene of the world." Since this tragedy, the old palace of the Cenci, in the city, has stood desolate and uninhabited, as if stricken by a curse. The family, we believe, ended at that time ; its sole sui-vivor, the young Bernardo, disap- peared, and was generally supposed to have been placed in a monastery. We wandered over the courts of the palace, and look through its deep, dark dun- THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 221 geons, with the interest with which this strange story has invested it. It is now in the most obsciu'e quarter of Rome — an immense, gloomy, and deserted pile of massive architecture, without doors, or windows, or any sign of human habitation, yet showing, by its an- tique friezes of fine workmanship, the magnificence which it once possessed. There seems to brood over it a spirit of desolate and ruined grandeur. Adjoining it is tlie little Chapel of S. Thommaso a' Cenci, erected by the notorious Count Francisco Cenci, of whom we have been speaking, and endowed to offer up masses for the peace of his soul. What a strange contradiction of traits ! Yet thus religion is often exhibited in this land. Shelley truly says, that in an Italian, " it is interwoven with the whole fabric of life. It is ado- ration, faith, submission, penitence, blind admiration ; not a rule for moral conduct. It has no necessary connection with any one virtue. The most atrocious villain may be rigidly devout, and, without any shock to established faith, confess himself to be so. Religion pervades intensely the whole frame of society, and is, according to the temper of the mind which it in- habits, a passion, a persuasion, an excuse, a refuge : never a check." To believe in the innocence of Beatrice, is part of the creed of an Italian. Her story is one of those romantic traditions which sink deeply into the po})ular mind. Every beggar on the steps of the Scala di Spagna is perfectly familiar with it. He knows her portrait as well as he does the pictures of the Madonna, and no possible evidence could turn him fi'om the conviction that she was a victim unjustly sacrificed. Every Ro- 222 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. man acts most religiously on the parting advice she is represented as giving to the young Bernardo, — " One thing more, my child : For thine own sake be constant to the love Thou bearest us; and to the faith that I, Though wrapt in a strange cloud of crime and shame, Lived ever holy and unstain'd. And though 111 tongues shall wound me, and our common name Be as a mark stamp'd on thine innocent brow For men to point at as they pass, do thou Forbear, and never think a thought unkind Of those who perhaps love thee in their graves." CHAPTER XVIII. EXCURSION TO TIVOLI. HE neigliborhood of Rome abounds with scenes to which the visitor can make de- h'ghtful excursions. We have been to-day to Tivoli, to which every one goes, and we therefore followed the example of the rest of the world. The Sim was just rising as we passed through the gate of San Lorenzo, and near the old Church of the same name. It stands close without the walls, and is one of the most ancient in the world. We may still sec with- in it, the upper row of columns for the female gallery, preserved unaltered from an early age. Our road led for nearly the whole distance over the desolate Cam- pagna, which we traversed by the Via Tiburtina, in some parts passing over the ancient pavement, formed by large blocks of lava.^ Here and there was a tomb, or the remains of some shattered monument — the only tokens existing of the thousands who once in- habited this waste region, now given up to sterility and miasma. A few miles brought us to a ca7ial which drains the sulphureous lake of Salfatara. The water Avhich flows through it is of a milky color, and long before we reached it, the sulphureous fumes and gas gave notice 1 It has been discovered by excavating, that this ancient road lias been paved three times, the pavements being found one above the other. 224 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. of its vicinity. The lake was once a mile in circuit, but has been gradually diminishing until but little of it is visible. It is filled with floating islands, composed of small masses of reeds and other substances matted too-ether, and which are carried to and fro by the wind, like those of the Vadimon Lake of which Pliny has given such a minute account.^ These bituminous masses gradually add to the solid concretions on the margin of the lake, and probably in the course of a short time the remaining surface will be hid. For a considerable space around, the ground sounds hollow under foot, showing that we are only treading on the crust which covers the lake. A short distance ftirther and we crossed the Anio by the Ponte Lucana, a bridge well known to visitors in Rome by the picture of Poussin in the Doria Palace. Near it stands the lofty tomb of Plautius Silvanus, who accompanied Claudius on his expedition into Britain. Like all these massive monuments, it was during the Middle Ages converted into a fortress, and the battle- ments by which it was crowned still remain. It is a most picturesque ruin, and a favorite subject with the landscape painters of all countries. From this spot we left the main road, and by a narrow and vile lane rode to Hadrian's Villa. It is a strange mass of ruins, far more extensive even than the Palace of the Cae- sars, and giving proof of that spirit of luxury which was the absorbing feeKng in the latter days of Rome. It was originally constructed on a plan surpassing everything else that even Imperial magnificence had attempted, and covering a space of from eight to ten miles in circuit. Into this one spot the Emperor in- 1 Ep. vii. 20. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 225 tended to gather an imitation of all that he had seen in his travels, which most interested him. Here were a Lyceum, an Academy, a Poecile in imitation of that at Athens, a Vale of Tempe, a Serapeon of Canopus like the one at Alexandria, a stream called the Euripus, a Library, Barracks for the Guards, a Tartarus, Ely- sian Fields, and temples dedicated to a perfect Pan- theon of gods. He had — " Collected All things that strike, ennoble — from the depths Of Egypt, from the classic fields of Greece, Her groves, her temples — all things that inspire Wonder, delight." We found the usual cicei'one, and spent some hours in wandering about among the massive ruins. To attempt to describe them would be useless. They are found in every possible form and shape, scattered over this vast space. Sometimes lofty arches towered over our heads, wreathed with ivy, and crowned by shrubs and bushes waving in the breeze, and then we came to the ruins of a theatre, where the circidar seats were still visible, sixteen centuries after the audience had been turned to dust. A long range of broken arches in a most picturesque fomi, show where once the Praitorian guards were quartered, and the massive remains of baths give some idea of the magnificence of tliis portion of the palace. Sometimes our guide led iis vinder gi'ound through galleries and crypts, on the ceil- ings of which are still seen the remains of fresco paint- ings ; and then clambering over fallen colunms we came to the edge of a hill, and in a deserted meadow behjw we saw all that was left of Hadrian's Vale of Tempo. What a perfect paradise must it have been in its day, 15 226 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. when human ingenuity had here exhausted all its skill I Let the imagination rebuild once more these fallen piles ; rear these crumblmg arches ; transform, as of old, into a fairy scene these groves and gardens ; and we can scarcely believe that there ever has existed such a reality in this every-day world. It would rather seem some artist's glorious dream, or what the Italians in common expression call, " un pezzo di cielo caduto in terra," — a little bit of heaven fallen upon the earth. But Time here has not been the only spoiler. For centuries the degenerate Romans used these ruins as they would a quarry, and plundered them for porphyry and marble columns to adorn their palaces and churches. Their excavations indeed brought many gems of art to light, for here were found the Venus de Medici, the celebrated Vase which we saw in Warwick Castle in England, and many others of • those beautiful works which now enrich the museums of Europe. But the work of desolation is at length complete. Lofty ti^ees have sprung up in eveiy part, twining their roots among the massive stones, and thick vines have grown over the fluted columns, so that you have to tear them aside to see the sculptures on their capitals. Not a sound was heard except when the bee hummed about us as he flitted amono; the wild flowers to gather his honey. All was as quiet as the first Sabbath after the Creation. The traces of man's luxury Avere rapidly disappearing, and Nature was again claiming this beautiful spot for her own. At this viha Hadrian resided when he was seized with his last and fatal illness. Here he had every- thing gathered around liim to make life happy, and THE CHRIST.yAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 227 eveiy luxury at hand which the world could furnish. The gems of art filled his palaces, and fi'om the por- tico in front he had a distant view of Rome with its many towers gleaming in the sunlight — the mag- nificent Metropolis of the Earth, of which he was the absolute master. How hard then must it have been for him to see the gates of Eternity opening before him, " not knowing the things that sliould befall him there ! " Yet amid all his pomps and pleasures, he seems to have made as great preparations for his death as for his life, and the mightiest monument in Rome is the one he reared to receive his remains. But there, as elsewhere, Time has made sad changes and utterly defeated the builder's object. The Im- perial tomb of Hadrian was soon perverted to be a fortress for the living ; its sculptured ornaments were gradually defaced by the hand of violence ; Belisarius hurled on the invading Goths the beautiful statues which adorned the interior ; and now it stands naked and frowning, as the Papal Castle of St. Angelo. Even the marble sarcophagus wliich once held his body has been seized by modern spoilers, and now holds the ashes of Pope Innocent II. A few miles further and we leave the Campagna, commencing the ascent of the hills by a road which winds through olive groves initil it reaches Tivoli. Bold rocks jutting out into the road ; the old olive- trees, with their gnarled and twisted stems ; simple shrines before which the contradina are kneeling in their picturesque costumes ; and above, the old and hoary ruins of two thousand years — these are the fea- tures of the landscape. The peasantry seemed to be enjoying themselves — some, basking lazily in the sun- 228 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. shine, inhaling an atmosphere, which to breathe is lux- ury; and some, as in the days of Vu-gil, reclining sub tegmine fagi, but we fear that in this accidental circumstance alone like the hero of the Fu-st BucoHc. There are few places about which linger so many classical associations as Tivoli. Five centuries before the founding of Rome, here stood the ancient Tibur, and when the colonists of Romulus had gathered on the Seven Hills, they found it a powerful rival not to be reduced until after years of warfare. Then it be- came a mere suburb of Rome, the delightful retreat of its patricians, and the prison of its captives. Hither they sent Syphax, King of Numidia, and here he ended Ms days, being thus saved the mortification of gi'acing the triumph of Scipio Africanus. As Livy tells us, — " Syphax was withdrawn rather from the gaze of the multitude, than from the glory of the conqueror, by dying a little before the triumph, at Tibur." ^ In the Vatican, however, is a monumental inscription found in this place, bearing the name of the captive king, which expressly states that he was led in the triumph. How the fiery African fretted away his life, we know not, though Polybius tells us that he died in prison, and Claudian that he swallowed poison, — " Haurire venena Compulimus dirum Syphacem." Two centuries more brought the days of Roman luxury, when the same beauty of scenery which now attracts so many visitors, made it the favorite residence of poets, philosophers, and statesmen, and the ruins of their villas are still scattered about through the lovely valleys and on the hill-sides. Then, its praises began 1 Lib. i. c. 13. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 229 to be simsc in the harmonious measures of verse, and thus by Roman poets the name of Tivoli was first in- vested with those sweet associations, which still chng to it wherever it is heard. Vu'gil bestowed on it the epithet, " Superbum Tibur," and to tliis day these words are borne as the motto on the city arms. Ca- tullus, who was a wealthy patrician as well as a poet, had here his villa, in whose praises he delighted to dwell ; Propertius pays his tribute to the beauty of these hills and valleys ; and the words " lucus Ti- burni " often occur in the sweetest lyrics of Horace. His verses, he tells us, were often composed when wan- dering among its shady groves, — " Circa nemus, uvidique Tiburis ripas operosa parvus Carmina fingo." That he had a villa here, we do not believe, nor is any credit to be attached to the scattered ruins which here go by his name." ^ The very terms he uses proves the fact. When expressing the earnest wish that he might spend his declining years among its retreats, his laumiage is — " Sit mea; sedes utmam senectae." But the " sit utinam " shows that it was rather a hope fondly cherished, than anything which he had realized. He lived in a day, hoAvever, when the Roman Patricians delighted to patronize genius, and here at the table of his friend Maecenas and the other lordly patrons whom he celebrates in his verses, the poet was undoubtedly often found, a visitor in Tibur, though not a resident. Some miles distant, in a httle valley formed by the ridges of Mount Lucretilis, is the probable site of Hor- 1 Eustace, ii. 70. 230 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. ace's modest Sabine farm. There, the features of the landscape so graphically portrayed in his lines, remain unchanged, and we recognize them at once. Even " the pine waving over the villa," and " the ilex spreading around the rocks," as they shade the ruined wall and broken mosaic pavement, still mark the fidel- ity of his descriptions. Nearly three centuries later, and a captive princess came to Tibur, to transfer to its hills the regal luxury of the East. It was Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, to whom Aurelian gave his palace in this place, and whose daughter he elevated to his throne as Em- press of Rome. How must the haughty spirit of the eastern queen have chafed within her, when thus forced to live within sight of Imperial Rome, where a captive she had walked to grace the triumph of her conqueror ! The memory of that day, when exposed to the rude gaze of a Roman populace, she formed a part of the same pageant with gladiators, and wild beasts from the East, and captives from Gaul, and the rich and gorgeous treasures of her own palace borne as spoils of war, must have recini'ed with ci'ushing weight to the mind of one who had hitherto been served only with the abject ser\'ility of oriental cere- mony. And when there was mingled with this, the recollections of her proud Palmyra, — that glorious city of the desert, — we may well believe, that among the millions who owed allegiance to Aurelian, there was no one more wretched than the mother of his queen. But all her magnificence has passed away, and no traces of her existence here remain, except the niins of the Baths she erected on the Anio, and which still retain the name " Bagni di Reo;ina." THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 231 With the Middle Ages, the luxury and splendor of Tivoli — for in the eighth century it had taken this name — passed away, and it became the centre of strife and warfare. Its convenient distance from Rome rendered it a place of importance, and for cen- turies it was deeply concerned in all the struggles be- tween the Emperors and Popes — the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Whenever a faction was expelled from the city, its adherents passed over the Campagna, made here their first halting-})lace, and fortifying themselves, waited the opportunity to return. It seemed as if for Tivoli the Iron Age had been re- newed. In succession it became a stronghold of the powerful houses of the Colonna and the Orsini. Here, too, for a time, were the head-quarters of Rienzi, and on the Square of San Lorenzo he once publicly ha- rangued the people with that wild eloquence, which so often enabled him to sway the minds of men, and fi'om a peasant to become the Tribune of Rome. A miserable, dirty town, filled with some fifteen thousand inhabitants, as ferocious and lawless as ages of strife and misrule could make them, is all that re- mains of this classical and once powerful place. The contrast between the old Roman elegance and the din- ner they furnished us at the inn La Megina, was as great as that which we afterwards found at Capua, the vilest, dirtiest place in all Italy, but which we only remembered as the city whose luxuiy enervated the army of Hannibal. We passed through the town, picking up a guide on our way, and commenced a sur- vey of the Falls. These are certainly exceedingly beautiful. There is a wide, deep valley, the circuit of wliich is about three miles, and on one side, half- 232 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. way up the mountain, the town has been built. Be- neath it, far below its foundations, the rocks are per- forated by caverns, out of which and all around the circle of the romantic glen, the cascades come dashing forth, flinging their spray into the air, and when the sun shines, arched by the most beautiful rainbows. There are more than twenty of these wild mountain torrents seen from different points, as you ride round the terrace which forms the sides of the valley. It is about an hundred feet to the bottom, and the water rushes down, leaping from rock to rock, and beauti- fully contrasting its sheet of silvery foam with the brilliant verdure of the valley behind. -The streams seem to race forth and hurry on as if they were eager to meet below, where they unite in the quiet river, and glide peacefully away together. Every step va- ries and changes the prospect. At one time the foam- ing w^ater disappears entirely among the chasms in the rocks, or darts away behind the trees and drooping vines, or sinks into some retired grotto, and then once more suddenly dashes forth, and flings itself over a precipice in one dazzling sheet of foam, which is again lost to sight in the dark gulf beneath. Wilder scenes I have seen in my own land, yet never one uniting so much of the grandeur of nature with the soft and beautiful. The contrast is so striking, between the brilliant sunlight above, imparting an emerald tint to the vines and shrubs on which it rests, and the deep gloom of the gulf beneath. And all the way up the glen for miles is a succession of the same scenes of beauty. At times, we come to a spot of calm and peaceful loveliness, which almost seems to have escaped the curse, and reminds us of THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 233 the glory of Eden before the earth had grown aged, and ceased to reflect back the serenity of Heaven. Then is heard again tlie murmur of the Httle stream as it falls over the rocks, and then, a little further on, not a sound breaks the stillness, as Ave reach some retired valley, where the water spreads out into a suc- cession of little mirrors, in whose bosom we see the deep blue of the sky above, — " Bright lakes, those glistening eyes of solitude." ^ Upon a lofty crag, on the very edge of the Avild cir- cular valley, and overlooking the picturesque scene we have described, stands the little Temple of the Tibur- tine Sibyl. It is a light and fairy thing, not more than twenty feet in diameter, circular, like that of Vesta at Rome, and surrounded by elegant Corinthian col- umns. What rites were performed there we know not, or what deity was worshipped in this picturesque little fane, yet a more romantic spot could not have been selected, or a more beautiful shrine built for any faith. Visible from every point of the landscape, it might well have been dedicated to the nymph of these gushing fountains. It seemed in perfect character with the scene, — harmonizing well with the deep foliage around it, and the lonely torrent on which it looked down, — resting there in its antique beauty, the relic of an age of taste and elegance, which even succeeding barbarism had not the heart to destroy. A little further on is the ruined Villa of Maecenas, where the patron of Virgil and Plorace passed the months of summer heat, free from the cares of states- manship. It looks out over the Campagna, and in the 1 The Gipsies, by A. P. Stanlej-. 234 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. distance he might have seen the Imperial City, with the golden towers of the Capitol soaring liigh above it. Through three of the massive arches which still remain, the torrent has found its way, and goes dashing on until it is lost in the valley beneath. We returned to the town, and followed our guide as he unlocked a gate, and conducted us down a steep and rocky path, which led to the bottom of the glen. Here, among the vines, wet with spray, stalactites hang about glittering like gems, and the water has worn its way into the soft rock, forming in every direction strangely shaped grot- toes, where the moss has grown, covering them like a rich carpet. The largest is called the Cavern of Nep- tune, though it would much more appropriately bear the name of some water nymph. From these Alban hills — which we cross on the road from Naples — the traveller should always liave his first view of Rome, if he would avoid disappointment. On every other side but little of the city is seen until you are almost iinder its walls. Here, on the contrary, the Campagna spreads out before us in all its dreariness, and from the Mediterranean on the one side, to the Ap- ennines on the other, we have one wide prospect of deso- lation, broken only here and there by a few scattered ruins, while in the centre of this mighty plain rises the city, its domes, and cupolas, and columns, seen at a single glance from the distance of nearly twenty miles. There is something, indeed, awful in this desolate grandeur contrasting so strongly with the glorious landscape, on which Hannibal and Pp-rhus gazed from this very spot. It was among these hills, too, that Claude painted many of his landscapes. His house still stands on the Pincian Mount, near the Convent of Santa Trinita, so THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 235 that even from the window of his studio he looked over Rome, and day after day watched the changing Ughts, and the rich glow, which he has transferred so faithfully to liis canvas. We wonder not, indeed, that he lin- gered amono; such scenes ! In our own land we liave scenery which Salvator Rosa would have delighted to paint, yet of its grand features we may become weary. There is little to enlist the heart and the affections. We have no past. But we can never tire of tlie calm loveliness of an Italian landscape. It is not nature alone. It is minoled evervwhere with those irraceful forms, which three thousand years ago art assumed, and which have still survived, only more beautiful from age. The sun was going down in cloudless beauty when we commenced our descent of the hills. Its beams lighted up the distant dome of St. Peter's, and shed their mellow radiance over the dreary Campagna. The whole scene was bathed in a flood of that irolden liirht which Raphael has painted in his " Transfiguration," imparting even an air of cheerfulness to the dark cy- presses and pines, which overshadowed the old tombs on the plain below. Then came the gradual change. The rich purple which crested the hills melted from our sight, as one by one the stars came out. The golden tints faded from the landscape, lingered awhile longer in the western sky, and then were exchanged for that deep blue which characterizes the brief Italian night. With the windows closed to escape the deadly malaria which was rising around, we drove rapidly on, and by eight o'clock were once more within the gates of the city. CHAPTER XIX. THE CHURCHES OF ROME. T was not suddenly that the reign of Pagan- ism ended in Rome. Its decline was grad- ual and slow. One light after another faded away, until its shrines were left in darkness. The old belief had to pass through many stages before its power was ended, and it was nmn- bered with those forgotten forms of faith which have had their day. It first ceased to be a popular religion and lost its hold upon the hearts of the multitude ; then, it passed into a system of philosophy for the learned ; and ere it expired, had still further degener- ated into a mere allegory to employ the ingenuity of its disciples. Long, however, it lingered, even after Christianity had become dominant, and none dared to confess openly their allegiance to its rival. It was not until A. D. 410, that we can look for its last expiring throes. When in that year, for the first time the Im- perial City was occupied by the invaders, a shock was felt throughout the world, and men wildly turned to any cause which might account for her fall. Many, in their despair, ascribed this disastrous consummation to the new religion, and to win back the gods they sup- posed had forsaken them, offered for the last time sacri- fices at their long-deserted shrines. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 287 But as step by step Paganism retreated, Chris- tianity followed hard upon its footsteps. When the fires had gone out on its altars, and no more worship- pers crowded its temples, the new faith at once suc- ceeded to them as spoils won in the conflict she was waging ; and it is to this cause — as in the case of the Pantheon — we may probably ascribe the preservation of some of these relics of antiquity. They were gen- erally, however, too contracted ; the interior, or pene- tr'alia, being only intended to receive the images of the gods, and not adapted, therefore, to the meeting of assemblies which had now become numerous. The Christians naturally turned then to the Basili- cas, or Halls of Justice, some of which, as the popu- lation of the city decreased, or perhaps as the govern- ment grew more absolute, became useless. And most admirably did they answer the purpose of Christian worship. The large area and the long aisles seemed built to accommodate a numerous audience, while the semicircular retreat (^apsis^ at the end, elevated on its flight of steps, needed but little change to prepare it for the Bishop and his Presbyters. Several of these were therefore granted by the Christian Emperors to the Church, and consecrated for the performance of their services. But yet this new consecration of hea- then temples seemed often insuflicient to expel the Paganism which lingered about their walls, or to change the associations with which a half-Christianized people regarded the spot. And in some cases we trace these feelings existing even to this day. Under the brow of the Palatine Hill is a circular building, once the Tem[)le of Romulus, to which the women of an- cient Rome were accustomed to carry their children 238 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. when ill, tlmt the priests might pray for their recovery. It is now the Church of St. Theodore, and you may at any time see the women of modern Rome carrying thither their children on the same occasions. You have been with us, gentle reader, in a ramble through the palaces of Rome, where historical associa- tions crowd upon the mind, and miracles of art meet the eye on every side : shall we make also a pilgrim- age to some of her churches ? Few indeed will there be time, to visit, — half a dozen perhaps, selected from some two hundred, — yet you will find them no less in- teresting than the feudal residences of her nobility. The traces of antiquity are there also, for you can stand within the walls where they worshipped, who for four- teen centuries have been hymning praises in the Para- dise of God. There, too, painting and sculpture have placed their noblest works, for you are among a people, the spirit of whose faith it is, to dedicate the best they have to their Lord. No Gothic architecture indeed is seen, with its painted windows and " dim religious light : " for this, you must resort to Milan and study its magnificent Cathedral. And yet, when you wander through one of the churches in Rome, you feel that Genius has written on every side the traces of its pres- ence. " Incense-breathing " chapels are about you — and delicate carvings wrought out from the marble as if it could be moulded up at will — and all so rich and quaint and clerkly, that you scarcely feel the want of that solemn architecture, which in Northern Europe seems alone to be ecclesiastical. The mere literary man turns with the deepest inter- est to the Church of St. Onofrio, for the adjoining monastery of the hermits of St. Jerome is consecrated THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 239 as the place where the author of " Gerusalemme Lib- erata " breathed his last. Strange and sorrowful had been his pilgrimage through life ! At one time flat- tered at the most brilliant courts ; then wandering through the land which was ringing with his genius, yet wayworn, unknown, and in poverty ; then a pris- oner in the dungeons of Ferrara, — he had come at last to Rome, where it seemed as if he was to receive a reward for all his trials. He was soon to be solemnly crowned with laurel at the Capitol, yet ere the day for the ceremony arrived, there were symptoms that the springs of life were giving way, and he was con- veyed to the monastery of St. Onofrio. In this garden looking over Rome, and blending, in the mind of one who gazes from its terraces, a sense of the present beauty of nature with a remem- brance of the ancient glory of the city, Tasso was ac- customed to sit. The poor monks will point out to you the very spot. It was there where a noble oak once cast its shade, but three years ago an autumn storm uprooted it. In those cloisters is the room in which he died : and as you enter the Church, turn to your left, and you will see a plain marble slab, with the sim- ple inscription, — " TOKQUATI TASSO OSSA." And tlnis sleeps the tirst epic poet of Italy — a brilliant spirit, which, with the customary reward of genius, passed through life in sorrow and pain. Yet no poetic visions filled his mind, as in feebleness he paced the walks and cloisters of this old monastery. He had done with human praise forever, and was girding up his spirit for the realities of the world to 240 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. come. " I have come to this monastery of St. Ono- frio," he wrote to his best friend, a few clays before his death, " not only because the air is commended by physicians, as more salubrious than in any other part of Rome, but that I may, as it were, commence in this high place, and in the conversation of these devout fithers, my conversation in heaven. Pray God for me ; and be assured that as I have loved and honored you in this present life, so in that other and more real life will I do for you all that belongs to char- ity unfeigned and time, and to the Divine Mercy I re- commend both you and myself." We were wandering one morning about the Esqui- line, when we found oui'selves near the Chui*ch of San Clemente., probably the least changed from ancient times of any in Rome, The quarter of the city in which it stands is nearly deserted. Vacant squares — grass- grown streets — and mouldering ruins, show how the wave of population has receded from the spot. Wish- mg a cicerone., we entered the Dominican monastery adjoining the Church, but all there was as silent as it was without. We traversed the long stone passages without meeting any of the monks, and at last deter- mined to explore the Chui'ch ourselves. The interior transports us back at once to the early centuries of om' faith. There, on an elevated platform, and divided fr'om the rest of the Church by two gates, are the apsis or tribune, the ancient altar, and the episcopal seat. In fi'ont is the marble inclosure, having on the sides the ambones or marble pulpits from which the Epistle and Gospel were read. The aisles terminate in two recesses, anciently called Exedrce or Cellce, and then appropriated to private devotion in prayer and med- THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 241 itation. They are now converted into chapels. This is probably the only Church which preserves the form of the old Basilicas. It is mentioned as ancient by authors of the fourth centmy, and though often re- paired and decorated, has never been deprived of its primitive shape and fashion. Let us pass on a short distance and we come to the Chui'ch of S. Pietro in Vineoli. Its name and the chain sculptured over the portal give an explanation of its object. It is intended to preserve the chain with Avhich St. Peter was bound when a pi'isoner in Jerusalem, and on the first of August this holy relic is shown publicly to the people. Much more interesting, however, to the visitor is Michael Angelo's celebrated statue of Moses, which is considered by many to rival the grandest productions of the Grecian chisel. It is colossal in its size, and represents him with that sternness upon his counte- nance Avhich we may imagine was imprinted there when he rebuked the idolatry of his people. It was intended as one of forty statues which were to orna- ment the tomb of Julius II. The monument, however, was never executed, only five of the statues being fin- ished at the time of Michael Angelo's death. Of these, three are in this Church ; one is in Paris ; and the fifth in the Boboli Gardens in Florence. The Pope himself was buried in the Vatican. There is a peculiarity about this figure, which, majes- tic as it is, has often exposed it to ridicule. On each side of the head of Moses, a small horn is just budding forth. " One critic," says Forsyth, " compares his head to a goat's ; " and we often see the same j^ecul- iarity in paintings of the Middle Ages. What does it 16 242 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME, mean? I have never seen any explanation given, but the following struck me as being a natural solution. In the original Hebrew the same word, C^D");", is used both for liorns and rays of light, and it was of coiu'se easy to confound them. When therefore it is said in Exodus xxxiv. 29, that as Moses came down from the INIount, " he wist not that the skin of his face shone," the Vulgate — the version of the Church of Rome — renders it, " Et ignorabat quod cornuta esset facies sua ; " " and he did not know that his face was horned." It was this phrase, then, which probably led to the mistake, and accounts for the manner in which both painters and scidptors were accustomed to rep- resent the Jewish Lawgiver. In our own version, in- deed, precisely the same mistake is made with this word in another passage. In Habakkuk it says, "He had liorns coming out of his hand." It should, of course, be rays of light. We pass on to the magnificent Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, the noblest Church in Rome dedicated to the Virgin, and hence its name. It stands in an open square, and the exterior is richly ornamented, while the nave in the interior is nearly three himdred feet in length. The elaborately carved roof is richly gilded, and derives an additional interest from the fact, that the gold used was the first ever brought to Evu'ope from Peru. It was presented to Alexander VI. by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Now and then the great services of the Church are performed in this splendid Basilica ; as on Christmas Eve, when the Cradle of our Lord is carried in procession ; and on the festivals of the Assumption and the Nati\nty of the Virgin, when the Pope himself performs High Mass at its altar. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 243 Just behind it, however, is a little Church not often visited, but which once in the year is the scene of some strange ceremonies. It is dedicated to St. An- thony, the patron of the brute creation, and every Januaiy, vrhen his Festival comes round, there is a service for their especial benefit. The first time I wit- nessed it, I was involuntarily a participant to some extent in the ceremony. We were riding with a lady, when crossing the open square a priest in his surplice was seen standing on the steps of this little Church, while one carriage after another was driving up to it, stopping before him for a few minutes, and then pass- ing on to make room for others. " What," she inquired of the courier, " are they doing there ? " " Blessing the horses, ]Madame." " Then tell the coachman to drive up, and we Avill have ours blessed." So accordingly up he dro^•e. The servants rev- erently took off their hats, and the priest commenced reading a prayer from his book. When he had fin- ished, he took a brush from the hand of an attendant, dipped it in a bucket of holy water at his feet, and sprinkled the horses, repeating the words, — " Per intercessionem Beati Antonii Abatis, ha-c animnlia liberenter, a malis, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen." (Through the interces- sion of the blessed Abbot Anthony, may these animals be delivered from evil, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen). A small fee was handed to the priest, and we con- tinued our ride. For several days this service is con- stantly going on. The following Sunday, however, 244 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. was the great day. Then, the Square was crowded with animals, and thousands of people were there as spectators. The magnificent carriages of the Pope, each drawn by six horses, and the scarcely less splen- did equipages of the Cardinals and the Roman princes came up, to go through the ceremony. Long rows of post-horses arrived from different parts of the city, and the mules of the peasantry from the country, decked out in ribbons and flowers, while their masters were in all their best array. A fnend told me, that on one of these days he saw a young man drag up to the church door a miserable looking little dog, which he held by a string while the service was read, and the poor cur received his share of holy water. What is the precise meaning of this ceremony? Or, what particular benefit are the animals expected to derive from this service, which seems hke an in- ferior kind of baptism ? These are questions to which it is difficult to procure definite answers. In " Ger- aldine," however, a hook published in defense of the Church of Rome, and recommended by Bishop Ken- rick, as " a work of great interest, directed to remove prejudice, and present the light of truth," is a defense of this service, from which we make the following quo- tation, — " ' But what good did all the blessing and sprinkling do the cattle, and their owners,' said Miss Leonard, ' when they left the good monk, just as vicious and distempered as when they came to him? ' " " ' That is indeed begging the question,' said Ger- aldine ', '■ I do not believe that the cattle were so much so after the blessing as before.'' " ^ 1 Vol. iii. p. 40. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 245 In another work of fiction, also, we lately found a rather more complete summing up of the benefits, as given by an Italian peasant, — " Is it not a good horse which we have? then it has also had this year St. Antonio's blessing ; my fellow decked him out with bunches of silken ribbons, opened the Bible before him, and sprinkled him with holy water ; and no devil, or evil eye, can have any influence on him this year."^ From the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, a broad, deserted avenue leads to that of St. John Lateran. This section of the city, indeed, seems scarcely in- habited, an air of desolation pervades it, and the ma- laria reigns on every side. And yet, a few centuries ago the Lateran Palace was esteemed the most salu- brious residence in Rome. Now it stands deserted, and as we look around, Ave see open fields and vineyards among the decaying houses, and silent moss-grown squares. This magnificent Basilica was commenced by Con- stantine in the fourth century, he assisting with his own hands to dig the foundation. He had previously con- ferred upon the Church the adjoining Lateran Palace, — so called from Plautius Lateranus, avIio was put to death by Nero for being engaged in the conspiracy of Piso, — the beginning of those gifts to the Bishop of Rome, which drew forth the comments of Dante, when he thus lamented the system it originated, — "Ah, Constantine! to how much ill gave birth, Not thy conversion, but that filentcous dower. Which the first wealthy Father gained from thee." - For a thousand years this palace was the residence 1 The Improvisalore, vol. i. p. 296. ^ // Inferno, xix. 18. 246 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. of the Popes — the scene of all the licentiousness and fierce feuds of the Middle Ages, which finally wearied out men's minds, and prepared them to welcome the changes of the Reformation. The ceremony of taking possession of the palace is still the first form used after the election of the new Pope, although it has long ceased to be the Pontifical residence. In 1693 Inno- cent XII. turned it into an hospital for the poor, and in the last year a portion has been set apart for a mu- seum, to receive those works of art for which no room can be found in the Vatican. The Church itself has always been regarded as the first of Christian churches, and bears over its portal the proud inscription, — " Sacrosancta Lateranensis Ec- CLESIA, OMNIUM URBIS ET ORBIS EcCLESIARUM MATER ET CAPUT." Its Chapter still takes precedence over that of St. Peter's, and thus, for fifteen centuries, it has retained its privileges. The exterior of the building is of a ponderous yet sumptuous architecture. It is, however, of that kind, overloaded with ornament, which seems to leave no definite impression on the mind. It has been truly remarked, that no one can look for half an hour at the simple Grecian temples at Pa^stum, without being able to make a rough sketch of them, while few of those even who have spent a winter at Rome, could give on paper any idea of the front of S. Maria Maggiore or St. John Lateran. The interior has a most imposing effect from the multitude of pillars which are seen, nearly three hundred being employed. There are five aisles, divided by four rows of piers. Its decora- tions, too, are rich in the extreme, corresponding with the rank, antiquity, and magnitude of the Basilica. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 247 The bronze tomb of Martin V., of the princely house of Cohjnna ; the Corsini Chapel, covered with tlie rich- est marbles, and bas-reliefs, and gems ; and the Gothic tabernacle above the High Altar, constructed in the fourteenth century, to receive the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, which happened then to be discovered among tlie ruins of the old Basilica, are unsurpassed in magnificence by anything in Home. The devout Romanist visits this Church with rever- ence, on account of its multitude of precious relics. They are varied in their character, and certainly Avon- derful in their claims. There are divers pillars, some of which are from Pilate's house, and one belonged to the Temple at Jeinisalem. It bears marks of the earth- quake which took place at the Crucifixion, having been at that time split in two. Here is a piece of the table on which our Lord and His disciples leaned when they ate the Last Supper ; and on that slab of marble the Roman soldiers cast lots, Avhen they divided the gar- ments of Christ. You cannot doubt the legend, for the stone itself bears the inscription, — " Et super A-tstem meam miserunt sortem." The one, however, which the priest evidently shows with the highest degree of satisfaction, is a marble altar, the very sight of which settles a theological difficulty, and should be sufficient to convert a heretic. A miracle, they tell us, was wrought upon it to prove the doctrine of transubstan- tiation. A priest, who had suffered some im])i<)us doubts on this point to enter his mind, was once stand- ing before it consecrating the elements, when as soon as the prayer had been ])ronounced, and the change taken place, the holy wafer fell from his hami, and sunk through the marble, leaving the marks of blood us it 248 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. went. The hole through which it passed, and the stain it made, are both before you ! This miracle took place at Bolsena, and in the Vatican is a fresco, by Raphael, intended to illustrate it. On one side of the altar stands the priest, for whose benefit the wonder had taken place, regarding the wafer with astonishment and reverence, while behind him are the choir boys, and people pressing forward, with awe and curiosity on their countenances. On the other side, Julius II. is kneeling in prayer, attended by his Cardinals and Swiss guards. But the student of ecclesiastical history has better reasons to enlist his interest in this ancient Church. Five General Councils, from the twelfth to the six- teenth century, met within its walls. In one of them, which was held a. d. 1215, were present, the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, four hmidred Bishops, and Ambassadors of France, England, Hungary, Ara- gon, Sicily, and Cyprus. Here, too, for many centuries the Popes were always elected, and thus from these walls' proceeded that influence which was to be felt throughout the Christian world. These were the recollections which crowded our minds as we stood within this silent Church, where no sound was heard but the scarcely audible voice of a priest celebrating the Mass in a distant chapel. And particularly we thought of the strange scene which took place when these arches rang with the name of Hllde- brand, as he was thus suddenly siunmoned to the Ponti- fical throne. It was on a morning of April, 1073, that before this High Altar stood the bier of Pope Alexander II., while the whole building was densely crowded with those who had come to witness the funeral services. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 249 The solemn requiem was wailing forth, and all were uniting in its petitions to commend the soul of the de- parted Pontiff to its Judge, when suddenly the softened strain was overwhelmed by a shout. None could tell by whom it was commenced, for it seemed to burst at once from every part of the edifice. The mighty crowd which had gathered there appeared to have but one voice. The cry was, " Hildebrand."' " Hildebrand shall be Pope." " St. Peter chooses our Archdeacon Hildebrand." In vain did the subject of this uproar rush fi'om the funeral procession to the pulpit, and, by impassioned gestures, implore silence. Ten thousand voices echoed the cry, — it swelled louder and louder, — nor did it cease till a Cardinal came forward and an- nounced, that " we, the Cardinal Bishops, do, with one voice, elect Hildebrand to be henceforth your spiritual pastor and our own." Eagerly was he hurried to the Pontifical throne ; aiTayed hastily in the scarlet robe and tiara ; the Cardinals paid their obeisance, and the still louder shouts of the people hailed him as Gregory VII. Thus on this spot was consummated an election which was to result in crushing the feudal despotism of the age, wresting all sacerdotal power from the hands of the Emperor, and triumphantly asserting the loftiest claims of the Hierarchy, until the Roman Pon- tiff became the ruler of the civilized world. Nearly eight centuries have since gone by, but the spu-it of Gregory is living still in the Church of Rome. It bears in its whole orffiinization the imt)ress of his o:i 260 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. XX. Esametri Latini. XXI. Sanscrito. XXII. Concanico, (by a student from Goa.) XXIII. Singalese, (by a student from Ceylon.) XXIV. Amarico. XXV. Angolano. XXVI. Caldeo Volgare. XXVII. Ebraico Kabbiuico. XXVIII. Armeno Odierno. XXIX. Greco Odierno. XXX. Sonetto Italiano. XXXI. Svedese. XXXII. Dialogo Peguano, (by two students from Pegu.) XXXIII. Inno Italiano. XXXIV. Illirico. XXXV. Albanese. XXXVI. Polacco. XXXVII. Sloveno. XXXVIII. Bulgaro. XXXIX. Tedesco antico. XL. Tedesco Letterale. XLI. Swizzero. XLII. Lingua della Rezia. XLIII. Olandese. XLIV. Danese. XLV. Inglese, (by Sig. Elder of Baltimore.) XLVI. Scozzese. XLVII. Celtico. XLVIII. Irlandese. XLIX. Chilese. L. Spagnuolo. Ll. Portoghese. LII. Catalano LIII. Francese. LIV. Terzine, [ington.) fby Sig. Cummings of Wash- LV. Siciliauo. LVI. Nizzardo. LVII. Epigramma Latino. LVIII. Dialogo Cinese Odierno, (by three Chinese students.) LIX. Lingua Originaria della Nu- ova Olanda. (by the Missionary Apostolic and Vicar-General of New Holland.) I copy this as a curiosity. We often hear of the many languages spoken by the students in this College from all parts of the world, and here is an exhibition of what is really done. When shall our own Church be thus prepared to go forth with the pure Gospel to " all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues ! " There are probably few communities in the world which can equal that of Rome in charitable associations. They are called Confraternities., and are formed by the voluntary union of individuals, often of high rank, who in the midst of all the wretchedness around them, de- vote a portion of their time to its relief. Many of these THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 261 axe never seen by the mere traveller, or their existence even suspected, for their sphere of labor is private, yet it would be difficult to estimate the amount of happiness they must diffuse. One fraternity, for example, is intended to seek out humble but respectable families who would not be likely to apply for alms, and in some delicate way to relieve their necessities. The members of another visit the hospitals, learn the situation of the patients, and often personally attend to them. Others visit the jails, and furnish comfort and support to prisoners who are without friends or means. Others by voluntary donations pay debts which the poor have unavoidably contracted, and thus relieve their minds from trouble. Others seek the sick through the abodes of wretch- edness in the city, supply them with food, medicine, and professional assistance, and attend them through their illness. Others come in when the last hour is over, defray the expenses of the burial, attend to the performance of the religious rites, and themselves bear 'the body to the grave. ^ Such are their self-denying labors for the relief of suffering humanity. The wretched need no other claim upon them, except that they share in a com- mon nature. No " Anniversary " is required to awaken their flagging zeal ; no " Report " is sent out on the wings of the press, to trumpet forth their do- ings to the world ; no " List of subscribers " pub- lishes their charities through the land. The members indeed scarcely know each other, for their visits are made in the dress of the fraternity, so that none can recognize the individuals. But year after year they 1 Eustace, Clcut. Tour, iii. p. 263. 262 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. labor on — unclieered by the voice of human praise — their good deeds known only to their Father who seeth in secret. Those who attend to funerals, we have fi-equently seen when engaged in the performance of this duty. They form that " Ancient Brotherhood " — as Rogers calls it — which extends over all Italy. Men of the highest rank — laymen as well as priests — belong to it, and when summoned to this charitable work they go forth shrouded in white dresses, with high pointed cowls on their heads, veiling their faces, and leaving only holes for the eyes. There is something pecuharly ghastly in their whole appearance, so that when they walk behind the dead, " they seem," says Corinne, " like the ghosts of those they follow." There is much solemnity in funerals abroad, where the Church steps in at once, and takes possession of the deceased as under its protection, under the sanc- tion of its religious authority ; and if it makes an exhi- bition, it is with authority, and this proclamation has holiness in it. All that is not ecclesiastical is kept out of sight. There is nothing intermediate between the deceased and the Church. The undertaker interferes not, intrudes not here to spoil all. Death, it is true, reigns for the hour, but Religion triumphs. The Church certifies the triumph, and the resurrection."^ We have often had these feelings while in Rome, for there is nothing more striking there than their funeral processions. They always take place at night, when the darkness seems in unison with the service, and we have never met them passing through the streets, without being arrested by the solemnity of the 1 Prof. Wilson's Miscellanies, iii. p. 79. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 263 scene. The corpse is generally borne upon an open bier ; the head exposed, ghastly and white as marble ; the feet, too, uncovered ; and the light pall thrown over the body, showing plainly its shape and outHne. The hands are clasped upon the breast, as if the departed had died in prayer, and the attitude had been left un- changed. Everything in the service is intended to be signifi- cant of the hour when the dead shall rise ajiain fi-om the dust. The priests bear lights, to signify that im- mediately before the general Resurrection " the stars shall fall from heaven ; " and the Cross, to denote that then " the sign of the Son of Man shall be seen." The mournful notes in which they sing the Peniten- tial Psalms, declare that in that hour " all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him ; " Avhile the bells, which are heard ceaselessly ringing, call upon all to pray for the peace of the departed soul. The bier is borne by these hooded brothers, while other members of the fraternity carry tall waxen tapers, which flicker in the evening wind and throw their light upon the corpse, deepening the shadows, and bringing out everything in bold relief. And as the solemn procession sweeps by, they chant in melancholy tones the funeral anthem : — " Quantus tremor est futurus, Quando Judex est vcnturus Cuncta stricte disciissurus ! "Turba minim spargcns sonum Per sepulchra roj^ioiium, Coget oiuiies ante thronum. 264 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. " Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? Quern patronum rogaturus, Cum vix Justus sit securus? " l There is something indescribably touching in the whole service, as we see the glancing lights at a dis- tance, or hear their old monastic chants floating through the long dark streets. Sometimes the voices would have about them a sorrowful wail, as if lamenting the lot of poor humanity, and crying over him they were bearing along, " Alas, for thee, my brother ! " Then would come a louder strain, swelling out hke the surges of a far-off sea, partaking even of a sound of triumph, as if they celebrated the victory which one day the dead should have over the grave. And then, once more, it would sink into a mournful note, and faintly you would catch the words of the solemn dirge they were hymning, as the wind bore to you the plain- tive prayer, — " Miserere Domine ! " There can be no life more difficult than that which passes within a convent. Its members enter, and are at once cut off from all intercourse with the outward 1 " How shall poor mortals quake with fears, When their impartial Judge appears, Who all their causes strictly hears ! " His trumpet sends a dreadful tone ; The noise through all the graves is hlown. And calls the dead before His throne. " What plea can I, in sin, pretend? What patron move to stand my friend, When scarce the just themselves defend? " THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 265 world, except what they can have within the hmits of the high-walled garden around them. The objects of deepest earthly interest they know, are the trees and flowers whose growth they watch, and the birds which pay them a passing visit. No changes come to them, except those wrought by the gradual approach of age, as with stealthy step it almost imperceptibly draws nigh. No field of outward labor occupies their thoughts, but everything is centred in themselves. And thus they go on through long years of solitary watching, and mortification, and weariness, and perpetual prayer, unvisited by any of those joys which gather around the path of social life, until at last, they quietly lie down to their long sleep in the humble cemetery of the convent. But if any have a pleasant lot, it must be the Sisters of the Convent of Santa Trinita. It is situated on the Pincian Hill, looking over the whole of Rome which rises beneath it, with its pinnacles, and domes, and towers. What a dreamy existence must its in- mates pass, while everything on which the eye rests invites to meditation! The deep blue of an Italian sky is over their heads, the luxuriance of nature is around them, while at their feet are scattered the noblest monuments of ages that are gone. We had frequently been told that the most touching music to be heard in Rome was that of their Vesper service, but that some persons liaving lately misbehaved during its perfor- mance, an order had been issued to exclude all Protes- tants. For this of course we could not blame tliein. No one has a right to go into a foreign churcli nu'rely to gi'atify his curiosity, and then by levity interrupt the worship. However he may differ from them, he 266 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. should regard tlieir feelings for the sanctity of the place and the service. But the conduct of foreigners in Rome is generally in this particular very exception- able. They seem to regard the most solemn rites and ceremonies of the Church of Rome as merely intended for their amusement, and act accordingly. There cer- tainly is nothing religious in their conduct, and the most we can say of it is that it may be somewhat classical, for they take in a degree the place of the Chorus in the ancient Greek Tragedy, by continually making their comments aloud, and giving their opinion on whatever is going forward. Some of our friends had lately attempted to gain admittance to this service, but without success. We determined, however, to make the trial, and one after- noon walked up to the Convent. The chapel was closed, so we proceeded to a side door and boldly rang the bell. In a moment, a nun in her close white cap appeared at the little grating, and after reconnoitring us, inquired our business. We stated, that we came to attend Vespers ; whereupon we were informed that we could not be admitted, and the grating closed. We lingered about on the Pincian Hill, until a short time after seeing some persons ascend the steps who we supposed to be members of the Roman Catholic Church, we joined them and mingled w^ith their party. Fortunately a different nun came to the gi-ating, through which a brief conversation took place, when the door opened, and we all quietly walked in to- gether. The upper part of the chapel was separated fi'om the rest by a high grating, within which was the altar, while at the other end was a lofty organ gallery com- THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 267 municating with the Convent. In a few moments a priest with four or five attendants entered, and knelt before the Altar. Then a side door within the irratmo- opened, and some forty scholars, their heads covered with white veils, came in, and after gracefully kneel- ing for a moment before the crucifix, ranged them- selves on each side. In the high choir gallery we could just see the white caps of the niuis appearing above the railing. At length the service began. The organ played a few fitful notes, when a single female voice Avas heard from among the nuns chanting in the most plaintive manner. It seemed indeed to wail out as if a funeral dirge. Others presently joined in, and the sounds sweetly filled the chapel. They ceased, and instantly were heard the manly voices of the priest and his at- tendants, as kneeling like statues, with their faces towards the altar, they sang the response. Then came again those soft and melancholy tones from the organ gallery, and thus they alternated through the whole Evening Psalms. It was the only time in the service of the Church that we had heard male and female voices together, and the contrast was striking. I know not why it was too that the voices of these nuns sounded so plaintively, but they seemed in harmony with the service, heard in the waning twilight ; and the whole effect was deeply devotional. The tones at times seemed to be almost unearthly, as if they had been purified from the frailty of this lower world — the out- pourings of a spii'it utterly divorced ft-om all the cares of this wearing life, — " Musical, but sadly sweet." 268 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. Madame de Stael says, " Those who have not heard Italian smging can form no idea of music. The human voice is soft and sweet as the flowers and skies. This charm was made but for sucli a clime : each reflect the other. The Italians have ever devotedly loved music. Dante, in his ' Purgatory,' meets the best singer of his day, and asks him for one of his delicious airs. The entranced spirits forget themselves as they hear it, until their guardian recalls them to the truth." And this view of Italian enthusiasm is correct. In other lands they may bring mvisic to the highest point of perfect execution, but here they seem intensely to feel it. The sAveet sounds to which they listen enter into their very souls. And when, in addition, the senti- ments embodied lead our thoughts on to the solemn re- alities of the future, the strains fall upon the ear with a touching power of which words can give no adequate idea. But to return to the Convent Vespers. Besides ourselves, there were only about forty persons present, all of whom were undoubtedly members of the Church of Rome, except one English gentleman, who probably gained admission very much as we did. Their deeply devotional manner, as they knelt upon the marble pavement, contributed much to the solemnity of the scene. They were evidently not mere spectators, but worshippers. As the service proceeded, the twilight deepened, the incense spread through the dark arches above us like a thin white cloud, and the only lights being the candles about the Altar, the rest of the chapel was gradually involved in gloom. There was an absence of all that parade and show which gener- ally mark the services of the Church of Rome, and THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 269 altogether it was the most impressive one which we attended in Italy. For months afterwards we were haunted by the solemn melody of these tremulous, plaintive tones. They reminded us of those " spiritual creatures," whose songs, when " in fiiU harmonic num- ber joined," our first parents heard in the bowers of Paradise, " from the steep of echoing hill or thicket " — " Celestial voices Sole, or responsive each to other's note, Singing their great Creator! " CHAPTER XXL THE ROMAN PEOPLE. THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF THE PAPAL COURT. T is the fashion to abuse the Itahans. Trav- ellers pass through the country, meeting only the custom-house officers, the postilions, and the hangers-on at inns, and decide authori- tatively on the worthlessness of the people. It is, of course, evident, that they see the worst portion, and can learn nothino; of those traits of national character which lie below the surface. The first view is cer- tainly not prepossessing. The traveller finds wretched- ness on every side of him, and therefore records at once a condemnation against the whole country, which a little more time induces him to revoke. Such was the case with Shelley. Nothing can be more Avidely dif- ferent than the opinion which he expresses of the peo- ple on first entering Italy, and that which we find in his letters only six weeks afterwards. And this is particularly the case in the Papal States. Your first greetino; is from a crowd of beggars. In Tus- cany nothing of the kind is seen, and it proves there- fore that the evil is the result of wretched government. During a residence of several weeks in Florence, we were scarcely ever asked for charity, and on our way through the country saw only an active, industrious population. The instant, however, that we once more THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. 271 crossed the frontiers, and entered the territories of the Church, on our way to Bologna, the old scene was re- newed, and the carriage surrounded by swarms, en- treating relief in the name of the Madonna, and all the saints in the Calendar. In Rome itself we meet with apparently the most wretched population in all Italy. There is no trade or commerce, and it seems as if half the people supported themselves by becffinir. Wherever you co, thev cather around, and you have constantly dinned into your ears, '•'• Caritd^ forestieri'''' (charity, strangers). They par- ticularly collect on the steps of the ScaJa di Spagna, because strangers generally reside in that vicinity, and there they lie in wait, wishing you " good morning," and for a bajoccho, adding to it a profusion of ))i'nyers for your welfare. In addition to the difficulty of find- ing any employment, this delicious climate probably indisposes them to active exertion. Their maxim is, '•'• Dolce far niente'''' (it is sweet to do nothing), and they make life one long siesta. It glides away in a graceful listlessness, — a dreamy, sleepy indolence, — until illness, or the feebleness of age, warns them that they will soon have done with it forever. Then, some Brotherhood nurses them in their last agcmies, and buries them when dead. This state of things, it is true, cannot be pleasant to a stranger, for it bi-ings constantly before him, misery, real or feigned, in every form, until thei'e is danger lest his heart may at last become hardened against every exhibition. Robberies, too, are frequent. Almost the only light in the narrow streets is that which comes from the faintly twinkling lamps hung before the pictures of the Ma- donna. There is ample opportunity, therefore, for the 272 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. assassin to do his work, and, concealed in a dark alley or doorway, he waits to spring on the passer-by. With him the old demand — " Your money or your life " — means something. The former must be immediately forthcoming, or the latter is gone ; for the stiletto is shai'p, and the arm that wields it skillful. Passengers, therefore, at night walk carefully in the middle of the street, looking around them with the cautious air of men, who feel that they are in an enemy's country. As it is, eveiy week we have the tale of some murders committed. No newspaper, indeed, records them, for it is the policy of government to hush up such proofs of its weakness, yet still they are whispered about as items of the daily news. In this respect Rome is a miserable contrast to Vienna, where, so admirable are the police arrangements, that a female might at mid- night walk alone, from one end of the city to the other, without being insulted. These are things most obvious to a traveller, and which interfere most with his comfort, but they are not to be charged on the great body of the people. They are, indeed, hasty and fiery in disposition, but by no means cruel or sanguinary, and their crimes are very often the result of some sudden and almost irresistible impulse. The man of whom you hear as having, in a moment of passion, taken life, perhaps gives himself up to agonies of mind infinitely worse than the scaffold, and then passes his remaining days in a monastery, to atone, by bitter repentance, for his sin. Such are the extremes of Italian character. Most travellers prefer the Neapolitans to the Ro- mans. They are channed with the light-hearted, meny air of the poor lazzaroni, or amused with THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 273 tlie strange contrast in their traits. With scarcely any clothing, and no home nearer than the grave, — through the clay lounging in the sun of their delightful climate, and at night sleeping in the grotto of Posi- lippo, or any other shelter that is at hand — steeped to the lips in poverty, and with no prospect before them but to die in a hospital, and be buried like a dog in the Campo Santo, — you would, of course, expect to find them reduced to the lowest state of brutal degradation. And yet, go out on the Mole of a beautiful day, and you will see a circle of these homeless wretches gath- ered around some reader, whom they have hired for a few grana to recite to them the " Orlando Furioso " of Ariosto, or the lofty strains of Tasso. All tliis, of course, fascinates a casual observer, but I prefer the Romans. They have less frivolity ; more depth and solidity ; more of the haughtiness and reserve of the Spaniard — in short, more chara(;ter tlian the Neapoli- tans. At the same time, they excel the French in sincerity, and the Germans in refinement. The knowl- edge of the arts, which they imbibe from their child- hood with the very air they breathe gives them a grace of mind, and a degree of civilization, which would sui^ prise one able to look below the surfixce. The forms of expression, too, used by the lower orders have often an air of poetry about them, which contrasts strikingly with the uncouth speech, and glaring vulgarisms of the same classes in Northern Europe. It is, indeed, customary Avith us to ridicule them for their supersti- tions, yet, with the faith in which they were instnicted, would it not be a miracle if it were otherwise ? And, besides this, should not the land which has witnessed Salem witchcraft and Mormonism — without mention- is 274 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. ing countless other developments of fierce fanaticism — remember the line — " Mutato nomine, de te fabiila narratur? " Those who know them best commend them for being kind-heai^ted and generous. Charitable we know they are, and the manner in which they minister to the wants of those poorer than themselves, might teach a 'usefal lesson to many who pride themselves on their irefinement and purer faith. We refer here to the common people, for as a class they are far superior to their nobles. This, indeed, is the case through all Southern Europe, and even in Spain, where the claims of descent are still so much respected. There the An- dalusian peasant is a much nobler being than his lord. How far the stream of Roman blood has remained unmixed with that of tlie barbarians, who in succession became masters of the city, we cannot of course tell. In one district of Rome, on the further side of the Tiber, live a peculiar race, who probably, more than any others, retain the traits which are left of the ancient inhabitants. They are the Trasteverini, boast- ing themselves the sole, unmingled descendants of the old masters of the world. You can detect them any- where by their noble figures and haughty bearing, as if they had the consciousness of being of a superior race. " In the tall forms, and bold profiles, of the Trasteverini women, the matrons of Rome might still discern their true successors, fi.*esh mothers of new Gracchi ; and in the fiery eye of many a male, in that wild Janiculum suburb, or among the fierce Montigiani, there linger, yet unquenched, the lightnings before which client kings and suppliant ambassadors, were THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 275 wont to quail." ^ They are most careful to prevent any intermarriage with those around them ; no worldly temptation, indeed, seems strong enough to induce them to contract an alliance out of their own clan. Their dress is peculiar: the men having a jacket of black velvet thrown over their shoulders, a crimson sash round their waist, and large silver buckles on their shoes ; while the women, particularly on fete days, are gayly attired in velvet bodices, laced with gold, scarlet aprons, and their hair braided in silken nets, with large silver bodkins. Even their section of the city seems to be less changed than the rest. Their churches are old temples, but little altered ; the bridges which connect them with the city occupy the same sites as those which were built two thousand years ago ; and among them, they still point to one which has taken the place of that Horatius Codes so gallantly de- fended. The inhabitants seem to have all the lofty spirit of those they claim as ancestors, but there is no worthy object to which to direct it. Such then arc the modern Romans, and we have given this sketch because we believe that degraded as we often see them, they possess within themselves the elements of better things. A wretched government has made them Avhat they are. Crushing all enter- prise, and discouraging any studies which may give evidence of an inquiring mind, what does it leave to its subjects but a life of hopeless inactivity ? They have nothing to do — notliing for which to strive, — nothing which it is possible for them to achieve. The time when Rome enjoyed its greatest prosperity was undoubtedly during the brief rule of the Frem-li. 1 F. \V. Faber. 276 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. When they constituted it " the Department of the Tiber," ahnost their first act was, the formation of an Institute of twenty-four Professors. The abuses in the administration of justice were at once removed ; asy- lums for assassins aboHshed ; murderers toi'n even from the altar to receive then* punishment ; and for the first time in many centuries, life began to be safe within the walls of the Eternal City. The fiery spirit of the Trasteverini impelled them to some outrage, and immediately a strong force crossed the Tiber, marched into their section, seized the ringleaders, and shot twenty-two when surrounded by their own clans- men. From that time there was the most perfect peace in the Trastevere. The feudalities of the nobles too were abolished, and the power of life and death on their estates taken from them. Prince Doria, it is said, at that time, surrendered ninety fiefs, and Bor- ghese as many. A pressure — the crushing weight of centuries of religious despotism — seemed to be removed from Rome, and a new life began to be breathed into its people. Nor did the antiquities escape their care. The Column of Trajan, part of the Forum, and the Baths of Titus, were excavated under their direction ; and more was accomplished in a few months than had previously been done in a score of years. We have already mentioned — in describing the Vatican — that one of Napoleon's great schemes was, to carry out the plan of Raphael and have a thorough exploration of all the ruins, the execution of which was only prevented by his fall. The Church too was cleared of the mcumbrances by which it had been crippled for so long a time. This THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROMi:. 277 was effected by the sale of public lands, and when Pius VII. returned, he found that debts to the amount of millions had been liquidated, and in place of bank- ruptcy he had an overflowing treasury. Such was the state of things when the French nile ended. The old government resumed its sway, and at once Rome glided back to the sixteenth century. If the wave of a magician's wand could in an instant transform England into what it was in the days of the Tudors, it would not be a greater change. Industry and energy only rendered their possessor liable to suspicion, and were of course seen no longer.^ The countless ecclesiastics who filled the streets under the old regime once more reappeared, and Rome became again what we see it now — the city of priests and beggars. From that time the people were again crushed down by the most grievous of all tyrannies, — that which enchains the soul and the intellect, as well as the body. The most jealous surveillance is kept up, strangers are narrowly watched, the strictest care is taken to exclude all heretical works, and even scientific re- searches are discouraged. Politics of course never form a subject of conversation among the people, for they have no right even to have opinions on these 1 One result of this naturally was, the immediate formation of a new Papal debt. In 1831 it had increased to six hundred millions of Italian lire — more than twelve hundred thousand dollars, — and it has since been steadily growing. In 1832 such was the exhausted state of the public Treasury, that a foreign loan was negotiated, one was imiio^ed on the prin- cipal cities, the funds of some of the charitable institutions in IJologna were seized, and the land-tax was increased a third: other loans were effected in succeeding years. No variety of expedient has been left un- tried, and yet the financial position of the government daily becomes more critical. 278 THE CHRISTMAS HOLY DAYS IN ROME. points. The object seems to be to keep them in ig- norance of what is passing in the rest of the world. Every Httle wliile the officers of the Pohce make a de- scent on Molandini's small circulating Library, — which, by the way, is used almost entirely by foreigners, — and seize every vohime which they consider exceptionable. Not a Prayer-book for the British Chapel can be kept for sale in the city, but all are obliged to be smuggled in the baggage of travellers. While we were there, there was a notice one morning at the Reading-room, that the last few numbers of the " London Times " could not be placed on the files. They contained something which the Government did not like, and had been seized by the Police. None therefore could be delivered from the Post-office, and the English had to go without the latest news from home. There is a little paper published several times a week, not much larger than a sheet of foolscap, but it is principally filled with notices of the Papal Court, festivals and fast days, services, sermons, and ecclesiastics. Any item of foreign news is generally Avith reference to the movements of some Royal family ; that " the Emperor of Austria has taken up his residence for the summer at the Palace of Schonbrunn," or something equally important. And this is the intellectual liberty allowed by the Papal Government. Can we expect anything therefore from the people ? Our only wonder is, that every spark of generous or lofty emotions is not long since trampled out, and finding them as they are, we do not feel prepared to assent to Dante's charge, when he describes them as — " the people which, of all the world Degenerates most." ^ 1 II Paradiso, Cant. xvi. 1. 56. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 279 Mazzini, one of their own exiles, thus describes his native land : " In Italy nothing speaks. Silence is the common law. The people are silent by reason of teiTor, the masters are silent from policy. Conspira- cies, strife, persecution, vengeance, all exist, but make no noise ; they excite neither applause nor complaint : one might fancy the very steps of the scaffold were spread with velvet, so little noise do heads make when they fall." Occasionally indeed there is an outbreak, Init the Austrian troops march in, and their bayonets soon re- store the cause of despotism. Yet beneath its surface the spirit of the old Carbonari still " lives, and moves, and has its being." That deep feeling of which the stern enthusiast, Arnold of Brescia, the plebeian Rienzi, and the patrician Stefano Porcaro, were in succession the developments, and which in later days burns in every page of Alfieri, is only biding its time to come forth in action. We met with individuals dispersed here and there who were writhing under the foreign yoke, and when they found we were foreigners, threw aside the customary caution and gave utterance to their indignant thoughts. The society of " Young Italy " still exists in depths to which even an Austrian police cannot penetrate, striking its roots everywhere and reaching each rank of society. Its objects are, the expulsion of the Imperial troops and the liberation of Italy ; its union mider one government, with Rome for the capital ; and the reduction of the Pope to his spirit- ual duties as a Christian Bishop. Its members are often men, who, like " the last of the Tribunes," look beyond the feudal forms of the Middle Ages, and feed the kindling fires of their minds by recollections of 280 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. ancient Classic Rome. The very beauty of their land, rich in so many haunting memories, presents to them its ceaseless appeal. As they wander among its an- tique monuments, the admonitus locoruni awakens eveiy noble impulse, and speaks to their souls like a clarion's voice. And we trust that one day the time will come, when from the plains of the soft Campania, the hoary relics of Imperial Rome, the sea-girt palaces of Venice, and the olive-groves of fair Milan, shall burst one wild shout, the voice of a people rising in its might — the herald of returning freedom. And then, wdien their magnificent designs are accomplished, and the name of Italy is once more written among the nations of the world, another Sismondi will be needed to continue her history, assuming for his work indeed a happier name than that which the last adopted, when he was forced to inscribe upon his title-page — " Italian Re- publics ; or, the origin, progress, and fall of Italian freedom y CHAPTER XXII. THE PAPAL CHURCH. HE theory on which the Roman Government is founded is a noble one, — that of rendering everything subsidiary to rehgion. The whole object and aim of the civil authorities is, the advancement of their faith. And, since they are clothed with despotic power to accomplish this end, we should suppose they would wield an overpowering in- fluence for the spiritual benefit of theii' people. Why is it then that ignorance and degradation, are so much the characteristics of the Roman populace, except that their Church does not well and worthily use the power with which it has been intrusted? We would attempt, however, with diffidence, the ex- pression of an oj)inion on the religious state of Rome. It is most difficult, in a foreign land, to decide on the spiritual significancy with which the people invest their many ceremonies, or the degree of moral influence which these rites exert over them. Everything is, of course, more prominently brought before us, than humble, unostentatious devotion. Of the possessors of this spirit, the world knows not. Christ's true follow- ers are often his "hidden ones." Generally, indeed, we learn nothing of a system but its glaring abuses, and from these we form our estimate. \\'t' look, for instance, upon a monastery, but remember not how 282 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. many fervent prayers ascend from its altars, or how many hearts, in its gloomy cells, may be disciplining themselves by bitter penitence for the world to come. We think only of the corruptions of the system, — and they are, of course, too great to allow us ever to wish for its restoration, — yet may there not be many a spirit struggling through them, and, in spite of every diffi- culty, painfully winning its way on to purity and peace ? The latter is the suggestion of charity, which we too often forget. It is in this spirit, indeed, that those without her fold are too much accustomed to estimate everything which relates to the Church of Rome. They look at her course through the Middle Ages, and denounce it all as one long period of evil and darkness. And yet, at that time, the Church — changed as she may have been from her early pui'ity — was the only antagonist of the ignorance and vice, which characterized the feudal sys- tem. It was a conflict of mental with physical power, and by the victory she gained, the world was rescued from a debasing despotism, the triumph of wdiich would have plunged our race into hopeless slavery. If the Church substituted another t>Tanny in its place, it was a better one. It was something which acted on the moral impulses of man, and endeavored in its own way to guide him on to sanctity. No one, indeed, can read the writers of the " Ages " which we call " Dark," without feeling that beneath the surface was a depth of devotion, and a degree of intellectual light, for which they have never received due credit. ^ An isolated pas- 1 To any one who wishes to see the oft-repeated stories of the ignorance of "the Dark Ages" most ably refuted, we would recommend Maitland's Dark Ages. THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 28o sage, or a brief allusion, discover, perliaps, a thorough acquaintance with a truth, which we have been accus- tomed to consider utterly forgotten, until rediscovered at the time of the Reformation. Look at one sincjle example of this in the poems of a Spanish cavalier, Don George Manrique, who was killed in the year 1479. Where, in the present day, can we find a clearer state- ment of one of the great doctrines of our faith, than is given in the followino; verse ? — " Thou, that for our sins didst take A human form, and humbly make Thv home on earth; Thou, tliat to Thy divinity A human nature didst ally By mortal birth, — And in that form didst suffer here Torment, and agony, and fear, So patiently; By Thy redeeming grace alone, And not for merits of my own, pardon me I " ^ And yet, this was written years before Luther was born ; and it was a popular ballad in S})ain, sung in the castles of her nobles, and in lier peasant homes through many a retired valley, nearly half a century before the Reformation began. We mention this merely to show how erroneous is popular judgment on such subjects, and the necessity tliere is for estimating with caution the degree of intellectual or spiritual liglit possessed by masses of men with whom our accpuiintance, is neces- sarily very limited. There are, however, many practices of the Church of Rome, which are liere constantly before our eyes, so utterly at variance with every principle of true Catho- lic faith, that the most enlarged charity cainiot forbid ' Longfellow's translation. 284 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. our thorough condemnation. Some of these — the rehcs and statue in St. Peter's, the face in the Mam- ertine prisons,, the inscription on the Cross of the Co- Hseurn, the services of St. Anthony's Day, and the Santa Scala — we have ah-eady mentioned in previous chapters. In the few following pages, therefore, we shall endeavor to speak of others which are most ob- vious. In this city the Church is always before us. Its holy days are enforced by law, when the shops are obliged to be closed, and all business is suspended. The magnificent carriages of the Cardinals constantly dash by ; processions each day pass our windows, with their lighted tapers, chanting the ser\n[ce as they carry the Host, and all kneel on the pavement while they remain in hearing. Wherever we Avalk, we find throngs of ecclesiastics of every kind. The pilgrim is here, with his " sandal-shoon and scollop-shell ; " the lordly-looking priest, with his ample cloak and shovel hat, and long lines of Mars, — " White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery." In the city of Rome their number is estimated at one in twenty-five of the population, while in the whole Papal dominions there are said to be (including nuns) nearly fifty-five thousand, — certainly ten times the number necessary for the spiritual wants of the peo- ple. The support for all this army is, of course, drawn from the impoverished inhabitants. Of relics it is almost superfluous to write, for every church has its abundant share of bones, and ashes, and blood, of the Saints. In the Church of San Lorenzo we were shown the gridiron on which St. Lawrence suf- THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 285 fered martyrdom, some of his teeth, and vials of his blood. In the Church of St. Praxides are marble panels, on which are engraved a list of the relics they have preserved. It is too long for insertion here, but we make from it the following selection : A tooth of St. Peter ; a tooth of St. Paul ; a part of the blessed Virgin Maiy's chemise ; part of the girdle of our Lord ; part of the rod of Moses ; part of the earth on which our Lord prayed before his Passion ; part of the sponge with which they gave our Lord to drink, and of the reed on which it was placed ; part of the sepulchre of the Virgin Mary ; a picture of our Lord, which St. Peter gave to Prudens, the father of St. Praxides ; part of the towel with which our Lord wiped his disciples' feet ; part of the swaddling-clothes in which our Lord was wrapped at his Nativity ; part of his seamless garment ; three thorns from his crown, and four fragments of the true Cross. We have copied about one quarter : these, however, are sufficient to show the objects of reverence which are exhibited in every church to the credulity of the faithfiil. One of the most fatal of their doctrines is that of Indulgences. It seems to be expressed so broadly and unequivocally, that there can be but one way of under- standing it. Over the door of almost every church is the inscription — " Indulgentia plenaria quotidiana PERPETUA PRO vivis ET DEFUNCTis." In the Churcli erected above the Mamertine prisons is a long Italian inscription, of which we translate the following i)or- tion : " From a prison it was consecrated a Ciunrh in honor of the said holy Apostles, by Saint Sylvester, Pope, at the prayer of the Emperor Constantino the Great, and he gave it the name of S. Fidro in Carcere^ 286 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. and granted every day to each one wlio visited it, one thousand two hundred years of indulgence, doubled on Sundays and commanded Festivals, and moreover every- day the remission of the third part of sins. Greg- ory XIII. granted there plenary indulgence on the first day of August, from the first Vespers until sun- set. Finally, Pius VI., in 1776, granted there every day the perpetual plenary indulgence for the living and the dead." I one day asked an ecclesiastic, what these things meant ? He went into a very elaborate attempt to explain them away, at the end of which I was no wiser than before. Either I was very dull, or he dark- ened the matter by a multitude of words. But these inscriptions are constantly seen on every side, and how must the common and uneducated classes interpret them ? Why, of course, exactly according to the lit- eral meaning of the words. The doctrine of Purgatory is brought before them with equal distinctness. The inscription at the Ma- mertine prisons, a portion of which we have given above, concludes with this sentence, " The altar of this Church of ^S*. Pietro in Carcere is privileged every day forever with the liberation of one soul from Purgatory, for every mass which shall be celebrated at the same." And in almost all the Churches are inscriptions like the following, which we one morning copied fi'om over the altar in that of S. Maria delta Pace — " Ogni messa celebrata in quest altare, libera un anima dal purgatorio." Saying masses is indeed sometimes the only support of unbeneficed priests. They are in read- iness to perform this duty for any who wish it, and thus contrive to gain a precarious living. The price for a mass is from three to four pauls, that is, from thirty THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 287 to forty cents. This disgraceful traffic in sacred things shows that Rome has not improved, since Dante re- ferred to it as the place — " Where gainful merchandise is made of Christ Throughout the livelong day." i The Rev. Dr. Jarvis, in a work — "No Union with Rome" — published a few years since, has a passage showing how much an individual by a little bodily labor can do before breakfast, to gain remission of his sins ; and from an acquaintance with the places men- tioned, we can confirm the feasibility of the plan. " At sunrise he might kiss the Cross in the Coliseum, and obtain two hundred days' indulgence in a moment. He might hurry to the Church of St. Pudens and St. Pudentiana, and during a half hour's mass, secure to himself three thousand years' indulgence, and the re- mission of a third part of his sins. Returning by the way of Ara Coeli, he can recite the litanies of the most blessed Virgin at the altar of her who by Pa])al au- thority is called the refuge of sinners, and he has two hundred days more of indulgence, which lie may either keep himself, or kindly give to one of his dead friends. If he has three pauls (thirty cents) in his pocket, he may exercise his charity toward that friend still further, by having a mass said expressly for his soul by one of the monks or any other priest, and thus deliver it at once from the torments of Pur- gatory. Crossing thence to the Mamertine prison he may gain twelve hundred years' indulgence, or on a Sunday or Festival morning, two thousand four hun- dred years, and the remission of another third })art of his sins. Here, also, if he has another thirty cents to 1 // Piir(i(li3i\ Cant, xviii. I. .50. 288 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. spare, he can pay for another mass, and Hberate another friend from purgatory. Thus he may before breakfast, every day of his hfe, obtain for himself at least more than four thousand three hundred years' indulgence, and the remission of two thirds of his sins, with only a little bodily labor ; and for the expense of sixty cents he may liberate two souls from purgatory." While such corruptions exist, is it not natural that unbelief should be rife ? The fear of the Inquisition may indeed prevent its open declaration, yet still it poisons the very fountain of faith, and changes men into formal hypocrites. The educated ask. Can this be the religion of Christ? It requires but a faint glimmering of reason to answer in the negative, and knowing nothing to substitute in its place, they fall into the coldness of skepticism. We believe that the external city well typifies the actual condition of the Papal Church. On every side we see decrepit, faded grandeur, the evidences of a mighty power which in past centuries had here its home, but which has now' utterly passed away. The most fearful picture of religion in Rome is that given by Mazzini. He writes indeed with the bitter- ness of an exile, and we should therefore feel inclined to soften some expressions and strike out some sen- tences of sweeping condemnation ; yet as a whole, we fear there is too much truth in his view. " Conceive the state of a creed-distrusting people, curbed, dom- ineered, overburdened by an army of priests manifest- ing faith only in force, who surround themselves with Swiss and Austrian bayonets, or, in the name of Christ, muster brigands fi'om tlie galleys ! Religion — I speak of Papal Catholicism — is, in the Roman States more THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 289 than elsewhere, lifeless ; lifeless in the educated classes as a consequence of the enlightened age ; lifeless in the people as wanting a symbol — as wanting a something representative. Who in that country is ignorant, that the nomination of Christ's Vicar depends on ambassa- dorial intrigue, and that the direct or indirect Veto of Austria, of France, or some other power, throws into nonentity the so termed chosen of the Holy Spirit? Who is ignorant that long since the King strangled the Pope; that di[)lomacy masters theology ; that the notes of foreign plenipotentiaries, have inspired Briefs to the clergy of Poland and the Bishops of Ireland ? Which motu^proprio of a Pope but insults the infallihility of his predecessor? Who in the provinces but can point to the agents of the Prelate-Governors, shamelessly trafficking in all that can bring money to themselves or their masters? How, dizzied in this whirlpool of scandal, of hypocrisy, of dilapidation, can man preserve his faith intact ? By a deplorable but too natural re- action, negation, materialism, doubt, day by day ingulf fresh souls. Nought of religion survives but forms, outward shows, and observances, compelled by law. It is compulsory that men should communicate at Eas- ter ; it is compulsory that the youth of schools and universities should be present at Mass each day, and communicate once a month ; it is compulsory that ]nib- lic officers should take part in services termed religious. Such is religion in the Papal States." This is the dark side of the Church of Rome, and we write it in sorrow that any branch of the Church of Christ should ever have given occasion for such com- ments. Very many, however, there must be who are not subject to these charges, and who in spite of 19 290 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. their doctrinal errors and the dogmas of a perverted theology, seem to exhibit in their own characters the highest principles of faith. Their lives are marked by austerity, and self-denial, and ceaseless devotion. Un- less it were so, they could not send forth works char- acterized by so elevated a tone of religious life — breathing a spirit of abstraction from this world, and a longing for the realities of that which is to come, almost unearthly in its nature. Nor can these pro- ductions be read by the people, and become familiar to their minds, without leaving some holy impress. Take, for instance, this little Latin hymn, with which they are well acquainted, and how lofty is its tone ! It is ascribed to St. Francis Xavier, whose missionary labors in the East gained for him the title of Apostle ■ of the Indies. " Deus I ego amo te : Nee amo te, ut salves me, Aut quia non amantes te Sterne punis igne. " Tu, tu, mi Jesu, totum me Amplexus es in Cruce. Tulisti clavos, lanceam, Multamque ignominiam: Innumeros dolores Sudores et angores, Ac mortem : et hsec propter me Ac pro me peccatore. " Cur igitur non amem te Jesu amantissime? Non ut in coelo salves me, Aut ne ssterinim damnes me. Nee proemii ullius spe: Sed sicut tu amasti me, Sic amo et amabo te : Solum quia Rex meus es, Et solum quia Deus es. Amen " THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 291 We subjoin the following translation, without know- ing to whom it is ascribed. It is, however, quite literal : " God! my spirit loves but Thee, Not that in heaven its home may be, Nor that the souls which love not Thee Shall groan in fire eternally. " But Thou on the accursed tree In mercy hast embraced me. For me the cruel nails, the spear, The ignominious scoff didst bear. Countless, unutterable woes — The bloody sweat — death's pangs and throes — These Thou didst bear, all these for me, A sinner and estranged from Thee. " And wherefore no aflfection show, Jesus, to Thee that lov'st me so? Not that in heaven my home may be ; Not lest I die eternally; Not from the hoj)es of joys above me: But even as Thyself didst love me, So love I, and will ever love Thee: Solely because my King art Thou, My God for evermore as now. Amen." That the mind from which such lines emanated must have been tuned to a lofty devotion, none can doubt ; but wlien his words are adopted as a portion of the literature of a people, and sink into their hearts, we consider it an evidence that there are many in whose deep religious feelings the sentiments them- selves have found a ready echo. With such it has been my good fortune sometimes to meet — men who, in their self-denying zeal and earnestness of spirit, might have stood by the side of Xavier himself. And I was always glad to avail myself of the opjjortunity to see and converse with those who differ from us so widely, to learn the extent of the gulf which scpa- 292 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. rates us, and to hear their views stated by them- selves. This high character common report gives to Padre J., with whom I became acquainted in Northern Italy. He is a Jesuit, and, we were told, one of the most influential of his Order in Europe. Brought up in the army of France, he attained high rank under Na- poleon, before he abandoned his profession for the priesthood. He is thoroughly versed in all the schemes of his Order, and is usually regarded as keeper to the conscience of the king in whose dominions he now lives. Yet everywhere I heard a tribute paid to his devotion and zeal ; and if he is at times mixed up with the in- trigues of states, it seems to be done without any sacrifice of those higher qualities for which we should chiefly look in the ecclesiastic. Although eighty years of age, " his eye is not dim, nor his natural force abated," and no one from appearance would judge him to be more than sixty. The greater part of the morning before I left the city in which he resides, was spent in conversation with him. Meeting in the sacristy of the Church attached to his monastery, he invited me to his room. We went up through the long stone galleries, seldom trodden by Protestant feet, passing occasionally a monk who was walking slowly back and forth, ap- parently absorbed in the book he held in his hand. The cell of Padre J. contained only what was abso- lutely necessary. There were his little bed and table, the picture and Crucifix, the few books he used, and, besides these, we saw only naked walls and the hard stone floor, The day was cold, but there was no fire to warm the room — nothing but the little chafing-dish THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 293 of ashes and of coals, which the old man hold in his lap, and over which he spread out his hands as he talked. His face beamed with animation as he expa- tiated on his Church, and spoke of the cheering signs he discerned in France, which he trusted would strengthen until that land was redeemed from skepti- cism, although he himself could never live to see the consummation. We mention this interview, because the conversa- tion was a fair example of what such discussions must always be with members of the Church of Rome. They invariably turn upon a single [)oint. The Padre quoted to me that declaration in the Athanasian Creed, " Whoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith." This of course no one is inclined to deny, but it opens before us the wide inquiry. What is the Catliolic faith ? and this only carries us one step further back, whicli is to the question, " What is the Catholic Church ? " Here at length we reach the sejxirating point, on which we differ as widely as the poles. And this will always be found to be the gist of the argument. It will ever turn upon the inquiry, " Are we or are we not, a portion of the true Catholic Church ? " One claim by which the old Padre attempted most earnestly to fortifv liis position, was that of modern miracles for the Cliurch of Rome. The occurrence of these he insisted on as proofs that she was fh'- Church, lie dwelt particularly u])oii one, with which he assured me he was personally ae(|uainted. It was the recovery of the daughter of the govi'rnor of Nice, who had been confined to lu-r bed fur months witli a diseased limb. At length mortification conunencod 294 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. and she was about to submit to amputation, when through the prayers of a friend offered up to a certain saint, she was instantaneously cured, and able to rise at once in perfect health. Of course, the only answer I could make was, " That all this depended on the question of facts." This, however, is a favorite ar- gument with the members of the Church of Rome. The gift of miracles remaining in the Church is some- thing tangible, and they are very apt, therefore, to bring it forward in support of their lofty claims. Italy, of course, abounds with the records of modem miracles. Many undoubtedly are the effect of impos- ture, but many more owe their apparent existence to a more innocent cause. In this Southern clime the warm and glowing imagination of its children renders them disposed to receive impressions of the marvelous, with a facility of which the cold and cautious sons of the North know nothing. Their tendency also to fig- urative language and exaggerated descriptions, often induces them to clothe a common occurrence in lan- guage which conveys a very erroneous impression to the hearer. Thus the narrative of any event, seem- ingly strange, after passing through a few hands easily grows into a miracle, and is chronicled accordingly. This is in some measure the philosophy of the subject as I once heard it given by an ecclesiastic ; and several of his illustrations were so new to me that it may be worth while to give them, as far as possible, in his own words. "Many of these reputed miracles," said he, "are mere types of qualities which existed in the individ- uals to whom they are ascribed, and which are thus shadowed forth by sensible images, or they are figura- THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 295 tive descriptions of actual events. For example, — in one of the towns of Italy a house is pointed out, in which, some half century ago, a wanderino; friar ap- plied to the family for alms. Being rudely repulsed, he went into the kitchen, where a brace of pheasants were roasting before the fire. He made over them the sign of the Cross, when at once they slid off the spit, clothed themselves with feathers, and flew away. Thus, at least, runs the legend. Now, to you this undoubtedly seems a ridiculous fable ; to me, on the contrary, it is a most edifying story. I strip it of the figurative language, and this history remains. That family was probably known to be deficient in the virtue of charity, and Providence brought misfortunes upon them. The pheasants represent the superfluities and luxuries of life, and by their departure we learn, that the riches of these churls ' made to themselves wines and flew away.' This was their retribution, and the narrative comes to us as an allegory." " So it was," he continued, " often in England. St. Dunstan had a quarrel with Edwy, because that King had married Elgiva, his relative within the pndiibited degrees. After a long contest the Saint gained tlie day, and the King was forced to yield. The common people, whose sympathies, in that rude age, were all with the Church, hailed it as a triumph. The King had been forced to overgo ' the lusts of the fli'sli.' St. Dunstan had conquered the Evil One. Thus they spoke of it as a battle with Satan, and in the ni'xt gen- eration, by means of the figurative language in wliich tradition gave it, the conflict, in their belief, passed into a real and personal one. Their champion had actually encountered and routed the Devil. And. as 296 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. stories which are thus handed down never lose, we now have the legend, that St. Dunstan ended the con- test, by seizing the Devil with a red-hot tongs. So it is with all his life. Read the marvels which the old monkish chroniclers have given us about him, and you can reduce them all down to some such basis of com- mon sense." We give this exposition for its singularity, leaving the reader to decide on its value as elucidating the legendary lore of the Church of Rome. And yet, amid all the ignorance, and superstition, which prevails in this land, there are reflecting minds sighing for a purer faith. They would not desert their Church, but they see her errors, and would have her remodeled in accordance with Catholic truth. They realize that she has borne herself too loftily, and would wish her therefore lay aside her temporal claims, and in lowliness of mind demean herself as she ought — changing, too, their Pontiff to a Christian Bishop, that he may no longer be induced, while the Lord tarries, to forget his duty to his fellow-servants, and to tyran- nize over them. These are views which we have often heard expressed. On one occasion we travelled for some time with a gentleman from Milan, who had reasoned himself out of the errors of his Church, and into a Creed essentially Catholic. But, for the pres- ent, he did not dare to show that he had abandoned any of the old landmarks. And there were many, he said, who shared his sentiments. May we not hope, then, that the time will come, when, within the bounds of their own Church, they will feel every aspiration gratified, faith have room for its exercise, and Cathohc truth recognize her once THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 297 more as its champion ? How nobly avouM all that is pure, and holy, and of good report, advance in this apostate earth, if Rome could throw aside her errors, and lend her mighty influence to the cause ! She still retains those ancient Creeds, which were acknowledged in primitive times, and are now held Ly all Catholic Christendom. The great truths she teaches are the truths for all ages — the awfiil verities for which con- fessors and martyrs, in early days, Avere Avilling to die. The errors she mingles with them are the dogmas only of her single Church — which particular times, and schools, have grafted on her, and which she has unfor- tunately retained. How earnestly, therefore, should we pray, that the hour of her awakening may come, when, leavino; her relics to moulder in their forcotten shrines, putting from her all narrow sympathies, restoriitg her doctrines to the model of early times, and uniting at length with those Avho have retained the faith in its purity, the long separated branches of Christ's Church shall be able to go forth together to reap the harvest fields of the Cross ! Then shall the Church become in reality that august spectacle which floated before the glowing vision of St. Augustine, when on the distant shores of Africa, and amidst the expiring throes of Paganism, he sent forth his " City of God," to hail, with all the treasures of his matchless eloquence, that universal dominion which he knew would be her hen- taire. This is the consummation Avhich i)oor humanity is earnestly desiring. The world is Avearying of strife, and more and more Avith hope, and love, and oft re- peated inquiry, is craving the return of Christian unity. In every land we feel the mighty beatings of this in- tense desire Avith which the heart of our race is tilled. 298 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. But we must close this chapter. We have, through this volume, spoken of tlie Papal Church, honestly and truly, as she seemed to us, expressing the admiration we feel for the many Catholic traits she retains ; her charitable institutions for the relief of every kind of misery ; her broad and expansive views, looking over the whole earth as the field of Christian labor, and the solemn beauty of so many of her services, appealing at once to the deepest cravings of the heart by their holy teaching, or raising the soul above this earth by the austere hymns received from early days. But the view is one of mingled darkness and light. We have been forced, therefore, to speak also of fearfal errors perverting the truth, and of countless ceremonies mar- ring the efPect of her noblest services, till he who studied them in the Missal scarcely recognizes them when performed amidst the pomp of her old Cathe- drals. We can have no sympathies, then, with Rome while she remains unchanged, but turn from her with renewed happiness to the stern purity of our own Church. " I love thee, nor would stir Thy simple note, severe in character. By use made lovelier, for the loftier tune Of hymn, response, and touching antiphone, Lest we lose homelier truth." He must be unsettled, indeed, in the first principles of his own belief, who can decide otherwise, or gather from a study of the Papal Church any feeling but that of thankfulness to old English Reformers, because they were willing to peril their lives, even unto death, to de- fend the purity of the faith. " If first thou be well grounded," says Fuller, in his usual quaint wa^', " their fooleries shall rivet thv faith the faster, and travel shall THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 299 give thee Confirmation in that Baptism thou didst re- ceive at home." But are there some wlio are unwilling to recognize anything good within her fold, and feel, therefore, as if we had not been tliorough enough in our condemnation of Rome ? We would say to them, It is not a pleas- ant office for the children of tlie Peacemaker to be widening those gulfs, which even now separate them so much from each other. We have, indeed, con- demned where truth required it, but dwelt with regret on these portions of our subject, for we remember that we, too, as a Church, have our grievous sins, which might well hush every whisper of self-complacency. Widely, then, as we differ fi'om Rome, we would speak of her with no feelings but those of the deepest sorrow, that such a mighty influence should be lost to the cause of truth. Let it be, as when in ancient Israel one of her tribes came not up in the day of battle, the proph- etess declared, that for their defection " there were great searchings of heart." And should another rea- son be asked, we would quote to him who demands it, the words in which a poet of our own day inculcates the true Christian temper, and the remembrance of which has often restrained the pen, when we would have written words of bitterness, — " Thou to wax fierce In the cause of the Lord, To threat and to pierce With the lieavenly sword ! Anger and zeal And the joy of the brave, Who bade thee feel, Sin's slave ' The altar's pure flame Consumes as it soars ; 300 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. Faith meetly may blame, For it serves and adores. Thou warnest and smitest ! Yet Christ must atone For a soul that thou slightest — Thine own." CHAPTER XXIII. FAREWELL TO ROME. HE time of our departure draws nigh, and we must soon bid adieu to the Eternal City. Pleasant indeed have been the days of our sojourn here ! Crowded with scenes which could not but awaken the deepest interest, they went by like the " Days of Thalaba." We have been living for a time in the shadowy Past. The remem- brance of distant ages, whose traces are preserved only in dim tradition, came thronging on us at every step. It was moving back the shadow upon the old dial-plate of Time. It was summoning up from the depths of our own minds the memory, long indistinct, of deeds which moved the world, and here on the spot where they were acted, investing them with a reality and life. We look at what Rome has been in the days of the Republic and in the splendor of lier Imperial sway, and then seek out the footsteps of tliese mighty Ages, in the fading greatness which still remains. And everywhere we trace them still uneftaced. The Mis- tress of the world indeed stands before us like Milton's Apostate Angel, whose — " Form had yet not lost All her original hri^htne-ss, nor appear'd LcM tlian arclinnpcl ruin'd, and the excess Of glory obscured." 302 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. We have been once more to St. Peter's to take another look at that unequaled temple, and from the brow of the Pincian Hill for the last time have seen the sun set over this array of domes and towers. How beautifully it goes down in the cloudless sky, pouring a flood of golden light upon the mighty city ! Grad- ually the purple fades from the mountains, and the transparent azure above is exchanged for the deeper blue of the evening sky, gemmed by a thousand stars. We sat there, with no one near us, to watch the changing lights and shadows. A death-like calm, an air of dreamy repose, rested on the city at our feet. The idle loiterers had left the Hill, and we saw only its statues and obelisks, and works of antique art, mingling with the deep green of the foliage. As we looked upon the scene spread out in beauty around us, there seemed to be within our sight a glorious grouping of all that is exquisite, the loveliness of present nature mingled with the noble associations which the past has bequeathed to us fi'om a remote antiquity. The fading light spread over it a bewitching softness, a mellow- ing and blending of every tint and color, which words cannot describe and which only Claude could have painted. And while the twilight deepened, there came faintly from the neighboring Convent the sound of solemn music, and the stillness around us was broken by the Evening Hymn to the Virgin : — " Ave, Regina coelorum, Ave, Doniina angelorum. Salve radix, Salve porta, Ex qua niundo lux est orta ; Gaude Virgo gloriosa, Super omnes speciosa ; THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. 803 Vale, valde decora, Et pro nobis Christum exora " 1 But what is to be the destiny of Rome ? Is she to be the centre of Christendom, and age after age the place to which pilgrims from every land shall direct their steps ? Is she entering on a new dominion — the third cycle, — in which she is to rule the world by Arts as once she did by her arms, and then by her faith ? There is another thought which has in it something affecting and solemn. The malaria is in- creasing, so that large portions of the city which a century ago were famed for their salubrity, are now uninhabitable. At the Lateran, the Pope has been obliged to leave his palace, and the humble dwellers around him their abodes, so that the tall grass waves in those wide squares, and an unbroken silence has taken the place of the hum of busy population. The enemy is stealthily creeping on, its presence betrayed by no external sign, but there seems to be a fresh and deli- cious atmosphere, which they who breathe find to be death. No human sagacity can detect it in tlie trans- parent air, nor any human means arrest its progress. An invisiljle and mysterious agent, it expels man from the region over which its wing is spread, or he remains only to wither and die. But if such continues to be the history of coming years, how strange must be the destiny of the Iir- 1 " Hail Afan- ! Queen of Heavenly spheres, Hail, wliom the nnsolic host reveres! Hail fruitful root! Hail sacred gate, Whence the world's liKht derives its date; O glorious Maid, with beauty blest ! May joys eternal till thy breast I Thus crown'd with beauty and with joy. Thy prayers for us with Clirist cni]>loy. " 304 THE CHRISTMAS HOLYDAYS IN ROME. perial City ! Its people will gi'adually retire before this destroying spirit, and seek in other spots the safety denied them here, until once more the Seven Hills become as silent as they were before Romulus en- camped upon their heights. Then it will remain, like the city of which we read in Arabian fable, whose inhabitants in a moment were turned to stone, so that the traveller wandered in amazement through palaces and halls, where none came forth to meet him, and no sound was heard but the echo of his own steps. Its mighty monuments will stand, like those of Psestum, waste and desolate in their grandeur. Spring, and summer, and winter will pass over the forsaken city ; the lioariness of age gather on its marble columns and stain its gilded walls ; and Nature, spreading her luxuriance over them, and wreathing them each year with a thicker drapery, thus silently yet surely reclaim her dominion ; until at last all on which we now gaze wall only harmonize with the wild and dreary Cam- pagna around. But would not this be a fit conclusion to the long and eventful career of the Mistress of the World? There seems a strange and mysterious awe lingering about her which forbids the thought that she should fall by hviman agency. If, after surviving wars and sieges and conflagTations, she must at last be num- bered with Nineveh and Babylon, and those cities of the Elder World whose names only live m history, let there be no proud conqueror rejoicing over her end ! Let her not be crushed and humbled by the violence of man, but thus pass away " mthout hands," so that the hour can scarcely be marked in which she ceases to exist ! WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. I. The Lenten Fast. Thhicenth Edition. $1.25. II. The Double Witness of the Chxxreh. SeventeeiUh Rdition. $1.50. III. The Early Conflicts of Christianity. Iwurth Edition. $\.2^. IV. The Catacombs of Rome. Fifth Edition. $1.00. V. The Early Jesuit Missions in North America. Fourth Edition. $1.50. VI. The Unnoticed Things of Scripture. Just Published. ?I.50. VII. The Christmas Holydays in Rome. New Edition. $1.7^- 20 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below Sm 8 1953 DEC tBSCrOLD-U . /I, --. 1' »HPt? LD-UfB J lifi/ft'm m L-9 -1,'42(S51») fill 3 1158 01158 4F 58 4652