JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER’S JOURNAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1027, 21 August 1883, Page 4

JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER’S JOURNAL.

W&irTKN SPECIALtV FOETHS “A3HBUBTOIT ;u,L No. XX.—(continued.) - ChPKCH OP ST. FBAS-J 'osaWrRoMANA. ■ ,j3pttbc greatest curiosity of theichurch tnbacfegcribed. < The old monk, or! ,who showed me the church, caljej£my, special attention to two stones built into the wall near Gregory’s tomb. The purface .of the.. stones is somewhat concave, with, black marks in the hollow. Tbipsp, he solemnly assured me, were the ■tpftep pn which. Peter and Paul kneeled when) 'they prayed that Simon. Magus. bf| deserted ,by Jthe demons, whom he through the air. The indentation on the surface of the atones, and the black marks were left by th,e apostles’ knees. The old man evidently believed the legend; for he seemed shocked when I, somewhat irrevently, and on reflection I must add, im-properly—-roWarkejtl joopsefy' that * they must dirty about' the legs. There are allusions to this lesend in the-writings[of some of the Fathers. -S', Cyril; •of Jerusalem, - says i- 1 -* ‘ When the error of Simon' was spreading' farther and farther,ithe illustrious pair of men, Peter an,if ;Paul, the rulers of the church, arftated it by going thither, who aud>denly exhibited as dead Simbti, the putative God, on his appearance. For when Simon declared that he would ascend aloft into heaven, the servants of God cast him headlong to the earth ; and though this occurrence was wonderful in itself, it was not wonderful under the - circumstances, for it was Peter who did it, he who bears with him the keys of heaven. . . . It was Paul who did it, he who was caught up into the third heaven. ” S. Ambrose says—“ Simon promised to fly, and thus .ascend to the ' heayerily abo4&; 'On-ithe day agreed upon he went to tfip Capitoline hU|i and throwing himseli Wom the rock began his ascent. Then Peter, .standing in the; midst, said —‘ G„

Lord .tesus, shew him that his acts are in Taint’ Hardly. had the words been uttered when'the .wings which Simon had made use of .entangled, and he fell. His* thigh was fractured never to be healed, 1 a'nd some time afterwards the unhappy man died at > retia, whither he had rptired after his discomfiture ” Ih one of the chapels of the Church, the miracles of St Benedict are' represented : and the tribune is covered with parison with, the exquisite specime a I have seen elsewhere. The subjects are the Madonna, who occupies l the central positiOni and Saints John, James, Peter and-Andrew. Tnese mosaics have been restored at some period subsequent to their original execution. But Kergler, who is an acknowledged authority on such works of art, speaks disparagingly of such restoration. He says : —“ They close the list of-Roman Byzantine works. By : their time |i| >Kdd. becomei dppairent that-'sucn" figures as the art of the day was alone able to achieve, could have no possible relation to each other, and therefore, no longer constitute a composition l 'ijhe artitft accbtd’ittgly c&pSrated' the Madonna on the throne, and .the four Saints with uplifted hands, by graceful arches. The ground is gold ; the nimbases blue. The faces consist only of feeble lines ; the obeeks are only red blotches ; the folds, merely dqck jstrfirea : certain flow’dnd fulness in thd'forms, and the character of a few accessories (for instance, the exchange of'a crown upon the Virgin’s head for the invariable Byzapjjne iveil) ; seem to indicate that wei have' not so much to do here with the decline of Byzantine art as with a northern, and probably a Frankish influence.” ; ; ... ... , ■ The evening was now. drawing on: there was an odbur of incense on the air, and ajmqpd of many bells, apd now. <and. then Mnt Cchbtea of chaunting voices. I 'remembered thecaution given from experience by one long resident at Home—“ Do not linger in the open air during the interval between sunset and night,”—and satisfied with what I bad seen and heard during my firatday in/theoity, 1 hastened to my quarters ip the Hotel d’Allemagne in the via Condctte, and after a comfortable supper, retired to my room, to note down the inoidents of- the day. v , ■ ,ri * ' ' "Viator.