JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER'S JOURNAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1054, 21 September 1883, Page 4

JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER'S JOURNAL.

[SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOR “ THE ASHBURTON guardian. ”] CHAPTER XV. A Road with an Historical Fcandal— An Ancient Obelisk—The Baptistry of the Lateran : A Description of Interior and its Historical Associations—A Story of a Mediaeval Pope. One fine morning l l ascended the slope of the Ctelian by the Via S. Giovanni, leading to the Church and Palace of the Lateran. The Popes of the middle ages ehiUined'thia road with real or simulated pious ■ hhWWi*, because of the historical scandal connected with it. It was here, according to common repute, that the female Pope Jotih was seized with partruretft pains'"ahd‘gave birth to a child while in ‘procession 1 from the Lateran. The cofifethfniitihA 1 which such an incident must have produced amongst the. ecclesiastical dignitaries forming the grand procesfion may be easily imagined.- lam not going to discuss i the proa.-and cons, of this disputed story. It is a significant f.ict, however, that among the terracotta busts of successive-Popes, down to Alexander HI, that-decorated the nave of the Cathedral of Sienna, that of Pope Joan 'occupied its appropriate place, and was inscribed, “Johannes VIH, ; Fcmiha de Anglia. It remained in position until the year 1600, when Clement VIII persuaded the Grand Dnke to remove it and substitute the bust of Pope Zaoharias. . But the men allegation of su h a scandal as that of. thi accouchement of one who was supposed t( be a legitimate occupant of the chair o St Peter was quite sufficient to -acooun for the avoidance of the polluted local it; by thouc - .,whose liability to a similar mis hap was above suspicion ... In the centre o f the Piazza di Sai

Gid|yanfai;.Btknds a very ancient obelisk. It warf brought to Alexandria from the temple of the S m at Helispolis by Constantine ; and afterwards removed by his son to Borne. Originally it stood in the Circus Maximus, but in 1588 was brought to the spot it now occupies.; These removals were not effected without injury ; it was broken into three pieces, and a portion of the column had to be sacrific'd in the reconstruction. Butit is still the tallest monument' of the kind in Rome, and measures 150 feet. In age it is said to hive no rival, as modern interpreters of hieroglyphics assert, that it was erected in memory of Pharoah Thothmes IV., seventeen hundred and fifty years before the Christian era. An inscription on the, base of the obelisk says that Constantine was batized in the Lateran Church. But Socrates, the historian, tells us that the Emperor did not ; receive Christian bap-tism,-until juati before his death at Nicomedfa. Which, are- we tc- believe, the sculptor of the inscription, or the writer of the history ? I must leave archeologists to decide the question. The. Baptist ry of the Lateran, viewed from the outside is not attractive, but the interior is full oif interest. It was built by t-ixtus 111. There are, two entrances, one from the Piazza, and ahdtler from the court of the church, which is aderned by two very, ancient porphyry columns. Eight additional columns, also of porphyry, form a colonnade round the interior, and are rurrounded by a cornice, from which rise smaller columns of white marble that support the dome. In the centre is a font of green basalt. Readers' of Lylton Bulwer’a “Rienzi,” will remernbei that the last of the Tribunes bathed himself in this all but sacred font on the eve of his knighthood, thereby alienating some of his former friends and supporters his act as a sacrilege. The cupola is ornamented with scenes from the life of John the Baptist, and round the walls are large fresebes illustrative of incidents.jq the.life of Constantine. On opposite sidpa are the chapels of St John, the fiaptisi', and St John the Evangelist; female visitors are not admitted into these. The bronze, do are of the last inej.,t; rcd t chapel are .said to have beto the baths of Oarracal!a, and to ba» v . c..n. r :o -.it', by Pope Hilary as an offering of gratitude for his escape i from - the fury of the Monks by whbfii his'life' was endangered when he appeared at the second Council of Ephesus as legate of Leo I. In the chapel is ii statue ; of‘ Bt ; John, and the walls are covered with ihosaics representing the Lamb in Paradise. Next to the chapel is thb'btatory 6f St Venanzio, and further on the Cappellia Borgia. This was once qn’.ppan portico,; but is now closed up hud used as the burial place of the-Borgia family. The Lateran derives. its name from Plautius Lateranus,' -a patrician who was put to death as an accomplice on the conspiracy of Piao, and; the family estates were confiscated'by Nero, and became an Imperial residence. Subsequently a portion of the domain was bestowed upon Fausta, the second wife of Constantine, and he eventually transferred it to Pope Melchiades. The donation was confirmed to Sylvester, under whose auspices the first church was built in the year 324. It is said that Constantine labored with his own hands at the cosntruction of the edifice. But in the year 896 an ‘earthquake destroyed the building. During the ih-' terval between 904 and 911, Sergius 111, restored the structure and dedicated, the new erection to John the Baptist. The splendour of this second church is referred, to by Dante in his Paradiso. Li -iSOS'a disastrous fire almost entirely consumed .the building. Again It.was restored, but only to be again devoured by flames in 1360.. -For several years it remained a blackened mass of ruins, over which Petrarch mourned and wept. To Urban V is due. the;honor of the final restoration of the sacred 1 fane ; but it is not now as he left it; modern alterations and additions —which some authors describe as mutilations—have considerably altered the original design.■ On the west facAde the ponfptius inscription may still be read : ,t Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia" Omniwni urbis et orbis Eededarum Mater et loput, jTl|q Ofaaptejp o| St John Lateran still f&kb precedence, and every Pope comes, hither to be- crowned.

I cannot pretend to give » minute description of’'the interior of this historic

church. The nave is- of grand proportions, .and is divided .into five aisles, but the Undent columns, except two near the tribune, have been encrusted and con-

cealed 1 by modern plaster piers, in frorit of which ‘ colossal statues of the Apostles. The tabernacle is said to contain'iha 1 Skulls of St. Peter and St; and -the alter tb enclose a portion oi the woodetf table on which !Peter celebrated masaiH'the house-cf Pudens. The ourious ifi such"patters,will find the particulars inf chapter of the life of St. Pudetitiaiia;; 'The altar of the sacrament has fdaHTtßed. oplumDs, said to have "been brought from Jerusalem by - TituC y ! Thp I SactT'BtAn. told me they were hollo# Arid filled with. earth from Palesthiei*; Manyof the mediaeval Popes were buried' 1 in’ this church, and there is a Btory-'cbnneoted with the memorial slab of Sylvester ll:'which I may relate:— Martin- Polonus de. Cprenza, an old cfaro^jTbtyslya :’“ This Pope was a kind of* magician,' who dbfained first the .Archbishopric.ef -Eiheims, then 1 that of Ravenna, the Papacy by the aid of the devil to whom, in return, he promised'td belong after death. When he ascended : the throne 1 he asked the devil how long he could reign, and the devileissas < his Custom, 'answered by • doable entendre. If you never gptot- Jerusslem . you will reign a rongcliAW' 'Be occupied the throne for fpur„. ; :yjß9rs > one . month, and ten dlyf; when, one - day, 'as he was I Rotating in the of St. Croce in

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Gerwsaleinine/lTe saw that he had passed the fatal threshhold, and that his death was impending. Overwhelmed with repentance, he confessed his backslidings before the people, and exhorted them to lay aside pride, to resist the temptatb ns of the devil, and to lead a good life. After this ho begged his attendants to cut his body in pieces after he was dead, as he deserved, and to place it on a common cart, and bury it wherever the horsf-s stopped of their own accord. Then was manifested the will of the divine E >rov ’ 1 ' dence, that repentant sinners should learn that their God preserves for them a place of pardon even in this life—for the horses went on their own accord to bt. John Lateran, where he was buried. in reference to this Platina says ; Ihe rattling of his bones, and the sweat, or rather the damp with which his tomb becomes covered, has always been the infallible sign and forerunner of the death of a Pope !” . , . (To be continued.)