PLACES ASSOCIATED WITH THE LIFE OF PIUS X

New Zealand Tablet, 17 September 1908, Page 27 (Supplement)

PLACES ASSOCIATED WITH THE LIFE OF PIUS X

RIESE. ' ' - Riese, the birth-place of Pope Pius X., is a very clean and pretty village in "the province and diocese of Treviso. The parish and village comprise about 2800 inhabitants. Most of the relatives of- Pius X. still live in Riese— the pious, sturdy, and honorable peasantry that (says the poet) form ' their country's pride.' Riese grew up around the stronghold of vassals of the Bishop of Treviso that was in existence there as far back as the tenth century. Indian corn, silk, wheat, and fruit are its chief products. " CASTELFRANCO. ~ Castelfranco, the place where Pius X. received a junior secondary education, is situated some four miles from.Riese. It is an' exceedingly handsome town, picturesque in its setting of medieval castle and walls, and rich in historical memories and in illustrious names of its own citizens. As far back as 1231 it was -a ' free town ' (hence called 'franco,' i.e., free), with jurisdiction over 40 villages round about. It was long noted for its excellent schools, and hence won the title of La Piccola Atene (Little Athens). It produced the renowned painter Giorgione, the great eighteenth century mathematician Riccati, and numerous distinguished men of letters. Young Giuseppe Sarto attended the Ginnasio of Castelfranco from 1846 to 1850. This school, which had an .excellent reputation, was in charge of priests. Pius "X." (as already stated) was ordained in the Duomo of' Castelfranco. TOMBOLO. Tombclo (where Father Sarto got his first appointment after his ordination) is a small town of 2156 inhabitants in the diocese of Treviso and" province of Padua. Its history goes back to the" ninth or- tenth century. The parish is over two ' miles square, and the-church, a handsome structure, dates from the year 1750. The district round about is irrigated from the Brenta River, and is exceedingly fertile. SALZANO. Salzano, of which Father Sarto was in 1867 appointed parish priest, is situated in the Venetian territory on a rich plain, covered with vines, olives, mulberries (for the cultivation of the silkworm). There is a very handsome parish church, and- the catechetical school of Salzano has been, ever since its foundation in 1723, one of the finest institutions of the kind in Italy. It received a fresh impulse from its zealous and whole-souled young parish priest. The pastor's horse (by the way) was practically made the common property of the village. His purse, too, was the common fund of the poor. TREVISO. Treviso (in the Cathedral of which the present Pope was for some time a Canon, Chancellor, and Vicar-Capitular) is a handsome city of about .20,000 inhabitants, about 17 miles by rail north of Venice. I he fine old domed Cathedral dates from the fifteenth century, and is adorned with paintings by Pordenone and the great Venetian magician in color, Titian. MANTUA. Pius.X. was for nine years Bishop' of Mantua, of which we give elsewhere a small engraving It is a fortified North Italian city of over 30,000 inhabitants. Noted as the birthplace of the great Latin poet Virgil One September morning, in 1884, after Bishop Berengo, of Mantua, had been transferred to the archiepiscopal see of Undine, Bishop Apollonio said to Monsignor Sarto in his office at Treviso : • My dear Monsignore, would you kindly come with me a mo-

ment.'. The Bishop led the way to his private ora-. Tory, and there, turning to Monsignor Sarto, said : Let us kneel here, my dear Monsignore, before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for both of us have need to pray for a thing that touches us closely.' After they had prayed for a time together, the Bishop .rose and placed in the hands of his Chancellor (Monsignor Sarto) the papal document appointing the latter Bishop of Mantua. Monsignor Sarto broke down, and protested his inability to undertake so onerous a charge. But the exhortations of his Bishop calmed him at length, and he accepted the burden of the will of God. ' VENICE. Nine strenuous years of the life of Pope Pius X. were (as stated elsewhere) spent as Patriarch of Venice. The Pope, besides being Bishop of the diocese of Rome and visible head of the Universal Church, is also Patriarch of the West. Rome is, in fact, the seat of one of the three ancient Patriarchates — thes others being Alexandria arid-Antioch. Apart from the Papal dignity; that of Patriarch is^the next highest in the hierarchy of jurisdiction ; that of Primate comes next ; then the rank of Archbishop or Metropolitan. And just as -an Archbishop may have several suffragan Bishops, so may a Primate have within his limits of jurisdiction several Archbishops, and a Patriarch several Primates. In addition to the three great ancient Patriarchates mentioned above, Constantinople gradually came from the latter part of the fourth century, to occupy the position of .a Patriarchate. Jerusalem became a fifth. The schisms that rent, the Eastern Church resulted in the loss of the Eastern Church, the Mussulman- conquests, etc., resulted in the severance of the Eastern Patriarchal, Sees from the centre of Catholic unity. The Popes, however, have continued to nominate Patriarchs to the lost Sees, but these Patriarchs reside in Rome, except the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who began to live- in that city in 1847. In addition to a Latin Patriarch at Antioch, the Holy See also acknowledges three other Catholic Patriarchs in that city— one each for the Maronite, the Melchite, and w S r"S R 't? S - There is also > in Cilicia Asia r°2 r « hoI - IC Patriarch for the Armenian Rite, and a Catholic Patriarch of Babylon for the Chaldaic Rite. +v T^ cb for J he Catholic Church in the East. In ate, t e h St f rn f^ hUr ? h ,- her f are three minor Patriarchates—that of the Indies the rank is occupied by the prelate of highest rank in the Spanish Church); 7 that of L.sbon; and that of Venice, to which the present in 1894 nSfCrred frOm the bi shopric of Mantua Venice has been well described as 'one of the TficK -v° St famou v s > ar^d singular cities in the world.' la an Sl - UUnP ° n * cr °^ ded cluster of islets-between 70 and 80 in number— in the Lagoon of Venice from which the Adriatic is shouldered 6ff by the W "utTotif the^ id °' Which extends '«£ ManvTf th • , th< \ Rlver Piave that of the Adige. Many of the islands on which the city is built are only tinn f utJ- ° f the isl *nds afford 'suitable foundaore f to be ™?' f A ? fidal foundati °ns had, there- ' The' £J? > ° f - P - lles Or of de eply-set masonry. ffruntinjr motor-boats added in recent years give I

curious, present-day appearance to a city that looks (especially by moonlight) as if it had just come out of fairy-land. ' The modest foundations of Venice were laid after Attila the Hun and his barbarians had,' in the year 452, crossed the Alps and invaded Italy. From Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, survivors of the barbarians' massacres found a safe though obscure refuge in the numerous small islands on which Venice now proudly stands. Fish was their almost universal food ; their chief export the salt which they manufactured from the almost tideless Adriatic Sea. The city was long a-growing. For 250 years the inhabitants led an obscure and squalid existence on their little islands — fishing; salt-making, damming out the waves with intertwined vine-branches and piles driven into the sand-banks. Their villages gradually extended — but they were still merely poor, insignificant groups of fishing villages, held together after a fashion by a sort of loose confederation. This (says Hodgkins in his Italy and Her Invaders) ' seems to have been their condition — though perhaps gradually growing in commercial importance — until, at the - beginning of the eighth century, the concentration of political authority in the hands of the first doge, and the recognition of the Rialto cluster of islands as the capital of the confederacy, started the Republic on a career of success and victory.' Each island had at first its own magistrate, called a tribune. The magistrates were subject to a Council-General of the whole community. This condition lasted for over three hundred years that were spotted with troubles arising out of the' rivalries of the greater tribunes. In A.D. 697 the Council-General, at the instance of the Bishop of Grado ; decided to concentrate the power of the growing confederacy in the hands of a- single chief, to be named the Doge or Duke — from the Latin Dux (a leader or chief). The Council-General (composed of twelve electors) proceeded at once to the election of the first Doge of Venice, Paolo Luca Anabesto. And thus began the revolutionary change which raised "Venice from the position of a collection of fishing villages to that of Queen of the Adriatic, and made it one of the most brilliant republics in history. Under the dogeship of Angelo Participazio, Rialto island became definitely the capital. The sixty islets -around it were connected by bridges and covered with houses, and the whole water-girt city was enclosed by a fortification. And thus out of a morass arose the beautiful modern Venice, the ' Pearl of the Adriatic. ' Wars there were galore. But Venice prospered; its commerce spread ; its fleet swept the Istrian and Dalmatian pirates off the seas ; and conquests in Dalmatia, and Croatia, and the Grecian islands opened new markets to their trade. In 829 the relics of the Evangelist St. Mark were transferred with great pomp from Alexandria (Egypt) to Venice. Thenceforth the emblem of that Evangelist, the lion, was made the emblem of Venice. The winged lion was blazoned on its standards; it is seen before St. Mark's Cathedral (of which we publish a view elsewhere) ; and it forms part of the armorial bearings chosen by Pius X. when he was raised from the patriarchal see of Venice to the chair of St. Peter in Rome. The Constitution of Venice was changed between 1032 and 1 3 19 so as to develop into an aristocratic republic governed by a Council of Ten. In 1099Vol^ollV 01^ 011^ 6 took an active and enthusiastic part in lv v} r ,, USa< ? c for the recov ery of the Holy Places that had fallen into the hands of the Saracens The thirteenth century witnessed the acquisition of the lonian Islands, and long and bitter hostilities with - Constantinople and with the Genoese. 'In the fourteenth century.' says Yeats in his Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce (p. 98), < Venice had 3000 merchantmen, manned by 25,000 sailors. A tenth part of these were ships exceeding 700 tons- burden ' (which were the Lusitanias of the time). ' There were besjdes, 44 war galleys, manned by 11,000 hands :' and 10,000 workmen, as welL as 36,000 seamen, were employed in the arsenals. The largest of the wargalleys was called the Bucentaur ; it was a State vessel

of the most gorgeous description Every year the Doge of Venice, seated upon a magnificent throne surmounted .by a regal canopy,. dropped from this vessel a ring into the Adriatic, to symbolise the fact that land and sea were united under the Venetian flag. This cerem.ony commemorated the victory gained over the fleet of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1177, whei the Venetians obliged him to sue for peace.* The ceremony (which is still carried out every year) took place on the feast of the Ascension. The Doge was borne over the waters in the great war-galley, which was ablaze with scarlet and gold, and, as he cast the ring into the sea, he exclaimed.- ' We espouse thee, O Sea ! in token of true and eternal sovereignty. ' Venice had an immense sea-borne trade in the middle ages- , Glass of rare and exquisite beauty was? then, as now, manufactured there; brass and iron foundries wrought busily ; and ship-building was, of course, an important branch of industry to Venice. Her explorers penetrated to distant seas. Thus, in the fourteenth century, Maffeo and Nicolo Polo spent fifteen years-visiting Egypt, Persia, India, Tartary r and even far-off China. Marco Polo (son of Nicolo) and the two Barbaros were also among the most famous of the Venetian navigators of that century. f<? Venice gradually her flag in northeastern Italy and in the Isles of Greece. The fifteenth century, however, saw her engaged in long and exhausting wars with the Turks, who were then overrunning southern and south-eastern Europe. In the early sixteenth century,, however, the power of the Venetian republic rose and spread, till it seemed to their historians that Venice had become what Rome once had been— the mistress of the world. They extended their conquests westward and southward in Italy. So bold and insolent did they become that (as was said) ' they wanted to make the Pope their chaplain Pope Julius 11., however, warned the conquering \ enetmns in 1503 that if they did not desist from their policy of conquest, he would « incite all the princes of Christendom against them.' The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a marked decline in Venetian commerce— partly owing to the spread of manuiactunng industries all over Europe; partly to the formidable competition of Spain, Portugal, England" and the Netherlands, which were more favorably situated for the sea-borne trade of the New World The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope opened up a new waterway to the East Indies, and contributed to the downfall ot Venice's commerce, by destroyingthe monopoly she had long enjoyed of the trade in thl spices, etc of the Indies. The capture of Constantinople by Mahomet 11. had already deprived Venice of the splendid commercial privileges which her merchants had so long enjoyed in the capital of .the Orient ; and the new tariff of Charles V. cut off Venetian ships from Spanish ports. Here, Venice was ' hit back 'by her own exclusive policy. She had tried to rule the markets by the tyranny of monopoly, says Blanqui in his History of Political Economy, < but as soon as she did so, she saw a league formed against her commerce which contributed greatly to its ruin. The early sixteenth century saw Venice despoiled of her continental provinces. Venice, howeverf had enough power left to join in the battle of Lepanto which administered "to the Turkish power a reeling blow, from which it has never recovered. ' The Venetian Republic existed, with many vicissitudes till the days of Napoleon Buonaparte. He —bent on the domination of Italy— picked a quarrel with it in 1796 and.overthrew it in the following year In 1797 the city and the territories of Venice were handed over to Austria by the Treaty of Campo! Form.o. n i 8p S they were ceded by Austria to the kingdom ot Italy. Nine years later (in 1814) the rZT n t - StateS WCre again t^nsferred to Austria 18*8 1 ?T WCre e^ P . dled durin S the Revolution of 22? D SL Mar *£&?%« were annexed to ihe crown of Piedmont. X

The ' front door ' of Venice is the beautiful entrance from the water to the beautiful Piazza or Square of St. Mark's, of which we give afl engraving. It is the great centre of the commercial and tourist life of Venice. The extreme measurements of the Square are 576 feet by 269 feet. The eastern side of the Piazza is occupied by the Duomo or Cathedral Church of St. Mark's. It was the Cathedral of the present Pope when he was Patriarch of Venice. ' The first church of St. Mark's,' says a work on Venice, 'was built 111^813, but was destroyed by fire in 976. It was rebuilt in 1071, and consecrated before the close of the eleventh century. The edifice is Byzantine, with Gothic additions of the fourteenth century, and Renaissance alterations of the seventeenth century. It became the cathedral and seat of the Patriarch in 1807. The plan of St. Mark's is a Greek cross. Above the doorway are the four famous horses which Marino Leno brought from Constantinople in 1205, which were carried away by Napoleon in 1797 to Paris, and restored to Venice in 181 5. A great dome rises over the intersection of the lines of the cross ; and over the transepts other domes rise. The carved work, which is very profuse, is of the most exquisite description ; and the building is perfect as an example of the delicately colored architecture of the East. The structure is of brick, incrusted with richly-colored marbles.' We may add that the exterior — and even more so the interior — is glorious with gilding and with historic pictures in colored mosaic, the floor being also a wonder of intricate and beautiful design in colored marble mosaic. Near St. Mark's is the historic Campanile or Bell-tower (re-erected during the past few years). It was begun in the year 902, was completed in 1570, and was 323 feet high, 42 feet wide at the base, and was surmounted by a figure of an angel. The Campanile appears in one of our engravings. The foundations were of stone, and not adequate to sustain indefinitely so great a mass of material. It, however, sustained its burden bravely till July, 1902, when the tower came down with a crash. Steps were taken to restore the historic Campanile. Its foundations were greatly strengthened, and the utmost care Avas taken to restore the great Venetian landmark to exactly its original dimensions and form. The great Ducal Palace "dates from 813, but it was enlarged and rebuilt and altered from Byzantine to- Gothic during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. ROME : ST. PETER'S. The principal celebrations in connection with the Papal Jubilee will take place in the Basilica of St. Peter's. This is the greatest church in the world, and is situated beyond the Tiber, on the slope of the Vatican Hill, in the Borgo or Leonine City. You enter this part of the Eternal City by the bridge of Sant' Angelo (or the Holy Angel), which was rebuilt (in its present shape) by Pope Clement IX. on the ruins of an old Roman bridge, under the direction of the architect-sculptor Bernini. . The ten fine ..marble statues (see our engraving) that a.dorn it were made from Bernini's designs, and represent angels bearing the instruments of the Passion. Beyond the bridge may be seen in the engraving on another page the Castel Sant' Angelo, also known as Adrian's Mausoleum. It was erected as a -monument over the re- . mains of the pagan Rpman Emperor Adrian, and acording to the description given of it by Procopius it was embellished in gorgeous style with beautiful co ored marbles, statuary, arid was surmounted by a colossal statue of Adrian, the head of which is now in the Vatican Museum. In the days of Honorius it was made to form part of the defences of the city In the course of a desperate assault by the "soldiers of Vitex the defenders, having exhausted all other means of defence, smashed the statuary,, broke, up the beautiful marbles, and hurled the fragments at the besiegers In 1499 P ope Alexander VI. strengthened the Castle and built a long, arched, open £>rridor between it and the Vatican Palace, which exists to the present day. By that corridor Pope Clement VII

was enabled to escape to the safety of the Castel S. Angelo when the hbrdes of the Constable de Bourbon captured, and sacked the Eternal City. A short walk to the left beyond the bridge of Sant' Angelo and we are in full view of St. Peter's. 'Lo ! the dome— the vast and wondrous dome, - To which Diana's marvel was a cell.' We are in the noble elliptical piazza of St. Peter's (about 230 yards by 160 in its 1 extreme 1 dimensions), of which we publish an engraving elsewhere in this issue. The great Basilica of St. Peter's is built over the spot where St. Peter suffered -martyrdom. Pope St. Anacletus is said to have erected a small oratory upon the spot. In the dawn of the peaceful times that followed the conversion of the Emperor- Constantine, ;i more elaborate temple replaced the earlier oratory. Constantine himself had the "work executed at the request of Pope St. Sylvester, arid within the crypt he, m the year 326, placed the venerated remains of the Apostle enclosed in a coffin of- bronze. This Basilica, built by Constantine, was repaired occasionally during the course of the ages. In the time of Pope Nicholas V. (1450) it was, on account of its great age, in a . dangerous condition of decay. Various sums were spent upon its restoration. In 1503, Pope Julius 11. came to the throne. He decided' to give effect to a design of Bramante's and erect a new Basilica in the form of a Greek' cross, with a vast cupola or dome rising above its centre. On April 18, 15 06, Pope Julius laid the foundation-stone of the vast new edifice. The. great Pope Leo X. carried on the work of his predecessor. One of his architects was the great painter Raffaello, who altered the design to a Latin cross. After sundry other alterations to and from the Latin cross (with the long stem) the celebrated Michelangelo Euonarotti was called from Florence to assume the direction of the great work He wrought through the pontificates of Julius 111. Marcellus 11. Paul IV., and Pius V.; others followed him, and finally, under Bernini, in 1636, the greatest temple in Christendom was consecrated by Pope Urban VIII over a century and a quarter from the date 0-1 which its foundation-stone was laid. To Bernini we also owe the marvellous baldacchino (or canopy) with the four twisted bronze columns which the reader will notice over the high altar of the Basilica He too, it was who, under Pope Alexander VII.,- coml menced in 1661, the two magnificent semi-circular colonnades that enclose the beautiful piazza or square of St. Peter s He also saw the close of this great wo r k— the colossal colonnade, consisting of 284* vast pillars and 88 pilasters, with its beautiful balustrade crowned with 96 statues. According to a calculation made by Carlo Fontana in 1693, the cost of St. Peter's up to that date amounted to 46,500,000 of Roman crowns— which represents almost exactly a million sterling of English money Since .then vast sums have been expended upon the edifice, and all the arts have contributed to the decoration oX this -wonder of-the modern World The majestic facade of Basilica was constructed during the reign of Pope Paul V. Its vastness is not at first apparent to the eye' of the casual ™f7 e >V I" K V n reality about 366 feet wide by 144 feet high. The reader is requested to turn to facad c e ngra F^h a fV° tC - the e^ ht columns of «* facade Each of these is 91 feet high by 8 feet 0 inches in width. From the door in the middle of the &££ T 87 bb o al T y - the PP ° P f - USed °" S reat sole-nidS nfJe^ 7 X lm P art their busings to the people massed in thousands- upon the square below. From w« S^T -° O l h (as . alread y st *ted) the announcement was made, in the midst of ' evvivas,' that the Patriarch of. Venice had been elected Pope on August 4 190, And within the walls of the great Basilica he to crowned five days later, on August 9, i 9i 9 0 3 W&S We pass into the portico of St. Pete?'s through the great and ornate bronze gates in the facade, that date from about 1445. We cross the bekutiful oortfco and enter, by the bronze door, the greSSt aS£S temple on earth. In his Childe Harold Byron .wrote

after his first glimpse of the interior of that noble fane :—: — Enter : its grandeur overwhelms thee not ; And why ; it is not lessen'd ; but thy mind, Expanded by the genius of the spot, .- Has grown colossal, and can only find A fit abode wherein apjpear enshrined Thy hopes of immortality 1 and thou Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined, See thy God, face to face, as thou dost now His Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by His brow. Thou movest — but increasing with the advance,"" Like climbing some great Alp, which still doth rise, Deceived by its gigantic elegance;, Vastness which grows — but grows to harmonise — All musical- in its immensities; Rich marbles — richer paintings — shrines where flame The lamps of gold — and haughty dome which vies In air with Earth's chief structures, though their frame Sits on the firm-set ground — and this the clouds must claim. Thou seest not all ; but piecemeal thou must break-, To separate contemplation, the great whole ; And as the ocean many bays will make, That ask the eye — so here condense thy soul To more immediate objects, and control Thy thoughts until thy mind hath got by heart Its eloquent proportions, and unroll In mighty graduations, part by part, The glory which at once upon thee did not dart. Along- the middle line of the nave of- St. Peter's you perceive, let into the colored marble floor, figures giving- the lengths of the other greatest churches in the world. Reduced to English feet, they are as follow : Feet. St. Sophia, Constantinople 354 St. Paul's, Rome 410 St. Petronius's, Bologna 428 The Cathedral, Milan 327 * Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence 481 St. Paul's, London 509 St. Peter's (from the bronze door inside portico to inner wall of apse) 602 As Byron said of St. Peter's, the visitor is ' Deceived by its gigantic elegance ; Vastness which grows — but grows to harmonise — All musical in its immensities.' To give some idea of the vastness of this great Basilica, the following figures are set down for the reader's perusal : — The nave is 87 feet wide ; the magnificently decorated pilasters supporting the arches are each 39 feet 4 inches long ; and the four great pilasters that sustain the dome have each a circumference of 231 feet. The projecting cornice above the arches of the nave arc 9 feet 10 inches wide, and are 101 feet 9 inches above the level of the floor. Statues, cherubs, bronzes } mosaics, and beautiful polished marble of various colors decorate the pilasters and the walls ; the floor (as already stated) is covered-with designs in colored polished marble; and the , coffered ceiling is richly gilded. Along the inside of the drum of the dome runs in mosaic on a golden ground the inscription : J Tv e<> Petrus, et super hanc petram sedificabo ecclesiam meam, "et tibi dabo claves regni coelorum ' (' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven '). The reader will be enabled, in some measure to estimate relative heights when he is told that each of the letters of this inscription is over 4 feet 2 inches in height. -Beneath the centre of the dome is' the high altar. Above this rises the baldacchino, or canopy, with its tall twisted gilt-bronze columns. This beautiful canopy is 101 feet high. The Pope alone celebrates Mass at this high altar, and he does so facing the

people. The "altar having no reredos, the Holy Father is visible to, the congregation in the nave as well as in the arms of the Latin cross, in the shape of which the Basilica is built. Beneath the high altar is a crypt (called the ' Confession '), which is above the tomb of St. Peter. The ' Confession 'is adorned with exquisite colored marbles and mosaics, 87 gilded bronze lamps, and a double marble • staircase leads down to it. Three great aisles stand on each side of the have, and beyond these there are rows of exquisitely decorated chapels, many of which contain the tombs or the" monuments of Popes that have passed away. Among these is^a cenotaph monument to Pope Gregory XIII., adorned with bass-reliefs in marble recording the' story of how he corrected the Julian "Calendar and gave to the world the computation of time which is now. in use. There is also a monument to Queen Christina of Sweden, to the great composer Palestrina, to Maria Clementina "Sobieski Stuart, and the sepulchre (with monument) of various members of the English Royal House of Stuart. N Among the paintings and sculptures are works by artists of such eminence as Michelangelo, Bernini, Canova, della Porta, Giotto, Giixlio Romano, : Thorwaldsen, the two Pollajuolos, and other princes of .the brush and chisel: - Within the series of great sacristies' are to be found some exquisite works of art (paintings, bronzes, etc.) ; Cellini's noble work — six massive candelabra in silver gilt j the historic bluesilk dalmatic worn by Pope Leo 111., who reigned from 795 to Br6; a royal dalmatic worn by Charlemagne (who died in 814); precious manuscripts, etc. A broad, easy winding staircase brings the visitor from one of the left aisles of St. Peter's to the roof and the dome. From the broad and almost level roof * a beautiful view of the Eternal City may be seen, and * from this point of vantage also the visitor is enabled to form an idea_^>f the grandiose architecture of the mighty dome. On the roof of St .Peter's there are a number of dwellings for the use of the ' Sampietrini,''- '- or workers employed in the necessary cleaning, care, and repairs of the vast Basilica. Between the inner and the. outer walls of the dome (for the dome is a double one) a staircase leads to the lantern, from which •a magnificent panorama is to be had of the city, the rolling campagna, the purple hills of Frascati and Tivoli, and the vast and rugged blue range of the Apennines, that form the backbone of the long Italian peninsula. Finally, by an, iron ladder, the visitor can get right into the ball beneath the cross: in the engraving (to which the reader is again referred) it seems to be a mere hazel-nut; in reality it is a big bronze sphere, capable of accommodating sixteen persons. Through perpendicular slits in the sides of the ball the sightseers can get dizzy glimpses of the city and over the hills and far away. From the ball there rises another ladder, an external one, by which the daring tourist may (if permitted) ascend to the top of the cross, which, small as it looks in the engraving is 14 feet in height. . ~ We take the following fine piece of description from-F. Marion Crawford's Aye Roma Immortalis :—: — ' The Basilica^of St. Peter's and the Vatican Palace together form by far the greatest continuous mass of buildings in the world. 4 The Colosseum is 195 yards long by 156 broad, including the thickness of the walls. St. Peter's Church alone is 205 yards long and 156 broad, so that , the whole Colosseum would easily stand upon the ground plan of the church, while the' Vatican Palace is more than half as long again. ' The central cathedral of Christendom is so . far beyond any familiar proportion that at first- sight all details are lost upon its broad front. The mind and judgment are dazed and staggered. The earth should not be able to bear such weight upon its crust without cracking and bending like an overloaded table. On each side the .colonnades rim curving out like giant arms, almost open to receive the nations that- go up there to worship. The dome broods over all, like a giant s head motionless in meditation. ' The vastness of the structure takes hold of a man as he issues from the street by which he came from St. Angelo. In the open space, in the square,

and in the ellipse between the colonnades, and on the steps two hundred thousand men could be drawn up in rank and file, horse and foot and guns. Excepting it be on some special occasion, there are rarely morl* than two or three . hundred persons in sight. The paved emptiness makes one draw a breath of surprise and human eyes seem too small to take in all the flatness below, all the breadth before and all the height above. • * Taken together, the picture is too big for convenient sight. The impression itself moves unwieldly in the cramped brain. A building almost five hundred feet high produces a monstrous effect upon the mind. Set down in words, a description of it conveys no clear conception; seen for the first time, the impression produced by it cannot be put into language. It is something like a shock to the intelligence, perhaps, and not altogether a pleasant one. Carried beyond the limits of a mere mistake, exaggeration becomes caricature. But when it is magnified beyond humanity s common measures, it may acquire an element approaching to terror. The awe-striking giants of mythology were but magnified men. The first sight ot bt. Peter's affects one as though in the everyday streets, walking among one's fellows, one should meet with a man 40 feet high. 'It is all very big. The longest ship that crosses the ocean could lie in the nave between the door and the apse, and her masts, from deck to truck, would scarcely top the canopy of the high altar, which looks so small under the super-possible vastness of the immense dome. ' To feel one's smallness and realise it, one need only go and stand beside the holy marble cherubs that support the pillar. They look small, if not graceful • but they are of heroic size, and the bowls are as big as baths. Everything in the place is vast: all the ■statues are qolossal, all the pictures enormous: the smallest details of the ornamentation would dwarf any other building in the world, and anywhere else even the chapels would be churches. The eye strains at everything, and at first the mind is shocked out of its power of comparison. 'But the strangest, most extravagant, most incomprehensible, most disturbing sight of all is to be seen from the upper gallery in the cupola looking down to the church below. Hanging in mid-air, with nothing under one's feet, one sees the church projected on perspective within a huge circle. It is as though one saw it^upside down and inside out. Few men could bear to stand there without that bit of iron railing- between them and the hideous fall; and the inevitable slight dizziness which the strongest head feels may make one doubt for a moment whether what is really ff n c , 3o , or , belw *?? a y not in reality be a ceiling above, and whether one's sense of gravitation be not inverted in an extraordinary dream. At that distance human beings look no bigger than flies, and the canopy of the high altar might be an ordinary table.' THE VATICAN. P P tJ« c - i r6at " aSS 5 buildings to the right of St. Peters 1S known as the Palace'of the Vaticin. Great buildings are said to have been erected upon that site by Pope Symmachus (A.D. 498-1:14). During the sixC l^ f R ?r by n ° rthern barbarSns il t£e Pool r f r ? th 7 TT were destroyed, but were rebuilt by th? PnSI 6 ™Jl L - an l lnnOCent IIL For cent «"es tlrlZl 5 r f esid ?V n the Palace of the Lateran (™ engraving of which appears elsewhere. in this issue). Partly, on account of disturbances in Rome created by fpr«n Iw famiHeS ' the P °P es resided a * Avfgnon (France) from 1309 to 1377. When Grewrv XT returned to Rome from Avign6n he chose thfvatkan as the papal residence instead of the Lateran After Pope was tiH 37 ? *£ T daVe f ° r the of a Pope was held, for the first time in history, in the Vatican-. It was Pope Nicholas V. (1447-1455) who vTST 1 1^ o£ ™ b «Ming an<i tnlarglng the Vatican and making of it a great palace to contain the offices and residences of what may be called the

executive authority of the Church. He it was who built the picturesque circuit of fortifications that "Still surround the Vatican hill, and which were intended by the Pope to enable the place, in those troubled times, to stand a siege. Under him were also constructed (among other things) the galleries which were later on so exquisitely adorned by Raffaelo, and he removed the books and precious manuscripts from the Lateran Palace, placed them in greater security, and founded the great library that is now one of the glories of the Vatican. It is exquisitely decorated with marbles, pictures, and mosaics, and contains 126,000 volumes, and about 30,000 precious manuscripts, of which about 4000 are in Greek and 2000 in Eastern languages. The oldest Greek manuscript Bible is one of its treasures. The famous Sixfine Chapel in the Vatican was erected- by Pope Sixtus IV. in X 473. Successive Popes added greatly to the architectural^ and artistic adornment of the Vatican, enriching^ it with the works of Bramante, Raffaello, Sangallo, Fontana, etc. - To Bernini we owe the beautiful ' Scala Regia ' or Royal Staircase that leads into the Vatican. The Library (of which an engraving is given elsewhere) was enlarged and adorned under Sixtus V. • Benedict XIV. founded the Museum of Sacred Archaeology; Clement XIV. added two other museums! Pius VII. founded the Chiaramonti Museum ; Gregory XVI the Museum of Egyptian and Etruscan Antiquities': and Pius IX. and Leo XIII. added sundry useful and beautiful features to the great papal palace^ The Vatican is famous for its Observatory, and^TOof its directors (Father Secchi, S.J.) won world-wide distinction for his discoveries in astronomy and astronomical physics. ♦1 To give the reader some idea of the vastness of the Vatican Palace, we may add that it has 22 courtyards, 8 grand staircases, and 11,000 rooms— without counting as 'rooms' the chapels, the great halls, the museums, and the library. - The main entrance to the Vatican is by the Bronze Do Or which is situated just where the great colonnade on the right of St. Peter's Square joins the main - building. Just inside the Bronze Door, on the right" is the guard-room of the Swiss Guards, who still wear the picturesque striped uniform (yellow, red, and With! 11 * 4 2 Va f^. devised \™ them by Michelangelo Within the building, passing up the great staircase S'^f Sixtxne Chapel (wi.th its wonderful paintings,, the Hall of the Immaculate Conception, the Stanze or Galleries of Raffaello, (containing his exquisite paintSS& nUm t r ° US other Halls their paintings,, sculptures, bronzes, etc., and the great art galleries and museums of various kinds Outside the numerous museums and galleries of pictures, statuary, maps etc is the i 'Boscareccio' or Vatican Garde^ which is beautifully ornamented with sculptures, pictures o? thTvT* - i!m, occu ? l - s^ e summit or hi^ st kn °» of the Vatican hill, and its boundaries are the parapet of the fortifications already described. It is handsomely planted/ and has broad alley-ways. It was Pon3T tC r^° rt -°- f thC latG P ° pe ' aS Jt is of the P res ™t TS vm fIS a , carria S e d r rve O n which Pope p X "V Sed to * k f. a dail^ ' tu ™-' The present Pope devotes some of his few spare moments to walks under the shade of the trees in the Vatican Gardens. ST. JOHN LATERAN 'S. The Vatican is the Pope's residence; the Sixtine Chapel may be called his private chapel (although it has been used for many great functions) ; St.- Peter's on account of its immense, size and its- nearness to c\ \f^can (with which it forms one continuous-block ol buildings), is the papal church for great and strikingceremonial; but the Pope's Cathedral—' the mother and mistress of all the churches of Rome and of the world ' —is St. John Lateran's. Ever since the iniquitous invasion and capture of Rome by the Piedmontese in 1870— in the teeth of the law of nations— the Pope has not been able to visit the Lateran or to assist at functions there. He is, however, represented at St. John Lateran s by his Cardinal -Vicar, who may be called

the Pope's Vicar-General for the diocese of Rome. And it is in St. John Lateran's that the ordinations take place at the several appropriate seasons of the _.y ear, when great numbers of students from alLthe ecclesiastical colleges and- the religious, houses in the Eternal City are admitted to the minor or the major Orders. The, site of Lateran has been connected with tro Church since Ihe days of the Emperor Constantine. His wife, Fausta, was the owner of ths houses .there that she received from the family of Plautius Lateranus (hence the name Lateran) ; aid the Emperor bui'c thereon a Basilica for the worship of the true God to whom he had been converted from paganism. It is also believed that Constantine gave to Pope St. Sylvester, as his residence, the building known as the domus Faustce, or house of Fausta. The Popes' lived at the Lateran for about a thousand years, until (as already stated) they left Rome and resided for a time at Avignon, in France. There is no detailed description extant of the original form of the Lateran Basilica as it was built by Constantine. It was known as Constantine's Basilica, likewise as the Basilica Aurea (or Golden Basilica) on account of the rich adornments of gold with which it was bedecked. The majestic facade of the church (of which we publish an engraving) was erected by order of Pope Clement XII. The interior consists of a great nave and four large aisles, with a beautiful" mosaic floor (opus Alexandrinum). Fine marble statues of the twelve Apostles fill niches in the pilasters of the nave. The Basilica is also enriched with exquisite chapels to right and left, and with, sumptuous paintings and sculptures. Important renovations and additions to the Basilica were carried out by the architect Vespignani, under the direction of the late Pope, Leo XIII. One of the trophies of the Basilica is the banner which was captured from the Turks by Mark Antony Colonna at the naval battle of Lepanto, which broke for ever the power and the conquests of the Turks in central and western Europe.

Five Councils of the Church were held within the walls of St. John Lateran's— Hun 1123, 1139, 1179, 1215, and 1 512. At the right, near the. sanctuary of the Basilica, is the beautiful circular Baptistery — called the Baptistery of Constantine, because it is said that the first Christian Emperor of Rome was baptised there. It was already well known in ■ the fifth century ; and in the ninth century — over a thousand years ago — it had, the same" shape and the same tall and handsome columns that it possesses at the present day. On each Holy Saturday it is the custom to baptise, in the vast and ancient font of basalt, Jews and converts from other faiths. The writer of these lines assisted several times at these- ceremonies. • Attached to the Basilica is the fine old Palace of the Lateran, part of which may be seen in one engraving. This Palace, together with the Vatican, the Palace of the Chancery, and the country seat of Castel Gandolfo, are all- that are now left to the Pope out of the old Papal States of which he was robbed by the Piedmontese in 1870. The places mentioned above enjoy, under the so-called Law of the Papal Guarantees, extra-territorial rights. The Lateran Palace was formerly more extensive than it is now. ■. It was destroyed by fire in 1308 and rebuilt in 1586. . Pope Innocent XII. (1693) established an orphanage within its walls, and Pope Gregory XVI., in 1843, founded within it two important museums (one of Christian, and the other of secular, archaeology), and fine collections of paintings, which were further enriched by Pius IX., Leo XIII., and Pius X. The present Holy Father it was who completed the restoration of the massive carved and decorated wooden ceiling, which a few years ago threatened to collapse. The work was commenced during the Pontificate of Leo XIII., and the funds were supplied, in response to an appeal, by the Third Order of St. Francis throughout the world. The work was brought to a successful termination early in the present year.