"It was said that the superior of the house took, and showed, to the Holy Father, an autograph memorial of the founder St. Philip Neri to the pope of his day, petitioning that his church should never be a parish. And below it was written that pope's promise, also in his own hand, that it never should. This pope was St. Pius V. Leo bowed to such authorities, said that he could not contend against two saints, and altered his plans."--_Wiseman's Life of Leo XII._

"S. Filippo Neri was good-humoured, witty, strict in essentials, indulgent in trifles. He never commanded; he advised, or perhaps requested: he did not discourse, he conversed: and he possessed, in a remarkable degree, the acuteness necessary to distinguish the peculiar merit of every character."--_Ranke._

"S. Filippo Neri laid the foundation of the Congregation of Oratorians in 1551. Several priests and young ecclesiastics associating themselves with him, began to assist him in his conferences, and in reading prayers and meditations to the people in the Church of the Holy Trinity. They were called Oratorians, because at certain hours every morning and afternoon, by ringing a bell, they called the people to the church to prayers and meditations. In 1564, when the saint had formed his congregation into a regular community, he preferred several of his young ecclesiastics to holy orders; one of whom was the eminent Caesar Baronius, whom, for his sanctity, Benedict XIV., by a decree dated on the 12th of January, 1745, honoured with the title of 'Venerable Servant of God.' At the same time he formed his disciples into a community, using one common purse and table, and he gave them rules and statutes. He forbade any of them to bind themselves to this state by vow or oath, that all might live together joined only by the bands of fervour and holy charity; labouring with all their strength to establish the kingdom of Christ in themselves by the most perfect sanctification of their own souls, and to propagate the same in the souls of others, by preaching, instructing the ignorant, and teaching the Christian doctrine."--_Alban Butler._

"S. Filippo Neri exacted from his scholars and associates various undignified outward acts. He required from a young Roman prince, who wished to enjoy the distinction of being a member of his Order, that he should walk through Rome with a fox's tail fastened on behind: and when the prince declined to submit to this, he was declined admission to the Order. Another was made to go through the city without a coat; and another, with torn and tattered sleeves. A nobleman took compassion on the last, and offered him a new pair of sleeves: the youth declined, but afterwards, by command of the master, was obliged gratefully to fetch and wear them. During the building of the new church, he compelled his disciples to bring up the materials like day labourers, and to lay their hands to the work."--_Goethe, Romische Briefe._

It was in the piazza in front of this church that (during the reign of Clement XIV.) a beautiful boy was wont to improvise wonderful verses to the admiration of the crowds who surrounded him. This boy was named Trapassi, and was the son of a grocer in the neighbourhood. The Arcadian Academy changed his name into Greek, and called him "Metastasio."

From the corner of the piazza in front of the Chiesa Nuova, the Via Calabraga leads into the Via Monserrato, which it enters between Sta.

Lucia del Gonfalone on the right, and S. Stefano in Piscinula on the left;--then, passing on the right S. Giacomo in Aino--behind which, and the Palazzo Ricci, is Santo Spirito dei Napolitani, a much frequented and popular little church--we reach _Sta. Maria di Monserrato_, built by Sangallo, in 1495, where St. Ignatius Loyola was wont to preach and catechise.

Here, behind the altar, under a stone unmarked by any epitaph, repose at last the remains of Pope Alexander VI., Rodrigo Borgia (1492--1503),--the infamous father of the beautiful and wicked Caesar and Lucretia Borgia, who is believed to have died from accidentally drinking in a vineyard-banquet the poison which he had prepared for one of his own cardinals. When exhumed and turned out of the pontifical vaults of St Peter's by Julius II., he found a refuge here in his national church.

The bones of his uncle Calixtus III., Alfonso Borgia (1455--58), rest in the same grave.

A little further, on the left, is the _Church of S. Tommaso degli Inglesi_, rebuilt 1870, on the site of a church founded by Offa, king of the East Saxons in 775, but destroyed by fire in 817. It was rebuilt, and was dedicated by Alexander III. (1159) to St. Thomas a Becket, who had lodged in the adjoining hospital when he was in Rome. Gregory XIII., in 1575, united the hospital which existed here with one for English sailors on the Ripa Grande, dedicated to St. Edmund the Martyr, and converted them into a college for English missionaries.

"Nothing like a hospice for English pilgrims existed till the first great Jubilee, when John Shepherd and his wife Alice, seeing this want, settled in Rome, and devoted their substance to the support of poor palmers from their own country. This small beginning grew into sufficient importance for it to become a royal charity; the King of England became its patron, and named its rector, often a person of high consideration. Among the fragments of old monuments scattered about the house by the revolution, and now collected and arranged in a corridor of the college, is a shield surmounted by a crown, and carved with the ancient arms of England, lions or lionceaux, and fleur-de-lis, quarterly. This used formerly to be outside the house, and under it was inscribed:

'Haec conjuncta duo, Successus debita legi, Anglia dant, regi Francia signa suo.

Laurentius Chance me fecit M.CCC.XII.'"

_Cardinal Wiseman._

In the hall of the college are preserved portraits of Roman Catholics who suffered for their faith in England under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth.

The small cloister has a beautiful tomb of Christopher Bainbrigg, archbishop of York, British envoy to Julius II., who died at Rome 1514, and a monument of Sir Thomas Dereham, ob. 1739. Against the wall is the monument of Martha Swinburne, a prodigy of nine years old, inscribed:

"Memoriae Marthae, Henrici et Marthae Swinburne. Nat. Angliae. ex.

Antiqua. et. Nobili. Familia. Caphaeton. Northumbriae. Parentes.

Mstiss. Filiae. Carissimae. Pr. Quae. Ingenio. Excellenti. Forma.

Eximia. Incredibili. Doctrina. Moribus. Suavissimis. Vix. Ann.

viii. Men. xi. Tantum. Praerepta. Romae. v. ID. SEPT. AN. MDCCLXVIII.

"Martha Swinburne, born Oct. X. MDCCLVIII. Died Sept. VIII.

MDCCLXVII. Her years were few, but her life was long and full. She spoke English, French, and Italian, and had made some progress in the Latin tongue; knew the English and Roman histories, arithmetic, and geography; sang the most difficult music at sight with one of the finest voices in the world, was a great proficient on the harpsichord, wrote well, and danced many sorts of dances with strength and elegance. Her face was beautiful and majestic, her body a perfect model, and all her motions graceful. Her docility in doing everything to make her parents happy, could only be equalled by her sense and aptitude. With so many perfections, amidst the praises of all persons, from the sovereign down to the beggar in the street, her heart was incapable of vanity; affectation and arrogance were unknown to her. Her beauty and accomplishments made her the admiration of all beholders, the love of all that enjoyed her company. Think, then, what the pangs of her wretched parents must be on so cruel a separation. Their only comfort is in the certitude of her being completely happy beyond the reach of pain, and for ever freed from the miseries of this life. She can never feel the torments they endure for the loss of a beloved child.

Blame them not for indulging an innocent pride in transmitting her memory to posterity as an honour to her family and to her native country England. Let this plain character, penned by her disconsolate father, draw a tear of pity from every eye that peruses it."

The arm of St. Thomas a Becket is the chief "relic" preserved here.

At the end of the street are two exceedingly ugly little churches--very interesting from their associations. On the right is _St. Girolamo della Carita_, founded on the site of the house of Sta. Paula, where she received St Jerome upon his being called to Rome from the Thebaid by Pope Damasus in 392. Here he remained for three years, till, embittered by the scandal excited by his residence in the house of the widow, he returned to his solitude.

In 1519 S. Filippo Neri founded here a _Confraternity_ for the distribution of dowries to poor girls, for the assistance of debtors, and for the maintenance of fourteen priests for the visitation and confession of the sick.

"Lorsque St. Philippe de Neri fut pretre, il alla se loger a Saint-Jerome _della Carita_, ou il demeura trente-cinq ans, dans la societe des pieux ecclesiastiques qui administraient les sacrements dans cette paroisse. Chaque soir, Philippe ouvrait, dans sa chambre qui existe encore, des conferences sur tous les points du dogme catholique; les jeunes gens affluaient a ces saintes reunions: on y voyait Baronius; Bordini, qui fut archeveque; Salviati, frere du cardinal; Tarugia, neveu du pape Jules III. Un desir ardent d'exercer ensemble le ministere de la predication et les devoirs de la charite porta ces pieux jeunes gens a vivre en commun, sous la discipline du vertueux pretre, dont le parole etait si puissante sur leurs curs."--_Gournerie._

The masterpiece of Domenichino, the Last Communion of St. Jerome, in which Sta. Paula is introduced kissing the hand of the dying saint, hung in this church till carried off to Paris by the French.

Opposite this is the _Church of Sta. Brigitta_, on the site of the dwelling of the saint, a daughter of the house of Brahe, and wife of Walfon, duke of Nericia, who came hither in her widowhood, to pass her declining years near the Tomb of the Apostles. With her, lived her daughter St. Catherine of Sweden, who was so excessively beautiful, and met with so many importunities in that wild time (1350), that she made a vow never to leave her own roof except to visit the churches. The crucifix, prayer-book, and black mantle of St. Bridget are preserved here.[302]

"St. Bridget exercised a reformatory influence as well upon the higher class of the priesthood in Rome as in Naples. For she did not alone satisfy herself with praying at the graves of the martyrs, she earnestly exhorted bishops and cardinals, nay, even the pope himself, to a life of the true worship of God and of good works, from which they had almost universally fallen, to devote themselves to worldly ambition. She awoke the consciences of many, as well by her prayers and remonstrances, as by her example. For she herself, of a rich and noble race, that of a Brahe, one of the nobles in Sweden, yet lived here in Rome, and laboured like a truly humble servant of Christ. 'We must walk barefoot over pride, if we would overcome it,' said she, and Brigitta Brahe did so; and, in so doing, overcame those proud hearts, and won them to God."--_Frederika Bremer._

We now reach the _Palazzo Farnese_,--the most magnificent of all the Roman palaces,--begun by Paul III., Alessandro Farnese (1534--50), and finished by his nephew, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Its architects were Antonio di Sangallo, Michael Angelo, and Giacomo della Porta, who finished the facade towards the Tiber. The materials were plundered partly from the Coliseum and partly from the theatre of Marcellus; the granite basons of the fountains in front are from the baths of Caracalla. The immense size of the blocks of travertine used in the building give it a solid grandeur.

This palace was inherited by the Bourbon kings of Naples by descent from Elizabetta Farnese, who was the last of her line, and it has for the last few years been the residence of the Neapolitan Court, who have lived here in the utmost seclusion since their exile. For this reason the palace is now very seldom shown. Its vast halls are painted with the masterpieces of Annibale Caracci--huge mythological subjects,--and a few frescoes by Guido, Domenichino, Daniele da Volterra, Taddeo Zucchero, and others; but there has not been much to see since the dispersion of the Farnese gallery of sculpture, of which the best pieces (the Bull, Hercules, Flora, &c.) are in the museum at Naples. In the courtyard is the sarcophagus which is said once to have held the remains of Cecilia Metella.

"The painting the gallery at the Farnese Palace is supposed to have partly caused the death of Caracci. Without fixing any price he set about it, and employed both himself and all his best pupils nearly seven years in perfecting the work, never doubting that the Farnese family, who had employed him, would settle a pension upon him, or keep him in their service. When his work was finished they paid him as you would pay a house-painter, and this ill-usage so deeply affected him, that he took to drinking, and never painted anything great afterwards."--_Miss Berry's Journals._

Behind the Palazzo Farnese runs the _Via Giulia_, which contains the ugly fountain of the Mascherone. Close to the arch which leads to the Farnese gardens is the church of _Sta. Maria della Morte_, or _Dell'

Orazione_, built by Fuga. It is in the hands of a pious confraternity who devote themselves to the burial of the dead.

"L'eglise de la _Bonne-Mort_ a son caveau, decore dans le style funebre comme le couvent des Capucins. On y conserve aussi elegamment que possible les os des noyes, asphyxies et autres victimes des accidents. La confrerie de la _Bonne-Mort_ va chercher les cadavres; un sacristain assez adroit les desseche et les dispose en ornements. J'ai cause quelque temps avec cet artiste: 'Monsieur,' me disait-il, 'je ne suis heureux qu'ici, au milieu de mon uvre. Ce n'est pas pour les quelques ecus que je gagne tous les jours en montrant la chapelle aux etrangers; non; mais ce monument que j'entretiens, que j'embellie, que j'egaye par mon talent, est devenu l'orgueil et la joie de ma vie.' Il me montra ses materiaux, c'est-a-dire quelques poignees d'ossements jetes en tas dans un coin, fit l'eloge de la pouzzolane, et temoigna de son mepris pour la chaux. 'La chaux brule les os,' me dit-il, 'elle les fait tomber en poussiere. On ne peut faire rien de bon avec les os qui ont ete dans la chaux. C'est de la drogue (_robbaccia_).'"--_About._

Beyond the arch is the _Palazzo Falconieri_ (with falcons at the corners), built by Borromini about 1650. There is something rather handsome in its tall three-arched loggia, as seen from the back of the courtyard, which overhangs the Tiber opposite the Farnesina. Cardinal Fesch (uncle of Napoleon I.) lived here, and here formed his fine gallery of pictures.

"The whole of Cardinal Fesch's collection was dispersed at his death, having been vainly offered by him, during the last years of his life, for sale to the English government, for an annuity of 4000_l._ per annum."--_Eaton's Rome._

Further on are the _Carceri Nuove_, prisons established by Innocent X.

(appropriately reached by the Via del Malpasso), and then the _Palazzo Sacchetti_, built by Antonio da Sangallo for his own residence, and adorned by him with the arms of his patron, Paul III., and the grateful inscription, "Tu mihi quodcumque hoc rerum est." The collection of statues which was formed here by Cardinal Ricci, was removed to the Capitol by Benedict XIV., and became the foundation of the present Capitoline collection.

In front of the Palazzo Farnese, beyond its own piazza, is that known as the _Campo di Fiore_, a centre of commerce among the working classes.

Here the most terrible of the Autos da Fe were held by the Dominicans, in which many Jews and other heretics were burnt alive.

One of the most remarkable sufferers here was Giordano Bruno, who was born at Nola, A.D. 1550. His chief heresy was ardent advocacy of the Copernican system,--the author of which had died ten years before his birth. He was also strongly opposed to the philosophy of Aristotle, and gave great offence by setting forth views of his own, which strongly tended to pantheism. He visited Paris, England, and Germany, and everywhere excited hostility by the uncompromising expression of his opinions. It was at Venice that he first came into the power of his ecclesiastical enemies. After six years of imprisonment in that city, he was brought to Rome to be put to death. His execution took place in the Campo di Fiore on the 17th of February, 1600, in the presence of an immense concourse. It was noted that when the monks offered him the crucifix as he was led to the stake, he turned away and refused to kiss it. This put the finishing touch to his career, in the estimation of all beholders.

Scioppus, the Latinist, who was present at the execution, with a sarcastic allusion to one of Bruno's heresies, the infinity of worlds, wrote, "The flames carried him to those worlds which he had imagined."[303]

On the left of this piazza is the gigantic _Palace of the Cancelleria_, begun by Cardinal Mezzarota, and finished in 1494 by Cardinal Riario, from designs of Bramante. The huge blocks of travertine of which it is built were taken from the Coliseum. The colonnades have forty-four granite pillars, said to have belonged to the theatre of Pompey. The roses with which their (added) capitals are adorned are in reference to the arms of Cardinal Riario, nephew of Sixtus IV.

This palace was the seat of the Tribunal of the Cancelleria Apostolica.

In June, 1848, the Roman Parliament, summoned by Pius IX., was held here. In July, while the deputies were seated here, the mob burst into the council-chamber, and demanded the instant declaration of war against Austria. On the 16th of November, its staircase was the scene of the murder of Count Rossi.

"C'etait le 16 Novembre, 1848, le ministre de Pie IX., voue des longtemps a la mort, dont la presse seditieuse disait: 'Si la victime condamnee parvient a s'echapper, elle sera poursuivie sans relache, en tout lieu, le coupable sera frappe par une main invisible, se fut-il refugie sur le sein de sa mere ou dans le tabernacle du Christ.'

"Dans la nuit du 14 au 15 Novembre, de jeunes etudiants, reunis dans cette pensee, s'exercent sans fremir sur un cadavre apporte a prix d'or au theatre Capranica, et quand leurs mains infames furent devenues assez sures pour le crime, quand ils sont certains d'atteindre au premier coup la veine jugulaire, chacun se rend a son poste--'Gardez-vous d'aller au Palais Legislatif, la mort vous y attend,' fait dire au ministre une Francaise alors a Rome, Madame la Comtesse de Menon: 'Ne sortez pas, ou vous serez assassine!' lui ecrit de son cote la Duchesse de Rignano. Mais l'intrepide Rossi, n'ecoutant que sa conscience, arrive au Quirinal. A son tour le pape le conjure d'etre prudent, de ne point s'exposer, afin, lui dit-il, 'd'eviter a nos ennemis un grand crime, et a moi une immense douleur.'--'Ils sont trop laches, ils n'oseront pas.' Pie IX. le benit et il continue de se diriger vers la chancellerie....

" ... Sa voiture s'arrete, il descend au milieu d'hommes sinistres, leur lance un regard de dedain, et continuant sans crainte ni peur, il commence a mouter; la foule le presse en sifflant, l'un le frappe sur l'epaule gauche, d'un mouvement instinctif, il retourne la tete, decouvrant la veine fatale, il tombe, se releve, monte quelques marches, et retombe inonde de sang."--_M. de Bellevue._

Entered from the courtyard of the palace is the _Church of SS. Lorenzo e Damaso_, removed by Cardinal Riario in 1495, from another site, where it had been founded in 560 by the sainted pope Damasus. It consists of a short nave and aisles, and is almost square, with an apse and chapels.

The doors are by Vignola. At the end of the left aisle is a curious black virgin, much revered. Opening from the right aisle is the chapel of the Massimi, with several tombs; a good modern monument of Princess Gabrielli, &c. Against the last pilaster is a seated statue of S.

Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto, taken from that at the Lateran. His relics are preserved here, with those of S. Giovanni Calabita, and many other saints. The tomb of Count Rossi is also here, inscribed "Optimam mihi causam tuendam assumpsi, miserebitur Deus." The story of his death is told in the words: "Impiorum consilio meditata caede occubuit." He was embalmed and buried on the very night of his murder, for fear of further outrage. St Francis Xavier used to preach in this church in the sixteenth century.

Standing a little back from the street, in the Via de' Baullari, is a pretty little palace, carefully finished in all its details, and attributed to Baldassare Peruzzi. It is sometimes called _Palazzetto Farnese_, sometimes _Palazzo Linote_, and is now almost in a state of ruin.

Turning to the left, in front of the Palazzo Farnese, we reach the Piazza Capo di Ferro, one side of which is occupied by the _Palazzo Spada alla Regola_, built in 1564, by Cardinal Capodifero, but afterwards altered and adorned by Borromini. The courtyard is very rich in sculptured ornament The palace is always visible, but has a rude and extortionate porter.

In a picturesque and dimly-lighted hall on the first-floor, partially hung with faded tapestries, is the famous statue believed to be that of Pompey, at the foot of which Julius Caesar fell. Suetonius narrates that it was removed by Augustus from the Curia, and placed upon a marble Janus in front of the basilica. Exactly on that spot was the existing statue found, lying under the partition-wall of two houses, whose proprietors intended to evade disputes by dividing it, when Cardinal Capodifero interfered, and in return received it as a gift from Pope Julius III., who bought it for 500 gold crowns.

"And them, dread statue! yet existent in The austerest form of naked majesty,-- Thou who beheldest 'mid the assassins' din, At thy bathed base the bloody Caesar lie, Folding his robe in dying dignity, An offering to thine altar from the queen Of gods and men, great Nemesis! did he die, And thou, too, perish, Pompey? have ye been Victors of countless kings, or puppets of a scene?"