"Hippolyte Aldobrandini, qui prit le nom de Clement VIII., etait le cinquieme fils du celebre jurisconsulte Silvestro Aldobrandini, qui, apres avoir professe a Pise et joui d'une haute autorite a Florence, avait ete condamne a l'exil par le retour au pouvoir des Medicis ses ennemis. La vie de Silvestre devint alors penible et calamiteuse. Depouille de ses biens, il fut, du moins, toujours ennoblir son malheur par la dignite de son caractere. Sa famille presentait un rare assemblage de douces vertus et de jeunes talents qu'une forte education developpait chaque jour avec puissance.

Appele a Rome par Paul III., qui le nomma avocat consistorial, Silvester s'y transporta avec son epouse, la pieuse Leta Deti, qui, pendant trente-sept ans, fut pour lui comme son bon ange, et avec tous ses enfants, Jean, qui devait etre un jour cardinal; Bernard, qui devint un vaillant guerrier; Thomas, qui preparait deja peut-etre sa traduction de Diogene-Laerce; Pierre, qui voulut etre jurisconsulte comme son pere; et le jeune Hippolyte, un enfant alors, dont les saillies inquietaient le vieillard, car il ne savait comment pourvoir a son education et utiliser cette vivacite de genie qui deja brillait dans son regard. Hippolyte fut eleve aux frais du cardinal Farnese; puis, tous les emplois, toutes les dignites vinrent successivement au-devant de lui, sans qu'il les cherchat autrement qu'en s'en rendant digne."--_Gournerie, Rome Chretienne_, ii. 238.

The sixth chapel contains two fine cinque-cento tombs; on the left, Benedetto Superanzio, bishop of Nicosa, ob. 1495; on the right, a Spanish bishop, Giovanni da Coca, with frescoes. Close to the former tomb, on the floor, is the grave of (archdeacon) Robert Wilberforce, who died at Albano in 1857.

Here we enter the right transept. On the right is a small dark chapel containing a fine Crucifix, attributed to Giotto. The central, or Caraffa Chapel, is dedicated to St. Thomas Aquinas, and is covered with well-preserved frescoes. On the right, St. Thomas Aquinas is represented surrounded by allegorical figures, by _Filippino Lippi_. Over the altar is a beautiful Annunciation, in which a portrait of the donor, Cardinal Olivieri Caraffa, is introduced. Above is the Assumption of the Virgin.

On the ceiling are the four Sibyls, by _Raffaelino del Garbo_.

Against the left wall is the tomb of Paul IV., Gio. Pietro Caraffa (1555--59), the great supporter of the Inquisition, the patron of the Jesuits, the persecutor of the Jews (whom he shut up with walls in the Ghetto),--a pope so terrible to look upon, that even Alva, who feared no man, trembled at his awful aspect Such he is represented upon his tomb, with deeply-sunken eyes and strongly-marked features, with one hand raised in blessing--or cursing, and the keys of St. Peter in the other.

The tomb was designed by Pirro Ligorio; the statue is the work of Giacomo and Tommaso Casignuola, and being made in marble of different pieces and colours, is cited by Vasari as an instance of a sculptor's ingenuity in imitating painting with his materials. The epitaph runs:

"To Jesus Christ, the hope and the life of the faithful; to Paul IV. Caraffa, sovereign pontiff, distinguished amongst all by his eloquence, his learning, and his wisdom; illustrious by his innocence, by his liberality, and by his greatness of soul; to the most ardent champion of the catholic faith, Pius V., sovereign pontiff, has raised this monument of his gratitude and of his piety. He lived eighty-three years, one month, and twenty days, and died the 14th August, 1559, the fifth year of his pontificate."[312]

On the transept wall, just outside this chapel, is the beautiful gothic tomb of Guillaume Durandus, bishop of Mende,[313] with a recumbent figure guarded by two angels, the background being occupied by a mosaic of the Virgin and Child, by _Giovanni Cosmati_.

The first chapel on a line with the choir--the burial-place of the Altieri family--has an altar-piece, by _Carlo Maratta_, representing five saints canonized by Clement X., presented to the Virgin by St.

Peter. On the floor is the incised monument of a bishop of Sutri.

The second chapel--which contains a fine cinque-cento tomb--is that of the Rosary. Its ceiling, representing the Mysteries of the Rosary, is by _Marcello Venusti_; the history of St. Catherine of Siena is by _Giovanni de' Vecchi_; the large and beautiful Madonna with the Child over the altar is attributed to _Fra Angelico_. Here is the tomb of Cardinal Capranica of 1470.

Beneath the high altar, with lamps always burning before it, is a marble sarcophagus with a beautiful figure, enclosing the body of St.

Catherine of Siena. In it her relics were deposited in 1461, by Antoninus, archbishop of Florence. On the last pillar to the right is an inscription stating that, "all the indulgences and privileges in every church, of all the religious orders, mendicant or not mendicant, in every part of the world, are granted especially to this church, where is the body of St. Catherine of Siena."

"St. Catherine was one of twenty-five children born in wedlock to Jacopo and Lupa Benincasa, citizens of Siena. Her father exercised the trade of dyer and fuller. In the year of her birth, 1347, Siena reached the climax of its power and splendour. It was then that the plague of Bocaccio began to rage, which swept off 80,000 citizens, and interrupted the building of the great Duomo. In the midst of so large a family and during these troubled times, Catherine grew almost unnoticed, but it was not long before she manifested her peculiar disposition. At six years old she already saw visions and longed for a monastic life: about the same time she used to collect her childish companions together and preach to them. As she grew her wishes became stronger; she refused the proposals which her parents made that she should marry, and so vexed them by her obstinacy that they imposed on her the most servile duties in their household. These she patiently fulfilled, at the same time pursuing her own vocation with unwearied ardour. She scarcely slept at all, and ate no food but vegetables and a little bread, scourged herself, wore sackcloth, and became emaciated, weak, and half delirious. At length the firmness of her character and the force of her hallucination won the day. Her parents consented to her assuming the Dominican robe, and at the age of thirteen she entered the monastic life. From this moment till her death we see in her the ecstatic, the philanthropist, and the politician combined to a remarkable degree. For three whole years she never left her cell except to go to church, maintaining an almost unbroken silence.

Yet, when she returned to the world, convinced at length of having won by prayer and pain the favour of her Lord, it was to preach to infuriated mobs, to toil among men dying of the plague, to execute diplomatic negotiations, to harangue the republic of Florence, to correspond with queens, and to interpose between kings and popes.

In the midst of this varied and distracting career she continued to see visions, and to fast and scourge herself. The domestic virtues and the personal wants and wishes of a woman were annihilated in her; she lived for the Church, for the poor, and for Christ, whom she imagined to be constantly supporting her. At length she died (at Rome, on the 29th of April, 1380, in her 33rd year) worn out by inward conflicts, by the tension of a half-delirious ecstasy, by want of food and sleep, and by the excitement of political life."--_Cornhill Mag._ Sept. 1866.

On the right of the high altar is a statue of St. John, by _Obicci_,--on the left is the famous statue of Christ, by _Michael Angelo_. This is one of the sculptures which Francis I. tried hard to obtain for Paris.

Its effect is marred by the bronze drapery.

Behind, in the choir, are the tombs of two Medici popes. On the left is Leo X., Giovanni de Medici (1513--21). This great pope, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was destined to the papacy from his cradle. He was ordained at seven years old, was made a cardinal at seventeen, and pope at thirty-eight, and at the installation procession to the Lateran, rode upon the same white horse, upon which he had fought and had been taken prisoner at the battle of Ravenna. His reign was one of fetes and pleasures. He was the great patron of artists and poets, and Raphael and Ariosto rose into eminence under his protection. His tomb is from a design of Antonio di Sangallo, but the figure of the pope is by Raffaello da Montelupo.

Near the foot of Leo X.'s tomb is the flat monumental stone of Cardinal Bembo, his friend, and the friend of Raphael, who died 1547. His epitaph has been changed. The original inscription, half-pagan, half-Christian, ran:

"Hic Bembus jacet Aonidum laus maxima Phbi Cum sole, et luna vix periturus honos.

Hic et fama jacet, spes, et suprema galeri Quam non ulla queat restituisse dies.

Hic jacet exemplar vitae omni fraude carentis, Summa jacet, summa hic cum pietate fides."

On the right of the choir is the tomb, by Sangallo, of Clement VII., Giulio de Medici (1523--34), son of the Giulio who fell in the conspiracy of the Pazzi,--who in his unhappy reign saw the sack of Rome (1527) under the Constable de Bourbon, and the beginning of the separation from England under Henry VIII. The figure of the pope is by _Baccio Bandinelli_. Among other graves here is that of the English Cardinal Howard, ob. 1694. Just beyond the choir is a passage leading to a door into the Via S. Ignazio. Immediately on the left is the slab tomb of Fra Angelico da Fiesole. It is inscribed:

"Hic jacet Vene Pictor Fl. Jo. de Florentia Ordinis praedicatorum, 1404.

"Non mihi sit laudi quod eram velut alter Apelles, Sed quod lucra tuis omnia, Christe, dabam.

Altera nam terris opera exstant, altero clo.

Urbs me Johannem flos tulit Etruriae."[314]

"Fra Angelico was simple and most holy in his manners,--and let this serve for a token of his simplicity, that Pope Nicholas one morning offering him refreshment, he scrupled to eat flesh without the licence of his superior, forgetful for the moment of the dispensing authority of the pontiff. He shunned altogether the commerce of the world, and living in holiness and in purity, was as loving towards the poor on earth as I think his soul must be now in heaven. He worked incessantly at his art, nor would he ever paint other than sacred subjects. He might have been rich, but cared not to be so, saying that true riches consisted rather in being content with little. He might have ruled over many, but willed it not, saying there was less trouble and hazard of sin in obeying others.

Dignity and authority were within his grasp, but he disregarded them, affirming that he sought no other advancement than to escape hell and draw nigh to Paradise. He was most meek and temperate, and by a chaste life loosened himself from the snares of the world, ofttimes saying that the student of painting hath need of quiet and to live without anxiety, and that the dealers in the things of Christ ought to live habitually with Christ. Never was he seen in anger with the brethren, which appears to me a thing most marvellous, and all but incredible; his admonitions to his friends were simple and always softened by a smile. Whoever sought to employ him, he answered with the utmost courtesy, that he would do his part willingly so the prior were content.--In sum, this never sufficiently to be lauded father was most humble and modest in all his words and deeds, and in his paintings graceful and devout; and the saints which he painted have more of the air and aspect of saints than those of any other artist. He was wont never to retouch or amend any of his paintings, but left them always as they had come from his hand at first, believing, as he said, that such was the will of God. Some say that he never took up his pencil without previous prayer. He never painted a crucifix without tears bathing his cheeks; and throughout his works, in the countenance and attitude of all his figures, the correspondent impress of his sincere and exalted appreciation of the Christian religion is recognisable. Such was this verily Angelic father, who spent the whole time of his life in the service of God and in doing good to the world and to his neighbour. And truly a gift like his could not descend on any but a man of most saintly life, for a painter must be holy himself before he can depict holiness."--_Lord Lindsay, from Vasari._

In the same passage are tombs of Cardinal Alessandrino, by Giacomo della Porta; of Cardinal Pimentel, by Bernini; and of Cardinal Bonelli, by Carlo Rainaldi.

Beyond this, in the left transept, is the Chapel of S. Domenico, with eight black columns, appropriate to the colour of the Order, and an interesting picture of the saint. Here is the tomb of Benedict XIII., Vincenzo-Maria Orsini (1724--30), by Pietro Bracci. This pope, who had been a Dominican monk, laboured hard in his short reign for the reformation of the Church, and the morals of the clergy.

Over a door leading to the Sacristy are frescoes representing the election of Eugenius IV. in 1431, and of Nicholas V. in 1447, which both took place in this church. The altar of the sacristy has a Crucifixion, by Andrea Sacchi.

Returning down the left aisle, the second chapel, counting from this end, is that of the Lante family, which contains the fine tomb of the Duchess Lante, ob. 1840, by _Tenerani_, with the Angel of the Resurrection, a sublime upward-gazing figure seated upon the sarcophagus. Here is a picture of St. James, by _Baroccio_.

The third chapel is that of S. Vincenzo Ferreri, apostle of the Order of Preachers, with a miracle-working picture, by _Bernardo Castelli_. The fourth chapel--of the Grazioli family--has on the right a statue of St.

Sebastian, by _Mino da Fiesole_, and over the altar a lovely head of our Saviour, by _Perugino_. This chapel was purchased by the Grazioli from the old family of Maffei, of which there are some fine tombs. The fifth chapel--of the Patrizi family--contains the famous miraculous picture called "La Madonna Consolatrice degli afflitti," in honour of which Pope Gregory XVI. conceded so many indulgences, as we read by the inscription.

"La santita di N. S. Gregorio Papa XVI. con breve in data 17 Sept.

1836. Ho accordato l'indulgenzia plenaria a chiunque confessato e communicato visitera divotamente questa santa imagine della B.

Vergine sotto il titolo di consolatrice degli afflitti nella seconda dominica di Luglio e suo ottavo di ciascun anno: concede altresi la parziale indulgenza di 200 giorni in qualunque giorno dell' anno a chiunque almeno contrito visitera la detta S.

Immagine: le dette indulgenze poi sono pure applicabili alle benedette anime del purgatorio."

The last chapel, belonging to a Spanish nobleman, contains the picture of the Crucifixion, which is said to have conversed with Sta. Rosa di Lima.

Near the entrance is the tomb of Cardinal Giacomo Tebaldi, ob. 1466, and beneath it that of Francesco Tornabuoni, by _Mino da Fiesole_. It was for the tomb of the wife of this Tornabuoni, who died in childbirth, that the wonderful relief of Verocchio, now in the Uffizi at Florence, was executed. In the pavement is the gravestone of Paulus Manutius, the printer, son of the famous Aldus Manutius of Venice, with the inscription, "Paulo Manutio Aldi Filio. Obiit CI?I?LXXIV."

The great _Dominican Convent of the Minerva_, lately suppressed, was the residence of the General of the Order. It contains the _Bibliotheca Casanatensis_ (so called from its founder, Cardinal Casanata), the largest library in Rome after that of the Vatican, comprising 120,000 printed volumes and 4500 MSS. It is open from 8 to 11 A.M., and 1 to 3 P.M. This convent has always been connected with the history of the Inquisition. Here, on June 22, 1633, Galileo was tried before its tribunal for the "heresy" of saying that the earth went round the sun, instead of the sun round the earth, and was forced to recant upon his knees, this "accursed, heretical, and detestable doctrine." As he rose from his humiliation, he is said to have consoled himself by adding, in an undertone, "E pur si muove." When the "Palace of the Holy Office" was stormed by the mob in the revolution of 1848, it was feared that the Dominican convent would have been burnt down.

The very beautiful cloister of the convent, which has a vaulted roof richly painted in arabesques, contains grand fifteenth century tombs,--of Cardinal Tiraso, ob. 1502, and of Cardinal Astorgius, ob.

1503. S. Antonino, archbishop of Florence, who lived in the reigns of Eugenius IV. and Nicholas V., was prior of this convent.

From the Minerva, the _Via del Pie di Marmo_, so called from a gigantic marble foot which stands on one side of it, leads to the Corso.[315]

CHAPTER XV.

THE BORGO AND ST. PETER'S.

Via Tordinona--S. Salvatore in Lauro--House of Raphael--S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini--Bridge and Castle of S. Angelo--Sta. Maria Traspontina--Palazzo Giraud--Piazza Scossa-Cavalli--Hospital of Santo Spirito--Piazza and Obelisk of the Vatican--S. Peter's; its portico, tombs, crypts, dome, and sacristy--Churches of S. Stefano and Sta. Marta--Il Cimeterio dei Tedeschi--Palazzo del Santo-Uffizio--S. Salvatore in Torrione--S. Michaele in Sassia.

Continuing in a direct course from the Piazza Borghese, we pass through a series of narrow dirty streets quite devoid of interest, but bordering on one side upon the Tiber, of which--with its bridge, S. Angelo and St.

Peter's--beautiful views may be obtained from little courts and narrow strips of shore, at the back of the houses.

A short distance after passing (on left) the Locanda dell' Orso, where Montaigne used to stay when he was in Rome, and beneath which are some curious vaulted chambers of _c._ A.D. 1500, the street, which repeatedly changes its name, is called _Via Tordinona_, from the Tor di Nona, which once stood here, but was destroyed in 1690. It was used as a prison, as is shown by the verse of Regnier:

"Qu'un barisel vous mit dedans la tour de Nonne."

One of the narrow streets on the left of the Via Tordinona debouches into the Via dei Coronari, close to the _Church of S. Salvatore in Lauro_, built on the site of a laurel-grove, which flourished near the portico of Europa. It contains a picture of the Nativity, by _Pietro da Cortona_, and a modern work of _Gagliardi_, representing S. Emidio, S.

Nicolo da Tolentino, and S. Giacomo della Marina, the three protectors of Ancona. In a side chapel, opening out of the cloisters, is the rich tomb of Pope Eugenius IV. (Gabriele Condolmieri, ob. 1439), with his recumbent figure by Isaia da Pisa. Francesco Salviati painted a portrait of this pope for the adjoining convent, to which he had belonged, as well as a fine fresco of the Marriage of Cana.[316]

(There are several other fine monuments in the same chapel with the tomb, which in 1867 was given up as a barrack to the Flemish zouaves, at the great risk of injury to its delicate carvings.)

Passing the _Apollo Theatre_, the Via Tordinona emerges upon the quay of the Tiber, opposite S. Angelo. Hence several streets diverge into the heart of the city.