Facing this palace is the _Piazza Scossa Cavalli_, with a pretty fountain. Its name bears witness to a curious legend, which tells how when St. Helena returned from Palestine, bringing with her the stone on which Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, and that on which the Virgin Mary sate down at the time of the presentation of the Saviour in the Temple, the horses drawing these precious relics stood still at this spot, and refused every effort to make them move. Then Christian people, "recognising the finger of God," erected a church on this spot (S.

Giacomo Scossa Cavalli), where the stones are still to be seen.

The Strada del Borgo Sto. Spirito contains the immense _Hospital of Santo Spirito_, running along the bank of the Tiber. This establishment was founded in 1198 by Innocent III. Sixtus IV., in 1471, ordered it to be rebuilt by Bacio Pintelli, who added a hall 376 feet long by 44 high and 37 wide. Under Benedict XIV., Ferdinando Fuga built another great hall. The altar in the midst of the great hall is the only work of Andrea Palladio in Rome. The church was designed by Bacio Pintelli, but built by Antonio di San Gallo under Paul III. Under Gregory XIII., Ottaviano Mascherino built the palace of the governor, which unites the hospital with the church.

The institution comprises a hospital for every kind of disease, containing in ordinary times 1620 beds, a number which can be almost doubled in time of necessity; a lunatic asylum containing an average of 450 inmates; and a foundling hospital, where children are received from all parts of the papal states, and even from the Neapolitan towns.

Upwards of 3000 foundlings pass through the hospital annually, but the mortality is very great,--in the return of 1846, as much as fifty-seven per cent. The person who wishes to deposit an infant rings a bell, when a little bed is turned towards the grille near the door, in which the baby is deposited. Close to this is another grille, without any apparent use. "What is that for?" you ask. "Because, when nurses come in from the country, they might be tempted to take the children for money, and yet not feel any natural tenderness towards them, but by looking through the second grille, they can see the child, and discover if it is _simpatico_, and if not, they can go away and leave it."

At the end of the street one enters the Piazza Rusticucci (where Raphael died), from which open the magnificent colonnades of Bernini, which lead the eye up to the facade of St. Peter's, while the middle distance is broken by the silvery spray of its glittering fountains.

The _Colonnades_ have 284 columns, are sixty-one feet wide, and sixty-four high; they enclose an area of 777 English feet; they were built by Bernini for Alexander VII., 1657-67. In the centre is the famous red granite _Obelisk of the Vatican_, brought to Rome from Heliopolis by Caligula, in a ship which Pliny describes as being "nearly as long as the left side of the port of Ostia." It was used to adorn the circus of Nero, and was brought from a position near the present sacristy of St. Peter's by Sixtus V. in 1586. Here it was elevated by Domenico Fontana, who estimated its weight at 963,537 Roman pounds; and employed 800 men, 150 horses, and 46 cranes in its removal.

The obelisk was first exorcised as a pagan idol, and then dedicated to the Cross. Its removal was preceded by high mass in St. Peter's, after which Pope Sixtus bestowed a solemn benediction upon Fontana and his workmen, and ordained that none should speak, upon pain of death, during the raising of the obelisk. The immense mass was slowly rising upon its base, when suddenly it ceased to move, and it was evident that the ropes were giving way. An awful moment of suspense ensued, when the breathless silence was broken by a cry of "Acqua alle funi!"--_throw water on the ropes_, and the workmen, acting on the advice so unexpectedly received, again saw the monster move, and gradually settle on its base. The man who saved the obelisk was Bresca, a sailor of Bordighiera, a village of the Riviera di Ponente, and Sixtus V., in his gratitude, promised him that his native village should ever henceforth have the privilege of furnishing the Easter palms to St. Peter's. A vessel laden with palm-branches, which abound in Bordighiera, is still annually sent to the Tiber in the week before Palm Sunday, and the palms, after being prepared and plaited by the nuns of S. Antonio Abbate, are used in the ceremonial in St. Peter's.

The height of the whole obelisk is 132 feet, that of the shaft, eighty-three feet. Upon the shaft is the inscription to Augustus and Tiberius: "DIVO. CaeS. DIVI. JULII. F. AUGUSTO.--TI. CaeSARI. DIVI. AUG.

F.--AUGUSTA. SACRUM." The inscriptions on the base show its modern dedication to the Cross[324]--"Ecce Crux Domini--Fugite partes adversae--Vicit Leo de tribu Juda."

"Sixte-quint s'applaudissait du succes, comme de l'uvre la plus gigantesque des temps modernes; des medailles furent frappees; Fontana fut cree, noble romain, chevalier de l'eperon d'or, et recut une gratification de 5,000 ecus, independamment des materiaux qui avaient servi a l'entreprise, et dont la valeur s'elevait a 20,000 ecus (108,000 fr.); enfin des poemes, dans toutes les langues, sur ce nouveau triomphe de la croix, furent adresses aux differents souverains de l'Europe."--_Gournerie, Rome Chretienne_, ii. 232.

"In summer the great square basks in unalluring magnificence in the midday sun. Its tall obelisk sends but a slim shadow to travel round the oval plane, like the gnomon of a huge dial; its fountains murmur with a delicious dreaminess, sending up massive jets like blocks of crystal into the hot sunshine, and receiving back a broken spray, on which sits serene an unbroken iris, but present no 'cool grot,' where one may enjoy their freshness; and in spite of the shorter path, the pilgrim looks with dismay at the dazzling pavement and long flight of unsheltered steps between him and the church, and prudently plunges into the forest of columns at either side of the piazza, and threads his way through their uniting shadows, intended, as an inscription[325] tells him, for this express purpose."--_Cardinal Wiseman._

"Un jour Pie V. traversait, avec l'ambassadeur de Pologne, cette place du Vatican. Pris d'enthousiasme au souvenir du courage des martyrs qui l'ont arrosee de leurs larmes, et fertilisee par leur sang, il se baisse, et saisissant dans sa main une poignee de poussiere: 'Tenez,' dit-il au representant de cette noble nation, 'prenez cette poussiere formee de la cendre des saints, et impregnee du sang des martyrs.'

"L'ambassadeur ne portait pas dans son cur la foi d'un pape, ni dans son ame les illuminations d'un saint; il recut pourtant avec respect cette relique etrange a ses yeux: mais revenu en son palais, retirant, d'une main indifferente peut-etre, le linge qui la contenait, il le trouva ensanglante.

"La poussiere avait disparu. La foi du pontife avait evoque le sang des martyrs, et ce sang genereux reparaissait a cet appel pour attester, en face de l'heresie, que l'eglise romaine, au XVIe siecle, etait toujours celle pour laquelle ces heros avaient donne leur vie sous Neron."--_Une Chretienne a Rome._

No one can look upon the Piazza of St. Peter's without associating it with the great religious ceremonies with which it is connected, especially that of the Easter Benediction.

"Out over the great balcony stretches a white awning, where priests and attendants are collected, and where the pope will soon be seen.

Below, the piazza is alive with moving masses. In the centre are drawn up long lines of soldiery, with yellow and red pompons, and glittering helmets and bayonets. These are surrounded by crowds on foot, and at the outer rim are packed carriages filled and overrun with people, mounted on the seats and boxes. What a sight it is!--above us the great dome of St. Peter's, and below, the grand embracing colonnade, and the vast space, in the centre of which rises the solemn obelisk thronged with masses of living beings.

Peasants from the Campagna and the mountains are moving about everywhere. Pilgrims in oil-cloth cape and with iron staff demand charity. On the steps are rows of purple, blue, and brown umbrellas, for there the sun blazes fiercely. Everywhere crop forth the white hoods of Sisters of Charity, collected in groups, and showing, among the parti-coloured dresses, like beds of chrysanthemums in a garden. One side of the massive colonnade casts a grateful shadow over the crowd beneath, that fill up the intervals of its columns; but elsewhere the sun burns down and flashes everywhere. Mounted on the colonnade are crowds of people leaning over, beside the colossal statues. Through all the heat is heard the constant plash of the sun-lit fountains, that wave to and fro their veils of white spray. At last the clock strikes. In the far balcony are seen the two great showy peacock fans, and between them a figure clad in white, that rises from a golden chair, and spreads his great sleeves like wings as he raises his arms in benediction. That is the pope, Pius the Ninth. All is dead silence, and a musical voice, sweet and penetrating, is heard chanting from the balcony;--the people bend and kneel; with a cold gray flash, all the bayonets gleam as the soldiers drop to their knees, and rise to salute as the voice dies away, and the two white wings are again waved;--then thunder the cannon,--the bells clash and peal,--a few white papers, like huge snow-flakes, drop wavering from the balcony;--these are Indulgences, and there is an eager struggle for them below;--then the pope again rises, again gives his benediction,[326] waving to and fro his right hand, three fingers open, and making the sign of the cross,--and the peacock fans retire, and he between them is borne away,--and Lent is over."--_Story's Roba di Roma._

The first church which existed on or near the site of the present building, was the oratory founded in A.D. 90, by Anacletus, bishop of Rome, who is said to have been ordained by St. Peter himself, and who thus marked the spot where many Christian martyrs had suffered in the circus of Nero, and where St. Peter was buried after his crucifixion.

In 306 Constantine the Great yielded to the request of Pope Sylvester, and began the erection of a basilica on this spot, labouring with his own hands at the work, and himself carrying away twelve loads of earth, in honour of the twelve apostles.[327] Anastasius describes how the body of the great apostle was exhumed at this time, and re-interred in a shrine of silver, enclosed in a sarcophagus of gilt bronze. The early basilica measured 395 feet in length by 212 in width. Its nave and aisles were divided by eighty-six marble pillars of different sizes, in great part brought from the Septizonium of Severus, and it had an atrium, and a _paradisus_, or quadrangular portico, along its front.[328] Though only half the size of the present cathedral, still it covered a greater space than any mediaeval cathedral except those of Milan and Seville, with which it ranked in size.[329]

The old basilica suffered severely in the Saracenic invasion of 846, when some authorities maintain that even the tomb of the great apostle was rifled of its contents, but it was restored by Leo IV., who raised the fortifications of the Borgo for its defence.

Among the most remarkable of its early _pilgrims_ were, Theodosius, who came to pray for a victory over Eugenius; Valentinian, emperor of the East, with his wife Eudoxia, and his mother Galla-Placidia; Belisarius, the great general under Justinian; Totila; Cedwalla, king of the West Saxons, who came for baptism; Concred, king of the Mercians, who came to remain as a monk, having cut off and consecrated his long hair at the tomb of St. Peter; Luitprand, king of the Lombards; Ina of Wessex, who founded a church here in honour of the Virgin, that Anglo-Saxons might have a place of prayer, and those who died, a grave; Carloman of France, who came for absolution and remained as a monk, first at S. Oreste (Soracte), then at Monte Casino; Richard of England; Bertrade, wife of Pepin, and mother of Charlemagne; Offa, the Saxon, who made his kingdom tributary to St. Peter; Charlemagne (four times), who was crowned here by Leo III.; Lothaire, crowned by Paschal I.; and, in the last year of the reign of Leo IV., Ethelwolf, king of the Anglo-Saxons, who was crowned here, remained a year, and who brought with him his boy of six years old, afterwards the great Alfred.

Of the old basilica, the crypt is now the only remnant, and there are collected the few relics preserved of the endless works of art with which it was filled, and which for the most part were lost or wilfully destroyed, when it was pulled down. Its destruction was first planned by Nicholas V. (1450), but was not carried out till the time of Julius II., who in 1506 began the new St. Peter's from designs of Bramante. The four great piers and their arches above were completed, before the deaths of both Bramante and Pope Julius interrupted the work. The next pope, Leo X., obtained a design for a church in the form of a Latin cross from Raphael, which was changed, after his death (on account of expense) to a Greek cross, by Baldassare Peruzzi, who only lived to complete the tribune. Paul III. (1534) employed Antonio di Sangallo as an architect, who returned to the design of a Latin cross, but died before he could carry out any of his intentions. Giulio Romano succeeded him and died also. Then the pope, "being inspired by God," says Vasari, sent for Michael Angelo, then in his seventy-second year, who continued the work under Julius III., returning to the plan of a Greek cross, enlarging the tribune and transepts, and beginning the dome on a new plan, which he said would "raise the Pantheon in the air." The dome designed by Michael Angelo, however, was very different to that which we now admire, being much lower, flatter, and heavier. The present dome is due to Giacomo della Porta, who brought the great work to a conclusion in 1590, under Sixtus V., who devoted 100,000 gold crowns annually to the building. In 1605 Paul V. destroyed all that remained of the old basilica, and employed Carlo Maderno as his architect, who once more returned to the plan of the Latin cross, and completed the present ugly facade in 1614. The church was dedicated by Urban VIII., November 18th, 1626; the colonnade added by Alexander VII., 1667, the sacristy by Pius VI., in 1780. The building of the present St. Peter's extended altogether over 176 years, and its expenses were so great that Julius II. and Leo X. were obliged to meet them by the sale of indulgences, which led to the Reformation. The expense of the main building alone has been estimated at 10,000,000_l._ The annual expense of repairs is 6300_l._

"St. Pierre est une sorte de ville a part dans Rome, ayant son climat, sa temperature propre, sa lumiere trop vive pour etre religieuse, tantot deserte, tantot traversee par des societes de voyageurs, ou remplie d'une foule attiree par les ceremonies religieuses (a l'epoque des jubiles le nombre des pelerins s'est parfois eleve a Rome, jusqu'a 400,000). Elle a ses reservoirs d'eau; sa fontaine coulant perpetuellement au pied de la grande coupole, dans un bassin de plomb, pour la commodite des travaux; ses rampes, par lesquelles les betes de somme peuvent monter; sa population fixe, habitant ses terrasses. Les San Pietrine, ouvriers charges de tous les travaux qu'exige la conservation d'un aussi precieux edifice, s'y succedent de pere en fils, et forment une corporation qui a ses lois et sa police."--_A. Du Pays._

The facade of St. Peter's is 357 feet long and 144 feet high. It is surmounted by a balustrade six feet in height, bearing statues of the Saviour and the Twelve Apostles. Over the central entrance is the loggia where the pope is crowned, and whence he gives the Easter benediction.

The huge inscription runs--"In. Honorem. Principis. Apost. Paulus V.

Burghesius. Romanus. Pont. Max. A. MDCXII. Pont. VII."

"I don't like to say the facade of the church is ugly and obtrusive. As long as the dome overawes, that facade is supportable. You advance towards it--through, O such a noble court!

with fountains flashing up to meet the sunbeams; and right and left of you two sweeping half-crescents of great columns; but you pass by the courtiers and up to the steps of the throne, and the dome seems to disappear behind it. It is as if the throne was upset, and the king had toppled over."--_Thackeray, The Newcomes._

A wide flight of steps, at the foot of which are statues of St. Peter by _De Fabris_, and St. Paul by _Tadolini_, lead by fine entrances to the _Vestibule_, which is 468 feet long, 66 feet high, and 50 feet wide.

Closing it on the right is a statue of Constantine by _Bernini_--on the left that of Charlemagne by _Cornacchini_. Over the principal entrance (facing the door of the church) is the celebrated _Mosaic of the Navicella_, executed 1298, by _Giotto_, and his pupil, _Pietro Cavallini_.

"For the ancient basilica of St. Peter, Giotto executed his celebrated mosaic of the Navicella, which has an allegorical foundation. It represents a ship, with the disciples, on an agitated sea; the winds, personified as demons, storm against it; above appear the Fathers of the Old Testament speaking comfort to the sufferers. According to the early Christian symbolization, the ship denoted the Church. Nearer, and on the right, in a firm attitude, stands Christ, the Rock of the Church, raising Peter from the waves. Opposite sits a fisherman in tranquil expectation, denoting the hope of the believer. The mosaic has frequently changed its place, and has undergone so many restorations, that the composition alone can be attributed to Giotto. The fisherman and the figures hovering in the air are, in their present form, the work of Marcello Provenzale."--_Kugler_, i. 127.

"This mosaic is ill placed and ill seen for an especial reason.

Early converts from paganism retained the heathen custom of turning round to venerate the sun before entering a church, so that in the old basilica, as here, the mosaic was thus placed to give a fitting object of worship. The learned Cardinal Baronius never, for a single day, during the space of thirty years, failed to bow before this symbol of the primitive Church, tossed on the stormy sea of persecution and of sin, saying, 'Lord, save me from the waves of sin as thou didst Peter from the waves of the sea.' "--_Mrs.

Elliot's Historical Pictures._

The magnificent central door of bronze is a remnant from the old basilica, and was made in the time of Eugenius IV., 1431--39, by Antonio Filarete, and Simone, brother of Donatello. The bas-reliefs of the compartments represent the martyrdoms of SS. Peter and Paul, and the principal events in the reign of Eugenius,--the Council of Florence, the Coronation of Sigismund, emperor of Germany, &c. The bas-reliefs of the framework are entirely mythological; Ganymede, Leda and her Swan, &c., are to be distinguished.

"Corinne fit remarquer a Lord Nelvil que sur les portes etaient representees en bas-relief les metamorphoses d'Ovide. On ne se scandalise point a Rome, lui dit-elle, des images du paganisme, quand les beaux-arts les ont consacrees. Les merveilles du genie portent toujours a l'ame une impression religieuse, et nous faisons hommage au culte chretien de tous les chefs-d'uvre que les autres cultes ont inspires."--_Mad. de Stael._

Let into the wall between the doors are three remarkable inscriptions: 1. Commemorating the donation made to the church by Gregory II., of certain olive-grounds to provide oil for the lamps; 2. The bull of Boniface VIII., 1300, granting the indulgence proclaimed at every jubilee; 3. In the centre, the Latin epitaph of Adrian I. (Colonna, 772-95), by Charlemagne,[330] one of the most ancient memorials of the papacy:

"The father of the Church, the ornament of Rome, the famous writer Adrian, the blessed pope, rests in peace: God was his life, love was his law, Christ was his glory; He was the apostolic shepherd, always ready to do that which was right.

Of noble birth, and descended from an ancient race, He received a still greater nobility from his virtues.

The pious soul of this good shepherd was always bent Upon ornamenting the temples consecrated to God.

He gave gifts to the churches, and sacred dogmas to the people; And showed us all the way to heaven.

Liberal to the poor, his charity was second to none, And he always watched over his people in prayer.

By his teachings, his treasures, and his buildings, he raised, O illustrious Rome, thy monuments, to be the honour of the town and of the world.

Death could not injure him, for its sting was taken away by the death of Christ; It opened for him the gate of the better life.

I, Charles, have written these verses, while weeping for my father; O my father, my beloved one, how lasting is my grief for thee.

Dost thou think upon me, as I follow thee constantly in spirit; Now reign blessed with Christ in the heavenly kingdom.

The clergy and people have loved you with a heart-love, Thou wert truly the love of the world, O excellent priest.

O most illustrious, I unite our two names and titles, Adrian and Charles, the king and the father.

O thou who readest these verses, say with pious heart the prayer; O merciful God, have pity upon them both.

Sweetly slumbering, O friend, may thy earthly body rest in the grave, And thy spirit wander in bliss with the saints of the Lord Till the last trumpet sounds in thine ears, Then arise with Peter to the contemplation of God.

Yes, I know that thou wilt hear the voice of the merciful judge Bid thee to enter the paradise of thy Saviour.

Then, O great father, think upon thy son, And ask, that with the father the son may enter into joy.

Go, blessed father, enter into the kingdom of Christ, And thence, as an intercessor, help thy people with thy prayers.

Even so long as the sun rolls upon its fiery axis, Shall thy glory, O heavenly father, remain in the world.

Adrian the pope, of blessed memory, reigned for three-and-twenty years, ten months, and seventeen days, and died on the 25th of December."

The walled-up door on the right is the _Porta Santa_, only opened for the jubilee, which has taken place every twenty-fifth year (except 1850) since the time of Sixtus IV. The pope himself gives the signal for the destruction of the wall on the Christmas-eve before the sacred year.

"After preliminary prayers from Scripture singularly apt, the pope goes down from his throne, and, armed with a silver hammer, strikes the wall in the doorway, which, having been cut round from its jambs and lintel, falls at once inwards, and is cleared away in a moment by the San Pietrini. The pope, then, bare-headed and torch in hand, first enters the door, and is followed by his cardinals and his other attendants to the high altar, where the first vespers of Christmas Day are chaunted as usual. The other doors of the church are then flung open, and the great queen of churches is filled."--_Cardinal Wiseman._

"Arretez-vous un moment ici, dit Corinne a Lord Nelvil, comme il etait deja sous le portique de l'eglise; arretez-vous, avant de soulever le rideau qui couvre la porte du temple; votre cur ne bat-il pas a l'approche de ce sanctuaire? Et ne ressentez-vous pas, au moment d'entrer, tout ce que ferait eprouver l'attente d'un evenement solennel?"--_Mad. de Stael._

We now push aside the heavy double curtain and enter the Basilica.

"Hilda had not always been adequately impressed by the grandeur of this mighty cathedral. When she first lifted the heavy leathern curtains, at one of the doors, a shadowy edifice in her imagination had been dazzled out of sight by the reality."--_Hawthorne._

"The ulterior burst upon our astonished gaze, resplendent in light, magnificence, and beauty, beyond all that imagination can conceive.

Its apparent smallness of size, however, mingled some degree of surprise, and even disappointment, with my admiration; but as I walked slowly up its long nave, empanelled with the rarest and richest marbles, and adorned with every art of sculpture and taste, and caught through the lofty arches opening views of chapels, and tombs, and altars of surpassing splendour, I felt that it was, indeed, unparalleled in beauty, in magnitude, and magnificence, and one of the noblest and most wonderful of the works of man."--_Eaton's Rome._