Through the dust and tumult of that busy throng, the small troop of soldiers threaded their way silently, under the bright sky of an Italian midsummer. They were marching, though they knew it not, in a procession more really triumphal than any they had ever followed, in the train of general or emperor, along the Sacred Way. Their prisoner, now at last and for ever delivered from captivity, rejoiced to follow his Lord 'without the gate.' The place of execution was not far distant, and there the sword of the headsman ended his long course of sufferings, and released that heroic soul from that feeble body. Weeping friends took up his corpse, and carried it for burial to those subterranean labyrinths, where, through many ages of oppression, the persecuted Church found refuge for the living, and sepulchres for the dead.

"Thus died the apostle, the prophet, and the martyr, bequeathing to the Church, in her government, and her discipline, the legacy of his apostolic labours; leaving his prophetic words to be her living oracles; pouring forth his blood to be the seed of a thousand martyrdoms. Thenceforth, among the glorious company of the apostles, among the goodly fellowship of the prophets, among the noble army of martyrs, his name has stood pre-eminent. And wheresoever the holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge God, there Paul of Tarsus is revered, as the great teacher of a universal redemption and a catholic religion--the herald of glad tidings to all mankind."--_Conybeare and Howson_.

Let us now return to the grand Basilica which arose to commemorate the martyrdom on this desolate site, and which is now itself standing alone on the edge of the Campagna, entirely deserted except by a few monks who linger in its monastery through the winter months, but take flight to St. Calisto before the pestilential malaria of the summer,--though in the middle ages it was not so, when S. Paolo was surrounded by the flourishing fortified suburb of Joanopolis (so called from its founder, John VIII.), whose possession was sharply contested in the wars between the popes and anti-popes.[366]

The first church on this site was built in the time of Constantine, on the site of the vineyard of the Roman matron Lucina, where she first gave a burial-place to the apostle. This primal oratory was enlarged into a basilica in 386 by the emperors Valentinian II. and Theodosius.

The church was restored by Leo III. (795--816), and every succeeding century increased its beauty and magnificence. The sovereigns of England, before the Reformation, were protectors of this basilica--as those of France are of St. John Lateran, and of Spain of Sta. Maria Maggiore--and the emblem of the Order of the Garter may still be seen amongst its decorations.

"The very abandonment of this huge pile, standing in solitary grandeur on the banks of the Tiber, was one source of its value.

While it had been kept in perfect repair, little or nothing had been done to modernize it, and alter its primitive form and ornaments, excepting the later addition of some modern chapels above the transept; it stood naked and almost rude, but unencumbered with the lumpish and tasteless plaster encasement of the old basilica in a modern Berninesque church, which had disfigured the Lateran cathedral under pretence of supporting it.

It remained genuine, though bare, as S. Apollinare in Classe, at Ravenna, the city eminently of unspoiled basilicas. No chapels, altars, or mural monuments softened the severity of its out-*lines; only the series of papal portraits, running round the upper line of the walls, redeemed this sternness. But the unbroken files of columns along each side, carried the eye forward to the great central object, the altar and its 'Confession;' while the secondary row of pillars, running behind the principal ones, gave depth and shadow, mass and solidity, to back up the noble avenue along which one glanced."--_Cardinal Wiseman._

On the 15th of July, 1823, this magnificent basilica was almost totally destroyed by fire, on the night which preceded the death of Pope Pius VII.

"Quelque-chose de mysterieux s'est lie dans l'esprit des Romains a l'incendie de St. Paul, et les gens a l'imagination de ce peuple parlent avec ce sombre plaisir qui tient a la melancolie, ce sentiment si rare en Italie, et si frequent en Allemagne. Dans le grand nef, sur le mur, au dessus des colonnes, se trouvait la longue suite des portraits de tous les papes, et le peuple de Rome voyait avec inquietude qu'il n'y avait plus de place pour le portrait du successeur de Pie VII. De la les fruits de la suppression du saint-siege. Le venerable pontife, qui etait presqu'

un martyre aux yeux de ses sujets, touchait a ses derniers moments lorsqu'arriva l'incendie de Saint-Paul. Il eut lieu dans la nuit du 15 au 16 Juillet, 1823; cette meme nuit, le pape, presque mourant, fut agite par un songe, qui lui presentait sans cesse un grand malheur arrive a l'eglise de Rome. Il s'eveilla en sursaut plusieurs fois, et demanda s'il n'etait rien arrive de nouveau. Le lendemain, pour ne pas aggraver son etat, on lui cacha l'incendie, et il est mort apres sans l'avoir jamais su."--_Stendhal_, ii. 94.

"Not a word was said to the dying Pius VII. of the destruction of St. Paul. For at St. Paul's he had lived as a quiet monk, engaged in study and in teaching, and he loved the place with the force of an early attachment. It would have added a mental pang to his bodily sufferings to learn the total destruction of that venerable sanctuary, in which he had drawn down by prayer the blessings of heaven on his youthful labour."--_Wiseman, Life of Pius VII._

The restoration of the basilica was immediately begun, and a large contribution levied for the purpose from all Roman Catholic countries.

In 1854 it was re-opened in its present form by Pius IX. Its exterior is below contempt; its interior, supported by eighty granite columns, is most striking and magnificent, but it is cold and uninteresting when compared with the ancient structure, "rich with inestimable remains of ancient art, and venerable from a thousand associations."[367]

If we approach the basilica by the door on the side of the monastery, we enter, first, a portico, containing a fine statue of Gregory XVI., and many fragments of the ancient mosaics, collected after the fire;--then, a series of small chapels which were not burnt, from the last of which ladies can look into the beautiful _cloister_ of the twelfth century, which they are not permitted to enter, but which men may visit (through the sacristy), and inspect its various architectural remains, and a fine sarcophagus, adorned with reliefs of the story of Apollo and Marsyas.

The church is entered by the south end of the transept. Hence we look down upon the nave (306 feet long and 222 wide) with its four ranges of granite columns (quarried near the Lago Maggiore), surmounted by a mosaic series of portraits of the popes, each five feet in diameter,--most of them of course being imaginary. The grand triumphal arch which separates the transept from the nave is a relic of the old basilica, and was built by Galla-Placidia, sister of Honorius, in 440.

On the side towards the nave it is adorned with a mosaic of Christ adored by the twenty-four elders, and the four beasts of the Revelation;--on that towards the transept by the figure of the Saviour, between St Peter and St. Paul.

It bears two inscriptions, the first:

"Theodosius cpit,--perfecit Honorius aulam Doctoris mundi sacratam corpore Pauli."

The other, especially interesting as the only inscription commemorating the great pope who defended Rome against Attila:

"Placidiae pia mens operis decus homne (_sic_) paterni Gaudet pontificis studio splendere Leonis."

The mosaics of the tribune, also preserved from the fire, were designed by _Cavallini_, a pupil of Giotto, in the thirteenth century, and were erected by Honorius III. They represent the Saviour with St. Peter and St Andrew on the right, and St Paul and St Luke on the left,--and beneath these twelve apostles and two angels. The Holy Innocents (supposed to be buried in this church!) are represented lying at the feet of our Saviour.

"In the mosaics of the old basilica of S. Paolo the Holy Innocents were represented by a group of small figures holding palms, and placed immediately beneath the altar or throne, sustaining the gospel, the cross, and the instruments of the passion of our Lord.

Over these figures was the inscription, H. I. S.

INNOCENTES."--_Jameson's Sacred Art._

Beneath the triumphal arch stands the ugly modern baldacchino, which encloses the ancient altar canopy, erected, as its inscription tells us, by Arnolphus and his pupil Petrus, in 1285. In front is the "Confession," where the Apostle of the Gentiles is believed to repose.

The baldacchino is inscribed:

"Tu es vas electionis, Sancte Paule Apostole, Praedicator veritatis In universo mundo."

It is supported by four pillars of Oriental alabaster, presented by Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt. The altars of malachite, at the ends of the transepts, were given by the Emperor Nicholas of Russia.

"Les schismatiques et les mussulmans eux-memes sont venus rendre hommage a ce souverain de la parole, qui entrainait les peuples au martyre et subjuguait toutes les nations."--_Une Chretienne a Rome._

In a building so entirely modern, there are naturally few individual objects of interest. Among those saved[368] from the old basilica, is the magnificent paschal candlestick, covered with sculpture in high-relief. The altar at the south end of the transept has an altar-piece representing the Assumption, by _Agricola_, and statues of St. Benedict, _Baini_, and Sta. Scholastica, by _Tenerani_. Of the two chapels between this and the tribune, the first has a statue of St.

Benedict by _Tenerani_; the second, the Cappella del Coro, was saved from the fire, and is by _Carlo Maderno_.

The altar at the north end of the transept is dedicated to St. Paul, and has a picture of his conversion, by _Camuccini_. At the sides are statues of St. Gregory by _Laboureur_ and of S. Romualdo by _Stocchi_.

Of the chapels between this and the tribune, the first, dedicated to St.

Stephen, has a statue of the saint, by _Rinaldi_; the second is dedicated to St. Bridget (Brigitta Brahe), and contains the famous crucifix of Pietro Cavallini, which is said to have spoken to her in 1370.

"Not far from the chancel is a beautiful chapel, dedicated to St.

Bridget, and ornamented with her statue in marble. During her residence in Rome, she frequently came to pray in this church; and here is preserved, as a holy relic, the cross from which, during her ecstatic devotion, she seemed to hear a voice proceeding."--_Frederika Bremer._

The upper walls of the nave are decorated with frescoes by _Galiardi_, _Podesti_, and other modern artists.

The two great festivals of St. Paul are solemnly observed in this basilica upon January 25 and June 30, and that of the Holy Innocents upon December 28.

Very near S. Paolo, the main branch of the little river Almo, the "cursuque brevissimus Almo" of Ovid, falls into the Tiber. This is the spot where the priests of Cybele used to wash her statue and the sacred vessels of her temple, and to raise their loud annual lamentation for the death of her lover, the shepherd Atys:

"Est locus, in Tiberim quo lubricus influit Almo, Et nomen magno perdit ab amne minor, Illic purpurea canus cum veste sacerdos, Almonis dominam sacraque lavit aquis."

_Ovid, Fast._ iv. 337.

"Phrygiaeque matris Almo qua levat ferrum."

_Martial, Ep._ iii. 472.

"Un vieux pretre de Cybele, vetu de pourpre, y lavait chaque annee la pierre sacree de Pessinunte, tandis que d'autres pretres poussaient des hurlements, frappaient sur le tambour de basque qu'on place aux mains de Cybele, soufflaient avec fureur dans les flutes phrygiennes, et que l'on se donnait la discipline,--ni plus ni moins qu'on le fait encore dans l'eglise des _Caravite_,--avec des fouets garnis de petits cailloux ou d'osselets."--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ iii. 145.

The Campagna on this side of Rome is perhaps more stricken by malaria than any other part, and is in consequence more utterly deserted. That this terrible scourge has followed upon the destruction of the villas and gardens which once filled the suburbs of Rome, and that it did not always exist here, is evident from the account of Pliny, who says:

"Such is the happy and beautiful amenity of the Campagna that it seems to be the work of a rejoicing nature. For truly so it appears in the vital and perennial salubrity of its atmosphere (_vitalis ac perennis salubritatis cli temperies_), in its fertile plains, sunny hills, healthy woods, thick groves, rich varieties of trees, breezy mountains, fertility in fruits, vines, and olives, its noble flocks of sheep, abundant herds of cattle, numerous lakes, and wealth of rivers and streams pouring in upon its many seaports, in whose lap the commerce of the world lies, and which run largely into the sea as it were to help mortals."

Under the emperors, the town of Ostia (founded by Ancus Martius) reached such a degree of prosperity, that its suburbs are described as joining those of Rome, so that one magnificent street almost united the two.

There is now, beyond S. Paolo, a road through a desert, only one human habitation breaking the utter solitude.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE VILLAS BORGHESE, MADAMA, AND MELLINI.

Protestant Churches--Villa Borghese--Raphael's Villa--Casino and Villa of Papa Giulio--(Claude's Villa--Arco-Oscuro--Acqua-Acetosa)--Chapel of St.

Andrew--Ponte-Molle (Castle of Crescenza--Prima Porta--The Crimera--The Allia)--(The Via Cassia)--Villa Madama--Monte Mario--Villa Mellini--Porta Angelica.

Immediately outside the Porta del Popolo, on the left, are the English and American churches.

"As to the position selected for these buildings, it is to be observed that, although restricted by the regulations of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to a locality outside the walls, the greatest possible attention has been paid to the convenience of the English, the great majority of whose dwelling-houses are in this immediate quarter. The English church in Rome, therefore, though nominally outside the walls, is really, as regards centrality, in the very heart of the city. The greatest possible facilities are afforded by the authorities to our countrymen in all matters relating to the establishment; and though the general behaviour of the Roman inhabitants is such as to render the precaution almost unnecessary, the protection of the police and military is invariably afforded during the hours of divine service.... Whatever be the disagreements on points of religious faith between Protestant and Catholic, there is at least one point of feeling in common between both in this respect; for the streets are tranquil, the shops are shut, the demeanour of the people is decent and orderly, and, notwithstanding the distance from England, Sunday feels more like a Sunday at Rome than in any other town in Europe."--_Sir G. Head's "Tour in Rome."_

The papal government of Rome had more tolerance for a religion which was not its own than that of the early emperors. Augustus refused to allow the performance of Egyptian rites within a mile of the city walls.