Pagan and Christian Rome Part 14

[97] See Mommsen: _Res gestae divi Augusti_, 2d edition. Berlin, Weidmann, 1883.

[98] Augustus enrolled his first army in October of the year 41 B. C.

He died in August, A. D. 14.

[99] This house is described in _Ancient Rome_, chapter i., p. 17.

[100] _Don Juan_, canto III. eix.

[101] The other instance was in the excavations of the palace of the Valerii Aradii, near S. Erasmo, on the Caelian, the most successful ever made in Rome.

[102] _La bolla di Maria, moglie di Onorio._ Milan, 1819.

[103] _Dissertazione su d' una antica argenteria, letta nell'

accademia archeologica il d 7 gennaio_, 1811.

CHAPTER V.

PAPAL TOMBS.

Portraits of the early Popes.--Those of SS. Peter and Paul.--The tombs of the Popes.--Their interest for the student.--The tomb of Cornelius Martyr.--Inscriptions and other monuments found in his crypt.--The two Cornelii, pagan and Christian.--The pontifical crypt in the Cemetery of Callixtus.--The tomb of Gregory the Great.--S. Peter's as a burial-place for the Popes.--Gregory's several resting-places.--The stress of Rome in his time.--The legend of the angel.--Gregory's good works.--His house.--The tomb of the Saxon Ceadwalla.--That of Benedict VII.--The turbulent times in which he lived.--The Crescenzi.--The church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.--Pope Sylvester II.--The tradition about his death and tomb.--The vicissitudes of the Lateran basilica.--The Va.s.salletti.--Study of the antique by mediaeval artists.--The stone-cutter's shop on the site of the Banca n.a.z.ionale.--The tomb of Innocent VIII.--The story of the holy lance.--The tomb of Paul III.--His services to art.--The tomb of Clement XIII.--Bracci and Canova.--The Jesuits in Clement's time.

Among the curiosities of the three princ.i.p.al basilicas of Rome,--the Lateran, the Vatican, and the Ostiensis (S. Paul's),--were collections of portrait heads of the Popes, which were painted above the colonnade on the three sides of the nave. In S. Peter's there were two sets, one on the frieze, above the capitals of the columns, the other on the walls of the nave, above the cornice; the first is marked with the letters "G H." in the drawing of Ciampini which is reproduced in chapter iii., p. 134; the second, with the letters "I L." The set of the Lateran was painted by order of Nicholas III. (1277-1280). Since his time the basilica has been burned to the ground twice--in 1308 and 1360--and restored three times. Its last disfigurement, by Innocent X.

and Borromini in 1644, concealed whatever was left standing of the old building, and made it impossible for us to study its iconic pictures, if there were any still existing. We possess better information in regard to S. Peter's, thanks to Grimaldi, who described and copied both series of medallions before their destruction by Paul V. in 1607.

The lower series, which was painted by order of Nicholas III., began with Pope Pius I. (142-157) and ended with Anastasius (397-401).

Grimaldi remarks that the Popes of the times of the persecutions, from Pius to Sylvester, were bareheaded; those of a later age wore the tiara; all had the round halo, or nimbus, except Tiberius (352-366), who had a square one. This last particular would prove that the portraits were originally painted in the time of Tiberius, because the square nimbus is the symbol of living persons. The upper series above the cornice was the more important of the two, on account of the chronological inscriptions which accompanied and explained each medallion. These inscriptions, which were too small and faint to be read with the naked eye from below, were not copied before their destruction. Grimaldi could decipher but a few: SIRICIUS. SEDIT ANN(_is_) XV. M(_ensibus_) V. D(_iebus_) XX.--FELIX. SEDIT ANN(_o_) I.

M(_ensibus_) ... etc. The heads were bare, and framed by a round halo.

They seem to have been painted at the time of Pope Formosus (891-896), as were also the fresco-panels which appear in the above-mentioned drawing of Ciampini.

The guide-books of modern Rome describe the series of S. Paul's, restored in mosaic after the fire of 1823, as made up of imaginary likenesses except in the case of later Popes. This statement is not correct. The original medallions were painted on each side of the nave, and on the cross or end wall above the entrances. Those of the end wall disappeared long since, on the occasion of some repairs to this part of the basilica. Those of the left side perished in the fire of 1823; but those of the right side, beginning with S. Peter and ending with Innocent (401-417), were saved. They have since been detached from the wall, transferred first to canvas, then to stone, and are now exhibited in one of the corridors of the monastery.[104]

As regards those which perished in the fire, they had already been copied, first in the seventeenth century by order of Cardinal Frances...o...b..rberini, and again in 1751 by Marangoni. The new series in mosaic is therefore not all fanciful and imaginary, but follows the tradition of the likenesses as they were first produced in the fifth century. At that time the study of the pontifical succession was receiving considerable attention in Rome. There were written catalogues inserted in liturgical books, which were read to the congregation on certain days of the year, so that everybody could argue on the subject, and remember the order of succession of the bishops. To impress this more forcibly on the minds of the people, it was written on the walls of the newly erected basilica of S. Paul, and ill.u.s.trated with portraits. The series must have struck the imagination of visitors and pilgrims. The idea of apostolic inheritance, of uninterrupted hierarchy, of the supremacy of the See of Rome, took a definite shape in the array of these busts of bishops, led by S. Peter, and congregated, as it were, around the grave of S.

Paul.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _A_ Portrait head of S. Peter; from a medallion in repousse discovered by Boldetti in the Catacombs of Domitilla.--_B_ Portrait head of S. Paul; from a medallion preserved in the Museo Sacro Vaticano.--Both are works of the second century.]

The custom found imitators in other churches and in other cities.

Speaking of the gallery of Popes in the duomo at Siena, Symonds remarks how the acc.u.mulated majesty of their busts, larger than life, with solemn faces, each leaning from his separate niche, brings the whole past history of the Church into the presence of its living members. A bishop walking up the nave of Siena must feel as a Roman felt among the waxen images of ancestors renowned in council or war.

"Of course," Symonds concludes, "the portraits are imaginary for the most part, but the artists have contrived to vary their features and expressions with great skill." This statement may be correct in a general way, especially in regard to the Middle Ages, but is subject to important exceptions. There is no doubt, for instance, that the likenesses of SS. Peter and Paul have been carefully preserved in Rome ever since their lifetime, and that they were familiar to every one, even to school-children. These portraits have come down to us by scores. They are painted in the cubiculi of the catacombs, engraved in gold leaf in the so-called _vetri cemeteriali_, cast in bronze, hammered in silver or copper, and designed in mosaic.[105] The type never varies: S. Peter's face is full and strong, with short curly hair and beard, while S. Paul appears more wiry and thin, slightly bald, with a long pointed beard. The antiquity and the genuineness of both types cannot be doubted. After the peace of Constantine, when Sylvester, Mark, Damasus, Siricius, and Symmachus began to fill the city with their churches and memorial buildings, and as the habit of exhibiting in each of them portraits of the founders became general, it is evident that the author of the collection of portraits in S.

Paul's, which dates from the fifth century, must have had plenty of authentic originals at his disposal.

Next to these portraits, in the power of exciting the imagination and appealing to the sentiments of visitors and pilgrims, come the tombs of the Popes. I place them next to the images, because the tombs were of the most simple and modest character, and marked only by a name, or by an inscription which a few could read and decipher. But to us, pa.s.sionate students of history and art, those graves are invaluable; they mark the various stages of the decline and fall of the great city from year to year, as well as of her glorious resurrection; they chronicle the leading events which have agitated Rome, Italy, and the world for the last sixteen centuries. To be sure, there are considerable breaks in the chain, due to the destruction of old S.

Peter's, which contained eighty-seven graves; but the descriptions of Pietro Mallio, of Maffeo Vegio, and of Pietro Sabino, and the drawings of Grimaldi and Ciampini, help us to fill the gaps.

Ferdinand Gregorovius was inspired to write his book on the subject while in contemplation of the monument of Paul III., Farnese. He glanced around in the dim light of the evening and saw effigy after effigy of venerable men, seated on their marble thrones, with outstretched hands, like an a.s.sembly of patriarchs intrusted with the guardianship of their church. He devoted many hours to the study of this cla.s.s of monuments, so strikingly Roman, "for in Rome, more than in any other city of the world, does investigation lead one in the footsteps of Death." His volume,[106] however, seems to me more like an essay written in hours of depression than an exhaustive and satisfying treatise. The _materia prima_ has greatly increased since he wrote, owing to the discoveries made in the catacombs, in libraries and archives, and to the reproduction by photography of the fragments collected in the sacred grottos of the Vatican. If any of our younger colleagues are willing and prepared to go over the work in a critical spirit, let them divide the subject into three periods. During the first, which begins with the entombment of S. Peter, June 29, A. D.

67, and ends with that of Melchiades, A. D. 314, the bishops of Rome were interred in the depths of the suburban cemeteries, and their loculi marked with a simple name. During the second period, which begins with the peace of Constantine and ends with the destruction of the Vatican basilica in 1506-1606, the pontifical graves were mostly ancient sarcophagi or bathing basins from the thermae, accompanied by an inscription in verse, and, as the Renaissance was approached, by canopies of Gothic or Romanesque style. In the third period, which ends with our time, the new church of S. Peter is transformed into a papal mausoleum which is worthy of being compared in refinement of art, in splendor of decoration, in richness of material, in historical interest, with the Pantheons of ancient Rome. I shall select from each of the three periods a few representative specimens.

THE TOMB OF CORNELIUS, ON THE APPIAN WAY. In 1849, while de Rossi was exploring the Vigna Molinari between the Via Appia and the Ardeatina, in his attempt to define the site and extent of the various cemeteries which undermine that region, he found a fragment of a marble slab with the letters ELIVS MARTYR.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tombstone of Cornelius.]

Excited by a discovery the capital importance of which he was able to foresee at once, he asked an audience of the Pope, Pius IX., and begged him to purchase the Vigna Molinari, and grant the funds necessary to discover the crypt to which this fragment of a tombstone belonged. After listening quietly to the arguments by which the young man was advocating his cause, the Pope answered only four disheartening words: "Sogni di un archeologo!" (dreams of an archaeologist). At the same time he gave orders for the immediate purchase of the vigna (now called dei Palazzi Apostolici) and for the appropriation of an "exploration fund." In March, 1852, a crypt was discovered on the very border of the Appian Way; in the crypt was a tomb, and with it were the missing fragments of the epitaph of Cornelius.

Some weeks later the young discoverer escorted the Pope to the historical grave, and pointing to the epitaph exclaimed: "Sogni di un archeologo!" To judge of the importance of the discovery we must remember that the identification of the crypts of Lucina, and that of all the surrounding catacombs, depended mostly upon the identification of this one. The "Liber Pontificalis" says: "The emperor Decius gave judgment in the case of Cornelius: that he should be taken to the temple of Mars _extra muros_, and asked to perform an act of adoration: in case of a refusal that he should be beheaded. This was accordingly done, and Cornelius gave his life for his faith. Lucina, a n.o.ble matron, a.s.sisted by members of the clergy, collected his remains and buried them in a crypt on her own estate near the Cemetery of Callixtus, on the Appian Way; and this happened on September 14 (A. D.

253)." As the Cemetery of Callixtus was the recognized burial-place of the bishops of Rome, why was this exception made to the rule? The reason is evident: the estate of Lucina contained the family vault of the Cornelii, or at least of a branch of the Cornelian race. The victim of the persecution of Decius was the first Pope of n.o.ble and ancient lineage. Apparently his relatives wished to emphasize this fact in the place selected for his burial, and by proclaiming his ill.u.s.trious descent on his gravestone through the use of the old and simple language of the republic,--"Cornelius Martyr." The use of Latin at this age const.i.tutes another conspicuous exception to the rule, because the Greek language was not only fashionable in the third century, but had been adopted almost officially by the Church. The majority of liturgical words, such as hymn, psalm, liturgy, homily, catechism, baptism, eucharist, deacon, presbyter, pope, cemetery, diocese, are of Greek origin, and the names of the Popes in the pontifical crypt of this same cemetery are, likewise, written in Greek letters even when they are strictly Roman, as in the case of ?????S for LVCIVS.

The crypt of Cornelius contains other historical records. A metric inscription composed by Damasus and placed above the loculus says to the pilgrim: "Behold: a descent to the crypt has been built: darkness has been expelled: you can behold the memorial of Cornelius and his resting-place. The zeal of Damasus has enabled him, though careworn and ailing, to accomplish the work and make your pilgrimage easier and more efficacious. If you are prepared to pray to the Lord in purity of heart, entreat Him to restore Damasus to health; not that he is fond of life, but because the duties of his mission bind him still to this earth." These verses are, probably, the very last composed by the dying pontiff ([Symbol: died] 384). His work was finished by Siricius (A. D. 384-397), as proved by a second inscription below the loculus: "Siricius has completed the work and dressed the tomb of Cornelius in marble."

The paintings of the crypt, although they date from the Byzantine period, are of historical interest. On the right we see the images of Cornelius and Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. Their intimate connection in life, their martyrdom on the same day of the same month, made their memory inseparable. The church commemorates them on the same _natale_ or anniversary, and their images stand side by side in this crypt. The artist who painted them prophesied the future; he saw that the time would come when, in their graves, the bodies of the two friends would be united as their souls had been while they lived. Their remains were removed to Compiegne in the reign of Charles the Bald, those of Cornelius from Rome, those of Cyprian from Carthage, never to part again.

A circular pedestal, like a section of a column, stands against the wall under the images. Such pedestals are not uncommon in the catacombs; and they were intended to support a large flat bowl not unlike the holy-water basins of modern churches. Several specimens have been found _in situ_, in the cemeteries of Saturninus, Alexander, Agnes, and Callixtus. They are of the same make, cut in marble so delicately as to be translucent, flat-bottomed, and very low. For what were they used? We cannot think of "holy water" in the modern sense, because in those days the faithful were wont to purify their hands, not in receptacles of stagnant water, but in springs or living fountains. It seems more in accordance with ancient rites to consider them as lamps, filled with scented oil or nard, on the surface of which wicks, secured to a piece of papyrus, floated like a _veilleuse_, to guide the footsteps of pilgrims in the darkness.

A papyrus in the archives or treasury of the cathedral at Monza contains a list of oils collected by John, abbot of Monza, in the cemeteries of Rome, and offered by him to Theodolinda, Queen of the Lombards. Special mention is made in the doc.u.ment of the oil from the tomb of S. Cornelius; and de Rossi a.s.serts that the fragments of a diaphanous oil-basin found in the exploration of this crypt were soaked with an oleaginous substance.[107]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CRYPT OF POPE CORNELIUS]

One cannot help being impressed by the coexistence on this same road, and within a mile of each other, of two family vaults of the Cornelii: one in the aristocratic burial-grounds between the viae Appia and Latina, the other in the subterranean haunts of a despised and persecuted race. One need not be a deep thinker or a religious enthusiast to appreciate that each is worthy of the other; and that the Cornelius of the third century who chose to die the death of a criminal rather than betray his conscience, is a worthy descendant of the Scipios, the heroes of republican Rome. Whenever I happen to pay a visit to the hypogaeum of the Cornelii Scipiones,[108] I try to finish my walk by way of that of their n.o.ble representative, the victim of the persecution of Decius.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait of Pope Cornelius; from a fresco near his grave.]

THE PONTIFICAL CRYPT. I have just mentioned the vault of the Popes as belonging to the same Cemetery of Callixtus. It was discovered in 1854. Its approaches were inscribed with a great number of _graffiti_, which marked the place as the most celebrated in the cemetery, if not in the whole of underground Rome. A pious hand had written near the entrance door: GERVSALE[M] CIVITAS ET ORNAMENTVM MARTYRVM DNI [_Domini_]: "This is the Jerusalem of the martyrs of the Lord." The debris which obstructed the chamber was removed as quickly as the narrowness of the s.p.a.ce would permit, and as it pa.s.sed under the eyes of de Rossi, he was able to detect the names of Anteros, Fabia.n.u.s, Lucius, and Eutychia.n.u.s on the broken marbles. There were, besides, one hundred and twenty-five fragments of a metric inscription by Damasus, which gave the desired information, in the following words:--

"Here lie together in great numbers the holy bodies you are seeking.

These tombs contain their remains, but their souls are in the heavenly kingdom. Here you see the companions of Sixtus waving the trophies of victory; there the bishops [of Rome] who shielded the altar of Christ; the pontiff who saw the first years of peace [Melchiades, A. D. 311-314]; the n.o.ble confessors who came to us from Greece [Hippolytus, Hadrias, Maria, Neon, Paulina], and others. I confess I wished most ardently to find my last resting place among these saints, but I did not dare to disturb their remains."

Callixtus (218-223), the founder of the cemetery, does not lie in it.

He perished in a popular outbreak, having been thrown from the windows of his house into the square, the site of which corresponds with the modern Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, the _area Callisti_ of the fourth century. The Christians recovered his body, and buried it in the nearest cemetery at hand,--that of Calepodius by the Via Aurelia (between the Villa Pamfili and the Casaletto di Pio V.).

Urban, his successor (A. D. 223-230), opens the series in the episcopal crypt of the Appian Way. His name, OYPBANOC E (p?s??p??), has been read on a fragment of a marble sarcophagus. Then follow Anteros (A. D. 235-236), Fabia.n.u.s (A. D. 236-251), Lucius (A.

D. 252-253), and Eutychianos (A. D. 275-283),--in all, five bishops out of the eleven who are known to have been buried in the crypt.

In looking at these humble graves we cannot help comparing them with the great mausolea of contemporary emperors. A war was then raging between the builders of the catacombs and the occupants of the imperial palace. It was a duel between principles and power, between moral and material strength. In 296, bishop Gaius, one of the last victims of Diocletian's persecution, was interred by the side of his predecessors in the crypt; in 313, only seventeen years later, Sylvester took possession of the Lateran Palace, which had been offered to him by Constantine. Such is the history of Rome; such are the events which the study of her ruins recalls to our memory.

THE TOMB OF GREGORY THE GREAT. In the account of his life given in the "Liber Pontificalis," i. 312, two things especially attract our attention: the mission sent by him to the British Isles, and his entombment in the "Paradise" of S. Peter's. Beginning with the latter, we are told that he died on March 12 of the year 604, and that his remains were buried "in the basilica of the blessed Peter, in front of the secretarium, in one of the intercolumniations of the portico."

This statement requires a few words of comment.

We have seen how the bishops of the age of persecutions were buried in the underground cemeteries, with a marked preference for those of the Via Appia and the Via Salaria. From the time of Sylvester (314-335) to that of Leo the Great (440-461) they still sought the proximity of martyrs, and obeyed the rule which forbade burial within the walls of the city. Sylvester raised a modest mausoleum for himself and his successors over the Cemetery of Priscilla, on the Via Salaria, the remains of which have just been discovered.[109] Anastasius and Innocent I. found their resting-place over the Cemetery of Pontia.n.u.s, on the road to Porto; Zosimus and Sixtus in the church of S. Lorenzo; Boniface I. in that of S. Felicitas, on the Via Salaria.

The Vatican began to be the official mausoleum of the Popes with Leo I. in 461. The place selected is not the interior of the church, but the vestibule, and more exactly the s.p.a.ce between the middle doorway (the _Porta argentea_) and the southwest corner, occupied by the _secretarium_, or sacristy, a hall of basilican shape in which the Popes donned their official robes before entering the church. The place can be easily identified by comparing the accompanying reproduction of Ciampini's drawing of the front of the old basilica of S. Peter's with the plan published in chapter iii., p. 127. For nearly two and a half centuries they were laid side by side, until every inch of s.p.a.ce was occupied, the graves being under the floor, and marked by a plain slab inscribed with a few Latin distichs of semi-barbaric style. These short biographical poems have been transmitted to us, with a few exceptions, by the pilgrims of the seventh and ninth centuries, whose copies were afterwards collected in volumes, the most important of which is known as the Codex of Lauresheim. At the time of Gregory the Great there was but a small s.p.a.ce left near the secretarium. This was occupied by Pelasgius I., Johannes III., Benedict I., and a few others.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Atrium of Old S. Peter's.]

Sergius I. (687-701) was the first who dared to cross the threshold of the church, which he did, however, not for his own benefit, but to do honor to the memory of Leo I. The inscription in which he describes the event is too prolix to be given here. It tells us that the grave of Leo the Great was in the vestibule below the sacristy. There he lay "like the keeper of the temple, like a shepherd watching his flock."