. History of Rome and the Popes in the Middle Ages . nd impressions which an open-heartedand observant Christian visitor to Rome in those early dayswould experience, after wandering from the Campus Lateranensisto this threshold of St. Peters. Here in front of the Basilica ofSt. Peter there was matter enough to excite his loftiest feelings. 1 xxvii., 3. 2 Duchesne, Liberpont., i, cv., cvi. 3°4 ROME AND THE POPES [No. 193 If he recalled the glories of the Forum through which he hadjust passed, he could well say to himself that the most stirringand impressive theatre of the worlds history lay no
. History of Rome and the Popes in the Middle Ages . nd impressions which an open-heartedand observant Christian visitor to Rome in those early dayswould experience, after wandering from the Campus Lateranensisto this threshold of St. Peters. Here in front of the Basilica ofSt. Peter there was matter enough to excite his loftiest feelings. 1 xxvii., 3. 2 Duchesne, Liberpont., i, cv., cvi. 3°4 ROME AND THE POPES [No. 193 If he recalled the glories of the Forum through which he hadjust passed, he could well say to himself that the most stirringand impressive theatre of the worlds history lay no longer amidstthose crumbling temples, but in the Vatican region and espe-cially at St. Peters. If he dwelt upon the splendour of theColiseum and the other once frequented haunts of pleasure andof luxury—the circus, the theatres, the baths—it would be bornein on him that the world had grown wiser through the preachingof an apostle, crucified like his master. At his basilica what wastaught was something very different from the wild pleasures ofi. 111. 71.—St. Peters in the Middle the Coliseum. Here, to St. Peters Tomb, how many preachersof the Faith and missioners to distant lands came to seek strengthin fervent prayer for their future efforts and sacrifices, and thendeparted to teach others how the restless, erring heart of mancan find true happiness and everlasting joys. Casting his eyesat the burial-place of that great world-ruler, Hadrian, could hefail to make a comparison, like so many of his contemporaries,between the honoured tomb of the simple fisherman, now aworld-famed sanctuary, and the grand mausoleum of the Emperor,now neglected and desecrated ? 1 The illustration is from Crostarosa, Le basiliche, p. 33 ; cp. Kraus, Gesch. dechristl. Kunst, 1, 324. Brewer, who was the first to give this picture, The Builder, rightlymade the campanile to end in a pointed steeple ; the cupola is due to Mgr. Crostarosa. no. i93] ST. PETERS BASILICA 305 And yet he could nev
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