type="note">24 There were 1,421 images of the Madonna, 1,318 images of saints, ornamented with 1,928 precious objects, and 110 ex-votos; 1,067 lamps were kept burning day and night before them,—a most useful institution in a city whose streets have not been regularly lighted until recent years.
The Shrine and Altar of Mercurius Sobrius.
As prototypes of a classical and Christian street-shrine, respectively, we may take the ædicula compitalis of Mercurius Sobrius, discovered in April, 1888, near S. Martino ai Monti, and the immagine di Ponte, at the corner of the Via dei Coronari and the Vicolo del Micio. The shrine of Mercury near S. Martino was dedicated by Augustus, in the year 10 b. c. The inscription engraved on the front of the altar says: "The emperor Augustus dedicated this shrine to Mercury in the year of the City, 744, from money received as a new-year's gift, during his absence from Rome."
Suetonius (Chapter 57) says that every year, on January 1, all classes of citizens climbed the Capitol and offered strenæ calendariæ to Augustus, when he was absent; and that the emperor, with his usual generosity, appropriated the money to the purchase of pretiosissima deorum simulacra, "the most valuable statues of gods," to be set up at the crossings of thoroughfares. Four pedestals of these statues have already been found: one near the Arch of Titus, at the beginning of the sixteenth century; one, in 1548, near the Senate House; one, in the same year, by the Arch of Septimius Severus. The fourth pedestal, that recently discovered near S. Martino ai Monti, was raised at the crossing of two important streets, the clivus suburanus (Via di S. Lucia in Selci), and the vicus sobrius (Via dei Quattro Cantoni), from which the statue was nicknamed Mercurius Sobrius, "Mercury the teetotaller."
The immagine di Ponte, in the Via dei Coronari, the prototype of modern shrines, contains an image of the Virgin in a graceful niche built, or re-built, in 1523, by Alberto Serra of Monferrato, from designs by Antonio da Sangallo. Its name is derived from that of the lane leading to the Ponte S. Angelo (Canale di Ponte). The house to which it belongs is No. 113 Via dei Coronari, and No. 5 Vicolo del Micio.
Monumental crosses were sometimes erected instead of shrines. Count Giovanni Gozzadini has called the attention of archæologists to this subject in a memoir "Sulle croci monumentali che erano nelle vie di Bologna del secolo XIII." He proves from the texts of historians, Fathers, and councils that the practice of erecting crosses at the junction of the main streets is very ancient, and belongs to the first century of the freedom of the Church, when the faithful withdrew the emblem of Christ from the catacombs, and raised it in opposition to the street shrines of the gentiles. Bologna has the privilege of possessing the oldest of these crosses. One bears the legend "In the name of God; this cross, erected long since by Barbatus, was renewed under the bishopric of Vitalis (789-814)." This class of monuments abounds in Rome, although it belongs to a comparatively recent age. Such are the crosses before the churches of SS. Sebastiano, Cesareo, Nereo ed Achilleo, Pancrazio, Lorenzo, Francesco a Ripa, and others.
The most curious and interesting is perhaps the column of Henry IV. of France, which was erected under Clement VIII. in front of S. Antonio all' Esquilino, and which the modern generation has concealed in a recess on the east side of S. Maria Maggiore. It is in the form of a culverin—a long slender cannon of the period—standing upright. From the muzzle rises a marble cross supporting the figure of Christ on one side, and that of the Virgin on the other. It was erected by Charles d'Anisson, prior of the French Antonians, to commemorate the absolution given by Clement VIII. to Henry IV. of France and Navarre, on September 17 of the year 1595. The monument has a remarkable history. Although apparently erected by private enterprise, the kings of France regarded it as an insult of the Curia, an official boast of their submission to the Pope; and they lost no opportunity of showing their dissatisfaction in consequence. Louis XIV. found an occasion for revenge. The gendarmes who had escorted his ambassador, the duc de Crequi, to Rome, had a street brawl with the Pope's Corsican body-guards; and although it was doubtful which side was to blame, Louis obliged Pope Alexander VII. to raise a pyramid on the spot where the affray had taken place, with the following humiliating inscription:—
"In denunciation of the murderous attack committed by the Corsican soldiers against his Excellency the duc de Crequi, Pope Alexander VII. declares their nation deprived forever of the privilege of serving under the flag of the Church. This monument was erected May 21, 1664, according to the agreement made at Pisa."
The revenge could not have been more complete; so bitter was it that Alexander VII. drew a violent protest against it, to be read and published only after his death. His successor, Clement IX., a favorite with Louis XIV., obtained leave that the pyramid should be demolished, which was done in June, 1668, with the consent of the French ambassador, the duc de Chaulnes. Whether by stipulation or by the good will of the Pope, the inscription of the column of Henry IV. was made to disappear at the same time. We have found it concealed in a remote corner of the convent of S. Antonio.25 The column itself, and the canopy which sheltered it, fell to the ground on Thursday, February 15, 1744; and when Benedict XIV. restored the monument in the following year, he severed forever its connection with these remarkable historical events, by dedicating it DEIPARÆ VIRGINI. Having been dismantled in 1875, during the construction of the Esquiline quarter, it was reërected in 1880, not far from its original place, on the east side of S. Maria Maggiore,—not without opposition, because there are always men who think they can obliterate history by suppressing monuments which bear testimony to it.
One of the characteristics of ancient sanctuaries, by which the weary pilgrim was provided with bathing accommodations, is also to be found in the old churches of Rome. We are told in the "Liber Pontificalis" that Pope Symmachus (498-514), while building the basilica of S. Pancrazio, on the Via Aurelia, fecit in eadem balneum, "provided it with a bath." Another was erected by the same Pope near the apse of S. Paolo fuori le Mura, the supply of water of which was originally derived from a spring; later from wheels, or noriahs, established on the banks of the Tiber. Notices were written on the walls of these bathing apartments, warning laymen and priests to observe the strictest rules of modesty. One of these inscriptions, from the baths annexed to the churches of SS. Sylvester and Martin, is preserved in section II. of the Christian epigraphic museum of the Lateran. It ends with the distich:—
"There is no harm in seeking strength and purity of body in baths; it is not water but our own bad actions that make us sin." These verses are not so good as their moral; but inscriptions like this prove that the abandonment of such useful institutions must be attributed not to the undue severity of Christian morality, but to the ruin of the aqueducts by which fountains and baths were fed. However, even in the darkest period of the Middle Ages we find the traditional "kantharos," or basin, in the centre of the quadri-porticoes or courts by which the basilicas were entered. Such is the vase in the court of S. Cæcilia, represented on the next page, and that in front of S. Cosimato in Trastevere; and such is the famous calix marmoreus, which formerly stood near the church of SS. Apostoli, mentioned in the Bull of John III. (a. d. 570), by which the boundary line of that parish was determined. This historical monument, a prominent landmark in the topography of mediæval Rome, was removed to the Baths of Diocletian at the beginning of last year.
In many of our churches visitors may have noticed one or more round black stones, weighing from ten to a hundred pounds, which, according to tradition, were tied to the necks of martyrs when they were thrown into wells, lakes, or rivers. To the student these stones tell a different tale. They prove that the classic institution of the ponderaria (sets of weights and measures) migrated from temples to churches, after the closing of the former, a. d. 393.
Kantharos in the Court of St. Cæcilia.
As the amphora
The inscription, after all, was very mild in comparison with the violent formula imposed upon Alexander VII. It read: "In memory of the absolution given by Clement VIII. to Henry IV. of France and Navarre, September 17, 1595."
