acter. The façade is of rude architecture; it terminates in an obtuse-angled gable, the triangle of which is cut off by a simple cornice. In it is an arched, unornamented window, beneath which is a large square one, evidently of a later date. The door (there is only one) has a cornice in very bad taste, formed of different blocks of stone patched together, and ornamented with heads of oxen and lions, the rude work of the middle ages. Two pillars are built into the wall, with the capitals joined together, without any visible object, and very unsymmetrically too, as they are only on one side of the door. Over the door is a round arch adorned with simple arabesques. The masonry is throughout of the black limestone from the neighbouring mountains. One can see that the façade still retains its original form, and has only been restored at a later period in a hurry, when absolutely necessary.'Gregorovius.

The interior, much spoiled by bad painting, is more picturesque than beautiful. In the lofty choir is a grand paschal candlestick (tortellato), rising from a crouching figure. Portraits of the Popes connected with Anagni hang over the throne and stalls. The pavement of the church is of opus cosmatescum, though much decayed, and in the choir it attains a degree of minuteness resembling delicate enameller's work. Here, on the Maundy Thursday of 1160, Alexander III. stood to curse the great Emperor Barbarossa. Here Innocent III. read aloud the bull which excommunicated his grandson, Frederick II., and on this same spot Alexander IV. banished the young Manfred. Here also the cardinals elected Innocent IV., after they had received the letter of the Emperor Frederick II., designating them 'sons of Belial.' In this church also (September 7, 1303) Boniface VIII. knelt at the altar in his pontifical robes, when the French, prompted by his hereditary enemies, the Colonnesi, had forced the gates of the town, and burst into the streets, crying, 'Vive le roi de France, et meure Boniface.'

The Pope had retired, as usual, from the summer heat to his native city, Anagni. Here he seemed, as it were, to pause, to be gathering up his strength to launch the last crushing thunders upon the head of the contumacious king of France. The Bull of excommunication was ordered to be suspended in the porch of the cathedral of Anagni. The 8th of September was to be the fatal day.

'On a sudden, on the 7th of September, the peaceful streets of Anagni were disturbed. The Pope and the Cardinals, who were all assembled around him, were startled with the trampling of armed horse, and the terrible cry, which ran like wildfire through the city, "Death to Pope Boniface! Long live the King of France!" Sciarra Colonna, at the head of three hundred horsemen, the Barons of Ceccano and Supino, and some others, the sons of Massio of Anagni, were marching in furious haste, with the banner of the King of France displayed. The ungrateful citizens of Anagni, forgetful of their pride in their holy compatriot, of the honour and advantage to their town from the splendour and wealth of the Papal residence, received them with rebellious and acclaiming shouts.

"The bell of the city, indeed, had tolled at the first alarm; the burghers had assembled; they had chosen their commander; but that commander, whom they ignorantly or treacherously chose, was Arnulf, a deadly enemy of the Pope. The banner of the Church was unfolded against the Pope by the captain of the people of Anagni. The first attack was on the palace of the Pope, on that of the Marchese Caëtani, his nephew, and those of three Cardinals, the special partisans of Boniface. The houses of the Pope and of his nephew made some resistance. The doors of those of the Cardinals were beaten down, the treasures ransacked and carried off; the Cardinais them

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selves fled from the backs of the houses through the common sewer. Pope and his nephew implored a truce; it was granted for eight hours. This time the Pope employed in endeavouring to stir up the people to his defence the people answered coldly that they were under the command of their captain. The Pope demanded the terms of the conspirators. "If the Pope would save his life, let him instantly restore the Colonna Cardinals to their dignity, and reinstate the whole house in their honours and possessions; after this restoration the Pope must abdicate, and leave his body at the disposal of Sciarra." The Pope groaned in the depth of his heart. "The word

is spoken." Again the assailants thundered at the gates of the palace; still there was obstinate resistance. The principal church of Anagni, that of Santa Maria, protected the Pope's palace. Sciarra Colonna's lawless band set fire to the gates; the church was crowded with clergy and laity, and traders who had brought their precious wares into the sacred building. They were plundered with such rapacity that not a man escaped with a farthing. The Marchese Caëtani found himself compelled to surrender, on the condition that his own life, that of his family, and those of his servants, should be spared. At these sad tidings the Pope wept bitterly. The Pope was alone; from the first the Cardinals, some from treachery, some from cowardice, had fled on all sides, even his most familiar friends; they had crept into the most ignoble hiding-places. The aged Pontiff alone lost not his self-command. He had declared himself ready to perish in his glorious cause; he determined to fall with dignity. "If I am betrayed like Christ, I am ready to die like Christ." He put on the stole of S. Peter, the Pontifical crown was on his head, the keys of S. Peter in one hand and the cross in the other: he took his seat on the Papal throne, and, like the Roman senators of old, awaited the approach of the Gaul.

'But the pride and cruelty of Boniface had raised and infixed deep in the hearts of men passions which acknowledged no awe of age, of intrepidity, or religious majesty. In William de Nogaret the blood of his Tolosan ancestors, in Colonna the wrongs, the degradation, the beggary, the exile of all his house, had extinguished every feeling but revenge. They insulted him with contumacious reproaches; they menaced his life. The Pope answered not a word. They insisted that he should at once abdicate the Papacy. "Behold my neck, behold my head," was the only reply.

The Pope was placed under close custody, not one of his own attendants permitted to approach him. Worse indignities awaited him. He was set on a vicious horse, with his face to the tail, and so led through the town to his place of imprisonment. The palaces of the Pope and of his nephew were plundered; so vast was the wealth that the annual revenues of all the kings in the world would not have been equal to the treasures found and carried off by Sciarra's freebooting soldiers. His very private chamber was ransacked; nothing left but bare walls.

'At length the people of Anagni could no longer bear the insults and the sufferings heaped upon their illustrious fellow-citizen. They rose in irresistible insurrection, drove out the soldiers by whom they had been overawed, now gorged with plunder, and doubtless not unwilling to withdraw. The Pope was rescued, and led out into the street, where the old man addressed a few words to the people: "Good men and women, ye see how mine enemies have come upon me, and plundered my goods, and those of the Church, and of the poor. Not a morsel of bread have I eaten, not a drop have I drunk, since my capture. I am almost dead with hunger. If any good woman will give me a piece of bread and a cup of wine-if she has no wine, a little water--I will absolve her, and anyone who will give me their alms, from all their sins." The compassionate rabble burst into a cry, "Long life to the Pope!" They carried him back to his naked palace. They crowded, the women especially, with provisions, bread, meat, water, and wine. They could not find a single vessel: they poured a supply of water into a chest. The Pope proclaimed a general absolution to all except the plunderers of his palace. He even declared that he wished to be at peace with the Colonna and all his enemies. This perhaps was to disguise his intention of retiring, as soon as he could, to Rome.

The Romans had heard with indignation of the sacrilegious attack on the person of the Supreme Pontiff. Four hundred horse, under Matteo and

Caëtano Orsini, were sent to conduct him to the city. He entered it almost in triumph; the populace welcomed him with every demonstration of joy. But the awe of his greatness was gone; the spell of his dominion over the minds of men was broken.

The religious mind of Christendom was at once perplexed and horrorstricken by the sacrilegious violence on the person of the Supreme Pontiff : it shocked some even of the sternest Ghibellines. Dante, who brands the pride, the avarice, the treachery of Boniface in his most terrible words, and has consigned him to the direst doom, nevertheless expresses the almost universal feeling. Christendom "shuddered to behold the Fleur-de-lis enter into Anagni, and Christ again captive in His Vicar, the mockery, the gall and vinegar, the crucifixion between robbers, the insolent and sacrilegfous cruelty of the second Pilate.”—Milman, ‘History of Latin Christianity." 'Veggio in Alagna entrar lo fiordaliso,

E nel vicario suo Cristo esser catto;
Veggiolo un' altra volta esser deriso,
Veggio rinnovellar l'aceto e 'l fele,
E tra vivi ladroni esser anciso.

Veggio 'l nuovo Pilato si crudele,
Che ciò nol sazia, ma, senza decreto,
Porta nel tempio le cupide vele.'

-Purgatorio, xx. 89.

The external crown of the central apse has some beautiful arcading corbelled out and carried on ancient columns.

Two chapels in the left aisle of the Duomo are filled with Caëtani memorials. In one is a Greek inscription. In the other is a painting of the Madonna, of 1322, and the grand mosaic tomb wrought by the Cosmati ('magister Cosmas, civis Romanus, cum filiis suis Luca et Jacopo '), known as 'Il sepolcro della famiglia di Bonifazio.' It bears in Latin the inscription :

:

'Whoever thou art who directest thy steps to this venerable church, know at once the founders of all its glories. Peter the Bishop founded it with great effort, whom noble Salerno reared and gave to us. May the only Son of the Supreme Father have mercy on him.'

In the sacristy are preserved some curious copes, and the croziers of Innocent III. and Boniface VIII. The crypt is given up to the especial saints of Anagni, who are numerous, and whose story, in a series of early frescoes, occupies the walls. The south altar is devoted to S. Oliva, whose bones and head are shown in a glass case beneath her statue. Opposite her is S. Magnus, bishop and martyr, who is represented above seated between two virgin saints. Beneath another altar are the martyrs Secunda, Aurelia, and Neonissa. In the tribune, which has a magnificent pavement, is the papal throne, and over it, in ancient fresco, the whole story of the Apocalypse-the seven candlesticks, the seven churches, the twenty-four elders in adoration of the spotless Lamb, &c., and, in the centre, above the altar, the Redeemer seated on a rainbow, with the two-edged sword proceeding out of his mouth. The façade has suffered from various degradations. It has a bare round-headed window, and a later square one below. The side doors are closed. Several fragments of eighth century braided work appear on each side of the central door, and a few bits of a Doric frieze.

The tall and awkward Romanesque tower of the Cathedral is

separated from the rest of the building, and stands alone upon a little green platform in front of the façade of the church. Hence there is a grand view over the eastern valley to the cold bare rocks. To Roman Catholics a more interesting feature will be the knot of brown buildings on the gray and barren side of the mountain, about six miles from Anagni; for this is Acuto, where the recently founded Order of the Precious Blood had its origin, and where its foundress, Maria di Matthias, lived until her death (1866). The story of her vocation is as romantic and curious as that of any old saintly legend, and that of her founding here a large sisterhood and school which she supported by faith and prayer, without any more definite sources of assistance. Of her extraordinary influence on the surrounding districts, no one who has visited them can have a doubt, or of the power of her sermons, which were simple discourses of loving practical Christianity. When she was likely to preach thousands flocked to hear her, and when she appeared, a silence fell upon the crowd, with the whisper, 'Hush! the great mother is going to speak to us.' Outside the S. Gate (Porta Umberto, formerly, S. Maria), on the left rises a considerable tract of ancient walls built in the style known as 'long and short,' like the so-called wall of Romulus on the Palatine. More of these walls are to be found by turning down Via Bagno to the fountain or lavatojo; and on the way down will be met with Opus Incertum carried on bold arcading (filled in with rubbish) of Opus Quadratum.

CHAPTER XVII

PALESTRINA

(Palestrina (6400 inhabitants, is 35 kilometres from Rome and 6 kilometres from its own station. Omnibus meets trains. Albergo di Ermengilda Arena.)

A

N early drive (an old fashioned route though it be) from Velletri to Palestrina, the ancient Praeneste, is most delightful. Then the cloudless sky is opal behind the soft violet mountains. Reaching the foot of the Volscian hills, and passing Lariano, we come toward the picturesque town of modern Artena, formerly a fortress of the mediaeval Conti, clambering up the side of a hill so steep that each row of houses begins over the roof of its neighbour, and thereby each has a free view of the sky. Artena, which is best reached from Segni Station (two miles), is probably the dirtiest town in the Roman Campagna, with a population of 4560, mostly agriculturists, bearing a better character now than might be expected from a notorious past. (Osteria Paolo Ciaffi.) About a mile distant over the woody heights, at the spot now called Pian di Civita, is the site of the Volscian city Artena: portions of the grand polygonal walls of the citadel or arx, as well as of the town, remain, and the views are superb.

It is about three miles from Monte Fortino (passing the station) to Valmontone (Vallis Montonis) (Locanda di Vincenzo Giorgi), the ancient Toleria (?), which stands on a ridge of tufo in the midst of the plain between the two ranges of mountains, and is partly girdled by walls set with round mediaeval towers, used as houses. From the families of Conti, Sforza, and Barberini, it has passed to the Pamfili, by whom the huge baroque palace which crowns the town was built in 1662. The eldest son of Prince Doria bears the title of Prince of Valmontone. In the cortile of the palace are some inscriptions brought from neighbouring catacombs. Adjoining it is a rather handsome cathedral of the seventeenth century (Annunziata), designed by Mattia de' Rossi, a scholar of Bernini. There are several bits at Valmontone to delight an artist, especially at the entrance of the town, where a magnificent fragment of the ancient wall forms the foreground to some picturesque houses. Near this also is the interesting eleventh century church of S. Antonio, now called the Madonna delle Grazie. The door is later.