The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-09-29
SAINT PETERS CHAIR.
70 THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD.


BROOKLYN, August 80, 1867
Your Roman correspondent and the Constant reader"
having made up their minds to doubt the antiquity OF
the chair of St. Peter, matter Of five or six hundred
years don't to make any difference 80 that the
main obec. atianedthat Of showing the relic 10 be
Q fraud
.'The chair must be German" says the Roman corre-
spondent ''because the style Is Gothic" Now, the
Gothic style not introduced into Europe until after
tho period Of the first Crusade AID, 1885, therefore,
cordng to your correspondent, the chair must have
been manufactured at time subsequent to this. You
are able writer. but you are mistaken, says the
constant reader" quoting from the French savans the
chair African, and Of the sixth seventh century
which proven by its Arabic inscriptions derived from
the Koran" You are both mistaken, gentlemen. Al
though the chair or the style known Gothic and
perhaps be African, it is, notwithstanding the verabe
chair from which st. Peter preached the Gospel
to the Romans, and in proof Of this offer you evil
dence the probable fact that St. Peter must have had
chair and when the good man died his chair must have
been held very great veneration by his flock These
surmses taken In connection with the uninterrupted
traditions OF the Church that this is the real chair
amount in the absence OF any evidence to the contrary
to o very strong proof that the relic is not fraud
As to tho savans that accompanied Napoleon into
Italy, their motives are 80 we'll understood that their
testimony would not be worth rush. even il the deci-
sion rested their authority. Permi. me to remark
en- passa that human foresight is very defective other
wise the would have found more useful employ
meut while at Rome. They might, for instance, have
proven that the spirit OF Cesar had arisen and ruled the
destines Of France This would have been really vau
able work, though It even Is untruthfu as their
assertions against the chair. The worth Of such work
would consist in Its own Intrinsic merits but in the
time it would have saved another Napoleon in turning
tro hadd ona IA In.
deed in due season. and gwen Napoleon the Third time
to occupy himself as tho head of a great
ton had ought to be occupied the world
might have boon spared the spectacle Of the
eagles Of France polluted with Mexican dust and
the still more awful sound of the agonzing cries Of
poor, helpless Poland, whilo her virgins were violated
and her sons slaughtered, vany pleading for the aid
which she permitted to believe would be rendered
unto But they did not do this and their work has
gone for nothing since the Pope still ves and regns in
the hearts OF hundred millions Of Christians while
the Prussan sneers at the potency OF the mantle Of
Caesar.
The Gothic tmore properly Eastern style made its ap
pesrance simultaneously every nation Of Europe soon
after the first Crusade 1t does not present itself to US
at first in rude FORM but with all its peculiar and dis
tinctive marks 1t is stamped with civilization at its in
PRODUCTION wherever found The same elegant pointed
arches the same tapering abutments of open 1agree
work. resting the slender double shafts was not
them all and introduced at the same period from che
East, and by the first Crusaders ~.
II We stand at Cairo. in Egypt and on the thrteth
de rec of longitude east Of Greenwich and followSne
line along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean,
through the easteriy point Of the Black and away
up to the North pole shall have pretty fairly divided
the two pointed arch covering the
right hand and the circular arch the one on our
left except Asia Minor whose physical position between
the Mediterranean and Euxine places It in Eastern cvi
zaon Through all those countries on tho right there
s no other style Of than the pointed
Asia Minor Syria Arabia Persia, Cartary india China
aud Jlpan-in all these countries the style native,
and universal II Is true that are not
able 10 the precise date Of their buildings but
this unimportan because the fact OF the general
diffusion of the style throughout these limits Is SUD-
Gent establish the fact that 10 Is old the nations
that it. and ,hey all claim antiquity TO the Chris
tian era II is not anything wonderful that any number
chars OF Gothic style should appear in Rome before
the days Of Peter.
But say the sarans IL decorated with the signs of
the zodiac, the inscriptions Arabic and taken from
the Koran" Just ye dshonorsd spirits; but this 10
Let us now examine calendars Of a those nations
where circular arched architecture Is In use, and We
find thai their soarthat is reckoned BY the rcvo
luton Of the earth In It's orbit or the sun IN It's orbit
previous to tho Coperucan system, and the month Is
/ either lunar conventional. But when we examine
the calendars Of those nations OF pointed architecture
find that not only the Is solar but the month
Also the duration Of the months detsrm ned by
tho Of the through each sign Of the zodiac
and the signs Of the zodiac are synonymous with the
used represent them In most of them
Now Is inscriptions being taken from the Koran,
there shadow Of proof TO that effect The Koran
is nothing than collection OF ethics taken mostly
from the literature OF the Eastern nations and be
traced by any literary auaomist just as Shakespeare
works may DO traced through the literature that pre-
ceded it. OF AS geometry may be traced in the works
preceded its collection and compilation by Euclid.
WHY the Christian Bible has been drawn for the
composition OF the Koran, that instead OF the In
scrptons on the chair Of Peter being taking from the
Koran the passages in the Koran taken from the
char. or, what Is moro probable. they had common
| oria in in the ethics Of tue Eastern nations EMO