The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-05-14

low Mars Fill with the matchless mar
Bile Parthenon situated high on the
Acropolis above, with its gorgeous
statue of Minerva, whose golden she'll
and up-lifted spear, as they reflected
the suns rays fairly blinded the home
ward bound mariners far out on the
bosom of the blue Aegean; as those
sea Drowned marines doubled Cape
Sunium the blazing Minerva became Il
perfect sunburst of glory. The Parthe-
non, the Odeum, the Theseum, the
Erecthyeum and the hundreds of daz-
zling marble temples of Athens and of
classic Greece had their origin or germ
in rude stone affairs.
| trust my Introductory remarks
have not wearied my readers; they
have at least led us up to the temple
which in time gave way and gracefully
yielded to the Christian church, in
which God himself is worshipped in
purity and simplicity; all the ancient
mystic paraphernalia and empty forms
have fled away and in the place of
smoking and reeking hecatombs the
heart itself truly and calmly holds in
tercourse in plain yet mysterious
manner with the Creator and Trainer of
the universe, the true, kindly parent of
the human race. The best description
of the vanity of idols and folly of idol
makers that I know of is to be found in
the forty-fourth chapter of the prophe-
sy of Isaiah.
In the year 313 the Emperor Constan-
tine published his celebrated decree at
Milan giving to Christianity equal
rights with all other religions.
This was an important advance
which led to the union of church and
state. A few years later the first great
council was held at Nicaea, and in 337
the emperor was baptized on his death
bed. st. Clement, the third bishop of
Rome, was the first it is said to divide
Rome into seven diaconites, and St,
Peter founded the first place of worship
in the house of the Senator Pudeus.
OF the churches founded by Constan-
tine no trustworthy account has been
delivered to us, although it is possible
that the powerful emperor founded the
"Lateron" church, ST. Peters, st. Pauls
outside the walls, and several others.
The Oldest and most important
churches were to be seen generally out
side or near the citys gates; thus it
WOuiO SteUl llldl lQOldllouS tlieii eASICi
istics, which, like all other characters
tics, according to Darwin, must be the
result of infinitely long-standing fnflu-
ences, die hard; for the old Roman ar
istocracy kept strongly to their ancient
traditions and in appearance at least
the city maintained its heather charac-
ter But the mills of the Gods were
grinding sure and fine even If they
ground slowly; towards the end of the
fourth century the altar of Victoria
was removed from the senate hall and
shortly after, by law of Honorius the
former religion of the Romans was en-
tirely deprived of it's temporal and
spiritual possession, in fact the dragon
with an hundred heads was dead; the
Cross had conquered.
The grand old temples were either de-
stroyed or transformed into Christian
churches, and these latter increased in
number very rapidly.
OF the many churches then at Rome
five were called Patriarchal churches,
presided over by the Pope. A commu-
nifty was then formed and believers
throughout the world were considered
as members of it. These five churches
were "San Giovanni in Laterano"
"San Pietro,' San Paolo," San Lo-
renzo" and San Maria Maggiore"
There were two others specially ven
Grated, "San Croce in Gerusaleme" and
"San Sebastiano," built over the Cata-
combs on the Via Appia, Thus we
have the seven churches of Rome"
and to these pilgrims resorted from ev-
ery quarter of Christendom
Before writing particulars of these
! gloriously historic churches let us
mention few well known churches
| which every visitor to Rome is sure to
| visit Let us first enter the church of
| st. Pudenziane; it is built on the edge
| of the Esquiline on the Via Urbano and
| is said to be the most ancient of all the
| churches in Rome. The Senator Pu-
| deus, the friend of st. Peter and st.
| Paul, had his house here, and st. Peter
lodged and lived here with this distin-
| guished Roman, whose family were
| among his first converts.
Pudeus died under the order of cruel
| Nero and his daughters Pudentiana and
| Praxedis nourished ninety-six Chris
tians and hid them here; they We're af-
| forwards slain and above the home was
| built the church which was named af-
| ter the youngest daughter of Pudeus
| This is a most interesting church and
| revives very old memories. ST Paul
in the very last letter he ever dictated
| (Second epistIe to Timothy mentions
| as follows: "Eubulus greeth thee and
| Pudeus and Claudia and Linus and all
the brethren"
The mosaics representing ST. Puden-
tiana and st. Praxedis with Christ and
the apostles are among the finest in
Rome.
The ancient mosaic pavement is n
thing of great beauty; below this pave
ment in 1855 was discovered the re-
mains of the former home of Pudeus
| where St Peter lodged. In this same
| neighborhood stands the church of St
Prassede, named for the eldest daugh.
| ter of Pudeus, who gave refuge to
| many Christian converts, twenty-thre5
| of these were murdered in her presence
She collected their blood and bones and
| placed them in well, and here in the
| center aisle is a marble curb three feet
| high; singular object to be seen in a
church, but it conveys a weight of sig
| nificance, that ancient curb. 1t por-
| trays and immortalizes- the faithfulness
of a noble Christian woman. There is
| a Jasper column in this church and
this, tradition states, is the column al
| which Christ is said to have been
| scourged A porphry block covers the