The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-02
ST. PETERS AT ROME.
How 1t SymbOIixes the Power of the
Church.
Cosnonolis.

To see st. Peters is to realize all that is
strongest, most Roman, nothing that Is
church This vast building, the largest
church in the world, imposes itself upon
you wherever you are in Rome; you see the
dome from the Albian or the Sabine MUS,
from which the whole city seems dWindled
to a white shadow upon a green plain. Be
fore it lies all Rome, behind 1t the vague
desolation of fruitless fields, rulnous
houses, d moldering wall, few ragged
trees. I climbed one evening, about sunset,
on a day when the sky itself had the desc
lation of broodlng storms, to the strip OF
narrow, untrodden ground behind 1T, which
rises from the Via Scaccia, going down
on the other side to the Via della
Zecca. 1t stood there hiding the whole city
and half the sky, vast gray bulk; now
and again the moon, looking through q rlft
in the clouds. touched the leaden roof with
a finger of light; the Expresses seeming
to lean against the white walls at the base,
turned blacker, a few gas lamps Shone
about it like gold candles about the high
altar, and gradually, as I watched light
after light sprang up out of the deep streets
and precipitous houses, the hills grew dark
er and more vague, and the solid mass it.
SELF now looming grayness, seemed to
float like a great shadow into the depths
of the night. And always, by day, looked at
from within or without, it is by it's inn
mensity. its spectacular qualities, that it is
impressive. To walk across the floor is like
taking a journey; voices chanting in a side
f roR the can opposite asle Snd o ooE
ing at the four piers which sup
port the dome. one remembers that the
Church of st. Carlino allie Quattro Fontane
by no means small church, is exactly the
size of one of those four piers. Everything
the whole decoration, in order that it may
be in proportion to the scale of the build
ing, is exaggerated and almost no detail
bears an intimate examination or can give
one a separate sensation of pleasure, fol
the few lovely things, like Michel Angeles
Pieta, are lost in little chapels, where they
exist quietly in their corners like q fine
silent criticism of all this display, these
ford popeS and angels, this noisy architec.
tural rhetoric. And st. Peters, impressns
you, as it certainly does, with its tremen.
douS size, strength, wealth and the tire.
less, enduring power which has called Il
into being, holds you at a distance, witt
the true ecclesiastical frigidity You Learn
here how to distinguish between what il
teal in the Catholic Church. ST. Peters
is entirely positive, dogmatic, the assertion
of the supremacy of the church over the
world; never mystic, as is one of those din
Spanish cathedrals, that of Barcelona, fol-
instance, nor yet fantastic, full of strange
precious wonders of the world, brought
from afar off, as in st. Marks. 1t is florid
spectacular, but never profane Suggesting
as it does, what is the strength and what
are also the metaphysical limitations OF
the church, ii never suggests, as St Marks
does, the human curiositieS which may be-
come strange vice as easily as q singular
midst of the city, where the heart of the
city beats, where one sees homely crowd
wandering in and out all day long, looking
in on the way home from market as one
might look in for moment at a friend S
house.