"Une nuit, pendant que Dominique dormait, il lui sembla voir Jésus-Christ se préparant à exterminer les superbes, les voluptueux, les avares, lorsque tout-à-coup la Vierge l'apaisa en lui présentant deux hommes: l'un d'eux lui-même; quant à l'autre, il ne le connaissait pas; mais le lendemain, la première personne qu'il aperçut, en entrant au Latran, fut l'inconnu qui lui était apparu en songe. Il était couvert de haillons et priait avec ferveur. Dominique se précipita dans ses bras, et l'embrassant avec effusion: 'Tu es mon compagnon,' lui dit-il; 'nous courons la même carrière, demeurons ensemble, et aucun ennemi ne prévaudra contre nous.' Et, à partir de ce moment, dit la légende, ils n'eurent plus qu'un cœur et qu'une âme dans le Seigneur. Ce pauvre, ce mendiant, était saint François d'Assise."—Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne.
Issuing from the west door of the basilica, we find ourselves in a wide portico, one of whose five doors is a Porta Santa. At the end, is appropriately placed an ancient marble statue of Constantine, who is in the dress of a Roman warrior, bearing the labarum, or standard of the cross, which is here represented as a lance surmounted by the monogram of Christ. From this portico we look down upon one of the most beautiful and characteristic views in Rome. On one side are the Alban Hills, blue in morning, or purple in evening light, sprinkled with white villages of historic interest—Albano, Rocca di Papa, Marino, Frescati, Colonna; on the other side are the Sabine Mountains, tipped with snow; in the middle distance the long, golden-hued lines of aqueducts stretch away over the plain, till they are lost in the pink haze, and nearer still are the desolate basilica of Santa Croce, the fruit gardens of the Villa Wolkonski, interspersed with rugged fragments of massive brickwork, and the glorious old walls of the city itself. The road at our feet is the Via Appia Nuova, which leads to Naples, and which immediately passes through the modern gate of Rome, known as the Porta San Giovanni (built in the sixteenth century by Gregory XIII.). Nearer to us, on the right, is an ancient gateway, the finest on the Aurelian wall, bricked up by Ladislaus, king of Naples, in 1408. By this gate, known as the Porta Asinaria, from the family of the Asinarii, Belisarius entered Rome in 505, and Totila, through the treachery of the Isaurian Guard, in 546. Here also, in 1084, Henry IV. entered Rome against Hildebrand with his anti-pope Guibert; and, a few years after, the name of the gate itself was changed to Porta Perusta, in consequence of the injuries it received from Robert Guiscard, who came to the rescue of the lawful pontiff.
The broad open space which we see beneath the steps was the favourite walk of the mediæval popes.
"The splendid palace of the Lateran reflected the rays of the evening sun, as Francis of Assisi with two or three of his disciples approached it to obtain the papal sanction for the rules of his new Order. A group of churchmen in sumptuous apparel were traversing with slow and measured steps its lofty terrace, then called 'the Mirror,' as if afraid to overtake him who preceded them, in a dress studiously simple, and with a countenance wrapped in earnest meditation. Unruffled by passion, and yet elate with conscious power, that eagle eye, and those capacious brows, announced him the lord of a dominion which might have satisfied the pride of Diogenes, and the ambition of Alexander. Since the Tugurium was built on the Capitoline, no greater monarch had ever called the seven hills his own. But, in his pontificate, no era had occurred more arduous than that in which Innocent III. saw the mendicants of Assisi prostrate at his feet. The interruption was as unwelcome as it was abrupt; as he gazed at the squalid dress and faces of his suitors, and observed their bare and unwashed feet, his lip curled with disdain, and sternly commanding them to withdraw, he seemed again to retire from the outer world into some of the deep recesses of that capacious mind. Francis and his companions betook themselves to prayer; Innocent to his couch. There (says the legend) he dreamed that a palm-tree sprouted up from the ground beneath his feet, and, swiftly shooting up into the heavens, cast her boughs on every side, a shelter from the heat, and a refreshment to the weary. The vision of the night dictated the policy of the morning, and assured Innocent that, under his fostering care, the Franciscan palm would strike deep her roots, and expand her foliage on every side, in the vineyard of the Church."—Stephens' St. Francis of Assisi.
The western façade of the basilica, built by Alessandro Galilei in 1734, has a fine effect at a distance, but the statues of Christ and the apostles which line its parapet are too large for its proportions.
The ancient Palace of the Lateran was the residence of the popes for nearly 1000 years. Almost all the events affecting the private lives of a vast line of ecclesiastical sovereigns happened within its walls. Plundered in each successive invasion, stricken with malaria during the autumn months, and often partially burnt, it was finally destroyed by the great enemy of Roman antiquities, Sixtus V. Among the scenes which occurred within its walls, perhaps the most terrible was that when John X., the completer of the Lateran basilica, was invaded here by Marozia, who was beginning to seize the chief power in Rome, and who carried the pope off prisoner to St. Angelo, after he had seen his brother Peter murdered before his eyes in the hall of the pontifical palace.
The only remnants preserved of this famous building are the private chapel of the popes, and the end wall of their dining-hall, known as the Triclinium, which contains a copy, erected by Benedict XIV., of the ancient mosaic of the time of Leo III. which formerly existed here, and the remains of which are preserved in the Vatican.
"In this mosaic, Hallam (Middle Ages) sees proof that the authority of the Greek Emperor was not entirely abrogated at Rome till long after the period of papal aggrandisement by Pepin and his son, but he is warranted by no probabilities in concluding that Constantine V., whose reign began A.D. 780, is intended by the emperor kneeling with St. Peter or Pope Sylvester."—Hemans' Ancient Christian Art.
Professor Bryce finds two paintings in which the theory of the mediæval empire is unmistakeably set forth; one of them in Rome, the other in Florence, (a fresco in the chapter-house of S. M. Novella).
"The first of these is the famous mosaic of the Lateran triclinium, constructed by Pope Leo III., about A.D. 800, and an exact copy of which, made by the order of Sixtus V., may still be seen over against the facade of St. John Lateran. Originally meant to adorn the state banqueting-hall of the popes, it is now placed in the open air, in the finest situation in Rome, looking from the brow of a hill across the green ridges of the Campagna to the olive groves of Tivoli and the glistering crags and snow-capped summits of the Umbrian and Sabine Apennine. It represents in the centre Christ surrounded by the apostles, whom He is sending forth to preach the gospel; one hand is extended to bless, the other holds a book with the words 'Pax vobis.' Below and to the right Christ is depicted again, and this time sitting: on His right hand kneels Pope Sylvester, on His left the Emperor Constantine; to the one He gives the keys of heaven and hell, to the other a banner surmounted by a cross. In the group on the opposite, that is, on the left side of the arch, we see the Apostle Peter seated, before whom in like manner kneel Pope Leo III. and Charles the Emperor; the latter wearing, like Constantine, his crown. Peter, himself grasping the keys, gives to Leo the pallium of an archbishop, to Charles the banner of the Christian army. The inscription is 'Beatus Petrus dona vitam Leoni P. Pet victoriam Carulo regi dona;' while round the arch is written, 'Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax omnibus bonæ voluntatis.'