Near by was the part of the Forum called the Comitium, where were held the assemblies of the people called Comitia Curiata. The celebrated temple, bearing the name of Capitol, of which there remain only a few vestiges, stood on the Capitoline Hill, the highest of the seven: it was square in form, each side extending about two hundred feet, and the ascent to it was by a flight of one hundred steps. It was one of the oldest, largest, and grandest edifices in the city. Founded by Tarquinius Priscus, it was at several times enlarged and embellished. Its gates were of brass, and it was adorned with costly gildings: whence it is termed "golden" and "glittering," aurea, fulgens. It enclosed three structures, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in the centre, the temple of Minerva on the right, and the temple of Juno on the left. The Capitol also included some minor temples or chapels, and the Casa Romuly, or Romulus, covered with straw. Near the ascent to the Capitol was the asylum (Cities of refuge). We also mention the Basilicæ, since some of them were afterwards turned to the purposes of Christian worship. They were originally buildings of great splendour, being appropriated to meetings of the senate, and to judicial purposes. Here counsellors received their clients, and bankers transacted their business. The earliest churches, bearing the name of Basilicæ, were erected under Constantine the Great. He gave his own palace on the Caelian Hill as a site for a Christian temple. Next in antiquity was the church of St. Peter, on the Vatican Hill, built A.D. 324, on the site and with the ruins of temples consecrated to Apollo and Mars. It stood about twelve centuries, at the end of which it was superseded by the modern church bearing the same name.
The Cirei were buildings oblong in shape, used for public games, races, and beast-fights. The Theatra were edifices designed for dramatic exhibitions: the Amphitheatra (double theatres, buildings in an oval form) served for gladiatorial shows and the fighting of wild animals. That which was erected by the Emperor Titus, and of which there still exists a splendid ruin, was called the Coliseum, from a colossal statue of Nero that stood near it. With an excess of luxury, perfumed liquids were conveyed in secret tubes round these immense structures, and diffused over the spectators, sometimes from the statues which adorned the interior. In the arena which formed the centre of the amphitheatres, the early Christians often endured martyrdom by being exposed to ravenous beasts.
In modern Rome there are various things to excite the curiosity of the stranger, but in my observations I could only see four elements predominating above everything, monks, nuns, priests and beggars. They form a continued procession all day long of the most spectacular carnival that could be seen in any of the Babylons of the world.
And now while in Rome, we might ask the question: Who founded the church at Rome? The question is equally interesting, if not important to the Protestant and to Catholic. The Romish church assigns the honour to Peter, and on this grounds an argument in favour of the claims of the Papacy. But strict search in and about all the obtainable sources of knowledge, it does give no sufficient reason for believing that Peter was ever even so much as within the walls of Rome. Thus, by all inspired documents there is one title clear left to Pope and his scheme, "unaccountable falsifier." As an ordained High Priest in the Greek Orthodox Church, I have been for many years studied in this particular subject. The Libraries in Mount Athos gave me all the opportunities that the high and exalted position, which I held, could afford, to find the truth concerning the claims of the Pope. The Fathers of the Church, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostomus, and all the host of Ecclesiastical authorities agree unanimously that the Lord Jesus never intended to concede any right of supremacy, to Peter, over the other apostles. Otherwise He (Jesus) would never have said those wonderful words (Matt. 20, 25, etc.), and Peter himself disclaiming the assertions of the Papacy (Pet. 1, 5, 3, etc.). And it is certain that there is no instance on record of the apostle's (Peter) having ever claimed or exercised this supposed power, but on the contrary, he is oftener than once represented as submitting to an exercise of power upon the part of others, as when, for instance, he went forth as a messenger from the apostles assembled in Jerusalem to the Christians in Samaria, and when he received a rebuke from Paul. Now as a matter of fact, if Peter was ever Great, that was, when he repented for denying his Master. Repentance, therefore, is the only hope left for the Pope, if he ever expects to hear the blessed voice "Feed my sheep."
In these days of enlightenment and progress, while humane feelings are taking the place of spite and hatred among the civilized nations, and religious prejudice is giving way to good will and tolerance, Rome is, from the Vatican point of view, the stumbling-block of every honest effort in the purification of the individual heart and the uplifting of the millions of souls that are downtrodden under the sandals of hyenical monks. When the Pope, a few months ago, rejected Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Fairbanks, two models of manhood and virtue, he made it clear to the world that he is suffering incurably, from barbaritis, and that his case is hopeless. But, it is to be hoped that as Rome is already regenerated politically and socially, so, we pray that in not far distant day, Rome, shall also be regenerated spiritually.
In the meantime we shall continue our journey, and now we hurry back to take the S. S. Germania from Naples to New York. And when I was well located on board, I kissed good-bye to my friend and brother Christopher, thanking him for his assistance and bidding to the old world FAREWELL! FAREWELL!
CHAPTER II
Arrival
Sunday morning the 16th of May, 1903, the very handsome S. S. Germania, cast anchor in the docks of Brooklyn. Indeed, there is no particular significance in a steamship arriving in the harbor of Brooklyn and New York, for they come by hundreds from all parts of the world, every day in the week and many of them every Sunday of the year. It is for the diligent observer that there are more lessons to be drawn from a day passed along the Brooklyn bridge than there are in the most exclusive circles of the 400. And if I am allowed to make any comparison at all I should put it in the following short sentences. The former lessons would be of a heart from which all arteries transport the necessary elements to keep up undiminished the vitality of this great cosmopolitan body, while the latter uncontrovertibly is only a part of the body, and unfortunately it is the stomach that consumes lavishly even to the core all that the whole body can produce. Yet to an every day passer-by neither when he travels across the Brooklyn bridge rubbing elbows with the scores of the masses of humanity that hasten their way unconsiderate by nobody, nor when in his big red or yellow automobile hurrying up Fifth Avenue he is planning in his mind a new scheme how to make more money, or he is the heir of riches untold and many millions are waiting for him to be scattered in all winds, his social standard to keep up and his neighbor's honor to bring down and as a rule to accomplish his own destruction, the time is of no value unless there is some profit in it for the only scope in his life is self gratification.
