[108] The type of the figure is that of St. Peter, as he is represented to us in the cemeteries. On a glass, bearing a picture of this scene, the person striking the rock has written over his head PETRVS.
[109] There are several repetitions of this painting. One has been lately found, if we remember right, in the cemetery of Nereus and Achilleus. It is long anterior to the Council of Chalcedon, whence this mode of representing our Lord is usually dated. It is given in our title-page.
[110] The Lateran house or palace.
[111] Inscription on the front, and medals, of the Lateran Basilica.
[112] These are the very words of Decius, on the election of St. Cornelius to the See of St. Peter: “Cum multo patientius audiret levari adversum se æmulum principem, quam constitui Romæ Dei sacerdotem.” S. Cypr. Ep. lii. ad Antonianum, p. 69, ed. Maur. Could there be a stronger proof, that under the heathen empire, the papal power was sensible and external, even to the extent of exciting imperial jealousy?
[113] “As a sated guest.”
[114] A fashionable watering-place near Naples.
[115] A large earthenware vessel, in which wine was kept in the cellar.
[116] These instruments of cruelty are mentioned in the Acts of the Martyrs, and in ecclesiastical historians.
[117] “Sopra l’antichissimo altare di legno, rinchiuso nell’ altare papale,” &c. “On the most ancient wooden altar, enclosed in the papal altar of the most holy Lateran basilica.” By Monsig. D. Bartolini. Rome, 1852.