Pope Leo XIII. intends to establish in the Lateran Palace a university, under Cardinal Mazzella, for the scientific and literary study of the clergy.
Passing out into the piazza at the front, on the right are
THE GATES,
Porta S. Giovanni, opening on to the Via Nova Appia, and near by, to the right, the walled-up ancient Porta Asinaria, best seen from the outside, through which Belisarius entered Rome, and which the Isaurian guard betrayed to Totila, December 17, 546. The open we are now rambling over was anciently called the Mirror. On the left is the end wall of the dining-hall of the ancient Palace of the Lateran, on which is a copy of an ancient mosaic of the time of Leo III. In a building behind this is the Scala Santa.
BARRACKS OF THE EQUITES SINGULARES.
On the right of the Scala Santa, parallel with the Via Tasso, the Barracks of the Equites Singulares, or Horse Guards of the Emperors, of the time of Hadrian, were discovered in March 1886. A noble hall 90 feet long, containing many inscriptions, raised by the discharged veterans, was discovered; also fragments of statues, and one nearly perfect of the youthful Bacchus, a work that we may class with the school of Praxiteles.
THE SCALA SANTA
consists of twenty-eight marble steps, which, it is supposed, our Lord came down after his mock coronation in the judgment-hall of Pilate. The blood from his bleeding brow marked certain of the steps, and these are kissed by the ascending faithful, the knees of whom so wore away the marble that it is now covered with a wooden staircase, in which through slits the marble is seen. They are said to have been brought from Jerusalem (where it formed the stairs to Pilate's house) by the mother of Constantine. By ascending these stairs on the knees, a thousand years' indulgence is secured to those who believe it. Dickens said, "The sight was ridiculous in the absurd incidents inseparable from it—to see one man with an umbrella unlawfully hoist himself with it from stair to stair, and a demure old lady of fifty-five, looking back every now and then to assure herself that her legs were properly disposed." On the feast of the Assumption, the sacred picture "Acheirotopeton" (made without hands) is exposed to view. This picture is said to have been drawn in outline by S. Luke, and before he commenced to fill the colours in, it was found finished by invisible hands.
