[143] It dates from the year 1535, when Paul III. permitted his majordomo Boccaferri to assume on his coat-of-arms, as an additament of honor (in the language of blazonry), one of the lilies or fleurs-de-lis of the Farnese family. If the subject prefer to do so, he may bear the Pope’s arms on a canton, carry them on an inescutcheon, or impale instead of quartering them.
[144] While writing this, we hear of the elevation to the purple of the majordomo Monsignor Pacca, whom we have had the honor, when a private chamberlain to the Pope, of knowing and of serving under. He was one of the most popular prelates at the Vatican for his urbanity and attention to business. He is a patrician of the bluest blood of Beneventum and nephew to the celebrated Cardinal Pacca, so well known for his services to Pope Pius VII. and for his interesting Memoirs.
[145] The grated prison for such offenders was a chamber deep down among the vaults of the Cellarium Majus of the Lateran.
[146] This office still exists, and is one of the important charges at the papal court which is always held by a layman. It was hereditary in the famous Conti family until its extinction in the last century, when it passed, after a considerable interval, on the same condition into that of Ruspoli as the nearest representative of that ancient race.
[147] Ambassadors and foreign ministers accredited to the Holy See claim the right of presentation or of access through the Cardinal Secretary of State.
[148] It is well to observe that briefs are not sealed with the original ring, which does not go out of the keeper’s custody except the Pope demand it, but with a fac-simile preserved in the Secreteria de Brevi. Since June, 1842, red sealing-wax, because too brittle and effaceable, is no longer used; but in its stead a thick red ink, or rather pigment, is employed.
[149] In England, by a similar fiction, the king (or queen) is imagined to preside in the Court of King’s Bench.
[150] The first convent of the Dominicans in Rome, at Santa Sabina on the Aventine, was in part composed of a portion of the Savelli palace, in which Honorius, who belonged to this family, generally resided, so that their founder could not help remarking the misbehavior of the loungers about the court. He did not go out of his way to find fault.
[151] There was a somewhat similar office of very ancient institution at the imperial court of Constantinople, the holder of which was called Epistomonarcha.
[152] Peter Filargo was a Greek from the island of Candia, which may account for his love of what at a pontiff’s table corresponded to the symposium of the ancients—a species of after-dinner enjoyment, when, wine being introduced, philosophical or other agreeable subjects were discussed.