St. Paul is designated the illustrious doctor, the vase of election, the teacher of the nations, and preacher of truth throughout the world.—Egregie doctor Paule, vas electionis, doctor gentium, prædicator veritatis in universo mundo.—Ibid.
[560] Of these types are the portraits on a bronze medal found in the Catacomb of St. Domitilla, in the so-called tomb of Sts. Peter and Paul at St. Sebastian’s, and in the early sculptures, mosaics, and paintings generally.
[561] The scoffing Lucian, who may have conversed with some who witnessed the execution of St. Paul, describes him as “the bald-headed and long-nosed Galilæan, who mounted through the air into the third heaven.”—Γαλιλαῖος, ἀναφαλαντίας, ἐπίῤῥινος, ἐς τρίτον ουρανὸν ἀεροβατήσας.—Philopatris. Nicephorus and the Acts of Paul and Thecla describe him as bald—ψιλὸς τὴν κεφαλήν. The apocryphal Acts and Malalas add the epithets γλυκύς and χάριτος πλήρης, sweet, and full of grace.
[562] The cultus of Peter, the result of the growing conception of his primacy, was developed to a degree second only to that of Mary. Its extent and character in the ninth century are indicated by a mosaic in the triclinium of San Giovanni di Laterano at Rome, in which the apostle, seated on a lofty throne, with the keys of heaven and hell lying in his lap, is bestowing the pallium, or symbol of ecclesiastical power, on the most holy lord, Pope Leo—so he is designated—and the standard of battle on the Emperor Charlemagne, both of whom are kneeling at his feet. Beneath is the following prayer, addressed to Peter as to God: BEATE PETRE DONA VITA LEONI PPE BICTORIA CARLO REGI DONA, “Blessed Peter, give life to Pope Leo, and victory to King Charles.”
This religious cultus culminated in the erection of that noblest of all earthly temples, raised to the honour of a lowly fisherman, and in the idolatrous homage paid to the great bronze statue cast from that of Jupiter Capitolinus, if it be not indeed the identical statue of the heathen deity transformed into that of the Christian apostle and Romish saint.
[563] We may here notice the precious Romish relic known as St. Peter’s chair. In June, 1867, the present pontiff ordered the bronze covering with which this object of veneration had been concealed for two hundred years to be removed, and the chair was found to be a solid oaken structure with iron rings, by which it could be carried like the sella gestatoria, in which the popes are borne in religious processions, and covered in part with ivory plates on which are engraved the labours of Hercules and other scenes. This chair, which is commemorated in one of the festivals of the church, Romish tradition asserts to be that in which St. Peter sat while exercising episcopal authority at Rome, and in which it is presumed he was borne in state, like those haughty pontiffs who claimed to be his successors. It is supposed to have been preserved during the ages of persecution in the crypts of the Catacombs; indeed, tradition identifies the Catacomb of Ostrianus on the Appian Way as the scene where this relic was venerated in the early centuries. Those who regard the fact of Peter’s presence in Rome as exceedingly hypothetical, and who altogether reject the notion of his episcopal authority, will regard any refutation of this legend as superfluous.
An inscription is shown said to have been engraved by St. Peter himself, also the font at which he baptized! (See [Fig. 131].)
[564] It will be observed that in this chamber the Good Shepherd occupies the position of prominence and dignity in the compartment over the arcosolium, balanced by Daniel in the lions’ den and the three Hebrews in the furnace. On the left hand is a shelf for lamps, magnified in Romish imagination into a credence table for supporting the elements of the eucharist. In the ceiling are oranti and lambs.
[565] Rom. Sott., p. 268.