THE SACRISTY OF ST. PETER’S

I am not going to give a detailed account of the magnificent and imposing Sacristy of St. Peter’s, because it is open to anyone who cares to give the Sacristan a small fee. Nothing is more surprising to the untravelled Englishman than the way in which anyone who is not absolutely disreputable is allowed to stray into the sacristies of Italian churches and cathedrals, even when they are being used by robing and unrobing priests. The sacristy is almost as open to the public as the church itself. But I should be wrong if I did not point out briefly certain objects in the Sacristy of St. Peter’s which no one should omit to see. It is entered by a door in the left aisle; you go along an important-looking passage, where you imagine that you must be trespassing, until you reach the splendid octagonal Sagrestia Commune, embellished with fluted marble columns from Hadrian’s Villa. Four minor chambers lead off this: the Sagrestia dei Canonici, leading into the Stanza Capitolare--that is, the Chapter House, on the left; and on the right the Sagrestia dei Beneficiati, leading into the Treasury. In the Chapter House are the only valuable paintings left in St. Peter’s--namely, the panels executed by Giotto for the Confessio of Old St. Peter’s, and fourteen pieces of the celebrated frescoes by Melozzo da Forli, which were formerly, with some other pieces now in the Quirinal, in the cupola of the Church of SS. Apostoli. It must be remembered that until the loss of their temporal power the Popes had the Quirinal for their summer palace, so there is nothing unnatural in their sending to each palace part of the frescoes taken down in the rebuilding of the Church of SS. Apostoli. These frescoes of Melozzo da Forli[20] consist of angels playing musical instruments, and heads of the Apostles. The angels are perhaps the most beautiful figures among all the paintings of Rome. They are very spirited and exquisitely lovely, and Melozzo is such a rare and magnificent master that no opportunity should be lost of examining his work. There are also a few pictures of later painters of note. The traveller should not fail to note the glorious Oriental alabaster in the Sacristy; hardly anywhere will he see pieces of such singular beauty. The Treasury of St. Peter’s is not so interesting as the Treasury of the Sistine Chapel, for the Popes, since 1870, have used the latter so much more intimately than the former; but there are certain objects of great beauty and interest in the St. Peter’s Treasury. The most beautiful, perhaps, are the silver-gilt candlesticks sculptured by Benvenuto Cellini, which are used for the Papal Altar of St. Peter’s upon great occasions. They are not examples of Cellini’s most delicate handiwork, of which there are far finer examples in the Pitti Palace at Florence; but one does not know how much of the best Cellini work at the Pitti ought not by rights to be in the Vatican. Michel Angelo, also, is said to be responsible for the designs of the candelabra in the Treasury. Here, too, notice the beautiful chalice decorated with precious stones, which was given by the last of the Stuarts, the Cardinal of York, who was Cardinal Priest of St. Peter’s for more than half a century. What is vulgarly called the Dalmatic of Charlemagne, and should be called the Dalmatic of San Leone, _i.e._ St. Leo III., who crowned this monarch, is, writes Hare, said to have been embroidered at Constantinople for the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West. But it is a production, in any case, of the Byzantine artists in their best period. The Holy Roman Emperors used to wear it while serving as deacons at the Pope’s Altar during their Coronation Mass. “It was,” says Lord Lindsay, in his _Christian Art_, “in this dalmatic--then _semée_ all over with pearls and glittering with freshness--that Cola di Rienzi robed himself over his armour in the Sacristy of St. Peter’s, and then ascended to the Palace of the Popes, after the manner of the Cæsars, with sounding trumpets and his horsemen following him--his truncheon in his hand, and his crown on his head.” According to Lord Lindsay, the Saviour in glory is represented on the breast; the Transfiguration on the back, and Christ administering the Eucharist to the Apostles on the shoulders. It is quite stiff, almost like the hauberk of a knight, and not by any means so rusty or threadbare as one would expect. Here, too, are a ciborium by Donatello, and the Cross of the Emperor Justin, with whom Pope Hormisdas had the dramatic scene at the gates of Old St. Peter’s. The tiara of dull silver kept here belongs, not to the Pope, but to the miraculous image of St. Peter, whose foot is kissed by so many thousands annually in the nave of the cathedral. I have been unable to obtain definite information as to which tiara is alluded to by Hare in the following passage: “In the Papal tiara are set some of the jewels robbed in 1544 from the tomb and person of Maria, the wife of Honorius, daughter of Stilicho. Originally the Popes were only crowned with a low Phrygian mitre decorated with two peacock’s feathers, to which was added a single circlet of gold. Benedict XI. [_sic_][21] (at Avignon) (perhaps Boniface VIII.) added a second circlet, and Urban V. a third. The peacock’s feathers are of good omen, the flesh of this bird, according to S. Augustine, being held to be incorruptible.”

The attendants say that these jewels were carried off by the French and never returned. Paul III.’s treatment of the mausoleum of the wives of Honorius, when it was discovered in extending the foundations for the new cathedral, moves the indignation of even an ardent Roman Catholic like Mr. Marion Crawford: “In extending the foundations of the church, Paul the Third came upon the bodies of Maria and Hermania [_sic_], the two wives of Honorius, the Emperor who ‘disestablished’ paganism in favour of Christianity. They were sisters, daughters of Stilicho, and had been buried in their imperial robes, with many rich objects and feminine trinkets; and they were found intact, as they had been buried, in the month of February 1543. Forty pounds of fine gold were taken from their robes alone, says Baracconi, without counting all the jewels and trinkets, among which was a very beautiful lamp, besides a great number of precious stones. The Pope melted down the gold for the expenses of the building, and set the gems in a tiara, where, if they could be identified, they certainly exist to-day--the very stones worn by Empresses of ancient Rome.

“Then, as if in retribution, the Pope’s own tomb was moved from its place.”

The archives of St. Peter’s are kept above the Sacristy. All guide-books note, among many other manuscripts, the life of St. George, with admirable miniatures by Giotto, of which one is reproduced in this volume (see List of Illustrations).

I have only touched lightly on the Sacristy and the Treasury, and their principal objects of interest, because sightseers so often omit to visit them; not a few because they are unaware of the courtesy with which sacristies are shown.

the Canons of St. Peter’s.

_From Pistolesi’s “Il Vaticano.”_]