Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Vol III | Page 9

and
brown, uplifted, mid her russet hills and wilderness of rolling plain; by
Chiusi, with its sepulchral city of a dead and unknown people; through
the chestnut forests of the Apennines; by Orvieto's rock, Viterbo's
fountains, and the oak-grown solitudes of the Ciminian heights, from
which one looks across the broad lake of Bolsena and the Roman plain.
Brilliant sunlight, like that of a day in late September, shone upon the
landscape, and I thought--Can this be Christmas? Are they bringing
mistletoe and holly on the country carts into the towns in far-off
England? Is it clear and frosty there, with the tramp of heels upon the
flag, or snowing silently, or foggy with a round red sun and cries of
warning at the corners of the streets?

I reached Rome on Christmas Eve, in time to hear midnight services in
the Sistine Chapel and S. John Lateran, to breathe the dust of decayed
shrines, to wonder at doting cardinals begrimed with snuff, and to
resent the open-mouthed bad taste of my countrymen who made a
mockery of these palsy-stricken ceremonies. Nine cardinals going to
sleep, nine train-bearers talking scandal, twenty huge, handsome
Switzers in the dress devised by Michelangelo, some ushers, a choir
caged off by gilded railings, the insolence and eagerness of polyglot
tourists, plenty of wax candles dripping on people's heads, and a
continual nasal drone proceeding from the gilded cage, out of which
were caught at intervals these words, and these only,--'Sæcula
sæculorum, amen.' Such was the celebrated Sistine service. The chapel
blazed with light, and very strange did Michelangelo's Last Judgment,
his Sibyls, and his Prophets, appear upon the roof and wall above this
motley and unmeaning crowd.
Next morning I put on my dress-clothes and white tie, and repaired,
with groups of Englishmen similarly attired, and of Englishwomen in
black crape--the regulation costume--to S. Peter's. It was a glorious and
cloudless morning; sunbeams streamed in columns from the southern
windows, falling on the vast space full of soldiers and a mingled mass
of every kind of people. Up the nave stood double files of the Pontifical
guard. Monks and nuns mixed with the Swiss cuirassiers and halberds.
Contadini crowded round the sacred images, and especially round the
toe of S. Peter. I saw many mothers lift their swaddled babies up to kiss
it. Valets of cardinals, with the invariable red umbrellas, hung about
side chapels and sacristies. Purple-mantled monsignori, like emperor
butterflies, floated down the aisles from sunlight into shadow.
Movement, colour, and the stir of expectation, made the church alive.
We showed our dress-clothes to the guard, were admitted within their
ranks, and solemnly walked up toward the dome. There under its broad
canopy stood the altar, glittering with gold and candles. The choir was
carpeted and hung with scarlet. Two magnificent thrones rose ready for
the Pope: guards of honour, soldiers, attachés, and the élite of the
residents and visitors in Rome, were scattered in groups picturesquely
varied by ecclesiastics of all orders and degrees. At ten a stirring took
place near the great west door. It opened, and we saw the procession of

the Pope and his cardinals. Before him marched the singers and the
blowers of the silver trumpets, making the most liquid melody. Then
came his Cap of Maintenance, and three tiaras; then a company of
mitred priests; next the cardinals in scarlet; and last, aloft beneath a
canopy, upon the shoulders of men, and flanked by the mystic fans,
advanced the Pope himself, swaying to and fro like a Lama, or an Aztec
king. Still the trumpets blew most silverly, and still the people knelt;
and as he came, we knelt and had his blessing. Then he took his state
and received homage. After this the choir began to sing a mass of
Palestrina's, and the deacons robed the Pope. Marvellous putting on and
taking off of robes and tiaras and mitres ensued, during which there
was much bowing and praying and burning of incense. At last, when he
had reached the highest stage of sacrificial sanctity, he proceeded to the
altar, waited on by cardinals and bishops. Having censed it carefully, he
took a higher throne and divested himself of part of his robes. Then the
mass went on in earnest, till the moment of consecration, when it
paused, the Pope descended from his throne, passed down the choir,
and reached the altar. Every one knelt; the shrill bell tinkled; the silver
trumpets blew; the air became sick and heavy with incense, so that sun
and candle light swooned in an atmosphere of odorous cloud-wreaths.
The whole church trembled, hearing the strange subtle music vibrate in
the dome, and seeing the Pope with his own hands lift Christ's body
from the altar and present it to the people. An