Chapter 1
THE THREE CHAIRS IN THE VATICAN BASILICA
THE Church of Rome is never weary of boasting unbroken continuity in her traditions and dogmas. She appeals to antiquity with seeming confidence. She glories in her ritual, which in many instances, she declares, dates from the apostles. Until the entrance of liberty, in 1870, she had possession of the sites, and sepulchers, and catacombs of the Eternal City; and she dealt with them as she did the written Word—some were suppressed, others altered, and all were treated by persons who, not having the ideas of those who produced them, could never grasp their hidden meanings, and who were thus obliged to read into them the thoughts of their own minds. This will become increasingly clear as we proceed in the study of the "chair" as a symbol among Christians, and especially among the early Roman Christians.
In St. Peter's Church there are really three chairs, which, because they throw light on each other, we shall study in the order of their antiquity.
The first is the chair of bronze in the apse of the great basilica. This was designed by Bernini, by order of Alexander VII. The height of the whole work, from the pavement, is about seventy feet, and it cost twenty-five thousand pounds. The metal weighed more than seven tons.
On pedestals of marble, four immense statues, representing the four doctors of the Church—St. Ambrose and St. Augustine for the Western, and St. Chrysostom and St. Athanasius for the Eastern—support a chair, beautiful in form and ornamented in the bronze with finely-chiseled arabesques. In the front of this chair is a bas-relief, representing our Lord giving the keeping of His flock to St. Peter. Two genii support the Papal tiara and the keys. Two angels stand one on each side, and a dove on the wing sends down rays and light from above. Inside this gorgeous work of art is preserved the chair which is called the "holy seat," which is exposed to view only once in every hundred years, because it is regarded as too holy for ordinary occasions. This seat, behind its veil of mystery, is the object of Catholic devotion and the supposed center of immense miraculous virtue. Roman controversialists, when they meet with references in the "Fathers" to the chair of an apostle, seem unable to conceive them to have been symbolical, and insist that they refer, not to the form of the apostle's doctrine, but to the material seat.
Here, however, in St. Peter's we have a chair which seeks to be symbolical in all its parts, and is the center of a system of symbols. No one thinks it was made to sit in, or that the surroundings are other than symbolical. The symbolism is pagan in the genii, false as far as the angels and doctors are concerned, and blasphemous in its reference to the Holy Spirit, Who does not shed His gifts on bronze and rotten wood.
The second chair is the one on the right hand of the nave near the dome. It is occupied by the bronze statue which is kissed by all true Catholics who visit the basilica, and who have thus kissed some of the toes of the right foot out of existence. Many hold that this statue is merely an old image of the Roman Jupiter, with another head in place of the classical one. No one supposes it to be of the first century, or supposes it to have any resemblance to the apostle. Modern archaeological opinion, based on the style of the work, refers it to the fifth century. It is dressed in gorgeous pontifical robes on every solemn occasion, just as the statue of Hercules was in his temple on the Tiber, when the Roman army gained a victory.
Special forms of prayer are authorized to be said before the statue, and one hundred days of indulgence promised for each recitation of them, forty days for each kiss of the foot, and miracles may be expected occasionally by the very devout.
The third chair is the one enclosed in or behind the bronze of Bernini. This is the so-called "holy chair of St. Peter," preserved in the holiest place of the holiest church of the Roman Catholic world, and surrounded with all the reverence and honor and pomp and glorification possible. This is the apex of the Papal pyramid, the keystone of the Papal arch. The material of this chair is wood; most of it, however, has been replaced, and what remains of the original is in an advanced state of decay. The length of it is 3 feet 9 inches, the breadth is 1 foot 8 inches, the height is 2 feet 1 inch. The back is triangular, and at the highest point it is four feet high.
Now the first thing that strikes the unprejudiced observer is that it could hardly have been designed for one individual, but that it was probably made for the use of two persons in some public place. The style of the work brings it down to the fifth century. On each side there are two iron rings, evidently made to support it when carried in procession, and these are of very inferior and late workmanship. The rings are so slender that if anyone had occupied the chair when it was suspended from these, his neck would have been endangered. The rings, therefore, indicate that the seat was to be carried without any great weight in it. Tradition indicates that in the fourth century a double seat was placed, not in the Basilica of Constantine, but in the adjoining baptistry, whence it was removed in the eighth century. That baptistry was erected by Bishop Damasus. There is just a possibility that this seat may be the one referred to, and it, therefore, carries us back to that date.
Now, if for the sake of argument we concede this much to the Roman Catholic Church, we must be allowed to fill up the emptied spaces in the back of the seat with decorations which belong to that period. This would oblige us to put figures of the two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul—the supposed founders of the Church in Rome—one on each side, while the unfilled circle would contain the usual monogram of Christ. This is the earliest date that archaeological research can give to the chair, which date all will allow to be at an immense distance from the times of the apostles.
The gilded glass cups which have been found in the catacombs, and which are preserved in the Vatican Museum, throw definite light on the chair in St. Peter's, and enable us to complete the restoration. The use of gold in this way indicates Byzantine influence, which is late. The bad spelling, even of the names of our Lord, shows advanced decadence in language. The monogram shows them to be not earlier than the fourth century, and the name of Damasus, who died in 384, shows that some of them are probably as late as the beginning of the fifth century. The copies on opposite page of some of these designs in gold on glass will sufficiently represent the state of opinion on these subjects at the close, say, of the fourth century.
No. 1 shows Peter and Paul on the same level; No. 2 the same apostles with a single crown between them; No. 3 shows them sitting, each holding a book; No. 4 presents Paul and Peter sitting on a double seat, like the one in Rome, with the monogram above them. In No. 5 Christ is between them, presenting crowns of victory. In No. 6 two saints occupy the upper half of the circle, the two apostles the lower, and two large monograms the center. In No. 7 the apostles and two popes occupy nearly all the space, while the monogram of Christ is at vanishing point. In No. 8 Christ has disappeared, the seat is enlarged for three persons, the two apostles are divided and no longer have the Gospels in their hands, while the giant proportions of St. Lawrence occupy all the center. Now, the structure of the chair in St. Peter's evidently belongs to the period indicated by the design in No. 4, a period of rapid transition, of deepening artistic and religious darkness, when the dominant sentiment of paganism prevailed, and the local god—in the form of the local saint—took the power and dethroned the conception which was more Catholic and Christian. St. Lawrence was a Roman martyr, and his memory struck the Roman imagination with greater force than either St. Peter or St. Paul.
We now come to the most conspicuous part of this chair, which, while the others have fallen into decay, or disappeared altogether, remains in its full original significance. It consists of eighteen squares of ivory inserted in the front of the seat. In each square is engraved one of the works, or lying miracles, of Hercules. Hercules was one of the pagan heroes, a child of double adultery, of celestial and earthly apostasy, symbol of brute force and unbridled lust. In these designs, as in an infernal ark, are preserved the outlines of paganism, the ideals of evil: hydras, stags with brazen feet, boars and centaurs, birds with brazen claws, and wings, and beaks; mad bulls, man-eating horses, giants, a monster with three human bodies, vultures, and dragons, and Cerberus from the depths of hell, all waiting to be embodied in the kingdom of Antichrist, at the apocalypse of Satan.
The design, however, that requires our special attention is the HYDRA with nine heads, the one in the midst being immortal: when separated from the body it still lives. Here is the mystery of the Vatican.
We may well ask, How did these things come about? How did this one head of paganism survive? How did the ivory designs, which seem from their style to be of early date, become inserted in the seat which is of the fifth century? How could anyone who knew the representative value of the chair and of these monstrosities unite them? How did they, when united, find their way into the Christian church, usurp the central position, and become objects of worship, and remain as they now are for many centuries?
Notice, lastly, that the number of the great deeds of Hercules are increased from twelve to eighteen, and the eighteen hieroglyphs are arranged in THREE ROWS OF SIX EACH-6. 6. 6. "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six."
“And upon" his "forehead was a name written: MYSTERY.”