Up this Way, it is likely, Titus brought up the spoils he had taken in his overthrow of the City of Jerusalem. The spoils consisted of the “Ark of the Covenant,” overlaid round about with gold, the golden pot that had manna, “and Aaron’s rod that budded.” Heb., chapter 9, verse 4. From this vantage ground we could see Rome, regal Rome, republican Rome, and in the distance St. Peter’s and the Vatican, and many hundreds of other churches and prominent buildings which hold the records of ecclesiastical Rome.
We visited, of course, the grand church or cathedral of St. Peter. This is the one thing we _must_ see. This is the goal of millions of pious pilgrims from all lands, and at all seasons. I noticed in our illustrated papers of about November, 1908, the Pope had been celebrating his fifty years of priesthood, there was a great procession of thirty-six Cardinals, four hundred Bishops, fifty thousand spectators, and St. Peter’s offerings were asked for by His Holiness for chalices for the poorer churches. The Duchess of Norfolk presented £500 as a response. The Pope was carried shoulder high in the Sedia Gestoria, over the heads of the vast masses, and as he was borne aloft, he bestowed his blessings on all sides, and amongst all classes of people. Passing over or through the vast throng he was placed on his golden throne, whence he grants his indulgences and extends to his flock sympathy and prayers.
When we got within sight of the noble building we were constrained to stand still and look and let our thoughts and feelings have full play, for just then they were of a very mixed character, as we thought of Rome and its history, of this building and its surroundings, and what it meant. At the entrance we could see right through the large Piazza or Square, in the centre of which is an obelisk, I think Egyptian in character. On either side are fountains throwing their sparkling waters from almost innumerable jets. Then there are colonnades also, and 284 columns, each column is about 40-feet high, and on the column a statue about 16-feet high, these give an idea of the vastness of the building beyond. The obelisk in St. Peter’s Square weighs 3,270 tons—it is said that the ship that brought it from Egypt was so large that the Emperor Claudius had it sunk at the mouth of the Tiber to serve as part of the foundations for the outward wall of the Port of Ostia, in the year 39 A.D.