Basilica of Saint John Lateran (Part 2)

The pavement of the basilica dates from Pope Martin V and the return of the popes to Rome from Avignon. Martin V was of the Colonna family, and the columns are their badge. The high altar, which formerly occupied the position customary in all ancient basilicas, in the centre of the chord of the apse, has now beyond it, owing to the successive enlargements of the church, the whole of the transverse nave and of the new choir. It has no saint buried beneath it, since it was not, as were almost all the other great churches of Rome, erected over the tomb of a martyr. It stands alone among all the altars of the Catholic world in being of wood and not of stone, and enclosing no relics of any kind. The reason for this peculiarity is that it is itself a relic of a most interesting kind, being the actual wooden altar upon which Saint Peter is believed to have celebrated Mass during his residence in Rome. It was carefully preserved through all the years of persecution, and was brought by Constantine and Sylvester from Saint Pudentiana's, where it had been kept till then, to become the principal altar of the cathedral church of Rome. It is now, of course, enclosed in a larger altar of stone and cased with marble, but the original wood can still be seen. A small portion was left at Saint Pudentiana's in memory of its long connection with that church, and is still preserved there. Above the High Altar is the canopy or baldacchino already mentioned, a Gothic structure resting on four marble columns, and decorated with paintings by Barna of Siena. In the upper part of the baldacchino are preserved the heads of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the great treasure of the basilica, which until this shrine was prepared to receive them had always been kept in the Sancta Sanctorum, the private chapel of the Lateran Palace adjoining. Behind the apse there formerly extended the "Leonine" portico; it is not known which pontiff gave it this name. At the entrance there was an inscription commemorating the dream of Pope Innocent VIII, when he saw the church of the Lateran upheld by Saint Francis of Assisi. On the opposite wall was hung the tabula magna, or catalogue of all the relics of the basilica, and also of the different chapels and the indulgences attached to them respectively. It is now in the archives of the basilica.

The Baptistery

The baptistery of the church, following the invariable rule of the first centuries of Christianity, was not an integral part of the church itself, but a separate and detached building, joined to the church by a colonnade, or at any rate in close proximity to it. The right to baptize was the peculiar privilege of the cathedral church, and here, as elsewhere, all were brought from all parts of the city to receive the sacrament. There is no reason to doubt the tradition which makes the existing baptistery, which altogether conforms to these conditions, the original baptistery of the church, and ascribes its foundation to Constantine. The whole style and appearance of the edifice bear out the claim made on its behalf. There is, however, much less ground for saying that it was here that the emperor was baptized by Saint Sylvester. The building was originally entered from the opposite side from the present doorway, through the portico of Saint Venantius. This is a vestibule or atrium, in which two large porphyry columns are still standing and was formerly approached by a colonnade of smaller porphyry columns leading from the church. The baptistery itself is an octagonal edifice with eight immense porphyry columns supporting an architrave on which are eight smaller columns, likewise of porphyry, which in their turn support the octagonal drums of the lantern. In the main the building has preserved its ancient form and characteristics, though it has been added to and adorned by many popes. Pope Sixtus III carried out the first of these restorations and adornments, and his inscription recording the fact may still be seen on the architrave. Pope Saint Hilary (461-468) raised the height, and also added the chapels round. Popes Urban VIII and Innocent X repaired it in more recent times.

In the centre of the building one descends by several steps to the basin of green basalt which forms the actual baptismal font. There is no foundation for the idea that the Emperor Constantine was himself actually baptized in this font by Pope Saint Sylvester. That is a confusion which has arisen from the fact that he was founder of the baptistery. But although he had embraced Christianity and had done so much for the advancement of the Church, the emperor, as a matter of fact, deferred the actual reception of the sacrament of baptism until the very end of his life, and was at last baptized, not by Sylvester, but by Eusebius, in whose diocese of Nicomedia he was then, after the foundation of Constantinople, permanently residing (Von Funk, Manual of Church History, London 1910, I 118-119; Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis, Paris 1887, I cix-cxx). The mosaics in the adjoining oratories are both ancient and interesting. Those in the oratory of Saint John the Evangelist are of the fifth century, and are of the conventional style of that period, consisting of flowers and birds on a gold ground, also a Lamb with a cruciform nimbus on the vault. The corresponding mosaics of the chapel of Saint John the Baptist disappeared in the seventeenth century, but we have a description of them in Panvinio. The mosaics in the chapel of Saint Venantius (the ancient vestibule) are still extant, and are of considerable interest. They date from the seventh century, and a comparison between the workmanship of these mosaics and of those in the chapel of Saint John offers an instructive lesson on the extent to which the arts had deteriorated between the fifth and the seventh centuries. The figures represent, for the most part, Dalmatian saints, and the whole decoration was originally designed as a memorial to Dalmatian martyrs, whose relics were brought here at the conclusion of the Istrian schism.

The Lateran Palace

From the beginning of the fourth century, when it was given to the pope by Constantine, the palace of the Lateran was the principal residence of the popes, and continued so for about a thousand years. In the tenth century Pope Sergius III restored it after a disastrous fire, and later on it was greatly embellished by Pope Innocent III. This was the period of its greatest magnificence, when Dante speaks of it as beyond all human achievements. At this time the centre of the piazza in front, where now the obelisk stands, was occupied by the palace and tower of the Annibaldeschi. Between this palace and the basilica was the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, then believed to represent Constantine, which now is at the Capitol. The whole of the front of the palace was taken up with the Aula Concilii, a magnificent hall with eleven apses, in which were held the various Councils of the Lateran during the medieval period. The fall of the palace from this position of glory was the result of the departure of the popes from Rome during the Avignon period. Two destructive fires, in 1307 and 1361 respectively, did irreparable harm, and although vast sums were sent from Avignon for the rebuilding, the palace never again attained its former splendour. When the popes returned to Rome they resided first at Santa Maria in Trastevere, then at Santa Maria Maggiore, and lastly fixed their residence at the Vatican. Pope Sixtus V then destroyed what still remained of the ancient palace of the Lateran and erected the present much smaller edifice in its place.

An apse lined with mosaics and open to the air still preserves the memory of one of the most famous halls of the ancient palace, the Triclinium of Pope Leo III, which was the state banqueting hall. The existing structure is not ancient, but it is possible that some portions of the original mosaics have been preserved. The subject is threefold. In the centre Christ gives their mission to the Apostles, on the left he gives the keys to Saint Sylvester and the Labarum to Constantine, while on the right Saint Peter gives the stole to Pope Leo III and the standard to Charlemagne. The private rooms of the popes in the old palace were situated between this Triclinium and the city walls. The palace is now given up to the Pontifical Museum of Christian Antiquities.

For the history of the basilica, the student should consult primarily the two quarto volumes of the Liber Pontificalis, edited by DUCHESNE (Paris, 1887 sqq.). Other monographs are JOANNES DIACONUS, Liber de Ecclesia Lateranensi in P.L.; ALEMANNI, De Lateranensibus parietinis (Rome, 1625); RASPONDI, De basilica et patriarchio Lateranensi (Rome, 1656); CRESCIMBENI AND BALDESCHI, Stato della S. Chiesa papale Lateranense nell' anno 1723 (Rome, 723); SEVERANO, Le sette chiese di Roma; UGONIO, Historia delle Stazioni di Roma; PANVINIO, De Septem urbis ecclesiis; PIAZZA, Stazioni di Roma. The latter four works were published in Rome in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
Among recent books the best are: ARMELLINI, Le chiese di Roma (Rome, 1891); MARUCCHI, Basiliques et Eglises de Rome (Rome, 1902); and in particular, DE FLEURY, Le Latran au moyen âge (Paris, 1877). There is a large nubmer of plans and manuscripts in the archives of the basilica. For special points consult also DE ROSSI, Musaici della chiese di Roma anteriori al secolo XV (Rome, 1872); DE MONTAULT, La grande pancarte de la basilique de Latran in Revue de l'art chrétien (Paris, 1886); GERSPACH, La Mosaïque apsidale des Sancta Sanctorum du Latran in Gazette des beaux arts, 1880; BARTOLINI, Sopra l'antichissimo altare di legno in Roma (1852).

ARTHUR S. BARNES
Transcribed by W.G. Kofron
With thanks to Saint Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIII
Copyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Reprinted by permission of copyright owner.