Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/36

 ULTIRAH

14

L4T1RAH

lAteran, Canons Regulab of the. See Canons

AND CaNONEBSES ReQULAB.

Lateran, Christian Museum of, established by Pius IX, in 1854, in the Palazzo del Laterano erected by Sixtus V on part of the site of the ancient Lateran palace destroyed by fire in 1308. In 1843 the " pro- fane" Museum of the Lateran was founded by Greg- ory XVI, in whose pontificate also was mooted the idea of establishing a museum ol Christian antiquities in the same edifice. Nothing of consequence, how- ever, was accomplished until Pius IX, at .the date noted, entrusted the task to the two famous archae- ologists, Father Marchi, S.J., and Giovanni Battista de Rossi. To Marchi was assigned the work of col- lecting and arranging the sculptured monuments of tiie early Christian a^ges, to de Rossi all that con- cerned ancient Christian inscriptions; a third depart- ment of the museum consisted of copies of some of the more important catacomb frescoes. The larger part of the material for the new foundation was drawn from the hall in the Vatican Library set apart by Benedict XIV, in 1750, as the nucleus of a Cnristian museimi, from the storerooms of the Vatican, and from the Roman catacombs. The Roxnan munici- pality also contributed a number of Christian monu- ments from the Capitoline Museum, while many others were recovered frona convents, chapels, sac- risties, and private collections. Plaster casts were also supplied of certain especially interesting monu- ments that could not be removed from their orijginal location. The result has been eminently satisfac- tory, so much so indeed that the Christian Museum of the Lateran contains to-day a collection of monu- ments the study of which is mdispensable to a proper appreciation of the earlier ages of Christianity. The section devoted to early Christian e{)igraphy, classified by de Rossi, begins with a collection of mscriptions relating to the most ancient basilicas, baptisteries, etc.; then follow in order the Damasan inscriptions, inscriptions with consular dates, those containing allu- sions to dogma, to the hierarchy, civil matters, and accompanied with such symbols as the anchor, dove, and monograni. Still another section is occupied by monumento with inscriptions classified according to their topography. The most interesting, perhaps, of idl the mscribed monuments of the museum is that containing the famous epitaph of Abercius, one frag- ment of which was presented to Leo XIII by the Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the other by Professor (now Sir William) Ramsa^r. The sculptured monimients include a fine collection of fourth and fifth century 8Ut;ophagi, the statue of St. Hippolytus, and an ad.- mirable third-^entury statue of the Good Shepherd. The third section of the museum consists of copies, not always accurate, of some of the most interesting paintings discovered in the Roman catacombs.

NoRTHCOTE AND Brownlow, Roma SoUerranea (London, 1878-70); Northcx>tb, Epitaphs of the CtUacombt (London, 1878); Marucchi, Guxda del Muteo CrUUano LcUeranense (Rome, 1808).

Maubice M. Hassett.

Lateran, Saint John, — ^Thb Basilica. — ^This is the oldest, and ranks first among the four great "patri- archal" basilicas of Rome. The site was, in ancient times, occupied by the palace of the family of the Laterani. A member of this family, P. Sextius Lat- eranus, was the first plebeian to attain the rank of consul. In the time of Nero, another member of the family, Plautius Lateranus, at the time consul dssignatus was accused of conspiracv against the em- peror, and his goods were confiscated. Juvenal men- tions the palace, and speaks of it as being of some magnificence, "regise sedes Lateranorum". Some few remains of the original buildings may still be traced in the city walls outside the Gate of St. John, and a large hall decorated with paintings was unc-ov- ered in the eighteenth century within the basilica itself ,

behind the Lancellotti Chapel. A few traces of older buildings also came to lignt during the excavations made in 1880, when the work of extending the apse was in progress, but nothing was then discovered of real value or importance. The palace came event- ually into the hands of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, through his wife Fausta, and it is from her that it derived the name by which it was then some- times called, *'Domus Faustse". Constantine must have given it to the Church in the time of Miltiades, not later than about 311, for we find a council against the Donatists meeting within its walls as early as 313. From that time onwards it was always the centre of Christian life within the city; the residence of the popes and the cathedral of Rome. The latter distinc- tion it still holds, though it has Ions lost the former. Hence the proud title which may be read upon its walls, that it is *' Omniimi urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater, et caput '\

It seems probable, in spite of the tradition that Con- stantine helped in the work of building with his own hands, that there was not a new basilica erected at the Lateran, but that the work carried out at this period was limited to the adaptation, which perhaps involved the enlargement, of the already existing basilica or great hall of the palace. The words of St. Jerome " basilica quondam Laterani  (Ep. Ixxiii, P. L., XXII, col. 692) seem to point in this direction, and it is also probable on other grounds. This original church was probably not of very laree dimensions, but we have no reUable mformation on the subject. It was d^cated to the Saviour, Basihca Salvatoris, the dedication to St. John being of later date, and due to a Benedic- tine monastery of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist which adjoined the basilica and whose members were charged at one period with the duty of maintaining the services in the church. This later dedication to St. John has now in popular usage al- together superseded the original one. A great many donations from the popes and other benefactors to the basilica are recorded in the "Liber Pontificalis", and its splendour at an early period was such that it be- came known at the Basilica Aurea*', or Golden Church. This splendour drew upon it the attack of the Vandals, who stripped it of all its treasures. St. Leo the Great restored it about 460, and it was again r^tored by Hadrian I, but in 896 it was almost totally destroy ed by an earthquake (' ' ab altari usque ad port as cecidit "). The dams^ was so extensive that it was difficult to trace in every case the lines of the old build- ing, but these were in the main respected and the new bwlding was of the same dimensions as the old. This second church lasted for four hundred years and was then burnt down. It was rebuilt by Clement V am! John XXII, only to be burnt down once more in 1360, but again rebuilt by Urban V.

Through these various vicissitudes the basilica re* tained its ancient form, being divided by rows of col- imms into aisles, and having in front an atrium sur- rounded by colonnades with a fountain in the middle. The facade had three windows, and was embellished with a mosaic representing Christ as the Saviour of the world. The porticoes of the atrium were decorated with frescoes, probably not dating further back than the twelfth century, which commemorated the Roman fleet under Vespasian, the taking of Jerusalem, the Baptism of the Emperor Constantine and his ** Dona- tion" to the Church. Inside the basilica the columns no doubt ran, as in all other basilicas of the same date, the whole length of the church from east to west, but at one of the rebuildings, probably that which was carried out by Clement y, the feature of a transverse nave was introduced, imitated no dotibt from the one which had been, long before this, added at S. Paolo f uori le Mura. It was probably at this time also that the church was enlarged. When the popes returned to Rome from their long absence at Avignon they found