In his De Vitis Romanorum Pontificum, Anastasius Bibliothecarius* mentions the erection and restoration of baptisteries in connection with several churches in and near Rome, as those of S. Prassedef and S. Pudentiana‡ by Pius I. (A.D. 142-157); S. Anastasio, § SS. Rufina e Secunda, || and S. Pietro on the Appian Way ¶ by Hadrian I. (772-95); S. Susanna** and S. Andrea Apostolo on the Appian Way,tt by Leo III. (795-816); * Anastasius Bibliothecarius lived in the 9th century, and was present at the Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople in 869. He is the author of the Liber Pontificalis, which contains the lives of the Popes as far as Nicholas I. (A.D. 858), and of an Ecclesiastical History. Et rogavit Beatum Pium Episcopum (Virgo Praxides) ut Thermas Novati, quæ jam in usu non erant, ecclesiam dedicaret et placuit Sancto Pio Episcopo, et dedicavit. ecclesiam Thermas Novati, in nomine beatæ Praxedis Virginis, quam et titulum constituit in urbe Roma, in vico qui appellatur Laterica. In quo et baptisterium consecravit sub die tertio idus. majas. (Ex MS. Liberiano apud Anatasium, De Vitis Rom. Pont. cum notis Blanchiniï, t. ii. p. 124.) Hic ex rogatu Beatæ Praxidis dedicavit ecclesiam Thermas Novati in Vico patritii in honorem sororis suæ sanctæ Pudentianæ, ubi et multi dona obtulit, ubi sæpius sacrificium Domino offerent ministrabat; immo et fontem baptismi construi fecit, manu sua benedixit et consecravit, et multos venientes ad fidem baptizavit in nomine Trinitatis. (Anastasius, In Vita Pii.) § Basilica vero monasterio beati Anastasii Christi martyris, una cum baptisterio (Anastasius, In Vita Hadriani.) Imo et basilicam Stæ. Rufinæ et Secundæ, quæ ponitur in episcopio Silvæ Candidæ, quæ olitana vetustate marcuerat una cum baptisterio summo studio renovavit. (In Vita Hadriani.) ¶ Basilicam beati Petri Apostoli sitam Via Appia in Silice ultra sanctum Thomam Apostolum non procul a tricesimo, desolatione, ruinisque præventam a novo una cum baptisterio restaurans mole magnitudinis decoravit. (In Vita Hadriani.) ** Sed et baptisterium ibi constituit, et dona obtulit. (In Vita Leonis, sect. 365.) tt Sæpedictus vero antistes sanctissimus ecclesiæ beati Andræ Apostoli, sitæ in tricesimo Via Appia in Silice, sarta tecta noviter renovavit, una cum baptisterio et porticus. (In Vita Leonis, sect. 380.) S. Maria Maggiore and S. Maria in Trasteveret by Benedictus III. (855-58). Most of these were restorations. At S. Andrea Apostolo, the baptistery is expressly described as a large circular building, with a spacious basin in the centre. No vestiges of these baptisteries remain. Baths were frequently attached to the churches. Anastasius often mentions the construction of them; he tells us, for instance, that the Pope Symmachus erected a bath for the church of S. Pancrazio, near Rome, and that at the Basilica of St. Paul he introduced water behind the apsis, and constructed a bath (post absidem aquam introduxit ubi et balneum a fundamentis fecit, In Vita Symmachi). Blanchinius, the learned annotator of Anastasius, is of opinion that these baths were used for the administration of baptism by immersion, according to usage. (Ubi aquarum copia suppeteret ad baptismum per immersionem de more celebrandum. De Vitis Rom. Pont. cum notis Blanchinii, vol. iii. p. 36.) In his life of Marcellus, Pope of Rome A.D. 304, Anastasius informs us that twenty-five parochial churches were established by that prelate, in the city, for the administration of baptism to the multitudes, who were Et in basilica sanctæ Dei Genetricis, semperque Virginis Dominæ nostræ, quæ ad præsepe nuncupatur in qua vero basilica baptisterium destructum multo per tempora manserat, celeri studio, futuram sperans a Domino retributionem, restauravit, et ad pristinum statum perduci procuravit. (In Vita Benedicti III. sect. 567.) In ecclesia beatæ Dei Genetricis, semperque Virginis Mariæ Dominæ nostræ, quæ ponitur trans Tyberim porticum atque baptisterium cum sacratoria omnia et in omnibus sarta tecta noviter renovavit. (In Vita Benedicti, sect. 572.) Quia angustior locus populi existebat qui ad baptismum veniebat isdem præsul a fundamentis ipsum baptisterium in rotundum ampla largitate construens in meliorem erexit statum, atque sacrum fontem in medio largiori spatio fundavit, et in circuitu columnis porphyreticis decoravit, etc. (In Vita Leonis III. sect. 397.) brought over from paganism. (XXV. Titulos in urbe Roma constituit, quasi diœceses propter baptismum et pœnitentiam multorum, qui convertebantur ex paganis. In Vita Marcelli.) BAPTISTERY OF CONSTANTINE. We may now proceed to speak of this baptistery, which has been ascribed to Constantine, and in which some antiquarians have been willing to discover the remains of therma, or baths, originally within the precincts of the imperial palace. This building stands at a short distance from the church of St. John of Lateran, and now bears the name of San Giovanni in Fonte, an appellation usually given to the baptisteries in the peninsula. All this region was originally occupied by the house and gardens of a wealthy Roman, Plautius Lateranus, who was put to death by Nero.* The house, subsequently, became one of the imperial palaces. Constantine possessed it in his turn, until he left Rome for his new capital in the East. That this baptistery cannot be justly entitled to the name it bears, is sufficiently evident from the well-attested fact that Constantine, though he declared himself a Christian, postponed the rite, which was then believed to wash away the stain of every sin, till he found his end approaching, and then was baptized, not at Rome, but at Nicomedia. In fact, this baptistery was not constructed till the pontificate of Sixtus III., who died in A.D. 440. Anastasiust says that it was he who placed the eighth porphyry columns, which decorate the interior of the building. The probability is that these columns had been the ornament of some palatial mansion, a nymphæum, or baths, in the gardens of Lateranus; that * Rasponus, De Basilica Laterensis. Sixtus, wishing to construct a baptistery in connection with the Church of St. John, availed himself of these precious materials, and that the baptistery derived its name from the palace in which Constantine had once resided. In 1153, Anastasius IV. raised the walls of the building, and covered it with a new roof.* He must have added the second tier of smaller pillars, which support the attic. Other popes, at different times, contributed additional embellishments. Gregory XIII., in 1572, added the panelled ceiling. Urban VIII., in 1628, and Innocent X., in 1644, enriched the ceiling and the Fig. 23. PLAN OF BAPTISTERY OF CONSTANTINE. walls with frescoes by the best masters. A chapel opens out of each side of the baptistery; the one dedicated to John the Baptist, the other to John the Evangelist.† In the centre of the building is a magnificent circular basin, three feet deep, lined and paved with marble. It * occupies a large proportion of the building, being about twenty-five feet in diameter. Anastasius, in his Life of Pope Sylvester, and Damuscus,† describe the basin existing in their time as being of porphyry, and covered entirely both within and without with silver, the weight of which was estimated at three thousand and eight pounds. In the middle of the basin stood a column of porphyry, bearing on its top a golden phial full of precious ointment. On the edge of the font were figures of seven harts of solid silver, and a lamb in massive gold, which poured water into the basin, previous to the administration of baptism. The water was conducted to the font from the adjoining Claudian aqueduct, the remains of which are still seen. This magnificence is in harmony with the descriptions given of the baths in Rome, at the time of Agrippa, and the Emperors after Augustus, which were built and finished in a style of luxury almost incredible. In his Eighty-sixth Epistle, Seneca, who inveighs against this luxury, observes that "a person was held to be poor and sordid, whose baths did not shine with a profusion of the most precious materials, the marbles of Egypt inlaid with those of Numidia; unless the walls were laboriously stuccoed in imitation of painting; unless the chambers were covered with glass, the basins with rare Thasian stone, and the water conveyed with silver pipes." These were the luxuries of plebeian baths. Those of the freedmen and the nobility had "a profusion of statues, a number of columns supporting nothing, placed as an ornament merely on account of the expense; the water murmuring down the steps; and the |