DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0197
Ch. V. THROUGH ITALY. 167
solio quasi regio tribunali, celsa sede residen-
tem*.” However in spite of the example of St.
Martin and the censure of his disciple, the episco-
pal chair still continued to rise till it acquired the
name, the elevation and more than the usual splen-
dor of a throne. It does not indeed seem to have
reached its full magnificence till the middle of
the last century, when it appears to have arrived
at its acm&, not in Rome, as the reader may na-
turally imagine, but in the cathedral of Durham,
where the lord bishop sits enthroned in far more
than papal eminence, and looks down upon the
choir, the congregation, the altar, and the pulpit.
When the pope celebrates divine service, as on
Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, Whit Sunday,
St. Peter and St. Paul, &c. the great or middle
doors of the church are thrown open at ten, and
the procession formed of all the persons mention-
ed above, preceded by a beadle carrying the pa-
pal cross, and tw o others bearing lighted torches,
enters and advances slowly in two long lines be-
tween two ranks of soldiers up the nave. This
majestic procession is closed by the pontiff him-
self seated in a chair of state supported by twenty
valets half concealed in the drapery that falls in
* De Virt. B. Martini Dial. II.
solio quasi regio tribunali, celsa sede residen-
tem*.” However in spite of the example of St.
Martin and the censure of his disciple, the episco-
pal chair still continued to rise till it acquired the
name, the elevation and more than the usual splen-
dor of a throne. It does not indeed seem to have
reached its full magnificence till the middle of
the last century, when it appears to have arrived
at its acm&, not in Rome, as the reader may na-
turally imagine, but in the cathedral of Durham,
where the lord bishop sits enthroned in far more
than papal eminence, and looks down upon the
choir, the congregation, the altar, and the pulpit.
When the pope celebrates divine service, as on
Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, Whit Sunday,
St. Peter and St. Paul, &c. the great or middle
doors of the church are thrown open at ten, and
the procession formed of all the persons mention-
ed above, preceded by a beadle carrying the pa-
pal cross, and tw o others bearing lighted torches,
enters and advances slowly in two long lines be-
tween two ranks of soldiers up the nave. This
majestic procession is closed by the pontiff him-
self seated in a chair of state supported by twenty
valets half concealed in the drapery that falls in
* De Virt. B. Martini Dial. II.