Note 563 — Chapter III

We may here notice the precious Romish relic known as St. Peter’s chair. In June, 1867, the present pontiff ordered the bronze covering with which this object of veneration had been concealed for two hundred years to be removed, and the chair was found to be a solid oaken structure with iron rings, by which it could be carried like the sella gestatoria, in which the popes are borne in religious processions, and covered in part with ivory plates on which are engraved the labours of Hercules and other scenes. This chair, which is commemorated in one of the festivals of the church, Romish tradition asserts to be that in which St. Peter sat while exercising episcopal authority at Rome, and in which it is presumed he was borne in state, like those haughty pontiffs who claimed to be his successors. It is supposed to have been preserved during the ages of persecution in the crypts of the Catacombs; indeed, tradition identifies the Catacomb of Ostrianus on the Appian Way as the scene where this relic was venerated in the early centuries. Those who regard the fact of Peter’s presence in Rome as exceedingly hypothetical, and who altogether reject the notion of his episcopal authority, will regard any refutation of this legend as superfluous.

An inscription is shown said to have been engraved by St. Peter himself, also the font at which he baptized! (See Fig. 131.)