“For the archaeologist the presence and execution of SS.  Peter and Paul in Rome are facts established beyond a shadow of doubt by purely monumental evidence.  There was a time when persons belonging to different creeds made it almost a case of conscience to affirm or deny a priori those facts, according to their acceptance or rejection of the tradition of any particular church.  This state of feeling is a matter of the past, at least for those who have followed the progress of recent discoveries and of critical literature.  There is no event of the Imperial age and of Imperial Rome which is attested by so many noble structures, all of which point to the same conclusion—­the presence and execution of the apostles in the capital of the Empire.  When Constantine raised the monumental basilicas over their tombs on the Via Cornelia and the Via Ostiensis; when Eudoxia built the Church ad Vincula; when Damascus put a memorial tablet in the Platonia and Catacombos; when the houses of Pudens and Aquila and Prisca were turned into oratories; when the name of Nymphae Sancti Petri was given to the springs in the catacombs of the Via Nomentana; when the 29th of June was accepted as the anniversary of St. Peter’s execution; when sculptors, painters, medallists, goldsmiths, workers in glass and enamel, and engravers of precious stones all began to reproduce in Rome the likeness of the apostle at the beginning of the second century, and continued to do so till the fall of the Empire—­must we consider them as laboring under a delusion, or conspiring in the commission of a gigantic fraud?  Why were such proceedings accepted without protest from whatever city, whatever community—­if there were any other—­which claimed to own the genuine tombs of SS.  Peter and Paul?  These arguments gain more value from the fact that the evidence on the other side is purely negative.”

This is one of those practical arguments which are always more interesting than those which depend upon theories and opinions.  However, there are many books on both sides of the question which may be consulted.  We are content to follow Signor Lanciani.  The special sanctity and importance of Il Borgo originated in this belief.  The shrine of the apostle was its centre and glory.  It was this that brought pilgrims from the far corners of the earth before there was any masterpiece of art to visit, or any of those priceless collections which now form the glory of the Vatican.  The spot of the apostles’ execution was indicated “by immemorial tradition” as between the two goals (inter duas metas) of Nero’s Circus, which spot Signor Lanciani tells us is exactly the site of the obelisk now standing in the piazza of St. Peter.  A little chapel, called the Chapel of the Crucifixion, stood there in the early ages, before any great basilica or splendid shrine was possible.