The little round temple referred to on page 244, was once supposed to have been the temple of Vesta, but it is now quite certain that this was a mistake.  It is 50 feet in diameter and each of its 20 Corinthian columns which constitute the circular colonnade around it, is 32 feet high.  Wherever the Temple of Vesta may have stood, it is evident that from its eternal fires was borrowed the custom, still extant in Catholic churches, of keeping up a perpetual flame by means of tapers.  Six Vestal Virgins sworn to perpetual virginity, used to watch the sacred flame upon the altar in the Temple of Vesta, and it is an impressive sight to see the same sacred and eternal flame still burning around the High Altar in St. Peter’s.  From what may still be seen in Europe in general, and at Rome in particular, it is evident that all or nearly all of the emblems, forms and ceremonies of the early Catholic Church were borrowed from ancient mythology.

Obelisks and Fountains.

The many magnificent fountains of Rome are all adorned with groups representing characters of ancient mythology, as is the case with nearly all the fountains of Europe and America, even unto this day, and the half a dozen or more obelisks of Rome are likewise monuments of the heathen origin of modern civilization.  These, it seems, were first erected and dedicated to the sun, as we may infer from the fact that globes representing the sun surmount them.  Since the introduction of the Christian religion, a figure of St. Peter with the cross is placed upon some of them.  Hence, the development of religious ideas stands chronologically thus:  First, Sun-worship and afterwards the elevation of St. Peter, and of the Cross.  Judging from what we see on ancient monuments and in the churches, it is perhaps a fair question, whether St. Peter, the Virgin and other saints were not at one time quite as much the’ object of worship, as Christ himself?

St. Peter’s.

“St. Peter’s stands on the site of the circus of Nero, where many Christians were martyred and where St. Peter is said to have been buried after his crucifixion.”  An oratory (chapel?) stood here as early as A.D. 90.  In 309 a basilica, half the size of what St. Peter’s now is, was begun by Constantine.  It was the grandest church of that time.  “The crypt is now the only remnant of this early basilica.”  The building of the present edifice was commenced in 1506 by Julius II.  Michael Angelo worked 17 years at it (to 1564).  It was completed and “consecrated by Pope Urban VIII., on 18th November, 1626, on the 1300th anniversary of the day on which St. Silvester is said to have consecrated the original edifice.”