ried "in the basilica of the blessed Peter, in front of
the secretarium, in one of the intercolumniations of the portico."
This statement requires a few words of comment.

We have seen how the bishops of the age of persecutions were buried in
the underground cemeteries, with a marked preference for those of the
Via Appia and the Via Salaria. From the time of Sylvester (314-335) to
that of Leo the Great (440-461) they still sought the proximity of
martyrs, and obeyed the rule which forbade burial within the walls of
the city. Sylvester raised a modest mausoleum for himself and his
successors over the Cemetery of Priscilla, on the Via Salaria, the
remains of which have just been discovered.[109] Anastasius and
Innocent I. found their resting-place over the Cemetery of Pontianus,
on the road to Porto; Zosimus and Sixtus in the church of S. Lorenzo;
Boniface I. in that of S. Felicitas, on the Via Salaria.

The Vatican began to be the official mausoleum of the Popes with Leo
I. in 461. The place selected is not the interior of the church, but
the vestibule, and more exactly the space between the middle doorway
(the _Porta argentea_) and the southwest corner, occupied by the
_secretarium_, or sacristy, a hall of basilican shape in which the
Popes donned their official robes before entering the church. The
place can be easily identified by comparing the accompanying
reproduction of Ciampini's drawing of the front of the old basilica of
S. Peter's with the plan published in chapter iii., p. 127. For nearly
two and a half centuries they were laid side by side, until every inch
of space was occupied, the graves being under the floor, and marked by
a plain slab inscribed with a few Latin distichs of semi-barbaric
style. These short biographical poems have been transmitted to us,
with a few exceptions, by the pilgrims of the seventh and ninth
centuries, whose copies were afterwards collected in volumes, the most
important of which is known as the Codex of Lauresheim. At the time of
Gregory the Great there was but a small space left near the
secretarium. This was occupied by Pelasgius I., Johannes III.,
Benedict I., and a few others.

[Illustration: The Atrium of Old S. Peter's.]

Sergius I. (687-701) was the first who dared to cross the threshold of
the church, which he did, however, not for his own benefit, but to do
honor to the memory of Leo I. The inscription in which he describes
the event is too prolix to be given here. I