ek marble, and
their capitals are enriched with delicate sculpture, they, and the
arches they sustain, together only raise the roof to the height of a
cattle-shed; and the first strong impression which the spectator
receives from the whole scene is, that whatever sin it may have been
which has on this spot been visited with so utter a desolation, it could
not at least have been ambition. Nor will this impression be diminished
as we approach, or enter, the larger church to which the whole group of
building is subordinate. It has evidently been built by men in flight
and distress,[4] who sought in the hurried erection of their island
church such a shelter for their earnest and sorrowful worship as, on the
one hand, could not attract the eyes of their enemies by its splendor,
and yet, on the other, might not awaken too bitter feelings by its
contrast with the churches which they had seen destroyed. There is
visible everywhere a simple and tender effort to recover some of the
form of the temples which they had loved, and to do honor to God by that
which they were erecting, while distress and humiliation prevented the
desire, and prudence precluded the admission, either of luxury of
ornament or magnificence of plan. The exterior is absolutely devoid of
decoration, with the exception only of the western entrance and the
lateral door, of which the former has carved sideposts and architrave,
and the latter, crosses of rich sculpture; while the massy stone
shutters of the windows, turning on huge rings of stone, which answer
the double purpose of stanchions and brackets, cause the whole building
rather to resemble a refuge from Alpine storm than the cathedral of a
populous city; and, internally, the two solemn mosaics of the eastern
and western extremities,--one representing the Last Judgment, the other
the Madonna, her tears falling as her hands are raised to bless,--and
the noble range of pillars which enclose the space between, terminated
by the high throne for the pastor and the semicircular raised seats for
the superior clergy, are expressive at once of the deep sorrow and the
sacred courage of men who had no home left them upon earth, but who
looked for one to come, of men "persecuted but not forsaken, cast down
but not destroyed."

Sec. IV. I am not aware of any other early church in Italy which has this
peculiar expression in so marked a degree; and it is so consistent with
all that Christian architecture ought to expres