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.

This sacred spot, and the church built to commemorate it, were naturally
the centre of all those religious traditions which separate Rome from
every other city. It was to preserve them from assault, "in order that
it should be less easy for the enemy to make depredations and burn the
Church of St. Peter, as they have heretofore done," that Leo IV, the
first pope whom we find engaged in any real work of construction, built a
wall round the mound of the Vatican, and Colle Vaticano--"little hill,"
not so high as the seven hills of Rome--where against the strong wall
of Nero's Circus Constantine had built his great basilica. At that
period--in the middle of the ninth century--there was nothing but the
church and shrine--no palace and no hospital. The existing houses were
given to the Corsi, a family which had been driven out of their island,
according to Platina, by the Saracens, who shortly before had made an
incursion up to the very walls of Rome, whither the peoples of the coast
(_luoghi maritimi del Mar Terreno_) from Naples northward had apparently
pursued the corsairs, and helped the Romans to beat them back. One other
humble building of some sort, "called Burgus Saxonum, Vicus Saxonum,
Schola Saxonum, and simply Saxia or Sassia," it is interesting to know,
existed close to the sacred centre of the place, a lodging built for