A venerable monastery, tenanted by monks of the order of St.
Augustine, is attached to this church, upon whose brown-tiled roofs,
covered with gray and yellow lichens, and walls and windows of extreme
simplicity, the eye of the visitor gazes with deepest interest. For
this was the residence of Luther during his famous visit to Rome. He
came to this place in the fervour of youthful enthusiasm; his heart
was filled with pious emotions. He knelt down on the pavement when he
passed through the Porta del Popolo, and cried, "I salute thee, O holy
Rome; Rome venerable through the blood and the tombs of the martyrs!"
Immediately on his arrival he went to the convent of his own order,
and celebrated mass with feelings of great excitement. But, alas! he
was soon to be disenchanted. He had not been many days in Rome when he
saw that the city of the saints and martyrs was wholly given up to
idolatry and social corruption, and was as different as possible from
the city of his dreams. He cared not for the fine arts which covered
this pollution with a deceitful iridescence of refinement; and the
ruins of pagan Rome had no power to move his heart, preoccupied as it
was with horror at the monstrous wickedness which made desolate the
very sanctuary of God. When he ascended on his knees the famous Scala
Santa, the holy staircase near the Lateran Palace--supposed to have
belonged to Pilate's house in Jerusalem, down whose marble steps our
Saviour walked, wearing the crown of thorns and the emblems of mock
royalty which the soldiers had put upon him--he seemed to hear a voice
whispering to him the words, "The just shall live by faith." Instantly
the scales fell from his eyes, and he saw the miserable folly of the
whole proceeding; and like a man suddenly freed from fetters, he rose
from his knees, and walked firm and erect to the foot of the stairs.
He could not remain another day in the city. Returning to his
monastery, he there celebrated mass for the last time, and departed on