THE CURIA
distinguished bishops as signal favours. The Pope alone can wear the Fisherman's Ring, which is a simple steel ring bearing the name of the Pope and an engraved picture showing St. Peter sitting in a barque and casting out his net. The Papal staff is not crooked the episco- pal staff is the sign of the limited jurisdiction of the bishop but bears on the end of its gilded staff of silver a Greek cross which has only one cross bar, equal in length to the bar itself. A Cross having two cross bars is not liturgical and is used only in the coat of arms of patriarchs and archbishops. The sedia of the Pope is always ac- companied by functionaries carrying huge fans of ostrich feathers such as the jovial Pope Guilio employed on his jaunts of pleasure to cool the air. They are designed only to create an atmosphere of picturesque pomp but do manage to convey a faint impression of distant, Oriental majesty.
The Vatican displays its entire splendour only on rare occasions. Today St. Peter's is adorned as of old on the day of the Coronation Mass, before canonizations, and on a very few other occasions. Then however, it affords a pageant of such a perfection, gorgeousness and dignity, arranged in the best of taste, as mankind has probably not been able to duplicate since the collapse of the world dominion of Spain. It was not in vain that Romans of princely blood and artists influenced by the Orient joined to create this lordliness. It is a ju- bilant outpouring of all the sensible beauty of colour, form and sound; and yet it is given inner meaning by the solemnity of a rich and per- tinent liturgy. The "Father of Princes and Kings, the Governor of the round earth," tendering mystical service before the invisible Mas- ter of heaven and earth, the highest power of the world kneeling in prayer before the All Highest no idea could find its visible expres- sion in a more majestic way.
The Pope is always carried when he appears in his pontifical robes. Seated on the golden chair which is borne on the shoulders of the bearers, he blesses the multitude as he slowly moves along above it. In the procession of the Blessed Sacrament, a frie-dieu is placed in front of the sedia and on this the Pope kneels with the monstrance in his hands. The weight of the robes is so great that he could not move unless he had train and mantle bearers. Over the white soutane the white silk of the falda falls in folds to the ground. Over it is
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