70 THE STONES OF VENICE

unworthy thenceforward to go forth with him to the work,* how wonderful would he have thought it, that by the lion symbol in future ages he was to be represented among men! how woful, that the war-cry of his name should so often reanimate the rage of the soldier, on those very plains where he himself had failed in the courage of the Christian, and so often dye with fruitless blood that very Cypriot Sea, over whose waves, in repentance and shame, he was following the Son of Consolation!

§ 2. That the Venetians possessed themselves of his body in the ninth century, there appears no sufficient reason to doubt, nor that it was principally in consequence of their having done so, that they chose him for their patron saint.¹ There exists, however, a tradition that before he went into Egypt he had founded the church at Aquileia, and was thus in some sort the first bishop of the Venetian isles and people. I believe that this tradition stands on nearly as good grounds as that of St. Peter having been the first bishop of Rome;† but, as usual, it is enriched by various later additions and embellishments, much resembling the stories told respecting the church of Murano. Thus we find it recorded by the Santo Padre who complied the “Vite de’ Santi spettanti alle

* Acts xiii. 13, xv. 38, 39.

† The reader who desires to investigate it may consult Galliciolli, “Delle Memorie Venete” (Venice, 1795), tom, ii., p. 332, and the authorities quoted by him.

porches stand, and it forms a convenient seat, about two feet wide, between the bases of these pillars, the lower plinth forming the step to it. The common people sleep or lounge upon it nearly all day, except when it is occupied as a counter by the vendors of toys, mats, or books, noticed in the appendix to vol. i.” [Vol. IX. p. 472 and cf. § 15 below.]

With regard to this base, and in relation to the appearance of the edifice generally, it should be remembered that “the raising of the level of the Piazza has somewhat detracted from the elevation of both the basilica and the palace. Fynes Moryson notes in his ltinerary (1617) that ‘there were stairs of old to mount out of the marketplace into the church, till the waters of the channel increasing, they were forced to raise the height of the market-place’” (T. Okey’s Venice, p. 222). For some other remarks on the base of St. Mark’s, see in the next volume, Final Appendix (1).]

¹ [With the opening paragraphs of this chapter the reader should compare St. Mark’s Rest, ch. viii., where Ruskin emphasises more strongly than here “what the church had been built for,” namely, to be “a chapel over the cherished grave” of St. Mark. The “Travellers” Edition” omits from this point down to line 10 in § 8.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]