(Vol. vi., p. 604.; Vol. vii., pp. 96. 143.) B. H. C. asks for the authority on which is based the statement, that this statue was undoubtedly cast for a St. Peter, and cast in the time of St. Leo the Great (440-461). As the subject involves three questions, I will answer each separately. 1. Was this statue cast for a St. Peter, or is it an ancient statue that had been found in the Tiber; or the ancient statue of Jupiter Capitolinus? That it must have been cast for a St. Peter will be readily allowed, after a careful examination, by any one at all accustomed to compare Pagan and Christian statues. The left hand holding the keys and the right hand raised in benediction, are unmistakeable evidences of the personage represented. 2. What authority is there for believing it to have been cast in the pontificate of St. Leo? The authority is, first, a constant and very ancient tradition to that effect; secondly, a tradition that this same statue belonged to the ancient church of St. Peter's; and, thirdly, the almost unanimous belief in this tradition amongst the antiquaries and archæologists--local and at a distance, deceased and living. This tradition is mentioned by most writers on the Basilica of St. Peter's: "A destra evoi, in somma venerazione tenata, una statua in bronzo dell' apostolo S. Pietro, _simulacro formato, secondo la pia tradizione, a tempi di S. Leone I._ detto il grande," &c.--_Melchiorri_, p. 181., ed. 1840. "On the right hand is a statue, held in very great veneration, of bronze, of the Apostle St. Peter: a figure cast, according to the pious tradition, in the time of St. Leo I., named the Great." Tradition also asserts, that the statue belonged to the old church of St. Peter's: "The seated bronze statue of St. Peter, _which belonged to the ancient church_, is said to have been cast in the time of Leo the Great."--_Rome, Ancient and Modern_, by J. Donovan, D.D., vol. i. p. 314. There may now be seen, in what was part of old St. Peter's, and is now called the "Grotte Vecchie," where the old flooring still remains--the old base of the bronze figure of St. Peter. It is {211} kept in the aisle to the left, as you enter the Grotte Vecchie; and was the pedestal of the statue till it was removed from the crypt by Paul V., as Melchiorri informs us. The old base was left _in situ_, and a new one made, which is the chair of white marble, with the whole surface wrought in arabesque bas-relief, upon a pedestal of light coloured alabaster, with a central tablet of granite, called "granito verde."