The fresco seizes the moment when the Pope, borne through the aisles of St. Peter's, is stopped, according to ancient usage, by the Master of the Ceremonies, who kindles a piece of tow dipped in spirit, and, as the light dies away, delivers the solemn warning, "Sancte Pater, Sic transit gloria mundi." The Pope, under the baldacchino, heavy with armorial bearings, and wearing the dark-blue mantle which accorded with the colours of his house, lifts his gloved fingers solemnly in blessing. He is painted here as an older man, already worn with anxiety. In the foreground two figures in Oriental dress remind us that assistance against the Turk was the mission to which the newly-made Pope had specially pledged himself. St. Peter's is, of course, the old basilica which was destroyed by Julius II. Fresco VIII. "Congress at Mantua." In pursuance of his proposed crusade, Pius II., in 1459, summoned the powers of Christendom to hold a congress at Mantua to consider the necessary measures. It lingered on for eight months, when war against the Sultan was formally declared, but gave occasion for more intrigues and self-seeking on the part of those assembled than for any real sacrifices for the cause. Pius II. is here represented directing the deliberations of the Congress. The person of distinction pleading with the Pope is said to be the Greek Patriarch, the envoys of the persecuted Eastern Christians are grouped in the foreground, Cardinals sit on the Pope's right hand, and others--princes, ecclesiastics, and suppliants--form a crowd behind. The arrangement of this scene is not happy. The figures are cut up in an awkward way and the perspective is questionable. It is redeemed by the airy arches and the charming landscape beneath them. [Illustration: _Alinari photo_] [_Library, Siena_ A GROUP OF MEN (A detail from Fresco IX.)] "A Sienese filling the Chair of St. Peter may well be the instrument to call a Sienese to sainthood, and that we do with holy joy." So spoke Pius II. in pronouncing between the claims of three holy Virgins, Rosa of Viterbo, Francesca of Rome, and Catherine of Siena. The superior claims of St. Catherine have been fully acknowledged by history: her influence in healing the great schism of the Urbanists and the Clementists, her saintly life, her magnetic personality, are sufficient reasons without adding the miracles with which she was credited.