The legend which makes St. Peter the keeper of the gate of Paradise, with power to grant or refuse admission, is founded on the delivery of the keys to Peter. In most of the pictures which represent the entrance of the blessed into Paradise or the New Jerusalem, Peter stands with his keys near the gate. There is a beautiful example in the great fresco of Simone Memmi in the chapel _de’ Spagnuoli_ at Florence: St. Peter stands at the open portal with his great key, and two angels crown with garlands the souls of the just as they enter joyously hand in hand. [Illustration: 73 From the fresco of Simone Memmi, Florence (S. Maria Novella)] The legend of St. Petronilla, the daughter of St. Peter (in French, Sainte Pernelle), has never been popular as a subject of Art, and I can remember no series of incidents from the life of St. Peter in which she is introduced, except those in the Carmine at Florence. It is apparently a Roman legend, and either unknown to the earliest artists, or neglected by them. It is thus related:— ‘The apostle Peter had a daughter born in lawful wedlock, who accompanied him in his journey from the East. Being at Rome with him, she fell sick of a grievous infirmity which deprived her of the use of her limbs. And it happened that as the disciples were at meat with him in his house, one said to him, ‘Master, how is it that thou, who healest the infirmities of others, dost not heal thy daughter Petronilla?’ And St. Peter answered, ‘It is good for her to remain sick:’ but, that they might see the power that was in the word of God, he commanded her to get up and serve them at table, which she did; and having done so, she lay down again helpless as before; but many years afterwards, being perfected by her long suffering, and praying fervently, she was healed. Petronilla was wonderfully fair; and Valerius Flaccus, a young and noble Roman, who was a heathen, became enamoured of her beauty, and sought her for his wife; and he being very powerful, she feared to refuse him; she therefore desired him to return in three days, and promised that he should then carry her home. But she prayed earnestly to be delivered from this peril; and when Flaccus returned in three days with great pomp to celebrate the marriage, he found her dead. The company of nobles who attended him carried her to the grave, in which they laid her, crowned with roses; and Flaccus lamented greatly.’[194] The legend places her death in the year 98, that is, 34 years after the death of St. Peter; but it would be in vain to attempt to reconcile the dates and improbabilities of this story.