28. _St. Francis releases Peter of Alesia from Prison._ "When Pope Gregory IX, was sitting in the chair of St. Peter, a certain man named Peter, of the city of Alesia, on an accusation of heresy, was carried to Rome, and, by command of the same Pontiff, was given in custody to the Bishop of Tivoli. He, having been charged to keep him in safety ... bound him with heavy chains and imprisoned him in a dark dungeon.... This man began to call with many prayers and tears upon St. Francis ... beseeching him to have mercy upon him.... About twilight on the vigil of his feast, St. Francis mercifully appeared to him in prison, and, calling him by his name, commanded him immediately to arise.... Then, by the power of the presence of the holy man, he beheld the fetters fall broken from his feet, and the doors of the prison were unlocked without anyone to open them, so that he could go forth unbound and free." Everything here gives the impression of height; the tall slim figures, the high doorway, and the slender tower and arches. St. Francis is seen flying up to the skies with the same swift motion the artist has given to the figure of St. Nicholas in the Lower Church, and the "Greek Chorus" to the left serves to show surprise at the unusual occurrence of a prisoner suddenly emerging from his prison with broken fetters in his hands. * * * * * None should leave the church without looking at the stalls in the choir; they are by Domenico da San Severino, made in 1501, by order, as an inscription tells us, of Francesco Sansone, General of the franciscan order, and friend of Sixtus IV. The artist only took ten years to execute this really wonderful work; the intarsia figures of the stalls in pale yellow wood, most of them fancy portraits of the companions of St. Francis, are remarkable for their form and character. They betray, in the opinion of Mr Berenson, Venetian influences of Crivelli and of the school of the Vivarini. [Illustration: ARMS OF THE FRANCISCANS FROM THE INTARSIA OF THE STALLS] FOOTNOTES: [95] St. Bonaventure was born in 1221 at Bagnora in Umbria, and became General of the franciscan order. Dante, in canto xii. of the _Paradiso_, leaves him to sing the praises of St. Dominic, just as the dominican divine St. Thomas Aquinas had related the story of St. Francis in the preceding canto. [96] We have used Miss Lockhart's translation of St. Bonaventure's _Legenda Santa Francisci_. [97] J. Ruskin, _Mornings in Florence_, iii. Before the Soldan. [98] xi. _Paradiso_, Cary's translation. [99] Dante, _Paradiso_, xi., Cary's translation. [100] A comparison may be made between the long and slender body of the saint here with that in the death of St. Francis in Sta. Croce, where the body is firmly drawn and of more massive proportions. CHAPTER IX _St. Clare at San Damiano. The Church of Santa Chiara._