"Sous le règne de Paul IV., Palestrina faisait partie de la chapelle papale; mais il fut obligé de la quitter, parce-qu'il était marié. Il se retira alors dans une chaumière perdue au milieu des vignes du Mont Cœlius, et là, seul, inconnu au monde, il se livra, durant de longs jours, à cette extase de la pensée qui agrandit, au-delà de toute mesure, la puissance créatrice de l'homme. Le désir des Pères du concile lui ayant été manifesté, il prit aussitôt une plume, écrivit en tête de son cahier, 'Mon Dieu, éclairez-moi,' et se mit à l'œuvre avec un saint enthousiasme. Ses premiers efforts ne répondirent pas à l'idéal que son génie s'était formé; mais peu à peu ses pensées s'éclaircirent, et les flots de poésie qui inondaient son âme, se répandirent en mélodies touchantes. Chaque parole du texte retentissait clairement, allait chercher toutes les consciences, et les exaltait dans une émotion commune. La _messe du pape Marcel_ trancha la question; et Pie IV. s'écria, après l'avoir entendue, qu'il avait cru assister aux concerts des anges."--_Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne_, ii. 195. Following the lane of S. Stefano Rotondo--skirted by broken fragments of Nero's aqueduct--almost to its debouchment near St. J. Lateran, and then turning to the left, we reach the quaint fortress like church and convent of the _Santi Quattro Incoronati_ crowned by a stumpy campanile of 1112. The full title of this church is "I Santi quattro Pittori Incoronati e i cinque Scultori Martiri," the names which the Church attributes to the painters being Severus, Severianus, Carpoforus, and Vittorinus; and those of the sculptors Claudius, Nicostratus, Sinforianus, Castorius, and Simplicius,--who all suffered for refusing to carve and paint idols for Diocletian. Their festa is kept on Nov. 8. This church was founded on the site of a temple of Diana by Honorius I., A.D. 622; rebuilt by Leo IV. A.D. 850; and again rebuilt in its present form by Paschal II., who consecrated it afresh in A.D. 1111. It is approached through a double court, in which are many ancient columns,--perhaps remains of the temple. Some antiquaries suppose that the church itself was once of larger size, and that the pillars which now form its atrium were once included in the nave. The interior is arranged on the English plan with a triforium and a clerestory, the triforium being occupied by the nuns of the adjoining convent. The aisles are groined, but the nave has a wooden ceiling. Behind the tribune is a vaulted passage, partly subterranean. The tribune contains a marble throne, and is adorned with frescoes by _Giovanni di San Giovanni_.[168] In the right aisle are preserved some of the verses of Pope Damasus. Another inscription tells of the restoration of the church in the fifteenth century, and describes the state of desolation into which it had fallen.