SEMPER. VIRGINI. PAULUS. QUINTUS.P.M. The decorations beneath the
cornice consist of eighteen large frescoes, and six statues in marble,
above life size. Beginning with the frescoes, we have the subjects
arranged in the following order:--

1. The four great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel,
in their usual place in the four pendentives of the dome. (v. The
Introduction.)

2. Two large frescoes. In the first, the Vision of St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus,[1] and Heretics bitten by Serpents. In the second, St.
John Damascene and St. Ildefonso miraculously rewarded for defending
the Majesty of the Virgin. (Sacred and Legendary Art.)

[Footnote 1: St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Pontus in the third
century, was favoured by a vision of the Trinity, which enabled him to
confute and utterly subdue the Sabellian heretics--the Unitarians of
his time.]

3. A large fresco, representing the four Doctors of the Church who had
especially written in honour of the Virgin: viz. Ireneus and Cyprian,
Ignatius and Theophilus, grouped two and two.

4. St. Luke, who painted the Virgin, and whose gospel contains the
best account of her.

5. As spiritual conquerors in the name of the Virgin, St. Dominic and
St. Francis, each attended by two companions of his Order.

6. As military conquerors in the name of the Virgin, the Emperor
Heraclius, and Narses, the general against the Arians.

7. A group of three female figures, representing the three famous
saintly princesses who in marriage preserved their virginity,
Pulcheria, Edeltruda (our famous queen Ethelreda), and Cunegunda. (For
the legends of Cunegunda and Ethelreda, see Legends of the Monastic
Orders.)

8. A group of three learned Bishops, who had especially defended the
immaculate purity of the Virgin, St. Cyril, St. Anselm, and St. Denis
(?).

9. The miserable ends of those who were opposed to the honour of the
Virgin. 1. The death of Julian the Apostate, very oddly represented;
he lies on an altar, transfixed by an arrow, as a victim; St.
Mercurius in the air. (For this legend see Sacred and Legendary Art.)
2. The death of Leo IV., who destroyed the effigies of the Virgin. 3.
The death of Constantine IV., also a famous iconoclast.

The statues which are placed in niches are--

1, 2. St. Joseph, as the nominal husband, and St. John the Evangelist,
as the nominal son of the Virgin; the latter, also, as prophet and
poet, with reference to the passage in the Revela