Loretto.
The Sacred Chapel stands due east and west, at the farther end of a large
church of the most durable stone of Istria, which has been built around
it. This may be considered as the external covering, or as a kind of
great coat to the Casa Santa, which has a smaller coat of more precious
materials and workmanship nearer its body. This internal covering, or
case, is of the choicest marble, after a plan of San Savino’s, and
ornamented with basso relievos, the workmanship of the best sculptors
which Italy could furnish in the reign of Leo the Tenth. The subject of
those basso relievos are, the history of the Blessed Virgin, and other
parts of the Bible. The whole case is about fifty feet long, thirty
in breadth, and the same in height; but the real house itself is no
more than thirty-two feet in length, fourteen in breadth, and at the
sides, about eighteen feet in height; the centre of the roof is four
or five feet higher. The walls of this little Holy Chapel are composed
of pieces of a reddish substance, of an oblong square shape, laid one
upon another, in the manner of brick. At first sight, on a superficial
view, these red-coloured oblong substances appear to be nothing else
than common Italian bricks; and, which is still more extraordinary, on
a second and third view, with all possible attention, they still have
the same appearance. There is not, however, as we were assured, a single
particle of brick in their whole composition, being entirely of a stone,
which, though it cannot now be found in Palestine, was formerly very
common, particularly in the neighbourhood of Nazareth. There is a small
interval between the walls of the ancient house, and the marble case.
The workmen, at first, intended them to be in contact, from an opinion,
founded either upon gross ignorance or infidelity, that the former
stood in need of support from the latter; but the marble either started
back of itself, from such impious familiarity, being conscious of its
unworthiness; or else was thrust back by the coyness of the Virgin brick,
it is not said which. But it has certainly kept at a proper distance ever
since. While we examined the basso relievos of the marble case, we were
not a little incommoded by the numbers of pilgrims who were constantly
crawling around it on their knees, kissing the ground, and saying their
prayers with great fervour. As they crept along, they discovered some
degree of eagerness to be nearest the wall; not, I am persuaded, with
a view of saving their own labour, by contracting the circumference of
their circuit; but from an idea that the evolutions they were performing,
would be the more beneficial to their souls, the nearer they were to the
Sacred House. This exercise is continued in proportion to the zeal and
strength of the patient.
Above the door there is an inscription; by which it appears, that any
person who enters with arms is, ipso facto, excommunicated.