14 - Plus Caesare Petrus

Summary

When medieval visitors to Rome conjured up an image of Old Saint Peter's, it was not only the interior of the basilica that they envisaged. The capital of the emperors may have ruled an enormous earthly empire, but the Rome of the popes commands the Kingdom of Heaven. The critical verse is this one: 'Plus aquilis vexilla crucis, plus Caesare Petrus'. There may be no more succinct statement of papal ideology concerning their relationship to the ancient glory of the city of Rome, a glory that served in large measure as the justification for papal claims to broader authority, both spiritual and temporal. While not stated explicitly in any surviving text, it may be postulated that this memorial landscape traversed by the medieval pilgrim had its meaning deliberately constructed to embody a similar thought: 'Plus aquilis vexilla crucis, plus Caesare Petrus'.