VASSAR 170 VATICAN COUNCIL VASSAR, MATTHEW, an American philanthropist; born in Norfolk co., Eng- land, April 29, 1792. He emigrated to the tJnited States, where he accumulated a large fortune. In 1861 he gave $428,000 to found Vassar College, (q. v.). He died while reading an ad- dress to the trustees of the college, June 23, 1868. By his will he left over §400.000 additional to the institution. VATICAN, THE, the most extensive palace in the world, and, as the residence of the Pope, and the storehouse of valu- SWISS GUARD OF THE POPE able literary and art collections, one of the chief attractions of modern Rome. A building of the kind was erected on the Mons Vaticanus by Pope Symmachus about the year 500, near the anterior court of old St. Peter's and it was re- built by Eugene III. and enlarged by Nicholas III. The Vatican did not, how- ever supersede the Lateran as the usual residence of the Popes till their return from Avignon in 1377. The first con- clave, held in 1378, resulted in the so- called Western Schism. In 1450 Nicho- las v., with the object of making the Vatican the most imposing of palaces, began the work of combining with it the residences and offices of the cardinals, and the small portion completed by him, afterward occupied by Alexander VI., and named Tor di Borgia, was extended by subsequent Popes. The Sistine Chapel was erected by Sixtus IV. in 1473, and the Belvedere or garden house by Inno- cent VIII. in 1490. Bramante, under Julius II., united the latter with the palace by means of a great court, and constructed the Loggie round the Cor- tile di S. Damasco. By the erection of the library Sixtus V. divided Bramante's great court into two parts, the anterior court and Giardino della Pigna. The Pauline Chapel was the work of Paul III. (1534), and the present residence of the Popes was completed by Clement VIII. (1592-1605). The labor of ex- tending and adorning the Vatican was continued by Urban VIII., Pius VII., and Gregory XVI.; and even Pius IX., amid the revolutionary struggles of the 19th century, found time to inclose the fourth side of the Cortile di S. Damasco by re- constructing the great staircase forming the approach from the colonnade of St. Peter's. The palace now comprises 20 courts and some 11,000 halls, chapels, saloons, and private apartments. Chief among its great art treasures are the Sistine frescoes of Michael Angelo and Raphael's Stanze and Loggie. The picture gallery is one of the richest in Rome, and the collection of antiquities is the finest in the world, including exten- sive Egyptian and Etruscan museums, and comprising among its classical sculp- tures the Torso of Hercules, the Laocoon, and the Apollo Belvedere. The library now contains 34,000 MSS. VATICAN COUNCIL, the First Coun- cil of the Vatican, or the Nineteenth General Council, which assembled on Dec. 8, 1869. At the opening sitting 719 prelates were present, and the number rose in the following year to 764. The work done consisted of two constitutions —one, "Of the Catholic Faith," treating of the primary truths of natural religion, revelation, faith, and the connection be- tween faith and reason; the other, "Of the Church of Christ." treating of the primacy of the Roman See, and defining the papal claims to authority over all
