Failure To Respond Implies Permission.

San Clemente Church, near the Coliseum, is a favorite of mine here in Rome. The archeological excavations under the church illustrate the city's history. 

Twelfth century San Clemente is built over a fourth century church, which was built over a first century Christian meeting place, which - get this - was built over a first century BC Mithraic cult chamber. After entering the present church, visitors can walk down through those layers of history. 

I talked about my fascination with San Clemente Church with friend, Corson Hirschfeld. Corson, now a novelist, is a remarkable photographer. Before turning his focus to writing, photography was his career. I'm reprinting below what he wrote me in response to what I wrote him about San Clemente. But before I do, I need to invoke Roman Law. I sent Corson a text two days ago asking his permission to post what he wrote me at this blogsite. He didn't respond with either a Yes or a No. So I visited a nearby Roman library and the law is clear. A Reprint Request must be answered in person, by mail, email or text within two days. Failure to respond implies permission. This has been true since the time of the Ceasars.

"I photographed something similar for Smithsonian magazine in France, a Catholic church built on top of a neolithic burial chamber (c 2000 BC?) that looked like a hill. The question is whether this sort of thing was done because the site was believed to be sacred and the new church wanted to draw on its power or whether the local people believed the place was sacred and the later religion (usually Catholicism, but not always) put their church on top to declare their supremacy or to co-opt the locale (and the worshippers) for their own. They did the same with holy days . . . sure you can still practice Pin the Tail on the Devil day, but now it's called St. Vitus Day.  

The Spanish regularly build cathedrals over the previous cultures' places of worship. I'm guessing that there were probably always one or two previous structures that went even farther back, but were destroyed or buried in the religious layer cake. The people who believe in ley lines would call these "power places," that different cultures over time recognized.

Have a super trip. If you get a chance, chip a little piece off St. Peter's tomb. It would make a great conversation piece for our coffee table, particularly if it had part of an inscription on it."

PHOTO NOTE: This photo has no relationship to the rest of the posting. It just shows the car insanity in Rome. By the way, the front of the front car in this photo was jammed against the car in front of it.