Saint Peter
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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From Rome, Jan. 23.-Of the sixty-nine cardinals now alive, only three are absent, Santoval, Cueva, and Mazarine. The other sixty- six are here in the conclave. We believe it will be long ere they agree in the choice ofa new pope. General Blake's fleet is going from Livorno towards Provence. The pasquils here are innumerable, —almost all obscene, or, at least profane. This is reckoned one of the least blameworthy. One knocking at the door of paradise, Saint Peter looked out, and asked, Who's there ?' He that knocked answered, I am Pope Innocent the Tenth. ' ' Unlock the door, and come in,' said St. Peter. I have not the keys about me,' quoth the other. No, ' said St. Peter, you left them with Donna Olympia; go, fetch them. I do not use to turn the key for popes ; they may use their own keys.' The old man going thence discontented, saw a door standing open, into which he was invited to enter, and was told that he was welcome. ' Oh,' said Pluto, long looked for, come at last !' The hellish darkness was not so great but that Mascabruno quickly spied him : And art thou come at last with all thy faults ?' said he, thou that madest me be executed unjustly.' ' Not unjustly,' said the pope ; your behaviour in the datary redounded too much to my dishonour.' What ! ' said the other, I did nothing without order of your actotum, your donna.' After much contesting, they fell to cuffs, and that with so much noise, that they disturbed Pencirollo, who coming out, and having learned the occasion of the quarrel , composed it for a time, by telling them it was impossible to decide the controversy between them, till Donna Olympia came thither, which would be very shortly. So that, in the interim, they ought to keep the peace."--pasquil against the Pope, see John Pell (mathematician) |
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Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles.
Popular culture
Over the years "St. Peter" has evolved into a stock character that is now widely used in jokes, cartoons, comedies, dramas, and plays. Such caricatures almost all play upon Peter's role as the "keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven" in Matthew 16:19, on the basis of which he is often depicted as an elderly, bearded man who sits at the pearly gates that serve as heaven's main entrance, often portrayed as a sort of hotel-style doorman / bouncer who personally interviews prospective entrants into Heaven, often seated behind a desk, or standing at a lectern. He usually has a big book in which the names of the saved are written.
In traditional Medieval iconography, Peter is a bald man with a long beard. He usually has one or more large keys in his hand or hanging from his belt.
