Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Flight of the Earls (Author: Tadhg Ó Cianáin)

section 97

The following day they went to Prima Porta, a distance of three leagues. They stopped there that night. They sent on some persons before them to Rome. After that they went two leagues to Ponte Molle. Peter Lombard, the archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland, came with a noble young man in his company, having a large number of coaches sent by cardinals, to meet them to that place. The steward of each of a certain number of the cardinals came to them to welcome them and to receive them with honour in the cardinals' name. Then they proceeded in coaches. They went on until they came to Rome. Porta del Populo was the name of the gate by which they entered the city. They went on after that through the principal streets of Rome in great splendour. They did not rest until they reached the great church of San Pietro in Vaticano. They put up their horses there, and entered the church. They worshipped, and went around, as if on a pilgrimage, the seven privileged altars or great merit which are in the church. Afterwards they proceeded to a splendid palace which his Holiness the Pope had set apart for them in the Borgo Vecchio and in the Borgo Santo Spirito. They had fifteen coaches, all except


p.171

a few drawn by six steeds, as they traversed the long, chief streets of the city that day. After their journey and their travel they rested and kept still until the following Sunday recovering from their weariness and exhaustion.