Like the other great Roman churches and basilicas, St. Mary Major suffered continuous sacking and outrages. Mention need only be made or the one carried out by the troops of Exarch Theodore Calliope and Maurice the «Cartulanum», sent to Rome about the middle of the 7th century by the Emperor Heraclius. The intended to force Pope Severinus to approve some heretical theses.
In 653, more or less in the middle of the 7th century, it may be said that something bordering on the miraculous prevented the consummation of the murder of Pope Martin I in the basilica, by the hand of an assassin of Olympms, another of Emperor Constantine's Exarchs.
As it this were not enough, Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) was attacked and imprisoned by the licentious soldiers of Cencius on Christmas night in 1075. But the great Pontiff was carried back in triumph in the basilica the very same day, not through fury, but because of the enthusiasm of the people who had attacked the nearby tower in which the Pope had been held prisoner. The work of restoration and other alterations concerning the basilica are very numerous.
It may be said that no great works of restoration, Jet alone rebuilding, were undertaken before the Otri century, save for the enlarging of the vestibule by Eugenius 111(3145-53).

As a matter of fact, there are also some 5th century mosaics on the walls of the nave, with Old Testament stories depicted in them. Giuliano da Sangallo designed the magnificent and masterfully carved ceiling towards the end of the 15th century, and it was gilded with the first gold brought over from the newly-discovered land of America. This gold was a donation of the Spanish Royal Family.
The Sack of Rome (1527) brought devastation to this basilica as to the rest of Rome. However, it can fortunately be re-corded that the chapel of the Assumption was already being built to a design based on Michelangelo prototypes about the middle of the sixteenth century. Later in the same century (1585), Domenico-Fontana was commissioned to build the sumptuous chapel of the Holy Sacrament by Felice Peretti (afterwards Sixtus V). When the commissioning cardinal was elected Pope (he reigned from 1585 to 1590), the chapel was called the Sistine Chapel. Cardinal Domenico Pinelli, the archpriest of the basilica, had the walls of the central nave decorated with frescoes shortly afterwards.
At the beginning of the following century, Flaminio Ponzio, who had already provided the designs for the building of the sacristy, started work on the construction of another equally grandiose and celebrated chapel right opposite the Sistine Chapel: the Paulìne Chapel, this time commissioned by Paul V (1670-76). Clement X (1670 - 76) commanded Carlo Rainaldi to construct the rear facade (to a design by Bernini). However, the basilica did not take on the appearance it has today until the time of Benedict XIV, which means nearly a century later. Ferdinando Fuga made some alterations to the interior, demolishing the two shines and Mino del Reame's baldachin, replacing the latter with one of his own design, though some-what heavy and out of proportion. The floor was re-laid, some 13th century fragments being taken as a model, and the bell-tower was fortunately left almost intact. Lastly, the new facade was completed, and may rightly be termed Fuga's master-piece.
Even if the basilica was erected in honor of the Mother of God, the staunch faith of pre-Renaissance times remembered very well that it was said of the Virgin Mary: «Cunctas haereses sola inteneristi in universo mando».
On the basis of this, the men of the Middle Ages used to burn the books of the heretics on the steps of the major temple dedicated to Mary.