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 ( %9&fiy>rr//t,f<=^A& 
 
 UNITEtTctATES OF AMERICA. 
 
ROME AND ITALY 
 
 //ttz.tA^ 
 
 AT THE 
 
 Opening of the (Ecumenical Council, 
 
 DEPICTED IS TWELVE LETTERS 
 
 WKITTEN FROM ROME TO A GENTLEMAN IN AMERICA, 
 
 By EDMOND DE PRESSENSE, D.D., 
 
 PASTOR OF THE EVANGEMCAL CHUBCH IN PAEIS, 
 
 And author of " Tliistoire des trois premiers siecles de TEglise Chretienne,' 1 
 " Jesus Christ, son temi s, son oevre et sa vie ,*' etc. 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 REV. GEORGE PRENTICE, A.M. 
 
 ■^♦^ 
 
 New Vor\K: 
 CARLTON & LANAHAN. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO: E. THOMAS. 
 CINCINNATI: HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 
 
 1870. 
 
<&- 
 
 ** 
 
 ^ 
 
 Per lor maledizion si non si perde, 
 Che non possa tornar l'eterno amore. 
 
 Dante. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 
 1870, by CARLTON & LANAHAN, in the Clerk's 
 Office of the "District Court of the United States 
 for the Southern District of New York. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 BY THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS. 
 
 The following Letters, furnishing a rapid pen 
 photograph of the first impressions of a distinguished 
 traveler on visiting Italy and Rome at the opening 
 of the Council, are received by the American pub- 
 lishers immediately from the author's hands. As 
 fast as received they have been committed to type, 
 and the earliest possible publication has succeeded 
 the reception of the last Letter. They are not to be 
 republished in Europe within several months after 
 the present issue. The American reader, therefore, 
 has the first view, presented by the author's artistic 
 hand, of the varied scenes through which he passes. 
 
 Pressense has attained a noble and growing repu- 
 tation in both Europe and America as the leader of 
 the conservative-progressive branch of French Prot- 
 estantism, as well as by several valuable productions ; 
 particularly his " Life of Christ," his " Religion and 
 the Reign of Terror," and his " Early Days of Chris- 
 tianity," the two former published, and the latter in 
 process of publication, in both England and America. 
 The first volume of the latter will appear in a few 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 days from our own press. His principles and predi- 
 lections, being on the side of freedom and progress, 
 but averse to either political or religious destructiv- 
 ism, are in peculiar sympathy with the spirit of sound- 
 hearted American Protestantism. We cheerfully an- 
 ticipate, therefore, that there are thousands in our 
 country who will delight to survey from his stand- 
 point the objects, characters, and events which he 
 passingly portrays. 
 
TKAl^SLATOB'S NOTE 
 
 When the dogma of the Immaculate Conception 
 was proclaimed by the sole authority of the Pope, 
 M. de Pressense declared that a formidable crisis 
 was inevitable in the bosom of the Catholic Church. 
 He affirmed that an act which so deliberately tram- 
 pled on the rights of the entire Church, could 
 not fail to awaken great alarm, and provoke obsti- 
 nate resistance. This prediction was soon fulfilled. 
 The most enlightened members of the Catholic com- 
 munion have never accepted that dogma. But as 
 they did not resist its promulgation with sufficient, 
 energy, their bearing invited the Romish party to 
 perfect its victory. This would be done if a General 
 Council could be induced to decree that infallibility of 
 the Pope which is plainly implied in the proclamation 
 of the Immaculate Conception. The Council of the 
 Vatican has it as its special mission, then, to surren- 
 der the rights and powers of the Episcopacy into the 
 hands of the Sovereign Pontiff'. It is pleasant and 
 instructive to watch the preliminary movements and 
 opening scenes of such a Council in the company of 
 an observer so well informed and sagacious as M. de 
 Pressense. 
 
6 TRANSLATORS NOTE. 
 
 His book will possess a permanent value as a 
 record of events and impressions on the eve of the 
 Council, and also from the interesting discussions 
 which he has interwoven with them. 
 
 I have sought to render my version faithful to the 
 original. That it always reflects the exact meaning 
 of the author I am sure ; whether it fairly repre- 
 sents the vigor and sparkle of his style I leave others 
 to judge. 
 
 George Prentice. 
 
 Hyde Park, Mass., Feb. 16, 1810. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER T. 
 
 Hints to the Eeader — Reflections on leaving Trance : her Political 
 Condition ; her Interest in the Council — Father Hyacinthe — The Abhe 
 Maret on the Infallibility of the Pope — A Sunday in the Alps — Lom- 
 bardy : her Past and Present ; her Artistic Jewels — Umbria : her Type 
 of Piety in the Middle Ages ; Scenery ; Political State and Art— Peru- 
 gino and Eaphael — Assisi and St. Francis : his Spirit ; Order ; Errors ; 
 Lessons to us; Legend; Tomb and its Treasures— Goethe's Fanati- 
 cism — Hesitation of the Ultramontanists — The Invito Sacro with Com- 
 ments Page 3.1 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 A Glimpse at Rome : Like City like Citizens — A Chapter of Con- 
 trasts : 1. The City and the Surrounding Desert ; 2. The Ancient 
 Church of St. Clement and the Modern Churches ; 3. The Contrast of 
 Quarters in Rome ; 4. The Contrast in Costumes ; 5. Pagan and Chris- 
 tian Art ; 6. The Capuchins and the Scipios ; 7. Spiritual and Formal 
 Religion ; 8. Rome and the Coming Change 33 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Three Pilgrims to Rome : Luther, Lamennais, Hyacinthe — Luther's 
 Arrival in Rome : his Mysticism ; Moral Conflicts ; his Ideal Rome ; 
 the Real Rome ; his Emancipation and Work — Lamennais : his Birth ; 
 Early Life; Taking Orders; his Early Opinions; Book on Religious 
 Indifference ; Conversion to Democracy ; Advocates the Separation of 
 Church and State; ISAvenir; Intrigues of the Jesuits; Lamennais 
 Appeals to the Pope ; Les Affairs de Rome ; Evasive Conduct of Rome ; 
 Impatience of Lamennais ; the Encyclical of Gregory XVI. ; it con- 
 demns him; the Shock; his Lapse into Skepticism; Influence on his 
 Disciples ; Subsequent Career and Death — Father Hyacinthe : Birth 
 and Education ; Eloquence ; Liberality ; First Warning ; Visit to 
 Rome ; Growing Freedom ; Sermons on the Church ; Further Progress ; 
 is sent to Rome; the Crisis; returns to Paris; Speech at the Peace 
 Congress ; is Rebuked ; Letter to his Superior ; his Future — Interior 
 Discipline of the Dominicans — Rome desires a Short Council — Assump- 
 tion of the Virgin — Confidence of the Pope — Anniversary of the Battle 
 of Mentana 56 
 
8 Contents. 
 
 letter iv. 
 
 THE ROMAN QUESTION. 
 
 Peculiar Position of Rome : The Pope guarded "by Foreign Troops ; 
 The Practical Phase of the Matter — The Origin of the Temporal Power- 
 Its Security under the Old Regime — The Shock of the Revolution of 
 1T93 — An Election Trick — Napoleon I. and the Papacy — Count d'Haus- 
 sonville and Eather Thenier — The Pact of 1815 — The Revolution of 
 1830— Its Consequences — Foreigners first Guard the Pope— 1847 and its 
 Changes — Election of Pius IX. — His Position and Measures — The Pope 
 in Exile — Intervention of the French — Craft of the Prince President — 
 Return of the Pope — His Rule — The Italian Movement : Its Results — 
 Withdrawal of the French — Garibaldi Advances on Rome — Return of 
 the French — Arguments of the Catholics — The Near Close of the French 
 Occupation Page 79 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Cause of the Uneasiness of the Romans — Modern Liberty and Theoc- 
 racy—The Prince and the Pope — Pope Elected by Ecclesiastics — The 
 Sacred College — The Conclave — The Congregations — The Courts of 
 Law — The Signature — Gonsulta Sacra and the Robe — Trials not Public 
 — Special Rights of the Clergy — The Police— Impunity of Crime — Con- 
 spirators — The Prelacy — Clerical Establishments of Rome — Founda- 
 tions, Masses, and Begging — The Press and the Censorship — Enforced 
 Hypocrisy of the Romans — No Reform possible — Ignorance of the 
 Masses— Higher Education— The Jesuits as Educators — Their Triumphs 
 over History — A Roman Apologue — Singular Consequences of Theoc- 
 racy — Approval of Theaters and Lotteries — A Suggestive Incident. 104 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Religious Worship in Rome : its Magnificence Contrasted with the 
 Primitive Type — Culmination of Roman Art at the Reformation— Its 
 Previous Condition — Gothic Architecture and the Roman Churches — 
 The Cathedral at Cologne and Saint Peter's — Transformation of Pagan 
 Temples into Christian Churches — The same Contrast in Painting — Fra 
 Bartolomeo — The Last Judgment of Michael Angelo and that of Fra 
 Angelico — Raphael, Julius Romanus, and the Decline— Similar Phases 
 in Church Music — Ancient and Modern Church Song — Church Music 
 and the Reformation— Testimony of M. de Laprode — Defects of Prot- 
 estant Worship — That of the Post- Apostolic Period — Ceremonies of 
 Holy Week and Easter — Taking the Vail — Grotesque Appeals to the 
 Populace— Mercenary Spirit of Catholic Worship — Its False Supernat- 
 uralism — Its Absolute Idolatry — A Touching Ceremony 130 
 
Contents. 9 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Preparations for the Council — Arrangements of the Counei] Hall- 
 Sessions Secret— Name of the Council — Its Memorial Column — The 
 Entertainment of the Members — Ceremonial of the Assembly — Prece- 
 dence of the Members— Labors of the Preparatory Committees — Publi- 
 cation of the Proceedings — The Proceedings to be in Latin — Confusion 
 in its Pronunciation — Other Differences — French Bishops mainly Ultra- 
 montanists — Chorus of Priests — The French Liberals : Bishop Dupan- 
 loup, Prince de Broglie, xlbbe Noirlieu, and Professor Tassy — The 
 American Prelates — Devotion of the Irish Bishops to Rome — Subserv- 
 iency of the EDglish Bishops — The Belgians — The Austrian Martyrs — 
 The German Liberals — The Demonstration at Eulda — The Letters of 
 Janus— Reforms demanded — Dollinger on Papal Infallibility — Probable 
 Conclusion on this Question Page 156 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Leading Actors in the Council— The Absentees — The Pope — Anto- 
 nelli — Bishop Tosti — Archbishop Manning — Bishop Hoefele — Bishop 
 Hanneberger— Cardinals Donnet and Bonnechose — Bishop Plantier — 
 The Bishop of La Rochelle — Bishop D up anloup — Archbishop Darboy — 
 Louis Veuillot, the Lay Delegate — Anticipations in Liberal Circles 185 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 At Naples — A Festival — The Bourbon Rule in Naples— Francis II. — 
 Stains on the Cause of Liberty— Garibaldi's Capture of Naples — Meas- 
 ures of Cavour — Justice of History — Present Irritation — Popular Liberty 
 —Education — Philosophy — Religion — The Buffoon on the Stage and in 
 the Pulpit — Brigandage — The Camorra — Perplexities of the new Gov- 
 ernment — Italians in Politics — Evangelical Labors at Naples — Political 
 and Religious Outlook of Latin Races— Pagan Naples— The Decline of 
 Paganism— Revelations at Pompeii — Impure Gods, Gladiators, Slaves — 
 Discoveries in Art— Manuscripts — The Victory of Christianity 212 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 RECENT EXCAVATIONS AT ROME — THE PALACE OF THE OESARS AND 
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 
 
 Napoleon III. and Archaeology— Signor di Rossi— The Late and the 
 Present Aspect of the Palace of the Caesars — Temple of Jupiter Stator 
 — Cicero's House — Two Frescos — Christian Relics in the Palace — Im- 
 portance of Christian Archaeology — Nature of its Disclosures — Rossi's 
 Roma Sotteranea— Bossio's Explorations— Arringhi and Marchi— Ros- 
 si's Method — The Catacombs used for Burial, not Worship — Three 
 
10 Contents. 
 
 Periods in their History — Dates of Monuments — Christian and Pagan 
 Burial — Symbols of the Christian Tombs — The Catacomb of Saint Cal- 
 listus — Callistus Himself— Visit to the Catacomb — The Consecration of 
 Labor — Testimony of the Catacombs on Catholicism and Protestantism, 
 the Primacy of Peter, the Adoration of Mary, the Sacraments, the State 
 of the Dead, the Invocation of Saints, the Canonical Books, and Image 
 Worship Page 238 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 The Council Chamber — Preliminary Session — An Unpleasant Incident 
 and a Conversation — Bishop Dupanloup and M. Veuillot — The Opposi- 
 tion — The Pope's Allocution in the Preliminary Session — Its Spirit— 
 The Manifesto of the Civilta Cattolica — On the Eve of the Council — 
 The Letters of Janus put in the Index — Wrath of the Liberals — Open- 
 ing Ceremonies of the Council, with Comments — The Committees on 
 Faith, Discipline, and the Eeligious Orders — Their Duties — Parleying 
 Protestants — The True Issue — Unmeaning Distinctions — The False 
 Supernatural 266 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 Another Contrast — The Oratorio of the Pontiff of the Immaculate 
 Conception — Review of the Papal Army — Its Composition and Condi- 
 tion — The Committee on Conciliation — Regulations of the Council — So- 
 cial Life at Rome— The Expenses of the Council — Fruits of Mariolatry 
 —Vexation of the Liberals— Their Policy— A Morning Ramble— The 
 Bull of Excommunication — Comments— The Committees on Faith and 
 Discipline — The Anti-Council — Its Follies and End — The True Anti- 
 Council— Probable Success of the Ultramontanists — The Italian Govern- 
 ment and its Difficulties— Protestant Missions— Savonarola— Needs and 
 Hopes 298 
 
ROME, ITALY; 
 
 AND THE 
 
 (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL. 
 
 -^•♦MS. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Hints to the Reader — Reflections on leaving France : her Political 
 Condition ; her Interest in the Council — Father Hyacinthe — The 
 Abbe Maret on the Infallibility of the Pope — A Sunday in the Alps 
 — Lombardy : her Past and Present ; her Artistic Jewels — Urn- 
 bria: her Type of Piety in the Middle Ages; Scenery; Political 
 State and Art — Perugino and Raphael — Assisi and St. Francis : 
 his Spirit ; Order ; Errors ; Lessons to us ; Legend ; Tomb and its 
 Treasures — Goethe's Fanaticism — Hesitation of the Ultramontanists 
 — The Invito Sacro with Comments. 
 
 Rome, Nov. 6, 1869. 
 
 Dear Sir : — Permit me to remind you that I am 
 to send you letters / that is, the lively, spontaneous 
 expression of my impressions concerning this land 
 of Italy, whose bare name suffices to arouse the 
 imagination, and which has not lost the incompa- 
 rable charm with which she has intoxicated all her 
 visitors, and, on the eve of the Council which awak- 
 ens so much disquietude, curiosity, and also hope. It 
 is a solemn moment in the history of the Catholic 
 Church, which may well sound the hour of her mor- 
 tal agony, or at least put her in grave peril ; for so 
 great an effort issuing in a check, so formidable a 
 sword-stroke ending in the rippling of water, would 
 be a discomfiture unexampled in her history. But 
 
12 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 one thing could be more dangerous to lier — the inso- 
 lent triumph of the frantic party which would truly 
 make the Pope a God to march before mankind, 
 according to the wish of the idolatrous Israelites. In 
 every respect, then, a visit at Eome in these excep- 
 tional circumstances has its peculiar interest. I shall 
 give you my conclusions with the most entire sincerity, 
 in all the vivacity of their primal gush. Do not ex- 
 pect in these pages the carefully carved chapters of a 
 controversial treatise, or of a Traveler's Guide for 
 Italy. No, yon will here find in all their medley the 
 emotions experienced in the presence of marvels of 
 art, in the presence of the melancholy splendors of a 
 natural scenery which adorns with enchanting grace 
 the mourning array of a ruined world, and the not 
 less vivacious ones inspired by that modern Pharisa- 
 ism which here has only the wit to whiten a magnifi- 
 cent sepulcher in which it wonld shut up the religion 
 of the Risen, and with it an enslaved world, under 
 the same sealed and well-guarded stone. 
 
 I left France, herself, too, in a dark hour of her 
 history, agitated, feverish, starting up from the long 
 despotism which she has undergone and almost de- 
 served, as one starts with convulsive bounds from a 
 nightmare — divided between distrust of her governors, 
 whose concessions are blended with imprudent regrets 
 and insane recoilings, and the dread of socialist dema- 
 gogues, who hasten to transform the little freedom we 
 have regained into license, and speak every evening 
 of the approaching division of all possessions, or what 
 they call the great social liquidation. 
 
 Let us hope that the true liberal party will be able 
 to find its w T ay between these two extreme sections, 
 and save us from a bloody catastrophe which would 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 13 
 
 lead to new Csesars. Forgive my uneasy and sad- 
 dened patriotism these painful reflections, which occu- 
 py my mind at the moment of leaving my country 
 for a few weeks. 
 
 From a religious stand-point, the Council is natu- 
 rally the great affair in France, as every- where ; while 
 people expect it to produce universal harmony, it is 
 producing the most noisy divisions in the bosom of 
 the Church of Unity. I shall be told that these are 
 the discordant notes of musical instruments prepar- 
 ing to perform their part in a symphony. I doubt 
 whether they can be brought into unison, skillful as 
 the leader of the orchestra may be, at least without 
 breaking a few. The reason is very simple; the 
 principal cause of division among the symphonists 
 of the Catholic Church is precisely the authority of 
 the leader of the orchestra. Some think his baton 
 should be obeyed like the rod of Moses, or the scep- 
 ter of Judah. Others would have it tempered and 
 restrained. What, then, are the means of agreement ? 
 Evidently, the Papacy can triumph only by imposing 
 silence on the recalcitrant ; but to suppress discord- 
 ant voices is not to melt them into harmony. Read 
 the circular letters of our Bishops, the articles of our 
 Catholic journals of various shades ! On the one 
 hand, anathema is hurled at all who do not bow be- 
 fore the personal infallibility of the Holy Father- 
 that is the dogma of dogmas, for it is authority in 
 its supreme, palpable manifestation. On the other 
 hand, appeal is made to the history of the Church, to 
 the ancient Councils, and to the Gallican Church. 
 There is a discord of tumultuous and irritated voices. 
 Such is the preface to the Council in France. When 
 I left Paris two religious manifestations chiefly occu- 
 
14 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 pied public attention. The first was the striking rup- 
 ture of Father Hyacinthe with Rome. It is vain to 
 talk ; this is a terrible blow for Catholicism. Sar- 
 casms and condemnations will not enfeeble the effect 
 of this act, which reveals to all men the conscious 
 inability of sincere and liberal minds to remain in 
 the bonds of Romanism. This utterance of con- 
 science, which is no seditious outcry, but an appeal to 
 the tribunal of Jesus Christ, has had a deep reverbera- 
 tion among our people. It will have a more salutary 
 effect than his most eloquent discourses in that pulpit 
 of Notre Dame, where that mighty voice will resound 
 no more — the most eloquent voice our generation has 
 heard, and which was privileged beyond any other to 
 attract and thrill thousands of listeners. The mo- 
 mentary silence of Father Hyacinthe is the most 
 energetic of protestations against religious servitude ; 
 and of this silent preaching we may say that it is 
 heard in the very depths of the consciences of men. 
 I shall come back to Father Hyacinthe when I shall 
 have to attest the effect produced at Rome by this 
 courageous deed. 
 
 The second event of which I would speak is the 
 book of the Abbe Maret, Bishop of Sura, against the 
 infallibility of the Pope. This grave and solid work 
 asserts the periodicity of the Councils, w T hich alone, 
 in union with the Papacy, have the privileges of in- 
 fallibility. Doubtless we can no more accept this 
 conclusion than that of the Ultramontanes — we who 
 admit no other infallibility than that which comes 
 from the Holy Spirit. But for the Romish party 
 the book of the Abbe Maret, which is the standard 
 of Gallican, and more or less liberal Catholicism, is 
 the abomination of desolation. His colleagues in the 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 15 
 
 episcopacy, too, feel no scruple in anathematizing it 
 to their hearts' content. I mention this book because 
 it sums up, in some sort, the pith of the most embar- 
 rassing question for the Council, and because, with 
 the resolutions, so distinct under their respectful form, 
 of the Bishops at Fulda, it presents the programme 
 of what may be called the left wing of the great 
 (Ecumenical Council. I shall strive to learn here 
 what its chances are, and whether it will succeed at 
 least in preventing the follies to which the Coryphsei 
 of the party of Home would gladly push things. At 
 any rate, there prevails, for these various reasons, a 
 great anxiety concerning the Council and its issue. 
 Do not these words, which express an incontestably 
 true feeling, suffice for the condemnation of the entire 
 Catholic system. "What ! you affirm that the Holy 
 Spirit will speak through the Council ! You indeed 
 say the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God — and you 
 are inquiet about what he shall say — you are not very 
 sure that he will conclude on what is good and desir- 
 able for the Church ! You are anxious — as if you 
 had to do with fallible and ignorant beings — as 
 though you had to do with yourselves ! This is be- 
 cause you are dealing with yourselves, and yourselves 
 alone. You feel this at bottom, and that is why you 
 are perfectly right in being alarmed : the sequel will 
 show how well-founded are these fears. 
 
 Such, sir, were my thoughts as I departed from my 
 own country and approached this city, to which so 
 many eyes now turn as toward the Zion of the Lord. 
 My last pause on Protestant soil, before approaching 
 the proper domain of Catholicism, was well-suited to 
 make the contrast salient to me between the religion 
 of the Spirit and that of the Letter. I spent Sunday, 
 
16 Eome Italy and the Council. 
 
 October 30, in an Evangelical Church belonging to the 
 Free Church of the Canton de Yaud, which is situ- 
 ated on the heights of the Alps among the Ormonts. 
 Yery modest is the humble chapel where these pious 
 mountaineers, zealous and decided members of a 
 Church which has known the baptism of persecution, 
 were assembled. And yet, in presence of the lofty 
 and snowy summits which surround it, and that were 
 illuminated by the most radiant sunshine, it rears be- 
 fore the eyes a still loftier summit, even of that wor- 
 ship in spirit and in truth which is solemnized neither 
 on the mountain of Jerusalem nor on that of Grerizim, 
 but wherever Jesus Christ has true adorers. It was 
 a fine and touching thing to see these sturdy shep- 
 herds of the Alps journeying along prematurely 
 snowy roads toward their chapel, to rest from their 
 rude toil as they sang the praises of the Lord in their 
 natal tongue. Their manly and weary features were 
 kindled up with the pure light of inward piety. 
 These were truly priests of the New Covenant, de- 
 claring "in their own tongue the wonderful works 
 of (rod." The Sistine Chapel, with its cardinals in 
 scarlet robes and its strangely delicate harmonies, will 
 offer me no spectacle comparable with that which I 
 witnessed with deep joy in a remote corner of the 
 mighty Alps. 
 
 Let us rapidly cross the Simplon, despite the mag- 
 nificence of the Bernese Alps, which appear from the 
 rugged and narrow gorges, in all their glory, under 
 the splendor of a beautiful autumnal sun. Behold 
 Italy ! behold the rich and monotonous region of 
 Lombardy — then the low and fertile valleys watered 
 by the Po ! Every thing has indeed changed since 
 my first visit to this region fifteen years ago. The 
 
Kome, Italy 5 and the Council. 17 
 
 traveler notes this agreeably in the greater facility of 
 public conveyances. He no longer has to suffer from 
 the infinite division of Italy into petty principalities, 
 each of which extended to him a hand eager for the 
 price of his passage. But especially, his eye is no 
 longer offended by the white coat of the Austrian 
 soldier, who appeared on this soil that detested him 
 like a consuming worm on a rose. It is all over with 
 those petty tyrants of Parma and Modena, who had 
 not even wit enough to keep their thrones, and needed 
 a German saber to preserve them. I know all the 
 faults with which the new Italian kingdom may be 
 reproached; the medley of intrigue and violence 
 which it has employed in swallowing the peninsular 
 artichoke. I shall beware of calling evil good ; but it 
 still remains true that the new kingdom has respond- 
 ed to the deepest and most legitimate national aspira- 
 tions, and that finally it has delivered the country 
 from an abominable clerical oppression which, had it 
 lasted, would have dried up the springs of all higher 
 life. The partisans of absolutism cast stones at the 
 New Italy, and laugh at her difficulties ; they are 
 pitiless toward her eccentricities, toward the trouble 
 she finds in giving a solid and reasonable basis to her 
 public life. They forget that she contracted her de- 
 fects under their tuition, and that the freedman long 
 retains the marks of his chains. These considerations 
 came back to my memory the other day as I roamed 
 through the city of Parma, which particularly suffered 
 under the most abject tyranny. She has not yet fully 
 awakened ; the shadow of her past enfolds her. Her 
 population still seems given up to the listlessness of 
 enslaved nations ; the flagstones of her streets are 
 
 worn by the lazy tramp of her numberless abbes and 
 
 2 
 
18 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 her idle youth. Patience ! All this is changing from 
 day to day — modern life with its severe exactions is 
 invading the ancient ducal residence. At any rate, 
 the town has incomparable artistic jewels in the 
 paintings of her Correggio. There must we learn to 
 know this genius who conceived a purely modern 
 type of beauty, full of intelligence and passion, whose 
 finest shades he was skilled to reproduce through the 
 infinite gradations of his chiaro-oscuro. The Virgin, 
 in his picture of St. Jerome, strikes you as a fresh 
 and more penetrating intuition of eternal beauty 
 than any other. I pass Florence, w^here I may pause 
 with you on my return, and I transport you 
 into marvelous Umbria, so long bowed under the 
 yoke of Rome, but which has ardently desired and. 
 paid for its enfranchisement. It was here that the 
 Catholicism of the Middle Ages had its finest devel- 
 opment, and that it created a truly Christian art, 
 which gave expression to a high ideal that we should 
 be able to admire, even though for us it has been in 
 many respects transformed. It is impossible not to 
 be struck with the singular relation existing between 
 the aspect of these beautiful scenes and the works of 
 the great masters who were born or developed here. 
 Nature is not at all oppressive in its grandeur, as 
 among lofty mountains, nor seductive, as on the coasts 
 of the Mediterranean. It is full of sweetness, calm- 
 ness, and harmony, though along its horizon appear 
 the gentle peaks of the Apennines. The outlines of 
 the landscape stand forth in exquisite purity and grace ; 
 they seem to undulate in light curves, following the 
 sinuosities of the innumerable little mountains which 
 cut up the plain, and are covered with the elegant 
 vegetation of the South. Fling over this lovely 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 19 
 
 scenery a golden light which imparts to every object 
 the most perfect transparency, and you will under- 
 stand that Umbria is admirably fitted to inspire an 
 ingenuous and profound style of art. She does not 
 stifle its flights beneath a startling magnificence ; she 
 gently stimulates it, and furnishes its palette with 
 that pleasant coloring which suits purely ideal paint- 
 ing, whose contours should be firm and fixed as those 
 of the horizon. There truly ought that fair blossom 
 of artistic mysticism to spring up and unfold which 
 preceded the splendid works of the Renaissance. 
 Let us add that the appearance of the great Umbrian 
 school coincides with one of the finest religious move- 
 ments of humanity, of which, in some sort, it bears the 
 burning impress. Before speaking of this movement, 
 which is very interesting through the contrast it offers 
 with the character of contemporary Catholic piety, let 
 as pause a moment at Perugia, which was the center 
 and focus of the Umbrian school. It overlooks the 
 w r hole country that I have just described, and is 
 stamped with that inimitable seal of Old Italy which 
 the railways themselves will hardly destroy. Besides, 
 it largely escapes the impetuous movement of civil- 
 ization ; for the trains that pass at its foot set down 
 few travelers tempted to pause. Those who ascend 
 its hill are true art-pilgrims, and not merely curious 
 people. Yet patriotic feeling has awakened great 
 agitations here. Before the hour of her deliverance. 
 Perugia simply bore with indignation the dominion 
 of the Holy See, which paralyzed all her national life, 
 and would make her a mere museum, while beside 
 her echoed mightily the cry of emancipation. On 
 occasion of the war of 1859, she revolted. 
 
 Unhappily for her, the treaty of Yillafranca came 
 
20 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 to cut short for a time all hopes of the enfranchise- 
 ment of Southern Italy. Before this time she had 
 been recaptured by the pontifical troops, who had 
 given themselves up to the most frightful excesses, 
 as worthy servants of the Vicar of the Prince of 
 Peace. This event produced a very lively impression 
 of indignation even in the bosom of French Catholi- 
 cism, at least in its enlightened section. I remember 
 meeting at that period, in Paris, some of the most 
 eminent of her clergy. I dared not whisper a word 
 before them about the sacking of Perugia. But it 
 was quite needless prudence, for they loudly con- 
 demned the odious act. Not only, said they, do we 
 believe all the abominations imputed to the Swiss 
 troops of the Holy Father, but we believe even 
 worse things. In his service he has the vilest rascals 
 in Europe, and the best thing that could happen to him 
 would be to have his army soundly whipped, so that he 
 might escape the deplorable consequences to which his 
 temporal power leads. When priests hold such lan- 
 guage we can imagine how disinterested laymen felt. 
 It is worth while, truly, to reconquer a wretched strip 
 of land by the ruin of thousands of souls ! Paris is 
 well worth a mass, said Henry IV., to explain his 
 abjuration. It is an unworthy saying, even in the 
 mouth of such a prince as he. The Papacy of our 
 day seems to say, " My temporal dominion is worth 
 more to me than my spiritual dominion ; Rome is 
 well worth all the masses in the world." It is, in- 
 deed, certain that the more tyrannical the sacerdotal 
 yoke becomes in civil things, the less do men believe 
 in the mass, that is, in the spiritual pontificate. We 
 shall have more than one occasion to resume these 
 considerations. Let us return to the Perugia of 
 
Kome, Italy, akd the Council. 21 
 
 ancient times. From the stand-point of history and 
 art it is immensely interesting ; for it is there that 
 we grasp the transition from the priestly and immo- 
 bile Byzantine style of painting to the living and 
 animated style of modern times. In place of a con- 
 ventional type constantly reproduced on a golden 
 ground, we have w T orks of individuality. Life begins 
 to break forth from the eyes; the glance grows sud- 
 denly animated, because that is the most direct organ 
 of the soul, and because the focus of man's life is in 
 his heart. In Cimabue we find precisely that radi- 
 ance, that flame which was lacking in the Byzantine 
 artists, who were rather vestry artisans. In Fra 
 Angelico the human form is still somewhat swaddled, 
 or buried in a conventional immobility. But its 
 movements are more varied — picturesqueness crops 
 out in the accessories. In Perugino, who is the king 
 of ancient Perugia, we see veritable life still some- 
 what enchained, but it grows more and more free, 
 especially in his admirable frescos, where simply 
 human subjects take their place beside the consecrated 
 subjects of the evangelical story. 
 
 The school of Perugia uttered its last word m 
 Perugino, and this last word is still one of tender 
 and lofty mysticism, all the more remarkable since 
 the master himself seems to have been a stranger to 
 it in his sentiments ; but the atmosphere he breathed 
 was so saturated with it that he could not escape it. 
 After all, art is a great ^Eolian harp, shivering with 
 the breezes that pass over it. The breeze in the 
 time of Perugino came from the hights of the soul, 
 and it was mighty enough to impose itself on the 
 great master. 
 
 It is also at Perugia that we see the early works 
 
22 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 of Raphael, when he followed with docility the inspi- 
 ration of Perugino. But here we perceive a broader 
 style and a serener grace. Moreover, Perugia pos- 
 sesses a Virgin from his hand which is a ravishing 
 masterpiece, and which may be placed toward the close 
 of his first manner. We might call it the swan-song of 
 the Umbrian school ; but this song is only the prelude 
 of a sublimer harmony, for Raphael already stands 
 in his completeness on this canvas. He leaves, as a 
 farewell to the school of his tender youth, an immor- 
 tal masterpiece wherein it again lives forever in a 
 type which reproduces its most admirable qualities 
 in an idealized form, and having thus paid his debt, 
 he goes speeding to the conquest of new worlds. 
 
 Assisi, whither the railway brings us in an hour 
 from Perugia, is altogether a great artistic and religious 
 sanctuary. Thence proceeded one of those mighty 
 impulses which mark a new phase in the history of hu- 
 manity. To comprehend it, we who have been reared 
 in reformed Churches, we mnst be able to rise 
 above all that is external, for we have some difficulty 
 in finding true Christianity under the robe of a monk. 
 And yet it is certain that Saint Francis, the founder 
 of the order of Capuchins, was a great Christian. 
 What strikes us in the religious movement, of which 
 he was the leader, is precisely what distinguishes it 
 from the forms of Catholic piety preferred in our day. 
 He was no knight of the Holy Church like Dominic, 
 his sole aim to crush heresy. He was quite uncon- 
 cerned about the Pontifical authority to which, in 
 the candor of his soul, he easilv submitted. The 
 idolatry of the Virgin, too, was quite foreign to him. 
 No, it is love for Jesus Christ that completely swayed 
 hi in ; that was the inmost basis of his moral life, not 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 23 
 
 a love that had merely its fervid impulses, and 
 plunged itself into idle contemplation. He recog- 
 nized Jesus Christ in the poor ; it was truly He who 
 wandered naked and hungry in the cities and rural 
 districts of his country. He received in its full seri- 
 ousness the divine word, whatever you shall do for 
 him is done unto me. It is to me that you break 
 bread when you shall appease his hunger ; it is to me 
 that you give a cup of water when you shall quench 
 Irs thirst. I am he and he I. This is what moved 
 the heart of Saint Francis when he was yet a brilliant 
 and wealthy young man, much more wonted to pre- 
 siding in gay feasts than to attending church ; that is 
 what impelled him to strip himself of his cloak for a 
 pauper. This first impulse of a self-despoiling charity 
 paints his entire life. Observe carefully that he did 
 not seek expiation in self-denial, but only to afford 
 solace to that human suffering which had appeared 
 to him in all its tragic reality. When we see this un- 
 vailed, we must either die for sorrow or devote our- 
 selves wholly to its assistance. This is the eternal 
 foolishness of the cross. I know well that Saint 
 Francis went beyond all bounds in making alms- 
 giving the condition of true religious life, as under- 
 stood by him. Self-denial is only valuable and useful 
 so far as it ends in an efficacious succor of the needy. 
 Putting himself in a position to receive gifts, he 
 made himself useless, for he did but add to the total 
 poverty that was to be relieved. This was the mis- 
 take of Saint Francis — he might have given himself 
 up to productive toil, and yet have practiced the 
 heroism of charity. But how heroic and sublime he 
 is! He triumphs over every difficulty; in his way 
 he bends the rules of that ecclesiastical authority to 
 
24 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 his holy follies, which distrusted such vehemence, 
 and feared it could not restrain the overflowing 
 stream within its banks. It communicated from soul 
 to soul like an irresistible contagion — it swept away 
 in its impetuous current thousands of men till then 
 sunken in worldly life; and this movement of a great 
 soul became the starting-point of a considerable influ- 
 ence which renewed the Church. Saint Francis in- 
 deed displaced the center of influence ; he caused it to 
 pass from the superb hierarchy of Gregory YII. and 
 Innocent III. to the humble fervor of a popular 
 order, which was open even to laymen in its third 
 order, for one of its most remarkable characteristics 
 w r as, that it was in no respect sacerdotal. Saint 
 Francis had accomplished the better part of his work 
 before taking orders. Though submitting to the 
 harshest privations, it was not as astern fakir, who can 
 only curse the world ; he felt, on the contrary, a ten- 
 der sympathy for all nature ; he not only heard the 
 sublime chant of the starry heavens like the Psalmist, 
 but the lark and the cricket murmured in his ear a 
 song of thanksgiving, and he calls the swallows his 
 sisters. He gave the first impulse to a species of 
 popular poesy full of freshness. The only hymn of 
 his that has been preserved is a holy convocation of 
 all nature to worship its author. 
 
 "Praised be my Lord ! with all his creatures, and 
 especially our brother the sun, who brings us light 
 and the day ; he is fair and bright with great splendor, 
 and, O Lord, he signifies thee to us. 
 
 " Praised be my Lord for our sister, the moon, and 
 for the stars which thou hast formed in the clear, 
 fine sky. 
 
 u Praised be my Lord for our mother, the earth, 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 25 
 
 who sustains and nourishes us, and produces all kinds 
 of fruit, the many-tinted flowers, and the grasses. 
 
 " Praised be my Lord for those who forgive for thy 
 love's sake, and who patiently bear tribulation and 
 infirmity. Blessed are they who persevere in peace, 
 for by thee, Supreme God, shall they be crowned. 
 Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks to him, 
 and serve him in great humility." 
 
 Surely this is a frankly Christian tone, and fixes a 
 great gulf between St. Francis and the disciple of 
 Buddha, who sees in nature only a perfidious en- 
 chantress, and compares earthly existence to an ac- 
 cursed forest, where the five senses await us like 
 brigands at the turn of the most flowery paths. It 
 is unnecessary to circle the brow of the Saint of As- 
 sisi with the halo of the marvelous. The famous le- 
 gend of the wounds of Christ imprinted on his limbs 
 has no satisfactory proof, and will not endure historico- 
 critical examination. It has, nevertheless, a very fine 
 and deep meaning. What is it to be a Christian but 
 to be, as St. Paul says, crucified with Christ ? Can 
 true charity be any thing but an immolation ? Ghari- 
 tas est passio, said Origen. Charity is a renewal of 
 the passion, minus its expiation. To compassionate 
 is to take upon one's heart the burden of those who 
 suffer — to have the same feelings that Jesus Christ 
 had ; to drink a few drops from his cup. 
 
 This legend of Saint Francis awakens another in my 
 memory, which has just been very vividly recalled to 
 me at a little chapel in the Appian Way, that I entered 
 this afternoon. It is called the Quo Vadis Church, be- 
 cause, according to tradition, it was on this precise 
 spot of the Appian Way that Jesus met Peter flee- 
 ing from the persecutions of Nero. Quo Vadis? 
 
26 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 " Whither goest thou ? " the disciple asked his Master. 
 "I am going to Rome," replied Jesus, " again to be 
 crucified." Peter perceived that the Master wished 
 to suffer in his servant, and he turned fearlessly back 
 to confront his punishment. Thus some of these an- 
 cient legends contain a profound meaning that might 
 well rebuke our barren orthodoxy, which has too far 
 forgotten that we are only Christian by becoming 
 truly members of Christ. But the Church to which 
 Saint Francis belonged, needs especially to learn from 
 him a living, loving piety, clear of the miserable su- 
 perstitions and the frightful Mariolatry which now 
 stain her. There would truly be much to rebuke in 
 his exaggerations, and we would not transport them 
 as they are into our Churches, but at least they 
 would trench on that servile and idolatrous religi- 
 osity which now knows only two divinities, the Virgin 
 Mother in heaven and the Pope on earth. It seemed 
 to me interesting to evoke this type of the purest 
 Catholic piety of the Middle Ages face to face with 
 the pitiful deviations to which she allows herself to 
 be drawn away to-day. In speaking of Saint Francis 
 I have not departed from Assisi, for the little city 
 lives on his memory ; she preserves it as the Vestal 
 guarded her sacred fire. Isolated on her mountain, 
 overlooking the entire plain, without blending in the 
 tumult of contemporary life, she is one of those grand 
 asylums where humanity one day approached so Bear 
 God that she could never more forget him. After 
 these glories of holiness, it seems that nothing further 
 can be attempted. The city is a vast, silent cloister. 
 The true sanctuary of Saint Francis is at the summit of 
 the hill. It consists of three superimposed churches. 
 The crypt contains the tomb of Saint Francis. There, 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 27 
 
 it is pretended he remained constantly on his knees 
 in prayer. The uppermost church is not used 
 for worship ; the intermediate church is alone devo- 
 ted to that. Dark and narrow, it contains admirable 
 frescos ; among the rest, those of Giotto, showing the 
 espousals of St. Francis with virginity, obedience, and 
 especially poverty, then his glorification. These 
 frescos constitute a great page in the history of art ; 
 they mark one of its most important stages. Saint 
 Francis also inspired Dante, and thus he would 
 vainly conceal his life ; he could not help its becom- 
 ing fruitful in every direction. It is related that 
 Goethe, in his Italian journey, took the trouble to 
 climb the hill of Assisi ; but the superb Olympian did 
 not deign to cast a glance at the sanctuary of Saint 
 Francis ; he had eyes only for three Corinthian col- 
 umns to be seen in the market. Yet we have seen 
 that, even from the artistic stand-point, holiness is 
 fruitful. But any fanaticism is narrow, and the great 
 poet of Germany reserved all his worship for the 
 serenities of Grecian paganism ; we have caught him 
 in the very act of narrowness of mind. 
 
 As yet I can give you no great information on 
 Rome, for I have but just arrived ; but fear not lest 
 I should conduct you through churches and museums. 
 I shall only converse incidentally with you on mat- 
 ters of art, yet I shall not pass them by in silence, 
 since my letters would then lack sincerity. I desire 
 to cleave especially to subjects of present interest 
 — the moral state of the people, particularly of the 
 clergy, and every thing relating to the Council. It is 
 not the Koine that all travelers see which I would 
 wish to depict to you, but more particularly the 
 Rome of the year of grace 1869, which will mark so 
 
28 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 important a date in the history of Catholicism. For 
 the moment, by what I hear, they are not so sure of 
 triumph in the ultramontane camp as they were 
 some months since ; a certain hesitation betrays itself 
 in many members of the clergy. Germany now plays 
 the part that France played in the Council of Trent. 
 She is dreaded as being able to make serious opposi- 
 tion, while the English prelates are considered as the 
 elect of ultramontanism, who might rebuke the Ro- 
 man monseigneurs. But we shall return to these char- 
 acteristics of the various fractions of the episcopacy 
 when their positions shall be more distinctly defined. 
 Yesterday, Sunday, November 7, the Cardinal Yicar 
 Apostolic caused the following invitation to be 
 posted up on all the walls of Rome. I reproduce it as 
 one of the most important documents of the prelim- 
 inary history of the Council, which perfectly shows 
 in what spirit the Roman curia would urge it on, 
 and under what auspices they desire to place it. 
 
 Invito Sacro. 
 
 u In a few days Rome will receive within her walls 
 pastors coming from all the countries of the world, 
 and the solemn day consecrated to the Immaculate 
 Conception of Mary draws near — a day which will be 
 more memorable in the future, since it will witness 
 the opening of the Council. Therefore, all true sons 
 of the Mother of God address themselves with the 
 greatest affection to her whom St. Cyril called norma 
 rectce fidei, the norm or rule of the true faith, and 
 they address themselves to her, in order that just as 
 she was personally at Jerusalem the teacher of the 
 Apostles and their companions in prayer, to call down 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 29 
 
 the sanctifying Spirit from heaven upon the Council, 
 so she may preside to-day over the new assembly 
 gathered under her maternal protection, and that by 
 her mediation she may obtain all the favors of which 
 God has made her the arbiter and dispenser. Hasten 
 ail to the Triduo of the Church of the reverend 
 Capuchin Fathers. 
 
 " We also exhort you to attend in the same church 
 the Triduo of Jesus of Nazareth. We feel assured, 
 O .Romans, that yon will second our paternal desire, 
 and that, prostrate before the venerated image of 
 Immaculate Mary, you will invoke her as your hope, 
 and as the hope of the Catholic Church, and Mary 
 will once more prove to the enemies of the truth how 
 justly the sacred liturgy speaks thus of her : Cunctas 
 hcvreses sola interemisti in universo mundo? 
 
 This official document appears to me of the highest 
 interest, as an ingenuous revelation of ultramontane 
 Neo-Catholicism. It especially brings into clear light 
 the intention of the Pope in choosing the 8th of De- 
 cember for the opening of the Council. The 8th of 
 December is, in fact, the day on which he alone pro- 
 mulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception 
 of Mary, contrary to all the ancient rules of the 
 Church. Is not this saying, in the clearest, most pre- 
 cise manner, that the Council is only an accessory 
 wheel, since it is possible to dispense with it in the 
 proclamation of an article of the creed, the most con- 
 siderable innovation that can be imagined ? 
 
 Convoking the Council on the anniversary of this 
 most fearful usurpation which, three centuries ago, 
 would have stirred up the whole Catholic world, 
 the Pope does what Napoleon III. would do, 
 
30 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 should he convoke the renewed parliament on the 
 2d of December, the festival of his coup (Vetat. 
 The Pope has thus found the most ingenious means 
 of consecrating his personal power with splendor, and 
 teaching the world that there is no means of limiting 
 it. After this, what matters it whether the Council 
 decrees his personal infallibility or not, since it is cer- 
 tain that in no case will it be set aside by a formal 
 canon ? His infallibility would be truly rejected only 
 in case the Council protested against the proclamation 
 of the Immaculate Conception by the Pope; but the 
 boldest of the opposition would not dare hope for 
 any such thing. The infallibility of the Holy Father 
 has been affirmed in fact ; he has proved it as the 
 Greek philosopher demonstrated motion by walking, 
 and he has walked over the most indisputable tradi- 
 tions of the Church to attain his ends. Consequently* 
 the debates of the high assembly can only possess a 
 theoretic interest ; the practice is regulated, and very 
 conclusively regulated. 
 
 What is very striking, further, in the Invito Sacro, 
 is the audacity with which the Cardinal Vicar, speak- 
 ing in name of the Holy See, draws the consequences 
 of the Immaculate Conception, in reality a true 
 apotheosis of Mary. She, she alone is invoked at the 
 moment when the Church is to prepare for these 
 solemn sessions. Of the Holy Spirit, w T ho, however, 
 is canonically the inspiration of the Council, not a 
 word ! As to Jesus Christ, you have remarked the little 
 notice inserted in a parenthesis that he might not be 
 entirely neglected, but he is treated as a personage 
 of secondary importance. The Cardinal Yicar, after 
 his effusions over the Immaculate Virgin, seems to 
 check himself, and say, " Iforgot to mention to you 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 31 
 
 a certain Jesus of Nazareth, whom you would do 
 well to invoke, but in his turn, after our chief di- 
 vinity. Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" This 
 benevolent attention, transitorily bestowed on the 
 Saviour of the world, is one of those luminous touches 
 which clearly define the whole situation. Mary is 
 set up not only as the merciful Mother, who procures 
 the forgiveness of sin by her intercession, but as the 
 morning star which sheds on the Church the pure 
 light of heaven. The Invito Sacro boldly proclaims 
 her the norm of truth. I think I never read such a 
 thing before ; at any rate, never was any other 
 Council inaugurated in this fashion. The Cardinal 
 Yicar has private information on the part Mary 
 played in the Council of Jerusalem ; he forgets, un- 
 happily, to make this known to us, for, according to 
 the Acts of the Apostles, she shone there by her 
 silence ; and it is this very silence, humility, the vail 
 in which she constantly wrapped herself, which is 
 her true greatness. Finally, to crown this master- 
 piece, the Cardinal Yicar ascribes to her the honor of 
 banishing all heresy from the world. It is often 
 said that we must seek the true idea of a letter in the 
 postscript. Do the latter words, then, signify that 
 the entire preceding tit-bit is an exquisitely delicate 
 irony ? For, finally, we need but open our eyes to 
 see that Mary has very badly succeeded in suppressing 
 the heresies of the world. It seems, on the contrary, 
 as though the world more and more, belonged to 
 them. Witness the immense expansion of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race, and the triumphs of Protestant Germany. 
 Catholicism can no longer say, like Philip II., that 
 the sun never sets on her empire ; for all the Occident 
 is escaping her power. Let us confess that Mary is 
 
32 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 just as much the norm of truth as she is the subduer 
 of heresies, and we shall agree with the Invito Sacro. 
 It is here that we must find the preface to the Council. 
 You see that it commences well. 
 
 This morning the ceremonies of the Triduo began in 
 the beautiful Ara-Coeli Church, whither the Fran- 
 ciscans daily ascend in throngs, sweeping the dust of 
 the Capitol with their robes — a striking contrast which 
 inspired in Gibbon the first idea of his work on the 
 decline of Eome. E. de Pkessense. 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 33 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 A Glimpse at Rome : Like City like Citizens — A Chapter of Contrasts : 
 1. The City and the Surrounding Desert; 2. The Ancient Church of 
 St. Clement and the Modern Churches; 3. The Contrast of Quarters 
 in Rome; 4. The Contrast in Costumes : 5. Pagan and Christian Art; 
 6. The Capuchins and the Scipios; 7. Spiritual and Formal Relig- 
 ion ; 8. Rome and the Coming Change. 
 
 Rome, November 9, 1869. 
 
 Dear Sir: — And yet I must give yon a rapid 
 glimpse at the city which is to be the theater of this 
 great religious event, not surely a description such 
 as you may find in books of travel, but a summary 
 of the impressions which the Eternal City makes 
 upon me. After all, there is nothing new under the 
 sun, and if we merely sought novelty, it would be 
 well to keep silent. Yet the sun is always new T ; it 
 awakens as much joy when it appears on the horizon 
 after so many centuries, as when the first daybreak 
 dissipated night. And then emotion is an incessant 
 spring of novelty ; it rejuvenates whatever seems 
 most wasted. What is it but the peculiar tint which 
 light, ever identical with itself, takes on in travers- 
 ing a new medium, and coloring itself with truly 
 fresh hues? Is not this the charm which we find in 
 the landscapes of the masters? What they repro- 
 duce is commonly well known to us ; we have enjoyed 
 the shade of those trees in the neighboring forest; 
 we have often gazed on those mountains or the foam 
 of those waves. But what strikes and ravishes us in 
 their pictures is their own way of looking at these 
 
 things, their individuality manifested in their propor- 
 
 3 
 
34 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 tioning of light and shade ; we see in the illumination 
 of the picture what chiefly touched them ; it is man 
 that we seek in nature ; and man, a changeful and in- 
 dividual being, always escapes monotony. Thus it is 
 with those great landscapes which are successively de- 
 picted in our minds, and are kindled up in our imagina- 
 tion with the most brilliant colors. They may have 
 been a thousand times described ; it suffices that they 
 inspire in us a sincere emotion which is truly our 
 own ; we need no longer fear wearisome repetitions. 
 This is why I have the audacity to devote a few 
 pages to that ancient Rome reproduced by so many 
 painters, and sung by so many poets. 
 
 Besides, I have an excellent reason, for speaking of 
 the city; never shall we understand the duration of 
 its worm-eaten institutions, unless we give heed to 
 the proper and unique character of this strange city, 
 where every thing combines to plunge the soul into 
 an indefinable languor, in which time has an in- 
 expressibly senile gait that keeps us from noting its 
 flight. It marches w x ith measured steps along that 
 Road of the Tombs which has seen so much grandeur 
 disappear. The present and the past are confounded. 
 We might call it immobile duration. We should, 
 doubtless, guard against those abject theories which 
 are in favor in the materialistic philosophy of history, 
 according to which man is absolutely like a vegetable 
 in depending on the soil that bears him and the air 
 he breathes. The history of this great and illustrious 
 city itself suffices to give the lie to that system which 
 forgets but one thing in the life of humanity, liberty, 
 that is the soul and inward spring of that life. Has 
 not Rome been, as her very name indicates, the image 
 of power carried to its highest pitch, of the most in- 
 
Rome, Italy, a.kd the Council. 35 
 
 domitable vigor, of an energy without truce or rest, that 
 conquered and then devoured the world? Yet the 
 heavens are the same, and the sun. Let us admit, how- 
 ever, that the climate has been modified in consequence 
 of the abandonment of the Campagna, which has be- 
 come a vast and marshy desert ; but this very change 
 is due completely to moral causes. Man changed first ; 
 having suffered himself to be cast down beneath the 
 task of a vast demolition, he then fell asleep under the 
 shadow of a religion of servitude. He no more had 
 the strength to hold the plowshare than to wield the 
 sword of his fathers. Briars have taken the place of 
 sheaves in once fertile fields, and the outward condi- 
 ditions of existence have changed, but not till after 
 the moral conditions were transformed. Still it re- 
 mains true that the Roman of to-day lives in a heavy 
 atmosphere, made up of malaria and incense ; and 
 we do not entirely comprehend the condition of this 
 people till we are acquainted with its circumstances. 
 It is this that authorizes me to dwell on them a little, 
 before devoting myself to the religious and social 
 drama now progressing here, and which is drawing 
 near one of its decisive crises. 
 
 Should I try to explain to myself the special char- 
 acter of the impressions that Eome inspires in me, 
 from the wholly outside stand-point I now assume, 
 I should sum them up in one word — contrast. It is 
 this that seizes on the mind and the imagination, that 
 prevents emotion from falling off; it is incessantly 
 solicited and excited by a perpetual contrast which 
 combines the most discordant things every moment 
 under our eyes, yet without opposing them in an 
 offensive manner. Nay, this singular city has a 
 softening power which nothing resists; it is like 
 
36 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 those persons of honied amiability whose mere pres- 
 ence hinders divergent opinions from coming to open 
 rupture, and who tone down all voices. This soften- 
 ing power comes largely from the grand poesy of the 
 place. The esthetic stand-point gets insensibly substi- 
 tuted forthemoral stand-point, which alone dictatesab- 
 solute judgments. Thus the sharp points are blunted ; 
 what would elsewhere excite indignation or pity 
 glides easily over the charmed mind, and the most 
 diverse objects melt and blend in that broad and 
 purple light which is the glory and the ornament of this 
 country. Beginning with the most external of these 
 contrasts, let us rapidly pass over the whole series in 
 order to justify my conclusion. 
 
 The first, which most easily impresses one, is 
 that of an immense and magnificent city, with the 
 desert that circles it. You pass without any transi- 
 tion from the brilliant and tumultuous Corso, with its 
 palaces — each of w^hich is an exquisite work of art — 
 its profusely gilded churches and its rich stores, to 
 the severe sadness of the Forum, which, without more 
 ado, conducts you into the dull and barren plain. 
 Thus civilization and desolation, the present and the 
 past, touch. This limitless plain produces the effect 
 of a sea whose destroying wave is ever advancing, 
 and which yet leaves afloat a few great fragments of 
 the ships it has swallowed up. But it is a voiceless 
 and unmurmuring sea, which silently destroys all that 
 it embraces ; it is the Dead Sea of the Occident. But 
 let us not slander it ; the sadness of the Hainan 
 plain has an unequaled beauty. For myself, w T ho 
 have visited the Orient — who have admired the muti- 
 lated but immortal marbles of the Parthenon — I set 
 nothing above a promenade along the Appian Way 
 
Rome, Italy, akd the Council. 37 
 
 at sunset. The Road of the Tombs still retains but 
 two or three of its monuments, but what matters that ! 
 You trample the dust of the most glorious past, and 
 the grand sepulcher is there beneath your eyes ! This 
 is the plain itself. It spreads out, covered with a 
 luxuriant yet sterile vegetation, which is its green 
 shroud ; the ruined arches of the aqueducts of Clau- 
 dius alone break the monotonous desolation ; while 
 along the horizon the Albanian hills mingle a little 
 grace with the oppressive sadness. Behind you Rome 
 rears its spires and domes. You looked for a Pal- 
 myra or Baalbec, and it is one of the capitals of the 
 world that presses upon you. The same spectacle, 
 perhaps even more striking, presents itself to us at 
 Saint John de Lateran. At the foot of the splendid 
 basilica which lifts its front, crowned with colossal 
 statues of popes and saints against a flaming sky, the 
 plain begins ; you find fragments of the aqueducts of 
 Nero and of the ancient walls ; the blue mountains 
 of Latium alone give repose to the eye. All the 
 poets who have visited these places have celebrated 
 the supreme beauty of this contrast. This inspired 
 in Byron some of the sublimest strophes of his Childe 
 Harold, those where he represents Rome as the Niobe 
 of nations, seeing in the wrinkles and folds of the 
 plain her widow's vail. Chateaubriand has also 
 magnificently described this unequaled desolation. 
 Well then, vainly do you have in mind these pearls 
 of modern poetry ; the beauty of the spectacle is so 
 great that you seem the first to discover it. This 
 feeling is oppressive in its intensity if one does not 
 react against it. Taking possession of an entire 
 nation, which undergoes it without reasoning, it in- 
 sensibly unnerves its men ; and they say in presence 
 
38 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 of all that lies buried at their feet, that it is hardly 
 worth while to begin life afresh. : and unless thev un- 
 dergo new influences they easily yield, in this region 
 of decline, to a government of old men. 
 
 The Forum remains the most imposing wreck of 
 ancient Rome. Every thing has been said, and said 
 again, on that incomparable street which, starting from 
 the Capitol, extends to the Lateran, passing under 
 triumphal arches that no longer triumph over any 
 thing, and which rise from amid the broken ruins ot 
 edifices where the majesty of the Roman people was 
 enthroned between those columns that lift their ele- 
 gant capitals amid decay. A few circular stones 
 alone remind us of the tribune where the voice of 
 Cicero resounded. Vegetation, with its green mantle, 
 covers the remnants of the imperial basilicas, as if to 
 attest the immortal youth of nature before the piled- 
 up ruins of human grandeur. The remains of those 
 pagan temples which fronted on the Forum have 
 been incased in Christian basilicas, which confined 
 themselves to surmounting with a cross edifices 
 reared for pagan divinities — another double-edged 
 irony, for if it displays the defeat of the proud relig- 
 ion of the Cesars so contemptuous toward those ob- 
 scure Nazarenes who seemed in its eyes all that was 
 lowest in Judaism. It also suggests at what small 
 expense the degenerate Christianity of the Byzantine 
 emperors effected the renewal of the pagan world. 
 It was an entirely outward renewal, which fixes a 
 sign, and nothing more, on the past, and leaves it 
 at bottom identically the same, just like that great 
 neophyte called Constantine, who extends over the 
 Church a protecting hand stained with the blood ot* 
 his son and his wife. 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 39 
 
 Along the road that leads from the Forum to the 
 Lateran we follow the entire drama of Christian per- 
 secution. Here is the basilica where the disciple of 
 Christ was tried, and where he contented himself 
 with the sublime response that sent him to death, 
 Christianus sum.; Two steps away is found the fa- 
 mous Mamertine prison, hollowed out in the bow- 
 els of the earth, a somber den, into which the con- 
 fessor was plunged before being flung to the lions. It 
 is probable that St. Paul spent his last days there, 
 after the bonds of his captivity were tightened. 
 Nothing can be more mournful and gloomy than 
 this subterranean dungeon. We can imagine the 
 confessor laid on the cold stones, plunged in a gloom 
 somber as that of the sepulcher, and yet full of joy, 
 because he saw appearing in the darkness which en- 
 velopes him the bleeding head of the Crucified, as 
 some martyrs report in the Acts wherein their sor- 
 rows and their joys have been deposited. They are 
 ready, according to the touching and sublime expres- 
 sion of the young virgin of Lyons, to follow the Lamb 
 wheresoever he may lead them. He most commonly 
 led them to the Circus. 
 
 Behold in its savage grandeur and gigantic pro- 
 portions that famous Colosseum, still standing, though 
 it has served as a quarry for the buildings of a part 
 of the city. Nothing can give a better idea of ma- 
 terial power in its inexorability. There the people 
 thronged, drunk with blood, but never sated with it, 
 even when the arena had been repeatedly reddened, 
 and lifting up a more furious clamor than that of the 
 ferocious beasts which howled behind their iron grat- 
 ings. How many thousands of humble believers, 
 both men and women, perished on this spot with the 
 
4:0 Bome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 name of Christ on their lips ! Feeble and humble, 
 they nevertheless conquered amid their opprobrium, 
 and this immense Circus is nothing but the attesta- 
 tion of their pacific triumph. 
 
 Allow me to use the freedom given by the episto- 
 lary style, which has a right to multiply episodes, to 
 lead you a few steps from the Colosseum to the 
 Church of St. Clement. This is another contrast. I 
 visited it this afternoon with profound interest. It 
 presents us a faithful image of the basilica of the 
 early times of the peace of the Church ; even though 
 it should have been repeatedly rebuilt, the plan is 
 still unmodified. It perhaps furnishes us some in- 
 formation on places of worship toward the close of 
 the third century, for it is quite probable that they 
 had an analogous form. The church was so arranged 
 as to harmonize with the ancient discipline, of which 
 not a vestige remains in Catholicism. It was char- 
 acterized by the eminently Christian idea that the 
 people of God should not be confounded with the 
 nation, which did not by right of birth belong to it 
 but by right of conversion ; that, consequently, a sep- 
 aration should exist between those without and those 
 within its pale. We find this idea expressed with 
 great energy in ancient liturgic fragments, particu- 
 larly in those of the Church of Alexandria in the 
 time of Clement and Origen. That primitive liturgy 
 was summed up in these strong words, "Holy things 
 to the holy." Every thing was arranged so that the 
 spectator should understand that to participate in 
 the life of the Church a new heart, a new life, was 
 required. Hence the serious arrangements which 
 were made for the instruction of the catechumen^ 
 which demanded that he should break with all the 
 
Some, Italy, ajstd the Council. 41 
 
 habits of heathen life. Hence the division of relig- 
 ious services into two distinct and well-marked por- 
 tions, the first for all who desired to hear the divine 
 word, the second for those only who were entitled to 
 receive the eucharistic sacrament. Read the Alex- 
 andrian Liturgy and the Apostolic Constitutions in 
 Coptic, discovered some years ago, which go back 
 quite positively to the second century, and you will 
 obtain an idea of the rigor with which this separa- 
 tion between the converted and the unconverted was 
 established. 
 
 That most fatal revolution wrought by the union 
 of the Church and the Empire was precisely the con- 
 fusion of the populace of the city with the members 
 of the religious society, and the bringing pell-mell 
 into the indefinitely enlarged framework of the house 
 of God the unconverted multitudes who brought 
 with them their ignorance, their vices, and had to be 
 now threatened with an iron rod for the advantage 
 of the hierarchy, and now abandoned to their pas- 
 sions and superstitions in consideration of a few 
 gross forms by which they acquitted themselves to- 
 ward Heaven. Thus a degenerate Christianity, which 
 unites oppressive authority with the most dangerous 
 indulgence toward the natural heart, was formed and 
 grew up, very tyrannical toward the mind and 
 lenient toward the life ; which substitutes the broad 
 for the narrow way; and promises to lead to the 
 gates of heaven by an easy path all who will bow to 
 its yoke, and let themselves be blindly guided by its 
 crook. We are well acquainted with such Chris- 
 tianity. It is Catholicism in its full development, as 
 displayed under our eyes at Kome. Well, is it not 
 remarkable to find in the very capital of this abased 
 
42 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Christianity, an undeniable monument of the ancient 
 constitution of the Church, which enables us to lay 
 our finger on the remarkable institutions of the Alex- 
 andrian Liturgy? The Church of St. Clement is in- 
 deed the architectural translation of this invaluable 
 document. The bare arrangement reveals the great 
 principle of the separation between the faithful and 
 the profane, which was carried out to the great advan- 
 tage of both. St. Clement's has the form of a basilica 
 with three naves. It is entered by a porch of simple 
 style, the only one of its kind existing at Rome. 
 
 Between this portal and the church itself extends 
 a square court, bordered with columns ; in its center 
 is the font which was used for baptism. The church 
 is preceded by a portico, or atrium, of small dimen- 
 sions, called the nacthea. Here were placed, in vari- 
 ous positions, penitent backsliders and catechumens ; 
 the former could not cross the threshold of the church 
 before their restoration, nor the latter before profess- 
 ing their faith and receiving holy baptism. There 
 they listened to the preaching. They were dismissed 
 at the moment when the eucharistic cup was passed 
 among the faithful. It was impossible to draw in a 
 more striking manner the line of demarkation be- 
 tween the Church and the world, since those who 
 aspired to become Christians were thus retained on 
 the threshold of the temple. The interior arrange- 
 ment of the Church of Saint Clement is likewise 
 very interesting. The three naves end in an apsis, at 
 once beautiful and simple, where was the episcopal 
 seat surrounded by the seats of the presbyters. This 
 shows that the times of early Christian liberty had 
 passed, and that the episcopal system was in full 
 vigor. The " Pastor of Hernias," written in the middle 
 
Bome, Italy, and the Council. 43 
 
 of the second century, already anticipated its tri- 
 umph, and indicated the cause with rare sagacity. 
 ■" Why," we read in one of the more or less apocalypti- 
 cal visions of which this singular book is composed, 
 '' Why does the Church wish to sit in the cathedra, the 
 episcopal throne ? " The reply is, " Because he who is 
 fatigued loves to sit down." Thus the cathedra, the 
 sign of episcopal authority, is represented as a proof 
 of the moral lassitude of the Church-— a profound 
 thought, which recalls the saying of the Apostle, 
 "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath 
 made you free." These words of the " Pastor of Her- 
 nias" recur to my memory whenever I have before 
 my eyes an ancient cathedra. It is true that the 
 episcopal power was strangely restrained when it had 
 before it, not an ignorant flock, but a trulv Christian 
 people interested in public matters, and sharing in 
 them, especially by election and moral participation. 
 In the center of the church is an inclosure, surrounded 
 by a balustrade, which served as the pulpit. Eight 
 and left are two marble desks, called ambons, for the 
 reading of the Holy Scriptures. The ambon of the 
 gospels is higher than that of the epistles, as if to 
 mark the incomparable character of the Master's 
 word. Tradition assigns no pulpits to the hierarchy. 
 The word of God alone bears sovereign authority. 
 On this point, too, the ancient architecture yields 
 valuable information. 
 
 I had visited the Church of Saint Clement fifteen 
 years ago, but judge of my delight when I discovered, 
 in my visit yesterday, that excavations, skillfully con- 
 ducted for the last ten years, have entirely cleared up 
 the subterranean basilica, which belongs to a much 
 earlier period, and whose oldest constructions may be 
 
44 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 referred to the fifth century. Perhaps we there have 
 the very basilica which Saint Jerome mentioned in 
 the year 392. The subterranean church is a precise 
 reproduction of the superior church, which confirms 
 the ancient type of the latter. It is also divided into 
 three naves with the apsis. The most interesting thing 
 that I found are the ancient mural paintings, which 
 take us back quite near the age of the catacombs, 
 though we discern in them incontestable traces of 
 the rising Catholicism. They represent scenes taken 
 from the life of Saint Clement, and, among others, a 
 solemn celebration of public worship, with all the 
 officiating functionaries, which presents a faithful idea 
 of the hierarchy. The date of this fresco must be quite 
 posterior to that of the church itself; it is of the eighth 
 or ninth century. One of these frescos deeply moved 
 me ; to my thinking, it is one of the pearls of Chris- 
 tian painting — and I name it because I have nowhere 
 seen it mentioned. It contains but two figures, 
 Jesus Christ and Adam. The Redeemer bears a 
 celestial expression of profound, sympathizing, and 
 victorious love. He comes to the abode of the dead, 
 seeking the representative of the fallen race, who has 
 so long awaited him, and who now sees his protracted 
 desire satisfied, and the promise of Eden magnifi- 
 cently fulfilled. His glance betrays a serious, aston- 
 ished joy. This meeting of the first and the second 
 Adam brings before our eyes the entire drama of 
 redemption in the most moving manner. Christian 
 antiquity delighted in this thought. The apocryphal 
 " Gospel of Nicodemus," which was cited by Justin 
 Martyr, and consequently goes back to the first half 
 of the second century, is partly devoted to the visit 
 of Christ to Sheol, a vague region reserved according 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 45 
 
 to the ideas of the time to the men of the old covenant, 
 until the expected Messiah should open to them the 
 gates of light. Every prophet hails, in his way, the 
 Desire of nations. The first Adam blesses him with 
 emotion as the repairer of his own revolt. Here is 
 truly our fresco. Tn an apocryphal apocalypse enti- 
 tled the " Vision of Moses," which Tischendorf has 
 quite recently recovered, the death of Adam is de- 
 picted in the loftiest poetry. The earth refuses to 
 receive the body of her lord, of him who should not 
 die. Angels lay it down not far from paradise until 
 the Divine Redeemer shall come to reopen its gates 
 to him. These curious monuments of Christian 
 antiquity explain very well the fresco of Saint Clem- 
 ents; the latter made me breathe the purest perfume 
 of popular poetry in the early ages of the Church. 
 
 You will excuse this episode, which moreover falls 
 completely within the scope of this letter. I will 
 come back to my Roman contrasts. A very ingen- 
 ious Genevan author has justly remarked that in 
 Rome itself you find both the city and the vil- 
 lage. This at once strikes foreigners. The suburbs 
 -are in the very heart of the city ; a few paces from a 
 palace built by a Bramante you have a narrow, dirty 
 medio ) with its cracked houses fluttering with rags in 
 the windows. The ox-cart passes by the red carriage 
 of a cardinal, or the gala-coach of a Roman prince. 
 Close to the brilliant coffee-houses of the Corso you 
 have the open air slaughter-house, where you come 
 upon a bloody display of tattered meats which no 
 longer have a name in the language of man. Meats 
 are fried, and exhibited also in open shops, adorned 
 with leafy boughs. In the morning great flocks of 
 white goats invade the city to furnish milk, and give 
 
46 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 to certain quarters the air of a sheep-farm of a new sort, 
 that has palaces for folds ; while the Piazza d'Espagna 
 and the Piazza del Popolo present the most aristocratic 
 appearance, other piazzas, far finer in the monuments 
 that decorate them, like the Piazza di Navone, trans- 
 port us to rustic scenes. It is a perfect village fair 
 with its uncovered shops, its vegetables, and its 
 fruits heaped up in pyramids, and also its trestles. 
 The Transteverine quarter contains in its squalor 
 magnificent Roman medallions; the women, in their 
 more than simple costume, have preserved the Roman 
 type of the Republic, the majestic and haughty 
 cut of the features with their burning eyes. The 
 ancient blood is un mingled ; it has preserved its 
 vigor, as may easily be perceived by the formidable 
 uproar that arises on the least squabble. The Jewish 
 quarter, the ancient ghetto, is hardly more changed, 
 even though the barriers which formerly closed it at 
 evening no longer exist. It is still dirty and hide- 
 ous, devoted to the sale of old clothes, and the 
 gratuitous exhibition of vermin. And yet it was 
 indisputably there that Christianity won its earliest 
 adepts in the capital of the empire ; for the passage 
 of Suetonius, on the agitation raised in the time of 
 Claudius, by a certain Chrestus — impulsore Chresto 
 — evidently indicates that some Jew from Palestine 
 had brought a new leaven into the synagogues of 
 Rome, and that this leaven had quite powerfully stir- 
 red up the lower strata of the ghetto of that time, so that 
 the Emperor believed it his duty to meddle with it. 
 It was in some of these dirty streets that for the first 
 time the divine words were exchanged that were sub- 
 sequently to resound over the ruins of the Western 
 Babylon, and doubtless more than one reader of the 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 47 
 
 Apocalypse in the first century, from the depth of 
 the opprobrium to which he was banished, hurled at 
 her the prophetic defiance of Saint John. She is 
 fallen, the great harlot who made the nations drunk 
 with the wine of her cup, and stained her robe in 
 the blood of the saints ! Alas ! she was to fall only 
 to rise up in part as cruel as her pagan predecessor 
 toward the representatives of the pure Gospel. 
 
 The contrast in persons at Rome is even more 
 strange than that in the various quarters. In the great 
 cities of the old and the new world a uniform civiliza- 
 tion passes its roller over all men ; all diversity is 
 blended into one gray tint. On the contrary, a street 
 in Rome is a true diorama, which presents humanity to 
 us under the most diverse aspects. Pass by the for- 
 eign colony, which, despite differences in nationality, 
 is molded to the uniform type of high European 
 society : pass by the Roman middle-classes also, who 
 wear the black coat and surtout like everybody else : 
 it is higher and lower that we must seek piquant 
 variety and picturesque originality. To every lord 
 his own honor — and here the lord is the clergy ; at 
 every step you encounter a monsigneur in violet, an 
 abbe with his cocked-hat, his delicate air, and intel- 
 lectual glance. Rarely do you cross the street with- 
 out meeting a Jesuit ; he feels at home and king at 
 Rome — for his order steers the ship. Capuchins, 
 Dominicans, monks of every garb, and mendicant 
 friars, throng around the churches, or beg from house 
 to house. The carriage of a cardinal, with its three 
 lacqueys in cocked hats, traverses on the gallop the 
 motley crowd, where you notice, particularly on 
 Sunday, frequent groups of peasants, with sun- 
 burnt-faces, and that picturesque costume which 
 
48 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 painters are never tired of copying. They come to 
 the city for their business and devotions. They 
 throng venerated sanctuaries, come to kiss the worn 
 foot of Saint Peter at the Vatican, and surround, with 
 open mouths, the improvisor or itinerant singer who 
 exhibits a complete little domestic drama, pointing 
 out with his baton the gross images which illustrate 
 it. The great source of poetry at Rome is always 
 the antithesis of ancient art and Christian art. Both 
 appear in their noblest ideal, and, better than their 
 juxtaposition, nothing could enable you to measure 
 the depth of the abyss which separates them. Be- 
 tween these Greek marbles with their unchangeable 
 serenity and those ecstatic and fervent madonnas there 
 is the entire drama of Calvary. 
 
 Never has classic antiquity appeared so grand to 
 me as in these days, with that unequaled harmony 
 of form and expression which is the daughter of 
 Greece, and the exquisite fruit of her finest spring- 
 time, which was also the spring-time of humanity. 
 There was, indeed, but a short season in history for 
 the production of these masterpieces of serene and 
 happy grace. It was when the human mind, freed 
 from the terrible yoke of the divinities of nature 
 which had, as it were, crushed it, rose up haughty 
 and free to find itself diviner than all which it had 
 until then adored. Humanity was its own divinity; 
 and as it unfolded under a most azure sky, in a splen- 
 dor of beauty and power that it has not since been 
 able to regain, with a moral notion of life higher 
 than all it had until then, possessed it for a moment 
 imagined that it had no other peaks to climb than 
 the gilded summits of its own Olympus, where it 
 worshiped itself. Then it reposed under plane-trees 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 49 
 
 arid olives, and thought it had regained paradise in 
 the creations of artistic genius. This fleeting mo- 
 ment of enchanted but not effeminate repose, which 
 results from the equilibrium of its faculties, is it not 
 fixed in the Apollo Belvidere ? This youthful god, 
 conqueror of the serpent Python, in his joyous and 
 haughty attitude, and with his divine smile, is he 
 not humanity itself victorious over the somber relig- 
 ions of the Orient, and finding nothing fairer or 
 greater than itself to contemplate ? To my mind, 
 this is the idea which breathes in all the Greek stat- 
 ues of which Apollo is king at the Vatican, in those 
 goddesses, alike smiling and proud, chaste as perfect 
 beauty, but whose eyes are as limpid as the sky of 
 their country, though never moistened by a tear. At 
 the Chiaramonti Museum there is a young faun 
 which expresses with greater frankness than any 
 other marble what Winkelmann called the artaraxie, 
 the superb calmness of Greek art. It is an exquisite 
 work. The marble makes the supple and undulating 
 forms of early" youth palpitate ; the expression be- 
 trays nothing but the joy of existence. It is a dila- 
 tion of unreflecting existence, the intoxication of a 
 flower opening its corolla to the dew of dawn, or of 
 the lark trilling its earliest morning song. Some 
 months since a young god, found at Ostia, was de- 
 posited at the Lateran Museum. He too brings from 
 the ruins, where he has slept so many centuries, the 
 triumphant smile of Greece, but with an inexpressi- 
 bly disdainful smile, which produces the strangest 
 effect. But let us not be unjust. Greece is some- 
 thing more than a fine youth admiring himself. She 
 soon perceived beyond Olympus a vaster and severer 
 horizon ; and a holier divinity than her heroes sculp- 
 
50 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 tured by Phidias. iEschylus, Socrates, and Plato, 
 each in his own way, pursued this high ideal. This 
 also lives again in the museums of Rome in numerous 
 and perfect works. The finest of them, as I think, 
 is the Sophocles of the Museum of St. John de Lateran. 
 Behold, indeed, the noble poet who celebrated the eter- 
 nal law of goodness in worthy language, and consecra- 
 ted it in characters whose purity should make contem- 
 porary art blush. In his person you see that second 
 Greece, no longer simply ingenuous and self-delighted, 
 but pensive, collected, seeking with Plato the Eternal 
 One in the multiplicity of things, and attracted with 
 Aristotle by the changeless beauty of the Prime 
 Mover of the universe, who is to him as a sacred 
 lover, yet ever faithful to the worship of art, and 
 never laying aside its golden lyre. That heroic, 
 eloquent, and philosophic Greece, here it is again in 
 this admirable statue of Demosthenes, who seems to 
 repress within himself the rumbling yet ever-harmo- 
 nious billows of his mighty oratory. This second 
 ideal of grandeur, nobility, and force could not be 
 fixed in a more durable way than the first, because 
 it was not the divine reparation that the world needed. 
 In its own manner it opened the way for it by awak- 
 ening the desire for this reparation, and not satisfy- 
 ing that desire. This rendered it more intense and 
 more sorrowful, and transformed it into prayer to 
 the unknown God. 
 
 A new art, savoring more or less of decline, ex- 
 presses this last phase of Hellenism in a religious 
 point of view, for I am not speaking of that low and 
 frivolous art which only sought to satisfy the senses. 
 This new art sprang up under the shadow of those 
 famous mysteries wherewith men sought to fill the 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 51 
 
 emptiness of the official religions. In its own man- 
 ner it very well expresses thirst for renovation through 
 sorrow and death. This stands out clearly from the 
 representation, so frequent at Eome and elsewhere, 
 of the mysteries of Mithra. The warrior plunging 
 the sacred knife into the side of the bull, an image 
 of the natural life, is man awakened from the dreams 
 of infancy and youth which led him to believe in the 
 eternity of happiness on the earth ; man compre- 
 hending that all terrestrial life must wither and per- 
 ish, and demanding of death the secret of rejuvena- 
 tion. You see that a museum is enough to unroll 
 before our eyes the whole religious history of the an- 
 cient world. 
 
 Yet let us admit that Greece is no longer abso- 
 lutely herself when she reaches this period of lassi- 
 tude and melancholy; she has already undergone 
 the influence of the Orient. The mysteries of Mi- 
 thra are a new molding of Persian mythology. 
 After all, when we think of Greece, that simple 
 name awakens in us a vision of youth, beauty, and 
 harmony — the vision of the Apollo Belvidere, or of 
 the Yenus of Milo. Hence the striking contrast be- 
 tween these enchanting works and that Christian 
 painting which at Eome unfolds all its phases. It 
 also had its infancy, like Greece ; but what a differ- 
 ence in their inspiration ! I never weary of con- 
 templating the ingenuous works of painting in the 
 Middle Ages. They are often stiff enough in their 
 golden setting, but what an impulse toward the great 
 beyond ! What burning fervor ! What frank as- 
 tonishment, full of adoration, before the divine Child 
 of the manger ! What sublime sorrow in the Mater 
 Dolorosa at the foot of the cross ! Eome is very rich 
 
52 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 in works of this period, which go back to Byzantine 
 art, Let art cast off her heavy swaddling bands, or 
 the sacerdotal robes,which imprison her in its folds ; let 
 Fra Angelico come, then Francia, then Fra Bartolo- 
 meo, yon will then recognize what treasures of beauty 
 the Christian inspiration contained. A complete new 
 world is won ; the world of the inward and the world 
 from on hiVh, and it is rendered with inexhaustible 
 wealth. It is not merely the divine that stands out 
 on these canvasses, but also the true, profoundly hu- 
 man, the inward man, who, as St. Paul says, is also 
 the spiritual man. This is what the ancient chisel 
 or pencil never gave us ; that is what Christianity 
 revealed to us. The painting inspired by it has re- 
 produced this, the variety of her colors has allowed her 
 to translate this inward feeling in its infinite shades. 
 When I behold the most ancient and sincere of these 
 masters of Christian painting I seem to be perusing 
 again the most moving pages of the " Imitation of 
 Jesus Christ." Of the demigods of the Renaissance, 
 Raphael, Michael Angelo, and their rivals, I shall say 
 almost nothing, because no words are equal to the 
 impression received before their miracles. They are 
 to Christian art what Phidias and Sophocles were to 
 Athens — the eternally radiant summit that attracts 
 every eye. 
 
 Permit me only to remark what a large share they 
 give to thought. From this they are never distracted 
 by form, marvelous as it may be. I know no more 
 striking example of what I assert than the Dispute 
 on the Holy Sacrament by Raphael. He has suc- 
 ceeded in rendering with remarkable plasticity the 
 difference set forth by St. Paul between faith and 
 direct vision. Below, on the earth, are the theo- 
 
Bome, Italy, and the Council. 53 
 
 logians who still seek, though they believe and 
 only see as in a glass darkly. Above in heaven are 
 the glorified who behold face to face. This sublime 
 idea is unfolded in perfect distinctness on the immortal 
 fresco, without detracting from its artistic beauty, for 
 that has never been surpassed. This sovereignty 
 of thought in art cannot be too greatly admired. 
 Let ns not forget that these great masters of the six- 
 teenth century, while painting at the expense of 
 Leo X., were nevertheless sons of the generation 
 which produced the Reform. 
 
 Next to Greece, and even better than she, does 
 ancient Borne live again in modern Rome, a nation 
 of statues whose number is daily enriched. Before 
 these figures, with strongly-marked features, we con- 
 stantly hear the fate-spoken word addressed, accord- 
 ing to Yirgil, to the sons of the she-wolf, Tu regere 
 imperio — to you the command, the dominion of the 
 world. The Bepublic and the Empire file past in 
 their most eminent representatives. I confess that, 
 before these haughty Togati, especially those who lived 
 before Caesar, I find the sordid monk, or the plump 
 abbe, very mean. I beg pardon of the Capuchins; 
 but seeing them insolently passing before the tombs 
 of the Scipios, I pitied them. The shade of the heroes 
 of the Bepublic was too much for them. I should 
 certainly have had a very different impression before 
 the humblest Christian, provided he were really a 
 man directly mingling in the serious conflicts of life. 
 I am no blind admirer of the Latin genius ; I know 
 too well how heavily it still weighs upon our race, 
 and that finally it is the very genius of tyranny ; but 
 at least it was a manly tyranny. For myself, I know 
 nothing so hateful as the mild despotism of modern 
 
54 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Jesuitism. I cannot tell what I feel in that sanctuary, 
 all covered with gold and precious stones, called the 
 Gesu. There it is all perfume of incense, exquisite 
 gentleness — yes, but under this velvet I feel the sharp 
 claw. The other day I witnessed the solemn vespers 
 for the feast of the dedication of St. John de Lateran. 
 All the pomp of Catholic worship was displayed ; 
 several Cardinals presided over the ceremony. The 
 chants were splendidly executed, though, as a 
 whole, they had no religious character, nor any real 
 beauty. It was that bastard art, the son of the opera 
 and sacristy, which sings cavatinas to Jesus Christ. 
 While the psalms resounded in roulades, in which 
 equivocal trebles dominated, my heart leaped within 
 me. Through these soft harmonies I thought I heard 
 the cries of the innumerable victims w T ho have been 
 sacrificed to the Roman Moloch ; I thought of my 
 Huguenot ancestors proscribed and put to death. 
 I thought of their austere worship, in which they 
 offered themselves as a sacrifice, ready to leave all 
 for Jesus Christ. And then I went back further 
 still into the past — back to that upper chamber in 
 Jerusalem where worship was celebrated for the first 
 time " in spirit and in truth." 
 
 This is the pre-eminent contrast which we do not 
 escape a moment in Rome. Under the arches of 
 St. Peter's and her magnificent sister basilicas, you 
 remember the saying, God is a Spirit. But in pres- 
 ence of the police, the Swiss and the Zouaves of the 
 Holy Father, you hear the other saying, My kingdom 
 is not of this world. The weapons of our warfare are 
 not carnal. Before the oppressive bondage, w r hich 
 enthralls an entire nation, that other word of Christ re- 
 turns to our memory, " If the Sou shall make you free 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 55 
 
 ye shall be free indeed." Hearing this once wherever 
 we turn our steps, no poetry can make us forget this 
 contrast, for it destroys immortal souls, and is one of 
 the worst scourges of the modern world. 
 
 But there is another and final contrast which will 
 soon put an end to this whole regime of death ; it is 
 that which exists between Rome and every thing sur- 
 rounding her. This is the one black spot on the 
 map of Europe, and this spot grows daily less and 
 less. Every breeze coming from the North and the 
 South brings the breath of freedom ; and even the 
 steam of the railways urges on a resistless propaganda 
 which no custom-house can arrest. It would re- 
 quire a Chinese wall that it might endure. The day 
 when the Holy Father permitted a railway to pass 
 through his States, he signed his temporal forfeiture. 
 Those paper ramparts called Encyclicals and Sylla- 
 buses will prove useless here. I am persuaded that 
 we shall not much longer see superannuated Rome as 
 we see it to-day : this encouraged me to describe it 
 before approaching subjects of more immediate in- 
 terest. E. de Pkessense. 
 
56 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 LETTEE III. 
 
 Three Pilgrims to Rome: Luther, Lamennais, Hyacinthe — Luther's 
 Arrival in Rome: his Mysticism; Moral Conflicts; his Ideal Rome; 
 the Real Rome; his Emancipation and Work — Lamennais: his 
 Birth ; Early Life ; Taking Orders ; his Early Opinions ; Book on 
 Religious Indifference; Conversion to Democracy; Advocates the 
 Separation of Church and State ; UAvenir; Intrigues of the Jesuits; 
 Lamennais Appeals to the Pope; Les Affairs de Rome; Evasive 
 Conduct of Rome ; Impatience of Lamennais ; the Encyclical of 
 Gregory XVI. ; it condemns him; the Shock; his Lapse into Skep- 
 ticism; Influence on his Disciples; Subsequent Career and Death — 
 Father Hyacinthe: Birth and Education; Eloquence; Liberality; 
 First Warning; Yisit to Rome; Growing Freedom; Sermons on the 
 Church; Further Progress ; is sent to Rome ; the Crisis; returns to 
 Paris; Speech at the Peace Congress; is Rebuked; Letter to his 
 Superior; his Future — Interior Discipline of the Dominicans — 
 Rome desires a Short Council — Assumption of the Yirgin — Confi- 
 dence of the Pope — Anniversary of the Battle of Mentana. 
 
 Rome, November, 1869. 
 
 Dear Sir, — In the most advanced Catholic cir- 
 cles it is often asserted that Rome is irresistible for 
 sincere souls, and that she makes every bandage fall 
 from the most prejudiced eyes. A number of con- 
 versions wrought here in the Protestant colony, En- 
 glish, or American, are cited in proof. I confess that 
 I cannot understand the seduction spoken of. I have 
 witnessed the grandest pomps of holy week. Except 
 one or two solemn moments, it is a pitiful represen- 
 tation of the most moving of dramas. Without 
 yielding in the least degree to sectarian spirit, I 
 think one is particularly struck at Home with the 
 bad aspects of Catholicism. This is quite natural, for 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 57 
 
 it is in its capital that it boldly develops all its prin- 
 ciples without tempering or softening them, as it does 
 when it faces a rival Church. A sadly pleasant 
 story is told of two gentleman who had made a sol- 
 emn appointment to discuss their respective religions. 
 The result of the meeting was that the Protestant 
 went away a Catholic, and the Catholic a Protestant. 
 Each of the disputants had been strong in assault 
 and weak in defense. I can conceive that this affair 
 may, in certain respects, and particularly under cer- 
 tain conditions, be renewed. I admit that in Prot- 
 estant society, which lacks life, lire, and fidelity to 
 the great history of the Reform, repudiating self-re- 
 newal, one may acquire a certain disgust of Protest- 
 antism, at least of the type which he has under his 
 eyes; that a weak mind which cannot distinguish 
 between the true and the false consequences of a 
 principle should be for a moment inclined to Catholi- 
 cism. I avow that I can much easier conceive how r 
 at Home a Catholic might have strong temptations 
 to reject his religion. 
 
 I wish to devote this letter to the effect produced 
 by .Rome on three great champions of the Catholic 
 cause, who vehemently broke loose from it just after 
 they had witnessed with their own eyes the spectacle 
 which we are told is so edifying. It sufficed them 
 to go up to their holy city to lead them to shake off 
 the dust of their feet against her. These three pil- 
 grims are Luther, Lamennais, and Father Hyacinthe. 
 The first left the Reformation after him, the second 
 raised the standard of philosophic thought, the third 
 that of a Christian liberality w r hich can no longer be 
 realized in the domain of Romanism. These are 
 more than men ; they are redoubtable powers, which 
 
58 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the Papacy now finds armed for the war against her. 
 We should not at all understand the Council if we 
 did not thoroughly know these three great tendencies 
 which were not fairly developed until their initiators 
 had trodden this so-called sacred soil. 
 
 I shall say little of Luther, having no intention of 
 sending you historic dissertations. How often, in 
 crossing the Piazza del Popolo, have I not imagined 
 him arriving at Rome by the gate that leads into that 
 square ! He is still a young monk, full of fervor. 
 He comes from those German convents where the 
 pure tradition of the Middle Ages is still maintained 
 in its sincerity. He is a son of that profound mysti- 
 cism which produced the " Imitation of Christ," and 
 kindled up the glances of the madonnas and saints of 
 Christian painting. He has been fed on that hidden 
 honey. He has learned in the famous book " Theolo- 
 gia Germanica," which has become a sort of breviary 
 of tender and introspective souls, to seek the divine 
 Absolute beyond all intermediaries. This mysticism, 
 which might have become dangerous by plunging 
 him into an unconscious Pantheism, is happily tem- 
 pered by his very serious moral sense ; he has felt all 
 the bitterness of sin, sighed after divine grace, and 
 saluted its dawn in a book greater than all the mas- 
 terpieces of mysticism — the book of God. Hitherto 
 he has lived in his cell as in a hidden world ; it has 
 been for him now the theater of the holiest struggles, 
 now of the sweetest raptures. It lay open toward 
 heaven, and not toward earth. He, too, comes to 
 Rome in his candid ignorance, sure of a terrestrial 
 realization of religion. He imagines that he shall 
 find his ideal radiant with glory on the pontifical 
 throne, and that he shall be able to say, like Jacob 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 59 
 
 at Bethel, This is the gate of heaven. The gate opens, 
 and he is introduced at once into a world of corrup- 
 tion and servility. He expected the heavenly Jeru- 
 salem, and he finds the Rome of Leo X. magnificently 
 adorned with the spoils of Europe, clothed, like 
 Dives, in purple and fine linen, and scarcely flinging 
 the crumbs which fall from her table to the poor 
 shivering under her marble porches, rearing up to 
 heaven the vast dome of St. Peter's, but only lifting; 
 up profane songs in place of prayers. The courts of 
 German princes are pure compared with the court 
 of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, peopled with harlots 
 and jugglers, and holding Vanity Fair without shame 
 beside the pretended tombs of the Apostles. This is 
 w r hat arrests the young Augustinian monk. He en- 
 ters the churches, and instead of there beholding, as 
 in his Fatherland, a people prostrate during the cele- 
 bration of the holy mysteries, he has before him a 
 thoughtless assembly, where gay speeches buzz, where 
 brilliant cavaliers salute with smiles women as com- 
 pletely covered with diamonds as the shrines of the 
 saints. He approaches the altar. O profanation ! 
 The officiating priest indulges in sacrilegious sport ; 
 he changes words of canonical institution. " Panis 
 es" he cries, taking up the host, " et panis manebis:" 
 bread thou art, and bread thou shalt remain. If he 
 would begin a religious conversation people answer 
 him by talking of some new work of a celebrated 
 painter or sculptor. He mentions the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and they speak of Virgil and Plato. Finally, 
 with a wounded and indignant spirit, he would try 
 and do penance for the Church and himself. On his 
 knees he ascends the holy stairway, to climb which is 
 worth the greatest indulgences. But he has not 
 
60 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 passed over half of it when a mighty voice resounds 
 in him and brings an echo of the apostolic words, 
 " The just shall live by faith." It is a lightning 
 flash in his gloom, but such a flash as laid St. Paul 
 in the dust of the road to Damascus, that he might 
 rise up an apostle of Christ. Luther too rises up. 
 He perceives that there is a nearer way of access to 
 his God and Saviour. A vast joy overflows his heart. 
 Yesterday he was a hesitating, troubled, monk ; to- 
 day he is a reformer, nay, more, he is the rising Ref- 
 ormation. He goes spreading to the four winds the 
 great word of enfranchisement which has vibrated in 
 his soul, and thousands of poor sinners soon receive 
 it as manna from heaven. The Reformation pro- 
 ceeds from this broken heart, so sacredly consoled, as 
 from a hidden spring — a spring first of all of penitent 
 tears, and then a spring of consolation and joyful 
 assurance. This great stream will never fall dry nor 
 recede ; it may cast upon the Roman shore refuse 
 that does not truly belong to itself; but for itself it 
 will pursue its invincible course. A few hundred 
 conversions to Catholicism will produce no effect 
 upon it. There is life, there the main current. The 
 barriers and dykes of the Council will but make it 
 more impetuous and irresistible. Such was the effect 
 of a pilgrimage to Rome in the sixteenth century. 
 
 Let us come to the second pilgrim. This is truly 
 a man of the nineteenth century, but at the start 
 he was hailed a new Father of the Church. He is 
 Lamennais. No figure of his time is more original 
 and worthy of interest. To understand the crisis 
 well, which was unraveled even here in his startling 
 rupture with the Church which he had passionately 
 served, we must consider his character, and be well 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 61 
 
 acquainted with the early part of his life. Lamen- 
 nais was born at Saint Malo, a picturesque cliff in 
 Brittany, incessantly beaten by a stormy sea, and 
 his eyes first opened to those foggy and boundless 
 horizons which are charged with reverie for the Breton 
 race. His childhood was sickly, and his tempera- 
 ment always remained nervous. He grew up under 
 the shadow of that Catholicism, serious even in its 
 superstitions, which has always reigned in Brittany. 
 It is not at all Italian and frivolous. A posthumous 
 correspondence of Lamennais has furnished us the most 
 unexpected information on his entering orders. He 
 seems to have had no real vocation. His early let- 
 ters show him the victim of that more or less sickly 
 melancholy which characterized the beginning of the 
 century, and which was quite natural after the ter- 
 rible shocks of the French Be volution ; - it was the 
 only poesy then possible, a species of ruin-flower. 
 Lamennais experienced the grand listlessness, the 
 vagueness, the causeless sadness which Chateaubriand 
 has depicted in his early works. He had embraced 
 the ideas of his family and his province, as opposite 
 as could be imagined to the revolutionary movement. 
 But there was nothing in these which would lead to 
 a vocation to the priesthood. He was forced to this 
 despite himself by his elder brother, and he felt a 
 keen indignation at it, which is expressed without 
 circumlocution in his early letters. But once or- 
 dained, he turned with all the impetuosity of his 
 nature to his career. He promptly became the most 
 ardent and most redoubtable defender of Ultramon- 
 tanism, w T hich he did not distinguish from the most 
 violent political reaction. This w^as at the com- 
 mencement of the Restoration. The Empire of Napo- 
 
62 Home, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 leon had just been broken up, and the partisans of 
 the ancient rule fancied that they should soon crush 
 the remains of the French Revolution ; but they 
 were gravely mistaken, for it was no longer a ques- 
 tion about a man, but about a principle, or rather, 
 the principle of modern society. They desired to 
 bring back the good old days of the alliance of the 
 throne and the altar, and bring to new blossom the 
 institutions of Louis XIV. in the France of Lafayette 
 and Mirabeau. It was an insane effort, but one 
 which, served by sincere fanaticism and high influ- 
 ences, awakened a formidable struggle. Lamennais 
 threw himself into it with desperation, cleaving par- 
 ticularly to the religious side of the question. The 
 institutions of Louis XIY. were not enough for him. 
 He reproached the Great Monarch with his independ- 
 ent spirit toward Home. For him, as for Joseph de 
 Maistre, religion was summed up in absolute sub- 
 mission to the Papacy. He then anticipated all the 
 follies of this hour. In substance, his convictions 
 were far more social than religious. This explains 
 the possibility of the complete overset which was 
 some years later to be effected in him. I would not 
 deny that he had personal religious impressions, that 
 his heart beat warmly for Jesus Christ. A com- 
 ment which he then wrote on the " Imitation ,J prevents 
 any absolute judgment in this matter. But we must 
 always seek the tendencies which rule in a man 
 through the numerous and varied elements blended 
 in his moral life. Now it is certain that, in his 
 Catholic period, Lamennais chiefly saw an ecclesias- 
 tical and social system in Christianity. It was the 
 Church that he worshiped much more than God, and 
 to him the Church was an external institution, a spe- 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 63 
 
 cies of colossal cathedral, intended to shelter man- 
 kind ; it was rather a system than a moral fact. To 
 believe in the Church in this way is believing in a 
 form or an idea ; it is depriving ourselves of that 
 direct and living contact with truth, which alone 
 gives well-founded conviction, grounded on expe- 
 rience. Moreover, Lamennais made the authority of 
 the Church, to him inseparable from the pontifical 
 authority, rest on the universality of religious tradi- 
 tion, which he sought through all ages and in all 
 forms of worship. All religion is founded, as he 
 thought, not on a divine manifestation grasped by 
 the individual soul, but on an exterior testimony, 
 which imposes itself on the mind without ever pre- 
 senting its authority to conscience. The individual 
 must merely bow blindly before the traditional faith 
 of mankind. Thus for this great mind the truth 
 never had that inward and personal character which 
 constitutes living faith, that which says to all human 
 traditions what the people of Samaria said to the 
 woman of Sychar, " Now we believe not because of 
 thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves." Note, 
 as we pass on, that Lamennais was then a faithful 
 disciple of modern Catholicism. A religion based on 
 authority should not permit free access to the truth ; 
 it is lost on the day when men understand that they 
 may come directly to the God of the Gospel. The 
 first of its dogmas is its own authority. " I will be- 
 lieve for thee," it says to its adherent, " believe that 
 I suffice for thee " — this is the law and the prophets. 
 The first work of Lamennais, entitled "Beligious In- 
 difference," produced a great sensation. He pre- 
 sented the singular contrast of a doctrine of the past 
 served by the most modern language. Strange, in- 
 
64 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 deed ! this fiery disciple of the Ultramontane school 
 had the style of Jean Jacques Rousseau, the most 
 revolutionary of our writers, a broad and impetuous 
 style like those mountain torrents which roll and clash 
 stones together in their transparent waters. Limpid- 
 ity and fire, these constitute the twofold character of 
 the language of Lamennais. This apostle spoke like 
 a tribune, with an impetuosity only equaled by the 
 harmony of his phrase. He was at once placed in 
 the front rank of the writers of his generation, and 
 lauded to the skies by the Catholic party, which 
 found in him its most eloquent apologist. Soon after 
 the publication of his first book he approached cur- 
 rent polemics, and in these he displayed the same 
 talent, with a new and truly unheard of degree of 
 passion, growing more desperate perhaps against the 
 moderate Gallicans, (who would not make litter of 
 the ancient independence of the Church of France,) 
 than against the revolutionists. He demanded, in 
 fact, the complete overthrow of the French society 
 that dates from 1789, not hesitating to assault with- 
 out ceremony the throne of the Bourbons when he 
 did not find the authorities disposed to trample under 
 foot all the liberties of the ancient Gallican Church. 
 He even incurred a lawsuit by the unheard-of vio- 
 lence of his language. He exclaimed, " I will show 
 them what a priest is ! " alluding to the unconquer- 
 able character of his resistance. Lamennais followed 
 this line of operations and conduct up to the Revolu- 
 tion of July, 1830, which in three days expelled the 
 ancient dynasty to chastise it for having violated 
 the charter of public liberties. 
 
 This event led to a complete overturn in the politi- 
 cal ideas of Lamennais. He who had been the hiero- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 65 
 
 phant of the most excessive reaction, was, with no 
 denial of his religious faith, converted in an instant 
 to the cause of freedom. His ardent and passionate 
 nature had received an electric shock from that great 
 victory, worthily obtained without any alloy of san- 
 guinary violence. He perceived that Catholicism 
 was lost if it did not form an alliance with liberty, and 
 he desired such an alliance as passionately as he had 
 formerly combated it. His Ultramontanism had 
 always made him very hostile to the influence of the 
 civil power in religious affairs ; he took another step, 
 and enthusiastically accepted the great principle of 
 the separation of Church and State. With an 
 ardent and outgushing soul like that of Lamennais, 
 active propagation immediately followed the forma- 
 tion of these convictions. In 1831 he founded a 
 journal, VAvenh\ with the aid of a young priest 
 destined to a great reputation, the Abbe Lacordaire, 
 and that of the illustrious Montalembert. This pub- 
 lication had considerable effect. It was the first 
 time that Catholicism was seen in France associated 
 with liberty, and holding democratic language. The 
 elder clergy were stupefied, the younger ravished. 
 Lamennais did not spare the new government more 
 than he had the old : he and his assistants soon 
 underwent a most exciting lawsuit for opening a 
 primary school without authorization, founding their 
 right on the promised freedom of public instruction. 
 The great lawsuit was not to be at Paris but at 
 Rome. The Jesuit and retrograde party had begun 
 weaving its intrigues against the new party ; it was 
 daily denounced to the Holy Father, particularly on 
 account of the warm sympathy it had shown the 
 
 Polish insurrection. Poland had indeed a claim on 
 
 5 
 
66 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the favor of the Pope, since she was Catholic; but 
 the crime of her revolt effaced that merit. Lamen- 
 nais was not the man long to endure these more or 
 less underhanded and vailed accusations ; he declared 
 that he and his companions appealed to the tribunal 
 of the Holy Father, and he set off with them for the 
 Eternal City. He has left us a circumstantial account 
 of this journey in a book which is, to my thinking, 
 the most moving of dramas, and is entitled, Les 
 Affairs de Home. There we see the effect produced 
 on his ardent soul by contact with the Pontifical 
 Court. 
 
 Do not forget that at this time Lamennais still 
 believes in the Papacy. To him it is God's repre- 
 sentative on earth ; from that he expects all light 
 and deliverance, and he does not suspect that the 
 sacred oracle will not justify his liberalism, which to 
 him seems more and more the only means for the 
 salvation of religious and civil society. He would 
 gladly kiss the sacred soil he is visiting for the first 
 time, and he confidently awaits the decisive word, 
 the enfranchising word, which a divine mouth is 
 about to speak. First, he must wait long for this 
 decisive word ; his French impatience clashes with 
 Italian sluggishness, or rather, he neither finds a point 
 of support nor a point of resistance, but simply a 
 policy of delay with infinite curves, fleeting, elusive 
 contours, that supple duplicity of the Monsigneurs 
 which always shuns clear and precise conclusions. 
 He sees that they would bow him out, and that they 
 hope that he too will be overcome by that soothing 
 atmosphere so well fitted to lay the mind asleep and 
 lead it to a passive docility. For a time, he champs 
 the bit; what he witnesses is hardly suited to calm 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 67 
 
 him. Like Luther, he lifts the vail that covers the 
 real state of things, the splendid decoration which 
 hides so much secret corruption ; he perceives above 
 all that measureless venality which traffics in holy 
 things, and would obtain all the treasures of Europe 
 for the pardon of God. The storm rumbles in his 
 soul, as we may perceive in his private correspond- 
 ence, where we find terrible words like these : " At 
 Rome every thing is sold. If they could, they would 
 sell the Father, they would sell the Son, they would 
 sell the Holy Ghost." Finally he grows tired; he 
 urges the congregation charged with the manage- 
 ment of his affairs, he wishes no wiles, he will have 
 an answer. In vain are they angry at his furia 
 Francese, (French fury,) they have to promise what 
 he demands with such tenacity, and he leaves Rome 
 on the strength of this pledge. After some weeks 
 he receives the desired response, and this response 
 is the famous Encyclical of Gregory XVI., which 
 declares his dearest convictions abominable, fulmi- 
 nates anathema against the most sacred liberties, and 
 declares that freedom of conscience is a mortal pest. 
 Thus the oracle had spoken ; but what Lamennais 
 had taken for the voice of God is the voice of the 
 Power of darkness, which can only curse the light 
 and life. Imagine the shock that such a discovery 
 must produce in a soul like that of Lamennais ! He 
 strives, indeed, to act in submission. I believe he 
 sincerely tried this course ; but he was not a man of 
 Fenelon's sweet and malleable temper, who sur- 
 rendered without delay at the summons of Rome. 
 Nor was he capable of that convenient duplicity 
 which so many Catholics use, who submit in appear- 
 ance to the authority of the Holy See, let anath- 
 
68 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 eraas hurled directly at their ideas pass by like 
 a summer rain, then lift up their heads and think 
 and act exactly as though nothing had happened. 
 Lamennais was not made of the same stuff as 
 those pliant reeds which bend but do not break 
 — and I honor him for it. For religious diplomacy 
 is the worst of all. And he soon let loose all 
 the indignation that was brewing in his heart. 
 He did it like a volcano vomiting out lava in his 
 book, Paroles cPun Croyant* written in prophetic 
 style, and directed at all constituted and despotic 
 authority in State and Church. 
 
 This book promptly became a revolutionary Gos- 
 pel, and was devoured by the people. Unhappily, it 
 was no calm protest ; it overflowed with wrath and 
 hatred in wonderful eloquence, but an eloquence that 
 exceeded all due bounds. Tet Lamennais still pro- 
 fessed faith in the Gospel. It was gradually effaced 
 from his heart. He continued ever faithful to spirit- 
 ualism ; he made it the basis of a vast philosophical 
 system, but he resolutely rejected faith in revelation, 
 and to him Jesus Christ was nothing but a Saint and 
 a sublime Friend of the people. He multiplied in- 
 cendiary pamphlets, and found himself again con- 
 demned for offenses of the laws of the press. The 
 Revolution of February came at the moment of his 
 greatest popularity ; he founded a Republican, but not 
 Socialist journal, in which he powerfully demanded 
 the separation of Church and State. Then, on the 
 establishment of the Empire, he withdrew to a retire- 
 ment that he was never to leave. With his own 
 hand he corrected a translation of Dante's Inferno. 
 
 * Words of a Believer. 
 
Some, Italy, a^d the Council. 69 
 
 Nothing could better suit his implacable genius. 
 One imagines he sees him, lite the somber ferryman 
 of Michael Angelo, turning aside from his boat all 
 the rich and the mighty, that he may lead the poor 
 and the oppressed into Paradise. He asked to be 
 interred in the common grave like a pauper, without 
 any religious ceremony. Solitary as were his last 
 years, he nevertheless left a wake of fire behind him. 
 He made a great rent in Catholicism. His old dis- 
 ciples, Lacordaire and Montalembert, never com- 
 pletely escaped his influence, though they separated 
 from him when the great explosion came. Lacor- 
 daire always suffered, in his brilliant career, from 
 the suspicions of Rome ; he found himself incessantly 
 menaced with condemnation because he vainly sub- 
 mitted to the letter of the Pontifical Briefs, since he 
 could not accept their spirit, against which his whole 
 soul protested. As to Montalembert, he is now 
 nearer than ever to the opinions of his youth. The 
 step which he has taken in subscribing the demands 
 of the German Catholics is considerable. He has 
 submitted, but, as Alfieri said, like a quivering slave. 
 After all, Lamennais remains a great terror to Rome. 
 He would have been more alarming to her had he 
 not gone over into the camp of pure philosophy, had 
 he continued a Christian. Then he would not only 
 have acted without, but within the Church, and 
 would have served to rally about him all whom the 
 excesses of TTltramontanism excite to resistance. The 
 greatest danger to the Papacy, too, would be to 
 encounter a new and Christian Lamennais. It seems 
 that she is about to find him in the person of the il- 
 lustrious barefooted Carmelite, who has just declared 
 to the world that it is no longer possible for him to 
 
70 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 bow, passive and silent, under the yoke of the actual 
 Ultramontanism. 
 
 Father Hyacinthe is the third pilgrim to Rome 
 of whom I wish to speak; he leads us back to the 
 center of the religious conflicts of the moment, 
 and to the focus of the complications that precede 
 the great Council. I shall remember all my life 
 the day when I first listened to this great preacher. 
 I had vaguely heard of a new star in the Catholic 
 pulpit. Through chance, I entered one Sunday, in 
 the autumn of 1865, the vast cathedral of Notre 
 Dame. I was immediately arrested by the powerful 
 language resounding there before an immense au- 
 dience ; it was indeed great and noble eloquence, 
 proceeding from a heart sacredly moved, and travers- 
 ing a brilliant imagination, which made both ideas 
 and men live and palpitate, and possessed that elec- 
 tricity which communicates with such extraordinary 
 rapidity to a large assembly. Since Lacordaire, I 
 had never heard any thing like it in a Catholic pul- 
 pit. But what was more remarkable than his talents 
 was the substance of the discourse, free from all vain 
 superstition, and permeated with the warmest love 
 for Jesus Christ. I felt at once that this man had a 
 great future before him, and I was not deceived. 
 That very evening, in a general meeting of the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance, I spoke with emotion of what I had 
 just heard, and of that sentiment of warm and grand- 
 ly true Catholicity which I had felt at the foot of 
 Father Hyacinthe's pulpit.. Who, then, was the em- 
 inent orator that was suddenly rising from obscurity 
 to a place in the front rank ? His garb indicated 
 that he had not been content with the priesthood, 
 but that he had desired a place in the Carmelite Or- 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 71 
 
 der, one of the most rigid in Catholicism. I speedily 
 learned that he belonged to a family well known in 
 the French University ; that his father, M. Layson, 
 had been rector of an academy at Pau ; that one of 
 his uncles, who died early, had for a moment awak- 
 ened great hopes as a poet ; that one of his brothers, 
 formerly a monk, and now in the secular clergy, was 
 known for his talents and his liberalism. He was 
 born, then, in 1827, and grew up in a cultivated and 
 religious circle. Early called to ecclesiastical life, 
 he had studied theology in the best of our seminaries 
 — that St. Sulpice whence Renan proceeded. In his 
 constant aspiration to the ideal he had not hesitated 
 to embrace the monastic life, which is presented by 
 Catholicism as the highest degree of piety, because it 
 most completely lays man in the dust, though unfor- 
 tunately it gives him a feeling of merit in this act of 
 abasement. Father Hyacinthe had been heard in a 
 few provincial churches, and immediately the effect 
 of his discourses had been felt. The Archbishop of 
 Paris, Monseigneur Darbois, an intelligent and truly 
 liberal man, had hastened to open the pulpit of Notre 
 Dame to him, and he had there acquired at the out- 
 set that royalty by divine right which is exercised by 
 eloquence, and is surely one of the noblest gifts when 
 it is wielded in the service of truth. Such was the 
 outward history of Father Hyacinthe up to the time 
 when I first heard him. Since then his influence 
 has only grown. Multitudes thronged the cathedral 
 two hours before he mounted the steps of the pulpit. 
 In each new series of discourses a new advance was 
 remarked. Those on independent morality had 
 an extraordinary reverberation. No subject could 
 be more opportune in face of the mad attempts 
 
72 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 made to separate the moral ideal from the ideal of 
 God. 
 
 It was observed that the orator was extremely 
 careful to prove the close connection between Chris- 
 tianity and all generous causes, and that it alone can 
 conduct democracy to her true destinies. In all his 
 words was felt a burning love for Jesus Christ, and 
 of liberty. But what was most significant in his 
 discourses was the freedom with which he honored 
 goodness wherever found, without thinking himself 
 obliged to recognize it only under the particular seal 
 of his own Church. He even dwelt with emphasis 
 on the great aspects of Protestant nations, and espe- 
 cially their respect for the Holy Scriptures, and their 
 scrupulous observance of the Sabbath. He ex- 
 claimed, " If Prussia conquered at Sadowa be not 
 astonished, for you will find the Gospels in the knap- 
 sack of every soldier. This is what tempers strong 
 nations." The Ultramontane party must naturally 
 have thought such language very improper, yet they 
 dared not openly attack Father Hyacinthe. They 
 merely passed him over in complete silence, while 
 lauding the most insignificant preachers of its school. 
 It is now known that a warning, disguised as friendly 
 advice, had already come from Pome, which be- 
 trayed a very natural disquietude. Father Hya- 
 cinthe made his first visit to Rome. He preached 
 there during Lent in the Church of St. Louis of the 
 French, much admired, much watched also, and quite 
 ill at ease in this immense gilded cage, whose grates 
 are admirably wrought, but are nevertheless grates. 
 We have likewise an undeniable index of the im- 
 pression m-ade upon him then by Rome in the marked 
 liberalism of the sermons which he preached at Paris 
 
Bome, Italy, and the Council. 73 
 
 shortly after his return. Those who heard him in 
 the autumn of 1868 perceived, with more or less dis- 
 tinctness, that a decisive crisis was approaching for 
 the great preacher. Never had the arches of the 
 cathedral resounded with such utterances. These 
 were not merely flashes of Christian liberalism ap- 
 pearing from time to time ; no, the entire discourse 
 was .permeated and overflowed with it in growing 
 eloquence. The subject was the Church. At the 
 outset Father Hyacinthe declared that he would not 
 make it an implacable sect ; that he saw it after the 
 spirit wherever hearts beat with love for Jesus Christ 
 and humanity. In support of this generous thesis 
 he magnificently developed the parable of the good 
 Samaritan. u Behold," he said, "suffering humanity 
 laid across the path. He that shall lift him up will 
 represent the true Church. A priest passes ; he is 
 very orthodox, this priest, but he passes by the dying 
 man ; after him a Levite, passes on ; he too is 
 orthodox, but he also passes on indifferent. Who 
 pauses ? Who lifts up the poor wounded man, 
 binds up his wounds, and conducts him to the inn ? 
 It is a Samaritan. Do you know what the Samar- 
 itan was for the synagogue ? The most abominable 
 being. When the Jewish vocabulary had exhausted 
 its abusive terms the most cruel of all still remained, 
 which was to fling in the face of an enemy this out- 
 rageous name. The Samaritan was the heretic of 
 the time. Well, he is the Christian in this parable, 
 for he alone has the compassion of Christ." In an- 
 other discourse Father Hyacinthe took a further 
 step : he strongly insisted on the priesthood of par- 
 ents, and complained of its abandonment through 
 culpable negligence. " No priest can take the place 
 
74 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 of the father and mother beside their child ;" and he 
 made sweet and holy tears flow as he exhibited the 
 beauty of this household priesthood. He cried out, 
 " I have just returned from England, where I saw 
 fathers on their knees amid their children and serv- 
 ants, repeating the prayer that our Lord taught us. 
 Nothing in the w r orld will keep me from saying that 
 I there saw true Christians." Finally, these famous 
 discourses closed with a peal of thunder. The ora- 
 tor contrasted the Church of Pharisaism with the 
 Church of the Spirit. He stigmatized in burning 
 language the religion of form, and of the letter which 
 can only curse, and he show T ed that this alone had 
 torn accents of indignation from the meek and gentle 
 Master. The synagogue learned to its cost that the 
 wrath of the Lamb is awful. Though he confined 
 himself to generalities, all his auditors knew whom 
 and what he meant. This was too much, not for the 
 Archbishop of Paris, but for the controlling influences 
 of the Church. They hastened to send the impru- 
 dent Carmelite to Pome. For him this was the de- 
 cisive journey; it w T as the final pilgrimage which 
 makes reformers. There he learned from the mouth 
 of his superior that the time for gentle dealing with 
 him could not be prolonged — he could measure with 
 a glance the depth of the gulf that had been hol- 
 lowed out between himself and official Catholicism. 
 An interview with the Pope, whose details have not 
 transpired, did not lead him to recoil a step. He 
 now understood how- well fitted was that monastic 
 life, which had appeared to him under such fine 
 colors in his youthful illusions, to mutilate human 
 life and abase it under a degrading yoke. He felt 
 the full weight of the chains of absolute obedience. 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 75 
 
 In a word, Rome produced the decisive impression 
 on him which she never fails to produce on generous 
 and upright souls who have seen the bands of their 
 early blindness fall. He returned to Paris quite 
 troubled, not yet clear in his aims, but inflexibly de- 
 cided to obey his conscience toward and against all. 
 You know what followed ; you remember that gen- 
 erous speech made before the Peace Congress, for 
 which penance was enjoined upon him by an inti- 
 mated order. 
 
 I have nothing to add to facts known to the whole 
 world, to the simple and sublime letter which an- 
 nounced that the sacrifice was consummated, and 
 that Father Hyacinthe was advancing, confident 
 in God, to meet opprobrium and the unknown, 
 like Abraham leaving the tents of his fathers 
 to attempt a redoubtable mission. Surely he will 
 not be deceived in his faith. We must await the 
 close of the Council to learn whether his acts and 
 words will find an echo in the bosom of Catholicism. 
 But it is certain that when he shall openly engage in 
 his Christian mission among our French population 
 he will collect vast multitudes, and be able to win to 
 Jesus Christ a large number of souls who are not to 
 be reached by the ordinary means of influence. 
 They strive to get rid of this formidable adversary 
 at Rome by the vilest slanders, but none of these 
 poisoned arrows will reach him. at the height of pub- 
 lic esteem to which he has attained. 
 
 A Dominican monk, Father Des Caillot, has lately 
 published a very curious book on the interior disci- 
 pline of the Order of St. Dominic, from which he has 
 just broken away. He lays bare, in a multitude of 
 details, that frightful spiritual tyranny which makes 
 
76 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 man a mere machine or a corpse, according to the 
 formula of the Jesuits. Father Des Caiilot relates 
 that one day when he was seized with remorse for 
 very reprehensible deeds enjoined upon him by his 
 superior, the famous Dono Gruisanga, with a view to 
 generous collections, the latter answered him, " Don't 
 trouble yourself; I am to answer for the deeds I com- 
 mand you to perform ; they do not concern you.' 5 
 This is truly the Perinde ac cadaver. Only here it 
 is the corpse of conscience. Is it not highest murder 
 to slay souls ! All these revelations are very impor- 
 tant on the eve of the Council. 
 
 The Fathers w T ho are to have seats in it are begin- 
 ning to arrive in large numbers, especially those from 
 the most distant countries. The preparatory com- 
 mittees, called congregations, are hard at work. 
 They are striving by all possible means to prepare 
 men for the expected results. A very important 
 publication has been this week issued from the press 
 of the Civiltd Cattolica, the great organ of Jesuitism. 
 It is entitled "A Summary History of (Ecumenical 
 Councils." Its aim is very plain ; the anonymous 
 author, who evidently speaks in the name of the 
 Roman managers, labors to prove that it is not neces- 
 sary for a Council to be long that it may be good ; 
 on the contrary, the best have been the shortest, and 
 their merits are complacently enumerated. A few 
 weeks are enough to effect excellent work. I should 
 think so, when once it is understood that good Coun- 
 cils are those which show' themselves docile toward 
 the Holy Father and surrender their powers into his 
 hands! Why prolong vain deliberations which are 
 after all a simulacrum ? The ideal Council would be 
 one that opened and closed the same day, in one in- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 77 
 
 stant, by a great acclamation to the Infallible Pope 
 and the Immaculate Virgin. 
 
 It is evident from this work that the favorite plan 
 of Rome is to have a council of a few w T eeks ? duration 
 that may solemnly and forever pronounce the abdica- 
 tion of the Church, or rather the Episcopacy, in favor 
 of the Holy See. Henceforth it would be truly use- 
 less to convoke new Councils ; they would not even 
 play the part of the old parliaments of the France 
 of Louis XIV., which merely registered the royal 
 edicts. When once it is understood that all pontifi- 
 cal briefs fall directly from heaven, it will suffice for 
 the Holy Father to publish them, that Catholic Chris- 
 tianity may receive them on its knees. This morning 
 announcements of new publications on the Assump- 
 tion of the Virgin are posted up on the w^alls of 
 Home. This also is one of the dogmas which they 
 would have proclaimed by the high assembly. It 
 would do well to reveal to the world the historic 
 documents which its supernatural inspiration has en- 
 abled it to discover, since the fact in question must 
 have had witnesses. Where are they except in the 
 pictures of Raphael, Titian, and Correggio. This is 
 w r hat people of little faith would be glad to learn. 
 
 The Fope is very confident of the issue of the 
 Council, just as a sovereign is sure of a legislature 
 which he has nominated by his agents or by his 
 state council. He has given a truly astonishing proof 
 of his confidence. On the confines of the Transte- 
 verine district rises a hill w^hence w T e have certainly 
 one of the finest views in the world. On this hill is 
 built San Pietro in Montana, a doubly sacred place, 
 where tradition locates the martyrdom of the Apostle. 
 You trace in its least windings the course of the 
 
78 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Tiber, which, loses itself in the rank vegetation ; to 
 the right is the great city with its innumerable domes. 
 Before you rise the Sabine Mountains, with their har- 
 monious lines. The spectacle has a majestic gran- 
 deur that is quite unparalleled. There, before the 
 Church of St. Peter in the Mount, the Holy Father is 
 rearing at this very moment a column in honor of the 
 Council, and as a sign of its success. Surely his na- 
 ture is hardly that of Thomas, who must see to be- 
 lieve ; his faith is a strong " evidence of things not 
 seen." This confidence would be much more touch- 
 ing and admirable were it not founded on past suc- 
 cess, on the docility of the Episcopacy in accepting the 
 dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and on means 
 w x ell known here for acting on recalcitrant minds. 
 This column of expectation is nevertheless a curious 
 index of the imperturbable assurance of the Papacy 
 on the eve of the Council. 
 
 Last week the anniversary of the battle of Mentana 
 was celebrated with great pomp. There was a mass 
 and a banquet, and the officers of the Pontifical 
 Zouaves swore to spill their blood for the Holy See. 
 Just now they only spill the liquors they drink from 
 shop to shop, in the most idle garrison life conceiv- 
 able. The regular French troops are encamped in 
 the provinces ; here we only see the famous Zouaves 
 and a few Swiss, whose party-colored uniform sug- 
 gests the rainbow. .All this military array devoted 
 to the defense of the Holy Father deserves to be 
 dwelt on a moment, for it brings before us one of the 
 gravest questions of contemporary politics. This 
 will be the theme of my next letter. 
 
 E. de Pressense. 
 
Home, Italy, and the Council. 79 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 THE ROMAN QUESTION. 
 
 Peculiar Position of Pome : The Pope guarded by Foreign Troops ; 
 The Practical Phase of the Matter — The Origin of the Temporal 
 Power — Its Security under the Old Regime — The Shock of the 
 Revolution of 1793 — An Election Trick — Napoleon I. and the 
 Papacy — Count d'Haussonville and Father Thenier — The Pact of 
 1815— The Revolution of 1830 — Its Consequences — Foreigners 
 first guard the Pope — 1847 and its Changes — Election of Pius IX. 
 — His Position and Measures — The Pope in Exile — Intervention 
 of the French — Craft of the Prince President — Return of the 
 Pope — His Rule — The Italian Movement: Its Results — With- 
 drawal of the French — Garibaldi Advances on Rome — Return of 
 the French — Arguments of the Catholics — The Near Close of the 
 French Occupation. 
 
 Rome, November, 1869. 
 
 I told you, at the close of ray last letter, that Rome 
 is placed in the peculiar situation of being under the 
 direct guardianship of foreigners, for the national 
 forces there are insignificant, while the troops 
 furnished by other countries are considerable in pro- 
 portion to the number of inhabitants in the Pontif- 
 ical States. A powerful nation, in particular, shel- 
 ters under its flag the power of the Holy Father, 
 which would long ago have been overturned but for 
 its protection. Thus the temporal power of the 
 Papacy exists and lasts only through succor from 
 abroad ; that is, it no longer exists of itself. Aban- 
 doned to its own strength it is certain that it would 
 fall in twenty-four hours before the antipathy of the 
 populace. If there be an abnormal situation in the 
 world surely it is this ; the crises which threaten it 
 
80 Kome Italy and the Council. 
 
 are also renewed at regular intervals; the Roman 
 Question is the order of the day in European politics, 
 in such a way that it will not lose that status until 
 it shall be finally settled. It may be adjourned, but 
 not set aside. In reality no question is more impor- 
 tant ; it presents, in a most inextricable knot, the 
 great problem of the union of the temporal and the 
 spiritual powers ; it brings it to light from the theo- 
 retic stand-point through the discussions it awakens, 
 and it certainly has contributed much for the last ten 
 years to enlighten the public on this point, and to 
 rally the liberal party on the separation of Church 
 and State, for their union at Rome enables us to lay 
 our finger on their grayest mischiefs. But the 
 Roman Question has also a purely practical impor- 
 tance ; the mutual relations of civil and religious 
 power are regulated in most European lands by concor- 
 dats which were drawn up on the basis of the political 
 sovereignty of the Holy Father ; should that sover- 
 eignty disappear, these concordats would be immedi- 
 ately abolished by that fact ; the relations of the two 
 powers would have to be constituted on a new basis, 
 and, with the wind that is up, that basis would, per- 
 haps, be that which your grand Republic so gloriously 
 laid down when it first proclaimed and applied the 
 great principle of the absolute separation of Church 
 and State. It is very important, then, for us to know 
 what supports prop up that rampart, which, of 
 itself, would grow weak, and be laid in the dust at 
 the first whiff of internal freedom. By showing 
 how fragile in themselves and unjust these supports 
 are, we shall the better comprehend the singular 
 condition of this country and all that we are entitled 
 to expect, for the latter part of the century, in the 
 
Pome, Italy, and the Council. 81 
 
 way of political renovations. It is likewise certain 
 that the Papacy will seek to strengthen its temporal 
 power by some action in the Council, and that 
 anxiety for it will weigh on that high assembly. I 
 shall begin with a rapid history of the question, then 
 we shall see what stand-point the Catholics who defend 
 the temporal power of the Pope assume. 
 
 I shall not dwell on its first establishment. Its 
 most intrepid champions dare not make it a primi- 
 tive institution, for they know too well that, in the 
 matter of domains, the early conductors of the Church 
 of Pome had only the space needful for their burial. 
 The catacombs are there under their very feet to 
 show that the early condition of the Church, like that 
 of its Master, was one of persecution. The temporal 
 power of the Pope was formed, like any other 
 sovereignty in the Middle Ages, by a series of inci- 
 dents, each less edifying than its predecessor ; apart 
 from a few donations like that of the great Countess 
 Matilda, spoliation has played an important part in 
 the extension of the pontifical domains. Csesar Borgia 
 rendered it important services, and that name tells 
 all. The pretended donations of Constantine and 
 his successors are impostures demonstrated to all 
 the world except Pome. The false decretals are the 
 most distinguished, and also the most fruitful, of his- 
 toric lies. The Papacy is in the position of a pro- 
 prietor who possesses his domains under a forged 
 title-deed. That he should profit by long possession, 
 that he should silently, and without quarreling, culti- 
 vate his estate, may be conceived from the stand- 
 point of a none-too-scrupulous delicacy ; but that he 
 should lift up his voice in the country and cover the 
 
 frauds and spoliations of his ancestors with the name 
 
 6 
 
82 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 of God, would be scandal and confusion. This is, in 
 fact, the conduct of the Papacy. It would gladly 
 win credit for a second dogma of immaculate con- 
 ception, and cause the foundation of its political 
 sovereignty to pass for a divine work, pure from all 
 human alloy. It will succeed in this design less 
 than ever in a century, where the past is inundated 
 with a vivid and implacable light through the prog- 
 ress of historical science. 
 
 The Holy Father might peacefully enjoy his tem- 
 poral power through the entire period of the ancient 
 rule, when the idea of popular sovereignty appeared 
 only as an impossible dream. The shock of the 
 Reform did not modify the political condition of Italy. 
 Yainly was Rome taken and sacked by the Constable 
 de Bourbon in the fortunes of war, the Pontifical 
 domination was never brought into question in an 
 age when the Church was every-where incorporated 
 with the State, and the Throne was backed by the 
 Altar. Every thing was destined to change with the 
 new era introduced by the French Revolution, which 
 shook all thrones, and almost every-where awakened 
 democratic sentiments. The Papacy, guided by the 
 sure instinct of despotism, perceived at once that 
 there was her true enemy ; she was not content with 
 protesting, as she might rightfully do, against the 
 encroachments of the revolution on purely religious 
 territory, and condemning that famous civil consti 
 tution of the clergy which was an essay at revolu- 
 tionary theocracy, since the new power aimed of 
 itself to regulate simple religious affairs. The 
 Papacy would have been entirely right in putting 
 forth the most vigorous appeals in favor of those unfor- 
 tunate French priests who were odiously persecuted 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 83 
 
 for refusing an oath offensive to their consciences, 
 even though it might have been answered that they 
 did but apply her own principles to herself. But 
 she assumed a very different part; she fulminated 
 anathema on anathema against the principles of the 
 New France ; she took part openly for the ancient 
 order of things ; in a word, she put herself into open 
 w r ar with the Republic. It was very natural that she 
 should undergo the consequences of such conduct, 
 and that, as she had put herself on the level of ordi- 
 nary political powers, she should share their common 
 fortune. She did also share the terrible blows in- 
 flicted by France on Italy. The Roman State was 
 dismantled, the Pope went to die in exile — and the 
 Pontifical States only regained a little quiet by 
 allowing themselves to be dismembered at the treaty 
 of Tolentino, signed by the young General who 
 had just astonished the w T orld by his overwhelming 
 victories. 
 
 Here belongs a most curious episode, which has 
 been fully revealed in the Memoirs of Cardinal Con- 
 salvi, a capital document in contemporary history. 
 The author has narrated, with astonishing frankness, 
 the circumstances of the election of the substitute for 
 Pius VI. in the year 1800. We may judge from the 
 manner in which he describes the intrigues of a Con- 
 clave what the inspiration of a Council is worth, since 
 the results of both assemblies are placed by Catholic 
 orthodoxy under the direct influence of the Holy 
 Spirit. The Conclave assembled at Venice was in 
 the greatest embarrassment on account of the oppo- 
 site intrigues of the powers which had their agents 
 among the cardinals. Strange thing. Austria and 
 Naples, which were then at the head of the Catholic 
 
84 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 States, had only one project in mind, namely, to get 
 a Pope of tlie right stamp named, who would permit 
 them to retain the fragments of the pontifical domain, 
 of which these States had taken possession under pre- 
 text of exercising a salutary protection over them. 
 The cardinals who were not sold to these two pow- 
 ers would not listen to such a nomination. They 
 did not know how to get out of these inextricable 
 difficulties ; they had, indeed, an excellent candidate, 
 full of piety and gentleness, who also had the great 
 recommendation of being personally agreeable to the 
 puissant Dictator, who had just taken possession of 
 power in France. This was Cardinal Chiaramonte. 
 Another Cardinal moved heaven and earth in the 
 conclave, and exerted a preponderating influence. 
 The task was to gain him over to the proposed com- 
 bination ; but as he was a proud and independent 
 man, they knew that he would only support meas- 
 ures resolved on by himself, or which he thought he 
 had taken up of his own motion, and there was noth- 
 ing else to do but to get his private secretary, an in- 
 significant Abbe, to suggest to him the plan they 
 wished to have succeed. He fell completely into 
 the snare, and came gravely to declare to those who 
 had secretly whispered his lesson to him, that after 
 much reflection he had come to think that the elec- 
 tion of Chiaramonte was the sole means of salvation 
 for the Conclave. His inspirers loudly praised his 
 superior wisdom, and thus Pius VII. was nominated, 
 according to the recital of a Cardinal of the Holy 
 Church, who was subsequently his Secretary of State, 
 and whose testimony certainly is not open to suspi- 
 cion. Do we not seem to witness a low-grade com- 
 edy? Does not the superb Cardinal, who gives the 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 85 
 
 idea of others as his own opinion, remind you of 
 that personage so clear to the Italian people, who 
 does whatever you please, thanks to the skillfully- 
 handled string behind the curtains? To call him 
 by his proper name, is he not a merry-andrew ? 
 This anecdote, whose authenticity is unquestionable, 
 does not fail to illuminate in its own way the great 
 pending question of the personal infallibility of the 
 Holy Father. Behold, then, in what way and by 
 what measures he whom they would now make the 
 very organ of the Holy Spirit may be called to the 
 Pontificate. An intrigue, for which one should blush 
 in a political election, would be enough to give the 
 new Council its celestial inspiration. For the grand 
 exhibition of infallibility that they are getting ready 
 it would be better to close up the green rooms, and 
 not allow profane eyes to see the background of the 
 theater. 
 
 The pontificate of Pius VII. was quite agitated. 
 As for himself, he was worth more than the system 
 which he personified. He was a priest full of gentle- 
 ness, uprightness, and always desirous of obeying his 
 own conscience ; but it was a terrible thing for him 
 that he had to deal with the most violent and cun- 
 ning despot of the modern world. The Count 
 d'Haussonville has just published a most remarkable 
 book on the relations of Napoleon I. and Pius VII., 
 remarkable, not onlv for its talent, but for its thor- 
 ough investigation, and abundance of unpublished 
 documents, which cast the most vivid light on that 
 important period in the religious or ecclesiastical his- 
 tory of the nineteenth century. Here we learn espe- 
 cially how false is the pretense of those apologists for 
 the temporal power who see in it the safeguard of \ho 
 
86 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 independence of the Holy Father. It is certain that 
 all the faults committed by Pius VII. are attributa- 
 ble to his anxiety to regain intact the domain of the 
 Holy See. If in the famous Concordat of 1802 he 
 makes concessions on the constitution of the Church, 
 if he comes to Paris to crown Bonaparte, still stained 
 with the blood of D'Enghien, it is because the Gen- 
 eral, then omnipotent, has perfidiously hinted to him 
 promises of territorial aggrandizement which he is 
 fully determined not to keep. His unlucky power, 
 which gives him no real means of self-defense, is like 
 the ever-vulnerable heel of Achilles ; there precisely 
 is his spiritual power attainted. His imperious pro- 
 tector makes him forsake the neutrality which alone 
 befits his pontifical character, and wishes to impose 
 on him measures hostile to any given power with 
 which he is at war. The Pope resists gently, but 
 with perseverance. Napoleon, intoxicated with the 
 triumphs of Austerlitz and Jena, cannot allow any 
 sort of resistance ; he will have every thing bend to 
 his yoke. He who had boasted of being the restorer 
 of altars, a new Constantine, did not hesitate, after 
 unheard-of violence in language, to have the Pope 
 carried off from the Vatican by his police, and flung 
 into a State prison, where he subjected him to odious 
 treatment. You must read in the fine account of M. 
 d'Haussonville all the episodes of this infamous per- 
 secution of an aged man, shut up in secret, and sep- 
 arated from all his counselors. 
 
 The perfidy matches the brutality of the means. 
 M. d'Haussonville has found proof that the physician 
 of the Holy Father was bought up, and that he was 
 paid to act in his way on the nerves of the unhappy 
 victim, who had hours of hallucination. At the same 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 87 
 
 time, all the members of the French and Italian 
 clergy who did not admire these high exploits were 
 hurried into prison or exile; students for the priest- 
 hood were sent to the army, to the posts most dan- 
 gerous for their health, where they nearly all died. 
 Rome had "been annexed to the French Empire, and 
 Napoleon caused his scribes to prepare very fine dem- 
 onstrations of the incompatibility of the temporal and 
 spiritual power; of the gentle law of the Gospel, which 
 would have the priest remain in his own domain, 
 and is summed up in the great precept of obedience 
 to the prince — a precept which the imperial contro- 
 versialist caused to be inserted in the first line of the 
 catechism published by his order, with the menace of 
 eternal damnation to him who would not love and 
 serve Napoleon I. with all his heart, with all his 
 soul, and with all his strength, while naturally hating 
 his English or Austrian neighbor as the Emperor him- 
 self hated him. Thus Napoleon wished to abolish the 
 union of the two powers at Rome only to unite them 
 the better on his own head. He wished to be the Czar 
 of the West, and to put ukases in the place of briefs. 
 Surely the remedy was worse than the disease, and we 
 do not hesitate to justify in this quarrel the unhappy 
 Pontiff, who was weak only one day — when he signed 
 the mocking Concordat of Fontainebleau — a weak- 
 ness quickly redeemed by the most honorable recanta- 
 tion. It would seem as though, if the book of M. 
 d'Haussonville ought to meet a good reception any 
 where, it would be at Rome, since it greatly exalts 
 the memory of Pius YII. The praise would be the 
 more valuable because it comes from a perfectly in- 
 dependent man, who does not belong to the Catholic 
 party. But not at all, His book is ill received. So 
 
88 Bome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 much so, that they have caused a refutation to be 
 fabricated by Father Thenier, with a great display 
 of diplomatic documents. This refutation has been 
 made with the evident co-operation of the French 
 government, which has largely opened its most secret 
 archives to the reverend Father, while they had been 
 hermetically closed against Count d'Haussonville ; a 
 fact which did not hinder his having, thanks to his 
 extensive connections, the most curious and authentic 
 documents. The interest of the French government 
 in this affair is clear; it would, as far as possible, 
 justify the chief of its dynasty and wash itself of the 
 just opprobrium merited by its violence toward an 
 aged man from whom it had obtained all the conces- 
 sions compatible with his pontifical charge. But 
 what is inconceivable in this justification of Napoleon 
 I. is its having the Holy See for an ally, whose in- 
 terest ought to be of an opposite kind. In fact, what- 
 ever exalts the Emperor abases the Fope. One arm 
 of the scales cannot ascend unless the other descend. 
 On reflection we find two quite profound reasons, 
 fully worthy of the Jesuits, for the publication of the 
 huge book of Father Thenier. The first is, that the 
 cause is more important than the man ; now the book 
 of M. d'Haussonville, while awakening a very just 
 sympathy for the unlucky old man who was both the 
 victim and plaything of imperial despotism, paints 
 with great frankness his tergiversations, anguish, and 
 the sudden changes in his decisions. Now it is dan- 
 gerous to give the world such a spectacle at the very 
 moment when you would make the Fope a god. It 
 is much better not to make the hearts of men so ten- 
 der toward him, and conceal that embarrassing past 
 in the accumulated waste paper of documents bor. 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 89 
 
 rowed from the heirs of the persecutors of Pius VII. 
 The second reason is, that those old persecutors are 
 now the necessary protectors of the Holy See. They 
 are really detested, because it is hard to lean on a 
 power so slightly Catholic and so versatile, but it is 
 important to treat it well, especially at the moment 
 of striking the great blow in the General Council. 
 That is the only possible explanation of this strange 
 publication, which I ought to call attention to as a 
 very characteristic symptom of the present situation 
 of the Pontifical Power. 
 
 Let lis pass rapidly over the period of the Restora- 
 tion. In 1815 the Papacy recovered its domain al- 
 most intact. It is related that at the Congress of 
 Yienna, where Europe was pieced out according to 
 the will of the conquerors of the moment, Cardinal 
 Consalvi, Secretary of State to the Holy Father and 
 his representative, said with a smile to Prince Met- 
 ternich, " We will give you whatever you like on 
 high, but give us another city or district." The 
 Pontifical Government, like the Bourbons and the 
 French Emigrants, had neither learned nor forgotten 
 any thing during the period of its exile. It came 
 back with all its old errors, and the long peace which 
 it enjoyed was turned to advantage by it in com- 
 pletely re-establishing the old despotism. It fancied 
 that its subordinates were perfectly satisfied because 
 no complaint reached it; thanks to the regime of 
 repression which prevented any manifestation of pub- 
 lic opinion. It is the bloody saying of Tacitus again : 
 Silentum faciunt et pacem appellant — They make 
 silence and call that peace. As all Italy was sub- 
 jected to the same rule and was bowed under the 
 saber of Austria, the liberal contagion was easily ar- 
 
90 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 rested on the frontiers, and the Pontifical troops, 
 despite their meager valor, which was somewhat 
 elevated by Swiss mercenaries, sufficed to maintain 
 calmness from a political stand-point, if they did not 
 always suffice to subdue brigandism, the scourge of 
 Southern Italy. The Revolution of July, 1830, dis- 
 turbed this convenient lethargy of the Italian nations, 
 who, in the preceding period, had only had a few sud- 
 den fits of conspiracy, promptly stifled in the blood 
 of their authors. It was fickle France again, that can 
 never be reckoned on, which uttered the cry of liberty 
 after having in three days overturned the throne 
 of her perjured King. The shock was formidable 
 throughout Europe, and we cannot say what it might 
 have produced had not the first aim of Louis Philippe 
 been to shun all foreign wars, and introduce his 
 dynasty into the European Council. Yet the ap- 
 peasement could not be so prompt as he desired. 
 While Poland shook her chains and entered, on an 
 heroic struggle — while Belgium got clear of Dutch 
 domination — all Italy strove to rise up ; but she could 
 not succeed. The Pontifical yoke rested in its full 
 weight on Romagna, without the compensation of 
 the splendors of Rome, which procure great profit 
 for the inhabitants of the Eternal City, and satisfy 
 them so long as they are content with being church 
 beadles and keepers of museums. That rich province 
 also lifted up the standard of insurrection in 1831 ; 
 it had the encouragement of seeing two princes of 
 the Bonaparte family take arms in its cause ; these 
 were both the sons of Queen Hortense; one died in 
 consequence of the expedition, the other is now the 
 Emperor of the French ; and some pretend that he 
 has not in reality changed, and that he does not love 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 91 
 
 the government of the priests more than in his youth. 
 The revolt of Romagna was too isolated to succeed, 
 and it was promptly stifled. Nevertheless the Holy 
 Father perceived that he could no longer trust en- 
 tirely to his own troops; he obtained an Austrian 
 garrison to occupy Bologna. France, unwilling to 
 surrender all Italy to the influence of Yienna, and 
 particularly the Pontifical States, with w T hich she was 
 to have constant connections, sent a garrison to An- 
 cona. The defense of the temporal power of the 
 Holy Father by foreign troops dates back to that 
 period. 
 
 The French bayonets nevertheless disturbed him, 
 because he knew that they were too intelligent to ap- 
 prove all that they protected ; he was well pleased to 
 see them resuming the road to France in 1838. From 
 that hour the Papacy was able to exercise its heavy 
 and senile despotism in full security, carefully meas- 
 uring out the respirable air to the intelligence of its 
 subjects; killing, as far as it could, the spirit of inde- 
 pendence and progress; stifling it in secret dungeons 
 whenever it exploded; exiling all who disquieted it- 
 self; and merely offering its people the monotonous 
 pomp of an almost idolatrous worship to relieve their 
 weariness in a narrow and wretched existence, 
 whence all the great interests of modern life were 
 carefully banished. That was the fine time, the good 
 old time, of which the Roman prelacy only thinks 
 w T ith bitter regret. 
 
 However, about 1847, every thing was changed ; 
 again the breath of freedom breathed over Europe. 
 France showed herself discontented with the neither 
 grand nor frank policy of the old King Louis Philippe, 
 whose fault it was to see only the impertinent rancor 
 
92 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 of a conquered opposition in a very general and quite 
 profound movement. From north to south, Italy 
 prepared to revolt against Austria and those princes 
 who were her docile lieutenants. The King of Pied- 
 mont, Charles Albert, took the direction of the na- 
 tional movement, and began by giving a Constitution 
 to his people. Far stranger thing ! Gregory XYI. 
 was replaced on the Pontifical throne by a liberal 
 priest. Pius IX. proclaimed a general amnesty and 
 sketched out a Constitution for his people, which left 
 a large part to laymen and to their control. His 
 name was adored in the -whole peninsula, and for a 
 moment he became the standard-bearer of the nation. 
 But there are edifices so worm-eaten that they cannot 
 even be repaired without tottering from base to crest. 
 The Holy Father perceived this only too soon. The 
 tocsin of the Revolution of 1848 every-where precipi- 
 tated affairs; all Italy was up with the cry on her 
 lips, Fuori i stranieri! — Away with foreigners! 
 Charles Albert put himself at the head of the liber- 
 ating army. The King of Naples for a moment pre- 
 tended to follow him, but it was only till he could 
 recall the troops needed to check his subjects ; he shot 
 or sent to the galleys all the Liberals that he could 
 lay hands on, after having abominably deceived them 
 with a lying constitution. It was the hour to judge 
 of the inextricable impropriety of the temporal sover- 
 eignty of the Pope. He was at once the common 
 Father of the faithful and the sovereign of an Italian 
 Principality. If he made war on Austria, he w^ould 
 lose the former title ; if he did not, he w r ouid incur 
 the execration of his subjects, who passionately desired 
 the enfranchisement of their Italian Fatherland. For 
 a moment, the Pope was carried away by the desires 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 93 
 
 of his people; he sent a brigade, commanded by 
 General Durando, to support the operations of Victor 
 Emmanuel, but he saw speedily that he was thus sac- 
 rificing his part as the chief of the Church, and fol- 
 lowed the example of the King of Naples. This was 
 the first discord between him and his people, who no 
 longer desired such subjection, and had, more or less, 
 imposed on him a constitution which the illustrious 
 economist, Rossi, was charged to apply. But it was 
 an impossible task; an infallible priest cannot be a 
 constitutional sovereign ; all the more so because re- 
 ligious or ecclesiastical affairs are constantly blended 
 at Rome with political affairs. Moreover, the effort 
 was bruskly interrupted by the abominable murder 
 of M. di Rossi, on the very steps of the Legislature, 
 which he was about to open in the Pope's name. 
 The latter succeeded in taking to flight, and betook 
 himself to the protection of the King of Naples at 
 Gaeta while the Republic was proclaimed at Rome, 
 under the influence and preponderating direction of 
 Mazzini. 
 
 It is to this period that the present French occupa- 
 tion goes back, and it is very important distinctly to 
 note its origin. It must be said that its origin was 
 a distinguished trick, of which the French National 
 Assembly and the Republican authorities at Rome 
 were the victims. The business is not to defend the 
 Republic of Mazzini ; that is not the question. No 
 matter if that administration should seem hardly suited 
 to the character and situation of the Roman people. 
 It ought to fall only before the manifest wishes of 
 the people, and not before a foreign invasion. If the 
 latter were legitimate, all others are equally so ; and 
 in the last century the Prussians were entirely right 
 
94 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 in passing the French frontier to destroy the hot-bed 
 of revolution at Paris. But particularly, it was in- 
 admissible to lie to France and to Italy to disguise 
 the true aim of such an expedition. ~Now this was 
 done in the most indisputable manner. In the spring 
 of the year 1849 France had not yet replaced the 
 Republican Assembly of 1848 by the Legislative As- 
 sembly, of which a majority was committed to reac- 
 tion. Prince Napoleon, President elect, after the 
 second of December of the previous year, was fol- 
 lowing with docility the advice of the reactionist 
 party, to which likewise he chiefly owed his election. 
 He was fully decided to interfere at Rome to give 
 satisfaction to the Catholic party, of which he stood 
 in great need for his ulterior designs ; but he, as well 
 as his advisers, knew that there was no way to obtain 
 authority to intervene from an Assembly which was 
 very firm, very honest and moderate, but inflexibly 
 attached to republican principles. He used subter- 
 fuge. Some months earlier, General Cavaignac had 
 prepared a maritime expedition solely to protect the 
 Holy Father. The Prince President augmented the 
 number of vessels and troops which were to take pari 
 in the expedition, and demanded of the National As- 
 sembly authority for their departure, still to watch 
 over the security of the Holy Father, and to counter- 
 balance the influence of Austria, which, after the 
 great victories of Radetzky over the unfortunate 
 Charles Albert, was becoming preponderant. The 
 latter reason was well suited to touch a French as- 
 sembly. It granted the subsidies demanded on a 
 report from M. Jules Favre. A few days passed, 
 and people learned with stupefaction that, scarcely 
 disembarked at Civita, Yecchia, General Oudinot, 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 95 
 
 Commander-in-chief of the expedition, held very dif- 
 ferent language from what was to be expected of 
 him ; that he took more or less the attitude of a re- 
 storer of the pontifical power. But the public indig- 
 nation kept no further bounds when it was known that 
 he had demanded of the Republican Assembly at Rome 
 permission to land and select a salubrious position 
 near the gates of the city, solemnly promising to re- 
 spect the independence of the Roman people ; that 
 when he had obtained what he had demanded he 
 revealed the true object of his expedition, and un- 
 masked his batteries, which did not save him from 
 a repulse in the first assault that he made, and from 
 being forced to undertake a regular siege. The Na- 
 tional Assembly declared that it had been deceived, 
 and, in spite of the embarrassed explanations of the 
 ministers, voted an order of the day, which implied 
 a severe censure of what had been done. Unhappily 
 it had but a few moments more to live, and the Leg- 
 islative Assembly was won over in advance to the 
 Catholic policy. Accordingly, after stormy debates, 
 which brought on the marked insurrection of the 13th 
 of June, an entire approbation was accorded to the 
 policy of the Prince President. Thanks to the rein- 
 forcements sent him, General Oudinot took possession 
 of Rome despite the heroic defense of Garibaldi, 
 and the Holy Father soon returned, supported and 
 defended by a full corps of the French array. 
 
 The Prince President hoped that the sacerdotal 
 rule would not be restored, with all its abuses, and 
 that the Pope would make some concession to the 
 French flag, which henceforth sheltered him, and 
 which, although faithless to the principles of '89 
 from the moment that it floated at Rome, had been 
 
96 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 too often filled with the breath of freedom to find 
 pleasure in protecting a tyrannical theocracy. For 
 this purpose he sent his aide-de-camp, M. Edgar JNey, 
 to the Holy Father with a very imperious letter, de- 
 manding serious reforms in civil affairs, as a gift on 
 his second accession. But at Rome they were deafer 
 than ever in that ear; they were glad indeed to re- 
 ceive French soldiers, but not French advice, and 
 they knew very well that the Catholic party disap- 
 proved the President's letter. The Pope came back 
 from Gaeta a most desperate champion of absolutism, 
 like all backslidden Liberals. He restored the old 
 Roman machinery on its former footing ; his States 
 were again surrounded with the thick net of minute 
 precautions, that there might be no contraband com- 
 merce in liberal ideas. The priestly yoke rested 
 with its full weight on the population, the lay ele- 
 ment was more and more excluded from public af- 
 fairs. Meantime the coup (Petat of the second of De- 
 cember, 1851, had come on in France. Every mouth 
 was gagged that might have spoken in favor of the 
 freedom of the Romans. The Catholic party, which 
 hoped to derive advantage from it, with a few hon- 
 orable exceptions, greeted this event with enthusiasm. 
 IJ Utiivers, the most violent and influential organ of 
 Ultramontanism, lauded the new power, born of per- 
 jury and massacre, to the skies, and at Rome the 
 astute old men. who wished to keep an entire people 
 in squalor chanted the most sincere Te Deum they 
 had ever intoned. These are the unhappy divorces 
 between religion and morality which do the former 
 more harm than all other attacks. Ours is a century 
 when things move so fast, and possess such a power 
 of transformation, that we should never deem anv 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 97 
 
 situation long compromised. The Eoman authori- 
 ties fancied that they had only a slumbering people 
 to deal with, and thought they could resume the nice 
 mummified life of past centuries, when a new thunder- 
 clap came to procure them a most disagreeable awaken- 
 ing. It was almost the whole peninsula rising up for 
 its independence. Count Cavour had succeeded in 
 stirring up the old Italian leaven in the heart of the 
 Emperor of the French by presenting political pros- 
 pects, of which the baths of Plombieres, where they 
 met, guard the secret. The rapid and victorious 
 campaign of 1859 freed all Northern Italy, and its 
 first whiff swept away the garrison of Bologna. To 
 Italy the treaty of Yilla-Franca was a cruel decep- 
 tion ; it arrested her at the famous Quadrilateral, sus- 
 pending over her the perpetual menace of a return of 
 the Austrian army, which, established in its fortresses 
 like a bird of prey in its inaccessible eyrie, could 
 select at will the propitious moment for an invasion. 
 Besides, the combination favored by the Emperor of 
 the French was a division which might become a 
 confederation of States, wherein Austria, through 
 Yenice and Florence, would have a considerable in- 
 fluence, and over which the Holy Father should pre- 
 side ; he, the greatest enemy of national independ- 
 ence. This detestable treaty, though never applied 
 for a day, was a stimulus to the genius of Cavour, 
 who, moreover, felt himself in harmony with the 
 aspirations of his nation. 
 
 What followed is well-known. Florence and Parma 
 intimated to their Archdukes an order to remain in the 
 Austrian camp, where they had thought good to take 
 service. Never was the overthrow of any dynasty 
 
 more legitimate. Garibaldi, at the head of his volun- 
 
 7 
 
98 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 teers, took possession of Sicily, and triumphed at 
 Naples, quite as much by the astute policy of Cavour, 
 whose means we are far from approving, as by the hero- 
 ism of his red-shirts. At last the whole Pontifical State 
 was agitated and shivering under its degrading yoke. 
 The people of Ro magna succeeded in their prompt 
 revolt. During this period of contemporary history 
 the French government pursued an equivocal policy. 
 Though mounting guard at the Vatican, it secretly 
 favored annexations to the new kingdom of Italy. 
 When Oavour decided to strike a great blow after 
 the organization of an army of Pontifical volunteers 
 nnder the command of General Lamoriciere, it is 
 related that General Cialdini, who was to command 
 the Italian army, came to pay his respects to the 
 Emperor, then in Savoy, and that Napoleon simply 
 said to him, Fate presto — Act at once. Cialdini did 
 not fail to follow this advice, and it was easy for him 
 at Castelfidardo to crush the army of the Pope, quite 
 inferior to his own in numbers and organization, 
 though its chief was one of the most intrepid gener- 
 als and one of the most generous men of France. 
 The domain of the Pope was reduced to its present 
 boundaries ; outside of Rome it had lost its most 
 precious jewels — and it retained the Eternal City 
 only by the aid of a French corps of occupation. 
 How long would she still retain that ? This was a 
 very dubious question after all that had taken place 
 within two years. Did not the Emperor cause a 
 pamphlet to be written by one of his confidants, which 
 hinted that the Holy Father might well be content 
 with the Vatican and its dependencies ? Events had, 
 moreover, raised the question of the temporal power 
 of the Papacy in all the European press, public 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 99 
 
 opinion was agitated and impassioned in various 
 directions, and the new kingdom of Italy, which had 
 been recognized by France immediately after the 
 death of the illustrious Cavour, did not fail on every 
 convocation of its Parliament to declare that Rome 
 ought to be its capital. Surely the position of' the 
 temporal sovereignty of the Holy Father was quite 
 grave, despite the very irregular subsidy of Peter's 
 pence and the enlistment of many volunteers. It 
 became much more so when a convention was ratified 
 between France and Italy in September, 1865, 
 according to which the Emperor withdrew his troops 
 on condition that the King, Victor Emmanuel, should 
 prevent incursions on the Pontifical States. The 
 French troops were in fact withdrawn ; but two 
 years had not elapsed before Garibaldi again attacked 
 the Roman State with his bands. This was a solemn 
 moment for France; the question was whether the 
 Emperor would resume the old error of occupation. 
 His hesitation was great ; but, yielding to high and 
 dear influences, the Chief of the State, who then 
 possessed his personal power in its fullness, ordered 
 the fleet to sail from Toulon to Civita Yecchia. The 
 Chassepot guns did wonders, according to the happy 
 expression of General de Failly, who commanded the 
 French troops. The Garibaldians were crushed, the 
 Pontifical power consolidated, and M. Rouher de- 
 clared at the French tribune, in the memorable debates 
 which took place on that occasion, that never would 
 France abandon the cause of the Pontifical sov- 
 ereignty. For the present, the army of occupa- 
 tion is in barracks at Civita Yecchia, and at Viterbo ; 
 they are not numerous, but a corporal's guard with 
 the French flag would be enough for the occupation 
 
100 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 to have its full effect. People know that France is 
 near. What am I saying ? She is there, with her 
 power and prestige, in the least of her soldiers. Fur- 
 ther, the Imperial Government has authorized the 
 enlistment of a French legion, called at first the 
 Legion of Antibes, whose members retain their 
 rank and their rights on retirement whenever they 
 return to France. The Pope also has in his service 
 a Swiss legion and six battalions of Pontifical 
 Zouaves, volunteers enlisted among all nations, and 
 most ardent Catholics in their opinions. It is a fine 
 blossom of legitimist aristocracy. They are as the 
 apple of the Holy Father's eye ; he sees in them his 
 defenders from conviction, and is never weary of 
 showering benedictions on them ; they are encoun- 
 tered in large numbers kneeling before holy relics 
 in the churches; on certain days they all commune 
 together, and they are spoken of as confessors of the 
 faith. This does not keep them from leading garri- 
 son life at other times, except a few who are perfect 
 enthusiasts. The Holy Father has several times 
 reviewed them, blessed their cannon, a very singular 
 office for the Vicar of the Prince of Peace ; he is 
 nearer his true office when he blesses the lambs on 
 Saint Agnes's day. Such is the military position of 
 the Roman States — whose most characteristic feature 
 still is the French occupation. The Swiss and the 
 Zouaves cannot pass for national troops. It is, 
 then, incontestable that the Holy Father needs for- 
 eign bayonets to guard him against his own subjects. 
 We shall see in the next letter that this comes from 
 the intolerable tyranny of his government. But is it 
 not itself a grave thing to see the representative of 
 the Catholic religion reduced to employ means before 
 
Some, Italy, axd the Council. 101 
 
 which the worst lay despots would recoil? He is 
 the only present representative of those petty Italian 
 tyrants of the Middle Ages who could reign only by 
 turning the point of a foreign sword against the 
 breast of the nation on which they imposed them- 
 selves. I know that it will be said that the Pope 
 has to deal not merely w 7 ith his own subjects, but 
 also with the intrigues and conspirators of Italy. But 
 after all, the Romans too are Italians, and for them 
 you will never be able to identify their great common 
 country with a foreign power. Between the Floren- 
 tine and the Sw T iss, though arrayed as a halberdier, 
 he knows well which is his true compatriot. It is 
 likewise certain that all the gallant, energetic, and 
 youthful portion of the population is in exile ; it is 
 these who wish to re-enter their homes occupied by 
 men who do not speak their language nor love the 
 grandeur of their country. Does not all Italy know 
 that Rome is a focus of conspiracy against her, that 
 there she is profoundly hated, and that the Holy 
 Father desires nothing so much as her abasement 
 and division ? Yet justice compels us to blame her 
 policy so far as it has been tortuous and violent ; 
 let her renounce these means, w 7 hich are chiefly peril- 
 ous to those who use them, and just leave the breath 
 of freedom to blow over the nations! Let her also 
 have full confidence in the infallible imprudence of 
 her adversary ! One Encyclical like that of 1865 is 
 worth ten Graribaldian expeditions to her. 
 
 The great argument of the Ultramontane Catholics 
 to justify foreign occupation at Rome is, that the 
 Eternal City belongs not to herself but is the sanc- 
 tuary of true Christendom. If walls, temples, and a 
 city of stone were meant, such an argument might 
 
102 Home, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 be understood ; but this city is inhabited ; it is a city, 
 and not merely a sacred hostelry. Now by what 
 right, under pretext of serving your faith, do you 
 trample under foot the liberty of human beings with 
 the same moral destiny as yourselves? What! your 
 religion need idiots and slaves ! What ! you need a 
 eunuch people to guard your great sanctuary, as if it 
 were a Mohammedan seraglio! What! human vic- 
 tims needed for your Papal idol! Then you do not 
 know that the whole world is not worth one man, and 
 for the good of religion you inflexibly load your breth- 
 ren with chains which you would not wear a single 
 day ! But what then is your religion? Ah ! if you 
 think to serve it by such an administration, come then 
 into the popular assemblies now held at Paris, in the 
 capital of the Empire which you w^ould make soldier 
 to the Pope. Listen to those terrible outbursts of 
 hatred against God. They come from the fact, that 
 a people which has always been assured that Catholi- 
 cism and Christianity are one and the same thing 
 sees God only athwart your Pope-King and athwart 
 the blood of Mentana. You are venturing the spir- 
 itual power of religion on the miserable stake of the 
 temporal power. 
 
 Whether it please the Ultramontane party or not, 
 their excesses have poured the most vivid light upon 
 the question of the relations of these two powers. 
 The French occupation of Pome has done more to 
 advance the cause of the independence of the Church 
 than the most eloquent books. To-day the w^hole 
 liberal party is won over to it. And the liberal 
 party is the France of to-morrow. When they come 
 to power the Roman soil will not retain one of our 
 soldiers, for the occupation of the Pontifical States 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 103 
 
 does not merely wound the rights of the subjects of 
 the Pope, but also the rights of Frenchmen. Accord- 
 ing to her Constitution, France is not a Catholic 
 State ; all religions are to be alike protected by law. 
 By defending the Holy Father, the government ceases 
 to be lay ; it devotes itself to the service of a special 
 Church, and forces us, who do not belong to her, to 
 sustain her. This is a defiance of justice that can- 
 not be continued. Its approaching limit is also fore- 
 seen. This is perceived, too, at Rome. Therefore 
 their haste to hold the Council. France will be its 
 halberdier — but patience! That will fill up the 
 measure and the cup will overflow ! A notable frac- 
 tion of Catholicism begins to long as ardently as we 
 for the fall of the temporal power. They are indeed 
 right, for the Catholics ought to be the most impa- 
 tient to see the end of a state of things which is truly 
 the dishonor of their religion. 
 
 E. de Pressense. 
 
104 .Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 LETTER Y. 
 
 Cause of the Uneasiness of the Romans — Modern Liberty and Theoc- 
 racy — The Prince and the Pope — Pope elected by Ecclesiastics — ■ 
 The Sacred College — The Conclave — The Congregations — The 
 Courts of Law — The Signature — Consulta Sacra and the Kobe — 
 Trials not Public — Special Rights of the Clergy— The Police — Im- 
 punity of Crime — Conspirators — The Prelacy — Clerical Establish- 
 ments of Rome — Foundations, Masses, and Begging — The Press 
 and the Censorship — Enforced Hypocrisy of the Romans — No Re- 
 form possible — Ignorance of the Masses — Higher Education — The 
 Jesuits as Educators — Their Triumphs over History — A Roman 
 Apologue — Singular Consequences of Theocracy — Approval of The- 
 aters and Lotteries — A Suggestive Incident. 
 
 Rome, November, 1869. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Should it be asked, Whence comes the 
 immense dissatisfaction of the Roman population 
 with its government? the reply is only too easy. We 
 need onlv remember the nature of that government. 
 Surely there is none more detestable in the world. 
 It combines every thing that can exasperate a nation 
 which has drawn a few breaths of modern liberty. 
 To tell all in a word, it is Absolute Theocracy pushed 
 to its final consequences. Let us try to present a 
 rapid picture of it, to show what Catholicism, left to 
 herself and without any counterpoise, does with hu- 
 manity when she can dominate it at will. This question 
 is important in relation to the religious controversy; 
 indeed, as I have already said, liberal Catholics, who 
 are singularly annoyed by the Pontifical Encyclicals, 
 strive to lessen their sweep by a strained exegesis. 
 But all their commentaries are annulled by that 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 105 
 
 which we have under our eyes at Rome : the Pon- 
 tifical rule is the Syllabus turned government, and 
 incarnated after a sort in an administration which is 
 daily applied. All the fine phrases that can be made 
 on the harmony of freedom with Catholicism, dash 
 and break on a reality which cannot be denied. Be 
 fore leaving his diocese to come and sit in the 
 Council, Monseigneur Dupanloup pronounced a very 
 eloquent discourse on taking leave of his priests. He 
 indignantly protested against the impious wretches 
 who fear that the Council may pronounce a divorce 
 between modern society and the Church. On this 
 head he repeated his famous explanatory pamphlet 
 on the Syllabus, and affirmed that the Church could 
 not hate and condemn that society of which she is 
 the mother. These grand words mean nothing — it 
 is not enough to talk vaguely about the conciliation 
 of the Papacy and modern society ; they must be 
 brought face to face. We are about to tell, or rather, 
 remind, Monseigneur the Bishop of Orleans what he 
 will find at Rome. He knows the principles on 
 which modern society reposes : he shall see whether 
 there is one of them that is not resolutely trodden 
 under foot in the Eternal City, and systematically 
 denied. I imagine what the bishops from your free 
 America would feel on this despotic soil should they 
 for a moment lift the vail of unreflecting respect 
 which will cover their eyes — should they forsake the 
 wholly perfumed and obscured atmosphere of incense 
 which will envelope them, coolly to consider things. 
 I imagine that they would be in haste to return to 
 their great and noble country, and that they would 
 say to themselves that the most detestable wish which 
 the deadliest foe of the United States could utter, 
 
106 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 would be, that they might exchange their government 
 for that which prevails in the Holy City. 
 
 If there is an elementary principle in modern so- 
 ciety it is that of popular sovereignty ; that the gov- 
 ernment, whose form may vary, should represent the 
 will and interests of the country, and not represent 
 itself, nor serve its own grandeur. That is, indeed, 
 royalty in the modern sense, nay, I will say in the 
 Christian sense, for this great idea comes directly 
 from the Gospel. What becomes of this principle 
 before a power which affirms that it is descended di- 
 rectly from heaven, not by some mysterious species 
 of divine right, which loses itself in the night of time, 
 but by the direct designation of the Holy Spirit, so 
 that it represents not its own people, but God him- 
 self, and may claim an obedience as implicit as the 
 Jehovah of the Old Covenant demanded of the 
 twelve tribes of Israel ! This power can neither be 
 shared nor limited. It is vain to reserve infallibility 
 to questions of doctrine. It is not possible that he 
 who thinks himself the mouth of God to interpret 
 religion should not deem himself illuminated with 
 celestial light to guide public affairs, all the more 
 because these are constantly blended with religion — 
 because civil and ecclesiastical affairs form an inex- 
 tricable network. The Pope needs to be an absolute 
 king to preserve his independence, unless he would 
 be no king at all, and move exclusively in the spirit- 
 ual sphere. But if he has any temporal sovereignty 
 it ought certainly to be wielded free from control. 
 We cannot imagine a Pope obliged to yield to the 
 vote of a deliberative assembly when a treaty with 
 any given power should be in question, for all the 
 treaties which he contracts have a religious side, and 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 107 
 
 are concordats ; consequently they affect ecclesiasti- 
 cal interests. The Priest could not be constrained by 
 the Prince, therefore the Prince should never know 
 bonds. Please note that what the Papacy does at 
 Rome it would wish to do every-where ; that it has' 
 not abandoned the pretensions of Gregory YII. and 
 Innocent III. ; that it is still ready to affirm that the 
 temporal power in all places is in respect to the spir- 
 itual power as the earth in respect to the sun ; that 
 in any case the Church should be mistress. There 
 is something more than a fact in the Pontifical ab- 
 solutism, there is a principle, a dogma ; the unhappy 
 nations w T ho undergo it have not even the hope of 
 any improvement for consolation. They will move 
 eternally in the circle of their present institutions, a 
 circle which cannot become more supple, but must 
 either be broken or drawn ever tighter. The pallia- 
 tives that have repeatedly been devised could never 
 be applied ; the Council of State had not even the 
 right to regulate expenses. It could only attest them 
 and submit. It is a hundred times better, too, that 
 this shadow of parliamentarianism should disappear, 
 and that no oil should be poured on the wheels of 
 absolutism ; it is desirable that the horrible gearing 
 should play in all its harshness. There have been, 
 furthermore, intelligent despotisms, at least in the 
 measure in which they are possible. These offered 
 the people a bargain, and in exchange for their free- 
 dom favored their material prosperity and their na- 
 tional grandeur. Under Frederick II. Prussia was 
 doubtless subjected to an iron yoke, but she found 
 consolation in the feeling that she was being con- 
 ducted to glorious destinies. Understand me well. 
 I do not say this to excuse despotism ; it is always 
 
108 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 immoral and mischievous. I simply remark that, 
 though it can never be excused, it sometimes offers 
 compensations. But nothing of the kind is possible 
 in the Roman Theocracy. The Holy Father has no 
 right to lay to heart the interests of the country. 
 He governs his principality only with reference to 
 the Church universal. To him Rome is merely a 
 vast episcopal throne. He is not an Italian sover- 
 eign, but the chief of Christendom. The Roman 
 people is likewise assured that never will their Prince 
 assume the stand-point of their interests in forming 
 alliances. He offers them as a sacrifice to the cause 
 he personifies. The sacrifice would be touching did 
 he offer himself \ but the expense of the burnt-offering 
 is borne by his people. As for him, he hovers in the 
 empyrean, and sniffs the incense of Christendom. 
 The troops he pays will never serve except as a guard 
 to his personal authority ; they will not weigh an 
 ounce in the political balance, and the Roman people 
 will have the pleasure of thinking that they are 
 treated like old men and women in general politics, 
 and that the haughty speech which might reveal man- 
 hood is never expected of them. Thus they are kept 
 in constant humiliation. 
 
 Should it be claimed that the elective character 
 of the Papacy is an amelioration, that would be a 
 great mistake. 
 
 Pirst, the Holy Father is elected solely by an ec- 
 clesiastical body, without any communication with 
 the people. Then the fleeting nature of his govern- 
 ment prevents his having extensive aims. A family 
 which becomes a dynasty is more associated with the 
 country and its interests than an old bachelor, who, 
 when he has loaded his nephews with favors, (which 
 
Bome, Italy, and the Council. 109 
 
 the present Pope has never done,) has nothing more 
 to wish for himself. His name stirs no memory ; he 
 has nothing in the past to care for, nothing to pro- 
 vide for in the future, in which he has no concern. 
 His government also is the most barren imaginable 
 in public affairs. The Cardinals constitute the Coun- 
 cil of the Papacy, a Council which it names, and 
 which can never influence its decisions. They are 
 divided into three orders : the order of Bishops, the 
 order of Priests, and the order of Deacons. Together 
 they make up the Sacred College, which is trans- 
 formed into a Conclave when a new Holy Father is 
 to be chosen. They guide all civil and ecclesiasti- 
 cal affairs, and are divided into Congregations. The 
 chief are those of the Inquisition, the Propaganda, 
 Bites, the Council, and the Index. The Apostolical 
 Chancery is the depository of the Papal bulls ; the 
 Datary is charged with the dispatch of benefices, 
 indulgences, and dispensations. The Penitentiary 
 sends off absolutions. The influence of the Cardinals 
 and the clergy is not less in civil than in religious 
 affairs. Do not forget further that you must never 
 separate the former from the latter in a theocratic 
 constitution. The religious life of the inhabitant of 
 Borne belongs, as much as his civil life, to the power 
 on which he depends. He is responsible, then, in a 
 multitude of cases, to the Congregations that I have 
 just enumerated, to which he must account for any 
 failure in the duties of piety. The Congregation of 
 the Inquisition is doubtless rather a phantom of the 
 past than a very redoubtable power ; the history of 
 blood and tears written on the walls of its dungeons 
 has had no new chapters in late years, because it is ad- 
 venturous to be old Papal Borne. The pressure of the 
 
110 Rome Italy and the Council. 
 
 circumambient air is nevertheless felt, and the courage 
 fails to turn wish into deed. Yet be not too confi- 
 dent. I am well assured that should any movement 
 of evangelical propagaudism be taken in the act of 
 distributing the Scriptures the Inquisition would be 
 found again, not indeed to slay, (her teeth are bro- 
 ken,) but to imprison. She is still called to busy 
 herself with a multitude of cases of conscience. 
 
 This leads us to the organization of Justice at 
 Rome. It is in this domain that especially all the 
 principles of modern society are set at naught. First 
 of all, the preponderance here belongs still to the 
 clergy. How could it be otherwise? Is it not a 
 moral institution, the father of the people ? To in- 
 trust to laymen the care of discerning evil, charac- 
 terizing and punishing it, would not that be the 
 pitch of abominations, the overthrow of all rules I 
 Hence care has been taken to exclude them as much 
 as possible. The principal courts at Rome are in 
 reality only ecclesiastical tribunals. They are the tri- 
 bunal of Signature, a species of superior court charged 
 to interpret the laws ; the Consulta Sacra, w T hich has 
 an appellate jurisdiction in criminal causes; the Tri- 
 bunal of the Robe, which is the Supreme Court of the 
 Roman State. Judicial trials are not public; they 
 are conducted in the shade; no appeal to the public 
 is possible. The law may be strangled between two 
 doors by the dumb officers of the Roman authorities. 
 It is easy to conceive what arbitrary measures such 
 an administration must produce. Proceedings by 
 documents are substituted for the voice of defense, 
 which, moreover, would be lost in the void without 
 arousing an echo. The clergy finds its advantage in 
 such institutions. All its misdoings are buried ; it 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. Ill 
 
 has immunities which are infinitely precious to its 
 members in exemption from the common law ; the 
 jurisdictions under which it is are very careful to 
 keep its peccadilloes concealed. Thus ecclesiastical 
 charity covers a multitude of sins. The regular 
 clergy is exposed, not to more scandal but to greater 
 perils. Every convent has its own jurisdiction, its 
 in pace secret prisons. God knows how many tears 
 they have drank up, how many unfortunates have 
 there been punished, perchance for good impulses ! 
 
 Besides, in a despotic State justice has but very 
 slight action compared with that of the police. The 
 latter spreads its protecting wings every-where, keep- 
 ing its Argus-eye ever open, even in the most secret 
 confessional. Yet it does not use brutal means. It 
 walks with measured steps, disguising its movements. 
 It is a gentle and discreet person, who has been at 
 the seminary of Gesu, who has learned his best tricks 
 of the good fathers. It has borrowed of them the 
 paternal smile, the honeyed voice, the patience that 
 can watch for hours, and then, when the hour for 
 action comes, can unite rapidity with mystery, and 
 the blow has fallen before the hand has even been 
 seen which inflicts it. No guarantee can arrest it ; 
 personal liberty is a concession and not a right ; jus- 
 tice is not bound to act after limited delays ; it may 
 easily leave the prisoner to rot in an unknown dun- 
 geon. Relatives make some outcries, but they are 
 bound in so many ways that silence is quickly im- 
 posed on them. An order of exile is expedited with- 
 out any notification, and no demurrer can get it re- 
 voked. The other day the " Rome Journal," speak- 
 ing of the indignation caused in the Eternal City by 
 the brief appearance of an Italian Representative, 
 
112 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 well known for his liberal opinions, rejoiced that the 
 Pontifical police would know to prevent the recur- 
 rence of such scandals, and that in its underground 
 ways it would succeed in removing from the Holy 
 City every element of mischievous propagandism. 
 The Roman police naturally has so much to do in 
 watching over the Liberals that it is often very lenient 
 to ordinary offenses, especially when the criminal has 
 potent friends. One day an unlucky brigand had 
 been caught plunging his dagger into the breast of a 
 Frenchman in a fit of jealousy. He thought to get 
 out of the affair because he had great friends who 
 could well cover up his peccadillo. But for once he 
 had reckoned without his host, who was this time 
 the French police, because his offense must be an- 
 swered before the military authorities of France. 
 He complained bitterly of his misfortune to him who 
 told me the story. " Our Roman police," said he, 
 " they understand, they understand ;" meaning, that 
 with good recommendations you can always escape 
 them. M. Ampere, the celebrated writer, who knew 
 Rome better than any body else, used to tell the fol- 
 lowing story. One day he encountered a good old 
 man, with the placid and honest air of a patriarch. 
 He asked him what his calling was, not doubting 
 that he had filled the most honorable offices. " I, 
 sir," returned the good man, u I was formerly a brig- 
 and." " What ! a brigand with your excellent fig- 
 ure?" " O, sir, you talk like my father! At the 
 moment of my decision lie said, ' Why turn brigand? 
 Become a prelate rather. You will steal in the of- 
 fice.' But I loved glory." Thus may retired brig- 
 ands peacefully consume their savings at Rome, while 
 the most honest man, if suspected of liberal meas- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 113 
 
 tires, is flung into prison or exile, without judgment 
 or debate, on a mere suspicion. 
 
 And yet this skillful police cannot find the true 
 nest of the Roman conspiracies. There exists a Na- 
 tional Committee at Rome which urges on by all 
 possible means deliverance from the Papal yoke. It 
 is known that it sits permanently; that its communi- 
 cations with the Garibaldians are numerous ; and 
 that it waits patiently to attain its ends. Well now, 
 they never have succeeded in getting hold of the 
 principal members. They are perhaps in some 
 branch of the administration, or in the antechambers 
 of some Cardinal, bowing, as need is — perhaps they 
 swing the censer. On great occasions their presence 
 and activity is disclosed. Some fine morning the 
 walls of Rome are suddenly all covered with procla- 
 mations, which give the general watchword. The 
 entire prelacy is furious, but their wrath must exhale 
 in vain imprecations ; the offenders are invisible. 
 They may be close by, all steeped in devotion; but 
 their punishment is impossible. 
 
 The Italians excel in these underground maneu- 
 vers. They are the best conspirators in the world ; 
 prudent, discreet, skillful in misleading, and in put- 
 ting the bloodhounds of the police on the wrong 
 track. As I have spoken of the Prelacy, I must ex- 
 plain this singular institution. It constitutes a spe- 
 cies of aristocracy with no very well-defined func- 
 tions, but from which are drawn all the dignitaries 
 of the Church, and part of those of the State, which 
 is never separated from the former. This body fur- 
 nishes the Pope his high domestics, and occupies the 
 most important functions in the ministry. It may 
 be known by its violet stockings. The number of 
 
 8 
 
114 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the prelates is considerable. The clergy, moreover, 
 in the proportions to which it has multiplied, is a 
 perpetual cloud of grasshoppers, busy in consuming 
 this country. Rome numbers three hundred and 
 eighty-nine churches, several of them important ba- 
 silicas ; each has a numerous train of servitors to 
 maintain ; some have canons magnificently paid. 
 Add to these the College of Cardinals, each of whom 
 receives yearly six thousand dollars, a multitude of 
 Bishops in partibus — immense seminaries and con- 
 vents of all orders, w-hich would of themselves con- 
 stitute a great city. Tou cannot take a step in the 
 street without crossing files of monks of every name, 
 Franciscans, Dominicans, and Carmelites, with all 
 their divisions and subdivisions. No doubt the 
 money that supports this numberless clerical body 
 comes from ancient endowments, but it is none the 
 less drawn from the country which it exhausts. 
 Mirabeau said justly, when the difficult question of 
 the estates of the clergy was in discussion at the tri- 
 bunal of the Constituent Assembly in 1789, that the 
 State must always have a right of resumption upon 
 these estates of corporations on condition of gener- 
 ously indemnifying the actual generation still in 
 possession. He said, " The dead, if their right were 
 absolute, might occupy the entire soil of any country 
 with their tombs, so that not an inch of land would 
 remain for the living to cultivate and subsist upon." 
 Well now, this argument, which at first seems a para- 
 dox corresponding to no reality, has its full value on 
 this Roman soil overloaded with those pompous en- 
 dowments, by which so many of the rich, anxious 
 about their eternal future, have sought to purchase 
 the pardon of Heaven by paying for it in cash to 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 115 
 
 those in whose hands they saw the celestial keys. 
 Rome, as has been well said, is the great mortmain 
 proprietor of the Occident. But if the endowments 
 are insufficient, the mass-market works in the most 
 fruitful manner. It has been greatly perfected in 
 the last few years ; it is a true branch of trade. 
 There is now a free exchange of masses with the 
 various Catholic countries ; they are exported with 
 benefices. Thus a given Church has considerable 
 orders for masses, which it cannot meet all alone; it 
 arranges the task with some less favored Church, 
 which performs them at a cheaper rate, and the for- 
 mer Church gains the difference. This custom is not 
 peculiar to the Roman States ; it is very general, and 
 has given occasion to some passably scandalous law- 
 suits. I believe that, through the telegraph, the 
 mass-market will yet be found beside the stock- 
 market. 
 
 Mendicant monks like the Franciscans are another 
 sad sore for this unlucky population. Their rule 
 obliges them to live on alms ; at Rome these alms 
 are a regular tribute levied on the poorest houses. 
 The Capuchin friar knows all the arts of his trade ; 
 he approaches his patient with a benign air, offers 
 him a pinch of snuff, speaks his dialect with great 
 facility, for he is from the common people, like his 
 victim, and then he reaches out his bag or wallet, 
 and the wretch must acquit himself, unless his 
 poverty be past doubt ; otherwise he would be ill- 
 liked, and the Church has long arms. The blood- 
 sucker returns to his convent quite gorged. Beggary 
 has its third estate at Rome, which is largely repre- 
 sented; it is recognized and patented ; every mendi- 
 cant wears a medal from the government and goes 
 
116 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 with a nasal whine to church doors, as though he ful- 
 filled some State function. Naturally he has to make 
 a great display of devotion to succeed in his business. 
 I am persuaded that more than one capitalist lifts 
 with one hand the tapestried door of a large church, 
 often while his other hand is often extended to you. 
 
 The Pontifical Government can be under no illu- 
 sion on the discontent that is brewing in the hearts 
 of its subjects. It knows that a single spark would 
 fire the powder. It also takes the most jealous care 
 to remove every thing which might awaken the least 
 liberal aspiration. What the press is, under such 
 rule, may be imagined. It is purely and simply the 
 organ of the government. That alone speaks and 
 writes. Never can the slightest abuse be named, 
 never the least objection be uttered. Foreign news 
 is dressed up in Roman style before it circulates ; the 
 telegraph, that free child of the air, is under the 
 most minute watch. But one strain is heard in all 
 the Roman journals, a perpetual halleluiah to the won- 
 derful and heavenly rule which they enjoy, and a 
 constant anathema against revolution and its abomi- 
 nations, especially against the new kingdom of Italy. 
 Dull sarcasms rain upon that like hail. Geography 
 itself must lie for the benefit of the Holy See. None 
 of the new titular styles is accepted. The King of 
 Italy is still the King of Piedmont ; the province of 
 Naples is never mentioned except as the Kingdom 
 of the two Sicilies. On the government of the press 
 let us listen to the Some Correspondent — a very 
 well-meaning journal. I find the following passage 
 in its issue of November sixth : " No, the Papacy is 
 not an extinguisher. It favors social activity while 
 restraining it within those limits which befit the wel- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 117 
 
 fare of the people, morality and justice. As to literary 
 activity, Rome numbers thirty-four newspapers, in 
 which, thanks to the watchfulness of the authorities, 
 none can offend either morality or reason, or the 
 authority which represents them." What could be 
 more ingenuous ? Reason and morality are incarnated 
 in the government ; whatever is opposed to that is 
 immoral and irrational. There is nothing to do but 
 to receive and repeat its teachings. These thirty 
 journals are merely its speaking-trumpets. Do you 
 not admire the number thirty-four? Is it not an 
 answer to all objections? What! our press not suffi- 
 cient? and we have thirty-four journals; count 
 well, not one is lacking. Well! had you two hun- 
 dred they would none the less be one and the 
 same journal — yours. Be there two hundred or ten 
 parrots in a cage, it is ever the same babble. The 
 censorship, which is always preventive, does not bear 
 merely on the newspapers, but on all publications. 
 Every book is subject to it, whatever topics it may 
 treat. It is certain that no scientific discovery would 
 be allowed to pass which should bear hard at any 
 point on Romish orthodoxy. Its famous blunder 
 with Galileo has taught it nothing; it has found 
 means to reconcile his discoveries with its dogmas, 
 and it permits Father Sacchi, the illustrious astrono- 
 mer, to have a magnificent observatory in the College 
 at Rome, and even to borrow some of his discoveries 
 from foreign profane science ; but it would not grant 
 an exeat to a compromising discovery, however well- 
 founded it might be on irrefragable documents. It 
 is well known how carefully the door of the Vatican 
 Library is closed ; it possesses treasures on the history 
 of the later Middle Ages and on the struggles of the 
 
118 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Reformation. Bat so long as the present rule 
 endures, history will never get its eyes upon them. 
 Night must be created in the past as well as in the 
 present, that the Pontifical Star may blaze alone in 
 all its splendor. The sun is its great enemy; the 
 Reformation showed this well by inscribing on its 
 standard the device, Post tenehras lux. 
 
 The censorship pursues irreligion or heterodoxy in 
 the humblest publications, and even in the opera 
 libretti. Every literary work must bend to the 
 proportions of its Procrustean bed or undergo the 
 outrage of its scissors. The word liberty is every- 
 where excluded as incendiary. It is not allowable 
 to put into an opera any term that nearly or remotely 
 appertains to the ecclesiastical tongue. Thus, to cite 
 a recent example of the scruples of the censorship, in 
 a certain piece there was mention of the angelic beauty 
 of some heroine. The censor found nothing more 
 urgent to do than to put in the room of those words 
 the admirable beauty. But the Pope thought this 
 was too much, and he hinted his feeling with witty 
 neatness when, passing in a carriage along the street 
 of the Holy Angels, he inquired its name, as if he 
 had forgotten it. and chided his informant by saying, 
 " You are mistaken, it is not the street of the Angeli; 
 it is the street of the Mirabili" But above all there 
 is one book which is carefully banished from Rome, 
 and whose circulation is guarded against as though 
 it were poison — the Bible. You may ship a cargo 
 of romances, French or English, to Rome, except 
 those of political tendencies ; but apart from your 
 pocket Bible, you cannot openly introduce a copy of 
 the sacred volume. The great Bible Societies, which 
 are the honor of Protestantism, occupy the chief 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 119 
 
 place in the anathemas of the late Encyclicals; they 
 are denounced as Satanic enterprises.* Indeed, we 
 might say to the Papacy, " If you are God, the Bible 
 comes from the devil, since whatever yon do, and, 
 further, all that you mean to do, is blamed and 
 branded by that book. I seem to see the God of 
 the Gospel entering your proud basilica with the 
 scourge of small cords, which drove the buyers from 
 the temple, and the fearful anathemas which turned 
 the Pharisees of Jerusalem pale. You do well, from 
 your point of view, to banish the word of God to 
 your frontiers. You are right in fearing it — it will 
 slay you ! " I have not yet said a word about the 
 holiest liberty — liberty of conscience — because it 
 would be ridiculous to speak of it at Rome, where 
 every thing is organized against it ; it is the great 
 stumbling-stone. I have already cited the terms in 
 which the Encyclical of Gregory XVI. and Pius IX. 
 characterize it. 
 
 In all the Concordats signed by the present Pope 
 it is expressly interdicted; we need only remem- 
 ber the famous Concordat of Vienna, in which, after 
 Sadowa, Austria rightly recognized the cause of her 
 defeat ; that rule was after the heart of Rome, since 
 it subordinated the education, literature, thought, 
 and will of the country to the good pleasure of its 
 clergy. The Concordats, proposed to the republics 
 of South America, are conceived from the same stand- 
 point. It is there that we must seek the true Romish 
 idea, and not in liberal countries where, in order to 
 obtain something, she is obliged to make important 
 
 * I believe a copy of the Gospels, with Catholic comments, may 
 be had at bookstores. But this has nothing to do with the free cir- 
 culation of the Holy Books. 
 
120 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 concessions, but without ever touching her great 
 principle, that the only freedom pleasing to God is 
 that of the Church, a freedom that consists in her 
 oppressing souls at will. But it is at home, in Rome, 
 that this fine system must be seen at work; there 
 the word of God cannot resound except in little 
 chapels of embassadors, which are yet covered by 
 some foreign flag. The least attempt at private re- 
 ligions propagandism would surely lead to imprison- 
 ment or exile. They celebrate with great pomp the 
 abjuration of blind Protestants, who are caught in the 
 snare of a wholly exterior worship ; yet the abjura- 
 tion of a Catholic would be not only forbidden, but 
 severely chastised ; thus what the Sultan allows is 
 here forbidden, and Romish fanaticism exceeds Mus- 
 sulman fanaticism. What could you have more 
 abominable than the carrying off of little Mortara on 
 the pretext that his nurse had him baptized on the 
 sly? That enormous scandal is forgotten, and yet 
 it continues, for Mortara is now a priest, forever 
 separated from the family from which he was stolen. 
 Whenever we enter the Sistine Chapel to admire 
 the frescoes of Michael Angelo, do we not see, on the 
 walls of the passage which the Holy Father traverses 
 to reach his private chapel, the frescoes of Yasari, 
 which represent the triumph of the Church on St. 
 Bartholomew's eve ? The memory of that execrable 
 massacre is thus religiously preserved, not on account 
 of the merit of the work, which in itself is only me- 
 diocre, but for its own sake, and to attest forever in 
 what sense the saying is true, that the Church shrinks 
 from blood."* What a cry of indignation would arise 
 in France should she consecrate at Versailles a great 
 
 * Abhorret a sanguine. 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 121 
 
 picture in admiration of the massacres of September ! 
 What is the difference ? 
 
 I have not yet mentioned the most frightful con- 
 sequence of the rule I am describing ; the hypocrisy 
 to which it, perforce, condemns a good share of the 
 population. Every Roman is obliged by law to fulfill 
 his religious duties, and after- the great festivals to 
 produce a ticket of confession, else he can exercise no 
 trade, or he is subject to various penalties. His moral 
 dispositions are of little account ; he must at any rate 
 commune. In such a state of things the confessor 
 must necessarily be very tolerant — there are well- 
 known means of procuring these confessional billets 
 on easy terms. If there be a sacrilege committed 
 under heaven, it is surely that which is renewed at 
 Rome on all the great festivals — a sacrilege ordained 
 by him who proclaims himself the Head of the Church. 
 You remember those terrible anathemas with which 
 the book of the Prophet Isaiah opens against the 
 formalist worship of degenerate Judaism, bowing 
 down like a reed in solemn festival davs, while the 
 heart retained its indomitable pride ; against that 
 theatrical worship which covered up injustice and 
 violence. " I cannot endure your solemn feasts," cried 
 Jehovah; "they are an abomination unto me. Who 
 hath required you to present yourselves before my 
 face ? " Well, the Romans might justly answer, " He 
 who has not only required, but exacted this of us, is 
 the Pontiff who claims to be your Yicar and Represent- 
 ative. It is he who has appointed these solemn feasts, 
 whither w T e are constrained to come by the urgency 
 of his soldiers ; and if we bow our heads over the 
 pavement of the basilicas with souls full of pride and 
 selfishness, it is because the halberd of the guards 
 
122 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 of the Holy Father constrains ns. Therefore we 
 come, as we think, to eat and drink the flesh of your 
 Christ without one of the feelings required by that 
 august sacrament. Our solemn feasts are to many 
 among us public falsehoods decreed by the law of the 
 State." Can we imagine what demoralization such a 
 government must produce, and what becomes of con- 
 science in such a school ! It either produces the most 
 resolute impiety, most contemptuous toward a re- 
 ligion so travestied, or, indeed, it impresses an incur- 
 able duplicity on the soul. Where the essential 
 relation of life is thus falsified, the entire being 
 receives a bent to falsehood that can no longer be 
 remedied. And yet people will be astonished, and 
 perhaps indignant, that nations molded by Papal 
 Catholicism should have some difficulty in getting 
 clear of it, and should retain its traces even after 
 their chains have fallen off. The greatest curse of 
 this sacerdotal absolutism is, that even when revolu- 
 tion has overturned it for a time, it renders freedom 
 almost impossible. There are evils so inveterate that 
 they even infect the means intended to heal them. 
 
 There is no hope of seeing the Roman people ele- 
 vated so long as it shall be dependent on the Holy 
 Father. No reform, small or great, is possible. Car- 
 dinal Consalvi, in those curious memoirs of which 
 I have spoken, relates that while he occupied in his 
 youth an important position under the government 
 he sought to banish certain abuses, but that he stirred 
 up so much wrath on the part of those who lived on 
 them that he was obliged to yield. This old tale is 
 ever new in the Roman States. What hinders any 
 serious improvement in their moral condition is the 
 fact that the great agent of progress, public educa- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 123 
 
 tion. is in a deplorable state. In reality, the Papacy 
 dreads to educate the people ; it has every thing to 
 lose from putting them in a position to understand 
 history and the real state of things. It would not be 
 content to say with the Apostle, that Satan can some- 
 times transform himself into an angel of light; it would 
 openly declare that the light is a demon. It imagines 
 that what ruined humanity in Eden was not its re- 
 bellion, but knowledge ; and it takes good care that 
 the accursed tree shall not extend its boughs over the 
 population which it governs. That tree would, in- 
 deed, find a soil hardly propitious for its growth and 
 nourishment in these unwholesome lands of the Ro- 
 man Campagna, which are of themselves the proof 
 and the result of gross ignorance. The rustics of the 
 environs are half savage ; only on the confines of 
 your great forests, among the fragments of the Indian 
 tribes, would you find a race so devoid of culture, 
 despite something unspeakably sad and proud that 
 appears through their tatters. There is a certain 
 number of infant schools at Rome, but the children 
 are taken to them in their cradles ; they are rather 
 cribs and asylums than educational establishments, 
 and what is almost solely learned there is to spell out 
 the Catechism. 
 
 A large part of the urban population cannot yet 
 read. Good heed is taken not to shake off its igno- 
 rance. Here a book is a foe ; and they do not forget 
 what asylums printing-houses afforded the Reforma- 
 tion in the sixteenth century. All that concerns 
 education appertains to the clergy ; with the Papacy 
 this is an absolute principle, which it from time to 
 time recalls in a doleful voice to the memory of 
 emancipated nations. To her mind, the Church is 
 
124 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the intellectual mother and nurse of the rising gen- 
 erations ; she must harden them into her image and 
 fashion their minds in a sacred mold. The Bishop 
 of Orleans, Monseigneur Dupanloup, in a quite piti- 
 ful warfare which he conducted in France against 
 the freedom of lay education, said that at least the 
 women ought always to be reared on the knees of the 
 Church. Here all the youth receive from her what- 
 ever light they have. There is indeed a University 
 for the sciences and for law, but under control of the 
 clerical extinguisher. Secondary education is given in 
 convents to young ladies ; to young men in the great 
 ecclesiastical establishments in which Eome glories. 
 Apart from the Propaganda College, where young 
 men from all nations are admitted, and where nearly 
 all languages are spoken, and a few special Colleges, 
 like the Irish, the most considerable educational in- 
 stitution is the Roman College. It has a magnificent 
 edifice, perfectly adapted to its purpose, where it may 
 conduct its instructions from the rudiments of Latin 
 up to transcendental theology. It is wholly in the 
 hands of the Jesuits. They have ever been Yery 
 skillful, insinuating, and gracious masters, with a 
 certain easy and agreeable bloom of literature, yet 
 without ever developing a love for true beauty ; they 
 dote on trifles of form ; the art which they like, as 
 we may be convinced from their churches, is a pretty 
 art ; they every- where prefer the pretty to the beau- 
 tiful, because sovereign beauty is a summit where 
 we breathe free air. Any generous admiration gives 
 the soul an upward impulse which is not without its 
 dangers. But the Jesuits obtain their greatest tri- 
 umphs in historical studies, or rather over history, 
 for they have infinite art in getting clear of testimony 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 125 
 
 that would embarrass their cause. To-day they no 
 longer dare to push their audacious falsifications so 
 far as they did in the period of political and religious 
 reaction that followed the fall of Napoleon. It was 
 then that the Manual of the illustrious Father Lori- 
 quet appeared, which quite tranquilly suppressed the 
 French Revolution, and dated the reign of Louis 
 XVIII. from the death of Louis XVII. ; making the 
 Victor of Marengo, and Austerlitz a Lieutenant Gen- 
 eral in the service of the Most Christian King. The 
 courageous Jesuit thought it just and proper to give 
 Providence a lesson since it had failed in all its duties 
 by allowing the eldest Son of the Church to be kept 
 in exile by an adventurer. I almost prefer these cyn- 
 ical falsifications, so promptly desired for youth, to 
 the artful falsification of history now made by the rev- 
 erend Jesuits ; the lying is not less, but it is more skill- 
 ful, more difficult to perceive and refute ; it is ever a 
 perversion of history, which only glorifies the past 
 and curses the future. The procedures of the Jesuits 
 remind me of certain Gnostic sects of the second cen- 
 tury, who hardily took sides with the Prince of dark- 
 ness. Their adherents were called Ophites, or the 
 Serpent's men, because they took pleasure in glorify- 
 ing Satan ; their saints were precisely all the enemies 
 of the true light, from Cain to Judas Iscariot ; they 
 carried it through to the very end. Well ! the Jesu- 
 its, though they stop short of this, do something like 
 it. In history they are always and every-where for 
 darkness against light; they are for the oppressors 
 against their victims ; their great men are Philip II., 
 the demon of the South ; Louis XIV., he who revoked 
 the Edict of Nantes, and not he who resisted the 
 Pope; Sixtus Quintus; Saint Pius V. ; the Inquisi- 
 
126 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 tion; while all who have labored for the emancipa- 
 tion of mankind are criminals. The theology of the 
 Roman College is famous ; it is taught by the most 
 distinguished masters ; at their feet the purest and 
 most absolute Romish orthodoxy is learned. I con- 
 versed one day with one of my countrymen, an in- 
 telligent young priest, trained in this school. He 
 unrolled to me in the easiest fashion frightful theories 
 of religious tyranny founded on the principle that it 
 is the right and the duty of the Infallible Church to 
 save souls despite themselves. He also told me 
 that the great target of the polemics of the Reverend 
 Fathers was not unbelief, but Liberal Catholicism. 
 Here is the dangerous adversary which must at any 
 cost be crushed. After hearing him for some time I 
 could not help saying, u I hear you, Abbe, with the 
 same feeling of painful astonishment which I should 
 feel before some fearful physical deformity. They sub- 
 ject your minds to a sort of dislocation which places 
 you and your like in the category of intellectual mon- 
 strosities." Indeed, I can compare the method of 
 the Roman College, in deforming the understanding, 
 only with the art by which certain gymnasts succeed 
 in unjointing themselves in order to become clowns 
 of the highest grade. Nor do I allow myself to be 
 caught by the air of gentleness and good-nature that 
 reigns in this superb establishment, nor the kiss which 
 every pupil leaves at the close of the lecture on the 
 hand of his master. I know too well what these fine 
 appearances conceal. As to moral education, it 
 should be remembered that informing and espionage 
 are its fundamental principles. 
 
 The Romans deeply feel the mischief done them 
 by the Society of Jesus. A cutting speech is attrib- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 127 
 
 uted to them on this topic. The Piazza di Gesu, 
 which is before the church and convent of the Rev- 
 erend Fathers, is famous at Rome for always being 
 very windy. The people have turned the matter 
 into an apologue. One day, say they, the wind met 
 the devil before the Gesu — wait for me here on the 
 square, said the devil to his companion ; I am going 
 into the church for a second, and will be out in a 
 moment. He went in, says the apologue, but he has 
 never been seen to come out. For this reason the 
 wind ccmtinues ever blowing in that accursed place. 
 The Romans are gentle, keen, and amiable. The 
 champions of the temporal power proclaim them 
 perfectly happy, and draw an argument from their 
 patience. They forget two things : first, that the 
 energetic party is in exile, and that there remain 
 here hardly more than those who let furnished apart- 
 ments and the shopkeepers. The second is, that 
 when slavery has become agreeable to him who 
 undergoes it the crime is truly consummated, for it 
 has reached the moral nature by destroying its power 
 of resistance. If you say that the Romans are happy 
 under such rule, you furnish your adversaries the 
 most terrible argument against you. That is the 
 proof that you have killed them by asphyxia. The 
 most redoubtable of chains are those whose weight is 
 no longer felt. But it is not true that the Roman 
 people is content, and the foreign occupation is the 
 proof. How should it be happy with no prospects 
 before it, when all outlets are closed against its most 
 legitimate ambition, and upon all the paths of public 
 life it encounters a forestalling clergy which monop- 
 olizes the chief offices. I beg a thousand pardons, I 
 had forgotten the most illustrious Roman Senator, 
 
128 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the heir of a great name for a very little thing, for in 
 vain does he lodge at the Capitol ; he is only Presi- 
 dent of the Roman municipality, which is merely 
 charged with a few vulgar highway cares. One 
 would say that in this august appellation, which re- 
 calls an entire glorious history, there is a final irony 
 addressed to the Roman people, the better to make 
 them feel their nothingness. Senate, tribuneship, 
 and comitia have all disappeared and come to melt 
 into the absolutism of a Pontiff, from whom every 
 thing comes, to whom every thing returns. This 
 absorption of power in sacerdotal hands often has 
 very droll consequences. Thus the theaters depend 
 directly on the Holy Father, who has them conducted 
 by a prelate; no buffoonery is played, not a ballet is 
 given without the express authorization of ecclesiasti- 
 cal authority. It is the Holy Father who by his sub- 
 ordinates keeps the Roman lottery — a very immoral 
 institution, a perpetual bait to evil lusts, an ever 
 open gulf for the savings of the people. Thanks to 
 this sadly won money, some of the pomps of worship 
 are maintained ; and the Papacy seems to say, with 
 Vespasian, that money never has a bad scent ; for the 
 lottery is never closed, even when all the coffee-houses 
 are shut in the solemn festivals, and when the so- 
 called Apostolical Benediction is given to the city 
 and the world — urbi et orbi. Finally, it is the repre- 
 sentative of Jesus Christ, who upon occasion confirms 
 death sentences, and sends a soul, perchance im- 
 penitent, into eternity. This last touch finishes the 
 picture. 
 
 An unhappy Roman, condemned to the highest 
 punishment for political offenses, saw a priest ap- 
 proaching him in the cell which he was about to 
 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 129 
 
 leave, bringing him the final consolations of religion. 
 He repelled him with indignation as the representa- 
 tive of a rule that he abhorred, and which was put- 
 ting him to death ; then he flung his face to the earth, 
 before a large crucifix to show that he was no im- 
 pious wretch, and that be could distinguish between 
 the Papacy and Christ. Liberal Catholics ! come to 
 Rome and open your eyes ! May you then show as 
 much intelligence as that wretched man, for unless 
 you make the distinction which he made before 
 dying your religion will die, and you will be respon- 
 sible for its death. 
 
 E. de Peessense. 
 9 
 
130 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Religious Worship in Rome : its Magnificence Contrasted witli the 
 Primitive Type — Culmination of Roman Art at the Reformation — 
 Its Previous Condition — Gothic Architecture and the Roman 
 Churches — The Cathedral at Cologne and Saint Peter's — Transfor- 
 mation of Pagan Temples into Christian Churches — The same con- 
 trast in Painting — Fra Bartolomeo — The Last Judgment of Michael 
 Angelo and that of Fra Angelico — Raphael, Julius Romanus, and 
 the Decline — Similar Phases in Church Music — Ancient and Modern 
 Church Song — Church Music and the Reformation — Testimony of 
 M. de Laprode — Defects of Protestant Worship — That of the Post- 
 Apostolic Period — Ceremonies of Holy Week and Easter — Taking 
 the Yail — Grotesque Appeals to the Populace — Mercenary Spirit of 
 Catholic Worship — Its False Supernaturalisrn — Its Absolute Idola- 
 try — A Touching Ceremony. 
 
 Rome, Nov. 22, 1869. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Before coming to the direct prepara- 
 tions for the Council I wish to inquire what are the 
 characteristics of worship at Rome. It is here that 
 we learn to grasp the dominant trait of Catholic 
 piety in its peculiarities, but without forgetting the 
 multitude of souls who attain their God in the im- 
 pulse of adoration, and in order to worship Jesus Christ, 
 raise the heavy and splendid hangings which separate 
 them from him. To judge any religion well we 
 should not take it in those who, by dint of intellect- 
 ual elevation, transform and idealize it. There are 
 many Catholics, alike distinguished and sincere, who 
 object when gross errors in their worship and doc- 
 trine are pointed out. They always reply, " You 
 understand nothing of the matter. You take the 
 exceptions for the principle, and what offends you 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 131 
 
 has a very plausible and Christian interpretation. 
 They transport their Church with themselves to Ta- 
 bor, where they gladly rear their own tabernacles, and 
 see, under a sort of celestial atmosphere, all that 
 seemed most contrary to the Gospel. Thus they de- 
 ceive themselves in perfect good faith, and prolong 
 illusions dangerous to all. We must descend from 
 that mountain which soars into the pure ether of a 
 transcendental mysticism and regain the plain ; there 
 we find the popular, practical religion, that which 
 acts on the masses; there we see it in its regular 
 play. I freely compare actual Catholicism with one 
 of those old 'manuscripts, so well deciphered by Car- 
 dinal Mai, which are called palimpsests. They con- 
 tain two layers of texts, one pagan, which is prim- 
 itive, then a Christian text, which has been traced by 
 the hand of some monk, so as to cover the previous 
 characters. Put a sponge across it, and you recover 
 the paganism. Well, now, it is this touch of the 
 sponge that I would send across the evangelical text 
 laid over the primitive text by noble minds who 
 create a Catholicism in their own image, and for 
 their exclusive use ; it is truly idolatry that I shall 
 find. 
 
 Now since the spiritual and Christian upper text 
 does not exist at Eome, it is very easy to discover the 
 true state of things. What strikes us at the outset is 
 the pompous and theatrical character of the worship. 
 Its magnificence expels depth and inwardness. This 
 feature also appears in the architecture, paintings, mu- 
 sic, at least in all that belongs to positively Roman 
 and Catholic influences. Pass over the most ancient 
 period of Christianity which preceded the great de- 
 velopment of the temporal power. I have already 
 
132 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 described the ancient basilica, and shown that it re- 
 mained faithful to the great notion of a spiritual 
 Church distinguished from the general life of the 
 world, and brought that distinction to mind as well 
 in the arrangement of its edifices as in its institutions. 
 All the basilicas of this type, which are numerous at 
 Eome, present the same character. The paintings of 
 the pulpits are perfectly simple without excluding 
 pathos. It is ever the Good Shepherd, surrounded 
 by his sheep, for whom he gives his life; the mystic 
 vine, whence the Christian soul must draw its vigor; 
 or, indeed, the Master surrounded by the martyrs who 
 have given their name to the Church, as Saint Comics 
 and Damien, or Saint Pudentiana, near great Saint 
 Mary's, whose frescoes go back positively to the 
 close of the fourth century, for Sig. Rossi found the 
 exact date inscribed on the holy volume in the hands 
 of the Christ. Doubtless we are no longer in the 
 times of primitive simplicity and freedom ; but the 
 Christian character is nevertheless strongly impressed 
 on these antique edifices. As to the sacred music, it 
 must have had a moving grandeur, to judge by what 
 Saint Augustine says of the impression it produced 
 on him at the decisive epoch of his conversion. He 
 says in his Confessions, "With what rapture did I 
 hear, O God, the holy songs of thy Church ! They 
 brought tears to my eyes, and I was glad to weep." 
 Et currebant lac?*ymce, et bene mihi cum eis. Re- 
 member that at this time he was passing through the 
 doleful crisis which made him a new man ; that he 
 was tired to death of the false pomp of worldly life. 
 Hence it is not the artist, but the Christian who 
 speaks. But then, despite the growing and continu- 
 ous progress of the hierarchical idea, we are yet far 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 133 
 
 from the time when it will fashion a world to its own 
 image. 
 
 To ray mind, the truly Roman Catholic art dates 
 from the Renaissance and the Reformation ; it then 
 readied its culminating point, and revealed itself in 
 full sincerity. Until the Reformation the Church 
 contained in its bosom all the elements which subse- 
 quently separated and even fell into open war. All 
 these tendencies existed within her in a sort of em- 
 bryonic state, and all drawn up under the Papal 
 crook, but preserving their special direction, and not 
 coming into clear rupture. Who could deny that 
 long before the Reformation German Catholicism 
 was distinguished from Southern Catholicism ? The 
 mystic fervors that the convents of the North shelter 
 already reveal the need of direct and immediate com- 
 munication with Deity. Even in Italian Catholicism 
 there are many divergences which sometimes burst 
 out, as in the grand figure of Savonarola ; but I prefer 
 to compare these explosions of a freer Christian feel- 
 ing to the sudden jet of a current of water which has 
 long flowed under ground. It exists before darting 
 up to the free air in a sparkling and echoing sheaf. 
 Well, the Catholic art of the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries profited by this yet undiminished wealth of 
 the Church, when it still possessed all its treasures in 
 their fruitful variety. I exaggerate nothing. I do 
 not pretend that the Catholicism of that age was a 
 species of anticipated Protestantism ; nay, it was 
 truly the Church of unity and hierarchy, the new 
 theocracy ; but it was, nevertheless, a Catholicism 
 entirely different from that which was established 
 after the great separation effected by the Reform, a 
 Catholicism not yet bent to the Romish type, full of 
 
134 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 vigor and originality despite its errors, mystical and 
 learned, austere and puissant. To that Catholicism 
 we owe Gothic art, which has never been able to 
 take root in Rome, and which failed from the very 
 moment that she exercised a decidedly predom- 
 inant influence in all the domains of that Church. 
 What is Gothic art but precisely the grandest mani- 
 festation of that Germanic Catholicism whence the 
 Reform was to proceed ? Men may discuss its origin 
 as much as they like ; they may credit the Romans 
 for the arch, the Arabs for the broken lines of the 
 ogive ; it nevertheless remains true that Gothic art 
 was creative, and that it set its seal upon all the ele- 
 ments that came to it from elsewhere ; it created as 
 human genius does create, which is no God to draw 
 its works out of nothingness ; but it is enough for it 
 to have impressed on them a truly new mean- 
 ing, an idea and a feeling that are its own, that men 
 should be unable to dispute its originality. Now 
 what is the meaning, the idea of the Gothic ? Enter 
 the Cathedral of Cologne, and you will grasp it in a 
 moment. In that vast edifice, and in its fellows, 
 Gothic art desired to express the world and society 
 as it conceived them. It is indeed a theocracy, but it 
 brings it back to a truly Christian type ; it impresses 
 on it the sign of redemption, then especially it flings 
 it into the region of the infinite and the eternal with 
 the bold spire which it directs to heaven. Stand in 
 the Choir of the Cathedral, there you see all the lines 
 come thronging together in a species of irresistible 
 impulse. The ogive reproduces the same character- 
 istic on a smaller scale. By the arrangement of its 
 lines it also cries Excelsior! sursum corda! — Up, ever 
 higher ! It should be observed that nothing like this 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 135 
 
 had been seen before in the history of art. The pa- 
 gan temple, especially under the enchanting form it 
 took on in Greece, is an edifice of restricted propor- 
 tions. It is solely intended as a habitation for the 
 Deity. It sufficed that the cella was well adorned, 
 that a statue of perfect beauty was deposited there, 
 and that space was reserved for the altar of sacrifice. 
 In its beautiful, sunny marbles it had preserved the 
 smile of its religion. The Roman basilica, which is 
 the most remarkable architectural creation of the 
 kingly nation, is fully conformed to its genius ; it 
 only admits the horizontal line; it is all length and 
 breadth. Nothing carries the glance beyond this 
 world, which is the sole empire that Rome has ever 
 coveted. The Gothic cathedral, on the contrary, is like 
 a great memento of the eternal life which Christ has 
 won and given to us. Thus, as a poet has said, it is 
 as though, having knelt down in its robe of stone, it 
 prayed. I prefer, to be sure, the upper chamber at 
 Jerusalem with its tongues of fire ; but it cannot be 
 denied that the Catholicism of the Middle Ages, 
 through all its obscurity, had its tongues of fire to 
 celebrate the God of the Gospel. I appeal to those 
 sublime chants of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 
 which, with the hymns of Luther, are the finest, most 
 pathetic things produced by Christian song. 
 
 Now compare the religious architecture of Rome 
 with these monuments of the North ! The contrast 
 is absolute. Is it not especially remarkable that it 
 should have completely shunned the Gothic, even in 
 its great epoch ? A single church, that of Santa Maria 
 delta Minerva, shows traces of it. Still they have has- 
 tened to spoil that by covering it with gilding, and over- 
 loading it with ornaments in bad taste. Except this, 
 
136 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 all the Roman churches are patterned on the ancient 
 basilica ; I know that they are arranged in the form 
 of a Greek or Roman cross, but what decidedly pre- 
 vails is the idea of external grandeur; it is exten- 
 sion, and not elevation, which characterizes them. 
 There we hear the incessant echo of the old Roman 
 device, Thine the empire ! Think above all, of rule, 
 dominion ! 
 
 Most of these churches are very mediocre, except 
 in the interior, where works of art are piled np, but 
 where decoration is lavished till the eye wearies of it. 
 The architects have spent their pride in the arrange- 
 ment of fagades, but have never abandoned their 
 routine in the general arrangement. 
 
 If one would have a complete idea of Roman re- 
 ligious architecture, he should consider Saint Peter's. 
 I know of no more complete contrast than that which 
 exists between the splendid basilica of the Yatican 
 and the Cathedral of Cologne. I do not restrain my 
 admiration of the former. I admit that you rarely 
 obtain a grander view than that of the mass of monu- 
 ments of which it is the center. The semi-circular 
 porticoes which surround the square, in the midst of 
 which an obelisk rises, form the finest introduction 
 to the basilica itself. The latter is so harmoniously 
 arranged that its grandeur is not at all overwhelming, 
 because no part is salient orinharmonious. The cupola, 
 which rises to a dizzy height, seems a natural develop- 
 ment of the building. The five naves of the interior 
 are connected with the apsis, like the branches of a 
 gigantic trunk ; and yet all this grandeur does not 
 soar. It extends and unfolds in space, but does not 
 truly tower. The Sainte Chapelle of Paris, an ideal 
 creation of the reign of Saint Louis, would disappear 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 137 
 
 in one of the chapels of Saint Peter's, and yet it lifts 
 you far higher ; it has an impulse, a something in- 
 expressibly winged, in its Gothic lines, which bears 
 the soul aloft. Elevation is not a matter of di- 
 mensions, but of direction and inspiration. Saint 
 Peter's, with all its magnificence, does but produce 
 the effect of that high mountain whence is seen, not 
 heaven, but all the kingdoms of the world. Has not 
 the bargain of earthly domination been proposed to 
 the Roman hierarchy, and accepted by them in ex- 
 change for spiritual dominion ? In this respect has 
 it not imitated the degenerate Judaism of the syna- 
 gogue, and clung to that mastery more than to the 
 Divine Master, who said, "My kingdom is not of 
 this world ? " Saint Peter's, and the other great 
 basilicas of Rome, seem to me to express this devia- 
 tion from primitive Christianity by the most striking 
 symbol. Every thing recalls Christ the Ruler, and 
 nothing leads us back to the Crucified, his oppro- 
 brium and his inward glories. Saint Peter's is the 
 capitol of the Papacy. At least, it reveals the high 
 art and bears the impress of the haughty genius of 
 Michael Angelo. But what shall we say of the archi- 
 tecture of the Jesuit churches? This introduces us 
 to the second period of the Roman domination ; the 
 Reform has shaken its torch over the world ; the 
 empire of Europe is disputed with the Papacy. The 
 times of its haughty royalty are gone ; absolutism 
 must grow supple, but bend like steel without ever 
 breaking. This medley of ruse and unconquerable 
 force is the whole of Jesuitism, that great and skillful 
 prop of Pontifical authority in these difficult days 
 when an adroit and artful policy must be united with 
 obstinacy. But in this game men lose their grandeur, 
 
138 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 and the architecture of the Jesuits is all delicate and 
 complicated. Seeing the overwrought ornamenta- 
 tion of their churches, one thinks of the processes 
 used in glossing up a pretentious old woman. They 
 have laid down velvet carpets on the road to paradise, 
 and striven to enlarge its entrance. Their history, and 
 also their genius, may be read on the stones of their 
 edifices. This is likewise a decisive test for Roman 
 architecture. It has always been able to appropriate 
 without effort the ancient temples or pagan edifices, 
 like the temple of Faustina, and that of Venus and 
 Bona, and the baths of Doinitian, transformed by 
 Michael Angelo into the fine Church of Saint Mary 
 of the Angels. Never could any Gothic edifice have 
 had such an origin. 
 
 If I pass from architecture to painting I might 
 make similar remarks. It is indisputable that the 
 great mystical and religious school of painting also 
 preceded the time when Roman Catholicism estab- 
 lished itself in opposition to the Reform, and that its 
 highest inspirations belong to the same movement 
 which produced Gothic art and reared the cathedrals. 
 I have already spoken of the profound impression 
 produced on me by that ingenuous and mystical style 
 of painting which preceded the Renaissance, and still 
 profited by its first jet without denying what forms 
 its religious grandeur. It was in Flanders and Ger- 
 many that it was born and perfected its methods. 
 The purest Christian ideal sparkled in the profound 
 glance of the Virgins of Van Eyk, Albert Durer, 
 and Holbein. Italy followed the movement, and 
 tempered its austerity with that inimitable grace whose 
 secret is hers. It was, indeed, between the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries that this great Christian art 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 139 
 
 attained its height. What exquisite tenderness, what 
 celestial candor, what burning ecstacies in those 
 pictures and frescoes of the Fra Angelicos and the 
 Francias ! There is a chapel at the Vatican, painted 
 by the former of these masters, which people often 
 neglect to visit because it is not in the usual pro- 
 gramme. It is the chapel of Saint Laurence and 
 Saint Stephen. Here is great Christian painting ; a 
 little too sacerdotal, but the soul itself breaks out in 
 those living colors, and repeats to us its love for 
 Christ, its immortal hope, and its sympathy for all suf- 
 fering. I also remember the famous fresco of the Con- 
 vent of Saint Mark at Florence, which groups the 
 principal saints and doctors around the cross in one 
 impulse of devotion. How well I there recognized 
 the painter who shed abundant tears when he took 
 his brush to portray the features of Christ or of the 
 Madonna ! 
 
 As I think, the last and the greatest of these truly 
 Christian masters was Fra Bartolomeo, the Dominican 
 disciple of Savonarola. Roman Catholicism cannot 
 claim the faithful friend of the Florentine Reformer 
 who was burned as a heretic. His picture of the burial 
 of Christ by Mary, Saint John, and Mary Magdalene, 
 which is in the Pitti Museum at Florence, is an act 
 of adoration ; here the brush has lost nothing ; it has 
 all its suavity, all its splendor, all its firmness ; but it 
 is impossible long to contemplate that work without 
 feeling that blended tenderness and profound respect 
 for Christ which is expressed with a sort of impetu- 
 osity in the prostration of Mary Magdalene, with 
 angelic sweetness in the glance of Saint John, and an 
 immeasurable sadness in that of the Madonna. Well, 
 this profoundly Christian art is not the child of 
 
140 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Rome. Doubtless its works are ■ numerous there, 
 because the Papacy has contrived to form the most 
 magnificent of museums in the Eternal City; but 
 the inspiration of these mystical paintings came from 
 elsewhere. Raphael, who understood and expressed 
 every thing, may be adduced against us, but his 
 genius unfolded under the soft sky of Umbria. I 
 know well that it was at Eome that he painted the 
 Dispute on the Holy Sacrament ; but among the seek- 
 ing and doubting theologians have I not seen the 
 noble countenance of Savonarola? Can we deny 
 that the breath of the Reform has passed that way ? 
 At any rate, it was at Rome that he painted the 
 Fornarina, the Galatea and Psyche, exquisite but not 
 at all Christian works. As to Michael Angelo, none 
 is ignorant how far the leaven of the Reform had 
 fermented in him, as shown by his letters to Yittoria 
 Colonna. When he gave himself up without reserve 
 to the inspiration of the place, he painted at the 
 Sistine Chapel his fresco of the Last Judgment. 
 That, I grant, is quite Roman. I admire its power 
 and fire, especially when I contemplate it under the 
 purple light of evening. But I cannot think it a 
 religious painting. That Christ who resembles an 
 antique Hercules, and who curses the reprobate with 
 such a terrible gesture, is truly the Christ of the 
 Vatican, of the Inquisitors, whose arm is only lifted 
 to crush. All the pagan details that surround the 
 pincipal figure remind us of the court of Julius II. 
 and Leo X. Compare this formidable fresco with 
 the picture of Era Angelico on the same subject, that is 
 to be seen at the Corsini Palace. Here the drama is 
 purely moral ; the inconsolable sorrow which appears 
 in the features of the impenitent is not the simple re- 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 141 
 
 flection of the flasli of avenging lightnings ; it springs 
 up from within. This is the Gospel. Touching the 
 soil of Rome, Christian painting speedily loses its truly 
 religious character, though it sheds a dazzling splen- 
 dor with Raphael, whose genius was too great not to 
 escape local influences more than any other artist, 
 though he also underwent them toward the close of 
 his short and brilliant career. Do not forget that 
 one of his pupils was Julius Romanus, whose brush, 
 when no longer restrained and guided by his master's 
 sketches, promptly became voluptuous and sensual. 
 With the Pontificate of Gregory XIII. (1572) the 
 decline begins ; mannerists encumber churches, 
 convents, and palaces with their conventional art. 
 The Cavalier d'Arpino, (1569,) whose works swarm at 
 Rome, is the representative of that school, without 
 grandeur or lofty inspiration. The religious character 
 is more and more effaced. Bernino in. architecture, 
 and d'Arpino in painting, are truly Roman artists, 
 and such as Catholicism under the yoke of Jesuitism 
 must love. 
 
 Church music passes through the same phases as 
 painting and architecture. The plain chant is the 
 echo of that of the Middle Ages ; it is grave and sad. 
 Then you have a few truly great masters, who, like 
 Allegri, write in a grand and almost monumental 
 style. The Miserere of this composer, which we hear 
 on Holy Thursday and Friday at the Sistine Chapel, 
 without organ accompaniment, produces an imposing 
 effect. But if the Pope's Chapel on its great days be 
 excepted, the music heard here is deplorable in com- 
 position. In churches of the second class it is bad at 
 every point ; they have not confined themselves to 
 pillaging celebrated operas which are sung with all 
 
142 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the vivacity of theatrical choirs. At Saint John de 
 Lateran and Saint Peter's the execution is careful. I 
 have already spoken of the chapel of the former 
 basilica. As to the second, which is famous at Rome, 
 and rivals the Sistine, I heard it on a great and 
 solemn occasion, the 18th of November, the anniver- 
 sary of the dedication of Saint Peter's. Two choirs 
 responded to each other with organ accompaniments. 
 The execution was perfect ; the magnificent bass 
 voices, the sopranos, ever strange and questionable; 
 though it is claimed that they are no longer permitted 
 to purchase their voices on the terms at which they 
 were procured in the last century. But hearing 
 those roulades and cavatinas which formed a true 
 artificial fire of dazzling notes, who would ever have 
 imagined that they were singing the Penitential 
 Psalms, and that the sighings and sacred impulses of 
 our prophets gave occasion to this effeminate vocal- 
 ization? Theatrical music, when it is truly fine and 
 passionate, is far superior in seriousness to these bastard 
 compositions, a v estry pot-pourri style of airs brought 
 together from all the musical works which have had 
 any popularity. No doubt that where Catholi- 
 cism has a different inspiration ; it has treasures of 
 Christian music. Mozart's Requiem, the masses of 
 Beethoven, Weber, and Rossini, reveal a very differ- 
 ent inspiration, but this does not please at Rome. 
 They prefer soft harmonies, which lull the soul and 
 deliver it, fast asleep, to ecclesiastical authority. It 
 is not here, but in Germany, that true religious music 
 is to be heard. Listen to the Passion of Sebastian 
 Bach and his sublime hymns, and you will no longer 
 allow yourself to say that the Reformation ignored 
 high art. Here it is by turns majestic and profound. 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 143 
 
 rising far above those profane masses which are sung 
 to strains too light to satisfy human passion. For 
 myself, I would give all the music of Rome for the 
 choral of Luther, chanted in a German church by 
 thousands of manly and vibrant voices. To show, 
 moreover, that my judgment is not dictated by par- 
 tiality, allow me to support it by the testimony of an 
 illustrious Catholic, Yictor de Laprade, who has just 
 published the following lines in the Correspondant : 
 " It seems to me that the license now allowed in 
 church music exceeds all that the religious sentiment 
 can tolerate. When I hear military flourishes howl- 
 ing, grating, and barking beside the altar, I do not 
 feel sure that I am in this world. Finally, w T hen I 
 see bands of actors, to give them their true name, 
 introduced into the choir, mingling with the priests 
 during the sacrifice, in vain do I hear musical mas- 
 terpieces ; it is impossible for me to feel more pious 
 or devotional than at the opera. A Catholic from 
 conviction, I content myself with sighing before such 
 symptoms, and remembering that there are fleeting 
 abuses in the Church; but were I a freethinker, I 
 should say to myself, There is the music of a vanishing 
 religion. For myself, it seems to me that in the Cath- 
 olic ceremonies of our days, music has broken the 
 discipline which the Church had wisely imposed. I 
 can allow none of the bad reasons, useless to enumer- 
 ate, and not very religious, which have led ecclesias- 
 tical zeal into this evil path. It is not by a profusion 
 of hymns and candles that souls are drawn to the 
 truth and retained in the faith." 
 
 Having spoken of the accessories of worship, let us 
 now speak of worship itself — the truly Romish wor- 
 ship. I do not assume a sectarian stand-point, as 
 
144 Home, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 though the ideal of worship were attained in the bosom 
 of Protestantism. I think that, with few exceptions, 
 that worship has followed its inclination too far; and 
 that, from the legitimate desire of never lacking spir- 
 ituality, it has fallen into barrenness, especially in our 
 Calvinistic Churches. That severe devotion is the no- 
 blest of all when fed by fervent piety — it transports 
 the mind to a naked and austere summit — and, if the 
 soul then spreads her wings to rise toward invisible re- 
 alities, it certainly comes nearer God than in any other 
 religious form. Yet adoration does not here occupy 
 sufficient space ; too much is granted to pious speech : 
 the unutterable sighings of a heart burning with holy 
 love are too far stifled bv logical formulas. I think 
 that almost perfect worship once existed in the Church, 
 after the apostolic epoch which in all points is in- 
 comparable: this was at Alexandria in the time of 
 Clement and Origen. The liturgic fragments which 
 have been preserved are admirable ; their spirituality is 
 complete, but adoration pours out its vase of perfumes 
 at the feet of Jesus like Mary the sister of Lazarus. 
 The center of the worship is not the altar, which does 
 not exist, (aras non hctbemus, says Minutius Felix,) 
 but the eucharistic table, which reminds the Church of 
 the greatest of the gifts of God, though without forget- 
 ting the others. I hope to set this characteristic of 
 the worship of the second century in clear light in 
 the last volume of my history of the Church ; I will 
 not now dwell further upon it. I am persuaded that 
 we have much to learn from that great period, and 
 that, by satisfying legitimate wants which appear on 
 every hand, and of which Puseyism is a false and ex- 
 aggerated expression, we shall avoid many dangers, 
 and shall labor efficiently for the development of 
 
Eome, Italy, a^d the Council, 145 
 
 tlie Churcli according to the necessities of the times. 
 Catholicism has preserved a few traces, a few recol- 
 lections of the primitive adoration, and we shall do 
 well in seeking to glean them up from those troubled 
 waters and clear them of their alloy. But we must 
 admit that the alloy is so gross, especially at Eome, 
 that the pearl is completely buried. Let us try to 
 characterize in a few touches that abased worship 
 which is a perpetual contradiction of the Evangelical 
 type. 
 
 The first characteristic of it that strikes me is what 
 I shall call its absolute ritualism. I do not blame 
 rites in themselves; I know that they are indispen- 
 sable, that public adoration should have certain forms 
 regulated beforehand, so that every thing may pro- 
 ceed with order and propriety, and that piety may 
 not be troubled with constant surprises. But Chris- 
 tian rites should be simple, and should not stifle spon- 
 taneity ; they should be so conceived as to appeal to 
 the living sentiments of the soul, to awaken them, 
 and speak to the heart and the intellect. At Eome 
 rites are so conceived as to take the place of every 
 thing; the prescribed form is not the stimulant or 
 the expression of piety, it is a species of ready 
 mounted machine which performs its functions like 
 the prayer-mills of the Orientals, but not without 
 crushing the moral life in their complicated wheels. 
 The individual completely disappears before the 
 Church; it is she that prays by his lips, that kneels 
 with him at the prescribed moment, who rises up 
 at command; at every moment is heard in the ba- 
 silica of Saint Peter's, as in a ship, the whistle of the 
 machinist. The sacred language is dead ; it is the 
 
 voice of the past, most commonly unintelligible to 
 
 10 
 
146 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 him who makes himself its passive and momentary 
 echo. The Gospel or Epistle is not read, but chanted 
 in a nasal tone, which does not allow a thought to 
 reach the mind. The sacred book is cut and slashed 
 up day by day without the believer's being ever able 
 to bring his thirsty lip to the leaping fountain. The 
 spirit is thus always and every-where sacrificed to 
 the letter ; rites understood and practiced as they are 
 at Rome are truly the petrifaction of worship. 
 
 Its second characteristic is, that it is an exhibition 
 of the Christian mysteries, or, rather, a daily effort to 
 renew them. In this point it approximates the an- 
 cient mysteries of paganism. In those mysteries the 
 pagans in reality adored nature and her hidden 
 forces ; their effort was to represent to themselves in 
 a complete manner her constant revolution, and espe- 
 cially that great law which draws life from death, and 
 in which they sought to find a promise or a hope for 
 themselves. That was all their consolation. Thus, 
 in the most celebrated of those mysteries, the Eleu- 
 sinian, they represented in the carrying off of Pro- 
 serpine to hell, and her return to the light, that mar- 
 velous law of nature which carries a grain of wheat 
 down into the earth in order to bring forth from it a 
 brilliant sheaf ; it was tracing out to the eyes, and, as 
 it were, renewing, the permanent history of the natural 
 divinity which they adored. The God of the Gospel 
 belongs to a very different domain. He is the God 
 of the spirit and of liberty. He consummated the 
 salvation of the world by a free sacrifice offered once 
 for all, which is not repeated like the periodical 
 crises of nature. It was necessary for the pagan to 
 reproduce them before his eyes in all their successive 
 evolutions, for it was in these very evolutions, or in 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 147 
 
 the profound acquaintance which he might obtain 
 with them, that he placed all his hope of salvation, 
 at least in the mysteries. It is enough for the Chris- 
 tian to grasp with his heart and mind the divine act 
 to which he owes the redemption of his soul ; his wor- 
 ship should be its memorial at the same time that it 
 should express his profound gratitude. The Eucha- 
 rist combines these characteristics. It does not play 
 the drama of the passion ; it brings it to mind and 
 confirms it ; it is likewise the spiritual sacrifice which 
 unites the disciple with his Master. The Romish 
 worship has very different pretensions. It aims on 
 the one hand, like the pagan mysteries, to represent 
 in very truth the history of its God ; on the other 
 hand it plays the passion; not believing that the 
 sacrifice of the cross was sufficient to cover all sin, it 
 pretends to continue it by the hand of its priests. 
 The mass is very decidedly an attempt to represent 
 the immolation of Calvarv. It is at Rome that this 
 character of Catholic worship appears complete and 
 unvailed, especially in the ceremonies of Holy Week. 
 Day by day they unfold the scenes of the pas- 
 sion before the eyes of the faithful. Thus on Holy 
 Wednesday, while the Miserere is chanted, twelve 
 lighted candles represent the twelve Apostles ; these 
 are extinguished one after another, to show their base 
 desertion of the Master.. On Holy Thursday the 
 pretended Vicar of Christ prostrates himself before 
 tw 7 elve poor priests and washes their feet; then he 
 makes them sit down at a table prepared for them 
 and serves them. Holy Wednesday is the day of the 
 burial of the host ; it is deposited in Saint Paul's 
 Chapel as in a sepulcher; all the candles are extin- 
 guished, not a bell resounds. It is a complete con- 
 
148 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 trast with Palm Sunday, when the Pope, still repre- 
 senting Christ, makes his triumphal entry into the 
 basilica of Saint Peter's while the sacred branches 
 shade him and bend before him. The morning of the 
 third day they go in great pomp to seek the host ; 
 it is brought out of the tabernacle which served as its 
 sepulcher, and presented to the people as the Divine 
 Arisen, and the Pope celebrates with the confession 
 of Saint Peter the grand mass of Easter Day. When 
 lie elevates the holy elements before the assembly 
 they all bow down. A very beautiful hymn rises 
 from the depths of the Confession, or from the pre- 
 tended tomb of the Apostles. The people think 
 themselves before their newly-risen God ; then the 
 Holy Father ascends a balcony of the basilica and 
 gives the benediction to the city and the world, (urH 
 et orhi.) Is not Pome, then, truly the Eleusis of Ca- 
 tholicism — the place of the great mysteries where the 
 history of God is solemnly played? At Jerusalem, 
 where the pomp is naturally much less imposing, 
 they have in one point improved the spectacle. 
 
 In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher I saw a doll, 
 the image of Christ nailed to a wooden cross. It 
 was detached with all reverence from the gibbet, and 
 they went to bury it till Easter morn. It is well 
 known that at Christmas mangers are arranged in 
 most of the churches, and that the mystery of the 
 nativity is represented as in spring they represent 
 the mystery of the crucifixion. You can very well 
 understand after this that the theater sprang from 
 the Church in the Middle Ages ; we may say that at 
 Rome it has decidedly remained in it. Nothing is 
 more striking in this regard than the taking of the 
 vail. I witnessed this ceremony at Naples when it 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 149 
 
 was under the rule of the Bourbons, a worthy chapel 
 of ease to Rome. A number of young girls, among 
 them one particularly fair and sad, were conducted 
 by their parents to the altar to pronounce the vows 
 which were forever to separate them from the world. 
 The drama was divided into two acts. In the first 
 gay and brilliant music recalled those worldly pleas- 
 ures which the young girls were about to renounce. 
 Then a priest pronounced a truly frantic discourse as 
 he pointed them in the Host to the Spouse to whom 
 they should give themselves. He spoke with a spe- 
 cious and passionate realism, which produced the 
 strangest and most painful effect. The final cere- 
 mony at length came on, to the sound of mournful 
 music, their locks falling under the shears. Then the 
 vows. 
 
 The Church likewise delights in giving extraor- 
 dinary exhibitions to awaken and pique curiosity. 
 The other day I saw near a little chapel a few 
 steps from Saint John de Lateran, grossly made, but 
 very expressive, figures in wax, which displayed a 
 frightful execution of Catholic missionaries in the 
 Orient. People thronged before the horrible specta- 
 cle, and offerings for the work fell thick into the 
 wooden bowls of the collectors. This fair-day meas- 
 ure is not disdained, and is very productive. Strangely 
 enough, in this southern land, where people feel an ex- 
 traordinary horror for all that hints at death, it has 
 been surrounded with the most dismal circumstances in 
 order the better to act on the imagination. Nothing 
 is more funereal than the long train of a confraternity, 
 with its cowls dropped down, as it accompanies a cof- 
 fin to the cemetery. The Capuchin friars here pre- 
 sent a permanent funeral display. They have be- 
 
150 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 thought themselves to arrange in the vaults of their 
 principal church a whole army of skeletons, recruited 
 from the dead of their order, who have the privilege 
 of obtaining an immortality of terror. What strikes 
 me further in the Romish worship is its mercenary 
 character. I speak not merely of the money it de- 
 mands to sustain its sumptuousness, and the Peter 
 pence exacted in all lands with so much urgency 
 and skill : I particularly mean to designate that sad 
 error consisting in purchasing heaven by our works 
 and merits. Here it displays itself without modesty 
 or check. As a counterpoise, or rather, as a comple- 
 ment, it has the indulgence market. Its treasury is 
 freely opened in the Pontifical City. Every Church 
 disputes for a share, and assures the benefit of them 
 to all who submit to given practices : these fallacious 
 promises are read on its front. Nowhere do men 
 more ingenuously imagine to expiate relished worldly 
 pleasures by the weariness of reciting litanies, and 
 wearing out their knees on the pavements of churches. 
 The division of the year into profane and festival 
 days rests on no other principle. The distinction 
 between Lent and Carnival is most marked at Rome. 
 There the latter shakes in full security the bells of 
 gross folly. It, too, is an ecclesiastical institution. 
 Balls, theaters, joyous and unrestrained feasts, can be 
 multiplied at pleasure. The antique bacchanal is 
 mistress of the streets of Rome during this period of 
 liberty or license on condition of stilling its laughter 
 at the fixed hour, changing its comic mask for a 
 mask of mourning, and covering its head with ashes. 
 The Church, like a kind mother, receives into her 
 courts the vinous turbulence of yesterday, diets it, 
 and makes it listen to masses on masses. The mis- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 151 
 
 chief is, that the sin was foreseen and accepted as 
 well as the penitence ; it is a calendar affair. 
 
 A fourth characteristic of Catholic worship, as pre- 
 sented to us here at Rome, is the marvelous or false 
 miracle every- where supplanting true miracles, and 
 -banishing them to the shade. Ridiculous legends 
 spring up like weeds in a badly cultivated field ; they 
 almost entirely conceal the great evangelical reali- 
 ties. The great Christian supernaturalism is thus 
 compromised by the fantastic supernatural, which 
 seems to be one with it. You know how popular 
 Madonnas that moved their eyes have been. Several 
 notable conversions have been attributed to them. 
 There is no sanctuary which has not its marvelous 
 history, beginning with Notre Dame de Lorette, 
 which was transported through the air from Pales- 
 tine to Italy. At Naples the frightful jugglery of 
 the miraculous liquefaction of the blood of Saint Jan- 
 uarius goes on every year without any interference 
 from the Pontifical authority, which accepts and pa- 
 tronizes it, even though the process by which the co- 
 agulated blood of the saint is made to flow is well 
 known. The Salette Springs, and those of the Grotto 
 de Lourdes, which are said to effect miraculous cures, 
 are patented at Rome, who, not content with her 
 own prodigies, every-where encourages this species 
 of gross magic, which recalls the most shameful times 
 of the decline of Rome, but which is very fruitful. 
 It is easy to comprehend the way in which belief in 
 false miracles springs up. We have only to take the 
 commemorative chapel reared near the Church of 
 Saint Agnes, in memory of the great peril w r hich the 
 Pope escaped some years since in that very spot, 
 where the lower floor of the edifice suddenly sank 
 
152 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 under him without his experiencing any mischief. 
 Surely nothing is more natural than to feel a lively 
 emotion of gratitude to God in such circumstances, 
 and publicly to express it ; but he was pleased to see 
 in the providential protection which saved his life a 
 miracle of the highest order, a special intervention 
 of the Madonna. He caused a large picture of the 
 whole scene to be painted in vivid colors. In the 
 foreground the Pope is seen, calm and smiling amid 
 the peril; while those present, and among them cer- 
 tain French generals, display the basest dismay. 
 The epaulettes of our braves are not spared by the 
 artist, w T ho did not fear to depict them trembling in 
 presence of the august serenity of the Holy Fa- 
 ther. Saint Agnes appears above him in the air 
 shielding him with a protective hand ; then in the 
 background of the picture the Madonna, surrounded 
 by angels, commands the whole scene. This com- 
 plaisant interpretation of a very simple fact by the 
 painter, or rather by those who ordered the picture, 
 passes for a fact in the eyes of most spectators. It 
 is understood that Saint Agnes and the Madonna 
 appeared to the Holy Father. This is Gospel truth, 
 and future ages will recount the great prodigy. 
 Thus we witness the formation of the legend. 
 
 Let us indicate finally the last characteristic of the 
 Roman worship, which is an unbridled idolatry. It 
 need not be pretended here that the images are not 
 adored, and that the homage paid them is meant 
 for God. They are as positively worshiped as fe- 
 tiches. This cannot be doubted when we have seen 
 with what ardor the foot of the pretended statue of 
 Saint Peter is kissed in the basilica of the Vatican, 
 which is quite worn by the lips of its thousands of 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 153 
 
 worshipers. The image of the Bambino, (babe,) ex- 
 hibited by the Capuchins in Christmas festivals, re- 
 ceives veritable worship. Madonnas, covered with 
 sumptuous ornaments, are elevated to the rank of 
 miraculous virgins, and treated as the most celebrated 
 statues of Yenus and Juno were in antiquity. As to 
 the relics of the saints, they shoot up in an abundance 
 which cannot but be very disquieting, since more 
 than one villain is the object of profound veneration 
 under the name of some martyr. There is no end to 
 the fables told about these pretendedly sacred re- 
 mains. If they do not show us, as in the Armenian 
 Convent at Jerusalem, the stones that " would have 
 cried out," or, as at Florence, the relics of the Holy 
 Trinity, which are a new mystery, and the most 
 astonishing of all, added to those of the faith, they 
 furnish you with a bit of all the saints known and 
 unknown ; the gold or diamond setting makes the 
 pretended bone pass. Nothing excites the devout 
 part of the multitude more than this type of piety. 
 But there is another more subtile idolatry, which is 
 daily growing, and which consists in exalting the 
 creature at the expense of the Creator and the Re- 
 deemer. I have already dwelt on that frightful 
 apotheosis of the Madonna, which must transform the 
 Trinity into a quaternity. Since the proclamation of 
 the Immaculate Conception it has been assuming an 
 unheard-of development, unlike any thing known in 
 the past. Catholicism has but two ever-present and 
 adored divinities — Mary in heaven, and the Pope on 
 earth. Thus in every solemn ceremony incense is 
 burned before the Pope, his Cardinals, and Canons — 
 before whoever personifies the hierarchy. In pres- 
 ence of the Pope the Romish worship cries out by 
 
154 Home, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 all its organs, " The voice of a god, and not of a 
 
 man." 
 
 Thus there is growing up from day to day a gross 
 materialism in worship ever in quest of new idols. 
 Saint Joseph is now in great favor ; his medals heal 
 body and soul. To-morrow it will be some other fa- 
 vorite of this gross piety — gross even in its liveliest 
 ardors — which, with its false miracles, its effeminate 
 ditties, and its unlimited credulity, is a continual 
 defiance hurled at the human mind at a moment 
 when the true supernatural has enough to do in de- 
 fending itself against the assaults of unbelief. We 
 should rather shed bitter tears over such deplorable 
 things than rejoice at them with sectarian satisfac- 
 tion. Let us not forget' that it is athwart this abased 
 form of Christianity that a large part of Europe sees 
 not merely the Christian ideal, but the divine ideal ; 
 and are we astonished after this that she plunges 
 headlong into Atheism % 
 
 Before closing this letter suffer me to speak of a 
 fine and touching ceremony which I have just wit- 
 nessed. To-day, November 22, was the Feast of 
 Saint Cecilia. In her honor they had likewise illu- 
 minated the famous catacombs of Saint Callistus, of 
 which I will send full details in one of my approach- 
 ing letters, for it is one of the most remarkable dis- 
 coveries of Christian archeology. Those somber pas- 
 sages, bordered with the tombs of the early Chris- 
 tians, were enlightened with a trembling light, as in 
 ancient days when they assembled on the anniversary 
 of their martyrs to fortify themselves by recalling 
 their holy memory. A considerable multitude inun- 
 dated the crypt, where a pious commemorative serv- 
 ice was celebrated. It was a scene from past ages 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 155 
 
 standing out against the sad and obscure background 
 of present circumstances. It sufficed also to ascend 
 from that subterranean place to the open air to sadly 
 perceive what invincible paganism is displayed on 
 this old Latin soil, which has, however, drank up the 
 blood of so many glorious martyrs of the religion of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 E. de Pressense. 
 
156 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Preparations for the Council — Arrangements of the Council Hall — 
 — Sessions Secret — Name of the Council — Its Memorial Column — The 
 Entertainment of the Members — Ceremonial of the Assembly — Pre- 
 cedence of the Members — Labors of the Preparatory Committees — 
 Publication of the Proceedings — The Proceedings to be in Latin — 
 Confusion in its Pronunciation — Other Differences — French Bishops 
 mainly Ultramontanists — Chorus of Priests — The French Liberals: 
 Bishop Dupanloup, Prince de Broglie, Abbe Noirlieu, and Professor 
 Tassy — The American Prelates — Devotion of the Irish Bishops to 
 Rome — Subserviency of the English Bishops — The Belgians — The 
 Austrian Martyrs — The German Liberals — The Demonstration at 
 Fulda — The Letters of Janus — Reforms demanded — Dollinger on 
 Papal Infallibility — Probable Conclusion on this Question. 
 
 Rome, November, 1869. 
 
 It is now time to speak of the preparations for the 
 Council, since I shall soon have to talk about its open- 
 ing. Yet the preparatory phase has its own impor- 
 tance ; it also bears a special character belonging 
 solely to itself. Many opinions which subsequently, 
 after the conclusion, will think themselves obliged to 
 blend in the final grand Te Denm, and rally to the 
 decisions of the Council, appear to-day in singular 
 vivacity, and yield the true measure of that famous 
 unity which is a mere myth. For I expect likewise 
 to be shown how convictions may change between 
 to-day and to-morrow otherwise than through per- 
 suasion. And the proof that they do not change is, 
 that when once the grand parade ends, they will rise 
 up again, and put themselves in quest of elastic inter- 
 pretations, which they will surely find ; for what 
 does not the human mind find when its position is 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 157 
 
 already taken ? However, when once the Council 
 shall have spoken, more prudence and circumlocu- 
 tion must be used. This is also the favorable hour to 
 hear the sound of the diverse bells of Catholic Chris- 
 tendom before the great thorough bass of Saint 
 Peter's shall have drowned every thing with its 
 echoing clamor, and filled the air with volleys of 
 formulas and anathemas. I shall strive not to quit 
 the solid ground of attested facts, not to get upon the 
 quicksand of hypotheses, for all wagers are open and 
 all suppositions possible, as to what is soon to take 
 place in the metropolis of Catholicism, and the influ- 
 ences which will finally predominate. I shall begin 
 by speaking of the external preparations, to which 
 great importance is attached in this land of spectacles, 
 where religious masters-of-ceremonies play so great 
 a part. You may confide in the information that I 
 send you ; I draw it from a very sure and well-in- 
 formed source, and in no respect do I change its 
 substance. Only do not forget that this source is 
 Catholic, and consequently that things are presented 
 in their most favorable light. 
 
 The material labors on the iuclosure of the Council, 
 in the basilica of Saint Peter's, are nearly finished. 
 Admission to this inclosure has just been forbidden 
 to the public. The partition which separates it from 
 the rest of the church only extends to the arch of the 
 transept ; it does not exceed two thirds of the 
 height of the pillars. It is very solid, and, moreover, 
 is covered with thick linen. A large door, whose 
 leaves, it is said, will be unclosed during the public 
 sessions, has been opened in its midst. In the back- 
 ground of the inclosure the seats of the Cardinals are 
 seen, arranged in a semicircle, and elevated seven 
 
158 Bome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 steps above the floor of the Chapel of Saint Processus 
 and Saint Martinien. The throne of the Holy 
 Father forms its center, and is exalted four steps higher. 
 Behind the Pontifical throne is a passage through 
 which the Holy Father will come to the sessions 
 without needing to traverse the inclosure; this issue 
 ends in an invisible corridor, and a secret staircase 
 leading to the Vatican. At the height of thirteen 
 feet above the seats of the Sacred College two desks 
 rise, one on the right and the other on the left, 
 capable of containing a dozen persons each. I am 
 assured that they are intended for stenographers. 
 Above these desks runs a woodwork, which will be 
 decorated with twenty-four medallions, representing 
 the popes who have convoked Councils. These por- 
 traits are none other than the cartoons, in mosaic, 
 which adorn the circumference of the Church of 
 Saint Paul without the walls. The Holy Father has 
 likewise ordered two pictures, representing Saint 
 Peter and Saint Paul, which will be suspended in 
 the inclosure. From the seats of the cardinals pro- 
 ceed, in straight files, the seats of the bishops along 
 both sides of the semicircle. Thev are arranged in 
 six rows. The first is on the level of the ground ; 
 the others succeed, ascending in due order like the 
 benches of an amphitheater. You perceive four inter- 
 vals, cutting perpendicularly the files of the seats 
 and serving to admit the members of the Council to 
 their respective places. These places are overlooked 
 on each side by two superposed desks, intended for 
 the Theologians, which fill up the breadth of the two 
 arcades of the right lateral nave. It is thought that 
 the tribune for orators will rise at a short distance 
 from the Pontifical throne, near the seats of the 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 159 
 
 Sacred College ; the Patriarchs will be placed imme- 
 diately below the Sacred College. 
 
 As to the tribunes of the Christian Princes and 
 their representatives, or their orators, as they were 
 called in former Councils, they will be constructed at a 
 short distance from the Papal throne. The Holy 
 Father recently said that if the sovereigns or their rep- 
 resentatives desired to attend the Council they could, 
 but that in no case could they set up claims and 
 insist on rights which do not comport with the times. 
 Further, no invitation has been addressed by the 
 Pope to princes or governments. 
 
 There is some talk of covering the entire inclosure of 
 the Council with a glass arch, to keep the voice of the 
 orators from being lost in the depth of the edifices 
 whose extreme sonorousness would drown their words 
 in a multitude of echoes and a prolonged reverbera- 
 tion of sound. They would seek by this means to 
 render the inclosure of the Council fit for the most 
 important debates. Until now it had been proposed 
 to reserve it exclusively for the solemn public sessions, 
 those where it is not indispensable that the discourses 
 of the orators should be heard by all the fathers. 
 The most important debates were to take place in the 
 hall which surmounts the fore-court of the basilica, and 
 which serves on Holy Thursday for the ceremony of 
 the Supper. It seems that this project has been 
 modified, and that they would, as far as possible, in- 
 troduce unity of place into the sessions. 
 
 Firemen watch constantly over the safety of the 
 inclosure of the Council, to prevent any misdeed by 
 the party of action, to whom, rightly or wrongly, is 
 attributed the criminal intention of burning the 
 estrades and the seats of the fathers. 
 
160 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 In all probability, the public will not be admitted 
 to the circle of the Council ; but exceptions will be 
 made for some distinguished persons who will be 
 authorized to be present at its solemn sessions. Yet 
 it is said that, during these, the two leaves of the 
 large door will remain open, and that from the thresh- 
 old of the inclosure people may enjoya glimpse of the 
 venerable Areopagus. 
 
 The magnificent carpet which will completely 
 cover the floor of the Chapel of Saints Processus and 
 Martinien, itself vaster than many a cathedral, is said 
 to be a gift of the King of Prussia. This monarch, 
 having learned that the Holy Father desired to pay 
 little by little the great sum which the carpet costs, 
 believed it a duty, though a Protestant, to come to 
 his aid in this pinch. 
 
 It has been decided that the approaching Council 
 shall bear the name of the " First (Ecumenical Council 
 of the Vatican." On the 14th of October the corner- 
 stone of a monument (of which I have already spoken) 
 intended to perpetuate its memory was laid. This 
 monument will rise on Mount Janiculum, at the 
 center of the platform that extends before the Church 
 of Saint Peter in Montorio, built on the spot where 
 the Prince of the Apostles was crucified. Its base 
 will be hexagonal, and on five of its faces will 
 present bas-reliefs, representing the five sections of 
 the earth, indicated by allegorical figures holding 
 standards, on which the labarum floats. The sixth 
 face, adorned with the arms of Pius IX., will bear 
 the dates of the opening and the close of the Council. 
 Such is the pedestal on which will be erected the 
 magnificent column of African marble, discovered in 
 the excavations of the Emporium Roman um. A 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 161 
 
 contemporary inscription indicates that this column 
 was intended for Nero. The ceremony of laying the 
 corner-stone was performed by Cardinal Joseph Ber- 
 ardi, Minister of Public Works and Commerce. 
 
 A special committee, composed of prelates who 
 speak foreign languages, is charged with the recep- 
 tion and lodging of the bishops quietly, and as fast 
 as they arrive at Eome. A special arrangement has 
 been made for the reception of the bishops. The 
 authorities of Civita Vecchia, Orta and Ceprano, 
 have orders to telegraph to Monsignore Seraiini as 
 soon as one of them presents himself on the frontiers. 
 On the arrival of the train at Eome a committee 
 takes care to have as many carriages at the railway 
 station as there are bishops designated by the tele- 
 graph. 
 
 More than one hundred and forty bishops have 
 already asked entertainment at the expense of the 
 Pope. New demands of this nature are daily made. 
 Every bishop, provided he expresses the wish, is en- 
 titled to the hospitality of the Holy Father for him- 
 self, his secretary, and a servant. 
 
 The lodgings which have been prepared by order 
 of the Pope for the fathers of the Council are quite 
 numerous, and it would be impossible to give their 
 address in detail. It will suffice to indicate those 
 which axe found in the convents of the Dominicans 
 on the Piazza di Minerva ; of the Lazarists on the 
 Piazza di Monte-Citoris ; of the Oblates of Tor di 
 Specchi at the foot of the Capitolinus ; of the Fran- 
 ciscans at Saint Peter's in Montorio ; in the Cortoni 
 Palace at the foot of the Aventine ; in the Senni 
 Palace at San Celso ; in the Chapter-houses of Saint 
 
 Peter and Saint Mary the Greater. In the large 
 
 11 
 
162 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 house belonging to the canons of Saint Peter, neat 
 Saint Martha's, more than forty bishops will be 
 lodged together. They will have very convenient, 
 and even comfortable, apartments, and a vast hall 
 where they will take their meals in common. They 
 have transported large quantities of chairs, carpets, 
 mattresses, hangings, etc, from Marseilles to furnish 
 all these lodgings. 
 
 Prince Alexander Torlonia has put at the disposal 
 of the Pope for the bishops the great and splendid 
 palace built by Raphael opposite the Church of Scos- 
 sacavalli, which enjoys the advantage of being only a 
 few steps from Saint Peter's. Prince Borghese and 
 Prince Massimo delle Colonne have followed the ex- 
 ample of the celebrated banker by opening their pal- 
 aces to the venerable guests of Pome. A French 
 gentleman living at Rome has assumed the main- 
 tenance of a bishop till the Council closes. 
 
 The Pope desires that the bishops, as supreme 
 judges in questions of faith, representatives of na- 
 tions, and interpreters of the Holy Ghost, should be 
 received with the highest honors. 
 
 As to the ceremonial of the Council, it is the ob- 
 ject of the constant study of a special committee, 
 which holds its sessions now at the house of Cardinal 
 Patrizi, its president, now with Monsignore Ferrari, 
 inspector of apostolical ceremonies. As there is nec- 
 essarily a lack of traditions about ceremonies that 
 have not been repeated for three hundred years, the 
 committee lias had much labor in searching and ran- 
 sacking old parchments and dusty folios in order to 
 obtain practical rules. 
 
 They have striven to define the question of pre- 
 cedence as exactly as possible. It will be generally 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 163 
 
 regulated, not according to the degree occupied by 
 the different dioceses of Catholicism in the hierarchy 
 of the Church universal, but according to the senior- 
 ity of the precognition of each of the members of the 
 episcopate in the category to which he belongs. These 
 categories are five in number — Patriarchs, Primates, 
 Archbishops, diocesan or effective Bishops, Archbish- 
 ops, and Bishops in jpartibus infidelium. 
 
 Further, and with a view to simplify the question 
 of etiquette, the Holy Father has decided that all 
 bishops taking part in the Council shall be named 
 assistants of the Pontifical throne. 
 
 The cardinals, in their quality of counselors of the 
 sovereign Pontiff, candidates for the chair of Saint 
 Peter, and members of the supreme senate of the 
 Church, form the immediate surrounding of the Pope, 
 and consequently have precedence of all other eccle- 
 siastical dignitaries. 
 
 The question of the admission of Abbes, called 
 Nullius, and of the Generals of Orders, has been set- 
 tled in the affirmative, agreeably to the traditions of 
 the Council of Trent. 
 
 The Holy Father is about to nominate four Cardi- 
 nal Legates to represent himself in the sessions of the 
 venerable Assembly whenever he shall not preside in 
 person. Two of these Apostolic Legates will be 
 Cardinal Reisach and Cardinal Bilio, who is supposed 
 to have been the principal author of the Syllabus. 
 
 Monseigneur Fessler, Bishop of Saint Ploten, Secre- 
 tary General of the Council, is exceedingly active. 
 He is studying all the innumerable questions that 
 the preparatory committees, forming separate bodies, 
 each following its own specialty, have separately 
 elaborated. Besides the General Secretarv, other 
 
364 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 secretaries, chosen from the members of the commit- 
 tees of the Council, are soon to be nominated. 
 
 Cardinal Reisach, director of the special com- 
 mittee charged to elaborate the matter of the po- 
 litico-religious questions which are to be debated 
 in the universal Assembly, has fallen sick, and been 
 obliged, according to the prescriptions of his physic 
 cians, to travel for his health. He is temporarily re- 
 placed by Cardinal Capalti, an old secretary of the 
 Propaganda. 
 
 The greatest secrecy rests on these preparatory 
 labors, and, apart from a few questions, we obtain 
 only imperfect information, incomplete news, and 
 vague rumors. 
 
 When the preparatory committees are dissolved, 
 there will only remain a certain number of Italian 
 and foreign prelates at the disposal of the Holy 
 Father for the studies which he may see fit to require 
 of them. The preliminary labors are completely 
 finished, and it is said that they are drawing up this 
 very moment the formulas of the decisions and decrees 
 which will be presented to the Council. 
 
 It is claimed that the most complete freedom will 
 reign in the debates of the assembly, and that the 
 Pope himself quite recently said to a great personage 
 that he desired the Bishops to have full opportunity 
 to display all their ideas and sentiments, and that 
 the questions which should not be determined on 
 with unanimity, or which should not have at least a 
 striking majority in their favor, should be dismissed 
 ad acta. The multitude of questions of every kind 
 requiring solution is so great, that Monsignore Gion- 
 nelli, Secretary of the Permanent Congregation of 
 the Council, as well as of the Committee of Cardinals. 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 165 
 
 designated for the revision of all their labors, lately 
 said that it was not even possible for so many sub- 
 jects to be exhausted in a short time. 
 
 It is not yet known what mode of publicity will 
 be adopted by the Council to keep Catholicism in- 
 formed of what passes in its bosom. Some would 
 have the official "Journal of Home" publish daily re- 
 ports of the sessions and the decrees of the assembly, 
 as is done in secular parliaments ; others propose that 
 the Civiltd CattoMca, becoming the official organ of 
 the Council, should appear more frequently, and 
 give, with a periodical account of the debates, the 
 decisions proclaimed ; finally, others think that the 
 secrecy which has presided over the preparatory la- 
 bors ought also to surround the Council, and that 
 only at its close should an official report of it be 
 published. 
 
 A practical question, which does not fail to prove 
 very embarrassing, is that of the reproduction of the 
 debates by stenography. But one language indeed 
 will there be spoken, the sacred tongue, ecclesiasti- 
 cal Latin ; but the Tower of Babel will nevertheless 
 assert its rights through the different manner in 
 which the Latin is pronounced. The distance is 
 great from the English to the Italian pronunciation ; 
 it needs well-trained ears to recognize the same 
 word on the more or less closed lips of the Anglo- 
 Saxon and in the sonorous articulation of a man from 
 the South. They intend, likewise, to have stenog- 
 raphers of the diverse nations, but these will not en- 
 able the honorable orators to understand each other. 
 There will be, then, rather successive monologues 
 than a contradictory debate. This will not greatly 
 displease the Roman managers, who would gladly 
 
166 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 have the Council content itself with their Latin, 
 laying the accent on certain well-known words, the 
 infallibility of the Pope and the divinity of the 
 Yirgin. 
 
 Let us now take account of much more important 
 differences than those of Latin pronunciation, and 
 which, awaiting the issue of the Council, freely show 
 themselves. Let us consider, in turn, the various 
 nationalities which will be represented, and inquire 
 what are the dispositions which animate each of them. 
 We shall thus see that there is cause to complete the 
 famous comparison of the seamless coat, which they 
 have tried to make an image of Catholic unity, and 
 add that it is as variegated as Joseph's coat. 
 
 Let us begin with our French Bishops, who for 
 some days have been flowing into the Eternal City ; 
 for the moment, I will deal only with ideas and not 
 with individuals, to whom I shall subsequently come. 
 It is certain that a majority of these Bishops come 
 with the most ardent Ultramontane dispositions; 
 many of them have expressed these opinions in furious 
 pastoral letters on occasion of the book of Mon- 
 seigneur Maret against the infallibility of the Holy 
 Father. For some days the journals have been inun- 
 dated with their prose, that heavy episcopal prose, 
 which contrives to be at once without nerve and 
 without moderation — soft and violent as the impotent 
 anger of old age. Some of them made a very pomp- 
 ous scene before leaving their dioceses ; they assem- 
 bled their clergy to address them in pathetic farewells, 
 as though they were setting off on the most danger- 
 ous missions, while these courageous confessors only set 
 out to cast down in their own persons the ancient 
 rights of the episcopate before the Roman idol. The 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 167 
 
 priests who are absolutely dependent on them — for 
 the priesthood is as much abased before the epis- 
 copacy as the episcopacy before the Holy See — these 
 priests, who are merely their creatures, pretended to 
 charge them with a solemn mission, by urging them 
 on in their own Ultramontane direction. Further, 
 many of these priests have followed them to Rome ; 
 permission has been very freely granted them to 
 remain. 
 
 A considerable number of French curates and 
 monks are here, mostly fanatics in Ultramontanism, 
 and impatient to kiss the dust under the feet of the 
 Great Pontiff. They will not sit in the high Assem- 
 bly, but they will encircle its debates ; they will con- 
 tribute to form an atmosphere of ardent enthusiasm 
 to weigh upon and envelope the Council. 
 
 I understand very well then why the bishops 
 leave so many parishes deprived, for the moment, of 
 their regular pastors ; in the great spectacle which is 
 preparing, they are to play the part of the chorus in 
 the antique tragedies, which, in the minds of the 
 authors, gave their true signification. A few bishops 
 only are exceptions ; the Archbishop of Paris at the 
 head, and the Bishop of Orleans, who has just pub- 
 lished a new circular w T herein he pronounces with 
 some energy against the timeliness of the new dogma 
 of the Immaculate Conception. The manifesto of 
 the Correspondant) the organ of Liberal Catholicism, 
 has been published as a pamphlet since I mentioned 
 it to you ; you know that it is from the incisive pen 
 of Prince Albert de Broglie, and that, through much 
 circumlocution and laudation of the Holy Father, its 
 conclusion is that of the Bishop of Orleans. The 
 Oorresponddnt has acted like Pius IX., it too has set 
 
168 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 up its column commemorative of the Council, and 
 engraved on it the idea which it hopes to see triumph 
 in the high Assembly. It can already anticipate 
 that it will have singularly to abate its triumph, for 
 its manifesto has been the object of the most violent 
 attacks ; it has been abused by the Univers as an 
 academician, a philosopher — which, for that devout 
 journal, is the highest abuse — and denounced as a 
 violent transporter into the religious domain of- that 
 abominable parliamentary rule which it incessantly 
 cries up in the political sphere. The Covrespondant 
 will be at the Council in the person of Monseigneur 
 Dupanloup, the Bishop of Orleans, and he will there 
 reveal the measure of his influence and his courage. 
 The Church of Paris numbers many enlightened and 
 learned priests, at once pious and liberal. I will cite 
 in the first rank the Abbe Martin Noirlieu, curate 
 of the Church of Saint Louis d'Antin — a venerable 
 old man, who is an heir of the noble spirit of Port 
 Royal — who beholds Ultramontane follies with a 
 grief which he openly expresses, and who ardently 
 desires the triumph of the Gallican tendency over 
 Romish novelties. I have often met young priests 
 full of talent and piety at his residence, who spoke 
 with indignation of the paths into which Jesuitism 
 was plunging the Church. Among laymen, I will 
 mention M. Garcin de Tassy, a member of the Insti- 
 tute, and Professor of Oriental Languages, who has 
 never ceased to protest against Ultramontanism w T ith 
 an energy which age does not enfeeble. These repre- 
 sentatives of a profoundly liberal and Christian Gal- 
 licism will not be in Rome, but their worth is known 
 there; they are dreaded, and the thought of them 
 may well prove a weight in the balance, at the de- 
 
Home, Italy, akd the Council. 169 
 
 cisive hour, in preventing the triumph of the papal 
 party. 
 
 From France let us pass to the fathers of the Coun- 
 cil who will come hither to represent the great 
 Anglo-Saxon race. Of your American Bishops I can 
 tell you nothing which you do not know better than 
 I. It is claimed that Ultramontanism counts many 
 a convert among them within a few years, but there 
 is one point on which they are more rebellious to 
 Romish influence, namely, the question of the union 
 of the temporal with the spiritual power; because 
 they know by experience the value of the opposite 
 policy to the Church — what dignity, what power she 
 finds in it. Perhaps it will seem hard to them to say, 
 Truth on that side of the Atlantic, hid error on this. 
 
 The Canadian Bishop, who was one of the first to 
 arrive in Rome, is, on the other hand, noted for his 
 enthusiasm for the Pontifical army. He has addressed 
 the Zouaves furnished by his diocese in a discourse 
 quite to the taste of the Roman leaders. The Irish 
 episcopate naturally has at heart all the passions 
 which long oppression produces. It will beware of 
 dwelling on the great act of liberation which England 
 has just accomplished in behalf of Ireland, because 
 that act is, after all, a step toward the separation of 
 Church and State ; and because, if they like its favora- 
 ble consequences for Catholicism at Rome, they blame 
 its principle. They even openly expressed that blame 
 on occasion of the memorable debates in the House 
 of Commons, whence the law of separation pro- 
 ceeded, which will, more than any other measure, im- 
 mortalize the name of Gladstone. The Irish clergy 
 belongs body and soul to the Papacy ; they are 
 counted on as a picked corps which is to be wielded 
 
170 Rome, Italy, and the Council 
 
 decisively in critical moments. They count no less 
 on the clergy of Great Britain and Archbishop Man- 
 ning. He has all the zeal and fire of neophytes, pre- 
 cisely because he is a recruit from the Protestant 
 camp. The proselyting activity which Catholicism 
 has exercised in England for the last thirty years has 
 been great, though it has been exaggerated. It has 
 revealed all the inconsistencies of the Episcopal 
 Church, which, by the way in which it exalts the 
 traditional and sacerdotal* element, lays a well-con- 
 structed bridge between Westminster and the 
 Church of Rome. Puseyism and Ritualism, which 
 are its most authentic form, are already half Cath- 
 olic ; they will not miss the crown of the edifice, 
 w T hich is the Papacy, and most of the adepts of Pusey 
 do not consent, like their master, to leave the work 
 unfinished. The doctrinal shock, also, which was 
 produced in the Anglican Church by The Essays and 
 Reviews, and of which the publications of Bishop 
 Colenso are the gravest symptom, has disgusted many 
 minds with her institutions ; especially when it has 
 been so evident that the institutions of Anglicanism 
 w r ould not permit the removal of that peril, and 
 that doctrinal suits brought before the Court of the 
 Queen's Bench would come to no issue, for the reason 
 that questions of religious conviction can never be 
 put on the same footing with questions of procedure 
 stifled under papers and parchments. Hence, while 
 the Low Church, which is scarcely Episcopal, has 
 grown considerably, Catholicism has also made im- 
 portant conquests among timid minds that feel the 
 need of a tangible authority. It is also more or less 
 becoming an affair of fashion and custom, since some 
 of the first families in the aristocracy have allowed 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 171 
 
 themselves to be won by it. But it is a long way 
 from this fact to the belief that England therefore runs 
 the risk of abandoning the Reformation. She will 
 neither deny her genius nor her grandeur; the heart 
 of her people is invincibly Protestant. The epis- 
 copal form will probably perish, but only to assure the 
 triumph of a more consistent Protestantism, better 
 founded on its immortal principles and clear of any 
 bond with the State. But let us return to the En- 
 glish Catholic episcopacy. Archbishop Manning has 
 also published his pastoral letter, which is a fervent 
 glorification of the Papacy and the author's pledge 
 to sustain it in all its usurpations, which, in his eyes, 
 are assertions of the most legitimate rights. The 
 English priests who are in Rome will sustain him 
 with all their energy; they will blow up the Ultra- 
 montane flame, should it chance to languish. One 
 of the most distinguished members of the clergy of 
 Great Britain, Dr. Newman, will have no voice in 
 the Council. He does not belong to the same tend- 
 ency. He is a man of great learning, of a distin- 
 guished and liberal mind, which does not incline to 
 exaggerations ; unhappily he does not openly combat 
 them ; he is timid and silent when he should speak. 
 He will not check his brethren who will be able to 
 give themselves up to all the heat of their fanaticism. 
 Belgium will not make herself heard in discordant 
 words. She is a nursery of Pontifical zouaves, and 
 docile priests, who are spiritual zouaves ; habituated 
 to struggle against the Belgian Liberals, they have 
 learned in this conflict to use the weapons of discus- 
 sion, though their journalists do not forget those poi- 
 soned arrows of calumny with which the arsenal of 
 the Jesuits is ever well stored. Their chief is Mon- 
 
172 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 signore Deschamps, the Archbishop of Malines, who 
 was one of the first to proclaim the necessity of for- 
 mulating the dogma of the infallibility of the Holy 
 Father — this act secured him a brief of approval. 
 This prelate has good eyes to discover in history what 
 science has never been able to detect there, to wit, 
 the regular play of the Pontifical absolutism from 
 apostolical times. He will certainly be one of the 
 chiefs of the right wing of the Council, and one of its 
 champions should there be any serious discussion. 
 
 If we come to Germany, the spectacle is quite dif- 
 ferent, at least as we approach the North. The Aus- 
 trian episcopate signed the Concordat which was so 
 dearly paid for at Sadowa, and which conducted the 
 country quite gently to an incurable senility. The 
 prelates who put their hands to that odious treaty, 
 through which they hoped to tyrannize quite at ease 
 over the public mind, and who sustained with impru- 
 dent zeal the indignant protestations of the Romish 
 Court against civil marriage and lay education, also 
 form a part of the picked battalion of the Gesu. 
 Several of these are looked on as martyrs, because 
 they have incurred some slight penalties for having 
 resisted the most righteous laws of their country. 
 But they are merely the martyrs of their folly, and it 
 will be hard for them, despite the desires they may 
 have, to produce in the Council of the Vatican the 
 effect which those old confessors produced who, at 
 Nice, bore the scars of the Diocletian persecution. 
 In Bavaria, Prussia, and the other countries of Ger- 
 many, Catholicism bears a very different character. 
 It has not breathed with impunity the air of scientific 
 freedom which breathes over the German Univer- 
 sities; it has become learned in its turn, and has 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 173 
 
 enriched science with remarkable works. The illus- 
 trious Mohler, author of the best Catholic work on 
 Symbolics, had visibly undergone the influence of 
 Schleiermacher. Daily contact with German science 
 cannot fail to place transrhenish Catholicism in 
 quite a special situation, so long as it does not deny 
 its nationality and remains faithful to the genius of 
 its race. No doubt TJltramontanism also has adher- 
 ents in Germany ; they have even held a very spirited 
 meeting in which priests and laymen echoed the 
 theories of the Encyclical; but the most eminent 
 members of the German clergy were absent from that 
 rather noisy than intelligent gathering whose impor- 
 tance finally was small. The manifestations of Lib- 
 eral Catholicism have been far more notable. I pass 
 rapidly over those already known to every body. I 
 name, for the sake of memory and completeness in 
 this important matter, the manifesto of the German 
 Catholics of Rhenish Prussia, published in the month 
 of July, in which they very distinctly protested 
 against Romish tendencies, against the union of the 
 two powers, and quite particularly against that Con- 
 gregation of the Index, which pretends to regulate 
 the reading of all the faithful, and consequently to 
 trace out the limits of contemporary science. This 
 manifesto has been completed by a very solid book 
 which demonstrates historically how much the actual 
 pretensions of the Papacy lack foundation, and how 
 questionable are the proofs it invokes. The Letters of 
 Janus are more than a party programme ; they are 
 a complete treatise of compact and irresistible argu- 
 mentation which it will be easier to condemn than to 
 refute. A far bolder work has just appeared in Ger- 
 many ; this emanates from the most advanced wing 
 
174 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 of the same party. It is not a simple protest, but a very 
 precise demand of the reforms desirable in the Church, 
 and which the Council ought to proclaim in order to 
 serve her true interests. The bare title of this work 
 reveals its scope ; it runs thus : Reform of the Rom- 
 ish Church in its Head and in its Members — The 
 Task of the Approaching Council. The first reform 
 required is the decentralization of the Churches by 
 the weakening of the bond which binds them to the 
 Papacy, so that each may have, as in the past, its 
 own physiognomy. Secondly, they should abolish the 
 exaggerated matrimonial impediments which intro- 
 duce the Pontifical power to so many family firesides. 
 Those perpetual vows which are rash engagements 
 should be abolished. Let the national tongue of 
 every people replace a dead language in the celebra- 
 tion of worship. Give laymen a share in the admin- 
 istration of the Church. Let clerical education be 
 completely renewed; and finally, let the Church 
 abandon forever all the theocratic elements contained 
 in her present rule. Such are the desires expressed 
 in this work, which speaks with all skillful precau- 
 tions and all the reserve of ecclesiastical language. 
 This certainly is a sign of the times. 
 
 Another equal sign is a pamphlet against the In- 
 fallibility of the Pope, which has just appeared at 
 Ratisbon. It bears the name of no author, but all 
 its readers name an illustrious theologian of Munich, 
 the learned Dollinger, who really was the inspirer 
 of the German Catholic manifesto of Bonn and 
 of the Letters of Janus. Contemporary Catholicism 
 lias no more distinguished master. His history of the 
 preparation for Christianity in the bosom of Pagan- 
 ism is a vast monument of solid learning, entirely 
 
EomEj Italy, and the Council. 175 
 
 faithful to the rigorous methods of contemporary 
 criticism. His book on the temporal Papacy is a 
 masterpiece of impartiality; he proves in the most 
 peremptory way that it is not of divine origin, that 
 it is the product of a purely human history, and that 
 nothing is more senseless than to make the destinies 
 of Christianity depend on that. He has also written a 
 book to refute the famous work of Bunsen on Callis- 
 tus and Saint Hippolytus, a book which maintains 
 him in Catholic tradition, and prevents his being 
 ranked with schismatics when he interferes with the 
 inward debates of the Church, as he is now doing 
 with so much learning, with, an influence so legiti- 
 mately acquired, and with a manly and precise style 
 w T hich avoids the endless windings of German periods. 
 This time he desired to write in a language more 
 generally known than his own, and he has chosen the 
 French. I must give you a rapid analysis of this re- 
 markable work, w T hich will be a capital document in 
 the important cause to be pleaded in Rome, a cause 
 which would surely be carried in the interest of Dol- 
 linger were not the judges prejudiced, and did they 
 w-eigh votes instead of counting them. You will re- 
 mark that all the arguments presented against Infalli- 
 bility bear with equal force against the Immaculate 
 Conception. 
 
 The pamphlet begins thus : " In past ages the 
 Church has always rejected novelties by dwelling 
 particularly on the antiquity and immutability of her 
 dogmas. When we can prove of any dogma that it 
 was unknown for some centuries, that it did not arise 
 till some definite epoch, or that it was not professed 
 by the entire Church, and that it is not contained 
 potentially, as logicians say, as a logical, inevitable, 
 
176 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 necessary consequence in other dogmas, then that doc- 
 trine is adjudged from the Catholic stand-point; it 
 bears the brand of illegitimacy on its brow; it should 
 not and cannot be elevated to the dignity of an arti- 
 cle of faith. Now all these features are combined in 
 the notion of the Papal Infallibility." Such is the 
 theme to be argued. The learned author asks them to 
 produce some text from one of the Fathers that con- 
 cludes in favor of that Infallibility ; he easily shows 
 that those which the Jesuit theologians oppose to him 
 are audacious falsifications of citations detached from 
 their context, and that partisan spirit has done them 
 violence. He says that " the history of the Catholic 
 Church during its first thousand years must of neces- 
 sity be an insoluble enigma for all the partisans of 
 Papal Infallibility. They are not the least in the 
 world able to explain the long duration, the profound 
 and internal complication, and, in a word, the entire 
 series of the great contests on revealed dogmas." In 
 fact, how can we conceive of so many debates, so 
 many folios, and such care to understand each other 
 well on doctrine, if they already possessed an infal- 
 lible oracle who had only to open his mouth that all 
 difficulties might vanish? Heavenly light illuminate 
 all the problems of Christian metaphysics and prac- 
 tice ! Whence comes it, then, that in all great dog- 
 matic contests they have hastened to convoke a 
 Council and appeal to the Church in its totality? 
 Why did Pope Leo trample under foot his own rights 
 by declaring it necessary to convoke an (Ecumenical 
 Council, and how strange the scruple which seized 
 on Pope Siricus that he should excuse himself for not 
 being able without such a Council to give a decision 
 on a disputed doctrinal question? Cardinal Orsi 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 177 
 
 was truly right, from the stand-point of the partisans 
 of infallibility, in complaining of "the useless fracas 
 made by the convocation of Councils," and casting 
 the blame of it on the emperors. 
 
 Approaching the question of principle, the learned 
 author then shows that it is to the Church as a whole, 
 and to her alone, as well in her usual condition as in 
 her representation by a Council, that infallibility, that 
 is, divine protection and light, is promised. In proof, 
 he invokes the first Council, that of Jerusalem, where 
 nothing was decided by an authoritive decision of 
 Saint Peter, but where the discussion was entirely 
 free, and James the Lord's brother exercised a pre- 
 ponderating influence. The vote took place in the 
 name of all. The first great Councils dispensed en- 
 tirely with Papal confirmations, witness that of Nice 
 and the second (Ecumenical Council of Constanti- 
 nople, whose decisions had the force of law without 
 any mention being made of the Holy Father. The 
 texts of the Gospels on which the partisans of infal- 
 libility rest are here interpreted with a very loyal 
 exegesis. It is well known that they cite mainly the 
 prayer of Christ for Peter, (Luke xii, 32,) that his 
 faith fail not, joined with the exhortation which the 
 Lord adds to it, that, after his own conversion, he 
 should strengthen his brethren. But this interpreta- 
 tion will not bear serious examination. Particularly 
 is it in flagrant contradiction with the constant tra- 
 dition of the Church for the first seven centuries, 
 since none of the Fathers of the Church understood 
 the passage in that sense. All who expounded it, 
 like Cyprian, Hilary, John Chrysostom, recognized 
 that the only question was of the individual virtue of 
 
 his faith, and not of an inability to err in doctrinal 
 
 12 
 
178 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 decisions. It was Pope Agatho who first essayed in 
 the year 680 to deduce from this passage the proof of 
 a prerogative granted to the Roman See, but he ex- 
 cused himself by declaring that great ignorance in 
 theological matters then reigned at Rome. Have the 
 Bishops who maintain the opinion of Agatho forgot- 
 ten the oath which they take in their ordination, 
 agreeably to the so-called Confession of Pius IV. and 
 an explicit canon of the Council of Trent, (Session 
 IV,) by which the Catholic Christian is referred to 
 the consent of the Fathers of the Church, and therefore 
 of the firsb six centuries, in the interpretation of the 
 Holy Scriptures? Hence they commit a species of 
 perjury by seeking to introduce a comment which is 
 in flagrant contradiction with all primitive Christi- 
 anity. Finally, historical facts cast decisive light on 
 this question. If it were true that the privilege of 
 doctrinal infallibility had been granted by Jesus Christ 
 to the Papacy in the person of Saint Peter, it would 
 be necessary to show that for eighteen hundred years 
 never had a Pope erred in doctrine. The contrary is 
 far too palpable. This assertion would not be true 
 even in regard to Saint Peter, since at Antioch, far 
 from strengthening his brethren, he rather led their 
 faith astray by his hypocrisy, as Saint Paul was obliged 
 to tell him. If Zosimus approved a profession of faith 
 which denied original sin, if Liberius subscribed an 
 Arian formula, if Honorius, by giving his approbation 
 to an erroneous formula, aided the spread of the her- 
 esy of the Monothelites, as an (Ecumenical Council 
 judged — and how many similar facts might not be add- 
 ed — nobody will be able to recognize in these diverse 
 errors the fulfilling of the command to "strengthen 
 the brethren in the faith." Here, indeed, is a club- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 179 
 
 stroke, from which the doctrine of infallibility will 
 find it hard to recover. The author justly calls our 
 attention to the fact, that if thev would found it 
 on the application of the words of Jesus Christ to 
 the person of Saint Peter and his successors, there is 
 no good reason for limiting it to the public declara- 
 tions of the Holy Father; lie is himself the pure and 
 leaping spring of doctrinal truth, and that spring 
 flows whenever he opens his mouth. Returning to 
 the testimony of the Fathers, the author shows in 
 peremptory style that when Saint Cyprian, with the 
 w r hole African Church, refused to submit t'o the decis- 
 ions of the Bishop of Rome on the question of bap- 
 tism administered by heretics, he thereby showed 
 w T hat he thought of the infallibility of the Papacy. 
 Saint Augustine, though differing from him on the 
 value of baptism conferred by heretics, fully justified 
 his ecclesiastical stand-point, for he declared that he 
 was not bound to adopt the view r of Pope Stephen. 
 If it be pretended that the Popes can be judged by 
 nobody, what shall we do with the (Ecumenical 
 Councils of Basle and Constance, which very clearly 
 proclaimed the contrary doctrine, and affirmed the 
 superiority of the General Council to any Pope. 
 Further, Pope Martin declared in an express bull 
 that they who reject the decisions of the Council of 
 Constance are guilty of heresy. 
 
 The author next approaches a series of considera- 
 tions whose importance in the present circumstances 
 of society w 7 ill escape none. If the Papacj 7 has al- 
 ways been infallible, then we must accept as true, and 
 seek to exalt as salutary, all its political and social 
 declarations. There is no principle which the popes 
 have more loudly proclaimed than the duty of the 
 
180 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 prince to use his sword in the violent suppression of 
 heresy. Once proclaim the dogma of Papal infalli- 
 bility and it will follow that this doctrine must pass 
 for a divine truth, according to which Catholic 
 states will be bound in conscience not to allow 
 the profession of any other religion than Catholicism. 
 More than fifty popes have called the Inquisition the 
 Holy Office, and popes have lauded it on occasion of 
 the canonization of certain Inquisitors. For centuries 
 they have also sanctioned the rule that all who obsti- 
 nately depart from a single article of the faith should 
 be punished with capital punishment. If they pro- 
 claim the infallibility of the Papacy, it will be forbid- 
 den any Catholic to say or think that the institution of 
 the Inquisition was a grave error. It would be 
 necessary to pronounce an absolute divorce from 
 modern society and plead against the verdict of con- 
 science. The doctrine of Gregory VII. on the right of 
 the Papacy to depose sovereigns at will, must be 
 made an article of faith. 
 
 The gravity of the silence observed by the Council 
 of Trent in this matter cannot be overlooked. It is 
 certain that the question was there discussed and con- 
 tested. By not pronouncing, they showed clearly that 
 it was considered indifferent to the faith. The opinion 
 of infallibility has been able to gain ground only 
 through constraint and violence. In Italy, Spain, 
 and Portugal, the Inquisition stifled all other instruc- 
 tion. Similar violence occurred in the great corpo- 
 rations of the Church, in the Religious Orders. In 
 this regard, the Jesuits have wielded the most des- 
 potic pressure, and have caused all works to be put in 
 the Index which submitted that opinion to a scientific 
 examination. Now where freedom to instruct has 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 181 
 
 been refused there can be no talk of the agreement 
 of the Church, {Concensus Eeclesice;) the word con- 
 sent excluding in advance all ideas of constraint. 
 Compare the theologians who have combated Papal 
 infallibility with its furious advocates. On the one 
 hand we have Bossuet, the learned Benedictines of 
 Saint Maur, all the German Catholic theologians of 
 any worth ; on the other may be arranged Torque- 
 mada, Cajetan, Baronius, Bellarmine, Orsi, all the Car- 
 dinals; then the Generals of Orders resident in Borne, 
 and above all, the entire Gesu. The theologians of 
 the Roman court have not feared to make use of con- 
 troverted documents and forgeries to stay up their 
 position. They have incessantly invoked the Decre- 
 tals of Isidore, a scandalous historical fraud, and 
 forged texts of the Greek Fathers. They do not trouble 
 themselves with the historical discoveries which 
 brought those audacious falsifications fully to light ; 
 they use them like the words of the Gospel. In the 
 last works published by this school w r e find all this 
 apocryphal rubbish — witness the books of Neutra 
 Roskowani; of the Jesuit Weninger, who has written 
 especially for the Catholic clergy of the United States, 
 who has the face to feign a history of the Council of 
 Nice to produce the belief that the authority of the 
 Pope was regarded as superior to that of the Council. 
 The same reproach may be addressed to the treatise 
 of Bouix on the Pope and to the little work of Arch- 
 bishop Deschamps of Malines. 
 
 Let us cite the conclusion of this pamphlet, whose 
 importance is plain to all. 
 
 " In the supposed case [namely, of the adoption 
 of the infallibility dogma] an unequaled grip upon 
 us would be given, and a vast advantage to separatist 
 
182 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Churches, as well the Greco-Russian and Oriental as 
 the Protestant. There is every appearance that the 
 whole controversy, as hitherto conducted against the 
 Catholic Church and doctrine, will be concentrated 
 more and more on this sole doctrine, which would then 
 have become in fact the test of a standing or falling 
 Church, in which contest her adversaries would find 
 the most efficacious arms, the most conclusive argu- 
 ments in the very bosom of the Catholic Church herself, 
 in the writings of her greatest and most celebrated theo- 
 logians, and in the controversialists by whom they 
 were formerly overwhelmed. What reply will the 
 defenders of the Church have to make when told that, 
 for more than eighteen hundred years, this doctrine 
 was first unknown, and then rejected and refuted by 
 a considerable part of the Church, and that precisely 
 the most learned part ; that the most respectable 
 scientific corporations of the Church, like the Univer- 
 sity of Paris, have taught the contrary doctrine 
 through four entire centuries ? What will they have to 
 answer, finally, when their adversaries shall refer them 
 to the writings of Bossuet, Fleury, Noel Alexandre, and 
 so many others of equal or nearly equal weight ? Jt 
 would be needful in that case to gradually give quite 
 another form to the doctrine concerning the Church, 
 and particularly to change entirely our instruction in 
 regard to the conditions and distinctive characters of 
 a Church dogma or article of faith. 
 
 The enterprise of proclaiming the hypothesis of the 
 Papal infallibility as a dogma of the Church would, 
 among other consequences, have that of enfeebling 
 the authority of the Church in an incalculable degree. 
 For nothing can be more harmful to the authority 
 of the Church in the eyes of the faithful, as well as 
 
Rome, Italy, akd the Council. 1S3 
 
 in those of strangers, than the sight of a doctrine 
 forming henceforth a part of the teaching of the 
 Church, and proved by means, or at least by the aid 
 of, designedly-invented, long-continned, and sustained 
 fictions. Now it is clear and indisputable that such is 
 the case with the doctrine of Papal infallibility. The 
 fictions by whose aid the way has been prepared for 
 this opinion, recommended and introduced at last into 
 scholastic theology and into the canon law, begin 
 in the sixth and were continued down to the thir- 
 teenth century; and Thomas Aquinas himself, w T hose 
 authority has had so decisive an influence in propa- 
 gating and strengthening the opinion of the infalli- 
 bility of the teachings and the decrees which ema- 
 nate from the See of Rome, was deceived by testi- 
 monies invented willfully, and attributed to the Greek 
 Church." 
 
 I have aimed to make you acquainted with this 
 courageous plea of a truly self-consistent liberal 
 Catholicism, which closes without that promise of 
 cringing and absolute submission which is the binding 
 conclusion of the most independent episcopal circulars. 
 At Rome, doubtless, they will disdainfully pass over 
 these worthy pages and peremptory arguments ; ac- 
 cording to the stinging saying of Pascal, they will 
 bring on monks in place of reasons, in order to finish 
 up every thing by a majority vote. Instead of monks, 
 they have all those fine bishops of the East whose 
 long white beards are as venerable as their minds are 
 ignorant; they have a good number of bishops in 
 partibus who will be in the Council what chamber- 
 lains are in our assemblies; they will have the entire 
 Italian clergy, who, with rare exceptions, are furious 
 at the sale of their estates ; they will have, besides 3 
 
184 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 all the throng of the Roman Monsignori. Yet it is 
 possible that they may not dare to formulate the 
 dogma of the infallibility of the Pope, and that they 
 may avoid extremes by an equivocation sufficiently 
 neutralized by the recent proclamation of the doc- 
 trine of the immaculate conception. But in my 
 next letter I will resume the chapter of hypotheses in 
 speaking of the future heroes of the Council — those 
 who will be its orchestral leaders. 
 
 E. de Pkessense. 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 185 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Leading Actors in the Council — The Absentees — The Pope — Anto- 
 nelli — Bishop Tosti — Archbishop Manning — Bishop Hoefele — - 
 Bishop Hanneberger — Cardinals Donnet and Bonnechose — Bishop 
 Plantier — The Bishop of La Rochelle — Bishop Dupanloup — Arch- 
 bishop Darboy — Louis Venillot, the Lay Delegate — Anticipations 
 in Liberal Circles. 
 
 Rome, November, 1869. 
 
 After conversing with you on the diverse tenden- 
 cies which will encounter each other in the Council 
 and surely clash if there be serious debate, I must 
 now draw your attention to the persons who will 
 figure there in the front rank. We know the subject 
 of the action or drama ; let us now try to obtain an 
 idea of the actors who will play its principal parts. 
 
 There are several of these whom the eye will seek 
 in vain, and who will shine there by their absence : 
 these are the chiefs of countries formerly submissive 
 entirely to Catholicism, and who by their embassa- 
 dors held a place of honor. People remember that 
 at the Council of Trent the Legates of Rome con- 
 stantly turned an uneasy eye toward the seat whence 
 the Spanish embassador often set up claims full of 
 pride, and toward that wliere the French embassador 
 expressed with much grace, but firmly, the opposi- 
 tion and the reserves of his court. The importance 
 of the intervention of the Catholic Princes in the 
 High Assembly depended on the ancient order of 
 things, which closely associated politics and religion. 
 The Popes claimed that decrees of the Council 
 
186 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 approved by them should obtain the force of law in 
 all countries, and that the civil authorities should sus- 
 tain them with all their resources. That class, then, 
 could not be uninterested in the resolutions taken in 
 the name of the Church, and they had to see that 
 these in no way compromised them. This necessity 
 of an understanding with the great powers was a 
 check on ecclesiastical eccentricities; yet it was not 
 always sufficient, since the Kings of France saw in 
 the disciplinary measures fixed on by the Council of 
 Trent a dangerous encroachment on the rights of the 
 crown, and forbade their publication in the kingdom. 
 All this is changed to-day; the separation of the 
 Church and civil society is every-where begun ; there 
 is no State in Europe which follows in the wake of 
 the Papacy for its interior organization, and which 
 appears disposed to give the force of law to its decis- 
 ions. Consequently none is directly interested in 
 them ; the Council will have all the more freedom be- 
 cause it has less power. Further, some of these powers 
 have to look so carefully to their moral credit with 
 the people that they dread accepting the least share 
 in the exaggerations of the Papacy. The presence 
 of their embassadors would, from this stand-point, 
 present grave inconveniences for them, since, unable 
 to prevent any thing, they would seem to approve 
 every thing. Let us not talk of princes called schis- 
 matic ; the Emperor of Russia, justly rated at Eome 
 for his persecutions of the Polish Catholics — in which, 
 note as we pass on, he has merely applied the prin- 
 ciples of Eome to Eome — can only look with disdain 
 on a Council where the Pope will try to gain a re- 
 ligious absolutism which belongs solely to himself as 
 the Czar of Holy Eussia and the personification of 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 187 
 
 the Orthodox religion. He knows how recalcitrant 
 bishops are made to walk, and how the human con- 
 science bows under the heel of his boot. The King 
 of Prussia and the Queen of England can see nothing 
 more in the Council than the Emperor of Russia ; 
 they are both quite decided to respect the liberty of 
 their Catholic subjects; that is the proper way to 
 avenge the abuse addressed to the religion which 
 they profess. 
 
 The Emperor of Austria, since his rupture with 
 the Concordat which delivered his equally vast and 
 diverse States to the Papal yoke, has had only to 
 strengthen his independence toward the Church. He 
 knows very well that his embassadors at Rome 
 would only receive sharp remonstrances on all reforms 
 which have turned on the emancipation of lay society. 
 Like his English sister, he depends on a Parliament 
 that obeys no countersign, particularly none that 
 comes from beyond the mountains. The parliament- 
 ary governments would indeed be forced to submit 
 any resolutions in which they might take the least 
 share to the deliberations of the representatives of the 
 nation. Not for a moment could that be allowed. 
 As to the King of Italy, he is plum ply excom- 
 municated for having taken possession of the 
 estates of the Church. In his late illness, this 
 excommunication did not keep him from finding, 
 like Cavour, a priest to give him the sacraments 
 when he thought himself at the point of death. It 
 is asserted at Rome that this priest was charged by 
 his bishop to first require a promise to restore to the 
 Papacy all fraudulently acquired estates — that the 
 King gave incontestable signs of penitence — that, 
 consequently, much is to be hoped from this provi- 
 
188 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 dential illness. They also affect to rejoice greatly on 
 his recovery, as though he were going to repair many 
 iniquities. Those who write these idle tales and 
 seem to believe them, forget an Italian proverb that 
 says, Passato il dangiere, gabbato il santo — Danger 
 over, the saint is set aside. In the day of peril he 
 is invoked with the most fervent devotion ; he is 
 promised all kinds of offerings : but on the morrow 
 they are eager to forget these fine resolutions, and 
 the poor saint may drop asleep again in the dust of 
 abandonment. Suppose Victor Emmanuel had prom- 
 ised all imaginable reparations to the Papacy, we 
 may be assured that as soon as he could whistle a 
 hunting air he would no longer remember the night- 
 mares of his fever. But he promised nothing, because 
 he could not promise any thing ; for he well knows 
 that he has to deal with a parliament that will not 
 jest on these subjects. He now has difficulty enough 
 m calming its impatient ardor to take possession of all 
 that remains of the Papal States ; he will not risk his 
 crown in going backward and undoing the kingdom 
 of Italy. He would be perfectly sure, should he 
 make the attempt, to join at the Eternal City 
 the alienated majesties, and meditate quite at his 
 ease on his past plunderings. I do not think him 
 of that humor. The momignori will be cheated 
 in their felicitations in respect to his recovery, 
 winch will not lead to the restoration of an inch 
 of territory. 
 
 Italian royalty has even taken its precautions with 
 regard to the Council; it declares beforehand in a 
 ministerial circular that, while granting full leave to 
 the bishops under its jurisdiction to go there, it 
 protests in advance against decisions of the High 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 189 
 
 Assembly which may be in conflict with the consti- 
 tution and laws of the kingdom. 
 
 It is well known that the Emperor of the French 
 is still the Eldest Son of the Church, yet he will be- 
 ware of sitting in the Council. He will no more 
 occupy a place there than at Saint John de Lateran, 
 where he is an Honorary Canon. Yet this question 
 was debated seriously in the cabinet. They even 
 talked at one time of sending as Extraordinary 
 Embassador to the Council, M. Baroche, the old Min- 
 ister of Public Worship. But this was renounced for 
 the reasons indicated ; it is known that at Rome 
 French influence would not weigh a straw on the 
 resolutions of the Assembly ; that they would distrust 
 whatever came from that quarter ; and that the Extra- 
 ordinary Embassador would have the pleasure of 
 receiving constant checks. It is in itself disagreeable 
 enough to be obliged to mount guard around the 
 Council, and be charged to protect, with French bayo- 
 nets, deliberations whose clearest result may well be the 
 condemnation of all the fundamental principles of our 
 social svstem. France will remain then, arms in hand, 
 
 1/ 7 7 
 
 at the door of a Council whose threshold she will not 
 cross ; she will be the sentinel of the Holy Father, 
 with his Swiss in their yellow array. Admirable 
 role, of which she would do wrong to complain ! Is 
 there any better suited to mortify pride and lead to 
 the practice of humility ? To be sentry and beadle of 
 the Yatican in this great solemnity — that must con- 
 tent her ambition. Let her smite her breast for all 
 her past imprudence, and chiefly for that disorderly 
 love of liberty which formerly made her to-day, like 
 proud Clovis, burn what she adores. 
 
 I vainly inquire what other sovereigns might well 
 
190 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 figure in the great spectacle soon to be given. The 
 poor Queen of Spain could only bring hither the 
 Golden Rose which the Holy Father granted her the 
 last year of her sad reign, as a homage, if not to her 
 virtues, at least to the energy of her Catholic faith, 
 which made her send Bible readers to prison. The 
 Spanish Provisional Government is quite devoted to 
 the search for that rare bird called a good king, who 
 can be made whatever they please. They know, be- 
 sides, that the revolution in which they took the lead 
 is abhorred and cursed at Rome ; they have such 
 great fears of compromising themselves with the 
 Papacy that they did not even wish to lend the 
 palace of the embassy to the Archbishop of Yalla- 
 dolid for his reception as a Cardinal, and that 
 ceremony was pitiful; before ten o'clock the argand 
 lamps were extinguished. There is, indeed, a royalty 
 of the old order present at Rome; unhappily it is a 
 royalty without a realm. The poor little King of 
 Naples, Francis II., will not leave his Farnese Palace, 
 where he is expecting an heir, alas ! without an in- 
 heritance, even though he should cause him to have 
 all the provinces of the former kingdom of Naples for 
 his godfather. He can only offer the Holy Father 
 the purity of his absolutist and Catholic orthodoxy; 
 but that does not suffice to establish the ancient rule; 
 he is only the shade of a dead and buried past, save 
 in Rome, where he exists in a mummified state. 
 
 As to your Great Republic, nobody thinks of 
 her on this occasion, and nothing does her more 
 honor than the universally recognized incompatibil- 
 ity between her and any blending of religion and 
 politics. 
 
 Having spoken of those who will not be in the 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 191 
 
 Council, let us speak of those who will be present. A 
 Jove principium. Let us begin with the god of the 
 Catholic Olympus, the venerable and dangerous 
 Pius IX. ; one of those men destined sincerely to 
 lead the convoy of ancient institutions, and whom 
 we may call the Louis XYI. of the Papacy, except 
 the tragic end which, thanks to God ! is not to be 
 dreaded. Like the august and unfortunate victim of 
 the French Revolution, he bears the crushing weight 
 of an entire past of which he is innocent, but whose 
 responsibility he finally accepts with blind enthusi- 
 asm. He also began with projects of reform and 
 smiles on liberty, to end with the most unbridled 
 reaction. As to the purity of his life and the sin- 
 cerity of his faith, calumny herself has never raised 
 a suspicion against them. Let us seek, as far as the 
 profane may, to penetrate this complex nature, which, 
 through its medley of good qualities and defects, 
 will have exercised a great influence on the fortunes 
 of religion in the nineteenth century. 
 
 Pius IX. is two years older than people commonly 
 think. . He himself told our embassador in these 
 charming terms : " They are always taking some- 
 thing from the poor Pope. They have even taken 
 two years from me in consequence of the confusion 
 into which the events of the close of the last cen- 
 tury had thrown registers of birth in the Pontifi- 
 cal States." This rectification makes the Pope 
 nearly eighty years old. He belongs, moreover, to a 
 family in which longevity is traditional. His father 
 died at the age of eighty-eight years, not through 
 senile weakness, but in consequence of an accident. 
 This very year the Pope celebrated the jubilee of his 
 ordination. Now, before being a priest he was a 
 
192 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 soldier. Very young, he entered the noble guards. 
 Thus with the sword he served that temporal power 
 of the Papacy which he was afterward to defend in 
 his Pontifical quality with so much energy and ob- 
 stinacy. Few details are known about the obscure 
 years of his priesthood. Pie owed to his nobility — 
 for he belongs to the great family of the Mastai — as 
 much as to his ecclesiastical qualities, which how- 
 ever were real, his elevation to episcopal dignity, 
 and then to the Cardinalship. He became noted for 
 his piety and gentleness. His diocese was as well 
 administered as is possible in this country ; that suf- 
 ficed to give him a great reputation as a popular 
 bishop. His election on the death of Gregory XVI. 
 in 1846, was effected with astonishing rapidity, and 
 without the usual intrigues. One of the first acts of 
 his reign was the proclamation of an amnesty, which 
 filled not only Rome, but all Italy with enthusiasm. 
 To comprehend the almost delirious character which 
 that enthusiasm assumed, we must go back to the 
 political and moral circumstances of Italy. The mo- 
 ment had come when the movement for emancipa- 
 tion had gained a development which nothing could 
 arrest. Proud and shivering, all Italy was rising up 
 against those who had insolently told her that she 
 had no right to exist as a nation, and that she was 
 only a convenient geographical circumscription. On 
 the other hand, some of her most illustrious patriots 
 dreamed of a close alliance between the Papacy and 
 national independence, forgetting the part of the 
 Holy See in the past, and the maledictions of Dante, 
 who truly was the inspired voice of Italian patriotism, 
 irritated at being always wrecked on the oecumenical 
 sovereignty, which could not espouse that cause with- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 193 
 
 out diminishing itself. These generous theorists of 
 the future mentally recast the Pontificate in their 
 own image, and intrusted to her the care of repre- 
 senting and defending, by a purely moral authority, 
 enfranchised and regenerate Italy. Abbe Geoberti, 
 in his famous book on the " Primate,'' had developed 
 these ideas with great eloquence. In that work peo- 
 ple found a medley of elevated philosophy and liberal 
 demands which secured it considerable credit. Under 
 this impulse all eyes turned toward Rome on the 
 death of the old Pope, from whom they could only 
 expect new editions of his Encyclical against liberty 
 of conscience. It is easy to comprehend what rap- 
 tures seized this ardent and changeful people, which 
 feels things as much with its imagination as with its 
 heart, when it saw proceeding from the urns of the 
 Conclave a sympathetic name compromised by no 
 reactionary measure. These favorable dispositions 
 became a true intoxication on the proclamation of 
 an amnesty, which was, however, less general and 
 liberal than might be supposed. People applauded 
 in it all that it seemed to promise ; they hailed the 
 future in the present, and the name of Pius IX. flew 
 from lip to lip as the symbol of a risen country, as 
 the pledge of all progress and deliverance. Popular 
 enthusiasm no longer saw things as they were, but 
 as it desired them. Though wide awake, Italy 
 dreamed of the accomplishment, of her aspirations, 
 and she thanked the new Pope for her dream as if 
 it were already realized. Instead of contenting her- 
 self with a recognition of the very modest reforms 
 already granted, she drew from them all that she 
 could desire with an ingenuous faith which was to be 
 
 cruelly deceived. This enthusiasm itself reacted on 
 
 13 
 
194 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the ardent soul of Pius IX. He tasted all the sweets 
 of popularity, and gave new pledges in the organiza- 
 tion of a State Council, wherein all the cities of his 
 States were to be represented by laymen, and in the 
 organization of a national guard. Yet those who 
 were thoroughly acquainted with the Holy Father 
 knew how precarious were these reforms, since they 
 did not repose on firmly fixed principles of conduct, 
 but on essentially changing impressions. He suf- 
 fered himself to be guided by the inspirations of his 
 heart without subjecting them to reflection, and he 
 w r as quite disposed to take these inspirations for di- 
 rect communications from the Holy Spirit. 
 
 I was told at Rome that before deciding on some 
 simple police measure, the Pope kept his eyes long 
 fixed on a crucifix, then he determined it suddenly 
 as though he had received advice from Heaven, 
 though it was a minute administrative detail. 
 " Thus," said the eminent and sprightly man from 
 whom I have this anecdote, " does Pius IX. bring 
 the heights of heaven into the dens of politics." I 
 surely understand that the disciple of Jesus Christ 
 may do all in his name, according to the apostolical 
 precept ; but he ought to consult his Master with his 
 conscience and reason, and strive to grasp the spirit 
 of his precepts or example. Nothing is more dan- 
 gerous than wishing in all things to proceed by in- 
 spiration, for men then excuse themselves from re- 
 flection, and give way to every caprice of the imag- 
 ination, and to all the fluctuations of the sensibilities. 
 To-day the wind blows from the north, to-morrow it 
 will come from the south, and men allow themselves 
 to be turned about at its will. 
 
 The north wind soon replaced the south wind with 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 195 
 
 the Holy Father. In treating the Roman question 
 I have already related the grave incidents which in- 
 duced this sudden change, without at all palliating 
 the faults and crimes of a violent demagogy which 
 did not recoil before the murder of the Pope's chief 
 magistrate, the illustrious Rossi. Tet it would be 
 unjust to impute this crime to the entire party, since 
 it was the deed of an isolated fanaticism. But even 
 before the revolutionary movement had displaced 
 progress in regular ways, when all Italy was echoing 
 from end to end with the cry, Viva Pio Nono, the 
 Holy Father was beginning to turn from his liberal 
 policy. On this very curious phase of his reign we 
 have a document of prime importance, which permits 
 us to follow from day to day the crisis of his mind, if 
 I may so speak. This is the correspondence of Mas- 
 simo d'Azeglio, who played a considerable part in the 
 Italian renovation, aud whose honesty is universally 
 recognized. It was he who nobly said as he assumed 
 the direction of the Piedmontese ministry in an hour 
 of great danger, " I am not in power, but in duty." 
 He has left the purest and most respectable reputa- 
 tion. He was, moreover, a Catholic in conviction, 
 of liberal and sincere piety. The King, Charles Al- 
 bert, had sent him in 1848 as Extraordinary Embas- 
 sador to the Holy Father, in order to induce him to 
 give the cause of national independence the support 
 of his popularity and moral authority. In another 
 letter I have explained why the common Father of the 
 faithful had not thought it possible to take part in 
 this conflict, though really, by withdrawing his troops 
 from the Italian army, he espoused the Austrian 
 cause ; this he openly did shortly after. What is 
 especially interesting in the letters of Massimo 
 
196 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 cTAzeglio — charming letters, written in French, in 
 simple, living, and picturesque language — is a species 
 of psychological study of Pius IX. made as events 
 progressed. These letters always speak of him with 
 the greatest respect, without any slanderous spirit, but 
 they lay bare all the secret springs which act in the 
 Pontifical Court on the will of the chief of Catholi- 
 cism ; chey make us follow in all their windings the 
 hardly edilying channels through which the so-called 
 celestial inspirations pass before being transformed 
 into motu proprio. Nowhere have I seen presented 
 with more truth that terrible Roman machinery 
 which works only in a miserable sacristy interest. 
 It was of this that Massimo d'Azeglio said with en- 
 ergy, " At Pome they fabricate an artificial con- 
 science, which they substitute for the human con- 
 science." A profound saying, which perfectly ex- 
 plains the overthrow of morality in behalf of religious 
 despotism. Good is whatever profits the hierarchy; 
 evil is whatever compromises it. Deeds are arranged 
 in these two categories, and tried by this test. Mas- 
 simo d'Azeglio disengages with Italian neatness, and 
 judges with his probity as an honest man and a con- 
 vinced patriot, the Jesuit intrigue, whose nets gradu- 
 ally entangle the soul of Pius IX., and lead him back 
 to the true traditions of the Papacy. One day he 
 believes he has shaken him, and led him back to the 
 Italian cause. He is charmed with his goodness, 
 gentleness, his mind so free from pride. A few 
 hours later he returns ; every thing is changed. 
 Some Jesuit has been able to trouble the soul of the 
 Pope, to awaken its scruples, and the sacred weather- 
 cock has turned anew. I recommend the perusal of 
 this correspondence to all who wish to acquire a pro- 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 197 
 
 found knowledge of the Roman Court and of the 
 character of Pius IX. We see that the author sought 
 as long as possible to lull himself in illusions. His 
 piety made it his duty to abandon hope only at the 
 last extremity. We see his inward struggles in these 
 various phases, until at length, all vails being rent, 
 and the true condition of things appearing in full 
 light, he breaks out in words of indignation, and he 
 too shakes the dust off his feet in turn, not against 
 Catholic institutions, in which he did not cease to 
 believe, but against the Roman Court and its detest- 
 able policy. Let the blind admirers of Rome, and 
 especially Protestants, who feel themselves attracted 
 by its splendors, hear and weigh the indisputable 
 testimony of this pious and chivalrous Catholic, who 
 speaks only of what he saw with his own eyes in the 
 Eternal City! 
 
 Gaeta, whither the Pope fled, was his rock of 
 Patmos ; at least, this is what is pretended by those 
 sad councilors who, at the epoch of his hegira, took 
 possession of that feeble mind ; there he perceived 
 that liberty is of the devil, that whatever resembles 
 or leads to it should be accursed. Did it not pro- 
 ceed from the hell of a republic to enter the paradise 
 of an absolute monarchy, a paradise which, it is true, 
 needed to be guarded by foreign troops against the 
 dull irritation of its inhabitants ; but what ! did not 
 the garden of Eden itself have its cherubim and 
 flaming sword ? Only the business was not to keep 
 those under who had first dwelt there, but to prevent 
 their return, which shows a slight difference in the 
 two situations. It was ever the government of the 
 Bourbons of Naples, which had combined treason 
 with violence, and cast into prison citizens whom it 
 
198 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 had attracted into its councils as into a snare, that 
 seemed in all points admirable to him, and was the 
 ideal model which he sought to propose for the imi- 
 tation of Christendom. This absolutist tack of the 
 liberal Pope of 1846, shows his mobility and mental 
 weakness. It was at Gaeta that, a new Moses, he 
 received the tables of the political and religious law 
 which thenceforth he was never to grow weary of 
 presenting to the world; his two Encyclicals and the 
 Syllabus are its summary. Unhappily for his people, 
 he could pass at will from theory to practice, and 
 try on the shoulders of the Romans a yoke which he 
 imagined had been forged on a celestial anvil by the 
 holy angels. 
 
 I am not narrating the reign of Pius IX. ; I limit 
 myself to trying to make him known. Since his re- 
 turn to Some he has always remained what his exile 
 to Gaeta had made him. The doctrine of Jesuitism 
 is incarnate in him ; I do not mean its morality, for 
 nobody accuses the Pope of duplicity. It is his very 
 sinceritj 7 which is his strength, and an invaluable ad- 
 vantage to his inspirers. He transforms their calcu- 
 lations into fervor and enthusiasm, and appears to 
 purify them by contact with his soul. It seems like 
 a muddy spring, so long as it is subterranean, which 
 regains its limpidity the moment it leaps up into the 
 open air. The resolutions of Pius IX. indeed come 
 from the subterranean springs of the Gesu, and pro- 
 ceed from that tortuous policy which defrauds at 
 ease in maximam Dei gloriam y but he shows so 
 much good faith in them that he takes away their 
 odious morality, while preserving their native brand 
 of civil and religious absolutism. His personal piety 
 is indisputable, while in the past his purity of life 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 199 
 
 has never been touched by suspicion. He bears up 
 his eighty years magnificently, without an infirmity. 
 His figure is full of keenness and gentleness, but it is 
 the gentleness of invincible obstinacy : he has not a 
 doubt, not a hesitation, on the course he has taken. 
 He is proud of his ideas, sure of himself. He feels 
 himself a prophet, and acts as if he were. Moreover, 
 the prophet unbends : his domestic life does not 
 cease to be very simple, it is the life of a monk ; yet 
 he delights in amiable speeches, in conversational 
 familiarity. In the audiences which he grants to all 
 that ask them, he suddenly drops the tone and bear- 
 ing of the Pontiff to speak like a simple mortal of 
 the health of his visitors and of the incidents of their 
 journey. This is what especially charms English 
 neophytes. Is there any thing more amiable than a 
 smiling and jesting God ? The Romans are harder 
 to please ; have they not imagined that the Pope has 
 an evil eye, and that his benediction brings misfor- 
 tunes ? They shun it, too, as far as possible. 
 
 If bondage to his system is perfect in Pius IX., his 
 heart is full of kindness. In an Encyclical, he will 
 not hesitate to devote all heretics to eternal flames, 
 but he will tolerate no anger at individuals. One 
 day he said to a young Erench priest who was going 
 back to his own country : " My child, you cannot 
 hate error enough ; but love him who has fallen into 
 it, I do not say like a brother, but like a mother." 
 It should not be forgotten that this maternal love 
 exacts the doing every thing for the salvation of 
 the soul which is its object, and that to tear it from 
 doctrines which ruin it they will refuse it air and 
 light, and send the body to rot in some dungeon of 
 the Inquisition. We must not be deceived by 
 
200 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 this clerical gentlenest, sincere as it may appear in 
 the Pope. 
 
 Such seems to us the President, the Chief, the In- 
 spirer of the future Council ; an upright and ardent 
 soul, fixed forever, despite his early mobility, in the 
 doctrines of Jesuitism ; uniting fanaticism with good- 
 ness ; following his own impulses as inspirations ; be- 
 lieving in himself as in a dogma; without pride, 
 because he thinks himself at an inaccessible height, 
 and believes that so indisputable a superiority need 
 not be asserted ; indulgent and inflexible ; incapable 
 of political management, following ever his path, his 
 idea; as ignorant of the times as the lowest monk; 
 able to be a sincere Christian in his humility, and a 
 Pontiff usurping the rights of God and of his Christ. 
 Behold the man ! Never did Saint Peter's bark, so 
 called, have such a dangerous pilot in a more tem- 
 pestuous voyage. The Holy Father, as the Yicar of 
 Christ, will vainly say, " It is I ; be not afraid ;" it 
 is he that directs the tacking of the ship. For that 
 very reason should the crew tremble ! 
 
 Among the Italian Cardinals, the only one who 
 is now of real importance is the famous Antonelli. 
 He will not figure in the front rank among the 
 doctors of the Council, for he has, perhaps, never 
 opened a theological work. He is Cardinal Deacon, 
 and has never received priestly orders. But if he 
 dogmatizes little, he acts much ; and he will certainly 
 be as influential behind the scenes of the Council as 
 he will be silent in its deliberations. Cardinal Anto- 
 nelli differs in every point from the Pope. He does 
 not ask his political inspirations from heaven. Secre- 
 tary of State to the Holy Father, he really governs; 
 he does it with that short-sighted skill which only 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 201 
 
 considers the embarrassment of the moment, and which 
 gets out of them as Figaro got out of the imbroglios 
 into which he plunged. Cardinal Antonelli, who is 
 not thought to have serious convictions, who has 
 always been a frivolous and worldly prelate, has put 
 himself entirely at the service of the Jesuitical reac- 
 tion ; he has there sought his point of support. He has, 
 then, no excuse ; for nothing can be more abominable 
 than to play the fanatic through policy, and to use a 
 crafty prudence in violence. He indeed revealed the 
 measure of his disinterestedness in the jealousy which 
 he showed toward men most devoted to the Papacy 
 when he had reason to fear lest they should eclipse 
 himself with the Holy Father. Thus, when the 
 generous Lamoriciere came to offer his sword to the 
 Holy Father in the redoubtable and decisive struggle 
 which ended with the battle of Castel-Fidardo and in 
 the loss of all Romagna and Umbria, he constantly 
 clashed with the ill-will of the Cardinal Secretary of 
 State, w T ho looked with evil eye on those who were serv- 
 ing his cause without his aid, and crossed, irritated, and 
 weakened the General as much as he could. Mon- 
 siegneur de Merode, brofcher-in-law of M. de Monta- 
 lembert, a brilliant and convinced man, who seriously 
 sought to form a Pontifical army which could be 
 counted on, was forced to undergo a daily struggle 
 with Cardinal Antonelli, who had no rest till he had 
 deprived this useful servant of the Papacy of his 
 high position. He also delights on occasion, and 
 with more reserve, to show his ill-will toward the 
 chiefs of the French army of occupation, and his 
 proceedings have sometimes led to an outburst. 
 Cardinal Antonelli, who feels his full worth, desires 
 to preserve himself as long as possible for the Papacy. 
 
202 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 His fear of death is proverbial. It is said that when 
 the cholera broke out in Rome some years ago, 
 Antonelli, under pretense of watching over the 
 Holy Father and preserving him from the malady, 
 shut himself up in the Vatican and forbade all comr 
 munication from without. One of his enemies who 
 had something to avenge, and who, prelate as he 
 was, counted on indulging in this satisfaction, came 
 to the Vatican declaring that he must speak on seri- 
 ous affairs with the Cardinal Secretary of State. 
 The latter could not decline the interview. u Whence 
 do you come ?" he asked the importunate prelate. " I 
 come," replied he, "from the hospital, where I have 
 been chafing cholera patients." To paint the wrath 
 and terror of the Secretary of State is impossible. 
 That vengeance was perfect. Moreover, we have 
 only to consider him closely to judge him. At sight 
 of that sly, weasel-face you comprehend his past and 
 his career. What is most astonishing is, that honest 
 Pius IX. should so long have kept this unloyal and 
 unspiritual adviser beside him as the director of his 
 policy. No doubt the Pontiff regards this as a 
 necessity of his sovereignty, and we have thus a new 
 proof of the full moral independence wdiich it secures 
 him. 
 
 Of the other Cardinals I shall say nothing, because 
 their work is insignificant beside that of Cardinal An- 
 tonelli, whose compeers they hardly are, since he alone 
 holds the clew of all the business and the intrigues. 
 The whole Sacred College at Pome belongs to the 
 extreme tendency. The Neapolitan Cardinal Andrea 
 alone had shown some feeble good-will to the national 
 cause, but he was drenched with disgusts, severely 
 reprimanded, and returned to die sadly at Rome some 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 203 
 
 months since, to teach all his colleagues and his suc- 
 cessors that they cannot accept the purple without 
 taking with it all the countersigns of the Roman 
 Court. I know but one Italian entitled to sit in 
 the Council who is a friend of freedom : this is 
 Father Tosti, the superior of the celebrated Convent 
 of Monte Cassini, a distinguished scholar, nourished 
 in retirement on the finest studies. Drawing in his 
 convent on one of the richest ecclesiastical libraries 
 in the world, he has distinguished himself by a very 
 erudite history of the order of Saint Benedict, on 
 which he is still laboring. He has also interfered 
 in contemporary struggles with writings in which 
 breathes a true Christian liberality ; he has com- 
 bated the Ultramontane and Jesuitical tendency 
 with rare frankness in eloquent pages which have 
 widely echoed. He is much disliked at Rome, whither 
 he has just come to sit in the Council. It is certain 
 that he will there support the Grallican party with all 
 his power. Unhappily, he occupies only a second- 
 ary position in the episcopate, and he will be made 
 to feel it. 
 
 If I come to the eminent prelates of other nations, 
 I encounter first Monseigneur Manning, the Arch- 
 bishop of Westminster, an old graduate of Oxford. 
 He is a convert to Catholicism; he has all the fervor 
 and all the narrowness, though not the eminent 
 talents, of Cardinal Wiseman, his predecessor. His 
 pastoral letters are prolix, and very weak in argu- 
 ment. He will do well to vote as others do in the 
 Council rather than defend his party in speech, for he 
 has only a limping logic and a hardly profound science 
 to devote to that service. His importance comes 
 much more from his position than from his powers. 
 
204: Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 and also from the promises which he makes of the 
 near return of England to Catholicism. 
 
 Among the German Bishops who made a protest at 
 Fulda against the proclamation of the new doctrine of 
 the Papal infallibility, in language full of respect, but 
 whose bearing escaped none, I will mention Bishop 
 Hoefele. He represents very honorably that German 
 Catholicism which has gained much from the contigu- 
 ity of the Reform, and which has taken up habits of 
 serious study on that classic soil of science. Hoefele 
 w 7 as long a professor of theology at Tubingen ; he has 
 published a well-reputed edition of the Apostolic Fa- 
 thers, and a History of the Councils, which must fur- 
 nish him useful information for the debates soon to 
 open. I will mention further Bishop Hanneberger of 
 Bavaria, a friend and disciple of Dollinger, animated 
 by a truly evangelical spirit. I remember hearing 
 from him, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at 
 Jerusalem, a very simple and very fine discourse, 
 animated by a truly evangelical spirit, without the 
 least trace of superstition. He, too, is a man of 
 learning. May these German prelates not undergo 
 the soothing and lulling influence of Rome, but quit 
 themselves as men in the grand debate ! It is greatly 
 hoped here that, when once they have touched 
 Italian soil, they will leave their protestations in their 
 baggage, and suffer themselves to be carried away by 
 the general enthusiasm. People already see them at 
 the feet of Pius IX. I hope truly that Rome reckons 
 without her host. 
 
 I come to the French bishops, and shall try to make 
 yon acquainted not with their opinions, on which I 
 have sufficiently dilated, but with themselves. Let 
 us begin with the Coryphei of Ultramontanism. You 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 205 
 
 have first our Cardinals. I will say nothing of Mon- 
 seigneur Donnet, Archbishop of Bordeaux, because 
 you may be assured of his nullity in the Council. 
 He is a prelate of very noble bearing ; the most not- 
 able event of his life was being buried alive when he 
 was merely a young Abbe whose existence did not 
 seem so precious as since he has occupied one of the 
 chief Sees of France. The mistake was seasonably 
 discovered, and he has furnished a very brilliant eccle- 
 siastical career — at least from the stand-point of pre- 
 ferment. He will represent to advantage in the 
 Council that Bordeaux vineyard of which he has such 
 a varied and profound knowledge. In the French 
 Senate, to which he belongs, he has only made weak 
 and insignificant speeches ; the bench of Cardinals, 
 however, was never resplendent there, and in religious 
 questions, whenever there is an unskillful thing to 
 do or say, the prelates are never found wanting. 
 Nothing is heavier or more trailing than this ecclesi- 
 astical verbiage. However, an exception must be 
 made from the oratorical stand-point in favor of Mon- 
 seigneur Bonnechose, Archbishop of Rouen, and Car- 
 dinal. He can speak with elegance and distinction. 
 I perfectly remember his first efforts at Paris thirty 
 years ago. He was then a young Abbe, sweet and 
 sympathetic in his eloquence. There was even a 
 gleam of Liberalism upon him. He w T as the most 
 faithful disciple of the celebrated Abbe Bautain, who 
 had been censured at Strasburg by his bishop. It is 
 true that his resistance resembled that Russian aristo- 
 cratic opposition which reproaches the tyrant for not 
 being despotic enough. The Abbe Bautain asserted 
 the insufficiency of human reason in a way which 
 seemed exaggerated even at Rome. But they did 
 
206 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 not then give much attention to the basis of his doc- 
 trine ; they saw him struggling with his bishop ; that 
 was enough to make him a Liberal Catholic and bring 
 his disciples into favor. In the front rank of these 
 shone the Abbe Bonnechose. He was very popular 
 at Paris, about 1840, in the little chapel of Foreign 
 Missions, where he preached, if I mistake not, during 
 Lent. People liked his unction and agreeableness. 
 However, he remained in the temperate regions, and 
 was not destined to enter the phalanx of the Ravig- 
 nans and the Lacordaires. He early became Bishop 
 of Perpignan, and showed great administrative gifts. 
 Scarcely nominated to the Archiepiscopal See of 
 Rouen, he received a Cardinal's hat. The courtier- 
 like tone of the discourse which he addressed on this 
 occasion to the Emperor Napoleon was observed. He 
 gave the ultramontane party pledges, but always with 
 a certain prudence, as to political applications of the 
 system which might annoy him as French Senator. 
 It was he who said in open Senate that he considered 
 his clergy as a regiment of which he was colonel, and 
 that he meant to exact military obedience. In the 
 Council he will neither compromise himself with the 
 Holy See nor with the French government. 
 
 Most of the provincial bishops reach Pome in a 
 state of true Ultramontane fervor. Monseigneur de 
 Montauban is distinguished for his fanaticism ; this is 
 his sole title to notorietv, for his circulars are master- 
 pieces of bad style and absurdity. 
 
 Monseigneur Plantier, Bishop of Nimes, follows the 
 same flag, only he gives it so much the more glaring 
 and visible colors because he began by hoisting the 
 opposite standard He is a converted Gallican, but 
 he is truly converted. Bishop of a diocese where 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 207 
 
 Protestantism is largely represented, he thinks it his 
 duty constantly to provoke it, which is a culpable im- 
 prudence in a country so often deluged with blood in 
 religious struggles, and which in 1815 was the thea- 
 ter of true massacres accomplished by brigands who 
 pretended to be champions of the Catholic faith. 
 The ultramontane pastoral letters of Monseigneur 
 Plantier exasperate the nerves of France, when she 
 reads them, by their bilious tone and their bitter rub- 
 bish. But let us admit that he is outdone in this holy 
 war by Monseigneur Pie, Bishop of Poictiers, who 
 should be called the Zouave Prelate, after his famous 
 adventure in a funeral oration over a living thief, who 
 was reported to have died in the service of the Holy 
 Father. I believe I have already mentioned this 
 affair. Monseigneur Pie is himself a zouave of the 
 infallible Papacy, ever ready to charge Grallicanism, 
 his episcopal rapier in the air, shooting out his circu- 
 lars right and left like grape-shot ever at his disposal, 
 patronizing the grossest superstitions, founding relig- 
 ious festivals for relics that can only be named in 
 Latin ; finally one of those useful adversaries who ren- 
 der a hundredfold more service to the causes they 
 combat than to those they defend. It is with a cer- 
 tain pleasure that I see him at Rome ; he reserves a 
 few weak chances of success for the Gallican Prelates 
 of whom I must now speak. 
 
 1 count three of these, Monseigneur dela Rochelle, 
 a learned and eloquent prelate, known for his liber- 
 ality ; then Monseigneur Dupanloup, and the Arch- 
 bishop of Paris. You know all the noise made by 
 the former in his recent manifesto against the infalli- 
 bility of the Pope. I confess that after his attitude 
 of late years I did not expect such clear and decided 
 
208 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 language from him. Monseigneur Dupanloup is a 
 man of vehement impulses, incapable of arresting 
 his pen. Whatever crosses his heart or his mind 
 must at once explode. His ruddy face reveals a 
 sanguineous temperament ; he can only work with 
 all the windows open, and he tires his secretaries out, 
 as some cavaliers harry several horses in their day's 
 ride. He has written enormously. His best claim 
 to literary distinction is a large book on education, 
 which opened the doors of the French Academy to 
 him ; but his circulars and pamphlets have produced 
 a far greater sensation, for he has the pen of a true 
 journalist, and shuns the jeremiads of his compeers. 
 He has a lively turn, the granum salis, irony and 
 passion. He dilutes far too much these ingredients 
 of a good style. It is largely to him that we owe 
 the detestable law on public education which still 
 rules us, and which gives the lion's share to the 
 clergy in the direction of the University. Last year 
 Monseigneur Dupanloup waged a deplorable cam- 
 paign against lay instruction, upon which he invoked 
 the severities of the civil authority, while seeming to 
 demand the complete freedom of education ; a sure 
 means of strengthening the evil tendencies which he 
 denounced. But he has flung fire and flames at new 
 Italy, and defended the temporal power of the Pa- 
 pacy with more passion than any of his colleagues. 
 Yet he is not disposed to follow the Papacy quite to 
 the proclamation of its infallibility ; the services 
 which he has rendered will prevent their treating his 
 opposition too contemptuously should it continue. 
 Despite all his ardor as a Catholic controversialist, 
 Monseigneur Dupanloup is nevertheless a hundred 
 leagues from the doctrines of the Encyclical, which 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 209 
 
 he has striven to color with a liberal hue in a com- 
 plaisant commentary. Despite his enforced confi- 
 dence in the result of the Council, he must go there 
 in fear and trembling. 
 
 The Prelate who will quite certainly feel least at 
 ease in Rome is the Archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur 
 Darboy. Observe that fine and distinguished phys- 
 iognomy, somewhat sad in its nobleness ; you recog- 
 nize in him a modern man so far as it is possible to 
 remain one under an archiepiscopal miter. Mon- 
 seigneur Darboy belongs to the most decided tendency 
 of liberal Catholicism, as is proved by the sympa- 
 thetic protection he so long accorded to Father 
 Hyacinthe. He stoutly resisted the encroachments 
 of religious corporations on his authority, and openly 
 broke with all the popelings who sought to impose 
 themselves on him. He is also greatly attached to 
 the grandeur of France, which he confounds a little 
 too much with the fortunes of the empire, and the 
 Syllabus has no more decided foe. Judge if the air 
 of Rome can suit his mind, and how he is there con- 
 sidered. I am very curious to know what his atti- 
 tude will be in the debate, and how far he will be 
 able to express all his thoughts. 
 
 Laymen will not enter the Council, but the in- 
 fluence of some of them will there be very puissant. 
 One layman like Louis Yeuillot is worth twenty 
 bishops. The Editor of the TJnivers will be in the 
 High Assembly, like Agrippina in the councils of 
 Nero, " invisible and present," according to the ex- 
 pression of Racine in his beautiful tragedy. Louis 
 Yeuillot has elevated abuse and invective to the 
 height of an institution. This harsh guardian of 
 
 Ultramontane orthodoxy has been very well called the 
 
 14 
 
210 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 King of Abuse. He is well esteemed at Rome ; there 
 his journal brings rain and fair weather. We may 
 be sure that he will play a great part during the 
 Council. He will represent the lay element and 
 the universal priesthood by the broadsides of 
 scarcely canonical abuse, which he will let fly at 
 all who will not fall in with the pace of Ultramon- 
 tanism. 
 
 To give you an idea of what is expected in the 
 Liberal camp at Rome of the High Assembly, I will 
 introduce you into one of the most distinguished 
 Italian houses, which I cannot otherwise designate. 
 There I found a freetalker, as bold as any in the 
 most independent drawing-rooms of Paris. Here is 
 about what I heard from very well-informed and 
 very sprightly lips. 
 
 " The Pope vainly says, as he did the other day, 
 pointing to the sun, 'My infallibility is no less evi- 
 dent? As w^ell go to a cardinal's reception this 
 evening in a Merry-Andrew's costume as assume in- 
 fallibility before Christendom; since this does not 
 seem less mottled with divers colors when we reflect 
 on all the opinions which in turn it has sanctioned in 
 the past. Here at Rome we see the reverse side of 
 religion ; it is the counterpart of every thing that it 
 was at its origin. It is no longer a religion, it is a 
 court. The great politicians who retain the Papacy, 
 when they have rejected Jesus Christ, are unworthy ; 
 which does not hinder me (said the speaker, with an 
 inimitable smile) from being a good Catholic." 
 
 " The Council," said one to him, " will probably 
 be a vain effort." 
 
 " Say rather, a stinging blow," replied the 
 Italian. 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 211 
 
 These are the thoughts of a large part of the 
 galleries, where the spectators are most intel- 
 ligent. It is well to glean them up, and I send them 
 to you in their sincerity and freedom. The phrase 
 a stinging Mow will remain ; it may well prove pro- 
 phetic. E. de Pkessense. 
 
212 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 At Naples — A Festival — The Bourbon Rule in Naples — Francis II. — 
 Stains on the Cause of Liberty — Garibaldi's Capture of Naples — 
 Measures of Cavour — Justice of History — Present Irritation — Popu- 
 lar Liberty — Education — Philosophy — Religion — The Buffoon on the 
 Stage and in the Pulpit — Brigandage — The Camorra — Perplexities 
 of the new Government — Italians in Politics — Evangelical Labors at 
 Naples — Political and Religious Outlook of Latin Races — Pagan 
 Naples — The Decline of Paganism — Revelations at Pompeii — Im- 
 pure Gods, Gladiators, Slaves — Discoveries in Art — Manuscripts— 
 The Victory of Christianity. 
 
 Naples, Dece?nber 1, 1869. 
 
 I MUST transport you from the City of Ruins and from 
 the Council to Naples, which may be called the great 
 enchantress of Italy, and which has, as it were, intox- 
 icated with her filters the numerous generations who 
 have in turn fallen asleep on her coasts. I arrived 
 here just as they were celebrating the great festivals 
 in honor of a new-born prince, grandson to Yictor 
 Emmanuel. The occasion is excellent for judging of 
 the condition of the new kingdom, at least in the 
 southern provinces, and also to appreciate a new as- 
 pect of classical antiquity. Thus the most actual 
 present and the past are constantly meeting in my 
 letters, as in this Italian country, where we cannot 
 take a step without meeting some great ruin. 
 
 Fifteen years ago I visited this same Naples. It 
 was then bowed under the yoke of its Bourbon, who 
 prided himself on imitating under this fine sky the 
 harsh and austere despotism of Nicholas, and dis- 
 played all the graces of a corporal without ever 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 213 
 
 having seen fire, unless in the fuses of cannon which he 
 iiad caused to be fired at his people. He resolutely 
 applied to them a system of brutalization, and con- 
 scientiously began with his own house, for he kept 
 his eldest son, heir to the throne, in dense ignorance, 
 and denied him a share in public life. He had so 
 well succeeded in this work that when he desired to 
 marry him at Munich he dared not send him to a 
 foreign court, and it was necessary that the bride 
 should be brought to Naples that the imbecility of her 
 husband might not appear to every eye. It was 
 while conducting his son to the frontiers of the king- 
 dom to receive the Princess that the King took the 
 disease which carried him off at fifty years, his con- 
 science burdened with abominable treasons, for which 
 his Jesuitical confessors enthusiastically amnestied 
 him, since they bore hard on the infamous Liberals. 
 His son, Francis IL, found himself on the throne be- 
 fore he had the slightest idea of politics, aud he was 
 content to continue the system of which he had been 
 the first victim. The machine was set up ; it went 
 alone until one fine morning, when it broke down in 
 the shock with triumphant Italian liberty. 
 
 This triumph, let us frankly confess, was obtained 
 by means that were not entirely laudable. Gari- 
 baldi's Sicilian expedition remains a truly epic epi- 
 sode, although it is now proved that he was positively 
 aided in secret by Cavour ; yet it abides true that he 
 incurred the greatest dangers, and that the struggle 
 was heroic. Garibaldi has committed great political 
 faults. He has often compromised the national cause 
 by his speeches and his deeds ; he nevertheless re- 
 mains a figure full of grandeur, which has no need 
 of the halo of a demagogic prophet, with which he 
 
214 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 allows himself to be enveloped. His courage and 
 disinterestedness have never been belied. He is like- 
 wise the idol of this ardent and imaginative people, 
 which finds in him the expression of its passions. 
 Garibaldi is the explosion of the popular volcano, 
 which has long left its wrath to rumble in its bosom 
 against religious and political tyrannies. The tor- 
 rent of fire sweeps on many pebbles with its lava. 
 Generous feelings are blended with Utopian dreams, 
 with imprudence, and abusive imprecations. 
 
 The capture of Naples itself was much less admira- 
 ble than the conquest of Sicily. People have greatly 
 celebrated the entry of Garibaldi into the capital of 
 the kingdom of the Two Sicilies without an army or 
 escort, in a simple open coach. But every body 
 knows to-day that Piedmontese gold had purchased 
 many defections in the army and navy of Francis II. ; 
 that the confidence of the unhappy young King had 
 been laid asleep by the assurances of Cavour to his 
 embassador while they were playing him false ; and, 
 finally, that Gaeta was not taken by the Red Shirts, 
 but by the regular troops of Yictor Emmanuel. This 
 explains why the work of assimilation is much slower 
 in Naples than in the other parts of Italy. History, 
 after all, executes the justice of God ; every fault is 
 severely punished and expiated by the very difficul- 
 ties which it inevitably causes to arise. If I blame 
 the measures of the Piedmontese policy, it is not, I 
 confess, because I feel any great tenderness for its 
 victims, for they were truly the scourge of one of the 
 finest countries of the world ; and they have left it in 
 a demoralized condition which will not be, for a long 
 time, transformed. Despite contrary assertions I am 
 convinced, by exact inquiries made on the spot, that the 
 
.Rome, Italy, and the Council, 215 
 
 ancient kingdom of the Two Sicilies is much more 
 attached to the Italian monarchy than is commonly 
 thought ; or at least, that it experiences no temptation 
 to put itself again under the yoke of its former mas- 
 ters. The taxes excite great irritation, because they 
 are really exorbitant; but they do not prevent the 
 circulation of life and activity in the country, while 
 it was stifled and died under the iron hand of the 
 Bourbons. For the last two days I have witnessed 
 great national festivals on occasion of the birth of an 
 heir of the House of Savoy. I can affirm that the 
 city is not adorned only by official hands, and that 
 the illuminations are not merely by order. The in- 
 habitants of the provinces troop to Naples, and en- 
 camp in the streets, so as to miss none of these festi- 
 vals. Were they so opposed to the present dynasty 
 as people say, they would not be so eager to celebrate 
 the birth of a Piedmontese Prince ; they would follow 
 the example of Northern Italy toward the Austrians. 
 It would be entirely absurd and unjust to' compare, 
 as the Catholic press does, the feelings of the Nea- 
 politans toward Victor Emmanuel with those of Milan 
 and Venice before their enfranchisement toward the 
 Emperor of Austria. I do not denv a certain discon- 
 tent, but declared hostility does not exist. Brigand- 
 age itself, that last prop of Francis II., who has ex- 
 pended the greater part of his fortune in paying it, 
 is beating a retreat at every point. No restoration 
 is, then, to be feared, unless from a general overturn 
 in Europe. 
 
 The new government has granted to Naples, as to 
 the entire Italian kingdom, the principal liberties of 
 constitutional government ; but the moral condition 
 of the people of these provinces, to which I shall 
 
216 Eome, Italy, and the Council, 
 
 ,, ^^^, 
 
 presently return, renders this present for the moment 
 nearly useless, because ignorance and idleness do not 
 know exactly what to do with it. What is infinitely 
 more important, is the development of public educa- 
 tion from the high to the humble. Popular schools 
 have multiplied, though they are still insufficient, and 
 not persistent enough; but salvation lies in the for- 
 mation of a new generation that can read and write. 
 The Italian government will doubtless walk reso- 
 lutely in this path. Superior instruction is set up on 
 a grand scale in the University of Naples. Unhap- 
 pily, the youth, habituated to the sweet idleness of 
 this delicious climate, improve it only very imper- 
 fectly. They were recently obliged to quell a mob 
 of students, who rebelled because they thought the 
 theme required for the baccalaureate too difficult ; 
 they indeed desire the diploma, but not the study 
 which it ought to represent, that it may not be a 
 vain simulacrum. Superior instruction, through an 
 anticatholic reaction, which is only too easy to un- 
 derstand, belongs almosf entirely to the most ad- 
 vanced tendencies of pantheistic philosophy. One 
 of the most popular professors lately opened his 
 course with these words : " Gentlemen, we shall begin 
 by showing how baseless and insane is the idea of a 
 God. We shall then proceed to serious studies." 
 Such a philosophy will not elevate the people. Were 
 it to decidedly triumph in the higher classes, while 
 blind devotion continued to rule in the ignorant 
 classes, the decline would be incurable. The most 
 excellent institutions in the world would not restore 
 their moral and mental health. 
 
 It is here that we must see, next to Rome, what 
 papal Catholicism makes of a people when it can 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 217 
 
 mold them as it will. We have a school in France 
 that teaches independent morality ; that is, entirely 
 separate from religion, and self-sufficient : in Italian 
 Catholicism we have religion independent of moral- 
 ity ; devotion considered as a means of escaping the 
 obligations of the eternal law, or of conveniently 
 expiating transgressions. Nothing more surely and 
 more deeply perverts the human soul than religion 
 thus understood, for it becomes a sort of plenary 
 indulgence granted to evil. It produces security in 
 vice, and almost in crime. A thousand times better 
 is the absence of religion than such devotion, which 
 is only a base terror of hell, and a material and 
 derisive means of self-insurance. It is also to Cathol- 
 icism, fashioned in the image of the Jesuits and ruled 
 by them, that this nation owes the gravest of its defects, 
 which prevents the possibility of building up any 
 thing solid upon them ; I mean its facility in false- 
 hood, its inveterate disposition to cheat. Not only is 
 there no respect for truth, but it is mocked, and 
 people would think themselves duped did they not 
 deceive their neighbors. Hence none can trust any 
 body ; distrust is universal. The bond of true human 
 fellowship is sincerity, according to the profound say- 
 ing of Saint Paul, " Speak every man truth with his 
 neighbor, for we are members one of another." 
 Speech is, indeed, the sole mode of intellectual ex- 
 change among men. To lie is to substitute bad 
 money for good coin. A land over which falsehood 
 rules is like a country where the true gold can no 
 longer be distinguished from counterfeit pieces : ex- 
 change has become impossible, the social bond is 
 relaxed, and disorder is universal. This is the great 
 sore of these southern populations — a sore which will 
 
21 S Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 be mortal if it be not promptly healed. A man who 
 knows and loves this land well said to me energetic- 
 ally, " There, conscience is dead, it is rotten." Con- 
 sequently the corner-stone, the rock on which we might 
 build, evades us ; we find only a mobile and fugitive 
 surface. Intelligence surely is not lacking ; it is 
 quick, thoughtless, piercing, free — but it has no com- 
 pass, no fixed star in the moral heavens. Its brill- 
 iancy resembles the phosphorescence of these south- 
 ern seas — which does not really shine — all the more 
 because education is nothing, and the taste for learn- 
 ing is still quite undeveloped. The lazzaroni spirit 
 is only too generally diffused in the circumambient 
 air; it is an influenza found under the embroidered 
 coat of the courtier. The Neapolitan is at once 
 sober and sensual ; he only needs a bit of bread, an 
 orange, and a cup of coffee for his morning repast; 
 he quite easily earns what he strictly needs ; he then 
 delights to roll himself up a ring in the sun, like the 
 white of an egg, or at evening under the chandeliers 
 of his theaters. His abode is neither comfortable nor 
 very neat; but his gloves are faultless, and his wife is 
 adorned like a shrine. Every thing is for the world, 
 for the gratification of vanity. His true fireside is 
 the public square, the street, the theater. He loves 
 sallies, and executes them with sprightliness. The 
 buffoon remains the most original and truthful type 
 of his literature. It has been said that ancient Russia 
 was an absolute monarchy tempered by assassination. 
 The old Neapolitan rule was despotism tempered by 
 the jests of the Merry -Andrew. The boards which 
 he trod were a sort of escape-valve and solace for the 
 repressed public spirit. A gesture, a word on the 
 tip of the lips, escaping in the flash of a rapid and 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 219 
 
 malicious smile, suffice for allusion. Yet one should 
 not be unjust even with a buffoon. At Naples he is 
 a real artist, full of spirit, caustic, a perfect mimic of 
 the ridiculous wherever he encounters it, skillful in 
 speaking the various popular dialects, and besides a 
 very good fellow, and in his way, religious. The 
 actor who spends his time in making the Neapolitan 
 populace laugh twice a day is an excellent father, 
 and cares with devoted tenderness for his sick wife. 
 The Moliere of his times, he constantly renews his 
 repertory, and plays w T hat he has composed. Alta- 
 ville has displayed true talent in this coarsely flavored 
 literature ; in the city he is the most excellent man 
 that you will see, and he is surrounded by affection- 
 ate esteem. Do not forget that we are in the land of 
 contrasts. 
 
 Under the former rule, the most successful buffoon 
 was not at the theater of San Carlino, but in the 
 pulpit of the Capuchins. There should we look to 
 see the popular orator exert himself with many gri- 
 maces and puppet gestures. What he chiefly sought 
 was to excite the nerves of his auditory, mainly com- 
 posed of women, to make them faint, and lead them 
 trembling to the threshold of the confessional. Thev 
 told me here of the effect produced by a certain 
 Capuchin, who painted hell with such fearful realism 
 that he tore cries of terror from the women who heard 
 him. He closed a frightful description of the flames 
 of hell with the picturesque expression, Quettafrit- 
 tura! — What a frying ! And the good women cried 
 out, Jesus, Mary ! What shall we do ? How escape ? 
 The Church opened its arms, and they flew to it ; 
 stretched out its hand, and they brought their offer- 
 ings. But another preacher employed an image of 
 
220 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the same class in an address to the King. The latter, 
 who had heard of his reputation as a popular 
 preacher, asked him to let the King hear him. " Look 
 oiit," replied the Capuchin, " I cannot disguise the 
 truth ; you do not know my genius, otherwise you 
 would not ask me." The King insisted, but, as a pre- 
 cautionary measure, he had him preach with closed 
 doors. The Capuchin opened with the words, " I 
 have always observed that when a fish rots, the head 
 is first tainted." The King did not ask for the rest, 
 and he did not insist on hearing him in public. This 
 preacher at least united courage with originality, and 
 his bold language made his audacious metaphor 
 uass. 
 
 JL 
 
 The manner in which the last revolution was 
 effected is an index of the moral condition of the 
 people; never were seen more accumulated treasons, 
 more brokerage or stock-jobbing of consciences. 
 On the other hand the means employed by the roy- 
 alists to regain power are still more blamable. We 
 have already spoken of its paying brigands. If we 
 reflect on it, can we find any thing more monstrous 
 than to pretend to restore true order in any country, 
 civil and religious order, by taking into pay, or at 
 least encouraging or sustaining by subsidies, wretches 
 who would have the green cap of prison ers-for-life in 
 all the prisons of Europe, who carry fire and massacre 
 through the villages, and who extort ransom from 
 prisoners under penalty of death or slit ears? What 
 has so long rendered the efficacious suppression of 
 brigandage impossible is its always finding a sure 
 asylum in the Papal States, whose frontier was an 
 inviolable barrier against the Italian police. This, 
 however, has been seen and done before all Europe 
 
Kome, Italy; and the Council. 221 
 
 in the name of the pre-eminently conservative party, 
 and with the notorious support of the Pontifical 
 Government ! For some time brigandage has sensibly 
 diminished ; this comes chiefly from the depletion of 
 the treasury of Francis II., and from the redoubtable 
 energy of the measures of repression. 
 
 The ancient rule has left behind it another scourge 
 which there will be much trouble in extirpating; 
 this is the Camorra, a species of secret, but not polit- 
 ical organization, which has spread its network over 
 the entire country. It is quite difficult to know its 
 origin, which is lost in the night of time. Perhaps it 
 was at the outset an attempt to supplement the defi- 
 ciencies of justice, and to replace it when its action 
 paused too soon. The Camorra then, in those remote 
 days, would resemble the Free Judges of the Middle 
 Ages, who followed up those whom they had con- 
 demned until they had reached them and made them 
 undergo the penalty which, in a solemn session held 
 perhaps underground, had been pronounced against 
 them. But if the Camorra had such an origin it has 
 truly been transformed ; it has become a species ot 
 Free Masonry in oppression, which has no other aim 
 than to plunder the people. We cannot comprehend 
 how it has been able to get an authority accepted 
 which is more burdensome than the best organized 
 governmental tyranny. Doubtless it is through ter- 
 ror on the one hand, and on the other by making its 
 victims hope one clay to share its profits — for the 
 Camorra is of good composition, like the House of 
 Lords; it is not limited by rights of birth, and it 
 opens its ranks to new adepts who seem worthy to 
 sustain its cause. Initiation must be difficult ; proofs 
 of courage are demanded of the candidate, a very 
 
222 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 easy courage moreover, since it consists in giving a 
 dirk-stab on the order of the chiefs, and dirk-stabs 
 from behind are willingly given. The adept belongs 
 soul and body to the association, as in secret societies, 
 only he serves no political ends ; he is merely the in- 
 strument, and also the beneficiary, of a money making 
 association, which gives dividends to its stockholders 
 by means of the poniard. It is certain that the secret 
 power of the Camorrists was recognized by a consid- 
 erable portion of the population — that they raised 
 their imposts quite at their ease. The peasant who 
 carried provisions to the city remitted a tenth to some 
 mysterious personage whom he found near the gate, 
 and he dared not defraud these popular customs. 
 The petty coachman remitted a portion of the money 
 which he had received to a passer-by, who gave him 
 a sign only too easy for him to recognize. The Cam- 
 orrist made himself obeyed from the depth of the 
 prisons, whither his exploits frequently led him. 
 Sometimes blood flowed, when the task was to sub- 
 due unexpected resistance, but that blood only ce- 
 mented the pact between the Camorrist and the 
 Neapolitan people. It has no doubt diminished since 
 the fall of the ancient rule; but it is far from being 
 abolished, for it withdraws into the shade, and its 
 secret is almost never betrayed. It is divided into 
 squads of ten men; each has its chief. When he 
 wishes to confirm his power he flings a piece of money 
 some steps before him, and asks whoever wishes to 
 replace him to pick it up. If a hand is stretched out 
 it must be immediately armed with the knife — for 
 the old chief only yields if he is overcome in the com- 
 bat which candidature induces. Ever the knife! It 
 is the sign of this religion of pillage and murder ! 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 223 
 
 I would not be unjust in the picture I am drawing 
 of the Neapolitan nation. Much should be forgiven 
 it in consideration of the education it has received, 
 without forgetting the numerous and honorable ex- 
 ceptions which show w^hat it might become under 
 better influences — those courageous citizens who, like 
 Poerio, have languished in the prisons of Ischia as 
 the price of their patriotism, and who have never de- 
 sired a pardon which seemed to them a true insult; 
 those upright, honest, and truly pious hearts which 
 are encountered here, as every-where. And then we 
 must turn with confidence to the future, and expect 
 the regeneration of this intelligent people. 
 
 The new government encounters very great diffi- 
 culties in the moral condition of the Neapolitans, as 
 well as in that of Southern Italy in general. Thus 
 one of the most insuperable obstacles to a good estab- 
 lishment of the finances is precisely that facility in 
 falsehood which is so common in this country. Vain- 
 ly are the imposts so arranged as to meet the enor- 
 mous deficit which weighs on the kingdom ; they 
 come in very imperfectly; the channels may be w r ell 
 hollowed out, they too often find supplemental ditches 
 to drain them, and a good share stops on the way. 
 Either the tax-payers find means of escaping them 
 through ruse, or the subaltern officers ply their w T its 
 to appropriate them to their ow r n use. This is the 
 shameful sore of this country, through which some of 
 its best resources flow away. A good observer said 
 that what it had mainly lacked for some time w r as 
 honest functionaries. The North possesses some of 
 these, but they are rarer than tenors in the South. 
 Add to this grave inconvenience an excessive mobility 
 in the financial regulations, which leads to disorder 
 
224: Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 and endless delay — all causes of impoverishment for 
 the public treasury. The lack of persistency and 
 stability in political life always hinders its regular 
 movement. The unbridled babbling of the Neapoli- 
 tan is also a cause of weakness in the discharge of 
 civic duties. I was told that when a simple munici- 
 pal election w r as held at Naples, the result was not 
 known till six weeks after the ballot. The reason is 
 very simple ; every old municipal councilor wished to 
 make a speech, and he gave way to his oratorical vein 
 as though he alone were to speak. Italy invented 
 discourses of two or three days' duration which set 
 and rise with the sun. The moral life is in danger 
 of running away in this unbridled prattle. However, 
 to be just, we should recognize a political instinct in 
 the Italian which always brings him up on his feet, 
 and which in very critical hours enables him to find 
 the practical issue with a skill which would rebuke 
 many old diplomatists. It is still the race of Ma- 
 chiavelli. They are also like the Athenians in the 
 insatiable curiosity which consumes them. The cof- 
 fee-house is to them what the agora was for the brill- 
 iant loafers of Greece. They are not content, with 
 the public new^s, they would know every thing of the 
 private life of those whom they encounter. It is not 
 rare to hear a Southern Italian ask his neighbor in a 
 box at the theater the amount of his income, or a 
 lady whom he does not know how many children she 
 has, and whether she has hopes of more. The lan- 
 guage easily lacks modesty ; it has the intrepidity of 
 the old Latin in calling things by their names. When 
 we reflect on the condition of this people at the mo- 
 ment when it came from the hands of the Bourbons, 
 w r e comprehend the characteristic words that slipped 
 
 / 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council, 225 
 
 from the illustrious Cavour in his mortal agony: 
 u N~o siege; le lam. le lavi!" — wash, purify them! 
 He was right ; it is indeed a regenerating bath that 
 the Italians of the South need. The bath has begun 
 with the diffusion of public education, which has 
 carried its budget for the old kingdom of Naples up 
 from about $10,000 to about $180,000, and which 
 lias every-where organized courses of evening lectures. 
 The disappearance of a large number of convents in 
 consequence of the sale of the ecclesiastical estates is 
 likewise a benefit ; for those idle monks, who shot up 
 in all the country as in ancient Spain, served only to 
 maintain ignorance and false devotion. But the 
 great instrument of regeneration would be the propa- 
 gation of the pure Gospel, which alone can reach the 
 evil at its root by renewing conscience. Let us 
 glance at what has been done in this particular. 
 
 It would seem that, when the barriers reared by 
 Catholic absolutism had fallen, and freedom of con- 
 science had become the law of the land, the preach- 
 ing of the pure Gospel would have the most rapid 
 success. It has not been so, because precisely the 
 first effect of the former administration was pro- 
 foundly to shake that moral basis on which alone 
 Christianity can build. It is a great error to imagine 
 that outward circumstances have a preponderating 
 influence on religious development. The Christian 
 Church won its finest conquests under the yoke of 
 the Roman tyranny, because it encountered a well 
 prepared soil; because if the evil was great, it was 
 truly felt, and the aspirations of men's hearts antici- 
 pated the Gospel. It was the same in the sixteenth 
 century, which surely was not an age of free con- 
 science. The Reform grew and conquered under 
 
 15 
 
226 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the most tyrannical rule that can be imagined. It 
 also found a predisposition in the hearts of men. It 
 came at its hour, and a spark sufficed to kindle up an 
 immense flame. This moral predisposition for evan- 
 gelization did not exist in Southern Italy. No doubt 
 it was in many hearts, for in a more or less latent 
 manner it is in the soul of every man ; but no breath 
 of evangelical inspirations had passed over this soft 
 and frivolous people. Individuals might be won by 
 Christian preaching, but the masses were not then 
 capable of being stirred. Men have been forced to 
 abate their early hopes. Naples has long had a Swiss 
 chapel, which has ever been a focus of religious life. 
 M. Valette, one of its first pastors, had acquired a 
 great and legitimate influence, but it could only be 
 exercised in a limited circle. He had not even leave 
 to visit the hospital of Swiss Protestant soldiers, who 
 would have desired the succor of his ministry. After 
 the annexation every thing was changed. There w T as 
 a moment when people might hope for a reformatory 
 movement. Father Gavazzi, an old Dominican, 
 preached in the streets to large multitudes, who dis- 
 played the liveliest enthusiasm. He was an orator 
 after the heart of this ardent and mobile people. He 
 spoke with that expressive pantomime which pleases 
 them, in imaginative, picturesque language, sprinkled 
 with daring metaphors, and biting and violent re- 
 marks. He blended politics with religion, and thun- 
 dered vehement invectives at the Bourbons and the 
 monks. The danger of such preaching is, that it 
 draws the attention of the audience wholly to contro- 
 versy, and runs great risk of seeing them withdraw 
 whenever it shall turn to great Christian themes, and 
 no longer be seasoned with those high spices which 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 227 
 
 please southern palates. Thus it fared with Father 
 Gavazzi. He did not long keep up his fire at Naples. 
 The Marquis of Cresi, a Neapolitan, who was won 
 over to the Gospel before the Revolution, conducted 
 a more serious work. He established regular worship 
 in Naples itself, and with certain foreign aid organized 
 a system of colportage which was entirely suited to 
 this period of commencement. The Marquis of 
 Cresi had the advantage of belonging to the nation 
 which was to be gained to the Gospel, of understand- 
 ing it well, and speaking its tongue. For some time 
 he had real success. A committee on Italian evan- 
 gelization was founded to encourage these efforts. 
 Public discourses on religious themes were held in 
 its name, and collected quite numerous audiences. 
 A Wesley an work was likewise begun. The Vaudois 
 Church of Piedmont had hastened to plant its stand- 
 ard at Naples. Evangelical schools were opened for 
 the people. Things then wore their best aspect ; they 
 were full of hope. The middle classes themselves 
 seemed disposed to follow the movement ; they throng- 
 ed to the evening discourses, the schools were filled. 
 Unhappily sad divisions broke out among the directors 
 of these different efforts. Christians of Italian origin 
 could not bend to the rules of the Vaudois Church. 
 Thence arose struggles which became envenomed, 
 which degenerated into quarrels, and which unhap- 
 pily became public in the sequel of the foundation of 
 a journal representing the Italian element, with great 
 violence of language. The Marquis of Cresi soon left 
 Naples quite discouraged. The discourses for men 
 ended. There only remained the Vaudois Church 
 and the "Wesleyans ; the former scarcely collected fifty 
 auditors. The schools, happily, are full of prosperity. 
 
228 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 They gather up more than five hundred children, 
 and the efforts of the Directing Committee of the 
 Work of Evangelization are concentrated on them. 
 This is the result of the first missionary campaign at 
 Naples. It is far from brilliant. Elsewhere Italian 
 evangelization has had better success, as I shall have 
 occasion to inform you when I shall have collected ex- 
 act information. The Committee on Evangelization 
 does not mean to discontinue its labors ; on the con- 
 trary, it intends to renew them with fresh zeal. The 
 prosperity of the schools is very encouraging. Bib- 
 lical colportage grows more important as a taste 
 for reading spreads. The discourses will no doubt 
 be resumed ; but we must not be deceived, the great 
 shock will not come thence for Italy. I have a like 
 conviction respecting France. These efforts, which 
 should be pursued with courage and perseverance, 
 because they contribute to save souls, are not enough 
 to produce one of those great currents which gives 
 the Christian mission the impulsive force of the early 
 days. The plowshare of God must pass over these 
 Latin lands — light and brilliant lands, where the seed 
 of eternal life only slightly penetrates the soil. The 
 furrow must be plowed deep, and it will be, do not 
 doubt that, by the great crises which will not be 
 lacking at the close of this stormy century. Modern 
 society must learn what it costs to reject the Divine 
 Idea, and abandon itself to Pantheistic Naturalism. 
 It will know the worth of a democracy without God, 
 and the disasters to which it leads. On the other 
 hand, Catholicism is charged to wage the most incisive 
 controversy against herself by her own excesses. But 
 these evolutions will not be accomplished without 
 laceration and sorrow. Now our Europe needs pre- 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 229 
 
 cisely these sorrows to awaken her Christian aspira- 
 tions and rear her altar, if not to the unknown God, 
 at least to the forgotten God. Then the evangelical 
 mission, finding a well-prepared soil, watered with 
 tears, and perhaps, alas ! with blood, will be able to 
 extend its labors and its conquests as it has not yet 
 done, and the reformatory movement will resume its 
 course, as in the sixteenth century, for the salvation 
 of modern humanity. I know^ no other salvation 
 for it. 
 
 I should be grieved were the preceding reflections 
 to discourage existing evangelical labors. It is a 
 great thing to be even an obscure link in that chain 
 of pure faith which is never to be interrupted. At 
 certain periods, Christianity finds itself like a railway 
 train before a mountain ; it must tunnel the mountain. 
 The position of those employed in the work lacks ap- 
 parent grandeur and splendor ; but let them be con- 
 soled, the obscure tunnel leads to richer plains; it 
 was a defile necessary to pass. This is our history for 
 the moment on the European continent. Let us be 
 resigned to our mission ; the important thing is to, 
 fulfill it in the name of God. 
 
 II. Permit me now to use the freedom .of corre- 
 spondence and pass to an entirely different subject. It 
 is no longer of the Naples of the present time that I 
 would converse, but of antique Naples — of that volup- 
 tuous paganism the decline of which we learn to 
 know on these charming coasts better than elsewhere, 
 and whose prestige and dangerous beauty make us 
 the better appreciate the grandeur and the difficulty 
 of the conquests of Christianity. And first, how can 
 we refuse to recall in a few words the framework, still 
 the same, of a picture which has changed less at bot- 
 
230 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 torn than people would think, for in many regards it 
 has preserved its pagan coloring. There is no con- 
 trast more marked than that between the scenery of 
 Naples and the scenery of Rome. It is not that grand 
 sadness, that majesty of immense mourning, which 
 wraps you in melancholy ; on the contrary it is the 
 most ravishing unfolding of an eternal spring which 
 nothing can destroy, and whose smile cheers even the 
 ruins of a crumbled world. Contemplate the gra- 
 cious curves of its shores, that seem fondly sketched; 
 those softly rounded gulfs kissed by the azure wave ; 
 those islands scattered, each a paradise, on the sea 
 whose infinite perspectives they soften and limit ; that 
 gay, luxuriant vegetation, where the striking fruits 
 of the South ripen among olive-trees and rounded 
 pines ! See those cupolas of verdure, those orange- 
 trees and lemon-trees that perfume the breeze! You 
 will then comprehend the full seduction of nature 
 here. There is not under heaven a more dangerous 
 Armida, or one that presents man a more intoxica- 
 ting cup. Asia Minor doubtless has some Edens 
 comparable with this, but the waves which bathe her 
 are often terrible — they are transports that speak of 
 death. Greece has outlines of equal grace, but their 
 contours are firmer; we might say that they were 
 drawn with the great art of Phidias ; at Naples we 
 are rather reminded of the chisel of Praxiteles. They 
 who would enjoy the complete vision of that incom- 
 parable scenery should follow the route from Castel- 
 lamare to Sorrento, between the picturesque hills and 
 the coast, with its infinite sinuosities, which projects 
 its magnificent olives and its gardens of orange-trees 
 above the blue waters, and is incessantly cut into 
 capes and scooped out into gulfs. From the heights 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 231 
 
 which overlook Sorrento the horizon extends from 
 Cape Misenus to Vesuvius, and includes all the grace 
 and magnificence of the country. The pole has often 
 been called the throne of winter. I shall place that 
 of summer on the summit of the Camaldulas. It is 
 not jet the terrible sovereign that scorches Africa ; 
 it has all the splendors of that sovereign without his 
 flames. It has poured out its largess over these daz- 
 zling plains which we see at our feet; its mantle of 
 gilded and purple harvests surrounds the mountain, 
 and its joy breaks forth on the purple sea. It was 
 truly in these places that the religion of nature found 
 its chosen sanctuary and shed its final splendor; it 
 was there that, in the eve of the ancient world, it de- 
 sired to taste its final inebriation and crown itself 
 with roses in a feast that combined all pleasures. 
 People may reply by pointing me to Vesuvius, whose 
 smoke rises in the blue heavens like an eternal men- 
 ace of destruction — as if to suggest every moment that 
 the least thrill of its burning entrails would suffice to 
 ravage and destroy all these wonders. Does it not rise 
 from the mass of ruins accumulated at its foot, like 
 a glutted lion among the bones of its victims ? But 
 who does not know that the ancients loved to com- 
 bine images of death with those of voluptuousness, 
 and that they sometimes made a skeleton preside 
 over their orgies — not that they might grow wiser, 
 but hasten to enjoy, and, as the poet of Epicurean- 
 ism said, Pluck the rapid moment as we pluck the 
 quickly withering flower whose full fragrance we 
 would inhale ! 
 
 There existed, then, a pre-established harmony 
 between this enchanting land and the declining pa- 
 ganism which was developed here in all its splendor 
 
232 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 and in a morbid bloom. Nowhere can we study it 
 better than in this Neapolitan country. In Greece, 
 we have eyes only for the ruins of art in its great 
 period ; at Rome, what rules is the ideal of power, 
 unconquerable energy, the ineffaceable mark of the 
 talon of the eagle, which embraced and consumed 
 the world. We have seen at Naples that effeminate 
 paganism which no longer believes in itself, w T hich 
 has but one God, pleasure, and which seeks in these 
 brilliant waves a less somber and bitter Lethe than 
 that of the realm of shades ; it is Epicurean pagan- 
 ism, the last word of antiquity at the moment when 
 the Cross was planting its austere symbol in the face 
 of all these refinements of a corrupt civilization 
 which exhausted the treasures of the world in grati- 
 fying its lusts. The Museum at Naples, and espe- 
 cially Pompeii, evokes under our eyes this paganism 
 of the second period, if I may call it so ; it presents 
 itself to us with all its distinctive features. The ex- 
 cavations of Pompeii have been prosecuted with* 
 redoubled energy since the annexation. Every day 
 new houses arise from the ground with their frescos 
 and mosaics. These artistic treasures produce very 
 different effects under their natal sun and in the hall 
 of a museum. Temples, forums, private houses, 
 shops, villas, theaters, circus, every thing lives agai$ 
 as fresh as it w r as eighteen centuries since ; this is 
 not pagan life arranged and embellished as in pagan 
 literature, which always selects from the diverse ele- 
 ments of reality ; no, here is the complete reality of 
 pagan life, reappearing in its nakedness, undisguised, 
 unvailed, with a frequently fearful sincerity and 
 cynicism. On the walls we still read gross inscrip- 
 tions which reveal defiled imaginations. Death en- 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 233 
 
 tered the city, like the thief in the Gospel, in the 
 hours of night ; it had no time to make its funeral 
 arrangements. It is there before us as it was in its 
 every-day life, with its elegance and its vice ; it en- 
 ables us to grasp an entire epoch in itself, whose con- 
 fession it brings to us from the moment that it shook 
 off its ashes. Completing what we see at Pompeii 
 with the masterpieces heaped up in the Museum of 
 Naples, we have a perfect image of Greco-Roman 
 paganism at the advent of Jesus Christ, minus the 
 more elevated side of its sadness and its aspirations, 
 which was kept in the shade by the ease and charms 
 of existence in sweet and fertile Campania. 
 
 What impresses me in this Neapolitan or Pom- 
 peiian paganism is, that the position of honor is there 
 accorded to divinities of the second order, especially 
 to those that favor pleasure, Yenus and Bacchus. It 
 has made an Olympus to its own taste, where pleasure 
 reigns sovereign. There we do not find the Jupiter 
 •of Homer, who, changeful and passionate as he is, 
 has gleams of justice and moral grandeur, like a 
 Greek of the heroic age. Still less do we find there 
 the Jupiter whose noble and proud image had been 
 sculptured by Phidias, 
 
 "The great Immortal whom the blessed praise," 
 
 according to the sublime verse of Pindar. The fa- 
 vorites of this abased religion are the goddess of 
 beauty and the god of wine. The Neapolitan Yenus 
 is not that proud divinity who expels or sets aside 
 evil passions with her ideal beauty ; the Yenus of 
 Milo, compared with the Callyjuga, is like a Madonna 
 of ancient art. She who was adored in Campania is 
 a ravishing woman, but a dangerous beauty. The 
 
234 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 marble palpitates ; Pygmalion has animated his 
 statue with the culpable fire which consumes him. 
 The Pompeiian Bacchus recalls in nothing the mys- 
 teries celebrated under the name of that god, which 
 had a deep meaning. He is purely and simply the 
 the god of the bacchanals, crowned with vine-leaves; 
 the pupil of old Silenus, who is also reproduced with 
 favor. The great mythological legend is constantly 
 sacrificed to piquant or sentimental anecdote : Venus 
 lamenting Adonis ; Diana ravished before Endym- 
 ion, or indeed chastising Acteon ; Leda and her swan, 
 the carrying away of Europa, the abandonment of 
 Ariadne. These are the favorite subjects in the Pom- 
 peiian frescos, often treated with much grace and 
 feeling, but sometimes w 7 ith libertinage. Genre 
 work every-where replaces high art ; it is not the 
 ideal of which they strive to afford a glimpse, it is 
 reality that they like to evoke for the gratification of 
 the eyes. The Pompeiian paintings show a great 
 predilection for the combats of gladiators ; in this 
 they are fully in harmony with the morals of the 
 times. For declining paganism, the gladiator was 
 what the hero was for ancient Greece. The bloodv 
 games of the circus had replaced the sublime dramas 
 of JEschylus and Sophocles. It has always been re- 
 marked that voluptuousness loves blood ; the soul 
 relaxed by guilty pleasures is animated only by the 
 spectacle of suffering, and cruelty alone can make its 
 unstrung fibers vibrate. In the Museum at Naples 
 we see a great many gladiatorial suits of armor, which, 
 in their beauty and ornaments, resemble the armor 
 of knights in the Middle Ages. I have also encoun- 
 tered in the Pom peiian^ frescos the images of several 
 slaves loaded w T ith burdens. I found likewise at 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 235 
 
 Naples a striking type of ancient slavery in a very 
 fine bit of sculpture, which represents the giant 
 Atlas bearing the world on his robust shoulders. 
 The figure is noble and hopeless ; it breathes weari- 
 ness and vast sorrow. It is truly the type of those 
 millions of men who were regarded as outside and 
 below society, toward whom any thing was permitted, 
 as Seneca said, who bore up by their obstinate labor 
 that world of elegance and pleasure which lived by 
 their sweat. Impure gods, gladiators, and slaves ! 
 did not the Greco-Roman w^orld rest on these three 
 pillars w r hen it grew feeble and was decaying in its 
 own corruption? The little temple of Isis at Pom- 
 peii suggests that invasion of foreign and Oriental 
 religions to which paganism in its desperation had 
 recourse. But in reality this w^as not a foreign re- 
 ligion, for Isis, as the goddess of Ephesus, of whom 
 the Museum at Naples possesses a very fine statue, 
 was ever the great goddess, Nature, who replaced 
 all other gods in a debasing pantheism. 
 
 What Pompeii especially reveals is the inside of 
 the pagan home, domestic life. Nothing less re- 
 sembles a family hearth than these charming abodes, 
 with their porticoes, peristyles, gardens surrounded 
 with columns, their triclinium surcharged with orna- 
 ments. Every thing is for show, elegant idleness, 
 sumptuous repasts, and pompous, though never nu- 
 merous, receptions. The dwelling-rooms are little, 
 voluptuously decorated boudoirs, arranged in two 
 rows, and forming two parallel passages around the 
 atrium and the garden; they are solely intended for 
 sleep, and are only looked upon as accessories. Domes- 
 tic life did not exist. The frescos that adorn the walls 
 acquaint us with the life led there. We witness the 
 
236 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 toilet of the great Roman lady surrounded . by her 
 slaves ; we can count the vases of perfumery which 
 she used. We behold family repasts in their scarcely 
 chaste freedom. The dancing women who figure in 
 ceremonial feasts are represented to us in their light 
 and provoking grace. Still further, we are intro- 
 duced behind the scenes of a theater, where they are 
 getting up the spectacle ; and into the house of the 
 tragic poet, at the moment when he is about to recite 
 his new productions. Excellent art, though at Pom- 
 peii it seems to have been a good copyist, adorned 
 these pleasure-houses of a middle class whose fortunes 
 must have been moderate. For them were wrought 
 those fauns, dancing, sleeping, or plunged in intoxica- 
 tion, whose attitude is rendered with such astonishing 
 suppleness in that little Narcissus with his delicate 
 grace of self-intoxication, and especially that tired 
 Mercury, who has all the somewhat painful careless- 
 ness of lassitude ; for these abodes were painted the 
 ravishing frescos of Ulysses disclosing himself to Pe- 
 nelope, the sacrifice of Ipbigenia, whose pathos is so 
 affecting, and those three Graces, whose serene beauty 
 not the pencil of Raphael has surpassed. It is at 
 Pompeii, too, that we read a frightful commentary 
 on the picture which Saint Paul has traced of the 
 infamies of the Roman decline, of that fondled and 
 insatiable voluptuousness which, seeking the infinite 
 in sensual life, found only the monstrous. 
 
 Art extended its domain on all sides. It could 
 give an elegant form to the utensils of ordinary life. 
 Lamps, pottery, and jewels received its seal. The 
 pagan of that period would have all his senses flat- 
 tered at once. It is but too easy to find the explana- 
 tion of this whollv brilliant and infamous life in the 
 
Home, Italy, and the Council. 237 
 
 papyri discovered in the ashes of the destroyed city, 
 and which are unrolled to be deciphered by the most 
 ingenious processes. They are all treatises of Epicu- 
 rean philosophy. This philosophy, more surely than 
 the flames and ashes of Vesuvius, was to destroy the 
 society that had surrendered itself to it, crying, " Let 
 us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we 
 die!" 
 
 It is after such spectacles that we admire the moral 
 power which made the cross triumph not only over 
 the Csesar of Rome, but the Yenus of Naples ; which 
 purified the pagan abode, and created the Christian 
 home ; which finally made the lily of purity grow up 
 amid such slime. To conquer brutal force was much, 
 but it was more difficult still to subdue the syren ot 
 this gulf, and the enchantments of a refined voluptu- 
 ousness, which was the conclusion and the prestige 
 of Greco-Roman paganism. 
 
 E. de Pressense. 
 
238 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 LETTEE X. 
 
 RECENT EXCAVATIONS AT ROME — THE PALACE OF 
 THE CAESARS AND THE CATACOMBS. 
 
 Napoleon III. and Archaeology — Signor di Rossi — The Late and the 
 Present Aspect of the Palace of the Caesars — Temple of Jupiter 
 Stator — Cicero's House — Two Frescos — Christian Relics in the Pal- 
 ace — Importance of Christian Archaeology — Nature of its Disclosures 
 — Rossi's Roma Sotteranea — Bosio's Explorations — Arringhi and 
 Marchi — Rossi's Method — The Catacombs used for Burial, not Wor- 
 ship — Three Periods in their History — Dates of Monuments — Chris- 
 tian and Pagan Burial — Symbols of the Christian Tombs — The Cata- 
 comb of Saint Callistus — Callistus Himself — Visit to the Catacomb 
 — The Consecration of Labor — Testimony of the Catacombs on Ca- 
 tholicism and Protestantism, the Primacy of Peter, the Adoration 
 of Mary, the Sacraments, the State of the Dead, the Invocation of 
 Saints, the Canonical Books, and Image Worship. 
 
 Rome, December, 1869. 
 
 When the Council shall open it will be hard for me 
 to speak of any thing else than what may be learned 
 of its deliberations, or of the spirit of its members. 
 I take advantage, then, of the few days that remain 
 before the solemn inauguration of the High Assembly 
 to converse with you on a subject which well deserves 
 to occupy the attention of the friends of science, and 
 of all who take an interest in Christian antiquity : I 
 mean the truly magnificent discoveries made of late 
 years in the domain of profane and sacred archaeology. 
 Let us first speak of the former. 
 
 Follow me to the hill which overlooks the Forum 
 on the right. It is the famous Mont Palatine, the 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 239 
 
 cradle of antique Rome, which was to her like the 
 pompous tomb where an oriental Mug desired to die 
 surrounded with all his luxury and voluptuousness ; 
 for there arose the palace of the Caesars; there was 
 that colossal orgy of the imperial decline organized, 
 in which was spent all the force and energy of the 
 conquerors of the world. Some years ago this illus- 
 trious spot was marked only by a few shapeless ruins. 
 There people admired one of the finest views in Rome, 
 the Forum, the Colosseum, the mountains of Latium 
 and Albania, then the immense plain ending in the 
 countless domes of modern Rome. But it was only 
 in imagination that people could represent to them- 
 selves the magnificence which had been displayed on 
 these places, and for which the treasures of the world 
 had been exhausted. Within ten years all this has 
 changed ; the wand of an enchanter has evoked 
 the past before us. This wand is nothing but the 
 intelligent will of the French Emperor, served by a 
 skillful Roman archaeologist, Signor de Rossi, w 7 ho 
 has pursued these excavations with equal talent and 
 energy. He has needed both, for the Roman Court 
 has more than once seized on the precious opportunity 
 to be disagreeable to its mighty and inconvenient 
 protector. But the Emperor Napoleon III. clung to 
 his project. It is well known that he feels a very 
 lively interest in Roman antiquity, to which he has 
 devoted a considerable book, " The Life of Cesar." 
 He is not merely guided in this taste by love for 
 science, but by a sort of moral affinity, which like- 
 wise he openly avows, with the General who crossed 
 the Rubicon and founded the Empire. He sees in 
 him the type of those providential men, as he calls 
 them, who save society as he thinks by placing them- 
 
24:0 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 selves above the laws. His historv of Caesar, and his 
 liking for that period, remind me of a quite piquant 
 anecdote which is found in the History of Pius VII. 
 by Chevalier Artaud. He relates that Cocault, Min- 
 ister Plenipotentiary of France at Rome under the 
 Consulate and Empire, conversing one day with Na- 
 poleon I. on the Caesars of Rome, his mighty com- 
 panion grew angry with Tacitus, and accused him of 
 having calumniated Nero, Caligula, and Domitian. 
 " Kindred minds, kindred minds," replied Cocault ; a 
 bold speech, which attributed his defense of the Ro- 
 man Empire to a moral likeness. Napoleon under- 
 stood, smiled, and showed no ill will to his sprightly 
 embassador. We may apply this remark to the taste 
 of the Emperor Napoleon III. for all that relates to 
 the family of the Caesars, without forgetting that if he 
 has drawn from them his liking for personal govern- 
 ment, he has left to them its useless rigor; and that, 
 apart from critical moments when nothing arrests 
 him, he is the mildest of men. Whatever may be 
 his motives, he has nevertheless rendered an im- 
 mense service to science in causing the active prose- 
 cution of the excavations of Mont Palatine, which 
 daily lead to new discoveries. 
 
 At first glance it seems as if nothing had been 
 changed. You have before you only the ordinary 
 entrance to a Roman villa. But hardly have you 
 mounted the staircase when the scene changes. You 
 are at the heart of Roman history. Descend again 
 on the right, toward the Colosseum; you are on the 
 spot where a rabble of brigands constituted them- 
 selves a nation, invoked the gods, believed in its for- 
 tune, and began by petty conquests of the surround- 
 ing tribes that invading movement which was only 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 241 
 
 to pause at the limits of the known world. We are 
 confounded at the contrast between the humble origin 
 of Rome and the unheard-of extent of its dominion. 
 It was merely a stronghold at first ; the eye at once 
 measures its area. They have found the shapeless 
 ruins of the temple of Jupiter Stator, which was 
 reared in gratitude for the first victory of Romulus. 
 From the start, the religion of the Romans bore a 
 wholly material and local character. It honored the 
 gods only for services rendered ; these were to labor 
 for their advantage as well as in their pay. They 
 also honored only agricultural and warlike divinities. 
 They needed wheat and victory. Such is the basis 
 of their worship, addressed in reality to themselves, 
 for they had made their religion a sort of historic 
 memento of their success. Mankind never knew 
 greater utilitarians. If you descend the hill on the 
 left of the Capitoline side you will have before you 
 the rich habitations of the Roman aristocracy at the 
 close of the Republic, and at the beginning of the 
 Empire. Here are the remains of the house of 
 Cicero, who could almost perceive from his abode 
 the tribune which was his throne. Every thing here 
 has larger dimensions than at Pompeii. The houses 
 were spacious, and might suffice for the luxury of 
 that corrupt period. The bridge has been found 
 which Caligula caused to be thrown from the Pala- 
 tine to the Forum, so that they could pass directly 
 from the Palace of the Caesars to the Curia, and note 
 the promptness with which the Senate obeyed direc- 
 tions. In this place we see the ruins of a city, and 
 not merely of a private edifice. If we now place 
 ourselves on the summit of the Palatine we are posi- 
 tively before the Palace of the Csesars. It has sprung 
 
 16 
 
242 Rome, Italy, akd the Council. 
 
 out of the ground with all its principal dispositions 
 which disclose themselves to the eyes in an incontest- 
 able manner. Two magnificent columns of white 
 marble mark the position of the grand portico which 
 preceded the Palace. This portico opened first upon 
 the basilica of Jupiter, where justice was adminis- 
 tered, and which in these places produces the effect 
 of a frightful irony. It is of itself a considerable edi- 
 fice. Beside the basilica, and parallel with it, is the 
 Palace itself, properly so called. The atrium leads 
 into a vast reception-hall. Then comes the peristyle, 
 which ends in the triclinium, the shameful theater 
 of imperial gluttony. On the right is the nympheum, 
 intended as a bath. It is an elegant hall, where 
 every thing is calculated to please the senses. The 
 triclinium is followed by the library and academy, 
 devoted to rhetorical declamations. In the garden 
 are found the sites of several temples. 
 
 Close beside the Palace of the Csesars a patrician 
 house has been discovered, which still bears the im- 
 press of the noble simplicity of the Republic. The 
 ornamentation is in exquisite taste and soberly ele- 
 gant. This discovery has brought to light one of the 
 finest frescos of ancient painting: it represents Io 
 between Argus and Mercury ; the young maiden is 
 touching and chaste in her beauty, the glance of 
 Argus has the fixedness of an implacable guardian. 
 Mercury is a winged creature whose foot hardly 
 grazes the earth; the color has retained its vivacity. 
 Pompeii has no painting superior to this masterpiece. 
 I do not even know whether it possesses one which 
 can be put in the same rank. Another fresco, found 
 beside the former, has a peculiar interest ; it gives us 
 the aspect of a street in Rome at the close of the 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 243 
 
 Republic. We see a woman coming out of her house 
 in ceremonial costume, probably for some sacrifice. 
 She is followed by the solicitous glances of the mem- 
 bers of her family, who are placed on the balcony of 
 an upper story, while two slaves consider her through 
 a window of the lower story. This is a perfect 
 revelation concerning the arrangement of Roman 
 houses. Unless I am mistaken, the balcony is a true 
 discovery. We can now perfectly conceive a street 
 in Rome as it was eighteen centuries ago. As the 
 excavations are actively pushed forward, they daily 
 discover some new site, some statue, some shaft of a 
 column, or some jewels. Yet few objects are found 
 intact. We can very well understand that rapacity 
 would fling itself on the Palace, where it was well 
 known that all the riches of the world were heaped 
 up. Thanks to the statues and the innumerable busts 
 of the Vatican and the Capitol, it is very easy to re- 
 people it. Every Emperor appears with his own 
 physiognomy, and Tacitus restores life to this dead 
 past ; his terrible graver traces under our eyes those 
 scenes of horror wherein insatiable voluptuousness 
 is combined with a not less eager cruelty ; where the 
 madness of omnipotence had its furious fits ; where 
 humanity might learn what monsters she is capable 
 of producing. Here should we read afresh that his- 
 tory of blood, and it is with this great avenger of the 
 human conscience that we should traverse these 
 accursed places. 
 
 Strange fact ! among the ruins of the imperial 
 palace certain Christian memorials have been discov- 
 ered belonging to the early ages of the Church ; among 
 the rest, one of those little funeral lamps, adorned 
 with evangelical symbols, which were carried among 
 
24:4 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the Catacombs. This need not astonish us. Saint Paul 
 tells us that his bonds had become known in the 
 pretorium, and even in Caesar's Palace. Thus, while 
 the persecuting Emperor fancied that he had annihi- 
 lated an odious sect by his cruelty, it was growing up 
 in his own Palace, and with^t that moral power 
 which was to overturn the world which he so faith- 
 fully represents. 
 
 I do not speak of other discoveries which have been 
 made in late years, particularly at Ostia, where admi- 
 rable statues have been found. I shall have occasion 
 to speak, when describing the Catacombs, of the 
 excavations on the site where the temple of the 
 Arvolles brethren arose. I have aimed to draw your 
 attention to the most capital of the arch geological 
 labors of these late years. This fruitful excavation 
 of the Palace of the Caesars is a considerable event 
 for science, and it will doubtless provoke numerous 
 and important publications. 
 
 II. I come now to Christian archaeology, which 
 has especially occupied my time at Rome. I had 
 important information to require from it for the last 
 part of my History of the First Three Centuries of 
 the Church, which will turn on the development of 
 Christianity at the family fireside and in the primi- 
 tive worship. The Fathers of that age, no doubt, 
 cast vivid light on this theme. But the Christian 
 necropolis restores it to life ; it gives what books never 
 give, an intuition of the past ; it in some sort makes 
 us their contemporaries. How often under the som- 
 ber arches of the Catacombs, before some mutilated 
 fresco, have I seemed to leap over ages, and mingle 
 with the affected multitude that had just deposited 
 the ashes of some confessor in these places ! What 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 245 
 
 forms the great interest of the Catacombs is, that we 
 there find not merely the expression of the piety of 
 the chiefs of the Church — her bishops or theologians — 
 an expression which has always taken on a more or 
 less literary form : here you glean up the ingenu- 
 ous testimony of popular faith. A father has lost a 
 son and repeats his affection and his hope ; a wife 
 laments her husband, a brother his brother, a 
 friend his friend, and all together the courageous 
 confessor who perished under the tooth of the lion 
 or the sword of the executioner. The Christian 
 heart reveals its true nature on these somber walls 
 in some thrilling fresco, some rapid touch, or in some 
 brief word, and does it in that funeral hour, great 
 among all hours, when, broken by sorrow, it exhales 
 its deepest sighs as a crushed flower yields its 
 sweetest perfumes. The Catacomb, thus interpreted, 
 gives us that every-day history — that history of the 
 lowly and humble — which in general is forgotten for 
 pompous parade, and which is the very tissue of 
 human condition in all times. 
 
 I had already come to Rome, fifteen years ago, to 
 undertake this fruitful study ; but since then the dis- 
 coveries in this domain have been so considerable that 
 Christian archaeology has been entirely renewed. I 
 have been able to fully acquaint myself with the 
 present state of this science, to which sufficient im- 
 portance has not yet been attached, thanks to the 
 Roma Sotteranea of Signor Rossi — a large work of 
 which two volumes in folio have appeared — and thanks 
 chiefly to visits made in his own company to the Cat- 
 acombs. Permit me first to render homage to this 
 illustrious scholar and the invaluable services which 
 he has rendered the history of the Church. We can- 
 
2±6 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 not attribute the precious results of his researches to 
 the happy success of suddenly lucky excavations; for 
 the new excavations have only been successful through 
 the admirable method with which they have been 
 begun and pursued. Doubtless Signor di Rossi had 
 predecessors. Bosio, in the seventeenth century, 
 first directed his attention to these Christian burial- 
 places, which had been forgotten for centuries. He 
 had collected in the Acts of the Saints all their infor- 
 mation relating to them, and had traced out an 
 inventory of future researches — a plan of discoveries 
 to be made. His book is still exceedingly valuable. 
 He had gone to work, not by directing excavations 
 properly so called, but by striving to penetrate the 
 Catacombs through all accessible openings, and care- 
 fully describing all that he had seen with his own 
 eyes. He more than once risked his life in these 
 dangerous researches ; he repeatedly lost his way, and 
 passed three days without light or food in some of 
 those infinitely meandering subterranean passages. I 
 have read with emotion this courageous inquirer's 
 name, traced by himself in the Catacomb of Doini- 
 tella. On more than one point his indications have 
 proved erroneous, but he opened the breach. In the 
 eighteenth century the Catacombs were excavated 
 anew by Arringhi, w T ho wished to continue the studies 
 of Bosio ; but he worked hap-hazard and without 
 method, and, unhappily, he pillaged and destroyed in 
 his imprudent researches more than one catacomb 
 whose primitive state we can now no longer conceive. 
 In our times Father Marchi, of the Roman College, 
 has certainly laid open the way for di Rossi ; his 
 works on the Christian architecture of the Catacombs 
 are valuable ; his descriptions of the structure of the 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 247 
 
 Catacomb of Saint Agnes deserve to be read. He 
 showed in an irrefutable style, as I think, that we 
 must not confound the Christian cemeteries with the 
 quarries or sand-pits of the pagans — that the former 
 w T ere arranged the reverse of what the quarrying 
 of stone or any other industrial labor would have 
 required — that their narrow passages were arranged 
 solely for burial. Unhappily, Father Marchi lacked 
 a truly critical method, and he fixed at hazard the 
 dates of monuments. Thus the honor of having com- 
 pletely founded the science of the Catacombs recurs 
 fully to Signor di Rossi. 
 
 I shall give you a rapid glance at his way of pro- 
 ceeding ; then I shall relate the general results of his 
 investigations, and finally, I shall associate you with 
 my visits to subterranean Rome, a sure means of 
 not transforming my letter into an archaeological trea- 
 tise. Signor di Rossi had recourse to all the still 
 existing means of information for determining the 
 location of the Catacombs. Unhappily, the capital 
 document has perished. Saint Augustine informs 
 us that on occasion of the quarrel with the Donatists, 
 an exact catalogue was prepared of all places of 
 worship or burial which had belonged to the ortho- 
 dox Christians of the preceding period, and which 
 had been destroyed in the persecution of Diocletian, 
 together with the Sacred Books and chronicles of 
 every Church. Had this document been regained, 
 the topography of the Christian section of Rome 
 would be fixed. Signor di Rossi consults, with the 
 greatest care, the ancient calendars which connect the 
 churches with the names of martyrs, the martyrolo- 
 gies, the lives and acts of the Pontiffs, and the ancient 
 topographies of Rome; but he does it with rare 
 
248 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 sagacity, applying the great methods of modern 
 criticism to these documents, often surcharged with 
 legends. He rightly thinks that it is as needful to 
 know how to discern truth blended with error as to 
 reject error blended with truth. As especial guides, 
 he has taken the itineraries of the old pilgrims who 
 had come to Rome when the Catacombs were still 
 open to devotion, and which marked with great exact- 
 ness the sites of the holy places they had visited. 
 Thus he found, in the sequel of a book by Alcuin, 
 quite a detailed itinerary of two pilgrims from Saltz- 
 burg, who had come to Rome to visit the Catacombs, 
 and especially that of Saint Callistus. Their indica- 
 tions were very precise. They told by what gate 
 they went out, how far they were from the tomb of 
 the celebrated Metellus, With this itinerary in hand, 
 Signor di Rossi went to these places, and he only saw 
 a vineyard and a garden. The first impression might 
 well make him despair. Yet he was not discouraged ; 
 he caused excavations to be made in the vineyard desig- 
 nated. Judge of his delight when, after a few days' 
 labor, he saw appearing one of the vastest Catacombs 
 of Rome, that of Callistus, where Saint Cecilia was 
 buried. I shall hereafter speak of the archaeological 
 treasures which this underground cemetery contains, 
 when I come to narrate the visits I made to it with 
 the illustrious archaeologist. I will first sum up the 
 explanations which he gave me concerning the places 
 themselves, and which bring before us the general 
 results of Ins discoveries, consigned to his great book, 
 u Roma Sotteranea" We should distinguish three 
 periods in the history of the Catacombs : the first is 
 that of persecution, when they served for the burial 
 of the martyrs, and for the interment of simple Chris- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 249 
 
 tians who loved to repose near those glorious confessors 
 of Christ. Worship was then but rarely celebrated 
 there, and only in moments of violent persecution. 
 The second period begins with the peace of the 
 Church. For nearly a century the subterranean 
 burials continued, though in restricted numbers. 
 The Catacombs became essentially a place of pil- 
 grimage. Saint Jerome has eloquently described 
 the impression which he experienced on descending 
 into that sacred night, and contemplating the burial- 
 places of confessors. Unhappily, every thing was 
 sacrificed to this new destination ; the bishops of 
 Rome caused vast staircases to be constructed to 
 lead to the most celebrated crypts ; they enlarged 
 the passages around them, and even added inscrip- 
 tions to the primitive inscriptions. Thus they con- 
 siderably changed the aspect of the subterranean 
 cemetery ; and to grasp it in its primitive condition, 
 it is needful to go back beyond the embellishments 
 of the period of peace. It is here that a sagacious 
 criticism has a chance for development. Signor di 
 Rossi believes that he has discovered sure signs for 
 determining the dates of the symbols. He has been 
 able to collect a large number of dated inscriptions, 
 and to group them according to their dates ; he has 
 formed classes and families ; thus a type shows itself 
 which permits the classification of other inscriptions. 
 For example, the monogram of Constantine, barred 
 crosses, is found only since his time. The ancient 
 inscriptions are of excellent calligraphy — very fine 
 and perfectly simple. The Christian inscription 
 becomes surcharged from the time of the peace of 
 the Church ; it grows more detailed, more human, 
 dwells more on the part played by the defunct in 
 
250 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 his eartlilv life. The Greek characters are also an 
 index of high antiquity. As to the symbols painted 
 on the tombs, they are not numerous in the primitive 
 times ; they mostly have a hidden, mystical sense, 
 which is natural in times of persecution. The 
 anchor, the dove, and the fish, occupy the principal 
 place. The ornamentation of the early period is 
 much finer and more classical than that of the times 
 of peace. The same difference is remarked between 
 these two types as between the Arch of Titus and 
 that of Constantine. Signor di Rossi has not failed 
 to consult even the bricks, for they bear their trade- 
 mark and their date. When he finds them in large 
 numbers of the same date, this is to him a certain in- 
 dication of the epoch to which the structure belongs. 
 It is by these diverse means that he strives to dis- 
 tinguish between the monuments of primitive Chris- 
 tianity and those of the following age. 
 
 The third period of the history of the Catacombs 
 is that of the invasion of the barbarians, who were in 
 a rage with the Christian crypts as well as with the 
 pagan temples. The popes completed what the 
 barbarians had begun, though with a very different 
 purpose. As far as possible, they had the sacred 
 remains and the funeral ornaments carried away; 
 then they closed the Catacombs. Visiting them was 
 forbidden. During the night of the Middle Ages 
 their memory gradually perished, save the small 
 portion on which basilicas, like Saint Sebastian, were 
 built. Without suspecting it, the Church of Rome 
 for centuries had her finest monuments under her 
 feet ; neither for science nor for piety did they exist. 
 As I have already said, Bosio was the first who sought 
 to regain this great past. I have explained how his 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 251 
 
 successors rather harmed the progress of Christian 
 archseology. To Signor di Rossi belongs the honor 
 of having found his way in this vast and obscure 
 labyrinth, amid the confusion of dates and of having 
 borne thither the torch of a sure criticism. 
 
 Let us in few words recall the origin of the Cata- 
 comb. It is, properly speaking, a Christian institu- 
 tion. The pagans knew nothing of this nature. 
 First, with the exception of the Etruscans, who 
 buried their dead and laid them in sarcophagi, the 
 Romans and the Greeks burned corpses and gathered 
 up their ashes into funereal urns. Most commonly 
 the great families built them magnificent sepulchers, 
 belonging solely to themselves. The columbaria were 
 private property, and they only received the ashes 
 of the freedmen of some illustrious house, but they 
 had no relation to the Christian cwmeterium ; the 
 slumbering together of the members of a spiritual 
 family. The sole non-private burial that was known 
 in antiquity was the species of common tomb near 
 the Esquiline, where were flung the ashes of slaves 
 and of men from the dregs of the people. Two Jew- 
 ish Catacombs have indeed been discovered at Rome, 
 one near the Via Portisa, which was also a common 
 grave, and on the Appian Way another, much more 
 ornate. But the latter seems to belong to a period 
 posterior to the Christian Catacombs. It was truly 
 the Gospel which inaugurated fraternity in death 
 after having consecrated it in life. It loved to repeat, 
 over the perishable dust of its followers, that in Christ 
 there is neither Greek nor Jew, male nor female, slave 
 nor noble. The tomb of the martyrs is the center of 
 the Catacomb ; near them all Christians loved indis- 
 criminately to repose. The form of burial was bor- 
 
252 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 rowed from Judaism ; the disciple of Jesus desires 
 to be like him in death as in life, hence he strives 
 to repeat in his cwn burial what he knows of the 
 burial of the Master. He was interred in a grotto ; 
 the Christian also desires to repose in the bowels of 
 the earth. In the Catacomb of Saint Agnes is found 
 a closed grotto, which was certainly the earliest form 
 of Christian burial. But it was soon needful to 
 modify it in order to satisfy the necessities created 
 by the great numbers of the proselytes. The Cata- 
 comb w r as formed of several stories of narrow T pas- 
 sages, in whose walls quadrangular openings w T ere 
 pierced where corpses were deposited. They were 
 closed up with slabs covered with stucco, on which a 
 pious hand engraved the name of the defunct, an image 
 of hope, a word of tenderness. When the burial of 
 some martyr or eminent Christian took place, they 
 gave an arched form to the sepulcher, and it was 
 called an arwsolium. This arrangement allowed the 
 multiplication of symbolical frescos. Sometimes they 
 formed true chambers, or funeral chapels, with four 
 arcosolia. 
 
 The Christian Catacombs extended over an immense 
 space, which corresponds perfectly with what the au- 
 thors of that time tell us about the prodigious progress 
 of the new religion. Did not Tertullian say to the 
 pagans, " We are every-where. We fill your camps 
 and your armies ; we are found even in the Palace of 
 your Emperors ? " Persecution increased the Church 
 instead of diminishing it. " It has a real charm," 
 said Tertullian ; " the blood of the martyrs is the 
 seed of the Church" — Sanguis martyrorum semen ec- 
 clesioe. Yet the persecution was a great hinderance 
 to the outward display of the proscribed worship. 
 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 253 
 
 People ask how it was possible for the Christians to 
 excavate this subterranean city, with its vast propor- 
 tions, under the sword of their executioners. Signor 
 di Rossi has resolved this problem in the happiest 
 manner. He has demonstrated, texts in hand, that 
 the Emperors, always greatly opposed to associations 
 among the citizens which might menace their despot- 
 ism, had made a solitary exception in favor of funereal 
 associations, which might monthly collect means to 
 procure the interment of their members. The super- 
 stitious ideas of the pagans concerning death, which 
 led them to closely connect the destinies of the soul 
 with those of the body, had evidently weighed in this 
 unique point on the harsh and intractable imperial 
 legislation. The Christians confined themselves to 
 conformity with a custom, and made use of an exist- 
 ing right. Signor di Rossi has found inscriptions 
 which prove that they used forms of language analo- 
 gous to those used by the pagans to designate their 
 funereal associations. The latter called themselves 
 cultores of the citizen who had made them a generous 
 gift of land, or had granted them a large estate. The 
 Christians were designated as cultores Yerbi — those 
 who cultivate acquaintance with the Word. Funereal 
 associations were styled fraternities. It was easy and 
 pleasant for the members of the Church to assume a 
 title which corresponded so well with their feelings. 
 Signor di Rossi cites decisive texts, which show that 
 these concessions had sometimes been withdrawn 
 from the Christians by their persecutors to be ulti- 
 timately restored to them, which establishes in an 
 irrefragable way the fact of the primitive conces- 
 sion. Thus a problem finds its solution which had 
 long appeared insoluble. Signor di Rossi found a 
 
254: Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 material proof of his assertion in the excavations 
 made in 1865, in the cemetery of Domitella, or of 
 Achilles and Nerea. They found a splendid entrance 
 to the Catacomb. On both sides of the door, stone 
 benches are arranged with all that is required for the 
 agape, a deep well, and a fountain. Now we know 
 that the funereal associations were wont to celebrate a 
 sort of solemn feast in memory of the dead. The 
 Christians turned this repast into an agape, and thus 
 conformed to custom, while modifying it according 
 to the spirit of their religion, in order to preserve the 
 right so dear to them of freely burying their dead. 
 We may say that on this important point Signor di 
 Rossi has brought his proofs to a demonstration. 
 
 Christian burial is profoundly distinguished from 
 pagan burial in the fact that the latter turns toward 
 the past. It calls that past to mind in every way, and 
 even strives to perpetuate the terrestrial life. Yiands 
 are placed near the dead, his arms are at hand ; his 
 honors and dignities are produced in a pompous in- 
 scription. The pagan only turns his eyes with alarm 
 to the somber region that opens before him beyond 
 the tomb, and he seeks to project over that darkness, 
 which is enlightened by no well-founded hope, the 
 warm tints and colors of the sun of this world. He 
 would have death like one of those fine snnsets which 
 continue their brilliant farewells long after the star 
 of day has disappeared. The Christian tomb, on 
 the contrary, turns toward eternity and heaven ; 
 what is behind is very pale and very wretched com- 
 pared with what is ahead, and especially above. The 
 soul's fatherland is beyond this abode of darkness and 
 siu ; the true life is not exhaled with the last breath ; 
 it has just begun, and this true life proceeds not from 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 255 
 
 man, but from God ; it is the gift of Christ, the 
 bloody and glorious prize of his sufferings. Such 
 are the blessed certainties expressed by the funereal 
 symbols of the Catacombs. The dove represents the 
 happy soul which has flown away to God; the palm 
 recounts its triumph ; and the anchor, which often 
 assumes the form of a cross, expresses its invincible 
 hope, and its point of support. The Alpha and 
 Omega suggest that all these favors come from Christ, 
 w^ho is the beginning and the end of salvation. Those 
 simple words in pace suffice for the consolation of 
 survivors. And especially in the early days all ac- 
 cessory circumstances were neglected, all that con- 
 cerned the earthly lives of their beloved friends. 
 Were they rich or poor, illustrious warriors or slaves, 
 — dignitaries in the Church ? No matter. The in- 
 scription tells nothing of this ; they were Christians, 
 and that was enough. There was no harsh and 
 haughty stoicism in this ; no, for the heart speaks 
 loudly over these tombs. Expressions of tenderness 
 are very frequent. We light incessantly on the w T ord 
 dulcissimus applied to the dead. Human and divine 
 love and glorious hope, that is ail, but it is enough ; 
 for this is all that is immortal in the present life, all 
 that death cannot destroy. The contrast between the 
 Christian and pagan tomb stands out with singular 
 force in the inscriptions borne by both : Vixit — he 
 hath lived — is the pagan formula; vivit—he liveth — 
 is the Christian formula. 
 
 Now that we know the general character of the 
 Catacombs we can undertake a visit with profit. The 
 excavations are far from having laid open the greater 
 part of subterranean Rome. For the present, people 
 can only visit the Catacombs of Saint Agnes, of 
 
256 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Achilles and Nerea, of Saint Priseilla, and of Saint 
 Callistus. I would particularly speak of the last, for 
 we shall here find the most precious discoveries 
 made in late years. I must first say a few words 
 about this Callistus, under whose name the vast 
 cemetery has been placed, because the guard of it 
 had been confided to him by Bishop Zephyrinus, 
 whose deacon he was before becoming his successor. 
 Here I shall no longer have Signor di Rossi with 
 me ; but whatever his knowledge may be, I think I 
 am in the right on this point against him. Callistus, 
 of whom the Roman Church has made a saint, was a 
 cunning trickster. It is possible that he died well, 
 and that martyrdom covered his questionable past. 
 Cardinal Richelieu said one dav that his red robe 
 covered all his doings. It was the same, and for 
 better reason, with the blood-stained robes of confess- 
 ors ; these also covered whatever defects there might 
 be in their lives, and only their heroism was remem- 
 bered. I can understand that their heroism should 
 have been the sole memory of them which w T as 
 guarded ; but it is not permitted history silently to 
 pass over evil deeds which have not had merely an 
 individual bearing, but have acted in the most fatal 
 way on the destinies of the Church. J^ow an old 
 manuscript, discovered some years ago in the dust of 
 Mount Athos, lias come, bringing an overwhelming 
 testimony against Callistus. 
 
 This is the famous book of " Philosophoumena," 
 discovered by Minos des Minos in a scientific mission 
 undertaken in the name of France. The learned 
 world immediately recognized the value of this book, 
 which contains the most complete and fresh infor- 
 mation on the heresies of the early ages of the Church, 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 257 
 
 with original citations from the chiefs of the Gnostic 
 school. Nobody emits a doubt on its date ; it goes 
 back quite positively toward the middle of the third 
 century. The latter part of the book was devoted to 
 an inside chronicle of the Church of Rome in that 
 period, and traced out the frightful usurpations of its 
 bishop, Callistus. Who was this indignant witness 
 of the intrigues which contributed most in preparing 
 the way for pontifical despotism ? Origen had been 
 named, and that pleased the Catholic party, which 
 could dismiss as heresy whatever annoyed them in 
 the document. But as the author of the work called 
 himself a bishop, and as Origen was only an elder 
 or presbyter, this hypothesis could not be sustained. 
 I hold it certain to-day that the author of the " Phil- 
 osophoumena" is Saint Hippolytus, who was Bishop 
 of Ostia about the middle of the third century, and 
 died a martyr, one of the most illustrious doctors of 
 the time, a disciple of Irenseus and Alexander. Who- 
 ever has attentively read the undisputed works of his 
 pen which remain to us can easily conceive that he 
 alone could have written the "Philosophoumena." 
 It was, moreover, known that he had devoted a book 
 to the heresies. But without engaging in this great 
 debate, I will confine myself to pointing to the decisive 
 proof which Rome furnishes us. At the Museum of 
 the Lateran people admire a very fine statue of Saint 
 Hippolytus, on the pedestal of which is drawn up a 
 list of his works, among which figures a writing which 
 is positively cited in the " Philosophoumena" as being 
 from the author of that book. We have before us, 
 then, one of the most worthy representatives of Chris- 
 tendom in the third century. What does he say of 
 Callistus ? First, he depicts to us the earlier periods 
 
 17 
 
258 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 of his life. That he was formerly a slave, and was 
 afterward elevated to the highest ecclesiastical digni- 
 ties, would only be a fact honorable to himself and 
 to the Church. That proves how high she placed 
 herself above all social distinctions. Unfortunately, 
 Callistus rose by dishonorable means. He began 
 with simple villainy. After having gone through a 
 fraudulent bankruptcy at the expense of the Jews of 
 the Transteverine quarter, he sought to conceal his 
 crime by going to play in their synagogue a comedy 
 of Christian heroism, transforming a vile affair about 
 money into a doctrinal quarrel. Sent to the mines 
 of Sicily for this daring act, he took advantage of 
 the momentary good will of Commodus toward Chris- 
 tians and returned to Rome, where he became the 
 eager servant of the old Bishop Zephyrinus, hardly an 
 intelligent man, and fond of money. He employed 
 his position to gain friends by flattering all the dog- 
 matical opinions which were then in conflict at Rome, 
 by giving pledges and fair words to each, without 
 shunning, despite all his prudence, a lapse into heresy, 
 through the ambiguity of his language, w r hich bor- 
 dered on Pantheism. Through these measures he 
 became the successor of Zephyrinus, and he turned 
 against his allies of a day. Once seated in the epis- 
 copal throne he thought only of the methods of increas- 
 ing his power. He employed the surest means of 
 success by relaxing all the bonds of the ancient disci- 
 pline, flinging wide open the doors of the Church to 
 all who desired to enter without renouncing a sinful 
 life. This calculation was profound ; a holy Church 
 is a free Church, for Christian people only abandon 
 their rights when they have renounced the fulfillment 
 of their duties. The sacerdotal priesthood grew up 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 259 
 
 on the ruins of the universal priesthood. Callistus 
 was particularly easy toward the improprieties of 
 great ladies whom their whims brought into the 
 Church. He compared the latter to Noah's ark, 
 which carried in its bosom unclean animals as well 
 as clean. This confusion required a firm hand in the 
 pilot, and the Bishop of Eome was charged with the 
 business. Saint Hippolytus openly resisted him ; he 
 chiefly combated the most fearful of his usurpations, 
 which consisted in directly remitting sins in his own 
 name, without any regard for ecclesiastical discipline. 
 This is what made the valiant defender of ancient 
 Christian liberty shiver with indignation ! But he 
 was resisting a current stronger than he — stronger 
 than the resistance of the Origens and Tertullians, 
 the current of worldliness and formalism whose bil- 
 lows the union of the Church with the Empire, was 
 soon to precipitate in an irresistible manner. The 
 book of Hippolytus nevertheless remains an over- 
 whelming witness against the early attempts of the 
 Roman Episcopacy to found a divine power. Surely 
 it is a favorable hour to hear the voice of this cham- 
 pion of liberty and holiness, on the eve of the day 
 when one of the successors of Callistus will strive to 
 ascend the last step of the altar where he would be 
 adored by Catholic Christendom. Let not the name 
 of Callistus prejudice us against his Catacomb. He 
 was merely charged to arrange it ; he could not dis- 
 honor the holy confessors who repose there ; besides, 
 his remains are not here. The sanctuary has not 
 been profaned. I have already related how Signor 
 di Rossi succeeded in discovering this Christian cem- 
 etery, one of the most vast and important. It really 
 includes two cemeteries, that of Callistus and that of 
 
260 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Lucina, which have been combined by subterranean 
 galleries. The latter was by far the more ancient ; 
 by bringing together fragments of inscriptions scat- 
 tered in the ashes, Signor di Rossi succeeded in read- 
 ing the epitaph of Cornelius ; and by prosecuting his 
 excavations he discovered his portrait painted in fresco 
 on the arcosolium which served for his tomb. Now 
 Saint Cornelius was one of the most eminent bishops 
 of the third century. In the Catacomb of Callistus 
 he got together by the same process the fragments of 
 a great inscription of Pope Damascus, which in the 
 most precise manner indicated the location of the 
 episcopal tomb in the third century. The epitaphs 
 of four bishops of that epoch have also been regained 
 in the same crypt, which is situated near the crypt of 
 Saint Cecilia. Thus Signor di Rossi has very truly 
 discovered the most important Catacomb of the second 
 period of the Church of Rome. In gleaning up all 
 the inscriptions which were buried there, he perceived 
 that the land belonged to the illustrious family of the 
 Cecilii, which explains its proximity to the pompous 
 tomb of Cecilia Metella, the wife of Crassus. Some of 
 the greatest names of ancient Rome and of imperial 
 Rome are encountered in the funereal inscriptions of 
 the Catacomb. The Christianity of that epoch then 
 did not merely attract to itself the poor, the slaves, 
 the ignorant, but also an important section of the 
 Roman aristocracy, women akin to the imperial fam- 
 ily, men destined to the highest offices in the State. 
 Nothing can better show how universally souls were 
 then wrought upon by religious aspirations, and how 
 they sighed for a worship which might give them peace. 
 The higher classes of the nation had particularly flung 
 themselves into Oriental superstitions, but the super- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 261 
 
 stitions of Mithra and Isis had quickly revealed to 
 them their nothingness, and, inrpelled by the same 
 needs of heart and mind, they now came knocking 
 at the doors of the Church. 
 
 After all these explanations, it is time for us to 
 penetrate the Catacomb of Callistus. We go thither 
 by that incomparable Appian Way, which to my 
 mind is the finest thing in Rome. Coming out by 
 Saint Sebastian Gate we encounter the Quo Yadis 
 Church, whose touching legend I have already related ; 
 then, not far from the tomb of Cecilia Metella, you 
 reach the gate of a vineyard — a turfy mound over- 
 looks the entire landscape. When the golden rays of 
 the setting sun impurple the immense plain, girdle 
 the Albanian and Sabine Mountains with a halo, and 
 come breaking on the aqueducts, you say to yourself, 
 This is truly perfect beauty, and you are not mistaken. 
 You descend into the Catacomb by a very steep stair- 
 case ; you light a candle and advance, full of tender 
 respect, along these somber walls, which contain the 
 remains of several Christian generations and the ashes 
 of ctonfessors. You imagine the scenes that have taken 
 place under these arches in the days of persecution. 
 You see a multitude in tears accompanying the corpse 
 of one of its pastors who has just been sacrificed ; 
 prayer and sacred hymns rise amid sobbings, and the 
 words of eternal life resound as a mighty consolation 
 and a sure promise. A pious hand traces the memory 
 of this holy hour in a fresco rapidly engraved on the 
 unslaked lime. It is Elijah borne away in his chariot 
 of fire — a sublime image of the glory of the martyr. 
 There, it is the youth in the furnace, repeating to the 
 Church that the Son of God traverses it with her. 
 Next, it is Daniel in the lions' den, or Noah in the 
 
262 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 ark — a lively image of the protection of God over the 
 loosened waves of persecution. The Christians of 
 those dolorous times delighted in the symbols of tri- 
 umph ; rarely do they depict those' of suffering. 
 Why should they? Were they not plunged in it? 
 What they need is, to greet in advance the happy 
 shore whither their hopes tend. Yet I found at Saint 
 Callistus a very beautiful fresco, which represents the 
 appearance of the Christians before the tribunal of the 
 Emperor. We see the haughty judge on his seat; 
 the pagan priest who has denounced the Christian is 
 fleeing basely, and full of wrath ; he perfectly repre- 
 sents the persecuting Church which says that she ab- 
 hors blood, abhor ret a sanguine^ because she does 
 herself slay those whom she has delivered to the 
 secular arm. Nothing is so fine as the glance of 
 the confessor; it has that inflexible sweetness which 
 nothing can overcome : and he too, in his indomitable 
 resistance, repeats after the Master, I am a king, for 
 I bear witness to the truth. Symbols which speak 
 of the resurrection are also very' numerous. Jonah 
 is its most frequent type ; he is represented as he is 
 swallowed by the whale, and then as he proceeds 
 from his jaws, which represent the jaws of the sepul- 
 cher. The resurrection of Lazarus is likewise con- 
 stantly represented. A very significant painting in 
 the Catacombs, which indicates one of the greatest 
 revolutions wrought by Christianity, is that which 
 shows us a laborer with his instruments of toil, a 
 blacksmith with his tools, a ditcher with his pick. 
 Till Jesus Christ came, manual labor was despised 
 and given up to the slave ; it is now honored as being 
 required by God. In the Christian cemeteries we are 
 constantly reading the great text of Saint Paul : Do 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 263 
 
 all things in the name of God. We feel that the 
 entire life is animated by a new breath, that is sancti- 
 titied in all its legitimate elements, and that the 
 barrier is not yet reared between the sacred and the 
 profane ; as if all that we are, all that we have, and 
 all that we do, did not belong to God. A mother 
 has desired to have the plaything of a child prema- 
 turely snatched from her tenderness, represented on 
 his little resting place. Christian symbols have been 
 found on utensils, on fragments of furniture, which 
 w T ere incrusted on the tomb as signs for recognition. 
 I was particularly struck by one inscription gleaned 
 up by Signor di Rossi at Saint Callistus, and which 
 runs thus in Greek : Dyonissas preshytes iatros — 
 JDyonisias priest and physician. The Church of the 
 third century, then, saw no incompatibility between 
 the exercise of the ecclesiastical office and a purely 
 lay calling. 
 
 You would, no doubt, ask me whether the frescos 
 and inscriptions of the Catacombs bring any confir- 
 mation to Catholicism or Protestantism ? I should 
 reply concerning both in the negative. What is 
 found there is very different from either; the Chris- 
 tianity of the second and third century, with its free- 
 dom and fervor, with all the complex elements that 
 were blended in it. There is not a single inscription, 
 nor a solitary fresco, that implies the primacy of Peter, 
 for the inscriptions which put his name over a Moses 
 Smiting the Rock are of later date. The Virgin 
 Mary appears only as the humble mother of Jesus, to 
 whom alone adoration is visibly addressed. As to 
 the sacraments, they have sought to make much of 
 the frescos of Saint Callistus, which represent Bap- 
 tism by the miraculous draft of fish, and the Supper 
 
264 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 by a mystical repast around a table laden with loaves 
 and fishes. I can see nothing in these frescos which 
 implies any thing more than the celebration of 
 these two sacraments, connected with the evan- 
 gelical stories which have always served as their 
 symbols. At any rate, there is no trace of any 
 other sacraments but Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 Most of the inscriptions imply the immediate blessed- 
 ness of the dead. Some contain a vow in his be- 
 half, and others entreat his prayers. This is nothing 
 astonishing ; the Church of the second and third cen- 
 tury believed in the continuation of redemptive action 
 beyond the tomb. 
 
 It is remarkable to note that all the symbols 
 used in the Catacombs are drawn from our canon- 
 ical books. It is only at Naples that you find 
 something drawn from the Shepherd of Hernias — 
 two maidens building the mystical tower. We can 
 infer nothing from the Catacombs concerning the 
 worship of images, since it is admitted that they did 
 not serve for places of worship. The vials wherein 
 it was claimed that the blood of martyrs was depos- 
 ited bear inscriptions which imply that they were 
 used in the Eucharist. In this, then, there is no 
 certain indication to discern the tombs of martyrs, 
 apart from topographical designations. I do not 
 speak of the other Catacombs which I have visited, 
 and w 7 hich I have already named, because I have 
 grouped about Saint Callistus whatever has seemed 
 to me most worthy of interest in my studies of 
 Christian archaeology. 
 
 I take leave to express the wish that the Fathers of 
 the present Council may often descend into the 
 Catacombs, in order that they may measure the dis- 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 265 
 
 tance which separates the Boraan Church of to-day 
 from the Eoman Church of the early times ; and that 
 they may explain how the actual Pontificate pro- 
 ceeds from the primitive Episcopacy ; and above all, 
 how it continues its tradition in the bosom of the 
 wealth of material power and by the exertion of an 
 oppressive policy. 
 
 E. de Pbessense. 
 
266 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 LETTEE XT. 
 
 The Council Chamber — Preliminary Session — An Unpleasant Incident 
 and a Conversation — Bishop Dupanloup and M. Veuillot — The Op- 
 position — The Pope's Allocution in the Preliminary Session — Its 
 Spirit — The Manifesto of the Oivilta Cattolica — On the Eve of the 
 Council — The Letters of Janus put in the Index — Wrath of the 
 Liberals — Opening Ceremonies of the Council, with Comments — 
 The Committees on Faith, Discipline, and the Religious Orders — 
 Their Duties — Parleying Protestants — The True Issue — Unmeaning 
 Distinctions — The False Supernatural. 
 
 Rome, December, 1869. 
 
 I shall write the last two letters in the form of a 
 journal, in order to follow more closely the incidents 
 of these important days. Here we are decidedly on 
 the eve of the Council. The preparations are ad- 
 vancing from day to day. I went this morning to 
 Saint Peter's. The chapel where the deliberations 
 will take place is quite ready. The benches are cov- 
 ered w T ith velvet, the Pontifical Chair rises in its 
 majesty and solitude, a symbol of the dogma which 
 they are eager to proclaim at Eome. In the basilica 
 itself, in the rear of the confessional of Saint Peter, 
 benches of the same kind are prepared for the great 
 religious ceremonies w T hich w r ill precede and accom- 
 pany the Council. This morning, Tuesday, Decem- 
 ber 2d, a preparatory session was held in the Sistine 
 Chapel, and I saw filing past bishops of all nations, 
 tongues, and costumes. The session no doubt dealt 
 with the ceremonial question. Priests are arriving 
 at Rome in ever-growing numbers. Their minds 
 appear quite heated. Returning from Naples this 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 267 
 
 morning, I had a very significant conversation with 
 two Jesuits. The occasion of it was original enough, 
 though hardly agreeable to me. It happened that 
 yesterday evening, on leaving the station at Naples, 
 a thief had nimbly and skillfully abstracted quite a 
 sum of gold from me. The company was all cleri- 
 cal. They shared my vexation, but it did not fail to 
 inspire a certain contentment in my cassocked com- 
 panions, because they thought it a new proof of the 
 moral lapse of a nation that is shaking off the yoke 
 of Catholic absolutism. In vain did I suggest that 
 my thief did not belong to the new generation, by 
 observing that justice required us to blame his early 
 teachers rather than the new government. It would 
 not do, and they came near accusing Yictor Imman- 
 uel of having had his hand in my pocket. Once on 
 this ground the conversation did not pause. My 
 friends of the Gesu expressed a profound indignation 
 at the late manifestations of Monseigneur Dupan- 
 loup, as if he were dishonoring the close of his career. 
 They lauded Yeuillot and his journal to the skies. 
 For them he is the Archangel Michael, sword in 
 hand. They turned a deaf ear when I told them 
 that this archangel more frequently took mud from 
 the highway to besmear his adversaries than the 
 sword of speech. When I invoked freedom of con- 
 science, ever trampled under foot by. this desperado, 
 they replied that the truth alone had rights — that it 
 was like the sun — that people ought to submit to it 
 or be punished — that the Pope was as God. When 
 I declared to them that I felt horror at an Inquisitor- 
 Christ, they did me the honor to say, You are a 
 Protestant. Thereupon they fell to abusing our mis- 
 sions and our great Reformers. " Study, sir, study 
 
268 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the history of the Church," said a monk quite ludi- 
 crously to me, " and you will see whether there is any 
 likeness between Saint Peter and your Luther." I 
 might have asked him, with a smile, to show me the 
 likeness between the boatman of Lake Tiberias and 
 the Sovereign Pontiff. He talked of pride, rebellion, 
 and always came back to that frightful theory of the 
 right of persecution. This is the staple of the Roman 
 idea. In the eyes of the two Jesuits you should have 
 seen the gleaming of the stern and somber fire of 
 fanaticism. Be not deceived — it is this inflamed at- 
 mosphere which will surround and weigh upon the 
 Council. It will have, like the Convention of 1793, 
 its mountain and its tribunes, which will exercise a 
 moral violence on its deliberations. Decidedly the 
 presence of all these monks is not useless. 
 
 December 3. — To comprehend the irritation of the 
 IJltramontanes against the least of the Gallicans, one 
 should read the letter of the Bishop of Orleans to 
 M. Yeuillot. I send you a reproduction of it, for it 
 is a capital document on the question of infallibility. 
 
 " Sir : In the letter which you published, No- 
 vember 18th, in regard to my observations on the 
 controversy raised in relation to the definition of 
 infallibility, you excuse yourself for having been one 
 to awaken this controversy. You pretend that, if I 
 have determined at last to speak on this question, 
 you had nothing to do with it ; that it was not your 
 fault. 
 
 " Here I am obliged to contradict you. 
 
 " Yes, sir, it is your fault, and I cannot accept your 
 excuse. 
 
 " You ask, ' Why has Monseigneur the Bishop of 
 
Home, Italy, and the Council. 269 
 
 Orleans brought this question before the public ? ' I 
 will explain to you. 
 
 " You deny the seasonableness and justice of my 
 act : I will make you comprehend them. 
 
 " You say that it would not be becoming to pro- 
 voke from me a new condemnation. I come not to 
 condemn, but to warn you. 
 
 " I might neglect your provocations, were they 
 personal to me. But what you have been doing for 
 ten months is another matter. 
 
 " You assume, sir, a bearing in the Church which 
 is no longer tolerable. 
 
 " You, a mere layman, of whom one of our holy 
 bishops said yesterday, in your own columns, that 
 they have no authority and are nothing in the Church. 
 You usurp strangely — you agitate and trouble men's 
 minds in the Church ; you are raising a sort of 
 pious mob at the doors of the Council ; you prescribe 
 its course ; you raise questions that the Holy Father 
 has not raised ; you talk of inevitable, as you deem 
 them, definitions; you tell their upshot and form; 
 you decide questions of doctrine and discipline ; you 
 make yourself a judge between bishops, to dishonor 
 some and rule others ; you take sides for or against 
 them, on the gravest, most delicate, and complex theo- 
 logical questions; you abuse, denounce, and put un- 
 der the ban of Catholicism all Catholics who do not 
 think and speak like yourself; you do not even allow 
 them to abstain, through a sense of incompetency and 
 through reverence, from discussions against bishops; 
 in your eyes, not to meddle with controversies raised 
 by you as you do, is a desertion ! 
 
 " This is too much, sir. It was time to answer you. 
 Therefore I spoke. You say that ' I have just given 
 
270 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 a head to an armed revolt.' No, sir ; what I have 
 done is no revolt, but a defense. 
 
 " For the moment has come to defend ourselves 
 against you. 
 
 " In my turn, then, I raise my voice, and hasten to 
 oppose enterprises against which I utter a solemn 
 warning. 
 
 "I accuse you of usurpations over the Episcopacy, 
 and of perpetual intrusion into the gravest and most 
 delicate affairs. I denounce especially your doctrinal 
 excesses, your deplorable taste for irritating questions, 
 and for violent and dangerous conclusions. I accuse 
 you of accusing, abusing, and slandering your breth- 
 ren in the faith. Better than you, none ever deserved 
 that severe phrase of Holy Writ : The accuser of the 
 brethren. 
 
 " Above all, I reproach you with making the 
 Church a partner in your violence, by presenting as 
 her doctrine, with rare audacity, your most personal 
 ideas." 
 
 M. Yeuillothas replied with his accustomed daring. 
 He has hurled at the Bishop of Orleans the phrase 
 which is his climax in abuse. When he has exhausted 
 his vocabulary which however does not lack wealth, 
 he has a crowning epithet, Academician. In his eyes 
 that represents all baseness and all hypocrisy. And 
 he did not fail to let that arrow fly at Monseigneur Du- 
 panloup, who indeed is one of the Forty of the French 
 Academy. M. Louis Yeuillot, by what I was told 
 last night, has reached Home. He is no doubt to repre- 
 sent one of the tongues of fire in the new Pentecost, 
 and breathe upon the assembly that rage against all 
 liberty which consumes himself. I have received new 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 271 
 
 information concerning the divisions of opinion in the 
 Council. It seems that the Hungarian and Portu- 
 guese bishops form the extreme party against the 
 Pontifical infallibility ; they come here full of anima- 
 tion, and will sustain the Germans and the few bishops 
 who have resisted the general current. The Pope has 
 had a table prepared which gives him a view of the 
 probable votes of the diverse bishops. How singu- 
 larly that savors of worldly policy ! What matters 
 all this information, if it is true that all the bishops, 
 when once assembled, will be lifted to the heights of 
 inspiration ? What they think to-day is of no impor- 
 tance, since to-morrow they will become oracles of the 
 Divine Spirit. But the Holy Father himself acts as if 
 he had to deal with an ordinary deliberative body, as 
 the Queen of England would do on the eve of the 
 opening of her Parliament. This is because the Pope, 
 in his desire to see the triumph of the dogma of his 
 infallibility, slightly forgets that the Council is to be 
 inspired, and relapses unconsciously into the reality 
 of facts. The thing will be much more patent 
 when the deliberations shall have begun and shall 
 appear doubtful. There will be great anguish at the 
 Vatican ; they will ask if the good party may not re- 
 ceive a check, and will talk, on occasion, as though the 
 Holy Spirit lacked wisdom. Sarpi, the enlightened 
 historian of the Council of Trent, relates that the in- 
 spiration came to the sacred Council in the valise of 
 Pome, which brought benefices and presents. To-day 
 the presents flow to Pome and do not proceed from 
 her. There is, then, no such abominable simony to 
 fear. Unless they succeed at the outset in creating 
 a blind enthusiasm, discussion will be needed and the 
 result doubtful. It will, moreover, be difficult for 
 
272 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the deliberations to produce any great effect at the 
 time. The speeches will scarcely be heard, and little 
 understood, by auditors not belonging to the same 
 nation as the orator. Stenography will gather them 
 up, and the prelates will read them at home, sipping 
 their chocolate. Thus will they form their opinions. 
 We ask ourselves how the sacred spark will be 
 loosened in an assembly so split up. 
 
 December i:. — The discourse pronounced by the 
 Pope in the preparatory session, the other day, when 
 he had the oath administered to the officers of the 
 Council, has just been published in the Home Journal. 
 The Holy Father limits himself to the expression of his 
 joy on finding himself surrounded by the bishops, and 
 compares himself with Jesus Christ surrounded by 
 the disciples when he formulated the loftiest doctrines. 
 People perceive the sense and aim of this comparison. 
 The Allocution closes with pious words, which for a 
 wonder are unmingled with anathemas. As if to con- 
 trast with this pacific language, the Civiltd Cattolica, 
 which appeared yesterday, published a true manifesto 
 under the title, The Council of the Vatican. The 
 organ of the Jesuits inquires, What are the diverse 
 dispositions of mind which appear on the eve of the 
 8th of December? It finds three principal ones, joy- 
 ful expectation, declared ill-will, and the disquietude 
 of men of little faith. The last are the Liberal Cath- 
 olics. Against these is directed its heavy artillery. 
 They would reconcile Catholicism and modern liberty. 
 But this liberty is precisely the great heresy which 
 the Council should condemn. Under the name of 
 liberty they try to withdraw the family, the State, and 
 the school from the Church, from the saving power 
 of the word — since the first principle of that liberty 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council. 273 
 
 is the secularization of civil and political life. This 
 must be at any cost hindered and condemned. The 
 word is life, light, and salvation. The duty of the 
 Church is to subdue the State as well as the family 
 and the school, and to make an end of freedom of 
 conscience, which denies her this sacred right. 
 
 The Council will not fail to condemn the miserable 
 indifferentism that tolerates all religions and all opin- 
 ions. The Ultramontane party will not be reproached 
 with carrying its flag in its pocket on the eve of the 
 Council. It hopes for the restoration of the law of 
 the Middle Ages. One faith, one law, one king ! Peo- 
 ple observe the guarded silence of the famous review 
 on the late productions of the Bishop of Orleans, 
 while it extols the most mediocre circular of the most 
 unknown South American bishop. It behaves like 
 the ostrich, which thrusts its bead into the sand in 
 order not to see the approaching peril, and assumes 
 the air of despising what at bottom it dreads. 
 
 December 7. — Here we are on the eve of the great 
 day. This is truly the moment to speak of a French 
 pamphlet advertised on all the walls of Rome, and 
 entitled, u On the Eve of the Council." A master- 
 piece of bigotry and stupidity, it is sure to be greatly 
 relished in orthodox circles. The author feels com- 
 passion for those whom he calls good-natured Catho- 
 lics — by whom he means the simple and credulous 
 who fill the churches, at least in the lay ranks — who 
 allow themselves to be snared by antichurch accusa- 
 tions. The author makes me feel that he merits an 
 honorable position among the good-natured of whom 
 he so disdainfully speaks. He seeks to prove that all 
 the anxiety which has been circulated on the issue of 
 
 the Council has no foundation. He does not compre- 
 
 18 
 
274 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 hend how the doctrine of infallibility can disturb 
 people, and I confess that on this point his reasoning 
 seems to me well founded. He says, " After the 
 publication of a not yet defined dogma like the Im- 
 maculate Conception, done by the Pope alone with- 
 out a Council, who could seriously, and without of- 
 fense to his own conscience, to-day maintain the so- 
 called Gallican ideas on the infallibility of the Pope 
 and the Council? These ideas then received a mor- 
 tal blow from the hands of the entire Episcopacy. 
 Was not that infallibility more than proclaimed in 
 1854, since it was publicly and unanimously obeyed ? 
 Shall it be inscribed in the Council in the great book 
 of the defined rights of the Holy See ? It seems to 
 us that after having read it in the consciences of the 
 whole Episcopate, that this is nothing to stir up seri- 
 ous men." This time the " Good-natured " does not 
 lack skill. He gives us to understand that, proclaimed 
 or not, infallibility nevertheless exists. Then he pours 
 out his bile, vile vestry bile, on the recalcitrant bish- 
 ops, and he can only abuse Father Hyacinthe by re- 
 joicing in his fall, as he styles it. because it has rent 
 the vail in which the Catholic Liberals were wrapped. 
 He seeks to reassure the bishops, who are a little 
 vexed that simple priests should know more than 
 they about the programme of the Council, having 
 been admitted into the preparatory committees. He 
 elegantly inquires, " Have they not understood that 
 the cook is not better fed than his master because he 
 sees the dinner which he prepares before the master, 
 who does not see it till he has the chance to eat it?" 
 It is well understood, then, that the Council will be 
 completely cooked before its opening; that the bish- 
 ops will only have to shut their eyes and open their 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 275 
 
 mouths to proclaim what has been decided on for 
 them. The author trounces those governments 
 soundly who have some anxiety concerning the wis- 
 dom of the resolutions that may be reached on the 
 relations of the civil order and the religious order. 
 These decisions will be conformed to eternal truth ; 
 and besides, the princes have denied the Christian 
 faith since the State has become secularized. They 
 will not have, then, to employ their swords in the 
 service of the decrees of the Council, which, however, 
 is a great pity. Let the Church and the world be 
 reassured as they behold Pius IX., w T ho, since he pro- 
 claimed the Immaculate Conception of Mary, com- 
 bines in recompense the penetrating charms of woman 
 with manly energy. Let them fall upon their knees, 
 and into silence. Such is the substance of this pam- 
 phlet, which at Rome doubtless seems a marvelous 
 w 7 ork. At the very moment it appeared, they were 
 placarding on the walls the last decisions of the Con- 
 gregation of the Index. It condemns in the front 
 rank the " Letters of Janus," a grave and learned 
 book, which very clearly expresses the views of the 
 most distinguished section of German Catholicism. 
 It is the Catholicism of Dollinger that is here con- 
 demned in advance, and stifled by the mutes of the 
 Roman seraglio at the moment when they are about 
 to open the so-called deliberative Assembly of Cathol- 
 icism. This shows the measure of freedom which re- 
 calcitrant opinions will there enjoy. I regard this 
 condemnation on the eve of the Council as a scandal. 
 The Papacy would see its opponents only with their 
 hands bound and their lips gagged ; but then it might 
 have spared us this comedy of a senate of bishops 
 which can only decide with what sauce to serve the 
 
276 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 fish, that is, with what sincere or equivocal formulas 
 they will wrap the dogmas already decreed at the 
 Vatican. How well I understand the wrath that 
 rumbles in the hearts of intelligent and liberal men 
 at such a spectacle. Here is what I heard the other 
 evening in a Roman abode of the highest distinction : 
 " The temporal power is every thing here. It has 
 mounted the spiritual power, and uses it as its steed. 
 Islamism is perhaps not so far from primitive Christi- 
 anity as Papistry. Celestial Empire, Sublime Porte, 
 and Holy See — these are a triangle, of which each 
 angle is equally distant from the Gospel. What a dis- 
 tance between Calvary and the Vatican, between the 
 Holy Sepulcher and the Holy See ! The Papacy once 
 abolished the Society of Jesus. The latter returns 
 the favor to-day by dragging it to its ruin. Chris- 
 tianity will be reborn in these lands only from the 
 ashes of the present structure." Such are the motions 
 of many consciences. As I write, all the bells of 
 Rome proclaim the great festival of to-morrow. On 
 me they have the effect of a battle clarion. They 
 excite in me the ardent desire to fight more energeti- 
 cally than ever the great fight of Christian freedom. 
 
 Decemher 9. — Well, it is over, the famous day so 
 long expected in Catholicism, which is to inaugurate, 
 if we may believe its sincere defenders, an era of 
 glory and power with which nothing in previous 
 ages can be compared ! Let us try to give a faithful 
 picture of this great spectacle, which under the arches 
 of Saint Peter's had incomparable scenic advantages, 
 and which had some very fine moments. The skies 
 were not favorable ; the weather, which had seemed 
 to promise sunshine, was detestable. The dull gray 
 light, leaving the immense basilica in demi-obscurity, 
 
Some, Italy, and the Council. 277 
 
 was a great pity, for a rich golden light would have 
 added much to the magnificence of the ceremony. 
 From five in the morning the multitude began to 
 flow to the porticoes of Saint Peter's. Near half past 
 six, the doors were opened. The church was speedily 
 more than full. Never, even at Easter, did I see it 
 so greatly thronged. Tt was a moving ocean of hu- 
 man heads, where all the ecclesiastical costumes were 
 blended in an often picturesque variety with brilliant 
 uniforms, the toilets of the great ladies, and the sim- 
 ple garments of the Roman peasant. The ladies all 
 wore black vails. Fortunately no breath of terror 
 passed over that human sea, for one dare not think 
 what would have happened had such a multitude 
 been of a sudden wrought upon by one of those inex- 
 plicable frights which too often arise in great assem- 
 blies — it would immediately become a blind element, 
 and irresistible in its wrath, which would destroy itself. 
 Nowhere in my life have I seen so many men assem- 
 bled. Fortunately the Italian crowds do not resemble 
 our French throngs in their promptness to lift up and 
 dash together their waves; and there was no acci- 
 dent to regret at Saint Peter's. The basilica is hap- 
 pily not susceptible, on account of its size, of being 
 overloaded with ornaments; otherwise they would 
 not have failed to spoil its magnificent arrangements, 
 as is done in all the other churches on great festivals. 
 Its immensity triumphs over the false elegance of its 
 tinsel. Overflowing thus, it produced a truly grand 
 effect ; there is certainly no other edifice on earth 
 capable, on such a day, of presenting a similar vision 
 of mankind. However, I noticed one change accom- 
 plished in favor of the opening ceremony of the 
 Council ; the famous statue of Saint Peter, whose 
 
278 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 great toe is worn away by the kisses of the faithful, 
 was splendidly adorned for the ceremony; instead of 
 the usual image, which is that of an apostle from the 
 ranks of the people, they had made it the representa- 
 tion of the royal pontificate ; they had flung over his 
 naked shoulders the mantle of a chief of the hierarchy, 
 and circled his brow with the tiara. This act is 
 symbolical, it very well expresses what Roman Ca- 
 tholicism has done with Christian antiquity in sur- 
 charging it at a later date with the deceitful signs of 
 its usurpations. It could not more frankly confess 
 that it found an apostle, born and abiding in pov- 
 erty, as well when he became a fisher of men as when 
 he flung his nets into the Sea of Tiberias, and that 
 despite himself, it made him a prince of this world, a 
 civil and religious despot. This avowal is at the 
 same time a hint to the Fathers of the Council to 
 bow before the successor of Peter, and not to cherish 
 foolish ideas of independence. The hall of the Coun- 
 cil, which has been opened in one of the arms of the 
 transverse cross of the basilica, is as I have already 
 described. They have depicted on its walls some of 
 the greatest Councils, beginning with that of Jeru- 
 salem. The painter has received new information 
 on that great event, which he surely did not draw 
 from the narrative of Saint Luke. He shows us the 
 assembly with the Virgin Mary presiding, seated be- 
 tween Saint Peter and Saint Paul. To her all eyes 
 are turned, as it is in her name that prayers are to go 
 up to ask of Heaven the illumination of the bishops. 
 To us nothing appears more logical than this honor- 
 able position of the Virgin in a Council opened on 
 the anniversary of the proclamation of the Immacu- 
 late Conception, and convoked with the special 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 279 
 
 design of justifying forever this grand, authoritative 
 stroke of the Papacy. 
 
 About eight o'clock, the troops which were to keep 
 the way open for the cortege took their place in the 
 basilica ; the Swiss are arrayed as halberdiers of the 
 Middle Ages, with coats of mail and red plumed hel- 
 mets. The cannons of Saint Angelo announce that 
 the ceremony is about to begin. The Fathers of the 
 Council are assembled in the galleries of the Vatican ; 
 they descend the princely staircase. They pass the 
 threshold of the basilica, and the singers of the Sistine 
 Chapel, who precede them, intone the Veni Creator in 
 simple and noble style. The aspect of Saint Peter's 
 at this moment is imposing; never yet had such a 
 procession swept through it. The bishops are esti- 
 mated at eight hundred. Each of them is accompanied 
 by his theologian. At the head of the procession are 
 the dignitaries of all sorts who abound in Rome, then 
 representatives of all the congregations. Then fol- 
 lows the long file of the bishops, who advance two 
 by two. It is truly an assembly from every tongue 
 and nation. Beside the Italian bishop, with his deli- 
 cate and long profile, advances the German bishop, 
 with somewhat gross but manly features. Here is a 
 French bishop near a Spanish, English, or American 
 bishop. The Oriental bishops are remarkable for 
 their long beards, and the majestic calmness of their 
 expression. The most distant missions are repre- 
 sented; the Bishop of Siam is beside the Bishop of 
 Geneva. The entire hierarchy unrolls the links of 
 its chain. While the ancient hymn vibrates power- 
 fully under the arches, the patriarchs and cardinals, 
 covered with their purple, precede the Holy Father, 
 whom his noble guards, all bedizened w T ith gilding, 
 
280 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 announce. He is followed by the apostolical prothon- 
 otaries and the generals of the great religions 
 orders. He lays his golden miter on the threshold 
 of the basilica. He pauses before the Confessional of 
 Saint Peter, prostrates himself, and intones with his 
 sonorous voice the prayers for the day ; then he pro- 
 ceeds to the throne which has been prepared for him 
 in the further end of the Hall of the Council. Then 
 begins the great opening mass, performed by Mon- 
 seigneur Patrizzi, the Cardinal Vicar, which is chanted 
 by the choir of the Sistine Chapel. 
 
 This choir is the musical glory of Rome. It al- 
 ways chants without accompaniment, and it entirely 
 shuns the theatrical effects of the Chapels of the 
 Canons of Saint Peter's and of Saint John de Lat- 
 eran ; it does not like interminable roulades and 
 brilliant cavatinas. The music which it prefers is in 
 general very ancient; melody is rare, but the whole 
 effect is marvelously powerful. Nowhere have I 
 found such consummate art in passing by gradation 
 from the softest piano to the most reverberating 
 forte. You would think it a single voice running 
 over the entire scale of the diapason, with shades of 
 infinite delicacy, to end in a superb and triumphant 
 outburst. The Sistine Chapel is the faithful guardian 
 of a musical tradition which goes back to the finest 
 days of Catholic art, and it is this that preserves it 
 from the invasion of the refined and effeminate melo- 
 dies which Church music now affects. Will it long 
 keep that tradition ? I doubt it. It will finally share 
 in that indescribable softness which the Catholic 
 worship has taken on, since the adoration of Mary 
 has occupied the central place. For the moment, 
 this musical revolution is not yet effected at the Sis- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 281 
 
 tine. Let us profit by this to admire their somewhat 
 strange chants, which appear in their sharp tenuity 
 to attain the extreme limits of the human voice, then 
 to melt into majestic harmonies; sublime echo of 
 tradition. Yesterday the " Yeni Creator," as well as 
 the opening mass, were chanted with unequaled per- 
 fection, in a way that filled the soul with religious 
 emotion in which there was nothing artificial. Let 
 us grasp in their flight these good moments of the 
 Catholic worship, for they do not last long, and they 
 are soon replaced by great parade. I ought, how- 
 ever, to concede that the forms of the opening services 
 of the Council appeared to me in general fine and 
 well conceived, and, at any rate, much superior to 
 the habitual ceremonies of modern Catholicism. I 
 can very easily explain this superiority. The Rom- 
 ish Church has held no (Ecumenical Council for three 
 centuries. In the determination of the ceremonial 
 then she is obliged to recur to a tradition quite an- 
 terior to her innovations. Mariolatry and the un- 
 measured exaltation of the papal pow T er were not 
 developed three centuries ago as they are at the 
 present time. They were on the morrow of the 
 Reform ; the Society of Jesus had not attained the 
 degree of influence which it has since acquired. The 
 business was to defend themselves against a powerful 
 adversary, whom they might indeed burn and exter- 
 minate, but could not despise. The breath of the Re- 
 form, though weakened and cooled, had reached some 
 of the Fathers of the Council of Trent, especially the 
 French prelates. It is, then, very easy to compre- 
 hend that the necessity of conforming in the opening 
 of the present Council to a tradition which belongs 
 to a period when Catholicism was very different from 
 
282 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 what it is to-day, should have impressed on the cere- 
 mony of the 8th of December a character evidently 
 superior to the present level of Romish piety. 
 
 Immediately after the mass, Monseigneur Peucher 
 Passavolli, charged with sermon, proceeds to ask the 
 benediction of the Pope and leave to begin his preach- 
 ing. It is a formal sermon, without any precise mean- 
 ing". The Cardinal Vicar then read the first words of 
 the Gospel of John : In principio erat verhum. After 
 that Monseigneur Fessler, the Secretary of the Coun- 
 cil, went to deposit a copy of the Holy Scriptures on a 
 reading desk in the form of a throne which had been 
 set up over the altar. This was surely an admirable 
 ceremony, which calls to mind a profound saying of 
 my illustrious master, Yinet. He said that certain 
 Catholic ceremonies affected him like those buoys 
 which are fixed at certain spots in the sea near the coast 
 to mark the place where some precious object was lost. 
 Does not that Holy Bible laid on the altar suggest 
 with great eloquence the treasure, lost to present Cath- 
 olicism, of that veritable authority before which every 
 Christian should bow? In the early General Coun- 
 cils, which, however, were not free from human 
 influence, especially from that of the pretendedly 
 Christian Caesars, the sacred texts truly had the force 
 of law. Herr Professor Piper, well known for his 
 fine works on Christian archaeology, and for his evan- 
 gelical u Year-books," has discovered at the Imperial 
 Library of Paris, in an old manuscript, the repre- 
 sentation of an ancient Council. The Bible is not 
 only laid on the altar, it is put wide open in the chair 
 of the president — on that is conferred the presidency 
 of the Council. That is the true doctrinal infalli- 
 bility; it is there and not elsewhere. Were not the 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 283 
 
 act of depositing the Bible on the altar a vain form 
 for the Council of the Vatican, it would not be so 
 anxious on the question of knowing how far infalli- 
 bility should be divided between the Pope and the 
 bishops. Both would lay their hands on the sacred 
 book and every thing would be said. I well know 
 that if they submitted to its teachings, consulted di- 
 rectly and not athwart tradition, there would soon be 
 neither bishops nor popes, and that, according to 
 the command of Saint Peter, nobody would longer 
 dream of lording it over God's heritage. At any 
 rate, it should not be forgotten that the Christian 
 soul is the true altar of Christ, and hence that the 
 Holy Book should not Le kept from it, as though they 
 would profane it, nor impious powers be encouraged 
 and blessed in their criminal devotion who have llung 
 into galleys and prisons persons guilty of having read 
 together the volume pompously laid on the altar of 
 the Vatican ! 
 
 The ceremony, quickly came back to its true spirit. 
 Beside the Bible is likewise laid on the altar the 
 pallium, or sacerdotal mantle of the Holy Father ; 
 then he is adorned with it in great pomp, that he may 
 receive the fealty of the bishops, after having intoned 
 the psalms of the day. The bishops then proceed 
 one by one to kiss the hand of the Holy Father and 
 do him homage, thus showing that they are not 
 ministers of the Holy Gospel, servants of the divine 
 w T ord, but the ministers or subjects of the Pope. 
 They pass before the Bible, and leave it on its -golden 
 throne, to bend the knee before a man. Is not this 
 reducing the Bible, and Him who speaks to us in it, to 
 the illusory royalty of the Merovingian princes, under 
 whose name the mayors of the palace governed, w T hile 
 
284 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 waiting to shear their locks and send them to die in 
 some monastery ? Here the mayor of the palace is 
 the mighty lord of the Vatican. 
 
 After receiving the fealty of the bishops, the Holy 
 Father pronounced a truly beautiful prayer, in which, 
 for himself and the bishops, he begged Jesus Christ 
 that they might be kept from sin and error, that 
 they might not turn aside, but follow the right path 
 without undergoing any pressure. Here is another 
 of these coufounding anomalies. What! you are 
 infallible as you pretend ! You are so by your very 
 office as successor of Saint Peter, as the common 
 Father of the faithful, and as the organ of eternal 
 truth — and still you entreat God that you may be 
 kept from error and fall. Either your prayer, O Holy 
 Father, is a mockery — which I do not admit, know- 
 ing your personal piety, and all that renders your old 
 age respectable — or it implies that you may err, that 
 you do not possess infallibility by divine right, that 
 you are exposed to our uncertainties and weaknesses. 
 Then by what right, and w T itli,what face ask the 
 Council to proclaim what you confess you do not pos- 
 sess? You demand that they shall no longer exam- 
 ine any of your opinions in doctrine or morals, and 
 that they shall no longer weigh in the scales of the 
 sanctuary any of your judgments, and yet in your 
 prayer you confess that in those scales you may well be 
 found wanting, did not the ^race of God, which vou 
 ask as we ask it, keep you from lapse. It is absolutely 
 impossible for me to comprehend how a Catholic the- 
 ologian escapes this difficulty. I would also ask him 
 how the infallible Pope should need daily to pros- 
 trate his infallibility at the feet of a confessor. I 
 shall be answered that infallibility is not impecca- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 285 
 
 bility ; but is not this to forget all the laws of exper- 
 imental psychology, and to neglect the close relations 
 that subsist between moral and intellectual life? 
 
 Let us recur to the opening session. The most 
 solemn moment was when the litanies of the saints 
 of the day, intoned by the Pope, were chanted by the 
 entire Council and the vast assembly. At that 
 instant the aspect of the Council was very imposing. 
 The hall is arranged as an amphitheater ; in the 
 center is the altar, at the rear the Papal throne. 
 Two vast tribunes stand one above the other ; one is 
 divided into two parts, for the diplomatic corps and 
 the sovereigns, among whom shine the old Duke of 
 Florence and King Francis II. — fallen royalties which 
 are still recognized at Rome. The second tribune is 
 for the Sistine choir. Seated in their places, all the 
 bishops wear the miter. The Papal Chapel chants 
 a verse of the litany, which is majestic and simple ; 
 then the Council, with the assembly, repeats it. It is 
 an immense chorus, whose mighty concord fills the 
 naves and ascends to the cupola. It is impossible to 
 avoid a very lively emotion as we hear all the 
 oriental and occidental bishops uniting their voices 
 in that antique hymn. It is a splendid representation 
 of Catholic unity, which would ravish us did we not 
 remember that it is founded on mental slavery, and 
 that, after all, it is a pure chimera. Ah ! could all the 
 dissensions covered up by appearances break out at 
 this moment, how many sharp notes w r ould mar this 
 fine harmony, and how many discords would come 
 smiting our ears. Reflection comes then to calm 
 enthusiasm, yet it must be confessed that the first 
 impression is powerful, and the effect of this chant 
 considerable. 
 
286 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 After the chanting of the litanies, the Holy Father 
 addresses an allocution to the Council. We cannot too 
 greatly admire the beauty of his tones. This old 
 man of eighty years has a full and melodious voice, 
 whose sonorous and modulated vibrations are heard 
 at a great distance. He employs great emphasis in 
 his delivery ; you feel that he is moved and happy 
 to have seen the dawn of this great dav. His allocu- 
 tion is very significant ; it expresses very clearly in 
 w T hat spirit he hopes the Council will be held. Here 
 is a summary of it : 
 
 The Holy Father began by expressing his joy on 
 seeing the great assembly of bishops about him, " on 
 this day, favorable above all others, of the Immaculate 
 Conception of the Virgin Mother of God ! " " Vener- 
 able Brethren, let us all bear witness to the word of 
 God in order to show the path of truth to all men, 
 and to judge, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
 the oppositions of science falsely so-called." Then 
 follows the usual picture of the deviations of con- 
 temporary humanity, the cry of distress from a power 
 which feels that the world is escaping it. The Holy 
 Father says, " You see the impious conspiracy of 
 which Satan is the head ; it spreads afar, it has on 
 its side wealth and institutions, and vails itself under 
 freedom that it may wage war on the Holy Church 
 of Christ." This language, in the mouth of the au- 
 thor of the Encyclical of 1867, is clear. "But," he re- 
 sumes, " nothing is mightier than the Church. i Pleav- 
 en and earth shall pass away,' said Jesus Christ, fc but 
 my words shall not pass away. 5 Hear them : ' Thou 
 art Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, 
 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.' " 
 Such is the important thing in the allocution, and 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 287 
 
 we may add the watchword of the Council in the 
 mind of the Holy Father. The Holy Father then 
 explains that it is to remove these evils that he has 
 convoked the Council, which at this very moment 
 presents the image of the Church Universal — -which 
 in the person of its Bishops shows its piety and its 
 obedience to the See of Saint Peter. The Holy 
 Father feels a burning desire to labor with this great 
 Council for the salvation of souls perishing without 
 the pale of the Catholic faith. His eyes move with 
 comfort over this great and noble city of Rome, 
 which God has not abandoned to Gentile pillagers, 
 and to the Roman people, who encircle him with 
 their love. What particularly sustains his courage 
 is the union of the Episcopacy with the Apostolical 
 See ; in these difficult times nothing could be more 
 useful to the Church. These bonds should be drawn 
 still closer, for in the war waged on the Church, 
 union with its Chief Pastor is more than ever neces- 
 sary. In this spirit let us labor to give peace to 
 kingdoms, the law to barbarous nations, repose to 
 the religious orders, order to the Church, discipline 
 to the clergy, and thus reconstitute a people well- 
 pleasing to God. The discourse closes with an invo- 
 cation to the Holy Spirit, to the Virgin, Queen of the 
 Church, to the Angels, and to the Martyrs whose 
 relics are at Rome. 
 
 After his allocution the Holy Father arose, hold- 
 ing in his hand the pastoral crook, which is the sign 
 of his universal dominion, and gave the Council the 
 triple benediction. Then the Cardinal, who fills the 
 functions of first deacon, said to the Fathers, Orate, 
 (pray.) They knelt, and prayed in silence for five 
 minutes. Then the same Cardinal said to them. 
 
288 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Erigite vos, (rise up,) and they arose. I hardly like 
 this intervention of the master of ceremonies in 
 prayer, nor the supplication begun on the minute and 
 closed at command. Still less was I pleased that 
 Cardinal Antonelli should be the leader in prayer, he 
 who has hitherto shone in other spheres than those of 
 inward piety, and is better acquainted with the 
 mountain whence we see all the kingdoms of the 
 world than with Tabor ! 
 
 After the prayer and the gospel of the day, the 
 ceremony underwent a modification which does not 
 seem unimportant. According to the original pro- 
 gramme, the moment had come when the master of 
 ceremonies should pronounce these words: Exeunt 
 omnes qui locwn non hahent in Concilio — Let all 
 who have no right to sit in the Council, depart. The 
 embassadors, sovereigns, and Sistine choir should 
 have left at this moment, and the doors of the As- 
 sembly been closed, that the Fathers of the Council 
 might hold their first deliberation in the prescribed 
 forms, depositing their ballots in the election urns. 
 It is only when the deliberation has taken place in 
 this way that the doors should open again, and that 
 it should be proclaimed before the entire Assembly 
 that the Fathers themselves had decreed the opening 
 of the Council. Instead of conforming to this rule, 
 the Holy Father caused the Fathers to vote in public 
 by simple acclamation. I well know that the sub- 
 ject of the deliberation was of no importance, that 
 the business in hand was a mere resolution agreed on 
 in advance by all, namely, the opening of the Coun- 
 cil. But derogations from the forms of deliberating 
 assemblies are always grave matters ; on occasion of 
 an incontestable decision, a precedent is thus created 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 289 
 
 which will subsequently be used in relation to much 
 more important questions. For my part, I should 
 not be astonished if there was in the acclamation of 
 yesterday an attempt to hasten matters, and demand 
 from enthusiasm what reflection would refuse. Per- 
 haps I am mistaken, but it notwithstanding remains 
 true that the forms were modified yesterday in the 
 direction of summary proceedings. In the second 
 place, the Council decided that its first public session 
 should be held January 6, Epiphany day. Again 
 they chanted the Veni Creator, and then the cere- 
 mony closed with the Te Deu?n in the Gregorian 
 style, chanted by the Council and the assembly. 
 Worthy coronation of this ceremony ! whose memory 
 will long be preserved, and which none of our con- 
 temporaries will probably see renewed. I besought 
 God from the depths of my heart, while they were 
 invoking the Holy Spirit, that he would send upon 
 mankind his Spirit of freedom and holiness, that His 
 breath might pass over Catholicism to startle and 
 renew it, and that this audacious attempt at a Coun- 
 cil might turn to the confusion of Jesuitic Ultramon- 
 tanism, through some check, or through one of those 
 insolent triumphs which bury evil causes. I took 
 care not to forget that I have more than one brother 
 in Jesus Christ among the Fathers of the Council, and 
 that it is testifying my love to such to desire that 
 their bonds may be broken. I forgot to say that the 
 Knights of Malta, representatives of an order that no 
 longer exists, have asked to serve as guards of the 
 Holy Council. It is a phantom which may well end 
 by guarding a ghost, for I fear, from fresh informa- 
 tion, that the Council may be led to decisions so little 
 
 in harmony with the present state of the w^orld and 
 
 19 
 
290 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the Church that they will, as it were, be null and 
 non-existent. 
 
 I learned yesterday from a very reliable source 
 that the Council will begin by naming a Committee 
 on its Ceremonial, which will likewise serve as arbiter 
 should any differences arise between the bishops. 
 This is a species of qusestorship, at least what we 
 designate by that name, in our parliamentary assem- 
 blies. Then will come, also this week, the nomina- 
 tion of the three most important committees: that on 
 Faith, that on Discipline, and that on Religious Orders. 
 They will nominate another Committee on Missions 
 and the Christian Orient. The Committee on Faith 
 will be charged to draw up all decisions on the rela- 
 tions of philosophy and religion — on all doctrinal ques- 
 tions. There will come the famous question of Papal 
 Infallibility, and probably, too, that of the Assump- 
 tion of the Virgin. The way in which the first Com- 
 mittee shall be made up will show how the majority of 
 the Council inclines. The Spanish, American, En- 
 glish, and Italian bishops will vote for thepapalist idea 
 — I employ this expression, which would be thought 
 very inharmonious here, for brevity, and because it 
 very well depicts the situation. But a portion of the 
 French and German bishops will examine more nar- 
 rowly. Yet they are very hopeful in the Ultramon- 
 tane camp. It is pretended that Bishop Dupanloup 
 is universally blamed for having put out his pam- 
 phlet at the very moment of coming to sit in the 
 Council. They would even be disposed to tax this 
 haste with impropriety, while they admire the put- 
 ting: of the Letters of Janus into the Index. It 
 would be becoming, no doubt, to vote silently what 
 has been prepared beforehand by the Koman man- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 291 
 
 agers. They have ravishing explanations of the dog- 
 ma of infallibility. It is said, and I am now report- 
 ing what I have heard, that at bottom this is a Liberal 
 dogma ; that the Episcopacy, since it no longer pre- 
 sents independent and princely positions, is entirely 
 subject to the civil powers, and that henceforth the 
 Holy Father alone represents the independence of 
 religion ; that consequently the Liberal party is the 
 Ultramontane party, and that it has proved it by 
 more than once allying itself with the most advanced 
 democracy. I need not remind you of the high ex- 
 ploits of the Jesuits in this line ; they have not even 
 recoiled before regicide. We well know that they 
 are ready for any thing to serve their party, and that 
 they would sing the Marseillaise if it would lead to 
 their goal. Only we must not forget this goal. The 
 paths that lead to it are diverse and tortuous, but 
 their firm purpose is to end in the concentration of 
 all advantages in the hands of the Papacy. The III 
 trainontanists mock us when they affirm that by for- 
 tifying the authority of the Holy See they fortify 
 the spiritual power, since, according to their own 
 theory, they never separate the temporal power from 
 the spiritual power, and since they openly aim at 
 theocracy. Surely I am the sworn foe of Caesarian 
 Papacy. I never have ceased, and never will cease, 
 to combat it even in its mildest forms, in the guise of 
 Concordats ; but I none the less detest Papal Cassar- 
 ism as it appears in the Roman theocracy. Let 
 them call things by their names, and let them not 
 color with the name of liberty the criminal efforts of 
 civil and religious absolutism. 
 
 This leads me to speak of the task of the second 
 Committee, that on Discipline. This will have chiefly 
 
292 Home, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 to consider the relations of the Church and State. 
 It will begin, to judge from what I am told, by lay- 
 ing down the principle which is at the basis of the 
 Ultramontane system, the necessary subordination 
 of the civil to the religious power, the duty of the 
 State to be the prop, the defender of the Church, to 
 deliver to her the rising generation, to watch over 
 the periodical and literary press from her stand -point, 
 and to punish heresy as an offense or a crime, accord- 
 ing to its gravity. On this point I do not think they 
 will capitulate ; the Holy Father would deem that a 
 condemnation of his Encyclical which he could not 
 accept. It is probable, then, that in more or less 
 covert words they will condemn modern law, which 
 is identical with the secularization of the State. 
 
 " But," I said to the eminent man who imparted 
 these ideas to me, " nothing is more opposed to Chris- 
 tianity than the use of constraint in defending or prop- 
 agating the truth." " Constraint ! " he replied ; " but 
 we do not desire it. Nothing is more opposed to our 
 ideas." " But," I returned, " how will you deal with 
 those who are not convinced by your teachings, for 
 men are not born Christians." " We will persuade 
 them by addressing their hearts and minds." " Very 
 good, if they listen, but if they are obstinate ? " My 
 companion kept silence, for people know too well 
 what the Ultramontanist system implies for oppo- 
 nents and schismatics. 
 
 They gave me to understand that, in view of the 
 unhappy times, they might abate somewhat from the 
 rigor of their principles wherever it was necessary, 
 that is, wherever they are not the stronger ; for it is 
 well understood that when the Church finds a gov- 
 ernment after its own heart she concludes Concordats 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 293 
 
 such as Austria and South America know. She 
 strives as nearly as possible to approach her ideal, 
 which is at Rome. Prudent men, who understand 
 the requirements of politics, would wish them to 
 regulate in a uniform manner the mode of living 
 with what they call, by a delicious euphuism, hypo- 
 thetical governments. This is the customary expres- 
 sion for States which have not submitted themselves 
 to the sway of the absolute law, or the Papal law. 
 With them every thing is but hypothetical — freedom 
 of conscience, freedom of education, that of the press, 
 vacillating hypotheses — all, like the philosophy 
 whence they spring, destined doubtless to pass away ; 
 but as these hypotheses for the moment are quite vital 
 — as considerable powers side with them — it would not 
 be amiss to make terms with them while waiting for 
 the return of the reign of God. This is the opinion of 
 prudent bishops, but the zealots do not hear with 
 that ear, and they triumph ; they will issue new edi- 
 tions of the Syllabus and the Encyclical. Surely the 
 Committee on Discipline will have wherewith to oc- 
 cupy their leisure, and all the more so, because they 
 will have to treat the thorny question of ecclesiastical 
 estates. 
 
 As to the Committee on Religious Orders, it will 
 have to look closely to their present constitution, and 
 to study the modifications that should be introduced. 
 The Committee on Missions will have a very delicate 
 question for its order of the day, that of the relations 
 to be formed with Oriental sects which more or less 
 approximate the Catholic type. One would be ter- 
 rified at the labors which would be incumbent on 
 the Committees of the Council had not the Roman 
 managers provided against their fatigue, and greatly 
 
294 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 abridged their labors, through a well-adjusted com- 
 miseration in arranging all questions. I have been 
 given to understand that they hope to profit largely 
 by the light of the preparatory congregations. They 
 will also have to consider the means of approxima- 
 tion with the Greek religion. 
 
 The Sultan gives his full approbation to these 
 efforts, because he is very glad of any thing that can 
 enfeeble the power of Russia. They are busying 
 themselves, too, with Protestants who may be tempt- 
 ed to use the occasion to treat of their reunion with 
 the Church. The Holy Father has named a certain 
 number of theologians with whom they can confer. 
 Already certain English pastors seem disposed to 
 hold a parley. They speak also of ten Rhenish Prus- 
 sian pastors who declare their readiness to return to 
 the pale of the Church, if they will concede to them 
 priestly marriage and communion in both kinds. 
 We shall soon know what will result from these 
 efforts at approximation. In my eyes they are of no 
 importance, because they come from men who in real- 
 ity are already Catholics. The reserves which they 
 still make are insignificant when compared with what 
 they have conceded. For myself I should without 
 sorrow see the Catholic elements retained in the 
 Reformed Churches following their affinity to the 
 end. Positions should be clear and marked in the 
 great religious struggle that is preparing. The ritu- 
 alism that is striving to stifle spiritual religion, and 
 the Neo-Lutheranism awakened by sacramental ma- 
 terialism and sacerdotalism, are out of place in Prot- 
 estant Churches ; they are enemies in the place. 
 Let them move out with flying colors and draw up 
 under the standard of Rome, unless they will purge 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 295 
 
 out the Romish leaven which is in the depths of their 
 hearts and minds. I cannot grant that any son of 
 the Reform, truly consistent with its principles, can 
 have for a moment the notion of coming to treat, with 
 the Council of the Vatican. Whatever concessions 
 he may obtain, he sacrifices every thing by recog- 
 nizing the authority of such an assembly to decide 
 sovereignly, and in the name of God, ecclesiastical 
 doctrine and discipline. He thus abjures the essen- 
 tial principle of evangelical Protestantism, which 
 puts no authority above Holy Scripture, or rather, 
 Jesus Christ speaking in the Scriptures. 
 
 Besides, how can we forget the profound modifica- 
 tions which the ancient constitution of the Church 
 has undergone? I admit the indisputable authority 
 of no Council, not even of the (Ecumenical Councils 
 of the fourth and fifth centuries. But at least they 
 might claim to be true representatives of the Chris- 
 tian Church. The bishops were not named by one 
 of themselves, trenching on the monarch; they were 
 elected by the members of the Church, and laymen 
 were not reduced to the condition of helotism to 
 which the Catholic hierarchy condemns them. They 
 received no watchword from the Bishop of Rome, 
 whose presence or absence did not greatly disturb 
 them. The decisions of the Council of Nice did not 
 need his sanction that they might be universally re- 
 ceived. But if I would find a true Christian Council, 
 I have only to turn back to that which was held in 
 the upper chamber at Jerusalem, and whose deceitful 
 image is presented us in the painting that adorns the 
 hall of the Council of the Vatican. No president by 
 right directs its debates; each speaks with entire in- 
 dependence. In place of bishops I see elders of the 
 
296 Bome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Church named by it, exercising over it a purely 
 moral influence ; simple believers witness and share 
 in the deliberations. So little do the Apostles claim 
 the right to impose their opinions that the idea which 
 prevails comes from James, the Lord's brother, who 
 is not an Apostle, and the decree of the Council is 
 sent in the name of the entire assembly. " The 
 Apostles, elders, and brethren to our brethren among 
 the Gentiles who are at Antioch, in Syria, and in 
 Cilicia, greeting. It seemed good unto us, being as- 
 sembled of one accord, to send unto you chosen men. 
 It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to 
 lay no other burden upon you than these necessary 
 things." This simple introduction to the resolutions 
 of the Council of Jerusalem scatters all the preten- 
 sions of the Councils of the hierarchy, and truly I do 
 not know how they can get clear from the precision 
 of these simple terms, which show what a true repre- 
 sentation of the Christian Church is. 
 
 As to the infallibility of the Council, the same 
 eminent personage observed to me yesterday that it 
 should not be confounded with inspiration. The 
 Scripture is a divine word, but the word of the Coun- 
 cil is a human w T ord divinely preserved from error. 
 Here is another of those distinctions whose meaning 
 entirely eludes me ; how can a human word divinely 
 preserved from error be other than an inspired word? 
 But every thing in these pretensions to infallibility 
 amazes me ; the Council sees no tongues of fire resting 
 on the heads of its members; every thing goes on as 
 in a deliberative body ; they discuss, they vote : for- 
 merly they put more than one vile spring in play, as 
 is evident in the case of the Council of Trent. Up 
 to a given point w r e are fully in the order of nature, 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 297 
 
 then all of a sudden the supernatural begins ; it 
 triturates, if I dare say it, to the bottom of the urns 
 wherein the Fathers deposit their votes; it comes 
 forth from it glorious and immaculate. And yet it 
 does not attach to all the votes ! The majority alone 
 is the object of the miracle ; the minority has noth- 
 ing to do with it — remain in the low regions of the 
 fallible reason. Here are miracles of a very peculiar 
 type — half prodigy, half natural. We can know the 
 precise means employed to bring about the result. 
 These means are very simple, but the result itself is 
 divine. Thanks to God, the true supernatural bears 
 no analogy with this which I have just characterized, 
 and of which Eome is about to give us probably the 
 last representation, for I have a presentiment that 
 what we see to-day will never be repeated. 
 
 E. de Peessense. 
 
298 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 Another Contrast — The Oratorio of the Pontiff of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception — Review of the Papal Army — Its Composition and Condi- 
 tion — The Committee on Conciliation — Regulations of the Council 
 — Social Life at Rome — The Expenses of the Council — Fruits of 
 Mariolatry — Vexation of the Liberals — Their Policy — A Morning 
 Ramble — The Bull of Excommunication — Comments — The Com- 
 mittees on Faith and Discipline — The Anti-Council — Its Follies 
 and End — The True Anti-Council — Probable Success of the Ultra- 
 montanists — The Italian Government and its Difficulties — Protest- 
 ant Missions — Savonarola — Needs and Hopes. 
 
 Rome, December, 1869. 
 
 Dear Sir, — For the sake of greater freedom I still 
 employ the form of a journal. Permit me to lay be- 
 fore your eyes yet another of those contrasts with 
 which Rome abounds, and which I strove to depict to 
 you in my second letter. 
 
 I went last Sunday to Saint Peter's to witness one 
 of the solemn Advent masses over which the Holy 
 Father presides. It w r as a representation, with a full 
 orchestra, of the Catholic worship in all its magnifi- 
 cence. The sun shed vivid light on the basilica; 
 the bishops were present in a body at the ceremony. 
 The choir of the Sistine Chapel chanted the office. 
 Going to his throne, the Pope passed through long 
 lines of halberdiers and noble guards, then he put on 
 his miter and received the fealty of the prelates. 
 Mass was performed by a cardinal. You see that 
 nothing was lacking in the pomp of this service, 
 rendered more brilliant and solemn by the pres- 
 ence of seven hundred bishops. This was truly the 
 
Eome, Italy, asd the Council. 299 
 
 monarchical Catholicism of the present time, the re- 
 ligion which speaks to the senses and fascinates them 
 in order the more easily to subdue the understanding 
 and the will. Thence I went, without any gradual 
 transition, into two Catacombs generally closed to 
 visitors, and for which I had obtained special permis- 
 sion, the Catacombs of Saint Priscilla and of Saints 
 Peter and Marcellinus. Nothing is finer than the 
 road which conducts to the second. We go out by 
 the major gate, which is an antique gate ; we pace 
 alongside the aqueducts which impart such a poetic 
 sadness to the Roman Campagna; at every step we 
 encounter some abandoned ruin. On the left is 
 Mount Soracte and the Sabine mountains ; while the 
 Albanian hills, with their graceful undulations, bound 
 the horizon. The melancholy inspired by the im- 
 posing ruins with which the way is sown is invol- 
 untarily softened before a landscape whose sweet 
 harmony is not to be surpassed. Beaching a remote 
 farm, we find the entrance of the Catacomb hard by 
 an ancient pagan temple, and descend into the Chris- 
 tian necropolis. What a change of scene when, un- 
 der these somber arches, we think of the mass of 
 Saint Peter's ! What an eloquent refutation of the 
 pretensions of the Pope King ! I indeed found two 
 crowns in the Catacomb, but they were like that of 
 Jesus Christ, and girdled the bleeding brow of a con- 
 fessor. Among the numerous svmbols with which 
 these Catacombs abound, I have not encountered one 
 to justify the Catholic system. Instead of a ruling 
 and tyrannical religious power, I only saw the merci- 
 ful love of the Good Shepherd seeking his lost sheep; 
 instead of a Christianity triumphing proudly over its 
 foes, I only saw a militant Christianity, engaged in 
 
300 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 the most redoubtable struggle, and unweariedly re- 
 peating her immortal confidence — now with the three 
 youth in the furnace; now with Jonah, who was 
 swallowed for three days only to be born again to a 
 better life; now with Noah, saving his ark amid the 
 waves of the deluge ; now again with Daniel in the 
 lion's den : all these symbols, speaking of a humble 
 and courageous faith which clung to things invisible 
 and cast its anchor within the vail, are multiplied in 
 these two Catacombs. They are likewise filled with 
 prayer. The Christian men or women whose re- 
 mains have been deposited in these vaults are pre- 
 sented to us with hands lifted toward heaven. The 
 incense of the saints has burned under these arches 
 as nowhere else. Contemplating them, we breathe 
 its sacred perfume. Finally, there is no trace of 
 legends in any of these frescos. The most interest- 
 ing, and now the most celebrated, is in the Catacomb 
 of Saint Priscilla; it is a representation of the na- 
 tivity of Jesus Christ. Mary holds the infant Jesus 
 pressed to her bosom. The star of Bethlehem has 
 paused above her. A prophet designates the child 
 and seems to say, Lo, the Desire of all nations ! You 
 think you recognize Isaiah in him. This fresco seems 
 to belong to the highest antiquity, perhaps to the 
 first half of the second century. Very ancient in- 
 scriptions have been discovered in its neighborhood. 
 The ornamentation of the vault is in simple and ex- 
 quisite taste, which suggests the classic style, and 
 cannot be later than the second century. They try 
 to draw great advantage from this picture in favor of 
 the worship of Mary. I do not see the least indica- 
 tion which can be interpreted in that way. The 
 Virgin has no halo, she is not the object of adoration ; 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 301 
 
 it is the child that is designated by the prophet. I 
 should even say that what constitutes the beauty of 
 this first of the Madonnas is, that it is not set over 
 the altar, that she has not the priestly stiffness of 
 sacred art; she is living, her beauty is simple and 
 expressive, she is truly a daughter of men, a flower 
 of Galilee that has retained its grace. That inex- 
 pressible Raphael-like touch which forms its charm 
 depends precisely on this absence of idolatry. The 
 more idolatry grows, the more art is abased ; nothing 
 then equals a miraculous image. They would give 
 all the masterpieces of the Renaissance for a Ma- 
 donna which, according to some gross tradition, has 
 moved its eyes. I attribute to the development of 
 Mariolatry, in part, the abasement of the artistic in- 
 spiration in the religious domain. They wish to 
 make idols, and they will no longer create types whol- 
 ly human and divine, that let the inward fire breathe 
 athwart expressive loveliness. 
 
 But in the matter of abased, hypocritical art, blend- 
 ing the sacred and profane, nothing can equal the 
 burlesque representation given last Sunday in the 
 Church of the Holy Apostles in honor of the Coun- 
 cil, before a large number of cardinals, bishops, and 
 priests. The theater is interdicted on the Sundays 
 preceding Advent, which did not prevent the organ- 
 izers of the great spiritual Council of the twelfth of 
 December from drawing largely upon it. But why 
 should not the most worldly airs be sanctified when 
 once they have been sung by the Pontifical Academy 
 of the Immaculate Conception ? This association, we 
 read in its printed programme, is wont to celebrate 
 every year a great concert in honor of the Virgin. 
 It could find no more solemn occasion of being faith- 
 
302 Some, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 ful to this custom than the opening of the (Ecumeni- 
 cal Council. This year it will assign a high place to 
 the praise of the Pontiff to whom we owe this convo- 
 cation. A cardinal will open the solemnity with a 
 prose, which will place the Council under the pro- 
 tection of the Virgin. Then we shall execute hymns 
 in divers tongues. The Academy will make these 
 hymns alternate with three parts of an Oratorio enti- 
 tled " The Pontiff of the Immaculate Conception," 
 in which the glory of the Holy Father is associated 
 with that of Mary. The Virgin will deign to bless 
 our poor homage. She who is the mother of eternal 
 wisdom, the holy protector of our faith, can only 
 bless the labors of an Academy which thinks solely 
 of developing true knowledge. 
 
 Let us now see in what manner it develops this 
 knowledge. The first part of the Oratorio is set to the 
 air which opens Bellini's opera of " The Puritans. 55 
 It represents the faithful people praying God, during 
 the Conclave, to give his Church a chief after his own 
 heart. Then comes a joyful chant from the Roman 
 people after the election of Pius IX. The chorus 
 celebrates the benefits of the amnesty to an air from 
 Meverbeer's u Robert le Diable , 55 blended with an air 
 from the Sappho of Saccini. The hymn devoted to 
 the hegira of Gaeta is sung to an air from Verdi's 
 Macbeth. The patriotic master, whose attachment 
 to the Italian cause is well known, also contributes 
 the cavatinas necessary to celebrate the happy return 
 of the Holy Father, " accomplished through unhoped- 
 for succor, 55 says the libretto ingeniously, which seems 
 to suggest an army of angels descending from heaven. 
 Alas ! it is well known that these angels wore the 
 red pantaloon of our troops of the line. The libretto 
 
Home, Italy, and the Council. 303 
 
 adds, " O thou Holy Virgin, who alone hast crushed 
 the serpent's head, thou alone canst scatter the infer- 
 nal throng which has invaded the See of the Holy 
 Father." For once the miracle was not complete, 
 being complicated with artillery. The triumphal 
 hymn of the Immaculate Conception is borrowed 
 from the " Nebuchadnezzar " of the same Yerdi. 
 After the canticle of the Immaculate Conception we 
 have that of the Syllabus, still to an air from Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, an opera whose theme suggests the dan- 
 gers men risk in taking themselves for God. The 
 protection of the Virgin seems to have extended a 
 very weak shield over him whom it sheltered, for it 
 did not prevent his losing the finest jewels of his 
 crown. But this is the stand-point of proud reason. 
 Faith perceives her intervention in the proclamation 
 of the Syllabus, which is better than all provinces. 
 I think the kingdom of Italy would very gladly join 
 in that hosanna. I only detach from the canticle of 
 the centenary these words addressed to Mary, u O 
 Mary, who dost protect the Church, we have confi- 
 dence in thee alone ! " The music of Meyerbeer's 
 " Robert le Diable " accompanies a chant in adula- 
 tion of Pius IX. on occasion of the jubilee on the 
 fiftieth anniversary of his ordination. Its flattery 
 is so gross that nowhere else is there a theater so low 
 in grade that it would not be hissed there if addressed 
 to the sovereign of the land. Rossini and Donizetti 
 are also put into requisition. The " Eleanore " of the 
 latter master furnishes the romance of the Virgin's 
 memorial with a strong reinforcement of amorous 
 roulades. This fine masterpiece is continued in the 
 triumphant hymn of the Council, in which an air 
 from Sappho alternates with those of Rossini's La 
 
304 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Charite. The Holy Spirit is totally eclipsed by 
 Mary, who is to animate the bishops with divine lire. 
 The oratorio closes with an obedient homage paid to 
 the Holy Father in the name of Christendom. Ros- 
 sini has the honor of furnishing the music with his 
 two operas, William Tell and the Siege of Corinth. 
 The Council is only named for form's sake. The 
 chorus chants, " We swear, O our Lord, to render 
 thee the homage of our thoughts, for thou only canst 
 dispel this night of error ; thou art the fountain of 
 truth. We promise to follow thy faith were it at the 
 price of the most cruel martyrdom. 51 
 
 It is odd that this oath of enslavement should be 
 set to the air of the famous oath of Helvetian freedom 
 in " William Tell." It is a strange way of preparing 
 for martyrdom to sing a medley of worldly music. 
 Nothing could better depict the abasement of Catho- 
 lic art of Rome, and also the religious jugglery which 
 forbids the opera at the theater in order to transport 
 it to the foot of the altar, with an accompaniment of 
 frenzied applause. It is true, that the hands which 
 made the uproar were hands wonted to consecrate 
 the host. No female voice was heard, and principles 
 were all safe ; yet the sopranos went up very high, 
 and suggested the Orient in its most hideous customs. 
 I forgot to say that in guise of a ballet between the 
 various parts of the Oratorio, we had the diversion 
 of hymns to the Virgin and the Pope sung in differ- 
 ent languages by the pupils of the Propaganda. 
 High privilege to hear the same idolatrous platitudes 
 in Arabic, English, Latin, and many other tongues ! 
 This buffoonish and religious solemnity bears the 
 complete stamp of the Gesu. I thought I ought to 
 make it known to you somewhat in detail, for it 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 305 
 
 seems to me one of the most characteristic of present 
 circumstances. The Council will also be celebrated 
 by a great review of the Pontifical troops at the 
 Villa Borghese. Let us doubt no longer, this one 
 will far surpass the Council of Jerusalem, which 
 lacked the accompaniment of tender roulades and 
 cannon salutes. 
 
 December 16. — The review took place at the Villa 
 Borghese in splendid weather, under the magnificent 
 shade which forms the beauty of that promenade. 
 There all the Pontifical troops were assembled : 
 Zouaves, the so-called Antibes Legion, whose frame- 
 work is French, carbineers, artillery, chasseurs, dra- 
 goons, and police. People noticed especially a corps 
 of mountaineers of agile aspect in picturesque cos- 
 tume. They are meant for the repression of brig- 
 andage, at least of that which forgets time and place, 
 for, long permitted and encouraged on the Neapoli- 
 tan frontier, it turns culpable in the Sabine mount- 
 ains. It is pretended, too, that there is a great con- 
 fusion of ideas in this respect, and that this sort of 
 mountain police, whose flower certainly has figured 
 in brigandage, has sorry reminiscences. Its mere 
 costume would suffice to maintain these : it is that of 
 the famous u Fra Diavolo." I should not like to en- 
 counter such protectors of order in a gorge of the 
 Apennines. However, the effect of the review w T as 
 charming. Eomans and foreigners of distinction 
 flowed together under the oaks and parasol pines. 
 The military bands played their finest airs, and I 
 noted a hymn to the Pope by Gounod. The bishops 
 thronged together, and applauded, either mingled 
 with the crowd or on a terrace of the garden. Thus 
 
 the two militias of the Pope w T ere combined. The 
 
 20 
 
306 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 fine sun, nevertheless, shone upon a fearful scandal, 
 for all who remembered that this armed force is in 
 the service of the pretended representative of Jesus 
 Christ. This very evening I heard a distinguished 
 French priest covertly express a feeling of regret, 
 which in his mouth meant much. 
 
 The Pontifical troops would be a very feeble bar- 
 rier against revolution, but for the French army. 
 The Roman portion of the army, except some un- 
 mounted and mounted police, and the officers, who 
 are brave gentlemen, totally lacks solidity. It is 
 quite generally thought that in the day of battle they 
 would execute a fugue more brilliant than all those 
 of Bach. The Antibes legion, composed of French- 
 men, would doubtless bravely face fire; but as it is 
 recruited a little at hazard among our regiments, it 
 is not convenient in peace, and lacks discipline. De- 
 sertions from it are very frequent. As to the Zou- 
 aves, they possess bravery and conviction ; they are 
 the elect. But most of these young gentlemen came 
 to Rome with chivalrous enthusiasm, in the hope of 
 combating the enemies of the Papacy. They had 
 often been told that the convocation of the Council 
 would bring on an outburst of bad passions, and then 
 there would be fine shooting. 
 
 The Council has come, and it is found that the 
 Knights of Malta will suffice to guard it. The Zou- 
 aves, then, find themselves reduced to the ordinary 
 service of a garrison troop ; the military administra- 
 tion tends to confound them more and more with the 
 regular army. Many of them also begin to grow 
 very weary of their present position. As most of the 
 enlistments are for six months, it is to be believed that 
 large numbers will return to their homes, and that 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 307 
 
 gradually the corps of Zouaves will resemble troops 
 recruited by engagement bounties. They will return 
 home, hardly edified by w T hat they have seen at 
 Rome. Their language is even imprinted with bitter- 
 ness : thev have retained the same enthusiasm for the 
 Holy Father, w r hose goodness to them is paternal; but 
 they know the interior chronicle of the Church; they 
 understand what cardinals' purple often covers. They 
 have lifted the mantle of hypocrisy, which, under 
 decent and devout appearances, conceals the greatest 
 corruption in this Zion of Catholicism. Their sojourn 
 at Rome changes, not their ideas, but rather their 
 judgments of men and things. Yet they have not 
 come to the point which our soldiers reached when 
 in garrison at Rome. They became such grumblers, 
 and so anti-Catholic, that their discourses shook 
 what their bayonets sustained. And the authorities 
 preferred to send them to Civita Vecchia, where they 
 can only speak ill of the Mediterranean, and where 
 they taste the most formidable listlessness that can be 
 imagined. They are nevertheless the only efficient 
 props of the temporal Papacy, and the Emperor is 
 the true and efficacious chief of the Knights of Malta, 
 who guard the Council. Truly, he gives proof of 
 rare goodness of heart, that would be more admirable 
 were it clear of political calculation. It is true that 
 the calculation is radically wrong. His Majesty 
 Napoleon III. alone makes an episcopal reunion 
 possible, wmere they are about to decree solemnly 
 the condemnation of the principles on which French 
 society reposes. In recompense he only receives 
 benedictions for his soul and very real marks of ill- 
 will. I have already related that the Roman curia 
 does all it can to thwart his desire of pursuing the 
 
308 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 magnificent excavations of the Palace of Caesar. Not 
 only is the convent of women, which arrests the work, 
 allowed to remain, but they have just laid the founda- 
 tions of a new church in another part of the Mont 
 Palatine. It is perfectly useless for the purpose of 
 worship, but it is a very ingenious means of putting 
 an insurmountable and sacred obstacle in the way of 
 the plans of the mighty protector whom they hate in 
 the depth of their souls. This perfectly confirms the 
 remark of an Abbe after Mentana, who said of the 
 French, " Our ingratitude will cover our gratitude." 
 Let us be just. The Roman managers do not like ar- 
 chaeological labors which they do not direct ; the most 
 fruitful excavations undertaken by a layman, who 
 does not belong to themselves, are under suspicion 
 with them, and they are pleased to chastise such im- 
 pertinence. They like only the science of which 
 they hold the key, and approve those discoveries 
 alone which have paid for their patent, and brevet 
 with an undivided submission. 
 
 The Council has confined itself, for a few days, to 
 nominating the Committees of which I have spoken. 
 The Committee of Conciliation was named Friday 
 the twelfth. This is no doubt less needful with our 
 modern manners than in the rude sixteenth century. 
 The debates in the Council of Trent often assumed an 
 alarming turn. Sarpi relates that two theologians who 
 were opposed to each other on the question of justifi- 
 cation by faith, seized one another by the beard so firmly 
 that they could not be separated. Were beards as 
 long in Europe as in the sixteenth century, and man- 
 ners as violent, the question of infallibility might 
 well lead to similar scandals ; but it all goes on in 
 the depths of the heart. Besides, the Ultramontane 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 309 
 
 prelates know how to say every thing with neatness 
 and grace ; as one of our poets has said, 
 
 " E'en hate itself must use the tones of love." 
 
 They envelope the most odious theories in charm- 
 ing formulas. These are the confectionery of Catholi- 
 cism, was the. charming remark which I heard last 
 night in a Roman drawing-room. They draw sugar 
 from the vilest substances, as skillful confectioners 
 can. Thanks to them, the Committee of Conciliation 
 will be a sinecure. The other three, the Commis- 
 sions on Faith, Discipline, and the Christian Orient, 
 are to be named by ballot. Their influence, more- 
 over, will be very potent; according to a regulation, 
 which seems to me very ingenious, the propositions 
 elaborated for several months by congregations ap- 
 pointed by the Pope will not be elaborated anew by 
 committees. They are to be presented in the lump 
 to the Council, which will decide at once all those 
 which will not awaken too great discussion. You 
 perceive how much this limits the leadership of the 
 Council; opposition shows itself with much more 
 difficulty in a large assembly than in a committee. 
 The pressure of the majority is much stronger when 
 encountered ever compact and ardent. The Papacy 
 evidently has free play. The tradition of ancient 
 Councils is invoked, but this important and delicate 
 question of order will not be submitted to the delib- 
 erations of the Assembly. The Gallican bishops 
 stand firm on the essential things; but it is to be 
 feared that at the outset they may lack skill, and, 
 perhaps, firmness. Yet there is talk about a very 
 sharp altercation which was provoked by the method 
 
9 
 
 10 Rome, Italy, and the Council, 
 
 of the ballot in the nomination of the Committee on 
 Faith. . Naturally, it is impossible to know these 
 things in a precise way, on account of the obligation 
 of secrecy imposed on the bishops. 
 
 For the moment, social life is very brilliant at 
 Rome. A fashionable dvawing-room here has now a 
 peculiar aspect, with which nothing else in Europe 
 can compare. Bishops and cardinals elbow fine 
 ladies in splendid toilets, and epaulets devoted to the 
 Holy See, and foreigners of all nations — they talk 
 only about the Council ; the mystery surrounding it 
 excites curiosity. The great ladies side for given 
 opinions as in political life. One drawing-room 
 patronizes Papal infallibility, another is very much 
 opposed to it, and forms an opposition drawing-room. 
 People are naturally obliged to express themselves on 
 such delicate matters with rare prudence ; yet passion 
 crops out. What strikes me is, that in all that I 
 hear about the Council, the course of its labors and 
 the result to be expected from it, they forget only 
 one thing, namely, that it is supposed to be presided 
 over and directed by the Holy Spirit. People speak 
 of it as we speak at Paris of our Corps Legislatif, 
 when we are calculating the chances of a law which 
 we have at heart. Hopes and fears are inappropri- 
 ate when people count on miraculous illumination ; 
 but in reality they do not count upon it, and they 
 fall back constantly into petty calculations. I ought 
 also to acknowledge that people are very benevolent 
 in the higher society of Rome; that one is received 
 there with perfect good-will even when he follows 
 another flag, and that you encounter no bigoted exclu- 
 sion. Even here the spirit of the times has exerted 
 its enlarging influence, and I was able to satisfy 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 311 
 
 myself that very heretical books were there read and 
 relished. 
 
 The great expenses which the Council imposes on 
 the Holy Father will be partly paid by voluntary 
 subscriptions. I was told yesterday that within ten 
 years he had received near twenty millions of dollars 
 for the expenses of his temporal power. A fright- 
 ful figure when we reflect that it is taken from 
 the spiritual necessities of the Church in a world 
 where pagans are still in the majority. The present 
 collection is, in itself, entirely legitimate. But it 
 furnishes good souls, w r ho burn to exhale their fanati- 
 cism, a very precious occasion to display it. The 
 journal of M. Yeuillot, The Univers, publishes a daily 
 list of subscriptions, accompanied by the exclamations 
 of the donors. At the pitch of his quarrel with Mon- 
 seigneur Dupanloup, he registered with ill concealed 
 satisfaction violent attacks on his adversary. Since 
 the Council has begun he no longer publishes them, 
 but he gives in full all the follies that can pass 
 through the brain of a fervent bigot. Brave country 
 curates, or convinced beadles, pay five francs for a 
 reverberating exclamation in favor of the infallible 
 Papacy, and imagine they have acquired immortal 
 glory as soldiers of the faith. Among these sub- 
 scriptions I have observed one which perfectly ex- 
 presses the opinion current in the circles of ignorant 
 piety. It runs about like this :, " Holy Virgin, re- 
 member that Pius IX. proclaimed your Immaculate 
 Conception, and cause his infallibility to be pro- 
 claimed." This simple man imagines that the Pope 
 rendered the Virgin immaculate, and he demands 
 the recompense of so great a service. However, it 
 is impossible to conceive all the absurdities to which 
 
312 Rome,- Italy, and the Council. 
 
 Mariolatry can give birth in the ranks of the simple 
 and of the lower clergy. One of my friends heard a 
 Capuchin preaching at Rome on the conversation of 
 the child Jesus with the doctors of the temple. He 
 openly sided with Mary when she reproached him for 
 remaining behind, and taxed him with impertinence. 
 He dared to add, " Behold his punishment on the 
 cross." I well know that this excess of stupidity 
 which turns to blasphemy, is a particular case ; but 
 I am persuaded that, should we presently examine all 
 the sermons delivered in honor of the Yirgin, in con- 
 vents and country parishes, we should be terrified at 
 the progress of idolatry. 
 
 God the Father and Jesus Christ are banished bv 
 popular piety to that obscure distance, where the 
 Greeks placed the mysterious Saturn, concentrating 
 all their glances on the brilliant and charming divin- 
 ities of Olympus. Mary occupies the foreground in 
 Catholic piety, at least in its popular manifestations. 
 And I shall attach no importance to the negative 
 triumphs of Liberal Catholicism in the Council, should 
 it obtain them, so long as it shall not have repealed 
 the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. 
 While this dogma shall be recognized and accepted, 
 with itself it will maintain in fact the infallibility of 
 the Papacy and the good right of Mariolatry. Were 
 Liberal Catholicism firm and courageous, it w^ould 
 distinctly put the question on this ground ; it might 
 then hope to restore its Church, and inaugurate a 
 phase of religious renewal. It would be needful also 
 to affirm the good done by modern liberty, and not 
 allow it to be treated as a disorder with which the 
 Church has, perforce, to make terms. A Council un- 
 der these conditions, without realizing all that we 
 
Bome, Italy, and the Council. 313 
 
 believe conformable to the truth, would be a benefit, 
 and would withdraw more than one advantage from 
 the passionate enemies of the Gospel. But, if Lib- 
 eral Catholicism is content with an equivocation — if it 
 thinks to triumph because the dogma, practiced and 
 triumphant, shall not be formulated — then it would 
 lull itself in vain illusions ; these very illusions 
 would render it more timid ; and while it should fall 
 asleep over a chimerical victory, the papal usurpa- 
 tion would daily grow, and some new Encyclical, 
 worthy of the preceding one, will come to teach the 
 Church and the world that Jesuitism, like the reed 
 in the fable, bends and does not break, but lifts up 
 its head with the first favorable wind. 
 
 December 17. — Last evening I gathered up in a 
 great and brilliant company much valuable informa- 
 tion about the Council. It is not passing on so 
 sweetly as may be thought ; parties are coming to 
 light. The adversaries of infallibility even appeal 
 quite irritated at the regulation which I have made 
 known to you, and which gives from the outset 
 a preponderating influence to the papal congrega- 
 tions. Further, the Holy Father has nominated a 
 Committee of twenty-two members, to which every 
 proposition must be submitted before being pre- 
 sented to the Council, and it makes no decision which 
 has not been ratified by the Pope. He has also 
 appointed five consulting theologians on the great 
 question of infallibility, who are all quite pronounced 
 in favor of the new dogma. These preliminary 
 measures clearly reveal the firm intention of the 
 Romish party to reach their ends by fair means or 
 foul. The Liberals have also attempted to protest 
 against this arrangement; they name a bishop who 
 
314 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 on this point was thrice called to order by the Cardi- 
 nal-President. They even mention a much- graver 
 fact ; a French cardinal will this very morning leave 
 Rome and the Council. He is said to have declared 
 that he w T ould have nothing to do with a Council 
 destitute of freedom ; probably he did not express 
 himself so clearly, but his step has been so under- 
 stood; decidedly our French bishops appear better 
 than w r as anticipated beforehand ; twenty are reck- 
 oned under the flag of Monseigneur Dupanloup. 
 This is because you can never foresee what men will 
 do gathered in a deliberative assembly. Napoleon 
 I. thought himself very sure of the National Council 
 which he assembled in 1811, to sustain him in his 
 difference with Pius VII. The regulation which he 
 had invented might be compared with a cord put 
 around a man's neck, and which on the least pressure 
 strangles him. And yet the Assembly turned out re- 
 calcitrant, and he w r as forced to cast certain prelates 
 into the dungeons of Yincennes, that the Council 
 might not turn in favor of the Pope whom it was 
 meant to combat. Surely the Castle of Saint Angelo 
 will not open before any of the bishops who sit here ; 
 but what well-informed men most dread is the re- 
 laxing influence of this city, the moral malaria of 
 this world without frankness — with supple, caressing, 
 and false manners. The first concession of the Fa- 
 thers was the acceptance of the Council at Rome ; 
 the most recent tradition allowed them to demand 
 another city, where their independence w r ould be 
 more assured. ISTor should it be forgotten that the 
 Holy Father has a crushing majority in his favor, 
 and that if they are content to count votes without 
 weighing them, he is sure to conquer along the whole 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 315 
 
 line. To him a check would be irreparable, even 
 though it might be a real advantage for the Church, 
 as I have endeavored to show you. And he will 
 move heaven and earth — I mean the heaven of which 
 he is master ; which is not that of life eternal, but 
 that factitious heaven whence he causes anathemas 
 and indulgences to rain at will. Whatever the 
 Council may decide, the result of its decisions will be 
 very grave, and will inaugurate a new phase in the 
 history of Catholicism. Before leaving Home, I hope 
 to know the composition of the Committee on Faith, 
 named by ballot. 
 
 This will disclose the number of voices belonging 
 to the various parties. There is much animation in 
 drawing-rooms, and passion breaks out. Last evening 
 I met one of the chief of those called here the non- 
 infalliblists, Cardinal Schwartzenberg. He shows 
 himself very decided and energetic, and causes great 
 scandal in the ante-chambers of the Papacy. Lord 
 Acton, who has just been promoted to the peerage 
 by Mr. Gladstone, and who belongs in the front rank 
 of Liberal Catholicism, will not succeed in leading 
 the English bishops back to a reasonable temper ; they 
 will remain the most fiery of the Ultramontanes. 
 
 I was told yesterday that Monseigneur Maret, the 
 firmest of Gallicans, is lodged in the same house with 
 M. Louis Yeuillot. There is a curious approximation 
 which forms a very marked antithesis. 
 
 December 19. — For a few davs, Rome has adorned 
 herself with her most enchanting grace. The heaven 
 is resplendent and cloudless, and the moon envelops 
 monuments and ruins in her silvery vail. Yesterday 
 morning I walked for several hours along the abrupt 
 hills that line the right bank of the Tiber. Nothing 
 
316 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 more poetic and grand can be imagined than the 
 changing views obtained as we pass from hill to hill 
 athwart enormous reeds and thick brambles. Cattle 
 and sheep graze on the grassy slopes ; rounded pines 
 and tall cypresses inclose the landscape in the most 
 picturesque fashion. The Tiber rolls its yellowish 
 w T aters under the severe arches of the Ponte Molle, 
 and breaks into a thousand, charming windings. 
 From the height of Monte Mario, we have on the left 
 the hills of ancient Etruria Soracte, that seems a 
 dome of verdure ; the Apennines, whose snows glitter 
 in the sun ; and finally, the enchanting curve of the 
 Sabine Mountains. The desert plain forms the fore- 
 ground. In front rise the mountains of Latium; on 
 the right is the plain which goes to die on the shore of 
 the sea of Ostia; and then, Rome reveals its number- 
 less domes. Every thing is silent and sublime in these 
 prospects, which become truly glorious under this 
 inflamed sky. Never did I better understand the 
 sovereign charm exercised by this land— fairer in its 
 majestic sadness than the most brilliant scenes of a 
 civilization in full activity. This morning — the last 
 Sunclav before Christmas — Saint Peter's will be the 
 theater of the most pompous ceremonies of the Cath- 
 olic worship. Beholding from my windows the splen- 
 did basilica bathed in the purple splendor of a fine 
 day, I imagine the little upper chamber in Jerusalem 
 where Jesus pronounced words that have created a 
 new moral world, and come resounding to the depths 
 of our souls, like his Come forth / in the depths of the 
 tomb of Lazarus ; while the w r ords of the Pontiff" 
 awaken no other echo than that of the arches of his 
 temple. His are words of death, and not words of life. 
 He has just pronounced one which might well be 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 317 
 
 mortal to the Council. The Uhita Cattolica published 
 yesterday the Bull of Excommunication which is to 
 accompany the opening of the great assizes of Cathol- 
 icism. It was known that it had been read in the 
 second session, but people did not think it would so 
 soon be laid before the public. In reality it is a 
 striking confirmation of the Syllabus, and an authori- 
 tative act of the Pope which decides from the first 
 day some of the most important questions which 
 were to be submitted to the Council ; among others, 
 all that bear on the relations of temporal power and 
 spiritual power. Thus the Holy Father excommuni- 
 cates formally all those who impose any restraint on 
 the rights and liberties of the Church. Now these 
 rights and liberties are perfectly defined in the last 
 Encyclical and the Syllabus ; they are the right of the 
 Church to suppress all liberties except her own ; be- 
 ginning with freedom of conscience, of the press, and 
 of education, which it calls pestilential, and winch 
 it has carefully set aside in all the Concordats which 
 it has recently concluded. For her, liberty means 
 the total subordination of the State to her dogmas 
 and discipline ; in a word, it is the Roman rule. 
 Thus, whoever does not accept this odiously theo- 
 cratic rule is excommunicated. She would do better 
 to say, that she hurls her anathema at all Europe. 
 Lest we should be mistaken here, the excommunica- 
 tion assaults one of the fundamental principles of 
 modern law, namely, the equality of all citizens be- 
 fore the law and the unity of jurisdiction. Excom- 
 municated are all who turn aside clergymen from the 
 ecclesiastical tribunals. This is a thunderbolt which 
 smites France, as well as England, Germany, Spain, 
 and Italy. It is known that the German Catholics 
 
318 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 had declared that they could not submit to the pro- 
 hibitions of the u Roman Index," because in times of 
 struggle and free knowledge they could not ignore 
 religious discussion. The recent bull takes good care 
 to declare outside the Church whoever shall read a 
 forbidden book. As the Pope addresses himself not 
 only to individuals, but also to governments, he there- 
 by proscribes all States which do not abandon the 
 press to ecclesiastical, or rather Roman, censorship. 
 But you have not yet heard the grand peal of pon- 
 tifical thunder. It is not about to smite impiety 
 blasphemy against God and his Christ : no ! it con- 
 centrates all its avenging; flames on those who have 
 laid profane hands on the possessions of the Church. 
 There is the sin which- is forgiven neither in this 
 world nor in the next — for which there is no redemp- 
 tion. The bull makes no distinction between the 
 present and the past; it bears, then, on what was 
 done ages ago, as on the Italian law concerning 
 ecclesiastical estates. To touch the goods of the 
 saints of the Lord, is the abomination of desolation. 
 Thus you see at the outset that all modern princes are 
 put outside the gate of heaven ; it seems to me that 
 they acted sagely in not crossing the threshold of the 
 Council to be drubbed in solemn costume in the per- 
 son of their embassadors. Excommunicated also are 
 all who shall not accept all the Encyclicals, and in 
 general all that shall emanate from the See of Rome. 
 It is declared that the excommunication can be raised 
 by no bishop, unless in the article of death, and only 
 for cases where the absolved shall not recover health ; 
 which is a very clear warning addressed to Victor 
 Emmanuel. This rnoiu propria^ which withdraws 
 from the Cour.eil some of the gravest decisions which 
 
Eome, Italy, and the Council, 319 
 
 were on its programme, seems to me a very suitable 
 opening of the opera got up by the Jesuits ; it brings 
 back to monotonous forms the theme which should 
 be treated, and contains itself the idea of the work. 
 The liberal bishops are too good truly to lend them- 
 selves to this comedy of deliberation with the regula- 
 tion collar on their necks, and under the constant 
 menace of more bulls of the same sort. Besides, how 
 can they resist the enormous mass of the bishops of 
 the Propaganda, The Apostolical Vicars coming from 
 the Orient, have the independence of our sub-pre- 
 fects toward the Papacy. Discouragement is also 
 succeeding irritation among the Gallican bishops; it 
 appears certain that on the first day of voting, Mon- 
 seigneur Dupanloup made a sudden sally, to show his 
 indignation at the manner in which the deliberations 
 were conducted. To-day the phalanx of his sup- 
 porters is well defined. Cardinal Bonnechose, who 
 had some feeble wish of opposing the Ultramontane 
 movement, soon yielded. Probably the independent 
 bishops will seek to leave Rome as promptly as pos- 
 sible ; at least, this is what I thought I divined from 
 the language of an Hungarian archbishop with whom 
 I spent the evening two days ago. He is lodged at 
 a hotel, so as to be like a bird on a branch, and 
 return to his country on the first pretext. On the 
 other hand, while the names of the Committee on 
 Faith are not exactly known, it is asserted that the 
 Ultramontane ticket was carried by a great majority. 
 For the moment every thing seems ia preparation for 
 the triumph of Papal infallibility, more or less ex- 
 plicitly formulated. It is spiritedly said here that 
 the Holy Father, once elevated to this height, will 
 no longer be the Vicar of Jesus Christ, but that, com- 
 
320 Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 pared with him, Jesus Christ will fill only a second- 
 ary place. Indeed, the Pope will be able at will to 
 modify the instruction of the world, and w r ith even 
 greater boldness substitute his Missal for the Gospel. 
 December 20. — While Home was inaugurating the 
 assizes of Catholic authority, Naples was celebrating 
 the saturnalia of atheistic demagogy. It was an- 
 nounced with much noise that on the very day when 
 the Council should open, free thought would hold its 
 anti-Council, and in its turn fulminate anathemas. 
 The leadership of this fine enterprise belongs to a 
 member of the Italian Parliament, who sits in the 
 extreme left. It w T as placed under the patronage of 
 Garibaldi, who is guilty of seeking to trench on the 
 prophet, and who might be content with having been 
 a hero. An appeal was addressed to all the enemies 
 of religion ; they hoped to have an (Ecumenical 
 assembly. They had only the most pitiful baccha 
 nalia. The number of delegates was much inferior 
 to what had been expected. They began by quarrel- 
 ing over the programme. The President wished 
 them to be content with laying down certain general 
 principles — as the full freedom of conscience, the 
 separation of Church and State, and morality inde- 
 pendent of all religion. Had they been reasonable 
 they would have further reduced this programme 
 by excluding the last declaration, which, by entering 
 upon doctrinal subjects, would lead the assembly in its 
 own way to formulate dogmas; that is, to imitate the 
 Council while condemning it. I could understand that 
 in presence of a solemn manifestation of the principle 
 of religious oppression, a grand manifestation of 
 the opposite principle should be invoked, and that 
 freedom of conscience should be strongly affirmed as 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 321 
 
 the sole condition of true progress, and, above all, as 
 the sole consecration of eternal right. But to try, 
 under the name of independent morality, to proclaim 
 the abdication of God, or at least of the religious 
 idea, in the bosom of a tumultuous assembly where 
 no free and many-sided discussion would be pos- 
 sible, was to trench on the Council, and oppose 
 violence of language to ecclesiastical authority. The 
 Assembly was so little disposed to enter reasonable 
 paths, that it thought the doctrinal programme sub- 
 mitted to it insufficient ; another was proposed which 
 ventured much further into questions of principle ; 
 they wished the anti-council to decree a full system 
 of psychology, or rather, an atheistic anthropology. 
 It was on this point that discussion arose in such 
 wordy vehemence as hindered any issue. On the 
 morrow it was to have been cheerfully resumed, when 
 the French delegates, who had been hindered 
 by a stormy passage, arrived. Hardly were they in 
 the hall, before they thought it their chief business 
 to indulge in such violent political assaults that no 
 theoretical discussion could be resumed. They cried, 
 Down with the Emperor Napoleon and long live the 
 Republic — a fine way of showing their gratitude to 
 the liberal monarchy that accorded them its hospi- 
 tality. The Italian Government could not possibly 
 allow an allied power to be tranquilly insulted in a 
 great public assembly. I think they were perfectly 
 right, and that the deputies who invoked the great 
 principle of liberty in the Italian Parliament against 
 the measures determined on at Naples were entirely 
 mistaken. The anti-council closed amid tumult and 
 public laughter, to the great joy of its mighty rival 
 
 of the Yatican. If it was meant merely to produce 
 
 21 
 
322 Eome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 a caricature, it has succeeded ; it is a Punch or 
 Charivari success. Such follies comfort the authori- 
 tative powers, and fling into their arms, or at their 
 feet, all timid souls who see freedom only in the 
 hideous guise of license. Yet the cardinals and bish- 
 
 ops would be wrong in laughing too much ; the anti- 
 council at Naples was, I grant, a completely absurd 
 display ; but there is another anti-council which will 
 not be so easily dissolved, and which is held wherever 
 men think, study, or love freedom; it is the anti- 
 council of public opinion, which reverses the decrees 
 of the Yatican, or rather, lets them fall to the ground 
 like the dead leaves of an old tree which is soon to be 
 dissolved in dust. This anti-council has an ardent and 
 passionate left, w 7 hich has flung itself into the extremes 
 of incredulity through the exaggerations and follies 
 of the Papacy. The Bull of Excommunication which 
 T summed up for you yesterday, does much more harm 
 to Catholicism than all the follies of the meeting at 
 Naples to the cause of free thought. The Holy 
 Father hastened to furnish the latter a consolation 
 and an encouragement in his famous motu jpvojprio, 
 which only too clearly foreshadows the path in which 
 the Council will pursue its labors. We may consider 
 its opening phase terminated. I leave Rome to-day, 
 rich in memories, and knowing better than ever what 
 we are to expect of the religious form that has been 
 elaborated here. The future will show whether I 
 have been mistaken in my anticipations of the issue 
 of the Council. I do not think so ; the triumph of 
 Ultramontanism may be more or less disguised, more 
 or less equivocal ; it is certain. How can we doubt 
 this when we read the list of bishops named for 
 the two great Committees on Faith and Discipline? 
 
Kome, Italy, and the Council. 323 
 
 Though the Liberals are not excluded, the fanatics 
 triumph. The curtain may fall on this first act of 
 the comedy — its upshot is known. 
 
 Florence, December 23, 1869. 
 It is in the capital of New Italy that I close these 
 letters, which, written at Paris, would lose their true 
 character, and no longer answer their design. I have 
 witnessed a very interesting session of the Senate of 
 the kingdom, in which the new ministry appealed to 
 the confidence of the Parliament in demanding a 
 provisional vote which would authorize them to col- 
 lect the imposts until the reopening of the Chambers. 
 Signor Lariza, the Premier, whose bearing is that 
 of a simple and serious man, pronounced the truth 
 of the situation in saying, u The discontent of Italy 
 is not political, but administrative and financial." 
 It is certain that the country is not tempted to sur- 
 render its reconstituted unity, and that it does not 
 long for the humiliating yoke of foreigners. But it 
 is succumbing under its deficit, arising as much from 
 excessive expenses as, from bad administration, from 
 the absence of regularity and uprightness in paying 
 the taxes. The embarrassments of Italy fill the 
 Monsignori of Pome with the liveliest joy ; they do 
 not percieve that the moral side of these difficulties 
 comes from the education which Papal Catholicism 
 has given this lively, supple, and intelligent nation, 
 which, however, lacks that solidity which conscience 
 alone communicates. For my part, I earnestly desire 
 that the Italian government may undertake serious 
 and radical measures of economy, which alone will 
 prevent the shame of bankruptcy and save the national 
 honor. To support these, it needs to find sustained 
 
324: Kome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 devotion in the nation, and the abandonment of that 
 carelessness, that fatal ease in deceiving the authori- 
 ties and defrauding them of their due, as though they 
 had not the same rights as an individual toward 
 whom one is bound by a contract. Tou see that 
 every thing, even finance, brings us round to the 
 great aspect of things. 
 
 The information which I have received at Florence 
 on the progress of evangelization does not differ from 
 what I transmitted to you from Naples. The work 
 of the Gospel proceeds calmly and with seriousness, 
 but without noise, except at Venice, where it has in 
 its favor the prestige of novelty. In Florence, the 
 Yaudois Church has a truly magnificent establish- 
 ment, which it owes, if I am not mistaken, to the gen- 
 erosity of the Free Church of Scotland. It occupies 
 the Salveati Palace, formerly occupied by a cardinal, 
 who surely did not dream of having such successors. 
 There is found a theological faculty which has thirty 
 students, and a church where a hundred persons as- 
 semble. The nets have evidently been flung faith- 
 fully into the sea, but the miraculous draught has not 
 taken place. The movement has remained quite 
 restricted; the Italian nation has not been really 
 touched. Were it simply a matter of controversy — 
 should we confine ourselves merely to provoking op- 
 position to Eome — we might have great and prompt 
 popularity, but the results would be purely negative. 
 For myself, I remain convinced that, as I have al- 
 ready written you, Italy, as well as France and all 
 the Latin races, will only awaken to true religious 
 life under the breath of tempests ; that the bitter ex- 
 periment of the impossibility of dispensing with God 
 must be carried through to the end, and that suffer- 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 325 
 
 ing and trial will alone prepare the way for the di- 
 vine Healer. I think also that the reformatory 
 movement must proceed from the very bosom of these 
 nations, and bear no marks of foreign importation. 
 No doubt it will be connected with the glorious 
 movement of the sixteenth century, whose principles 
 are immortal ; but it will apply these principles in its 
 own way, and according to the needs of the nations 
 whence it shall emanate. What the Italy of to-day 
 needs is a second Savonarola, more free from Catholic 
 traditions, more lay without the frock, but with the 
 same fire and intrepidity of speech. 
 
 This name of Savonarola now fills my heart and 
 mind. He is certainly the purest glory of Florence. 
 I experienced great and holy emotions in the Con- 
 vent of San Marco, which is all permeated with his 
 memory, after having been adorned as a mystic sanc- 
 tuary by the brush of Fra Angelico, who has left on 
 these immortal frescos the perfume of his prayers. 
 Savonarola lives again under our eyes in the admi- 
 rable portrait of Fra Bartolomeo, his beloved disciple, 
 and at the same time one of the greatest artists of the 
 Renaissance. The figure of the great Florentine Re- 
 former is lean and sorrowful ; we feel that he is con- 
 sumed by inward fires — devoured by his desire of 
 establishing the reign of Jesus Christ. A plaster 
 cast of him produces perhaps a more puissant impres- 
 sion, such immense sadness and ardent faith does it 
 express. It was in this little cell that he prepared his 
 sublime harangues which moved the entire city, and 
 which, for a moment, succeeded in throwing it into a 
 species of ascetic fervor which could not endure : the 
 reaction was terrible. A profound mystery hovers 
 over the end of Savonarola ; we have only the report 
 
326 Rome, Italy, and the Council. 
 
 of the inquisitors who tortured him, and boasted of 
 having led him to a retraction. And yet he mounted 
 the pyre and died the death of John Huss. The Pa- 
 pacy was glad to have done with this inconvenient 
 John the Baptist, wdio scourged her brilliant vices 
 when she was heading the dissolute courts of Europe. 
 Savonarola has not the angelical sweetness of Saint 
 Francis ; he is a man of conflict, an indomitable wit- 
 ness of the thrice holy God; it was needful that such 
 a man should be put to death, like all importunate 
 prophets who cannot bend to the proprieties of the 
 world and the Church. Let us hope that in our days 
 he will have a successor in this land which he so 
 greatly loved, and that, in presence of the excesses of 
 Romish idolatry, we shall see, not a simple tribune, 
 but a great servant of Jesus Christ arise and pro- 
 nounce the word of life which shall resound in the 
 depths of the heart. 
 
 Atheistic declamations, like those which have just 
 given ns the comedy at Naples — Rome might pay 
 for such, for they do but consolidate her power. She 
 will ever be right against impiety; but the true Chris- 
 tian, who asks no glory of the earth, who would only 
 serve the truth and combat error and sin, he is her 
 redoubtable adversary. Let such a Christian appear 
 with the gift to move the multitudes, and that art, 
 which is not to be learned, of pronouncing aloud the 
 w r ord that is hidden in the heart of a generation, and 
 we shall see what the most sonorous anathemas can 
 do against him. The times of Luther and Calvin 
 would return, and the w T orld would learn that the 
 Christian sap, far from being exhausted under the 
 bark of its century-old tree, is more generous and 
 vital than ever. Let us beseech God speedily to raise 
 
Rome, Italy, and the Council. 327 
 
 up one of those great heroes of the faith called Re- 
 formers in the bosom of our old nationalities, which 
 need a new inspiration. Let us hope that the Coun- 
 cil, by its exaggerations in Ultramontanism, and the 
 atheistic anti-council, which is held every-where, by 
 its sad blasphemies may prepare the way for the 
 blessed advent of this new era of evangelical liberty ; 
 but let us not forget that great servants of God speak 
 in the name of all Churches, and that they are in 
 some sort the children of their prayers. Who shall 
 say how many sighs and tears shed in secret before 
 God have preceded those glorious and fruitful hours 
 of religious history which are fair as the morning 
 dawn of the great day of the Lord ! 
 
 E. de Pressense. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Woi\KS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 I. 
 
 Jesus Christ : His Times, Life, and Work. 
 
 Translated by Annie Harwood. 12mo., pp. 496. $3 75. 
 
 One of the most valuable additions to Christian literature which the 
 present generation has seen. — Contemporary Review. 
 
 M. de Pressense is not only brilliant and epigrammatic, but his sen- 
 tences flow on from page to page with a sustained eloquence which 
 nevur wearies the reader. The life of Christ is more dramatically 
 unfolded in this volume than in any other work with which we are 
 acquainted . — Spectator. 
 
 The successive scenes and teachings of onr Lord's life are told with 
 a scholarly accurac} T and a glowing and devout eloquence which are 
 well presented to the English reader in Miss Harwood's admirable 
 translation. — British Quarterly Review. 
 
 The work of an able and excellent author, whose appreciation of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, both in his person and in his work, is at once pro- 
 found and discriminating, and whom no doubts or difficulties hinder 
 from claiming the honor due to the Name that is above every name. 
 In point of learning, intellectual power, and that charm of brilliancy of 
 diction for which the French language is so remarkable when wielded by 
 a master, the merit of this work is remarkably high. — Sunday Magazine. 
 
 Its arguments are sound, clear, and well illustrated. Of its learning 
 there can be but one opinion, as its pages every -where abound with the 
 results of thorough, well-digested, and extensive research. — The Rock. 
 
 It is a book eminently adapted to be useful. — Christian Work. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Mystery of Suffering, and Other Discourses. 
 New Edition. 
 
 In these sermons we recognize the same intellectual power, the same 
 exquisite felicity of diction, the same sustained and dignified eloquence, 
 and the same persuasive invigorating Christian thought which are con- 
 spicuous in that work— ["Jesus Christ: His Times," etc.]— British 
 and, Foreign Evangelical Review. 
 
 ... The tone of the discourses is so tenderly beautiful that a reader 
 who did not believe one word of the Christian mysteries might be 
 affected by it. — London Review. 
 
 Sermons brimming up and running over with truth and beauty. — 
 
 Weekly Review. 
 
 These are very remarkable discourses. They are distinguished by 
 all the nice analysis of thought and glow of feeling so characteristic of 
 Dr. Pressense's ministry and writings.— Evangelical Magazine. 
 
 A volume of beautiful and thoroughly Christian sermons. — London 
 
 Quarterly Review. 
 
 They are not ordinary sermons, but replete with valuable thoughts, 
 often beautifully expressed, and are characterized hv true pathos and 
 holy unction.— United Methodist Free Church Maqazine. 
 
Works by the Same Author 
 
 III. 
 
 The Church and the French Revolution, 
 
 A History of the Eelations of Church and State from 1789 
 to 1802. In crown 8vo. 
 
 M. de Pressense is well known and deservedly respected as one of 
 the leading divines of the Evangelical section of the Freoch Protestant 
 Church. He is a learned theologian, and a man of cultivated and lib- 
 eral mind. In the present monograph he comes before us as the his- 
 torian of a period which he rightly judges to have a more than local 
 and temporary interest in the fortunes of the national Church of France. 
 And, on the whole, he has done his work not only ably, but impar- 
 tially. . . . We are not aware that any previous writer has treated the 
 subject from the purely ecclesiastical point of view. — Saturday Review. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Early Years of Christianity. 
 
 Translated by Annie Harwood. 12mo. 
 
 This is a sequel to Dr. Pressense' s celebrated book on the " Life, 
 Work, and Times of Jesus Christ." We may say at once that, to the 
 bulk of liberal Christians, Dr. Pressense's achievement will be very 
 val u able . — A thenczum. 
 
 De Pressense tells the glorious narrative with singular force and 
 clearness of expression. — British Quarterly Review. 
 
 The great theme on which he has labored with the utmost earnest- 
 ness and zeal suffers no loss of color or life. He holds his brilliant 
 intellectual gifts and his profound learning subordinate to his fervent 
 and absolute faith in the divinity of his Lord and Saviour ; but he is 
 well entitled to our credit when he declares that the feeling which has 
 inspired the book has laid no fetters on his freedom of examination. — 
 Daily Telegraph. 
 
 It is impossible to part from these graphic and learned representa- 
 tions of the purest ages of Christianity without a deep reverence for 
 the ability of the author as a scholar, and his zealous advocacy of the 
 truth as a Christian. — The Rock. 
 
 V. 
 
 The Land of the Gospel: 
 
 Notes of a Journey in the East. 
 
 He gives us his first and freshest impressions as entered in his 
 journal upon the spot; and these will be found full of interest, 
 especially to every thoughtful reader of the New Testament. — Evan- 
 gelical Christendom. 
 
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