mation that have shown themselves in Italy, will be inclined to dispute that the writings of Rosmini, and the general character of his order, have been visibly inoculating Catholic minds with new habits of thought, and familiarising them with ideas of liberal reform, and the influence of the same spirit. may be traced in many analogous manifestations of opinion among the other religious corporations of Italy.

Of all monastic corporations the Benedictines undoubtedly enjoy, with justice, the most general consideration. This order has ever distinguished itself honourably by freedom from worldly corruption, and conscientious devotion to profound study. The learned Benedictines are familiar by their works to every student; and the refined spirit of former days has not degenerated in the present inmates of those noble mansions, which vie with our own Colleges in all the appurtenances that can attract the tastes of secluded erudition. In Italy, Monte Cassino, La Cava, Subiaco, and many other Benedictine houses, have maintained unimpaired their reputation for learning and dignified culture, such as are appropriate to the ecclesiastical character; so that this order still essentially represents the literary intellect and thought of the Church. Now it is a matter of notoriety that the opinions avowed and published by the Benedictines in reference to the mode in which the Church ought to be administered, the political development of Italy as a whole, and most especially with regard to the Pope's temporal power, have been of a nature to make them for some time objects of suspicion to the authorities. This was above all the case at Monte Cassino, where, under the Bourbon Government, the printing presses were actually carried away; and Father Tosti, probably the most eminent member of the order, and one of the most distinguished historical writers of the day, was driven for a while into exile. Indeed, this illustrious establishment was systematically subject to the most jealous supervision, and the monks were many of them cast at various times into prison-amongst these, Father Cesidio Papalettere, who now is mitred Abbot of Monte Cassino. Now, whatever opinion the Benedictines may hold as to the Pope's temporal authority, or the propriety of reform, no impartial person acquainted with the tenour of their minds, or the writings of their chief members, can suspect them for an instant of a disposition to fall away from the Roman Catholic Church. The compass of their liberal tendencies is to be accurately gathered in the books of Father Tosti, and amounts to no more than a readiness to sacrifice such portions of the ecclesiastical establishment as would clash with the institution of an effective Italian

Government, and a hearty belief in the perfect compatibility between the duties of a pious Catholic and a free citizen of a free State. Whoever reads Father Tosti's History of the Lombard League, dedicated by permission to the present Pope, or of the Council of Constance, or some of the pamphlets he wrote in the year 1848, cannot fail to convince himself as to these being the limits of his Liberalism, in which he has been in no manner condemned by his fellow brethren of the order. On the contrary, their approbation of his views is so well known that the congregation at Subiaco, in St. Benedict's original foundation, has been placed by the Pontifical police under direct supervision, as a haunt of disaffection to the Sovereign Pontiff; while, on the other hand, houses of the order have been specially exempted in Umbria and Naples from the suppression pronounced against other monastic establishments.*

The Capuchins may be reckoned the counterpart to the Benedictines, inasmuch as, by their constitution and vocation, they hold a position of influence amongst the people analogous to what the Benedictines hold amongst the higher ranks of Catholic society. The Capuchin is essentially the poor man's ministrant. A mendicant friar himself, he actually lives on charity, and this brings him into such perpetual contact with all ranks in daily life, that he has preserved more of his secular habits of feeling than is customary with the members of other orders. The Capuchins are, therefore, the confidants and the comforters of the humbler classes, who feel how in them they have devoted friends, always ready to attend the calls of duty. From amongst them come the most impressive and fervent ministers of the Romish Church. The present Apostolical Preacher, who has the high office of preaching before the Pope and Cardinals only, is Dom Luigi di Trento, a Capuchin, and a man of deservedly high consideration. Yet it is well known that he has been the object of denunciation, on account of liberal opinions, which he has never sought to hide, and which he holds in common with his whole order. This free spirit amongst the Capuchins is not of recent date. It is indeed so natural to their peculiar constitutions, that it may be said always to have existed in their body. When Pius IX., in 1847, inaugurated his reign with a series of startling reforms, probably his stoutest and most unflinching supporter was the celebrated old Capuchin general, Cardinal Micara, and we believe his present successor not to have deviated from this line of opinion. The popular

* See note at the end of this article.

element predominates so strongly in the composition of the congregation that it is permanently imbued with a democratic complexion, which has been the reason for its great influence in the inferior classes of society. At the same time no order can be less exposed to the charge of heretical tendencies, for none is less speculative in its nature. The Capuchins, as a body, are essentially working priests, and nothing more, who devote themselves with genuine zeal to the practical services of religion, leaving scientific inquiry into doctrine and dogma to congregations endowed with greater instruction than falls to the share of most of their members. Speaking, however, the people's own homely language, and sharing its sentiments, the Capuchin's order is by these qualities naturally rendered a corporation of great social importance. It is, therefore, a matter of undoubted consequence if this popular body be, as is confidently asserted, openly disposed to protest against the temporal sovereignty of the Pope, and actively to sympathise with and encourage the national movement now in progress. At all events, it is certain that the pontifical authorities believe in the foundation of these imputations, and that the attitude of the order in the great conflict now at issue in Italy has been marked with unequivocal symptoms of bold and popular opinions, as well as with a degree of resolute and outspoken sturdiness, which contrasts with the general reserve of ecclesiastical discipline.

If these two orders may be assumed to embody respectively the literary and the popular element in the Roman Catholic hierarchy, we may fairly consider the Dominicans as more essentially representing its purely theological nature. In fact, the Dominicans might not inaptly be said to have identified themselves with the especial duty of jealous vigilance in the suppression of heresy, and the uncompromising assertion of Romish doctrine. It is this order which has amongst its more particular attributes the exercise of the absolute censorship of the Sant' Uffizio, for it enjoys the distinctive privilege that the two highest officers of the Inquisition are to be always selected from this body. Therefore, as an institution, it might be expected to be, of all monastic and religious corporations, the one that would be most certain on all occasions to reflect without flaw the perfection of orthodox opinion. Yet we find that there has been, and still is, much serious dissatisfaction in this weighty congregation as to the line taken by the highest authority in the Church. When the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was decreed by the Pope, the Dominicans, relying upon the opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the whole tradition of the

order, opposed it in a manner which caused great irritation in the Vatican. Perhaps this disagreeable experience of the possible consequence of an overgrown absolute power may have quickened their spirit of independence. It has especially revived in a locality well endowed with associations for that purpose, the Dominican convent of San Marco at Florence, the celebrated abode of Savonarola. This establishment enjoys the privilege of being quite independent of the provincial heads of the order. It is ruled by a Vicar General of its own, who is in direct correspondence with the General in Rome. The monks, in spite of their professed orthodoxy and the unambiguous sentence passed upon their renowned brother, have never ceased to revere the fame of Savonarola. In consequence the Dominicans of San Marco have long been regarded with suspicion for their peculiar temper, which, on several occasions, has come out in rather marked contrast to that of their fellow Dominicans who live at Santa Maria Novella. Repeatedly the ecclesiastical authorities have had reason to be displeased with the language and opinions expressed in the cloisters of the former, and even to have recourse to arbitrary penalties against some of its inmates, which has led to delicate questions of privilege. It would not be wonderful, therefore, if the leaven of Savonarola's ideas, which has been thus perpetuated, were to result in some very distinct and public expression of opinion adverse to the Pope's temporal power. It is well known, we believe, that this view is decidedly entertained at San Marco, and even that it is shared by some of the Dominicans who are now occupying some of the confidential posts set apart by the Roman hierarchy as the privilege of the particular orthodoxy of their order. It is not to be assumed that the Dominicans are infected with a tendency to reform as strong or as prevalent as that of the Benedictines or Capuchins. Still it is always a remarkable occurrence to find any such disposition at all in a body so intimately connected with the Vatican, and traditions of uncompromising obedience to its authority.

What we have here stated is enough in our opinion signally to invalidate Count Montalembert's rhetorical assertion in his letter to Count Cavour, that amongst true Catholics, the only 'persons whose adhesions are of any value in a religous matter, be they priests or laymen,' he would fail in obtaining one single assent to his opinion that the Pope's temporal power had better be abdicated by him. This is one of those reckless affirmations which are sometimes put forward by unflinching advocates with the view of intimidation, and under an impression that their loud declamation will abash refutation. It is as little

correct to consider this declaration of inflexible devotion to the Pope's temporal power on the part of M. de Montalembert as the true expression of opinion of all pious Catholic laymen, as it would be to hold the Abbé Lacordaire to be in his views the organ of all Dominicans, or Mr. Faber to have expressed in his sermon, published under the title Devotion to the Pope,' convictions which are shared in by all his fellow Oratorians. We know well that when a person of Mr. Faber's eminence in his congregation speaks, most persons must be naturally inclined to ascribe to his words the weight of authority, particularly as connected with a Church that so little favours the right of private judgment; and that therefore when he is found deliberately to give expression to such extreme views as the following on the absolute, the almost sacramental sanctity of the temporal papacy, those who are not especially acquainted with Roman Catholic doctrine can never venture to suspect how thoroughly these are the suggestions of his own individual exaggeration.

'Jesus had satisfied His own immense love, and had given our love room to become immense, by returning to us in His human nature through the blessed sacrament,' says Mr. Faber. But His love covers the whole ground of creation, and He felt that this invisible dwelling with us was not enough. . . . He looked out into His creation to find a fitting representative of His own blessed self. He searched the earth with His unerring love to choose a fitting monument on which, as on the pillar of a trophy, He could hang His own insignia, and bid it do duty for Himself. It must be so like Him that all men shall readily acknowledge the resemblance. It must have such a likeness to Him as will best provoke enthusiastic and enduring love. It must be a visible compendium of the three-andthirty years. . . . The Sovereign Pontiff is a third visible presence of Jesus amongst us, of a higher order, of a deeper significance, of more immediate importance, of a more exacting nature than His presence in the poor and in the children. The Pope is the Vicar of Jesus on earth, and enjoys among the monarchs of the world all the rights and sovereignties of the sacred humanity of Jesus. He is a monarch by the very force of his office, for of all kings he is the nighest to the King of Kings. He is the visible shadow cast by the Invisible Head of the Church in the blessed sacrament. His office is an institution emanating from the same depth of the Sacred Heart out of which we have already seen the blessed sacrament and the elevation of the poor and of children take their rise. . . . The Pope is to us in all our conduct what the blessed sacrament is to us in all our adoration. . . . The conclusion to be drawn from all this is of the most momentous importance. It is no less than this: that devotion to the Pope is an essential part of all Christian piety. It is not a matter which stands apart from the spiritual life, as if the Papacy were only the politics of the Church, an institution belonging to her external life, a divinely-appointed convenience of