Page images
PDF
EPUB

science, at least, began to dawn in Italy, under the reign of Napoleon; in Naples, under Murat; in Spain, alternately under King Joseph and the cortes; and in Portugal, under the protection of the British and the sanction of the king: and in all these coun tries religious opinions, after ages of darkness, had for a season been free. But on the re-establishment of the pope in his dominions, and of Roman Catholic despots on their thrones, incipient religious liberty was crushed, and the reign of darkness returned in all the fulness of its power. Superstition and infidelity acted and reacted on each other-while men were not prone to learn righteousness. The gross mummeries of the Romish church shocked reason, and men, making shipwreck of faith, were stranded on scepticism, and thought, for a moment, that they were safe. But when atheism appeared, not in theory but in action, and exhibited its horrors, any form of religion was deemed preferable to none; the mind, when overawed, clung to superstition anew, even as the shipwrecked mariner would cling to any plank. It is thus, perhaps, in some degree to be accounted for, that the gross darkness of the tenth century was partially revived in the nineteenth, and that if the latter be called " enlightened," it is not to those kingdoms where popery most prevails that we have to look for the proof. It is the prophetic characteristic of the kingdom of the beast to be full of darkness. And such darkness visible denotes where that kingdom is to be found.

And his kingdom was full of darkness. "Superstition prevails not only at Rome, but in all the states of the church.-A government wholly pacific like that of Rome, might console itself for its political nullity" (the judgment had already began to sit which was to take the power out of its hands,) "by encouraging and protecting letters, but an INTELLECTUAL

DEADNESS seems to pervade the Roman states,”*—full of darkness.

"The Roman nobility-read not, think not, write not.The Italian noblemen, for the most part, are ill-educated, ignorant and illiterate."+

"The fair sex in this country are generally extremely ig norant. They are occupied with pursuits of the most puerile vanity."‡ "After mass, the lower orders throng the streets in a state of complete apathetic vacuity of mind, and bodily inertion."§ "There has actually been in Rome a trial for witchcraft, a grave formal trial for witchcraft, in the nineteenth century! I begin to think I must be mistaken, and that the world has been pushed back about three hundred years. But it is even so." "I understand that not one miracle happened during the whole reign of the French, and that it was not until the streets were purified with lustrations of holy water on the return of the pontiff, that they began to operate again. But, with the pontiff, darkness returned, and the age of popish miracles revived." "Within this little month, (31st April 1817,) three great miracles have happened in Rome. The last took place yesterday, when all Rome crowded to the capitol to see an image of the Virgin opening her eyes." "When I behold crowds flocking to kneel before these talking and winking Madonas, I cannot help asking myself, if this is really the nineteenth century? One would have thought there had been miracles enough of late in Rome, to have satisfied any reasonable people; but the pope and a detachment of cardinals are going about every day after dinner in quest of more. They visit all the Madonas in regular succession.-Private miracles, indeed, affecting individuals, go on quite commonly every day, without exciting the smallest attention. These generally consist in procuring prizes in the lottery, curing

* Malte-Brun's Geography, vol. vii. pp. 678, 679.

Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. iii. pp. 208, 219.-It is added, "I could give some curious proofs of this, but I content myself with mentioning one, which I witnessed the other night at the opera, when half a dozen dukes, marquisses, and counts, from different parts of Italy, who were in the box with us, began disputing whether Peru, which happened to be the scene of the piece, was in the East Indies, in Africa, or-as one of them, for a wonder, was inclined to think-in America!"

Ibid. vol. iii. pp. 224, 225. || Ibid. p. 201.

§ Ibid. p. 206.
¶ P. 199.

diseases, and casting out devils."* "Miracles and miraculous Madonas abound nearly as much in Tuscany as in the Estates of the church, as I have good reason to know. At Mantua, a bottle of the blood of Christ is liquefied every year, to the great edification of the compatriots of Virgil. The bottle containing this real blood of Christ, was dug up at Mantua in a box, about 200 years ago, with a written assurance that it had been deposited there by a St. Longinus, a Roman centurion, who witnessed the crucifixion, and became converted, and ran away from Judea to Mantua with this bottle of blood; and after lying sixteen centuries in the ground, the box, the writing, the bottle, and the blood were as fresh as if they had been placed there," (as in all likelihood they were,) "only the day before! But I might write a book of miracles, were I to relate the hundredth part of all that take place every year, nay, every day, in Italy."+

"The mode of effecting this last description of miracle was communicated to me the other day by an abbe here: and, as I think it extremely curious, I shall relate it to you.

"It seems that a certain friar had preached a sermon during Lent, upon the state of the man mentioned in Scripture, possessed with seven devils, with so much eloquence and unction, that a simple countryman who heard him, went home and became convinced that these seven devils had got possession of him. The idea haunted his mind, and subjected him to the most dreadful terrors, till, unable to bear his sufferings, he unbosomed himself to his ghostly father, and asked his counsel. The father, who had some smattering of science, bethought himself at last of a way to rid the honest man of his devils. He told him it would be necessary to combat with the devils singly ; and on a day appointed, when the poor man came with a sum of money, to serve as a bait for the devil, without which the father had forewarned him no devil could ever be dislodged, he bound a chain connected with an electrical machine in an adjoining chamber,-round his body,-lest, as he said, the devil should fly away with him, and having warned him that the shock would be terrible when the devil went out of him, he left him praying devoutly before an image of the Madona, and after some time gave him a pretty smart shock, at which the poor wretch fell insensible on the floor from terror. As soon as he recovered, however, he protested that he had seen the devil fly away out of his mouth, breathing blue flames and sulphur, and that he felt himself greatly relieved. Seven electrical shocks, at due intervals, having extracted seven sums of money from him, together with the seven devils, the man was cured, and a great miracle performed."-Ibid.

+ Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. iii. pp. 193, 201.

But other illustrations of the grossest darkness are supplied by the capital of the Roman Catholic world in the nineteenth century, such as the annals of paganism, in its darkest days, could scarcely have surpassed, amidst all the manifold demonstrations which its records, jointly with those of popery, supply of the deep debasement of the human intellect, before the prostrating power of dark superstition.

To renew our quotations from the testimony of an eye-witness to facts notorious and unquestionable, we read:

"We were present to-day, (Sunday, January 18th, 1819,) at one of the most ridiculous scenes I ever witnessed, even in this country. It was St. Anthony's Blessing of the Horses, which began on that saint's day, and I understand lasts for a week; but as this was a festone, I rather imagine we saw it in its full glory. We drove to the church of the saint, near Santa Maria Maggiore, and could scarcely make our way through the streets, from the multitude of horses, mules, asses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, and dogs, which were journeying along to the place of benediction; their heads, tails, and necks, decorated with bits of coloured ribband and other finery, on this, their unconscious gala-day. The saint's benediction, though nominally confined to horses, is equally efficacious, and equally bestowed upon all quadrupeds; and I believe there is scarcely a brute in Rome, or the neighbourhood, that has not participated in it.*

"An immense crowd were assembled in the wide open space, in front of the church, and from the number of beasts and men, it looked exactly like a cattle fair. At the door, stood the blessing priest, dressed in his robes, and wielding a brush in his hand, which he continually dipped in a large bucket of holy water, that stood near him, and spirted at the animals as they came up, in unremitting succession, taking off his little skullcap, and muttering every time,' Per intercessionem beati Antonii abatis, hæc animalia liberantur malis, in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.'

"The poor priest had such hard work in blessing, that he was quite exhausted and panting, and his round face looked fiery red with his exertions. The rider or driver of the

* Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. iii. pp. 193-201.

creature, always gave some piece of money, larger or smaller, in proportion to his means or generosity, and received an engraving of the saint and a little metallic cross; however, all animals might be blessed gratis.

"Several well-dressed people, in handsome equipages, attended with out-riders in splendid liveries, drove up while we were there, and sat uncovered while the benediction was given. Then, having paid what they thought fit, they drove off and made way for others,"* &c.

"There is a peculiar and more solemn sort of blessing given to two lambs, on the 21st of January, at the church of St. Agnese fuori le murà, from the sainted fleeces of which are manufactured, I believe, by the hand of nuns, two holy mantles, called Pally, which the pope presents to the archbishops as his principal shepherds. It is incredible the sums of money that used to be given in former days, for the least scrap of these precious garments; but times are sadly changed, as an old priest pathetically observed to me. They still, however, carry a remnant of the Virgin Mary's own nuptial veil annually in solemn procession to the church of Sainta Maria del Papulo, where it is still adored; and the marriage of Christ and St. Catherine is still celebrated with great pomp, on the anniversary of their wedding day, the 29th of January, at the church of Sainta Maria supra Minerva, and held as a grand festa. But the festa which pleased me the most, was that of the children. On the eve of the Twelfth Day, the Crature,+ with trembling mingled with hope, anticipate a midnight visit from a frightful old woman, called the Befana, (an obvious corruption of Epifania, the Epifany,) for whom they always take care to leave some portion of their supper, lest she should eat them up; and when they go to bed, they suspend upon the back of a chair a stocking, to receive her expected gifts. This receptacle is always found in the morning to contain some sweet things, or other welcome presents, which I need scarcely say, are provided by the mother or the nurse. There is here a dressed up wooden figure of La Befana, sufficiently hideous, the bugbear of all naughty girls and boys."+

Thus, from the nobility to the mob, and from the churches to the nursery, all in Rome was full of

Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. iii. pp. 202, 203. †The children.

‡ Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. iii. pp. 204, 205.

« PreviousContinue »