second Street. Near it are the apartments of the janitor, who will take charge of the building. The architect of the building was Mr. J. C. Cady, who is also the superintendent of the mission, and who has for some time studied the wants and proper character of such buildings, in light both of his profession and office. The cost of the building has been £6000, exclusive of the land. It was dedicated on Sunday last. THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF THE INQUISITION.* FROM THE ITALIAN. N that quarter of Rome adjoining the Piazza of the Vatican, between St. Peter's Church and the Castle of St. Angelo, stands a street bearing the ominous name of the Inquisition. The edifice from which the locality derives its name was partially constructed about the middle of the sixteenth century; the remainder is a fragment of a severe and simple order of architecture, characteristic of the age in which it was built, and still retaining traces of the departing greatness of the Roman people. The main building is composed of three parts, the external form of which presents to view two right-angles and a trapezium, coupled together; the whole structure being cut off from communication with the adjacent houses, doubtless with a view to prevent the curious eyes of the outer world from penetrating the dark secrets of the place. The first rectangular portion, abutting on the street, once belonged to a member of the Sacred College; but Pope Pius V. having acquired possession of the property, made some additions to it, and handed it over to the Inquisition. It consists of two flats, adorned with Tuscan columns, the façade being quite plain. The second part, constructed after the first, and in the same style, differs from it merely in the greater simplicity and smaller size of its proportions. It had been originally * Louis Desanctis, an eminent Italian preacher, professor, and writer, was born and educated at Rome. He was well qualified, by his long experience and high position, to speak with authority upon the subject of the Roman Inquisition. Besides filling a Chair of Theology and discharging the multifarious duties of a parish priest in his native city, he was for several years Censor Emeritus in the Theological Academy of the Roman University, Prosynodal Examiner to Cardinal Micara, Dean of the Sacred College, and for ten years Qualificator or Professional Theologian to the Inquisition. Having become thoroughly convinced, by a long course of thought and study, of the false and unscriptural character of the Papacy, he resigned his various honours and emoluments, sacrificed his brilliant prospects to his matured convictions of truth and duty, and withdrew from Rome into exile at Malta in 1847. The subsequent years of his life at Geneva, Turin, Genoa, and latterly at Florence, were devoted to the work of training young men for the ministry of the Protestant Church, to preaching the gospel, and to literary effort in the cause of Italian evangelization. He died at Florence on the 31st of December 1869, at the age of sixty-one. His series of smaller treatises on the "Mass," Confession," "Purgatory," &c., are highly popular in Italy, and have proved most useful as pioneers to the right study of the Bible. His largest and most valuable work, called "Roma Papale," was first published in this country in the shape of letters to a London newspaper. The Italian edition has been greatly improved by the addition of extended notes, which throw a clear and striking light on the inner life of modern Rome. extracts which follow are taken from these notes.--Translator's Note. The formed of two stories, ornamented with pillars; but about the middle of the seventeenth century, the front of the lower story was blocked up to provide for the construction of new prisons, probably in consequence of some of the secret subterraneous chambers having been abandoned about that time. The remainder of this second section, to which no admittance was allowed, was specially set apart for the use of the familiars of the Inquisition. In all probability, the third portion of the building, which was never finished, had been intended for a similar purpose. The left wing was entirely wanting; but a thick high wall, running transversely across the vacant space, effectually precluded the slightest possibility of observation. REVELATIONS OF 1849. On the fourth of April 1849, it was decreed (by the Roman Republic) that these buildings, formerly used by the Holy Office, should be converted into dwellings for those families of the poor whose actual house accommodation happened to be unhealthy or insufficient. It was on that occasion that those gates, which had not been opened for three centuries, fell back for the first time to admit the surging populace of Rome. Nor was this all. One day, the Government of the Republic finding itself under the necessity of providing stables for the artillery horses of the National Guard, chose for the purpose one of the buildings of the Inquisition, beneath the closed colonnade of the second court-yard. The chief inquisitor, a Dominican friar, was still in residence; but notwithstanding the inveterate hatred cherished by the people towards the priests, they gave him no trouble. After he had made his protest against the proceedings, the necessary measures were immediately taken to put the place in order. When it was found indispensable, for stabling the horses, to dig through an inner wall, it was not long before the masons engaged in the work struck upon something hollow in the thickness of the wall. A trap-door was at once discovered. Pushing forward, and quickly removing the impediments in their way, they dropped down into a subterraneous chamber of no great size, damp and dark, without an outlet, and with no other floor than the bare soil, which was as black and clammy as that of any cemetery. Here and there fragments of old clothes were scattered about, evidently all that was left of the unfortunate wretches who had been hurled in through the trap, and left to die, some of their wounds, some of terror, others of anguish, others still of hunger. No long time elapsed | top cover of a tomb. On removing it, the yawning before the men who handled this heavy damp mould detected in it human bones and bits of scalp, covered with long hair like that of women. There can be no manner of doubt whatever that, when it was for the interests of the Holy Office to obliterate all traces of obnoxious individuals, the Inquisitorial authorities made use of this identical trap-door to destroy their victims. The conduit or passage through which the unfortunates were precipitated into this living sepulchre corresponds with the first floor of the second portion of the building in general, and in particular with the entrance to the second father-companion's room, which again leads by a secret passage into the hall of the tribunal. Every dungeon, whether on the first or second floor, consists of a small cell, capable of containing little more than one person. These cells are separated from each other by a long, narrow, cloister-like passage, the walls of which are covered with pictures and inscriptions, most of them bearing the impress of the terrors of the place. Over the entrance of the doors opening into this silent corridor, there is hung a large portrait of the Saviour-painted, not according to the common evangelical traditions, with an expression of benignity or sorrow, but threatening and stern, after the manner of the Inquisition. It was in those cells in which Napoleon had placed the correctional police- that the Holy Office specially guarded the monks and nuns. Several, indeed, were still furnished with beds; but filth and disorder were the prevailing features-cushions, torn counterpanes, broken chairs, tables turned upside down, lay mixed up here and there with the clothing of the prisoners. In other cells appeared significant tokens of mysteries still more revolting; such as a woman's tippet, the bonnet apparently of a young girl of ten or twelve years, wooden shoes, thick cords commonly worn by nuns, a distaff, tiny baskets filled with medals and rosaries, an unfinished stocking with the knittingneedles still left in it, a child's toy, and an infant's sleeping-dress. The walls are covered on all sides with inscriptions traced by the hands of the prisoners: some of them have evidently been dictated by feelings of grief and despair, but the larger number express sentiments of resignation. The subterraneous vaults which lie below the two first court-yards have communications with each other. The most of those which are entirely isolated have trap-doors similar to those above-mentioned, through which the victims were swallowed up alive. Some of these subterraneous vaults have been transformed into cellars for the use of the monks on duty as inquisitors; and-cruel mockery!—still hanging from the vaulted roof might be seen the enormous iron rings which, after doing service in putting innocent victims to the torture, were used to hang up in the cool air of the cellar the bloodthirsty Dominican's stock of provisions. In one dungeon, upon the ground-floor of the second division of the building, there was found set into the pavement a square, flat stone, resembling the aperture of a vault was at once disclosed to view, re- The rest of the building contained nothing remark- to reveal traces of others who might share in his guilt. | gathered with that fine regard for justice which animates Finally, if he confessed and repented, he was dismissed with the benediction to the care of the second fathercompanion. The attendant in waiting at the door then led him to the room on the other side. Opening the door, this officer pushed the victim in, and the fatal threshold once crossed, he disappeared for ever. Over the door were still legible the words, "Second fathercompanion's room;" suggesting by their terrible significance Dante's well-known line "All hope abandon, ye who enter here!" THE ARCHIVES. The archives of the Inquisition constitute the martyrology of a large portion of the human race, and at the same time demonstrate its barbarous system of jurisprudence to be at bottom a vast systematic conspiracy against the moral and intellectual progress of mankind. This becomes more apparent, when we consider that the Inquisition of Rome bears supreme sway over all special branches of it in other lands; and as the Inquisitors of the various provinces of Catholicism are mutually independent, the Holy Roman Office pronounces, as the highest court of appeal, upon all differences which may arise, regulates the proceedings, and prescribes the forms of sentence. It is with the Roman Inquisition that the gravest political and religious affairs, affecting the Papacy and the court of Rome, are inseparably bound up. These archives are divided into three great compartments. The first of these consists of a library of rare value and unique character. It includes all those works which, in the Catholic sense of the term, may be said to concern the Inquisition, comprehending the jurisprudence and apologies published in defence of the institution in various part of Europe. But the point which makes the most singular impression on the mind of the intelligent observer is the complete collection of all the works which have been condemned and placed in the Index Expurgatorius. In particular, there was a collection of the best editions of all that the Italians ever wrote. Several of these works are unknown even to the most industrious book-hunters, and constitute some of the rarest and richest curiosities of literature, particularly in those cases in which the Holy Office possesses the only copy now extant. In fact, one has only to open the annals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to see with what indefatigable bitterness the Inquisition tracked out and tortured such writers, and strove by every conceivable device to destroy their works; sometimes buying up whole editions in order to consign them to the flames, and in all cases addressing the most solemn admonitions to those who were possessed of copies to surrender them without delay. This library abounds, above all, in manuscripts and codices, * Quoted from the Roman correspondent of the Presse, April 1819. the Papacy. When an author submits a work to the inspection of the public censor, it is a common practice for the Sacred Congregation of the Index, should it think fit to refuse its authorization, to retain possession of the manuscript, in order to prevent its being printed elsewhere. The writer remembers having seen, among other works, one entitled, "A Geographical Study of the Roman States," by Chevalier Fontana, a work which certainly gave no offence to religion; but as it brought to light certain statistics not very agreeable to the Papal government, the Congregation preferred giving it a permanent place on its shelves. The second section of these archives contains summaries of all the prosecutions conducted within the precincts of the Inquisition, decisions of the tribunal upon cases of conscience, and objects taken from prisoners and other offenders, such as letters, books, manuscripts, pictures, ornaments, amulets, &c.-an unheard of collection, at once the most curious and the strangest to be found anywhere. Lastly, we have the third section, consisting of what is called the Lower Chancery; the most important for us, because revealing the vast organization of the Inquisition, and the vitality which it still preserves. It is there, in particular, that politics and religion go hand in hand, mutually weakening and disturbing each other. It is there also that the direct utility of the confessional is seen in active operation, as well as that mysterious unity which has made the Church at once what it has been and what it is. There heresy is made a department of political activity, and the indefatigable exertions of the priest to retain his temporal authority shine through every page of the contents of these archives. There, in a word, are to be found all the disclosures, all the organization, all the underground machinery of these last years. Though several shelves in this section have been cleared out, enough still remains to furnish us with a fair specimen of the organization of the Holy Office in modern times -the names of the familiars being still all there classified according to their provinces, and preserved in a separate register. Generally speaking, the correspondents or active members of the Holy Office embrace all prelates on missions; all provincials or generals of the regular clergy; all archbishops, bishops, and cardinals, not only in the Papal States, but throughout Christendom; all extreme Catholics conspicuous for their rank, ambition, wealth, talents, or influence. Hence it follows that the repositories which contain the correspondence of the Inquisition are at once extremely numerous and well filled. There is one set apart for the bishops, cardinals, and prelates of the Roman States; and from this the inquisitors draw both their political and religious information. Another contains the correspondence of all the prelates, priests, and monks in Christendom connected with the Holy Office. A special register is reserved for the apostolic nuncios. From the general impressions conveyed by this vast mass of papers, a carefully selected body of notes is drawn up, called the Catalogus Indicationum," and containing a list of all the political and religious heretics, from the year 1815 down to the times of the Republic. This catalogue contains a sketch of their characters, registers their actions and writings, and indicates the ramifications, friends, and supporters of the party to which they belong. Thus the vast family of the Inquisition, extending itself on all sides, and keeping its eyes fixed on everything, from the confessional of the devotee to the palace of the sovereign, examines, studies, and takes note of everything. In the estimation of the Holy Office, liberty is not only a heresy in itself; it is also the proof of every heresy. Now, the whole world having in our time become heretical in this sense, the authorities of the Inquisition find it necessary to embrace within its secret jurisdiction the actions and thoughts of all men, so far as this is possible, whilst they secretly launch their anathemas against governments which but lately lent Rome the support of their arms. Respecting nothing, whether it be the sacredness of the domestic hearth, or the obligations imposed by the most solemn oaths, or the secrets of the confessional, the Chancery of the Inquisition is the receiver-general and movingspring of a world-wide police; insomuch so, that whenever the Pope's Secretary of State wants any information upon prohibited books or suspected persons, he has only to send to the Holy Office, where the whole present as well as past complexion of foreign politics is clearly reflected. The government of the Republic, too much occupied from the outset in defending the national honour and upholding the banner of democracy, was unable to give much attention to the work of selecting these documents; and the examination of them was accordingly entrusted to a very small number of persons. The Inquisition of course recovered its papers, but, profanation of profanations, they had been exposed to view ! THE PRISONERS-CASCHIUR. When these letters were published for the first time, some good Englishmen observed that when the Holy Office was thrown open (in 1849) no prisoners were found in it; because Pio Nono, in accordance with his liberalism, had set them all at liberty. As regards the pretended liberalism of Pio Nono toward the Holy Office, here is what I can say. Pope Gregory XVI. was most violent against the liberals; but in religion he took very little interest. He was annoyed if people spoke to him of condemnations on religious grounds. Every case of that kind ended in his prescribing a few devotional exercises as a penalty. Dr. Mucchielli, for instance, scandalized the zealots for many years by his irreligious discourses. He was imprisoned by the Holy Office, and according to the inquisitorial code, he ought to have been severely condemned; but Pope Gregory quashed the proceedings by sending the culprit to per form his devotions in the convent of the Capuchins. The Holy Office in Pope Gregory's time had become a mere auxiliary of the police for ferreting out liberals. At the death of that Pope there was no one in the prisons of the Inquisition but Archbishop Caschiur. As soon, however, as the present Pontiff ascended the throne, the dungeons were filled anew. So Caschiur, the solitary occupant of the prisons of the Inquisition on the accession of Pius IX., had a history so remarkable as to deserve from us something more than a casual reference. He was an Egyptian by birth, and had been placed in his youth as a student at the college of the Propaganda in Rome. He was a young man of some ability, but crafty, ambitious, and hypocritical. Whilst he was engaged with his studies, he gave out that, in a correspondence he had had with Mehemet Ali, the Viceroy of Egypt, the latter held out hopes that he would come over to the Roman Catholic Church, and bring all Egypt with him, provided Caschiur returned to his country in an official capacity. cleverly did he sustain the fiction, that he managed to delude the whole college of cardinals into accepting his story; and the Pope himself, disregarding all the canons, consecrated Caschiur with his own hands sub-deacon, deacon, priest, and Archbishop of Thebes, all in one day. This happened in 1824, in the papacy of Leo XIV. The youthful archbishop, who was then only twenty-one, became the favourite of the hour, and was invited day after day to participate in the solemnities of the Church, whilst the nuns of Rome vied with each other in their eagerness to get him to their convents to say mass. He received presents from every one, and was laying aside a little fortune. When the hour of departure arrived, an old cardinal proposed to the Pope to send a man of mature experience along with Caschiur to act as his adviser; and, in accordance with the suggestion, Padre Canestrari, of the order of St. Franceso di Paolo, parish priest of St. Andrea delle Fratte, was chosen for the service. They set off, intending to take ship at Genoa. The young archbishop was received with enthusiasm by the devout Genoese; but, in consequence of some indiscretion having roused the suspicion of Canestrari, the padre took the precaution of writing to Alexandria and Rome. Meanwhile, he was obliged to sail; but he arranged to have his letters sent to Malta. At Malta he found answers waiting him from Alexandria and Rome. The former stated that the viceroy had gone into a passion when he first heard how his name had been used, and had pledged himself to execute Caschiur the moment he set foot in Egypt. The other instructed him to bring back the archbishop to Rome, a closer examination of the pretended correspondence having proved it to be a forgery. In these circumstances, Canestrari dissembled, and pretending it was impossible to pursue their voyage in the ship which had brought them, procured another which was about to start for Civita Vecchia. By arrangement with the captain, they steered into the open sea, as if bound for Alexandria. In this way Caschiur was put on shore at Civita Vecchia, arrested by the pontifical carabineers, and thrown into the dungeons of the Inquisition. Canestrari was made a bishop; and Caschiur, in a general congregation of the Holy Office, presided over by the Pope who had consecrated him, was condemned to be degraded and imprisoned for life. Moreover, the Pope, in the same congregation, absolved all the employés of the Inquisition from their oath of secrecy in reference to this particular case; and so the whole story came out. From that moment the degraded prelate was shut up in the dungeons. But in the time of Gregory XVI., being reduced to the last extremity for want of air and exercise, the Pope ordered him a good room, with permission to walk up and down in the inner court, and even to go out twice a week to the country, accompanied by a friar. In this way Caschiur recovered his health. But all these privileges were withdrawn at the accession of Pius IX., and the unfortunate man was locked up anew. When the Republicans burst open his prison doors, he was found more dead than alive. THE OFFICIAL STAFF. The staff of functionaries attached to the Inquisition is of the most elaborate description. The Pope himself is head of the whole establishment: he is the Grand Inquisitor, and is styled "Prefect of the sacred and universal Inquisition of Rome." Twelve cardinals, perhaps in parody of the twelve apostles, act as subordinate inquisitors, the Dean of the Sacred College being secretary. There is next a prelate called the assessor, who distributes to the cardinals the cases which have to be decided. A Dominican, invested with all the privileges of a prelate, and called the commissary, takes the initial steps in every case, and distributes work to the consultors, at whose meetings he presides. The commissary is assisted in his duties by the two officials already referred to, the first and second father-companions. They too are Dominicans. The Dominicans of the Inquisition must be natives of Lombardy-a privilege reserved, curiously enough, for that province. Besides various advocates, too numerous to mention, there is a head notary, who must be a priest, and whose chief duties are to attend examinations of prisoners, draw up cases, and arrange the necessary papers. He is assisted by an indefinite number of substitutes, all likewise priests. Every one connected with the establishment, from the most dignified prelate to the lowest turnkey, has to take oath that he will reveal nothing, either directly or indirectly relating to the affairs of the sacred tribunal; whilst the lay officials require to be unmarried, simply to prevent them being exposed to the temptation of making dangerous disclosures in order to gratify female curiosity. This staff of officials is all paid. The consultors and qualificators receive no pay. The former belong for the most part to the religious orders, and are nominated by the Pope. Their business is to study cases, and assemble in congregation for that purpose, which they do at headquarters every Monday. The qualificators are theologians, to whom doctrinal cases are referred for the qualification or definition of the propositions involved. For example, a person is imprisoned on a religious charge. If he has written or printed anything, the papers or books are given to the qualificators, who, after studying them, make extracts of the leading positions maintained in them, and formally pronounce them heretical, schismatic, or scandalous, as the case may be. If the accused has written nothing, the statements he is alleged to have uttered are communicated to the qualificators, with a view to their exact definition. In like manner, when a charge is lodged against a book, it is sent to them for examination. Their judgment is first handed to the consultors, and then passed on to the cardinals. The congregations of the consultors are held every Monday at eight o'clock, when the Papal carriages are sent to their houses to convey them to the palace of the Inquisition. There, presided over by the commissary, and seated round a table in the form of an ellipse, they discuss cases and give their decisions. Their vote is purely deliberative. The cardinals, again, meet in a hall of the Convent of Minerva every Wednesday, the assessor having a day or two before distributed among them the business to be transacted. At this congregation the commissary reports upon the result arrived at by the body of consultors. On Thursday, there ought to be a general congregation held in presence of the Pope; but this scarcely ever takes place. The assessor goes instead to the Pope and refers the matter to him for decision. The case is then closed, and looked upon as finally settled. When for any grave reason a congregation is held before the Pope, a particular order is observed. His Holiness takes his seat upon the throne, with the cardinal-dean at his writing-table close by. The assessor and commissary are both on foot, one on the Pope's right, the other on his left. The cardinalinquisitors are ranged on bare wooden benches with the consultors all on foot behind, whilst the chief notary and his substitute stand on one side with the necessary documents in readiness. The assessor reads the official statement, after which the Pope puts the question to the cardinals, hears their opinions, and pronounces judgment. It is to be observed that neither at this nor at any other congregation is the accused ever heard. At the desks, placed in the first hall of the archives, sit the notaries, writing under the directions of their chief. They receive charges and spontaneous confessions, draw up questions and replies of accused persons, and take depositions of witnesses. Spontaneous confessions are made by individuals who, taking guilt to themselves, voluntarily charge themselves with some offence falling under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition. If this confession is made before an information is lodged with the inquisitors against the guilty party, absolution is given him on performance of a slight penance. When the information arrives, it is put in the archives, and is not proceeded |