Inner Rome: political, religious and social

Front matter

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2303, set BY 13,

Prefatory Note

THE author of this work has no explanations to make additional to those contained in the introductory chapter, except to state that the last three chapters were contributed by a lady, a member of his family, whose opportunities for observation of the subjects of which she treats were greater than his own.

West PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 1st, 1865.

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CHAPTER I. Introductory

Reasons for the title. New sources of information recently opened. Facilities for personal observation. Popular character of the work

CHAPTER II. Internal Administration of the Papal Government

The Papal theory of the origin of the temporal power. The Roman States an ecclesiastical benefice. Alienation of any part of the patrimony of St. Peter a sacrilege. The fundamental law of the State enacted by the Council of Trent. The regulations of an Inquisitor General for Pesaro, Rimini, and Fano. The oppressive character, and the frightful results of these regulations. Administration of justice in Rome. the case of Locatelli. Slight evidence on which he was condemned and executed. His innocence subsequently ROMO eave gis c cares pe Re rtsesteteas lea sasccisntes ct pseoctresesess secws 14

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CHAPTER III. The External Policy of the Papal Government

The Pope’s hostility to constitutional governments on his return to Rome from Gaeta. His relation to Leopold, Duke of Tuscany. Advises the Duke to violate the - Constitution by disfranchising all the Jews in his dominions. The Duke hesitates, and humbly states the difficulties and the probable evils of such a proceeding. The Pope rejoins, and repeats his request; to which in a modified form the Duke yields. The arrogance on the one side, and the abjectness upon the

CHAPTER IV. Persecution for Political Opinion

The Pope’s dread and hatred of the National Committee at Rome. Banishment from Rome for liberal opinions. Cruelty and imprisonment on mere suspicion. Arrest of a young physician; and the death of his wife. Brutality of the Gendarmes. Imprisonment and death of a Roman youth, The story of a Roman Count.

The imprisonment of a Roman gentleman.............008. 35

Chapter V

The Imprisonment of the Advocate and Deputy, Signore Vincenzo Tergolina,

Show prison in Rome. The real political prisons—San

Michele and Paliano. §. Tergolina, a Venetian patriot.

The

CONTENTS.

His history. His imprisonment at Rome. His cruel treatment. His pretended trial. Roman law. Sent to 8. Michele. Treatment of those who are condemned to death. Examination before the tribunal of the Sacra Consulta. Transfer to the fortress of Paliano. Punishment for political offenses. Case of Henry Ruspoli. Of the sculptor Rinaldi. Four years of imprisonment. Hardships and horrors. Inferences from this history Reetesleits eens Die giaccases eine letectanesascere ssaeee

CHAPTER VI. The Secret National Society and Committee

dread of the National Committee felt by the Papal Government. Its object. Its present political character. Its inscrutable secrecy. Vain efforts to discover and destroy it. The efforts of the police and the priests. Peculiar character of the organization which makes its betrayal and detection almost impossible. The arrest, trial, and imprisonment of the private Secretary of Cardinal Antonelli as a member of the Secret Society....... Re orn tee ea ere ety

CHAPTER VII. The Secret National Society and Committee

Patriotic demonstrations of members of the Society. Garibaldi coming to Rome! Alarm among the priests. Frequent arrests. Continued demonstrations. Patriobigssatires and) epigramstssceg ds sgeekessaiasl eee ds one veseewehs

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Vill

The

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CHAPTER VIII. The Government of Priests, and its Anomalies

Papal Government is a government of priests. A crowned priest is its King. All the high offices occupied by priests. Testimony of the official Annual “Almanac. Statements of the partisans of the Papacy on this subject. Reasons for the preference shown to the clergy. The laymen incompetent. The peculiar character of the prelatura. Arrogance of the priesthood. Personal experience. Monsignore Talbot’s treatment of an English party. The anomalies of. this priestly government. Incompatibility of priestly and political offices. Connivance of the priestly government with legalized licentiousness at Bologna.......

_ CHAPTER. LX.

The Papal Government after the Restoration.

Despotism a religious duty. The temporal power in the service of the spiritual. The Papal Government a most cruel and unrighteous despotism. The abolition of the Constitution on the return of the Pope from Gaeta. The vindictiveness of the Government. The death of Garibaldi’s wife, and the persecution of those who gave her shelter at Ravenna. Persecutions at Ferrara. Personal histories of suffering, persecution, and death. The stupid and illogical cruelty of the Papal Government. Precious official documents. The

Council of Censure. Horrors of the prisons of Ravenna. Beneficial effect of Napoleon’s intervention... 110

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CHAPTER X. Rome and Brigandage

Complicity of Rome with brigandage generally believed. Regions whence brigands are recruited. Visits to these scenes. ‘‘The back-bone” of Italy. Monte Cassino. A story of brigandage. Adventure upon the Campagna. A night at a tenuta with a priest. His hospitality. His account of the Contadini. Suspected and detained by a Gendarme. Compelled to walk to Rome. The Neapolitan princes have always fostered brigandage as an instrument of reaction wiien they have been overthrown... ccc dec etesecesese 128

CHAPTER XI. Rome and Brigandage

The nucleus of brigand bands found in the disbanded Neapolitan army. Committee of the Italian Parliament to examine and report upon brigandage. Report of Massari. Extract from the report. The ‘‘briggantaggio del Conte Alessandro Bianco di Saint Joirez’”’ demonstrates the complicity of the Papa! Government with the Neapolitan brigandage. Brigands recruited in Rome. ~ Bourbon ‘plan of reaction.” Story of Battistone. The effort to effect a military organization abortive. Documentary proof of the complicity of the Papal Government with the brigands. The atrocity of this proceeding. Mere robbery and murder. The responsibility of

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CHAPTER XII. Napoleon III. and Rome

The first relation of Napoleon to the Pope. In arms against the Papal Government. On his escape from Ham, watched for by the Papal police. Instructions to arrest him and description of his person. When President of the French Republic destroyed the Roman Republic, occupied Rome, and reinstated and protected the Pope. Solferino and Villa Franca. Anomalous position of the Emperor toward the Papacy. His book on Napoleonic ideas subjected to censorship of the Roman police. Great schemes and dreams of Napoleon. A new empire of a new Charlemagne. The plans of Napoleon I. for the settlement of the Roman Question. The temporal power to have been taken from him. Draft of decrees for this object. Failure of the plan. Aspirations and policy of Napoleon III.

When will he remove his troops from Rome?............ 165

CHAPTER XIII. The Issue, the Situation, and the Solution

The Government of the Pope detested by the Roman people. The issue between the Pope and the people a thousand years old. Sketch of events since the year a.p. 1815. A reforming Pope. The character and popularity of Pius 1X. The failure of his efforts to connect the Papacy with popular institutions. His retreat to Gaeta.

Reaction of his mind against liberal ideas. The present

CONTENTS. Xl issue between the Pope and the people. Forces on BAR OM cHLU Gaenscrs ese sotereaeate te toate ttc rere caaeatsecresesssseccds 183

CHAPTER XIV. Intolerance toward Jews and Protestants at Rome

Romanists in this country claim that the Pope sets a beatiful example of toleration in Rome, in the case of the Jews and foreign Protestants. Case of the Jews. Statement of their treatment by a Roman Jew. Toleration of the services of the English Church a hateful necessity. Refusal to extend its present privileges. The services of the American Church limited to the parlor of the Ambassador. The injustice of these restrictions, and the duty of Protestant governments in reference to

CHAPTER XV. Indulgences

Difficulty of comprehending the present Romish doctrine of indulgences. The practice of the church in the sale of indulgences less gross than in the days of Luther. Yet bad enough. Case of Signore M.’s marriage with his niece. Obscurity of the doctrine of plenary indulgence. Profuse exemptions promised at privileged altars. Authoritative statements of the Holy Congregation of Indulgences. Their vagueness, and the nullity of the Pope’s power. It is after all only a power to proclaim and not to effect a release from purgatory...... 214

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CHAPTER XVI. Lay Confraternities

The lay Confraternities founded on a right principle, and salutary in their operation. Fostered by the priesthood. Patriotic Romans join them to escape suspicion. Three Confraternities described. 1. The Sacconi, composed of persons of the higher ranks. Their costume. A procession of them met at the Basilica Santa Croce. Striking scene. Strong contrasts. 2. The Confraternita de Giovanni decollato. Its origin and functions. Ministers to prisoners condemned to death. A prerogative of pardon conferred on the fraternity. Description of the manner in which it is exercised. 5. Confraternity of the dead. Its office to secure honorable and Christian burial to the dead who perish from accident or violence. Its zeal and benevolence.........

CHAPTER XVII. A Chapel of Dead Men’s Bones

Church of the Confraternity of the dead. Subterranean chapel. Its walls, and ornaments, and altar composed of dead men’s bones. Detailed description. Purchase of masses for the souls in purgatory. Appeals in their behalf, and clinking of the money boxes presented for the offerings. Curious scenes of devotion and emotion. A death saloon. Exhibition of wax figures. King Judas represented in wax as sending treasures to Jerusalem to pay for prayers for the dead. Service for

CONTENTS. | xl souls in the Church. Ingenuity of the priests in slipping a number of names into one mass. Sanction of this holy economy of masses by the ‘Congregation of Indulgences.” Story of the wonderful and sure efficacy of masses and prayers for souls in purga- EOE Yates suite aise Saamcetace te «+s prion h har pant oineds tv oid up seybaeve te 234

CHAPTER XVIII. Flagellation

Scene at. the church in the via Cara vita in Lent. The church darkened. The prayer in the darkness. The flagellation and the simultaneous chanting. A strange and impressive scene. Substitution for it on the following year of a colloquy between two priests.. 247

CHAPTER XIX. The Sacred Image of the Sancta Sanctorum

Luther on the Scala Sania. Privileges granted to those who mount it upon their knees. Hnormous extent of this privilege. The image of Christ in the Sancta Sanctorum. Its miraculous history. Sketched by St. Luke at the request of the Virgin Mary. Completed by angels. Its history. Transfer from Jerusalem to Pella, and from Pella to Constantinople. The Bishop of Constantinople, driven away by the Iconoclasts, commits it to the sea. It passes over to Ostia in twenty-four hours. The Pope admonished in a dream, proceeds to Ostia with his clergy to welcome it to Rome. It flies into his hands. Its transfer to Rome.

Its miracles. The veneration in which it is held.

XIV

CONTENTS.

Brought out for adoration only in critical emergencies. Never exposed since the French Revolution until this occasion. The present crisis in the Papacy regarded as extremely critical. Description of the ceremonies connected with the;ex position... ss... 01sec dscdeneee Paynes

CHAPTER XxX.

A Visit to Loretto.

Aspect of the City of Loretto. The Saturday evening service and sermon in the church. Picturesque costumes of the Contadini. The Sunday services and ceremonies. Their number and variety. Curious objects of special veneration. Description of the church. History of the Casa... The house of Mary carried by angels through the air to Loretto. Its migrations and final settlement. Interior of the Casa. Image of the Madonna. Jewelry and millinery. Wealth of the church. Cabinets of treasures. The edifice which incloses the Casa—its exquisite beauty, and the admirable art with

CHAPTER XXI. Morals of the Priesthood

Unjust and uncharitable judgments. The Roman opinion of the priesthood. Stories afloat in the community.

Scandals in nunneries and monasteries. The order of .

the Ignoranti at Turin. Evils of the celibacy of the clergy. Influence of priests as the governing class. Dowries for poor girls. The order of the ‘‘Amantate.”

CONTENTS. XV

CHAPTER XXII. Sickness and Death

Cruel treatment of sick strangers at Rome. Horror of the dead in Italy. Desertion of the dying by their friends and relatives. The Roman explanation of this custom. Abandonment of the dead. The injustice and unkindness of landlords to the sick, and their friends. An

CHAPTER XXIII. Sickness and Death

Personal experience. Sickness and death of a young American in my apartment. Painful circumstances connected with his burial. Brutality and extortion of the landlord. His demand for indemnity refused. Resort to law. Regulations for fumigations in the case of consumptives. The landlord defeated. Painful impressions left by these events... 1. Et i. 301

CHAPTER XXIV. A Chapter of Fragments

Singular spectacle in the Church of St. Ignatius. Beggars. The winking Virgin at Vico Varo. No book stores in the Roman towns. Theories and practices in reference to baptism. Absolving the dead. A winking virgin in Rome. Roman schools and colleges. The Court del Spoglia. Anecdotes. Number of priests, and extent of church property. Papal representation of pL OM be CERIO vice. oon weet etocan cay «een eee ale OE eae 316

Xv1 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXV. Habits and Manners

Industry, domestic cares, an Italian cook, wine drinking... 328

CHAPTER XXVI. Habits and Manners

Nobility. Contadini. Middle class. Economy. Honesty. Lingerings of heathen customs. Amusements. Young girls: “Married womens... \..caststasts-a+eavece saree taercate 335