St. Paul's within the walls; an account of the American chapel at Rome, Italy ...

Front matter

UIITED STATES OF AMERICA.

ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS, VIA NAZIONALE, ROME, ITALY.

H

Preface

The wide-spread interest manifested in the work of building St. Paul's Church, in Rome is a sufficient reason for the publication of this volume. The author feels the need only of an apology for its late appearance, and begs to plead in excuse for this the exhaustion following six years of heavy and unbroken toil and anxiety, and the pressure of duties whose daily fulfillment seemed to have a first claim on his time and strength.

As it is, he fears that in his hastily-prepared sketch much that would have been of interest will be found wanting, and that full justice may not have been done to all the friends who helped so willingly and perseveringly in carrying through the work of the Church in Rome. Writing amid the inconveniences of travel, and the distractions of much work

6 PREFACE.

yet undone that ought to be done, and without the church records to refer to, it is almost inevitable that some points should be overpassed that he would have desired to bring into notice.

He begs, in this connection, to express his warm thanks to his friend the Kev. F. B. Chetwood, of Elizabeth, ISTew Jersey, for much valued help in preparing the work for the press.

New York, September 25, 187*7.

Contents

PAGE

Early History of the Chapel under the Papal Government 9

First Steps toward building a Church ... 35

II. Fiest Steps towaed building a Chuech

I had offered myself for. service in the American Ambulance during the Franco-German War, and was waiting an answer in Switzerland, when the movement began in Italy which ended in the liberation of Rome from the Papal yoke. I returned to Rome in the autumn of 1870 to find it occupied by Italian troops under the general command of the hereditary Prince Humbert, who, as lieutenant-general commanding the province, occupied the palace of the Quirinal, and exercised a provisional government, until the vote of annexation, by which the people of Rome joined themselves to the kingdom of Italy, had been taken, and their request accepted by the national Congress. The vote for annexation had already been given with an overwhelming majority in its favor, and, although the formal steps necessary for the admission of the Roman province into the Italian nation were not yet completed, the whole people felt themselves to be already a part of Italy, and free to act under the Italian Constitution and laws. As these provide for the fullest freedom in the matter of religious belief and worship, the vestry of our congregation in Rome was unanimous in the feeling that our worship ought to be moved at once to a more convenient position within the city, and steps be taken to secure, by building or otherwise, a church, in which it might be permanently held.

Before proceeding in this latter affair, however, it seemed right to learn from the authorities of the Italian Government whether such action on our part, however fully permitted by the law, would be regarded as in any way inexpedient at that particular moment. In every quarter I was received with great courtesy, and particularly by H. R. H. Prince Humbert, who, although professing himself a Catholic, took his stand, fully and squarely, on the principle of religious toleration embodied in the Italian Constitution, and added most emphatically that the Government of Italy would protect us, and all others, in the fullest exercise of all the liberty promised by their laws — a promise, I may say here, which has been most faithfully fulfilled.

Under these circumstances the vestry did not hesitate, at its first meeting under the new order of things, to pass resolutions looking toward the immediate removal of our services within the city, and the fitting up, or the building, of a permanent church. After careful consideration by a committee specially appointed for this purpose, it was unanimously decided that the permanent church ought to be a new building. The decision of the vestry having been announced in the congregation, an immediate response came in, in the shape of a large subscription from Mrs. E. A. Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., to whom belongs the honor of having begun the work in this way. Indeed, the unexpected help thus willingly given was the thing which strengthened and decided me, finally, to proceed at once with the difficult task before us. From the beginning we recognized, at Rome, its magnitude and its responsibility. The building we were to do involved much more than the convenience and honor of our particular congregation. It represented the Church at large, both to Roman Catholic and to Protestant Europe, as a body, on the one hand, reformed from the pagan corruptions of the Papacy ; on the other, freed from all state establishment, and political control in things spiritual. It was to be, necessarily, in the words of the Bishop of Gibraltar, " a city set upon a hill, and scanned by no very friendly eyes." It was much better that it should not be begun at all, than that, having been begun, it should fail or be carried out unworthily. The vestry felt, therefore, that it must ask for a sum " not less than $100,000," to carry out this work. Much interest was taken in the matter by the Americans in Rome, and the winter's collections amounted to about $6,000 in money, and a gift of pictures and statuary, to be sold for the benefit of the church, to which the following artists in Rome contributed : D. Maitland Armstrong, C. C. Coleman, C. Coleman, Charles Temple Dix, William Graham, William H. Haseltine, H. Haseltine, G. Lines, J. O'B. Inman, W. H. Rinehart, George Simmonds, Prince George von Solms, Luther Terry, Mr. Tilton, E. Yedder, F. C. Welsch, Abby O. Williams, Mary E. Williams, and George H. Yewell. Encouraged by these results, at the request of the vestry, I returned to the United States in the early summer of 1871, and appealed to the Church at large for aid in carrying out the work for the Church, which seemed to have been laid upon us in our sphere of duty. I give here, in full, the first circular issued in this behalf, which was drawn up hastily after consulting those of the bishops and prominent laity of the Church that I could most easily reach:

TO THE FRIENDS OF THE AMERICAN CHAPEL, ROME.

At a meeting of the Vestry of the Ameeican Chapel Rome, Italy, held November 2, 1870, it was resolved—

I. In view of the late political changes in Italy, which have opened the city of Rome for free worship to all Christians—that it is expedient that the American Church be moved within the city gates at the earliest day practicable.

II. That a committee of three members of the Yestry be appointed at once to take into full consideration the whole question of how best to provide for future services within the city, whether by securing and fitting up some suitable building, or by erecting a new church of our own.

At subsequent meetings of the Vestry, held in February and April, it was resolved :

III. To undertake the building of a new church upon ground of our own, within the walls of Kome, for the permanent worship of the American congregation.

IV. To appeal to the congregation and to the friends of the chapel at home, for a sum not less than $100,000, for this object.

V. That the Kector be requested to visit the United States during the coming summer and make a special appeal for help in this undertaking, in which the whole Church has an interest.

Kobeet J. Kevin, )■ Rector.

"Wm. H. Heeeiman,

, Wardens.

D. Maitland Aemsteong,

TVm. Stanley Haseltine, 1

De. Heney Paemly,

John V. Beam, Je., [> Vestrymen.

F. Ceowninshield,.

Lancastee, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1871.

In accordance with the action set forth in the foregoing resolutions, I have returned to America, and now make an earnest appeal, on behalf of our new undertaking, to the friends of our chapel throughout the country, and to all persons interested in the growth of religious liberty in Italy ; for, whatever may be its future political relations, Eome must always be the controlling moral capital of Italy.

In asking help for the good work we have begun there, at a time like the present, it is necessary that I should make some statement of its need, and of the facts and reasons which determined our action into the shape that it has taken :

1. As to the present expediency of our coming within the city.

Our present place of worship, an old granary, outside the Porta del Popolo, is extremely inconvenient of access on foot, on account of the narrowness of the always-crowded gate, and the filth of the street leading to it, which is used as a hog-market.

Its distance, too, is a daily -increasing objection. The foreign population has, for some years, been steadily withdrawing itself from the quarter Del Popolo toward the higher and healthier situations, in the direction of the railway-station. And there now is beginning to spring up, as it were by magic, beside the ruins of old Kome, a new city which will soon become the favorite residence of all foreigners. The present chapel is altogether too distant from this quarter to meet its needs. But even were there no sufficient material reasons for our occupying now a more convenient situation within the city, the respect due to our faith and national name requires that we should remove from ourselves the reproach of being held without the gates, as an unclean thing, " with the swine," as the Papal monsignori were delighted to describe it.

2. As to the expediency of building a new edifice, rather than of hiring, or even buying, some existing building.

It was felt primarily that the moral effect would be much better upon our own congregation, and upon the liberal Catholic party, which still exists within the Eoman Church in Italy, and which is casting about earnestly, but darkly, for some sound principle of reform from the Papal corruptions, which they feel have wellnigh crushed out Christianity from their nation.

To a people like the Italians — all eye and ear — the very stones, the spire and chimes, of a distinctive church-building, will teach more of the strength and reality of our Christianity than any amount of writings that might be distributed among them ; and will be, as well, a constant visible witness to them that religious liberty, and the rights of the human conscience, have at last found a home in the city of the Popes and the Caesars. For this very reason, the Italian Government welcomes our project with undisguised satisfaction, and guarantees us the fullest protection in our work that the state can afford. And in this they but fall in with the sentiment of the Roman people, who are more than contented to see anything done that will attract to their city, or prolong the stay there of, the Americans, who are notoriously their most profitable visitors. Apart, however, from this motive of self-interest, there is none of the hostility felt in Rome to the establishment of an American church that has been shown against certain native forms of worship — Waldensian and Baptist — that have lately been introduced there. And, even among that portion of the omceholding priests who still adhere to the fond traditions of the Vatican, as to the divine right of Popes over all things, visible and invisible, there is growing up a sentiment of great toleration toward the foreign services in Rome, which they have come to accept as one of the hard necessities of the (to their minds) sadly-disjointed times.

Should it yet be objected that it would be cheaper, and answer every purpose for us, to occupy some hired room, or secure some abandoned Roman church, I reply, unhesitatingly, that it would not be cheaper in the end ; and that every clergyman knows perfectly that it will not answer as well, spiritually, or in any other way, to hold a congregation in a hired room, as in his own church.

The congregation for which I plead is a large one, and is steadily increasing every year. It is one, too, that must always exercise a wide influence for good or evil to the Church. Already it has an average attendance, during the winter season, of from four to five hundred; and I would remind my brethren of the clergy that there is scarcely one of their congregations that does not every year have some of its members worshiping in our upper room at Rome. The money that we ask is, after all, only what is now the most ordinary outlay every year for far less important congregations at home.

As to our occupying a disused Komau church, it is almost an impossibility. The parish churches in Kome have not been, and will not be confiscated by the Government, whatever may be the case with the monastic property. It will be many years before they come naturally into the market, and then we could never hope to get one in a better quarter, where their present congregations will always be able to sustain them. Beyond this, the first cost would be heavy ; the fitting up would be very expensive, and not one in fifty could ever be made comfortable or healthful for our mode of worship.

Moreover, for us to occupy a Roman church would excite much ill-feeling against us among the superstitious people, and greatly impair our influence with the liberal Catholics.

Lastly, comes up the question as to the prudence of investing money, at present, in building in a city which it is said may at any time revert to the Papal power.

Those who live there, and have studied the temper of the Italian people in the crisis through which they are passing, have no fear of such a misfortune. Certainly, this at least is an impossibility, that the temporal power of the Pope should ever be reestablished in Rome under the same conditions of absolutism with which it oppressed mankind and outraged civilization up to October of last year. The age will not bear it. The French War, nay, our own war, must be undone first, and the principles of liberty and unity which tbey have established blotted out of the world's thinking. In Italy, to-day, the feeling of nationality is burning as intensely as it ever did with us, during the heat of our late war, and as a nation they are ready now to figbt to their last lira, and tbeir last man, for their newlyacquired unity.

Should, however, through any overpowering combination of foreign nations, the temporal power of the Papacy ever be reestablished in Rome under a modified form, our rights in any property that we might have acquired by fair purchase under a de facto government, provided we keep ourselves clear of all complication with confiscated property, would have to be respected, or full indemnity assured us.

All of these points came up for full and careful thought in the deliberations of the Vestry, and the decisions reached were in every case unanimous. I may mention here, in proof of the confidence felt by the American residents in our undertaking, that besides money subscriptions I have received contributions in Eome, of original works of art, from over twenty artists. Indeed, every American painter in Rome — not a Roman Catholic — has in this way contributed of his own labor toward our undertaking. These works will be put on exhibition in New York and Philadelphia, and sold in the fall for the benefit of the New American Church, Eome.

We intend to build a stone church, distinctively Gothic in style, to seat not less than seven hundred, and of such proportions and workmanship as shall be in some measure worthy to represent, in the Old World's capital, our faith and our nation.

We wish, also to secure ground enough adjoining the church to put up at a future day a building which shall contain an apartment for the clergyman ; rooms for an Infants' Nursery, already in successful operation in a hired apartment, and also two or three rooms to which single travelers may be removed in case of sickness, from the neglect and extortion of the hotels. The estimate of the Yestry is designed to cover all these points ; but now we want $70,000 for church lot and building.

It is my hope to return to my field of work in November, with the glad assurance that we can go forward immediately with our work ; to lay the corner-stone of our new church by Christmas of this year, and, by the blessing of God, to open the same for regular service by Easter-day, 1873.

Feeling that our work is of no merely local account, but one that touches weighty general interests, that it has already established ties for itself in many an American home, and will be hereafter a blessing to faithful people from every diocese in our wide land, I appeal with confidence to my Christian fellowcountrymen for that generous assistance in carrying it out which its practical usefulness has a right to claim, and which the national character for liberality warrants me in asking.

Eobeet J. NEvm, Sector of Grace Church, Borne. (Address : No. 1 East Thirtieth Street, New York City.)

All subscriptions to be forwarded to care of

Messrs. Beown Beos., Bankers,

Wall Street, New York.

Episcopal Eooms, Philadelphia, June 30, 1871.

The plan set forth in the appeal of the Kev. Eobert J. Nevix, Kector of Grace Church, Eome, Italy, meets my full approbation.

The providence of God has so markedly opened to us a door of entrance into that city, that we should he recreant to our duty did we not embrace the opportunity of carrying out to completion the work which the Yestry has so wisely inaugurated.

We need a church in Eome, because of the hundreds and thousands of our countrymen who annually resort thither.

We need a church in Eome, as the type and representative of our pure branch of the one Holy and Apostolic Church.

We need a church there, as the memorial and exponent of that freedom of conscience and religious liberty which is the priceless privilege guaranteed to us by our American institutions.

Every motive should stir us up to immediate action; and I trust that a prompt and liberal response will enable the zealous and intelligent Eector to return laden with the gifts of love and faith, by which the long-desired church shall be erected, and consecrated to the worship of Almighty God, according to the hallowed Liturgy of our Book of Common Prayer.

Wm. Bacon Stevens, Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and Bishop in charge of

the Churches in Europe, in union with the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

I most heartily concur in the above recommendation and appeal. B. B. Smith,

Bishop of Kentucky, and Presiding Bishop,

ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS.

I cordially concur in the approval of the Rev. Mr. Kevin's undertaking, as expressed by the Bishop of Pennsylvania.

Hoeatio Potter, New Yoek, July 15, 1871. Bishop of New York.

I rejoice in this movement, and commend it heartily.

G. T. Bedell, Assista?it Bishop of Diocese of Ohio.

The following Bishops have also authorized the use of their names in cordial indorsement of the work and plan above set forth :

William R. Whittingham,

Bishop of Maryland.

John Johns,

Bishop of Virginia.

H. B. Whipple,

Bishop of Minnesota.

Aethtte Cleveland Coxe,

Bishop of Western New York.

A. N". LlTTLEJOHN,

Bishop of Long Island.

F. D. Huntington, Bishop of Central New York.

Manton Eastbuen,

Bishop of Massachusetts.

J. Williams,

Bishop of Connecticut.

Thomas M. Claek,

Bishop of Rhode Island.

Wm. Ht. Odenheimee,

Bishop of New Jersey.

John B. Keefoot,

Bishop of Pittsburg.

William Ceoswell Doane,

Bishop of Albany.

GENERAL COMMITTEE.

Hon. Hamilton Fish, John David "Wolfe,

James M. Beown, William H. Scott,

John Welsh, Governor H. P. Baldwin,

Hon. E. E. Miidge, Hon. J. V. L. Petjyn,

Wm. T. Blodgett. J. Pieepont Moegan.

From all sides the undertaking thus begun met a warm approval and encouragement. The Bishop of Delaware alone, of those applied to, declined to give his indorsement. I fondly imagined that with an indorsement so strong as the above, in a body like ours, the work was almost done. I had as yet had no experience in raising money for any Church work, and had not learned how inferior our organization is to that of most of the denominations about us for the purpose of raising money for any general work, nor had I the least suspicion of how narrowing our parish and diocesan system is to the sympathies of our clergy. It is a very easy thing for the lower, because somewhat selfish, love and care for the parish or diocese, to supplant the higher love for Christ's body, the Church.

Difficulties were at once raised in regard to the manner in which the property was to be held, and this nearly blocked all my efforts during that summer. It 3 was questioned whether the vestry of the church could hold property under the Italian laws, and then great objections were raised to the propert} 7 being held at all by a body like the vestry at Rome, largely composed as it is of very transient elements. This matter had already been considered by the vestry itself at Rome, which had agreed to the plan proposed by me of placing the title to the property in a board of trustees, to be incorporated by special charter in America, that should hold the property in trust perpetually for the Church at large, but allow to the vestry as tenant the control of the current administration of the congregation. Such an arrangement, I had already ascertained, could be carried out under the Italian laws. But, when it came to putting this plan into practical shape at home, great difficulties were found in adjusting the precise relations of the vestry to this board of trustees, and to the ecclesiastical authorities of the Church. In order not to be stopped entirely in the work of raising money, I had appointed a general committee of prominent laymen in whose charge the funds raised by me were to be placed, and whose names were to be a guarantee to the givers that the title to the property should be lodged in safe hands. It was necessary, therefore, to consult this committee in regard to the appointment of the trustees and the provisions of the charter under which they were to hold the property. Party feeling was at the time running high in the Church, and it required much care and firmness to prevent our undertaking from passing, on one side or the other, under partisan control. A moment's reflection will, I think, satisfy every unprejudiced person that it is not only a matter of expediency but of right that all our foreign chapels should be held strictly free from party influences or character, and be made to represent as faithfully as possible in their teaching and services the general character and feeling of the Church. And yet I was made to feel very soon that, if I would only allow the congregation at Rome to pass distinctly under party control, the work of raising the money wanted would be made very easy indeed.

Another great difficulty that I soon felt was a very serious one, and arose from the loose nature of the ecclesiastical relations in which the foreign chapels stand to the Church at home. We do not come under the head of either foreign or domestic missions, although doing a good deal of the work of both. So, the missionary boards cannot be looked to for help or protection. We are accepted as parishes under the General Convention, but we are allowed no representation either directly or through any diocese ; and, although subjected to all the restraints of Episcopal direction, we have no permanent bishop of our own to whom we can look for a father's counsel or advice. 1 Even with the best will in the

1 Our foreign chapels are placed by the Canon of 1859 under the oversight of the Presiding Bishop, and, as he is generally too old or world, the nature of the relation in which the bishop in charge stands to the work is such that he can do very little officially to help any foreign chapel in any emergency that may be upon it. Our foreign chapels have grown up of themselves, without help from the Church, and this very fact is in itself the best proof of the reality of their work and the necessity for them. These congregations were left to organize themselves, and, being organized and having applied severally to be received under the care of the General Convention, they have been received to the obligations of our constitution and laws, but to no rights in the Church. They have done a very real work for the Church, in bringing into her a considerable membership, and in preserving to the Church a still larger body of her straying children ; and they have been self-supporting in this far, at least, that the money raised for them has never come from the Church as a body, or through any of her societies or agencies, but has been gathered by the personal labors of those who, at home or abroad, have interested themselves in the foreign fields.

infirm to exercise it personally, he is authorized to devolve the charge upon any other bishop of the American Church whom he may see fit to appoint, for a term which may not overpass the next ensuing meeting of the General Convention. This arrangement secures, it will be seen, a constant change in the bishops in charge of the foreign churches, and, as a natural result of this, that they can never be expected to have any thorough knowledge of the very difficult and varied field over which they are placed.

This want of any representation in the Church at home made itself very heavily felt, when it came to the work of raising funds for our proposed building, and made the creation of a home board of trustees seem to me more desirable than ever, for I hoped to find in them a body who would be active in keeping up a positive interest in our work at home. At the same time the then bishop in charge, the Right Rev. William Bacon Stevens, who had interested himself warmly in our undertaking from its beginning, was led, in the hope of supplying in a measure the same general want, to approve of the plan for creating a standing committee for the foreign churches who should serve as a permanent council of advice to the bishop in charge. This plan was carried into effect at the General Convention of 1871, it being provided that four members should be chosen by the General Convention, and one each by the vestries of the foreign chapels. Dr. Henry C. Potter, of Grace Church, New York, was elected to represent the church at Rome, and, I may say here, has been the chief instrument among our clergy at Rome in helping to place in its present beautiful sanctuary the worship which his father began in that city in 1859, in the secrecy of a private chamber.

The summer of 1871 was thus almost entirely consumed in arranging for the future tenure and constitution of our church, and I was able to raise only about $11,000, before the great fire in Chicago effectually stopped all giving to foreign charities. The beginning of this collection at home was made by the late John David Wolfe, Esq., who stepped into the vestry-room after I had preached on the subject one Sunday at Allr Saints' Chapel, Newport, and promised me $1,000 and his support in the work. Mr. Wolfe became the first chairman of the General Committee for raising funds, and was also one of the original trustees of the church. At his house were held all the first meetings of the General Committee ; and his death, while the work was yet in its beginnings, was a very great loss to us abroad, as it was to the whole Church at home. This board was created by the Legislature of the State of New York in the following spring, under the name of the " Trustees of St. Paul's American Protestant Episcopal Church, Rome." The original incorporators were:

Hon. Hamilton Fish, Few York.

John David Wolfe, "

Heney Chaunoey, "

Geoege Kemp, "

Feedeeic G. Fostee, "

John Welsh, Philadelphia.

Eev. R. J. Nevin, Eome.

In the following year the original act was amended so as to bring it more closely into conformity with the constitution of the Church, and Messrs. J. Pierpont Morgan and Enoch R. Mudge were named trustees in place of Mr. Wolfe, deceased, and Mr. Kemp, resigned.

While the title to the property is lodged in the hands of this board, the act recognizes the vestry, which shall be elected in accordance with the constitution or articles of organization of the congregation at Rome, as charged with " the immediate management and the control of the said St. Paul's Church, and the maintenance of the church edifice and other property thereof," subject always to an accountability to the trustees. The vestry enjoys all the rights and powers usual to a vestry at home, with the one limitation only, that the consent of the Board of Trustees shall be necessary to confirm its election of a rector.